Event report: Meeting Lily Renée and Trina Robbins
Alexa at Ladies Making Comics has a delightful report up on an event at Books of Wonder with Trina Robbins and Golden Age cartoonist Lily Renée, who is the subject of a new biographical comic written by Robbins. A nice reminder that "Women in Comics" didn't start last month, last year, or even the last decade!
Continue ReadingFOUND: The Superman check that changed history
Looking upon the images of this check inspires both awe and revulsion. Awe that such a key part of American cultural history has been found. Revulsion that the American comic book industry was birthed in exploitation of the creators. And before anybody gets up in the comments to complain about "the greedy family," know that buying all rights in perpetuity was not necessarily the standard even in 1938.
Continue ReadingBluewater teams with Simon & Schuster for Bin Laden hunt comic
Bluewater and their comics bios get the most press of any comics, but not many sales that show up on Diamond's charts. However, all the press has enabled a team-up with Simon and Schuster for Killing GERONIMO: THE HUNT FOR OSAMA BIN LADEN, a comics-styled take on how the Al Qaeda leader was hunted down by US troops. A previous comics version was published by IDW, CODEWORD GERONIMO. Bluewater's version will be written by Jerome Maida and Darren G. Davis with art by James Boulton.
Continue ReadingJack Kirby might be getting a real museum
The Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center has long existed as a website and a table at conventions; but a real museum would be much nicer. Now the organizers have announced they will be setting up a temporary "pop-up" museum this wimter -- November '11-January '12 -- to showcase what they hope will eventually be a permanent brick-and-mortar museum. How cool would that be? They'll be set up at NYCc to talk about the project -- and are accepting donations. The Summer of 2011 should have witnessed an eruption of interest in legendary American
Continue ReadingA manifesto that came true
Writer Tony Isabella ruminates on his A COMIC-BOOK MANIFESTO from 1996 and wonders how far we've come:
Continue ReadingChris Weston has finished drawing THE TWELVE
As shown in a picture just posted on Weston's Twitter feed, he's finally finished drawing THE TWELVE, a 12-issue mini series written by J. Michael Straczynski that debuted in 2008 to great acclaim -- some even thought it could be Marvel's THE WATCHMEN. However scheduling difficulties -- JMS was writing movies, Weston was storyboarding them -- kept the book on hiatus since issue #8 came out in late 2008.
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Jim Shooter’s Disney adventure
In his ongoing stroll down memory lane, Jim Shooter has come to a part of his history that I, me, the writer of this blog, have some knowledge of, although all after the fact: his consultancy with what would become Disney Comics of the early '90s. . It's a tale that involves Michael Lynton, than a rising star at Disney, later head of AOL's European division, then publisher at Penguin and now the head of Sony Pictures. It also involves someone named Randy Achee. I worked with both these fellows in my Disney days. I remember Lynton quite well (he hired me), but Achee I had totally forgotten about until I read Shooter's piece—and I'll forget him five minutes after I write this. Basically, the short version of the story is that Lynton hired Shooter as a consultant to put together a plan to publish Disney comics, including a Dick Tracy movie adaptation, and all went fantastically, with Shooter promised the job of publisher of the new line, until a fateful day when Shooter was called into a meeting with all the Disney folk, and Achee was introduced as publisher.
Continue ReadingPopular woman athlete promotes her favorite comic…in 1941
The story of how tennis champ Alice Marble promoted and wrote Wonder Woman. Maybe she was the first nerdlebrity.
Continue ReadingLost Comics: The Gerber/Nowlan Man-Thing graphic novel
Continuing Lost Comics Spotlight week, Chris Arrant roots out a long lost project by the late Steve Gerber and Kevin Nowlan involing one of Gerber's best loved characters:
Continue ReadingLost comics: Medley’s GALACTIC GIRL GUIDES art goes on sale
There are so many comics that linger in the dark corners of history -- comics that were supposed to come out that never will be or may yet still appear. One such book is GALACTIC GIRL GUIDES, a miniseries spin-off of STARSTRUCK written by Elaine Lee with art by Linda Medley, that was supposed to come out from Tundra but was lost in that company's acquisition by Kitchen Sink and horrifically messy denouement. STARSTRUCK itself is back, in a new edition from IDW. And Medley's art for the mini has resurfaced as an eBay auction. After nearly 20 years, Medley has decided to sell the art, the Flog blog explains:
Continue ReadingMarv Wolfman: The man who invented the Crisis
Here is a Village Voice interview with Marv Wolfman, which is interesting for many reasons. Because Wolfman is always a thoughtful commenter on the comics industry and its may pressures, but also because CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS --and NEW TEEN TITANS by the same Wolfman/Perez team -- is to the New 52 generation what Fantastic Four #1 (the 1961 one) was to so many before it. With its sweeping changes, dramatic deaths and multiple universes, it set the stage for many a crisis to come. And, famously, there was talk after CoIE of doing a line-wide issue #1 reboot. The idea lay dormant until now. But Wolfman points out that for an event to be an event it should have actual motivation:
Continue ReadingMust Read: Michel Fiffe on comics fusion
Michel Fiffe's interviewing and archiving skills cannot be doubted -- nor, after his dynamic ZEGAS debut can his cartooning skills -- but this time out he offers a compelling survey of the often uneasy, sometimes brilliant crossover between indy and superhero esthetics:
Continue ReadingSPX announces collection at the Library of Congress
Well, this is kinda a big deal. The Small Press Expo has announced they are collaborating with the lIbrary of Congress on a collection that will showcase the work of indie cartoonists. However, before you plow through your boxes of stuff to ship 'em off, only SPX guests and exhibitors can have their work considered for collection. Luckily, that covers an astonishing number of important creators.
Continue ReadingVictor Gorelick: The Last Man Standing of Comics
When Marvel's Ralph Macchio retired the other day, we made the claim that he was the last editor from the pre-direct sales market working in the business. A few people wrote in to correct us, however. There is one editor who has been around even longer, and is still going strong, Archie's own editor in chief, Victor Gorelick (pronounced Gor-EL-ick). Now 70, Gorelick has worked at Archie for 50 years in various roles. It's certainly an astonishing career that has seen incredible changes.
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