Poisoned Chalice Part 11: The Twilight of Eclipse
Although Alan Moore had finished with Miracleman, it wasn’t the end of the character, or the comic. Knowing he was nearing the end of...
Cartoonists visit Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, stand in stunned wonder
The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum is the largest collection of comics and comics art in the world. In this charming video by Julie Sokolow, curator Caitlin McGurk leads lucky cartoonists Ed Piskor, Jasen Lex, and Jim Rugg on a magical history tour as they gasp in awe at Bushmiller, Schulz and Kubert originals...as who would not. Along the way the joyous news that the facility will be moving from it's current 7000 sq. ft. to a massive 40,000 sq. ft. facility this fall. Not that's progress.
Poison Chalice Interlude: 1953 – 1985 Roundup and Some Notes on Copyright
So far, this history of Marvelman - more correctly called Poisoned Chalice: The Extremely Long and Incredibly Complex Story of Marvelman - has taken...
WonderCon 2013: Tarzan tells a tale of Tiger at Warner Bros. Pulp TV Panel
A powerful looking Ron Ely, star of the TV's "Tarzan"(1966-1968) and "Doc Savage: Man of Bronze" (1975) spellbound his audience at WonderCon Friday, relating...
On the Scene: Unpacking comics history at the Asbury Park Comicon 2013
The secrets of Stan Lee's hair and other tidbits from comics history at the just concluded Asbury Park Comicon.
24 Hours of Women Cartoonists: Helen Hokinson
Women's History month is wrapping up, but we at The Beat don't feel we celebrated it properly, so for the next 24 hours most of the Beat staff is collaborating on "24 Hours of Women Cartoonists" to spotlight some of our favorite creators.
On the Scene: Sparks Fly at ‘Surely You’re Joking, Dr. Wertham’ Event
As the first of several “Comic Book Roundtable” events to be held at the Soho Gallery of Digital Art under the auspices of gallery...
Manga pioneer Toren Smith as remembered by Lea Hernandez
by Lea Hernandez - My long-time friend Toren Smith has passed away after a protracted bout of ill health, and I'm heartbroken. I worked for him over the course of seventeen years as part of his elite Studio Proteus team; doing retouch on adult comics, and rewriting titles like 3x3 Eyes, What's Michael? And Oh! My Goddess!. If Toren had lived another year, I would've known him for exactly half my life.
Former Marvel head in sexting scandal
Okay he was only the head of Marvel for six months during Ron Perelman's murky march to bankruptcy—in fact he was the guy in charge when Marvel filed—but former Marvel CEO Scott Sassa has been canned from his current gig at Hearst after steamy texts from a Las Vegas stripper showed up somewhere they shouldn't.
Cartoonists doing things: Nate Powell in Selma
Cartoonist Nate Powell (left) along with Rep. John Lewis and writer Andrew Aydin—all collaborators on the upcoming graphic novel March—walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma AL, March 2013, where in 1965 600 marchers protesting for civil rights, among them Lewis, were tear gassed and beaten with clubs by police.
Meanwhile, back in the 60s and 70s, teenagers were working for DC
Via Sean Howe's invaluable Marvel tumblr, this photo of future Marvel editor in chief Jim Shooter at age 14. At that age he sent a spec script to DC editor Mort Weisinger and was hired to write the Legion of Superheroes at that age. While the world of superhero comics was not quite as harsh as it is now...it was still probably no place for a boy, as Howe writes in MARVEL: THE UNTOLD STORY:
