History

To mark the first ten years of his stint as Executive Editor at DC, Dan DiDio ran down the top ten highlights of his years there on his Facebook page. It's an interesting list that tells you everything you need to know about the last decade in superhero comics publishing.

Lew Stringer debunks the idea that Beano and The Dandy invented the speech balloon with a look at some older comics., like this 1917 cover of Picture Fun No. 428, which uses word balloons AND the then-current wads and wads of text, as originated in The Yellow Kid.

George Tuska's version of ROADHOUSE.

This is what we call a "hot drink" post in the biz*, as in, you must get a hot drink and a comfy chair before you dive in to the next link. Pádraig Ó Méalóid has done an amazing job of putting together a Gaiman/McFarlane/Marvelman timeline, which, although it only skims the details of the Marvelman deals of the '80s, does cover the 10-year legal battle between Gaiman and McFarlane as it pertains to Marvelman. It's a tale of (Tony) twists and turns. Of course the pre-history is also stunning:

Publisher Rizzoli has responded to complaints lodged here and at the Big Planet blog about production shortcomings in the new edition of Hugo Pratt's The Ballad of the Salt Sea.

March 23rd is the deadline for voting in The 2012 Eisner Hall of Fame Awards. There are 14 nominees; four will go in:

Painter/educator Jerry Moriarty was a seminal figure for the early days of RAW magazine, and a collection of his "Jack Survives" strips came out from Buenaventura a few years ago. He's just alerted us to his video channel on YouTube, which is mostly stories about his cat and videos of a family of pigeons...you know, sweet, everyday things that we should be reminded of more often. "I have only been at it for a month or two so it is not very professional and if I'm lucky it never will be," he writes.

Unauthorized: The Story of Rock ‘N’ Roll Comics is a 2005 documentary by director Ilko Davidov about one of the oddest characters in recent comics history, Todd Loren, the publisher of Revolutionary Comics, which published unauthorized comics bios of rockers like The Grateful Dead and Guns N' Roses. Loren was eventually sued by some of his subjects, but the California Supreme Court upheld his right to publish the somewhat schlocky comics.

Wow, February 1 is a banner day in comics history. It is also the day that Image Comics was created—20 years ago. Via Facebook co-founder Jim Valentino shared a photo of the founders and one pal on that fateful day, from left to right Erik Larsen, Hank Kanalz, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino. They'e all still in the game, all better off than they were 20 years ago. Collectively, they've changed the industry a time or two. It was also a day when people wore denim shirts. Ah, what a time...

This year's Eisner nominating panel has made their choices for automatic inclusion in the Hall of Fame: Rudolph Dirks, who pioneered the newspaper comic strip with The Katzenjammer Kids, and Harry Lucey, a long time Archie artist credited with co-creating the characters. In addition, the judges selected 14 more nominees for the general ballot, from which four will be selected for inclusion into the Hall of Fame: Bill Blackbeard, Howard Chaykin, Richard Corben, Carlos Ezquerra, Lee Falk, Bob Fujitani, Jesse Marsh, Tarpé Mills, Mort Meskin, Dennis O'Neil, Dan O'Neill, Katsuhiro Otomo, Trina Robbins, and Gilbert Shelton.

Even if you feel Big Barda does not speak for you, it's hard to dislike that sweet Bruce Timm cover.

Richard Alf, one of the co-founders of the San Diego Comic-Con and a busy comics dealer of the early 70s, has died of pancreatic cancer at age 59, it is being reported. While only a teenager, Alf provided financing and transportation for early con founders, as well as inspiring Shel Dorf with their shared love of comics.