History

Everything's coming up Vinnie Colletta! After some brisk discussion here and elsewhere on the inking giant, John Morrow writes to say that...

Over the recent holiday weekend, we had occasion to spend a fair bit of time going through posts from the Old Beat, clearing out some spam and trying to clean up the database for various purposes. Along the way we were forced to violently relive the last few years of the last decade. It all seemed so simple once. So many news stories that never went anywhere -- a few we jotted down for future investigation, but there were also things like this fellow who spent money in 2007 to announce his new blog. Now it's only a reseller placeholder. They had such big dreams, but those big dreams crawled under a rock to die.

We're gonna try not to have minutely news updates on this year's San Diego, but it's probably gonna be daily from here on out, so here's a round-up of pertinent links and ephemera. Which reminds us....isn't it time San Diego was renamed Douche Prom?

Ken Quattro uncovers the transcript of testimony in the 1939 lawsuit DC vs Victor Fox. The suit involved C suing the other publisher for a Superman knock-off which has been producer by the Eisner./Iger shop and then 22/year/old Eisner was called on to testify, an event covered in both the Andelman/Eisner biography and The Dreamer.

A look at most of the past 600 issues of Wonder Woman's various runs show many changing fashions in heroism, art styles and just how much of a butt shadow you can safely show.

While we're on deadline with another story, you might enjoy, courtesy of iFanboy, The Vince Coletta Letter:

Letterer supreme Todd Klein presents another one of his logo studies, this time looking at the HULK logo through time from Herb Trimpe's previously unknown contribution through the modern "exploded logos" worthy of Zaha Hadid.

Found while surfing: An episode of the Mickey Mouse strip that features Mickey and Goofy getting all hopped up on goofballs. While they don't go out and muder some hookers while high, they do go to Africa so they can encounter uncomfortable racial stereotypes of the era. Was this the work of a rogue writer who slipped some crazy shit past Disney censors? Well, according to the site hosting this -- which offers "reliable, non-judgmental information about psychoactive plants, chemicals, and related issues:, this was really part of those wacky, wacky 50s and their unexpected propaganda:

Sean T. Collins stumbled upon a bunch of old strips and what nots that Kevin Huizenga had been digitally squirelling away, and got very excited, and who can blame him. They are aces.

Dealer Robert Beerbohm appears to have found a copy of a French comic book from either 1844 or 1856, called The History of Mr. Tuberculus.

Masters of Manga is a new web project by translator Marc Bernabé with interviews with such giants as Moto Hagio, Urasawa, Tako Saito and more many. First up, Hideshi Hirata (known for thre gekiga samurai yarn Satsuma Gishiden) and Ken Akamatsu (Love Hina, Negima.) BOOKMARK MUST.