Culture

I would read the hell out of this comic.

Wow, we've linked to some amazing LIFE Magazine photo galleries before, but here is a doozy:MAD Magazine: A Semi-Secret History with photos of MAD founder Bill Gaines from the files of current editor John Ficarra. LIFE made a few images available, but each is accompanied by Ficarra's commentary on the site with even more history and insight.

Although right now you might want to support the valiant Stark clan with a Robb Stark T-shirt -- one of three Game of Thrones character shirts now on sale at HBO.com-- who can resist Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, the cunning, caustic, hard-living, altogether irresistible member of the scheming, incestuous house of Lannister? Plus, New Jersey-born Dinklage is one of the few US actors who can keep up with the acting chops of the largely British cast. Clan Morristown!

There are a lot of Green Lantern merch tie-ins out there, and here's a cool one, a Hex sport watch band suitable for ipod Nano. It isn't actually a Green Lantern licensed product...but it's the right color. You can win this or a pair of tickets to see Green Lantern by going to the ShopHex Facebook page and answering some questions. Today's quiz: "IF YOUR HEX WATCH COULD GIVE YOU ANY SUPERPOWER, WHAT WOULD IT BE?"

We've heard from some of our pals in the comics industry that they have received two anonymous postcards -- both postmarked in Chicago -- with various statistics on gender disparity in the comics industry. One highlights problems with the materials:

Sitting behind a desk drawing (or blogging) all day is the surefire way to an unhealthy lifestyle, as we know all too well, but FLASH artist Francis Manapul is fighting back as profiled in the Globe and Mail:

A few years ago we pointed you at a 1950 Life Magazine spread that included various NCS cartoonists happily scribbling on swimwear covered models. Well, in the spirit of that shoot, but also to show how times have changed in 61 years, the Sequential Arts Workshop has updated these images with Ball Point Boxers which finds cartoonists Sara Varon, Leela Corman, Joan Reilly, Emily Flake, Hilary Allison and Jungyeon Roh recreating the stunt, this time with male boxers from Gleason's Gym.

Thanks to his "pack-ratty" mother, Jim Shooter's two Merry Marvel Marching Society kits from the '60s are intact and in mint condition. The first one included the record with the amazing Bullpen greetings from Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Flo Steinberg, and so on.

Perhaps it's only fitting that double identity has been a central issue in the never-ending battle over the Superman copyright. As longtime readers of my posts may recall, the relation between the original and contemporary versions of Superman has been central to the Siegel lawsuits from the beginning. To set the stage for the posts that follow, let's take a quick review of how the multiple versions of Superman have played a role in the Siegel lawsuits.

This year's Reuben awards weekend -- the traditional yearly gathering of traditional comic strip cartoonists -- saw some special guests from the webcomics world specially invited, like Kate Beaton, Randall Munroe, and Scott Kurtz. Kurtz has written up the weekend in an absolute must read on the changing of the guard from a world where creators live by the structured patronage of big media companies in exchange for exclusivity, to a much more fluid world where entrepreneurship is as important as content and living by your wits is literally the way to the big payoff.

For a movie about mutants, X-MEN FIRST CLASS has led to a lot of interesting discussion. Set in the '60s -- a time of great social change and timeless fashions -- filmmakers Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman had more on their mind than just fighting.

From drink 'n' draw to the White Party.