Weekend Reading: Bill Watterson, Nicolas Cage and Wallace & Gromit

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials, Movies, Reviews,

Greetings, children of the internet. If you're down in Anaheim for the Southern California version of WonderCon, I  hope you had a great time! Here's some stuff you might've missed.

Sad news out of England about comics artist Brett Ewins. Fortunately, blogger Daniel Best has posted information about how you can help.

There’s some concern that Wallace (of Wallace and Gromit) is being hurt by comparisons to an English Labour Party leader.

The weirdly funny tale of Nicolas Cage’s stolen copy of Action Comics #1 could become a movie. At least it’s the “possible movie” everyone’s talking about in the current 15 minutes.

Becky Jewell interviews J. Torres about his work on Archie’s reboot of Li’l Jinx.

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Weekend Reading: Julie Newmar, Doctor Spektor and Popeye

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

A lot has happened internetally while I took my afternoon nap, and there’s good stuff from old-school fan favorite Catwoman Julie Newmar, Tom Richmond talking about caricatures and Jesse Santos’ Doctor Spektor. Dig in:

Catwoman: No getting around it, to men of a certain age, Julie Newmar was the Blake Lively of her day. Now she’d like you to talk dirty to her. She’s putting together a book of confessions from men proudly unashamed to admit that she created a stirring in their Batman underpants when everybody was much younger. Says Newmar to the Globe and Mail: “Suddenly, walking straight to me was the grandfather, his voice and eye seductively nailed to me. ‘Miss Newmar. You were my first turn-on.’ For the father, it would be improper, and the boy hadn’t reached the age where it was of interest to him.” No doubt Diana Rigg, Yvonne Craig, Joey Heatherton and Nancy Sinatra have similar stories. Although you probably stood a chance with Heatherton. The interview is a lot of fun, and Newmar is looking for stories just like yours. There’s an email address at the link for you to participate.

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Remembering Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews,

Can it really be just 14 years ago - December 31, 1995 - that Bill Watterson said goodbye to Calvin and Hobbes and left the comics pages and most of us very, very sad? That’s longer than the 10 years that the strip ran. In honor of the anniversary of Calvin And Hobbes’ retirement, here’s a quote from Watterson about how the strip came to be:

“It was a slow process, and actually what happened is another odd coincidence. One of the strips I’d sent (the syndicate) had Calvin and Hobbes as minor characters. Calvin was the little brother of the strip’s main character, and Hobbes was like he is now, a stuffed tiger that came to life in Calvin’s imagination. One of the syndicates suggested that these two characters were the strongest and why didn’t I develop a strip around them? I had thought they were the funniest characters myself, but I was unsure as to whether they could hold their own strip. I was afraid that maybe the key to their wackiness was the contrast between them and the more normal characters in the rest of the strip. I wasn’t sure Calvin and Hobbes would be able to maintain that intensity on their own. But I tried it, and almost immediately it clicked in my mind; it became much easier to write the material.

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