Weekend Reading: Bill Finger, Pixar, Toth and Calvin & Hobbes

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Reviews, DC Comics, Independent, Marvel Comics,

Yeah, yeah, Avengers-mania is dying down and we’re back to counting the days until San Diego, right? Well, I am. In the meantime, let's read:

Want some story-writing advice from the gang at Pixar? Of course you do.

There’s no doubt that without writer Bill Finger, Batman wouldn’t be Batman. Booksteve’s Library has read and enjoyed Bill, The Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman by Marc Tyler Nobleman. “Bob Kane was rather a self-serving individual who rarely did anything himself when he could get someone else to do it for him.” One of those someones was the writer Bill Finger.

Longbox Graveyard blogger Paul O’Connor has a companion gig: a regular column at Stash My Comics called The Dollar Box. Start here.

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Don McGregor Could Use A Hand

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Marvel Comics,

I've written before about my history with writer Don McGregor (Killraven, Black Panther, Detectives, Inc. and so much more).

Now, Clifford Meth, who in the past has helped out Dave Cockrum's widow and Gene Colan, is reporting that Don could use a little help.

Clifford is organizing a worthwhile effort to help Don meet some unexpected and sad expenses. So get over to his blog and see what you can do to help out.

If you're not familiar with Don or his work, here's a Mile High interview with him that covers a lot of ground.

[Artwork: Amazing Adventures #29 featuring Killraven © Marvel Comics]

Don McGregor: Locked Up In Paris

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Independent, Marvel Comics,

"They jeered and shook on the bars, and they reached through the bars, trying to grab Marsha, like Zombies in George Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead."

That's Don McGregor, who wrote acclaimed comics for Marvel and spearheaded the creator-owned comics movement, writing about a European trip of his in the late 1970s.

I haven't seen or talked to Don in quite a while, and I doubt he would remember me. He was a friend of several different friends of mine and when I lived on the East Coast, we bumped into each other a lot over a two or three-year period.

He was a ball of energy – and one of the first guys to explain to me how the business of comics actually worked and why owning and controlling the rights to your own creations was essential.

Go ahead and write the Batman fill-in if you want, it is what it is. But if you're going to create Sabre or Detectives, Inc., you're going to want - and deserve - a better deal. I'm paraphrasing, but that's the gist of several conversations.

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