Weekend Reading: Star Wars, Star Trek, Scooby Doo and Joe Kubert
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Reviews, IDW Publishing,
Welcome to the weekend on the internet. Let’s get it started with Mr. Joe Kubert.
I had the pleasure of working for a company that published one of Mr. Kubert’s books (Abraham Stone) and got to hang out with him a little at Comic Con International one year. Just a great, great guy, as well as a fantastic artist. Marty Pedler at Bookslut has a new interview with him, and if you haven’t read it yet, get over there. Here’s a little snip: “I still feel that if it’s not a children’s medium, it’s at least a young person’s medium—despite the fact that the average person who reads comic books is now, I’m told, probably in their early twenties. Maybe it’s because I’m an old fogey, I don’t know, but I still feel a little strange and awkward when I see stuff that’s so blatantly sexual.”
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Comics International: R.I.P.
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Independent,
Numerous replaces reported it and then the founding editor confirmed it. The British comics magazine, Comics International, has ceased to be. I’ve read a lot of comic book magazines over the years, from The Comics Buyer’s Guide and The Comics Journal to Wizard and Hero Illustrated. My favorite of all of them was Comics International, which was founded by Dez Skinn and under his guidance ran for 200 issues.
Dez was no stranger to comics before CI – he worked on the magazines Doctor Who Weekly and House of Hammer and founded his own company, Quality Communications. From there he launched the acclaimed Warrior magazine which featured the revival of Marvelman/Miracleman as well as the original V For Vendetta. He started CI back in 1990.
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Campaign for Drawing: Gerald Scarfe, Quentin Blake and Steve Bell
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,
Even though I’m not a big collector of original art, I love looking at it and the pieces that I own are very special to me—and they’re framed and mounted on the wall of my office. I love to thumb through originals when I go to Comic Con International. I like to feel the weight of the art board, see the underlying pencils and study how the ink line digs into the paper.
The Campaign For Drawing is a British organization that’s holding a silent auction. The campaign is devoted to creating a “new regard for the value of drawing to help people see, think, invent and take action. Its long-term ambition is to change the way drawing is perceived by educationalists and the public.” Their Big Draw Auction features original art by a couple dozen wonderful artists and cartoonists.
Over at the website, you’ll find some excellent pieces by artists Tony Husband, Steve Bell, David Roberts, Martin Rowson, Posey Simonds, Gerald Scarfe, Bill Stott, cartoonists from The Guardian and Private Eye, Ken Pyne, Lucinda Rogers, Robert Duncan, Rosey Brooks, Anthony Brown, Quentin Blake and lots more.
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Weekend Reading: Paul Levitz, David Small, Gus Grimly, and Alan Grant!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,
So, anything weird happen this week? Oh that! As you well know, Paul Levitz has stepped down from DC Comics, the company’s now called DC Entertainment and Paul’s going to be writing comics again. You don’t need me to link to any of that, it’s all over the news. But my favorite bit of speculation comes from Rich Johnston over at Bleeding Cool. He ponders the future of the direct market now that one of its major champions - and strong retailer advocates - has stepped down.
David Small: My old pal Tom Heintjes is the editor and guiding hand behind Hogan’s Alley, one of the best magazines about comics published today. In between issues, he regularly posts content on the internet and sends out email newsletters to subscribers. The latest newsletter has a terrific interview with David Small discussing his graphic novel Stitches.
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BRITISH COMICS: Viz 187, The Fat Slags and Elton John
Now this is comedy, but it’s not for children. This is funny stuff for adults who need a few giggles over bodily functions, naughty words, and sexual situations. Viz #187 (August 2009) has a lot of great strips featuring The Fat Slags, The Drunken Bakers, Mr. Logic, Biffa Bacon and Cedric Soft, Aesop’s Cables (with a heartwarming fable about his bathroom habits), and a “super-hero” called The Brown Bottle who derives his courage from drinking a six-pack. PC Hubble and PC Bubble are two cops who take their jobs very seriously in a humorous 2009 abuse of power way. Even the girls of St. Bridget’s School get into the act when they find a man – an “inconsequential piece of celebrity flotsam” - in the backyard and try to keep him as a pet.
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BRITISH COMICS: 2000AD Prog 1643: Judge Dredd & Zombies!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Reviews, DC Comics, IDW Publishing, Independent,
Whenever I’m in London, which is where I am this week, I like to check out the local comic books. And I don’t mean the repackaged American comics that Marvel does, or the magazine-sized comic books like Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation that feature quizzes, puzzles and games inbetween a repackaged American comic. (Although the UK Star Trek comic does a very nice job of repackaging IDW’s Star Trek comic with an assortment of photos and features on the new movie.) I’m talking about the stuff the Brits do for themselves, specifically for the newsstand. Stuff like…Judge Dredd.
I’ve been a casual Judge Dredd fan for years. Back in the 90s, I worked my way through the collections from Titan Books with all that great Brian Bolland and Mike McMahon artwork, I read the DC Comics mini-series and I saw the godawful Judge Dredd movie with Sylvester Stallone and Rob Schneider. So I have some familiarity with the Judge and his colleagues, which led me to pick up 2000 AD, Prog 1643 from July 8, 2009.
The cover is a nice zombie-baby horror from Leigh Gallagher, tying into this issue’s final story.
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