Leslie Turner, Roy Crane, Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

I think it’s hard to take over a comic book or comic strip from a creator whose work is so ingrained in the original. Like Fantastic Four after Jack Kirby or Amazing Spider-Man post-Ditko, or American Flagg! after Howard Chaykin. It can be done, of course, and it’s done all the time since, with few exceptions (Calvin And Hobbes and Peanuts to name just two), keeping the property alive is advantageous to the rightsholder.

Leslie Turner was one of those takeover guys. With Roy Crane’s blessing to his former assistant, Turner took over Captain Easy (formerly known as Wash Tubbs) when Crane left to create Buz Sawyer in 1943. Turner did a pretty good imitation Crane, and even stuck with the Craftint technique that Crane pioneered on the good Captain.

Click to continue reading Leslie Turner, Roy Crane, Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy

MoCCA: Paul Levitz, Stephen DeStefano, Robert Sikoryak

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Television, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,

Is The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art the smartest kid in class? Their fall education programs make me want to hit Hotwire for a cheap flight to NYC and spend a few months with a laptop and some pencils.

My old friend Danny Fingeroth, the Senior VP of Education for MoCCA, gets a tip of my cap for putting together an excellent slate of programs.

Here’s a peek at the list:

Robert Sikoryak and Kriota Willberg are teaching “Anatomy For Cartoonists Workshop” (4 sessions). “This course will teach students how to create real or imaginary characters — in any style — that are consistent and believable.” Bonus: “nude models will be employed.” Nude models should never be unemployed, even in a recession.

Sikoryak is the author of the recently released Masterpiece Comics and his work appears frequently on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Kriota Willberg teaches anatomy for cartoonists and illustrators at The Center For Cartoon Studies.

Click to continue reading MoCCA: Paul Levitz, Stephen DeStefano, Robert Sikoryak

Al Jaffee’s MAD Life

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews,

“Is this a follow-up post about Al Jaffee?”
“No, it’s my grocery list. The internet will publish anything.”

In an earlier post about MAD Magazine‘s Al Jaffee, I reprinted a biographical piece he’d written in the early 1960s.

Jaffee wrote that he spent 6 years in Lithuania as a child with his Mom. His Dad stayed in the US but dutifully mailed Al’s beloved comic strips to him overseas. The story sounded like a fascinating morsel and I wanted to know more. And there is more. A lot more and it reads like a page-turning thriller.

Danny Fingeroth, the Senior VP of Education at MoCCA, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York, sent me a note about the post and told me about Al’s upcoming biography, Al Jaffee’s MAD Life. The book, written by Mary Lou Weisman, “covers the story of his chilling six years in Lithuania with his mother (as well as the rest of his life and career, of course),” says Fingeroth. And what a life that was (and still is, fortunately).

Click to continue reading Al Jaffee’s MAD Life

Al Jaffee: Tall Tales, MAD Magazine & Mocca

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

“Is this a blog post about Al Jaffee?”
“No, it’s about Harvey Kurtzman. I just can’t spell.”

Al Jaffee, the creator of the classic Fold-In for MAD Magazine, as well as “Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions,” has a style that’s all his own. Goofy, buoyant and bouncy, you can enjoy his work even before you get to the gag.

From 1957-1963, he had a syndicated comic strip called Tall Tales that’s one of those classic strips that’s recently been rediscovered and thank goodness for that. Jaffee, a Reuben Award winner, is also getting his own exhibit at Mocca, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, in New York City. Titled “Is This The Al Jaffee Art Exhibit?” the show will debut later this fall.

Continuing my series on cartooning and cartoonists, Jaffee wrote about himself and his work back in 1964. This is pulled from an oversized saddle-stitched magazine from Allied Publications with the creatively-challenged title These Top Cartoonists Tell How They Create America’s Favorite Comics. It featured an introduction by Beetle Bailey’s Mort Walker and was compiled by Allen Willette.

Here’s Al on Jaffee and Tall Tales:

Click to continue reading Al Jaffee: Tall Tales, MAD Magazine & Mocca

Comic Con International 2010: Zach Weiner And Chris Jones

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Reviews, IDW Publishing,

Captain Excelsior is a webcomic that I discovered late. I met Zach Weiner at the 2008 San Diego Con and he gave me an ashcan of his webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal he was handing out. That led me to his website which had a link to Excelsior. See how this whole “internet thing” works?

Captain Excelsior was almost completed by then so I went back to page 1 and read through the previous installments all in one sitting. Created by Weiner and illustrated by Chris Jones (artist on Grumps), the series is about Captain Excelsior, a super-hero who’s having some issues.

One of his sons has no super powers, another might be gay, his high-strung daughter can’t find a date for the prom and she kills people when she gets angry, his ex-wife is getting remarried and he’s having trouble navigating the dating world because, well, he’s a doofus. He’s a better super-hero than he is a father, but he’d have to be: he’s a terrible father.

Click to continue reading Comic Con International 2010: Zach Weiner And Chris Jones

Read More | Captain Excelsior

Comic Con International: Rob Hanes & Randy Reynaldo

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials, Independent,

So I’m surfing through the postings online about the San Diego con as I’m packing to get ready and I discover some great news courtesy of Heidi at Comics Beat.

Creator/writer/artist Randy Reynaldo is releasing the first full color Rob Hanes comic called Rob Hanes Adventures Special Edition #1 in time for purchase at the con. While he’s there, he’ll also be promoting the upcoming September collection, “The first volume of a projected series of trade paperbacks collecting the entire Rob Hanes Adventures series,” according to his press release.

This is great news for fans of the strip (one of them is me, in case you haven’t guessed) – and if you can’t make it to the con to pick up the color special, you can order it from Randy’s website, along with a ton of other cool stuff. If you’ve never seen a Rob Hanes adventure, you’re in for a treat. Randy is an adventure cartoonist in the very best sense, working in a style that recalls Terry And The Pirates and, especially, Roy Crane’s work on Captain Easy (plus a nod or three to Jonny Quest).

Click to continue reading Comic Con International: Rob Hanes & Randy Reynaldo

Read More | Thrilling Detective

Weekend Reading: Steve Ditko, Larry Doyle, Wonder Woman and Doc Savage

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

Hey America, happy birthday to you this weekend. If you find yourself too full of Pabst Blue Ribbon, overcooked hamburgers, runny macaroni salad and apple pie with too much HFCS in it, and it’s too early to start shooting off those fireworks you smuggled over from North Carolina, do what I do: surf the internet.

Oh, Brother: Bob Weber, Jr. (creator of Slylock Fox) and Jay Stephens (Tutenstein, Land of Nod), have joined forces and launched a brand new comic strip. Alan Gardner at The Daily Cartoonist has the announcement and some samples, and it all looks really, really good.

Wonder Woman: When Nikki Finke calls recent changes to one of your iconic characters “dumbass stuff,” shouldn’t it be rethought?

Twin Spica: Looking for some good manga to spend your hard-earned money on? Rod Lott at Bookgasm has a recommendation for you, Twin Spica Volume O2 by Kou Yaginuma.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Steve Ditko, Larry Doyle, Wonder Woman and Doc Savage

Roy Crane, Wash Tubbs, Captain Easy and Buz Sawyer

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Independent,

It’s easy to toss around the word “genius,” especially when it comes to comics. We all have our favorites and we all like to think ours are the great ones. But one look at Roy Crane’s work and anyone can see that he definitely was worthy of the “genius” tag.

Crane created two great adventure classics, Wash Tubbs (which later became Captain Easy) and Buz Sawyer, with Wash being called the first true newspaper adventure strip. He’s been dead for 30 plus years, but looking through his strip work, you can see his influence in comics from Milton Caniff to Alex Toth to Howard Chaykin. Even the modern strip, Rip Haywire by Dan Thompson shows a Crane influence as does Randy Reynaldo’s Rob Hanes.

And in a classic Comics Journal interview, Art Spiegelman calls Crane an influence on Jack Kirby.

Continuing my series on cartooning and cartoonists, Roy Crane wrote about himself and his work back in 1964. This is pulled from an oversized saddle-stitched magazine from Allied Publications with the creatively-challenged title These Top Cartoonists Tell How They Create America’s Favorite Comics. It featured an introduction by Beetle Bailey’s Mort Walker and was compiled by Allen Willette.

Here’s Crane on Crane:

Click to continue reading Roy Crane, Wash Tubbs, Captain Easy and Buz Sawyer

Weekend Reading: Comic Con International, Tom Peyer, Ultraverse and Paul Cornell

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials, Interviews, Movies, Reviews, Television, Independent,

Comic Con International in San Diego is closer than you think. Years ago, I started compiling my own list of convention secrets starting with a great place to go to the bathroom that’s tucked away in a corner, just minutes from the convention floor, and no one seems to know about it. Then I read the list compiled by Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter and I am ashamed of my own ineptitude. If you’re going to the con this summer, you need to read Tom’s list of 135 tips.

After you’ve finished reading Tom’s tips, here are a few other links to brighten your weekend…

Want To Be A Writer?: Of course you do. Who doesn’t? Step into any cocktail party or backyard barbecue and it’s full of people bursting with ideas, if only they can find someone who could take a few minutes to write it all down for them. The real trick is finding places that might be interested in publishing something once it’s all written down. If you feel like writing some stuff down, John Scalzi (the Hugo Award-winning sf author) and Wil Wheaton (yes, that Wil Wheaton) have joined forces to create a writing contest that’s win-win-win for all. Maybe even you.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Comic Con International, Tom Peyer, Ultraverse and Paul Cornell

Weekend Reading: Vertical, Fantastic Four, Cowboys & Aliens and Lost

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Independent, Marvel Comics, Viz Media,

Happy holiday weekend for those of us in the US who love a long weekend, some grilled meat and a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon. And since there’s no football game, you can spend that extra time surfing the internet. Here are some links to fill the game-less void:

Vertical: Given the significant changes at manga publishers Viz (massive layoffs) and CMX (DC shuttered the division), it’s interesting to read about someone with a little different take on events. Rod Lott at Bookgasm has a chat with Ed Chavez at Vertical (publishers of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack, among other things). “While I will always say there is plenty of grade-A material to license from Japan available, access to those properties has become quite limited over the last three to four years. I find it curious that this lack of competition has occurred during the recent decline of the U.S. manga market.”

Steve Perry: The death of the Thundercats and Timespirits writer is just about the saddest way for a comic book creator to go. Johnny Bacardi exchanged correspondence with him recently, but I don’t want to spoil his story, except to say that it’s one you’ll want to read.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Vertical, Fantastic Four, Cowboys & Aliens and Lost