Weekend Reading: Avengers, Beau, Gareb And The Ultraverse

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

Everyone is still talking about Joss Whedon's The Avengers.

Emmy-winning writer/producer/director Ken Levine got a kick out of The Avengers, but it’s not his favorite comic book movie.

The Avengers is now the third highest-grossing US movie of all time.

And they're even screening it on the International Space Station

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Weekend Reading: The Avengers, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dave Berg

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

Now, how many times have you already seen The Avengers? Doesn't it just kick movie butt? And what movie do you think we'll be talking about all summer? Avengers or The Dark Knight Rises?

Avengers Assemble...in line! Former Malibu Comics publisher and co-founder Dave Olbrich (now a manager at Space Goat Productions) and for Malibu Comics Editor-In-Chief Chris Ulm (now the head guy at Appy Entertainment), show up at the :20 mark in this report from AMC theaters in southern California.

Longbox Graveyard goes Marathoning and Assembling for Avengers and other Marvel-based movies. “Five of my favorite superhero movies, in a day-long sitting, followed by a midnight debut of The Avengers! Seventeen hours in a movie theater, ninety minutes in the car each way getting there, a day off work to do it and another day off to recover. Great for a twelve-year-old, not-so-great if you’re half a century old. So I found a couple twelve-year-olds and went anyway.”

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Happy Birthday, Stan Lee!

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Marvel Comics,

It’s Stan Lee’s birthday this week. He turns 89 and he seems busier now than he was at 49 1/2.

My only Stan Lee story is from the one time that I met him. It was social. It was political. It was dinner.

That’s right. This wasn’t some convention fly-by “how are you?” We actually had dinner together. Though he would certainly not remember it as I was but one of many dining companions that evening.

Back in 1994, Marvel Comics had just purchased Malibu Comics out from under a stunned DC Comics and a quick “executive back-slapping” dinner was organized at Chinois in Santa Monica.

Chinois is one of those places that you don’t really go to unless you’re on a really terrific date or someone else is picking up the tab. In this case, someone else was picking up the tab.

All the Marvel higher-ups of the day, like Terry Stewart, were there and so was the Malibu gang – Scott Rosenberg, Dave Olbrich, me and Chris Ulm. As we were ushered to our table, I found myself standing next to a very jovial Stan.

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Wildstorm: Gen 13 #1 @ 299,000 Copies (1995)

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Image Comics, Independent,

Wildstorm – the once-formidable imprint of DC Comics - is officially shutting down this month and that makes me sad.

I have friends who work there (many of whom I'm happy to say are staying on to work for the corporate parent), but I was also present at its fairly official formation.

I was sitting in Marc Silvestri's beachfront apartment in Malibu, attending a meeting of the Image founders while they were putting together what would become Image Comics. I was there as a representative of Malibu Comics along with Malibu Publisher Dave Olbrich and Editor-In-Chief Chris Ulm.

Image was represented by Silvestri, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Jim Lee, and Whilce Portacio. Hank Kanalz was also there. He was Rob's co-writer on the soon-to-be published Youngblood #1, and years later eventually became the head of Wildstorm. (I have a photo of Hank videotaping the meeting so there's archival footage lurking somewhere.)

Dave and Rob had known each other for years, and if you corner Dave at a convention, he can tell you the story of how Malibu nearly published a version of Youngblood #1 years before the formation of Image, and before Rob started working for Marvel.

Image had scheduled several meetings at the beach that day and Malibu Comics was the first one. The publisher of Wizard, Gareb Shamus, would later drop by, as would Harold Anderson from Anderson News, the newsstand distributor.

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When Speaks The Blowhards

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials,

One of the reasons I like the San Diego Comic Con/Comic Con International so much is that I get to see old friends and co-workers. That happened yet again (what a shock!) at this year’s convention.

Chris Ulm (one of the cofounders of the app company Appy Entertainment) and Dave Olbrich, now at Space Goat Productions, and little old me started talking about comics in the digital age along with the quality of nachos in restaurants surrounding the convention area.

That conversation ended when the sports bar closed, but Chris and I picked it up again on Facebook. Dave had dropped out, but Paul O’Connor, another pal who also co-founded Appy Entertainment and runs their company blog, joined in.

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Weekend Reading: Plastic Man, iPads, Clowns, Jack Kirby & Top Cat

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

Is everyone ready to read Bluewater’s J.D. Salinger comic book on the iPad? Now that’s a game-changer I can believe in! Let’s see what I’ve got on my desktop this week:

Apple’s iPad: Apparently Apple changed the game with some kind of game changer that’s supposed to be the Jesus of print that’ll save newspapers from their own stupidity and ineptitude and also change the way we read comics and make a BLT just the way I like it and find me a room at Comic Con International. Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter coalesces his thoughts on the matter. Me? I’m waiting for the iPad with wings.

Plastic Man: There are other places that are dropping it, but my favorite is over at John Kricfalusi’s blog. He’s imbedded the 10-minute Plastic Man pilot that was created by Tom Kenny (the voice of Spongebob) and Stephen DeStefano (simply one of the great modern cartoonists, and co-creator/artist of the much-beloved ‘Mazing Man). Says John: “It’s a real cartoon and you can tell the creators like the audience. It sure stands out from most of what’s out there.” Go check it out.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Plastic Man, iPads, Clowns, Jack Kirby & Top Cat

Weekend Reading: Iron Man, Geek Chic, Chip and Dale and I Love Lucey

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

Lots of good stuff going on as we slide into the weekend. We’ve got Iron Man, Archie Comics, Douglas Adams’ Monty Python connection, Chip and Dale and tons more.

Let’s start with my pal Bob Greenberger, the noted comic book writer, novelist, tie-in writer, and a guy who actually knows how to make a physical comic book/graphic novel (all that production/printing/binding/press run/distribution stuff). He has a new book out. Iron Man: Femme Fatales has just been published by Del Rey and it should keep fans happy post-Iron Man I movie and pre-Iron Man II movie. Bob happily blogs about it at his website where he reposts this nice review. I haven’t read the book yet, but I snapped up a copy off the rack at Wal-Mart to feed a little royalty money Bob’s way. I also reshelved the remaining copies to give Bob a better display. That’s how I roll, people.

Harry Lucey: The animator John Kricfalusi has a nice gallery of great Lucey covers from assorted Archie titles at his blog. The covers are absolutely stunning in their simplicity. There’s a “Get Off My Lawn!” part of my brain that wishes the books still looked like this.

Geek Chic Daily: Nikki Finke has a few details about the Hollywood playas lining up behind Gareb Shamus’ new online presence.

George Tuska: Marvel and DC artist George Tuska, so prominent in the comics of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s has passed away at 93. Mark Evanier has a nice look at Tuska’s career. Here’s a real nice original art page by Tuska—no superheroes, just guns, gangsters, street scenes and a hot girl in a bikini. He was from the generation of comic artists who all knew how to draw people, horses, cars, the folds of clothing, and characters in hats who could still make a guy in an iron suit seem believable.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Iron Man, Geek Chic, Chip and Dale and I Love Lucey

COMIC CON INTERNATIONAL: Booth Babes and the Ultraverse

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

And here we go with the final installment of Old Comic Book Convention Photos week. I think everyone knows what a “Booth Babe” is – she’s the model-like girl at a convention who usually works in an exhibitor’s display area or prowls around in front of it, chatting with potential customers and repeating all the talking points she’s been given for the day. She might even be handing out product literature or free samples and you willingly take it because “Hey, a pretty girl is giving me stuff.” You could always find booth babes at car shows, boat shows, and consumer electronics shows like CES. The same types of places where Adam West might show up to lean against one of the original Batmobiles.

Back in the 1990s, there was an explosion of booth babes at comic book conventions, usually at a publisher’s booth. Sometimes they were actually on staff at the publishing company, sometimes not. Thanks to the explosion of Image Comics in the early 1990s, there was a tremendous increase in costumed characters as well – not the fans dressed in costume, but professional models, male and female, hired by the publisher to wear custom-made costumes based on characters in their books. They would hang around the booth or stroll around on the floor, mingling with the fans, driving traffic back to their booth and posing for “Hey! Look at me with a pretty girl at the convention!” photos with tubby fans in too-small X-Men t-shirts. Image had them, Harris Publications trotted out a couple of different Vampirellas, and other publishers jumped in.

Malibu Comics, always able to identify and then exploit a trend, had their own costumed characters with the launch of the Ultraverse in 1993.

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COMIC CON INTERNATIONAL: Joe Kubert and Sergio Aragones

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

Platinum Editions was a joint venture between Ervin Rustemagic’s Strip Art Features (S.A.F.) and Malibu Comics. The idea was that since Ervin’s client roster of fantastically-talented big name artists was already creating graphic albums for distribution in multiple European countries, why not publish a US edition as well. Why not, indeed.

Malibu agreed to pay for a black plate change during the press run and produce a version of each book with English dialogue (and lettering), and distribute the books under a new imprint. Ervin originally wanted to call the imprint “Exit” because he had a theory that the sheer number of “Exit” signs on the freeways, interstates and highways across the U.S. amounted to a ton of free advertising. But Platinum Editions won the name game.

Once printed in Europe, the books would then ship to the US. It gave Malibu – in 1991 – access to some creators it normally would not have gotten to work with, including Joe Kubert (who would later illustrate Rustemagic’s Fax From Sarajevo) and Sergio Aragones. Kubert’s book was Abraham Stone, and Sergio did two books, Buzz & Bell: Space Cadets and Smokehouse Five.

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WATCHMEN WEEK: Where Were You in 1986? Part 1

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Interviews,

Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen #1 went on sale in June 1986, nearly 23 years ago. It’s forgotten by a lot of recent converts, but back then there were no internets to get the word out or issue spoilers or post and host endless debates. Solicitation copy wasn’t quite the artform it is today, and the Watchmen issues came out every month (more or less) – you couldn’t just order the whole thing off Amazon like you can today. There was also no “wait-for-the-trade” guarantee back then. You had to wait for each new issue to tease its way into the marketplace. If you missed an issue, you had to scramble. Moore and Gibbons had to create a compelling-enough story to hold the audience every 30 days over a 1-year period. Over at Mike’s Amazing World of DC Comics, you can see what other comics DC released around the same time. Many of them proved to be not quite as compelling.

We all have memories of where we were when great events took place. You might remember your first computer, your first iPod, your first car, the first time you spoke to a woman dressed as Silk Spectre or a man dressed as Nite Owl. Comic book industry types of the Watchmen/Dark Knight era certainly remember where they were when Watchmen #1 debuted. I asked them to share…

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