Weekend Reading: Joe Casey, Thor, Dr. Spektor and Drew Friedman

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies, DC Comics, Dynamic Forces, IDW Publishing, Independent, Marvel Comics,

The War on Christmas is nearly done for another year, and there’s just enough time left for the War on New Year’s. Let's see what you should be reading this week:

Joe: This is simply a great, honest and open interview with Joe Casey, comic book writer/creator and co-creator of Ben 10. Perfect holiday reading from interviewer Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter.

Thor: So there’s some controversy from an all-white group that’s upset that Marvel has cast an actor of color to play a Norse God in Thor. Ricky Sprague at Project Child Murdering Robot has a thought or two.

Polly: Animator Michael Sporn is happy that Dean Mullaney’s new book has arrived (as am I). Polly and Her Pals: the Complete Sunday Comics 1925-1927 comes from Dean’s The Library of American Comics via IDW.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Joe Casey, Thor, Dr. Spektor and Drew Friedman

Weekend Reading: Bob Bolling, Dave Simons, Kirk Alyn and Chuck Jones

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

Hey Librarians! Pack up your decimals of Dewey and head out to Washington DC, where all the cool graphic novels are going to be talked about. It’s the American Library Association’s annual conference, and it’s set for June 24-June 29. Early Word has the word on all the graphic novel programming just waiting for you.

Dave Simons: It’s been one year since the death of the acclaimed artist Dave Simons and his friend Daniel Best and 20th Century Danny Boy remembers him with stories and quotes, like this one: “Here is my recipe for a winning comic book cover: Flame. Gorilla. Skull. Hot chick. Other elements of interest: Nazis, dinosaurs.” I would totally buy Flaming Gorilla Skull Chick Vs. Nazi Dinosaur #1 from any publisher. Even at $3.99. I’ll even write it. And I wish Dave was still alive to draw it.

Superman Serials: The Bijou Blog takes a look at those Superman movies that most comic book fans don’t care about: the old serials like Superman and Atom Man Vs. Superman, starring Kirk Alyn. “His Superman seems stern at times, then happy-go-lucky, but also happens to take a sadistic glee in cracking two crooks’ heads together. The cape appears to give him some trouble. Alyn is seen to push it out of his way several times and he never runs while in costume, doing more of a ballet leap to keep from tripping.”

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National Lampoon And Brian McConnachie

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

This isn’t really comics, but National Lampoon once boasted the best comics section of any publication of its era, and maybe any publication ever: Jeff Jones, Vaughn Bode, Bobby London, Shary Flenniken, Edward Gorey, B.K. Taylor, Gahan Wilson, Charles Rodriguez and many more were regularly featured along with cartoonists like Sam Gross, Jack Ziegler and B. Kliban. Brian McConnachie was an editor there for a number of years.

Brian would later write for SNL and SCTV and had there been other shows known by acronyms, he might’ve written for them too. I met him once and it was one of those situations that really only happens in New York, or at least in the New York of Woody Allen movies.

I was with a cartoonist friend on our way to lunch and amid shout outs of “Hey!” “How are you?” “You look well!” there was an outburst of handshaking and backpatting. Seconds later, I was being introduced to Brian, who probably forgot my name by the time he’d stepped off the curb 5 minutes later. Still, jokes and clever witticisms flew fast and furious, though I was only an observer, which would certainly be a good reason to forget my name.

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