Weekend Reading: Olympics, Dark Knight, Ellis and Watchmen

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

I know we're all very busy watching this running, jumping, swimming thing from London, but fortunately there's still time to see the gold, silver and bronze of the internets.

Warren Ellis’ tweets on the Olympics opening ceremony can’t be beat.

Award-winning novelist John Scalzi (Redshirts) blogs about his first experience at Comic Con International.

Now that Valiant’s back, you know who else is returning? A new incarnation of First Comics.

Bleeding Cool reports on a “lost” Alan Moore project seeing the light of day through Avatar.

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Forgotten Comics: Howard Chaykin’s The Shadow

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

"He's back…and God help the guilty."

My favorite thing to hit at the San Diego Comic Con is the back issue bins – the so-called quarter boxes (usually greatly reduced in price by Sunday) of oddball and overstock comics from the 1980s – now.

At this year's con, there was one dealer in particular who had over a dozen long boxes of comics in nearly alphabetical order, and I and many other well-mannered scavengers thumbed through them all. One of my treasures was the complete 4-issue run of Howard Chaykin's The Shadow from DC Comics (1986).

Coming on the heels of his award-winning run at First Comics with his own American Flagg! Chaykin went over to DC for a revamp of the old 1930s pulp character created by Walter Gibson (aka Maxwell Grant). DC's previous attempt with the character back in the 1970s stayed true to its pulp origins and was unsuccessful despite the involvement of Denny O'Neil, Mike Kaluta and Bernie Wrightson.

By bringing in Chaykin a decade later, it was clear that some things were going to be shaken up and this was not going to be a standard pulp revival. You don't turn to Howard if you want the same old, same old.

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JOHN OSTRANDER Could Use Your Help

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

I don’t know John Ostrander at all. If I’ve met him at a convention, I’ve surely forgotten it just as he’s surely forgotten me. I’ve only read his comics.

And I’ve really liked the comic books he’s written. His Grimjack – with artist Tim Truman - was one of the Top 10 independent comics to explode out of the Direct Market back in the 1980s. And a long run on The Spectre with artist Tom Mandrake remains a favorite, topping the Michael Fleisher run for me. Star Wars: Republic and Wasteland are just a couple of his other works. John was one of those early First Comics creators who seemed to come out of nowhere and then moved over to DC, Marvel and Dark Horse afterwards.

Now, the word is that he’s struggling, fighting off glaucoma and doctors are rallying to save his eyesight. But like most people these days, he lacks both insurance and the money necessary to pay for the continuing treatments out of pocket.

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