Weekend Reading: Ray Bradbury, Alex Toth and Before Watchmen

The countdown to San Diego has begun. You can tell because Mark Evanier is starting to post his great stories about San Diego cons of the past.

I’ve really been enjoying his tales of the con that involve Ray Bradbury and Julie Schwartz (and MAD Magazine’s Al Feldstein). One of the things that’s being revealed is that Julie, a longtime DC Comics editor and later company ambassador, doesn’t come across as a likeable guy.

This will not come as a surprise to anyone who’s read about Evan Dorkin’s repeatedly unpleasant encounters with Schwartz.

Or to people who are familiar with Colleen Doran.

Speaking of Ray Bradbury, Frederik Pohl remembers his friend of 75 years.

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Weekend Reading: Julie Schwartz, Carl Barks, Jim Aparo & Evan Dorkin

After a month that saw Disney gobble up Marvel, Paul Levitz step aside at DC, and Jack Kirby’s heirs opening up a copyright reclamation project, it’s kinda nice to slide into October where leaves are dropping faster than Wizard employees. There’s lots of great stuff for your weekend pleasure. From Art Spiegelman and Julie Schwartz to Carl Barks and Jim Aparo and even Evan Dorkin. It’s nice to curl up on a blustery fall day with some warm links. Enjoy!

Julie Schwartz and Forry Ackerman: Once upon a time, they teamed up and almost got some poor kid kicked out of comic book convention. Sort of. This is from the current issue of Guy H. Lillian III’s fanzine, Challenger, which also boasts an NSFW sketch by Wally Wood and the story behind it that involves the artist Kelly Freas. Fans with Bat-walkers who wear Superman Depends may remember Lillian as a long-time DC Comics letterhack from the 1970s.

Carl Barks: In 1976, there was a comic book convention in Boston called Newcon. Among the guests: Carl Barks, John Stanley, Harvey Kurtzman, Joe Kubert, Jim Steranko, Dick Giordano, Mike Kaluta, Gil Kane, and Bob Overstreet. Cartoonist Bill White was there and met Barks. Says Bill, “I asked him for a drawing of one of the Duck family. He said he was sorry, but recently the Disney company had revoked his rights to draw the Ducks.” Go Team Disney!

DC Field Trip: The letterer Todd Klein took a trip to DC Comics to explore their logo archives, the comic book equivalent of an archeological dig. Needless to say, he found good stuff.

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