Weekend Reading: Spacehawk, The Dandy, Kirby and Howard Cruse

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Movies, Reviews, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,

I'm stuffed with the turkey of Thanksgiving, but there's always time to unstuff some of the internets. Let's take a look at things to read between naps.

This has gotten a lot of play, but it’s too funny to not link to: Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter has compiled his list of the 10 Least Powerful People In Comics. Number five made me laugh out loud.

And Spurgeon does it again: I think Howard Cruse is one of the great cartoonists to have emerged from the Underground Comix movement. Spurgeon’s interview with him is an excellent read.

The Dandy, the long-running British comic book for kids, is getting cancelled in December and the line-up for the last issue is spectacular - 75 stories in a 100 page issue. I want one. Oh yes I do! Lew Stringer shares some details.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Spacehawk, The Dandy, Kirby and Howard Cruse

RIP Adam Adamowicz

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

I was very sad to hear that artist Adam Adamowicz has passed away.

He was a super-talented painter and conceptual artist and if you’re a fan of Skyrim and Fallout 3, you’ve seen his work.

I never met Adam but years ago, back in the early 1990s, I worked with him.

He was just starting out as a painter and I hired him to do a bunch of covers for various Malibu Comics imprints like Aircel and Adventure.

How did I find him? He found me, the old-fashioned, pre-internet way. He sent in some photos through the mail and I responded immediately.

I thought he was brilliant - he had a vivid, distinct style that I liked quite a bit. I gave him as much work as he wanted.

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Read More | Adam's Blog

Barry Blair and Aircel Comics

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Independent,

Barry Blair passed away earlier this week. A very talented writer-and-artist, he was one of the founders of Aircel Comics with the backing of Ken Campbell. The imprint got its name from Campbell’s refrigeration company. Barry had a house stockpiled with a number of artists eager to create comics and they were all put to work churning out books for Aircel with titles like Elflord, Samurai and Warlock 5.

For a couple of years their books were very successful and featured work by Blair, Pat McEown, Dale Keown, Dave Cooper, Jim Somerville, Guang Yap and others during the black and white boom of the mid-1980s. When the market soured, Campbell was eager to shed the imprint. Rather than shut it down, he made a deal with Malibu Comics President Scott Rosenberg to take it over. Malibu was the parent company to Eternity Comics.

As part of the deal, Malibu would run the imprint and Barry would provide 4 books a month - a new book every Tuesday either by him or his studiomates or in some form of collaboration. In addition, Malibu would also sponsor Barry’s green card - he wanted to move out of Canada to New York City and found a place in the shadow of the United Nations building. For a couple of years, Malibu published a wide variety of Aircel books - Barry’s own adventure books, Dave Cooper’s wild parodies, and even a Jim Somerville zombie book.

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Read More | Bleeding Cool