Groo And My Favorite Comic Book Store
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Independent,
You might think that my favorite place to buy back issues would be my local comic shop, or maybe haunting eBay or perhaps running to a comic book convention, want list in hand.
You’d be wrong.
One of my favorite places to find oddball comics is a thrift shop – you know the kind I mean, the ones with old clothes, chipped glassware and broken Betamaxes. The kind of thrift shop that’s usually run by the Goodwill or the Salvation Army or a local charity organization.
The DNA of antique dealers runs through my veins, straight from my maternal grandfather and on down to me. So as a kid, our family field trips were often to estate sales, drafty auction houses, flea markets and, of course thrift shops. My reward was that sometimes I’d find comics. I once won a box lot of 50 or so good-condition Silver Age DC’s for $10.00, so the rewards were often very nice.
When you’re poking through a thrift shop the condition of whatever comics you find might be too worn for a comic book store to bother with, and a lot of them may be multiple copies of Darker Image #1, but that only makes finding the nugget of gold all the sweeter.
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Weekend Reading: Wonder Woman, Alex Toth, NYCC and Star Wars
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials, Interviews, Reviews, DC Comics, Independent, Marvel Comics,
Doesn’t everyone who’s not there wish they were at the New York Comic Con this weekend? Or is it just me?
Big announcements all across the board. Marvel and DC are cutting prices which won’t boost sales enough for the Big Two to make the same amount of money. But it’s good news for non-Big Two publishers who can try to tap into the money customers are saving and steer it their way. I’m looking at you Boom!, Dynamite, Moonstone and IDW.
DC’s also cutting the story count down to 20 pages. Since there aren’t that many paid ads anymore, anyone want to wager on when the $2.99 printed comics go from 32 pages down to 24 to further reduce costs?
And in the wake of his supervisor stepping down, Bob Wayne‘s been given a promotion and stays in New York. Well played.
At Project Child Murdering Robot, Ricky Sprague has some thoughts about the new Wonder Woman TV series in development by David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal; Boston Legal). His advice: “Please don’t shy away from her glorious bondage past.”
Toasting Toth: Who doesn’t love Alex Toth? John Kricfalusi posts panels from a really nice story and breaks down his love for it.
Toth II: Daniel Best at 20th Century Danny Boy has some great information of Alex Toth and the artist’s time in Australia. Bonus: lots of Toth artwork.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Wonder Woman, Alex Toth, NYCC and Star Wars
Happy Birthday, Jack Kirby!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
Happy Birthday to Jack Kirby, who was born 93 years ago and who I think is the greatest creator of comic books ever. I just love his stuff. If you want to know more about Jack the man, Mark Evanier has a bunch of great stuff about him that’s well worth your time.
If you want some visual proof of Kirby’s greatness, Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter has assembled a fantastic array.
If you want to read some of the classic monster stories that Kirby illustrated, the Monster Blog has a selection of 39 of them that have yet to be reprinted.
I met Kirby only once, at the San Diego Comic Con years ago, so I don’t have any personal anecdotes to share since all I did was shake his hand and burble something inconsequential. My pal Dave Olbrich, back when he was the publisher of Malibu Comics, was an occasional guest in the Kirby house - Malibu’s offices were in the same town as the Kirbys. I was too nervous to try to tag along. I love re-reading Kirby’s long run on Marvel Comics’ The Fantastic Four - it starts slow and builds to greatness. But I really like his stuff for DC Comics in the 1970s - his Fourth World books, especially Mister Miracle and, yes, Jimmy Olsen. Kirby’s the only creator who’s made that cub reporter interesting. I also love Kamandi and The Demon.
In the discussion and debate over Kirby’s many inkers, I go Joe Sinnott #1 and Mike Royer #2.
Happy Birthday, Jack!
[Artwork: The cover to Kamandi #1, by Jack Kirby, © DC Entertainment.]
Weekend Reading: App TV, Scott Pilgrim, Scooby-Doo and Brian Keene
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Movies, Reviews, Television, Independent,
If you want to know where the future of TV and games is headed, check out this piece at Gaming Business Review by my old buddy Chris Ulm. A co-creator of Rune, co-founder of the Ultraverse (it was his idea), and now the CEO of Appy Entertainment, he thinks a lot about those kinds of things.
This’ll get you started: “The living room right now is a no-man’s land of standards and cables, universally poor and inconsistent user interfaces, huge numbers of channels, multiple boxes of hardware, hated cable companies, and multiple video game systems, each with its own proprietary hardware and expensive software.”
Scott Pilgrim: John Scalzi explains the failure of Edgar Wright’s movie in terms we can all understand: the value of nerd-love.
The Cleveland Show: Tom Spurgeon’s brother interviews voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson, the voice of Cleveland Jr. and countless other characters.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: App TV, Scott Pilgrim, Scooby-Doo and Brian Keene
Weekend Reading: Comic Con International, iPads, and Zeroids
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials, Movies, Television,
Welcome to the first post-San Diego version of Weekend Reading. I’m not linking to any convention reports because, well, other people do a much better job of tracking them all down. However, I will link to this. Mark Evanier does a much better job than I ever could of explaining how the Hollywood invasion of Comic Con International is not only necessary but welcome.
Spurgeon V. Field: There are many reasons why Tom Spurgeon won the Eisner this year at San Diego. This is one of the reasons why he should win it next year, too.
iPad: If you’re thinking of getting one, Beau Smith can make that decision easier for you.
Up, Up, And Away He Goes: James Bond and Superman screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz has passed away. Says The Guardian‘s classy obit: “In 1977 the director Richard Donner recruited Mankiewicz to work on the script of Superman, for which he received the credit of creative consultant, a fancy name for script doctor.”
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Comic Con International, iPads, and Zeroids
Comic Con International 2010: I’ll Be There
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials, Independent, Marvel Comics,
So once again, I’m going to the San Diego con. I mean, Comic Con International in San Diego.
Oh, I know what you’re thinking – the noise, the crowds, and oh all that non-comic book stuff. The cosplayers, the Twi-hards, the (gasp) movie and TV people. Well, I don’t care – I welcome them all. And if the hardcore funnybook fans need to bitch and moan that the con “isn’t about comics anymore,” well that just sounds like the nerd equivalent of “get off my lawn.”
Here’s a link to the con website that has all the programming events for each day. I took that list and sorted it by just comics-related programming and here’s the result. Honestly, there are so many that you’ll be the star of your own private Walking Dead mini-series before Friday’s over.
Click to continue reading Comic Con International 2010: I’ll Be There
R.I.P. Mike Valerio
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,
I met Mike Valerio at a pre-convention party on the upper east side of New York City. He was funny, caustic, opinionated. He made me laugh right away and we became instant friends, bonding through sarcasm. Over the course of the long con weekend, we bumped into each other regularly, scouted out the dealer’s room together, and dropped in on a few panels. Towards the end of the con, at lunch, he asked me what else I’d done while I was in New York. When he found out I’d done nothing, he said, “You can’t go back to your hillbilly hometown and tell them all you saw in the big city was a bunch of comic books and Jim Steranko’s girlfriend.” He led the way out of the con and within minutes we were atop the Empire State Building. Thus began a friendship that would span many years and several states.
We stayed friends over the years and eventually and without planning it, we both ended up in Los Angeles about a year apart. He came west for a career as a writer/producer in film and television while I turned my attention to the comic book industry before jumping into television as well. A lifelong comic book fan, he was a regular at Golden Apple on Melrose Avenue and then Earth II on Ventura Blvd.
Click to continue reading R.I.P. Mike Valerio
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| News From Me
Weekend Reading: Stan Lee, Comic Heroes, Gil Kane and George Tuska
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,
Stan’s back in case you haven’t heard (he’s over at Boom!) and if you have, you’ll be happy to know there’s still a bunch of cool stuff all over the internet you might not have seen yet.
Comic Heroes: When is it a good time to launch a new magazine? Probably when most of the biggest grossing movies of the last 10 years have been based on comic books and sci-fi. John Zipperer has the news of a new magazine devoted to comic books and coming out of England from the publishers of SFX. Good news for the British - it’s coming out this month.
Stan Lee: Clifford Meth got about 2-minutes with The Man he’s known for three decades and asked some questions about the new Boom! Studios/POW! Entertainment team-up.
Neal Adams and Bruce Lee: I love Neal’s work on the various Batman comics he did back in the day. But you know what else I love? His covers for Marvel’s Deadly Hands Of Kung-Fu magazine. And so do the folks at Cyclops Central who posted a pile of butt-kickin, kung fu art by Adams that I could stare at all day.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Stan Lee, Comic Heroes, Gil Kane and George Tuska
MARVEL COMICS: REAL FRANTIC ONES 2009!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,
Face Front, True Believers! Back in the day, DC’s comics felt like they were put together in a giant office that might have resembled an insurance company or a tightly-packed Mad Men set. Think guys with buzzcuts, white shirts, ties and shiny shoes, occasionally having a cigarette while trying to create comic books for 12-year-olds. Marvel Comics presented themselves as the anti-DC: hipsters and cool cats who were tapped into the youth of today and their crazy scene, man.
One of the great things that Marvel did to cement its relationship with the fans and start building the mythology of the Marvel offices – the bullpen - as the original frat party for comics nerds was to get more personal. Stan Lee gave everyone snappy and with-it nicknames – Stan “The Man” Lee, Jack “The King” Kirby, “Darlin’” Dick Ayers, “Jolly” Solly Brodsky, “Our Pal” Sal Buscema, and dozens more. You can find a fairly complete list over at the Wikipedia.
(Comic book and TV writer Paul Cornell – Captain Britain and Doctor Who - recently collected a list of snappy nicknames for modern comics creators.)
In the 1967 Bullpen Bulletins page that ran in Marvel’s comics, then-fan Mark Evanier suggested some equally snappy “nicknames” in the form of honorary titles for Marvel fans. You can see that original page over here.
That letter sparked what became known as The Hallowed Ranks of Marveldom, a list of aspirational titles that ran on the letters pages in Marvel’s comics. Here’s the original list:
Click to continue reading MARVEL COMICS: REAL FRANTIC ONES 2009!
NICK CARDY: Bat Lash, Aquaman, The Teen Titans
One of my favorite artists of all time is Nick Cardy. His name on the credits always meant a visually interesting comic book, and he drew one of my favorite comics of all time: the original Bat Lash, written by Sergio Aragones and Denny O’Neil.
DC Comics is doing me a huge favor this July by collecting the Bat Lash comics in a new trade-paperback, Showcase Presents: Bat Lash.
It’s a great example of Nick’s abilities and I’ve already pre-ordered my copy. The volume will include Bat Lash’s first appearance, Showcase #76, all 7 issues of his original series, plus the Bat Lash stories from DC Special Series #16, Jonah Hex #49, 51 and 52. It’s not an all-Cardy all-the-time collection - other artists represented in the book include Mike Sekowsky and Dan Spiegle - but it’s enough Nick for a solid fix. And Showcase #76 + Bat Lash #1-7 are enough to make it fanboy heaven. Cardy had a dynamic storytelling sense and was equally adept at drawing super-heroes (Aquaman), regular people, cowboys (Bat Lash) and Jungle Lords raised by Apes (Tarzan). He was part of the generation of comic book artists who also knew how to draw people with hats, and could draw a horse or a car with the same skill he could draw Aquaman riding a seahorse into an underwater battle with some guy made out of coral.
One of his great skills was as a cover artist and he was one of DC’s mainstays in the 1960s and 1970s. His bold, dynamic, and imaginative covers seemed to always scream: “Buy this issue! Now!”
Click to continue reading NICK CARDY: Bat Lash, Aquaman, The Teen Titans
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