Weekend Reading: Watchmen, Ploog, Gibbons, and Gary Friedrich

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

It's the weekend time again and since we're between the end of football season and baseball season, at least in the U.S., it must be comic book season. Let's take a look.

Author Joe Konrath is a very smart man on the subjects of book publishing, Amazon, and the future of the written word business. He makes a great case in a post called Amazon Will Destroy You.

Tom McLean at Bags And Boards looks at both sides of the Before Watchmen argument and comes up with some smart thoughts worthy of attention.

J. M. DeMatteis runs a very nice appreciation of his sometime collaborator Mike Ploog.

Cartoonist Lew Stringer uncovers an old Dave Gibbons strip you might not be familiar with.

This is an old link, but it’s a nice profile of gag cartoonist Bob Vojtko.

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Weekend Reading: Atlas Comics, Honey West and DC Comics

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

Hey, anybody see Green Lantern yet? Anyone like it? Anyone wonder why Marvel makes three movies in one year and DC Comics makes one movie every three years?

I’m traveling this weekend, so it’s a shorter run of links. (The last time I saw the Space Needle it was sticking out of Scratchy’s eye). Enjoy!

Ploog: At Vintage Hardboiled Reads, August West finds a vintage hardboiled comic book: Atlas Comics’ Police Action with art by Mike Ploog.

Abe: Francesco Francavilla shares his variant cover for September’s release of Abe Sapien - The Devil Does Not Jest #1 from Dark Horse.

Honey: Ray Tate at Comics Bulletin enjoys him some of Moonstone’s Honey West by Elaine Lee and Ronn Sutton.

Honey II: Steve Thompson at Booksteve’s Library has some similar nice feelings about the Honey West comic book.

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Planet Of The Apes: The Lexicon

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies,

One of the many things that I love is Planet of the Apes. I’m not OCD about it and I don’t get bent out of shape when other creative people take the project and run with it. I just enjoy the idea of a planet where Apes have replaced people as the ruling elite and the Apes have all the advantages.

Ever since I first saw Charlton Heston running through a cornfield, pursued by Gorillas on horseback with guns, I’m been nuts for the Apes. Think about that for a second: Gorillas on horseback with guns. How can anyone not love that?

Here are my four favorite Apes-based projects:

(1) Planet of the Apes: The original and still the best. Heston found the perfect role for his Shakespearean-tragedy scenery chewing, some of the moments are truly horrifying, and Jerry Goldsmith’s score is haunting. I can’t wait for my own kids to be old enough to appreciate it.

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