Weekend Reading: Jack Kirby, Two-Gun Kid, Jack Davis and Monty Python

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies, Television, Independent, Marvel Comics,

Here are my picks for Oscar night: Nobody named Oscar will actually win anything.

So let’s see what the internets are yapping about:

You can tell that something’s brewing when creators start to go a bit public with payment problems at publishers. Bleeding Cool reported on two this week.

Cartoonist Lew Stringer finds there’s a lot to like about the new one-shot The Clock Strikes, a noirish adventure set in the 1930s that revives an old comic book character.

Longbox Graveyard tackles the news. Sure, it’s news from blogger Paul O’Connor, but it’s all good news.

Novelist and comic book writer Victor Gischler (The Deputy) hopes you’ll pick up his latest: the X-Men: FF hardcover.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Jack Kirby, Two-Gun Kid, Jack Davis and Monty Python

Bill Blackbeard: Eisner Hall of Fame

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I worked a lot with Bill Blackbeard and his San Francisco Academy of Comic Art. We never met -- it was all phone and mail.

You can find him credited in a couple dozen comics and collections that I put together on behalf of Malibu Comics. Everything from squarebound collections of Spicy Mystery Tales and Spicy Detective Stories to comic book reprints of The Shadow and Sherlock Holmes newspaper strips.

Without his guidance, his help and access to his massive collection of organized material, those books wouldn't have existed, and I wouldn't have learned as much as I did.

Click to continue reading Bill Blackbeard: Eisner Hall of Fame

Weekend Reading: Bill Finger, Mighty Samson, The Shadow & Valerian

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

Thank you internets, you’ve been great this week. So let’s share that bounty with others:

Mighty Samson: Writer J.C. Vaughn has a preview of Mighty Samson #1 at his blog. Shooter’s involved, Patrick Olliffe is the artist. Dark Horse is the publisher. I’m in!

Here’s a little more about the series at Comic Attack.

Shadow: Novelist James Reasoner has a Forgotten Book that’s a must have for fans of Maxwell Grant’s The Shadow: Gangland's Doom: The Shadow of the Pulps, by Frank Eisgruber Jr.

British Comics: Matthew Murray at Comics Beat goes all out for the new Dandy and breaks down its contents.

Peanuts: Zach Weiner finally lets Charlie Brown kick that football.

Peppers: Mark Evanier lives the sitcom life.

3-D: Ricky Sprague at Project Child Murdering Robot tells how Marvel Comics (in 3-D!) turned him into an atheist. Bonus: 3-D artwork on the internets!

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Bill Finger, Mighty Samson, The Shadow & Valerian

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.

Click to continue reading Forgotten Comics: Howard Chaykin’s The Shadow

Comic Con International 2010: I Was There

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials, Image Comics, Independent,

So it’s over and it’s been over for a while and everyone and his overweight uncle with the tattered, too-small X-Men t-shirt has written about it to death.

And now it’s my turn.

Loved it. Had a great time. Saw a lot of old friends. Made a few new ones. Found a place that makes great nachos.

Yes, the emphasis on back issues has diminished and there’s a decreased emphasis on the newer stuff and Bud Plant’s booth is smaller, but none of that diminished my overall positive experience.

I picked up a couple of hard numbers while shopping. I finally snagged a softcover copy of the first The Walking Dead collection at the Image booth and it turned out to be the last one in stock for the con. I asked the guy at the booth about it and he said that they’d sold over 300 hardcovers of the first collection and sold out of all 700 copies of the softcover version since Preview Night. This was by Friday afternoon, with 2 1/2 more days to go. That’s what happens when good comic meets impending TV show.

Click to continue reading Comic Con International 2010: I Was There