Ultraverse Returns!

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Movies, Marvel Comics,

Who knew that a corner of the internets would be talking about Malibu Comics' Ultraverse this week?

A recent podcast interview with Steve Englehart opened up the Ultraverse files with his belief about why Marvel won't publish Ultraverse titles or use the characters these days. Bleeding Cool linked to the podcast and a gathering of commenters soon followed.

BC followed up the original post with a subsequent one involving comments made by Marvel’s Tom Brevoort about BC’s original post.

Not to be outdone, Heidi at Comics Beat uncovered the news that Malibu Comics co-founder Scott Rosenberg's non-publishing IP holding company, Platinum Studios was having tremendous problems. That opened up a discussion of the origins of Men In Black, now that the new movie in the franchise is out.

So enjoy your blast from comics' past!

[Artwork: Prime #1]

Weekend Reading: Kirby, Dick Tracy, Godzilla & Jimmy Olsen

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

Everyone but me is at WonderCon this weekend. And I know this because of all the Facebook updates and Tweets that keep showing up in my inbox.

For those of us not walking the con floor and buying comics and debating the future of comics, let’s see if there’s something we can read:

Superman: Nikki Finke prints the letter that the late Joanne Siegel sent to Warner Bros. regarding the Siegel estate’s ongoing legal battle over Superman.

For those in need of some history about the current incarnation of the Warner empire, it begins with Kinney Parking Company which “was a New Jersey parking lot company owned by Manny Kimmel, Sigmund Dornbusch and mob figure Abner Zwillman. Prior to its public listing in 1960, it merged with a funeral home company, Riverside, and then expanded into car-rentals, office cleaning firms and construction companies."

Kinney National Services, Inc. “which was formed in 1966 when the Kinney Parking Company and the National Cleaning Company merged. The new company was headed by Steve Ross."

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Kirby, Dick Tracy, Godzilla & Jimmy Olsen

Weekend Reading: Borders, Bruce Jones, Dick Tracy And Alan Moore

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

Can you believe another weekend is already here? I can't, so I'd better post a few links and then hit the liquor store!

Let's see what's out there on the interwebs for those of us not already enjoying C2E2:

Borders: The bookstore chain just didn’t drop into bankruptcy overnight. Here’s a list of a half-dozen balls they dropped that you’d think they wouldn’t have.
[Link: Making Light]

Bruce: Comic book writer (remember his run on Hulk?) and novelist Bruce Jones ponders the future of fiction.

Return: John Zipperer at Weimar World Service reports that editorial cartoonist Lyle Lahey is back from his sabbatical, and in top form as he makes fun of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

Dick: For those of you who don’t already know, there’s a new creative team on the venerable comic strip, Dick Tracy. It’s writer Mike Curtis and artist Joe Staton, and the whole thing is 3 daily panels of awesome. Hogan’s Alley interviews Staton about his new job.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Borders, Bruce Jones, Dick Tracy And Alan Moore

Weekend Reading: Atlas/Seaboard, Gene Deitch and Jonny Quest

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

Lots of great stuff all over the internet this week, including a nice piece on Martin Goodman’s Atlas/Seaboard comics of the mid-1970s, a lost cartoon by Gene Deitch and a little piece of Jonny Quest/James Bond trivia. Let’s click:

Atlas/Seaboard: If you remember Howard Chaykin’s The Scorpion, Larry Hama’s Wulf The Barbarian or Steve Ditko’s Tarantula, then you’re old. And that means you remember the Atlas/Seaboard comics that Martin Goodman published after Cadence bought him out from Marvel back in the 1970s. What you may not know is that their comics were also published in Australia. Oh Danny Boy has a detailed and well-illustrated account of their adventure down under.

Gene Deitch: Over at Cartoon Brew, Jerry Beck posts a note from acclaimed animation director Gene Deitch about his first (and lost) animated cartoon. It starred Howdy Doody, and the cartoon so enraged Buffalo Bob Smith that he had it destroyed.

John Kricfalusi: Over at John K Stuff, the animator has a hilarious post about amateur artwork and some ideas about how not-yet-professionals can still find outlets for their art.

Tom Richmond: The great MAD Magazine artist and caricaturist recently remodeled his studio and put up before and after pictures. We should all work in such a great environment. Warning: safe-for-work shelf porn ahead.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Atlas/Seaboard, Gene Deitch and Jonny Quest