Saturday, October 17, 2009

Comic Art Auction To Benefit Philippine Typhoon Victims

This just came in from artist Greg LaRocque:

This last month typhoon Ketsana and super typhoon Parma slammed into the Philippines. Flooding hit Metro Manila killing hundreds and displacing thousands of families. Untold millions of property damage has left the city reeling. Rains have continued and not only hampered rescue efforts but caused more misery and death as mud slides have taken out entire towns. Death count now is estimated to be over 500 as rescue efforts continue and those living in emergency evacuation centers over 300,000.

Comic book artist Greg LaRocque and his family are seeking your help. With the assistance of fellow comic artists, friends and fans, they have begun this fund raising effort. Original art pages, prints and sketches were collected at this years Baltimore Comicon and are available here for you to bid on. The comic book community has come together at this time of need and hope you will participate in this auction. You will find some fantastic pieces by some of the most well known stars in comics today as well as some very talented artists just beginning their careers.

All proceeds will go to the Philippine Red Cross and be put to good use helping those in a very dire situation.

The art is set up for auction on ebay for the next 10 days. Links will be added when auction begins. Please help and thank you for your generosity in advance.

If you wish to make a monetary donation you can donate through PayPal, or send a check or money order to;
Greg LaRocque
9 Sylvanoak Way
Nottingham MD 21236

Thank You & God Bless!, Greg LaRocque.

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Now scoot on over to Greg's eBay auctions and get a deal. There's art there by George Perez, Alex Saviuk, Brian Stelfreeze, Matt Wagner, Barry Kitson and many more. Plus Greg himself is auctioning off art and is offering open commissions for a mere $100 - how good does that get? I tell you right now - I'll be putting myself on Greg's commission list by the end of next week!

R.I.P: George Tuska: 1916 - 2009

This email just came in from Dewey Cassell:
"George Tuska, renowned Golden and Silver Age comic book artist, passed away around midnight on October 16, 2009. He was 93 years old. George Tuska was born on April 26, 1916, the son of Russian immigrants. He attended the National Academy of Design and in 1939 went to work for Will Eisner in the studio he shared with Jerry Iger. Tuska later worked for Harry "A" Chesler, Fiction House and Standard Publishing. He was drafted into World War II and served in the 100th Division at Fort Jackson drawing artillery plans. Following the war, he achieved notoriety working for Lev Gleason illustrating Crime Does Not Pay, a true-crime comic book with a monthly circulation of over one million copies. When the advent of the Comics Code brought an end to the violent comics of the fifties, George turned to newspaper comic strips, drawing first Scorchy Smith and later Buck Rogers. He also did some work for Tower Comics on the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Then, in the mid-sixties, Tuska went to work for Stan Lee and Marvel Comics, working on Captain America, the Hulk, and the X-Men, before taking over the reins of Iron Man. Tuska remained the primary artist on Iron Man for ten years, bringing to it the creative layouts and explosive action that defined the character for a generation. Also while at Marvel, George illustrated one of the first African American heroes, Luke Cage. Tuska left Marvel in the late seventies to start The World's Greatest Superheroes newspaper strip for DC Comics, which featured Superman and other heroes from the Justice League of America. George later drew comic book stories for DC, including Green Lantern, World's Finest, and the Justice League of America. He retired from professional work in the mid-eighties, but continued to draw up until his death, illustrating commission requests for fans from all over the world. He got up every morning at 6:30 a.m. and would start drawing in his studio, bringing heroes to life in a way that only George could. He was a kind and gentle man, with a wry sense of humor and a remarkable imagination. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Dorothy, and their three children, as well as grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends, and a legion of fans."

--Dewey Cassell
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It was only last week that Dewey alerted the world that George had decided to retire from drawing, but I don't think anyone expected this news to follow. I'm not sure what to write here as I've only recently just written a tribute to George, so I might just republish that earlier write up.

George Tuska is a name that virtually anyone who's ever read Marvel or DC comics and is over the age of 40 knows instantly. He did some brilliant, if very under-rated and understated, work at both Marvel and DC and left his mark on characters such as Iron Man, Luke Cage, The Avengers, Batman and the Justice League of America. During a lengthy and illustrious career which began in the 1940s and continued into the 1990s he managed to draw virtually every character that both of the big companies had to offer, and quite a few others as well. He was also the artist of choice for the Superman syndicated newspaper strip for a number of years. George was always one of those artists who could be elevated to great heights by the right inker - when he wasn't inked by himself that is. George was always an artist who could successfully pencil and ink, both on his own and in tandem with another artist. Sadly such skills are almost lost these days as artists appear to focus on the one aspect of their art to the detriment of the other.

George leaves behind a lot of happy people and I'm one of those. A few years back I managed, via Dewey, to obtain my own Tuska art in the form of a signed copy of Dewey's excellent Tuska biography along with a small Iron Man sketch and an ink wash illo done by Tuska sometime in the 1950s of a man standing on a beach. It might sound pedestrian, but believe me, as you can see, it's anything but.

George turned 93 this past March and seriously, I doubt anyone was going to begrudge him his retirement. It was well earned and well deserved - George, if you ever read this, thanks for all of the memories that you've left behind. I know that when I was a youngun your name was one of those that meant the comic book was going to be a delight to read as the artwork was going to be good, no matter how ridiculous the story might have been. Thanks for everything George!

I'd like to pass my condolences to both George's family and Dewey. Dewey is one of those guys that did some incredible things for George in the past few years, and people will remember both George and Dewey in for decades to come.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Paty Cockrum Needs Your Help!

From Clifford Meth:
She'll be annoyed at me for saying anything, but what are friends for? Paty Cockrum--Dave's widow and retired Marvel Comics Bullpen colorist and penciller (as Paty Greer)--had an unexpected tax bill courtesy of Uncle Sam that's a bit more than she can handle at the moment. To help offset the burden, I'm lowering the already low prices on Dave Cockrum's personal comics collection, which I sell for the estate (proceeds typically benefit a scholarship at the Joe Kubert School; this time they benefit Paty).

Please click here to see what's for sale, make a list of the books you'd like, and drop me an email at cliffmeth@aol.com -- I'll make you an offer you can't refuse.
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So, what are you waiting for? Get in there and buy some damned fine comics from the collection of one of the creators of the New X-Men (frankly, is there anything better?) and help out Paty at the same time. I know there's people that read this blog with deep pockets, so reach in and spread some of that good karma, and folding stuff, around where it's needed.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Looking Back With Vic Carrabotta

Vic Carrabotta is a relatively unknown name to the bulk of the comic buying public, but that's not due to the quality of his work, but rather the quantity. After meeting Stan Lee with a letter of reference from Jack Kirby, Vic began working at Timely in the early 1950s and remained there until the now famous 'Implosion' that saw many creators thrown out of work. Unlike the bulk of the artists from the Golden Age, once Vic left the comic book field in the late 1950s he never returned, instead forging a career in advertising, illustration, design and storyboards.

Once Vic left the comic book industry he never really looked back. Vic managed to parlay his illustration skills to excellent effect, becoming an award winning advertising illustrator and earning the nick-name 'Quick Vic' due to his speed in meeting deadlines. A short list of companies that have benefited from Vics conceptual and illustration skills can be found on his web-site, and they include companies such as Y & R, Grey Advertising, McCann-Erickson, Disney, Delta Airlines, Coca-Cola, AT&T Worldwide, General Motors, Palmolive, SCANA, Advil, Reader's Digest, Sunbeam, Ometric, Jell-O, Kenner Toys, and many more.

This interview was originally conducted in January of 2006. Since that time the tape was misplaced and I always believed that it'd been lost forever. Recently, due to a clean-up, I found the missing tape, along with a few others, buried at the bottomed of a box. Armed with the tape I did the transcript and now present it for the world to enjoy. And before anyone decides to send an email to the contrary, I'm more than happy to post an audio sample of certain sections...but until then - read and enjoy this insight into one of the more unknown of the Golden Age comic book artists!
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Daniel Best: How did you get started in comic books?
Vic Carrabotta: I’m probably one of the lesser comic book artists of the old days. I got out of comic books a long time ago. I started with Stan back in the mid ‘50s, so far back I can’t remember. [laughter] I’m 75 years old, although I’m pretty spry for my age and I’m still working. I ended up doing storyboards; there was more money in that than in comic books. I’ve done some stuff for a local guy, the Mecca Comic Group, just little things, no big time things though.

I was 21 years old when I started out in comic books. I lived in New York and I had just come back from the Marine Corp. I’d been in the United States Marine Corp for three years and I was a young kid, wet behind the ears and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I used to like to draw a lot as a kid and in fact one of my mentors as a kid was Jerry Grandenetti who worked with DC. Jerry was a couple of years older than I am and he was nice enough to teach me the inking and that kind of thing. My first wife was more inspirational for me for doing comics and she said, “Just get yourself together and do something with this talent.” I made some samples up and we canvassed New York city and went to every publishing house you could think of. One of them, of course, was Timely Comics which ended up being Marvel later on, but nothing really happened and I couldn’t get in to see anyone like Stan Lee. Finally my wife and I ended up with a cup of coffee walking the streets of New York and I got to see Jack Kirby. He’s really the one who got me started. My wife and I went over together to Jack Kirby’s office, which was then called Simon and Kirby, and Jack took me into his office and looked my stuff. My sat in the lobby and by this time she was about eight and half months pregnant. So I went into Jack’s office and he looked at my stuff and said, “Well this is nice,” because I was an amateur and I don’t think I was very good at the time. [laughter] So he walks out into the lobby and while he’s telling me, “You know Vic, your work is nice, but don’t call me, I’ll call you.” It was the old story, the brush off, and as he walked out my wife stood up and I said, “Jack, this is my wife Connie.” He looked her up and down and he did a double take and saw that she was pregnant and what ran across his mind was, “This poor guy, he needs work,” and he said, “How are you?” and introduced himself to my wife and said, “By the way, have you seen Stan Lee at Timely Comics?” I said, “Yes Jack, I went there but I couldn’t get to see Stan.” I was walking around with a pack full of amateurish work; I couldn’t even afford a proper portfolio. He said, “Well, wait a minute,” and he went back into his cubby hole and he writes a letter and sealed it and said, “Take this back to Stan now.” So I took it back to Stan and got past the secretary and I was sitting across the desk from Stan Lee. Stan was a very casual guy and had his feet up on the desk and he said, “Oh, Jack says you can draw this and that,” and I said, “Yes Stan, would you like to see me work?” and he said, “No, that’s ok. Here,” and he threw a script across the desk and said, “I want this back in a week.” And that was the beginning of my comic book career.

I never knew what was in the letter; obviously it was Jack telling Stan to help this poor guy. And that’s how I got started in comics. Had it not been for Jack Kirby I’d probably be laying bricks with my cousin or something. [laughter]

DB: What were Stan and Jack like back in the mid ‘50s?
VC: Jack Kirby was a heck of a nice guy. He was always a model guy and I felt sorry when he died. A very, very nice man. Stan was very nice too, he was a young guy and interested in what he was doing. At the time there was just a handful of guys, I was there, John Romita, Joe Maneely was there, there had to be at least eight to ten cartoonists working up at Timely during those days. Not that many. Stan had not even started Spider-Man. John had come over from Jack Kirby and was doing Captain America, so John Romita had more experience with the superheroes. I wanted to do superheroes but in those days superheroes were not big, so Stan would give me these horror stories and I did a lot of westerns. Ringo Kid, that kind of stuff. I worked with Stan for about five years and my wife, who was born in the South, wanted to go back to her home to her mother, she was young and didn’t like New York city so we left. Stan continued to send me work through the mail. So there I was, living on a farm, sitting out in the sunshine and drawing comic books [laughter], rolling them up and sending them out to New York. I also did some work for Charlie Biro and Lev Gleason.

I guess I worked with Stan for about five or six years and then things got pretty bad in the comic book field, the industry went downhill because of the horror stuff that was going on, which was nothing like it is today. Stan couldn’t send me any more work that point. He said, “Vic, I just can’t send you anything anymore. I’ve got guys that live here, like Gene Colan and John Romita and I can’t even give them work.” At that point that’s when I got out. I’d spent a total of five or six years doing comics with Stan.

From there I got out of comics altogether. I was living in the South and travelled to Atlanta and got a job in a printing house called Stein Printing Company. There were using me as an illustrator doing little booklets and I really learned the printing industry in those days. I learned typography and in those days nothing was computerized, it was just layouts, and from printing I ended up doing advertising and went back to Columbia and started up my own studio there and worked on my own all the time.

Then I went to New York and I went from doing my own advertising stuff to doing storyboards and became the senior Art Director with Alden Advertising Agency in New York. Again, I was jumping around; there were so many politics in advertising. My field of advertising was always up and down and one of the years I was out of work I was offered a job with Mother Earth News Magazine, the owner of that was John Shuttleworth and it was located in Henderson, North Carolina. I worked there, but that didn’t last too long, so I moved back to New York and worked for Reader’s Digest as an art director.

I finally ended up in Atlanta working as an art director with a company called BDA/BBDO, which still exists in New York and I became an accredited art director. I began winning awards in TV and print and the comic book field was past me at that point because I was winning awards. I always used to draw my own layouts and at the point I started to win awards I was propositioned to leave BDA/BBDO with a good friend of mine, Jonas Gold. Jonas told me, “Why don’t you just quit and work with me?” He was with an agency in Atlanta, McDonald and Little was the name of the place. So I started working with him on the side, just moonlighting and I finally quit my job with BDA/BBDO and began freelancing and did very well in Atlanta as well. Jonas got me into the field of storyboarding and I got the reputation and nickname of ‘Quick Vic’, which I use on my web-site, because I’m famous for drawing 100 frames in an hour [laughter] because when I draw I seldom use reference. Even now I don’t do it unless I have to do it. It’s the old comic book background; if you wanted to make money then you had to draw. Jonas then left Atlanta. He was my key man, where he went I’d follow, and he moved to West Port in Connecticut and was working in York City and he called me one day and said, “Vic, why don’t you come up? I’ve got a job for you.” I said, “Ok,” and packed my family up for a summer vacation thinking I’ll only be going for one job for Jonas. In those days you could work two days and make $15,000, and there was nothing unusual about that in the old days. There was far more money in those days in storyboarding than in comic books, so before you know it Jonas says, “Vic, why don’t you just stay here because I can use you all the time.” My wife went back to Atlanta and sold the house and I remained in New York. We finally ended up in West Port, Connecticut and I was making almost two to three hundred thousand dollars per year. It was wonderful, living in West Port with all these famous illustrators like Joe Ives and Bernie Fuchs. I had a beautiful home there; my house was a couple of blocks away from Phil Donahue. And that’s what I did. For the rest of my life I did storyboards. In New York I worked with numerous accounts like General Motors, AT&T Worldwide, Pepsi Cola, Coca Cola; I had a long list of accounts that I worked on and I worked creatively too. Sometimes I had storyboards but I did a lot of conceptual stuff as well. I did a lot of conceptual stuff with Pepsi Cola that I’m very proud of. I’m still doing it now. I’d go from New York to LA and back and worked for many people, including Disney. I did the original posters for 101 Dalmatians and got paid for that very well.

Finally I was in New York and I remarried and then 9-11 hit. It was just horrible and I guess we both panicked and we just got out of there. Nobody in the storyboard industry was even freelancing anymore because they were afraid to go into the city in case something happened. So, at that point, about a month after 9-11 we decided to go south to Columbia, South Carolina. My first wife lives here and five of my kids live here and we came down and I got a few little jobs, only storyboards, but it was bad all over. I still had one shot and I thought, maybe I’ll call my friend John Sabel at Disney, who I’d done the concept for 101 Dalmatians and see how he’s doing. So I phoned him and John said, “Yeah, come on out. I want you to work with me on Pirates Of The Caribbean.” I went out to California and worked with John on the Pirates Of The Caribbean posters and everything was fine. I worked with him for a month and he paid me over $10,000 which was wonderful, but I was out there for another three years and he never called me again. I know they had some problems with Disney, they were laying people off and strangely enough four or five years later he emailed me and asked, “How are you doing?” I was really surprised and I wrote him back, of course. He was a good friend and I liked him a lot.

The old comic book artists, well most of them are dead or they’ve moved on to other fields. In my case it’s a completely new generation as you know. Comics are computerized, some of it’s nice and some of it I just can’t put up with because a lot of these kids I think just don’t know how to draw. I have some friends who are doing work for Marvel, and they’re doing very well I guess, but the problem with me is that I am 75 and I don’t want to stop working. Want’s happened with the storyboard business, which is basically my field, is that my agents will not receive work for me on paper anymore; it’s all got to be done on computer. I was shunning away from that whole field because I said, “Yeah, Quick Vic, I can work faster than anyone with a stylus pen and a tablet,” and it’d drive me crazy. I have a computer and I’d scan it and send it off but they don’t accept that, they want that computerised look. I’m learning to use Photoshop and Corel Paint and my agents said, “If you can learnt to do stuff on the computer then we’ll send you work again,” so that whole field has completely changed. It doesn’t matter how good an illustrator you were they just won’t take stuff on paper anymore; it all has to be done on computer. That’s the way it is.

DB: There are some Fantastic Four illustrations on your site. What’s the story behind them?
VC: A friend of mine, Sanford Greene, who works for Marvel and who’s more of an animator than I am. He does the drawings on computer, the pencils, the inks and the colours. He was telling me, “Vic, if you want to start practicing now to get into comics then maybe you should start drawing character stuff,” and he suggested that I draw the Fantastic Four. I did two pieces, but I did it the old style, paper with magic markers, but its obsolete now, no-one uses markers.

DB: Do you see Stan Lee anymore?
VC: I call him every once in a while. He doesn’t forget who I am, he’ll say, “How ya doin’ Vic?” and I start talking about the people we knew and he’ll say, “My God, you’re still alive and you’ve got such a wonderful memory.” Stan’s memory is terrible [laughter] but he’s nice though. I’ve had lunch with him and tried to talk about the old days but you mention Jack Abel and that’s it. Jack did a lot of my inking. I started off doing my own inking but Jack did a lot, but these days a lot of those people aren’t around anymore. Years ago when I worked with Stan I used to bring him into the Cartoonists and Illustrators Club and I remember going in one evening and walking up to the bar and meeting Al Williamson and Wally Wood. These are things I’ll never forget. Ross Andru, you mentioned him, I only met him once and he was playing great jazz piano, he was a very talented guy. Joe Maneely was a really nice guy. When I met Joe he was an in-house artist. Every time I’d go to deliver my work to Stan Joe would always be there doing mostly war stories that I remember. He was always on the premises and he was Stan’s favourite. He was a very nice guy. Joe Kubert, Joe Letterese, Mike Sekowsky, they were always there, George Tuska, Gene Colan, Alex Toth they were all my mentors. Alex, if you’ll excuse the expression, was a real prick. [laughter] I called Alex up several times, never met him, but I always admired his work and lot of my stuff used to look like Alex’s because I used to copy his stuff. We all used to copy from each other back then. If you look at a lot of the guys we’d copy each other’s faces and hands. I spoke to Alex one time when he was in California and he was very down in the dumps and he was very unfriendly. I remember talking to John Romita about him that he was very reclusive and didn’t like people but he was a very funny guy and he always did his own stuff. He’s a very talented guy. Alex, Gene Colan, I always admired those guys a lot.

I was only in the field professionally for only five years and that was it. There’s such a drive now for the old artists, it’s a funny thing. When I left comics I became better than comics by drawing illustrations. A lot of the comic book artists, like John Romita, are terrific illustrators. But the young kids of today they hype up the muscles and stuff and I guess the kids like that stuff. I once spoke to John before he retired and said, “I wouldn’t mind going back into comics John,” and he said, “Well don’t kill yourself trying.” It’s just a totally different field and you have to have a mindset to do that and it’s difficult for me to even think the way these kids think, not so much with the drawing but the attitude.

The old artists were trained mechanically so to say. We all copied, as kids, from Milton Caniff and Alex Raymond. If you look at Al Williamson you’ll see that he copied him to a T. John Prentice was another. It’s a trend. It’s not to say they don’t draw well, some guys are interesting, but they tend to follow the TV with the action shots and the foreshortening. There were certain rules, per se, in the old days and you just didn’t break the rules.

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FURTHER READING:
Vic Carrabotta's official web-site
Vic Carrabotta at the GCD
Vic Carrabotta's Atlas/Timely Credits

Saturday, October 10, 2009

George Tuska Officially Retires

Dewey Cassell has just sent this email out to the world at large notifying people that, sad to say, George Tuska has officially retired.

"Citing his age, George Tuska has decided to no longer do any active drawing or commission work," says Dewey, "he feels that he would rather stop drawing than to produce work not up to his usual standards. He will be spending his remaining time with family and friends enjoying life! At 93 he feels it's time to retire!"

George Tuska is a name that virtually anyone who's ever read Marvel or DC comics and is over the age of 40 knows instantly. He did some brilliant, if very under-rated and understated, work at both Marvel and DC and left his mark on characters such as Iron Man, Luke Cage, The Avengers, Batman and the Justice League of America. During a lengthy and illustrious career which began in the 1940s and continued into the 1990s he managed to draw virtually every character that both of the big companies had to offer, and quite a few others as well. He was also the artist of choice for the Superman syndicated newspaper strip for a number of years. George was always one of those artists who could be elevated to great heights by the right inker - when he wasn't inked by himself that is. George was always an artist who could successfully pencil and ink, both on his own and in tandem with another artist. Sadly such skills are almost lost these days as artists appear to focus on the one aspect of their art to the detriment of the other.

George leaves behind a lot of happy people and I'm one of those. A few years back I managed, via Dewey, to obtain my own Tuska art in the form of a signed copy of Dewey's excellent Tuska biography along with a small Iron Man sketch and an ink wash illo done by Tuska sometime in the 1950s of a man standing on a beach. It might sound pedestrian, but believe me, as you can see, it's anything but.

George turned 93 this past March and seriously, I doubt anyone is going to begrudge him his retirement. it's well earned and well deserved - George, if you ever read this, thanks for all of the memories that you've left behind. I know that when I was a youngun your name was one of those that meant the comic book was going to be a delight to read as the artwork was going to be good, no matter how ridiculous the story might have been. Thanks for everything George!







Friday, October 09, 2009

Johnny O'Keefe's Cardigan!

Back when Johnny O'Keefe was the Wild One, he took to looking more like the Mild One instead with ads like this one - flogging off some tasteless Clan Murray knitted cardigan. I guess he had to pay for the booze, drugs and women somehow...and you'd look happy too if you'd just dropped a pile of speed and knew that you'd had a better than decent chance of having casual sex with the model behind you. Somehow I doubt he wore this Italian Collared Bulky Knit when he started screaming those legendary lines:
Well I'm-a just outa school, like I'm real real cool
Gotta shake, gotta jive
Got the message that I gotta be alive, I'm a wild one
Ooh yay I'm a wild one
Oo-oo-ooh baby, gonna break loose, I'm gonna keep her movin' wild
I'm gonna keep her shakin' baby, I'm a real wild child

Anyway, JOK, we miss ya!

Friday, October 02, 2009

Auctions To Benefit Flood Victims in the Philippines

This message was just posted by Gerry Alanguilan.

"I'm sure some of you may have heard of the devastating floods that happened here in the Philippines, specially Manila and surrounding areas. A lot of comics guys, old guys and younger guys, lost their homes/properties or at least had them really badly damaged. Colorist Jay David Ramos and veteran Rico Rival got their homes completely submerged in the flood waters and lost everything. Other guys affected include Steve Gan, Noly Zamora, Jun Lofamia, Danny Acuña (some of whom may be familiar to you guys as artists who worked on DC's war and horror stuff in the 70's.). Other artists of the younger generation affected include Gilbert Monsanto, Carlo Vergara, Joanah and Melvin Calingo, and these are the people we've heard of. Many people are still incommunicado due to downed phone and power lines. With another typhoon coming in shortly, things are not looking promising as many places are still flooded.

"Anyway, we're holding an auction to benefit these guys, to help them get back on their feet. As of now, two items are up, with more items to be added soon. Some of you guys might be interested in the original art here, or you might know someone who might be interested. It would be much appreciated!"

You can see the auctions at this link, or by visiting: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZkomikeroQQhtZ-1

Having grown up reading comics and seeing names like Steve Gan, Rico Rival and Danny Acuña in the titles I read, my heart really goes out to them, as indeed it does to everyone affected by the recent earthquakes and tsunamis in the region. It's a sobering thought, but no matter how bad off you think you are, someone else has it worse. Dig deep - up at the moment is the cover art to issue #104 of X-Force by Whilce Portacio, a stunning Ernie Chan Conan and an excellent Spirit illustration by Gerry, which appeared in the brilliant tribute issue of Comic Book Artist. More art and items will be added very shortly, and if you have something to donate then feel free to let me know and I'll forward the email onto Gerry, or contact Gerry directly using this email address.

More on this as it develops.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Spider-Man In Australia: The Strange Case Of Amazing Fantasy #15

The great thing about Australian reprint comics is that it's fairly easy to trace the history of a particular title from conception to end. What's not so easy is tracking down all the issues in a particular run, and some of what is known is merely supposition on the half of many researchers, myself included. The best part of such assumption is that, in the majority of situations, patterns are so consistent that any educated guess will more than likely be correct. Having said that, there are abnormalities that appear to make no sense at all. The case of the first story featuring the Amazing Spider-Man is just one of those sagas that falls into the category of 'what were they doing?'

The first appearance of Spider-Man in Australia came in the pages of Strange Tales #5, as published by Horwitz. The cover of the comic featured an excellent Ditkoish cover by Australia's Maurice Bramley, the man responsible for the bulk of Horwitz's output, in particular their lines of Marvel (Atlas) reprints. Bramley supplied high quality cover art with fine rendering and detail often not featured on the American originals and more often than not Bramley also had a one to two page story as a back-up. In this case no Bramley story was featured.

The contents of Strange Tales #5 are a straight reprint of Amazing Spider-Man #1. Interestingly Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider-Man, was not reprinted at this point in time. Dating this comic is proving to be a tricky topic. According to an ad on the rear of the comic, the comic could be dated to August 1963, meaning it might well be one of the first ever reprints of Amazing Spider-Man #1 outside of America. This date matches up with Strange Tales #6, which dates from September 1963, and, as an aside, this also allows me to clear up the mystery of the two covers for Strange Tales #4. The first copy of Strange Tales #4, which features a cover image of The Impossible Man, dates from July 1963, the second cover, featuring The Hulk, Iron Man, the Torch and Mr Fantastic, is actually a reprint, dating from September 1965. Hopefully that puts a few issues to rest.

The next appearance of Spider-Man that I can safely track down came when Newton Comics obtained the rights to reprint Marvel within Australia. In the twelve years between Strange Tales #5 and The Amazing Spider-Man #1 I can't find a single case of any Spider-Man story being reprinted in Australia, which is a surprising situation when one considers the popularity of the title in America and other parts of the world. I am half expecting that someone will prove me wrong - in fact I demand it - but if companies such as Page (which reprinted the bulk of the Horwitz line, but not superhero material as near as I can establish) and Kenmure, which were reprinting Marvel during the late '60s and early '70s appear to have overlooked Spider-Man. In the case of Kenmure and K.G. Murray, Marvel characters such as Daredevil, Conan, Warlock, Thor, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Shang-Chi, Werewolf By Night, Dr Strange, Ka-Zar and the Sub-Mariner all were reprinted, but not more popular mainstream characters such as the Fantastic Four or Spider-Man. Therein lies a mystery. The best guess would be that the reprint rights for the more popular characters and stories were cost prohibitive compared to what might be referred to as the 'second tier' characters in the Marvel stable. In the case of Conan, the character might have warranted the extra expense. Also worthy of consideration was the comparative ease that mainstream Marvels, such as Spider-Man, could be obtained in Australia at the time, compared to titles that sold less.

The Newton Amazing Spider-Man #1 also reprinted the first story from the American original, along with the entire contents of the second issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. Again, in a strange move, there was no sign of the origin story from Amazing Fantasy #15.

The Newton Amazing Spider-Man #1 offers an edited splash page, removing both the job number and a blurb that advertises a recap of the origin story.

Later that year Newton Comics again reprinted the first Amazing Spider-Man story, in Giant Team-Up Annual Featuring Spider-Man. In this case the story was a back-up feature to more 'modern' Bronze Age Marvel stories, in particular four stories from Marvel Team-Up.

Unlike the first reprints, this edition does feature the job number and the blurb advertising the existence of a prior issue featuring the origin story. As Newton was recycling this story, I expect that they merely went for an un-edited reprint from the original stats as supplied by Transworld.

The next appearance of Spider-Man in Australia came with the Yaffa Publishing Groups Amazing Spider-Man series. Unusually Yaffa didn't begin the series with a first issue, instead beginning their numbering at #173, the first issue I can find in the series (if there's an earlier number then I wanna know). The best theory that I can offer is that Yaffa began their series with issue #173 as it was the first American issue that they had to reprint - the comic reprints the American Amazing Spider-Man #173. This issue also reprints the first American issue of Amazing Spider-Man, in it's complete form. As the title has this story included, it can then be reasonably concluded that this is the first in the Yaffa line.

Much like the first Newton issue, this issue also cuts off the 'previous issue' blurb and is missing the job number.

It would take until 1979 for the first true Spider-Man story to be reprinted in Australia. Issue 190-191 of The Amazing Spider-Man in the Yaffa series would not only finally reprint the origin story of Spider-Man from Amazing Fantasy #15, but also the entire contents of that issue, unedited. Thus this issue marks the reprinting of the first appearance of The Amazing Spider-Man in Australia.

The splash page appears to be a straight reprint from the American original and, considering the existence of the remainder of the issue, is more than likely taken from stats of the original issue. This is a fair assumption as Marvel did have the contents of Amazing Fantasy #15 in their possession until the now infamous art theft of the late 1970s/early 1980s. The original art has since been donated to the American Library Of Congress, (donated by, rumour has it, the original thief of the art) meaning that stats can once again be taken from the original art.

Yaffa surrendered the rights to reprint Marvel in Australia in the early 1980s. The Federal Publishing Company then stepped in and snapped up the rights to reprint Marvel, concentrating, for the most part, on reprinting current issues of Marvel Comics. In the case of Spider-Man, Federal began reprinting comparatively recent Spider-Man stories, with the occasional Silver Age reprint in the main Amazing Spider-Man title.

Federal Publishing would also reprint Silver Age Spider-Man stories in their Marvel Tales Starring Spider-Man title. This title would also reprint Amazing Fantasy #15, but used an altered cover as featured on the American Marvel Tales #137.

This reprint of the first Spider-Man story also features an altered splash page. In this case the job number is missing and the page has been cropped, with the signatures of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko being moved to just under Peter Parker's feet.

In the mid 1980s Federal's contract with Marvel would expire and Marvel reprints would effectively cease to exist in Australia until the early 2000s. Marvel would attempt to launch it's own Australian Marvel line, which consisted of the regular American versions of it's comic books with an Australian price inserted, much in the same way that UK prices had been printed on American Marvels for distribution for the English market. Sadly the days of large sized (and digest sized) black and white Marvel reprint comics, with issues averaging sixty four plus pages were gone, never to return.

This story hasn't ended, so keep your eyes peeled for further updates and additions. Also, feel free to ask for information or the history of any Marvel title within Australia and I'll do my utmost to discover what I can.

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Many thanks to Robert Thomas for lending me his copy of the Horwitz Strange Tales #5 so I could finally scan it and record it's contents! Cheers mate!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Das Sagte Nuff! #10

My good pal Robert Thomas brought this one to my attention over the weekend. Robert dropped a German fanzine, Das Sagte Nuff devoted to Marvel Comics into the store for me to check out. Inside are several articles, all written in German, covering Marvel Comics worldwide - well, at least I expect that's what the articles are covering as the photos are plain to see. In amongst them all is an article covering Newton Comics with my name mentioned and several images which appear to be lifted straight from this blog. My images, my scans.

I know what people will say, once it's on the internet it's public domain. These days it appears that once it's in print, it's public domain and frankly I don't have much of an issue with that. It's the sheer lack of manners that's gotten to me. If you want to use my work then do what I do - ask first. I've learned the hard way (and, in some cases, paid a higher price than would be expected) and in this day and age a simple email is all it takes.

I have no idea what the article says - my ability to read German faded away once I left Mr Sultans class at the end of year eight, much to the delight of Mr Sultans as he was never happy that I knew more ways to swear in German than he did (I probably still do). I do know a couple of people who can read German and I'm hoping that one, or two, of them will be able to translate this article so I can discover what was written and just how much of it was lifted from here, either a straight lift or re-written. Again, that doesn't bother me so much as the lack of manners.

Ever since I began writing articles and being published I've seen my work appearing all over the place, sometimes credited, most of the time not. When I wrote articles for magazines such as IT Magazine I got used to seeing them posted on various fan sites around the world a few months after publication. I'd contact the web-masters and simply say that I'd have been happy to write a new article or expand the previous one (there's always material left over), but most would simply not reply. I'd see my work in books - that was the norm, but it did anger me when a U2 'Encyclopedia' used my work and credited it to a girl I used to slightly know - a girl who had issues dealing with the truth as she firmly maintained that both Bono and The Edge were close personal pals of her and that she'd quit working for the band because drummer Larry Mullen Jr had come on to her at a party. Naturally she'd gone from working for U2 in Dublin at a pay rate of over a hundred thousand pounds a year to being happily unemployed and living off the dole here in Adelaide. Such is life.

In the case of this German magazine I'd have been more than happy to provide more information as I know a lot more now than I did when I began writing the Newton articles, so the information that they have might well be slightly out of date, or contain some elementary errors that I've not gotten around to fixing. I understand that such small press publications don't have a lot of money, but a complimentary copy would have been enough. The same thing happened last year when the Planet Of The Apes fanzine, Ape Chronicles, took it upon themselves to lift my article on the POTA Newton Comics, gave me a credited byline and called me a correspondent. In this case I emailed the editors of the magazine and stated that I wasn't one of their writers and that I wasn't happy at all that they'd reprinted my work without asking. I got a reply back apologizing, but, frankly, once it's done it's done. There's no removing it. I did ask for a retraction to be published in a future issue, but I have no idea if that happened. and I did ask the editor how'd he feel if I merely scanned and posted the contents of his entire magazine on my blog - he replied that he wouldn't be happy with that. All of this does make me reluctant to keep posting my research into the '70s and '80s Aussie Marvel reprints though.

Back to Das Sagte Nuff. Once I have the article in question translated I'll post it here and see what the publishers of the fanzine think of that. In the meantime, they know where to find me, there's plenty of email links around the place...and I'm sure someone can alert them of this. I might even email them myself. I guess I should be happy that they at least got the web-address right, unlike an article that appeared in an Overstreet Price Guide a few years back.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Superman Lives! Thankfully, No!



Have a peek at the above video carefully. That is supposedly the costume test for the aborted Superman Lives film, which was in production for a number of years, and for which Tim Burton pocketed a cool five million dollars, with Nic Cage getting two million just for his autograph, oh, and to pose in a costume that you’d expect to see at a sex party, and a few others (such as Kevin ‘Silent Bob’ Smith) shared in a kitty worth an estimated $50,000,000. That’s right - $50,000,000 for a movie that never appeared.

I, for one, believe that $50,000,000 was well spent. I mean, think of what might have been. Trust me, that’d not be a film you’d want to see, and not for the efforts of the film-makers themselves.

On the surface of things a super-hero movie scripted by Smith, directed by Burton and starring Cage might not be such a bad thing. All three have links to the genre, hell when Cage changed his name from Coppolla to Cage, he took his last name from the comic book character Luke Cage – Power Man. Kevin Smith lives, breathes and farts comics – he owns a comic book store. Tim Burton is a comic book geek and managed to virtually save the superhero movie as a genre with his groundbreaking Batman movies of the 1990s, despite the efforts of one man. And that man, who was strongly attached to the Superman Lives project, is why, in my own opinion, the Superman Lives movie would have been the biggest pile of shit this side of Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four movie. Hell, the way Superman Lives was going, it’d have made Batman And Robin look like Oscar material, not to mention that Captain America movie that everyone's forgotten.

That man is Jon Peters, former hairdresser to the stars and one-time partner to Barbra Streisand. Those two previous jobs have given him an open door into Hollywood and his abilities in the sack and identifying dandruff supposedly were enough for him to form a company with Peter Gruber and have seen him become one of the richest, and most famous, of Hollywood directors. They also came very close to taking Sony Pictures down for good, such was the incompetence of the due (assisted by former Sony executive Walter Yetnikoff). Peters, when he’s not yelling, bullying and threatening people, attached himself to the then dormant Superman franchise in the early 1990s and never looked back.

It wasn’t the casting that showed Peters’ flaws. Over the years virtually every male actor other than Dustin Hoffman had been considered for the part of Kal-El. The first movie saw actors such as Robert Redford, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and Sylvester Stallone either tested or sounded out. Over the years that list expanded to include luminaries such as Mel Gibson, Sean Penn and Aston Kutcher, along with such hero material as Neil Diamond and, in the most bizarre twist of them all, Muhammad Ali. Most of those considered merely refused knowing that they were utterly wrong for the role, or refusing to be part of something as trashy and camp as Superman. It would ultimately take actors Christopher Reeve and Michael Keaton to show that the dual roles of Superman/Clark Kent, and Batman/Bruce Wayne (in the case of the latter) could actually be acted with success, and the casting of respected actors such as Marlon Brando and, in the case of Batman, Jack Nicholson for superhero movies to be taken seriously. Naturally you don’t get multiple Oscar winners for peanuts, and both men cleaned up. Brando didn’t make as much as he could have, having sold away any profit sharing in the first movie for the quick dollar, but Nicholson still makes money from the first Tim Burton helmed Batman movie, and rightly so. When Jon Peters wanted to sack Burton from the director’s chair, it was Nicholson who took a stance and sided with the director against the producer (Jack knew Peters from way back and knew what he was like anyway) and guaranteed the film’s completion. So it wasn’t Nicholas Cage and his limited acting abilities that would have brought this film down. If an inability to emote was a crime then most of the people you see in motion pictures would be in jail. Hell, I’m still wondering how Halle Berry won an Oscar for one of the worst performances in a bad movie I’ve seen, let alone how Robert Downey Jr could be nominated for a film with the worst Australian accent since Natural Born Killer. I can understand the sympathy vote that Mickey Rourke managed to get, even though The Wrestler is one of the most boring, insipid movies in recent times, but still…nope, the problem still lies at the feet of Jon Peters.

We know Tim Burton can direct. Watch any of his movies and you’ll see that. He can do slapstick comedy (Mars Attacks) through to deeply emotional films (Edward Scissorhands). His gothic films are his best feature, from Sleepy Hollow through to, well, anything really. Seen Ed Wood? As entertaining as anything Ed Wood ever made. And we know that Kevin Smith can write. Dogma remains one of the finest movies I’ve seen in a long time. If you can get past the many fart, dick and homosexual jokes in the films you’ll find material that can make you think. So it’s not either of those two. Nope, it’s still Jon Peters.

Why?

In the words of the immortal Deane Hutton, I’m glad you asked. Here’s the first stumbling block. Jon Peters never, NEVER, wanted to show Superman flying. That’s right, one of the things that drew all little boys to Superman wasn’t to be seen. You’d not believe a man could fly, because, well, he’d not be flying. No, “Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, It’s SUPERMAN!!” Nope, it’d have been a bird, or a plane, or a stockbroker leaping from a tall building, but it’d not be the man in blue with a red cape. Peters also had a stiffy for a story where Superman would die and be resurrected and made that an essential part of any storyline It gets worse, really. The first script had Superman impregnating Lois Lane. Now before people get too excited, this wasn’t to be seen, because Superman would do this via Immaculate Conception. You’ve read that right. Just before he’d ‘die’ at the hands of Doomsday he’d infuse his ‘spirit’ with Lois, thus making her pregnant. Sort of like a ghostly rape. Once that script got rejected Peters turned to a writer better known as Hugh Jorgan – yep, a man who ‘wrote’ porn movies* for John T Bone would be writing Superman. In this script not only does Superman not fly, he doesn’t even wear his famous suit. He would throw that out in favour of a martial arts style pyjama outfit.

No flying. No trademarked suit. No instant logo recognition. Could it get worse? In any project where Jon Peters is active, the answer is always, you betcha! Peters, in a wise move (for him anyway, obvious for anyone else) brought Smith on board to script, which Smith duly did. Smith’s choice as director was Robert Rodriguez. Now that’d have been a movie to see, but Rodriguez was tied into such quality fare as The Faculty instead and bowed out. Damn! This brought Burton on board, who promptly had Smith removed. Burton, despite admitting that he’d never read a Superman comic in his life, also favoured a de-powered Superman, only so de-powered that he’d rely on various gadgets to operate. And he’d wear a futuristic black outfit. Kind of like Batman really.

In a casting move that hasn't been seen since David Hasselhoff was cast as Nick Fury, Jim Carrey was cast as Brainiac, and if that doesn’t kill you, picture this – Tim Allen was cast as Lex Luthor. Tim ‘The Tool Man’ Allen as Lex Luthor. During this time Peters filled his production days with such activities as wrestling various staff members for shits and giggles and abusing anyone that came within earshot. He’s a whacky guy, that Jon Peters, but all of that came between fighting with Burton, who favoured Ralph Finnes as Superman, Hulk Hogan as Doomsday, Chris Rock as Jimmy Olsen and Sandra Bullock as Lois Lane. Now the latter two ideas would have been very interesting indeed. The first costume test for Cage was completed and consisted of a black rubber costume with a black wig. Kinda of like Edward Scissorhands really. You can see the image in the video.

And that’s where it died, thankfully. Peters managed to drag the dying dog along with him for a few more months until someone thoughtfully bashed a hammer between its eyes and buried it in their backyard next to the goldfish. So when you go to bed tonight and say you’re prayers – even if you’re an agnostic – thank the maker that Superman Lives was killed on arrival.

And that's why I'd have happily paid $50,000,000 to see that movie never made.

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* How does one 'write' a porn movie anyway? Is there a style guide? "Insert dialogue here, just before insert penis"?

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Tom Grindberg #2 - Conan & Batman











More Grindberg art for people to check out. Now I've never really noticed this before until now, but a lot of Tom's Batman and Conan preliminaries are very, very reminiscent of John Buscema's rough pencil sketches. I found myself looking at a few of those Batman preliminaries and thinking about Tom and his art background, so I've decided to request an interview with the man - hopefully he'll accept. I'll be honest and say that I wasn't the greatest fan of his 1990s work, which I knew mainly from his work on Warlock and Infinity Crusade, along with the Silver Surfer, but these little bits and pieces that I've been picking up recently have given me an all new angle of appreciation. Certainly his preliminary art is fairly different to the published (end) result.

In the meantime, his most recent work is the just published Thor annual - which I don't have yet, but will be tracking down and checking it out. Until then...

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Tom Grindberg #1 - Conan






Just showcasing some of Tom Grindberg's very interesting preliminary art. Come tomorrow I'll give you an observation or eight...

Monday, September 21, 2009

Magill Road, 4pm, Monday 21/09/2009




Wednesday, September 16, 2009

New Art On www.Dave-Simons.com

What? You've not looked lately? Silly you! Over on Dave Simons web-site a pile of new art, with commentary from Dave and myself, has been slowly going up over the past two weeks. Go and check it out - there's stuff there that you might never have seen before and I know there's insights from Dave that you've never read.

Go and see for yourself...http://www.dave-simons.com And remember, the site is still the only official Dave Simons web-site on the net, endorsed by Dave and his family.

Friday, September 11, 2009

It's The End Of The World As We Know It...The New DC! The New Marvel!

So there's been new changes at both Marvel and DC. The Mouse now owns Marvel, angering a lot of people who believe that the Jack Kirby estate should be paid a percentage as Marvel is only worth what it is due to Kirby's vision. Let's not forget Steve Ditko, Don Heck, John Romita and quite a few others, but that just ain't gonna happen. Disney paid a staggering four billion for Marvel, essentially to buy the rights (and profits) to a few movies that have done surprisingly well of late. Still the money maker was always with DC - after all the last Batman flick grossed over a billion dollars alone and has become the only comic book related movie to spawn an Oscar. An amazing feat when you consider that, for many decades, all anyone identified Batman with was Adam West camping it up in some tacky gray underwear.

While there's been a lot of ranting about the fate of the Marvel Universe now that Disney owns it I've yet to see anything, well, concrete. Tom Brevoort still has a job. So does Joe Quesada. For now. But in comic books editors offices usually have revolving doors and no matter how popular a person is, if they fall out of favour, upset or annoy someone or commit the cardinal sin of losing masses of money then they're generally removed, often without fanfare and more often than not, with a lot of scorn, scurrilous rumours and outright and vexatious comments spread about them in public. There's nothing like ruining a persons reputation and the comic book industry do it better than most. There's also the question of the characters and creators. We have a general idea of how Disney treat their creators. They're well paid, for the most part, but every line they squiggle belongs to the Mouse and there's nothing anyone can do to change that. It's policy. Who knows if this will extend to Marvel. Will we see a cross-over between Spider-Man and Mickey Mouse? Beats me - however I have seen stranger things happen. I'd not be surprised if we see the return of Prime or Rune before we see another Howard The Duck comic though.

Over at DC things have been happening at a rapid pace. The response was that Warner Brothers have taken more control over DC Comics, restructuring the company and re-badging it as DC Entertainment. Paul Levitz is out, Diane Nelson is in. Was Paul pushed or did he jump? Does it matter? Paul isn't out of a job and from what I've read by people who *gasp* know the guy, he appears to have wanted to go back to writing anyway. I expect he got a decent payout. As Levitz himself stated in the official press release, "After so many roles at DC it’s exciting to look forward to focusing on my writing and being able to remain a part of the company I love as it grows into its next stage. It’s a new golden age for comics and DC’s great characters, and I hope my new position will allow me to contribute to that magic time." Hardly sounds like the words of anyone who's disgruntled, and those who've been sacked from lower profile positions have often made it their immediate goal to slander the company they've left, thus burning the bridges down to the waterline. Levitz hasn't done this and appears to remain in DC/Warner's employ.

Is change good? There's a few answers to that. Each time Marvel or DC undergoes change a pile of people start clearing their desks, and that's to be expected. Anyone who shells out the money we've seen will come into the new company and install their own people - I know I would. Just what changes will now happen at both Marvel and DC I guess we just have to wait and see. It won't stop a pile of people who aren't connected to the companies in any way, shape or form from hysterically ranting about it all though. I like to adopt the wait and see attitude though.

In the meantime what I did do was contact a pile of people who might have a valid opinion. You might recognise some names in this lot. Not everyone I contacted wanted to go on the record, indeed quite a few replied back saying that they have nothing to say about the subjects of both Marvel/Disney and DC/Warner and I can respect that. However a few people did offer up some comments and some very wise ones at that. Here's the pick of them.

"I think, in both cases, the changes aren't as dramatic as fans and professionals would like to theorize," says Dan Panosian. "Marvel was owned by Revlon [Pearlman] for a time. I think a like-minded, character driven, company like Disney can only be a positive thing. Fans worry that Marvel will be censored but they forget that Disney owns Miramax and last I checked, no one is censoring Quentin Tarantino..."

"As for DC... They have proven themselves leaders in this business for years and years. I don't think that's going to change. I would expect a boost in sales for both companies and for comic books in general as things get more and more mainstream and in touch with current media trends."

Someone who has seen change before, many, many times and at more than one company, including DC, is legend Dick Giordano. Dick has this to say, "Both moves were in the works behind closed doors for many moons, I would think. Rumors about changes at DC preceded the Disney/Marvel announcement so I think that it is unlikely that either was a copy-cat deal. Just a guess.

"I think both were aimed at increasing movie profits for the parent companies. Neither Warner nor Disney care about comic books or comic book fans. It's somewhat ironic that after the film industry which for years, ignored the possibility of comic book characters attracting adult audiences, suddenly jump in with both feet at a time when the peak sales of comic book movies may have passed and are leveling out a bit.

"I doubt very much that Disney or Warners management will make huge changes in the day-to-day operations of either company except, possibly to look for ways to save money, most likely at the expense of the creative community. For example, they both feel uncomfortable with and avoid any sharing of profits . Both companies in their core business, do not have a fine record in this area. Only time will tell, though , it is much too early to speculate on what their long range plans are.

"As for as a mass exit of creative personnel from either Marvel of DC because of their new situation, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it to happen. There simply is not enough work in the US comics industry as it is and only a very small handful will be comfortable enough with their work potential to 'take a hike!'"

"I believe that Warner has long treated DC as the bastard stepchild that they inherited, and did not appear too eager to actually plumb the creative resources that they had at their disposal," says Charles Yoakum. "They followed the old adage, "Well, Batman is popular, but now we'll do it RIGHT!" conveniently ignoring all the great stories that had been done in the comics because, to them, comics were crap.

"Marvel hired people who took a chance and used the properties to make movies that took directly from the best elements of the comics themselves and thus used their acquisitions to their best advantage. X-Men 2 is Chris Claremont's X-Men and no one elses... and its by far the best comic book movie ever made in my opinion.

"Time Warner is just making adjustments that will allow them to use their properties as best as they can, something that they should have been doing 20 years ago. Neither corporate move would stop me from doing work from either company, they may actually become more professional in their dealings with artists as time goes on. We writers and artists can get screwed by a much better class of people.

"As our little niche media is recognized by the rest of the general public for what we comic fans had always known- i.e. that we're a media with a lot of entertainment to give - we should expect that with greater dollars comes greater responsibility, and greater corporate overseeing."

Trevor Von Eeden commented, "I've only recently found out about Disney's acquisition of Marvel--and I don't doubt that it's for strictly monetary reasons--same goes for Warner's, in relation to DC.

"As far as how it affects me, I must say--not at all.

"I've NEVER cared about who ran either company, only about how I've been treated by their employees (i.e: their editors.)

"I give absolutely no thought to who runs what, in ANY aspect of this corporate-owned country. All I ever have--or ever will--care about, is the quality of what I have to offer.

"Things that are out of my hands (i.e: out of my control) are exactly that--out of my hands. I never give 'em a second thought. And as far as contracts go, they should be judged by (the fairness of) their content, and no other factor. Doesn't matter to me WHO'S running the company--only thing that matters is HOW it's run!

"You might as well ask me what I think of "God," in terms of ruling the masses. I don't."

David E Miller: "I think that this is fantastic news for the longevity of these characters as now Disney and Warner are staking their futures on them. However, I worry about the future of comic books because now that Marvel and DC are being scrutinized as being part of larger entertainment conglomerates rather than comic book companies."

"I'm sad to see Paul leave the leadership role at DC," says Gerry Conway, "He's given a lot to the company over the last few decades, and helped guide it through some turbulent times. I hope the new management builds on his legacy."

And lastly, but definitely nowhere near least, comes this from Michael Kaluta. "I've not got a lot of thoughts about it all, except 'it's about time SOMEONE started paying attention to the Comic Books...' DC Comics has been sitting on a Gold Mine without seeming to try to get things into other mediums... Marvel has been a bit more adept at it, esp lately, but it's all driven by the Film Industry, not the Comic Book Industry pushing itself out there...

"SO, It's all good news as far as I'm concerned: untapped wealth, a rich cache of treasures, enough to fuel Film and TV for decades!"

So where does that leave us? Mark Evanier has weighed into the debate here and here and he's already predicting the demise of comic books as we know it, again, that's just supposition on the part of Mark -- I doubt he has any idea as to what Disney and Warners are about to either do, or not do, anymore than the rest of us. he might have a good idea, or an opinion, but that's about it. The one thing that did bother me a lot though. Tony Isabella, in a recent forum post, had this to say, "Within three hours, I received four phone calls and ten e-mails asking me to comment on it. About two-thirds were of the 'as an old friend of Paul Levitz' variety and the rest were of the 'as someone who hates DC" variety.'"

I ask this - in the midst of all the hysteria and burning of virtual bras, have people lost any sense of impartiality? It reflects the sad state of people when being impartial can be construed as fence sitting. My opinion, for what it's worth? Wait and see. If things happen that people don't like then don't buy the product - pure and simple. Someone will take notice of the bad press, but more people take notice of reduced sales/profits. If it's not broken people don't fix things - ie: if it's making bin loads of cash then the status quo will remain. If it breaks, then it'll be fixed and time will tell if that fix works. Until then...

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

The Death Of The Fantastic Four!

Hot on the heels of Disney buying Marvel comes this brilliant piece of news about the death of the Fantastic Four:
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Fox is Rebooting Fantastic Four
Source:Variety
August 31, 2009

Variety reports that 20th Century Fox has begun overhauling the "Fantastic Four" movie franchise to take the Marvel property beyond the two films already made.

Akiva Goldsman has been hired to oversee the reboot as producer. Michael Green, the co-exec producer of TV's "Heroes" who co-wrote Green Lantern, will write the script for the new Fantastic Four film.

The 2005 Fantastic Four and 2007 sequel "Rise of the Silver Surfer" were directed by Tim Story and starred Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis. Since the deals for the reboot are just getting made, it is unclear if any of them will return.

Fox controls the "Fantastic Four" movie franchise in perpetuity -- as long as it continues making the films. Marvel is a producer and financial participant through a licensing agreement.
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Why does this mean death? Akiva Goldsman is the guy who not only produced such deathless classics as Starsky & Hutch, Constatine, Lost In Space and Deep Blue Sea, Hancock, Poseidon and other colossal wastes of money but he also wrote the award winning Batman Forever and the timeless classic Batman & Robin. True, he did write the Oscar winning film A Beautiful Mind, but unless he's going to portray Reed Richards as a savant who reveal himself at the end of the reboot as having imagined the whole thing then the world is in a lot of trouble. Still, two movies and a reboot. That's progress. But hey, that's one more movie than the Hulk got. Perhaps we'll finally see Matt LeBlanc as Reed Richards?

Alas, poor Fantastic Four. I knew them, Horatio, a group of infinite interest, of most excellent fancy. Their stories hath captivated me a thousand times, and now how abhorr'd in my imagination that Akiva is attached!
My gorge rises at it..

I guess if the Mouse doesn't get you first, Akiva certainly will.

And speaking of the Mouse buying the House Of Ideas, how many people have picked up this quote: "Another big loser could be Diamond and the Direct Market. It's now possible that Disney/Marvel will scale back on production, possibly focusing on cutting the line down to what it can actually manage to put out on time and just doing enough publishing to keep the characters in the public eye. It is also possible that Disney/Marvel might do all of their own distribution. In this regard the deal can be a huge game changer or everyone. Seriously, anything can happen at this point.

“At minimum I would expect that Diamond Book Distribution will lose Marvel from its catalog as they will no doubt move to Harper.” -- Dan Vado of SLG Publishing, home of Disney properties “Haunted Mansion,” “Tron,” and “Gargoyles,” among others.

This might be the straw that breaks the back of the camel known as Diamond and their own personal monopoly. Diamond might be forced to carry a wider range of items, including comics and magazines that don't reach their own personal cut off point, that is if those publishers are willing to return to the fold...I'll be watching that part with great interest, oh, and I'll wait for the first Spider-Man vs Mickey Mouse comic, which should be due out about a week ago now. Never let it be said that Disney don't promote that Mouse to death, and they'll be flogging the Marvel horse for all it's worth as well once they've gutted the line down to a few core titles, as indicated. No more endless cross-overs (not such a bad idea) and no vanity projects. The winners in all of this might well be DC, Image, Dark Horse...and so on.

Such is life.

Steve Rude: Sun Dust Gallery Accepts Art Into Exhibit

Steve Rude is pleased to announce that his artwork, entitled "Tina", has been accepted into the "Rhythm, Movement, and Music juried exhibit. Response to the exhibit was exceptional with submissions of over 200 works of art. Professor Paul Andrus, judge for the inaugural exhibit, selected 38 works of art which included paintings, sculpture, jewelry, photography, and digital art for the SunDust Gallery inaugural exhibit.

"Tina" was a one day job that Steve expanded on with slashes of color to simulate a larger emotional range than the model and backdrop gave him.

The opening reception will occur on Friday evening, September 11, 2009 from 6pm to 9pm. The Rhythm, Movement, and Music exhibit is being held as part of the SunDust Gallery grand opening gala.

SunDust Gallery
48 West Main Street #100
Mesa, AZ 85201
480-206-5895
www.sundustgallery.com

What The Hell Is Wrong With People? Fun With eBay!

A few weeks back I sat here wondering what the hell was wrong with eBay lately, but I suddenly had the epiphany that I believe everyone who sells on eBay has - it's not eBay, it's the people who buy. Allow me to explain.

We sell on eBay, as do a lot of people. Right now our sales are supplementing what little income I currently have and are also going a long way to funding the start-up of the shop. We generally sell comics, some magazines, some books, some CDs, clothing, the odd DVD and other items as we see fit. Nothing huge, although at times we do make a push and put a few hundred items up a week in order to get a cash flow in for a project or trip. Again, in this regard there's nothing unique about us, but clearly there's something unique about the people our items attract.

In recent times we've had to tolerate the loss of over $1,000 in 'refunds'. In both cases we believe that both refunds were fradulent, but as we didn't add suitable tracking details, PayPal and eBay both said, "Too bad, wave bye-bye to the cash and stock." We learnt from that and now EVERYTHING goes with a tracking number on it, no exceptions. When we started doing this some people howled and a very small few actually refused to pay citing that they are 'very trustworthy'. I'm sure the guy who lives in the suburbs of Sydney would say the same, but he took us for $400 in comic books in one hit, so those claims fall on deaf ears. Luckily PayPal have initiated a policy for tracking, so we're able to point at that.

As an aside, if you're not adding tracking numbers in the form of registered, insured or express post to EVERYTHING you sell via eBay, you're leaving yourself wide open to be ripped off. It's a very small minority, but it will happen. Within Australia it costs an extra $2.80 per parcel to add a tracking number - peanuts really for the peace of mind for both parties - and for overseas it's an extra $8.00. I've added tracking numbers to two items already today as two more people attempt to make a refund, in one case we know it's a clear cut case of fraud, as I'll explain very shortly.

Allow me now to put this next section in context. A while back eBay changed it's feedback policy and removed the right for a seller to add anything but positive feedback for any transaction. In the case of us being ripped off, we can't place a neutral or negative feedback accurately reflecting how the transaction went - we can only leave positive feedback or no feedback at all. On the flipside of this coin is that buyers can, and often do, leave malicious, negative feedback and seemingly there's nothing that can be about it as eBay are very reluctant to remove any feedback once it's left, even if it's totally abusive, as I'll show you.

Recently we sold to two buyers. One was a lot of cricket magazines, totaling around $30. At the time we also sold around 150 separate sporting items and attempted to get them all out as soon as we possibly could. We have a few policies that we sell under, one is that we post at least once a week, more if we can find the time. I have my work that keeps me from posting everyday, as does Lyndal. Fact of life. This is clearly noted in our auctions. The second is that we insist on payment via PayPal. This was we can keep track of things in the busy times. The buyer of the cricket magazines decided to pay via direct deposit. Just a deposit of cash, no details as to where to send anything, no names, nothing. In these cases we generally wait for someone to email asking where their stuff is and go from there. We didn't have to wait long.

This is what happened. As the payment was never marked as 'arrived' in the eBay system (how could we? We had no idea who sent it) and the buyer never marked their payment as being sent, a payment reminder was issued, as is normal. In response to that payment reminder we got this email (spelling and grammar intact in all emails): "Well what a bloody cheek. I was at the point of marking these as ITEMS NOT RECEIVED. You were paid into your nominated Bank Account last Monday and my Bank confirms that it was paid into the bank. If I dont receive the books very soon I will be lodging items not received complaints. I have saved you money by not paying by Pay Pal and have got this. Not Happy!"

We responded by saying that it was an oversight, apologised and asked that if the buyer would supply us with her address we'd send the stuff out promptly. We also mentioned that there was no need for abuse. That got us this reply in return: "Abuse, you call that abuse, you are either very thin skinned or trying to deflect your own incompetence, if you cant get it right dont set automatic reminders. What does 'your items will be posted this week' mean. They had better have Mondays post mark on them, I wont wait any longer." By this stage I was all set to cancel the transaction as our emails had been polite in tone and we'd tried to work things out. In response we sent this email out: "Threats now? I'll assume you are having a very bad day. Continue this tirade and I shall report it to EBay. I don't have to put up with this crap. Please provide your banking details and I shall refund your money. I no longer wish to deal with you and have no desire to complete this transaction with you. If you don't provide your details, I shall refund via PayPal to the email address you have nominated." That got us this reply: "If you follow this action I will report you and leave negative feedback."

Now threatening to leave negative feedback is supposedly a big no-no for eBay, not that they actually do anything about it. In response I attempted to cancel the transactions, however the buyer would have none of it. The reply: "I have rejected your request to cancel. I will now report you to ebay for non performance. By the way I do not have a Pay Pal account and I will not be opening one." It mattered not, we reported the buyer for abuse and feedback extortion to eBay. In return for that we got a canned reply and that was it. We issued a full refund, with extra (as is our wont) to her via PayPal, so we'd have a record of it.

But it didn't end there. Oh, God no. Over the next two weeks we got, on average, around two emails per day from this person, usually one liners telling us how crap we are. Then this: "have been advised by ebay to report you to the ploice. If my books do not arrive by next Monday 10th August I will be reporting tyou for fraud, I will also report you to the Department of Consumer Affairs in South Australia." By this stage we'd really had enough and reported the buyer for using a carrier service to menace and/or harass, to SAPol, as is requested. We also advised the buyer that we'd done this. That got this as a reply: "As I told you if my goods did not arrive by today I would be filing a complaint with the South Australian Police as per the advice given to me by ebay. Tomorrow I will be visiting my solicitor to file that complaint. I will also be complaining to the South Australian Consumer Affairs Department. Offering goods for Auction,entering into a contract to supply those goods, taking my money and then refusing to give me my property is fraud. If you thought that I was going to roll over to your bully boy tactics you have made a dreadfull mistake, I will pursue you as far as it takes."

I laughed. WE used bully-boy tactics? We stopped replying, but the illiterate emails kept on coming. "The report will go in today and you WILL be investigated. You have not refunded me. Paying money to a non existant account is not a refund. You will pay the price for your illegality and will rue the day that you threw your toys out of the cot." And so on. We left it there. I guess at least we graduated from the cot.

It didn't stop the buyer from leaving negative feedback though, and honestly I fully expected it. Each week she'd wait until positive feedback had been recorded for us and then fired off her negative. She had five shots, so it was hellish. Still, other than a message we got from her late last week, her emails have dropped off.

That was one. We sold a dress, for all of $10.00. Ten days after the auction ended, and two days after we got payment, we were asked if we'd sent it out. We replied that no, we'd been caught up, but it was about to be sent (it was packaged) via express post, at no extra cost, and again, our apologies. In return we got this email: "That's really unacceptable. The item was paid for on the 14th. It took ten days and me sending an email for you to tell me it was sent today. I needed that skirt to wear this week. Now i dont have it. I will be leaving the appropriate feedback" The buyer also opened a refund request via PayPal. We replied that we had sent the dress, was that any good? Nope.
24th: "And also. I've just looked at your feedback. You've used the flu excuse quite a bit in the last few months. IF i ever get my item. I am going to report you to eBay. You rip honest people off. And truth be told, I buy things here because I can't afford brand new things. You take advantage of people who are struggling just to meet the every days. The worst part is, if you'd simply posted the item when I paid I'd have avoided this whole mess. If I haven't received the item by the end of the week, I'm going to report you to eBay. I understand you already are under police investigation so I might give them a call too. I dont know how you sleep at night. But one day I'm sure it will catch up with you"
25th: "wow you are a world class liar. first you say you posted it yesterday. then u give paypal express post details. if it was express i would have got it today.
it's too late now, i've made my police report."
26th: "Oh my god. You are such a liar. You said you posted the item on the 24th. You then said on the 25th you posted it express. I still have both emails full of your lies Ebay hasnt received a report about me. You are trying to threaten me when you yourself have made the mistake. I dont care, I am just going to leave it to the police."

At this point we replied that if she kept sending emails we'd report her, as well, to SAPol, same thing as the other buyer. Polite email. That got this back on the 27th: "dont threaten me DO IT! id like them to be able to find you and prosecute you" Here's the kicker - according to Australia Post she got the dress at 10am on the morning of the 26th - the same day that she sent the email saying we'd not sent it (her email was sent in the afternoon) and the day after she sent the email saying she was reporting us. The same day, the 26th, she opened her refund request with PayPal, we've added the proof of delivery and will wait to see how that plays out - but she has her dress.

There's a few more. Like the guy who bought a comic, wasn't happy and asked us to refund all but the postage. When we asked for the comic back before we'd issue the refund and were told no, the comic wouldn't be sent back, we have to refund it in full and if we don't then negative feedback will be left. There was a guy who said that he knew killers and villains and that something very 'dark and bad' would happen to Lyndal if she didn't send him a pile of comics for free. In that case we pointed out to said 'buyer' as to where Lyndal really works. The guy who bought some art and complained when we replied that we'd accidentally sold the same art twice. We sent out two pages in return and refunded the full amount, plus postage with extra and STILL we got a negative feedback. The same guy said he'd be telling everyone what we did - I replied, "So, will you be telling them that I sent you two pages of original art, and $5, and you sent over nothing? Go right ahead." And there's several dozen more. Sad to say, eBay's 'new, fairer' feedback system is anything but fair. It allows buyers to bully the seller and extort money and goods with the safe knowledge that, as long as they buy, they'll always have a 100% feedback rating. EBay state that the new feedback policy is designed so that 'fair and accurate' feedback can be recorded, however we're not able to leave feedback which is either fair or accurate - all we can do is leave a positive recording. However a buyer, in this case our dress buyer, can leave feedback on the same day that the item arrives calling us "Scum" and liars and eBay refuse to remove it unless we provide a court order.

In these cases you can forget about asking eBay for assistance. To them a seller is a cash cow only and although they have links to report bad buyers, the reality is that they rarely, if ever, lift a finger to assist or intervene and the best you can hope for is a pre-programmed response. Police aren't of much use either. If I ran into a store and stole $400 worth of stock then they'd come after me. If I walked up to a shopkeeper and began to abuse them then I'd be in trouble. On-line it's a different kettle of fish. You can lodge a report but that's as far as it goes - it's merely a report. Police also rarely act upon eBay fraud.

Which brings me to two questions:
1] How do other people deal with such situations? In each case we've remained polite but firm in our dealings. In each case we've tolerated outright abuse and breaches of eBay policy (which eBay refuse to act upon). If someone walks into my shop in two months time and starts to act like that then I'll throw them out and call the cops. But on-line?
2] I'd be very, very interested to see if anyone has done a graph showing if eBay sales have been up or down since eBay introduced the policy removing the right of negative/neutral feedback by a seller. Very interested...

In the meantime we'll keep on selling, keep on being abused, but hopefully not being ripped off anymore. Please, share your stories, perhaps in the long run we can embarrass eBay into action, because we all know that they hate bad publicity, especially publicity that showcases the worst behavior of their 'safe community'.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Original Art Stories: Brian Kong's Stolen Images

I know I shouldn't be, but I'm always amazed at the levels, or depths really, that some people sink to in order to make a few bucks. What you're about to see is a case of an artist who is both a thief and also utterly ignorant about it.

Check out this baseball card. It's an original sketch card as drawn by artist Brian Kong. For those who might not know Brian or his work, here's the quick biography as displayed on the site of his dealer, Comic Art House: "Brian has worked on comics, trading cards & in advertising for the past 15 years. He has worked for companies such as Marvel, DC, MLB, NBA to name just a few. In the last 3 years, Brian has created over 10,000 original sketch cards (REALLY) for some of the most prolific properties including: MLB, X-MEN, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Heroes : seasons 1& 2, NBA, DEXTER, Marvel Masterpieces 1& 2, Iron Man Movie, Lord of the Rings: Masterpieces 2, Spiderman 3, Star Trek : TOS: seasons 2-3, Marilyn Monroe, Classic Movie Star Posters, Wizard of Oz 1 & 2 , The Complete Avengers,
DC: Legacy, & Frankenstein.

June 2009 will see the release of Brian's 25 card painted insert set for Topps ALLEN & GINTER brand, which features MLB's greatest moments. Being an avid baseball fan, this is one of his "dream " projects." That's a lot of work over the years and that work brings with it a degree of respect within the industry that Brian works in. Sadly that respect isn't always shared amongst those who would consider themselves to be Brian's peers.

This sketch card is currently on eBay, however it's not being sold by Brian, his art rep, nor is it Brian's work. Clearly it's Brian's image though, and this email that Brian has sent over will serve to explain a lot.

"Hey All, I'm in the mist of deadlines but I feel that this is an important subject to post.I got an email from a collector who brought this to my attention," says Brian. "I have already put in a complaint to ebay. It seems that there is a certain ebayer that goes by the name " morgan_cc "....I have occasionally come across some of his sketch card auctions in which he uses the Topps baseball sketch card borders and photographs and claim them to be his original 1/1 art.Well it seems that he has gone a little too far.

"This is wrong on so many levels...I just wanted to bring it to the attention of everyone, so that he does not continue doing this. To me it looks like he copied it on to another stock with very little (if any) artistic rendering...this guy is ruining all the hard work that us artists put in to creating original 1/1 artwork for the collectors & fans, by making these knockoffs."

Now this is where things get really funky. When contacted the 'artist' in question stated that, "Sure, I can make any sketch card I want. I have even spoken with Brian Kong today and he said it is o.k. as long as I show a picture of the back."

That statement, much like his art, is fraudulent. At that point Brian had not spoken to the 'artist', or vice-versa, and Brian has certainly not given anyone permission to copy his artwork and sell it, but there was an email exchange shortly after. After being alerted to the auction Brian contacted the 'artist' and advised that he wasn't happy with the sketch card and pointed out that the image was on an official Topps card, meaning that it carries with it certain copyright protection. The 'artists' reply was, "No one else on ebay seems to have a problem with the sketch cards that I make and sell. I have close to perfect ebay feedback. Sketch cards are just like paintings and no two are a like. My Albert Pujols Sketch Card has darker red and blue colors and I also added 3D drop shadows to the left and to the right of the image. The name on card is in Font: Mistral Size 12. Pujols face was colored with pink and light brown. I could go on and on about what I did to the sketch card differently. I worked about 5 hrs on the project. It will only sell for $20 - no big deal. If you want to talk further about it - I do not mind. Maybe one day Topps will hire me to make sketch cards and then I can stop selling on Ebay!"

Brian then followed it up, "This was brought to my attention by a few other collectors (who did mind, and do have a problem with it enough to email me). My whole point is this was my artwork that you took and are claiming it as your own. I have a problem with that. I took a pencil and drew & colored it from scratch...although the 1/1 is a factor, it is more the fact that it is an original hand drawn sketch card. If you are working for any of these companies they will not allow you to use other people's artwork. Doing a little photoshop work over someone else's work does not make it your own. In the professional world this is looked down upon and especially since you are not crediting the original artist. $20 is not a big deal, it is the principle....you are deceiving the public into thinking that you drew the card, you are also violating copyrights (by the way Topps owns the copyright for the artwork, even though I own the physical artwork)."

The 'artist' responded, "If anyone has a problem with the sketch cards that I sell I will refund there money but so far I have had no problems because I do very good artwork. The sketch cards I sell have my own 3d drop shadow style that I created and add to every sketch card I work on. I guess you can say I have my own sketch card style just like everyone else that is selling sketch cards on ebay. I currently do not work for any major baseball card companies. I like to design sketch cards as you can tell by my website and maybe one day I can move up from ebay. I am not violating any copyrights because sketch cards are just like paintings no two are a like. Even the words "Authentic Sketch Card" are to vague and can not be trademarked. I do not see a registered mark after the words "Authentic Sketch Card". If I was Topps I would have used something like "Topps Sketch Card" or "2009 Topps Sketch Card". I am sure in 2010 Topps will use something like that. The back of my sketch cards are glossy white with my signature and dated 2009 signifying its authenticity. I am not deceiving the public because I have my own sketch card style. I guess if you like I will add another photo of the back of the Albert Pujols Sketch Card I am selling. I think that is something extra I can do to show the differences between my sketch cards and Topps. I will add the photo of the back shortly. Hope that is O.K."

What the 'artist' doesn't seem to understand is that the practice of stealing art in such a manner is wrong on many levels. A quick look at his on-line gallery reveals several dozen such sketch cards however I have no idea how many feature images stolen from other artists and how many might be original. The phrase, "my own sketch card style" is probably the funniest thing this 'artist' writes, if only because if he does indeed have his own sketch card style then that style is clearly art theft. Nothing else in his image shows a style other than the artistic style of Brian Kong. He may well believe that he's not violating any copyrights, but the simple fact is if I record a version of She Loves You and claim that it's my own work then the copyright owners will soon shut me down.

There are ways to draw attention to yourself, as an artist, to gain professional work with various companies, however merely copying another artists work and attempting to pass it off as your own isn't one of them. I expect that if this 'artist' presented his cards to Topps in an attempt to get hired he might instead find himself slapped with a cease and desist letter. As it is Brian, along with a number of others, have reported this seller to both eBay and Topps. I await the end result with a certain interest, as his justifications about why he's doing this really won't wash when the lawyers begin to read his emails.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Potted Movie Review: Balibo

I don't often get seriously emotional at the movies, or if I do then it's generally one set emotion, sadness, rage, joy...however in sitting through Balibo I ran the gauntlet of several emotions, from frustration through to rage through to sorrow through to utter impotence. That six people could be murdered by the Indonesian militia during the invasion of East Timor in late 1975 staggers me, not to mention the over 180,000 Timorese that were also murdered, raped and tortured. That the murderers of both the Balibo Five and Roger East have often been named but never been held to account frankly disgusts me. A war crime is a war crime, but, as we're seeing even today, it's a difficult thing to prosecute a war crime when there's essential resources involved, such as oil.

I think every Australian over the age of 40 has at some point been aware of the Balibo Five, such was the public indignation over the years as more and more information came to hand. The men were journalists who were slaughtered in the line of their duty, that duty being the reporting and recording of the advancing Indonesian invasion, an invasion that was well underway before it was 'officially' recognised. The men weren't subversives, they clearly indicated that they were Australian journalists and were killed regardless, under the guise of being communists. Journalist Roger East set himself the task of finding out just what happened and was also murdered on the docks of Dili, despite it being common knowledge that he was also an Australian journalist. The Whitlam Government of the time knew what happened and ignored it outright, as did successive governments. It took images of Indonesians marching through the streets of Dili with severed heads on sticks for the Howard Government to finally act in 1999 when a ground force was sent to East Timor to assist in the liberation of the nation. Despite claims that the Indonesian militia were preparing for a fight, they'd withdrawn hours before the Australian military finally landed, over twenty years too late.

Robert Connolley has created one of the most impressive and powerful movies of it's kind. It's a movie that could only really be made independently, partially funded by actor Anthony LaPaglia. The movie is shot through the eyes of Roger East, as played brilliantly by LaPaglia (who, frankly, hasn't been this good in a film since Lantana) and follows his own personal journey into the heart of darkness of Timor in search of the truth of what happened to the Balibo Five. Using a combination of styles and film stock - the Roger East portions of the movie are shot with clear, high contrast film, the sections focusing on the Balibo Five are shot almost as a documentary using washed out film - Connolley builds the story to it's obvious conclusion.

The murders of the Balibo Five are dealt with in a very matter of fact way. There are no heroics, no desperate last stands, just five men running for their lives and being killed on the orders of the leader of the invading ground forces. There's nothing grand about it, just a sense of waste and disgust at the cowardice that was shown towards the journalists. The most impacting moment of the film, for me, was seeing Roger East being dragged to the docks, bloodied and beaten, hands tightly bound by wire and being forced to stand to be shot down in cold blood. This is based upon witness accounts of the actual event, East screamed obscenities, kicked and struggled as he was being dragged and when standing screamed, "I'm an Australian! I'm an Australian!" to no avail. As with the Balibo Five, Roger East's murder and murderers have gone unpunished for over thirty years.

I can't recommend this movie highly enough. It should be shown in schools as part of every Australian's education, it should be shown to anyone who even thinks that being a war-time correspondent might be a fun thing to do. See it before it leaves the big screens. I doubt that anyone would be able to sit through this film and not be touched by the events or feel strong emotions.

War does not breed heroes, it produces a new breed of coward. What happened in East Timor in 1975, through to 1999, should never have been allowed to happen. It should never have been sanction by successive Australian governments. And what happened to Roger East and the Balibo Five shouldn't be allowed to go unpunished.

Friday, August 14, 2009

This Weeks' Reading List: 14th August

God, what a week. Launched the Blaq Books blog, scoped out the store and began work on the bookshop. As such there wasn't as much time left for reading, but I did get a few things in and finished. I know I'm early, but I'm off to see the movie Balibo this evening and we've a heavy weekend lined up, so I might not have the time to write this tomorrow.

What did I finish this week?

MAGAZINES:
Back Issue #35. Villains issue. Interesting, albeit too brief, Pro-To-Pro interview with Mike Zeck and J.M. DeMatties about Kravens Last Hunt. J.M. is a prince and I've yet to find anyone who doesn't like him. Other than that the usual BI contents, articles that I generally skim and a decent Mike Vosburg interview.

Alter Ego #88. Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson issue. Interesting stuff as Wheeler-Nicholson's family members are interviewed for their memories about the man who formed DC Comics. Such a shame to discover that DC has written Wheeler-Nicholson out of their official history, but then this is a company that keeps up the lie that Bob Kane created Batman on his own. A back-up interview with Win Mortimer's wife is also an interesting read.

Jack Kirby Collector #53. You know, for a publisher that'd like to see me hung in effigy on a daily basis, I do buy a lot of their product. No hard feelings on my end. This issue of the JKC focuses on the Stan Lee-Jack Kirby collaborations, much to the overall disgust of a lot of the members of the Jack Kirby Yahoo mailing list. Sadly a section that initially appears to be an interesting look at the many inkers of Kirby at Marvel is nothing more than an exercise in cut 'n paste from Wikipedia (oh, the IRONY of it all - those who know will understand). Highlights include an interview with Stan Lee in which Stan, delightfully, forgets vital information and a damned decent article by Ger Apeldorn. Nice, big pictures, but, and this might just be me, some of them look just too far down, generation wise, to have the same impact and power as the original comic books do. Oh well.

BOOKS:
Brian Cronin: Was Superman A Spy? Disclosure time: I've fed Brian a few stories over the years and I am mentioned in the 'Thanks' section of the book. Having said that I bought this book off eBay - no comp copy for me. Interesting book, focusing on some of my favourite things - stories behind the stories and gossip. Brian does a great job with his Urban Myths Revealed blog and this collection of the best of them should be on everyone's bookshelves. Oh, and Brian, I know what really happened with the missing Warlock...but I'm not allowed to tell.

Geoff Slattery: The Brownlow - A Tribute To The Greats Of Australian Football. A damned good collection of articles and interviews with Brownlow medal winners from 1924 through to 2002. Some good insights, especially with the view of the sale of the medal itself by some of the winners. Almost all the winners state that they'd rather a Premiership medal over the Brownlow, including the repeat winners. And frankly who wouldn't? Nathan Buckley might have gotten a Brownlow, Robert Harvey won two but I expect that they'd give them all up to be Mark Bickley, a dual premiership captain. That's the ultimate medal.

Mike Coleman & Ken Edwards: Eddie Gilbert. God love Eddie Gilbert, the best cricket player you've never heard of. Eddie was an insanely fast bowler - how fast? The first time Bradman faced him he near killed him and did three things to him in the space of four balls - the first being to put him on his arse, the second was to knock his bat out of his hands - the only time that ever happened - and the third was to dismiss the master for a duck. Bradman spent a lot of his career ducking Gilbert after that. Gilbert was so fast that the 1932-33 English touring team - the infamous Bodyline side - refused to play against him. Gilbert never played for Australia though, why? Because he was an Aboriginal. Gilbert played in a era of racism and ignorance but broke through those barriers by sheer force of will and talent. What happened to him though, and how he was treated, was shameful. This book should be read by all Australians.

ON THE READING LIST THIS WEEK
Still contains...
Lee Hale & Richard D Neely: Behind The Scenes Of The Dean Martin Show
Maxine Marx: Growing Up With Chico.
Bruce Beresford: Josh Hartnett Definitely Wants To Do This...
Kevin Brownlow: Behind The Mask Of Innocence - Sex, Violence, Prejudice, Crime: Films Of Social Conscience In The Silent Era
Paul Buhle & Dave Wagner: Hide In Plain Sight - The Hollywood Blacklistees In Film & Television 1950 - 2002

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Comics You'll Never See: Jim Starlin's Captain Marvel

What you're looking at is a homage to the classic Jim Starlin Captain Marvel #29 cover image, as drawn by, you guessed it, Jim Starlin! Looks damned good doesn't it? I bought it early last year and was told, in confidence, that it wasn't a mere sketch, but the main image for the first issue cover for an abandoned Captain Marvel series. A the time I was told the story but frustratingly enough I wasn't at liberty to share the details. Now that Jim has left DC all can be revealed.

Jim Starlin began working at DC in the late 1970s, but came into his own with a stellar run on Batman in the 1980s, culminating in the legendary A Death In The Family storyline, which saw the second Robin killed by the Joker. Along the way he paired up with Bernie Wrightson to create one of the more interesting post-Dark Knight Batman series, The Cult, and the aptly titled The Weird. In 1989 Starlin left DC and returned a decade later for a handful of projects before leaving once more. Flash forward nine years and in 2007 Starlin was running fairly hot over at DC with the relaunched Mystery In Space, Death Of The New Gods, the Rann-Thangar War and another relaunch, Strange Adventures.

In between these projects Starlin began work on yet another title, Captain Marvel. It made sense, Starlin had made his name at Marvel with Captain Marvel and Warlock and in doing so had established himself as one of the finest writer/artists to emerge from the 1970s, indeed he's been able to maintain that quality for three decades now. I think that, deep down, Starlin writing and drawing Captain Marvel for DC was always an obvious choice, if only for the name value alone.

So what happened and why haven't you seen it? DC canned the series before it got started. Says Jim, "It got canceled in midstream when the upcoming Captain Marvel movie went into production. It was felt that my version was too radical a departure from the original concept." These pages are all that remain from the series, and as was told to me over a year ago, that little sketch wasn't a sketch, it's actually the cover image for Captain Marvel #1, with the background being placed in via computer at a later date.

Sadly though, with Jim Starlin and Captain Marvel some things just aren't meant to be. Until then, with Jim's permission, enjoy the remaining pages! And just for comparism, I've included a scan of the original art for Captain Marvel #29, many thanks to Len Callo, who owns the original cover art to Captain Marvel #29. Talk about jealousy defined!













Remembering Jim Mooney

Today is always a bit of a bittersweet day for me because it's the day where I always remember the birthday of Jim Mooney. Today would have been cause for celebration as he would have turned 90 - a milestone in anyone's book. Sadly Marvel and most other people are busily celebrating the passing of others and appear to not be bothered with someone such as Mooney, who began drawing comic books a mere 18 months after the launch of Action Comics #1, worked at DC from the 1940s through to the late 1960s, returned to Marvel in 1968 and remained there until the early 1990s and drew his last comic towards the turn of the last century. In doing all of this Mooney helped build the bedrock upon which other men built their own careers on, so I thought I'd help fill the void a bit and remind people that, yes, artistic giants such as Mooney did walk upon this planet and they are remembered and are still appreciated.

In the past I've written a lot about Jim Mooney and it still bothers me that I can't find a publisher to finally publish his biography, but hopefully, one day, things will change. If nothing else Mooney certainly deserves to have his story out there. Until then enjoy the art shown here (which isn't anywhere near representative of the incredible output that Mooney produced), click on the link above to read more about Jim Mooney and raise a glass to celebrate the birth of a true legend in the comic book world.
















Saturday, August 08, 2009

This Weeks' Reading List: 6th August

This week was spent writing a bit and working on a super secret project, which, amazingly enough, is coming to fruition. If it all continues to rum smoothly then expect to see a huge announcement. Well, huge for us anyway and it could very well benefit local authors, hell, ANY author who wants to see an outlet for their own publications. Watch this space for more details as they arise.

Reading wise I spent a bit of time finishing off half and 3/4 read books, just to get them out of the way. This involved a speed read of what came before to refresh my memory and then a normal (normal for me) read to the finish line.

What did I finish this week?

S.P. Mackenzie: The Colditz Myth. See last week's entry for the general thoughts. It seems life in WWII POW camps was less like Stalag 13 and more like Stalag 17 - and even that's downplaying it. The best bit, in my view, was learning that even while banged up the officers managed to send anti-Hitler propaganda into the neighbouring towns by tying messages onto wasps and bees and letting them loose. Brilliant! The whole 'Tally Ho!' myth of Allied soldiers in these camps is dismissed by this read. If you have an interest then seek it out. Be warned, it's not an easy book to read.

Peter Wilmoth: Glad All Over - The Countdown Years 1974-1987. Americans rave about American Bandstand and Soul Train. The English rave about Top of The Pops. The French, well;, who cares? What people aren't aware is that Australia had a TV music show that was easily the equal, if not superior to all of those shows (based upon the amount of the formers that I've seen) in Countdown. For easily a decade Countdown dominated the music industry in Australia and looking back it's easy to see the reasons why - it appealed to all people. Where a show like Sounds appealed to young adults, Music Express appealed to the kid and Rock Arena appealed to the alternate crowd, Countdown managed to get all of those crowds and keep them. Countdown showed Australia the glory of Skyhooks, the madness of Iggy Pop, the brutality of a pissed off Cold Chisel and much more. Despite some factual and name errors (Kiss didn't tour Australia in 1976, or 1981 - the author gets it wrong twice and some names are mis-spelt) this book is a stunning overview of an era in Australian music that will probably not be replicated. Molly Meldrum should be knighted for his services to the Australian music scene - imagine his speech! I'm sure he'd love to meet Prince Charles' mum.

Ross Coulthart & Duncan McNabb: Dead Man Running - An Insiders Story On One Of The World's Most Feared Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs...The Bandidos. What can you say? I take a lot of these books with a grain of the proverbial. I got through this in one two hour sitting, it's lightweight and as you'd expect the subject manages to maintain his innocence. The standard story, "I was in the gang but I got out and they did nasty stuff but I didn't inhale." Basically the subject of the story, one Steve Utah, arranged security for the gang and decided to get further involved and *shock and horror* discovered that the Bandidos like to have sex with young women (around 17-18 years old), take drugs and commit crime. And, even more amazing, once he turned against them and gave evidence to the police, they told him they'd kill him. Who'd have thunk it, other than Utah who seems genuinely surprised at the latter turn of events. A better read, for this stuff, is the brilliant Angels Of Death by William Marsden and Julian Sher. Find that, read it and prepare to be amazed.

Bill Graham & Robert Greenfield: Bill Graham Presents - My Life Inside Rock & Out. Stunningly good book. Through the use of first hand comments, vintage interviews and observations Greenfield creates a vivid picture of the life that was Bill Graham. Great sections on the legendary Led Zeppelin Oakland concert (you know the one), Live Aid, the Rolling Stones and more. He wasn't always happy, was our Bill, but he was fair. Sometimes.

Michael Streissguth: Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison - The Making Of A Masterpiece. A slim volume but packed the gills with great information. Streissguth has stripped away the fat to present the meat of events leading up to, during and after the concerts that resulted in the landmark album, Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison. The book manages to dispel a few myths along the way, but the even result is a picture that'll only increase anyone's admiration for Cash. I could care less if he didn't shoot a man in Reno, just to watch him die. When he sang it, you believed it. It was the singer, not the song...

ON THE READING LIST THIS WEEK
Lee Hale & Richard D Neely: Behind The Scenes Of The Dean Martin Show
Mike Coleman & Ken Edwards: Eddie Gilbert
Maxine Marx: Growing Up With Chico
Still contains...
Bruce Beresford: Josh Hartnett Definitely Wants To Do This...
Kevin Brownlow: Behind The Mask Of Innocence - Sex, Violence, Prejudice, Crime: Films Of Social Conscience In The Silent Era
Paul Buhle & Dave Wagner: Hide In Plain Sight - The Hollywood Blacklistees In Film & Television 1950 - 2002

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Noel Coward In Australia

Believe it or not Noel Coward visited Australia and New Zealand once and here's the proof of that visit. This double sided card was issued as a souvenir of Coward's appearance in Melbourne on the 28th November, 1940. I have no idea how many of these exist these days, nor it's worth but I expect that the numbers aren't very high in both departments.

As a souvenir it's a nice little item, postcard size and I'd expect somewhat desirable to Coward collectors - and yes, I expect that those people are out there. I've always said that people collect anything, including barbed wire.

Once Coward left Australia he wrote a book, collecting his broadcasts. Titled 'Australia Visited' and published by Heinemann (London) 1940. Before anyone asks, nope I don't have it, yet, but considering that Coward's speeches still amuse me, I'll be looking for a copy very shortly.

Marie Ney and Noel Coward, in Australia, 1940. An acclaimed at the time, but now largely forgotten, actress, Ney toured the country in late 1940/early 1941 and performed Coward's play 'Private Lives' in Sydney in February 1941.

Hal Thompson, Marie Ney and Noel Coward.

Alec Coppel, Marie Ney and Noel Coward. Coppel wrote several films and worked with Hitchcock, notably as the screenwriter of the classic Vertigo.

Monday, August 03, 2009

From 350,000 To Zero: The 'Lost' Beatle - Jimmy Nicol

Amazing isn't it? When the Beatles played Australia for the only time in 1964 Ringo was out with an illness, so in stepped drummer Jimmy Nicol. Jimmy was with the band when they touched down in Sydney to a torrential downpour, not that it stopped an estimated 1,000 fans plus a handful of journos from coming out to see them as they did a lap of the airport in the teeming rain.

From there the band flew to Adelaide where an estimated 350,000 people wagged school, skipped work and generally took the day off just to see them - that was around 1/3 of the total population of South Australia at the time. It remains probably THE largest, crowd to turn out to see the band. George Harrison and Paul McCartney always commented on the size of the crowd, even thirty years after the event. Jimmy was there...amongst the adulation and was turned out to greet the masses of Lunchtime O'Boozes all of whom wanted a quick soundbite.

In Adelaide Jimmy played four concerts, one of which was filmed and is proof that he was a fairly decent drummer.

This was the scene the day after the band arrived in Melbourne. Ringo was back on board, Jimmy was given a gold watch, a cheque and a lift to the airport and dumped there with a ticket, forever destined to become another question in Beatles Trivial Pursuit.

From 350,000 people to one lone photo-journo who probably was there on a fluke. No wonder Jimmy became a recluse - for ten days he was part of what's generally remembered as being the biggest act on the planet to being...

Saturday, August 01, 2009

This Weeks' Reading List: 1st August

It's been a very busy week. Fights with the workplace, some pressures, stresses and an on-going battle with depression has seen my reading limited but on the upside I have completely emptied the storage unit and thrown out reams of useless crap and, best of all, unpacked several hundred books and placed them upon the shelves. Excellent!

What did I finish this week?
King Of Comedy: The Life & Art Of Jerry Lewis by Shawn Levy. I like Levy's style of writing, his book on the Rat Pack is one of my all time favourites and this book is greatly assisted by the same informative, yet entertaining style of reporting. There's stuff in here that I never knew about Lewis, and to be honest, he's never been one of my favourite comedians (Marx Brothers boy that I always was) yet this has caused me to reconsider my appraisals of the man. Levy shows that Lewis, like most comedians, has a definite dark side, which erupted during the writing of the book, as the postscript shows, as Lewis began to attack Levy for slights that were, for the most part, totally imagined.

First Photographs by Gail Buckland. Pretty much what the title says the book delivers. Piles of early and interesting photographs of all kinds of topics. The photo of Ruth Synder's execution is still a chilling image, even after eighty years.

The World Of Mitchell by Phil Birnbaum. An overview of the career of editorial cartoonist Bill Mitchell. This book will mean absolutely nothing to:
1] anyone under the age of 40 and
2] anyone who's never lived in Australia. Thus this book has limited appeal. Like the bulk of such books, the editorial cartoons presented make no sense unless you're aware of the situation surrounding them, and some, in hindsight, appear to be either silly or mean spirited. Damned good artist though.

Rockwell On Rockwell: How I Make A Picture by Norman Rockwell. I got this book, and the next one listed, for peanuts from a local market. Colour me happy. Brilliant book by Rockwell showing the techniques that the artist used to create some of his most memorable images. I expect that artists of today could do worse than to try and track a copy of this sucker down.

Norman Rockwell & The Saturday Evening Post: The Early Years by Norman Rockwell. See the recurring pattern here? A beautifully presented book, large in format and as such able to showcase of the earlier Rockwell covers. I know a lot of art aficionados look down on Rockwell, but I like the stuff. Reading it I couldn't help but wonder if there's a book out there showcasing my other favourite painter: Norman Mingo...

The Draft by Emma Quayle. As mentioned last week, this was finished an hour after I finished my entry. See last week's entry for an more in-depth report.

READING AT THE MOMENT
S.P. Mackenzie: The Colditz Myth. Holy crap!! Not your usual WWII POW book, not that light and breezy, but it is showing, by use of detailed research, that a lot of what we've been lead to believe about WWII POW life might not be all that it appears. Not an easy book to read, but rich in detail and scope. Halfway through it, ETA of finishing is sometime Monday.

ON THE READING LIST THIS WEEK
Bruce Beresford: Josh Hartnett Definitely Wants To Do This...
Kevin Brownlow: Behind The Mask Of Innocence - Sex, Violence, Prejudice, Crime: Films Of Social Conscience In The Silent Era
Paul Buhle & Dave Wagner: Hide In Plain Sight - The Hollywood Blacklistees In Film & Television 1950 - 2002

I'm also doing some serious research into a potential new book that I want to write. This has also seen a lot of reading time taken up with other subjects. As such if I wasn't researching I'd have finished another two books or so, but if Project #5 (as I'm calling it) takes off it'll all be worth it. Watch this space.

Monday, July 27, 2009

This Weeks' Reading List: 25th July

This is proving to be somewhat popular amongst a small group of pain sufferers and insomniacs on Facebook, so I thought I'd port it over to here each week. This is the 3rd entry in the Reading List, but you can read the others here. The basic premise is that I read a lot and offer up my thoughts on books, magazines and more that I've read in the previous seven days. Simple as that really. I'm also open to suggestions for what to read, and debate is always healthy. Bear in mind though, these are my own personal views and opinions, and all the material here I've bought, either new or second hand. Nothing has been given to me, free, to review, and if it were I'd be sure to say.

What did I finish this week?

Patrick Myler: Ring Of Hate - see last weeks entry for the details on that. I doubt that there'll be another book as detailed, or an interesting, about Louis and Schemling in the future. Track it down and read it, even if you're not a fan of boxing it's a cracking read about an era.

The Marvelous Party by Stephanie Clifford-Smith. The biography of Bernard King. He was a cook. He was an acid tongued TV personality. He was gay. Nothing new to see here, but the recipes included look damned tasty indeed. Light and breezy.

Glued To The Set by Steven D Stark. As predicted this 'definitive' guide to the '60 Television Shows and Events that Made Us Who We Are Today' is totally focused on the USA. If you live in America then it'll be a good read, otherwise it's curiosity value only. Frankly the 60 shows seemed a bit of a reach to me. I can accept MASH, Roots, Hill Street Blues and the obvious, but seriously, outside of America who cares for Bob Newhart or Barbara Walters? And Star Trek is lumped into the 1980s - that's the original series kiddies.

Diva: The Live Of Marcia Hines by Karen Dewey. Yep, I digest a lot of crap, but the best part is that books like these can be read in one sitting lasting no more than two hours at best. Sadly no in depth reporting about the events surrounding Marcia's daughter, Deni, shooting the nuts off Kirk Pengilly.

Geri Halliwell Just For The Record by Geri Halliwell. Believe this or not, but this book was far more entertaining than Marcia Hines. A fairly good read, if you can get yourself past the subject matter. Nice dirt on the Spice Girls, but then you know that there's more mud to sling but Geri, even then, was holding out for the reunion. Did she or did she not become a teapot for George Michael and his boyfriend? She ain't saying, but she's certainly hinting. Another quick read, 2 and a half hours.

I'm Free: The Complete Are You Being Served? by Richard Webber. Found this one during a clean out and with the deaths of Wendy Richard, Mollie Sugden and John "Inside Leg" Inman I thought I'd give it a shot. Much like the show, lightweight but funny in places. In case anyone is even remotely wondering about John Inman's sexuality, check out this photo on page 66 and wonder no more. Mind you I can't help but notice that, even back then, 'resident sexpot' Wendy Richard had the teeth of a greyhound - yellow, rotten and sharp in places. Poor thing, she didn't age well.

Marvel Omnibus: Captain Britain by Alan Davis, Jamie Delano and Alan Moore et al. BRILLIANT! For too long I've had to rely upon my old UK reprints to read this stuff. Marvel did put out the Moore scripted stories, naturally because anything with the name ALAN MOORE on the cover will sell a billion copies, even if it were his shopping list (probably especially if it were his shopping list) but this covers all of the Alan Davis stories and that's worth the purchase price alone ($160-180 here in Australia against a US cover price of $99, so it ain't cheap, but then you do have over 650 pages). This is one time that Marvel have gotten it right, by engaging the services of Davis for art restoration, as opposed to using uncredited freelance hacks. Loads of bonus material, the only quibbles: I have a far better condition copy of Captain Britain #1 as shown on page 602, if only they'd asked and the two Captain America stories are vile - not sure who's supposed to be them, but it ain't the same character from the rest of the book. Still, always good to see Paul Neary's artwork. With the recently announced purchase of Miracleman/Marvelman by Marvel, can an Omnibus of that material be far behind? Be still my beating heart!

Hollywood Confidential by Coral Amende. More pap, but great photos. I had to hide this one because I know Kat will want a read, and rightly so. Rumours and outright slander and lies are always an entertaining diversion in the little room, if you get my drift.

And a pile of Mojo and Q Magazine articles. I like those, they usually take 20 minutes to read and sometimes you learn something...

ON THE READING LIST THIS WEEK

The Draft by Emma Quayle. An engrossing look at the AFL draft process. Quayle follows the fortunes of a few young lads, Trent Cotchin being but one, and sees how they cope with the pressure of being a high draft pick. I'm almost finished this one, in fact I expect to finish it before lunch today. Damned good, but the interesting aspect is the players that they don't cover, and the discovery that the Crows might have gotten the deal of the century with Patrick Dangerfield...

Dark Lover: The Life And Death Of Rudolph Valentino by Emily W Leider. It's been off and on the list for over a month now, but I just can't get into it. I'll try again.

After Capone: The Life And World Of Chicago Mob Boss Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti by Mars Eghigian Jr. Massive volume, I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into it.

Plus a pile of books I found after raiding the storage unit - another raid is planned for early this coming week. Now if anyone is actually reading this and wants me to scan covers then by all means, leave a comment and I will.

Seeya in seven or so!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Happy 50th Birthday Trevor Von Eeden

Who’s birthday is it today? Well there’s always Alexandre Dumas, Amelia Earhart, Wonder Woman herself: Lynda Carter and J-Lo, but the one that counts for me is none other than Trevor Von Eeden, who turns 50 today - the 24th of July, 2009. There’s easily fifty good reasons why Trevor Von Eeden is a giant amongst comic book artists, but for the sake of space, I’ll list five big ones.

5: INTEGRITY. Anyone who knows Trevor knows that there’s one thing you cannot question – his integrity. When Trevor is right then he’s right. He’ll listen to another point of view, but ultimately he never looks backwards when he makes a decision – his focus is always on moving forward, and to that end he’s willing to sacrifice to reach his goals. Anyone who knows what Trevor has been through in the past few months knows what I mean. Trevor would rather work as a stockist than compromise his vision. I’m just as impressed by the jobs he’s turned down for his own, valid, reasons, and that includes his turning down Frank Miller’s offer for Trevor to draw Batman – Year One. To turn your back on that shows a lot of fortitude, and Trevor owns more of that than most armies.

You can’t buy Trevor, nor can you hire him for a while. If he doesn’t believe in the project then he’ll simply pass. You have to admire that, I know I do.

4: PERSISTANCE. Trevor is like the Terminator – he just doesn’t give up. If Trevor is right then he’ll keep going and politely, but firmly, put his views forward and walk away. If he doesn’t get the answer that he expects then he sticks with it. In an industry full of people who just give up because things are too hard, Trevor ranks up there with Alan Moore for integrity and persistence.

There's an expression amongst Australians - the measure of a man is judged on if you'd want them 'in the trenches' with you. I'd have Trevor alongside me anyday of the week, and twice on weekends.

3: ARTISTIC SKILLS. I have to say, if you know the name Trevor Von Eeden then you don’t need me to tell how good he is an artist. This is a guy who is totally self-taught. One look at his school days sketchbooks will tell you how damned good he was at an early age. He broke into mainstream comic books by co-creating and drawing Black Lightning at the age of seventeen. No child prodigy was Trevor, he showed artistic expression and storytelling that artists twice his age had yet to master. Not one to sit back and rest on his laurels, Trevor impressed readers with each and every job he did by allowing himself to continually move forward and improve. Trevor didn’t reach a plateau and remain there, nor did he deteriorate. Trevor became one of the most influential Batman artists of the early to mid 1980s and, given a chance, could easily return to the title and show the so called ‘young guns’ just how it’s all done.

His pencil work is incredibly detailed. It’s been a common topic between us, Trevor will mention how a job was ruined by an inker, he’ll show me the pencils and I’ll express utter amazement how any job he pencilled could be ruined in the inking process as everything is there on the page. No half lines, no sketchy drawings, no circles with three dots and a line for a head and face. I believe that anyone could successfully ink Trevor’s pencils, including a non-artist such as myself. Still, if there’s ever been an argument for printing straight from the pencils, it’s Trevor Von Eeden.

2: CREATIVITY. Three words: The Original Johnson. Trevor took an almost forgotten boxer, certainly one who was forgotten by the public at large and made his life story an epic. Hopefully we’ll see the entire story in print very shortly.

Trevor’s creativity ties into his artistic skills. Look at his Batman Annual, his Thriller work – hell, look at anything he’s done and see how creative it all is. I’ve seen scripts given to Trevor that simply say, in parts, “Trevor, just go nuts here.” There’s a lot of trust between a writer and an artist for such a direction to be given as the artist is handing over their own particular vision to an artist that they fully trust not to let them down. And frankly, I can’t think of one bad job that Trevor has done, nor any writer that he’s let down. Most artists wake up once a month with the ideas that Trevor has in his head each week. From commissions and beyond, Trevor just makes his art constantly interesting. He draws his influences from all sources around him, be it music as such as Prince, through to martial artists like Bruce Lee. it all goes into the melting pot and out comes some amazing art.

1: THE MAN. I’ve always liked Trevor. Much like me he operates from a viewpoint of if he likes you then he likes you, if he doesn’t then the boat sails next Tuesday, see you next time. He’s very warm, genuine, open with his praise and generous. Trevor has a way about him that you rarely see. He has the best qualities that you expect to find in a man, he’s intelligent, talented and damned if he’s not that bad looking. If I were a woman I’d be chasing him, hell, I’d even consider it now! Conversations with Trevor are, to me, like conversations with Alan Weiss, long, entertaining, never boring and stimulating.

His approach to the world never ceases to impress me. He doesn’t agonise over things that he has no control over, the same as he doesn’t look back and regret. If it’s done, then it’s done. Move onwards and upwards. I envy that. He doesn’t forget slights and when things have gone wrong, but he doesn’t sit there brooding over it all either. Again, I envy that, and I’ve often wondered how he manages to do it, but do it he does. This is a guy who stared down the face of racism within the comic book industry and broke through it. A lot of people owe a debt of gratitude to Trevor, for work that they know about and a lot of things that they don’t. There’s far more to Trevor than he being a mere artist.

Trevor, for decades you’ve given the world of comic books some of the finest examples of art that’s been published. May many, many more projects come from your pencil to delight and thrill the comic book and art worlds for decades to come. Take a bow brother, you’ve earned it.












Tuesday, July 21, 2009

And Speaking Of Dr Who...Room With A Deja View!

Generally I don't do reviews, but in some cases I tend to make an exception or two - this is one of those cases.

Rich Johnson, he of Bleeding Cool fame, sent me his latest offering, Dr Who: Room With A Deja View, and asked what I thought of it. I'll get to those thoughts in a second, but I feel it might be a good idea to have Rich set it up.

"It's a story that uses time travel in the actual structure of the comic itself," says Rich, "which can make it intentionally hard to read as a comic (I'm trying to get the reader to work a little).

"One trick is that, just as the TV show, blue means backwards in time, red means forwards, and the colours of the gutters reflect that. Basically one specific chunk of the book reads better forwards than back. But hey, we all read manga now, should be something fairly easy to work out."

Confused? Try reading it without knowing the trick.

The story itself would be interesting and entertaining without the backwards gimmick, which can be seen to great effect in the page shown here, the gimmick enhances the experience. Read the page like you normally would, then read it from the bottom to the top - it all makes sense. On first view the book is hard to read and is fairly stop-start, but once you get used to reading the blue pages in reverse, and the red pages (trust me, it'll make sense when you see it) normally the story comes out as being bloody good. Loads of Doctors (you'll have to read it to find out), the TARDIS gets multiple showings, the comic makes the reader both work and think and the whole package is worthy of purchase - I know I'm sold.

The concept of a shifting, non-linear time story is just too perfect for words, but often under-utilized for the character of Dr Who. The time shifts and execution reminded me, in a small way, of the time shifts in the classic episode Blink. The art is of a high standard, frankly I've seen far worse in more mainstream comics this week alone. If there is a quibble then it'd be that the depiction of David Tennant is a bit off in places, but hey, you want picture perfect, buy a photo.

I'd buy it, and I will. Frankly I'd say that if you're a fan of Dr Who then this, as a stand alone story, will probably make you as happy as you're going to get before the last of the specials appear on the screen.

The 11th Doctor

I'm dead sure that these images have done the rounds, but hey - I'll repost 'em. These are some of the first pictures of Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor and Karen Gillan who plays his companion Amy Pond. It could be my imagination, but other than looking a little too young to be playing the Doctor, doesn't Matt Smith look a little too much like the Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, in the fashion stakes?

You decide, or not. Either way I'll be watching the new series, but I'm not sure how I'll take the new Doctor, but a lot of that will be down to the bloody brilliant jobs that Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant have done over the past few years.

Until then have a peek at the remaining two photos and fingers crossed!


Monday, July 20, 2009

The Unseen Peanuts

Well I'm not exactly sure I'd still call this the 'Unseen Peanuts' (and I know, I know, I just did) but it's certainly not a commonly seen Peanuts strip and it's one that I doubt will make it into the excellent Fantagraphics series The Complete Peanuts.

This strip was commissioned for the (New York) Giants Magazine, issue #4, which came out sometime in 1986. The strip is a direct reference to the baseball team and I expect that it was warmly received. I've always found it remarkable that there's probably plenty of other strips such as this, from Schulz, that appeared in publications all over the planet but more than likely won't be collected in the reprint series. It's a shame really, as it could make for an excellent extra volume - perhaps one of strips and other illustrations, such as toy design, boxes, cards, post cards - you name it, Schulz drew it.

In the meantime, from my scanner to your eyes, enjoy!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Welcoming Home Old Pals: Roger Daltrey

Back in the 1990s I used to be a semi-serious autograph hound. I'd stake out hotels and venues and as such I managed to get some amazing signatures, some of which I kept, some I sold and some one of my ex-girlfriends simply stole. There were a few gems in the lot, I still have my signed Nick Cave and Bruce Springsteen albums, along with items signed by David Bowie, R.E.M., Sting, Olivia Newton John(!), Ian Dury, Billy Joel and a host of others. What did I sell? Signed posters and items by Deep Purple, Garbage, Alanis Morrisette, Live, Kiss, Mick Jagger, Bryan Ferry, Pearl Jam, Johnny Cash, U2, The Cure, Jeff Buckley and more than I can remember - basically every major act that passed through Adelaide between 1995 and 2000 I got an autograph from. I do regret selling some of them, but, to be brutally honest the 1990s were a very dark time for me and frankly getting those items were a cheap means to buy food and pay rent. More than once it came down to keeping the electricity connected or keeping that Michael Jackson signed press kit and when it did Jackson lost out.

One of my pals, Paul, had a shop here between the years of around 1995 through to 2001 and he was the one who I used to sell to on a regular basis. He paid good prices as he knew that each and every signature was obtained in person, by me, so they were 100% authentic. Stupidly I never had a camera to record some of these encounters, but live and learn. There were a few items I really regretted selling though and I've always wished that I could get them back, so imagine my surprise when I saw this one on the weekend. The dealer in question had this 1975 Films & Filming magazine, signed by Roger Daltrey on the cover. I got excited because this was one of the items that I really regretted parting with back in 2000, shortly after I got it done in Adelaide. The occasion was the Great Rock Symphony which hit Adelaide in February of 2000 and featured Alice Cooper, Daltrey, Peter Frampton, Billy Thorpe, Paul Rogers and many more. I got all but Cooper, which wasn't an issue as I'd already gotten that one years ago. Out of them all the Daltrey was the best, indeed other Daltrey signatures done at the same time look pale in comparison to this one and Roger was more than happy to sign it, commenting as he did that it wasn't, "...another fookin' 'Oo album." Glad to help Roger!

I don't do the autograph thing anymore - last one was Bowie back in 2004 and that was because it was David Bowie - mainly because I got sick of seeing people running around like idiots trying to get a signature from some D-Grade celebrity. I remember one sad bastard who missed the birth of his only child, his daughter, because he wanted to get a Cliff Richard signature - and he failed at that. I used to watch another overweight moron who took great delight in having a restraining order sworn out against him for stalking by Molly Ringwald - I mean MOLLY RINGWALD?? The same fat wanker again took great delight in being publicly humiliated by Status Quo on radio when they recounted his antics and referred to him as Jabba The Hutt. My skin would crawl seeing old men, and I mean guys in their 50s, running after teenage girls and berating them into signing photos. That wasn't me, if someone said no I generally walked off, unless they picked a fight, like Gavin Rossdale and some dickhead from Blur. More often than not I'd not bother going to the usual haunts and then I finally just gave up. I'm not the badgering type.

I can't remember why I sold this magazine back in 2000, I guess I needed the money, but as soon as I saw it on sale on the weekend, for $50 no less, I swooped on it and am happy to have it back at home. It's not for sale, I can buy my own food these days and the electricity isn't in danger of being cut off and my rent is up to date. Now to source a few other autographs from the same era...

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

The Return Of Frenchy: The Evil Clown!

Finally - it's here. Be afraid, be very, very afraid. After the longest wait I can think of, just as long as the wait for DC to finally collect all of Alan Grant & Norm Breyfogle's Batman work into trade paperbacks (still hasn't happened), Nick Bakay and Alan Kupperberg's utterly hilarious and completely profane series of Frenchy The Evil Clown, originally published in the pages of National Lampoon is finally coming.

Alan recently emailed to say, "The material is all finished, except for the color. But we've had a Lulu edition, an Ashcan edition published. You can check out parts of the book by going to this link."

Alan and I spoke about his work on Frenchy back in 2007 in a long ranging interview, which will also be featured in the book. Here's the introduction that I wrote back then:

Evil Clown Comics is living proof that everyone has a darker side than we might expect. Or is it the opposite? I'm not sure. What I do know is that it's hard to reconcile the artist of such quaint titles as Spider-Man, Avengers, Thor and the like drawing material the like of what appeared in Evil Clown comics.

Frenchy, The Evil Clown, was the brainchild of Nick Bakay, the man who went on to become better known as the voice of Salem, Sabrina The Teenage Witch's talking black cat (and if that doesn't spin you out then check out the link - yep, ole Salem has his own web-site! And people think I'm odd...). Appearing in the pages of National Lampoon, Evil Clown Comics soon became a cult, yet it was over all too quickly. Gross, offensive, disgusting and confronting, Evil Clown was everything that mainstream comics could never be, and yet it wasn't that far removed from Alan Kupperberg's previous clown comic, Marvel Comics Obnoxio The Clown. The main difference was that what Obnoxio hinted at, Frenchy, the Evil Clown, did, in full glory and in glorious black and white.

For years now Evil Clown has existed only in it's original form, in the original magazines, and only available if you were willing to dig through back issues when they appeared. That's all about to change with a collected volume of Evil Clown comics being planned for the near future. The new volume not only collects the original material, but will have two new, previously unseen stories by Bakay and Kupperberg, new artwork and, best of all, new colouring by the incredibly talented Tom Ziuko. This will be an essential item for the bookshelves and an ideal present for both grandparents and the kids as it'll provide hours of entertainment and enjoyment for all. Then again, perhaps not. One thing is for sure, once you read Evil Clown Comics, you'll never look at clowns in the same way again.

Go and order a copy - or wait for the final version to appear - all going well it should be solicited via Diamond and you'll be able to order it through your local comic book store, but if that doesn't happen, then buy on-line - you'll not regret it and remember, this material has never been collected in the one place before.


Meanwhile Alan hasn't been sitting idle waiting for something to happen - he's been as busy as he can be drawing commissions for people. As you can see here, Alan hasn't lost any of his drawing ability and still provides a lot of bang for your buck, is very affordable and delivers quality art in a very timely fashion. You can find out more about how to order a commission from Alan by visiting his web-site, where you'll find all the details you need to arrange a commission of your own. I've got a few of my own and they're stunning!


Thursday, July 02, 2009

Original Art Stories: Mr T And Working For Free!

This one is a doozy! Before we go any further it's probably a good idea to read this post, albeit over ten years old, from Mark Evanier. Once you're done pop back and we'll discuss some parts of it in detail and look at a very disturbing series of claims that are currently floating around the internet.

Back already? Good.

Recently a number of artists and would be artists received this email in their inbox from an on-line publisher named Mohawk Media. Mohawk, whose domain name was registered by one Christopher Bunting, claim to be publishing comics, merchandise and concepts based upon Mr T. Here's the text of the email, which wasn't signed by Bunting:

----------------
Hi everyone!

Hope you don't mind us jumping out at you like this, but it is with the potential offer for work!

We need a bunch of artists to create concept and design work for us. For free.

However - it is only for free initially. As and when any revenue is generated, you will get a nice royalty payment.

Added to that, if, when we pitch this work, it is accepted, you also stand to become creatively involved on a much larger basis.

Any potential revenue that is generated is likely to be beyond what comic books often generate.

Basically we want concept and design work for all manner of merchandising based on our official Mr. T graphic novel series.

This includes:
Action figures;
An animated series;
Front covers for novels & interior illustrations;
Busts;
T-shirts;
Motion picture and movie concepts;
Trading cards;
Toys, games, multi-media, apparel;
and well, pretty much anything else too all based on our official Mr. T graphic novel, its universe, the characters etc.

Which of the above you choose is up to you; or you might want to do concept work for all of them!

If you feel this is of interest, or you have queries, please let us know ASAP.

If you cant do this, but have some talented artist friends who can, please feel free to pass us their details.

As we say, this opportunity has every chance of leading to further work, royalty payments, getting your name in lights, and much more beyond!

Stuart Buckley
EDITOR
Mohawk Media
----------------

Now you might be sitting there wondering what the problem is. The problem is a simple one - the publisher, in this case a web-based publisher, wants people to work for free. Gratis. With the promise that if the work can generate some revenue then perhaps the artist can share in a percentage. I expect that the percentages will be determined at some point, but that's something I'd like to know upfront. But the email does state that the work will be used for merchandising and the like, which means that you'll be signing away the rights. Not good.

Where this got nasty is when Al Bigley warned people about the practice of working for free on line. Al's message in the ComicArt mailing list read, "Never work for later promises. It devalues your work, work ethic, and profession. If any project is the sure thing the promoters think it is, they can take out money on credit to pay you now, then, later, when that sure thing makes the big money they're so sure it will, they'll be covered." Al then followed it up with an email to the publisher, which also read, "No artist should do 'free' work or be asked to do such..You should be wiling to pay up front or not make such an offer. You're preying on young or inexperienced artists with the promise that there MAY be payment down the line. If you're so sure of your sure thing, pay a decent wage NOW, by taking out a loan to do so. When your sure thing hits, as you're so certain it will, you'll be covered, right? Al Bigley."

In this case Al knows what he's talking about. He's worked for DC's licensing department, creating art for toy boxes, style guides and more, for the better part of a decade. For someone to question his knowledge on how the art world works, and indeed how it works for merchandising, is a tad odd to me.

The editor of the publishing company immediately contacted Al, questioned his professionalism and threatened to sue him for slandering his company - all for a mere warning and for offering some words of advice. Here's a copy of the email, "Al, if you have posted your potentially slanderous email - in addition to our original email with a confidential disclaimer - in an online public forum we request that you have it REMOVED IMMEDIATELY. Please confirm when removed." They've since followed it up with a letter from a person claiming to represent the company in a legal capacity threatening further action if Al doesn't remove his comments from the ComicArt mailing list. Anyone with half a brain will know it's near impossible to remove comments from a mailing list, but this doesn't appear to deter them. Incredibly they can't find money to pay any artist up front for the work they want, but seemingly can afford legal representation in order to threaten to sue Al Bigley. Priorities!

It all reeks to me of using a hammer to crack a walnut. Before I get into why people shouldn't work for free I decided to contact a few artists and ask for their opinions. All of the artists I contacted are long standing artists, as you'll see, and all have important lessons to share. Steven Bove, who draws the excellent Rock Opera, commented, "I will tell you what a DC Comics Editor once said to a group of us in The Production Department, 'If you don't have sales of 100,000 copies a month then you don't have an opinion.' It comes down to professionalism and it just doesn't exist in many smaller publishing group, on or off line. In business a publisher (or anyone connected with said publisher) would NEVER openly criticize an outside source of material. What they would do is simply stop issuing work to the source."

Legendary artist Trevor Von Eeden also chipped in, "Unless it's for charity, or as a personal favor to a friend, or fan--no professional artist should EVER work for free! Ever. I'd NEVER work for free for a publisher--and yes, it IS highly unprofessional (i.e unethical) to even ask. Would you ask a plumber, electrician, or architect to do work on your house for free? No--that's their job, and it's what you'd HIRE them to do.

"The very definition of "professional" is: one who gets PAID for doing a job!

"Especially if the artist is doing work for a publisher who intends to profit from said artist's efforts. In which case, the artist would be considered either a sucker--or a slave.

"Or, eventually-- dead from starvation."

On the other hand Big Bang artist, Gerry Acerno, freely admits to working for free, albeit with an ulterior motive in mind. Gerry says, "I have worked for a publisher for free. That would be Image Comics ten years ago. It was to have my creation SHADOW LADY published in Big Bang comics. Nobody made any $ off of this book. I did it to secure copyright of which I am sole owner. The editor also gave me cart blanch as to what I wanted to do. I also demanded lead and cover feature for the three issue story arc. Those were my terms and they were met with no resistance. During the course of my career, I've been asked to work on other peoples' concepts for free with the 'promise' of some residuals down the road. I don't have time for that. I'm not a kid looking for his first break, living in my parents' basement. I have a family to support, mortgage, etc. I do think that it is unprofessional to ask a pro artist to work for free; it's a downright insult. Yeah, we all know that there are enough non-working professionals scraping around for work these days and this is what 'publishers' are preying on. When (would be) publishers go around with 'high profile' concepts and have enough funds to promote it, then they damn well better have enough $ to pay for an artist's time.

"This online publisher sounds like a joke. If he wants someone to work for free, the he can solicit the local High Schools and Colleges."

One of the best inkers in the business and all round damn nice guy Dan Panosian comments, "I think it's a bad policy to work for free or to do spec work.

"These things only rarely pan out with any sort of back end money. Personally, I've never seen it happen. I've also, foolishly, participated in a number of these 'opportunities'.

"It's my feeling, that if the artist can find the time to work for free - they may as well create pages of their own creation instead.

"Unfortunately, many artists do work for free. Eventually they learn not to.

"If you knew and acquaintance that was a waiter would you ask him to come to your house at 8PM and serve you and your girlfriend/wife dinner [ for free ]? A waiter serves food to earn a living. An artist draws for a living. Of course he/she should be paid to something they earn a living for. Some compensation is in order. You don't tell the waiter that if you like the meal you just ate you'll give him a back payment for it. But if you don't like it he'll have to tell the restaurant to forgo the cost of the meal..."

Hulk artist Herb Trimpe, "The request you refer to is one I have received--and my response to this particular project is no thanks. However, I think it's okay to do work on speculation--depending on the situation. I have done professional work (once) without getting paid, but that's because I didn't have sense enough to ask in the beginning what the deal was. That was because it was a "reputable" company. It only became clear after finishing the work. The work has not been published yet, even though it was finished a year or so ago, so any return on sales I might get is still a matter of conjecture. On the other hand, freebees are sometimes the most enjoyable kind of work, but the client is usually local, and it was understood from the beginning there would be no money. For instance, I have done quite extensive volunteer artwork for local agencies of which I know personally. But, basically, when asking a professional for free work with the idea that they MAY be paid somewhere down the road, is unethical. Exposure does have a certain value, but the important thing is, SHOW ME THE MONEY!"

Norm Breyfogle, who, ironically, worked on the first Mr T comic published in the 1990s, along with an acclaimed run on Batman and a man who has worked on almost every character DC has to offer and a handful of Marvel guys as well, has this to say, "Both asking to work for free and asking others to work for free are highly unprofessional!

"I'd never work for free. (When I was attempting to break into comics back in the early 80's I was unprofessional enough to tell DC Comics editors that I'd do that, but they very professionally declined my offer.)

"The only conditions close to 'working for free' that I would consider would include a legally binding contract which paid me on the back end, if certain conditions were met (e.g., if sales were over a certain mark, as with the Image Comics contracts). No verbal promises would do, and anyone accepting verbal promises under those circumstances needs to wise up."

Alan Kupperberg has worked everywhere from Marvel to DC to Archie to National Lampoon and beyond. He's been involved with the comic book industry since the early 1970s and has this advice to offer, "Working For Free...Don't do it!

"I think the best iteration of this policy was written by Mark Evanier in his POV columns, "Unfinanced Entrepreneurs," Part 1, 2 and 3, available online.

"Because any person that asks you to work on a commercial enterprise without compensation has no respect for you. And this person either has no understanding or knowledge of how or what the creator does what the creator does. And that is always a prescription for grief.

"You can work on your own speculative projects all you want. I have. But for strangers -- insist on what you're worth!

"If you want more than five tiny paragraphs, you're going to have to pay for it."

Dick Ayers goes back even further than that, with a career reaching back to the Golden Age of comics. Dick says, "Only time I remember doing a freebie cover and a
short story was when I volunteered and did a Haunted Horseman story and cover for Bill Black to see if that would help circulation. Bill reported the distributor didn't circulate the issue as he was supposed to...alas. I always get paid 'up front' these days by small publishers."

Brian Postman, another artist who's done a lot of work, both for Marvel and in the field of storyboarding and animation. "When I was in my 20's," says Brian, "I worked cheaply or close to free to 'get in' to the business. Now I wouldn't even consider it. I just turned down a 2000 frame storyboard job on a Hollywood movie called 'After Life' with Christina Ricci and Liam Neeson because they wanted to pay $1000 for 2000 frames, that's 50 cents a drawing!!! That's the same as wanting it for FREE in my book. I deal with this constantly, and it makes staying in this business really difficult, because its getting to the point where I could make more working at McDonalds. Anyway, that's my view on it. These people are really just taking advantage of young artists."

Current Phantom newspaper artist Paul Ryan has this to say, "When I was trying to break into the industry I produced a story for Charlton Comics Bullseye title. It was stated up front that there would be no payment for the work produced. The artist would receive, in compensation, fifty copies of the printed piece. This work, then, could be used as a display piece when the aspiring comics artist approached the Big Two for work.

"Other than that the only time I created any piece of work without compensation was for a charity. It is insulting for a publisher to asked a professional artist to work for free. Especially when the publisher stands to make a profit from that artist's work."

Tim Townsend has this to say, "Totally outrageous. Instead of writing something, I thought Id let Harlan Ellison do it for me. He echoes my sentiments EXACTLY! Though he's speaking as a writer, the point stands across the board. I highly suggest this "publisher" listen to it and get a clue." Harlan's points are very valid indeed, and even though, as Tim points out, Harlan is coming from a writers POV the concept is very much the same - never work for free. There are exceptions to every rule and everyone has someone that they'll happily do work for and not charge. It comes down to personal choice, but frankly you should be in a position to make that choice, not have it made for you. The major publishing companies, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image and the like will not ask you to work for free, either as a writer or artist. It's just unprofessional. If you decide that a project is worth doing and want to work, for free, then most companies won't consider you, that's how unprofessional the practice is. People often do work for free on small press projects, no-one I know has done it and been happy with it. I can clearly recall the late Dave Simons telling me that, after being ripped off back in the day by a small press publisher, he then ensured that he was paid for every job he did. If the publisher couldn't pay then they'd not get any art from him. If there was a hint of a publisher not paying then he'd not do the work. Dave would always do his homework, which is great advice, if you're not sure look the publisher up, check out the names and see how it looks. If it smells like carp then it's probably carp.

After all, why work for free if the publisher is going to charge for the end product? The comics and merchandise aren't free, so why should your work be free? Think about it in those terms.

As for the practice of legal threats. In the situation that Al has found himself in I doubt he has anything to worry about - he's merely voiced a general opinion, not directed at the publisher. The emails he's received have all come from the same domain name, both from the editor and the 'legal' representation. I can't think of too many small press organisations who retain legal representation 'on site', so to speak, ready to attack at the first sign of dissent. If you attack Marvel or DC you might get an email asking for an explanation, but they won't wade in with legal threats. Defame them in some way, suggest that they're a front for kiddie porn, and you might well get that email, but you won't get one merely for suggesting that it's not a good idea to work for free. A quick search for the 'lawyer' in question, one Scott L. Sammons, brings up a total blank. As the emails all originate from a .co.uk domain, it'd be safe to assume that all correspondence has originated from the UK, where laws relating defamation and slander are different to those in the USA (and, indeed, different again to those in Australia). Oddly enough the emails from the publisher, one Stuart Buckely (that's the spelling in the 'legal' email, different to the one in the previous email - typo? Possibly, but then if I were sending a legal document I'd be checking all spelling very carefully), and the 'lawyer' are very similar in tone. Read into that what you will.

The legal letter reads as such, "Dear Mr Bigley

"I represent media publisher Mohawk Media.

"My client recently approached you, in your capacity as a creative artist, in good faith and with a brief outline of what is part of a legitimate business venture.

"Potentially defamatory and libellous allegations, apparently made subsequently by you, including on an online 'forum' and/or 'public email chain' have been brought to my attention. It appears that my client’s repeated attempts to resolve the situation amicably have failed.

"This is to serve as notification to cease and desist immediately and remove any and all such allegations forthwith, including any of my client’s email correspondence containing a confidentiality disclaimer notice, as published online or in any public domain, online or elsewhere, no later than Friday July 3 2009, providing me with written confirmation by email upon completion.

"This will resolve this matter to the full and complete satisfaction of my
client.

"Sincerely,

"Scott L. Sammons"

In short, Mohawk approached Al, he said no, issued a general warning and now Mohawk want to sue him. Go figure that one out - sued for rejection? Al hasn't said don't work for them, neither have I, what has been said is that it's unprofessional and not a good idea to work for free.

Something else to consider - earlier today Tony Isabella issued this warning: "Beware of Mohawk Media or anything else from that neck of the woods. For more information on this creature, go to: http://unscrewedcomic.com/"

Having said all of that, if you do knowingly and willingly work for free then you can't complain if you get ripped off. There's more than enough outlets to get your art shown, web-sites, on-line galleries and more. There's no need, in this day and age, to work for free. Now the publisher in question can go right ahead and threaten me with legal action instead of Al Bigley. After all I'd love a free trip to the UK. I wonder if Mr T know anything about this...

More as it comes to hand.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Dave Simons Memorial Service

For all of those people in New York who wish to attend Dave's memorial service, here's the details. Dave's memorial service is scheduled for Sunday July 19th at 12:30pm. It will be held at The Church of Scientology 227 W. 46th St. Manhattan, NY 10036. Phone 212-921-1210.

Dave's family have requested that in lieu of flowers, donations to be made to the organizations that meant the most to Dave. At the top of the list is Hero Initiative. If you wish to donate in Dave's name, follow the link and go right ahead.

You can find out more over at Dave's Facebook entry. the HERO Initiative are also planning a tribute. In this case they'll be running Dave's last unfinished work, details can be found here. Dave was working on the script and was getting ready to pencil the page when he passed away, Hero will be running the script along with a tribute by one of their staff members, so be sure to buy the book when it appears.

I can't help but still miss Dave. I keep expecting to see another email popping up, but time heals everything, albeit slowly. It's a funny ole world, innit?

Monday, June 22, 2009

Original Art Stories: Batman Year One - Frank Miller & Trevor Von Eeden

Everyone who has a passing interest in comic books knows the name Frank Miller. And if they don't know the name David Mazzucchelli then they should, or should be shot. Together Miller and Mazzucchelli created two of the finest story-arcs of the mid 1980s, first with their run on Daredevil and the Born Again storyline and then with the classic Batman: Year One, a story that redefined the mythos of the character and is still referenced and held as a benchmark today, 22 years after it's initial publication. Indeed, much like Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's Watchmen, Batman: Year One will more than likely never be out of print for DC as it still sells in numbers today.

What isn't widely known is that Mazzucchelli wasn't the first choice of artist on the series. Despite working with Mazzucchelli at Marvel and creating one of the best series within a series seen there for decades, Miller approached a different artist to work on Batman: Year One - Trevor Von Eeden. At the time Von Eeden was working off and on at DC and producing some of the most expressionistic Batman stories seen. This was a time where Jim Aparao's style was being adopted almost as a 'house style', yet Von Eeden, frustrated by the constraints of working within both his own limitations and what DC expected of him, began to break loose, resulting in the now famous Batman Annual #8, published in 1982.

Says Trevor today, "About three years into my career, at about the age of 20, I started to feel that I'd only gotten the job because of my skin color--a notion which displeased me greatly," says Trevor now, "So I dedicated myself, wholeheartedly, to developing my Art to a point where it would be so good, that it wouldn't matter what color I was. I sat down and wrote a five-page "mission statement" (now lost)--writing out for myself in detail exactly what I wanted to create--the kind of style I thought would express myself most effectively, while also telling a story in the most dramatic way possible. I wrote everything down that I could think of--the details, form, and purpose of the style of art that I'd wanted to create.

"Out of these two long years of serious effort, I created the art style seen in THE BATMAN ANNUAL."

From there Trevor worked sporadically on the character of Batman, both in the Batman title proper and in other DC comics. Personal circumstances saw his life intertwine with Frank Millers though and it was after Von Eeden turned in yet another sterling job on Batman, this time in issue #401, that Miller approached him with the offer to pencil Year One, which would begin in Batman #404.

"Frank had called me in person to offer me the Batman: Year One job, before giving it to Mazzuchelli. I said, 'No.'," says Trevor, "And I have no regrets - Dave did a beautiful job. His wife [Richmond Lewis] colored it, too."

Sadly we may never know what would have been if Von Eeden had accepted the Batman: Year One job, certainly his art at the time was head and shoulders above other artists, and he's been cited as an influence on artists that have come since. Even Mazzucchelli has sang his praises, recently he had this to say about Von Eeden's 1980s work, "...I’d like to think that something of what excited me on those pages found its way into Batman: Year One, but my own work from back then seems mighty tame next to Mr. Von Eeden’s." Norm Breyfogle, who would soon be drawing his own unique vision of Batman, had this to add recently, "I've been a fan of Trevor's work since his first Batman Annual job. So much so, that I'd say he's one of my influences."

Trevor Von Eeden has returned to Batman more than once since the mid 1980s, each time his art has taken on a new dimension and he's shown that he's not stuck in any one style. But, alas, we will never know how Batman: Year One might have looked if it were penciled by Trevor Von Eeden, but by looking at his art at the time, we have a rough idea.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Original Art Stories: More Hembeck!

Not sure where I've scanned this one from - more likely an issue of The Comic Reader, where a lot of Fred Hembeck's art appears. Nice to see a colour Hembeck!

'Superheroes In Their Underpants!' Classic Hembeck - this print came with the first thousand issues of The Hembeck File (now reprinted in Fred's own excellent Essential Omnibus Archive volume). As with anything by Hembeck, this one is well worth a peek and I'd be curious to know who owns the original art these days.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Looking Back With Dave Simons

These things are best written down while the memory is still fresh in the mind, plus it’s good therapy and helps put things on the record.

This short interview with Dave was done back in February, 2009. Dave’s idea was to do an update to our first ever interview, done in 2004, to update where he was professionally, and because we both knew each other a lot better now. There was a lot that Dave wanted to talk about. What had triggered him was my short, but intense, confrontation with the ‘editors’ at Wikipedia over Dave’s entry on the site. Dave had approached me to write an entry for him on the Wiki with the intention of raising his profile, and possibly increasing his chances of getting more commission work. I had no problem with this, and hey – it was Dave – so I went to work and began to write his entry and posted the first draft on the Wiki site itself. It was promptly removed with the excuse given that Dave wasn’t ‘inherently notable’ as he was merely a comic book artist. This news got to me in the worst heatwave in Adelaide in over a hundred years, so my fuse wasn’t already lit, it’d been burning to exploding point. I began a running battle with the Wiki people, pointed out that there were plenty of people listed who’d maybe lettered one comic book, and that Dave’s credits stretched back to the early 1980s and spanned companies such as Marvel, DC, Topps and more. And that was before I threw in his own creations and his extensive animation work. The main issue the Wiki people had, was that they believed that neither Dave himself or I were qualified to write about Dave as we had no sources. Michael Netzer stepped in, copied my work over and I added the footnotes. The entry is now there for the duration, thanks to Michael. The other offshoot of this was the formation of the Dave Simons Appreciation Society where I handed Dave the title of ‘Inherently Notable’. Publicly Dave showed his usual modesty at this attention, but privately he was egging me along and was highly amused at both my righteous rage and the attention that he was getting.

The format was an interesting one. Instead of doing a standard phone or email interview Dave insisted on using the instant messaging function of Facebook for the conversation. I suspect that Dave didn’t want me hearing his voice, which, at the time, was rough and weak at best and, due to the nature of his illness, speaking exhausted him. It did make for an odd interview as we kept ‘talking’ over each other as we awaited the other’s typed replies. We did the interview over a week in a few sessions, as Dave’s health permitted. There was a lot more discussed, but this is the best of it. Once I’d edited the interview down I sent it over to Dave, only to get an email stating that his doctors had finally diagnosed him as being incurable and given him between six months and two years to live. I was gutted, but Dave took it all in his stride. I knew he was worried, but he felt that life would play itself out and he took faith in both his religion and the fact that he’d known others who lived beyond expectations when faced with the same news. This is when I got the idea to run a series of auctions and a public appeal so that we could wipe Dave’s debts clean and hopefully give him some financial stability. His medical costs were covered as he’d served time in the Coast Guard in the 1970s and was thus eligible for assistance via the Veteran Affairs scheme. Initially Dave was reluctant to accept any such assistance and felt it should be saved as a secret weapon, to be used when he needed it. I pushed the issue and finally Dave responded positively. By this time the wheels were in motion as I’d already contacted Dave’s agent and friend, Bob Shaw and also Bob Almond for assistance. Bob Shaw instantly set up an eBay account and we arranged that Bob would pay the postage and I’d pay the eBay fees, thus every cent raised would be able to go directly to Dave. Dave’s email to me was priceless. “You know,” he said, “every time someone has approached me to help with these things, I’ve done so. I think you’re right, I deserve this.” I couldn’t agree more. At this time Dave was feeling poorly, but was working on finishing up some commissions and the last of his Army Of Darkness pages. Once he’d finished his AoD work he mixed up his medication and found himself in hospital, in a critical condition. As Dave told me later, the doctors believed that he’d not be able to pull through.

We launched the appeal by emailing everyone we knew for donations of art, or anything really. Some, like Gene and Adrienne Colan, Tony Isabella and Norm Breyfogle responded by sending donations directly to Dave. Others questioned the veracity of what we were doing so I then approached Clifford Meth. Cliff gets emails like this all the time but this one was different – we didn’t want Cliff to run the appeal, we just wanted a bit of guidance and, more importantly, the use of his name. Cliff threw himself into the Appeal, emailing people he knows and posting messages at his blog and on Facebook. As I expected once people saw his name they opened their hearts and donated where and what they could. Paul Ryan, Mike Mignola, Fred Hembeck, Brian Postman, Mike Pascale, John Romita Sr, Bob Almond, Scott Ambruson, Kris Carter, Andy Brown, Craig Rousseau, Herb Trimpe, Walter Simonson, Alan Weiss, Simon Bisley, Len Wein, Mark McKenna, Steve Mannion, Jay Fife, Scott Wegener, Kevin West – the list was long and full of talent (and this list is far from complete), professionals and fans alike. Cliff’s assistance can’t be underplayed here – without him on board I doubt we’d have gotten off the ground. Cliff went to pains to tell people that he wasn’t the driving force behind this, but both Bob Shaw and myself didn’t correct anyone when they insisted that he was. It was smoother that way.

Once Dave got out of the hospital he decided to donate to his own Appeal and contributed some sketches which we auctioned off. More donations arrived, people sent over art they’d bought, books and other items of value. People who’d never met Dave, nor spoken to him were moved to help, and help it did. Frank Brunner walked up to Dave at a convention and handed him a sketch from his portfolio for the Appeal. Shawn McManus sent over an incredible piece of art and lamented that he wasn’t a bigger name so it could raise more cash. The whole time is full of wonderful stories like that. Dave’s financial situation was improved out of sight. Bob was the driving force behind Dave’s first sketchbook, which he launched at his last convention appearance. I’m proud of the fact that Dave selected a painting that I owned for the cover and even happier when a box arrived full of Dave’s art, preliminaries and a sketchbook, signed and dedicated, complete with three custom sketches done to such detail that, upon first look, I believed that they were prints in the book. That was how good Dave was as an artist.

Lurking in the background was this interview. About four weeks ago Dave mentioned it again and I went back to it. Dave had said that he’d get to it when he had a bit of free time, but he was tied up with his impending move and some more health problems. In a move which I accepted as Dave being Dave, he was more worried about my wife, Lyndal, and her health situation than his own and expressed his relief at hearing that, after a serious scare, she’d been given a clean bill of health. He was also tickled pink to hear my escapades with my cat, Merlin, after Merlin had gone over the fence and disappeared for a few days. Indeed our last email exchange revolved around my Merlin and his own cat, Smokey. Dave was always more concerned about others than himself.

Sadly Dave never got the chance to edit this interview, but I’ve done what I believe he’d have wanted. As I’ve previously mentioned, there was a lot more discussed, but I doubt if Dave would have wanted all of it on display as some of it could be construed as being negative towards his fans, those people he liked the most. Dave always interacted with people, he loved it, but he did tire of people asking him for free art and sketches all the time. If he was in a position to send a sketch he would, but he wasn’t in such a position and declining these requests always seemed to bother him, not that he’d show it. What Dave wanted to get out there with this interview, was his love for the craft of art and his many influences. We had a few projects in the works, and this is the first that I can put out there for everyone to read and hopefully enjoy.

I miss Dave, and reading this interview just makes me miss him even more. I know there’s a lot more Dave in my archives as he’d given me the task of writing about his life as a whole, but that’s another story...

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DANIEL BEST: We might as well start with the most recent stuff - you're working on Army Of Darkness - how did you land that gig?

DAVE SIMONS: Once again, Joe Rubinstein hooked me up. Told me to get in touch with Nicky at Dynamite.

DB: You did the Christmas Special first?

DS: No. Nicky sent me the Red Sonja re-marks to do while I was waiting for the script.

DB: What was the reaction to the Sonja covers?

DS: There was a little problem with them right from the start because the cover stock was just regular cover stock. Everything smeared, so I ended up using crow quill on them. They ended up with kind of a beat-up look because of that.

DB: That's happened before hasn't it? The Green Lantern commission?

DS: That was different. It had to be on this special acid-free green paper. I ruined the first one accidentally and there wasn't a spare sheet. The client then ran out of the paper. Eventually he got more. I told him to send two sheets just in case. You saw the result.

DB: It looked good, and different. It's an interesting concept. That raises a question - are 'concept' commissions harder to do than just someone asking for, say, a Conan illo?

DS: Not sure what you mean by a 'concept' commission.

DB: When someone has a theme going - like Michael Finn and his One Minute Later covers.

DS: Or John Bamber and his Western Super Heroes.

DB: Exactly.

DS: No, sometimes I get into it and get an idea of what it should be right away. Sometimes I don't. Daredevil was hard for me--that DD vs. Fixer that I did. The Conan that I did for Zack Esser came naturally. I was really into it.

DB: I'd hazard a guess and say you're more familiar with Conan though, as opposed to Daredevil.

DS: Sure! I remember discovering the Lancer paperbacks at Edsall's Drugs in Wallkill, NY when I was in high school. I thought it would make a great comic book, A little over a year later it was one! Did I ever tell you what I thought the ultimate Conan comic would be?

DB: No. Do share.

DS: Figures by John Buscema. Backgrounds by Barry Smith. Costumes by Steranko. The whole thing inked by Wallace Wood. Wouldn't that have been great? That's thinking of the division of labor more like in animation, tho.

DB: Jesus!! I'd have bought that in a heartbeat. Written by whom though?

DS: Written by Roy Thomas, of course!

DB: Works for me. I'd expect that it'd never hit the deadline though (laughter) Steranko and Wood would see to that.

DS: That's why Steranko just does costumes. Woody made deadlines when he was sober, I think. You'd have to ask Kupps, he was a Woody assistant. Wood would be doing backgrounds of course by that point so don't judge by some of the Cannon and Sally Forth stuff. There's obvious Ralph Reese and Larry Hama in there. Whole pages.

DB: Did you ever meet Wood?

DS: I was at a con and I was sitting near Joe. Wood was sitting at an angle across the room. Joe said I should go say hi to him. Wood was obviously not doing well at the time and no one was at his table. It was very sad and I couldn't deal with it, so I didn't go over. If it were today, I would have.

I find now that one of the most important things in life is to try to make others feel better about themselves.

DB: Poor guy - the end of his life wasn't a happy story was it?

DS: No. Hopefully his current lifetime is going along better.

DB: Indeed! Back to the comics...how's the current AOD story going?

DS: AoD--well, coming along. I think I'm doing better than I did on the Christmas book. I've gotten more into drawing comics, making interesting stuff out of the script. I find that beginning writers tend to not think of shots so much. For instance, in this story Ash and three other characters are wandering around this cavern system. The writer wrote it so that they're ALL in every panel. No close-ups, no dynamic shots focusing on one character. So I have to find a way to work those in--while accommodating the dialogue, of course.

DB: That can't be easy. I doubt I could write a full script. When I did Simon Saurian with Alan Weiss we worked Marvel style. To me a full script almost implies that you're telling the artist how to draw - that might work for a new artist, but for the likes of you and Weiss...well I ain't gonna be telling you how to pace it, lay it out, design and almost how to draw the thing.

DS: That has its definite advantages. The drawback is that you don't have a firm idea of how much dialogue there's going to be. With someone like Chris Claremont, this can be a problem.

DB: His scripts must be like phone books.

DS: (laughter) Yeah! That's the thing with writers--they love words. That's why they're writers. Words alone aren't enough, tho. Whether writing or drawing, one should be a storyteller first.

DB: Words are secondary to me - when Weiss and I did Simon we spent hours working out the story before we even touched the dialogue.

DS: That's the best thing to do, whether you're working alone or with someone else.

DB: You did some work for my mates at First Salvo. Did they *ahem* pay you?

DS: Yes. I ALWAYS GET PAID.

DB: He says in large, capitol letters...did Joe hook you up there as well?

DS: Yes. People say a lot of crap about Joe, and some of it is true and some of it's hilarious, but he's been a great friend to me. What did you think of the Aman drawing I sent you?

DB: It's good. Did you get paid for it or did he gave it back...(laughter)

DS: I don't know what happened to it. I'm pretty sure I just sent him a scan, not the original, since I did it as a sample. I'll have to see if the original is still kicking around here some place. It's very Wood-influenced.

DB: First Salvo never published your story did he?

DS: No, Joe never finished inking it. Only the backgrounds are inked.

DB: Did you see the Breyfogle & Weiss covers?

DS: Yes, I saw them when they were fresh at last year's Big Apple Con--the one I sent you photos from.

DB: Those covers are hanging on my wall now. I'll get your art, buy the Sal Velutto and Bob Almond story and make my own First Salvo comic - I have the cover and a few pin-ups now...(laughter)

DS: You should! Only come up with better names.

DB: I think a pet monkey could think of better names. Boss Aman sounds like something out of an old prison movie.


DS: Or Cannonball Run.

DB: That's what we need - instead of Dangers Dozen, Dean(Martin)'s Dozen!

DS: Did you know Jackie Chan was in one of those?

DB: Yep - we watched it the other month - we bought it on DVD for about a dollar...(laughter)...I got it for Jackie Chan and Dean Martin.

DS: Cool. I sent you a bunch of my roughs a little while ago. Have you had much of a chance to examine them?

DB: I've poured through them - I'm impressed by the detail in some of them and very impressed by the energy of them.

DS: Thank you!! Did it give you any insight into my creative process?

DB: Yes - there's a lot of variation from your preliminaries to your finished art. You also have a tendency to do more than one approach to a subject. On some you can see where it was all going, and you've fully realised it, on others you can see where you've worked out any potential problems.

DS: Right. The roughs are just my first thot. On the way to getting finished I often come up with what I think is a better idea. You can never do a drawing (or create anything) and be so in love with it that you can't change it for the good of the story. As Will Meugniot told me "You have to be willing to kill your children."

DB: You said something about the Ghost Rider cover that you inked over Bob Budiansky - you were happier doing it now because you could do it better. I found that an interesting comment indeed.

DS: Really? Why?

DB: Because the original looks amazing. To me, that original, indeed that image, is the pinnacle of you and Bob as an art team. However, having seen a high res scan of the original, and I hope this makes sense, the background on the original has brush strokes, mine is an almost solid black. I can see the improvements.

DS: (laughter) That’s because I used all Black Magic ink on the original. On the re-creation I used FW acrylic ink for the black areas. Joe turned me on to the FW.

I think I know now what made that team click. It's a marriage of opposites. Now Bob is a nice guy and this is not to knock him at all. His actual draftsmanship is better than mine in many cases. But he has a much more conservative nature than I do. What I brought to it was the idea of inking things in a certain way just so they would look cool. Besides my usual influences of Wood and Wrightson, I was also looking at Robert Williams for chrome technique. I had no back-off on changing the line work to bring across a texture or add a sparkle.

DB: I know Bob loved you as an inker on that book and wasn't happy when you left. You guys never did anything outside of Ghost Rider did you?

DS: Nope. I probably should have stayed with it. Oh well.

DB: Why did you leave again?

DS: The sales were poor. Probably topped anything being published today, but in the scale of the times they were poor.

DB: What was the last comic you drew before the recent AOD?

DS: I think that would have to be Wild Stars for Little Rocket. Mike Tierney, publisher, editor, and writer.

DB: How long ago was that?

DS: I guess 7 years now. I was working on it on 9/11.

DB: That's a lot of time between jobs.

DS: I ghosted Mendy and the Golem for Joe in 2003, and I did a lot of storyboards in the intervening years.

DB: What did you do with all the storyboards that you drew? Do the companies keep them?

DS: Yes, that's why I do them digitally if I can. I don't get the art back, so why should they have it?

DB: So they kept them all?

DS: Standard practice in the animation business. They archive them someplace I think. The artist contractually has no rights to them.

DB: Bizarre.

DS: Standard practice in the animation industry.

DB: As it was in the comic industry for decades.

DS: Yeah. But quite often the storyboards are not saleable the way comics pages are. Not always finished works of art. Mine are about as highly finished as any you'll see. You've seen some. I could probably sell the Captain Planet or Jem boards if I still had them, people have fond memories of those shows.

DB: That does factor into it as well - the nostalgia factor.

DS: Big factor from what I've seen.

DB: But that could apply to any comic book art. For me I wanted that Ghost Rider cover - remember, you once offered to do the recreation yourself, but I wanted the whole package - Bob and you - because that's what I liked the most.

Do you collect art or comic books?

DS: Not so much. I have a collection of art books. Many of them are pretty beat-up looking. I use them, they aren't just a collection. Some of the older ones are only held together by a binder clip.

DB: Have you ever had a desire to collect art? I mean, you studied at the feet of John Buscema - did you ever think, "Hmmm, I might sneak a sketch or two out here."?

DS: I used to have a few. He would do demonstration drawings on a big newsprint pad and then pass them out at the end of class.

DB: What happened to them?

DS: That was a long time ago. Lost in a move, I suppose. I learned what I could from them. If I still had them I believe I could learn more, but John's stuff is out there in reproduction.

I used to have a Ka-Zar splash by Brent Anderson and Armando. I also had a couple of Wrightson Swamp Thing pages. I’d like to get a Woody page from one of his Warren stories.

DB: A Woody Warren - that'd not be cheap. Wrightson Swamp Things! Impressive. All gone now?

DS: Yes sorry to say. One Swamp Thing was sold--reluctantly. The Ka-Zar and the other Swamp Thing were lost when I moved back to NY. A Frank Robbins Shadow page would be nice.

I have a question for you.

DB: Ask away.

DS: Now that you know how closely connected some of us artists are--for example, 2 years ago or a little more I had Brian Postman, Gerry Acerno, Joe Rubinstien and Mike Netzer all helping me on storyboards--does it give you any sort of a different viewpoint on the business at all, or any sort of "6 degrees of separation" aspect of it?

DB: Absolutely. For one there isn't really a '6 degree' is there? It’s more like '2 Degrees of Separation".

DS: I suppose!

DB: It's a very incestuous industry - makes me wonder how people cope if they annoy someone.

DS: Well, you've seen that. Kupperberg, Rubinstein, Netzer. I've annoyed people too, I'm sure.

DB: If you have then I've never heard of it. Most everyone likes you. It's the same with Norm Breyfogle; I've yet to hear anyone saying he's no good as a person.

But Joe has his detractors. They all say a similar thing - they like him as an artist but some do think he's a wanker of a person.

DS: I think that's based on the Joe Rubinstein of 20 or 30 years ago. As I said, he's helped me out a lot. I adore Mike too, but I think he has some of the nuttiest ideas I've ever heard. Neal Adams for President?

DB: Hey - he couldn't do a worse job than the guy you had for the past eight years could he? And you've heard Mike laugh - I think his nuttier ideas are just there to get people talking.

What was the attraction towards Frank Robbins?

DS: I loved his stuff. I was in Buscema's class at the time. This is late ‘75; I'm still in the Coast Guard. I especially liked his Shadow stuff. I know a lot of people didn't. He had to follow Kaluta and what they really wanted was more Kaluta.

DB: Had you seen any Caniff at that time?

DS: Oh, sure, I was familiar with Caniff. Robbins' stuff had more energy, which appealed to me.

DB: There's a lot who say Robbins was not cut out for superhero stuff, but I loved him and Springer on The Invaders. How did you see that stuff?

DS: I liked the invaders but would rather have seen Frank ink his own stuff.

DB: And you met him?

DS: I was in the Coast Guard, my last year there, and had been taking Buscema's class. The Coast Guard base was on Governor's Island in the NY harbor. I got the idea that I might like to meet Robbins and, figuring he probably lived in New York, looked him up in the phone book. I called a Frank Robbins on 14th St. and it was him. We arranged for me to come over. I was really excited.

DB: Surely it wasn’t that simple?

DS: It was that simple.
"Are you the Frank Robbins that draws Invaders?"
"Yes."
Some fanboy gushing on my part and he said I could come to his studio. I brought over some of my stuff which was heavily influenced by him. He was really nice, pointed out areas where I needed to improve, which at that time was almost everything.

Personally he was a pretty goofy looking guy. Receding forehead and hairline. big beak of a nose. Receding chin. Prominent Adam’s apple. Thick horn-rimmed glasses. Hair a little on the long side and he smoked cigarettes in a black cigarette holder.

He had these Swedish design sling back type chairs in his studio. You know the kind? From the 60s, canvas stretched over a wire frame. So when I came over he would sit in one and I'd take the other. I think they were red. Frank sat and stood and moved like his characters. Arms and legs at all sorts of odd angles.

So he's sitting in this low-slung chair like that. Invariably he would run out of lighter fluid for his Zippo. For the younger folks reading this, a Zippo has to be filled with naphtha fluid, not butane. In filling his lighter, he would invariably get the lighter fluid all over himself. Then he'd go to light his cigarette (in the cigarette holder) and set himself on fire. Then I'd be treated to the sight of Frank Robbins trying to put himself out, slapping away at his clothes with his arms flapping at all those weird Frank Robbins angles. I had to try not to laugh.

DB: Sounds priceless

DS: It was! Happened almost every time I was over there. He was never hurt, of course.

DB: Why do you think he was unappreciated?

DS: Fans don't necessarily know good art. He wasn't stylistically in tune with the times. The guys that were hot were Wrightson, Adams, and Moebius during his 'Arzach' period. Artists love his stuff. Frank had more energy to his work. I respond to that.

I have to tell you the advice Frank gave me.

This was after about 4 or 5 visits. I would only see him about once a month. I didn't want to be a pest. He told me, “you should quit trying to draw like me." When I asked why, he said "Nobody's hiring the real Frank Robbins, why should they hire a fake Frank Robbins?" Good advice, commercially, but somewhat sad.

I didn't see him much after that. Called to say hi a few times. By this time I was living in the Village on 11th St. and 5th Ave. Then I started working with Ken Landgraf.

DB: The photos of that time look like you all had a lot of fun.

DS: We did! By the way the girl at the keyboard is Jessica Zalkind. Ken had her do some minor assistant work. Some coloring, I think. Could be wrong. Ken was the one who played the keyboard. We kept those oversized editions, like the Superman vs Spider-Man that you wrote about handy. They were a godsend to beginning artists. Ken, Armando and I kept that one around, along with Superman vs. Muhammad Ali and a couple of Russ Cochran EC reprints (the oversize ones in black & white). They were a constant source of reference. If you can find any of the strips that appeared under Ken's name in High Times, the influence of Supes vs. Ali is obvious. For the record, those were laid out by Ken, scripted and lettered by me, tightened up in pencil mostly by Armando, figures mostly inked by Armando with some inking by Ken and background inking by me, and colored by me. The coloring was the worst job, since I had to hand-cut rubylith and zip with an x-acto knife while looking through a magnifying glass. All that for one page with a lame gag at the end.

DB: All that work sounds too damn hard. I'd like to think you were paid well, but then again you probably paid to do the strip.

DS: It was one of our more well-paying jobs from the period. Prior to my getting Howard the Duck, we did most everything that way. Strips for SCREW and SMUT were done this way, too, with the exception of being in black & white and Armando seldom touching them. Mind you, I wouldn't work for any of those clients today.

DB: I wonder where all those art pieces are now? I've always been amused by people asking Norm Breyfogle about the porno comics that he drew. Makes me chuckle when he points out that it was his brother, Kevin, who drew them and not he.

It's an interesting question really - is there anything you'd refuse to draw?

DS: If anyone has them it'd be Ken. He may have sold them off long ago, though. I would never do pro-drug material again. At the time I justified it by thinking that Ken's name was going on it, not mine, that and it was a good payday. I'd never do hardcore porn again, either. Among other things, I still have a career in "children's television" and I am a minister, even though I've only worn the vestments once. Nudity is another story. That would depend on the situation. I have a few nudes in my sketchbooks and of course I've worked from a live model. I wouldn't have any problem with some sexually oriented humor on the level of "Hey fellers! Look! It's a titty!" Y'know, kinda the fifties pin-up mentality. Basically, if I wouldn't sign my legal name to them, I wouldn't do them.

DB: How good was your band?

DS: (laughter) We didn't have a band! Ken wanted it, wanted me to do lead vocals, but I have very little musical talent and no sense of rhythm. Of course, that didn't stop the Sex Pistols.

DB: What was the name of the band?

DS: I don't think we ever settled on one. It was pretty much blues thru a punk sensibility. Ken wanted to be the next Ray Manzarek. (laughter) Armando played guitar. But no matter what he played, it came out sounding like Spanish guitar.

DB: Naturally...(laughter)

DS: You've spoken to Mr. McGillicuddy on the phone, right? We should mention that he doesn't speak with an accent or anything. To hear him you'd never know he was Hispanic. His roots come out in other ways, tho--like the guitar. He's not Sergio Aragones.

DB: He does speak fluent English - I was surprised actually, after doing an interview with Danny Budilandi that I can't transcribe.

DS: Well, Danny's Filipino.

DB: And a damned nice guy and a damned fine artist too, I might point out.

DS: Yeah. Y'know, the Filipinos were all over the animation business in the 80s.

DB: They spawned a genre.

DS: They saw a racket that paid better! More money to send back home to Manila. Their families could live like royalty on that money. Bill DuBay brought a lot of them to L.A. to work at Marvel Productions. When I started they were already there.

DB: Did you know many of them?

DS: Oh, gosh, if I list them all I'm sure I'll leave some out. Just off the top of my head, Nestor Redondo, Rudy Nebres, Romeo Tanghal--more that I can't think of now. Alcala came out too, but didn't work at Marvel Prods. I already worked with him in New York. I like the Filipino people a lot. Very warm.

DB: I've always wondered why they were all so talented.

DS: Competition! Plus their heritage from the war. G.I.s left great stuff behind--magazines with illos by guys like Frank Brangwyn (one of Alfredo's faves) Rockwell, Leyendecker, etc. They have more of an illustrative tradition in their comics because of that.

DB: I have Aussie reprints here full of stuff by Spanish and Filipino artists - all are amazing.

DS: Yeah, well, all of them don't make it to the states or to collections. I've seen some Filipino comics--in Tagalog and everything--that sucked. You know I like manga, but some of it sucks. If you're not in the country, you don't see that much of the crap. Why would anyone take the trouble of translating and reprinting it?

DB: It's a shame because a lot of that art was what I was exposed to growing up. Nebres, Garcia-Lopez...I can't help but wonder how much of it reached there.

DS: Oh sure! Thats the great stuff! That's why we see it. Estaban Maroto's another Spanish artist from the 70s.

DB: We got stuff here that you guys didn't - unpublished stuff from Warren, Skywald, Atlas (Seaboard)…

DS: Oh, really?

DB: Yep - I have an unpublished Starling Bog Beast here - it's on my blog - and a Simonson story

DS: Ha! Before your blog, I had no idea what Aussie comics might be like.

DB: Did they ever find that AoD Christmas cover?

DS: You won't believe it. As you may recall it had some lettering on it as part of the art--some signage. I had sent it to Gerry Acerno to do the lettering. He sent me a scan of the finished piece, I thought he had sent it on to Dynamite as I'd asked. Well, he was cleaning his studio last week and--you guessed it.

DB: No! He didn't!?

DS: Ya gotta say that like the Spanish girls from the Bronx--Oh, no, he DI-int!

DB: Dat he did?

DS: Damn white of him to fess up, tho. HE thought he sent it. I thought he sent it. It was at the bottom of a stack of paper, I guess.

DB: So, now what happens to it?

DS: Well, I'll see if the Dynamite guys want it or have any use for it. If not, I guess it's mine to do with as I please.

DB: You did some samples for DC last year - any feedback or follow-up from that?

DS: No. Looking back at it, they weren't that good. I went up to DC to see Harvey Richards. He liked the samples okay but it's hard to tell Harvey's reaction to things sometimes because he's so low-key. We also stopped in to meet his boss, Michael Siglain. The consensus was that I needed to work out a few things and that some of my linework was too heavy. i suppose that's a holdover from my inking for shit repro back in the day. I'm just pleased that they could take the time out to meet with me. That's more than I'd get anyplace else. That may not sound that good, but it really was a happy occasion in that I've made some progress on getting back into the business. Now that I have a better idea of what's needed and wanted, I can produce it. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way they can just tell you what they want. It has to be seen.

Maybe some other guys my age should actually try to do the kind of work people want to see nowadays. The 80s were fun, but they weren't the Renaissance. There's no reason someone couldn't change his style to suit today's tastes. After all, when I was a kid, once I'd seen Kirby I found Al Plastino boring and stodgy. Nothing wrong with Al Plastino, but he wasn't in step with the 60s. It's funny to me now that Kirby, a WW II vet and thus the same generation as my dad, was hip in the 60s. His art was in head shops. Gene Colan and Wally Wood (Di$neyland), too. I thought my dad was so square when I was 16 (who doesn't) but to me the 60s, especially the late 60s, were defined by Kirby and the Beatles. It was a great pairing, like a burger and a beer, hot dog and a Yoo-Hoo.

DB: Is it harder to break into the comic book industry now than it was back when you did?

DS: Beats me. Totally different game now. I told you how I broke in. You can't approach editors like that any more.

DB: But they still go to conventions...or is it more who you know than how good you are?

DS: Right. But they're not free to wander the floor. They're at the booth with a LONG line of fans. I'm not standing there like a kid with a backpack full of X-Men. I don't know what the answer to that is.

DB: Fair point. How is the reaction to you at conventions now?

DS: Good. I've stopped trying so hard. I go and see people and have a good time. That seems to be good promotion in itself. We'll see what happens at this con when I have a table to sit at (courtesy of Bob Shaw).

DB: Do you think your profile has been lifted now you're more active on-line?

DS: Yes, I do think people are more aware of me because of my online presence. I have you to thank for that.

DB: No need to thank me. I remember when I first interviewed you and people would email looking for you - it was near impossible...(laughter)

DS: Really? How so?

DB: You changed your email address I think. I think I had to wait until Alan Weiss told me your new one.

DS: Oh right! I wasn't that hip to the internet yet. Did I ever tell you about when Ken and I worked with Alfredo? Ken's idea was to hire Alfredo to ink one panel of a page and sacrifice most of the money on the job to him. This being with the proviso that we could watch him work on it. Alfredo inked some panels in Ken's Rock Comics.

DB: What did you get from watching him work?

DS: Alfredo was another character. We met him while we were briefly part of the 'American Tribe'. Ken and I did some work on The Prince and the Pauper adaptation. I remember working a suit of armor to death. Alfredo made stuff. He made his own fountain-pen brushes decades before such a thing was commercially available. He made a device for cleaning his lp records as they played, too. He always had a big bag of rice in his apartment. Once he made Ken go buy some for him. I'm sure Ken thought he was going to nip out and buy a box of Uncle Ben's or something.

Ken nearly had a hernia lugging the damn bag of rice back. It was huge.

Anyway, you asked what I learned. Mostly what I got was the speed at which Alfredo moved the brush and how that affected the line.

DB: Other than John Buscema and Alfredo, how many other formal or 'informal' art lessons like that did you have?

DS: Well, let's see--I learned a lot from Will Meugniot by working for him. He'd have me change something I did and I'd see that his way was better. This often involved storytelling, but he helped me improve my basic drawing, too. His animation credits far outstrip his comic book credits. I worked for him on Jem and the Holograms, Exo-Squad, Secret Files of the Spy Dogs, lots of stuff. If you don't know Exo-Squad, you should check it out. It's like an American version of Macross. Just watch them in order if possible. It's episodic.

DB: Is there more money in animation? A lot of artists move into that field - even Starlin did for a few years.

DS: There was. That business has its own pitfalls.

DB: Such as?

DS: Well, let's say you're doing a segment of storyboard for a 22 minute show. One would probably board 1/3 the episode, especially if it's an action-adventure show. Turn-around time 2-3 weeks. Bottom rate on that is about $3,000.00. It depends on what the show's budget is. No one artist gets a better rate than another, at least on the storyboards. Development is a different story.

Okay, so you make 3 grand in about 2 weeks. Sounds great, right? And that's for a cheap show. But on a show like that they hand out scripts once a week, so at most you're doing 6 episodes. So 3,000 times 6. That's $18,000. Still sounds good, right?

But then the show is finished for the season and you're laid off. Hopefully you can get on another show, but that might just be all the money you're making for that year.

DB: You directed shows though right?

DS: I was directing Spy Dogs and picking up other shows as well. At one time I had Spy Dogs in the day and two other shows I worked on at home at night and on the weekends. Armando worked on some of that.

DB: How did Armando cope with the deadline pressure of animation?

DS: Fine when he worked with me. I know him very well, of course, so I knew when he was running into trouble and could put out the fire before it started.

I used to have him and Don Manuel at my place in North Hollywood jamming out storyboards for Nascar Racers.

DB: What artists are there who you never inked but wanted to?

DS: Gee, that's a good one. I inked a lot of my heroes. Steranko. I would have liked to ink a Kirby comic. I only inked a couple of his presentation pieces for Ruby-Spears. Robbins. I wonder what I'd look like over another Wood-influenced artist such as Wayne Howard. I got to ink so many--both Buscemas, Gene Colan, Budiansky, even Frank Springer!

Springer was a terrific artist. Only inked him once, a Disco Dazzler cover. did you ever see Phoebe Zeitgeist?

DB: I only ever saw Phoebe on-line. Springer was a damned good guy - great to talk to

DS: Used to be able to get it at most tables at any con. Great for swipes because the Lampoon guys made him draw the most insane shit.

DB: I noticed that - I thought he was great inking Robbins - that's where I first noticed him

DS: Same here. I always liked my Robbins undiluted, tho. See some of the Batman comics he did?

DB: Yep – great stuff. The Lampoon stuff used to confuse me though. I couldn't associate a comic book artist with that stuff - same as Kupperberg with the Evil Clown

DS: You're younger than me, right? You kind of had to be there at the time. Bunch of guys at Harvard smoking anything they can get their hands on who are geniuses and grew up reading comics.

DB: Yah, I'm younger...heh....did you ever work for the Lampoon?

DS: It's hard to describe--just something that tapped into reflected and sometimes directed the views and opinions of the early 70s while puncturing their pretensions. No, I never worked for Lampoon.

DB: Did they ever approach you, or you them? I have to say, I loved the Lampoon in the early 1980s, when I reached my mid teens

DS: That’s the right time to discover it. No, I don't think there was ever a reach either way, unless I just cold-called them once.

DB: That's a shame - I could easily see you doing a Red Sonya parody
Like their Conman series

DS: Frank Thorne did something for them, didn't he? Sexy girl feature?

DB: I believe he did. Loads of people did - Kupps did a pile of work for them. Neal Adams - that Son Of God thing he did cracked me up.

DS: Son O' God was a benchmark.

DB: A definite highpoint. Bizarre story, but the art was incredible. Now, back to where we were, Wayne Howard. He was a mysterious character.

DS: I don't know anything about him except that he was a Woody assistant and the style stuck. He was a firearms enthusiast. That's all stuff that's public knowledge. I never met the guy.

DB: Not many did know him. Apparently he never spoke to anyone about his comic book career.

DS: Well, Nick Cuti knew him. I've lost touch with Nick, tho.

DB: How well did you know Nick?

DS: I met him after his comics career, when we were both working in animation. He worked as a background designer. Any time they had him do an alien landscape everyone loved it because it was really his version of a Woody alien landscape, of course. I'd do the same thing if it were me--not copying, just heavily influenced.

DB: And you worked with Kirby at Ruby-Spears?

DS: I wouldn't say I worked with him but I met him there and Gil Kane too. Jack turned out tons of presentation art for shows that never got made. I inked a couple of these things, giant pieces on illustration board. A suitably heroic scale for his art.

DB: What was Kirby like at that stage?

DS: Great! Full of life. This is about 1985.

DB: Was his work hard to ink?

DS: No. You absolutely COULD NOT SCREW IT UP. It was inker-proof. I could have done a better job on it, I think, but I was a bit overwhelmed by having Kirby pencils in my house, on my drawing board.

DB: Were you ever tempted to light box it and keep the pencils intact?

DS: No, it wouldn't have been possible anyway. He used 4 ply illustration boards which are too opaque.

DB: I know artists who have had trouble inking Kirby. Norm, for example, did two versions of the same commission, one true to the pencils and the other he 'fixed' the many errors he found in anatomy and design - that wasn't an issue for you?

DS: Nope. For one thing, the stuff I did was all monsters. Really crazy stuff, I remember there was one creature that had a pointed head and could use it to bore thru rock. So there were no concerns about anatomy. I don't think it would be advisable to 'fix' Kirby. You'd just be opening up a Pandora's Box of drawing issues. By the time you were done, it wouldn't be Kirby any more.

DB: 1985 - that was when Kirby was having the problems with Marvel over the art returns wasn't it? Did you get involved in that?

DS: I think so. Pre-internet, I wasn't aware of it to a great extent.

DB: Did you sign the petition?

DS: Sign it? I don't think I ever even saw it!

DB: Would you have signed it?

DS: Sure! Now watch, some smartass is going to find the damn thing and my signature's going to be on it.

DB: I can always have a look - I have a copy nearby. There's a few who didn't sign it as they felt Kirby knew what he was doing back in the '60s.

DS: Things changed is more to the point. I think Stan and Jack were just thinking "well, this outfit's going down the tubes anyway, let's have a little fun with it."

DB: You DID sign it!

DS: What the fu--I DID??!!!

DB: Yep - there you are, right after Dave Sim and just before Don Simpson.

DS: Well I'll be goddamned.

DB: You were in good company on that petition.

DS: I guess so!

DB: A few didn't sign it for fear of recriminations from Marvel - clearly you weren’t scared or intimidated.

DS: What did I have to be scared of? I wasn't working for them at the time. They had no leverage on me. I was working in animation then and making more than I'd ever made in comics.

DB: Byrne didn't sign it - and he was one of the most high profile artists Marvel had at the time. But then he was earning around six figures per year writing and drawing the Fantastic Four.

DS: I guess he had something to lose then. Wasn't this around the time that he described himself as a company man?

DB: Yep. Destroyer Duck lampooned him perfectly. Now he rallies against Marvel at every opportunity...(laughter)

DS: I remember once at a con in Atlanta I went to dinner with him, Tom De Falco, Mark Gruenwald, and Mike Carlin. All Byrne could talk about was superheroes. I purposely started up a loud conversation with Mark about cars.

DB: How well did that go down?

DS: Byrne was trying to ignore us, I think. Mark and I were having fun with it. I just have a little trouble wrapping my head around the notion of a grown man whose entire life is centered around comics. It's fun, it's a nice way to make a living, but one should have other interests as well--cooking, motorcycles, history, astronomy, something.

You're going to have to open a Dave Simons museum.

DB: I'll have a Simons museum next door to my Breyfogle one. You've signed on with Renne Witterstaeder - what do you think she'll be able to do for you?

DS: Renee has connections. I can get work, as demonstrated by my two recent AoD jobs, but she can (I expect) get me better paying work.

DB: Any closing thoughts?

DS: Just want to say how thankful I am to you, Bob Shaw, the Colans, Alan Weiss, everyone who's helped and all the fans--yes, even the ones on Facebook!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Dave Simons: 1954 - 2009

I hate this. Seriously I do. It's been no secret that Dave Simons has been seriously ill for a number of years now and it's with the heaviest heart of them all that I sadly have to report that Dave passed away tonight. He was 54 years old.

In his career Dave worked with some of the giants of animation and comic books. He was one of the best inkers to work with Gene Colan since Tom Palmer, a fact that Dave was damned happy to hear, especially when that praise came from Gene. He worked with Bob Budiansky on one of the best runs seen on Ghost Rider in the books life, and beyond. He worked with almost anyone you care to mention. His attention to detail and apparent inability to turn in a bad job held him in excellent stead and made him one of the go-to inkers of his generation. His generosity to others was known amongst his peers and there's several inkers and artists who'll happily tell you that Dave helped them along their way and gave them a start in their comic book careers.

Dave was a true visionary who never really got his due amongst the comic book buying public at large. Dave moved from comic books into animation and move through the ranks at a surprising speed into direction and production, along the way he was able to hire people he knew to be out of work and as such was able to provide an income for them. When the animation wound down Dave moved back to New York.

Dave was diagnosed with cancer a few years back and, Dave being Dave, told everyone who'd listen how he'd beaten it stone cold. Sadly that wasn't the truth and he emailed me earlier in the year to tell me some crushing news - the cancer was back, with a vengeance and the doctors had given him anywhere from six months to two years to live. Dave thought this was incorrect and decided to beat them at their own game, but, again Dave being Dave, he never once let on to anyone as to exactly how ill he really was.

Early this year Dave mixed his medication up and fell into a coma that he very nearly didn't recover from. This woke him up to an extent and he began to make moves as to what he was going to do next. He wanted to move out of where he was living and provide a better environment for both himself and his cat, Smokey. Again, Dave was thinking more of Smokey than himself, but Dave's heart was always strong and bigger than most. Ironically it wasn't the cancer that claimed Dave, he'd been fighting an infection that developed into pneumonia. Dave's immune system, already weakened by his constant battles, simply couldn't cope.

My own memories of Dave are varied. I won't post all of them here, as they're very personal at the moment. I contacted Dave in 2004 and interviewed him because I wanted to speak to the guy who made me happy as a lad reading Ghost Rider. Dave warned me that he wrote better than he spoke, but then said he wasn't all that interesting. Sure he wasn't. I later reconnected with him and began to assist him by buying his art and establishing his web-site, which he once said brought him a lot more money than he ever expected. Typical of Dave he never once accepted my offer to do his site out of love and insisted on sending me as many rejected commissions and preliminaries as he could stuff in a package. Working with Bob Shaw, we established the Dave Simons Appeal and it was through the generosity of the comic book community that Dave's last few months were as good as they were. Dave wasn't one to take all of this lying down and kept working on commissions right up to the end. That was Dave. He'd have hated to think that someone had ordered a commission from him and never gotten it. That was typical of Dave and his respect for being such a hard worker carried him through. Says Walter Simonson, "Dave was a good guy, a hard worker, a fine inker, and more than that, he was Inherently Notable! I’m delighted we had a chance to hang out a little at the last NYCC. We swapped sketchbooks, and I very much regret that we won’t be able to hang out and do the same thing the next time around. He’ll be missed."

I was honoured that Dave not only wanted me to write about him on his site, but also on other sites. Indeed we had just begun working on the story of his life and his last email to me was to pass on a lot of names and suggestions. His energy was infectious and we'd also started working on a project that we'd both developed called Donna Thyme - Dave had done the illos and we'd bashed out the concept together. He wanted a script before the end of June so he could start pencilling.

Our last great battle was with the Wikipedia people. Dave asked me to get him onto that site, being the self-promoter that he was. I did so only to see the entry removed as they deemed Dave not to be 'inherently notable'. That fired me up and, fueled by Dave who watched on with a large sense of amusing, although he exhibited public outrage, we got both the Wiki entry up, with assistance from Michael Netzer, and began the Dave Simons Appreciation Society on Facebook. Dave was so tickled that he began to use the term 'Inherently Notable' in everything that he did, although he'd not admit it.


In my last interview with Dave I asked him what his perfect comic book would have looked like. His reply, "Conan The Barbarian. Figures by John Buscema, backgrounds by Barry Smith, costumes by Steranko and the whole thing inked by Wally Wood. Written by Roy Thomas, of course. Wouldn't that have been great?" Like anything that Dave did the answer was yes...

I'll miss Dave...I'll miss his laughter, his joy, his light and his sheer energy. Nothing got Dave down, even at his lowest moments he never showed it. And I know, I spoke to him at his lowest moments.

As time passes and arrangements are made, details will be posted on this blog. In the meantime, if you have a message that you'd like passed on to Dave's family, or a memory, or a tribute that you'd like to make public then feel free to email me and I'll be sure to get it into the right hands.

For now I'll leave the last words to a person who knew and worked with Dave since the 1970s. Says Gene Colan, "Dave was a young man full of life. I was on the phone with him the night before last. His voice was very weak and he mentioned he might go down to Tennessee and be with his Sister. I strongly encouraged him.

"In all the decades I've known Dave and worked with him, he never complained once. Never...about anything. Even with last year's diagnosis, he remained spirited and helpful to his fellow artists, me among them! Adrienne and I loved Dave's art. He had a thorough understanding of pen and ink. There was a joy in his art that beautifully transferred to the board.

"We're very very sad and will miss Dave deeply. I need to believe in Heaven. Perhaps we get all the art assignments we want, with no deadlines and anything we decide to draw is received with joy and celebration. A 'bullpen' where all we do is clown around and draw what we want. I think Dave would love that!"

Monday, June 08, 2009

25th August, 1967, 4:28pm

This post will be absolutely no interest to anyone unless they've got even a remote interest in me and when I was born, which narrows the audience down to a handful. In fact I expect I could count that audience on one hand with several fingers left over.

Over the past few years I've been buying a pile of these TV Guides, mainly because they can fetch handsome sums on the collectors market. The past few hundred that I've bought all come from the same collection and span the years from 1961 through to around 1991. Great collection, and, to be totally honest, I've made quite a few dollars from them. Still I've been seeking the one issue that we all look for - the magazine that comes from the date of your birth.

This weekend I hit pay dirt. In the collection that I recently bought I found an issue that has the date of my birth - 25th of August, 1967. Finally I can see what was on TV at the moment of my birth, and what was on that day in general. A quick phone call to my mother gave me the essential information - I was born at 4:28pm, which means the TV was on, but, as I was born in a hospital in a fairly poor suburb, I expect that televisions were more of a luxury for the rich than a bonus for the poor in 1967. In fact I can't recall us having a television until the early 1970s - my own personal memory bank (which, as I've demonstrated to my own family, is bloody impressive) tells me that we watched the moon landings in 1969 at a neighbours house, in glorious black and white - and yes, my memories go back that far, and further.

The front of the TV Guide has none other than the Monkees! Gawd, why couldn't it have been the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. But when you consider that other issues of the same era have people like Anne Wills or Roger Cardwell on the covers, well it could be far, far worse.

So what was on? My mother insists that she wasn't watching any television that evening and that's her loss. I doubt I was up for watching anything either, but at the exact moment of my birth the following choices were available in Adelaide:

CHANNEL 2 - The Forest Rangers - 'Survival'. Dating from 1963 (progressive TV back then) this show had already been cancelled in it's native Canada for around two years. This episode was the 34th in series one. Never seen this show at all.

CHANNEL 7 - Mickey Mouse Club. I have no idea what was showing, or what era of the Mouse Club was represented. I can recall the Mouse Club and I remember I wasn't overly impressed. I always preferred Warner Brothers over Mickey Mouse, and I always thought that Heckle & Jeckle, when they were at their most violent, would be able to wipe out Duckburg on their own.

CHANNEL 9 - The Channel Niners with The Three Stooges. Now we're making sense. The Stooges!! I remember watching the Stooges in the early mornings. My mother would sit me in front of the radiation emitting tube and let it babysit me with the Stooges and I Love Lucy. It never affected me, surely. Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk...

CHANNEL 10 - Cartoon Club. Again, I have no idea what would have been shown here. Bugs Bunny was on Channel 9, which means that they had all the good cartoons. Channel 10 would have had the crap that was left over, although they did have the broadcast rights to Top Cat, a show which I later identifed with crime, drug use, bullying and a general disregard for authority. Oh, and it being a template for Hogan's Heroes.

Looking at the book I just missed out on watching Kimba The White Lion - a show I used to watch religiously as Kimba The White Lion was the one and Father Knows Best. I could live with that, but look! I popped out in time to watch a classic Dr Who - 'The Highlanders, Part I'. The first part of a four part story starring the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton. This was a fairly fresh episode and is now lost to time. Just imagine, if only my wee brain was able to digest, I could say I saw it. In a way I can still say I did - after all I was born just in time...

Monday, June 01, 2009

Trevor Von Eeden.com Is Now LIVE

It's now official. After months of hard work and preparation the official web-site for artist/writer Trevor Von Eeden is now LIVE!! On the site you'll find previously unseen art, a massive section devoted to the genesis of Black Lightning, scripts, pencil art and much, much more. Trevor has also supplied a lot of behind the scenes material in the form of memories and more, so visit and keep going back - more will be going up all the time.

Horwitz Strange Tales #6: Bramley vs Kirby

I was very, very happy to get this one in the mail this morning. This is issue #6 of the Horwitz series, Strange Tales and the book is virtually a straight reprint of Journey Into Mystery #88.

The best part about this comic is the cover - but then I believe that the Maurice Bramley covers are always the best things about the Horwitz books and this is no exception. The cover itself is not so much a Bramley swipe, but an adaption of the original splash page as drawn by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. The key, as it is with virtually all of Bramley's covers, is in the detail. You could argue, and probably quite successfully, that Kirby's original art is very dynamic, but it does lack the sheer detail that Bramley managed to insert into his cover - and if you think I'm joking then check out the detail, even down to the boots.

The one aspect that does let Bramley down is the static pose that he's placed Thor in. His Loki works far better but this is still a splendid cover from an artist who is largely overlooked in this day and age. Check out the planets in the background. Bramley having a bit of a fun with the readers here.

STRANGE TALES #6
Horwitz
Published circa 1963

Contents: The Vengeance Of Loki by Stan Lee; Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers (Journey Into Mystery #88)
Behind Locked Doors by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Journey Into Mystery #88)
Long Live The Queen by Stan Lee & Don Heck (Journey Into Mystery #88)
Pirates by Maurice Bramley (1page, Australian original)

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

2009 Inkwell Awards Roundtable Interview

In what has now become an annual event, the 2009 Inkwell Awards round table is posted and ready to be read. Like last years interview a number of diverse people involved with the awards were interviewed - this year sees Bob Almond, Bob Shaw, Dave Simons, Jimmy Tournas, Dan Panosian, Ernie Pelletier, and Mark McKenna, and some idiot named Daniel Best. Yeesh!

Without wanting to sound too vainglorious, the interview itself is actually quite interesting to read. It was conducted over a period of about ten days, edited together by yours truly and is now out there for the world to judge. Be kind.

Next up will be the voting for the awards themselves!!

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Coming In September, 2009

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Banned In Adelaide

What will the coppers here do??

Monday, May 18, 2009

My Father, My Grief...

Eventually I knew this day would have to come, and now that it has I have no idea how to feel. I was tipped off, so to speak, a few weeks ago about my father and his ailing health, how the cancer that he boasted he’d beaten to me last year had returned with a vengeance and was now beyond treatment. How he’d been sent home as there was nothing left that could be done for him and how he’d made his own peace with the world that he existed in, and how he was content because his family were going to be by his side.

The last part, typical of my father, wasn’t quite the truth. Two members of his family were never going to be by his side before the end, my brother and me. But, as my father was always a fantasist, a little fact like that was never going to stop him. He loved to bend the truth to suit himself; not in a good way, ala Big Fish, but in a twisted way. It suited him to tell me how he always sent birthday cards with cash as gifts in them only to have them sent back by my mother, sans money. How he had a suitcase full of letters and cards that had been returned over the years in his attic. How my mother had thrown him, bodily, out of the house after beginning an affair with another man. How my uncle was a criminal bum. How my mother refused to allow him to speak to us while we were growing up, and vice versa. In fact, if you had a truth, my father had his own version of it. The only problem was, very little of what he said was true.

My father left us just before Christmas in 1977. His parting gift to us was to walk down the driveway, after my mother refused to entertain the thought of him bringing his newborn baby daughter home, along with his mistress, so we could all live as one happy family. I can clearly remember the day that he walked down the driveway and out of our lives. My brother, Hugh, his first born son, called his name, he didn’t even flinch, never looked back, just walked off. My brother never spoke to him again after that. As far as he was concerned he died in his eyes. I always clung to the thought that perhaps, one day, if I was really good, he’d return.

He didn’t.

My uncle, Geoff, took it upon himself to raise my three bothers and I, to mould us into an image that he hoped would see us better ourselves and escape our environment. To his credit, he succeeded. I loved him dearly, still do, and his passing in 1983 left a gaping wound that has never fully healed. I named my first born after him and I like to think that Geoff would have had a lot of fun with him, but sadly Geoff, much like my father, never met Geoffrey. Perhaps, one day, Geoffrey will meet his namesake – in an odd way I know he’s looking over him. Throughout those years my father would call every so often and speak to us, including me. Each time he’d ask me to leave home and come live with him and would paint a picture of a large house, full of love, fun and happiness. Instead of making me want to run it had the opposite effect – I loathed his new family for having all the things we didn’t. He didn’t endear himself to me in the slightest. My mother never stood in my way and encouraged me to write to both my father and my grandmother, who we’d not heard from since my father had left. I never got a reply.

Flash forward a few years and I was a mess. I took it upon myself to find my father as I wanted answers. Young and stupidity runs hand in hand. My older brother, Barry, told me to beware, my mother gave me the single best piece of advice she ever has. “He’ll start talking,” she said, “and when he does, remember the dates and do the math.” That’s all she said. Brilliant.

I drove all night, cliché as it sounds, and found his house from directions that my step-sister had given me. I waited out the front until he walked out to get his newspaper and approached him. He wasn’t the same man I remember; he walked slumped over and was a shadow of what he once was. Even worse, he didn’t recognise me at all, although he’d later claim that he did. I introduced myself and after embracing we went inside to catch up on nearly 10 lost years. That’s when the lies began. I won’t go into much detail, suffice to say that nothing he said added up to me. My mother was right, the sums were askew. The legendary suitcase was mentioned, I asked to see it. I expressed my desire to read the letters and cards, so that I could better understand those days and perhaps release some of my anger. “Later,” I was told. Always later. Over twenty three years later I’m still waiting. I knew it didn’t exist though so it’s not been a vain wait. He mentioned my mother throwing him out. I mentioned that he left nine years previously and had a ten year old daughter. I told him I wasn’t a mathematician, but I could add and I did understand that in order to have as child you need a good year to lead up, that made his infidelities nearly twelve years old at a good estimate, to this he did what he did very well – he ignored what was in front of him and just kept to his story. There were other, numerous lies, and eventually I fled to Melbourne where I lived for the next few years.

I saw him, off and on, after that. I attempted to reach out to him, with varied results, over the years. Each time he’d do, or say, something that’d just anger me. Like the time I invited him to my first wedding. He turned up and mentioned that he was staying with cousins of mine who lived, and had always lived, no more than 20 minutes away from where I grew up. They knew who we were, they just never bothered to visit. Now my father wanted to bring them to the wedding and couldn’t understand my (strong) denial. Like the time I drove all night to see him, only to be shunned as he spent all his time fawning over my older brother, Barry – who wasn’t his biological son (my brother, Hugh, and myself are the first two he had). He couldn’t understand why I was angry, nor could he understand my refusal to drink with him at 6:00am in the morning. And so on and on until I finally had enough and just stopped calling. He didn’t call me either, to be fair. I don’t think he ever forgave me for naming my son after my uncle and not him, nor do I think he ever understood why, even though I told him.

Each time I’d speak to my step sister she’d mention to me how he was. I’d take interest and then I got a call, on Christmas Day, of all days, two years back, telling me that he had terminal cancer. Merry Christmas, I thought. “Brilliant,” I said, “thanks for that.” I phoned him and we spoke for the first time in over a decade, and, as it’d turn out, for the last time. He was full of his usual fibs; how he’d beaten cancer, it was a joke and how he was going to come and visit and spent time with us all. I blanched at the last claim and with the viewpoint of an adult chastised him. I told him to stop being so bloody stupid and face up to what was happening. He wasn’t going to visit, he had to get well. He didn’t do any of that.

He got worse. We had a chance to see him, I just couldn’t do it. I had the chance to call him, to say goodbye perhaps, I didn’t do that either. Then the dreaded phone call came, last night. He passed away at 3pm, at peace, the pain had left him, momentarily, and he slipped off. If the end was quiet and pain free I could gift him that. I calmed my step-sister down, she was very distraught, and then began to make calls. My mother was upset, my bother and my daughter and myself all feel the same emotion – blankness. I’m not happy, I’m not sad. I’m not angry, nor am I glad. I’m just numb. I expect that an emotion will hit me at some stage, it’s been a bastard of a month, but until it does I’ll operate on auto-pilot and wait.

I have a week to decide if I want to attend his funeral. Again, I have no idea if I will or if I won’t. That choice will come to me and I’ll go from there, but, like everything else associated with my father, whatever I decide will be in my best interests, as everything he did was in his best interests. Part of me wants to go, part of me doesn’t want to deal with seeing his family, his extended family, all united in their grief and wondering why I, his son, rejected him and isn’t standing there in the same screaming heap as they are. Perhaps the best thing I can do for him, and his family, is show respect and stay away.

Who knows? It’d be no use turning to my father for advice; he’d simply ignore the question and move on to the next drink. I hope he has found the peace that evaded him in life, which was filled with pain and turmoil, much of which was his own doing. If it helps him, and other members of his family, I bear him no malice. As I told my step-sister, what problems we had I’ve dealt with and will be buried with him. He can go easy as far as I’m concerned. I have enough respect to afford him that.

I know I never said goodbye, but then neither did he over thirty years ago. I think I’ll leave that open ended, as he did. Such is life.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Original Art Stories: Captain America's Letters

Interesting stuff this. Currently on eBay at the moment are a selection of Captain America letters pages - those pages that a few of us often read but the bulk of people probably ignored totally. What makes these pages interesting is that they all feature a mix of production art in the form of the letters themselves (pasted on) and images - some of which appear to be original art and the rest appear to be mechanical artwork with slight touch ups. Such touch ups doesn't really mean it's original art, but damn, they look kinda cool.

My question - has anyone out there actually seen one of these in the flesh, and if so, how many of them actually contain original art in it's purist form?

This page is from Captain America #273. The art here isn't original - the Spider-Woman ad, but apparently has been touched up. It's clear that this ad isn't the original art as it appeared in several Marvel comics at the same time, having said that, it is a cool little ad indeed.



These two pages are from the same issue, that being #266, or so the description says. The description also states that the art, by Gene Colan and Mike Zeck, contain a mix of original and mechanical art. Say what you will, but if they are original art in their pure form then both would be worth owning - after all the images of Captain America aren't drawn by an intern, but by two classic Captain America artists.

And that Zeck image at the top of the page is worth the price of the page alone. I have to say, if I wasn't already committed to a few art purchases of my own, I'd be very tempted to grab at least the Colan one, and possibly the Zeck to keep the pair together. I'd want to be sure that the art is original though.

Closing it out are two pages of letters that most certainly contain original art and are far older, but far less desirable. The last two pages you see here are from Spyman #2, as published by Harvey Comics in 1966. The artists on the title included Dick Ayers, George Tuska and Reed Crandall, the writer is believed to be Joe Simon and, as if it couldn't get any better, the character was an original concept from none other than Jim Steranko. Now you can't do much better than that!

Both pages have colours which make up the bulk of the original art on show, in fact these are virtually colour guides. The image of Spyman appears to be original, but is more likely to be production art, only with original colours overlaid.

The most amusing part of these two pages are the letters themselves. Have a good look - every letter on the pages are fabricated by the editors of Harvey. Brilliant!

Now that kind of stuff you just can't buy. Oh, hang on, you actually can.

Original Art Stories: Gene Colan's Dubious Daredevil #1: MYSTERY SOLVED

Since I went public with the concerns surrounding the Gene Colan Daredevil #1 piece the consignor has come forward with the following explanation, "Hello everyone, I am the original consignor of this piece. I arranged to have it done directly with Gene and Adrienne many years ago as a gift for my husband. It was to be the first in a series of Daredevil cover recreations and this was before Gene had started doing Daredevil cover recreations. If anyone is interested I do have the original letter that accompanied this piece when Gene sent it to me.

"Over the years we have donated a lot of original art to various charities and this was one of those pieces. I hope this helps clear things up."

Now, if only Heritage could have done that, instead of being as vague as they are. As it stands, the art is genuine, so bid away!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Original Art Stories: Gene Colan's Dubious Daredevil #1

I'm sure I'll cop some flack from this one. The art you see here is currently up for auction over at the Heritage web-site. The official description states, Gene Colan Daredevil #1 Penciled Cover Re-Creation Original Art (undated). Celebrated as one of the Man Without Fear's best artists, Colan has re-created the landmark, first cover appearance of Marvel's Daredevil, and he has captured all the vitality and charm of the Jack Kirby and Bill Everett cover in his homage. Drawn in pencil, this piece has an image area of 10" x 16.25", and the art is in Excellent condition.

Now I have an issue with this, and I'm not alone. Three other people also have an issue with this - Gene Colan, his wife, Adrienne and his long time inker, Dave Gutierrez, and frankly they'd know. Gene doesn't remember drawing it, Dave, who usually sees these things, doesn't remember seeing it. So what is it? I'm not sure, but I am fairly convinced that it's not a Gene Colan Daredevil #1 recreation.

Why? Really, it's simple, but let's have a look shall we?

This is the signature from the Heritage Colan. It's undated and very, very shaky. Even in his worst days Gene's hand wasn't that unsure, especially when it comes to writing his own name. Plus, according to his wife, Adrienne, "Gene's signature doesn't have that 'hook' on the top of the 'G' and does not go up at the end of 'n'," and you'd expect the Colan's to know Gene's own handwriting. Compare the above signature with this one:
and you'll soon see what I mean. The other thing to watch for is that Gene almost always dates his work. I have a sketch that I bought as part of a deal, from Gene, to coincide with the release of his book, Secrets In The Shadows, and even something as small as a sketch is dated. However there are examples of Gene's work out there with undated signatures - I own one. With that in mind I scanned the signature and here it is:Compare the line work of that signature with the one from the Heritage Colan (the first signature example shown here) and tell me if the same guy did them both. I have my own (serious) doubts.

The other indicator for me is the presence of the logos and the like. Try as I might I can't really find an example of where Gene has done a Daredevil recreation where he's penciled in the text and logos. Here's a recreation from 2005:and here's the finished inks, side by side, for comparison:

As you can clearly see the logo's have been added in at the inking stage, not during the pencils. I'm also dubious about Gene doing a recreation of someone else's work, but then stranger things have happened. That Gene can't recall this particular piece of art and has asked for provenance from Heritage speaks volumes. I'm not saying this is an outright fake, but I would say, caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. Someone might pay a very high price for this only to discover that it's not what they think it is.

I'll be watching this auction with great interest, and any updates that might arrive from the Colans themselves, I'll be sure to post, one way or another.

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Further to this: The Colan's have contacted Heritage to express their doubts about the piece in question. The main concerns, from the Colans, are as follows: the signature doesn't look like Gene's signature (as outlined above), Gene doesn't draw in other artists style, Gene rarely, if ever, does recreations of covers that he didn't originally draw, Gene can't recall drawing it - now you'd think, if this were genuine, that Gene would remember drawing it. He remembers art he drew in the '50s, why not this one?

Heritage have replied stating that the consignor of the art bought it from an un-named 'reputable' dealer some years back and that both Heritage and the consignor believe it's real. Heritage have also stated that, "...unless you (the Colans) —or someone else—has something stronger than vague recollections or a bit of doubt, it’s honestly not fair to our consignor to call into question the authenticity."

I guess the doubts of the artist aren't enough in this case. Ok, I'll put this to Heritage - I strongly believe that the Gene Colan signature was not done by Gene Colan. It looks nothing like every other Gene Colan signature out there, it's undated and looks too rough to be a genuine Colan. Heritage is out there to make money, both for the consigner and themselves, so it's in their best interests to deny any claim of fraud in relation to the art until after the auction is finished and paid for.

Again, buyer beware. Until Gene comes out and says he did draw it, or someone can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's real, I'll still insist that this art is dubious and might well be a fake. I'd not touch it with a pole.