TRIVIA MATTERS: Jack Kirby Convention Pin-Up!

A Jack Kirby pin-up featuring Dr. Doom that was distributed to Phil Seuling organized comic-cons back in 1978!

COVER GALLERY: His Name is... Savage! (Gil Kane's Savage!)

His Name is... Savage is a 40-page, magazine-format comic originally released in 1968, and created by the veteran comic book artist Gil Kane, who also plotted and illustrated the project, with writer Archie Goodwin, who scripted under the pseudonym Robert Franklin.  The black-and-white magazine was published by Adventure House Press, and distributed to newsstands.

The magazine was later re-released by Fantagraphics Books with a new cover and title in 1982:

PORTFOLIO: Mike Nasser and Rick McCullum

Mike Nasser is an American comic-book penciler of Lebanese origins. Changed his name to Michael Netzer in the 1980s... He worked with Marvel, DC Comics and other publishers in the `70s, `80s and `90s, on titles such as Howard the Duck, Superboy and Detective Comics.  Here's one of his own creations from 1977: Starspawn, which was a series of 4 black and white prints, each telling a phase of the story.

Rick McCollum has been called the Kirby of the fanzine world!  His most often used inker, Bill Anderson, said McCollum’s work was “light years away from what everyone else was doing,” and that his pencils were “the best of both worlds, very tight but open to interpretation.” Here's a pin-up illo by McCollum and Anderson from 1989!

Steven Spielberg Bringing "Locke & Key" to the Small Screen

Steven Spielberg is adapting Joe Hill's supernatural comic book series "Locke & Key" into a TV series.  Novelist Hill -- aka Stephen King's son -- and producers have set up the project at 20th Century Fox TV.

"Locke & Key" tells the story of the Locke children as they attempt to recover from the murder of their father by a psychotic high school student. The family moves to an island in Maine called Lovecraft, where the youngest Locke discovers a door to the supernatural.

Double page spread from "Locke & Key Head Games" # 3

CLASSIC COVER: Batman # 227

Excellent Batman cover by artist Neal Adams:

And the Detective Comics # 31 cover Adams was inspired by:

PORTFOLIO: Charles Vess and Ernie Colon

Charles Vess is an award winning American fantasy artist and comic-book illustrator who has specialized in the illustration of myths and fairy tales. Illustrator Arthur Rackham has been a major influence on Vess' work.  Vess has worked for Marvel and DC, among others and his work includes the Spider-Man: Spirits of the Earth (a 1990 graphic novel from Marvel), and a 10- issue run (#129-139) as cover artist of The Swamp Thing from DC Comics in 1993.  Here's a pen and ink piece from 1977:

Ernie Colón is an American comics artist who has worked for a host of comics companies, including Marvel and DC.  Colón's many credits include Arak, Son of Thunder and Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld for DC Comics; Damage Control and Doom 2099 for Marvel Comics. Ernie Colón started out at Harvey Comics where he worked on Richie Rich and Casper the Friendly Ghost.  Here's an illustration featuring the Burrough's character, John Carter of Mars, from 1978:

CLASSIC COVER: Amazing Adventures in the Life of Nelvana of the Northern Lights # 2

A rare cover from a 1940s Canadian comic featuring "Nelvana of the Northern Lights" created and drawn by Adrian Dingle, with the great tagline: "Eskimos - Mounties - Trappers"; these Canadian publications had color covers and usually black and white or duo-tone interiors and became known as "Canadian Whites".

CLASSIC COVER: Hulk # 197

Hulk #197 (1975) was the first meeting between The Hulk and Man-Thing!  And this classic cover is by none other than Berni Wrightson!

"DECODING STERANKO"

"Decoding Steranko" is an excellent exploration of Steranko's work and what he was attempting in his comics; and includes a discussion with Steranko! 

If you like Steranko's art or just want to learn more about the art of comics continuity, this article is well worth taking a look at! 

Here's the link: "Decoding Steranko" by James Romberger

CLASSIC COVER: Red Sonja # 1

GOLDEN AGE COMICS -- The Human Bomb

Police Comics # 1, 1941, had the distinction of introducing Plastic Man by Jack Cole and The Human Bomb by Paul Gustavson (Paul Carroll).  Although The Human Bomb ended in 1946, Gustavson created some memorable stories filled with saboteurs, subversives, Nazi spies and German U-Boat Captains!

In 1977, as a tribute to Paul Gustavson, who died April 27, 1977, C.C. Beck re-created The Human Bomb story drawn by Gustavson from Police Comics # 1.

"I had quite a struggle working in a style so different than my own," C.C. Beck commented, "Gustavson put twice as much copy and drawing into each page as I ever did, and sometimes his habit of making each panel a separate piece of art, each quite beautifully drawn, seemed to get in the way of his storytelling.  There was a good story there... violent, cruel and typical of the way we looked at the world in those days.  But it was confoundedly hard for me to find!  I kept getting lost in all the tipped perspectives and the elaborate settings and the flying figures which kept leaping out of the borders and off the pages.

C.C. Beck

"Some of the original features of Gustavson's work such as his detailed shading and his loving delineation of textures and his constant changing of his viewpoint I was quite unable to reproduce.  My mind just doesn't work that way!  But I loved his hero -- a guy wearing a baggy suit that looked like it had been dipped in cement!

"I found it funny that the 'famous explosives expert' is smoking a pipe while working on his super explosive. A wonder the whole story didn't end in panel 2!"

CLASSIC COVER: Cat-Man # 13

STRANGE GEMS: Dirk the Gerbil by Chester Brown

Chester Brown

Chester Brown is the strange alternative Canadian cartoonist best known for his comic "Yummy Fur" and a featured character called "Ed the Happy Clown", which was collected in graphic novel form by Vortex Publications in 1989 and later in an edition by Drawn & Quarterly.

Not as well known is the Chester Brown creation of "Dirk the Gerbil", featured here:

NOW AND THEN: Artist Dave Ross

Dave Ross is a Canadian comics artist who has mainly worked for American comics publishers like Marvel, DC and Dark Horse. Dave has worked on such Marvel titles as "Avengers West Coast", "Marvel Knights: Daredevil" and "The Inhumans".  At DC, he has worked on "JLA", "Batman and the Outsiders" and "Birds of Prey", to name a few. Here's some of Dave's recent work:

Commissioned piece featuring Iron Man vs. Kang the Conqueror

Penciled page from "Star Wars"

Dave's first published work however, was in Canada.  He wrote and illustrated a 5-page story which appeared in Gamut # 3 (1978) , published by Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario Canada, where Dave was taking the Graphic Story/Sequential Arts course at the time. And here's Dave's first published story:

Classic Cover: Superman vs. Muhammad Ali

TRIVIA MATTERS: Noel Sickles

Noel Douglas Sickles (January 24, 1910 - October 3, 1982) moved to New York in 1933, where he became a staff artist for Associated Press. Here, he was asked to take over the aviation comic 'Scorchy Smith', whose creator John Terry was suffering from tuberculosis. 

 
In the 'Scorchy Smith' comic, he had a brisk, impressionistic style of inking that he referred to as “chiaroscuro.”  Sickles also was adept in his use of the shading medium Zipatone.  His method of drawing became popular among other comic artists, and was particularly inspiring to Milton Caniff.  Sickles and Caniff worked together for two years, sometimes writing and drawing each other's strips.

Not as widely known was that they also did advertising work together, such as the 'Mr. Coffee Nerves' character for General Foods, using the pen-name Paul Arthur, of which we have a primo example:

Classic Cover for Today: Amazing Spider-Man # 28

TRIVIA MATTERS: Mort Leav

THE HEAP

Mort Leav was born in New York City in 1916.  He joined the Eisner-Iger shop in 1941 where for $30 per week he drew various titles like "Doll Man" and "Uncle Sam" for Quality and "The Hangman" for MLJ. In 1942 he designed his most famous character, "The Heap", and began working for Busy Arnold's Quality Group on "Blackhawk", and "Kid Eternity".  After a stint in the army, Mort Leav did several "Captain America's" for Timely before he became Art Director and chief artist at Orbit Publications in 1946 where he would draw almost all the cover and lead stories for various books, most notably "Wanted".

 When the comics market crashed in 1953, Leav went to work as a freelance commercial artist.  He later joined the Benton & Bowles ad agency, becoming an Art Director and drew some of the first television storyboards... among them the famous "Don't squeeze the Charmin" campaign for Proctor & Gamble featuring "Mr. Whipple".

Be Scared. Be Very Scared!

Bluewater Productions is doing a comic based on Fox's hit show "Glee"; a part of their "Fame" series which gives "a look at the lives of the actors and creative talent" on the show.

And here's the really scary cover!  Turn away if you're easily frightened!!!

RARITIES: Gamut

"Gamut" was a magazine published by Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario during the 1970s; the purpose of the magazine was to hi-light artwork from the students of their Graphic-Story/Sequential Arts class.  Each issue had a cover provided by a top professional, such as Berni Wrightson, Mike Ploog and of course, master comics artist Will Eisner!

This wrap-around cover by Eisner shows a few of his most famous creations: Hawk of the Sea, Uncle Sam, Sheena the Jungle Girl and The Spirit!

We'll try and dig up more of these rare and great covers!

Classic Cover for Today: Fantastic Four # 33

Forgotten SuperHeroes: "The Northern Light"

A re-imagining of a Canadian superhero, "The Northern Light" was brought to life by the team of writer James Waley and artist Jim Craig.  Their definitive version of the character appeared in issues 4 and 5 of Waley's ORB magazine and later in Power Comics # 4.

Very Cool Limited-Edition Scott Pilgrim Posters!!

A pair of limited-edition Scott Pilgrim posters by artist Martin Ansin will be sold at the Fantastic Fest/Ain’t It Cool News screening.  The first poster, above, was just released and a limited number of each poster will be available starting August 13, 2010 on the website Mondo.