Weekend Reading: The Avengers, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dave Berg
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Movies, Independent, Marvel Comics
Now, how many times have you already seen The Avengers? Doesn't it just kick movie butt? And what movie do you think we'll be talking about all summer? Avengers or The Dark Knight Rises?
Avengers Assemble...in line! Former Malibu Comics publisher and co-founder Dave Olbrich (now a manager at Space Goat Productions) and for Malibu Comics Editor-In-Chief Chris Ulm (now the head guy at Appy Entertainment), show up at the :20 mark in this report from AMC theaters in southern California.
Longbox Graveyard goes Marathoning and Assembling for Avengers and other Marvel-based movies. “Five of my favorite superhero movies, in a day-long sitting, followed by a midnight debut of The Avengers! Seventeen hours in a movie theater, ninety minutes in the car each way getting there, a day off work to do it and another day off to recover. Great for a twelve-year-old, not-so-great if you’re half a century old. So I found a couple twelve-year-olds and went anyway.”
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Weekend Reading: The Damned, Apes, Simpsons and Tex Avery
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Television, Independent
Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, power outages. It's been a wild couple of climate change-enhanced weeks. Let's play catch-up across the internets:
Cullen Bunn is having a career year and let’s hope it’s the first of many. The creator of The Sixth Gun got his Oni Press series, The Damned, picked up by Showtime for a series. He’s already gotten The Sixth Gun optioned to SyFy for a series. If they both make it to air, Bunn will have two more shows on the air than DC Comics.
Apes: Rich Handley reviews the fourth issue of Darryl Gregory and Carlos Magno’s Planet Of The Apes, from Boom! “BOOM!’s Apes run stands on a pinnacle, one sure to end badly for humanity.” But all good for readers and fans.
Republicans: My pal Doug Molitor from Funny Or Die looks at 12 Republican super-heroes. My favorite? The Human Torturer!
Jack: Man, that’s a lot of nice Jack Davis work that Michael Sporn posted. I really love those western covers, too.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: The Damned, Apes, Simpsons and Tex Avery
Weekend Reading: Batman, Clint, Shooter, Granito And Rozum!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Movies, Reviews, DC Comics
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I have an idea for a great drinking game. Surf the internet and every time you come across a link to Bleeding Cool’s expose of Rob Granito, take a drink. You’ll be Lohan’ed before Monday. In the meantime, I await the Bluewater biography of Mr. Swipey McSwipe-swipe.
Let’s see what else is out there:
Batman: The writer Lance Mannion tries to teach his sons about Batman.
Liberty: Writer Martin Powell gets interviewed at Broken Frontier. Subject: his children’s books and The Halloween Legion and Liberty Unlimited, both of which I’m really looking forward to.
Blood: Mark Wheatley, Marc Hempel and Ricky Shanklin’s graphic novel Blood Of The Innocent is marching toward the big screen. Breck Eisner (The Crazies) is attached to direct and Bill Marsilii (Deja Vu) is writing the screenplay. According to Scoop: “The original comic book series set Dracula against Jack the Ripper and was published by Warp in 1985.”
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Batman, Clint, Shooter, Granito And Rozum!
Weekend Reading: Smallville, Big Nate and Star Wars
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Movies, Reviews
I know that we’re all thinking the same thing: how great it is that Michael Rosenbaum is coming back to Smallville for the big series finale. I’m stocking extra Doritos for my goodbye party.
Now that you’re sitting down, why not read a few things:
England: I missed this end of the year interview with head of brand marketing for DC Thomson John Paul Murphy. DC Thomson publishes, among other things, the British comics the Beano, the Dandy and Commando.
Art: After looking at these paintings from Britain’s War Picture Library, I can only conclude two things: (1) Giorgio De Gaspari is a terrific painter and (2) I want to see more!
Nate: Comic Strip Of The Day takes a look at Big Nate. “It is self-deprecating, self-reflective humor delivered on an adolescent level. And it works.”
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Smallville, Big Nate and Star Wars
Russ Cochran’s Inventory Clearance Sale!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Independent
2011 is still going to be a rough year for publishers, and longtime beloved publisher Russ Cochran is one of those having a troubled time.
I first learned about Russ's problems at Comics Beat. Now Alan David Doane at Trouble With Comics is reporting that Russ is holding a benefit sale to benefit himself… and he could use it.
To keep his books from falling into the wrong hands ("I would rather sell them to you, my faithful customers, at a lower price than to wholesale them to dealers and booksellers"), Russ is cutting deals by slashing prices to move out his inventory.
Some of the price cuts are outrageous. There's a list and a link at the Trouble With Comics post.
Russ has done some brilliant work over the years, creating beautiful hardcover volumes that preserve the work of classic EC Comics and MAD Magazine. I have a complete set of the MAD reprints in a nice slipcase and they are sweet, and yes, I take them out and read them pretty much every year.
If you've ever wanted to pick up some of these books, but have put it off for whatever reason, now's the time.
[Artwork: Tales From The Crypt, snagged from The Daily Crosshatch which also has a nice review of the book]
Weekend Reading: Joe Casey, Thor, Dr. Spektor and Drew Friedman
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies, DC Comics, Dynamic Forces, IDW Publishing, Independent, Marvel Comics
The War on Christmas is nearly done for another year, and there’s just enough time left for the War on New Year’s. Let's see what you should be reading this week:
Joe: This is simply a great, honest and open interview with Joe Casey, comic book writer/creator and co-creator of Ben 10. Perfect holiday reading from interviewer Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter.
Thor: So there’s some controversy from an all-white group that’s upset that Marvel has cast an actor of color to play a Norse God in Thor. Ricky Sprague at Project Child Murdering Robot has a thought or two.
Polly: Animator Michael Sporn is happy that Dean Mullaney’s new book has arrived (as am I). Polly and Her Pals: the Complete Sunday Comics 1925-1927 comes from Dean’s The Library of American Comics via IDW.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Joe Casey, Thor, Dr. Spektor and Drew Friedman
Weekend Reading: Green Lantern, Joss Whedon, Jack Kirby And James Bond
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies, Television, DC Comics
I spent Thanksgiving outside the US this year so I’m stuffed with stir-fried shrimp and chocolate ice cream, which made for an excellent breakfast of leftovers, because that's just how I roll.
If you’re out and about shopping now for the holidays, here’s the best Holiday Shopping Gift Guide you’re ever going to need for the 2010 credit card season, courtesy of Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter.
Let’s see what else is going on:
Green Lantern: If you’ve been in awe of the new Ryan Reynolds trailer for Green Lantern, there’s at least one person with an alternate view worth reading: Ricky Sprague at Project Child Murdering Robot. “The Green Lantern Corps is their ‘muscle,’ enforcing their rules of righteousness. They take creatures from various parts of the universe and have them fight 'evil.' There are lots of different GLs, made up of different species from different planets. You can see where this is starting to get lame.”
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Green Lantern, Joss Whedon, Jack Kirby And James Bond
Comic Book Jobs: DC Comics, Burbank
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics
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In the midst of their ongoing restructuring, DC Comics needs another warm body. This time, it's an Executive Assistant in their Burbank offices. The ad is from Time Warner, the division is DC Comics, but the posting is for an Exec Asst in the E.C. Publications office.
I could be wrong, and the ad doesn't state it, but that's MAD Magazine for those not up on their copyright knowledge.
The position provides "administrative support to the President," and that means coordinating meetings, researching and compiling information into reports, handling T&E expense reports, taking care of all incoming calls (and probably the outgoing ones too) and my favorite job responsibility: "other related tasks.
One of the bonus responsibilities is that you'll be interfacing "with talent, filmmakers and creative rights-holders as necessary in support of President and/or division executives."
Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: DC Comics, Burbank
Al Jaffee’s MAD Life
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews
“Is this a follow-up post about Al Jaffee?”
“No, it’s my grocery list. The internet will publish anything.”
In an earlier post about MAD Magazine‘s Al Jaffee, I reprinted a biographical piece he’d written in the early 1960s.
Jaffee wrote that he spent 6 years in Lithuania as a child with his Mom. His Dad stayed in the US but dutifully mailed Al’s beloved comic strips to him overseas. The story sounded like a fascinating morsel and I wanted to know more. And there is more. A lot more and it reads like a page-turning thriller.
Danny Fingeroth, the Senior VP of Education at MoCCA, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York, sent me a note about the post and told me about Al’s upcoming biography, Al Jaffee’s MAD Life. The book, written by Mary Lou Weisman, “covers the story of his chilling six years in Lithuania with his mother (as well as the rest of his life and career, of course),” says Fingeroth. And what a life that was (and still is, fortunately).
Click to continue reading Al Jaffee’s MAD Life
Al Jaffee: Tall Tales, MAD Magazine & Mocca
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials
“Is this a blog post about Al Jaffee?”
“No, it’s about Harvey Kurtzman. I just can’t spell.”
Al Jaffee, the creator of the classic Fold-In for MAD Magazine, as well as “Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions,” has a style that’s all his own. Goofy, buoyant and bouncy, you can enjoy his work even before you get to the gag.
From 1957-1963, he had a syndicated comic strip called Tall Tales that’s one of those classic strips that’s recently been rediscovered and thank goodness for that. Jaffee, a Reuben Award winner, is also getting his own exhibit at Mocca, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, in New York City. Titled “Is This The Al Jaffee Art Exhibit?” the show will debut later this fall.
Continuing my series on cartooning and cartoonists, Jaffee wrote about himself and his work back in 1964. This is pulled from an oversized saddle-stitched magazine from Allied Publications with the creatively-challenged title These Top Cartoonists Tell How They Create America’s Favorite Comics. It featured an introduction by Beetle Bailey’s Mort Walker and was compiled by Allen Willette.
Here’s Al on Jaffee and Tall Tales:
Click to continue reading Al Jaffee: Tall Tales, MAD Magazine & Mocca
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