After a month that saw Disney gobble up Marvel, Paul Levitz step aside at DC, and Jack Kirby’s heirs opening up a copyright reclamation project, it’s kinda nice to slide into October where leaves are dropping faster than Wizard employees. There’s lots of great stuff for your weekend pleasure. From Art Spiegelman and Julie Schwartz to Carl Barks and Jim Aparo and even Evan Dorkin. It’s nice to curl up on a blustery fall day with some warm links. Enjoy!

Julie Schwartz and Forry Ackerman: Once upon a time, they teamed up and almost got some poor kid kicked out of comic book convention. Sort of. This is from the current issue of Guy H. Lillian III’s fanzine, Challenger, which also boasts an NSFW sketch by Wally Wood and the story behind it that involves the artist Kelly Freas. Fans with Bat-walkers who wear Superman Depends may remember Lillian as a long-time DC Comics letterhack from the 1970s.

Carl Barks: In 1976, there was a comic book convention in Boston called Newcon. Among the guests: Carl Barks, John Stanley, Harvey Kurtzman, Joe Kubert, Jim Steranko, Dick Giordano, Mike Kaluta, Gil Kane, and Bob Overstreet. Cartoonist Bill White was there and met Barks. Says Bill, “I asked him for a drawing of one of the Duck family. He said he was sorry, but recently the Disney company had revoked his rights to draw the Ducks.” Go Team Disney!

DC Field Trip: The letterer Todd Klein took a trip to DC Comics to explore their logo archives, the comic book equivalent of an archeological dig. Needless to say, he found good stuff.

Jim Aparo: Blogger Dave Karlen has a nice appreciation for the Charlton/DC Comics artist, with several pages of great Aparo art, shot from the original b&w pages.

Happy Hooligan: If you read this comic strip when it was originally published, chances are, you’re deader than the local paper. The critic Bill Sherman takes a look at the new collection of Frederick Burr Opper’s classic courtesy of NBM and likes what he sees.

Over at Bookgasm, critic Rod Lott takes a look at The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly, which features great classic work by Will Eisner, Jack Cole, John Stanley, Sheldon Mayer, Dick Briefer and Walt Kelly. He likes what he sees too: “Pound for pound, page for page, penny for penny, you won’t find a more thoroughly enjoyable book all year than this collection.”

Warren Ellis: Mystery novelist Bill Crider discovers Crooked Little Vein.

Bunty: Cartoonist Rod McKie pauses to reflect on a 1970s British comic for girls that was recently reprinted and stuffed in The Guardian, the venerable British newspaper. Says Rod: “The story Tommy the Tomboy, with its ridiculous schooling premise, its stereotypes and its anachronistic ideas about lady-like reactions makes us laugh for all the wrong reasons today; and perhaps would even have raised eyebrows in 1972, but the art is accomplished and attractive.”

Bizarro Meets Frankenstein: Need me add less to that?

Francis Marshall: If I had the money, I’d absolutely buy either the first or the third one of these paintings.
(thanks, Leif Peng)

Evan Dorkin: Dark Horse has a nice interview up with the writer of Beasts of Burden (and the creator of Milk and Cheese, the non-Kraft variety). Here’s Evan on the genesis of Beasts: “The first story started with a haunted doghouse, and that was owing to the theme of the Book of Hauntings. I knew I wanted to do a haunted house story, because I like those, especially older creepy stories and books like The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and Richard Matheson’s Hell House.” Lots more where that came from.

Marko Djurdjevic: He sure draws good.

Jeff Mariotte: It’s the Year Of The Short Story for him and he’d like you to know about his new one.

Sarah Oleksyk: Another reason why I love comics.

Sentinels: Separated at birth? Does this robot from 1964 remind you of an X-Men villain?

Mini-Comics: Johanna Draper Carlson has some solid pr advice for small press publishers.

That’s it for now. Click, read and enjoy!

[Artwork: A really nice Jim Aparo Spectre cover © DC Entertainment]