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Mark Trail is probably the longest-surviving strip of its kind, and maybe the only one of its kind. Part adventure strip, part mystery, part Animal Planet and with plots so simple they make the Hardy Boys seem like James Ellroy. Here’s an easy way to solve any current Mark Trail mystery: The guys with the weird facial hair that travel by small plane are guilty, especially if they’re brothers or cousins.
Still, I’m fascinated that it’s survived long enough to be a legacy strip, carried on by another generation of cartoonists, Jack Elrod. One of my favorite websites, the Comics Curmudgeon regularly pokes Mark Trail and snuffs out his campfire of adventure.
Continuing my series on cartooning and cartoonists, Ed Dodd (or someone credited as such) 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 Dodd on Dodd:
Click to continue reading Ed Dodd and Mark Trail
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Olivia Munn Rumored to Play the Wasp
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Interviews, Movies, Marvel Comics,
Geeks all over are abound with glee this weekend to read that G4 host Olivia Munn will possibly be donning wings for Iron Man 2.
An e-mail sent by an “old, fairly reliable” source reveals that Munn is set to portray the wealthy Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. The Wasp.
It has been confirmed in July 2009 that director Jon Favreau had cast Munn in a cameo. Until recently, when the actress admitted that her cameo fell victim to editing Hell and was given another role. So we know that she has a part—it’s simply a guessing game at this point. Can she pull off the heavy shoes of an Avenger?
With some minor screen time in the Steve Carrell and Tina Fey comedy, Date Night and now a role in Iron Man 2, this former model is definitely making her name known in the film industry lately.
Read More 
| Forces of Geek via Cinema Blend
Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? Marvel Comics
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Marvel Comics,
I know it’s hard to believe that most comic book jobs that you find listed are not in the traditional creative fields of writing, drawing and editing. It just doesn’t happen. Those all go to an editor’s girlfriend’s brother’s cousin at least according to the paranoids. When you do find some nifty jobs in the field, you can bet they’re some kind of office gig with Aeron chairs picked up from an internet start-up bankruptcy sale.
Marvel Comics, The House of Mouse That Jack And Stan Built, in New York has a couple of those jobs in their cubicle farm system and they both look like fun. And by that I mean interesting. And by that I mean jobs that pay.
First up, Marvel is looking for a Creative Services Coordinator “to support the Creative Services Department with day-to-day and inter and intra-departmental needs and duties.”
So what is a CS Coordinator? The lucky job-holder will “be a key manager of the relationship between Creative Services and all the other divisions within Marvel, as well as outside vendors and business partners…to create, refine and drive processes that will increase the accuracy and efficiency of Creative Services’ daily functions, project coordination, intra-departmental communications, network, and launching projects.” Whew! Say that three times fast.
Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? Marvel Comics
Weekend Reading: Addams Family, Little Fuzzy, Danger Ace and Louisa May Alcott
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Interviews,
So your flight across the Atlantic was canceled due to volcano, and you’re stuck at home with just your computer. Why not click a few links and find out how a New Yorker cartoonist kept a diary of sexual conquests, how John Scalzi is rebooting Little Fuzzy, and Shary Flenniken tackles Alcott?
The Addams Family Man: Charles Addams, creator of The Addams Family which began as a series of cartoons in The New Yorker, became a 1960s TV series, then a couple of movies, and now a critically-reviled Broadway musical, is the subject of a detailed biography. Cartoonist Edward Sorel has a review that also chronicles some of the hot chicks of the era who hooked up with the cartoonist, including Veronica Lake and JFK’s wife. That’s right, a cartoonist got to shag Veronica Lake, and even kept a diary entry about it.
Danger Ace: Yes, you could be reading Brightest Day or Nemesis right now, but you should really try the online comic from Chad Bowers and Carl Yonder.
Slacker Radio Plus giveaway!
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Announcements, Features, Internet, Music,
Here at Gear Live, we love us some Slacker. If you don’t know, Slacker is a fantastic radio’s streaming music service. It has millions of songs in its catalogue, and real DJs actually control their channels, which means you get a great mix of songs that go well together. While Slacker is free, they also have a service called Slacker Radio Plus, which adds the following perks:
- Unlimited Skips
- Unlimited Song Requests
- No Audio or Banner Ads
- Complete Lyrics
- Over 2 Million Songs
So here’s what we are going to do - we are going to give away a two 1-year subscriptions and three 3-month subscriptions to Slacker Radio Plus, and we are going to make it ridiculously easy to enter. All you need to do if become a fan of Gear Live on Facebook, and leave a comment on our wall. That’s it. Next Friday we will select five random entrants and hit them with the goods.
Victor Gischler, Deadpool and The Deputy
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Marvel Comics,
Hey, do you like Victor Gischler’s work on Marvel Comics’ Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth and the new Deadpool Corps? I do, because I think they’re both laugh-out-loud funny while still being good “superhero” action. Did you also know that he’s a novelist? I’ve been a fan of his since Gun Monkeys came out and now he’s got a new book that just dropped called The Deputy.
There’s not a superhero in sight, but I think fans of Gischler’s comic book work will find much to enjoy in his prose. The Deputy is the story of a part-time Oklahoma deputy (see what he did there?) who’s called out to babysit a dead body. But when he gets distracted by his 17-year-old girlfriend and the body goes missing, The Deputy’s got his work cut out for him.
Sounds like fun and my copy’s already been ordered.
[Artwork: Cover to Victor Gischler’s The Deputy]
Read More | Victor Gischler
My buddy Shaun McLaughlin was a producer at Warner Bros. and responsible for some of their best Bruce Timm-related toons like Batman Beyond, Static, and various incarnations of Justice League. It adds up to over 400 episodes of prime animated entertainment, so he knows how to make something with mass market appeal.
He’s moved on to freelancing, pushing several projects through the development wormhole, including both an animated feature (with Omens Studios) and a live-action one. But when you’re in development, you get a lot of down time while you wait for people to make decisions, give notes, and update their social networks.
You could watch a lot of TV or surf the web or blog about your cat, but Shaun’s put his thumb-twiddling time to good use and come up with a nifty little project with his biz partner Gabriel Benson: Cheapjack Shakespeare.
Click to continue reading Shaun McLaughlin and Cheapjack Shakespeare
I met Jules Feiffer once at a party some years ago. He seemed uncomfortable (long before meeting me, thank goodness), but friendly and talkative, if that makes any sense. I can’t say we really had a conversation or that he’d remember I was even there - the best I could do was to mumble out that I was a big fan. I read his work in The Village Voice for a number of years when I used to commute into Manhattan, his book The Great Comic Book Heroes was one of my early Rosetta Stones for comics and I’ve probably seen his animated short Munro as many times as I’ve seen What’s Opera, Doc?
Continuing my series on cartooning and cartoonists, Jules Feiffer 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 Feiffer on Feiffer:
Click to continue reading Jules Feiffer and Danny Fingeroth
Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? Tokyopop!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, TokyoPop,
I know Spring Break just ended for everyone who’s not Lindsay Lohan, and that means summer’s coming and if you’re getting ready to graduate and jump into what’s left of America’s labor pool, or if you are already there and looking for something new and different in the field of comic books, then a good place to start shopping that resume could be out in Los Angeles, at the headquarters of manga publisher Tokyopop.
They have four (count ‘em 4) openings, starting with a Marketing Manager. In that position, you’ll be creating and executing “the Tokyopop marketing plans with a focus on online brand development and management, grassroots, and social media marketing” and reporting all to the Associate Publisher. In addition to getting your Twitter on with your Facebooking and your YouTubing, you’ll be heavily involved in the Tokyopop Tour, managing national and retail accounts and trying to figure out how to increase marketshare. (Unhelpful Hint: in the comics industry, that usually means putting more books on the schedule, so try to think outside of that particular box.)
Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? Tokyopop!
The comic book industry is like a city with a lot of restaurants. If you want to find something good, you need a recommendation. That’s how I discovered the most-excellent work of the twin brothers Brendon and Brian Fraim.
My friend J.C. Vaughn is not just the Executive Editor and Associate Publisher of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, he’s also a comic book writer. He pointed me in their direction because J.C., Brendon and Brian collaborated on the serialized adventure/mystery strip, Antiques, for The Antique Trader newspaper.
Their new project, Vampire, PA is debuting from Moonstone in June. J.C. wrote it, Brendon and Brian illustrated it and Mark Wheatley is coloring it. There’s a great 8-page preview of the first issue over at Vaughn’s website, Well-Defined Productions.
Click to continue reading Q&A: Brendon Fraim and Brian Fraim (Vampire, PA)
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