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Remembering Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews,
Can it really be just 14 years ago - December 31, 1995 - that Bill Watterson said goodbye to Calvin and Hobbes and left the comics pages and most of us very, very sad? That’s longer than the 10 years that the strip ran. In honor of the anniversary of Calvin And Hobbes’ retirement, here’s a quote from Watterson about how the strip came to be:
“It was a slow process, and actually what happened is another odd coincidence. One of the strips I’d sent (the syndicate) had Calvin and Hobbes as minor characters. Calvin was the little brother of the strip’s main character, and Hobbes was like he is now, a stuffed tiger that came to life in Calvin’s imagination. One of the syndicates suggested that these two characters were the strongest and why didn’t I develop a strip around them? I had thought they were the funniest characters myself, but I was unsure as to whether they could hold their own strip. I was afraid that maybe the key to their wackiness was the contrast between them and the more normal characters in the rest of the strip. I wasn’t sure Calvin and Hobbes would be able to maintain that intensity on their own. But I tried it, and almost immediately it clicked in my mind; it became much easier to write the material.
Click to continue reading Remembering Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson
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James Childress was a genius. A sharp, funny writer and a terrific cartoonist who deserves to be better known and whose work should be written about more often. After years of trying, he finally developed Conchy, a comic strip about a group of beachcombers that resembled Johnny Hart’s B.C. in certain stylistic bits, but his humor was not as mean-spirited and sitcomish. Childress’ work was infinitely more thoughtful and insightful. Plus he was very funny.
Conchy is the strip that B.C. dreamed of being – funny gags mixed with philosophical thoughts of contemporary life by a cast of characters who lived at the beach. Sharply written with strong characters, its closest comic strip cousin was probably Tumbleweeds by Tom K. Ryan from the same period.
Conchy had an odd run. Childress started out self-syndicating it in 1970. The strip was picked up by Publishers Hall in 1974 who, according to reports, wanted him to move away from his subtle social humor and quiet moments of reflection and go more gag-oriented. He disagreed and left the syndicate in 1976 and went back to self-syndication. Then, because of personal issues not related to the strip (which was gaining papers), he committed suicide in 1977.
Conchy is barely a footnote now. It has almost no presence on the internet and if you didn’t know it, you’d never stumble across it. There were three paperback collections of the strip – all are worth finding. Conchy, Man Of The Now; Conchy On The Half-Shell; and Conchy, Living In Tomorrow’s Past.
Click to continue reading Forgotten Comics: James Childress and Conchy
Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
Rating: ****
Well, I’m not sure why Marvel Comics released this one-shot epilogue to Captain America: Reborn when the series still has one issue to go, but it’s here. Reborn was originally slated to be a five issue mini-series, but at some point it was decided that an additional issue was needed to tell the story. So Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield is shipping on schedule because last week should have been the last issue of the Reborn series. I’m not sure why Marvel did not just push this issue back to ship the same day issue six comes out or make issue five a double sized issue. Money? Probably, but you could still make money by doubling the price of a double sized issue.
Whatever the case may be, Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield still stands as a great comic book even with all the nonsense of it coming out prior to the completion of Reborn. Even before Reborn was even announced, we all knew that Steve Rogers would come back to land of the living at some point. It was only a matter of when, the how was almost meaningless because fans just wanted their guy back in action. The issue opens with a flashback to the days of World War II and Cap and Bucky fighting I believe the Japanese - not the Germans, as you normally see during Cap flashbacks to the war.
Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield
[Sung to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas]
On The 12 Days of Comics My True Love Gave To Me:
12 Prices Increased
11 Books Rescheduled
10 Tweets from Tyrese
9 Failed Relaunches
8 Websites Bitching
7 Variant Covers
6 Lame Crossovers
5 Separate Earths
4 Big Events
3 Lawsuits
2 OGN’s
And some movie deals for books I don’t read!
Happy Holidays!
[Artwork: Cover to Batman #27, yanked from Tomztoyz.]
Nicholas Meyer, Sherlock Holmes and Scarlet In Gaslight
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies,
Now that a new Sherlock Holmes movie is about to debut with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law as the celebrated detective and his erstwhile medical companion, I managed to remind myself through a haze of egg nog fog that I have a Holmes connection in my past.
Almost everyone has at least one showbiz encounter with a celebrity or famous person. The internet is chockful of them, but Mark Evanier has the best ones. He lives the kind of life that resembles 1940s Hollywood where you could spend all day working with, say Dick Powell or Bette Davis, then just walk into a restaurant and bump into Clark Gable or Myrna Loy and join them for a burger and fries. I too have a showbiz encounter but mine involves Sherlock Holmes, and we never had lunch together.
Years ago, I was working for Malibu Comics which was getting ready to publish a collection of Martin Powell and Seppo Makinen’s moodily-gothic Scarlet In Gaslight mini-series featuring Sherlock Holmes up against Dracula. Somebody, I believe it was Martin, suggested that based on the subject matter, wouldn’t it be great if Nicholas Meyer could be persuaded to write the introduction. At that time, Meyer had written a couple of very well-regarded Sherlock Holmes novels, The Seven Percent Solution and The West End Horror, as well as the screenplays for The Seven Percent Solution and Time After Time (H.G. Wells Vs. Jack The Ripper) and been responsible for two of the best Star Trek movies (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home). So a big name indeed, in the land of the funnybook fanatic. And while his name on the cover might not have driven many sales, it would still be cool to get it.
Click to continue reading Nicholas Meyer, Sherlock Holmes and Scarlet In Gaslight
Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Reborn #5
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
Rating: *** 1/2*
A great recovery executed to this story by writer Ed Brubaker. I was starting to get a bit bored with it. Although you know how this story is going to end, I still enjoyed this issue. Besides knowing how this story will end, the only other drawback for me was the artwork by Bryan Hitch. I think Hitch is a great artist, but I felt his work seemed rushed here. From what I understand, he’s not a fast artist. so maybe he was rushing to try and get this book out as soon as possible.
I was a bit confused by what was happening as this issue opened with Steve Rogers in a world where the Nazi’s have taken over America. At first I thought he was transported to an alternate universe where the Nazi’s won World War II, but I soon realized that his essence is stuck within his body in some weird world that has been created by the Red Skull as the Skull’s essence has taken over Steve’s body. Thank God because had this been an alternate universe I thought it would have been too cheesy to have a Nazi America where instead of Uncle Sam, you have Uncle Skull.
Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Reborn #5
Weekend Reading: James Bond, Wally Wood, Stan Lee and Frank Frazetta
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Independent,
It’s old-school comic book week for the past several days as Wally Wood, Frank Frazetta, Stan Lee and that crazy caveman Alley Oop pop up. If that’s not all, Evan Dorkin opened up an excellent thread on health insurance and freelance artists that’s must read for anyone who’s ever seen a 1099 form.
Wally Wood: Gold Key Stories posts a complete issue of M.A.R.S. Patrol Total War, with art by the great Wally Wood. Fanboys drool over this kind of stuff, and I’m not ashamed to say I’m one of them.
Frank Frazetta: A backhoe, a museum and millions of dollars worth of original art add up to a very sad family tragedy for the great artist. Heidi MacDonald over at The Beat has been on top of the story here and here and that’ll get you started. Be sure to follow through and read all the comments and updates.
Free Content: Xark has a great take on why newspapers complain so much about the online readership who wants it for free, but it’s really diners and coffee-sippers who are the real content thieves who don’t pay for what they read.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: James Bond, Wally Wood, Stan Lee and Frank Frazetta
Bryan Singer Signs Deal For X-Men Origins Film
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Movies, Marvel Comics,
Showing up on the red carpet at the Avatar premiere a few nights ago, X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer spilled some major news regarding the next X-Men Origins film.
“I’m prepping up to do a movie called Jack the Giant Killer [at] Warner Brothers, and I just yesterday signed a deal to do an X-Men First Class Origins picture, which is kind of cool.” So much for keeping the audience guessing!
Then again, word of Singer directing the next X-Men film isn’t as shocking when you consider that he’s already expressed interest in returning to the mutant mythology; he probably was simply uber-excited to break the story: “I’m still looking to possibly returning to the X-Men franchise. I’ve been talking to Fox about it. I love Hugh Jackman. I love the cast.”
Unfortunately, Singer will be working with a younger cast that sounds like Jackman won’t be asked to join. Series producer Lauren Shuler Donner described X-Men Origins: First Class as such: “The movie focuses on the first class at Xavier’s school of the gifted, so only those mutants will be featured in the first movie.”
Street Kings writer Jamie Moss is set to pen the script; aside from that, little else has been said about the project.
Click to continue reading Bryan Singer Signs Deal For X-Men Origins Film
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Quote of the Day: James Cameron on Superhero Movies
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Interviews, Movies,
“I feel there are too many superhero movies right now. I think Hollywood’s in a bit of a rut. They’ve done the good ones and they’re starting to get down to the second and third tier of superheroes—the guys that would not be asked to speak at the annual superhero dinner.”
- Avatar director James Cameron commenting on the plethora of superhero film adaptations these days.
(Make sure to check out other notable quotes.)
Read More | Splash Page
It was announced a few days ago that Bruce Wayne would finally be coming back as Batman beginning in April 2010. The event will take place in a min-series entitled Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne and it will be written by Grant Morrison. I’m very happy that Bruce Wayne will be returning, but I’m curious as to why both he and Captain America are through the exact chain of events in their lives right now. Both characters saw their side kicks resurrected (Jason Todd and Buck); both were “killed off”; both characters saw side kicks take over the mantle for them (Dick Grayson and Bucky); both are stuck in the past; and both are now trying to make their ways back to the present. What gives? Who’s copying who?
Well the idea of resurrecting Jason Todd began during the Hush storyline in 2002, but we didn’t see Jason return until 2005. The return of Bucky began around the same time in 2005 as well. Steve was killed in early 2007 and Bruce was killed in late 2008. It was revealed a few months ago that Steve was stuck in time, but Bruce was revealed to be stuck in the past at the end of Final Crisis at the beginning of the year. Since we are fans, we are not privy to which company came up with which idea first, but if it were me, I would try to do something a bit different with my company’s character. Also, what good is it for the fans? They will buy it nonetheless, but is it really that interesting to have the same exact thing happen to two iconic characters? What happens when they return?
Click to continue reading Return of Bruce Wayne
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