Category: Comics

RIP: John Romita

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John Romita Sr. died on June 12, 2023.  Mr. Romita was 93.

John Romita began his career in 1949 providing art for Timely Comics.  From 1958 through 1965, Mr. Romita created art for DC Comics.  In 1965, John Romita moved to Marvel Comics where he worked on the Daredevil comic series.  When an artist was needed to replace Steve Ditko on Spider-Man, John Romita was chosen. In 1973, John Romita was named Marvel’s Art Director.  In this role, he influenced the look of all Marvel Comics.  He designed covers as well as the look of new characters such as the Punisher, Wolverine and Luke Cage.

John Romita was inducted into he Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2002, and the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame in 2020.

I was and remain a big fan of John Romita’s amazing art.  By all accounts Mr. Romita was just as nice a human being as he was an outstanding artist.  We’ve lost a legend.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to John Romita’s family, friends and fans.

BRONZE STAR by Mike Baron & Pat Broderick

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BRONZE STAR by Mike Baron & Pat Broderick is live on Kickstarter now.  Here’s the lowdown…

Bronze Star is a suspenseful, weird western tale that explores redemption and revenge, offering a fresh take on the werewolf mythos while delivering heart-pounding scares, glorious artwork, and unexpected twists that will grab readers by the throat and not let go until the final page.

Created by Eisner winning writer Mike Baron (Nexus, Punisher, Star Wars), and beautifully illustrated by Pat Broderick (Micronauts, Alpha Flight, Legion of Super-Heroes), Bronze Star tells a frightening tale of a civil war vet who kills a powerful landowner’s spoiled son after catching him cheating in a poker game. An angry posse soon forces him to flee to a remote mining town where he discovers the town’s sheriff is afflicted with lycanthropy, but this sheriff isn’t the only supernatural danger lurking in this silver mining town…

Click over for more details.  Western horror by Baron and Broderick?  Deal me in!

WHERE THE BODY WAS by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips!

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Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have announced WHERE THE BODY WAS, a new original graphic novel that drops December 12, 2023.  Here’s the lowdown…

A boarding house full of druggies. A neglected housewife. A young girl who thinks she’s a superhero. A cop who wants to be left alone. And a Private Detective looking for a runaway girl. These stories collide one fateful summer in WHERE THE BODY WAS, a tale of love and murder in the suburbs, told from a dozen different points of view. All the neighbors on the block have an opinion about the murder and how it happened, but which of them is telling the truth?

WHERE THE BODY WAS is a tour-de-force from grandmasters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Starting with a map of the crime scene, this murder mystery follows the ripples of this killing as they echo through decades of love and loss and passion and violence. Like a true crime podcast crossed with a long-lost diary, WHERE THE BODY WAS is unlike anything Brubaker and Phillips have ever done, and a must-have for all their avid fans!

WHERE THE BODY WAS is available for pre-orders now.

JOHN TIFFANY by Stephen Desberg and Dan Panosian!

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On July 19th, John Tiffany Vol. 1 by writer, Stephen Desberg and artist, Dan Panosian becomes available.  Here’s the lowdown…

John Tiffany Vol. 1 collects and updates this raucous action-adventure. Filled with car chases, intrigue, and beautiful women, John Tiffany is exactly the sort of gut punch that fans of international spy stories love.

John Tiffany is one of the best bounty hunters in the world. Given his precarious line of work, he has found that he can only truly trust four people: Pastor Lovejoy, an unorthodox priest; Wan Chao, an underworld geek; Dorothy, his conservative teammate; and Magdalena, a sex worker he has foolishly fallen in love with. But it seems that one of them has turned against him and now he’s the one with a bounty on his head. It’s a race against time as he tries to survive being a high-priced target and find out which of his confidantes is the traitor.

If this sounds like something you’d enjoy, you know what to do.

Jason Copland’s FULL TILT is Live on ZOOP!

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Jason Copland’s FULL TILT is finally ready for pre-orders on ZOOP!  My order is in. Here’s a preview…

After five years of hard work, passion and sacrifice, the epic indie crime-scifi-noir comic by Jason Copland is FINALLY being collected here for the first time!

FULL TILT is a perfect book for those that love gritty noir tales, dystopian future realities and kinetic black and white art. Think Sin City meets The Godfather in the setting of Blade Runner.

This soon-to-be modern day classic is presented in a slick 320-page oversized 7.8″ x 12″ hardcover.

Here’s the synopsis…

New Manhattan, once the gleaming, state-of-the-art city of the 23rd-century, is now in the throes of social and moral decay. Its despondent citizens lose themselves in narcotics and hi-tech toys. Corrupt law enforcement agencies terrorize the populace. Bloodthirsty fans cheer as indentured gladiators fight deathmatches to gain their freedom. It’s the end of civilization… and the five crime families control it all.

Massimo Miller, the fiercely loyal consigliere of the Chessa family, narrowly survives an attack that wipes out all five of New Manhattan’s crime-syndicate bosses. As the massacre’s lone survivor, the new bosses accuse him of the assassinations and gather their armies to hunt him down.

Injured and alone, Miller must battle his way homeward through enemy territory to discover the party responsible for the death of his mentor… and make them pay.

The choice between love and loyalty brought Massimo Miller to this moment. To make it right, he’ll have to go FULL TILT.

Sly Stallone as Jack Carter by Brian Shearer!

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Brian Shearer is a professional artist/illustrator.  He is best known for his art on titles such as G.I. Joe, Transformers, Dr. Who as well as his creator-owned graphic novels, Gunship Thunderpunch and William the Last. When I saw that Brian was doing live-stream sketch sessions, I jumped on board and got his awesome take as Sly Stallone as Jack Carter.  You can see more of Brian’s art at his website or his Twitter posts.

Frank Frazetta’s Werewolf!

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Frank Frazetta created the art above.  It’s for a panel from his last comic book story. Werewolf tells the tale of a great hunter hired to track and kill a creature believed to be a demon.  Werewolf appeared in Creepy #1 published in 1964 by Warren Publications.

While individual back issues of Creepy are hard to find and expensive, reprints are coming.  Creepy Archives Volume 1 reprints Creepy magazine issues #1–#5 and includes original letters pages, text features, and ads.  Frazetta’s Werewolf is worth the price of admission.  My order is in.  Click on the link if you want on board as well.

RIP: Al Jaffee

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Al Jaffee, the award-winning cartoonist best known for his work with MAD magazine died yesterday from organ failure.  He was 102.

Al Jaffee attended the High School of Music & Art in New York City.  There he met Will Elder, Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin, and Al Feldstein all of whom would go on to work for MAD magazine and become noted cartoonists.

Mr. Jaffee’s career began in 1942 when he began getting work from Joker Comics, Timely Comics, Atlas Comics and other publishers.  During World War II, Al Jaffee worked as an artist in the military.  After his service, Mr. Jaffee became editor for Timely Comics humor and teenage comics.  In 1957, Mr. Jaffee created the Tall Tales syndicated strip.  It ran for six years.

Al Jaffee’s art first appeared in MAD Magazine in 1955.  In 1964 Al Jaffee created MAD Magazine’s longest-running feature, the fold-in. Jaffee would create a full page illustration with text that when folded vertically in half would present a new illustration with text that served as a punchline to the original drawing.  The fold-in appeared in every issue of the magazine from 1964–2020 except for two.  One issue in 1977 lacked a fold-in although Mr. Jaffee provided a back cover illustration.  One issue in 1980 had a unique Jaffee presentation: the inside back cover and back cover illustrations when held up to a light source merged to create a third image.  Al Jaffee also created MAD’s popular and long-running series “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions.”

In 1971 and again in 1975, Mr. Jaffee won the National Cartoonists Society Special Features Award.
In 1973, Al Jaffee won the National Cartoonists Society Advertising and Illustration Award.
In 1979, Mr. Jaffee won the National Cartoonists Humor Comic Book Award.
In 2008, Jaffee was honored by the Reuben Awards as the Cartoonist of the Year.
In October 2011, Al Jaffee won the Comic Art Professional Society’s Sergio Award.
In July 2013, Mr. Jaffee was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame.
In April 2014, Al Jaffee was elected to the Society of Illustrators’ Hall of Fame.
On March 30, 2016, Mr. Jaffee was awarded the Guinness World Record for the longest career as a comic artist.
In June 2020, Al Jaffee announced his retirement. MAD Magazine published a tribute issue that same month.

Al Jaffee’s sense of humor and artistic talent translated into decades of smiles for countless children and adults.  What better legacy could one hope for?

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Al Jaffee’s family, friends and fans.