Category: Comics

Brooklyn Blood by Paul Levitz and Tim Hamilton

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Brooklyn Blood by Paul Levitz and Tim Hamilton looks to be the kind of story fans of crime fiction and horror stories will love.

In Brooklyn, a serial killer is on the loose–and when strange clues lead down a paranormal path, a detective confronts his inner demons to solve the case.

After returning from a tour in Afghanistan, detective Billy O’Connor returns home to a Brooklyn he doesn’t recognize. As he tries to return to his normal routines, his PTSD is easily triggered and he suffers severe hallucinations. Once he begins to work a gruesome homicide case, however, O’Connor has difficulty sorting out what’s real–and after he uncovers some strange clues, he’ll have to face the unthinkable to bring the killer to justice.

From New York Times Bestselling authors Paul Levitz (75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Myth-Making) and Tim Hamilton (Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation), this volume collects all sixteen chapters originally serialized in Dark Horse Presents Volume 3 #17-#22 and #24-#33!

Treasures Retold: The Lost Art of Alex Toth

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Fans of great art are excited about Treasures Retold: The Lost Art of Alex Toth.  Toth is a legend among artists, animators and comic book aficionados…

 Alex Toth’s significance to comics and animation art cannot be overstated. During his career, he was the comic industry’s foremost proponent of modern design and composition. Starting in 1950, his work influenced almost every one of his contemporaries, and has continued to work its magic on the generations that followed. In animation, his 1960s model sheets for Hanna-Barbera are still passed around as swipe sources from animator to young animator in the 21st Century.

Included are complete stories from the 1950s and beyond, recently discovered color animation storyboards and presentation drawings, sketches and doodles, industrial comics, and individual pages from obscure comics and magazines. It’s a treasure trove that makes a fitting companion to the Eisner Award-winning Alex Toth: Genius trilogy.

I’m glad these Toth lost treasures have been found and will soon be shared with his fans around the world… especially the fan writing this post.

Byrne, Wolverine, Puck and Dan Panosian?!

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This vintage John Byrne drawing of Wolverine and Alpha Flight brought back some great memories.  I was am a huge fan of Byrne’s run on the X-Men with Claremont and Austin.  I also enjoyed Byrne’s Alpha Flight.

But both of those were decades ago.  I can’t remember the last time I bought a Marvel comic… or a Byrne comic for that matter.  I’d get my pre-order form in immediately if Byrne came back for a graphic novel starring Wolverine and Puck though.

That’s not likely to happen.  Hey, Dan Panosian!  What do ya think?  You could write and draw a Wolverine and Puck yarn!

Art Source: Cool Comic Art.

13 Altogether Ooky Facts about “The Addams Family”

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MeTV presents 13 Altogether Ooky Facts about The Addams Family.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. Until the TV show, the characters did not have names.
Charles Addams, pictured here in his home office, did not name the creepy, charming characters in his one-panel cartoons. When the show was green-lit, Addams and producers came up with names for the clan. Did you know Wednesday’s middle name is Friday?

 

4. Ted Cassidy played two roles.
While best known for playing Lurch, Ted Cassidy also lent a hand — literally — by also playing Thing.

 

7. The Addams were the first TV family to have a home computer.
A couple years later, Bruce Wayne would utilize his Batcomputer in the Batcave, but the first family “P.C.” seen on TV was the UNIVAC on The Addams Family.

8 Things You Might Not Know About The Wizard of Id

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Jake Rossen and Mental Floss present 8 Things You Might Not Know About The Wizard of Id.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. THE IDEA FOR THE STRIP CAME FROM A DECK OF PLAYING CARDS.

Johnny Hart was already a successful syndicated cartoonist (the Stone Age comedy B.C.) before he and former Disney animator Brant Parker decided to collaborate on a different project. Hart was flipping through a deck of playing cards in 1964 when he came across a peculiar illustration used for the king. Drawing on it to create his own diminutive despot, Hart wrote most of the jokes for Id while Parker illustrated it.

5. JIM HENSON WAS GOING TO PUT IT ON TELEVISION.

An avowed fan of comic strips and of The Wizard of Id in particular, Muppets creator Jim Henson met with Hart in 1968 to discuss a possible collaboration. Henson wanted to create an Id television show that would use puppets against an animated backdrop. Hart agreed, and in 1969, Henson was able to shoot test footage featuring himself as the voice of the Wizard. But executives at Publishers-Hall, which had taken over syndication of the strip, were having trouble enticing networks into producing a series. By the time ABC showed interest, Henson had moved on to Sesame Street and other projects. Wizard of Id got translated into animation in 1970 as part of a Chuck Jones variety series titled Curiosity Shop.

8. BLONDIE AND BEETLE BAILEY CELEBRATED THE STRIP’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY.

When The Wizard of Id passed the half-century milestone in 2014, the entire comics page came out to celebrate. Hi and Lois featured a portrait of the Wizard in a panel, while Blondie and Family Circus made subtle references to the anniversary. (As modern-day strips, it would be difficult to regard a medieval strip with more overt acknowledgment.) In Beetle Bailey, the perennial screw-up shared a cell with the eternally suffering Spookingdorf.

Mignola & Golden’s Joe Golem: Occult Detective Returns!

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Mike Mignola, best known as the creator of Hellboy, has teamed with best-selling novelist Christopher Golden and artist Peter Bergting for Joe Golem: Occult Detective – The Drowning City, a five issue mini-series premiering in September.  This will be the third mini-series featuring Golem with the first two being Joe Golem: Occult Detective—The Rat Catcher and the Sunken Dead and Joe Golem: Occult Detective—The Outer Dark.

Source: Paste.

Action at Cemetery Beach!

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Cemetery Beach sounds like something that readers of this site would enjoy.  Created by writer Warren Ellis with art by co-creator Jason Howard, Cemetery Beach will be an action fan’s fix.

“​Jason wanted to do an action book, so I wrote something that starts with a conversation in an interrogation room, ignites four pages later, and doesn’t stop until the end of the final issue—which he’s drawing right now, so when issue #1 comes out, the whole series will be in the can,” said Ellis. “It might be the most relentless action book I’ve ever written.”

For more information check out the Cemetery Beach press release from Image Comics.

How Do You Steal From Dracula? Stephan Franck Knows!

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I’ve been singing the praises of Stephan Franck (writer & artist) since I discovered his Silver graphic novels which he describes as…

… an original universe built around Bram Stoker’s original Dracula, and it begins 40 years after the events of the novel, into the noir/pulp era of the 1930s. You meet James Finnigan, who is the most notorious conman/gentleman-thief of his day, as he teams up with Rosalynd “Sledge” Van Helsing (granddaughter of the original Van Helsing, and altogether the last of the Van Helsings), to steal a mystical treasure hidden in Dracula’s castle. Finn, of course, brings his known associates—a fun assortment of conmen and grifters of all kinds—as well as the kind of amoral attitude that puts him immediately at odds with Sledge. Lastly, the team enlists Tao Leu (or more accurately, he enlists himself), who is a 10-year-old boy with the gift of second sight and who might be the biggest scoundrel of them all.

10 Things You Might Not Know About Beetle Bailey

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Jake Rossen and Mental Floss present 10 Things You Might Not Know About Beetle Bailey.

1. IT STARTED AS A COLLEGE CAMPUS COMEDY.

Walker’s initial idea for a strip didn’t feature any fatigues or military equipment. While drawing cartoons for The Saturday Evening Post, he decided to try creating a story around a university student named Spider who kept his hat pulled over his eyes and tried to navigate college life by doing as little as possible. Changing his name to Beetle Bailey—the surname was a nod to a supportive editor at the Post—Walker had him wander into an Army recruiting station. Inspired, he retrofitted the strip so that barracks would take the place of a dorm. (Walker himself had been drafted, serving four years during World War II.) Debuting in 1950, Beetle Bailey set a record for the longest continuous work by a comic strip artist: Walker worked on it for 68 years.

2. IT WAS BANNED BY THE U.S. MILITARY.

In the 1950s, Beetle Bailey took its place as a steady but otherwise unremarkable addition to the comics pages. Then Walker got an unexpected promotional boost. The U.S. military’s Stars and Stripes newspaper, which had been running the strip, banned it from its Tokyo editions over fears it might incite disrespect toward commanding officers. (Beetle was lazy and typically disinterested in following orders.) The prohibition lasted for a decade and was subjected to so much ridicule that Beetle became a recurring presence in newspaper headlines. The strip was eventually syndicated to more than 1800 papers.

10. THE STRIP WAS RECOGNIZED BY THE PENTAGON.

After 50 years of “service,” Beetle Bailey finally got a little acknowledgment from his higher-ups. The (real) Pentagon invited Walker and three of his costumed characters to a ceremony in May 2000 that honored the cartoonist for his work in supporting the military. Walker was presented with the Secretary of the Army’s Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service, the Army’s highest civilian honor. “I think finally the brass has learned how to laugh at themselves a little bit,” Walker said. “They’re not kicking me out of Stars and Stripes anymore like they did a couple of times.”

Reviews That Resonate!

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Recently Christopher McQuarrie sent out the following in a Tweet…

After 25 years of making them, I’ve learned to measure movies not in terms of quality, but of resonance. Some resonate with me. Others don’t. Some resonate with the masses, others don’t. I wasted years of creative energy arguing quality. I was wrong even when I was right.

That quote really, pardon the expression, resonated with me.  So many times when I was reviewing a movie (book, tv show, etc.) and tried to grade it, the end result felt wrong.  There are movies (books, tv shows, etc.) I absolutely love that fall short of being classics, but I don’t love them any less.  At the other end of the spectrum there are movies (books, oh, you get what I mean) that are considered classics that I can’t stand.

Arguing the point with someone who felt differently was, ah, pointless.  So I’ve decided to change up my ratings.  The grades are gone.  Now we have a simple number system that indicates how the movie resonated with me.

Your mileage may be different.  And the cool thing is we’d both be right.

 

The 50 Greatest Comedies

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Empire Magazine took a look at The 50 Greatest Comedies.  Using just their list, here are my top three with their rankings & comments as well as mine…

12. Dr Strangelove

Stanley Kubrick‘s jet black comedy famously stars Peter Sellersplaying three separate roles and wildly improvising in all of them. He’s the buttoned-down British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake; the ineffectual US President Merkin Muffley; and the mechanically-armed cartoon ex-Nazi Dr Strangelove (real name “Merkwürdigliebe”) who can’t quite get out of the habit of calling the president “Mein Fuhrer”. Sellers was also supposed to play Texan Air Force Major TJ “King” Kong, but injured himself and couldn’t work in the fighter plane’s cockpit (he was replaced by Slim Pickens). Devastatingly deadpan, this has the darkest of all imaginable endings, which is all the more impressive given that it originally climaxed with a pie fight. Kubrick, wisely, thunk again.

Dr. Strangelove is the perfect mix of comedy and drama with a strong message that will leave you laughing at the absurdity of nuclear escalation.  Dr. Strangelove is played straight which makes it all the funnier.  Some comedies aren’t as funny on repeat viewings but Dr. Strangelove offers increased pleasure with each visit. And remember, “There’s no fighting in the war room!”

35. Young Frankenstein

Slap bang in the middle of Mel Brooks‘ 1970s run of movie parodies, Young Frankenstein is obsessive in its devotion to the Universal take on Frankenstein’s monster (down to using the same props and lab equipment as the 1931 film) but also willing to go to any length for a gag. Physical humour brings the wordplay to life, and there’s even a legendary dance number in ‘Puttin’ On The Ritz’. Brooks and co had so much fun shooting that the writer-director even added scenes near the end of production just so they could keep on going, resulting in a disastrously long first cut that required a marathon editing session to bring down to the swift, 106 minute final running time.

Young Frankenstein is the perfect merging of two genres (horror and comedy) to create a classic.  Brooks was at his best with a cast in sync with his vision.  Blazing Saddles was released around the same time as Young Frankenstein, but while Blazing Saddles seems a bit dated, Young Frankenstein is timeless.

34. Step Brothers

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly play pampered fortysomethings whose juvenile worlds collide when their single parents get married, in this classic Adam McKay comedy. Often overlooked as the difficult third album following Anchorman and Talladega Nights, it can actually hold its head high in that company, and Reilly is great Ferrell foil. The pair are currently at work on Etan Cohen’s Holmes And Watson.

I absolutely love this movie. This pairing of Ferrell and Reilly is perfect. So many laughs and stuff that would just get eye-rolls from other actors.  Sure, I’ve seen this same pairing in other comedies, and they’re ok.  Step Brothers rules.

Since we’re talking comedies, I have to give shout-outs to 3 movies that I saw in crowded theaters and the audiences (myself included) roared with laughter throughout the viewings:

  • Airplane (the original)
  • 10 (yeah, with Bo Derek and Dudley Moore)
  • Richard Pryor Live in Concert

I’ve seen them at home and without the large audience, they just weren’t quite as funny.

Stephan Franck Interview – “Silver” Conclusion and More!

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Stephan Franck is the genius (writer & artist) behind Silver which he describes as…

… an original universe built around Bram Stoker’s original Dracula, and it begins 40 years after the events of the novel, into the noir/pulp era of the 1930s. You meet James Finnigan, who is the most notorious conman/gentleman-thief of his day, as he teams up with Rosalynd “Sledge” Van Helsing (granddaughter of the original Van Helsing, and altogether the last of the Van Helsings), to steal a mystical treasure hidden in Dracula’s castle. Finn, of course, brings his known associates—a fun assortment of conmen and grifters of all kinds—as well as the kind of amoral attitude that puts him immediately at odds with Sledge. Lastly, the team enlists Tao Leu (or more accurately, he enlists himself), who is a 10-year-old boy with the gift of second sight and who might be the biggest scoundrel of them all.

With the fourth and final volume now on Kickstarter, Franck sat for an interview with Johhny Hughes at Comic Crusaders.