Category: Comics

Ken Meyer Jr.’s Ink Stains 45: Sinnott, Eisner, Ditko, Harvey, Black and More!

Posted on by

If you’re a fan of fanzines, then you’ve got to check out Ken Meyer, Jr.’s monthly column Ink Stains.  Each month Ken (who is an amazing artist) posts… well, let’s let Ken explain…

I have a collection of over 200 fanzines from the 60’s-80’s that I plan to scan and talk about, one at a time. I hope to have some of the participants answer a few questions. Many of those participants are established comics professionals now, while some have gone on to other things. I will show a few snippets from each zine and give you a link to download a pdf of the whole thing, which I hope all of you will do!

For Ink Stains 45, Ken took a look at Collector #29 from 1974 from Bill G. Wilson.

Collector #29 is a huge issue and features –

  • Color Star Trek cover
  • Very cool cowboy drawing by Joe Sinnott (dedicated to Bill – Black?)
  • An interview with Walter Koenig (Chekov from Star Trek)
  • Star Trek art and articles
  • John Byrne Star Trek art
  • Captain Marvel art and articles (full pager by Bill Black)
  • C.C. Beck art and articles
  • Ken Barr full pager
  • RC Harvey story and art
  • Kurt Schaffenberger full page with Captain Marvel, Superman and Lois Lane
  • Steve Ditko comic story
  • Two full page drawings of The Thing from Another World
  • Art and articles about The Shadow
  • Art and articles about The Spirit
  • Bill Black full page Spirit piece
  • Additional art by Bill Black, Clyde Caldwell, John Byrne, Steve Ditko, Will Eisner, Steve Fabian, R.C. Harvey, Don Newton, Joe Sinnott and more.

I’d never seen Collector 29 before but would have really been blown away back in the day seeing so many pros and fans coming together in a fanzine.

Ah, the memories of the glory days of fanzines.  Thanks to Ken Meyer, Jr. for making these available!

SUPERMAN: THE GOLDEN AGE – a free FAN COMIC by Adrien van Viersen

Posted on by

Adrien van Viersen  is storyboard artist (X2, X3, Game of Thrones, and The Flash) and self-proclaimed life-long fan of Superman.  His favorite Superman is that of the Golden Age.

van Viersen has created a Superman story that’s a love letter to that earlier, more innocent age. In the free fan fiction download (that is as good if not better than most published comics) we learn how Clark Kent discovered bullets didn’t hurt him, that a simple pair of glasses could be a great disguise and where he got the Superman persona.

All in all great fun!

 

Top 10 Comic Books That Should Become R-Rated Movies

Posted on by

Alex Maidy and JoBlo.com posted their choices for the Top 10 Comic Books That Should Become R-Rated Movies.  By now you know how this game is played.  Using just their list I present my top three choices…

  • Goon by Eric Powell:  Set in a universe that has all sorts of supernatural monsters and our hero Goon.  Definitely a tongue-in-cheek comic series full of fun.  The Goon was part of a Kickstarter campaign (and I was in!) but a movie hasn’t been made yet.  The promotional video looked great though.

 

  • Pax Romana:  Although I never read this series, I’m going to have to look it up.  Who wouldn’t want to see a “world where The Vatican discovers time travel and sends modern weapons back to Ancient Rome to change the future”?

 

  • Black Widow: A former Russian spy/assassin now in the US.  Think of Atomic Blonde or A Long Kiss Goodnight, now you’re on board, right?

Other series that didn’t make the list but would be excellent candidates:  100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso;  Sleeper by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips; Gravedigger by Chris Mills and Rick Burchett, Polar by Victor Santos and Scout by Tim Truman.

Ken Meyer Jr.’s Ink Stains 44: Gulacy, Starlin, Simonson and More!

Posted on by

If you’re a fan of fanzines, then you’ve got to check out Ken Meyer, Jr.’s monthly column Ink Stains.  Each month Ken (who is an amazing artist) posts… well, let’s let Ken explain…

I have a collection of over 200 fanzines from the 60’s-80’s that I plan to scan and talk about, one at a time. I hope to have some of the participants answer a few questions. Many of those participants are established comics professionals now, while some have gone on to other things. I will show a few snippets from each zine and give you a link to download a pdf of the whole thing, which I hope all of you will do!

For Ink Stains 44, Ken took a look at Whizzard 12, 13 and 14 from 1979 – 1981 from Marty Klug.

Whizzard 12 features –

  • Walt Simonson cover
  • Jim Starlin frontpiece (seen above)
  • Interviews with Simonson, Starlin, Michael Golden and Mike Nasser
  • Spot illos by Rick Burchett, Terry Austin
  • Indexes for Simonson, Starlin, Golden and Nasser
  • Fan art and articles

Whizzard 13 features –

  • Interviews with Marshall Rogers, Craig Russell, Tim Conrad, Steve Gerber and         Don McGregor
  • Indexes for Russell, Conrad and Rogers
  • Art by Conrad, Rick Burchett and art pulled from comics by Rogers, Russell
  • Fan art and articles

Whizzard 14 features –

  • Mike Nasser/Terry Austin cover
  • Interviews with Paul Gulacy, Dick Giordano and Mike Nasser
  • Indexes for Gulacy
  • Centerspread by Paul Gulacy
  • Art by Rick Burchett, Ken Meyer, Jr., Mike Nasser and others

Boy, did these bring back memories.  I owned all of these fanzines back in the day.  Ken points out in his Ink Stains article that Whizzard was more focused on interviews than art and that art is timeless.  As I looked back over these issues (which I loved at the time) I kept thinking I’d have loved to seen more art.  Still, it was great to revisit them.

Ah, the memories of the glory days of fanzines.  Thanks to Ken Meyer, Jr. for making these available!

Ken Meyer Jr.’s Ink Stains 43: Steranko & More in FOOM 1, 2 & 3

Posted on by

If you’re a fan of fanzines, then you’ve got to check out Ken Meyer, Jr.’s monthly column Ink Stains.  Each month Ken (who is an amazing artist) posts… well, let’s let Ken explain…

I have a collection of over 200 fanzines from the 60’s-80’s that I plan to scan and talk about, one at a time. I hope to have some of the participants answer a few questions. Many of those participants are established comics professionals now, while some have gone on to other things. I will show a few snippets from each zine and give you a link to download a pdf of the whole thing, which I hope all of you will do!

For Ink Stains 43, Ken took a look at FOOM 1, 2 and 3 from 1973 from Marvel Comics.

FOOM 1 features –

  • a Steranko Spider-Man envelope
  • Stickers and a membership card
  • a double-page Steranko poster of 15 major Marvel characters
  • Photos of Marvel creators, puzzles, games, previews of coming comics & more

FOOM 2 features –

  • Steranko Hulk cover
  • Photos of Marvel creators, fan art, previews of coming comics and more

FOOM 3 features –

  • Photos and Bios of John Romita, Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia
  • Fan art, puzzles, previews of coming comics and more

Ah, the memories of the glory days of fanzines.  Thanks to Ken Meyer, Jr. for making these available!

Ken Meyer Jr.’s Ink Stains 42: Steranko, Adams, Black and More!

Posted on by

If you’re a fan of fanzines, then you’ve got to check out Ken Meyer, Jr.’s monthly column Ink Stains.  Each month Ken (who is an amazing artist) posts… well, let’s let Ken explain…

I have a collection of over 200 fanzines from the 60’s-80’s that I plan to scan and talk about, one at a time. I hope to have some of the participants answer a few questions. Many of those participants are established comics professionals now, while some have gone on to other things. I will show a few snippets from each zine and give you a link to download a pdf of the whole thing, which I hope all of you will do!

For Ink Stains 42, Ken took a look at Collector issues 16, 17, 18, 19, 21 from 1969-1971.   Edited and published by Bill G. Wilson.

I’d never seen issues of Collector before reading Ken’s columsn.  The issues are full of the stuff that fanzines were known.  These issues feature:

Collector 16 features –

  • a Don Newton Batman cover
  • Sketches by Steranko, Giordano, Buckler, Adams
  • Photos of comic legends [Adams, Kane, Frazetta, and more]  at an early convention.
  • Tons of fan art

Collector 17 features –

  • Don Newton interview, art and photos of Don and his studio
  • Tons of fan art and articles

Collector 18 features –

  • Shazam cover by Bill Black (earliest art I’ve seen from my buddy)
  • Bill Black pin-up of Green Lantern
  • Ad for Bill Black’s Paragon fanzine!
  • Fan art and articles

Collector 19 features –

  • Joe Sinnott Thing sketch
  • Sketches from Steranko/Sinnott, Gene Colon, Bill Black and Steve Ditko
  • Fan art and articles

Collector 21 features –

  • Art from Dan Adkins, Don Rosa and Tom Sutton
  • Fan art and articles

Ah, the memories of the glory days of fanzines.  Thanks to Ken Meyer, Jr. for making these available!

15 Things You Never Knew About the “Hellboy” Movies

Posted on by

Tom Baker and CBR.com present 15 Things You Never Knew About the Hellboy Movies.  Here are three of my favorites…

10. THE SET DESIGN IS FULL OF EASTER EGGS
Never one to let a good prop to go to waste, del Toro opted to populate the B.P.R.D.’s hall of antiquities with nods to his previous films, including an encore for the creepy jar babies from “The Devil’s Backbone.” Mike Mignola’s art, meanwhile, is so evocative that it was hard not to try and get in some of his designs into the film’s set decoration, including an original illustration for the gag in-universe “Hellboy” comic seen in the first film.

Perhaps most enticing of all for fans of the “Hellboy” comics is a fleeting appearance by Roger the Homunculus, a major member of the B.P.R.D. team in the source material. Complete with large ring around his groin, Roger appears as a hulking gray statue on a plinth in a hallway. This is seen when John Hurt’s Professor Broom is showing new recruit Agent Myers around the B.P.R.D. headquarters in the first film. In the same scene, the “Iron Shoes” from the short comic story of the same name can also be glimpsed in a display case.

8. RON PERLMAN WAS DEL TORO AND MIGNOLA’S FIRST CHOICE

Revolution Studios were thinking big when they first got the ball rolling on a “Hellboy” film. Preceding the coming comic book movie boom, and perhaps working from the template of Sony’s “Spider-Man” success, they wanted big name stars to headline their somewhat more offbeat superhero story. Some of the Hollywood stars being bandied about during early discussions about who should play Hellboy himself included Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and, of course, Nicolas Cage.

What would have likely been a very different, perhaps more manic version of “Hellboy” was avoided when Guillermo del Toro came aboard the project. A fan of the comics from way back, he worked closely with creator Mike Mignola to make sure his big screen version of Hellboy was authentic and respectful to the source material. As such, he discussed the lead actor with Mignola personally. They agreed to a meeting where both would say their first choice for the part in unison. To their surprise and relief, both of them said Ron Perlman.

6. HELLBOY VERY NEARLY HAD A LEFT HAND OF DOOM

The Right Hand of Doom is one of the core, unshakable icons of the “Hellboy” mythology. Both a Biblical reference and an excuse to put a cover of that one Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song on the first film’s soundtrack, that huge stone first Hellboy wields is important in-universe (as an impossible-to-escape sign of his destructive destiny) and metatextually (it provided the title for a short story collection of the same name). And yet, all of that very nearly changed.

When the idea of a “Hellboy” movie first began to pick up steam, one of the major mooted changes from the source material was to swap sides and make it the Left Hand of Doom. After all, it’s somewhat impractical to expect an actor to perform whilst retaining zero use of their dominant hand. All the early costume design and concept art for the “Hellboy” film depict the character with the Red Left hand, until the casting of Ron Perlman proved particularly fortuitous: not only did he have the requisite frame and gravelly voice, he was also a southpaw!

Ken Meyer Jr.’s Ink Stains 39: Kane, Byrne, Barr, Black and More!

Posted on by

If you’re a fan of fanzines, then you’ve got to check out Ken Meyer, Jr.’s monthly column Ink Stains.  Each month Ken (who is an amazing artist) posts… well, let’s let Ken explain…

I have a collection of over 200 fanzines from the 60’s-80’s that I plan to scan and talk about, one at a time. I hope to have some of the participants answer a few questions. Many of those participants are established comics professionals now, while some have gone on to other things. I will show a few snippets from each zine and give you a link to download a pdf of the whole thing, which I hope all of you will do!

For Ink Stains 39, Ken took a look at Collector 28 from 1973.   Edited and published by Bill G. Wilson.

Collector 28 is a nice find.  I’d never seen it before reading Ken’s column.  Chock full of the stuff that fanzines were known for this issue features:

  • A color Ken Barr cover
  • Art by Don Rosa, Alan Hanley, Bill Black, a Don Newton portfolio, John Byrne, Gil Kane and more.
  • Articles on Star Trek and The Shadow and more.

Ah, the memories of the glory days of fanzines.  Thanks to Ken Meyer, Jr. for making these available!