Yearly Archive: 2008

Howard Stern may be the self-proclaimed Master of All Media, but Kyle Baker is giving him a run for the title in the graphic story-telling media.  He’s got his autobiographical family comedy, The Bakers, in development for television at Fox.  He’s got his reality-base war comic, Special Forces, at Image.  Abrams just published gorgeous hardcover and paperback editions of Nat Turner.  He’s worked on Captain America and Plastic Man for the Big Two.  He’s won every award comics can give.

And now, Papercutz is reprinting his early work, Through the Looking Glass, adapted for First Comics’ Classics Illustrated in 1990.  Full-color, 56 pages, and gorgeous.  Just $9.95, in time for the holidays.

This is the newest volume in Papercutz’ re-issue, following Michael Plessix’ version of The Wind in the Willows and  Rick Geary’s adaptations of Great Expectations and The Invisible Man.  

Archie Comics chairman Michael Silberkleit, the last of the original breed of comic book company family-owners, died August 5th from cancer, Archie Comics announced last night.

Along with his life-long friend Archie publisher Richard Goldwater, who passed away last year, Michael spent virtually his entire life at the comic book company. MLJ, its original name, was started in 1939 as a pulp magazine publishing house when Michael was seven years old. It was founded by his father, Louis, along with Richard’s father John and accountant Morris Coyne. During World War II and after the massive success of their feature Archie, the name of the company was changed to Archie Comics.

Living in Westchester County New York, Silberkleit had also volunteered as an auxiliary policeman in Scarsdale, NY.

Speaking personally, I was always impressed with Michael’s adventurous spirit, always looking to new ways to further the Archie franchise and bring new energy to the company. Archie was one of the first comics companies to embrace the use of computers in their production, and one of the first to establish a fun, interactive website.

The funeral for the 76 year-old founding brother will be this Sunday.

Mark Evanier reports that Jack Kamen, best known for his work at EC Comics, died yesterday at the age of 88. The cause of death is being reported as cancer.

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1920, Jack Kamen studied at the Art Students League and the Grand Central Art School and actually got his start in sculpture—his first professional job was on the Texas Centenniel.

His illustration career was just beginning when he was called up to the Army in 1942. After World War II, Kamen began drawing comics for Fiction House and Iger Associates, then started working for EC Comics in 1950. He quickly became one of their most prolific artists, particularly on their horror lines though he also worked on crime/suspense and weird science/fantasy books. After EC’s line of comics fell victim to industry censorship in 1954-55, it was Kamen who suggested to the publisher that the company could avoid the newly-imposed Comics Code Authority strictures with a pricier magazine format, which Kamen dubbed "Picto-Fiction" and included titles like his favorite, Psychoanalysis.

Kamen left comics in 1954 and did advertising art and supplemental illustrations for a wide variety of other clients— when Stephen King and George Romero created the horror anthology film Creepshow, an homage to EC’s horror comics, they tapped Kamen to do the artwork. He also illustrated the cover of the graphic novel adaptation.

In recent years, Kamen basked in the spotlight of his sons’ accomplishments. Dean Kamen invented the Segway and the iBOT Mobility System; he recently contributed a foreword about his father published in Gemstone’s Shock SuspenStories Archives volume 2. Another son, Barton, is a doctor who is now the Chief Medical Officer of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.