Author: Mike Gold

Comics Out Of The Closet, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • August 11, 2008

My old pal Joe Staton, one of the most brilliant graphic storytellers in the history of this medium, is currently enjoying a long-overdue exhibition of his work at the Storefront Artist Project in Pittsfield, MA. Peculiarly titled The Art of Joe Staton, it runs through August 31. We talked about this here at ComicMix a while ago; click-through and read to your heart’s content. Better still, go there and check it out.

This could have been the shortest column I’ve ever written, but no, I aim towards broader context. We’re seeing more and more of this sort of thing. Mark Wheatley and Marc Hempel’s Breathtaker was among the dozen or so graphic novels recently honored at the Norman Rockwell Museum, and that exhibit is now touring the nation. There have been many theme-based exhibits of comic art all over the country – too many to mention.

Oh, boy. We’ve been accepted as a real art medium. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth (for a change), I just wish this happened a couple decades ago.

Will Eisner and Stan Lee lived long enough to feel the full brunt of public acceptance; Jack Kirby really didn’t. He was honored as the ABC News Man of the Week after he died, but I’m sure that didn’t massage his ego any. Wally Wood got bubkis. The fact is, the first generation of comics creators is almost entirely gone, and most died with a stigma attached to their names. Sure, Stan and Joe Kubert are still around (thankfully) and are still producing stuff (also thankfully), but that’s because they entered this craft while still pre-pubescent. (more…)

Review: Creepy Archives Volume 1

Pretty soon, this is going to turn into a review of Dark Horse’s [[[Creepy Archives Volume 1]]]. Hang in there; I’ll get to it, I promise.

I miss Archie Goodwin, particularly this time of year. He died 10 years ago from cancer at the ridiculously young age of 60. He was one of the best writers this medium has ever seen. In a field that sports the talents of Harvey Kurtzman, Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer, and Dennis O’Neil, Archie was of that highest caliber. If Archie ghosted bible tracks for Jack Chick, I would have read them. He was that good.

As a human being, he was even better. A life-long EC Comics fan (you could see it in his work, as well as in those with whom he chose to associate), for a couple years Archie and I had adjoining offices at DC Comics. We used to go out to lunch and talk about, oh, [[[Tales From The Crypt]]] and Ronald Reagan. Did I mention Archie was very politically aware? Read his [[[Blazing Combat]]] stories. Anyway, sometimes our conversations scared the Manhattan businessmen who sat near us.

Archie enjoyed that. I enjoyed those conversations immensely; I wish I could relive them.

So why do miss Archie “particularly this time of year”? This is convention season. No matter where we were, we would run into each other a couple times each year at various airport gates. He could be leaving from New York and I from Chicago and we’d run into each other on connecting flights in Denver. We could both be at a show in, oh, his native Kansas City and we could be flying to two different places, but we’d still share the first leg of our respective flights. At first it was uncanny; quickly, it became another fact of life.

I haven’t met all 6,500,000,000 people on this planet, but based upon my unscientific sampling I can state with complete confidence that there are few people with greater wit, charm, and intelligence. So there.

This brings us to Dark Horse’s Creepy Archives Volume 1. Archie started writing for Jim Warren’s Creepy with the first issue; by issue two he was story editor and issue four he was the sole credited editor. He wrote most of the stories and, therefore, did a lot to define the 1960s horror story while working with a lot of EC greats like Reed Crandall, Jack Davis, Al Williamson, Alex Toth, George Evans, Joe Orlando, Wally Wood and Frank Frazetta. As time progressed, he added younger talent like Gray Morrow, Neal Adams, and Steve Ditko.

(more…)

Adams, Kubert and Lee Come To Aid Of Concentration Camp Artist

  • News
  • August 9, 2008

 

neal-5368602

The perfect trifecta of living comic book legends –  Neal Adams, Joe Kubert, and Stan Lee – have come to the aid of Nazi concentration camp survivor and animator Dina Gottlieboa Babbit in her fight to retrieve her long stolen artwork from a Polish museum.

According to today’s New York Times, Ms. Babbit survived two years at the infamous Auschwitz Polish concentration camp by painting watercolor portraits for the notorious butcher of Aushwitz, Dr. Josef Mengele. Many of these paintings are in the possession of the Aushwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum; as her work, Ms. Babbit claims ownership and has long demanded its return. The Museum has refused, and Neal, Joe and Stan have taken up the effort.

To help raise awareness, Neal teamed up with Rafael Medoff, the director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, to produce a six page comics story detailing the situation. The story was inked – in part – by Joe and sports an introduction from Stan. 

They are presently looking for a publisher.

Since her liberation, Ms. Babbit had worked as an animator for Jay Ward Productions, Warner Bros. Animation, and MGM.

New Torchwood Without The Make-Up

  • Uncategorized
  • August 9, 2008

450torchwood-2255151Torchwood will be retuning to the airwaves next month in a somewhat unique fashion, according to the good folks at Outpost Gallifrey.

BBC Radio 4 will be broadcasting an original 45 minute full-cast radio drama, Lost Souls, on Wednesday September 10 at 9:15 Eastern Daylight Time. The story is set right after Exit Wounds, the season two finale, and deals with the events of that traumatic episode. Therefore, you might not want to hear the show until you’ve seen the second season.

Torchwood regulars John Barrowman, Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd will be starring in the broadcast along with Doctor Who regular (and Torchwood guest star) Freema Agyman. The show was written by Joseph Lidster.

BBC Radio 4 can be accessed online right here. There’s no word yet on its availability through BBC Radio as part of their podcast programming.

Michael Silberkleit, 1932 – 2008

  • Uncategorized
  • August 8, 2008

michael_silberkleit-8596913Archie 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.

Online Animation: An Olympic Train Wreck?

  • News
  • August 7, 2008

Cartoonist / animator / musician Joe Fournier has been doing some sweet stuff online, including this clever black-and-white cartoon about Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics… something about a… train wreck?

Joe’s illustrations have appeared in all sorts of places – Playboy, Forbes, Premiere, and all sorts of newspapers – and he plays a vital role in the burgeoning online animation field. His cartoons have been seen on the Sci-Fi Channel, at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, and the National Gallery of Art.

It’s good stuff. Check him out. 

Quarry Returns For The First Time

  • News
  • August 6, 2008

Quarry, the world’s first hit man to star in his own series of novels, is returning to the racks in October courtesy of Ms. Tree / Road To Perdition / Batman / Dick Tracy writer Max Allan Collins.

The "final" Quarry novel, The Last Quarry, was published two years ago by Hard Case Crime to much success – and it provided the basis for the movie The Last Lullaby. So if there’s a last there’s got to be a first, and at long last, this is it: The First Quarry, all underneath a perfectly lurid cover by Ken Laager. It’s the story of Quarry’s first job: infiltrating a college town and eliminating a nasty professor with a thing for his female students.

In addition to his noted comics work, Max Allan Collins has an astonishing number of mystery and private eye novels under his belt – most notably, the Heller series and a whole slew of C.S.I. tie-ins.

 

Forward… Into The Past, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • August 4, 2008

Typically, birthdays are a time for self-reflection and so, in this spirit, I am today changing the name of my column to “Brainiac On Banjo.” I have come to accept the likelihood that few, if any other than Mark Waid, got the “Whizzy’s Wazoo” reference. “Brainiac On Banjo” is a bit easier.

In fact, both are titles of APAzines I used to produce. In today’s age of blogging and Twittering and other ways to avoid actual physical contact while maintaining the ability to be instantly obnoxious, APAzines are the buggy whips of comics fandom. They’re still around, although I suspect the average age of the APA participant is over a half-century.

APA stands for “amateur press association” and it’s a holdover from science-fiction fandom from whence comics fandom came. What it is is this: you, as a member of a specific association, write up your fanzine. You write all kinds of stuff: what comics you like, which ones you hated, which movies are great, which comics creator(s) has his head so far up his ass he can get a haircut by swallowing… you know, blogging. You comment on all the other ‘zines in your APA. Said association may or may not be based around a common theme, and said theme may or may not be addressed on every page of your ‘zine. Things tend to wander a bit.

You know, blogging.

APAs require far more work: you mimeograph or photocopy your ‘zine, collate the pages, staple them, mail them off to the Central Mailer (a guy named Norman) who then collates all the other APAs and mails the package out to each member. The roster is usually around 25 or 35 members, so there’s often a waitlist for membership. Waitlisters can participate and might get the overage ‘zines, but there’s no guarantees.

A lot of people were involved in the production of their own APAzines and I had established many of my most enduring and wondrous friendships through this vehicle, including many folks in the media like Richard Pachter and Mike Valerio and folks in comics like Paul Levitz, Kurt Busiak and Carol Kalish. I met my closest buddy, ComicMix’s podcast producer Mike Raub, through a Legion of Super-Heroes themed APA back when Gutenberg was a kid. (more…)

Shiny, Shiny Superheroes, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • July 28, 2008

Despite the graphic to the right, this week’s column isn’t another screed against “everything you know is wrong and will be wrong again” superhero plotting. We’ve pretty well strip-mined that topic, and unless I get inspired by original thought I’ll wait for DC and/or Marvel to make the next move.

This column is in the wake of a lengthy and continuing series of conversations I had with my ol’ pal John Ostrander. Having such conversations is the best part of the job; really, if you like talking with knowledgeable and highly creative people, I strongly recommend you become a comic book editor. I can’t quote from these conversations – for one thing, you’ll be seeing some of the results right here on ComicMix, and for another, I understand the Wi-Fi reception down at Gitmo isn’t so good. But I can give you the gist.

We were talking about doing superheroes in 2008. John does a lot of ‘em; depending upon your view of GrimJack and Jon Sable, I don’t do all that much in the genre. But I like it. I’m an American comic book fan and I proudly admit I enjoy a good superhero story. But there’s that “relevance-to-our-times” thing.

Brand-new superheroes were created in two waves: the build-up to World War II (Superman, Batman, Sub-Mariner, Captain America, Captain Marvel) and the cold war build-up to Vietnam (Spider-Man, The Hulk, Iron Man, The Question). There wasn’t a truly successful superhero created in the ten years following World War II, and the only totally original superhero created in the post-Vietnam years that comes to mind is Len Wein and Herb Trimpe’s Wolverine.

It’s easy to understand the element common to each of these two fertile periods: the reader had an overwhelming need for security. In the early “Golden Age” we were in a devastating economic depression with unemployment hovering around 25% and surrounded by massive international inflation. Japan had invaded China, Germany was beginning to engulf its neighbors and nations historically friendly to us were looking to us for war material. We had a lot of unemployed people who could aid their, and later our, war effort. (more…)

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