Although some of the more familiar comic strips have garnered tremendous press as a part of IDW’s Library of Comics, some of the best strips being collected have been overlooked. For the last several years, Classic Comics Press has been re-presenting Leonard Starr’s Mary Perkins and Stan Drake’s The Heart of Juliet Jones and these are just as deserving of readers’ time and attention.

Publisher Charles Pelto has turned a labor of love into a business that is surviving despite tough economic times. Along with James Gauthier, he has been slowly growing his operation, adding two new series this year. ComicMix had to the chance to chat with the two and in part one, we look at CCP’s origins and why these two strips launched the line.

ComicMix: Charles, how long have you been interested in comic strips?

Charles Pelto: I learned how to read from the daily and Sunday funnies. In the early 50’s there were a lot more papers available in Detroit, where I grew up. I delivered the Detroit Free Press (with Mary Perkins), but also regularly read The Detroit News, and a number of suburban papers. Around the age of 15 to 17 I used to ride my bike to a newspaper in Utica, MI that printed Secret Agent Corrigan. The paste-up guy used to save me the proofs and I’d ride my bike up there every other week or so to pick them up. For a while I was a bit fanatical, I started receiving papers from all over the country just to get a particular strip. It drove my father crazy.

CMix: And what led you to form Classic Comics Press? When was this?

Pelto: I left comics for a long time, sometime around my early 30s. For some reason my interest in comic art was rekindled about eight years ago and I started buying stuff off of eBay. For a while there I was buying lots of comics but to be honest they were boring the hell out of me. Things like Local Heroes, Preacher, 100 Bullets, Criminal and the like really turned me on, but the normal, run of the mill comic book just didn’t grab me. I still enjoy a good Batman story and I like what they’ve been doing with Superman off and on, but for the most part I still don’t buy comics. After a while, I just naturally gravitated towards the comic strips I’d read as a kid.

CMix:  How did you decide on which strips to pursue? Right now there’s a lot of competition between IDW’s Library, and efforts from NBM, Fantagraphics, and Hermes Press.

Pelto: At first it was only On Stage. I was buying all the various reprints out there, as well as Sundays, and what dailies appeared. I stumbled across Jim’s email address on the Rules of Attraction website and contacted him. Jim happens to have become Leonard’s archivist and he started sending me binders containing a year’s worth of On Stage from the beginning.

As I continued to read through the years I could not believe that no one had taken a serious interest in reprinting the strip from the beginning. So being the impetuous fool that I am, I contacted the offices of Tribune Media Services and asked if the rights were available. From that point it took about a year and a half to actually get a contract.

With Juliet Jones, it was a natural compliment to On Stage. (more…)

On August 26, 2006, Green Glass Films began production on ALGENY: The Genetic Factor. Written and directed by Andrew Burroughs, this movie was inspired by Jeremy Rifkin’s book The Biotech Century . In that book, Rifkin coined the term “algeny”, when an organism upgrades its biology.

This led to the movie’s story about a young man named Justin (played by Alfred E. Rutherford), an orphan who is about to propose to his girlfriend and who has been getting shots for several years due to an illness he doesn’t understand. But Justin’s life changes when he realizes a man is following him one day. Very quickly, he discovers that he has never been ill, that his blood, in fact, has a perfect defense system that shields him from any disease. And unfortunately for him, a major pharmaceutical company knows about him and wants him dead before any number of cures and vaccines can be developed from his blood samples.

The movie has been screed at several film festivals since its completion and has won several awards. It was the winner for “HBO Best Feature Film” at the Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival and winner of the Paul Robeson Award at the Newark Black Film Festival. It was the official selection at Berlin/Germany Black International Cinema and the American Black Film Festival.

So how was it? (more…)

New York, NY – June 28,  2010 – Marvel Entertainment, LLC announced today that it has appointed Jeph Loeb as Executive Vice President, Head of Television, a newly created division of Marvel Entertainment.  In this new role, Mr. Loeb will work alongside Dan Buckley, Publisher & President of the Print, Animation & Digital Divisions, Marvel Worldwide, Inc., to translate Marvel’s popular characters and stories to the television medium, in both live-action and animation formats. In addition to these responsibilities, Mr. Loeb will oversee the development and distribution of live-action, animated and direct-to-DVD series. Mr. Loeb was previously a Marvel-exclusive Eisner-Award-winning comic book writer and an Emmy-nominated writer for his work on NBC’s Heroes. The announcement was made today by Alan Fine, Executive Vice President, Office of the President and Chairman of Marvel Studios’ Creative Committee, and by Mr. Buckley, to whom Mr. Loeb will report.

Mr. Fine stated, “It’s with tremendous pride that I announce the creation of our Marvel Television division and the appointment of Jeph Loeb as Executive Vice President. His work in the comic book field is in a class of its own, showing his passion and talent for bringing Marvel’s finest characters to life in an innovative manner. Jeph’s work on multiple award-winning television series and popular films has shown fans worldwide his ability to deliver thrilling entertainment in a number of media. With Jeph as our EVP, fans will experience the highest quality and most exciting television projects featuring their favorite Marvel characters.”

“I couldn’t be happier to accept this new position at Marvel Entertainment, working with both Dan and Alan to deliver exciting, cutting edge television projects,” said Mr. Loeb. “Marvel continues to break new ground in storytelling in both their comic book and film ventures, so, along with everyone here, I’m excited to bring the same brand of excitement into homes across the globe.”

Mr. Loeb has written acclaimed stories featuring every major super hero in comics, including Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Daredevil, Spider-Man, the X-Men and more. Multiple-time winner of the prestigious Eisner Award for his writing, Mr. Loeb quickly established himself as one of the most sought after writers in the comic industry. Mr. Loeb also served as writer/producer on television series Smallville and Lost; writer/co-executive producer on Heroes; and writer of hit films Commando and Teen Wolf.

(more…)

Frequent commenter and musician extraordinaire, Russ Rogers, gave us a lil’ hat tip towards a funky-cool contest you crazy ComicMixers will dig. The contest? Why it’s SpinTown’s SpinTunes Superhero Song Fight contest for 2010! Asking those out there in the interwebs to submit songs inspired by and written about Superheros and Supervillains… SpinTunes now has created a cool little player where you the adoring public can link up to, crank the volume on your favorite cans, and rock out to some gamma irradiated rock and roll.

The contestants are a swath of indie folk/rock/alt-funky goodness. Contributors like Denise Hudson and Joanne Abbot lend flighty ballads (‘Invisible Woman’ and ‘Why’) to the contest. Russ’s group, Godz Poodlz, released a Genesis twinged ode to DC’s resident Hazmat habit wearing hero, the Human Bomb. Over the pond plunker Danny Blackwell drops a ditty titled “Love Song From Robin to Batman” which is pretty self explanatory. And there’s a ton of others all waiting to tickle the hairs in your inner ears with musical hero goodness.

SpinTunes stems from the blog of SpinTown, as run by a Travis Langworthy, a teacher with a good ear for tunage, and a heart of gold. The SpinTune contest is voted on by a panel of judges, so no need to cram the ballot box, but feel free to head here, and listen to the tunes, and let them know what makes your boogie woogie, woogie woo.