Like most popular culture websites, we noted the passing last week of Jerry Robinson. Ours had a bit of a personal touch at the end; that’s what makes ComicMix ComicMix. While I was writing the piece I heard the announcement of Jerry’s death on CBS radio. While I was impressed, I wasn’t surprised: the major comics icons get noticed these days, and Jerry certainly was, and is, a comics icon. But such wasn’t always the case.

I first saw a major to-do about the passing of a comics great when ABC-TV noted Jack Kirby’s death back in 1994. For several years prior to that the passing of an occasional comic book creator was noted in the local obituaries but significant folks like Bill Finger didn’t get national play. We weren’t important enough. We were still part of the throwaway culture; adults who read comics were considered morons. Or professionals… but only after Fredric Wertham was toast.

Kirby not only made the network news, he was chosen “Man of the Week” or whatever the segment was called at the time. That meant two things: ABC-TV already had footage of Jack in their library (a bigger deal at the time as teevee networks were only beginning to digitize their files), and the comics medium had finally earned enough respect for producers to deem one of our greatest creators as worthy of such an honor.

From that point, respect for the comics medium continued to grow. Batman instigator Bob Kane received his due and then some, Will Eisner’s passing was well-noted… to name but two. In my eyes, more than all the reviews from the intelligencia, more than all the decent comics-based movies, the national coverage of the passing of our greatest has given validation to the art form.

I read five newspapers every day, one of them a national paper, one the local Norwalk Connecticut paper. Each of these five covered Jerry’s passing. Each and every one. All but one gave the story coverage with a photo and/or art.

A few days after publishing their obit, the New York Daily News did an editorial (above). Okay, Jerry’s Sunday newspaper strip was run in that paper for several years – but that was many decades ago, and if you read their editorial they play up Robinson’s comic book work. He may have created The Joker, but he did not create The Batman. Bill Finger and that other guy did that.

That’s pretty cool. Jerry most certainly deserves the additional recognition, and so does the comic art medium.

And we deserve it, in part, due to Jerry’s contributions to our craft.

THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil

Changing subjects entirely, today I took off from work, and most of what I did was bop into the city to do some book-shopping. (I had a vague idea of doing Xmas shopping as well, and even walked quickly through part of that agglomeration of festive selling huts in Union Square, but that portion of the day’s festivities was not successful.)

First I hit Forbidden Planet — pretty much as an aperitif — which I hadn’t been in for several years. (My mental map of FP is from the days when they had back issues in the basement — yes, that long ago.) I got issues of two comics for the boys, and also two extremely different graphic novels:

<img src=”https://comicmix.com/2011/12/14/incoming-books-brodys-ghost-monsters-art-decco-and-more/”” width=”140″ height=”200″ border=”0″ />Brody’s Ghost, Vol. 1, the first in a new series (teen-focused, I think) by Mark “Akiko” Crilley, about a guy who discovers secret supernatural powers.

And Ken Dahl’s Monsters, a highly acclaimed 2009 semi-autobiographical book (by a guy who now goes under a different name, for reasons I’m not entirely clear on) about herpes.

After that, I headed down the block to The Strand, which was the whole point of the trip. (Speaking of mental maps, when I was there, I was shocked to see that they don’t check bags anymore and then reminded that the childrens’ section used to be in the basement — so my standard of what the Strand looks like is also a good decade out of date.) There, I got many more books, mostly used or remaindered or otherwise non-standard:

<img src=”https://comicmix.com/2011/12/14/incoming-books-brodys-ghost-monsters-art-decco-and-more/”” width=”153″ height=”200″ border=”0″ />Art d’Ecco, collecting comics work by Roger Langridge (along with his brother, Andrew) from around twenty years ago.

Proof of Life on Earth, an old collection (1991) of Roz Chast cartoons

Your Mother Is a Remarkable Woman, a similarly vintage (1992) book of Sam Gross cartoons

<img src=”https://comicmix.com/2011/12/14/incoming-books-brodys-ghost-monsters-art-decco-and-more/”” width=”138″ height=”200″ border=”0″ />Love From the Shadows, an original graphic novel that came out earlier this year from the indefatigable Gilbert Hernandez, which has a loose (and probably indescribable) connection with his Love & Rockets material.

Martin Amis’s recent novel Yellow Dog, which was the first new book of his I didn’t read since London Fields — entirely because his prior novel, Night Train, was such a gigantic stinker — and which I used to have, in first edition hardcover, before the recent unpleasantness. (more…)

For a movie based on a comic book set in the 1930s, The Rocketeer was actually ahead of its time. The movie was released as Disney’s big summer film in 1991, backed with tons of marketing, and planned as a big tent pole for their future.

The problem was, in 1991 there were precious few superhero movies creating a genre to support the fan following. When it opened that June there was nothing out there to support it and the groundswell of geekdom had yet to reach critical mass. Therefore, despite relatively positive reviews, the movie did minimal business, finishing 27^th for the calendar and largely forgotten. Its director, Joe Johnston, went on to make a number of other hits and misses until he scored big earlier this year with Captain America. Now, taking his fame and the 20^th anniversary into account, Walt Disney Home Entertainment has released [[[The Rocketeer]]] on Blu-ray and DVD today.

(more…)

Discovered in the Archives of The Jim Henson Company, Tale of Sand is an original graphic novel adaptation of an unproduced, feature-length screenplay written by Jim Henson and his frequent writing partner, Jerry Juhl. Tale of Sand follows scruffy everyman, Mac, who wakes up in an unfamiliar town, and is chased across the desert of the American Southwest by all manners of man and beast of unimaginable proportions. Produced with the complete supervision of Jim’s daughter, Lisa Henson, Tale of Sand will allow Henson fans to recognize some of the inspirations and set pieces that appeared in later Henson Company productions.

The book will be on sale in comic shops tomorrow in limited quantities, and on a wider basis on Jan. 17.

[[[JIM HENSON’S TALE OF SAND]]]
Original Graphic Novel Hardcover
Retail Price: $29.95 U.S.
Page Count: 160 pages
Format: hardcover (paper over board), 8.25” x 11.5”, full color
ISBN-13: 978-1-936393-09-1
Written by Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl
Illustrated by Ramón Pérez
Cover by Ramón Pérez