We have a special treat today from Bo Hampton. It’s his classic story, Underworked, about a cartoonist and his quest to find love, labor, and a way out of his mother’s basement. If you ever read a comic from the 1990s and wondered how that happened, this story has the answer.
Next week: More Demons of Sherwood
Credits:Bo Hampton (Artist), Bo Hampton (Colorist), Bo Hampton (Writer), Mike Gold (Editor-In-Chief), Tracy Munsey (Letterer)
More: Underworked
And so we come to the end. It’s taken DC Comics sixteen years to collect all of Grant Morrison’s classic run on Doom Patrol
There was bombast in the air, then, on all sides. Superheroes were long past their days of stopping bank robberies and foiling minor criminals. The era of cosmic threats all the time had been inspired by Secret Wars II
You have to remember that background when you read Morrison’s Doom Patrol, just as you have to remember the stolid seriousness of ‘80s superheroism when you read his Animal Man
The superhero, and I don’t mean sandwich, has been a staple of the popular culture since well before the Depression-into-wartime beginnings of Superman and Batman. Those characters’ nascent comic-book adventures of 1938-1939 served primarily to focus a popular fascination with superhuman struggles against extravagant menaces – but similarly conceived protagonists had existed all along in ancient mythology and mass-market popular fiction. And how better to explain the superior heroic intellect of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Seabury Quinn’s phantom-fighting Jules de Grandin, or the beyond-normal escapades of Robin Hood and the Scarlet Pimpernel?
People need heroes, he said – if I may adapt a thought from Mike Gold’s recent Hope Versus Fear commentary at ComicMix. Such characters spur the imagination to assume hope in the face of fearful real-world circumstances, even if their activities and abilities (and allegorical antagonists) seem patently outside the realm of possibility. And the spiritual generosity of superheroism is such that people are willing to fork over either hard-earned cash or Daddy’s Money to experience the fantasy: Hence the proliferation of super-hero comic books in the immediate backdraft and long-term vapor-trails of Superman and Batman, and hence those characters’ fairly prompt leap into motion pictures during the 1940s.
Many people regard the superhero movie phenomenon as a fairly recent development, traceable as “far back” as Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man breakthrough of 2002, or maybe to the perceived “antiquity” of Richard Donner’s Superman pictures of 1978-1980. Not by a long shot.
Nor are the inevitable superhero parodies – as seen in David Zucker’s collaborative production of Superhero Movie, due March 28 – any particular innovation. Just as there is something awe-inspiring about some guy in long-john tights, hurdling buildings or piercing the veil with a blast of X-ray vision, there also is something innately ridiculous about such a spectacle. Even some of the earlier superhero films, such as Columbia Pictures’ Batman serials of the 1940s, emerged as unwitting parodies despite (or because of) their more earnest aims.
The formal parodies are a rarer breed. Zucker had proved himself a capable spoofer with 1980’s Airplane! – a well-received lampoon of the large-ensemble disaster-movie genre – much as Mel Brooks had parodied such genres as the Western epic and the Gothic horror film (1974’s Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein) to pleasing effect. Both artists were springing from the influence of Harvey Kurtzman’s Mad magazine of the mid-century, with its recurring demonstration that a parody must harbor an affectionate understanding of the story it intends to spoof.
Raymond Leblanc, who helped create a worldwide phenomenon from the comic book series Tintin, died on Friday, according to an article in the Economic Times. He was 92.
The Belgian publisher helped create the Tintin Journal, which ended up bringing the characters of cartoonist Herge to audiences in several continents. From the article:
A resistance fighter during the Second World War, Leblanc convinced Tintin’s artistic creator Georges Remi to launch a periodical for the young. Herge had encountered difficulty publishing his work during the war.
The iconic boy reporter character had first appeared in 1929, with 12 books already under Herge’s name, but the association with Leblanc saw Tintin become the hero of a fortnightly magazine born in 1946 to immediate success.
Leblanc’s simultaneous creation of the Lombard publishing house, aimed at readers "from seven to 77," met rapid growth as Tintin’s success expanded.
A translated interview with Leblanc given not long ago is available at Forbidden Planet, and gives an incredible insight into Leblanc and his career in comics. Here’s a small sample, detailing the beginnings of the Tintin legacy:
“Why not publish an illustrated magazine for young people?”, one of my partners asked at a certain point. We thought this was an interesting idea, and started looking for a name. We ended up eventually with Tintin, after Hergé’s comic book hero. Literally everyone knew that character at that moment. The question however was, where was Hergé? Nobody knew where he was. During the war he had worked for Le Soir, a paper that was controlled by the Germans, and so he had been branded a collaborator. My associate André Sinave went to look for him, and was able to find him.
Now we only had to find enough money to start up the magazine. Our plan was a bold one, especially since Hergé was being prosecuted at that point. His first reaction was “This is impossible”. Nevertheless, we presented him a five year contract. “And we as resistance men will do everything within our powers to return your civil rights to you.” You have to remember that Hergé wasn’t even allowed to ride a bicycle at that time. Hergé hesitated for a long time and consulted with his good friend Edgar Pierre Jacobs. In the end he agreed. I think because he had liked us from the moment we met. I had thought before that Hergé was quite an old man, since I had read the adventures of Tintin since 1929. He turned out to be only a few years older than myself.
Jeffrey Rowland, the creator behind popular webcomics Wigu and OverCompensating, has a new, full-time job these days — and it just might make him one of the most important people to watch in the world of webcomics.
Late last year, Rowland officially expanded TopatoCo, the online store where he sold shirts, stickers and other merchandise related to his webcomics, bringing several other popular webcomics’ stores under the TopatoCo banner and consolidating their merchandise operations. By doing so, fans of many of the most popular webcomics are now able to mix and match their orders among different creators’ designs, and TopatoCo has evolved from a basement business to a staffed, international operation Rowland runs out of an office building in Easthampton, MA.
According to Wikipedia, Rowland "can be considered one of the small number of professional webcartoonists, as running Overcompensating and Wigu, in addition to his merchandise company TopatoCo, is his full time job and source of income."
I spoke with Rowland about the growth of TopatoCo and the first few months of becoming a webcomic merchandising hub, as well as the status of his own webcomics, OverCompensating and Wigu. From the lure of running off to Mexico on a motorcycle to the Snakes on A Plane experience, Rowland shares his thoughts on making a living in the world of webcomics.
COMICMIX: You sound busy, Jeff. What’s going on at TopatoCo HQ today?
JEFFREY ROWLAND: Well, I’m just trying to get a handle on this whole business arrangement here.
CMix: Yeah, it sounds like you’re pretty deep into it these days…
JR: Well, the way we were doing it before was, everyone had their own individual sites up. Dinosaur Comics would have its little store, and then [Dinosaur creator Ryan North] would collect the orders throughout the week and send them to us in a file once a week or so. It wasn’t that bad, because everyone was doing a pretty good amount of business, but when I put them all together… Well, all of a sudden, it just exploded. It was bigger than I thought it was going to be. I think we’ve been up for about a month now, and we’re over 2000 products sold. Over 1000 transactions. Basically, it’s just two of us here working – sometimes three. I have one full-time employee — she’s "Tallahassee" in OverCompensating.
We kick off spring with the perfect soundtrack for your drive in the country: a comic book radio show; plus:
— Harry Potter films – and now there are eight…
— IDW expands the fate of Angel with Spike:AfterThe Fall
— X-Men, Wolverine and Teen Iron Man… on TV
— And yet another new trivia question that is worth an exclusive Graham Crackers Comics variant – and you win by e-mailing us at: podcast [at] comicmix.com
The Black Hood sez: Just Press The Button!
And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via 
or RSS!
King of the Hill, the Emmy award-winning animated television series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, gave a sly wink to comic books on their Sunday, March 16 episode "Behind Closed Doors."
The soft-satirical parody of Texas middle America found housewife Peggy Hill questioning her family’s unity. When entering son Bobby’s room, she finds him reading "Unvincible," a comic that bears a striking similarity to Image’s Invincible by Robert Kirman and Cory Walker.
This is not big, breaking news but ComicMix thinks it’s pretty cool that instead of taking the easy mainstream route of spoofing Superman or Spider-Man, the show wore its comic book fan pride by choosing one of the great indie superheroes.
Too Much Coffee Man, the comic that became an opera, is returning for a "Refill."
Shannon Wheeler’s crazed series about the caffeine-fueled adventures of an eclectic group of coffee house regulars (and the barista who serves them) has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, so I was equally thrilled and perplexed by the creator’s decision to adapt the comic into an opera in 2006. The end result was a really enjoyable show and soundtrack (with hilarious supplemental video).
And now, Wheeler and the TMCM crew are returning to the stage for an operatic sequel titled "The Refill" — which, according to the PR, picks up where the first opera left off:
The Too Much Coffee Man Opera is the story of an idealistic hero, named Too Much Coffee Man, as he competes with rival Espresso Guy for the attention of a Barista. Unfornately, she has her own agenda, to be a super hero.
The second opera, titled the Refill, picks up two years later. The Barista has fulfilled her superhero dream… and she’s married a Martian. Unfortunately she’s bored. She hopes caffeine will cure her ennui and calls Too Much Coffee Man for help. Antics ensue as Espresso Guy tries to win her back by pretending to be Too Much Coffee Man.
Too Much Coffee Man: The Refill begins April 4 in Portland, OR. Details from the PR are provided after the jump.
Though the history of comics largely began through free newspaper inserts, that practice has gone unused for decades.
Fitting, then, that such an unexpected distribution model would accompany the release of a new comic book series created by an advertising agency. Mother, the London-based agency best known for promoting Coca-Cola, recently announced it will be shipping Four Feet from a Rat – a collection of comics stories – in the weekly Time Out listings magazine.
Read the full Guardian article right here. Strangely enough, the comic doesn’t even include advertisements. The company explained that it serves simply as a creative outlet for employees.
The story behind the creation is pretty interesting: Mother has a history of offering its services for favors instead of money. The company did some work for Time Out in exchange for pages in the publication. Once they accrued enough pages, they set about making the comic.
Mother partnered with comics publisher Mam Tor for the art on the stories. Guardian comics critic Will Hodkinson said the stories carried on in the tradition of Hellraiser and Sandman.
"This isn’t as good as those comics – it is a little derivative," said Hodgkinson. "One might almost call it a pastiche. But it’s well drawn and well written and it’ll be interesting to see how it develops as they find their voice."
If the book has some success, keep an eye on other publishers who might try something similar.
Things are fanning out all over.
But before we go any further, let me explain and, while I’m about it, issue an OFA, or Old Fart Alert.
Back in the day – now you begin to understand the reason for the OFA – part of the fun of attending science fiction and comics conventions was seeing stuff like outtakes and blooper reels and old movies and especially old serials, entertainments virtually unavailable anywhere else. Another pleasure was listening to other fans who were In The Know reveal secrets, or at least semi-secrets, about the actors and artists and, yes, even writers whose work we enjoyed and was the raison d’etre for the whole she-bang.
Now…bloopers are shown on network television, as are outtakes, and one major international star has, for the last decade or so, incorporated them into the films themselves. And although nobody, to my knowledge, is showing serials regularly, a cable channel used to and somebody almost certainly will again and even if that doesn’t happen, these crusty old flicks are easily buyable, or rentable, or, maybe, available at your local public library. As for other kinds of old movies…Well, let’s just say that I’ve filled in some of the gaps in my appreciation of Rocky Lane, Lash LaRue, Wild Bill Elliott, the Durango Kid, and the indomitable Sunset Carson by watching the Westerns Channel from the comfort of my living room.
Insider info? It’s practically a national industry, only they call it gossip and push it at us on television and in the magazines I read in doctor’s offices. Push a lot of it, I might add. And most DVDs have material in addition to whatever movie’s on them and these, too, frequently feature gossipy tidbits, though never scandalous ones.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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