Sequart Research & Literacy Organization has their two newest books listed in the current PREVIEWS catalog adding to their impressive collection of literary essays examining the key comics and creators over the last 30 years.
THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS: EXAMINING MATT MURDOCK AND DAREDEVIL
This anthology of analytical essays covers an array of topics that span the character’s 50-year career. The book explores Daredevil’s troubled love life, dissects his relationship with the likes of Foggy Nelson and Spider-Man, and highlights classic runs from some of comics’ top creators. This is a book no Daredevil fan should be without! (Also, the book sports a foreword by longtime Daredevil editor Ralph Macchio.)
CURING THE POSTMODERN BLUES: READING GRANT MORRISON AND CHRIS WESTON’S THE FILTH IN THE 21ST CENTURY
This book explores The Filth’s many themes as well as its relationship to Morrison’s The Invisibles and the 1999 film The Matrix. The book also includes exclusive interviews with Morrison, Weston, and inker Gary Erskine, plus exclusive art from Weston (including one panel that DC Comics censored – here uncensored and in print for the first time!).
Maybe you’ve been on a vision quest in the Himalayas, or maybe you’ve just been in a coma, so I’ll try too negotiate the next few hundred words without dropping any spoilers. The subject is the movie that looks like it will be the summer’s monster, Iron Man 3, and by now, most of you have seen it, or are planning to see it, or have at least read reviews. As a lowly scribe who once wrote the Iron Man comic book – yes, kids, it was a comic book first – I might be expected to have an opinion about it and I do. But I did promise no spoilers and to state what I liked about it would probably constitute a spoiler…
What’s a fellow to do?
Go at the problem from another angle? Okay: What I did not like about the movie was all the kabooms. Lots and lots of fireworks. Big explosions. Then more big explosions. Hey, no elitism here: I understand the entertainment value of pyrotechnics and to complain about explosions in a film designed to be a summer blockbuster is kind of like attending the opera and bitching about all the screechy singing. But maybe a little moderation? I wearied of all the noise and shrapnel and flame coming at my 3D glasses. Enough was enough. Less might have been more. Anything stuffed down your throat will eventually make you gag.
There you have my major kvetch: the explosions.
I guess I could complain that the villain’s motivations could have been more thoroughly explained, but you might not agree. And if we got rid of a few explosions, the movie would have been been a tad shorter and that might have benefitted it. But none of this constitutes major inadequacy. You pay for your ticket and you get what you paid for, that special kind of summer respite that only happens in cool theaters on hot days. It has been significant pleasure in my life for some 40 years and it still is. (You think I’m not going to see The Man of Steel and The Wolverine and even The Lone Ranger when they grace the multiplex in a month or two? Ha!)
But superhero movies are maturing, as did westerns and badge operas and science fiction before them. While still delivering the spectacle and fantastic heroics that characterize the genre, they’re being put to other uses, too. They’re telling the kind of stories that help us define ourselves, which is something stories have always done. First, there was The Batman trilogy, which was, beneath all the swashbuckling, a tale of redemption. Now, we have the Iron Man movies, which, if you squint a little, also constitute a trilogy and use the character of Tony Stark to…
Whoa! I promised no spoilers. So, if you haven’t already seen it, watch for the scene in which Tony mentions a cocoon and the shot of Tony standing on a cliff. They’ll tell you what I think the movie is really about.
Pro Se, a leading independent Publisher specializing in Genre Fiction announced new characters available for use and an open call for stories in a recently debuted imprint spotlighting the work of Pulp Author and Pulp Ark 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Charles Boeckman!
Boeckman, a 92 year old author/world traveler/jazz musician self published SUSPENSE, SUSPICION, & SHOCKERS last year. Boeckman, with the assistance of his wife, Patti, is in the process of publishing a second collection, SADDLES, SIX GUNS, & SHOOTOUTS. This collection of 10 stories was written by Boeckman, many of them under the name Charles Beckman, Jr. and were printed in Pulps such as Western Ace High, Star Western, and others.
Following the first collection, Pro Se annnounced a new imprint entitled CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS… that would feature new stories written by modern authors around characters Boeckman created and that were featured in the first book. Pro Se announces today that characters featured in Boeckman’s western collection will also be made available to writers for us in the CBP imprint and that an open call is now being made for proposals featuring these characters.
“Charles Boeckman,” Tommy Hancock, Editor in Chief and Partner in Pro Se, states, “is a living legend. Maybe his name isn’t as hallowed as Dent, Gibson, or others, but when you not only take into account this huge body of work he produced, but also the fact that he worked well into the era of the digest and is still writing today, he has few comparisons. And then add into that the fact that the man writes westerns as two fisted and hard bitten as his suspense and mystery stories but also very much solidly Western. There was no way Pro Se could do CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS without including a cast of frontier cowboy types that rode out of his mind and right onto the pulp page.”
Pro Se announces an open call for stories featuring western characters from Boeckman’s collection. Although each individual digest in the line may focus on a different theme or character, they will all appear under the CBP banner, and will feature new stories based on Boeckman’s work.
Charles Boeckman
“This is an open call,” Hancock states, “to any and all writers who might be interested in trying their hand at Charles’ western characters. The first step in this process will be for interested writers to look over the brief descriptions of the characters provided and email Morgan Minor, our Director of Corporate Operations, at tommyhancockpulp@yahoo.com with any and all they may be interested in. Based on that interest, story bibles and other information will be sent to interested authors who will then be required to draft a proposal for a story, length being minimum 8,000 words to a full novella length of 30,000. The proposal must be no more than a page long and, if the writer has never submitted to Pro Se before, a writing sample of at least 3 pages of narrative must be supplied as well. One thing to note, also. Although these characters were originally created by Mr. Boeckman and Pro Se will be insuring that they remain true to the source material, we are not wanting any writer to ape or copy Mr. Boeckman’s style. We will be great stewards of these classic ideas as well as the skills and styles of the modern writers pouring life into them.”
The characters being utilized from Boeckman’s latest collection are-
Art Billow from ‘Bad Man From Boston.’ Crippled Art Billow lied his way into trouble and had to be the hero he’d imagined himself to save townsfolk. Now it’s a year later and he’s returned from the East, no longer a cripple, and ready to enjoy the results of his heroics…if he can keep it up as more trouble descends on his adopted hometown. Clayton Traveler from ‘The Kid Comes Back.’ Traveler returned and took everything from the man who’d destroyed his family, including the heart of the woman he loved. She remained with the villain, though, as he was a broken man as Traveler drove cattle to the market. Now Traveler returns to a town that he essentially owned when he left to either make his name as lord of the realm or die trying to keep alive. Ollie Downs from ‘Stagecoach to Hell.’ Ollie Downs tried to get out of town before an old enemy came hunting him, but the original story ends with him walking down the street to face his past. What happens after the former gunman/now barber and resident doctor of the small western town stares down a killer? Jim Brady from ‘Home is the Killer.’ Jim Brady rode into town a disgruntled veteran looking to take a dead man’s life as his own. He came out with a wife, children, a spread, and a hero to boot. Now all he has to do is keep all he has acquired of the life of a man he took a picture from on a battlefield. Bull Hubler from ‘Bitter Reunion at Rimrock.’ Bull rode into town to help a woman who’d left him for another man, to keep him alive, and uncovered more than either of them bargained for. Now with his woman returning to him, they have a daughter to raise in the wilds of the West and that is doubly hard for a man of Bull’s temper and reputation. Ed Brennan from ‘The Devil’s Deadline.’ Surviving the threats of a crooked sheriff and keeping his small frontier newspaper as a result, Ed Brennan continues to fight and write for what is right and just in a town full of cowpokes, outlaws, cattlemen, and misfits. Steve Kent from ‘Hell’s Cargo’-Steve Kent, expert Riverboat captain, went after the man who’d taken his boat and woman, the man who’d taught him the river, and won. Now, along with new love Lucy Furman and his Irish engineer, Mike O’Shean, Steve has two options- To continue on the river and save money for his sojourn out west or to strike out into the frontier- Both types of stories will be welcome! Also, Pro Se is still taking proposals for characters from Boeckman’s mystery/suspense collection, SUSPENSE, SUSPICION, AND SHOCKERS. The first volume of CBP has debuted, featuring Johnny Nickle. More Nickle stories are welcome as are any stories on the other characters. Those characters are as follows-
Detective Mercer Basous from ‘The G-String Corpse’- A homely 1970s New Orleans Detective who knows three things very well- New Orleans, the people that make it up, and how to do his job. Big Lip from ‘The Last Trumpet’-A piano player on1950s Broadway who solved the murder of his great friend and one of the greatest horn players the world has ever known who moves onto further tales and adventures in a band in a world without The Earl.
Buddy Gardner and Frank Judson from ‘Blind Date’- Frank, a mid 1960s small town reporter, and Buddy, a deputy in the small town with detective skills to spare, find new stories and cases to follow and crack in Kingsbury after their initial tale, where Frank finds a dead woman in his trunk that all evidence said he had an affair with, then murdered, but he’d never met her before.
Lt. Mike O’Shean ( Yes, just like in the Western story) and Lil Brown of the Daily Herald from “I’ll Make The Arrest”-Mike O’Shean, a passionate two fisted cop of the early 1950s who sinks his teeth into a case and won’t let go, even if it kills him, and Lil Brown, the reporter who knows her job and city better than anyone…and knows O’Shean better than that. These two are at the beginning of what may be a beautiful relationship if crime and corruption don’t get in the way!
Doc and Sally from ‘A Hot Lick for Doc’-Fresh in 1950s LA from their debut tale, Doc, a washed up clarinet player who found his music again following being involved and solving a murder, and Sally, the recovering heroin addict who accompanied him, would be ready to write new tunes and chop a new life out of whatever life and LA throws at them.
Johnny Nickle from ‘Run, Cat, Run’-A trumpet player who’s claim to fame was having played on a supposedly haunted Jazz Classic that led to him being on the run from a curse and a murderer for years, Johnny Nickle is now back on top in the early 1950s blowing his horn and finding trouble almost everywhere he finds a stage to stand on. The stories will be set in the periods mentioned for each of the characters. If a writer wishes to go beyond that period, then that must be clearly mentioned in the proposal. Deadline for initial proposal submissions on the Western Characters is June 10, 2013. Proposals for the Mystery/Suspense characters are accepted at any time until a book is filled.
Other characters from Mr. Boeckman’s many stories may be added to the available list to write from at a later date, Hancock points out, but these are currently the only characters discussed thus far. For more information on Pro Se Productions, go to www.prosepulp.com. For a copy of SADDLES, SIXGUNS & SHOOTOUTS, go to http://www.amazon.com/Saddles-Guns-Shootouts-Charles-Beckman/dp/1483922103/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368064282&sr=8-1&keywords=saddles%2C+sixguns+%26+shootouts. To get a copy of SUSPENSE, SUSPICIONS, AND SHOCKERS go to http://www.amazon.com/Suspense-Suspicion-Shockers-Charles-Boeckman/dp/1479238732/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350269187&sr=1-6.
And for CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS JOHNNY NICKLE, go to http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Boeckman-Presents-Johnny-Nickle/dp/1484894707/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368064399&sr=1-2&keywords=johnny+nickle
Pulp Ark 2013, a Convention/Creators Conference centering around all aspects of New Pulp, was held April 26-28, 2013 in Springdale, AR. As a part of the convention, the Pulp Ark Awards were given for the third year in a row. The only comprehensive awards in the Pulp field chosen specifically by anyone wishing to nominate writers, creators, etc. for an award, The Pulp Ark Awards are given in a variety of categories.
Only one category within the Pulp Ark Awards is determined, not by the vote of the public, but by a committee selected to determine the winner. The Pulp Ark Lifetime Achievement Award is given to a Person involved in Pulp that has devoted much of their life to participating in the production of and/or furthering the promotion and preservation of and education in Classic Pulp as well as supporting New Pulp either by being a participant or providing encouragement other ways.
This year’s Pulp Ark Lifetime Achievement Award Winner as selected by the Committee began his Pulp involvement in the 1930s, finding many of his stories printed in the 1940s and 50s and moving onto other publications with fiction after the Pulps faded away in the mid 1950s. Born in Texas, this year’s recipient learned much about life that he later translated into great western tales. Being a self taught Jazz Musician, he saw much in his travels that informed his mystery and suspense stories, many with a Jazz background. Writing for digests as well as penning his own books well after Pulps left the bookshelves, this author recently collected his stories and has released two date two volumes of work, with the assistance and support of his wife, Patti. This work has so inspired writers today that a New Pulp Publishing company, Pro Se Productions, has licensed and began an imprint utilizing characters originally written by the author in his early career.
The recipient of the Pulp Ark 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award is Charles Boeckman.
Upon notification of receiving the award, Charles Boeckman provided the following statement–
“I am very honored to receive the Pulp Ark Convention 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award. This was so unexpected and so gratifying. Until a couple of years ago, I thought the pulps were just a faded memory in the minds of anyone still alive who read them back in their hey day. Then I discovered the vibrant community of pulp and new pulp fans and writers, and my life suddenly took on new meaning. Connecting with pulp fans, republishing some of my vintage stories in anthologies, and finding some of my forgotten manuscripts in an old trunk havereawakened my passion to write, and at age 92, I am once again pounding on the keyboard.
It means so much that I will have concrete recognition of mycontribution to pulp fiction, something that I can proudly display and eventually leave to my progeny. Maybe it will help inspire them in some way.
It isn’t often in the modern market that a Publisher gets the opportunity to work with the characters of a Pulp Writer from the Classic era of Pulp Fiction with the involvement of the author. Pro Se Productions, a leading Publisher of cutting edge Genre Fiction both looking to the future and firmly rooted to the past, proudly announces the debut of a new imprint bringing new life to characters created by prolific Pulp Author Charles Boeckman!
“CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS…” states Tommy Hancock, Partner in and Editor in Chief of Pro Se Productions, “came from the source itself, honestly. Charles Boeckman, now 92 years old, was a writer of many stories back in the heyday of Pulp and beyond, mostly suspense/mystery and western tales. Due to his publishing of a collection of his mystery stories, I became aware of his work and absolutely fell in love with the characters he created. Not only were the stories taut and exciting, but the characters, all of them just appearing the one time, so many of them had series potential. So, an email or three later to Charles and his wonderful wife, Patti, and I asked about his permission to have modern writers take on some of the characters he’d written into life. He was enthusiastic and encouraging and now we have the debut of CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS JOHNNY NICKLE!”
Originally appearing in Boeckman’s story, ‘Run, Cat, Run,’ Johnny Nickle was a trumpet player on the run from his own past. And now, in CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS JOHNNY NICKLE, this unlikely hero makes a return engagement to perform TWO exciting new hits. NOTES IN THE FOG written by Richard White and THE DEVIL YOU KNOW authored by Brad Mengel push Johnny into mystery and out of it hopefully on a high note.
Charles Boeckman
“This character,” Hancock explained, “is neat on several levels. A sort of sub genre that is very popular among Pulp and Crime fans is that of the Musician Detective/Hero, usually a Jazz type, like Jack Webb’s Pete Kelly. Mr. Boeckman’s work is replete with these sorts of characters and each one stands apart, no cardboard cutouts. Johnny has an edge to him in the original story that both of our authors have maintained, utilizing the rich background Johnny has a trumpet player as well as his own personal background. It’s even more wonderful that Mr. Boeckman is a professional Jazz Musician and band leader as well, so the original stories come with an authenticity that definitely influenced Richard and Brad.”
CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS JOHNNY NICKLE features a fantastic cover by Adam Shaw as well as cover design and print formatting by Sean Ali and ebook formatting by Russ Anderson! Edited by David White, these two tales are your backstage pass to see Charles Boeckman’s Johnny Nickle tackle mystery and murder with a soundtrack that cooks with red hot women, ice cold killers, triple time thrills and smokin’ jazz! From Pro Se Productions!
The Shadow Fan returns for his 31st episode! This week, New Pulp Author Barry Reese focuses on the newest from Dynamite Comics. He talks up their July 2013 solicitations, takes a hard look at Masks # 6 and then talks about the end of the Victor Gischler run in The Shadow # 12. Barry holds nothing back in talking about the disappointments that have accompanied Masks – and he wonders about the future direction of The Shadow under Chris Roberson’s control.
If you love pulp’s greatest crimefighter, then this is the podcast for you!
About The Kalamazoo Kid: Authored by Jeremy Brown Edited by Paul Bishop, Mel Odom
Ray Kurt was one of the first guys to step into a sanctioned MMA fight – back when you scrapped four times a night and didn’t wrap your hands until you got to the hospital afterward. Now he trains fighters in his Kalamazoo mixed martial arts gym, searching for someone he can take to the top.
Young fighting phenom Tallis Dunbar might just be that someone, but Tallis comes attached to a whole lot of trouble. Detroit mob fixer Andru Harp wants Kurt to turn Tallis into an MMA beast tough enough to take on the Chicago mob’s fearsome fighter, High Voltage – the same man who nearly killed Tallis’ brother a year earlier.
For Detroit and Chicago it’s all about turf, but for Kurt and Tallis their lives and redemption are balanced on a razor’s edge. Kurt is used to fighting with few rules, but now there is only one – survive…
OK, folks. It’s official. The zombie thing has gone on way too long. Time to stomp them back into the ground and move on.
Truth be told, and with all due respect to George Romero and Robert Kirkman, I was never much of a zombie fan. There’s not a lot you can do with the buggers, and even by stretching the rules and applying our contemporary wussification of the monster legends… there’s still not that much you can do with them.
There have been zombie stories that I’ve enjoyed, particularly Stan Lee and Bill Everett’s classic “Zombie!” from Menace #5, July 1953. Twenty years later this inspired something of a revival with Marvel’s black-and-white magazine Tales of the Zombie. Or, in other words, it took two decades and the combined talents of Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, John Buscema and Tom Palmer to finally come up with a worthy sequel.
This is not to say that all subsequent zombie stories sucked. Not in the least. But the massive proliferation of zombies throughout our mass media has, you’ll forgive the expression, choked the life out of the concept. By definition, zombies have no personality and not all that much to say. Their diet is really boring: only in St. Louis can the population stomach so much brain meat.
(I’ve eaten brains… once. Once. Believe me, it sounds better than it tastes. To quote musician Steve Goodman, “Even the cockroaches moved next door.” However, it is more palatable than goat’s head soup.)
As we continue to sashay through the 2013 convention season, it is tedious to see that so many cosplayers have chosen this motif as the subject of their craft. It doesn’t take long to glaze over the horde; if you’ve seen one hundred zombies, you’ve seen them all. And by the time my second show of this year’s convention season concluded, believe me, I have seen them all.
Raymond “Ray” Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) died today at age 92, leaving behind a legacy of pioneering special effects work and a filmography that has deeply influenced writers, artists, and filmmakers for generations.
Dubbed by Starlog as “The Man Who Work Miracles”, he was one of the most influential movie makers who was himself inspired by Willis O’Brien’s stop-motion animation in King Kong. He took O’Brien’s efforts and improved upon them, branding it as Dynamation.
Although he resided in England for the majority of his adult life, Harryhausen was born in Los Angeles. King Kong was the spark that set him on a course towards a career in film, meticulously creating miniatures that could be photographed a few frames at a time followed by the tiniest of movements, followed by more frames, until the model appeared to move across the screen. This was done with artistry and engineering know-how long before Industrial Light and Magic brought computer-aided technology to the process.
When the legend met the student, they bonded quickly and Harryhausen was given pointers to improve his work through trial, error and art classes. Along the way, he befriended fellow Angelino Ray Bradbury, just at the beginning of his fantastic career. Little wonder they both belonged to Forrest J. Ackerman’s Science Fiction League, linking the trio until their deaths.
Like O’Brien, Harryhausen strove for realistic creatures to confront the live-action performers, drawing inspiration from the myths and legends familiar to people the world over. He began his professional career with George Pal, contributing to his series of Puppetoon shorts. World War II intervened and Harryhausen was assigned to the Special Services Division, continuing to make movies. This proved an invaluable tutorial and lab for experimenting with his animation techniques.
Soon after leaving the service, he embarked on the first of several dream projects that would dot his career. He did some demo footage based on H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds but the project never materialized. Instead, he was hired to work on Mighty Joe Young, letting the master and student work together and earning them earning them the Academy Award in 1949 for best Special Effects. Harryhausen was hired solo to provide the effects to The Monster from Beneath the Sea. When a connection was made to Bradbury’s story “The Fog Horn”, the film was renamed The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, the story’s original title and was released to acclaim and box office success in 1953.
By this point, Harryhausen had developed the technique that saw him shoot the actors then animate the creatures, splitting the image between foreground and background, the latter becoming a rear projection with the models before it. With mattes, the images were combined and Dynamation was born, although it was named later.
Harryhausen continued to evolve his work and then made the leap to color with The 7th Voyage of Sinbad in 1958. By now, he was partnered with producer Charles H. Schneer – beginning with It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) — who helped him perfect the shift to color, experimenting with different stocks until the look was right. Given the requirements of the models, Harryhausen became far more intimately involved in the story than most effects men ever did, ultimately co-directing many features although Director’s Guild rules denied him his proper credits.
The Sinbad series of films found an eager audience in the later 1950s and early 1960s as all things fantastic played well on screen. It offered adults, and their children, a wholesome escape from the Cold War tensions. It wasn’t all fantasy and monsters as Harryhausen and Schneer also produced several science fiction tales, such as 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).
They continued to produce works that stretched the imagination until 1963 and what is considered by many his finest outing, Jason and the Argonauts. Here, there was the amazing complex battle with the skeletons and the multi-armed gorgon. Little wonder that Tom Hanks, who first saw it as a kid, proclaimed years later, “Some people say Casablanca or Citizen Kane…I say Jason and the Argonauts is the greatest film ever made!”
Despite this pinnacle of technological achievement, tastes were changing and he endured a series of box office failures. After losing his contract with Columbia Pictures, he wound up in England working for Hammer Films’ One Million Years B.C. (1967). That film’s success allowed him to on to make The Valley of Gwangi (1969),a labor of love considering it was O’Brien’s unrealized dream project.
Harryhausen endured a lean 1970s, kept in the minds of readers thanks to Ackerman’s devoted retrospectives in the pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland. Finally, thanks to Star Wars, inspired in part by Harryhausen’s work, the appetite for fantasy was back and he revived Sinbad beginning with The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. This and its sequel Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger were suddenly feeling dated and jokey, not at all what modern day audiences found palatable.
He put everything he had into his Greek myth opus Clash of the Titans (1981), working with protégés Steve Archer Jim Danforth, much as O’Brien mentored him. With a star-studded cast and the addition of the impressive Kraken, the film was a last hurrah but for audiences now used to computer-generated effects, it looked and felt dated. Harryhausen was effectively retired, like it or not.
Thankfully, his work was rediscovered with h advent of magazines like Starlog, the rise of cable television, and a new generation of fans enchanted by his creations. As a result, he released several lovely books about his career: Film Fantasy Scrapbook, An Animated Life, The Art of Ray Harryhausen, and A Century of Model Animation. With the arrival of home video, Harryhausen personally oversaw the restoration and transfer of his films, from VHS to Blu-ray.
Harryhausen relocated to England in 1960 and in 2005, donated his archive, some 50,000 pieces, to the National Media Museum in Bradford, England. His efforts have not gone unrewarded such as being given the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for “technological contributions [which] have brought credit to the industry” in 1992, handed to him by Bradbury, and a special BAFTA award, delivered by director Peter Jackson.
Hollywood didn’t forget Harryhausen either, with Columbia’s parent, Sony, naming their main screening theater after him and his receipt of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
His influence and spirit will live on for generations to come thanks to his films being available to enjoy and the generations of filmmakers he inspired.
We’ve got more with David Giuntoli, star of NBC’s GRIMM, on what is the big reveal for season two and what we can expect in Season 3, plus Free Comic Book Day fun & profits, Image’s big sales and comics in general with another good month in the shops, except for DC.
Sequart Research & Literacy Organization has their two newest books listed in the current PREVIEWS catalog adding to their impressive collection of literary essays examining the key comics and creators over the last 30 years.
