Comicology Volume 1 Number 1

I bought the four issues of Comicology,

that came out through TwoMorrows,

way back in 2000 and 2001.

Volume 2 Number 1 Flip Book Cover A (2000)

Volume 2 Number 1 Flip Book Cover B (2000)

Volume 2 Number 2 Flip Book Cover A (2000)
(At least, to me, because I love Paul Grist's work.)

Volume 2 Number 2 Flip Book Cover B (2000)

Volume 2 Number 3 Flip Book Cover A (2001)

Volume 2 Number 3 Flip Book Cover B (2001)

Volume 2 Number 4 Cover (2001)

I loved them and I was sorry when they simply stopped appearing but things like that happen all the time in the weird world of comic book collecting and life moved on.

Until recently, I had never noticed that they were all
numbered as being Volume 2!

I know, SLOW or what?

Once I had realized that there must be a Volume 1,
I looked for it on-line.  Imagine my surprise, when I found out that, Comicology, Volume 1, Number 1 was a single issue!

Volume 1 Number 1 (1998)

A huge, sprawling look into the world of 
Kingdom Come
published by DC Comics, in a four issue 
Mini Series, in 1996.

I know, had I simply read the editorial in Volume 2, 
Number 1, I would have learned the whole story a 
whole lot sooner, but as I said earlier,
no one has ever accused me of being very bright.

Moving ahead with the story.
I found a copy listed for sale on the Stuart Ng 
website and while it was tempting,
the issues of dealing with a currency exchange and then 
having my own government charge me a tax 
on the item, when it arrives, gave me pause!

So I looked around and on Amazon.ca,
I found a used copy that would come from a 
Canadian source.  Bingo!

The item would cost me $68 Cdn, including shipping.
Not exactly cheap but then, I don't recall ever having seen 
a copy and I felt like indulging myself.

The seller,
"Sellavie",
shipped it to me from Abbotsford in BC,
way out on our west coast and a lovely place... or at least it was,
the last time I was there in 1990 and it arrived yesterday.

Amazingly, they simply slipped the item into an appropriately sized, white plastic envelope and sent it that way.
Nothing to protect the book, not even a thin sheet of bubble-wrap!

To my great relief and delight,
with the exception of a half inch hole,
where the bottom of the spine of the book was located,
it arrived safe and sound.

Unfortunately, the front cover has a deep crease in it,
as though the last two inches of the cover had been scrunched
over at some point, perhaps recently, from the way it looks.
Otherwise, it is a lovely item, with clean, unripped or blemished pages and I am very happy to have it.

It will take me some time to wade through it.
I am not the biggest fan of Alex Ross 
and his meticulously painted comics, not that I 
don't admire his skill and talent but I 
prefer a little more cartoon and less photorealism 
in my comic books.

I and this is probably going to shock some of you, 
didn't buy Kingdom Come as it came out.
In fact, I still don't own the story, not even in 
Graphic Novel format.

That is probably something that I should remedy, at least so that I can have a clearer understanding of all of the minute details 
highlighted by the publisher/writer 
Brian Saner Lamken
and his team of researchers.

When the book came out, in 1998, everyone loved it...
except DC Comics!

For more information about that issue,
please follow this link:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=7017

That's all for now but at least I am slipping this post in, under the wire, just before this month ends.

As a note to myself, Try and Post More Often! 

Waiting for Steranko

Jim Steranko.

I have been in awe of the man's ability to tell a story in pictures ever since I first saw his work in the old Strange Tales comic books.

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, never looked as good as it did in those early years.

The fact that Steranko left the comic art field just a couple of years later, around 1970, after his one and only love story, "My Heart Broke in Hollywood" and yet, he is still considered to be a seminal influence on the medium, speaks for it's self.

Unfortunately, any project that has the Steranko name attached to it, either comes in exceptionally late or completely disappears without a trace!

Many years ago, there was the promise of a book that would teach or explain the Steranko way of making comic books and graphic works, the name of which escapes me now but it never happened and there was never any explanation for it's failure to arrive.

Today, we are still waiting on the second volume of his comic book stories about Nick Fury, another Artist's Edition from IDW.

It has been delayed and delayed again, which, given the rapidly dwindling interest in the Artist's Edition format, must be more than a trifle worrying for the publisher.

It must be even more irksome to IDW, given that the first volume was such a raving success.

It is now promised for a December 2015 release and I really hope that it makes it.  As usual, I will be there, waiting in line, money in hand, panting to buy a copy... in the twinkling of an eye, I will be 17 years old again and floating on air, having just parted with a small fortune to buy a copy of Captain America 113!

I have been a collector of comic books and related things, for about 45 years and I have finally started to wonder how much longer I will go on collecting.  Perhaps, with the publication and purchase of this book, I will have reached a milestone and I will finally leave the party and walk away.

I don't think that my interest in the art form will stop but I am seriously considering ceasing to collect.

Paul Grist's Jack Staff

I am in the process of rereading all of the issues of Jack Staff that Paul Grist has put out over the years and they are still as entertaining as they were the first time that I read them.

A page by the great Frank Robbins,

from The Invaders #15 page 3, 

showing the creation of a Super Hero Team.

Despite, as Paul freely admitted in the past, being

a story that takes it's inspiration from a couple of Mid Seventies Marvel Comics, it is as engaging and satisfying as the first Alan Moore stories for the reintroduction of Marvelman in Warrior.

Paul manages the amazing feat of incorporating some fairly "cheesy" story lines, at least that was how I viewed them at the time they came out and without destroying anything,

come up with a comic book that is deeply engaging.

It is a great shame that it met the same fate as Paul's first series, the police drama called KANE, which came to an untimely end 

at issue #31.  The combined issues of Jack Staff, self published under the Dancing Elephant imprint, that ran for 12 issues as a complete mini-series.  Jack Staff, under the Image Comics imprint, that ran for 20 issues plus a Special Issue.  Then finally, The Weird World of Jack Staff, still with Image Comics, that began with the Special, a reprinting of a sequential story that had originally appeared in Comics International #185 to #191 and was followed by 6 more issues...

My mathematics isn't what it used to be but I 

calculate that as a total of 40 issues!  All in a continuous storyline.

Paul Grist has a style that often incorporates playing with time or perhaps more accurately, playing games with timing.

It can be a little bit disorienting at times but there is no denying it's effectiveness as a storytelling ploy.  I believe that the late great Wally Wood was supposed to have given this piece of advice about making a comic book story, "Start in the middle of the action and move backwards and/or forwards from there".

I wish there were more Jack Staff stories but I buy anything that comes out by him, most recently the aborted Mud Man.  I hope too that his latest work, Demon Nic, will be collected for me to buy.

Blogs I Enjoy

I don't have a huge list of favourites

but there are a few Blogs that I have remained

faithful to and I feel the need to pass them along to 

anyone who may be interested.

The Golden Age

http://thegoldenagesite.blogspot.ca

This guy has posted a wide variety of art related material over the years and I believe that it is all from his personal collection.

If he owns everything that he has put on display, then he has one the most amazing collections of Science Fiction, Fanzines and Original Art that I have ever seen.

Well worth a visit.

Cap'n's Comics

http://capnscomics.blogspot.ca

This is a far more comic book centric website with

plenty of SF and Fantasy book covers thrown in.

There is a definite bias toward the art of

Frank Frazetta

Barry Windsor Smith

Jeff Jones

Jack Kirby

Etc.

The guy who runs it does a very good job, much better than I do, of keeping up a regular flow of new or recycled material.

None of us are getting any younger and he freely admits to not caring if he is reposting things that he loves and finds beauty in.

Temple of the Seven Golden Camels

(Everything I Know about the art of Storyboarding)

http://www.sevencamels.blogspot.ca

Here we have a sort of Nuts & Bolts site.

Written by a professional, working in the industry,

that covers the techniques of making drawings that work.

Consistently interesting and informative

but due to the demands of his everyday job,

often times there are large spaces of time without

new material being added.

Voz Words

http://vozwords.blogspot.ca

The web presence of longtime comic book artist

Mike Vosburg.

Mike was one of the young men who seemed to pour into the comic book companies during the early 1970's and he contributed to a number of different titles.

Later on, he moved into the more lucrative field of movie storyboarding but he never truly forgot his roots and he has continued to put out his own comics, periodically, over the years.

Lori Lovecraft, has been the main character that he has used.
Mike was always, even in his earliest days, able to draw pretty women well and the stories that he has woven around Lori, have been a vehicle for him to explore the realms of B-Movie
settings and situations.

At the same time, he talks about his work, the things that interest him and the people he has met.

For a short while, new material was posted regularly but recently, the Blog seems to have stalled.

A real shame, because it is an interesting site.

Moving in a slightly different direction,
I recently bought a piece of Original Art from 
Mike Burkey of Romitaman
and I would like to promote his site here.

It is a great place to browse examples of Original Art from comic books, book covers and magazines, etc.

My experience in purchasing a piece from Mr. Burkey was as smooth as butter and I would not hesitate to recommend his services to anyone.  If I had more free money, he would get a lot of it!

Movies That Don't Really Work

Recently, I finally watched all of the Harry Potter movies, over the course of several days and while I found them all to be, generally entertaining, at the close of the final film... well, I felt that they held together poorly.

There were leaps of logic, which, for people who have read the books (I have not), may not be apparent but based solely on the information imparted by the story on the screen, I feel confused and incredulous at their popularity!

Harry Potter isn't the only example.

I also watched the new Mad Max movie, Fury Road

and while it is stocked with images that are like candy for the eye,

ultimately it is a very small story, poorly told.

AND YET,

people whose opinion I generally respect, had told me it was amazing, with a brilliance unmatched in film making for years!

Oh, well, one lives and learns.

Or rather, one should but I keep going back to the well for another drink, always expecting the water to taste better than it did last time.

I am starting to sound like my mother, may she rest in peace, who was appalled by the poor acting, pacing and story line of

"India Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark".

When it first came out and I was a lot younger than I am today, it seemed like the finest film making in the world but now, older and wiser, I can see her point.

I am unsure whether this disillusionment is a function of age, or not

but it seems to to be that a lot of things that we were captivated by in our younger days, lose their charm as we grow older.

Another Disappointing Meeting with an Idol

More than a month ago, I attended TCAF 2015, here in Toronto.

One of my main reasons for attending was the opportunity to meet someone that I thought highly of,

Stuart Immonen.

I have written a couple of pieces for this Blog about him and how much I admire his ability to compose comic book pages.  The chance to tell him, in person, how highly I rated his work, was irresistible and I would be able to get a copy of 

Russian Olive to Red King

hot off the presses!

I was one of the first wave of people onto the convention floor and while the Immonen's were not yet at their table, their publisher was and I promptly bought a copy of the book from him.

While I was chatting with the publisher, having already put my purchase away, the Immonen's arrived and I had the opportunity to "gush" about how much I enjoyed their works.

Then I left their table, to wander the convention and meet 

Hunt Emerson, about whom I will write later.

Quite a while later, in passing the Immonen's table, I noticed that they were both adding their talents to books being bought!

Kathryn was inscribing and Stuart was sketching.

So, I sidled up beside Stuart and said something to the effect that, had I known that he would have been sketching in the book, I would have delayed my purchase...

And he said, "That's the problem with buying too soon."

Or at least, something very similar... and I was floored!

Here was a man that I had admired and spoken to only an hour or so earlier and he was being an ASS.

Considering that I bought the book at his table, from his publisher, I expected at least... "If you are willing to wait in line, I will see if I can fit you in..." or something, but the disdainful dismissal that I received was hurtful and uncalled for.

I have been a steady supporter of Stuart Immonen's work and it pains me to find out that he is not the type of person that I thought he was.

In the end, as little as it is, I can only show my complete disappointment in his conduct towards me, by no longer buying anything he does.  No matter how good it might be or how much better his artwork continues to get.

Thank you, Mr. Immonen, for all the great work that you have done.  I will still pore over those pages, trying to learn from you but I will not buy your wares anymore.

Brian Lewis Cartoonist and Illustrator: The Reptile, House of Hammer #19

Here is another instalment of the ongoing collection

of comic strip work by the late, great Brian Lewis.

Brian would have been 86 this year, had he not died in 1978.

It is a sobering thought, that he was nine years younger than I am now, when he died.

There are a lot of bits and pieces by Brian, that I have copied from the Web and I will continue to put them up but this is the last of the full stories that I have.

Several years ago, I had a short exchange of e-mails with a guy in England who owned two of the original House of Hammer cover paintings.  They had come to him through a market vendor, who believed that the stylized signature said "Lenin" and he advertised them that way!  The owner was half-heartedly trying to sell them but the three thousand pounds ( I seem to remember ) he was asking for them,was far too high for me to consider; sadly.

I wonder where they are today?

Tom Bird Where Are You Now?

T. Bird, T. W. Bird, Tom Bird and finally Thomas Bird are all the ways in which the same artist labelled himself in the 

early 1970's.

There are very few pages of his art out there and what there is can be hard to find.  He contributed to the fourth issue of Promethean Enterprises, The Berkley Con Booklet and Underground Comics too : Spaced Out, Yellow Dog #21, Barbarians #2 and a complete issue of Barbarian Killer Funnies.

Other than those examples, I have no idea of who he was or why, after showing some promise, he simply disappeared from the scene.  The work is competent and well executed, generally of a higher standard than many of the, relatively unknown, cartoonists with whom he shared space in the anthology titles.

It would be interesting to know if he was, as many were at that time, an art school student, or perhaps a working commercial artist who moon-lighted as an underground cartoonist.

In some respects, his contribution to the undergrounds and fanzines of the day, place him in the company of another personal favourite, Robert (Bob) Kline.

The biggest difference is that I know what happened to Bob, he went into animation and earned a living at it.

Here are a couple of samples of T. Bird's art and one or two of Bob Kline's.

Barbarian Killer Funnies

T. Bird

Spaced Out

Front Cover

T. Bird

Spaced Out 

Back Cover

T. Bird

Illustrations for the 

Berkeley Con

Program

RBCC #66 Illustration

Bob Kline

RBCC #78 Cover

Bob Kline

High Adventure 

a Wraparound Cover 

but I could only find this image on-line!

If anyone has any information about the elusive Mr. Bird,

I would be very happy to hear it.

Cartoonist & Illustrator Brian Lewis Quatermass House of Hammer #8 & #9

The Quatermass science fiction stories, written for the BBC in the 1950's were some of the best of their time.

These days, they come across as rather quaint and slightly old fashioned, especially since the central character is such a striking example of a very British ideal; the calm, self-controlled professional.

Brian Lewis did a lovely job of capturing the atmosphere of the original TV series

and managed to pack in all the likenesses of the actors too!

I often wonder where all of the original art for these strips are today, it would be a great shame if they were left to moulder in some forgotten corner.

So, I hope you enjoy this instalment of the Brian Lewis Archives.