Vaughn Bode and the Detroit Triple Fan Fair

It is hard to be sure, but from the signature, this appears to be a Vaughn Bode sketch, of his trade marked Lizards in Nazi uniforms.

I just discovered it on the Blog,

"Cap'n's Comics"

http://capnscomics.blogspot.ca

I am still, despite the passage of the years, really angry about all of the comments and comic strips that Vaughn Bode never got to say or to draw.

In the intervening forty plus years, since his untimely death, I have met people who actually knew Vaughn, warts and all and at least one of them, thought that Vaughn was a self absorbed ego maniac.

Regardless, I still remember laughing myself hoarse, over the antics of Cheech Wizard, in the pages of The National Lampoon and I wish that there had been many more of them.

It is hard to believe that Mark Bode, Vaughn's son, is now twenty years older than his father ever got to be!

Nigel & Nostalgia and Comics

I met Phil Clarke through Pete Lennon and Carl Brooks, a while before Phil got around to opening his shop,

Nostalgia & Comics

in a kiosk, in the now long gone, Hurst Street Subway, in downtown Birmingham, U.K.

I bought my comics from Phil, right up until I left Birmingham and the U.K., in 1980.

It has always been a pleasure for me, to see that the store Phil founded, is still in operation, even though Phil sold out his interest in the business, a long time ago.

This past weekend, my old pal Nigel, dropped by the old store (he still lives in the area) and was kind enough to send me a photograph of one of their latest shopping bags.

It is the little things in life, that can mean so much and this was a touching gesture because there is no way that I will be getting one for myself!

As I said to Nigel, when I thanked him, it is the ephemeral stuff, the flyers, adverts, bags and badges, that often fall through the cracks of our lives because we always seem to think that they are unworthy of collecting.

In the final analysis though, it is often these things that stay resident in memory and niggle at the edges of our brains, making us wonder if they ever actually existed.  That is part of the reason why I write this Blog, to commemorate the passing parade of my collecting life.

Jim Lee Tutorials

I am guilty of having paid very little attention to Jim Lee and his contribution to the world of Comic Books.

At least, since the early Nineties and the first few issues of his Wildcats, as Image Comics burst onto the scene.

In the intervening years, I did occasionally pick up some series that he worked on but the "shine had gone off the gingerbread", for me and while I appreciated his ability to turn out good looking comic books, I was no longer drawn to his artwork.

Then, on the advice of a friend, I searched out some videos, on Youtube, where Jim explains how he draws things and I was enthralled by his easy manner and his "down to earth" approach to making comic book art.

It was a revelation!

Nothing, I hasten to say, that he says, in the course of his tutorials, all filmed, over several years, at the San Diego Comic Con, is in any way, revolutionary or magical and that is what is GREAT!

I have been teaching myself to cartoon for almost as long as I can recall, not always successfully but I found several valuable gems of information in his explanations.

After fifty years of buying How to Draw books and studying the works of the professionals in the business, I was amazed to learn new and easily applied techniques, that immediately improved my drawings.

It was interesting to discover that one of his earliest sources on how to improve his drawing skills, came from the books of George Bridgeman.

There are several books, about drawing individual parts of the human figure and at least one compiled edition.  Bridgeman died in 1943, after a long career as an art teacher and while the images now look a little bit dated, the information is still first rate.

So, thank you, Jim Lee, for sharing your hard won knowledge with me and the rest of the world.

Dave Gibbons & How Comics Work

A new book arrived at The Labyrinth, here in Toronto, last Wednesday and it was one that I had been looking forward to checking out.

Dave Gibbons is an artist, who's work I have grown up with and I was eager to see what gems of information, he was going to impart.

Comic books and the techniques that make the cartoons on their pages, read like mini movies, are catnip to me.

On the plus side, the book turned out to be a very lucid look at all of the techniques employed by a comic book artist 

BUT

it was all rather flat and rather shallow.

Granted, that a book on the subject, that covered every aspect of cartooning, would be huge and quite possibly too deep for the average student in the class

BUT

I would have loved to have seen a few in-depth tutorials, where Dave Gibbons walked us through his approach to designing pages and panels.

I am not trying to run the book down, or say that it isn't worth the money that I paid for it, I am just giving my opinion on it.  I have most of the "How to Make Comic Books" books, that have been published over the years and they all have valuable things to teach a willing student.

Way back, in the mid-Seventies, Dave Gibbons contributed this cover to Dez Skinn's Fantasy Advertiser International #54

It has been a long and illustrious career, during which, Dave has made his own, significant, contribution to the medium and I salute him, whole heartedly, for all his hard work and the way it has enriched my life.

Chris Baker Memories

A long time ago, in a land far, far away, 

there was a Science Fiction bookshop called Andromeda 

and it was a hub, mainly because of Dave Holmes but 

not entirely, for the local fans of the fantastic.

One of those fans, was the young and very talented, 

Chris Baker, who quickly took to signing his artwork

as Fangorn.

One of the things that he turned his hand to, 

while he was attending Bournville Art College,

was etching, on thin metal sheets, that were covered with a layer of black paint.

The one example, that I remember well, was a copy 

of this beautiful painting, by Bernie Wrightson.

I wish that I had a copy, of Chris' copy, 

to share but as far as I know, it is probably still 

in a pile of Dave Holmes old stuff and 

is lost to the world.

Mister Baker, went on to have a successful career, as an illustrator and then later, as a designer/storyboard artist, 

working on some major Hollywood films.

Congratulations, Chris, you made your dreams come true.  

Old Silver Snail & Brian Morton

I ran across this scan of an old newspaper photograph,

which shows the very much younger, Brian Morton.

If I am guessing correctly,

because there was not any date, associated with the image,

it was taken after 1985 and before 1989.

He really hasn't changed a lot, over the years, 

he just thickened up a bit and these days, 

except that he has more hair, 

he always makes me feel as though I am in the presence of 

"The Kingpin",

of Marvel Comics fame.

On a different topic, I had forgotten about the old checkerboard, black an white tiled floors, that were a part of the Silver Snail's ambience! 

What I wouldn't give, for the chance to go back to when the photograph was taken and change a few decisions! LOL

Silver Snail Hamilton Opening

Here is an advert, rediscovered in the centre pages of Bill Marks flagship publication, Vortex, number four.

Vortex #4, is dated for July of 1983,

so that is as close as I am likely to get, to the moment of the Hamilton location's birth.

The years have sort of mashed everything together, in my head and I wouldn't have been able to say exactly when Ron opened the Hamilton branch of the Snail.  It came as a surprise, when I realized that it fell in the same year as the move of the Toronto store, from 323 to 367 Queen Street West.

At that time, Andromeda, the distribution side of Ron's small empire, was beginning to make more money than the Silver Snail was and Ron had moved into a CEO role, over both companies, with Mark Askwith becoming the manager of the Toronto store.

Ken Steacy did a beautiful job of designing the mascot, eventually christened "Bobo", by Rob Walton, and the image in the lower right corner of the advert, was, in my opinion, one of the best ever used on the store's bags.

Only one more thing to add.

The original painting, by Paul Rivoche, that is shown on the left hand side of the advert, was hanging in the cafe section of the New Silver Snail and I had made a gentle enquiry, over a year ago, as to whether the new owners were interested in selling it.

They never did get back to me and I noticed, two weeks ago, that the space on the wall, where it had once hung, was now vacant.  I am guessing that either someone stole it, or that they received a more forceful offer and sold it.

Whatever.