Showing posts with label Don Rosa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Don Rosa. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Baltimore Comic-Con photos

Here's a few - more of same (literally) on my Flickr site set. These are all from Saturday.

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The hour-long line to get in.

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Richard Thompson examining his free can of Monster drink during the hour-long wait to get in.

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Star Wars costumes.

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Andy Runton signing Owly. Photo by Claire.

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Kids and comics - a natural.

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Jeff Kinney signing Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Photo by Claire.

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Danielle Corsetto.

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Nathan Fox.

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Steve Conley getting a book signed by Richard Thompson.

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Don Rosa drawing Uncle Scrooge.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Read This Comic: The Return

Many years ago, one of the Internet mailing lists I joined was Comix@ - supposedly devoted to alternative comics, but actually anything was fair game. I made a lot of good friends on the list, and was sorry to see it eventually die - done in by message boards and websites. One of the conceits of the list was "Read this Comic" in which one recommended an obscure or odd title. Here's some that I wrote up years ago. Perhaps I'll start doing this again - but meanwhile anyone can play! Mail them to me and I'll post them.

And now, Read this Comic, circa 2000 - a bit dated (Lynda Barry and Ted Rall have both lost plenty of newspapers unfortunately), but still perhaps of interest:

--Xeric-winner Ellen Forney's collection of strips from Seattle newspapers "I was Seven in '75" (ISBN 0-9660258-8-1) recalls the horrors of the Seventies in ways that retro-fashion trends can only hint at. From her brother's swept back Farrah Fawcett hair, to her mother's nudist tennis game, to Forney's favorite rainbow-stiched pants, it's all here. Her autobiographical style is a pleasant stroll compared to much of the genre. Hopefully, she'll be able to break into to a larger syndicated market and compete with Lynda Barry and Ted Rall's mean streaks.

--The strangest comic that I've read by far this year is Life with Archie #129 (January 1973). Al Hartley wrote and drew the issue around the time he began producing Christian comics . Hartley's style is instantly recognizable for his amazing overuse of facial expressions and floating objects around heads like hearts, stars, sweatbeads, speed lines, etc. In many ways, it's a very appealing style. Archie and the gang are magically transported back to the 1890s in "Nostalgia Gets Ya!" There's no attempt at an explanation; when Archie asks for one, Betty says "Nothing's impossible, Arch! If you believe in miracles, they come true!"

The gang walks four miles to school (oddly enough, I thought sprawl was a post-WWII problem) and Archie discovers that "Mr. Weatherbee seems bigger to me!" Jughead notes, "He seems to have more confidence!" as Betty remarks, "Everyone seems to know what they're doing!" presumably including the janitor Swensen, shown in the background.

Later that evening Archie calls on Veronica for a date. Mr. Lodge spends the entire time with them and as Archie is leaving, Veronica apologizes. Archie responds, "I'll bet some girls wish their fathers would pay attention to them! You father's a busy man! I'm flattered that he took the time to keep me out of trouble!"

The weirdness continues and Dilton, (the brain of the group, for those who didn't grow up on Archie) is able to draw some conclusions. "No one calls a policeman a pig! And women are treated as more than equals! People take pride in their neighborhood!" Archie agrees, "There is something different about these people." Veronica sums it up, "Everybody's going in the same direction! They have unity! But where do you look for it?" And Betty provides the capper, "That's easy! You look up!" I must confess that, as a historian of sorts, I did find his longing for a mythical golden age in the 1890s rather tiresome. After all, this is the time period when Jacob Riis was producing his photographs of child labor, published in How the Other Half Lives. Hartley didn't work for Archie much longer after this comic came out, but while he was there he created some .... memorable work. Good luck finding this.

--Another 1 para RTC: Don Rosa's Life of Scrooge McDuck series (Uncle Scrooge 285-296) is a tour-de-force. Originally done for European publisher Egmont in 1991-1993, these were published in America by Gladstone in 1994-1995. In 12 stories, the self-admittedly-obsessed Rosa pulled a multitude of facts about Scrooge from Carl Bark's original classic stories and wove them into an entertaining story. He covered Scrooge's life from 1867-1947 including the Alaskan gold rush. Rosa frequently refers to his work as overly-detailed, but he's obviously lovingly studied Elder's early Mad art. Rosa's stories work on several levels so this can be enjoyed by children and their parents. The story was recently collected by Gladstone.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Baltimore Comic-Con UPDATE 2 - now with more pictures

Because YOU (well, Richard Thompson at least) demanded it, here's some pics with commentary to follow later. I will say this is the busiest I've seen the con.

Greg LaRocque was sitting, possibly with his son, sketching. I always liked LaRocque's smooth style in the 1980s on the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Flash. I bought some DC tryout pages he'd done of Batman facing down Darkseid - lovely work. He should be still getting all the work he can handle. He's working on a new book for a small company - when I find the ad again, I'll mention it as he's a Northern Baltimore creator.


Me with Al Feldstein, EC artist, and Mad editor in chief during the glory days.



Jim Shooter, former Legion of Superheroes writer, Marvel Editor-in-Chief and Valiant EiC.


Jim Shooter was quite friendly - one of the guys in front of me had a pile of Avengers comics to be signed. Shooter told an anecdote about 3 of them. In one, artist George Perez added in art that wasn't in the script, like a nun answering the door when the Avengers were in hot pursuit. So Shooter called someone at the local Berlitz and had the Beast speaking correct Latin to the nun. He said they were planning to pay, but the translator was so tickled to be in a comic, he didn't want it. The issue of the Avengers with Ant-Man shooting up full-size and hitting other Avengers? Rob Liefeld told Shooter it was the best comic ever. Finally, in the first What If series - What if the Avengers Never Existed? - Archie Goodwin provided the main plot for the story by telling Shooter, "You have to kill Iron Man." Shooter spoke briefly about the fun times the old Marvel Bullpen was, and then signed my Avengers: The Korvac Saga and the DC Legion of Superhero Archives 6-7 - without mentioning this! "OFFICIAL: JIM SHOOTER RETURNS TO DC'S LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES"
by Matt Brady, Newsarama (September 6, 2007).

Don Rosa, heir to Carl Barks on the Disney Ducks.


Herb Trimpe drawing Wolverine.

John Romita Sr. and Herb Trimpe getting together.

The line for Herb Trimpe was always long, which I was pleased to see. He had written an article for the NY Times a year or so ago about being forgotten by comic book companies, but people reading comics in the 1960s and 70s saw his work all the time, especially on the Hulk. When John Romita Sr., the former Marvel art director stopped by, they hugged and then kept giving each other credit for creating Wolverine. Apparently Trimpe came up with the character and Romita the costume. Trimpe's got a book out - The Power of Angels: Reflections from a Ground Zero Chaplain. I had him sign that and a copy of Origins of Marvel Comics that my wife had signed for me by Stan Lee in 1991. Trimpe took a great pleasure in asking if he could sign the page over the top (ie higher) than Stan Lee. Fine with me.

Joe Kubert, caught at his Kubert School table, signs a few comics, but not for me, sigh.

Claire was quite taken with the Girls with Slingshots table decor.

More photographs, courtesy of Joel Pollack of Big Planet Comics:

Arnold Blumberg, curator of Geppi's Entertainment Museum
Sergio Aragones
Kyle Baker
Joe Kubert
James Jean
Frank Cho

And here's a press show interview, "Catching Up with Baltimore Comic-Con's Marc Nathan," by Tim O'Shea, September 5, 2007.