Frank Cho to draw Wolverine... and Shanna

See

Frank Cho's 'Savage Wolverine' Marvel NOW! Title Shipping in January
10/09/2012

or

Marvel NOW! Q&A: Savage Wolverine; Frank Cho pulls double duty as writer and artist on a story that brings Logan to the Savage Land for a team-up with Shanna!
By Andrew Wheeler
Oct 8, 2012

Comic Riffs on Gene Colan's death

RIP, GENE COLAN: Stan Lee joins those memorializing the legendary artist [UPDATED]
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs June 27 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/rip-gene-colan-stan-lee-joins-those-memorializng-the-legendary-artist-updated/2011/06/24/AGif8cnH_blog.html#pagebreak

For the record, the Post ran part of a wire story obit today.

Atlas Returns in Baltimore

It’s easy to forget how close Baltimore really is, but it is less than an hour away and has one of America’s few comics museums. Geppi’s Entertainment Museum (aka GEM), housed in a former railroad station right outside the Camden Yards ballpark, is a magical place for comics fans. Steve Geppi is the owner of Diamond Distributors, the largest comic book distributor in the country, and his museum is a showcase for his collections. The main hallway is filled with large posters (including one for the original King Kong movie), original comics artwork, advertising signs, and a letter from Walt Disney to Mrs. George ‘Krazy Kat’ Herriman expressing condolences on her husband’s death.

The exhibit galleries tell the story of popular culture via characters, beginning in the 19^th century with Palmer Cox’s Brownies (although there’s a nod to earlier history in the first one – you can see Ben Franklin’s original newspaper cartoon in it). They jump decade by decade, hitting highlights such as The Yellow Kid, Superman, Disney’s characters, Little Orphan Annie, Popeye and the like before ending with Star Wars in the 1970s. Each room is packed with toys and merchandising.

The galleries begin with one devoted to the history of the comic book which begins with early collections of comic strips from the 1900s through the ‘20s, then moves into pulps and a whole wall of Big Little Books, before showcasing Geppi’s collection of key comic books. Atlas At Last! the current temporary exhibit began in this room. Atlas was a company that barely existed from 1974-1975. It was created by Martin Goodman, the former owner of Marvel Comics (which had used the name Atlas in the 1950s), for his son Chip to run, in an attempt to outstrip his former company. As Diamond’s Scoop site notes, “By paying top rates, the company attracted creators such as Russ Heath, John Severin, Alex Toth, Walter Simonson, Ernie Colon, Neal Adams, Pat Broderick, Mike Ploog, Rich Buckler, Frank Thorne, Tony Isabella, Jeff Jones, Boris Valejo and others. One series, The Destructor, featured longtime Warren, Marvel and DC editor Archie Goodwin as its writer, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange co-creator Steve Ditko on pencils, EC veteran and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents creator Wally Wood on inks, with Marvel veteran Larry Lieber (one of the Atlas editors and Marvel impresario Stan Lee’s brother) providing the cover.” It’s worth noting that talents did not move between the major companies at the time, and one could be blackballed for doing work for a competitor.


Mark Huesman, JC Vaughn, Mike Wilbur, Philip Zolli & Mark Wheatley

The exhibit features most, if not all, of the comics, that Atlas published and some striking original art down for the books. These are drawn from the collection of Philip Zolli, the enthusiast behind The Atlas Archives website (which he started in 2003). Zolli bought the comics he could fine when they appeared originally, and has continued completing and filling out his collection over the intervening thirty-five years. Mike Wilbur (employee of Diamond International Galleries) was one of the show’s curators and provided some of the comic books on display. The other of exhibit’s two curators, J.C. Vaughn (of Gemstone Publishing), invited me to the opening of the show. Of Atlas’ enduring appeal, he told me, “I’ve worked in comics for sixteen years next month, and I freelanced for a year before that, so I’m not a novice, I’m not your average fanboy, but I was totally a geeked-out kid. I got two of the comics in a trade when I was a kid, like 1976, a year after they died, and I got so into them -- that’s the seed of the exhibit being here now.”

The Atlas line has just been relaunched by Ardden Entertainment and grandson Jason Goodman, and Vaughn says, “I think there’s a better understanding of the company now … we’re talking 72, 73 publications in 1975, and the fact that we’re still talking about them in any sense is amazing, and the fact that anyone’s bringing them back is even more amazing.”

Phil Zolli was attempting to collect his comics before there were comic book stores. “I remember there several stationary stores had the spinner racks, and they were there, and Atlas in my area got good coverage, so I was able to buy them right off the newsstand. They just struck a chord with me because all I knew at the time was Marvel and DC, and I got to be at the ground floor of a brand-new company. It was very exciting. A year later, they disappeared.” He didn’t buy all of the line at the time – Archie knock-off Binky, Gothic Romances and other magazines waited for later, as did buying original art. “Once I started the site, and I had searches out because I wanted to accumulate as much information as I could, E-bay was a great source of information and artwork that popped up. I thought, ‘This is great and relatively inexpensive. I’m going to buy it.’ Zolli’s original artwork is interspersed with other artwork, both in the main comic book exhibit room and the museum’s main hall, a weakness in the show’s design that lessens the impact of the art. Very little of the original art exists. Vaughn noted, “When people went up to the Atlas offices, after they ceased publication, there was one secretary that denied that they were ever in comics, Simonson had a whole story missing… some have cast glances at some of the last editorial employees and others have just heard that it got thrown out.” Maryland comic artist Mark Wheatley, who noted that he published the first or second story done by Howard Chaykin, said “During that period, it’s quite likely it just got tossed.” Zolli is continuing to collect the new versions of the comics, and has been buying original art from those series as well.

The second Atlas failed for a couple of reasons. Vaughn points out, “They hired Jeff Rovin from Warren [a black and white comics magazine publisher] and put him in charge of color comics; they brought in Larry Lieber who worked at the core of silver age Marvel, and put him in charge of black and white magazines…” Wheatley said of Atlas, “They looked like Marvel deliberately, and then the distributors forced them to change and not look like Marvel” while Vaughn says that “a lot of the changes were capricious like the Movie Monsters [magazine on display] originally had differently colored lettering that didn’t get lost in the background orange, but the Goodman’s came by and made them change it.” Discussing how much the comics industry has changed, Zolli says “Larry Hama was doing the second issue of Wulf, and his mother was dying, and Martin Goodman refused to push the deadline back. The guy quit right after that. A lot of people were bitter.” Distribution was a problem for the company, as other companies such as Skywald and Charlton were still fighting for space on the racks. Wilbur remembers, “The place I was buying my new comics in the ‘70s was a bookstore / newsstand place. I went in there often enough that they would let me put out the new comics when they came in. They had no say in what they got – they would just get these bundles of comics strapped together and it was just totally random. Maybe this month you might get ten copies of this title, next month you’d get two copies and the next month you’d get twenty of them.”



The failure of this newsstand distribution system is what led Geppi to begin Diamond, his distribution company – so he could get his own comic books to read. If you’re curious about a little company that didn’t matter much, or are interested in cartooning history, the museum is located at 301 W. Camden Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, 410-625-7060, sliding scale entry fee begins at $10 for adults.

[Corrected June 1, 2011 for the misspelling of Mr. Zolli's name as Zullo. I regret the error].

Superheroes Who Are Super at the Capital Fring Festival beginning tonight

 

 

Save the Day Productions is presenting its live readings of comic books, "Superheroes Who Are Super" at the Capital Fringe Festival beginning tonight

 

Times

Friday, July 9 @ 8pm
Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man and Wonder Woman #1
Saturday, July 10 @ 10pm
Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man and Wonder Woman #1
Wednesday, July 14 @ 9:45pm
Batman Adventures: Mad Love
Friday, July 16 @ 10:15pm
The Uncanny X-Men #127-128
Sunday, July 18 @ 3:30pm
The Uncanny X-Men #127-128

 

Location

The Apothecary
1013 7th Street, NW
Washington, DC
Tickets: $15

Marvel posters at National Library of Medicine

Some times you're looking for something in a library (alcoholism posters) and up pops a surprise like these six posters from Marvel in 1987 on the dangers of drinking to excess.

Here's the links to the images and the catalogue information:

http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/images/A26070

http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/images/A26069

http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/images/A26071

http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/images/A26073  - Storm

http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/images/A26074 - Iron Man

http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/images/A26072 - Firestar and Iceman

 

April 13: Fantom Comics 1st Comic Book Happy Hour

From their March newsletter...

Fantom Comics would like to invite you to our first Comic Book Happy Hour, to be held from 6-8pm at The Laughing Man Tavern (just off Metro Center) on the 2nd Tuesday of every month.

April 13th will be our first event, featuring a panel of three policy wonks and a Marvel Comics editor discussing "Politics in Comics". Come for the 20 minute discussion and Q&A, stay for the fun of meeting other comic book nerds in the area! More details will be posted on the website in a couple of weeks, but remember to save that date: Tuesday, April 13th!

Zadzooks on Marvel toys

Zadzooks Secret Wars Comic Packs, Turbo Tank and Halo Wars Aerial Ambush
Joseph Szadkowski, Washington Times November 12, 2009

Wash Times on Disney purchase of Marvel

Out of characters: Disney should go indie, By Sonny Bunch, Washington Times September 25 2009.

Nate Beeler's excellent cartoon Disney and Marvel

follow the link...

When Superhero Mutants Go Disney
By: Nate Beeler
Examiner Staff Writer
9/1/09http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/NateBeelerToons/When-Superhero-Mutants-Go-Disney-56425677.html

Shawn Martinbrough on Luke Cage

Shawn Martinbrough talks about his Luke Cage artwork at Black Superhero Luke Cage Ignites Marvel Comics, by Lynette Holloway, Black Voices Jul 31st 2009. The article says he lives in Washington and NY - I thought he'd left the area, but I guess not completely.

Baltimore Comic-Con PR

MARVEL COMICS CREATORS COME TO BALTIMORE 2009!
2010 Dates Announced!

BALTIMORE, MD (May. 26, 2009) -- The Baltimore Comic-Con is proud to announce that top creators of today's Marvel Universe will find themselves in Baltimore this October 10th and 11th as guests of the Baltimore Comic-Con. Jason Aaron (Wolverine), Brian Michael Bendis (Avengers), Frank Cho (Ultimates 4), David Finch (Ultimatum), Matt Fraction (Uncanny X-Men), and Barry Kitson (Amazing Spider-Man) will all convene to help celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Baltimore Comic-Con.

"This modern day Marvel bullpen, the writers and artists of today's Marvel Comics, will really help to make this year a great show. This will be the first time that Jason Aaron and Matt Fraction have joined us, and a great second year for Brian Michael Bendis. Brian made a special effort to speak with all of his fans last year, and was a guest that many of our fans requested come back," said Marc Nathan, promoter of the Baltimore Comic-Con. "We missed David Finch in 2008 due to the birth of his lovely daughter, and it is great to have him back. And of course, we are thrilled to welcome perennial fan favorites Frank Cho and Barry Kitson back to the halls of the Baltimore Convention Center."

As we continue to get ready for the show on October 10-11, 2009, we would also like to announce the Baltimore Comic-Con's 2010 dates: August 27-28, 2010. "We have spent 10 years putting on great comic book-centric shows, and I am proud to start on a second great decade. The fans come to our shows to meet and greet with their favorite artists and writers, and we plan to continue that tradition well into the future," remarked Nathan. "While it may be early for some, we want our partners, guests, exhibitors, and fans to know our plans so that they join us in 2010."

In coming weeks, look for more announcements from the Baltimore Comic-Con. We are looking forward to highlighting our guests, the Harvey Awards, industry exclusives, and programming. The latest developments can always be found at our website, Facebook, MySpace, and ComicSpace pages.

This year's Baltimore Comic-Con will be held October 10-11, 2009. Convention hours are Saturday 10 AM to 6 PM and Sunday 10 AM to 5 PM. The ceremony and banquet for the Harvey Awards will be held Saturday night, October 10th.

About The Baltimore Comic-Con

The Baltimore Comic-Con is celebrating its 10th year of bringing the comic book industry to the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area. With a guest list unequaled in the industry, the Baltimore Comic-Con will be held Oct 10-11, 2009. For more information, please visit www.baltimorecomiccon.com.

About The Harvey Awards

The Harvey Awards are one of the comic book industry's oldest and most respected awards. With a history of over 20 years, the last 4 in conjunction with the Baltimore Comic-Con, the Harveys recognize outstanding achievements in over 20 categories. They are the only industry awards nominated and selected by the full body of comic book professionals. For more information, please visit www.harveyawards.org

How screwed is Marvel's collection publishing biz?

So screwed that yesterday they put out a free comic-sized publication, Marvel Reading Chronology 2009, to tell you what order you should read their collections in. So for example, after getting Daredevil vol. 13: The Murdock Papers tpb, you then need to jump to Daredevil: The Devil, Inside and Out vol. 1, tpb. Nice, huh?

OT: Rather offensive Marvel PR

In "Captain America: Where Were You? We conclude Captain America Week by asking Marvel creators and editors to recall where they were the day Steve Rogers died," (Posted: 2009-04-24 Updated: 2009-04-27), Kevin Mahadeo opens with:

It was a day that will live in infamy.

Television news stations, talk show hosts and comic shops across the nation broke the shocking and unimaginable news: Captain America—the symbol of hope and freedom, the embodiment of the American dream—was dead.

No, actually it was a comic book, as opposed to the opening of a World War... December 7th 1941 may not live in infamy forever, as Franklin Roosevelt would have it, but real men died that day as opposed to a comic book character.

Zadzooks on Halo videogame

Not comics for the most part, but you can view this as animation - "Zadzooks: Halo Wars review: Microsoft Game Studios latest a fans' epic," Joseph Szadkowski, Washington Times Wednesday, March 11, 2009.

"Bennett's Best for the week of March 1," By Greg Bennett, Zadzooks Blog March 09 2009 recommends a couple of Marvel titles.

"Zadzooks: Watchmen movie versus comic books," BY JOE SZADKOWSKI, Zadzooks Blog March 13 2009.

Washington Times reporters Sonny Bunch and Joseph Szadkowski compare Zack Snyder's Watchmen movie to the Watchmen comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

"Where can I get the President Obama meets Spider-Man comic book?"

People who know I collect comics have been asking me about getting copies of Amazing Spider-Man 583, the President Obama meets Spider-Man issue, coming out this Wednesday. The issue will have two covers - one of which features Obama (pictured on right) and one regular issue which does not (pictured below). All of the stores listed here will have gotten the regular issue as part of their normal ordering process and should have copies of that for sale. Marvel Comics made getting the Obama cover more difficult by first not telling retailers that it would be a special issue, and then offering the two covers and requiring retailers to buy a certain amount of the standard cover before they could order the Obama cover.

Marvel's website has a story on the comic - "Marvel Team-Up: Spidey/Obama Spider-Man editor Steve Wacker talks about the Webhead’s historic meeting with president-elect Barack Obama" By Matt Powell, 2009-01-09.

In my first real act of reporting, I've called some local stores to see if they'll have the Obama meets Spider-Man cover.

Laughing Ogre stores in Lansdowne and Fairfax (near Burke) are going to be your best bet. One of the clerks, Frazier says, "We're taking reservations, but will only have so many." Drew, the assistant manager, told me, "We're limiting people to two copies at first to make sure that everyone who wants a copy will get one. It was a special order thing so you had to be on top of it."

Alliance Comics is in Silver Spring (the store that used to be Geppi's back in the day) and Bowie, MD. Troy Allen of the Silver Spring store says "Marvel dropped this on people at the last minute and our orders had already been placed so we're hoping to have enough to get through the day and then they'll probably fast-track the reprint, if the Death of Captain America is any indication." Some of the people in the store are working on their own comic book as well, so check back for more details.

Big Monkey Comics has been reserving comics for people who have been calling in and hopes to have some to sell on the rack - Assistant Manager of the DC store James Rambo says, "We've been reserving copies and have gotten a ton of reserves. We're definitely going to have to get extra copies in."

Beyond Comics of Frederick and Gaithersburg, MD has enough to cover to their subscribers and a couple of extra copies because "Marvel didn't release news about what would be in the issue until the after the initial order, and then had a very short reorder period" during the week before Christmas.

Joel Pollack of Big Planet Comics's Bethesda store said, "Marvel, in their infinite wisdom, made it impossible for us to get a reasonable number of copies of the Obama cover. We will try to fulfill subs with the Obama cover, but cannot guarantee it. We will be getting the Obama cover second-prints, hopefully on January 21."

Fantom Comics in Tenleytown and Union Station will have just the regular Spider-man issue, which still has the story featuring Obama, and hopes to have enough copies for people to drop in and buy them.

Barbarian Book Store is in the Wheaton Triangle, but does not appear to have a functioning website and the telephone number I found on the web goes to a payphone.

Any other stores in the area who would like to let me know about their plans is welcome to write in: mrhode@gmail.com

For those who like to collect this type of comic, Obama met Savage Dragon last fall and also appeared before the election in a biographical comic book. And as Randy noted last week, the free alternative comics Bash Magazine that's on the streets now has an Obama caricature by Halbert as the cover.

Pentagon and Marvel propaganda comic books program questioned

"Exclusive: Pentagon Pro-Troop Group Misspent Millions, Report Says," By Noah Shachtman, December 12, 2008. These comics, credited to AAFES, are sometimes available at Walter Reed. They're not good. As I read this article, the comics in particular are not a problem, and it's the whole program instead.

Thanks to Tim for the tip.

Comic advertisements - a few old snapshots

Here's some more advertisements using comics motifs.


Dick Tracy advertisement for Franklin Bookman standup - Crown Books March 1998.


Spider-Man advertisement - Hardees May 1999 (in Kentucky, I think).


Thing from Fantastic Four - Dodge Caravan advertisement - NJ Turnpike September 1999.


Spider-Man - Got Milk Metrobus advertisement, August 1999, Washington, DC.


Disneyland ashtray.

Comic Riffs breaks news of Black Panther's breast implants

David Betancourt and Michael Cavna have broken the story of Marvel's new female Black Panther. They write, "The first modern black superhero is about to get a serious facelift -- even if we can't yet see under the mask" but I believe they've gotten the type of plastic surgery wrong, since they follow that up with "Black Panther will now be a woman warrior."

The comments are hot and heavy though - proving something about comic book readers perhaps.

Marvel bibliographer Rob Weiner interview

Rob Weiner, author of Marvel Graphic Novels and Related Publications: An Annotated Guide to Comics, Prose Novels, Children's Books, Articles, Criticism and Reference Works, 1965-2005, answered some questions about his 400-page book and his future projects.

How about some background? You're a librarian?

I have a BA in history and an MA in History from Texas Tech with a focus in American History and American Popular culture. While I was working on my MA in history, I was always in the library. People started asking me where things were as though I worked there. I thought I should probably get paid for doing that so I applied for a job and worked as a paraprofessional for a few years. Then I went and received my MS in Library Science at University of North Texas. I worked in a public library for 12 years and most recently took a position at Texas Tech as Humanities Librarian. I worked in the local music industry for about 10 years in Lubbock while going to college. I’ve always appreciated the “artsy” side of life so my position now is a real good fit.

Bibliography is kinda in my blood. I co-authored a bibliography on the Grateful Dead, I’ve published a filmographic essay on Johnny Cash, the Marvel Guide, and in my forthcoming book on Captain America, I co-authored Filmographic and Scholarly Bibliographic pieces. I don’t do just lists however; I have to read, or watch the piece and then annotate or critically judge it.

Why comic books?

Well, when I a little boy growing up in Michigan I remember certain images... I remember the image from Silver Surfer 1 and Tales of Suspense 39 (with the gray Iron Man)! I was mesmerized by those images. They stick with me today. I can’t say where I first saw them or how I started to read comics, but I remember those two covers specifically. I also remember I had a Batman bow tie that I was very proud to wear around at events. By the time I was around 10 or so I started actually collecting and reading comics. I was fascinated by characters like the Human Fly (I wish Marvel would do an Essential collection), 3-D Man (one of my ALL TIME favorites and one of the coolest characters Roy Thomas ever created), The Beast fascinated me (just his look), Nova the Human Rocket, Moon Knight, the Black Panther. It was these “secondary” characters that caught my eye more than the Big Guns (like Spidey / Thor / even Cap) at first. I was also fascinated by the Legion of Superheroes and those early adventures of Superboy. You know how a lot of people remember the "Death of Gwen Stacy" (which was a BIG BIG deal when it came out), for me it was the death of Chemical Boy. I cried and cried over that. (I loved Bouncing Boy also,) I have not read those 1970s Legion stories SINCE I was a kid. I would love to re-read them. I also went through a period of rediscovery when the first Tim Burton Batman movie came out and started collecting again, but then life / school / marriage got me busy again and I got out of the comic world for awhile.

It was in the late 1990s while working at the public library that I started to rekindle my love for comics through reading Graphic Novels. It occurred to me that perhaps we should try ordering some Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman books for the Public Library. I asked my library director about this and she said sure, let’s give it try. Well, that inspired ten years of collecting graphic novels for the Lubbock Public Library System. I helped build one of the best graphic novels collections in the country. There was some resistance to this as some people (on staff) did not want that sh**t in the library, but the director was always like “Do they circulate?” If they do, then let’s get more. Adults, kids, teens, all loved these books so we just kept buying more and more and built a great collection of over 4,000 items. At first, I tried reading EVERYTHING that I ordered or came in. This proved to be too daunting after awhile. There is a TON of stuff and more all the time being produced, so one has to pick their favorites and stick with them, occasionally reading something new and critically acclaimed of course.

Why Marvel?

I’ve always loved the Marvel characters. After reading Alex Ross’s Marvels I just became inspired. I realized that one could tell a story with Spider-Man that was equal to Shakespeare / Tolstoy etc. Although I had previously read The Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, and the Crow, it just did not “hit” me until I read Marvels. The combination between the awesome art and the great storytelling just changed me (I was also highly impressed with DeFalco’s Spider-Girl). I thought wow, I should try to do something like the Grateful Dead bibliography with Marvel Graphic Novels and document and annotate them. Although some critics have pointed out that much of the info in my book is online, my book as “value added” material in that the annotations are fun to read and they provide at times a critical perspective to certain works. Frankly, I do document material that is not documented in quite the same way elsewhere, including online. Although Marvel Graphic Novels is a reference work, it is a fun book that anyone including fans, scholars, historians, librarians, should get something out of that they cannot get out of websites. For example did you know Marvel published a guide to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, or about all those weird children’s books they published in the 1980s? None of that is documented in all one place. Are there things I missed? Of course. Is the book perfect? No, of course not. I find mistakes all the time, but I hope that it provides a great service to the sequential art community as a whole.

It took me six years to read and annotate all this material which is why it stops at 2005. Working full time, teaching, and trying to have a life is very difficult, but McFarland never gave up on me. I also have a second book, an edited collection on Captain America (my all time favorite character), coming out soon and that is in the can. Two more books are forthcoming as well. One is an edited collection looking at how Graphic Novels have affected libraries and archives and another documents Marvel on Film/Video.

Do you anticipate updating your Marvel book? Perhaps online for collectors of Marvel?

At this point no, I have no plans for that. I suppose in a few years I could do a sequel and update the book with all the items that have been published since then and perhaps have an annotated list of Marvel-related websites as well. There are some things I missed too that I could add. I wish someone actually associated with Marvel would see and appreciate this. That would be great. I know some reviews have lamented the fact that I stop at 2004-2005, and it just got published in 2008, but I just could not read and annotate everything. Much of the recent material is online (such as the Trade Paperback website and so forth), but again not all of it. Keep in mind too that it is also available as an e-book which you can download to your device. So I think this shows that reference books are not just dry and boring, but can provide something useful for the fan, scholar, professional, artist etc.

Can you talk more about the new books you've mentioned?

I have an edited collection on Captain America coming out soon. It is called Captain America and the Struggle of the Superhero: Critical Essays which should be out soon. Cap is my favorite character and after they killed Steve Rogers, I wanted to do something to honor Cap. Since similar collections like Batman and Philosophy , Man from Krypton, and Unauthorized X-Men are all edited collections, I wanted to do the same for Cap. The difference is that scholarship in my book is all over the map, from fields as diverse as Geography, History, Cultural Studies, Psychology, etc. The scholarship is a little more intense in my book than in most books I’ve seen about particular characters. The book also has some well-known scholars in the field of comic book/sequential art studies including Jason Dimitter, Cord Scott, Mark McDermott, John Moser and Mike Dubose among others. They all have a previous publishing track record, but there are those getting published for the first time in the book as well. I hope that it won’t be so deep that regular Cap fans will be put off by the book and there is a wide variety of ideas (not all of which I agree with). But I hope it will provide a good solid example of the various ways in which one can produce sequential art scholarship. I have no idea how the critics are going to view the book. The only thing missing is a detailed look at the late forties Cap comics when he got rid of Bucky and had a girl sidekick and the “commie smasher” version. Apparently those three comics published in the 1950s are nowhere to be found. I hope they turn up someday as Marvel really needs to reprint those as Atlas Era Captain America Masterworks (along with that single issue of Captain America Weird Tales which did not have a Cap story. For historical and cultural value those books are priceless.

As a librarian and someone who help build a big collection of Graphic Novels when I worked at the public library, I want to give something back to the profession. So I am also in the coming year going to be working on a book of collected essays that shows with how libraries and archives have dealt with Graphic Novels in their collections. I think this would be a very good book for professionals in the library and archival fields to have and use. I even talk about Digital Comics and the changing of the industry as well. I mean it really has been only in the last 10 years that libraries have taken note of graphic novels as a way to get folks to read and not poo-pooed it. There have been libraries that have collected comics (such as Michigan State and Randall Scott for years), but they are the exception. I went through some growing pains with my library as well, with folks skeptical about having them in the collection. I think there is less and less of that because, just like the Internet, patrons demand graphic novels in their libraries. I mean graphic storytelling is as old as humanity! Nothing to be ashamed of in that. BTW your comics’ web bibliography is an amazing resource, as is your comic to film adaptations book! Speaking of which, I am also going to do a project documenting Marvel on Film and video etc., all in one place which will be pretty cool. And I am trying to finish and editing volume on Exploitation/Horror/Grindhouse/Arthouse cinema. I am working on with a PhD student at University of Texas and I have my regular job duties at the University, so I have my hands full for at least the next few years and beyond.

[9/26/08, 5:21 pm - copy edited after initial posting - MR]

Marvel attempting manga... again

For their current effort, see "Superheroes to Be Recast for Japan," By GEORGE GUSTINES, New York Times August 25, 2008. This is by no means new though - both Spider-Man and the X-Men were produced in Japan and reprinted in America, and there was a Hulk series not seen in the US. There's a nice big book on Batman manga coming out from Chip Kidd soon. Marvel also took a shot at putting Spider-Man in India recently.