Exhibit review: Superheroes at the National Museum of American History

by Mike Rhode


Superheroes. Washington, DC: National Museum of American History. November 20, 2018 to September 2, 2019. http://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/super-heroes

The Smithsonian museum has mounted a small, but choice, exhibit made up of some extremely surprising pieces. The terse description on their website only hints at it:

This showcase presents artifacts from the museum's collections that relate to Superheroes, including comic books, original comic art, movie and television costumes and props, and memorabilia. The display includes George Reeves's Superman costume from the Adventures of Superman TV program, which ran from 1951-1958, as well as Halle Berry's Storm costume from the 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Of the five exhibit cases, two concentrate on comic books and original art, while the other three contain props from movies and pop culture ephemera. Surprisingly, the Black Panther costume from the Marvel movies which the African-American History museum collected this summer is not included, but as noted above they have displayed George Reeve's Superman costume (since it is in color rather than grey shades, it came from the later seasons of the television show), Halle Berry's Storm uniform, along with Captain America's shield, Wolverine's claws and Batman's cowl and a batarang. Those three cases are rounded out with the first issue of Ms. Magazine which had a Wonder Woman cover, two lunchboxes (Wonder Woman and Marvel heroes), and a Superman telephone.

courtesy of Grand Comics Database

 Surprisingly, the two cases of comic books and original art include a very wide variety of comic books including some that just recently came out such as America (Marvel) along with older issues such as Leading Comics from 1943 which featured Green Arrow among other heroes such as the Crimson Avenger and the Star-Spangled Kid. The existence of an apparently extensive comic book collection in the Smithsonian comes as a surprise to this reviewer and will need to be researched more in depth. Even more of a surprise were the four pieces of original art on display – the cover of Sensation Comics 18 (1943) with Wonder Woman drawn by H.G. Peter, a Superman comic strip (1943) signed by Siegel and Shuster, a Captain Midnight cover that the curators did not bother to track the source of (it appears to be an unused version of #7 from April 1943), and a April 27, 1945 Batman comic strip. Actually, none of the creators of any of the works are credited, although the donors are.

The small exhibit lines two sides of a hallway off the busy Constitution Avenue entrance of the Museum, but the location has the advantage of being around the corner from a Batmobile from the 1989 Batman movie that was installed earlier this year. The car may be tied into the nearby installation and branding of a Warner Bros. theater showing the latest Harry Potter spin-off movie which seems like a true waste of space in the perennially over-crowded and under –exhibited (i.e. they have literally hundreds of thousands of items worthy of display in storage), but one assumes that besides the Batmobile, the theater came with a cash donation or promise of shared revenues.

Notwithstanding that cynicism, the Batmobile and the superheroes exhibit are fun to see, although most people quickly passed them by during this reviewer's visit. Also of interest may be a bound volume of Wonder Woman comics and a reproduction of an unused idea for her original costume, around the other corner from the Batmobile in the Smithsonian Libraries exhibit gallery. The museum has recently acquired some Marston family papers.

Bruce Guthrie has an extensive series of photographs including the individual comic books at http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2018_11_22D2_SIAH_Superheroes

 

(This review was written for the International Journal of Comic Art 20:2, but this version appears on both the IJOCA and ComicsDC websites on November 23, 2018, while the exhibit is still open for viewing.)

Superheroes at American History Museum in Bruce Guthrie's photos

I went the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History on Thanksgiving to check out the Superheroes exhibit that opened this week.

Pics are up on

http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2018_11_22D2_SIAH_Superheroes

It's not a big exhibit.  Basically five cases:

(1) Superman's outfit from the TV show;

(2) Captain America's shield from the 2014 movie, Wolverine's claws from the 2014 movie, Batman's cowl and batarang from the 1997 movie, lunchbox, MS magazine, and Superman phone;

(3) Storm costume from the 2014 movie;

(4) Original cover art from "Captain Midnight" (1940s), original Batman newspaper strip (1945), several comic books;

(5) Original Sensation Comics (Wonder Woman) cover art from 1943, original Superman newspaper strip (1943) signed by Siegel and Shuster, more comic books.

The cases are on the same floor as the Batmobile.

Up in the Dibner Library display, they mention the William Marston collection and include an alternative sketch for Wonder Woman's costume.

Comic Riffs on self-mocking Disney princesses

How 'Ralph Breaks the Internet' spoofs the Disney Princess industrial complex

By Michael Cavna

Washington Post Comic Riffs blog November 20 2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/11/20/how-ralph-breaks-internet-spoofs-disney-princess-industrial-complex/

Animator Pablo Ferro's obituary in The Post

Pablo Ferro, evocative title designer of 'Dr. Strangelove' and 'Bullitt,' dies at 83 [in print as Pablo Ferro, 83; Animator and evocative title designer of 'Dr. Strangelove' and 'Bullitt']

By Harrison Smith

Washington Post (November 20 2018, p. B6)

online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/pablo-ferro-evocative-title-designer-of-dr-strangelove-and-bullitt-dies-at-83/2018/11/19/1203310c-ec0e-11e8-96d4-0d23f2aaad09_story.html

The Grand Comics Database shows he worked on at least three stories for Marvel in the early 1950s.

Comics writer Mike Carey's new novel reviewed in The Post

'Lucifer' writer Mike Carey continues to cement his status as a novelist [in print as Latest from Carey puts a fresh spin on spooky].

By Paul Di Filippo

Washington Post November 19 2018, p. C3

online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/lucifer-writer-mike-carey-continues-to-cement-his-status-as-a-novelist/2018/11/07/54e46e6c-e13e-11e8-ab2c-b31dcd53ca6b_story.html

PR: Inaugural Issue of Stan Lee's The Incredible Hulk Sells for $167,280

A Silver Spring auction house sold a Hulk #1 last week.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Sam Heller 
Huggins & Scott Auctions, Silver Spring, MD
+1 310 927 6273 |
sam@samhellercommunications.com

Inaugural Issue of The Incredible Hulk Sells for $167,280

 

LOS ANGELES,  November 19, 2018 –A high-grade issue of The Incredible Hulk #1 from May 1962 sold for $167,280 on Friday. 

This first issue is considered one of the most valuable and prestigious comics of the Silver Age. Marvel Comics published the inaugural issue of the Incredible Hulk in May 1962, which was part of an enormous resurgence of super-hero comics in the early 1960's. This comic book earned a Universal Grade of  8.5 from the leading comic book grader CGC.

The consignor read this 56-year old Hulk Comic once as a youth and kept it in storage since 1962. Well known to be a super tough comic to find in upper grades, this high-demand pivotal issue continues to show astonishing sale price increases, reaching a Fair Market Value of $175,000 in recent years for the few known examples that have been graded at the 8.5 level.

The popularity of the Incredible Hulk comic series led to Marvel Studio producing a superhero film The Incredible Hulk in 2008. The film starred Edward Norton as Bruce Banner/Hulk. Mark Ruffalo replaced Norton as the Hulk in the 2012 film The Avengers. Ruffalo reprised the Hulk role in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: Infinity War.

The comic book was estimated to sell between $125,000 to $175,000.

Additional information on the comic book can be found at https://hugginsandscott.com/cgi-bin/showitem.pl?itemid=32004

About Huggins & Scott Auctions

Huggins and Scott, based in Silver Spring MD and founded in 2002, is a leading catalog auction company specializing in sports and Americana collectibles.  The company was founded by current president Bill Huggins, who has been in the collectibles business since 1976 when he opened his baseball card store. Specializing in vintage sports and non-sports cards, autographs, memorabilia, and a wide range of collectibles for every level of collector, Huggins and Scott runs four online Masterpiece Auctions per year.

TCJ reprints a Stan Lee interview by Falls Church's Ted White

A Stan Lee Interview (1968)

BY Ted White Nov 19, 2018

This interview ran in The Comics Journal #181 (October 1995)

https://www.tcj.com/stan-lee-interviewed-by-ted-white-1968/

New Kickstarter from Roye Okupe

E.X.O. Returns in Rise of AVON!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/44069577/exo-returns-in-rise-of-avon

A sci-fi superhero story set in a futuristic Africa where an Android with the mind & ambition of a conqueror, plans to "reset" humanity

The E.X.O. Part 3 graphic novel is COMPLETE! The plan is to ship the books & rewards two weeks after the Kickstarter is successfully funded(fingers crossed).

This Kickstarter is for three weeks ONLY. After that, the book will not officially release till late February 2019. The only way to get it months before (and cheaper) anyone is by pre-ordering via this Kickstarter ;) Haven't read part 1 or part 2 yet? No worries. This Kickstarter has a bundle that saves you 40% of the cost.

Review: Black and White / Thoughts in Cartoon by Mohammad Sabaaneh

by Mike Rhode

Black and White / Thoughts in Cartoon by Mohammad Sabaaneh, Washington, DC: Jerusalem Fund Gallery Al-Quds. November 17 – December 15, 2018. https://www.thejerusalemfund.org/21159/november-cartoons

Mohammad Sabaaneh is a self-taught Palestinian cartoonist, who, like all good editorial cartoonists, often finds himself in trouble with both the Israeli and the Palestinian governments. Notwithstanding the need to teach art, and the regular seizure of his artwork when he returns from travelling (and thus he says he only carries reproductions personally), Sabaaneh has been able to compile a book, White and Black: Political Cartoons from Palestine (JustWorldBooks, 2017; $20). While touring the East Coast for this publication, he stopped in Washington to introduce a small exhibit of his linocut art.

Malcolm

Linocut is a negative printing process made by using sharp tools to engrave a piece of linoleum, and then inking it, and pressing it into paper. Sabaaneh was taught the technique by World War 3 Illustrated’s Seth Tobocman in New York. He took the gravers back with him to Palestine, found linoleum from a hospital’s floors, and found a substitute for the ink that was unavailable at home, and began making art. In his artist's statement, he wrote, “When I do linocut, I feel like I am giving a gift to myself! It is so exciting when you carve the linoleum, then cover it with the ink, then press it… and just waiting to find the result. No-one around you understands what exactly you are doing. I feel that I am creating a version of myself as well as creating art. The amount of wet black ink on the paper reflects me, and reflects the world around us. My daily political cartoon is influenced by the linocut technique and I like the results. Linocut is also one of the most important techniques for producing political posters.”

The Weight of Occupation

The exhibit consists of fewer than twenty pieces hung around hallways in a small office area, some of which seemed thematically out of place such as “Malcolm” which is a portrait of the 1960s black American activist Malcolm X. Others are what one expects from a cartoonist who refuses to collaborate with those he considers occupiers, to the extent of turning down exhibits with Israeli cartoonists in Europe. “The Dictator’s Melody” in which a uniformed man conducts an orchestra as bombs fall behind them, or “The Weight of Occupation” which shows a bald man carrying a slab engraved with tanks and bombs, fit into Sabaaneh’s main concern – freedom for Palestine. However, he notes, “I think as a Palestinian cartoonist I should not rely on my topic. Yes, Palestine is one of the most important topics around the world, and that has helped me to spread my art all around the world. But as an artist I believe that my art should consist not just of a strong message, but it also should be good art.”

The Dictator’s Melody

I found the strongest pieces in the show to be two pieces, “Resisting settler colonialism everywhere” and “She carries remembered worlds,” each depicting generic Palestinian people, a man and a woman, with their bodies fading into buildings. Both evoke a strong sense of place and purpose, more so than “Can you chain a heart?”, an image of a heart wrapped in chain. The exhibit also contains a long “History of Palestine Frieze” which is about five feet long and shows a history of the occupation via cartoon figures. Sabaaneh says he plans to do more large-scale works like this, and has recently completed one on the subject of women.

She carries remembered worlds

Resisting settler colonialism everywhere

 

Can you chain a heart?

At the exhibit opening, Cartoonist Rights Network International’s Bro Russell interviewed Sabaaneh, who then also took questions. (The Fund has said that a transcript will be soon made available on their website). The audience was made up of students and people already familiar with the Palestinian cause, which Sabaaneh says actually works against him, because most of the people who come to see him at a talk or an exhibit are already convinced and do not need to argue with him or his work. For those not familiar with his work, the exhibit and the book are a good introduction to a world where political cartoonists still matter enough to be regularly threatened with more than job loss.

History of Palestine Frieze segment

(This review was written for the International Journal of Comic Art 20:2, but this version appears on both the IJOCA and ComicsDC websites on November 18, 2018, while the exhibit is still open for viewing.)

That darn Beetle Bailey

Bad combo, even if it's a chocolate Lab

T.H. Otwell, Silver Spring

Washington Post November 17 2018, p. A17

online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/readers-critique-the-post-omissions-about-space-time-and--romance-novels/2018/11/16/7f61be2a-e9d0-11e8-bbdb-72fdbf9d4fed_story.html

Regarding the Nov. 5 "Beetle Bailey" comic strip:

Comic Riffs on the bookends of Stan Lee's career

See the first and last pieces that Stan Lee wrote

By Michael Cavna

Washington Post Comic Riffs blog November 16 2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/11/16/see-first-last-pieces-that-stan-lee-wrote/

Flashback to Nikahang Kowsar's 2003 cartoons

I ran into Nik Kowsar yesterday. Nik was a cartoonist in Iran who eventually had to seek asylum in Canada and then the US. He lives around DC now, and doesn't do as much cartooning as he did, but he still helps other cartoonists via the CRNI. He sent along a few cartoons he'd done for sharing here.

 

 

The Bush ones were drawn for Iranian media right after the invasion of Iraq in  March and April of 2003. I was still working as a cartoonist in Tehran. I fled Iran on June 25th, 2003 for Canada.

I strongly believed that the whole campaign for finding Weapons of Mass Destruction was a scam and Cheney and his gang wouldn't be able to pin point even one rocket.

The 2 Saddam cartoons were drawn after his arrest near a village, north of Baghdad in December 2003. I was living in Toronto at the time.

Mohammad Sabaaneh, a Palestinian cartoonist, is about to start speaking at The Jerusalem Fund

Mohammad Sabaaneh, a Palestinian cartoonist, is about to start speaking at The Jerusalem Fund in DC. Bro Russell of CRNI is interviewing him.

Flugennock's Latest'n'Greatest: "Social Media Sh*t-Take Quote Template Art"

DC's anarchist cartoonist Mike Flugennock gives you a social media cartoon  template:

"Social Media Shit-Take Quote Template Art"

http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=2639

Back again, in the fine new tradition of the Smashed Old TV  (http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=2620) comes this new Social Media  Shit-Take Quote template art. Hold up your favorite social media  star's queefage in style. Shown here is a "serving suggestion" on the  letter-size screen-resolution template. The typeface here is Gotham  family Book and Medium, but any clean, modern sans-serif face will work.

Jim Toomey's latest educational animation

Professor, comic strip artist produce film series for kids

by Sara Beresford

UGA Today November 15 2018

https://news.uga.edu/uga-short-film-series-for-kids/

RFK Journalism Awards open for editorial cartoon submissions

Submissions are open

https://rfkhumanrights.org/awards/book-journalism-awards?RN=11404

Submit your 2019 Book + Journalism Awards nominees

All submissions must be received by February 1. 2019. For more information, please visit our Book Award Guidelines for Entry or Journalism Award Guidelines for Entry. 

For questions or more information, please contact us!

Geppi's Scoop covers Geppi's LOC donation

Geppi Collection Debuts at Library of Congress

Scoop November 16 2018

http://scoop.previewsworld.com/Home/4/1/73/1012?ArticleID=220818

Review: Sense of Humor exhibit at National Gallery of Art

by Mike Rhode

Sense of Humor: Caricature, Satire, and the Comical from Leonardo to the Present. Jonathan Bober, Andrew W. Mellon senior curator of prints and drawings; Judith Brodie, curator and head of the department of American and modern prints and drawings; and Stacey Sell, associate curator, department of old master drawings. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art. July 15, 2018 – January 6, 2019. https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2018/sense-of-humor.html

The National Gallery of Art describes its first exhibit of cartoon art thusly:

Humor may be fundamental to human experience, but its expression in painting and sculpture has been limited. Instead, prints, as the most widely distributed medium, and drawings, as the most private, have been the natural vehicles for comic content. Drawn from the National Gallery of Art's collection, Sense of Humor celebrates this incredibly rich though easily overlooked tradition through works including Renaissance caricatures, biting English satires, and20th-century comics. The exhibition includes major works by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Jacques Callot, William Hogarth, James Gillray, Francisco de Goya, and Honoré Daumier, as well as later examples by Alexander Calder, Red Grooms, Saul Steinberg, Art Spiegelman, and the Guerrilla Girls.

James Gillray, Wierd-Sisters; Ministers of Darkness; Minions of the Moon, 1791

Any exhibit on humor that covers 500 years (from 1470 through 1997), two continents and at least five countries is going to have to deal with the vagaries of what humor actually is. Even within my lifetime, what is considered permissible humor in America has changed, sometimes drastically. The exhibit was divided into three galleries – according to their press release (available at the website) the first "focuses on the emergence of humorous images in prints and drawings from the 15th to 17th centuries. Satires and caricatures gained popularity during this era, poking fun at the human condition using archetypal figures from mythology and folklore. While not yet intended as caricatures of individuals, Italian works reflected the Renaissance interest in the human figure and emotion." To modern eyes, drawings of dwarves or grotesques do not really appear to be either humorous or a cartoon, but the curators make the arguments that the foundations of caricature and satirical cartooning are laid in this period. 

William Hogarth, Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn, 1738

The second gallery begins featuring artists that most of us would consider cartoonists as it "continues with works from the 18th and 19th centuries, when certain artists dedicated themselves exclusively to comical subjects." In this room one found a good selection of the British masters Hogarth, Rowlandson, Gillray and Cruikshank, as well as Goya and Daumier (and oddly enough the painter Fragonard who drew an errant lover hiding from parents in an etching, The Armoire). This is the most interesting part of the exhibit for historians of comics, and the strong selection of etchings and drawings is worth studying since one rarely gets to see the contemporary prints, or even the original drawings such as Cruickshank's pencil and ink drawing Taking the Air in Hyde Park (1865). The release also notes, "Included in the exhibition is Daumier's Le Ventre Législatif (The Legislative Belly) (1834), a famous image that mocks the conservative members of France's Chamber of Deputies," but the exhibit does not note that the sculptures Daumier also made of the Deputies is on permanent display in another gallery of the museum -- a lost opportunity.

The final gallery "focuses on the 20th century and encompasses both the gentle fun of works by George Bellows, Alexander Calder, and Mabel Dwight and the biting satire of Hans Haacke and Rupert García. Works by professional cartoonists such as R. Crumb, George Herriman, Winsor McCay, and Art Spiegelman are presented alongside mainstream artists like Calder, Roy Lichtenstein, Jim Nutt, and Andy Warhol." Of most interest were the McCay (Little Nemo in Slumberland: Climbing the Great North Pole) and Herriman (Ah-h, She Sails Like an Angel, 1921) originals, both of which are worth examining in detail. This section also showed the paucity of the NGA's collections in modern comic art. These are joined by a print by Art Spiegelman, and several Zap Comic books, recently collected and described in standard art historical terms:

Robert Crumb (artist, author), Apex Novelties (publisher)

Zap #1, 1968

28-page paperback bound volume with half-tone and offset lithograph illustrations in black and

cover in full color

sheet: 24.13 x 17.15 cm (9 1/2 x 6 3/4 in.)

open: 24.13 x 34.29 cm (9 1/2 x 13 1/2 in.)

National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of William and Abigail Gerdts

The fact that the Gallery still can not bring itself to use the word 'comic book,' the standard term as opposed to paperback bound volume, unfortunately shows that it has far to go in dealing with the twentieth century's popular culture rather than fine art. Still, the exhibit is interesting, and well-worth repeated viewings which are almost necessary to understand the material from the first four centuries of the show.

(This review was written for the International Journal of Comic Art 20:2, but this version appears on both the IJOCA and ComicsDC websites on November 16, 2018, while the exhibit is still open for viewing. For those not in DC, Bruce Guthrie has photographs of the entire exhibit at http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2018_07_29B2_NGA_Humor)

Library of Congress remembers Stan Lee

Celebrating Comics' Champion Stan Lee

Library of Congress' Headlines and Heroes blog November 15, 2018 by Megan Halsband

https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2018/11/celebrating-comics-champion-stan-lee/

Gorey biography reviewed by NPR

'Born To Be Posthumous' Brings Edward Gorey's Name To His Work

Michael Schaub

November 14, 20189

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/14/667432542/born-to-be-posthumous-brings-edward-goreys-name-to-his-work

Editorial Cartoon by artleytoons

My cartoon, "Effect and Cause," uses metaphor and hyperbole to explain the mechanics on how some movements maintain momentum.

    —Steven G. Artley, artleytoons

©2018 Steven G. Artley • artleytoons • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Comic Riffs on Stan Lee obituary cartoons

Two viral cartoons capture how we all feel about Stan Lee

By Michael Cavna

Washington Post Comic Riffs blog November 13 2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2018/11/13/two-viral-cartoons-capture-how-we-all-feel-about-stan-lee/

New local fandom book - Tales from the DMV

I often... well, every other week... get a book promo in the mail. I'm way behind on reviewing them, but I've got good intentions.

I don't want to wait to mention this latest book:

TALES FROM THE DMV: The Origins of Comic Book Fandom in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia: True Tales of Carl Bridgers' Barbarian Book Shop, ... & the Yancy Street Gazette (Volume 1)

It's a self-published (through Amazon) history of local fandom and I see a lot of familiar faces and places just on the cover. There was no press release with it, and I hadn't heard anyone talking about it before, but I think it's probably of interest to the hardcore ComicsDC audience. Big Planet Comics in Bethesda has a couple of copies I'm told.

Here's the Amazon description:

Featuring over 500 pictures, TALES FROM THE DMV: THE ORIGINS OF COMIC FANDOM IN WASHINGTON D.C, MARYLAND, AND VIRGINIA showcases firsthand stories from comic book fans of the 1930s through the 1970s, who tell what it was like being a comic collector in the hobby's earliest days: the first comic book stores, the first conventions, and, best of all, the other fans. Be amazed as you read about the Muller brothers and Carl Bridgers and Ted White and Fred von Bernewitz buying comics off the stands in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Read about the first comic stores in the DMV: Central Books, which opened in D.C. in the 1940s and burned to the ground in the 1968 riots; Carl and Janice Bridgers' Barbarian Book Shop - which opened in 1969 and still operates today as the longest-surviving comic book store in the world; Geppi's Comic World, a chain of eight stores that began in 1974; and Joel Pollack's Big Planet Comics, which has been open for over thirty years. Coverage and pictures of all the early conventions in the DMV are provided as well: Gary Groth and Michael Catron's Metro Cons, Mark Feldman and John Taylor's Maryland Funnybook Festivals, and the University of Maryland's Minicons. Presented also is Bernie Wrightson's early life in Baltimore before he became a world-famous artist, with pictures of him from the early days along with an unedited interview from 1969 and over twenty pieces of his earliest art -- and this includes his very first published art ever, in addition to art he drew for THE BALTIMORE SUN in the 1960s, and the very first story he ever illustrated (the 12-page "Michael Clayton of Galvan" from NOZDROVIA #1), and that story is reprinted in its entirety for the first time. Just as amazing are the publications produced by DMV fans. While in junior high in Virginia, Gary Groth began his 15-issue run of FANTASTIC FANZINE (all issues pictured), and in its pages he gained the skills needed to eventually create THE COMICS JOURNAL, the world's most prestigious professional comic-related publication. Also presented are the complete cover galleries and fanzine careers of Mark Feldman (I'LL BE DAMNED) and Doug Fratz (COMICOLOGY) and the Yancy Street Gang (YANCY STREET GAZETTE), which consisted of Steve Zeigler; Jan Bertholf; and Amy, Jane, and John Hoecker - all of whom were in high school when they created the most popular Marvel fanzine of the 1960s and whose Marvel fan club ranked second in membership only to Marvel's own MMMS fan club at the time. Told here also are the spectacular visits by DMV fans Ted White and Fred von Bernewitz to the EC offices in the 1950s and the visit by Joel Pollack and Al Allenback to the Marvel offices in 1968 to pitch the idea of the first African-American super hero to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Their comic, created in 1968 and submitted to Marvel, is published in its entirety (17 pages) for the first time. Presented in this book also is the untold story of Hal and Jack Schuster, two kids from Maryland who formed Irjax Enterprises, a publishing empire and comic book distribution network. In addition, this book traces Steve Geppi's rise to prominence: from his beginnings in Baltimore to his time as a convention dealer and the opening of his first comic book store in 1974 and to the theft of his collection in 1977, and, most importantly, how he became a sub-distributor for the Schusters' Irjax Enterprises, whose company he eventually purchased and transformed into what is now Diamond Comic Distributors, the world's largest distributor of comic books. If that were not enough, the book concludes with a wild firsthand account of a group of Woodward High School students attending the premiere of STAR WARS on opening night at the Uptown Theater on May 25, 1977, an amazing, true story that shows how STAR WARS changed everything. All of these events happened in the DMV, but they are all events that had national significance and that changed the world of comic books and comic fandom forever.

Cavna's 10-best graphic novel list

The 10 best graphic novels of 2018

By Michael Cavna

Washington Post November 13 2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-10-best-graphic-novels-of-2018/2018/11/13/a192b760-e2d7-11e8-ab2c-b31dcd53ca6b_story.html