Tuesday, July 08, 2025

A literal loss to the ComicsDC family: Art Rhode R.I.P.

Birthday caricature by Mike Jenkins
My father Art Rhode passed away this Monday July 7th, probably from a heart attack. He'd been having heart problems for months by this point. He never made it to the cardiac surgeon's appointment he had scheduled that morning. I spoke to him the day before and he was feeling good and optimistic. I was too because he was tough. He snarled at me on Saturday when I offered to buy him a Rollator walker. He and I talked, admittedly about mostly nothing, every day as I drove home from work, or walked to the farmers markets on weekends.So take it from me and tell your family and friends you love them while you can. 

 Dad and Mom were big fans of comics - such as Superman, Mad Magazine, Peanuts collections, Disney Digests. Even though money was usually tight, I grew up reading comics of all types.

 A few months ago I republished this tribute to my Dad on his 83rd birthday.  This is all still true and accurate, and while I'll miss him more than I can say, I appreciate the foundations he (and Mom, but she's been gone since 1987) gave my life. And it's not just me - as many people have said, he was a good man, or a kind man, or a kind and compassionate individual (I'm not sure about the patience also mentioned there though). I agree and there are few better ways to be remembered. He always had time to help someone out, not infrequently to my mother's chagrin, who wanted our own home worked on.

Donations in his name can be made to North Shore Animal League, selected by our family as he got 2 dogs from there. Or, if you want to keep with this blog's theme, I personally support Team Cul de Sac, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Cartoonists Rights, and Hero Initiative.

I'll be inheriting Dad's set of IJOCA I guess unless my sister wants it; he didn't read it in recent years, but he's got almost a complete set in my old bedroom. I'll be looking for a good home for that as I don't need a third set. For those of you unfamiliar with it, I'm an editor of  and also run the blog for the Int. Journal of Comic Art published by Dr. John A. Lent.

 Here's some photos over the years... 



This was my computer background for years.

The Little Free Library he built for his house after seeing how popular ours was.

I literally have no memory of us meeting Betty Boop


My wedding day with my Uncle Herb, his next oldest brother


Caricature by Mike Jenkins

Released from the hospital with a new knee

  
Don't try this at home, or at Fort Ward 


Monday, July 07, 2025

Comics Research Bibliography citations update, 7/5-6/2025

#171: Big Jim [Shooter].
Tom Brevoort
Man With A Hat  Jul 06, 2025
https://tombrevoort.substack.com/p/171-big-jim

Denys Cowan
 ["RIP JIM SHOOTER"]
Denys Cowan's post July 4 2025 https://www.facebook.com/829278045/posts/10162407480603046/?rdid=hqdfUit6Wf34doeH

The Rob Liefeld Show – Jim Shooter Tribute Show
Rob Liefeld
Jul 3, 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRRY-Kp9VEg

Peter Sanderson
My First Jim Shooter Story
Sanderson on Comics Jul 5, 2025
https://petersanderson1.substack.com/p/sanderson-on-comics-fa9

Masashi Kudo Interview | BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War | VIZ
vizmedia  Jul 4, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGaq7BcbtaI

Words, Images, & Worlds with Anthony Del Col & Stefan Tosheff [Kill Shakespeare]
Jason DeHart
Jul 5, 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t83x0Sox980

Millar Time #43 | Eric July
Millar Time Jul 5, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DdmDq1rI2Y

'Superman' Q&A With James Gunn at HMV Store, London
The Aspiring Kryptonian
 Jul 3, 2025  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDQr9PVmIbg

'Superman' stars David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan | AP interview
Leslie Ambriz
Associated Press Jul 3, 2025   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6GXiohpv64

DC Studios Showcase | Ep. 15: James Gunn Reveals What's Next for Superman, Peacemaker & the DCU
Frankey Smith and Tyler Coates
Jun 20, 2025 DC Studios Showcase: The Official Podcast | Max
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZQKHHG_bww

Live from PICOF 2025: LC De Leon of Coffee and Comics!
The Comics Cube with Duy Tano July 4 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--1oYGJ_22I

Live from PICOF 2025: Yuri Pinzon of Blight!
The Comics Cube with Duy Tano July 4 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGvAnn_E_sc

Live from PICOF 2025: Komik Ninja EK Gonzales!
The Comics Cube with Duy Tano July 5 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVvXThmL27k

The Fantastic Four: First Steps | A Fantastic Fourth
Marvel Entertainment
Jul 4, 2025  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnFPrxXXFqQ

Fantastic Four Turns 20! RARE Interviews With Chris Evans and Jessica Alba | ET Vault Unlocked
Entertainment Tonight Jul 2, 2025  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZURgWv54JM

Bova, Dan. 2025. Best-Selling Author and Cartoonist Stephan Pastis on His Creative Process: 'I Often Look Down to Make Sure I Have Pants On' The author of the hilarious "Timmy Failure" book series and longtime cartoonist of "Pearls Before Swine" dives deep into his creative process. How Success Happens (July 2):  https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/timmy-failure-pearls-before-swine-creator-stephan/494146

Degg, D. D. 2025. Adam Zyglis is Sigma Delta Chi Award Winner for 2024. Daily Cartoonist (July 5): https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2025/07/05/adam-zyglis-sigma-delta-chi-award-winner-for-2024/

Glenn Fabry & Simon Furman Into London Film And Comic Con Hall Of Fame Rich Johnston05 Jul 2025
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/glenn-fabry-simon-furman-into-london-film-and-comic-con-hall-of-fame/

Azuki teams up with Random House's Ink Pop for print release of OUR AIMLESS NIGHTS
Hayame Kawachi on 07/05/2025 https://www.comicsbeat.com/azuki-teams-up-random-houses-ink-pop-print-release-our-aimless-nights/

Taiyo Matsumoto's TOKYO THESE DAYS wins ACBD Asia Prize 2025
Dean Simons on 07/05/2025 https://www.comicsbeat.com/taiyo-matsumoto-tokyo-these-days-wins-acbd-asia-prize-2025/

4 new graphic novels to read and ponder this summer [in print as New graphic novels let you connect with dots -- and more].
By Kay Sohini
Washington Post July 6 2025: C8.
online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/07/05/new-graphic-novels-thompson-albon/

Want to know Rachel Brosnahan's secret? First share yours. [in print as Rachel Brosnahan asks (and answers); Superman movie]
By Thomas Floyd
Washington Post July 6, 2025
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2025/07/06/rachel-brosnahan-lois-lane-superman-interview/

Cartoonist Couples – Updated
D. D. Degg              
July 6, 2025
https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2025/07/05/cartoonist-couples/

Netflix is bringing back Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
The streamer released a brief teaser to build up hype for the show's new "standalone 10-episode story."
By William Hughes  |  July 5, 2025
https://www.avclub.com/netflix-bringing-back-cyberpunk-edgerunners-teaser

Love Is in the Air in The New 'Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc' Trailer Denji's so crazy in love right now, but that don't last when you're a superhero with a demon dog in your heart.
Justin Carter
io9 July 5, 2025 https://gizmodo.com/love-is-in-the-air-in-the-new-chainsaw-man-reze-arc-trailer-2000624446

*Fourth of July* Comic Strips – Now (2025) and Then (1925)
D. D. Degg
July 4, 2025  
https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2025/07/04/fourth-of-july-comic-strips-now-2025-and-then-1925/

Peter Sanderson
Big Dumb Fun: Comics Movies and Their Critics
Sanderson on Comics Feb 18, 2025
https://substack.com/@petersanderson1/p-157408758

Peter Sanderson
Crouching Banner, Hidden Faust [2003 Hulk movie]
Sanderson on Comics Mar 04, 2025
 https://substack.com/@petersanderson1/p-158397420

Peter Sanderson
The Stepford Spider-Man [Spider-Man: The New Animated Series]
 Sanderson on Comics
Mar 20, 2025
https://substack.com/@petersanderson1/p-159506484

WaPo talks to Lois Lane and reviews graphic novels

4 new graphic novels to read and ponder this summer [in print as New graphic novels let you connect with dots -- and more].

By
Washington Post July 6 2025: C8.

Want to know Rachel Brosnahan's secret? First share yours. [in print as Rachel Brosnahan asks (and answers); Superman movie]


Sunday, July 06, 2025

Flea Market Finds, with some modern bootlegs

As regular readers of the blog know, I look for comics and cartoon oddities, especially at antique shops and flea markets. Here's this weekend's haul, with hi-res scans of some to come on Flickr later, and donation of the postcards to the Library of Congress later this summer.

  A flyer from the Dunes casino is Las Vegas - is this by Frank Frazetta?

 

 

A 1938 tearsheet by Jimmy Swinnerton of Canyon Kiddies. I don't usually buy tearsheets, but it was a dollar. I'm no purist though; I tearsheet the newspaper and New Yorker regularly.



A Disney World postcard, probably circa the 1970s

 
...and a few I didn't care about but bought to get a deal... 

but this one is interesting...


 
It's a stupid pun, and not a great drawing, but the reverse of the card says, "This is an original etching by W.M. Standing Noted Indian Artist." More research is needed, but not on a Sunday night.
 

 
 
This was the card that caught my interest.  It's signed H. Empie and credited to Empie Kartoon Kards in Arizona. Again, more research is needed.
 

Another dumb scatological cartoon, only of interest for the the reverse noting "Not for mailing. Suitable for framing." By who? I guess you could put this under doctor cartoons (aka graphic medicine) though.



 
A weird 19th-century trade card "Playing Bank President Dining with a Wall St Bull." selling crackers and cakes in Reading, PA
 
 


 
Another trade card, and I think this is a gag cartoon, "A Long Tramp." It's advertising H.F. Brammer  Manufacturing Co. of Davenport, IA which would sell you a washing machine, refrigerator, and step ladder.
 
 
 

 
Percosi, a book, in Italian, which I don't read, about Giorgio Cavazzano. 

 
A truly lovely #37 issue of Marvel Fanfare by Charles Vess, which I bought new, but couldn't say no to a second time. Marvel should really reprint his work for them.

 
A reading copy of Sidekicks, a graphic novel by Dan Santat, of more interest after I saw him speak this year. 

 
I originally bought some of these Bob & Bobette British reprints of Willy Vandersteen's Suske and Wiske in the 1980s. They're lovely, stupidly fun comics. I couldn't remember which ones I had so picked three that seemed unfamiliar.
 
 
 
Another Herblock cover for Time magazine. this time of Khrushchev and Castro visiting New York in 1960.
 
 
A couple of little books of military gag cartoons that need more research. Prost by Niles (above), and You've Had It (below)

 
 Some American comic books...
 
 
The anti-Nixon cover of this has fascinated me for years. I think that's Murphy Anderson art. 

Abbie an' Slats by Raeburn ... a successful comic strip, now completely forgotten. 
 
 

 
Two issues of Titan's Undersea Agent, which I think was in the THUNDER Agents universe, back when starting a new comics universe was really rare. The art in one of them is by Frank Robbins, and definitely not Wally Wood.  



 
I almost certainly have this Weird Wonder Tales 19 already, but I'm a sucker for character introductions (or at least I was when they were rarer), and it's a Kirby cover.
 

Speaking of Kirby, Our Fighting Forces 161-162 featuring the Losers had Kirby interiors but Ernie Chan and Joe Kubert covers. 162 sees Kirby returning to his perennial comics interest in kid gangs. As you'd expect in the Silver Age, the covers misrepresented the stories. The story in 161 is a particularly demented story of a dream-haunted British soldier 


 
This is a seriously beat-up copy of second issue of the Marvel Treasury-sized reprint of the first Star Wars movie adaptation. Actually, it's a reprint of a reprint because it's Whitman's version which were usually sold in discount stores, aka Five and Dimes. Oddly enough, I think these really did become collector's items.



I bought these children's stamps when they came out years ago because an argument could be made that Seuss and Falconer were cartoonists. Again, it was a dollar. I'll find a stamp collector friend who needs it.

And I got some 3-D stuff too.


 
This Best Dad in the Universe mug shows how much Superman's iconography has penetrated the world. 

 
An Avengers Endgame metal popcorn bucket for when they could be re-used as trashcans and weren't the head of Deadpool or Galactus. 

 
A couple of the 1970s Sunday Funnies drinking glasses featuring Brenda Starr and  Terry and the Pirates. I think these were promos for the NY Daily News. 

Something not bought (it happens) - 2 posters signed by Joe Quesada. I really enjoyed The Ray, but who has the room. 


 

And finally the modern bootlegs. Green Kush marijuana is probably not a licensed Green Lantern product, and I'm also thinking that Kevin, while an excellent firework, isn't really part of the official Minion merchandise. I love a good counterfeit though.