Cartoonacy!

Now and Then: Howard Beckerman

2012-01-27T12:00:00.002-05:00

My friend Kit Hawkins has often told me about the great animators she's worked with. One day, at a birthday party for her husband, she finally introduced me to one. When I met Howard Beckerman, I recognized him from the Berndt Toast Gang, though we had never actually spoken before. He was a great Now and Then subject.

You can watch The Trip, the animated short mentioned in the column, by clicking this link.

This column appeared in Hogan's Alley #17:

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Now and Then: Emilio Squeglio

2012-01-25T12:00:00.002-05:00

Emilio Squeglio is another Berndt Toaster, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that he lives in Floral Park, NY, not too far from the Elmont house where I grew up. (We lived on opposite sides of Belmont Park Racetrack.)

Emilio's comic book career was relatively brief, and took place in a time before most artists' names were listed in the credits. So even though I was a fan of the original Captain Marvel, and probably enjoyed much of Emilio's work, I didn't know his name before we met.

In recent years, Alter Ego and other magazines have published articles on Emilio, and much of his Captain Marvel work has come out into the light. I'm glad to be able to add to the recognition he deserves.

This column appeared in Hogan's Alley #16:

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Now and Then: Bill Kresse

2012-01-23T12:00:00.004-05:00

When I started attending Berndt Toast Gang lunches, I met many veteran cartoonists whose names I recognized. One that made a particularly big impact on me was Bill Kresse. I enjoyed his "Super" Duper cartoons in the NY Sunday News many years ago. I didn't realize until I met him that the strip only appeared in the News, and was never nationally syndicated.

Bill has a thick folder filled with negative photostats of his "Super" Duper strips (alas, not a complete set), which I scanned and inverted for him. He's been asking me to help him clean them up and compile them into a book. With all the print-on-demand services available today, we may just do that soon.

This column appeared in Hogan's Alley #15:

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Now and Then: Tom Gill

2012-01-20T12:00:00.016-05:00

It's hard to find adult education classes in cartooning. When I saw an ad for Tom Gill's class on Cartooning for Fun and Profit at Nassau Community College in 1997, I jumped at the chance to take it.

Tom was a fine instructor, and a fountain of information. So when I needed a subject for my next Now and Then column, I got in touch with him. Among other things, he told me about the Berndt Toast Gang, a Long Island cartoonists club that meets for lunch every month. It was named in honor of the late Smitty cartoonist Walter Berndt, to whom the members drink a toast at each meeting. Joining the Berndt Toast Gang gave me material for several more columns.

Tom Gill passed away in 2005, two days after I interviewed him on the telephone. His memoir, The Misadventures of A Roving Cartoonist: The Lone Ranger's Secret Sidekick, was published in 2008.

This column appeared in Hogan's Alley #14:

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Now and Then: Martin Filchock

2012-01-18T12:00:00.002-05:00

I wasn't familiar with the work of Martin Filchock until I "met" his number one fan, G.G. Faircloth, online in a Yahoo forum. G.G. put me in contact with Martin, and gave me quite a bit of biographical information that she had already collected.

Martin Filchock turned 100 on January 6, 2012, making him probably the oldest working cartoonist today. His "Defective Detective" cartoons appear in Looking Back magazine. G.G. Faircloth's cartoons can be found in Scary Monsters magazine.

This column appeared in Hogan's Alley #13:

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Now and Then: Myron Waldman

2012-01-16T12:00:00.006-05:00

The new issue of Hogan's Alley, the Magazine of the Cartoon Arts, is on the stands now. The first issue came out in 1994. It was originally intended to be a quarterly publication, but the schedule has been somewhat erratic, and it's actually coming out on close to an annual basis. It's a thick magazine, though, with lots of varied material, so each issue is worth the wait.

Hogan's Alley covers the entire gamut of the cartoon arts, past and present: comic strips, comic books, animation, editorial cartoons, gag panels, and advertising. The new issue, #18, features interviews with Cathy Guisewite (creator of Cathy) and Alvin Schwartz (writer of Superman); a history of Ren and Stimpy; articles on the classic comic strips Invisble Scarlet O'Neill, Penny and Right Around Home; the story behind Charles Schulz's creation of Franklin, the first African-American member of the Peanuts cast; the story behind why Popeye's arch-nemesis is sometimes called Bluto and sometimes Brutus; a history of the Filmation Superman cartoons of the 1960s; articles on gorillas in comic books, and the deaths of comic book characters; an editorial on the vanishing newspaper syndicates; and more.

I began a correspondence with HA editor Tom Heintjes right after the first issue came out. A few years later, when the regular writer of Now and Then (a sort of "where are they now?" column) decided to stop writing it, Tom offered it to me. I've been the writer of Now and Then since issue #12. It's given me the opportunity to get to know some of the veterans of the cartooning field.

I'm going to post my past columns on this blog over the next few days. I hope you enjoy them. If you do, I hope you'll also give the rest of Hogan's Alley a try.

There's a story behind my first column, about animator Myron Waldman. My wife and I were shopping in a neighborhood supermarket, and a young boy took notice of the Superman T-shirt I was wearing. He said to me, "My neighbor used to draw Superman." I didn't recognize the name he gave me, but when I went home, I looked it up and found that Myron Waldman was not an artist on the Superman comic books, but an animator for the 1940s Superman cartoons! Some time later, when Tom offered me the column, I used it as an an excuse to contact Myron and ask to meet him.

Myron and his wife Rosalie were wonderful hosts, and had plenty of stories to tell. Myron passed away in 2006. I'm glad I had the chance to meet him when I did.

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Are Today's Comics Cold?

2011-10-16T12:04:00.001-04:00

One of these days I'll get back to the Green Lantern history I started posting in June. I've rewritten Part 3 twice, but I'm not satisfied yet. Meanwhile, here's a letter that was recently posted on the Yahoo Silver Age/Golden Age group (SAGA) by "John D." It reflects so many of my own feelings about modern comic books that I asked John for permission to copy it here. Take it away, John:

I've been trying to figure out why so many of today's comics don't interest me. The obvious answer is that they aren't written or drawn with me in mind – but I still like the old stuff and I don't think that's just because of a nostalgic glow. Not that I would discount nostalgic glow entirely.

There are plenty of exceptions but speaking for the rank and file of today's comics as I've watched them over the years, they seem adult without being particularly grown-up. The characters seem very worldly but I have a hard time recognizing them as people that actually exist in the world. I understand exaggeration – we are talking about a super-powered set – but for all the naiveté ascribed to the old-timey comics for kids, there seemed a good deal more emotional sophistication.

Taking the wildest example, the Mort Weisinger Superman line – it may have indulged in childlike story constructs but that silliness was balanced somewhat by a real sense of life in the characters. Superman was good-hearted, actually strong and brave beneath his super-powers but he could be prankish, smug, and derisive, sometimes unlikable, with a fascination for all things big, big, big.

But he also had a deep sadness in him and it wasn't because the comic actually billboarded this emotion on to him with pyrotechnic angst. To follow the comics the reader would become aware of how much guilt Superman carried with him – and his palpable sense of loneliness. The whole Superman family had a not very heroic, in fact sadistic, side to them and it was these character flaws, their stories often using Superman as a kind of chorus-conscious, that made them interesting.

Lois was in love but she was jealous to a fault, demonstrably intelligent if crafty to the point of annoyance. Jimmy could be gullible and impulsive but he could also be genuinely clever. Moreover, he was a hyper-conceited self-styled ladies man stuck on a trophy-wife fantasy of a woman who clearly believed he was beneath her.

Today's Superman family features a somewhat shallow hick from the sticks made big-time – a Kansas-fed boy scout except when he is trying to be Batman. Lois is a tough talking sophisticate torn from some television or movie version of some celebrity personality ripped from today's headlines. Jimmy is just a geek. For all the adultish trappings of strong language, slit skirts and grunge hairstyles the characters in many ways have been dumbed down from their salad days counterparts.

The dark soup of today's writing is reflected in the art as well. As the old pros of the Silver Age were retiring and the new blood of the Bronze Age brought a craft both retro and modern to the times, after those fans-turned-pros dropped out, the quality of art in comics practically cratered. Simple things like shoulders and elbows became great mysteries to the new breed. That time has thankfully passed and the art in comics today is generally pretty slick. So slick, it too seems removed from any authentic emotional valance. The expressive use of anatomy and expression seems more guided by photo references – and the most archly posed of photographs at that -- than through a personality felt somehow to be pushing the pencils and pens.

When some idiosyncrasy is injected in the art it self-consciously derives its cues from the styles of artists it might imitate (or transliterate if art were a language) but can't really begin to match in spontaneity – put to the service of delineating, if not exactly breathing life, into characters too thin to treat as anything but as the latest, the newest and the nowest – because those slogans more than not define the virtues and vices of our super enclaves today.

Don't get me wrong. The old comics – across the board -- are riddled with mediocrity. But the creators aimed for fun and I think they captured a warm pulse, for all their inanity.

Today's comics leave me cold. I think it's because they are cold. Maybe the world has become cold too and that's how comics have to be to remain commercial (beyond of course their potentiality as toy designs and movie springboards).

Recollection of warmer times, as a kind of suspended innocence, is of course the basis of nostalgia. But I have noticed as time goes on and buyers of comics a decade or so (or more) grow older they seem less nostalgic about the four-color fantasies of their youth but perfectly content to bring those comics right up to date with them – like maybe there is something worth slabbing in all this junk.

And I can't say I blame them.

Bunny Bash 2011

2011-07-02T22:20:00.002-04:00

Earlier this week, my wife Patty and I attended the 30th annual Bunny Bash. It was the fifth one for me. The weather was perfect, and we had a great time. (As usual, you can click on any of the following pictures to enlarge.)

The Bunny in question is our hostess, Bunny Hoest. In 1982, she and her husband Bill, creator of The Lockhorns, threw a party for fellow cartoonists and their family and friends in their beautiful home in Lloyd Neck, NY.

A tradition began, and cartoonists from near and far have gathered on her huge patio every June since then. Though I'm not a professional cartoonist myself, the Now and Then column that I write for Hogan's Alley Magazine has earned me the invitation to rub elbows with the rich and/or famous.

The even larger back yard boasts a magnificent view of Long Island Sound.

Though Bill passed on over twenty years ago, Bunny continues to write The Lockhorns, and John Reiner illustrates it in Bill's classic style.

This week, Bunny's son and his family were visiting from out of state, and brought along Oz, their Bernese Mountain Dog puppy. I was told that, despite a strong resemblance, Oz is not related to Howard Huge.

Two first-time visitors to the Bunny Bash were Greg Walker (Beetle Bailey) and Jeff Keane (The Family Circus)

They very kindly contributed a couple of drawings to my autograph/sketchbook, which I began in 1994. (It's volume two. Volume one was from 1971 to 1994.)

Above, Emilio Squeglio (Captain Marvel) shows Tony Tallarico a cover design he's working on for a future issue of Alter Ego magazine. Tony was also kind enough to give me a sketch.

Gahan Wilson, another first-timer, added the fourth new sketch to my book. Above, he's doing another drawing for cartoonist and right-fielder Ken Krimstein.

Adrian Sinnott, president of the Berndt Toast Gang, is chatting with Greg Walker.

The crowd gathered when Adrian offered a toast to the memory of the late Lee Ames, who passed away last month. In the center of this picture,wearing sunglasses, is Dan Danglo (Felix the Cat), who will be the subject of my next Hogan's Alley column, later this year.

Joe Giella (Mary Worth, Batman, Green Lantern) had a good time.

So did Sy Barry (The Phantom) and magazine cartoonist Don Orehek.

Stan Goldberg added a personal drawing to a hardcover collection of his Archie comic book work for fan Jerry Jurman.

A wonderful time was had by all. Thanks very much, Bunny. It was hard to say goodbye to you and all our cartoon friends.

'Til next year!

Green Lantern: the 1950s

2011-06-15T21:00:00.100-04:00

(Part 3 in a series of 9 -- click here for Part 1.)

The comic book superheroes that were so popular in the 1940s didn’t fare as well in the fifties. By 1951, most of DC’s superheroes had been cancelled. The only ones that hung on were Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and a few minor characters that appeared as back-up features in their magazines. Captain Marvel, published by Fawcett Comics, held out till 1954, and Plastic Man, a Quality character, made it to 1956, but most of the heroes of the Golden Age vanished from the stands and faded from most people’s minds.

Other genres filled the comic book racks: Westerns, war, romance, comedy, horror, detective stories, animal stories, and so on. Since it was expensive and time-consuming to file the paperwork required by the US Postal Service to launch a new magazine, DC created a title called Showcase, in which they could test out new ideas before giving them their own series. In 1956, editor Julius Schwartz decided that enough time had passed to give superheroes another try. Schwartz thought the current crop of comic book readers were too young to remember the heroes of ten years ago. He chose to bring back the Flash, a favorite of his and a strong seller in the forties. But instead of a mere revival, he and his staff created a new Flash, with the same name and powers (super-speed) but a new, modernized costume, origin story, and secret identity.

It took a while, but after four Showcase tryouts over two years, the new Flash proved to be a hit, and got his own comic book in 1959. A few months later, Julie Schwartz tried to do the same thing again, this time with Green Lantern.

But the fifties was a decade of science and technological wonders: atomic energy, television, space rockets, computers, and automatic home appliances. Magic lamps wouldn’t cut it with the new generation. Instead of bringing back the old Green Lantern, he and writer John Broome created a new version to appeal to science fiction fans.

“SOS Green Lantern” in Showcase #22 (October 1959) told the story of Abin Sur, an alien patrolman in a vast intergalactic peacekeeping organization, whose spacecraft had been damaged in a radiation storm, forcing him to crash-land on Earth. Dying, it was his final responsibility to choose a replacement from the local population. He chose Hal Jordan, a test pilot, for his fearlessness, honesty, and strong will. He gave Hal his uniform and Power Ring, and a Power Battery which must be used to recharge the ring once every 24 hours. Abin explained that the ring’s green beam had nearly unlimited power; but due to an odd impurity in the metal that formed the Battery, it had no effect on anything colored yellow. Hal accepted the responsibility as Abin Sur breathed his last. Hal donned the uniform and, using the ring, concealed Abin’s body and spaceship underneath a mountain. Wanting to keep his identity a secret from the public, Hal added a mask and called himself Green Lantern, after the lantern-like Power Battery.

The seemingly arbitrary weakness to yellow actually had a bit of reasoning behind it. First of all, in those early days, the writers of superhero stories wanted super-powered characters to be fairly uncommon, so super-villains were not yet in vogue. Most adversaries were common criminals, gangsters, and spies with no special powers. So, to keep the stories interesting, powerful heroes had to be given some sort of Achilles’ heel to give their opponents a fighting chance. The more powerful the hero, the more mundane the weakness had to be. Second, the choice of a color as opposed to a substance (like Alan Scott’s wood limitation, or Superman’s kryptonite) was more visual, so the reader could instantly identify what objects posed a threat to GL. Third, it made a certain awkward kind of sense from a scientific standpoint, since GL’s power was light-based, and color, to a physicist, is the property of reflecting specific wavelengths of light. And fourth, it was symbolic, as Hal was chosen for his bravery, and yellow, in American culture, is traditionally associated with cowardice.

One element retained from the forties Green Lantern was the oath. The new Green Lantern spoke the same words as the earlier version when recharging his ring with the lantern:

"In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might
Beware my power.
Green Lantern's light!"

Schwartz insisted that each Green Lantern story include the oath. Since comics are a silent medium, Schwartz believed that the charging of the ring and the speaking of the oath served the same purpose as a musical crescendo in a movie. It let the audience know that something significant was about to happen.

Some science fiction fans have noticed parallels between Green Lantern and the Lensmen series of novels by Edward Elmer “Doc” Smith, first serialized in Amazing Stories in 1934. The Lensmen of the Galactic Patrol were a corps of humans selected by aliens from the planet Arisia to defend the galaxy against the tyrannical Eddorians. They were each equipped with a Lens, a crystal that bonded itself to the arm of the owner and provided him with telepathic abilities. Julie Schwartz was a noted longtime science fiction fan, so the inspiration seems obvious; but Schwartz and Broome insisted that they were not familiar with Lensmen when they created the new Green Lantern.

Artist Gil Kane designed a uniform for Hal that was sleeker and far less garish than the outfit worn by Alan Scott. The new design was a simple green and black suit with lines that followed the musculature of the body, and no belt or cape to break the flow. White gloves were a peculiar addition, but somehow they worked. Penciled by Kane and inked by Joe Giella, the figure of Green Lantern seemed to glide gracefully through the air more skillfully than Superman.

In the other two stories in that Showcase issue, “Secret of the Flaming Spear” and “Menace of the Runaway Missile,” Hal thwarted saboteurs’ attacks on Ferris Aircraft, the manufacturer for which he tested jets. We met his girlfriend, Carol Ferris, the boss’s daughter. But when Carl Ferris announced that he was taking a two-year around-the-world vacation and leaving Carol in charge of the company, her relationship with Hal became strictly business – at least, until Carol met and fell for the mysterious, masked Green Lantern.

In Showcase #23, the science fiction element was more pronounced, as Green Lantern had his first offworld adventure. A mysterious telepathic voice from the Power Battery ordered him to the planet Venus, where he rescued a primitive tribe of humanoids threatened by pterodactyl-like creatures. Here Hal learned of another of his ring’s functions: the ability to translate languages. In the second story, Green Lantern was challenged by the Invisible Destroyer, an evil being of pure energy that sprang from the subconscious imagination of a famous atomic scientist.

The third and last Green Lantern Showcase issue contained “The Secret of the Black Museum,” another tale of spies and espionage, and “The Creature That Couldn’t Die,” a typical 1950s SF movie plot about a giant monster on a rampage, but with a twist ending.

At the end of that story, a note from the editor asked the readers to write in and tell him if they wanted to see more of Green Lantern. But while Julie waited for the reader responses to come in, he didn’t take the chance that GL would fade from their memories. Two months after Showcase #24 came out, its companion magazine, The Brave and the Bold, followed up with a three-issue tryout for the Justice League of America, a team consisting of all of DC’s superhero characters. Green Lantern joined forces with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter in B&B #28–30, to combat Starro the Conqueror (a giant starfish from space, inspired by a pulp science fiction story entitled Tyranno the Conqueror), Xotar the Weapons Master, and Amazo, an android with the combined powers of all the Justice Leaguers. Sales on all the tryouts must have been good, because in the summer of 1960, both Green Lantern and the Justice League of America were starring in their own magazines.

(Click here for the next chapter.)

Green Lantern: the 1940s

2011-06-01T01:00:00.092-04:00

(Part 2 in a series of 9 -- click here for Part 1.)

Martin Nodell came to New York City from Philadelphia in the late 1930s with hopes of becoming an actor. He soon found out that his calling was not in the theatrical arts, but in graphic art. He got freelance work with comic book publishers, and hoped to eventually move into the more lucrative field of advertising.

In 1939, after doing a few humor-strip assignments for All-American (later DC) Comics, he asked editor Sheldon Mayer if he could get more steady work. Superman had debuted a year earlier in Action Comics, and had been a surprise hit. Mayer told Nodell that if he could come up with an original superhero character to rival Superman, then he could have a regular job drawing it.

On his commute home to Brooklyn, Nodell gave the matter much consideration. He was familiar with classical myths and legends, and wondered if he could use them as the basis for a modern-day hero. As he waited on the subway platform for his delayed train, he observed a worker on the tracks waving a red lantern, signaling to the conductor of the approaching train that there was some sort of obstruction on the tracks. After the problem was resolved, the worker waved a green lantern to indicate that all is safe.

The green lantern -- a sign that all is safe. The green lantern. Nodell liked the sound of those words. It brought to mind the story of Aladdin from 1,001 Arabian Nights -- the boy who had a magic lamp and a magic ring which put powerful genies at his command. The more he thought about it, the more he liked it.

Nodell wrote an origin story for his new character, and drew up some sample pages that he brought to Mayer. Mayer found the artwork a little rough, but thought the concept was a powerful one. He partnered Nodell with Batman writer Bill Finger, and together they reworked the story. Nodell, inspired by Aladdin, had named his hero "Alan Ladd." Finger thought this sounded too contrived, and changed the last name to "Scott." Neither of them realized at the time that there was a character actor named Alan Ladd who would become a big name in Hollywood in a couple of years.

The story told of Alan Scott, a young engineer who was the only survivor of a train crash when a bridge built by Alan's construction company collapsed. Alan was certain that the accident was an act of sabotage by a rival company, but had no proof. Absent-mindedly clutching a green train lantern, Alan felt faint and passed out, as the lantern began to glow brightly.

Alan then had a dream of a meteorite that crashed in ancient China and burned with a green flame, and a voice that spoke a prophecy of bringing death, life, and power. When the meteorite cooled, an old lamp maker forged an oil lamp from its metal. An angry mob, frightened that the lamp contained an evil power, killed the lamp maker and wrecked his shop. But the lamp glowed with a bright green flame, killing the mob and enacting first part of the prophecy.

The lamp passed through many hands, until it was found in a junk heap near a mental hospital. It was given to one of the patients, who had suffered a nervous breakdown and enjoyed doing metalwork as therapy. He reshaped the beaten old lamp into a modern railroad lantern. When he finished, the lantern flamed green once again, restoring the patient's sanity and giving him a new life. The second part of the prophecy had been fulfilled.

Now, a voice from the lantern told Alan, it was time for the third and final part of the prophecy to be realized. The lantern told Alan to make a ring from part of its metal. By touching the ring to the lantern once every 24 hours, he would have the power that was promised centuries ago. Alan did as he was told. With his newfound power ring, he forced a confession from the saboteurs, who thought him to be a ghost.

Realizing that he could do much good, he made himself a costume "so bizarre that once I am seen I will never be forgotten" and spoke a solemn vow: “And I shall shed my light over dark evil, for the dark things cannot stand the light… the light of the Green Lantern!”

Bizarre certainly was the word for Alan’s costume: a red puffy-sleeved shirt with a green-and-yellow lantern insignia on the chest, green tights, red boots, a wide brown leather belt, purple mask, and a high-collared purple cape with a light green lining. Clearly, fashion sense was not one of his powers.

But the powers he did have were many and varied. The green beam of the power ring enabled Green Lantern to fly, pass through walls, hypnotize people, melt steel, transmute matter (like turning guns into glass, or bullets into candy), and made him immune to metals. This last power was a clever addition on Finger’s part. It allowed Green Lantern to shrug off bullets and knives, but still made it possible for him to engage in down-and-dirty brawls. A wooden chair or ceramic vase could still knock him for a loop. Over the next several years, the “immunity to metals” gradually changed, so that by the mid-forties, his power beam had no effect on anything made of wood. His powers also evolved, and after the first few years, Alan had learned to use his power ring to form objects out of solid light, which responded to his will.

The first Green Lantern story appeared in All-American Comics #16, with the date of July 1940 on the cover. He appeared every month in All-American Comics, and proved popular enough to become a regular feature in Comics Cavalcade and as a member of the Justice Society of America in All-Star Comics. He soon earned his own magazine, Green Lantern Quarterly, the fourth of only five DC superheroes in the 1940s to have a self-titled comic book. With issue #19 in 1946, the Green Lantern magazine changed from quarterly to bimonthly.

Alan Scott became an engineer for Apex Broadcasting in All-American #20, and was so charismatic that the station owner made him a radio announcer in Green Lantern Quarterly #2. He lived in Gotham City, just like Batman, though he never did cross paths with the Caped Crusader or any of his colorful villains. Green Lantern had his own rogues gallery, though, including the Sportsmaster; the Gambler; the immortal Vandal Savage; the Icicle; swamp monster Solomon Grundy, whose plant-like nature made him immune to the power ring; and the Harlequin, a woman who never actually committed any crimes, but built up a criminal reputation to attract the attention of the Green Lantern, the only man she considered her equal.

Green Lantern also picked up a sidekick: Doiby Dickles, a tough but dimwitted cab driver with a thick “Joisey” accent. Doiby (don’t call him “Derby” unless you want a black eye), who accidentally discovered Alan’s secret identity and helped him protect it, was based on character actor Ed Brophy. Doiby, with his beloved taxi, Goitrude (originally Esmeralda) was Alan Scott's unofficial chauffeur, and carried a green flare pistol to summon Green Lantern when an emergency arose.

Originally, Alan recharged his ring either silently or while reciting the oath mentioned above. In 1942, there must have been a communication breakdown among the writers, because during that year Alan spoke no fewer than six different oaths in various stories:

"Let the light of the lantern penetrate the dark places of ignorance and wrong,
setting all minds right and overthrowing all servants of evil!"

"I shed my light upon the darkness!
Evil has no place to hide itself!
Green Lantern goes forth to conquer!"

"My rays strike the darkest corner,
Banishing all wickedness!"

"Let all power and triumph be mine in whatever right I do!"

"The light of the Green Lantern pierces darkness and mystery,
And its radiance will strike at the heart of evil!"

"As the green rays strike forth into darkness,
So may all black evil be exposed and driven away!"

In the fall of 1943, when noted science fiction author Alfred Bester became the regular writer of the Green Lantern series, the oath took the form that has lasted practically unchanged to the present day:

"In brightest day, in darkest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might
Beware my power,
Green Lantern's light!"

This oath first appeared in Comic Cavalcade #4, All-American #53, and Green Lantern #9, all of which came out about the same month, making it hard to determine which was first. A few months later, the word “darkest” was changed to “blackest.” Though Bester is usually credited with creating this oath, he stated in an interview at the 1979 World Science Fiction Convention that it was already being used before he began writing Green Lantern.

The new writers were also apparently unfamiliar with Green Lantern’s origin story, too, or else they assumed that the readers of the early issues had forgotten it. All-American #70 and 74 told of Owen Cooley, a leprechaun from Ireland who caused much trouble for Green Lantern and Doiby. According to these stories, the magical green lamp and ring were given to Alan Scott by leprechauns, which we all now know wasn’t true.

By the late forties, the popularity of superheroes had waned. Readers were turning toward Western, war comics, horror, science fiction, and, notably, animal stories. Green Lantern acquired a pet: Streak the Wonder Dog, who soon became the star of the stories. Streak even upstaged his master on several covers shortly before the series was cancelled. This was not the end of Green Lantern, though, as we’ll see in the next chapter.

And what of Green Lantern’s creator Martin Nodell? In 1947, he left DC to work for Timely Comics on features including Captain America and the Human Torch. Not long after that, he left comic books for the advertising field, and in the 1960s created another iconic character which for many years was even more famous than GL: Poppin’ Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy. Nodell passed away in December, 2006, at the age of 91.

(Click here for the next chapter.)

Green Lantern and Me

2011-05-21T10:16:00.009-04:00

(Part 1 in a series of 9)

GREEN LANTERN: the movie opens in four weeks. I've been waiting over 30 years for this film. When I first saw Star Wars in 1977, I thought, "Wow. If they can do that, then they can make a decent Green Lantern movie." Even though I'm going to see it with unrealistically high expectations, I don't think I'll be disappointed.

Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and I both arrived into the world in the same month back in 1959. Almost since I could read, he's been my favorite superhero. When I was a little kid, fascinated by the all the colorful costumes and exciting super-powers, GL was unique. In a sea of bright red, blue, and yellow capes and masks, his simple, sleek green-and-black uniform made him stand out visually. And in a crowd of muscle men, rubber men, fish-men, bird-men, acrobats, gadgeteers, speedsters, archers, shapeshifters, and size-changers, his power to solidify light into any object he could imagine was different from anything else out there.

That power was a big reason that the Green Lantern concept appealed to me. I was a quiet kid. I never got into any physical fights. My fantasies never involved smashing things, or beating people up. Green Lantern's power was such that he never had to beat anyone up. He could simply restrain his opponents by imagining a big green birdcage or a puddle of green glue. His was a power that was creative and imaginative, not destructive.

Unfortunately, Green Lantern in the 1960s was drawn by Gil Kane. I say "unfortunately" ironically, since Gil Kane was one of the greatest comic book artists of that decade, arguably of all time, and one of my own personal favorites. But Kane was known for drawing dynamic fist-fight scenes, and the writers (particularly from 1966 on) chose to exploit that by coming up with whatever reasons they could to prevent Green Lantern from using his power ring, so Kane could draw as many knock-down drag-out brawls as possible. That made many of Green Lantern's solo stories particularly dull to me. Oddly, Green Lantern tended to rely on his fists way more often than Superman, the most musclebound hero of them all.

I preferred seeing Green Lantern in the Justice League of America comic book. There, among mega-powered heroes like Superman, the Flash, and Wonder Woman, he exercised his imagination to the utmost. More often than not, GL was the hero who would save the day by the story's end. That's another reason he appealed to me. While all superheroes rescue ordinary people, GL was the one who rescued other superheroes.

I've always been something of a science and science fiction geek as well as a comics fan, and Green Lantern was one of the most science-fiction oriented superhero comics of the '60s. That isn't surprising, because editor Julius Schwartz and writers John Broome and Gardner Fox all came to comics from a background in science fiction publishing. Green Lantern wasn't an independent agent like most superheroes. he was a member of a vast intergalactic police force, all armed with identical power rings. His adventures routinely took him to far-off planets and other time periods. He often teamed up with other Green Lanterns from alien races, many of which weren't even remotely humanoid. They all reported to the Guardians of the Universe, a council of benevolent, immortal, blue-skinned beings who all looked identical. (Kane, who loved to include caricatures in his work, based their features on Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. For the record, Kane based Hal Jordan's face on actor Paul Newman, and girlfriend Carol Ferris on Elizabeth Taylor.) Schwartz, recognizing that the typical Green Lantern reader was a bit more scholarly that the average comic book reader, liked to include scientific facts and trivia in the magazine, both within the stories and in separate fun-facts pages.

My first Green Lantern issue: #45 (June, 1966)

When I got a little older, I noticed something about the early stories that had gone over my head as a kid. Green Lantern's backstory was actually a slightly twisted version of the Superman legend. Superman was an alien who gained super-powers after his spaceship crashed on Earth; Green Lantern was given a power ring by an alien whose spaceship crashed on Earth. Superman was secretly Clark Kent, a meek, mild-mannered newspaper reporter; Green Lantern was secretly Hal Jordan, a fearless and sometimes reckless jet pilot. Clark Kent's young co-worker, cub reporter Jimmy Olsen, was Superman's pal, but didn't know his true identity; Hal Jordan's young co-worker, airplane mechanic Thomas Kalmaku, was Green Lantern's pal, and shared his secrets. Clark Kent's co-worker, Lois Lane, was in love with Superman; Hal Jordan's boss, Carol Ferris, was in love with Green Lantern. Superman's vulnerability was kryptonite, a relatively rare substance that made him weak and could eventually kill him; Green Lantern's vulnerability was yellow, a relatively common color that repelled his green beam, but otherwise had no effect on him.

Best of all, reporter Lois Lane believed that Clark Kent was really Superman, but all her attempts to prove it backfired on her; while reporter Sue Williams believed that Jim Jordan, Hal's younger brother, was really Green Lantern, but all his attempts to disprove it backfired on him. There were only a few Jordan Brothers stories, but they were a lot of fun. Jim and Sue eventually got married and had children, but nothing would shake Sue's conviction that she was secretly married to Green Lantern.

Many writers and artists have put their mark on Green Lantern in the past fifty years. Many of them have tried to reinvent the character to fit their own distinct ideas about what he should be. Along with the standard hero-versus-villain fights, Green Lantern has been used to tell stories of grand space adventure, Cold War-era espionage, social commentary, soap opera, religious allegory, and satire. Hal Jordan has had about a half dozen changes of career, and about a dozen different girlfriends. He's been exiled from Earth, come back, quit the Green Lantern Corps, rejoined, destroyed the Corps (twice), turned super-villain, redeemed himself, died, and come back to life. Through it all, Green Lantern (in one form or another) has survived.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to write a series of posts on the history of Green Lantern. If you're going to see the movie but aren't too familiar with the character, you may want to drop by for a crash course. Even if you're a longtime GL fan, you may learn a fact or two that you didn't know. Stay tuned.

(Click here for the next chapter.)

The Cold Hard Truth

2011-02-03T12:59:00.002-05:00

A number of people have mailed me a link to this look back at Calvin's snow sculptures. They're terrific, but let's not ignore the fact that Linus beat him to it by about 30 years:

"Detective" Clues

2010-11-19T12:00:00.005-05:00

More and more rare vintage comic books seem to be turning up lately, and getting high prices on auction sites. A San Francisco man recently discovered a copy of Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman, that he bought for a dime in 1939. He sold it to a collector in Dallas for $492,000.

In August, I wrote a post on how to tell a genuine copy of Action Comics #1, the 1938 debut of Superman, from the near-identical Famous First Edition reprint from 1974. Since Detective #27 was also reprinted in that series, I'll now tell you how to pick it out of a line-up.

Again, the most obvious difference is size. The original 1939 comic book measured about 10 by 7.5 inches, slightly smaller than a sheet of letter-sized paper; the 1974 reprint was 13.5 by 10 inches, a little bigger than a modern tabloid newspaper.

But if you don't have a ruler or a newspaper handy, there were a couple of minor changes made to the cover to make it stand out. The original issue had creator Bob Kane's signature in the lower right corner. It also showed the corner of a neighboring building along the right side. And Batman's rope extended all the way to the upper right corner of the cover. All of these details were removed from the reprinted version. (Click on the images to enlarge them.)

The Famous First Edition series was a great gift to young collectors who never knew what comics were like in the early days. But they can also be a gift to thieves and con men. Don't get taken in by a defective Detective.

...

Review: City of Fever

2010-11-10T12:00:00.007-05:00

From the cover, one might think that City of Fever is another entry in a never-ending line of post-apocalyptic-zombie stories that I try my best to avoid. But something made me take a closer look when I spotted it at a MoCCA Festival. Part of it was creator Kalman Spigel's sales pitch, that this was a "hard science fiction" story in the tradition of Isaac Asimov and William Gibson. I've never read any Gibson, but I'm a huge Asimov fan from way back, so my curiosity was piqued. When I noticed that a major character's name was only two letters different from mine, I was amused enough to buy the book.

City of Fever is a hardboiled detective story masquerading as science fiction. "Hard science fiction," in this context, means that there's nothing that's too far outside the boundaries of current technology. There's no time travel, teleportation, faster-than-light spacecraft, aliens, or psionics; but there's plenty of cybernetics, AI, and genetic engineering. I detected no Asimov influence at all. Asimov's writing was heavy on technical details, and his heroes were usually armchair detectives rather than men of action. Spigel's story is quite the opposite.

The setting is Wave City, colloquially known as the Big Rot. A thinly-veiled analogue of New Orleans, it's hot, humid, and one of the few habitable regions on the moon of Gehenna, a distant world reached by Earth colonists an unspecified number of decades ago. Wave City is controlled by an uneasy troika: corrupt mayor Robert "The Shrimp" Bulette, religious leader "Big Daddy Été," and Fraise, an artificial intelligence who controls the city's news and entertainment media.

One of these three is planning a crime that will drastically alter the balance of power in the Big Rot, but he needs a fall guy. That's where the hero comes in. The story's protagonist and narrator is Rast, a cyborg private eye with a mysterious past. His partner, Jazmin, is an AI who resides in Rast's software, and appears as a woman only he can see and hear. When Rast learns that he's been set up, he and Jazmin have to decide whether to go into hiding or strike back. It's not hard to guess which option they choose.

The art is exceptionally slick and professional for an independent publication. The coloring enhances it nicely, mostly dark without getting muddy, turning bright and electric where the plot requires it.

In the 1950s, DC Comics published a feature called Star Hawkins in the science fiction anthology title, Strange Adventures. It was a tongue-in-cheek series about a tough, semi-competent private detective, and his robot secretary Ilda, who was pretty much the brains of the operation. Rast and Jazmin seemed very much like an edgier version of Star Hawkins and Ilda, upgraded for the 21st century.

City of Fever is only 52 pages long (not including the forward). It was published as a very thin hardcover book, which I thought was an odd decision, but that's just me. I found it a very entertaining read. Violent action abounds, but there's very little gore and no explicit language. It's available from Mad Ink Press.

...

Why Comics?

2010-11-01T12:00:00.006-04:00

A few years ago, I attended the opening of a new Barnes & Noble bookstore. Naturally, my priority was to see if the Comics and Graphic Novels section was well-stocked. As I was scanning the shelves, I noticed a young man, about 14 or 15, sitting on the floor reading a Batman book. After a while, a woman about my age, apparently his mother, came over and whispered a few words to him. As she stood up, she saw me standing nearby -- reading a Batman book. She walked up to me and said, "So what you're telling me is, he's not going to grow out of this."

The relative merits of Batman notwithstanding, the attitude that comics are for children and the semi-literate pervades American society. Many critics feel that the worst insult they can give to a book or film is to say it has a "comic book" sensibility. I enjoy poking fun at comics from time to time, but as for the attitude on the whole, I object.

If you're a parent, or if you've ever had a parent, then you're familiar with the struggle of trying to get a kid who's glued to the TV interested in reading books. Sure, there are exceptions, but overall, the video screen has the stronger allure. Why is this? I believe it's because reading a book is an active pastime. It's a partnership between the author and the reader, and requires an effort on both parts to tell an effective story. Watching a movie or TV show, on the other hand, is almost completely passive.

With a book, the author has placed words on a page, and it's up to the reader to interpret those words and create images in his or her own mind. Though the creator offers descriptions and suggestions, it's the reader who ultimately decides what the characters look and sound like, how they're dressed, and how detailed the background is. In a movie, all of these decisions are already made, and the audience just sits back to watch.

Also, when reading a book, you follow the story at your own pace. If you're a fast reader, you might finish a book in a day, while a slower reader may take a couple of weeks. You can skim through the sections that don't interest you, and linger over the more fascinating passages. You can go back and reread earlier sections to pick up on more details, and you can even read the end first and work your way backwards, if you're into that sort of thing. With a film, on the other hand, the story unfolds at a predetermined speed. If you miss an important detail, you can't go back again. (I'm ignoring DVDs and VCRs for the sake of this discussion. Yes, they exist, but most filmmakers still expect their stories to be watched linearly, and not with a remote control in hand.)

But "active" versus "passive" isn't an either/or proposition. They're the extreme ends of a storytelling spectrum. Suppose an author wants to control the pacing of the story, but let the audience's imagination provide the imagery? This can be a powerful combination for building suspense. The best medium for that storyteller is the spoken word, which can take several forms: monologues, radio plays, songs, or the telling of stories around a campfire.

On the other hand, a creator may want to control the images, but allow the audience to set the pace. What medium allows this? Comics.

The written word; the motion picture; the spoken word; and comics. Four different media for telling stories, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, and level of audience participation. There's nothing inherent in any of them that limits it to a particular age group, education level, or economic level. Each of them can be, and has been, used to tell a children's bedtime story or a Shakespearean play; a lighthearted comedy or a deep philosophical parable; a mindbending science fiction odyssey, a tearjerking romantic melodrama, a vast historical epic, or a Batman story.

Theater and film were once considered entertainment for the illiterate. Over the past thirty years, comics creators have been struggling to dispel a similar image, with noteworthy works like Eisner's A Contract With God; Spiegelman's Maus; Satrapi's Persepolis; and Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp achieving critical respect and admiration. Even superhero comics have taken a more serious turn, with Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Moore's Watchmen. But there are still many people who think of these as aberrations, and that comic books always were and always should be written for kids. There's still a long way to go to change that attitude.

** UPDATE 04/06/2011 **
I just came across this excellent essay by Conor McCreery on the same subject.

...

"Take Us Out of Orbit, Mr. Sulu, and Don't Spare the Horses"

2010-10-29T08:00:00.005-04:00

From Star Trek #9 (Gold Key Comics, February 1971):

"Imagine, Mr. Spock -- a computer capable of attracting and recording the brainwaves -- the very thoughts of every famous person in Earth's history! It has recorded all of that history on these punch cards."

Punch cards? PUNCH CARDS??

**sigh**

The future just ain't what it used to be.

...

Where's Wein?

2010-10-28T12:00:00.011-04:00

Once upon a time, there was Fantasy Kingdom, a little comic book store in a town called East Meadow, NY. It was run by a jolly old soul named Keith Mallow. It was my main source of comics when I was a student at Hofstra University. It was there that I got one of the more unusual items in my collection.

Fantasy Kingdom was a frequent host of book signing events. One bright, sunny day in 1980, the guests of honor were DC Comics writers Marv Wolfman, Bob Rozakis, and Len Wein, and artist Alex Saviuk. It was a fun afternoon. My most vivid memory of it is Marv tossing a pen in the air with an exasperated look on his face when I mentioned that Ultra the Multi-Alien was one of my favorite superheroes.

As a regular customer, I got a special souvenir of that day, which I am sharing with you. Keith had Alex illustrate the event on a ditto master. (Remember dittos? If you were a student before 1980, before bulk photocopying was affordable, then you ought to recall their weird purple ink and intoxicating alcoholic scent.) He ran off several copies, and the next week gave them out to people who had been there. After thirty years, my copy is a bit faded and yellowed, but I cleaned it up to show it to you here. (Click the image to enlarge it.)

The store window didn't really say "Free -- Cheap -- Easy" and the guy at the register wasn't napping, but other than that, most of the scene is as I remember it. There were several customers who showed up in costume, including a skinny Superman (who did resemble a young Christopher Reeve), a senior Lone Ranger, a pretty cute Storm, Moon Knight, and a guy in a gorilla suit. I don't remember if there were any extraterrestrials there, or if they were a product of Alex's imagination.

I don't remember seeing Plastic Man, but there was a minor debate over who was the better character, him or the Elongated Man. Marv settled the issue by declaring that the two aren't really comparable. Elongated Man only stretches, while Plas is primarily a shape-changer.

Len Wein arrived late, so Alex squeezed him in under the table between Marv and Bob, anticipating the "Where's Waldo?" books by seven years. In the real world, they found him a chair.

The bearded chap in the dark suit on the left is Keith Mallow himself. Keith was probably dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, but Bob and Alex had recently used him as the model for a character named "Mallo, Keeper of the Cosmic Balance" in a two-part Atom story in Action Comics #515 and DC Comics Presents #30, so Alex drew him as Mallo here. He looks a bit like Abel from House of Secrets.

Like many other comic shops of the 1980s, Fantasy Kingdom is long gone. There's now a hair salon in its old location. But it was a fun place to hang out while it lasted.

...

A Museum With Character

2010-10-26T14:00:00.005-04:00

Last week, I had the long-overdue pleasure of visiting the Barker Character, Comic, and Cartoon Museum in Cheshire, CT. The museum has been in existence since 1997, but I only learned about it a few months ago.

The Museum consists of two buildings: the Gallery, where hundreds of animation cels and cartoon-themed paintings are on display; and the Museum itself, which contains two stories of glass-enclosed toys, books, magazines, lunchboxes, Pez dispensers, and other products that should have anyone over the age of thirty muttering "I used to have one of those" more than once.

No photography is allowed inside either building, but the grounds outside are decorated with over two dozen murals and life-sized cutouts of cartoon characters that you can pose alongside.

I used to enjoy visiting the National Cartoon Museum in Rye Brook, NY, before it relocated to Boca Raton, FL, and later closed. The Barker Museum is a different, though equally enjoyable, experience. The NCM was comic strip and comic book oriented, with a huge collection of original artwork. The Barker Museum focuses more on toys and products based on comic and cartoon characters. It has no original comic-strip or -book artwork on display, though the Gallery does include a few framed prints of Peanuts strips by Charles Schulz. There are perhaps a half-dozen comic books on display in the Museum, notably a Famous First Edition reprint of Action Comics #1, which I discussed in a previous post.

Not only fictional characters are recognized here. There is also a large number of toys and items depicting real-life characters, like George Burns, Carol Channing, Dean Martin, and others. The Museum also boasts of its exhibits on the California Raisins and Celebriducks (a line of rubber ducks caricaturing familar faces from show business and politics), which I'd never heard of before.

I especially enjoyed seeing a corner devoted to Myron Waldman, an animator for the Fleischer Studios in the 1930s and '40s, who worked on the Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman cartoons, as well as a newspaper comic strip called Happy the Humbug. Myron used to live three miles away from me on Long Island, and was the subject of my first column in Hogan's Alley Magazine #12 in 2004.

The closest thing that I have to a criticism of the Barker Museum is that it's too tightly packed. Herb and Gloria Barker could spread their collection over twice the floor space, and it would still feel crowded. The story I was told is that Herb was a nostalgia buff whose collection grew too big for the house, so at Gloria's urging, he moved it out and put it on display. (Now I have an idea about what to do with my collection when it outgrows the basement.) The Barkers also own a company that manufactures promotional products. My friend, Merrill, works for a company that does business with them, and I found out about the Museum from her.

The museum is located on 1188 Highland Ave. in Cheshire, CT, about midway between Hartford and New Haven, six miles west of Route 91. You can take a virtual tour by watching the video on their website, but it's not as good as being there.

On the right, Bugs Bunny faces down Yosemite Sam; on the left, Baba Looey watches as Quick Draw McGraw faces down himself.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto, with their horses, Silver and Scout

Remember the Real Heroes

2010-09-11T12:01:00.000-04:00

Ground Zero, 10/17/2008

Let's spend today remembering and thanking the real-life heroes of September 11, 2001, all of whom risked their lives, and many of whom lost them, at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and onboard UA Flight 93.

Some Heroes Have Silly Names, Too

2010-09-08T08:00:00.003-04:00

I don't know who Doctor Hormone was, or what his gimmick was. I don't think I even want to know.

Maybe he can do something to help alleviate Perisphere Payne. It certainly sounds uncomfortable.

Okay, the gags are pretty lame. What can I say to apologize?

Saäri.

Newsday Adds Comics

2010-08-17T01:00:00.002-04:00

In an age when newspaper comics sections are quickly shrinking, Long Island Newsday has announced that it's adding a page to its Sunday comics section. In addition, it's asking readers to select the three comics that will appear there.

If you're a Newsday or Optimum Online subscriber, go here to cast your vote, and to comment on what your favorite and least favorite comic strips are in Newsday's current lineup.

The candidates for the new page are: Bizarro; Daddy's Home; Dustin; Pearls Before Swine; Prickly City; and Tundra. Personally, I wanted to vote for Frazz, Brewster Rockit, and 9 Chickweed Lane, none of which are in any NYC-area papers. But, the choices are what they are.

The poll closes on midnight, August 29. Vote now!

** UPDATE **

The voting is over, and the winners were: Pearls Before Swine, Dustin, and Tundra. All three were added to Newsday's Sunday comics section on September 5. The last one took me by surprise. I didn't think New Yorkers would go for a panel about the Great Northwest.

What's In a Name?

2010-08-15T16:00:00.016-04:00

Darth Vader! Doctor Doom! Luthor! Darkseid! Names that strike terror into the very depths of your heart. Well, maybe not. But at least they have an impact. You can tell from the sound of the name that this is supposed to be a really bad guy.

Unfortunately, not all villains were lucky enough to be gifted with such evil-sounding names. I was reading a Doctor Fate story from More Fun Comics #57 (Jul 1940) (reprinted in 2007's Golden Age Doctor Fate Archives Vol.1) in which the heroic Fate encountered a sinister sorcerer who was summoning fire-spirits to threaten wealthy victims into paying him protection money. The scoundrel's name? Mango the Mighty.

It's possible that, in 1940, most Americans outside of Florida didn't know what a mango is. Heck, I was in my twenties before I saw my first mango. But today, with half the restaurants in the country listing some sort of mango-enhanced dish on the menu, the name doesn't seem quite as eerie and mysterious as it may have back then.

In "The Mad Planet," a science fiction story in Mystery in Space #19 (Apr-May 1954) (reprinted in 1999's Pulp Fiction Library: Mystery in Space), a young married couple vacationing in space (in the distant future year of 1989) land on an uncharted world ruled by an escaped convict named Thong -- King Thong. Even in the real 1989, Thong was not exactly a name that would inspire fear and respect among prison inmates. No wonder he escaped from Sing Sing.

In 1980, DC Comics began a series called "The Creature Commandos" in Weird War Tales #93. (The panel on the left is from issue #97.) It starred a squad of monstrous soldiers recruited to fight for the USA in World War 2. The vampiric member of the team was named Velcro -- Sgt. Vincent Velcro. At that time, the product called Velcro wasn't yet a household word. I'm not even sure whether Velcro fasteners on sneakers had been introduced yet. But the product was around, and the name seemed kind of silly for a vampire. (The character has since been rechristened -- if that's an appropriate thing to do to a vampire -- Vincent Velcoro.)

So there you have them. Three characters intended to inspire terror, who ended up taking a ribbing because of their less-than-impressive names. Maybe there was a time when the names Velcro, Thong, and Mango could have sent a chill down the spine. But today, what sort of reaction do they evoke? I don't know about you, but there's only one thing they make me want to do:

Blog.

Cathy Calls It Quits

2010-08-12T19:00:00.002-04:00

AAACK! After 34 years in syndication, cartoonist Cathy Guisewite is retiring. Unlike many of her colleagues, she's chosen to retire her comic strip, Cathy, as well, instead of continuing it in reruns or turning the reins over to another cartoonist. The final strip will appear on Sunday, October 3.

I haven't read Cathy in years, since the New York newspapers stopped carrying it. Nonetheless, I hate to see a strip with such a history behind it fade away. But on the other hand, I applaud the fact that this opens a gap for an up-and-coming cartoonist to fill. Let's hope they give us something as new and different as Cathy was when it debuted in 1976, instead of the 30,000th suburban-family strip. (Some of them can be pretty funny, true, but enough is enough.)

The Real Deal on the Man of Steel

2010-08-09T19:30:00.009-04:00

Last week, the news carried the story of a family somewhere in the southern United States whose home was saved by Superman. The family, who understandably choose to remain anonymous at present, was evicted from the house that they have lived in since the 1950s. While packing up their belongings, they discovered an object in the basement that must have been left by the previous occupants: a copy of Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman from 1938.

Action #1 has been in the news a lot lately. In the past two years, three copies have sold for $317,000, $1 million, and $1.5 million, respectively. The family contacted ComicConnect.com and had their copy appraised. It is expected to bring in a quarter of a million at auction next month, and the bank has agreed to hold off on foreclosure until then.

[UPDATE: The issue sold at auction for $436,000 -- almost twice what was estimated. I haven't read any more about the family who sold it, but I assume that they saved their house -- or maybe bought a better one -- and are now living in comfort.]

Only about 100 copies of Action #1 are known to exist. Seven copies have turned up since all the publicity began. Though there’s been no publicity about it, I suspect that a number of counterfeits have turned up as well. As such a landmark in comic book history, the magazine has been reprinted several times. A speculator might try to pass off one of these reprints as the original, intentionally or otherwise. Here are a few tips to help you tell the difference between the real debut of the Man of Steel and the many imperfect duplicates.

In most cases, the easiest way to tell a fake is by thickness. The original 1938 issue was 64 pages long (not including the cover), 13 of which were taken up by the Superman story. Most of the duplicates have reprinted only the Superman story. The original also included Chuck Dawson (a Western), Zatara (a crimefighting magician), South Sea Strategy (a two-page text story), Sticky-Mitt Stimson (a humor strip), The Adventures of Marco Polo (the 13th century explorer), Pep Morgan (a boxer), Scoop Scanlon (a crusading reporter), Tex Thomson (a world-traveling adventurer), Stardust (a page of Hollywood trivia) and Odds ‘N Ends (a page of sports trivia).

There is one notable exception. In 1974, DC Comics reprinted several classic comic books from the 1930s and ‘40s under the blanket title, Famous First Edition. These issues were exact copies of the originals, right down to the advertisements, wrapped in a protective cardboard cover. An unscrupulous con man could remove the outer cover and claim that he had a copy of the original magazine.

But there are two keys to identifying a Famous First Edition reprint. The first is size. Our hypothetical con man will tell you that comic books in the 1930s and ‘40s were larger than today’s comics, which is true. They were the same height, and about ¾ of an inch wider. The typical Golden Age comic book is about 10 inches high by 7.5 inches wide, a little smaller than a sheet of letter-size paper. But the FFE reprint measured 13.5” by 10”, a little larger than a modern tabloid newspaper.

	A modern comic book on top of a Golden Age comic. Both are the same height, but notice the small difference in width.
	A genuine Golden Age comic book next to a significantly larger Famous First Edition reprint.
	A Famous First Edition reprint, with the outer cardboard cover, next to a tabloid-sized newspaper.

It’s impossible to judge the size of a book from a photograph, though, if there’s nothing else in the picture to compare it to. But there's another giveaway clue. On the cover of the real Action #1, there’s a streak of reflected light on the fender of the car that Superman is lifting. In the reprint, the fender is solid green.

Ironically, if our con man had left the cardboard cover stapled to his Famous First Edition, he might have been able to get up to $10 for it from a collector. But with the cover removed, it’s not even worth a dollar.

#1 - Port Washington

2009-10-17T09:23:00.003-04:00

My first talk at the Port Washington Library went pretty well. I did blank out a couple of times, which taught me a lesson for the rest of the talks: don't stray too far from my notes. I also seem to have lost a page of notes about the 1970s revival of Captain Marvel, and had to ad-lib it. There were no kids in the audience, which I guess shouldn't have surprised me on a school day. But the people who were there were a good audience, and they were familiar with all the classic comic strips: Toonerville Folks, Smilin' Jack, Gasoline Alley.

One man asked a question about the European character Tintin, which I mentioned briefly in my presentation. Another said he was a fan of the modern comic strip, Brian Crane's Pickles, which has been running since 1991. It's a favorite of mine, too.

Today's 2pm talk at the Mineola Memorial Library should bring in a more diverse group, being on a Saturday afternoon. I hope they enjoy the show.

The Comics: A Sketchy History

2009-10-16T09:49:00.004-04:00

Wow... has it been almost a year and a half since I last posted here? I'll make an effort to do better. (For a while, anyway. ;)

This afternoon, I'm giving the first of four talks this week on the history of comics. Two hours from now, I'll be setting up my presentation in the Port Washington Library. I'm hoping the rain won't discourage too many people from coming.

I'l be repeating the presentation tomorrow at 2pm at the Mineola Library; again next Tuesday, 10/20, at 7pm in the Hillside Library in New Hyde Park, NY; and finally, Wednesday, 10/21, at 7:30pm at the Comsewogue Library in Port Jefferson Station. Only people with valid Comsewogue library cards will be admitted to the last one, but anyone is welcome at the others.

I'll post comments here after each of the sessions, and I'd enjoy reading comments from anyone who attended them.

In the weeks to come, I'll make an attempt to keep this blog more active. I'll be writing short reviews of graphic novels and cartooning books, some old and some new. I'll also comment from time to time on comics-related news, or whatever else crosses my mind. If you've read this far, I hope you'll come back to visit.

MoCCA Art Festival 2008

2008-05-30T14:25:00.003-04:00

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is proud to announce MoCCA Art Festival 2008, to be held June 7th-8th, 2008, at the historic Puck Building in lower Manhattan.

Hours: 11:00am - 6:00pm

Admission is $10 each day / $15 weekend pass (weekend pass only $10 for MoCCA members)

Meet comics and cartoon artists! Four full ballrooms of cartoonists and publishers! Three days of entertaining and educational panel sessions!

Much more exciting info coming soon

Superheroes Fashion and Fantasy

2008-05-12T11:11:00.004-04:00

Superheroes Fashion and Fantasy: That's the name of an exhibit running at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art now through September 1, 2008. If you're going to be in New York City this summer, check it out.

It's a display of superhero-inspired clothing from several of today's top fashion designers. Not much I can add to that, other than to suggest you check out the museum's website for more details.

National Cartoonists Day

2008-05-04T23:54:00.007-04:00

On Sunday, May 5, 1895, readers of the New York World discovered something new and different in their morning papers. Printed in full color was a drawing by artist Richard Outcault, depicting the antics of a rowdy group of street urchins. Prominent among them was a big-eared, barefoot little boy wearing a grimy nightshirt and a mischievous grin.

This was the first color installment of the cartoon feature Down Hogan’s Alley, and the lad was named Mickey Dugan, though he soon became known to the public as the Yellow Kid. He was soon to be the first commercially successful cartoon icon.

In 1990, May 5 was proclaimed Cartoonists Day by the National Cartoonists Society, and May 3-9 was designated Cartoon Appreciation Week.
Here are some ways you can celebrate...

Read the comics pages every day!
Rent an animated movie!
Send an e-mail message to the cartoonist that draws your favorite comic strip! (Most newspaper strips have the creator's e-mail address written along one of the panel borders.)
Write a letter to your local newspaper, telling them which comic strips you enjoy most, and why!
Visit a comic book shop and try something new!
Send a cartoon greeting card to a friend!
Buy a paperback collection of a comic strip you enjoy… or one you never read before!
Visit the public library and read about the history of comics and cartoons!
Try drawing your own comic strip or cartoon!
Recapture your youthful sense of wonder... read the comics with a child!
Take a cartoonist to lunch!

Thanks for helping to make Cartoonist Day an occasion to remember!

Boys, boys, let's compromise.
It's INKO de Mayo!

Icons at I-Con 27

2008-04-29T18:28:00.032-04:00

On April 5, 2008, I attended the I-Con science fiction convention in Stony Brook, NY. I've been going to I-Con since 1984, but I've missed the past three years due to conflicts. It's a three-day event, but I only spent Saturday there.

I-Con usually has several tracks devoted to science fiction, fantasy, gaming, TV, anime, and, of course, comics. I usually go to I-Con with a group, but this year I went on my own, so I was able to stay with the comics track for the whole day.

I don't recall I-Con being as big on costume play as some other conventions, but that seems to have changed. And there were some very good costumes.

The invincible Iron Man was there, to promote his new movie.

Green Lantern allowed me to take his picture, and was even kind enough to provide his own lighting.

The amazing Spider-Man was happy to pose for his fans at his very own web site.

But Batman fans dominated the comic-themed costumes. Here we see the Scarecrow striking fear into the heart of Batgirl.

So many Batman villains were on hand, it looked like there had been a breakout at Arkham Asylum.

OK, so that last was a penguin, not the Penguin. I'm just trying to keep the theme going here, that's all. Give me a break. Or should that be, a Shake?

The dealer's room had some interesting merchandise. I like these Green Lantern and Batman coin banks. I'd never seen them on the market before. I should have checked to see who manufactured them.

There were several entertaining panels, too. In an earlier post, I mentioned the 70th birthday party that they threw for Superman. Unfortunately, artist Murphy Anderson, who was supposed to be the guest of honor, got to the con too late for the party. He arrived in time for the next panel, though. Here you see Glenn Hauman, Murphy, Dwayne McDuffie, and Bob Greenberger (plus Peter David, sitting in the audience and not seen in this picture) sharing "True Tales of the Comic Book Industry," including Dwayne's story about receiving a letterbomb that failed to go off while he was working on the Milestone Comics line... even before Milestone had published its first issue!

There was another panel I attended that I'd like to comment about. But I'll save that for another day. For now, be well.

Free Comic Book Day

2008-04-29T13:26:00.006-04:00

Mark your calendars for this Saturday, May 3: Free Comic Book Day! Hundreds of comic book stores around the country will be giving out FREE promotional issues from various comic book publishers to those who stop by.

Send an e-mail to the address below on that date with your mailing address, and they’ll send you a FREE issue of Hogan’s Alley, the journal of the cartoon arts! No obligations, no strings attached; the only thing it will cost you is several hours as you enjoy the issue. This offer is valid for all U.S. residents.

Remember the one condition—they must receive your e-mail request on Free Comic Book Day, not the day before or the day after.

Send your request on Saturday May 3 to editor Tom Heintjes at hoganmag@gmail.com Remember to include your mailing address, not just your e-mail address, or they won't know where to send your free copy!

(Note: The image shown here is the cover of issue #8. The free issue that you receive will be a random back issue selected by the editor, and not necessarily this particular issue.)

Superman is Seventy

2008-04-18T08:28:00.007-04:00

It was seventy years ago today that Superman was introduced to the world.

Yes, the cover of the first issue of Action Comics said June 1938. But the cover date on most magazines is like the expiration date on a milk carton. It tells the store owners when it's time to remove the product from the shelves, not when it arrived. For comic books, the cover date is usually 2 or 3 months later than the publication date. According to The Photojournal Guide to Comic Books by Ernie Gerber, Action #1 had a shipping date of April 18, 1938.

Written by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Joe Shuster, two young men from Cleveland, Ohio, Superman exploded onto the world. Customers nagged store clerks for "that magazine with Superman in it." Within a year, his sales figures earned him a daily newspaper comic strip and his own comic book title. Superman #1, originally a quarterly but eventually a monthly magazine, debuted in 1939. In 1940, Superman gained an afterschool radio series, voiced by actor Bud Collyer (whom those of us who were around in the 1960s also remember as host of the game show To Tell the Truth). In 1941, a series of animated Superman cartoons arrived in theatres, produced by the Fleisher Studios (also known for Popeye and Betty Boop). In 1942, a prose novel, Superman, by radio writer George Lowther was published. The year 1948 saw a live-action Superman movie serial, starring Kirk Alyn and a young actress named Noel Neill as Lois Lane. The Adventures of Superman television series ran from 1951 to 1958, starring George Reeves as Superman, and initially, Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane, though in 1953 the aforementioned Noel Neill stepped in to reprise the role. In 1966, a musical comedy, It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse (Bye Bye Birdie) ran at the Alvin Theatre on Broadway for about four months. In 1972, the town of Metropolis, Illinois, declared itself (with the approval of DC Comics) the hometown of Superman, erected a statue and opened a Superman Museum, and holds an annual Superman festival in June. Superman the motion picture came out in 1978, starring Christopher Reeve (not Reeves) and Margot Kidder. And the next year, the first Superman video game was released.

Also on television, Lois and Clark, a light adventure comedy focusing on the romantic relationship between Lois Lane and Clark Kent, starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher, ran from 1993 to 1997. Smallville, a look at Clark Kent's life in the years before he started wearing the cape and red S, began in 2001 and is still running. And there have been a great number of popular songs mentioning Superman, by artists including Donovan, Jim Croce, Eminem, Five for Fighting, Crash Test Dummies, Laurie Anderson, R.E.M., Donna Fargo, Eric Clapton, and many others. He's even mentioned in the theme to the sitcom Scrubs.

So Superman may in truth be called the king of all media. And after 70 years, Action Comics is still being published, with issue number 863 in the stores right now.

Please visit the Superman Homepage to read more about the Man of Steel. And have a super day.

(Cake photographed at the Superman birthday party held at the I-Con science fiction convention in Stony Brook, NY, on April 5, 2008)

New to the neighborhood

2008-04-17T11:43:00.003-04:00

As of tomorrow, I'm relocating the News 'n' Views page of my website here to Blogger.com. Not only will this give me more space on the main site, but I'm hopeful that it'll encourage me to post more often.

Tomorrow: the anniversary of the world's most famous comics icon!