Happy Birthday Jack Kirby

And why was today chosen as Read A Comic In Public Day?  Because it's Jack Kirby's birthday!  And if you don't know who Jack Kirby is, than you're not much a comic book reader.  Jack Kirby is responsible for some of the greatest comic books created.  With Joe Simon, Stan Lee or by himself Mr. Kirby's creations are the building blocks for a lot of what's out there now.  Captain America, Fantastic Four, Challengers of the Unknown, Hulk, Thor, the New Gods....the list goes on and on.  Without Jack Kirby comics would be a lot poorer.

Happy Birthday Jack Kirby!

Read Comics In Public Day

Today is Read Comics In Public Day.  For the genesis of this day go here and read.  This is for all those people who read comics but are secretly ashamed of it.  Don't be ashamed!  I've never been afraid to show that I read comics.  When I used to take public transportation I would read whatever new comics I might have purchased that day.  The thing when to do when taking a public bus is to always be reading, a novel, a comic, whatever.  It just makes the trip quicker.  So if you have a comic read it in public today.

Second Column

I mentioned before that I was writing a column about comic books at a local comic shop's web page.  Just wanted to mention that the second column, about kids' comics is out there, actually almost at the end of the week, I just sent in the next column which should be going up anyday.   If you want you can check it out here.

New Column

Just to let everyone know I am now writing a column of comment about comic books for one of the local comic stores in town.  They have a webpage where they feature the upcoming comics and stuff and now where they'll feature my new column.  The column is called "Don't Try This At Home" mainly cause I couldn't think of anything else to call it.  It'll be me talking about comic books, reviews, basically anything I feel like talking about that I can connect to comic books.  You can find the page here, than just look for the logo with my name on the right side of the page and click on it.  I'm going to try and do this on a weekly basis but we'll see how that goes.

San Diego Comic Con

The biggest comic convention of the season started today and I'm not there. I haven't been in about six years. I remember the first one I went to back in the eighties and what I thought was a big con now seems so small. It seems though that the whole premise of the convention, comics, are taking a back seat to Hollywood. Entertainment Weekly had their comic con issue and not one article was about comic books. But there still is a lot of comic books and comic book related stuff at the convention. I was reading that 2,000 fans of Twilight camped overnight to be sure to get in for the panel on their favorite book and movie.

The first San Diego Con I went to was short on Hollywood spectacle but I did see a few. I remember seeing David Carradine walking around and looking at comics, he wasn't there as a guest, he was there as a fan.

Sigh...lots of fun.

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I NEED ARTISTS!

Ok, I have to be crazy. I've started another blog. I know, I know, I can't even keep up with this one it seems and I'm starting another one.

I've mentioned on this site before that I used to write comic books and it's something I wouldn't mind doing again. But the problem with being a writer in the comic book industry, especially trying to break in, is that you need artists. You need someone to turn your words into pictures. And it's hard to find someone to do that.

So I've started a blog trying to do just that. To find artists that may want to try and work with me in breaking into the comic book industry. This blog is going to be more of a resume of my past work so prospective artists can see what I've done. It won't be as time consuming as keeping up with daily posts, since that's not the point of it. So hopefully I'll be able to handle it.

Go check it out and I NEED ARTISTS!

If you know of any artists please feel free to pass this site on. The only way this is going to work is that if I get this site out there for enough people to see it and hopefully some artists will be interested. Spread the word if you will.

Spiderman Saves The Day!

It's nice to have good news to report, especially with the recent posts about deaths. In Thailand Spiderman saved the day. Go read about it here.

Save The Superman House

This post is being put on my other blog Life in 4 Colors also.

The house where Jerry Siegel created Superman is falling down. The city of Cleveland where the house is located has done nothing to save this house, where one of the most recognizable literary figures in the world was created, so Brad Meltzer is trying to save it. He's organized a group called The Siegel & Shuster Society to this end. Go to this page and read more about it.

Their auction is only half done and they've already raised $53,000, more than their goal of $50,000. Go check out their auction, or if your pocket book isn't quite that big go buy a t shirt.

Superman is an American Icon and his history needs to be preserved.

Happy Birthday Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby would have been 91 years old today. He died in 1994. I'm not going to try and list the characters Jack had a hand in creating, it would read like a list of modern comic books pretty much. Jack helped create comic books. No one working today in comics doesn't owe something to the King.

More Comic Con

From CBR comes this pic of the line waiting to their badges so they could get into the con. This is from Wednesday, the preview night, which has the smallest crowds of the con.

San Diego Comic Con

This weekend was the San Diego Comic Con. Even if you're not a comic book fan it's hard not to have at least heard of this con nowadays. It's huge. It's become much more than just a comic book convention. Hollywood trots out all their big movies for preview and to hopefully get the fans interested enough to go home and start blogging about. The last time I went was about six years ago. The attendance than was between 60,000 and 70,000 a day. This weekend it will probably be over 120,000 people a day. It's grown so big that I can't even imagine it. My first San Diego Con was back in the 80's and I doubt that there were more than 10,000 people and I thought that was a lot at the time. For some more about the Con you can go check out one of my other blogs Life in 4 colors for some highlights.

The Dark Knight

Ok, I can't give a complete review of this movie as I missed the final act (see the following post for the full story on that) but I can say what I did see was amazing. This movie makes all the previous Batman movies look weak.

Heath Ledger is just as good in the role of the Joker as most critics have been claiming. I would be very surprised if he doesn't get a nomination for an Oscar, if not a win. His Joker is evil and crazy without going so far over the top that it appears comical.

One of the things I really liked in this movie was the secondary characters, like Gordon, Alfred and Fox. The movie gave them a depth that we rarely see in movies like this. It had me wanting to see a movie with Gordon as the main character. And the relationship between Alfred and Bruce Wayne was more than just a butler and his Master.

Go check this movie out. I plan to head back soon for a second and complete showing.

Incredible Hulk

I've been a fan of the big Green Goliath for as long as I can remember. When I first start collecting comic books he was one of those that I bought every month. For a long time I had a complete collection, save for the first six issues, of his entire run. Well I haven't kept up with the Hulk comic, except here and there, for a long time.

I'm one of the few that actually thought his first movie wasn't that bad. I admired the way that it tried to be different for a comic book movie. I think one of the biggest problems is that as one of my friends always say when I bring up this movie, "He fought a giant poodle." If they had given the Hulk a more worthy opponent this movie might not be so reviled today.

I go back to work on Monday, so this last week was my last week of staying home. It was also the first week that I'm starting to feel decent enough to get around more on my own. I decided to go to a couple eary morning movies and the new Hulk was the last one. Going at eleven in the morning on a weekday was nice, the crowd was probably no more than two dozen people.

So what did I think of the movie? I liked it. It wasn't as good as Iron Man as everyone is saying. But it was a fun movie. For fans of the comic book there are a little easter eggs scattered through out. It also included a few such highlights for the old television show. The old tv show Hulk Lou Ferrigno has a cameo and he does the voice for the new Hulk.

This is one of the movies that you don't want to think too hard about, like General Ross basically invading a college campus to capture Bruce Banner, some quick cuts that seemed to skip a little too much, but if you want a fairly good action movie this is it.

And the end is just the next step in creating the Avengers movie. (How about a movie with the Hulk and Iron Man? And as Marvel tries to tie their movies into one world is there any plans on bringing the Fantastic Four into their Marvel universe? Now that would be a great next movie, the Thing vs. the Hulk.)

The fight at the end is pretty good. The CGI on the Hulk is decent, sometimes it was better than others. For the amount of the movie I expected a little more with the look I think. Still this is all nit picking, I did enjoy the movie and will buy it when it comes out on DVD.

Current Obsessions A Little More Current

When I started this on my sidebar I had planned to update it every now and than, but it stayed the same for quite awhile, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lily Holbrook. Which it still could, they haven't fallen from being anything sort of an obsession with me, but I just figured it was time to give fair shift to a few other obsessions of mine. I've been talking enough about it lately and it's one of my favorite shows of all time so I put West Wing in place of Buffy. I've added a great singer/songwriter from down around my neck of the woods named Maggie Brown. Click on the link and go check her out. She is really really good and deserves a lot bigger audience. I've also added a great comic book series called The Walking Dead. It's a book set in the future where the earth is overrun with zombies. Now if you know me you know I hate zombie movies. I really do, but this comic book goes beyond its genesis and is more about the survivors than the zombies themselves. This is one of the best comic books being published today.

Dave Stevens Dies

Dave Stevens, the Creator of the Rocketeer comic book characters died today of leukemia. Dave is best remembered as the artist of the comic book that later became a Disney movie. Dave help rejuvenate the interested in 50s pinup model Bettie Page. Dave was a very talented artist that found he spent too much time worrying over every panel to be able to make a living in the industry.

Steve Gerber R.I.P.

Most of my heroes have been more of the literary bent. I actually was thinking along these lines earlier today, how most guys can tell you all about what type of bat you should use, the difference between gloves, etc, but some reason none of that held much interest for me. While other boys were worshipping at the shrine of Mickey Mantle or Micheal Jordan I bent knee for names like Stan Lee or Harlan Ellison.

One of these heroes of mine just died last night. His name was Steve Gerber and he wrote comic books for a living. But what comic books he wrote. In the 70's he wrote comics for Marvel. He wrote Man-Thing, Defenders, Omega the Unknown and many others. Reading a Steve Gerber comic was like reading no other comic book. And of course he created Howard the Duck. Unfortunately the character is mostly remembered today for a movie that is considered to be one of the worst ever made. The movie did not come close to capturing the spirit and life that Steve brought to his four color creation.

Mr. Gerber had pulmonary fibrosis, a condition that turns the lung tissue to scar and destroys the lungs ability to function. He had trouble breathing. I can imagine the pain and struggle he took to just breath, having seen this in the past year with my Dad. It's heartbreaking to watch someone you love just struggle to take a breath, to not even be able to walk across the room without being out of breath.

Even today some of my favorite comic books are those that Mr. Gerber worked on. His run on the Defenders is one of the best team comic books ever done. His Man-Thing took a character that literally had no personality and created a comic like no other. His Howard the Duck will always be a high water mark for any comic creator.

I never met the man, but tonight I am grieving. He's talked about his illness in various places, so this isn't a complete surprise, but you always hold out hope for the best. For more about the man go read Mark Evanier's more eloquent post or read some of Steve's last posts himself at his blog.

Sometimes someone that you never meet can touch you in ways that you never imagine. Steve Gerber was one of those people.

Iron Man Movie Coming

This year is Iron Man. I'm getting pretty hyped about this one. Doesn't this picture look too cool?

Heath Ledger Found Dead

Heath Ledger, only 28, was found dead tonight in his apartment. It's too early to speculate on the cause of death, so we'll just wait and see. Whatever the outcome, it is tragic.

I Must Be Crazy

I've started another blog. Like I have time for more, but I went ahead and did it anyways. This one is called "Life in 4 colors" and is a comic book blog. I'll still talk about comics on this blog, but I don't want to go as in depth with some of the comic book related subjects here as I can on a blog just for that subject. Just like I still talk about music on this blog even though I have another blog that is just music related I'll continue to post the comic related post now and than. But I think the majority of the people that read this blog aren't that interested in all things comics, so that type of writing will be over there. This (the comic book one) isn't one that I'll be blogging in as often as this one, but I just wanted a place to write more about comic books when I feel like it. Plust it will allow me to clean this blog up a little bit, make it a little easier for people to load. If you're interested go check it out and let me know what you think.

Another Name In The Wind

2007 ended with death.

Back in the early 90s when the Internet was still in a state of semi-flux I was a member of Compuserve. For a small monthly fee I got to sign on Compuserve and use them much the way I do Yahoo today for free. Back than it seems there was Compuserve and AOL. Compuserve had forums from all sorts of interests and one of them was for comic books. I signed on immediately and soon found myself in a world of fans and pros. This was before everyone and their brother was on the net and not all the pros were on the computer. This was before MySpace and blogging and Face Book and all the other stuff that we all associate with the Internet today.

One of the first people I met online was Paul Grant. Paul was a frequent visitor to the Comic Book Forum on Compuserve. He was a lawyer for Ford Motors when he wasn't writing reviews of comic books on Compuserve. I remember many a conversation with Paul online. He had a way of making you feel right at home. I was still feeling my way around the whole online thing, heck even the comic writing was just really getting started at that point.

Not long after that I went to the Chicago Con in...well, I think you can figure that part out. This was back before Wizard bought the con and turned it into whatever it is today. This was when the convention was still at the Rosemont Hotel and a lot of the tables for the artists and writers were set up in the hallway. This was the first convention I ever attended as a "Pro" and have a table and everything. I was sharing a table with an artist that I was working with at the time and have over the years, Terry Pavelt.

It was at Chicago I met Paul in person. I can still remember it. I had went out for some food, and was trying to navigate my way behind the tables and along the wall and between all the other writers and artists back to my spot which seemed all the way at the other end. I was trying not to spill anything and not to step on anyone when I heard a voice call out my name. I looked up to see why Paul used the name Zeus online. He was a big bearded bear of a man with a huge smile. I did almost trip and he told me to be careful. It's funny how some things stick in your mind. Somehow that meeting has stayed with me over the years.

I can't say that Paul and I were that close. We talked, some at the convention and a lot more online. Compuserve was bought out by AOL and became a shell of itself until it finally disappeared. I drifted away from comics for awhile and didn't hear anymore of Paul.

But most of you reading this can understand what I mean when I say you can make real friends online. I've done it since I started blogging. I may not have met a lot of you, but I've come to conisder quite a few of you as friends.

So it was something of a shock to read around the end of the year that Paul Grant had died. It took me by surprise. I hadn't really thought of him in years and now to hear that he was dead. I wish I had some witty or profound saying here to tie all this up in a neat little bow, but there's not much I can add except that Paul was a good man and I considered him a friend.