Portrait of the Artist

Entertainment Roundup for 2011

2012-01-11T06:36:00.000-08:00

Below is my annual round up of books, films, concerts, plays, etc., that I took in during 2011.

Downtown Abbey

This past year, it was television programs—watched mostly online or on DVD, though I did catch a few when they originally aired—that really enthralled me. Especially British ones. These include my belated discovery of my current obsession, the character-driven and heart-breaking Downton Abbey, currently airing its second season on PBS as I write this; Law & Order UK on BBC America, which provides an interesting British spin on the iconic American TV series while remaining addictive and familiar; and the Inbetweeners, another belated discovery, of a series that also originally aired in the U.S. on BBC America but which I watched in its 3-season entirety uncut on YouTube.

Despite its stumbles this past year, Netflix Streaming continued to be a major resource for catching up on television programs and films, providing users like me a conveniently way to quickly check out films and TV shows and mini-series with little risk or effort. That's how I discovered Downton Abbey as well as a few other British TV shows and mini-series like Monday Monday, The Way We Live Now, and Any Human Heart. It also gave me the opportunity to catch foreign language films like the The World, a Chinese film, and French comedies like I Do: How to Get Married and Stay Single and Shall We Kiss. Thanks to the streaming service, I also discovered several enjoyable indie gems like Middle Men and Tenure (both coincidentally starring Luke Wilson), Gigantic, and The Extra Man. (The former two starred Luke Wilson while the latter two featured Paul Dano.) Another highlight was Made in Dagenham, a film I wanted to see in 2010, which I finally rented through Netflix and found to be a delight.

Below is a clip from the recent Inbetweeners feature film. Parental discretion advised!

While there were several mainstream films I enjoyed in 2011, none captured my attention quite like Downton Abbey and the Inbetweeners. But among my favorites were, in no particular order, The Artist, Cedar Rapids, Our Idiot Brother, The Adventures of Tintin, and Captain America: First Avenger. The Artist was great fun due to its novelty and the high bar it set for itself, while Captain America ranked so high because it took me by surprise. In its own way, Captain America is a perfect popcorn movie—really fun and smartly done. I usually like to name what I think is the worst movie I saw for the year and, for me, it's no contest: Mars Needs Moms.

For some reason, in 2010 I didn't seem to have read many books, but this year I picked up the pace again. When you look at the list, you'll see I went through a serious Lincoln phase. Highlights were Team of Rivals and the harrowing yet inspiring Unbroken.

And now without any further ado....

BOOKS:

Hergé: The Man Who Created Tintin by Pierre Assouline (2/3/11)
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (3/7/11)
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Goodwin Kearns (3/21/11)
Lincoln at Cooper Union by Harold Holzer (4/4/11)
The March by E.L. Doctorow (4/27/11)
Ulysses S. Grant (5/11)
The Hobbit (9/15/11)
Lord of the Rings (10/11)

GRAPHIC NOVELS:

Exit Wounds (1/15/11)
Tintin: The Crab with the Golden Claws (2/4/11)
Scenes from Impending Nuptuals by Adrian Tomine (4/16/11)
Bone (4/27/11)
Smile (8/5/11)

THEATRE:

Dear Edwina, Jr. (6/4/11)
Hairspray

CONCERTS:

Metales 5 - Valley Performing Arts Center (5/5/11)
Vaud and The Villains (9/17/11)
The Taiko Project (9/17/11)
He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister (9/17/11)
4 Lads From Liverpool (12/11/11)

EXHIBITIONS:

TIm Burton @ LACMA (6/19/11)

FILMS/DVDS:

Orson Welles & Me -DVD (1/1/11)
Night Train to Munich - DVD (1/7/11)
Extract - Showtime (1/8/11)
National Lampoon's Van Wilder - Showtime (1/8/11)
Adventureland - Showtime (1/10/11)
The Babysitters - Showtime (1/11/11)
For Your Consideration - Netflix streaming (1/28/11)
Shall We Kiss - Netflix streaming (1/29/11)
Marty -TCM (1/29/11)
Man of the Century (1/29/11)
Seven Years in Tibet (2/8/11)
Cedar Rapids (2/12/11)
I Love You Man - DVD (2/20/11)
Good Night - Netflix (2/23/11)
Last Word - Netflix (2/25/11)
The Extra Man - Netflix (2/26/11)
We Live Again - TCM (3/12/11)
Mars Needs Moms (3/20/11)
The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story - Netflix (3/23/11)
The Auteur - Netflix (3/24/11)
The World - Netflix (3/27/11)
Any Human Heart - Netflix (4/4/11)
The Way We Live Now - Netflix (4/5/11)
The Wild One - TCM (4/17/11)
Under the Greenwood Tree - Netflix (4/28/11)
I Do: How to Get Married and Stay Single - Netflix (5/23/11)
Gigantic - Netflix (5/23/11)
The Special Relationship (5/26/11)
Kung Fu Panda 2 (5/28/11)
Downton Abbey (5/28/11)
The Inbetweeners, Seasons 1-3 (7/3-15/11)
Made in Dagenham - DVD (7/7/11)
Zookeeper (7/25/11)
The Crowd Roars - TCM (8/9/11)
Captain America (8/13/11)
The Narrow Corner - TCM (8/14/11)
It Happened One Night - TCM (9/3/11)
Our Idiot Brother (9/4/11)
Johnny English (10/23/11)
The Middle Men (10/31/11) - Netflix
Lost in America (11/2/11) - TCM
Green Lantern -DVD (11/6/2011)
Moneyball (11/6/2011)
Monday Monday - Netflix
The Muppet Movie (11/24/11)
The Artist (11/27/11)
Take Me Home Tonight - Netflix (12/10/11)
Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows (12/18/11)
The Adventures of Tintin (12/26/11)
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (12/30/11)
Tenure - Netflix (12/30/11)

REVIEWS: Overcoming the Uncanny Valley

2012-01-03T18:48:00.000-08:00

When Robert Zemeckis’s Mars Needs Moms fizzled at the box office, many considered it the death knell for motion capture (mo-cap) movies. Zemeckis was a filmmaker who had particularly embraced mo-cap technology with films like the Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol. However, the poor showing of Mars Needs Moms forced Walt Disney Studios to cancel a planned mo-cap adaptation of Yellow Submarine and its longterm relationship with Zemeckis’s mo-cap production company.

With the release of the Adventures of Tintin, however, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson have taken a big leap forward with mo-cap and appear to have somewhat overcome many of the problems with the technology.


Actors Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis performing as Tintin and Captain Haddock in their mo-cap suits

The complaints with mo-cap stem from a hypothesis from robotics and 3D animation known as “the uncanny valley.” The hypothesis postulates that “when human replicas look and act almost, but not perfectly, like actual human beings, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers.” In films like the Polar Express, complaints about the creepiness and “dead eyes” of the characters created aversion among many viewers.

While I’m not a particular proponent of mo-cap, I’ve always said that execution plays as important a role as the medium in determining a film’s success or failure. I saw Mars Needs Moms in the theater and the bottom line was that it was an awful movie with unlikable characters and unappealing art design.

For the most part, the Adventures of Tintin has largely avoided these pitfalls by making Tintin as immersive and integrated a universe as possible. More importantly, the characters in the movie—like the characters on which they’re based—are fairly cartoony, creating some distance from the photorealistic look previous mo-cap films tried to capture. Weta Digital–Jackson’s special effects company which provided the mo-cap technology for Tintin–no doubt also made advances in the technology, particularly in capturing the nuances of facial expression and in the eyes. (As I was viewing the film, I could see that the animators had painstakingly given the characters eyelashes—a tiny detail but one that added to breathing life into the characters.) Ironically, Tintin is perhaps the most photo-realistically rendered human.

In contrast to Mars Needs Mom, Tintin is also a triumph of direction. In Mars, I was always conscious of the actors providing the performance capture. In contrast, for the most part, Spielberg and Jackson clearly sought a more stylized, exaggerated movements, which well suited a film based on a comic-book series featuring well-known iconic characters.

As to the film itself, Tintin is a fun romp that captures the innocence of purity of high adventure without the need to wink at the audience. Spielberg has said that he discovered the character after many in Europe compared the first Indiana Jones movie—Raiders of the Lost Ark—to Tintin. It seems fitting that one of the earliest prototypes for globetrotting adventurers like Indiana Jones has been adapted by Spielberg into a timeless, classic film that is as fun, unironic and uncomplicated as one can find in the modern day world.

Happy Holidays from WCG Comics

2011-12-21T20:43:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long wait since my last post. Life happens. I plan to get back on track in 2012—especially since there is a new issue of Rob Hanes Adventures in the works! So stay tuned for announcements about issue 3.

Meanwhile, I hope everyone will accept my warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season and new year!

Below is my annual holiday greetings—from both WCG Comics and my family. Click on the images to see them full size, along with a slideshow of past holiday greeting card images.

REVIEW: DC’s New 52

2011-11-04T06:03:00.000-07:00

As someone who works full time, has a family with children, and tries to use the remainder of my time drawing my own comics, the time I have to spend on reading comics over the last decade or so has dwindled a great deal. While I still buy some comics out of habit, most actually go unread. My comics reading habits these days are all over the place, usually determined by whether I like the art. Only a few titles—like Love and Rockets and Optic Nerve—are on my must-buy/must-read lists. Like a lot of people, I’ve gravitated more towards graphic novels and trade paperback collections of limited series, which require less of a commitment in time and energy.

Some of this waning interest, of course, has also been due to the incredible convoluted continuities of many mainstream super-hero comics. In what has been an acknowledged problem for years, many comics often are part of larger story arcs that sometimes go across several series and titles. For the most part, gone are the days when one could pick up a random mainstream comic-book and get a full-length story. (Which is why my own stories in Rob Hanes Adventures are usually self-contained!)

As anyone who follows mainstream comics know, comics have also become “event” driven, meaning that each year the publishers create an all-encompassing story arc that often involves a comic-book company’s entire stable of characters and can take as much as a year to play out. Ironically, while this has goosed sales to some extent, overall, comics have continued to see a decline in the number of people who read comics. Aside from the fact that many people like me have neither the time nor disposable income to devote to such an extended endeavor, such an approach also has little appeal to casual readers.

Partly in recognition of this, DC Comics earlier this year announced its plans to ambitiously relaunch much of its line, including perennial characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, many of them at the start of the characters’ careers. In some cases, the characters have been tweaked a bit as well, particularly the costume designs.

While there are some fans who decried the idea of change, for the most part the response was favorable, though of course it was hard to judge the success of the changes until the books appeared.

As for myself, I was moderately curious—though I had long ago accepted that I was not the target audience any longer for superhero comics, I nevertheless thought it was a good idea for DC to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. Characters like Superman and Batman, for example—pretty much the first comic-book superheroes—were created in 1939 and 1940. (To be fair, over the years, DC has undertaken a patchwork of approaches to keep the characters up to date and fresh.) Marvel had taken a similar approach in developing its separate “Ultimates” line.

So what’s the verdict? I picked up the first issues of many of the series, including Justice League, Batman, Superman, Detective Comics, Action Comics, and Aquaman. Frankly, none of those first issues made much of an impression on me and I found them a bit stilted.

With the second issues, however, now past the awkward, initial introductory sequences, I found that I enjoyed the stories much more. My favorite to date are Batman, Aquaman and Justice League. The series have not been quite as simplified as one would have liked—for example, Batman and the other characters are obviously new to the scene in Justice League, while in Batman, with the appearance of three of the characters who have donned the Robin costume in the story, it’s clear this is a somewhat more established Batman; and the Robin characters who ranged from the 1940s to the present clearly have now each been Robin for only about a year or two or so before being succeeded by a new Robin. But the bottom line is the stories are entertaining.

I wouldn’t quite say the books recapture the feeling I had when discovering the characters for the first time as an adolescent—we live in an age of media overload and the characters are a too familiar part of the pop culture landscape for that to be possible. But at the same time it’s been a long time since I’ve picked up a mainstream superhero comic-book title and looked forward to the next issue.

How long DC Comics will be actually able to sustain this interest and level of sales is another question. I’m sure that at some point I’ll lose the thread in many if not all of the series and stop reading them altogether again. But it will be interesting to see how long DC can sustain my interest as well as sales, and remain focused on keeping the stories interesting to casual readers. For now, I’ll enjoy the ride.

Up Next from WCG Comics....

2011-10-27T06:37:00.000-07:00

Pre-production page from issue 13. Click on the
image to see it full size.

I know it’s been awhile since the release of either an update or a new issue of Rob Hanes Adventures from WCG Comics, so I’m pleased to report that the series is now getting back on track!

Issue 13 will feature a brand new tale, “Crime Takes a Holiday.” In the adventure, Rob travels to the French Riviera for a much needed vacation but discovers that crime rarely takes a rest!

Also tentatively on the docket at a later date is a special issue 0 of Rob Hanes Adventures that I hope will serve as a nice re-introduction to the character. Although it’s not a re-boot and doesn’t change any continuity or the basic settings of the story, it will be an attempt to update the back story a bit and re-introduce the character to a new generation of readers. It’s important to note that the series was initially introduced while the Cold War was still in full swing, so this is something that’s a bit overdue.

I’ll release more details about lucky issue 13 and the planned issue 0 as they become available!

Website Updated

I’ve updated the WCG Comics website a bit to add a slideshow of news items and images to make the site a bit more visually interesting—it appears to be all the rage!

REVIEWS: Caniff

2011-09-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of upscale art books and deluxe reprint collections devoted to comics and cartoonists, with great care given to the quality and presentation of the projects. These have included full compilations of work like Terry and the Pirates (IDW), the Spirit (DC Archives), Peanuts (Fantagraphics), Dick Tracy (Fantagraphics), as well as high end coffee table books like Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles and the first volume of a projected three-part project, Genius Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth, both from IDW.

Milton Caniff, the creator-writer-artist of the groundbreaking Terry and the Pirates and, later, Steve Canyon, has been one of the major beneficiaries of this effort to document the legacies of comics and their creators. Two new additions to the growing Caniff canon are the hardcover oversized coffee table art book Caniff from IDW (360 pages) by Dean Mullaney and a hardcover deluxe collection of Steve Canyon: The Complete Series Volume 1 from Hermes Press (208 pages). Given the attention Caniff has received over the years—including a 952-page biography in 2007 and numerous collections of his work by multiple publishers over the years since the 1980s—one would think that much of this work had been exhausted by now. But these two new projects present extensive work not reprinted before.

Caniff

Though the coffee table book, Caniff, covers well trodden ground, much of it features never before seen material, culled mostly from the Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum where the artist’s papers officially reside. (Caniff was an active and prominent Ohio State alum and essentially started the Library by donating all his art and papers to the institution after his death.) Indeed, author Mullaney concedes that the book grew out of the discovery during the course of routine research that there was a treasure trove of rarely seen material by Caniff that fans deserved to see.

In addition to being an outstanding writer and storyteller, Caniff’s legacy is based on introducing—along with best friend and studio-mate Noel Sickles—a whole new approach to cartooning that relied on an impressionistic use of black and white to achieve a sense of realism never before seen in comics. It led to a whole new school of cartooning that continues to influence artists today, including myself.

As a result, since Caniff is most identified for working in this signature style during the bulk of his career from 1934 until his death in 1984, it’s a real revelation to see the artist’s versatility featured in this book.

This versatility is rooted in the fact that Caniff considered himself a newspaperman first, starting out in the artists’ bullpen of the Columbus Dispatch and, later, the Associated Press, when cartoonists also doubled as draftsmen, photo retouchers, mapmakers, commercial illustrators, etc. At a time when photographers hadn’t yet begun to replace artist on newspaper staffs, newspaper cartoonists like Caniff were journeyman craftsmen, ready to whip out logos, mastheads, crossword puzzles, story illustrations, and the like on a tight deadline.

Caniff’s work in these areas—which include portraitures of all the presidential candidates from the 1932 presidential election, watercolors, ghost drawing, spot illustrations, and even custom designs for military units and air force bombers—are all beautifully displayed and reproduced. Many promotional pieces for his strips and work produced gratis for the U.S. military and military men are also well represented and provide a fuller picture of the artist’s abilities than have been previously seen before. Another revelation of this volume is Caniff's bold color work, particularly in his Sunday strips, which really made the work pop off the page.

Steve Canyon: The Comic Book Series

This handsome hardcover book, Steve Canyon: The Complete Series Volume 1, is the first ever reprinting of some of the licensed comic-book adaptations of the series from the 1950s, originally published by Dell's Four Color Comics series. It needs to be said up front that while Caniff apparently had a hand in the production of the comic-book series, his actual direct involvement was fairly minimal.

That said, as a rule, such comic-book adaptations from the period are more often than not poor quality, but when I first picked up the book to decide whether to buy it, I was pleasantly surprised by the art—while not as sharp as Caniff’s, it was still competently done. This was partly due to Caniff’s personal participation and quality control—though the artist didn’t have the time to draw the comic-book stories himself, he hired William Overgard, who had worked as his assistant and briefly ghosted the strip when Caniff was ill, to draw it. To create some continuity, Caniff apparently inked the face of Canyon himself in the stories. (Overgard went on to work on the comic strip series, Steve Roper and Mike Nomad.)

The stories are relatively straightforward, simplistic action affairs, obviously geared to a juvenile comic-book audience than the adult newspaper readers Caniff specifically targeted in the syndicated Steve Canyon. The dialogue has none of the panache or style that distinguished the regular strip, nor is the character development anywhere near as sophisticated.

Nevertheless, it’s fun to see this alternative take on the character. Along with the recent DVD release of the Steve Canyon television series, this collection is perhaps more of a curiosity than a serious contribution to Caniff’s legacy that underscores the extent of Caniff’s success and influence in media outside of the comics pages in his heyday.

REVIEW: Captain America: First Avenger

2011-08-22T22:47:00.000-07:00

One of Marvel Comics’ goals in launching Marvel Studios was to gain control over the film adaptations of its properties. Up until the launch of the Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man franchise (which was produced prior to Marvel Studios’ founding), Marvel had a very spotty record going from comics to film. Earlier adaptations of the Fantastic Four (1994) by Roger Corman (which was produced only for business reasons and never intended for release) and Captain America (1990) were barely B-level productions and never received official U.S. releases.

The Iron Man films, Thor, and now Captain America: First Avenger are the fruit of this gamble. They’re films done on Marvel’s terms that have remained faithful to the “Marvel universe” the company has built upon since the early 1960s. Rather than watering down the material to appeal to a mainstream audience, the company has instead embraced the rich history of its characters and storylines and allowed audiences to come to them.

Captain America: First Avenger is a perfect example of this approach. While the film wasn’t quite the “event” film I expected, it’s nevertheless a solidly crafted piece of popcorn entertainment that satisfies. It takes the original Captain America origin (about 8 pages originally, with many layers of continuity added over years) and amps it up with the help of state-of-the-art CGI and special effects. It’s perhaps one of the best examples of a comic-book sensibility brought to life on film.

The film’s heart, of course, is Steve Rogers—the man behind Cap’s mask—who through the wizardry of film magic and a solid performance by Chris Evans goes from 90-pound weakling underdog to a World War II super-soldier hero fighting for democracy and the American way.

As with the other Marvel films, Captain America benefits from solid performances from accomplished character actors who know how to breathe life into their roles like Tommy Lee Jones, Stanley Tucci, and Hugo Weaving (who is terrific as the movie’s bigger-than-life pulp villain, Red Skull). As the lead, Evans believably inhabits his character, portraying Rogers as a scrawny sad sack with dreams and a big heart who, after his transformation into Captain America retains his sense of innocence, his integrity, and his commitment to the little guy. Marvel also has been smart in gambling on accomplished directors with solid resumes who are in need of a hit like Joe Johnston for this film, Thor’s Kenneth Branagh, and Iron Man’s Jon Favreau.

Though Marvel is notorious for not paying top-of-the-scale salaries, audiences benefit from seeing the budget all on screen: The art direction and cinematography in Captain America—from its 1940s futuristic design to the seedy tenements of Depression era New York—is outstanding in its detail, beautifully conveying the era. The seamlessness of the special effects—particularly in superimposing Evans’ head on a smaller body early in the film—is jaw-dropping and thoroughly convincing.

And while there’s more than enough for mainstream audiences to enjoy, fanboys can relish in the in-jokes and nods to Marvel continuity, such as seeing Iron Man Tony Stark’s father playing a leading role in the film as eccentric Howard Hughes-like inventor showman Howard Stark; a nod to the original Captain America uniform; introducing Cap’s sidekick from the comics, Bucky, into the series (the character reportedly is due to return on film, as he did in the comics); and bringing into the movie some of Marvel’s World War II characters, the Howling Commandos—including red-headed derby hat-wearing Dum Dum Dugan—into the film for the fanboys. (Sadly, the Howling Commandos don’t appear with their World War II era leader, Sgt. Nick Fury, who of course has been brought into modern Marvel continuity as a modern-day spymaster, played in the films by Samuel L. Jackson).

At the end of the movie, Marvel inserts an “Easter egg” that has become standard in all its films—in this case, a preview of the Avengers, a superhero team group that culminates what was set up in the preceding Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America films and brings these characters (and some new ones) together, in accordance with Marvel continuity.

The success of the preceding films has raised expectations for the Avengers, scheduled for release in 2012. The film will no doubt have a lot of eyes on it, particularly as studios begin thinking of bringing other team books to screen. It will be interesting to see whether “more is more” or, whether instead, more is less”—in other words, will a team series exponentially raise excitement (and box office) for Marvel or will it serve to only dilute the properties? We’ll find out, I guess, in 2012!

REVIEWS: "Romeo and Juliet: Monsters in Love"

2011-08-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

For the past six summers, the Actors’ Gang—a theatre ensemble company based in Culver City, California—has produced a free mid-day show in August for families.

The shows are liberally adapted from Shakespeare, made to be kid-and-family friendly with an emphasis on fun and earthy comedy, and feature the Actors’ Gang trademark commedia dell'arte style of acting. While the adaptations are greatly abridged, the shows nevertheless preserve portions of the original text, meaning that the shows are often in verse and can never be accused of “talking down” to its audience. Indeed, the shows include plenty of humor and modern-day references as a wink to parents and adults.

The Actors’ Gang is famous for its guerrilla stye of theater and the ensemble set the tone early for the series by hilariously reducing “Titus Andronicus”—one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest R-rated plays—to a feud involving clowns, its bloodiest parts presented as a slow-mo whipped cream pie fight. Other recent adaptations include “King O’Leary,” a presentation of King Lear brought to California’s Gold Rush days and “The Taming of the Shrew.”

This year’s show, currently running through the end of August, is “Romeo and Juliet: Monsters in Love,” about the star-crossed love between a vampire (Romeo) and a zombie (Juliet). Their families are made up of a cornucopia of monsters and one of the highlights of the show is the cast dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” during the masquerade ball where Romeo meets Juliet. As always, the show is full of laughs, punctuated by fun musical stingers and cues.

The show is intended for families and children, but is just as entertaining for adults. As I do every year, I highly recommend it—this year’s show ranks among the best, I think, of the productions.

“Romeo and Juliet: Monsters in Love” is presented free of charge in Media Park, adjacent to the Actors’ Gang’s theatre at The Ivy Substation Saturdays and Sundays at 11am, August 6 – August 28, 2011. Running time approximately 45 minutes.

"The Last Honest Comic"

2011-07-30T00:58:00.001-07:00

2011 Comic-Con Report

Below is my usual full-length report of the 2011 Comic-Con. To simply look at all the photos, you can go straight to Gallery 1 and Gallery 2. Or feel free to simply scroll down through the photos included with this report and the ones included in my earlier pre-report.

I originally planned to title this Comic-Con report “The Walking Dead” in honor of the comic-book-property-turned-hot-television-series that was a fan favorite of the show. But in reality, as crowded as this year’s show was (in fact, it seemed even more crowded, if that's possible), to my eyes it was as smoothly run and drama-free as you could ask for. I’ve long learned to pace myself and not overextend myself at Comic-Con.

A large part of the credit goes to the hard work of the Comic-Con organizers and staff. There's always bound to be hiccups in a show of this size and complexity, but the staff and organizers have years of experience under their belt. They clearly make changes based on the previous year's experience and seem to have the ability to adjust on the fly to snafus that come up. They deserve credit for making the herculean logistical planning seem invisible and effortless.

There's also what the folks over at Comics Beat called the Year of Acceptance:

Instead of complaining about the craziness, attendees, and exhibitors accepted the long waits, surging crowds and tight security. When you have an event that prompts people to sleep outside for two days, you have something that people are desperate to attend–and desperate people do desperate things. Hence the surrender to complicated procedures and lines. The only person who didn’t get it was a drunk Welshman who paid the price.

Even those attending Comic-Con for the first time seem to understand the vibe and go with it. Given the increasing difficulty to purchase an attendee badge, at the end of the day, everyone was simply happy to be there and enjoyed a genuine good time.

The Bottom Line
When all was said and done, this Comic-Con turned out to be my most profitable show ever! My earnings were significantly boosted by sales of my original art, which are relatively high-ticket items. Though I don't put an emphasis on selling my art, I frequently receive inquiries and this year sold a record number of pieces for a single show. These included the covers of Rob Hanes Adventures #10 and Adventure Strip Digest #2 (pictured in the photo at right), as well as the original figure art from my booth banner and a Milton Caniff tribute piece that appeared in the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con souvenir program.

In terms of straight comic-book sales, my numbers were actually a bit down from 2010, though still respectable. I suspect this is partly due to the fact that less pure comics fans are able to attend the convention as it becomes more popular to a broader audience. I heard from many longtime attendees—including some readers of my work—who were unable to obtain a badge for the event.

This is borne out by many longtime dealers who reported disappointing sales and have seen sales slide in recent years. Despite the larger crowds, it felt more difficult than previous years to get people to simply stop and look at the book, let alone make a purchase. To put it in sobering perspective, the number of people attending the show nowadays exceeds the top sales figures of most of the best-selling comic-books.

"The last honest comic-book!"

Nevertheless, I'm glad that the target audience of my book still found me. Like last year, many sales were to people new to the series, who were simply turned on by the art, stories and/or concept. Those types of sales are always gratifying, especially when a customer returned to buy the entire collection after sampling an issue or two early on during the show! One person excitedly told me that I made his day when he found me because this is the first time he had seen me since the 1990s when recalled first seeing me but forgot where my booth was located. He promptly purchased everything and was excited to see I had so many issues out. Another longtime reader (pictured left), exasperated by the continued re-boots and convoluted storylines of many mainstream comic-book series, called Rob Hanes Adventures, “The last honest comic-book!”

As always, fellow industry pros and long-time fans of the series also came by to catch up and say hi. For a change of pace from the usual pictures of people in costume—many of whom I have now photographed several times over the past several years—I made a conscious effort this year to take photos of both new and long-time fans of Rob Hanes Adventures. You'll see their pictures scattered throughout this blog and in my photo gallery.

Taking it to the Street

Although off-site events have been a feature of Comic-Con for years, the 2011 show reached a real critical mass in terms of both official and unofficial Comic-Con related events being held outside the main San Diego Comics Convention.

Many consisted of storefronts, lounges and, in some cases, open air parking lots being used for sponsored parties, promotions, charging stations, etc. Along similar lines, many outlying hotels served as the official headquarters for companies like E! and Entertainment Weekly. The most strange, perhaps, was a storefront in the Gaslamp promoting a Marvel Monster Truck rally event later in the month.

One of the most interesting was Trickster, a sort of creator-run shadow convention held at the San Diego Wine and Culinary Center. The space was free to the public and partly intended to create a safe harbor where comics were the focus and creators—regardless of whether they had badges for the Comic-Con or not—could hang out and mingle more directly with fans.

Of interest to me was the introduction of a food truck area across the street from the convention center. The convention center's food is notorious for being mediocre and expensive—as well as not very diverse in selection—so it was nice to have an alternative food option nearby.

Panels and Programming

I have rarely attended scheduled panels and other programs at Comic-Con anymore because I need to be at my booth to make sales. However, this year, I attended two back-to-back programs on Saturday: “Is the Comic Book Doomed?”and “Digital Disruption: Comics & Webcomics.”

Industry professional Mark Waid coincidentally served on both panels and embraces digital comics. In the first panel, Waid and several other panelists which included retailers spoke about the viability of the traditional periodical comic-book (often now referred to as “floppies”) versus trade paperbacks and digital comics.

Caniff tribute piece sold at the show. Click here to see the print version with logos
and lettering

In short, no one seems to think the comic-book is going away anytime soon. Indeed, the panelists mentioned the frequent prediction that “comics would be dead in five years” as a popular refrain every year for the past few decades. Though everyone seems to accept that digital comics are here to stay, the fact is that no clear consensus has emerged yet on a common delivery system nor on how to profitably monetize it. The impact of digital comics and declining periodical sales, however, clearly presents a serious challenge to the industry and particularly retailers as periodical sales continue to slide. The ability to launch a successful new small press comic-book like Bone was discussed.

The panelists on webcomics consisted of just Waid and PVP webcomic cartoonist Scott Kurtz, one of the few cartoonists who has found a way to make a living online. Kurtz came off as incredibly smart and insightful. He not only possesses solid business and marketing skills, he truly understand the differences between the print comics model versus webcomics, and has little patience or sympathy for the dinosaurs in the field among retailers and publishers who do not understand or embrace the digital model.

In brief, the traditional print model of comics has always depended on "scarcity"—with comics being printed in a finite quantity and subject to supply and demand. In contrast, as a digital "cloud" product, webcomics have the capacity to be viewed and shared infinitely without the bottleneck of distribution. In this model, creators have almost no choice than to give away their product for free and depend on the good will and the direct relationship with fans that webcomics affords to create income for the book by buying print collections of the series, making donations, and buying ancillary products. (Kurtz recently also entered into a transparent sponsorship agreement for an upcoming storyline.) Having said that, although what Kurtz has accomplished seems fairly straightforward and transparent, seeing the comic itself as something that should be distributed and given away for free. Yet at the same time, it’s a model that many may find difficult to emulate.

Downloaded publicity photo

Due to the wife and kids, it had been years since I attended any after-hour panels or programming. With the children now older, however, I was able to test the waters on two nights: the first was to attend the Star Wars Fan Film Awards Show on Thursday evening and the Batman: Year One animated DVD adaptation of the seminal Frank Miller/David Mazzuchelli series.

Though I rarely regret missing a panel, I do wish I had attended the Steven Spielberg Tintin presentation. Not only did Peter Jackson join him unannounced, but 10 minutes of footage from the upcoming film were shown. In addition, I learned later that Hall H, the room where the largest presentations are usually shown because it seats 6000 people and is usually impossible to get into, was only about half full! Ah, well, c’est la vie.

The Digital Revolution Continues (?)

Given the announced launch just this year of new digital comics platforms from Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics and Diamond Comics Distribution—joining the ranks of more established digital comics companies like Comixology—digital comics continues to be a potential game-changer. As I noted in last year’s report, though, no clear model has emerged yet for delivering, formatting, and monetizing digital work. I continued to be approached by startups looking for content for their sites. One of the most notable was Spanish cartoonist Pepe Moreno, who I remembered as the artist who wrote and drew Batman: Digital Justice, considered the first digital comic-book back in 1990. (Though I did know of Moreno, he had a copy of the book with him as a calling card. I had recently seen samples of his work at an exhibition of Batman comics work at the San Francisco Museum of Cartoon Art.)

While I recognize the growing importance of digital comics, my focus right now is simply producing my comics, with the digital side more tangential to this effort.

Friends, Family and Celebrities

As always, I had many old friends—and new ones—stop by the booth. As I mentioned above, I made it a point this year to take pictures of many of these friends and fans. Among those I saw was Sergio Aragones (who I seem to always bump into early in the morning during the Wednesday morning setup), Tim Burgard, R.C. Harvey, Anson Jew, Batton Lash, Bill Morrison, Mat Nastos, and Stan Sakai. Special shout outs need to go out to Randy Carter, Don Kelly, Lars, and Tom Stewart.

I was helped as usual by my brother Rod and my longtime buddy/college friend, Bob. My wife and two children also lent a hand—my kids are becoming quite adept at handing out the freebies! I was also fortunate to have as my booth neighbor Robert Wuest, who debuted his terrific new book, Monsters Among Us at the show.

Actress Alicia Coppola

In terms of the celebrity circuit, perhaps my most significant sighting this year was actor Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings). While I was having dinner with some friends at a fairly upscale restaurant in the Gaslamp, Serkis walked in and was seated with a small party of companions. (Apparently, Serkis appeared with Spielberg and Jackson at the Tintin panel. Serkis plays Captain Haddock in the film.)

Another sighting was actress Alicia Coppola (pictured at right). Although I’ve only seen her work sporadically in recent years, she made an impression me as the star of a short-lived television drama from 2000 called "Bull"—TNT’s first original television series—that centered around a Wall Street firm. I spotted her as she arrived at a booth—presumably to make a promotional appearance—and snapped this shot.

Also spotted was actor Blake Anderson, one of the leads in Comedy Central’s Workaholics, which I discovered just earlier this year. Anderson was running around the Small Press Area, showing real interest in people’s work. Though he did not stop at my booth, he did linger at certain booths near me.

On to 2012!

It's not clear whether Comic-Con has reached true critical mass, but it's certainly hit a sweet spot in terms of being all things to all people, bringing together under one roof comics, collectibles, television, film, gaming, and other related pursuits. As big as it has become, the show has preserved Comic-Con's tradition of starry-eyed excitement, providing a direct connection between fans and the creators that's always been a hallmark of Comic-Con and the many comic-book conventions that have followed in its footsteps.

Yes, I miss in the "good old days" when almost everyone who attended was there looking for cool new comics. But as long as Comic-Con retains its spirit of fannishness and fun, it's hard to begrudge its growth and desire to invite everyone to the party.

Full photo galleries:

Gallery 1
Gallery 2

Other Comic-Con coverage:

From the photo galleries:

Comics historian and cartoonist R.C. Harvey

Batton Lash

Booth neighbor Rob Wuest

Another line at Comic-Con

Comic-Con Report Preview...

2011-07-27T22:00:00.001-07:00

Fangirls showing their love for ROB HANES ADVENTURES!

Well another Comic-Con is in the books! When all was said and done, this year’s show turned out to be my most profitable ever, with the bottom line boosted significantly by sales of my original art—the most I’ve ever made in a single show!

I saw a few celebs (the most exciting being the Lord of the Rings’ Andy Serkis, who came into the restaurant with a small party where I was having dinner); spoke with several companies looking for content for digital comics projects; and for the first time in years actually attended some late night programs (the Star Wars fan films festival and the world premiere of the animated DVD film adaptation of Frank Miller’s seminal Batman: Year One series).

Dorothy Michaels, we're ready for your closeup!

On the downside, the increasing popularity of Comic-Con has made it more difficult than ever for people to get in. Many longtime attendees—including some readers of my work—were unable to score a badge for the event. The proportion of real comic-book fans who attend the convention seems to have dwindled in recent years, which translates into less people interested in buying comics. This was reflected by the lower sales many comic-book dealers reported. Though my sales of original art boosted the bottom line, sales of my own comics were a bit down from last year as well. So even as attendance has soared, longtime comic-book dealers who have exhibited at Comic-Con for years (some for decades) have seen their sales slowly decline.

But this is all behind-the-scenes drama: everyone who attended was genuinely happy to be there and the personal interaction that fans can have with their favorite comic-book creators—not to mention the actors, writers and producers of their favorite games, television show, and movies—is what makes the San Diego Comic-Con experience unique.

I’m still in the process of organizing my photo gallery and putting together a more in-depth report for this year’s show. For now though, here’s a taste of some of the pics from this year’s show....

Ready to hop aboard the Comic-Con express!

Open for business

Line outside the convention center


All exhibitors were tagged for the show with these non-removable wristbands. This is my brother and me.

Calm before the storm....

Another day at Comic-Con

Hobbit boy and Mom

Another satisfied customer!

Onward, Patsy!

Tintin maquette figures at the WETA Digital booth

Tintin book display

Photo op

Original art by the late Alex Toth—why we're here!

Waiting for Boba Fett to pick up his cargo...


Dressed as the Spirit (see below)

Row of limos for Comic-Con parties at the Hard Rock—I'm pretty certain these
weren't for the cartoonists!

Who's keeping an eye on Gotham?

Just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!

Where's Waldo?

THERE'S Waldo!

Another day at Comic-Con

No, I have no idea what this is about!

Breaking down after the show—this is less than an hour after closing!

Dealers waiting for the elevator with their product after the show —
I carried my stuff down the stairs!

See You at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con!

2011-07-12T23:50:00.000-07:00

WCG Comics will be in Booth K1 in the Small Press Pavilion of the San Diego Comic-Con!

The comic-book industry's biggest party—the San Diego Comic-Con—is set for July 20–24 and WCG Comics will be there once again! This year marks my ninth consecutive appearance (and fourteenth overall) as an exhibitor. The show gets bigger every year, and this show promises to be no different. Comic-Con is the place to go to discover great comics, meet cartoonists and publishers in person, and find out what's in store for your favorite series. I hear the show even covers other comics-related subjects like movies!

Visit me at Booth K1 in the Small Press Area on the floor. While the booth can of course be accessed from anywhere in the convention center, the closest access from the front lobby is the Hall B1/B2 entrance. We're up aisle 1500 (one aisle over from aisle 1400, one of the main aisle thruways) towards the back (west side) of the hall. (Click here for a map of the convention floor.)

Come by and say hi, and find out what's next in store for Rob Hanes Adventures! As usual, the entire series will be available at a special convention price along with other goodies.

Click here to read my report and view photos from last year's show.

More from My Collection...

2011-06-11T05:50:00.000-07:00

Beginning in high school—but especially when I was in college in the 1980s—I collected quite a few movie posters, many of them full size. Though most were of films I liked personally, there were also a few I purchased solely on the strength of the image or design.

Over the years as I moved and got older (and married), many of these pieces were stored away in poster tubes. In recent years, however, as I gained more wall space due to a new home, studio and office, I began bringing out a few of my favorite pieces and framing them for display.

I thought I'd share a few of my favorites....

The poster of Inglorious Basterds below is obviously a recent acquisition and the first movie poster I've purchased in more than a decade. Though I'm sure I saw the poster at the time of the film’s release, the boldness of the one-sheet size version of the poster pictured below stopped me in my tracks at a clothing design exhibition where it was on display to accompany costumes from the film. I ordered it online shortly afterwards—although the design is very simple, I find it very striking visually. (I love Pitt's expression on the poster, which perfectly captures his terrific performance in the film—Pitt does a great job of making the character almost cartoony (in a good way) while still keeping him "real" and believable.)

At right is a real personal favorites–however, the poster wasn’t produced for the film per se, but rather for the sound track! (If you look at the list of credits, aside from the actors, the most prominent names listed are writer/director George Lucas, producer Gary Kurtz, and composer John Williams.) I presume the poster was released commercially purely on the strength of the art. If you look closely, it’s done in a trompe l'oeil style, and painted like a faded posterbill peeling off a plywood fence.

The poster is also significant because it is by artist Drew Struzan, one of the last of the great movie poster artists, responsible for iconic posters for the Indiana Jones films, Back to the Future, Star Wars, etc.

Years later, when I met the artist at a local cartooning event, I even got Struzan to autograph the poster—you can see his signature ("Drew") in the lower right, next to Chewbacca's head.

The film Diner and its poster has always been a touchstone for me. I saw it three times in the span of about a week when it was released! The film practically invented the term “sleeper,” coming out of nowhere and making a huge splash when it was released. (MGM originally did not want to release it until Pauline Kael wrote a glowing review of it.)

Indeed, over the years as my college buddies and I have gotted married, it's become a tradition to re-create this pose at our weddings!

This was one of my first poster purchases, based on both my admiration of the film and of the movie poster itself.

The poster at right dates back to my high school days—it’s for Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 animated film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Though the film is not well regarded—especially in the aftermath of Peter Jackson's faithful and admired adaptation—I think it has its moments. In fact, I’ve always felt the character design was one of the animated film's great strengths. (Indeed, Jackson has acknowledged that Bakshi's film was his introduction to the trilogy and I'm not the only one who's noticed some of the near shot-by-shot recreations between this film and some of the scenes in Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring.)

Unfortunately, Bakshi didn’t have the money to complete the entire trilogy, nor even to truly complete the film. Perhaps partly due to the lack of funding, the movie often relies too heavily on rotoscoping, to the point of the characters sometimes abruptly going back and forth from being on character and looking like poor photographic xeroxes.

But regardless of what you may think of the film, I find this to be a simple yet evocative poster teaser that captures the atmosphere and mood of the trilogy.

At left, is the poster for Shampoo.

I believe the photo for this poster was taken by famed photographer Richard Avedon.

I've always admired this film, but I primarily purchased the poster for what I think is a very striking and eye-catching image.

The poster below was a foldout pullout from Prevue magazine, produced by Drew Struzan, who also is the artist for the above Star Wars poster. The poster accompanied an article about a proposed Terry and the Pirates film that obviously never got off the ground. I got Struzan to autograph this poster for me as well. The article itself was well done

Over the years, there have been various attempts to bring Terry to the screen, which includes an unproduced screenplay by cartoonist/screenwriter Jules Feiffer and a version that the late actor Robert Culp tried to get off the ground (as recounted in this blog here).

Because of the poster's odd size (about 12"x38"), I haven't yet framed this, but hope to one day! It's a wonderful piece that pays an homage to both the original series and, in the style of art, magazine cover artist J.C. Leyendecker!

At right is the poster for a little-known/little-seen film, Hero at Large, starring John Ritter and introducing Anne Archer, from 1980.

This is a very human-scale, romantic comedy about a struggling actor in New York named Steve Nichols (Ritter) who makes promotional appearances at movie theaters for a movie character based on a (fictional) comic-book character, Captain Avenger. One evening, Nichols serendipitously breaks up a robbery while in costume after a gig. After the media picks up the story and inspires the city, Nichols actually tries to begin fighting crime in costume. Archer plays Ritter's love interest.

Obviously using the Christopher Reeves Superman films as a jumping off point, this otherwise is a very down-to-earth and human story that has a lot of heart thanks to Ritter's easy, likable charm.

I've always had a soft spot for this movie—in part because of the obvious comic-book connection. It finally was released on DVD in 2005. (If you want to know how dated it is, it co-stars Bert Convy!)

REVIEWS: Alex Toth -- Genius, Isolated

2011-05-25T07:15:00.000-07:00

Just released is the beautifully-crafted first volume of a planned three-part biography of “artist’s artist” Alex Toth. While it arguably may not be the most comprehensive biography of a cartoonist ever done, given the extensive amount of artwork and full-length stories included in this outstanding oversized package that will ultimately comprise three volumes, it certainly ranks as the most ambitious.

It's a tribute to Toth's continuing influence and the enduring quality of his work that, since his death in 2006, the artist's life and career continue to be examined despite the fact that he remains relatively unknown compared to more well known and commercially successful cartoonists like Charles Schulz and Milton Caniff who themselves have recently been the subject of serious biographies. New collections of Toth's work, like Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954, continue to be published and he already has been the subject of an excellent documentary I reviewed previously, entitled "Simplicity” that was included on the DVD collection, Space Boy and Dino Boy: The Complete Series.

So though I’ve already written about Toth at the time of his death in 2006 and in places like the above-mentioned review, I’ll do my best to offer a quick overview of this first volume without going over old territory...

This first volume, entitled Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth, by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell, covers the period from the artist’s birth and childhood to his work at comic-book companies like National Periodicals (DC), Dell, Gold Key, Standard, and Western in the 1940s and ‘50s when Toth’s work fully matured and began to gain the notice and admiration of his fellow cartoonists, many of whom began trying to emulate him. (This was a time when comics distribution and creator credits were spotty, so few readers probably took notice until years later when Toth’s work became more sought after.) The volume concludes in the early 1960s when Toth—always his own worst enemy—left the industry in a pique one day when he entered the editorial offices of Western Comics and angrily read aloud his list of grievances. Understandably feeling that he had burned all bridges behind him, he stormed out of the office, likely believing his career in comics was over.

Above: First two pages of Toth's groundbreaking "The Crushed Gardena" from 1953

As this suggests (and is now well known about the cartoonist), Toth was the quintessential tortured artist. Though he was a difficult personality who could end a relationship at the smallest perceived slight, it is a tribute to his talent and genius that he continued to be highly sought after by publishers and editors for work, and well respected and regarded by his contemporaries and later generations of artists.

This is all well covered in the narrative, which included the participation of his four children and former spouses. Toth’s difficult personality is discussed candidly—though he was never medically diagnosed, it’s clear he likely suffered from some sort of personality disorder or clinical depression. Toth's personal life and his development and views as an artist are also discussed.

Above: Original art from a 1950's romance story. Toth did some of his best work in these stories, which he personally enjoyed doing as well, and other artists took notice.

More importantly, however, comprehensive samples of his work are also included in the volume—often from the original artwork and in clear full color oversized reproductions. These include sketches, covers, story excerpts, and full-length stories, including key watershed stories like “Battle Flag of the Foreign Legion” from National Periodical/DC’s Danger Trail #3 (1950) and the much-reprinted and written-about “Crushed Gardenia” from Standard's Who Is Next #5 (1953). Also included in the volume is the complete run of the little-seen "Jon Fury in Japan," produced by Toth for an army base newspaper while he was in the service overseas.*

The next volume of the series, Genius, Illustrated, will likely cover his years “in the wilderness” as a journeyman cartoonist, which will be followed by Genius, Animated, about his years in animation, particularly Hanna Barbera, where he became the company’s go-to man in conceptualizing and storyboarding iconic animated shows like Super Friends, Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, and many others.

Given the loving care and attention to this stunning new volume, there’s much to look forward to in volumes II and III. Meanwhile, anyone with an interest in Toth or comics art in general should savor this outstanding first volume.

* Beating them to the punch by a few months is a full-color reprint collection of JON FURY IN JAPAN by Paul Power Publications, which I recently mentioned here.

Reviews: Team of Rivals/The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

2011-04-11T19:18:00.000-07:00

Although Abraham Lincoln ranks among the most popular subjects of biographers and historians, writers continue to find new ways to examine the iconic president. One such well-received book from 2005 is Doris Kearn Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. In this compelling page-turner I could not put down and was sorry to finish, Goodwin views Lincoln and his political acuity through the prism of his Cabinet. Lincoln’s leadership, self-confidence, political shrewdness, and impeccable sense of timing allowed him to guide the country at a major turning point in its history and become, along with George Washington, the most revered and honored president. He did so by preserving the union, and slowly and naturally leading the nation to the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment.

As the book shows, his simple log cabin, rail-splitting background belied an emotional maturity and shrewd political instinct that caused many to underestimate the desperately driven and ambitious self-made Lincoln. During a time when the fate of the suddenly fragile union rested in his hands, Lincoln brought together a group of highly accomplished, talented and disparate men — several of whom were serious candidates for the presidency themselves — and skillfully managed their egos and differences to get their best work in service to the country and his personal vision.

At its most basic level, Rivals interweaves the biographies of Lincoln and the men he appointed to his Cabinet. Several of the members he appointed to the Cabinet were Lincoln’s political rivals and, up to the eve of the 1860 presidential elections, the front runners for the presidential ticket of the Republican party. These include William H. Seward, who would become his Secretary of State, and one of his closest and most loyal advisor and companion; and Salmon Chase, his Secretary of the Treasury, who had been particularly pained to lose the nomination to Lincoln and would continue to aspire for the presidency even while still serving under Lincoln and well into his later years.

In forming his Cabinet, Lincoln chose men he thought best qualified for the job and representative of the diversity of views and political thought in the country, not men who would be blindly loyal to him. In fact, many of these men initially did not think highly of the newly-elected chief executive—some even held him in contempt—but it did not take long for them to recognize his integrity, the strength of his character, and his leadership. This led to genuine respect and fondness. (This was something that seemed true of everyone who came into contact with Lincoln.) His selection of these men not only underscored Lincoln’s supreme self-confidence in appointing men who likely initially believed themselves to be his intellectual (and social) equal or better, but also his political skills.

It's important to note that Lincoln wasn't necessarily interested in having these men get along—indeed, real factions and alliances emerged. But they gave him the results and often strong opposing advice he desired, while at the same time he maintained his authority and leadership.

Central to the story is Kearn Goodwin’s detailed description of the political landscape of the time. Much of the 1800s leading up to the 1860 election was devoted to keeping a lid on the slavery issue, with laws being passed to placate the South which considered slavery central to its economy and cultural identity. By the 1850s, tensions began to ratchet up again, culminating with the 1860 election, due to the steady erosion of the laws that had previously limited slavery to the South. Many in the North felt that the South was holding the country hostage because it was insisting that the new territories and border states had the right to determine whether they were a slave state or not. The South acutely recognized that if the new territories prohibited slavery, it would not only dilute their political clout nationally and in Congress, but also threaten the institution of slavery itself, which they could not abide. In contrast, for many in the North, the final straw was the passing of laws that compelled Northern states and citizens to return escaped slaves, which now made them feel complicit in enslavement.

It's clear the South would likely have seceded regardless of who was on the Republican ticket—in many ways, Lincoln won the nomination because he was more of a blank slate and seemed more middle of the road and electable than his rivals. Indeed, at the outset, Lincoln was no abolitionist, which was considered political suicide: while privately against slavery, he supported keeping slavery restricted to the South with the belief it would eventually wither away on its own accord. Only later, as the war turned in the North’s favor, did he decide to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which was followed by the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery.

But make no mistake—as much as the South has tried to re-write history by making the American Civil War a conflict rooted in states’ rights, the bottom line was that it was a war they chose to fight to preserve their right to enslave others.

Reading about the South’s tactics and grievances admittedly brought to mind comparisons to many of the issues being fought today, often involving the same parts of the country. Like then, a small, vocal minority seems able to hold sway over the will of the majority in other parts of the country. Indeed, I wondered whether we would have been better off to simply let the South secede and wallow in an untenable and immoral institution that, regardless of the American Civil War, would ultimately have at some point collapsed upon itself and become its legacy. Given the more than 620,000 lives lost in the war—more than all other conflicts including World War I and II combined—one wonders whether it was worth the cost.

After finishing the book, however, I recognized that such thoughts were contrary to Lincoln’s and his contemporaries’ legacy, and their vision for a strong union and their commitment to abolish slavery once and for all. And like it or not, such tension is an inherent quality of a vibrant and healthy democracy.

This is a wonderful book that brings Lincoln, his contemporaries and history to life. It’s not at all “dry,” and full of anecdotes and excerpts from an era when people recorded their most private thoughts and feelings in letters and diaries. We see Lincoln’s ability to entertain and love of a good joke, while masking an inner melancholy that some people believe suggests clinical depression. Having just visited Washington, DC, and as the country prepares to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the start of the Civil War, it certainly is a timely moment to read this book.

The Curious Case of Comicspace

2011-04-04T18:51:00.000-07:00

While updating the WCG Comics website, I decided to simplify and remove MySpace, Comicspace, and the Hanes Briefs forum from my list of community links. The WCG website, this blog, and new WCG Comics/Rob Hanes Adventures Facebook page will remain my primary promotional vehicles.

While my initial strategy focused on trying to be at as many places as possible to maximize the ways people could find me, I decided that it was time to consolidate and cut loose dead weight. Although my MySpace and the Hanes Briefs forum accounts still exist for archival reasons, the emergence of Facebook as both an effective networking and chat site has rendered them superfluous, so I thought it was time to abandon them altogether. The strange, puzzling case of Comicspace, however, remains a mystery and is what precipitated these changes in the first place.

Screenshot of my old Comicspace user page

Comicspace was originally created as a sort of comics industry version of MySpace, where fans and many aspiring and emerging cartoonists hung out. ComicSpace had a simple, bright, appealing interface that allowed users to network and post webcomics. (I primarily used it for the latter, to preview upcoming issues.) Though the site received positive attention and gained a respectable following, it never achieved real critical mass or was embraced by the broader comics community, particularly among industry professionals.

Some excitement was generated in 2007 when ComicSpace merged with Webcomicsnation (a dedicated site for webcomics) and OnlineComics. Nothing really changed, however, at any of those sites until the fall of 2010, when ComicSpace abruptly and without warning completely revamped itself, seemingly in a half-baked attempt to reinvent itself as a social networking and blogging site, with WordPress now as its main engine. Not only was the site’s original simple design completely gone in favor of WordPress, but, unfortunately, no one was given any warning. Frustrated and blind-sided users suddenly found their stored images and webcomics missing, and scrambling to redesign their pages in the new system. And though Comicspace’s identity was never well defined, the redesign in my view completely obliterated the unique and quirky personality that had previously distinguished it from other comics community sites.

Though I eventually found my images buried in my account (I primarily used the site to preview upcoming stories), despite a lot of effort, I found the new interface completely confusing and unwieldy, with no support or directions provided by Comicspace. Comicspace had suddenly shifted focus to become a blogging site and, worse, nobody was available to help users understand or make the transition. In fact, the site owners don’t appear to have posted since the fall and most of the blog posts appear to be spam.

Given the domination of MySpace and now Facebook, and the rise of dedicated webcomics sites like webcomicsnation, Comicspace never established a strong footing, let alone a strong focus or identity. Regardless, it did host a small, thriving community and embodied a unique and welcoming interface that gave it a unique personality, but it seemingly completely threw that out the window in a misguided and sudden re-launch that confused and alienated existing users.

Fortunately, inconvenience aside, there are plenty of sites out there that can fulfill much of what Comicspace did in its heyday. But Comicspace had a distinctive feel and design to it, which I will miss.

Treasure Trove

2011-03-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

While searching for the Adventures of Jon Fury in Japan—a collection of a previously unreprinted series by “artist’s artist” Alex Toth that was not carried by my local comic-book store—I discovered it was available online at Stuart Ng Books. Fortunately, the company’s storefront is not too far from me in the Southbay area of L.A., so I was glad to save the shipping and take a trip down to the store to pick up the issue. This also was a perfect excuse for me to visit the store for the first time.

Cover to Jon Fury in Japan

I always enjoy visiting bookstores that specialize in artbooks—I’m fortunate that there are a few local to me—so it was a real treat to visit one that specializes in artbooks, graphic albums, and cartooning. (Ng is a regular exhibitor at the San Diego Comic-Con, where he generally emphasizes hard-to-find and upscale artbooks.)

Though no longer really the norm, comic-book stores used to have the reputation of looking like a boys’ clubhouse, with comics and magazines stored haphazardly in boxes or stacked to the ceiling. (Believe me, I’m not dissing this—the first comic-book stores I frequented back in the 1970s definitely fit this profile, and I have nothing but fond memories of my weekly pilgrimmages to these stores).

In contrast, by any standard, Ng’s store is extraordinarily clean, professional, and well-maintained. Located in a newish, non-descript business park in Torrance, a Southbay community in Los Angeles, the bookstore is airy and inviting, conducive to browsing.

In addition to artbooks that feature the work of a wide range of cartoonists and illustrators, there are also plenty of European graphic albums (many imported, meaning they’re not translated), sketchbooks by fan-favorite artists, and classic comics collections. Many of the items are rare and hard to find—indeed, I was interested to discover items I personally already own for sale at prices that reflect their rarity and desirability. Along the same lines, I spotted a book available there that was out of print at Amazon.

Anyone with an interest in cartooning, comics, commercial art, and illustration definitely owe it to themselves to visit the store if they are local or the website for hard to find items and collections.

Visit the Stuart Ng Books website for address information and directions.

In the Nation's Capitol (Part 2 of 2)

2011-03-20T20:59:00.000-07:00

This is a continuation of my previous post about a recent family trip to Washington, DC....

Below are additional photos from the trip....

To see the full collection of photo from the trip, visit the galleries below;

The children went ice skating on their first day in DC

This was my son's first time on skates!

View of the Washington Memorial from our hotel room

My son wore a tie to the White House, just in case he met the President!

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Outside the White House before the tour

No pictures (or cameras) were allowed inside the White House

The President was away, so my little boy got to sit at his desk in the Oval Office...

...and my little girl got to stand at the Press Secretary's podium...

Okay, I'm joking—these pictures were taken at a White House souvenir store across the street....

On the Metro

On our way to our Congressman's Office for a tour of the Capitol

We took an underground tunnel from one of the Congressional office buildings to the Capitol

Old Senate Chamber in the Capitol

Capitol Rotunda

Thomas Jefferson in the main rotunda

Surrender of Cornwallis to General Washington at Yorktown

Statuary Hall—the old House Chamber

Lincoln's assigned spot in the old House Chamber

Back in 1998, my wife and I went up to the steps. This is no longer allowed post 9/11

This is a recreation of a photo my wife and I took at this spot in 1998 (see below)

Us in 1998 in front of the Capitol

Our hotel in Arlington, VA, just outside DC, during the second half of our stay

Ronald Reagan/National Airport

My little boy's companion on this trip....

In the Nation's Capitol (Part 1 of 2)

2011-03-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

As a history buff, one of my favorite places to visit is Washington, DC. My wife and I were last there in 1998 and we had an opportunity to return earlier this month with our two young children. (Before that, I visited DC as a kid with my family back in the ‘70s.)

Since it’s easy to tire yourself out trying to fit everything in when you only have a few days, we chose instead to spend good, quality time at a few key places. It helped, of course, that we’d been to DC before, so we had a sense of what was realistic for a visit of a few days. For example, we decided the kids probably wouldn’t find seeing graves and monuments at Arlington Cemetery particularly meaningful or interesting. (Back in ‘98, my wife and I also visited Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, in Virginia and the Manassas Civil War battlefield.)

Partly for this reason, we spent a surprisingly brief time at the National Mall. I actually was in DC on business for a conference the first few days. At the end of the first day, having been indoors all day at the hotel for meetings, when I met the family for dinner that evening, I suggested taking a quick cab ride to the Lincoln Memorial at the Mall. My daughter was thrilled to see where Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered at his address in front of the monument; from there, we walked to the Korean War Veterans’ Monument, and the new World War II Veterans’ Monument. As it began to get dark, we hopped back in a taxi for our hotel near Dupont Circle for dinner. In retrospect, it’s good we made this quick visit, because we never found time to return and explore the other monuments at the Mall! Though I would like to have seen the Jefferson Memorial, the Vietnam War Monument, and the FDR Memorial, they’ll have to wait for another trip.

The first full day we spent together, we visited the Museum of Natural History and the American History Museum, both part of the Smithsonian. Actually, to be more precise, my wife and children visited the natural history museum while I visited the American History Museum. The kids had gone inside the natural history museum only briefly the day before (they ended up ice skating outdoors instead) and wanted to go back and spend more time there. As for myself, as fine as I’m sure the museum is, I wasn’t interested inseeing displays of things like dinosaur bones which I could see anywhere else, so I went instead to the American History Museum where my wife and kids caught up with me later in the afternoon. (They did get to see the Hope Diamond, which I saw back in '98.)

In any case, I wasn’t disappointed! The exhibits there included “Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life,” the First Ladies exhibit (a lot of gowns!), the American Presidency, Julia Child’s Kitchen, and an exhibition about Thomas Alva Edison and science in America. The Lincoln exhibit and another called the “Price of Freedom: Americans at War” (stretching from the French-Indian War to the War in Iraq) were especially memorable. The permanent display of the Star Spangled Banner flag, which inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the poem that became the national anthem, was also impressive, partly because I was shocked by the flag's huge size!

The next day, we drove a rental car to George Washington’s residence and plantation at Mount Vernon, which is about 12 miles outside Washington, DC. My wife and I visited Mount Vernon in 1998, but we were impressed by the changes since then. A huge state-of-the-art museum was completed there in 2006, but it’s mostly underground to preserve the original grounds.

Mount Vernon is one of my favorite historical places. It has a spectacular view that overlooks the Potomac—when you stand on the back porch of the main house atop Mount Vernon which looks out over the river (especially on a stifling summer day, as we did back in ‘98), you get a real sense of what it must have felt and looked like to George and Martha Washington back in the 18th century. It helps that the community has kept the surrounding area in its original state, including the woods across the river. I thought we would visit Mount Vernon for just a few hours then go off to see something else later in the day, but it was so interesting and immersive, we ended up staying there the whole day, arriving at 9:30 a.m. and leaving near closing time at 4:45 p.m.! Mount Vernon has also made an effort to deal with slavery honestly and directly. Slave quarters have been preserved and a monument to the slave population at Mount Vernon (and a discovered unmarked cemetery) has recently been erected. (One changed we noticed since 1998 is a reference in plaques and in the brochures to the slave population as “enslaved people” rather than “slaves.”) It was fascinating learning about Washington’s life as a farmer, which he considered himself even before a soldier or statesman.

On Tuesday, we visited the White House and the U.S. Capitol, arranged in advance through our local Congressman. Because visitors are not allowed to take cameras or backpacks into the White House, we kept the rental car overnight so that we could park in the city and ditch our belongings in the car during the tour. (We returned the car after the tour and used the Metro after that.)

The White House tour was primarily restricted to the East Wing, but it was still a thrill to be inside. We learned one room was about to be closed for an event that Michelle Obama was hosting. A uniformed Secret Service agent in one of the rooms even graciously let our children behind the security rope so that they could get a close up view of a painting of George Washington while he pointed out interesting features of it. This is the same painting that has been in the White House since 1800 and was saved by Dolly Madison when the British burned down the structure during the War of 1812. At the same time we were on our tour, we noticed a Secret Service man giving a personal tour to two Russian dignitaries, who were accompanied by an interpreter to translate what the Secret Service man was describing.

After we returned the car, we took the Metro back to the U.S. Capitol for a tour that was given to us by the Congressional staffer who set up the tour. Since we met her at the Congressman's Office in one of the outlying executive office buildings for Congress, we used the underground tunnels that connect the Congressional buildings to the Capitol It was nice to have a personal tour by a Congressional aide; she also got us tickets to sit in the House and Senate chambers. Although not much was going on, we saw Minnesota Senator Al Franken presiding over the Senate chamber. The kids were really quiet and respectful, even though my 5-year-old son said afterwards, “It was boring!” But he was quiet and well behaved as we sat in the Senate gallery. Because we didn’t get to the Capitol until the afternoon, we didn’t get to see the main museum there until just before it closed. I would have liked at least one more day in Washington to see it.

Anyway, it was a terrific family trip!

Below are select photos from the first few days of the trip (more from our visit to the White House and the U.S. Capitol will be posted shortly). To see all the photos, visit the galleries below;

National Mall

ABOVE and BELOW: The new World War II Veterans' Monument

Near our hotel at Dupont Circle

If pressed, the kids would like say riding the Metro was their favorite activity!

American History Museum

ABOVE: Now on prominent display at the American History Museum, this statue of George Washington was one of the first monuments to our first president in the capitol. It received mixed reviews at its unveiling (some felt Washington was "inappropriately dressed" and was of course later replaced by the iconic Washington Memorial.

Lincoln life mask at the American History Museum

American History Museum

Fortunately, a little rain didn't dampen our enjoyment!

Mount Vernon

Main entrance to Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon Visitors Center

View of the Potomac

Crypt of George and Martha Washington

At the shore of the Potomac

Hiking back to the main house from the Potomac at Mount Vernon.

"Lafayette, we are here!" I couldn't resist taking this photo in the foodcourt of the Mount Vernon museum.

With our car rental at the Mount Vernon parking lot.

My little boy got this Civil War era hat at the museum and wore it most of the trip.

REVIEWS: Unbroken

2011-03-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

Like many people, when I go on long trips I take a book for the plane ride and other downtime. For a recent trip to Washington, DC, from my home in L.A., I took along Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by author/historian Laura Hillenbrand, who gained prominence for her book, Seabiscuit (made into a film in 2010). I’ll be posting soon about my trip to the nation’s capitol, but wanted to also mention this remarkable book—it was such a page-turner, I finished it well before the trip was over, meaning I had nothing to read during the five hour return flight home!

I first learned about the book through Vanity Fair, which ran an extensive excerpt late last year. The excerpt covered the extraordinary story of the 47 days a downed airman named Louise Zamperini spent adrift in the Pacific Ocean (along with two companions, one of whom died before the end of the ordeal) after their malfunctioning bomber went down while on a search mission. (The week before, they’d already been in a hellish bombing mission that nearly took their lives and killed and wounded half the crew.) It was a mesmerizing tale, so I was delighted to get the book for Christmas and to bring it along for my trip.

As the title suggests, Unbroken is the story of Zamperini's World War II experiences. In many ways, Zamperini led a charmed life—he was a wild and often angry child from a poor immigrant family in Torrance, California, whose behaviors seemed to suggest he would come to no good end until he found a way to focus his energy as a track star. Indeed, his high school record for the mile held for nearly 20 years, and he crossed the Atlantic as part of the 1936 U.S. Olympics team, which included Jesse Owens (Owens tried to keep an eye on Zamperini who, in return, played a small practical joke on the track and field star). Though he knew he had little chance of beating the world class Finnish runners who dominated his event, he acquitted himself well, surprisingly making the best showing among the Americans in his event. He even was introduced to Adolf Hitler at the games, who had noticed and remarked on his strong performance. (Zamperini’s hell-raising past never entirely left him—while in Berlin, he stole a Nazi flag flying over the German Chancellory as a souvenir, successfully talking himself out of getting shot and arrested by the authorities. They let him keep the flag.)

Although Zamperini set his sights on medaling at the 1940 Olympics which were scheduled for Tokyo, the outbreak of World War II cancelled the games and led to his enlistment in the Army Air Force, where he served in the Pacific. As brutal as his weeks at sea was (he and his companions drifted 2,000 miles into enemy territory, battling sharks and, at one point, a Japanese bomber that strafed them at sea), that experience turned out to be nothing compared to his next two years plus in captivity as a prisoner of war in Japan to where he was eventually expatriated. Partly because of his minor celebrity as a track star, Zamperini was singled out for especially vicious punishment by a guard nickamed by prisoners as the Bird, who was perverse and brutal even by the standards of Japanese POW camps, which already were notorious for their mistreatment of POWs. (Immediately following the cessation of the war, the Bird’s reputation earned him a spot as one of the 40 most wanted war criminals in Japan alongside prime minister and army minister Hideki Tojo.)

The book describes in vivid detail Zamperini’s experiences at the mercy of his Japanese captors, as well as the appalling conditions under which he and his fellow prisoners survived. The story tracks to a lesser extent the experiences of other prisoners, including Zamperini’s friend and lead bomber pilot who was shot down with him, Russell Phillips. (Phillips ended up at at a slave labor camp, also in Japan.)

In addition to serving as another example of the courage and sacrifice of what has been deservedly called “the greatest generation,” the book underscores the incredible amount of adversity and hardship the human body is capable of enduring, as long as the spirit and mind stay intact (sometimes even beyond). While it would be inaccurate to say that Zamperini and his fellow prisoners never gave up hope, the will to live and survive at any cost was nevertheless an essential part of their character.

The last part of the book covers Zamperini’s last years, particularly right after the war. As one can imagine, after years of privation and abuse, adjustment to “normal” life did not come easily. Even in captivity, he and the other prisoners recognized that their captors’ goal was to completely dehumanize them and take away their dignity, which the prisoners fought—often surreptiously—to maintain as much as possible, since it was all they had left to them as men.

On top of the post-traumatic stress he no doubt suffered which manifested itself through blackouts, flashbacks and nightmares, Zamperini sunk into serious self-destructive behavior that included drinking heavily and very nearly sabotaging what otherwise seemed like a loving relationship with a new young wife and, soon, a new baby. After some time, his belief that returning to Japan and murdering those responsible for his suffering during the war became his only hope for recovery.

Eventually, Zamperini found peace and even achieved closure with many of his former captors, through a spiritual awakening that harkened back to brief visions he experienced during his incredible ordeal at sea and in captivity. After some resistance, his awakening began with a revival meeting in Los Angeles led by a very young and emerging Rev. Billy Graham.

I am not particularly pious and, frankly, I’m usually suspicious of those who wear their faith on their sleeve. But given his incredible experiences, one cannot doubt that Zamperini’s path to discovering his faith was genuinely achieved. Indeed, his story in some way affirms the power of faith and belief. Once he embraced God, he turned his life around and the nightmares and other symptoms immediately stopped. He devoted his life to good work, God, and inspiring others, particularly troubled youth. He met with his former guards in Japan to offer his understanding and in 1998, at the age of 81, he carried the Olympic torch on a leg of the run in Japan for the Winter Olympics.

The Man Behind Tintin

2011-02-16T06:58:00.000-08:00

"My only international rival is Tintin" –Charles de Gaulle

No doubt due to the higher visibility of comics in film and other media, as well as the continued mainstream acceptance of comics, there have been a spate of serious, well-researched biographies about cartoonists in recent years. A few I have reviewed here include David Michaelis’s Schulz and Peanuts; R.C. Harvey’s tome, Meanwhile..., a biography of Milton Caniff; Bob Andelman’s Will Eisner: A Spirited Life; and Dean Mullaney’s coffee-table-sized artbook, Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles. (I’ve also reviewed several well-done documentaries, including Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist and Simplicity: The Life and Art of Alex Toth.)

Another cartoonist’s biography I recently discovered in a local bookstore is Hergé: The Man Who Created Tintin by Pierre Assouline (translated from the French by Charles Ruas). The book presumably has been made available in the U.S. in anticipation of the upcoming Tintin films being directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. (The first of a projected trilogy, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, is due later this year and will be done in motion capture/CGI format.)

Assouline’s biography is well researched (the author was given access to Remi’s papers) and provides a good overview of the artist’s life, though this U.S. edition is apparently somewhat shorter than the original French.) A somewhat egregious oversight, however, is the lack of photographs and, especially, samples of Hergé’s art from the series and his other projects. (Fortunately, such excellent collections already exist, such as Tintin and the World of Herge: An Illustrated History). The book also spends little time on Hergé’s art legacy. While I recognize the book is subtitled, “The Man Who Created Tintin,” it nevertheless seems important to provide a context about the man’s artistic legacy which is the whole reason for the book. In the same way that Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates brought cinematic mise en sine and chiaroscuro to comics, and Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon brought lush illustration technique to the funny pages, with Tintin Hergé pioneered the ligne claire (clear line) school of art.

Criticism aside, the book still provides a fascinating glimpse into the complex personality of Belgian cartoonist Hergé.

Although Tintin enjoys a small, niche following in the U.S., the character is a treasured icon on the same scale as Mickey Mouse and Superman everywhere else in the world—as is its creator, Hergé, which is the pen name for Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi. (“Hergé” is the French pronunciation of the Remi’s reversed initials: “RG”.) Hergé, who died in 1983, is as beloved and admired a cartoonist around the world as Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, is in the U.S. (The comparison is apt in that the two men seemed to have similar temperaments and shared a similar spiritual journey.)

My vague familiarity with Hergé the man—which include allegations of anti-Semitism and being a Nazi collaborator during World War II—made me particularly interested in this biography. As in many such allegations, the truth falls somewhere in between.

To understand Georges Remi is to know that he was a boy scout—both figuratively and literally. While the book does not delve too deeply into his childhood, his early identity and beliefs can be said to have been forged by scouting, Catholicism, and Belgian nationalism. Through his boy scout connections, at an early age he began working at Le Vingtième Siècle (The Twentieth Century), a newspaper, as a graphic artist and cartoonist.

Le Vingtième Siècle was a reactionary, ultra-conservative Catholic newspaper, which in pre-war Belgium meant it was intensely nationalistic and pro-royalist, virulently anti-Communist, and anti-Semitic. The newspaper reflected the views of its editor, the charismatic Father Norbert Wallez, who quickly became a father figure to Remi—so much so, that Remi acceded to a marriage with Wallez’s secretary at the priest’s urgings, despite some misgivings on Remi’s part.

Like many artists, Remi was a sensitive soul, in search of an identity and his place in the world—but also ambitious and supremely confident in his abilities. Given his parochial roots—and growing up during a volatile period of history where it was often important to choose sides—it perhaps is understandable that Remi fell under the spell of Wallez. Remi’s scouting background instilled in him a natural respect for authority, which included not only Father Wallez in his role as editor, mentor, father figure, and religious guide, but which also extended up to the Belgian monarchy, which provided patriarchical order and stability to the Belgian people during a period of great political turmoil. As a political naif who spent more time pursuing a successful career in commercial art and graphic design than questioning his mentors, it likely was convenient for Remi to internalize the beliefs of the people he looked up to and respected. So while there is little evidence that Remi was truly anti-Semetic personally, his work as the member of the staff of a radical newspaper where he contributed art, cartoons, and editorial content to advance its views certainly made him suspect. (A lot of his early work is much more political and, frankly, propagandist, particularly in its strident anti-Communism and strong sense of colonial paternalism — see, for example, Tintin in the Congo. These early works were based on suggestions by Wallez, and many of the more controvsial elements were softened in revised editions of later printings.)

This lack of serious political introspection would have serious ramifications for Remi during and after the war. While Remi may not have been an active Nazi collaborator per se, he nevertheless continued to work and remain productive during the Nazi occupation of Belgium. And although many artists were jailed or simply refused to work under Nazi occupation or sponsorship, Hergé worked for Le Soir, which was commonly known as a collaborationist newspaper, after his own paper was shut down. In fact, Hergé’s Tintin really came into its own during the war. It’s a tribute to his work that the stories produced during this time remain relatively timeless—no doubt the need to remain apolitical and ignore current events enabled Hergé to avoid the real world in his stories.

So while he was not a war profiteer in the strictest sense of the term, Tintin allowed Hergé to live comfortably during occupation. In fact, he did quite well financially during the war due to the success of the series. It’s clear from some of his letters during this period that Hergé saw the occupation as a way to increase market share for Tintin while other comics, particularly popular American series like Mickey Mouse and Flash Gordon, were shut out of wartime Europe. And during a time of severe wartime shortages, he and his publishers often beseeched the occupiers for the paper they needed to print more books, often with success.

ABOVE: Still from upcoming motion-capture Tintin film.

After the war, however, Remi’s activities and success had serious consequences. As an indication of the gravity of his situation, many of the people he worked with at Le Soir were jailed, forbidden to ever work again as journalists or artists, and a few were even executed.

Although his file remained open for a few years, Remi’s case ultimately never went to trial like many of his colleagues. The reputation of Tintin, of course, played a role—aside from the ramifications of bringing the creator of a beloved cultural icon to trial, the desire by respected members of the resistance to do business with Hergé after the war (leading to the creation of the weekly Tintin Magazine), provided him with a degree of personal protection.

Nevertheless, although the popularity and universality of the series largely kept it untainted by the controversy, the dark cloud of collaboration remained over Remi's head for many years, with many among the country’s political and intellectual elite—of whom Remi felt a part to a degree—remained divided over him.

ABOVE: Still from upcoming motion-capture Tintin film.

It did not help that Remi was largely unapologetic for his wartime activities and, perhaps owing to an emotional stuntedness that seemed part of his make up, he often seemed insensitive and oblivious to the serious hardships and sacrifices many of his countrymen experienced during the war, particularly those who chose resistance. Indeed, perhaps out of personal loyalty, he continued to discreetly provide work to colleagues who had been forbidden to work in the arts or journalism due to their wartime activities. Personally, Remi resented his treatment by the authorities for most of the remainder of his life, at one point even seriously considering relocating to Argentina.

Although some would never forget, for the most part Hergé was able to restore his reputation through the sustained success of Tintin. However, during the post-war serious depression overtook the artist. While Remi likely suffered from depression through much of his life, the immense pressure of producing the series and the continued possibility that he might face prosecution for his wartime activities likely played a role in triggering the episodes. By then, Hergé had a full studio of assistants to produce the series, but they worked largely at the artist’s direction. During these years, Hergé suffered nervous breakdowns and completely disappeared for extended periods, at one point for an entire year! (The book states he went to Switzerland on what were essentially private spiritual retreats.)

In his later years, Hergé underwent a spiritual re-awakening, embracing a Buddhist view of the world, and gradually became more comfortable with himself. By 1960, he was still married to his first wife in name only (partly out of respect to his wife and to his Catholic upbringing), and became involved with a much younger woman who worked at the studio. They would marry 17 years later, when his wife finally granted him a divorce.

Hergé also needed to come to terms with the fact that his legacy would always be Tintin. While proud and very confident of his skills, he sometimes felt trapped by the character and tried to explore new avenues of expression, such as painting. But he finally came to recognize that Tintin was his life's calling and legacy.

Through his career, Hergé produced 24 Tintin books—not an immense output by comic-book standards, but enough to make it an international cottage industry. The character has been brought to screen several times before—usually in animated format or in overseas productions—but the new production due later this year from producers/directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson certainly raises the stakes and profile of the character.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-11T07:13:00.000-08:00

As I do every Valentine's Day, I'm pleased to make available at the Rob Hanes Adventures webcomics website, "The Real Julianne Love," an 8-page romantic adventure.

The story originally appeared in Love in Tights #2. For more background about the story, read last year's blog. Otherwise, click on the image above, or here, to read the story.

Mission Accomplished

2011-01-09T22:18:00.000-08:00

I originally began this blog in September 2006, but moved it in at the very start of 2008 when I realized that my original blog, created as part of my MySpace account, didn't have a lot of the features of a full fledged blog, such as simple search or date navigation features. (Although the site has undergone some changes in an effort to keep pace with Facebook, the changes at the blog were merely cosmetic and didn't really address the serious functionality issues.)

After I moved, however, I looked into importing the previous blogs into the new site for the sake of posterity. It turned out that, unlike Blogger which I use for this blog, the MySpace blog didn't have any sort of basic export function that would allow me to easily bring over the old entries—yet another confirmation that I had made the right decision to move. After doing a lot of research, I found that the best way to import the old blog was to cut and past each entry one at a time.

Well, mission accomplished—if you look at the Blog Archive at right that allows you to navigate my older blogs by month and year, you'll see that my 2006 and 2007 blogs are now available at this site. It really wasn't too onerous, just a bit labor intensive—but I'm glad it's done! (In the meantime, I discovered that the re-direct link at my MySpace site is blocked—coincidence?

Entertainment Roundup for 2010

2011-01-04T07:05:00.000-08:00

Happy new year!!

Below is my annual list of movies, stage shows, books, and graphic novels I've taken in over the past year. The usual caveats apply: as a busy family guy, I don't get a chance much to see first run movies.

With that said, I'd say the highlights for me this past year among films in no particular order were Le Concert (pictured at right), How to Train Your Dragon, OSS 117: Lost in Rio (trailer embedded below; the film is available for streaming at Netflix), Bottle Shock, Young Victoria, Social Network, Tangled , The King's Speech, and The Damned United. (For just plain weirdness, I'd add the 1933 film, Gabriel Over the White House, that I caught on a classic movie channel.)

Among the stage shows I saw, highlights were "The 39 Steps," the Lincoln Center Production of "South Pacific," "Promises, Promises," and "Holiday Broadway."

FILMS
Sherlock Holmes (1/2/10)
No Highway in the Sky - TCM (1/5/10)
To Be or Not To Be - Netflix (1/6/10)
Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 8
Big Fan - Netflix (1/15/10)
Downhill Racer - DVD (1/22/10)
Easy Virtue - DVD (1/24/10)
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2/26/10)
Cradle Will Rock - Netflix (03/11/10)
The Wrong Guy - DVD (03/14/10)
How to Train Your Dragon (03/27/10)
Hot Tub Time Machine (04/03/10)
How to Train Your Dragon (4/6/10)
Waking Sleeping Beauty (4/8/10)
Gabriel Over the White House - TCM (4/8/10)
In the Loop - DVD (4/9/10)
Foreign Correspondent - Netflix (4/9/10)
Ship of Fools - TCM (4/10/10)
Secret of Kells (4/11/10)
OSS 117: Lost in Rio (5/12/10)
Picnic - TCM (05/15/10)
Ransom - TCM (05/19/10)
Shrek Forever After 3D (05/31/10)
Toy Story 3D (06/20/10)
Just Friends - cable (06/26/10)
Despicable Me 3D (07/21/10)
The Other Guys (08/13/10)
Le Concert (08/16/10)
Megamind (11/11/10)
Billy Elliot - Netflix streaming (11/20/10)
White on Rice - Netflix streaming (11/22/10)
Good Dick - Netflix streaming (11/22/10)
Sherlock (eps 1 & 2) - PBS website
Bottle Shock - Netflix streaming (12/4/10)
Young Victoria - Neflix streaming (12/5/10)
Social Network
Tangled (12/12/10)
The King's Speech (12/28/10)
The Damned United - Netflix streaming (12/29/10)

THEATRE/STAGE
Guys and Dolls - Ahmanson (1/16/10)
The 39 Steps - Ahmanson (5/14/10)
South Pacific - Ahmanson (5/28/10)
Promises, Promises - Broadway Theatre (7/11/10)
Peter Pan 360 - Orange County Performing Arts Center (10/31/10)
Holiday Broadway - Geffen Playhouse(11/17/10)

CONCERTS
Doc Severinson - VPAC (10/15/10)
Moscow State Symphony Orchestra - VPAC (11/1/10)

GRAPHIC NOVELS
Human Target: Chance Meetings (2/22/10)
Power & Glory (05/4/10)
Kick-Ass (05/05/10)
BPRP 1946 (10/10/10)

BOOKS
Patriot Battles by Michael Stephenson
Michael Palin Diaries: 1969-79 (08/06/10)
So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star by Jason Slichter (08/12/10)

SPORTS
UCLA v. Cal State Northridge (11/12/10)

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-21T07:15:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again—happy holidays from WCG Comics and Rob Hanes Adventures! Best wishes to all for a happy holiday season and new year....

To see WCG's holiday greetings from past years, click on the image.

And as an added bonus, below is my personal holiday greetings....

Trade Paperback Now on Sale Online

2010-12-08T06:34:00.000-08:00

The new Rob Hanes Adventures, Volume 0, trade paperback is now available at the WCG Comics online store—just in time for the holidays!

Released in September, the book has been held back for sale online to give retailers an exclusive opportunity to sell the trade to customers.

The 144-page volume compiles the original 4-issue run of Adventure Strip Digest, the precursor to the current ongoing comic-book series.

All of the stories have been completely re-lettered for the new edition. Rob Hanes Adventures, Volume 0 can also be ordered from your local retailer through Diamond Comics Distributors (item #JUL10 1161) and Haven Distributors. The book features 144 B&W pages and retails for $15.99 (ISBN #978-0-9845769-0-6).

For more information, visit our website>>

Rob Hanes Adventures among "1000 Comic Books You Must Read"

2010-12-02T20:46:00.000-08:00

I was planning to buy it eventually, but what finally compelled me to recently purchase Tony Isabella's 1000 Comic Books You Must Read was the fact that a friend mentioned to me that Rob Hanes Adventures #10 is included in the book, along with a scan of the cover!

I have never met Isabella personally, but as anyone who reads the pull quotes at my website and on my comics knows, he has been a long-time reader and supporter of my series. It's truly an honor to be included in the book.

Isabella writes a regular review column called "Tony's Tips" in the Comics Buyer’s Guide and a long-time comics writer.

Whether or not you read the comics suggested in the book, 1000 Comic Books You Must Read is on its own a fun and entertaining read that covers the whole history of the comics medium. You can find it at the publisher's website at a great price and I highly recommend it.

Meet the New Member of the Family...

2010-11-19T07:25:00.000-08:00

Since I recently paid tribute to my trusty ol' Mazda MX3, the first car I purchased with my own money back in 1993, I thought it was only fitting to show off the vehicle that I replaced it with—a 2010 Mazda 6!

So far, it's been great fun to drive, as evidenced by the fact that any excuse to run an errand in it is fine with me. It helps that we got a higher trim that's fairly loaded, with standard moonroof, iPod connector, and Bluetooth. My wife had initially encouraged me to purchase something that was sporty and zippy that would be fun for me to drive. Though that was a consideration, I actually wanted a sedan that was a practical alternative on long trips to our current primary family vehicle, a 2002 Subaru Forester. The 6 is definitely a more grown up car—I call it a "middle-age mobile"—but it's still sporty and more distinctive than what I thought was the more pedestrian and popular choices of the Camry/Accord/Altima lines that are in the same vehicle class of mid-size family sedans.

It's a long story, but I ended up purchasing the vehicle through CarsDirect, doing a lot of my initial research at that site as well as at Edmunds. I highly recommend the convenience and relative low stress of purchasing through CarsDirect—it required no negotiation, no fees or deposit, and I purchased the vehicle exactly at the price my extensive research had found was a fair deal, taking into account factory-to-dealer incentives and other rebates at the time of purchase. After entering the vehicle's make, model, trim and options online, the site automatically generates the price CarsDirect can get it for—my CarsDirect rep founded it within 30 minutes of our conversation at the price that had been promised online. (Taking into account that this is a vehicle that there was plenty of good inventory on.) In fact, it was these incentives that brought the higher trim into my price range—I got the car about $4500 below MSRP (and $3000 below what the dealer had offered). The dealier even delivered it for free from about an hour's drive away across L.A. freeway traffic.

I must admit, it's taken awhile to get used to driving so much car, going from my MX3 and a stick-shift Miata convertible, which is our third vehicle (the Subaru has always been easy to drive from day one). The 6 is roomy and a cushy ride—it feels like a luxury vehicle but certainly didn't cost as much as one!

Contrary to what some people have assumed, I didn't purposely set out to get another Mazda, but the 6 turned out to be my top choice (along with the popular but slightly smaller Mazda 3) after my research and test drives. Also on my short list were the 2010 VW Jetta and the 2011 Hyundai Sonata.

Let's hope it lasts as long as my MX3! Though it's been nice having no car payments for the past 6 years, this was way overdue and it's nice to have a car with 21st century amenities!

Below: Old car and new.

You'll Believe a Boy Can Fly

2010-11-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

A new production of "Peter Pan" that originated in England on the grounds that inspired the play is now touring the U.S. and currently playing inside a special temporary facility at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The show runs through January 2, 2011.

On the one hand, the new production appears to go back to the roots of the original show, eschewing the well known Disney version as well as the route most traditional productions have taken by casting a woman as Peter. In this show, all of the children’s roles are played by adults playing young.

On the other hand, however, the production attempts to reinvent the show by creating a Cirque du Soleil feel. The show is mounted inside a specially-designed tent that offers a theater-in-the-round experience and a 360-degree screen around the top of the tent that uses moving CGI images to create backdrops for the show, complementing the traditional props and stagecraft. The projected images also evoke a moody atmosphere as well as some nifty flying effects—while the actors hang from the ceiling in harnesses, IMAX-like projections provide a moving CGI landscape that creates a sense of flight and movement.

This production is clearly intended to appeal to adults as much as to the children—indeed, there are a few moments in the show that some sensitive and very young children may find intense. In Captain Hook’s first scene, for example, he dispatches an insubordinate henchman on his pirate crew by explicitly cutting his throat. Although there’s no blood, the deed is explicitly performed in full view of the audience. Similarly, when Tiger Lily goes into an interpretive dance to thank Peter for saving her life, it’s surprisingly provocative and even sexual, presumably an enticement for Peter to grow up (in the end, Peter is puzzled and disinterested). In addition, in this production, the children are a bit more wild and unruly than usual—bordering on Lord of the Flies territory—while clearly yearning for love and order in their lives, which they look for by asking Wendy to be their mother. Only Peter, in the end, is adamant to never grow up.

Tinkerbell is also completely re-imagined in this production. She is a fairy with attitude, often jeering and mocking the others, especially Wendy who it cannot be overstated Tinkerbell really dislikes.

In addition to the modern special effects, however, the production makes clever use of old-fashioned stagecraft, making it a great introduction to the magic of theatre for children and their parents. There are several animal characters in the production, including Nanna, the sheepdog, and of course the crocodile who is Hook’s bete noire. They are played by puppeteers who work in plain view of the audience on stage, but whose work still successfully creates a sense of awe and wonder. The crocodile is particularly a crowd-pleaser, made up of wire and dressing, which two puppeteers propel around stage with their feet as they sit inside the contraption, with an animatronic head that the front puppeteer controls with effective and lifelike movements.

Some past reviews of the show note that the reimagined production lacks true spark and especially heart. While in retrospect I agree with this to some extent, the spectacle of the presentation and stage effects serve to overcome these shortcomings. While all the performances are good, as expected, the role of Captain Hook, played by Shakespearean actor Jonathan Hyde (who, of course, also plays the children’s vain and not very sympathetic father), is a scene stealer. In retrospect, the show really emphasizes both the innate need for love and nurturing, and the importance of the mother-child bond, as well as the bittersweet inevitability of growing up.

For more information about the show and tickets, visit the production’s official website.

So Long to an Old Friend...

2010-10-26T06:45:00.000-07:00

My wife and I recently purchased a new family sedan, so after 17 years of faithful service, I sold my trusty ol’ Mazda MX3, which had 215,724 miles on it.

I must admit I got a little emotional realizing I’d be selling her. My first car was an ‘80s Toyota Tercel, a second family car that I received after graduating from college. I ran up that brick-red Tercel to 93,000 miles, but the MX3 was the first car I purchased on my own, in 1993. I initially got acquainted with the MX3 the year before when my then-girlfriend/now-wife drove it to Tahoe as a rental for a ski trip. I enjoyed the vehicle so much that I bought it the following year when I decided to upgrade.

I always said the MX3 was not really as fast as she looked, but it was still pretty zippy. She had a good-sized trunk and when the back seats were down, with the hatchback it could carry quite a bit of cargo—especially useful on my trips carrying boxes of comics to exhibit at the San Diego Comic-Con and other conventions in California! I occasionally called it the Batmobile because of its low cockpit seating and automatic power seatbelts—in fact, when I was younger, there were occasions when I would cruise down the freeway at night at high speed with Danny Elfman's iconic Batman film score blasting on the stereo, which was pretty atmospheric. (By the way, since everyone always asks—the decal on the back means "Mazda" in Japanese.)

When my wife and I were expecting our first child in 2001, we purchased a Subaru Forester as our family car—the MX3 was a 4-seater, so once the kids were large enough to sit up in a booster, on the fly it served fine as a backup family car for short trips. But with the kids getting older and all our cars getting up in miles, it was clear we needed a new family car to supplement the Forester, and it was better to get it sooner than later given the current buyer’s market for cars and record low loan rates, rather than wait for the MX3 to give out on us and be forced to scramble.

Over the years, I put quite a bit of money into the MX3's maintenance, but it was still always better than having the regular car payments of a new car—I always said that if I truly had gotten tired of it, I would have gotten a new car years ago, but the combination of saved money and the car driving and looking well made me on no rush. I should add that all the repairs were pretty much wear and tear given the mileage—the car had never been in any major collisions. (I had to rebuild the transmission back in 2004, but that was my fault in not getting it to my mechanic earlier after seeing certain symptoms.)

Anyway, I sold her on Craigslist. On paper the Blue Book value was not very much (one site stated that a dealer would pay $57 for the car based on age and condition), but I saw estimates for private sales as high as $700 – $1000. But after seeing the surprisingly crappy condition of many of the cars being offered on Craigslist, I realized my sporty-looking MX3 might look pretty appealing to some buyers and offered it for more than the $400–500 I initially planned. As noted in the pictures accompanying this blog which I used for the ad, I tried my best to make her as appealing as possible.

Indeed, within 20 minutes of posting it, I started getting flooded by emails expressing interest in the car. I probably could have made a bit more than I did, but ultimately I’m glad I found a good home for her. The guy who called me about the car told me emphatically, “I want that car!” then drove 80 miles to see it, handing me the money before he even test drove it. Apparently, he had a buddy who had purchased a ‘92 MX3 recently for $7000—though that car had been obviously souped up.

In any case, I’m glad I found a good home for it, with someone who’ll appreciate it.

Next: What I bought!

Below is the original Craiglist listing for the car:

Sporty 1993 Mazda MX3

Date: 2010-10-22, 10:18AM PDT

Black 1993 2-door Mazda MX3 w/black and teal cloth interior in good-to-fair condition for sale by original owner. Just over 212,700 miles. Very sporty, cleans up well (see photos and link below for more photos). Runs great, engine is in solid working condition (transmission was rebuilt in 2004), oil changed regularly, just passed smog check—have nearly all maintenance records/repair receipts on file. Power windows and locks, power seat belts, AC, alloy wheels (w/wheel locks), added CD/radio with removable faceplate, all in good working condition. Back seats go down creating large open cargo space.

l have purchased a new car and am looking for a new owner who will give a vehicle that has served me well a new home. This vehicle is in great working order, fun to drive, and looks good. Some minor scratches and dents from 17 years of use, but otherwise this car has never experienced any major damage. Some tears in the upholstery due to normal wear and tear over the years. Cargo cover also beyond repair (I have it but don't use it). Minor bug with seatbelt light occasionally going on even when seatbelt is engaged.

For additional photos go here.

It Pays to Google Oneself

2010-10-14T18:00:00.000-07:00

As I do periodically, I Googled myself recently to see if there has been any recent coverage of Rob Hanes Adventures and came across a couple of very nice pieces.

The first is this comprehensive overview and review of the series by Greg Burgas, a reviewer at Comic Book Resources. Burgas picked up the entire run of the series at the last San Diego Comic-Con, and wrote this very thoughtful piece that discussed in great depth the characters, story arcs, progression of art over the years, portrayal of female characters, etc. It's nice to see many of the elements I have tried hard to infuse in the series picked up by Burgas in his article.

The second is an interview with me by Newsarama contributor Zack Smith. I recall being interviewed by Smith via email awhile back but had forgotten about it until I came across the website in my Google search.

My thanks to both Burgas and Smith for their nice pieces.

Two Spirited Biographies

2010-10-04T07:21:00.000-07:00

A documentary on comics legend Will Eisner, titled Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist, is now available. Several years ago at the San Diego Comic-Con, I attended a panel about the project that featured an extended preview of the documentary. The promotional trailer was also being used to raise funding for the project's completion. After making the rounds of the fllm festival circuit this past year—including the Tribeca Film Festival—I recently learned the film is now on DVD and ordered a copy.

Eisner’s biography is now fairly well known, but anyone wishing to gain greater personal insight and personal knowledge about the artist and his work will enjoy this high quality documentary. The film covers all aspects of his personal biography, including his immigrant roots; his founding of what is considered the first comic-book “sweatshop” in the 1930s, which underscored his business acumen even at an early age; his launch of the syndicated Spirit comic-book newspaper insert; his sojourn from the mainstream comics industry to found a company that produced comics for educational (and commercial) purposes; and his return to the industry in the 1970s with the re-discovery of the Spirit and, more importantly, a new phase of his career when he began focusing on “graphic novels,” many of which were autobiographical in nature and explored his Jewish identity. The documentary does a good job of recreating the environment that produced Eisner—it’s been well documented how comics were almost solely the brainchild of Jewish immigrant kids primarily from the ghettos of New York City.

The documentary, of course, also builds on Eisner’s legacy as one of the most innovative comic-book storytellers of his time, and touches a little on the personal tragedy that was not known until after his death that drove his first graphic novel, A Contract With God, which is considered among the first such books of its kind.

What is particularly striking about the film is the amount of home movie material that makes its way into the story, some dating back to the 1940s! The film includes interviews with many of Eisner’s colleagues in the industry, as well as a few nice surprises like Kurt Vonnegut.

The documentary also provides me with an opportunity to mention Eisner’s authorized biography, Will Eisner: A Spirited Life, by Bob Andelman. This book, which I read back in 2005, is among the first (and best) “serious” biographies of a cartoonist—”serious” in the sense that it goes beyond mere fan admiration and relies on extensive research, vetting and interviews (including with the artist and his wife).

Andelman was given unfettered access to Eisner, and spent a few years with the artist as part of his research. The book appeared in the same year as Eisner’s death in 2005. Andelman’s book was the first to contain details about Eisner’s private life—including the loss of his daughter to leukemia—that even many of his closest friends were unaware of, and which drove the titular story in the above-mentioned A Contract With God.

I highly recommend both the documentary and the book.

What I'm Reading

2010-09-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

Though I’ve cut back a lot, I still buy more comics than I read (old habits die hard). But here are a few that I’m currently reading....

Batman and Robin
One reason I don’t read as many mainstream comics as I used to is because most series are tied in to large, epic continuities that often encompass multiple issues and titles. This makes it difficult for casual readers to just jump into a random comic-book issue.

Though the new Batman and Robin series by writer Grant Morrison (and various artists) is tied in to one such ongoing storyline, I’ve still found the stories entertaining on their own without feeling lost even though I'm not reading the other tie-in titles.

In the current Batman continuity that also encompasses DC Comics' entire line of titles, Bruce Wayne is believed to have been killed—though it's become clear that he actually got sent back in time and is now making his way back to the present. As a result, the series features Bruce’s old ward and Robin sidekick, Dick Grayson, as Batman. The shoes of Robin are being filled by a young upstart named Damian Wayne, Bruce’s bastard son (in more ways than one). Damien is Batman's offspring with the daughter of one of his greatest arch enemies, Ra’s al Ghul (don’t say I didn’t warn you!)

What makes the series intriguing to me is the different vibe that Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne bring as Batman and Robin. Grayson has never been as Machiavellian and obsessed as his mentor—and knows it—while Damien is a true handful, trying to reconcile his father’s principles with the callous brutality that has been ingrained in him since birth as the grandson of one of the world’s great villains.

But what initially drew me to the series was the art of Frank Quitely. At first glance, Quitely’s art is less operatic and flashy than more traditional superhero comic book artists, but his work always still creates a sense of quiet awe. (This was especially evident in his work on All Star Superman.) Quitely unfortunately left the series after only a few issues, and though I felt the art suffered initially, the current artist at least has not been as much of a distraction to the stories. So for now, this series remains one of the few regular ones I am reading.

Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne
This mini-series is related to the larger story arc mentioned above—initially believed killed in DC Comics’ year-long saga Final Crisis, Batman’s fellow superheroes have learned that their friend instead has been sent back in time. The six-issue series recounts his travel through time to the present. Three issues have been released to date, with the first issue taking place in the Paleolithic Era, the second in the Pilgrim era of what is to become Gotham City, and the third in the American West (co-starring Jonah Hex).

While Grant has said his work on series like this one and Batman and Robin are part of a larger epic he has been working on since 2005, the Return of Bruce Wayne is an opportunity for Morrison to play in different genres while also advancing the larger storyline. Since this series was a major “event” story for the character, I decided to pick it up.

The different genres gives Grant the opportunity to also work with a variety of artists. Again, this was hit and miss for me, but the limited run of the series generally makes this an easy investment to make to see how things play out.

Batman: Odyssey
(Yes, I realize that these titles are all Batman-heavy. I am a Batman fan, but this is just how things turned out!)

Batman: Odyssey is the heralded return to the character by legendary artist Neal Adams. Along with writer Denny O’Neil, Adams is credited with bringing Batman back definitively to his dark and gritty roots at the end of the 1960s after nearly two decades of camp, which culminated with the hit Batman television show starring Adam West.

I’ve seen one reviewer refer to this book as a “train wreck.” Unfortunately, I don’t think that assessment is too off the mark. Adams clearly has been given great latitude given his reputation and name; while Adams, for the most part, is still at the top of his game as an artist, the writing could have done with some extensive editing. It’s a bit shrill and trying too hard to be modern, and it’s unclear what Adams is trying to do here.

Since this is a 12-issue series, I’ll likely stick this one out to see where this goes—it is Adams after all!

Our Army at War One Shot
As I’ve said elsewhere, Sgt. Rock, who appeared in the original run of Our Army at War, is one of my favorite characters, and Our Army at War was the first comic-book series I collected regularly back in the 1970s.

Though Our Army at War ended in 1977, Sgt. Rock has remained active through various projects and series, including this one-shot special.

The story interweaves Sgt. Rock and Easy Company in their World War II milieu with a modern-day war story set in Iraq. The two stories are told in parallel—jumping back and forth frequently—and at the end are neatly tied together. In truth, Rock is a bit peripheral to the story.

My main quibble about most of these recent Sgt. Rock projects are that the character is drawn differently than the definitive look that was given the character by long-time Rock artist and comic-book great Joe Kubert. While I recognize that the character will look different under different artists, it doesn’t even appear that some artists are trying to stay on design.

Comic-Con: 40 Years of Artists, Writers, Fans, and Friends
Released in 2009 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the San Diego Comic-Con, I picked this up at this handsome coffee table hardcover book at the show the year it came out.

It’s well done, presenting a definitive history of the Comic-Con through the decades, with plenty of fun sidebar articles about some of the people, artists, and activities that have contributed to the success and feel of the show, with tons of photos. The story of Comic-Con encompasses as well the history of modern comic-book fandom.

Having attended the show myself for about 25 years, it’s a wonderful reminiscence for me as well—and also makes me realize that had I started attending just a few years earlier, I could have met some of my idols, like Milton Caniff. D’OH!

This is a book I’ve been reading periodically since I picked it up and it’s always a fun and fascinating read.

In Comic Book Stores Now!

2010-09-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

From the WCG Comics website:

Rob Hanes Adventures, Vol. 0, the first volume of a projected series of trade paperbacks collecting the entire Rob Hanes Adventures series is in direct-sales comic-book retail stores now. Retailers can still order this item through Diamond Comics Distributors (item #JUL10 1161). Also available through Haven Distributors. (ISBN #978-0-9845769-0-6)

Rob Hanes Adventures, Volume 0 compiles the complete 4-issue run of Adventure Strip Digest, the series' original home before being relaunched as Rob Hanes Adventures.

A preview of the front and back covers plus about 20 pages is available here (or by clicking the image at right).

To bring the quality of the art and stories up to par with the current series, the stories in the volume have been completely re-lettered by Johnny Lowe, replacing the original hand-lettering of the original stories.

The volume is 144 pages with a cover price of $15.99. For the official press release, click here.

REVIEWS: Le Concert

2010-09-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

I admit that what initially interested me in the French language film Le Concert was the fact that it starred Melanie Laurent, a lovely French actress who caught my eye as one of the leads in Quentin Tarantino’s World War II send up, Inglorious Basterds. Rarely, though, do I let an actress’s personal appeal drive my choice in movies—if word’s out that a movie is a dog, I won’t go see it no matter how personally appealing the cast.

Fortunately, reviews of this limited release foreign language art house film ranged from middling to good, and many cited Laurent’s presence as reason enough to enjoy the film if one was so inclined.

So discovering it was playing locally, I slipped out on a recent weekday evening to catch the film in a tiny theater at L.A.’s Landmark that featured reserved plush sofas rather than traditional theater seating. Though only five people (including myself) were in the theater, we were a responsive audience, which added to the enjoyment of the intimate viewing.

The film is a light comedy farce with some emotional heft thrown in to engage the audience. The story gets started quickly, when a once-respected Russian conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra named Andreï Filipov (played by Aleksei Guskov)—fired 30 years earlier by the Communist regime for political reasons who is now working as a janitor at the theater—intercepts an invitation to the orchestra to perform in Paris. Seeing it as an opportunity to resurrect his career, Filipov decides to reconstitute the original orchestra that had been banished along with him 30 years earlier and travel to Paris masquerading as the Bolshoi.

Soon Filipov is combing the country, tracking down the former members of the orchestra who now live hand to mouth at other jobs. He also recruits an old adversary from the Communist era who was their booking agent to manage them again.

BELOW: Le Concert preview trailer.

As the film progresses, the film gradually reveals that Filipov has an underlying motive for wishing to travel to Paris and perform, which is related to his insistence that a new young talented French violinist named Anne-Marie Jacquet (played by Laurent) solo with the orchestra. As this suggests, the stakes of the performance go beyond just providing an opportunity for Guskov and the others to reclaim their careers—the once nearly-broken conductor also is haunted by an old Cold War secret (shared by some of his colleagues) that is hinted at throughout the movie and, with some minor misdirection, revealed near the end of the movie with emotional resonance during the film's titular concert.

The concert of the title climaxes the story and forms the film's centerpiece, in which a Tchaikovky concerto is performed in its entirety. It is here that the film cleverly brings its loose ends together and provides an emotional payoff. It does so through the deft use of flashback montages, interwoven with the concert, revealing a backstory that inextricably ties the French violinist to the conductor and, indeed, the entire orchestra. A series of flashforward montages are also used to show what happens after the concert. The movie finally circles back to the end of the performance, with the stirring concerto underscoring the emotional release that the performers (along with the audience) undergo at the end of the piece.

What initially surprised me about the film was how much of it took place in Russia: the first third of the movie was filmed on location there—with some marvelous shots of present-day Moscow—and many of the principal actors are Russian, presumably speaking in their native tongue.

Directed by Romanian-born Radu Mihaileanu, who emigrated to France from his native-born country as a student, much of the film’s humor comes from the contrast between the bright, modern world of Paris and the more earthy Russian musicians, who have not recovered from their years of persecution and internal exile under Communist rule. (One running gag involves the orchestra’s manager—still a die hard Communist and out of the game for 30 years—insisting on terms that are clearly archaic and anachronistic. On the other hand, he also sagely advises them that it’s expected for them as musicians to be difficult and obstinate.)

Though a few minor characters are clearly there for comedy relief, the principal actors give sensitive and lovely performances, particularly Guskov and Laurent, the latter of whom apparently trained for several months to credibly play violin for the film. Reviewers have noted that the film has its share of contrivances. The one that stretched my credibility the most was the the fact that, due to a series of misadventures, the reconstituted orchestra never has a chance to rehearse before the actual concert, after 30 years of not performing together—though the director clearly wanted to use this to add tension to the story, one must wonder whether this is even possible. But overall the film overcomes these minor distractions on the fairy-tale like story that is punctuated by a wonderful concert performance.

Website upgrades

2010-08-24T07:36:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd mention the minor tweaks and upgrades I've made to the WCG Comics website recently:

In keeping with the march of progress, I've added some animation to the website: on the front page, this takes the form of a slideshow of Rob Hanes Adventures cover art, which also can be found on the online store page.
A more dynamic slideshow consisting of page samples from the series can also be found on the About page of the website. (These java-based animations were built using Visual Slideshow.)
This blog is now a permanent link on the main navigation menu at the top of each page of the website. It previously was buried under "Community links," but given the increased importance of blogs in promotion, I decided to give it a more prominent spot at the website.

These changes are in addition to several changes I've made to the website over the past year, which has included widening the default width of the website's pages and slightly redesigning the banner images at the top of each page.

Blog Changes
I should add that I've also made a few tweaks to the blog as well, which has included changing the overall theme/design of the website (which also featured a larger width).

Another long overdue change is the addition of "Share" buttons that appear at the bottom of each post that allows users to more easily share this link with others, particularly on social network sites like Facebook (and, yes, you can find me there too).

REVIEWS: "Promises, Promises"

2010-08-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

While there are some inherent problems with the production, the current Broadway revival of the 1960s show “Promises, Promises” by Burt Bacharach and Hal David (music and lyrics) and Neil Simon (book) is at its heart a fun and engaging show. It’s a perfect example of how talent and presence (and strong staging and direction) can overcome the weaknesses of a production.

The show has had its share of minor controversies: at the Tony nominations earlier this year, tongues started wagging when respected Broadway veteran Kristen Chenoweth was not nominated. Similarly, a minor tempest also emerged when a gay columnist in Newsweek attributed some of the negative reviews of the show to the difficulty of an openly-gay actor like Sean Hayes playing the lead in a "straight" romantic comedy (article is available here).

It’s easy to see why some people felt Chenoweth was miscast, playing a role that might have been more suitable for a a young ingenue making her name in the role; and, in truth, Hayes and Chenoweth don’t have a lot of chemistry on stage.

Another problem may lie in the original show itself. Many of the songs feel shoe-horned into the production—while many are snappy tunes (“I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” and “Promises, Promises” both have since become standards), many don’t feel as though they truly serve the characters or drive the story. (Indeed, two Bacharach standards were actually added to the new revival for Chenoweth to sing: “I Say a Little Prayer” and “A House is Not a Home,” adding to this feeling.)

Fortunately, the show overcomes these problems for the most part on the strength of the show’s talent, particularly the leads. Chenoweth’s dynamo voice is legendary, and Hayes more than holds his own, and connects with the audience early, carrying much of the production on good will and charisma. The show also moves quickly, allowing little let time for the show's energy or the audience's interest to flag. It's also clear why supporting player Katie Finneran received the show’s sole Tony—she's a scream and really does steal the show in her one scene. But it's not
at the expense of the show or other performers.

I saw this show as a Sunday matinee and was impressed by how much energy the performers put in at the very start (I learned afterwards that it was their only show of the day—no evening performance to keep a reserve for—which may have helped!).

“Promises, Promises” is adapted from one of my favorite films of all time, “The Apartment,” starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray, written and directed by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond and directed by Wilder. Though the show stays mostly true to the through-line of the film, the show still does divert a bit from the original story, even changing for some reason the lead’s name from “C.C.” (for Calvin Clifford, though everyone calls him “Bud”) to “Chuck.” In any case, the play certainly stands apart and does not diminish the film’s achievement as one of the best and most sophisticated comedies ever (it consistently ranks among the top ten romantic comedies of all time, and among the best comedies).

Aside from the great music, the popularity of “Mad Men” probably helped drive the revival of “Promises, Promises” (as it has the upcoming revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” which is scheduled for a new 2011 revival with Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame). To that end, the production design captures the bright-colored tone and feel of the space age ‘60s era perfectly.

Our New York Adventure

2010-08-09T19:33:00.000-07:00

Call us a glutton for punishment, but a couple of weeks before our trip to the San Diego Comic-Con, my family vacationed in New York City!

Though my wife (and children) are all native Californians, I actually was born in New York City and raised in one of its boroughs, Staten Island, until I was 16 years old. This is my third visit back since that momentous move. My wife and I aren’t into relaxing, resort-style vacations, and love to visit bustling cities. NYC, of course, is one of the most bustling of all, so it was a trip we were very excited about.

With our children now 5 and 8 years of age, this also was our first major family vacation. Given all the walking we did and the kind of East Coast humidity that our children have never been exposed to, I can say that the kids were real troopers. Their excitement at being in the Big Apple usually pre-empted any complaints about being tired, bored or hungry.

We were in NYC for six full days—still not enough to see everything, but we pretty much hit all the main highlights without feeling too rushed! This included the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Times Square, the Empire State Building, Central Park (and Strawberry Fields), Rockefeller Plaza, the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the World Trade Center site, and the Guggenheim. In a sop to my interests, we also visited the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art and the Society of Illustrators Museum. Although, we decided to skip a Yankees game this time around (something my wife and I did in 2001, when she was 6 months pregnant), we did see one of the hot new Broadway shows: “Promises, Promises,” with Sean Hayes and Kristen Chenoweth.

We also spent a day in Staten Island, going to my old neighborhood where I visited with some childhood friends and neighbors. After that, we did more touristy things on the island—it turned out to be a real memorable part of the trip, not only because I saw my old neighborhood (including the house I grew up in), but also because we got to see and feel a part of the city that is completely different than being in Manhattan where we otherwise spent all of our time. My love of colonial history goes back to some of the remnants from this era that still existed on Staten Island during my childhood, such as the Conference House (where Ben Franklin and John Adams secretly met with the British in September 1776 in an attempt by the British to negotiate an end to the war) and Historic Richmondtown, places we visited during our trip. We literally drove across the whole island and got to stand on the north and south ends: on the south facing Perth Amboy, New Jersey and the other, facing Brooklyn and the Manhattan skyline in the distance across the harbor. (It’s a long story, but our visit necessitated renting a car in Manhattan. It was not only my first time driving in New York, but also my first time driving through Manhattan traffic. It turned out not to be so bad, but let’s just say that my California defensive driving experience served me well! We had the thrill of driving through the Holland Tunnel, on the New Jersey Turnpike, and across the Verazzano Narrows Bridge.)

I left New York in the 1970s—it was an era of national oil crisis and recession, and a time when the city had nearly gone bankrupt. While I have nothing but great memories of growing up in New York, I think it’s safe to say that there was a real feeling at the time that the U.S. had seen its best days.

New York has always had tremendous energy, but the city I visited seems as forward looking as ever, and indeed seems even friendlier and positively bubbly and ebullient. Immigrants remain the backbone of the city and were the friendly, smiling face at many of the tourist spots we visited. Everywhere we went there was tremendous construction and renovation underway—remarkable for a city as well developed as New York, and a tribute to its ability at continual reinvention. The American Museum of Natural History, for example, was completely covered in scaffolding undergoing renovation, as was the interior of Rockefeller Center and the exterior of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Even my grade school elementary school in Staten Island was completely covered in scaffolding and undergoing renovation; and numerous subway improvements and construction often created minor detours for us on the subway lines we had to take. (The kids loved riding the subway, made all the more convenient by 7-day unlimited ride MTA passes.) I was also impressed by the overdue facelift that the Staten Island Ferry terminal had undergone in recent years, with extensive work still underway on its exterior. (And it still only costs a quarter going one way!)

Anyway, it was a memorable family vacation and hopefully the first of many to come....

Below are some photos from the trip. To see everything, go to the links provided below:

2010 San Diego Comic-Con Report

2010-08-03T07:30:00.000-07:00

Below is my San Diego Comic-Con post-report for 2010. The usual caveats apply: since I’m chained by necessity to an exhibitor’s table for the duration of the four-day show, my views represent a very narrow view of the convention. But to paraphrase a commentator from a few years ago, given the breadth of interests covered at Comic-Con, the show is whatever you want to make it—and it’s often different things to different people. So with that in mind, without any further ado, here’s my take on this year’s Comic-Con...

(Or click here to go straight to the photogallery.)

New Location, New Faces

I’m glad to report that sales were up significantly this year, driven by sales to people new to the series! The uptick is probably due to a couple of factors.

In a major change from previous years, I was at a different location. I lost my usual place at the back wall of the exhibitor’s hall when I inadvertently missed the deadline for the show, but due to a cancellation got assigned a new spot closer to the middle of the floor. My new table was at the end of a small press area aisle (catty corner from the Peanuts booth).

While the new location may have led to increased foot traffic, I also made a more conscious effort to get people to stop at my table and check out my work. I’ve never been a natural showman or salesman, but I quickly realized that with all the distractions and sensory overload at the show, people needed a chance to notice my work. That often simply meant being a little more outgoing in saying hi to people and inviting them to check out the book. I’m not comfortable with the hard sell, and can tell when someone simply isn’t interested, but this approach nevertheless did result in sales to people who otherwise would not have noticed my table.

Having said all that, to paraphrase William Goldman’s book, Adventures in the Screen Trade, “Nobody knows anything.” Over the past few years the Friday of Comic-Con has become my best sales day because Saturday, traditionally the busiest of the convention, had become the day when the big Hollywood productions drew attendees away from the exhibitor’s hall and into the meeting rooms. That assumption went out the window this year—with every day now sold out, and the big names as likely to appear now on Thursday or Friday as Saturday, every day is now up for grabs. As a result, Sunday turned out to be my best day, followed by Thursday. Indeed, on Sunday the floor was a madhouse, as though everyone had finally felt they accomplished everything they needed to do at Comic-Con and were ready to buy comics.

Although I had some new material for the show—such as the new all-color Rob Hanes Adventures Special Edition—most of it was repackaged older material. As always, longtime fans and friends visited the booth to see what new material was available, and though many bought the new books, some said they looked forward to a new issue. I’ll definitely make amends next year when I plan to have a new issue of Rob Hanes Adventures in release.

But what clearly drove sales for first-time readers to the series was the affordably-priced 4-packs. Of course, people still need to be attracted to the art or the concept—but certainly the sampler packs encouraged people to give the series a try. (As often happens, several returned later in the convention to pick up the remainder of the issues after they had read and liked what they had initially purchased).

What also boosted the bottom line is that I also sold a couple of pieces of original art—including the cover art to Rob Hanes Adventures #10.

Anyway, my thanks to the fans and friends—both longtime and new, some of whom from overseas—who stopped at the table to chat and make a purchase! Thanks for your support!

Going Digital

A major undercurrent of the show (at least on the comics side) was the seeming continued drift towards digital comics. The introduction of the iPad has clearly added to the seeming inevitability of the trend. In fact, in the months and weeks leading up to the show, most of the major companies and many small ones had unveiled proprietary digital comics apps.

The technology clearly is still in its infancy, with comics publishers—much like the rest of the publishing world—having no clear or consistent model for delivering, formatting, and monetizing digital work.

Like many publishers, I was approached by several people seeking content for their digital comics startup. I was even invited to a presentation/pitch meeting for a company recently acquired by digital publisher Wowio. (They clearly spent a lot of money to be noticed—the presentation included free lunch, and took place on a yacht that was moored at a slip right behind the convention center!)

Across the board, all the proposed agreements from the startups were non-exclusive, with the creators retaining ownership, including print, and licensing rights. This may seem like a no-brainer in this day and age, but it’s significant for an industry that was built on the backs of work-for-hire creators who signed over the ownership of characters like Superman and Captain America that went on to become licensing bonanzas and pop culture icons, and who subsequently profited very little, if at all, from their creations. Back then, early comics publishers were desperate for content as well.

In any case, the question for today’s creator isn’t just what deal is best but rather what’s the right horse to choose. While one could theoretically choose multiple companies to work with, there is a a risk of both diluting the property, as well as having to expend a lot of time and energy prepping the comics for different formats.

Some of my work is already available digitally via webcomics and some digital comics sites. But until now, I’ve considered digital comics simply as a promotional tool for driving people towards the print versions, not as a separate revenue stream. While few people believe print comics are going away anytime soon, companies are obviously looking for ways to make digital comics profitable, no doubt in anticipation of the fact that digital comics will likely continue to gain marketshare and gradually eat into print sales. Even after attending the Wowio presentation, I must admit it’s still kind of a mystery to me how the new model enables publishers to make money in the digital world. On the other hand, although the paid subscription model is not yet completely DOA, for the most part this road has not been successful.

No 800 Pound Gorilla

As I mentioned in my preliminary Comic-Con post, notwithstanding a stabbing incident at the show, many observers seem to agree that this year’s convention was relatively subdued and mellow.

Yes, there was the usual frenzy for fan-favorite television shows and films (my wife and children were thrilled to get into the Myth Busters panel), and there were many high-profile projects that attracted attention—such as the forthcoming Green Lantern, Scott Pilgrim, and Thor films—but none seemed to completely dominate the convention or create the kind of palpable excitement (or polarization) like the Twilight phenomenon of last year. (The organizers contributed to the calmer atmosphere by prudently deciding to postpone their decision about whether they would be moving Comic-Con in 2013. While their claim that the demands of the show no doubt played a part in this decision, they must have also recognized that to have done so beforehand would have completely overshadowed the show.)

Absent such a lightning rod, the calmer atmosphere probably reflects in part the ability of the organizers to make adjustments each year to improve the logistics. (Indeed, some activities were moved off-site to nearby hotels to relieve some of the pressure in the convention center.) My wife told me how friendly and helpful the staff were in managing the crowd for the Myth Busters panel; I was similarly impressed by how quickly the lines moved for the exhibitors and professional badges. Even the weather cooperated: during the convention, the weather was remarkably cool, never breaking 70 degrees. (In fact, the convention hall was pretty chilly the entire show.)

The attendees, too, deserve much of the credit for such a laid back atmosphere, many of whom have now likely participated in multiple Comic-Cons and are old hands at this and set the tone for the newbies. Yes, the show was sold out again, so I’m assuming that means there were the same number of people at the convention as last year. But many of them probably are well familiar with the the ins and outs of the show.

Out and About

Being an exhibitor, I walked the floor only intermittently (usually with the kids), made only a few purchases, and attended just one panel. (For the record, it was the animated Brave and the Bold panel, which I attended with my wife and children since we enjoy the show as a family. A touching moment came when actor Diedrich Bader, the voice of Batman on the show, choked up as he acknowledged now that the show was coming to a close that it had become his favorite role, although he first approached it simply as another paid gig. It also was a treat to see Bader and actor John DiMaggio, the voice of a very bombastic Aquaman on the show, improv in character about the end of the show. My wife reported seeing Bader on the floor and being able to tell him how much the kids loved his Batman.)

I made just a few purchases, including the new Love and Rockets, as well as the new Captain Easy Sundays collection, both purchased at the Fantagraphics booth.

I always enjoy seeing what kind of displays the larger companies have, and to looking through original art and visiting Artist’s Alley.

For the most part, most of the usual exhibitors were there, so the floor was very familiar to me, which is somewhat comforting—except for the notable absence of Comics Relief and the significant smaller space occupied by Bud Plant Comics Distribution. Bud Plant and Comics Relief used to occupy full aisles that ran contiguous with each other, creating nice, inviting landmarks on the floor, but I can only assume that Plant’s sales last year or the higher booth costs caused them to downsize. I felt some real sadness at that.

Like many exhibitors, the only time I had a chance to really walk the floor and take in some of the sights was in the hours before the convention hall opened to the masses. Although most booths aren’t open for business, it’s a pleasant time to be in the convention hall before the crowds. (Indeed, it’s probably one of the few times exhibitors have time to relax a bit.) It often gives one a chance to scope out what might be worth buying later so that you can shoot over there when you have a few moments and quickly purchase what you need. Thor's throne at the Marvel booth (pictured above), taken from the film set, appeared to be a memorable hit among fans.

Friends and Family

Even though I’m primarily “working” at the convention, many family and friends also join me at the show to take in the spectacle, helping out at the booth at times. My wife always enjoys the show and, with the children, looks forward to planning their costumes for the convention.

Although my little girl (now 8 years old) has always enjoyed getting into character and the attention she receives, my 5-year-old boy is a bit more reticent. But this year he got into the spirit of things, dressing as Batman and a hobbit (he always hated the hobbit outfit though with his curly locks he was a natural—until he finally watched Lord of the Rings this year!) Photos of the kids even showed up on CNN's coverage of the show (see second photo at the link).

At the risk of missing someone, the industry pros and acquaintances who stopped by at the booth or who I stopped by to see included Tim Burgard, Kurt Busiek, Dave Olbrich, Jaime Hernandez, Mario Hernandez, Rich Johnston, Steve Leaf, Tom Mason, Mat Nastos, Andrew Pepoy, John Roshell, and Stan Sakai.

Also stopping by was Robert Haines, from the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards, who was accompanied by his wife, Jenn Stewart, a nominee for this year’s Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award for the Dragon comic-book store in Ontario, Canada. Haines said he had heard of my book and laughed when I joked that I appreciated his not being litigious—I also told them they had a natural way to promote the book in their store!

Anyway, thanks to my wife and the kids for their help and support, as well as Bob and my brother Rodney for being of great assistance (and moral support) as well!

Well, with the 2010 Comic-Con now over, I guess it’s back to the drawing board as I look ahead to 2011!

Go to the photogallery / You can also see additional photos that didn't make the final cut here.

Another one for the books...

2010-07-27T06:07:00.000-07:00

Having successfully survived yet another Comic-Con as an exhibitor, I’m safely ensconced back at WCG Comics headquarters, recuperating from the annual marathon as well as taking stock of sales (and expenses).

Notwithstanding the stabbing incident at the show, many observers seem to agree that this year’s Comic-Con seemed relatively subdued. While many high-profile projects certainly demanded attention—such as the forthcoming Green Lantern, Scott Pilgrim, and Thor films—none seemed to completely dominate the program or create the kind of frenzy (or polarization) as last year’s Twilight phenomenon. The calmer atmosphere likely is due to the ability of the show’s organizers to adjust to the logistical demands of a show of this size (the show runs remarkably smoothly given the number of attendees), as well as, I suspect, the attendees themselves, many of whom have likely participated in multiple of these Comic-Cons and are old hands at this.

I’ll be posting my usual post-Comic-Con report and photo gallery shortly, but in the meantime, here are a few advance photos....

Below: J. Jonah gives my book his stamp of approval.

Photo op with Stan Sakai (Usugai Yojimbo)

Either that's a very large R2 unit, or a very short stormtrooper...

Bob's Big Boy delivers!

The Superman family meet the Batman family.

Batman and--Batmite?

Mario and Jaime Hernandez.

Justice League meeting

The Jackie O girls

Obligatory booth shot

See You at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con!

2010-07-15T07:11:00.000-07:00

WCG Comics will be in Booth K1 in the Small Press Pavilion of the San Diego Comic-Con!

NEW at this year's show: A full-color special edition of Rob Hanes Adventures will be available at the show, marking the first time a full-color issue of the series will be available in print. (See cover image below; click on the image for additional preview pages.)

We'll also be promoting the first trade paperback compilation of the series, Rob Hanes Adventures, Vol. 0, which is scheduled to be released in September 2010. The collection was just solicited to retailers and consumers in the July issue of Diamond’s Previews catalog. Stop by our table to sample the upcoming book!

In addition, in limited quantities, we'll be giving away back issues for free for promotional purposes, and have new bookmarks and button pins available free with purchase. (Bookmark pictured at right.)

For more details, see the official press release.

Countdown to San Diego!

2010-07-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

This year’s San Diego Comic-Con is scheduled July 22-25, and I’ll be there for my 8th consecutive appearance (and my 13th overall since 1994).
I’ll be in a different location in the Small Press Pavilion, however, from years past: Booth K1. (See highlighted area of inset map below of Comic-Con floorplan; click on the image to see it larger with more detail.)

At the show I’ll be debuting a special full-color edition of Rob Hanes Adventures, as previously announced here!

In addition, I’ll be promoting the upcoming new trade paperback compilation of the series, Rob Hanes Adventures, Volume 0!

More to come....

ORDER NOW--RHA Spotlighted in PREVIEWS!

2010-06-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

The new Rob Hanes Adventures, Vol. 0 trade paperback is now available for pre-order from Diamond Comics Distributors. The upcoming title, scheduled for release in September 2010, is spotlighted in the current July issue of Previews, Diamond's retailer and consumer order catalog.

See p. 332 of the current issue under WCG Comics (item # JUL10 1161).

As noted in my initial announcement, the trade paperback (ISBN 978-0-9845769-0-6) consists of a full-color cover, six complete stories, and 140 black and white pages. The stories have been re-lettered for the release, and the volume will retail for $15.99.

Anyone interested in purchasing the trade is encouraged to order it through the Previews catalog, available at all comic-book retailer stores, or by asking their local retailers to stock the book by ordering it through Diamond Comics Distribution or Haven Distributors.

To find a comic-book store near you, use the online Comic Shop Locator Service.

RHA in FULL COLOR!

2010-06-21T06:58:00.000-07:00

A full-color special edition issue of Rob Hanes Adventures will be available for the first time ever from WCG Comics in July 2010! (Cover pictured at right.)

The book will debut at the San Diego Comic-Con, scheduled from July 22–25, 2010, then will be available for sale at the WCG Comics website only. (WCG Comics will be at Booth K1 in the Small Press Pavilion of the Comic-Con.)

A preview of the issue is available here.

The color edition was made possible by long-time RHA fan Barry Gregory, co-founder of Ka-Blam Digital Printing and its sister storefront site, IndyPlanet. Although Barry is a long-time fan of the series and the classic black and white look that is the series’ signature style, he always wondered what it would look like in full color—so naturally he took it upon himself to color a story in its entirety, which was a complete surprise when he sent it to me!

Though the story featured in the special issue, “The EC Express,” originally appeared in Adventure Strip Digest #2, in full color the story looks fresh and new.

More details as we get closer to the San Diego Comic-Con!

Spring Cleaning (Part I)

2010-06-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Like many people I did some much needed spring cleaning during the recent Memorial Day weekend. This year's spring cleaning finally led me to begin re-organizing and taking inventory of comics that have been sitting in storage in old Xerox boxes for years, if not decades, which I have lugged around with me from move to move.

While the process was not as time-consuming and arduous as I feared, I nevertheless have opened each box, sorted out and consolidated issues by series, re-packed them back into new comics storage boxes (as pictured at right), then carefully inventoried the contents of each box. I've always considered myself a reader, not a collector, so most of my comics are unbagged—over the years and as part of the current process, I've bagged some comics that I deemed valuable or that had some personal importance to me but for the most part the majority remain unbagged. (As one can imagine after so many years, some of the comics are no longer what one would consider "mint" condition!)

As I was recording the contents of each box, it occurred to me that I needed a database system that would enable me to sort my collection not just by box number (yes, I uniquely numbered each box for tracking purposes), but also by title so that, at some point, I could get a "big" picture of my collection and begin consolidating runs together—as a result of my haphazard storage of my comics, a lot of runs and series were spread out over several boxes. So one of the satisfactions of the process has been consolidating series together. I could have easily created a spreadsheet for this purpose, but decided to see what resources were available online for managing comic-book collections.

There are a lot of well known comic-book collection database systems—the most notable being a commercial desktop software program called Comicbase. You simply bring up an item in the database, specify you have it, and save to your user file. But being the cheapskate I am, after a quick Google search, I came across and settled on a comparable free online "cloud" application for organizing your comic-book collection called StashMyComics. The site has free registration, and all user database collections are stored at the site. However, you can also back up and download your "stash" to your computer as an Excel file, either in its entirety or by the user-defined categories. The categories function sold me on the site—I use the feature to organize my collection by box number. In Excel, it's a separate column that obviously allows me to sort my collection by category/box number if I wish.

I must admit what also won me over was that I even found my own books, Rob Hanes Adventures, in the database!

Of course, such a program is only as good as its database. Since Comicbase is a commercial program with a subscription option, it has resources to keep its database updated, and it regularly does so for subscribers.

StashMyComics depends on an active user community to keep its listings up to date. For the most part, I have so far found StashMyComics to be fairly comprehensive, with about 95 percent or more of my collection in the system. (I created a separate spreadsheet for titles not in the system that I can merge with the master list if needed.)

I actually brought Rob Hanes Adventures up to date in the system and added cover images. This turned out to be a good test of the system because the turnaround for the images and the issue updates to make it into the system was only a few days!

Included with this post are some images of some of the books from my collection.

NEXT: An overview of my collection and my long term plan for it.

Coming this September....

2010-06-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

It's official! The first volume of a projected series of trade paperbacks collecting the entire Rob Hanes Adventures series is scheduled for release September 2010.

Rob Hanes Adventures, Volume 0 will compile the complete 4-issue run of Adventure Strip Digest, the series' original home before being re-booted as Rob Hanes Adventures. After that, the current series will begin to be collected.

A preview of the front and back covers plus about 20 pages is available here (or by clicking the image at right).

To bring the quality of the art and stories up to par with the current series, the stories in the volume have been completely re-lettered by Johnny Lowe, replacing the original hand-lettering of the original stories.

The volume is projected to be approximately 144 pages with a cover price of $15.99.

For the official press release, click here.

Potpourri of Cancellations

2010-05-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

There've been several cancellations that I thought deserved mention here....

First up is Little Orphan Annie. Down to only about 20 papers in its last years—and being drawn by indy veteran Ted Slampyak—the strip's iconic status and its licensing potential probably gave it a far longer shelf life than most other strips would have. But as the interview with the licensing person at Tribune Media Services shows (the strip's only syndicate in its 86-year history), the realities of the shrinking newspaper business finally took its toll. It's clear the syndicate considers Annie to be a lucrative property, and plans to explore the new media landscape for new ways to keep the property alive.

Though I grew up with the strip since it ran in the Tribune's sister paper in New York, the Daily News, I didn't read it much, though I certainly was aware of its history: in fact, I devoured many of the strip's adventures in book collection, primarily in Great Comics Syndicated by the Daily News-Chicago Tribune and various collections in the 1970s.

Shifting gears, NBC also recently announced the cancellation of Law and Order, the original show that started the L&O franchise.

While I wouldn't say I watched the show religiously, I did this season begin watching it fairly regularly again. As it has been throughout its entire run, the series was a dependable and addictive hour of television, solidly constructive and engaging. Since the show was no longer new and shiny, and people took it for granted, some observers noted that the current cast was never one to be found on anyone's "most sexiest people" lists, though the relatively young cast (as seen in the picture at left) certainly qualified!

Series creator David Wolf has been a bit coy about the actual demise of the show, implying it may return in some form (perhaps on a cable channel?). The series was NBC's go-to show this past season when the fourth-place network's Jay Leno at 10 p.m. experiment crashed and burned, and the channel had no other dramas to fill its schedule, so I think L&O deserved much better than this—especially since it would have broken Gunsmoke's record as longest-running drama next season.

Finally, a goodbye to ABC's ignored-but-critically-praised sitcom, Better Off Ted. I've already written about the show so I won't go into depth at how this smart, funny and quirky show—which also managed to have a heart—deserved better promotion and more time to find its audience, but I do think the television landscape is poorer for its cancellation.

Free Comic Book Day Download

2010-04-27T06:14:00.000-07:00

In recognition of Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) this Saturday, May 1, I'll have a special issue of Rob Hanes Adventures available as a free download at the WCG Comics website for a limited time.

Issue 9—"Rescue in Koman" (cover pictured at right)—will be available as a free download at wcgcomics.com during FCBD weekend (May 1 and 2). In the self-contained story, Rob partners with a rival private security firm to rescue a downed U.S. pilot being held hostage in the Middle East.

Begun in 2002 and traditionally held the first Saturday of May each year, Free Comic Book Day is a celebration of comics, comic book stores, comics fans, and publishers. As the name implies, participating comic-book retailers give away free comics to customers and walk-in visitors to the shops on that day. The freebies are usually special edition comics produced exclusively for the nationwide event.

To learn more about Free Comic Book Day—including previews of this year's FCBD comics—visit the campaign's website at http://www.freecomicbookday.com. And be sure to visit your local comic book retailer on May 1 to pick up free comics! (To find a participating comic book store in your area, use the site's FCBD store locator.)

The free download from WCG Comics will also help kick off the news that the first volume of a projected series of trade paperbacks collecting Rob Hanes Adventures will be released this summer. Stay tuned for the official announcement shortly!

My Robert Culp Story

2010-03-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

Given the passing of actor Robert Culp, I thought this would be an appropriate time to share a personal anecdote about the actor that actually connects to comics....

One night several years back, I came home to find a voice message from someone who said he had gotten my number from comics fan and mutual friend Shel Dorf. The quality of the message wasn't very good, but the caller in the message said he was developing a film adaptation of Milton Caniff's adventure strip, Terry and the Pirates, and was looking for an artist to do a comic-book tie-in with the movie. Shel had told the caller that I was one of the best Caniff-inspired artists around and passed along my phone number. He said his name was Robert Culp.

I didn't think anything of it (remember, the quality of the machine message wasn't very good) and the next day returned his call. When he got on the line and said, "This is Robert Culp," I paused—there was no mistaking that voice. I can't recall if I asked him right away, but at some point during our conversation, I blurted out, "Excuse me, but are you Robert Culp the actor?" He quickly and matter-of-factly said yes, then went on to talk about the project.

He told me he was going to be going to Asia to begin shooting a Terry and the Pirates film he had scripted and needed an artist to do a comic-book adaptation tie in. (I can't recall now if he said he was directing it as well.) It turns out Culp was a huge Terry fan.

In addition to spending a little time reminiscing about the strip, I ended up giving Culp a little overview of how the comics publishing and distribution business worked. I recall thinking that a better way to go would be to simply license the adaptation to an established publisher (like Dark Horse) and let them do all the work rather than expend his own time, effort and resources to write and publish the comic-book. But at the time I kept this to myself, partly because he seemed determined to do the book himself and because, frankly, I decided it best to hold a bit back thinking this might be a way at some point to become involved in the project by helping him to shepherd the project.

In terms of doing the art, however, I didn't feel I had the time to commit to such a project—but I told him I would send him samples of my work. (I recall a slightly deflated Culp saying, "Randy, don't break my heart.") I ended up referring him to a fellow artist who I thought would be a good fit for the job. I spoke with him afterwards. Although he said they had an interesting conversation, my friend wasn't sure yet if he would do it—he was concerned about the tight timeline and that Culp wanted a straight Caniff impersonation which wouldn't allow much room for personal expression—but he said if he did take the job, he'd need help and wondered if I would be interested. I, of course, said "yes," and had hoped I would have a chance to contribute somewhat to the project if my buddy did it.

Knowing how Hollywood works, I did immediately wonder how solid the film really was, especially since I hadn't heard about it. As time passed, of course, nothing came of it—but as I said, that's how Hollywood works. A year or two later I passed him at a signing at the San Diego Comic-Con, but decided not to introduce myself, not being sure if he'd remember our telephone conversation. (I think I have a photo from that time, but couldn't find it in time for this post.)

In doing some research for this piece, I did find a few Culp and Terry references. An article about the recent complete IDW compilation of the strip from 2007 mentions that Culp "had written several screenplays for a Terry film, but to date, nothing has come from it." The Wikipedia article on Terry and the Pirates also mentions that "Robert Culp admitted that the comic strip Terry and the Pirates was his inspiration for the 'tone' and 'spirit' and 'noir heightened realism' of the 1965 NBC TV Series, I Spy."

Though "I Spy" was before my time (though it was available in reruns when I was growing up) and I wasn't a big fan of "Greatest American Hero," I nevertheless was very familiar with Culp and enjoyed his affable, easy-going manner.

In any case, the news of Culp's passing gave me an opportunity to remember this brief personal encounter with the actor, connecting on a common interest we shared.

News links....

2010-03-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a "news dump" for a couple of links of note....

Kirby Heirs Sue for Copyright
From one of my primary comics/pop culture news sources, Heidi MacDonald's Comics Beat, comes the news that the heirs of the late Jack "King" Kirby, who is credited with creating or co-creating many of Marvel Comics' most iconic characters including Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, etc., have filed for partial copyright ownership of the characters.

This was not unexpected and has been part of a broader trend. This action is based on copyright law revisions made decades ago that gave creators an opportunity to terminate transfers of copyright 35 years after the transfer in order to re-claim ownership of a property. The action by the Kirby estate follows similar action taken by the heirs to Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster against DC Comics/Warner Brothers, which remains ongoing and unresolved. (The heirs recently received some ownership of Superboy.)

Adding to the drama, of course, is the fact that Disney recently purchased Marvel, and has a history of aggressively protecting their properties. (They recently won a major judgment against the Winnie the Pooh estate.)

Interview with Disney Director Don Hahn
The Animation Magazine website has posted from the print publication an interview with Disney animation director Don Hahn, who played a role in Disney's animation feature renaissance during the 1980s that began with Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, and which Pixar has continued in spirit.

The interview coincides with a documentary that Hahn actively participated in called Waking Sleeping Beauty about the intense backstage politics and maneuverings the directors, artists and creative talent had to navigate within the Disney studio to get their features made. Though Hahn clearly looks back at those days with pride and fondness, there nevertheless was a lot of the kind of intensity and competition Hollywood is famous for—understandable given the amount of money at stake—that involved even the people at the very top including Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Roy Disney. Nevertheless, with hindsight Hahn is able to say something positive about nearly everyone and even learned new things himself about what was happening behind the scenes during the making of the documentary.

Backing into Forward
Last Sunday's Los Angeles Times Arts and Culture section had a nice article on Jules Feiffer, coinciding with the release of an autobiography, Backing Into Forward: A Memoir. I'll be picking it up at some point, if for not other reason than to read about his years working with Will Eisner (which the L.A. Times article mentions).

Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibit

2010-03-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

It's often said that cartoonists aren't simply artists, but must also function as cinematographers, set and costume designers, prop masters, etc.

With this in mind, this past Saturday, I visited the 18th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in downtown L.A. with my family. (The show runs through April 17 and is free to the public.) Though I am hardly a clothes horse (or, as Steve Martin described it at this past weekend's Academic Awards ceremony, "clothes whore")—and it's my wife who usually takes the initiative to make sure we see the show each year—it's an exhibition I always enjoy taking in, and find instructive for my work as a cartoonist.

We actually have taken in the exhibition for many years now, which features the actual movie costumes and clothing created and worn in films from the preceding year, including most if not all of the costume designs nominated for an Academy Award. This year's exhibition featured costumes from, among many, Aliens in the Attic, Broken Embraces, Coraline, An Education, G.I. Joe, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Inglourious Basterds, Julie & Julia, My One and Only, Night in the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian, Nine, Pirate Radio, Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, Watchmen, and Where the Wild Things Are.

The show is fun because you get to see the actual movie costumes up close, and a sense of the actual size of the actors who wore the costume (for example, how tall Nicole Kidman must be in real life!).

However, it's also instructive because of my work as a cartoonist—getting the "costumes" right for a character—or at least making it interesting—is one of many challenges a cartoonist faces when working on a story. The exhibition understandably does not allow visitors to take photos (the photo accompanying this blog was taken from an Internet report of a past show), but one often sees numerous visitors at the exhibition—presumably aspiring fashion designers—making sketches. (Inspired myself by a few of the costumes, I borrowed a sketchpad from my wife to make some sketches for my own reference for the future!)

But even if you're not into fashion and just a movie fan, it's a fun, relaxing and enjoyable show to take in, located at the FIDM's gallery on its main floor in a quiet non-descript street L.A. just a few blocks from the new Staples Center where it's easy to find street parking on a Saturday, as we did (and do every year). While some people might find the exhibition itself to be a fairly quick walk-through, I would suggest using the visit to downtown as an opportunity to explore downtown by visiting the re-gentrified Staples Center or visiting the new trendy restaurants in the area, or perhaps some other landmarks like Japantown, the Disney Performance Hall, or the Museum of Contemporary Art. There's also a charming little park area right on the grounds, and the gallery features a small but funky museum store.

FIDM is located at 919 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90015.

Note: The photos accompanying this article are from past FIDM motion picture costume design exhibitions taken from other blog reports. Featured top right is a costume from the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and the Dark Knight Returns.

A LOOK BACK: Books about Comics (Part 3)

2010-02-25T16:25:00.000-08:00

This is the third installment in an ongoing reminiscence of books from my adolescence that fed my interest in cartooning and comics history. Parts one and two are still available.

The Adventurous Decade (1975) by Ron Goulart
Though Goulart is primarily a successful author and fiction writer, he also has developed a reputation as a comics and pop culture historian. I discovered The Adventurous Decade: Comic Strips in the 1930s at a local library in the late '70s and it became a book I frequently borrowed. At some point, I had photocopied my favorite chapters from the book for personal use, but I finally purchased a used, early printing of the book.)

Though it includes some comics exerpts, the book is primarily a collection of essays focusing on specific comic strips or genres. As anyone familiar with my work knows, the initial inspiration for my own comic-book series, Rob Hanes Adventures, grew out of my love of classic adventure strips, which came into their own and experienced their golden age in the 1930s, so this book was a natural for me. Chapters are devoted to Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, and Terry. The chapter on Terry is especially engaging, vividly recalling the immediacy and popularity of Milton Caniff's series, and the tremendous impact it had on the newspaper strip field.

This book also introduced me to Roy Crane and his seminal adventure strip, Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy (which I have previously covered here and here). While I was already somewhat aware of Crane's work, this was the first time I began to have an inkling of how innovative and respected the artist was, who had been largely forgotten by the mainstream and even many comics fans, though his work was one of the most important precursors to the classic adventure strip. Indeed, it wasn't until years later that his work became somewhat more widely available (his run on Wash Tubbs has since been collected in its entirety, as has some of his work on Buz Sawyer). But at that time, that was my widest exposure to Crane's work.

Backstage at the Strips (1977) by Mort Walker
Mort Walker, creator and cartoonist of Beetle Bailey, as well as a co-creator and writer or artist of comic strips Hi and Lois, Boner's Ark, and Sam's Strip has long been one of the senior deans of the syndicated cartooning profession.

While Backstage is a memoir of sorts, it's also a behind-the-scenes look at the cartooning profession. With the book, Walker tried to demystify the field a bit, primarily because, remembering when he was a young aspiring cartoonist himself, he felt there was little information about the nuts and bolts of the profession.

Backstage is written in a very easy-going and entertaining manner, and Walker doesn't shy from telling funny anecdotes about his peers—back in the day, syndicated cartooning was a real "boys club" and a lot of their extracurricular activities seemed to be centered around golfing and drinking. As a young aspiring cartoonist myself, I recall spending hours reading this book in bookstores. (Like the Adventurous Decade above, I finally purchased a used copy a few years ago.) Though cartooning is clearly hard work, Walker acknowledges he is fortunate to be making a living at what he loves. He also shows himself to be an enterprising businessman.

Walker reveals himself to be a true student of the field, as well as a fan—he talks about sending a fan letter to Milton Caniff. (Walker has also been the driving force behind the National Cartoon Museum, which had a tumultuous history until Walker merged his collection with the respected Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University.)

At the time it was published, Backstage provided a little seen window into the day-to-day life of a cartoonist. The book was perfectly complimented years later by a comprehensive interview that Walker gave for the Comics Journal, which I reviewed here.

Origins of Marvel Comics (1974) by Stan Lee
This is another book I read as an adolescent primarily in bookstores.

Capitalizing on the success of Marvel Comics as a mini-pop-culture phenomenon, as well as a mini-resurgence of interest in the form at the time, this book was one of the earliest attempts to document the history of Marvel Comics' early days—written by someone who was there, Stan "The Man" Lee himself!

The story is engagingly told in Lee's distinctive personal voice, which played such an important role in Marvel's astounding success in attracting readers—in both this book and his "Stan's Soapbox" editorials in the comics, Lee had a way of making you feel like he was talking directly to you and that Marvel and its fanbase were one big happy family.

Origins helped cement the mythos of Marvel for decades—in retrospect, it was as much a promotional tool for the company as it was a first-person account of the company's early days.

In recent years, it's been popular to disparage Origins—Lee's persona and the aura of Marvel Comics in those early years were closely intertwined, and some feel Lee's charisma and natural talent for self-promotion made the book a bit self-serving and downplayed the contributions of the cartoonists he worked with; some have even considered the book an attempt by Lee to rewrite history by grabbing the lion's share of the credit for Marvel's success for himself.

Frankly, when Lee wrote the book, I doubt he was thinking that far ahead. Always the quintessential company man, Lee likely saw the book as a way to promote the company and, at the time, he probably didn't consider the book as something that would stand as the final world on the subject—again, he was merely advancing the mythos of Marvel, to which he was inarguably central.

Nevertheless, with these caveats in mind, Origins is a jaunty, entertaining read. It remains one of the first primary source materials written by someone who was there and provides some insight into Lee and the early days of the company. Given the rise of the company into an entertainment powerhouse—culminating this past decade with the success of its own movie production company and Marvel's eventual sale to the Walt Disney Company—it should be looked at as a rough draft of the company's first act, and a precursor of what was to come.

In Time for Valentine's Day....

2010-02-09T18:48:00.000-08:00

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, I thought it fitting to place front and center at the rhadventures website a Rob Hanes Adventures romance story I did back in 1999 entitled "The Real Julianne Love." Click here or on the image at right to read the 8-page story in its entirety.

The story appeared in Love in Tights #2, a quarterly superhero–romance anthology series published by Slave Labor Graphics that appeared in February 1999. When I was invited to submit a story by the editor, J. Torres, I leapt at the chance. Around that time, I had become enthralled by the romance comics work of one of my favorite cartoonists, Alex Toth—Toth had done extensive work in the romance field and the work was finally being more widely seen thanks to a series of compilations devoted to this respected artist's artist. Toth was well suited to the naturalistic, illustrative tone of romance comics (versus the more operatic superhero comics), and said he enjoyed working on such stories when they were well written. Toth was very much on my mind when I produced "Julianne Love." I enjoyed the opportunity to do a romance story as well as work in a superhero adventure of sorts—and all within just 8 pages!

So I am pleased to re-present the story in time for Valentine's Day. Enjoy!

Below: Toth romance story page.