Video: Spain Rodriguez, Dan Fogel and Mark Bode

October 2, 2011: Here are cartoonists Spain Rodriguez, Dan Fogel and Mark Bode at a book signing at The Escapist comic book store in Berkeley, CA.

Philadelphia: Tomb of Dracula #10 (1976) Live! Onstage!

Above cover to Marvel Comics' TOMB OF DRACULA #10 from the Grand Comic Book Database, cover by Gil Kane with inks by Tom Palmer. Interior written by Marv Wolfman. Gene Colan penciled with Jack Abel inking.

Philadelphia's Play & Players Theater will perform the comic book onstage, which features the debut of "Blade -- The Vampire Slayer!" Details below:

Superheroes Are Super!
Comic book nerds rejoice! Now you can watch your favorite classic comic book titles come to life during these staged, word-for-word readings, equipped with low-budget costumes, special effects, witty wordplay and, of course, some physical hijinks. The October “issue” will include a performance of Tomb of Dracula #10 from 1976 and a special appearance by Philly cartoonist Robert Berry, who will be honoring the recently deceased graphic artist Gene Colan and his legendary work. December’s “issue” will have a holiday theme.
Oct. 21-22. Dec. 9-10. 9pm. $12-$15. Plays & Players Theater, 1714 Delancey St. 215.735.0630. playsandplayers.org

Read more: http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/arts-and-culture/comedy/The-Best-Comedy-Events-This-Fall-2011.html#ixzz1Yga0pkK0

TOMB #10 has a July 1973 cover date according to the Grand Comic Book Database. Perhaps the 1976 date is a misprint.

MICKEY MOUSE in "Eviction"

Times are so tough ... (How tough are they?")

Times are so tough, Mickey Mouse is getting evicted.

And what's this mouse doing ogling the lady?

AAUGH! THAT"S NOT THE MICKEY WE KNOW AND LOVE! Heck, she's not even his species!

Art by Floyd Gottfredson from WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES #77, February 1947, via The House of Cobwebs

ELLERY QUEEN Comics

The great minds of two bloggers think alike, creating two complete ELLERY QUEEN comic book stories reproduced on the same day.

 

From Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: ELLERY QUEEN #1, 1952, Ziff-Davis Publications.

And from Saved From the Paper Drive: an Ellery Queen story "The Curse of Kane" from Dell Four Color #1289, March 1962.

Flying Saucers Comics #2, July 1967

The Comic Reading Library has it all here.

Big tip of the space helmet to Stephen DeStefano!

1950s-60s TV Comic Book Covers

The Saved From the Paper Drive blog showcases a mountain of TV-related comic book covers from the 1950s and 60s. Most are Dell and Gold Key. The interesting thing about the collection is that there were comic books for such short lived, not-so-well-remembered series as HE'S DICKENS, I'M FENSTER, IT'S ABOUT TIME and THE NEW PEOPLE.

Begin with Part One here. 

This got me thinking about today's television. What if there were Dell and Gold Key Comics around today? What would their TV show tie-in covers look like?

I think they would go a little like this ...

Above: A BURN NOTICE Dell comic book cover I made up. I would buy it -- especially if it had some Dan Spiegle art in it!

Above: the Gold Key PROJECT RUNWAY comic book cover mock up!

Above: THE MILLIONAIRE MATCHMAKER comic that I Photoshopped. OK, I don't think I'd buy this one.

OK, a 30 ROCK TV comic book with Kenneth the Page on the cover? I would totally read this one.

A mock up cover for Dell Comics' THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLS. Drama, drama, drama! And plastic surgery! This would be a big seller!

 

Note how the line-up for Rachel Maddow's comic book are from THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW and the other half are from THE LAND OF THE GIANTS! Hoo ha! Mash up, mash up!

And here's a made-up cover for Gold Key Comics' JERSEYLICIOUS!

Lots of fun to mash up these covers, I tell ya!

JACK BENNY COMICS?

Well, no. There were comics about Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis -- but there was never an issue of a book called JACK BENNY COMICS. The above image is a fake that's been making the rounds on the Web.

But Jack and Mary and Rochester and the gang did appear in comics at least once: in a short tale titled "Hello Again! This is Jack Benny"  TRUE COMICS # 69, February 1947!

Saved From the Paper Drive has the scans here!

Wally Wood and Dave Stevens

The cover to Eclipse Comics' May 1986 WORLD OF WOOD #2 sported pencils by Wally Wood and inks by Dave Stevens. Bhob Stewart (who wrote AGAINST THE GRAIN: MAD ARTIST WALLACE WOOD) shows us a few sketches and the finish by this dynamic comics duo.

KING LEONARDO

 The Magic Whistle begins to scan in a 1962 Dell Comics FOUR COLOR COMICS book #1241: KING LEONARDO AND HIS LOYAL SHORT SUBJECTS.

"Simple Hands" by Al Wiseman

"Simple Hands"

by Al Wiseman

OVER 500 HANDS -

IN EVERY CONCEIVABLE POSITION.

Only $3.00 - postpaid

SIZE 81/2 x 11" - PLASTIC BOUND FOR EASY OPENING

CARTOONEWS 330 Myrtle Street  Redwood  City, Calif. 94062

-- from an advertisement in CARTOONEWS #2, May 1975.

I would love to see a copy of this. Never have.

Al Wiseman is best known as Hank Ketcham's DENNIS THE MENACE assistant. He produced many, many issues of the DTM comic book. 

Which gives me an excuse to post a couple of grand Wiseman art examples:

DENNIS THE MENACE #119, March 1972,

DENNIS THE MENACE FAR OUT SPACE STORIES, No. 48, Summer 1967.

 

Back cover of DENNIS THE MENACE FAR OUT SPACE STORIES, No. 48, Summer 1967.

Related: Dennis the Menace Meets Jewish Neighbors (1971)

SNOOPER AND BLABBER: GOLD KEY #1 1962

The Comicrazys blog scans in an entire issue of SNOOPER AND BLABBER by an uncredited artist. Just looking a the ink lines, the layout -- the energy and skill in the drawings -- makes me linger on each panel. Wonderful work!

What Do You Use for Reference?

You can get lost doing reference. Google images can be a time sucker -- a fun time sucker, but, well, nonetheless. You have to be careful with your time. And you also, as a cartoonists, need to be able to draw EVERYTHING.

One of my dear friends was the late, great Tom Gill (1913-2005). If you were a boy who read Western comic books in the 1950s, you knew Tom Gill's work.

Tom, who was raised in Flatbush Brooklyn, NY, drew the popular LONE RANGER and SILVER comic books for Dell/Gold Key in the 1960s. Tom did some other Western books too, including licensed properties like BONANZA. Most of these were produced in his Long Island studio. He was a prolific hard working cartoonist, who also made time to teach.

One day, in the early 2000's, during a visit to his home, we were paging through some of his original LONE RANGER art. I admired the detail: the sagebrush, spurs, horses, Western towns, etc. -- all excellently delineated. I asked him what he used for reference.

"Reference? I didn't have time for reference!" was the answer he growled at me.

Related: Lone Ranger #38 via Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine
Tom Gill's unseen THE ADVENTURES OF BRAINS BENTON comic strip proposal
Tom Gill: A Personal Remembrance

Simon and Kirby Swipes

The French site BDZoom has a selection of Simon & Kirby comics compared with newspaper panels by Hal Foster and Alex Raymond. There is, to borrow that French expression, a sense of déjà vu. English translation here.

Gene Colan 1926-2011

Gene Colan has died at the age of 84 at a Bronx, NY hospice "following a broken hip and complications from liver disease," reports his friend Clifford Meth.

Considered to be one of the premier Silver Age Marvel artists, Colan illustrated some of the world's most famous comics characters, from Captain America and Doctor Strange to Daredevil and Blade.


He co-created the latter with writer Marv Wolfman and, in 1969, created the Falcon with Stan Lee. A regular partner of Captain America, the Falcon was the first African-American superhero to feature in mainstream comics.

-- Joanne McCabe writing for Metro Online

In the 1970s, Colan drew all 70 issues of Marvel's horror series The Tomb of Dracula, and much of the Steve Gerber-written satire Howard the Duck. During his stint on Tomb of Dracula, Colan and writer Marv Wolfman created Blade, a character that went on to inspire three films starring Wesley Snipes and a television series.

Colan worked extensively for DC Comics in the 1980s, including multiple issues of both Batman and Detective Comics. At DC, he also reunited with Wolfman for the 14-issue supernatural series Night Force, and experimented stylistically with two Nathaniel Dusk miniseries.

-- Albert Ching for Newsrama

As a reader, I loved Gene's work. There was a credibility about it: No matter how outlandish the premise or plot, Gene somehow made you believe it. His pencil art was magnificent...in many ways, too good for the assembly line production process and the flimsy printing that it usually received. As good as his work looked in your comics, it was always probably better.

-- Mark Evanier

This man was my introduction to Marvel Comics. There was a little drugstore at the end of time in Lawrence, KS. I went to elementary school in that town. For some reason the drug store stocked comics that were 5, 6 or 7 years old on its spinner rack. I bought Daredevil Special #1, in like-new condition, for its cover price of 25 cents. A major investment! My first Marvel comic book.

The energy in those drawings as Daredevil fought his enemies ("Electro and his emissaries of evil") was captivating. Colan had a dramatic style that seemed cinematic.

In the 1970s, my peak Marvel-geek years, I would buy ANYTHING Colan: DD, Howard the Duck, Tomb of Dracula, Captain America and the Falcon. Even after I stopped buying comics, I hadn't outgrow Colan. I'd buy his later projects, like Nathaniel Dusk, and be in awe just like I was when I was a tot in Kansas.

He was my Jack Kirby. Through his work, I got into the Marvel Comics line.

He will be missed.

Dorothy Lamour Comic Book "The Road to Stardom"

Oo la la!

John Glenn Taylor's Easily Mused blog gives us a 1949 comic book story about the one and only Dorothy Lamour in "The Road to Stardom."

"Even when she was four years old, Dorothy was a great performer."

THE NEW KROFFT SUPERSHOW No. 2, May 1978

It's a beautiful day. Stop reading them dang fool comic books and go outside!

Hey, here's an entire comic book that you could have bought for 35 cents in February 1978.


Here is THE NEW KROFFT SUPERSHOW No. 2, May 1978. It's copyright 1978 by Sid and Marty Krofft TV Productions, Inc an based on their 1976-78 TV series. The Big Comic Book Database credits Fred Fredericks with the interior art. The comic book, like the TV show, had different live-action characters. This book features Magic Mongo, Kaptain Kool and the Kongs, Bigfoot and Wildboy, and Wonderbug. Mr. Fredericks was very adept at capturing the likenesses of the actors and changing his style a bit from feature to feature.

 Yes! Here's a Twinkies ad featuring Marvel character Captain America!

The art here is pretty darn good, I thought. Certainly a skillful job by Mr. Fredericks, who continues King Features' MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN today.

Above: one of the two STAR WARS ads in the book. My local theatre was STILL playing STAR WARS. There were places that ran that movie for a year. And people still came!

Above: the first official STAR WARS watch by Bradley. One of those first year, proto-STAR WARS pieces of merchandise. I've seen it on eBay, mint, in its case, for $500.

I would read a whole book of Captain Kool & the Kongs doing bad Laugh-In jokes!

Above: some bad drawings in that Super pocket Toy Values ad, huh? Can't think that they ever sold any.

And we close with an ad for CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND trading cards and the classic Sea-Monkeys ad.