Back when I told you what I bought at this year’s Small Press Expo in Bethesda, I mentioned that I’d attended three presentations. What I didn’t say was that I recorded the one that interested me the most, “The Secret History of Women in Comics.” Not just so I could share it with you, but so that my wife, Impish Irene Vartanoff, who wasn’t able to be in the audience that day but who could be considered a part of that history, would be able to witness it, too.

Sorry it’s taken me two weeks to get this up on YouTube, but, hey … I’ve been busy.

In any case, the panel, held Saturday, September 10, 2011 at SPX, was described as follows on the program: “The increased involvement of women in the comics field over the past several years has been a significant positive change in a historically male-dominated industry. However, just as it’s worth celebrating this progressive revolution, it is also worth noting that today’s women cartoonists are part of a lineage of pioneering women who have made many contributions to the field. Heidi MacDonald will discuss this history with Jessica Abel, Robyn Chapman, Alexa Dickman and Diane Noomin.”

And here it is!

Thank goodness those guys got rid of that silly upside-down spaceship headquarters in exchange for something more environmentally aware.

I didn’t get to attend the Small Press Expo last year because our trip to Melbourne for Worldcon trumped everything, so I was glad I had no SPX conflicts this time around. I only attended Saturday, but still managed to make it to three programming items—a Q&A with Roz Chast and Kate Beaton about working at the New Yorker, a panel on the Secret History of Women in Comics moderated by Heidi MacDonald and featuring Jessica Abel, Robyn Chapman, Alexa Dickman, and Diane Noomin, and a presentation by Chester Brown on his new graphic novel Paying For It. In between all that, I had drinks with John Sullivan and Jamie Gegerson, and of course made several circuits of the dealers room.

I managed to resist most impulse buys, but here are three things I found I couldn’t resist.

The first book that caught my eye was Frog & Owl: Regret is for the Weak, by Molly Lawless. There was something about the title that attracted me. Maybe it’s from too much reading of Frog and Toad are Friends to my son a couple of decades ago, but the idea of a dysfunctional relationship of a similar animal pair attracted me. So I picked it up and started to read.

The second strip in the book, titled “Love Is” (see below), made me laugh. And as I then told the artist, “OK, you made me laugh. Now I have to buy it.”

It was a good choice, because when I read the book on getting home last night, Lawless made me laugh a LOT. (more…)

Sunday, September 4th, will be our 35th wedding anniversary, which Irene and I will celebrate at an undisclosed (for now) location. As you might expect, that’s made us a wee bit nostalgic, and sent us back to our photo albums to look at how all began.

So here are a couple of pics from when we were but tadpoles, back in the mid-’70s when we both worked in the Marvel Comics Bullpen and would have first met.

Can you believe that cutie ever took a second look at that doofus?

I’ve always prided myself on knowing in my bones that it’s Spider-Man (with a hyphen) and Superman (without), and I recently gave somebody I know a smackdown for leaving out that all-important hyphen. But I see now that even Marvel itself got mixed up at first, as this page from Amazing Fantasy #15 (Spidey’s debut, remember?) proves.

The third paragraph refers to the web-slinger not just as “Spiderman,” but as “The Spiderman”—something that as a former Marvel Comics proofreader makes my skin crawl!

I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the last time Marvel messed up … but at least now I understand why others might get it wrong, too.

If you’d like to own the original art for a complete 23-page Green Lantern story from the ’60s, you’ve got a little over three weeks to make your move. The story, titled “This is the Way the World Ends,” was written by Denny O’Neil and drawn by Jack Sparling and Sid Greene. It appeared in Green Lantern #63 (September 1968), and I believe (you’ll correct me if I’m wrong, of course) it was Denny’s first script for what would become one of his signature titles.

Why am I telling you this? Because a) the art in question is being sold by my wife as part of our grand decluttering project, and b) the funds will be used for another one of our exotic trips. Maybe Easter Island. And you want us to go to Easter Island, don’t you?

Check out the splash page below.

And now that you’ve gone gaga over that, go take a look at the rest of the issue over at Heritage Auctions, where you’ll also be able to place your bids.

You know you want to. How often does a complete Silver Age story turn up? And with the original DC inventory envelope the book was stored in as well!

Calling the image below my favorite photo from San Diego Comic-Con might seem like faint praise, considering how few pictures I snapped this year, so busy was I with getting content online for Blastr (this post about the DC reboot protest being my favorite example of that). But I have a feeling that no matter how many photos I might have ended up taking had I the free time, I still would have liked this one the best because of the way it marries the past and present.

To celebrate 50 years of comics fandom, Comic-Con threw a party Saturday night, “for fandom’s founders and early participants, including folks who were active in the 1960s, and 1970s, whether producing fanzines, writing LOCs, selling comics, or putting on conventions.” I was only able to attend briefly because the event conflicted with the party Syfy was throwing, but during the time I was there I was able to speak with George Clayton Johnson, Doug Fratz, George Olshevsky, Jim Salicrup, Greg Bear, Astrid Anderson Bear, and others, plus the stars of my favorite picture—Pat and Dick Lupoff.

What you see in their hands is the back of the program Jackie Estrada had printed for the occasion, which features a photo (one you may have seen before) of Pat and Dick from 51 years ago dressed as Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel at the 1960 World Science Fiction Convention in Pittsburgh.

Dick said he still owned that red shirt emblazoned with Captain Marvel’s lightning bolt, and threatened to wear it to the convention Sunday. I don’t know whether he did so or not … but man, if only I’d gotten a picture of THAT!

Feel like paying only a $2.50 admission to get in to Comic-Con? You can. But it won’t be the one that starts in San Diego tomorrow, I’m afraid. And you won’t be able to get there without a time machine, either.

Because the con I’m talking about took place in 1967, and in addition to only costing $2.50 to attend or to grab a dealers’ table, hotel rooms started at $7.50.

But if you do happen to have a time machine … then pay close attention to the details on the flyer below!

Since every use of the word “con” is in “quotes,” does that mean the word was still considered suspect slang back then? Or is that just the way they did things in Texas?

As soon as I learned that this year’s Stoker Awards banquet was going to be held on Long Island, I decided to make the most of it. And one way I did that was by bookending the event with lunches that had absolutely nothing to do with the primary reason for my trip.

I planned a Thursday lunch with Frank Cama, the Junior High School drama teacher who changed my life, and I planned a Sunday lunch with Marie Severin, the Marvel Comics artist who’s the funniest, nicest lady I ever met in the business. (Don’t worry—Irene won’t mind in the slightest that I said that.)

As the time for my lunch with the Mirthful one drew near, signs indicated to me that Fate was not indifferent to my trip, and very much wanted us to spend time together.

For example:

1) I was asked to present one of HWA’s two Lifetime Achievement Awards to Al Feldstein. The fact that Feldstein was an editor at EC Comics also meant that he was … Marie’s boss.

2) A couple of days before I was to head off to Long Island, I was contacted by Sean Howe, author of an upcoming history of Marvel Comics in the ’70s. He gave me the phone number of fellow Bullpenner Stu Schwartzberg so I could pass it on to Marie the next time I saw her … which Sean had no idea was only going to be a few days later.

3) I had dinner Friday night with (among others) William Freedman, who’s married to the niece of one of Marie’s high school classmates. We’d met online when he reached out to tell me about his encounter with Marie Severin and how she drew on his walls, and he retold that tale at our dinner party.

4) Sunday morning at the hotel, while noodling around online, I discovered that one of Marie’s most famous covers was on display as part of a comics exhibit at an Istanbul museum. Since Marie doesn’t do the Internet, this meant the only way she’d ever know about this honor was if I showed her that pic on my iPad.

You’d think those would be enough reasons to prove the universe was smiling at my encounter with Marie, but no, there was an even more astonishing one … (more…)

I’m just back from Long Island, where I went to take part in the Stoker Awards weekend, and I’ve got lots to say and neither the time nor the energy to say it all now. But one thing I want to make sure I do before the work week begins is share the remarks I made to present Al Feldstein with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association.

I may have deviated from the script below as I moved through my speech, but I think you’ll get the gist of it—to explain in 3-5 minutes to all those present the reasons why Feldstein deserved to be honored by the organization. (Fingers crossed that I haven’t deviated from fact.)

And so …

Those familiar with the Golden Age of horror comics our Lifetime Achievement Awards recipient Al Feldstein was responsible for back in the 1950s know that if HE had scripted the Stoker Awards weekend, it would start off with a punning title like, “I’m Fine, Horror You?” It would culminate in a banquet at which one of our Guests of Honor would mysteriously fail to show and meanwhile the steaks would taste REAL good. And once all the speechifying was over and we’d start rushing out of here to party, we’d find the halls lined with razor blades … and then some idiot would turn off the lights.

Feldstein was born in Brooklyn in 1925, and when he was 15, barely able to afford the subway fare to the High School of Music and Art which he attended in Manhattan, he learned that a friend was earning some money in the comic book business. Feldstein was hired by Jerry Iger of the Eisner and Iger shop, which created content for the comics publishing companies of the day, to do the scut work of ruling panel border, inking pointers on word balloons, and erasing pencils once pages were done … for three bucks a week.

He enlisted in the Air Force in 1943, where, among other thing, he designed flight jackets and painted squadron insignias, and after his discharge, he started freelancing for Fox Comics. But there was something missing about those assignments. Something like … getting paid in a timely manner, which I think many of you here in this room are all too familiar with. But he heard about another publishing company that treated its freelancers a little better, one called Entertaining Comics, owned by a guy named Bill Gaines. (more…)