Steve Skeates—the comics writer responsible for the first Marvel/DC crossover, one that not only took place in the final issues of two titles he wrote, but was also basically done without the powers that be at either company being aware of it—turned 69 today. (Consider yourself awarded a No Prize if you know which two comics those were without having to look it up.)

Happy birthday, Steve!

Steve was of a previous comics generation than me—hey, he co-created Hawk and Dove with Steve Ditko!—so we never got a chance to work together professionally, but I did score an autograph from him during my snotty kid with a sketchpad phase of fandom.

The drawing below was probably done at a convention in 1971, but if not then, surely no later than 1972.

Want to prove yourself really worthy of that No Prize? Then explain the relevance of that rather anxious-looking fish without looking it up!

Robert Hegyes, who played Juan Epstein on the ’70s TV series Welcome Back, Kotter, died yesterday of a heart attack. I never knew Hegyes … but boy, did I know Epstein!

In fact, because I grew up in Brooklyn, I felt as if I knew all the Sweathogs. (Which, for those of you who never watched the show, was the name for the gang of kids in Kotter’s class at James Buchanan High School.) And I’ve got a feeling that one reason I was given the assignment of writing a couple of issues of the Welcome Back, Kotter comic for DC back in the late ’70s was because Joe Orlando thought I was a Sweathog.

Oh, I know that the two issues I wrote list Larry Hama as the editor, but as I recall, all of my interactions on the title were with Orlando. I can remember him laughing as we worked out the plot for Welcome Back, Kotter #9 because I was embarrassingly just as ignorant as Vinnie Barbarino would have been about certain historical events. (And no, I’m not going to tell you what they were.) I think that tickled Joe. (more…)

Comic books made an appearance on Alcatraz Monday night, and luckily, they weren’t as difficult to identity as the one that showed up on that 1975 episode of the Mary Tyler Moore show. Jorge Garcia’s character, Dr. Diego “Doc” Soto, owns a comic book store, so I assumed we’d see comics as stage dressing in the background, but in the latest episode, a couple of issues had starring roles.

In the opening scene of the third episode, “Kit Nelson,” a child killer sneaks into a bedroom and spirits away one of two brothers … but not before we see what the kid must have fallen asleep reading.

I couldn’t quite make out the pictured hero or the logo, so at this point I had no idea whether this was a real-life comic or one supposedly created by Garcia’s character, who in addition to owning the shop, also happens to be a writer and artist. But later on, after the kid is [spoiler alert!] rescued, Garcia visits him and brings along some comics to cheer him up.

“I saw you were missing 12, 27, and 35,” says Garcia, to which the kid replies, “No way! This is awesome!”

And Garcia hands him this. (more…)

Remember my mysterious October mission? We’re almost at the end game.

As I told you back then, Irene decided to sell her copy of Amazing Fantasy #15. You know … the comic that introduced Spider-Man. She got some wild idea in her head that she should sock money away for our retirement so we’re not forced to eat cat food a few decades from now. Crazy, huh?

Anyway, if you’d like a shot at a beautiful copy of the book, Heritage will be auctioning hers off starting on February 3, 2012. Check out more details about the auction here.

If Amazing Fantasy #15 is too rich for your blood … (more…)

Steve Thompson, aware of my strong feelings about the paintings of Sharon Moody, alerted me to the comics-inspired art of Vin Vicini. Funny thing is, in spite of what could be seen as superficial similarities, the new images I saw didn’t bother me at all. So let’s take a look at a couple of Vicini’s paintings, and then I’ll explain why.

First, a 12″ x 12″ oil painting titled “Chapter 7: ‘Catch the Hero.'”

This first example includes details from the covers of Amazing Spider-Man #19 (December 1964), Batman #219 (February 1970), and Avengers #35 (December 1966), all of which I’ve rotated so you can more easily compare them to how they were used above.

Here’s one more, “Batman and the Crate,” an 11″ x 14″ oil painting. (more…)

NBC aired a 90th birthday tribute to Betty White last night, and the telecast included a montage of her funniest appearances as Sue Ann Nivens on Mary Tyler Moore from 1973 through 1977. One moment stood out more than the others. (To me, at least.)

It involved a kid reading a comic book. And what makes it interesting is that it’s a comic book with a title I can’t make quite decipher and a logo I don’t recognize.

Take a look below and tell me if you can do better. (I wish the screen shot could have been sharper, but this is the best I could do.)

So … what comic book was that?

Fantastic Blob? Apparently not, since according to the Grand Comics Database, the only comic with the word Blob in the title was published in 1988 … in Sweden. Searching on the word Slob was no help. If there’s some other word that ends with “lob” that was used in a title, I have no idea what that could be. And a search on the word Fantastic alone doesn’t yield any possibilities either.

I considered that perhaps the word in the title wasn’t Fantastic, but Funtastic. However, there seems to have only been a single title that ever included the world Funtastic— The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera—and none of that book’s three issues matches the cover seen on screen.

Could it be that this is one of those fake covers assembled solely for the purposes of being seen on TV without the show needing to worry about getting permissions?

Any comics gurus out there have any better ideas?

Boy … it was a heck of a lot easier tracking down the comic that appeared on an episode of Law & Order: SVU back in 2010!

Looks like there’ll be a few further examples of my ancient comics career excavated and put on display during the coming months. So if you’re interested in checking out some of my Bronze Age Marvel back-up features, but don’t want to go through the hassle of tracking down the original comics, here’s where you’ll be able to find them.

First out, on February 22, is Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Volume 8, which will apparently reprint my solo Angel story that originally appeared back in 1980 in Marvel Treasury Edition #27.

(more…)

I was chatting with a couple of people a few days back who didn’t realize that original comics art was drawn larger than it was printed nor that the standard size for such art had shrunk over the decades. And it struck me: Hey, they might not be the only ones out there who don’t know that!

And so … here I am with two choice pieces from my collection.

In my left hand, I’m holding a page from All-Star Western #104 (1958; art by Gil Kane), and in my right, I’m holding a page from Dead of Night #11 (1975; art by Rico Rival). Supposedly, the change from one size to the other occurred in 1967, and was all thanks to Murphy Anderson.

I bought the Kane at either my first or second comic book convention; I think I paid $2.00. As for the Rival splash, it’s one of the pages I was given back at Marvel for having written that issue.

As Norma Desmond said in Sunset Boulevard: “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.”

Now you know.

I headed to Manhattan Saturday for a visit to the Bernarducci Meisel Gallery so I could see for myself those Sharon Moody paintings which had so ticked me off three weeks ago. Would experiencing the real-world art hung on a gallery wall, as opposed to seeing them diminished into relatively small .jpgs, change the way I felt? Would attempting to see the artwork with the guidance of gallery director Frank Bernarducci lessen my irritation about what I saw as an obvious attribution issue?

I believed both the art and the artist deserved a shot at changing my mind, so it was worth a trip before the exhibition closed, which it will do on the 15th. So if you want to see it yourself, you’d better hurry.

[And since I don’t want to recap everything I’ve said before, if you have no idea what I’m talking about, and want to catch up, check out this, this, this, this, this, and this, in that order.]

But first, before diving into the visit itself … a tangent.

One reason I’m sensitive to this issue is because the artists whose work has been repurposed here are more than just names to me. Sure, some of them I may know from their work only (albeit work that affected me deeply and helped transform my life), but there were others who were far more than that to me. I worked alongside many of these creators during my days on staff at Marvel Comics (and yes, that’s what I looked like below, seen with my then-future wife in photos from the 1975 Marvel Comics Convention program book) and later as a freelancer for both Marvel and DC.

So I think of these people as friends and colleagues. And when I see an image by Jack Kirby or Ross Andru or José Luis García-López (the last of whom actually drew one of my own stories) or any other comics creator used without even a tip of the hat, I take it personally.

Ironically, even the gallery visit itself was personal. Because 37 West 57th Street happens to be only a block and a half away from 575 Madison Avenue, where I spent so many years working for Marvel during the ’70s. Whenever I’m in that part of midtown Manhattan, I usually pause in front of the building to remember of how my life was changed there. So you can see how wading through the geography of comics past to speak up on behalf of comics past might have gotten me a little verklempt.

But enough misty-eyed nostalgia … (more…)

As I head to New York to see in person the Sharon Moody art exhibition I’ve been going on about ever since this post—I’m hanging out at the Baltimore Amtrak station right now—I realize I’ve never shared the ad that started it all.

So here it is!

I’m looking forward to seeing the paintings in their natural habitat … and to trying to see it all through the eyes of the exhibition curator. Should make for a very interesting day!

Tune in tommorrow to learn exactly how interesting!