Not only do I want to wish Johnny Hart and Gahan Wilson each a happy birthday—but apparently my wall does, too!

As I read on various comics-related sites of the shared birthdays (though not shared birth years) of the two men, I realized that there was a party going on for them right here in my office.

Hanging over the door is this B.C. strip which originally ran June 26, 1973, and which Hart gave me either that year or the year after. We met at the annual Reuben Awards weekend run by the National Cartoonist Society where I had been a guest of Bill Kresse. Hart sent me this strip a few weeks later.

He didn’t know me save from our brief conversation, yet I don’t believe he could have given me a B.C. installment better suited to my personality had he known me for years. Give it a few clicks to bring it to a readable size and those who know me will see what I mean.

Unfortunately, Hart passed in 2007. Had he lived, he would have been 79 today.

Luckily, Gahan Wilson is still with us. He turned 80 today. (more…)

A story at boingboing the other day sent me to the site of artist Glennray Tutor, who’s responsible for the image below. What’s remarkable is that Tutor is not, as you at first might think, a photographic artist. That isn’t a photo of marbles resting on an open comic-book page. Rather, it’s a painting. All of it. And whatever you think of photorealism as a school of painting, it’s still an amazing feat.

And unlike Roy Lichtenstein (whom my wife eviscerates here at one of her blogs), Tutor isn’t trying to pass off someone else’s work as his own. That is, unlike Lichtenstein, whose works might be mistaken for being merely comics-inspired rather than a theft from specific panels by specific artists, with Tutor it’s clear that there’s existing source material.

So—what about that source material?

Based on the lettering across the top of the splash page, this was from an issue of Heart Throbs. (For other similar paintings, click on the link to the artist’s site above.

According to the Grand Comics Database, there were 46 issues of that title published by Quality Comics from August 1949 through December 1956, and 100 issues published by DC from April/May 1957 through October 1972. Since I don’t have the time or energy to go page by page online through 146 TOCs, can anyone recognize the story and spare me?

I guess I could always e-mail the artist and ask. But where would be the fun in that?

Back before I abandoned the comic-book business, I wrote many short stories for the horror mags put out by DC Comics, including House of Mystery, House of Secrets, The Unexpected, and Secrets of Haunted House. (And even some for the science fiction and war titles, such as Time Warp and Weird War Tales.) This being Valentine’s Day, I thought I share a horrific romance with you.

The story below, “To Master a Mummy,” was published in House of Secrets #154, the October/November 1978 issue. I had a second spooky story in that issue, “The Knight in the Gilded Cage,” drawn by the magnificent Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, but alas … no romance.

This story was pencilled by Charles Nicholas and inked by Romeo Tanghal. But that doesn’t really tell the whole story. Because three different artists have used the pseudonym of Charles Nicholas over the years. I’m fairly certain, however, that the artist who drew my story was this one, not this one. And most definitely not this one.

But none of that minutiae has to do with Valentine’s Day, so—Happy Valentine’s Day.

And may your romances not end up as horrifically as this one!

(more…)

In 1978, Marvel had plans to create a short promotional movie to sing its own praises. Why? And to whom? Was it meant for advertisers? Possible Licensees? Hollywood studios to which the company was pitching its characters?

Who knows? All I can say for sure is that a seven-page script was created titled “The Marvel Age of Comics: 15 Minute History in Film,” one that explained how, starting in 1961, Stan Lee changed everything. The film was meant to be narrated by Stan himself, who can be seen in sketch form on the first page of the script below.

The artist for that six-panel intro? None other than Stan’s baby brother Larry Lieber, who also happened to script the introductory appearances of both Iron Man and Thor.

There’s plenty of interesting info here, especially when Stan explains the creation of two of Marvel’s most important properties. (more…)

In order to track down exactly when I’d interviewed Steve Gerber, I pulled out my back issues of the Marvel Comics fan magazine FOOM, and you know what happens once I pull out old magazines. I can’t resist reading them.

Among the many intriguing things I found was this blurb in the “Department of Infoomation” of FOOM #10, the June 1975 issue, which explained a bit more about the Scarecrow comic that never was, filling in some of the blanks about the Don Perlin splash page I’d forgotten I’d even owned.

It’s also the only place I’ve ever seen a third issue mentioned. Wonder what I’d meant by “supernatural turns super-hero”?

I’m guessing Ruben Yandoc was meant to have drawn the story meant to be introduced by that Perlin splash I’d found. Did Yandoc ever draw it? Did I ever even plot it?

I don’t think so, but I honestly can’t remember for sure. When I walked away from comics, and disposed of most of my collection, I think I suppressed many of my memories at the same time. For all I know, there could be a typed plot in a box in the basement. If I ever find one, I’ll certainly share it here for what few Scarecrow fans there are out there.

That blurb at the top will be of interest to Gerber and Omega fans. What kind of a vague tease is that? Was Marvel being deliberately coy, or did we truly not know what Steve had planned?

Yet another mystery in an unending string of Marvel mysteries …

I love timelines, particularly when they’re about something I already know. Reading them is an exercise in recognition, in remembering, in reliving. But every once in a while, there’s that odd factoid that seems to have slipped through from an alternate universe, that causes me to go—”Huh? I don’t remember that!”

So it was with the page below, plucked from Jimmy Olsen #100, and originally published in March 1967. As I read it, I thought—

Return of Krypto? Check! Remember that.

Jimmy teams with Superman to become Nightwing and Flamebird? Check! Remember that, too.

Jimmy turned into a werewolf, and only brought back to normal thanks to the intervention of—Mr. Mxyzptlk’s girlfriend, Miss Gzptlsnz?

Who? What? (more…)

There’s something irresistible about the first issue of a new comic. As they launch themselves into the world, they’re often filled with so much hope and promise as to be poignant. And the house ads for them, well, they’re like birth announcements. You have no idea yet what the little thing may grow into, but you still root for them. (Well, I do, anyway.)

So it is with the ad below for the first issue of Boy Commandos, which was originally printed on the back cover of World’s Finest Comics #8 (Winter 1942/1943). I ran across it as Irene and I were going through some old comics and instantly thought, “Man, I have to pick up an issue of that!

Of course, it’s 67 years too late. But Simon and Kirby sure knew how to work their magic, even then.

One interesting difference between comics then and now? Note the announcement of “the first release of a new ‘surprise feature’ that will have you cheering for more and more!” I don’t have a copy of that issue, but based on my reading of the table of contents, I assume it’s reference to the first appearance of the character Liberty Belle. No contemporary comic would ever hide its superheroine away when it could display her in a sexy pose on the cover to boost sales.

But that was a more innocent time. Or maybe just a time when publishers thought their readers were little boys who would go ‘yuck!’ if they saw a girl on the cover.

The universe would like me to share an anecdote about the short-lived comic-book company Atlas, founded in 1974 by Martin Goodman, who also founded another company you might have heard of—Marvel Comics!

As I’ve mentioned before, Sean Howe, author of Give Our Regards to the Atomsmashers!, is working on a book about Marvel in the ’70s. His mention of Atlas in an e-mail today sent me scurrying to the vault …

So here’s a memo, dated March 18, 1975, from Marvel Publisher Al Landau to Production Manager Sol Brodsky that was then forwarded to Editor-in-Chief Len Wein before eventually making its way to Editorial Assistant me.

Obviously, Landau was hoping there’d be a smoking gun that would prove Marvel had been ripped off. (more…)

I was going through some old comics this evening and found the ad below in Jimmy Olsen #90, the January 1966 issue. The Superman 80-Page Giant being advertised was cover-dated the same month.

If you click through the image several times to blow it up as large as you can, you’ll see a couple of things that intrigued me.

First, note Superman is telling the audience of 1966 that the reprinted stories were “published before you were born,” that “less than 100 copies of this issue are still in existence” (tsk, tsk, Superman, don’t you know the proper usage should be “fewer”?) and that “collectors will pay $30.00 and up for a perfect copy!”

$30.00? Wow! (more…)

Today’s mail brought yet another omnibus volume from Marvel Comics which reprinted one of my late ’70s stories. With the reprint books I’ve been in over the past few years, plus the ones coming out over the next 12 months that I already know of, there’ll soon be little left from my early Marvel comic-book output that won’t be available to new readers.

The latest collection is Essential Avengers Vol. 7, which includes my 8-page story about the Vision, drawn by Herb Trimpe. It’s a fun little story, but as I flipped through the book, and realized that it included writer Steve Englehart’s final issues of the Avengers comic, I remembered I owned something I think you’ll find far more interesting than anything I ever wrote. (more…)