Check out cartoonist Kevin Cannon’s Blotchmen, which was created as part of this year’s 24-Hour-Comics Day event in Minneapolis.

Fanciful, fun, and worth your time whether or not you’ve ever read Watchmen. It’s far more than just a spoof—it’s one of the more joyful things I’ve read all year.

According to an interview in yesterday’s New York Times, Rachel Maddow, the host of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, turns out to be a comic-book fan.

In the interview, she talks about her worst job, her favorite Republican, her superstitions, and more.

But here’s the only response that really matters:

By her bed: Comic books. I read comics sometimes and graphic novels. I appreciate that genre.

Nice to know, though I would have appreciated some specifics, especially since we’re told that her favorite professional memento is clown shoes and her favorite political memento is a Watergate ashtray.

Can anyone out there make out the titles or recognize the spines of any of the books in the photo at right? If you click through to the original article via the above link, you’ll then be able to see a larger image which might give away more information.

Out with it, Rachel! What comic books or graphic novels do you read?

Over at Diversions of the Groovy Kind, a blog devoted to “the far-out comics of the Groovy Age (1967-1980),” the “Groovy Agent” has just featured my character the Scarecrow as part of the site’s month-long Halloween Countdown 2008.

If you follow the link above, you’ll find that my second comic-book story about the Scarecrow from the December 1975 issue of Marvel Spotlight has been reproduced in full. So if you’ve never read any of my comics, here’s your chance.

I wish I could say that it’s improved with age. It hasn’t, but hopefully, I have. Hey, cut me a break—I wrote it when I was 20!

Sharp eyes will spot a reference to the late comedian Andy Kaufman. I wrote him into the story after I’d seen him perform many times at the New York comedy club the Improv. I spoke with him at the bar one night and got his permission (whether I needed it or not) to make the reference.

You can find my own write-up about the Scarecrow here.

I dropped by the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art on lower Broadway in New York last week.

I’d always intended to visit the museum, but since I’m only in Manhattan infrequently, and usually dashing around madly, I’ve never previously gotten around to it. What finally motivated me to make it there was the current retrospective on the career of underground comix cartoonist Kim Deitch. (more…)

The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log reports on a Cartoonist’s 10 Commandments, as drafted for young cartoonists by the Groupement des Auteurs de Bande Dessinée du Syndicat National des Auteurs et des Compositeurs (that is, the French Artists’ Syndicate’s Comics Creators Group).

According to the site’s translation of French journalist Didier Pasamonik’s paraphrasing of the original document, the manifesto includes such common-sense recommendations as—

1. You will not surrender your talent for the rest of your life.

&#151and—

4. You will recover your rights if your work is not in exploitation.

—all of which can be applied to any creative endeavor, and not just comics.

Any readers of French out there can download the original document here.

Yesterday was the 56th birthday of Gerry Conway, the writer who killed and then brought back Peter Parker’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man—which makes this the right time to share another hidden bit of comics history.

When Gwen Stacy returned in the final panel of the May 1975 issue of Amazing Spider-Man, this is what readers saw in the published issue.

But what those who weren’t lucky enough to be working in the Marvel Bullpen at the time never saw was the alternate version originally handed in by artist Ross Andru. (more…)

When Irene and I went through our old photo albums earlier this week as part of our anniversary celebration, I found a few photographs taken in the Marvel Comics Bullpen during the mid-’70s. So get ready for another flashback …

First up is me at my desk, in a picture probably taken in 1976. My sleeves are rolled up and I’m ready to work. I could probably figure out the exact month and year by tracking down the dates of the issues on the wall of covers behind me, but I’ll leave that exercise for some other time.

Next up is a group shot. That’s me standing with Bonnie Smith, while Chris Claremont kneels between us and takes a photo of our photographer. We’re bracketed by my future wife Irene Vartanoff on the left and Roger Slifer on the right. (more…)

The amazing Dial B for Blog has just posted an extensive tribute to Gaspar Saladino, the man responsible for some of the best logos, cover lettering, and advertising in comic books.

At DC Comics, he designed the logos for Swamp Thing, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and more, while over at Marvel he did the same for The Avengers, Captain America, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, and others.

Even those whose interests run more to science fiction than to comics might still be interested in what the site calls “The Gaspar SCI-FI Cloud,” which plucks distinctive lettering from a variety of science-fictional covers to form a tag cloud of sorts.

Click here to go to the first part of the 12-part series.

Comic-book artist Michael Kaluta, perhaps best known for his work on The Shadow, turns 61 today. Kaluta is also known for forming—along with Jeff Jones, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Bernie Wrightson—an artistic collective called The Studio in the late ’70s.

In 1971, Kaluta won the Shazam Award, given by the Academy of Comic Book Arts, for Outstanding New Talent, and the following year, at Phil Seuling’s July 4th, 1972 weekend comic-book convention, he drew the image you see above right for an annoying kid named Scott Edelman who’d thrust his sketchpad at him.

(more…)

I just ran across a blog entry made by Scott Kurtz, writer and artist of the long-running Webcomic PvP, and author of the book How to Make Webcomics. His words so mirrored the sentiments expressed in the Beckett quote I’ve used for the title and subhead of this blog (as seen above) that I felt compelled to share them with you.

He wrote:

All of the progress I’ve made in my work, be it writing or art, was accomplished through getting it wrong the first time. My father always told me that the first brush stroke will never be perfect. There’s only so much you can learn from reading books on writing or art theory. You have to create and get your hands dirty and see what works. You have to take risks and you have to fail.