OK, James Owen—here’s one more take on the Edelman mug. Unfortunately, time has turned this particular artist into a mystery man.

My first job at Marvel Comics was to edit a line of reprint books which appeared only in the UK. After 3-6 months (I can no longer remember the exact length of time), I transferred over to act as an Assistant Editor on the U.S. line of comic books. To commemorate that move, one of the Bullpenners drew the caricature at right. The reason for the hole at the top is that I kept the sheet pinned to the wall behind my desk as long as I remained on staff.

The artist’s first name was Peter, as you can see on the drawing, and he was hired by Marvel to help make the art corrections that we proofreaders would find. But he left to go freelance after only a few months, and I never saw him again.

What’s worse, I can no longer even remember his full name, and as you can see from the illustration, the last name of his signature is unreadable, so I’ve been unable to solve the mystery. Anybody have any idea who did this?

Regardless, it’s a perfect likeness of me at the time, as you’d know if you ever saw my drivers license from those days.

Check out Brian Hughes’ report, over at Again With the Comics, on the upcoming animated series Young Watchmen: The Animated Adventures, in which Owlboy, Kid Rorschach, Spectra, Johnny Comedy, Manha-teen and Ozzy band together at Veidt High in the year 2085 “to protect the world that their ancestors saved.”

Writes Hughes:

The world is a very different place in the year 2085, but teen-agers still have to grow up, and the bad guys still need to be taken down!

Warner Bros. Digital Distribution and Warner Premiere announced today a way for young viewers to connect with one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of all time. “Young Watchmen: The Animated Adventures” draws inspiration from the source material to bring a visually engaging experience to life through the timeless medium of children’s animation!

Go to the link above for further coverage.

A writer recently contacted me because he’s in the midst of researching a book on comic-book stories which have been adapted for movies and television. He wanted information on an episode of the series Tales from the Darkside titled “My Ghost Writer the Vampire,” which had been adapted from one of the many short horror stories I’d written for DC Comics back in the 1980s.

That story appeared in the April 1980 issue of The Unexpected, and was featured on the cover, which you can see at right. As a fan of The Twilight Zone and EC Comics, I loved getting the chance to turn out some short horror stories of my own for various comics, such as House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Secrets of Haunted House, and others.

When it came time to tell the writer the history of the story and the events surrounding the adaptation, I decided (as usual) to give my memory a jump start. Searched online, I was surprised to find not only the information I needed, but also that someone had put the entire Tales from the Darkside episode based on my story up on YouTube in three parts. (more…)

The schedule for the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con International will be the size of a phone book, with thousands of program items and dozens of tracks. On the other hand, the agendas for the first comic-book conventions I attended barely filled a single sheet.

I don’t think I saved the schedule from my first con in 1970, but I still have the program from Phil Seuling’s 1971 July 4th Comic Art Convention, which I attended when I was 16. It consisted of one 8 1/2″ by 11″ sheet of paper, and was folded in half to form a slim four-page pamphlet.

You already know what I looked like in the audience at that convention, but this is what I was watching up on the stage. There was a single track of programming, and looking at the listed items, I realize that I attended every one. (more…)

As good wishes for Gene Colan light up the blogosphere, I’m reminded of the fact that when I first became aware of his work, that work wasn’t appearing under his own name, due to the comic-book traditions of the day. Back then, it was taboo for artists and writers to openly accept assignments from multiple companies, and so if they wanted to work for other than a single outlet, they had to do so under a pseudonym, creating a different house name wherever they went.

For example, when DC inker Mike Esposito first started working for Marvel Comics, he appeared under the name Mickey Demeo. Frank Giacoia became Frank Ray, Gil Kane was reborn as Al Stak, and so on.

From this vantage point, it all seems a polite fiction, because who could read the works of any of these creators and not know who really wrote or drew them, whatever the pen names? Surely the editors and publishers of the day could see right through the ruse. But I guess they were primarily concerned that the readers think that all of their favorite artists and writers were exclusive, and in those days when comic-book fandom was just being born, the powers that be probably felt that no one would be able to tell what was really going on. (more…)

I may be a little late to report this unfortunate news, but better late than not at all. Gene Colan, an amazing comic-book artist who is perhaps best known for his 81 consecutive issues of Dardevil, the entire 70-issue run of Tomb of Dracula, and most issues of Howard the Duck, is reportedly suffering from liver failure, which has led to perilous complications, among them fluid retention and encephalitis. Gene’s wife, Adrienne, shared some of the details here.

Gene has been drawing comics for more than 50 years. If you’re not familiar with his work, check out one of my favorite sites, the Silver Age Marvel Comics Cover Index, which features a gallery of some of Gene’s greatest covers. Personally, I’ve always had a nostalgic soft spot for the cover of Marvel Super-Heroes #12, shown to the right. I can still remember encountering it in a Brooklyn candy store when I was 12 and being blown away by the first appearance of Marvel Comics’ Captain Marvel. (My fondness for that memory has nothing to do with the fact that I’d end up writing his adventures a decade later.) I recall staring at the cover and desperately wanting to know, who is this guy? Gene’s distinctive artwork, which displayed human emotions through facial expressions and body language in a way few could, certainly contributed to that. (more…)

I had two comics-related dreams this morning. I’m not sure why, as those dreams are usually sparked by something that happened in real life, such as a conversation with someone I used to know in the old days, or discovering the news of the death of a friend. (As opposed to my SF-related dreams, which seem to pop up unbidden, as anyone who follows this blog already knows). Whatever the reason, they seemed interesting to me, which means that now you’re going to have to suffer.

In the first dream, I was on a panel about mainstream coverage of the history of comics. I was with others behind a table up on a stage looking down at the audience. Also in the dream were Jim Warren (former publisher of Creepy, Eerie, and Famous Monsters of Filmland), Jim Steranko (the groundbreaking artist of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the late ’60s and early ’70s), and John Verpoorten (Production Manager of Marvel Comics when I was on staff there from the mid- to late ’70s). Oddly, we were not the ages any of us could have possibly been at the same time in reality. Warren was the age he would have attained in real life now, Steranko was the age he had been in the mid-’70s, and Verpoorten was the age he would have been in the late ’60s, a look I only know from photographs of him.

I spoke on the reasons why stories about comics in the mass media are so often flawed. This is what I’d said, which I scribbled down immediately upon waking: “The person who can get it done can only get it done wrong; the person who could get it done right can’t get it done at all.” Usually, the statements I make in dreams that seem to make sense in sleep make no sense in the light of day, but this one seems to have some truth to it. What I meant by this was that most writers either have the connections to get the assignment or the background knowledge, but not both. (more…)

Comic-book writer Jim Ottaviani, creator of science-related comics such as Two-Fisted Science: Stories About Scientists, posted this flow chart yesterday to shed some light on his working methods.

I’m out of the comic-book loop for the most part these days, so I’ve got to sheepishly admit that until discovering his post, I’d never heard of Ottaviani. But since I’m a major fan of Richard Feynman—I long ago took up the title of Feynman’s autobiography What Do You Care What Other People Think? as a mantra—I’ll have to keep an eye out for Ottaviani’s upcoming graphic novel about the physicist.

It seems to me, though, that the road map laid out in these squiggles, arrows, and boxes speaks to the journey of non-comics writers as well, and so I decided that it was worth sharing here.

The only thing missing from the chart seems to be the part where we spend time blogging about what we should have been doing instead of actually doing it!

Paul Di Filippo and others have been bitten by the Pogo bug recently, sharing this animated cartoon and this Claymation version adapted from Walt Kelly’s classic comic strip.

For those who aren’t old enough or whose memories aren’t long enough, Pogo was yesterday’s Bloom County, though I’m not sure that’s truly a sufficient comparison as far as Pogo’s whimsy and satire are concerned. I guess Pogo truly stands alone.

Back when I was attending Brooklyn’s South Shore High School, I became friendly with artist Bill Kresse, thanks to a school trip to the New York Daily News. He introduced me to other staff cartoonists at the paper, and ended up inviting me to a few National Cartoonist Society banquets, which was Valhalla to a young fan.

One of the many cartoonists I met thanks to Kresse was George Ward, who was Walt Kelly’s assistant on Pogo.

When I headed off to college, some of those cartoonists drew going-away illustrations for me, including Ward, who certainly proved with this image why Kelly trusted him to draw many of the strip’s Sunday pages entirely on his own.

I sure miss Pogo. It would have been great to have seen what Walt Kelly would have made of the current administration. “We have met the enemy and he is us,” indeed!

Comic-book artist Dave Cockrum, who is most well known for his reinvigoration of two supergroups—DC Comics’ Legion of Super-Heroes and Marvel Comics’ X-Men—passed away far too soon on November 26, 2006.

Dave co-created such characters as as Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Storm, and redesigned the costumes for countless other heroes.

I have fond memories of sitting with him in the Marvel Bullpen and watching as he designed the costume for the Captain Marvel villain Deathgrip back when I was writing that book and dinosaurs still walked the Earth. Even though Dave wasn’t the artist on that title, he helped out because he was one of the greatest costume generators ever.

In addition to his prodigious talent, Dave was also one of the good guys, two qualities which aren’t always found together in the same human being. He was a gentle man who was liked by all.

Clifford Meth recently began helping Paty Cockrum liquidate the estate by selling off Dave’s personal comic-book collection. Each comic will be delivered bagged, boarded, and sealed with a “Dave Cockrum Estate” seal of authenticity.

There are even some rarities, such as a few remaining copies of The Uncanny Dave Cockrum Tribute, each containing original sketches by Dave, plus a classic copy of X-Men signed by both artist Jim Steranko and writer Arnold Drake.

If you’ve appreciated Dave’s work over the years and ever wanted to own something to remember him by, then head over to Clifford Meth’s site and check out this list for a small sample of available collectibles. And keeping checking back for updates as further items are added.