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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 16, 2023 19:21:04 GMT -5
Lots of real people on this cover: They published a guide to tell you who's who: Take a look at the unidentified person about halfway between Ali's ankles, between Luthor's bald head and Johnny Carson (no. 163 in the list). I think that's Stan Lee.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 16, 2023 19:04:13 GMT -5
The last word balloon in the last panel has a teenager in 1963 exclaiming, "Reet!", which originated as jazz hepcat slang in the 1930s and was virtually gone by 1960 except for a brief revival in 1957 with Jackie Wilson's hit song Reet Petite. It's not impossible that a 1963 teen would say "Reet!" but it's really unlikely. I'd bet it was Marvel style. Once you know to look for it, you can see various examples from the Marvel Age where Stan used text to explain or contradict something bizarre that the artist had drawn. The first other examples that come to my mind also involve the Hulk: - in the story where the Hulk goes to outer space and gets zapped, Kirby clearly draws the Hulk as having the ability to fly when he gets back. He swoops down and back up and changes direction in midair. Stan's text insists that the Hulk is just leaping. - a few issues later Kirby has the Hulk jump over the Pacific Ocean. Stan's caption explains that he's hitching rides on airplanes.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 15, 2023 10:59:18 GMT -5
For Slam_Bradley, some new reading material: "The June 2023 Relix issue features our Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit cover story and much more! Isbell aspires to veracity on multiple fronts these days, serving as the subject of the documentary Running With Our Eyes Closed, acting in the Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon and producing a new record with his longtime band the 400 Unit, Weathervanes."
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 14, 2023 14:20:21 GMT -5
I haven't been able to find it, but somewhere, maybe FOOM, Marvel published a page or two of limericks about Marvel staffers with little cartoon illustrations for each. The one I'm looking for is:
A beautiful girl named Anita Had the mind of an infant mosquita But who needs a brain? She looks like Mary Jane! So she models for Johnny Romita
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 14, 2023 13:15:15 GMT -5
Roy Thomas posted a nice message:
John Romita was one of the finest, nicest, and most talented guys in the history of the comicbook field, and I was proud to call him both colleague and friend for so many years. What he always called me was "kid," but I doubt it I was unique in having that appellation. I first became aware of John Romita in the 1950s, when he drew a number of comics of which I purchased issues, including THE WESTERN KID, about a cowboy hero and a horse and a dog. But his magnum opus at that time, even though he never realized it, was his work on Captain America in 1953-54 in CAPTAIN AMERICA, YOUNG MEN, and MEN'S ADVENTURES. His work on that character in that era--a perfect blending of the styles of action king Jack Kirby and adventure master Milt Caniff (of TERRY AND THE PIRATES)--I consider his most essential work, bar none. Still, I had relegated him to the past (knowing vaguely he had been drawing romance comics since Timely/Marvel had drastically downsized around 1957) when one day in 1965, just two weeks after I had started working at Marvel, production manager Sol Brodsky told me he wanted to introduce me to someone. I looked up and he told me this was John Romita, who had worked there before and was coming back. I blurted out that I had been a fan of his work ever since his CAPTAIN AMERICA, then already more than a decade in the past. John told me later he just about fainted... he'd never before met anybody who mentioned that "old" work and he couldn't believe anyone remembered it. I told him I not only remember it, but I had every one of those nine or so issues in my personal collection. John immediately became a trouble-shooter as well as all-around artist for Marvel, despite the fact that he had let Stan Lee talking him into turning down a plush advertising job to come back to Marvel... and had gotten a promise from Stan that he wouldn't have to pencil, only ink. Of course, before long he was penciling DAREDEVIL, which he and Stan together quickly turned from the good seller it had been under Wally Wood to the highest-selling percentage sales (albeit with a smaller print run of course) in the whole company. When Stan soon afterward guest-starred Spider-Man in two issues of DAREDEVIL, he sensed he was being held in readiness in case Steve Ditko ever left the Wall-Crawler's title, but he was chagrined when, only a couple of months later, it actually happened and he had to give up DD for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. He gradually transitioned, mostly against his will, from imitating Ditko to doing his own version of Spidey... and within half a year, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN went from being the #2 bestselling Marvel comic to #1, both in percentages and real numbers. John had the golden touch for many years at Marvel... even his handful of FANTASTIC FOUR issues right after Kirby left outsold the last few Stan and Jack had done together, although FF was something John REALLY didn't want to do. Used as a kind of unofficial art director for years before he finally got the title he deserved, he designed or helped design so many great characters, most notably Wolverine, Punisher (the wonderful skull that Marvel is now "retiring"), and so many others. Whether he penciled, or inked (as per Gil Kane on SPIDER-MAN), or both, he was right up there just behind Kirby and Ditko as the most important artists in the history of Marvel. As a human being, too, John was wonderful... always willing to help out a young artist with some hints about how to improve his work. Romita's Raiders came after my time, but that, too, gave many young artists much-needed experience. John Romita was one of the all-time greats. I won't say "he will be missed" because I've already been missing him, the past couple of years or so, as he removed himself increasingly from contact with those of us who knew and loved him, because he felt his health and other faculties were failing. I was proud at least that John Romita and I, perhaps the only two original pros who's been on the disbursement board of Hero Initiative since it began under another name circa 2000, were still around helping to aid other pros in trouble. You've done your bit, John. On the drawing board... in the office... in a thousand creative consultations whether about Luke Cage or Spider-Man or whatever. Rest in peace. You've earned it. Best wishes, Roy
With the message was this excerpt from MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE ANNUAL #1 (1976) written by Roy Thomas, art by Sal Buscema.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 14, 2023 3:01:59 GMT -5
Rifle
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 13, 2023 1:49:53 GMT -5
Tiny
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 12, 2023 15:05:47 GMT -5
Anyone have any Novelty comics?
Hi Folks--
Some of you ask me, from time to time, if there's some general material you can help supply ALTER EGO, and I really appreciate that. And ALTER EGO #185 is going to be an issue where I wouldn't at all mind having a lot of material that you judge to be worth printing come in in advance. The spotlight of the issue will be Mark Carlson-Ghost's long article on Novelty Comics (from Curtis--which weirdly is the company that wound up distributing Marvel by the late 60s), dealing with BLUE BOLT, TARGET COMICS, et al. Artwork and artifacts welcome... and of course anything used will garner the sender a copy of AE #185.
Thanks for listening,
Roy
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 12, 2023 14:44:38 GMT -5
I'm also working on a complete series of Warren Publishing's The Rook. Aside from his self-titled magazine, The Rook actually got his start in the pages of Eerie, and also appeared on rare occasion in Vampirella. Ah, The Rook. Thereby hangs a tale... The Rook was created by Bill DuBay and Budd Lewis, based on a request from Jim Warren for a cowboy character. DuBay had recently stepped down as editor of Warren's magazines and Lewis had been writing for Warren for five years or so. DuBay scripted the ongoing series and it was pretty successful. Fast forward a few years, to 2010. We were still on the old CBR board. Someone started a "where are they now" thread about people who had left the comics industry, and none other than M. W. Gallaher posted an article about Budd Lewis from the Huffington Post: www.huffpost.com/entry/former-middle-class-coupl_n_778267. He told me later that he'd read a Budd Lewis-written story at diversionsofthegroovykind.com and got curious about what became of Budd. He did a google search and came up with the HuffPost article. The article said that Budd was in Portland, where I am, and that he was in dire financial straits, supporting himself with a hot dog cart that did well in the summer but not the rest of the year. So I did a few things. First I contacted Warren uber-fan Richard Arndt. He tracked down the writer of the HuffPost article and got Budd's contact info. Then he contacted the Hero Initiative and he & I both sent them information about Budd's situation. I got in touch with Budd himself, and then put him together with local newspaper columnist and comics fan Steve Duin (co-author of Comics: Between the Panels with Mike Richardson of Dark Horse). Steve wrote a column in the newspaper about Budd: www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/2011/01/a_creepy_almost_eerie_turn_of.htmlThe Hero Initiative gave Budd enough money to stave off homelessness, and Steve's column inspired a local landlord to give Budd a couple of months free rent at a downtown food cart pod. Steve wrote a short follow-up piece about it: www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/2011/06/downtown_the_return_of_the_dom.htmlThings were looking up for Budd. I emailed my entire office about the opening of the Domo Dogs cart - got in a bit of trouble for that - but opening day was a bust because someone parked in his space. The pod was also a parking lot. That seemed to be an omen. His cart didn't succeed in the downtown pod. As delicious as they were, he was offering grab'n'go hot dogs in an environment geared to full plate lunches. His health was declining too. I last heard from Budd in December 2011, and he died in August 2014. Bringing this back to the Rook - Budd told me that when he fell into financial difficulty, Bill DuBay made him a lowball offer for Budd's half-interest in The Rook, and Budd was desperate enough to take it, but it left him feeling bitter toward DuBay.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 9, 2023 20:26:23 GMT -5
When you're buying Spire comics, you might occasionally run across a similar-looking comic from a company called Logos. My father worked at Logos when they published their comics, but I didn't end up with copies of any of them. I'm interested in acquiring them now. Is it these 4? Yes, those are the ones. Take a look at who's quoted in the third paragraph on that page.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 9, 2023 16:57:42 GMT -5
When you're buying Spire comics, you might occasionally run across a similar-looking comic from a company called Logos. My father worked at Logos when they published their comics, but I didn't end up with copies of any of them. I'm interested in acquiring them now.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 7, 2023 18:05:23 GMT -5
Pep Comics #90, March 1952, cover by Bob Montana showing an informal use of the word "oil" that is obsolete as far as I know.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 5, 2023 21:15:40 GMT -5
Detective Comics #1, March 1937, cover by Vin Sullivan. This issue features the debut of an obscure character named Slam Bradley. I am pretty obscure. No, you have an underscore (_) in your name, and I'm pretty sure you didn't debut in 1937.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 5, 2023 15:40:14 GMT -5
Detective Comics #1, March 1937, cover by Vin Sullivan. This issue features the debut of an obscure character named Slam Bradley.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 4, 2023 19:34:38 GMT -5
The CBR forums seem unaffected, which is good. The regulars there seem like decent people for the most part.
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