Top Ten… Superhero Sidekicks! (Marty Michaels)

6 April, 2010

"It’s about time I wrote something new about comics. I get to swear and mess around more when I write about comics then when I write about movies and, hey, swearing’s always fun. Firstly, an apology in advance: I didn’t intend for Captain America to dominate the top 5 like he has, but there was no way around it. Cap’s had a shitton of sidekicks and the three I picked for this list just so happen to be three of the best sidekicks in comics. Blame Marvel for writing such good characters. Secondly, this blog’s been getting a lot of new readers, so hello to them and thanks for stopping by. Thirdly, I know the sidekick at number seven doesn’t have his origin in comics, but it’s my list so there. Anyway, let’s take a looksee at the top ten superhero sidekicks! Onward!"

Click HERE to read Marty's take on Ebony White!

2010 Will Eisner Award nominees announced!

Comic-Con International has released the nominations for the 22nd Eisner Awards; winners will be announced at San Diego Comic-Con in July.  

The judges, who established the nominees, are academic Craig Fischer (Appalachian State University), librarian Francisca Goldsmith (Infopeople), reviewer John Hogan (GraphicNovelReporter.com), writer James Hudnall, and retailer Wayne Winsett (Time Warp, Boulder).

Comics creators, editors, publishers, and retailers now vote for the winners in each category.

Congratulations to Paul Fitzgerald, a life-long friend and co-worker of Eisner's on P.S. Magazine for many years, for his nomination for the book Will Eisner and PS Magazine in the "Best Comics-Related Book" category. You can order it directly from the author by clicking HERE!

 

Our friends at Fantagraphics are having a sale on 2010 Eisner nominated books. Check that out HERE!

2010 Will Eisner Award Nominees

Best Short Story

 “Because I Love You So Much,” by Nikoline Werdelin, in From Wonderland with Love: Danish Comics in the 3rd Millennium (Fantagraphics/Aben malen)

 “Gentleman John,” by Nathan Greno, in What Is Torch Tiger? (Torch Tiger)

“How and Why to Bale Hay,” by Nick Bertozzi, in Syncopated (Villard)

“Hurricane,” interpreted by Gradimir Smudja, in Bob Dylan Revisited (Norton)

 “Urgent Request,” by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim, in The Eternal Smile (First Second)

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)

Brave & the Bold #28: “Blackhawk and the Flash: Firing Line,” by J. Michael Straczynski and Jesus Saiz (DC)

Captain America #601: “Red, White, and Blue-Blood,” by Ed Brubaker and Gene Colan (Marvel)

Ganges #3, by Kevin Huizenga (Fantagraphics)

The Unwritten #5: “How the Whale Became,” by Mike Carey and Peter Gross (Vertigo/DC)

Usagi Yojimbo #123: “The Death of Lord Hikiji” by Stan Sakai (Dark Horse)

Best Continuing Series

Fables, by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Andrew Pepoy et al. (Vertigo/DC)

Irredeemable, by Mark Waid and Peter Krause (BOOM!)

Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, by Naoki Urasawa (VIZ Media)

The Unwritten, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross (Vertigo/DC)

The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman and Charles Adlard (Image)

Best Limited Series or Story Arc

Blackest Night, by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, and Oclair Albert (DC)

Incognito, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Marvel Icon)

Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka, by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki (VIZ Media)

Wolverine #66–72 and Wolverine Giant-Size Special: “Old Man Logan,” by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven, and Dexter Vines (Marvel)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young (Marvel)

Best New Series

Chew, by John Layman and Rob Guillory (Image)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick, art by Tony Parker (BOOM!)

Ireedeemable, by Mark Waid and Peter Krause (BOOM!)

Sweet Tooth, by Jeff Lemire (Vertigo/DC)

The Unwritten, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross (Vertigo/DC)

Best Publication for Kids

Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute, by Jarrett J. Krosoczeka (Knopf)

The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook, by Eleanor Davis (Bloomsbury)

Tiny Tyrant vol. 1: The Ethelbertosaurus, by Lewis Trondheim and Fabrice Parme (First Second)

The TOON Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly (Abrams ComicArts/Toon)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz hc, by L. Frank Baum, Eric Shanower, and Skottie Young (Marvel)

Best Publication for Teens

Angora Napkin, by Troy Little (IDW)

Beasts of Burden, by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson (Dark Horse)

A Family Secret, by Eric Heuvel (Farrar Straus Giroux/Anne Frank House)

Far Arden, by Kevin Cannon (Top Shelf)

I Kill Giants tpb, by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura (Image)

Best Humor Publication

Drinky Crow’s Maakies Treasury, by Tony Millionaire (Fantagraphics)

Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me, And Other Astute Observations, by Peter Bagge (Fantagraphics)

Little Lulu, vols. 19–21, by John Stanley and Irving Tripp (Dark Horse Books)

The Muppet Show Comic Book: Meet the Muppets, by Roger Langridge (BOOM Kids!)

Scott Pilgrim vol. 5: Scott Pilgrm vs. the Universe, by Brian Lee O’Malley (Oni)

Best Anthology

Abstract Comics, edited by Andrei Molotiu (Fantagraphics)

Bob Dylan Revisited, edited by Bob Weill (Norton)

Flight 6, edited by Kazu Kibuishi (Villard)

Popgun vol. 3, edited by Mark Andrew Smith, D. J. Kirkbride, and Joe Keatinge (Image)

Syncopated: An Anthology of Nonfiction Picto-Essays, edited by Brendan Burford (Villard)

What Is Torch Tiger? edited by Paul Briggs (Torch Tiger)

Best Digital Comic

Abominable Charles Christopher, by Karl Kerschl, www.abominable.cc

Bayou, by Jeremy Love, http://zudacomics.com/bayou

The Guns of Shadow Valley, by David Wachter and James Andrew Clark, www.gunsofshadowvalley.com

Power Out, by Nathan Schreiber, www.act-i-vate.com/67.comic

Sin Titulo, by Cameron Stewart, www.sintitulocomic.com/

Best Reality-Based Work

A Drifting Life, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Drawn & Quarterly)

Footnotes in Gaza, by Joe Sacco (Metropolitan/Holt)

The Imposter’s Daughter, by Laurie Sandell (Little, Brown)

Monsters, by Ken Dahl (Secret Acres)

The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemerier (First Second)

Stitches, by David Small (Norton)

Best Adaptation from Another Work

The Book of Genesis Illustrated, by R. Crumb (Norton)

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation, adapted by Michael Keller and Nicolle Rager Fuller (Rodale)

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, adapted by Tim Hamilton (Hill & Wang)

Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter, adapted by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)

West Coast Blues, by Jean-Patrick Manchette, adapted by Jacques Tardi (Fantagraphics)

Best Graphic Album—New

Asterios Polyp, by David Mazzuccheilli (Pantheon)

A Distant Neighborhood (2 vols.), by Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)

The Book of Genesis Illustrated, by R. Crumb (Norton)

My mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill, by Jean Regnaud and émile Bravo (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)

The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemerier (First Second)

Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter, adapted by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint

Absolute Justice, by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, and Doug Braithewaite (DC)

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, by Josh Neufeld (Pantheon)

Alec: The Years Have Pants, by Eddie Campbell (Top Shelf)

Essex County Collected, by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)

Map of My Heart: The Best of King-Cat Comics & Stories, 1996–2002, by John Porcellino (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips

Bloom County: The Complete Library, vol. 1, by Berkeley Breathed, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)

Bringing Up Father, vol. 1: From Sea to Shining Sea, by George McManus and Zeke Zekley, edited by Dean Mullaney (IDW)

The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley’s Cartoons 1913–1940, edited by Trina Robbins (Fantagraphics)

Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons, by Gahan Wilson, edited by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)

Prince Valiant, vol. 1: 1937–1938, by Hal Foster, edited by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics)

Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, Walt McDougall, and W. W. Denslow (Sunday Press)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books

The Best of Simon & Kirby, by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, edited by Steve Saffel (Titan Books)

Blazing Combat, by Archie Goodwin et al., edited by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)

Humbug, by Harvey Kurtzman et al., edited by Gary Groth (Fantagraphics)

The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures deluxe edition, by Dave Stevens, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)

The TOON Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly (Abrams ComicArts/Toon)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material

My mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill, by Jean Regnaud and émile Bravo (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)

The Photographer, by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, and Frédéric Lemerier (First Second)

Tiny Tyrant vol. 1: The Ethelbertosaurus, by Lewis Trondheim and Fabrice Parme (First Second)

West Coast Blues, by Jean-Patrick Manchette, adapted by Jacques Tardi (Fantagraphics)

Years of the Elephant, by Willy Linthout (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia

The Color Trilogy, by Kim Dong Haw (First Second) 

A Distant Neighborhood (2 vols.), by Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)

A Drifting Life, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Drawn & Quarterly)

Oishinbo a la Carte, written by Tetsu Kariya and illustrated by Akira Hanasaki (VIZ Media)

Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka, by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki (VIZ Media)

Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, by Naoki Urasawa (VIZ Media)

Best Writer

Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Daredevil, Marvels Project (Marvel) Criminal, Incognito (Marvel Icon)

Geoff Johns, Adventure Comics, Blackest Night, The Flash: Rebirth, Superman: Secret Origin (DC)

James Robinson, Justice League: Cry for Justice (DC)

Mark Waid, Irredeemable, The Incredibles (BOOM!)

Bill Willingham, Fables (Vertigo/DC)

Best Writer/Artist

Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter (IDW)

R. Crumb, The Book of Genesis Illustrated (Norton)

David Mazzuccheilli, Asterios Polyp (Pantheon)

Terry Moore, Echo (Abstract Books)

Naoki Urasawa, Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka (VIZ Media)

Best Writer/Artist–Nonfiction

Reinhard Kleist, Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness (Abrams ComicArts)

Willy Linthout, Years of the Elephant (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)

Joe Sacco, Footnotes in Gaza (Metropolitan/Holt)

David Small, Stitches (Norton)

Carol Tyler, You’ll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man (Fantagraphics)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team

Michael Kaluta, Madame Xanadu #11–15: “Exodus Noir” (Vertigo/DC)

Steve McNiven/Dexter Vines, Wolverine: Old Man Logan (Marvel)

Fiona Staples, North 40 (WildStorm)

J. H. Williams III, Detective Comics (DC)

Danijel Zezelj, Luna Park (Vertigo/DC)

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)

émile Bravo, My mommy is in America and she met Buffalo Bill (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)

Mauro Cascioli, Justice League: Cry for Justice (DC)

Nicolle Rager Fuller, Charles Darwin on the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation (Rodale Books)

Jill Thompson, Beasts of Burden (Dark Horse); Magic Trixie and the Dragon (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Carol Tyler, You’ll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man (Fantagraphics)

Best Cover Artist

John Cassaday, Irredeemable (BOOM!); Lone Ranger (Dynamite)

Salvador Larocca, Invincible Iron Man (Marvel)

Sean Phillips, Criminal, Incognito (Marvel Icon); 28 Days Later (BOOM!)

Alex Ross, Astro City: The Dark Age (WildStorm/DC); Project Superpowers  (Dynamite)

J. H. Williams III, Detective Comics (DC)

Best Coloring

Steve Hamaker, Bone: Crown of Thorns (Scholastic); Little Mouse Gets Ready (Toon)

Laura Martin, The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures (IDW); Thor, The Stand: American Nightmares (Marvel)

David Mazzuccheilli, Asterios Polyp (Pantheon)

Alex Sinclair, Blackest Night, Batman and Robin (DC)

Dave Stewart, Abe Sapien, BPRD, The Goon, Hellboy, Solomon Kane, Umbrella Academy, Zero Killer (Dark Horse); Detective Comics (DC); Northlanders, Luna Park (Vertigo)

Best Lettering

Brian Fies, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? (Abrams ComicArts)

David Mazzuccheilli, Asterios Polyp (Pantheon)

Tom Orzechowski, Savage Dragon (Image); X-Men Forever (Marvel)

Richard Sala, Cat Burglar Black (First Second); Delphine (Fantagraphics)

Adrian Tomine, A Drifting Life (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism

Alter Ego, edited by Roy Thomas (TwoMorrows)

ComicsAlliance, www.comicsalliance.com

Comics Comics, edited by Timothy Hodler and Dan Nadel (www.comicscomicsmag.com) (PictureBox)

The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth, Michael Dean, and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)

The Comics Reporter, produced by Tom Spurgeon (www.comicsreporter.com)

Best Comics-Related Book

Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel, by Annalisa Di Liddo (University Press of Mississippi)

The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics, by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle (Abrams ComicArts)

The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga, by Helen McCarthy (Abrams ComicArts)

Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater, by Eric P. Nash (Abrams ComicArts)

Will Eisner and PS Magazine, by Paul E. Fitzgerald (Fitzworld.US)

Best Publication Design

Absolute Justice, designed by Curtis King and Josh Beatman (DC)

The Brinkley Girls, designed by Adam Grano (Fantagraphics)

Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons, designed by Jacob Covey (Fantagraphics)

Life and Times of Martha Washington, designed by David Nestelle (Dark Horse Books)

Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz, designed by Philippe Ghielmetti (Sunday Press)

Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? designed by Neil Egan and Brian Fies (Abrams ComicArts)

DO ANYTHING by Warren Ellis

Warren Ellis, image via Wikipedia

March 18th, 2010  From the website of Warren Ellis:

DO ANYTHING: Jack Kirby Ripped My Flesh, collecting the first run of the eponymous column at bleedingcool.com, will be on sale from 28 April. In the first instance, you’re probably only going to find it in comics stores, so call your local and ask if they’ve ordered it. If they don’t, I believe you’ll find it available for pre-order by the usual online suspects.

This is the solicitation text:

From Warren Ellis, the award-winning author, comics creator and popular columnist (and who is currently writing the screenplay for the film adaptation of the comics series GRAVEL, also published by Avatar Press), comes a collection of the most mind-bending columns you’ve ever read: DO ANYTHING.
DO ANYTHING VOLUME ONE: JACK KIRBY RIPPED MY FLESH collects the first 26 chapters of Ellis’ text masterpiece and is a grand tour through comics & culture as seen through a burgled robot head. The robot head of Jack Kirby lives on Warren Ellis’ desk. It knows everything and is connected to everything. You must obey the robot head of Jack Kirby.
There are many ways to look at comics. In this book, we see the medium through the hazy android eyes of Jack Kirby (actually the stolen and repurposed head of the missing Philip K Dick robot, which Mr. Ellis confesses to swiping off the back of a plane), taking a rattling ghost-train ride through the history of comics.
David Bowie, the CIA, mad architects, Will Eisner, Frank Zappa, Tintin, the designer of Skylab, a train station in Paris, Arthur C. Clarke, the circus, the Black Panther Party and William S. Burroughs: all of these things are connected by Jack Kirby, all part of the secret history of comics, and all illustrating the special nature of the medium as the place where you can do anything.

And this is what it looks like, as designed by Ariana and complete with robot head by Jacen Burrows:

For print, the book has been corrected and tweaked a little bit to flow better.

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Will Eisner: The Spirit of Comics (NYCGraphicsNovelists.com)

Will Eisner, image via Wikipedia

Words: Christopher Irving 

When Will Eisner spoke on the comics page, it was in a language that was distinctly no one else’s but his own. What Jack Kirby did with visual power, Will did for the art form and language of comics, bringing them on par with film and pushing (sometimes gently, others with force) for the medium to go beyond it’s juvenile beginnings and grow into an actual –
    Art.
    Form.

    Not bad for a kid who grew up poor in the Depression, a kid who grew into a self-made young man who managed to reinvent himself as an older man.


Click HERE to Keep Reading!

Will Eisner - The True Master of Comic Stroytelling (Inside Jeff Overturf's Head)

March 6, 2010

Born March 6th in 1917, the great Will Eisner would be 93 years old today!


This man did more to establish common tools in great comic storytelling than anyone. The things that Eisner experimented with and perfected are tools all good comic storytellers employ to this day.

He innovated different formats as well. He and partner Jerry Iger were part of the very first wave of comics "packagers" that supplied content to comic book publishers in the 1930's and '40's, creating whole comics to Quality Comics. Characters like Plastic Man, Uncle Sam, Black Condor, The Ray, Blackhawk, Midnight, Firebrand, The Phantom Lady and Quality's entire stable of super hero titles (see more in my on-going "Slight History of the Golden Age of Comic Books: Super Heroes" series here in this blog) were all produced by the Eisner-Iger studios.

Artists from Lou Fine, Wally Wood, Frank Frazetta, Jules Feiffer, Jack Cole and the wonderful Mr. Eisner himself all cranked out genuine comic gold from this art house. All the while perfecting the storytelling tools created, designed and perfected from Eisner's own head.

Click HERE to Keep Reading!

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UNL student adapts Eisner's work for the stage

Will Eisner, image via Wikipedia

By MICAH MERTES 
Lincoln Journal Star
March 5, 2010


Jennifer Olson adapts.

"I like finding interesting sources and adapting them to the stage," she said. "I just stumble upon things."

For her latest, Olson, a senior at UNL's Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, found great material in the world of comics.

She was spending a lot of time poking around in the comic book section of UNL's Love Library when she came across Will Eisner's "A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories," a collection of four stories all set in a Bronx tenement in the 1930s. It's regarded as the first graphic novel, and still one of the best.

Reading through the story "Street Singer," Olson's gears started turning. This would play great on the stage.

Thought evolved to resolve.

"I thought, if I want to do this, I should probably do this now," she said. It was easier for her to get permission to adapt copyrighted work while she was still in an academic environment.

Click HERE to Keep Reading!

If you go

What: "Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist," a feature-length documentary celebrating Will Eisner Week

When: 1 p.m. Saturday. Jennifer Olson's stage adaptation of "A Contract with God" will follow the film at 2:30 p.m.

Where: Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, 313 N. 13th St.

More: Read more about Eisner and Will Eisner Week at willeisner.com.

Will Eisner Week Educational Materials: Notes on Will Eisner's The Contract With God Trilogy

By Tom Kaczynski 

March 3, 2010 11:42 PM

"Architecture is the simplest means of articulating time and space, of modulating reality, of engendering dreams" - Ivan Chtcheglov, 1953.

With A Contract With God (1978), the earliest book of the trilogy, Will Eisner was inventing a new format: the graphic novel*. The 'graphic novel' coinage was a kind of sleight of hand that turned ordinary comics into works with ambitions of becoming literature. As such it's describing the content, rather than a medium. It was the literary ambition of A Contract With God that set it apart from the cheap children's comic-books that dominated the market at the time. Eisner of course cut his teeth on comic-books having previously drawn the iconic and long running series The Spirit. In creating a graphic novel, Eisner was distancing himself not only from other comic-books, but also from his own formative work. But, new terminology was insufficient to distinguish the work from its cousins and Eisner relied on a number of formal and visual inventions to underscore the difference.

The Spirit (1940-1952) superficially resembled most of the comic-books on the stands at the time. It mostly consisted of colorful 8 page pulp romps full of crime and violence. But, unlike the vast majority of 4-color funnies The Spirit stories were intense nuggets of clever writing, brilliant layouts, and inventive typography. They were packed with innumerable characters and locations. The sheer density of the stories was matched by the density of the art. Pages were filled with 9 to 14 (or more!) panels filled with frenetic action, detailed sets and wrinkled suits.


Click HERE to Keep Reading!

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Will Eisner's John Law: Detective #1 (Eclipse Comics 1983)

DCWhoCares

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Being an Eisner fan, especially of the Spirit, I searched for this particular one-shot published by Eclipse for years, finally running across a copy of it a few weeks back at a local flea market for 50 cents. Basically rehashed Spirit stories....and that, my friends, in the hands of Eisner is not a bad thing at all.

Click HERE to Keep Reading!

First Amherst, Then Main Street (Loose Cruse; Howard Cruse)

Cover of The Will Eisner Companion

At four in the afternoon on Tuesday, March 2, the campus of UMass in Amherst will be the site of a panel discussion about comics and graphic novels featuring two relics—I mean, veterans—of the underground comix movement of the 1970s, plus a member of today’s emerging generation of adventurous comics creators. One of the aforementioned veterans will be Gary Hallgren of Air Pirates fame; the other one will be me. Sharing the stage with Gary and me will be Sophia Weideman, who will have to wait a few years before attaining the relic/veteran status that Gary and I enjoy but who appears to be making good use of her talents in the meantime. Gary and I are longtime friends and I’m looking forward to meeting Sophia. Furthermore, if you’re near enough to Amherst to come and be part of our audience in Room 227 of Herter Hall, I’ll be looking forward to meeting you, too! Moderating our panel, by the way, will be another old friend: N. C. Christopher Couch, co-author with Stephen Weiner of The Will Eisner Companion.

Above: Gary Hallgren’s character Tom Turkey, as seen in the Marvel/underground hybrid Comix Book in the mid-seventies, is flanked by a photo of Gary taken at the 1976 Berkeley Con and a snapshot I took of him a year or so ago. At left: A photo of yours truly, also taken at the same 1976 convention, garnished with one of my own drawings from that era. Both 1976 photos were taken by Clay Geerdes, the legendary chronicler of and cheerleader for the underground comix movement.

At right: I couldn’t find a current photo of our third panelist, Sophia Weideman, and I certainly couldn’t find one from 1976, since it’s highly unlikely that this 2008 graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York had even commenced to exist by then. I can, however, show you the cover of her new book The Deformatory, which she self-published with funding provided by the Xeric Foundation.

Our UMass panel is named "Will Eisner’s Ideals," and as the title suggests we’ll be discussing how our own work has been affected by today’s expanding recognition of comics as a medium for serious artistic expression. Many cartoonists of my generation who cut our teeth in underground comix have been And while a lot of pioneering went on in the pages of underground comix, those who pay attention to comics history know that a trailblazing comics creator named Will Eisner had begun leading the way well before underground comix made the scene.

Amazingly, Will Eisner continued to show what comics are capable of in the parade of acclaimed graphic novels he contined to draw tirelessly until his death in 2005 at the age of 87. In honor of his achievements a host of events will soon be taking place as part of a national celebration called Will Eisner Week. It’s cool that our March 2 panel will be among them.

Click HERE to Keep Reading!

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Hogarth and Montana named to Eisner Hall of Fame (Comic Book Resources)

Image via Wikipedia

The Eisner Awards judges have selected legendary artists Burne Hogarth and Bob Montana for automatic induction this summer into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame.

Hogarth, who passed away in 1996, was an illustrator best known for his work on the Tarzan newspaper strip, an art educator and the author of influential anatomy and drawing books. Montana, who died in 1975, was the co-creator of Archie who drew the Riverdale gang for three decades.

The judges also chose 13 nominees from which voters may select four to be inducted into the Hall of Fame for 2010:

• Carl Burgos -- the late Golden Age-era artist and co-creator of the original Human Torch

• Steve Gerber -- the late writer and co-creator of Howard the Duck and Omega the Unknown

• Dick Giordano -- the artist and longtime DC Comics editor

• Michael Kaluta -- the artist best known for his work on Starstruck and The Shadow • Jack Kamen -- the late illustrator and prolific EC Comics artist

• Frans Masereel -- the late painter, woodcut artist and creator of Mon Livre d'Heures

• George McManus -- the late cartoonist and creator of Bringing Up Father

• Sheldon Moldoff -- one of Bob Kane's primary "ghost artists," and co-creator of Hawkgirl and Poison Ivy

• Marty Nodell -- the late artist and co-creator of the Golden Age Green Lantern • Bob Oksner -- the late artist known for his work on humor, adventure and superhero comics

• Bob Powell -- the late artist known for his work on Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, and Blackhawk

• Yoshihiro Tatsumi -- the creator of Abandon the Old in Tokyo, A Drifting Life and The Push Man and other stories

• Mort Weisinger -- the late and longtime DC Comics editor and co-creator of Aquaman, Green Arrow and Johnny Quick Online voting is open now through March 31.

The inductees will be announced during the Eisner Awards ceremony held July 23 during Comic-Con.
Click HERE to Keep Reading! 
 
  

Toy-A-Day Day 153: The Spirit (Will Eisner)

The Spirit (Denny Colt) is a crime-fighting fictional character created by writer-artist Will Eisner. He first appeared in Spirit Section #1 (June 2 1940), a seven-page insert into American Sunday-newspaper comics sections. He currently appears in comic books published by DC Comics.

The Spirit chronicles the adventures of a masked vigilante who fights crime with the blessing of the city's police commissioner Dolan, an old friend. The stories range through a wide variety of styles, from straightforward crime drama and noir to lighthearted adventure, from mystery and horror to comedy and love stories, often with hybrid elements that twisted genre and expectations.

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