A Long, Hard Week

http://www.legacy.com/Kansas/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Notice&PersonID=95019059

Even Shots in the Dark Can Hit Their Mark...

So I'm pitching what I'd define as one of my very few "dream projects" in the DC/Marvel catalog. Talked with my editor about my desire to handle the property one day, and he was all for giving it a shot.

There are a few things that will surely work against it happening, but a boy can dream.

Spandex Prose

Kenny D. Pendleton stopped by the Image boards to promote a kind of interesting site (well, I think so, anyway). It's a collection of covers for books (you know...with spines) featuring superheroes.

I think I'll steal some of his bandwidth! I read a bunch of these when I was young. Most of them really blew me away (possibly having something to do with my age at the time, I guess).

I've heard this Blackhawk paperback is kind of rare. I still have my copy on a shelf. Read it as a kid (despite some fairly adult sexual innuendo), and loved it:

Marvel published a bunch of novels in the late seventies/early eighties, and I read a handful of them. Something about the prose description of the costumes and the relatively mature depiction of their personalities really grabbed me. This Avengers book by David Michelinie is one I remember devouring when I was in...I dunno...fifth grade?:



Years later I mentioned it in an APA I was in, and a member of the APA sent me his copy. I've resisted the temptation to reread it up to now.


This collection of stories about Marvel heroes grabbed me, too. I especially remember the Avengers story (which Jim Shooter also scripted for the comic), and the Daredevil story. I loved the X-Men story, too, but I was an X-Men freak as a kid:

I also read these, and I dug them all, if not as much:

Sheesh. What a geek.

Underground

Griffin salvaged the server, so I can preview a few things here pretty soon. Sounds like we're about ready to drop some color Dick pages on the world, too.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm pretty obsessive about comic book (and comic strip) history, almost regardless of era or genre. While looking for something to read the other day, I realized I have stacks of comic book magazines in my storage room. So I pulled out the first Top Shelf issue of Comic Book Artist (with a beautiful Neal Adams/Alex Ross Superman cover), and found an engaging article on Art Spiegelman and Bill Griffith's ARCADE magazine, which was an attempt to bring underground talent to newsstands in a magazine format.

That got me in an underground mood, which always makes me want to draw. I have too much to do for that, but I did want to share this beautiful Crumb cover from the Fall, 1975 issue of ARCADE:




If you're ever curious about the heyday of the undergrounds, I highly recommend this book:

Revised BCM Shipping Schedule

As it now stands. Still with much hopeful thinking involved.

November: HAWAIIAN DICK #1
December: HAWAIIAN DICK #2, HAWAIIAN DICK BYRD OF PARADISE TPB (reprint)
January: HAWAIIAN DICK #3, '76 #1
February: HAWAIIAN DICK #4, '76 #2, SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL #12
March: HAWAIIAN DICK #5, '76 #3, SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL #13
April: '76 #4, SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL #14
May: HAWAIIAN DICK #6, HAWAIIAN DICK SBT TPB (maybe), '76 #5
June: HAWAIIAN DICK #7, '76 #6
July: HAWAIIAN DICK #8, '76 #7
August: HAWAIIAN DICK #9, '76 #8
September: open

Ed Tadem is a Talented Lad

I should post this on the '76 blog, but I need to bump my last post down a whiny notch.

The cover to '76 #3 (until Ed pulls it off of his server and you just get more red x's):

Dick Down and So On

If you're browsing this blog's previous entries, you may notice some strange red X-like things. We're having trouble with the Hawaiian Dick server, so anything hosted there is unlikely to appear here for a bit.

Also...I just read a piece about Brittney Spears' robotic, awkward, slightly (and I mean slightly) overweight performace at the God-awful, what the fuck do we need these things for MTV Video Music Awards.

Is this what we're reduced to? Laughing at some poor girl who's desperately trying to find the right beat to dance to to get people to like her again? Why anyone in America longs for celebrity is beyond me. At some point we, as a society, decided that those in the public spotlight exist solely for our amusement, and when they falter, we can't spank our erections fast enough.

It's the same way in comics. Our disdain for artist A or artist B needs to be dragged onto message boards where we can tell fans of these artists how stupid they are for enjoying something. It's as if the haters have more fun hating than the fans have enjoying something. Then again, fans of artist A love nothing more than to spit on fans of artist B, so maybe everyone deserves each other.

I just feel sorry for the girl at this point. I don't see how she did anything to deserve the shit lobbed her way, but I guess that's what she gets for trying to, you know...entertain people.

If we don't like you, we love to hate you.

Congrats to Tony & Kara

Just got back from Tony Moore & Kara Fairfield's wedding, and a great time was had by all.

Unfortunately, I think I left my camera in Indiana, which seriously, seriously sucks.

Look who's peeking out at us at Newsarama...

Hey, I recognize them dudes!

http://www.newsarama.com/

You know...there in the "Image Comics' Baltimore Plans" thumbnail.

See?

Direct link. No mention of the boys, but...a picture!:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=128145

It's Funny I Don't Fit...

Since I was originally browsing YouTube for Roger Miller, I might as well share a couple of Miller perfomances.

One-of-a-kind was Roger Miller. Here he is with the anti-extremist "Where Have All the Average People Gone":



And latter day Roger (I miss the trim cut and the gray suit, personally), with an energetic take on "Me and Bobby McGee," which he was probably the first to record:

Oh Mandy

While looking at some old Roger Miller videos on YouTube, I stumbled across a video I didn't know existed, for one of my favorite songs of the past year. The Spinto Band's "Oh Mandy."

Dig:

A Chantler Dogfight

Byrd's in some shit now (from HAWAIIAN DICK #2):





And Dennis Tigher seems to have stumbled into a spot of bother with the locals: