Author: DOuG pRATt

BoA boo-boo

The new ATM that Bank of America is using doesn’t “eat” your card. All you have to do is insert and pull, and that’s good in a way, but it’s easier than it used to be to walk away from the machine while your account is still open, giving access to the next person in line. Twice now I’ve had to close out another customer’s account, and today when I was in a hurry I almost turned away from a BOA ATM myself before answering no to, “Would you like to make another transaction?”

Al Williamson’s Flash drive

It’s been only a month since Frank Frazetta’s passing, and now Al Williamson is gone, too. They did some outstanding work together at EC. If Frazetta’s forté was fantasy, Williamson’s bent was more for science-fiction.

I first saw Williamson’s work in 1966, in issue #1 of the Flash Gordon comic-book series, from the short-lived King Comics line. Here is a sample of what I saw when I was but a wee lad of ten. The artistry in these pages is stunning, compared to many of the comics that were being published at the time.

Williamson worked in a style inspired by Alex Raymond, who is my pick for the all-time greatest artist of adventure comic strips. Younger fans came to know Williamson from his run on Star Wars. By that time, Al was being assisted by Carlos Garzón, from Bogotá, Columbia, where the American-born Williamson had grown up.

The last time I saw Williamson at a comics convention he still had something of the brash, young artistic turk about him, despite being in middle-age, and he was still very much a lady’s man. He was a rare breed, who updated a classic style of illustration, while staying true to it. Williamson and Frazetta were to comic books what the Method was to acting, where tried-and-true techniques of the past were reinvigorated with an independent, cutting-edge, attitude.

Speaking of Frazetta, his most famous ink drawing was recently bought by Heritage Auction co-founder Jim Halperin for $380,000. It was drawn for a Famous Funnies issue of Buck Rogers, but it ended up as the cover for the EC book Weird Science-Fantasy #29.

Erik Colan with his father Gene

Gene Colan is one of the all-time great comic-book artists. There are many favorite stories that Gene illustrated, starting with the first I ever saw, Daredevil #20, in 1966. Another is the Iron Man story in Tales of Suspense #93.

Two years ago, Gene Colan was at death’s door. With a lot of medical care, and some financial help from his peers and fans (myself included), Gene made a miraculous recovery. Recently, Gene has had a tough time with some personal, as well as physical, setbacks. The Colan family is starting to recover from these latest difficulties, and I was surprised and pleased when Denro told me that Gene’s son Erik has posted some videos with his dad on YouTube.

Monte Story School

Novelist Monte Schulz’s follow-up to his dark, yet rollicking This Side of Jordan is The Last Rose of Summer, which should be out in December.

Monte has had a long association with the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. His father attended the conference for many years, as did Ray Bradbury. The conference ran into financial trouble and ended up in bankruptcy court. Monte made an offer and now he owns the conference, presumably along with all of the headaches that go with it.

WRITERS CONFERENCE SOLD: Monte Schulz, son of the late Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz, has purchased the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robin Riblet, on Tuesday, June 8, approved the $27,000 sale. Monte plans to hold the next conference next June. There was no conference this year or last due to prior owner Marcia Meier’s bankruptcy.

And with apologies to Stephen Colbert, I think the title of this post qualifies for greatest pun of all time.