Category: Comic Books

Mighty Young Joe

I’ve been trying to work through my thoughts and feelings about Joe Sinnott, but I haven’t made much progress. Although Joe’s passing was not due to the coronavirus, I feel the crisis had an indirect effect, because he couldn’t have visitors. Joe wasn’t able to see his family and friends, and Joe had a lot of friends and fans. I was proud and happy to have been one of them.

Joe was buried yesterday with military honors, following a private service with his family. There will be a future public event celebrating Joe’s life, if the pandemic ever releases its grip. Marvel Comics has published a remembrance of Joe at this link.

Teenage Wasteland

The complete and unforgettable “Jaan Pehechaan Ho.”

Terry Zwigoff used some of this 1960’s Bollywood production in the opening sequence of his superbly realized film adaptation of the comic book Ghost World, by Daniel Clowes. Scarlett Johansson was the breakout star of the movie, but Thora Birch’s performance has always impressed me more.

Guess what? YouTube Movies has the complete Ghost World. Yeah, there are commercials, but it’s free and it’s here. (Note that you will need some form of Google account to watch.)

https://youtu.be/pmW61ytcI18

Zwigoff got in a self-deprecating dig. He played string bass on this R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders album. Yeesh, Thora and Scarlett look unbelievably young but, then, didn’t we all at some time?

Listen Bud, He’s Got Radioactive Blood

Wear a mask and maintain social distancing!

Not everybody will get the joke, but for those of us who do it’s very funny.

Note at the end of that 1967 cartoon, credit is given to “Jazzy Johnny Romita” as an art consultant, and not Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko. I can see where some of the animation was based on drawings by Romita, especially Aunt May. But the series also included direct photostats of some Ditko art. This was a technique that Grantray-Lawrence had used extensively in The Marvel Super-Heroes series a year earlier, which was in production when Ditko quit Marvel Comics.