One thing I didn’t need was another streaming video service, but I got talked into giving HBOmax a try. Over the past three days I’ve watched the nine episodes of HBO’s Watchmen sequel.
The series pushes hard on culture war issues. The presentation owes a lot to the stylistic influence of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Some hardcore Watchmen fans have complained the series doesn’t remain true to Alan Moore’s original vision, but it carried me through from one episode to the next. HBO has made the soundtrack available on YouTube, and it’s worth scrolling through the playlist for tracks that may be of interest.
Heritage Auctions has been a key driver of original art prices, but ya gotta love their high-resolution scans. So click to enlarge!
Hawley Pratt Alex Raymond Hal Foster John Buscema Jack Kirby/Wally Wood Jack Kirby/Vince Colletta
Compare the page above, inked by Vince Colletta, with the page below, inked by my pal Joe Sinnott. The only thing they had in common was that neither one of them ever missed a deadline.
Two years ago, at a comic con in downtown Albany, I had a lengthy and very enjoyable conversation with comic book writer Denny O’Neil. Joe Sinnott was also at the show, and I’m sad to say they died within a couple weeks of each other last year.
Almost 50 years ago, Alan Light, founder of The Buyer’s Guide of Comics Fandom, published this audio interview with Denny. At the time, O’Neil was white-hot as the writer of the highly praised Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic book series, and the equally praised post-TV show reboot of Batman. Both books were illustrated by Neal Adams.
As a sensitive 10-year-old kid, the first time I saw Jack Kirby’s art it looked, well, scary. As I liked to tell my dearly departed buddy Joe Sinnott, his “friendly faces” on Kirby’s art got me started buying the Fantastic Four.
My first comic book from the Marvel Comics Group was Daredevil #19. It was drawn by John Romita, who had previously worked for DC, drawing romance comics. In hindsight, this made the art less intimidating for me.
Daredevil #19, 1966, John Romita (penciler), Frank Giacoia (inker).
As a kid I thought of Stan Lee as a sort of Walt Disney, but saying that to anyone in Hollywood would have, at best, elicited a loud laugh. I say “at best” because that would have at least meant the person laughing knew who Stan Lee was. Much more likely would have been a puzzled expression and “who?” Forty years later, after Disney bought Marvel, that’s where Joe Sinnott’s retirement money came from. Joe would joke with me that he’d finally arrived as a Disney artist.
For most of my life, the question of who did what in creating the MCU (Marvel Comics Universe), as it’s now called, was a topic of heated debate only among comic book fans and the True Believers of the M.M.M.S. (Merry Marvel Marching Society). How times have changed. The New Yorker is weighing in with an historical analysis. I haven’t read it yet, so I don’t know what conclusions it reaches.
