Category: Comic Books

Physics professor turned publisher Russ Cochran of West Plains, Missouri, has passed away. Cochran’s friendship with MAD magazine’s Bill Gaines made it possible for him to reprint every E.C. comic book from the 1950’s in hardcover box sets, starting with Weird Science in 1978. I subscribed to the series and received each set as they were published, which took upwards of ten years to complete, as I recall.

Some of the finest pieces of original comic strip art found today on Heritage Auctions passed through Cochran’s hands decades ago, from his own art auctions as well as his personal collection. In 2005 Cochran published ‘Les Paul In His Own Words’ in collaboration with his brother Michael.

Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson being credited during the 2020 Academy Awards? Incredible and wonderful.

Scott Shaw! (exclamation point included) is a professional cartoonist specializing in Hanna-Barbera characters, especially the Flintstones. A couple of weeks ago I did a favor for Scott by posting this video.

https://youtu.be/yy1uZqdF3wM

I’m a Svengoolie fan, and I record his MeTV show on my PC-DVR every Saturday, so it was easy for me to grab the segment with Sven’s shout-out to Scott. I was careful to include the action right before the break, so that Kerwyn’s joke made sense.

Kudos to Eddie Muller for his Noir Alley introduction on Turner Classic Movies to “While the City Sleeps” (1956). Based on a novel where a serial killer was a religious fanatic, the film instead blamed the influence of comic books. Muller says, “I spent my entire youth, and a lot of my adult life, reading these… and it didn’t harm me one bit.”