Inventor Dean Kamen‘s father Jack has died. He was one of the illustrators of the notorious EC line of comic books in the 1950’s. At the first link you’ll find my Kamen-related items, including an example of Jack’s work.
Category: Comic Books
O.K. EROK!
Erik Salholm in Ireland, whose blog is called O.K. EROK!, has linked to my “In Search of Steve Ditko” posts, and I’m going to link to his “Little Superman in McCay Land” post.
Another Secret Project
This secret project is very different from the other secret project. All I’ll say about that one is it involves TV. This one involves comic books, and it relates to the header I just put up. I’ll put it here too, for later when the header has changed.
I don’t know yet when this happen. It involves D.F. Rogers, and Paul Howley it involves you too, so write and I’ll tell you what’s up (no, you don’t have to do anything, it’s about something you did ten years ago).
Watching the Watchmen
Comic book fans have been full of talk about the Watchmen movie for quite a while. Time.com just put out an article about the Watchmen preview at the Comic-Con in San Diego, going on right now.
This sort of coverage represents a validation, approval and acceptance of comics that was unimaginable to me as a kid. The catch is, today’s comic books hold no interest for me, in part because I felt when the Watchmen series came out it was the final word on the super hero genre. Writer Alan Moore had succeeded in extracting everything there was to be said about costumed heroes.
The best place to see the Watchmen trailer is the official site, but I’ll post it here for convenience, if you want to avoid all of the Flash animation that’s typical of movie sites.
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Overall, it looks very promising, but the Vietnam scenes have a fake appearance, and Dr. Manhattan isn’t quite as convincing as he should be. Rorschach’s voice is too similar to Christian Bale’s Batman. But all of this can be fixed in post-production. I’m also a bit concerned that if the big climax in the story isn’t handled just right, it will be unintentionally humorous. We’ll know in March.
Use The Force, Charlie Brown!
I’ve never been to the Comic-Con in San Diego, but they don’t need me there because it’s the biggest fanboy (and girl) convention anywhere. The fun includes everything from Charlie Brown to Star Wars, and Mark Evanier will be there, of course. If I were attending, on Friday I’d have to run from his panel with EC artist/writer/editor Al Feldstein over to this one:
4:45-5:45 It’s a Great Comic-Con, Charlie Brown — Together for the first time at Comic-Con, Warner Home Video, United Media and the Schulz Estate bring you a Peanuts voice cast reunion in celebration of several great holiday DVD releases this September and October. Featuring Chris DeFaria (Peppermint Patty), Gabrielle DeFaria Ritter (Pigpen), Lisa DeFaria (Peppermint Patty), Sally Dryer (Violet and Lucy), Robin Kohn Glazer (Lucy), Jason Mendelson, Hilary Momberger (Sally), executive producer Lee Mendelson, and Jeannie Schulz, the wife of Charles M. Schulz.
Wow! I’d love to be there. An hour devoted to celebrating the fun of Peanuts, and an opportunity to say hi to Jeannie Schulz and Lee Mendelson.
Hajdu, Don’t Make It Bad
Peanuts, June 22, 1952
Comic books, like the movies, were under attack in the 1950’s. Movie people were accused of being communists, and comic book people were accused of causing juvenile delinquency. A book by David Hajdu, called The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, gives some serious thought to what happened and how it influenced later events beyond comic books themselves. Stephen Colbert, who’s obviously a comic book fan, interviewed Hajdu a couple of weeks ago.
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There’s irony in the “TV 14” rating that’s so prominent during Colbert’s introduction. It’s almost like the Comics Code Authority seal that appeared on comic books after the big scare. Oh no! How did that commercial get left at the end of the interview?
EC Comics publisher William Gaines did a lousy job testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1954. His entire testimony is at this link. He should have emphasized that his horror comics were inspired by radio shows such as Inner Sanctum, Lights Out, and The Whistler. But there was probably no defense against the public sentiment of the day. In a way, losing the comic book business was the best thing that could have happened to Gaines, because he was left with MAD Magazine, which was far more subversive and influential anyway, and it ended up being vastly more successful.
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