Click 64-year-old Snoopy to see the online edition of Vol. 1, No. 1 of The National Cartoon!st, from the National Cartoonists Society, featuring the story behind the collaboration of Stephen Pastis and Bill Watterson that I blogged back in June. A tip o’ the Dog Rat toupee to best buddy Denro for a copy of the print edition!
A very Happy 88th Birthday to Joltin’ Joe Sinnott! Silver Age comics fans will be pleased to see Joe celebrating with his contemporaries, comic strip and DC Comics artistic stalwarts Joe Giella and Sy Barry.
Political cartoonists no longer have the influence that they enjoyed for many decades, if not a century, but the ones that remain continue to ply their craft. Jerry Holbert of the Boston Herald did this cartoon, about the recent lapse in White House security, which saw publication locally.
But before it reached national syndication, the editor at Uclick requested a change in wording.
I checked, and watermelon-flavored toothpaste does indeed exist.
It’s been twenty years since Robert Crumb relocated to France, and he’s still there. The introverted yet irrepressible cartoonist/record collector/musician, who is equally profound and profane, is featured on this week’s edition of the syndicated radio program American Routes.
One of the first comic books I bought after my family moved to Massachusetts in 1968 was Marvel Super-Heroes #18, featuring the introduction of an oddball band of space rangers called the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Gene Colan, the original incarnation of the Guardians was a one-off try-out story that went nowhere for decades. Today, a completely revamped version of the team includes a 1970’s Marvel character called Star Lord, who is played by Chris Pratt in a big, new movie that is getting generally favorable reviews. A Pratt saving the galaxy is something I’ve gotta see.
And where did Groot the tree character come from? He’s one of Marvel’s old, pre-Fantastic Four monsters.
Last week, Denro tipped me off to a half-price sale of Criterion videos at Barnes & Noble. I picked up the Blu-ray release of “Kiss Me Deadly” for twenty bucks. It’s based on a Mike Hammer story by Joe Sinnott’s longtime buddy, Mickey Spillane. Mickey was supposedly not happy with the ending, where director Robert Aldrich managed to bring the Cold War into the story, but I think this quirky and murky movie is both entertaining and fascinating. The whole thing is on YouTube, for now anyway, and I suggest kicking it up to full screen mode at 720p and kicking back.
