Category: Cartooning

DrawRat

SamJay mentioned that he liked the cartoons of mine that I’d posted in the past. So here’s another one I did, from a failed comic strip submission.

JB

This particular strip I remember being one of many exercises in teaching myself how to draw everyday objects, like the chair and lamp. It would take 1-2 hours to draw something like this in pencil, then ink it. Getting ideas was much tougher than drawing, which gets easier the more you do it. In terms of drawing ability I really admire the work of Chuck Ayers.

A Kick of Ditko

DitkoPkg

Robin Snyder’s Kickstarter project, reprinting the Ditko Public Service Package #2, is out and it’s here. Besides myself, financial contributors to the project include Mark Evanier, Neil Gaiman, and Jonathan Ross, whose name comes after Dennis F. Rogers.

DitkoSnyder

This is my first Kickstarter project, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the other two I’ve joined come out.

Truth, Justice, and the Humanist Way

Superman #215, April, 1969
Superman #215, April, 1969 – Page 14, panel 4

On my Kindle Keyboard I’m in the middle of reading Larry Tye’s excellent book about the ultimate illegal alien, Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero. The Boston Globe has a piece by Tye about Superman’s moral compass. The article is at this link, and it requires a login. If you have trouble logging on, click here.

The Superman radio show of the 1940’s with Bud Collyer led to the Superman movie serials with Kirk Alyn, which in turn led to the 1950’s TV series with George Reeves. On occasion the radio series took Superman back to his original comic book roots as a social crusader, and in Tye’s op-ed he points out a 16-part 1946 story called Clan of the Fiery Cross. It can be heard at this page on Archive dot org.

The Ditko Public Service Package

Legendary comic book artist Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man and the creator of Dr. Strange, has long been an adherent of Ayn Rand’s so-called Objectivism. I read both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead in college, while studying for my B.A. in Economics, and I think Rand’s ideas are ludicrous, but I enthusiastically support Ditko’s work.

The Ditko Public Service Package on Kickstarter, run by Robin Snyder, Ditko’s publisher, is reprinting an unusual book that came out over twenty years ago. The campaign has two more weeks to go, and I am very pleased that the fund has more than the $4900 that’s needed for the project. I contributed $106, with the extra six bucks for shipping.