Category: Cartooning

Tish Tash

Tonight TCM showed Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? It’s a wild follow-up farce to another fantastic Fifties farce, The Girl Can’t Help It.

http://youtu.be/dioNDDIqNOY

Jayne Mansfield starred in both movies, and both were the product of the far-out mind of the man they called Tish Tash. Fans of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons know the names Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Chuck Jones. Frank Tashlin was their equal, but he left the cartoon biz after WWII and found greater success directing comedy films.

Here’s one of Tashlin’s best toons, Porky Pig’s Feat. It features Carl Stalling’s trademark use of Raymond Scott’s most famous tune, Powerhouse. This is wonderfully wacky stuff, as only the boys of Termite Terrace could do.

http://youtu.be/AvBX9gqQ3-Q

Death of a pencil pusher

Gene Colan has died. Gene had been ill for a long time, and his death came almost exactly one year after his wife Adrienne tragically took her own life. Gene Colan spent his entire life doing what he loved, drawing pictures and illustrating stories. He was one of the best ever at his craft, and he leaves behind thousands of pages of wonderful art for comics fans to enjoy now and forever. Thank you, Gene.

D.F. Rogers with Gene Colan
Dennis F. Rogers with Gene Colan, 2009

Death of a comic book dream

I remember reading this item in early 2008, about a new comic book shop that was opening up.

He wants to draw a different crowd

James Welborn, 34, thinks the average comics shop still feels like a “man cave . . . a smelly hole where a bunch of kids sit around and play Magic cards.”

As he prepared to open Hub Comics, he put a sign in the window promising a different kind of establishment: “a comics shop for NPR listeners.”

Creating Hub Comics has been an act of love. “When I got my first job, I spent probably every dime on comics,” Welborn said, recalling that he would take an hourlong bus ride to a shop in Las Vegas.

Now a software engineer at Akamai, Welborn hopes Hub Comics can become his full-time job, but would be happy if it simply breaks even.

The thing is, the “man cave with kids playing Magic cards” formula is how a lot of shops have survived, and as a business plan “act of love” and “simply break even” sounded shaky to me, but Welborn had a day job that presumably paid well. Hub Comics is a short walk from where my friend Morris lives and I went there a couple of times. The place seemed to have a good combination of location, selection, and atmosphere. I bought a few things and put my name on their mailing list. Then last year there was trouble.

Hub Comics struggles to survive

Hub Comics owner James Welborn sounded the bat alarm in an open letter dated Oct. 13 announcing a plan to raise “basic survival revenue,” including the option to buy “comic credit” and a nine-day sale.

Eric and I went there and dropped more than a hundred bucks, and we returned again after another “emergency sale” mailing was received. When Free Comic Book Day came up this year it seemed that Hub Comics would stay in business, but a couple of weeks ago the manager sent a message saying that Welborn had been seriously injured and was in the hospital. He didn’t say what sort of injury.

James Welborn, comics store owner, dead at 37

Emergency personnel discovered Mr. Welborn in his Summit Avenue home May 16. Police have been investigating circumstances of the death, which included a note on a bathroom door warning of poisonous gas.

I’m running a road race in Boston tomorrow, and I’m planning to see Morris after that. I’ll walk down to Hub Comics and see if the store is still open.