Friday, November 29, 2019

Magazines I've Read Recently, November 29, 2019









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Thursday, November 28, 2019

Recommended: This 2015 Interview w/Tom Spurgeon on the Word Balloon Podcast


https://player.fm/series/word-balloon-comics-podcast/comic-book-history-remembering-tom-spurgeon?fbclid=IwAR0ou6LWPXSiFLHXIXDrdybrD66lwviQSMGGYxqNW970LajhsxbdhZYn-cU
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Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Promo for the 2005 CAPA Summer Movie Series at the Ohio Theatre









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Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Loving This Drawing of Hank Williams Sr. by Cartoonist Michael Cho


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RIP John Simon


Learned, sharp, perceptive, offensive and droll with sarcastic, caustic wit: literary, theater and film critic John Simon was all these. I first became aware of him in 1978, when Fantagraphics Books publisher Gary Groth reprinted Simon's negative review of the first Star Wars film in one of the first issues of The Comics Journal I read. I then followed Simon's film and theater reviews in various magazines for decades.

For a sample, here's Simon critiquing/desecrating the writing of fellow film critic Rex Reed:

Bette Midler's eyes are "glittering green venetian blinds from which stars are shooting like emeralds," and one is forced to wonder whether green venetian blinds are in fact shutters, and whether one has ever seen an emerald shoot - and shoot in a cowardly fashion, from behind venetian blinds, painted green, no doubt, as camouflage for an emerald. Tennessee Williams is "shy, pursued by visions of hell, and blind in one eye." Curious collocation: Is it the hellish visions or the shyness that blinds you in one eye? And does one get the visions of hell in the blind or the seeing eye?
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I Want This Magazine!


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Monday, November 25, 2019

Six Archie Paperbacks Published by Bantam







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Saturday, November 23, 2019

Indie and Small Press Comics & Fanzines I've Read Recently, November 23, 2019
















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Thursday, November 14, 2019

Jack Kirby's Ookla the Wanderer


A presentation piece for the Thundarr the Barbarian animated series, likely inked by Alfredo Alcala.
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Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Recently Read: Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age U.S.A. Comics, Vol. 1


For comics historians and deep-diving fans, Marvel's (now defunct?) hardcover and softcover reprints of some of their earliest published comics was a godsend (as purchasing even beat up copies of the original comics is a bank-breaking proposal). The use of talent used on these books was uneven, though, with a lot of workmanlike (and just plain bad) publishing product.

The first four issues of USA Comics is a good example. A Jack Kirby cover and two Basil Wolverton stories stand out; the rest of the material, starring forgotten characters like Major Liberty, Jack Frost, The Defender and Corporal Dix, are simplistic patriotic tales of German saboteurs, slobbering despots and fifth columnists who barely try to hide their intentions. Expect little characterization or subtlety. Historian Michael J. Vassallo does a excellent job researching, identifying and making educated guesses at the mostly uncredited authors and artists, and reading the book from the perspective of seeing longstanding cartoonists' earliest work can be rewarding. I can only recommend the book, otherwise, for those, like me, who just want to read it all wholesale.
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Sunday, November 10, 2019

95 Pics from the Artistically Mad: Seven Decades of Satire Exhibit @ the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
































































































Opened May 5, 2018. 
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