Sept 11th Anniversary

Hard to believe it's been 10 years.
I've been watching the weeklong coverage on National Geographic off and on and despite the fact that the memory is still fresh I think it's good to review the events.  A nation that forgets its history is doomed to repeat it.  How many high school freshmen can name the date of Pearl Harbor or it's significance?

FAT FINGERS

Fatfingers.com is a website where you an find mis-spellings on eBay and therefore take advantage of spelling challenged sellers by grabbing up their offerings a below sticker price.  So if you're selling a iPid 4G don't be surprised when it goes for eleven bucks.

Superman Creators; A Life of No Respect

The Plaque commemorating the birthplace of Superman creator Jerry Siegel.

Traveling through Cleveland, I was struck that this home to the creators of Superman has done little to pay tribute to them-- while other things (like the first concrete street) get memorialized.  This shoddy treatment of the dynamic duo who created the Man of Steel is nothing new.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman sometime around 1933 and spent years shopping it around to publishers, facing constant rejection until finally hitting DC Comics (Then National Comics) and seeing Superman published in the pages of ACTION COMICS #1 in 1938.  They sold Superman to DC Comics for $130 and a regular paycheck guarantee to provide Superman strips for publication.  Siegel and Shuster set up a studio in New York city and oversaw a team of artists to produce both work for the comic book and comic strip version of Superman.  Superman became a HUGE hit-- rivaling Mickey Mouse for popularity and I would argue that today he surpasses Mickey in recognizability world-wide.

Yet no real recognition from the hometown?  Yes, there is the Superman Museum in Metropolis Illinois, but Cleveland?  When Jerry Siegel expressed his desire to have his mementos given to his hometown after his death his widow was disheartened to learn there was no interest in any of the items-- including Siegel's Typewriter which should probably be in the Smithsonian.

It's interesting to imagine what might have happened if Siegel or Shuster had more of the business sense of Walt Disney or even Will Eisner-- artists who had the vision to control their own creations and hence, their destinies.

Siegel and Shuster sought to wrest ownership of Superman from DC Comics in the mid-forties and were soon dismissed from their positions and no longer worked on Superman.   The creators could only sit and watch their character get bigger and bigger-- with movie serials and a very successful TV show in the 1950s, but absolutely nothing for them.

When Superman became a big budget film from Warner Bros in the late 1970s artist Neal Adams made it clear that it would be very embarrassing for both WB and DC Comics if the word got out that the creators of Superman were not only badly compensated-- they were both living out their senior years in abject poverty-- virtually penniless.

DC relented and gave them a modest pension which eventually led to a better package-- but it was still nothing like what fellow artist Bob Kane-- creator of Batman-- had made with his deal in 1939 which provided him a healthy living for the rest of his life.

Siegel and Shuster had a hard life-- it's unfortunate that the only honor bestowed on them by the home city of Cleveland is a modest sign on a post outside of Siegel's boyhood home.

Classic Flix

Most people are familiar with NETFLIX which is a service that allows you to get DVDs mailed to you-- Netflix also offers streaming video which is most likely the way these types of services are going to go-- but for classic movie fans there is CLASSICFLIX which offers a much wider selection of pre-1970 films than Netflix.

They don't have streaming and they are pretty much a family run operation so cut them a bit of slack-- but they offer great service and a terrific selection of movies.  Highest recommendation.

ONYX for MAC

Mac's may not get as many viruses as PCs but they still pick up a lot of junk just being on the internet.  A great cleaning program is ONYX-- it's free and safe and thorough.  Running it once a month will keep your Mac working at out of box speed.

For your PC needs-- and I still have one that acts as a backup station-- CCLEANER is pretty much the same thing just for non-Macs.

Both are free and programs I've been using for years.

EMERSON COLLEGE Online Comic Courses

Emerson has long offered a certificate program on Graphic Novel studies and has built a very strong course which covers everything from the beginnings of the medium up through today-- offering in-depth studies of what makes a great comic book or graphic novel artist and writer.

This year they've rolled them out as online courses, so you can now take the class from the comfort of your home sitting in your pajama's if you prefer.  Personally I think this is a great idea, not just to save the commute into Boston, but because if you are going to work in the industry 90% of what you do will require uploading images and communicating online-- this gives you the head start.

So if you've considered taking a course-- and I strongly encourage you to take one of mine, give Emerson a call or visit their website for more info.  Classes start the week of the 21st.

Movies This Week: DVDs

This is one of the strangest sci flicks I've ever seen, and very memorable to everyone who's see it.  A character dies and is reborn as a giant lumbering robot-- soon going on a rampage in New York City.  Ross Martin stars and this one is one you really don't want to miss.

Finally released on DVD-- it never got a VHS release-- so check it out.

Do We Want to see a Reporter Die?

It's always interesting that in order to report a story happening-- let's say a Hurricane or a war- that news companies feel the need to stick some poor newbie reporter deep in the middle of it.

"Go out and stand in the middle of the storm-- make like it's killing ya!" -- It's like Ed Wood is in charge of news broadcasts now.

I'm not talking about the reporters hunkered down in a hotel room in Tripoli who are facing real danger as possible hostages during the fall of Gadafi-- I'm talking about the ones in the flack jacket and helmet standing fifteen feet from live gunfire and basically being a walking human target.

I think a camera pointed out a window would be more effective-- I'm not interested in watching a reporter's head explode during a live broadcast on the 24 hour news channels-- but it's coming and mark my words it'll be reacted to with shock and dismay even though it's only a matter of time.

Is that really what we want?  Personally I like it much better when my boy Anderson Cooper is safe and snug in the studio and just telling me how bad something is somewhere else-- or Brian Williams-- I trust both of you guys, please keep the suits on and stay in the air conditioned comfort of your studio.  I can imagine how bad it is wherever we're talking about-- I really don't need graphic visuals of someone dying to emphasize the point.

Fall Classes

I'm hoping to take another class this fall-- I always try to take at least one art class each semester-- yes even thought I would consider myself a seasoned artist it's important to keep pushing yourself and challenging those skills.  At the very least I'll get myself to the Life Drawing sessions at WAM that are a terrific value and maybe they'll have 'em at Worcester State University too.

For my classes-- I've got a new take on COMIC ART for WAM-- if you've taken the class before you'll find this one is different, more intense and more results oriented.  I'm hoping to get a classroom full of veterans so we can make this a sort of Comics Art II-- and by veterans I don't mean you've had to have taken a class, I mean artists who are already doing comics.

Over at EMERSON they've taken the graphic novel program and launched it online.  I've spent the better part of the last month building both the online classroom and the blog that will go with it.  The course is THE ART OF COMICS which will cover the history of the medium and get you so that you can recognize periods, specific artists and see where and how artistic movements were created in this medium that is American born and has only been with us since 1935.

We'll go through the Golden Age of Comics including the birth of Superman and the introduction of the superheroes, up through the crime and horror comics of the fifties that launched the comics code authority when parents became horrified by the graphic nature of comics.  Then we'll roll into the re-birth of comics with the launch of Marvel Comics FANTASTIC FOUR #1 and comics have not been the same since.

We'll cover all this with an extensive reading list (comics provided) as well as following along with a terrific documentary and online classroom discussions.  It's all part of the graphic novel certificate program at Emerson and if I weren't teaching it I would be taking these classes-- I'd equate them to the level of course offered at SVA in New York.

Happy September!

Another summer down.  This one wooshed by-- at least for me.  Got WEREWOLVES done, worked out the details with Diamond Digital and did a good two dozen library workshops all over the state as well as a weekly program at the Worcester Public Library which will kick back in again later this month.

I'm always happy to see Summer go, especially with Fall being my favorite season.  We'll be doing some traveling including a visit to Des Moines and a stop in Austin for the Wizardworld Comic Con.

Happy September fellow bloggies.
And a happier birthday to #1 son Matt!

This is a BIG DAY for GEEKS! DC Comics MIDNIGHT MADNESS Release Party

I count myself among them-- tonight at MIDNIGHT DC Comics relaunches their line of books re-starting at Issue #1.  It's a bold move to re-invigorate readership which has dwindled among younger and new fans.

Picture this-- you grew up not reading comics, or not reading comics other than Sonic or Jughead and you get through with Christopher Nolan's THE DARK KNIGHT and realize that Batman is more than Adam West's POW BANG comedy hero of the 1960s TV series so you decide to check out his comic book title.  Calling 1-888-COMIC BOOK lets you know that there are two comic shops in your area and you head into one of them to grab an issue.

Only to find out that Batman appears in no less than a dozen books each month-- including special editions, one shots, trade paperback collections, graphic novels, several ongoing monthly titles as well as team books like JLA.  Where do you start?  How do you jump on?

I'm sympathetic for a couple of reasons-- I don't read regular monthly comics because of this very reason-- I don't want to follow multiple titles AND frankly the shorelines seem pretty tired to me.  But Dan Didio-- co-publisher of DC Comics reminds me a lot of Stan Lee in his heyday-- excited, behind the idea of a relaunch and it got me to check out FLASHPOINT which is an interesting WHAT IF? type series of books-- the Batman one featured Thomas Wayne out to avenge the death of his young son Bruce at the hands of a mugger by dressing up like a Bat-- yup, I said THOMAS WAYNE.    That'd be Bruce Wayne's dad-- a re-imagining of Batman's origin with nearly the same outcome.  There are enough twists and turns to keep it interesting and although I thought the 3rd part of the 3 part series was the weakest, it still held my interest.

Second, and certainly easier for me to empathize with, I don't watch Doctor Who-- I've tried.  I think the 70s episodes I saw were idiotic and the newer version with Matt Smith has much better special effects and an interesting cast-- and even though I struggled through two episodes the other night I'm still not convinced this show is for me-- there was just too much backstory, too much I had missed and too many other places for me to get my entertainment jolt.

Sounds like the predicament the comic book industry is in, at least among the big publishers.  See what happens is in the old days-- when comics sold about two million issues each big characters like Superman and Batman only appeared in three titles a month.  A reader could follow along-- nowadays if a character becomes popular they spin off another book and then another and another.

WAY back in the late 90s I had this discussion with a prominent DC Editor and proposed they started all over again and limited the number of titles a character appeared in.  They said they'd never go for it.  Shortly afterwards Marvel Comics did something kind of like it with the Ultra-verse-- but not to the level that DC is doing it this time.  I'm not trying to take credit here by any means-- just saying I thought it was a good idea then and I think it's a good idea now.

Here's the deal-- at Midnight Tonight DC is releasing JLA #1-- the first title in the relaunch-- and to celebrate it many comic shops are having midnight parties tonight-- my two local favorites That's Entertainment in Worcester and Friendly Comics in Bellingham are both taking part.  Offering films and other events to fill the night.  Friendly is even offering free pizza and cookies for the countdown as well as a marathon showing of Justice League cartoons.

The story has made the NEW YORK TIMES.

In New York City-- which for was the homebase of the industry-- Mid Town Comics is hosting the "Official" Party which will include characters in costume as well as DC Co-publisher Jim Lee and Creative director Geoff Johns.

Here's the controversial part of the new program-- DC is also releasing these titles DIGITALLY at the same time the print books are released.  DC has taken extensive steps to re-enforce it's relationship with retailers who recognize that they could be made irrelevant by a digital age of reading entertainment.

Diamond Distributors has been working on a program to keep retailers involved in the delivery process, and it's been met with tepid responses from the retailer community.  Adaption, is the key here folks.

But tonight belongs to the geeks-- if you haven't been in a comic shop in sometime this is a good time to give it a try.

Economy Woes

I think the economy is worse than they are saying-- and they are saying it's pretty bad.  I'm betting that in 1931 they didn't realize they were in an economic depression, more likely calling it a recession, and it's only as you get away from it and look back that you realize how bad it really was.

I think we're in an equally bad spot.  I'm not going to go all political but it seems to me if you stopped both these wars we're in right now and re-focused that money here at home things would turn around right away-- but what do I know-- I'm just an artist.

I'm thinking of the economy because as I write this I'm sitting in Nu Cafe and next to me is an HR Rep who is doing interviews (not for Nu Cafe) and his latest two interviewee's were easily men in their 60s.  The guy who looks like Will Brimley looks like he got the job and he seemed pretty happy about it.

I don't enjoy job interviews, actually, that's not entirely true, I enjoy the interview it's usually the job I don't like.  I once went on an interview with Borders for the position of District Manager and after several- including one that lasted FOUR hours-- I'm not kidding-- they offered me the job and I declined it.  I decided that it just wasn't for me.

A few years ago my brother was running an alarm company and he asked me if I'd consider working an evening shift there-- 8-midnight-- the pitch was that I could sit and draw while I monitored the various computer screens and valves and buttons which protected local homes and businesses.  It actually wasn't a bad job, and it was only one or two days a week, but when they shifted me to midnight to 8am it wasn't nearly as much fun.

A few years later a friend of mine was dispatching for a shuttle service that operated cars and vans from Central Ma to Boston's Logan Airport and he asked if I'd be interested in driving for them.  I had visions of driving a town car in a dark suit with sunglasses-- a glass partition between me and the VIP and it didn't sound half bad.  It ended up being me in a van with weak brakes and a window defroster that had the power of three gerbils breathing hard and a load of people who never realized how close to death we were as I weaved my way down the MassPike with a steering wheel that only kind of responded the way you wanted it to.

These were the days before GPS so you had to whip out your Map Atlas and figure out a course to get the eleven people on your bus home.  I never played nicely-- refusing to use the jargon on the radio, opting to skip cleaning the vehicle when I'd bring it back to "base", etc-- in my defense the definition of a shift was 5-10 unless you've still got people to deliver which in that case means 5-2am.

I think I lasted two weeks and never bothered to pick up my paycheck.  I knew it was bad when the driver I trained with told me he sometimes worked 20 hours straight and he was pulling down as much as $400 a week (which he said excitedly).  $400 a week working 70 hours sounds like I should be making shoes in China.

This Week on TCM: SUNSET BOULEVARD

Tonight at 10pm is FORBIDDEN PLANET which stars Leslie Nielson in his pre-comedy days and is an other space version of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST.  I've seen it a couple of times-- it's a classic, but I have a hard time warming up to it.  When Mike Warshaw and I ran into Mr. Nielson last year he was delighted that we mentioned this movie instead of his NAKED GUN run of movies.

On Wednesday at 6:30 is SHANGHAI EXPRESS which is a great Marlene Dietrich movie and MANPOWER runs later that night which is a terrific example of a great little WB Programmer.  Warners made movies that were lightning paced-- something today's film makers could learn from.

The Big Gun this week is Saturday's Essential Film 1950s SUNSET BOULEVARD which is one of the greatest of the great film noirs from Billy Wilder starring William Holden as a dead writer and Gloria Holden as a starlet who is past her prime.   One of my favorite movies.

The BlogOSphere State of the Blog Address

Most of the regular readers of this blog know that I write these long in advance and take advantage of the scheduling feature Blogger offers, but I still get the occasional email surprised that I'm blogging when I'm supposed to be out of town, on vacation, in a meeting, etc-- that's the magic of scheduling folks.

But sometimes I let the schedule run down a bit.  I like to stay a month or so ahead, my record is two months when I was in Japan, but this week here, the end of August, I'm only three days ahead.  There's a lot of reasons for that.

First and foremost is the horrendous horrible disgraceful service I've gotten from Verizon to fix my internet connection.  Three months of phone calls, a new router, occasional improvements but then finally scheduling a repair call three weeks out has given me online headaches to the point that I'm giving these idiots one more chance to fix it and then I go elsewhere.  I'm planning on staying with them for cell service-- I happen to think Verizon Wireless is top notch-- and I've been with other carriers, it's just a shame that the internet wing of their company isn't up to standards.

So that means running to public Wi-Fi to check my email, upload files to clients and generally making the Blog the last priority.

The only positive side is that here in the good ol' Northeast USA there is plenty of WiFi around.  Most of it is excellent-- mustn't be Verizon.

I also spent the third week of August going through WEREWOLVES OF WISCONSIN-- my latest graphic novel offering that is 120+ pages completed in under three months.  It's off to the publisher now and I'm moving on to the next projects, but I'm happy with WEREWOLVES and I think it will be something of interest to some people.

I've spent the majority of the last week at Nu Cafe, run by Josh in the old Tatnuck Bookseller's building on Chandler Street.  It's a great place and Josh does a great job of making it a comfortable place.  The food and the coffee are both top notch so give it a chance if you haven't been there in a while.

More Blog posts soon.  Be nice to each other.

Pirates of Mars

Are you reading PIRATES OF MARS?  If not-- what's wrong with you?  It's an amazing book by the lovely and talented JJ Kahrs and some girl named Veronica Fish who looks like she just might have mad skills.

If you don't buy it over on LULU in it's full 96pg graphic novel form-- you can get it through Diamond next month through the Under Cover Fish label in FULL COLOR for your eReader.

And please, don't tell me you don't have an eReader.  It's 2011 folks.

Free Friday Art Piece

I have more warm up sketches around my studio than I can deal with so each Friday I give 'em away.  Send an email to andy@hebsandfish.com with FREE DRAWING in the subject line and I'll add you into the hat where I'll pick a name and then mail it out to you.  It doesn't matter if you enter every week, feel free.

WooBerry! Woo!

Okay-- who are the YELP idiots complaining about prices here?  C'mon-- SIX  toppings?? You're having a bowl of candy with some Frozen Yogurt in it for cryin' out loud.  WOOBerry just opened up on Highland Street and it's a welcome addition to this funky little neighborhood.


Just because they have 30 toppings doesn't mean you have to have 30 toppings folks.  It's LOWFAT if you don't put three pounds of candy on it!    Prices are $3 for a small which is plenty big enough for the average person.  In fact, I'd go with the Petite next time so I'm not over full.  Toppings are .75 for the first one and .50 thereafter-- how many toppings do you need people??

It's cheap--the quality is OUTSTANDING and the place is really nice- with a friendly staff to boot.  Great location-- perfect for grabbing some desert after dinner.

Great funky place that fits in perfectly with the best of Highland Street (Futon Company down the street a bit).

NEWS we got NEWS

So much news my head is going to EXPLODE!

DIAMOND DIGITAL rolls out next week-- the biggest comic book distributor in the world-- and a great bunch of guys to work with-- combined with Rob at Comixology to launch the biggest effort at conquering a new medium in this eBook realm-- and we are there.  They'll be offering DRACULA Book 1 at a greatly reduced price, then the following month we roll out with PIRATES OF MARS Book One in FULL COLOR which will follow with parts 2 and 3 consecutive months-- DRACULA will run bi-monthly in 12 parts.

THE FITCHBURG ART MUSEUM-- otherwise known in art circles as FAM-- is bringing in the great GRAPHIC NOVELS ART SHOW born at the Norman Rockwell Museum last year.  The Rockwell folks hired Veronica and I to come in and discuss the art form as well as offer a hands on lesson for anyone interested and I'm happy to say we just signed the contract with Fitchburg to do the same thing there.

WEREWOLVES OF WISCONSIN and Other American tales is done and in the can-- sent it to the publisher last week it'll be in stores later this fall-- full color from McFarland Books.

I just signed a contract to produce another graphic novel with a very talented writer and I expect to wrap that up mid-fall-- more when I can reveal details.

TV Tuesday: Batman Brave & The Bold

This dopey little show has a lot of charm and I like it.  It's Batman-lite, but with a healthy dose of respect for the character and his long history.  There's no Bruce Wayne-- it's just Batman teamed up with another character from the DC Universe who get themselves into or out of jams.

Good mindless fun, and if you're a fan of comics of the 50s-70s you'll dig these.  Great background when I'm working in the studio.

MOVIE Monday; This Week on TCM-

I got an email from a reader who asked why I don't cover "modern" movies here on Movie Monday-- a recent visit to REDBOX clearly answers that for me.  Should I discuss the latest piece of genius from Ed Helms?  Or Jack Black's current masterpiece?  Isn't there a new Harold and Kumar Do White Castle flick soon?

The reason is 95% of the movies coming out of Hollywood today are drek-- plain and simple.  They've adopted a tried and true formula that they stick with and seldom vary from.  They just don't hold my interest.   I've been employed as a script doctor before, and I'm currently working on something for a film company-- and even if it means a better story it's hard to convince the powers that be to keep a movie under 2 hours and to cut back on the sub-plots if they don't move the story forward.  Hitchcock was a master of this-- not one foot of film or one piece of dialogue was there that didn't need to be.

TURNER THIS WEEK

Tonight at 11 is MILDRED PIERCE (1945) which features Joan Crawford in one of the best film noirs of the 40s.  Well worth missing a full night's sleep.

Tuesday at 9:30am is ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT (1942) which is an entertaining little Bogie film with him taking on Nazi spies in Brooklyn.

THIEF of BAGDHAD (1940) is on at 9:45 featuring Conrad Veidt who is the lead Nazi in CASABLANCA which follows at Midnight.  Veidt makes his horror film debut in 1919's CABINET OF DR CALIGARI which airs at 3:15am so set your DVRs.

Thursday at 11:30pm is THE KILLERS based on Ernest Hemingway's story.  Top notch film noir.

Saturday at 11:45pm is HANGOVER SQUARE which is a little scene little psychological thriller from 1946 which is well worth your time.

Good week.