Old Cartoon Samples

Oh no! A lot of my old paperwork stored in the garage is infected with mold. Time to scan it all and throw it away...

Below are some drawings I had done, submitted and rejected for political cartoons while I was at Aurora University back in '91-'94. My, they don't age well, do they? I was quite the conservative, highly suspicious of multiculturalism and spending. Though unlike Republicans, when I lose in the culture wars I lose gracefully and accept things have changed...

 

My Newest Comic Books

On vacation to Evansville, Megan and I blew $11 on the dollar bins at our favorite Indiana comic book store, Comic Quest.  The 10 best were these:

1. Tom Strong's Terrific Tales #5 (2003).  My only issue of this spin-off anthology, Alan Moore still had his usual creative energy and the unusually positive attitude he reserved only for Tom Strong, in the lead story.  One of the back-up features is by the comic master Sergio Aragones.  Alan Weiss turned in some bizarrely sub-par (for him, way ahead of lots of other artists) art for the third feature.

2.  Silver Surfer #1 (1987).  Despite my deep respect for Steve Englehart as a writer, I had avoided most of the early issues of this title because of the Marshall Rogers artwork.  I'm still no fan, but the writing was worth it, all these years later.  Sadly, this issue is mildew damaged, so after it's scanned it will get tossed.

3.  The Wild Wild West #4 (1989).  I had the first issue before, now I have the end of the story and am just missing the middle.  Millennium was one of the best small presses circa 1990 and it's a shame they disappeared as soon as they did.

4.  Way of the Rat #3 (2002).  My third favorite Crossgen title. It's smart, funny, and pretty with great Jeff Johnson art, but with all the splash pages and double splash pages, the story moved agonizingly slow for a martial arts action story.

5.  Way of the Rat #2 (2002).  Sadly, I only realized after I bought this that I already own a copy in one of Crossgen's reprint anthologies.

6.  X-Men and Alpha Flight #2 (1985).  Chris Claremont's take on writing Alpha Flight was spot-on and makes me wish he had taken over for Byrne instead of Bill Mantlo back in the day (as good as Mantlo was, he just didn't have a good grasp of Alpha Flight).  Oh, and there's some X-Men in it too.

7.  What's New?  The Collected Adventures of Phil and Dixie #1 (1991).  Marked down from $5.95 to a buck, with no mildew damage?  What a find!  Phil Foglio's early work from Dragon magazine is still a treat, though I chuckled more than guffawed re-reading them.  Plus, a bonus "origin story" for Phil and Dixie.

8.  Terra Obscura Volume Two #1 (2004).  Alan Moore's positive attitude towards his ABC heroes is slipping, but there is still some fun here, mostly thanks to the villainous Clock who is most free of metatext.

9.  The World Below #1 (1999).  Nice-looking and imaginative, yet surprisingly somehow blase tale about uninteresting explorers in a Pellucidar-like underworld populated by weird stuff instead of people.

10.  Wulf the Barbarian #1 (1975).  An Atlas Comic in a dollar bin?  Literally worth reading for its historical value alone, this Conan rip-off offers little but the early work of Larry Hama and Klaus Janson, neither creator yet at their creative peak.  

The Clyde Beatty Project

This will be explained better in the next issue of The Trophy Case, but the project was to randomly roll a comic book character's history, taking from published stories on a monthly basis, then building a narrative to link those stories and assigning guesstimated experience points to the hero, as if a Hideouts & Hoodlums character.  I'm quite pleased with how the first effort turned out and would gladly read a comic book like this.

#1- June 1938 -- (“Clyde Beatty”feature in Crackajack Funnies #1) – Clyde Beatty, Daredevil Lion Tamer, is approached by recently orphaned Jimmy Brooder who wants to run away from the circus. Jimmy’s uncle, Bull, initially is fine with handing custody of Jimmy over to Clyde until he learns Jimmy came with money (130 xp in Fighter).
#2- July 1938 -- (“Barney Baxter in the Air” feature in Feature Book #15) –Jimmy shares his money with Clyde and makes his dream of owning a plane come true. They fix up an old 1909 Blériot XI monoplane, but Bull Brooder seeks to discredit Clyde and win Jimmy back for Jimmy’s money. Bull gets Clyde fired from the circus (and, in truth, his new passion for aviation was making him negligent), but his schemes backfire and make Jimmy more loyal to Clyde than ever (940 xp in Fighter).
#3 - August 1938 – (“Lyin’ Lou”feature in Cowboy Comics #14) – Lyin’ Lou, a conman, tricks Clyde out of their plane (960 xp in Fighter).
#4- September 1938 -- (“Hawks of the Seas” feature in Feature Funnies #12) –Clyde and Jimmy take to sailing the Caribbean in a sailboat, only to run afoul of white slavers and have to fight their way to freedom off a freighter (1,200 xp in Fighter).
#5 - October 1938 -- (“Hall of Fame of the Air” in King Comics #31) – Clyde and Jimmy return to the states long enough to see Barney Baxter’s admission into the Hall of Fame of the Air and make his acquaintance and then team-up to give Lyin’ Lou some payback (1,320 xp in Fighter).
#6 - November 1938 -- (“Crimson Avenger” feature in Detective Comics #21) –Clyde and Jimmy decide to tour the country by car, so they hire an Asian chauffeur named Tung. When Clyde decides to investigate rumors of grave robbers nearby, both Jimmy and Tung show up to aid him in fighting the robbers (1,680 xp in Fighter).
#7 - December 1938 – (“Roads of Romance”feature in Comics on Parade #9) – While touring Connecticut, Clyde meets Katharine Hepburn. Fresh off her relationship with Howard Hughes, Katharine was willing to go on a date with Clyde at Jimmy’s request and gave Clyde a kiss! (1,810 xp in Fighter)
#8 - January 1939 – (“Anchors Aweigh!”feature in Adventure Comics #34) – Clyde, Jimmy, and Tung visit New Orleans and learn of the pirate ship El Diablo and recognize it as the slavers they fought before. Eager for a rematch, Clyde gets them all on board a cruise ship, thinking it will make a good target, but Clyde has to commandeer the ship when the pirates turn up at an oil rig in the Gulf, intent on sabotaging it instead, by order of Fang Gow (2,170 xp in Fighter, reaches 2nd level!).
#9 - February 1939 – (“Ripley’s Believe It or Not” feature in Ace Comics #23) –Clyde and company race from Louisiana to New York with further information – a series of sabotages around the country are just a prelude to Fang Gow’s arrival in America. In New York, Clyde & Co. meet Barry O’Neil and Legrand (2,380 xp in Fighter).
#10 - March 1939 – (“Fang Gow of China” feature in Adventure Comics #36) –Clyde, Barry, et al. thwart Fang Gow and his followers from poisoning Manhattan’s water supply with a serum that will turn people into wax. Barry takes the lead against Fang, but Clyde, Jimmy, and Tung acquit themselves well against his followers (2,700 xp in Fighter).
#11 - April 1939 – (“Huck Pshaw” feature in Star Ranger Funnies #17) – Bull Brooder reads about Clyde Beatty in the newspaper and, his jealousy re-stoked, hires cowboy mercenary Huck Pryor to kill Clyde. Luckily, Pryor is all show and no skill. Bull is finally arrested for conspiracy to murder (2,740 xp in Fighter).
#12 – May 1939 – (“Hop Harrigan” feature in All-American Comics #2) – Clyde, Jimmy, and Tung meet Hop Harrigan on the airfield. They help an old-timer at the airfield who leaves Clyde and Jimmy his 1910 Bristol Boxkite biplane (3,790 xp).
#13 – June 1939 – (“Mexicali Rose” feature in Movie Comics #3) – Clyde is hired by a local radio station to broadcast about aviation, but meets a pretty half-Mexican woman named Luana who has come seeking media help in the U.S. against conmen selling oil stock for a nonexistent well on her orphanage’s land in New Mexico. Clyde flies to New Mexico to look in on it, with Tung driving Jimmy behind. Once there, he finds the conmen really do want to drill on the land and have kidnapped two children to try to force the orphanage’s closure. Clyde kicks their butts and wins Luana as a girlfriend (4,150 xp in Fighter, reaches 3rd level!).
#14 – July 1939 – (“Herky” feature in Popular Comics #41) – Clyde, Jimmy, and Tung try to settle down in Albuquerque so Clyde can court Luana. Jimmy befriends a local troublemaker named Herman Gillsy (4,500 xp in Fighter).
#15 – August 1939 – (“D-13” feature in Mystery Men Comics #1) – G-Men come and recruit Clyde and Tung to head to Panama and look for their missing agent, D-13. Clyde and Tung figure out, once there, that they have been sent as bait to lure enemy agents out, but hold their own against the agents and rescue D-13 (4,760 xp in Fighter).
#16 – September 1939 – (“Comic Zoo” feature in Popular Comics #42) – Returning home, Clyde takes Jimmy and Luana to the zoo for the day, only a crazy mother at the zoo thinks Jimmy is her son Rudy. Hijinks ensue (4,970 xp in Fighter).
#17 – October 1939 – (“Seein’ Stars” feature in Ace Comics #31) – Katharine Hepburn comes to Albuquerque looking to see Clyde again. Clyde tries to keep Luana from getting jealous (5,080 xp in Fighter).
#18 – November 1939 – (“Tarzan” feature in Tip Top Comics #43) – Clyde, Jimmy, and Tung go on safari to Africa and encounter Boer nomads. The Boer force the three to come along and help them find their lost settlement. When they find it, though, they find the settlement has been gone for years (5,460 xp in Fighter).
#19 – December 1939 – (“Abdullah” feature in Funny Pages #(33)) – Clyde, Jimmy, and Tung leave their safari to track the destroyers of the Boer settlement, only to find a lost valley of dinosaurs! They mostly just survive encounters by fleeing, but manage to return home with a pterodactyl for a trophy and Clyde finds a magic ring (6,280 xp in Fighter).
#20 – January 1940 – (“Captain Easy” feature in The Funnies #39) – Clyde, Jimmy, and Tung return to the U.S. only to learn that Luana and her father have gone missing in Mexico. The three head off in pursuit and discover Luana and her father are prisoners in a hidden Aztec city. They free the pair and escape (6,810 xp in Fighter).
#21 – February 1940 – (“Rance Keane” feature in Feature Comics #29) – Clyde, Jimmy, Tung, Luana, and her father are slowly making their way north through Mexico. In cowboy country, they stop bandits who have wrecked a train (7,250 xp in Fighter).
#22 – March 1940 – (“Hurricane Kids” feature in Popular Comics #49) – Clyde and the whole gang has to escape Mexico during an earthquake (7,720 xp in Fighter).
#23 – April 1940 – (“Tabu, Wizard of the Jungle” feature in Jungle Comics #4) –No sooner is Clyde back in the U.S. than Tabu teleports him back to Africa to help fight the Bargonan tribe, that breed spotted lions and has taken white prisoners. It is Clyde’s magic ring that allowed Tabu to summon him and Clyde offers to keep the ring (7,850 xp in Fighter).

#24 – May 1940 – (“Rio Kid” feature in Thrilling Comics #4) –Clyde returns home to find Tung has taken to dressing like a cowboy and is now known as the Rio Kid. Clyde and Tung/Rio Kid take on rustlers together (7,990 xp in Fighter).

#25 – June 1940 – (“Electro” feature in Marvel Mystery Comics #8) – Bull Brooder, free from jail, steals the controls for Electro, the Marvel of the Age, and sends it to kill Clyde. Clyde is in trouble with a truancy officer for Jimmy never attending school when Electro shows up. Clyde borrows a car and crashes it into Electro, damaging it enough to slow it down before Electro’s agents can find Bull and retrieve the controls (8,190 xp in Fighter, reaches 3^rd level!)

Top 10 Comic Book Acquisitions from the 2013 Free Comic Book Day

I have to say "acquisitions" this year because instead of picking up free comics at my library, I went to Keith's Komix in Schaumburg and picked up some 50-cent comics in the bargain bins in addition to the free ones.  And Keith was extra generous with the free comics, as you'll see below.

10.  Project Superpowers: Chapter Two #0
Selling for a dollar back in 2009, I picked this one up for 50 cents.  I greatly dislike the anti-government focus of the series, but the art is pretty and it's a lot of fun trying to identify all the characters, not all of whom get introductory captions.

9.  Infinity
No, it didn't make my top 10 for the prelude to the latest Thanos snoozefest or the really banal sneak peek at Warren Ellis trying to write the Avengers -- it made the cut for a rare reprint of a Drax the Destroyer adventure from Logan's Run #6 (1977)!

8.  Bongo Comics Free-For-All 2013
Lots of fun, as always, from Bongo.  The best story is "Model Citizen Simpson", but the real treat is the one page filler by Sergio Aragones.

7.  Paul Chadwick's Concrete #5
From the 50-cent bin, I picked up another solid issue of Concrete, though not one of his best.

6.  Classic X-Men #2
From the 50-cent bin...ooo, I got distracted looking at that Art Adams cover art.  Was I writing something?

5.  Avatar: the Last Airbender
Nickelodeon and Dark Horse are putting out some really good stories continuing the Avatar TV series. In this free issue we learn more about Mai than I ever did from the TV show, though I'm confused when and how she broke up with Zuko.  The Star Wars back-up feature is gorgeous, but slight.  The Captain Midnight flashback is pretty good, but the framing device in the present is boring and doesn't bode well for the series.

4.  The Smurfs
No, I'm not suddenly a Smurfs fan!  They still annoy the bejeebers out of me and the Annoying Orange back-up feature is terrible, but the real treat here is a wonderful short called Ariol about an animal-boy (an aardvark?) missing out on real life because he's got his face buried in a comic book.  Ah, if only kids were still like that today, but instead it's now video games!

3.  Kaboom! Summer Blast!
I hate the Adventure Time TV show so I had to force myself to read this, but the "choose your own adventure" concept was original and brilliantly done in comic book form.  I have looked at Kaboom's Peanuts series before and was disappointed, but this little back-up feature of Charlie Brown showing you how to draw Linus packs a surprising amount of character study into its 5 pages.  You learn a lot more about Charlie Brown's obsession with baseball than you learn about drawing Linus!  The return of Herobear should have been the most satisfying feature, as I loved his mini-series a few years back, but this preview is nothing but pretty pictures.  The Regular Show, Garfield, and Ice Age previews are descendingly bad.   

2.  The Tick
I haven't been following the Tick since his cartoon was cancelled, but it's good to see the character still has *ahem* legs.  My favorite part is, of course, the 3-page backup feature "Dewey Decibel System" with the Tick in a library learning about the Internet.  "...You have a phone?" was the funniest line in the whole book.

1.  Kirby Genesis #0
This comic book was selling for a dollar in 2011, but this year Keith was giving his leftover issues away for free.  It is so good, so gorgeous, and so ...awesome in scope, I can't understand how he still had copies to give away!  Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, and Jackson Herbert build a unified universe for all of Jack Kirby's diverse post-Marvel, post-DC creations.  Now I have to track down all the issues I missed!