Moondog's Comicland newsletter

I'm only including a small selection from this one issue. One reason I'm sharing it is nostalgia, for at one time Moondog's was the comic book chain in this area. Another is a reminder, thanks to that published letter, that Moondog's newsletter had a limited print run. Someday, collectors are going to consider these valuable and I'll be kicking myself for letting my collection mildew so badly that I'm throwing them all out.

Another reason to share these pages is because they prominently feature two former Moondog's employees who I now consider friends -- Keith Anderson, who still runs a comic book store in Schaumburg to this day, and Chris Ecker, co-founder of Big Bang Comics. Though most of my Big Bang Comics-related business has been with his partner, Gary Carlson, I still run into Chris almost annually, selling antiques at some show or another, and a good conversation always ensues. 

 

First "paycheck" for being a writer

Okay, not a paycheck, per se, but a prize in a Valentine's Poem writing contest at Elgin Community College. I had shown up with nothing in hand but, underwhelmed by the competition, I had borrowed a pencil and paper and wrote up a joke poem on the spot that not only won me second prize*, but the poem was published in The Spire, ECC's literary magazine that year. 

*I remember it being first prize in its category, humorous poems, but it's possible it was considered second prize because the serious poem category was considered more important.

When I was 20, I figured I would be making enough to live off of from my writing by the time I was 25. Little did I know how little more I would be making for my writing by 50!

Rejection letter from TSR

 My first and only time being published in Dragon magazine was "Treasure Trove of Tomes" from Dragon #253, of which I am still immensely proud. But it was not my first attempt to get published therein. I believe that would have been this 1994 letter suggesting a series of Marvel Super Heroes related articles. 23-year old me didn't understand that the reason Dragon had stopped publishing MSH articles was because they didn't have the license for it anymore, as Dale Donovan quickly explained to me in that corner note, rather than enclosing an entire rejection letter in the Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope we had to use back in the before-email times.

Bill Justice

William Barnard Justice was an animator and engineer for The Walt Disney Company. Justice joined Walt Disney Studios as an animator in 1937 and worked on such features as Fantasia, The Three Caballeros, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. He died in 2011 at age 97. 

I got to meet him (I think) in 1991, when he was 77, at the Stay Tooned Gallery in Barrington. He spoke to the audience before the signing. I don't remember anything specific that was said and I know he didn't say anything to me; I was just another person in line. Still...

I wish I had taken better care of this print he signed.

 

Stay Tooned Gallery newsletter

When I was 20, instead of counting the days until I could go to a bar and drink, I was counting the days until I could next go to the Stay Tooned Gallery in Barrington. This was 1991 and the height of the collectors' craze for animation cells, and Stay Tooned Gallery was committed to not only supplying that need, but in attracting the best talents from animation to come and do signings at the store. 

This blog is meant to be a repository for my own writings, not someone else's newsletter, but I figure there should be some record on the Internet of what their newsletter was like, before I trash my saved paper copy.

Descartes, Professor Dunham, & Philosophy Class

Ouch, these scans are hard to read! 

I'm sharing this, not because I think I had any huge insights into Descartes here (it was a pretty simple regurgitation of what I'd learned in class), but as further evidence of why Joe Dunham was one of my favorite teachers. For a quicker pay-off, you can skip the first half.

Philosophy Class Doodles

 More scans of old mildewed paperwork that needs to go...

Some of the doodles were of classmates. The girl who wore hats to class always intrigued me, which is why she got drawn twice. She worked on the school newspaper, but I don't know what her name was.

The above character is Marcy the Lich, who's already been featured on this blog in the past.

That was a terrible portrait of Joe Dunham, my philosophy teacher at Aurora University. He was a great teacher, perhaps never exemplified better than our above exchange. I had long doodled on tests, but here Joe met me on my own turf and answered my doodle with a doodle of his own! Yes, that's his Ziggy next to my Skyler from the comic strip Shoe. I never had another teacher do that.

Ouch, this one came out really light on the scanner! At the beginning of my notes from class that day is an ode to my favorite TV show at that time -- something you never hear about anymore today -- The Gary Shandling Show. It reads: 

These are the notes to Casper's class

The notes to Casper's class

Dunham called on me and said

"You've got to take some notes, son."

 

I was also big into Finnish mythology at that time, hence the portrait of Vainomoinen Suvantolainen. 

 

This showed up a little better. First is Thanos with his infinity gauntlet, showing its soul gem and its rap gem. I was pretty funny back then! And the second doodle is a much better sketch of Professor Dunham himself, much as the man looked, though I don't know why I left the temples off his glasses.