Q & A With

Kim Deitch

Veterans Day - Intrepid Museum - War Comics!

Today is our nation's day for honoring all of the Veterans that have served the country.

While watching TV this morning and having breakfast, I saw that CNN was airing their morning program from the deck of the USS Intrepid. It is part of the Museum in Manhattan that Tina and I saw on a recent trip.

I thought it strange that being from San Diego, with all of its' Navy Ships in port, that I would want to see this floating museum, but it was well worth the extra hours spent there!

My dad, (pictured below), served in the US Navy for 21 years.

One of his earlier cruises was on the USS Yorktown, a sister ship to the USS Intrepid.

So touring the USS Intrepid was 'like' looking at the same ship my dad served on those many years ago.

BTW, the USS Yorktown has also been converted to a museum, and is ported in Patriots Point, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.

My dad's dad was also a veteran, serving for his country in WWI.

Ollie Hamersky, (pictured to the right below), served under General John J Pershing in Europe, and made it back home after being gassed in the trenches.

Unfortunately his childhood buddy, Henry Zerener, (pictured to the above left), never left Camp Funston at Fort Riley, KS. He died from one of the illnesses that was rampant in the States during 1918.

Wulf The Barbarian!

I've recently become FaceBook Friends with Larry Hama, (pictured below), who is known for his many projects in the Comics World.

One that doesn't appear in many of his bios or credits is the Atlas Seaboard Comic Book Series, 'Wulf The Barbarian'.

Larry wrote the script and did the pencils on issues #1-2 of this 4 issue series.

I recently picked up a collection of Atlas - Seaboard Comics and decided to re-read them, as it has been a few years since I did so.

Wulf the Barbarian was an unusual sword and sorcery title for its' time. I enjoyed the first two issues of this series by Larry.

Larry went on to become a writer of another barbarian, Conan the Barbarian for Marvel Comics! He also become an editor for that series later.

Wulf's adventures took place on an unamed planet.

He was seen as a street beggar at first. We find out that he was actually the orphaned son of a king, and that his royal protector, Stavro, must hide him for ten years until Wulf becomes of age to take back the royal throne.

However Stravo himself is killed by minions of the man that killed Wulf's father. Wulf takes on the quest to avenge Stravo and also reclaim his throne.

Issue #3 was written by Steve Skeates and drawn by Leo Summer. Issue #4 was written by Mike Friedrich and Jim Craig was the penciller.

I re-read the entire series, and realized that although I enjoyed the series as a whole, it was the first two issues that set the pace for the series.

Unfortunately this four issue series is just one of the twenty-three comic book series that were ended far too soon when Atlas Seaboard closed its' doors in 1975.

Martin Goodman, who had started what we now know as Marvel Comics, had started this Atlas Seaboard Company in 1974, after he had sold Marvel Comics.

There are 22 other comic book titles that could be blogged about here, as well as 5 magazine titles that Atlas Seaboard also published.

Those will wait for another time, as this blog post is about Larry Hama's contribution to the Wulf the Barbarian title for Atlas Seaboard.

Michael Golden

At The National!

This past week Tina blogged about the fact that Michael Golden's artwork is being exhibited at the Poe Museum for an extended period. (Click here for that story.)

Now, word reaches us that Michael Golden will be attending in person the NYC National Comic Con.

Tina and I have been to the National before, where we picked up several long boxes of comics to ship to SoCal. (Use the FedEx in the same building if you do that!)

Plus I happen to enjoy many of Michael Golden's works, including his Jackie Chan artwork for Topps Comics!

Michael  Golden will be on hand all days of The National, running November 14-16th 2008 at the Penn Plaza Pavilion in Manhattan, along with other comics creators including Carmine Infantino, Dick Ayers, Herb Trimpe, Irwin Hasen, Jim Salicrup, Jim Shooter, Jim Steranko, John Romita Sr., Larry Hama, Peter David, Roy Thomas, Russ Heath, and Walt Simonson among others.

Michael will be offering his new sketchbook "Michael Golden's: Heroes and Villains" for the first time in the city of New York. (Front Cover pictured below.)

"Heroes and Villains" is the newest publication in a line of numerous new books and DVD's on the artist, including: "Excess: The Art of Michael Golden,".

There has also been the recently released "Creator Chronicles: Michael Golden," documentary, which is a comprehensive look at the artist and his influences as seen never before in any format.

"The great thing about all of Michael's art books is that there is hardly any duplication of art," says his agent, Renee Witterstaetter. " Maybe one or two pieces total. So, the Golden collector can be assured that each volume will only compliment the other and make a complete set."

If you are near Manhattan, and have any one of the three days open in your calendar, you might want to check out Michael Golden at the National!

For those of you that are new to our blog, we have an ongoing 'Comic Con and Pop Culture Show' ourselves here at "Make It So Marketing Inc.", what with our daily blog posts and new listings of items for sale in our online store!

Thanks for reading this blog post today and please join us again for more!

~  Michael

Note: If you work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers!

Jungle Girl

Season 2

I have blogged about the modern day return of the Jungle Comics genre before. (Click here for just one archived blog post.)

One could say that the genre today is dominated by great 'Good Girl Art' (GGA), and that would be correct. Just as the older Golden Age Jungle Comics genre is mainly collected for the GGA!

Take for example Dynamite Comics' new "Jungle Girl" series, which is returning under the direction of cover artist/co-plotter Frank (Avengers) Cho, co-plotter/writer Doug (The 'Nam, Savage Tales) Murray, and interior artist Adriano (Red Sonja) Batista!

The cover at the top right is from Issue #1 of the new series, and is actually one of two cover that are being printed for this series kickoff.

One cover is by Frank Cho and the other is a "1 in 4 chase cover" by Adriano Batista!

The publishers of course will tell you that there is a story as well as art...

"From the stunning conclusion of the first season to the exciting opening of our new season of stories, Jungle Girl delivers action, excitement, twists, thrills and the finest illustrations of dinosaurs and the female form found in comics today!"

Of course the publishers have to go back to promoting the artwork even when telling us about the story...(LOL).

But there must be a storyline there also because...

..."for our second season, Cho and Murray are taking the action underground and underwater as more clues regarding Jana, the undisputed Queen of the Jungle, finds out more about her mysterious past, and the mysterious island she call home!"

So for those that are interested in this comics genre, this is your notice to check out this first issue of the new series either here online or at your LCBS!

For those of you that are interested in other examples of this Jungle Comics genre, just click on the magazine cover pictured below, to see what listings we here at Make It So Marketing currently have in stock: