TODAY'S 'MAIN FEATURE':

I received the following press release from the Hero Initiative which I wanted to share here today...

That's because the press release is about Ed Hannigan, whose works I enjoyed reading while he was at Marvel Comics.

The following is about the book, the exhibition, the charity auction, AND the man, Ed Hannigan:

"The Cartoon Art Museum and the Hero Initiative proudly present Ed Hannigan: Covered, a retrospective exhibition celebrating the art of Ed Hannigan.  This retrospective features a selection of covers and original artwork created by Hannigan for Marvel Comics and DC Comics in the 1970s and 1980s, including such popular characters as Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and The Defenders.  

Today, Hannigan is 58 years old and has multiple sclerosis.  The Hero Initiative, a charitable organization that provides financial assistance to comic book professionals in need, and Marvel Comics have collaborated on a tribute book, Ed Hannigan:  Covered, that features highlights from Hannigan’s artistic career. 

The Cartoon Art Museum will display some of Hannigan’s most notable covers alongside the cover and complete interior artwork for one of his most famous single-issue stories, The Spectacular Spider-Man #64, which introduced the crime-fighting duo Cloak and Dagger.  

Sponsorship for this exhibition has been provided by The Comic Outpost.  The Comic Outpost, located on 2381 Ocean Ave. San Francisco, CA has been fulfilling the needs of comic book lovers for well over 15 years.  Current owners Gary Buechler and Roger Yan firmly believe their customer service and subscriber program is second to none.  For more questions, visit their website at www.comicoutpost.net.

SAVE THE DATE:  An auction of original artwork will be held at the Cartoon Art Museum on Friday, April 2, 2010, in conjunction with San Francisco’s WonderCon Comics convention.

About Ed Hannigan:

Ed was born August 6, 1951 in Newport, Rhode Island, the first of what would become eight children. His dad was an officer in the U.S. Navy, and later an engineer/sales executive for Tidewater Oil (later to become Getty Oil). He grew up throughout the Northeast, where his grandmother used to give him comic books. With their help, he learned to read at a young age, particularly impressed with World's Finest, featuring Superman and Batman.

Ed soon became a Marvel fanatic, and was determined to draw comic books some day. In high school in Ashland, Massachusetts he practiced drawing constantly and produced comics of his own. He also illustrated the senior yearbook.

In 1971, after moving to New Jersey, he managed to wrangle an invitation to visit Marvel Comics’ offices. He showed his art samples to the folks there—Marie Severin, Mike Esposito, Herb Trimpe and others. They were polite, but less than impressed. But he still kept coming around. Then one day Sol Brodsky needed someone to do some lettering corrections on the British weekly reprint series, Mighty World of Marvel. Ed volunteered and for a short while, became a letterer.

Sol then needed someone to do some zip-a-tone shading on the same reprint line. Ed and Klaus Janson took on that job and were friendly rivals for a while as they shaded photostats of old Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Thor stories. But Ed did not give up on drawing comics, practicing and learning from the pros at Marvel.

Eventually he was allowed to do some sketches for those same British reprints and finally was given a Planet of the Apes cover to draw. After that he started helping Art Director John Romita to design covers for other artists and occasionally himself to draw. He also illustrated some stories. By and by, Ed became the busiest comic cover sketch artist in the place. At one time or another he did cover designs for just about every comic in the line.

Ed tried to tailor cover designs to the style of whichever artist was going to do the final art, but he also introduced some trademark features of his own, most famously, "messing with the logo" in some way or another, destroying or distorting it. The sketches became more elaborate and often were fully colored.

He continued to draw some stories ands even wrote a few (Defenders was his longest run), but cover sketches were his mainstay for the next several years, and that's what he is best known for in the industry.

When the comics business contracted in the early 1990s, Ed was forced to find other employment. He end up doing computer graphics for a publisher in Massachusetts for nine years.

In the course of those years, he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, which at first was a minor annoyance, but soon progressed to a major disability. He now lives in New Hampshire with his wife and two children."

I wanted to add that Ed also pencilled the cover of Fantastic Four #170 cover dated May 1976 with inks by Joe Sinnott.  I always want to mention work done on that series by comic creators as it has been my all time favorite comic book run. 

The Facebook Group Page for the HERO Initiative can be found by clicking here.

The Facebook Fan Page for the Cartoon Art Museum can be found by clicking here.  

I am a member / fan of both of these pages on Facebook, and there is good reading there as well as updates by both organizations.

My thanks to the HERO Initiative people for sending me the Press Release.  I invite my blog readers to either / or / and attend the exhibit / charity auction event / pick up the book. 

TODAY'S 'MAIN FEATURE':

As Tina would say:  Woo-Hoo! 

Yes, that is right... '24' is FINALLY returning this weekend for a Season 8!

We've had to keep ourselves busy reading the '24' graphic novels & TPBs that we bought to read and resell later in our online store, otherwise we would have bought the '24' Omnibus from IDW Publishing pictured at the top left of this post that is a compilation of them! 

That's because Tina is such a BIG Fan of '24'.  That is the one TV Series that she will NOT tape to watch later, period!

So yeah, we will definitely be watching the two night / four hour Season 8 Premiere this upcoming Sunday and Monday nights!

For those of you that don't know, the show will return on Sunday, January 17 at 9/8c and Monday, January 18 at 8/7c. Then it replaces the 'Lie to Me' Fox TV Series on Mondays at 9/8c for the rest of its run during Season 8. For our international blog readers, '24' premieres in the UK on Sky One on January 24, 2010, and in Australia on 7TWO on January 26, 2010.

The 'Big Draw', Kiefer Sutherland, will return for the 8th season. Kiefer, as Jack Bauer, is the only actor that has been in every episode since the start of Season 1.

Kiefer, who we have seen before at this Comic Con, was very pleasant, well spoken, and entertained by the crowd.  Of course the crowd was defintely hanging on every word he uttered!

Mary Lynn Rajskub (pictured to the left), Cherry Jones, and Annie Wersching are the only main cast members from season 7 who will also be returning as main cast members in season 8.

A special note here:  Tina and I both noticed how quiet Mary Lynn usually was during the special panel at Comic Con, but every time Katee Sackhoff would speak, Mary Lynn would roll her eyes, or make some sort of face.  Very interesting, and something you wouldn't probably 'catch' from still photos.  If you can find some videos from this Con, take a look at what I'm talking about...

Others returning, but not as main cast members are: Elisha Cuthbert as a "Special Guest Star", and Bob Gunton back as Ethan Kanin, who is now the Secretary of State.

We didn't see Carlos Bernard at the Comic Con International: San Diego (SDCC) this year at the panel.  His role as Tony Almeida returning or not, was Not answered by the show's producers at the panel.

Season 8 is supposed to be set 8 months after season 7. Of course being '24', Season 8 begins and ends in a '24' hour period, this time at 4:00 PM.

And yeah, Tina, (shown to the left by the 24 Poster), is excited that the Season 8 is unfolding in New York City, amidst the shadows of the Statue of Liberty! Tina was born in the area, and still has a lot of family around there that we visit when we go back East.

No spoiler here, but the reason New York is where the action takes place this Season 8; is because CTU has been upgraded and is now operated by the MBA-schooled Brian Hastings (Mykelti Williamson) out of  New York.

Cole Ortiz (Freddie Prinze Jr.), is a former Marine who wants to follow in Jack Bauer’s footsteps. He is running the division’s Field Operations. 

Freddie was pretty quiet during the special SDCC panel, but came over as a 'nice guy'.

Expert data analyst Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff - who is shown to the left), collaborates with systems analyst & drone pilot Arlo Glass inside CTU's New York branch.

I have liked Katee in a couple of other shows, and am interested to see how she does on this series.  She was asked a lot of questions, and appears to have a large fan base...

Who else is there this Season 8?  Well, Rob Weiss serves as President Allison Taylor’s new Chief of Staff, and Meredith Reed is an ambitious journalist with ties to the unfolding situation.

As for Jack Bauer, he is simply a man who wants to move on with his life and to be with his daughter and granddaughter. Of course those plans come to a halt when, once again, America needs his help!

Additional new cast members include Anil Kapoor (TV Host - Slumdog Millionaire) (as a Middle Eastern leader named Omar Hassan), and is pictured to the left.

With so many people on the panel, (there were also production people), not everyone got a lot of time to talk. This picture was one of the few times that he addressed the audience.

Also new to this Season 8 are: Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein) and John Boyd (The Notorious Bettie Page), who were confirmed on the day production was slated to begin. Westfeldt will play journalist Meredith Reed, while Boyd will play CTU systems analyst Arlo Glass.

Again, this is one Premiere we aren't going to miss! And if you are a 'Jack Bauer' fan, we know you won't either!  And we are going to be along for the '24 Hour Ride' until the Season Finale on May 24, 2010!

Our thanks to the folks that brought down the cast and production staff of '24' to the Comic Con International: San Diego last July.

And thanks to the folks at IDW Publishing for taking this TV Series and publishing great stories in a graphic novel format!

TODAY'S 'MAIN FEATURE':

I recently received the above comic book from publisher Martin T. Pierro of Cosmic Times for a possible mention or review....

If you have been around in comics for a while like me, you would think I've heard that name before... Cosmic Times... and yes, back in 1984 Cosmic Times was a fledgling comics news fanzine.

However, last year, 2009, they were reborn as an independent publishing house.  Their first title was “Arthur: The Legend Continues”, an ongoing epic adventure that will be followed by the anthology series “Decisions” along with several other titles currently in various stages of production.

I hadn't yet heard of their rebirth or the fact that 'Arthur: The Legend Continues" had been started, even though they were at the 2009 Mega Con in Orlando, Florida.

Martin became aware of this Blog during the Indy Comics Book Week series I was blogging here in December, and sent the comic book in for a possible mention.

So what is the comic book about?  Here's the press release info:

Written and Illustrated by Martin T. Pierro & Cristhian Zamora

Standard Comic
Black & White
Page Count: 48
POD - $3.50 cover price

On an ancient battlefield King Arthur gives his final order - Excalibur is to be returned to the Lady of the Lake. As the last shadows fall on Camelot Arthur is carried off to Avalon where he will wait until his people need him once more. On a post-apocalyptic battlefield a mystical sword appears - is this the return of the once and future king? Can the prophecy finally be fulfilled before all hope is lost? Faith and courage are put to the ultimate test in this self-contained “pilot” issue of “Arthur: The Legend Continues”.

With the world as we know it gone, mankind is on the verge of extinction yet still struggling to find purpose and hope. From the ancient past a glimmer of light shines and a legend returns to claim his throne. Facing challenges never imagined in his time, King Arthur shall rise again and bring the mighty Excalibur to the throats of all who wish to do harm to his people.

Arthur: The Legend Continues TM and © Martin T. Pierro. All rights reserved.

So I read this comic book and found the following:

The comic book is illustrated with black and white interior pages.  This after a great color front cover by Artula Siriwardane, whose works I see a lot online as Artula and I are Facebook Friends. His works never disappoint me.

The black and white interior pages illustrated by Cristhian 'Crizam' Zamora fits the tone of this storyline, and I didn't miss it not being in color.  The facial expressions were vivid in the illustrations, and the backgrounds were good enough to make me believe that the scenes were truly happening in both the early period of the comic book and the future years.  There was no skimping on backgrounds in this issue.

The storyline by Martin T Pierro was an interesting read. Yes as most others, I was familar with the original story of Arthur, but this "continuation" is set in the far future of mankind.  

Yeah, there are a lot of stories out there that are set in post-apocalyptic environments. And after a while that scenario can be kind of tiring as more comics / graphic novels / books are published in this vein...

Yet here in this storyline I found myself continuing to read page after page.  Why?  Well, in this story, hundreds of years after the apocalypse, mankind has rebuilt its' civilization. And after the intro pages of the earlier Medieval Era with King Arthur, it now appears that mankind is now going through what could be called a Second Medieval Period.

It appears that history is repeating itself. So although this is a 'double-sized' issue, the intro and the bringing the reader into the future is done pretty smoothly in the still limited amount of pages.

That's because about a quarter of the comic's pages are used to familiarize readers with the end story of the 'Legend of Arthur', then a short recap of how mankind's civilization ended, and then the remaining pages is about the aftermath... and the return of Arthur. 

I believe that this comic book would fare well with readers of this genre of story. My only semi-negative thought about this comic book issue is the 'readability' of it.

That is, I realize that great care was taken in the early pages of the comic book to be authentic, what with the language used, but the text font is something I believe would keep this comic from not being read by more people.

I'm not blaming the letterer on this.  The placing of the word balloons, etc., is well placed.  It's just that the font is hard to read, and in my opinion could make those that are just picking this comic up at their LCBS possibly place it back on the rack, because of that 'readability' factor.

So even though the artwork, the storyline, the dialogue, and the characterization appears to be very authentic, I believe that to become more of a periodical with 'mass appeal', that the font should be looked at closer for a possible change.

Other than that possible 'issue', this comic book was a good read and should be checked out by those that enjoy this genre of literature.  

The web site for this comic book is at:

http://www.CosmicTimes.net  

There you can read more and also see the places either at LCBS or online that you can buy or order this comic book for reading.

My thanks to Martin for sending in this publication for possible review.  I do appreciate that, and wish you well for 2010, as well as a good showing at the upcoming Mega Con in Orlando. 

TODAY'S 'MAIN FEATURE':

This month is almost half over, so it almost time for the start of another Comic Convention Season....

Already???  Yes, and one that is kicking off the Season and is close to us in SoCal is the 'California Comic Con'.  That's a Big Name for a comic con to live up to!

Well, this con is defintely a 'comic con' in the 'retro' sense.

So you have to forgive it for using the name 'California Comic Con'.

You see, it's a comic book convention, not a 'pop culture convention', or a 'comic con' with a multitude of 'media' guests. 

It has two 'Guests of Honor', Frank Brunner and Don Rosa, and comic book dealers, and... well, that's about all!

Here's the lowdown for the date / time / hours / etc.:

Caifornia Comic Convention

In Orange County, California

At the Yorba Linda Community Center 4501 Casa Loma Ave. Yorba Linda  CA 92886 - The Yorba Linda Community Center is North of the Richard Nixon Library in the city of Yorba Linda.

The major cross streets are Yorba Linda Blvd. and Imperial highway. There are many Restaurants nearby.

Next show 9:30 am - 5pm, January 31st 2010

Special apperance by CGC, they will do certain pre-screens and signature witnessing for Don Rosa & Frank Brunner.
 

So I mentioned the two guests of honor. A little more info here for those of you that don't know of their works:

FRANK BRUNNER: Comics Background Only - "Brunner broke into comics as a horror writer-artist for the black-and-white comics magazines Web of Horror, Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. His best-known color-comics work is his Marvel Comics collaboration with writer Steve Engelhart on the supernatural hero Doctor Strange in Marvel Premiere from 1972 to 1973, and in Doctor Strange vol. 2, in 1974. Other Marvel credits include the anthologies Chamber of Chills, Haunt of Horror, and Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction; the supernatural series The Tomb of Dracula; the swamp-monster series Man-Thing; and the science fiction series Silver Surfer and Howard the Duck.

Also for Marvel, Brunner adapted Robert E. Howard's sword-and-sorcery pulp fiction hero Conan the Barbarian in the 42-page story "The Scarlet Citadel", and drew many covers for the similar series Red Sonja and Savage Sword of Conan.

Brunner and novelist Michael Moorcock collaborated on a comics adaptation of Moorcock's sword-and-sorcery hero Elric in Heavy Metal magazine. It was reprinted in publisher Mike Friedrich's Star Reach Greatest Hits.

Brunner briefly returned to comics in the early-1980s as artist on the First Comics title Warp, based on the science-fiction play that ran briefly on Broadway in the 1970s. He then wrote and drew the graphic novel The Seven Samuroid (1984), a science-fiction takeoff of the movie classic Seven Samurai."

DON ROSA: Comics Background Only - "Keno Don Hugo Rosa (generally just called Don Rosa) (born June 29, 1951) is an American comic book writer and illustrator best known for his stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck and other Disney characters. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. In 1985, he discovered a Gladstone Publishing comic book in the window of a small comic shop. This was the first American comic book that contained Disney-characters after the 1970s. Since early childhood Don Rosa had been fascinated by Disney stories about Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck. Artist Carl Barks was an especially big idol for him and would remain so for the rest of his career. He immediately called the editor, Byron Erickson, and told him that he was the only American who was born to write and draw Scrooge McDuck comics. Byron agreed to let him send a story, and Don Rosa started drawing his first Duck story: Son of the Sun the very next day.

Son of the Sun was a huge success and was nominated for a Harvey Award. The plot of the story was exactly the same as his earlier story Lost in (an alternative section of) the Andes. As Don Rosa formulated it, he was just "(...) turning that old Pertwillaby Papers adventure back into the story it originally was in my head, starring Scrooge, Donald, the nephews, and Flintheart Glomgold."

Don Rosa did a few more comics for Gladstone till 1989. He then stopped working for them because the policies of their licensor Disney did not allow for the return of original art for a story to its creators. This was unacceptable to Don Rosa, since a part of his income came from selling the originals. Without that extra money, he could not make a living drawing comic books.

His first real cartoon was a comic strip featuring his own character, Lancelot Pertwillaby. He created the strip in 1971 for The Kentucky Kernel, a college newspaper of the University of Kentucky which wanted the strip to focus on political satire.

Rosa later talked them into letting him feature adventures starring Lancelot Pertwillaby and drew the story Lost in (an alternative section of) the Andes. (The title is a reference to Lost in the Andes!, a Donald Duck story by Carl Barks, first published in April, 1949.) The so-called Pertwillaby Papers included 127 published episodes by the time Rosa graduated.

Meanwhile Rosa participated in a fanzine. His contribution was An Index of Uncle Scrooge Comics.

Rosa took a chance at more professional cartooning with his creation of the comic strip character Captain Kentucky for the Saturday edition of the local newspaper Louisville Times. Captain Kentucky was the superhero alter ego of Lancelot Pertwillaby. Publication started on October 6, 1979. The comic strip ended on August 15, 1982 after the publication of 150 episodes. After three years with Captain Kentucky, Don decided that it was not worth the effort. He retired from cartooning and did not draw a single line for the next four years. Years later, as his fame grew, his non-Disney work was published by the Norwegian publisher Gazette Bok in 2001, in the two hard-cover books The Pertwillaby Papers and The Adventures of Captain Kentucky."

Tina and I recently had the pleasure of selling a few comics to Don Rosa via our online store. I met Don years ago at a Wonder Con in Oakland.  A really friendly guy and a fun to read comics creator!

Next, I'll list a few of the vintage comic book dealers that are scheduled to be setting up at this show:

CGC - COMICS GUARANTY COMPANY - SARASOTA, FL 

TERRY O'NEILL -  TERRY'S COMICS -  ORANGE CA   

MICHAEL SHAW - MIKES COMICS AND STUFF - ORANGE, CA

RON MURRY - BIG RONS COMICS - FRESNO CA

DAN LOUFEK - COMIC CELLER-  MONROVIA CA -

HOWARD HARRIS - GREG'S COMICS - MESA AZ

AL PRUETT -  GO DADDYO'S COMIC HIDEOUT - BUENA PARK, CA

HARLEY  YEE - HARLEY YEE COMICS - LIVONIA MI -

ALAN BARR - HEROES COMICS CARDS AND TOYS - CAMPBELL CA

PHIL SCHLAEFER - COMIC COLLECTOR SHOP - MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA

HERO'S INITIATIVE - PROMOTIONAL ONLY - LOS ANGELES, CA  

JAMIE NEWBOLD - SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COMICS - SAN DIEGO CA

STEVE WYATT - SUPER CON - BAKERSFIELD CA

TERRY STROUD - AMERICAN COMIC BOOK  COMPANY - SANTA MONICA, CA

DAN MEDART - ALTAIR-4 COLLECTIBLES - ORANGE, CA

DON MADISON - FALLEN EMPIRE COMICS - LAKEWOOD,CA

GEOFFREY PATTERSON- GEOFFREY'S COMICS - GARDENA, CA

ED ROBERTSON - ED ROBERTSON COMICS - PEORIA, AZ

MICHAEL DICE - OLD COMICS - COVINA, CA
 

Oh, and I didn't mention this earlier...  There is an old fashioned 'raffle' going on too! To the left is just one of the prizes to be awarded... An original sketch of Vampirella by Guest of Honor Frank Brunner!

So as you can see by what I've listed, this 'California Comic Con' is more like the comic book shows of old, and on a much smaller scale than the media / pop culture cons...

If that is more Your type of 'comic con', then the promoter invites to check out his web site for additional info! 

The web site is at:  http://www.calcomiccon.com

As a side note: Although the above comic con is close to us from the San Diego Metro area, Tina and I do not set up at comic cons anymore... we are strictly online sellers.

We can be found at: http://www.ComicBooksCircus.com     

TODAY'S 'MAIN FEATURE':

Yesterday I was asked about what comic book issues we had from Free Comic Book Day from prior years that we hadn't yet listed in our online store... 

So I went to our backstock, pulled those that weren't listed, and informed the potential buyer what we had.

That reminded me that I hadn't yet looked at the actual Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) web site yet as to what was being printed for the Year 2010.

So when I hit their 'landing' page I was pleased to see the artwork presented above for the t-shirt by Aragones that is going on sale soon.  I love Sergio Aragones artwork, especially his crowd scenes!

Then I clicked on the "FCBD 2010 Full Lineup Announced" link to see what was being printed for this year, and was VERY pleased to see the cover of the Green Hornet #1 shown there!  Which is the reason that the cover is at the top right of this blog post.  (And because the Sergio artwork is more horizontal in presentation, thus the layout shown above...)

PLUS: I've always had an interest in the Green Hornet comics, no matter which publisher was printing them, although I do have my own personal favorite issues, including the one shown to the left of this paragraph.

Yeah, my interest in the Green Hornet started with the 1960's TV Show starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee!

I've had the pleasure of meeting Van Williams at the San Diego Comic Con International when he was signing his photo, which was being sponsored by Now Comics, who were then publishing the 'Green Hornet' comics line.  I have a photo of that, so will publish that before the new film comes out...

Speaking of the new film, while at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con International, I was struck by how good the 'Black Beauty' from the upcoming film looked on the exhibit floor, as seen below.  Now only if the upcoming film is only half that good...

  

So you can see why I am interested in the final product that the upcoming Green Hornet film will be...

And why I am now adding the FCBD Green Hornet #1 comic book issue to my 'Want List' on this upcoming Free Comic Book Day!

For more info on this year's FCBD, please see their main landing page at:

http://www.FreeComicBookDay.com

I mentioned at the top of this blog post that we have an online store where we sell back issue of FCBD comics for those that were not able to get all of the issues printed in previous years, or unfortunately don't have a LCBS, (Local Comic Book Shop), near them. The online store just had a revamp at the end of 2009. We still go by 'Make it So Marketing' but now are employing the domain name that I used to use years ago called:  ComicBooksCircus.com   So if you have missed an issue or two in the past years, check us out there at 'The Big of Comics', and come back after May 2010 when we'll have several of this year's FCBD issues listed!

Thanks again to all of YOU reading our current and archived blog posts!  We do blog usually on a daily basis during the 'work week' on comic book creators, comic book reviews, comic cons, and other pop culture news and events or places such as the one blogged about here today.

We hope YOUR New Year is starting off the way YOU want it to be. Join us again soon, as we publish another 'Main Feature'.  And don't forget to check out the 'Featurette' shown below!