Adrienne Colan Passes This Last Weekend June of 2010   -------------- Above Photo: Gene Colan thumbing through my Not Brand Echh Issue that contained his artwork that I was requesting him to sign.  This was back in 1996 at the Comic Con International: San Diego (SDCC).

TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3172:

Today I came back to my home office after being out all day to find an email from one of my Facebook Friends informing me of the passing of Adrienne Colan.

I had not been aware of that this morning before leaving, and had blogged about a different topic.  So I am going to post a rememberance blog about Adrienne Colan, who I met several times at the Comic Con International: San Diego, along with her husband Gene Colan.

Adrienne and her husband Gene Colan were at a few of the Comic-Cons in San Diego during the mid 1990's and were set up at their own table in the Artist Alley area.

The above photo to the right is the one that I took and basically remember Adrienne by.  That's because Gene hadn't seen that issue for quite a while, and here I was asking him to sign it.  You see, I was basically looking only to get my complete collection of Fantastic Four comics signed by the artists & writers who worked on the series.  Unfortunately for me, Gene had not illustrated any Fantastic Four issues in Volume 1.  So I had to come up with something that had the Fantastic Four in the comic for Gene to sign for me. This was the issue I came up with.

While Gene thumbed through the issue, Adrienne proceeded to tell me some great stories of the 'Old Days'.  I was a receptive listener, and she sensed that I was interested in what she had to say. 

Quite often 'fanboys' are just interested in the comic book artists, and not the wives of the illustrators.  I've always been a friendly guy to what so many of the older illustrators have as 'team' going on at their table with their spouse. 

I would try to get over to their table the times they were there. Adrienne would tell me and others stories each year that they were set up there at the Comic-Con, but only after checking around to see who was in earshot.  It truly is amazing what went on during the 'Good Old Day's of Comics'.  Most of the time you only hear the stories from the actual comics creators, not their spouses.  But not so Adrienne!

So Adrienne definitely stood out from the crowd!

She would also attend the panels that Gene would be a guest on.  There would be the opportunity for Gene to have his say in front of everyone.  There would always be dozens of appreciative fans of his hanging on his every word. 

And I was pleased to be there the year that Gene received a surpise Birthday Cake at the end of one of Mark Evanier's panels! I've shared a few photos of that before.

I hadn't seen Adrienne or Gene in the last few years of the Comic Con International in San Diego.  Gene was an 'Official Guest of the Comic-Con' last in 2009.  But for whatever reason, I didn't make it over to their table...

Sadly, Adrienne passed away alone at their house in the last few days.  Gene and she were estranged earlier this year.  I'm not going to go into that here.

Suffice to say that my memories of Adrienne and Gene are good ones from earlier Comic-Cons.  Gene sketching away, and Adrienne handling the business side of the transactions, and talking about the comics industry and how it pertained to Gene and she directly.

I went through my photos of the last couple of decades before starting this blog.  Back then I was shooting with a Canon AE-1 Program Camera, and only took one or two photos.  Unfortunately I don't see any of  Adrienne in them to share here. Anymore since I take only digital photos, I usually have multiple pics to choose from. So the photo at the top left of this blog post is obtained elsewhere from 2008.

~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com 

 

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"Hammering Out the Web For You Since May 12th, 1998!"       Note: If you are breaking into, or already 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. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to:     Make It So Marketing Inc. PO Box 130653 Carlsbad, CA 92013

My thanks to those of YOU that have read today's blog post! I do appreciate that! For those of you that didn't know me before today...I first set up as a 'dealer' at the 1972 San Diego West Coast Comic Con (SDCC) at the El Cortez Hotel. So I've been around comic conventions for a little while, LOL!   My wife Tina and I now have an on-line exhibitor (dealer) table at the first "virtual" comic con titled the "Facebook Comic Con" (FBCC)! You can view our dealer table and interact with us there on Facebook by clicking this link, which takes you to our table named: 'Facebook Comic Con | Make It So Marketing'.  So if YOU are a Facebook member, please 'join' our Facebook Comic Con - Make It So Marketing exhibitor table for updates, specials, links to this blog, and other wall comments that we post every day!     Also, if you are a Facebook member and would like to also join my Facebook Network, feel free to send a 'friend request' to 'Michael D Hamersky'. I am reaching the maximum of 5,000 Facebook Friends soon, and I don't want YOU to be left out!         ------------------- Talking about comics: if YOU are a comics creator, (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, etc.), OR even a Comics / Magazine Publisher, feel free to contact me regarding YOUR works for a possible mention / review! I've made a special blog post about: "How To Best Submit YOUR Publication For Possible Review!" for those creators / publishers that would like to possibly have their publications mentioned or reviewed. Just click on the link provided in this paragraph! ~Michael @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com   WEB PAGE NOTE:  This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently, sorry about that!   The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768 on your laptop or desktop computer.   NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

 

Vinnie's Take On: The Ultimate Underdog Collection Volume 1 On DVD!       Above: The Front Cover to the Ultimate Underdog Collection Volume 1!  At The Top Left: The Star of The Underdog Show! At the Bottom Left: Vinnie- Today's Guest Blogger!

TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3169:

Today I'm pleased once again to have as guest blogger, Vinnie, who is writing 'His Take' on the The Ultimate Underdog Collection - Volume 1 on DVD that we bought yesterday to view:

[SPOILER ALERT: This whole blog post is a 'Spoiler Alert', but with all the millions of people that have watched Underdog on TV...This is more of a review of the collection from a tween's POV.]

My Take On: 

The ULTIMATE Underdog Collection on DVD - Volume 1 (only)!

This is the Volume 1 of the 3 Volume set of The Ultimate Underdog Collection which has 6 complete episodes, with 4 parts each. In between the main parts are Mini-Cartoons, such as Hunter, Go Go Gophers, Klondike Kat, Tennessee Tuxedo, Tooter Turtle, and several others.

The main themes which cover 2 episodes are, "The Big Dipper," "The Gold Bricks," and, "Fearo The Ferocious." These were made during the 60's which is why there are flaws in animation and the old style of animation.

"The Big Dipper" is about when Simon Barsinister invented a machine to dry up all the water in the world.  "The Gold Bricks" is about when Underdog was asked to drive an armored truck carrying one billion dollars worth of gold from one bank to another. Riff Raff steals the gold and paints it to look as though it were red bricks, so he could sneak them across the border to sell. "Fearo The Ferocious" is a take-off of King Kong. Polly's network needs rating so they plan to film a show of an exciting adventure with a giant ape creature called Fearo.

In the Bonus Features there is a special interview with Joe Harris, the co-creator of Underdog. In that interview, you find out that Polly Purebred was based off of Marylin Monroe, and he says the reason for that was because during that time, everyone just loved her. He also modeled Riff Raff's character after George Raft, and Simon Barsinister was influenced by Lionel Barrymore's voice.

I really liked the Mini-Cartoons, for they added a bit of spice to everything. They would come between the main features and would start right after a suspensful part in the real episode. This would have made it so you had to watch through all those in order to see what would happen. I liked the Special Features because you can watch them how they originally were shown, with just the Underdog cartoons, or just the Mini-Cartoons, so you can pick what exactly to watch.

What I didn't like were the cut-offs. After a couple of episodes, I started to notice it appeared as though it ended where it hadn't originally ended. It was kind of as though we paid to get something and paid the full price to only get part of the object we paid for.

As for who this is recommended for, it still applies the same as it did in the 1960's both kids and adults will love it. There is of course a fair amount of guns, but every scene where people were firing, you couldn't even see anything coming from the gun. But, with Underdog, they were shown, but just shown as bouncing off for he has invincibility.

I would recommend this for any kid or adult I know, that has seen, heard about, or loves Underdog on a casual viewer basis. For the 'Ultimate' Underdog Collector, this isn't the 'Ultimate' Collection due to the splicing.  However, using the comic book grading scale I would give this a Very Fine Minus (VF-) 7.5 out of a 10.0 grading scale.

That's the end of today's guest blog by Vinnie...My thanks to him for sharing here today what we watched this weekend!

If YOU liked his review on this DVD, you may enjoy reading his reviews on: Planet Hulk, Coraline, Ponyo, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Sonic the Hedgehog TPB Vol 1, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, just to name a recent few!   

AND My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now over the 3,165 total posts in number!

~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com

Note: Our online comic book store carries many different genres of comics, magazines, and graphic novels, including Funnybooks, Sci-Fi, and MoNSTer Comics at:

http://www.comicbookscircus.com/

 

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"Hammering Out the Web For You Since May 12th, 1998!"       Note: If you are breaking into, or already 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. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to:     Make It So Marketing Inc. PO Box 130653 Carlsbad, CA 92013

My thanks to those of YOU that have read today's blog post! I do appreciate that! For those of you that didn't know me before today...I first set up as a 'dealer' at the 1972 San Diego West Coast Comic Con (SDCC) at the El Cortez Hotel. So I've been around comic conventions for a little while, LOL!   My wife Tina and I now have an on-line exhibitor (dealer) table at the first "virtual" comic con titled the "Facebook Comic Con" (FBCC)! You can view our dealer table and interact with us there on Facebook by clicking this link, which takes you to our table named: 'Facebook Comic Con | Make It So Marketing'.  So if YOU are a Facebook member, please 'join' our Facebook Comic Con - Make It So Marketing exhibitor table for updates, specials, links to this blog, and other wall comments that we post every day!     Also, if you are a Facebook member and would like to also join my Facebook Network, feel free to send a 'friend request' to 'Michael D Hamersky'. I am reaching the maximum of 5,000 Facebook Friends soon, and I don't want YOU to be left out!         ------------------- Talking about comics: if YOU are a comics creator, (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, etc.), OR even a Comics / Magazine Publisher, feel free to contact me regarding YOUR works for a possible mention / review! I've made a special blog post about: "How To Best Submit YOUR Publication For Possible Review!" for those creators / publishers that would like to possibly have their publications mentioned or reviewed. Just click on the link provided in this paragraph! ~Michael @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com   WEB PAGE NOTE:  This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently, sorry about that!   The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768. NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners. is blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently. The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768. NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

 

'My Take' On: the BEAN #1 By Travis Hanson From BeanLeaf Press! -------------- Above Photo: The Front Cover to The Bean #1 - the Back Cover is part of a 'wrap-around' cover presentation. At the Left: The creator of the Bean, Travis Hanson at his booth at the 2009 Comic Con International: San Diego!

TODAY'S FEATURE - Blog #3168:

Today I am blogging a review on a publication that was sent to me by Amy Ratcliffe, on behalf of Travis Hanson of BeanLeaf Press.

That would be the 1st issue of 'the Bean'.  I was not familar with this publication or the project itself before receiving this copy, even though it would appear that BeanLeaf Press had a booth at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, (SDCC), as pictured at the above left.  (Hey! I can't see all of the Con, you know how large it is?!  LOL.)

So what's this publication about?  Here is the promo blurb from Amy:

"The Bean comic is about:
The adventure of a young dishwasher named Bean. Kidnapped from the Silver Dagger, by a Troll, known only as the Collector, he is thrust into the hunt of a precious item deep underground.  Meanwhile, his companions from the Silver Dagger, begin their hunt for their young charge."

So what's 'My Take' on this publication?  I keep calling it a publication, because to me it is not a comic book, even though the creator / publisher calls it a "landscaped comic book" in this published format. 

Inside Front Cover:  It's an illustration of the Bean in Black & White.  Still doesn't look like a comic book to me...

Splash Page:  Not a comic book splash page presentation.  More like an illustrated book with this opening page.

The Rest of the Pages: Turning over the 'splash page', there is another page with the credits and publishing info.

The story gets going right away.  I already started liking the art style from the cover itself, which was in color.  The interior pages I find are all in black & white.  But the lack of color does not affect my enjoyment of the story, as I find myself drawn into the storyline right away.

I find the unusual print format to be the size and shape of the web comic, which is where this project started.  Having read web comics before, the odd sized publication doesn't affect my continued reading of the storyline, although I don't 'feel' like I'm reading a 'comic'.

Last Page: Is the first time I feel like I'm reading a comic book, as there is a 'To Be Continued' box! LOL! However, I for one am so caught up in this storyline, I would be more than inclined to seek out issue #2!

Inside Back Cover:  Was left blank...Why, I don't know. Even a 'house ad' could have been used here, to entice me to go immediately to the web comic itself to see the next storyline.  Yeah, the story thus far is on the web, and could be read for free.  But I am a 'tactile' reader, and would prefer to read it in print. 

Back Cover:  Is the second part of the wrap-around cover, with just a little bit of inhouse advertising for the rest of the adventure.  

So, after all of the above...what is 'My Take' on all of this?

Well...First of all, I thought I was receiving a comic book in the mail.  Everything that I ask for from a creator / publisher / publicist as shown at: How to Submit Your Publication for Possible Review link was there. (BTW, Amy, that was a great package you sent me!)

But the odd shaped publication wasn't in the form of what is considered a 'comic book' sized publication by the comic book rading public, nor comics fan base.

I didn't let that stop me from enjoying the issue. 

I definitely found that the B&W illustrated artwork to be perfect for this genre of story.  The storyline itself flowed.  I was drawn into this adventure, and would have been sad to see it end, but for the 'To Be Continued' box.  So there is more to the main character's adventure!

That is good! I look forward to checking this out further, now that I know about it.  In fact, I'll let Vinnie take a look at it, and see if he wants to blog about any future issues. (Click here for Vinnie's guest review blogs.)

I would grade this first issue of 'the Bean #1" as a 'Very Fine / Near Mint' (VF/NM) 9.0 out of the 10.0 Grading Scale. That's because even though I enjoyed the storyline and art, the printed format of this publication is a little tough to 'bag & board' it as a 'comic'.  That is the only thing I believe that the creator / publisher has to deal with here, as the project is an entertaining one!  Matter of fact, take a look at the following bio, where he himself discusses the format publishing problem he has run into.  Still, I believe that this issue, in this format, would be a great introduction to someone that doesn't read comics, and would enjoy it just for the story and art.  It's almost a 'mini-graphic novelette', in this presentation format!

As a Note:  I mentioned that 'the Bean' started as a web comic. Amy tells me the following: "As a webcomic, it is published biweekly (on Mondays and Thursdays), but the printed comic is farther ahead.  For example, though Hanson just sent issue 5 to press, the webcomic is only at Issue 2".

Here's the publisher's site so you can read additional pages and introduce YOUR friends to this project: BeanLeafPress.com

How to purchase:  Readers can keep up with the webcomic and purchase all issues of The Bean (up to 4 issues now, the 5th issue to be released soon) at http://beanleafpress.com.  It is a self published comic, so as of right now, that's the only place to get it, UNLESS you see Travis at a comic con.

Talking about Travis, here is a brief bio / message from him:

I am an artist and storyteller.  I have been illustrating stories for several years now and have finally come back into my own with the comic “the Bean”.

The bean is a story I developed over 12 years ago as a struggling cartoonist. I started posting it as a web comic and was finally convinced to take it to press as a regular comic book. After 2 issue my dream fell apart. So what I do I picked up the pieces and tried again this time as a written illustrated novel, with the help of the very talented Aimee Duncan. It too fell apart before book 3 and so once again I was left with a huge debt and a lot of pieces to pick up. After a year of brooding and a lot of frustration I realized that for this dream to happen I would have to return to my roots.

So I picked up my pencil and re-scripted the books into the format that I had originally envisioned so many years ago. I am now on issue 4 and going very strong. There are some minor changes since the comics are an adaptation of my novels, but the story is still very much the same.  Of the major differences is the format, which is a landscaped comic book (I know an uphill battle) but I have a vision and I know it will work.

I am also posting it online as a comic, for the world to see. I felt this was needed, in part, for all those that were expecting book 3. I apologize for the novel being shelved, sometimes things do not work the way you planned. Yet, I believe in my story and I want to get it out and so this is the format that it will be in. I will finish it in this format as well and one day I will revisit the novels, but honestly my passion has always been and always will be comic books.

It has been a story that has stuck with me for many years and changed very little. I am already finishing issue 4 (meaning I better pay attention to this blog and update the issues as I move along) and have started issue 5. The web comic is far behind yet updates twice a week. So please sit back and enjoy.

thanks

trav

The above is pretty straight forward.  I like that in this creator. I will be sure to stop and say hello to him when I see him at any upcoming comic cons that we are attending. I urge you to stop at his booth at any comic con you are attending to check this out in person!

Until then the publisher also has a Facebook Group Page, which I am suggesting YOU click on and 'join' as a member.  I just did! 

My thanks to Amy Ratcliffe, who's also known as "geek with curves" as seen at: http://geekfemme.blogspot.com.  

She can be followed at Twitter at: http://twitter.com/amy_geek!

Amy is shown to the left with Travis Hanson at the BeanLeaf Press booth during the 2009 Comic-Con International: San Diego (SDCC / CCI)!

AND My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now over the 3,165 total posts in number!

~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com

Note: Our online comic book store carries many different genres of comics, magazines and graphic novels at:

http://www.comicbookscircus.com/

 

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"Hammering Out the Web For You Since May 12th, 1998!"       Note: If you are breaking into, or already 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. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to:     Make It So Marketing Inc. PO Box 130653 Carlsbad, CA 92013

My thanks to those of YOU that have read today's blog post! I do appreciate that! For those of you that didn't know me before today...I first set up as a 'dealer' at the 1972 San Diego West Coast Comic Con (SDCC) at the El Cortez Hotel. So I've been around comic conventions for a little while, LOL!   My wife Tina and I now have an on-line exhibitor (dealer) table at the first "virtual" comic con titled the "Facebook Comic Con" (FBCC)! You can view our dealer table and interact with us there on Facebook by clicking this link, which takes you to our table named: 'Facebook Comic Con | Make It So Marketing'.  So if YOU are a Facebook member, please 'join' our Facebook Comic Con - Make It So Marketing exhibitor table for updates, specials, links to this blog, and other wall comments that we post every day!     Also, if you are a Facebook member and would like to also join my Facebook Network, feel free to send a 'friend request' to 'Michael D Hamersky'. I am reaching the maximum of 5,000 Facebook Friends soon, and I don't want YOU to be left out!         ------------------- Talking about comics: if YOU are a comics creator, (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, etc.), OR even a Comics / Magazine Publisher, feel free to contact me regarding YOUR works for a possible mention / review! I've made a special blog post about: "How To Best Submit YOUR Publication For Possible Review!" for those creators / publishers that would like to possibly have their publications mentioned or reviewed. Just click on the link provided in this paragraph! ~Michael @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com   WEB PAGE NOTE:  This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently, sorry about that!   The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768 on your laptop or desktop computer.   NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.