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:

Edgar Allan Poe Museum Showcases Comics!

While Michael was growing up in San Diego and Alaska reading comics, I was curled up with a book in New Jersey.  From 4th-6th grade, it was most likely an Edgar Allan Poe novel or short story.  I loved the mystery and suspense.  Just the thought of the ending of The Fall of the House of Usher still creeps me out!

So, I read with interest this notice, (printed below), from The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia.  Since April they've run a special exhibit devoted to “Poe in Comics.”  The exhibit's been so popular, especially bringing children to the museum, that they've extended its run for at least another month. If you're in the area, I'm sure you'll want to check it out.

This first-ever museum exhibit devoted to Poe’s presence in comics and graphic novels opened to the public with a bang last April, and brings together sixty years of comic books featuring adaptations of Poe’s tales and poems, stories in which Poe appears as a character, and parodies of Poe’s works. In addition to the comic books on display are dolls based on comic characters and fantastic original artwork by major comic artists including Michael Golden (shown in above photo), Gahan Wilson, Richard Corben, and Rick Geary.

According to the museum curator, Chris Semtner, Michael Golden’s work is a prominent part of the show. “Among the items on loan for the exhibit are Golden's illustrations for "The Cask of Amontillado" for Marvel Classics as well as a copy of that issue of Marvel Classics,” confirmed Semtner. “The drawings have been a great addition to the exhibit. Since we normally devote our exhibit space to manuscripts and artifacts from Poe's time, this show has given us a good opportunity to appeal to a younger audience, particularly the school groups who visit.”

Other highlights of the show include the superb draftsmanship and dramatic composition in Corben’s drawings for "The Tell-Tale Heart." And, Spanish artist Isidro Mones interprets “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” with the accomplished technique of a seventeenth century Dutch master.

It’s no wonder that the works of Edgar Allan Poe have been an inspiration to comic book artists. Called "America's Shakespeare," Poe created or mastered the short story, detective fiction, science fiction, lyric poetry and the horror story. His dark genius has invited children and adults to read and love literature for over 150 years.

Richmond's Poe Museum boasts the world's finest collection of Edgar Allan Poe's manuscripts, letters, first editions, memorabilia and personal belongings. Opened in 1922, in The Old Stone House, the museum is only blocks away from Poe's first Richmond home and his first place of employment, the Southern Literary Messenger.

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For those of you that are new to our blog today, we have an ongoing 'Comics 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 from Tina, 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!

Whip-Snap

Of Stan Lee's

 'Who Wants To Be A Superhero?"

TV Show!

I have still been watching our Blog's Stats Counter, even during the election cycle....

An interesting fact is that  'Whip Snap' from the Stan Lee show has been in the Top 10 of the most viewed archived blog posts in our almost 2,700 archived blog posts for the past five days!

Whip Snap, (pictured below), was on the Second Season of the Stan Lee show on the Sci-Fi Channel.

In real life, Whip-Snap's secret identity is that of Paula Thomas, a Security Officer, age approx 33 now.

An interesting note is that she worked with the 'Iron Enforcer' in real life before he competed in Season One of this same Show!

Earlier in her life, Paula idolized 'Cleopatra Jones', who she called the first African-American Superhero, while being interviewed on Feedback's 'After Show' shown on the Sci-Fi web site.

She thought her revised costume that Stan Lee had designed for her made her feel 'sexy'.

Whip-Snap's Catch Phrase was great:  "I'll whip you to unconsciousness and snap you back into reality!".

Whip-Snap's super-powers were pretty good too:   She gets her powers from her whip, which she wields with pinpoint accuracy! In severe circumstances, she can turn her foes to dust!  She possesses increased flexibility and stamina. She also has a bond with Mother Earth and derives special strength from the warmth of the planet!

IMHO Whip-Snap had two good costumes, both her own and the revised one, had a good catch phrase, and actually had pretty good super powers. 

She just didn't make it to the final episodes because of her continual crying on camera IMHO....

Possibly she has that under control now, and is being looked at for some other project, thus the increased viewings of her archived blog post that we have???

If so, we'll let you know here in our Blog. 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!