Happy Birthday Mike Mignola!

Mike Mignola who was born on September 16, 1960, has been one of the most dynamic and exciting artists, writing and drawing his Hellboy for the last 20 years...

though he wasn't always so well thought of.

Kaz' Delirious from Weirdo #10

Kaz has a unique sense of humor and fascinating design sense. He loves to put the grotesque into 'cute comics'. He seems to be inspired as much by classic cute comic strips like Nancy and Sluggo, and Popey as much as by the offensive underground comics like S. Clay Wilson's Captain Pissgums.

Check out Delirious, an early comic by Kaz which appeared in R. Crumb's Weirdo #10, July 1984.

Alan Moore's Century: 1910 and the Black Freighter

When the Watchmen came out, Alan Moore was interviewed in the Comics Journal #116, July 1987 in which he gave a strikingly familiar account of Bertolt Brecht's the Threepenny Opera which he based the Black Freighter portion of the Watchmen on. I have copied the passage from the interview here and superimposed pictures from Moore and O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; Century: 1910 for comparison. Enjoy.

Happy 71st Birthday R. Crumb!

Robert Crumb (born August 30, 1943) is the founding father of the underground comic art movement of the late 60's and early 70's. He started off his career drawing LSD inspired comics but went on to do some very influential auto-biographical comics as well as some very impressive biographical work of blues singers as well as literary people such as Kafka. His latest work is a faithful adaption of the book of Genesis.


 

Happy 97th Birthday Jack Kirby! The Marvel story.

Jack Kirby (August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994), born Jacob Kurtzberg, was one of the greatest comic creators ever. Not only did he create important comics and heroes of the Golden Age like Captain America but he revitalized the whole industry with his Marvel Comics creations of the 60's and influenced all the succeeding artist for decades afterwards.

Self portrait of Jack Kirby with many of his creations.

Nelvana of the Northern Lights, a Golden Age Canadian classic!

Golden Age comics have created many big names like Superman, Batman and Captain America though there are many amazing heroes from the Golden Age virtually unknown and forgotten in modern times. Nelvana of the Northern Lights is one of those comics.

 

Now there are some Canadian comic fans who are making that right. Hope Nicholson and Rachel Richey spearheaded a Kickstarter campaign to reprint the complete adventures of Nelvana of the Northern Lights by Adrian Dingle that was successfully funded on November 1, 2013.

Wildcat from Sensation #1 by Finger and Hasen

Wildcat is one of my favorite comics of the Golden Age. Wildcat had a very real setting and down to Earth story created by Bill Finger and the very physical, gritty figures drawn by Irwin Hasen. Wildcat is a hero who takes on a masked identity for a believable reason with believable physical prowess.

From Sensation Comics #1, Jan 1942

It figures that the same creator who created this non-super-powered hero, Wildcat, was also the creator behind the other Golden Age non-super-powered cultural icon of Batman.