THE BLITZ! is coming.

i miss self contained stories.
and i believe as creators of serialized periodical literature
-comic book type persons, i mean you-
we owe it to the readers to at least make each chapter
-even if it's part of a larger story-
readable on its own.
i loved the back-up stories that NATIONAL used to run.
quite often they were better than the feature.
stories are our means of conveying knowledge and aspirations, history and dreams, past future and present can collide in whichever way we choose and often the best stories are a complete mess of appropriated truths mashed together to make a point or poignant drama.
i prefer a cinema vérité approach to writing, carefully choosing my angles but always being honest.
"i always tell the truth. even when i lie"- Tony Montana
if nothing else my fictions tell the actual feelings from my sternly subjective viewpoint.

sharpen your wits and sense of adventure.
and dress warm,
it's cold out there.

gone FISCHing

 reading SCOOBY DOO TEAM-UP to my son i noticed the name attributed to the author,
SHOLLY FISCH.
 i'd seen it before in the pages of the recent ACTION COMICS but hadn't given it a second thought.
at first it sounded too cliche, an all too  stereotypical NooYawk/Jersey name that woulda fit right in tight with Shelly Meyer, Jules Schwartz and all those Americanised Jewish names that seemingly most of Comicdom worked under in the Golden and Silver ages.
 Jacob Kurtzberg's ghost was calling.....

due to the overwhelmingly well written tale that featured not just the MYSTERY INC. gang and The BATMAN, it also featured 60's relic and 5th dimensional imp BATMITE.  there were so many well executed nods and tips of the hat to comics and teevee of yesteryear and the unabashed love of BATMITE got me intrigued.
 i sought to discover more of this writer's work and found some confounding information about his contributions to comics and beyond.

 as my conspiratory thinking got really cookin', could this be just Grant Morrison, the Mad Mage of DC simply spreading his wings under another moniker? he's used many styles and written just about every type of story under the sun, not to mention a few about multiple personalities so i figured that Mr. Fisch's byline in the back pages of a Morrison mag might be reasonable....
 so into the digital waters i dove....

 turns out that Scholly Fisch is a real and terrific human being completely separate from Grant Morrison. tho Morrison was instrumental in getting the good man on the Action Comics gig.

 nonetheless his comics resume is extensive tho relatively low profile.
he's put pen to many a DCU title ALL NEW BATMAN, SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU?
SCOOBY TEAM UP, DC SUPER FRIENDS, LOONEY TUNES, JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED,TEEN TITANS GO!.
 he's also written a litany of other titles and stories for other publishers: MR PEABODY AND SHERMAN for IDW and
WHAT IF?, WHAT THE? MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS and  MARVEL AGE for that other company whose name i just typed thrice so i need not repeat it.
the guy's being writing comics for 25years and i didn't notice until about two years back.

i was floored.

his dedication and devotion to children and their development is a revelation and boon.
not to mention they're some really fun and good reads.

 meet Dr Shalom Fisch PhD,

Developmental Psychologist and former Vice President for Program Research Sesame Workshop, President and Founder of MediaKidz .
 he has also penned multiple essays, examinations and treatises on children's education such as  Children's Learning from Educational Television: Sesame Street and Beyond and G IS FOR GROWING which collected studies on sesame streets effect on kids.

 ya getta load of that!

oh ya, and this month CATWOMAN 29 is scripted by .....
so go check that out or some SCOOBY-DOO TEAM UP.|
it's well worth your time.


and here's a bunch more links to trace the good Doctor's history:


http://news.pampers.com/leadership/board-members/shalom-fisch-phd

http://archive.informalscience.org/member/show/6322

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2442446/

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=review_srch&by=creator&for=Sholly+Fisch

http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Shalom-Fisch/127771601

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Age_of_Comic_Books

http://comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID=2540

PACE-ing Richard

 as part of our FREE COMIC BOOK DAY extravaganza we are proud to be hosting 

tenured scholar and superb artist RICHARD PACE.

 recently nominated for a ROBERT E HOWARD FOUNDATION'S RANKIN AWARD 

for his illustrative work on the SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN story  "Men of Shadows" as published by DARK HORSE COMICS. 

the award represents "artistic achievement in the depiction of REH’s life and/or work".

 back to FCBD.... Richard will be toiling away for you and us, sketching and signing from 11-3.
for conversational purposes Mr.Pace has over twenty years in the field and  he's as quick with his thoughts, ponderings and plentiful  knowledge of the medium as he is with his pen and pencils.
  his talents can also be seen in the most recent issue of HEAVY METAL. 

#268 if you're keeping score.  also take a gander at Alex DeCampi's SMOKE/ASHES

 do yourself a solid and discover more about Richard and his work at the following web locations:

http://burningmonster.blogspot.com/

 http://richardpace.deviantart.com/

hey ladies!

        note: this isn't exactly finished, edited, blessed with direction or spell checks,
but at my current rate i'll never finish so here's the rawness.

 boys club.
adolescent male power fantasies.
sausage fest.
big white guys saving weak little women from themselves.

this is the standard perception of comics and comic book fiction.
mostly it's true. (now this is based on the assumption that comics are made only by two companies and are always about super powered cratures in their skivvies but i digress)

but the business/art form seems to be going thru sea changes.
and the tidal wave is coming.

now more than ever there is a proliferation of non superhero comix.
westerns sci-fi action/adventure mystery crime/detective humor .....it goes on and on....
and.......drum roll........
women are reading them....
but wait.........the comics also feature female characters?
and........girls, wymin, double X'rs, female type humanoids also make comics?

fo sheezy.
talented and skilled artists : Becky Cloonan, Emma Rios, Sarah Horrocks, Fiona Staples.
ambitious and gifted writers: Gail Simone,Kelly Sue DeConnick, G. Willow Wilson...

often relegated to editorial staff: Diana Schutz , Katie Kubert are still there and doing their always integral yet under appreciated jobs.
the bullpen is also where esteemed Hall of Fame comic scribe Louise Simonson got her start.
or if they were lucky as uncredited color and ink laborers: Marie Severin
there have always been women in the field.
but rarely on centre stage.

a business built by war vets and Ad Men
pandering high adventure featuring barrel chested Caucasian males to the boys of America.
(worth noting that all these white Anglo-Saxon heroes were germinated by Jews And Italians but much like Hollywoodland this was something you didn't mention or discuss.)

now comix are in a renaissance. enjoying popularity not tasted since the end of DubyaDubyaTwo.
and variety is in abundance.
even the cape and underwear types more and more frequently step outside of their primary colored genre limits.

each of the big companies has a successfull leading lady: DC's WONDER WOMAN and BATWOMAN., Dark Horse's GHOST, Marvel's CAPT. MARVEL and  Sensational SHE-HULK, and ASTRO CITY's WINGED VICTORY for example.


plenty of series feature prominently groups of powerful and empowered chicks.:
PRETTY DEADLY penned by Kelly Sue DeConnick ( who is also the scribe behind the fan favorite Captain Marvel) and illustrated by Carol Corps compatriot Emma Rios , ALL NEW X-MEN(should be X-women maybe) continues to bring mutantkind's most magnificent madmoiselles to the fore.


Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy's THE WAKE feature a brilliant marine biologist as the lead character Kurt Busiek's ASTRO CITY currently finds it's finest feminine fury  under siege by all who would discredit her and her attempts at empowering women.

 and at the top of the list is Brian Azarello's WONDER WOMAN. 
the current WW tales feature nearly the whole of the  Helenist religious pantheon. its themes,          the stuff of gods and monsters: intrigue, betrayal, Machiavellian plots. all hallmarks of Azarello's career expertly deployed to make the first and greatest of Superheroines relevant and readable. featuring not just the titular character but a whole host of fascinating females, goddesses Hera, Strife, Artemis and the wonderfully human and engaging Zola.

this is a good time for comics. quality and variety are at an all time high. i defy anyone to not find at least one title, issues or collection that appeals to their sensibilities.
i've spent much of this article mentioning super hero type fiction but much of this renaissance is attributable to growth and expansion away from this traditional fare. and this is where the medium is really coming into it's own as an art form.
creators on the whole be they women or men, or whatever socio-political and/or ethnic background are pushing themselves and their readers, challenging convention, defying expectation and delivering on a promise that the maverick creators and self publishers of the 80's and 90's set in front of us.

SAGA Vol 3, Ms. Marvel 2 just hit the stands yesterday.
get it while it's hot.
your mom will love ya for it.

KIMOTA! it's a miracle this ever got resurrected.

 from his eruption onto the British comic scene in 1954 as MARVELMAN to the series' abrupt and incomplete ending in 1994 because of the demise of ECLIPSE Comics,the myth and legend of MIRACLEMAN has continued through the kind of  adversity that only a super adventurer could know,........... to tiring legal battles that only Billy Batson, a.k.a.CAPT MARVEL, a.k.a. SHAZAM!, could know, and was created as a direct result of the former's UK publisher losing the rights to the latter. ,whose own legal wars over nomenclature, titling and questionable originality of character mirror one another.
 and not to face this re-introduction without some sort of controversy one need look to the credit page for the writer who will not be named, the "ORIGINAL WRITER",  the artist formerly known as Alan Moore, who's continued war against the diabolic duo of American comics: MARVEL and DC rages with unending spite and fury.

 but now to the point that i really wish to make.
 
MIRACLEMAN (once recognised everywhere but NorthAm as MARVELMAN) is back in print! featuring recolored artwork from Gary Leach, which has done wonders for the work giving it a much improved aesthetic over the ECLIPSE version and clarity that even exceeds the original black and white printings from WARRIOR Magazine (which is of course also defunct).
also included are additional stories culled from throughout the character's  history and includes behind the scenes look into the art and most of the creators. what is easily obscured by all the lawsuits, incomplete series, bankruptcies and skulduggery is that the character is wonderful, deserving of praise and stature alongside the titans of the capes and tights set like Superman and The Amazing Spider-Man, who to their fortune had consistent publishing from inception.
 
 Alan Moore masterfully reinvents the character from standard Do-Gooder science hero into a far more complex and fully realised one. he lets the characters grow up reaching beyond the often inflexible conceptual ceiling of the genre, transcending adolescent power fantasies and bravely asks the questions of how power and ability influence and corrupt.
it navigates all the staple concepts of this kind of fiction while opening new doors with each successive adventure.
 the artwork is tremendous. Leach being a disciple of sleek clean British linework like contemporaries Alan Davis(who later in the series takes the reigns from Leach), Brian Bolland or Dave Gibbons, always structurally sound , technically flawless and anatomically correct while always being dynamic and exciting, full of emotion. the absolutely fluid storytelling that flawlessly moves the reader through the narrative while wowing and exciting the mind with incredible concepts and visual ideas.

finally this groundbreaking series sees print again. new and improved and hopefully it stays that way.

 
ps:i could have also digressed into waters involving Neil Gaiman(who took over Marvelman's writing after Alan Moore divested himself of it) JK Rowling , Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone or as it's known occasionally as The Sorcerer's Stone and tangentially suggest that all of JK's prose was cribbed from Mr Gaiman but i won't go down that slope today.
 
pps:oh, and then Gaiman sued Todd McFarlane when the latter tried poaching the rights to the series from the wreckage of ECLIPSE.