There's an over-the-top quality, mixed in with relatable moments of human behavior, that makes the hey day of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee's work on Fantastic Four such a delight to read. In fact, a friend hired me to create a comic that relies on those two qualities to make it good. The "rules" of those primary-colored Marvel stories, in the early years of the company as we know it since Fantastic Four #1 and the introduction of the present universe of well-known characters, catch on to the carefree intentions that bond the craft work. Taking itself less-than-seriously while portraying straight-ahead drama, Marvel of 1964 and 1965 has character-driven stories and captivating, simple artwork, planned with an effective, tried-and-true sense of "camera angles" that not only defines much of what originally hooked comics fans (with DC, Archie, and numerous other publishers filling in other flavors of mayhem and joy).  For my purposes, my friend Mike Parsley...

I'm on a moving/ seeing family & friends hiatus. OH, and I've been hired to start a comic book for someone! I've got to edit these contents into a GREAT Bronze Age celebration book. But when I come back: let's talk about Lee/Kirby FF, okay? Have a great summer. C Lue

So Sherlock Holmes is being renewed for a fourth season...Superman/Batman is a coming movie. Nightcrawler's coming back to the Marvel Universe. Actress/ producer Alyssa Milano (Mistresses, Charmed) announced a graphic novel coming this fall called "Hacktivist" a war-time cyber thriller, as inspired by modern hackers and activists (like Jack Dorsey Twitter/ Square's founder), with a full team of talent including a lot of Eisner nominees, from Archaia Entertainment. Cyborg 009's Marcus To provides the art; Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelley are writing it, with Ian Herring and Deron Bennett from Jim Henson's comics properties lettering and coloring. An amazing diversity of Little Golden Books, comic books, and other media are all part of Chris Ware's 2012 Building Stories, which won the Eisner in three categories. Avengers: Age of Ultron is the coming Avengers sequel. It's not based on the collected story by that name, by the way. In fact, biochemis...

Gerry Conway, Are You Kidding Me?   The famous comics creator (Punisher, Arrow's Felicity Smoake, and many more) talks about what the fans can do to help character creators receive proper royalty recompense as the global media disseminates the images and interpretations of their work across an ever-growing spectrum.

Bill Mantlo's prolific Marvel Comics Group comic book work holds many personal kid memories for me. ROM #24 is one of the first two comic books I ever bought with my own money It’s a nice way to tie up the Nova series, though I’m glad Erik Larsen and subsequent creators like Abnett/ Lanning continued his story. (Wolfman left for DC just before ROM #24 was created so it was a way of tying up the character’s legacy for the time being.) Now when I came on to assist Joe Phillips for a brief while, one of our first conversations was how interesting it was to bring Rich Ryder back to Earth sans powers. That one idea sparks a corner of my own creative universe: it’s like Howard the Duck’s “What to do the Night After You Save the Universe?” story, that kind of quiet interface that makes the comic book world merge so readily with our own, especially when we are the young “secret identity” ! (You're welcome to check out my 'Sunstrike' posts in Be Chill, Cease ill, our siste...

Scene: Edith Wharton Maternity Wing A woman in a hospital gown lies back under covers, looking miserable, as a doctor examines her charts. Her belly is apparently great with child. There are two beds present, unless you can wheel a gurney in. The woman also has a towel on her lap.)  DR.: Mrs. Stichards, we’ve detected a heart beat for you baby.  RUE STICHARDS: How is she? DR: Well, we can’t get a sonogram of her position if you keep turning your womb invisible. RUE: I’ll try to cooperate. This intern came in earlier and accidentally saw everything! DR: Just relax. RUE: I thought someone said “song-o-gram” and if I have to hear the baby’s Uncle Benjy belt out ‘Be My Baby’ again, I’m going to hide behind an invisible force field! (she throws up her hands in frustration) DR: I’m sure if you can deal with the face of Doom, Mrs. Stichards, you can deal with such a natural procedure. The nurse will see you shortly, if you don’t turn invisible again. (a gloved hand come...