comic books Archives - Page 9 of 16

One overstuffed weekend: Roosevelt, Vezina, Hembeck

At the FDR library, I saw a poster chastising “the Jews” for taking the jobs of “white Christian men”; some things never change.

For whatever reason, I wasn’t sleeping well two weeks ago. When I booked our hotel for our trip to the Mid-Hudson for the first weekend in August, in my fatigued fog, I totally forgot that my wife had told me to secure a place for TWO nights and that she had even arranged for a cat sitter. I was just so happy that I finally remembered to book it at all. We had made this sojourn 1.5 hours south a few times, and it had always been one night. This time, though, we had added a couple of elements, so the extra time would have been helpful.

Instead, we headed out Saturday and went to Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s home. There will be much more on this.

Then to Hyde Park to visit the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. It was all but closed for repairs last year when we visited the mansion – though not TOTALLY closed, as the attendant at the locale properly noted – so the tickets we got last year for the site were still valid. I needed more time in the museum than The Daughter had to give; I got through the Depression era, but I really didn’t see the World War II stuff. Still, a great exhibit. I’ll go back some time, and it’s inspired me to want to see the other Presidential libraries, most of which are in the center of the country.

One thing that struck me at FDR’s library was a newspaper editorial cartoon of FDR and Congress rolling up their sleeves and getting to work on the nation’s problems together; THOSE were the days. Another was a poster chastising “the Jews” for taking the jobs of “white Christian men”; then again, some things never change.

We went to an annual party and The Daughter got to swim. Had a GREAT conversation with a minister and his social worker wife; we seemed to be on the same page in terms of social justice and the church’s role in same. But I was disappointed that my oldest friend from college was not present.

Finally, we went to our hotel. By this point, it was dark, and it was difficult to see, so we overshot it. FINALLY to bed, but one or more of the people in my room was snoring, and I got less than optimal rest.

Sunday morning, we went down to see what the hotel offered for breakfast. It was paltry: some fruit, hot chocolate, and instant coffee, and packets of oatmeal, which wasn’t so bad except there was no MILK and we would have had to use Coffeemate, a non-dairy creamer. We went out for breakfast, then checked out of the hotel and went to see Maria.

Maria Vezina is the sister of the late FantaCo cartoonist Raoul Vezina, who had died in November 1983, at the age of 35 of an asthma attack. I hadn’t seen her in nearly three decades. While she lives and works in New York City, she was up in the Mid-Hudson with TONS of boxes of Raoul’s stuff. I sorted out certain items for a possible project. She thought it would have taken me three hours, but I did it in 50 minutes; I knew what I was looking for. More details if this pans out.

Then we departed for the home of Fred Hembeck and his wife Lynn Moss. I met Fred back in February 1980 when FantaCo published his second collection of comic book-related strips. We made the sojourn to visit them for three or four years, then not for three years because of conflicts, then for the past two or three years. Fred and I have this shorthand way of talking that occasionally confounds my wife. Fortunately, she could go out with The Daughter to the pool. They made us a nice dinner, then we left for home.

I never realized how large one upstate county could be!

We stopped in New Paltz, my college town, to catch the Thruway, but, northbound, it was a parking lot, due to, as it turns out, an overturned tractor-trailer. So we took back roads to Saugerties, didn’t get to Albany until 9 p.m., and were exhausted.

After all that, I figured we’d follow that up with a nice quiet weekend. But the Daughter had a certificate for a FREE day at Great Escape, the Six Flags park about an hour north of here, and the coupon expired on August 11, so guess what WE did on Saturday, the 10th…

July Rambling: privilege, and 12-tone music

Roger Green was told that he cannot greet pupils from Sandy Lane Primary School in Bracknell, Berkshire, with the gesture because a driver said it slowed down traffic.

Watch the important documentary, Two American Families, online at Bill Moyers’ website. In the same vein, To Rescue Local Economies, Cities Seize Underwater Mortgages Through Eminent Domain.

From Meryl, the graphic novel expert: The Armageddon Letters and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Also, Zahra – from Paradise to President. Published in 2011, its story takes place in Iran, June 2009.

Brief Thoughts on Shelby County v. Holder by Mark S. Mishler. (But the actual title is TOO long!)

Daniel Nester writes about privilege. I found it interesting, in part, because it reminded me of certain white sociology students, in undergraduate school and subsequently, who insisted on informing me about the sources of my oppression. They also insisted I spell “black people” as “Black people.” Meh. Dan also gives cheeky advice for aspiring writers.

Thom’s apology to the GLBT people he knows, and the ones he doesn’t.

6 Things That Will Happen Now That The Sanctity Of Marriage Is Destroyed, presented by George Takei.

Eddie and Keith do a road trip.

Dustbury found this video, which is about Arnold Schoenberg and 12-tone music but is as much about the stifling US copyright law, the creative mind, the boundaries of art, and how we communicate with each other. He “learned more from this half-hour of unconventional pedagogy than from a whole semester of theory.”

It was the first line in Jaquandor’s novel, it was a reflection of first lines of novels generally.

Mark Evanier writes: “My father was a very honest man. Absolutely, utterly honest. Once, he found a wallet in the street with a few hundred dollars in it. He took it home, looked up the number of the person it belonged to and arranged to return it to them…with every buck still in it. He did things like that all the time. All the time.”

Melanie deals with the death of a close family member. “With it comes a closure of sorts. Unfortunately, this is one of those deaths that bring feelings of sadness, but also of relief- a lengthy ordeal over at last.”

Daniel Nester’s dad died, and those “pesky abandonment issues” pop up. He is processing his Notes on Grief, parts I and II and III and IV and V.

Related: 936 opportunities, which made me melancholy thinking about MY dad.

Chris quits smoking! YAY!, despite duress. And she has a new blog! BTW, she also made and sent me yummy cookies!

‘Friendly atheist’ speaks to thousands at megachurch.

How do we pray for a friend in need or a stranger who might be sick or lonely in the hospital or at home?

NOT a Get Out Of Hell Free card.

Arthur answers my questions about music and identity and the roots of his political self and political philosophy & friends and boycotts and some other stuff. He also responded to my slow audience post.

Simplified blogging.

The Mom From ‘The Cat in the Hat’ Finally Speaks.

The secret of the Floating Cork.

I’m egotistical enough to be pleased that Chuck Miller put me in his Best of our Times Union Community Blogs for July 25 and July 18 I also appreciate that he’s trying to promote the TU bloggers the way he wishes the TU would. As noted before, I never know what to write for that audience, until I do, such as when I wrote: The Census site with Congressional district data is cool. Really.

I noted that my friend Lynne tried to walk from Albany to Binghamton, but I didn’t mention that walking on the side of the road is NOT like sidewalk walking.

GOOGLE ALERTS (not me)

Daily Mail: Lollipop man banned from high-fiving children because it ‘confuses drivers. “Roger Green was told that he cannot greet pupils from Sandy Lane Primary School in Bracknell, Berkshire, with the gesture because a driver said it slowed down traffic. Hundreds of parents have reacted angrily to the ban by Bracknell Forest Council.”
Followup: “High-five” lollipop man given the green light to give “thumbs up” instead.

The Guardian: Notes from Overground by Tiresias (the pen name of Roger Green) was published in 1984. It became a minor cult, and though it never sold very well, it still gets into the occasional blog today. We admirers occasionally meet and share favourite moments.

ARA: Sports and superheroes

I know all the Presidents, year inaugurated and political party.

Chris Honeycutt asked:

Do you like sports other than baseball? Which ones?

I like to play volleyball and racquetball but haven’t played either for a while. I like to bowl, but my knee is inhibiting that.

I enjoy watching football, and believe it is the PERFECT sport for instant replay. But I tend to follow the NFL, rather than college, and generally only from the end of the World Series on.

Basketball I don’t watch until the games leading to the men’s college basketball March Madness, pretty much after the Super Bowl. Used to follow the NBA, but not much since Michael Jordan retired.

There was a period I was really into tennis, in the early 1990s, when there was live, free pro play at the Schenectady Open. I’m off it, mostly, but will watch the semifinals and finals of the majors, if I get the chance.

I’ll view track in the Summer Olympics.

Almost every sport I would rather see live, none more so than soccer and hockey, which I HATE watching on TV, but find much more interesting in person.

What random fact are you most proud of that you could just recall it by choice?

I know all the Presidents, year inaugurated and political party; there were four Whig Presidents, who held the Oval Office for only eight years, all in a twelve-year span. I can name the two years we had three Presidents, and of course, who they were. (Can you?) I know the vote in the House in the disputed 1876 election was RB Hayes 185, Sam Tilden, of New York, 184.

In general, anything on JEOPARDY! that nobody gets but I know pleases me greatly. The truth is that I know so many obscure things that I don’t even know what I know until I’m called upon to produce them.

Any opinion on new superhero movies vs. old superhero movies?

Haven’t seen that many.

Saw the first two Superman films with Chris Reeve, and mostly enjoyed them, but haven’t seen one since.
Saw the Batman movie with Jack Nicholson; too much Jack. Haven’t seen the others, I don’t believe, except the Adam West version, which, of course, was pure camp.
Saw the first Fantastic Four film; pretty much hated it.
Saw the second X-Men film on cable, at a hotel. Liked it, but haven’t seen the others, or the Wolverine films.
I saw and LOVED the first two Spider-Man films with Tobey Maguire. Didn’t see the third one or the reboot.
Saw the movies leading to The Avengers film on video. Liked Captain America and the first Iron Man. Less taken by the second IM and Thor. Still haven’t seen the Avengers.
Didn’t see either recent Hulk film, the Ghost Rider series, Daredevil, Watchmen. What am I forgetting? Howard the Duck wasn’t a superhero, was he?

If you were a superhero, what would be your costume? Cape or no cape?

Well, CLEARLY it would be green. With an infinity sign. Yes to the cape.

May Rambling: Faraway fire; faux news; second chances

I was noting in particular two Billy Joel songs, ‘Get It Right The First Time’ from 1977 and ‘Second Wind (You’re Only Human)’ from 1985, and how I prefer the latter sentiment.

Chuck Miller has taken on the task of promoting the work of his “fellow Times Union community bloggers, until that day when the Times Union itself will restore the ‘Best of Our Blogs’ feature to the print edition of the paper.” And one of those “well-written articles” was mine. Merci, Chuck.

The specter of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory looms over the garment factory that collapsed last month in Bangladesh, killing more than [1100] workers… But the world is smaller than it was 102 years ago. Tragedies of this sort in the Third World aren’t engendered only by forces in their proximity, and they won’t be averted unless the responsibility for change is embraced globally. Also, Is Rana Disaster Bangladesh’s Triangle Fire? I wrote about the Triangle fire HERE.

Meryl’s quite reasonable concern: ‘truth’ is becoming ever-more elusive with advancing photoshop technology and our modern vehicles of ‘news resources’ and communication. Related: Since Twitter hasn’t built a correction feature, here are 3 things journalists can do instead. And Who’s The Biggest Liar?

Howard Kurtz’s Belated Comeuppance: The Media Critic’s Firing Comes After a Long History of Journalistic Abuses.

For New York State, I thought the effects of hydrofracking was only an upstate problem, but it appears Manhattan will have its own issues.

In What Ways Does The Culture Of Comics Have An Impact On How Business Is Done? Also, The Library of American Comics at 75 Titles (and counting): Moral rights, reprint rights.

Boston Marathon Runner & Psychiatrist Shares Personal Story of Patriots’ Day 2013; written by a cousin of a co-worker.

Harriet Quimby – the 1st US woman to get her pilot’s license.

Space Oddities and Sensations: Inspiring Teaching and Learning , featuring Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Rare footage of Helen Keller speaking with the help of Anne Sullivan.

I was playing my Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits, Volumes 1 & 2 on a car ride recently; his birthday is in May. I was noting in particular two songs, ‘Get It Right The First Time’ from 1977 and ‘Second Wind (You’re Only Human)’ from 1985, and how I prefer the latter sentiment. Melanie writes about the second time around. Also, practicing in pieces.

Richie’s road of death.

Ken Leviner.php — **Sitemeter for Ken Levine’s blog, Taken 1:46 pm, May 8, 2013**

I’m less interested Ken Levine won’t give Zach Braff one dime for his Kickstarter movie project than the sudden surge in his blog, from about 5000 hits a day, +/- 2000, to over 620,000 after that article, and over 96,000 for the followup. Levine also dissed the Veronica Mars movie Kickstarter, one that SamuraiFrog supported, BTW. There were a number of folks who dissed Braff, but supported the Veronica Mars effort, which otherwise could not have been made. Here’s Levine’s last word on the project, now that Braff has secured alternative funding. Also, another story on the controversy. Fascinated by the fact that this is what is considered controversial these days.

Al Capp: The Shame of Dogpatch.

Cathy Rigby played Peter Pan in Schenectady in April, and we declined to go. Now that I know that she’s retiring from the role after 3000+ performances, I wish I had gone.

Why McLean Stevenson quit MAS*H.

Ray Harryhausen, master of stop-motion animation, died this month. Mark Evanier has a nice Harryhausen story. Also, Ray was Steve Bissette’s hero. And here’s a short video you may recognize.

Don Rosa and the late Steve Gerber have been selected to receive the 2013 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. Both are heroes in their field, and it was Gerber’s blog that prompted mine.

K-Chuck Radio: Rest in peace, George Jones.

Mark Evanier is dealing with the first Mother’s Day after his mom died much better than I did with mine.

The newspaper misspells its own name in an article about winning awards.

Dustbury speculates why the IRS “Where’s my refund?” site was down last weekend.

2001: A Space Odyssey – Howard Johnson’s Children’s Menu (1968).

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek.

How ‘Star Wars’ Nerds sold Lucasfilm to Disney.

These re-made Disney DVD covers are scarily accurate.

The Tom Skulan FantaCon interview, part 2

Raoul’s death devastated me. I felt as if the guts had been torn out of FantaCo and I wanted to go away

FantaCon, once an Albany tradition for fans of the comic book, fantasy, and in its later incarnations, horror films, is returning after a brief, two-decade hiatus. FantaCon 2013, operated by its original creator, Tom Skulan, will be held Saturday, September 14, and Sunday, September 15 at the Marriott Hotel on Wolf Road in Albany. Ticket for the related Three Nights of Horror at the Palace Theatre on September 11-13 in Albany, will be available from the Palace Theatre box office, starting on February 13.

FantaCo, the store/mail-order company Tom started, operated from 1978 through 1998 at 21 Central Avenue, Albany, NY. I worked there from May 1980 to November 1988, worked at the first five FantaCons, and attended the sixth.
***
Even before I started working at FantaCo, I bought from FantaCo this single by the Spastic Phono Band, a parody of some Beatles and Paul McCartney songs. The store carried some Japanese EPs of the Beatles. How important to you were The Beatles specifically, and music generally?

The Beatles were and are very important to me because they represent a group of individuals who against ALL odds did exactly what they set out to do. That’s a powerful example to learn from.
Musically they are sublime. My Beatles CDs are the CDs I play the least because I just enjoy them so much I never want the magic to wear away. The Beatles (White Album) is my all-time favorite. Not only because it has so many songs but because there is a slightly ominous tone to the whole thing. And yes- I love Revolution #9 too. I always look forward to dissecting all the sounds.

Early on, the store also sold some records of some local bands such as Blotto. How much did you follow the local music scene?

When I lived above FantaCo I went to JB Scott’s on a regular basis and saw all the local bands opening for the national acts. It was a fun time “living downtown”. I followed most of them at the time.

The 1980 FantaCon was the one with the Berni Wrightson artwork on the cover. It was labeled FantaCon 2, to avoid the confusion of the previous event. What are your memories of that show?

I recall that we were MUCH more prepared to put on a show! That show was substantially larger than our first event and it was crazy busy. I fell asleep in my car on Sunday night after the show was over.

How did it come to pass that the Pinis always showed up for store signings of every Elfquest issue?

Wendy and Richard were very good friends to me and did me a really big favor once so I thought the least I could do was to promote each new issue of theirs and thrown them a little party. It became a regular thing for many years.
They and I still have good memories of those events.

There was a comic book FantaCo published in 1981 called Alien Encounters, which was packaged by a guy named Larry Shell. How did this come about?

Steve Bissette. Either Steve told Larry to send me the completely print-ready book OR Steve brought it to me. I can’t remember which but the book was completely ready to print so we did it. It did quite well. [Steve confirms that he sent Larry to Tom & FantaCo.]

The first move into the horror market was the publication of the book Splatter Movies in 1981. How did that come about, and how did FantaCo come to trademark the title?

We had been successfully advertising in Fangoria Magazine and I wanted to have a product to sell that no one else had. John had the idea for a book on the history of gory movies so we just went from there.
The whole trademark thing came about because everyone starting using the term!! SO we trademarked the title of the book in order to recoup a little money from its usage.

Eventually, Splatter Movies was a real money maker, but initially, it was a real drain on the FantaCo coffers. Would you explain that?

The damn silver print on the cover and that single spot of blood!! That’s what ate up all our money! While to those looking at the book now it may seem plain jane- at the time doing a silver print underlay with a single drop of red cost a fortune. The print costs on the book were much higher than anticipated due to that cover. We eventually made a handsome profit but it was quite scary when the book was delivered and the bill arrived.

The FantaCon in 1981 was disappointing in terms of attendance. Do you think it had to do with the Simon & Garfunkel concert in Central Park that same weekend?

Assuredly that was a large portion of the problem. The other element was that our 1981 show was a virtual replay of our 1980 show. Same guests. Berni even did the cover again. So we were to blame as well.

Why was there no FantaCon in 1982?

After the dismal attendance for 1981, I lost interest in it for 1982. Just that simple.

Video Screams came out in 1982, a guide to horror video. Was it just ahead of its time, or had FantaCo not yet established its horror bona fides in the marketplace?

It was wicked ahead of its time!! Such a book just 5-6 years later would have blown off the shelves. In retrospect I don’t know why I thought a book about videos would be successful at a time when most people did not have any!

It seemed that you were a bit burned out for a few months in 1982. What was going on with you?

I had some medical issues I was trying to deal with.

One aspect of the store I remember is that you always had us rearranging the store. Where did you pick up that trick?

I got that from years of working at retail stores. I started doing it for a chain that required it but later at other stores, I did it to make the time go by. It also boosted sales which boosted my paycheck!!

Gates of Eden and Deja Vu were among the best items FantaCo did in the comics realm, yet they were commercially unsuccessful. Why do you think that was?

Simply put, the pricing. I remember to this day the nasty letter I receive from Bud Plant demanding to know who the hell I thought I was charging $3.50 for a comic book!! Gates and Deja were EXCEEDINGLY expensive books in terms of the art. We were paying more per page than any other comic company. So we had to have high cover prices to make up for it. That hurt us in the market place.

FantaCo did some Chronicles of Marvel properties – the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Avengers and Spider-Man. These were among the most successful items the company did in the early 1980s. What was the philosophy that garnered name artists such as John Byrne, Frank Miller, George Perez and Dave Cockrum to provide covers for the series?

Same response as above- our page rates. We paid our Chronicles cover artist more than Marvel did. That’s how we got such spectacular work for those issues.

What do you recall about the counterfeit Cerebus issues we purchased?

I recall that Sparkle City contacted us about those. Now I had done business with Sparkle City since well before FantaCo so I took notice a little more than I should have. They arrived and the ink on the covers was still sticky!!! lol
We bought 50 of them,right? And immediately found out they were fakes. I have a personal suspicion of who did what with those… [Here’s my recollection; we bought 54, according to notes I had written at the time.]

The 1983 FantaCon had some characters, notably James Doohan [Scotty from the original Star Trek]. Any stories you want to share?

Hmmmmm… I remember that incident well. Don’t want to upset the fans…

Was Herschell Gordon Lewis [the subject of a 1983 FantaCo book about his “exploitation” films] the total antithesis of what you expected?

I totally expected a laid-back, very casual filmmaker and instead was presented with a suit and tie advertising executive!! I mean I went out with him after the show and he was fun, but yes – he could not have been more polar opposite than I expected!

After Mitch left and Raoul died in 1983, how were you feeling about FantaCo?

Raoul’s death devastated me. I felt as if the guts had been torn out of FantaCo and I wanted to go away. I did have a nervous breakdown which lasted about 45 days and months to fully recover from. [FantaCon 2013 is dedicated, in part, to Raoul’s memory.]

What were you trying to say with the comic book Sold Out? [Artist John Hebert wrote about it at length HERE.]

The story was interned to be a cautionary tale about just how overheated the B&W market had become. And at the same time the two issues themselves were part of the story. Some people got it, some didn’t. John did a great job on the art.

You did several publication deals with existing products – Midnight Marquee, Demonique for two. How did those special issues come about?

Those deals were based completely on my desire to give back. I read Gary Svehla’s Gore Creatures (later renamed Midnight Marquee) as a kid and I really liked what Demonique Magazine was trying to do.
I thought it would be nice to step in and boost their circulations and well as have the chance to work with them.

What’s a Chas Balun story you’d like to share? [This obit from Fangoria is fairly descriptive of the Balun/FantaCo connection; the store/mail order used to carry his Connoisseur’s Guide to the Contemporary Horror Film. FantaCon 2013 is dedicated, in part to Chas’ memory.]

Chas was a MOUNTAIN of a man!!! And often he and I would go to Hollywood looking for old record and movie stills. Now Hollywood is not what people think it is. Those who have been there know exactly what I am saying.
Well, once we were walking back to the car without various treasures and this junkie came up to me demanding some money (no one EVER came up to Chas). Chas spun the guy around and proceeded to “chest bump” him in the forehead! I don’t know if this will make sense in print but what Chas was doing was bumping the guy’s forehead with his chest, forcing him to walk backward. He did this down the entire block until the junkie tripped on the curb and fell down and ran away in abject terror. Good old Chas!

Thanks, Tom for your time!

Pictures, top to bottom, all taken by Roger Green
Monster, 1989 FantaCon
Richard and Wendy Pini, 1989 FantaCon; attended frequent FantaCo signings for their Elfquest comic book
John Hebert, 1989 FantaCon; artist for FantaCo publication Sold Out!
the late Chas Balun, 1989 FantaCon; contributor to several FantaCo publications