William Messener-Loebs

Journey is one of the best comic books every published. This comic was published years ago, it tells the story of a different Wolverine, Wolverine MacAllister, a frontiersman during the 1800s in the Middle American Wilderness. Mr. Loebs both wrote and drew the comic.

Lately Bill and his wife Nadine (it's hard to talk about Bill without Nadine, the two come as a unit) have fallen on hard times. Bill lost his right arm while an infant. After producing comics for Marvel and DC Bill found his talents no longer sought after. Changes in management meant changes on the talent. Bill found himself without work. Through some bad times Bill and Nadine ended up living in a Salvation Army shelter. Recently there have been some efforts made to help them out and from what I've read things have improved some.

But where are the new Bill Loebs stories? Where is new issues of Journey? Why have the past issues of Journey not been collected into trades? I've read recently that Fantagraphics was thinking of publishing a phone book edition of the series and more recently I've read that IDW is supposed to be doing a collection of the first twelve issues this summer. I'm not sure which is true, but I hope that there is a collection coming out from someone of this landmark comic series.

Bill or Nadine won't remember me, but some of my past comic book history is intertwined with them. My first published work was in the back of an issue of Journey. It was titled "The Duel" and was drawn by Sam Kieth. I would call and talk with Nadine about the story and she would offer advice before the story was done.

Years later when Sam Kieth was asked to contribute to the newly created Image Comics he came up with his character The Maxx and asked Bill Loebs to script it for him. At that time Bill said no. Sam came to me (and he might have asked a few others inbetween Bill and me) and asked if I wanted to help him with the scripts. It didn't take me long to say yes. At the time I think a lot of writers were seeing Image as an artist's company, most of the original founders were using friends and people that no one knew to write the series they were creating. I wasn't worried. This was the big time for me. I was doing a lot of short stories for a lot of small publishers, but nothing that was bringing in any real money.

Well, anyone that has read The Maxx knows my name was nowhere to be found on it. Sam was able to convince Bill to give it a go and decided to use Bill as the writer. I'm sure Bill has no idea that I was ever involved with the series, however briefly.

The first San Diego Con I ever went to I met Bill Loebs. It was the year that Sam Kieth, Wendi Lee and her boyfriend (I can't remember his name but he drew a few things for Eclipse) and I shared a room at the convention. Bill has always been a great guy.

Someone get JOURNEY in print. Let's collect those old issues and even better yet let's get some new issues of a JOURNEY comic out there.

New Creator Blog Added to Side Bar

I just added David Lapham's blog Fantastic Life! to my sidebar. David Lapham is the writer/artist/creator of Stray Bullets, one of my all time favorite comic series. He is currently writing and drawing Young Liars for Vertigo. I'm still on the fence on this series. I wasn't that thrilled with the first issue, but the second one was much better. Since it's David Lapham I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and stick around for awhile.

And does anyone know where I can get the rest of the Stray Bullets paperbacks? I have the first three but missed the remaining ones. Or I should say get them for something less than outrageous money, I've seen them listed on Amazon.com for a lot more than I really want to pay for them.

But everyone should check out his blog, I've been enjoying it. And give Young Liars a chance.

Gene Colan in Poor Health

It's being reported that Gene Colan is in poor health at the moment. According to a release from his wife:

My darling, sweet, handsome and brilliantly gifted husband’s liver is failing. The complications are very nasty. This week it’s fluid retention and encephalitis. He’s on powerful meds now to diminish the symptoms. He sleeps a lot and has very little energy.

When I first started collecting comic books my favorite character was Daredevil. The first comics I can remember collecting were the Barry Smith drawn ones with Starr Saxon, but shortly it was Gene drawing the hero.

Gene's art was like nothing else out there. I loved his art. His characters always looked more real to me. His panel design was not always the standard. Gene was not afraid to try something different.

I grew up with Gene's artwork. To me he was probably the first artist that I followed. And for most of Howard the Duck's run he was the artist. How much better can that be: Howard the Duck, Steve Gerber and Gene Colan?

I hope I won't have to be writing about Gene's passing soon. We just lost Steve Gerber, I don't want to lose Gene too. For more about this and for something to do go check out this page.

Iron Man Movie

I went and saw the new Iron Man movie last night. In comic book movies there are two levels, the first being the Spiderman movies that are the top of the list, the best ones. The last Batman movie would fall in here. Than there is the bottom of the list, where others movies fall, like the last Superman movie. Iron Man belongs in with Spiderman. For the longest time Marvel used to have problems with their movies based on their comic characters. It seemed like they could do nothing right, while DC had the first run of Superman movies and than the Tim Burton Batman movies. While Marvel had movies like the Punisher. Now the situation seems to be reversed. Except for the recent Batman movies DC seems to be having trouble getting their characters on the big screen.

This movie keeps all the best from the comic and updates it so it plays in today's world. But what makes this movie work is Robert Downey, Jr. This man takes the role of Tony Stark and makes it his own. Actually all the actors in this movie do an exceptional job. Iron Man is a fun movie from the beginning to the end. What was suprising were the humor bits in the movie. There were a few times I laughed really hard at what was going on. But the humor wasn't forced or a tongue in cheek bit done to let the viewers know that they really know how silly superheroes are. The humor came from the characters and the situations.

Comics This Week

This week was a fairly light week as far as comics purchased. New Avengers # 40, Daredevil: Blood of the Tarantula, Fantastic Four # 556, DC Universe 0 and I picked up a copy of Young Liars # 2 which I missed from a few weeks ago.

New Avengers was interesting, telling the start of the Invasion from the Skrull's point of view. The ending shows another hero that is really a Skrull. I won't spoil the surprise, if it really is a surprise. I'm not sure how many people will be surprised, this hero seems to have been named as a Skrull online awhile ago.

Daredevil I found to be a typical story that could have been done at almost anytime in the hero's continuity. While the monthly series is one of my favorite reads this was just bland.

DC Universe didn't make me want to pick up the coming Final Crisis. I have to admit that I haven't been following very many DC titles lately. Everytime I pick up a DC title I just find I can't get into it. I was enjoying Manhunter, so hopefully I'll be able to pick that up when it comes back. Again the ending of this issue has what is supposed to be a BIG surprise and again it seems that this reveal has been leaked online for awhile now. Nice art, but I still haven't decided if I'll pick up the series when it comes out or not.

Young Liars was better than the first issue, but I'm still at something of a loss with this series. I loved Stray Bullets and really want to like this series. The first issue really left me cold and that's why I originally passed on the second issue, but my local shop owner convinced me it was worth a second look. I'll stick around for another issue or two to see what's happening and than decide if it's worth continuing.

Echo # 2

I know, another review that is beyond late. This book has been out for weeks now, but I wanted to at least make mention of it. The first issue of Echo really was just a setup for what is coming now. We only saw a little of what was happenin. This issue the storyline starts to open up and we start to find out more about the characters.

From what I've read so far I'll be back for the next issue. Terry Moore's art is always first rate and it continues to be so in this series so far. I like the way he can be realistic and than throw in a "bigfoot" moment in the art.

I'm intrigued by the storyline so far and am interested to see where he goes with it. I was a semi regular reader of Strangers In Paradise, but I felt it wallowed in its melodrama too much, and after reading it for so long I had to finally give it up.

It's kind of interesting that three of the big independent creators from the old days of the black and white explosion: Dave Sim, Jeff Smith and Terry Moore all came out with new books around the same time.

Joss Whedon's Dollhouse

From what I've read they've started filming the new Joss Whedon tv show "Dollhouse".
The show stars Eliza Dushku as the main character Echo. Eliza was Faith in the Buffy shows as no one needs to be reminded. Fox explains the show:

"Echo (Eliza Dushku) is a young woman who is literally everybody's fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo's burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse."

I'm very excited that Joss is returning to television, after making what I consider three of the best shows ever in Buffy, Angel and Firefly. The new show has a lot of his old writers coming back to work with him, which is another plus. Another actor from the old shows will be in this show. Amy Acker, better known as Fred, will have a regular role in the series.

Hopefully this will be a show that they will give a better chance than they did Firefly. I for one will be watching when it comes out, hopefully it will be on the Fall schedule.

Walking Dead

I know I'm way behind in even trying to talk about the latest issue of The Walking Dead. But I have to make a comment on the latest issue, the end of the attack on the Prison. Kirkman has been saying before this storyline started that there were going to be big changes in store for the comic and not all the characters would make it through. That was an understatement. I can't think of any comic that basically wipes out over half the cast in one storyline.

I don't want to give too much away, just in case anyone hasn't read the end of the storyline yet. The effect of not knowing hits you like a bat upside the head. No matter who I thought was going to die I was still taken by surprise.

For readers who see this series as a zombie comic you're doing yourself a disservice if that's the reason you don't pick it up. Yes, there are zombies, but they are not the focus of the series. Some issues go by and you don't even see a zombie. This is a character driven series, a story of people coping with loss and trying to survive in a world that is completely changed from what they know.

This is one of my favorite comics being published today. It is published by Image Comics. The above imagine is of the newest trade collection that should be out soon. It's the eighth trade. The series is coming up to its 50th issue. How many comics from the Big Two make it to issue 50 nowdays? Much less one from one of the other publishers.

If you haven't tried this comic yet, you really should. It's not what you expect and I really think you'll be surprised by how much you end up liking it.

Giving Fans A Bad Name II

The heirs of Superman writer and creator Jerry Siegel were awarded the copyright to Action Comics #1. Now what all this means legally is for better minds than mine to figure out. There's still a lot to be figured out, it seems that they only have the rights to what appeared in that first issue, so where does that leave characters like Lex Luthor and others that came in later issues? Where does that leave DC as far as publishing Superman comics? Lots of issues to figure out.

What to me is almost shameful is the reaction of a lot of fandom to this decision. Instead of celebrating the win of one of the creators of one of the most famous icons in the world these fans are worried what this might mean to their daily fix of Superman. They are calling the Siegels greedy for wanting what should be rightfully theirs. People are claiming it would be all right if it was Jerry Siegel winning the award, but since he's dead that would be kind of hard. Why shouldn't his family share in some of the riches that Jerry's creation brings in.

A contract was signed is what is used to side with Warners. They didn't have to sign the contract, they wanted the quick money. Well, it wasn't that much money, even for the time. What they wanted was to get their character in print. At that time no one had any idea what a comic book character could achieve. If there were any ideas they probably would have imagined things alongside what comic strip creators achieved. Even though comic strip artists sold their rights they could end up making a lot of money and work on the strips they created for years.

If anyone thinks it is fair for two naive, young creators signing away their life's opus without knowing what they are doing is missing the point of characters like Superman, who represent the good guy looking out for the little guy.

Giving Fans A Bad Name

My question is pretty simple: Why should a woman have to wear a button to tell strangers not to grope her breasts?

What am I talking about? You can read more about it at this post from Occasional Superheroine.

Reading the guy's justification of the whole thing is...I'm not sure what it's like. I'm reminded back in the day when Amazing Heroes was published and they had a column by a supposed young comic fan and it read like the worst cliches of comic fans. You read it not sure if it was a parody or real. That's what reading this was like, thinking that this couldn't be real, but unfortunately it is.

Comic Fans worry about comics being accepted as worthy of adult readership, maybe they should worry about comic fans being accepted as adults. With stunts like this it makes it hard.

Dave Stevens Dies

I remember when I first saw Dave Steven's work. It was in the back pages of a Pacific comic, Mike Grell's StarSlayer. Like everyone reading it I was blown away by the artwork. The story that went along with this artwork proved pretty good too. Pacific published a few more chapters of the strip which was of course The Rocketeer and it was finally finished and collected by Eclipse Comics. Than Comico got a go at the series for two issues. It finally ended up with a final issue at Dark Horse Comics.

I'm not sure if Dave was the first to start championing Bette Page or just at the start. In the Rocketeer he created a character that was a stand in for the former pin up queen Bette Page. He was a big fan of hers and latter became a friend and helped her.

Dave Stevens was not a fast artist. From what I've read he would labor over a single panel, working till he got it perfect in his eyes. Unfortunately the comic industry is not set up for such a painstaking artist and he did little more work. He made his living doing commissions and illustrations for others.

When I first saw Dave's work it was an exciting time for the comic book industry. The direct market was just beginning and it seemed like there was an infinite multitudes of possibilities for the industry. Marvel and DC were no longer the only comics that people wanted to read. New companies were appearing almost overnight. Pacific, Eclipse, Comico and more were publishing a lot of new exciting comics.

Dave's art and writing seemed to reflect that excitement. There was such a love for the medium in his artwork. His stories were fun to read. Everything didn't have to be doom and gloom. You could have fun in comics.

My sympathies go out to his friends and family.

Howard Again

More of Steve Gerber and Howard the Duck. I picked this up when it first came out years ago as a miniseries and have been meaning to pick up the trade collection but never got around to it. A few weeks ago I decided to get it. It's Steve Gerber back on his creation and is worth the price of admission. If you're a fan of Steve Gerber or Howard the Duck, pick up this collection and you'll be glad you did.