Digital Comic Museum
General Category => Comic Related Discussion => Topic started by: bminor on April 21, 2011, 06:21:22 PM
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I have none. Way up here in northern Minnesota we are to far off the beaten track.
I would love to hear some personal stories that anyone of you may have of encountering those people that created the work we all love.
bminor
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At Heroes Con I met Irwin Hasen a couple years ago. Very nice guy also there was Don Sherwood. I must say I did not like Don's Charlton work. But he did the Fintstones comic strip and it was good and I bought an original drawing of Fred from Don. I bought a Hasen print.
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Well I attended the Kubert School from 1979-1982 and several of my teachers were great artists-among these were Joe Kubert, Irwin Hasen, Tex Blaisdell, John Belfi, Hy Eisman, Johnny Costanza, Sal Amendola, and animator Milt Neal. I have great memories of all these gents!
We would also get occasional guests at the school. Gray Morrow, who lived not far from the school, came by now and then as did former GA publisher Harry Chesler, just to drop in and say hi and check out what the students were up to. Chesler had a group of us come visit his house when he learned we were interested in illustrators. His walls were covered with many paintings -wonderfully garish pulp covers hanging side by side with the grandeur of J.C. Leyendecker Saturday Evening Post cover paintings!
Then there were guests who would just drop in for special visits. I particularly remember visits from Will Eisner (who was gracious enough to sign my copy of his then new graphic novel-A Contract With God- still seating proudly on my bookshelves), Sergio Aragones (who was continually goofing on Big Joe behind his back) and who drew many large sketches for students, and the day when both Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel came to visit. Joe offered them both a job teaching. While Al deferred (although he would eventually take up the standing offer a few years later) Roy was really game and we expected him to be one of our teachers for our final year at the school. Unfortunately he came down with the brain cancer, that eventually killed him, a short time later and such was not to be. One of my fellow students did have the hutzpah to finagle Al Williamson into having a few of us students come visit him at his home in eastern PA and that day of hospitality at Al Williamson's home, viewing his great collection of original art, having lunch with the man and chatting about comics, movies, illustrators, etc.. is a fond memory I will carry for the rest of my life.
I guess you could also include my fellow students among Comic Book artists I've met. Former students like Steve Bissette, Rick Veitch, John Totleben, Tom Yeates, Jan Duursema, Tom Mandrake, Kim DeMulder (and some others I surely forgetting) were still popping in and out of the school for visits while I was there. Some, like Tom Yeates, I got to be pretty good friends with. Timmy Truman was in the class ahead of me and I used to watch and marvel at his work even when he was a student.
In my own class were a few names you might recognize- my former room-mate Rex Lindsey (who has been drawing Archie, Jughead and the gang for a quarter century now), Kirk Tingblad (who went on to a career in animation (Johnny Bravo, Pinky and the Brain, Scooby Doo), Stan Woch (who left before graduating to assist Gray Morrow on the Barbara Cartland Rromances and Buck Rogers strips and who later drew Batman and Swamp Thing for DC) and Bob Orzechowski (who also went on to assist Gray Morrow on those aforementioned strips and who did work for humor mags like Cracked).
In the classes coming up behind me were such talents as Eric Shanower and Adam and Andy Kubert who are all pretty well known now-a-days.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some others but the above is a pretty good list.
Best
Joe
PS- Almost forgot. The very first comic book artists I met were at a comic convention in Phoenix in 1972. They were-
C. C. Beck- who wasn't doing any comics then but would be back drawing Captain Marvel -the Big Red Cheese- for DC before long, and-
Don Newton, a fellow Phoenician who was then teaching art classes to school kids and drawing for fanzines while trying to break in to the big time. That break would eventually come a few years later when he began doing work for Charlton and then eventually DC.
Bruce Hamilton, who had previously written for comics and who would eventually publish them, was the main man behind that convention and I enjoyed listening to his stories too.
Well sorry for going on so long and chewing all your ears off.
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Nice post Joe. Thanks for sharing!
I too briefly met Al Williamson at a convention in the mid 80s. He seemed a genuinely nice guy.
George Perez was also there. Boy he's sure looking different since those days.
I also got Bill Willingham (Fables fame) to autograph his new that month 'Elementals' comic.
:)
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Well, I did *lots* of interviews with artists and writers, among them Bill Eisner, Murphy Anderson, Jerry Grandenetti, Dick Sprang, Jim Steranko, Dan Adkins, Gardner Fox, Alfred Bester, etc., etc. One of my fave stories centers on Stan Lee. He was at a table autographing copies of RAVAGE 2099. I showed up with a Marvel comic containing one of my stories, and said, "Stan, I'll trade you one of mine for two of yours." Natch, I'd autographed mine to him and left my address at the end of the story. Stan was pleasantly surprised and autographed an ish of RAVAGE for me, and one of AVENGERS #4. We were just about at the end of the signing, so I walked him back to the con, chatting with him. I mentioned that I was favorably impressed with Ravage, but thought the hero ought to get back into a three-piece suit, because he worked so much better as a yuppie Conan. Stan allowed that he'd be back in the three-piece suit a little further down the line, but not for a few issues yet.
And eventually, I got a letter back from Stan saying he liked the story I'd written, and that it was fun to meet another writer in Dallas. 'Nuff said.
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Here's DM interview with Al Williamson, it's in two parts, this link is to part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1BnSuKICmU
Enjoy. (Part 2 is listed on the same page as part 1).
Geo
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DM was busy in the day with interviews and columns!
If you ever wanted to repost them here DM feel free. Start a new topic even.
:)
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I've talked to Stan Lynde, who wrote and drew "Rick O'Shay" two or three times, but he isn't a comic book artist. "Rick O'Shay" was a daily newspaper strip which started in the late fifties, and ran through the sixties and seventies. He also drew and scripted another western comic strip in the eighties but I don't believe it ran for long and I cannot remembe what it was called. Lynde was born in southern Montana, grew up on ranch near Crow Agency, and now runs a small press, Cottonwood Press, which publishes volumes of Rick O'Shay and western novels which are mostly written by Lynde. He's a cowboy who had a natural talent for drawing and storytelling, and he's not full of himself. He has a good sense of humor, and his strip did too. I know he went to one comic book convention when he had the first volume or two of Rick O'Shay read for sale, and I don't believe he ever went to another one. I doubt anyone here has ever heard of him or remembers Rick O'Shay.
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Rick Norwood's Comics Revue has been reprinting Lynde's Rick O'Shay for a while now and I, for one, am enjoying it.
His strips that followed Rick O'Shay were Latigo and Grass Roots. Neither had long runs. The former maybe three-four years and the later around a year-it was a panel strip. Cottonwood Press reprinted those strips as well as the first several years of Rick O'Shay but I haven't seen any reprints from them in some years so assumed they gave up on any further efforts.
Best
Joe
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It's probably not an "interesting" story to anybody who isn't me, but due to bad scheduling and pouring rain keeping everybody else away, I ended up spending an entire afternoon talking to Fred Hembeck at a tiny comic shop. Really good guy, and a good sport, considering that he basically hauled down the middle of nowhere to hang out with a high school kid in a dead shop.
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Fred always struck me as a very unpretentious guy John. Good to hear it so.
I'd love to see a DCM banner by him. :)
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Fred always struck me as a very unpretentious guy John. Good to hear it so.
I'd love to see a DCM banner buy him. :)
Well, I had him draw this one. Do we need his permission to use it - I can never figure out the copyright on commissions.
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=734285&GSub=107702
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Well, I had him draw this one. Do we need his permission to use it - I can never figure out the copyright on commissions.
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=734285&GSub=107702
My understanding is that copyright only gets transferred by contract ("work for hire" being the obvious biggie), so if you can't figure it out, you probably don't have it.
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Well, I had him draw this one. Do we need his permission to use it - I can never figure out the copyright on commissions.
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=734285&GSub=107702
My understanding is that copyright only gets transferred by contract ("work for hire" being the obvious biggie), so if you can't figure it out, you probably don't have it.
I guess. If anyone is interested, I can ask him directly. LMK
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Hi Roy,
SURE, please do. I think I could make it work with the DCM logo.
BTW, that King-Size Sentinels by Michael Maikowsky commission is AMAZING!!
I was never sure if a person paid for a convention sketch could that sketch then be published or used in any other way without the permission of the artist?
-Yoc
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Again, I'm guessing that the answer is generally no (because you didn't contract to buy those rights), but usually nobody cares about seeing a (sorry, "yet another") picture of Batman running in a void offering best wishes to John Q. Fanatic besides Mr. Fanatic, so I don't imagine it's often an issue.
More confusing: If you had a lot of input into what was drawn and how, you might arguably own part of the copyright, too.
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Hi Roy,
SURE, please do. I think I could make it work with the DCM logo.
BTW, that King-Size Sentinels by Michael Maikowsky commission is AMAZING!!
I was never sure if a person paid for a convention sketch could that sketch then be published or used in any other way without the permission of the artist?
-Yoc
Fred Said:
from Fred Hembeck <fred@hembeck.com>
to me
date Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 4:48 PM
subject Banner news!
hide details 4:48 PM (17 minutes ago)
Roy
Go right ahead!!
(I hope that'll take some sting out of the fact that there's been no progress as of yet on your most recent commission. Eventually, promise...)
Fred
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Oh wow, that's GREAT news!
I wonder if Fred knows anything about DCM?
I'd love to have him as a member.
Thanks very much to both of you. I'll look into creating a banner from it.
I'll send you a PM Roy.
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Oh wow, that's GREAT news!
I wonder if Fred knows anything about DCM?
I'd love to have him as a member.
Thanks very much to both of you. I'll look into creating a banner from it.
I'll send you a PM Roy.
Well, I'd sent him a link to describe what we wanted it for. He can be contacted directly via his website. Sadly, he appears to have a life outside of comics, so you never know. ;-)
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Here's what I can tell about Jack Kirby: the first time I met him, IIRC, was in San Diego just after he started collaborating with Steve Gerber on DESTROYER DUCK. When I met him, his intro was, "I draw destructive ducks." I said, "I know, sir," and tried to see about doing an interview with him. He put a fatherly hand on my shoulder and said, "I live in Thousand Oaks. My number is in the telephone book." Dave Kraft wasn't eager to get him, though, as he had already treated him in COMICS INTERVIEW. A little later at the con, Jack was at the Eclipse table along with Dean Mullaney, Jerry Siegel, and Joe Shuster. Dean insisted I get a photo of them all together. I thought they looked like a sports team, which was underlined by Jack wearing a New York Yankees cap. I remarked that the cap reminded me of Steve's story for HAUNT OF HORROR #1, which was about a maniac dressed in such a cap. Steve just about fell out of his chair laughing.
At a Chicago con, Mark Evanier, one of the nicest guys evar and my good friend of some 20 years running, invited me to Jack's surprise birthday party. I didn't have anyplace to put the big armful of comic books I bought, so I was talking to a lotta pros with my arms all full of comics until a desk clerk gave me a place to stash them. Jack and Roz were lured down to the room on some pretense and when they got in, we all hollered, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACK!" I had my trusty Polaroid along and got a pic of him slicing the cake. Tried to get him to autograph my invitation, but Roz intercepted me and signed it instead. I didn't mind.
I interacted with Roz after that, trying to see if I could get an interview with Jack on the phone about the battle with Marvel over his art, wanting to do my part. But it never got arranged. Then he was gone.
But I'd had my face time with him, and her, and I wasn't disappointed.
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Thanks for sharing the story DM. I think I'd enjoy the two pictures you describe as well.
:)
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I don't know about interesting stories but I was in the fortunate position of being there close to the start of comic marts and cons in Glasgow. Then, involved with FOCK - Friends of Clark Kent, a Glasgow comics group who met every Wed evening in a pub, we started organising marts. As time went on and 3 of us ran AKA Books and Comics in the city, we invited guests to the shop and to marts and eventually cons. So, the list of creators who turned up is rather long and, at first was mostly Scottish and British. This was the early days of 2000AD and we formed friendships with Alan Grant, John Wagner, Cam Kennedy, Kev. O' Neil, Mick McMahon. Lots of drink was taken. Then Dave Gibbons turned up followed by the likes of Alan Davis. Had a few great nights out with Mr. Davis in the early part of his career and I remember taking him to a Chinese restaurant and his reaction to his first taste of chili oil - surprised he survived.
Other guests who pitched up for shop signings or con appearances included, David Lloyd, Bryan Talbot, Alan Moore, who we also had coffee with in Angouleme - what a nice man. Some American creators appeared as we grew better known and, just to be clear, not all of them were on our invites, they were sometimes on tours organised down south. But they always seemed to want a night out in Glasgow. So Dave Sim, a couple of times ( don't recall much about those nights), Matt Wagner, Bill Sienkewicz (have I spelled that right?), and we got the great prize of Will Eisner, who was wonderful, full of stories, good company and an excellent dinner guest. And for me, even more importantly, Archie Goodwin. Such a gentleman and such a great loss to comics. I'm sure that Marv Wolfman was at that con in the Central Hotel but I don't remember much about his visit - or am I hallucinating.
At the Angouleme con in France I had dinner with Mike Richardson, whose only ground rule was that we didn't talk about comics. I did an interview for BBC Radio 4 while at Angouleme and Dave Gibbons told me his aunt had heard it.
Back then we often ran into Grant Morrison and, a bit later, had to chivvy Frank Quitely along and encourage him to keep going because he didn't seem to have a lot of confidence at the time. Vincent is a lovely person and so talented.
F.P. in Edinburgh had Chris Claremont up for a signing and we were to meet him the evening before. As we waited we wondered how we would recognise him as none of us had met him previously. Can I just say that from the back, the huge X-MEN logo on the leather jacket was a dead giveaway. That was a good night, wandering down the Royal mile for fish and chips, with a few drinks under our belts.
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Very interesting post PB, thanks for sharing.
Please feel free to continue or elaborate if you felt inclined.
:)
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Thanks, Yoc. Reading it again it seemed as if I was just name dropping. Not something that comes naturally to many Scots. But, then again, it was a great time. We met so many people, learned so much, saw some great projects come to fruition, had some good meals and the odd wee refreshment. And DC used AKA as a sort of first point of contact for a couple of years when they were coming to Scotland.
Recently, I've had a couple of chats with Ken Barr and bumped onto Colin McNeil at the last mart and F.Q at a previous mart. And, literally, bumped into Dom Regan in the street ( he's colouring Superboy) last week.
DC got me out to L.A. a couple of times as one of their dealer thingies (sorry, I forget the term) and there I was, with Phil Clarke from Birmingham, in Paul Levitz's suite in the Universal Hilton, with messrs. Levitz and Wayne, discussing some problems the shop had had with a DC tpb. Also met a number of DC staff, most of whom were either charming or good company. Hard work this comics stuff, especially when you are plied with good wine and seafood and have the chance to see the Batman cartoon before most of the rest of the world.
One of the highlights of being in L.A. was the opportunity to ride the bus downtown to look for Mexican superhero wrestler comics, for example Sensacional de Luchas and Tinieblas. Success, they were everywhere. I now have a nice wee collection.
Sorry, got a bit off topic there.
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OK, here's my Alan Moore story.
Way back in the late Eighties, I was attending the San Diego Con faithfully, and one of those cons was the one to which DC brought Alan Moore. I once asked Cat Yronwode how to recognize him and she said, "Just look for a big hairy Englishman." Well, I did. Alan was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, iirc, and was accompanied by his then-wife, who wore a short hairdo and a red dress. I caught up to him around an art display and asked if I could take a pic, which he graciously agreed to. Then I took one of Mrs. Moore, who gave me a surprised smile, because I said it wasn't fair to take his picture and not hers, too.
A little later on, after seeing a panel on which Alan (with Gil Kane and others) answered questions, I re-encountered him at the DC table, where he was enduring the ancient ritual of having a big bunch of fans stuff comic books in his face for signing. I asked him if he was any good at discussing politics or philosophy under those circumstances, and he said he'd give it a try. Briefly, I discussed V For Vendetta's raison d'etre with him, and pointed out that Mao Tse-Tung had done a lot of the sort of things he had V fighting against in Fascist Britain. Alan said that he believed really there were only two kinds of politics, the fascist kind that insisted on making all people more or less alike and part of one thing, and the anarchist kind that let everybody supposedly go off and do their own thing. He admitted he wasn't enamored of capitalism, and allowed, "I guess I don't much like anything," facetiously. But, more or less, he agreed with me that in a Communist country, there could very well be a right-wing V For Vendetta, and that Communism was another form of Fascism.
At least, he seemed to.
As I recall, we shook hands and I thanked him for the talk. Alan Moore was a truly nice guy, although I disagree like hell with his politics and his mysticism and a lot of other things. Later on, I read that he was truly disenchanted with the San Diego scene and swore off con appearances forever. I hope I was one of the more positive experiences he had there.
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Thanks DM.
I've only seen him speak on the Searching For Ditko tv show.
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Yes, that's Alan Moore. Lovely man but a bit "alternative". He always did seem to enjoy meeting people, at any rate, those who didn't only say, "I'm a fan, gonnae sign ma comic", as I heard one lad at a signing session say.
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I've had at least 2 encounters in the flesh with Neil Gaiman, both of them interviews. The first time, he'd just taken over Miracleman and I got to talk to him and John Totleben at the same time. When I started making jokes about the gory Kid Miracleman scene in one ish, Neil leaned over and said, "I think he's saying you're sick, John!" But Neil was a courteous and intelligent guy in that interview, and I liked talking with both of them.
By the second time I met him, I'd read his Sandman series and BAD OMENS. Got to interview him again and before we did it, he was actually self-deprecating, admitting he had been a lousy reporter and had made stories up while reporting. I had to get his autograph on my copy of BAD OMENS and told him it had cost me a good deal of money, on account of I had to buy two copies. I said I'd left the first one out in my car overnight and it turned into a biography of Queen. He took it in stride. We did the interview and at one point, when I kept interrupting, he said, "Shut up!" Later, when we spoke of his travails trying to do a movie script for BAD OMENS and how they required so many changes to it, I quipped, "You gotta put something in for Arnold here." He replied, "What a concept! Talk about casting against type...Arnold Schwartzenegger as a 12-year-old boy!" "Yeah, he'll play him on his knees!" I said. We had fun.
Later, back at the pro suite, Neil had me take a picture of him with my Polaroid and then warped it up with some coin rubbing and various stuff, after which he signed it. I've traded notes with him since then and also traded comics with him. And I still stand by what I told him once: Brits are such courteous people, they could make you feel good while beating you up.
And Neil is a Brit.
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I said I'd left the first one out in my car overnight and it turned into a biography of Queen. He took it in stride.
I don't get it.
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Darkmark, your mentioning of John Totleben reminds me of the first time I met him. I arrived at the Kubert School a few days before classes were to begin in September 1979. I was to live in the carriage house outside the old mansion at 45 Lehigh St. where the school was then located.
I got settled in, along with a dozen other guys who were showing up to share digs in the carriage house, and started checking out the area.
Late in the afternoon on one of those first few days I heard music outside the carriage house so went down to check it out. Several second year students were gathered around with some former students singing some ribald songs while one lanky fellow ably played the guitar. A number of us newbies gathered around to watch and listen.
I eventually asked one of the second year students who was the guy playing the guitar and was told his name was John Totlben. I mentioned that he he played very well and must have been playing for years. I was told that, on the contrary, John had only been playing a short time but was one of those fellows who had an uncanny ability to pick up artistic traits quickly. I was told that he was the same way with his drawing too.
Joe Kubert was always very welcoming to all graduates who came back around the school but generally less so to those who had dropped out. Totlben was an exception to that general rule. he had apparently left the school before graduating but had achieved such a level of talent that he was always welcome back.
During my first year there John was working on a special commission for Harry Chesler. Illustrations for a lavishly illustrated edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. John used to drop by the school and show us his finished illos periodically and by the following Spring he had finished the project.
There was a showing of all the illustrations at Farleigh Dickinson University and then we waited for the book to come out. It never happened. Apparently Chesler (who already seemed as old as dirt to my young eyes) fell ill and passed away without getting the book published. I have often wondered over the years what happened to all those beautiful illustrations that Totlben did for the book.
Best
Joe
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Later, back at the pro suite, Neil had me take a picture of him with my Polaroid and then warped it up with some coin rubbing and various stuff, after which he signed it
And Neil is a Brit.
I've seen this done a few times with some fun results. I'd love to see a scan.
Thanks for sharing DM.
-Yoc
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Well, in GOOD OMENS (sorry, I misremembered the title), every music tape left in a car overnight changes into a Queen tape.
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Here's a link to the Gaiman interview.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jv9HOav8Ms&feature=youtu.be
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Cool, thanks DM!