Friday, March 23, 2018

Francavilla in the NYT






Sometimes work by comic artists
shows up on the pages of  
The New York Times.
Francisco Francavilla has drawn
Batman and  
The Black Panther and  
The Spirit and
Sgt. Rock and
even some Archie and
I wanted to make sure
you didn't miss a
double-page spread
thathe drew for
last weekend's NYT magazine.






Thursday, March 22, 2018

Jambi and Gambi


The tailor and confidante in the Black Lightning universe is named Peter Gambi (shown below). Involuntarily my mind wanders off to recall the Genie-in-a-Box and confidante in the Pee-Wee Herman universe named Jambi (shown above). Am I the only one that makes connections like this?


Maybe it's slipped some of your minds that a decade and a half before 1977 when Black Lightning was created, Paul Gambi was tailor and confidante at the center of the Flash universe (an early 1960s appearance from Flash comics being shown below). The later creation Peter Gambi was revealed to be the brother of Paul Gambi. Does everybody remember that Flash writer John Broome and editor Julius Schwartz coined the Paul Gambi character name as an homage to real-life Flash fan Paul Gambaccini (who had many, many Letters to the Editor published in Flash comics). It pays off to be a fan!


Tuesday, March 06, 2018

Meet Shaloman!


Have you heard of Shaloman?

I hadn't until a copy of an issue of the Shaloman comic book popped up on ebay this week. Published since the 1980s? I'm startled that I never crossed paths with this character before!

But most amazing to me is that the creator of Shaloman is now EIGHTY-EIGHT years old! Please do read the story of Mr. Al Wiesner and his creation over here.



Friday, March 02, 2018

The Black Panther and Wauconda


Everybody knows that The Black Panther hails from the country of  Wakanda, right? I have never been there.

But I HAVE been to Wauconda!

Wauconda, Illinois, about forty miles northwest of Chicago, is home to Bangs Lake. As a youth a number of decades ago, I went swimming in that lake.

The success of the Black Panther movie is causing a headache lately for Waucondans. Over-enthused movie fans and/or over-enthused comics fans are roaming the streets of Wauconda looking for vibranium and they are loudly reciting snippets of the movie's dialogue in public places. Here are some articles about this Illinois phenomenon.

Wauconda and Wakanda have different pronunciations but this does not seem to deter the over-enthused. The phrase "Get a life" was coined for exactly this turn of events, don't you think?