Newsarama is Gone

I have been a voracious consumer of comic book news for many decades.

I started subscribing to The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom in 1973 when it was mentioned on the letters page of an early issue of Kamandi, and there I got to read Now What? written by Murray Bishoff.

Then I started reading The Comic Reader and The Comics Journal. I was receiving comics news in the mail every week throughout the 1970s and 1980s. 

Then a little after that came the online news source of Newsarama. (Do you know that Mark Waid always pronounced it as if it rhymed with drama?) Honestly, I think it got to the point that I was checking newsarama.com on a daily basis for new articles!

But this week I found out Newsarama is gone now, gone for good. You can read its sad saga over here.

Where will I get my comics news now? 

 

 

Jack Kirby's Kamandi on the Wall

 

The second half of 1972 was a magical time for DC Comics fans!

First issues of Swamp Thing and Shazam and TWO from Jack Kirby: The Demon and Kamandi The Last Boy on Earth! What a year!

All the talking animals in Kamandi! Some of them even keeping humans as pets! Admittedly the post-apocalyptic milieu was a direct descendent of The Planet of the Apes, but Mr. Kirby did a great job with it and you'd have to admit Kamandi was pretty off the wall. 

Well now, many decades later, at long last we can say Kamandi is ON the wall! 

Here, let's take a better look at that!
 

 

Online Spider-Man by Al Ewing and Todd Nauck

 

There is a new online Spider-Man comic strip and the first installment went live today! There will be 48 installments and they will be released weekly. 

I am a fan of artist Todd Nauck his work in the first installment; there's nothing earth-shattering but the strip is a quick fun read.

I have never been a fan of online comics and this new series does nothing to nudge me to warm up to them. There are formatting flaws that cause distracting hard breaks in panels of the artwork and even in some of the word balloons. 

 

 

But the strip is free to read so everybody should try drinking it in for themselves. The first episode even has a surprise guest star, and you can investigate the installment right over here.

As for me, I'll be sticking with comics on paper.

 

 

Corto Maltese and Other Unusual Statues

 

A week ago I visited Howling Pages, a nearby and nice comic book shop. I was drawn to a statue case with a number of striking black-and-white comics-related statues that I had never seen before.

I own 100 or 200 comic book statues, and some of these b&w's might almost open the doorway for me to add to my collection after a decades-long hiatus. 

See for yourself and please enjoy!

 

 

Carmine Infantino vs Neal Adams

 

 

Batman #253 was a magical wonderful comic when it was released back in 1973! Batman versus The Joker by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams! The iconic cover of that issue by Mr. Adams is shown above, and here is a zoom-in of the upper portion:

 

 

Current-day artist Dakota Anderson wondered out loud: what if that same cover design had instead been drawn a handful of years earlier during the Silver Age by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson? Dakota put brush to paper and came up with this:

 

Great, right?!

Over here you can read the full article and see the full drawing image by Dakota Anderson (no relation to Murphy Anderson as far as I know).

 

 

Gerry Conway, NOT Gary!

 

Very sorry to hear about the passing of Gerry Conway recently. The gentleman wrote quite a few comics I liked a great deal back in the 1970s.

DC just last month started publishing a new series of Mr. Conway's Firestorm. There have been a number of revivals of the character through the years and this new version might just be my favorite since the original Conway and Al Milgrom series way back in 1978.

 But there is a horrendous error in last week's Firestorm #2. A splash page from that issue is shown above, and below is the pertinent zoom-in: 

To get the co-creator's name wrong is an awful flub and I hope the editors will apologize for their error. The comic itself is well-written and well-drawn and definitely worth a look if you haven't come across it yet. 

R.I.P. Gerry Conway

Jack Kirby Way

Jack Kirby is my favorite comic book artist of all time!  

The Hayfamzone Blog has been dedicated to Jack Kirby since its inception 20 years ago, and the rest of the world is finally waking up to smell the coffee.

In New York City two days ago, there was an honorary street-naming ceremony honoring Mr. Kirby. I'm pleased to share some photos that were taken at that event by my emissary. 

I was unable to attend in person, but this article by Heidi MacDonald makes me feel like I was there.

Hooray for Jack Kirby!