Silver Age Headlines

Her is a neat blog collecting scans of headlines from the Silver Age of mainstream comics. Out of context the headlines are pretty hilarious. Come to think of it, they were probably pretty hilarious in context as well. Worth clicking through. Here is my personal favorite.

via

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Free Comic Day Recommendations

This Saturday, May 1st, is Free Comic Book Day. Hooray! As always, there is a wide range of comics available for free at your local retailer. I’m going to visit Collectors Edge East (where they are also having a trade paperback sale) for my two free comics, but there are several Milwaukee locations participating. But how do you pick the best comics? I’m glad you asked. Keep reading for my picks and preview images.

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Chris Ware is Too Hot for Fortune

Indie comics supa-star Chris Ware was commissioned to draw the cover of the May issue of Fortune.  Ware’s appropriately cynical take on “these economic times” was probably the reason for the rejection (keep an eye open for the workers at “Fabrica de Explotacion” and the Wall Street types being showered with cash), but Fortune has not said why they turned it down. Check out the story here and take a look at the cover after the jump.

Update: Here is a blog post about the process of creating the cover Fortune decided to print. No mention of Ware, but an interesting look at design and revision.

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Comic Fonts

This is my comics font mega-post. I will update it as often as possible. Get ready for fun.

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Captain America Retrospective

As we’ve been talking about The Ultimates in class, folks have wondered about how these “modern” superheroes compare to “classic” superheroes.  As a partial answer to that question, I did some internet research and snagged some of the many costumes of Captain America to give you a sense of how his look has changed based on the times. Thanks to the Internet for the pictures, the Wikipedia for issue numbers and dates, and Marvel Comics for not suing me.

Tons of pictures after the jump

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Frank Miller Exhibit at UWM

Pretty much what the title says:  There is a Frank Miller exhibit at the UWM library special collections. To get there  go up to the fourth floor via the west side stairs or elevator. The exhibit focuses on Miller’s transformation in style from his early work to later work to his work in film.  I am not great admirer of Miller’s work (with the exception of his fabulous work with Bill Sienkiewicz) but I have to admit, I really enjoyed walking through this exhibit. Miller’s visual style is often times striking even if it is occasionally… uhm… offensive.

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Dash Shaw takes on Marvel Comics

Superhero mainstay Marvel comics recently asked a variety of indie comics stars (including Peter Bagge, Jeffery Brown, Paul Hornschemeier, and James Kochalka) to re-imagine their superheroes. The result, Strange Tales, was released in hardcover last month.

Included in the book is Dash Shaw‘s take on Dr. Strange, the namesake of the Strange Tales comic during the 1960s. Since we have read some of Shaw’s work as a class, I thought it was fitting to take a peak (courtesy of Shaw’s website) at his take on a classic character as we move into the superhero portion of the semester. I haven’t read the whole story, but, judging by the two pages below, taking on Dr. Strange seems to be a good fit for Shaw whose work often trends toward the more expressive and abstract.

Plus there are some nice colors. Pictures >>

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Pre-Asterios Polyp David Mazzucchelli

When I was researching David Mazzucchelli’s work for class, I came across this blog post that collects a lot of his pre-Asterois Polyp work. Of particular note is this page from Mazzuchelli’s early work on Master of Kung Fu.

Mazzuchelli also worked on an adaptation of Paul Auster’s City of Glass as part of Avon Book’s short lived Neon Lit series. The series only adapted two novels (Currently, Avon publishes romance novels) Cit of Glass is still in print and continues to inspire creators [1, 2, 3, 4].

And for fun, here are some pages from Batman: Year One [1,2,3] and Daredevil [1, 2, 3] all by Mazzucchelli and Frank Miller (and an army of inkers, colorists, and letterers).

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Milwaukee Comics Event

Hey, I don’t know much about this event, but it looks pretty fabulous. Here is what they say:

In MOTIONARY COMICS, groups of teams will be creating a mural-sized comic strip over the course of Gallery Night. One choreographer, six paintable people, three painters, six illustrators, three videographers, one still photographer, and five producers. (via their FB page)

It takes place on Friday, April 16, 2010 from 5pm-midnight the Moct Bar (sorry, under 21 year-olds). Some more information can be found here. Seems like it will be pretty cool.

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Choose Your own Adventure Comics

Jason Shinga talks about his Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style comic, Meanwhile. See more of Shinga’s work at his website where you can find some free online comics.   via Laughing Squid

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