1. The Untold Story
Finished MEN OF TOMORROW and dived immediately into MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY by Sean Howe, which is an appropriate follow up although nowhere nearly as mind-blowing. Over a hundred pages in, and there’s nothing super revelatory if you know anything about Marvel’s humble beginnings until the so-called “Marvel Age of Comics” was unleashed in the 60’s. Although it does expound a little bit on Martin Goodman’s life, background, and business decisions, all vital in making Marvel what it became and something that is often overlooked. Still I would’ve liked a lot more of that and a little less about what happens in the pages of the comics themselves, something Sean Howe spends few too many paragraphs talking about. But that’s not to say you don’t come out with the occasional gem though:
“You fellas think of comics in terms of comic books, but you’re wrong. I think you fellas should think of comics in terms of drugs, in terms of war, in terms of journalism, in terms of selling, in terms of business. And if you have a viewpoint on drugs, or if you have a viewpoint on war, or if you have a viewpoint on the economy, I think you can tell it more effectively in comics than you can in words. I think nobody is doing it. Comics is journalism. But now it’s restricted to soap opera.”
Jack Kirby, ladies and gentlemen, 1969.
Now you have folks taking Jack Kirby’s creations, using them to make endless soap opera comics, and they think they’re making comics in the Jack Kirby tradition.
Here’s another gem of a quote, this time from (and you won’t believe it) Stan Lee, circa 1970:
“The comic book market is the worst market that there is on the face of the earth for creative talent and the reasons are numberless and legion… It is a business in which the creator… owns nothing of his creation. The publisher owns it… Isn’t it pathetic to be in a business where the most you can say for the creative person in the business is that he’s serving an apprenticeship to enter a better field? Why not go to the other field directly?”
It’s interesting to see Lee in a position where he feels like he’s reached a dead end in comics and desperately wants a way out, while Kirby at around exactly the same time (and far more royally screwed by the business of comics than Lee) could only see untapped potential.
Have yet to get around to writing a full review of MEN OF TOMORROW for ganzeer.reviews (busy couple weeks), but I truly cannot recommend it enough. My final verdict for Marvel Comics’ untold story though will have to wait.
2. Oops
Realized that in the newsletter’s previous edition, I somehow managed to mess up linking to the Q&A follow-up to my OSU/Cartoon-Library talk. My apologies. Here you go:
3. OSU/Cartoon-Library Video
On that note, Ohio State University Libraries uploaded a recording of the talk to their Youtube channel. Check it out if you feel so inclined.
4. Comix Engine #12
Imagine zines —put together crude and fast by 19-28 year olds— given the kind of mass market distribution that only a giant like Condé Nast has access to. The more I read “Golden Age” comicbooks or read about them, the more evident it seems that that is exactly what they were, and it is exactly that that made them so successful.
Many “historians” simplify the birth of comicbooks by painting it as a natural evolution from comic-strips, neglecting the fact that the explosion of comicbooks differed from comic-strips not only in their length, or that they were entire publications dedicated to comics, but that they were incredibly crude, vulgar (even if intended for a younger audience), absurdly imaginative, and created for the most part by very young amateurs.
5. Week
Absurdly productive week over here. Put down pencils on the opening spread in Chapter 6 of THE SOLAR GRID, did cover art for two singles, as well as another piece for an online campaign of sorts. This in addition to recording with two podcasts, and various planning things for the future.
No drugs were involved. Just coffee and a reluctance to concede to my age group.
More music-related art due for next week in addition to more TSG.
Hope everyone’s managed to preserve their sanity this week. Stay strong, and stay safe,
Ganzeer
Houston, TX