Tuesday, December 29, 2015

I Guess I'm a Hater

I drove up to Austin yesterday to see "The Hateful Eight." I could have seen it here in San Antonio, but I don't trust the projectionists at The Palladium. They've probably never seen anything but a digital projection system before. I knew that the fine folks at The Ritz would understand the importance of light projected through a 70mm piece of celluloid. I enjoyed the experience of an old time Roadshow attraction (in an old movie theater instead of a multiplex!) with a program, an overture, and an intermission. The first images on the screen were breathtaking - a closeup shot of a rugged statue of Christ, a panoramic view of a snowy Wyoming landscape, horses pulling a stagecoach over a trail past an icy stream. Tarantino has always had a great eye, and that certainly hasn't changed with this movie. Ennio Morricone's score was beautiful. The cast (particularly Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, and the legendary Bruce Dern) was excellent. The set design, costumes, heck all the art direction was outstanding. Despite all this, I disliked the movie. It had all the problems that I find in most of Tarantino's work and even more of the excesses. HIs dialogue had its share of humorous (if sometimes anachronistic) one-liners, but the conversations went on and on. Quentin loves to hear himself talk, and I think that's why every character speaks with his voice. The plot was very thin. It could have been told in a brisk ninety minutes. Instead, it was stretched out for an epic three hours. Believe me, I like long movies, but there has to be enough story to fill the time. I'm very glad that Tarantino chose to shoot in 70mm, but I don't know why he used the largest canvas available to tell a story that takes place, for the most part, in one claustrophobic room. If that huge screen is available to you, then be David Lean, not John Cassavetes. The movie seemed confused about what it wanted to be - sweeping western, locked-room mystery, or horror movie. In the end, I guess Tarantino decided on torture porn. My frustration with Quentin Tarantino stems from the fact that I recognize his talent, but I think he squanders it.

Here is the cover of the program that was given to audience members at the 70mm showing .

Sunday, May 10, 2015

The good news - Key and Peele are working on their first movie. The better news - It's about their substitute teacher characters!

Saturday, April 4, 2015

This is the cover of my favorite comic book of all time. Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 features illustrator Neal Adams, writer Denny O'Neil, editor Julius Schwartz, and letterer John Costanza at the peak of their creative powers. In this first team up of the green heroes, O'Neil and Adams craft a beautiful, action-packed, and entertaining fable about America in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I was lucky enough to get this comic book (which I bought off that stands as an eleven year old) autographed by the writer and artist.

Friday, March 20, 2015

The Best Horrible Movie Ever Made!

Of course I'm talking about Billy Jack.  I have to first say that I don't mean it's "so bad it's good" like Plan 9 From Outer Space or any other MST3K candidate.  What I mean is that Tom Laughlin had a vision, tried to make an interesting and admirable movie, failed miserably, but still created something that resonated with a large audience.  

When I was a kid, Dad used to throw us all in the station wagon and take us to the drive-in every weekend during the summer.  Jim and Mom would usually fall asleep halfway through the second movie, but the old man and I had an insane love for movies and would gut it out until the third feature ended (usually about two or three in the morning).  The Ranch Drive-In in Ames had an eclectic program.  One week there might be a James Bond triple feature, the next week John Wayne would headline with a couple of Japanese monster movies pulling down the second two slots.  Roger Corman horror movies with Vincent Price, Hollywood blockbusters putting in one more theatrical showing before they wound up on the NBC movie of the week - - - there was no telling what might show up at the Ranch.  One week Born Losers was one of the features.  It was a typical biker exploitation movie with lots of bloody violence, teenage girls in bikinis, and a half Indian Vietnam veteran protagonist who remained calm regardless of the odds he might face.  It was the first appearance of Billy Jack -  equal parts John Wayne and Steve McQueen.  I found out years later that Tom Laughlin had already written the script for Billy Jack but couldn't get any studio to make it.  He worked out some kind of deal with Samuel Arkoff where he would make a motorcycle gang movie, and if it was successful, Arkoff would fund Billy Jack.  Born Losers made a ton of money for American International Pictures so work was started on Billy Jack.  Arkoff and Laughlin had some sort of falling out, Laughlin got back the rights to his script, financed and completed the movie himself, struggled to get it released, and then found himself with one of the most financially successful movies of the year.

But I've gone way off topic.  When Billy Jack played at the Camelot Theater in Nevada, Iowa I probably saw it three times.  When it showed up in the inevitable double feature withBorn Losers at the drive-in, I saw it again.  My cousin Tony, brother Jim, and I saw it in Greenville, Kentucky when we visited our grandparents in the summer.  Before the release of The Trial of Billy Jack, there was a reissue of Billy Jack, so I got to see the movie again.  I bought the paperback screenplay featuring photos from the movie.  In those days before cable tv or videos, I never knew when I'd be seeing a movie for the last time.  As it turns out, I didn't see Billy Jack again for about twenty years, and when I finally had the opportunity to rent the video cassette (remember those?)  I couldn't believe that such a terrible excuse for a film had been one of my all time favorites.  The storyline is sloppy and filled with stereotyped characters.  There are plot holes that you could drive Bernard's Corvette through (true Billy Jack fans will understand that reference).  The soundtrack features folk songs that are unintentionally hilarious.  The acting is inept, but it's hard to blame the performers when the dialogue is the sort of stuff that the phrase "cringe worthy" was invented for.  Still there was something about it - - - nostalgia, maybe?

When I saw a boxed set a few years ago featuring Born LosersBilly JackThe Trial of Billy Jack, and Billy Jack Goes to Washington (Yes.  That's a real movie.) I had to own it.  I watched Born Losers, which was much as I remembered,  a competent, low-budget exploitation film.  Then I settled in for Billy Jack.  The movie begins with a voice over that gives a minimal back story.  We are then introduced to the town sheriff, a man of integrity, and his deputy, who is more interested in scoring points with a small-time power broker than in picking up his runaway daughter at the bus station.  Next we cut to a helicopter shot, which must have used half the film's budget.  It is a stunning tracking shot of horses running through a beautiful Arizona landscape while the credits roll.  Cowboys pursue them in a round up as the theme song "One Tin Soldier" plays.  The song works well in this context.  At the end of the credits, the horses are penned up, and Posner, the town heavy, the deputy and their men prepare to shoot the horses and sell them to a dog food company.  Posner is disgusted with his son Bernard who can't bring himself to shoot a horse.  Before any shots can be fired, Billy Jack mysteriously appears.  Though he is outnumbered he faces down the gang with cool confidence.  He frees the horses, and the men ride away.  It is a great opening.  No, it is a fantastic opening.  In just a few minutes we have met the villains and seen that the hero is someone who will not be messed with.  The movie's major theme of conflict between generations (particularly single fathers and their children) has been introduced.  Visually it has been great.  Unfortunately, it's all downhill after that.

Sure, there are a few bright spots in the rest of the movie.  Billy Jack's fight with the townies in the main square is terrific as are the mystical snake ceremony and the shootout at the end, and the improvisational  comedy scenes featuring Howard Hesseman (later ofWKRP in Cincinnati) are very good.  But overall this is just a bad movie.  Yet somehow, I still like it.  I'm sure that part of the appeal is that Tom Laughlin did what other independent filmmakers like John Cassavetes and John Sayles have done, make movies they don't particularly want to make, so that they can make the movies they have a passion for.  In Laughlin's case, he wanted to make a movie for the counter culture, and he wasn't coming at it from the perspective of some Hollywood executive who wanted to appeal to "those wacky kids."  He and his wife Dolores Taylor were true believers.  They actually ran a Montessori School, and they worked with underprivileged youth.  They truly wanted to make a difference.  With Billy Jack, flawed as it was, Laughlin and Taylor tried to make a sincere movie with a positive statement.  They may have failed to make a good movie, but they certainly communicated their message to a lot of young people.  I doubt if anybody much younger (or older) than me would get this, but if you were in junior high or high school when Billy Jack came out, you probably saw and enjoyed it.  Despite the movie's magnitude of faults, I still prefer it to much of the jaded, cynical entertainment marketed to today's youth.

However, I still can't bring myself to watch The Trial of Billy Jack or Billy Jack Goes to Washington.


Thursday, March 12, 2015


It just doesn't get much better than the economy of line produced by Alex Toth. This is a Hermes Press collection of the Zorro stories he drew for Dell Comics back in the 1950s.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

. . . and now a message from our sponsor -

The Mr. Morris coffee mugs are now available.



Monday, March 9, 2015

Here is the crew from Soulgate Studios, my neighbors at STAPLE! The Independent Media Expo. They are an enthusiastic group with a passion for their collaborative effort "Thicker Than Water." Currently available online, "Thicker Than Water" is the story of a band of mercenaries who find themselves caught up in a war they didn't count on. They are coloring the pages by hand with plans for a print edition out in time for Houston's Comicpalooza in May. The Soulgate troops were busily working on pages during the convention even while cheerfully answering questions from fans. Check out their website - http://www.soulgatestudios.com/#!about/c240r

I was able to get the lively Soulgate Crew to stop writing, drawing, and coloring long enough to pose for a photo. From left to right - Eletra Parnell, DeWayne Holmon, Devin Valera, and David Salazar.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Paul Rigg and Jamie Sichel shared a table at STAPLE! The Independent Media Expo in Austin. Jamie Sichel has published a book of drawings called "I've Created a …Monster!" Her drawings are beautifully composed, have linework that could best be described as sublime, and the monsters are darned cute. Her work can be found on http://thelegendofawesome.com/

Paul Rigg does bold sketches of characters. He has collected them into several sketchbooks. I particularly enjoy his Inktober sketchbooks which collect the sketches he painstakingly creates on a daily basis every year during the month of October. Here's where you can look at Paul's colorful creations -https://www.facebook.com/RiggerArt


This weekend I attended STAPLE! The Independent Media Expo in Austin. I had a great deal of success at my table, selling lots of copies of my comic books. I also had the opportunity to meet some cartoonists who are publishing terrific new books. I'll be writing about several of them the next few days.

First up is Chris Ruggia from Alpine, Texas. Chris has created a webcomic called Jack: Adventures in Texas' Big Bend. It is a webcomic which also ran in the Big Bend Gazette. This is a family friendly comic which, while visually reminiscent of Walt Kelly and Jeff Smith, is an original creation. I highly recommend the three volume collection that Chris has published. It is available through his website where previous comic strips are also archived.


Here's the link to Chris Ruggia's work - 




Wednesday, March 4, 2015

This is Fantastic Four #44 published in 1965. I bought it at Hunt's Supermarket (where comic books would sit on shelves for years) when I was seven years old. It was the first issue of FF I ever owned. In 1982 I had the good luck to get it signed by Jack Kirby at a small comic book convention. In the ensuing thirty years I tried repeatedly to get Stan's signature. He cancelled on a show in Dallas at the last minute. I went to a lecture he gave here in San Antonio in the mid-nineties and was primed to get my book signed when I learned that you needed a ticket to get his autograph, and all said tickets were already distributed. So I watched as a parade of mouth breathers got Stan Lee to sign a wide variety of comic books he wasn't even tangentially involved with. Remember, the guy hasn't really written anything on a regular basis for forty years. When I found out Stan was coming to Austin, I took no chances. I bought my special VIP ticket (which guaranteed me a photo op and autograph) back in June! So I'm finally in the autograph line and, sure enough, the people in front of me are having him sign stacks of books like Superman and the Flash that he never had anything to do with, comics that featured characters he created, but which he didn't write, and a wide assortment of bobble heads and other junk. My turn finally came and I gave Stan my comic book opened to the first page. He grinned and said, "Jack didn't leave me much room, did he?" He signed the page and announced triumphantly, "I squeezed it in!" I felt like Captain Ahab catching the White Whale.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Recently the success of the Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Avengers Guardians of the Galaxy movies, as well as DC's decision to 'reboot' all their titles, has led to articles about the resurgence in sales for comic books. Out of curiosity I looked up recent sales figures and found that the best selling comics are a little over 100,000 copies per month. Lower selling comicsfrom the major publishers (Marvel and DC) are in the 15,000 copy range. Furthermore these 'sales' figures are mainly from retailers that use direct distribution, meaning they can't return unsold copies the way a supermarket or book store can return unsold copies of People or Sports Illustrated. In other words, many of those 'sales' may well be sitting in the back issue box or the storage room. In comparison, I looked up sales figures from the late 1960s when I was using my paper route money (Thank you Ames Advertiser) to buy every comic book I could get my hands on. The best selling comic of the year 1967 wasBatman averaging 900,000 copies per month. The best selling comic books of 2012 would have a difficult time cracking the top 100 list for 1967.

I recognize that all print media has suffered in the previous four decades, but I believe that comic books have done a lot to hasten their own demise. When I was a kid (Yes, I know this makes me sound like a cranky old man. That's only because I am a cranky old man.) every supermarket, pharmacy, book store, or newsstand in the country carried comic books. Even in the 1980s comic books were available in convenience stores. Now a kid looking for a comic book has to make a trip to a specialty store, push his way past role-playing gamers rolling 19 sided dice while they argue about wizards and demonic powers, navigate through the action figures and other toys, and find the comic book shelf. Once the kid finds a comic book which doesn't picture a graphic decapitation or half naked woman on the cover, he makes his purchase and goes home to read it. If he can decipher the busy scratchy art obscured by layers of muddy computer colors, he'll be dismayed to discover that he has just purchased part five of a twelve part story which will unfold over the course of a year, and, by the way, there are a number of minor subplots that leak into about five or six other books. I don't particularly want to wait that long for the conclusion to a story, and I like to believe I have more patience than an eight year old.

Despite the efforts of comic book publishers to alienate them - kids still like comics. The success of comic strip collections, manga paperbacks, and children's books featuring Captain Underpants and The Diary of a Wimpy Kid are evidence of this. I am aware of Marvel Adventures and the DC books based on the animated tv shows, but these are too childlike. Parents might buy them for their toddlers, but no self respecting eight year old would buy it for himself or herself.

This is not to suggest that the comic book medium (I can't bring myself to type 'graphic novel') shouldn't feature continuing stories or adult themes, but if comic books continue to market themselves primarily to a rapidly shrinking audience of arrested adolescents and ignore children, it won't be long before they have no audience at all.
"The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads" - what kid would be able to resist this cover. I know I couldn't!"The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads" - what kid would be able to resist this cover. I know I couldn't!
Usually I rant and rail about Pop culture, but I'm a middle school teacher and coach, so today I wanted to write about a group of athletes who are very important to me.

The Burbank Bulldogs' season came to an end last night, but not before they had a successful district season and made it out of the bi-district round of the playoffs. The seniors on this team were the last group of eighth grade students I taught at Harris Middle School, and I've always had a soft spot for them. Coach Herrera and I had those boys for seventh grade basketball. There were thirty boys on the team, and we didn't cut anyone. Coach Herrera knew the boys from football season, I had taught most of them when they were in sixth grade, and Coach Roden, their PE teacher, had told us what good athletes they were, so on the first day of practice, we knew they were capable of having a special season. We used the first few games to tinker with our line ups, figure out who was on the A Team and who was on the B Team, and establish discipline and rules. In the first game we benched two of the best A Team players for missing practice. After that we didn't have any problems getting the boys to listen to us. The truth is, we wouldn't have had much trouble anyway. This was a great group of kids. The boys were enthusiastic and cheerful, even at 6:30 AM practices. Most of them were excellent students in the classroom. A few of the boys could give their teachers headaches, but it was never mean-spirited behavior. These were just active middle school boys. Sometimes one of the seventh grade teachers would come to my classroom with a basketball player in tow. "Coach, you have to do something about this boy!" Herrera and I would mete out a punishment ranging from extra horses or time on the bench, and the problem would be solved (temporarily, at least). There were a few boys (who shall remain nameless) that got some special treatment on a couple of occasions. I would pick them up in the morning, and we'd go from class to class getting their books and their day's assignments from their teachers. Then they would spend that day in my room. Sitting in the famous "Desk of Discipline" they would complete their assignments with the understanding that they'd better not disturb my classes, and they'd better learn to control themselves in their regular classes. This was a technique I picked up from the legendary Coach Sapenter, and it worked. 

We had a great time. Practices were fun. With so many boys, we had to be organized, and keep everyone busy. We were very deep and wanted balance on both teams, so a couple of boys who were really talented enough to play on the A Team accepted their roles on the B Team. Somehow Coach Herrera and I found minutes for all the boys. We wanted everyone to contribute in some way. Once Zone Play began our A Team went undefeated, our B Team only lost one game, and we brought home a district championship. 

When the boys went to high school, I followed their progress. Since I was coaching basketball and track at Little Flower School now, I could only make it to the games that Burbank played during Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks and the playoffs. Of course not all thirty of the boys could make the team at the high school level, but I was glad to see how many of our Harris Hawks stuck it out every year. It was especially great to see some of our B Team boys move up to the varsity team, sometimes even getting a starting nod. A couple of Lowell Middle School boys were on the team, and there were three younger Harris Hawks, but the majority of the varsity was made up of that group I had such fond memories of. When I couldn't make it to games, I'd check out the results in the newspaper. It was fun to see how different players would step up each game. One night Juan would go off for twenty points. Another night it would be Moses. Even though it wasn't showing up in the box score, I knew that Jordan and Gabriel were running the press and taking care of the ball, and Matthew was playing tough defense every night.

Obviously a lot of credit for Burbank's success has to go to Coach Herbert Jackson. When I was at Harris I worked a couple of Jackson's summer camps, sat in on some of his practices, and scouted plenty of games for him. I liked his style and way of working with young athletes, and I learned a lot about coaching from him. He rarely has the kind of blue chip athletes that show up every season at the big north side schools, but his teams are always competitive. He and his staff have created a culture of success at Burbank, and although I'm sure he and his team are disappointed about the way the season ended, I hope they'll be able to look back at their accomplishments with pride. I'm really going to miss watching Moses, Jordan, Juan, Matthew, Gabriel, and Daniel, but I've enjoyed seeing those little boys mature into young men. I know that they will all have bright futures after graduation.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

I was rereading the first appearance of one of Howard Chaykin's early creations - Dominic Fortune. He appeared as a back up story in the otherwise ridiculous Marvel Preview presents The Punisher from 1975. I bought this back in the day because it reminded me of Chaykin's earlier The Scorpion, a short-lived (weren't they all) series from Atlas Comics. The artwork is excellent, particularly Chaykin's use of wash.  The character sets the template for future Chaykin heroes. Fortune operates during the 1930s, a time period that Chaykin has a great fondness for as well as a great facility for rendering. He is a cynical, tongue-in-cheek mercenary whose pulpy adventures are like a cross between The Shadow and Doc Savage. Fortune's appearances were scattered throughout several magazine-sized comics. The first few stories were in gray wash and several later stories were in full color. Working with writers Len Wein and later Denny O'Neil, Chaykin created a nice little series that deserves a trade paperback collection.


Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Sunday, February 22, 2015

I never watch the Academy Awards. This surprises some of my friends because I'm such a movie nut, but I always quote Bill Murray from an old SNL skit, "The Oscars are always wrong, and when they're right, it's for the wrong reasons." These are wise words coming from the man who has never won an Academy Award despite great performances in such movies as Groundhog Day, Rushmore, and Lost in Translation.

There are plenty of times when the Academy choices are debatable. Did The Best Years of Our Lives deserve the 1947 Best Picture nod over It's a Wonderful Life? I happen to think they got it right that time, but I can certainly see merit in the opposing view. Other times there is no room for debate. There is no way that Shakespeare in Love was a better movie than Saving Private Ryan or Out of Sight. In 1976 Rocky won Best Picture. Rocky is a lot of fun. It's a rousing feel good story, and in 1976 there was no way of knowing that it would produce five sequels, each worse than the last.  Of course it was up against All the President's Men, Bound For Glory, Network, and Taxi Driver, all of which were more ambitious, more nuanced and more original. It seems impossible that John Ford's masterpiece The Searchers, consistently listed as one of the greatest films of all time, failed to receive a single Oscar nomination in 1956. Speaking of my all-time favorite moviemaker, one of my least favorite Ford films is How Green Was My Valley. It's a slow paced slog through sentiment and platitudes that somehow beat Citizen Kane for Best Picture.

My favorite movie last year was Boyhood. If Richard Linklater's bold journey through the life of a middle-class American family wins any awards, I'll be happy for him. If the big prize goes to American Sniper, Birdman, or Transformers vs Marky Mark, it won't change my opinion a bit.


Monday, February 16, 2015

In the early 1970s I was just about ready to give up on comic books. My favorite series were either cancelled or being written and drawn by creative teams I wasn't interested in. Artists like Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, and Barry Windsor-Smith were channeling their energies into other more lucrative endeavors and only showed up sporadically in mainstream comic books. Fortunately for me a new wave of comic book creators was arriving on the scene. Artists like Jim Starlin, Howard Chaykin, and Paul Gulacy appeared full of energy and new ideas. Writers like Steve Englehart, Doug Moench, and Don McGregor were given unprecedented freedom at Marvel to take chances.

This was the atmosphere that produced Don McGregor's magnum opus - "Panther's Rage", a thirteen issue story that took McGregor and his collaborators (artists Rich Buckler, Gil Kane, Billy Graham, and inker Klaus Janson) over two years to tell. It was a pretty bold move on Marvel's part. Black Panther was an African prince, and this story was set in his homeland, the fictional Wakonda. The entire cast of the story was black, no Tarzans or Ka-Zars to be found. McGregor's writing dealt with revolution, petty tribal bigotries, and inequality and was filled with beautiful prose, passionate dialogue, and complex characterizations. The pencillers used cinematic techniques (prompted at times by McGregor's detailed plots) and then newcomer Janson's inks show his now trademark heavy spotting of blacks and zipatone.

I still own the original comics bought off the newsstands over forty years ago, and I bought the recent reprint collection. It is well worth a look.


Friday, February 13, 2015

Steve Ditko is one of my favorite comic book artists. I discovered his work when he was drawing for DC comics during the late 1960s. His creations The Creeper and Hawk and Dove were must buys for me. Then I came across his Charlton work of this time period - The Blue Beetle and The Question. I loved his attention to detail, his wild action scenes, and the imaginative gadgets and back stories he gave his characters. Finally I discovered Marvel Tales and the reprints of his early Spider-Man work. Before this I had thought John Romita was Spidey's only artist. I've stuck with Ditko through the years, following him back to Charlton for various mystery comics, to DC for crazy stuff like Shade, the Changing Man, and back to Marvel for Machine Man and Rom. Along the way, there were also his Ayn Rand inspired self-published tales of Mr. A.

Today Steve Ditko is 87 years old, and he still goes into his Manhattan studio every day to draw comics. His friend and publisher Robin Snyder finances Ditko's comics through Kickstarter campaigns, and a new 32 page comic book comes out every two to three months. In all honesty, Ditko's art is not as strong as it once was, and his scripts are little more than Libertarian screeds populated by straw men, but this diehard liberal still contributes to every Kickstarter and reads every new issue. I do this because Ditko had such a profound influence on the history of comic books, and regardless of what I may think of his politics, I genuinely admire the way he lives his philosophy and writes and draws just what he wants to.


This link provides information about Steve Ditko's current work.




Thursday, February 5, 2015

As a blogger focusing on comic books I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast. You can call it a graphic novel, an illustrated memoir, or whatever you'd like, but make no mistake, it is a comic book, and a pretty good one at that. Roz Chast is a cartoonist for the New Yorker magazine. In this book she tells the story of her elderly parents slow deterioration and her struggle to deal with it and help them. The subject matter could easily slide into maudlin sentiment, but Chast is uncompromising in her examination of the complicated relationship she has with her mother and father and the relationships they have with each other. Chast never portrays herself as a noble caregiver, but instead shows all the selfish thoughts that many of us try to hide during similar situations. The book is alternately hilarious, terrifying, and tragic - sometimes all on the same page. At times I was laughing uncontrollably at Chast's storytelling and cartooning abilities, but at one point near the end I literally had tears in my eyes. Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? is a brilliant work of art, and its choice as a finalist for the National Book Award was well-deserved.


Tuesday, February 3, 2015

This is the cover for DC Comics' Showcase # 74 featuring "Anthro" by Howie Post. Post was much more prolific in the newspaper comic strip format, but this short-lived (this issue of Showcase plus six issues of his own comic) series was a gem. Post's art was not typical for DC or Marvel comics at that time, but his scratchy cartoony style was both eye pleasing and appropriate to the subject matter. I was nine years old when this came out in 1968, and I enjoyed it for what it was at face value - cavemen. Rereading it years later, I realized that Post was using the genre to give his own take on issues of the day such as the Generation Gap and Women's Liberation. I still find it amazing that major comic book publishers took chances on offbeat series like this. Now it's spandex clad heroes or nothing from DC and Marvel.


Sunday, February 1, 2015


Sometimes it's fun to just draw a big ol' green super hero.

Saturday, January 31, 2015



Michael Neno is a freelance cartoonist who does some fine work for national and Ohio area publishers. His versatile abilities allow him to draw a wide variety of comics. Like filmmakers John Cassavetes and John Sayles he does some work to pay the bills and allow him to do the work he truly has a passion for. In such publications as Reactionary Tales and The Signifiers Neno has created a strange yet inviting universe of characters and settings. His artwork owes much to classic cartoonists such as Milton Caniff, Frank Robbins, and Jack Kirby, but his work has a contemporary feel to it. Michael's most recent publication is a rerelease of some mini comics. micheal neno's dream and the nine issue pictures of benevolence. They have been digitally redone and look cleaner than they did when first published ten and twenty years ago.



Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Recently one of my cartoonist friends and I were having an online discussion about western comics. During the course of this conversation I mentioned the sixth issue of Bat Lash which I consider one of the most beautiful single comic stories ever printed.



Most of the time Bat Lash was reminiscent of James Garner's Maverick, but this story had a different tone. It was more serious, at times dark. It was a true collaborative effort, so much so, that it's hard to tell where one creator's contribution stopped and another's began. The script was credited to Sergio Aragones and Denny O'Neil. I'm assuming that Aragones did the plot. I've seen some of his scripts where he draws thumbnails for the artist, although I don't know if that was the case here. The dialogue and narration reads like Denny O'Neil. His prose could be poetic at times. The art was by Mike Sekowsky and Nick Cardy. Very little of Sekowsky shows through. Perhaps he just did layouts or loose pencils. Maybe it's just that Nick Cardy's lush inks disguised the usual blockiness and hard edges of Sekowsky. I don't know who the letterer or colorist were, but both of them did exemplary work as well. In the end I'd say the sum was greater than its parts, and starting with these parts, that's really saying something.



The plot is an origin story of sorts. It tells about young Bat Lash's family losing their farm, but it avoids the cliches of traditional western range war tales. Instead the farmers are swindled out of their land. When tragedy befalls his family, Bat wants justice. He isn't a brutal killing machine, but the moment where he first fires a gun in anger changes him. Bat's adult characterization as previously established in the series- his toughness, his cultured manners and taste for the finer things in life, his inability to love - are all explained in this story without overt exposition. The conclusion of the story is both powerful and moving.


I first read this story when I bought it off the newsstand in 1969. I don't know how many times I've revisited it since then, but I'm always happy when I do.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Charles Schulz taught me how to read. When I was a little kid, it was those Fawcett paperback collections that caught my eye. Mom and Dad would buy them for me and read them to me while I'd sit in their laps. I learned how to read because I had to read those books, and sometimes Mom and Dad weren't around. Pretty soon I had to learn how to draw those great characters, so Charles Schulz became my first art teacher. I'm hardly unique. I imagine that there are a lot of people out there who learned to read from Charles Schulz, and there are a lot of artists who learned to draw from him whether they know it or not.

I believe that the barber's son from Minneapolis was not only the most important cartoonist of all time, but one of the most important artists of the twentieth century. Charles Schulz transformed the comic strip. He adapted his style to fit the new constraints imposed on artists by newspaper editors. He created a rhythm in his gags (four panels long with a beat in the third panel before the punchline or the punchline in the third panel with a secondary punchline afterward) that didn't exist before. His characters expanded beyond the comics page into every aspect of American pop culture. Schulz influenced every cartoonist who followed him, some of whom may not even be aware they were influenced by him.

Arguments can be made for the superiority of Windsor McKay, George Herriman, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, Milton Caniff, Al Capp, or Walt Kelly, and I'm certainly not denying their greatness, but I am confident in stating that Charles Schulz rises above them all.

Sketch from 2001 book The Art of Charles Schulz

A few years ago Garry Trudeau published a beautiful Doonesbury 40th Anniversary collection. Even though Doonesbury is one of my all-time favorite comic strips, I couldn't quite bring myself to spend a hundred bucks for it. I was in the bookstore last week, and what do you think was on the remainder table for $19.95? You know it! To make things even better, our daughter had given me a Barnes & Noble gift card for Christmas! So, thanks, Nikki for the perfect late Christmas present.

The Des Moines Register was among the first newspapers to carry the strip, so I've been a Doonesbury fan since the early 1970s. I'm in sync with Trudeau's politics, but, as this massive collection makes clear, it is the expansive cast of characters that has sustained the strip for so long. Unlike other cartoonists who set up ridiculous straw men for their stand-ins to interact with (I'm looking at you, Bruce Tinsley and Chris Muir.). Conservatives like BD and his family or Megaphone Mark's dad are treated like real people whose politics might be ridiculed, but whose humanity and decency is left intact, while liberals like Mike Doonesbury and Mark Slackmeyer have their own foibles pointed out from time to time. For the most part, political theater is kept out of this collection and the focus is on the interaction and evolution of these characters over four decades.

Garry Trudeau has cut back his current workload to Sundays only, and while he has certainly earned the right to take a break from the daily grind, I hope this doesn't indicate an intention to retire any time soon.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Another of my projects is Action Anthology. I just published the first issue of this comic book created by my cousin Chuck Todd and me. Chuck and I are old school comic book fans. We grew up during the Silver and Bronze Age of comic books. Today's comic books are quite different from the comics of our youth, and, in the immortal words of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, "Everything is not as good as it used to be!" (The previous line must be read in a thick Eastern European accent.) Anyway we put together a collection of original stories and hope to publish it on a regular basis. Here's the trailer for the comic book that appears on YouTube.


If you're interested in Action Anthology, you can order it from my website using PayPal.

http://rickbrooksbooks.com/Page_4.html

or send a check for $4.50 to Rick Brooks; PO Box 28075; San Antonio, TX 78228.

Okay, enough of the hard sell. Chuck and I drew three short stories. One is a sword and sorcery tale, the second is a western, and the third is a science fiction/super-hero story. We had a lot of fun creating them, and I like to think that people would have a lot of fun reading them. When it comes down to it, that's the big difference between comics now and when we were kids - the fun.

Monday, January 19, 2015

My name is Rick Brooks. I am a classroom teacher and a part time cartoonist. I am married to the beautiful Monica Brooks, and we have two daughters. Nikki just graduated from college, and Adi is in her final semester. We live in San Antonio.

Why do I have a blog, and what makes me think I have anything worth saying? The answer to the first question is, I've been told repeatedly that I need a blog to somehow generate publicity for my comic strip and various publications. As for the second question, I don't know. I've been reading comic books since I was a little kid, so I have lots to say on that subject. I've been teaching for over thirty years, so I have plenty of opinions about education. Every morning as I eat breakfast, I rant to Monica about various outrages in the daily newspaper. I guess I'll write about whatever pops into my cranium. It may or may not be entertaining or informative. I can guarantee that it's probably not going to be very well researched. I guess the only thing I'm sure of is, it'll be what I think.

Here is a link to the aforementioned comic strip - http://mrmorris.webcomic.ws

Mr. Morris has been running online for about three years. I update it twice per week. I also self syndicate the comic strip to four weekly newspapers. If you'd like to see it in your hometown newspaper, hound your newspaper's editorial staff mercilessly until they contact me.