Help Crawdaddy founder Paul Williams

Paul Williams, who essentially created rock journalism with the rock mag Crawdaddy! in 1966 could use help with medical bills following a recent bicycling accident that left him with a brain injury, Rolling Stone reports.

You can make donations here.

Pop links: Beatles! Kurtzman! Low-budget super-hero flicks revisited!

Visit the Beatles official site for a sneak preview of the packaging for the band's remastered CDs, due out in September.

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See a video for "Beyond Here Lies Nothing," a tune from Bob Dylan's new album.

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Potrzebie shares some of Harvey Kurtzman's pre-Mad "Silver Linings" comic strips.



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Oh geeze, Fred Hembeck is giving me no excuses not to watch comic book-related movies I've up to now managed to avoid watching. Hey Fred, I did once procure a bootleg copy of that 1994 Fantastic Four flick you just reviewed and I watched it. Well, part of it, anyway.

G.I. Joe Nurse Action Girl

Doctor Who vintage paperbacks pt. 10







DC Comics July 2009 soliciations

DC has announced its releases for next July. Here's what looks interesting to me:


WEDNESDAY COMICS #1-4
In July, DC Comics gives a fresh twist to a grand comics tradition with WEDNESDAY COMICS, a new, weekly 12-issue series by some of the greatest names in comics today!
WEDNESDAY COMICS is unique in modern comics history: Reinventing the classic weekly newspaper comics section, it is a 16-page weekly that unfolds to a sprawling 28” x 20” tabloid-sized reading experience bursting with mind-blowing color, action and excitement, with each feature on its own 14” x 20” page.
Each page of WEDNESDAY COMICS spotlights the continuing adventures of DC heroes, including:
• BATMAN, WEDNESDAY COMICS’ weekly cover feature, by the Eisner Award-winning 100 BULLETS team of writer Brian Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso
• ADAM STRANGE, by writer/artist Paul Pope (BATMAN: YEAR 100)
• METAMORPHO, written by New York Times best-selling writer Neil Gaiman with art by Eisner Award-winner Michael Allred (Madman)
• THE DEMON AND CATWOMAN, written by Walter Simonson (Thor, MANHUNTER) with art by famed DC cover artist Brian Stelfreeze
• DEADMAN, written by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck, art by Dave Bullock
• KAMANDI, written by Dave Gibbons (WATCHMEN, GREEN LANTERN CORPS) with art by Ryan Sook (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, ARKHAM ASYLUM: LIVING HELL)
• SUPERMAN, written by John Arcudi (The Mask) with art by Lee Bermejo (JOKER)
• WONDER WOMAN, written and illustrated by Ben Caldwell (Dare Detectives)
• GREEN LANTERN, written by Kurt Busiek (TRINITY, ASTRO CITY) with art by Joe Quiñones (TEEN TITANS GO!)
• TEEN TITANS, written by Eddie Berganza with art by Sean Galloway
• SUPERGIRL, written by Jimmy Palmiotti (JONAH HEX) with art by Amanda Conner (POWER GIRL)
• HAWKMAN, written and illustrated by Kyle Baker (PLASTIC MAN, Special Forces)
• SGT. ROCK, written by Adam Kubert (SUPERMAN: LAST SON), ilustrated by legendary comics artist Joe Kubert
• THE FLASH, written by Karl Kerschl (TEEN TITANS YEAR ONE, THE FLASH: THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE) and Brenden Fletcher, illustrated by Karl Kerschl
• METAL MEN, written by Dan DiDio with art by Ian Churchill (SUPERGIRL)
WEDNESDAY COMICS will arrive in stores folded twice to 7” x 10”, with the first issue set to reach stores on July 8.
Issue #1 on sale July 8; Issue #2 on sale July 15; Issue #3 on sale July 22; Issue #4 on sale July 29 • 1-4 of 12 • 7” x 10”, 16 pg, FC, $3.99 US


THE SPIRIT #31
Written by Mike Ploog
Art by Mike Ploog & Dan Green
Cover by Nick Cardy
Commissioner Dolan's nephew Danny is in a whole heap of trouble, and it falls to The Spirit to rescue him – but to do so, he's got to contend with Danny's amnesia, a priceless stolen artifact, and the latest in The Spirit's run of femmes fatales, the deadly "Adios!" Don't miss Eisner colleague Mike Ploog's return to THE SPIRIT in this two-part story!
On sale July 22 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US


BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT ARCHIVES VOL. 6 HC
Written by Jack Schiff, Bill Finger and others
Art by Dick Sprang, Bob Kane, Jack Burnley,
Jerry Robinson and others
Cover by Dick Sprang
In this new hardcover collecting BATMAN #21-25 (1944), The Dynamic Duo face the evil of villains including The Penguin, The Ghost Gang, The Joker, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum and others, with the help of would-be detective Alfred.
Advance-solicited; on sale December 16 • 228 pg, FC, $59.99 US


SHOWCASE PRESENTS: ECLIPSO TP
Written by Bob Haney
Art by Lee Elias, Alex Toth, Jack Sparling and Bernard Baily
Cover by Bernard Baily
One of the strangest comics villains ever stars in this volume collecting HOUSE OF SECRETS #61-80! On an expedition in the South Pacific, scientist Bruce Gordon’s dark side is unleashed after being exposed to a black diamond. Transformed into the powerful Eclipso, he embarked on an evil rampage as his good side attempted to reassert control.
Advance-solicited; on sale August 26 • 296 pg, B&W, $9.99 US


SHOWCASE PRESENTS: THE FLASH VOL. 3 TP
Written by John Broome, Gardner Fox and Robert Kanigher
Art by Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Frank Giacoia and Murphy Anderson
Cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson
The Rogues take over in this new third volume collecting THE FLASH #141-161. Don’t miss the Scarlet Speedster’s epic battles with The Trickster, The Weather Wizard, The Mirror Master, Captain Cold and more!
Advance-solicited; on sale August 12 • 520 pg, B&W, $16.99 US

CD new releases April 21, 2009: Booker T., Pete Seeger, Bjork, Turtles, Julie London, more!

New releases of note this week. Click the links to order discounted CDs from Amazon.


Potato Hole by Booker T.


The Bright Mississippi by Allen Toussaint


Viper of Melody by Wayne Hancock


Holy Tweet by Terry Adams


Rainbow Race / Now / Young Vs. Old by Pete Seeger


Voltaic by Bjork


Save the Turtles: The Turtles Greatest Hits by The Turtles


Four Classics LPs- Blossom Dearie/Blossom Plays For Dancing/Give Him The Ooh-La-La/Once Upon A Summertime by Blossom Dearie


American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 1-5 by Pete Seeger


Live at Sugar Hill, San Francisco by Carmen McRae


The Little Red Box of Protest Songs by Various Artists


Julie Is Her Name by Julie London

DVD new releases April 21, 2009: Caprica, The Wrestler, Frost/Nixon, Blu-ray X-men, more!

Noteworthy releases this week. Click the links to order discounted titles from Amazon.


Caprica


The Wrestler


Frost/Nixon


X-Men Trilogy (X-Men / X2: X-Men United / X-Men: The Last Stand) [Blu-ray]


Hawaii Five-O: Sixth Season


Wolverine and the X-Men: Heroes Return Trilogy

Pop links: Hogarth's Tarzan! More Toth! Rare Ketchum! 1964 ska documentary!

See a selection of Burne Hogarth-illustrated Tarzan strips at Golden Age Comic Book Stories.



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More Alex Toth from Fortress of Fortitude!



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Those Fabulous Fifties presents a selection of rare Hank Ketchum cartoons.



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YouTube: "This is Ska," a cool documentary from 1964.

Help restore Len Wein's comics collection

Veteran comic book writer Len Wein, the co-creator or Wolverine, Swamp Thing and other creators, lost most of his belongings in a a devastating house fire a few weeks back. Among the things he lost were copies of all the comics he worked on--shelves and shelves of bound volumes.

Thankfully, Len's pal and fellow comics scribe Mark Evanier is providing us all with a way to help Len out. Check out Mark's "Let's Rebuild Len Wein's Comic Book Collection Page" to get involved. At the site, you can peruse a list of what Len lost and learn how to donate a replacement.

Way to go Mark!

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June 2009 comics solications: more good stuff

We've looked at what's coming out from DC and Marvel Comics in June. Here are some other upcoming releases of note. Click the title links to order discounted books from Amazon.



BUCK ROGERS #1
(W) Scott Beatty (A) Carlos Rafael (C) John Cassaday, Alex Ross
The future begins now! Join us as we present pop culture's first hero - Buck Rogers! The first man out of time... the first man to be taken from his present and thrown into the future... the inspiration for countless heroes, and it all begins here! From the thrilling adventure presented in Dynamite's introductory issue #0 last month, the creative team of writer Scott Beatty, artist Carlos Rafael and 50/50 cover artists Alex Ross and John Cassaday (Cassaday serves as the regular cover artist for the series) present this all-new issue #1! In the tradition of modern stories for iconic legendary heroes, Buck Rogers is the next BIG hit series from Dynamite! Join us for an all-new presentation of this classic sci-fi hero as the future truly begins now! Hey, we could tell you more, but that would ruin the surprise of the comic adventure!


LOCAS: A LOVE & ROCKETS BOOK HC VOL 1
by Xaime Hernandez 8.5 x 11, 712 pages, BW, $49.95
One of the most humane, graceful and imaginatively inexhaustible artists in American popular culture, Jaime Hernandez has created in Locas one of the great American novels of the last 30 years, graphic or otherwise. Created over 15 years from 1981 to 1996 in the pages of the legendary comic book series Love and Rockets, Locas tells the story of Maggie Chascarrillo, a bisexual, Mexican-American woman attempting to define herself in a community rife with class, race and gender issues. Maggie's story begins in the early-1980s Southern California rock scene, when it was shifting from the excesses of the 1970s to the gritty basics of punk and new wave. Hardcore punk rock came to the fore, and the teenaged Maggie finds herself drawn to the anarchy, energy and diversity of the scene, which in Jaime's hands becomes a very real, habitable place populated with authentic human beings rather than stereotypes. She quickly befriends Hopey Glass, a feisty anti-authoritarian punkette who quickly becomes Maggie's on-again, off-again lover and a constant presence in her life throughout the book.

LOCAS HC VOL 2 MAGGIE HOPEY & RAY
by Xaime Hernandez
This second, doorstop-sized omnibus volume of "Locas" tales by Jaime Hernandez - collecting over a dozen years' worth of stories from the award-winning Love & Rockets comics - picks up shortly after Maggie and Hopey's long-awaited reunion at the end of the Locas hardcover. Even though her love life remains as chaotic as ever, Hopey takes her first few steps toward responsible adulthood with a real job (as a teacher), while a depressed, divorced Maggie ends up as the manager of a fleabag apartment building, where she continues to wrestle with the demons of her past - most prominently in the stunning centerpiece of the volume, the graphic novel-length "Ghost of Hoppers," with its hallucinatory dream finale. On the "guy" side Ray, still carrying a major torch for Maggie, falls in with the "Frogmouth," the volatile bombshell (arguably the sexiest woman Jaime has ever drawn, which is saying something) whose ties to local thugs cause some hairy moments indeed. Of course, Maggie, Hopey, and Ray's paths continue to intersect in Jaime's increasingly complex, always richly imagined world, along with those of characters both old (Izzy Ortiz, Penny Century) and new (the jockette Angel, the mysterious superheroine Alarma).


I SHALL DESTROY ALL THE CIVILIZED PLANETS TP VOL 1
by Fletcher Hanks; Edited by Paul Karasik
Welcome to the bizarre world of Fletcher Hanks, Super Wizard of the inkwell. Fletcher Hanks worked for only a few years in the earliest days of the comic book industry (1939-1941). Because he worked in a gutter medium for second-rate publishers on third-rate characters his work has been largely forgotten. But among aficionados he is legendary. Hanks drew in a variety of genres depicting science-fiction saviors, white women of the jungle, and he-man loggers. Cartoonist Paul Karasik (co-adapter of Paul Auster's City of Glass and co-author of The Ride Together, a Memoir of Autism in the Family) has spent years tracking down these obscure and hard to find stories buried in the back of long-forgotten comic book titles. Karasik has also uncovered a dark secret: why Hanks disappeared from the comics scene. This book collects 15 of his best stories in one volume followed by an Afterword which solves the mystery of "Whatever Happened to Fletcher Hanks," the mysterious cartoonist who created a hailstorm of tales of brutal retribution... and then mysteriously vanished.


YOU SHALL DIE BY YOUR OWN EVIL CREATION TP VOL 2
by Fletcher Hanks; Edited by Paul Karasik
Fletcher Hanks was the first great comic book auteur. That is, he wrote, penciled, inked, and lettered all of his own stories. He completed an astonishing 48 stories in three years from 1939-1941. As a one-man-cartooning-band, his work packs the wallop of a unique and unified artistic vision. He was a true comics visionary. In the earliest days of the comic book, before censorship, it was "anything goes!" - and in the tales of Fletcher Hanks, anything went! The superhero Stardust gazes down at evil-doers from space and doles out ice cold slabs of poetic justice with his wizardry. A villain out to kidnap all the heads of state gets turned into a giant head, himself...no body, just a head! The jungle protectress, Fantomah, looks like Jean Harlow in a skin-tight black negligee. But when she sees an evil scientist drugging gorillas to become slaves, her head transforms into a flaming skull and she tosses the villain to the gorillas who proceed to graphically tear the guy limb from ragged limb. Although the early comic books were meant for the kiddies, today's mature readers are stunned by their pop surrealism and outright violent mayhem. The first volume of Fletcher Hanks stories, I Shall Destroy All Civilized Planets! (now in its fourth printing) was an Eisner Award-winning smash hit and a staple on "Best of the Year" lists. Comics fans were thrilled to come upon a cartoonist of this caliber whom they had never heard of before. Non comics fans who read about the book in The Believer and other journals were stunned to discover an Outsider Artist in comic book form. Edited by cartoonist Paul Karasik, this second volume You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation, collects all of the rest of Hanks comic book work. That's right... ALL! The 31 tales in this book (more than TWICE as many as in the first), when combined with the first volume, will comprise The Complete Fletcher Hanks!


MAGIC TRIXIE GN VOL 3 MAGIC TRIXIE & THE DRAGON
(W/A) Jill Thompson
She's smart. She's sassy. And she has a big problem! When Magic Trixie sees dragons at the circus, she wants a dragon of her own. So where's a young witch to turn? Magic, of course! Jill Thompson brings her dazzling talents to this graphic novel series, and has created a brilliant, laugh-out-loud confection in adorable young Trixie. Magic Trixie and her monster friends will win over kids with their hilarious hijinks!


CAPTAIN CANUCK HC VOL 1
Richard Comely (w) * George Freeman (a & c)
Canada's first superhero returns! Captain Canuck has influenced Canadian cartoonists for more than 30 years, and now the best-selling opus returns with the first of two beautiful hardcover editions. Volume 1 collects issues #4-10. HC * FC * $24.99 * 152 Pages


DOCTOR WHO AUTOPIA (ONE SHOT)
John Ostrander (w) * Kelly Yates (a) * Yates, photo (c)
An All-American creative team tackles the celebrated Doctor in this special standalone tale. John Ostrander (Star Wars: Legacy) writes and Kelly Yates (Doctor Who: The Forgotten) illustrates an adventure where the Doctor and his companion Donna arrive on a utopian planet where robots do all the manual labor. But things aren't quite what they seem... 2 regular covers will be shipped in a 1-to-1 ratio. FC * 32 pages


NEXUS AS IT HAPPENED TP VOL 1
(W) Mike Baron (A) Steve Rude
On the distant moon of Ylum, an enigmatic man is plagued by nightmares. He is forced to dream of the past. He dreams of real-life butchers and tyrants, and what they have done. And then he finds them, and kills them. The year is 2841, and this man is Nexus, a godlike figure who acts as judge, jury, and executioner for the vile criminals who appear in his dreams. He claims to kill in self-defense, but why? Where do the visions come from, and where did he get his powers? Though a hero to many, does he have any real moral code? Collecting Nexus Volume 1 #1-3 and Volume 2 #1-4 from Capital Comics. A multiple Eisner Award-winning series that defined the careers of creators Steve Rude and Mike Baron, Nexus is a modern classic not to be missed! SC, 6x9, 216pgs, B&W SRP: $9.99


MODESTY BLAISE TP VOL 16 SCARLET MAIDEN
(W) Peter O'Donnell (A) Neville Colvin
Adventurer, spy, smuggler, racketeer and all-round bad girl, Modesty Blaise is as stylish as she is smart, as lethal and beautiful as a Japanese fighting sword! This volume features three classic hard-to-find stories: "The Scarlet Maiden," "The Moonman," and "A Few Flowers for the Colonel." This volume features new story introductions by creator Peter O'Donnell, and an article with ultra rare strips that have not been seen in over twenty years. SC, 104pgs

G.I. Joe Action Sailor


Doctor Who vintage paperbacks pt. 9