365 Days of Star Wars Comics, Day 50: Bounty hunters worship the lord of planet Fantagraphics

Panels from Star Wars: Jabba The Hutt: The Hunger of Princess Nampione-shot (June 1995), script by Jim Woodring, pencils by Art Wetherell, inks by Monty Sheldon, colors by Matt Webb, letters by Steve Dutro

Twain and Einstein meet Team America!

When anyone mentions the dynamic duo of Mark Twain and Albert Einstein, I hope you think of the Fantagraphics-published comics of Michael Kupperman, which regularly team-up these two wild-haired, hard-hitting action adventure heroes: Twain and Einstein!


Panels from Tales Designed to Thrizzle Volume 2 (November 2012); script, pencils, inks, colors, and letters by Michael Kupperman
You really should not miss Twain and Einstein's wacky, way-out adventures, and you can find them in the Tales Designed to Thrizzle comic, which we can only hope Mister Kupperman is going to produce more issues of. I can't live without this!:


Or this!


In fact, Kupperman's adventures of Twain and Einstein span not only all of time and space but all comics genres!


At the same time, though, I often wonder if Kupperman's twenty-first century comics were influenced or by inspired by a different comic book from 1982...Captain America #269!


Panels from Captain America (1968 series) #269 (May 1982); script by J.M. DeMatteis; pencils by Mike Zeck; inks by John Beatty, Mike Zeck, and Joe Rubinstein; colors by Bob Sharen, letters by Jim Novak
There's Twain, and herrrrrrrre's Einstein!


The Adventures of Twain and Einstein! As we sometimes say about Batman...Captain America Did It First!


Bonus Special Weirdness Element to This Issue: it guest-stars Team America!


I cannot do justice to this issue unless I quote liberally from its plot summary at the Grand Comics Database.

Cap is taking part in a charity motorcycle event with Team America when a giant monster appears and captures a Nobel Prize winner who is in the audience; Cap and Team America follow the monster through a transporter tube and find themselves in a quaint little town peopled by the world's greatest thinkers from the past. This is all part of the Mad Thinker's agenda to surround himself with suitable companions to stimulate his intellect, but when Cap finds the missing Nobel members about to be turned into robots, he and Team America bring an end to the Thinker's Machiavellian plan.

Okay, Michael Kupperman, it's your move...now I want to see Twain and Einstein team up with Norwegian classical composer Edvard Grieg!

Kim Thompson (1956-2013)

Kim Thompson, co-publisher of Fantagraphics, has been much on my mind since he passed away last week, but I haven't been able to write about him until now—thoughts come much easier than words. These are words I wish I hadn't had to write.

I first met Kim in 2001, and I worked with him in the publishing industry through 2008. It was a grand education. Mention "Fantagraphics" and generally the first person who comes to mind is Gary Groth, often described as the comic industry's bête noire: his take-no-prisoners attitude, his gleeful refusal to suffer fools gladly, and his bombastic energy are legendary—so I was surprised as i got to know Gary better and found him to be, if not a pussycat, then one of the nicest, smartest men in comics I've ever had a chance to know, a man who has had a respect for the knowledge of publishing I brought to the Fantagraphics table and a patience to teach me the Fanta way. I say this all about Gary with a great admiration and thanks to Gary because, as Kim's passing reminds me, I'd much rather say these things while the person is around than afterwards.

Kim was the quieter partner of the two, but you would never mistake any placidness for a lack of passion or energy. (And, I'm reminded, Kim could be pretty delightfully bombastic as well.) From him I learned a love and respect of the large line of acclaimed Fantagraphics books and comic. Many—in fact, by sheer nature of the concept of sales, most—of these were never strong sellers, but it captivated me to hear him speak and express his admiration and appreciation of many comics I'd never heard of, but Kim's endorsement was enough to get me to give them a try. Especially in the field of European comics, there are few others who have his knowledge, and this will be sorely missed. He taught me the intricacies of translation, the love of European "fine line" style, and he got me, a lifelong Asterix snob, to finally read and treasure every volume of Tintin. I learned a lot from him, and I'm proud to have done so and to have been his friend if only for a short time.


And...because even now I can't resist tweaking him a bit...never, never forget that even though he knew more about Hergé, Jacques Tardi and Lewis Trondheim than all of us put together...never forget that he was also once a Marvel fan.


Letter printed in The Amazing Spider-Man #144 (May 1975)



Letter printed in Kull the Conqueror #11 (November 1973)



Letter printed in The Incredible Hulk v.2 #185 (March 1975)


I intended to post these to tease Kim about his humble teenage fandom, and I missed my chance. I'll miss Kim very much, too.


Oh! And so, while I have the chance:


Letter printed in Thor #162 (May 1968)

—John

Duckburg: Hellmouth (Day 31)

Walt Disney's Donald Duck one-shot (Fantagraphics, October 2011), cover art by Carl Barks

Since I'm in New York, I went to this.*

One of the finest things about living in New York City, beside the pizza and the bagels (and the pizza bagels), is the wide variety of society events and extravaganzas you can go to if you pay attention to the events ongoing throughout the city in this week's Time Out New York. As a little stuffed bull with a keen eye for art and culture, it's always fun to spend a few hours in the evening at some art opening or wonderful cocktail party. Of course, I also enjoy to read comics. That's why the best art opening that could have possibly opened, opened tonight at the Society of Illustrators on the Upper East Side: a retrospective of 30 years of original artwork from the books and comics of Mister Groth and Mister Thompson's Fantagraphics.

I do not get to go to lots of art opening nights often so this was quite a treat. Even then I sometimes find art galleries perplexing and bewildering. Normally I peer at art carefully over my reading glasses and try to understand what it is saying to me. I'm no art snob, of course—I'm pretty bullish on most of it—but I do especially love comics and I'd argue with ya that they are as worthy of the name art as most stuff that goes on in this busy, busy city, and more so than some. Orange curtains in the park? Really, I have those in my shower and no one wrote about me in the Times.

Original artwork from throughout the history of Fantagraphics is on display, and if you're a fan of contemporary indie comics I highly recommend it. You can see work by Dan Clowes, Peter Bagge, Los Bros. Hernandez, Carol Lay, Jordan Crane, Kaz, Bob Fingerman, Joe Sacco, Tony Millionaire, Ivan Brunetti, Dan Altergott,. Bill Griffith, and the proverbial many, many more, stretching throughout Fantagraphics's history from a stat of the front cover of Love & Rockets #1 to the coming-soon thirtieth anniversary history of Fanta. Look out! Gary's got a gun!



Plus, you can read about what a Marvel fanboy Gary was in his younger days, and if you're the sort who just has to ask the question "Whatever happened to Al Columbia?"—well then, he's got some artwork here too. I get to work with the fine folks at Fanta distributing their books to bookstores around the country and they are a wild and wacky lot to deal with, but golly, do they ever put out a swell variety of comics for all interests. The art show's a sideways slice of history.

Still not convinced? Energetic Eric Reynolds has posted several photos of the exhibition and describes in it more detail here on FLOG. Seriously, it's wonderful to get to admire up close such a wide variety of beautiful original comics art, and the admission price is right: free, baby, free! Take the F train (the best train) to Lexington Ave./63th Street, and look for the Society of Illustrators right as you exit the subway. It's that simple! Even if you have a head stuffed full of beans like me!

The show runs from now through October 21, and the Society galleries are open Tuesday 10-8, Wednesday-Friday 10-5, and Saturday 12-4. I'm goin' back, you betcha, so if you see me there, say "hi!" I'm the little fuzzy one, standing on his tiphoofs to look at the art.

*apologies to Tom Spurgeon for the post title

Fun comics in Seattle!

Hi hi hi everybody! Here I am in the Emerald City! No, not that one—that's what they call Seattle, Washington! John and I are here on a business trip (even tho' he is doing mort of the business!) Yesterday we went to see Mister Mulliner (no relation to this guy!) at Amazon.com so John could sell him the wonderful Norton books he has, and then today we went to visit Fantagraphics and had lunch with Mister Gary and Mister Kim 'n' Eric 'n' Greg 'n' even Conrad came along for the visit! I had a wonderful Cuban sandwich that was so good it made me immediately forgive Fidel Castro for most anythin' that he might have done. Viva la sandwich! I even got to play with Mister Kim's dachshund, Lugvig! I miss Ludvig. He was very long and low and cute. If you are reading this, Ludvig, hi hi hi!

We went to Zanadu Comics in Seattle which is a lovely lovely store! They have lots of comics and books and action figures and toys and all sortsa stuff. John bought me a bunch of new comics to read but instead I thought I'd tell you about some other things he got for me there and that I got this week in Seattle that were so much fun than just the usual bunch of weekly comics!


THE ESSENTIAL LUKE CAGE, POWER MAN: HERO FOR HIRE: This comic is fun! First of all John bought me a big fat Marvels Essentials collection of Luke Cage: Hero for Hire! This is one of the 1970s Marvel comic books John loves a lot and I thought it was the most fun ever. It's about a big strong black superhero private detective in New York—he's kinda like "Shaft" except he has super-strength and diamond-hard skin and you can sing a song about him without being told to shush yo' mouth. Luke Cage works out of an office by a movie theater on 42nd Street back in the 1970s and has all sorts of adventures fighting bad guys and solving crime and yellin' "Sweet Christmas!" and "Jive Turkey!" and "Luke Cage is Bustin' Through!" all the time! He sure did get beat up a lot but he's pretty tough. It's a big big book of black-and-white comics reprints and it took me all day to read it. I highly recommend it. Two hooves up! (You can buy one for yourself if you click on the Amazon link up and to the right—see? Right over there! Tell 'em Bully sent ya!)


WESTERN GUNFIGHTERS #16: This comic is fun. John usually buys me new comics but he said what I need once in a while is to see what comic books used to be like. That's why he bought me the Luke Cage book and that's why he bought me this raggedy old back issue from the bin at Zanadu and told me I'd enjoy it. And boy howdy did I! We are going to Reno, Nevada next week (we'll be visiting Amazon's Fulfillment Center there) and I'm really looking forward to seeing the West. This comic book got me all ready for being out West! It was four reprints of Marvel western comics that were—as the cowboys would say—darn tootin' fun! There was a Kid Colt, Outlaw story, and Black Rider (oooh, he's spooky!) and Apache Kid, and a story about a bad gambler...western fun all around! Some of the stories were by my personal pal Stan Lee. (Stan's a heck of a nice guy but make sure you remind him, very politely and gently, that he didn't create the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man all by himself! He had lotsa help!) Anyway, yee-haw, this old comic was fun, and I sure do hope John will buy me some more back issues once in a while.

THE COMPLETE PEANUTS 1957-1958: This comic is fun. And John didn't even buy this one for me! Eric at Fantagraphics gave it to me and said that even tho' the book won't be published and in your local bookstore until October, I could have a early paperback copy! YAY! Thanks, Eric! You're the coolest, dude. If you look at the picture above you can see it isn't a finished book. This is what we in the publishing world call an "advance reading copy" or "galley" (well, at least what John tells me it is called!) I was a little worried when they told me it was an "advanced reading copy" because I was thinking maybe I wasn't advanced enough to read it, because, you may recall, I am jus' a little stuffed bull! But Eric assured me that it wasn't "advanced," it was "advance" and that just meant it came out early. Hooray for Eric! He also gave me a nifty "Dennis the Menace" pin and John told me that Camilla would say it was very approprate for me to be wearing a "Menace" pin .............. I don't get it. Anyway, that just made it the best visit every to Fantagraphics and I really, really enjoyed reading THE COMPLETE PEANUTS 1957-1958 in our hotel room in Seattle. It is all early comic strips by Charles M. Schulz (make sure you spell it right! it's not "Schultz!) and some of the best strips are in here. Mister Kim said "Sparky was hitting on all cylinders in these strips!" I didn't see any sparks or cylinders but I laughed and laughed and laughed. That's why THE COMPLETE PEANUTS 1957-1958 gets my award for the most fun comic of the week.