Today in Comics History, September 19: Happy birthday, William Golding!

Born on this day in 1911: author William Golding, who wrote The Pyramid, the To the Ends of the Earth trilogy, The Inheritors, The Brass Butterfly, The Scorpion God, and of course Lord of the Flies, all about a young hobbit who has been tasked to toss a particularly nasty housefly into an evil volcano...Oh, I've made another one of my silly mistakes. It's actually a novelization of that episode of The Simpsons where all the kids were marooned on a deserted island from a sinking school bus.



from "The Lord of the Flies" in The Graphic Canon v.3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest (Seven Stories, July 2013), from the niovel by William Golding, adapted by Trevor Alixopulos
William Golding! One heck of a writer, not onloy of novels, but of pithy epitaths to round out your superhero saga.

from Earth X #12 (Marvel, April 2000), co-plot and script by Jim Krueger, co-plot by Alex Ross, pencils and ink assists by John Paul Leon, inks by Bill Reinhold, colors by Melissa Edwards, letters by Todd Klein
(Click top picture to fattening-Earth-diet-size)
Happy birthday, Bill!

Today in Comics History, July 2: Happy birthday, Hermann Hesse!

Born on this day long long ago (1877), in a galaxy far far away Germany: writer, artist, philosopher, and poet Howard Hesseman Hermann Hesse! He created Steppenwolf!


"Steppenwolf" from Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe (1985 series) #22 (DC, December 1986); pencils by Jack Kirby; inks by Terry Austin; colors by Anthony Tollin, Len Wein, Tatjana Wood, and/or Tom Ziuko
Wait, I've made another one of my silly mistakes. That's by Jack Kirby who is pretty cool too but whose birthday doesn't come for another couple months. No, this is the guy who wrote the work that Kirby named his character after:



from "Steppenwolf" in The Graphic Canon Vol. 3: From "Heart of Darkness" to Hemingway to "Infinite Jest" (Seven Stories Press, July 2013); adaptation, pencils, inks, and letters by John Pierard