Todd Klein's Blog, page 201

And Then I Read: LUMBERJANES Vol. 1

Images © Boom Entertainment.

Here’s another one of those comics I’m definitely NOT the target audience for, but it won lots of awards, and I wanted to know why. This collection of the first 8 issues (a complete story arc) allowed me to find out.

The Lumberjanes are along the lines of Girl Scouts, at a summer camp in the woods. The collection is set up like a scout manual, with each issue presented as, in part, the quest for a particular merit badge. There’s lots of nods and winks to real scouting, as well as humor in this approach, with merit badges such as “Jail Break Badge,” and “Up All Night Badge.” The camp name has “Girls” crossed out and replaced with “Hardcore Lady Types.” The lady types of Roanoke Cabin, above, are a brave and spirited bunch who are determined to have fun at this camp, and get the most out of it, even when beset by all kinds of weird dangers and unusual events. Right at the start of the first chapter we know things are far from normal at the camp when the girls are set upon by a pack of three-eyed foxes. Before long there are magic amulets and crystals, underground caverns full of death traps, dinosaurs, magical beings, even gods and goddesses. Their camp counselor, a slightly older girl, tries to keep them in line, but events are always getting out of hand for Roanoke Cabin. Even the camp commander is not exactly what she seems.

Throughout the story there are puzzles and mysteries to be solved, camp activities and skills to master, and the friendships between the girls of Roanoke are tested, but remain strong. It’s an empowering story for girls, even with all the weirdness. The art owes a lot to Saturday Morning cartoons, but with the influence of independent comics like BONE, I would say. I found it hard to take the characters very seriously at first because of that cartoony art, but they grew on me, and by the end I was right there with them. The writing is fresh, funny, creative and charming. This is, indeed, worthy of merit badges galore.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE MUCKER / RETURN OF THE MUCKER by Edgar Rice Burroughs

While looking for something to read on my phone a while back, I remembered artist friend Mark Wheatley saying “The Mucker” was his favorite Burroughs novel. It’s one I hadn’t read, and a free copy was available on iBooks. It even came with the second Mucker novel, though not labeled as such, just called “Book Two.”

Billy Byrne is unlike any Burroughs protagonist I can think of. I hesitate to even call him a hero, because for most of the book he’s anything but. Growing up in the slums of Chicago, Billy is a tough, uneducated street brawler, gangster, and small-time criminal. He’s had an awful upbringing, and seems to hate just about everyone except a few gang buddies. He has lots of enemies, and when one of them frames him for a murder he didn’t commit, Billy has to flee Chicago. He ends up in San Francisco where he gets Shanghied into the crew of a disreputable sailing ship heading for the South Pacific. Billy hates his situation, and continues to act with cruelty to those around him, but the rest of the crew isn’t much better, and Billy gradually learns to be a sailor, and doesn’t mind the hard work. The ship is headed for a kind of piracy on the high seas, they intend to kidnap the daughter of a very rich American businessman sailing their way in his private yacht. The kidnapping takes place amid lots of confusion and counter-plotting among the crew. Then a huge storm hits, and both vessels are in trouble and nearly sunk. The pirate ship ends up on a small island far from shipping lanes, where they land and make camp. Billy Byrne is among a group of mutineers who set off into the jungle planning to leave the ship for good, but they’re attacked by natives, and soon find their trouble is only beginning.

The other main character of the book is Barbara Harding, the kidnapped heiress. Despite his hatred of those with money and privilege, Billy finds himself falling for Barbara, and when she’s kidnapped by the natives, he goes through great hardship and danger to rescue her. Billy and Barbara end up spending some months on a small island in a river in the jungle. Here, she gradually civilizes Billy, and her love causes him to rethink his life and values, reforming his bad ways. Eventually they are rescued by Barbara’s father, after lots of difficulties and return to New York, but Billy knows he’s not a man who can aspire to a girl like Barbara, and even though she says she loves him, he pushes her toward the man she was formerly planning to marry, after finding success in a new boxing career.

In the second book, Billy tries to clear his name in Chicago, but finds it only gets him a long prison term. On the way to prison, Billy escapes, and eludes the law, hopping freight trains going west and south. He befriends a well-educated and poetic hobo named Bridge, and after some close escapes from pursuit, the two end up in Mexico, where the country is overrun by bandit groups like the one headed by Pancho Villa. All kinds of trouble ensues, even when Billy joins one of the bandit groups himself. Before long Barbara Harding and her father are back in the story, visiting a ranch they own in the territory, and the plot runs rampant through all kinds of bandit attacks, a bank robbery, attacks on the ranch, kidnapping, Indian fighting, and so on. Eventually Billy and Barbara get together, even though Bridge is also in love with Barbara, leaving things tense right to the end.

I enjoyed the first book, even though the character of Billy didn’t appeal to me all that much. There’s enough adventure, action and character development to keep it interesting, even when it gets melodramatic. I didn’t like the second book as much. The plot seems convoluted, is full of unlikely coincidences, and gets tiresome. Billy’s new-found goodness is always set aside when a fight is handy, and there’s a lot of racial stereotyping in Mexico. In all, I’m glad I read it, but can only recommend the first book.

And Then I Read: WALT KELLY’S FAIRY TALES

Before the POGO comic strip became the main focus of writer/artist Walt Kelly, he did comics of many kinds, and this is a beautifully produced Yoe Books/IDW collection of all his fairy tale stories and adaptations from Dell’s FAIRY TALE PARADE comic from the 1940s. The cover sparkles with gold foil, also on the page edges, the binding is sewn, the paper is thick and luscious. It’s a class act all the way.

Inside, each 8.5 by 11 inch page reproduces a comic page or cover in high resolution scans from the original comics that are brightened up enough to look as they might have when the original comics were new. Kelly is best known for drawing and writing about animals, and there are plenty of those here, but his fairy tale princes, princesses, knights, giants, witches, townsfolk and human children are just as charming. Some of the stories are mostly straight adaptations of famous fairy tales we all know like Hansel and Gretel and Cinderella, but even those benefit from Kelly’s wit and storytelling ability. When he goes beyond the familiar to tell what seem to be new fairy tales made up from whole cloth, the results are even more fun and surprising. I love Walt Kelly’s work, and this book is brimming with excellent examples of it. I can’t imagine a finer gift for reading to children, or to be read by them. Children of any age.

Highly recommended.

THE DANNY CRESPI FILES Part 1

This will be an occasional series, perhaps a long one, examining pages of photocopies mailed to me recently by fellow letterer Phil Felix. Phil told me he put together this large collection of Marvel cover lettering during his time working on staff in the Marvel bullpen (1983-1987). It all came from a giant manila envelope of saved pieces of original hand-drawn cover lettering that Danny Crespi had kept. Phil estimates the collection is at least 80% the work of Crespi himself. There are about 80 pages of cover lettering from hundreds of covers that Phil assembled onto letter-size paper, and it was copied often by Marvel staffers and letterers over the years. Phil reports that Danny told him he could keep the originals, but when Danny died in 1986, Phil decided to return them to Danny’s family. I’ll be looking at a few pages in each blog post. The piece above came at the front of the collection. Despite what it says, not everyone listed contributed cover lettering, as there were also pages of logos, and a few other related items. For instance, there’s no cover lettering from me in these pages, I didn’t do any for Marvel until 1988 or so.

Danny Crespi from the Marvel Convention book, 1975

There isn’t much information about Danny Crespi online, but he did an interview with David Anthony Kraft that appeared in “Comics Interview” #9, dated March 1984. I’m guessing the interview happened in late 1983. Here’s some information from it and from friends and family.

Danny was born around 1928 (I don’t have an accurate date). He began working in comics in the 1950s in the Timely/Atlas bullpen, the company that would become Marvel. He lettered pages, and worked alongside Morrie Kuramoto, John and Marie Severin, Carl Burgos, Sol Brodsky, Bill Everett, Chris Rule, and Artie Simek. Stan Lee was the editor-in-chief, and Martin Goodman the publisher. Letterers were not credited at the time, and Goodman published hundreds of titles, so pinpointing any Crespi lettering from them is probably impossible. In 1957, distribution problems led to huge cutbacks at the company, and most of the bullpen staff were let go, including Danny. Unhappy with the comics business, Crespi went into advertising, doing freelance board work and paste-ups for agencies like BBD & O. He did that work, including lots of hand-lettering for about twelve years.

Around 1969, Danny was talking to his friend and former work-mate Morrie Kuramoto, now working in the Marvel bullpen, and found they needed help. Danny was tired of the freelance life, and was happy to take a staff job at Marvel, even though it didn’t pay well. (He may have begun as an in-house freelancer there at first.) Even once on staff, he continued to get freelance work from ad agencies. In the Marvel bullpen Danny did corrections and paste-ups, and became friends with the production manager, John Verpoorten. John began offering him freelance cover lettering work, I think in 1974 (from the evidence found in this collection so far), and before long Danny was doing lots of it in the bullpen after his regular staff job hours. In the interview, Danny says: “I was working until seven or eight o’clock in the evening, doing cover lettering and cover copy for nine-tenths of the covers.”

In December of 1977, Verpoorten died suddenly. His assistant, Lenny Grow, was made Production Manager for a short time, then that position went to Danny. From what I’ve seen so far, Danny lettered many covers from 1975-1978, and then only a few here and there until the early 1980s. I’m guessing once Danny became Production Manager he didn’t do as much freelance, and was instead assigning cover lettering to others, as part of his new position.

This and all following images © Marvel.

PAGE 1. I was unfamiliar with Danny’s style when I started looking at these pages, but it’s a great help seeing copies of the lettering at original size, and in black and white.

Taking this one balloon as an example, I saw that Danny’s letters were wide and very regular, beautifully done. His open letters appeared slightly rounded, and he sometimes turned the right leg of an R up at the end. As I studied the page, including the piece at upper right where Danny lettered his own name, I decided it was all lettered by the same person, and that was Danny himself. This gave me a good starting point on becoming familiar with his style.

The other person doing a lot of cover lettering for Marvel in the mid 1970s was Gaspar Saladino. Above is some of his lettering from CONAN #58 cover-dated Jan. 1976. I was very familiar with Gaspar’s work from my time at DC, and I put together a similar book of HIS cover lettering when I was on staff there. I’ve posted a lot of that on my blog beginning HERE.  Gaspar also has very wide regular letters. He works in a wide variety of styles and is wonderfully creative. His lettering is full of energy. It all tends to be more angular than Danny’s.

The next challenge was finding printed sources for as much of the collection as possible, and for that I had help from friends on Facebook, including Danny’s nephew and co-worker Nel Yomtov, and comics historians and letterers like Patrick A. Reed, Gene Kannenberg Jr., Rodrigo Baeza and Nicholas Caputo, for which I thank them! First up is the burst at upper left from CAPTAIN AMERICA #208 dated April 1977.

“SPACE GOD” from THE ETERNALS #7 dated Jan. 1977.

“Spider on the Moon!” (with SPIDER twice) from MARVEL TEAM-UP # 55 dated March 1977.

“Excaliber” and the balloon left of it from SPIDER-WOMAN #2 dated May 1978.

Two balloons for Luke Skywalker from STAR WARS #2 dated Aug. 1977.

“Night of the Dragon” from MARVEL TEAM-UP #63 dated Nov. 1977.

“Finished!” from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #174 dated Nov. 1977.

And the top two bursts are from THOR #257 dated March 1977.

From these sources it’s clear the lettering pieces were not in any kind of order, but just jumbled up. Still, these are all from 1977 and 1978. Moving on…

PAGE 2. Already I was seeing lots of style points in common among these examples, like the heavy-outlined burst borders, and the rough-edged open letters (on both pages 1 and 2). These again all seem to be by the same person, Danny Crespi. The style of NAZIS was new, and reminds me a lot of Gaspar Saladino’s work. I’m sure Danny was studying that, as we all did at the time. Notice there are two upturned right legs on the word GROTESK.

“Sinister Soofi” from HOWARD THE DUCK #21 dated Feb. 1978.

“Spitfire!”  and the burst below it from THE INVADERS #12 dated Jan. 1977.

“To the Death!” from JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS #9 dated Feb. 1977.

“Red Skull Returns!” from SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP #10 dated Feb. 1977.

“Ulik” from THOR #252 dated Oct. 1976.

PAGE 3. Now getting more familiar with the style, I again feel these are all by Danny Crespi. There are some similarities to Gaspar Saladino’s work, but enough differences to make me sure these aren’t by him.

“Five super villains” from DAREDEVIL #123 dated July 1975.

“Infinitus” from MARVEL TEAM-UP #29 dated Jan. 1975. This must have been lettered in 1974, so an early one from Danny, and notice how much more impact the original lettering has than the one on the cover with black behind it.

“Bomb” from MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #10 dated July 1975.

“Martial Arts Madness” from MASTER OF KUNG-FU #38 dated March 1976. By the way, in the interview it’s also said that Danny designed this logo.

“Night of the Troll” from THOR #237 dated July 1975.

“Showdown” from TWO-GUN KID #124 dated June 1975. Again, the original lettering has much more impact without the black around it.

“Human Prey!” from WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #31 dated July 1975. Most of this batch is from 1975.

PAGE 4. At first I thought this was all by Danny Crespi, but I’m now not sure about the circle with “BLACK SUPER-HERO.” That’s from early 1974, and could be by someone else, or it could be an early effort from Danny, still finding his way.

Here’s the circular one from POWER MAN #19 dated June 1974. It would probably have been lettered in April 1974 or earlier. The open letters are not typical of Danny’s work even a year later, so it may not be his.

“You shall DIE!” from CRYPT OF SHADOWS #17 dated May 1975.

“Battle” from DAREDEVIL #123 dated May 1975. The circular one was on page 3.

“Wedding” from GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #4 dated June 1975.

“Shatterstar” from THE INHUMANS #3 dated Feb. 1976.

That’s all this time, more when I have a chance to research them. Other articles you might enjoy are on the COMICS CREATION page of my blog.

 

 

 

And Then I Read: TWILIGHT CHILDREN 4

Image © Gilbert Hernandez and Darwyn Cooke.

The first three issues of this series were terrific, with mysteries of all kinds springing up, characters disappearing, then returning transformed, glowing spheres that are dangerously unpredictable, and tension building around the beautiful blonde woman who appears suddenly on the beach of a small seaside town. Everyone is trying to figure things out; the local children, their parents, the sheriff, a scientific investigator, even some sort of covert agents. In this final issue I expected big revelations, or at least mysteries solved. Instead, the strangeness fades back into mundane reality with few answers. I have to say I’m a little disappointed. Perhaps there are elements here I didn’t understand, or perhaps it’s meant to be simply a temporary trip into the twilight zone that fades like a dream from the lives it touched. The art has been terrific, I loved the characters, it’s the plot that feels unfinished and unsatisfying.

Mildly recommended.

And Then I Read: MOOMIN Volume 10

If only these comic strips had run in our paper when I was young. I loved the Moomin novels for young readers, this would have delighted me. It still does, actually, though perhaps not quite as much. The Moomin creator, Tove Jansson turned the strip over to her brother Lars a few years in, and I think Lars’ work is just as good as Tove’s. The Moomins are a family of plump, somewhat befuddled creatures who seem to keep getting into situations where they’re being taken advantage of. Then, somehow, they manage to turn the tables without ever getting angry or confrontational, and everyone goes away happy. Lots of humor and social satire, and the characters really grow on you. The art is charming, too. You can read any of the volumes in any order. This one has strips about a vampire (actually just a regular bat), television (the Moomins become obsessed), a government aid-worker who wants to “develop” the poor, backward family, and in “Moomin and Aunt Jane,” a wispy poet tries to steal young Moomin’s girlfriend, but the arrival of strict, bossy Aunt Jane has everyone in a tizzy. That last one was my favorite of the bunch.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE COMPLETE PEANUTS 1997-1998

Images © Peanuts Worldwide LLC.

As we near the end of Charles Schulz’s amazing fifty year run of daily and Sunday comic strips, the lines are getting shakier. There were some places in this volume where I wasn’t sure what was going on. Those are in the minority, most of it is fine. The writing is still strong, and made me laugh or chuckle pretty often. There are even some new things happening. Lucy and Linus’ little brother Rerun has been around for a while, but mostly in the baby seat on the back of his mom’s bicycle, as seen on the cover here (but not inside). In this book Rerun finally gets to interact more with his siblings. He’s been trying to play basketball for a year or two, and to get Snoopy to play with him, and there’s some of that, but his comments and interactions with other characters are getting more developed and funnier.

Some other themes take two of Snoopy’s brothers on a long trek, while Snoopy himself is stuck in Valley Forge in his fantasy life, when he isn’t working on his writing. There are many fun returns of past themes, of course. Not all appeal to me, I never liked Snoopy’s brother Spike for instance, but plenty of others do. In all, this is still great reading and great fun.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE PRIVATE EYE

Image © Brian K. Vaughan & Marcos Martin.

I rarely read webcomics, even when they sound appealing. After sitting in front of a computer all day, it doesn’t appeal to me. This is one I heard many good things about, and is now in a large, handsome hardcover book from Image.

Brian K. Vaughan posits a future where everyone wears masks to protect their privacy, and privacy issues are front and center in society. Attempts to invade privacy are high on the list of crimes being pursued and harshly punished by the police and investigated by “reporters,” replacing the kinds of news common today. Despite that, some people still want information about other people and are willing to pay very well for it. The protagonist is a private eye doing that kind of work, and in a society much more concerned and watchful for violations of privacy, it’s a tough job. He has help from a few friends, and an employee of sorts who drives him around, but mostly he’s out there on his own taking big risks, and never knowing if the information he’s after is going to get him arrested or killed. It’s a great set-up, an excellent combination of science fiction, crime fiction and film noir. Artist Marcos Martin does a good job of making it work visually. And as the plot develops, the story swiftly becomes a tense, suspenseful thriller with plenty of action, violence and heartbreak.

The format of the strip, and the book, is wide-screen, 12 inches by 7 inches, and lots of material. Vaughan keeps you guessing as to where he’s going next, and the book is full of cool characters and clever ideas. Recommended.

A Blog Post from 1968 (sort of)

Cover art by Kurt Wiese, first published in 1943. From my collection.

What follows is a letter I wrote, with input from my parents, to my two brothers who were spending much of the summer at our grandparents’ trailer in northern New York State near the St. Lawrence Seaway. It’s a fanciful look at life in our home in the rural town of Pluckemin, New Jersey. I was 17 and had my first manual typewriter, probably not for very long. I made the letter in the style of a local newspaper, perhaps inspired by Walter R. Brooks’ “Freddy the Pig,” who among many other avocations was the writer, editor and publisher of his own newspaper on the Bean family farm, as seen above. The Freddy books were fun and funny, and I identified with Freddy’s literary asperations. Here’s the entire four-page letter, notes follow.

I believe this is the only issue of the Pluckemin Weekly Bulletin. It was a lot of work, and I doubt there would be much left to say in the following weeks. I know I had fun doing it. Some notes:

On page 1 the paint sample has fallen off and is long gone, as are the shutters. My mother lived in the Pluckemin house until about 1995. It’s still there, and looks the same from the front, but is greatly expanded in the back.

The swimming pool was next to our back yard, and we were often invited to swim there.

Buxton’s was a local restaurant specializing in burgers and ice cream. The Farmer’s Market is where I bought a lot of books and comics at discount prices. The depiction of our family as moneyed is VERY fanciful, though we were doing okay, and firmly middle class.

My dad was a hunter, and belonged to several hunting clubs over the years. On page 2 is a description of one he apparently formed himself, which I don’t recall. Some years he brought home a deer, and more often some pheasants. They supplemented our food supply over the winter.

I particularly enjoyed rereading my mom’s Editorial on the last page. I don’t recall if she typed it herself, or if she wrote it out and I copied it in. Despite what she says, we did play a lot of those games when we were growing up.

So, if blogging were a thing in 1968, this is perhaps what I might have been posting. If you enjoyed this you might like other posts on the REMEMBERED page of my blog.

And Then I Read: LOCKWOOD & CO. – THE SCREAMING STAIRCASE by Jonathan Stroud

Cover art © Alan Ayars.

I thoroughly enjoyed Stroud’s “Bartimaeus” series, this is the first book of a new one. Young Lucy Carlyle has grown up in an England much like ours in some ways, but very different in others. Her England is suffering a plague of ghosts. Ghosts that are not just frightening, but also deadly. Their touch can injure and even kill the living. Many are hapless spirits who hardly know they’re no longer alive, but some are filled with hatred and evil, and are anxious to take vengeance on the living. Lucy is one of the few children with a strong sensitivity to ghosts. Her specialty is in hearing them. Children are much more sensitive than adults, and are recruited to work on teams of psychic investigators. Lucy’s early experiences with one such team ended in disaster, and she’s come to London looking for work with another group. The larger companies all reject her, but the small firm of Lockwood & Company takes her on. Unlike most, this firm is run by a teenager, Anthony Lockwood, rather than an adult. The only other member of the team, George, has doubts about Lucy, but she soon proves she can handle herself in danger, and her abilities are potent.

Unfortunately, Anthony Lockwood is impetuous and doesn’t always follow the rules and guidelines for safety. When he and Lucy attempt to defeat a dangerous ghost haunting a London mansion, things get out of hand, and the entire house goes up in flames. Lucy and Anthony barely escape with their lives. The police are anxious to shut them down, and their reputation is now in ruins. Only an even bigger job carried out successfully can save the firm, and in the nick of time one presents itself. They’re asked to spend the night in one of the most haunted places in England, Combe Carey Hall, home of the Screaming Staircase, among other horrors that have defeated and even killed other investigators. There’s something very suspicious about their client, too. Can Anthony come up with a plan that will get them through the scariest night of their life?

This is a suspenseful and exciting thrill ride that I had a hard time putting down. One of the most compelling and frightening books I’ve read in a long time. As an old jaded reader, that’s saying a lot. The characters are great, and the world Stroud has created is rich with detail and very believable. I’m planning on reading the rest of the series. The film rights are sold, which is no surprise. If it’s as good as the book, it could be very successful.

Highly recommended.