Todd Klein's Blog, page 266

Locust Moon Comicfest 2013

I had a good time at this one-day show in Philadelphia yesterday. I drove up from home, travel time about 1 and 1/4 hours, and there was a parking garage across the street from the venue, part of the University of Pennsylvania. Here’s the outside.

Some exhibitors getting their stuff in the door.

The Rotunda is clearly a former church, old and under repair. There are two rooms, the large round one you reach first is “The Sanctuary.”

Inside there were about fifty exhibitor and artist tables. Lots of small press, some comics dealers, and a few dozen creators.

Another view of the Sanctuary.

Beyond the Sanctuary, through hallways on either side, you came to a smaller room known as the Theater with another 25 tables. This is where I set up. Up on the actual stage was Jim Steranko with a great display of his paintings, most of The Shadow, some of Hercules from the recent series I lettered for Radical Comics.

Steranko looks great, is full of energy, friendly, smiling, and genial. I saw him offering advice to a budding artist, and it was solid advice. An  incredibly talented man, his paintings were amazing to see in person.

Locust Moon co-owner Josh O’Neill talks to artist Chrissie Zullo.

At the next table were John and Cathy Workman, old friends. We had a great time talking, about everything from John’s earliest work in comics to our brief time working together on staff at DC Comics (just a few months) to John’s time as art director of HEAVY METAL magazine, to stories about people we both worked with, artists and writers, projects we’re working on, and more. This was the best thing about the show for me, I haven’t had so much time to talk to John in forever. The room got very warm. We’ve been having unseasonably warm weather the last few weeks, and Saturday was no exception. Our room was on the south side with large windows, and no air conditioning. There were a few fans, but it was sweaty. People were still having a good time, though.

At noon a panel with John and I was planned at the Locust Moon Comics Shop, about two blocks from the show at 34 South 40th Street. This seemed like a reasonable idea, but didn’t work out, as only one person showed up. Too far from the show, I think.

We didn’t mind. Instead of sitting at a table and talking, we looked around the shop, and then sat on a couch looking at some great art books (The Wally Wood Artist Edition, and some recent Alex Toth collections) and talking. John always has good stories to tell, he told some about Wood and Toth, and others. Above is shop co-owner Chris Stevens who enjoyed our conversation as well, I think.

It was a fun day. I sold ten prints, and many people took my bookmark with the website info and said they would order online. Hopefully some will. As always, the best thing was talking to fans and other creators I know, and meeting new ones. I left a little after 6 PM, and got home before 8 PM. A tiring day, but well worth it.

 

And Then I Read: A STUDY IN SCARLET by A. Conan Doyle

This is first printing of the first Sherlock Holmes story, also the first Sherlock Holmes novel, in Beeton’s literary magazine of London, 1887, with some very nice lettering on the cover. NOT the edition I read recently, that was an eBook of “The Complete Sherlock Holmes” I found available as a free download in iBooks. The original magazine is very rare and quite valuable.

What a joy it is to revisit old friends Holmes and Watson from their first adventure, when the idea was fresh and new in Doyle’s imagination. Watson narrates, of course, beginning with his military service in Afghanistan, short-lived and disastrous for him, then returning wounded and sick to England. In recovery he moves to London, but is unable to work and soon finds his funds running low. Watson begins searching for cheaper lodgings. A chance recommendation from a friend brings him a possible roommate. The friend describes Sherlock Holmes as someone working in a chemical laboratory in a hospital who is “a little queer in his ideas. You mustn’t blame me if you don’t get on with him.” To Watson it sounds promising, and they go to meet him.

The meeting is amusing, with Holmes shouting about a chemical discovery he’s just made, but he also immediately tells Watson, “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive,” which astounds Watson. Thus begins one of the most entertaining friendships and teams in literature.

The case they are faced with is a classic locked room murder with an odd word written in the victim’s blood on the wall, and a few other clues that no one but Holmes notice. Inspector Lestrade makes his first appearance, and a magnifying glass is used for the very first time in a work of detective fiction. As the mysteries mount, the scene suddenly changes to the American west, in a story of a Mormon family under a great deal of pressure. This second narrative is equally fascinating, and it takes a long time, but eventually provides key information about the murder in London, which of course Holmes solves brilliantly, and not without some help in a dangerous moment from Watson.

Great stuff! If you’ve never tried the Sherlock Holmes stories, this is the place to start.

And Then I Read: THE COCKATRICE BOYS by Joan Aiken

© Estate of Joan Aiken, cover art by Jason Van Hollander.

England is at war, under siege from all kinds of monsters. A wide variety of monsters that were once thought to be mythical, but have suddenly appeared all over Great Britain, terrorizing and killing civilians and soldiers alike until the remaining populace has to hide underground in shelters and tunnels, venturing out as little as possible. To fight this menace, an elite group of soldiers has been trained and armed with special weapons, and given a highly modified train to travel in. Dakin Prestwich is really too young to be with them, but gets taken in anyway, along with a girl, Sauna. Both Dakin and Sauna have some special connections to the monster plague, and that puts them in even greater danger than they expected.

This is a stand-alone novel by Aiken, and in my opinion not one of her better ones. She doesn’t seem to take the monsters and the battles very seriously, so as a reader I didn’t either. The characters grew on me, and about halfway through the book, when things turn very dark for Dakin and Sauna, the author seemed to perk up and write better, as if getting down to a few characters in trouble made it more interesting for her. Because of that I’m happy I finished the book, but can only mildly recommend it.

And Then I Read: AQUAMAN 22

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

Writer Geoff Johns is keeping things hopping in this title (and mercifully away from any crossovers for now). Arthur is supposed to be the King of Atlantis, but very few seem willing to accept that. Some want their previous King back, the one in prison in America. Some want to take power for themselves. Then there’s another undersea realm, where Arthur and Mera are at the moment. There, an ancient giant former King wants to retake his throne, and is quite willing to swat Arthur and Mera aside to do so. In addition to physical strength and apparent magic power, he knows things about Arthur’s past that trouble our hero greatly.

The art by Paul Pelletier and Sean Parsons is getting better with every issue, there are some outstanding scenes in this one.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: WORLDS’ FINEST 14

Image © DC Comics, Inc.

The two heroines continue to run into trouble from Darkseid’s realm. His henchman, DeSaad seems to have it in for the pair, destroying a safe house, sending Parademons after them, and so on. The pair are not going to take this, and engage the threats, leading to an even more dangerous development.

This title works for me mainly because of the teamwork and personalities of the stars, as written by Paul Levitz. As in the original WORLD’S FINEST with Superman and Batman, the contrast in power levels and methods of operation makes for interesting problem solving and good stories. And two is often just enough for interesting character development and dialogue, allowing room for action as well. The art by Robson Rocha and Wayne Faucher is quite good, too.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: ASTRO CITY 2

Image © Juke Box Productions.

In this issue of the relaunched (or really, just restarted by numbering) ASTRO CITY, writer Kurt Busiek does what he does best in my opinion: goes behind the curtain of superhero life to look at some of the support staff. In this case the focus is on a young woman who takes a job with the emergency call line for the super-group Honor Guard. There are some heroic moments in the story, but in this case they’re almost window dressing for the human story. Imagine yourself taking a top-secret job that has the potential to save lives every day, where people in desperate need for help beyond the scope of typical 911 services could put their fate in your hands. Yet, you can only discuss it with your fellow workers. There’s job satisfaction when you get the capes on the crime; there are some perks, like weekends in cities and destinations all over the world at no cost to you, but there’s a down side. What if you screw up? What if you miss the one in a thousand clue to a really major disaster? Or even just miss saving one life?

The cover by Alex Ross is fantastic, as always. Who else would go for that very close look at the woman’s face at upper left and make it work? The interior art by Brent Anderson is equally great. Fine coloring by Alex Sinclair and inventive lettering by Roshell and Betancourt of Comicraft fill out the credits. This is what more comics should be like, in my opinion.

Highly recommended.

New at the Zoo

It was in the paper this week, the zoo debut of a baby giraffe born about a month ago. “Let’s go see her,” Ellen said, and today we did.

Mom was very protective, baby calm and cute. Already over six feet tall!

Also new was this baby Bison likewise about a month old.

And because you can’t just look at new stuff, we enjoyed this ocelot catching late afternoon sun…

…and this male Wood Duck doing the same. Wish I could get a picture like this of the wild ones, but they’re very shy and wary of humans.

On the way into the zoo I almost stepped on this gigantic caterpillar, about four inches long and fatter than my fingers. When we got home I looked it up, it will become an Imperial Moth, as seen below.

Photo by Jack Schmidling, schmidling.com. I’ve never seen one of these in moth form, pretty impressive! An extra bonus on a visit to the zoo.

Where I’ll Be Next Saturday:

Poster by Rob Woods

I’m looking forward to this one-day show next Saturday in the University area of Philadelphia, west of center city, from 10 AM to 6 PM. My friend and fellow letterer John Workman will be there, and the two of us are doing a panel at noon. Don’t know exactly what we’ll talk about, nothing is planned, but hopefully it will be entertaining. (Panels are at the Locust Moon shop a few blocks from the show.) Other guests include Jim Steranko, Farel Darymple, JG Jones, Chrissie Zullo, Dean Haspiel, Dave Bullock, Kim Deitch, Terry LaBan, and a few dozen other comics creators. I’ll have a table, and all my prints available for purchase. Of course I’ll be happy to sign anything I’ve worked on and chat. The Locust Moon crew, led by Chris Stevens and Josh O’Neill are great people. You may have seen their fine comics anthology from Dark Horse, ONCE UPON A TIME MACHINE. They love comics, and are going to make this show fun for everyone. If you’re in the area, hope to see you there!

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Brigantine Birding

This morning Ellen and I joined a birding group at Forsythe Wildlife Management Area on the coast a little north of Atlantic City (commonly known among longtime birders as Brigantine or “Brig”). It was a tour led by long-time New Jersey Audubon staffer Pete Bacinski along with Scott Barnes, Linda Mack and others as a thank you to folks who support the organization. Here’s the group gathered in the parking lot at 9 AM.

We thought this Red-Tailed Hawk perched on the visitor center was a good omen. The weather was mostly sunny and cool, a little windy but still a fine day for it.

Our first stop was this observation tower overlooking the refuge from the west end.

Brig is wetlands surrounded by dikes with an eight-mile road one drives, stopping along the way to see all kinds of water birds.

The area directly below the tower is Gull Pond, where we saw no gulls today, but some other good birds.

There are hundreds of Great Egrets here, for example.

One drives along the road stopping whenever something worth looking at is spotted.

There were plenty of Forsters Terns, as well as Bald Eagles, Merlins, Northern Harriers, Peregrine Falcons, and assorted herons, egrets, geese, ducks and shorebirds of many kinds.

The rarest birds we saw were a dozen Hudsonian Godwits, shown here in a picture I found online (didn’t have a photographer credit unfortunately). They were too far away for a good photo with my camera. But all the birds we saw were beautiful and appreciated, and the group was a friendly one. A fine outing.

An American Avocet and Assorted

Photos © Todd Klein.

I made two brief visits to the Cape May Point State Park today, before and after my volunteer time at the Cape May Bird Observatory, looking for rare birds, and I scored one out of two. The first visit was in search of an American Bittern, which is not really all that rare, but is very hard to see. One has been hanging around the ponds in the State Park this week and feeding out in the open, an unusual thing and great for birders who want to see it, but I struck out with that bird. A little after noon I was back to look for a reported American Avocet in Bunker Pond, next to the Hawk Watch Platform, which is right off the main parking lot at the park. This time I had no trouble, it was in plain sight feeding with other birds: gulls, ducks and smaller shorebirds.

American Avocets are rare in New Jersey, though a few are usually seen each year. The main population is centered in the western US, but some do winter on the southeast coast, and a few of those reach New Jersey by getting a little off-track. It’s a very large shore bird with an unusual upcurved bill. I also took a little video, though the camera shake is rather annoying.

Always a great bird to see, and years go by when I don’t see any.

There were lots of more common birds like this Great Egret and dozens of Laughing Gulls which will soon be migrating further south.

And ducks like these Northern Shovelers are gathering too, they’ve come from further north and will winter here.

On the Hawk Watch Platform, counters and birders were gathering, but it wasn’t a good day for raptor migration.

This Osprey, fishing in the pond, was as close as I got to one, they probably saw some.

Here’s something we don’t see often in coastal New Jersey any more: Cattails. They’ve largely been pushed out by the more aggressive Phragmites, but in some areas the Phragmites have been removed as much as possible and Cattails reintroduced. The one on the left is going to seed.

As I headed back to the parking lot, this Mockingbird was keeping an eye on me, or more likely his food plants, they like berries.

And it’s hard to resist the always photogenic Cape May Lighthouse. If you have a chance to visit the very southern tip of New Jersey, you’ll find plenty of cool things to see here.