Evan Dorkin's Blog, page 28

Spy Vs Spy: Axe

Spy Vs Spy: Boxing Glove

Random Page of Doodles Found While Cleaning Office

Milk and Cheese Pin-Up For Benefit Auction

This is a piece I drew for the auctions writer Steve Niles has set up to help deal with the costs of his dog Sonny's medical situation. Folks seem to be donating drawings of Sonny, or of dogs, but I can't draw dogs for dog crap --  I can only write about them -- so I drew something that might make a few dollars more than a bad drawing of a dog holding a gin bottle and complaining about how shitty he was inked.




This is a cruddy scan that cuts off the sides a little bit, and I see I have some shadowy stuff going on there as well. Whatever. I'm not Mr. Production Department by a long shot. Our large scanner's still not up and running after the computer meltdown last week or so, so I had to use the shrimpy scanner. Plus, I still don't know how to use the big scanner. Anyway, the goddamned drawing I scanned badly is 9" by 12" all told and I dunno how the auction will be worked out, maybe we'll send Steve the image for the listing and I'll mail the piece to the winner so I can personalize it to them if they so desire, maybe we'll need to send the piece straight to him, I dunno. I just don't know, don't ask me to explain these things. I just draw this crap, I can't organize things or understand how anything works. I'm sure we'll figure something out.

I just wanted to get this posted asap to help spread the word on the fundraising effort and give an idea of what my humble little offering looks like. For more information on the fundraiser go here, also, you can donate a couple of bucks if you're so inclined and don't wish or don't have the scratch to bid on the artwork being offered up from Steve's personal collection, along with the art being donated . He's got a Mignola piece on the block right now, in fact. I don't have the scratch for that one, either.

Anyway, everything's a mess and most everyone seems to need help these days, so let's everybody do what we can when we can and we'll all muddle on through doing what we can when we can until we die. Sound like a plan? No? Well, I told you I can't organize anything.

The Guild - Cover Pencils

 
For the Zaboo one-shot from Dark Horse Comics, solicited for December (I think).

Jill Thompson Signing at NYCC (me, too)

I will indeed be signing at the Dark Horse Comics booth (#1238) on Saturday at 1:30 - 2:30 at the New York Comic Con (I actually don't know the dates of the convention. it's in a week and a half, I'm pretty sure).

Even better, Jill Thompson will also be signing as well (same bat-time, same bat-place). So, bring your copy of the Beasts of Burden collection or whatever other comics we worked on and get your stuff signed. And maybe get a little drawing in the book if there's time. There's usually time. For me, at least. Sometimes. Pretty often, actually. 

I don't think DHC will be selling books themselves, so if you're looking to get something new-ish signed and assume you can buy it from them, don't assume. Last year they were only selling a few con exclusive items, if I remember correctly (I know this year they have a con-exclusive Spider-Man statue, which is pretty cute but has nothing to do with Jill or I so forget I said anything about it). There's a number of local comic shops that set up at NYCC --  I know Jim Hanley's Universe is usually there as well as Midtown Comics -- but it's iffy if they'll have our stuff, to be honest. They might have Jill's stuff. They won't have that Spider-Man statue I didn't mention earlier.

I don't have plans to be at the show any other days so if you do want something signed, that's the time. I was hoping to be asked to be on the DHC panel on Friday to plug the Milk and Cheese book and the DHP stuff, but alack and alas, I am scuttled. Is it uncool to admit I wanted to be asked to do a panel? So what, big deal. I bet lots of folks feel left out when they're not asked to participate on a panel but don't want to admit it. Because it's uncool to admit you weren't asked. Whatever. I'm cool enough to be uncool enough to admit that I'm not cool enough to be asked to do a cool panel. I'm also probably going to be wearing a shirt on Saturday that I already wore to NYCC, like, five years ago, because that's how I roll, baby, right down the hill and into the gutter. And this is not some passive/aggressive ploy for getting invited to some stupid panel, because I happen to be booked up on Friday with a very important...uh, meeting. Yeah. I also happen to have it on very good authority (my horoscope, if you must know) that no one I work with actually reads my blog. So fooey on everyone for making me get my Lesley Gore on.

And that was not a passive/aggressive maneuver to get anyone I work with to reply that they do read this crap. Honest, officer.

Anyway, this post went all idiot on me -- and you, I guess, as well -- but I had fun. Oh, ho ha ha, my knee hurts from slapping it so hard and so often, yumpin' yiminy. Hope to see some of you folks at the convention on Saturday, October something-or-other. I'll be bringing my game face (The Game of Cootie, from Schaper -- if you must know) and my signing pen, but probably not the family, because they are smart enough to stay away from a convention on a Saturday.

Good luck, everyone!

Don't Call it a Comeback

They've been here for years.

Ummm...Uhhh...

Things have been overwhelming on several fronts, especially work, so posting has been more sporadic than usual, as you folks may have noticed. I know everyone's on Twitter so I might be talking to the walls here but I still prefer the blog post to the tweet despite the fact that the latter is easier to knock out. Hopefully I'll be able to post some art again soon, the big scanner's still not hooked up after some computer meltdown drama we hope to have laid to rest within the next few weeks. We're still trying to catch up on work after the schedule got it's ass kicked by the Milk and Cheese hardcover, the Irene blackout and the aforementioned computer problem.

It looks like I'm going to be at NYCC for at least one day to do a signing at the Dark Horse booth. DHC's doing a company panel for Dark Horse Presents and the line in general on Friday but I haven't been asked to participate, if I am, I guess I'm in for Friday. For all I know things will work out to where I'm not going at all. So, all of you who were wondering, don't make plans on my account regarding NYCC. Ha ha, that's a joke. Not really.

The M&C book's at the printer's.

The fifth Guild one-shot comic from DHC has been solicited, it's the Zaboo special, Sarah and I did the cover for it. Too busy to provide a link, will do so asap. Hopefully before it ships in December.

Sarah and I finished up an 8-page strip for Bongo, script, art and colors. Looks pretty okay, dunno when it'll be scheduled. I'll be writing a short story for another artist to draw sometime in the near-future. Praise Bongo.

I'm working on the last few commissions, so, if I owe you a commission, it'll be done asap. Sorry for any delays, crazy year, first time I solicited for commissions and it was more than I expected to deal with. And I work on them carefully, I don't knock 'em out, so they're worth what folks paid for them and reflect my appreciation for the patronage. End of semi-defensive paragraph.

We wrapped up an animation-related gig and I was offered another one. Hmmm. It would allow me to work with a friend of mine, always cool. Think I'll take it. Hope it can be worked into the schedule.

Currently on the drawing board: Can't tell you, but you'll like it. Let's just say, "old school".

Been reading a lot of comics, no time to blather on about them. But let me just quickly say that Jaime's work on Love and Rockets #4 was/is phenomenal. Give that boy a Genius Grant and let him kick back a while. if he wants to. Amazing.

Mr. Less-Than-Amazing, signing off.
 

Out Today

Just a reminder, Dark Horse Presents #4 hits shelves today and has a new Beasts of Burden story by Jill Thompson and I, the first new Beasts work since last year's Hellboy crossover. There will be three new stories in DHP all-told, each self-contained, each adding new details about the characters and the world. The next story will be in DHP #6, the last in DHP #8.

Also coming out today is Bart Simpson #63 from Bongo, featuring a 10-pager I wrote and drew called "Model Behavior", where Bart, Milhouse and Martin attempt to build a Radioactive Man kit with less than optimum results. Sarah did the colors for the story and I think it came out really well, definitely the best -looking Simpsons art I've turned in yet. Cleaned up my ink line, for one thing.  

Anyway, that's what's available from the H.O.F. and I hope those of you out there who pick either or both up enjoy what we've done.

Upcoming Comics And Some Other Stuff

Two H.O.F.-related comics ship will be shipping on the 21st:

I wrote and drew a 10-page story called "Model Behavior" for Bart Simpson #63, which Sarah colored. More info here.

A new 8-page Beasts of Burden story by Jill Thompson and I will be in Dark Horse Presents #4. More info here.

Additionally:

- the Milk and Cheese collection is off to the printers.

- Sarah and I are finishing up an 8-page Simpsons comic for Bongo.

- We just finished up a fairly hefty non-comics project that...we can't talk about.

- I'm working on a spot illustration for Mad.

- Starting some new comics and, if all goes well, in a few weeks or so, I'll be starting some new scripts. Hope to be able to say what they're for as soon as possible.

Otherwise:

Things have been hectic, we've been dealing with a computer metldown that has caused a lot of troubles, we almost lost a lot of files and it's made a lot of extra work for Sarah while deadlines are looming. We're still living amonst boxes and piles post-Irene. Things could be a lot worse, of course.

Been reading a lot of YA fantasy books lately, the most recent volume in the Last Apprentice series, the Underland Chronicles series, the first volumes of the Theodosia, Spellbinder and The Invisible Order series, the final volume of the Enola Holmes Mysteries, and probably one or two I'm forgetting.

Read two Doc Savge pulps, after being curious about them ever since I saw the 70's paperbacks in a shop as a kid I was pretty underwhelmed  -- they're kind of bloodless and dull, the plotting is dopey even for an admittedly dopey genre. Both stories involved an endless series of characters getting captured and escaping and getting captured again, etc, etc. The situations aren't super-imaginative and the writing is obviously padded out for those Depression-era extra cents-per-word.. Doc Savage is a dullard with no personality, his abilities are kind of ridiculous (his super-hearing cracks me up every time it's described and explained) , and his fabled team of assistants seem to serve no purpose other than to take his instructions, their supposed expertise seems redundant and pointless because Doc Savage is so friggin' excellent at everything, except he gets captured a lot just like his pals. Wonder Woman doesn't get tied up as much as these goofs, I swear. I really wanted to like Doc Savage, I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more as a kid, I dunno. Maybe I've been ruined by reading the Spider before the Shadow, Doc Savage, the Avenger, et al, none of those have really done it for me. And the Spider, as crazy-stupid as it is, is crazy-stupid-awesome and just delivers what I want from pulp hero nonsense.

Read some Philip K. Dick book, forgot what it was, as with most of them I read it, enjoy it, and then it becomes part of a sort of Phil Dick miasma file in my memory where I can't recall particular books very well or match the plots and details I do remember to the titles. I can remember a few that stand out or I've re-read, but there's a batch of titles that are just...one...big...hallucinatory book.

Last night I read Blake Bell's book on Bill Everett, which didn't really knock me out. Like many books about cartoonists, there's really not too much to say, and the book largely amounts to a coffee table art book with a lot of nice images. Much of the text goes over Comics History 101, Famous Funnies, Superman, Timely Comics, Martin Goodman, the 50's horror bust,  Stan Lee --  but by the book's own admission Everett didn't interact much with other professionals and often distanced himself from comics, so at times it feels like Everett is a supporting character in an essay on Golden Age comics. It's nice that Bell cleans up untruths and rumors about the artist -- many originating from Everett's own mouth -- but as with the Mort Meskin book (not by Bell), I'd rather have just read a selection of the cartoonist's best work with an extended biographical introduction about the man. I think that would speak volumes more than the texts which, in either volume's case, didn't really make the case for each artist as among the true "greats" (The Meskin book also stumbles badly, imho, in the selection of his art). 

The book has some really nice Bill Everett work in it and the basic story of his largely sad life is interesting if relatively slight (a drinking problem, cigarettes and a problem with authority being the dramatic crux of things), if you're a serious Everett fan you'll probably enjoy it. I got it for store credit, hoping the text would prove to be more substantive than I found it. Maybe I was wrong to expect more of a dense biography. The recent Alex Toth book strikes me as how you really need to do these things to do them right, and that maybe some creators don't deserve the bang-up treatment when the material is a little skimpy. Sometimes your personal favorite artist doesn't have much of a story to be told, or there's too little information for an entire book, and the narrative can fit into a good-sized Alter Ego article. Obviously that isn't as cool or celebratory or potentially lucrative as a hardcover book, and today we're seeing books on a lot of things that years ago would have been a fanzine piece or a TwoMorrows special. Not that this is some terrible thing, I think it's cool to see these guys getting their due, and who am I to say someone shouldn't write a book about an artist they're passionate about?  I just kind of think that when all's said and done, creating Sub-Mariner and co-creating Daredevil is really neat, and certainly more of a legacy than many creators will ever have (myself included) but it isn't exactly earth-shattering to anyone besides Roy Thomas and other serious Golden Age die-hards who would probably buy a $40 Carl Burgos book if someone put one together (not knocking Burgos, y'know?).

Bell makes several claims for Everett I don't agree with, one being that his 50's horror work was the equal to the best of the EC stable, for one. I admire Everett a great deal -- otherwise I wouldn't have picked up the book -  and I like his horror stuff a lot, but, in my opinion, while he turned out some wonderful pages and solid stories (and his covers are a riot), he wasn't as good as the best, Craig, Davis, Krigstein, et al. He wasn't the stylist Ingles was, and I'm not the world's biggest Ingles fan. Obviously this is arguable. True, it doesn't help that he had largely crappy scripts to work with at Timely/Marvel/Atlas, but in my opinion Everett slopped out a lot of pages and even his better stories are inconsistent. I think he comes in a cut below the best EC horror guys. No crime. I also found it odd that when Bell indicates Everett's legacy and influence on later cartoonists it is mostly backed up by several comments from Kim Deitch about the artist. Deitch is great, but one cartoonist hardly constitutes an overall impact by Everett on modern comics. That impact may exist, and probably exists, Everett is hardly unknown amongst professionals, but still, you have to put your evidence on the page, and quoting one guy after making that statement isn't super-convincing.

Writers make broad claims for their favorites far too often as if they're truisms and not personal opinions. Bell does this in his Ditko book, as well, stating that Ditko could have easily been one of the great humor cartoonists if he decided to pursue that route (actually, he may have said this in the first FBI Ditko Archives that collect his comics). Which is opinion, of course, and speculation. The sole humor work included in the Ditko book didn't strike me as coming anywhere near the humor work of Kurtzman or Elder or Wood or Barks or Beck or Briefer or Cole or the Archie gang or name-your-poison to any degree at all, in fact I thought it was pretty sloppy and weak. It's not a crime or anything, I just don't follow why an opinion on a creator has to be offered as accepted fact, and why so often that opinion isn't more strenuously backed up. It's a fannish tendency that doesn't help the creator or the writer, one should keep in mind that the audience might not be as familiar or convinced as you are about your subject.. Everett is described as "ever the innovator"  at one point, and while the creation of the Sub-Mariner was an innovation, I didn't understand exactly why Everett merited the description. Kirby is someone I'd think of as continuously innovating. Kurtzman, sure. Everett? Created Sub-Mariner...made him an anti-hero...tried a different coloring process for some covers...that's what he'd done up to the point where he was described as "ever the innovator". Am I nit-picking? Probably. But I always cringe a little when I'm reading about a creator or a comic and the writer seems to be digging, exaggerating or padding in order to present their subject in a greater light. I think Everett's work was really good, rather than capital-G great -- and I'm not the biggest Sub-Mariner enthusiast on the Earth -- maybe that's why I'm perhaps overly critical of the book. I just didn't find a compelling argument in the book as to why Everett is one of the greats. As with the Meskin book, I wanted to believe, but I couldn't. I understand Everett's status and importance more than his greatness, if that makes any sense.  I dunno, maybe it's just me. it's all just opinions.

Yeesh, I gotta get back to work. I wasn't planning on writing a bunch of crap today. At least, not for the blog. Ha ha.

Later, skaters.