August 2012
41 posts
Comic Book WIIFM
What happens when most comic books get cancelled? Generally, there’s a vocal minority of fans who are disappointed, perhaps mad, but often most comic book fans shrug and say, “Meh.” There are a number of reasons comics get cancelled, but not infrequently, it’s due to low sales. The publisher — even if that publisher is also the creator — has decided that...
Kleefeld On Webcomics #75: Interview with Derek... →
from MTV Geek
Last Links O' August
Charles Hatfield has posted information about his upcoming English 333 class (“Comics and Graphic Novels”) for California State University, Northridge. Even if you’re not taking the class, there’s lots to be learned just from going through the class materials. Over at the Daily Nebraskan, Bea Huff starts her new column relaying a little of how comic book superheroes have...
Marvel Two-In-One Infinity
One more Jack Kirby post for the day. I only had the idea this morning, and it took longer than I anticipated, so I didn’t color it. Feel free to take that on yourself, though…
Kleefeld on Comics: Happy Jack Kirby Day! →
I’m out here, doing my own thing, living my own life, being the best Sean Kleefeld I can be. I’m not drawing comics, like I thought I would when I was 12. I’m not writing comics, an idea that I liked when I was 27. But I’m doing what I do, whatever … Kleefeld on Comics
Kirby's Characters
Just to point out how prolific he was, here’s a list of some of the characters and creations attributed to Jack Kirby. It’s mostly taken from these two lists, plus a handful of additions I noticed weren’t in either. I’m confident this is nowhere near complete — it doesn’t even take into account characters he created for animation studios — that’s how...
Happy Jack Kirby Day!
Today would have been Jack Kirby’s 95th birthday. He’s often remembered for essentially creating the Marvel universe, which is indeed impressive and note-worthy, but he did SO much more, it’s almost impossible to underestimate his importance. I never met Jack. He was in his 70s before I went to a comic convention of any sort, and died while I was self-absorbed in college. But of...
LCS Promo Idea
Though I missed it (again), this past weekend up in Chicago was Terry-Con 2012. It’s not a large convention, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of it. In fact, it’s pretty much limited to one neighborhood in the Chicago area, so there’s a good chance you don’t know about it unless you visit (or knows someone who visits) Third Coast Comics. ...
Catching Up
My apologies for suddenly being largely offline this past weekend. I’ll try to be doing to some catch-up here shortly. To start, here’s the Peanuts strip running today…Does it strike anyone else as odd that Sally Brown calls her brother by his full name? Did Sparky find he had written himself into an awkward situation when he realized that EVERYBODY called Charlie Brown...
Lessons Webcomics Can Learn From Comic Strips →
Webcomics, in a broad sense, have something for everyone. There’s a wide variety of genres, styles, tones, frequency… Personally, I try to read a bit of a range of material, but I obviously have my own preferences and biases. And with new … Kleefeld on Comics
Lessons Webcomics Can Learn From Comic Strips
Webcomics, in a broad sense, have something for everyone. There’s a wide variety of genres, styles, tones, frequency… Personally, I try to read a bit of a range of material, but I obviously have my own preferences and biases. And with new webcomics coming online all the time, I try to check out new ones as I find them. What I typically do when I discover a webcomic I hadn’t been...
Kleefeld On Webcomics #74: Interview with Derek... →
from MTV Geek
Comics On Kindle Touch
My folks got me a Kindle Touch for my birthday this year. If you’re not up on your e-readers, it’s the smaller (i.e. lighter and easier to carry) version of the Kindle with a completely touch-screen interface. It’s got a lower resolution than the latest iPad, but it’s higher than the iPad 2. What first struck me is that, overall, graphics look pretty slick on the Touch....
Kleefeld on Comics: Links From Around The Web →
Here’s a piece recounting how Jack Kirby did designed for the never-realized Science Fiction Land theme park, which includes newspaper scans from the time. Somewhat curiously, no mention is made of how that later became part of the … Kleefeld on Comics
Links From Around The Web
Here’s a piece recounting how Jack Kirby did designed for the never-realized Science Fiction Land theme park, which includes newspaper scans from the time. Somewhat curiously, no mention is made of how that later became part of the basis for Argo. Tom Brevoort’s alma mater does a nice retrospective on the Marvel editor. 20th Century Danny Boy relays a 1975 roundtable with Jack Kirby,...
Kleefeld on Comics: The Importance Of Character →
When I get home from work, I usually fix dinner and sit down to watch a half hour or so of something online. I generally shoot for something that I’m hoping to get some broader cultural awareness of/for, rather than whatever I happen to find. Kleefeld on Comics
The Importance Of Character
When I get home from work, I usually fix dinner and sit down to watch a half hour or so of something online. I generally shoot for something that I’m hoping to get some broader cultural awareness of/for, rather than whatever I happen to find. That’s not to say I go all high-brow, just that I make my choices very consciously based on something I’m trying to understand, even if...
Happy 40th Birthday, Sean Kleefeld! - The Comics... →
Syndicate This Site (RSS 1.0) · Syndicate This Site (FeedBurner). August 20, 2012. Happy 40th Birthday, Sean Kleefeld! image posted 1:00 am PST | Permalink … www.comicsreporter.com/…/happy_40th_birthday_sean_kleef…
Kleefeld on Comics: Officially Taking The Night... →
I usually don’t bother to much with birthdays and such, but I’m going to take the night off from blogging. You only turn 40 once, after all! Regular posting to resume tomorrow. at 8:33 PM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook … Kleefeld on Comics
Officially Taking The Night Off
I usually don’t bother to much with birthdays and such, but I’m going to take the night off from blogging. You only turn 40 once, after all! Regular posting to resume tomorrow.
Happy 40th Birthday, Sean Kleefeld! - I4U News →
Happy 40th Birthday, Sean Kleefeld! Read the Latest Trending News and Topics for Geeks. 10 Updates. Tom Spurgeon’s Web site of comics news, reviews, … www.i4u.com/2012/08/happy-kleefeld-birthday-40th-sean
Happy 40th Birthday Sean Kleefeld | Regator... →
Fergie and fellow songstress Natasha Bedingfield celebrate the 40th birthday of Wilhelmina President Sean Patterson held at NYC’s Dream Downtown on … regator.com/p/…/happy_40th_birthday_sean_kleefeld/
Curious Find
I was in Target today and ran across this endcap…This Art 101 series of packages on how to use various media — oils, pastels, watercolors, etc. Nothing very complex, obviously, judging by the size of the boxes and the fact that they’re being sold in a Target endcap. But they are clearly labeled as “Art 101” and thus they’re implied to be pretty introductory...
Sean Kleefeld - Vizify →
See the Career page of Sean Kleefeld’s graphical bio. Built using Vizify, the easiest, most sophisticated tool for showing the best of you online, all in one place. http://bit.ly/Pn8kFB
Sky Masters... In Color!
Sky Masters of the Space Force has got to be the most under-appreciated work in Jack Kirby’s career. It’s got absolutely brilliant illustration and storytelling, particularly for a newspaper strip; the Wally Wood inks from the earlier part of the run are gorgeous; it’s also probably one Kirby’s most-ground-in-actual-science works, but still has a grand sense of adventure...
Kleefeld on Comics: Confused By The Monkey King →
I recently was given access to some previews of the first two volumes of JR Comics’ Monkey King series. I discovered the character of the Monkey King 6-8 years … kleefeldoncomics.blogspot.com/…/confused-by-monkey-king….
Kickstarter Suggestions
All you guys out there with really cool Kickstarter projects? I really, really want to help, but there’s only so much I can afford at one time. Can you all, like, get together and spread out your Kickstarters more so they don’t all end at the same time? There 133 active comics projects on right now, so it’s probably not realistic to think you could ALL get together and space...
Kleefeld On Webcomics #73: Penny Arcade Sells Out →
from MTV Geek
Evolution Of Comic Artists In Media
The other night, I happened to catch, for the first time, the movie Artists and Models starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Here’s the original trailer…It’s basically a standard Martin and Lewis picture with the nominal hook being that Martin is an artist that breaks into comics using the stories Lewis talks about in his sleep. I’ve seen a few people online stick up for...
Links For Mid-August
Wonder Women: the Untold Story of the American Superheroines is now slated to be shown on PBS as part of its ‘Independent Lens’ series. No firm date yet, but probably March 2013 to coincide with Women’s History Month. Neil Cohn is over in Japan doing some research and made a quick note about some work by Chiba University’s Jun Nakazawa, who’s basically shown that Japanese read...
Comic Collections I'd Like To See
For purely selfish reasons (namely, that I want to read these without tracking down and buying all the individual back issues), these are some comics I’d like to see collected into a handy TPB or HC format. Somebody get working on these, please: All the Red (Ma Hunkel) Tornado stories from the 1930s and ’40s Witzend (1966) Plop! (1973) Prez (1974) Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction...
Confused By The Monkey King
I recently was given access to some previews of the first two volumes of JR Comics’ Monkey King series. I discovered the character of the Monkey King 6-8 years ago — oddly enough, after blindly stumbling across an eBay auction of a small statuette of him. He’s a character of Chinese legend and has shown up in all manner of media over the years; I think most recently a version of...
Combat Jacks Review
Apparently, Combat Jacks was a project that Mark McKenna crowd-funded recently, but it totally flew under my radar. Which is part of why he asked if I would take a look at it: he realized that he didn’t do enough marketing of it earlier and is trying to generate some interest now. McKenna described it originally “as a ONE SHOT sci fi/horror comic in the vein of the old EC Weird Science...
A Rights Issue Leading To Collectability?
Of the 100 issues of Marvel’s original Two-In-One series, #21 is the only issue that has never been reprinted in any form. If you want to read the story here, your only (legal) option is to track down one in the back issue bins. The reason for this is that Doc Savage appears as a character in the story and he’s a character that Marvel does not own the rights to. In order to reprint...
1st fan letter published 1988 - Vizify →
See the Factoid page of Sean Kleefeld’s graphical bio. Built using Vizify, the easiest, most sophisticated tool for showing the best of you online, all in one place. http://bit.ly/PLhd7n…
"Hi. My Name Is Jack Kirby."
OK, this is totally not the type of thing Jack would’ve been likely to say, and it’s a dramatic oversimplification, but it seemed like a fun way to highlight that his birthday is coming up on the 28th later this month. TwoMorrows is having a 40% off sale until then on all of their Jack Kirby books and magazines. There’s lots of fantastic material in there, despite my having...
Kleefeld On Webcomics #72: Get Your Learnin' On →
from MTV Geek
Webcomics' New Comic Day
Here is a graph of most of the comics I read these days…The legend there seems pretty self-explanatory, so I won’t go into that, but it covers the last 30 days of my Google reader activity (which is how/where I read the majority of my comics without other news feeds skewing the data). As you can see, the largest number of updates happen on Wednesday, the same day most American comic...
Not-Quite-As-August Links
Evidently, Virgina Commonwealth University has digital copies of all of Will Eisner’s work for PS Magazine freely available online. Actually, every one of his issues in their entirety, so you can check out his spot illustrations as well as the comics. I did not know this existed, and could’ve used some of those scans a week ago. The University of Chicago has begun posting full videos...
Surprises At Half Price Books
I’ve noted Half Price Books on the site here before, and I’m sure many readers have stopped in on occasion. But I wanted to take a moment to note what a great store that’s become. If you don’t happen to have one in your area (they’re technically national across the U.S., but not in every state) it’s a used bookstore chain. Every book in there was either...
