The Black Terror by Ramona Fradon and Duane Redhead

Perhaps you recall my Black Terror: Wednesday at the Diner webcomic/comic strip/mini comic/whatever that Rafer Roberts and I worked on a few years ago. It's been a while, but I'm slowly putting together some new material on that front for an eventual book, and two cool pieces of that recently came together from two great artists, so I thought I'd share them here!

The first is an image of the classic Black Terror from Golden Age artist (and personal favorite) Ramona Fradon. Fradon is an underrated legend in the comic book industry, and I'm kind of stunned that I was able to commission her in the first place. She's been drawing comics for almost 70 years and might be best known for co-creating Aqualad and Metamorpho for DC Comics. What a thrill it is to work with her in even the slightest capacity.

Our next piece is from a familiar source, Mr. Duane Redhead! Duane took some time from drawing the Tick to pencil and ink this lovely image of an elderly (but still muscular, check out those biceps) Black Terror and Mr. Q. The backdrop for this image is the city of Cleveland, because Cleveland is just kind of a funny place.

I'll update this page with more info on my take on the Black Terror in the future. For now, I'm excited to see these images.

News on The Baltimore Comic-Con, Batman/Avengers movies, Brink and more!

It's time for new about things!  Hooray!

- The Baltimore Comic-Con recently updated its website with a list of guests, including some of my favorite creators like Scott Snyder, Geof Darrow, Chrissie Zullo, Walter Simonson...and me (I'm on my own list of favorite creators?  How gauche).  The convention website not only listed me, but everyone I was planning on taking to the show with me as well.  I got four passes, but at the time I filled out the application I wasn't sure on what I'd do with the last one, so I just wrote down "George Newman", not knowing that it'd eventually be published (perhaps in the convention program, which would be fun).  George Newman, of course, is "Weird Al" Yankovic's character from the movie UHF:

Unfortunately, though, Weird Al will not be appearing at my table at the show.  Unless he reads this, thinks it's a funny joke, and decides to show up as if to say "I get it...and I approve".  In which case, there's a seat waiting for you, Al.

- I got a confirmation e-mail for the Saturday, August 6th filming date for "The Dark Knight Rises" at Heinz Field.  The grammar is atrocious as expected (apparently an apostrophe can be used...whenever) but there was some good information included in this mass mailing.  The scene being filmed is described as the "kickoff scene" which could be literal or could refer to this being the opening shot for the movie (though I doubt it).  We're encouraged to make signs and bring them (presumably as long as they don't say things like "BRUCE WAYNE IS BATMAN" or "watch Franks and Beans!"), colors to wear are black and gold, and the scene in the movie will take place in late fall or early winter.  So, yes, at the beginning of August we'll have to wear winter coats.  I'll update everyone on how many die of heat stroke on the set.

- Sean Kleefeld wrote a pretty cool blog (and took the above picture) about his experience for the recent "Avengers" casting call in Cleveland.  It sounds like, while there were fewer people to show up, it was pretty similar to the Dark Knight casting call in Pittsburgh.  Kleefeld writes, in part:

There seemed to me a refreshingly diverse mix of people there. I figured it would be heavily fanboyish and, while they were clearly represented well, there were all sorts of other people too. Obviously, the aspiring actors and actresses with resumes in hand but also a range of folks who just heard about this and thought it might be interesting and/or fun. Plus, one thing that I'm ashamed to admit hadn't occurred to me prior to going, someone mentioned that he was guessing about half of the attendees were simply out of work and needed a job of any sort.

Read his full blog here!  This movie will soon film for four weeks in Cleveland and for one week right outside of Pittsburgh.  Maybe I'll manage to sneak on as an extra at some point, if only because both Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion (of Firefly/Serenity fame) are both involved in the project.  And then we'll all become best friends and they'll bring the show back as a result of that new friendship.

- Paul Tucker is knocking our John Watkins: Phantom for Hire story out of the park.  Above is a panel from a recently completed page.  This is what happens when you smoke, kids.  You die.  So don't do it.

- Brink, the webcomic I'm currently lettering (by James Emmett and Daniel Erenberg), has recently updated with several new pages!  Check it out and follow along here!

- And finally, here's a picture of a sack of potatoes.  Enjoy.

Justice League #8 letters page

To prove that everything old is new again, DC Comics recently announced that they were bringing back letters pages to their books.  Letters pages were removed several years ago in lieu of a more standard "DC Nation" page, which ended up being exactly what it was destined to become - a full-page in-house ad for other crap the company wanted you to buy.  It followed a pretty predictable formula: at first Dan DiDio wrote the DC Nation page and it was fairly informative; after a while DiDio still wrote it but would mention things like "well, I'm running really late with this, so...who likes Plastic Man?!"; later, Didio passed the torch onto other editors and assistants; even later you'd see full pages of art with "HAPPY THANKSGIVING!" (and similar messages) plastered on them; finally, it settled down to its current form, the Jay Sherman-esque "buy my book!" ads.

The prevailing sentiment from DC a few years ago was that message boards effectively took the place of letters pages, and nostalgia aside they probably did, though comics do run on quite a bit of nostalgia, to be fair.  I imagine that the DC Nation page might stick around even though letters pages are returning, as most DC books are cutting the page count of their books from 22 to 20 in an effort to save costs and keep cover prices at (or roll them back to) $2.99.

In any case, letters pages seem intrinsically tied to comics in many ways, as they have a long publication history together.  For example, last week I mentioned that I had bought a copy of Justice League of America #8 from Greensburg's Pop Culture Connection.  Within its pages is a 50-year-old letter column that was probably as stupid-fun as any could be today.

The first letter in this column is from none other than Roy Thomas, who later went on to become a mainstay creator himself, writing titles like Fantastic Four and Conan (he just took over as the main writer for Dark Horse's Conan: Road of Kings series, as it turns out, after lengthy runs on several of Marvel's series).  This isn't a great surprise, as Thomas is known to have letters published in quite a few series before he began working for comics in a professional capacity, but it still is funny.  He mentions what had to be the first issue of his well-known and long-lived fanzine, Alter Ego.

Writers of most of the other letters do what fans do best - they complain.  Oh, do they complain!  Most of them complain about the overuse of certain characters like Superman and Batman.  It's funny to read how much disdain some fans had for different characters, especially when fans today spend so much time making the same kinds of arguments.

One fan (Ronald Lehr of Cleveland) wrote to yell about the misuse of Superman, saying "I'd rather see him dropped off the JLA than be abused as he is.  He is the most neglected member.  Never (just about) is he in the action."  The best part about Ron's letter is that he calls DC on using Kryptonite on every possible occasion: "The mineral must be on sale at a local candy-store", he muses, "the way you guys scatter it into the hands of every crook that comes along."  The sarcasm!  The vitriol!  It's nice to know that some things withstand the test of time.

There are other interesting entries; one person writes his letter directly to the Flash (and asks the editors to deliver it to him); one counts - panel by panel - the appearances of each Justice League member (except for Snapper Carr and Green Arrow, for some reason) in each of the first six issues of the book!

My favorite letter of all, though, comes from Mrs. John L. Wright from Terre Haute, Indiana, who wrote to prove that smart people read comics, too.  After listing a string of her and her husband's accomplishments (including IQ numbers), she praises the "clean harmlessness of comic books."

The reply from the editor really knocked me over.  I can't tell if it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek.  I dearly hope it is, because after noting that this woman's husband had an IQ four points higher than hers, the editor replies: "We're curious about what effect your husband's higher I.Q. has on your married life.  Does it mean that you allow him to make all the decisions in your household?"

My goodness.  As I said, these letters are 50 years old, so we're talking about a time when gender roles were a bit different than they are now.  Even so, what a flippant response!  Here's a woman praising the value of your comics (when everyone else is writing in to say how much they hate Batman), and your big response is "does your husband tell you what to do all the time?"  You're a bunch of jerks sometimes, DC.

At last! Something to do in Cleveland!

It's no secret that the cities of Pittsburgh and Cleveland have something of a rivalry going on between them.  Well, okay, perhaps that's a bit too much personification - it's the people between the cities who fuel the competition, and much of that springs from the sports rivalry between the Steelers and the Browns, which, to be honest, hasn't been much of a rivalry in recent years.  That's okay, though, because it is admittedly difficult for any team to keep up with the SIX! TIME! SUPER BOWL! CHAMPION! Steelers.

Ah hem.  Anyway, good natured barbs aside, Cleveland does have some things going for it.  Lake Erie, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the burgeoning arts scene - not to mention the fact that Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster lived there.

Matt Kuhns of the site "Modern Ideas" recently created a map celebrating that history by marking significant sites throughout Cleveland that relate to Superman and his creators - some of which are still there to visit, some of which aren't, and one that will hopefully be added in the future - a Superman museum.

It's a shame that Cleveland hasn't yet fully embraced this aspect of its history, but steps are being made to bring the significance of Superman in Cleveland to light.  I do believe that one day a Superman museum will be built.  In the mean time, this map illustrates that there are still a number of cool Man of Steel related attractions in Eastern Ohio.  This may be cause for a road trip...

Read the original post here, and download a pdf of the map here!