I’ve made my love for the Tintin graphic novels by Herge known before. I guess I’m not the only one.
Someone just bought the original artwork for the cover of the 1942 Tintin graphic novel The Shooting Star for a whopping 2.8 million…
This is the actual printed/colored cover as seen in the graphic novels:
And here’s the original artwork that was sold:
Not much to add here, just noting how popular the character and the original works of author/artist Herge remain.
Then by all means read this article from the normally very humorous Cracked.com, 3 Artists Who Got Screwed For Creating Iconic Characters:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/3-famous-characters-whose-creators-got-epically-screwed/
Though familiar with most of the creators described, I wasn’t aware of the Dwayne “The Rock” Hercules film being based on the writings of Steve Moore, though it doesn’t at all surprise me that like the other creators listed, he got nothing for his creative work when his work was translated into a film.
One thing that remains a certainty regarding all this: It’s all about the money.
When I first started getting into comic books in the very early 1970’s and over the years afterwards, one of the joys of reading books was the introduction of new, interesting (and sometimes not so interesting) characters. They could be heroes or villains, civilians or aliens or something in between. These new characters appeared in established books, often as co-stars or potential new rivals. Sometimes the companies publishing the works felt strongly enough about the new character(s) that they merited their own book.
While many of those creations didn’t “click” with audiences either right away or at all, there were those that rose to starring roles. Some, like Rocket Raccoon in the motion picture Guardians of the Galaxy, were essentially forgotten for decades before becoming popular.
Things changed in the mid to late 1980’s and into the 1990’s. At that time comic book sales were very strong (though not as strong as in the Golden Age of the 1940’s) and some artists and writers made huge amounts of money from their works. But at about that same time fans and creators alike realized many of the creators from the past, perhaps most notably Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (the creators of Superman) and Jack Kirby (the creator/co-creator of almost everything Marvel), were shafted. Despite companies making buckets of cash off their creations, these creators wound up receiving next to nothing.
At about that time, and with that realization, I noticed that “new” characters didn’t appear in comic books with the frequency they had before. Sure, books kept being released, but the stories were more recycled and hardly ever featured new and interesting characters. Because of the success of the Independent market, some big and not so big name authors and artists chose to release original stories featuring new creations that way, ensuring they retained control over their creative works.
Nonetheless, both Marvel and DC comics has benefited from, quite literally, over a half-century of creative works that were remained under their control. And, in the case of the already mentioned Rocket Raccoon, this was a boon to Disney/Marvel…while Bill Mantlo, the creator of the character, was entitled to nothing.
But there is an interesting flip side to this particular coin. If the studios can get away with using creations by (to the general public) unknown creators, they will also not hesitate in using the name of a “well known” creator to promote a work…if it helps create more exposure and money.
Witness the SyFy Network TV show Haven. While not on the level with, say The Prisoner (one of my all time favorite TV shows), Haven is to me a very entertaining show featuring a scenic town and the oddball things that happen within it. The leads are charismatic, the stories interesting, and I catch it whenever new episodes air.
Oh, and by the way, the show is “based on” The Colorado Kid, a novel by Stephen King. What has the TV show to do with the novel?
Just about nothing.
In fact, other than a couple of characters work in the small town’s newspaper and something happened a few years before, there isn’t all that much resemblance between King’s novel and the TV show, yet it would be crazy for the producers of the show not to mention now and again the fact that the show is “based on” the King novel.
In the end, its all about money, right?
…their comic book movie plans?
http://io9.com/dcs-url-registrations-reveal-comic-book-movie-plans-for-1629691999
Interesting, though not terribly full bodied, material. The URLs listed amount to a whopping (he wrote sarcastically) four movies, and at least two of them are already known and one was suspected. The fourth listed in the above link is something of a surprise, at least to me.
I won’t spoil it for those who don’t want to know, but suffice it to say that I’m curious why that particular character has become such a interesting character to so many. I thought at first it was something of a joke, but it appears many people are genuinely interested in this particular character and would love to see him (that’s as far as I’ll hint it!) on the screen.
Different strokes and all…
It isn’t often I review individual comic books, but in the case of All Star Western #34, a comic which features one of my all time favorite DC Comics characters, Jonah Hex, I had to make an exception.
Created by writer John Albano and artist Tony DeZuniga back in 1971, Jonah Hex made his first appearance in issue #10 of the original All Star Western series, which would become Weird Western Tales before Jonah Hex moved on to his own book. Before that move, he was featured in one of my all time favorite comic book covers, that of Weird Western Tales #25. See for yourself:
While John Albano wrote the early stories featuring Jonah Hex, it would be Michael Fleischer who would come in shortly afterwards and write the vast majority of them throughout the 1970’s and into the 1980’s. His stories were very consistent and even today are a pleasure to read. Perhaps one of the most intriguing stories he ever wrote featuring the western anti-hero appeared in DC Special Series #16. In that story, a 66 year old Jonah Hex meets his fate…
This story proved alternately grim and sad, with the corpse of Jonah Hex being stuffed and put on display in a carnival show (I suspect this was the inspiration for the sequences featuring Tonto in a carnival in the Johnny Depp starring Lone Ranger film that was released last summer).
Despite this very final story, Jonah Hex would continued to appear in one form or another since that (in)famous story, including appearing in animated form in the Batman series as well as “real life” in the awful 2010 Jonah Hex film. What a wasted opportunity that was!
In more recent times and since 2005, writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti have been writing Jonah Hex stories, first in the “new” Jonah Hex series and then for 34 issues in the “new” All Star Western.
Given their nearly decade long association with the character, it is a tribute to their talents that the volume of stories they’ve presented have been so damn good. Yes, there have been some lesser fare here and there, but their run, overall, is nothing to be ashamed of and I figured they would go on for a long, long time.
So it was something of a surprise to find that All Star Western #34 is pretty much what the title of the story says it is: “End of the Trail.” It proved to be Mr. Gray and Palmiotti’s final Jonah Hex story and was illustrated by the terrific Darwyn Cook. Was it good? More than good. I would say it is terrific…but with one rather big caveat.
What is the caveat?
To understand this particular finale story, one really should read/be familiar with the Michael Fleischer final Hex story I wrote about above. Mr. Gray and Palmiotti’s finale plays with the Fleischer finale, offering a different take while never quite negating (entirely) what Mr. Fleischer wrote.
Now, like all things, the comic book industry operates on profits and losses and while clearly DC was finishing the Jonah Hex series with this issue of All Star Western and probably didn’t want to spend more money than they had to on it, I really wish they could have reprinted the Fleischer story with this finale.
While I think readers who aren’t familiar with the Fleischer finale will enjoy it, they will enjoy it far, far more if they are familiar with that particular tale.
In the end, I highly recommend those who have even a passing interest in Jonah Hex give All Star Western #34 a look. And while you do, try to dig up a copy of that Michael Fleischer Jonah Hex finale. You’ll be glad you did.
Fun list from Cracked.com featuring both early concepts and originally considered actors for some truly memorable roles/characters:
http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_591_27-insane-but-true-early-versions-famous-characters_p27/#27
Some of the early actor considerations, like Burt Ward (TV’s Robin) originally considered for the role made famous by Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, was known to me. But John Travolta for Forrest Gump? Interesting! (I’ll repeat for the umpteenth time my favorite bit of original casting: Frank Sinatra as Dirty Harry! Reportedly a painful finger injury made Mr. Sinatra bow out of the film as he didn’t think he could handle firing that massive 357 Magnum. The role was offered to many other interesting names with various degrees of interest/disinterest, from Burt Lancaster to John Wayne to Robert Mitchum. Eventually Clint Eastwood took over the job and Dirty Harry the movie and character arguably became the most famous/iconic role he ever played!)
Also like the revelation that Krusty the Clown was originally supposed to be Homer Simpson himself! Makes sense as he did originally look an awful lot like Homer and the idea that Homer was secretly the character might have been an interesting concept for a few episodes.
Just goes to show that the creative process is rarely a very direct one. People can come up with concepts and ideas but they are refined and changed over time and circumstance…sometimes giving far, far better results than were originally conceived!
Its the age old argument many a child -and adult!- fan has engaged in at one time or another: Which is the better comic book company, Marvel or DC?
Read on, read on…
Big admission: I’ve always been a DC fan. When I was growing up in the early 1970’s, my first major comic book experiences almost all related to DC books. At the time, I was absolutely wowed by the sinister, shadowy artwork of Berni Wrightson and great storytelling of Len Wein in the first ten issues of Swamp Thing. I was also impressed with the Archie Goodwin/Walt Simonson Manhunter stories. Not long afterwards I was equally blown away by the various Neal Adams drawn works, primary of which were his Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow series, at that time appearing in various reprint forms.
Don’t get me wrong, I was aware of the Marvel books and many of the creators involved in them. I loved the works of Jack Kirby (who doesn’t…at least now?) and was floored by his Fantastic Four work…but, again, his DC work, which was more current at that time, simply had my attention. I loved, loved, loved Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth and found The New Gods, and in particular the at times savage Orion, absolutely fascinating.
Lest I sound like a total DC fanatic, let me conclude with this: The initial 38 issues of Spider-Man, the original issues created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, easily remain my all time favorite Marvel works. This is no slight on the many contributions to Marvel Comics of Jack Kirby. As I mentioned before, I loved his Fantastic Four run. It is a very, very close second to the Spider-Man issues for best Marvel work ever. In my humble opinion, of course.
Ok…think I got all that geekiness out of my system now. Back to work! 😉
Fascinating article, found on Huffington Post, regarding the many (many!) alternate titles considered by author Peter Benchley for the novel that eventually became known as…Jaws:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/05/jaws-alternative-title_n_3703627.html
It got me thinking about my own novels and alternate titles I considered for them.
The Dark Fringe, my first major work, was originally entitled The Fringe (I came up with the title when I first started writing the story, way back in 1984-85 or thereabouts and a good twenty years before the TV show first appeared). When it came time to print the story in 1996 or so, it was suggested by my publisher that I change the title to make it more “dramatic”. So, I converted The Fringe into The Dark Fringe and to this day I believe J. J. Abrams and company at the very least were aware of my book (I say this for several reasons, the greatest of which is the season two episode Brown Betty. While the plot of my book and the episode are quite different, the peculiars and visuals in Brown Betty sure look an awful lot like what I presented in my graphic novel). 
My next big work was started shortly after I finished the early drafts of The Dark Fringe, circa 1985-86 and was entitled The Abyss. In 1989, James Cameron’s The Abyss was release to theaters and my book’s title was deep sixed only to be resurrected years later as The Last Flight of the Argus.
As for my other books, they were originally titled as you see ’em today, so no stories there!
Fascinating article by Andrew Leonard for Salon.com regarding something that has been on my mind often of late: Despite all the great stuff it offers, what of the negatives regarding the Internet? Is all the good worth all the bad, both potential and realized?
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/05/creative_destruction_government_snooping_is_the_internet_worth_it/
Mr. Leonard’s focus is mostly on governmental “snooping” and journalism but it also can relate to the general impact of the Internet on everything, including loss of privacy both unintended and unrealized. For example, I recall in the earlier, wildly popular days of Facebook that some clever thieves realized that some posters on that social media website would over share their day to day activities, to the point where they posted information about upcoming vacations, including where they were going, when they were going, and for how long.
Which meant these clever thieves now knew when a poster’s home was potentially unguarded and empty and for what specific period of time, making it a perfect target for theft.
Revelations about the Government’s internet snooping should be alarming to most people, but there are other economic factors that I’ve were influenced by the rise of the internet. I’ve mentioned before how certain “mom and pop” type stores simply cannot compete with full service internet “stores” like Amazon.com and how even some bigger retail chains, including bookstores and electronic stores, now are in danger of closing their doors because of the increasing ease of purchase and seemingly unlimited stock available online.
But there exists yet another big threat created by the internet, one that personally scares me for different reasons: The possibility of creative destruction. If you think about entertainment, you think about a few things: Music, movies, television, books/novels, comic books, etc. All of these creative endeavors are now victims to pirate websites.
Looking for the latest album by artist X? Download it for free…sometimes before the album is officially released! Looking forward to seeing movie X? Same thing. Novels? Comic books? Television shows? Ditto, ditto, and ditto.
Where will this piracy of creative ideas eventually lead? If you’re a struggling artist, there’s precious little money to be made in your works. Whatever little bit you can scrape together is helpful and may allow you to hone your craft and allow you to make better and better product…provided you can indeed pay your bills. But what if your current work(s) find their way to pirate websites and whatever meager amount of money you might have earned on your current, best works takes a hit because of illegal downloads?
And what of established artists? Will movie/music companies become more and more fearful of signing off on a big budget item if the worry about how much they’ll lose on the illegal downloads of said item? Is it possible some companies will simply give up on funding films/TV shows/music albums entirely? And where will that leave many of us, audiences hungry for new entertainment?
As Mr. Leonard put it in his article:
…we are increasingly sensing that we have no idea where this techno-roller coaster is ultimately headed. There’s a sense that things are out of control. Our growing uneasiness doesn’t jibe well with all the hype about how the world is being made a better place by a proliferation of smartphone apps.
Of my works, the one that remained unavailable via the Kindle was my first one, the graphic novel The Dark Fringe.
No longer.
As of yesterday, The Dark Fringe is now available via Amazon.com for immediate download to your Kindle devices (be they tablets or computers). And, to celebrate this fact, the book can be downloaded FOR ABSOLUTELY FREE through the weekend. This offer expires on Sunday, June the 2nd, so please take advantage!
You can find the e-graphic novel at the link below:
Enjoy!
A while back (you can read it here) I reviewed the first Omnibus of what I consider Jack Kirby’s last great comic book series, Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth.
I’m a huge fan of the works of Jack Kirby, and for whatever reason his last major works, which appeared in the early to mid 70’s, hold a special place of interest. I love The New Gods and the related books. I love The Demon. I love OMAC.
And I especially, especially, love Kamandi.
True, none of the DC Comics works are held in quite the same regard as his many classic creations for Marvel Comics in the 1960’s (Jack Kirby had his hand in pretty much all the stable of Marvel heroes that are now so very popular on the big screen), but for whatever reason, it is his run at DC that I go back to again and again.
When I reviewed the first Kamandi Omnibus, however, I noted that this book, which reprinted the first 20 issues of the original series, was the one to get, as it featured the best Kirby works on the series.
Now, having picked up (belatedly) the second Omnibus, my comments are reaffirmed…although I would quickly add that any fan of the works of Jack Kirby should still pick this book up.
Yes, issues #21-40 of the original series featured a clearly less involved Jack Kirby. The artwork wasn’t quite as lush as before and the stories, while still quite good, weren’t up to the level of the first twenty. Regardless, there are great ones. Check out, in particular, issue 29’s story “The Legend”, which has Kamandi and company find a most peculiar suit…one originally (?) worn by Superman! Or marvel at issue 31, which features sequences that may well have been inspired by the works of the late Ray Harryhausen.
Yes, there are still plenty of good stories to be found, but by issue #34 the book was clearly in trouble. The legendary Joe Kubert took over cover duties, a sure sign that Jack Kirby’s marketability was reaching a low ebb. By issue #38, Gerry Conway took over the scripts of the series and remained on the book during the last three Jack Kirby illustrated issues. Perhaps by that time Mr. Kirby simply had no more Kamandi stories he was interested in telling, or perhaps he was simply trying to kill time before his contract was up.
The book, however, appeared to still be popular despite Mr. Kirby’s departure. Despite overall poor sales at DC Comics during that time, the series lasted another 19 issues without Mr. Kirby before being cancelled. I’m such a fan of the series that I would love to see those issues, plus the two issues never actually published (though they were made and eventually released in Cancelled Comics Cavalcade).
Overall, I’m very happy to finally have all the Jack Kirby Kamandi issues in two wonderful volumes. Give it a try. You may like it.
