Hey Kids! Comics!

Today, the properties that originated in comic books are big business. Superhero stories spawn huge franchises that cross over various media platforms and used to sell a myriad of products. But the people responsible for creating these often beloved and highly commercial characters and stories are often buried in obscurity, relegated to a single line of a movie credit (if they are lucky), or often cut out of receiving any credit at all. Famously, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sold Superman to what would be called DC Comics for $130 and spent decades trying to be compensated for their creation. Jack Kirby created or co-created pretty much every character in the original Marvel Universe, but he received no royalties, and worse yet mostly people attribute his work to Stan Lee. Even more recently, Thanos creator Jim Starlin feuded with Marvel over compensation over the main villain for a movie that had a $1.2 billion opening weekend. Such situations of inequity are the focus of this book, Hey Kids! Comics! that chronicles the lives of several fictional comics creators.

It features several characters over the course of eight decades, and they appear to be based on specific familiar figures as well as some composite characters. The main three, Ted Whitman, Benita Heindel, and Ray Clarke, all shed a unique light on the comics industry. Whitman is an African American artist, working in a field dominated by white men. Heindel is a white woman also trying to navigate this world. Clarke is a white man, but he is a freelancer who bounces between companies and gets a wide look at goings on in comics as a whole. Over the years, they deal with the low regard and low pay of the job, ego-maniacal publishers and editors, turbulent years when comics companies were in financial distress, and the need to be adaptable in order to survive in multiple times of change.

 

 

 

As a person pretty well versed in comic book history, I recognize that a bunch of the stories told here cleave closely to actual events, albeit in fictionalized fashion. They are fascinating, gripping tales that offer a counterpoint to the glam and glitter associated (especially with) superheroes today. The storytelling is tight, the characters are strong and memorable. The biggest issue I had with the book was keeping up with it large cast of characters and time shifts, but after the first chapter I got into the swing and rhythm of the book and everything clicked along well. I feel this book is complex enough that rereading it is rewarding, so it has that in its favor as well.

This volume collects what was a five-issue series, and it was created by Howard Chaykin, a veteran comics maker with decades of experience. He cut his teeth in the industry as an assistant to legends Gil Kane (who I feel is the inspiration for the Clarke character) and Wally Wood. He notably drew some of the initial Star Wars comic books for Marvel in the 1970s, but it was in the 1980s that he really began making his mark transforming comic books with his independent series American Flagg! and the X-rated Black Kiss. He has numerous comics credits since then, and he speaks more about his work on Hey Kids! Comics! in this interview and also writes more about it in this article.

The reviews I have seen about this book have been mixed. Dan Traeger concluded, "I highly recommend this if you’re a fan of comic book history, or if you’re a fan of Chaykin’s historical fiction." Alan Boon wrote, "If you’re even a casual student of comic book history, and aren’t averse to seeing Stan Lee pulled down off his pedestal and given a beating with a rock in a sock, then this could hold some interest for you." Cole offered some interesting insights in his review at The Perfect Bound Podcast. Derek and I also discussed the first two issues in this episode of The Comics Alternative podcast.

Hey Kids! Comics! was  published by Image Comics, and they offer a preview and much more info about it here.

Super Weird Heroes, Volume 2: Preposterous But True!

If you are into superheroes, Golden Age comic book, or surrealism (or all three!), this book is right up your alley. Super Weird Heroes, Volume 2: Preposterous But True! is a hefty collection of comics tales featuring some outlandish and amazing characters. Some, like aquatic ace Barry Kuda, have excellent puns that provide a humorous counterpoint to the action. Others, like The Jaguar, feature some pretty insane costumes and gimmicks. One, The Eye, is literally a large, floating eyeball that gives superpowers to others who do its bidding. And although this book has a classic Golden Ager or two, like Stardust the Super Wizard or Doll Man, most of them were new to me.


The comics here are fun, often zany, and frequently uniquely inventive. The various art styles used in Golden Age comics also make for interesting reading, as you can see in this sampling of some of my favorite characters/stories in this book:

Airmale is a university professor who has a strange postal theme to his powers as well as a sidekick named Stampy.

The teenage heroine Tomboy is a surprisingly capable and acrobatic adversary for a violent crime boss.

The strangely costumed Hip Knox has amazing abilities, but he seems to use them mostly in vindictive and petty manner.

I loved the Greek mythological origin of The Bouncer, especially because he was descended from the relatively obscure character Antaeus.

Also a key feature of this book is its one-page introductions of each character and its creators, which give context to these tales. In these mini-essays, the book's editor Craig Yoe demonstrates a love and appreciation for the creative energy contained in these stories. It seem to be it would be easy to simply mock many of them for their ridiculous qualities, but overall I feel this book comes from a place of admiration and respect. Yoe has a huge amount of books and comics collections to his credit, and he is a major player in contemporary work on preserving comics history. He speaks more about many of his recent publications including his work on this book in this interview with my cohost Derek at The Comics Alternative.

I was not able to find many reviews of this book but the ones I located were positive. Allen Spinney wrote, "It really is great fun to see how these heroes fight for individual freedoms, punch out armed goons and celebrate their eccentricity in such a colorful way." Dan Greenfield added that "part of the fun is seeing names like Jerry Siegel and Otto Binder — creators known for, shall we say, more successful characters — show up."

Super Weird Heroes, Volume 2 was published by IDW, and they offer a preview and more here. I have not read the first book of Super Weird Heroes, and it's not really necessary for appreciating this volume, but I aim to check it out soon.

The publisher provided a review copy.

Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World

I am a HUGE fan of Pénélope Bagieu's comics. California Dreamin' and Exquisite Corpse were two of my favorite graphic novels in recent years, and I feel that her artwork is ethereal and gorgeous to behold. So when I got the review copy of this book I was very excited to read it. I am pleased not only to report that it did not disappoint, but that I loved this book, and it gets my highest recommendation.

Brazen is a one-person anthology of stories about strong, impactful women from across history and cultures. It is a hefty volume containing 29 mini-biographies that range in length from 2 to 10 pages, via 9 panel grids. One thing I loved about it was that I could read it a few stories at a clip or simply laze over one and then come back to the book later. The stories themselves are condensed, colorfully illustrated, and very substantive. They are also told in a simultaneously respectful and cheeky manner that I found extremely engaging and informative. This book is the best combination of art and education, and I found I learned much from it while also being quite enchanted while reading.

The women profiled range from the well known, like investigative reporter Nellie Bly and Wicked Witch of the West actress Margaret Hamilton, to the more obscure (at least to me) like Giorgina Reid and Angolan Queen Nzinga. What I appreciated, even with the ones I knew something about, was that she included lots of detail about their accomplishments and contributions to society across history. Some folks know that Hedy Lamarr was a famous actress, but they do not know perhaps that she was also an important scientific inventor.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been glowing, including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus. Rachel Cooke wrote, "This book already feels like a classic, one to be loved by every girl who reads it from now until the end of time." Michael Cavna wrote "that it belongs in most every girl’s — and boy’s — hands by middle school." Rosemary at Mom Read It called it a "a must-add to your collections." Oliver Sava highlighted the lovely representative spread that follows each entry, stating,  "After the waves of information in the preceding strips, these clever, bold illustrations give the reader moments to meditate on what they’ve just read, enriching each individual history."

Brazen was published by First Second, and they have more information and a reading guide for it here.

A review copy was provided by the publisher.

Masterful Marks: Cartoonists Who Changed the World

There have been a great many cartoonists who have had a huge impact on the world, and even some failed ones (like Hugh Hefner) found ways to still truck in comics and be successful. This book Masterful Marks tells a number of biographies about these titanic figures, using comics as the medium and a number of notable contemporary creators as authors. Many of the stories told here are superb in terms of their topic and also by their execution. Peter Kuper's bio of Harvey Kurtzman was cleverly and masterfully composed in ways that incorporated his subject's signature style in the narrative. But my favorite one was by Drew Friedman about R. Crumb, which conveyed Crumb's influence and also contained a good number of personal anecdotes about his encounters with different comics creators. It was a beautifully drawn essay with lots of fun flourishes and lively storytelling:

The other entries were as diverse in style as the subjects they cover. Many of them focus on hard luck tales of creators being cheated out of their creations and the fortunes they wrought. I really enjoyed Mark Alan Stamaty's take on Jack Kirby as well as Ryan Heshka's beautiful artwork on the entry about Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster:

Other stories focus on those who found fame and fortune through art, including entries on children's book author Dr. Seuss, celebrated caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, and the progenitor of the macabre Addams Family, Charles Addams:

What was also excellent for me, an old fogey who knows a lot about comics and their creators, is that there are also some entries about folks I had never heard of, like Lynd Kendall Ward (who created the first graphic novels) and Rodolphe Töpffer (who created the first comic strips). The only real clunker in this book for me was the entry on Walt Disney, because it basically amounted to a few pages of an adult talking to a child with little action or creative use of comics to convey a narrative. It was like reading an encyclopedia entry, only in word balloons. Happily, all of the other entries in this book were much better, most being remarkably excellent.

Common in the critiques of I have read of this book is that it is not very diverse. There are no woman represented as subjects in the book, and Osamu Tezuka is the only creator represented from a non-European background, but I still think that there is much here among the biographies to inform, delight, and surprise those unfamiliar with many of these figures. I also think that such an absence also acts on a commentary about the history of comics, when many minority groups were not given entrée.

Monte Beauchamp edited this book and also authored four of its entries. He is a graphic designer, illustrator, author, and editor who has won multiple honors, including the Richard Gangel Art Director Award. He is best known for his long running anthology of comics and art Blab!, but he also has written a number of books about popular culture, including ones about Krampus and vintage matchbook cover art. Beauchamp speaks more about his work and choices in writing/editing this book in this interview.

All of the reviews I have read about this book praise and describe a collection of mostly strong stories. Don Simpson called it "a slick and attractive compendium of drawing board history told in a diversity of current styles." J. Caleb Mozzocco commented positively on the "Murderers’ Row of great contributors and collaborators" who worked on this book. Kirkus Reviews summed up, "There’s always a hit-or-miss quality to such projects, and some question over the selections, but what’s great here is really terrific."

Masterful Marks was published by Simon & Schuster, and they have a preview and more here.

Catching up with Archie Week!

Growing up, my sister and I had hundreds of issues of Archie comics around the house and in various rooms. Stacks of floppy pamphlets as well as single and double digests were easily within arms' reach if we needed some quick entertainment or just felt like passing the time with some light reading.

The company that would become Archie began in 1939 as MLJ Comics, named for the first initials of magazine publishers Morris Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater. Their initial offerings were of the popular genre of the day superheroes. The comics were largely derivative of more popular characters, though they were groundbreaking in introducing the first patriotic American superhero The Shield.

Eventually, a red headed teenager debuted in a back-up story in Pep #22 drawn by Bob Montana, and soon enough he proved so popular he not only got his own title but they named the company after him.

Archie Comics has long prided itself on its family values and strong editorial leadership. MLJ/Archie was one of the prime movers behind the creation and work of The Comics Code Authority, which for decades promised a level of quality of comic books according to some or perpetrated willful and retaliatory censorship according to others.

Also, because of the strong role of editors the company has a reputation (perhaps unearned) of not always being so generous with their creators. For instance, John Goldwater is credited with creating Archie sometimes, though other accounts give complete credit to artist Bob Montana and writer Vic Bloom. After Montana's death the main artistic duties fell to Dan DeCarlo, who created the very familiar Archie house style still used today and was the first artist to draw popular characters like Josie and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Eventually, DeCarlo brought a lawsuit against the publisher over the characters of Josie and the Pussycats specifically, as DeCarlo claimed to have created them (he named Josie after his wife) and been shut out of licensing deals over the years.

The cast of Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Reggie, Moose, and Dilton have been around for decades, providing sitcom style humor and dating situations for younger readers. Their stories have been long associated with safe, homogenous entertainment that will offend none but amuse all.

As I have documented before, they have made overtures to update their characters some, by using YA authors to write stories or providing some more historical context and backstories, but lately they have made even bolder moves. For the next week, I will be looking at what the company has been up to in the recent past. I will be looking at various updates they have been doing to their characters, from introducing a more diverse cast, to venturing into producing more YA comics, to them even marrying Archie off and letting him be a grown-up. They even now have a series that is a straight-up horror book called Afterlife with Archie where zombies are slowly picking off the Riverdale cast, but I will get at that one perhaps at a later date once it's been collected.

It will be an interesting ride, so make sure you check in!