Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics

Captain America. The X-Men. Hulk. Iron Man. The Avengers. The New Gods. Black Panther. These are only a few of the hundreds of characters that Jack Kirby either created or co-created. They are household names and properties that have generated billions (trillions?) of dollars for the corporations that control them. But he received close to none of such profits. In terms of industry folks, most artists and creators revere Kirby as one of the all-time greats, but non-comics people tend to not know who he was and attribute all of his creations to his frequent collaborator Stan Lee. Finally here, he is given a full biography, in graphic novel form.

Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics tells his whole life story, from his early days as a hard-scrabble New Yorker to his becoming an artist and taking part in the formative years of the comic book industry. He was friends/associates with many of the people who shaped American comics, like Bob Kane, Will Eisner, and Joe Simon. He bounced around several companies, enlisted and served in the Army during World War II, co-invented the genre of Romance Comics, co-created the Marvel Universe as we know it, and went on later in life to work in animation. His was an eventful life, and this book captures it in a mostly realistic, painterly style that evokes the spirit of Golden Age comics as well as documentaries. Also, the paper itself is colored to resemble yellowed newsprint, the material used to display Kirby's works.

I have to say that this book moves at breakneck speed, and it is packed full of his accomplishments. There is a part of me that wanted there to be more breaks, perhaps in the form of chapters or parts, but I also feel that the sort of compressed storytelling at play here is more emblematic of Kirby's work. So the medium very well matches its subject, though I also made myself pause at times to catch my breath and take in the story.

I also appreciated the way the book used Kirby as the primary narrator (using various interviews and articles as reference points) with occasional shifts of POV to his wife Roz and collaborator Stan Lee. I'd say it does a good job at capturing the spirit and voice of the man, and I liked how it treated him in very practical terms, with his speaking to the need to be productive and work not only in terms of expressing himself but also to put food on the table and support his growing family. Certainly Kirby was an impressive creator, but this books demystifies some of the origins of his most famous works, showing how he cobbled together his experiences, learning, and media consumption in spinning his fantastic stories and amazing characters. Kirby is impressively human.

This book also touches on the more controversial aspects of Kirby's life, namely how he was cheated out of his due as a creator and spent much of his life battling in vain to retain control of his stories, characters, and artwork. Surely there is lots of blame to assign for his treatment, and I felt this book captured well the conditions that led to it. It also has lots of source material behind it to help flesh out the proceedings well.

In seeing people's responses to this book online, the most glaring aspect people have latched onto is the depiction of Kirby himself, which you can see from the cover image. While everyone else is realistically drawn, Kirby is rendered in a cartoonish way, with a huge head and big eyes. I think this choice does two things: it draws attention to him in every way as an otherworldly presence, and it makes it clear who he is in every instance, making for smoother storytelling. Others have noted how this choice is related to how another comics titan Osamu Tezuka (the "God of Manga") drew himself in his own works, and I feel that there is a similar semiotic move made here, a marker of a similarly legendary figure. In reading the book, I have to say that I did not find the choice jarring in the least, and I was quickly drawn into the narrative flow of the story. Even though I was very familiar with many aspects of his life, I still found this book fresh and vibrant. And I feel it is extremely important now, especially as an introduction to those who are unaware of just how impactful Kirby's life was.

This book was created by long-time Jack Kirby fan Tom Scioli. His own works clearly owe debts to Kirby in terms of style, particularly his series Gødland and American Barbarian, not to mention his recent Fantastic Four: Grand Design limited series. He has also drawn a number of licensed properties, including Transformers Vs. G.I. Joe. Scioli speaks about his work on this book in this interview. For more about his entire career, check out this interview with TCJ.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have sung its praises. In a starred review Publishers Weekly called it "a must-read for Kirby fans, and beyond—it captures the mythos of the of the 20th century comic industry’s golden age."  Kirkus Reviews summed it up as "a fast-paced celebration of an underheralded legend within the comic-book industry." Steven Thompson wrote, "The public deserves to know Kirby’s story and Tom Scioli, the obsessive Kirby fan/writer/artist, tells it here in a way I can’t help but think the King himself would’ve liked, and in the medium Jack Kirby loved."

Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics was published by Ten Speed Press, and they offer a preview and more here.

Kirby's influence extends way beyond comics.

Check out the Comics Alternative Podcast!

I only listen to a handful of podcasts, and the only one I follow about comics and graphic novels is the Comics Alternative podcast hosted by The Two Guys with PhDs Andy Kunka and Derek Royal. Together, and with input from others, they post reviews, do roundtable discussions focused on various comics topics, visit comic stores, report from comic conventions, and interview comics creators. It is an exceptional podcast, and I highly recommend you check them out.

Because they have so much posted, I share with you a list of some of my favorite episodes:

• Their Best of 2016 show
• Interview with Drew Friedman
• Spotlight on First Second Books
• Reviews of recent crime comics
• Roundtable on political comics
• Focus on books for young readers
• Interview with Evan Dorkin
• Interview with "Calamity" Jon Morris
• All of their interviews with Craig Yoe

If listening to podcasts is not quite your bag, they also have a blog where you can read things like reviews or a great set of interviews, including ones with Nick Sousanis, Seth, Keith Knight, Richard Corben, and Peter Bagge.

If you like what they do, you can also support them through Patreon. I do!

Derek on the left, Andy on the right

Happy 59th Birthday, Charles Burns!

Photo yoinked from Wikipedia

We are almost to October, and for that month I am going to review a whole bunch of creepy and spooky graphic novels. Before we get there though, I am taking the time to wish a happy trip around the sun to one of the most accomplished of horror comics creators, Charles Burns.

Burns has won multiple Harvey, Eisner and Ignatz Awards for this work. He is also sort of the Jason Voorhees of comics, slow yet steady and always delivering a killer product. He has been making comics for the better part of 30 years now, and he is known for his combination of horror aspects with an analysis of a potentially nostalgic past. He is also known for his strong, clean black lines and his expertly crisp artwork.

His work appeared in issues of Raw magazine as well as other anthologies, and those stories were later collected into a number of volumes. Big Baby followed the exploits of a young boy who lives in the suburbs and suspects his neighbors of burying people in their backyards. El Borbah is about a hulking private detective who happens to wear a lucha libre outfit. Skin Deep is an anthology of various tales, including some about Dog Boy, a creation that starred in MTV's Liquid Television in the 1980s.

His most known and celebrated work to date is Black Hole, a comic book series that stretched 12 issues from 1995 to 2005. The entire story has since been collected into one volume, and it follows the exploits of some teens in the Seattle area in the 1970s as they are inflicted with some sort of plague that is spread by sexual activity. This disease manifests with physical changes that leave many disfigured in monstrous ways, and the affected teens are banished to a squatters' settlement outside of town. Although it is set much later, Black Hole is reminiscent of 1950s horror movies, although updated with a more modern sensibility.

More recently he has been working on a trilogy of books from Pantheon. These books, X'ed Out, The Hive, and Sugar Skull, are a kind of mash-up of Tintin comics and William S. Burroughs' writing, and the first of his works to be published in color and not black and white. I will review the first two entries in depth in my next post.

In addition to his comics work, Burns is also a sought-after commercial artist who has illustrated for prominent companies such as Coca-Cola and Altoids and also produced album art for Sub Pop Records and Iggy Pop. He speaks about his career in this interview, which is accompanied by ten facts about the man.

Happy Birthday, Charles Burns!

Gilbert Hernandez Month!

If you pay attention to what books and authors I review, you will have noticed that I am a huge fan of Los Bros. Hernandez.

I got this photo from here.

This month I will be highlighting the work of Gilbert Hernandez who recently won a PEN Award. He is one of the co-creators of Love and Rockets, a long-running alternative comics series, and is an amazingly prolific artist who publishes multiple books a year. I hope you enjoy my look at his many works!

Kim Thompson, RIP

Storied and influential comics editor Kim Thompson died June 19, 2013. The list of works and artists he had a hand in bringing to American audiences is long and way beyond impressive. I got to know him from his writings in The Comics Journal in various media and also from his caricatures from comics I loved and worshiped while I was an impressionable reader, including Hate and Eightball.

I cannot put into words my appreciation for all he did with his life and how much he was a cornerstone of what I consider the best publisher of US comics, Fantagraphics, home of Love and Rockets and so many other excellent works, so I will link to some of the most affecting words I have seen from others.

This laundry list of tributes from those who knew and worked with him is very heartfelt, funny, affecting, and wonderful.

Bully, Your Friendly Neighborhood Stuffed Bull, has a great look at his personality as well as his Marvel Comics fanboy past.

This obituary by long-time friend and partner-in-crime Gary Groth is available at the Fantagraphics website.

Tom Spurgeon has a comprehensive list of remembrances, tributes, and related writing about Kim Thompson over at The Comics Reporter. Spurgeon also offers a most comprehensive obituary/appreciation here.

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me

Ellen Forney has been drawing comics for decades now, with autobiographical works such as Monkey Food, a more adult, nostalgic collection titled I Love Led Zeppelin, and a collaboration with author Sherman Alexie, the National Book Award-winning YA novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. She has also been a frequent contributor to "Seattle's Only Newspaper," The Stranger. She is a successful, productive artist, and for many years she has dealt with being bi-polar. This book is her personal account of dealing with that condition.

Marbles is funny, dark, troubling, hopeful, informative, and wonderful. Its narrative is powerfully presented in a multifaceted manner. It captures her hopes to be a productive artist and fears that if she seeks treatment she will become less inspired and less capable artistically. She fears that it will also leave her joyless and empty, so in very concrete ways this book explores the stereotype that artists have to be troubled, manic, and crazy people. The story also chronicles her relationships with her family, lovers, friends, and colleagues in intimate and complex ways. There are no easy answers in deciding about medications, treatments, or personal interactions.

Essential in this presentation is Forney's artwork, which combines sequential art and infographics in effective manner. She plays with layouts and format frequently, keeping her work fresh and the readers on  their toes. This book is super-informative but never boringly so and also very personal, with the emotion coming from her pacing and extremely expressive art. Forney captures her manic highs and depressive lows in like manner, and seeing insights from the life of a vital artist whose work I have been following for some while now impressed me greatly.

This graphic novel was included in many best of lists last year, and it has been very well reviewed in some high profile venues. The Los Angeles Times' David Ulin wrote that this book is "more than a survivor's story" and that "The best stuff here collapses the distance between reader and artist, either by stripping away distinguishing details or by opening the story to broader concerns." Entertainment Weekly's Melissa Maerz gave it an A and called it "proof that artists don't have to be tortured to be brilliant." The New York Times' Douglas Wolk was more measured, offering that it is "not exactly focused, but it’s mostly delightful."

Marbles is published by Penguin Books. There is a preview available at Amazon.

The book also has an official page with much information, reviews, and links to mental health resources.

I would recommend this book for more mature readers as it contains some explicit language, nudity, and drug use.

RIP, Keiji Nakazawa

Keiji Nakazawa, the creator of the Barefoot Gen manga series and survivor of the bombing of Hiroshima, died last month at the age of 73. He was 7 years old when the bombing occurred, and dealing with it became the focus of much of his life's and comics work. Barefoot Gen was a very widely read series, one of the first manga to be translated into English and other western languages.

The Los Angeles Times ran the best obituary for him I could find in English. Here is a list of numerous tributes and informational sites from The Comics Reporter. 

Tribute to Spain Rodriguez

Manuel "Spain" Rodriguez, a prolific and seminal underground comix artist who produced work over five decades died November 28, 2012. He published one of the first underground comix series, Zodiac Mindwarp, and was probably most famous for his creations Trashman and Big Bitch. His social views showed through in his many counter-culture works, including his recent biography of revolutionary Che Guevara. A list of his various works can be found here, and his thoughts have also been well expressed in this interview about his Trashman series. Spain's artistic chops were well-honed from decades of drawing and creating his own works, which can be seen on his official website (note: NSFW).

Here is his obituary from The New York Times (also where I got the image above). This collection of thoughts, remembrances, and reflections from a variety of his colleagues, readers, and collaborators from Tim Hodler at The Comics Journal is an excellent celebration of the man. The Comics Reporter Tom Spurgeon also has amassed a number of links to various tributes.

RIP, Spain.

Happy 55th Birthday, Peter Bagge!

Famous for his swirly, frenetic, and cartoony style, Peter Bagge is a groundbreaking and prolific comics artist whose work helped define and steer the comics art scene after the underground comix period. His editorship of Weirdo as well as his series Neat Stuff in the 1980s led to his work on Hate, and were instrumental in ushering in the alternative comics scenes of the 1990s and 2000s. His works have also appeared in numerous non-comics venues, such as Reason magazine and the notoriously over-the-top tabloid The World Weekly News.

Early in his career, Bagge was published by Robert Crumb in Weirdo and was eventually named editor of that alt-comics precursor. He went on to publish Neat Stuff at Fantagraphics, giving readers a number of different characters and storylines. Among his observational humor and parodies were the brash, annoying Girly Girl, the pathetic man-child Junior, the oblivious Goon in the Moon, the grating shock-jock Studs Kirby, and dysfunctional suburban family The Bradleys.

After this series ended, Buddy, the eldest Bradley son, went on to star in Hate, which along with Dan Clowes' Eightball, is considered one of the major alternative comics series of the 1990s. The early issues of the series followed Buddy as he moved to Seattle and navigated the nascent grunge scene. This series is notable because it shows Buddy aging as it goes along. It is still published today on an annual basis, with Buddy now being a father and cantankerous business owner in New Jersey.

Although Bagge has spent the majority of his career on his own creations and on his own terms, he has had a few forays into the two big comics companies. He wrote and Gilbert Hernandez drew nine issues of the comic book series Yeah!, which was a fun, gorgeous look at a pop band who happened to tour in outer space, for DC Comics. At the same company, he wrote and drew the comics industry parody Sweatshop. He also did some work at Marvel, producing the very interesting and provocative, if not-well-received-at-the-time, The Egomaniacal Spider-Man and The Incorrigible Hulk, which was shelved for a long time before it was finally published in an anthology.

Today, Bagge remains creative, topical, and independent with his work. He has worked on series such as Apocalypse Nerd, a survival story set in the Pacific northwest after a nuclear attack from North Korea. He has also explored the effects of technology on people's lives in the graphic novel Other Lives and series Reset.

In non-comics arenas, Bagge has published a strip about Bat Boy, The World Weekly News's mascot. In that insane run, Bat Boy has all kinds of adventures, gets elected president of the US, and eventually ends up marrying Beyoncé (who, it turns out, is actually a Bigfoot). In a more serious vein, Bagge has been a contributing editor and cartoonist for Reason magazine for a number of years now. This has been the primary forum for his work that details his Libertarian views, and a bunch of his strips have been collected in Everybody is Stupid Except for Me. Bagge talks more about his work and views in this interview.

In 2010, Bagge won the prestigious Inkpot Award for his achievements in comics. He also won Harvey Awards in 1991 for Best Cartoonist and Best New Series for his work on Hate. For his various works over time, he has also been nominated for multiple Eisner Awards.

On top of being an accomplished comics creator Bagge has also been an active musician, for years in a band called the Action Suits and currently in Can You Imagine? Check out their MySpace page for more of their songs, especially if you like a 1960's pop sound with a lot of harmonies.

Is it clear yet that I am a huge fan of this guy? I wish him a very happy birthday!

Happy Birthday 53rd Birthday, Jaime Hernandez!

Jaime Hernandez grew up in a house full of comic books. He read all kinds, from Dennis to Menace to monster stories to Archie to Uncle Scrooge to superheroes. This disparate array of comics shows up in his work, from his stylized, deceivingly easy, impeccable art to his range of storytelling. He and his brothers drew all kinds of comics, and today he is a creator well known for making his mark in the independent comics scene with the long-running and acclaimed series Love and Rockets he co-produces with his brother Gilbert. 

Love and Rockets has been coming out since 1982 and contains a number of different narratives and genres, from realistic stories about Latinos and rock bands to sci-fi tales of space aliens, professional wrestlers, and mechanics. Today the series continues not as a bimonthly series of pamphlets but as an annual volume that is more substantial.

Many of Jaime's stories have focused on a group he called Locas. They are a bunch of women, most of whom are Latinas, who live in California, are in bands or go to a lot of shows, deal with gangs and other urban issues, and also deal with relationship issues. The main character he follows is Maggie, a woman who has been a mechanic but who sometimes has a lack of drive or focus. She has a long history of tumultuous relationships, both with her friend Hopey and also with Ray. These stories are updated, revamped, and more realized Archie stories, set in an adult world where there are no easy answers or completely stock characters.

Considered a master by many, Jaime has won the Inkpot, Kirby, and multiple Harvey Awards for his work. He is not simply a great artist but also is capable of great emotional impact and range with his writing. One of his most recent stories, "The Love Bunglers" is considered to be one of the high-water marks of contemporary comics. But just as easily he can also tell affecting, interesting superhero stories in his own vein, as with his tales of the Ti-Girls. 

In one of the highlights of my year, I got to meet Jaime in June at HeroesCon. I even got to be on a panel with him about Love and Rocket's 30th anniversary, having the unenviable task of discussing his artistic influences in front of the man. He was gracious, humble, candid, and a great storyteller. Later the  next day, he also took part in a fascinating discussion of his "The Love Bunglers" stories, and later still in the Artist's Alley he drew me a sketch of Penny Century.

Simply put, Jaime is a great guy and a great creator. Happy Birthday to him!

Hail, Hail

"The King" created so many comics and characters in the world of graphic fiction it is simply mind-boggling.

Do yourself a favor, if you don't know much about Jack Kirby, read this great interview with Gary Groth at The Comics Journal, look at this series of images at The Comics Reporter,  or peruse Sean Kleefeld's list of all the comics characters he had a hand in creating.

Kirby would have been 95 today.

Happy 51st Birthday, Daniel Clowes!

Dan Clowes is perhaps the most visible and successful of the alternative comics artists that burst on to the scene in the 1980s. His work has been seen on major soda brands, the covers of major magazines, and record/CD covers. He even appeared as himself in an episode of The Simpsons.

Clowes's initial efforts appeared in Cracked, Mad magazine's major competitor. At first his work drew heavily from 1950s/1960s retro-hip features. He drew Uggly Family comics that followed the exploits of a ghoulish, Addams Family type clan. His next main character, Lloyd Llewellyn, appeared in various publications from Fantagraphics. Llewellyn was a hard boiled detective type who worked in a world full of beatniks, aliens, monsters, beautiful women, time travelers, and cocktails.

Afterward, Clowes started a solo anthology comic in the 1990s called Eightball. This series allowed him to draw a number of stories, including autobiographical and opinionated pieces like "I Hate You Deeply" and its sequel "I Love you Tenderly," serials such as Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron and Ghost World, and experimental work like Ice Haven. As years went on, the series began to be published less frequently and become less an anthology than a series of issues that focused on specific self-contained stories like David Boring and The Death Ray.

More recently, Clowes has forgone serial publication for the most part (an exception: his Mister Wonderful series appeared first in The New York Times Magazine) to publish graphic novels like Wilson. Additionally, all of his series and anthology stories have been collected into individual graphic novel versions.

He adapted his Ghost World series into an Oscar nominated (for Best Adapted Screenplay) motion picture in 2001 directed by Terry Zwigoff and starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, and Steve Buscemi. Following the success of this film Clowes adapted another of his Eightball stories, "Art School Confidential," into a movie, but it was less than well received.

Clowes has won many  prestigious awards for his graphic novel work, including the 2011 PEN Literary Prize for Graphic Literature as well as the Harvey, Eisner and Ignatz Comics Awards. He continues to be a prolific, vital artist and creator in a variety of media. He talks about his recent projects in this interview with Publishers Weekly.

William Gaines would have been 90 today

Bill Gaines came into comics as part of the family business. His father, Max, was a pioneer who tested out the potential for the pamphlet sized comic book format that is still used today. He went on to be a co-publisher of All American Comics, which would later be folded into what has become DC Comics, and had a large hand in the introductions of both Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. He went on to start another publishing company, Educational Comics, which put out Bible stories, scientific accounts, and tales from American history.

After Max's untimely death in a boating accident, instead of becoming a chemistry teacher the 25 year old Bill was thrust into the role of comics publisher. He reformed his father's company into Entertaining Comics, later abbreviated EC, and produced comic books in genres that revolutionized the industry. He attracted top talent, writers and artists, to make titles such as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, Shock SuspenStories, Weird Science, and Weird Fantasy. Gory tales of terror and revenge with shock endings as well as science fiction yarns populated the comics racks as imitators tried to emulate his company's success. He branched off into other areas, with comics from editor/creator Harvey Kurtzman such as the anti-war Two Fisted Tales and the satirical Mad.

When comic books came under fire for promoting juvenile delinquency, a Senate subcommittee was convened and Bill Gaines volunteered to speak out in defense of his books. After a long day of proceedings where Dr. Frederic Wertham was given center stage to air his anti-comics views, Gaines tripped up in defending this comic book cover, quibbling over how it could be defined as "tasteful" or not.
You can read Gaines' testimony here. The result of the Senate inquiry was the creation of an industry-wide Comics Code Authority that policed content and art. Almost all of EC Comics' output was immediately unacceptable in this system and Gaines was eventually forced to shut down the whole operation, with the exception of moving Mad to a magazine format that was unaffected by the Code.

As publisher of Mad, Gaines recreated his persona as a cheap, fat, and hedonistic publisher wrangling the "Usual Gang of Idiots." Mad went on to become an American institution, an influence on the counter-culture movement of the 1960s, and led to the rise of shows like Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, and The Simpsons as well as publications like National Lampoon and The Onion. Impressively, Mad ran for decades solely on its circulation profits without selling any advertising space. When he died in 1992, they published a full page ad in The New York Times to let people know that the magazine would continue in his absence.

A looming figure in the history of comics and graphic novels, Bill Gaines was inducted posthumously into both the Will Eisner and the Jack Kirby Comic Book Halls of Fame. This annotated transcript of his memorial service is very much in the spirit of his life and sense of humor, and it also displays a small amount of what was lost by his passing.

Happy 52nd Birthday, Jeff Smith!

Jeff Smith is best known for his work on the creator-owned series Bone, which combines elements of cartoon humor and stirring fantasy adventures. Starting in 1991 he published this black and white comic book series' through the company Cartoon Books. The series ran 55 issues and became increasingly popular and collected in various compilations. It is now available in vibrant color collections through Scholastic. Bone has also been translated into numerous languages and published internationally.

After Bone, Smith created the Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil series for DC Comics. Here he put his own spin on the story of Captain Marvel in his efforts to fight aliens and the evil Dr. Sivana. In recent years, he has returned to self publishing with the series RASL, a series that follows the exploits of an art thief who has the ability to cross dimensions.

Jeff Smith has received many accolades for his work. In addition to the 1o(!) Harvey Awards and the 10(!) Eisner Awards he has already won, he has also won the National Cartoonists Society award for Best Comic, as well as France's Angoulême Alph-Art award for Best Foreign Book, and Sweden's Adamson Award.

Smith cites his influences laying in comic strip creators like Charles Schultz (who did Peanuts) and Walt Kelly (who did Pogo) who crafted excellent, affecting stories as writers and artists. More about his life and career can be found in this interview with Tom Spurgeon. Also there is another great interview with him at The Onion A.V. Club.

Happy 66th Birthday, Rick Geary!

Rick Geary has been making comics for decades now. He got his start in the business with works published in high profile magazines like Heavy Metal and National Lampoon. His early work was typically whimsical science fiction, but later he branched off into more historical topics. He did a few adaptations for the 1980s iteration of Classics Illustrated, Charles Dickens' Great Expectations , Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and H.G. Wells' Invisible Man, which have more recently been re-released in affordable hardcover.

His major project has been multiple volumes in the series Treasury of Victorian Murder and Treasury of XXth Century Murder from NBM Publishers. In these books, he presents meticulously researched and excellently rendered accounts of some of history's most famous and infamous events, including the Lizzie Borden murder trial, Jack the Ripper's killing spree, President Lincoln's Assassination, and the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby.

In addition to those ghoulish delights Geary has also created graphic biographies, like those of J. Edgar Hoover and Leon Trotsky, and branched off into historical fiction with his Adventures of Blanche books.

His distinctive black and white art calls to mind Charles Addams and Edward Gorey while displaying its own qualities. This interview at Robot 6 speaks to much of his career and work on true crime and historical biography books.

Although Geary might not be a household name yet, he has had a long and distinguished career. He received the 1980 Inkpot Award from the San Diego Comic Convention and the 1994 Book and Magazine Illustration Award from the National Cartoonists Society. His most recent book, The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti, was recognized as one of YALSA's Great Graphic Novels of 2012.

Happy 64th Birthday, Art Spiegelman!

If you have ever heard of Art Spiegelman, it is likely due to his creating Maus. He won a special Pulitzer Prize for that series in 1992, and the collected graphic novel version is considered one of the great books of the 20th century in any genre or format. This dual narrative of a son trying to get along his father and his father's tale of surviving the Holocaust has touched millions of readers and been translated into 20 languages. He speaks about the impact of Maus in this recent interview with Chris Mautner.

That account is a tremendous presence in the world of graphic novels, and it took Spiegelman more than a decade to draw another comix work. But even without Maus, Spiegelman would be notable in the world of comics for a number of his contributions. Coming up from the underground comix scene of the late 1960s/early 1970s, he and fellow artist Bill Griffith created Arcade, an anthology series that highlighted artists such as R. Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Jay Lynch, and Justin Green.

In the 1980s he and his wife Françoise Mouly published the seminal series RAW, which is where he first serialized Maus. RAW was an influential series as it was a prominent place for alternative cartoonists to publish their work. Later luminaries, such as Chris Ware and Charles Burns, had their early work appear there. Additionally, masterful European artists like Joost Swarte and Jacques Tardi were introduced to US audiences.

In addition to his comix work, Spiegelman also worked for Topps. While there for 20 years, he created or worked on novelties such as Garbage Candy, Wacky Packages, and Garbage Pail Kids. Because of a dispute of creators' rights and the lack of royalties for some hugely successful properties, Spiegelman eventually left the company.

In more recent decades, Spiegelman has been an instructor and lecturer about comics history and design, a cover artist for the New Yorker magazine, as well as a huge contributor to Toon Books, a publishing imprint that focuses on graphic novels for younger readers.

Spiegelman has won multiple award for his work over his career, including the Angoulême International Comics Festival Grand Prix, the Eisner Award, the Harvey Award, and the Inkpot Award. He was inducted into the Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1999.

Happy 55th Birthday, Gilbert Hernandez!

Gilbert Hernandez, or Beto as he signs his work, is one of the pioneering Hernandez brothers who  have created the independent comics series Love and Rockets since 1982. Their landmark series (which inspired the name of the band) has been the standard for alternative comics in the US.

The series contains a number of different narratives and genres, from realistic stories about Latinos and rock bands to sci-fi tales of space aliens, professional wrestlers, and mechanics. Beto's stories are typically marked by a type of magical realism where fantasy and reality become indistinct. Many of his tales are set in the fictional locale of Palomar, a small Latin America town, and feature strong female protagonists. His most famous character is probably Luba, whom he follows from her childhood in Palomar to her dealings with gangsters and her relocation to the US.

Beto also has a focus on Luba's half-sister Fritz, who stars in multiple B movies. Many of his self-contained graphic novels, such as Chance in Hell and Love From the Shadows, are adaptations of the fictional movies she appears in.

In addition, Beto's love for low budget movies comes out in his project The Naked Cosmos, an eccentric television program about a strange prophet named Quintas.

One of comics most highly regarded creators, Beto has won multiple awards for his work over his career, including the InkPot Award in 1986, the Kirby Award in 1985, multiple Harvey Awards, and a 2009 Fellow Award from United States Artists.

Love and Rockets has gone through a few format changes over the years, and now is published as an annual volume. In addition to these volumes, Beto also publishes the occasional graphic novel such as Sloth.

A list of Hernandez's works is available at Fantagraphics Books (warning: some images are NSFW).

Happy 55th Birthday, Frank Miller!

Frank Miller has become a lightning rod lately because of his incendiary comments about the Occupy Movement in the US, and he is probably best known now for his comics works turned blockbuster movies Sin City and 300.

Miller has been closely related to two large comics properties, Daredevil and Batman, and his work on both characters has been seen widely as being definitive and noteworthy. He created and introduced the character Elektra into Daredevil's stories and wrote crime drama type stories that reinvigorated the series into one of Marvel's top titles. Two collaborations with artist David Mazzucchelli, Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One, are considered modern classics and are perennial bestsellers.

His comics work is also notable because he was one of the first mainstream American artists to draw on Japanese influences in his work, from the martial arts and ninja stories in Daredevil to the manga style of his limited series Ronin, a dystopian future story about a reincarnated samurai warrior. Another of his miniseries for DC, The Dark Knight Returns, chronicles the adventures of an older, broken down Batman and was pivotal in a movement towards more realistic and grim American superhero comics.

Miller parlayed his comics work to Hollywood, where he worked on movies such as the sequels Robocop 2 and 3. After disillusionment with these films, Miller returned to comics working on creator-owned properties such as Give Me Liberty, another dystopian future series starring Martha Washington, the noir influenced Sin City, and the epic 300 that adapted the story of the Spartans' stand at Thermopylae. Most recently, he published Holy Terror, a controversial and bombastic Batmanesque superhero story where the protagonist goes up against Al Qaeda.

In recent years, Miller was lured back to Hollywood where he co-directed the adaptation of his Sin City stories and also had great input on the 300 movie. Both films lean heavily on Miller's artistic style and are very closely linked visually to the comics. Miller went on to write and direct an adaptation of the classic Will Eisner character The Spirit, but that movie was not very well received. Currently he is is working on a Sin City sequel.

A multiple Eisner, Kirby, and Harvey Award winning creator, Frank Miller's influence on American comics has been great. Furthermore, his current work continues to entertain and rankle many readers and viewers.

Happy 89th Birthday, Stan Lee!

Face Front, True Believer!

Stan Lee is one of the most recognizable comics creators ever. His name is synonymous with Marvel Comics and he has been an iconic figure for 50 years, promoting comic books and himself in many venues.

The man who was born Stanley Lieber did not begin his comics career auspiciously. He was hired as an assistant at Timely Comics as a favor to his uncle. There, he did odd jobs and provided text pieces for comic books. Saving his real name for the novel he one day was going to write, he chose the pseudonym Stan Lee. He kept moving up in the field, writing back-up stories, main stories, editing and even becoming the art director. He wrote all kinds of stories for Atlas Comics (the company that followed Timely), romances, westerns, monsters, science fiction, depending on what the latest comic fad was. Finally, he felt like he was burned out and at the end of his rope, just churning out trite stories. When his wife told him to write some stories the way he wanted to, because he was going to soon quit any way, he followed her advice and started a sensation.

The first series he wrote in his manner was The Fantastic Four, co-created with Jack Kirby. A melange of superhero and monster comics, the FF featured characters that argued, had flaws, and behaved more humanly than the typical superhero of the day. The success of the series drove Lee to move in the same direction with other titles and soon enough some of the most recognized superheroes ever, such as Spider-Man, the Hulk, Thor, the X-Men, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, and the Avengers, proliferated. The Marvel Age of comics had begun.

Marvel courted all types of fans, created fan clubs (F.O.O.M. and M.M.M.S.), and forged an identity (somewhat overblown) as a jocular and tightly knit group of creators. The company became a major player in the comics business, competing with and eventually overtaking long-time dominant force DC Comics. Lee was head writer, then editor-in-chief, then publisher, and then he decided to move out to the west coast to oversee and promote Marvel Comics properties being translated into different media. Lee's public persona was to be the ringleader/cheerleader of the company. All the while Marvel Comics still came out bearing the intro phrase "Stan Lee Proudly Presents."

This byline was controversial in part because of an ongoing dispute over how big a role Lee had in creating the Marvel characters. Lee has not been shy about claiming sole creatorship and has even been erroneously credited with creating Captain America, who was the product of Joe Simon and Kirby, though he quickly corrects those who make the error. Jack Kirby, and now his heirs, have long contended that he had as much or more of a role in creating some characters. For many years relations between the two former collaborators were frosty at best, with Kirby famously parodying Lee's bombastic personality as the villainous con-man Funky Flashman.

Today, Lee is an established ambassador of comic books. He still is associated with Marvel but also has side projects such as POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) and the now defunct Stan Lee Media. Additionally, he hosts the reality show Who Wants to Be a Superhero? and makes cameos in just about every Marvel Comics movie adaptation.

'Nuff Said!

Excelsior!

Happy 42nd Birthday, Marjane Satrapi!

Marjane Satrapi is an Irani-born graphic novelist and director who now resides and works in France. She was born and grew up in Tehran, and her family was very politically active in the causes of communism and socialism. After the Shah was overthrown and exiled, the conservative political regime made life difficult for her and her family, and they sent her abroad to Vienna where she lived and studied at the Lycée Français de Vienne.

After meeting David B., a French artist who became a friend and mentor, Satrapi began adapting her experiences into graphic novels. Her works include the widely known Persepolis and Persepolis II, which chronicle her childhood, life under fundamentalist Islamic rule, and subsequent experiences after moving to Vienna and becoming acquainted with European culture. Her other graphic novels, Embroideries and Chicken with Plums, follow the exploits of her family.

Satrapi's books have been extremely well recieved. They appear in many languages and have won big awards such as the Angoulême Coup de Coeur Award for Persepolis, the Angoulême Prize for Scenario for Persepolis II, and the Angoulême Best Comic Book Award for Chicken and Plums.

The Persepolis books have also been adapted into an Oscar Award nominated animated feature film. A second adaptation of her graphic novel work, Chicken with Plums, a live-action film, has just been released.