To commemorate last week’s Banned Books Week, Stephen St Walley tracks down all the comics mentioned in Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent and adds links to downloadable versions.

Obviously, many of the below comics are not intended for children. While all of them were probably read by children, they were not necessarily the intended audience for them as far as the cartoonists were concerned. Harvey Kurtzman’s Frontline Combat, for example, was written with a military audience in mind, and Kurtzman frequently received fan letters from men in the military.

While it’s hard to imagine what was corrupting about the heartwarming sight of Santa bringing toys to urchin tots, the snorting bull on the cover of ALL TOP indicates that sordid thrills may, indeed, lie within.

A recent link on Journalista reminded us that cartoonist/animator Doug Gray has a blog, The Greatest Ape, which is to wacky old oddball comics as Golden Age Comics Stories is to Reed Crandall, but not, sadly as prolific. Here’s a page of SuperKatt by Dan Gordon from 1946. Since we were just getting all teary-eyed over printing in a previous post, it’s worth noting that the cheap reproduction and badly cut color seps have led to a kind of wavy line beauty that is only found in KRAMERS ERGOT and PictureBox comics these days. Also, dig that incredibly vibrant color palette! John K. would get teary-eyed over this.

When you’re done with that, it’s time to move on to this.

Top Five Most Iconic Kitty Pryde Covers via Comics Should Be Good!

Did you know that The University of Nebraska-Lincoln library archives contain a digital archives of 175 free government comics from around the world? It’s true!

Duck and cover! Conserve water! The war against drugs! The price of Freedom! Captain America and Campbell’s Soup fight energy drainers! IT’S ALL HERE.

Smokey Bear!

And this classic tale — presented by the New York State Dept. of Mental Hygiene — in which we see Dagwood’s life for the hellish cycle of abuse that it truly is.

Like we said, hours of fun.

[Via the Parsons Illustration blog]

The 4thletter! blog spotlights a rare treat: HARUKU: MONSUTAA KOMIKU, a manga version of the Hulk published in 1970. The strip was written by Kazuo Koike (LONE WOLF AND CUB, and many, many others) with art by

Yoshihiro Morifuji

.

From what I and my lovely assistants managed to figure out of the story, it stars Dr. Araki, survivor of Hiroshima. Both of his parents died in the blast, and he’s come to Nevada to work on the gamma bomb. General Ross, Major Talbot, and Igor retain their names, but Rick Jones has been turned into Ricky Tenda. He’s got a Japanese mom and an American dad. Betty Ross is now Mitsuko, though Dr. Araki calls her Mitchan.

We feel that only seeing a few panels reveals a simple, salient fact: THE HULK WAS MADE FOR MANGA. It may be wishful thinking to hope this would ever come out in the US, but…Marvel! Heed our plea!

The long lost Elseworlds 80-Page Giant is recalled in a splash page gallery of Golden Age tales that never were at Again with the Comics.

Link via Comics Alliance.

Not far-fetched at all.

So it’s settled then, right? Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is the best artists in comics, right? I know, I know… “best” is a highly subjective term, so let’s get it clear: Garcia-Lopez can draw just about anything with masterful elegance and natural subtlety. He can make the mundane seem compelling and the ridiculous seem plausible, his eye for detail and design is underrated and his sheer cartooning skills are as sharp now as they were in the past 3 decades. Hailing from the Hal Foster/Alex Raymond school of realism, Garcia-Lopez is one of the rare few modern artists who make that style seem full of life and enthusiasm as opposed to the stiff, dull and practically traced hack work that it has devolved into. Is it too far fetched to say that everything Garcia Lopez draws is perfect?

Via Golden Age Comic Book Stories.

We’re still away taking care of some personal business…so in the meantime, enjoy a tale of John Stanley’s Gran’pa Feeb via Pappy’s Golden Age . Please note the numerous examples of shocks so great that it physically lifts hats from people’s heads.

We’ll be back tomorrow with our full service blog.

An ultra-rare, much-publicized copy of ACTION #1, Superman’s first appearance, has sold for $317,200. The purchaser is John Dolmayan, drummer for the rock band System of a Down, but he acquired it for an unnamed client. (When not busy bashing the skins, the comics-loving Dolmayan also runs an online comics company.) ComicConnect and Metropolis Collectibles brokered the sale.

The seller purchased the book at a secondhand store in the early 1950s for 35 cents.

I would have read it to shreds. Absolute shreds.
“The Ice Dragon” by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert.

Robert Goodin has launched a new blog called Covered, in which indie artists recreate classic comics covers. For instance, Johnny Ryan does UNCLE SCROOGE. Above is Jeffrey Brown’s recreation of a Marvel SECRET WARS classic. Our only note is that so far, artists are sticking really close to the originals, which is kind of…odd and fascinating in its own way.

It’s totally true.

Daily Kos analyzes an old propaganda comic.

“We have a President-Elect who’s a Spider-Man fan! It’s like I’ve been saying for years, people who grew up reading comics are moving into positions of power in media, in business, and now in the Executive Branch of the federal government. Is that cool or what? I don’t know about you, but I’m very happy that the next President of the United States knows that ‘in this world, with great power there must also come — great responsibility!’”

- Comics scribe Roger Stern, from an interview with Zack Smith at Newsarama.

…

“I arrived in America [in August 1992] shortly before Bill Clinton was elected and I watched the joy that my friends had when he was elected, and then I watched six months later as that joy turned to grumbliness when they realized they elected a politician. I had a thought that I would write them the kind of president they obviously seemed to want, and I got to do it by grabbing an old, forgotten DC Comics character called Prez, the “first teen president of the United States,” and it was so much fun.”

-SANDMAN creator Neil Gaiman, from a retrospective interview at the L.A. Times’s Hero Complex blog. Love that word “grumbliness!” And the Silver Age Prez (created by Captain America co-creator Joe Simon) is a true riot:

Whether that chapter of SANDMAN will strike the same chords in 2009 remains to be seen, but earlier in the interview, Gaiman reminds us how much has changed in the world of comics since 1992:

“For example: Graphic novels these days, the collections of comics tends to harbor around eight issues. That was something that began really with “The Sandman” No. 1. When I explain to people that the reason that the first story, “Preludes and Nocturnes” was eight issues long was because back in those days DC Comics didn’t like canceling things before they gave them a year because it made them look bad. So they used to give things a year — which meant that I was pretty sure that I would be getting my phone call at issue eight letting me know, “No, we aren’t going to be doing this, the book is canceled.”"

Posted by Aaron Humphrey

If there’s one item that can be said to be recession proof, it’s apparently original artwork from the glory years of MAD Magazine. Heritage Auction Gallerie’s auction of the last batch of MAD original art sold for $746,516, more than double pre-sale estimates. The above 1956 cover to Mad #30, by Norman Mingo, went for $203,150 all on its own.

Chicago collector Michael Gidwitz was the winning bidder for the cover, which shows the gap-toothed icon as a “write-in candidate for president,” saying “What — me worry?” as an elephant and donkey glare angrily at each other in the background.

A Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter who requested anonymity was the winning bidder of three other MAD art covers, Rohan said.

Hm, let the speculation begin. Ours? Can it be anyone but Amy Winehouse?

Thanks to everyone for the many birthday wishes, and to everyone who came out to our birthday bash this weekend. It was a well-attended soirée that gave all kinds of folks a chance to mingle and catch up, and it seems that a good time was had by all. And best of all, there is no new YouTube footage of us singing Led Zeppelin! Special thanks to FMB for working so hard to make it a fun weekend.

Anyway, as a thank you back, here’s a page from some surreal Spanish takes on “Mars Attack!’ by an artist named Boixcar. Who among us does not rock back and forth with delight when flying saucers attack cows? Much more in the link.

[Link via Annalee Newitz]

Oy…Big f’ed up mess on The Beat server today. Much missing in action. To make up for it, here’s some Powerhouse Pepper by Basil Wolverton. Back tomorrow full strength, straight outta Compton.

It all started when Laura Hudson rounded up comments by Top Shelf’s Leigh Walton, Andrew Wheeler and Joe McCulloch about the fact that mangaka Jiro Kuwata’s name was not on the cover of BAT-MANGA, the very well-reviewed Chip Kidd-edited selection. Yours truly and various others of the comics pundit class also called shame on Kidd.

It escalated when Kidd responded to various comics-based blogs, including Chris Mautner and Chris Butcher in the brash fashion that Kidd is noted for, chiding bloggers for not doing more to rescue Kuwata’s reputation and explaining that since it was a heavily designed and edited archival book, the credits were as they were. Butcher jumped in with his own support for Kidd:

If this were a straight-up reprint, along the lines of what Vertical is doing with Tezuka’s work or D+Q is doing with Tatsumi, yeah, the author’s name should be front and centre. But this? These comics are being given equal consideration with toy photos, costumes, magazine covers, and other various ephemera. Chip Kidd, Geoff Spear, and Saul Ferris have opted to cover the phenomenon of Batman in Japan, with the comics being given the most weight in the collection. You can argue that the focus is different than you might prefer, but on the book’s own merits I think the consideration given to all parties is fair. As is the compensation, by all accounts.

Of course, this created a weekend teapot tempest; Butcher did what looks to be some ill-advised late-night blogging, and continued the brash tone:

I call bullshit on all of this, all of this fake fanboy outrage. I’m sorry, honestly, if this is an affront to your sensibilities? But. BULL. SHIT. You know who the legal author of those comics is? DC FUCKING COMICS. Kuwata owns or is owed nothing, because That’s The Way Comics Works. Kidd went out of his way to see Kuwata credited and compensated above and beyond the call of duty. If you can’t see that, then your naivete is like a fucking cyst in your eye.

We might have some sympathy for this attitude, except that Laura Hudson, Leigh Walton, Andrew Wheeler, Joe McCulloch, Chris Mautner and John Jakala are not fanboys by any definition of the word. They’re mostly critics, journalists and publishing professionals. In short, a responsible and respectable group who have every right to question the decision. Certainly, this is not a huge, huge deal, but it is a little odd, and Butcher and Mautner certainly were the brave ones who actually followed up in reportorial fashion. Following the escalating round, Hudson comes back with a roundup of the second wave of roundups:

I remain unconvinced, particularly because sequential narratives by Kuwata happen to comprise roughly 80% of that “chronicle.” To me, that’s where it crosses the line from Chip Kidd’s Cool Book About Japanese Batman Stuff to Jiro Kuwata’s Bat-Manga, edited and compiled by Chip Kidd. There are plenty of high-end, beautifully designed collections of sequential art that include additional materials, art, interviews, etc., and the editors and designers of those collections certainly deserve credit, but not to the exclusion of the actual creators.

as does Graeme McMillan (another non-fanboy), who reaches a slightly different conclusion:

I have to admit, I disagree; for the majority of people, Chip Kidd is the draw for this book - well, that or “Hey, look, it’s funny old Batman comics from Japan”. Kuwata doesn’t have the audience or awareness in the US to be the selling point for the majority of people who’ll be picking up this book, and while it would’ve been nice to see Kuwata’s name on the front cover, the fact that he’s not only credited for his work inside but also interviewed for the book makes me think that any outcry over usurping of authorship is slightly melodramatic… which, admittedly, seems kind of fitting for a book about Batman.

In the end, people seem to have been drawn out into way overreactive hissy fits, and time was wasted that could be spent reading or making or promoting better comics. Kidd is a great designer and if he wants to
take the credit, that’s how the publishing world world works. And, as Nisha Gopalan writes, BAT-MANGA is one of the most notable books of the year:

The fact that their collection, chiefly assembled from Kidd and Ferris’ EBay vigilance, is admittedly spotty, merely lends more exoticism to the collection. Take our hero’s dalliance with the dastardly, if fabulously named, Go Go Magician. Trapped in a block of ice, Batman fires up his “safe-cracking hand torch” to melt his way out of the chamber. One glitch: The torch’s flame sucks up all the oxygen before he can burn his way out. With the next issue nowhere to be found, it simply ends there with Batman like we’ve never seen him — foolish, collapsed, facing certain death.

Kristy Valenti remembers GREENBERG THE VAMPIRE:

Written by J.M. DeMatteis and drawn by Mark Badger, GtV was Marvel’s 20th “graphic novel.” For Marvel, at that time, “Graphic novel” meant aping the European album format, and accordingly GtV is magazine-sized and in full color with high production value. Marvel’s initial graphic novel offerings were a mix of superhero and proto-Vertigo genre offerings. GtV obviously falls into the latter category: there are cusses in it, and I imagine the pitch was “a Woody Allen vampire movie.” The high concept is not completely without promise — there could be some very funny or even philosophical situations arising from the idea.

Those were the days of adventure and experimentation, weren’t they?

Well, old ENGLISH Huckleberry Hound: The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive reprints some Huck comics from a 1964 British comics weekly.

The interesting thing about this piece isn’t so much the quality of the artwork… it’s pretty generic… it’s the quantity of it. I eliminated a few pages of puzzles, games and stories, but the majority of the sheets are devoted to large, full-page comic stories. You would never see such a generous collection of comics in a publication that sells for as little as this today. But there is wisdom behind the generosity… The best way to get kids to watch the Huckleberry Hound Show (and buy Kelloggs cereal) is to engage them with the characters and situations. What better way to do that than a loss-leader newsstand comic?

What’s interesting to US is that all those dinky panels are clearly where Chris Ware and Ivan Brunetti stole their styles from. ‘Fess up, boys!*

*Note: this is a joke. It is unlikely that either cartoonist was influenced by 1964 British children’s comics.

While we’re talking about Pepo, a very fine cartoonist in his own right, we might as well link to his gallery of Gil Kane’s iconic “Coming at ya!” punch drawings!

Shaenon Garrity continues to reprint manga from the 40s. This stuff is pre-Tezuka, and it shows, but it has much charm. This week:

Matt Thorn translates the title as The Delightful Steel Mill, which is probably the best translation, but I kind of prefer the translation one of my Japanese coworkers at Viz offered, The Happy Cog Factory. It appears to be a loosely-connected string of adventures had by the inhabitants of a cartoonist’s studio, mainly his Snowy-like talking dog and a pair of Mutt-and-Jeff-like cartoon characters who come to life.

Much more in the link.