Posting pics of some of the MCAD students who stopped by my booth in Artists Alley.
Jaime Willems and Mandie Brasington.
Maya Kern, Heather Williams, Jacklyn Hedlund and Allison O’Brien
Jesse Charles Baker and Jay Rasgorshek.
Coleman Gilbert, Greer Lawson, April Kasulis and Spencer Amundson.
Jakob “Fro” Ealy
Jack Kotz
Charles Stewart
Alexis Cooke and repeat performance by Mandie.
Great to see so many making the trip.
And kudos to MCAD’s Barb Schulz for making it happen!
spoiler |ˈspoilər|
noun
1. a person or thing that spoils something.
This can be said of a number of writers that take on mainstream well-established characters. And yes, there is an implied spoiler later on, so if you haven’t read Superior Spider-Man #1 yet be warned.
And just so you don’t think I’m exempting myself (in regards to being slammed for working on an established character), here’s a review of my work on Flash Gordon from back in 1999, and I quote, “The art was awful and the plots worse. You will notice that I, always the optimist, refer to the strip in the past tense. I can’t imagine it surviving long.”
Yikes.
Now… To be honest, I haven’t kept up on the continuity of Spider-Man on a month-to-month basis in ages. Back when I was reading it, Gwen Stacy died and it was quite the game changer.
Fans went crazy – and then she reappeared.
Except it wasn’t her, but a clone.
Once that’s realized, she ends off walking off into the sunset.
Now the originally clone saga was fun enough for what it was – as long as you didn’t think about it too much. One thing it did lay down was that Gwen Stacy didn’t return, that in the Marvel universe once you were dead you stayed dead, otherwise – what’s the point?
Note: Once you introduce one clone, much like locusts, a plague of them usually follows. To see the many Spider-Man storylines infested with clones (that I intend to gloss over) check out the Den of Geek.
One of the outcomes of Gwen Stacy dying was an epic battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. The Goblin tries to impale Spider-Man with his glider and misses somewhat.
Green Goblin: Dead.
Or is he? Let’s just skip ahead a number of years, where we find…
Ends up his regenerative powers (???) are pretty freakin’ awesome.
And Gwen Stacy?
But that was just a misdirection – actually that’s Gwen Stacy’s daughter.
And the father..?
A brief intermission.
Now you might be saying, how could this get worse?
Well – how about if they shot Aunt May?
Oh, and then Peter and Mary Jane fix that whole Aunt May being shot in the chest thing by making a deal with the Devil. In exchange for saving Aunt May, the Devil erases Peter and MJ’s life together (i.e. marriage).
Which in effect also wipes out the existence of their future daughter.
Of course, what that does to years worth of continuity is up for grabs.
SO… when I heard about the CATACLYSMIC EVENT that happened in Spider-Man #700 – with Doc Ock and Spidey changing bodies, then Spidey in Ock’s body being killed – I wasn’t really that shook up. The character that I knew left the building some time ago.
And just to be clear, I mean no disrespect to Dan Slott or his writing, it’s an interesting premise and I hope the readers have fun with it.
And as far as the spoiler concerning Superior Spider-Man #1, Bleeding Cool already leaked it, but here’s my take on it…
Joe Kubert (1926-2012)
Quick Look back at the last time I saw Joe. It was the spring of 2012 at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo.
For the Kubert School panel, Joe Kubert alum (and current President of the Kubert School) Anthony Marques moderated, as Joe sketched and answered questions. Here’s just a few highlights featuring Joe’s comments…
The following video is Joe sketching Nite Owl from the Before Watchmen series. The image was projected sideways on a large screen – my video is rotated to one side so the drawing can be seen right-side-up. While Joe sketched Anthony was fielding questions.
What amazed me during Joe’s drawing demo was that every time Joe was asked a question instead of Anthony (and this is not seen on the video) Joe was so focused on the drawing that Anthony had to repeat the question numerous times just to get Joe’s attention – repeatedly – EVERY time.
Joe finally apologized saying that when he’s drawing, that’s where he’s focused, so he’s not listening to the conversation going on around him.
THAT’S how focused Joe was while drawing – it was remarkable and inspiring to watch…
After the drawing demo Joe stayed for a short time to meet and greet fans. I went up to say hi and the guy standing in line in front of me told Joe he was a huge fan and then asked for Joe to sign his arm so he could then get the signature tattooed.
Joe immediately protested, “Why would you do that? I can’t…”
The fan persisted and Joe kept protesting until the guy’s friend explained it wasn’t a spur of the moment thing, that his friend really was that big a fan.
Joe finally acquiesced.
This last little clip is of Joe signing the fan’s arm.
My time with Joe was relatively brief. It had been years since I had seen him last, but he recognized who I was after I mentioned the Flash Gordon page we had worked on. A smile lit his face and his strong handshake followed. He asked me what I had been up to and I told him about my freelance and teaching.
I then told him, “I just wanted to thank you for my career.”
That warm smile again and the handshake.
And that was the last time I saw Joe Kubert.
There’s more to say, much more, but I’m going to leave it at that.
My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends – he’ll be sorely missed.
Joe Kubert Obits and Remembrances From Around the Web:
Dick Siegel: National Enquirer
Tom Spurgeon: The Comics Reporter
Bill Schelly: The Comics Journal
The Comics Journal: Joe Kubert interview from 1994
Mark McMurray’s Tribute
Mark is a long time friend and classmate from the Kubert School.
From 2004 -2010 I lettered a book for Viz Media called Whistle!
The story and art were by Daisuke Higuchi. I lettered pretty much the whole run and in doing so became a big fan of Higuchi as a storyteller. The following is a brief bio that ran in the series’ final issue.
Daisuke Higuchi’s manga career began in 1992 when the artist was honored with third prize in the 43rd Osamu Tezuka Award. In that same year, Higuchi deputed as creator of a romantic action story titled Itaru. In 1998, Weekly Shonen Jump began serializing Whistle! Higuchi’s realistic soccer manga became an instant hit with readers and eventually inspired an anime series, debuting on Japanese TV in May of 2002.
In a nutshell, Whistle! is about a young middle school boy named Shō Kazamatsuri who’s one and only dream is to play soccer but because of his small stature he has to overcome adversity after adversity to do so – he also serves as an inspiration to to his friends and teammates, drawing them closer together – classic underdog story.
Note: For the uninitiated, the accompanying pages are read right to left – not left to right..
The following pages show a great sense of design as Daisuke Higuchi freezes a moment and shows different aspects of a scene. In the scene on the left, the opposing team has just made the winning goal. In the scene on the right, Shō’s teammate Hiroyoshi has accidentally made a goal for the opposing team.
More of the same, but in these two cases the focus is on characterization…
The following is from a particularly strong sequence from Volume 12.
First a little back story from the previous issue; Shō has just made a near impossible shot tying the game – but the coaches see something else…
The scene that follows opens with Shō and his friend Tatsuya showing up at Tatsuya’s father’s house (who he is estranged with). Tatsuya’s father is a soccer coach for a rival team and has some old soccer footage he wants Shō to see – at the same time some other coaches are meeting for lunch, and Akira (the female coach) echos Tatsuya’s father’s sentiments.
There’s so much to love in that scene.
• The way the dialogue bounces back and forth between the two characters speaking.
• The look of sheer joy on Akira’s face as a young girl followed by the more reflective aspects as an adult.
• The projector on the bottom of page 42 seen as just a glowing light.
• The end shot of Shō as he stares entranced at the footage of a father he never knew.
Beautiful stuff.
Stephen King in his book “On Writing” states, “I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event, which is to say character-driven.”
There are a million underdog stories out there, the ones that resonate come not from the story construct but from how deeply you’re invested in the characters. Higuchi’s strength as a storyteller is her engaging cast of characters.
You can check out Whistle! at your local library’s manga section.
To purchase, go to Viz.com or Amazon (to name a few).
Whistle! © 1998 by Daisuke Higuchi. All rights reserved.