Pop Culture Safari!

Upcoming Fantagraphics releases

WE ALL DIE ALONE by Mark Newgarden
224-page color and B&W 7 1/2" x 8 1/2" hardcover $28.95

Acclaimed cartoonist Mark Newgarden debuted in the first issue of RAW magazine in 1980 and his work subsequently found its way into a variety of high and low profile media. He co-created the '80s pop culture fad "Garbage Pail Kids," wrote, drew, and syndicated a weekly humor feature in the '90s, and created a "Web Premiere Toon" for The Cartoon Network called "B. Happy." Newgarden's comic are hilarious, alarming, and masterful uses of the medium, alternating between old-time gags and avant-garde storytelling, often on the same page without missing a comedic beat. His syndicated strip in such publications as L.A. Weekly and The New York Press encouraged a fervent following and exerted a fresh influence on the medium. Today they remain as vital and entertaining as when they first appeared. Those syndicated comics will make up the bulk of this book, the balance drawing on Newgarden's long form stories from various anthologies, i ncluding the much-lauded "Love's Savage Fury." In addition to compiling his comics, this book will be a full picture of the artist, his influences, and his many other careers. An avid collector and historian of 20th century ephemera, Newgarden has achieved the rare distinction of both contributing to and furthering the mediums he collects: novelties, comics, and cartoons. Newgarden remains a great link to the past while moving ever further into the future. We All Die Alone will be an uproariously funny and fascinating book that will appeal to comics readers, pop culture buffs, and any appreciator of the graphic arts. Designed by Dan Nadel (The Ganzfeld, The Wilco Book) and Helene Silverman (Jimbo in Purgatory).

EL BORBAH by Charles Burns
96-page black-and-white softcover graphic novel $16.95

AN EARLY CLASSIC FROM THE AUTHOR OF BLACK HOLE, NOW AVAILABLE IN SOFTCOVER!
Meet El Borbah, a 400-pound private eye who wears a Mexican wrestler's tights and eerie mask. Subsisting entirely on junk food and beer, El Borbah conducts his investigations with tough talk and a short temper. He smashes through doors and skulls as he stalks a perfectly realized film-noir city filled with punks, geeks, business-suited creeps and mad scientists. El Borbah features five science-fiction and true-detective episodes: In "Robot Love," rebellious kids in nightclubs replace their "parts" with mechanical substitutes as part of a new fad, only to find that their parents have been automating themselves all along; in "Love in Vein" a mad visionary sperm donor plans a master race and turns "his" kids against their parents; "Bone Voyage" details the exploits of a cult called the Brotherhood of the Bone, a kind of cross between the Masons and the Mansons. The fantastic plots take up the weird fears of a scientific society, but the action is pure pulp. Charles Burns effortlessly spins yarns with gritty punchlines and pictures so perfect they must have existed in some collective memory of junk drama. And through it all crashes El Borbah, trying to make an honest buck from dishonest people. Burns is the author of Black Hole, the acknowledged masterpiece of the form that Fantagraphics serialized through the 1990s. El Borbah is Burns' earliest work, created in the early 1980s, though the work remains eerily contemporary. Steeped in a "sci-fi-noir" aesthetic informed by Burns' steadily childhood diet of B-movies and comic books, but with a sophisticated sense of humor that is often as disturbing as it is funny, El Borbah is comics as its most entertaining.

ROCKY THE BIG PAYBACK by Martin Kellerman
96-page B&W softcover $12.95

Martin Kellerman is the Jane Austen of 21st century twenty-something urban European slackers. Firmly in the tradition of Fritz the Cat, Hate, and Clerks, Rocky is his mostly autobiographical daily strip detailing the rudely hilarious travails of a young cartoonist and his circle of layabout pals and neurotic, indignant girlfriends. In this action-packed volume collecting the first year of the smash-hit strip, Rocky gets tossed out of his apartment, flies across the pond to visit a gay African-American pal (not realizing he lives in deepest Harlem); is ill-advisedly given the mission of euthanizing a friend's beloved pet rabbit ("Tom, give this job to Clemenza." "Yes, Godfather."); makes a spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to trade in his girlfriend for her younger, more buxom sister; gets a bowel inflammation and a colonoscopy; goes to a costume party dressed as Tinky Winky; tries to get laid while camping out at a rock festival - and basically drinks and fornicates (or tries to) his way through Stockholm and New York, with hangover following drunken binge and mortification following faux pas as night follows day. What will probably be amazing to American readers is how similar the day-to-day experiences of these Seinfeld-watching, Big Mac-eating, hip-hop-listening Swedes is to theirs. Rocky is a reminder as to how utterly global our culture has become - and a reminder that laughter is truly universal.

THE ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY #16 by Chris Ware
64-page full color hardcover $15.95

After four years of almost exclusively repackaging his sophomoric early work for the book trade, the children's entertainer and award-winning calligrapher F. C. Ware returns to his groundbreaking 1990s cartoon series "The ACME Novelty Library," a nearly decade-long publishing experiment which more or less single-handedly demonstrated the redemptive power a fancy paper stock or a little gold foil might exert over an otherwise dull, dry visual narrative. Ware rejoins the proud, vital esthetic forum of the American comic book with his ongoing serial "Rusty Brown," a love story concerning the ambitions and mistakes of seven consciousnesses at a private school in Omaha, Nebraska, all revolving around a universally reviled child - and absolutely certain to be a favorite with readers of all tastes and biases. As told through the eyes of someone absentmindedly watching a television sitcom circa 1975, this first installment begins one January m orning of that same year and describes everything of importance right up to and including the ring of the first period bell before eventually spiraling off into 1955, 2004, and toward the planet Mars, amongst other interesting and exotic time periods and locales. Though originally released by alternative comics vanguard Fantagraphics Books, this new sixteenth issue is the first to be entirely produced, printed and published by Mr. Ware alone; limited to a single press run, once it is sold out, pulped, and/or burned, neither of these narratives will be available again until "Rusty Brown" and "Building Stories" are eventually edited, collected and remaindered as hardcover books.

DAYDREAMS AND NIGHTMARES by Winsor McCay
176 pages B&W softcover $24.95

A fantasist of the first rank, McCay was a key pioneer in the histories of both comics and animation. He had a fascination with dreams that extended beyond his newspaper strip Little Nemo In Slumberland, and it was a fascination as compelling as that of Freud, Jung and Adler's, as proven in the pages of Daydreams & Nightmares. McCay's dream-inspired strips, illustrations and cartoons feature rarebit-induced nightmares, playful "what-ifs," moralistic panoramas, pictorial allegories and other fantastic visions. The highlights of the book are McCay's Dream of the Rarebit Fiend strips created for the New York Evening Telegram in 1905, as well as early efforts like A Pilgrim's Progress, Poor Jake, Day Dreams, Rabid Reveries, Little Sammy Sneeze ("He never knew when it was coming!") and more. The artwork in this book includes outstanding examples from several categories of McCay's career: illustrations from his first paper, the Cincinnat i Enquirer; anti-war and anti-materialist cartoons; playful strips for Life magazine; early dream sequences; futuristic illustrations for the New York Herald; and allegorical and editorial cartoons for the Hearst newspapers. The book spans the years 1898-1934, the bulk of McCay's career. McCay's world was the world of playfulness and whimsy that most leave behind in youth and encounter again only in dreams; Daydreams & Nightmares is a tour through that world.

MOME FALL 2005 by Various
136-page color and B&W softcover $14.95

Written and Illustrated by Andrice Arp, Gabrielle Bell, Jonathan Bennett, Jeffrey Brown, Sophie Crumb, David Heatley, Paul Hornschemeier, Anders Nilsen, John Pham and Kurt Wolfgang. Designed by Jordan Crane. Edited by Gary Groth & Eric Reynolds. This accessible, reasonably priced, quarterly anthology will run approximately 136 pages per volume and spotlight a regular cast of a dozen of today's most exciting cartoonists. Designed by acclaimed designer and cartoonist Jordan Crane (The Clouds Above), Mome will feature an iconic design and consistent format that should quickly establish the anthology as the most distinctive and accessible anthology of literary comics available. Mome is the first all-comics literary anthology designed to sit alongside publications like Granta, The Baffler, McSweeney's, et. al., and is designed to appeal as much to fans of contemporary literary fiction as longtime comics fans. Mome will feature the same collective of artist s every issue, allowing the artists and audience to grow together and build an ongoing identity that is highly unusual for the world of contemporary comics (where many authors publish sporadically by literary standards, given the labor intensive nature of comics).

NIGHT FISHER by R. Kikuo Johnson (2nd Printing)
144-page black-and-white softcover $12.95

In what we predict will be the most impressive comics debut of 2005, Kikuo Johnson has created an intimate and compelling graphic novel-length drama of young men on the cusp of adulthood.

First-rate prep school, S.U.V., and a dream house in the heights: This was the island paradise handed to Loren Foster when he moved to Hawaii with his father six years ago. Now, with the end of high school just around the corner, his best friend, Shane, has grown distant. The rumors say it's hard drugs, and Loren suspects that Shane has left him behind for a new group of friends.

At home, an unprecedented "B" on Loren's typically straight "A" report card has his father concerned. Dad's interrogation, however, is stemmed by an unexpected telephone invitation that Loren can't resist. Loren accompanies Shane to a weathered house in the harbor shadows. With the friends he meets there, he endures a night of drug deals, petty theft, crystal meth, porn and a stray punch in the face. The pressures of high school seem suddenly inconsequential in the morning. No longer seeking approval from anyone, Loren's strong work ethic becomes self-imposed, further veiling his escalating drug use. Loren is strung along late one night as the boys break into a construction site and drag some valuable equipment into the trunk of his S.U.V. A police chase ends with Loren in handcuffs as his baffled father struggles to understand what the hell is going on. At school, Shane's acceptance to MIT makes the front page of the campus paper. Whe n Loren offers his congratulations, Shane coldly suggests that they should keep their distance from each other until a court date is decided. Loren is once again left behind. What sets Kikuo's drama apart is the naturalistic ease with which he explores the relationships of his characters. It is at once an unsentimental portrait of that most awkward period between adolescence and young adulthood and that rarest of things- a mature depiction of immature lives. Visually, Johnson captures the languid tropical climate and strip mall tackiness of Hawaii in a rich chiaroscuro style reminiscent of Milton Caniff combined with the sensual ink work of Paul Pope or Jessica Abel.

THE GLAMOR GIRLS OF DON FLOWERS by Alex Chun & Jacob Covey
300-page B&W paperback, $19.95

When the life of Don Flowers was cut short in 1968, he left behind a career in newspaper cartooning that spanned more than four decades as well as one of the most fluid lines to grace the comics page. His cartoons evoked the art of Russell Patterson and Hank Ketcham, and nowhere was this more evident than in his quintessential single-panel pin-up cartoon, the aptly named Glamor Girls. Whether blondes or brunettes, showgirls or housewives, Flowers rendered his comely protagonists with equal aplomb. A close look at Flowers' body of work reveals that he was really an illustrator playing cartoonist. He was equally skilled with the brush and the pen, and was also highly regarded by his fellow artists for his expert spotting of blacks. Flowers boasted "about the finest line ever to be bequeathed to a cartoonist," wrote Coulton Waugh in his classic history, The Comics. "It dances; it snaps gracefully back and forth; the touches related." ; While Flowers spent nearly a quarter of a decade on Glamor Girls, it wasn't until the 1960s that he finally broke free of Russell Patterson's influence and established a more modern style that was uniquely his own. This volume collects the best of those cartoons, and showcases Flowers at the height of his skill. Don Flowers' Glamor Girls also features a foreward by cartoon legend Sergio Aragonés and an introductory essay by editor Alex Chun.

MEOW, BABY! by Jason
144-page black-and-white softcover, $16.95

After seven books that have ranged from tragedy (Hey, Wait...) to drama (Sshhhh!) to thriller melodrama (The Iron Wagon, Why Are You Doing This?), Jason unleashes his inner Scandinavian goofball with this big collection of hilarious shorter pieces. God, the Devil, mummies, vampires, zombies, werewolves, reanimated skeletons, space invaders, Death, cavemen, Godzilla and Elvis populate these most often wordless blackout gags, side by side with Jason's usual Little Orphan Annie-eyed, rabbit-and-bird-head protagonists - a "lighter side" of one of the best cartoonists of the new millennium.

NEW COMICS:

SCHIZO #4 by Ivan Brunetti
32-page full color 11" x 15" comic, $9.95

America's most beloved depressed cartoonist is off the couch and back to making us laugh at his misery! This long-awaited full-color oversized comic brings you right into the action! This time around Brunetti taps into his academic side with biographies of Piet Mondrian, Soren Kierkegaard, Erik Satie, James Thurber, Francoise Hardy, Louise Brooks, and J.K. Huysmans. And if that weren't enough, there are tributes to Charles Schulz and the Marx Brothers; a step-by-step guide on how to draw cartoons; and strips on misogyny, 9-11, suicidal ideation, and abortive crushes on waitresses PLUS so much more.

LUBA'S COMICS AND STORIES #6 by Gilbert Hernandez
32-page black and white comic $3.50

LUBA the comic may have concluded, but Gilbert still has tales of her extended family to tell. In this, the first of three concluding all-new issues of the series, Luba's adolescent half-sisters Fritz and Petra get on that bumpy road to adulthood in a story which will explain Scott the Hog's animosity toward Fritz, and...Luba meets aliens!

LOVE & ROCKETS #15 by Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez
32-page black and white comic $4.50

Hopey goes on a picnic, to a rock 'n' roll show and the bathroom in "Saturday is Shatter Day," the latest installment of "Day by Day with Hopey." And on the Beto side of the book, "On a Gut Level" features the return on Palomar's original heartbreaker Pipo, trapped in a mysterious castle with Fritz, her ex Mark Hererra, and his wife Mila...plus another Kid Stuff Kids"! VIVA LOS BROS!

DEADPAN #1 by David Heatley
32-page full-color comic $5.95

Never before offered through Fantagraphics or Previews! Back to the start with the first issue of David Heatley's autobiographical work. Exploring his dreams with a childlike adaptation, Heatley takes a peek into his own mind - which is decidedly filled with a less-than-childlike nature. Colored drawings, that resemble pictures drawn with crayons, tackle homosexual and heterosexual fantasies, child rape, bestiality and murder.

THE COMICS JOURNAL #272
Cover by Jeff Danzinger
192-page squarebound magazine, $9.95

This issue, take a journey through the world of editorial cartooning with two masters of the form: American gadfly Jeff Danzinger and Steve Bell of British newspaper The Guardian, both interviewed of whom discuss art, craft and politics with critic and scholar Kent Worcester. Also: Part two of Gary Groth's definitive interview with legendary cartoonist (and Batman co-creator) Jerry Robinson, a section of full-color "Thirteen" strips from Little Lulu cartoonist John Stanley, and all the comics, news, criticism and commentary you expect from America's most respected magazine about the form, The Comics Journal!

NEW "IGNATZ" TITLES:
A brand new collection of internationally-produced comics designed midway between comic book "pamphlets" and graphic novels, at a very reasonable price, the "Ignatz" series will offer a rotating collection of exciting new series, all produced in a deluxe, oversize two-color format of jacketed saddle-stitched comics on thick, deluxe stock The following are the fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes in the series.

INTERIORAE #1 (Ignatz Series) by Gabriella Giandelli
32-page 2-color saddlestitched 8 1/2" x 11" comic, $7.95

A high-rise apartment building in an unnamed European city. Its inhabitants come and go, meet each other, talk, dream, regret, hope... in short, live. A ghostly, shape-shifting anthropomorphic white rabbit roams from apartment to apartment, surveying and keeping track of all this humanity... and at the end of every night, he floats down to the basement where he delivers his report to the "great dark one." Lushly delineated in penciled sepia halftones, this debut "Ignatz" by Gabriella Giandelli offers a hauntingly unique vision and a tantalizingly open-ended beginning to an ongoing series.

GANGES #1 (Ignatz Series) by Kevin Huizenga
32-page 2-color saddlestitched 8 1/2" x 11" comic, $7.95

Kevin Huizenga introduces his everyman Glenn Ganges (previously seen in the acclaimed Drawn and Quarterly Showcase and Or Else) to the "Ignatz" family with this suite of all-new stories. Ganges tries to decide what to do when confronted with "The Litterer"; gets into an argument with his wife Wendy about The Beatles' "She's Leaving Home"; indulges in some whimsical "Time Traveling" while on a walk around his neighborhood; and more! Huizenga's elegant neo-clear-line style brings a crispness and humor to these low-key slice-of-life stories, and the gray-blue duotone he has picked gives the art a new depth and complexity.

CHIMERA #1 (Ignatz Series) by Lorenzo Mattotti
32-page black-and-white saddlestitched 8 1/2" x 11" comic, $7.95

Long a superstar in his native Italy, Lorenzo Mattotti has made sporadic incursions into the U.S. via appearances in RAW magazine, the classic Fires graphic novel, and the more recent, 2003 Eisner-winning Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde adaptation from NBM. (Not to mention regular gigs in The New Yorker.) All of these previous works have showcased his full-color painter style, but Chimera, with its intricate, hyper-expressive swirls of crisp line work, shows that Mattotti's genius is bound by no single technique. A wordless fantasia of birth, death, gods, monsters, and humans, Chimera is the most astonishing visual narrative you'll see all year.

Hardy Boys Books Complete List

See the Best Hardy Boys Sites on the Web.

Click links to order titles from Amazon.

The original Grosset and Dunlap series

1. The Tower Treasure
2. The House on the Cliff
3. The Secret of the Old Mill
4. The Missing Chums
5. Hunting for Hidden Gold
6. The Shore Road Mystery
7. The Secret of the Caves
8. The Mystery of Cabin Island
9. The Great Airport Mystery
10. What Happened at Midnight
11. While the Clock Ticked
12. Footprints Under the Window
13. The Mark on the Door
14. The Hidden Harbor Mystery
15. The Sinister Signpost
16. A Figure in Hiding
17. The Secret Warning
18. The Twisted Claw
19. The Disappearing Floor
20. Mystery of the Flying Express
21. The Clue of the Broken Blade
22. The Flickering Torch Mystery
23. The Melted Coins
24. The Short-Wave Mystery
25. The Secret Panel
26. The Phantom Freighter
27. The Secret of Skull Mountain
28. The Sign of the Crooked Arrow
29. The Secret of the Lost Tunnel
30. The Wailing Siren Mystery
31. The Secret of Wildcat Swamp
32. The Crisscross Shadow
33. The Yellow Feather Mystery
34. The Hooded Hawk Mystery
35. The Clue in the Embers
36. The Secret of Pirates' Hill
37. The Ghost at Skeleton Rock
38. Mystery at Devil's Paw
39. The Mystery of the Chinese Junk
40. Mystery of the Desert Giant
41. The Clue of the Screeching Owl
42. The Viking Symbol Mystery
43. The Mystery of the Aztec Warrior
44. The Haunted Fort
45. The Mystery of the Spiral Bridge
46. The Secret Agent on Flight 101
47. Mystery of the Whale Tattoo
48. The Arctic Patrol Mystery
49. The Bombay Boomerang
50. Danger on Vampire Trail
51. The Masked Monkey
52. The Shattered Helmet
53. The Clue of the Hissing Serpent
54. The Mysterious Caravan
55. The Witchmaster's Key
56. The Jungle Pyramid
57. The Firebird Rocket
58. The Sting of the Scorpion

Simon & Schuster

59. Night of the Werewolf
60. Mystery of the Samurai Sword
61. The Pentagon Spy
62. The Apeman's Secret
63. The Mummy Case
64. Mystery of Smugglers Cove
65. The Stone Idol
66. The Vanishing Thieves
67. The Outlaw's Silver
68. Deadly Chase
69. The Four-Headed Dragon
70. The Infinity Clue
71. Track of the Zombie
72. The Voodoo Plot
73. The Billion Dollar Ransom
74. Tic-Tac-Terror
75. Trapped at Sea
76. Game Plan for Disaster
77. The Crimson Flame
78. Cave-in!
79. Sky Sabotage
80. The Roaring River Mystery
81. The Demon's Den
82. The Blackwing Puzzle
83. The Swamp Monster
84. Revenge of the Desert Phantom
85. The Skyfire Puzzle
86. The Mystery of the Silver Star
87. Program for Destruction
88. Tricky Business
89. The Sky Blue Frame
90. Danger on the Diamond
91. Shield of Fear
92. The Shadow Killers
93. The Serpent's Tooth Mystery
94. Breakdown in Axeblade
95. Danger on the Air
96. Wipeout
97. Cast of Criminals
98. Spark of Suspicion
99. Dungeon of Doom
100. The Secret of the Island Treasure
101. The Money Hunt
102. Terminal Shock
103. The Million-Dollar Nightmare
104. Tricks of the Trade
105. The Smoke Screen Mystery
106. Attack of the Video Villains
107. Panic on Gull Island
108. Fear on Wheels
109. The Prime-Time Crime
110. The Secret of Sigma Seven
111. Three-Ring Terror
112. The Demolition Mission
113. Radical Moves
114. The Case of the Counterfeit Criminals
115. Sabotage at Sports City
116. Rock 'n' Roll Renegades

Pop Artifact! Farrah Fawcett doll

Vintage DC Comics house ad

See the Best Batman Sites on the Web.

CD new releases Jan. 10 and Jan. 17, 2006

Jan. 10

Brian Auger & Trinity Befour

David Bowie The Platinum Collection

Incredible String Band The Circle Is Unbroken: Live & Studio 1967-1972

The Move Message from the Country

Talking Heads Fear of Music, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Remain in Light and Talking Heads: 77

Jan. 17

Sidney Bechet Mosaic Select

Ornette Coleman Rock the Clock

Eric Dolphy Quintet with Herbie Hancock Left Alone

The Everly Brothers The Outtakes

Bill Haley Bill Rocks and The Rock 'N Roll Arrives - The Real Birth of Rock 'N Roll 1946-54

Gerry Mulligan Mosaic Select

NRBQ Grooves in Orbit

Wilson Pickett Wicked Pickett

Otis Rush Mourning in the Morning

Sam and Dave Double Dynamite

Sparks A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing and Halfnelson

Pop Culture Roundup Jan. 10, 2006

The B Side remembers Lou Rawls.

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The Boston Globe does a feature on animation pioneer and "Little Nemo" comic strip artist Winsor McCay.

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The Guardian has a new podcast from the hilarious Ricky Gervais.

DVD new releases Jan. 10, 2006

Eraserhead

The Flash - The Complete Series

Max Allan Collins - The Black Box Collection: Shades of Neo-Noir

The Zorro Cliffhanger Collection

More Upcoming DVD releases.

Upcoming goodies from TwoMorrows Publishing

SILVER STAR: GRAPHITE EDITION

Legendary artist Jack Kirby first conceptualized Silver Star in the
mid-1970s as a movie screenplay, complete with illustrations to sell
the idea to Hollywood. Too far ahead of its time for Tinseltown, Jack
instead adapted his “Visual Novel” as a six- issue mini-series for
Pacific Comics in the early 1980s, making it the last original creation
of his career. Now, in SILVER STAR: GRAPHITE EDITION, “King” Kirby’s
final, great series is collected at last, this time reproduced from his
powerful, uninked pencil art! Read the complete story of
Homo-Geneticus, the New Breed of humanity that spawns both hero (Silver Star) and
villain (the nefarious Darius Drumm), leading to one of the most
action-packed narratives and spellbinding climaxes ever conceived on a comics
page! And as a special bonus, read Kirby’s provocative screenplay,
reproduced in its entirety, including illustrations and never-published
character sketches! Plus there’s pin-ups and other rare Kirby art, and
an historical overview to put it all in perspective. A percentage of
profits from this book go to the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center,
so don’t ask, just buy it!

The 160 page (plus cover), squarebound 7" x 10" Trade Paperback with a
full color cover and black-and-white interiors retails for $19.95 in
the U.S. and ships 22 March 2006.

ALTER EGO #57

Alter Ego #57 spotlights THE GOLDEN AGE OF MARVEL! ’Nuff Said? There’s
a full-color painted Captain America cover by JACK KIRBY & PETE VON
SHOLLY! A complete issue-by-issue index of Timely/Atlas/Marvel
super-hero stories—from Marvel Comics #1 (1939) to The Yellow Claw #4
(1957)—compiled by MICHELLE NOLAN—lavishly illustrated with scarce art
by Golden Age masters SIMON & KIRBY, EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, AYERS,
HEATH, SHORES, SEKOWSKY, SCHOMBURG, PFEUFER, GUSTAVSON, POWELL, AVISON,
GABRIELE, MANEELY, SEVERIN, plus rare retroactive illos by KANE, The
Brothers BUSCEMA, ROBBINS, BUCKER, SEVERIN (the other one), HOOVER,
FRENZ, KUPPERBERG, et al.! GENE COLAN & ALLEN BELLMAN on the 1940s
Timely super-heroes—& JIM AMASH talks to Atlas artist VIC CARRABOTTA!
Plus FCA—MICHAEL T. GILBERT—BILL SCHELLY—& MORE!! Edited by ROY THOMAS.

The 100 page (plus cover), saddle-stitched 8 1/2" x 11" magazine with a
full color cover and black-and-white interiors retails for $6.95 in the
U.S. and ships 8 March 2006.

BACK ISSUE #15

BACK ISSUE #15 examines “Weird Heroes” of the 1970s and 1980s—and with
heroes like these, we’re glad they’re on our side! In all-new
interviews, MIKE PLOOG discusses Ghost Rider, MATT WAGNER revisits The
Demon, and JOE KUBERT dusts off Ragman. The pencil art of GENE COLAN is
spotlighted in “Rough Stuff” (with Batman, Wonder Woman, and Night
Force covers among the mix); JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ recalls Deadman; and
“Greatest Stories Never Told” looks at DC’s unpublished Gorilla Grodd
series, with interviews and art by TERRY AUSTIN and CARL POTTS. Plus:
Ploog, DON PERLIN, GERRY CONWAY, and DOUG MOENCH on Werewolf by Night;
LEN WEIN on The Phantom Stranger; and BOB ROZAKIS and STEPHEN DeSTEFANO
on ’Mazing Man! Featuring rare and classic art by these artists, plus
JIM APARO and others. With an all-new Werewolf by Night cover by ARTHUR
ADAMS! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

The 100 page (plus cover), saddle-stitched 8 1/2" x 11" magazine with a
full color cover and black-and-white interiors retails for $6.95 in the
U.S. and ships 15 March 2006.

Pop Artifact! Dolly Parton doll

Vintage DC Comics house ads

See the Best DC Comics Sites on the Web.

Comics previews

Mile High Comics has first looks at: 100 Bullets #68, Captain Atom Armageddon #4, Desolation Jones #5, DMZ #3, Elfquest The Discovery #1, Fables #45, Wildcats Nemesis #5, Ares #1, Daughters of the Dragon #1, Exiles #75, New X-Men #22, She-Hulk 2 #4, Son of M #2 and X-Men The 198 #1.

"Bewitched" season 3, "Flying Nun" and "Gidget" coming to DVD

A four-disk set including all 32 season 3 episodes of "Bewitched" will be out March 21. These shows originally appeared in color, which means fans won't need to make the black-and-white or colorized versions as they did with seasons 1 and 2.

Also due out March 21 are two shows featuring the delighful Sally Field (we like her, we really like her): "Gidget - The Complete Series" on four disks and the complete first season of "The Flying Nun," also on four disks.

More TV on DVD.

Dark Horse releases "Creature from the Black Lagoon" novel

From the press release:

DH Press is proud to announce the newest addition to
its original Universal Monsters novel series, Creature from the Black
Lagoon: Time’s Black Lagoon. Following in the footsteps of previous DH
Press original novels featuring Dracula and Wolf Man, the Creature has
been revamped with a modern horror sensibility by noted sci-fi author Paul
Di Filippo and is set in the year 2015. This book will be released in
May 2006 at a retail price of $6.99 (ISBN-1-59582-033-7).

In 1954, an expedition found what seemed to be a missing link in the
evolutionary chain: an ancient, immensely powerful amphibian Creature.
Scientists tried to tame it, break its will, and even change its very
being with surgery and torture, but the beast rebelled, killing nearly all
in its way. But was the creature truly a throwback, a freak survivor of
some prehistoric era, or was it something more?

Six decades later, one scientist attempts to find out, using a time
machine to journey into the past. What he finds not only shatters his
vision of what the Creature might be, but could change the history of the
human race forever.

Turning the conventions of what we feel we know about the Creature on
its ear, critically-praised science fiction author Di Filippo reinvents
the classic monster with a tale of time travel, horror, and mystery
that blends Cold War science fiction with today’s cutting edge cyberpunk
in a vision of what terrors still lurk in the swamp.

“Di Filippo is like gourmet potato chips to me,” said Harlan Ellison,
famed science-fiction writer. “I can never eat just one of his short
stories.”

Pop Culture Roundup Jan. 9, 2006

Remember "Lost"? Cool TV show about a buncha folks on a mysterious island? The last new episode was on a year and a half a ago. Anyway, it looks like ABC is finally getting it's act together to show a new one someday soon. In the meantime, check out two new official "Lost" podcasts.

Newcomer Will Toale has been cast as the WB's "Aquaman."

Mike Sterling has more Batman Hot Links than a Gotham City IHOP.

Yahoo! Movies has sneak peeks at "Underworld: Evolution" and "X-Men 3."

Doc Savage Complete List of Novels

Batman TV series pictures: The TIP! Saturday Picture Page

Announcing: The Saturday Picture Page!

Tune in tomorrow for a big pageful of pics from the 1960s "Batman" TV series.

Pop Artifact! Walt Disney character target set

See the Best Disney Sites on the Web.

Vintage DC Comics house ad

Today in gratuitous Barbara Eden pics

"I Dream of Jeannie" on DVD March 14.

Jack Kirby documentary details

Marvel Editor Tom Brevoort got an advance look at the "Jack Kirby: Storyteller" feature that will appear on the expanded version of "The Fantastic Four" movie DVD and shared some details with the Kirby-L mailing list:

It's an hour in length, covers pretty much Kirby's entire life, and
is profusely illustrated with tons of Jack's art, including pencil-
copies clearly provided by John Morrow. An all-star cast of industry greats turn
up to speak about Jack's work and their experiences with him (Barry Windsor-
Smith, Neal Adams, Steve Rude, Bruce Timm, John Romita, Joe Sinnott, Tim Sale, etc), as well as such Kirbyphiles as Mark Evanier, Steve Sherman, Mike Royer, Mike Thibodeaux and author Walter Mosley. Extensively interviewed are Neal and Lisa Kirby, who've provided dozens of family photos of Jack from throughout his
lifetime, most of which were new to me.

Drawbacks: don't know if it was a DC thing or a Marvel thing, but
none of Jack's DC artwork is shown. Kirby's work on the Fourth World books
is discussed, as is the Simon & Kirby era of NEWSBOY LEGION, BOY COMMANDOS and the like, but without illustration. And the film skips over any mention of the Kirby/Marvel artwork situation of the '80s--it gets into Jack's
feelings that he hadn't been properly compensated (Evanier points out that if Kirby
had been able to receive the standard arrangement that was in place at the major
companies by 1985, he would have been a very happy man), but doesn't dwell on the
original art situation.

The expanded/director's cut version of the "Fantastic Four" will be out in April or so.

More Jack Kirby.

"(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" The Ramrods: Today's Best Song Ever

Twangy guitars are cool. Wordless female soprano vocals are cool. Sound effects are cool. Song titles featuring needless parentheses are cool. So how could this song possibly not be on your MP3 player?

Vaughn Monroe, of course, did the great hit vocal version of this, but the Ramrods rock it up with lots of surfy guitars and loads of echo that make you feel like you're drivin' them doggies over some spooky hill in the middle of the night.

This was from the days when songs sonically evoked something: a mood, a place, a feeling. Sure, it all seems kinda campy now with those "Star Trek" theme-sounding vocalizations and the guys shouting "ha! git along!", not to mention the cattle sound effects, but you gotta love it.

Available: Rock Instrumental Classics 2

Previous Best Song Ever.

Pop Culture Roundup for Jan. 6, 2006

WFMU presents 27 MP3s of musicians saying stuff they probably shouldn't while on stage.

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Concerts on NPR: The White Stripes and M. Ward.
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Sad news: Singer Barry Cowsill is dead. He'd been missing in New Orleans ever since Hurricane Katrina struck the city.

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Datajunkie celebrates the birthday of Flash Gordon with lots of comic art and old time radio episodes.

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Drawn! discovers a whole lotta pin-up art.

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Comic Book Galaxy has a preview of Barry Windsor Smith's upcoming graphic novel featuring the Fantastic Four's Ben Grimm.

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Five souped-up James Bond movie boats are on display at New York National Boat Show.

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"The Art of Ray Harryhausen," out in March features production art, photos of props and storyboards from the stop-motion king's films.

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Richard Branson's Virgin company is launching a comics-and-animation branch.

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Singer Lou Rawls has passed away.

Top 10 graphic novels, DVDs, CDs and action figures Jan. 6, 2006

At Amazon:

Graphic Novels

1. Watchmen

2. Black Hole

3. The Walking Dead Vol. 4: The Heart's Desire

4. Serenity

5. V for Vendetta

6. The ACME Novelty Library #16

7. Astonishing X-Men Vol. 2: Dangerous

8. Girl on Girl (Y: The Last Man, Book 6)

9. Frank Miller's Complete Sin City Library [Amazon.com Exclusive]

10. The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes

DVDs

1. Wedding Crashers - Uncorked (Unrated Widescreen Edition)

2. Serenity (Widescreen Edition)

3. March of the Penguins (Widescreen Edition)

4. Firefly - The Complete Series

5. The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Unrated Widescreen Edition)

6. Battlestar Galactica - Season 2.0

7. Star Wars, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (Widescreen Edition)

8. What the Bleep Do We Know!?

9. Lost - The Complete First Season

10. The Constant Gardener (Widescreen Edition)

CDs

1. First Impressions of Earth [Explicit Lyrics] ~ The Strokes

2. Born to Run: 30th Anniversary 3-Disc Set [Original recording remastered] ~ Bruce Springsteen

3. Illinois ~ Sufjan Stevens

4. The Essential Johnny Cash [Limited Edition] [Original recording remastered] ~ Johnny Cash

5. Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast ~ Various Artists

6. Extraordinary Machine ~ Fiona Apple

7. Aerial ~ Kate Bush

8. Prairie Wind ~ Neil Young

9. Get Behind Me Satan ~ The White Stripes

10. The Legend [Box set] ~ Johnny Cash

Action Figures

1. Marvel Legends Sentinel Series Figure: Cyclops

2. Marvel Legends-Sentinel Series-Angel (Blue-White)

3. Marvel Legends Sentinel Series Figure: 1st Appearance Spider-Man

4. Kong The 8th Wonder of the World: Supreme Kong

5. Marvel Legends-Sentinel Series-Angel Blue

6. Marvel Legends Sentinel Series Figure: Mr. Sinister

7. GI Joe vs. Cobra Valor vs. Venom Heavy Assault Squad

8. The Chronicles of Narnia Action Figure: Minotaur

9. The Corpse Bride 12" Fashion Doll

10. Star Wars Episode III Battlepack Figures: Rebel Vs. Empire

Pop Artifact! Space Safari play set

DVD cover art for "Doctor Who: The Beginning"

The DVD set, which collects the Doctor's three earliest adventures, is due out March 28.

See the Best Doctor Who Sites on the Web.

Today in gratuitous pics of Barbara Eden

Final "Teen Titans" eps set to air on Cartoon Network

According to Comics Continuum, the animated series winds up with:

* "Calling All Titans" this Saturday at 8 p.m.

* "Titans Together" on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 8 p.m.

* "Things Change" on Monday, Jan. 16 at 4 p.m.

See the Best Teen Titans Sites on the Web.

Pop Culture Roundup for Jan. 5, 2006

Sequential Tart has an interview with the great Silver Age comics artist Nick Cardy.

Cartoonist Seth is profiled in Toronto Life.

Jon Stewart will host this year's Academy Awards ceremony.

The fifth, and final, season of HBO's "Six Feet Under" is due out on DVD March 28.

Good listening on the BBC: Brian Wilson on "Sold on Song," an 80th birthday tribute to Beatles producer George Martin, Ricky Gervais' Christmas show.

DVD Review: "Moog"

An electrical engineer with mad scientist hair, a nerd shirt and a pocketful of pens: One of the great musical minds of the 20th century. Who'dve thunk?

But that was Robert Moog, inventor of the synthesizer that bears his frequently mispronounced last name (it rhymes with "vogue"). Just flip on the radio and you'll hear his influence. His invention, for the first time, put the ability to create electronic music into the hands of the masses.

Musicians and music producers went nuts about the first Moog when it was introduced in the late 1960s--some because they thought the machine could replace expensive session musicians, others because they wanted to create heretofore unheard sounds.

And while the electronic and computerized instruments heard on songs today may not be directly Moog derived, they certainly come by it indirectly. He opened the door to both technological and musical innovation.

This film, made by director Hans Fjellstad, shortly before Moog's August 2005 death, does a great job showing how it all went down. And it doubles as a remarkable piece of history. When before have we been able to view an inventor talking directly to those who use his invention, as we see Moog doing here?

There are great scenes of Moog visiting with French composer Gershon Kingsley (remember the music from Disney's "Electrical Parade" and the hit "Popcorn"?), P-Funk's Bernie Worrell and prog rocker Keith Emerson (yeah, there was a downside to Dr. Moog's machine...)

Moog himself comes across as mildly eccentric but down to earth and humble. Scenes from his lab and his explanations of how the synthesizer works are fascinating.

There are a few missing pieces of course. It would've been nice to see more attention given to other prominent Moogists such as Walter/Wendy Carlos (whose Switched on Bach made Moog a household name), the Beatles (the Moog is all over Abbey Road) and Stevie Wonder (who made the Moog funky), but that's no reason not to highly recommend a thoroughly entertaining and informative film.

Pop Artifact! Man from U.N.C.L.E. wallet

Vintage DC Comics house ad

See the Best DC Comics Sites on the Web.

Today in gratuitous Barbara Eden pics

"I Dream of Jeannie" on DVD March 14.

DC Superheroes action figures: new and upcoming

The DC Superheroes figures are sorta DC's versions of the popular, super-articulated Marvel Legends action figures. But DC. Anyway, the first batch is out now and includes:

Bat Signal Batman
Bane
Scarecrow
Killer Croc

According to Action Figure.com, upcoming waves include:

Wave 2 in March:

Superman
Bizarro
Doomsday
Supergirl

Wave 3 in "mid 2006":

Battle-Damaged Batman
Azreal
Robin

Wave 4 in "late 2006":

Stealth Jump Batman
Batgirl
Two-Face

Wave 5, "end of 2006":

Battle-Damaged Superman
Lex Luthor
Brainiac
Darkseid

Book collects best of Harvey Kurtzman's "Help!"

A must-have solicited in this month's Previews catalog:

BEST OF HELP MAGAZINE VOL 1 TPby Kurtzman, Davis, Elder, Rorh, Wilson, Severin, and Various 160 pages of
Harvey Kurtzman insanity from this classic humor magazine. His usual gang of
idiots help out, including, Jack Davis, Will Elder, John Severin, Arnold
Roth, Gahan Wilson, Paul Coker, Gloria Steinem, and many more. Loads of
cartoons and strips by the masters of parody, and articles and features from
the top wits of the time. Also included is a rare twelve page interview with
Kurtzman done while he was editing Help! (CAUT: 4) SC, 8x11, 160pgs, B&W
SRP: $25.00

In other Kurtzman news, Fantagraphics has another of its "Comics Journal Library" volumes coming out later this year dedicated to the great cartoonist. According to Amazon, "The Comics Journal Library Vol. 7: Harvey Kurtzman," is set for publication in July.

Pop Culture Roundup Jan. 4, 2006

NPR has a story about the new "Masters of American Comics" book.

Live concerts on NPR: Son Volt, Lucinda Williams and James Brown.

Pete Townshend, who knows a thing or two about blasting out his eardrums, is warning iPod users to watch the volume.

Dial B for Blog presents some more DC Comics Silver Age House Ads.

The original "Ultra Man" TV series is coming to DVD.

Booksteve presents some rare Jim Steranko art.

New comics, Jan. 5, 2006

NOTE: Comics will be shipping Thursday, instead of Wednesday, this week

Available now at yer local comics shop or via This is Pop!-supporting links:

Batman Black And White Statue Joe Kubert

Beta Ray Bill Mini-bust - Bowen Designs

Billy The Kids Old Timey Oddities TP

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Spike Bust

Chronicles Of Conan Vol 9 River Dragons and Others TP

Essential Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe Vol 1 TP

Hellblazer Staring At The Wall TP

Marvel 1602 New World TP

Marvel Universe Astonishing X-Men Cyclops Bust

Maze Agency Vol 1 TP

Mickey Mouse Adventures Vol 7 TP

New Avengers Vol 1 Breakout TP

Silver Age Fantastic Four Human Torch Med Statue

Superman Sacrifice TP

Ultimate Annuals Vol 1 TP

Ultimate X-Men Vol 5 HC

Universal Monsters Cavalcade Of Horror TP

Weta Narnia White Witch Statue

See a Complete List of Upcoming Comics.

DVD review: "Punk: Attitude"

Few musical genres are as factionalized as the stuff that gets lumped as "punk." The music, the bands, the looks are so varied, it's tough to even know what we mean by the term.

"What is punk, anyway?" is a good question, and the one at the center of this new film by longtime Clash associate (and onetime member of Clash spinoff band Big Audio Dynamite) Don Letts.

The answer he comes up with is right there in the title: "Attitude." And it's a pretty satisfactory one, particularly since Letts' attempts to get at it are so openminded, evenhanded and fair.

It all boils down to punk being approach to music, art and life. It's no bullshit, not about show business but true expression, it's not pretentious but blunt, short and loud. And when it starts being too much about a particular look or sound, it ceases to be punk. It becomes new wave or some other dang thing.

There's no sense Letts is pushing any specific agenda, playing favorites or trying to lead you to a particular conclusion. He throws up a bunch of different people on the screen and lets them talk.

The interviewees are a remarkably insightful and articulate lot: Henry Rollins (Black Flag), David Johansen (The New York Dolls), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys), Mick Jones and Paul Simonon (The Clash) and photographer-on-the-scene Bob Gruen.

Given his background, one might think Letts would focus primarily on British punk. But he doesn't. There's lots and lots of attention to given to East- and West Coast U.S. punk and its 1960s garage band roots. The film does a great job summing up musical events on both sides of the Atlantic.

Things don't stop with the 1970s heyday either. Letts traces the punk attitude into the 1980s with No Wave, the 1990s with Grunge into whatever the heck's going on today (it's too early to tell).

And, given the nihilistic point of view one tends to attach to a lot of punk, the film ends up being remarkably positive. Rather than dwell on the victims (Sid and Kurt, among others) we're left with folks like Poly Styrene talking about how punk gave them purpose, an avenue for expression and a release.

It's a valuable contribution to filmed music history. If there's any downside its the absence of key players John Lydon, Malcolm McLaren and the late Joe Strummer. Without them, it can't be taken as a definitive history.

But watch it alongside the excellent documentaries on the Sex Pistols ("The Filth and the Fury") and the Clash ("Westway to the World," also directed by Letts), and you have a very detailed picture of how this music/movement came about and its significance today.

Pop Artifact! Thunderbirds space patrol ship

Vintage DC Comics house ad!

See the Best DC Comics Sites on the Web.

Comics previews

Mile High Comics has first looks at: Batman and the Monster Men #3, Exterminators #1, Hard Time Season Two #2, Jonah Hex #3, Swamp Thing #23, Team Zero #2, Doc Samson #1, Marvel Team-Up #16, Marvel Zombies #2, New Excalibur #3, Sentinel #3, Sable & Fortune #1, Spider-Girl #94, Spider-Man Unlimited #13, X-Men Colossus Bloodline #5 and X-Men The End Men and X-Men #1.

DVD new releases for Jan. 3, 2006

All in the Family: The Complete Fifth Season

Gunsmoke - 50th Anniversary Edition, Volume 1

Gunsmoke:50th Anniversary Edition Volume 2

Have Gun Will Travel:Complete Third Season

Silk Stalkings: Season Four

Wedding Crashers - Uncorked (Unrated Widescreen Edition)

"I Dream of Jeannie" season 1 DVD due out March 14

The four-disk set will include 30 episodes from the Barbara Eden (hubba hubba) and Larry Hagman series.

Extras include commentary on the pilot episode, some bonus previews and a featurette.

Amazon has it available for pre-order now.