Veteran comic artist Gene Colan is "on the mend," as they say...recovering from a busted shoulder and the death of his wife. I spoke with Gene yesterday and he sounded good. Put it this way: He sure sounded like a guy who's going to get past all this and get back to a normal, albeit reconfigured life. I sure hope so.
The last comic book Gene drew was an acclaimed issue of Captain America (#601) which I believe is up for an Eisner Award, three weeks from tomorrow night. Gene has authorized his agents to put some of the original art from that important book up for auction. The bidding commences over here and if you're interested, I wouldn't dawdle about leaping into the bidding. Some folks are going to bid because it's a great, historic issue. Others will bid because it's magnificent artwork. Still others will bid because it's for a good cause. The smart people will bid for all three reasons.
But don't worry. I'm going to call up later today and ask them to move it to a few weeks later to give us all more time to prepare. I'm sure that won't be a problem.
Hey, a lot of you get around when you're down there using San Diego's fine trolley system. If you're one such person, you'll want to take a look-see at this page. It's filled with announcements about special hours and routes during the con and you can also get yourself a multi-day pass. Thanks to Scott Marinoff for telling me about this so I could tell you.
The schedule of events will be released shortly but I'll give you a little tease about Cartoon Voices II, which my pal Earl Kress and I are hosting on Sunday, July 25 at 11:15 AM in room 6A. As with Saturday's panel (Cartoon Voices I), we'll be assembling and interviewing a dais of fine folks, experienced in the art of speaking for animated characters. But we're especially excited that the Sunday panel will include the voice of Judy Jetson and Penelope Pitstop, among many others...Janet Waldo! There's one not to miss.
It's been more than two years since the world lost a great talent in Dave Stevens and some of us lost that plus a good friend. As I wrote at the time, Dave was truly one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life...and was certainly among the most gifted.
It is in no way surprising that his work is still with us...still being reprinted, as he hoped it would always be. I am delighted to report that the folks at IDW Publishing have just come out with an amazing limited-edition book that is a "must" for any fan of Dave's artistry. It's a 12" by 17" hardcover that reprints every single page that Dave did of his splendid work, The Rocketeer. What's more, all seven covers and all but two of the 119 interior pages have been scanned at high-resolution right off the original black-and-white line art. You see all of Dave's smudges and pasteovers and stray pencil markings. (There's at least one lettering correction in there that I did for him but I'll be darned if I can find it...)
No, you don't get to see the pages in color but there are other places you can buy that. Only in this handsome volume do you get to see exactly what Dave drew, reproduced at the size he originally drew it. It gives you some sense of his painstaking, agonized devotion to detail. Some of us wrote a lot after Dave's passing about how intense he was about getting every inch of every panel right...but nothing any of us could say would help you understand that as well as getting up-close-and-personal with his raw, unfiltered brush lines.
The book will set you back $100 and when you see it, you'll be glad you spent the money. I also recommend that if you want a copy, you order it now. By that I don't mean next week. I mean right this second. At this link, you can purchase one and either arrange to have it shipped to you or arrange to pick it up in person at the Comic-Con in San Diego this month. (That's right, folks. It's this month!) This book will sell out and it will sell out soon. Get one while you can. Scott Dunbier, who put it all together, did an extraordinary job.
One of the most famous dance numbers ever performed in movies wasn't done by Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire or anyone like that. It was done by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in their 1937 film, Way Out West. Recently, at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, actress Tilda Swinton and film critic Mark Cousins led a mob in performing the dance as, I guess, a publicity stunt for a good cause...
June 30, 2010
