Happy Birthday Will Eisner.

Today would have been the late Will Eisner's birthday. Here's a page from 1946.

Google paid tribute today by creating this swell graphic; go here and click on the Spirit's mask.

Stan Lee: An Appreciation.

It's Stan the Man Lee's 88th birthday today.

I've held forth before about Stan and what I felt like his role with Marvel was; while I certainly can believe that many, if not most, of the concepts that galvanized everyone so much back in the early 60s were thought up by Kirby, Ditko, and who knows who else, I do believe that Stan's dialogue and plotting skills were very important in shaping those early classics. It seems that Stan was the hustler, the instigator, the shit-stirrer- keeping everybody up, keeping everybody positive, focused, and committed, and coordinating Marvel's ascent back in those long-ago days. It seems like the only thing he couldn't do was keep everyone well-paid and happy, and thus those halcyon days were relatively short-lived. Indeed, once the most-likely more-lucrative Hollywood and the college lecture circuit beckoned, Stan's focus and enthusiasm for editing and scripting seemed to wane...witness how flat and dead the dialogue is on his later issues of Fantastic Four and Thor, especially compared to his immediate successor, Roy Thomas', overheated, hyperbolic prose.

Regardless, at no point in his early Marvel career was Stan's scripting better than on the title in which he took the most pride, I think- Amazing Spider-Man. Yeah, a case could be made for Silver Surfer, but that was much later. One of the first Marvel comics I ever read was ASM #16, in which Spidey teamed up with Daredevil to battle the Ringmaster of Crime (He's been popping up on this blog a lot this year, hasn't he?) and his Circus. The breezy banter between DD, Spidey, and the Crime Circus thugs trying to jack them up delighted me as a 4 year old, and has continued to do so every time I've reread it in the 46 years since. I thought, as tribute, I'd post those pages here so you could read them for yourself. Click to read biggerer, you know the drill:

Now, sometimes Stan could wield the heavy hand when it came to the soap operatics, and often his attempts to provide his godlike and cosmic characters with a profound voice were often stilted and ludicrous. But on Spider-Man, he was on top of his game, keeping the expository dialogue in check and hand-wringing in its proper place, plus, as above, he didn't leave out the humor. I know damn well Ditko did not write that dialogue, nor did Kirby, as anyone who's read his post-Marvel work surely can see, write any in their collaborations either. So here's to you, Mr. Stanley Lieber- when you wanted to, you helped change a lot of lives, including mine, for what I've always thought was for the better, riding herd on those early game-changing days. For that, as well as your current comics ambassador-like station, I think you'll always deserve a lot of credit. Happy birthday, and many more.

BSBdG: Trevor Von Eeden

Sending out one of those super-duper multi-cover tribute Bacardi Show Birthday Greetings to Trevor Von Eeden, 51 years young today.

Happy Birthday Harry.

Today would have been the 69th birthday of HARRY NILSSON, so here's a posthumous BSBdG.

Favorite album? Hard to pick just one. If pressed, I'd cite 1972's career-killer Son of Schmilsson, and I also have a great deal of fondness for 1974's Pussy Cats with John Lennon.

Underrated? I'd say 1976's Sandman, but others may disagree.

At any rate, he left us far too early (he was only three years older than I am now when he passed in 1994!), and I wish the people in charge would get the documentary, as well as the album he was working on when he died, out in my lifetime.

I had Seven Seconds to say...

Today's Bacardi Show Birthday Greeting goes out to writer ROBERT LOREN FLEMING, 53 years young today. Above, a small cover gallery of the many series he's had a hand in over the years. There seems to be one exception, though, and I just can't quite seem to put my finger on which one it is. Oh well, I'm sure it will come to me.

It also happens to be the birthday of the great JIM STERANKO, and Guy Fawkes Day as well! (Boy, wouldn't a Steranko-illustrated, Fleming-scripted issue of Thriller have been something to see?)

I gazed a gazely stare.

Back in the hazy, crazy days of 1973, Scottish pop singer Lulu, who was by then past a string of Sixties hits including "To Sir With Love", the theme for a film in which she also appeared with Sidney Poitier and for which she was probably best known here in the States, gravitated into the orbit of David Bowie (she years later confessed to a fling, Bowie hasn't commented) and Mick Ronson at the height of the Glitter era...and the a single, a cover of Bowie's 1970 title track from his Man Who Sold the World album, was the result. Above is a TV performance of same from 1974. Although I dearly love the music the Bowie/Ronson team made together, I had not gone as far as to check this out before- although I was aware it existed. The slightly-different arrangement isn't bad, although the sinuous guitar melody line that runs through the original is missing until closer to the end, it's definitely got that honkin' sax that DB liked in this, the pre-Ronson split Pinups era...but I don't think Lulu's vocal does much for the song at all, sorry to say. Her calm, sweet demeanor doesn't really jibe with the ominous paranoiac mood the song (especially in its original version) evokes. I haven't heard the B-side, "Watch that Man", a fave Bowie track of mine from Aladdin Sane.

Anyway, today is Ms. Lulu's birthday today, and reading about it got me curious to hear her cover. Thought I'd take the opportunity to send along a BSBdG. Wish I could have been more complimentary- I did like "Sir", and she was definitely a big part of the whole Swingin' '60s scene. So there's that!

Another multi-cover Bacardi Show Birthday Greeting!

Yep, it's another of those big multi-cover birthday tributes, this time in honor of P. CRAIG RUSSELL, who turns 58 on this very day.

The first time I saw his art, early in his career on an Ant-Man tale in Marvel Feature #7, inked by mentor Dan Adkins and someone named Mark Kersey, I wasn't impressed. But then, a year or two later, I spied a copy of Amazing Adventures #28 on the spinner rack, and was surprised to see how much he'd progressed in the interim. And not only that, but I soon discovered that I loved the feature as well- War of the Worlds feat. Killraven, and began a fandom for both that has lasted to this day. It's been something to see how he's refined and developed his style over the years as well, from trying to play by the Marvel house rules to streamlining it, incorporating a myriad of influences. He's gone on to do a ton of work for a variety of publishers, including many adaptations of classic fairy tales and operas, and he brings the same verve and imagination to all of them. It's always a treat for me to see new artwork by Russell, one of my art heroes.

Here's his official site.

Grow old along with me.

A posthumous BSBdG today for JOHN WINSTON ONO LENNON, who would have been 69 today if not for, well, you know.

From 2005, here's a list of favorite solo Lennon tracks. I should probably revise it someday.

Pic courtesy of the fab and gear Beatle Photo Blog.

誕生日おめでとう!

"Tea?"

For your reading pleasure, the three pages which made me a fan of Paul Grist, and his Jack Staff (and later on, Kane) series. I had seen his work before, most notably in an issue of TwoMorrows' Comic Book Artist, which sported a back cover depicting the X-Men, most notably Professor X, in his unusual (well, unusual by mainstream comics standards, especially in the late 90's) style. I think I had also seen him mentioned in the Journal once or twice, I was still buying it regularly then. Anyway, I was intrigued, but by the time I first discovered him Kane had suspended publication, and he had already self-pubbed five issues of Jack, plus I just didn't recall seeing very many issues of either at my comics store, and neither did I want to dive into the back issue boxes and get #'s, oh, 12, 17, and 20 of Kane, then be frustrated for months looking for others. But when I spied Jack #6 on the rack, all brand new and shiny with its loud orange cover, I pounced. I was entertained by Grist's always-lively layout style, with its extreme perspectives and panel placements, along with his deft use of black and white areas...but what really got me was the deceptively simple, very British and understated scripting style he employed, in display above. He's still doing this sort of thing to this day. I've been a fan and a reader ever since, going back and acquiring the back issues of Jack I missed, as well as continuing to pick up the ongoing series, now printed in color by Image. I also went out and got all the collected trades of Kane, a cop series that is even better than Jack in a lot of ways, and one I hope he returns to someday.

All this is in order to send Mr. Grist a Bacardi Show Birthday Greeting on this, his birthday today. Hope it's a good one.


Golly, if it weren't for birthdays, I'd never post anything around here, would I? Anyway, reviews are forthcoming.

A Bacardi Show 15 cover birthday greeting.

Some of my favorite artists, I don't remember the first time I saw their work. Or, to be more accurate, I don't recall exactly when I first noticed their work. However, with Michael William Kaluta, I remember exactly- it was the cover of The Shadow #2, the first issue of DC's 1973 revival of the venerable character that I had seen on the spinner rack at the local Jr. Foods Store. I had heard of the Shadow, and had seen an ad or two in DC comics at the time; he sounded interesting. For some reason, I didn't see #1, but when #2 came out I plunked down my 20 cents to find out what the fuss was about...and got a lot more than I bargained for with my first exposure to the graceful, nuanced, 30's pulp-styled illustration work of Mr. Kaluta, and it was that first exposure that led me to be a lifelong fan. I tried to imitate it in my own crude way, me still being a 13-year-old aspiring comic book artist, but I just never really could get it right...it was just too idiosyncratic. I could draw a decent Shadow (relatively speaking), but his other characters, no. Much to my chagrin, Kaluta abruptly abandoned the Shadow's exploits with the issue that I posted above; the monthly deadlines were too much. I would see his work pop up here and there over the next few years, mostly on covers, until 1982, when he and Elaine Lee hooked up to give us the amazing Starstruck, and I fell in love with Kaluta's work all over again- this was vastly more detailed and clever than his earlier stuff; Lee gave him a whole universe to play with, and he brought it to life vividly- as those who picked up last week's Starstruck #1 from IDW are finding out. After the inevitable failure of a title that readers just weren't ready for in the 1980's, it was back to covers, mostly, for Mr. Kaluta, and almost all of them were typically intricate and often more gorgeous than the interiors of those comics deserved. Through thick and thin, I've remained a staunch fan, and have often named him as my favorite illustrator, comics or otherwise. He's had a hell of a career; I wish there had been more sequential work, but these things tend to play themselves out the way they're meant to, and I'm happy for what we've had.

Anyway, I post this because today is his 62nd birthday, and I wanted to pay tribute. I could post at least 30 more covers, there are that many that I have liked over the years; I tried to choose a mix of ones I loved as a teen with others that I have admired recently. I'm sure I've omitted a great many excellent ones. For more on Mr. K, including some pages from that second Shadow issue that galvanized me so, go here to last year's birthday post.

So happy birthday, Mr. Kaluta, good luck with Starstruck, and I hope it's been a great one.