Prisoners of Gravity

In my book, one of the absolute highlights in television history has been Prisoners of Gravity.
Originally aired on TVO, the Ontario public service channel, the show delved in sci-fi, speculative fiction and horror genres in literature and comics (film was touched upon, but not extensively), long before "geek culure"* became cool.


The array of talent interviewed for the show is simply staggering: Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Peter Sraub, Harlan Ellison, Clive Barker, Terry Prachett, Doug Adams, Roger Zelazny, Samuel Delaney only to neme a few.

Those who would like te catch up with this well-aged piece of television can sink their teeth on this Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Teddog3000/videos

(a number of episodes used to be available at the TVO online archives, but once the agreements with the people interviewed expired had to be removed).

The host was comedian Rick Green, whe have since become one of my heroes for his work on AD(H)D.

Read here an interesting look back at the program by itys makers, appeared on WIRED.


* using this expression physically pains me.

Re-blog: The Other Stan Lee: Not giving Credit where it’s due!

This is a great piece by blogger and comic Book historian Barry Pearl about one of comic book history hottest and most debated topics: who created the Marvel Universe?

https://forbushman.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-other-stan-lee-not-giving-credit.html

The article does not unearth any new document, but it is based only on available material, but puts it in perspective.

On the same topic and researched with the same care are Alex Grand's videos created for comicbookhistorians.com

Spidey, Lee, Kirby, Chabon, factoids and pics

I didn't know about this interesting story appeared in the New York Post

Long story short: Spider-Man name and outfit could have been inspired by an Halloween costume produced by the company Ben Cooper, Inc.

Nobody actually claims it and it could be a bit of a stretch, but there are some clues that make this theory fascinating.

1) The outfit has a webbed motif, and the mask presents a spider-web centered between the two holes for the eyes.

2) The name Spider-Man was printed on the suit

3) The model was discontinued by the company, who replaced it in their catalog with an actual licensed Spider-Man costume, the first licensed Spider-man product (or maybe even Marvel's first licensed product) in early 1963, long before Spider-Man reached popularity.

4) In his book The Silver Age of Comic Book Art Arlen Schumer claims that the creation of the Hulk may have been the popularity of the Frankenstein 1961 toy, which displayed a green-skinned creature on the box (hence the mandate to color Hulk green, instead of its original grey) - This as well is an assumption, not supported by any evidence, but if true, it reinforce the idea that Marvel was not shy of picking up ideas and trends from toy producers

I must stand with Ditko, who rebuts the "accusations" (if we can call them) and says that clippings alone do not equal proof. Besides, Spider-Man suit design, however unusual, is very much in line with other Ditko stuff.

---

On the theme of creatorship and credit, I discovered Michael Chabon has written a short story about two ageing comic book creators, who essentially are a thinly-disguised fictional version of Lee and Kirby.

I haven't read the story... yet.

More on it soon.

---

It was John Romita's idea to kill Gwen Stacy.

---

This Supergirl illustration is beautiful.

Kyrby's 2001

I definitely gotta get me a copy of Kirby's adaptation of 2001: a Space Odyssey.

http://www.twomorrows.com/kirby/articles/312001.html

http://sequart.org/magazine/20651/on-jack-kirbys-2001-a-space-odyssey/

Alex Toth links

Alex Toth is not only a giant in Comic Book history, but also one of the most intriguing and hard-to-fathom personalities to ever work in the medium.

He is at par with Jack Kirby and Will Eisner: much like them he accompanied the american "Comic book" format from infancy to adulthood and left a lasting legacy in the field.

Many call Toth "the artist's artist". But his name deserves to known beyond the elitist community of of collectors, reviewers, cartoonists, editors and publishers.

Let"s face it: cartoonists are no movie stars. They do not even approach the level of popularity that, let's say, some big-name novelists sometimes enjoy.

In the past, when newspaper comic strips were flourishing, I guess names like of Alex Raymond, Al Capp, Mort Walker and Charles Schultz would have ringed a bell even to the most casual newspaper reader. (Walt Disney does not count)

But even in today's pop-culture-saturated environment, the average Joe would not recognize cartoonists’ names other than Frank Miller or Milo Manara (not to mention that the popularity is often country-bound).

I too was introcduced to Toth's work only in recent years, but I got immediately hooked: he was exceptionally talented but more importantly, he cared a lot about the medium.

Toth devoted a lot of time studying the craft it and perfecting his style; trying to come up with rules or even "laws" for visual storytelling and such perfectionism made him a very stern individual and hard to be around.
Some trace this ruggedness back to Toth's own teachers, who had been just as demanding.

But I guess it went beyond that. He's views about how comics should be (not only in terms of form, but also in terms of content) were really black-and-white and left no room for dispute.
He abhorred the darker and more mature curve comics took in the late 1980s.
And while that position is perfectly understandable (to a certain extent), I was scratching my head when reading his argumentations (basically comics are for kids and should be about positive values). 

(in a sense it reminds me of Steve Ditko who had also a very manichaeist view of things)
Many of his comments read like the outbursts of a grumpy old man.
But then again, he did not spare criticism on himself either: a lot of his annotated stuff point out weaknesses in his own works.

Some reports about his suicidal thoughts suggest personal demons we do not know of.

I'm very uncertain about how to write about him: I do not want to pass judgement when knowing very little about his life and Art.
YouTube has only a handful videos about him, and no interview whatsoever with the man itself.

(This DVD collection features a nice documentary)



But he remains incredibly fascinating to me, as do his proficiency, productivity and relentlessness.

---

Cartoonists remember Alex Toth in this beautiful Special by Twomorrow Publishing (preview available here)

Alex Toth replied to a buddying Steve Rude (who wrote himlooking for advice on a short Jonny Quest story he was drawing) with anexcruciatingly long and harsh 20-page, panel-by-panel critique, where heabsolutely demolished Rude's work.

Toth's points are all valid (again, to a certain extent) and they denote a real passion for the craft, but the tone comes across as overall unbalanced.

A more insightful testimony comes from illustrator Bill Stout:

http://www.williamstout.com/news/journal/?p=2483
http://www.williamstout.com/news/journal/?p=2488
http://www.williamstout.com/news/journal/?p=2494

http://www.williamstout.com/news/journal/?p=2501
http://www.williamstout.com/news/journal/?p=2510

An interesting post with a very funny (and revealing) account of a meeting between Jack Kirby and Alex Toth

Must-have for anyone who wants to get to know toth is this trilogy of books.