Johnny Hazard For Sale

Wide format, multiple story, color Sunday reprints published in 1980---some of Robbins' best work! Anyone want it for $25.00 and postage? Message me.

Crosby and Stills

Yesterday, I was listening to Buffalo Springfield live at the Monterey Pop Festival. Then today I ran across this image from a recent issue, I believe, of UNCUT magazine. If you know anything about the group's history, you know that there was a massive love/hate relationship between Stephen Stills and Neil Young all the time they were together. When the band committed to play Monterey, Neil simply refused to show up due to whatever his latest conflict with Stephen may have been. The rest of the guys recruited David Crosby from The Byrds, another group on the bill, to fill in on their songs, too. This reportedly ticked off Roger McGuinn and eventually helped lead to Crosby's ouster. Around that same time, Buffalo Springfield quit pretending they could hold together and went their separate ways. Crosby and Stills, however, had become fast friends and began hanging out...which is where they were the day  Cass Elliott met The Hollies' Graham Nash and brought him by. And the rest, as they say...

R.I.P. Kim Thompson

No, in spite of the name and more than a passing resemblance, we weren't related. Kim Thompson was the driving force behind AMAZING HEROES, the magazine that first published one of my articles back in the late eighties. He was the heart of Fantagraphics, the publisher that has done so much to keep classic and alternative comics in print and in the public eye. Even folks who didn't always get along with him for whatever reason are today remembering him as a fair man who truly loved comics as a medium. 

A few months back, late last year I think, actually, I was surprised to get an email from Kim, whom I had never met or spoken with before, seeking some info. We exchanged a few emails over the course of that day. It wasn't long after that that his cancer was made public. I wrote him again after that but never heard back.

And now he has passed. Rest in Peace, sir. And thanks for everything.  

John Rhys-Davies at Comic Expo!

This September's 4th Annual Cincinnati Comic Expo continues to shape up nicely with a plethora of already announced comics and media guests and still more announcements coming!

Go here to read about Xander and Jaws and Chewie and more!

http://cincinnaticomicexpo.com

Jack Cole's Deadly Horror

Ever since I first discovered his work, PLASTIC MAN creator jack Cole has been one of my all-time favorite cartoonists. When Craig Yo told me he was doing up a collection of Cole's horror comics I told him I didn't think he'd done enough to collect! He had mainly done superhero, humor and crime comics before jumping into panel cartoon success and finally newspaper strips. But leave it to Yoe! He found about twice as many as I thought were out there and along with his ad hoc gang of proofreaders and fact-checkers, we just put the finishing touches on JACK COLE'S DEADLY HORROR, the latest volume in THE CHILLING ARCHIVES OF HORROR COMICS. Looks like it's on track for early August. Now's the time to order your copy either online or through your local comic shop. It's a real scream!

  

Comic Book Men Casting!

Have you seen COMIC BOOK MEN? It's the AMC show that's set at Kevin Smith's real-life comic book shop, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. You can find it on NetFlix and various other places online if, like me, you don't have cable.

Well, now they've been going for a couple of seasons and they're looking for interesting guest stars for Season 3 so they've come to me to help spread the word! Here's the official message:

Calling All Fanboys and Fangirls!!!

COMIC BOOK MEN is looking for people to appear on Season 3 of the hit series on AMC! Are you a quirky comic book fan with a supersized personality? Is there a comic related item or retro pop-culture collectible you've been longing to buy or sell? Then all your four color dreams can come true at Executive Producer Kevin Smith's Comic Shop-Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash! Here's how you get started...Go to http://comicbookmencasting.com

**Must be 18 years or older to apply**

**Travel to Redbank, NJ and batteries not included**

The Phantom by Ditko/Romita

 

Here's something one doesn't see just every day. This is, of course, the Phantom, the Ghost Who Walks, from PHANTOM 2040, Marvel's TV tie-in from the mid-nineties. The artist on the book initially was Steve Ditko in what was one of his final regular commercial gigs. The work was sadly not aided by the choice of Bill Reinhold as inker. He's a good inker but it was not really a good fit. This mid-issue 2 page pin-up, however, is gorgeous to my eyes and is credited, for perhaps the first and last time ever to the two original Spider-Man artists--STEVE DITKO AND JOHN ROMITA!