tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64647105361680580822024-03-13T10:25:26.914-04:00Five Star ComicsGolden Age Heroes in the 21st CenturyFive Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-36678218021707047282017-08-06T06:00:00.000-04:002017-08-06T06:00:16.623-04:00Larry Blake and Little Lulu<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Larry Blake</b> has long been a fan of cartoonist John Stanley (1914-1993) and his work on the <i>Little Lulu</i> comic books of the 1950s. In 1999, Larry inked and colored a page penciled by Stanley, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">one of the last drawings completed by him before his death in 1993. Both pages were published </span>in <i>HoLLywood Ecelectern</i>, the Little Lulu fanzine, John Stanley's in 1993, Larry Blake's in 1999. This year, Fantagraphics Books published a biography of John Stanley, and it includes images of that same penciled page and Larry's inked and colored version:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The Fantagraphics biography is called <i>John Stanley: Giving Life to Little Lulu</i>, and is was written by Bill Schelly, associate editor of <i>Alter Ego</i>. Congratulations to Larry Blake for once again having his artwork published hardback.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Text copyright 2017 Five Star Comics</span></div>
<br />Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-39677414107721739862017-05-09T20:00:00.000-04:002017-08-02T17:40:55.060-04:00Mothman Welcomes You to West Virginia!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There is, as far as we know, only one Mothman, and he is from West Virginia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There is also only one Mothman Museum, and it's in West Virginia, in Point Pleasant to be exact.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There is of course only one West Virginia, and that is West-By-God-Virginia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And there is only one <b>Gary Gibeaut</b> as far as anyone knows. He's from West Virginia, too, just like Mothman.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So when you come into West Virginia and stop at a welcome center, like the one on Interstate 68 near Hazelton, you might find an advertising card about the world's only Mothman Museum, located on the opposite end of the state in Point Pleasant. And if you look closely at that brochure, you will see Gary Gibeaut's Mothman artwork, which is on prominent display at the museum.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Now if you want any of Gary's artwork, you don't have to settle for an advertising card found at a welcome center. Instead, you can go to the Mothman Museum where you will find Gary's posters, comic books, postcards, stickers, and pins. They don't have to be Gary's, though. They can be yours, too, for the right price. Better yet, you can go to the Mothman Festival, this year on the weekend of September 16-17, and meet Gary Gibeaut in person, talk to him, and ask him to sign his artwork for you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Even so, you might hang onto that card you found at the welcome center. After all, it led you to Point Pleasant, home of the world's only Mothman. (We think.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Text copyright 2017 Five Star Comics</span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-56557465271951875582017-05-01T15:26:00.000-04:002017-08-02T15:28:07.172-04:00Mothman Books on YouTube<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A <i>YouTube</i> user named Mothman Historian has posted a video showing his collection of Mothman comic books and other books. In his video of almost thirteen minutes, Mothman Historian reads <b>Gary Gibeaut</b>'s story "The Abridged Mothman" from <i>Mothman</i> #1, published in September 2015. He follows that with a look at <i>Mothman 'Toons</i>, a series of cartoon books by <b>Jason Gibeaut</b> and <b>Larry Blake</b>. Jason and Larry have three collections of <i>Mothman 'Toons</i> and are working on a fourth. Finally, Mothman Historian looks at two coloring books by Terence Hanley with not only Mothman but also the Flatwoods Monster, the Men in Black, and Indrid Cold, all of West Virginia. Here is the link to Mothman Historian's video:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMOo5IeE2fc&feature=em-share_video_user">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMOo5IeE2fc&feature=em-share_video_user</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> Text copyright 2017 Five Star Comics</span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-62753407782361223702016-10-17T06:00:00.000-04:002017-08-02T15:43:52.933-04:00Mothman on YouTube<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A <i>YouTube</i> user named Mothman Historian has posted a video showing his Mothman shelf, a collection of books, toys, figurines, and other collectibles and memorabilia in his home. It's a nice collection and includes books and other items by <b>Gary Gibeaut</b>, <b>Jason Gibeaut</b>, <b>Larry Blake</b>, and <b>Terence Hanley</b>. Mothman Historian also has art by <b>Andy Finkle</b>, an artist we met at the Mothman Festival in September 2016, as well as patches by <b>George Coghill</b>, whom we met in 2015. The video is about fifteen and a half minutes long. Here is a link:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb7gXVsPMG8&feature=em-share_video_user"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb7gXVsPMG8&feature=em-share_video_user</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Here is a link to Andy Finkle's website:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.andyfinkle.com/"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">http://www.andyfinkle.com/</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> Finally, here's a link to George Coghill's website:</span></div>
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<a href="http://coghillcartooning.com/"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">http://coghillcartooning.com/</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Happy viewing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> Text copyright 2016 Five Star Comics</span></div>
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Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-2496896826840557342016-02-20T05:00:00.000-05:002016-02-26T21:51:27.378-05:00Secret Origins<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Lost World of Cave Girl!</span></b></i></span></span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Part 3</span></span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Continued from Part 2, <a href="http://fivestarcomics.blogspot.com/2012/11/secret-origins_19.html" target="_blank">here</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">by Terence E. Hanley</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In February 1913, fresh from the success of "Under the Moons of Mars" and "Tarzan of the Apes," both published in magazine form in the previous year, Edgar Rice Burroughs began work on a new novel, again to take place in a lost world. Entitled "The Cave Girl," it was serialized in <i>The All-Story</i> in July through September 1913. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Like most of Burroughs' novel-length stories, it was reprinted in hardback, in this case as <i>The Cave Girl</i> in 1925. </span>A sequel, "The Cave Man," appeared in <i>All-Story Weekly</i> in March and April 1917, but it doesn't seem to have been reprinted until recent years, and then only digitally.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Cave Girl</i> is the story of a contemporary man, Waldo Emerson Smith-Jones, and his adventures on an unexplored island in the South Pacific. There he finds and is rescued by a cave girl named Nadara, who returns him to her village. Along the way, she dubs him Thandar--"The Brave One." In actuality, he is a weak, fearful, and bookish scion of Back Bay, Boston, but over the course of several months' training, Smith-Jones--now Thandar--strengthens his body and learns to survive in his new home. He falls in love with Nadara and becomes a leader of her people. After further operatic adventures, Thandar--now Smith-Jones--is reunited with his parents. It is revealed then that Nadara's parents came from the outside world and that she is actually an aristocrat by the name of de la Valois. Thus the way is cleared for her to marry her champion. Very convenient.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Cave Girl</i> went through seven hardbound editions from 1925 to 1940. In 1949, Dell issued a paperback version as part of its famous "map back" series. Many more paperback versions followed over the years. The story of the cave girl Nadara and her almost anagrammatic lover Thandar is now in the public domain. Consequently, it has proliferated in our digital age. In 1985, that golden age of teen movies, Crown International Pictures released <i>Cavegirl</i>, in which a boy from the twentieth century travels back to prehistoric times, there to find the girl of his dreams. It's unlikely that <i>Cavegirl</i> has anything to do with <i>The Cave Girl</i>, although the conventions of the lost-world story seem evident in its plot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Many years before, in January 1952, a new comic book appeared on the newsstand. Called <i>Thun'da</i>, it was the work of writer Gardner Fox (1911-1986) and artist Frank Frazetta (1928-2010). Frazetta was then only twenty-three years old, but he had already been in the comic book business for seven years. <i>Thun'da</i> #1 would prove to be the only comic book that was entirely his work. In that inaugural issue, Roger Drum, an American airman, crash lands in a lost valley in Africa. Like Smith-Jones before him, Drum spends months conditioning himself for his new life. He also finds in Pha, a beautiful native of the valley, the love of his life. Also like Smith-Jones, he becomes the leader of her people. And like him, Drum earns a new name, the Thun'da of the title. <i>Thun'da</i> ran for six issues in all in 1952-1953. Bob Powell (1916-1967) took over for Frazetta in <i>Thun'da</i> #2.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Gardner Fox and Bob Powell introduced a new character in that second issue. Called Cave Girl, she is Carol Mantomer, the daughter of two Americans killed by African natives. Like Mowgli, Cave Girl is reared by animals and lives among them as their friend. Thun'da guest-starred in the first Cave Girl story. She had a backup feature in <i>Thun'da</i> #2 through #6, then got her own title for four issues (#11-#14) published in 1953-1954. As for Thun'da, he became the backup feature in <i>Cave Girl</i>. In 1952, his story was adapted to the silver screen in <i>King of the Congo</i>, a serial starring Buster Crabbe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Gardner Fox was a prolific author and a voracious reader in every field. "Knowledge," he said, "is a kind of hobby with me." His library was vast, and he kept filing cabinets full of story ideas. Like so many writers of his generation, he grew up reading the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. There can be little doubt that he encountered <i>The Cave Girl</i> somewhere along the line, and certainly no later than the Dell paperback edition of 1949, for it's clear that <i>Thun'da</i> and <i>Cave Girl</i> are drawn from Burroughs' story. The names alone--Thandar vs. Thun'da--are the first bit of evidence. Beyond that, the plots are more or less the same, as are the origins of the cave girl character in each. None of that matters now, for Burroughs' version and the Fox/Powell version of Cave Girl are in the public domain, and that's how she came to be in <b><i>Five Star Comics</i></b> as well.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TfdBZLq9LBU/VpmSHRG-8uI/AAAAAAAAAUM/Luk2PITF7sg/s1600/1-Cave%2BGirl-All-Story%2BCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TfdBZLq9LBU/VpmSHRG-8uI/AAAAAAAAAUM/Luk2PITF7sg/s1600/1-Cave%2BGirl-All-Story%2BCover.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"The Cave Girl" was a serial in <i>The All-Story</i> before it was a book and long before it was a comic book. It appeared in the magazine in three parts, July through September 1913, and made the cover in July. The artist was Clinton Pettee (1872-1937). </span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-h8Bdv4kWteY/VpmUi7q4rnI/AAAAAAAAAVw/K3ZPfWpqzeI/s1600/2-Cave%2BGirl-St.%2BJohn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-h8Bdv4kWteY/VpmUi7q4rnI/AAAAAAAAAVw/K3ZPfWpqzeI/s400/2-Cave%2BGirl-St.%2BJohn.jpg" width="270" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Cave Girl</i> was issued in hardback in 1925 with a dust jacket by J. Allen St. John . . .</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GAknwUYZgBo/VpmSI1tbEMI/AAAAAAAAAUU/fxMjnbpRgO4/s1600/3-Cave%2BGirl-Dell%2BCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GAknwUYZgBo/VpmSI1tbEMI/AAAAAAAAAUU/fxMjnbpRgO4/s1600/3-Cave%2BGirl-Dell%2BCover.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And in paperback in 1949 with cover art by Jean des Vignes (which may be a pseudonym).</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O3lyL7C_fFQ/VpmSSRHQjiI/AAAAAAAAAUc/3dR6xplYWcg/s1600/4-Cave%2BGirl-Map%2BBack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O3lyL7C_fFQ/VpmSSRHQjiI/AAAAAAAAAUc/3dR6xplYWcg/s640/4-Cave%2BGirl-Map%2BBack.jpg" width="421" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">That paperback version <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">is</span> a Dell map back. Here's the map. Note the "Caves of Bad Men," which look about how Frank Frazetta drew them three years later:</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ggp7E1oKMj8/VpmSSpctY9I/AAAAAAAAAUg/90zL1qcYYV4/s1600/6-Cave%2BGirl-Asian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ggp7E1oKMj8/VpmSSpctY9I/AAAAAAAAAUg/90zL1qcYYV4/s1600/6-Cave%2BGirl-Asian.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Cave Girl</i> also appeared in foreign editions. Here's one, I think from Japan. The artist<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span>may not have seen the Dell map back, as his island has a different configuration.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U8EXMH2EGyI/VpmSWYhUUEI/AAAAAAAAAUs/pKxFXkcan_A/s1600/7-Cave%2BGirl-Krenkel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U8EXMH2EGyI/VpmSWYhUUEI/AAAAAAAAAUs/pKxFXkcan_A/s640/7-Cave%2BGirl-Krenkel.jpg" width="417" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ace issued many of Edgar Rice Burroughs' books beginning in the early 1960s. Here is Roy G. Krenkel's cover for the 1964 edition . . .</span></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AWWeqXUxqoM/VpmSZXOB5rI/AAAAAAAAAU0/0gsnkzfKEM8/s1600/8-Cave%2BGirl-Krenkel%2BCanaveral.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AWWeqXUxqoM/VpmSZXOB5rI/AAAAAAAAAU0/0gsnkzfKEM8/s400/8-Cave%2BGirl-Krenkel%2BCanaveral.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A</span> reprise of his role for Canaveral Press two years before. He and Frazetta were of course friends and sometime collaborators. </span></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iS29QmkSwGg/VpmSetM0uZI/AAAAAAAAAU8/KrLIyUEPGME/s1600/9-Cave%2BGirl-Frazetta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iS29QmkSwGg/VpmSetM0uZI/AAAAAAAAAU8/KrLIyUEPGME/s640/9-Cave%2BGirl-Frazetta.jpg" width="378" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Frank Frazetta didn't draw the adventures of Cave Girl in the comic books. That was Bob Powell. But he did draw the heroine Pha, who was no doubt based on Burroughs' original character. Here is Cave Girl again on the cover of the later Ace edition, from 1973, in Frazetta's unmistakable manner.</span></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7SLbb7ThM9I/VpmSfnUsJKI/AAAAAAAAAVA/N1R8N3BG04U/s1600/10-Cave%2BGirl-British.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7SLbb7ThM9I/VpmSfnUsJKI/AAAAAAAAAVA/N1R8N3BG04U/s400/10-Cave%2BGirl-British.jpg" width="243" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here is a British edition issued by Tandem. The artist is uncredited. It's interesting that depictions of the Cave Girl alternate between fearful or submisive and courageous or dominant. </span></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YvG7megCFIQ/VpmSjZ-3LMI/AAAAAAAAAVM/-BDs3pA-hKs/s1600/11-Thun%2527da%2BCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YvG7megCFIQ/VpmSjZ-3LMI/AAAAAAAAAVM/-BDs3pA-hKs/s640/11-Thun%2527da%2BCover.jpg" width="442" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Frank Frazetta had many great qualities as an artist. His unimaginative reliance on racial stereotypes was not one of them. This is his cover illustration for <i>Thun'da</i> #1 from January 1952. It was the only comic book that was all his. Gardner Fox wrote the script.</span></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dWu_qESK_3k/VpmSsUVetOI/AAAAAAAAAVc/mHegoTJ2Tm4/s1600/12-Thun%2527da%2BPage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dWu_qESK_3k/VpmSsUVetOI/AAAAAAAAAVc/mHegoTJ2Tm4/s640/12-Thun%2527da%2BPage.jpg" width="454" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A page of Frazetta's art from that first issue. Note the sequence of training and conditioning as in Burroughs' story from nearly forty years before. Note, too, the Wally Wood-like figure in the bottom left panel and the Tarzan-like pose in the bottom right. Frazetta was a great admirer of Hal Foster. (Who isn't.) You can see that, especially in his early work. </span></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kZlo-bQn5bY/VpmSo9CacVI/AAAAAAAAAVU/fRSphqpwErA/s1600/13-Thun%2527da%2BPoster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kZlo-bQn5bY/VpmSo9CacVI/AAAAAAAAAVU/fRSphqpwErA/s1600/13-Thun%2527da%2BPoster.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In 1952, Thun'da was adapted to a movie serial starring Buster Crabbe. If you look closely, you'll see Frazetta's cover from above in the lower right. Movie posters weren't often signed in those days, but this one is. It was the work of Glenn Cravath (1897-1964). (The poster calls <i>Thun'da</i> a "Cartoon Magazine.")</span></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SV_vmjIhx6c/VpmYiJjFmoI/AAAAAAAAAV8/hMZNNEx-izw/s1600/14-Cave%2BGirl%2BCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SV_vmjIhx6c/VpmYiJjFmoI/AAAAAAAAAV8/hMZNNEx-izw/s640/14-Cave%2BGirl%2BCover.jpg" width="440" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In her journey from pulp magazines of the 1910s to the public domain of today, Cave Girl made a stopover in the comics. If it weren't for Gardner Fox, Frank Frazetta, and Bob Powell, she may well have been forgotten except by Burroughs fans. Now she is in our very own <i>Five Star Comics</i> . . . but that's a story for another time.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Note</b>: Not long ago, I read <i>Dian of the Lost Land</i> by <a href="http://tellersofweirdtales.blogspot.com/2012/12/edison-marshall-1894-1967.html" target="_blank">Edison Marshall</a>, from 1935. It is very much like <i>The Cave Girl</i> and other stories of lost worlds in that a visitor from the effete or decadent outside world finds in himself courage, strength, hope, and fortitude in a place out of time. In <i>Dian of the Lost Land</i>, the protagonist also finds his true love in the queen of the people of that world. As it turns out, she, like Nadara, is the daughter of an outsider, thus is avoided any distasteful intermixing of peoples. Sometime between then and the movie <i>Planet of the Apes</i> (1968), the idea that a modern man can not and should not love a savage or primitive woman disappeared.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Edison Marshall (1894-1967) turned eighteen in the year that Edgar Rice Burroughs' first two fantasies went to print. A budding writer, he could hardly have been less impressed by Burroughs than others of his generation. He had his own first story published in <i>The Argosy</i> in 1915. In "Og, The Dawn Man" (1928, reprinted in hardback as <i>Ogden's Strange Story</i> in 1934), Marshall wrote about a man who crash lands in the Canadian wilderness and reverts to being a caveman. In <i>Horrors Unknown</i> (1972), Sam Moskowitz compared him favorably to Burroughs and to Rudyard Kipling. <i>Dian of the Lost Land</i> seems to have been Marshall writing in the mold of Burroughs. One difference is that Marshall was superior as a stylist.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Text copyright 2016 Terence E. Hanley </span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-29092981711016400082016-02-19T06:00:00.000-05:002016-02-19T06:00:15.171-05:00Five Star Comics Down Under #5<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5s5gseIwUhU/VpXJDcoQlRI/AAAAAAAAATA/aqsMRBNCpfg/s1600/Australian%2B5%2BStar%2B%25235.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5s5gseIwUhU/VpXJDcoQlRI/AAAAAAAAATA/aqsMRBNCpfg/s640/Australian%2B5%2BStar%2B%25235.jpg" width="494" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This is the last cover of the Australian <i>5 Star Comics</i> for which we have an image. It may or may not be the last issue of the magazine. Note that the faces of the characters have shrunk away, leaving only their names inside the stars. The boy looks like a hillbilly character. I wonder if he is the "Hickory" from the star on the far right.</span></span></td></tr>
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<br />Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-43297697135643962142016-02-16T06:00:00.000-05:002016-02-16T06:00:23.020-05:00Five Star Comics Down Under #4<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q8hin2GUNDc/VpXIsVf4i-I/AAAAAAAAAS4/B0bHIpqZZ1I/s1600/Australian%2B5%2BStar%2B%25234.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q8hin2GUNDc/VpXIsVf4i-I/AAAAAAAAAS4/B0bHIpqZZ1I/s640/Australian%2B5%2BStar%2B%25234.jpg" width="488" /></a></div>
<br />Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-43809921783567283162016-02-13T06:00:00.000-05:002016-02-13T06:00:12.165-05:00Five Star Comics Down Under #3<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uYxchOs9KnM/VpXG5zCi_YI/AAAAAAAAASs/jJC1Jm68qow/s1600/Australian%2B5%2BStar%2B%25233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uYxchOs9KnM/VpXG5zCi_YI/AAAAAAAAASs/jJC1Jm68qow/s640/Australian%2B5%2BStar%2B%25233.jpg" width="490" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">We weren't the first to have our characters' faces enclosed by stars on the cover of our comic book. The Australian <i>5 Star</i> did it way back in the Golden Age. The grotesque image on the right is unfortunate, but that's how Will Eisner drew The Spirit's sidekick, Ebony White. There's no blaming an Australian artist for it.</span></span></td></tr>
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<br />Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-1785865482813816722016-02-10T06:00:00.000-05:002016-02-10T06:00:10.506-05:00Five Star Comics Down Under #2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TGAobrjPaFs/VpXGWllPPHI/AAAAAAAAASk/mKKdgb5r37U/s1600/Australian%2B5%2BStar%2B%25232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TGAobrjPaFs/VpXGWllPPHI/AAAAAAAAASk/mKKdgb5r37U/s640/Australian%2B5%2BStar%2B%25232.jpg" width="470" /></a></div>
<br />Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-56750666469735309482016-02-07T06:00:00.000-05:002016-02-07T06:00:00.702-05:00Five Star Comics Down Under #1<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-11kJyZnuJAI/VpXEE9wCQOI/AAAAAAAAASY/KVXBZII4HDs/s1600/Australian%2B5%2BStar%2B%25231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-11kJyZnuJAI/VpXEE9wCQOI/AAAAAAAAASY/KVXBZII4HDs/s640/Australian%2B5%2BStar%2B%25231.jpg" width="482" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">Sharp-eyed <b>Mike Tuz</b> found out that <b><i>5 Star Comics</i></b> goes back to the Golden Age of Comic Books, just like the characters in our modern-day title do. Here's the cover of <i>5 Star Comics</i> #1, an Australian comic book, date unknown. In addition to The Spirit and Lady Luck, the original <i>5 Star</i> had stories of Peachy, Perky, and Lassie (a girl, not a dog). </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;">More covers are on their way, so keep checking back. </span>The images are from <i>AusReprints.com</i>.</span></td></tr>
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<br />Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-67497260980242910582016-02-04T06:00:00.000-05:002016-02-04T06:00:15.600-05:00Secret Origins<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>The Amalga-Mates: The World's First (and Second) Siamese Twin Superheroes!</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><b>Part 4</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: normal;">by Terence E. Hanley</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In his <a href="http://tonyisabella.blogspot.com/2012/05/i-flirted-with-madness.html" target="_blank">review of </a><span style="font-size: normal;"><a href="http://tonyisabella.blogspot.com/2012/05/i-flirted-with-madness.html" target="_blank">May 15, 2012</a>, comic book writer, collector, and fan <b>Tony Isabella</b> wrote:</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: normal;">My
specific quibble on the second issue [of <i><b>Five Star Comics</b></i>] revolves around the Amalga-Mates.
Beside being pretty sure "Siamese twins" is now considered an
insensitive/offensive term, the story was poorly done and seemed to mock
its heroes. The [Five Star] collective should be a bit more choosy in what it
publishes in this anthology.</span></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Mr. Isabella isn't the first and won't be the last to assume that <i>Siamese twins</i> is an insensitive or offensive term. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If you ask the question on the Internet--"Is the term
<i>Siamese twins</i> offensive?"--you'll find plenty of people who say, "Yes." There are, of course, people
who are looking everywhere for offense, especially in regards to racial, national, and ethnic categories. They are determined to be offended. Their determination is certain to pay off. There are also people who have fallen into political correctness. They're afraid of making any untoward reference to race, nationality, or ethnicity. Phrases like "getting your Irish up" or "Welshing on a bet" are <i>verboten</i>. They have probably decided that the term <i>Siamese twins</i>, because it refers to nationality--thus indirectly to what they call race--falls into the same category, like calling someone with Down syndrome a "mongoloid" or referring to people from East Asia as "Oriental." They don't understand the origin of the term and that it has nothing to do with any particular group--unless you consider a pair of brothers who became internationally famous simply because their bodies were congenitally joined to be a group. (1)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Chang and Eng Bunker (they adopted the surname while in the United States) were born on May 11, 1811, on a houseboat in the river village of Meklong, west of Bangkok in what was then called Siam. Their father, Ti-eye, was Chinese, while their mother, Nok, was three-quarters Chinese and one-quarter Siamese. The twins were born entangled in each other. When they were untangled, it was discovered that they were bound at the breast by a fleshy ligament between them. Neither the locals nor the people of the greater part of Siam had seen such a thing before. Because of the nationality of the twins' parents, Chang and Eng were first referred to as "the Chinese twins."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Chang and Eng grew up strong and able. They learned to walk, run, play, swim, and handle a boat together. Chang, the twin on the twins' own left, was an inch shorter but "was the dominant member of the two and the more quick-tempered," wrote their biographers, Irving and Amy Wallace. "Eng," on the twins' own right, "was more agreeable, compliant, and docile." (<i>The Two: A Biography</i>, 1978, p. 24) Nonetheless, the two fought, though only once in childhood, until their mother "reasoned with them, [explaining] that their condition made any more fights impossible." (p. 24)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In 1824, Robert Hunter, a Scottish trader, met the boys while they were engaged in selling duck eggs in Meklong. He became acquainted with the whole family and conceived of the possibility of taking the Chinese twins on a tour of the West, where he would exhibit them as a curiosity to paying crowds. Finally, after seven years' delay, on April 1, 1829, Chang and Eng embarked on the American vessel <i>Sachem</i> for Boston. They arrived four and half months later, on August 16, 1829. Thus their careers and lives in the West began. They would never again see their mother or their homeland.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In their shared career, Chang and Eng traveled throughout the United States and in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Holland, and Cuba, drawing large crowds and earning large receipts. On June 1, 1832, having reached majority, they went out on their own as performers and exhibitors. Called "the Siamese Double Boys," "the Siamese boys," or "the Siamese youths," Chang and Eng called themselves "Siamese Twins" in a letter written in 1832. If the term is offensive, then the offense began with the original Siamese twins.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In 1839, the Siamese Twins traveled to Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Then only twenty-eight years old, they had been on the road for more than a decade. It was time, they decided, to retire from the public eye and settle down. They bought a store and a farm and on April 13, 1843, married a pair of sisters, Sarah "Sallie" Yates, wife of Eng, and Adelaide "Addie" Yates, wife of Chang. From those marriages issued twenty-one children. Chang, the dominant brother, bested his twin by one.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Although they were Whigs, Chang and Eng kept slaves, twenty-eight in all by 1860. "The Siamese Twins were rumored to be hard on their slaves," wrote the Wallaces, "sometimes whipping them." (p. 192) Christopher Bunker, Chang's oldest son, fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War and was captured by Union forces in August 1864. (2) Eng's son, Stephen Bunker, also served and was supposed to have been a prisoner of war as well. Both men survived the war.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Having lost a good part of their wealth (i.e., their slaves) in the war and its aftermath, the Siamese Twins went on tour again beginning in November 1865, traveling in the United States and Europe. They returned to North Carolina in 1870 knowing they would never travel again. By then they had lived in Mount Airy for many years, and that's where they died, at home, on the morning of January 17, 1874, Chang first, followed by Eng about two hours later. Although physicians thought them to have been surgically separable in life, a postmortem examination determined that "the twins' lives would unquestionably have been endangered from shock and subsequent inflammation" had they been so separated. (Quoted in Wallace and Wallace, p. 324) Their headstone reads, in part:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Siamese Twins - Chang and Eng</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Born in Siam</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Again, if the term is offensive, then the makers of the twins' own headstone, and the twins' own families, are among the offenders.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace closed their 1978 biography of Chang and Eng Bunker with a list of artifacts remaining from their lives. "But something more significant remains," the Wallaces wrote. "In the dictionaries of the world lies their immortality:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Siamese Twins. 1. congenitally united twins . . . 2. any twins joined together in any manner."</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The Wallaces concluded with words that the habitually offended and politically correct might consider:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> They have become a part of the language, every language. With the birth of any Siamese twins anywhere, <i>the</i> Siamese Twins are resurrected in memory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> In North Carolina, they sleep their eternal sleep together. In the world, they live, perhaps forever. (p. 339)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Notes</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">(1) None of this is to imply or suggest that Tony Isabella is looking for offense or is politically correct. It's obvious that his reference to the supposed offensiveness of the term <i>Siamese twins</i> is only an aside and was not his main point. I met Mr. Isabella at PulpFest in 2014 and in the short time I talked to him, he impressed me as a regular, down-to-earth, friendly kind of guy. I also don't want anything I have written here to lead anyone to think that we at <i>Five Star Comics</i> have any bones to pick with Mr. Isabella because of his review. He made a legitimate criticism of "The Case of the Nutcase," and it's something we take seriously. The story has its problems. We hope we will be more careful in our choices in the future, just Tony Isabella advised.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">(2) Christopher Bunker served under Brigadier General John McCausland in his invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania in 1864. As a prisoner of war, Bunker was held at Camp Chase, now partly a cemetery in Columbus, Ohio, the city in which the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (S.P.A.C.E.) and PulpFest are held every year. After the war, General McCausland retired to a large farm, "Grape Hill," near Point Pleasant, West Virginia, which, as we all know, is the home of Mothman and a family named Gibeaut.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Further Reading</b></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>The Two: A Biography</i> by Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>The Mystery and Lore of Monsters</i> by C.J.S. Thompson (New York: Bell Publishing Company, 1968).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>A Pictorial History of Magic and the Supernatural</i> by Maurice Bessy (Feltham, Middelsex, UK: The Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1964), "Conjunction of Opposites," etc., pp. 119-124.</span></li>
</ul>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0doeTF83ucQ/VpQtU5-XbuI/AAAAAAAAASI/DPKWmGtJHS4/s1600/Siamese%2BTwins-Blog%2BVersion-Reduced.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0doeTF83ucQ/VpQtU5-XbuI/AAAAAAAAASI/DPKWmGtJHS4/s640/Siamese%2BTwins-Blog%2BVersion-Reduced.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The original Siamese Twins, Eng and Chang, in a portrait by Larry Blake.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />Art copyright 2016 Larry Blake</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Original text copyright 2016 Terence E. Hanley</span></div>
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Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-45257365518866156792016-02-01T06:00:00.000-05:002016-02-01T06:00:17.276-05:00Secret Origins<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>The Amalga-Mates: The World's First (and Second) Siamese Twin Superheroes!</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Part 3</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">by Terence E. Hanley</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Hemi and Semi are identical twins, of course, but as they say, their powers are fraternal. Hemi has one super power, his super strength. Semi's powers are more varied, but they're random. He doesn't know what they will be, when they will show up, or how long they will last. One minute, he can fly, the next, he has the power of the Porcupine and is covered with spines made of pure adamandantium! The twins could easily be surgically separated, but their powers derive from the connection between them. If they were separated from each other, they would be diminished. There might be a lesson in that for all of us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Reaction to <b>The Amalga-Mates</b> has been mixed. Some readers liked "The Case of the Nutcase." In his letter of comment in <i><b>Five Star Comics</b></i> #3, <b>Rob Marsh</b> called it "rich with goofy humor and silly slapstick." The late <b>Don Ensign</b>, on the other hand, considered it "rather self-conscious" and "sophomoric." Comic book writer, collector, and fan <b>Tony Isabella</b> reviewed <i>Five Star Comics</i> #2 and the first part of "The Case of the Nutcase" on his blog, called, appropriately enough, <a href="http://tonyisabella.blogspot.com/2012/05/i-flirted-with-madness.html" target="_blank"><i>Tony Isabella's Bloggy Thing</i> (May 15, 2012)</a>. He wrote, in part:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My specific quibble on the second issue revolves around the Amalga-Mates. Beside being pretty sure "Siamese twins" is now considered an insensitive/offensive term, the story was poorly done and seemed to mock its heroes. The collective should be a bit more choosy in what it publishes in this anthology. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I agree with Mr. Isabella that Part One could have been better, but in conceiving of the characters and writing the script, I didn't intend to mock them at all. Instead, I wanted to poke fun at superheroes, comic book fans, the comic book business, and the conventions of comic book storytelling. I should have done a better job of it, of course. I wouldn't be explaining myself now if I had. (I have heard that if you're explaining, you're losing. I guess I'm losing.) I regret that "The Case of the Nutcase" comes off as mocking its protagonists. I think Part Two is kinder to them and more to the point. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">With The Amalga-Mates, I also wanted to poke fun at people in general as they are confronted by Siamese twins. The speaker in the opening of Part One makes a lame joke about the twins accepting the gift of the acorns on behalf--"Get it, on be-half?" he says--of the city. The reporter, Chelsea Brittany, describes The Amalga-Mates as a "new superhero, with two bodies and two heads," never understanding that she is talking about two distinct people who just happen to be conjoined. My intent is to show that Siamese twins, though they may look different, are simply human beings, and they have everything in common with the rest of us. Beyond that, if anyone else can be a superhero, why not a Siamese twin or twins? As for the quibble that <i>Siamese twins</i> is considered an insensitive or offensive term--I'll write about that in the last part of this series.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">To be concluded . . .</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QmiLAt9qQxM/VpKHLpa0FaI/AAAAAAAAARE/6BagyNBQpfg/s1600/Siamese%2BTwins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QmiLAt9qQxM/VpKHLpa0FaI/AAAAAAAAARE/6BagyNBQpfg/s640/Siamese%2BTwins.jpg" width="462" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Text copyright 2016 Terence E. Hanley </span></span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-17916893931303641232016-01-29T06:00:00.000-05:002016-01-29T06:00:03.278-05:00Secret Origins<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>The Amalga-Mates: The World's First (and Second) Siamese Twin Superheroes!</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Part 2</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">by Terence E. Hanley</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Tim Corrigan</b> penciled and lettered the first part of "The Case of the Nutcase" for <b><i>Five Star Comics</i></b> #2, published in Spring 2012. <b>Larry Blake</b>, <b>Gary Gibeaut</b>, and I, calling ourselves "Many Hands," inked it in February, shortly before publication. At about that time or a little after, Larry penciled the second part of the story and sent it to Tim for his letters and inks. Tim was fast and finished the job in short order, but we didn't get around to publishing Part Two until Spring 2013 in <i>Five Star Comics</i> #3. The script on both parts was mine, with changes and additions made by Tim Corrigan.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Each part of "The Case of the Nutcase" has a different look to it. You would expect that, knowing that different artists worked at different tasks on each part. For example, Tim used a fine pen for his inking of Part Two. His touch was light. That lightness of touch was helped by Larry's use of drawing board measuring about 11 x 16 inches. That gave Tim plenty of room to work. Larry's penciled art is about 10 x 15 inches, a standard size for comic book pages. Comic book publishers of course reduce their pages by about one-third for printing, thereby sharpening the image and making fine lines even finer. That's standard practice in <i>Five Star Comics</i>, too, and it improved the look of Tim's already very fine inking.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tim, on the other hand, used board measuring 8-1/2 x 11 inches for Part One. His original art is about 7 x 10-1/2 inches. In other words, the original art is not much bigger than the printed size, which is about 6-1/8 x 9-1/8 inches. As I understand it, Tim always worked fairly small. That tendency is probably explained by the fact that, when he was a kid, Tim was unaware of the concept of photomechanical reduction. He thought artists worked at the size their art was printed. Maybe Tim's light touch was a result of working in smaller dimensions. If so, maybe we should thank childlike <i>naïveté</i> for the many fine lines that flowed from Tim's pen. For what it's worth, <a href="http://indianaillustrators.blogspot.com/2011/06/franklin-booth-1874-1948.html" target="_blank">Franklin Booth (1874-1948)</a> made pen-and-ink drawings that looked like engravings because, like Tim, he thought the artists of his childhood drew that way. He didn't know that the illustrations he saw in books, magazines, and newspapers at the time were printed from engraved blocks of wood.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tim's small drawing paper on Part One was good for his own purposes, but it posed a challenge for us as his inkers. The surface of the paper Tim used is fairly glossy, too. It doesn't take a pen line very well, and the pencils are hard to erase. Also, we were rushed (as comic book artists so often are), and we didn't do what we would have considered our best work. In the end, Larry, Gary, and I are responsible for the coarse and heavy look of Part One of "The Case of the Nutcase." The gray tones I added using Photoshop--a first for me--only added to its heaviness. As you might guess, I prefer the look of Part Two to Part One, and I think the story in the second half works better as well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">About midway between the publication of the two parts of "The Case of the Nutcase," Tim Corrigan announced his retirement from comics and small press. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That was in November 2012. </span>I wonder now if "The Case of the Nutcase," Part Two, was Tim's last published comic book story. In any case, in retiring, Tim wanted to spend more time on his music and with his family. Last summer, on August 22, 2015, Tim died unexpectedly at his home in New York. He was only sixty-four years old.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tim was Irish and I am Irish. He looked like he could have been one of my dad's brothers. I like to think that we had a shared heritage, not only going back to the Emerald Isle but also to a childhood love of the comics. He was funny, easygoing, good-natured, enthusiastic about comics, and supportive of other artists and of small press in general. Invariably dressed in a flannel shirt, with a long, gray ponytail down his back and glasses perched on the end of his nose, he liked to roll his own cigarettes and devour popsicles, one after another. He read a comic book I drew when I was about ten years old and, perhaps remembering his own childhood of drawing comics, treated it with tenderness. He called it charming. We might say the same thing of Tim Corrigan.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><b>To be continued . . .</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HnaLj1c9Ygk/VpGrtIwf87I/AAAAAAAAAQs/Ow5yPe3aWqU/s1600/FS%25232-p.%2B27-Reduced%2Bfor%2BBlog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HnaLj1c9Ygk/VpGrtIwf87I/AAAAAAAAAQs/Ow5yPe3aWqU/s640/FS%25232-p.%2B27-Reduced%2Bfor%2BBlog.jpg" width="430" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The first page of "The Case of the Nutcase," Part One, from <i>Five Star Comics</i> #2. Tim Corrigan penciled and lettered the story, while Larry Blake, Gary Gibeaut, and Terence Hanley inked it.</span></span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kM3c3kL_e_0/VpGruCEUkLI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/JLv8SfFLYhI/s1600/FSC%25233-p.37-Reduced%2Bfor%2BBlog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kM3c3kL_e_0/VpGruCEUkLI/AAAAAAAAAQ0/JLv8SfFLYhI/s640/FSC%25233-p.37-Reduced%2Bfor%2BBlog.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: normal;">A page from "The Case of the Nutcase" Part Two, from <i>Five Star Comics</i> #3. Once again, Tim lettered the story, but those are his inks over Larry Blake's pencils. Note the fineness and precision of Tim's line. I meant "The Case of the Nutcase" to be a send-up of superhero comics, but that doesn't really come out until Part Two and the sequence about The Fantabulous Five . . . minus one, the unfortunate Human Scorch, who "died tragically in issue number 748," a "landmark issue" of "The World's Greatest Comic Book."</span></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Art copyright 2012, 2016 Larry Blake, Tim Corrigan, Gary Gibeaut, and Terence Hanley</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Script copyright 2016 Terence E. Hanley </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: normal;">Text copyright 2016 Terence E. Hanley </span></span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-86531096258737095362016-01-26T06:00:00.000-05:002016-01-26T06:00:11.940-05:00Secret Origins<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The Amalga-Mates: The World's First (and Second) Siamese Twin Superheroes!</span></b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Part 1</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">by Terence E. Hanley</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><i>Five Star Comics</i></b> began in 2011 as an anthology of Golden Age comic book characters that are now in the public domain. Our first issue included stories of <b>Moth Man</b>, <b>Silver Streak</b>, <b>Marvel Maid</b>, <b>Flip Falcon</b>, and <b>Cave Girl</b>. With our second issue, we began telling stories of our own original characters, first of which were a pair of Siamese twin brothers, code-named <b>The Amalga-Mates</b>. Their identities are secret. (That's part of the fun.) When they aren't fighting crime, the two are millionaire philanthropists Hemsworth V. Hemsworth (pun intended) and Semyon Hemsworth. For short, they call each other Hemi and Semi (more puns intended).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Hemi and Semi came into my imagination in a way I can't explain exactly. There they remained until a Saturday afternoon in April 2011, when <b>Larry Blake</b> introduced me to<b> Tim Corrigan</b> at the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (S.P.A.C.E.) in Columbus, Ohio. Larry had shown Tim some of my work. I felt honored when Tim asked if I wanted to collaborate with him on a story. I said yes, but I didn't know what we would do for a collaboration. He said think about it, so I thought about it as I drove home that evening. The idea came to me as I was driving, one I had sketched three months before. The next morning I drove back to Columbus for the second day of S.P.A.C.E. When I saw Tim, I told him of my idea for a story about Siamese twin superheroes. "No one has ever done it before," I explained. "There's a good reason for that," he laughed, with tears coming into his eyes. But he agreed to it and asked me to send him a script.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Things get away from us. Nearly six months passed before I mailed a script to Tim in November 2011. He called me on the day he received it. He had just finished reading it and was laughing again. Anyone who knew Tim knew his laugh and his great sense of humor. He liked the script and told me he would start drawing.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tim and I agreed that our story of the world's first Siamese twin superheroes would be a true collaboration. Although I had written the script, I wanted him to feel free to add to it or make changes. One change came out just right. I had tentatively called my heroes "The Titanic Twins." "That's kind of a weak name," I admitted in a letter to him. Tim came up with something better, and that's how Hemi and Semi became The Amalga-Mates. Tim also changed the title of the first story from my original "Nuts to the Nut" to "The Case of the Nutcase." Tim was a great maker of signs, logos, titles, and sound effects. (For evidence of that, consider the "GA-JEEZ" and "SHAZEAMPPP!" on page 28 of <i>FSC </i>#2.) The Amalga-Mates main title is his creation alone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tim was a fast worker. Not long after the new year, 2012, began, he called to tell me that he was working on the story, but that he couldn't make it fit into ten pages, which was about what I had envisioned. He sounded a little worried. I confess that I get a little long-winded in my stories, and I always underestimate the number of comic book pages it takes to tell a story. I was just learning then. I still don't have a formula down. At the time I thought one page of script would equal about one page of a comic book story. Now I know that it's more like two to three pages of comic book story per page of script. Anyway, I told Tim that we could break the story roughly in half, run the first half in <i>Five Star Comics</i> #2 and the second half in issue #3. He sounded relieved.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Not that there was any reason to worry. Tim finished the penciling and lettering of Part One of "The Case of the Nutcase" in February 2012. Larry Blake, <b>Gary Gibeaut</b>, and I collaborated on the inking (I was supposed to have done the inking on my own), and the story went to print in time for S.P.A.C.E. in April 2012. I suppose it's only fitting that a story about Siamese twins would have two halves. The second half would have to wait until <i>Five Star Comics</i> #3.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>To be continued . . .</b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CrI_X2fQU7s/VpGI1M44gBI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/6eQ_BQmlCEc/s1600/Amalga-Mates%2BSketch%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CrI_X2fQU7s/VpGI1M44gBI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/6eQ_BQmlCEc/s400/Amalga-Mates%2BSketch%2B2.jpg" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The first drawing of the characters that would become The Amalga-Mates, by Terence E. Hanley, January 26, 2011. The drawing in black came first. Note that the twins have just two legs and that their arms are conjoined. The smaller drawing in green came next and is about how Hemi and Semi turned out in the end. In case you're keeping track of these things, The Amalga-Mates were born on today's date five years ago, so, Happy Birthday, Hemi and Semi!</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w2yO1_ggFWA/VpGKpinF96I/AAAAAAAAAQc/X8IlHLX9cvA/s1600/Amalga-Mates%2BDrawing-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w2yO1_ggFWA/VpGKpinF96I/AAAAAAAAAQc/X8IlHLX9cvA/s640/Amalga-Mates%2BDrawing-2.jpg" width="438" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My first finished drawing of the twins, from 2011. I sent a copy of this drawing to Tim Corrigan as a character sheet. As you can see, The Amalga-Mates wear masks so no one will know their true identities.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Hemi and Semi have distinct personalities. The easiest way to show that, I thought, was to draw them with different hairstyles. (How else are you going to tell them apart?) That difference shows up in this drawing, but in the final comic book story, the difference is even more pronounced, as Hemi (on the viewer's left) has dark hair, while Semi (on the viewer's right) has blond hair. So how do Siamese twins, which are by definition identical, have different-colored hair? Does one color his hair? Does the other bleach his? These are questions for another day.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">To set them apart a little more, I was going to make one of the brothers a little more savvy than the other. In my original script, that was Hemi, the leader and the twin on his own right. Tim had other ideas. He made Semi, the brother on the twin's own left, at least an equal to Hemi, and maybe a little smarter. I asked myself why Tim had made that change. Then it occurred to me. Tim was left-handed. </span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Art and text copyright 2016 Terence E. Hanley</span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-28188388732422337562016-01-19T06:00:00.000-05:002016-01-19T06:00:06.809-05:00C.C. Beck and the Deadly Sins<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>C.C. Beck</b> (1910-1989) is best known for his stories in Fawcett comic books of the 1940s and '50s, including <i>Captain Marvel</i>, <i>Spy Smasher</i>, and <i>Ibis the Invincible</i>. He lived long enough to become a "crusty curmudgeon" and wrote a column of that title in <i>The Comics Journal</i>. He also corresponded with a group of friends, comic book fans, and professional writers and editors, a group who called themselves The Critical Circle. In its autumn issue of 2000, the magazine <i>Alter Ego</i> published a previously unpublished essay by Beck entitled "The Seven Deadly Sins of Comics Creators." In his opinion, they are:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Not Staying within the Limits of the Medium</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Revealing [the] Presence of the Creators</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Overdoing the Job</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Losing Control</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tastelessness</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Pandering</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Breaking the Rules</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Beck was and is a widely admired artist. His <i>Captain Marvel</i> stories from the 1940s are considered classics. They were so good, in fact, that Fawcett, for a time, represented one possible paradigm for the future of comic books in America. Instead, Fawcett was sued out of business, and eventually all comic books, for better or worse, became Marvelized.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The point is that C.C. Beck, even if he was a self-proclaimed "crusty curmudgeon," knew what he was talking about when it came to comic books. His warning against committing the seven deadly sins should be taken seriously. I'll quote from just two as he describes them:</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Sin Number Five: Tastelessness</span></b></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> The general public has very little knowledge of what is right and what is wrong. It has practically no taste; it will accept almost anything that is presented to it, no matter how bad it is or how poorly it is made.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> Nobody can change the public, which has always been this way. The best thing that can be done is not to offer the public things which are in bad taste and which degrade both the public and the producers of products. Writers and artists should be able to tell bad writing and art from good, even though their public (and sometimes their publishers) can't. . . .</span></blockquote>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Sin Number Six: Pandering</span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> Some comic book publishers believe in giving readers anything they think they want. . . .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> Catering to the tastes of the lowest members of society . . . is what makes civilizations go down the drain. History proves this; when literature and art start to degenerate, it's a sign that the public is not getting what it needs but what it needs <i>least</i>: pandering to the wants of the lowest, most mindless of its members.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Beck was obviously conservative in his views, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">not necessarily politically conservative, but at least culturally conservative. We could take his words as those of a curmudgeon, a grouch, a crank, or a guy sitting on his porch saying, "Hey, you kids, get off my lawn!" You can decide for yourself whether there is wisdom in what he wrote or something else. But I think he was on to something, and though I didn't read his essay until after we had begun publishing <b><i>Five Star Comics</i></b>, I think we, the six original creators, had a sense that he was right. It's why we decided against the tastelessness, violence, gore, misogyny, nihilism, and amorality or moral relativism of contemporary culture in making our comic book. We may sometimes miss the mark, but that isn't because we aren't shooting for good writing, good art, and a positive and uplifting tone. Our comics, like each one of us, is a work in progress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Original text copyright 2016 Terence E. Hanley</span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-32023871337902401952016-01-14T06:00:00.000-05:002016-01-14T06:07:56.241-05:00The Colony of the Black Bat<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>The Black Bat</b>, like most of the characters in <b><i>Five Star Comics</i></b>, is a Golden Age character in the public domain. The difference is that The Black Bat is not from the Golden Age of comic books but from the pulp magazines of the 1930s through the 1950s. Other pulp characters have been adapted to comic books. The Shadow, drawn by Michael William Kaluta for DC Comics in 1973-1974, is a notable example. <b>Matt Marshall</b>'s adaptation for <i><b>Five Star Comics</b></i> #2 is perhaps unique for its halftone art and its <i>Prince Valiant</i>-like narrative. The Black Bat has appeared in other comic books, though, and will no doubt go on appearing for a long time to come. It's a popular and intriguing character with fans all over the world. Those fans include a blogger who goes by the designation <b>TSOG</b>. TSOG hails from Ontario, Canada, and writes a number of blogs, including <a href="http://colonyoftheblackbat.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank"><i>The Colony of the Black Bat</i></a>, about all things black and batty. You can read his blog by clicking <a href="http://colonyoftheblackbat.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">here</a>. TSOG has written about the <i>Five Star Comics</i> version of The Black Bat twice, first on <a href="http://colonyoftheblackbat.blogspot.ca/2013/05/the-five-star-bat.html" target="_blank">May 12, 2013</a>, then again on <a href="http://colonyoftheblackbat.blogspot.ca/2013/05/origin-of-five-star-black-bat.html" target="_blank">May 26, 2013</a>. That was awhile ago, but we thought you would like to know. Besides, TSOG's blog is as thorough as you can hope for. It even includes German covers from the 1970s. So <a href="http://colonyoftheblackbat.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">click</a> and start reading today.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: normal;">Copyright 2016 Five Star Comics</span></span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-26964473385022790652016-01-06T19:50:00.000-05:002016-01-11T10:25:59.601-05:00Point Pleasant on the Edge of Darkwood Forest<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Point Pleasant, West Virginia, is a small city but rich in history and folklore. It is the site of what some people consider the first battle of the American Revolution, the Battle of Point Pleasant (also called the Battle of Kanahaw), which took place on October 10, 1774, between Virginia militiamen and a force of American Indians under Chief Cornstalk. The Shawnee chief and his warriors were defeated in the battle. Long after his execution by his American captors in 1777, people claimed that Cornstalk had pronounced a curse upon white men. The first sightings of Mothman in 1966 and the collapse of the Silver Bridge in 1967 are said by some to be the fulfillment of Cornstalk's Curse.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Point Pleasant has other claims to fame. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Karl Probst, designer of the Jeep, was born there. </span>Brigadier General John McCausland of the Confederate army lived and died there. Few in America know it, but Point Pleasant also lies at the edge of the <i>la Foresta di Darkwood</i>--in English, Darkwood Forest, a creation of an Italian writer named Sergio Bonelli and the setting of Bonelli's long-running comic book feature <i>Zagor</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Born in Milan, Italy, on December 2, 1932, Bonelli was the son of a writer, Gian Luigi Bonelli (1908-2001). To avoid confusion, the younger Bonelli adopted a <i>nom de plume</i>, Guido Nolitta. He began his career as a writer of comic book stories in 1957. In 1961, he created, with artist Gallieno Ferri (b. 1929), the comic book character Zagor. As Guido Nolitta, Bonelli wrote nearly all of the Zagor scripts, from </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Zagor</i> #1, dated June 15, 1961, to</span> <i>Zagor</i> #187, published in 1980.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZDIuULaOf5o/Vo2O2qLO7hI/AAAAAAAAAPg/39702NPL_DM/s1600/Zagor%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZDIuULaOf5o/Vo2O2qLO7hI/AAAAAAAAAPg/39702NPL_DM/s400/Zagor%2B2.jpg" width="335" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Zagor, created by writer Guido Nolitta (Sergio Bonelli) and artist Gallieno Ferri for the character's self-titled comic book, published since 1961 by Sergio Bonelli Editore.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Zagor is an adventurer on the American frontier of the early 1800s. Like James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking, he inhabits a romantic world that never was. Clad in blue pants and a red, sleeveless shirt emblazoned with a yellow and black insignia, Zagor has the look of a superhero. Agile, strong, and indefatigable, he runs, jumps, swings, paddles, shoots, and punches his way across a fantastic landscape inhabited not only by woodland Indians and white frontiersmen but also by cowboys, cavalrymen, a tribe of <i>uomini pipistrello</i>--Batmen--and even a Ming the Merciless-like villain named Marcus. Zagor's sidekick is Felipe Cayetano Lopez Martinez y Gonzales, nicknamed Cico (pronounced <i>Chico</i>), a short, round, mustachioed Mexican in a green suit, string tie, and sombrero. (He's in the second and third panels of the comic book story below.) A comic character in the mold of Sancho Panza and the Cisco Kid's sidekick, Pancho, Cico is often in need of rescuing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In 2012, the Italian firm I Fumetti di Repubblica-L'Espresso published the first volume in the collected adventures of Zagor. </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The first story in that collection </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">is called "La foresta degli agguati," or "The Forest of the Traps." The first page appears below:</span></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H_eNcbs4x6g/Vo2Iuab3EyI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/fyir9NG5CQo/s1600/Zagor%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H_eNcbs4x6g/Vo2Iuab3EyI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/fyir9NG5CQo/s640/Zagor%2B1.jpg" width="462" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And what are the first words of that story? None other than the name of the town cursed by Cornstalk and visited in the 1960s by Mothman--Point Pleasant, West Virginia! The caption, freely translated, reads:</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Point Pleasant, a small cluster of huts, a necessary staging place for all shipments going upriver to Fort Henry and Fort Pitt . . .</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Fort Henry and Fort Pitt were real places. Residents of and visitors to Point Pleasant can attest that it's a real place, as well. As for the forest, Signor Nolitta confessed:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">No, Darkwood [the forest of the title] does not exist; I have made it up myself. And I would add that I have invented it only little by little (in fact, in the first issues, the idea was only hinted at) as it became more and more necessary to have Zagor act in a "closed" setting but at the same time "open" to all possibilities of adventure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In 1964, Guido Nolitta gave Zagor's forest home a proper name. He called it "la Foresta di Darkwood"--Darkwood Forest--and located it in the area of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. (West Virginia did not become a state until 1863, of course, but compared to Signor Nolitta's other anachronisms, that one is pretty mild.) The artist Cortez mapped the forest:</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AT6D79HzJPA/Vo2fOQ0ouwI/AAAAAAAAAPw/zUpMWY5qy9M/s1600/Zagor%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="604" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AT6D79HzJPA/Vo2fOQ0ouwI/AAAAAAAAAPw/zUpMWY5qy9M/s640/Zagor%2B3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Despite the fact that Zagor's first comic book adventure began in Point Pleasant, that "little cluster of huts," as it was described, lies beyond the bounds of the forest as mapped by Cortez. In fact, it's outside the red circle drawn on the map, in the second loop of the Ohio River below and to the left of Darkwood Forest. Never mind that, though. Point Pleasant is where we meet first Cico, then, somewhere along the Ohio River, the hero Zagor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In later adventures, Guido Nolitta populated Darkwood Forest with mad scientists, vampires and vampiresses, medieval knights, prehistoric men, and fantastic creatures. In 1966, another fantastic creature visited Point Pleasant. I wonder if that creature--Mothman--is a remnant of the strange and mysterious <i>Foresta di Darkwood</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Sergio Bonelli, aka Guido Nolitta, died on September 26, 2011, in Monza, Italy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: normal;">Text copyright 2016 Terence E. Hanley</span></span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-22102420999891029212016-01-04T06:00:00.000-05:002016-01-11T21:16:32.238-05:00Convention Schedule for 2016<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><a href="http://www.backporchcomics.com/space.htm" target="_blank">Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo (S.P.A.C.E.)</a></b></span></span></span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Saturday, April 9 and Sunday, April 10, 2016</b><br />Northland Performing Arts Center, Columbus, Ohio</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://rathacon.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Ratha Con</a></b><br /><b>Saturday, May 7 and Sunday May 8, 2016</b><br />Athens Community Center, Athens, Ohio</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.tristatecon.net/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tri-State Comic Con-Tri-Con</span></span></a></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Saturday, June 4, 2016</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">Big Sandy Superstore Arena, Huntington, West Virginia </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://mkeaston.com/rivercity/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">River City Comic Con</span></a></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Summer 2016</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">Marietta, Ohio<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://mothmanfestival.com/" target="_blank">Mothman Festival</a></b><br /><b>Saturday, September 17 and Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016</b><br />Point Pleasant, West Virginia<br /><br /><b>East Elementary PTO Holiday Shoppe (No Link)</b><br /><b>Friday in Early December 2016</b><br />East Elementary School, Athens, Ohio</span>Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-60505221212124104612015-12-31T17:15:00.000-05:002016-01-10T12:07:21.376-05:00Remembering Tim Corrigan<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">In 2015 we lost our friend and a very funny and talented cartoonist, <b>Tim Corrigan</b>. We here at <b><i>Five Star Comics</i></b> did not have an exclusive claim to him of course. Tim touched the lives of hundreds of writers, artists, readers, and fans. They remember him, too.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">This is a time of year for remembering. Arnie Fenner, an artist, editor, and publisher, has made a list of cartoonists, illustrators, and other artists we lost during the past year. Tim Corrigan's name is on that list, joining those of Murphy Anderson, <a href="http://tellersofweirdtales.blogspot.com/2015/12/jon-arfstrom-1928-2015.html" target="_blank">Jon Arfstrom</a>, Roger Bollen, Mel Crawford, Alan Kupperberg, <a href="http://tellersofweirdtales.blogspot.com/2015/07/earl-norem-1923-2015.html" target="_blank">Earl Norem</a>, Leonard Starr, Herb Trimpe, and many others. The names of the <a href="http://indianaillustrators.blogspot.com/2015/01/artists-murdered-for-their-art.html" target="_blank">five cartoonists murdered in Paris in January</a> are on the list as well. You can read Mr. Fenner's list on a posting called "In Memoriam 2015" on the website <i>Muddy Colors: A Fantasy Art Collection</i>, December 28, 2015, <a href="http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2015/12/in-memoriam-2015.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: normal;">Goodbye to 2015 and to Tim Corrigan, too.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: normal;">Copyright 2015 Five Star Comics</span></span> </span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-51799820416038242722015-12-15T06:00:00.000-05:002016-01-10T12:09:17.628-05:00A Novelist of the Silver Bridge Disaster<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">The Silver Bridge came down on this date in 1967. Forty-six people died because of it, on the bridge and in the waters of the Ohio River. Even now, in the area of Point Pleasant and across the river in Gallipolis, Ohio, there are people who remember the disaster or knew or are related to someone who died there. Novelist, poet, essayist, and book collector Jack Matthews was born in Columbus, Ohio, but had roots in Gallia County, of which Gallipolis is the seat of government. (His father was born on a Gallia County farm.) I don't know that Jack Matthews knew or was related to anyone who died in the Silver Bridge disaster, but he took on the identity of a fictional survivor in his novel <i>Beyond the Bridge</i>, from 1970.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;"><br /><i>Beyond the Bridge</i> is brief but dense and complex, a much different book than Matthews' first novel, <i>Hanger Stout, Awake!</i> (1967), which is more a song of innocence than of experience. <i>Beyond the Bridge</i> takes the form of a diary of a man who has put his old life behind him and assumed a new one on the other side of the river--beyond the bridge--in West Virginia. The book ends with an entry for July 18, 1968--four days before Jack Matthews' forty-third birthday--as the protagonist sets out to cross another bridge and begin another diary. Jack Matthews lived for another forty-five years and passed away on November 28, 2013.<br /><br />In <i>Beyond the Bridge</i>, Matthews' protagonist, a dishwasher and diarist named Neil, is friends with a fallen preacher named Harlan and becomes the lover of a local woman, Billie Sue, who knows all the superstitions of Appalachia. Neil writes of himself and Billie Sue:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;"> Only before we went to sleep, I myself wondered why I should be so interested in these silly superstitions and Harlan's insane theology.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;"> I couldn't figure it out, except for the possibility that I could feel human breath in them. And I can't help feeling close to people who have long been dead, and have no other voice left. (p. 138)</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">I like to think that those who are gone still have a voice, even if it's one we can no longer hear. But if Jack Matthews' only remaining voice for us--whether we are vast seas or merely islands of readership--is in his books, then I must share the feeling of his diarist, that of being "close to people who have long been dead, and have no other voice left." His books speak, have the breath of life in them, and, though their author has been gone two years now, still live.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">In memory of Jack Matthews and the forty-six people who died on December 15, 1967.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">Original text copyright 2015 Terence E. Hanley</span></span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-72892217033277116022015-12-13T12:00:00.000-05:002016-01-15T15:12:54.065-05:00Last Show of the Year<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Five Star creator <b>Terence Hanley</b> was at the East Elementary PTO Holiday Shoppe again this year, on Friday, December 11, 2015. It was his fifth Holiday Shoppe, and like the others before it, this one was a good show for him. The Holiday Shoppe gives the children at East Elementary a chance to do their own shopping, with the help of their teachers or older pupils if they need it. It also teaches them about handling money, budgeting, and making decisions. Another benefit is that they can buy things from local artists and craftspeople instead of mass-produced merchandise from a chain store. Terence's coloring books are always popular there, especially among future UFOlogists and cryptozoologists. One of the artists Terence met this year is <b>Jessica Held</b>, who uses poured materials to make polished, agate-like surfaces on everyday objects. Some of them look like satellite images of deserts and wastelands, too. You can see her blog at this link:</span></div>
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<b><a href="http://jessicaheld.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">http://jessicaheld.blogspot.com/</span></a></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As it turns out, Jessica has exhibited in Lafayette, Indiana, next door to where Terence went to college. As they say, it's a small world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Copyright 2015 Five Star Comics </span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-75606124616927169792015-11-03T12:00:00.000-05:002016-01-14T10:52:02.813-05:00A Cartoonist on the Silver Bridge<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">Forty-six people died when the Silver Bridge collapsed on December 15, 1967. Among them was a cartoonist who was about to begin a new life. His name was <b>Thomas Allen Cantrell</b>, and he came into the world on November 3, 1941, in Gallipolis, Ohio. His parents were Owen and June (Hartley) Cantrell. A younger brother, William Owen Cantrell, was born on October 2, 1944.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">Thomas Cantrell went to school in Gallipolis and graduated from Gallia Academy High School in 1960. He joined the U.S. Navy and served for a time at Great Lakes Naval Training Station, north of Chicago, Illinois. Cantrell worked in his hometown for the Ohio Publishing Company, publishers of the <i>Gallipolis Tribune</i>, and lived at 325 Fourth Avenue. He was a member of the First Baptist Church of Gallipolis.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">By about rush hour on December 15, 1967, Cantrell had delivered a load of newspapers from Gallipolis to Point Pleasant and was on his way back home when the bridge fell. His vehicle went into the water with scores of others. Unlike so many who died that day, he was not found until months later, on May 12, 1968. The forty-third of forty-six bodies recovered from the disaster, his was pulled from the Ohio River at Clipper Mills, Ohio, across from Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">Cantrell's delivery of a load of newspapers from Gallipolis to Point Pleasant was to be his last job of the day on the day the Silver Bridge fell. December 15, 1967, was to be his last day on the job. Not long past his twenty-sixth birthday, Thomas Cantrell was going to California to work as a cartoonist. Instead, his dream died with him, and he was buried at Mound Hill Cemetery in the city of his birth.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">We as cartoonists remember him. <b>Gary Gibeaut</b> has dedicated the first issue of his <b><i>Mothman</i></b> comic book to Thomas Allen Cantrell, a fellow local cartoonist, and to <b>Tim Corrigan</b>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">Copyright 2015 Five Star Comics</span></span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-68257418776114548362015-09-21T10:45:00.000-04:002016-01-14T10:46:00.163-05:00Mothman Festival 2015<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The Five Star crew had their best shows ever at the fourteenth annual Mothman Festival, which took place on Saturday, September 19 and Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015, in Point Pleasant, West Virgina. <b>Larry Blake</b>, <b>Gary Gibeaut</b>, <b>Jay Gibeaut</b>, <b>Terence Hanley</b>, and <b>Matt Marshall</b> had tables this year at the festival. They all had a mix of new and old merchandise, including Jay and Larry's newest collection of <i><b>Mothman 'Toons</b></i>. Everything we had sold well, as the crowds this year seemed bigger than last year and the weather was good both days.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For 2015, <b>Gary Gibeaut</b> had new poster designs and a new comic book, a single-character issue called simply <i><b>Mothman</b></i>. Gary's new book has two complete stories. The first, "This Mysterious Entity! This . . . Mothman," explores one possible origin of the eponymous creature. The second, "The Abridged Mothman," begins with the story of the first sighting of Mothman but then segues into the fall of the Silver Bridge and the artist's response to the events of the 1960s, in his childhood and now in adulthood. Gary dedicated <i>Mothman</i> to Tim Corrigan, who passed away on August 22, 2015, and to Thomas Allen Cantrell, a fellow cartoonist who perished in the cold waters of the Ohio River on December 15, 1967.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Like we said, everything we had sold well at this year's Mothman Festival. That includes Gary Gibeaut's <i>Mothman</i> comic book. In fact it sold out. Look for a second printing in 2016. </span><br />
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<tr align="justify"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The cover of Gary Gibeaut's Mothman comic book, with coloring and effects by Jason Roush.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And the splash panel from the same book.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Art copyright 2015 Gary Gibeaut</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Text copyright 2015 Five Star Comics </span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-17443520419817238652015-08-27T18:19:00.000-04:002016-01-10T12:11:23.165-05:00Tim Corrigan (1950-2015)<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;"><b>Tim Corrigan</b> has died and words fail us. He was a cartoonist, sign-painter, writer, editor, teacher, songwriter, and musician. More importantly he was a husband, a father, and a friend. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">Born on December 2, 1950, Tim began drawing comics as a child as so many of us did and still do. "As a little kid I didn't have the drawing skills to handle human characters with all those complicated arms and legs," Tim remembered, "so one of my first efforts was a super-powered worm--Elasticworm!" Will Eisner said that a cartoonist is a problem-solver. Tim Corrigan demonstrated that an early age with his limbless cartoon hero.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">Tim began collecting comics in earnest when he was a teenager. Soon he discovered fandom and began contributing to comic book fanzines. In the early 1970s he became involved in independent comics, a community in which he eventually became a leader. That community grew more interconnected in the 1980s with Tim's publication of a magazine called <b><i>Small Press Comics Explosion</i></b> or <b><i>SPCE</i></b>. "The purpose of <i>SPCE</i>," Tim wrote, "was to provide a central point where people making and marketing their own comics could get together, meet each other, and buy, sell or trade their publications." In time, <i>SPCE</i> had five hundred subscribers, no small feat for a small press title. (The term <i>small press</i> was his invention.) Tim also published comics under his own New Voice Media imprint. His titles included <b><i>Tim Corrigan's Superhero Comics</i></b>, <b><i>Kiwanni</i></b>, <b><i>Final Man</i></b>,<i><b> </b></i><b><i>Mightyguy</i></b>, and <b><i>Tim Corrigan's Comics & Stories</i></b>. For his efforts, Tim Corrigan received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the <a href="http://www.backporchcomics.com/space.htm">Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo--S.P.A.C.E.</a>--in 2006.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">In 2008, Tim started a new chapter in his career by writing and inking <a href="http://alleghenyman.tripod.com/">a Sunday comic strip called <b><i>Allegheny Man</i></b></a>. <b>Larry Blake</b>, penciler on the strip during its four-year run, explained: "It was supposed to be impossible to self-syndicate a comic strip, to do an adventure strip, and on top of that a superhero strip, but we broke all the rules!"</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">Tim retired from comics in 2012 and took up music as a family affair. The Corrigans--Tim with his wife Carol--made records and videos. You can see some of their performances and hear some of their songs on YouTube. The Corrigans' sons--Nate and Matt--are artists and musicians as well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">Tim Corrigan died on August 22, 2015. He was sixty-four years old. In 2008 he wrote, "[I]t seems I have had a wonderful life." We're glad of that and glad that we knew him. We wish he could have stayed longer.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: normal;">Copyright 2015 Five Star Comics</span></span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6464710536168058082.post-64120588692007121732015-07-21T14:00:00.000-04:002016-01-14T13:38:03.256-05:00S.P.A.C.E. 2015<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Earlier this year, the vendors who had purchased tables for the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo found out that the regular venue, the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Columbus, Ohio, had closed suddenly and unexpectedly and that S.P.A.C.E. was being rescheduled for summer. That was bad news for some who were planning to go to the show in the spring. It turned out to be good news for others who wouldn't have been able to make it on the original dates. Not having enough time is the way most artists live. Having more than enough time is a new experience. I'm surprised we knew what to do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A rescheduled show. A new and never-tested venue. A scramble among artists to see whether they could make it or not. Changes to everyone's plans. There were reasons to doubt that S.P.A.C.E. would come off well this year. But it did. Really well by our estimate. And for that, Bob Corby, the organizer, and his staff should be praised and commended. Next year, there might even be a statue of Bob in front of the Northland Performing Arts Center in Columbus, the location of this year's show.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Larry Blake</b> and <b>Terence Hanley</b> were among the artists at this year's S.P.A.C.E., which took place </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">on Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19, 2015</span>. Larry was in the main room, a vast, dark, noisy, and crowded place that used to be a department store. His table sat catacorner from that of Harvey Pekar's widow, Joyce Brabner. Terence was in a kind of annex, a small, brightly colored room off to the side of the main room but on the way to the vending machines and restrooms. For one reason or another, everyone at the show had to go through the small room and past his table. There was also food for sale by outside vendors, and you had to go outside to get it, either in the extreme heat on Saturday or a hurricane-like rainstorm that came through on Sunday afternoon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Larry is a regular at S.P.A.C.E. and has been since its beginnings in 2000. In 2009, he was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award. (<b>Tim Corrigan</b>, also a contributor to <i><b>Five Star Comics</b></i>, won the award in 2006.) Larry's setup at S.P.A.C.E. is familiar to everyone who goes. Terence, on the other hand, hasn't been at S.P.A.C.E. as a vendor since 2013. Both had fun and saw old and new faces, including <b>Michael Neno</b>. Terence also met <b>D. Blake Werts</b>, a writer, editor, publisher, and fan of small press. Blake publishes a mini-comic-sized magazine called <i>Copy This!</i>, available at his website, <i>Midnight Fiction</i>, at:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In <i>Copy This!</i> #15, (May 2015), Blake interviews Billy McKay and includes mention of Larry Blake's <b><i>Kevin Cool</i></b> #30, from January/February 2015. Kevin Cool appears in <i><b>Five Star Comics</b></i> #3, but his regular venue is his own digest-sized title. You can order copies by contacting:</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Larry Blake</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Also mentioned in <i>Copy This!</i> is Michael Neno's enigmatic <i>Where Is Document No. 30?</i>, a mini-sized comic that's worth the dollar you have to part with in order to get it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Speaking of digests, D. Blake Werts is on the staff of a new digest-sized magazine called <i>The Digest Enthusiast</i>. The title is accurate: <i>The Digest Enthusiast</i> includes articles about digest magazines and comic books, plus interviews with and profiles on the people who have worked in these little magazines. In a welcome development, the <i>Enthusiast</i> also publishes illustrated short fiction. And to round things out nicely, Michael Neno has had his work in the two issues published to date. <i>The Digest Enthusiast</i> is available at the website of Larque Press, <a href="http://www.larquepress.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For Larry and Terence, this year's S.P.A.C.E. ended </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">with quick repairs to their car, made </span>in a deserted parking lot, with a piece of rubber gasket and a hose clamp. Then it was home for a little rest before beginning preparations for the next show.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Copyright 2015 Five Star Comics</span></div>
Five Star Comicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11459577586937086201noreply@blogger.com0