Frank Frazetta (1928-2010)

Legendary fantasy artist Frank Frazetta has died at the age of 82. I'll post a link to the inevitable obit on Mark Evanier's blog once it's up.

Update: Here's what Mark Evanier has to say.

As for what I have to say on the subject, given his talent and the kind of work he did, obviously I admired Frazetta a great deal, and I'm saddened by the loss.

Update 2: Comics Should Be Good has a great tribute with some of his old Warren magazine covers (which, much to my shame, I'd forgotten about).

Crap

Dick Giordano, R.I.P.

Quick Shots

Pin-Up Queen Bettie Page dead at 85
This made me sad, if for no other reason than that she served as the inspiration for so much beautiful artwork by so many talented artists. One of those talented artists was the late and much-lamented Dave Stevens, whose comic, The Rocketeer, featured a character based on Ms. Page. There's a brief mention of The Rocketeer in the Reuters obituary linked above, but no mention of the fact that Dave Stevens was, in her later life, after her re-emergence from anonymity, her friend and sometime caretaker, and did what he could to help her get her fair share of the money others had made off of her image. Mark Evanier's blog, which is really the place to go for obituaries - among many other things; I realize it seems like a back-handed compliment, but the obits generally are more informative, and often much more personal - has a few interesting anecdotes about Stevens' relationship with the legendary pin-up.
The movie based on her life - The Notorious Bettie Page - was fun and entertaining, and it featured an often-nude Gretchen Mol, in the title role, which is never a bad thing. I remain eternally grateful that the producers passed on Liv Tyler, who was at one time reported to be up for the role.

Thunder! Thunder! Thundercats H0000....ly Shit! WTF????
One of the features of the site Topless Robot is Fan Fiction Friday (FFF), in which TR culls the Web for some of the weirdest and most twisted fan-written fiction that can be found. And trust me, there has been some really weird stuff featured, but I think the latest featured bit of fan work is by far the strangest I've seen, and that's including the Harry Potter/Dragonball Z mpreg slash fiction. I can't even begin to explain it, so I recommend that you see for yourself.
People tell me that there actually is decent, well-written, and non-bug fuck insane fan fiction to be found on the Web, and I'm sure that's true, but even if I were interested in finding it, I don't think my soul could take wading through the rest of it to do so. Just the snippets I read in FFF is doing enough damage to it, thanks.

New Watchmen International Trailer
This seems vaguely spoilery to me, but I'm not sure that it actually is unless you're familiar with the comic, in which case you already know what's going to happen, so...
In any case, it certainly is nice to look at, and, however reluctantly, I find myself getting more and more excited about the movie.



Bonus: Footage shown at the San Diego Comic-Con:

Would People Please Stop Dying?

I just read on Comics Should Be Good! that comic book artist Michael Turner has died after fighting an eight-year battle with cancer. He was 37.
I had no idea that Turner had cancer, but I have to say that knowing it now does make his work that much more impressive.
And for the most part, I liked his work, though it certainly was flawed in many ways. Still, he was young enough that there would have been - and should have been - time for him to hone his craft, and I have no doubt that he would have gone on to be an even better artist.
Like the other comics creators who have gone before him this year - and there have been far too many - he will be missed.

Compensation

People often talk about “compensating for X,” where “X” is something like wind resistance, or gravity, or whatever. The basic idea is to adjust for any external or internal factors that could alter the expected outcome.
This morning I stumbled onto the concept of “compensating for being Jon.”As I was getting out of my car at work, I unlatched my seatbelt, and as it retracted it got caught on my cell phone case. So in order to get out of the car without pulling my cell phone case loose – or worse – I compensated for being Jon and did this sort of pivot as I got out, disentangling the seat belt from my phone case.
A lot of the irritations, cuts, contusions, and various other mishaps I run into in life are due to my failure to compensate for being Jon.
I have to always remember that at pretty much any given time I’m just one misstep away from some sort of painful real-life slapstick comedy routine.
Fittingly enough, on the day on which I put a name to the concept, I ended up failing to compensate for being Jon later in the afternoon when I was buying some candy from the vending machine.
I’d noticed that the one I’d bought was the second to the last one, and as my dad so often did with brownies or cake, decided to “even out the row” by also buying the last one.
On multiple occasions when purchasing that particular item, I’ve ended up having to buy two, as the first one would usually get caught, and the only way to set it free was to buy another. This wasn’t a problem, really, as, hey, even when it’s two for the price of two it isn’t really a bad deal. However, the last couple of times I haven’t run into that problem, so, failing to compensate for being Jon, I figured that I was in the clear. I wasn’t; the last one got caught. So I had to put another dollar in to get it out. Two for the price of three? Not such a great deal.
Tomorrow I head off to Kansas City until Thursday. I’m not really looking forward to it, but I’m not dreading it either.
After all, as they say, and as I often repeat here, no matter where you go, there you are, so given that it’s me traveling there, the destination doesn’t really matter.
I mean, really, for the amount of fun I would have, Hawaii, for example, could just as easily be Kansas.
That’s what I’m telling myself, at least.
When I worked at AOL we would periodically get alarms for access numbers in Kansas City, and the alarming software would display the name as one word: kansascity.
I liked to pronounce it as kan-ZASS-ity, and created a definition for it: it’s like serendipity, only boring.
I know, I know; I need to stop giving Kansas such a hard time. After all, I might just end up enjoying myself.
(Here’s where I compensate for being Jon and say “Yeah, right.”)
I was saddened to learn that George Carlin had passed away at the age of 71. He was one of my favorite stand-ups, and I’m sorry to see that he’s gone.
(One of my favorite Carlin bits was when he said something along the lines of “I guarantee that whoever coined the phrase caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) was bleeding from the rectum at the time.”)
In any case, I’m not sure how much blogging I’ll do from the road. I guess we’ll find out starting tomorrow.

A Bad Year For Comic Book Legends

Mark Evanier has reported on his blog that artist Will Elder has passed on.
I knew his name as the founding artist of Mad Magazine, but, to be honest, I knew his work mostly from Little Annie Fanny, a strip that appeared in Playboy.
Mark also reports on the condition of Gene Colan, another legendary comic artist, who is suffering from liver problems and, like so many Americans, a lack of insurance to cover his medical costs.
You can read more about Gene and his situation, and how, if you're of a mind to, you can help, here.
I'll be honest; I've never been a fan of Colan's style. I've always found it to be too loose and muddy, though I will say that it was ideally suited, in many ways, to a lot of his work on Tomb of Dracula.
It's worth noting that Gene has a connection to the recently-passed Steve Gerber, as Gene worked as an artist on the Gerber-scripted Howard the Duck.
Here's hoping that he doesn't end up having dying in 2008 in common with Steve Gerber.
In any case, my quibbles with his style aside, I have tremendous respect for his contributions to comicdom, and his current situation is no way for anyone to have to live.

Not An April Fools' Joke

Prolific comic artist Jim Mooney passed away on Sunday. You can read more about him on Mark Evanier's blog here.
Mooney is one of those almost nameless talents who worked quietly in the background, never really getting the acclaim of big names like Jack "King" Kirby, or Steve Ditko, but whose work, if you've read enough comics, you've no doubt encountered, perhaps without really taking note.
If you're like me, you did take note, even if his work wasn't always at the front of your comic book consciousness, but regardless, his passing marks the loss of yet another major talent.
That he had a successful collaboration with recently deceased writer Steve Gerber on Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown helps to drive home just how many talented comic creators we've lost this year.

Rocket Man

I just learned that comicdom has lost yet another legendary talent.
Dave Stevens, most famous for his creation - and subject of a 1991 Disney movie - The Rocketeer.
He had a phenomenal talent that I admired - and envied - tremendously.
Mark Evanier has a great write-up over at his blog.