That's it. We now sit on the last day of 2007 wondering where the hell did the year go. I have no answer as to where it went, but I can remember some of the highlights for me, and I'm not interested in the low-lights, so don't even bring them out. Sadly though we lost a few on the way, James Kemsley is still a raw wound in a lot of minds, Marshall Rogers left a void that can't be filled along with others. So, in no order at all, here's some of the things that made 2007 something to remember for me. IMAGE OF THE YEAR Without a doubt Ben Cousins . Rarely has an Australian footballer flown so high and fallen so far and with a resounding thud. Still he isn't the only one to screw up, and let's face it, drugs aren't as bad as rape or assault, yet some footballers can do both and not only are they retained on a squad, but are lauded as champions of the game - go figure. Arrested in Perth on drugs charges, Cousins was dragged before the public sans his shirt,

This was commissioned as an article by a very well known artist in early December. Once he approached me about the topic I decided to just go ahead and write it. There was no hidden agenda, I was told to write it and publish it, so here goes. Variations on this theme will probably appear elsewhere, but that remains to be seen. ----------------------------------------------- AGEISM AND DISCRIMINATION IN COMIC BOOKS, or… WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FRANK SPRINGER? Does ageism and discrimination exist in comic books today? You decide. Frank Springer is not only a good guy; he’s a very talented artist. During his long career he provided more work than you’re ever likely to know about as he ghosted for more than one person on various strips and books. He drew, uncredited, strips such as The Heart Of Juliet Jones , The Phantom , Friday Foster and many more. He began work as an assistant to the late George Wundar on the legendary Terry And The Pirates strip. Natural progression saw his career go f

It's been a while between drinks but it's always a delight to wake up and find an email from the Former DC Staffer in the inbox waiting to go. This one is a Christmas themed message. Enjoy! --------------------------------- Forgery for the Holidays During the '80s both DC and Marvel used to have very small holiday parties. There was never very much money for these events but they were always welcome. One year Marvel did exceptionally well and decided to have a staff only party and handed out special invitations to the event. A production staff artist at DC was determined to get in so borrowing a Marvel staffers invite he spent two days in the DC production department constructing an exact forgery. It was positively perfect once completed but most of us thought he’d get caught for sure. The next day we asked how the Marvel party was and he said it was a BLAST! Ingenuity at its best. Happy Holidays!

It was the dinner I missed due to a number of reasons, and I'm still kicking myself - in fact it's going to be one of the biggest regrets of my life. Going around the table we have (from left to right) Norm Breyfogle , Rich Buckler , Michael Netzer , Alan and Pauline Weiss and Dave Simons . Personally I think I'd have been a bit too starstruck to contributed to any meaningful conversation. The dinner is having some offshoots though, in 2008 I'll be working with Michael on a project, I'm still working with Norm, Alan and myself are busy with our creator owned project and Rich and Dave have both gotten back in touch. I couldn't ask for anymore. Let me break your heart though. All five artists drew on the tablecloth and left it behind. Makes me cry thinking about it. As there's a lot of people out there who love this kind of thing, this is just to let you all know that Dave Simons is now accepting commissions . I hate to say it but Dave's not been in the b

I mentioned this photo in my previous post about James Kemsley . This photo was taken in 2004 when I finally caught up with James at a Meggs XI cricket match at Chateau Tanunda . You'd have to go a long way to meet a nicer guy than James, he was a treat to speak to and just brilliant to hang out with. It was a lovely day all round and a very entertaining cricket match. Much to the amusement of all present Jamie Siddons punished the bowling of James hitting him into a nearby creek so often that some kids eventually stationed themselves there knowing the ball was coming their way. Siddons reached his 50 and promptly walked off the ground in search of a drink. INXS's Tim Farris (who, I must admit, looked like he'd spent a lot of time eating pies) was out at least three times, a first ball duck, another duck and then for three. Lennie Pascoe wasn't much better, standing to full height he threw his (now rather large) stomach out to the world and announced that he&

Aren't these a pair of stunners? I managed to pick them up for a pittance, along with a handful of vintage Panther comic books, and if I told you what they cost me you'd just scream. I'll freely admit that my knowledge of these books is fairly limited, but here's what I do know. According to Kevin Patrick's excellent article on Buck Rogers , King Size Comic was "a giant 2/- (two shilling) magazine, produced by the Cleveland Publishing Company of Sydney under its Apache Comics imprint. Apart from Buck Rogers , King Size Comic featured reprints of various American and Australian comic book features, ranging from crime ( T-Man ) to westerns ( El Lobo , Tim Holt) and science-fiction ( Silver Starr ), before it, too, ceased publication in 1959."* Not much is it? However the best information about Cleveland Publishing comes from John Ryan's excellent and invaluable book, Panel By Panel. On page 207 of that book Ryan discusses Cleveland briefly, and I again

Hot off the press and in your store today, well, at least it is if you live in Australia. I've been waiting to hold this little puppy in my hands for months now, and colour me happy because here it is. From the publisher First Salvo comes the first issue in what should be a long line of comic books. Written by Thad Branco and Anthony Cannonier, Dangers Dozen features some of the best artwork to come from Norm Breyfogle in ages. Add to that a back-up story by Mike Baron and drawn by Gabe Eltaeb , well you can see how you can't go wrong with this one. All six issues have been fully written and drawn, so this is one book that'll be coming out on time, every time. Go into your local store and order it, buy it, read it and enjoy it. It's comic books like they used to be - enjoyment over flash.

What do James Kemsley , Don Perlin and Norm Breyfogle have in common? More than you might think. I first interviewed Don Perlin in 2003 and during the course of the interview he mentioned he that he wanted to use the interview as an on-line ad for his 2003 Tourettes fund raiser. That was more than fine with me, so off we went and each time I plugged the interview I also plugged the web-site where Don would be doing his auctions. Don emailed me later and told me that it'd be a raging success, and that made me feel fairly good, which proved to be important as it was a time when I was feeling fairly bad. Fast forward a year. In mid 2004 Don Perlin had asked me if I knew any artists that I could approach for donations for his then annual Cavalcade Of Comics auctions. We spoke about the artists I then knew, a lot of them Don already knew and had already approached, with varying degrees of success, but three names came out of the hat - James, Norm and a Legendary Artist who'll rem

Ginger Meggs cartoonist James Kemsley dies, age 59 © AP 2007-12-04 SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Cartoonist James Kemsley , who penned the Ginger Meggs comic strip for more than 20 years, died after a two-year battle with motor neuron disease, friends said Tuesday. He was 59. Kemsley, who died at his home in the eastern town of Bowral on Monday, was the fourth cartoonist to draw the comic strip about the precocious red-haired boy named Ginger. He took over production of the comic in 1984, and was widely credited with transforming the Sunday strip to a daily format and expanding readership to more than 120 newspapers around the world, including the United States, Brazil, India and Thailand, among others. Australian Cartoonists' Association President Peter Broelman said Kemsley loved cartooning and was working on Ginger Meggs right until the end. "He was working on Meggs that morning," Broelman said. "He couldn't draw as such but he was certainly writing ideas and ...