This is how an art book should be - welcome to Frank Brunner's Mythos ! I've always freely admitted that I've been a massive fan of Frank Brunner since I was a wee little kidlet being drawn to his art on titles such as Dr Strange . It didn't matter who inked his work, although pure Brunner was always good, it looked stunning. That he had an inker such as Dick Giordano didn't hurt his cause, and then there were those two Dr Strange pages inked by Alan Weiss which offered a tantalising glimpse into what could have been. Not to mention the one issue where Neal Adams touched Frank's pencils. Seriously, those Dr Strange issues are as good as the title ever got, and that's not to denigrate the efforts of the other fine artists such as Steve Ditko, Gene Colan , Marshall Rogers , Paul Smith and a host of others who came before and after. Brunner's run is one of the most remembered, co-written by Steve Englehart , it remains a high point in Marvel's ear

Be warned, this is going to be technical and rather dry. So if you're looking for something funny then you'd be better of looking in a mirror. If you want to see the covers for virtually all of the comics listed here then click on the different publisher titles. For a character so popular in all parts of the world, Conan The Barbarian hasn’t had a rich publishing history in regards to Australian comic books. The Robert E Howard books, along with the authors that followed, were always available in paperback format but the Australian publishers generally treated the Conan comic book like any other mainstream title when it came to reprints; that is not as desirable as books such as Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four . CLIMAX ADVENTURE ALBUM (Click here for the images) The first appearance of Conan in Australian comic books appears to have been within the pages of CLIMAX ADVENTURE ALBUM #10, as published by Kenmure. It is with this book that the first mystery surrounding Conan in Au

Another artist has been welcomed into my little nest of web-sites - Brian Postman . While he might not be a name that everyone knows off the top of their head, he is a damn good artist all the same. Brian had a relatively short career at Marvel in the 1980s, but managed to draw a handful of Spider-Woman titles along with issues of Marvel Team-Up (inked by Mike Esposito) and Marvel Super Heroes . Since that time Brian has kept himself both busy and gainfully employed by working as a commercial artist, drawing storyboards and advertising illustrations. Brian is available for commissions and his rates are amongst the best around, so go and visit his site, have a look around and see if you don't walk out wanting to buy something. Brian came to me via Dave Simons and I couldn't be happier. Welcome Brian! May your stay be a long and fruitful one.

What you're seeing here is The Best Inker award that'll be presented as part of the 2008 Inkwell Awards . People are gonna kill to get one of these. I assure you. They will. But they're going to have to have certain qualities before they get near one. They'll need to have earned a lot. They'll need to have earned. They'd need to have worked damn hard. It won't be easy but the reward will be great. Why? Because this is an award that is open to one aspect of the creation of comic books. And it's one of the most under appreciated and as such overlooked part of the creative process - inking. Stop laughing. Or I'll get slightly angry. Really I will. You think of some of the great artists of all time. Jack Kirby. John Byrne. Marshall Rogers. Jim Starlin. Mike McKone. Mike Zeck. Norm Breyfogle. Alan Davis. Frank Robbins. Gene Colan. Carmine Infantino. All great artists. However as good as they were, and are, with a bad inker they could look, well ordinary.

I've never seen the point of Valentine's Day. Not once. Growing up the day just made me feel foul as I was a perennially spotty single bastard. I'd see the girls I wanted to know going weak at the knees at people who I'm sure grew up to be either dead, in jail or DV perpetrators. As I got older it made even less sense. It still makes no sense to me, so go ahead and explain it if you want. I know that the florists love the day, as do the idiots that make those sappy cards or send in the utterly laughable and barely literate text messages like, "baby, im gonna fall 4 U tonite", or, "fee the luv we make is equal to the luv we take so baby let me bang your box luv Reg" to the various morning television shows. There'd be a pile of people cleaning up today and I suppose good on them. However if people are that insecure in their own relationships that they actually need a day in which to be reminded that it's a good idea to express their feelings an

He's gone . I couldn't believe the email when it hit my inbox this morning. Steve Gerber , writer of some of the finest comics of my childhood is gone. Sadness doesn't even capture how I feel right now, a sense of emptiness, a sense of loss, a sense of numb. There's a lot of emotions, sadness is but one aspect. But no matter how I feel others are feeling worse, and at the end of it all I'll wake up tomorrow and Steve will still be gone. Plenty of other sites will be going over his career as a writer, they'll be talking about his creations, Omega The Unknown amongst them. They'll talk about his collaborations with Mary Skrenes on that book. They'll talk about possibly his greatest creation, Howard The Duck , and how that went sour. They'll bring up the fact that he sued Marvel Comics in the 1970s for the rights and ownership of Howard, and how he lost, yet won. He might have lost the battle but he won the war and it was his boldness and vision that

File this one under the heading of NEWS . -------------------------- Comic Art Commissions - New Comic Artists Directory Launches Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) January 30, 2008 -- Metro-Atlanta resident Terry Maltos represents the comic book artist Al Rio. He also runs the successful web directory "The Comic Art Links Directory" and the auction and images site "The Comic Art Community." Terry has built a new site for artists who draw custom commissions and buyers who regularly commission artists to draw. It's called Comic Art Commissions.com . If you are an artist - register and list yourself. This site will definitely get you commission jobs or at the very least - hits to your web site. Once registered, artists can list their commission rates, upload art for sale, upload sample images, link to a web site, easily manage listings and get exposure to a targeted audience of comic art buyers. Buyers can search for a good artist to get a commission from. They can get informed

This week has seen me as busy as I've ever been. Thanks to my great pal, Jimmy T , I've been furiously updating web-sites all over the place. Jimmy is a God amongst men, and each passing second sees me more in debt to the guy. Ah well, it could be worse. So what's new and where? Well the parent site, Adelaide Comics And Books , is updated beyond belief. I've re-edited a lot of the interviews, I've done a behind the scenes look at my book, Partners For Life , and have generally cleaned up the entire site. Articles have been totally re-written from the ground up (such as the Iron Fist article) and I'll be doing more as time permits. I was approached by Dave Simons , artist of great note, with the idea of setting up a site for him. This I've done, so if you're a keen fan of Daves, and why wouldn't you be, then check out his new site . It's early days yet and it's still very much a work in progress, but it's getting there, slowly but surely.

ALAN KUPPERBERG’S STOLEN DAGWOOD, or, “THANK YOU FOR CALLING ME BACK THIRTY ODD YEARS LATER AND TELLING ME I’VE BEEN VICTIMIZED AGAIN ON THE SAME JOB.” It began simply enough. I’d spent the weekend updating and revising Alan Kupperberg ’s web-site when I received an email asking me about a Dagwood illustration that Alan had done. Not knowing anything about it I forwarded the email onto Alan, knowing that he’d be able to look into his workbook and identify the art, who it was for and when it was drawn, virtually down to the day. Generous to a fault and as honest as they come, Alan replied, giving the history of the piece. Alan’s said, “I believe what you have are parts of a color illustration that I did in November 1976 for a publication called "You Magazine." The article was titled, "Crazy Boss." According to my account book, they stiffed me for $300. I was never paid for it. As I remember it, they printed my color rough rather than the finished piece.” The reply wa

It's hard not to like Fred Hembeck. At least, I find it hard not to like the guy, but then I do know people who look at his stuff and remain fairly stone faced, so I guess I'll clarify that - if you've got any form of a sense of humour then it's hard not to like Fred Hembeck. If you take your comic books seriously, and think that those characters are real then you're probably not a fan of Hembeck. More's the shame because Fred loves these characters too, which is why he does what he does. Fred Hembeck has been around for decades now. He's an institution. He's been providing the comic book world with his own unique insights into it's history since he began submitting his drawings and commentaries back in the 1970s. And the comic book world is a better place for it, and a better place for Fred Hembeck. Love him or hate him, and frankly if you hate him then you really need to lighten up a lot, he's still going strong and will only be getting stronge