The Dave & Paty Cockrum Scholarship for a gifted comic art student was established last year at the Joe Kubert School and will be presented again this April. To fund the scholarship, comics are sold from Dave Cockrum's personal collection , including Dave's X-Men file copies. Please visit thecliffordmethod.blogspot.com to view the comics that are available. There's some damn fine comics avaliable, and hey - they're Dave's own copies, so by buying on you not only contribute to a worthy cause but you're also able to own a comic that Dave once not only owned, but held and read, and, depending on the comic, I expect he read them several times over. What better connection and bragging rights can you have? Clifford Meth will personally present the scholarship again this April at the Kubert School .

This is the best update I could ever post. Dave has returned home after being discharged from hospital. He is still weak and recovering and isn't out of the woods just yet, but this is a very positive sign indeed. Dave is tired, as can be expected, and he's asked that people not call him for the next week or so while he gathers his strength and energies. Feel free to send cards and by all means do donate to the Dave Simons Appeal . Every little bit will help, and it's all needed right now. Donate art or signed books (with values of at least $10) for a series of on-going auctions designed to benefit Dave. Items should be sent to Dave’s art rep, Bob Shaw . There is an eBay account set up ( Help_Dave_Simons ) and auctions are active. These auctions will proceed as items come in; all money will go directly to Dave. Items should be sent to: Bob Shaw, PO Box 650, Derry, NH, 03038 - USA. As news comes to hand I'll be sure to post it here. People are asking what they can do as

(In 2006 Norm Breyfogle inked a Batman sketch as drawn by Jim Mooney, thus creating a tangible link between two classic Batman artists - this is their only collaboration and was created exclusively for the Jim Mooney biography) In this third part of the on-going excepts of the as yet unpublished Jim Mooney biography , Jim talks about how he found himself working for DC drawing Batman and life during the 1940s. You can read the first two excerpts from the Mooney biography here (Part I) and here (Part II) . ---------------------- DC AND BATMAN Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. Although the character was co-created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, only Kane receives official credit for the character. Batman was, at first, just one of several characters featured in Detective Comics. He has since become one of the world's most well-known comic-book characters, along with Superman. Although unlike many superheroes he does not possess super-human powe

If you liked U2's previous two albums then read no further. Go, play them and enjoy them. Seriously. They're exceptional albums, for Simple Minds*, but they're just not that good as U2 albums. Both of them were far too uneven, with all too brief moments of greatness and far too many moments of mediocrity. Their new album, No Line On The Horizon , will soon be counted amongst their best efforts. It's an album to ranked in the upper echelon of their catalogue, alongside The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby . And I'm not saying that lightly. So, if you like the previous albums, I doubt you'll like this, in the same way that people fled the band in droves when Achtung Baby was released simply because it wasn't Rattle & Hum or The Joshua Tree . Since 2001 each U2 album has accompanied by a series of press releases hailing it as being the 'Best U2 Album Ever'. Sadly this has become a joke, but then we know that no artist or record company will

I have to admit I was somewhat taken aback with surprise when I was approached by Plok who runs the excellent Trout In The Milk blog (if you've not read it then you're missing out) to be one of the contributors to his daring exercise in blogging cross pollination, Panel Madness . The idea appeared to be a simple one, for a week six separate writers would do a daily entry each with the same theme, that theme being comic book panel art. That was all there was to it. I deliberately didn't read anyone else's entry until mine was totally finished because I knew that if I did then I'd change what I'd done and throw it all out the window. That's the beauty of this project, none of the writers have spoken to each other, well, at least I haven't, and as such we've all got very different ideas. I have read all the other entries now and I hope mine comes close to be as entertaining and informative as theirs are. Go and read them before you read mine and

Just so people know. Dave Simons is still in hospital after a violent reaction to medication late last week. Dave's condition is now listed as being serious, but stable, and the outlook is that he will make a recovery with the right treatment. Dave was moved from the ICU a short time ago, and his overall recovery and rehabilitation will be a long process. I've spoken to Dave and he is aware that people are wishing him well. If you want to send your best wishes to Dave then send him a card, either via Bob Shaw or care of his hospital: Dave Simons Christ Hospital 176 Palisade Avenue Jersey City, New Jersey 07306 Please, no phone calls or visitors at the moment. Dave's family is with him constantly and this is an uphill struggle, as people can well appreciate. Feel free to send cards and by all means do donate to the Dave Simons Appeal. Every little bit will help, and it's all needed right now. Donate art or signed books (with values of at least $10) for a series o

I doubt I'm stepping on the toes of Spiros Xenos here when I present the first cover here. I'm not going to belabour it with a pile of text, rather I just want to show it off. It's a Hart Amos cover for the comic Super Adventure Comic #61 . No real reason to show it off other than to show the world that there were some genuine talents in the Australian comic book scene back in the 1950s. Now this second comic, Western Roundup #4, has me stumped as to who the cover artist is. I'm assuming that the artist is an Australian, and what's throwing me is that the style looks very much like Maurice Bramley , but I doubt that it is him. Bramley's backgrounds were usually more detailed and not as rough. Indeed, to me anyway, this almost looks like what I expect a Bramley preliminary to look. If anyone has any idea then I'd be very keen to know. Have a peek, the scan is a nice, high resolution scan indeed. Published by Atlas (Australia) this comic features Ge

This came to me via Facebook, but I liked it so much that I thought I'd share with those who have no desire to look over on that application. The idea was to find 15 albums that, "that had a profound effect. Dug into your soul. Music that brought you to life when you heard it. Royally affected you, kicked you in the wasu, literally socked you in the gut, is what I mean. If I tagged you, try it yourself." I found it hard to limit myself to merely 15, but hey, best laid plans of mice and/or men often yadda yadda yadda. Read on. ---------------------------------- DANNY’S NOTE : Only 15? That ain’t gonna be easy but the following 15 albums are never far from me. Mind you I could do this all day and never repeat an album. I’ve limited myself to one album by any one artist and no greatest hits. Even so I’m missing a lot of albums that I love to listen to. I couldn’t stop at 15, hence the tie for 15th spot. I'm not sure that these albums changed my life, but they've c

A quick update on Dave Simons . News has come to hand that Dave has been hospitalised with stomach issues. When I last spoke to Dave he had complained about an upset stomach but was in high spirits and appeared in good health. It is frustrating that the hospital is not releasing news about Dave's status in the short term, but I should have an update in the coming hours. UPDATE : I've just received this email from Dave's sister, Bette, "I was able to talk with Dave briefly just a short while ago. He seemed to be doing better and the cause of his pain was discovered. The hospital was able to find a medication that appears to be helping. The conversation was short and details are sketchy. He will be staying the night so that his condition can be monitored. He was very weak but I did hear definite improvement over earlier this morning and certainly over yesterday." As more news comes to hand I'll be sure to post it here. People are asking what they can

The auctions to benefit Dave Simons have begun ! Just click on the previous sentence, or do an eBay search for the user name Help_Dave_Simons and bid away. These are some of the items up for offer right now. Fred Hembeck Spider-Man cover recreation Jay Fife Spiderwoman Frank Brunner sketch Dave Simons Atomic Robo Dave never asked for help. But a few of us are offering it anyway. Want to help us help Dave Simons? 1) Donate cash directly to Dave via PayPal at davidlsimons@earthlink.net -- If you want to remain anonymous, PayPal Dave's art agent Bob Shaw and he will get the cash to Dave, every cent of it. 2) Donate art or signed books (with values of at least $10) for a series of on-going auctions designed to benefit Dave. Items should be sent to Dave’s art rep, Bob Shaw is establishing an eBay account solely to assist Dave ( Help_Dave_Simons ). Auctions will proceed as items come in; all money will go directly to Dave. Items should be sent to: Bob Shaw, PO Box 650, Derry, NH, 03

You'd not read about this and believe it, but then the truth is always stranger than fiction. Bear with me here, I'll work in reverse because the most important message needs to come first. At the recent New York Comic Convention artist Reilly Brown had a pile of art stolen from his table. This is the message from Reilly: "I'm Reilly Brown, I'm an artist for Marvel comics and have worked on things like Cable & Deadpool, Hulk vs Hercules, and New Warriors. At the NY Comic Con I had a table in artist's alley and among other things, I was displaying pages of my original comic work in two black portfolio books. At the end of the convention I realized that one of the books was missing. The two books were stacked, and it was the one on the bottom that got swiped, so I think they just slid it out from underneath and walked off. "So that really sucks, and I'm pretty bummed about it. I've never had anything stolen from a convention before, so I guess