A day or so ago I posted a four page Jack Kirby story that was inked by Vinnie Colletta. Don’t bother writing to me saying that Mike Royer inked the job because Mike himself has come out and said that he didn’t ink the pages in question, mind you how anyone can mistake Royers inks for Colletta and vice versa is beyond me, but there you have it. Meanwhile, on the Jack Kirby Yahoo list there’s been a bit of debate overt the relative merits of the art, in particular the inking, and the effectiveness of Colletta’s inking in general. It’s an age old debate, which started when the books first appeared, if not before. People either love Vinnie’s inking or they hate it – I’m in the camp that sits on the fence really. Vinnie was capable of doing some great work, but there are just too many examples of bad inking by the man for him to be classed as one of the all time greats. One comment, from the person known as ‘Dan McFan’ (not his real name), went along the lines of, “I think the inks are, a

It must be Original Art week. I started off with a review of the ‘Grailpages’ book, followed up with a look at the market, from where I sit, and am now continuing the theme with four pages of Jack Kirby art, currently up for auction over at Comic Link . It’s funny because, as a child, I never appreciated Jack Kirby, well, not until I hit my teens and discovered a pile of old Fantastic Four and Avengers stories. However I was never able to get into the Fourth World material and it took me a long while to work out why. The stories are fine, and the art, for the most part, was stunning, but the dialogue just never sat with me. Still, comic book dialogue is not a medium that ages well, nor is it supposed to be realistic. Try getting into a fight and rambling all of that Chris Claremont dialogue one time – your head will be bleeding before you get a line out. People just don’t talk in real life like they do in a comic book, and there’s probably a good reason for that. In fact there are not

Just following on from last weeks entry about original art and the overhyped 'Grailpages' book . This weekend I placed a bid on three pieces of art that I’d seen on eBay and wanted. The art consisted of three separate images as drawn by highly rated professional artists, with credits going back as far as the early ‘70s in two cases, and the mid ‘80s in the other. All of the art were excellent images and I’d like to think highly desirable. My bids were pretty much what I’d expect to pay the artists for the works, one a published pin-up for a book and the other two private commissions, one featuring one artists inking over a blue-line pencil image by a separate artist and the other a highly detailed pencil commission. I placed the bids in as a snipe, set the limits and sat back to wait, as is my standard practice. The bidding on the pages all reached a certain level and then ceased, and, as with almost any auction I bid on, I expected a sudden surge as several snipes were placed

GRAIL PAGES , 128 page Trade Paperback - By Steven Alan Payne The blurb: “Grailpages brings to light the burgeoning hobby of collecting the original, hand-drawn art that was used to create comic books! Beginning more as a novelty, the hobby of collecting original comic art has expanded to a point where some of the seminal pages commonly run more than $10,000 each! Author Steven Alan Payne allows you to meet collectors from around the globe and hear their passion in their own words, as they detail collections ranging from a few key pages, to broad, encompassing collections of literally hundreds of pages of original comic art by such artists as Jack Kirby, John Romita Sr., and others! Balancing out the narratives are incisive interviews with industry pros, including writers Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart, and Roy Thomas, and exclusive perspectives from Silver Age artists Dick Giordano, Bob McLeod, Ernie Chan, Tony DeZuniga, and the unparalleled great, Gene Colan! Completing the book is a

I want to show off some of the sights that I see daily, the sights of Downtown Adelaide, so expect a few photos to go at random. This is the Adelaide Train Station, 8:20am, Tuesday, 19th January, 2010. Adelaide Train Station at 1:00pm Adelaide Train Station, outside rear, at 12:45pm.

I've passed out an early version of Gentleman Jim Mooney and asked for a few thoughts to come back. I'll share them over the coming days as I count down until the publication of the book. Here's the first, from Bryan 'The Professor' Stroud, who runs the Silver Lantern web-site and who conducted one of the last ever interviews with Jim Mooney . ------------ How do you encapsulate a life, particularly a long and rich one that touched many other lives, a life that lasted nearly nine decades and was gainfully employed across over six of those decades and indeed remained engaged to the end? And how do you do it in just over 100 pages? Well, Daniel Best has managed just that with his biography of “Gentleman Jim Mooney.” As you’ll learn in this engaging effort, Jim Mooney began his career at a comic book artist right at the dawn of the industry in the 1940’s and never left it, though at times it left him. His “retirement” was anything but, and his freelance and commis

I'm sure it's arson week here in Adelaide - it's not a full moon is it? These photos are the aftermath of a shop fire in James Place this morning - as usual I was stumbled onto it and took some snaps. No word on what happened just yet, but as word comes to hand I'll be sure to post it. On the plus side I hear that the police have captured the Florist arsonist from last week. Damned good result!!!

MARVEL SUES THE CHILDREN OF LEGENDARY COMIC BOOK CREATOR JACK KIRBY New York, NY, January 8, 2010 – Marvel Entertainment, LLC today sued the four children of legendary comic book creator, artist and writer Jack Kirby ( 1917-1994) for exercising their rights under the Copyright Act to recapture their father's copyrights. The prolific Jack Kirby co-authored Marvel's most famous and valuable properties including X-Men, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man, Magneto, Spider-Man, Dr. Doom, The Avengers, and Nick Fury. Kirby, known among comic book fans as Jack "The King" Kirby, is today one of the most celebrated comic book talents of all time, widely lauded for his ground-breaking work in The New York Times and by creative talent such as Pulitzer prize winner, Michael Chabon. Yet Jack Kirby and his family have never received even the slightest share of the great fortune his co-creations have generated for Marvel. Sadly, Jack died without prope

Another local business bites the dust, sadly. This is the aftermath of a deliberately lit fire in Rundle Mall. Said fire was lit sometime between 3:00 and 3:30am, and by all accounts was captured on CCTV - and the same idiot tried to light another fire further down the other end of the Mall near the pigs - mind you it'd be no great loss if the pigs went up though. The end result? $30,000 worth of damage and a business that more than likely won't be re-starting again anytime soon. Such a shame as it was one of the more friendly of the Mall stands and always had chilled water on sale very cheaply, a necessity on days like this, along with a great selection of flowers and fresh fruit. The Advertiser has some more details here , albeit light details.

As a digital download to begin with, but it's finished, being polished and is finally on it's way. No more book publishers, I'm doing this one myself. Ordering details to follow shortly, so spread the word.

There's a complicated story behind this interview so do bear with me. It was done way back in June, 2006, but we moved house shortly after and the tape vanished in the move. For a long while I lamented the fact that I'd lost an interview with someone who really doesn't do interviews all that often, if at all, and, to me anyway, it was verging on being a crime. Then a few weeks ago, I found a box and inside the box I found a pile of cassettes. As I began to play them I suddenly discovered that in the box were a pile of tapes that I'd long given up on as being lost - interviews with artists and creators on a wide range of topics. I dared not hope that I'd find this tape, but when I did I cleaned it up, enhanced the audio and transcribed it as fast as I could. Ron Wilson began at Marvel in the early 1970s, pencilling short horror stories. He rapidly moved to become a prolific cover artist and provided interior art to titles as varied as Power Man, The Avengers, F