It's 8:00am on the 25th of December.  This time of Christmas day, to me anyway, is the best part of Christmas. On Christmas day, the morning is always so still and quiet. Birds chirping woke me up, and there's no other sound. Soon the air will be filled with the sounds of kids playing with new toys, or, at least it should be. Where we used to get bikes, toy cars and the like, kids now get X-Boxes, Playstations, iPods, mobile phones and electronic crap like that. But the morning is still the best, dead silent.  The door here is open, a cool breeze is coming in and the only sounds are the birds flying overhead - even the neighbourhood pets (including our three cattens) are quiet. Silent night my arse, it should be silent morning. Have a great Christmas everyone.  May it also herald the dawning of a bright new year to come, and begin the process of closure of the year that has been.  Be safe, be kind to others and always remember those less fortunate than you are - no matter h

There's plenty of reasons why Frank Miller's Holy Terror took so long to be published.  As we all know, the project began life as a Batman story, before DC decided that they wanted to pass on it, after which Miller retooled it to be a generic hero in a generic city.  Miller was also distracted by cinema, in particular Sin City , which he co-directed and wrote, the adaptation of 300 which he served as an executive producer and The Spirit , the latter which he directed and wrote.  The relative merits of the movies aside, and it could be easily debated that a film such as The Spirit was more an affront and insult to the memory of Will Eisner than a celebration, these projects, along with an extended, albeit interrupted and never completed, collaboration with Jim Lee for DC Comics - All Star Batman and Robin - conspired to take Miller's focus and attention away from completing Holy Terror . Holy Terror was also delayed by another problem, a lengthy delay over the u

Joe Sinnott. The name immediately evokes to mind many things: legendary inker, community-respected veteran artist, gentleman, fan-favorite and art partner of Jack Kirby. For the non-profit organization the Inkwell Awards, Joe is their Hall of Fame namesake and recipient, a living representation of what the art form of inking is really about with a decades-spanning career of work to prove it. “I said these words last year,” says Bob Almond, Inkwell Awards founder and director, “and I really can't top that description of Joe and his value to and contributions within the comic book community.”   Last year's Joe Sinnott Inking Challenge was a huge success for the non-profit Inkwell Awards organization, bringing in many veteran and contemporary artists to help our mission to educate the public about the art form of inking with before and after examples of pencils to inks, ultimately showcasing what ink artists bring to the table.  This year The Inkwells will continue o

(l to r) William Moulton Marston, H. G. Peter, Sheldon Mayer and Max Gaines in 1942 Sheldon Mayer was one of the original artists who help build DC Comics – he was there at the start of the company in 1935, leaving for a brief sojourn at Dell Comics.   When he finished up with Dell in 1938 he returned to DC and there he remained until well into the 1980s, first as an editor, and then as a writer/artist, notably on the strip Sugar and Spike.   If Mayer had only done Sugar & Spike then he’d have cemented his place in history, but possibly one of the finest acts that he ever did was to pull a submission from a rejection pile and insist that a chance be taken – the submission was a comic that people have heard of – Superman.   The rest, as they say in cliché land, is history.   Superman wasn’t the only character that Mayer helped along – he is credited with the editing and development of characters such as the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Wonder Woman.   He also created Bl