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Love Confessions #39, 1954 - Matt Baker was among the best romance artists of the 1950s, mostly known for his work on St. John titles. His stories for other publications are fewer, less well known and vary widely in quality. In this case, his opening scene lacks the usual zest of larger romance panels. I do like how the idyllic couple in the background contrasts against the troubled relationship

A Jack Kirby Losers story in Our Fighting Forces 159 (Sept 1975) features a one-off appearance of Mile-a-Minute Jones, an African American soldier. Kirby appears to have played on Bob Kanigher's idea of making Jackie Johnson a world heavyweight boxing champ like the real life Joe Louis from the mid-20th century, by modeling his character on Jesse Owens, the Olympic champion athlete who won golds at the 1936 Games in front of Adolf Hitler, much to the Fuhrer's annoyance.


The story begins with a group of Nazis coming across an American truck that's been blown up. They check for survivors, anticipating there to be none, but the reckoned wrong. Henry Jones, star track athlete, makes his break for freedom, eluding all of his would-be executioners save one, who also shares his fleet-footedness. Turns out this mercurial Nazi is none other than Henry's old opponent in the Olympic Games, Bruno Borman. Also like Kanigher's Easy Co. story, in which Jackie Johnson slugs it out on the battlefield with his old opponent from the boxing world, here two more old sporting opponents meet in battle in WWII.


Bruno's link with Henry is that strong that he plans to make sure the other Nazis don't kill him. Whether he would have succeeded or not, we'll never know, because it's at this point that The Losers intervene, rescue Jones, and capture Borman, who happens to be holding the map his comrades need for their mission.


The Losers have a plan to capture the Nazi general, and they succeed. The other Nazi soldiers are left imprisoned, while The Losers seek to escape the area with their more valuable prize. Those Nazi troops escape, however, and the speedy Bruno catches up with The Losers and sprints across an open field to tip off the German paratroop patrol he spots in the distance.


As the only one fast enough to have a chance of catching Borman, Jones sets off in pursuit.


Jones relives the experience of being out on the track against Bruno. Just as in the 1936 Olympics, Jones again feels the urgency of undermining the Nazi claim of white racial superiority by running faster than Borman. He gains on Borman, but it reaches the point where he has to make his move if he's going to stop him in time. He leaps, but falls short. The paratroopers are alerted.


As the Nazi paratroopers turn in pursuit of The Losers, they get a deadly surprise - somehow Bruno and Henry had sprinted across a minefield unharmed, but the paratroopers are not so fortunate.


The engineer's tape that had marked the only safe route across the field had also acted as a kind of lane marker for Henry as he ran.


The Losers' ride out of this danger zone arrives. But despite escaping, Henry feels sadness due to the loss of his competitor, who lies dead on the battlefield. There will be no more contests on the track between Mile-a-Minute Jones and Bruno Borman.


The story, written by Jack Kirby, as students of Kirby's work will know, lacks that dimension Stan Lee gave to their collaborations. Nevertheless, this one is quite readable compared to some of his Fourth World material, which gets so convoluted that it often ceases to make sense. This tale is straightforward, and makes a simple point. Along the way we've seen the Nazi assumption of racial superiority again exposed. Although little was made of it at the beginning of the story, the American truck that had been blown up was manned by an African American segregated supply unit, by the looks of it, again bringing into the picture the paradox of segregated America fighting to defeat Nazi racists in an anti-racist war.

Mister Miracle #8, 1972 - The last of the 52 pagers in this series, Jack Kirby's art continues to entertain and delight. His two full page splashes and roomy panels are this time overshadowed by one of his best double page spreads. Upon entering the barracks of the Female Fury Battalion, Big Barda witnesses a chaotic array of woman warriors. Kirby's complex layout is perfectly balanced with a

Without doubt the pre-eminent UK exponent of seedy, exquisitely lit pulp style artwork. No one else comes close to Denis McLoughlin's inventiveness and ability to create book covers for detective fiction that hits you between the eyes.

All his work was great but his "noire fiction" covers (imo) were by far the best of an already impressive body of work that this wonderful and modest artist created over a sixty year career.

Use the search box to check out earlier postings for more of his artistry.

From Ed Luce about the upcoming Henry and Glenn art show this Friday:

We're very excited to announce the opening of the Henry & Glenn Forever Gang Bang group exhibition at the legendary La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles, California!   The Igloo TornadoEd Luce, Dave Davenport, Justin Hall, Johnny Ryan, KAZ and Coop!) to explore and expand their take on the hard rock love that dare not speak its name. 

For those not familiar, the original Henry & Glenn Forever book asks the question, “what if Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig were a little more than 'friends'?"  It has sold more than 30,000 copies since its debut last spring, garnering nods from guys (Tom Neely, Gin Stevens, Scot Nobles & Levon Jihanian) have invited two dozen artists (including Spin, National Public Radio, MTV, LA Weekly, Decibel, Maximum Rock’n’roll and Razorcake.  The book is still available at http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3174

The reception is Friday, February 18th from 8 - 11pm and features a signing with Igloo Tornado and performances by the faBUlous BLACK FAG (seriously, they're rad) and Danzig cover band GLENN!!!  The show itself will run February 18th - 27th.

Ed will be on hand for the exhibition's opening reception...so long lost LA peeps, please stop by and say howdy! 

For more info visit: http://www.laluzdejesus.com/shows/2011/Events/Henry_and_Glenn_Forever/Henry-and-Glenn-4Eva.htm

Jason Shiga (author of Bookhunter, Fleep, Meanwhile and Empire State) and Aaron Reiner (author of the Unsinkable Walker Bean, Spiral Bound, and Papercutter contributor)  will be at Reading Frenzy this Saturday February 19th at 7pm. You should check it out.

http://www.wweek.com/portland/event-46447-aaron_renier_and_jason_shiga.html

Ka-zar #4, 1974 - Ka-Zar had appeared in various Marvel titles since his debut in X-men #10. After a respectable run in Astonishing Tales a few years before, the character was awarded his own self-titled book. Frank Brunner delivers this superb cover, among the best of the entire series. Mystical flames emanate from below the jungle lord, radiating out toward the other figures and filling the

I just read a little about Comic Relief in Berkeley, CA closing. I call it Comic Relief, Berkeley cause I worked there when they split off into two stores. One in Berkeley and one in San Francisco. I worked at both, along with many of my friends from the Bay Area like Ben Catmull, Landry Walker and Barry Futterman. Comic Relief was an institution and is currently being fondly remembered all over the internets. I figured I should add some thoughts. Mine aren't fond for the store, they are fond for a group of people that worked there. Normally I hate doing stuff like this and would rather spend my time working on the future than reliving the past. But I've got some thoughts that need to be typed out.

In 1987 a new store opened up in Berkeley. I was at Berkeley High which was right around the corner. I'd go to CR as much as humanly possible. I'd bought comics from Best of Two Worlds where Rory Root worked (and I think where Kristine Anstine and Mike Patchen worked?) and so it was a great continuation of the old Berkeley comic store tradition I'd grown up with. But pretty quickly it became a different store. A lot of what I've read online and in the trade journaling basically gives one of the owners all the credit. And I don't want to take any respect away from Rory Root. But I do want to set some of my thoughts down.

It was clear from day one that this store cared about other things besides old comics and hot new Marvel/DC comics. Berkeley comics shops always supported the indy boom which got recontextualized as or changed into the black&white glut. I remember seeing new Elfquest and Cerebus issues (when both series started) in Best of Two Worlds and Comics & Comix. Rory, Mike and Kristine had continued this tradition, they supported Bone early on and helped with so many other books. But even that wasn't totally abnormal. Many big, good comic stores have helped make the careers of many of us in independent comics.

What Mike, Rory and Kristine did was hire some of the most knowledgable and comics loving people in the world. When you look back at the legacy of "the comic BOOK store", the lesson to learn is twofold. One, the secret to running a good business is finding good people to run it. Unfortunately none of them besides Todd Martinez ever found much reason to stay with Comic Relief beyond a few years of employment. Todd is a rare kind of person and I'll get to him in a minute. The other lesson about running a business that you can get from the Comic Relief experiment is that the reason the store itself was so good was that the employees loved comic books. Selling things that you like is easy and you aren't lying to people.

Kristine was the first manager of the store and then Comic Relief, San Francisco and in my honest opinion she made both stores. Most importantly, She hired me and was a tough boss but she worked so hard that I could never argue with that. I had a conversation with Rory one time where he was complaining about how she wouldn't do what he said so much of the time (like give me a raise). I said "There isn't a problem though because she is doing everything she does to make your business great, you just disagree with how she is doing it. Your goals are the same." Mike and Kristine split off from the Berkeley store to just run CR, SF as a separate business after a while. Kristine's management skills kept both stores afloat during her time there. But in the end they raised the rent on CR,SF (on Haight st.) and it closed.

So, Mike and Kristine and Rory laid a groundwork for a great store. But it was the employees (including Kristine) that made the stores what they were. Rory and Mike each loved their own brand of Fantasy comic. Mike was WAY ahead of the curve on the books that would become Vertigo and he constantly read comics. I mean, I read a lot of comics and he impressed me enough to remember it 20 years later. Rory came from gaming culture and was a fan of the classic gaming type comics. But within a year the store was staffed by punks and alternative culture people. They started a tiny mini comics section where, in 1988, I bought the comic that would lead to my life in comic books: "Whiplash Comics" by local skate punks. Even in the early days they were still more in the tradition of a classic Berkeley comic book store. But thanks to two of their hardest working employees and Kristine they'd become a completely different kind of store.

Josh Petrin is actually the person most people should thank for making Comic Relief into an alternative mecca. He is the one that took their tiny mini-comics shelf and turned it into a section. He was deeply involved with bringing in the giant array of counter culture books. Josh fought like mad to make that store what it got know for. He co-ran a distro called Wow-Cool and made sure that Comic Relief was always stocked with Eightball, Monkeywrench, Eric Haven comics and about anything cool in comics.

And in his footsteps came Steven Fujisaka who is still, to this day, pretty much the hardest working person I've ever worked with. Steven and Kristine were the ones who made sure that Comic Relief was always fully stocked with then new magazines like Grand Royal and Answer Me, that we were selling hundreds of. Steven and Josh were obsessive counter culture aficionados but they also knew EVERYTHING about comics, art, film, music, computers and what-have-you. Steven is one of the first people I remember pushing art manga before anyone was publishing manga. They are why Comic Relief had a functioning film and art section for years in the 90s. They made sure those books sold and kept people coming back in. Josh is the person who introduced me to a then teenage Jason Shiga in 1995. Steven and Kristine had done such a good job as orderers for the store that a headhunter for Virgin Megastore (before they opened) called to ask for the Comic Relief book buyer.

If you were a fan of Comic Relief in the 90s you owe that fandom to Kristine, Josh and Steven as well as the full spectrum of employees they supported and hired. Once they were gone there was almost no hope for the store. It slid away from being run by people who cared about what they were doing. Still, I'm sure there were people who worked there who cared about comics but maybe very few on the level of Josh or Steven.

AND then came Todd Martinez who'd been floating around the store for years. I don't know a lot of the behind the scenes drama but I can tell you that the only reason that store stayed in business after its early 90s glory days is Todd's skill as a manager. Todd didn't just care about comics, he cared (and cares) about people. He is genuinely the nicest guy in the world. He was the day to day face of the store and ran it as well as he could considering the already legendary mountain of debt that had been built up. When Rory wanted to go to San Diego with and ever larger set of booths it was Todd that made it possible. Todd was the life support for a store that was past its prime, he made it shine like a vintage car with a fresh coat of paint. But the problem was that fuel the car was running on was poisoning it.

Once Rory died Todd was supposed to get the store. And didn't. The store was burdened with a family of people that didn't care about comics. Todd moved on to a much better situation, and if you ever run a business it is somebody like Todd you should be looking for.  He really is all the stuff people lie about being on resumes. Actually it is people like Kristine, Todd, Josh and Steven you should be looking for. They are why that store is even worth talking about as opposed to the thousands of other stores started in the 80s that died in the 90s comics store massacre.

I know I'm leaving some people out, but I was only an employee for about three years and moved away from the Bay Area in 1997. I did go back every few months and stayed in touch and did follow a lot of the behind the scenes goings on.  Until last year. I don't think it was just the family that killed the store, I think it is more complicated. There is a lesson to be learned from the whole Comic Relief experience. I tried to explain it on my silly Yelp appraisal of the store, but I think those lessons are lost on people who think they know how to do everything. I learned SO much from working with four of the smartest, hardest working best people I've ever met. In their own way, they each left a giant stamp across my face that says "If you care about what you do, you can keep doing it for a long time." Sure they aren't perfect, only Kristine and Todd are still directly involved with comics (that being the measure of perfection). But for being given a tough job, and overcoming pretty intense odds, they deserve most of the credit. Rory and Mike, they deserve the credit too but mostly for setting up a giant sandbox that the rest of us could build castles in.

I realize that this is all just my rambling, whacked-out, long after the fact appraisal. I'm probably wrong about some things and I'm sure I've insulted somebody.  But to quote Bad Finger "I don't mind". I feel like I've got to say something, in a few years nobody will care much at all. The problem is, if you want to start a business that is any good and keep it going, you have to care a lot. Ultimately, it is the people who bought the comics that the people at Comic Relief cared about who are really responsible for the store. But maybe it is a symbiotic relationship of people who love comics that makes good stuff happen in comics. I'd like to believe that is the truth.

Wagon Train #5, 1960 - Like many Dell Publishing issues during the 1950s and 1960s, this western series coincided with a network television show. The photographic cover features lead actors Ward Bond and Robert Horton. Inside, Alex Toth's short story is the smallest contribution, sandwiched between two main features. His hurried, loosely rendered drawings lack much needed definition. Backgrounds

Yup pardner it's more of them thar U.K. Wild West comics, from the primordial mist that preceded the arrival of Eagle comic.

And here as a contrast to the work of the young Ron Embleton that featured on yesterday's blog, is the work of Denis McLoughlin, TV Boardman illustrator in residence and the man who with the assistance of his younger brother Colin scripting, created all the comics that TV Boardman published bar the Embleton issue of Buffalo Bill.

McLoughlin's love of U.S. comics and film is well to the fore in the pages from this comic, he was fascinated with both from an early age. By the time he was working on these comics he had just turned thirty, had recently been demobbed and prior to his war service had worked at Ward and Copley. Ward and Copley was a graphics studio in Manchester, where McLoughlin had learned his trade covering a variety of tasks until work dried up, his call up papers arriving on the heels of his redundancy notice.

 Interesting to contrast the two artists work, both with a very strong sense of lighting and drama. McLoughlin's work lacks the confident figure work of Embleton's but engages more with props and characterization. Both are charming in their own distinctive way.

This August 1971 issue of Sgt. Fury features an anti-racist story written by Al Kurzrok. Al was a writer for Harvey Comics, and then worked for Marvel mostly as a letterer but did write some 1960s and early 70s stories, including 5 issues of Sgt. Fury. Kurzrok didn't get to pen too many Marvel books. He clearly did his homework on this title, though, because stylistically in many ways it reads like a typical Sgt. Fury book. Although it has an anti-racist message, however, it doesn't deliver this with the same kind of punch that Robert Kanigher or Stan Lee would give a similar story. Given the rarity, even by 1971, of comics taking a stance against racism, it is noteworthy, and should be added to that elite list of anti-racist books. Let's take a look at it. Of course the story highlights Gabriel Jones, and it's another tale, like that in issue 56, that has Gabe on a journey to meet up with the rest of the Howlers. This one starts with him being captured by a Nazi officer on the orders of Hitler himself, who wants to use Gabe as bait in a trap for the rest of the Howling Commandos. Right from the start we're reading racist remarks from the Nazi, and he doesn't let up. The Nazi is motivated by his expectation of considerable reward from the Fuhrer should he succeed in his mission.


As with previous Sgt. Fury anti-racist tales, Southerner Rebel Ralston exhibits the greatest concern for Gabe, continuing the disconfirmation of the 'all southern whites are racists' stereotype that we've seen in anti-racist books in the 50s and 60s.


Gabe meanwhile has to put up with the racist rantings of the Nazi, but handles it well. When their plane gets shot down, they parachute into the snow below. The tables are not quite turned, but circumstances have evened things up a little.


But even Gabe can be pushed too far...


Even though an American patrol passes nearby, Gabe is thwarted in his attempt to get their attention and regain his freedom.


Chained together the two men, complete opposites not because of their respective races but because of their differing world views, continue to battle for the upper hand.


The back and forth dialogue between the Nazi and Gabe has, throughout, exposed the ludicrous yet sinister nature of white supremacist beliefs.


The difference emerges when it becomes clear that the troops they've spotted are American. The Nazi has no qualms about killing Gabe with his knife, and Gabe has to shoot him in order to defend himself. The Nazi's dead after all that, and Gabriel is back with the G.I.'s and will presumably find his way back to the Howlers.


I think this story could have been intended to be allegorical, the chain representing perhaps the institutions in American society that have bound African Americans to racist overlords. If so, then the abrupt ending suggests the racial conflict that had erupted in the Civil Rights era with African Americans pushed to the limit by racist whites unwilling to surrender their assumed superiority. I think that the story seeks, and to some extent succeeds, in ridiculing the racist way of thinking. All that Aryan supremacy stuff. By 1971 people had had enough of their hopes for progress being smashed - assassinations of key leaders, and still no real equality of opportunity in a lot of ways.