TOP 10 COMICS OF 2011

Here is my list of the top ten comics of 2011. Per usual, my guidelines are fairly liberal. It could be a new comic, a reprint or trade collection, or a specific creator's work. It just had to be released in 2011.

glamourpuss - Dave Sim has gone a little off-topic this year, it that's possible in a book that defies description. His fashion-magazine parody combined with an examination of comic strip illustration styles has always been a bizarre juxtaposition. This year he's left behind much of the fashion magazine motif in favor of other historical/cultural trips, including a romp through the early '60s with his signature character, Cerebus. Sim also continued his deep, deep dive into the day Alex Raymond died while driving with fellow cartoonist Stan Drake. Sim is examining this on the molecular level, and his conspiracy theories abound and expand. While his conjectures often bust the bonds of credulity, it's fascinating stuff.

Comics Revue Presents - I was originally buying this for the Steve Canyon reprints (dailies and color Sundays, currently in the early 1970s). Then I got hooked on the wealth of other comic strips being reprinted. Many I'd only heard about, while some I knew but never paid attention to. The strips are a who's who of illustrators from different eras - Dan Barry's "Flash Gordon", Bob Lubbers' "Tarzan", Al Williamson's "Secret Agent Corrigan" and Roy Crane's "Buz Sawyer". Not forgotten are the humor strips, represented by Hamlin's "Alley Oop" and "Krazy Kat" dailies by George Herriman. There's a beautiful color Sunday section with Mac Raboy's "Flash Gordon", Lee Falk's "Mandrake" and "Phantom" and Russ Manning's "Tarzan". Falk's dailies are in there, too, with the Phantom strips being straight adventure and something lacking in today's market. Their website is the pitts, so ask you comics dealer about this bi-monthly series.

Ed Brubaker's Captain America: Captain America/Captain America and Bucky/Steve Rogers: Super Soldier - Captain America is my favorite character, and Brubaker's among the best writers he's ever had. This was a big year for the character, finding Bucky Barnes (the new Captain America) out of uniform and imprisoned in a Soviet gulag. After the events of Marvel's big summer event - Fear Itself - Steve Rogers returns to the uniform as the original Captain America. That brought with it a relaunch of the "Captain America" series at #1, with Brubaker taking us on a thrill ride of old foes and new twists. The old series changed it's name to "Captain America and Bucky", but really serves as a Bucky origin/mini-series, which will lead in to his own "Winter Soldier" title in 2012. The "Steve Rogers: Super Soldier" TPB collects Brubaker's 2010 miniseries, in which Rogers, now acting as the U.S.'s top cop, tracks down those trying to duplicate the serum that made him Captain America.

Genius, Isolated: the Life and Art of Alex Toth - The first of three volumes, "Isolated" starts our journey into the career of the irascible, yet divine Toth. The Library of American Comics team of Dean Mullaney (editor), Lorraine Turner (art director) and Bruce Canwell (writer) take us further than anyone has into Toth's history and his resplendent growth as an artist. Toth begins as a major follower of Milton Caniff and Noel Sickles, quickly developing his own style that has been oft imitated, pursued and envied. This is no whitewash of a man who valued integrity and art, equated them, and suffered both professionally and personally to maintain his own high standards. Of particular note is the reprinting of Jon Fury, a weekly strip he did in the Army while stationed in Japan. What Turner has done with restoring those poor mimeographed camp newsletters is a combination of magic and talent.

Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom - I'm always a sucker for good time travel story. Tom must travel back in time to help his younger self thwart the creation of a Nazi utopia at the hands of his bastard son. This is a fun adventure which, while there are serious consequences involved, doesn't take itself too seriously. Kudos to fellow Ohioan Chris Sprouse who, in addition to being a terrific artist, is a heckuva nice guy.

Sergio Aragones Funnies - Sergio Aragones has been doing regular Simpsons work for Bongo since 2009, so I guess it's natural that his latest self-titled series would be here and not Dark Horse Comics, his home for similar work in the past. To me, this is Sergio at his finest, writing and drawing his own stories that are not locked into specific characters (e.g. Groo, the Simpsons) or format (e.g. MAD Looks At..., MAD marginals). Amusing biographical stories from his colorful life interspersed with his peerless pantomime comics. A master at work.

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol.1: The Race to Death Valley - While this once popular humor/adventure strip of the 1930s has been well-known to strip lovers, it's been more or less forgotten to the general public. Fantagraphics, which also brings us The Complete Peanuts, has launched an ambitious project to reprint the Mickey Mouse strips of Floyd Gottfredson. Gottfredson himself suffers from lack of general name recognition, overshadowed by celebrated Donald Duck artist Carl Barks (whose work is being revived as well). This was the most enjoyment I got out of a book in 2011. I'm surprised how prominent Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow are in the strip, characters little used or known today. Of special interest is a weeklong sequence in which Mickey repeatedly attempts suicide. It's done comedically, but it is jarring to see the world's most beloved character trying to end it all.

Milton Caniff - Caniff: A Visual Biography; Milton Caniff's Male Call - Ok, a self-aggrandizing plug, to be sure, with my role as Contributing Editor on "Caniff." But believe me, no one bought this 'cause I'm mentioned in the front (not even dear mother). It's the Caniff art, much of it seen for the first time, and most of it never before seen with this quality of reproduction. It's also the way Dean Mullaney uses the art to tell the story of the life of Milton Caniff, a man who drew professionally for nearly seven decades. What you get is a comprehensive look at a master and his craft, as well as an effective portrait of a man in love - with his wife, his characters, his alma mater, his hometown and his country.

That love of country comes through in "Male Call", a strip he did during WWII that was distributed to military newspapers. The strips featured Miss Lace, a suggestive coquette who generally flummoxes G.I.'s with her naivete. Caniff, who desired to serve but was 4-F, did the strip for free. The new background piece by Caniff biographer R.C. Harvey makes this book a standout from the earlier (1987) reprint.

Jordi Bernet - Jonah Hex; All-Star Western; American Vampire - A great year for Spanish great Jordi Bernet for those who love the Western genre. He drew three issues of "Jonah Hex" before the relaunch. I was hoping he's be Jonah's regular penciler for the new "All-Star Western" series. That was not to be, but Bernet has drawn the El Diablo backup feature. Mashing up horror and Western, he did a three-issue arc of "American Vampire", with the Native Americans reviving a mythological beast in hopes of driving out the Yankees, spelling disaster for all. A great storyteller in the vein of Toth, hopefully we'll see some of his native work (such as his Tex work) translated into English!

Brian Michael Bendis' Avengers/New Avengers - When the announcement came down that Bendis would be exiting the Avengers in 2012, my first and lasting reaction was "Thanks for the memories." In the past 5 plus years, he has made the Avengers the most successful franchise for Marvel Comics as well as a highly entertaining read. Bendis hurtles his heroes from one earth-shattering cataclysm to the next, without making it boring or tiresome for the reader. Say what you will about Marvel's obsession with "event" comics, Brian Michael Bendis makes it fun to ride along.

Merry Christmas!

Caniff's Christmas strips typically paid tribute to those who sacrificed so we could celebrate in peace. Here's the "Steve Canyon" Sunday from 1983 [click to enlarge] -

LICHTENSTEIN

The fine art world and the world of comics converged in controversy recently when this painting by pop art icon Roy LIchtenstein sold for $43 million dollars. Sold by Christie's, it was a record high price for a Lichtenstein. His best known works are existing comic book or comic strip panels that he would enlarge on canvas, usually replicating even the small printing "Benday" dots on a grander scale. Here is the painting that sold...

Coincidentally, the source material for Lichtenstein's painting also recently sold, in an eBay auction. It was the original art for a Sunday page for the comic strip Steve Roper and Mike Nomad. The strip is dated August 6, 1961, with art by William Overgard, who I wrote about here for his short stint as a Caniff "ghost" artist and as artist of a Steve Canyon parody called Steve Crevice. The dialogue is by Allen Saunders, a writer better known for his decades writing "Mary Worth." The auction price? $431.

If you don't know the name Roy Lichtenstein, you know his work. The famous artist of the Pop Art movement is known for his recreations/adaptations of comic book panels on canvas. The worm has turned on Lichtenstein in recent years, seen less as an innovator with a unique point of view and more as a thief and swipe artist. Crediting the true artists of Lichtenstein's work has been the mission of David Barsalou. His goal is to link every Lichtenstein comic panel painting with its original source. You can view these on Barsalou's comprehensive website, Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein. Barsalou not only has the original "Nomad" comic panel on his site, he owns the original, as he told ArtInfo writer Judd Tully in this article, which highlights the disparity between how the fine art world views Lichtenstein and his "inspiration."


Here are a couple of different panels for comparison. The first, a panel from the cover of All-American Men of War #89 (2/1962) by artist Jerry Grandenetti, and the second is "Jet Pilot", a 1962 drawing by Lichtenstein, later made into a painting. Author Isabelle Deveaux certainly prefers "Jet Pilot": "Lichtenstein's reworking of the original panel on which the present drawing is based underscores his interest in formal concerns over narrative ones...he changed the orientation of the image from vertical to horizontal."¹ See the differences? No tear in the air hose, a change in the bullet hole pattern of the canopy, and more smoke (what Deveaux calls "clouds"). These alterations "contribute to a more unified and harmonious composition."² In other words, Jerry, you suck because your drawing didn't have "classical pyramidal construction" and Roy's did. So, if you copy a work and make some minor changes, then it's your work. Sounds more like the Rob Granito theory of art.

I enjoyed this one very much. The Lichtenstein copy (inset) shares many elements of the drawing by Joe Kubert, but he did not try to copy the linework. Apparently, when faced with aping one of the greatest artists to ever pick up a pen, he reverts to his own amateurish cartoon style.


This theory holds up with "Mr. Bellamy", a a 1961 painting that has been traced by both Barsalou and Lichtenstein scholars to Milton Caniff, though it looks nothing like Caniff art. According to one scholar, Lichtenstein did his best not to ape Caniff, finding it "counterproductive to impose his own freehand personality with the brush over the ineradicable personality that was already there."³ In other words, Lichtenstein had a enough trouble copying William Overgard, so it was beyond him to copy the master that Overgard was already following.

So, thief or artist? The debate goes unresolved. Just recently, comics journalist Rich Johnston called Lichtenstein's work a transformative artistic act. I agree part way with him, then go thief on the rest. I think he had an interesting concept that went too far. I think after he'd done a few Disney characters, he realized he was going to get in trouble. Why not, then, anonymous characters from Romance and War comics (notice it's not Superman and Galactus he's drawing). If he had done a few, then he's a guy who's saying something new. To do it again and again and again, I think, earns him the reputation as a fraud.

I'll leave you with a Lichtenstein that was not from a comic panel. It may not be my taste, or even comprehensible, but at least it's original.Brushstroke Head I, 1987, Painted and patinated bronze


Thanks to comic strip enthusiast D.D. Degg for breaking this story.
Thanks to David Barsalou for his invaluable site, Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein.

^1,2Dervaux, Isabelle, "Lichtenstein: The Black and White Drawings, 1961-1968," The Morgan Library and Museum, 2010.
³Hickey, Dave, "Roy Lichtenstein : brushstrokes : four decades", Mitchell-Inees & Nash, 2002.

TERRY TATTOOS

From the archive of oddites, here are Terry & the Pirates tattoo transfers. They feature a nice array of 22 characters from the run of the strip, mostly from war years. 'Terry' was no stranger to merchandising, being not only a popular comic strip, but also adapted to comic book form and a long-running serialized radio show. I'm not sure of the origin of these. Online clues point to them being a cereal premium, but the packaging itself gives us little to go on. There's no name of a product to promote or name of the manufacturer or printed them. One gimmick I like is the way the envelope the tattoos come in can double as a mailer. What a nice gift!




The other intriguing thing to me is the designation "Pack no. 9." Hmmm, what are packs 1 - 8, or even 10+? A little digging and help from other comic fans led to filling in some of the gaps, but not all.
PACK #1 - CAPTAIN MARVEL





PACK #2 - CAPTAIN MARVEL


PACK #4 - FUNNY ANIMALS (all from Fawcett, publisher of Captain Marvel)


PACK #5 - DICK TRACY


PACK #8 - CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT (another Fawcett hero, mostly unseen since 1948)





Here are a couple more that do not have pack numbers and may or may not be related to the other series...
BATMAN


BLUE BEETLE

Q&A with DEAN MULLANEY

I can't believe it's been three months since the release of CANIFF: A Visual Biography. It's about time I picked the brain of the book's editor, Dean Mullaney, to find out more about how the book came together. As I reported earlier, about a year ago I assisted Dean and Lorraine Turner in researching the book. But that was just one of the three days that they were at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. And that's not the only place they did research. Then the real trick is taking all of that art and turning it into a cohesive narrative, the story of master illustrator Milton Caniff and his six decade art career.

Matt: Dean, when we first spoke in 2008, I asked if there was any more Caniff that you'd like to do. You mentioned an art book back then. Was the final product close to your early vision?

Dean: It was, although that original vision was fairly vague. It started coming together in my head as we chose material for reproduction, but it didn't gel until I had all the scanning done and started organizing the art by period and category.
Matt: Originally I was not enthused about your decision to include story sequences. I thought the non-strip art should stand alone. Upon reading the book, I agree that it's an essential part in talking about "the art of Caniff". How did you choose the sequences that you used?

Dean: You simply can't have a book about a cartoonist without showing his cartoons! I asked my comrade Bruce Canwell for a list of what he considered "must-read" sequences. Most of them coincided with my choices, and he had a few that I didn't pick. I went with his longer list.
Matt: While the book is chronological, it's also thematic. For example, the 'You Are the Flag' piece from 1965 is on page 13. At the outset did you want to avoid a strict adherence to chronology?

Dean: I knew from the start that we couldn't organize it all in a strict chronological sense. For example, you can better understand the pubic service art Caniff donated throughout his career when you see that he was always available for a good cause, when you can see that continuity of purpose. If I had spread out those contributions chronologically throughout the book, it would have been too scattered to appreciate. My job as an editor and designer is to organize the material -- editorially and visually -- in a way that has the most impact on the reader. With his earlier work, I was struggling with how to organize it until I decided to call the chapter "The Buckeye Boy," which allowed me to run everything from his childhood drawings to his and Bunny's Ohio-born relationship. [Esther "Bunny" Parsons was Mrs. Caniff - M.]
Matt: There's quite a bit of material from his Ohio State/Columbus Dispatch days (nearly the first 100 pages!). Were you surprised by not just the quantity but the quality of the work? Much of his college age art is on par with more mature work.
Dean: Like most Caniff fans, I'd seen bits and pieces of this early work, but you don't appreciate how darned good he was until you see page after page of it. It's as close as we can get so many years after the fact of experiencing seeing this young guy's art day in and day out in the paper. The same thing is true of the "Gay Thirties" section. Many comics histories print one or two examples of this panel cartoon. I decided to run an entire month of the strip so readers could get a true feel for it. You need to read that many to get into the rhythm of why it worked.

Matt: What are some of your favorite finds that you didn't know existed?

Dean: Holding Noel Sickles's original art for the "Steve Canyon" logo was the biggest thrill. Others include seeing the poster announcing "Dickie Dare", and finding the rest of the collatoral material for Caniff's one-man show at the Levy Gallery in 1941.
Matt: How has the response been to the book?

Dean: I'm happy to report that I've only heard good things and that sales are strong and consistent. The response that's meant the most to me, though, came from Milton's nephew Harry Guyton. That Harry loves it is good enough for me!
Matt: What can you tell me about Contributing Editor Matt Tauber? He sounds like an awesome dude.

Dean: You may be thinking of his twin…Talk about a nice guy! Seriously, I've told you this before, but you were an essential part of researching the choices that went into the book. It's always great to do something worthwhile that's also fun.

Aw, Dean, I'm blushing. Thanks for the compliments. I will now stop blackmailing you.

MILTON CANIFF NEWS - DECEMBER 2011

They're almost here. John Ellis of the Caniff Estate has announced that Volume 3 of the 'Steve Canyon' TV series on DVD will likely be shipped by December 20th, in time for Christmas. There is still time to pre-order your copy of volume 3 and receive the free slipcase that holds volumes 1-3. You can order it direct from Ellis here.

With the completion of that Canyon project, another begins next month. Steve Canyon Vol.1: 1947-1948 debuts from the Library of American Comics (LOAC), beginning a biannual reprinting of Caniff's classic strip. What a great way to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Steve Canyon! You can pre-order your copy here.

One of the LOAC's friendly rivals in the comic reprint biz, Fantagraphics, recently began their own monumental series, that of Carl Barks and his Disney Duck work. A recent Publisher's Weekly article by James Romberger reviews the first volume, and draws a connection between Barks and Caniff. You can read that here.

Comic book artist and cartoonist Jerry Robinson died this week, on December 7th, at age 87. Robinson is best known as the creator of two essential Batman characters - Robin and the Joker. Some also credit him for the look of the early Batman comics, having started drawing for Batman co-creator Bob Kane in 1939, vastly improving on Kane's limited drawing skills at the age of 17. Robinson went on to do several comic strips - "Jet Scott", "Flubs & Fluffs", "Still Life", "Life with Robinson". He was president of the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) from 1967-69 and won their Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. His collaborative biography - "Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics" - was published last year and is currently available at nice discount. Robinson was active up until his death. Last year he published an updated version of The Comics: an Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art, originally published in 1974. One of the early, and essential, works of comic scholarship.

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, which houses the Caniff Collection, was recently featured in this article by Stan Myers in the Repository, which serves the Canton, Ohio area.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) has an online collection of comic books done as a public service. Their Government Comics Collection, run by Prof. Richard Graham, is available online here. Graham has compiled a history of this type of comic into a new book:'Government Issue: Comics for the People'. Caniff was a very civic minded individual, and this is discussed in the book. One pamphlet he worked on - Bullets or Words, can be downloaded and read from this website.

MILTON CANIFF NEWS - NOVEMBER 2011

On 10/26, Comic Book Resources (CBR) posted an interview with Dean Mullaney of the Library of American Comics. Dean discussed his exciting upcoming projects, including Steve Canyon, as well as recent projects, such as the Caniff art book.

CBR also has a fun feature called Comic Book Legends Revealed. It clears up the rumors of comics' past in an entertaining way. This latest post gets to what never seemed strange to me, but may be strange to some. Was a "Terry & the Pirates" Sunday page read into the Congressional Record the next day? Find out!

In celebration of the bicentennial of Columbus, Ohio, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum will show an exhibit dedicated to cartoonists associated with Ohio's capital. The exhibit will include artwork by Ireland, Milton Caniff and other luminaries, such as James Thurber. "Columbus Cartoonists: A Bicentennial Celebration" runs January 23rd through April 27th. More details here.

Caniff was the subject of a recent feature in the Columbus Dispatch - A Look Back by Jieun Kang. It's unclear what the motivation was for doing a Caniff article now, as it doesn't mention any of the several 2011 Caniff projects. It's nice to see them pay homage to someone who gave so much of himself to the Dispatch between 1925-32. Oddly, they didn't use any of his Dispatch art in the article. Fortunately, "CANIFF: A Visual Biography" has a copious amount.

Milton Caniff must be on the news brain, as he had another write-up in the Times Bulletin of Van Wert, Ohio. The article by Kay Sluterbeck is one of the few to note how important Caniff's theater training was to infusing "Terry & the Pirates" with drama, tension and suspense. You can read the article here.

And if you haven't already pre-ordered yours, volume 3 of STEVE CANYON ON DVD is due out November 14th!