Comic Book Brain

Last Update: October 7, 2024


Recap of "Harvey Kurtzman Week"The Comics Journal


Goya's The Bandit Maragato series

Comic book stories of 1806: this oil painted sequential story by Francisco Goya [below] tells how Fray Pedro defeated the bandit Maragato.

Goya - Sequential art - Friar Pedro defeats the bandit El Maragato - frame 1

Maragato points a gun
El Maragato amenaza con su fusil a fray Pedro de Zaldivia

Goya - Sequential art - Friar Pedro defeats the bandit El Maragato - frame 2

Friar Pedro attempts to disarm Maragato

Goya - Sequential art - Friar Pedro defeats the bandit El Maragato - frame 3

Friar Pedro fights Maragato

Goya - Sequential art - Friar Pedro defeats the bandit El Maragato - frame 4

Friar Pedro wrests the gun from Maragato
Fray Pedro arrebata el fusil al Maragato

Goya - Sequential art - Friar Pedro defeats the bandit El Maragato - frame 5

Friar Pedro fires at Maragato
Fray Pedro dispara contra el Maragato

Goya - Sequential art - Friar Pedro defeats the bandit El Maragato - frame 6

Friar Pedro ties up Maragato
Fray Pedro ata el Maragato


Rare set of comics coming to auction, from a private collection that includes every single issue of DC comics ever published

Story at Bleedingcool

...Farrell had about 8,000 comics "crammed into cartons stacked to the ceiling in an upstairs bedroom." By the time she died in April of 2024, her collection had grown exponentially. In her basement vault and scattered throughout her house, Farrell left behind tens of thousands of books, among them every single one available DC Comics had ever published, beginning with 1935's New Fun Comics No. 1 and including 1940's Double Action Comics #2, of which there are only seven copies said to have survived.

Farrell's collecting began in 1970 and was "completed" it in 2007 the year she had obtained at least one copy of every available comic DC had ever published. DC used Farrell's collection (with her permission, though she asked to receive no credit) for certain books when they couldn't find their own copies in order to make reprints.

The Heritage Auctions page


‘Joker: Folie À Deux’ Opening Weekend May Be 2024 Box Office Punch-Line

Story at Forbes

Joker II worldwide box office at $121,100,000The Numbers

Warner Bros. spending spree for ‘Joker 2’ with budget going to $200 Million, Lady Gaga’s $12 Million PaydayVariety [Feb 2024]



DC's "All-In" arrives with DC All In Special #1 by Scott Snyder & Wes Craig CBR MSN News


Los Angeles Stan Lee house going on saleRaleigh News and Observer


Joker II getting trashed brutally by critics and fans alike

How the Joker 2 "pisses me off" and makes "think less of the original film"MSN Cinemablend

"Congratulations, Hollywood, you’ve ruined the Joker for good" MSN Digital Trend

Just How Bad Does It Look For ‘Joker 2’? Critical Pans And Worsening Box Office Predictions Spell DoomForbes

'The Dark Knight' connection in 'Joker: Folie à Deux' is laughably badMashable

Joker II: Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga Sing a Duet That's Way Out of TuneMSN People Magazine

Joker sequel is bleak and boringBoston Herald

Joker sequel doesn’t know why it existsComics Beat


The big comic book releases of October

Story at IGN


Batman Last Halloween from Jeph Loeb and Eduardo RissoSuperherohype


The James Gunn Superman is more Star Wars than it is Marvel movies, the "opposite of the DCEU"Bounding into Comics


Marvel And DC had jointly trademarked the term "Super Hero" in 1979 - now their claim is cancelledSomething

According to Reuters, the U.S. Patent And Trademark Office has enforced the cancellation in response to a challenge from Superbabies Limited. The company that produces a series of Superbabies comics about superhero babies posited that “Super Hero”, “Superhero” or “Super-hero” are generic terms that shouldn’t be subjected to exclusivity...."


Bane and Deathstroke movie coming?

Story at AV Club


"The Madcap History of Mad Magazine"Smithsonian Magazine


Harvey Kurtzman Week at The Comics JournalThe Comics Journal

This Thursday, Oct. 3, marks the 100th birthday of Harvey Kurtzman, the genius behind Two-Fisted Tales, Frontline Combat, Mad, Trump, Humbug, Help! and, yes, even Little Annie Fanny.

Kurtzman’s work changed the shape of American humor with his take on the truth. Advertising is lying to you, Hollywood is lying to you, the government is definitely lying to you- but if you find out what’s not true, therein lies the joke. This style of gag informed the themes of the bulk of our comedy culture, ranging from Saturday Night Live to The Simpsons to Strangers With Candy.


The coming DC comics for DecemberComicsbeat


A collection of film adverts for TV promoting comics and magazines like the Dandy, Bunty and Jackie discovered in a building Dundee, UK, owned by publisher DC ThomsonBBC News


Alex Nino 1973

Alex Nino artwork - Secrets Sinister House 1973

Nino art - 1973 - Secrets of Sinister House

A combination of factors made Alex Nino not only one of DC Comics best stylists during the 1970s, but also one of the most unusual. The vaguely-drug influenced fashion of the time allowed for Nino's distortion effects, and well-matched to the list of DC's "mystery" books which featured a cliche' assortment of vampires, werewolves, and swamp monsters, but also "I'm going crazy" stories that required the artist to make the physical world look like how the suffering protagonist saw it for a sequence of 6, 8, or 12 pages. At this, Nino seemed to have the freedom to create an alternative reality, one that was supposed to represent lunacy, from Nino it was a well-designed lunacy with a touch of humor.

International Comic Book Artist Alex Nino: Veteran comic book artist from the Philippines. His art has appeared in DC Comics, Marvel, Warren, Dark Horse and Heavy Metal magazine (and in various comic books of the Philippines). With an easy to recognize style, Nino is a favorite among professional artists and in Bronze era fans, too. His design work has also appeared in films, including Disney's Atlantis Lost Empire (2001).



"The Madcap History of Mad Magazine"Smithsonian Magazine

In March 1976, a great American portrait debuted to an adoring public. It was a bicentennial appreciation of George Washington … of a sort. Inspired by The Athenaeum Portrait, Gilbert Stuart’s 1796 painting featured on the one-dollar bill, this rendering of the first president featured one distinction. The original showed Washington with swollen, tightly closed lips due to a new set of ill-fitting dentures, while the 1976 version had a gap-toothed smirk instantly recognizable to America’s middle school reprobates. Equally recognizable was the blank stare that those same kids knew evoked the iconic question: "What, Me Worry?"

The exhibit What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine at the Norman Rockwell Museum – June 8, 2024 through October 27, 2024

There's a 2-Day online ZOOM symposium being presented from the museum – The Usual Gang of Idiots and Other Suspects: MAD Magazine and American Humor Online Symposium – Zoom Webinar Friday, October 18 from 6pm to 8pm Saturday, October 19 from 10am to 3:30pm – Price: Norman Rockwell Museum Members: $25 Non-Members: $35 College Students: $10


How unrelated events can impact comic resell values and provoke Golden Age comics to go to auction Bleedingcool


The retirement of the Time Warp comic book shopBroomfield Enterprise

How a beloved Boulder business survived decades of changes, burglars and Amazon"


Most comic book readers start under the age of ten

Story at South Florida Reporter


Image's Transformers #13 sells 100k copies to comic shopsBleedingcool


Dead again

Preview-Review: Wolverine: Revenge #2 MSN Screenrant


The most "collectible" Batman comicsCBR MSN

...things like "comic book price guides" are basically things of the past, as the great equalizer in terms of "price guides" is the online auction site, eBay, which serves as the best price guide around, as it shows you precisely what people ARE paying for comic books in question... Sonja Grunfeld, an account executive at Edelman, recently told CBR about some fascinating facts about how popular Batman comic books have been on eBay recently. She noted that global users searched for Batman items over 4,000 times per hour during the first half of 2024! That's pretty crazy. She added that sales for issues like Batman 428 increasing nearly 140% and Batman 251 by 30% in 2023 compared to the year prior, on eBay globally."


Spanish Import Spider-Man 2 Bluray

The New York Comicon programs for 2024Comicsbeat

Official WebsiteNew York Comiccon


Shelved Concorde game cost $400 million?Boundingintocomics

...the game was, to a fault, "heavily championed behind the scenes." "The idea behind this was, and the term apparently verbatim had been used that ‘Concord is the future of Playstation,’ said Moriarty’s source. "That they had such major ambition behind this game, that it was referred to internally as a ‘Star Wars-like project for Sony’


Instant Comic Book Collection Amazon

Comic book exploitation: Public DomainMSN Boing Boing

Originally launched as a Substack original comic, Public Domain tells the story of illustrator Syd Dallas and his wayward sons, Miles and David. Years ago, Syd helped create a popular comic book, Domain, which has now been turned into a billion-dollar Hollywood franchise. Of course, Syd sees none of that money, much to his family's chagrin-until his son Miles, a deeply indebted gambling addict, finds some old dusty paperwork in the basement that says that Syd might own the IP after all...."


Explaining Wolverine's costumesMSN CBR


Scotland’s most underrated city – birthplace of the Beano and Dandy comicsUK The Sun


Interview with Mark Waid and Chris Samnee about Batman and Robin Year One seriesComicsbeat


The "wacky" mashup of Marvel characters and Fortnite into food items: Ghost Rider as hamburger, Wolverine as a bananaGamesradar


Lucky Luke comes to auction

Story at First Online

Maurice De Bevere aka “Morris” created Lucky Luke the “lone cowboy”in 1946.

The first complete album was released in 1947, followed by 71 more during Morris's lifetime. The 50 pages of comics for sale come from almost as many different albums. They reflect the evolution of a character who became a legend for generations of readers...."


Mike Mignola says thank you to Marvel Comics for "screwing him over" which helped bring forth Hellboy

Story at Bounding into Comics


Interview with Manu Larcenet about doing the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD for comics

Story at Comicsbeat


85th Anniversary Batman 10 Film 4K Collection

85th Anniversary Batman 10 Film 4K Collection at Amazon


Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters film

Story at Screenrant


Marvel comics collector used London buses to find rare issues and now the collection is going to auctionUK Yahoo


Woman facing extradition from Scotland to USA for defrauding comic book companyUK The Times

A woman accused of defrauding her American employer of more than £130,000 to buy a kilt and gift cards before fleeing to Scotland has been sentenced to almost four years in prison by a judge in the United States. Sarah Lynn Tweedie, 49, who was extradited from Scotland in March, was also ordered to repay the money to the comic book publishing company based in St Louis, Missouri, after pleading guilty in June to one charge of wire fraud and one of aggravated identity theft at a court in Missouri..."


"Blank comic book pages" goes back to printBleedingcool


The "then and now" art of Alex RossScreenrant


Beetlejuice Beetlejuice making money could mean Tim Burton should also revisit you-know-what-franchise* and bring Michael Keaton along for the rideMSN Nerdist

The Numbers reports Beetlejuice Beetlejuice bringing in $172,433,471 million world wide so far.

*Batman


Game Stop reports a profit number, but also announces store closures comingGamespot


Review of Hellboy Artist Edition: Richard Corben

Story at The Comics Journal

The book collects all of Corben’s Hellboy-adjacent work with writer Mike Mignola, from the shorts in “Double Feature of Evil” to the longer myth-narrative of “The Crooked Man”2 in a nice, large-sized hardcover. One reading these stories for the first time wouldn’t know that the man drawing these was well in his 60s when the collaboration began (starting with “Makoma” in 2006) and well-past 70 when the last work saw print (“The Mirror,” 2016). Indeed, I wasn’t much of Corban fan when I first read these, the young(er) and foolish(er) version of me first experienced Corben when my mind wasn’t developed enough to appreciate him, but reading his Hellboy taught me to love Corben’s artwork..."


Is Marvel going to drop film projects Blade and Armor Wars?Bounding into Comics


Debunking Stan Lee's seminal 1974 book The Origins of Marvel Comics

I was a kid in Glyfada, Greece, when I saw a paperbound copy of Stan Lee's Origins of Marvel Comics at a newstand. I was a DC Comics kid and only obtained Marvel titles through trading with other readers, and I only did that halfheartedly because I had so little knowledge of the Marvel characters and stories. Picking up a random issue meant not really understanding a lot of detail since the tales were nominally linked to previous issues, which I didn't have, but here was an opportunity to clear a lot of that up with an actual book that showed the foundation of the Marvel Comics characters. The only other "scholarly" work on comic books I had then was a paperback of All in Color for a Dime, so Origins was a way to fill in a huge empty space for me on the history of comics, and importantly, a relatively (then) contemporary piece of that history.

Well, now comes Stan Lee Lied: Your Handy Guide to Every Lie in The Origins of Marvel Comics by Chaz Gower. The review of the book at Bleeding Cool mentions how the book is dedicated to the recently passed pioneer comics collector and store owner Bob Beerbohm (who had a lot of opinions on the conflicting classic era origin stories about who authored what, when, and how, for example: "Lee was essentially a blank-slate, a clueless grifter, who from the mid 60s thru the mid 70s transformed himself.")

Amazon Link Stan Lee Lied

Amazon Link to Origins of Marvel Comics 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition


The plans for September 21 "Batman Day"

Article at Batman News – DC Comics Batman Day announcement


Denver Mile High Comics marks 50 year anniversaryWestword


The unique history of American ComicsScotscoop

A very short history of medium with emphasis on popularity measurements.

Still, comic book popularity remains. In 2011, the overall North American market, including both print and digital, was estimated to be worth $715 million; in 2021, the market increased to $2.075 billion, according to Comichron."


Beano #1 from 1938 gets record price at auctionDown the Tubes


The "top comics" for the end of summerComicsbeat


Grant Geissman and the magisterial History of EC ComicsComics Journal



James Gunn idea for Superman-Batman teamup movie to be titled World's FinestGamerant


Beetlejuice aiming for $100+ million weekend start for theatre runVariety

Related: Michael Keaton "A lot of people making money in superhero films because of Tim Burton's vision for 1989 Batman" Variety


IDW downsizingPublishers Weekly

The departures mark just the latest round of workforce downsizing at IDW over the past two years. In April 2023, the publisher reorganized after laying off 39% of its staff and delisting itself from the NYSE. And Doyle’s exit was only the latest in a steady stream of them at the top of the company—a number of them voluntary—leaving industry observers wondering who will run IDW's editorial department..."


Controversy around payment on Jen Bartel's She-Hulk coversBleeding Cool

Jen Bartel is upset, apparently with good cause, because her Marvel Comics art is being sold digitally without any remuneration.

We have to accept sh-tty deals knowing full well that they're bad, bc the alternative is no deal at all..."


Deadpool and Wolverine keeps piling up the box office money – crosses the $600 million domestic earnings levelVariety


Strong bidding at auction of first issue of the UK Beano turns it into the most expensive British comic yetUK Scottish Sun

Only a handful of copies of the 28-page debut issue of The Beano are thought to still exist today..."


Seeing the Infinity Saga with 15,000+ fansYahoo

Article reads like a promo piece for the event but does include interesting observations of the "nostalgia" for the films.

The show ended with a beautiful fireworks display that paid tribute to each Avenger and brought me right back to seeing Endgame for the first time. But, in Marvel branding, there was also an “end credits” of sorts for the show right after that. Michael Giacchino himself unexpectedly came on stage to interrupt a group of fans starting to leave the venue and ask if they had just four more minutes to spare. And by four he meant that he had the orchestra play the theme for next summer’s Fantastic Four: First Steps..."


First printing of Naruto sells for $20,000Something

Right now, you can find auctions in Japan and the United States for first printing, first editions of Naruto. These volumes date back to 2000, and looking at their sale history, the editions can run upwards of $500. In some cases, a copy in excellent condition may cost $1,000, but that is not the norm. Even series as big as Naruto aren't pulling in the big bucks, but as grading enters the market, those manga prices might change...."

This is bound to mushroom as the older first wave American manga fans start hitting adult-age nostalgia stage combined with adult-level incomes.


Spider-Man Smart Watch

The Crow remake gets creamed in theaters – original ‘The Crow’ Director on the new film "I Thought The Remake Was A Cynical Cash Grab. Not Much Cash To Grab It Seems"Bounding into Comics


Low Intensity, a comics anthologyBBC MSN

Creator Marianna Mooney "When I went to comic book stores, I would've been the only girl there."

Andrew Pope, Low Intensity founder: "Having it in print really felt important," he said. "Now, market forces are against us, and it's totally understandable why print media has gone the way it has."


If you thought there was a hope that the Pattinson Batman would show up in The Penguin TV show you can stop hoping nowThe Wrap


Star Wars script that was owned by Harrison Ford, with scenes subsequently cut from the original film, found in rental home and then sold for $13K

(Feb 2024) Story at Washington Post

The script, dated March 15, 1976, and titled “The Adventures of Luke Starkiller,” sold to an Austrian collector for about $13,600 during a live-streamed auction on Saturday. The seller owned the home that Ford had rented while working on the film..."


Tucker Stone, former Editor of The Comics Journal, now the Executive Director of Communications & Marketing at Fantagraphics

Story at Bleeding Cool

Gary Groth from the article: Fantagraphics mandate... making the world safe for art comics


GO TO ARCHIVES

Get into the Public Domain archives that are online at Graphic Chatter

Time to go to Disney World? Goofy 4 Mickey

Classic Film, reviews and more Cinemagraphe

Belief-Code, Body Code and T3 Therapy? See Belief Code Therapy.com