“Stop her! She’s got Mike’s keyboard!”
I apologize for the interruption in service here, as my computer keyboard at home decided to stop working and it took a try or three to get a sufficient replacement with the features I required. (Those features being “button that posts stills from Frank Miller’s The Spirit” and, well, that’s pretty much it.)
Anyway, I’ve got a new keyboard that I kinda have to get used to, as it’s a slim, flatter style and my clumsy fingers are currently fumbling all over it. Thus, please excuse any typos. I mean, more so than usual.
So anyway, let’s just cover a couple of things of interest here:
First, I got this in the mail the other day:
It’s a piece of junk mail from a cable company sent to my store and addressed to “John Buscema or Current Business Owner.”
That’s…a little strange. I’ve received (and still receive) mail at this location for previous tenants, including one named “John,” but his last name is nowhere close to “Buscema.” And given that “John Buscema” is a legendary comics artist, the name being on this piece of mail is surely not random happenstance, but it eludes me how this could have happened. I’m sure someone out there might know some possibilities.
In other, Kickstarer-related, news, the campaign for the Thorn collection, Jeff Smith’s college newspaper strip that preceded Bone, is up and running and already blew well past its goal.
I was a big fan of the Bone comics as they were coming out, and after finding out there was a college strip, well, that caught my attention. I do love me some college strips, and collections thereof, so I kinda kept half an eye out for the original 1983 Thorn: Tales from the Lantern in case an affordable copy ever happened my way.
Well, “affordable” is the real trick, I guess, since it, you know, never was. One of the tiers in the Kickstarter would get you an original copy of that 1983 book along with the new collection, but at $10,000 a throw I’m afraid I’d have to decline. I’ll be satisfied with this nice softcover, thank you.
Of note are the already unlocked “stretch goals,” achieved when the campaign hits certain financial levels. In this case, we’ll be getting facsimiles of the original Fone Bone comic booklets Smith drew as a kid. Those sound amazing.
There’s also a Nexus Kickstarter, with Steve Rude re-releasing a trade paperback from a couple of years ago in a larger format with a signed bookplate. I like the idea of a larger book, easier on your pal Mike’s old eyes to enjoy Rude’s always beautiful artwork.
Okay, thanks for your patience, everyone, and hopefully I’ll be back to my regular schedule next week.
Maybe someone at the cable company is a comics fan? Or maybe the cable company scraped the internet for your address info and the bot picked up Buscema’s name from your site by accident. Still kind of spooky/interesting.
Hey, Mike. Dan Brereton has a Kickstarter going to get GIANTKILLER back in print. That was DC and very cool yet strange for DC to put out when it did.
I don’t see email for Sal B., but I still have the thing from 2020 that involved signing up for my cremations at whenever and if I went through that company they would give me a $100 Walmart gift certificate.
Thanks for the info and link for the Thorn Kickstarter. I still have my “Spirit of Adventure” Bone signed print from 1992 and this book will be a great addition to my Jeff Smith collection.
Hey Mike,
There’s something at the Oxnard Goodwill that might? be useful for your comic-reading eyesight issues.
https://shopgoodwill.com/item/181052041
Hooks up to a TV via s-video cable. You stick a comic under the camera and it puts it on the TV.
Auction ends tomorrow at 06:23:00 PM PT. No bids at the moment and the price is at $14.99.
A couple of years back I got an email from Jack Kirby’s son Neal Kirby that was basically a “wrong number.” He was trying to track down someone who’d published bootleg copies of the Kirby Unleashed book and somehow found an old email address of mine. He sent me a nice email when I explained I wasn’t involved with the bootleg.
I went for the Thorn softcover too, although I went back and forth changing my pledge between the soft and hardcover versions. I was also early enough on the launch that I could have even have gotten the Original Art tier, but alas I don’t have a spare $1500 lying around.
Here’s a link to a very recent Steve Rude interview from Cartoonist Kayfabe:
https://youtu.be/qWINkFwA4Z4?si=wN4FY7Il3qsymWyb
Another recent, thorough and fascinating interview — with Steve Ditko’s nephew and 90-year-old younger brother, whose recollections add immeasurably to our knowledge of the man:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjlqHO6ifE0
That Steve Rude book is available from Diamond as well.
https://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/OCT231955
“I’m sure someone out there might know some possibilities.”
“You have entered… THE TWILIGHT ZONE!”
How good is Thorne? I never heard about it before. I do have all the Bone TPBs, in their original B&W, as they should be!
I read the collection of Berke Breathed’s college strip. You could see some talent, but it was no Bloom County.
“Steve Ditko’s nephew and 90-year-old younger brother”
You know a dude was around for awhile if he had a 90 year old YOUNGER brother.
@ Oliver
Thanks for the link to the Ditko relatives interview…it was quite interesting. Also seeing photos, home movies, and artifacts from Steve Ditko’s studio was very cool. I do think that the Comic Book Historians should follow up with an interview with Robin Snyder as well–if he’s willing to be interviewed–as he was Steve Ditko’s main collaborator in the field of comics from the mid ’80s up until Ditko’s passing. Imagine the stories Eric Stanton could have told if he were still around!
Love the MST3K deep cut title!
Late to the party, but that is a fine MST3K reference. (I see you, too, have the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide!)
Pretty much everything except four things is collected in the four Grendel omnibus. The Archives mentioned above, the crossovers of Hunter Rose with Batman and the Shadow, and the newish Devil’s Odyssey.
There was also a season of a Grendel TV show that was shot for Netflix but never aired. On Cartoonist Kayfabe, Wagner said it was all shot, but post-production was never finished. It lives in the never-to-be-seen vault along with Batgirl.