Hoo boy, Mark Evanier really lost a lot of original art to a robbery that was more awful than I expected. I thought he lost a handful of pages, but it was much, much more than that. I normally don’t hotlink files on other servers, but Mark wants the link spread around: here’s a PDF file listing all the stolen art that he’s been able to determine so far.
Spread that link around, let’s recover those pieces.
Now, an ElfQuest movie, based on the classic indie comics by Richard and Wendy Pini, has seemed like a possibility we were always hearing about in the fan press for the last few decades. And I am honestly shocked that some deal was never struck and an animated-something-or-‘nother never was released.
Richard Pini writes on the topic, explaining the history of the offers from various studios to translate their books to other media, and what the ultimate decision was that he and Wendy settled on.
I’ve noted this before, but the Pinis dropped by my previous place of employment a couple of times. They were very nice, and happily signed lots of books for the shop. I’m glad they’re doing well and that they came to a decision about the whole movie thing they can live with.
Just learned the Belgian comics creator Hermann passed away last month. I was not a big follower of his work, but his long-running post-apocalyptic series Jeremiah is certainly familiar to me. He lived a long life doing what I presume he loved, and that’s a good way to spend your time on Earth.
So the new Fury of Firestorm #1 is released today, which comes with this variant cover by Chris Burnham:
And if you see those little yellow bits on the edges? Why, those are Firestorm’s fingertips from the original 1978 first issue:
And if you were to go to Burnham’s Bluesky account, you can see this variant cover innovation in action!
Of course, I sold off my personal copies of the first Firestorm series through my shop long ago. But I do have the trade paperback (as discussed here):
…and it looks like the layout is the same, so maybe I can take advantage of this gimmick after all!
I think Firestorm would be a good candidate for the DC Finest series.
About 20 years back, a retarded boy–sorry, I’m crippled and not PC, I use words that were here a century ago–near St. Louis had a huge collection of Superman merch and beat-up books going back only to the 1970s. So a concoction was made. A girl from the block wanted to watch that one Superman film from 2004? 2006? and they did while her bf broke in the back and stole everything S related.
Mike: you might have mentioned this on your very blog, but it if was before you started this in 2006(?). Everyone pro or not sent this guy something, via a LCS owner (it was actually East St. Louis, who Denny O’Neil once wrote was Hub City in THE QUESTION comics).
I sent him every Superman book I had from the 1950s. Neal Adams made a sketch for him that the LCS guy photocopied over and over with Neal’s blessings, and cut into postcards so the guy could send out thank you postcards. Regular people sent him books, even merch, Paul Levitz sent a boxful of stuff. That kid suddenly had about $5,000 in books and less in merch I(and I believe) pages from Norm Breyfogle of, well, Batman.
The guy wasn’t caught until he had punched an 80-something woman trying to steal her purse, some LCS in St. Louis saw him trying to pawn the stuff early on, he offered maybe $25 because of scuffs and scratches.
Point being Tl;dr etc: everyone read the link. See what is possible. The bad guys might get caught simply because of the books, showing up in a store. I might just donate some money, royalties from my own books. The only time I never did was when a famous sci-fi writer had a GoFundMe page for a nephew to get dental work.
It isn’t about karma. It’s about crime happening period.
Mike: thank you for posting this up top.
Damn. I first came across Hermann’s work in the early 2000’s when I picked up one of the oversized SAF hardcovers of Jeremiah. Became an instant fan and pretty much collected everything he drew since. Venture and SAF were the primary publishers of his American work back then. I still read the two volume set of “Towers of Bois-Maury” at least once a year. His crime novels were top notch as well.
After reading that page, I think the Pinis and Jeff Smith should compare notes. Their story sounds remarkably similar to his own luck with proposed Bone adaptions.
I hope they catch that thief.
Firestorm, while maybe overpowered as a super-hero, was a good book back in the day, with the Ronny vs Martin Stein dynamic and a couple of worthwhile villains. Many of whom like The Weasel, the Thinker, Multiplex perished in Suicide Squad but there were Black Bison, Typhoon, Stalnoivolk and Killer Frost, too. Quite the gallery for a 2nd-stringer.
I hope Mark Evanier gets all of his original art back!
I bought Firestorm no. 3 –the first appearance of Killer Frost–and no. 4 from Sterling Silver Comics a few months ago and they were both fun reads. Now I only need to buy three more issues to complete the run.
Back in the day when Fury of Firestorm came out, I believe I bought all of the Pat Broderick art issues and some of the other issues up to about no. 40 or so. It was a good ’80s comic and it was nice that Gerry Conway got to bring the character back and develop him more. And, as philfromgermany remarked, Firestorm did a have a decent rogues’ gallery.
I was looking at some cover scans for Fury of Firestorm and now I am curious as to what John Ostrander and Toms Grindberg and Mandrake were doing with the character towards the end of the run where he looks completely altered.