Former Swamp Thing artist and Taboo mastermind Steve Bissette moderates his own message board, and unlike most comic creator boards, it’s readable, enjoyable, and informative. Most of the discussion centers around Bissette’s passion for horror movies, but comics do get brought up once in a while as well.

I’ve been seeing references to it on various comic sites, but it took an e-mail from pal John to finally get me to take a look at it.

Doomworld…featuring artwork by Tom “Gallows” Grindberg. It is quite possibly the most brain-damaging comic you’ll ever read.

The first word balloon on page two is almost like poetry.

Supertalk: The Movie – superheroes (and their loved ones) call in to radio psychologist “Dr. Flora” for help with their special problems. Downloadable in Window Media Format and Quicktime here.

(thanks to JP)

This is a great site for scans of old crime comics…I hadn’t visited in a while, so imagine my surprise when I finally went to the site again and found a notice that all the comics on this site are going up on eBay!

Here’s another gallery, not quite as polished — it’s a tribute to the Silver Surfer, Green Lantern, and the Green Goblin! Aside from having colors in their names, I’m not sure what they all have in common, and this page hasn’t been updated in a couple years (having achieved perfection on August 13, 2001), but there are some neat things to be found in the nooks and crannies. (Warning…Tripod pop-ups on every page.)

Marie’s Cows is a site collecting all the cow drawings Marie Javins gathered during her Marvel Comics editing career.

However, my favorite comics gallery site is this one…comic artists drawing characters on cliffs. Or drawing things in jars. The whole darn site is fantastic.

Teen Boat!

I think it was pal Reid who originally brought this to my attention. Funny stuff.

My pal John is my hero.

Someone on the John Byrne Message Board replied to a post linking to Time Magazine’s best comics article by saying “I’ve never heard of any of these.”

Either this person shops at the worst comic shop in the world, or this person just hasn’t been paying attention to comics or the comics industry at all. How did someone with internet access somehow miss any references to the excellent Blankets over the past year? I swear every comics website on the planet mentioned it at least once. And, for Pete’s sake, even the most myopic superhero fans know about The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen! And to not know about Palomar!?

I just don’t get it. It’s like the exact opposite of those comic fans who try to prove how hoity-toity they are by claiming they pay absolutely no attention to superhero comics. “What is this, how you say, ‘Super-Man’ you speak of?” Sigh.

Yeah, I know, Atari Force, how good could it be, right? Well, actually, it’s darn good comic book science fiction, with light writing by Law & Order writer and Man-Thing creator Gerry Conway and spectacular art by the criminally-underused Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez…later issues were nearly as good, with writing by Nexus creator Mike Baron and art by Eduardo Barreto. Yes, they follow up on characters and situations from the comics that came prepackaged with Atari 2600 game cartridges. Plenty of strange aliens, swashbuckling Star Wars style space action, great lettering from Bob Lappan…it’s a lot of fun, and probably the best comic Conway ever wrote. (Baron’s best comic is still Nexus, but he did a good job here, too.)

Alas, in 1985 it all came to an end, after only 20 issues (and a later special with some inventory stories). This site, which has been online for about 8(!) years, covers this comic in excruciating detail.

(Look, it was either this or a discussion of “comic book ages” (you know, Golden Age, Silver Age, etc.). Consider yourself lucky.)

Comics legend Julie “Be Original” Schwartz is in the hospital with pneumonia. Everyone else seems to be pointing to Harlan Ellison’s message board for updates (and reminiscing), so I’ll do the same just to avoid confusion. Hopefully his health will improve…Mark Evanier has a few words about people who have presumed the worst about Mr. Schwartz’s mortality in the past. (His permalinks don’t seem to be working right at the moment, due to having to code it all by hand, but it’s the Dec. 16th entry.)

A three-issue Lex Luthor story from the mid-80s was interrupted by a surprise 70th birthday tribute issue prepared for then Supes-editor Schwartz by the creative staff.

Ah, a good day for comics. You’ve got your Prison Funnies, your Scurvy Dogs, your Zippy Annual 2003, your Plastic Man Annual, your Batman Adventures, your Hate Annual #4, your New X-Men #150, your Superfolks…lots of good reading.

Speaking of the Plastic Man Annual…is Plastic Man’s origin story one of the most reprinted Golden Age stories or what? I think I must have it in a half-dozen publications (including The Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics). I shouldn’t complain, as I know it’ll be new to a lot of people, but part of me still wishes they would have used those pages for another story. And reprinting a text story? Nobody read these things in the comics back then, no one’s gonna read it now! And the 60s Plastic Man story…Gil Kane art is always a treat. Funny Gil Kane art is even better! Okay, nobody liked the 60s Plastic Man, but I have some fondness for it. Don’t ask me to explain.

Plus, if I can’t have Jack Cole on the current iteration of Plastic Man…I’ll accept Kyle Baker.