Dark Corners and Little Windows
The announcement came again, “Tom Stewart, please report to the managing director’s office.” SCT never used that system, except for emergencies. I had told them I wasn’t coming. It was past my shift and I had been warned that if I stayed one second past my shift there would be “consequences”.
Read MoreUp until a few years ago I had a couple little two-drawer filing cabinets. Inside one was a very thick file of correspondence, emails, memos all relating to those last two years. It wascouple inches thick and heavy. I had gathered all the material as it happened or after the fact, building up the file and adding to it; letters from the labor relations board, memos to me from the managing director, printed out emails supporting me from HR, others condemning me from various admin personal (couple that were sent to me accidently). Like I said, it was heavy in terms of weight and emotion.
Read MoreAh, how young I looked! Well, younger than I am now for sure. The photo was taken in May of 2002. I was in a western bib shirt phase and this is just one of them. This one was a bit itchy. I have my hand up, and Batman watch on and mouth open. I am pretending to yell. Normally I would have actually yelled, and I did but the photographer missed it. So, I faked it and he got a nice shot for the Sunday paper. Yes, this photo was published in the Sunday Seattle Times along with a very nice article on me by Times feature columnist Nichole Brodeur. Full color, below the fold on the Arts section. Now why would someone want to take my picture in such a pose? That is the odd tale I’m telling today. It really begins though a few years before 2002…
Read MoreWhen did it start? For me it must have been an old issue of the Justice League of America, probably a summertime team up of the JLA and the Justice Society of America (that was back before the summer ‘special’ issues that now flood the market). It would happen every year, the old heroes of the Justice Society meeting the young turks of the Justice League of America. Kids waited for this each summer. It was a ritual.
Read MoreYou ever had an experience that made you stop and think? No, I don't mean once a year, or even once every month or so, but one that becomes a yardstick for how you measure your life? This is one I had, one I still think about often, even though it’s been almost 20 years gone. I think about my friend Justin, a bright, energetic ten year old, who had to be the biggest Spider-Man fan I have ever seen. Spider-Man is credited by me and by his parents with keeping Justin alive.
Read MoreI knew I was in trouble as soon as I walked in the door. He was an older guy, somewhere in his 50s. Tall, with a loose flannel shirt and baseball cap. Rangy, lived in with the feel of a cowboy or truck driver about him, more comfortable outside a house than in. Tired eyes. I liked him the moment I saw him. He let me in.
Read MoreBob Hodes had a problem. As the representative for Burroughs Inc, Robert M. Hodes oversaw the Burroughs estate and its literary legacy: Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, David Innes, Red Hawk and the Moon Men… the vast galaxy Edgar Rice Burroughs left behind him upon his death in 1950. The properties had languished after the passing of the founder, falling prey to pirated copies of the Burroughs originals, and unauthorized comics (first time pirates ever got the better of Tarzan!). Funny thing was, the very pirated novels that caused the problem helped spur a Burroughs revival. ERB Inc started tending to business. At the end of the sixties the House of Burroughs (in Tarzana California, of course) was back in order, overseeing worldwide rights for movies, books, reprints, comic strips, and, of course, comic books, especially Tarzan comic books.
Read More“Hey, look at this!” I turned around to find a pistol pointed at my head, a bead taken right between my eyes. Danny (not his real name) adjusted his grip, put his left hand over his right, stretched out his arms and brought the gun even closer. His finger was on the trigger. I couldn’t see anything but that gun, couldn’t see Danny’s face or his smile as he said: “Cool, huh?”
Read MoreWhen I talk to the night,
I talk to you...
First of all, a confession. As a kid, (a very young, very ill-informed kid) I didn't care much for Mike Sekowsky's artwork. There, it's said, so let it be writ against me in the Book of Life. It seemed clunky, blocky, and just, well, strange. (I thought the same thing about Kirby...
Read MoreIn the 70's DC Comics was Neal Adams. It was his versions of the heroes, especially Batman, that became standard. I would copy an trace his art, begging it to reveal its secrets. It never did.
Read MoreWell, it has come to my attention that the vast reading public might enjoy some of these excursions into the side alley of comics, (in other words a friend said, in exasperation, "Why don't you tell someone who cares?"). So here it is, the second installment of “Comics of the Strange Too! Even Stranger!”
Read MoreWhat is Astrology? Ah yes, seeker, you do good to ask. And I'm glad you did, otherwise, why would I write this article?
Read MoreA great performance is like sex: you become one with a part, you connect at a gut/sensual level with the character and cast and you ride it all to the climax. And afterwards you feel elated and exhausted. Of course, cast mates may not want to cuddle afterword.
Read MoreIn 1968, a curious ad started running in Superman DC Comics. It featured a gangly figure, in silhouette, stalking toward the reader, with the legend, "Bat Lash. Can he save the West, or RUIN it?".
Read MoreNow my friends, gathered here today under the auspices of the mighty web, let me tell the sad tale of Carmine Infantino and one of his biggest fans, Thomas P. Stewart, and, in the course of the story, how I got the name, “The Comics Savant”.
Read More