Here's the garden as of the middle of September. The last couple of nights have been cold. The hummingbirds, after a weekend of frenzy and much slurping of the sugar water in the feeders, have migrated. The last two I saw on Monday night. Only the zinnias seem to like the fall weather, blooming and reblooming.
Another angle on the zinnias.
The remains of the Queen Anne's Lace in front of a small raised bed.
The tomatoes are near the end, but there is still a good amount of green tomatoes.
Not much to see here.
I will have to pick some of the green ones and have them ripen inside.
Alex Ross has created the new Fantastic Four: Full Circle book in which he seeks to emulate the "classic" years of FF, the first 100 issues by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The book, from Abrams, came out last week. Here's a behind the scenes look with Ross himself.
Here's an interview with Jack Kirby from ... I'm not sure where. It's from a while ago, for sure. There are two parts that make up about a half-hour. They were archived by the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center.
"The following audio recordings were made at the first, full San
Diego’s Golden State Comic-Con (as it was known in those heroic days of
yore). The convention dates were August 1st through 3rd, 1970. The site
was the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. The audio segments are
presented in the order they were recorded.
"The recordings were made on seven-inch reel-to-reel tapes. The
equipment may have been a used recorder that I (Mike Towry) had
purchased from Bob Sourk,
who had been Comic-Con Chairman at the time of San Diego’s Golden State
Comic-Minicon in March 1970 but had stepped down afterwards. I’m not
certain this was the recorder used, but the recordings did suffer from
an incorrect speed, which was a problem I had with that old recorder.
Fortunately, Eric Van der Wyk (of CustomAudioCDs.com), who does expert digitizations, was able to correct for this when he transferred the tape recordings to CD.
"The tapes were given to me by Shel Dorf’s old friend Charlie Roberts who had in turn received them from Shel’s brother, Michael Dorf. So, a big thanks to Charlie and Michael!"
I was in New York for a reception for the "Drawing Inspiration: Cartoonists' Collections" gallery show at the Century Club last night. It was a lovely affair, full of old cartoonist friends and some new faces. Here are a few pics.
Arnie and Caroline Roth in front of one of his originals. A number of the original cartoons were from his personal collection.
Two great cartoonists: Roz Chast and Liza Donnelly.
Award-winning actor John Lithgow dropped in to say hello to Arnie.
Here is the woman who curated the show (I'm sorry. I didn't get her name.) and NCS Prez Jason Chatfield and Maria Scrivan.
Myself, John Reiner and Arnie Roth.
Arnie signing a book that I originally bought in 1976 at Randall Park Mall in Cleveland, OH, "The Comick Book of Pets." It was my introduction to his work.
He said, "I'm going to make it out to THE Mike. You're not just any Mike, you're THE Mike, okay?" Who am I to argue?
Some of the originals on display. Above: Charles Addams (but you knew that).
Peter Arno
James Stevenson
Barry Blitt
Ludwig Bemelmans. This is an illustration from an early children's book I believe.
Don Martin
Gary Panter
Leo Cullum
William Steig
And the guest book in progress. Pro Tip: sign with your own thicker pen! Ha ha ha.
It was a whirlwind overnight trip and it was great to see everyone. I am so fortunate to know these wonderful people who draw. They are legends.
Kevin Scott, CTO Microsoft and host of "Behind the Tech," and Christina Warren, Senior Developor Advocate at GitHub, interview Randall Munroe, creator of the Webcomic XKCD.
"Cameras capture a manga master at work, providing an unprecedented
behind-the-scenes look at the process. Known as the animator behind 'Mobile Suit Gundam,' Yasuhiko Yoshikazu takes on his final serialized
manga, 'Inui and Tatsumi.' At over 70, he moves his brush across the
page, effortlessly creating exciting action from different perspectives.
Watch as he builds complex scenes from unexpected starting points and
learn how 'Space Battleship Yamato' brought back his passion for manga."
Pioneering feminist cartoonist for underground comix Diane Noomin passed away on September 1, 2022. She was 75 years old. No cause of death given.
This was sudden and it was from Abrams editor Charlie Kochman that I first heard about it.
DIANE NOOMIN, 1947–2022
I am so sorry to share the news that Diane Noomin passed away earlier this afternoon.
Diane was a seminal creator in the underground comix movement—one of only a handful of female writer/artists in that space. Her first work was in 1973, in “Wimmen’s Comix.” She was also a regular contributor to “Arcade,” “Young Lust,” “El Perfecto,” and “Weirdo,” and was the creator of DiDi Glitz and the co-creator of “Twisted Sisters” with Aline Kominsky-Crumb.
In Fall 2019, Abrams ComicArts published DRAWING POWER: WOMEN'S STORIES OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE, HARASSMENT, AND SURVIVAL, in which more than 60 female comics creators shared their personal experiences with sexual violence and harassment through new and original comics.
The “New York Times” called DRAWING POWER a “landmark collection,” and Alison Bechdel praised it by saying it added “a striking visual dimension to the #MeToo movement. . . . By bearing witness quite literally to a wide range of traumatic incidents, the cartoonists in this book change not just the way we understand sexual assault, but the way we see it.”
Diane was married to another one of my authors, Bill Griffith, creator of Zippy the Pinhead and author and illustrator of INVISIBLE INK, NOBODY’S FOOL and the upcoming THREE ROCKS.
The colors are beginning to fade as we move toward cooler nights. Time to break out the wool blanket soon. The hummingbirds are still here, and they are going through their sugar water like crazy (getting ready for their big migration).
The zinnias are still happy.
The Queen Anne's Lace is fading, as are most of the vegetables in the raised bed behind it -- except for the tomato plant. The rest of the tomatoes ....
The rest of the tomatoes are fading, with most of the tomatoes picked.
The other two boxes are quiet, except for watermelon and peppers.
But the watermelon and peppers are pretty small.
A peek at corner of the front yard where you can see one feeder up and another on the ground since a bear came by one night and wrecked the shepherd's hook it was on.
There are decades of animated and drawn opening title movie sequences out there, and I'll be darned if Sam Henderson has put a couple of hundred together for easy browsing here. In the meantime, below is one of the hundreds: a politically incorrect animated opening title sequence from Coffee, Tea, or Me (1973) just for fun.
"It’s
with great sadness that my sister and I regret to inform you of the
passing of our mother. She died peacefully at home, as was her wish,
yesterday after living a full life of more than 101 years. There is a
time for all of us and her death comes on the heels of the birth of her
third great grandchild earlier this year. Thank you all for being part
of her life in her twilight years. We plan on holding a Celebration of
Life in September"
"Lily Renée, a comic book pioneer who was one of the first female
comic book artists during the Golden Age, an achievement that went
mostly unnoticed until she got to revel in her newfound fame in her 80s
and 90s, has passed away at the age of 101.
"Renée, born Lily Renée Willheim, came of age in a well-to-do family
in Vienna, Austria, in the 1930s. However, since her family was Jewish,
they became targets when Nazi Germany annexed Austria in March 1938. As a
teenager, she was part of the Kindertransport, a widely organized
effort to transport over 10,000 Jewish children out of Europe into the
United Kingdom before the start of World War II. She worked odd jobs in
England until her parents were able to emigrate to the United States.
She joined them there at some point around 1939.
"Once the United States entered the war in 1941, it caused a problem for
the booming comic book industry. There was a tremendous demand for comic
book content during World War II, but a number of artists (like Jack
Kirby, Will Eisner and Bob Kane) were being drafted, so the comic book
companies needed new artists and became willing to hire female comic
book artists. Renée recalled to Trina Robbins what her life was like
right before getting into comics, 'At that time, I was painting Tyrolean
designs on wooden boxes, and then I got a job on the 46th floor of
Rockefeller Center at Reiss advertising agency. They paid me 50 cents an
hour to draw catalogs for Woolworth's. And so I was making some money
too and I was going to night school, and then I think I told you that my
mother saw an ad in the paper for comic artists? I went to [the
comic-book publisher] Fiction House and I was hired on a trial basis,
and they kept me. And then after a year-and-a-half, I was doing covers
and I got a big Christmas bonus....'"
She would go on to work at Fiction House, drawing Señorita Rio, which was created by Nick Cardy. By 1948, she had left for St. John's Publishing -- along with her then-husband, Eric Peters -- drawing humor and romance comics.
"She then married Randolph Phillips, a financial consultant who was
heavily involved in the American Civil Liberties Union. She stopped
working in comics, doing some children's books and playwriting over the
years, as she also raised two children with Phillips.
"Like many Golden Age artists, Renée was mostly unknown until her
granddaughter actually contacted the great comic book historian, Trina
Robbins, in 2006, to let her know that her grandmother was Renée and, to
Robbins' amazement (and delight), she was still alive and would love to
talk about her comic book career. Robbins interviewed Renée for The Comics Journal
in 2006 and in 2007, Renée visited Comic-Con International at San Diego
for the first time and was inducted into the Hall of Fame."
From the Fritz Ascher Society: "The Pencil and the Sword. How Lily Renée put her Art to work against the Nazis," January 5, 2022. Featuring Sabine Apostolo, curator and collection manager at the Jewish Museum Vienna, and Michael Freund, media communications professor emeritus and lecturer at Webster University Vienna, and writer and guest curator at the Jewish Museum Vienna, Austria. Introduced by Rachel Stern, Director and CEO of the Fritz Ascher Society.
From the Fritz Ascher Society: "Lily Renee (born 1921): From Refugee to Renown" from November 17, 2021. Featuring Trina Robbins, Comic Herstorian and Artist, San Francisco CA, Adrienne Gruben, Mexican-American director of the film "Lily," and David Armstrong, Executive Producer of the film "Lily." Moderated by Rachel Stern, Director and CEO of the Fritz Ascher Society.
Clients worldwide. National Cartoonists Society. Jack Davis Award winner. Recognized New Hampshire Arts Education Teaching Artist. New Hampshire Institute of Art and Design at New England College Comic Arts Program Adjunct Professor. Need cartoons and illustrations? Contact: mike@mikelynchcartoons dot com
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