"Black Heroes Journey" exhibit in west Philadelphia

Billy Penn at WHYY reported about an exhibition of Africa-American themed comics at the University of Pennsylvania, and a new GN about the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which is authored by artist Eric Battle:

Some people spend decades figuring out what they want to do with their lives. Eric Battle found his calling at a corner store in West Philadelphia when he was 5.

“I can still remember the day, like it was yesterday,” said Battle, now 59.

He was walking to the store with his mother and two sisters when he discovered a comic book spinner rack in the back.

“I ran over and flipped through the comics. And it’s been a love affair ever since, but that spawned my interest in drawing and reading and everything else,” he said.

That fascination grew into a career illustrating stories for Marvel and DC Comics, children’s books and graphic novels. Now, Battle is helping explore the history of Black characters and creators in comics through “The Black Hero’s Journey,” an exhibition that opened Oct. 15 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.

Battle is a co-curator of the exhibition, which runs through May 13, 2027, in the Goldstein Gallery at the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. The free exhibition traces the evolution of Black comic book heroes and the people who created them, with a particular connection to Philadelphia.

For Battle, its opening also comes as he prepares for the publication of “Framing Emmett Till: Exposing Dark Fear,” a graphic novel he spent more than five years illustrating.

Written by Christopher Benson, the book follows an anonymous Black writer investigating Till’s murder. It draws on Benson’s experience working with Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, on her memoir, “Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America.”

Till was a 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago visiting relatives in Mississippi when he was abducted and murdered in 1955 after a white woman accused him of making advances toward her.

His mother insisted on an open casket at his funeral so the public could see what had been done to her son. An all-white jury acquitted the two white men charged with his murder. Till’s death and the images of his battered body helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement.

Benson is a journalist, attorney and associate professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. The book is being published by Megascope, an Abrams ComicArts imprint curated by John Jennings, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, and a friend of Battle’s.

This reminds me of 6 years ago, when propagandist Heidi MacDonald was spouting leftist talking points like "believe women", even though there have been cases where false accusations are made, and the Till tragedy is one of them, right down to how the jury clearly predetermined their verdict in Mississippi. I'm sure MacDonald knows perfectly well her MO was flawed, and since that time, it's become apparent Warren Ellis, another leftist whom she threw under the bus, was not guilty of the mass "grooming" she took part in accusing him of. That doesn't mean I like his work. But to make absurdly petty issues over stuff that was otherwise consensual only ends up hurting the cause of actual victims, and let's not forget when MacDonald defended the disgraced CBLDF manager Charles Brownstein years ago.

Now to return to the subject, while Battle's got an interesting project to run in a history exhibition, I found out that, when he began working in comicdom years ago, and tried to work in the majors, he didn't have the best assignment:

To break into comics, he traveled to New York City to show editors his portfolios.

“It took quite a while before I was able to get my first job in comics, but that’s how it all really started,” Battle said.

His first Marvel assignment involved Cable, the X-Men character, in backup stories written by Jeph Loeb.

That wasn't considered the best written X-Men material produced, since it didn't have much clear direction to it, and came at a time when the cracks were forming in quality storytelling. Also, let's remember Cable, as he first appeared as an adult in 1990, was developed by the dreadful Rob Liefeld in the last 2 years of New Mutants, and Loeb later proved himself one of the most overrated writers in comicdom, recalling the Hush storyline he wrote for Batman, one of his "all style, no substance" type of approaches. So if Battle's now working more in the independents, he should be glad, considering how below rock bottom Marvel and DC became ever since. I wish him good luck with this exhibition and the GN's publication, and I also hope he'll consider that even today, there's a lot more that needs to paid attention to in modern times as well, if we're ever to improve just how bad things have become again, and that's also something that can make for important material for graphic novels/comic books. Those who wish to improve society and retain civility need to show the courage to actually deal with serious issues in modern times as much as the past.

Luton's Comicon pays tribute to Steve Dillon

Luton Today says their local convention is going to pay tribute to artist Steve Dillon, who passed away a decade ago:

Luton Comic Con 2026 will pay tribute to one of the town’s most celebrated creative talents with a special exhibition dedicated to the life and work of legendary comic book artist Steve Dillon.

The exhibition, which Luton Comic Con CIC describes as a special final tribute to Dillon’s legacy, will showcase his remarkable career and lasting contribution to the world of comics.

[...] Dillon’s professional career began when he was just 16 years old, when he was hired to work for Marvel UK’s Hulk Weekly. His early Marvel UK work included drawing Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as work connected to The Hulk, before he went on to establish himself across some of the most influential British and American comics.

That's pretty interesting he had Nick Fury to his credits. But what else was he know for?

He would later become renowned for his work on titles including Judge Dredd, Hellblazer and The Punisher, as well as co-creating the acclaimed Preacher with writer Garth Ennis. His distinctive storytelling and character work made him one of the most respected British comic artists of his generation.

Would that be Ennis' take on the Punisher they're referring to? Because Ennis set in motion the destruction of Frank Castle, turning it into a political mess 2 decades ago, and his take is something to admire? Though it does make me wonder what the late Gerry Conway might've thought of it.

Whatever the quality of Dillon's art, the sad part's that he was apparently one of a whole ocean of scribes who veered to the darkness, as his resume suggests. So what's so "remarkable" about that? I don't see it. There's bound to be only so many artists and writers who dealt more with the bright side - and Superman's building on that angle - who don't get as much attention as artists like Dillon may be getting (Al Plastino, for example). Seriously, it's time to give them more spotlight too.

An upcoming comics art festival in Los Angeles

The Hollywood Reporter announced there's a special convention taking place in the next 2 months in Los Angeles, primarily for artists. Unsurprisingly, the guests include at least a few pretentious modern scribes:

The world of comic art is being elevated to new heights thanks to the medium’s prominence in the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts.

Now, two comic art representatives are launching a two-day fete that seeks to keep the art form’s momentum away from the days of hunched-over collectors thumbing through unprotected pages in Tupperware crates in the basements of bargain hotels.

Taking place Nov. 7 and Nov 8 at Los Angeles’ gilded and storied Biltmore Hotel, the inaugural ICON Festival of Comic & Narrative Art will be a two-day celebration of original art by some of the most popular and influential contemporary comic book artists working in the medium.

Superstar artists Nick Dragotta, who currently pencils the industry’s top-selling Absolute Batman for DC, Daniel Warren Johnson, the Eisner-winner behind last year’s Absolute Batman Annual no. 1 and the recent Transformers for Image, and Invincible artist Ryan Ottley will be among those on hand to take part of the show, which will also feature a significant exhibition of more than 100 original works by Alex Ross, the celebrated comic painter.

What's so special about the artists who've worked on DC's Absolute line that isn't so special about those who could be working far more on independent productions? Dragotta and Johnson are actually pretty obvious choices, IMO. As for Ross, I don't deny he's talented in his own way, and he did make a statement I appreciate years ago, but even he doesn't feel like a big deal. Certainly not in an era where the comics he admires were ruined by Orwellianism.

Tickets – VIP, two-day, and one-day passes – go on sale today. The VIP package will include a signed giclee of a new Ross painting of an angel representing the Biltmore Hotel and meant to channel Old Hollywood. Ross is the artist whose seminal work Marvels and Kingdom Come opened doors for painted comics. His latest work, the ambitious graphic novel Marvel Dimensions (Abrams Comics Arts), hit stores last week.

“This is not your usual comic book event,” he said in a statement. “This is a luxury event, being held where the Academy Awards were first conceived.”

Maybe that's just the problem. Wouldn't that suggest this is for wealthy collectors, not for the middle-class buyer who may not be able to afford what they're offering? And Dimensions, as noted before, is just a modern retelling of the Golden Age Human Torch origins through a forced lens of darkness. What do we need that kind of angle for? Ross is actually undermining his previous objections to what Identity Crisis was built upon by going through with a project hinging on darkness.

If this turns out to be another excuse for speculators to rummage through and lap up as many supposedly valuable items as possible, it'll only continue to confirm what's wrong with conventions like these, and make a mockery of those centered around artists. Those who consider themselves talented shouldn't participate in something that's more about sales than storytelling value.

San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum closing, and who knows for how long?

The institution where the disgraced ex-curator Andrew Farago worked has announced on their site that they're closing down, and it looks like it's got something to do with rental issues:

The Cartoon Art Museum will not be renewing its lease at 781 Beach Street when it expires at the end of August. As a result, our current location will close on Sunday, August 2, 2026. [...]

Ten years ago, the cartoon community came together to begin a new chapter for the museum. Scores of funders supported our move to Beach Street in Fisherman’s Wharf. Since then, we have faced significant challenges, including the pandemic and the slow recovery that followed. But we have also enjoyed many successes and countless opportunities to celebrate cartoon art and the people who create it.

Not mentioned, rather predictably, is the aforementioned disgrace who undoubtably embarrassed their reputation, and led to many donors withdrawing their support, to the point they now have difficulty affording rental fees. Farago sure knew how to bring a whole institution to its knees.

I took a look at some of the museum's past exhibitions, and noticed they had at least a few that could be considered "woke", or politically motivated. We can probably guess who had a prominent role in greenlighting exhibitions like those. And if that's how it's going to be, perhaps we're not missing much.

The Daily Cartoonist notes that:

The Cartoon Art Museum first opened in 1984. In 1987 Charles M. Schulz funded the museum’s endowment allowing it to open it’s first venue in downtown San Francisco. It moved three times since landing on Beach Street in 2017. The space offered visitors 8,000 square feet gallery space, a screening area, education space, store, library and collections facility. Cartoon Art Museum reports they have over 9,000 original pieces in their collection.

They might have to sell some of those items to different institutions if they need to pay off any debts that came as a result of Farago's serious lawbreaking. I once noticed artist Ethan Van Sciver telling Farago did not do a good job on his part to ensure they'd be able to retain a steady location, and for all we know, he could've been partly the reason they had to move at least 3 times to different buildings. Depending how you view this, it's obviously a shame a museum whose donors included a famous cartoonist wound up being floored by the offensive behavior of a man who first worked with them at least a year after Schultz's passing. Others could say Schultz made a huge mistake wasting any money on their business. And now, there's no telling if they'll be able to recover from such a scandal as Farago's caused them, so what may have been the only museum of its sort on the west coast could now be history of a different kind. What a shame.

Indian cartoonist's work nominated for Eisners and Harveys

Scroll wrote about Charbak Dipta, an Indian cartoonist whose self-published comic was nominated for Eisner and Harvey awards:

West Bengal-based Charbak Dipta was nominated for the Best Digital Comic category in the 2026 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards for The World of Lublu (published in Bengali by Book Farm as Lublur Prithibi). Named for the pioneering comics creator and graphic novelist Will Eisner, the Eisner Awards are considered the “Oscars” of the comic book industry. The winners were announced on July 24 at the San Diego Comic Con International.

“Charbak Dipta is not the first Indian to be nominated,” scholar and cover designer Pinaki De remarked about the Eisner Award nomination, “but the fact that his work is done entirely in India, originally published in Bengali for a regional market, makes it so special. To think that anyone here can also make it without extensive ‘foreign’ connections augurs well for the future of Indian comics. In that sense, he is a trailblazer.”

The World of Lublu has also been nominated for this year’s Harvey Awards for Digital Book of the Year. This prize is named after pioneering American cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman, and no book-length, creator-owned work from the subcontinent has been nominated for either before, let alone both. Dipta hails from Bongaon – a town near the Indo-Bangladesh border, two hours from Kolkata. [...]

He started out as a cartoonist at The Times of India in Kolkata. He has, since then, worked as a commercial illustrator for tabloids, magazines, and publishers like Scholastic – book covers, cartoons, children’s picture books, and work-for-hire gigs ranging from Nordic mythology to Malgudi Days-esque tales to gangster narratives, while also committing to rigorous online outreach for each of his works, public appearances, and curated exhibits.

This is the daily bread of the commercial illustrator: a figure with a long and under-recognised history in India who has always worked across formats, languages, and markets with a versatility that does not easily lead to publishing boutique graphic novels. Dipta grew up on Indrajal Comics, Chacha Chaudhary, and the Bengali stalwarts, Narayan Debnath and Mayukh Chowdhury. The former designed cosmetic labels before becoming a one-man comics industry, while the latter moved fluidly between illustration and adventure serials. The tradition continues into the present in figures like Debashish Deb, Onkarnath Bhattacharya, and Uday Deb – commercial artists who straddle children’s illustration, political cartooning, graphic novels, merchandising, and branded work with the same promiscuous dexterity their predecessors mastered.

His later western influences and encounters with the Bengal School of Art and folk traditions aside, Dipta understands that survival in this ecology means taking on every role simultaneously. The mass market that could move hundreds of thousands of a single issue per month has fragmented considerably. What remains is a precarious ecosystem in which the aspiring cartoonist must also be the illustrator-for-hire, colourist, letterer, cover designer, and even publisher and translator of their own work in order to move across national boundaries.

This is certainly interesting background history, and what's additionally impressive is that Dipta helped develop the translation for one of the most famous GNs produced by the guy who founded one of the aforementioned award ceremonies:

The most satisfying loop in this story is his recent translation of Will Eisner’s A Contract with God (1978) into Bengali, completed almost simultaneously with his own nomination for an award bearing Eisner’s name. Dipta pursued the Eisner Estate himself, driven by what he saw as a structural parallel between Eisner’s Dropsie Avenue and his own Kolkata.

“The raw pain, resilience, and daily struggles of the Jewish immigrants in Eisner’s work resonate perfectly with the lived experiences of East Bengal refugees settling into the colonies of West Bengal post-Partition,” Dipta explains. “The damp, congested tenement living on Dropsie Avenue mirrors the narrow alleys, centuries-old decaying mansions, chaotic street noise, and tightly knit human relationships of North Kolkata.”

Translating Eisner also meant contending with Eisner’s lettering, blocky type that weighs on the images in very idiosyncratic ways. For a cartoonist of speed such as Dipta, who also letters his own work, one imagines this to have been both a technical challenge and a philosophical one. How does one carry the visual texture of a voice from one script to another without losing its grain? The artist always precedes the critic. Let’s leave it there.

We must also give the guy a lot of appreciation for recognizing the value of Eisner's most notable GN from the late 70s, at a time when he'd resumed comics development after working in the army and businesses more often during the 50s and 60s. Of course, it's a shame the Eisners have been abused as an award event in past years, recalling they nominated DC's offensive Identity Crisis from 2004 for awards 2 decades ago. I can't recall if it actually won any, but if it did, that was wrong, plain and simple, and explains perfectly what's gone wrong with even award shows nowadays. We have to hope their board of directors has moved away from associating with such atrocities, but that doesn't mean they aren't still heaping awards on other bad mainstream and conglomerate-owned comics that don't deserve them. It's good if they're now providing appreciation for indies that're hopefully in better taste, and Dipta's work looks like just what those seeking better taste could be looking for.

So congratulations to him for finding wider recognition for his art career, and good luck to Dipta in the future on comics illustrating.

Kingston's first game convention gives a role to Canadian comics creators

The Kingston Whig-Standard wrote about the first video game convention being held in the Ontario city, where even comics creators had a role:

Indie game developers, esports competitors, comic book creators, and pop-culture enthusiasts gathered at Slush Puppie Place this past weekend for the inaugural Eh! Game Expo.

The event was a three-day festival that organizers hope will become an annual event in Kingston. The expo featured esports competition, cosplay, trading card games, artists and exhibitors from across Ontario and Quebec.

The event also included the Fight for the Throne esports tournament, bringing competitive players together for games such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and other fighting titles.

Among those showcasing their creative work was Chris Cochrane, a longtime musician and teacher who moved to Kingston nearly a decade ago. That’s when he decided to revisit a dream he first pursued as a young artist: creating comic books.

For Cochrane, founder of Kingston-based Machete Comics, the expo was more than a business opportunity. He saw it as evidence that a community centred on comics, gaming and fan culture is continuing to grow in Kingston.

“I knew that I wanted to do comic books,” Cochrane said. “I figured this is a trilogy in life. This is the third chapter in a trilogy.”

Well good luck to him on his productions. But, the guy unfortunately couldn't resist bringing up a political complaint:

Cochrane cited recent trade tensions and the rising cost of selling books in the United States as key factors in swaying his interest more heavily toward Canadian stories and local creators.

“Because of the tariffs, one of my comic books costs about 40 bucks in the U.S. now,” he said.

Oh good grief, can it really cost that much, tariffs or none? I thought those applied more to distribution and delivery than the list prices on the books themselves. It would seem some Canadians just aren't willing to take issue with their local government and what it's doing wrong, and the aforementioned Tom Grummett was one such person.

I think more Canadian storytelling can be a great thing, but they should seriously leave grudges with the USA and Trump out of this. The same can be said for the video games industry.

Classic cars painted to resemble comic book sketches

Top Gear wrote about an exhibit of cars made to look like comics illustrations:

An artist called Joshua Vides is presenting his latest art highlighting automotive culture at LA’s Petersen Automotive Museum in a new exhibition entitled ‘Flat Out: The Art of Joshua Vides”. Tin, what it says, pretty much, on, etc.

Only this isn’t what it says on the tin, because Vides’ art isn't really going flat out. Instead, it's been made to look like a giant, real-life comic book sketch, and you’ll spend a considerable portion of your day just gawping trying to figure out how he’s done it.

According to the Petersen, Vides “painstakingly hand-paints crisp black lines onto all-white surfaces to create monochromatic graphic artwork that resembles flat comic book sketches”. So, that’ll do it.

Wow, that's pretty fancy alright. Congratulations to the guy for his marvelous nod to comicdom with this vehicular form of artwork.

Ohio Maltz Museum's exhibition for Jewish comics contributions

NPR-WOSU covers an exhibition of Jewish comics contributions at the Maltz Museum in Ohio. It was also organized by a historian who was involved in getting a NYC street named after Jack Kirby:

“Icons in Ink, The Jewish Comics Experience,” on view at the Maltz Museum in Beachwood through Aug. 23, is a revelation and a celebration, albeit with some limitations and questionable aspects.

The show’s core material is conveyed through colorful, large-scale graphic layouts resembling magazine pages that reach from the height of one’s knee to above one’s head. The layouts are filled with text and reproductions of pages from comic books. It’s an eye-grabbing approach that produces visual overload at times. Also, transitions from one section of the show to another occasionally lack continuity and flow.

But when it comes to the core goal of highlighting Jewish contributions to comic book history, the show delivers fascinating and sometimes surprising insights.

Organized by Roy Schwartz, a New York-based pop culture historian, the exhibition opened in 2023 at the Center for Jewish History in New York and is now in the middle of a five-year national tour.

It brims with Schwartz’s zeal to highlight the Jewish roots of what he described in an interview as “a unique American art form,’’ and “the bastard child of literature and art.’’ His expertise includes having written the 2021 book, “Is Superman Circumcised?: The Complete Jewish History of the World's Greatest Hero.’’

For Cleveland, Schwartz and the Maltz expanded the show to highlight the city’s role in the evolution of comic books, in collaboration with Samantha Baskind, the Cleveland State University professor of art history known for her extensive scholarship on Jewish contributions to the visual arts.

Hidden meanings of Superman

Naturally, Superman, the brainchild of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two Jewish high school students in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood who invented the “Man of Steel’’ in the 1930s, is a major focus.

Superman’s birth on the doomed planet Krypton and his parents’ effort to save him by launching him to Earth is a familiar tale. It may not be widely appreciated, however, that the story echoes that of the finding of Moses, and that Superman’s name at birth, Kal-El, is a Hebrew phrase often interpreted as “voice of God’’ or “vessel of God.”

Superman’s powers evoke the myth of the Golem, a massive, Samson-like humanoid purportedly molded in clay by a 16th-century rabbi Prague to defend Jews from pogroms.

As the show points out, Jewish fans have certainly understood such signals.

Somehow, I'm not so sure they do, seeing how some of those who stick with leftism are so hostile to Israel, their country of origin, that it's hard to believe at this point they care about any "signals". Speaking of which, this exhibit features at least 2 comic creators who decidedly aren't worth seeing there:

Also featured in the Cleveland section of the show are printed works and original drawings from Harvey Pekar’s ironic and self-deprecating “American Splendor” series, Peter Kuper’s hilarious “Spy vs. Spy” episodes in Mad Magazine and Terri Libenson’s Jewish-centered narratives in series, including “The Pajama Diaries.”

Cleveland Heights native Brian Michael Bendis is represented by outstanding works including a spectacular 2006 ink drawing for an Avengers episode depicting an explosion on a crowded street in what could be Downtown Cleveland.

When somebody as awful as Bendis is included, despite how overrated and atrocious his writings were on - but not limited to - series like the Avengers, something is terribly wrong. What's so "outstanding" about his cheap approach to science fiction? It's also troubling that somebody like the late Pekar was included, despite his negativity to Israel that he practically wove into a GN titled "Not the Israel my Parents promised me". These are the kind of "creators" whose works we need to see? Nope.

Conspiracists and paranoiacs might see the show as piling on more evidence for the hate-filled fantasy that Jews supposedly control everything from Wall Street to Hollywood.

On this, it's bizarre said conspiracists would want anything to do with Jewish creations, if that's how they feel, and have no interest in producing their own entertainment products that hopefully aren't laced with prejudicial visions. And then, in a very sad hint at where this NPR affiliate really stands, they say it needs an "update":

It’s also striking, given its attention to the social and political context of comic books in prior decades that “Icons in Ink’’ doesn't bring its story fully into the present.

The show’s generally triumphal tone feels oddly off-key amid the recent uptick in anti-Semitism on the left and right, and the post Oct. 7 backlash against Israel.

Debate over Israel’s military conduct in Iran, Gaza and Lebanon, or settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, has inspired authors and pundits of all political persuasions.

“Icons in Ink’’ hasn’t been updated to reflect the turmoil. It could be said that because the show was organized in 2023, there hasn’t been enough time for a significant response to current events from Jewish creators of comic books or graphic novels to warrant attention.

But it seems to be a missed opportunity that the show doesn't mention the conflicted feelings about Israel that Pekar explored in “Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me,’’ published in 2012 as one of his last books.

There’s also no mention of the three-page spread criticizing Israel’s conduct in Gaza published in The New York Review of Books in February 2025 by Joe Sacco and Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the Holocaust-related graphic novel “Maus,’’ whose work is otherwise lauded in the show at Maltz.

Such publications and others like them represent an intriguing opportunity to revise “Icons in Ink’’ as it continues to travel. The exhibition argues successfully that the Jewish experience in comics needs to be understood more deeply.

Given that goal, some freshening could make the show even more relevant and up-to-the-minute. After all, as the exhibition demonstrates, Jewish comic book creators and graphic novelists have been pulling no punches for decades in messages both overt and subtly coded.

When they insist Sacco's a recommendation, and no right-wing creators like the late Joe Simon are mentioned at all, or even Will Eisner, that speaks volumes as to where they really stand on this. It's actually amazing Pekar's screed didn't turn up at the exhibit, but even so, he's hardly somebody I'd consider a perfect choice any more than Spiegelman. Also note how the news site omits issues like Jews being murdered by the Religion of Peace, and all they care about is making Jews look like the sole ones responsible for anything bad happening post-October 7, 2023, while obscuring the more serious issues caused by said religion.

I'll give Schwartz and company this: they may have deliberately avoided some of these issues because they realized Pekar's POV was divisive, and it wouldn't do any good post-10.7.2023 to bring something like that into the mix. Even so, if they didn't bring in something that could provide a more positive viewpoint on Israeli issues like a Japanese mangaka's publication, then it's otherwise a defeat, though not in the way NPR wants to frame it. What they say about the exhibit in that context is shameful, and if that's their position, why'd they even bother to cover the project?

LA's Skirball Center exhibition explores how comics shaped America

The Los Angeles Daily News wrote about the Skirball Center's current exhibition on comicdom's history as part of the USA as a whole:

A year ago, the Skirball debuted its first comic-themed exhibition in years, “Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity,” a celebration of the life and work of Kirby, who helped create such comic book icons, such as Captain America, the X-Men, Black Panther and the Avengers.

Now, with “Inventing America,” the center has widened its gaze to include the story of comic books from the early decades of the 20th century to the present, examining creators such as Kirby, yes, but linking the art and adventures to the story of the United States over the past century.

“We greenlit both of them at the same time, knowing they would build on each other,” says Michele Urton, the Skirball’s museum deputy director and co-curator of “Inventing America” with comics expert Patrick A. Reed.

“The overview, because it’s an American history exhibition, we really wanted to time that to America 250,” she continues. “And for practical reasons, we needed a bit more time to do a larger survey.”

I do wonder if it'll cover stuff leading up to say, 2020, by which time quality long plummeted, and if they'll take an objective look at history? Sad logic suggests they won't.

In many ways, “Inventing America,” which runs through February 2027, tells a parallel story of the rise of youth culture in America.

“Comic books were really that first flowering of youth culture,” Reed says. “The first time that there was an entertainment form targeting kids, not only as the audience but as the direct consumer. Publishers recognized that all of a sudden, they can be selling things for nickels and dimes and targeting the kids directly.

“That’s sort of Ground Zero for everything that follows,” he says. “Today in America, youth culture is the driving force of pop culture. That all emerged following the comic book, the 45 RPM record and Saturday morning cartoons.

On this, one can only wonder if youth culture still holds the same influence it once did, seeing how in the past decade, there was less of it in films and TV. And based on how younger generations have been indoctrinated in schools to be uncreative and unproductive, can anyone be surprised if that's another reason why comics have fared no better than other entertainment forms in providing youth culture with what to enjoy when they're uninterested? If sales today are poor, that tells something, and prices long went up far beyond nickels and dimes.

Many of the early comic book creators we still remember today – Superman’s Joe Shuster and Jerry Seigel, Batman’s Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Captain America’s Jack Kirby and Joe Simon – were the children of European Jews who immigrated to the United States.

“A lot of that’s because the industry was founded in New York City, which was a major center of immigration,” Reed says. “The comics companies that were sort of low-end publishing coming out of pulp and broadsheets were an industry founded largely by immigrants, by Jewish Americans.

“And if you were a young Jewish American in New York City, and you had artistic aspirations as Jack Kirby did, if you wanted to work in the arts, the comic book was there.

“The kids in the Lower East Side [where Kirby was born] weren’t necessarily attending fine art programs or going to art schools,” Reed says. “They weren’t necessarily able to jump straight to commercial illustration. So to work in comic books was a way to express your creativity and also provide for your family.”

And the comic book industry has remained, to varying degrees, a world of art and storytelling with its doors open wide.

“As comic books move from the Marvel-DC model and expand in the 1960s, you get the whole underground movement,” Urton says. “People began self-publishing. They’re coming at it from a different angle.

“I think that because the comic book is a format that continues to change and evolve, and that can be created really inexpensively and self-produced, you continue to see entry into this field for a wider and wider range of folks,” she says. “As Patrick likes to say, anyone with a pencil and a piece of paper can become a comic book artist.”

To Reed, that openness creates an energy and vibrancy in comics that’s not always present in the mainstream creative arts.

That can certainly be what it's like today, when the mainstream have long been taken over by conglomerates who disrespect everything the original comics were built on, and practically threw out anybody who didn't adhere to their PC mindsets, including, but not limited to, conservatives, recalling even a liberal like Larry Hama was blacklisted, and that still seems to be in effect. Even Jews aren't respected, and all they're doing is making clear how ungrateful they are to the very community that worked so hard to develop those comics in the first place. In that context, it's not a place where doors are open wide, and we must consider some of the embarrassments that occurred in the past decade and even more recently. So I wish they wouldn't sugarcoat the present, because that's what they're doing.

I'm sure an exhibit like this has its values, but all this failure to examine everything more objectively is harming the industry in the long run, and it doesn't bode well for creativity or even productivity. And whatever one thinks of independent creations, Marvel/DC cannot continue to remain in the hands of conglomerates who don't respect the creators and their creations.

Jack Kirby gets a street named after him

Much like Stan Lee received a street named in his memory a few years ago, JNS reports the late Jack Kirby has now received a street named after him, part of a project the law firm agent Roy Schwartz and the American Jewish Historical Society worked on getting approval for:

It is no small thing to get a street in Manhattan named after you, but the creator of such timeless superheroes as Captain America, the Fantastic Four, Ant-Man, the Hulk and Iron Man received that honor on Monday, when the Lower East Side block where he was born was named “Jack Kirby Way.” [...]

“Widely recognized as the most prolific and arguably most important creator in the history of the comic book medium, Jack Kirby is also one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century,” according to a new exhibit on his life and work at Manhattan’s American Jewish Historical Society.

The exhibition, “The Jack Kirby Way: How a boy from the Lower East Side became the King of Comics,” is co-produced by the American Jewish Historical Society and the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center. It will be on view through Nov. 30.

One of the artifacts on display in the show is the original “Captain America” comic books, issues 1 through 10. Joe Simon, who co-created the character and many more with Kirby, owned the issues on display.

The iconic first issue of “Captain America,” published in March 1941, shows the superhero punching Hitler in the face, before the United States entered the war. Many Americans had not yet come to support the idea that the Nazis needed to be vanquished.

Based on this report from Breitbart from last year, some could reasonably argue the same sadly holds true for today when it comes to the Islamic Iranian regime, in example. If Kirby and Joe Simon were alive today and created Cap in modern times, the sad but possible reality is that the Star Spangled Avenger wouldn't get the same kind of positive regard seen in the Golden Age any more than any other Marvel/DC heroes created since.

Its publication led to death threats to both men by the German-American Bund, Roy Schwartz, a board member of AJHS and the person who drove the effort to get the street co-named in Kirby’s honor, told JNS.

The police, when contacted by Kirby and Simon, refused to do anything to help, according to Schwartz.

Then-mayor Fiorello LaGuardia contacted the comic book artists and promised them personally that they would be kept safe. LaGuardia’s mother, Irene Luzzatto-Coen, was a Sephardic Jew.

And on this, it's vital to note that even today, that's not always the case in NYC, where this stuff has become a particularly sad staple ever since Zohran Mamdani was elected the 1st Muslim mayor in the Big Apple, and what he's been doing now would be hurtful to Kirby. Do the organizers of the campaign to have Jack Kirby's birthplace named after him realize that, if they don't have any concerns over what came about even before October 7, 2023 and Mamdani's election, then this whole campaign's otherwise meaningless?

As a little boy growing up in Tel Aviv, Schwartz was obsessed with comics, including Kirby’s, he told JNS.

American relatives would mail him new releases, and he learned English by reading them.

Now employed by day as “a mild-mannered chief marketing agency for a large law firm,” as he told JNS, he is the author of “Was Superman Circumcised?” and other books and essays exploring Jewish aspects of comic book history.

Schwartz was the driving force behind the labyrinthine bureaucratic process by which city agencies approved a co-named New York City street.

“There was enough red tape to circle Galactus several times,” Schwartz told JNS.

Captain America was and remains his favorite superhero, Schwartz told JNS, a few feet away from the newly-renamed street sign.

But predictably, they won't get into how, less than a decade after Kirby's passing, Marvel under Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas spared no expense taking apart much of what made Cap work in the first place, lacing the series published under the Knights imprint with anti-American propaganda, something that's continued until even recently. Equally bad is how they repeatedly tried to "replace" Steve Rogers with PC tokens. So what good does it do for Schwartz to just make the statement without bringing up how sad it is that Cap, along with tons of other Marvel/DC properties, major and minor, were effectively destroyed for the sake of woke leftist propaganda? Why, what if Mamdani had anything to do with the red tape encountered? In that case, Schwartz would be wallowing in the exact cowardice that all but victimized Kirby in his time by not showing the courage to discuss anything.

Golin, executive director of the Society for Humanistic Judaism, is a long-time, major Kirby fan.

“I love all of his work. It continues to blow me away, and he was so prolific,” he told JNS. “He is so Jewish, so if you take pride in the accomplishment of fellow Jews, then he’s someone you should know about.”

But does this guy appreciate where Marvel/DC went with Kirby's creations post-2000, including the New Gods? I seem to recall Jim Starlin wrote a miniseries called The Death of the New Gods 2 decades ago, and that wasn't exactly what Kirby got into the business to do. Such a story was a slap in the face to his legacy, just as much as what became of Cap, because if memory serves, Big Barda was meant as a tribute to Kirby's wife. I recently bought an archive of Kirby's work on the New Gods from the early 70s, and that's the kind of work that counts. I will not waste time and money on the post-2000 stories that did a terrible disservice to Kirby's efforts. Also, look who turned up as guests at the event:

Less elaborately dressed but honored with seats on the dais were Schwartz, Tom Brevoort, executive editor and senior vice president of publishing at Marvel Comics; Marvel artist and writer Jim Steranko; and former DC Comics president and publisher Paul Levitz.

While Steranko's a decent visitor, that a leftist like Brevoort, who actively defended Marvel's deconstruction of Kirby and Lee's work, would attend is disgraceful and embarrassing. Even Levitz, who fulfilled quite a bit of the same when he was a leading executive at DC (and was an apologist for Planned Parenthood), isn't exactly somebody I'd consider welcome there. Yes, I do recall he was willing to sign a petition in defense of victims of October 7, 2023, but there's still no telling if he's fully reevaluated his past mistakes, and so far, he's never publicly said so. Worse, both Marvel and DC continue to employ people throughly unsuited for the jobs, and that certainly doesn't reflect well on Brevoort, considering he still works for Marvel.

Kirby certainly is worthy of a street named after him. But not all the people involved are worthy of backing his legacy.

Len Strazewski passes away at 71

The Columbia Chronicle of Chicago announced that Len Strazewski, a professor and news writer for the AMA who wrote several comics in the 1990s, and co-created Jesse Quick as the teen daughter for the Golden Age Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle with the late artist Mike Parobeck, passed away at 71 years of age:

Len Strazewski, a Columbia College professor emeritus and comic book writer known for his work on “The Flash,” died Monday, April 27, at 71.

Strazewski died peacefully in an Evanston nursing home following months of infections and hospital stays, Kevin O’Reilly, the son of his longtime partner, shared in a Facebook post.

Strazewski spent more than two decades at Columbia where he became a defining figure in the journalism program as a professor, mentor and administrator. He also built a career in comics, writing for DC and contributing to titles including “The Flash,” “Starman” and “Justice Society of America.”

When it comes to Flash and Starman, yes, he wrote at least one story for both, though it should be noted that the latter was the 1988-92 series primarily written by Roger Stern, starring a newer character named Will Payton, coming several years before the pretentious James Robinson was allowed to make mockery of everything with his overrated take, which starred a son of the Golden Age character Ted Knight, named Jack. Stern's series has yet to be reprinted, from what I know, and while it may not be perfect, I'd sooner read all of that specific Starman series than what Robinson wrote during 1994-2001; a post-Zero Hour concoction as it was. I don't think any of the forced replacement characters that came along in the wake of that shoddy crossover worked out well, because, simply put, they weren't introduced organically.

Outside the newsroom and classroom, Strazewski wrote for DC Comics and was part of projects spanning dozens of titles.

In 2013, he told Chicago Talks that he estimated he had written between 160 and 200 comics. Part of his work was on display at Columbia’s campus at the time.

He said he got into journalism because of Superman. “The job of reporter and journalist seemed to be a suitable profession for a young man because Clark Kent did it,” he said.

Yes, but for many years, there's just far too many journalists influenced by J. Jonah Jameson and Bethany Snow. Maybe Strazewski had a great idea working as a contributor to medical news, rather than political per se. Something that rather unsurprisingly isn't explored here is that back in 1993, the DC editor Mike Carlin cancelled Strazewski's Justice Society series after 10 issues because he didn't think they should be writing stories starring older heroes, and possibly despised Strazewski's writing and Parobeck's artwork too. And this was at a time when Marvel had been publishing Doctor Strange, easily the oldest protagonist in their universe, for many years as a series. Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four could easily come 2nd in terms of age at Marvel for "field warriors", and I'm sure there's more (Wolverine, anyone?). Carlin was also an editor on the repellent Identity Crisis in 2004, and that certainly doesn't speak well for his reputation. Let's also recall at least a few of the Justice Society characters who appeared in Strazewski's series were wiped out in Zero Hour soon after, and that was kept canon for many years.

Surely one of the most important lessons to learn in the debacle involving Strazewski's Justice Society series is that editors/publishers like Carlin weren't marketing on merit. One silver lining is that Strazewski/Parobeck's creation there, Jesse Quick, went on during the following decade to become a recurring co-star in the Flash as a resident lady speedster. But of course, all that went downhill after Mark Waid stopped writing, and terrible writers like Geoff Johns made things worse.

If there were any mistakes Strazewski made during his career in comicdom, it would have to have been when he wrote 2 items for the now defunct Malibu. One was the 1993 Street Fighter comic, the earliest USA adaptation of the video game franchise I know of, when, in the 3rd and last issue, he wrote Ken Masters being slain at the hands of Sagat, as though this were Mortal Kombat rather than SF. Capcom management and the fandom found that objectionable, and it was put to an end as a result, and only several years later when the Canadian Udon Entertainment took up a license did SF adaptations get better traction. Another far worse mistake was when Strazewski and the late artist Norm Breyfogle co-wrote Malibu's Prime with the disgraced Gerard Jones. I wouldn't be surprised if both Len and Norm disowned that comic later on, and stuff like that definitely tarnishes the entire Malibu output, which Marvel bought out at least a few years later, in what was obviously a huge mistake.

Apart from those errors, Strazewski's resume, though small it may be, looks okay, and his contributions to DC are to be admired. Exactly why it's a terrible shame later writers and editors took repellent directions with some of the characters he worked on. So Strazewski's a writer who can be appreciated - certainly a lot more than some of the other figures he worked with, and it's to be hoped that someday, more sensible creators will be able to do justice for his writings as much as previous generations of the past century.

A hero of the 2nd world war whose story was told in comics form

YnetNews has some history of a Jewish-American WW2 hero, Theodore Bachenheimer, whose biography was told in a Golden Age title, Real Life Comics #25, a series that ran during 1941-52:

In the first battle in which Theodor Bachenheimer took part in Sicily, he was captured by German soldiers. Rather than surrender and confirm his identity as an American soldier, Bachenheimer used his native command of German and his appearance as tools for survival. His story was later commemorated in a comic book, now on display at the Museum of the Jewish Soldier in World War II.

Bachenheimer was born in 1923 in Germany to Jewish parents. He spoke German with a local accent, was raised in German culture and appeared to be a native. After the Nazis rose to power, his family fled to the United States. A few years later, he returned to Europe, this time in a U.S. Army uniform. He volunteered for the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, an elite unit deployed to some of the toughest fronts in Europe.

Bachenheimer repeatedly infiltrated enemy territory, volunteered for guard duty alongside German soldiers, captured enemy troops for intelligence and interrogation, slipped into bases and gathered critical intelligence. His exploits spread among Allied troops, turning him into an almost mythic figure.

During Operation Market Garden, the largest airborne operation in the Netherlands, Bachenheimer and his unit encountered a German ambush and suffered heavy losses. He managed to escape the chaos on a bicycle, broke through German lines and was the first to reach the city of Nijmegen. There, in an unprecedented role for a 22-year-old private, he rallied hundreds of resistance fighters, coordinated intelligence activity and effectively became the field commander. Even after emerging as a key figure, he continued to carry out daring missions in enemy territory, repeatedly outwitting German forces.

In October 1944, he was captured by German soldiers and killed. A year after his death, by then already a legend, Bachenheimer was commemorated in an unusual way: the American comic book series Real Life Comics, which focused on war heroes, dedicated a special issue to him titled “The Soldier Who Became a General.” It was a rare cultural tribute to a young fighter who repeatedly defeated the enemy through ingenuity and daring.

Marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Museum of the Jewish Soldier in World War II named for President Chaim Herzog is presenting Bachenheimer’s extraordinary story. The American comic book featuring his story is also on display.

Asaf Efrati, deputy director of information and education at the museum, said: “Holocaust Remembrance Day is an opportunity to highlight, alongside the story of the victims, the story of the Jewish fighters. Bachenheimer’s story, marked by daring and ingenuity, shows how he turned his command of the language and his German identity into an operational tool that allowed him to penetrate enemy territory, outwit the Germans and save lives. His character illustrates the contribution of Jewish soldiers to the defeat of Nazi Germany.”

Here's one important story whose original back issue is preserved in the correct place - a museum, though of course, this is something involving a serious subject matter. But it's also another topic that brings to mind the speculator market - if there's any collectors who own back issues of this, and they're keeping it stored out of the public's sight, and not even reading its history themselves, seriously, that's wrong. I'm glad the Museum of the Jewish Soldier in WW2 is letting visitors know about this specific comic's existence by putting a copy of it on public display. It's important history everybody should know about, and shouldn't be concealed in some cynical speculator's vault.

The role of Detroit, Michigan in comicdom

NPR-Michigan Public wrote about what role a city like Detroit played in producing comics, and tabletop games:

When people think of Detroit, they might think of the city’s reputation for auto manufacturing or Motown music—but what about comic books? Two recent exhibits at the Detroit Historical Museum showcase the city’s lesser-known influence in comic books and tabletop gaming.

Curated by Billy Wall-Winkel, “Heroes vs. Villains” explores Detroit’s comic book history, showcasing more than 60 comic artists with ties to Michigan. The exhibit features artists like Jerry Bails, known as the “father of comic book fandom,” and Shel Dorf, the founder of San Diego Comic-Con, among others. A companion exhibit, “Worlds of Palladium,” profiles Detroit-based publisher Palladium Books, a pioneer in the tabletop roleplaying game community.

“We had folks here in Detroit that were just absolutely obsessed with science fiction and fantasy,” Wall-Winkel said. “We had folks that wanted just to convince everyone else that comics [were] a legitimate art form.”

Trouble is, anybody who thinks they succeeded in convincing they are a valid art form failed, if we look at this from an artistic perspective, and how the mainstream was devastated by political correctness. The only thing the specialists convinced anybody about was that comics make a great wellspring for extended media potential like movies and TV programs. And for a while, yes, that was a success. But by the turn of the decade, the fortunes of Marvel's movieverse began to recede under the weight of wokeness,

The exhibit also features the work of Detroit comic artists who worked for Marvel and DC, including Jim Starlin, Rich Buckler, Keith Pollard, and many more. Wall-Winkel’s personal favorite is writer Dwayne McDuffie, who pioneered minority representation in superhero comics through Milestone Media.

Be that as it may about McDuffie, something that disappoints me is that he was still quite a leftist, from what I know. But, if it matters, it's admittedly disgusting how Dan DiDio fired McDuffie over an Orwellian Thoughtcrime after the latter indicated he wasn't happy writing Justice League in the mid-2000s, because of horrible editorial mandates forced upon him. The worst part is that DiDio all but got away with doing so, and who in the mainstream holds him accountable for disrespecting a POC today over a petty issue? Let's not forget Frank Miller inexplicably hired him as an editor for a self-titled imprint Miller launched a few years back, and if it was a flop, DiDio's involvement alone is arguably why.

As noted, the article also brings up tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, and how such concepts have overlapped with comicdom:

Palladium Books was founded in 1981 by Detroit artist Kevin Siembieda, a time when tabletop gaming surged in popularity. The publisher is most known for tabletop games like Rifts or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness, which was the first licensed product of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons allow players to act out fantasy adventures together, fighting monsters while playing as their own original characters. Dungeons & Dragons, in particular, has been having a mainstream moment after featuring heavily in the Netflix series “Stranger Things,” as well as the success of its own 2023 feature film. According to Wall-Winkel, fans of video games often turn to tabletop gaming as a more expansive way to explore fantasy and science fiction worlds.

Predictably, they won't get into how the franchise also encountered political correctness and was watered down in the past decade for the sake of leftist propaganda like "inclusivity", as though it were never there, and some of the silliest things about this direction are that they acted like the Drows, Orcs and goodness knows what other anthropomorphic villains in the franchise literally had to see positive depictions, as though they weren't there to begin with. D&D, for all we know, will probably be brought down hard in time by all this wokeism.

Without a doubt, Detroit's got plenty of interesting comics contributors abound who could make good subjects for this exhibition. But, if there's one whom I hope they haven't gone out of their way to highlight, it's Geoff Johns, whose writings in mainstream in the past quarter century were so inexcusably crude and insufferable, they'd make a very humiliating addition to the exhibition as a result. From what I can tell, Johns doesn't seem to be on the list, and if he's absent, that's fortunate. No need to sully the exhibition with the work of somebody as blatant as he proved to be in the long run.

That told, it's still a shame there's so much more an article like this could've brought up, and predictably, they wouldn't because it doesn't fit the superficial, PC narrative they follow.

Jack Kirbys visions were allegedly an inspiration for Riot Games' League of Legends characters

A guest writer at the Washington Post, who co-created League of Legends and co-founded its studio, Riot Games, brought up the history of the late, great Jack Kirby, now on exhibit at the Smithsonian, apparently for telling everybody how his work inspired their video game creations, and making a case against artificial intelligence:

The man behind this image is Jack Kirby, a Jewish comic artist who emerged from New York’s Lower East Side in the 1930s to become one of America’s most prolific and imaginative creators.

Since Kirby died in 1994, the worlds he envisioned have continued to grow in popularity, accounting for many of the biggest box-office hits in the 21st century. Kirby pioneered the visual language of modern superheroes — from Captain America to the Incredible Hulk to Black Panther — and revolutionized world-building itself. Today, any creator designing characters or imagining universes is likely building in part on Kirby’s vision.

There's something rather hypocritical for a newspaper that's hostile to Israel, the land of Kirby's ancestry, to be bringing up his ethnic background if they don't genuinely respect it. Chances are they don't have respect for Iranian dissidents either. That aside, it's supremely silly how the writer claims Kirby's worlds have skyrocketed in popularity when sales today make clear it's anything but that, and the Eternals film was a box office dud. Based on this, I hesitate to think what could become if the New Gods and even the Demon, some of Kirby's creations for DC, were adapted to live action.

Yet, unlike George Lucas, Walt Disney or even Stan Lee (his longtime collaborator at Marvel), Kirby’s name remained largely unknown outside comic fandom. Few among the tens of millions who watched “Deadpool & Wolverine” in 2024 knew that the X-Men universe was co-conceived decades earlier by this young artist.

Kirby may be finally getting his due.

“Jack Kirby: Heroes and Humanity,” the first major exhibition of his work, just wrapped up its run at Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center. A documentary, “Kirbyvision,” is underway. New York City last summer named a Lower East Side street corner after its native son, and several of his comics have joined the permanent collections at the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

His life story feels especially instructive now. As creative fields examine the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence, Kirby’s art exemplifies the unmatched power of human imagination.

That's the guy's reason for bringing him up? Because if he's not interested in researching and telling everybody how Marvel under Joe Quesada destroyed all of Captain America's potential beginning in 2002, along with what made other creations of Kirby's work, then what good does it do to make points about how AI is no substitute for human-illustrated art? I'm sorry, but this is all cheap stuff, that once again misses a chance to inform everyone what went wrong in the past quarter century.

At Riot Games, we originally built video games to deliver bombastic fantasies that embody specific archetypes or play experiences. Over time, we faced the challenge of retroactively weaving these diverse creations into a single, coherent world, worthy of storytelling.

It’s no small task to make a sad mummy, a star-forging dragon and a pyromantic schoolgirl feel as though they belong in the same universe. Comics have long solved a similar puzzle, uniting a Norse god, a billionaire inventor and even a talking raccoon and sentient tree into a believable ensemble. In that sense, our process drew from Kirby’s legacy: build boldly, then discover the connective tissue, the humanity and purpose that binds characters into something greater than the sum of their parts.

Kirby and his collaborators pushed us to treat narrative not as an accessory but as a responsibility, convincing us that the rudimentary characters in our early game could inhabit a universe rich enough to connect people across cultures and generations while asking timeless human questions.

Oh, another discussion of responsibility, without harkening back to where none was on display in the early 2000s, all shortly after September 11, 2001, when Quesada - and Bill Jemas - not only put Captain America in the Marvel Knights imprint, they even put him in a Blame America scenario. That was unacceptable, went against what Kirby stood for, and now, a quarter century later, all some technologist wants to talk about is how Kirby served as inspiration for video game designs. Sure, it can be great to draw inspiration from Kirby's visions, but if they really respect him, they wouldn't ignore just how bad use of Kirby's creations back in the comics became after the turn of the century until now. IIRC, the Knights imprint wasn't as monumentally successful as some apologists might make it out to be, recalling Cap's run under that imprint lasted possibly less than 2 years, and then the imprint label was dropped, but the damage had been done, and now it's gotten to the point where race-swapping propaganda has all but forced Steve Rogers out of the role. And that story where Cap was written saying "hail Hydra" is another repulsive moment in terrible comics history now soiling Kirby's creation.

Creative people are told AI will replace them. But AI has no lived experience. It can mimic and remix the raw material of human creativity, drawing on patterns it did not originate. That’s why its work, however dazzling, reflects the archive it was trained on rather than a life it has lived. It cannot create from personal memory, conviction or emotional truth, the forces that Kirby transformed into art. In the AI age, his legacy reminds us that while technology may assist the creative process, the most enduring universes are born not of algorithms alone but of human imagination, alive with the sparks that only come when people create together.

Yes, but this doesn't excuse how abysmal artistic merit's become in over 2 decades, and there's decidedly no excuses for a computer game producer obscuring that either. And if human imagination's going to be corrupted, can you expect AI to improve upon that?

I also looked at the reader comments, and for example, we have:

It’s hard to read any article about Jack Kirby that doesn’t reference how ill-treated and under-appreciated he was. He was constantly shuffling from company to company, most of which exploited his talent and failed to enable him fully. What we got was spectacular, but there was so much more that just wasn’t supported.

Yet none of that is as troubling as how Marvel took his and Joe Simon's creation, Capt. America, and exploited Steve Rogers for the sake of apologia for Islamic terrorism and Blame America propaganda. Speaking of Simon, he later reportedly drew a picture of Cap socking Osama bin Laden, and that's all buried today, 15 years after his own passing. Why, even Simon's hardly known outside comic circles by today's standards. Maybe even Will Eisner's in the same situation. Yet none of that matters to the Riot Games manager? For shame.

Another comment made a good point, but simultaneously risked contradicting it:

I watched a video essay recently talking about how Japanese Manga has surpassed American comics in most ways, because American comics are mostly locked in and unchanging. Spiderman can go on new adventures, his villains can come and go or rotate, but his story can never end. Popular characters can be killed off, but will be brought back, reducing any impact on the readers.

It had some good points, even if it ignored that popular and long running Manga titles do the same things at times, but they do tend to be the vision of the creator and last only as long as they are willing to work on them.

One of the strengths of American comics, I think, is that a new writer/artist can take an existing character and re-imagine them. The X-Men weren't as popular as they would become until Chris Claremont's epic run with them, for example.

Kirby is a titan and probably more impactful than Stan was.

Just what definition of "reimagining" would that be? Because there's only so many politicized "reimaginings" going on today at the expense of classic creations, whether it's race/sex-swapping or forcing LGBT and Islamic propaganda down the readers' throats, and the aforementioned Iceman stands out as a X-Men cast member who was a big victim of such propaganda. As for the point that manga can also emphasize resurrections, a point that should be made is that the problem with mainstream USA comics either killing off characters or resurrecting them is that they're not doing it organically or altruistically, but for the sake of publicity, and even worse is when a character who's on the good side is forcibly turned into a monster, as seen with 2 women in both Identity Crisis and Avengers: Disassembled, Jean Loring and Scarlet Witch. Must I point out the latter is a Kirby creation? One more reason why the alarmingly forced approach to her in WandaVision and Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is sickening. So we have all these situations that cropped up since the 90s where heroic characters are killed/villified in contempt of the original visions, while only villains are allowed to be resurrected, or worse, somehow become heroes instead. That may not be so common now, but the damaging impact of such tactics is still proving hard to shake off.

All that aside, this does make a vital point that, if mangakas can write about resurrections, then it's not inherently wrong for USA comics to do the same, provided the goodies and their civilian co-stars are allowed the same privileges as villains could disturbingly get.

Here's one more reader comment:

I wrote about how Hitler did not start the hate against you know how but this is 2,000 years old but the media like WAPO want to pretend that Hitler started all this giving cover to religion to continue to preach their hate & WAPO censored it - let's see if this revised version makes it in

I assume this alludes to Islamic antisemitism, and it's already old news neither Marvel nor DC want to seriously tackle the issue, recalling how the former even went so far as to preach for the sake of the Religion of Peace with a race-swapped Ms. Marvel who's a Muslim, and the latter did the same with a Muslim Green Lantern, in a storyline that was also built on making "infidels" look bad. And all this at the expense of the Jewish community that created the comics now exploited for the sake of woke propaganda. Well if the Wash. Post censored any statement on that, go figure, they're still as repellent in their leftist politics as before.

With that told, much as I'd like to credit some video game producers for drawing inspiration from famous artists, their failure to defend classic creations from abuse spoils everything. Nor do they make a case for artistic merit, and why it's bad to resort to publicity stunts as Marvel/DC have been doing for quite some time. If how modern comics are written/illustrated doesn't matter, it's pointless to claim they're fans of Kirby, one of the best artists who brought about what they claim to be inspired by.

When sci-fi artists were more creative

The Camden New Journal covered an exhibition at a London museum:

THEY are words an artist must just love to hear – there are no budget limitations and you create whatever you want, and on whatever scale you want. The only shackles are your imagination.

This isn’t a fantasy pitch from a collector or commissioner – just what comic book artists writing sci-fiction could enjoy as they sat at their drawing boards and worked out story lines.

And an exhibition at the Cartoon Museum, in Well Street, Fitzrovia, illustrates how the creators of seminal sci-fi had carte blanche to let their imaginations run riot – no matter how big the idea.

Museum curator Hannah Whyte has played a key role putting together The Future Was Then.

“With comics, you are drawing on a page and your budget is essentially limitless – unlike TV and film, where the costs of creating a massive spaceship might be prohibitive,” she says.

“If you can draw it, you can make it happen.”

Sure, but when you consider what cancel culture of the past decade led to, that's why, unless improvements are to be found now, what good will this do from a modern perspective? Again, as I've noted before, the past won't provide lessons unless we recognize they apply to the present/future as well. Yet in the past decade, there were only so many Orwellian mindsets in the press who wouldn't acknowledge how censorship in creativity made a comeback, tragically enough, and when it affects our favorite creations that now have the misfortune of being corporate-owned, that's really sad.

So again, when is anybody going to admit the past decade underwent a terrible situation that could've been prevented if they wanted? For now, all they care about is sweeping that problem under the rug. We have to hope that now, the situation will improve, and 3 years ago, Queen Camilla did make a case why authors shouldn't be impeded by modern PC. The same goes for comics artists and writers. So let's hope they follow her advice, and be as creative as those of the 1950s were.

What's occurring at the Tokyo ComiCon

Tokyo Weekender's announcing the 2025 Comicon festival to round out the year, and what'll take place there, along with what professionals are visiting:

One of the biggest pop culture conventions in the world, Tokyo Comic Convention (abbreviated as Tokyo Comic Con) returns for its 9th year, hosted at Makuhari Messe events center from December 5 to December 7. This year will host a record number of celebrity guests, including Sebastian Stan, Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci and many more.

The convention’s roots can be traced back to the United States in 1970, where the very first San Diego Comic-Con (then known as the Golden State Comic-Con) took place in the basement of the U.S. Grant Hotel. Comic book fans organized the event as a way to meet other comic book fans, and 300 people attended the first “comic con.” Since then, the convention has grown on a massive scale with 135,000 people from 80 countries attending in San Diego in 2019, and inspiring conventions to sprout up all across the globe.

I guess that could explain why it looks more about movies than comics, much like the SDCC's long become to boot. The majority of showbiz guests are mainly film and TV performers, and only 3 guests appear to be from the comics industry. Those 3 listed are none other than Jim Lee, C.B. Cebulski and Frank Miller. And considering where he went of recent, that's why I don't see him somebody for Japanese pop culture enthusiasts to get excited about. There may be mangakas attending, but it's not clear from the article who they'll be.

I will say it's interesting they have at least a few participants in notable movies like Back to the Future attending, including veteran Lloyd. But there's doubtless only so many independent creators who could possibly attend conventions like these too, yet it definitely can't be told from this article if and who they'll be. And that's surely the problem. Either they don't actually say, or the indie creators aren't even invited, and no attendance arranged for them. And I guess figures like Chuck Dixon, Mike Baron and even Art Thibert aren't good enough for them either. So what good is a festival like this, even in Japan? If they can't offer a more challenging lineup of guests from the comics industry itself, then it remains a most unfortunate farce, based on how it got taken over by movie-based mishmash. What should matter foremost are the comics, not the movies.

Angouleme's festival for the coming year has been cancelled

Euronews announces the 2026 edition of Angouleme's comics festival has been officially cancelled, following a sexual abuse scandal and a boycott call by contributors:

France’s Angoulême International Comics Festival (FIBD - Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême) is among the world’s foremost comic book events, but its survival is now hanging by a thread after a monthslong dispute over its governance.

Organisers have now decided to cancel the festival’s 2026 edition. The event “will realistically not be able to take place under suitable conditions,” lawyers for organising company 9e Art + said in a statement, which was first reported by local newspaper La Charente Libre. [...]

Over the past decade, controversies and accusations of financial mismanagement have dealt a heavy blow to the event’s reputation and angered professionals.

A 2021 report from the local court of auditors highlighted the “complex and opaque” structure of 9e Art +, as well as inconsistent financial operations.

Under the company, the Angoulême festival also faced several accusations of sexism.

The announcement of an exhibition dedicated to French author Bastien Vivès in the 2023 edition sparked debate as writers and feminist activists denounced the normalisation of incest and child sexual abuse in his work.

The episode triggered the emergence of #MeTooBD and the festival eventually cancelled the exhibition.

But the FIBD truly entered crisis mode in January, when French newspaper L’Humanité revealed that an employee was fired after she reported she was raped during the 2024 event.

The revelation caused outrage among professionals and fuelled calls for a change of governance. In a statement published in late January, the Authors and Composers French Syndicate denounced the festival’s “toxic atmosphere.”

Well that whole subject involving Vives was embarrassing as it was repugnant, and gives matters relating to sex a very bad name. I'm sure it's not the only disturbing issue that could be found at Angouleme over the years. For all we know, there's likely only so much toxic leftism that's turned up there too, and given comics as an art form a very bad name too, with the main problem being that some of the most notable contributors who withdrew support for the festival are leftists themselves who don't intend to change their double-standards on serious issues. In which case, what good will their pulling out of backing the festival do in the long run?

If anybody sensible really cared and had the dough for it, maybe somebody should organize an alternative convention that can make better choices and judgement, but of course, there's no telling if the same leftists who withdrew from Angouleme's attendance would be willing to take part. And no telling if there's enough rightists who care to help organize an alternative convention that can give various subjects a better name, or anything important either. So, who knows what'll become of Angouleme as it stands now? Alas, for all we know, it could very well be on its way out, and some might say it's for the best.

Comic strips envisioning the future at a London exhibition

The Art Newspaper reported about an exhibition in London for notable comics like Judge Dredd, and it says at the end:

Consider, for example, the million-year potted history told in a single page of Brick Bradford, dating from 1941: nuclear war, planetary disaster, the eradication of all disease (though it predicted humans would reach the moon in the 50th century… only about 3,000 years out). Judge Dredd’s blood-soaked quasi-fascism now looks a whole lot more likely, suggesting that by the late 1970s, when Dredd first showed up in 2000AD comic, idealistic notions of the future direction of society had been well and truly phased out.

Well the problem is that it's like nobody wanted to argue why it's vital to do everything one can to prevent serious disasters from occurring, easily worse than what 2000AD could envision. And that's not exactly what even Dredd's writers and artists were doing at the time, was it? If nobody's willing to work for improvement of living conditions and emphasis on civility, and make such a point in the very fiction products where all the bleakness is occurring, then how does anybody expect to improve the world's situation?

Whether it's comics creators or moviemakers, some simply do not seem to have what it takes to offer clearer vision for whether they want the planet to be a better place. And those who produced Judge Dredd and other 2000AD comic strips with similar themes don't seem to have had any interest in emphasizing the vital need for improvement either.

How Puerto Rico appears in comics

The New York Times wrote about a comics specialist from Puerto Rico whose worked on an exhibition that tells how the Caribbean island country is seen in the panels:

Manuel Martínez Nazario is a man on a mission: to share stories of Puerto Rico in comic book form. “I want researchers to start wondering ‘What is going on in Puerto Rico? What can I see through the comic books?’” The answer is plenty: “History, sociology, fantasy, whatever you want,” he said.

“¡Wepa! Puerto Ricans in the World of Comics,” which opens Oct. 4 in New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, is built on his decades-long collection and his vast knowledge. Nazario, who was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Puerto Rico, said that in 2021, he was thunderstruck one day when he was staring at his walk-in closet: It was jampacked with 14 bins of comics. “This is too many comic books,” he said, and too few people knew what was available.

His collection of fanzines, political cartoons, comic books and original artwork are all linked by Puerto Rico: The creators and characters are from there or the stories are about the island.

He has also been a frequent source for comics researchers at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras, where he was a librarian from 1995 until his retirement in 2024. [...]

A Nueva York section spotlights the White Tiger, the first Puerto Rican super hero published by Marvel in 1975. The section also highlights the work of Angelo Torres, an artist and caricaturist whose work was featured in Mad Magazine from 1969-2010.

Stateside, I wouldn't be surprised if mainstream focus on anything pertinent to Puerto Rico was superficial at best, if they even focused on it at all. That said, another character in comicdom who of a Puerto Rican background was Vibe, created for Justice League of America in 1984 by Gerry Conway, at the time of the Detroit location near the end of the 1960-87 volume's run, but who's noticeably not given any citation in this article, which is a shame, because maybe the historian would like to make the argument DC did the wrong thing to originally kill off Vibe just because he had a stereotypical accent and was a break-dancer. That was a classic case of punishing a fictional character for the errors of the writers/artists/editors, and I think it would do a lot of good if realists would address if they recognize that's a poor approach to mending mistakes.

That said, I appreciate the efforts of the librarian to shed some light on the island country's contributions to the art form, and wish him good luck with his exhibition.

What this year's Animax convention in Israel will feature

Animax is the Tel Aviv comics and animation convention, and the Jerusalem Post tells what'll be featured there this year:

Animax Tel Aviv, a celebration of animation, comics, and character art from around the world, is commemorating its 25th anniversary with a gala festival to be held August 5-9.

Since its founding, Animax Tel Aviv has been a platform for artists to express their personal narratives, political views, and creative visions. This year, perhaps more than ever, that spirit of expression will take center stage.

Against the backdrop of the October 7, 2023, Hamas mega-attacks, the ongoing war in Gaza, and the recent Israel-Iran War, the festival’s showcased artists and their works will reflect that spirit of expression and the darker reality that Israel has faced.

Featured pieces at the festival

One of the standout pieces at the festival about the Israel-Gaza conflict comes from director Jordan Barr and co-director Chen Heifetz of Tel Aviv’s Studio Pixel. They have created a six-minute animated film telling the story of Guy Gilboa Dalal, an anime fan who attended the Nova music festival, where hundreds were killed and kidnapped.

Dalal was among those taken hostage and, nearly two years later, remains captive in Gaza. The film’s raw, personal narrative offers both a tribute and a stark reminder of the human cost of ongoing conflict.

Another political piece at the festival will be the panel Tehran on the Line. Bringing together prominent voices from both the art and academic worlds, the panel will explore the intersection of art, politics, and protest.

Featured guests include Michael Kichka, a renowned comic artist known for blending personal narratives with political commentary; Benny Sabati, a leading scholar on Iran; and Dekel Shay-Schori, a specialist in Middle Eastern animation. They will offer insight into the Iran-Israel conflict while shedding light on how Iranian artists are using animation, comics, and political cartoons to challenge censorship and authoritarian control.

The panel will include discussions, visual presentations, and screenings of notable works such as Persepolis, the acclaimed animated film based on Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, which portrays life under Iran’s oppressive regime through deeply personal storytelling.

This certainly is an interesting setup of panel discussions they're holding this year, and in addition, they're even raising the important subject of how life in Iran became a hellhole under ayatollah Khomeinis Islamic reign. I've sometimes found it amazing if certain leftists actually support Satrapi despite all that. If the convention management is smart, they'll do their best in the coming years to make sure similar panels and projects are brought up at the Tel Aviv convention.