My son pointed me to this video—based on the comics in the background, it looks like it was filmed in 1966—of Stan Lee in the early days of Marvel's success, before he became the larger-than-life Stan we came to know and love. It's like seeing Peter Parker before he transformed into Spider-Man. Fascinating!
Well, I don't want to give anything away. But I will say that the art—by penciler/inker Ethen Beavers and colorist Nick Filardi—is extraordinary (see the pages below) and we're all thrilled to be working with this iconic cast, reviving and renewing the JLU universe.
The first digital issue of Justice League Infinity will be released in May, while the print version will hit comics shops in July. Come join us on what we hope will be a memorable voyage across the DC multiverse, in the company of some old and dear friends.
While going through old files, I came across this layout I did for artist Dan Green when we were working on our 1980's graphic novel, Dr. Strange: Into Shamballa.
Dan and I created the story together, then I wrote up a detailed plot and, using my outline as a guide, Dan laid out the story, adding his own twists and turns, and creating thumbnail art for me to script from. But sometimes, as I wrote from the thumbnails, the story would change (as stories tend to do) and I'd draw these goofy doodles to let Dan know what I was thinking, how I envisioned the new sequence.
Dan then turned my goofiness into breathtaking art. (Most folks only know Dan as an inker, but his talents are vast.)
Doc never did say "Oy, vey" in the story, though!
The Imagination 101 writing workshop originally scheduled for this month has been rescheduled for June. Two weekends, ten hours, courtesy of the fine folks at Comixplex.com. My first two online workshops—101 last November and 201 this past March—were a blast: I had a fantastic group of students, filled with energy and ideas. Looking forward to jumping back into the infinite pool of imagination in June.
Come join us!
Back in 1979 or so, when I was just sticking my toe in the door at Marvel, editor-in-chief Jim Shooter asked me to write some plots for short seven page Spider-Man tales that would be published exclusively in France, drawn by an artist named Gerald Forton (who, coincidentally, was also drawing the Black Lightning strip I was then doing for DC). I never saw the finished stories—which were dialogued by French writers—and basically forgot that this chapter in my Spidey history ever happened.
This morning, for reasons that are beyond me, I started thinking about that early assignment and wondering if those stories ever even saw print. The combination of Google and the hive mind of the Twitterverse returned the truth: There was indeed a French magazine called TELEjunior that featured not just French-exclusive Spidey stories, but tales of Captain America, the Hulk and others. I doubt if I'll be able to track down the exact issues where my stories appeared—I'm not even sure how many I wrote!—but it's nice to know they're out there somewhere and that my history with Spidey goes back even farther than I remembered!
La vie n'est-elle pas interessante?
Update: Thanks to a fine gentleman on Twitter, I was able to locate one of my French Spidey stories. (As soon as I saw the Alice in Wonderland riff, I knew it had to be mine!)
The great William Shatner turns 90 today! (How is such a thing possible?) If you want to know why I love the guy, read this. And for a list of my favorite Shatner performances, click here.
I could have picked a Captain Kirk scene to post here in celebration, but the truth is, however much I love Kirk and Star Trek—and you know I do—Shatner will always be Denny Crane to me.
“The book that I shall make people read is the book of the heart, which holds the key to the mystery of life.”
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