William Horberg

Digging Deep

Lot a lot of my friends back then, growing up in the sixties in Chicago I was enamored of comic books.

I started collecting them when I was eight or nine years old, and I remember taking several bus rides to get out to the small hard core gathering of avid comic book collectors taking place in the conference room of a bank out west on Irving Park Road in Chicago to buy my first golden age comics. I felt like one of the youngest kids in attendance that day.

I soon came to know the names of the great comic book artists of the day that people were starting to take seriously and search out the issues with their covers or artwork - Frank Frazetta, Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, and earlier artists like Al Williamson, Carl Barks, Alex Raymond and Milton Caniff.

Over the years, as comics gained in respectability, more and more obscure artists have been rediscovered and their work has been republished and reintroduced to new generations of fans or brought to the attention of older fans for a new appreciation.

I grew up loving Edgar Rice Burroughs and had collected and read most of his novels in their ACE edition paperbacks. But I had never heard of Jesse Marsh, nor seen the DELL comic book series he drew based on Burroughs' Tarzan characters, until they were lovingly reprinted a few years back by Dark Horse.

Marsh was a Disney animator who came to draw Tarzan after WW2 and had a decades long run doing various books for Dell until the mid-sixties. His drawings are simple, almost naive, but they really capture a young boys imagination, even a 53 year young boy like myself.

I'm glad the excavation of 20th Century pop culture continues, and that they are digging deep to find these gems and give them new life.

Enjoy!

william

Chicken Nuggets

Here is a new entry from the continuing adventures of Diego and Natalie, which is just another name for my life in comic book form.

A lot of parents of children with autism may be able to relate to this one:

Any tips for those pickiest of eaters?

Thanks.

 

Enjoy!

william

CPbNJA (Serbia)

Work In Progress is the name of the local production services company in Belgrade who have been wonderfully hosting our stay and wrangling the shooting of our film "Therese" here.

It is also an apt description of the comic book I have been scribbling in my few rare moments of rest and relaxation away from the set. I thought I'd share this work-in-progress with you here.

Enjoy!

william

Alex Raymond, Italian Style

Here are two rare covers by the genius comics artist Alex Raymond from an Italian large format comic from 1965 that I uncovered recently at one of those increasingly rare "yesteryears" comic book and nostalgia type shops during my stint in NYC.

As can be said about many things in life: "for those of you who know, no further explanation is necessary, for those who don't, know explanation will suffice."

But for the curious you can read more about Raymond's life and work here.

Like many 20th century artistic icons, he died too young, in a car accident at 47. Hs work as the creator of Flash Gordon was part of the dreamscape of generations of Americans, but it was fun to suddenly imagine a little raggazi on the streets of Milan or Roma cracking open this book in the mid-sixties too.

Enjoy!

william

Labor Day

Cuban Comic Books!

I found these vintage cuban comic books in a stall at the Plaza de Cathedral in old Havana a few years back. They were published around 1965 in the early years of the revolution.

 

I couldn't find out much about the artists who created the work. But in the spirit of the times, I was struck by how the colorful and simple graphic adventures of the Munequitos within (a word which means small doll, but is also the cuban expression for cartoons), were combined with a dose of politics in the form of third world geography lessons on the back cover.

 

Hard to imagine an American kid getting educated on the agriculture of The Congo or the socialist economy of Saudi Arabia in the pages of his Marvel or D.C. comic book!

Enjoy!

william
 

 

Planet 51

51 years on Planet Earth today.

I've been working on a comic book memoir of my formative years as an avid consumer of '60's outer space culture, comics, science-fiction novels, magazines, fanzines, high school gymnasium collector conventions.

I hope to be able to share it with you all here someday.

At least before they recall me to my home planet!!

william

 

The Many Faces Of Steve Ditko

 

 

 

 Before his seminal work on Spiderman and Dr. Strange, the comic book artist Steve Ditko started out in the 1950's drawing stories for lesser known publishers such as Ajax/Ferrell, Gilmore, Prize, Timor and mostly Charlton Comics.

A new book called Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 1 collects much of this early work and reprints it nicely.

He certainly had a knack for faces, and for extreme close-ups and under-lighting.

The EC influence is evident, but it was an influence that most of his generation was under at the time, and it seems like he had has own unique and distinct style from the time he picked up his pen.

william

 
 
 

 
 

Calling All Monsters!!!

What do Zzutak, Rorgg, The Glob and The Blip have in common?

Besides being Really Obscure Monsters from minor comic books, they were all drawn by comic book artist Frank Johnson. 

And they can all be found at MonsterBlog, a site dedicated to the excavation and preservation of those less-heralded and typically despised or merely misunderstood villainous creatures necessary for the plot of most science-fiction themed comic books.

How does one make a good monster? Clearly, doubling down on your consonants was almost always a good idea for a name. 

But why did some rate the singular title "THE" and others not? Were there so many Zzutak's that it couldn't be known as THE ZZUTAK? 

Only Frank Johnson knows for sure, and he's not talking!

But the fans are, down at the MonsterBlog. Check it out!

If you have your own favorite really obscure monsters with lots of consonants in their name, please send them in and I'll post them here too!

william

King Kirby

I was happy to see Jack "King" Kirby back in the news this week. His estate has filed a lawsuit against Disney, Marvel and most of the other major studios who have been involved with producing movies based on some of the iconic characters that he created or co-created like Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, The Silver Surfer and Thor  while working for decades under the onerous terms then and now available to most comic book artists.

It's the typical story of many of the artists, musicians, writers, and illustrators who created much of popular culture of the 20th Century while laboring under exploitive relationships with the producers, manufacturers, publishers and distributors of their artistic output.

I wonder if he had something like that on his mind when he wrote and illustrated this character sketch (which I have doodled a copy of below) and the accompanying philosophical musing that was his stock in trade for his larger than life, mythological-scale storytelling.

Kirby was one of the most prolific and influential artists in the history of comic books, and drew many of the characters and books that I followed and collected growing up. 

I still remember the ripple of excitement in the Nettlehorst Elementary schoolyard when the first issue of his series The New Gods made its debut appearance on the metal rack at the local candy store across the street (it was February 1971 and I was in 7th grade).

There is now a Kirby museum and a couple of excellent new oversize books - KIrby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier, and The Best of Simon and Kirby, featuring stunning reproductions of his artwork and telling the inside story of his career in comics.

A giant in his field, who drew some of the most muscular and dynamic action ever put on the page, I wouldn't bet against his estate as they take on The New Gods of the 21st Century, the media corporations that own and massively profit from his original creations.

william