Number 746


Mr. Nodel and Mr. Norman


Don Norman, who did these well-illustrated strips for Web of Horror #1, in 1969, was actually artist Norman Nodel. Nodel, who had an elegant pen line, had a long career in comics beginning in the Golden Age. He was at the height of his illustrative abilities with Classics Illustrated #167, Faust.

Here are a couple of pages of Faust, from the original art I found on the internet.


According to the short Lambiek bio, he also did work under the Don Norman name in Creepy and Eerie, as well as at Charlton under his Nodel name. Norman Nodel was yet another pseudonym. He was born Nochem Yeshaya. The last ten years of his life were spent illustrating books and magazines for Jewish children. As the Lambiek bio also says, he worked up until the last day of his life, which was in February, 2000, at age 78.

Web Of Horror was a short-lived Creepy imitation from Major Magazines, which also published Cracked. During Web's three issues there was early work by young artists like Bernie Wrightson, Ralph Reese, and Mike Kaluta, among others, as well as by comic book veterans like Syd Shores and Nodel.

Modern Masters Volume 24: Guy Davis

Eric Nolen-Weathington, Guy Davis, "Modern Masters Volume 24: Guy Davis"
TwoMorrows Publishing | ISBN: 1605490237 | February 19, 2010 | 120 pages | PDF | 71.6 MB
Guy Davis is a master of the macabre, the mysterious, the just plain creepy. But underlying the eerie quality of his artwork is a remarkable sense of storytelling. Emotion drips off his brush, filling his work with life and energy. From his breakthrough hit, Baker Street, to the pulp noir Sandman Mystery Theater, to his current work on the Hellboy spin-off series, B.P.R.D., Davis has shown time and again that he is one of the best in the business. Join us as we lift the veil on the career of another Modern Master - Guy Davis! This book features a career-spanning interview with the artist, a discussion of his creative process, and reams of rare and unseen art, including a large gallery of commissioned pieces, and eight pages of full-color work.
Download MIRROR #1

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Modern Masters Volume 22: Mark Buckingham

Eric Nolen-Weathington, Mark Buckingham, "Modern Masters Volume 22: Mark Buckingham
TwoMorrows Publishing | March 19, 2010 | 128 pages | CBZ | 66.6 MB
Mark Buckingham has quietly built up one of the most impressive resume's in the comic book industry. From his early days drawing the infamous Miracleman, to his work on Sandman, Death, Peter Parker: Spider-Man, and now Fables, he has continued to entertain and amaze with a style that is both charming and sophisticated. Now Eric Nolen-Weathington explores the world of this master storyteller and designer - Mark Buckingham! This book features a career-spanning interview with the artist, a discussion of his creative process, and reams of rare and unseen art, including a large gallery of commissioned work!

Download MIRROR #1

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Modern Masters Volume 21: Chris Sprouse

Eric Nolen-Weathington, Todd Dezago, Chris Sprouse, "Modern Masters Volume 21: Chris Sprouse"
TwoMorrows Publishing | July 13, 2009 | 128 pages | CBZ | 60.9 MB
The artwork of Chris Sprouse is hard to categorize. It is fresh, yet familiar... modern, yet classic. Perhaps that is why titles such as Supreme and Tom Strong - both written by the legendary Alan Moore - were the perfect vehicles for his work. Regardless, one category this Eisner Award-winning artist easily falls into is that of Modern Master! Join Todd Dezago and Eric Nolen-Weathington as they explore what makes Chris Sprouse such an influential force in the comic book industry. This book presents a career-spanning interview and discussion of his creative process, plus plenty of rare and unseen art, including a large gallery of commissioned work!

Download MIRROR #1

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Number 745


Pappy and the Boy Commando tale of woe


At a San Diego Comics Con in the early 1980s I took a couple of comics to sell or trade: Boy Commandos #1 and Piracy #1, both of them practically the near-mintiest-close-to-mint Golden Age comics I owned.

At night my buddies and I hung out in a bar. I had a few too many (not hard to do, since I'm not much of a drinker). The next day, bleary-eyed, head thumping, with my buddies and an envelope containing the two comics I wanted to swap or sell, I headed for the convention floor. In my hungover state I left the envelope on a table somewhere while I looked around. I realized my error a bit later and went back, but by then I'd been at several tables and didn't know where I'd left it. I asked around, but, ah, what the hell...as my friend told me, "Give it up. Someone has your comics now; it's like finding gold."

It ruined that convention for me. A couple of months ago I was reminded of my fuzzy-headed mistake when I ran across an online scan of Boy Commandos #1. But in some ways it helped. It was nice to see it again, even in a digital form. I'm not in the business of selling old comics anymore, unless it's just "selling" them to you as an art form or fun diversion for a few minutes of your day.

Here's a toast to Boy Commandos #1 by Simon and Kirby, to the San Diego Comics Convention of bygone days, to hungover conventioneers. Cheers!

Fantastic Four Fridays: Puppet Subby

There are so many things wrong with that cover, starting with the fact that I really don't need to see the Sub-Mariner's butt so prominently featured. Note that Sue, who's a little closer to us than Subby, looks about three feet tall.

As the story begins, the FF is returning from their trip to the moon, as shown in FF #13. They're mobbed by the public and the media, giving Stan and Jack their usual opportunity to show us their powers on the fly:

After they get back to the Baxter Building, Reed catches Sue mooning over the Sub-Mariner.

And it turns out that she's not the only one thinking about Prince Namor. The Puppet Master, who apparently died at the end of FF #8 is still alive and is planning to use Subby as his weapon against the FF. Namor summons Sue to meet him via a "Mentofish" which can communicate via telepathy with any person on Earth.

Here's a little clue, Sue. If you're sneaking around on your fiance to see somebody, odds are you really do care for that somebody.

When she meets him at the docks, he gains control of her with a hypnofish, and sends her to his undersea lair. Of course, it's really the Puppet Master pulling the strings:

A classic "evil genius" moment if ever there was one.

An apparition of the Sub-Mariner appears in FF HQ to inform them of Sue's capture. Reed, Ben and Johnny head off in search of Prince Namor, with the convenient-for-plot-purposes addition of Alicia. Subby captures them with the aid of yet another improbable form of sea life:



Mentofish, hypnofish, and chloroclams; Namor's got them all! And another to help him handle the Torch:

Meanwhile, Sue is being menaced by a giant octopus, which gives Reed the clue that Namor is being controlled by another. Ben attacks the beast and hurls it off into the depths, where it encounters... you guessed it:

But he discovers that the octopus is mindless, and thus immune to his control. It apparently kills him, releasing Namor from his mental control.

Comments: A sub-par issue. I never cared much for the Puppet Master, and the Sub-Mariner's convenient sea creatures get less and less believable as the story goes on.

Number 744


No foo like an old foo


Smokey Stover and Spooky were creations of screwball cartoonist Bill Holman, who kept up the Smokey Stover comic strip for nearly 40 years before retiring in 1973, surely a record for creating crazy cartoons and outrageous puns. Read through these sample Sunday pages from 1943; every panel is packed with silliness.

Holman used the word "foo" a lot. In turn it was borrowed from Smokey Stover and used to describe the mysterious fiery balls in the sky over Germany, spotted by American airmen flying bombing missions during World War II ("Foo Fighters", and that's where the name of the band originated, rock fans).

Holman is shown here in 1950 having fun with one of the perks of the job. If you can draw funny pictures you too can have groupies! Look at Bill, and tell me it isn't true.

These pages are scanned from Dell's Super Comics #116, 1948: