Captain Kentucky Day!

(Don Rosa as Captain Kentucky)

Don Rosa was born on this date in 1951. He of course is most famous for his outstanding Uncle Scrooge stories which relate the epic fictional life of Disney's grouchiest duck. I first ran across the work of Rosa on his comic series Captain Kentucky for the Louisville Times. I had these collections at one time but no longer. But the covers are smashing nonetheless. 

Lancelot Pertwillaby was created originally by Rosa for his Pertwillaby Papers, a strip that ran in the University of Kentucky campus newspaper The Kentucky Kernal. Pertwillably was an adventurer and many aspects of these early Rosa yarns made their way into his later Disney work. Lancelot himself went on to become Captain Kentucky. 

Following the local success of The Adventures of Captain Kentucky, Rosa was able to find far greater success when he was able to get his mitts on his favorite characters, the Duck clan as realized in comics by Carl Barks. It is the "Barksian Universe" which is magnificently realized in Rosa's masterpiece The Life and Times of Uncle Scrooge. The series was originally run in comic book form in America in the Gladstone days of the comics in the 90's. 

The series was collected in two magnificent trades by Gladstone's successor Gemstone. The advantage of these editions is the detailed information about the sources and inspirations for each story. 

Much more recently Fantagraphics has published the saga in two very handsome hardback volumes, which can be bought in a handsome slipcase. But alas, the stories are presented minus the background information found in the earlier Gemstone volumes. If you've never experienced Rosa's artwork, I heartily recommend it in whatever form you can find it. 

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Summer Fun!

The summer is in full swing and to celebrate this hot sticky time of the year (I'm an Autumn guy myself) I'd like to stay inside next to the refreshing air conditioner and read comic books. (I'd be doing that pretty much anytime of year, but it feels like an oasis this time of year.) After some heavy theme months, I'm looking to keep it a bit looser here for the month and read a variety of things, some I've read many times before and some for the very first time. 

On the docket is one of the great creations in the whole history of the form -- Joe Kubert's Tor. Created by Kubert when he and Norman Maurier were trying to ignite things at St. Johns Comics in the 1950's Tor has had a much longer life than the 3-D craze that defined it in its earliest days. 

And in the returning "The Sunday Funnies" spot, I will be taking at pleasant read of Roy Crane's classic full-color adventure series Captain Easy - Soldier of Fortune. 

I'll be taking another savory glimpse of some old favorites here at the Dojo such as Charlton's E-Man and The Rocketeer from Pacific and Dark Horse among others. 

I looking forward to a number of highly distinctive classics by creators noted for their particular and highly crafted way of approaching the comic book page. 

Look for the initiation of a new regular feature called "Crime Alley" which will focus on those comics having to do with hardboiled dicks and other gumshoe types. 

And yet another ongoing feature will be "Girl Fridays" which I hope will please those in the Dojo audience who like a bit of cheesecake now and again to enrich their diets. 

And I've got a classic lined up for "Showcase Corner". Metamorpho  is book that simmer in that Silver Age goodness DC was so very good at.

I want to take a belated look at some of those wonky Ray Dennis Steckler movies too. All this perhaps and whatever else occurs to me if I have time, but one I do know is that's it's cool to read comics and in July that's literally so. 

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The Scrooge Report!

There's no denying it. I am a "Scrooge". That doesn't mean I'm intemperate with those who seek charity for the needy (I like to give to food charities). That doesn't mean I imagine children should be sent to workhouse if their parents cannot meet the rent. (As long as they stay quiet I'm okay with kids...most of the time.)  None of those extreme over-the-top vile things, but what I am is tired of the spectacle of Christmas which stifles the senses and overruns all media and such, spilling into the streets and filling up the even the stillness with typically mewling Christmas songs.

I'm just tired of it before it gets started. If Christmas lasted a week, maybe even two I'd be all in. A two week spree of holiday cheer and merchandising I could support as a bally end-of-the-year celebration. We all made it again you see; and here's something to show our appreciation all around. That would be dandy. But the damned holiday starts in September now and drags on for week after stultifying week and by the time the actual holiday itslef arrives it's all weary anti-climax.

Now none of this has to do with the religious as side of Christmas. As a semi-regular church goer I find that part handled with reasonable care and done in reasonable taste. Ignored by the merchandising crowd for the most part, the birth of Jesus is something which to marked and celebrated. I'm down with that, unless you're not and I'm down with that too. To each his own I always say.

But the other, the dreary life-draining amble to acquire presents to make the significant others in our lives "happy" is really become a chore. I resist putting up the Christmas tree (a little thing really) as it means caving in sooner than I want to the holiday which like the Blob in both versions of that sci-fi movie seeks to absorb all around it. I want to hold it off as long as I can, to cherish the moments of the holiday with family and friends, compress them and make them potent and memorable.

So in the end I'm not so much against Christmas, but rather against it as currently practiced in a culture which has well and truly lost its way. I choose differently as much as I can, and that my friends makes me a "Scrooge".

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Swimming In Riches!

This is by far my favorite cover of this year's batch of Free Comic Book Day comics.


And here's a version of the beautiful inspiration by Carl Barks.

The Great American Bubble Machine!

I've been reading about this Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi for a few weeks now. I've wanted to read it and finally by way of Mark Evanier's site I was directed to the full thing. It's a vivid narrative about the firm Goldman Sachs and why our economy teeters and so many suffer while at the same time so many preen. It made me mad, but mostly it made me sad, sad for my children and grandchildren that their futures are being raided while those blowhards put in public office to protect us and them sit and count their lucre, and at the same time while those self-congratulatory peons in bigtime journalism say nothing. It's a tale of woe.

Here's the link:

The GREAT AMERICAN BUBBLE MACHINE

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