George Tuska

Entering his 92nd year, George Tuska sent me this today. George drew Superman for 15 years as a newspaper strip. His rendering of Superman's face is just so perfect - gives us a sense of 'this guy is on our side'...Marvelous...(no pun intended!)

Here's something interesting. Have a look at this picture, drawn by Carmine Infantino for Alter Ego #5. Now compare it with Irwin Hasen's drawing that he did for me...Notice anything similar? It was sheer coincidence that I asked for all the same characters except for Wildcat (which Irwin created) instead of BlackCanary!

Wow, what a week. last week of classes (for me for 1 year here at TRU) and I got in touch with not 1, not 2, but 3 Comic greats! I got an email from Mr. Joe Simon who created Captain America in 1941. He sent me his price list for a drawing (let's just say, it's more than he got when he started!). I got a wonderful letter from Mr. Marc Swayze who was one of the main artists for Captain Marvel and created Mary Marvel to boot! Finally, I spend a wonderful half hour on the phone talking to Paul Norris who turned 93 this week! He is the creator of Aquaman (pictured here is a later story from the 50's). And he still collects everything about him! Imagine how cool it would be to have your own creation on a stamp some 66 years later. He tells me fans mail him and they use the Aquaman postage stamp. The new Aquaman is too violent to his liking. His favourite work was drawing Tarzan strips because he loved reading Tarzan 85 years ago and to draw them was like a childhood dream come true. Mr. Norris also saved countless lives during WW2 by participating in pamphet drops over Okinawa Japan - battle weary soldiers would surrender and they'd come to the US camps holding Mr. Norris's pamphet. Both Mr. Swayze and Mr. Norris are incredibly kind to be sending me drawings of their characters.

More Artwork

I managed to find a colour scanner so I made new copies of Iron Man by George Tuska (happy 91st birthday today!) George had an 8 year Iron Man run. Jim Mooney's Spider-Man is finally shown in colour as well. Jim did issues 61,65-88 of Amazing Spider-Man among the thousands of others in his career...I'm also showing off Joe Sinnott's Thing. Joe is doing great these days too. Irwin Hasen shows off his talents with this great Justice Society of America Line up.

DC founding artist

I had a bit of a thrill today. I got to speak with Creig Flessel. Mr. Flessel is a wonderful 95 years old! He did a story in Action 1 BEFORE it became Action 1 with Superman. He did a story in Detective Comics 1 too and did the covers for Detective Comics #2 -17, that's before Batman made his appearance in Detective Comics 27 in 1939. A bit hard of hearing but otherwise in good health, it was an honour to speak to one of the founding artists of American comic books! He's even going to do a drawing of Sandman for me. Wow. So very very neat.

Who they are

Did you recognize the characters/artists from my first post? From the top: Neal Adams's did this color sketch of the X-Men character Cyclops for me. Next, Shelly Moldoff, one of the great Batman artists sent me the dynamic duo. An extremely kind man I must say. Deadman is drawn by Luis Dominguez and signed for me by Luis and Deadman's dad: Arnold Drake. They did this at the San Diego show 2006. We all miss Arnold's sense of humour.

Also at the SD show, I got to hang out with Irwin Hasen, the 2nd person to draw Green Lantern (who by the way has my favourite superhero uniform). Joe Staton gave me his Scooby Doo (it's in colour but the scanner was only doing B+W) to pass on to my wife Deanna as a way to bribe her to allow me to continue to explore the comic world...*laugh*

Next up, I bought this off of Luis at the NYCC this past Feb. (2007). It is a recreation of his famous Jonah Hex #36 cover. It too is in full colour. Another Batman great, (not to mention that he's just a great guy himself!) Jim Mooney sent me this fab. piece of Bruce and Dick entering the Batcave. Not in colour (not that there's anything wrong with that - in fact, I think it is just beautiful.) Carmine Infantino did this con sketch of the Flash for me. His contribution to the industry as an artist and as President of DC is remarkable. Gene 'the Dean' Colan did this commissioned Daredevil for me. 80 years old and still going strong! Look at that pencil work. Just incredible. It would be a shame almost to ink it!

The final piece is by Gentleman Jim Mooney who did three Legionnaires from his run on the LoSH in Adventure Comics. I was a huge fan of the Legion of Super-Heroes. I sure would hate to draw them all though! I'm thrilled to have these pieces, and I'm extremely honoured to know these fine individuals.

Originals from the Golden, Silver and Bronze Age boys...