Month: January 2011

Excessive coverage of Stan Lee receiving Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Stan Lee signs fan's Iron Man helmet on Hollywood Walk of Fame (click for more pics)

Stan Lee, co-creator of Spider-Man, Iron Man and tons of other characters published by Marvel Comics, received the 2,428th Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Tuesday in front of the Live Nation Building in Hollywood. I’m fairly confident saying he is the first comic book creator to be recognized by this institution. Stan’s fellow POW! Entertainment executive Gill Champion and Image Comics co-founder and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane were guest speakers.

I was kind of hoping to get away from work and shoot the ceremony on Tuesday afternoon, but the realities of life had other plans. Not that I think it’s some big crucial moment in comic book history (maybe if the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce had created a new category of comic books for the Walk, but no, Stan Lee is in the Motion Pictures category) (plus I became disillusioned some when I found out years ago that recipients pay $30K to get their Star), but still it might’ve been fun to do. I knew coming off the holidays that it would never really happen, though. Plus, when Randy Newman got his Star, there were several videos posted online, so I figured others would already have their cameras ready for someone as beloved as Stan Lee. And I was right. Videos starting hitting YouTube about an hour or two after the event.

For more slick coverage, check out the LA Times’ Hero Complex blog, the LAist‘s collection of pics (like the one above), the Washington Post, and with videos of their own: CNN, Hollywood Reporter, and LA station ABC-7. Also, Variety has a quick story on the after-party Tuesday night.

Some bold statements in the above links caught my eye, and I just want to touch on them briefly, because while Stan Lee deserves a lot of praise, it’s important to keep things in perspective and not get overcome with hyperbole. Phrases like “father of the super hero” and “created or co-created 90 percent of Marvel’s characters” stand out to me most. The former is pretty silly. I could see him being called the father of the modern super hero (or some such modifying term), but he did not create or co-create Superman (that would be Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster). The latter percentage seems really rounded up. I can agree with 90% of the Marvel characters most people have heard of or know about through mainstream movies and TV shows, but not of the entire library of thousands of Marvel characters. But I’m nitpicking, so enough of that. There is no doubt that Stan Lee helped rejuvenate, even revolutionize, the super-hero genre in the 1960s, and he helped build the foundation of Marvel Comics both as a company and a fictional universe. He has also done a lot as a personality/celebrity to bring comics awareness to the masses. I know plenty of people who have never read a Spider-Man comic (or any other comic) but they know of Stan Lee because he’s a character himself. So congratulations, Stan Lee! And congratulations, comics! There’s no way I could see this happening 5 or 10 years ago.

Click through for your Stan Lee Star Video Feed complete with shaky handheld and subpar audio.

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Archie and Hero Initiative help comics creators

Click to visit Hero Initiative's Archie 600

It wasn’t too long ago that the men and women who gave their blood, sweat and tears to make comic books for you and me weren’t compensated all that well for their time and effort. Aside from a rather stingy page rate, the vast majority of creators had no health insurance, no 401k plan, little to no rights to the work they created, basically no benefits at all. Today it’s a lot better, mostly for those that are lucky enough to work for major publishers. But the truth remains – the artist’s life and the freelancer’s life are risky ones in any industry.

The Hero Initiative, a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization, works to help creators who have fallen on hard times and need some help, whether that be with making rent or covering medical costs. One of their creative fundraising efforts is to work with a publisher to reprint a recently popular comic book with a variant blank cover, and then have comic book artists create one-of-a-kind covers to be auctioned off. An art book of all of the cover sketches is later published. 100% of sales goes to the Hero Initiative to help them maintain safety nets for creators in need.

The awesome image above by Cliff Chiang depicting Archie and the gang as a high school garage band is one of the sketch covers for Archie #600 from Archie Comics. The original version of the issue was published over a year ago as the start of the much-discussed story line by Michael Uslan and Stan Goldberg where Archie finally decides between Betty and Veronica.

To take a look at all 50 covers (they’re all great!), visit HeroInitiative.org. To buy the original artwork and help a good cause, check out the Hero Initiative’s eBay auctions that launched yesterday. Archie Covers: Fifty Times an American Icon collecting and reprinting all 50 covers will be published later in the year.

Violent Blue premieres this Friday

I’m always happy to pass on the word about the good work of friends also on the pursuit of creativity.

Jesse Hlubik is a fantastic actor that I was lucky to have studied with in an actors’ group when the century was still an infant. He wasn’t the teacher. We didn’t have one. Just a group of actors learning from each other, critiquing each other, pushing each other to go further and be better. We’d watch, study, maybe steal some (in my case, steal a lot).

This Friday, Violent Blue premieres in Culver City. Jesse Hlubik stars as… well, I’m not really sure what’s going on in this crazy movie. Here’s the trailer:

I don’t know what just happened either, but that looked amazing. Weird, surreal, imaginative, somewhat mad.

Directed by Gregory Hatanaka (Mad Cowgirl) and also starring Silvia Suvadova and Nick Mancuso, the movie has a red carpet premiere at Culver Plaza Theatres this Friday at 6:30 PM. The movie will continue to screen there through January 13, followed by a DVD release January 25. If you’re in the LA area, check it out. I can’t make the premiere (I’ve got a show), but I’ll try to catch it before it leaves Culver Plaza, and so should you.

LA Comics News Roundup: Comics vs. Toys begins, Borders ends

All the news that’s fit to shove through internet tubes. Here’s the world of comic books and graphic novels in LA and beyond over the last week or so, with some commentary:

= Rebranded Eagle Rock comic store Comics vs. Toys gets profiled on how it came into existence. Answer: From the ashes of two neighboring Eagle Rock comic stores Another World Comics and Mini-Melt Too. In a time when stores are closing and people in less populated areas are lucky if they have a store within a 3-hour drive, it’s amazing to think that two stores existed side by side for a year. I shopped at this store for maybe a year when it was still the Meltdown Comics satellite shop Mini-Melt Too, after Another World Comics had already closed, and really appreciated co-owner Ace Aguilera going out of his way to get me the comics I liked, which can skew off the beaten path at times. It’s one of those small but great stores that LA is lucky to have in abundance. Read it: Eagle Rock Patch

= And speaking of stores closing, the LA Weekly looks at the slow death of the Borders in Westwood. The Borders company will give severance pay, but hasn’t told the store employees their last day. Apparently it will be when the store has been picked clean at severely discounted prices. Read it: LA Weekly

= Two 24-year-old Los Angeles men, Farhad Lame and Navid Vatankhahan, each have to pay $750, complete 10 days of community service (picking up trash), and remain on probation for 3 years for selling fraudulent passes to this past summer’s Comic-Con International: San Diego comic book and pop culture convention. They pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in San Diego Superior Court. They had sold a pair of 2-day passes to 2 women for $120 each on Craigslist. The passes ended up being photocopies of exhibitor badges, so naturally the women weren’t allowed in. Both men were arrested on the last day of Comic-Con. Read it: Sign On San Diego

= For you creative types, comics lettering and calligraphy innovators Comicraft, based right here in Los Angeles, had their annual New Year’s Day Sale, and “secretly” extended it through the holiday weekend. Maybe it’s still happening when you visit. See it: ComicBookFonts.com

= Comics Alliance wrapped up their Digital December, a month long look at the state of digital comics with excellent interviews with nearly every major player and articles by David Brothers and Laura Hudson: (more…)

Comics Events in LA: Week of 1/2/11

You don’t have to sit at home alone reading to get into comic books and graphic novels. There are always great events going on that celebrate the vitality and creativity of comics. Just here in Los Angeles, there are more events I can ever make. But I try, and so should you. You never know what you’ll discover.

Here are some local Los Angeles events coming up that celebrate the sequential art form.

This week:

Tuesday, January 4, 11:30 AM: Stan Lee (co-creator of Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, et al.) will be honored with the 2,428th Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (in the category of Motion Pictures) at 7072 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles 90028 (in front of the Live Nation Building). Guest speakers: Gill Champion (President/COO, Pow! Entertainment) and Todd McFarlane (Spawn). Tickets: $0.

Wednesday, January 5: NEW COMICS DAY! Find your local comics specialty shop.

Wednesday, January 5, 8 PM: Comics podcast Bagged & Boarded with SModcastle’s Matt Cohen and Brendan Creecy with special guest TBA has a live show broadcast at SModcastle, 6468 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles 90038. Tickets: $10.

Wednesday, January 5, 8:30 PM: The Meltdown (weekly comedy show) with stand-up comedians Barry Rothbart, Brett Gelman, Jackie Kashian, Brendon Walsh, and Maria Bamford, at Meltdown Comics, 7522 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles 90046. Tickets: $8.

Saturday, January 8, 8 PM: Battle for the Planet of the Geeks, calling itself “the dorkiest trivia war ever waged”, is being held at SModcastle, 6468 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles 90038. Tickets: $10 or $40 for 4-person team.

The future: (more…)