All Spider-Man, all the time!

Yep, boys and girls, Spidey is back in the NY Post. Today, Thursday, August 31, 2006 we are treated to the second half of The Amazing Spider-Man #1. In this thrilling installment, we see our intrepid hero save a NASA space capsule, meet The Fantastic Four, and go up against a Russian spy named The Chameleon.

Not too shabby for a mere 13 pages (take that Mr. Bendis!)

Seriously, Stan Lee could do more with less in 1962 with an audience that he wasn’t even sure was out there than many of today’s comicbook writers seem to be able to do with a built-in audience and pre-sold issues. Plus, artists back then seemed to be able to work on two (or in the case of Jack “King” Kirby), three, or even four comics a month, while today’s artists are lucky if they can get one book done in six or eight weeks.

Makes you wonder, eh?

Hey there folks, I just learned from our beloved boss (Mr. Mazz, who just recently welcomed his newest daughter into the (comics) world) that he was interviewed by one Samuel Vera of Crazee Comics. As I understand it, Mr Vera recently conducted a rather lengthy interview with the estemed creative director of Guild Works Productions, Mark Mazz.

The hour-long interview covers a wide range of topics, and goes in-depth into the reasoning behind GWP and the launch of GWP’s new horror anthology comicbook, Psychosis!

To catch the Crazee Media Group's podcast, go here! You should all give it a listen, for as I understand it, he actually names names...

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Does what ever a Spider Can!

Hey, remember last week when I found out that the NY Post included a reprint of Amazing Fantasy #15 in Thursday’s Edition? Well the paper did it again, only this time it included (half) a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #1 in today’s edition. As I am lead to understand, the second half of the comic will appear in next Thursday’s edition.
I suspect that there will be additional reprints that will appear in the paper after that.

I just heard that according to a quote from Dean Spencer, Executive Director of Advertising for the Sun-News Network, on a Sun News network Web site, after the initial reprint of Amazing Fantasy #15 there will be 47 more weekly editions. It appears the reprints will be chronological, but not strictly sequential.

This information was later verified over at SpiderFan in a news clip indicating that News America Marketing is in fact going to be reprinting issues of Spider-Man comics over the next several weeks.

If this is true, then it — in all probability — leads right up until the launch date of Spider-Man 3. So, even though — in all probility — I already have all of the original issues in question, I’m totally psyched, and intend to acquire them all!

Is this like totally cool or what?

So, yesterday, I come home and open up my e-mail. As I’m going through the numerous bits of electronic correspondence and spam (deleting the spam, and reading the missives), I come across one from a buddy of mine who lives in NY. He says:

The New York Post loves its comics. Today's edition contains a free reprint
of AF15.

—C

Folks, I’m telling you that I couldn’t grab my car keys and get my sandals on fast enough to get out the door. I’m like two minutes from the nearest Newsstand, and I was there in just under 30 seconds. I snagged two copies of the paper (assuring the cute young thing at the counter that, yes I did know that I had two of the same paper, and yes, I did intend to do that).

When I got home, I was greeted by my lovely wife, who presented me with a second pair... er, ah, of comics, courtesy of my very lovely Sister-In-Law. Needless to say. several hours later, I subsequently chatted up my sometimes partner the very talented Mr. Wilcox (and other serious Spidey fanatic) who indicated that he was unable to acquire a copy, so I offered him one of mine (we do that kind of stuff).



The third copy is for my fabulous nephew Tony-o, who is all of 12 and loves Spidey near as much as do I and John A. (and I love keeping him hooked on comics, so I always try to acquire them for him.) Tony-o is great. He loves to call me up and ask me comic-booky questions; “Uncle Bob, if Spider-Man was fighting Aquaman, who would win?” “Why it would be Spidey, of course, especially if they were fighting in the Nevada desert.”

Anyway, I just wanted to share that with all of you.

The Perfessor

Ladies & Gents, Melvin Ylagan

A while back I spoke about the comicbook to which I contributed an eight-page story. Well, Melvin Ylagan, the cover artist, turned in a spectacular cover which spotlights my story, so I felt it necessary to learn a bit more about Melvin, and he sent me the following information about himself.

Melvin tells me that he started taking comics more seriously during the early ‘90s, after a meeting with Joe Quesada who was at a book signing in Queens, Melvin was hired right away as a background illustrator for Joe’s comic, Ash. After asking Joe for a letter of recommendation, Melvin soon got a partial scholarship at the School of Visual Arts.

He kept working with Joe while in school and also apprenticed for Robert L. Benney (former chairman of the Society of Illustrators and a very good friend of Norman Rockwell). After graduating, Melvin was quickly hired by Neal Adams’ Continuity Associates, to illustrate storyboards for commercials. he then landed another job at the NYC studio a year later.

Melvin recently went back to Continuity (with Neal Adams), as a freelancer while pursuing a career in cover illustration and his life-long dream. Some years ago, Melvin began a creator-owned comic story entitled Gothis. He had published an issue of Gothis some years ago and is still determined to finish the saga after he’s more established in the field of comics.

Hopefully with his (soon to be) published work in Psychosis Melvin will achieve some measure of that success. We certainly hope so. Take a look at the cover art that he has contributed to Psychosis (which spotlights my story). Personally, I’m blown away by it.