Oh Canada!

I've long had a love of and desire to collect specialty comics. That is to say comics that either contain corporate characters selling or appearing in comics that are sponsored by other companies (not their respective publishers) or comics where the characters are pushing some sort of pro-social cause. Quite a few of these comics have been from Marvel, DC, and Archie, and I have amassed quite a few of them. 

Recently I acquired one that came out way back in 2001 for which I had long been searching. Well it arrived the other day and I've just finished reading it, and while I enjoyed it, I do have just one minor beef with it, which I plan on sharing with all'y'all now. 

As you can plainly see, the comic in question is Marvel's Wolverine Son of Canada, which was subsidized by Doritos/Lays, and was issued only in Canada. In this comic, native son Wolverine, along with Spider-Man and The Hulk get sucked through a vortex and wind up in The Great White North (where they eventually meet up with Storm, Captain America, Silver Surfer, Thing, and Thor all of whom have been captured by minions of Blastaar). 

To cut to the chase, the heroes manage to free their friends, and defeat Blastaar and his minions with relative ease (hey, it's only a 16-page comic with 2 pages of ads). My issue is this. I found a typo (printo, really as it was probably hand lettered). The error came on page two where Wolverine says "This is Vancouver, British Columbia." and Spider-Man responds, "Canada? Where in Canada? which makes no sense as Wolverine just said that they were in Vancouver, British Columbia. Causing me to think that Spidey was supposed to have said "We're in Canada? which would have made much more sense.

(I placed arrows on the art so you could better see what I was talking about above. 

Not a big deal, but, honestly, my editor-sense was buzzing.

Having gone through that, I just wanted to add one more image from the comic, which is a shot of Cabot Tower on Signal Hill in Newfoundland, but only because my good buddy Roger Keel lives in Newfoundland, and I thought he might be entertained by its inclusion in the comic. 

Well, that's all I have for today, now I have to get back to my real work so I can go catch the last matinee of Captain America New World Order later today. 

The Wise Little Girl (& Other Stories)

We Love Monsters #1
(and yes, I had an article (or two)
in this one 

So, I figured that it was (finally) time to get back to writing about funnybooks, especially Indie funnybooks that I like and that are produced by my friends. Top of today’s list is one from my pal Jim Ordolis who not only published this wonderful comic (The Wise Little Girl and Other Stories) but is also is the publisher of We Love Monsters, and the admin of the We Love Monsters Facebook page (where I have posted several reviews of monster films). 

So, yeah, we’re friends and collaborators, get over it. I work with people I like, and I’m certainly not hiding that here. Needless to say, when Jim sent me a copy of The Wise Little Girl and Other Stories, I was immediately attracted to it, as the 20 page B&W and Color comic (from Roger Keel’s Stone Island Comics) proved to be a real gem. 

The comic combines written word poetry and prose with at least one illustrated story and is wonderfully engaging. Now, I will admit that I’m not one for poetry, but the three short poems along with their accompanying illustrations were cute, endearing, and all, mystical in which nature — quite naturally adds to the attraction of the overall package, which is, after all, an anthology of fairy and folk tales, mostly written by Stephen Withrow and illustrated by Gary L. Shipman, Domenic Monteleone, and Scott Sawyer.

The illustrated story (The Wise Little Girl) is written by Steve, illustrated and colored by Jim, with lettering by Ron Kasman. This particular tale is an old Russian folk tale about a pair of brothers, one rich and one poor. When the rich brother attempted to cheat his poorer brother out of a foal, the poor brother disputed his wealthier brother’s claim to the foal. 

Eventually the dispute came before the Tsar himself, who proposed a series of riddles to the pair. when it was revealed that the poor brother was able to solve the riddles with the help of his daughter, the Tsar kept increasing the ante with more and more complex riddles until the wise little girl proved herself able to answer each of them. 

The book is rounded out with a pair of full-page illustrations by Jim, and a old Irish story of a bargain between a pair of Irishmen and a wily leprechaun that was written by Roger Keel, with spot illos by Jim. Roger’s story, while predictable for these types of stories involving mortal men and those with magical powers (including genies, leprechauns, demons, witches and the like). Still, Roger pulls it off with his usual gusto and style, causing us to chuckle at the ultimate resolution of the contest.

So, if you are looking for a fun comic to brighten your COVID-19 lockdown, we heartily recommend checking out The Wise Little Girl and Other Stories, from Stone Island Comics.  

And, while you’re there, you might want to look in on Stone Island’s other fun comics, including Super Mystery Comics, Jack Banyon, The Princess of the Trees, and O.T. Ferret, you’ll be glad you did. 

A new comic story of mine from Main Enterprises

Hey kids, Mr. Jim Main came out with a new edition of Main Enterprises Presents (#11), wherein a story of mine appears. Illustrated by Tom Ahearn, it is entitled The Babysitter, and is actually part of my Agent Unknown series). The issue also contains Princess of the Trees (Roger Keel & Maya Andres) and Betsy the Bookwriter (Rock Baker and Jeff Austin).

Personally, I think it is another amazing issue of awesome comics from Main Enterprises.

More publications from Main Enterprises

 As you all should know by now, I've been doing production and editorial work on several of Jim Main's very fine Main Enterprises publications. Most recently these have included Main Enterprises #10, Rock On: The art of Rock Baker, and Under Western Skies (there are more, but they aren't available as of yet).

MEP #10 is an anthology comic featuring the work of Roger Keel (Words) and John Lambert (Art, Letters and Colors) in Jack Banyon in City of the Winged Serpent, (part three).

Kid Psychodelic: Al Limacher (Story & Art) Rick Pilotte and the Limacher Twins (Inks) and everything else, Rick Pilotte.

A Man Called Buckthorne in Devils Tail: (Pt. 3), by Earl Martin.

Princess of the Trees (Chapter 2): again by Roger Keel (writer), and illustrated, lettered, and colored by Maya Andre.

With Betsy The Book Writer in Paget’s Island: which was written and penciled by Rock Baker, and inked and Colored by Jeff Austin.

Next up Was Rock On, an art book featuring the incomparable work of the amazing Rock Baker, This is a magazine-sized 80-page giant serving up some very special art from Rock. This volume offers up several selected pieces of inked works of Rock’s, most notably with his long-time associate Jeff Austin, along with a hoast of others, including Rusty Gilligan, Ken McFarlane, Scott Shriver, Dan Taylor, Jamie Chase, and Mike Kennedy. There are several never seen before pieces of art that are the illustrations of the TV show, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 

The book also features material from another Rock Baker project, entitled Crissy Carrots that was to have been a Main Enterprises comicbook featuring Rock’s character. Unfortunately that project just naver quite came together, but here in this volume are some character sketches as well as the first finished strip by Baker and Kennedy, previously unpublished.

Finally is the Magazine-sized art book Under Western Skies which features the stunning Western Art of John Lambert. This is a 12-page B&W book that shows off the amazing talent of John.

I hope that you all reach out to Jim (jmain44@aol.com) if you were interested in ordering one of more of these fine publications.

A selection of Jim’s books can be found online at the Main Enterprises website, but your best bet is to reach out directly to Jim and chat him up.

OK, now that this is all done, I’m going to go back and work on The Del & Gold Key Collector #2 for Jim before he Gibb’s-Smacks me for goofing off.

Tales from the Attic...

This post has been slightly amended to reflect a couple of minor corrections to the narrative.

We are huge fans of “Grim” Jim Main, not just because he is a heck of a nice guy (and one of the few folk in fandom who’s actually older than your humble host), but because he has consistently put out some wicked-cool comics and fan publications.

Truthfully, we’ve known Jim for some 30 +/- years (back then he was still older than me, and grumpier too). Jim worked in a comic shop and was publishing fanzines and stuff (he was the original creator of a very cool fanzine entitled Fandom Feature, (which we understand was taken over by a pair of associates, repackaged and eventually sold to Krause Publications to become Comics Collector magazine). for most of those years he continued to publish Indie comics, and comic-related mags.

We re-connected with Jimbo back in 2010, and almost immediately began  submitting comic scripts to him — which he almost immediately began publishing. Since the Fall of 2010 Jim has published seven of my short stories, is in the process of publishing four more, and has me working on another four or five stories. To be sure, just ‘cause he’s publishing my stuff, I like him because in an industry where every Tom, Dick, and Stan Lee-wanabe he is doing what most funnybook self-publishers only dream about.

He’s publishing comics.

Let me reiterate that, he’s publishing comics, and not just a comic or two every year or so, he’s actually publishing multiple titles, and has been doing it for years. To be sure, He is neither rolling in dough (unless it is at the bakery shop), nor is independently wealthy (he has a full-time “real” job), but he is consistently publishing comics. He does so on time, fills them with interesting, exciting, readable material, and then he sells them. His numbers aren’t huge, but he does it over and over again, and that’s nothing to sneeze at in a day and age when the mainstream companies are having trouble moving their books, and most comicbook start-ups don’t ever get past their third or fourth issue.

The Main Enterprise comic we are talking about this time out is The Attic, This second issue offers more tales of horror, fantasy and suspense, and are once again told to the awaiting audience by the quirky, charming, and mysterious host, Mr. Allistair Grimsby, the caretaker of Thorndyke Manor. The magnificent abode of the equally mysterious Sir Gregory Thorndyke who — we are told — has an overwhelming passion for collecting some of the oddest curios the world over. It is the stories behind these unique objects that we are told by the ever loquacious Allistair Grimsby. As it turns out, Mr. Thorndyke keeps the most unique objects in, well, the attic.

Issue #2 spotlights more fascinating items in by stories from writers Roger Keel and Yours truly, along with superb art from the talents of John Lambert, Tony Lorenz, Kevin Duncan, and Hal Jones. There is also a short fiction piece by Sam Gafford, with accompanying art by Jamie Chase. There is additional interior art from Scott Shriver and a front cover by Dan Taylor and back cover by Hal Jones. This issue sells for $5.00, while issue #1 sells for 3.99. Personally, this reviewer thinks that all of the stories in both issues totally rock, but don’t just take our word for it, buy a copy of three for yourselves, and decide that for yourselves.

Oh, when you get there, tell Jim I sent you (but don’t say anything about my thinking that he was grumpy, or old, or, well Grim, he’s a little touchy about those things.