A Historical Evening with Danny Fingeroth
Two Wednesdays ago, on January 20, the counter guy at Midtown Comics handed me this flyer for an event they were sponsoring. There was a lot of information in it, but what immediately caught my eye was the opportunity to take a selfie with the Batmobile. Sold! Off to the New York Historical Society Museum & Library I went, later that evening.
I got there a little after six, and as promised, got my selfie; but there was so much more. They had a troupe of cosplayers walking around providing ample photo opportunities, followed by a Parade of Superheroes at 7:00 PM.
There was a fantastic Superheroes in Gotham exhibition that included both Marvel and DC characters (which unfortunately prohibited picture taking, but below is a photo I may or may not have taken of an original art page from Amazing Fantasy #15), 
and a Batman exhibit honoring both Bob Kane and Bill Finger.
Then, at 7:30 PM came the slide show–Superhero New York: Real and Imaginary. I almost skipped out on it (it started at 7:30 PM and ran for an hour, which with my long commute meant I was looking at Midnight for home). I’m happy to say, I stuck it out.
It proved to be a solid presentation by Danny Fingeroth. He made me realize how little I know about the industry I claim to love so much. I knew next to nothing about where Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Will Eisner, and many of the ‘old’ greats hailed from, where they went to school, and where they grew up. He discussed the impact growing up in the gritty streets of New York had on their work; and he talked about their friendships, their falling outs, and more. He took us deep inside their work offices, into the bullpen; and he showcased historic comic book inspired landmarks.
Then, looking around at the large diverse audience sitting around me, I realized how much things have changed within the short time span I have lived in the comic book world. Here I was at a serious academic lecture, featuring comic books. I’m not sure that this sort of thing would have garnered the audience it did today, twenty odd years ago–not to mention the setting: The NY Historical Society Museum & Library on the Upper West Side. I was totally digging the scene. Danny Fingeroth has encouraged me to seek out more, to read more (I also purchases a signed copy of his Superman on the Couch with a Foreword by Stan Lee), and to learn more about the rich history of the comic book world—and I can start with NYC’s own comic book tour here.
Iron Bard Ballisto, written and drawn by Ben Hutchings is a goofy 36 page cartoon read reminiscent of Sergio Aragone’s Groo. It is published by the Australian imprint, Milk Shadow Books.
The fast-paced story is non-stop action, helped along by a power-up pill popping strong man, video game shogun ninja, mysterious heroine, and others; who together battle CPU henchmen to put an end to the evil scheme. With no fear of archival or uninstallation, our heroes fight the Hierarchy to the fateful end.
Despite all the social media buzz on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat (just starting to learn this one to my daughter’s chagrin), I still find the best way to find something new to read is to browse the Indie Rack. This morning, taking a break from work, and sneaking over to the comic book store for a few minutes, I stumbled across Graduate from Overground Comics—a line of comics from a new publishing company, started and owned by Jon Hughes.
Jody Houser, in the first issue, sets Faith’s first solo adventure in all too familiar surroundings. She has a new secret identity, a new apartment in LA, and a new job as … surprise … a mild-mannered journalist (at a hipster news blog site). At home she does the same things most of us do: deal with the neighbor’s shit, watch a little TV, read a little sci-fi and fantasy, blog a little, fantasize about sex; and later, go out and fight crime in her spare time as her alter ego, Zephyr (ok, most of us don’t fight crime, but many of us do volunteer work, or do a little extra something to help society). Again, therein lies the appeal, she is one of us, a fellow geek.
Whether you like or dislike Walter Simonson’s work, the one thing most people can agree on is that his work has been consistent throughout the years. I fall on the side of the latter, being one of his fan boys since the 80s. This is not an objective review. I loved him back then, and that love continues to this day.
Reading for me can be euphoric. Then there are times when I come across a body of work that causes me nothing but pain. I want to stop, but I suffer from a nerdy quirk that compels me to finish what I started, regardless of the mental anguish it causes.
Yet another Wednesday signing at Jim Hanley Universe (JHU). At first, I was going to skip it. I had plenty of excuses. Wednesday is hump day, I have a long commute from Mid-CT to NYC (and vice versa); and around 6 PM all I want to do is get on the train for my afternoon nap on the ride home. However, I already owned a signed copy of Brian Wood‘s the DMZ Vol. 1 TPB, and rationalized that the admission price of a signed $9.99 Starve TPB–even though I really had no interest in a book about a celebrity chef–was well worth the effort to get my copy of DMZ Vol. 2 TPB signed to add to my collection.
At times the resolutions were a tad too neat, but the writing was superb, and it kept me awake the entire train ride home. This is no easy feat; usually the rhythmic motion of the train knocks me out cold in 15 minutes or less; but by the end of Chapter five (set in Brooklyn, my old stomping grounds), I was surprised to realize I was only about ten minutes away from my stop. I had been in the reading zone, where time flew by at a rapid clip unawares to me.
I came across an interesting quote via my twitter feed the other day from @
