Canadians weigh in on Thor vs The Thing

Mystery Hoard is more of a winter blog, really.

To kick things off again, a simple link to Kevin Church's blog and a new entry in the Canadian Comic Fan Project: a letter from an old Thor comic written by Mark Lund of Keremeos, British Columbia (BC) back in 1965.

The Wright Awards are Tomorrow!

The Doug Wright Awards are coming and ther's gonna be a shootout!

The 2007 Wright Awards take place in Toronto on Friday, August 17 at Innis College Town Hall (2 Sussex, @ St. George), 6:30pm-8:30pm. $5.00. Tickets available at the door.

The Wright Awards Are Hard to Ignore

The Doug Wright Awards for Canadian cartooning are just 3 days away --this Friday at 6:30 pm in Toronto!

Aren't you just so excited about the Wright Awards that you can't sleep? Don't you feel like you could lose control and wet the bed or something? Do you feel the need to drink some water? The Wright Awards features only the hardest to ignore comics in Canada! And all this week Mystery Hoard is featuring classic comics by Doug Wright to celebrate --just click on the strip at left to see a Doug Wright strip starring the hard to ignore Nipper from a 1959 Weekend Magazine!

The nominees for Best Emerging Talent:

Gray Horses, Hope Larson (ONI Press)

House of Sugar, Rebecca Kraatz (Tulip Tree Press)

Was She Pretty?, Leanne Shapton (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux)

Bacter-area, Keith Jones (Drawn and Quarterly)

Mendacity, Tamara Faith Berger & Sophie Cossette (Kiss Machine Presents...)


The 2007 Wright Awards take place in Toronto on Friday, August 17 at Innis College Town Hall (2 Sussex, @ St. George), 6:30pm-8:30pm. $5.00. Tickets available at the door.

The Wright Awards: Celebrating the Best Smelling Comic Books in Canada!

The Doug Wright Awards for Canadian cartooning are just 4 days away --this Friday at 6:30 pm in Toronto!

Are you tired of comics that stink? The Wright Awards features only the best smelling comics in Canada! And all this week Mystery Hoard features classic comics by Doug Wright to celebrate --just click on the strip at left to see an ad for Cow Brand Baking Soda from a 1959 Weekend Magazine!

I might even be there, and I have to drive 100 km to do it!

The nominees for Best Smelling Book:

Shenzen: A Travelogue From China, Guy Delisle (Drawn and Quarterly)

This Will All End in Tears, Joe Ollman (Insomniac Press)

Scott Pilgrim and The Infinite Sadness, Bryan Lee O'Malley (ONI Press)

Gilded Lilies, Jillian Tamaki (Conundrum Press)

Nog-a-dod, Marc Bell ed. (Conundrum Press)

The 2007 Wright Awards take place in Toronto on Friday, August 17 at Innis College Town Hall (2 Sussex, @ St. George), 6:30pm-8:30pm. $5.00. Tickets available at the door.

Countdown to The Wright Awards!

The Doug Wright Awards are just 5 days away!

Where will all the cool kids be this Friday night? At the Wright Awards, celebrating the best in graphic novels by both the seasoned pros and the sexy young newcomers of the elite and glamourous world of cartooning in Canada. The 2007 Wright Awards take place in Toronto on Friday, August 17 at Innis College Town Hall (2 Sussex, @ St. George), 6:30pm-8:30pm. $5.00. Tickets available at the door. If you're reading this, you're invited!

Get ready for the fireworks!



(Juniper Junction strip by Doug Wright, 1958)

New Old Superman News

Some links about old Superman comic books:

1. A collector is offering for sale the correspondence between Jerry Siegel and National from the period of the first lawsuit over the ownership of Superman.

2. The website devoted to all things classic Superman, Superman Through the Ages, has a new home, supermanthrutheages.com

3. Joe Shuster once drew Batman.

4. You can watch the guy who wrote The Science of Superheroes talk about "Superman's boners" on youtube:



5. Clark Kent, DJ

Wiki Weirdness

Writing about the possible infiltration of Wikipedia by state-sponsored "disinfo" agents for Montreal's Centre for Research on Globalization, Dr. Ludwig De Braeckeleer rehearses the history of secret agents messing with the media:

Conducting false flag operations and planting disinformation in the mainstream media have long belonged to the craft of the spies. In the months preceding the 1953 overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, U.S. and U.K. intelligence agencies used both techniques abundantly.

A copy of the CIA's secret history of the coup surfaced in 2000. Written in 1954 by the Princeton professor who oversaw the operation, the story reveals that agents from the CIA and SIS (the American and British intelligence services) "directed a campaign of bombings by Iranians posing as members of the Communist Party, and planted articles and editorial cartoons in newspapers."

Interesting stuff. I wonder if any historians of editorial cartooning have tried to get to the bottom of that one? Anyway, the article goes on to trace the efforts of Wikipedia watchers to track down the identity of a Wiki-editor who was voted "the most abusive administrator of Wikipedia" and who now apparently lives in Alberta and who may or may not have been a secret agent.

-------

other wiki stuff:

wikicomics

interview about the wikipedia war on comics

there is a MAD wiki

Supermanica, dedicated to Superman's world, pre-1986, is a wonderful place to visit

(the cartoon up top is by Bill Avidor)

Mini-Comic Review: The Experiment

The Experiment
by Nick Maandag
20 pages
$3.50

review by BK Munn

Nick Maandag is a Toronto cartoonist who has produced some interesting work over the last couple of years. His latest is an oversized photocopied mini --almost magazine size-- that contains a complete story told mostly using a 4 x 3 panel grid. The Experiment is a humourously Kafka-esque tale about a hapless homeowner named Sammy whose house is gradually invaded by a horde of identical mad scientists (they all resemble Dr. Bunsen Honeydew from the old Muppet Show, if that character had a nose like a Proboscis monkey) in the name of a vaguely-defined scientific experiment that seems solely designed to drive Sammy crazy and destroy his family. Maandag's story is quite funny and the narrative mixes just enough creepiness with mystery to keep it interesting. The drawings, while slightly clunky, are also funny: the characters, especially Sammy, who looks like a cross between Gumby and one of those Sea Monkeys from the old comic book ads, are very expressive, and Maandag uses lots of hatching and stippling to give his black-and-white pages some texture and volume. I quite enjoyed The Experiment and look forward to Maandag's next project.

(I found my copy for sale at Pages bookstore, but I'm sure you can get one direct from the creator: 626 Manning Ave, Toronto, ON, M6G 2V9. email: nickmaandag at hotmail. Maandag will be appearing at next month's Toronto Comic Arts Festival)

Mystery Hoard: Guelph Yearbook Cartoons

From an interesting Mystery Hoard unearthed earlier this week: cartoons from Guelph high school yearbooks.

Taking a break from comic books, I dug up a pair of yearbooks (I guess some people would call it a facebook) while thrifting this week. They are both from Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute (GCVI or just "GC" to us locals). The books (titled "Acta Nostra") are from 1954 and 1955 and are full of great photos of earnest, clean-cut, and lily-white young mid-century moderns. The books are also full of cartoons by the local geniuses, class clowns and "artists" of the day, some of whom helped to assemble the books. I have been imagining Terry Iles and Marcia Rosenberg, seen above pasting up the comics, falling in love and getting married after graduation. A great mix of Mad Magazine, Sad Sack, and untutored outsider art styles. See for yourself by clicking on the cartoons below, from 1954:

Magic Shadows Intro

Magic Shadows was a show on TV Ontario, the provincial public boradcaster, that ran during the 1970s and was hosted by Elwy Yost. Yost was a great fan of old Hollywood and Magic Shadows serialized classic movies every weekday. Yost was also the longtime host of Saturday Night at the Movies, a weekly double bill of uncut film that competed with Hockey Night in Canada.

The best part of Magic Shadows for a kid was the animated intro and the 1930s-50s adventure serials that were frequently featured. This is a Youtube video of the opening theme: it's bracketed by some station id's and by Elwy doing a remote intro but it is a very nostalgic piece of film for people of a certain generation. Does anyone know who was responsible for this animation?

Shazam! It's July 4!

(click on images to read full-size)

In honour of our U.S. cousins, a special find from a recent mystery hoard: Capt. Marvel's Bicentennial Bear Battle.

From Shazam! #25, 1976. For the U.S. bicentennial, writer E. Nelson Bridwell took Captain Marvel on a cross-country jaunt in pursuit of Dr. Sivana who has decided to "destory America, city by city" beginning with an attempt to sabotage Billy Batson's WHIZ-TV documentary. The adventure would continue into 1977 and involve the return of Black Adam, among others.

In this excerpt, Billy and his pal Whitey Murphy, imported into the comics from the Captain Marvel movie serial, encounter the ancient enemy of patriotic Americans, the brown bear. I love it when superheroes fight bears! (That's Sivana in a blue wig in the last panel.) Later in the issue, Capt. Marvel rescues a young actor dressed as Buffalo Bill Cody from fireworks and then is captured by Sivana aboard "a replica of the captured British ship David Glasgow Farrabut commanded when he was 12!" The American Revolution sure involved quite a bit of child labour!

The art is by the one and only Kurt Schaffenberger.

Happy 4th, Yanks! To quote John Adams: "This day will be the most memorable epic in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival."

The Strange Customs of Steve Ditko

Sometimes you just find yourself looking at pictures of homemade action figures on the internet.


From megomuseum:



By Ken Pick:



Created by a genius known only as Bottleimp

The Strand on Comics Style, circa 1909

John Adcock digs up another great old article about comics. "Style in Comic Art" was published in 1909 in the Strand Magazine. It showcases the work of McCay, Zim, and Lawson Wood. John has also dug up some great old Cruikshank illos and Harry Rountree, the original Sherlock Holmes illustrator.

Uncle Bobby, R.I.P.

From this Citytv site comes the news that kids' tv host Uncle Bobby (aka Bobby Ash), who had a popular show in the 1970s has died at 82. Quite surprising, considering he appeared very old to his childish viewers. Uncle Booby was born in the UK and was one of those gleeful, earnest host that used to be very common on local tv: everyday he'd show a bunch of cartoons, interact with some puppets and stiff humans, and announce the birthdays of his viewers, to the accompaniment of a very annoying but unforgettable song (originally recorded by Jim Reeves?) called Bimbo the Birthday Clown. The show went through several name changes, and began on Hamilton's CHCH before winding up on CTV. The cause of death was heart attack.

CTV has the news video attached to its website --I would suggest those eager to preserve this kind of video info try to save the footage digitally.

I couldn't find any more footage online (mostly because CTV has removed its content from youtube) but here is some more info:

Show memories

Buffalo Tribute Site

Canadian site

Canadian Holidays Breed Wonderful and Frightening New Puritans

Superman Coloring Book

Sorting through some old magazines, I came across the Superman Coloring Book, published by Whitman in 1966. It has a nice Curt Swan cover with a full-colour Superman posing in front of a page of black-and-white strips, but the real treasure is inside. Normally finding an old colouring book with the pages coloured-in is a disapointing experience. Collectors want their books mint, with no markings or damage. But for me, the thing that really makes this book worth owning is the inventive colouring that adds life to the mediocre hackwork of the interior drawings, produced by something called "Jason Studios" for Whitman. The coloured-in pages are just beautiful and make the story of the book almost a surreal reading experience. You may have read the classic Superman adventure, "Superman Red, Superman Blue" --now read "Superman Orange, Brown, Pink, and Green!"

After a really slow start to the story, featuring the gang hanging around the Daily Planet office on a slow news day, the plot really begins with Superman chasing some crooks who hit him with a Red K missile which causes him to shrink. That's when our mysterious colourist really gets interested:




Our only clue to the identity of this coloring genius --a scrawled "Joann" at the top of the page!

Eventually Supes figures out some sort of solution involving a Lead Mine (!) and things get back to normal.

Lois looks kind of disappointed that Superman is no longer tiny!



The End!

Wildcat gets Pacemaker

We still haven't decided if Wildcat is working class, and I think it's safe to assume that Irwin Hasen hasn't been a prole for several decades. However, Hasen does have a brand-new pacemaker, according to Mark Evanier.

Wildcat Tribute

TwoMorrows interview

Some History

Pedigree Junction

I like this quote from comics retailer Mike Sterling that was featured on Journalista last week:

Currently processing a nice collection of books, ranging from the Golden Age into the mid-1980s. Highlight of the collection so far (though I don't see much surpassing this): a couple hundred original E.C. comics, including full runs of Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, Shock Suspenstories, and the 3-D books (all two of them), and near-full runs of Tales from the Crypt, Haunt of Fear, and Vault of Horror...plus a handful of Mads and other random E.C.s. I'll let you folks know when they're available for sale.

However, what I'm most excited about in this collection are the issues of Nancy & Sluggo and Fox and the Crow. I'm not letting you know when these are available for sale, because I'm keeping them. So there.

(I should also make up some kind of "pedigree" name for this collection, like the, I don't know, "Seaside Funnybooks in Cardboard Boxes Collection," and price them accordingly. Plus, I can tell exciting stories about how the collection was acquired: "Well, one day, a guy called and asked if we wanted to buy his comics, and we said 'sure, let us take a look at 'em,' and we saw he had some pretty good stuff, so we bought them. The end.")

Sterling's right: why does every Comic Book Guy who buys a collection feel the need to get the thing certified as a "Pedigree Collection"? There seems to be too many of those things already and they're just an excuse to charge more money for an old comic book.

I guess a comic book collection purchased by a comic book store is not technically a Mystery Hoard, but I still like to read about hoards of comics.

Now this is a real Mystery Hoard:

When we were kids, my brother acquired a modest collection of old comics--already old in 1981 or so--that sat around upstairs til my parents finally moved this summer, 2002. (I salvaged one or two of them.) There were two Archie books, I think, and one Richie Rich; one Incredible Hulk collection, one compelling Batman story in six issues, one dark and enthralling issue of the X-Men, and the first fifteen or so issues of Spider-Man in three volumes. Oh, I forget, there were also some DC collections: a collection of magical sports stories, a collection of team-ups involving Superman and the standard rotation of allied heroes, and one collection of villain-origin stories; all stuff from the fifties and sixties, I'd guess. All these, I read so many times I could probably reconstruct their stories and much of their dialogue with fair accuracy.

May Day 2007

Happy May Day!

some links about working class superheroes:

-are vampires the real working-class superheroes and are Marxists their arch-enemies?

-software designers for a game company dream up the next big Hollywood properties: The Plumber, Super Civil Servant, and The Fast Food Superhero

-is Spider-Man really working class?

-is The Thing working class?

-The Super-Hero League of Hoboken?

and, in the spirit of internationalism: Not Working Class but Communist Superheroes




-the Great 10

-The Collective Man

-Soviet Super-Soldiers

-Red Star

-Rocket Red

-Crimson Dynamo

-I don't know any Cuban superheroes --maybe Elpidio Valdes?

(top image: Jean-Claude Poirier's Supermatou from the French Communist Pif-Gadget; bottom image: Jaime Hernandez's Comrade 7)

John Peel's Mystery Hoard starring The Fall

A Mystery Hoard is a small cache of comics; a found collection of strange origin.

There are mystery hoards in other genres, of course. I used to call my favourite books my Apocalypse Shelf.

John Peel had an Apocalypse Shelf of 45s.