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[Below: From the 1976 reprint of Carl Barks' Micro Ducks from outer Space, Gold Key Uncle Scrooge #130. Click to enlarge]

Site by Erik Weems. Business site at eeweems.com.

PHOTO SPLASH

Frames from the visually stunning silent movie Don Juan go see.

See previous images from Metropolis.

ICV.COM has a two-part Mike Richardson Interview. Richardson is the publisher at Dark Horse Comics, and a former APA-5 member. Something that stood out was Richardson on the traditional comic book format:

"Obviously there’s less interest in the pamphlets than in the past and more interest in having a book that people can put on their shelves with the other books that they enjoy, so you see a growth of the graphic novel business. I’ve said it a billion times, I’ll say it again: for many people it’s probably a better reading experience to have an entire story in a book that they can put on a shelf than to get a story in 20- or 22-page installments 30 days apart over the course of a year that they end up putting in a box in a closet somewhere. "

Bizarrowuxtry blog by Devlin Thompson has a Frank Robbins Catwoman. Thompson says that the 1970s Catwoman action figure from Mego was based on Robbins rendition of the Catwoman suit

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The site Kleefeld on Comics has a letter from Steve Ditko on Creativity (and slightly on Spiderman)

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Steve Ditko has been providing articles to the cinema site "Big Hollywood." They just posted an article (more of a list of philosophical points) by Ditko titled "The Ever Unreachable." Here's a few points to give the flavor of Ditko's thinking (which, as had been noted in many places, reflects writer Ayn Rand of "Atlas Shrugged" and "Fountainhead" fame):

• 9. Few minds are willing to clearly understand events that affect their lives. Even events like 9/11, terrorism, don’t cause the needed questioning, understanding, of one’s and other’s opposing belief systems, philosophies of life. There is not real concern to know the kind of consequences inherent in any belief, action or philosophy.
• 10. It’s the way many comic book fans, “historians”, don’t seek any fundamental understanding of the role of a hero or the reason, purpose, consequences of anti-heroes, rotting heroes and the deaths of comic book heroes.
• 11. Too many minds are willing to take the path of least resistance, go along with the crowd, seek the comfort of some in-group and be relieved of thought and responsibility by following some claimed, believed, authority. In comics, it’s with some editor, comic book expert or “historian”.
• 89. In comics fandom today, there are too many acting like babies whining, crying, throwing temper tantrums and demanding another’s bottle or toy...

Steve Ditko at Big Hollywood

For previous posts, consult the archives

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Panel of the day.com:
Rich Corben

Frazetta Museum center of Family Feud

Update December 17: From the Pocono Record, which has the best grip on the twists and turns of this story: "Speaking to reporters outside a Marshalls Creek court office, notary Adeline Bianco of Shirley Katz Insurance and A&S Katz said artist Frank Frazetta, 81, came to her office Nov. 30 and signed a document authorizing his son Alfonso Frank Frazetta, known as Frank Jr., to secure the artist's paintings "by any means possible."

Bianco notarized the document and returned it to Frank Sr. She also said she revoked a power-of-attorney held by the artist's other three children, Bill Frazetta of East Stroudsburg and sisters Holly Taylor and Heidi Gravin, both of Florida.

Frank Jr. was charged Dec. 9 with stealing 90 of his father's paintings housed in the family museum near Marshalls Creek. He contends he was trying to inventory and secure the paintings for his father and that he had to use a backhoe to gain entry to the museum because he had chained the doors a few days prior."

Update December 16, 2009: Frazetta Jr is now out on reduced bail, and with his attorney carrying a notorized letter from Frank Frazetta Sr authorizing Frazetta Jr to move the paintings to a secure storage facility, the legal aspects of the 'burglary' seems to be dissolving into a simple family feud over ownership of the painting collection valued at some $20 million USD. Again, the Pocono Record seems to have the best news round up on this whole debacle.

One disturbing aspect of this is the online video at Pocono in which Lori Frazetta, Jr's wife, says to the effect that Frazetta Sr is not being properly cared for (he is currently in Florida). Frank Frazetta Sr is 81 years old.

Dec 15: The Pocono Record has concise overview of the situation about the attempted burglary here, along with a mini-bio of Frazetta Sr. Frazetta Jr goes up before a Pennsylvania judge at a hearing on Wednesday, December 16, presumably to find out if the county will proceed with charges or if they'll be dropped.

December 11: Alfonso Frazetta is quoted in a BBC news report on the robbery that he was instructed by Frazetta Sr to take the museums paintings: "A police affidavit said Mr Frazetta Jnr, 52, claimed he had been instructed by his father to "enter the museum by any means necessary to move all the paintings to a storage facility", the agency reported. Mr Frazetta Snr denied granting any such permission, the agency said."

A longer news report is at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

December 10, 2009: The Lehigh Valley News reports that Alfonso Frank Frazetta, son of Frank Frazetta, attempted to steal the paintings of the Frazetta Museum in Pennsylvania by breaking down a door with a backhoe, and then he and another man were caught by Pocono County police while loading a truck with the paintings.

"Alfonso Frank Frazetta forcefully entered his father's art museum on Business Route 209 in Smithfield Township by damaging a door with a backhoe, then pulling it off its hinges, police said. Frazetta was helped by another man who was operating the backhoe. Charges are pending against that man, police said.

Police said once inside, Frazetta stole about 90 paintings and was loading them into a truck when he was caught by police. He is charged with burglary, criminal trespass and theft."

The director of the museum, Eleanor "Ellie" Frazetta, died on July 17, 2009 after a long battle with cancer.

Online: The official Frazetta Museum web site.

Page from the 9th issue od DC Comics' Wednesday Comics : A Supergirl page by Amanda Conner. Click to see entire page

Tim Sievert The Salty Air, Top Shelf 2008
Click to Enlarge.