Month: December 2023

We (Sue and my multiple personalities) haven’t sent out a holiday letter in probably decades. It’s not that we don’t do things, it’s just that most of those letters are filled with proud parents talking about their kids accomplishments. Not having kids, makes those pretty short- “The cat’s slept a lot and bugged us to give them treats.”
2023 started with Bruce trying to figure out what his life would be like… should he retire? After bouncing around a bit he pulled the trigger and in March decided to start planning.

Things were pretty normal until the end of the school year- OK almost depressingly normal. We did take some time to see the Centennial of Disney Exhibit in Philadelphia (now in Chicago) and a weekend visit to the home of Mothman in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. As the school year ended in May so did over 35 years teaching. Bruce did not want any kind of “celebration” so he quietly emptied his classroom and drove off. It had been a good career with lots of great times, but… as the Walrus said, “the time has come.”

Retirement began with GeoWoodstock in Owensboro, KY. From there it was a bit of rush. While Sue (being still gainfully employed) worked and attended conferences, Bruce started on his personal list… in the Pit of Despair aka the basement. He had an idea of some traveling then decided to ignore traveling over the Summer and waited until the off season was over and things died down a bit. Sorting comics and reorganizing LEGO builds and sets kept him happy. When August came, Bruce started to realize just how much time, energy, and emotional toll teaching took… he’s been shying away from employment and especially educational related activities until at least 2024. After working since he was 13 Bruce decided he deserved a few months off.

The late summer and fall brought about a few things- like taking a weekend to see some races at Road America in Wisconsin, and a week to embrace our viking heritage at “Going Caching” in Georgia. We also spent some time in Asheville celebrating Sue’s parent’s 60th wedding anniversary, and we looked at options in area, but we still have time to decide where, when, if we relocate (and Bruce still has a lot of comic books to organize- current count over 5,000.) We also spent mid-November in Las Vegas. Bruce explored and played while Sue worked.

Our big event took some time and training- being balloon handlers in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We spent Thanksgiving in New York City wrestling the Macy’s Gold Star (you may not have seen us, we were behind the Wonka float). On a “whim” (we’ve been told we do a lot of things on a “whim” which was not said in a whimsical manner… really… when it comes to “whimming” we’re very serious) we headed to San Francisco on Christmas Day because… ok, maybe this was a whim. There we spent two days just chilling and taking in the sights – especially a great exhibit at the Cartoon Art Museum.

Other highlights in no particular order:

• Bruce went to a lot of conventions including: Gen Con, Power-Con, Cincinnati Comic Expo, Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, and New York Comic Con
• Visiting the Strong Museum of Play– Highly recommend it without or without cats… I mean kids.
• Visiting the Corning Museum of Glass
• Meow Wolf – Omega Mart, Las Vegas
• Tour the Randolph County Asylum with the Fort Wayne MINI Cooper Group
• MINI Together up into Michigan
• The Great Seneca Pizza Trail
• Sue knitting gnomes… lots of gnomes.
• Sue finding a geocache in all the counties in Ohio. and the milestone of 12,000 finds. Cecil trails behind with a measly 3,000.
• Reading books… lots of books- remember comic books are also books.

What will 2024 bring? Who knows? More work for Sue (Someone’s got to pay there bills), more drawing for Bruce. Some exotic & boring travel for both. Bruce will be looking for employment, not because he’s bored, but it’s nice to have some “egg money.” Bruce has been thinking about his word for the year… last year was “draw” and while he did draw more, he still has a long way to go. He considered “rebirth” but thinks now “whim” might be a good one. (Yes, it is going to be a running gag… Bruce thinks it’s hysterical) Oh, how can we live like this? Remember: cats don’t go to college.

Tune in next year… same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Cartoon Art Museum San Francisco, California

First of all, as many of you know, I’ve been reading comics for most of my 58 years. During that time I’ve read a variety of things, a few have stuck with me… one of those was Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer. I think picked up my first issue just on a chance. I was in high school and artwork was the driving force behind my comic book purchases. It was the gorgeous artwork that made me buy it (Yes, I was a teenager, and yes, Betty was a definite draw), but it was the story that made me come back and hunt down the previous issues. In the time before the Interwebs it was not easy for a nerdy introverted kid to find out that the Rocketeer started in Mike Grell’s Starslayer and then to track down those issues. The Rocketeer also bounced around publishers which added to the challenge as many fans of the comic have gone through. “Cliff’s New York Adventure” took me years to figure out that it had even been finished!

Original art has two magical qualities about it. First, it is something artist touched. Now with digital art the chance to see something touched by the artist can be rare. Secondly, because if it’s the artists work you can “look behind through curtain” see mistakes, edits and also see a few steps in the process. I’ve been fortunate to visit places like the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Columbus, Ohio and see up close (and shed a few tears) at original art from some of my idols, I even own a few pages, but not anything from Dave Stevens. I do embarrassingly remember my first San Diego Comic Con seeing him at his table and freezing before I could get close… afraid of what I should/would say- thinking maybe next year I’d get up the nerve… it didn’t happen. I have, over the years, picked up various books highlighting Dave’s work, but this was the first opportunity I’ve had to see his original art up close.

So first of all, I cannot say enough about what a great place the Cartoon Art Museum has become. The first time I stumbled upon it was 10 years ago while visiting my sister in-law for Christmas… the family was wandering about and I saw the sign and didn’t really care what everyone else was going to do, I just wanted to see what the museum might have in store for me. My in-laws are very understanding. Since then they’ve moved and I’ve longed to return and on a whim it happened, my wife is very understanding.

First Impressions:
As a fanboy I can say – I wish there was more… but like anything in this world I think that is just human nature. The exhibit focused heavily on that first Rocketeer story (which spawned the 1991 film) but also touched on Dave’s other work in animation and storyboarding. As you walk into the room housing the exhibit “Drawn to Perfection” is playing on a screen to the right. There are also a few of the trades for the first Rocketeer story along with the Artist Edition produced by IDW. If you have not had a chance to see that edition- this is the closest you will get to what is on the walls surrounding you. While I said I would love to have more on display- this covers the origin and Cliff’s New York Adventure and is a great look into the making of The Rocketeer.

The first wall (clockwise) showcases one of Dave’s paintings (a self portrait), introduces us to his love of Bettie Page, and his early animation work. The next wall focuses on the Rocketeer cover artwork. Those images that first introduced us to the world Dave Stevens created. These are teasers of what was to come in the comics of you bought one.
The long back wall has the intricate pages that set up Cliff Secord as the Rocketeer. That moment when Peevy makes the helmet, his first heroic flight to save Malcom it’s all there. As someone who dabbles in comics I am shocked at what I seen on those pages… my pages are usually a mess, these are pretty much pristine. You can’t see any erasing, you see ink on paper. If you look closely, you can catch just a hint of blue pencil. I’m not sure of sequence of the process, but the lettering was glued onto the page. As an example: When I started my strip I would write in the words then draw around that word balloon. Now I write the words out, in blue pencil, draw and then, using the computer add the text and balloon digitally. A comic strip like mine is easy since word balloons tend to take up the top third of the panel. In a dynamic comic… all that needs to planned out or at least thought through as you lay out a page.
The case in front of the back wall shows some of the actual issues.
The next wall has the video monitor showing Drawn to Perfection and samples of the Rocketeer as described in the first paragraph.
The last wall as you work clockwise from the entrance covers another project Dave worked on- Storyboarding Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video. Yes, Dave Steven’s did the storyboards for Thriller… Mind blown.

So should you go to San Francisco and see this exhibit up close? Duh. If you can I would, just because no matter how high quality the reproduction may be, there is something about looking at a page and knowing the artist touched it. That said, if you can’t, I understand that a catalog of this exhibit and the previous one in which artists contributed pieces in honor of the 40th anniversary of The Rocketeer will be available soon. Check the Cartoon Art Museum in 2024 for details.

Besides actually reading The Rocketeer or going to San Francisco, I highly recommend you look up these for more into Dave Stevens and his work:

• Brush with Passion: The Art & Life of Dave Stevens 2008
• Dave Stevens the Complete Sketches & Studies 2011
• Dave Stevens Covers & Stories 2012
• Dave Stevens: Drawn to Perfection 2022 – Currently available on Amazon Prime

The Rocketeer stories are still being published while not Dave’s work they are very good and definitely honor the creativity and world Dave created.

Twas a few days before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring except for the cats running around knocking things off the tree and me, bagging and boarding comics and other stuff.

I decided when the most recent copy of FTF Geocacher Magazine arrived this week that I would go into the basement and pull all the issues I had (most contained the My Geek Odyssey Comic Strip) and at least do something to prevent them from being completely destroyed. I started this strip in 2009 when I received a Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Fellowship. In 2011 the fledgling FTF Geocacher Magazine approached me asking if I would contribute something. Over the years, as life got in the way FTF Geocacher there were times when FTF was the only time I actually committed myself to drawing. While I may have muttered when I got the reminder- it was wonderful to be forced into stepping away from the ledge and doing something I truly love. As my interest in Geocaching wained I still did the comic with help from friends who would tell tales of their exploits. Retired, I am now going back to caching, and still think it is a great way to explore and discover new places. Yesterday I went through over 60 issues and put in each in a bag with a board. Some were not in the best shape, and it looks like I’m missing two issues that like any good collector I will track down somehow.

To this week’s comics-

Jay Garrick the Flash #3 – I’ve always been a fan of the Flash. I remember trying to convince my mom to sew a lightning bolt on my red sweatsuit when I was in 3rd grade. I don’t recall if it were the comics or “Super Friends” cartoon on Saturday Morning but I thought the idea of going super fast was supercool. Thanks to a great Stargirl mini series all of these lost sidekicks from the 1940’s are back. One of them being the Flash’s (Jay Garrick’s) hitherto unknown daughter, Judy. So Judy is a teenager from the 40’s now in present time. So far it’s been a great story as part of DC’s return to the Golden Age which piques my interest.

The Original X-Men #1 – I fell for it, the original X-Men return… umm… I haven’t read an X-Men comic in years, probably because there just got to be too many of them and it became difficult to follow (as with a lot of comics Marvel or DC). I wasn’t sure what I thought this would be about, but it wasn’t what I expected. A multiverse spanning story dealing with the Phoenix (in X-Men the Phoenix always seems to be a part of it). Good story, but will I continue in the next Wolverine focused storyline… probably not. Like the X-Men, Wolverine has just been overused.

Spider-Boy #2 – You’d think after what I just wrote about the X-Men would also relate to Spider-Man titles and it does, to a point. They’ve created to convoluted Spider-verse that fortunately you don’t have to know too much about to follow what is going on. In this case (remember when Marvel only dealt with other universes in What if? ahh… simpler times…) at the end of one massive spider-verse encompassing arc all the versions of Spider-Man were released and one… was new, Spider-Boy. No one remembers him, (wait a second… like the Golden Age sidekicks in DC?!?) so we are discovering this young hero for the first time. He has slightly different powers, some of them a little creepy. I just hope this doesn’t become a trend – “Sales are sluggish, let’s bring in a new version of…”

Batman Santa Claus Silent Knight #3 – Almost Christmas, will Krampus win? More heroes are brought in to help Santa including that guy from Metropolis… No spoilers, but I am looking forward to seeing how Christmas will be saved from the evil monsters. (no spoilers there- we know the good guys will win… it’s in the Code)

Superman #9 – Everyone hates Lex Luthor… duh. but now after a death defying battle in the last issue, how will Superman save the day? What twist will happen so you buy the next issue? Vworp! Vworp! Vworp! (hint: but not really a spoiler)

Amazing Spider-Man #9 – Gang War continues… ’nuff said.

Star Trek Defiant #10 – General Order 7?!? What will Worf do?!?

Star Trek #10 – Whatever Happened to perpetual Ensign Harry Kim? Space Kaiju with dinosaur people and Romulans…

Undiscovered Country #27 – If you have not been reading this comic I don’t know what to say that won’t spoil it or just make you think I have lost my mind… Overall the story goes something like this- the United States has built a wall around itself and the rest of the world moved on while ‘Mericuh… well, no one knows. The world governments sent a team into America to see what happened, and to look for a cure for a plague that was doing what plagues do best. Over the course of 27 issues so many weird things have happened. All of which ask the question what is America? What makes America, America? I figured we were getting close to the conclusion, but… what do I know? Hint- Literal cliffhanger of a ending.