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With Further Ado #275: Holiday Gift Giving Guide 2023 – Part 3

With Further Ado #275: Holiday Gift Giving Guide 2023 – Part 3

Posted on by Ed Catto

There are so many amazing Pop Culture treasures out there. Shall we jump right in and take a look at a few more for this year’s Holiday Gift Guide?

Dig Two Graves
by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Titan Books (September 19, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1803364612

Whenever there’s a new book by this particular author, Mike Gold always jokes “If you only read one Max Allan Collins book this month, read this one!”

But that’s just the way I feel too. I’ve been a fan for a long time, but for me – it never gets old with this writer. The latest book, Dig Two Graves is part of the Mike Hammer series. Collins again collaborates, after a fashion, with his mentor Mickey Spillane. When Spillane died, he left instructions with his wife to reach out to Collins and figure out what do with all the half-finished manuscripts and story fragments.

I’m so glad this has come together and Titan publishes them. They are crackling good fun and I daresay I like them better than the original Spillane stories, as heretical as that may be.

In this mystery, Hammer and his long-time secretary and partner Velda Sterling leave New York and the action shifts to Arizona. It’s great fun with witty dialog, kooky characters and plenty of action. You can’t help but recall every 1950s movie you’ve ever seen to mentally conjure up the visuals for this thriller.

MCU : The Reign of Marvel Studios
by Johanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales and Gavin Edwards

Continue reading “With Further Ado #275: Holiday Gift Giving Guide 2023 – Part 3” →

With Further Ado #275: 2023 Holiday Gift Giving Guide – Part 2

With Further Ado #275: 2023 Holiday Gift Giving Guide – Part 2

Posted on by Ed Catto

Ed is back with part two of this years gift giving guide. Check out these three awesome recommendations.

Scary Stuff!

Macabras The Horror Comic Art of Jayme Cortez
by Fabio Moraes with an introduction by Paul Gravett
Publisher ‏ : Korero
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
ISBN ‏ : ‎ 781912740215

UK Publisher Korero continues to publish fantastic books that I love reading and I must find spots for on my bookshelves.

Before I cracked open Macabras, I didn’t know much about Portuguese-born artist Jayme Cortez. He spent his career in Brazil creating comics, cartoons and comics strips for newspapers and magazines, including O Terror Negro (The Black Terror). I’m glad a I know a bit now, and want to learn more.

The book is creepy in all the right ways. It showcases Cortez’s talents across different media – his painting, his illustrations, his comic work and more. Cortez was also able to employ a few different styles in each media too. To the eyes of an American like me – all the subjects seem hauntingly familiar but skewed just enough so they are fresh and new.

A nice addition to the book provided by author Moraes is the many original reference model photos that Cortez took for his paintings. They provide a rare look into the development process. And you can’t help but think, when you see a vintage photo with a woman about to be impaled by a wooden stake or some such – “What in the world was that model thinking about back then?”

For pop culture fans, I think it’s always important to expand our horizons and see what’s going on, or went on, in other parts of the world. And embracing oneself in Brazilian Horror comics, with a master like Moraes, seems like the perfect thing to do this Yuletide Season by gifting it to yourself. Continue reading “With Further Ado #275: 2023 Holiday Gift Giving Guide – Part 2” →

With Further Ado #271: Holiday Gift Guide Part 1 – Voices from Krypton

With Further Ado #271: Holiday Gift Guide Part 1 – Voices from Krypton

Posted on by Ed Catto

Every year, it’s a treat to shine the spotlight on top-notch creative endeavors for the With Further Ado Holiday Gift Guide. Maybe these are suggestions that would be fantastic treasures for you to gift to your loved ones. And maybe, let’s face it, they are suggestions that you want to make to others so they will gift ‘em to you! Hey, I’m not judging.

Ed Gross is an enthusiastic fan with a polished writing talent. The books he creates are the kind that force you to bargain with yourself. You know those types of bargains: “I will just read five more pages and then turn off the light,” or “I will just read this chapter, and I can finish up that work project early in the morning.”

His latest oversized volume Voices from Krypton is exactly that type of book. It’s an oral history of Superman, as told by an impressively wide array of people who were either there at the time, or who are experts in their field.

Gross has assembled folks like Ilya Salkind, Richard Donner, and Margot Kidder to discuss the 70s Superman movies. Or actors like Tom Welling, Teri Hatcher, and Melissa Benoist analyze their Smallville, Lois & Clark and Supergirl TV shows.

Modern day super-experts like Mark Waid and Andy Mangels are also included and provide smart insights with a learned expertise. Waid, in fact, supplies a fantastic afterward and admits he even learned a thing or two from this book. Continue reading “With Further Ado #271: Holiday Gift Guide Part 1 – Voices from Krypton” →

With Further Ado #272: Boston Book Festival and A Mistake Incomplete

With Further Ado #272: Boston Book Festival and A Mistake Incomplete

Posted on by Ed Catto

One of my favorite libraries will always be the Boston Public Library. It’s an impressive building that celebrates both quiet, contemplative reading as well as a loud, enthusiastic passion for books and stories. During my visit to Boston last month, I was thrilled to attend the Boston Book Festival, a pop-up convention right out front of the Library.

Approaching the library and Copley Plaza, we saw a few long lines and soon found out they were filled with fans eager to meet Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson YA series. And in front of the library, there were pop-up tents and food trucks, all promoting great books to read and treats to eat.

Sasquatch was there promoting Cambridge Publishers, and he made me feel a bit comic-con-y. As you could imagine, there are a lot of publishers, and this year there was a focus on publishing for younger readers. Local standouts like WGBH, MIT, and Emerson College were also promoting their efforts.

One of the most creative exhibitors was Pop-up Poems. You’d chat with a poet a bit and come back 10 minutes later to pick a complete poem they’d just written and typed on a vintage typewriter. There was no fee…but I sure hope everyone generously tipped the poets. I loved this idea and I think every comic convention should steal this idea! Continue reading “With Further Ado #272: Boston Book Festival and A Mistake Incomplete” →

Spotlight SquadCast Interview: A Discussion with Danny Fingeroth about Jack Ruby, Comics, Stan Lee, and More

Spotlight SquadCast Interview: A Discussion with Danny Fingeroth about Jack Ruby, Comics, Stan Lee, and More

Posted on by Bob Harrison

How do you have a conversation that involves historically significant murders, Stan Lee telling convention promoters to back off, Jonathan Silverman’s father, and Taylor Swift? You invite Danny Fingeroth to talk about his latest biography. That’s how!

Danny Fingeroth started working in comics back in the days when superheroes were pretty much the only game in town and he built a career of delivering high quality comics through his writing and editing. He is well remembered for creating the fan-favorite character Darkhawk and a long run writing Dazzler as well has his excellent work editing books like Spectacular Spider-Man, The New Warriors, and more. In recent years, he has produced some excellent books about comics and comics history including A Marvelous Life, The Amazing Story of Stan Lee, the acclaimed biography of Stan Lee.

Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald’s Assassin is the newest book from Danny Fingeroth and will be released on November 21, 2023. The book explores one of the central figures to a touchstone event in the lives of an entire generation. We spoke with Danny about his motivation for writing such a book and what he discovered in through his writing process. We also managed to squeeze in a word or two about his career in comics and as a prose writer.

The entire interview is on our YouTube channel and streamable below:

The solicitation for the Jack Ruby is below and the book is available for preorder now on Amazon:

Jack Ruby changed history with one bold, violent action: killing accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV two days after the November 22, 1963, murder of President John F. Kennedy. But who was Jack Ruby—and how did he come to be in that spot on that day?

As we approach the sixtieth anniversaries of the murders of Kennedy and Oswald, Jack Ruby’s motives are as maddeningly ambiguous today as they were the day that he pulled the trigger.

The fascinating yet frustrating thing about Ruby is that there is evidence to paint him as at least two different people. Much of his life story points to him as bumbling, vain, violent, and neurotic; a product of the grinding poverty of Chicago’s Jewish ghetto; a man barely able to make a living or sustain a relationship with anyone besides his dogs.

By the same token, evidence exists of Jack Ruby as cagey and competent, perhaps not a mastermind, but a useful pawn of the Mob and of both the police and the FBI; someone capable of running numerous legal, illegal, and semi-legal enterprises, including smuggling arms and vehicles to both sides in the Cuban revolution; someone capable of acting as middleman in bribery schemes to have imprisoned Mob figures set free.

Cultural historian Danny Fingeroth’s research includes a new, in-depth interview with Rabbi Hillel Silverman, the legendary Dallas clergyman who visited Ruby regularly in prison and who was witness to Ruby’s descent into madness. Fingeroth also conducted interviews with Ruby family members and associates. The book’s findings will catapult you into a trip through a house of historical mirrors.

At its end, perhaps Jack Ruby’s assault on history will begin to make sense. And perhaps we will understand how Oswald’s assassin led us to the world we live in today.

Brainiac On Banjo: Let’s Ban Us Some Comic Books!

Brainiac On Banjo: Let’s Ban Us Some Comic Books!

Posted on by Mike Gold

Give me back the Berlin wall. Give me Stalin and St. Paul. Give me Christ, or give me Hiroshima — “The Future” written by Leonard Cohen

Happy, happy Banned Books Week! It started this very week, and in case you haven’t been paying attention in certain rather large parts of the United States of America, areas I have taken to refer to as the Confederate States, they do not want it to last just a week. They want it to last forever. By the way, there’s more of these Confederate States today than there were in 1861, and you can recognize them by the number of torch-wielding, bible-thumping goons telling you what you and your family cannot be allowed to read.

It’s really a big deal. If these goose-steppers have their way, when it comes to comics and graphic novels all you’ll be permitted to read are Jack Chick’s stuff.

Here is a partial list — and I truly mean partial; it’s as thorough as a fart in a blizzard — of comics and graphic novels that have been removed from some of our libraries and even bookstores. Take a deep breath and hide your Bic lighters.

Anne Frank, banned in more ways than one.

Maus by Art Spiegelman, Bone by Jeff Smith, Neonomicon by Alan Moore, Saga by Brian K. Vaughan, The Walking Dead (all of them) by Robert Kirkman, Blankets: An Illustrated Novel by Craig Thompson, Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, The Handmaid’s Tale by by Margaret Atwood – Art & Adaptation by Renee Nault, and Sandman by Neil Gaiman.

And: A Girl on the Shore by Inio Asano, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel, Flamer by Mike Curato, New Kid and Class Act by Jerry Craft, Moonstruck by Grace Ellie, Shae Beagle and Kate Leth, A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identities by Mady G and Jules Zuckerberg, Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green, No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed As Men for Love Freedom and Adventure by Susan Hughes and Willow Dawson, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” by Miles Hyman.

And, still more: When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, The Breakaways by Cathy G. Johnson, Drawn Together by Minh Lê and Dan Santat, Identity: A Story of Transitioning by Corey Maison, Losing the Girl by MariNaomi, I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina, Stacey Robinson, and John Jennings, V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen, The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag, Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir by Liz Prince, Captain Underpants (series) by Dav Pilkey, and, because we do not want to shame the American Nazis, Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation by David Polonsky. Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo: Let’s Ban Us Some Comic Books!” →

Brainiac On Banjo: No… Doctor No

Brainiac On Banjo: No… Doctor No

Posted on by Mike Gold

Have no fear, look who’s here…James Bond…They’ve got us on the run…With guns…And knives…We’re fighting for our lives…Have no fear, Bond is here…He’s gonna to save the world at Casino Royale! – “Casino Royale” (1967) written by Burt Bacharach.

I’ve long had a curious relationship with Doctor No, and it started with a comic book whose publication was truly weird.

It started in early 1963 — January 31st, if you’re setting your WABAC machine. That was a Thursday, new comics day at my friendly neighborhood drug store, and DC Comics’ Showcase was one of my favorites. Not that it mattered: my 12 year-old paws would claw through each and every comic on the rack. At the time the Doctor No adaptation interrupted their Tommy Tomorrow try-out series which offered some great Lee Elias art and some rather thin writing from Arnold Drake. I wasn’t disappointed about the interruption, but I still have a fondness for that Elias work.

I had not heard of Doctor No, nor James Bond, nor Ian Fleming. I was curious as to why the story looked like it should have appeared in Classics Illustrated. DC’s comics had a house style — more of a house attitude — and this did not fit in. But I enjoyed the book and was disappointed Bond did not return in the following issue. Showcase was a try-out book that usually introduced new series in three-issue increments. Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo: No… Doctor No” →

With Further Ado #261: I’ll Drink to That!

With Further Ado #261: I’ll Drink to That!

Posted on by Ed Catto

Readers of this column might know Professor Larry Maslon from the PBS documentary, and book, Superheroes! A Never-Ending Battle Documentary or his book Superheroes!: Capes, Cowls, and the Creation of Comic Book Culture. (And to be fair, he worked closely with his partner, Michael Kantor, on each effort.) Or maybe you saw him moderate panels at San Diego Comic-Con. If you were really lucky, you may have enjoyed our epic round of Superhero trivia (and his book signing) at the Captain Action booth at New York Comic-Con a few years ago.

But this week, I want to celebrate his new book I’ll Drink To That. Continue reading “With Further Ado #261: I’ll Drink to That!” →

With Further Ado #259: A Beach Book and a Movie (promotion)

With Further Ado #259: A Beach Book and a Movie (promotion)

Posted on by Ed Catto

I’ve been swimming, I’ve partied at the water’s edge, I’ve watched some gorgeous sunsets, but I haven’t read a book on the beach yet. I shouldn’t moan and whine, it’s been an outrageously fantastic summer so far. But still… there’s something about reading a book with your toes in the sand, copious amounts of sunscreen on your nose with summer stretched out in front of you.

After really enjoying a short story collection, Jess Thompson’s The Angel of Rome and Other Stories, I’m resolved to reach more short stories.

Before I get to solving this book-on-the-beach conundrum, I want to discuss a trend and genre. Continue reading “With Further Ado #259: A Beach Book and a Movie (promotion)” →

Brainiac On Banjo: It’s A Cruel World After All

Brainiac On Banjo: It’s A Cruel World After All

Posted on by Mike Gold

We’ll travel hand in hand across this wonderland. Strike up the marching band. ‘Cause nothing can stop us now! – “Nothing Can Stop Us Now” written by Christopher and Elyse Willis.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Be afraid of keeping your mind open. It might turn you gay.

I had spent over a half century loathing Walt Disney, and for very good reason. He was a horrible person. Walt was an anti-semitic fanatic of the extreme right wing as it was known at the time, a central figure in the America First movement that provided the platform adapted by our current infestation of MAGAts. He was so severely anti-union that he fired one of the greatest animators of the 20th century, Ub Iwerks, the man who created (or co-created; open mind, remember?) the mouse that started it all, M-I-C-K-E-Y. I could go on and on, but oddly that’s not my point today.

Disney eventually died, and his empire came under new management — in good part because some of his family members did not share his extreme world views. The company was lead, and once again is being lead, by a man of Hebrew heritage. That alone should have defrosted Walt’s corpse. Their attitudes evolved and, somehow, remarkably, they have become the poster mouse for the LGBTQIA+ movement. Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo: It’s A Cruel World After All” →