He Created the X-Men… And You Can Have *His* Comics

Dave Cockrum's personal X-Men comics are being offered to the public. Have a look.

It's Will Eisner's Birthday.

Born on this day in 1917, Will Eisner is someone I'd have missed had my own heroes not informed me of his importance. Singing hosannas of one sort or another to the previous generation of creative pioneers is one of the obligations that writers and artists share, as far as I'm concerned. Ripping techniques alone is hardly homage.

Mark Ellis, the excellent writer of modern pulp fiction and come-back quips, who I've grown fond of, summed it up (and brought the date to my attention) on his Facebook post:

WILL EISNER [was] a man who was just as influential in both the art and business of comics as Jack Kirby. Although he was justly famous as the creator of THE SPIRIT, Will was a a true pioneer...he continued to explore and expand the parameters of comics storytelling. He's credited with creating the term of "graphic novel".

According to Will, he coined the term on the fly, and had no idea he was basically creating a new publishing category.

Me? I touched Will several times. The first occasion was a chance meeting in San Diego, where famed bookseller Bud Plant introduced us. The next time was when Harlan Ellison put us together on the phone because Aardwolf was seeking the perfect cover artist for a project.

I have no anecdotes beyond some very strange things that occurred later at Will's memorial service (which I've detailed in "Four Days at the Races" in my book ComicBook Babylon). I was just grateful to know Will for the the five or six total minutes that I received. You'd have been, too.

The Future Is Now

When Will People Start Dropping *My* Name?

Adam-Troy Castro, the excellent writer of numerous Hugo-, Nebula- and Stoker-nominated SF and horror tales (to say nothing of four Spider-Man novels) has a review of my ComicBook Babylon in the forthcoming issue of SCI FI (out in about 60 days). He was kind enough to share the generous review with me which said, among other things:

Much of [Meth's book] deals with the shameful neglect many of the four-color field’s most important creators experienced when health or fashion no longer smiled on them… There are many illustrations by Michael Netzer, who manages to capture not just the physical appearances, but also the personalities, of the luminaries under discussion.

Meth… doesn’t mince words. If he admires somebody, he is unsparing in his praise; if he considers somebody a jackass or a momser or a shnorrer, he puts his mockery on the page.

If you haven't ordered the book yet, Aardwolf Publishing now has signed physical copies. And Amazon is still giving away selling the digital version for just 99-cents so there's no excuse not to read it. And someone whispered to me that Marvel is none to happy about it.

In other news, Michael Netzer and I are teaming up again for a 5-page story in the forthcoming Jewish Comix Anthology. The project will also include work from Robert Crumb, Joe Kubert, Harvey Pekar, Art Spiegelman, and Will Eisner. It was a genuine honor to be invited into this prestigious collection. If you’d like to take a look at or participate in their Kickstarter (and I hope you do), click here.

The Worst Good Rats’ Show I Ever Attended

Mickey could play and chew gum at the same time.

The first Good Rats show I attended was during the abysmal days of the Carter administration. My pals and I hitch-hiked down Rt. 46 to Dizzy Duncan’s in Parsippany, NJ, a standing-room-only affair that we were legally too young to walk into, but if one didn’t know how to shimmy up the drainpipe and slip in through the torn shingles on the roof their street their cred was dead zero. I was 16 and looked 14 and recall trying to suck the beer out of my baseball cap after some mook in biker's garb spilled a Budweiser on my head. I stood by the stage, my nose as high as guitarist John Gatto’s heels, and got a gander of Mickey Marchello, whose bird's nest of a beard and obviously mad eyes made him look like La Barbe bleue. Front and center, Peppi Marchello was screaming, “I’m a Mean Mother.” It was love at first sight citing.

Nearly four decades later, I’ve stopped counting how many Rats’ shows I’ve been to. It’s like trying to remember all of your kid’s birthdays. Blame it on good living. And the worst Good Rats’ show I’ve ever attended? No such animal. They were all primal events. This is a family affair, boys and girls, as in Manson meets Adams.

What am I talking about? Come see for yourself. My pal Peppi sings with the angels now but his boys are still doing it and rumor has it Gene Marchello will be soaring on lead guitar and dueling vocals at the upcoming show at the Tap Room at the Somerset Hills Hotel, 200 Liberty Corner Road, Warren, NJ, on March 21.

Double your money back if not satisfied. Just take it up with the management.

Artists' rendering. Have you seen these men?

Comics' Soft White Underbelly

I've had warm and generous responses to Comic Book Babylon since its release as an e-book for the Kindle and other platforms. Want one? Visit Amazon by clicking here.

The physical paperback can be purchased from Aardwolf Publishing. Visit the Aardwolf site if you'd like one. There are still signed/#'d copies available.

This blog entry will be a repository of links for press about the book. Thus:


The Real Heroes and Villains in Comic Books is an in-depth review from the excellent writer Bob Duggan at BigThink.com

You Might Come to Comic Book Babylon for the scandal, but you'll stay for the people is an insightful review from Jack Abramowitz on ComicsBulletin.com

Bob Layton on Meth is an interview courtesy of Westfield Comics.

Dan Jurgens on Meth is an interview courtesy of BleedingCool.com

Pop Culture Hounding Cliff Meth is a podcast on BleedingCool via Chris Thompson - a long and fun broadcast interview

The Comic Book Babylon Facebook page (join us!)

Booksteve Reviews Comic Book Bablyon

Observing Comic Book Babylon: Cliff Meth Speaks for the Old Guard (courtesy of FanboyPlanet.com)

Review of Comic Book Babylon at MyReviewer.com

LibraryThing Review of Comic Book Babylon

Dan Jurgens On Meth

reprinted from BleedingCool.com

Dan Jurgens, best known for his lengthy runs on various Superman titles, usually finds himself on the receiving end of a Q and A session. But the artist/writer extraordinaire who brought us such iconic works as “The Death of Superman” recently took some time out to interview author Clifford Meth, whose new book Comic Book Babylon (Aardwolf Publishing) is raising eyebrows.

Not to be confused with Tim Pilcher‘s recent book about DC Vertigo UK, Clifford Meth‘s Comic Book Babylon is a brutal and frenzied behind-the-scenes view into the lives of many of comics’ most important creators. Artists and writers like Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Walter Simonson, Joe Kubert and Harlan Ellison enter into some of their most candid conversations with Meth as the author also details, for the first time, his historic battle (alongside partner Neal Adams) to obtain royalties for X-Men co-creator Dave Cockrum.

Jurgens: We all have comics we remember because of the impression they made on us in our youth. Might’ve been the story, the art, the character, a combination of all that or the chocolate malt you spilled on it. What’s the one single comic you remember from your youth, the impression it made on you and why?

Meth: I remember my first comic book pretty much the way I remember the first girl I slept with, although the comic lasted longer in retrospect. But the first comic that was important to me wasCaptain America #156, which concluded a story arc that had begun with issue #153. Steve Englehart was a master script writer and he’d decided to explore the conundrum that existed as Cap was frozen before the conclusion of World War II (until the Avengers rescued him in the 1960’s) but nevertheless continued to battle Reds in the red-scared ’50s. The Englehart series, which benefitted from Sal Buscema’s very clean, very enjoyable story-telling, defined Captain America for me. America’s savior had to be beyond politics, impervious to prejudice, not really super-human—despite that Super Soldier bullshit—but ethically flawless. They just don’t make saviors like that anymore.

Jurgens: You’re well noted for your willingness to step up and help some of the greats who came before us. Why? What sent you on the that path?

Meth: I was fairly young when I recognized that standing up to a bully, regardless of the consequences, was the only way to walk through life. That can be applied anywhere from the schoolyard to geo-politics. Men of good conscience can’t enjoy their meals when someone else is starving, but that’s especially true if the starving guy had his meal ticket stolen by a corporation.

Jurgens: If you could be any super VILLAIN in the world, who would it be and why?

Meth: Magneto. Not Stan Lee’s Magneto, who was over-bearing and mad as a fox, but rather Chris Claremont’s Magneto. The way Chris wrote him, Magneto had a moral imperative. Who can fault a man for wanting to protect his own kind? Charles Xavier never gained my partisan loyalty, or even my verisimilitude for that matter. It was always Magneto.

Jurgens: Your ultimate creative team and dream project you’d have them create?

Meth: I would have to pick John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Star and create an album, with George Martin producing. The final song would have to be an anthem of some sort, ideally by John, with guest vocalists in the choir, and Peppi Marchello would be there, and so would Phil Ochs. And I would have Jeffrey Jones paint the album’s cover and Roger Dean paint the inside gatefold and Allen Ginsberg would do a broadside insert that Sergio Aragones would illuminate. There’d be a pullout poster by Steranko and portraits of all the participants by James Bama. Martin Scorsese would document the entire “the-making-of” for later release, which Harlan Ellison would narrate. And I’d write the liner notes.

Jurgens: Coke or Pepsi?

Meth: Coke. I never quite got over Peppi's boycott of Israel.

For more on Comic Book Babylon visit www.aardwolfpublishing.com

Joe St. Pierre Knows How I Can Really Screw Up

I like to think of myself as a decent guy. But I guess everyone thinks of themselves that way.

To wit: I went out of my way to write “Joe St. Pierre Knows Why I Don’t Read Comics Anymore” to promote a comics project from Joe. And, along with that piece, I posted an image from David Lapham because I thought it was Joe’s. Why? Because it had Joe’s signature on it (he had autographed it) and that was the photo I found when I was rooting about looking for a cool image from Joe’s Valiant days.

Worse: I talked about Joe’s gorgeous Valiant work instead of telling you nice people about his Liberaider comic strip, which is, after all, where he is now.

Worse: My babbled depiction of Joe made him feel that I’d painted him as a sexist when Joe, in truth, is anything but. It wasn’t my intention. I was just goofing around about his long line of female groupies queuing up for an autograph. But what do I know about groupies? All of my readers have hairy legs.

Worse: When Joe brought all this to my attention, I got a little defensive. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean people aren’t out to get you.

And then I sat down and missed a real deadline because I had to make things right.

I’ve removed my earlier piece, now, which talked about why I can’t read comics anymore and how lovely the old comics smelled and how today’s comics don’t smell like anything and how they are printed on advertising brochure paper instead of decent pulp. I said some other things, too, that probably aren’t worth remembering. At least I can’t remember them.

And now I’ll append that I don’t do plugs anymore either because all it does is come back to bite you. If you don’t believe me, I’ll show you the scars.

But before I stop: Go read Joe St. Pierre’s Liberaider.

Clifford Meth thinks Joe St. Pierre is the cat's meow.
But he sure has a strange way of showing it.

At Last, An Alternate History of the Comics: The Truth

After a successful Kickstarter, I was hoping my book ComicBook Babylon—in the making for nearly a decade—would be here for the holidays. And I was right. Only it will be President's Day, not the festive gift-giving season. We’ll live with that. I imagine some people give gifts in February, too, even if it’s only a shovel.

ComicBook Babylon tells stories that I’ve kept to myself for many years. I’m finally comfortable imparting many of those stories now. Some of them I’m still uncomfortable with but I have a good lawyer. At least he tells me he’s a good lawyer. His name is Leo. I had a puppet named Leo once, too.

At 340 pages, ComicBook Babylon is like a multi-ring circus. You’ll find Stan Lee speaking very frankly about Jack Kirby, Alan Moore speaking very frankly about Hollywood, Frank Miller speaking very frank millerly about Marvel, and so forth. Okay, they may have occasionally spoken to others frankly, too, but my detailed stories regarding Dave Cockrum’s fight with Marvel—or, more accurately, mine and Neal Adams’s fight with Marvel on behalf of Dave Cockrum—is something you haven’t seen the whole truth about, until now. Neither have you read Bob Layton being this candid. Or Joe Kubert. Or Herb Trimpe. And what really happened to Gene Colan? And why did Harlan Ellison want to punch Jim Warren in the nose? And what happens when Barry Smith can't find his Windsor?

The book is late but it’s finally done. I was done months ago and now Michael Netzer—who illustrated exquisite portraits of his illustrious peers and designed the book—is done, too. This is a beautiful book, with covers by Dave Cockrum and Mike Pascale. I’m proud of what it says and how it says it.

Copies should be going out in late winter. If you ordered the book from the Kickstarter promotion, good for you. Aardwolf hasn’t made copies available yet on its website and won't until they are in hand. But my friends—both on Facebook and the real ones—can order my personal, “publisher copies” directly from me while supplies last. This is how I get paid, people. If you’ve enjoyed my work, please buy one.

As always, everything I do has a money-back guarantee. Imagine hospitals offering that. Talk about population control!

If you want a copy—signed, personalized, or otherwise—please send me a message or email so I can reserve one of mine and then mail me a check for $26.95 (which will cover postage). Let me know how I should sign it, if at all.

With thanks,

Clifford Meth

A Favour for Harlan

Harlan called this evening. “I need a small favor,” he said.

“Does it require a cattle prod or a midget?” I asked.

“Nothing like that.”

“Good. I had to go into hiding for seventeen months after the last small favor,” I said, “and I still haven’t picked all the burrs out of my hind quarters.”

“This one’s easy,” said H. “My book Ellison Wonderland is being brought back again by another publisher. The book first came out in 1962 but it follows me around. I’ve already written a 25,000-word foreword for the damn thing—it’s like a novella. And Straczynski did the afterword, which is an interview with me. But I got to thinking there’s something in that interview you did with me years ago—your ‘Tough questions for Tough Jews.’ Can I have that? I’d like to use it as a caesura.”

“That’s the favor?”

“You’ll keep your copyrights and I’ll get you a copy of the book.”

“Sold,” I said. “Now I’ve got one. I was cleaning out my closet and found a handful of comic books that you wrote. Can I send them to you to sign?”

“Sure,” said Harlan.  “Send them. You fucking ghoul.”

Dave Cockrum: Birthday Memories

Gone seven years now, my friend Dave would have been 70 today. I think of him often--how he helped me so generously when I was just starting out as a writer. He was everything a comic artist should be. My walls are festooned with his work; my children grew up reciting his creations by heart.

Favorite memories? There are too many. I think his was the time we were driving around and I picked a fight with a van-full of Kappa Douches at an ICON convention. Mine was when he and his wife Paty attended my seven-year-old's birthday party and he drew superheroes for all the kids. And then they took them home and colored them in.

I look forward to honoring my pal's memory early next year when Aardwolf Publishing publishes Dave's final, never-before-published issue of The Futurians.

URGENT HELP NEEDED FOR INKER JIM SANDERS III

The artist Bob Almond--a friend of mine and a bigger friend to the artists in our the industry--asked me to post the following note that he received from Jim Sanders III (who inked for DC and Marvel on such books as Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Sensational She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, and DC Who's Who).

Right now my health and living situation keeps me from doing much. I went from child to child's home over the last 2 yrs; now in a cheap hotel and broke... Last November, they told me my kidney transplant had failed and I have been on kidney dialysis 3 times a week since. In February our youngest daughter, Jane, who was 21, died from a condition commonly associated with the spina bifida she had... This past weekend I was admitted to the hospital because I couldn't breathe and found out I had congestive heart failure on top of everything else. These last 12 months have been, by far, the worst year of my life.

Hero Initiative helped me thru a 7 month unemployment stretch 5 or 6 yrs ago, as well as buying us a van for Jane for her appointments, so when I went to them about a year and a half ago when everything went south, they said that they had to help new clients since their funding was low, which I totally understand. If you can help every little bit helps. My paypal is col.jimbo3rd@yahoo.com Thank you for answering me and taking the time to talk. It's frustrating when you see that someone saw your message and they don't answer back. It makes me feel like I am beneath contempt. Be well an be blessed. JIM SANDERS III

I don't know Jim personally but I don't have to to hear what he's going through.

In response, Bob has started a charity auction to benefit Jim Sanders III

On Saturday, November 9, the non-profit Inkwell Awards will hold auctions for one week to help Jim. If you have a donation to offer, please immediately contact Inkwell assistant director and auctioneer Michael W. Kellar at comicbookinker1971@yahoo.com to inform him of what you'd like to send along with a good lo-res scan of the item and full description of it (original art? published? signed? condition?) Remember to sign the item if you are the artist who worked on it and pack it securely. Mike must receive items by November 8. The Inkwell Awards will send all auction profits to Jim and will pay for the eBay fees.

Jim reported to Bob that this assistance will help him relieve his present, dire financial circumstances and allow him and his wife to move to his brother's home in another nearby state where he plans to tackle commissions and work again. Updates will be posted at the Inkwell Awards site.

Please ship all donations to Mike Kellar, Inkwell Awards, 110 Ferry Road, New London, NC 28127. Straight monetary donations can be sent directly to Jim at his Paypal account of col.jimbo3rd@yahoo.com

Thank you for your attention.