How the first Comicon was organized in the 1960s

BBC radio interviewed Bernie Bubnis, who was involved in organizing the first Comicon in New York as far back as 1964:

In 1964, a group of teenage boys organised a convention in New York – it became known as the first official Comic Con.

The idea began after 16-year-old Bernie Bubnis wrote an article in his comic book fanzine. But when no-one else took on the project, he rounded up friends to help.

Together, they booked a venue, arranged a date, sent out letters and posted ads. And for the star attraction, they invited legendary American comic book artist, Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.

In late July, the doors opened on the first convention, kickstarting what’s become a worldwide cultural phenomenon.

Well that's interesting history alright. Of course, today, legends like Ditko are long gone, and the mainstream sadly long ceased to inspire, so sensible pop culture fans have to hope the organizers of modern conventions are willing to align with the best of indepedents to produce something worthwhile.

San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum closing, and who knows for how long?

The institution where the disgraced ex-curator Andrew Farago worked has announced on their site that they're closing down, and it looks like it's got something to do with rental issues:

The Cartoon Art Museum will not be renewing its lease at 781 Beach Street when it expires at the end of August. As a result, our current location will close on Sunday, August 2, 2026. [...]

Ten years ago, the cartoon community came together to begin a new chapter for the museum. Scores of funders supported our move to Beach Street in Fisherman’s Wharf. Since then, we have faced significant challenges, including the pandemic and the slow recovery that followed. But we have also enjoyed many successes and countless opportunities to celebrate cartoon art and the people who create it.

Not mentioned, rather predictably, is the aforementioned disgrace who undoubtably embarrassed their reputation, and led to many donors withdrawing their support, to the point they now have difficulty affording rental fees. Farago sure knew how to bring a whole institution to its knees.

I took a look at some of the museum's past exhibitions, and noticed they had at least a few that could be considered "woke", or politically motivated. We can probably guess who had a prominent role in greenlighting exhibitions like those. And if that's how it's going to be, perhaps we're not missing much.

The Daily Cartoonist notes that:

The Cartoon Art Museum first opened in 1984. In 1987 Charles M. Schulz funded the museum’s endowment allowing it to open it’s first venue in downtown San Francisco. It moved three times since landing on Beach Street in 2017. The space offered visitors 8,000 square feet gallery space, a screening area, education space, store, library and collections facility. Cartoon Art Museum reports they have over 9,000 original pieces in their collection.

They might have to sell some of those items to different institutions if they need to pay off any debts that came as a result of Farago's serious lawbreaking. I once noticed artist Ethan Van Sciver telling Farago did not do a good job on his part to ensure they'd be able to retain a steady location, and for all we know, he could've been partly the reason they had to move at least 3 times to different buildings. Depending how you view this, it's obviously a shame a museum whose donors included a famous cartoonist wound up being floored by the offensive behavior of a man who first worked with them at least a year after Schultz's passing. Others could say Schultz made a huge mistake wasting any money on their business. And now, there's no telling if they'll be able to recover from such a scandal as Farago's caused them, so what may have been the only museum of its sort on the west coast could now be history of a different kind. What a shame.

Howard the Duck's history

A writer at Cleveland Magazine tells about the history of the late Steve Gerber's Howard the Duck, Marvel's contribution to the anthropomorphic animal genre, which employed a Cleveland-based setting, and interviewed artist Val Mayerik, who was the first to illustrate the anthropomorphic cartoon bird during the Bronze Age. First though:

Working with Marvel comic book writer Steve Gerber, Val Mayerik was the first illustrator to depict the Cleveland-based character when he appeared in a series featuring The Man-Thing in the 1970s. Later, the cigar-smoking, beer-drinking cartoon duck got his own comic book series, which was even developed into a George Lucas-produced film.

That film, most unfortunately, was a failure, and not a good start for Marvel's attempts to enter the live action movie scene. It took until 1998's Blade to get a serious major adaptation produced, and that was more successful. Now, on the subject of how Howard's drawn:

Val Mayerik: "The writer, Steve Gerber; most of the credit goes to Steve. I mean, that character was Steve's alter ego, and Steve passed away quite a while ago. I was the first one to draw Howard, so that that's my pedigree there. Since then, a lot of people have drawn him. The look of the duck has changed a lot, but whenever people request sketches of Howard at conventions, or they want a private commission, I draw Howard in the original way that I had drawn him back in the ‘70s.

I'd say he's right to do it that way. Considering how Marvel was ruined horrifically since the turn of the century in particular, that's why it can do a lot of good to remind people how it all originally began in the Bronze Age, when the feathered fellow was created to serve as a comical adventure, surely the most significant of Marvel's own efforts to experiment with anthropomorphic animals.

Cleveland Magazine: That must have been pretty interesting for you, being from Northeast Ohio, having spent a lot of time in Cleveland — to now be illustrating a duck superhero who is in Cleveland.

VM: "Well, first of all, Howard has no superpowers; he's not really a superhero. Howard is kind of like the Greek chorus for humanity. He's the one who's making the commentary, and he feels he has the right to make the commentary because he's not a human being, so he has a distance which we don't have. It was fun. At the time when the character first appeared, it wasn't really clear that it was going to be that popular, and that it was going to catch on the way it did. I only drew a few early issues of Howard when Marvel decided to give Howard his own title; I was working on other projects that I was really having fun with, and so they gave it to another artist who was a very good artist, and I don't think I was back on the book for quite a few years."

That's an interesting part of Howard's creation: he may have been an anthropomorphic animal, but not one with serious science-fantasy powers. Then again, it's not like every story out there starring anthropomorphic animals does that either, but what matters with Howard the Duck is that he was meant to serve as a satirical adventure, and it's too bad awful scribes and editors like Joe Quesada led to the ruin of such characters with potential. Something I wish veterans like Mayerik would have the courage to discuss. Failure to do so is precisely why such classic creations have suffered so badly.

SDCC panel on Jewish influences in comicdom

San Diego Jewish World writes about a panel at the SDCC discussing the Jewish influences in comics history:

Comic-Con attendees packed a panel room to learn about the often-overlooked role that Jewish creators have played in shaping the comic book industry.

Mark S. Zaid, Esq., an Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide advisor, comic book historian, author, and creator of GI’s Rabbi); Danny Fingeroth, former Marvel editor and writer, author of Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero; and Dr. Andrew Fogel, historian of popular culture and author of Superman’s Jaw presented an engaging PowerPoint lecture titled “The Jewish Experience in Comics: Characters and Creators.”

The presentation explored how the Jewish identities and experiences of many of comics’ most influential creators shaped the stories they told and the heroes they created. The panel traced the origins of iconic characters such as Superman, the Thing, and Magneto, examined the personal histories of Golden and Silver Age comic book creators, and discussed whether Jewish cultural identity was intentionally woven into their work.

It's worth wondering if modern audiences appreciate all this in an era where Islamic antisemitism sadly rose after October 7, 2023. Similarly, do modern film audiences even appreciate the Jewish role in building Hollywood? The article unfortunately also brings up an ideologue who's dampened the impact of his notable GN:

The speakers also addressed how publishers approached sensitive subjects such as the Holocaust and examined the lasting influence of Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Will Eisner’s groundbreaking graphic novels on Jewish storytelling in comics.

While Eisner's writings hold up well, Spiegelman's recent, repellent politics can have the effect of damaging whatever impact he expected Maus to have for years to come. That said, who knows if anybody at these convention panels appreciates that Eisner's last GN, The Plot, also did research on Islamic antisemitism?

One of the panel’s most fascinating discussions centered on Nazi Germany’s reaction to Superman. Fogel displayed a German Secret Service newspaper article attacking Superman’s Jewish creators. Germany eventually banned Superman, portraying him as a symbol of capitalist propaganda designed to brainwash American youth. The article specifically criticized Jerry Siegel’s Jewish identity, referenced his circumcision, accused him of using Yiddish rather than German, and labeled him an Untermensch (subhuman). The publication argued that Superman was not the true Übermensch (superman), claiming he violated the laws of science by defying gravity, lacked proper masculinity because of his circus-like costume, and represented irrationality rather than Aryan ideals.

It's interesting they bring up this specific history, because "Nazi" was an acronym for "National Socialists". Do the panelists know that, and did they specify? And what's their own take on capitalism in an era where it's been all but shunned? It's also interesting the Nazi propaganda they cited considers science fiction and fantasy storytelling anathema to their beliefs, indicating they also despised entertainment written for positive reasons.

At the end of the article:

This was one of the most informative and thought-provoking panels I attended at Comic-Con. My husband joined me for the presentation, and despite attending Comic-Con for nearly 20 years, he walked away having learned numerous new historical connections between Judaism and comic books. It was an eye-opening experience that offered a deeper appreciation for the people and stories behind some of the world’s most recognizable superheroes.

Unfortunately, I have a sad feeling that whatever objectivity the panel had ground to a screeching halt when it came to modern issues, and wouldn't be shocked if the panelists would not say even a word about Islamic antisemitism, and whether it should be subject of any kind of comics storytelling. That's why these panels aren't as informative as they could be, yet nobody will point that out.

French cartoon film adapted from Legendaires broadcast on Canal Plus

Sortir a Paris announced an animated film based on a comic called The Legends is airing on Canal Plus:

The Legends, the animated film adapted from Patrick Sobral’s comic, is airing on Canal+ on Friday, July 31, 2026 at 9:06 PM. Directed by Guillaume Ivernel, the feature marks the first time the adventures of Danaël, Jadina, Gryf, Shimy and Razzia leap from page to the big screen in the magical world of Alysia.

Released in French cinemas on January 28, 2026, the film draws on the Delcourt-published saga, a touchstone of contemporary French children's comics. Now airing on television, it invites families to experience this adventure — a blend of magic, humor, and action — designed for viewers aged 6 and up.

The Légendaires used to be the planet’s greatest protectors. But a curse left them trapped in the bodies of ten-year-olds, just like everyone on Alysia. Stripped of their adult forms, Danaël, Jadina, Gryf, Shimy and Razzia must join forces to confront the sorcerer Darkhell and free their world from this eternal childhood.

The story keeps the core ingredients that made the comic a hit: a team of heroes with very different personalities, an accessible fantasy world, spectacular battles, and humor born from tensions within the group. The characters’ transformation into children also fuels a narrative about trust, friendship, and the need to cooperate despite their disagreements.

That certainly sounds a lot more faithful to its source material than some mainstream USA comics adaptations can be. And it's hopefully a lot more respectable to what's in good taste for children than what comes out of Hollywood these days too. Maybe best of all though, is that it's not airing on a bad network like Netflix happens to be. Broadcasting it there would only be bad news. It's better than the cartoon remain on French channels like Canal.

Artist who worked on TMNT charged with assault on reporter in Maine

Maine Wire reported that one of their staff was assaulted at an anti-ICE protest by somebody who turned out to be an artist who worked on recent Ninja Turtles comics, an artist by the name of Bob Tkacik:

A Maine comic book artist is facing a criminal assault charge stemming from the alleged attack on a Maine Wire reporter covering an anti-ICE protest in Biddeford earlier this month.

Bob Tkacik, a freelance comic book artist known for his work on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, has been charged with assault in connection with the July 13 incident involving Maine Wire reporter Jon Fetherston. The case is expected to be heard in Biddeford District Court unless it is resolved beforehand through the York County District Attorney’s Office.

According to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Fetherston was covering an anti-ICE demonstration in downtown Biddeford when he was allegedly struck with a skateboard, shoved, spat on, and repeatedly harassed while livestreaming from the scene. The attack reportedly knocked his cellphone to the ground and interrupted his live coverage. The incident has since been cataloged by the Tracker as an assault on a journalist and damage to journalistic equipment.

The alleged assault quickly drew national and international attention. The incident was covered by Fox News and Newsmax, while Britain’s Daily Express also reported on the attack during Fetherston’s live television coverage, bringing broader attention to concerns over the safety of journalists covering politically charged demonstrations.

The Maine Press Association also condemned the violence, issuing a public statement denouncing attacks on working journalists and reaffirming that reporters must be able to cover news events without fear of intimidation or physical assault. The organization called violence against members of the press unacceptable and urged respect for the First Amendment and the role of journalists in a free society.

It was bad enough when a would-be historian who'd written about the Ninja Turtles committed a criminal offense several weeks ago. Now, an artist who worked on the comics themselves has also tarnished its legacy with an offense of his own. What makes this additionally disturbing is that the same victim had also been threatened by a mosque attendee in the state, and other attendees were also hostile to him. I don't know if he's a right-leaning journalist, but his chilling experiences certainly make clear something's horribly wrong over there. Including how Tkacik's given clues as to what he thinks of law enforcement. Based on which, you could wonder why he even drew Ninja Turtles to begin with.

I looked around to see if there were any past articles about Tkacik, and found this interview on Capes and Tights from 2023, where it says that:

While you have other professional work, some people know you for your ability to draw turtles. Is this something that your enjoy being connected to and what is the best part of being so connected to the turtles community?

To be perfectly honest, it is an honor to be known for this. I think the TMNT community is full of incredible storytellers, artists and enthusiasts, and I can genuinely say, for everyone I’ve met through this connection, I am immensely grateful. I’ve made a lot of very good friends through this work, and I couldn’t be happier.

Is it an honor for him to now be known for breaking the law, and assaulting a news reporter without provocation? The interview says Tkacik published an indie comic of his own, and it'd be strongly advised not to buy it now after what he did, delivering the industry another embarrassing moment. We must hope this terrible incident brings his career to an end, and that the Ninja Turtles franchise holders will no longer allow his employment after what he did. This is exactly why more serious demands must be made by businesses in comicdom for creators to uphold the law, and avoid politicized issues like these. Comic book publishing cannot afford this kind of negative publicity anymore. Would this have occurred if Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman were still in charge of their creations? I don't know, but perhaps this sad case could suggest why some franchise creators just shouldn't sell off the rights to their products.

Eisner awards nominated pretentious scribes

Perhaps I was being too optimistic when I hoped earlier that the Eisner awards was coming off their biases of the mid-2000s. Oregon Public Broadcasting says 3 local scribes, one who's definitely overrated, were nominated:

Three of Portland’s prominent comic book creators, Rupert Kinnard, Kelly Sue DeConnick, and Sarah Shay Mirk, are nominated for Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards — the Oscars of the comic industry, named for one of the first comic artists in American history. This week, they’re traveling to San Diego Comic Con to speak on panels, sign books, and attend the awards ceremony on Friday night. [...]

While DeConnick’s book FML is up for Best Continuing Series, both Mirk and Kinnard are nominated for Best Comics-Related Book, which Mirk described as “the nerdiest, wonkiest category.” For DeConnick, this nomination is one of many throughout her career after winning the award for Best Single Issue in 2022. For Mirk, this marks nomination number four.

DeConnick's one of the scribes who ruined Carol Danvers as a superheroine in the past decade, all for the sake of "feminist" agendas, and wokeism. And what's this Kinnard known for?

Kinnard created the first Black queer comic strip characters, although he didn’t know he was first at the time. Born in Chicago in 1954, Kinnard moved to Portland in 1979 and helped start the queer newspaper Just Out.

He created The Brown Bomber, a nineteen-year-old superhero sporting basketball shorts and a home-made cape, and Diva Touché Flambé, a mystical grade school teacher who knocks sense into closed-minded streetgoers with her power of slapthology.

Together, the duo form Cathartic Comics, a strip that ran in newspapers in Portland and San Francisco, calling out injustice with wit, wisdom, and pride through an intersectional Black queer lens.

What's so special about that in the view of the leftists now running the Eisners? This is all woke cliche by today's standards. And then, here's what Mirk's known for:

Sarah Shay Mirk is a nonfiction comics journalist, publisher, and teacher at Crucial Comix living in Portland since 2008.

Their book Guantanamo Voices: True Accounts from the World’s Most Infamous Prison chronicles the experiences of former Guantanamo Bay prisoners and staff in the form of a graphic novel.

There's something mighty fishy about this book. What if it's apologia for terrorism, since many Islamic terrorists were incarcerated at Guantanamo, to keep them away from the USA's borders?

Kelly Sue DeConnick is a New York Times Bestselling comics author, known for her reimagining of the character Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel.

Her 2026 nomination for Best Continuing Series is shared with David López, the co-writer of FML, a graphic series from Portland-based publisher Dark Horse Comics.

"Reimagining" is precisely the problem, since, not only was Danvers made to look alienatingly masculine in the past decade, her background was forcibly changed as well. And forced, abrupt retcons were becoming pretty common beginning in the early 2000s, with some of J. Michael Straczysnki's machinations in Spider-Man just the beginning. Also notice how they don't refer to Danvers as Ms. Marvel, which is what she was originally titled in the late 70s when the late Gerry Conway first launched the original series at the time. What's so special about scribes who don't care about the source material? This only clarifies the Eisners continue to remain corrupted in whatever values they once had, and serve leftist causes more than anything else. That's why they're not worth paying attention to, any more than the Oscars in Hollywood.

Where the mid-90s adaptation of Tank Girl stands today

A writer at Men's Journal talks about the 1995 film adaptation of the British comic called Tank Girl, which was not a success, but is apparently the kind of movie that's since found a "cult following", as could probably be expected of some films of the times:

Arriving decades before the box office successes of Wonder Woman (2017) and Captain Marvel (2019), Tank Girl (1995) was a pioneer of the female-led comic book film, or pushed back their popularity for another 20 years — depending on who you asked.

There's just one thing not brought up - despite the huge box office gross 7 years ago, the Capt. Marvel movie is not considered an artistic success, and the sequel certainly buried any further chances for additional sequels for now.

Tank Girl was based on the British comic book series and strips of the same name by artists Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett — the latter of whom would go on to further global prominence as the visual co-creator of the virtual band Gorillaz — first published in 1988. Set in a post-apocalyptic Australia, the series is led by the titular character (real name Rebecca Buck), who, along with mutant Kangaroo boyfriend Booga, navigates the lawless outback in a series of misadventures in an abandoned military tank.

[...] With predominantly non-Australian accents and actors, alongside the rejection of the dry British humor of the comic and its overt violence and sexuality, the Tank Girl film was a far cry from what the fans of the comic book expected. With abysmal critical reviews and a revenue of $6 million against a $25 million budget, the movie venture was largely considered a total failure, particularly by Hewlett and Martin.

Hewlett, who was just 22 years old when MGM studios first approached him about a film adaptation, reflected in 2006: “The script was lousy – me and Alan Martin kept rewriting it and putting Grange Hill jokes and Benny Hill jokes in, and they obviously weren’t getting it. They forgot to film about ten major scenes so we had to animate them … it was a horrible experience.

In a 2017 interview with Vice, Hewlett elaborated, “They played that game of looking for things that are cool, buying those things and then turning them into something else.”

“Which is what Hollywood does. If they were to stick to the actual storyline of the original idea of Tank Girl, then you’d probably have an X-rated movie on your hands, and what they want is a family movie they can open and have a big box office weekend with,” he continued. “They take out all the essence – all the good ingredients – and then turn it into something else.”

There have been R-rated adaptations of several comics over the years, and IIRC, the 1998 Blade movie may have been a rare example to date for a Marvel adaptation. So, while the statements given by the comic's creators may be a bit naive, the fact is that given the chance, Hollywood will dumb down these adaptations considerably, or just plain make a shoddy film. It reminds me that a few years before the Tank Girl film was produced, there was an adaptation of Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski novels starring Kathleen Turner that was similarly catastrophous, and stuff like that makes me wonder if some Hollywood studios have so much money, they're not against injuring the popularity of the source material with an awful film. Undoubtably, there are plenty of abortive adaptations whose producing studios have only so much contempt for the zygotes and creators, they're willing to damage the original product's potential. With some early female-led adaptations being the biggest victims of a Hollywood studio's refusal to comprehend what made the source material work in the first place. Just this year of course, we saw how well the new Supergirl adaptation worked out. And that was based on a story written by a very bad writer, by contrast.

It would be far better if some creators would prove they can resist the temptation to have a film adapted to live action, and depending on the situation, even to animation. After all, there's still plenty of examples today where a notable creation can be watered down very badly in Hollywood, and it's gotten considerably worse in an era where stuff like that is described as "woke". So maybe the time's come for comics creators to start reevaluating whether it's even a good idea to begin with, to have their properties adapted to the silver screen. If there's a chance a bad adaptation could send the comic into obscurity, that's why it's just not worth it to approve an adaptation. That said, it's interesting how it's become another film to find a cult following in the 30 years since it was made.