Marvel crosses its universe with Star Wars, in a special written by filmmaker Kevin Smith

Entertainment Weekly says Marvel's continuing with their pointless distractions, producing a crossover of franchises:

Titled Star Wars/Marvel: Hope Assembles, the five-part limited comic book series will launch in January 2027, Entertainment Weekly can exclusively reveal.

Figures like Chewbacca, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Princess Leia will join Earth-616 — the primary continuity in which most stories of Marvel Comics take place —and mingle with the likes of Captain America, Black Widow, Spider-Man, and the Hulk. Meanwhile, Doctor Doom and the Marvel rogue’s gallery will join the likes of Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire.

But here's the bad part:

Kevin Smith, the actor/director who wrote major runs of Daredevil, Batman, and Green Arrow, writes the new story. David Marquez of Uncanny X-Men and Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man is the artist behind the comic, as seen in EW’s exclusive first look at the cover design.

Wow, what do we need such an overrated filmmaker writing this for? Even if this time, he doesn't suddenly, out of nowhere, take time off from completing the miniseries as he did with the horrible Black Cat miniseries he wrote in the early 2000s, Smith's resume is still just too insufferable to care about 2 ruined franchises crossing over. Another problem is that this perpetuates a serious mistake of the past 3 decades: hiring "celebrity" writers like filmmakers and novelists to script a comic book, yet not basing the employment on merit any more than talent and comprehension of the creations the writers are assigned to script.

Let's also not forget Smith once turned out a woke continuation of the Masters of the Universe cartoon, broadcast on Netflix, no less. That's all you need to know he could always render the Marvel/Star Wars crossover in similar ways. So again, what's the use of even advertising what's bound to be a time-waster?

More about Frank Miller's now tiresome viewpoints

Here's a few more recent items involving an artist/writer who's got to be one of the most overrated in comicdom. First, in this recent UK Observer interview, he tells who his mentor was:

What prompted you to write this book? It’s not a straight-up memoir.

No, it’s a combination – a guidebook for storytelling and a portrait of the amazing little world I inhabit. I think it has something to do with my most important mentor, the artist Neal Adams, who helped me start my career and played the tough sensei in my life. After I met with some success, I asked him what I could do to pay him back for what he’d done for me. Without missing a beat he said: “Do it for the next [generation].” This book is the product of me trying to meet that pledge.

Wasn't Will Eisner an important mentor of his? Or is Miller deliberately trying to obscure Eisner, because the latter didn't live up to the former's exact expectations? Somehow, Miller seems to have disappointed again, all for the sake of political correctness. Besides, what's he actually doing for the next generation that could have lasting value?

You started out writing for Marvel and DC superhero franchises before branching off to create your own worlds, but was working within those confines a useful first step?

Oh, yes. I was being thrown problems to solve that I’d never been thrown before. I was working under specific instructions with this mythology of characters, many of whom I hadn’t even heard of, and learning to work in a much more disciplined situation.

I've got a feeling that even today, there's quite a few older creations he hasn't heard of, and at this point, not only doesn't care about them, he wouldn't be suited to work on them anyway.

You were still in your 20s when you were tasked with reimagining one of the world’s most cherished superheroes, Batman. It must have been a lot of pressure.

I don’t have any memory of having any fear. I was so full of ideas of where I wanted to take it. It was mostly enthusiasm and a sense of overwhelming joy. The amazing thing about Batman is that it’s so versatile. You can find different ways to make it work. Every once in a while I get a chuckle out of how much of The Dark Knight Returns is still surfacing in [Batman] movies after all these years.

Oh, but of course it was a joyous occasion, wasn't it? After all, he got to do swipes at Ronald Reagan, for ambiguous reasons. As for allusions to DKR in movies, the odd thing is that Miller hasn't found most of said movies appealing, and in another article coming later on the list here, they mention that subject.

Like so many East Coast writers before you, you were lured to Hollywood in the late 1980s.

That was wild. It was a whole lot of fun. I was playing in a much bigger ballpark to obviously a much bigger audience. But it was a very different experience: there were a whole lot more bosses.

You refer to “the fiery fallout of fame” and hitting rock bottom after moving to LA. What happened?

I lost my way. I’m afraid I got more involved with ego than with my mission as an auteur, and I lost track of things. But it’s through telling stories that I’ve been able to come back around to find myself and my purpose.

He sure did. His work on the Robocop sequels, if anything, was such a failure. But even his later adaptation of Sin City to film didn't pan out beyond 2 entries, IIRC, with the 2nd, A Dame to Kill For, thudding badly. It reminds me of a description of some two-season TV shows I once noticed on another blog a decade ago: "first season wonders, second season blunders". A similar description could be thought of for some recent live action comic adaptations.

Something that crops up again and again in your work, not least in Sin City, is the flawed but single-minded crime fighter who will clean up the mean streets against all the odds. What’s at the root of that fascination for you?

I’ve always liked my heroes, from Superman to Batman to Zorro. And I’ve always loved crime stories. The more I discovered film noir, the more I realised that stuff spoke to me like nobody’s business.

What's left out is that he developed a dim view of the Man of Steel, all because Supes in his narrow vision is ostensibly "too powerful". As for crime stories, based on the dark vision he alludes to, that's basically the problem: he seems more interested in honing skills for storytelling that's anything but science fiction, and maybe that's one of Miller's biggest weaknesses.

Somebody once asked you if you’re a conservative and you said “No, I’m a libertarian”. Is that still the case?

Let’s just say I’m an independent thinker. You know, being conservative right now means something very different than it did a generation ago. So I find my own way.

Unfortunately, it's been sadly apparent for years now he just can't bring himself to quit ragging on figures like Donald Trump, again, for ambiguous reasons. I just don't know what exactly Miller wants or expects.

As AI encroaches, do you regard it with excitement or something else?

Something else. At first I thought it was a magic mystery box. Then I thought it was the end of creativity. Now I think that it’s going to be something that everybody will eventually calm down about. Its uses are limited. It’s not a panacea, it’s not a god. It will be much like the personal computer, in that it will change things, but we need not all bow down before it.

I wonder how he'd feel if AI were used to imitate his art style, which has been mediocre for years? More to the point, if any would-be artists try cutting corners by resorting to AI to complete their assignment, isn't that dishonest and a poor approach? It's bad enough much of mainstream artwork's become so mediocre, but that doesn't mean we should approve of AI either, if anybody winds up using it as a way to save on employing actual artists.

Next, when the latest Spider-Man movie came out, how fascinating that Miller saw fit to praise this particular film, according to the Hollywood Reporter:

The comics icon took to Instagram to share his feelings about Sony’s latest Tom Holland adventure, calling the film, “The most Ditko movie yet and with my Hand in it for all to celebrate. This fan’s dream come true. Tom Holland is my forever Spider-Man as romantic as he is heroic. Congratulations to Destin and the whole team.”

Miller, who famously wrote The Dark Knight Returns and Batman Year One for DC, has sometimes been a tough critic of comic book movies over the years. In 2014, Playboy asked Miller about the “lousy” movie adaptations of Daredevil and Elektra. “When people come out with movies about characters I’ve worked on, I always hate them,” Miller said. “I have my own ideas about what the characters are like. I mean, I can’t watch a Batman movie. I’ve seen pieces of them, but I generally think, No, that’s not him. And I walk out of the theater before it’s over.”

When asked if that includes Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Batman trilogy, Miller replied, “It includes all of them. I’m not condemning what he does. I don’t even understand it, except that he seems to think he owns the title Dark Knight. He’s about 20 years too late for that.”

Oh yes, that's interesting history too. I can't recall now if Nolan ever made use of any noticeable allusions to Miller's writings in his screenplays, but years later, when Nolan produced a woke adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey, which unfortunately grossed quite a bit at the box office, one could wonder if Miller would change his mind. There's another writer, more Hollywood-connected, however, who also had what to say about this:

Longtime Spider-Man comic book writer, J. Michael Straczynski, also had some praise for Brand New Day, writing on X: “To be clear I’ve enjoyed all the Spider-Man movies. But for my money, this latest iteration feels most authentically Peter, and Spider-Man. So many comic movies have fallen into MacGuffin plots, looking for the code, the stone, the box, the sword…this one is all about what William Faulkner called ‘the human heart in conflict with itself.’ It’s a very human story, emotional without being slow or dull or self-indulgent. It feels like stepping into a really good Spidey comic. Well done to all concerned (and even those unconcerned).”

As Toy People News notes, both Miller and J. Michael Straczynski are credited in the film's special thanks listings, "suggesting their comic work may have served as inspiration for the movie." But as the latter's presence makes clear to me, anybody as overrated and contemptuous of Spidey's world as JMS turned out to be is reason enough to skip this film for a long time. He played a part in the dissolving of the Spider-marriage 2 decades ago, and no matter what defense he employed at the time, it was just inexcusable. Also, Miller seems to think he owns the Dark Knight as well, so why complain about Nolan, regardless of where he's been going lately?

Here's also a review on Quillette of Push the Wall, which while mostly behind a paywall, offers the following visibly:

Even outside of comic book circles, Frank Miller is known as a gifted artist and writer who made comics grown up and gritty. From his damaged version of Bruce Wayne to Marv in Sin City (whom Miller pithily describes as “Conan the Barbarian in a trenchcoat”), Miller has created stories that resemble a strikingly original blend of film noir and dark Wagnerian opera. But the Miller who emerges from this memoir—part autobiography, part primer for aspiring graphic novelists—is as much a romantic as a gung-ho rebel.

It's always sad how earlier scribes like Dennis O'Neil and Steve Englehart are obscured in regards to whomever made comics "grown up". And why do they think a scribe who originally lucked out with the Robocop sequels is truly a "gifted" creator? Let's also not forget his only solo directorial effort to date, the cinematic adaptation of Will Eisner's Spirit, which was dreadful.

More importantly, New York was the home of his first great love: “Sure the city was violent, but it was also the hub of comic books and had been since the beginning. Marvel and DC were there, and all my real-life heroes were either still there bent over their drawing boards or they had spent formative time in the city, honing their skills and learning the lessons that only New York can teach you.” Miller was a childhood fan of the medium, and developed a particular fondness for EC comics, which were geared towards adults and “explored forbidden themes such as environmentalism, nuclear disarmament, and the miseries of war.” From EC comics, Miller “learned to always push the walls that others constructed, to challenge the strictures others put in place to stifle and smother.”

How does he feel about the mainstream moving away to Hollywood, apparently because that's how to truly manage a live action adaptation? One could argue the comics industry won't have as much impact as it used to, when DC/Marvel have been taken away from where they began.

Part of EC’s appeal no doubt rested on the reproaches it earned from the Comics Code Authority, which Miller describes as “a crusty remnant of ‘Red Scare’ censorship and the prim morality of postwar America.” The attempt to drum up a moral panic about comics will be familiar to those who have followed similar media and public campaigns to ban and censor video games and “video nasties” in the name of child protection:

And on this, one can only wonder how he feels about modern censorship, which made a comeback in the past decade, and the industry still hasn't recovered from it? Moral panics as we know them turned up again 15 years ago, with video games some of the primary victims, and Miller, unshockingly, seems oblivious to all that, as does the book reviewer.

Next, more recently, the BBC also interviewed Miller, and they perpetuate the whole notion only he succeeded in convincing everybody Batman was more than just kids stuff:

A deadpan do-gooder who wears underpants over his tights, and always carries a can of shark repellent spray.

For a long time, that was Batman – or, at least, Batman as the general public saw him, thanks to the camp 1960s television show and film. In his DC Comics adventures, he was depicted as a more serious and even sinister character, but the average person still saw him as Adam West in a self-mocking comedy with an infuriatingly catchy theme song.

Then came the graphic novel that changed everything – not just Batman, but superhero comics, and the many Hollywood films those comics would inspire.

I guess they too are just too lazy to do any research about Englehart and O'Neil's work in the 1970s. It's just like such an otherwise awful news network to be such favoratists. What's so special about Miller's work that isn't about most other Batman writers? Wasn't Chuck Dixon's creation, Bane, adapted for either the 2nd or 3rd Nolan film? Miller also told them:

"We do not have a Superman in the real world, but we do have huge military forces which can be used for good or evil. We do not have Batman out there, but we do have people's own desire to resist the use of force against them, and so on. I wanted to use the machinery and iconography of a children's story to tell a story for an older audience."

Back at the time, it was sadly intended to feature negative right-wing metaphors, and Miller doesn't seem troubled by how it all went from bad to worse, or that his very own 1986 miniseries was exploited by the editors by the turn of the century for depicting Batman as a mindless control freak. With the biggest irony being that Miller didn't apply the characterization wholesale from the miniseries to the ongoing flagship series when he scripted those.

As he recalls in his newly published memoir, Push the Wall, Miller was still in his twenties when he was commissioned by DC to "breathe new life" into a character who was at the time "emasculated" and "a second-class citizen in comics".

No kidding! That could easily describe what's gone wrong with a lot of portrayals of heroes in recent times: they're either emasculated and even depicted as cowards. Does it also sit well with them if Superman was transformed into a 2nd class citizen in comicdom, all for the sake of the Masked Manhunter? Such balderdash the BBC wrote up.

The idea was that while Batman was absent, Gotham City had crumbled into an urban hellhole, overrun by murderous gangs. The setting was based in part on Miller's own experiences. He moved to New York in the 1970s after a childhood in idyllic rural Vermont, and while he adored his new metropolitan home, "it was really a city in pretty serious decay".

Luckily for Gotham, the Batman of The Dark Knight Returns is no longer a gentlemanly sleuth, but an intimidating, ultra-violent vigilante who takes a grim satisfaction in breaking criminals' bones. He's so brutal, in fact, that it's almost incredible that DC's editors didn't object.

When you notice how ultra-violent modern entertainment's become, their acceptance of even a stand-alone tale set in a future era could be considered a precursor to modern problems. As for what Miller thought of NYC in the past, does that also sum up what he thinks of it today, when it's easily worse?

Most radical of all, Superman became a government stooge, loyal to a president who happened to resemble Ronald Reagan. And the Joker became a monstrous sadist. When the mini-series was first published, these revisions seemed iconoclastic, but Miller maintains that he was looking back as well as forward.

One can only wonder if the Joker was written as a metaphor for conservatives too, and IIRC, Marvel published a story featuring the Red Skull in the past decade that depicted him as one.

Numerous articles were written about how superhero comics weren't for children anymore. And the influence his work had on the comics industry was "pretty obvious fairly quickly", he admits – as were the shameless imitations. "But that's the nature of the beast. If something succeeds, there's a natural inclination by not just the publishers but the talent as well to imitate it. It's certainly nothing to resent or deplore."

At least they admit there's blatant imitations, not the least being some of Miller's own. I'm sorry, but when one looks at how bad entertainment's become today, it is what to resent and deplore. One more reason I'm not wasting time and money on Sin City.

His influence on the film industry was clear, too. Every single modern Batman film, from Tim Burton's 1989 blockbuster onwards, has taken some of its toughness and noirish style from The Dark Knight Returns.

Christopher Nolan's second and third Batman films took their name from it. And Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice lifted whole sections directly from its pages. Beyond those, it could be argued that Hollywood's current understanding that superhero stories can appeal to all ages, without being dumbed down, can be traced back to Miller.

But he stresses that he was only one of several writers and artists who were revolutionising the genre in the 1980s. And he isn't losing any sleep over the many films that owe their existence to him. "It's better for sanity's sake and blood pressure's sake to take it all with a good nature," he says with a cackle.

Unfortunately, much of modern comicdom's been dumbed down, and all the while, Miller doesn't care about anything but his own writing and art. Also, Snyder's Batman v. Superman film wasn't that successful, so what's the big deal there? At least Miller and the BBC admit he's not the only scribe who "revolutionized" the mediums 40 years ago. Even so, they still insult intellects by refusing to give other artists and writers a spotlight for people to judge, and as a result, it all comes down to another mediocre puff piece that doesn't add anything new to what perceptions we could have of comicdom in general.

Bone creator Jeff Smith apparently believes conservatives want to censor his productions

Jeff Smith, the cartoonist who created Bone over 3 decades ago, was interviewed by El Mundo, and says it's one of the most censored comics in the USA. But he also uses the occasion for a political rant:

"Bone has been one of the most censored books in the US. I know, it's ridiculous, right? They see something in it that they don't approve of. Well, they can go to hell," he explodes, who for five years collaborated with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund precisely to advocate for freedom of expression. "In my comics, I don't promote any political ideas. I only value friendship," he rejects. Although he has no problem taking a stand: "I'm optimistic: Trump will be gone soon and we will return to being Americans. It's a disaster."

He worked with an outfit as bad as the CBDLF? In that case, I'm not sure Bone, which he may have stopped writing as an ongoing series, is worth buying. And what are the odds he's aware it's the left that's censoring far more, but can't bring himself to openly admit it?

And what "friendship" does he value? If he's hostile to conservatives, then his statement's called into question. Also, if he can't avoid heavy handed politics in real life, that claim about promoting any in his comics is meaningless too. Another artist who's only doing a terrible disfavor to the medium's image when he leads such a double-standard.

Spider-Man being exploited for tennis-based collectible covers

US Open's announcing that Marvel's made another deal with the tennis movement for another sports-based story involving one of Marvel's most famous characters, and the special they're producing appears to be another publicity stunt for collectibility's sake, even if it's allegedly for free:

The US Open and Marvel are continuing their groundbreaking collaboration for a third consecutive year with a new and original Spider-Man comic book that champions the theme of the 2026 US Open, “Celebrating Our New York Story.” More than 40,000 print copies of the comic book will be given out to fans for free throughout US Open Fan Week at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, with a limited-edition run of rare, collectible covers featuring one of New York City’s five boroughs given out in a surprise bag to the first 1,000 fans each day August 24-28.

The unique comic follows Spider-Man as he chases and battles supervillain Scorpion across all five boroughs en route to the US Open, visiting iconic landmarks and encountering quintessential New York experiences along the way. All 40,000-plus print copies of the book will be given out on a first-come, first-serve basis for free during US Open Fan Week to those fans who scan their Fan Access Pass at the giveaway tent inside the main entrance.

Rare collectible covers featuring Spider-Man in one of the five boroughs – the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island – are limited to 1,000 copies each and will be given away at random in a blind bag to the first 1,000 fans on-site who pick up their comic book Monday, August 24, through Friday, August 28.

And that's all you need to know this is just another farce that doesn't even seem to have been printed in high numbers, undoubtably as an attempt to get new readers for their output with no emphasis on merit. What are the chances Mary Jane Watson won't figure prominently in this stunt either? Also note that it sounds like they're relying upon the "blind bag" tactic previously employed by Image. Regardless of whether these specials are free, what they're doing still reeks of pandering to the speculator market, and that's one more reason why this is another unappealing example of how Marvel's going about business today.

Postal video game being adapted to a comic

Go Nintendo reports one of the most violent video games ever produced is being adapted, sadly enough, to the comics panels:

Running With Scissors, creators of the (in)famous POSTAL series, in partnership with the renowned artists at Roditeli Productions, release an official digital preview for the first-ever POSTAL comic book series, giving fans a 19-page preview of the diabolical action arriving in late 2026.

With tens of millions of copies sold across the POSTAL game franchise, the greater POSTAL universe has expanded through sequels, spin-off games, a documentary film, and a movie. Now, the POSTAL Dude will make his comics debut in a series produced/co-written by Kevin Roditeli (SWAT Kats, X‑O Manowar, Bad Omens: Concrete Jungle) and co-written by Rob Cannon (Freak Snow, Anime Animay).

The POSTAL Dude makes his way through what appears to be a normal Monday until his fragile peace of mind is shattered once again – this time by an ad for a sinister dating app that sends him into a spiral of conspiracy-fueled madness.

I looked at several pages from the preview, and what a surprise, it does feature bloody acts of violence not all that different from what the game could feature. And the publishers of this tommyrot actually believe this is normal and acceptable?

On top of that, must virtually every video game of this sort be adapted to the comics medium? Of course not. Yet these wastes of trees keep getting made, regardless of how many people even buy them to begin with. I wish more people would wake up and stop plunking their money into even the video game itself, because this is getting very irritating already if and whenever anybody just buys these comics unquestioned, as though it literally must be done. Let's be clear. Nobody has to buy these kind of comic adaptations at all, and a game as jarring as Postal shouldn't have to matter to anybody.

How Tony Isabella turned to LGBT obsessions

Far-left veteran comics writer Isabella, who joined the transsexuality cult the previous year, spoke with the Buckeye Flame about how he took up the position he's sticking with now in his mid-70s, and predictably, they fully comply with his wishes to be regarded as a woman:

Cleveland’s own Jenny Blake Isabella, who previously wrote under the name Tony Isabella, has been a prominent comic book writer for decades. Recently, she has also become a queer icon in the comic community after coming out as transgender in 2025, at age 73.

The catalyst to Isabella’s transition journey came when she attended a queer comic book convention, Flaming River Con, just one year earlier. There, she had an epiphany: “I realized I was so comfortable around queer people because I was one of them… when I realized I was trans, you know, I started feeling better, more adjusted, and more like myself.”

Is it possible he's the kind of guy who was once described as "coming out of the closet" in past decades - meaning that he's homosexual, but until recently wasn't up to acknowledging it? Okay, that may not exactly be the problem, but what he strongly suggests is that he's become a self-hating man?!? If so, that's disturbing, and it's similar to self-hating Jews.

“I was thoroughly embraced by the comics community,” she said. “By and large, the comics book industry was so welcoming, and this Comic Con was the first Comic Con I did presenting as my authentic self, and it couldn’t have gone better. Nothing but love and respect and acceptance all across the board.”

Not only has there been more acceptance in the comic world, but there’s also been an expansion of what it means to be a superhero on screen. Queer characters and actors, like DC Comics’ trans superhero Nia Nal, played by transgender actress Nicole Maines, show the industry’s strides towards inclusion. The writers’ rooms, too, are diversifying.

“There’s a bunch of queer and even trans creators in comics,” Isabella said. “I was on a trans and non-binary creator panel at Comic Con, I was on an outed comic panel in Comic Con, and the people on that panel were just a fraction of the queer representation in comics.”

The way the industry went miles out of its way to accept such degrading beliefs and cultures, especially at the expense of heterosexuality - is disturbing, and one of the reasons why, despite their efforts to fluff-coat the whole subject, has plummeted in sales and respect over the past decade. And what "inclusion" are we talking about here anyway? I don't see serious efforts made to emphasize Armenian backgrounds in comicdom, or even Arabs who're Christian/Hindu/Buddhist/Zoroastrian adherents. Also, while it may not be mentioned, something tells me Isabella's unlikely to take issue with hostility to LGBT practitioners in the Muslim world, no matter what he says here. And if he has no concerns over such issues, then what he's telling them here is a sad joke and a blatant lie.

The publication turns to the time when Isabella created Black Lightning, and says:

What motivated Isabella to write Black superheroes came from the influences she received growing up in Cleveland, especially her time attending a comic book club at the Cudell Recreation Center as a high school student.

“My first Black friends were comic book fans who came from the East Side to the West Side for these meetings,” she said. “And I’m 17 years old. Diversity wasn’t in my language. I just thought it was unfair that my Black friends didn’t have more characters they could relate to. So I told myself that if I ever got into the business, I would try to work with and create characters of color.”

Well he sure seems to have largely abandoned that interest now, all for the sake of LGBT ideology, and he seems much more obsessed with that now, along with leftist political ideologies, and hostility to right-wingers like Donald Trump.

Eventually, Isabella saw her creation, Black Lightning, come to life in a different medium: television. Black Lightning, starring Cress Williams, aired on The CW Network from 2018 to 2021, following the retired superhero’s journey as he returned to action to protect his family.

For Isabella, the television adaptation was a delight to both witness and be a part of.

But was that because there's any far-left components to it, like hostility to law enforcement? Well that's why the TV show was nothing to celebrate, and another example of how Hollywood's going down the political drain.

Receiving multiple awards over the course of her career, Isabella recently became a 2026 recipient of the prestigious Bill Finger Award, named after the co-creator of Batman, Milton “Bill” Finger, given to those who have exemplified excellence in comic book writing.

And the saddest part is that they very likely complied with his wish for female pronoun references. On which note, if I notice correctly in one of his recent photos, he's wearing a wig? What are the odds he takes it off when he's at home? That would only make clear he's doing this whole act for show and virtue-signaling. And that's what makes this whole embarrassment additionally sad. I don't know if he ever worked on women's panels at conventions, but based on where he's been going, that's why he's unsuited for it, if he's going to take up a lifestyle/ideology that does more harm than good for women. It's devastating to think of how even the kind of punk subculture that was common in the 1980s has also been validated by today's woke belief systems. Based on some of his recent behavior on social media, that's why Isabella doesn't deserve the award he got. Besides, did he ever do any favors for Finger's memory in past decades? Chances are Isabella never did, which only makes this whole affair that much sadder.

The Comic Hero University store in Los Angeles

Voyage LA interviewed the manager of Comic Hero University, a specialty store, and he tells them that:

We’ve been impressed with Comic Hero University, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

Comic Hero University has always strived to be a place that breaks the stereotypes of comic book stores. We want to create a place that is community-first, business second (without sacrificing the business part so we can keep our doors open). We have a large number of products- comics, toys, and collectibles- to entice people to come inside, but the real gem is the people that work here who actively want to create the best experience for anyone new to the industry. One thing we did during the pandemic was create a pay-it-forward program where people could donate money to the business, and we’d use that money to buy comics that we could give away to kids (community first, business second). That program got national press at the time and helped us get through the dark pandemic days. We continue to run our business with the intent to bring new readers and kids who struggle with reading and comprehension, with the hope to build and create lifelong readers and help end the battle against illiteracy.

Here is a link to news report from NBC in regards to our program:

How do you think about happiness?

The moment I see a child pick up a comic for the first time and know that we have created a lifelong reader fills me with joy, as it gives what I do direction and purpose. People’s genuine joy and appreciation fill me with pride, knowing that I did a job well done.

Provided the comic in question is suitable for children, certainly it's something to feel great about. I just hope he doesn't rely heavily on Marvel/DC, based on where they've been going over the past quarter century, and there's plenty of independent creations that could use some notice, whatever age they're aimed for. That could, for all we know, be the way to avoid too many stereotypes about comics stores.

Joe Simon's pro-Israel publication in the 1960s

The Canadian Jewish News wrote about the history of a comics-style project the late artist Joe Simon of Capt. America fame worked on following the 6-Day War in 1967 that was favorable to Israel:

After the 1967 Six Day War, the originator of the comic book hero Captain America produced a spoof on the war and its political aftermath. A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way to Tel Aviv was a 66-page satirical magazine created and edited by Joe Simon that sold for 50 cents.

Its pages contain photographs of Egyptian and Jordanian leaders with comic-style word balloons and corny jokes. For example: “The height of Israeli gall: while waiting for negotiations at the UN to begin, one of them opened a kosher restaurant in Damascus.” The magazine reflected the swagger across the Jewish world following Israel’s miraculous military victory.

Simon was no stranger to controversial humour. He edited Sick magazine throughout the 1960s which in its first issue described itself as “a grim collection of revolting humour.” It contained tasteless, politically incorrect humour much like the standup routines of controversial comics such as Lenny Bruce, who apparently purchased 100 copies of each issue that included excerpts from his routines. [...]

Simon used his pen and his sense of humour to stand up for the Jewish people. In his Funny Thing magazine, he includes this legal disclaimer:

“The captions in this publication are entirely fictitious. As for the characters, they should live and be well. Except, maybe, for one or two…”

Now that's amazing. The application of word balloons to live action photography is something the satirists at MAD magazine did too at times. Let's also recall Simon was a conservative in his time, and after September 11, 2001, he'd drawn an illustration similar to the cover of the premiere issue of Captain America Comics where, much like Simon and Kirby drew Steve Rogers punching Hitler, Simon drew Cap punching Osama bin Laden. The question now is whether that illustration was ever made public, or if we'll ever see it on display today? If his estate or anybody else responsible for retaining his artwork is withholding that Simon item, that's wrong.

For now, this is a pretty interesting bit of history of what Cap's co-creator did in the years afterwards, and from what I know, Simon did work in comics and other similar forms of entertainment at least until the mid-70s. His support for Israel, along with supporting the USA, is something important to appreciate.

Paul Newman's last live action movie was based on a GN

Men's Journal spoke about one of the late actor Paul Newman's last movies, Road to Perdition, based on a GN by Max Allan Collins, and also a cartoon he worked on:

Newman’s role as John Rooney marked his final live-action feature film. The Hollywood icon voiced Doc Hudson in Pixar’s animated film Cars in 2006 before passing away in 2008 at the age of 83.

Collider highlighted Newman’s work alongside the rest of the cast as a major reason the film still holds up. [...]

Decades later, Road to Perdition remains a quiet high point in several careers. For Newman, it closed out a lifetime of work with one final, memorable big screen performance.

Good for him. And that's great to know he provided voice acting for a cartoon as well. I'd seen several movies he made decades before, and Newman was a very admirable performer, a lot more talented than some of today's Hollywood actors. If only they'd learn from him.