Ben Towle
@benzilla
Cartoonist, five-time-time Eisner nominee, programming co-chair Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC), adjunct comics prof @ CCAD, intergalactic trader & general nuisance. Four-Fisted Tales, Oyster War, etc. Columbus, OH (Comics City, USA!)/Palm Springs, CA
...and today's Popeye features a pretty deep-cut special guest: Jimmy Swinnerton's Mr. Jack! (Which reminds me, I really need to pick up that recent Fanta Jimmy Swinnerton collection.)
Today's MUTTS is great! MUTTS has been consistently great for ages--so much so that I kinda feel like we comics folk take it for granted.
Flipping through some of these completely unhinged Chick Tracks I picked up at the Chick Publications office. The character designs for this group of "greedy hangers-on" is absolutely hilarious to me.
I ordered a couple of minis from Secret Headquarters and on the back of the package was this skull, a reference to the infamous Welcome to Fear City pamphlets from the '70s. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_Ci...
Fellini writes to Moebius that he's always dreamed of making a science fiction movie and that Moebius would be an ideal collaborator... But he will never actually call him since there's no point—Moebius's vision is too formidably complete already.
Hahaha Moebius clearly had a thing for 70's porn star John Holmes. Here's another character based on his appearance: Jim Cutlass (with writer Charlier).
Great snakes--popped in to the current Heritage auction and this (admittedly iconic) Don Heck Iron Man splash just hit.... three million dollars(!).
Not a ton. I mostly grabbed relatively recent stuff because I'm curious what they're doing now with both Chick himself and Fred Carter dead. Those were the only two artists.
Hahaha (or, as per laughing in Chick Tracts, HAW HAW HAW) I couldn't resist making this pit stop on the way back to Palm Springs from LA/Anime Expo.
Folks checking out a bunch of Ryoko Kui art at the #DeliciousInDunheonLA pop-up show in conjunction with #AnimeExpo26
And in case you were wondering, this place is abject insanity. It's "busier than last year" supposedly. Last year's attendance was 410,000. #animeexpo26
A few odds and ends from Anime Expo yesterday: I love Akira Toriyama's vehicle designs so much—I couldn't resist these beautiful die cast toys. Also found a few vintage baseball menko cards to add to my collection.
It's all about the Witch Hat Atelier at #AnimeExpo26 and I am 100% here for it. Last pic is packed Peacock Theater (seating ~7000) for the WHA panel today.
Biggest news AFAIC from #AnimeExpo26 is... Kodansha is (finally) reprinting Tezuka's Phoenix! Big 7 x 10 hardbacks including extra stuff: material from unfinished next chapter, color pages, short stories from the 50's. Original translator Frederik L. Schodt translating new material. Looks AMAZING!
Was going to go to sleep at a reasonable hour last night but spied this on the bookshelf. (Bought at Secret Headquarters in LA and didn't haul back to Columbus for some reason.) Haven't read any of this stuff since those little Dark Horse books . This stuff is 100% badass right out of the gate.
Witch Hat Atelier season two officially confirmed (surprising no one). Yay!
Oh, for a parallel world where Moebius didn't turn down Ridley Scott and wound up working on Blade Runner...
Mœbius bio speculating on the origin of Grubert's hat possibly being this character, colonel Iverson from the film Blue Soldier.
Hahaha I was very excited to be done with a long In the Weeds scene in the restaurant so I wouldn't have to keep drawing that damn walk-in cooler full of stuff... and the first page after (in the band house setting) has an open fridge full of stuff I had to draw!
Interesting. The Moebius biography I'm reading cites this story, Allo! Nous avons retrouvé M.I.X. 315 by Raymond Poïvet, as an inspiration for Arzach. And... yeah.
My edition of this has a whole section in the back on Moebius's photo referencing, but interestingly does not include the John Holmes reference.
Hahaha so apparently this character from Mœbius's HARZACK is based on old school porn star John Holmes .
Picked up this beautiful Chris Ware print done for his new show at the Billy Ireland. Will get it framed at some point for sure.