Top 10 Defunct Comic Book Publishers: EC Comics

The grandfather of all gone but not forgotten publishers closes out our ten week run of the “Top 10 Defunct Comic Book Publishers” posts, with one caveat (see below).In 1944, All-American Publications merged with DC Comics and its former editor, Max Gaines retained rights to the comic book Picture Stories from the Bible, and began his new company (known as Entertaining Comics) with a plan to market comics about science, history and the Bible to schools and churches. You see, a decade earlier, Gaines had been one of the pioneers of the comic book form, with Eastern Color Printing's proto-comic book Funnies on Parade, and with Dell Publishing's Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics, considered...

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FemShep Follow-Up!!

Bioware has announced that their "Choose the Official" Female Commander Shepard contest has ended, or rather their SECOND contest has ended, with the redheaded "gal" (pictured; right) getting the most fan votes. This version will be included in a major marketing campaign, on the Mass Effect 3 packaging itself (due March 2012) and she will also receive her very own ME3 game trailer to debut shortly.I posted a link to the Facebook page a month ago, and at that time the blond female Shepard emerged as the winner by a landslide, but a very vocal minority bitched, griped, moaned, complained, groused, whined and otherwise vented incessantly, until the wussy folks at Bioware decided to screw...

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Alpha Flight Continues ....

At Saturday's "Pint O' C.B." panel at the Fan Expo Canada Convention in Toronto, Marvel announced some really good news for writers Fred Van Lente and Greg Pak and artist Dale Eaglesham AND fans. The current eight issue Alpha Flight mini-series just got upgraded to an ongoing monthly title. With only three published issues (plus a Point 1, which I skipped) I've enjoyed this book quite a bit. It's been terrific having the entire original team lineup restored from the classic Alpha Flight #1 (Aug.1983), regardless of how many storytelling hoops had to be implemented to accomplish this. The Alphans have also been reintroduced in their classic costumes, with a very minor (& superior) tweak for...

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Lee Granger, Jungle King in "The Plot Against Thora Brandon" (Fawcett;1940)

Today's golden age comics story is primarily offered as a test (see below), so I'm hoping for a little feedback on this post from friendly folks who read it. Feel free to speak up! Lee Granger (aka Jungle King) was a Tarzan-clone with a twist, instead of being cut from the "noble savage" model, Jungle King was a scientist who used his genius to make the jungle a better place. Among his notable accomplishments, besides protecting the jungle from all manner of dastardly villains, was to convert a native Pygmy village into a modern town, and he taught a lion named "Eric" to speak English. Not too shabby for a short run character!He appeared in two titles published by Fawcett Comics, Slam-Bang...

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"Gal" Friday! Violante Placido

Italian actress and singer, Violante Placido appeared alongside George Clooney in the 2010 drama-thriller The American and she has been cast as “Nadya” in next years Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, a sequel to the 2007 film Ghost Rider based on the Marvel Comics character. She released her first album in 2006, most of which was recorded in English, and all of the tracks were written by herself.If you haven’t seen The American, I highly recommend that you do so. The film is an excellent thriller about a gunsmith (Clooney) who becomes involved with a prostitute while he’s building a custom-designed sniper rifle for an assassination, and being stalked by unknown assassins. Placido generously...

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At the Movies: Conan the Barbarian

I just read an interesting article written by one of the screenwriters of "Conan the Barbarian" starring Jason Momoa. The newly released film hasn't been well received overall and the script doctor falls on the pungee stick in a minor mea culpa over the flicks reception.I liked the new Conan movie well enough, and felt that Jason Momoa looked exactly like the silver & bronze age realization of the fictional Cimmerian of Robert E. Howard's original pulp stories that many Frank Frazetta paperback book covers and Marvel Comics introduced us to in the 60's and 70's, but that is exactly what was wrong with the guys currently tanking movie. The filmmakers opted for appearance over substance.Before...

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Top 10 Defunct Comic Book Publishers: Crossgen Comics

CrossGen Comics was founded by Florida-based entrepreneur Mark Alessi, who sought to create a comic book universe that was uniquely varied but also connected by a common theme. The company debuted in 2000 with CrossGenesis, a sneak-peak of the universe, worlds and characters of CrossGen’s flagship titles that were released six months later. Their publications covered a variety of genres with characters inhabiting a single shared universe known as the Sigilverse. Before any comics were written, Mark Alessi and Gina M. Villa (head of creative departments), wrote a history of the Sigilverse along with a team of writers composed of Barbara Kesel, Mark Waid and Ron Marz. The protagonists of this...

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A Visit to Geppi's Entertainment Museum (Part I)!!

While in Maryland for the past weekends Baltimore Comic-Con me and the boys took in one of the true "do not miss" attractions that was fortunately within walking distance of the hotel & convention center where we stayed.Geppi's Entertainment Museum is located in downtown Baltimore's historic Camden Station, directly above Sports Legends at Camden Yards and adjacent to Oriole Park at Camden Yards (part of the Camden Yards Sports Complex). The 16,000-square-foot privately owned pop culture museum chronicles the history of pop culture in America from the 17th century to today by showcasing newspapers, magazines, comic books, movies, television, radio and video games. It features a large and...

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Baltimore Con Swag!!

Just in case you're curious, I'm quite happy with the swag that I purchased in Maryland during the Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend. This year I split my budget between original art and a thirty-two issue run of the bronze age series, Conan the Barbarian. I know that you're thinking the new Conan film prompted me to pick those up, but it's just serendipity that I did so at the Baltimore show. I had been meaning to get those for some time. I originally bought Conan comics way back when, but had more black & white Savage Sword of Conan issues than the mainstream monthly color series.I have to thank art dealer Jim Warden for my purchases of three nifty pages of original John Byrne art from...

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Wild Boy and The Tyrant of the Jungle (Ziff-Davis;1951)

"Wild Boy and the Tyrant of the Jungle" is the lead story from Wild Boy #4 (Oct.1951); originally published by Ziff-Davis, and featuring the artwork of Silver & Bronze Age mainstays, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. The "tyrant" of the title is a former German Foreign Legionnaire who has formed a kingdom of fear and slavery in the jungle. It's up to Wild Boy and his friends Keeto & Timba, to put a stop to his reign of terror. The Catacombs is grateful to Don "Zu-Gogo" Falkos for providing the scans for this story. Note: The copyright for this issue, its contents and artwork belong to the original publisher and/or the creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purpose...

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The Baltimore Comic-Con 2011 Photo Report!!

Baltimore Comic-Con 2011 was tons of fun! I attended the show this year for the first time, along with my brother David, and our friend, Burt.  A full report will follow later this week, along with some more photos of our visit to the Geppi Entertainment Museum. For now, enjoy some quick glimpses at the crowds, a few guests, and assorted other stuff (including yours truly).In descending order: Louise Simonson, Walt Simonson, Keith Giffen, Tim Truman, art dealer Jim Warden (pictured with me), José Luis García-López (also with me) and another shot of Jim Warden (and, you know, ME). I assume that you are all smarter than the average bear, so the assorted crowd shots are self-explanato...

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