In Memorium: Lew Sayre Schwartz

Sadly along with the passing of Gene Colan, comes news that Lew Sayre Schwartz has also died at the age of 84, and in a weird convergence, Schwartz too partially succumbed as the result of a head injury from a fall suffered last month.

Shortly after WWII, Lew Schwartz became one of the many talented folks working behind the scenes “ghosting” the Batman comic book stories that were solely credited publicly to Bob Kane (a list of talented creators that includes Dick Sprang, Jack Burnley, Stan Kaye, Sy Barry, Sid Greene, Joe Giella, Sheldon Moldoff, Win Mortimer, Jim Mooney, Charles Paris, Jerry Robinson, George Roussos, Chic Stone and writers Bill Finger and Gardner Fox). Schwartz himself penciled more than one-hundred and twenty Batman stories between 1947 and 1953; usually providing the entire art job plus lettering from the script, over which Kane might add certain touches to the main figures of Batman and Robin before sending it in. Lew Schwartz ghosted some other work on daily newspaper strips including several weeks on Secret Agent X-9 for Mel Graff, and The Saint. His own signature never appeared on any of this work, but he was well known among industry insiders. Lew left comics in the mid 1950s following a junket in Korea entertaining the troops, with a bunch of other cartoonists, including Irwin Hasen; after which he went into television advertising, at first drawing storyboards.

Schwartz co-founded a production company that worked on the Stanley Kubrick movie Dr. Strangelove, for which they brought an innovative style to the lettered credits and his long career in television includes segments for Sesame Street and directing a Barbara Streisand special.

In retirement he returned to the comic’s medium, collaborating with Dick Giordano on a short adaptation of Moby Dick for the kids’ market and a strip titled The Dinosaur Group that appeared for five years on the editorial page of the East Coast paper, The Standard Times. It was around 2002, that he was rediscovered by the world of comics. Lew Sayre Schwartz was a featured guest at the San Diego Comic-Con both that year and again in 2009.

The Catacombs extends its sincerest condolences to his family, friends and fans.

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"Gal" Friday & Classic Cutie! Suzy Kendall

Sticking with blond “gals” again this week, and indulging a personal pick after seeing the 1967 film To Sir, with Love, for the umpteenth time yesterday on Turner Classic Movies.

British actress Suzy Kendall is best known for her film roles of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her attractive blond looks got her many leading roles in some fairly prestigious productions, although she increasingly appeared in lower-profile films and television series later in the 1970s, before finally retiring to spend more time with her family.

From 1968 to 1972, she was married to comedic actor Dudley Moore, and despite their divorce they remained friends throughout the rest of their lives. She hosted a memorial service for Moore when he passed away in 2002. She currently lives in London with her second husband, and their daughter Elodie Harper, is a BBC journalist.

Besides To Sir, with Love, a selection of Suzy Kendall films includes The Liquidator, Thunderball, Circus of Fear, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Assault, Fear is the Key, Torso and Adventures of a Private Eye. Suzy was always a rockingly cool chick who didn't show up nearly enough for me and now she's also added to my private gallery as this weeks official "Gal" Friday selection.

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In Memorium: Gene Colan

Gene Colan, one of Marvel Comics most prominent artists, passed away late last night following complications from liver disease and a broken hip received in a recent fall. He was eighty-four years old.

During his long career Colan regularly posted lengthy runs on series such as Daredevil, the cult-hit series Howard the Duck, and perhaps his best known title, The Tomb of Dracula, which he illustrated for its entire seventy issue run, and which is still considered one of the horror genres most classic series. While penciling Captain America, he co-created "The Falcon", one of the first African-American superheroes in mainstream comics. His other significant Marvel work includes The Avengers, Doctor Strange, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish.

Colan was no stranger to the "distinguished competition", having provided art for runs on DC Comics titles like Batman, Detective Comics, Wonder Woman and terrific work on several early to mid-1980’s mini-series: Jemm, Son of Saturn 1-12; Nathaniel Dusk 1-4 (plus a four-issue sequel); Night Force 1-14; Silverblade 1-12; and The Spectre 1-6.

His distinct art-style, instantly recognizable, made him one of the premier artists within the industry. I’m very glad that I at least got to meet him once at a convention appearance in Charlotte, NC several years back. The Catacombs extends its sincerest condolences to his family, friends and fans.

Portrait illustration (above) by Michael Netzer.

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Fantomah in "The Revenge of Zomax" (Fiction House;1941)

Fantomah, Mystery Woman of the Jungle, is such an interesting golden age character that I should really post her stories much more often. "The Revenge of Zomax" is from Jungle Comics #14 (Feb.1941); originally published by Fiction House. This story written and illustrated by Fletcher Hanks (as Barclay Flagg) shows how Fantomah prevents the evil Zomax from killing all of the jungle animals with a cool-looking tidal wave of his own creation. The neat cover art is by George Appel.

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 creators and is reproduced here solely for entertainment purposes.

Enjoy!

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Comic art is just different. It's art on its own terms. - Joe Simon

I know that Wednesday is "new" comics day, but Mr. Simon's quote prompted me to clear out a few pieces of art that have been loitering around in the files. In descending order: "Aurora" by the late Dave Stevens; "Catwoman" by Paul Dini; an outstanding "Daredevil" by the legendary Neal Adams (I would love to see Neal tackle this character in a monthly series); "Jungle Girl & Lion" commission by Bob McLeod; "The Punisher" by sorely missed Mike Zeck (come back, Mike); and a full-color "Panther Wench" commission by Ernie Chan. As always, click on each image to embiggen. Tomorrows regular post will be a classic golden age jungle story. Thank you for being patient!

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Oh my! Lions, Tigers and Bears

The award-winning Lions, Tigers and Bears was originally a breakout hit published by Image Comics. Now Hermes Press continues the further adventures of Joey Price and his furry pals of the Night Pride in graphic novel form, with an all-ages approach that is perfect for libraries and any kid's bookshelf. After reprinting the first two Lions, Tigers and Bears mini-series, Hermes launches a new adventure with Volume 3: Greybeard's Ghost!

As Greybeard's Ghost opens, young Joey meets his friend Courtney's obnoxious older cousin, Beth, and wishes for the Beasties to take her away. When Joey's wish comes true, he and Courtney must venture back to the Stuffed Animal Kingdom to save her, along with his brave animal friends Ares, Venus, Minerva, and Pallo, This exciting tale takes the crew aboard a Beasties-infested pirate ship and an encounter with the legendary Greybeard himself!

In the vein of other landmark all-ages fare such as Jeff Smith's Bone; Lions, Tigers and Bears is geared towards younger readers with wholesome stories in a large full-color graphic novel format. Greybeard's Ghost is written by series creator Mike Bullock with art by Michael Metcalf, and has a cover by Mike Ploog (Abadazabad), plus two original back-up stories with art by Dan Hipp and Adam van Wyck. Lions, Tigers and Bears won the 2007 Angouleme International Comics Festival Discovery Youth Prize, and will continue to deliver the same engaging stories through its new life at Hermes Press. Check it out!

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At the Movies: Green Lantern

Blockbuster movies of every description are a dime a dozen during the highly desired summer film season. They arrive in mass quantities and tend to be thicker than flies. Not every large budget film is going to recoup its cost – at least at the box office – and fan expectations being what they are these days, every potential audience member isn’t going to enjoy each new Hollywood interpretation of an established property. So it has been with the big-screen debut of DC Comics' "Green Lantern" which despite earning the #1 position at the box-office over the weekend, has failed to earn as much moolah as was generated by earlier releases "Thor" and "X-Men: First Class".

The critics have hammered the film as well, citing some of the acting, clunky screenwriting and clueless direction. These aren’t necessarily wrongheaded remarks, but when these types of comments hit the web heaviest on the geek-centric sites, it definitely hurts early returns. I will avoid spoilers as much as possible, but certain points have to be addressed – so be advised – proceed with caution.

First of all let me say that Green Lantern is a really good comic book movie. It channels the established history and characterizations from the silver age series quite well. Geoff Johns may share a screenwriting credit, along with Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Goldenberg, but the vast majority of the elements and featured characters were originally created by DC Comics writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane. Make no mistake about this! Any strength of this film is due to the wise decision to stick with the core concept built by those two fine, talented gentlemen who are no longer with us. Johns could lay claim to an interpretation of Parallax, but comic book writer Ron Marz originated even that concept.

I would offer as a constructive criticism that at 105 minutes, the film is simply not long enough to have adequately fit in much of what made it onto the screen, and it is this specific aspect that is ultimately behind most critics’ disappointment. We needed more of the GL Corps, more of Oa, more of the Guardians; most of which was very well done as far as I'm concerned and less of other elements (see below). The special effects are excellent.

Ryan Reynolds was topnotch as the cocky Hal Jordan, Blake Lively won me over as Carol Ferris, Mark Strong is "awesome" as Sinestro and the voice work of Michael Clarke Duncan (Kilowog), Clancy Brown (Parallax) and Geoffrey Rush (Tomar-Re) was really cool with me. The actors who played the supporting roles of Tom Kalmaku (Taika Waititi), Carl Ferris (Jay O. Sanders) and Martin Jordan (Jon Tenney) were also spot on, but three roles were utterly unnecessary to the overall film. Tim Robbins portrayed Sen. Hammond, Angela Bassett portrayed Amanda Waller and Peter Sarsgaard portrayed classic GL villain Hector Hammond (to good effect, but he belonged in a subsequent film) and while none were individually deal breakers, all felt heavily tacked on here. The movie as a whole would have worked far better without these characters being present. The Parallax entity did not need Hector Hammond as motivation to come to Earth, it could have simply followed Abin Sur (exceptionally well, albeit briefly, played by Temuera Morrison) to Earth or arrived just to knock off his chosen successor, Hal Jordan.

IMDB reveals that actor Kevin Kline was considered for the role of Senator Hammond, and if they just had to have this character, Kline would have at least appeared more age appropriate as Hammonds father, and with his perpetual mustache, even that visual cue would have nicely tied him to Sarsgaard's Hector. The original script had contained a cameo by Alan Scott, the first published Green Lantern (Jordan's golden age predecessor, whose powers were magical rather than cosmic). Scott was intended to be the United States President, and near the end would have revealed his own past as a Green Lantern to Jordan, and give him his blessing. Later drafts finally wrote him out of the film, and replaced him with Amanda Waller. At one point Clark Kent/Superman was also included in the script (he had a cameo as one of the candidates considered to receive a power ring), but he was cut out because the filmmakers didn't want to depend on another superhero for a success. These foolish behind the scenes decisions cost us some outstanding fanboy moments. A real shame, if you ask me!

Don't even get me started on the elimination of the classic silver age weakness built into the Green Lantern rings, anything yellow tailguns a Lantern in combat. This was retconned in recent years to be Parallax (a yellow, fear-based creature) being imprisoned within the central power battery on Oa. The film moves the prison to a Geoff Johns derived comic book story element, the planet Ryut, so there you go; he chipped in something. A bit stupid if you ask me, since having the action take place on Oa would have strengthened the "big" picture they were setting up. This negatively impacted the requisite post-credits scene for diehard fans too, and in my opinion this is an instance where they completely blew it. It involves Sinestro and again, all the pieces needed to have effectively arrived at this moment were present within the film, but the actual moment where the necessary motivation SHOULD have occurred, didn’t. Oh well, if there is any missed opportunity for critics to crow about, it is here and it happens after the credits roll anyway. I do hope that Reynolds gets another chance to don the CGI-suit and fly the space ways again. So if you are a fan of the classic Green Lantern, like me, go see the movie. Recommended!

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