Ayn, Neal and the world around me...

[John R]

Who has this book? I owned this book, bought it raw some time ago and had it for a long time. I then had it graded and slabbed and sold it! .... ..... I sold it on Pedigree Comics website. This was before I got the ug to get back into collecting, before I got the Adams addiction I have now.

 

I would like to get this back into my home, safe and sound.

 

 

back...

 

I wish I had it. Beautiful cover!

[Doc Joe]

ask Doug, he would be happy to broker the deal

[dover]

I miss this little guy. Best cartoon of all time, all props to the Farside (2nd). I hope my children can enjoy it some day, I saved all the books of the collected strips.

 

 

#1 all time:

 

 

close 2nd:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is fun to have my kids run to mom to ask if I am teasing or not....

 

 

 

Great great, clean strip. Bill; nice job.

 

[dover]

Three in today. Got a 4th but it was the wrong one.....

 

 

 

 

[TeddieMercede]

That Superboy is awesome !

[dover]

That Superboy is awesome !

 

It sat so long I had to buy it!

 

You know, he did 27 Superboy covers...

[dover]

 

Without a doubt, the songle best story I have ever read in a comic book.

 

Daredevil 191 by Frank Miller (writer / penciler) - How does a man search for his own soul?

 

 

 

It is not the super hero battle of the century where a main character dies (only to come back later as some symbiot). It is the story of a hero fighting all the things that made him a hero; fighting his inner deamons and allowing for his weaknesses to affect others. Daredevil was after all, a very human hero.

 

He finds himself sitting with his arch enemy on a hospital room and as he spins the tale of what brought them to this point they play a little game of Russian Roulette. The outcome is predetermined but still unkown to us all.

 

I remember reading this issue, I remember the pages, the pictures, the words. It is a powerful story. drawn and displayed in pictures as good as any of the words. This is my epic issue I will always remember.

 

 

 

Sitting in the room at the beginning, Daredevil and Bullseye:

 

 

 

 

 

The best page of the story, the depiction of the boy shrinking away under the assualt of his father will always stay with me:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second to last page, where the final chamber is epmtied, the next page depicting the result of a man coming to grips with his soul:

 

 

[dover]

 

Our Civil War - 150 years ago

 

Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

 

The American Civil War (1861–1865), also known as the War Between the States (among other names), was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America, also known as "the Confederacy". Led by Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy fought for its independence from the United States. The U.S. federal government was supported by twenty mostly-Northern free states in which slavery already had been abolished, and by five slave states that became known as the border states. These twenty-five states, referred to as the Union, had a much larger base of population and industry than the South. After four years of bloody, devastating warfare (mostly within the Southern states), the Confederacy surrendered and slavery was outlawed everywhere in the nation. The restoration of the Union, and the Reconstruction Era that followed, dealt with issues that remained unresolved for generations.

 

 

Not to get carried away over examining history and re-hashing this much documented piece of our history, I find myself always back at the same cross roads. It came after a lengthy discussion / argument with a fellow boardie; someone I call my friend. We argued sides of Lincoln's reasons for war, slavery and the growth of the Federal Government during the war. In the end, it was fun to have it, no winner or loser ( ), just good debate. But I was left understanding that the Civil War had to happen; there was no way to avoid it.

 

The Civil War, in my very humble opinion, had to happen in order to end slavery in "civilized" countries, or countries beyond the Third World status. America had become the last bastion of slavery. Brought to our shores by Europeans, built to large force of labor and industry and grown into the economic jugernaut by the plantations of the South. Europe then denounced it locally and at the same time continued to buy its product globally. But by this point it was far too ingrained into the cost of goods sold. Removing slavery from America would be removing money, capital and wealth from a large area of land and people. It would never go away easily, would not go without a fight.

 

The Civil War was the war to end slavery; world wide. It just happened in America. It was bigger than just North against the South, slavery existed for thousands of years. This was the culmination of history, an idea and concept of removing the rights of people to gain an economic advantage. History's long lessons and peoples' love of money would not go away without a battle of epic proportions. The South would never just give up their economy. No matter how evil or how inexcusable the act of enslavement and everything that went along with it, giving up economic lively hood is harder than the immoral acts facing the plantation owners.

 

The Civil War happened so that thousands of years of oppression could begin to come to an end.

 

 

 

[dover]

 

April 15th, 2011

 

Time to pay for living in the greatest country in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

and....... a new movie comes out.....

 

 

 

 

and a solution to one of our biggest problems..........

 

 

 

 

[dover]

 

 

I wont get to see it until Wednesday but until then....

 

 

Saw the film today. No story/plotline spoilers below, just thoughts on the production and tangential stuff.

 

The critics are mo-rons. So it doesn't have the production value of a $50-$100 million film. Does a film have to cost that much to be good? I'll take this one over 99% of the stinkers that Hollywood cranks out by the dozen in that budget range. I mean, sure, if they had a few million more in the budget, they could have better depicted the decay and crumbling infrastructure, and made props that looked like they were from 2016 instead of 2006. Though, given that the actual novel doesn't take place in 2016, I rather liked how they kept the tech to a minimum so that it kind of felt a bit retro to when it was written. After the first half hour or so, I don't think I noticed much that suggested the film was done on a shoestring budget.

 

Parts of it felt sort of like a classic film, with some of the dialogue delivered as if it were a stage play. Still, the writers did an admirable job of translating the heavy-handed dialogue of the book to the big screen. Any criticism of the cast is just totally misguided. If you've read the book, you know Rand hits you over the head over and over and over with its message. With a bad cast, there could have been many cringe-worthy and laugh out loud moments for the snickering, snarky set that wanted to hate it from the outset.

 

Fortunately, Taylor Schilling delivers a tour de force performance, making the critics look rather petty. I didn't mind at all that they did this with a cast of mostly unknowns; I felt I was watching Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden, not Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt playing Dagny and Hank.

 

BTW, you know who gets a "Special Thanks" in the credits along with many notable Objectivist/Rand scholars? The late Ronnie James Dio. I wonder what that was all about...

 

I just hope the film enjoys enough commercial success so that we get parts 2 and 3, and preferably with a bigger budget.

[dover]

yesterday in history.....April 18th, 1775.....it all began..

 

 

British troops march out of Boston to confiscate the American arsenal at Concord and to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, known to be hiding at Lexington. As the British departed, Boston Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes set out on horseback to warn Adams and Hancock and rouse the Minutemen.

 

As a result a defense force was mustered and on April 19th, 700 British troops arrived in Lexington to find a 77 man colonial militia waiting for them. Suddenly, the "shot heard around the world" was fired and the American Revolution had begun.

 

from wikipedia:

 

 

The Midnight Ride of Paul RevereOn the night of April 18–19, 1775, just hours before the battles of Lexington and Concord, Revere performed his "Midnight Ride". He and William Dawes were instructed by Dr. Joseph Warren to ride from Boston to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the movements of the British Army, which was beginning a march from Boston to Lexington, ostensibly to arrest Hancock and Adams and seize the weapons stores in Concord.

 

The British army (the King's "regulars") had been stationed in Boston since the ports were closed in the wake of the Boston Tea Party, and was under constant surveillance by Revere and other patriots as word began to spread that they were planning a move. On the night of April 18, 1775, the army began its move across the Charles River toward Lexington, and the Sons of Liberty immediately went into action. At about 11 pm, Revere was sent by Dr. Warren across the Charles River to Charlestown, on the opposite shore, where he could begin a ride to Lexington, while Dawes was sent the long way around, via the Boston Neck and the land route to Lexington.

 

In the days before April 18, Revere had instructed Robert Newman, the sexton of the Old North Church, to send a signal by lantern to alert colonists in Charlestown as to the movements of the troops when the information became known. In what is well known today by the phrase "one if by land, two if by sea", one lantern in the steeple would signal the army's choice of the land route, while two lanterns would signal the route "by water" across the Charles River.This was done to get the message through to Charlestown in the event that both Revere and Dawes were captured. Newman and Captain John Pulling momentarily held two lanterns in the Old North Church as Revere himself set out on his ride, to indicate that the British soldiers were in fact crossing the Charles River that night. Revere rode a horse lent to him by John Larkin, Deacon of the Old North Church.

 

 

Paul Revere's rideRiding through present-day Somerville, Medford, and Arlington, Revere warned patriots along his route - many of whom set out on horseback to deliver warnings of their own. By the end of the night there were probably as many as 40 riders throughout Middlesex County carrying the news of the army's advance. Revere did not shout the famous phrase later attributed to him ("The British are coming!"), largely because the mission depended on secrecy and the countryside was filled with British army patrols; also, most colonial residents at the time considered themselves British as they were all legally British subjects. Revere's warning, according to eyewitness accounts of the ride and Revere's own descriptions, was "The Regulars are coming out."Revere arrived in Lexington around midnight, with Dawes arriving about a half hour later. Samuel Adams and John Hancock were spending the night at the Hancock-Clarke House in Lexington, and they spent a great deal of time discussing plans of action upon receiving the news. Revere and Dawes, meanwhile, decided to ride on toward Concord, where the militia's arsenal was hidden. They were joined by Samuel Prescott, a doctor who happened to be in Lexington "returning from a lady friend's house at the awkward hour of 1 a.m."

 

Revere, Dawes, and Prescott were detained by British troops in Lincoln at a roadblock on the way to Concord. Prescott jumped his horse over a wall and escaped into the woods; Dawes also escaped, though soon after he fell off his horse and did not complete the ride. Revere was detained and questioned and then escorted at gunpoint by three British officers back toward Lexington. As morning broke and they neared Lexington Meeting-house, shots were heard. The British officers became alarmed, confiscated Revere's horse, and rode toward the Meeting-house. Revere was horseless and walked through a cemetery and pastures until he came to Rev. Clarke's house where Hancock and Adams were staying. As the battle on Lexington Green continued, Revere helped John Hancock and his family escape from Lexington with their possessions, including a trunk of Hancock's papers.

 

The warning delivered by the three riders successfully allowed the militia to repel the British troops in Concord, who were harried by guerrilla fire along the road back to Boston. Prescott knew the countryside well even in the dark, and arrived at Concord in time to warn the people there. An interactive map showing the routes taken by Revere, Dawes, and Prescott is available at the Paul Revere House website.

 

 

 

 

 

They even wrote a poem to commenorate.

 

Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year

[dover]

 

Here is trouble; a new path in collecting. I always wanted to collect a run of Barry Windsor Smith Conan's. He is another Bronze age god of pencils. His style is different, simple and has that beauty that BWS seems to be able to put in his efforts.

 

Here is the first of 24, bought on the boards, white page, centered and perfect.

 

[seanfingh]

 

BWS is a master at his craft.

 

And his horses don't look like dogs and vice versa. So he has that going for him, which is nice.

[dover]

BWS is a master at his craft.

 

And his horses don't look like dogs and vice versa. So he has that going for him, which is nice.

 

 

 

We have found Superman's weakness. Perhaps we can forgive him that one slight to his talent.

 

Mr. Smith has a line that is all his own. Where Adams is a master at action and expression, Barry is a subtle stroke of beauty that takes time to get to know and enjoy, and then the power comes through. What first seems simple and easy soon becomes strong and true.

 

To Barry Windsor Smith!

 

[Mr 9.8]

I wish BWS would do CGC Signings again.

[dover]

 

"It shall take a long-term, keenly processed, whole-world paradigm shift in our consciousness to perceive, acknowledge, and accept that all that we see, hear, smell, touch and taste are but five tiny shells on one small dune on the cosmic beach-head of Everywhere Else."

 

- Barry Windsor-Smith

 

 

 

 

Who's Who....

 

 

 

 

Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor Smith

 

 

Four comic book artists/fine illustrator/painters who formed the artists' commune The Studio in a loft in Manhattan's Chelsea district from 1975 to 1979. It included Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith, Jeff Jones, and Bernie Wrightson.

 

By 1979 they had produced enough material to issue an art book under the name The Studio, which was published by Dragon Dreams. The members of The Studio moved on to independent projects and domiciles thereafter.

 

 

 

Can you imagine?

 

 

[Mr 9.8]

True LEGENDS.

[dover]

 

the Studio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor Smith

 

 

 

 

Barry Windsor-Smith, born Barry Smith (born 25 May 1949) is a British comic book illustrator and painter whose best known work has been produced in the United States.

 

His international acclaim came as the original artist for Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian from 1970 to 1973, where he rapidly evolved a sophisticated and intricate style, introducing elements from diverse artistic influences to graphic storytelling.

 

Windsor Smith produced his first published work in 1967-68 - single page "Powerhouse Pinups" of Marvel Comics characters for Terrific and Fantastic comics, titles published by Odhams Press that included licensed Marvel Comics reprints for the UK market. Following this, he flew out to the U.S.A. in summer 1968 to the offices of Marvel Comics with fellow artist Steve Parkhouse. "I sent material first, and based solely upon a pleasant return note from Stan's assistant Linda Fite, my pal and me were at Marvel's doorstep in the blink of an eye." Largely due to his Jack Kirbyesque style, Marvel Comics Editor Roy Thomas gave him the job of drawing both the cover and story of an issue of X-Men, "The Rage of Blastaar" (X-Men #53, February 1969), credited to Barry Smith as he was then known. Without a studio base, and having been evicted from his hotel, he was forced to do much of the work sitting on park benches. Nonetheless, the resulting pages secured Windsor-Smith further work with Marvel, in Daredevil #50-52 (March–May 1969), a western short story, "Half Bree" (probably the story "Outcast" eventually published in Western Gunfighters #4, February 1971), and issue #12 of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (May 1968), both scripted by Steve Parkhouse. Windsor-Smith later called his early art "amateur and klutzy" and a "less than skillful" Kirby imitation, but Stan Lee liked it enough to give him more work[3] However, with his visa having expired and without a work permit, Windsor-Smith was sent home by U.S. Immigration Authorities in December 1968.

 

During his run on Conan the Barbarian, Windsor-Smith was involved in the writing as well. He and writer Roy Thomas adapted a number of R.E. Howard short stories, the aforementioned "The Frost-Giant's Daughter", "Tower of the Elephant", "Rogues in the House", and "Red Nails", the last of which was issued as a very limited, pirated, A3-size black and white version on glossy paper in England in early 1974. As well as the art and story contributions, Windsor-Smith provided the covers for most issues. They also worked on original adventures and characters based on R.E. Howard's characters - most notably the flame-haired warrior-woman, Red Sonja - loosely based on a character from one of Howard's non-Conan stories, who has now become a major comics character in her own right - in "The Song Of Red Sonja" in Conan the Barbarian #24 (March 1973), Windsor-Smith’s last issue of the title. By then he had worked on 21 of the first 24 issues of the series, missing only issues #17 and #18, and #22 (which was a reprint of issue #1), and both he and the title had won a number of awards. Windsor-Smith would later say that the reason he missed those issues was because he had quit the series a number of times as he was dissatisfied with the work and how the comics business worked, rather than the deadline

 

 

http://www.barrywindsor-smith.com/menu.html

 

 

 

[dover]

 

the Studio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor Smith

 

 

 

Bernie "Berni" Wrightson (born October 27, 1948, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.) is an American artist known for his horror illustrations and comic books.

 

He received training in art from reading comics, particularly those of EC, as well as through a correspondence course from the Famous Artists School.

 

In 1966, Wrightson began working for The Baltimore Sun newspaper as an illustrator. The following year, after meeting artist Frank Frazetta at a comic-book convention in New York City, he was inspired to produce his own stories. In 1968, he showed copies of his sequential art to DC Comics editor *spoon* Giordano and was given a freelance assignment. Wrightson began spelling his name "Berni" in his professional work to distinguish himself from an Olympic diver named Bernie Wrightson, but later restored the final E to his name.

 

 

Swamp Thing #1 panel, original ink art by WrightsonHis first professional comic work appeared in House of Mystery #179 in 1968. He continued to work on a variety of mystery and anthology titles for both DC and its principal rival, Marvel Comics. In 1971, with writer Len Wein, Wrightson co-created the muck creature Swamp Thing for DC. He also co-created Destiny, later to become famous in the work of Neil Gaiman. In 1971 he also published BadTime Stories, a horror/science fiction comics anthology featuring his own scripts and artwork, each story being drawn in a different medium (ink wash, tonal pencil drawings, duoshade paper, screen tones, e.g., along with traditional pen-and-ink and brushwork).

 

Wrightson had originally been asked by DC to handle the art for its revival of The Shadow, but he left the project early on when he realized he could not produce the necessary minimum number of pages on time.

 

By 1974. he had left DC to work at Warren Publishing, for whose black-and-white horror-comics magazines he produced a series of original work as well as short story adaptations. As with BadTime Stories, Wrightson experimented with different media in these black-and-white tales: Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" featured intricate pen-and-ink work which stood in direct contrast with his brush-dominated Swamp Thing panels. "Jenifer", scripted by Bruce Jones, was atmospherically rendered with gray markers. "The Pepper Lake Monster" was a synthesis of brush and pen-and-ink, whereas H.P. Lovecraft's "Cool Air" was a foray into duotone paper. "Nightfall" was an exercise in ink wash and a subtle "Little Nemo in Slumberland" satire, and "The Muck Monster" a sequential art precursor to Wrightson's Frankenstein, with the Franklin Booth-inspired pen-and-ink style in evidence.

 

In 1975, Wrightson joined with fellow artists Jeff Jones, Michael Kaluta, and Barry Windsor-Smith to form The Studio, a shared loft in Manhattan where the group would pursue creative products outside the constraints of comic book commercialism. Though he continued to produce sequential art, Wrightson at this time began producing artwork for numerous posters, prints, calendars, and even coloring books. He also drew sporadic comics stories and single illustrations for National Lampoon magazine from 1973 to 1983.

 

Wrightson spent seven years drawing approximately 50 detailed pen-and-ink illustrations to accompany an edition of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein.

 

Wrightson illustrated the comic book adaptation of the film Stephen King-penned horror film Creepshow. This led to several other collaborations with King, including illustrations for the novella "Cycle of the Werewolf", the restored edition of King's apocalyptic horror epic, The Stand, and Wolves of the Calla, the fifth installment of King's Dark Tower series.

 

Wrightson has contributed album covers for a number of bands, including Meat Loaf.

 

The "Captain Sternn" segment of the animated film Heavy Metal is based on a character created by Wrightson.

 

He did production design for the characters the Reavers in the 2005 film Serenity.

 

He resides in Los Angeles with his wife Liz.

 

http://www.wrightsonart.com/

 

[dover]

 

the Studio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor Smith

 

 

 

Michael William Kaluta, sometimes credited as Mike Kaluta or Michael Wm. Kaluta (born August 25, 1947), is an American comic book artist

 

CHis early work included a Flash Gordon story for Charlton Comics and an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Venus novels for DC. Kaluta's influences and style is drawn more from pulp illustrations of the 1930s - his signature motif is elaborate decorative panel designs - rather than the silver age comics of the 1960s. Kaluta has worked rarely with the superhero genre. Associated during that period with Bernie Wrightson and Jeff Jones he also contributed illustrations to Ted White's Fantastic. He is known for his work on the series Starstruck and The Shadow. He co-created Eve, the horror host turned The Sandman supporting character.

 

Because Kaluta's art is so meticulous and time-consuming, his style is not well suited for ongoing comic book work, which generally requires twenty or more pages completed by an artist each month. As a result, when he does accept comic assignments, Kaluta prefers it to be limited series, one-shots, or simply cover illustrations.

 

He was one of the four comic book artists/fine illustrator/painters who formed the artists' commune The Studio in a loft in Manhattan's Chelsea district from 1975 to 1979. His Studio colleagues were Barry Windsor-Smith, Jeff Jones, and Bernie Wrightson.

 

Aside from many comic books and covers he has done a wide variety of book illustrations. Among music fans, Kaluta is known as the artist for the cover of Glenn Danzig's instrumental album Black Aria and for the interior illustration of Danzig's fourth album, the latter of which appeared in 1994-95 as a pendant sold at Danzig concerts, and on Danzig T-shirts and sweaters produced in the same period. Kaluta has also done artwork for role-playing game companies such as White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast.

 

His work has won him a good deal of recognition, including the Shazam Award for Outstanding New Talent in 1971 and the 2003 Spectrum Grandmaster Award.

 

In the early 1990s, he was active in Compuserve's Macintosh Gaming Forum, in the flight simulator enthusiast group which called itself VFA-13 Shadow Riders. He contributed a number of designs for airplane nose art and flight suit unit patches.

 

http://kaluta.com/