the AMERICAN COMIC BOOK a Detroit Perspective...

Yesterday my son Derek and I went to an art gallery in Pontiac to view some local Detroit area "Comic Book" artists. I kind of had false impression that this show may have showcased some of the greats in the comics industry that hailed from Detroit and then went on to move to New York and find work for Marvel and DC. I knew several of these people when they were in their heyday between 1974-1980. Those would include my good friend Mike Nasser (now Netzer), Arvell Jones and his brother Desmond, Kieth Pollard (who did have a page from Iron Man on display, but I do not think that he was actually involved in the show, I believe that Marty Hirchak owned the artwork), Rich Buckler (who was truly a great artist on Fantastic Four, Thor, Deathlok, and many other titles) and to a lesser extent, Greg Theakston and Carl Lundgren (who is mentioned in the advertisement, but I did not see any of his work on display).

Although this was not the case, I enjoyed the show and recommend it to anyone who likes comics and want to see some good artwork.

Although many artists had their work on display I have to admit that some of the work was very amateur in character. About half of the featured artists were of professional quality.

The spotlight was fortunately on local artist Marty Hirchak, who draws an underground comic called Pop Art Funnies. Not only were his original pages for PAF very good, but he did some excellent paintings that were tributes to Spiderman creator Steve Ditko, one of the all time greats of the comics. These pieces were what really shined! One thing that I am a real purist about is staying faithful to the old fashioned way: drawn freehand with a pencil and inking the sketch with india ink and a number 2 brush (no Adobe Photoshop allowed!) and this is one area where Hirchak does not disapoint! His inks are excellent and his color paintings (done on laminated smooth wood) have the feel of the Golden Age era.

Greeting from Myrtle Beach

For those of you who are freezing your asses off...

Merry Christmas

I received this excellent rendering from Michael Netzer in my Inbox this morning and thought I'd share...

Brilliant Disguise

Although I didn't get tagged, Joe the troll, Paula, and O'Tim seemed to have so much fun with this I thought I'd play, too! Also, I'm tagging JimmyB


The rules:
1. Put your music player on Shuffle
2. For each question, press the Next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER WHAT (this is in capital letters, so it is very serious).
BEGIN
1. IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
I'm afraid of Americans (David Bowie)
2. WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
It's five o'clock somewhere (Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffet)
3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Born to run (Bruce Springsteen)
4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Are you gonna go my way (Lenny Kravitz)
5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
Surfer Girl (Beach Boys)
6. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
You can't hide your lyin' eyes (Eagles)
7. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Miserlou (Dick Dale)
8. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
Reach out (Cheap Trick)
9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
You gotta fight for your right (ta party) (Beastie Boys)
10. WHAT IS 2+2?
Let love rule (Lenny Kravitz)
11. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Good Vibrations (Beach Boys)
12. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
In my room (Beach Boys)
13. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Veteran of the Psychick wars (Blue Oyster Cult)
14. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
It ain't over til it's over (Lenny Kravitz)
15. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Take it easy (Eagles)
16. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Sweet home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
17. WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Little duece coup (Beach Boys)
18. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
I belong to you (Lenny Kravitz)
19. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Hotel California (Eagles)
20. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Where I come from (Alan Jackson)
21. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
One Bourbon, on Scotch, one Beer (George Thorogood)
22. WHAT SHOULD YOU POST THIS AS?
Brilliant Disguise (Bruce Springsteen)

New York

Well, it's been a while, but here are some picks from the Big Apple. I went there because an old friend from thirty years ago was going to be there from Israel. He is comics artist Michael Netzer.

This is a shot of Mike sketching Dr. Strange

Having visited with my old pal from back in the day, My son Derek and I then went about seeing some of the sights:

First on the list was Times Square

Here is a shot of the Hard Rock Cafe

The next day we went down to Battery Park and I got this shot of the Statue of Liberty

We then went past ground zero (yes, five years later and there is still a hole in the ground)

McSorley's Old ale house. This place has been here for 153 years. The first time I was in here was 27 years ago. Unfortunately, my son was not allowed in.

Then we stopped by the Empire State Building (no sign of King Kong)

Fire station on 31st Street near our hotel. The heroes of 9/11 relaxing after a call

Yes, all in all it was a great weekend. My son got to see one of my favorite places in the whole world, I got to see a friend that I have not seen since high school, and the best part is that the flight and hotel were paid for by using points accrued while traveling for work.

Breckenridge/Vail

Just got back from the annual Field Service Meeting and took these photos. I also went to the Detroit Zoo and have some photos from there, but I have a special post that I am going to do for that, requiring scanning in some photos from long ago as well as new ones.

This is the view from my balcony at Beaver Run in Breckinridge. Wonderful rainbow after a light afternoon rain. This is a great town and I'd love to live here! I must say though, for a flatlander, 9500 ft above sea level took some getting used to. It's almost twice as high as Denver.

This is one of the ski resorts in Vail, from the road.

We took a Jeep tour up into the mountains in Vail, going up to 12,000 feet.

Looking back down the trail we drove up. We drove through some really hairy stuff, rocky streambeds, deep rivers, etc. That Jeep 4.0L straight six and rugged suspension took a real pounding and didn't flinch! Toledo born, rockies tested, Jimmy!

Base camp above the tree line, looking in the other direction...

" I reached out, and touched the face of God..."

This shot in at the beginning of the trail back down. Breathtaking panoramas.

New photos

It's been quite a while since my last post. Without going into a lot of detail, my life has taken " a thumpin" of late and I really have been a little off track. I'm not out of the woods yet, but it isn't all doom and gloom. I would really appreciate any of you who read this to put in a word with the guy upstairs to get me through the end of the year without anymore drama.








These are our dogs Bert and Chet. Chet is a new addition to the family. He's a little bit of a punk at times, but we've got him behaving himself for the most part.







This is my son, Derek. he "My Prince! My seed!" (he hates it when I say that, which is exactly why I tease him like that). He just came back from Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, which is a music camp over in the Muskegon, MI area. He plays the trumpet.



This is the shell at Blue Lake, where the orchestra gave their final concert after a week of practicing.

More Travels...

This is a picture of Cleveland, Ohio. I took this in April, sometime after the backyard pics. It's from the top of the seven story parking structure of the Cleveland Clinic, where I was doing some repairs that day. I like Cleveland. It's a nice place with friendly people. They really are lucky to have such a cutting edge healthcare facility there.

My wife Chris and I went to Nashville during the last weekend of April. Used up a bunch of flyer mile, hotel and rental car points, so we only had to pay for of food and drinks, and other incidentals. A perk that I love! She participated in the Country Music Marathon (running the half) with an online group that she belongs to called the "Penguin Brigade". They are basically a bunch of later life athletes who didn't get into running until they were older. Most of them are a little older than us, but are a great bunch of folks.

This is from inside Jack's Bar-B-Que in Nashville. Supposedly, this is the very best place in the city for Bar-B-Que. I must have ordered the wrong thing, because I was unimpressed. I have gotten to be quite picky, I suppose, since I've been on the health kick. This was taken from the second floor window. It is a cool sign, and a neat place.

This is a picture of the Hermatige, the estate of Andrew Jackson. Unfortuneatly, I was not allowed to take any photos inside. It had a fascinating wallpaper in the foyer that depicted the portion of the Odessey where Telemachus is searching for his father on the isle of Calipso.

This is the final resting place of Ol' Hickory and his wife, Rachel. On the two crypts the first simply says:

GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON

Born March 15th 1767

Died June 8th 1845

On Rachel's, it says :

HERE LIE THE REMAINS OF

Mrs RACHEL JACKSON

wife of PRESIDENT JACKSON

who died 22nd Decr 1828- Aged 61

Her face was fair, her person pleas-ing; her temper amiable, and her heart kind; she delighted in reliev-ing the wants of her fellow creature and cultivated that divine pleas-ure by the most liberal and unpretending methods; to the benefactor; to the rich an ex-ample;to the wretched a comforter, to the prosperuos an ornament, her piety went hand in hand with her benevolence, and she thanked her creator for being permitted to do good. A being so gentle, and yet so virtuous, slander might wound but could not dishonour; Even death, when he tore her form the armes of her husband, could but transport her to the bosom of her God."

This is a full scale replica of the Parthenon of Athens, and my favorite thing about Nashville, being the Greek history buff that I am. I was crushed to find out that they were closed on Sunday. I was dying to get a good picture of the statue of Pallas Athene, which I saw on my last trip here 4 years ago. At least my wife got to see the outside "sigh".

This is the detail of the Friese above the entrance. You can clearly identify Zeus, Nike, Athena, Hermes, and Hera, off to the right. This really is a spectacular building. I can't believe that they once considered tearing it down!

Nashville from the airplane window. You can see the Cumberland river to the left.

More Backyard pics

I'm putting up a few more pics at the request of Shyue Chou. Tomorrow I'm flying down to Nashville. Next week, It's back to Myrtle Beach, and Lumberton, NC. The following week I'm off to Minneapolis and St. Cloud, MN. Monday I flew into and out of Chicago in the same day. I'm really at it lately! Look for some pics from there, too!

This is the little pontoon boat ! It's 17ft long and has a 14 x 8 foot deck. It's like taking your patio out into the middle of the lake. A great fishing, cigar smoking platform. I'm toying with the idea of getting a Bar-B-Q for it.

This shot is looking across the river at the houses on the other side. That ol' beat up rowboat is fun to take up river northward where the pontoon can't go because you have to go under the bridge of a road. Those cat-tails broke free and I'll get them out of there before they take root.

View looking up from the dock. I made that walkway out of broken concrete that I got for free from somebody who was replacing thier driveway. See! I recycle!

That's my "Thinking rock"...

I think that picnic table is going into the bonfire this year...

Spring

Spring is here early in Detroit. The Redwinged blackbirds are back with their gentle calls, and the songbirds as well. It is quite peaceful here and a great place to recharge after yet another long road trip. Soon, it will be time to put the boat in and get out the windsurfing equipment. Here are some pics from my back yard.

This is the Forsythia by the Back door. It needs a little pruning. That pine tree behind it has died and will need to be cut down. Very sad. The songbirds loved it.

First Croucuses of spring. They don't last long, so you have to see them the first day or two.

Canadaian Geese in the river behind my yard.

Rocky Mountain High

On the road again! A week in Denver for some major TRAINING with my co-workers. We learned the ins and outs of a new database that logs events during bypass cases. Kind of similar to other things that I have worked on in the past while working with databases used in ID badge production. Anyway, had a couple of neat pics to share:

This is from the Worldclub of NWA at Detroit Metro Airport. I love having a membership here. You have a quiet place to wait for your flight, complementary drinks (Coffee is my personal fave in the morning), WI-FI, telephones, the Wall Street Journal, and Hour magazine. It is very civilized.


The Rockies are impressive. Truly breathtaking, especially for a flatlander like me.

No this is not a prank by the University of Michigan! This is the Colo. school of Mines, located in Golden, CO. Right down the street from Coors Brewery. I must say that their beer is much better when drunk near the source.

20th Century Danny Boy: Captain America, R.I.P? I Don't Think So...#links

20th Century Danny Boy: Captain America, R.I.P? I Don't Think So...#links

This Link is to an Australian acquaintance of mine. He has a fine post regarding how this is like the third time that Marvel Comics has killed off Captain America. The other interesting tidbit for you non-comics types is that Frank Castle (AKA the Punisher) will be putting on the red white and blue spandex.

This rubs me the wrong way as the Punisher is a vigilanti who uses guns to kill criminals, mainly Mafia types and drug dealers. He seldom runs across a super villain ala Doctor Doom or the Red Skull (my personal nemesis).



Don't get me wrong. I like the Punisher. He's a great character. I'm just not seeing how a man motivated by the death of his wife and children at the hands of the Mafia to kill criminals in his own personal "war" where he is judge, jury, and executioner will find the moral compass to set aside his old ways and play by the Marquis of Queensbury rules. Do we really want Captain America, the living symbol of liberty to pack heat? I guess the new morality has left me in the dust as there are certain things that just aren't allowed in my universe, and Cap killing bad guys with guns isn't what he is about.

So let's put it to a vote: Should the living legend of WWII be replaced by a gun toting vigilanti? Should we send him over to Iraq to wax some Hajiis? I say HELL NO!

So they think they can kill me off?

What a joke. Kill Captain America. That's like saying the Sun will go out forever. They ain't thru with me yet! Not by a damn sight! It's going to take more than a bunch of pencilnecks at Marvel to finish me off! Anyway, here is a funny cartoon from the Detroit Free Press which sums up my take:

A little levity

This is from Brad, a collegue of mine who handles the Texas area.