Steve Jobs

"Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice."

--Steve Jobs

Remembering Gene Colan

Unfortunately, I have some sad news to relay today. It's been reported that legendary comics illustrator Gene Colan has passed away.

Mr. Colan is best known for his lush, moody pencils and his work on Daredevil and on one of comics' most memorable runs--the classic 70-issue Marvel title, Tomb of Dracula.

My favorite work of his is probably in Tomb of Dracula, but I have a real soft spot for his and Steve Gerber's incredible Howard the Duck series.

He also had a long stint at DC wherein he worked on--what else?--the Batman books. I'm fortunate enough to own a page from his Detective Comics run, and it's one that I never plan on parting with.
When I got into comics, I was well past the prime output of Colan's work, but I still remember seeing interiors from Tomb of Dracula on an original art dealer's website. I was so taken aback by the creepy, atmospheric art that I went out and bought as many of the collections as I could get my hands on.

I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Colan way back at the first New York Comic Con, and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to say hi, and to thank him for all he's done.

He was so nice, so polite. And even though I only spoke with him a few minutes, I could just tell that he was a nice man. Friendly, happy, and gracious.

After talking with him for a bit, he signed my sketchbook. I was sad to hear the news that he'd passed away, and I'm very glad I was able to say thank you when he was still with us.

Dwayne McDuffie

Incredibly sad news to report, unfortunately.

Comics and animation writer and creator, Dwayne McDuffie,has passed away. McDuffie wrote countless comics, he founded Milestone Media, he created the popular character Static Shock, and he wrote for and produced the beloved Justice League Unlimited cartoon.

Most recently, McDuffie penned the animated adaptation of Grant Morrison's seminal Superman tale, All Star Superman, the DC Comics direct-to-DVD feature that was released in stores today.

On a personal note, McDuffie wrote one of my favorite JLA stories, in an issue dealing with the death of Bruce Wayne. It was touching, and poignant, and to me, the best thing that came out of DC in regards to that particular event.

It's a little odd to use the phrase, "a personal note," simply because I never had the good fortune to meet Mr. McDuffie. But that's the case most times with authors and writers and creators and artists that I look up to and whose work I enjoy.

With regards to that particular JLA story, I've read that issue several times, and each time I've closed the pages and felt the emotional weight of the story. I felt a connection to that story, and so, that story--written far away and without even a thought of my existence in mind--became something special for me.

Thank you for that, Dwayne. Fortunately, we'll always have your stories.

Our thoughts and best wishes go to Mr. McDuffie's family and friends.

A Bit More on Harvey Pekar

Earlier this week, we mentioned the passing of legendary comics writer/illustrator Harvey Pekar. There was plenty of reaction online and in the literary press, and I've made a point to check out many of the remembrances that are out there.

But one sticks out in my mind as being probably the best, and it's from a pretty unexpected place.

I tend to watch a few of the various travel shows on television, and I especially like Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. Bourdain, a decorated chef, basically goes all over the place immersing himself in cultures around the world.

And, even though I missed the episode, Bourdain found himself at one point in Cleveland, with Harvey Pekar and his family as guides. Bourdain took to the Pekars, and was moved enough by Harvey's death that he wrote about it, quite eloquently, on his blog.

You can check out the post right here. It's a great read, and a fitting tribute to the one and only Harvey Pekar.

George M. Steinbrenner III

It was reported this morning that New York Yankees owner and legendary baseball figure George Steinbrenner passed away. Very sad news for the Yankees family, which also lost stadium announcer Bob Shepphard over the weekend.

For as closely tied as Shepphard's voice was to my many Yankee Stadium visits over the years, so too was the presence of George Steinbrenner, the man who built the modern day Yankees empire.

Known simply as The Boss, Steinbrenner's contributions to the Yankees are staggering, and his impact on the game will be felt for decades to come.

Harvey Pekar

Sad news to report this afternoon, as legendary comics creator Harvey Pekar passed away early Monday at his home in Cleveland.

Pekar was best known for his long-running and beloved series, American Splendor, which was eventually adapted into a 2003 film starring Paul Giamatti.

As many, more qualified people than I are saying today, Pekar showed the world that comics didn't have to be about capes and punching all the time. They could be introspective and personal and they could focus on the mundane; the small acts that comprise our lives every day.

There's plenty of reaction online, but this one's the best, so far.

All Blogs Go to Heaven

Every once in a while, we here at Exfanding Your Horizons like to do a "theme week" where we coordinate on the topic or style of our posts. In the past, we've had Gifts for Geeks, going back to The Basics, and an ill-fated Monkey Week that never got off the ground. Without even realizing it, we've picked out this week's somber theme: death.

It all started with Alex's Waiting for Wednesday last week, which touched on the topic of character death in comics. I started thinking up ideas for a post in response to Alex's comments, and the movie trailer I saw before Iron Man 2 prompted me to adjust my post to address character death in relation to the work of J.J. Abrams. That's why I felt really weird when one of my favorite post titles in recent memory, "J.J. Abrams, Please Stop Killing People," came the day before Alex's post about the death of artist Frank Frazetta.

Alex had a bit more to say about Frank Frazetta in his Waiting for Wednesday post the following day, along with news of yet another power outage--in a sense, a different kind of death. I was glad to bring a little cheer to the blog with my review of the Mega Man fan film...except that, too, involves death. It's not a tremendous plot point, but a good deal of the circumstances of the story were shaped by someone's death. Furthermore, Mega Man struggles throughout the film with the fact that he's forced to destroy innocent robots because they've been reprogrammed against their will.

Don't get me wrong--the movie was still a blast. But death inadvertently persists as a theme on this blog. I think it's important to address the topic when it becomes relevant, but I think it's also healthy to be able to let go, or to let someone's passing be a time to celebrate how they've impacted your life, and to not let your joyful spirit perish with the deceased. This isn't a criticism of what we've written; rather, it's an observation of an unexpected trend.

Here's to an uplifting, irreverant weekend.

Frank Frazetta

Sad news to relay this morning. As I'm sure many of you are aware, the foremost fantasy artist of all time, Mr. Frank Frazetta, passed away yesterday at the age of 82.

I'm writing this up quickly on Monday afternoon, and by the time it posts, I'm sure there will be plenty of articles online, but I heard the news here, at Comic Art Fans.

There's also a link on that site to a wide array of Mr. Frazetta's work (displayed by private collectors), and if you have some time, please do give the art a look.

The best links I've come across so far can be found at Newsarama, where artists have written in with thoughts and remembrances of the most iconic and influential fantasy artist of all time, and over at the LA Times, Guillermo del Toro and Neal Adams talk about Frazetta's legacy.

And I hate sticking that "fantasy" tag in front of the man's name, because he is one of the truly iconic artists of all time. Period.

If you know Frazetta's work, then you know why he was so important to so many people. I'll have a bit more on Mr. Frazetta tomorrow.

Sad News

I really hate to follow up yesterday's wonderful photo post (which I have since officially dubbed the Best Blog Thing to happen in our one-plus years of Exfanding) with something that's as sad as what I've got for today.

But that's life, I suppose.

Over the weekend, the comics industry lost one of its all-time greats as editor-artist Dick Giordano passed away at the age of 77. Giordano was a legendary figure in comics history, and served as DC's Executive Editor for 13 years in the 1980s and early 90s.

He worked as a prominent penciller and inker before his time as an editor, and he was known for his good nature and for his role in the changing landscape of comics. Perhaps most significantly, Giordano played a major part in the emerging role of the creator as we know it today.

To clarify, what I mean is the following. Today, fans follow writers and artists, and not just characters. Books gain and lose audiences according to the creative team attached to a certain project, and comics creators enjoy more respect now than did their predecessors. Giordano was an important part of this recognition of creators' talents.

I have two very minor connections to Mr. Giordano, and I'd like to mention them both here. First, I own an original piece of art that was in part produced by the artist. It's from Detective Comics , issue 529, and it was pencilled by Gene Colan and inked by Giordano.And the second connection I have is actually through a friend, but I think it's appropriate to share here. While I attended NYU, I hung around with a bunch of crazy writer friends, and when I graduated, I hung around with a bunch of crazy comics-writer friends.

And one of those crazy comics-writer buddies actually had the opportunity to work on a project with Dick Giordano.

It was an independent thing, and I'm not even sure if it's ever been published (though I have a feeling it was, but on a very small scale), and I didn't see much of the project as it was completed. The pages I did see were just what one would expect from an artist of Giordano's caliber.

But the thing that stuck with me is how my buddy talked about Giordano.

He always told me how nice of a person the artist was, and even though he was working with a then-unpublished writer, Giordano always treated him like he was Denny O'Neil.

I just thought that was pretty cool, and I wanted to share the story.

For anyone who might want to read more about Giordano's life and his impact on comics, there are two links I'd like to point you all towards. The first is from Mark Evanier's always-informative blog. When a comics creator passes away, it seems to fall to Evanier to write about the person. And every time, Evanier does a wonderful job of it.

Here's the link .

And the second link is to Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter site. This one's a bit more in-depth and it's well worth a read.

-- -- -- --

We'll be back tomorrow with another edition of Waiting for Wednesday.

Michael Jackson

I think the fact that I wasn't the biggest Michael Jackson fan in the world makes me eminently qualified to write a post today about the man's impact. I own two Jackson albums--Thriller and Dangerous--just like everyone else in the world, and when I was little I remember pretty vividly going to see him in 3-D at Disney World.

Part of the reason I say I wasn't the biggest fan in the world has to do with simple math. I was just over two months old when Thriller was released. I bought that album years later, but the first album of his I purchased was Dangerous. Thriller sold 25 million copies the year it was put out, and it went on to sell approximately double that in the decades that followed.

The music I love is varied, but John Lennon is a hero of mine, and Led Zeppelin occupies three of the six slots in my car's CD changer. Still, like everyone else, I know the words to a half dozen Michael Jackson songs.

For a kid of the 1990s, as I was, Michael Jackson was the most famous person in the world. I remember news stories would, every so often, have a poll about whose was the most recognizable face on the planet.

Michael Jackson would beat out the sitting American President every time.

He was an uber-celebrity, he was the King of Pop. He was the greatest musical performer generations of people had ever seen, and one could argue that the pantheon is arranged in an order that resembles the following: Elvis, The Beatles, and Michael Jackson. Throw in Dylan and Zep, and I think I'd agree.

He defined the music video and was the first African American to get regular airplay on MTV. Later in his career, Jackson's music videos premiered on basic cable, in prime time.

And now he's gone and once the haze of respect for the recently departed clears, the media will have at him. The tell-all books will be written, the crazies will come out of the woodwork, and he'll be in the news constantly.

And there will be plenty to write about. He was one of the most controversial figures of the past three decades. He was incredibly strange, and aloof, and especially in the last ten years, increasingly creepy.

But last night, the focus was on the music. And I bet the focus will remain on the music for the next couple of weeks. And I hope that when people remember him, that's what they remember. Because he was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before on stage. He was an icon, and he's influenced a generation of artists, and he will influence many generations more.

So here's to the King of Pop.

Have a good weekend, all, and take a moment to play a track from one of Jackson's albums. I know I will.

A Belated Tribute

Way too much geek news goes on every day to even consider reporting it all on this humble little blog, especially given our modest allotment of time in which to write. We tend not to report the super-big news that's being publicized everywhere unless it affects us personally or pertains directly to one of our favorite fandoms, so the only recognition major news often gets on this blog is in the sidebar as the Link of the Week.

That's why we've written about Nintendo's "kind code," layoffs in the publishing industry, and the deaths of Ricardo Montalban and Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, but not the Large Hadron Collider or the next Harry Potter movie or the loss of Bobby Fischer and George Carlin. Just because we don't write about them doesn't mean we don't care; sometimes we feel that other news sources have done a fine job reporting everything, and sometimes we simply can't find anything more profound to say than what others have already said.

Keeping all of that in mind, I'd like to make this post into a belated tribute to two men whom I should have recognized long ago, as I am in their debt for the countless hours of entertainment (and evasion of schoolwork) I have enjoyed, as well as the friendships I have made, as a result of their creation.

These two men are Dungeons & Dragons co-creators Gary Gygax, who passed away in March of 2008, and Dave Arneson, who passed away only a week ago. For D&D, and for helping to shape the direction of over three decades of roleplaying games, thank you, Mr. Gygax and Mr. Arneson. In remembrance and appreciation, I raise my silver chalice with lapis lazuli gems to you.



[Images from www.escapistmagazine.com and anatema.wordpress.com]

More Sad News for Star Trek

I am sorry to report the loss of another member of the Star Trek family.

Ricardo Montalban, who you may know as Khan from Star Trek, Senor Armando from the Planet of the Apes movies, Vincent Ludwig from The Naked Gun, and Mr. Roarke from Fantasy Island, died this morning at the age of 88. No cause of death has been given yet.

I believe the most fitting way a Star Trek fan can mourn his passing is by performing the Klingon Death Ritual, in which you stare into the eyes of the deceased and then shout into the sky. And I think you all know which name to shout:

Forgive the levity. Thank you, Ricardo Montalban. You will be missed.


[Images from www.imdb.de and www.technovelgy.com.]

Sad News for Star Trek

I'm sorry to interrupt Alex's great series of posts this week, but I just found out some very sad news. Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who was widow of Star Trek visionary Gene Roddenberry, Nurse Chapel on the original Star Trek, Deanna Troi's mother Lwaxana on The Next Generation, and the ubiquitous computer voice, has passed away. Reports say that leukemia was the cause, but that she died peacefully in her sleep. She was 76.


I have no doubt that she will be dearly missed by her friends and family for far more than her contributions to the Star Trek franchise. Knowing her only as a Star Trek fan, though, I can merely say that the universe is going to be a lot emptier without her. She had a role in every Trek series and even in some of the video games; no matter how much Star Trek might have changed over the years, in good times and bad times, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry was always there to help tie everything together.

Neither the ship's computer nor the voice behind it ever get enough gratitude for what they do: Thank you.


http://www.roddenberry.com/

Jurassic Park: More proof that mankind can't leave well enough alone

A very notable event has largely passed under the radar this week due to the buzz about the election and our new President, and that event is the death of author Michael Crichton.

Crichton penned a number of famous books, many of which were translated into movies, including The Andromeda Strain, Sphere, Congo, Timeline, and, my all-time favorite movie, Jurassic Park.

Jurassic Park is, in a nutshell, the story of a group of people who visit what is essentially a theme park filled with scientifically engineered but real live dinosaurs that break loose and send the park into chaos.

Jurassic Park was the first PG-13 movie I was ever allowed to see. The special effects were astounding for the time and still hold up amazingly well today. The music, composed by John Williams of Star Wars and Indiana Jones fame, still gets me all emotional. There were spectacular panoramic shots and dinosaurs roaring in surround sound on a big screen that evoked in me an incredible sense of awe, wonder, and--when everything went terribly wrong--horror.

After years and years, the film continues to resonate with me. It puts me back in touch with the dinosaur-loving little kid that dwells within almost all of us. When the tension or adrenaline kick in when the characters are being hunted or chased by dinosaurs on the loose, I feel like I'm right there with them. Even the story concepts and the dialogue provide some great fodder for intellectual and philosophical discussions.

I was hooked then, and I'm hooked now.

Of course, after I first saw the movie, I wanted more. The film established a world that felt so much more huge than what was shown, a park and characters that were so much more complex, that I made it a point to read the book.

It's no coincidence that Jurassic Park is also my all-time favorite book.

The book includes more locations than what the movie showed and adds real depth to all the characters, revealing a level of intrigue that the movie barely scratched the surface of. Characters' flaws, shortcomings, histories, and ethical decisions are magnified and the book becomes far more than just a breathtaking story about dinosaurs eating people.

And, like most books that were turned into movies, things turn out a bit differently.

The characters that appear both in the book and in the movie are essentially the same characters (for the most part), but different aspects of their personalities are emphasized or glossed over in the movie, which I believe affects the way the story is told.

A staple of the Michael Crichton books I've read is that at least half if not almost all of the characters will die by the end of the book in some creative and often-disgusting way, and it's interesting to me that who dies and who survives in the book and the movie are different because of the way the people are characterized.

Crichton was good at giving characters their just desserts. In most cases, anybody who dies knew the risks going in, was relatively insignificant, or gets what they deserve. That's one of the reasons why I can still enjoy the movie as much as the book without complaining about how they changed things around: the things that happen seem to have been changed to suit the characters.

That being said, I was really disappointed when they adapted the book's sequel, The Lost World, to the big screen. I found the book to be a very worthy follow-up to the original and almost as enjoyable, but the film essentially took the basic concept of the book, borrowed one or two of the characters, and went off in a totally different direction that really had nothing to do with anything.

The twist at the end that was not in the book, however, was great, but it made me sad that they all but completely ignored the excellent source material.

Then came Jurassic Park III, which was not based on a book, and which I enjoyed (save for a handful of scenes that just made me shake my head). Rumor has it that there's a Jurassic Park IV in perpetual development, so I'm looking forward to that, should it ever emerge.

Of course, there were a number of spinoff video games, my favorite of which was the Sega Genesis version that allowed you to play as either Dr. Grant, the main character of the first book, or a velociraptor. Ah, platforming goodness, and some pretty catchy music to boot.

As with any other franchise, all sorts of merchandise appeared, like lunchboxes and toy dinosaurs with chunks of "flesh" you can pop out of the dinosaurs' sides to show "battle damage."

Gross.

Cool.

Regardless of what Jurassic Park has become or where it will go, the original book and the original movie will forever be near and dear to my heart. They captured my imagination and introduced me to an author whose work I love, and I am grateful for it.

Go watch Jurassic Park. Then, if you can handle some degree of gore, read the books; you can get both of them in the Jurassic World compilation book.

You'll thank me.

Here's to you, Michael Crichton.