A “My Life in Comics” Side Trip I’ve been thinking about my years at the Art institute of Pittsburgh since I wrote the last installment of “My Life in Comics” (which you can read by clicking here). I attended AIP from March 1974 through March 1976. Beyond an Associates Degree in Applied Something-or-Other (I graduated... Continue Reading →
Is there a more quintessential California vehicle than a Volkswagen Van? I guess years ago the ubiquitous "Woody" with a surfboard hanging out the back was THE ride of choice, but those vintage vehicles have become fewer and farther between. In fact, I don't think I've ever actually seen one on the road in my... Continue Reading →
Another big reading month with EIGHT books! Desilu by Coyne Steven Sanders and Tom Gilbert is the story of the studio built by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, the legendary stars of I Love Lucy. It’s a fascinating, warts-and-all tale, approved by Lucie Arnaz, the duo’s daughter. Arnaz is a much ignored pioneer of early... Continue Reading →
I don't know what it is about the sky and clouds here in California, but they both seem bigger. Maybe it's the view, maybe it's that back in both eastern and western Pennsylvania (and the vast forest in between), everything is so tightly packed in that the sky has no room to breathe. I'm always... Continue Reading →
At some point in time, I decided I would become a comic book artist. While I can’t tell you the exact date, I can tell you how that thought came to me. Sometime in 1970, I was reading a comics fanzine called Auction Block. In its second issue, there was a long interview with Al... Continue Reading →
I was walking over to my local grocery store just now and for some reason it made me think of my neighborhood mom & pop stores when I was a kid. We didn’t call them convenience stores then; that came later with the dawn of chains like 7-11 and AM/PM. They were just little stores... Continue Reading →
Number 4 in a series ... collect them all! Time for a new banner image, this time featuring one from my backyard (sorta/kinda): The beautiful Coronado Bridge. This amazing piece of man-made beauty never looks the same way twice ... it shifts and changes with the light, with the clouds, with the tides. I'm constantly... Continue Reading →
My daily routine includes walking at least 2 miles ... most days, it's closer to 3 and at least 3 days a week, it's more like 4-5, when I get 10,000 Fitbit steps in. And most days also include a walk by San Diego Bay with this view of the city, sometimes with kayaks and... Continue Reading →
Above: The Exhibit Hall at the 1972 New York Comic Art Convention at the Statler-Hilton Hotel. The swinging sixties swung forward, and we (my brother and I) kept buying comics. The Marvel Age of Comics moved into hyper-drive, with the team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby at their creative zenith, the return of John... Continue Reading →
Seven books this month! Yes, three are graphic novels, but they count, too, dammit … This retirement thing has hidden benefits! I am well on the way to my 2021 GoodReads goal of 50 books, with 18 so far this year. True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee is Abraham Riesman’s devastating bio... Continue Reading →
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