Call To The Comic Book Industry

Fellow creators, we can help Gary Friedrich without taking any kind of position in his case with Marvel. Gary is sick, and he’s about to lose his house, and though he will tell you he is not destitute, he needs help.

If I have to do it alone, I will see to it that he gets his mortgage paid, and gets some money in the bank. But I would like to ask you all to help.

Gary is a victim of the deficiencies of two very bad copyright laws, and the history in the comic book industry of poor practices on everybody’s part. There will be battles in the future, and good will come of them. But this is simply just a bad situation. Gary is one of us. And while we can’t save him from Marvel, and his small place in history, we can help him have a place to live, ongoing. And I can only promise you this. If you find yourself in a bad situation, whether for heath or other reasons, I and others, will join to help you. Just as you have helped to support William Messner-Loebs, Dave Cockrum and others.

Steve Niles who we have been working closely with to organize this, has also set up a way to donate money directly to Gary. Please take a moment to read what he has to say and consider donating to this cause: http://www.steveniles.com/gary.html

While I hope that Marvel would step up and help out too, I can understand that they find themselves in such an unfortunate position that they cannot do so. I would like to believe that they would if they could.

It’s up to us. We will get information out to you as best we can. If you have a piece of artwork that we can sell or auction, you can send it to:

Continuity Studios
15 W. 39th St. 9th fl
New York, N.Y.
10018

212 869-4170.

Thanks so much for any help you can offer.

Neal

PS. Offered on Ebay right now to begin to help Gary is the original cover art, by me, to a Captain America variant released earlier this year. A great piece for any collector and it helps a worthy cause. 100% of the auction will go to help Gary

Ebay Auction

Ebay Auction

Some new art I did over the holidays

I did a special Superman drawing for an adviser to a life long friend. I was happy with how it came out, so I decided to do this color version. I like it even better. What do you think?



I never got to do Batgirl as a comic. It's a shame, I think. She's a doll. We put this one up for auction this week.



Here's an inking of a drawing that Jason sold the original pencil of to a fan. I heard that fan had someone else ink it, so I was inspired to do an inked version myself. I really enjoyed it.



So, a mildly muscular Wonder Woman? Personally, I think Adam Hughes does it better... BUT, you know, he seems to be having so much fun doing it. So here's to fun.

Joe Kubert, Moebius and myself on French TV 1972

You have got to see this set of videos! Last century (heh heh) all the comic book artists from all over Europe came to the US, in a kind of International Comic Con, sponsored, on our end, by the Cartoonist's society. (Cause we comic artists had no money.)

The French take their comic books very seriously. They even have TV shows that feature comic books.

They brought their host and crew to New York and interviewed myself, Joe Kubert, and Jean Giraud (Moebius) all together.


Video September 1972

Video October 1972

Thing is, they had this giant pad of paper for all of us to draw on.

Up until now, these two videos have only been seen in Europe, but here it is for you to see.

Yes, I know my hair is silly. And the sideburns... well... it was the style then. 1972. God I looked stupid.

Anyway, for your perusal.

My First Blog

This is my first BLOG. I’ll try not to be too wordy, but there’s a lot to talk about. I’ll do bits and pieces.

1. The “OIL SPILL”.
(Oh, horrors. Not comics,…Sorry, it’s on my mind, for a good reason.)

Oil and water don’t mix. That’s the first thing to remember. So the spill can and will get cleaned up. Unfortunately for LIFE, things are not so good. That stuff that makes your head greasy will mix with oil. That stuff that stops ducks from sinking is OIL. So, we’ll lose a lot of life. Not you,…the duck.

Another fellow and I, are working on a system to help Shrimp Fishermen make back their losses. Some shrimp/other nets are a fine mesh. Drag them through oil pods, and the mesh will let oil and water through, but properly treated, the mesh will clog with oil as the water goes through. When enough oil is collected a second and third boat can siphon off the oil, and sell it back to BP.

Why will they buy it all corrupted like that?

They are responsible.

It’s time, in my opinion, that everyone takes responsibility for our environment. What that means is NOT sit back in frustration thinking, “What can I do? I’m just one, frustrated and helpless individual”.
Write a letter to BP. Maybe they won’t READ it. Maybe they’ll just weigh it, but maybe that’s enough! BE the straw that broke the camel’s back. Become informed. It will put a smile on your heart and BRAIN!

O-KAY! Comics. So Batman gets thrown off the T-REX! No, that was last issue.

Let’s see,….I just finished the preliminary Martial Arts battle between Batman and ………. And witnesses ‘think’ The Batman has won. Only two people know the truth.

Something else that’s NOT KNOWN is that Robin has entered the underworld, against Batman’s direct orders. (Who will pull the safety line now, if it’s needed?) This is not looking good.

Batman’s resolve to never use guns, and never to kill, has been tested and tested, again and again. THIS however, could be bloody and mortal war. Will Batman just walk away? What then of Talia? And Tat? Who? O-kay, it IS 12 issues, and covers a lot. Next blog, I’ll focus on the specific-next-to-be-published book.

MOTION COMICS. Will they ever make money?

NO!

Heh, heh,.. of course they will. COME ON! Take for example, Our/MARVELS X-Men. Joss Whedon’s and John Cassaday’s, “Gifted”. As time goes on, Marvel finds more and more venues for it. First it was the internet in it’s various and sundry. Now, the Video is being packaged with the Graphic Novel. (Which would YOU buy, the Graphic Novel, or the Graphic Novel with the Motion Comic?)

Another company is selling the Graphic Novel as a DVD, with other add-ons. (Vid interview with Joe Quesada and ‘Yours Truly’.)

What’s next?

iPod? Smart Phone? iPad? Laptop? Sure, all of them. Next? Cable sale? Sure. Many cable sales. T.V. special on cartoon network or others? Sure. Disney Channel? Of course.

Isn’t a Motion Comic the same as/ but different than, an animated film, if done well?

Like anything NEW, it has to be chewed and chewed-over until it WORKS. And as with anything, it BEGINS WITH QUALITY! There’s a lot of crappy motion comic “STUFF” out there, but like FILM, we just have to focus on QUALITY. Just like FILM. Poor quality HURTS US. Good quality HELPS us. OR,…Good quality makes money! Duh.