§ Frank Santoro digs deeper into the history of comics coloring with an investigation of Pacific Comics and the grayline coloring system. BTW, if you’ve read comics prior to the advent of cheap scanners, they have some pretty strange and sometimes amazing coloring. This piece will give you some idea of the tortuous and inaccurate processes that were used, and it’s pretty wild.

§ Robot 6 suggests Six comic book action figures that need to be made right now, and we can’t disagree with any of the choices, even if finding space for them would be a pain.

§ We may have to buy this.

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§ Did you know that the well-respected DC/Vertigo editor Joan Hilty is also a syndicated cartoonist?

You lived in San Francisco in the ‘90s and became involved with a lot of publications including “Gay Comix” and “Wimmin’s Comix.” Who were the people who played a major role in your life, both in terms of growing as an artist and working as an editor, but also in more practical terms of living as a cartoonist?

Well, I definitely wasn’t making a living off it. Right after graduation I shopped “Jitterbug Waltz,” a campus paper strip I’d been doing, around to syndicates, and I got some very kind, individualized attention from editors and cartoonists — Jay Kennedy, Lee Salem, Kathryn LeMieux, Cathy Guisewite — but there was no question I wasn’t ready yet. And I started drifting sideways into indie comics, because I was drawn to telling longer stories, and I’d gotten involved with various political and social groups.

§ Craig Fischer looks at the legendary Ditko Hands!

1 COMMENT

  1. Ditko drew ( draws?) hands that are active and involved. I always found them to be”articulate”, in perhaps the best way of saying it, that is, used as another expressive description of the emotion of the character.
    Ditko did use cliche poses from time to time, as every comic artist must. But the hands have been thought about, not drawn as sausages hanging from wrists, or the other cliche: constantly clenched into fists, as some artists will portray them.