SPECTATORS - Part 128
Plus, a look inside BKV's bathroom…?!
Base.
Ball.
Brian here, and if you’re one of the record-breaking (for Exploding Giraffe, at least) number of new subscribers who joined us after reading last week’s collection of the first 300 pages of Spectators, SURPRISE, you actually signed up for my stupid sports blog!
Strap in for nonstop ill-informed thoughts about the Cleveland Guardians’ batting order, the cartoonish villainy of the New York Yankees and… what’s that? You’re unsubscribing immediately?
Right, understood.
Changing gears then, let’s return to our spectral protagonists Val and Sam, in this latest double-page spread from artist/co-creator Niko Henrichon (letterer Fonografiks will return with some new dialogue next week).
A reminder that Spectators is decidedly NOT SAFE FOR WORK, and because email sometimes condenses Niko’s epic spreads into smaller images (read this filth on a big, bright monitor, if you’re able to do so discretely!), we’re also including those two preceding “graphic matches” from Val and Sam’s memories as full splash pages for your viewing pleasure…
To be continued next week, as our threesome (fivesome?) finally reaches the penthouse.
But briefly transitioning back to the lobby of the El Dorado, we promised to give away this sumptuous page of hand-painted Niko Henrichon artwork to one of you generous paid subscribers in The Tower…
…and our faithless intern Genesis the Exploded Giraffe randomly selected Charlotte C.!
Congrats, Charlotte, and Niko himself will be reaching out for your mailing info soon. Everyone else, check out more Henrichon originals available for purchase over at Essential Sequential, and join our merry band if you’d like to be automatically entered in future giveaways.
A fun-sounding event this week for those of you who happen to be in the Boston area:
Discuss an intriguing book in a relaxed atmosphere at the next meeting of the HUB COMICS BOOK CLHUB! We’ll talk both form and content regarding our pick-of-the-month, Vaughan and Martin’s Doctor Strange: The Oath. And it’s 10% off now ‘til BOOK CLHUB! Readers of all experience levels are welcome!
This is our first super-hero selection, and you need no familiarity with the character of Doctor Strange or the larger Marvel Universe to appreciate this work. You don’t even have to buy a copy from Hub Comics! Admission is free, but bringing a copy is required.
Located in Somerville’s Union Square, Hub Comics is easily accessible using Boston’s public transportation system and can also be reached by car, bike or foot.
And speaking of my dear friend and longtime collaborator Marcos Martín, he just sent me this thrilling update about pay-whatever-the-hell-you-want comics site Panel Syndicate:
UNIVERSE! is Back!
Just as I was about to lose all hope, my old friend and comic genius Albert Monteys sneakily dropped on me the 48 pages of his newest storytelling feat. And I’m choosing my words carefully as you’ll all discover when you finish reading this comic masterpiece. It’s been a long wait as Albert seemed hellbent on taking away my title as slowest artist alive, but unlike myself this time it was definitely worth it!
So let us welcome you to Kepler-36, where life is not easy but order, harmony and well-rounded character arcs prevail. And get ready to find out how to tell a good story and why it’s not a good idea to step on a green hag!
Anyway, I won’t bother you anymore with my idiotic ramblings. Just head up to panelsyndicate.com and help yourself to the best sci fi series in all known and unknown universes, for whatever price you want to pay, including zero!
And remember there’s more UNIVERSE!
I mean, not more new issues (yet!) but all the previous issues that came out a hefty number of years ago. So if you want to refresh your memory be sure to check them all out. We even got a convenient digital trade collecting the first five issues!
Seriously, Albert Monteys is one of the finest cartoonists alive, as you’ll see from his latest unforgettable standalone installment of Universe!
My highest possible recommendation.
A few months back, I asked which “galleries” from my bizarre collection of original comic book art you might want to see before Exploding Giraffe closes its towering doors for good.
Despite my pathetic attempt to tip that poll in favor of “Historic Comic Strips,” you degenerates overwhelmingly selected “Controversial/Problematic Art,” which we took a hard look at back in May:
But today, for this (final?!) edition of…
COME UP AND SEE MY ETCHINGS
…I thought I’d show off some pieces from each of those other categories, including the Alex Ross painting that I’m beyond fortunate to have hanging in my office bathroom.
Which brings us to my Question of the Week: Do you ever read comics on the toilet… or has that habit been replaced by checking social media/something else?
Sorry for such a gross invasion of your privacy, but if you’re willing to answer honestly, Genesis will randomly select a few commenters to receive a signed copy of the latest issue of Saga.
Everyone else, have a winning week (unless you’re a fan of those shithead Yankees), and Niko and I will see you back here next Monday evening for more free Spectators.
Look, I recognize that you probably don’t share my passion for old-timey newspaper comics, but what if I told you that infamous publisher William Randolph Hearst once hired both the greatest crime writer AND the greatest comic artist of the era to create an all-new strip, one that would hopefully overtake the commercial success of Dick Tracy?
That comic was Secret Agent X-9, illustrated by Flash Gordon creator Alex Raymond and written by none other than hard-boiled novelist Dashiell Hammett!
Sure, maybe not their best work, but historically significant, and worth a read, I think.
Next up, Unsung Co-Creators of Superheroes.
Writer William Moulton Marston often got/gets all the credit for creating Wonder Woman (and, just as inaccurately, for creating the first “lie detector”), but recognition is also owed to Art Nouveau-influenced illustrator H.G. Peter.
From HA.com:
Possibly intended for publication in Comic Cavalcade, this top tier of a page seems to have gone unpublished. Being cut into tiers like this suggests that this may be one of the many pages saved by a small group of DC Comics Interns when they were asked to destroy pages in the DC archive shelves to make more room.
Way to go, interns!
Anyway, it’s not just we attention-starved writers who love to hog the spotlight. For too long, artist Bob Kane was given sole credit for creating Batman, when writer Bill Finger (who died poor and unheralded) was at least equally responsible for the Dark Knight.
Here’s a page Finger wrote for 1964’s Detective Comics #328, pencilled by similarly under-appreciated artist Sheldon Moldoff (co-creator of countless Bat-villains and a frequent ghoster for Bob Kane), inked by Joe Giella, lettered by Gaspar Saladino, and edited by Julius Schwartz:
You can read more about Bill Finger in Bill the Boy Wonder, a recent book by Marc Tyler Nobleman and longtime Bat-artist Ty Templeton.
Before we get to the mysterious masterpiece hanging in my bathroom, let’s take a quick tour of your second most requested gallery: Vertigo Art.
Stay tuned to future dispatches to learn how you can own a piece of modern comic history drawn by Y: The Last Man co-creator Pia Guerra, but for now, here’s an incredible gift I received from original Y cover artist JG Jones, his phenomenally phallic painting for our eighth issue:
I’ve already bragged about my cherished Steve Dillon page of Preacher, but check out this haunting piece from maybe my favorite Vertigo title not written by Garth Ennis…