Available in finer comic book stores everywhere, GrimJack: The Manx Cat #1 from John Ostrander, Timothy Truman, John Workman, and Lovern Kindzierski. Only $3.99 for 26 pages of story and art. Remember: the more copies you buy, the sooner we get to work on the next one.
If you didn’t make it to the Comix4Sight benefit auction for John Ostrander, you missed the added incentive of having the lovely Kathy displaying the items up for auction, while dressed in a Zatanna costume.
Luckily for you, Gene Ha was there and recorded the activity as only he could.
And before you ask– no, she’s engaged. And if you try anything, I will be forced to hurt you. (For your own good, you understand– her fiancee would kill you.)
Yes, more art will be up for auction soon.
No, she’s only displaying a few pieces that are still up for auction.
UPDATE: No, even we can’t hire her. She has an exclusive contract with Unshaven Comics, who volunteered their time and effort to help out with the auction.
At various times, we’ve seen pricing for admission to the Comix4Sight Ostrander benefit auction set at $40, $15, and free. So which is it?
The price to enter the room where the auction is happening is $40 with an hour of open bar and food. Zero money goes to Wizard, the admission price covers the cost of the room the hotel charges plus a $5 donation to the Ostrander fund. “The hotel wouldn’t let us do it any other way,” program coordinator Adriane Nash said. “We tried to find a sponsor to underwrite the costs of the room, but couldn’t, and we didn’t want to spend additional money when the point was to raise money.” Apparently, the $15 note on the web site and free price listed in the program book were placeholder items that never got changed until it was too late.
Does that mean if you don’t buy admission to the room, you can’t bid?
Not at all. We will have runners right outside the door taking bids back and forth during the auction, and we’re checking with the hotel to see if they will let people in right after the open bar closes.
In addition, we’re looking into ways to take bids from people who are listening to live streams of the auction at getthepointradio.com.
Items going up for auction will be available for inspection at Booth #1435 on the floor at the Chicago Comic-Con, as well as galleries at Comix4Sight.com, as well as what we’re posting here on ComicMix.
And remember, the auction is Saturday, August 8th, starting at 7:30 Central Daylight Time.
Alan Moore’s artist’s proof of the Randy Bowen sculpted Marvelman/Miracleman statue has been donated to the Comix4Sight.com auction to benefit comics’ legend John Ostrander. The benefit auction will be held Saturday, August 8 at 7:30 PM at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, as part of this year’s annual Chicago Comic-Con.
John Ostrander is a 30-year veteran of the comics field and a playwright facing the possibility of blindness from glaucoma. He is in the midst of a series of difficult operations to protect his remaining eyesight and, like a growing number of Americans, needs to supplement his insurance in order to cover the surgeries.
“With Marvel Comics having announced in San Diego that Marvel has acquired ownership of all rights to the Marvelman/Miracleman character, bringing him back to the public after more than 20 years, and knowing Neil Gaiman’s support for the Comix4Sight efforts for John, we thought that nothing would be more in demand than a high end Marvelman/Miracleman item.” program coordinator Adriane Nash stated. “By good fortune, Ken F. Levin, attorney for Neil Gaiman’s Marvels & Miracles company, is a long-time close friend of John’s. Neil Gaiman has also been most supportive of our efforts. When Ken heard about the auction, Ken spoke to Neil and Alan Moore, and Alan– also a John Ostrander friend– gave the statue to us for John’s benefit with Alan’s blessing.”
The statue is an extremely rare Randy Bowen “Artist’s Proof,” which almost never make their way to the marketplace. As an added bonus, the statue itself has been signed by co-designer Neil Gaiman. Finally, to further identify the statue’s uniqueness, the lucky buyer will also receive a certificate of authenticity from Marvels & Miracles, identifying it as Alan Moore’s own. “We greatly appreciate the support and assistance from Neil, Alan and Ken, particularly right when the Marvel Comics agreement has been announced,” Nash stated. Ken F. Levin has agreed to be on hand to personally auction the piece.
The auction will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, next to the Chicago Comic Con being held at the Rosemont Convention Center. The event is being co-sponsored by Wizard Entertainment, publishers of Wizard Magazine, and is being covered live at getthepointradio.com.
Yes, he’s back from the recycling bin! It’s Cheeks, the Toy Wonder as a newly forged Black Lantern! Now we know why Ambush Bug #6 has been delayed, it had to tie in with Blackest Night…
…okay, maybe not.
Still, the art from Thom Zahler, the big galoot behind Love And Capes, is still important, because it’s helping John Ostrander regain his sight.
At the 2009 Chicago Comicon, Comix4Sight has joined forced with Wizard Entertainment to hold a charity auction the evening of Saturday, August 8th. The goal is to raise sufficient funds to help cover the costs of John Ostrander’s
treatments in his battle against glaucoma, and it is John’s expressed wish that should we raise funds
above his needs, that excess money is to be donated to The Hero Initiative to help them continue their great works aiding comic creators in their times of need.
Artwork is still coming in for the auction, and we’ll be showing you stuff prior to the auction. Don’t forget this Batman/Hawkman piece by Andy and Joe Kubert, Gonzo Davros by Roger Langridge, writer/artist of The Muppet Show comics from BOOM! Studios, and Captain America by Neal Adams. Now we add Zahler’s piece to the auction.
Yes, it’s Doctor Who meets The Muppet Show!
At the 2009 Chicago Comicon, Comix4Sight has joined forced with Wizard Entertainment to hold a charity auction the evening of Saturday, August 8th. The goal is to raise sufficient funds to help cover the costs of John Ostrander’s
treatments in his battle against glaucoma, and it is John’s expressed wish that should we raise funds
above his needs, that excess money is to be donated to The Hero Initiative to help them continue their great works aiding comic creators in their times of need.
Artwork is coming in for the auction, and we’ll be showing you stuff prior to the auction. We already showed you this Batman/Hawkman piece by Andy and Joe Kubert, now we have Gonzo becoming half Dalek, brought to you by Roger Langridge, writer/artist of The Muppet Show comics from BOOM! Studios. Roger did a bunch of other pieces for the auction as well, and we can’t thank him enough.
Now that San Diego is over, we can look ahead ten days or so to the next convention.
At the 2009 Chicago Comicon, Comix4Sight has joined forced with Wizard Entertainment to hold a charity auction the evening of Saturday, August 8th. The goal is to raise sufficient funds to help cover the costs of John Ostrander’s
treatments in his battle against glaucoma, and it is John’s expressed wish that should we raise funds
above his needs, that excess money is to be donated to The Hero Initiative to help them continue their great works aiding comic creators in their times of need.
Artwork has begun to come in for the auction, and we’ll be showing you stuff prior to the auction. We start off with this piece by Andy and Joe Kubert.
As I’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite films is a fine Irish delight called Waking Ned Devine. The closing theme is a lovely version of the Irish tune Parting Glass, an appropriate song to come to mind for many different reasons on this, my final column at ComicMix. The refrain of it reads like this:
So fill to me the parting glass / Good night and joy be with you all.
An appropriate lyric in particular since, last week I was at the funeral of my Aunt Helen who died peacefully at the age of 101. If you’ve read the column regularly, then you might recall the column I wrote when Helen reached her 101st birthday earlier this year. She died peacefully in her own apartment in Chicago, sitting on the sofa, the morning paper beside her. The TV set was still on and she had, by all reports, a peaceful expression on her face.
My family was sorry to see Helen go, of course, but I wouldn’t say her wake was a solemn affair – nor would she have wished it to be. The youngest of the great grand nieces and nephews, ages two or so, played in front of the open casket, turning somersaults and squealing. Helen would have adored that – especially the incongruity of it. As my nephew, Fred Ludwig (who has a fine writer’s voice himself) wrote for part of her obituary, Helen “had a laugh that could fill a room.” I think I heard it there that night.
As I mentioned in that other column, at her 90th or 95th birthday, Helen received many a bottle of bourbon, almost all Seagrams 7. Enough whiskey to stock a liquor store. She laughed as she received each gift and said, “Oh, you know my brand.” She continued to have one highball a day, towards dinnertime, in the tradition of her father, who also lived to be 100. Her stash was found in the apartment – there was plenty left – and brought to the wake in a discreet side room where family and friends could repair to lift a parting glass to Helen without disturbing other wakes also being held at the funeral home. Helen would also have appreciated that – and the toasts.
She left bequests and had her funeral all organized – who was going to do what, what songs were to be sung, what readings at the church – the same church she had attended all her life – and who was to do them. My brother and I were both to do the eulogy. I began my part by “blaming” the Chicago Cubs for her death. Helen was such a Cubs’ fan. For the recessional we all sang “Take Me Out To the Ball Game.”
I was at the FallCon in St. Paul, Minnesota, a few weekends back. Nice little to medium sized Con, the sort I really enjoy these days. You get a chance to talk to the fans and see a few other friends and old pros. I spent some nice time with Pete Tomasi and sat across from Howard Chaykin at a wedding reception/dinner that was held at the Con.
One of the things I did at the Con was teach a writing class. It was comics based, but I felt a lot of it was pertinent to writing in general so this week I’ll share some of the points I made with all of you as well.
What does a writer do? I start every class off with this question. It’s not really a trick question unless you overthink it. The answer is simple: a writer writes. Every day. We don’t just think about writing or talk about writing although, ghods know, we do that as well because it’s a lot easier than actually doing the work, doing the writing. The action defines what you are. If you write, then you’re a writer. If you don’t write, then you’re something else. A dreamer, a procrastinator, a … something, but not a writer. A writer writes.
Many people say they don’t have time but they really want to be a writer. The solution – write. Find a time. It can be as little as five minutes a day to begin with but it needs to be five minutes every day and it should be at the same time and the same place. Why? Because what you want is to get into a habit of writing. It’s not the length of time but the repetition. It’s like learning to throw free throws in basketball; you have to do it a lot until it becomes second nature. At the start, it will be the same for your writing. It’s not going to be the quality of what you write that matters but the number of reps you do. As I said here a few weeks back, you’re going to start by writing crap. Everyone does. You keep writing and, if you have any talent and learn some skill, you’ll improve but only if you keep writing.
Incarnation. This is what all artists do. We take a thought, a feeling, an insight – something that has no physical form and we incarnate it. We give it a physical form. Artists do it with pencil, ink, paint, and sculpture; composers do it with notes. Writers do it with words. The problem with incarnation is that it is always physically imperfect. What you create will never capture exactly what you had in your mind or heart or soul. I know people who have a real problem with that. They’re almost afraid to incarnate the idea because incarnation is messy and imperfect by its very nature. That’s especially true if you create something that has a life of its own. If you do your job as an artist very well, what you create will take you in places you didn’t think you were going. Let it. Just accept that it’s messy. Life is messy.
And every fair from fair sometime declines / By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d
Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
The Superman of today is not the Superman of the Thirties, nor of the Eighties, nor the Superman that will be. At some point the Man of Tomorrow becomes the Man of the Day After Tomorrow. He will evolve and change as he has since his creation. Everything changes, everything evolves. The alternative is death and extinction.
The principal problem (IMO) with the most recent Superman film, Superman Returns, is that director Brian Singer wanted to go back and make the Superman 3 film that he felt should have been made. However, that interpretation of Superman belonged to the era in which the original Christopher Reeve Superman was created. Say what you want about Smallville, it at least re-interpreted Superman as if he had come to Earth recently and was a young man today. Sure, at the start it was a little Superman 90210, but so what? It translated the mythos into something recognizable for our era. In fact, in this its supposedly last season, after losing two of the lead supporting cast members, I think the show has gotten better. It borrows heavily from the comic book mythos that spawned it but has consistently thrown a new spin on that mythos. Superman Returns didn’t.
It’s not just Superman; comics as a medium needs to re-invent itself, to adapt to changing times. I love, honor, and respect the comic book retailers but they are in hard times and its going to get harder. Comics are a niche market and the retailers are part of that niche. There’s x amount of fans buying the books and they have y amount of cash to spend on them. DC and Marvel play the same games from the Eighties with continuity heavy crossovers and attempts to crowd one another off the shelves. None of this grows the market.
One of the things I like about ComicMix and other sites like it is that we are where the eyeballs are, where the future of comics is going to lie – here on the Internet. This is where you can grow the market. It’s cheaper to produce stories on the Internet – no cost for printing or shipping, no distribution or retailer percentages – and you can still package the material for trade paperbacks which is where the real money is in comics anyway. Most of all, it has the potential to reach people who don’t go to comic book stores.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
Stephen Colbert, we have your writer for “The Chronicles of Amber”!
January 20, 2023
The Law Is A Ass #460: Those “For Life” Sentences Are Nonsense
February 24, 2022
