Vol. 24, Number 6 – September 1999

Inside This Issue

Club Reports

Will Kone, Jeff Hetzel (Taken from notes by Carmela Merlo)

August 3, 1999 Simpson Comics, Comics about the Simpson’s and some Simpson’s TV shows that deal with Comics. Also we discussed Ithacon 24.

August 17, 1999 Surprise meeting. It’s a surprise, we can’t tell you what it is. You should have come and been surprised.

September 7, 1999 Special Surprise meeting, this was the surprise meeting night. Not the one on August.

September 21, 1999 Pre-Ithacon 24, Come find out how is coming, and what they have done lately and in the past!

September 25, 1999 Ithacon 24, Take a look at the stories on page 2.

October 5, 1999 Post Ithacon 24, Review of the show, and tell us what is new that your reading or something your reading that has suddenly become good!

October 19, 1999 our Halloween night, and fright comics. Bring your scary comics. Bring a friend, bring an enemy, meet new people, and let new people meet you.

Comic Book Club of Ithaca’s e-mail updates.

Her Spiritual Art Gallery and Fantasy Art Gallery is now on line.

Ithacon 24!!!

Coming to the show on Saturday the 24^th of September from 10 am to 5 pm at the women’s community center will include a writer who turned professional at the age of 13.

The Fall Comic Book Convention hosted by the Comic Book Club of Ithaca at the Women’s Community Building, located at the corner of Seneca and Cayuga Streets in downtown Ithaca, New York. Admission is only $2.00, unless you’re a club member who shows up at 9am to help set up, then it’s free. Other wise the show is open to the General public and Private citizens.

If you don’t know if you’re a club member, look at the address label on this mailing, if the date on the bottom has gone by, your membership has lapsed, so stop by the show and renew!

Guests include: Jim Shooter, veteran writer of SUPERMAN, AVENGERS, and the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROS! Roger Stern, writer of IRON MAN, AVENGERS FOREVER and THE INCREDIBLE HULK vs. SUPERMAN! Comic Book artists Randy Elliott, inker for Marvel Comic’s SPIDER-WOMEN, and Ray Kryssing, inker for SPIDER-WOMAN and DC Comic’s JLA:SUPERPOWER! Small-Press writer/artist James Coon! Sports Illustrator Joe Orsak!

Jim Shooter began his long career in comics at the age of 13, when he sold his first story to DC Comics. In the intervening thirty-five years, he has written the adventures of most of America’s most beloved super-heroes, including, Superman, Spider-man, the Hulk, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Magnus Robot Fighter, Daredevil, Solar, Ghost Rider, and the Legion of Super-Heroes. Shooter has created or co-created scores of comic characters and has served as the Editor-in-Chief of four publishers, including Marvel Comics. He is currently writing a new four-issue mini-series –UNITY 2000—for Acclaim Comics.

While Roger Stern hasn’t been in the comics business as long as Shooter, he has written almost as many famous characters. His prose novel, The Death and Life of Superman, was a New York Times bestseller. A resident of the Finger Lakes area, Stern has teamed with renowned Batman Adventures animator Bruce Timm to produce a special issue of THE AVENGERS, and will have samples from that issue on display at ITHACON 24.

The guests will be available to autograph copies of their work, and answer questions about current storylines. In addition, several comic book dealers will be there to buy, sell and trade old and new comics, plus related items such as MAD magazines.

We will need your help come Saturday; the comic Book Club of Ithaca is a non-profit organization; and we run our conventions on a break-even basis. Don’t forget to come to the meetings the first and third Tuesdays of every month from 7:30pm to 9pm, at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center.

This looks like a review of Comic Books!

William Kone

WilliamK@excite.com

Why would you review comic books in general? I mean why not review a specific comic or a trend in the comic Industry?

Simple, I am the guy who is writing this, and until someone else submits something I will do what I want with this section.

We all know what comics are, right? One of the truisms in life is when someone says, "We all know…" We don’t. The dictionary defines comics as "humorous story of artwork, superhero stories." Scott McCloud author of Understanding Comics defines comics as "Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer."

Common usage has comic books as something for kids. While the major publishers are aiming the art and stories at the 14 to 26 age group. Not really kids. And as a 30+ reader of comics for over half my life now, the comics are for kids is getting old.

For a long time I would justify my reading of comics based off the monetary value of my older comics. "I have the first printing of Dark Knight Returns, its worth X amount." Now would I sell it? Not at the time, I needed it to justify buying new comics. Now I have the compellation and got rid of the original issues.

Now I justify my reading of comics on the idea that I enjoy reading them. Now how can someone argue that I don’t really enjoy that? I imply that it is very normal to read comics, and like to point out that comics have many great literary examples. (Where would comics be today with out the techniques of foreshadowing?)

But many people think that because comics have "cartoony" art, it must be for kids. And to be honest the variety of comics are a bit skewed to the Super Hero venue. Where are the romance comics? The Western’s, the Mystery’s? If you want a super powered being, who is going to use those powers to stop some terrible thing, you have a lot of choices.

The other genera of comics are out there, Maison Ikkoku has romance, We are treated from time to time the stories of Johan Hex, Mystery and horror in Grendel and Sandman. These other types of comics are just not "main stream" yet.

So take a look, you might be pleasantly suppressed.