Dream Big

When I was a kid, I'd go to bed at night and have a recurring dream. In it, I'd stumble upon a stash of gigantic, over-sized comic books.

I'd loved comics since my Uncle Billy took me to the corner store and gave me a nickel to buy a funny animal title missing half its cover. I soon graduated to DC superheroes and then, gloriously, to the Marvel universe.

In that wonderful dream, I’d spread out a stack of super-sized comics featuring Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and Captain America. I’d devour page after page of extra-large, dynamic comic adventures. What a dream.

I’d always wake disappointed that, as far as I knew, no such thing existed. I’d have to settle for the roughly 7 by 10 inch books that fit comfortably in the variety store spinner racks. 

When I discovered the plus-size DC and Marvel Treasury Editions, published in the 70’s and featuring Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and Thor – just to name a few – I was in heaven. At 100 pages each, these truly were treasures. To be able to see Jack Kirby, John Romita and Steve Ditko pages at nearly the size they were drawn was amazing – and a real eye-opener for someone who liked to draw.

But as good as those Treasury Editions were – and they were great - they couldn’t quite match those magical issues encountered in my dreams. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was the newsprint-like paper stock used at the time, which led to the images of one side of a page bleeding into the other. 

Last week, I happened upon the just-released Archie Treasury Edition from IDW Publishing. I had no idea this was in the works. Wow. The book is 13” by 9¾” and the cover and paper stock are outstanding. The vibrant colors leap off the page. Sixty-four pages of Dan DeCarlo stories originally published from 1957 to 1967. For only $9.99. The quality of this product is among the best I’ve ever seen. This is what I’d dreamed of those years ago.

IDW has published an outstanding series of comic strip reprint books featuring characters like Rip Kirby, Terry and the Pirates, Little Orphan Annie, King Aroo, Dick Tracy, and Archie by Bob Montana. They’ve also put out a series of great hardcovers featuring stories by specific Archie artists, including DeCarlo, Harry Lucey, and Stan Goldberg. The relationship IDW has forged with Archie Comics is resulting in some great stuff for lovers of classic comics. I’ve grabbed them all. But this Treasury Edition is my favorite so far, and I highly recommend it.

As I’ve pored over these newly reprinted tales of Archie, Jughead, and Betty & Veronica, I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to see classic Marvel Comics characters given the same high-quality treatment.

Can you imagine Kirby’s FF in this format? Or Romita’s Spider-Man? IDW has already teamed with Marvel for their Artist's Edition series. Would the two companies consider working together to bring about super-sized, vintage Marvel comics? 

Well, I can always dream.

Randy

You Can't Believe Everything,But You CAN Believe This

We’re thrilled to announce the addition of “Catman” to our website, a short comic about Liz’s childhood belief that the family cat was really a human man. Check it out here!

Liz and Randy

Maine Comics Arts Festival

In May, I had the pleasure of attending the Maine Comic Arts Festival in Portland. This annual event presented by Casablanca Comics offers workshops, live performances and the chance to rub elbows with dozens of comics creators, writers, artists and publishers.

Featured guests this year included Andy Runton (Owly), Lincoln Peirce (Big Nate), Rick Parker (Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid), and Colleen Frakes (Woman King).

This is the third time I've attended the festival and the highlight for me each year has always been the Center for Cartoon Studies table and workshops. CCS, located in the village of White River Junction, Vermont, offers a stellar education to students interested in creating visual stories with an emphasis on self-publishing. The students' work on display at the Maine Festival is inspiring - so many different ideas, styles and genres! I'm always motivated to get back to the drawing table after checking out their latest comics.

In previous years, the festival has featured great panel discussions and hands-on workshops led by cartoonist and CCS teacher Robyn Chapman. This year, I attended the Center's "One-Sheet Workshop," an introduction to the "quick, easy and inexpensive ways to publish your own comics" presented by Caitlin McGurk and Betsey Swardlick.

Participants learned how to create an 8-page minicomic using only one sheet of paper. For someone like me, who painstakingly labors over every panel I draw, producing a minicomic in a matter of minutes was a revelation - and quite liberating! I've created two more since the workshop (and overcome my initial inability to fold the paper correctly). It was a whole lotta fun!

Can't wait to get back to Maine next year,

Randy

"The One-Sheet Workshop" was conducted by Center for Cartoon Studies Librarian Caitlin McGurk and 2011 CCS graduate Betsey Swardlick.

A maximum crowd made some great minicomics!

MoCCA Malt

Randy and I had a great time at MoCCA FEST 2011 in NYC. On the drive, we got lost while trying to flag down a minivan Randy was convinced held Al Jaffee.

We stayed at a Lutheran hostel on the corners of East 15th and Irving Place. Tony, our "concierge," told us our rooms were on the quiet side of the building. That was sarcasm, we later learned.

On the first day at the conference, Randy and I hit the floor, meeting and talking with many of our favorite artists, writers, and over-all interesting people—Denis Kitchen, Caitlin M, and Andrew Cooke, the director of the outstanding documentary Will Eisner, Portrait of a Sequential Artist. We promised Julia Wertz we'd go to her panel and ask some questions other than "What's it like to be a woman working in comics?" but much to our dissapointment had to head home early the next day and missed it. But we were excited Julia signed our copy of Drinking at the Movies.

While Randy and I blew all our cash buying great books, my partner Gretchen (our travel coordinator) scored three tickets to Mamma Mia! at the Winter Gardens. What a show! Much to Randy's delight, and defying all logic, it included his favorite Abba song, "Waterloo"! Later that night, we discovered an Irish pub right next to the hostel. Our waiter, who we nicknamed "Patrick," provided excellent service, but in reality, there wasn't a hint of Ireland in the place.

On Sunday, Randy and I visited a few early panels and picked up the latest offerings from students at Vermont's Center for Cartoon Studies. We had a great talk with Nathan Schreiber, who just put out his second volume of Power Out, and we bought Lucy Knisley's new book, Make Yourself Happy.

Whew! What a busy day! The drive home went without a hitch. My favorite pit stop was a visit to Lucky's old-fashioned diner in Stamford, CT. We got burgers, fries, and malts. (Mine was a mocha--get it? MoCCA malt...)

Liz

MoCCA FEST was held at The Lexington Avenue Armory, a beautiful monster of a building.

Free stuff!

Wall-to-wall comic book creators!

The legendary Jerry Robinson, creator of The Joker (watching over his shoulder)

The "Almost True, Where Autobiography and Fiction Collide" panel (from left): moderator, Calvin Reid; Gabrielle Bell; Joe Ollmann; Pascal Girard; and Leslie Stein

Pascal Girard signing/illustrating Randy's copy of Reunion

The artist in the city (looking good!)

Liz and Gretchen on Broadway! (You may have already seen this photo in People.)

Geronimo!

Greetings to all our friends and foes alike!

We’re sitting here on a Thursday afternoon getting ready to officially launch our website for a comic we’ve been working on under the umbrella title How i Made the World. Randy and I both love comics and always have: Spider-Man, Lee and Kirby’s Fantastic Four, Love and Rockets, Harvey Pekar, Nexus, Alison Bechdel, Julia Wertz, and Lucy Knisley, just to name a few of the comics and creators who’ve influenced us. And now we’re making our own!

Tune in to our blog for updates on the progress of The Monster, the first of our How i Made the World comic tales. Here, we’ll share news and fun musings. Please feel free to write us at howimadetheworld@hotmail.com.

See ya in the funny papers,
Liz Plourde