Comic Book Creator Links

  The large-format Jack Kirby Collector magazine from TwoMorrows (see below) celebrates the King's work with gorgeous examples of Kirby originals and insightful articles on Jack's long and distinguished career.

There's also a website devoted to Joe Simon, Kirby's one-time partner, and his current projects and properties. He's been in an on-going battle to reclaim the copyrights in his creations, fighting the good fight for exploited creative talent in the comics field.

Dick Ayers, the Golden/Silver age artist, is still active -- lettering, pencilling and inking, even coloring. He's been doing comic books since 1948 -- 52 years and over 45,000 pages. His great career has included drawing Sgt. Fury and the original Ghost Rider, and he inked many of the classic Marvel comics of the '60s. He's still producing at the same drawing table and sitting in the same chair! His pencil, pen and brush are at the ready for great commission work at reasonable prices!

WillEisner.com is the home page for the legendary comic book artist and entrepreneur, Will Eisner, creator of The Spirit. Biographical information, unpublished work and special features can be found on the site.

Another fine site devoted to Will Eisner is Wildwood Cemetery. In addition to their other features, they have a link to a complete index of all the Spirit stories.

Alex Toth was the comic artist's comic artist, and the Tothfans site is devoted to the maestro. (Toth designed most of the classic Hanna-Barbera animated action series, but the range of his work is vastly broader.) Come to the site and view a new comic page each and every day, scanned from classic comics and posted for fans to read and enjoy! 

Joe Kubert's World of Cartooning is somewhat lacking in information on the great comic artist, but it does promote his school (and its correspondence courses) and provides access to hard-to-find comic art supplies available from their mail-order store.

Journeyman artist Sam Glanzman -- mainstay of Charlton comics, DC war artist, and creator of the great USS Stevens graphic novels for Marvel -- has a website, and does commissioned artwork.

Blake Bell's Sites
Canadian fan Blake Bell has set up websites devoted to several great comic artists:

Ditko Looked Up is Blake's site devoted to Steve Ditko's work
The 50's Atlas Cover Gallery features scans of rare Timely/Atlas comics
Golden Age Legends highlights Bill Everett, Alex Schomburg and Syd Shores, and
The Gene Colan Art Gallery celebrates "Gene the Dean."

Mark Crilley's Akiko is one of my favorite comics, a treat for all ages. If you visit his site, you'll find that he's not only an incredible artist, he's the published author of a successful series of Young Peoples' novels from Random House! Akiko rules!

Kerry Callen's Halo and Sprocket is a great all-ages comic about a girl who lives with an angel and a robot. Why? We don't know! But it's so much fun that we don't care! I might be prejudiced -- Kerry used a pin-up I drew in the fourth issue -- but it's got my highest recommendation!

Liberty Meadows by Frank Cho is one of the best modern comic strips, now in comic book form. Cho's work is an accomplished amalgam of some of the best artists that ever set ink to paper, combined with an unfettered and ribald sense of humor. The net result is sort of like Frank Frazetta drawing Bloom County!

Scott McCloud is the man who wrote the book on comics -- literally! His award-winning Understanding Comics has been hailed as the textbook for the comics reader. Before that he was known as the creator of the charming and accomplished comic book, Zot!

Boneville is the home page for Jeff's Smith Bone, one of the most popular and acclaimed comics of the last few years. The site features tons of info, activities and more!

Fred Hembeck is one of the comics industry's premier editorial cartoonists and satirists, and a uniquely talented artist. His work has been prominently published  by both DC and Marvel Comics, and he was once even granted the supreme privelege of destroying the Marvel Universe! His website features tons of his art, fascinating commentary and biographical tidbits, several comprehensive pages of links, and the opportunity to commission him to create custom art and historical recreations at modest prices. I own one of his magnificent Spider-man cover recreations, and had him recreate the cover of Detective Comics #275 just for me!

Co-creator of Captain Carrot Scott Shaw! (the ! is mandatory!) has worked professionally as a writer, cartoonist, animation producer, animation director, art director, comic book creator, storyboard artist, character designer, layout artist, humorous illustrator, package designer, toy and premium designer, lecturer and teacher. His site features professional and biographical information as well as examples of some of his various creative endeavors.  

Charles Vess' Green Man Press displays the artist's delicate, Rackham-influenced drawings and paintings. It's a treat for fantasy and art lovers alike!

EddyNewell.com is the site for comic artist Eddy Newell. Renowned as the artist of DC's Black Lightning, Eddy is an artist with a terrifically subtle and evocative yet powerful style.

Komikwerks is devoted to comics made especially for the Web, and features both well-known creators like Keith Giffen and Ernie Colon (check his excellent "Doodlemovies") and original material by lesser-known new talents.

Pigdogproductions is Bruce Zick's many-faceted webpage. Zick produced Atlas and Terminal Point for Dark Horse, Zone Continuum for Caliber, and even drew Thor for a time. Wait till you see his incredible storyboards for animated Disney features!

The Thimble Theatre Homepage features tons of informative features on E.C. Segar's world, including his classic comic strip featuring Popeye and his supporting cast, the great cartoons that came from Max Fleischer Studios, and Popeye memorabilia and collecting.

RCHarvey.com is the official site of cartoonist and comics historian Robert C. Harvey. It features information on his many books, archives of his opinion columns, and examples of his exemplary cartooning.

Neil Gaiman
NeilGaiman.com was set up by Random House to promote the bestselling novels of the Sandman author. Neil's blog is one of the most popular on the 'Net.

Digital-Priest is writer Chistopher Priest's page, wherein the acclaimed writer of Black Panther and Quantum & Woody discusses whatever comes to hand. It's thought-provoking and enjoyable!

Mark Evanier's POVonline is the place where the Emmy-award-winning comic scripter and one-time assistant to Jack Kirby holds forth on a wide variety of topics, ranging from comics to animation and television to Las Vegas and musical theater. Always interesting, anecdote-filled reading.

Similarly, Tony's Tips is the soapbox for comics writer Tony Isabella to speak his mind. Opinion and comic reviews from the co-creator of Black Lightning (and It, the Living Colossus, but we won't go into that here...).

TwoMorrows publishes several beautifully-produced magazines on comics (in addition to The Jack Kirby Collector, mentioned above), including Alter Ego, a revival of Roy Thomas classic fanzine. They also publish a line of special-interest books and trade paperbacks in the field.

Bill Schelly has made a reputation as the leading chronicler of the history of comic book fandom and fan publications. Books from his Hamster Press imprint have memorialized great comic creators and classic fanzines. I consider Bill a longtime friend -- back in the 1960s I contributed to his fanzine Sense of Wonder!

Comic Book Artists' Resource Links

Ka-Blam is the print-on-demand service I used to produce Scott Stewart's Odd Comics. Like the lady said: affordable, reliable digital printing! Tell them I sent you!

IndyPlanet is Ka-Blam's sister site, where you can order my comic and hundreds of others and have them shipped directly to you. Support independent comics and marvel at the amazing and diverse talents creating comics today!

Larry Dempsey has put together a wonderful site featuring responses to his Comic Book Inking Survey from a host of talented artists, along with other tips and info for anyone interested in the art of comic book inking. It's just chock-full of useful tidbits!

Blambot offers free fonts (and pay fonts) for use in comic book lettering, but they also have several useful tutorials on lettering and other topics related to creating comics. Excellent Links page, too!

BLAM design is Hans Presto's site about lettering, comics, handwriting, vintage pens and calligraphy. Hans is Swedish, but most of the information can be read in English, and his list of comic book lettering links in exceptional!

Friends and Networking

The Comicbook Artists Guild is a network of comic creators with chapters from coast to coast.

Tom Floyd's Captain Spectre is a serialized webcomic by one of the most talented artists I've ever met (and my friend and fellow CAG member, by the way). Captain Spectre truly captures the spirit of pulp adventure and classic radio drama!

JB Winter is an experimental cartoonist from Missouri who has organized jams that bring together diverse cartoon talents to work together on strips featuring Izzy the Mouse. The latest project involves cartoonists from all 50 states!

Josh Cotter is the award-winning creator of Skyscrapers of the Midwest, a fascinating and surreal rumination on growing up on the Great Plains.

The Bugslayer website features a dystopic action adventure drawn by metal music enthusiast and artist Mickmo.

Virtual Infinity Comics is the home of comics creator Mike Sullivan!

General Comic Book Links

Comicartfans.com is the creation of Bill Cox. It hosts the Comicart-l monthly themed Sketchbook, and also hosts Galleries to allow collectors to post their prized comic art. Bill regularly adds interesting new features, convention reports, and interviews with comic creators. This is an A+ site, and a great service!

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit agency designed to protect the legal rights of the comic book community. Worthy of support!

Another worthwhile organization is The Hero Initiative (formerly ACTOR, A Commitment To Our Roots), a non-profit organization dedicated to helping comic book industry veterans. Financial assistance is available for those who need medical assistance, the necessities of life, or help finding work in the industry. Auctions and other activities help fund the program. 

The Grand Comic Book Database is an invaluable resource for the collector, indexing thousands of comic books by title, publisher, creators and more.

The Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999 is the online version of the lifelong project compiled by the late Dr. Jerry Bails, one of the venerable founders of comic book fandom. It's an invaluable resource for information on the men and women who created comic books through the years.

Another great biographical resource is the Lambiek Comiclopedia. Discover your favorite comic artists in the Comiclopedia - a huge compendium of more than 10,000 international comic artists, with biographies and artwork examples.

The covers of most of the comics put out by Marvel in the Silver Age can be seen in the Silver Age Marvel Comics Cover Index. Check out all the comics published in a given month, or sort them by title, artist or theme! This is a great reference tool (compiled by Nick Simon) as well as a treat for the casual visitor. There are also lots of great resources on their Links page!

Monster Blog is a celebration of the Marvel monster comics of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Here you’ll find the pulse-pounding tales of radiation run amok, of scientific experiments gone awry, of shape-shifting, mind-bending aliens from the furthest reaches of outer space! My kind of site!

Ashley Holt's Our Bullets are Useless site is another celebration of pre-hero Marvel monsters, featuring cartoons contributed by lots of interesting artists (and I'm one of them!).

Comicbookresources.com is another good news site, with lots of reviews and features that include Scott McCloud's Zot! Online and (my guilty pleasure) Scott Shaw's "Oddball Comics" -- a weekly dose of some truly wacky stuff that's been published through the years!

Terry Maltos' Dragonberry.com has a fine list of links on all phases of comic art collecting!

Digital Webbing is a great source for finding comic book-related websites. The site includes an extensive links database, comic book news, interviews, previews, and a "talent search" area.

Goldcomics.com features public domain reprints of the seldom-seen MLJ Comics line (where Archie Comics began), featuring heroes like The Shield, Steel Sterling, The Comet, Black Hood and The Hangman.

The Golden Years is another site featuring public-domain reprints of classic old comics. The owner says the site's mission is to bring back the Golden Age of comics through stories, covers and other works, for enjoyment and historical preservation. These old gems are always a treat!

The Harveyville Fun Times is devoted to the Harvey Comics stable of characters -- Casper, Wendy, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, Baby Huey, etc. -- including my personal favorite, the great Warren Kremer's Stumbo the Giant.

The Raving Toy Maniac website grew out of the Usenet newsgroup rec.toys.misc (RTM, see?). It's a great place for news and more on the field of action figures, although there isn't as much comic-oriented product out there as there was a couple years ago...

A shout-out to Trade-A-Tape, the local shop where I buy my comics. Owner Larry Lorenz has one of the deepest stocks of back issues in the Midwest in a clean and attractive store. You can shop online, but you'll be missing out on the amazing painted windows (Golden-Age Batman and Ditko Spider-man cover re-creations) that adorn the storefront.

To find a comic shop near you, use the Comic Shop Locator Service online, or call 1-888-266-4226.

Comedy, Cartoons and Culture

Firesigntheatre.com is the official homepage of the great comedy team. Two of their recent albums garnered Grammy nominations, and much of their work is now back in print, so it's a great time to be a Firehead. Truly, they're "back from the shadows again."

Jerry Beck's Cartoon Brew is a fantastic site for news and nostalgia on the subject of animation and cartoons.

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive's primary focus is on serving creative professionals working within the business and students of the art form who want to acquire the necessary skills to become animators. Noentheless, a fascinating resource on animation, artists and the history of the medium.

The Comics Page on TVParty.com has great special features on Wally Wood, Archie Goodwin, Al Williamson and Alex Toth, in addition to numerous nostalgic pages on great comics. The host site, TVParty.com, is a hoot, too -- kids' shows, sitcoms, even pro wrestling are all fondly remembered.

You name your favorite, there's probably a discussion group on Yahoo devoted to their work. I'm involved in groups for Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Will Eisner, Gene Colan, Dick Ayers, Russ Manning, Sheldon Mayer, and Mark Crilley -- but there are literally hundreds (more likely thousands) more.

Last (and quite possibly least), Seanbaby.com has a page devoted entirely to all the 1-page superhero ads for Hostess Fruit Pies that popped up in comics in the 1970s. You gotta love a website as quirky as this one!

Personal Links

Lincoln Southeast Girls' Basketball
My webpage for the eight-time Nebraska state championship girls' basketball team!