Roger Langridge's Blog, page 284

I'm looking forward to attending in a month or so in lovely Charlotte, North Carolina. They've been wonderful hosts to me for a few years now, and it's always a hugely enjoyable experience. Every year they ask their guests to donate a piece of artwork which they can auction off to defray expenses, so here's my contribution for this year - a recreation of fabulous cover for Thor: The Mighty Avenger #6. Got out my paints and did it all nice. I trust it will find a good home.


Oh, and a little update: it looks like Thor: The Mighty Avenger has been nominated for an American Library Award for Great Graphic Novels for Teens!

Very sad to hear of the passing of Bill Blackbeard recently. If that name doesn't ring any bells with you, Blackbeard was the archivist and historian who, almost single-handedly, saved the old newspaper comic strips of the early 20th Century from crumbling into dust. The vast majority of strip reprint projects from that era have used papers from Blackbeard's collection.

Among the 200 or so books he was involved with, there were a couple that literally changed my life. One was , the chapter of which on E.C. Segar's Thimble Theatre, written by Blackbeard, turned me into a Segar fanatic at the age of 12 and opened my eyes to the greatness of those early strips. The other one is arguably one of the most influential books on comics of all time - - which actually allowed me, and a generation, to see these old strips, and read them, and (to those of us who eventually became cartoonists, which seems to be most of us from what I can make out) to learn from them.

Best of all was his name, though - like a Mickey Mouse villain from a Gottfredson adventure continuity. I feel blessed to grow up in a world where the premier comics historian on the first half of the Twentieth Century was called Bill Blackbeard.

May I draw your attention to a recent interview I did with the blog - quite a decent-sized one as these things go. There's a bit of history plus some ill-conceived ranting! All good fun. Thanks to Brett Williams for the juicy questions.

A few random things to cover this time.

First, and I'm as surprised as anybody about this because I only found out about it by reading about it on the internet, it looks like in some form or other. There you go - now you know as much as I do.

Second, there's an all-new, all-digital, available, including a nice fat piece on Boom! Studios and three, count 'em, three pages of comics by Yours Truly. So that might be worth a look.

Last but not least, I did a bit of logo design a few days ago. I'm quite pleased with it.

This weekend, at long last, the Jim Henson's Storyteller anthology from  was announced - and I'm delighted to report I'm contributing a seven-page story to it, based on a Scandinavian folk tale called "Old Nick and the Pedlar". I've also done an illustration for the cover, which I guess it's okay to reveal here. (This is actually an early version - the published one will have a few differences, as it's bounced back and forth between me, editor Nate Cosby and the Henson company a few times.)

While I've got your attention, I'd like to say a heartfelt thank you to everybody who took the time to look at my recent eBay auctions - especially-specially to the fan in Canada (you know who you are!) who picked up a whopping 25 pieces. The money raised should keep things ticking over until regular funds start coming in again. Very, very grateful to all of you.

Hello, you. Yes, you. That's right - the one with the immaculate good taste and a love of fine comic art and - Oh! It looks like you're visiting... my blog! Could it be that you're looking to buy some examples of hand-crafted comic book art by... moi?

Well, I commend you on your impeccable timing! For for an amazing, one-price-fits-all £35 apiece (that's about $55 US) - truly a bargain! It's all work-for-hire stuff that I can't imagine ever needing again - work from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Bizarro, Doctor Who Magazine, Fin Fang Four, Star Wars Tales, Judge Dredd the Megazine and such like - the kind that connoisseurs like yourself can't keep their hands off. (Oh yes. I've heard all about you.)

For readers in the United Kingdom, perhaps will be more to your taste...?

I thank you.

(Full disclosure: things are a little tight financially right now - I've got work on the desk, but nothing I'm likely to see a cheque from for at least another month or two - and if I manage to shift a couple of these it will make the next few weeks a whole lot easier. Thanks for looking!)

Nice wee interview with Chris Samnee about our Free Comic Book Day Thor/Captain America issue. He says some nice things about working with me, which I'd like to give right back at him with knobs on.