This week on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin show, Jeff is joined by Sean Howe, author of Marvel Comics: The Untold Story.
They talk about how Sean Howe managed to research his book, the influence of Stan Lee vs. Jack Kirby, how Marvel Comics became so popular in the 60's and how they are now doing the same with their cinematic universe.
"Maybe the biggest controversy in the history of Marvel is the discussion of whether Stan Lee was the genius or Jack Kirby was the genius, or said in another way: did Stan Lee totally swipe all of Jack Kirby's ideas? I think that is an overstatement, [...]
Since 1954, Brad Anderson’s single panel comic Marmaduke has graced newspapers across the country with the misadventures of the Winslow family’s Great Dane, Marmaduke. Each and every Marmaduke strip boils down to the same joke:
Marmaduke is a large dog that does whatever he wants, much to the chagrin of everyone ever.
That’s the comedic foundation for a strip that has run for over half a century. Everyone responds angrily to Marmaduke’s actions, often with an infuriated variation of “Marmaduke! You’re a dog! Yet you’re acting like a human! But you’re not! You’re a dog!” Regardless of the specifics, the non-Marmaduke characters are always either annoyed or, if they’re lucky, merely curious about [...]
SNL/The Lonely Island's Jorma Taccone has been tapped to direct The Great Unknown, an adaptation of the graphic novel by Duncan Rouleau. It'll be his second time directing a movie, after the underperforming MacGruber. Here's what to expect in terms of the plot: The comic centers on a slacker with delusions of grandeur who believes his so-called great ideas are popping up elsewhere. After failing to convince his friends and family that his mind is being pilfered, he goes on a quest to solve the mystery behind the idea thefts.
The movie will be an action comedy, while the comic is billed as a "lowfi-scifi," which sounds [...]
As the first entry in a neat series in which comic book artist Harvey James draws podcast hosts before and after seeing their faces, he's done a really interesting pair of portraits of Marc Maron. After hearing Maron guest on Comedy Bang Bang, James says he had a picture of "an angry, difficult guy who talked about jerking off and eating snacks" that ended up looking quite different from the real Maron. So weird how vividly what we talk about, and the way we talk about ourselves, colors people's perceptions of us. And of our glasses.
The Perry Bible Fellowship is maybe my all-time favorite comic strip. I am very much biased, as it started as a comic in The Daily Orange when I was a student at Syracuse and I became friends with its creator, Nick Gurewitch, but I will still stand by it forever and ever. I was very sad when Nick retired from making new comics weekly. But hey, look at this! Today he released the first new strip in ages. And if you're not familiar with the PBF, I am very jealous, as now you get to go through the archives with fresh eyes.
