Think of some of the most timeless teams in film and television. Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion. The Beverly Hillbillies. The A-Team. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Golden Girls. Foursomes, all, and when we lose one, we lose the whole. That's how I feel about the recent passing of Harold Ramis.
As Egon Spengler, Ramis portrayed an eccentric genius that could only exist in a world where the dead rise from the grave. He grounded the first wildly successful science fiction comedy with the best sensibilities of both genres, making the Ghostbusters franchise believable to kids of the '80s like me. When my family moved to Phoenix in 1988, and I experienced my first red-skied summer monsoon, I donned my plastic proton pack, looked up at the storm, and proclaimed, "This is it! This is definitely it!"
Twenty-six years later, I'm proclaiming that again at the headlines of Ramis' passing. Sure, three quarters are better than nothing, but in the end they just don't fit the bill, and moving on without the whole just doesn't make sense. You will be missed, Mr. Ramis. Thankfully, your great work has left you a rich afterlife.
#SB1062
Once again, Arizona has made national news for a controversial state bill. Amazing Arizona Comics #1 explores how SB1070 affected superheroic law enforcement (still available for sale in the right column!), so here's a standalone page that may become a bigger story based on how 1062 would affect an Arizona with superheroes. Click here for easier reading.
While living in Phoenix is research enough for my superhero-driven political satire Amazing Arizona Comics, I often take pictures or collect memorabilia in, about, or outside of the city to keep the inspiration coming. Here's a picture of "Mr. Arizona," from an event in downtown Mesa a few years ago. I don't know if that's his real name, but in a shirt like that, what else can you call him?
Cool Cosplay
I get to see a lot of cool cosplay at the cons I attend, and rather than post endless slideshows of fat Batmen, I like to feature one great costume at a time, ideally revealing the wearer's creativity, originality, and most importantly to me practicality. So, since Thor: The Dark World is coming out on DVD this week, here's a pic of the Avenger and me at a sneak preview of his first film a few years ago, at the Tempe Marketplace.
This Week's Intake
I have a lot of reading to do. Dig my haul from the Los Angeles Zine Fest last week!
In the meantime, I'm still nose deep in the old funnybooks. Savage Dragon #193 was at the top of the heap this week. Like my fellow Fin-addicts, I've been anxious for this issue, which officially passes the reigns from Dragon proper to his son, Malcolm Dragon. As "the 1st issue in a bold new direction," I didn't find the issue open enough for new readers. Too many details about Malcolm's life, like even a mention of his half-sister Angel, were excluded in favor of old school adolescent angst and superhero slugfests. In the end, that combo still makes for a great time in the hands of creator Erik Larsen. He had me with two words this issue: the Worm Ring.
Coming Soon . . .
Amazing Arizona Comics Quarterly #1 will drop next month. In the meantime, here's an excerpt from an enclosed essay, titled, "The Initial Spark: The History of Arizona's First Superhero."
When Arizona became a state, President Taft and his administration quickly sought to tap its rich supernatural potential to develop their own mythological superhero. From northern Arizona’s vortexes to border legends of lights in the sky, the military had no shortage of possible power sources within the Grand Canyon State, but their attempts yielded little results. During World War II, the government became desperate, and, among other fringe efforts, they hired several unemployed cartoonists to interpret Native American and Mexican iconography for new ideas. One of those cartoonists had a hidden agenda . . .
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