REMINDER: NEO COMICS CON IS TOMORROW!

My next convention appearance will be NEO Comic Con, Sunday, August 19, 10 am to 5 pm at the Soccer Sportsplex,  31515 Lorain, North Olmsted, Ohio. Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for cosplayers with anyone age 13 and under getting free admission.

The convention has an impressive list of comics guests and events. Besides me, that list includes Gary Dumm, Ted Sikora, Marc Sumerak, Darryl Banks, Dan Gorman, Phil Hester, Matt Horak, Angel Medina, Ande Parks, Rock Lozano and more. Some small comics publishers and other artists will also have tables at the convention.

In addition to cosplay and gaming events, NEO has also scheduled an “Ask the Professional” panel featuring Mark Sumerak and me. It’ll happen at 12:30 pm.

You can find me at tables 106-107 in between Darryl Banks and Matt  Horak. My current plan is to bring lots of Isabella-written stuff, such as Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands #1-6; Black Lightning Volume 1 and Volume 2; and July 1963: A Pivotal Month in the Comic-Book Life of Tony Isabella Volume One. I’m also planning to bring Black Lightning and Superman posters; Daredevil and Luke Cage mini-posters; a few DC Comics and Stan Lee collectors boxes; and several boxes of dollar comics.

I will only be signing at my tables and I do charge for signatures. Here’s the price list on that:

Items bought at my table: no charge.

Items not bought from me: one free signature; all others $2 per item.

Photo of me or with me: no charge.

Signature witnessed by representative from grading company: $5 per item.

Having me sign Certificate Of authenticity: $5 per item.

One more NEO note.

Portions from admissions along with individual donations will go to Make-A-Wish Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana Organization. Last year, the convention raised over $3000 for that organizations. With the help of sponsors Halleen KIA and Lakewood’s El Carnicero restaurant, it hopes to do the same or better this time around.

I hope to see you there.

© 2018 Tony Isabella

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR BLOGGY THING!

On this date in 2011, TONY ISABELLA'S BLOGGY THING was launched. If you'd like to celebrate the occasion, please donate to The Hero Initiative.

I'll be back soon with more bloggy things.

Tony Isabella

NEO COMICS CON (August 19)

My next convention appearance will be NEO Comic Con, Sunday, August 19, 10 am to 5 pm at the Soccer Sportsplex,  31515 Lorain, North Olmsted, Ohio. Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for cosplayers with anyone age 13 and under getting free admission.

The convention has an impressive list of comics guests and events. Besides me, that list includes Gary Dumm, Ted Sikora, Marc Sumerak, Darryl Banks, Dan Gorman, Phil Hester, Matt Horak, Angel Medina, Ande Parks, Rock Lozano and more. Some small comics publishers and other artists will also have tables at the convention.

In addition to cosplay and gaming events, NEO has also scheduled a panel. Here’s the skinny on that:

Ask the Professional: 12:30pm (approximately 45 minutes)

Comics industry veterans Tony Isabella (creator of Black Lightning, co-creator of Misty Knight & Tigra) and Marc Sumerak (Marvel Comics Editor, Best Selling Author and Game Imagineer) will bring their 50 plus years of experience to this Q&A Session. This is your chance to quiz the experts regarding the industry, writing techniques or to get their insights on your favorite characters or stories.  Due to NDAs (non-disclosure agreements), there will be questions that I can’t answer and assume the same will be true for my friend Marc.

I’ll have two tables at the convention. My current plan is to bring lots of Isabella-written stuff, such as Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands #1-6; Black Lightning Volume 1 and Volume 2; and July 1963: A Pivotal Month in the Comic-Book Life of Tony Isabella Volume One. I’m also planning to bring Black Lightning and Superman posters; Daredevil and Luke Cage mini-posters; a few DC Comics and Stan Lee collectors boxes; and several boxes of dollar comics.

I will only be signing at my tables and I do charge for signatures. Here’s the price list on that:

Items bought at my table: no charge.

Items not bought from me: one free signature; all others $2 per item.

Photo of me or with me: no charge.

Signature witnessed by representative from grading company: $5 per item.

Having me sign Certificate Of authenticity: $5 per item.

One more NEO note.

Portions from admissions along with individual donations will go to Make-A-Wish Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana Organization. Last year, the convention raised over $3000 for that organizations. With the help of sponsors Halleen KIA and Lakewood’s El Carnicero restaurant, it hopes to do the same or better this time around.

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Last weekend’s Vast Accumulation of Stuff garage sale wasn’t what I’d hoped it would be. Despite pleasant weather, I didn’t get many customers. The final sales total was only 56% of my two-day goal. Disappointing.

My next garage sale will be Friday and Saturday, August 24-25. That will be my final garage sale of 2018. I will have more information about this sale in the near future.

After the NEO Comic Con, my next convention appearance will be the Hall of Heroes Comicon, September 8 and 9, at The Gateway Mile, 410 S Main Street, Elkhart, Indiana. I’ll have more on this before the event. In the meantime, you can check out the Hall of Heroes Museum on Facebook.

As always, if you are a convention or event promoter who wants to have me as a guest at your convention or event, you need to e-mail me for a list of my requirements. Don’t send me invitations at this blog or on Facebook or Twitter. E-mail me.

That’s all for now. I’m working on several review and other bloggy things and will post them as I finish them. See you soon.

© 2018 Tony Isabella

THIS IS A NO-NO!

The very first online communication I received this morning was from a fan who wanted me to read his book and help him turn it into a movie. Because, of course, I have immense power in these things and so much spare time I don't know what to do with it.

Once again, all I owe any fan or reader is putting my very best effort into everything I write. That's it. At this time, I have no role, official or otherwise, in the Black Lightning TV series. I can't buy your script or cast you for a part in the series. I haven't even been asked to visit the set.

Heck, outside of writing an introduction to a collection of my Black Lightning comics from the 1990s, I don't have any DC Comics gigs. Yeah, I know that's crazy. Welcome to the unrelentingly confusing, frustrating and often senseless world of comics.

I'm working on my own projects. Unless you've done me a major solid in the past, I'm not going to take time away from them for your project unless you're paying me to do so.

I love comics. But working in comics is a business. Too often in the past, I have not embraced that notion fully.

I love comics. I love my fans, readers and fellow comics creators. Except, of course, for the bigots and racists and Nazis. I will always give you the best possible work I can give you at the time.

This has been my morning rant.

TONY'S TIPS #270

This week in TONY'S TIPS at Tales of Wonder: Ricanstruction: Reminiscing & Rebuilding Puerto Rico, Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez's amazing comics anthology featuring super-star creators and DC super-hero stars; Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons by Mike Reiss; and My Brother’s Husband Volume One by Gengoroh Tagame!

COMICS COMICS COMICS 8/12/18

Comics Revue is an outstanding comics magazine and one of my own favorites. Edited by Rick Norwood, each bimonthly issues presents  128 pages of classic comics strips. The June 2018 issue [Manuscript Press; $19.95] is one of the best issues yet. From the incredible front cover by Romero, best known for his work on Modesty Blaise, to the hilarious Rick O’Shay Sunday strip by Stan Lynde on the back cover, this was a great issue of the great magazine.

First up was an earlier Mandrake the Magician story by creator Lee Falk and artist Phil Davis. “The Slave Traders of Tygandi” ran from July 20, 1936, to November 28, 1936. This exotic adventure is early in the relationship between Mandrake and Princess Narda. They are smitten with one another, but keeping coy about it. Mandrake comes to her land to help her addicted-to-gambling brother. Mandrake’s description of her is priceless:

Once thinking to protect her brother, she tried to poison me, drown me, knife me and slug me. A very remarkable girl!

In these earliest adventures, it always seemed to me that Mandrake had actual magic powers beyond his hypnosis. I like him best that way and, if I were ever to write him, that’s the tack I’d prefer to take. Hey, King Features, up for a revival?

There’s lots of other great stuff in this issue of Comics Revue. Complete stories of the gently satiric Sig Bagby by R & D Hackney,  Buz Sawyer by Roy Crane, and the Phantom by Falk and Wilson McCoy. Then there are the serials: Flash Gordon from both the 1960s and the 1970s; Casey Ruggles by Warren Tufts, Alley Oop by V.T. Hamlin, Steve Roper, Tarzan, Gasoline Alley, Steve Canyon, Krazy Kat, Rick O’Shay and, from Modesty Blaise creator Peter O’Donnell, the mighty adventurer known as Garth.

Single copies of Comics Revue are $20. One-year subscriptions are only $59. For more information, you can visit the Comics Revue page on Facebook or write Norwood at Manuscript Press, Box 336, Mountain Home, TN 37684.

                                                                              

I have been getting the Scooby-Doo Team-Up trades via my library, which means I get them somewhat out of order. I read and reviewed Scooby-Doo Team-Up Volume 5 [DC Comics; $12.99] a couple weeks back for my “Tony’s Tips” column at Tales of Wonder. You can read that review here.

I just read Scooby-Doo Team-Up Volume 3 [DC Comics; $12.99], which is more DCU-centric than the fifth volume. Written by Sholly Fish with art by Dario Brizuela, this volume collects issues #13-18 of the monthly series with every story featuring characters from all across the DCU.

The Phantom Stranger and Deadman recruit the Scooby and the gang to help find the missing ghosts of the DCU. Included in the spectral victims are Kid Eternity, General Jeb Stuart of the Haunted Tank, The Grim Ghost (formerly known as the Gay Ghost), the Ghost Patrol and even one of my favorites: The Gentleman Ghost.

The remaining stories feature the Flash and a trip to Gorilla City, Aquaman, the Captain Marvel Family, Hawkman and Hawkwoman and - be still my fan heart - the Space Canine Patrol Agents. If, like me,  you know who the SCPA are, you’ll have as much fun with the story as I did. If you don’t know who they are, Google them. I’m not sure you’d believe me if I told you about them.

These are clever and fun comic-book stories. I haven’t seen super-hero comics this clever and this much fun since the long-ago days when E. Nelson Bridwell brought those qualities to Super Friends. Scooby-Doo Team-Up has become one of my favorite modern-day comics title. You should definitely give it a chance.

ISBN 978-1-4012-6801-5

                                                                                  

For several years now, NBM’s ComicsLit imprint has been publishing  an extraordinary series of original graphic novels in collaboration with the Louvre museum in Paris. The graphic novels are crafted by comics artists from around the world, each creating a story based on the museum and its many astonishing collections. Some of these stories are more fantastic than others.

Rohan at the Louvre by Hirohiko Araki [$19.99] is a horror tale by the creator of the bestselling manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The graphic novels begins with Rohan working on a manga, his submission to a competition for young comics creators. He meets a mysterious woman who tells him of a cursed two-hundred-year-old painting that was made using the blackest ink ever known. The painter obtained the ink from a thousand-year-old tree and, for that affront, he was executed by the Emperor. The painting itself is saved by a curator of the Louvre.

A decade later, Rohan is a world-renowned mangaka and vacationing in Paris. He visits the Louvre to see the painting, only to find it is not on display. It is held in the deepest regions of the museum and has never been shown to the public. Because the painting is a mystery unto itself, the museum agrees to let Rohan and employees of the museum, including guards, to descend into the darkness and take a look at the painting. And so begins the horror.

Rohan at the Louvre is scary and stylish fare. Once the bad stuff started happening, I found it impossible to put down this graphic novel. Several days after reading it, I have deliciously unsettling memories of its key moments. Needless to say - because why should I be the only one thinking about that painting - I recommend this graphic novel to any comics reader who likes horror, manga and the unusual. You won’t be disappointed.

ISBN 978-1-56163-615-0

This coming week is an “odds and ends” week for me as I do my best to knock a bunch of tasks off my “to do” list. I’ll be working on a number of bloggy things during these next few days and, as they are completed, posting them here.

My next appearance will be at the NEO Comic Con on Sunday, August 19, at the Soccer Sportsplex, 31515 Lorain Avenue, North Olmsted, Ohio. I’ll post more information on that tomorrow.

Following that, I have a Vast Accumulation of Stuff garage sale on Friday, August 24, and Saturday, August 25. Despite my being listed as a guest for Wizard World Chicago that weekend, the good people at Wizard World and I aren’t able to make that happen. I’m looking forward to working with them in the very near future and will let you know when that happens. If you are going to that Chicago show, I know you’ll have a great time.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2018 Tony Isabella

MY DOLLAR BACK COMIC BOOK AND POP CULTURE GARAGE SALE

My next VAST ACCUMULATION OF STUFF GARAGE SALE is Friday and Saturday, August 10-11, 9 am to 1 pm each day at 840 Damon Drive, Medina, Ohio.

I'm so excited about this weekend's garage sales that I'm besides myself! And, to share the excitement, I'm going to give you back $1 for every $10 you spend at my sales! Mystery boxes! DC, Marvel and Stan Lee collector boxes! Older comic books! Green Books! Kids comics! Black Lightning Volume One and Volume Two! Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands #1-6! Archie comics digests! Commando! Manga! Black Lightning and Superman posters! Daredevil and Luke Cage mini-posters! Collectible phones! Dollar comics! Star Wars! Valiant! Marvel! Batman! Groo! Simpsons! Magazines! Hardcovers! Trade paperbacks! Free signatures on any Isabella-written stuff! The more you buy, the more you save...and the more great stuff I have to excavate from my Vast Accumulation of Stuff for my next garage sales!