Happy Easter link bonanza

I always thought it was a bit odd that there was a day set aside, a statutory holiday no less, to celebrate the sidekick of Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon.

But clearly he deserves it.

Some other links around the webs for this lazy Sunday.

Another long and well illustrated look at the S&K romance comics over at the S&K Blog.

Jim Lawson is working on some new PALEO stuff, possibly in colour? There's something to put a smile on your face.

Who wins when King Kong fights Godzilla? Well, if Steve Bissette gets involved, we all do (and in two weeks some lucky New Hampshire moviegoer will win big-time).

And speaking of Lawson and Bissette, the art to their 1980s Turtles vs. Dinosaurs jam cover.

And speaking of dinosaurs...



In the "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" department, I find that I miss the way Johnny Hart would bring the crazy the old time religion to his comic strip B.C. on Easter weekend (surely the most incongruous strip to bring Easter content to, but hey, if you can have cavemen living with dinosaurs, why can't they commemorate the death of someone still millions of years in their future?). Now that Hart is no longer with us, but his ghost strip sails on Flying Dutchman style, we get weak tea like this from his successors (though, to be fair, I wrote this in advance and I see that the new guys did at least try to bring it for the 2009 Easter strip, but the I guess the heart's just not in it, so to speak).

Here are some links to the real deal.

2002 2003 2004
2005 2006 2007

(browse on previous days for those, there's usually something on the Good Friday daily as well, sometimes even something on the Saturday)

Perhaps not too surprisingly, the online archive has a replacement for the the 2001 strip, one of the more controversial ones.

We miss you Johnny, wherever you are. L'shanah haba'ah b'Yerushalayim!

Wait, is that right?

Read old Ditko comics for free.  Read new(ish) Ditko essay for free.  Get new (and some old) Ditko comics and essays by mutually consenting to a fair exchange for your honestly earned $$.

See some unused Jim Aparo Batman.

Wallace Wood does model sheets for Daredevil.

I do love the idea of weblogs devoted to individual classic comic book artists. I'd love to see more of them.

Scott Roberts is still posting bunches of stuff on-line, including some Patty Cake work.

Sunday Comics by Jim Ivey.

Mere months to a new Beanworld book!

A look at THE TWIST, a 1962 Dell comic.

Simpsons on stamps. Reminds me I need to use some of those old Canadian super-hero stamps I have that I found recently.

Alison Bechdel interviewed.

Stellar sales reports from DC and Marvel. Who would have thought we'd reach a day when Marvel and DC could both publish comics that sell under 3000 copies in the direct market?  Does anyone have any sales figures for STREET POET RAY? Has its claim to fame been lost?