Tag Archives: comics

Gilbert Hernandez – “How I Got Started In Comics”

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Gilbert Hernandez Discusses the Comics and Artists Who Influenced Him

Love and Rockets Brothers At Skylight Book Shop in Hollywood!

 

DSC_1035 Gil and Marble bookBeloved cartoonist Gilbert Hernandez (LOVE & ROCKETS) launched his new D+Q graphic novel MARBLE SEASON, at Skylight Bookshop in Hollywood to a packed room of his fans and comic readers. Hernandez presented a fascinating slide show “From Funnybooks to Graphic Novels” featuring the comics of his childhood.  In addition, there was a question and answer session with fans and a book signing. (Some signed copies may still be available at Skylight).  The silver age comics he read as a child not only influenced MARBLE SEASON, but also set the course for Gilbert, as well as his brothers Jaime and Mario, to become the legendary comics creators they are today.

Marble Season is his first graphic novel for Drawn & Quarterly

MARBLE SEASON is the first ever semi-autobiographical novel by acclaimed cartoonist 200px-LoveAndRockets31Gilbert Hernandez of Love & Rockets, and is also his first graphic novel for Drawn & Quarterly. Meet Huey. He’s the middle child of a big family, growing up in a California suburb in the 1960s. He stages Captain America plays in the backyard and treasures his older brother’s comic-book collection almost as much as his approval. Set against the golden age of the American dream and the silver age of comics, MARBLE SEASON is a subtle and deft rumination on the redemptive and timeless power of storytelling and world-building in childhood.

“Perhaps no other current creators of comics recognize (or vividly remember) the ways actual kids think, talk, or even stand and walk as accurately as the Hernandez brothers, and no other comics artists so delicately intertwine moments of childhood trauma with the goofy logic that otherwise sustains kids when they begin to sense that they live in an irrational world.”—from the afterword by Corey Creekmur

“Gilbert Hernandez is one of the great craftsmen of modern comics.”—New York Times

Praise for Palomar: “These deeply influential tales, a sort of Archie-comics-meets-Marquez melange of complicated pan-American inter-relationships, are a comix epic.”—Time

Praise for Gilbert Hernandez: “He…[should]…be considered one of the greatest American storytellers. It’s so hard to do funny, tragic, local and epic, and he does all simultaneously, and with great aplomb.”—Junot Diaz, Los Angeles TIMES

Click here to see video on youtube.

Click here to go to Skylight Books to get a signed copy.

Or watch the embedded video below:

 

The Day I Met Stan Lee by Bill Nelson

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The Day I Met Stan Lee

Part 1

by Bill Nelson

All Photos by Bill Nelson

 Yesterday, I went to my first comic con in many many years. It’s really incredible to see how different these conventions have become. Back then, when I was a kid, it was just a combination of chubby teens and geeky looking adults with wish lists, roaming around a room full of dealers, trying to fill out their favorite super hero collections. Also, there would be a few artists peppered among the tables signing their work or doing sketches. I remember once when I was eight years old and I begged my father to take me to meet the legendary artist Jack Kirby. Jack was signing color copies of covers from many of the comics he had drawn over the years. The copies were matted on thick black card stock, which made it really stand out . I think he wanted four or five dollars at the time and I was more than willing to turn over all of my allowance for one of the nifty pieces. But, it was so hard to pick just one because I was such a fan his early work. After many moments of pre-pubescent pondering, I picked my favorite, The Fantastic Four number one.

The comic shin-dig this weekend was called the Comikaze Expo and was held in the Downtown Los Angeles Convention Center. What spurred my interest in attending was learning that Stan Lee, the co-creator of The Fantastic Four as well as many other classic Marvel titles, was going to be making an appearance. After thirty years I still had that autographed memento signed by Kirby, and I thought to myself, wouldn’t it make a nice addition to have Stan’s signature as well.

Man-oh-man, conventions have grown and mutated from a room full of comic book readers & dealers into a new era of Sci-Fi & Horror fandom. The hall was jammed packed with all sorts of vendors selling weird clothing, people gaming and even dudes getting tattoos. There were some TV & Movie celebrities signing autographs including Ernest Borgnine, Tippi Hedrin and the Horror Hostess Elvira.

End of Part 1.

 

-Bill Nelson