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Here are this week's links to what I've had published recently...

Kleefeld on Comics: On Craft: A Gesture

FreakSugar: Fanthropology: Fans vs Fandom
http://ift.tt/2eDlcNy

Jack Kirby Collector #72: Incidental Iconography

Kleefeld on Comics: On History: Simonson on Dazzler #1
Patreon: MTV Geek Classic: Kleefeld on Webcomics #29: Michael Mayne Interview

Kleefeld on Comics: Weekly Comics Links
http://ift.tt/2gGlVur

FreakSugar: Webcomics Wednesday: Getting Started
http://ift.tt/2wHMMxJ

Kleefeld on Comics: On -isms: Barefoot Gen Review
http://ift.tt/2wL2OHb

Patreon: MTV Geek Classic: Kleefeld on Webcomics #28: The Feedback Loop https://t.co/geK7cq5sNS  

Kleefeld on Comics: On Strips: Krazy Kat Rag
http://ift.tt/2vSIeY8
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the "Krazy Kat Rag" written by Ben Ritchie in 1911.
Obviously, this is a modern recording. This was sold as sheet music back in the day with a George Herriman drawn illustration on the cover!
I recently read the first four volumes of the most recently published version of Barefoot Gen from Last Gasp. Despite being one of the manga canon, I'd never really looked at it before; I'd only ever read the original, abbreviated version of the story in I Saw It! This version, being hundreds of times longer, not surprisingly goes into much greater detail.

The story is mostly an autobiography by Keiji Nakazawa, starting from when he was seven years old in early 1945 and eventually going up through 1953 in volume 10. Beyond just an autobiography, though, Nakazawa lived through America's dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, so the story shows what life was like immediately before and after the city was obliterated.

What's striking to me is the frankness with which Nakazawa relays his story. While it would be easy to make the United States an enemy of almost caricature-ish levels, especially in light of the bomb directly killing his father and two of his siblings, Barefoot Gen is by far not just Japanese propaganda. Indeed, much of the first volume spends a great deal of time criticizing the Japanese government, and many of the problems trying to survive in the aftermath of the atomic bomb are exasperated by their policies beforehand. Certainly, there's no love for the United States here, but they're not the only ones to blame by any means either.

It's this approach that lends credence to Nakazawa's story. As the protagonist, it would be easy to dismiss Nakazawa and his story as obviously biased but given that he doesn't shirk from calling out both sides, he's warranted more authority. Further, by showing his avatar Gen as capable of bad deeds and poor judgement (notably, repeatedly trying to strangle a woman who only very reluctantly gives them shelter) he tempers the other stories of his own altruism.

The primary story, of course, follows Gen and his family. But in Gen's ongoing attempts to keep bringing either money or food to his family, he encounters a number of other people who've also been impacted by the war and/or the bomb. (Indeed, pretty much everyone in Japan was affected in some way.) Virtually everybody is barely scraping by and, accordingly, looking out pretty much only for themselves, frequently at the expense of others. It's a very bleak look at humanity, and Gen is only able to keep any sense of optimism by getting to some of the underlying stories that help explain why so many people are so horrible to one another.

Ultimately, though, Nakazawa's point with the story is that war is hell. Not in a metaphoric sense, war is a literal hell. A skin-falling-off-maggots-eating-you-alive-starving-to-death hell. For pretty much everybody except those in government ordering it. There is absolutely nothing worth destroying so many lives for. Your history textbook will say that the bombing of Hiroshima killed between 70,000-129,000 people. Barefoot Gen tells you that those were real people. Not just numbers. Not just statistics. Real people who endured the worst of humanity because a handful of people in power got into a pissing match. This is the sort of history that more people need to be taught; not just bullshit wrote memorization, but real stories of the real horrors of war. Do yourself a favor and read at least the first two volumes of this amazing work.
When I first started really collecting Fantastic Four stories, I naturally began with their own title. But it wasn't long before I started expanding to other Marvel books where the characters appeared. I somehow learned that they appeared in a couple early issues of Dazzler (probably a footnote in a contemporaneous Fantastic Four after the Human Torch said something about dating her) and since the issues were still fairly recent, they weren't hard to track or expensive to purchase. The FF only appeared in issues #2-5, but I went ahead and got #1 as well.

(Side Note: I must have purchased them mail order from Mile High Comics. They're still in the bags I received them in with the "NM/M" grade sticker they were using at the time. As I think about it, they were the only retailer I've ever seen do that. Huh.)

I got the books, and sat down to read them. I cracked open #1 and was surprised to see Louise Jones' signature on page 1 under the indicia! That was kind of cool, I thought. The first comic I owned that was signed by one of the people who worked on it! Well, I assumed the signature was legit -- if you were going to forge a creator's signature, why would you do it on the inside of the book and why would you choose the editor instead of the writer or artist?

So I dove into the story, and had to stop on page eight. At the bottom of the page was the unmistakable signature of Walt Simonson! The issue was drawn by John Romita Jr. and inked by Alfredo Alcala, so naturally this seemed a bit odd. Especially since I didn't at that time know he and Jones had recently gotten married; I wouldn't have been able to make the connection that he might have been quickly available to help on any art chores.

I think it was probably another 6 or 8 years before the internet was big enough that both Simonson and myself were online, and he might've proven easy to contact. I believe I emailed him about it at the time, and he confirmed that he did help out a bit. I don't still have that email, but in looking through the issue itself, I vaguely recall him saying he basically did some of the work in the sequence of the X-Men in the Danger Room that ran on pages 8-10.

But since I'm going off some fuzzy memories -- and we've still got the internet with us -- I pinged him again to see if he could provide any more clarity...
Kitty Pryde indeed appears on pages 8 and 10 of the issue; she had joined the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #139 about five months before Dazzler #1 came out. As Cyclops had left the team in #138, that's likely who Romita Jr. had drawn in originally.

So there you have it! Despite no comic database online mentioning it anywhere (some do note he supplied art for issue #2, but nothing on #1) you've just read conclusive proof that Walt Simonson provided uncredited artwork for Dazzler #1! Do I get a No-Prize for reporting that?
I recall reading at some point several years ago, someone was asking John Byrne if he had a particular page or panel that he was especially proud of. His response was something along the lines of, "Yes, but nothing you're likely to know/recognize." He went on to explain that while the big splash pages and great heroic shots are cool, the stuff that he tended to be proud of were just random panels in which he drew a hand really well. Or an eye. Or a fold of clothing. The small, subtleties that perfectly capture the nature of humanity he was trying to convey at that moment.

One of the drawing challenges I had as a child (back when I still aspired to becoming a comic book artist) was hands. I had the proportions down well enough, but every time I drew hands, they always looked extremely stiff. Which was fine if I was trying to make a closed fist, but my drawings of open hands looked awkward. But one day, as I was reading Avengers #242, there was a panel that caught my attention...
(Pencil breakdowns by Al Milgrom, finishes by Joe Rubinstein and Brett Breeding.)

Honestly, it's not all that great of an illustration. Especially in isolation like this. But for some reason, Vision's left hand caught my attention.

First, it has a fairly natural feel to it. The fingers are relaxed and posed in a fairly neutral position. It's not drawn like a mitten with dividers between the fingers, much as I had been doing. Each finger is curled in its own manner and maintains its own integrity.

Second, the shadow on the palm and pinkie finger was, to my young mind, a novel -- almost genius -- approach. Of course that part of the hand would be in shadow, but the solid black eliminates the details that A) just confuses the visual at that size, and B) is a hell of a lot easier to draw since you're shortcutting your way out of having to portray those details! (Which probably isn't the best mental approach to drawing, but I was a kid and looking to make better-looking art quickly!)

I did get much better at hands because of that panel. Seeing how the fingers all curled slightly differently from one another proved to be something of a revelation for me, and my hand drawings improved substantially. (Although never good enough to be a regular comic book artist, but that's neither here nor there!) But just from some random panel almost in the background of a superhero story that's probably better remembered as launching the Avengers into the original Secret Wars!
Here are this week's links to what I've had published recently...

Kleefeld on Comics: Happy 100th Birthday, Jack Kirby!

Kleefeld on Comics: On History: When Jacob Kurtzberg Became Jack Kirby
http://ift.tt/2x0rYUx

Patreon: MTV Geek Classic: Kleefeld on Webcomics #26: Let's Eat! 

Kleefeld on Comics: Kirby Links
http://ift.tt/2gr6wl9

FreakSugar: Webcomics Wednesday: Don’t Let Net Neutrality Die!

Kleefeld on Comics: On -isms: Kirby's Black Panther  

Patreon: MTV Geek Classic: Kleefeld on Webcomics #27: Where to Begin 

Kleefeld on Comics: On Strips: Kirby's Sky Masters in Color Redux
http://ift.tt/2epytps