Many people have written eloquently about Howard Cruse in the last week since his death, Andy Mangels, Denis Kitchen and Chip Kidd among others. What I want you to know is something personal about Howie beyond the work and the public life—about friendship, family and love. I lived with my maternal grandparents from the time [...]
Happy 125th Birthday to my grandfather Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, soldier, writer of adventure stories and novels and founder of DC Comics. What does it mean to inherit the legacy of a man who lived a life of adventure and unbelievable creativity all the while maintaining his dignity and grace under fire at various points in [...]
My local comic book store, Escapist Comics on Claremont Avenue in Berkeley, CA is right down the hill from me. It is in an elitist neighborhood of million dollar plus homes not far from the grand old Claremont Hotel. There's a small section of commercial establishments on Claremont including the infamous Star Market where it [...]
Comics, New Orleans and long time friends—Is there anything better than this? I spent the past weekend in New Orleans staying with my childhood boyfriend and his superlative wife whilst attending Wizard World ComicCon New Orleans. CBF and I have been friends for a very long time since our early summer days of swimming, sailing [...]
In the spring everyone starts to ask--"Are you going to Comic Con?" Even if you don’t go, you have to talk about it because it's so important to the industry. A lot of people have a love/hate relationship with San Diego Comic Con. It's a gigantic free wheeling circus of an event but there are always [...]
Although there were a few family members who had grand visions that DC was going to canonize the Major in the recent documentary on the 75 years of DC, Secret Origin, yours truly was not among them. I’m just relieved that DC/WB included him and were nice! Thank you again, Sean and Mac. Major Malcolm [...]
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Well not the worst but Comic Con New York was a trifle more challenging than Comic Con San Diego. We’re not in California anymore Toto. Paging Miz Estrada. Paging Miz Estrada…However it did, in the end, turn out to be fantastic. We all [...]
I left the Gulf Coast in 1968 to attend school in what seemed to be far away Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham-Southern College is a liberal arts school in every sense of the word. It is liberal and it has a strong arts community. We used to call the local John Birch Society for a laugh because [...]
The Setting I’m glad to know that Comic Con is staying in San Diego. Although I’m new to the Comic Con scenario, I have come to love going out to San Diego. There’s just something about California—the sunshine, the palm trees, boats bobbing on the Pacific—the whole postcard setting that makes it so enticing. The [...]
We had a great time on Saturday at Storefront Artist Project in spite of the crazy weather. It was a small but select crowd and Howard Cruse was his usual engaging and generous self to the young fans who were there. I was fascinated by one young man who follows the artists' work more than [...]