Lots of beautiful art this week here at the Playhouse Comics Club, so let’s GET TO IT! (Our opening image this week is a detail from Untitled, a 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat.)

 

Welcome to the playful world of Hovergirls, a webcomic written and drawn by GDB (Geneva Bowers). The Hovergirls in question are Jalissa, a no-nonsense realist, and Kim, Jalissa’s cousin and exact opposite, a fancy-girl dreamer—and together they’re a superhero team protecting the city of Los Aguaceros from giant flying aquatic menaces. But can they balance world-protection with their jobs as baristas at Big Chain Coffee? Read and find out—and also visit Bowers’ website for more lush visuals.

 

Dave Kellett’s Sheldon is a venerable all-ages webcomic—running since 2001!—but it remains charming and funny despite its venerability. (Yes, “venerability” is a word!) Nearly twenty years of cartoons might seem intimidating to read, but Kellett has a handy guide to Sheldon’s characters available, so you can easily begin with newer comics and then work your way back through the archive. (The strip above is from July 9, 2005.) Kellett’s site also includes his Comiclab podcast—all about making comics!—and such extras as a video of Kellett’s process as he draws a Sheldon strip and an FAQ for would-be cartoonists.

 

Nepotism Department: If you’re a parent looking for a top-notch site that reviews children’s and YA graphic novels, I recommend Charles Hatfield’s KinderComics. Charles is a friend and collaborator of mine, so I’m certainly biased, but his deep knowledge of comics culture and aesthetics shines through his well-written essays. Judge for yourself: check out Charles’ recent reviews of Katie O’Neill’s The Tea Dragon Festival (we’ve profiled O’Neill previously here at the Club), Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, and two books in D.C.’s graphic novel series for younger readers, Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru and The Oracle Code by Marieke Nijkamp and Manuel Preitano.

 

Over on the Comicosity website, comics scholar Frederick Luis Aldama interviews Danish graphic novelist Søren Mosdal about Mosdal’s art for a comic-book biography of famous American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. (This is Mosdal’s third comics bio, after his volumes on Hank Williams and Erik the Red.) Aldama’s Comicosity column “Anatomy of a Panel” is well worth your time, as he interviews creators like Alex Sanchez, David F. Walker, and Jaime Hernandez about their newest projects. And Basquiat? Explosively talented and gone too soon: visit his legacy website for a chronology of his life, a scholarly essay about five key Basquiat paintings, and more. And courtesy of The Comics Beat and NeoText, here’s a copiously illustrated piece about how Basquiat was influenced by superhero comics.

 

In 1966, it was easy to pity John Romita. At Marvel Comics, Steve Ditko, the co-creator and artist of Spider-Man, quit the company, and Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee asked Romita to draw the Amazing Spider-Man comic book. Romita was the perfect romance comics cartoonist—he excelled at pretty girls and body language that expressed heightened states of emotion—but at Marvel he initially struggled with the fight choreography and dynamic page layouts typical of superhero stories. Yet a funny thing happened when Romita took over Spider-Man: the title adapted to his strengths, and became more “romantic,” a teen comedy/melodrama that proved irresistible to young readers. On the Syfy Channel website, a “Behind the Panel” video charts Romita’s career on Spider-Man, his roles as Marvel’s Art Director in the 1970s and 1980s, and the success of his cartoonist son John Romita Jr. (And check out the other “Behind the Panel” posts to find more essays, videos and podcasts about comics history.)

Below is cartoon art by John Romita Sr.

This weekly blog post is written and compiled by Craig Fischer. To send along recommendations, ideas, and comments, contact Craig at [email protected] [.]

Playhouse Comics Club, Issue #15 (August 7, 2020)Playhouse Comics Club, Issue #17 (August 21, 2020)
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