Lee Falk - Centennary Book Tribute

As I write this entry, today (28 April 2011) marks the centennary of the birth of Lee Falk (born Leon Harrison Gross), known to millions of readers worldwide as the creator of Mandrake the Magician and The Phantom.

To commemorate the occasion, the Scandinavian Chapter of the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorer's Club is currently assembling a tribute book about Lee Falk, which will feature anecdotes from Falk's family and friends, past interviews with Falk, and a collection of writings by the man himself.

If the Scandinavian Chapter's 2010 tribute book about The Phantom (published to coincide with the character's 60th anniversary in Sweden) is anything to go by, this promises to be a handsome and informative volume. The Swedish edition of the Lee Falk volume is scheduled for release in September 2011 (to coincide with the Gothenburg Book Fair), with an English-language version to be released later this year. To receive regular updates on this exciting project, click here.)

Meet Paul Power

Paul Power is an Australian-born artist who, like many aspiring comic artists 'Down Under' who came of age during the 1970s, found greater opportunities to pursue a full-time career as a commercial illustrator in the United States. Paul's name may not be immediately recognisable to present-day Australian comics' fans, but his comic art credentials are impeccable. He succeeded Hart Amos as illustrator on the Sunday newspaper version of Air Hawk and the Flying Doctors comic strip, and was mentored by the famed American comic artist, Alex Toth, whom Paul met whilst working on the animated TV series, Superfriends (Toth was the production supervisor for Hanna-Barbera Productions' Australian studios in the 1970s).

Paul later illustrated the science-fiction comic strip, Professor Om, which was written by Australian comics' fan John Snowden, and appeared in the Sydney newspaper, Sunday (formerly the Sunday Mirror), in late 1977/early 1978, and was subsequently reprinted in the New Zealand comic magazine, Strips. Since the early 1980s, Paul Power has been kept busy as a prolific storyboard artist and production illustrator on a string of Hollywood movies and TV series, as attested by his entry on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). However, Paul has recently returned to his comic book 'roots', with two special projects.

The Adventures of Jon Fury is a newly restored version of Alex Toth's little-seen 1950s US armed forces newspaper strip, 'Jon Fury in Japan', excerpts of which were last seen in Toth's self-published collection, The Art of Alex Toth (1977). Published (and partially inked) by Paul Power, with digital colouring by Matt Webb, The Adventures of Jon Fury presents two complete installments of this unique comic strip, supplemented by an extensively illustrated (and, as it turned out, final) interview with Alex Toth. A special treat are the black & white photos of Alex Toth meeting with the cream of Australian comic artists, including John Dixon, Phil Belbin and Stan Pitt, during his stay in Sydney in 1973.

Paul's next upcoming project can only be described as a true labour of love. East Meets West was first developed by Paul in 1972, and is described as a 'sci-fi western' in the tradition of filmmaker John Ford and adventure cartoonist Milton Caniff. Once again starring Professor Om, this graphic epic now runs in excess of 400 pages! Truly decades in the making, East Meets West will be released on 21 May 2011 and will be sold through Amazon.com and available to comic shops via Diamond Comic Distributors.

Beauty and the Geek - Australian Casting Call

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog to bring you the following important announcement, which we feel may be of interest to self-confessed comic book geeks throughout Australia.

So, you call yourself a geek? Well, now's your chance to put your...er...geekiness to the test. Beauty and the Geek Australia is now calling for all of the geeks of the world to try their hand at the country's ultimate social experiment.

If you're an "academically gifted yet socially awkward geek", Beauty and the Geek may be your one and only chance to find true love!

The producers of the show are looking for 18-30 year-old male geeks, so if you think you fit the bill, head on over to the official Beauty and the Geek casting website. Applications close 20 July 2011.

Aussie Comics Culture in The Melbourne Weekly

Stephen A. Russell's recent article, 'Silver Screen Gold' (The Melbourne Weekly, 6 April 2011), was ostensibly about the box-office appeal of 'comic-book' movies, but it also provided mainstream readers with a timely round-up of Australian comics culture, by throwing the spotlight on various comics-related events, retailers and conventions.

Russell's piece profiled NonCanonical Comic Book Podcast, an online forum presented by Melbourne comics' impresarios, Larry Boxshall and Joe Morris; the Melbourne leg of the Supanova Pop Culture Expo may have ended last weekend, but the next event is scheduled for 17-19 June (Olympic park, Sydney); and Steve McCredie, longtime manager of Melbourne's Minotaur Entertainment, one of Australia's oldest specialty comic shops, was also interviewed for the story.

However, Boxshall made the valid - and somewhat depressing - point that, while millions of people may have shelled out money to see The Dark Knight movie, '[these] same people who watch that film have absolutely no intention of ever reading a Batman comic'. Perhaps it was more than just coincidental that the cover story for this same issue of The Melbourne Weekly considered the perilous future of Melbourne's independent bookstores, thrown into sharp relief by the recent widespread closure of Borders and Angus & Robertson bookstores throughout Australia.