#lambiek was here

[personnage-neutre]

[ducklooney]

Unfortunately, bad news for all comic book fans, the genius artist for Disney comics, Maximino Tortajada Aguilar, passed away last week. He is from Spain and is the brother of the equally brilliant artist José Miguel Tortajada Aguilar who is also an artist working for Disney and Egmont editing Disney comics. While José Miguel worked more on Mickey Mouse comics, Maximino Tortajada Aguilar worked more on Donald Duck comics combining various styles depending on the publisher and given outcomes. He was born on 24-X-1961 in Barcelona, ​​and he started his career back in 1980 and continued his career until this year. He also drew on the OG Ducktales comics, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, Talespin and other Disney cartoons that made it into the comics, as he also drew for Egmont drawing for Dutch and Scandinavian comics. He is certainly one of my favorite artists and it is a great shame that he left us on August 20th of this year. Unfortunately, there is not much information about him, except on the Lambiek encyclopedia, and I learned about his death on the Inducks Discord from a friend of mine as well as here: https://www.tebeosfera.com/autores/tortajada_aguilar_maximino.html

lso bad news for all fans of Disney (Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck) comics. Yesterday, the genius artist for Disney comics, who did commission art, Sergio Asteriti, died. He was born on February 13, 1930 in Venice, and began his career in 1952. "Sergio Asteriti was born in Venice, and studied at the Scuola di Magistero d'Arte, section Publicity. In 1952, he moved to Milan, where he was employed by the advertising agency S.P.I.N.T.A. The agency folded two years later, and Asteriti turned to comics. He made his comics debut with the 'Bingo Bongo' series at the publishing house Alpe in 1955. He soon expanded his activities and did illustration work for various publishers and magazines. Asteriti joined the art studios of Roy d'Ami in the late 1950s. There, he drew for the British Fleetway agency ('Fun in Toyland', 'Freddie Frog', etc.) and for Il Corriere dei Piccoli, where he took over the 'Formichino' series from Roberto Sgrilli.

Asteriti has been an artist of Disney comics for Topolino since 1963. From 1974, he also took on the writing of Disney stories. He has mainly done stories with 'Mickey Mouse', but also other characters, such as 'Uncle Scrooge', 'Super Goof', 'Gilbert', 'Tanti Auguri', 'The Prince and the Pauper', 'Indiana Pips'." Taken from the Lambiek encyclopedia. He certainly contributed a lot to the Mickey Mouse universe. He died on August 27, 2024. Kudos to him for his truly outstanding work! Rest in peace! Amen.

[burpenterprisejournal]

KUTLUL #9 1/2  RELEASE PARTY

2019/10/08 KUTLUL Release Party O Tannenbaum Berlin - DE

The Fall is setting in,,, no more sunshine and playing outside,,, it's very good to know there will be a new issue of KUTLUL, to help you through those long, rainy days inside Tuesday, 8 October 2019 h: 20:00 O Tannenbaum Hermannstrasse 232 KUTLUL is an underground comix magazine published by Dirk Verschure & Joost Halbertsma between Rotterdam and Berlin

KUTLUL #9 1/2 Release Party

With a lot of pride we will present the new love baby born out of an orgy with the following great artists:

Karla Paloma, Crippa Almqvist, Fufu Frauenwahl, Mykle Hansen, Ewan Cameron, Vanita Monk, Peter Vianen, Al Burian, Lukas Weidinger, Wommel, Martien Bos, Mat Pogo, Tessa Biemans, Trazo Podrino, Vera Bekema, Daniele Murtas, Marcel Ruijters, Vincent Zurwesten, Argibald, Andy Leuenberger, Marc Kolle, Oleg Orsolya and Dirk Verschure & Joost Halbertsma

so please be very welcome , drink some beers, read some funny-books, have some laughs and be nice and dry inside!

and if you’re not in Berlin Kutlul will be also presented here

Wednesday October 2nd

8 pm

De Riddert

mauritsweg 28 / Rotterdam

in addition to great beers and the best barkeeper,  there is an exhibition of the drawings and comix of our all dear Peter Vianen on show. so reasons enough to come by!

https://www.facebook.com/events/395681061328080/

Friday October 4th

5 pm

Lambiek

koningsstraat 27 / Amsterdam

Friday afternoon beers in the best funny-book store on this planet

https://www.facebook.com/events/425832414790770/

fb event

[thecomicsnexus]

The Blue Beetle

BLUE BEETLE #1 DECEMBER 1939 BY WILL EISNER?, CHARLES NICHOLAS WOJTKOWSKI?

SYNOPSIS (FROM DC FANDOM)

A pharmacist named Doctor Franz provides rookie police officer Dan Garret with a special vitamin and bulletproof costume so that he can fight crime as the Blue Beetle.

Police Officer Dan Garret dives to the sidewalk as a speeding sedan goes by pumping machine gun ammunition sporadically and shoves a man out onto the city street. Ignoring his wound, Garret checks on the man who turns out to be banker Mr. Vander, who along with his daughter and secretary, were recently kidnapped. Vanders' last words turns out to be his informing Garret that his kidnappers were the White Face Gang. Garret learns that the sedan that Vander was pushed from, has been found and he investigates the car, to discover that the identification number has been filed off. Garret uses a chemical that reveals the number on the vehicle and he learns that the vehicle is owned by a garage owner, Mike Ravani. Garret makes his way to a drug store, owned by his friend Abe, to change into his guise as the Blue Beetle. In another part of the city, Vander's daughter is being tortured for the combination of her father's bank vault. One of the thugs is shocked to see a blue beetle emblem on the desk and they quickly discover that the Blue Beetle has crashed their little party. The Beetle tells the gang that he has the combination to the vault so they don't have to torture the girl anymore. The telephone rings and one of the thugs speaks to an unknown person. Beetle gives them the combination and the thug informs everyone that that is the same combo that he had just received from someone on the phone. They gang heads for the bank and given a brief moment alone, The Blue Beetle calls the police station on a wireless telephone that he invented, to let them know that the Blue Beetle, apparently a wanted criminal to the police, would be at Vander's bank at midnight. When the Beetle and the White Face gang arrive at the bank they are all gathered up by the waiting policemen, except for the Blue Beetle, who uses a smoke screen to make his escape. It is revealed that John Brandes, Mr. Vander's secretary, was actually the leader of the conspirators. Later, Dan speaks to Abe, who apparently knows of Garret's dual-identity, and he thanks him for making that call to the thugs that reiterated the same vault combination, thus making them more likely to trust the Beetle and lead to their capture.

As loan shark crime increases, Dan Garret goes undercover and borrows money from a loan shark. When his loan comes due, two of the loan shark's collectors come to accost him, but he beats both of them up and leaves a blue beetle with them so that they know who is on to them. The try to quit the racket, but the leader reminds them that he has their signed confessions that could lead them to the electric chair. At that moment, the Blue Beetle bursts through the window and beats all of them and leaves them tied up outside Police headquarters with each man's confession.

CONTEXT

The original Blue Beetle, Dan Garret, first appeared in Fox Comics' Mystery Men Comics #1 (cover-dated August 1939), with art by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski (as Charles Nicholas); A rookie police officer, he wore a special bulletproof costume and took "Vitamin 2X" which endowed him with super-energy, and he was assisted by a neighborhood pharmacist in his fight against crime. Blue Beetle starred in a comic book series, comic strip and radio serial, but like most Golden Age superheroes, he fell into obscurity in the 1950s. The comic book series saw a number of anomalies in publication: 19 issues, #12 through #30, were published through Holyoke Publishing; no issue #43 was published; publication frequency varied throughout the run; and there were gaps where issues were not published, with large ones occurring in early 1947 and between mid-1948 and early 1950.

In the mid-1950s, Fox Comics went out of business and sold the rights to the Blue Beetle to Charlton Comics. That company published a few sporadic adventures of the Golden Age character before revamping the hero in 1964. Charlton tried three times to use the character to carry a self-titled series. Two of the attempts retained the numbering of a previous title. These also were eventually replaced with new titles that carried on the numbering.

"Charles Nicholas" is the pseudonymous house name of three early creators of American comic books for the Fox Feature Syndicate and Fox Comics. The name originated at Eisner & Iger, one of the first comic-book "packagers" that created comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium during the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of comic books. The three creators were: Chuck Cuidera, Jack Kirby and Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski (several sources say Wojtowski).

Wojtkoski is most likely the actual creator of 'Blue Beetle', although this is often credited to Charles Nicholas Cuidera. He created the character when he was 18-19 years old, but was forced to sell the rights to 'Blue Beetle' to support his family shortly before going into service in World War II. Working at the Iger Studio in the early 1940s, Charles Wojtkoski did several features for Timely/Atlas, Fiction House, Quality, National and Fox Comics.

Several sources credit Chuck Cuidera, who also went under the name Charles Nicholas, as the character's creator, since he did art on several of the early stories. Cuidera claimed in a panel at the 1999 San Diego ComicCon to be its creator. However, in an e-mail sent to Lambiek, Wojtkoski's nephew says otherwise:

My late mother, Anne DeGiuseppe (nee Wojtkoski) told me on many occasions (as early as the 1960s when I was a teenager) as to how she helped my late uncle select the name ('Blue Beetle') as they searched for the right combination of words. She also told me how her parents decided in the late 1930s to sell the rights to the character to raise money.

Now you may decide not to believe me as to my late Uncle's creation of the Blue Beetle character, but as a practicing attorney of more than 30 years I can certify under penalty of perjury that Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski was the creator of the Blue Beetle character and that Chuck Cuidera, although apparently a renown cartoonist himself, was the beneficiary of my grandparents decision to sell the rights to the character and is wrongly (if not falsely) being given credit for the creation of the Blue Beetle character. In other words, Chuck Cuidera was the beneficiary of the purchase of the Blue Beetle character name and rights to use the pen name Charles Nicholas.

To further demonstrate the veracity of my claim, isn't it apparent that since my uncle's first and middle name were Charles Nicholas (he would later legally use his middle name as his family's last name), that he is the original Charles Nicholas. Why would Chuck Cuidera call himself Charles Nicholas, other than the fact that he purchased the rights to use that name?

Finally, I had the occasion some years ago to meet Michael Uslan, the Executive Producer of the Batman movies, when we both lived in Cedar Grove, NJ, who confirmed that he knew of my late uncle and was able to provide me with biographical information on his careers which information referred to his real name, Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski, and credited him with the creation of the Blue Beetle.

Joe DeGiuseppe

Now, I am not entirely convinced by this testimony. In the beginning of the Golden Age, comic-book artist preferred to use pseudonyms as it was considered a lesser profession. Furthermore, “packagers” would often put all the artists under the same name. The reason Will Eisner comes up as the writer of these stories is because they came from his shop.

FOX FEATURE SYNDICATE

Victor S. Fox and business associate Bob Farrell launched Fox Feature Syndicate at 480 Lexington Avenue in New York City in the late 1930s. For content, Fox contracted with comics packager Eisner & Iger, one of a handful of companies creating comic books on demand for publishers entering the field. 

As one of the earliest companies in the emerging field, it employed or bought the packaged material of a huge number of Golden Age greats, many at the start of their careers. Lou Fine created the superhero The Flame in Wonderworld Comics; Dick Briefer created Rex Dexter of Mars in the eponymous series. George Tuska did his first comics work here with the features "Zanzibar" (Mystery Men Comics #1, Aug. 1939) and "Tom Barry" (Wonderworld Comics #4). Fletcher Hanks wrote and drew Stardust the Super Wizard in Fantastic Comics in 1939 and 1940. Matt Baker, one of the few African-American comic book artists of the Golden Age, revamped – in more than one sense – the newly acquired Quality Comics character Phantom Lady in 1947, creating one of the most memorable and controversial examples of superhero "good girl art".

Future comics legend Jack Kirby, brought on staff here after freelancing for Eisner & Iger, wrote and drew the syndicated newspaper comic strip The Blue Beetle (starting Jan. 1940), starring a character created by Charles Nicholas Wojtkowski in Mystery Men Comics #1 (Aug. 1939). Kirby retained the house name "Charles Nicholas" for the comic strip, which lasted three months. Kirby, additionally, created and did one story each of the Fox features "Wing Turner" (Mystery Men #10, May 1940) and "Cosmic Carson" (Science Comics #4, same month).

Fox Feature Syndicate sponsored a "Blue Beetle Day" at the 1939 New York World's Fair on August 7, 1940, beginning at 10:30 a.m. and including 300 children in relay-race finals at the Field of Special Events, following preliminaries in New York City parks. The race was broadcast over radio station WMCA.

Throughout the 1940s, Fox produced comics in a typically wide variety of genres, but was best known for superheroes and humor. With the post-war decline in superheroes' popularity, Fox, like other publishers, concentrated on horror and crime comics, including some of the most notorious of the latter. Following the establishment of Comics Code Authority in the mid-1950s, Fox went out of business, selling the rights to the Blue Beetle to Charlton Comics.

According to Nicky Wright, "Competing well in the 'most sexy, sadistic, and violent' category, Victor Fox's Murder Incorporated and Blue Beetle are noteworthy.... When historians describe sleaze, sex, and violence as Fox's obsession, they are masters of understatement. His best artists, Jack Kamen and Matt Baker, are much revered and collected for their good girl art. (Of special note is the company's breasty crime-fighter-in-bedroom-lingerie, Phantom Lady...along with the wild and scantily attired Rulah, Jungle Goddess.)”

Boyd Magers said of the publisher, "Never one to overlook a secondary sale, Fox often repackaged four remaindered (unsold) comics into a 25¢ Giant with a new cover, hence Hoot Gibson's Western Roundup, 132 pages dated 1950. However, since Fox always started their stories on the inside front cover (where other publishers ran an ad), these repackaged comics are always missing the first page of story content. Also, since Fox used remaindered issues, contents will vary from copy to copy of Hoot Gibson's Western Roundup."

Fox Feature Syndicate, located at 60 East 42nd Street, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in July 1950, listing liabilities of $721,448 and assets of $932,878, which included $567,800 in uncollected accounts receivables. Central Color Press of the same address filed likewise, listing liabilities of $513,587 and assets of $603,427. Fox was listed as president of both corporations.

REVIEW

Whether Will Eisner wrote these stories or not... I can imagine why he wasn’t desperate to prove that. As these are pretty generic. The one story that stands out is the origin story. I found the character a good role model.

But I think the most interesting aspect here is the art. Some of the reprints look pretty standard for the Golden Age, but the origin story looks very different. The angles and dynamism are incredible for the time. There is also a strange “passage of time” panel.

But then the book falls apart. All the reprints from Mystery Men have the Beetle with different uniforms and features. One of them has antennae!

So I would recommend the issue only for the origin story.

I give the issue a score of 7

[siscosfavoritecomics]

Today’s Public Library Trade Paperback entry is Scotland Yard by French author Dobbs and French artist/illustrator Stéphane Perger. The graphic novel is translated and published by Dark Horse Comics and collects Scotland Yard issues 1 and 2. The graphic novel is described as follows:

When Inspector Gregson is found responsible for the escape of two psychopathic criminals during a botched prisoner transfer, he’s given the opportunity to redeem himself by leading the manhunt to recapture the dangerous felons. But to do so, he may need to forge deadly new alliances on the other side of the law.

There are a couple of things that stand out here. First the art. Perger’s art is simply amazing. The pages look painted rather than drawn on the page. The art style is perfect when rendering the grittiness of Victorian era London, in which this graphic novel is based in.

The story itself involves a blend of fictional characters from British literature and real life people. Some are part of the story and some are mentioned in reference to other characters. Here is a list of some of the characters I was able to identify:

Mary Pearcey: Murdered lovers wife and hung December 1890. Was considered to be a potential Ripper candidate (Real) 

Inspector Tobias Gregson: Sherlock Holmes character (Fictional)

Inspector Frederick Abbeline: Chief Inspector for the London Metropolitan Police durng the Jack the Ripper investigator (Real)

Commissioner Fix: Created by author Dobbs? (Fictional)

Bram Stoker: Irish author of the novel Dracula (real)

Phileas Fogg: Main character from Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days (fictional)

Professor James Moriarty: Main antagonist of Sherlock Holmes (fictional)

Colonel Sebastian Moran: Villain from Sir Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories (fictional)

Murdstone Jr:: Possible son to Charles Dickens character Edward Murdstone from the novel David Copperfield? (fictional)

Inspector Bradstreet: Character from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories (fictional)

Faustine Clerval: character by comic author Hobbs found in some of his other works such as Mister Hyde vs. Frankenstein (fictional)

The Black Museum: Scotland Yard Crime Museum (real)

Carfax: Unsure if related to Holmes story The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax or to Carfax House/ Abbey from Dracula (fictional?)

R. M. Renfield: from Bram Stoker’s Dracula (fictional)

Dr. John Seward: from Bram Stoker’s Dracula (fictional)

Wiggins: from Sherlock Holmes (fictional)

Adolf Verloc: spy/anarchist in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad (fictional)

Inspector G. Lestrade: From Sherlock Holmes (fictional)

Dr. Frederick Treves: Doctor who treated and befriended Joseph Merrick, better known as The Elephant Man (real)

Joseph Merrick: Known as The Elephant Man (real)

Henry Irving: actor and business partner of Bram Stoker (real)

If you’re a fan of British literature from the late 19th century such as the kind created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, Bram Stoker and their contemporaries, give this graphic novel a try. I think you might like it as I did.

For Further Reading:

Perger, Stéphane from the Magus of the Library website

Stéphane Perger from the Lambiek Comiclopedia

[therewise]

Texas Tracts is now available online through our ETSY shop as well as the following outlets: Birdcage Bottom Books (USA), Lambiek (NL), Henk's Comics and Manga Store (NL), The American Book Center (NL), Boekie Woekie (NL), and Waterstones (NL).

"Bask in the beauty of TEXAS TRACTS, a brilliant co-option of the insidious Chick tracts that were used to hurt people. She’s transformed the concept into something incredibly warm and healing. And they look stunning." -Comic Book Couples Counseling

"What works so well here isn’t simply in the immediate parody of a notorious source but the way in which Meyer uses the original format to create a more layered social commentary, going beyond the obvious critique of belligerent religious teaching and offering a profound and nuanced reflection on the importance of breaking free from group indoctrination and embracing individual freedom of thought." -Broken Frontier

"As for the cartooning in these three comics, it’s uniformly exemplary: Meyer is a modern master of shading and wash effects.... She’s got talent the size of Texas in her, of that there is absolutely no doubt." Four Color Apocalypse

[ftnbooks-blog]

Harry Buckinx (1944-1995)

Harry Buckinx is one of the leading comic book artist from the late Sixties /early Seventies. Together with Joost Swarte he is responsisible for developing Comic art into a mature form of contemposrary art. here is what the Lambiek site tells about the artist. Harry Buckinx was a Dutch underground artist, best known for his contributions to Hitweek and Tante Leny Presenteert. Born in Geleen,…

[pthendig]

Feelin’ Young & Wild today with this fruity funky Fontan-Elle from Lambiek Fabriek (Vlaams-Brabant). Very nice and no complaints here - cheers! #fontanelle #lambiekfabriekfontanelle #lambiekfabriek #lambic #lambiek #belgium #belgië #belgie #belgique #belgian #belgianbeer #belgischbier #bièrebelge #bierebelge #beer #bier #bière #biere #instabeer #beerphoto #beerlover #beerstagram #craftbeer #beertasting #BeTheBelgianBeer (at Balen, Antwerpen, Belgium) https://www.instagram.com/p/Byx3BmViR--/?igshid=1n1cayjkweocq

[downthetubes]

Robot Archie's Dutch Adventures as "Der Man van Staal"

Robot Archie’s Dutch Adventures as “Der Man van Staal”

Robot Archie – now owned by Rebellion – is an iconic character that must surely be in the running for collection next year, but did you know he was possibly as popular in Holland as he was here, and like Janus Stark, new stories were created for overseas publication?

Robot Archie (initially known as “The Jungle Robot”) originally appeared in the weekly comic Lion‘s launch issue, cover dated 23rd…

[brewcavern]

‪De Cam Lambiek. Some of the rarest lambics in the world right here. Framboise, Nectarine and unblended Oude Lambiek. www.brewcavern.co.uk‬ #craftbeer #beer #BrewCavern #bottleshop #Nottingham (at Brew Cavern)

[burpenterprisejournal]

MAT POGO IN KUTLUL #8

Curated by Dirk Verschure and Joost Halbertsma issue #8 of underground comix magazine KUTLUL is out and contains Mat Pogo’s five pager entitled “Stranded”

The magazine was presented August 6th in Berlin at O Tannenbaum, beloved hangout in Neukölln, and August 10th at glorious comicbook store Lambiek in Amsterdam.

  KUTLUL #8 contains artwork by Joost Halbertsma (cover) Dirk Verschure Lenart Slabe Rogier Smal Al Burian Peter Vianen Marcel Ruijters Gwen Stok Daniele Murtas Vanita en Johanna Monk Jan Huijben Karla Paloma Federico Cacciapaglia Crippa Almqvist Zeke Clough Andy Leuenberger Mat Pogo Emile Cerf Oska Wald Marc Kolle Ewan Cameron Fede Out Maik Banks Chris McGuigan Jeroen de Leijer Vera Bekema Purchase your copy of KUTLUL here

Pogo itself declared through his fb account “next monday Release party for the best underground comix rag around. Issue #8 includes my first episode for the "Hard Cuore" romance series. I had to reach 48 to do my first porn pamphlet. Ageing is such a squalid thing“ https://www.facebook.com/mat.pogo.1/posts/10156482433285903