Volume Four, Number Eight

Yesterday I talked about my "guilty pleasure" as a child; Mike Shayne. Well, I had another one, one that I have to this day. Archie comics.

I'm not talking about the super-heroes-Hangman, Mr. Justice, The Shield, The Fly, et al-or the horror comics of the 1970s. I loved those too of course and still do. No; I am talking about the actual Archie comics; Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Reggie, Archie Andrews and the rest of the gang.

As long as I can remember I have enjoyed those comics' both the comics themselves and the newspaper strip. The London Free Press-the daily newspaper in my home town of London Ontario Canada-used to run the Archie dailies and weekly coloured comics and I would read those faithfully.

My favourite Archie series was Little Archie. It was one of the most innovative comics around looking back at it. Weird aliens, sci fi stuff, the works. It rivalled the 60s Superboy for fun tales.

I also love the LIFE WITH ARCHIE comic in the 60s. Of all the Archie titles back then it had the most interesting stories I thought. JUGHEAD was a fave, too. It actually introduced me, my mom and dad to hamburgers. I had never heard of them until I read a JUGHEAD comic. Neither had my mom and dad. But I bugged and bugged and bugged my mother to make me a hamburger until she eventually relented. We all fell in love with them immediately. I still love them to this day and I owe it all to Jughead. Thanks, buddy.

Now the one thing about the Archie comics that used to bug me was that I always felt that Archie was a bit of a dope. He was chasing after Veronica when Betty was by far the better lady. Veronica was spoiled, insecure and needy. Betty was cool, independent and far sexier. How Archie couldn't see that was always beyond my comprehension. And I thought for years that I was the only Archie reader who felt that way until I brought it up to my buddy The Groovy Agent who told me nope; other guys felt that way, too.

I also used to love the Archie cartoons of the 60s. They were kind of dumb but fun.

As for today I have about a hundred or so Archie digests in my collection. Whenever I feel the need for some good fun I pull one out and read it. They are still lotsa fun. Good comics. Nope. Great comics. And I know I will probably never get a chance to do so but one day I would love to write and have published an Archie comics story; preferably a Little Archie tale. It's on my wish list. Hmm. That list is getting pretty darn long these days.

Take care and enjoy the surprises my webmaster has put up. Be safe, folks.

Volume Four, Number Seven

I have a childhood guilty pleasure that I need to confess to today. Back in the 60s and 70s I not only used to read "Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine" but I loved it as much as I did comics.

Now if you aren't familiar with Mike Shayne you can find out more by visiting www.thrillingdetective.com/shaynemike.html. My father introduced me to Mike Shayne. He wasn't a fan of the hard boiled detectives mind you-his buddy Jim Query was-but my father wanted me to try something else other than comics. (He didn't feel that my reading books on Norse and Greek mythology was that much more different than reading comics). Now he tried to introduce me to novels set in W.W. II with little success and while he did get me to read a Hammon Innes book I wasn't impressed.

So one day when we were in a place called The News Depot in downtown London Ontario Canada he came over to me and said "Why not buy this?.".

And what he had in his had was an issue of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. Well I took it home, read it and immediately fell in love with the character.

To be honest with you I don't know why. Maybe it was just something different. I have never been a bit fan of that kind of thing and am still not to this day. But Mike Shayne touched me somehow. To the point where when I was legal drinking age I was ordering Mike's favourite drink...a Sidecar which consists of cognac, an orange liqueur (preferably triple sec) and lemon juice. I loved those drinks way back in the 70s. Got lots of weird looks among my beer drinking buddies but I didn't care. I wanted to be like my hero Mike Shayne.

Now Mike's adventures were pretty basic, pretty girls, gangsters, lotsa fist fights-Mike would get knocked out at least once a tale-but surprisingly real little gun play. He was kind of a calmer version of Mike Hammer.

I would love at some point in my career to do a Mike Shayne comic. I think DELL did one once. There was also a Mike Shayne radio show in the forties, 11 Mike Shayne movies and a TV show that ran for one season (1960/61)..

Never saw any of them nor did I ever hear the radio show. Maybe my webmaster might be able to find them and put them up. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

And I still like Mike Shayne. I have a bunch of Mike Shayne paperbacks and I still occasionally read the old issues of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine that I have. I don't drink Sidecars anymore.

Well, maybe I will try one again one day. For Mike. For old time's sake.

Volume Four, Number Six

The picture on this blog of me is me, folks. That's me. But the birds aren't.

They belong to my best friend Tigs. We have been friends like forever. And her birds are like so super-cool.

They are African Gray Parrots. Their names are Princess and Krak'r.

Krak'r can fly and fly like Rocket "Rocky" J. Squirrel. He is incredible to watch.

Now Princess, she is still having problems with flight but she will get there.

And they are the neatest birds to be around. They are by the way as intelligent as

dolphins and whales. I actually can hold conversations with them.

Princess is in love with me by the way. She wants to have my eggs. I haven't a clue why but she has latched on to me big time. She also too always wants to fix my hair.

And as some of you know I also have an 11-year old cat. Her name is "Baby" and she is the "cat from Hades". But Baby and the birds get along fine, great actually. If Krak'r hasn't seen Baby in a while he calls for her, Baby comes out and then she and the birds have a conversation.

I know it sounds weird but if you ever spent an afternoon with me, Tigs' birds and my cat you would see it.

So why am I talking about the birds this time out? Well I figure it would be a good reason to put up a "Birdman" cartoon. That was such a cool cartoon. It was done by Hanna Barbara which were not exactly known for the best animation but still; I loved it.

So now you folks know who the birds are. One of these days I might talk about my demon cat. That would give me a good excuse to put up a "Top Cat" cartoon. I loved that one, too.

Have a great day, folks.

Jonathan "A" Gilbert

Volume Four, Number Five

Well Friday is the day after Canada Day and it is also banking day. And when I think of banking I think of....who else but RICHIE RICH.

Now I was never a fan of Richie. I always thought he was pretty lame. His dog was cooler than he was.

But I had a major crush on his girlfriend way back in 61/62. She had the prettiest red hair and ever since then I have loved red heads.

Red Heads according to some are going to be extinct by the end of the century. I sure hope not. Some of the best female characters in comics have red hair. We have Spidey's wife Mary Jane for starters, then we have Marvel Girl (or whatever she calls herself these days; hey; I'm a 60s guy folks!!) from the X-Men. And who can forget Ka-zar's blushing bride Shanna.

All great characters. All strong women. I don't believe of course for a moment it is because of their red hair but it sure suited their personalities.

Now what all that has to do with banking I don't have a clue but it gave me a chance to talk about red heads for a minute. Another strong female in real life who has red hair is the lead singer of Paramore. Hopefully I will be able to get up the video by them titled "Ignorance Is Your New Best Friend".

I like strong females both in comics and in real life. Strong, independent women are needed in this world. And in comics, well, if I was a super villain I would rather go up against Superman than Batgirl any day.

But I digress to borrow a phrase from Peter David. Back to Rickie Rich. I have sitting beside me as I type this RICHIE RICH DIGEST STORIES MAGAZINE #8 which I got sent to me by my buddy Richard Vasseur.

To be honest it is kind of a drag. I like the LITTLE DOT and LITTLE LOTTA fillers better than the RICHIE RICH stories.

No one I grew up with read RICHIE RICH. Like no one. Not even the girls. (Most of them read Millie The Model; so did the guys by the way but they would never admit it in public). So I always wondered how the heck did he end up with so many different titles. Who was buying them? Certainly not the people I hung out with as a kid. Heck we would by some obscure CHARLTON title before we would buy a RICHIE RICH.

RICHIE RICH just never did it for any of us and I have yet to meet anyone who bought the titles. So if anyone knows of anyone who was a faithful follower of RICKIE RICH please let me know. That has been haunting me for years.

Now before I go I do need to make a correction. In VOLUME FOUR NUMBER THREE there is a link that reads Susan McCabe. Now my webmaster, the ever-wonderful Groovy Agent, has it going to the correct site but the proper name for the link is www.shannonmccabe.com .

It is Shannon McCabe folks. Sorry for the confusion. At least I got a chance to mention my pal's website again.

Take care and be safe, everyone.

Jonathan "A" Gilbert

Volume Four, Number Four

Well it is Canada Day here as I type this and as I wait for a couple of guests to drop by I thought I'd do another off the top of my head piece.

Originally I was going to do one on the 1960s "Mighty Hercules" cartoon and declare how I wanted someone, anyone to kill Neuton the centaur-he was such an annoying little SOB-and then I saw the number of this installment and thought, well heck; Captain America. He did after all return to the world of comics in the 60s with issue number four of The Avengers.

Then I thought; well, why not talk about both. So I will.

First off; Captain America. It actually makes sense in a weird Canuck kind of way to talk about Cap on Canada Day. We actually don't have our own national super-hero. Now before you start think; how many Canadians actually know who Johnny Canuck or Nelvana or Captain Canuck are. Don't get me wrong. I love all those characters. And I have met both Cy Bell (the publisher of Nelvana and Johnny Canuck) and Richard Comely (Captain Canuck's daddy) and they are (or in Cy's case were as he has long since passed on) great people. But in the day to day thinking of folks up here in the Great White North they don't exactly stir the imagination or bring out a lot of patriotism despite the valiant efforts of the folks behind them. But then, what does stir that amongst us Canucks. Not much really outside of hockey. And beer.

Anyway; when I was growing up in the 60s Captain America was 'THE MAN' bar none. He was OUR hero, too. All the kids loved him and some of us-well me actually-went as far as having their (well my) father make a wooden shield just like Cap's to toss around. Come to think of it my father must have been nuts to do that for me as I could have done some serious damage to things tossing that bleedin' piece of wood around. Or maybe he just knew I had a rotten aim.

But dad did that for me which was way super cool and I ran around the neighbourhood for two, maybe three years with that thing. He even painted it for me.

Now I had intended to retire it but then some bright genius at Marvel decided to license some of their characters to a Z grade production studio resulting in some of the worst cartoons ever made. One of the characters was Captain America.

I loved those cartoons. Now I watch them on video and I think I must have had a screw loose but at the time I loved them. They were way super great cartoons and I plunked myself down in front of the television whenever they were on. My dad of course would shake his head believing I should watch something less violent such as "12 O'Clock High' of "Combat" and my mother gave up long ago ("Jim; the kid is gonna be a comic book writer whether we like it or not so just leave him the heck alone!".) . But I loved those cartoons. And the Sub-Mariner ones, too. Thor I could live without but Subby and Cap I loved.

But they were bad. Real bad. Bad animation. Bad dialogue. Bad, well, everything.

Which brings me next to "The Mighty Hercules". I think it was around 1963 when I started to watch that cartoon. Now I was pretty young so I can't say for sure when it was but I do seem to recall seeing it on "Big Al's Ranch Party" that used to air on CKCO TV out of Kitchener Ontario Canada. Now that show made the Marvel Super-Heroes cartoons look like masterpieces. Again; bad animation, bad voices, bad dialogue..the works.

Now I was a kid of course so I didn't notice at the time but what I did notice is that darn annoying centaur Neuton. Everyone hated Neut. All the kids and I mean ALL. I don't know if the creators planned him to be annoying but they sure made him that way. We all wanted to see him dead. We all cheered when Deadalus trapped him and yelled "Kill him, kill him!", which I am sure you could imagine did not go over to well with our mothers at the time. But we hated him. Really, really hated him.

And you know what? I still hate him. As I was getting ready to write this I watched "Medusa's Sceptre" and my blood started to boil as soon as I saw that annoying little so-and-so on the screen. I am now 54 and he still bugs the daylights outta me.

Well company is starting to come around so I should wrap this up. Thanks all for putting up with my little wanderings these past couple of blogs. Actually I have found it kind of fun. What do you think? Let me know, okay. I can be emailed at JonAllanGilbert@yahoo.ca . Take care and Happy Canada Day fellow Canucks.

Jon

Volume Four, Number Three

Well to be honest this is an "off the top of my head" column. The past few days I have have been working on a Dracula story for Red Leaf Comics ( www.redleafcomics.com ) and a few other projects that I will talk about later and when I need a break I have been turning to Utube or however the heck you spell it.

Specifically, I have been listening to some old tunes of mine from the 70s. Now I can't recall if I have ever mentioned this before here but I am an old school punk rocker. I hung out in a punk rock bar, did the door in at a punk rock bar, met punk rockers and even dated a couple of punk rock babes. This was from 1978 to 1980. Then I met the love of my life, left the scene and then two years later left the love of my life but that's another story.

But that time I spent in "The Scene" was as much fun for me as being involved with the comics scene. Sometimes more.

One thing I definitely learned from those times was how to have fun, enjoy life and giggle. I also learned how to work my butt off to get where I wanted to be in life. I learned that from some of the best; Frankie Venom of Teenage Head, Keith Whitteker of The Demics, Scott Bently of '63 Munroe and my bestest buddy from those days; Markie Burnaway.

Markie was and is an artist. He comes from a family of musicians all of whom are talented like you would not believe. Markie had taught me a lot about life. I thought I knew it all of course but I didn't. Markie taught me how to have fun, how to work hard and how to enjoy the world around me. And he was the best darn guitar player I have ever seen live.

He was/is-I-guess as he still is alive....a good man and a great friend and pal.

Now the problem is I don't know how to get in touch with the old boy. No idea. I have tired searches upon searches upon searches. I'd like to say hi to him and thank him for what he taught me and stuff so I am asking you, my friends, to help me out.

So if anyone out there can put me in touch with Markie Burnaway aka Mark Scott from '63 Munroe it would be much appreciated.

As for what I am doing now; well, the Dracula piece that I mentioned....Seppo Makinen will be doing the art and letters....and I am working on a two issue project with Star Verse Comics plus I am working on a secret project with Shannon McCabe ( www.shannonmccabe.com ).

Plus the whole Red Lion thing, too. And other stuff. Next time out I will go into more detail and then after that I will finish up MLJ-unless the comics I am supposed to review come in-but speaking of MLJ and the whole Red Circle stuff that is being done by DC. I think it sucks myself. But hey; I am old school.

Like I said; this is just off the top of my head.

So I will let you all go now. If someone can help and get Mark in touch with me it would be much appreciated. And if you would like to know what sort of music I used to pogo to in my punk rock days if my webmaster can pull it off you will now be able to click on "New York City" by the Demics. Enjoy.

SeajayVentures and Star Verse Comics Team Up for Project

Jonathan "A" Gilbert of SeajayVentures (the creative arm of Red Lion Publications) and Ryan Crouse of Star Verse Comics are pleased to announce that they will be teaming up to publish a two-issue limited series that will feature the pencils of up and coming talent David Johnson Jr.

Set in the universe of Mr. Crouse's TechStorm character the tale will take place between issues one and two of TechStorm: Rages of War.

"We don't want to give away too much info as yet but the storyline will involve Ryan's TechStorm characters, a hero called SwiftStar and my Destiny character" states Mr. Gilbert.

"And as an added bonus we will bringing Destiny back in his original uniform as designed by Lloyd Smith, publisher of the gone but still much loved Blue Moon Comics Group".

For more information on Star Verse Comics you can visit www.starverse.ca . Jonathan "A" Gilbert has worked in the comics industry since 1989 and is currently writing a blog at www.dispatchesfromthegreatwhitenorth.blogspot.com .

Ryan Crouse can be contacted at star_verse@hotmail.com and Jonathan "A" Gilbert can be reached at seajayventuresca@yahoo.ca .