9/11 – Never Forget
Again and forever, never forget. And if you weren’t there, find out about it.
Like most people I remember my first date and my first car, but being a comics creator I also remember the first time a comic book peeled my eyes.
Yes, I’m speaking metaphorically.
Kim’s passion for Korean history, movement-to-movement transition panels, and manwhaga skills are all on display in “Money,” Eerie #35, Warren Publishing (1971).
What I mean is… over time a young person created to create comics will begin to notice the techniques and mechanisms that go into telling a comics story, such as the dovetailing of art and words, and then eventually he will begin practicing these techniques until a light (hopefully) turns on and he starts writing or drawing increasingly better comics stories. But before you can become a tyro creator you have to heed a comics story.
You have to pay attention to it!
You have to become consciously aware of its beauty and its clockworks.
This is what I mean by having a comic book peel your eyes.
Iron Fist #13 was the first comic book to peel my eyes. Specifically the splash page by penciller John Byrne and inker Dan Adkins. I can remember where I was when I first saw it (standing at the spinner rack at May’s Drug Store) and approximately when it happened (shortly after school on a cloudy early spring Thursday in 1977). There was something about the splash’s layout and composition and colors that lured me in like nothing I had seen before in a comic book and I commenced to grabbing every issue of Iron Fist and any other Byrne-drawn comic book on the rack. Then I went to every store I knew within reasonable driving distance that sold comic books and grabbed more Iron Fist comics and more Byrne-drawn comics plus any other comic books that caught my eye, the most memorable being Mike Grell’s lush artwork on Green Lantern/Green Arrow #91. A couple of hours later I arrived home with a six-inch stack of comic books that only cost thirty-five cents each and enjoyed some of the happiest hours of my life as I began to really discover and enjoy comics storytelling.
Mike Grell kept the peeling going with his gorgeous work on pages 2-3 from Green Lantern/Green Arrow #91, DC Comics (1977).
Good memories, but while Byrne was the first to peel my eyes, it was Korean writer/artist Sanho Kim who first got me to heed comics.
I am embarrassed to say I had forgotten this until a few weeks ago when I came across a spotlight about Kim in The Charlton Comics Companion from TwoMorrows Publishing. In the seventies I was a fan of Charlton’s Doomsday +1 (with stories drawn by Byrne) and its horror anthologies, in particular Ghost Manor and its awesome host Mr. Bones, which is where I discovered Kim’s work, although I cannot tell you exactly where or when this happened. And unfortunately the Companion’s bio spotlight was light on details, although to be fair not much biographical information exists on Kim. There is a brief bio in Eerie #35 (“New Staff Artist: Sanho Kim”), Kim’s introduction to his self-published 1973 graphic novel (or what he called a montage book) Sword’s Edge: The Sword and the Maiden, and an article by Kim Dong-Hwa, Chairman of the Korean Cartoonists Association, commemorating Sanho Kim receiving Korea’s Medal of Cultural Merits in 2008, and that’s about it. According to these sources Kim was born in 1939, raised in a refugee camp, and studied fine art at the Seorabeol Art College in Soeul. Prior to coming to the United States he spent eight years creating Korean comics or manhwa like his first full-length comic book The Brilliant Twilight Star in 1958 and the bestselling Lifi, Korea’s first science fiction comic, in 1959. In 1969 Kim immigrated to the United States where he became one of the first, if not the first, Asian-style artist published in American comic books, most notably for Charlton but also Skywald Publications, Warren Publishing and Marvel Comics.
I drew that! My mad scientist Dr. Calgeri in my own style and Mr. Bones in the style of Sanho Kim (1975).
Prior to discovering Kim in Ghost Manor I had taken no more notice of the art in a comic book than its newsprint. Kim changed that and in the process became my first favorite comic book artist, someone whose work I recognized the instant I saw it.
But what was it about Kim’s work that caught my eye?
If you had asked me then I would have told you it was because his horror stories looked creepier, his Westerns looked grittier, and his adventures looked more exciting than what other artist’s drew. Oh, and there was something neat about the way Kim drew people with square heads and emerald eyes! Yep, I could pick out a Kim-drawn character from a mile away, but it never occurred to me that the reason for this might have been because I drew people in a similar fashion (see sketch on the left), or that I might have thought Kim’s stories looked more effective than those of his peers because he was a master manhwaga (manhwa creator) proficient at marrying realistically drawn bodies with unrealistic faces and detailed clothing and intricate backgrounds with simplified dialogue, all of which struck a cord with me as a budding comic book writer.
Did someone say “creepy”? From “Hell House,” The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves #36, Charlton Comics (1973).
Again, to be fair, I hadn’t learned yet that amateur creators are drawn to the works of professionals who have a similar style to their own. Heck, I wasn’t even aware what my nascent writing style was, so how could I have been aware of the similarities in my stories and the ones drawn and written by Kim? For example, Kim’s stories not only employ simple dialogue but frequently incorporate Korean history, and I write spare dialogue and often incorporate history in my stories. I can see all that now, but what I don’t understand is how I could have been such a fan of Kim’s art and stories but failed to notice when I stopped seeing his work and then forgot about Kim for so many years. I suppose it because I was young and susceptible to juvenile out-of-sight-out-of-mindness. It’s not much of an excuse but there you go.
There is something to be said for auld lang syne, though, and after rediscovering Kim it was heartening to find out that — besides our creative similarities — we share an admiration for the comics medium and a belief in its potential. Kim expressed his hopes for the medium — which parallel many of the ideas comics grandmaster Will Eisner was beginning to propound about the same time — in his Sword’s Edge introduction:
“I come from Korea where for eight years I wrote, illustrated and completely controlled the creation of my comic books. At the same time, I dreamed about the “great” American comic book. I expected its overall quality to be much higher than was I found in the small number I read in Korea. “However, when I came here, I discovered that the American comic book isn’t as fine a product of American creativity and imagination as I had dreamed it is. And, I also noticed, it really hasn’t changed since its first days 35 years ago. “For five years now, I have been living in the United States, illustrating those comic books. Now, for the first time here, I am making my own. “This book—we call it a montage book—is not like other comic books. At its core is the idea that the artist and the writer must be in harmony: the illustrations and the story must be conceived together; the illustrations and story must be executed together. “Unfortunately, the American artist and writer today rarely work together. Too often, a comic book story with merit, has poor art. And one with good art has bad writing. “Most people who follow comic books seriously, believe that a good comic book is the result of good art. They believe the writing is of secondary importance. That is wrong—entirely wrong. Good cinematography alone does not make a good motion picture. Nor does good art alone make a good comic book. Everything—art, writing, reproduction—must be outstanding for the comic book to be outstanding. “There are fortunately, many worthy artists in the United States. I respect their work very highly. There are also many fine writers here. Yet, the two rarely get together. “That is sad. American comic books are in a rut. American artists are too. Neither experiment. They have fallen into deep and deadening mannerisms. “I feel now, after these five years of illustrating someone else’s stories, of meeting some editor’s conceptions of what a comic book should be, it is time that I make my own comic book. “I do not think that Sword’s Edge is my best work. But I feel that it is new and different to America. In fact, it is similar in some respects to my old, Korean style. Whether it is good or bad—and that is only for you to decide—at least I am trying to show you what I feel a comic book can be.”
But even as Kim was trying to coax American comics out of their rut by bringing manwha to the United States in a graphic novel format, he was also experimenting with mixing elements from manwha and traditional American comics, most notably in “The Promise” from Charlton’s Ghostly Tales #101 (1973). (If you’d like to read “The Promise” click on this link. You can also watch an in-depth critical appreciation of “The Promise” from an American and a Korean perspective at Old Folks Comic Talks at the link below.) Ghostly Tales #101 also features “A Word from Sanho Kim” in which he explains how “The Promise” was inspired by a popular type of Korean ghost story and how his story differed from typical American comic book stories of that time.
Sword’s Edge and “The Promise” are variations of the same plot: a warrior chances across a maiden during his travels and faces consequences that arise from that meeting. But “The Promise” is a supernatural story, unlike Sword’s Edge, which might be called a coming-of-age adventure. And where Sword’s Edge is presented in a traditional manwha manner, “The Promise” is simultaneously told in Korean and English, something Kim would never have been permitted to try at Marvel, DC, or Warren with their conformity to United States storytelling standards. Perhaps the only reason he got away with at Charlton is because, being a smaller company, the publisher did not have the time or resouces to demand changes.
Kim only worked on American comics between 1969 to 1976 but he did not return to Korea until 1996. Even then Kim did not stop pushing the limits of comics storytelling. His Korean comics focus on historical topics, like his three-volume magnum opus Daejusinjeguksa (History of Great Korean Empire), and he has developed a new way to tell comic book stories he calls “picture scenario” that combines Western painting with comics art for a new way to tell comic book stories.
I was too young and inexperienced in comic book communication to know how to do more than enjoy Kim’s art when I first discovered it. If I had been a few years older or discovered Kim’s work a few years later I have no doubts he would have peeled my eyes as effectively as Byrne did. But Kim did get me to notice comic book art and stories and for that I am grateful. Now having rediscovered him and having learned about his impressive accomplishments in the comics medium I can truly say that I will never forget him again.
My newest Sherlock Holmes pastiche “The Adventure of the Absent Crossing Sweeper” is now available in The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part XXXVII – 2023 Annual (1875-1889) from MX Publishing.
January 12, 1882, a few months after Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson’s first adventure A Study in Scarlet. Scotland Yard Detective G. Lestrade, a man not known for being over-tender of heart, has taken it upon himself to find a crossing sweeper who has been missing from his corner on Oxford Street since St. Andrew’s Day. Lestrade’s private search has reached an impasse so he comes to Holmes to request the assistance of the Baker Street Irregulars, unaware that Holmes has already engaged them as part of his own private investigation, a diplomatically delicate matter for the British Foreign Office (and his brother Mycroft) involving a noble but disreputable lodger in the building at the Oxford corner.
“The Adventure of the Absent Crossing Sweeper” marks my fifth appearance in this popular anthology series from MX Publishing, the world’s largest Sherlock Holmes publisher. It is also just one of the 59 new traditional Canonical Holmes pastiches you will find in Part XXXVII and its companion volumes Part XXXVIII (1890-1896) and Part XXXIX (1897-1923). Together this trilogy presents the Great Detective and the Good Doctor in Untold Cases, sequels to Canonical adventures and stories that progress along completely unexpected lines from their early friendship at 221B Baker Street to Holmes’ retirement and the post-War years.
And if you enjoy “Adventure of the Absent Crossing Sweeper” you might want to check out my other Holmes pastiches in audio and print. All books are available in hardcover and paperback unless otherwise noted. And for a bigger view of any cover or illustration just click on the image.
The Adventure of the Coal-Tar Derivative: Being the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson Against the Moriarties During the Great Hiatus
The Adventure of the Coal-Tar Derivative (Audible Book)
Case of the Petty Curses: Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, Imagination Theatre (Audio Production)
“Case of the Petty Curses” : The Art of Sherlock Holmes – West Palm Beach
“Case of the Petty Curses” illustration print by Robert St. Croix
Case of Unfinished Business: Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Imagination Theatre (Audio Production)
“Case of Unfinished Business”: Imagination Theatre’s Sherlock Holmes: A Collection of Scripts from “The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”
“Case of the Petty Curses:” MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part VII: Eliminate the Impossible (1880-1891)
“The Case for Which the World is Not Yet Prepared”: MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part XVII: Whatever Remains Must Be the Truth
“A Case of Unfinished Business”: MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part XX: 2020 Annual (1891-1897)
“The Case of the Un-Paralleled Adventures”: MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Part XXIII: Some More Untold Cases (1888-1894)
“The Adventure of the Ambitious Task”: Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives Vol. 2 (featuring Feril Nightlinger) – PAPERBACK ONLY
Parts I-III of The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories were published in 2015 and featured over 60 stories in the true traditional Canonical manner. That set, the largest collection of new Holmes stories assembled up to that time, was originally planned as a one-time event but readers wanted more. And now with the release of Parts XXXVII, XXXVIII, and XXXIX the series has grown to over 800 new Holmes adventures by over 200 contributors from around the world. All contributor royalties from every collection go to the Undershaw school for special needs children, located at one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s former homes, and to date the project has raised over $110,000 for the school.
It is Memorial Day Weekend. More than ever remember and give thanks to all those who gave their lives for our freedom.
Do you remember the glory days of Saturday morning cartoons?
I sure do!
Which is why I am amped to be a part of the creepy but loving new anthology from Castle Bridge Media, Castle Of Horror: Thinly Veiled Saturday Mournings, that pays tribute to those great animated television programs with my Jonny Quest homage “QED: The Cosmic Spectre.”
Visitors to my website may remember that my series Max Q is partially inspired by Jonny Quest. (And since we’re on the topic I should mention that my Max Q screenplay as well as my Nightlinger screenplay are still represented by Caliber Entertainment but have also just been posted on the Script Revolution and The Black List websites.) But instead of racin’ and reverbs in the near future, QED is set in the early sixties and follows the adventures of Dr. Peregrine White (FRS, MD, DSc, etc.) and her family:
The Whites live and work at Linndorsa, their home of the future on isolated Lost Key, Bermuda, a former pirate haven. As one of her generation’s best minds Peregrine is often consulted by USINT, a covert agency whose Scientific, Prototypical, and Unique Research (SPUR) Branch is dedicated to expanding the limits of technology and science. In “The Cosmic Spectre” Peregrine and family help USINT and the US Air Force investigate a rash of unnatural deaths that begin when a prototype stealth plane, Model 853-21 Quiet Bird, crashes in the Nebraska sandhills after crossing through the bizarre plasma tail of a meteor. The pilot’s body is found in the plane’s cockpit having rapidly aged and soon more such bodies are found in an expanding vicinity. It doesn’t take long for Peregrine to realize what appeared to be a meteor is actually a space coffin and for the Whites to figure out they are battling an alien ghost.
This is my second appearance in the Castle of Horror anthology series. The first was in last year’s Love Gone Wrong and if you checked out that collection then you have a really good idea of the kind of great stories you will find in Thinly Veiled Saturday Mournings!
Concocting titles can be tough. So if you’re wondering if I borrowed the title from this really neat but very short-lived TV show from 1982… you’re dang right I did.
Oh! One more thing for the sake of full disclosure. If you remember Saturday morning cartoons then you may also remember eighties television genre programs. If you do then you might recall a short-lived 1982 show that — if you looked at it sideways — sort of crossed steampunk with Doctor Who called Q.E.D. It starred Sam Waterston and was created by John Hawkesworth, whose other credits include developing the classic Granada Television Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett two years later. And if you do remember Q.E.D. then you might be wondering, “Did Steve borrow that show’s title? Could QED not only be an homage to Jonny Quest but a nod to a nearly-forgotten television program he enjoyed long ago?” To which I would reply, “What do you think?”
Okay, yes, I am tardy with my 2022 writing review and previewing what I can about what’s coming in 2023. I was hoping to share more news about some of my 2023 projects than I am able to right now, but instead of postponing further I am going to go ahead with what I can.
The biggest event in 2022 was my Kymani Jones story “A Forty Grain Weight of Nephrite” appearing in the anthology SECRETS IN SCARLET from Aconyte Books. The character and situations are based on Fantasy Flight Games’ new addition to their ARKHAM HORROR role-playing game, and it was very gratifying to see how well “Forty Grain” and Kymani were received by many fans of the game and of Lovecraftian horror in general.
Another cool thing about “A Forty Grain Weight of Nephrite” is that it is my second story to be available on Audible, in this case as part of the SECRETS IN SCARLET audio book. Narrator Jennifer Jill Araya did a terrific job reading the story and I really can’t recommend it and the entire anthology enough!
Caliber Comics also completed their reissuing of my H. P. LOVECRAFT’S WORLDS individual adaptations and graphic novels. It took some time but now all the interior artwork has been cleaned up, all the editorial material has been re-edited and updated with new information, and the “Dagon” adaptation even includes an incredible new cover by artist Sergio Cariello.
My short story homage to Amicus portmanteau horror films “Expiration Date” was anthologized for the second time! First in 2019 in THE MONSTERS WE FORGOT, VOL. 1 from Soteira Press and now in Castlebridge Media’s CASTLE OF HORROR, VOL. 7: LOVE GONE WRONG. I was unable to place this story anywhere for several years so it is very heartening to now have it accepted by two such distinguished publishers.
Last but not least I attended my first comics show as a creator since the pandemic . The inaugural COMICS CURING CANCER show in November was also my first comics show in Utah and I am looking for to attending again later this year.
Which brings us to 2023.
There is no date set yet for the next C3 comics show but I will be attending OGDEN CON – VOL. 1 on April 15.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend MICROCON III in Minneapolis on April 8th, which will represent the end of the road for the truly incredible MSP ComicCon. For 34 years now the MSP ComicCon has been a shining example of how excellent and fun a fan-run comic book show can be and I eagerly awaited attending each May. MSP was a place where you could go to remember and enjoy the simple and innocent wonders of comic books, but unfortunately, like Rocky Balboa said, “You know, the older I get, the more things I gotta leave behind. That’s life.” I just wish this part of my life could have gone on a little bit longer. To everyone who was a part of MSP thank you for what you did and for letting me be a very small but appreciative part of it.
What part do you think this building on London’s Oxford Street plays in my latest Sherlock Holmes pastiche “The Adventure of the Absent Crossing Sweeper”?
No surprise here, I’m sure, but my relationship with Sherlock Holmes and H. P. Lovecraft continues starting with “The Adventure of the Absent Crossing Sweeper.” This Holmes pastiche will appear in the latest installment of THE MX BOOK OF NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES edited by Sherlockian extraordinaire David Marcum. I will share more about this story after the publication date is announced, but I am proud to say “Crossing Sweeper” marks my fifth appearance in this marvelous anthology series.
Next up is “The Adventure of the Immutable Scourge” in the latest Belanger Books anthology SHERLOCK HOLMES: ADVENTURES IN THE REALMS OF H. P. LOVECRAFT. Again I will share more after the publication date is announced, but if you’ve ever wondered what would happen if Holmes and Watson tried to solve the strange deaths from Lovecraft’s story “The Alchemist” this pastiche is for you! (And if you’re unfamiliar with this story you can check out Blue Oyster Cult’s musical version of it here:)
As for what could be coming in 2023:
As of this writing I just finished a submission for Castlebridge’s next CASTLE OF HORROR anthology and I am waiting to hear back. I wish I could say more than this because this should be a really cool and super fun and very different horror anthology, but if and when I can reveal more I will do so.
Last year I mentioned a story I wrote for a new anthology featuring an overlooked pulp hero created by one of the medium’s most popular authors. Hopefully this anthology will be announced this year but until then all I can say about it is that it will absolutely be worth the wait!
Work continues on “Call of Cthulhu,” the second Lovecraft adaptation by me and artist Trey Baldwin. When it comes to Lovecraft’s stories it doesn’t get any bigger than this tale and Trey and I are doing everything we can to make sure this is one knock-out comic. Like all my Lovecraft adaptations “Call of Cthulhu” will be published by Caliber Comics.
I may or may not write some more short stories this year, but right now my plan is to concentrate on two new novels that I very much want to submit before year’s end. That should keep me busy for the duration, but it’s hard to predict what opportunities life will throw my way… so who knows?
That’s all for now!
Hey, all, it’s time for me to get back on the convention scene! And what better show to start at then Comics Curing Cancer (C3)? It’s this Saturday, November 12, from 10:00 to 6:00 at Davis Applied Technology College in Kaysville, UT!
This is not only my first con in over two years but will also be my first con in my new stomping grounds and I can’t wait to meet a new world of comics fans and readers. I will be selling copies of my H. P. Lovecraft Worlds comics adaptations like Shadow over Innsmouth and The Lurking Fear… my Sherlock Holmes comic book pastiches The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes, The Adventure of the Opera Ghost and the new novel The Adventure of the Coal-Tar Derivative… and graphic novels Dracula, Nightlinger, and Tatters, along with books and texts like Comics Writing and Lovecraftian: The Shipwright Circle. I will also be bringing some comic books from back in the day that I haven’t offered at conventions for over a decade like Street Heroes 2005, Mighty 1, Invaders from Mars and Re-Animator!
If you’re in the area I hope you will drop by and say hello!