PAUL KUPPERBERG | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Apr26

DIRECT CREATIVITY: PAUL KUPPERBERG’s Fabulous New Book Now on Sale

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Apr 26, 2024

DIRECT CREATIVITY: PAUL KUPPERBERG’s Fabulous New Book Now on Sale

The third in his “DC” trilogy — this time featuring Waid, King, Millar and more — can now be purchased online… The Kickstarter orders have been fulfilled — they’re in the mail, folks — and now other fans can get their mitts on our pal Paul Kupperberg’s Direct Creativity: The Creators Who Inspired the Creators, the third installment in a trilogy of interview books tracing the lineage of comics, particularly DC, from the Golden Age to the Modern Age. You can get it from Amazon (click here) or directly from Paul’s website at paulkupperberg.net. It’s about $20 for the paperback. The latest volume, which includes an introduction by yours truly (I’m humbled and honored to say), features discussions with some of today’s top creators — including Mark Waid, Tom King, Mark Millar, Marc Guggenheim and more — about who and what influenced them, mixed in with talks with older stalwarts. The first book in the cycle is Direct Comments, a collection of interviews with DC luminaries from when Paul was a staffer there, such as Julie Schwartz, Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson. The follow-up, Direct Conversations, features Paul’s Bronze Age contemporaries, like Paul Levitz, Joe Staton and Bob Rozakis. Both are still available as well. All three are impossible to put down. The creators discuss their inspirations, their big breaks, their ups and downs, their favorite works and much more. It’s essential, Eisner-worthy reading. Not just that, Paul has a memoir coming and I can tell you from his time here as a 13th Dimension columnist, dude has great stories to tell. — MORE — PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite DIRECT CREATIVITY Quotes, Part 1: CREATIVE INFLUENCES. Click here. — PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite DIRECT CREATIVITY Quotes, Part 2: RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME. Click...

Apr26

PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite GEORGE TUSKA Stories and Covers

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Apr 26, 2024

PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite GEORGE TUSKA Stories and Covers

A BIRTHDAY SALUTE: The celebrated Mr. K pays homage to the classic artist, who was born 108 years ago… — UPDATED 4/26/24: The late George Tuska was born 108 years ago, on April 26, 1916. Perfect time to reprint this 2021 column by Paul Kupperberg. Dig it. — Dan — By PAUL KUPPERBERG At one time, during the 1950s, George Tuska (April 26, 1916-Oct. 16, 2009) was the artist other artists wanted to draw like. And many did, aping his unique style and dynamic layouts; some, like Atlas and Charlton Comics creator Pete Morisi (P.A.M.), admired George so much, he wrote asking the artist’s permission to swipe him, according to the story as told to me by Pete in the early ’90s. It had taken George a while to find that style. His early work for publishers like Fox and Fawcett beginning in 1939 was pretty generic for the time, but by the end of the 1940s, he was starting to stand out from the crowd. By the mid-1950s, he had hit upon the style that would mark his art for the rest of his career. George drew just about everything, from superheroes to horror to romance and Westerns and war. I don’t think he ever did any straight up humor comics, but he certainly wasn’t shy about injecting a little humor into his work. Maybe he picked up his lighthearted touch from his time on Captain Marvel but check out the page from 1956’s “Slap Leather” — six panels that almost didn’t need dialogue to convey the action. I made three of my 13 picks stories that I was fortunate enough to work on with George but two of them would have made it onto the list no matter who the writer had been. The third one is definitely self-indulgent, but wouldn’t you want to show off if George had drawn your stories? Here then, on the 105th anniversary of the Hartford-born artist’s birth, are MY 13 FAVORITE GEORGE TUSKA COMICS AND COVERS, in chronological order: — Mystery Men #1 (Fox, Aug. 1939). Hocus pocus and Zanzibar the Magician, one of early comics’ many magical/mystical/mental heroes. George’s early art was competent and fairly standard issue for the time, but without much of a hint of the artist to come. Still, kudos to whoever decided to shake things up...

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