The United States of Lazy

(Not a political statement.)

Have you ever noticed that the states get bigger and bigger, basically in the order that they were created?

The original thirteen are rather small and the others gradually grow, generally speaking, as they progress down and over to the west.

It's a lot like if I were drawing a pattern of stars and got tired of creating all that detail. (I'm right-handed, so it goes left.)

Did the early settlers also think, "What a pain. We'll just make 'em bigger as we go..."

Art by George Perez (and Kerry Callen)

I was flipping through some of my childhood comics and was shocked to see a rectangle cut out of a page in Avengers #155!

I then realized I had used a coupon on the opposite side. I grew up in Rural Arkansas, so if I wanted any comics-related material, I had to mail off for it. Occasionally, cut my precious comics. I must have ordered Bring on the Bad Guys from this one.

I then noticed I had used a pen and colored pencils to draw on the page across from it.

I have absolutely no memory of doing this, but I know I always hated to lose any comic story to coupons. Voila.

Why Moore created the Watchmen. Hurm.

If I remember correctly, DC Comics obtained the rights to all the Charlton Comics characters. Alan Moore then proposed a mini-series which used all these characters; superheroes such as Blue Beetle and The Question.

After reviewing Moore's proposal, DC asked him to create new characters for his story. So, Blue Beetle became Night Owl, The Question became Rorschach, and so forth...

The reasoning behind it was to allow the Charlton characters to continue to be used, instead of destroyed. Let's take a quick look at how things turned out for Blue Beetle and The Question in the DC universe...

Hurm.

Planet Sitting

I posted pieces Thursday and Sunday night, which messed up my normal rhythm of posting every Monday morning. So, today, I'll merely mention that Ill be a guest at Kansas City's upcoming Planet Comicon, March 28 & 29!

It's always a great show! Stop by and say "hi."

Mugg!

I had thirty minutes to kill as I was waiting on someone, so I pulled a blank Mighty Mugg pic and Photoshopped a quick Sprocket, just for kicks.

The Offenders! Ah, the memories...

This week's Hulk featured the "Offenders".

My very first, nationally published work was the Offenders!

Yes, it's tacky. I was young. I needed the exposure. Unfortunately, the magazine's index page credited the art to "Terry Callen."

(Btw, the unfortunately-placed sword and hilt wasn't positioned there intentionally. Ah, the ignorance of youth.)

The year was 1981. My art was a "Silly Cover" in the now long-defunct comic magazine Amazing Heroes. I had submitted the "Offenders" to the Comic Journal, as they used to print fan art in the letter pages. An editor named Peppy White wrote me stating they were starting a brand new comic magazine called Amazing Heroes. My art had given him the idea to begin a regular feature called Silly Covers. Mine would be the very first one. I was thrilled to see in printed AH #4.

How to Annoy People

A few years ago, I wrote four comic strips appearing in the Kansas City Star, which a friend of mine, Rich LaPierre, drew. I wanted to throw some random thoughts out there without having to work them into a Halo & Sprocket story. Here's one of 'em. Click to enlarge.