Earlier this week, comic book artist John Romita Jr. announced that his father has passed away at the age of 93. Here’s the official announcement: No other details of his passing are available at this time. Beginning his comic book career in 1949 on Famous Funnies, Romita floated between various companies drawing horror, war, romance, and superhero comics before landing
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Today would have been Steve Ditko’s birthday and in honor of that we’ll be looking some of our favorite comic book covers that he illustrated
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Wallace Wood (better known as Wally) was born June 17, 1927 in the tiny city of Menahga, Minnesota
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On Thursday, the official social media page of comic book artist Tim Sale announced that the renowned illustrator had passed away. Here’s the official announcement: It’s with a heavy sadness that I must announce that Tim Sale passed away today. He passed with the love of his life beside him, and loves all of you very much. Earlier this week,
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Today we celebrate Michael Turner’s birthday with a look at some of his most memorable works
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When you write a story that is so blatantly political, one with the express intent of pushing propaganda on an audience, can you really blame a reader for avoiding it? Recently Screenrant published an opinion piece discussing how manga has always had political connotations. I – for one -had no idea that a story could be political or that an
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Remembering Comic Book Creator John Buscema on His Birthday, December 11
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Welcome to a special Attack Helicopter Week edition of Art Highlight, a recurring segment where contributors to The Splintering showcase a piece of original art in their collection. In honor of this week’s theme, I am revealing a gem from my vault, the original splash art page to Fantastic Four #316, Page #3. This page is an absolute beauty and
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The 1970’s was definitely the grooviest decade in history. After all, how many decades can lay claim to disco, bell-bottom pants, and Bi-Centennial fever? The 1970’s also had a unique assortment of novelty items (cue the obligatory Pet Rock reference). One of my favorite novelty items to come out from that decade was the Power Record Book and Record Sets.
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What is a comic book crossover storyline? Well, it’s a comic book story that travels through at least two (but often more) different titles. For example, the classic Avengers/Defenders War took place between the two titles during the 1970s and is still talked about to this day by loyal fans. A crossover could also have one centric title, with several
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Marvel Comics has announced that as of this summer, their heroes will no longer be using guns or firearms. Of course, this will affect characters like the Punisher the most, but other Marvel characters such as Deadpool, Cable and Black Widow will also be losing their guns moving forward, in favor of either bladed weapons or hand-to-hand combat. Not only
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On the latest installment of Sit DOWN Sunday (hosted on Patrick Thomas Parnell’s YouTube channel Riot Press Productions), The Splintering founder Blake Worrell got another chance to discuss recent comic book news with Parnell and Mermaids creator Adam Post. This week, we discussed Marvel leaving Diamond Comic Distributors, Netflix’s plans to produce a series based on Keanu Reeves’ BRZRKR comic,
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Certainly Marvel’s The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl has her fans, and they are quite a vocal bunch. A vocal, special bunch. Despite efforts to claim otherwise, however, the Squirrel Girl character has never really been successful in carrying her own solo book. And yes, that includes trade paperback sales, too. One of the more objective voices commenting on the mainstream comic
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The family of legendary comic book artist John Buscema has released a statement that a large trove of the late creator’s artwork has been stolen from the family. Here is the statement from John Buscema’s daughter, Dianne Buscema-Gerogianis: “I am reaching out to you all as 45 pieces of Dad’s original artwork was stolen from our family this morning. I
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The Top 10 Greatest Horror Artists in Comic Book History
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This past June, the family of Joe Sinnott announced that the legendary Marvel Comics inker had passed away. Sinnott was born on 16 October, 1926, so we’ve chosen to commemorate his life on what would have been his 94th birthday. Joe Sinnott was born the sixth of seven children in Saugerties, New York. After serving in the U.S. Navy during
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A ranking of the Top 10 Monster characters in comic books
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Welcome back to another Top Ten list here at The Splintering. Today, we’re spotlighting the top ten writer/artist/creators – essentially, those creators who “do it all.” We’re taking everything into account on this one, including the creators’ writing, their artwork and their creations. Read on and be sure to let us know who we may have left out in the
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Comic book fans express their love and fandom of their favorite characters and stories in several ways. They may collect every issue of a character’s comic book, obtain signatures from their favorite creators, cosplay in creative homemade designs, collect action figures or statues, and even commission sketches from their favorite artists. For me, the ultimate in collecting comic books is
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Over the past 30-plus years, there have been numerous articles written devoted to the history of Kraven’s Last Hunt, a six-issue story arc which appeared across all three of Marvel’s Spider-Man titles in 1987. The story by JM DeMatteis, Mike Zeck, Bob McLeod and others seems to be in constant print, with trade paperbacks and hardcovers still being produced today.
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The word “variant” to comic book fans elicits a wide range of reactions. From excitement and wonder to frustration and disdain. People often forget that there were variants in play long before publishers began over-saturating the shelves with various cover images. Yes, there was the classic Canadian or UK price variant, but I’m talking about the Newsstand vs. Direct Edition
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On Thursday, legendary comic book writer Dennis O’Neil passed away from natural causes. O’Neil began his comic book career at Marvel Comics, where he penned Doctor Strange and Strange Tales. He would later bounce between Charlton Comics, DC Comics, returning to Marvel, and ultimately landing again at DC where he would become the editor of the entire Batman line of
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“Early July, 1861. The war has started, and the first major battle is about to take place. The Confederate Army, under General Beauregard, is camped on the west bank of Bull Run, a stream in Virginia that flows into the Potomac River. The plan is to prevent the Union Army from getting to the railroad center of Manassas Junction… and
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The MCU’s Fantastic Four film has found its leading man.
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Golden Age comic book artist Allen Bellman has passed away. He was 95 years old. Bellman worked as an artist at Timely and Atlas before the company eventually became Marvel Comics. During his career, Bellman worked on some enduring superhero icons including Captain America, The Human Torch, and Sub Mariner Comics. Bellman also worked on Westerns, jungle adventures, mysteries, and
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Longtime comic book artist Tom Lyle has passed away at the age of 66. Though the the cause of death has yet to be announced, Lyle suffered a brain aneurysm underwent surgery to remove a blood clot in September. Lyle was a prolific artist (and sometimes writer) over his career, but he is most well-known for his work with Marvel
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As part of their Marvel Future Fight mobile game, Marvel recently announced a new all-Asian superhero team: the Warriors of the Sky. The characters include War Tiger from Thailand, Blue Dragon from Vietnam, Sun Bird from Malaysia. and Shadow Shell from Taiwan, all of whom are identifiable with color-coded designs and animal “totems”. Looks fine, right? Well, as Twitter user
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Longtime comic book artist Tom Lyle is in a coma after suffering a brain aneurysm. Tomb Raider artist Phillip Sevy broke the news on social media: “So my mentor & friend #TomLyle is in the hospital right now after suffering a brain aneurysm. The doctors are hopeful but he could use all the good thoughts/wishes/etc.” Sevy provided additional information on
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Over the past 24 hours, renowned comic book artist J. Scott Campbell has teased out five variant covers for The Amazing Mary Jane #1, a spinoff book featuring Peter Parker’s stunning, scarlet-haired love interest. These variants feature M.J. styled in era-appropriate dress across a span of five decades: the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and I suppose the 2019 version is
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Marvel reacquired the Conan comic book license earlier this year, and since then, the Conan comics have been a fairly successful sales story, by modern standards, anyway. Marvel must be happy with the performance of the Conan property, because earlier in September, the publisher acquired the comic book rights to two other Robert E. Howard characters: Dark Agnes and Solomon
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