Toth’s contributions to the comics medium are not widely known among casual fans. He did much of his comics work outside the current mainstream of superhero comics, concentrating instead on such subjects as hot rod racing, romance, horror, and action-adventure. His stint on Disney’s Zorro is highly regarded and has been reprinted in trade paperback form several times and there are two volumes of The Alex Toth Reader published by Pure Imagination which focuses on his work for Standard and Western publishing, but otherwise the bulk of his shorter stories can be difficult to locate. Nonetheless, he is widely regarded as an “artist’s artist” and is often lumped among such greats as Will Eisner and Jack Kirby as one of the undisputed masters of the sequential storytelling medium.
Make sure to check out his featured section of graphic novels at Hijinx in our Fiction and Literature section.
Children of the Atom
Maybe it's something in the water, but Hijinx customers have started developing strange new powers and abilities. Gaze in awe at the Levinson brothers, who will be starting soon at an upscale prep school for gifted youngsters in the Westchester NY area.
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Hijinx Comics: Voted Best Comic Book Store in Silicon Valley 2007.
At Hijinx comics get priority. Not overpriced "hot" back issues from last month,
but quality comics for readers
of all ages and tastes.
You'll find an extensive array of comic books and graphic novels and that our friendly staff is
well-versed in all types of comics, with a fondness for self-published and independent titles.
This is just a "proof of concept" teaser for what looks to be one of the coolest high concept sci-fi movies in a long time. I just hope that there are brains in jars somewhere in the final film. The production design and special effects look fantastic, and I really can't wait to check out the finished product. Check out more on their website.
Some of you may know that I write Free software for use in the comic book retail industry. I give away my software to help make it better and to ensure that retailers have a choice beyond proprietary software that enforces the heartbreak of "vendor-lock". Granted, I don't make any money selling my software but it's already saved me so much money just by using it, and all of the constructive comments from comic shops across the country that use it have made my little labor of love even better.
Back when I worked in the software industry I could hit up my bosses to pay my way into conferences like Google I/O coming up later this month. It costs $400 to register as a developer for the two day event in San Francisco, and I really want to go. The new version 2.0 of my retailer software uses a bunch of cool tools that Google has released lately and I think the conference could really help me make the new stuff a real quantum leap ahead of my current system.
So, that brings me to shaking the virtual tin cup. If you care at all about helping me help the comics retail industry escape domination by one or two software vendors, please donate whatever you feel is appropriate. The little progress graph is a good example of one of the great tools Google offers to developers like me that will be integrated into Hijinx 2.0. Thanks!
Here's a really old Muppet clip featuring our old pal Kermit and Harry the Hipster, both performed by the late, great Jim Henson. Kermit tries some visual thinking excercises and is given a little lesson in jazz by Harry. I love the part where Kermit says he doesn't like jazz!
Once upon a time not so long ago, this cartoon was considered totally appropriate for viewing by kids on Saturday mornings. Not just appropriate, it was one of the funniest cartoons ever made, and it was assumed that kids knew the difference between cartoons and reality. Somewhere along the line since then it's been decided that this cartoon is too dangerous to show to young children as it trivializes gun violence and sends an bad message.
Thank goodness for the internet and YouTube that we can now see these incredibly funny and beautifully produced cartoons any time we want, we just can't see them on TV with the rest of the focus-group created toy commercials masquerading as cartoons that dominate Saturday mornings today.
Speaking of Johnny Quest, here's the original show opener. No cartoon opening credits have ever been as cool as this. You've got frogmen, mummies, several death rays, machine guns, dinosaurs, walking robot eyes, and of course Race kicking much ass. Plus, the swinging jazz theme music, with a driving action beat but still light enough for a little piccolo solo there at the end when they introduce the cartoon cast. I think the very ending notes get cut off here, but you've got to admit that you got excited just listening to it!
This is one part of a much longer documentary about one of the best adventure cartoons ever made for TV: Johnny Quest. It concentrates on Race Bannon, who is unquestionably the coolest character on the show, and one of the toughest guys in TV history.
However, as cool as Race may have been in a fight, he was far from perfect. Her's another clip from the documentary that goes into some of the more politically incorrect moments of the show, including the famous "racist Bannon" scene where Race dyes himself purple to impersonate a god and proceeds to insult the "heathen monkey" natives. Let's watch:
