TOASTMASTERS
Thank you all so very much for reading my blogs over the last weeks as I wrote this series on comic books for my Toastmasters assignment. The series is complete, but I’m sure I have more to say about comic books in the future, but I thought it might be a good idea to tell you about what Toastmasters is and my involvement in it.
How the heck did they even let me do a whole project on Comic Books?
It first began by reprinting newspaper comic strips, and then it illustrated adventure stories had previously been in pulp novels and magazines, then the detectives put on masks and a man could leap tall buildings in a single bound. It was the Golden Age of Comic Books, the Golden Age of Super Heroes.
As mentioned previously, though I had read a few other comics, the first series I was committed to reading every issue was All-Star Squadron. A book that took place during that “Golden Age.”
I would discover and read other books at that time, some Justice League of America, Brave & and the Bold which would be replaced by Batman and the Outsiders, and The New Teen Titans.
When I was young, during my Elementary School and Junior High years, I was struggling with reading. It was recommended to my parents that I should take further classes and have special tutors. One such tutor was in an after-school period on campus, while another one was off campus at a place called “The Reading Game.” These tutors helped me, but there was other help that I received that would improve my education.
It was during this period of time I first discovered comic books, as mentioned in my previous post, and I was regularly reading them… and I was reading them not just looking at the artwork (and I’ll tell you about the artwork and artists in a later post).
One day when my parents are having a ‘parent/teacher’ meeting with my special reading tutor to talk about how I was doing. They brought up the fact that I was reading comics, and asked if this was a good thing or should they take the comics away to have me read “real” books.
This month of August (2017) I am doing a series of sketched based on the career of Comic Book legend Jack Kirby’s career.
I started off with the Blue Beetle because that was the first masked hero that Kirby illustrated. It appeared in a news paper comic strip.
My second illustration is of Sandman and Sandy the Golden Boy.
Ol’ Wesley Dodds tosses away his trench coat, fedora, and gas mask for the bright tights that all the latest heroes were wearing. He also picked up a young Side Kick. Sandy’s shirt changed a little from issue to issue, but here he looks striking like Captain America’s partner Bucky.
Speaking of Cap, the third sketch is of Captain America and based on the cover art of Captain America #1 in 1940.
I hope to continue drawing more Kirby characters through out the month. (I did continue to draw Kirby characters through out August 2017, see my portfolio.)
Hope you enjoy.
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