A Sunday Assembly of Assorted Sundries
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Yea or nay on those vertical comics? Liza Donnelly in the spotlight. A tough comics quiz (Flash Gordon has a superpower?). Bill Mauldin, drawn to combat. The Adventures of Superman drawn by Joe Shuster. Comic Stew Fun(ny book). A comic tradition began 90 years ago.
The Case for Vertical Comics
Julian Lytle at K-ComicsBeat makes the case that vertical comics are the way to go:
After reading part of this Weird City article about the new USA Today Spider-Man Infinity Comic and the issues the writer is having with reformatted print comics to vertical scroll comics. I’m at the point where I’m starting to prefer reading my Big 2 (Marvel & DC) comics in this format, even if they aren’t originally designed for this format. While the comics made for this format by Marvel and DC, like Wayne Family Adventures on Webtoon or any of the many Infinity Comics Marvel puts on their Unlimited app, I end up defaulting to their current popular comics like Absolute Batman or Hickman’s Ultimate Spider-Man more often than not.
Spoiler alert!
While admitting that more care is needed with reformatting (editing) the old “widescreen” to the new vertical layout…
[He thinks] the positives of getting people who never read these stories are a better upside than not doing it. I feel vertical scrolling comics are a major part of the future of comics. It’s taken over half the world, and this format is doing a great job of bringing new generations into the medium. Reformatting older and current Western comics is a great way to bring previous generations into the future if they are willing to take the chance.
Featuring Liza Donnelly!
Bored Panda featured 26 Liza Donnelly panel cartoons and talked to her about cartooning.
With a career spanning decades, Liza Donnelly has built a reputation for using cartoons to explore culture, politics, and everyday life with a sharp eye and a thoughtful sense of humor. As a longtime cartoonist for The New Yorker and resident cartoonist for CBS News, her work has reached audiences through some of the world’s most recognized publications, including The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and Forbes.
“I love people, and love drawing people as they go about life. Our common humanity is in what we do every day, I look for the things we share. And ones that are absurd, funny or poignant.”
A Comic Strip and Graphic Novel Quiz
The Barcelona Review presents a quiz that is not easy.
I knew some and took lucky guesses at others but the one specific comic strip question stumped me:
9. Flash Gordon was a comic strip from the 1930s. What was Flash’s, extremely rare at the time, superpower?
Filled out the form and sent it but received no answers to the questions.
So what is Flash Gordon’s superpower?
Bill Mauldin – Drawn to Combat
The travelling Bill Mauldin exhibit is arriving at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.
Join The National WWII Museum for the opening of Drawn to Combat: Bill Mauldin and the Art of War, a special exhibition exploring the life and legacy of one of the most important American cartoonists of the 20th century. This traveling exhibit traces Bill Mauldin’s life and career from his early artistic development through World War II and into the postwar decades, highlighting Mauldin’s ability to capture the daily realities of life on the front lines in Europe with honesty, humor, and sharp insight.
Following a reception from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Museum Curator Chase Tomlin will be joined by Nat Mauldin, son of Bill Mauldin, and Todd DePastino, a Mauldin historian, for a special panel discussion.
The event is scheduled for 4pm July 16, 2026. Drawn to Combat: Bill Mauldin and the Art of War will be on display through April 18, 2027, in the Museum’s Senator John Alario, Jr. Special Exhibition Hall.
The Adventures of Superman illustrations by Joe Shuster
Peter Bosch for 13th Dimension treats us to the ten full page illustrations for 1942’s The Adventures of Superman novel.
Not long after Superman became an incredible success, the workload for co-creator Joe Shuster – which included drawing the newspaper strip as well as the comic books – became quite heavy.
Other artists were hired to help out, including Fred Ray and Wayne Boring. However, there was one project Shuster kept for himself, illustrating the 1942 novel The Adventures of Superman by George Lowther.
Comic Stew Fun(ded)
Dan (Rip Haywire, Brevity, KidSpot) Thompson set up a Kickstarter for his other comics and got it funded in a mere 7 hours! But you can still back this “collection of Screwball Comedy, Crime Noir, and Adventure Comics thrown together in a fun comic book collection.”
The Dagwood and Mr. Beasley Trope Began 90 Years Ago
Not sure when Mr. Beasley first appeared in the Blondie comic strip but it was 90 years ago, on July 13, 1936 when trope of Dagwood running into the mailman began.
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