Favorite Publishers of 2022 : BEEHIVE BOOKS!

BEEHIVE BOOKS was one of my great discoveries of 2022, an American publisher releasing esteemed and under the radar public domain works in stunning, high-quality, archival quality slip-cased editions with lavish book design, and accompanying sumptuous  art by some of the celebrated artists, most notably some of my favorite artists, artists that cut their teeth in the cartoonist and comic-book realm, artists such as Bill Sienkiewicz, David Mckean, Paul Pope. Along with artists from other fields and disciplines.

Below is my complete collection of Beehive Books as it stands here at the beginning of 2023, five of their illuminated edition and one of their art books. All of the books are massive tomes, if you are familiar with the size of a DC Absolute, itself a massive tome, these books are larger even than those.

Sewn binding, compelling introductions, quality paper stock, and just private library worthy tomes to adorn better bookshelves everywhere, at a relatively affordable price, for what you get.

I have MOST OF their current Illuminated Editions except their OSCAR WILDE, which I had, but ended up selling, because at the time the art did not quite speak to me.and now that one is sold out.

Also not interested in their blazing world or peter pan illuminated editionS.

However THESE BEEHIVE BOOKS ILLUMINATED EDITIONS, a very new collection, that is quite doable to collect them all if moved to.

But whether you select few or many, these are books worth adorning your shelf.

for myself my next purchases from beehive books will be their 2023 releases of DRACULA and KWAIDAN, both of which I am very looking forward to.

Below, enjoy pics of my collection as it stands today:

 

 

If I had to rate my collection, not on the stories (some will appeal more than other, HG Wells ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU is a personal favorite) , but rather as art objects, and the height of book design made manifest, and shelf worthy tomes, they would go from Great to  Exceptional/Top Notch:

• OSCAR WILDE           7/10

• THE GREAT GATSBY  8/10

• VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS – Jim Woodring  9/10

• CRIME AND PUNISHMENT – Dave Mckean  9/10

• WILLOWS – Paul Pope 10/10

• THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU – Bill Sienkiewicz 10/10

 

Thanks for looking and please support this blog by liking, subscribing and clicking on the images and links to purchase your copies. Copies through the links earn this blog much appreciated pennies to keep the proverbial lights on.

 

Podcast of the Day : The Best Doug Moench Interview!

THE BEST DOUG MOENCH INTERVIEW!

I just discovered this COMIC SHENANIGANS interview with Doug Moench.

From April 2017 this interview is FANTASTIC! Doug Moench (pronounced mensh) is a legendary comic writer, but arguably not as legendary as he should be. While names like Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Chris Claremont and John Byrne are known to even peripheral fans of comics, the name Doug Moench  arguably doesn’t get the praise he deserves.

His work in the 70s and 80s brought a sophistication to comics, that tends to get attributed to the year 1986 and the one two punch of Frank Miller’s DARK KNIGHT and Alan Moore’ s WATCHMEN, but those iconic books didn’t get born in a vacuum.  It came in stages through creators, by fits and starts, progressing the medium.  Creators such as…

The phenomenal work of Stan Lee in the 1960s creating stories that talked to the audience, rather than at the audience. His stories, his dialog, was snappy and fun patter which sung for the first time to a college audience, rather than strictly to the kid audience, and really separated Marvel from everyone else.

Stan Lee gets credit, but I think too many people in a rush to praise the artists, and address any slights,  such as Jack Kirby and Ditko and Romita etc (men deserving of praise) , they stumble into a very trumpian conceit of feeling that in order to praise the artists they have to tear down the writer, namely Stan Lee.  And quite frankly that is just insipid. You can praise them both, and should praise them both.

Beacause all that beautiful FF art, if married to insipid dialog/writing you have underwhelming stories. Or if you have stories that don’t hype/excite the audience, all the art is not going to save it. The silver age series SHIELD (pre and even some of the early Steranko) is an example of this.  Interesting Kirby art, but pretty boring , uninteresting writing.

Stan was writing the whole Marvel Universe at the time, and I don’t think war and spy books was his strength, so this series is pretty poorly written/dialoged, and all Kirby’s art couldn’t save it. The same thing could have happened to FF, but for Stan’s love for those characters and stories. The FF stories are great because Stan is at the top of his game as ideaman/writer, and Kirby is at the top of his game as storyteller/artist.  It is the collaboration of words and images that make those early FF stories work.

Stan Lee as ideaman, as writer, as editor, as cheerleader, as salesman, as enthusiastic fount of energy is unequaled. He put Marvel Comics  on his back and he carried it with a smile, onto the road that it is on now. With his passion to identify his creators and sell them to his audience, something no other publisher was doing, he gave birth to a generation of future writers and artists. As well as his more experimental work, allowing the competition (DC) to likewise let their writers off the leash. You get some of the best late 60s /early 70s Kanigher, Giordano, ONeil, Haney stories as a reaction to Marvel’s inroads to the college audience.

So you get a bunch of writers in the wake of Stan, growing the medium.

Among them being Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Steranko, David Kraft, Keith Giffen, ONeil, Claremont, and arguably one of the most innovative of them… Doug Moench.

Doug Moench is known to a younger generation mostly for his later Batman work, however thanks to a new bunch of collections coming out from Marvel; the work that put him on the map (to even other comicbook creators) THE MASTER OF KUNG FU and MOON KNIGHT is finally readily available. Its availability allowing old and new to revisit these groundbreaking works, and put in clearer perspective this pivotal creator.

His MOKF, while of its age was more sophisticated than anything else coming out in comics, and looking back on it, now nearly 4 decades later, those stories are still incredibly entertaining. Particularly the issues with his long time collaborator, Paul Gulacy, are a phenomenal marriage of words and pictures.

Arguably 4 decades later, their ‘CAT’ story from issue #38 of the MASTER OF KUNG FU SERIES (and now available in Volume II of the MASTER OF KUNG FU Omnibus) is one of the greatest single issues of a comic. And fellow collaborators Mike Zeck, and the late great Gene Day also brought wonderful life to the words of Moench.

Likewise his MOON KNIGHT series with Bill Sienkiewicz was month in and month out one of the most sophisticated and daring and heartfelt books being put out; and opened the door for the success of the comic shop, and the rise of the Independent publishers. It gave a generation of writers a broader perspective on what can be done in a comic book. Many talented writers and artists have tried their hands at the character of Moon Knight since Moench’s departure, a few have been good, Warren Ellis and Jeff Lemire come to mind, most have been awful, and none have been the equal of Moench and Sienkiewicz’s run. That is something, when 4 decades of writers, cannot equal or surpass what you did.

Add to that three of the most haunting Batman stories, a trilogy of one shot issues done with Pat Broderick, and phenomenal creator owned work SIX FROM SIRIUS with Paul Gulacy, as well as his work in the Black and White mags,  and you have some of what makes Doug Moench one of the best writers in the history of comics.

Now with my 2 cents out of the way, go listen to the interview from the man himself:

https://comicshenanigans.podbean.com/category/doug-moench/