Creator Profile: John Ostrander

Posted by Terry on Aug 17, 2012 in Comic Art News | 0 comments

John Ostrander

Creator Profile: John Ostrander by Jerry Whitworth

Be it his work on Suicide Squad and Star Wars or his original character GrimJack, John Ostrander is a legend in the comic book business producing some of the best character driven stories in the industry. Born in 1949 and raised in Chicago, Ostrander was brought up Catholic and actually spent a year studying to become a priest. Instead, he would go on to become an actor and playwright working for the Organic Theater Company before being invited by friend Mike Gold, who was looking for content for his burgeoning publishing company First Comics, to produce back-up stories about “Sargon, Mistress of War” in the pages of their first comic Warp in 1983 (based on the plays being done by his theatric company). From there, the writer went on to scribe Starslayer: The Log of the Jolly Roger following the departure of its creator Mike Grell where in a back-up story of the title he co-created GrimJack with Timothy Truman. A mercenary and private investigator, John Gaunt operated the bar Munden’s under the name GrimJack. Within a year after his creation, GrimJack would be featured in his own monthly comic book series that would last for around seven years under his creator’s pen (with subsequent mini-series and one-shots like Demon Knight, GrimJack Casefiles, Killer Instinct, and the Manx Cat). Two years into his run on his GrimJack book, Ostrander would do his first work for DC Comics.

The Red Planet on the Four-Color Page: Mars in Comics

Posted by Terry on Aug 12, 2012 in Comic Art News | 0 comments

John Carter of Mars

The Red Planet on the Four-Color Page: Mars in Comics by Jerry Whitworth

Recently, NASA landed the Curiosity Rover on the surface of Mars providing a vast resource of information on the “red planet” that we never before had access toward. Man has told tales of the fourth planet from the sun for many years, a medium frequently employed in this way is the comic book. One of the earliest stories applied to the four-color page was from a source predating comic books by several decades. The Barsoom series written by Edgar Rice Burroughs describes Earthman John Carter as he is transported to Mars where he becomes that world’s champion and weds its princess. Created for pulp magazine (one of the chief progenitors to the comic book), Carter’s story would be applied to a comic strip for the Chicago Sun in 1941 but would be published for comic books in 1952 for Dell Comics, 1972 for DC Comics, 1977 (and again in 2012) for Marvel Comics, 1996 for Dark Horse, and 2010 for Dynamite Entertainment.

Make It So: Justice League the Movie

Posted by Terry on Jun 10, 2012 in Comic Art News | 0 comments

Justice League

Make It So: Justice League the Movie by Jerry Whitworth

Most of my Make It So articles have been about projects that make sense to me to be produced but have yet to be realized. For this installment, I’m going to break tradition and discuss a movie recently announced to be in development. The Justice League of America is DC Comics’ premier super hero team generally featuring their biggest icons like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman (of these, the final film in the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy will be in theaters next month, the first in a new Superman film series begins the summer of next year, and Wonder Woman has also been recently announced to be developed for film which was previously featured in Make It So). Developing the Justice League in a live action format is nothing new.