Friday, April 20, 2012
Noted
• Stevens Point, Wis., located just 30 miles from the CBG offices, is the site of The World’s Largest Trivia Contest, an annual benefit event for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus radio station. This is Trivia’s 43rd annual outing and the theme for the 54-hour contest, which begins at 7 p.m. E.T. tonight is “Trivia Grit,” paying tribute to the films of John Wayne. CBG Editor Brent Frankenhoff participates every year on a team which consistently places in the Top 20. How will Yaargh! I Like Big Grits and I Cannot Lie do this year? We’ll keep you updated throughout the weekend. Of course, you can play along with an online stream of the contest as well. Oh, yeah, there are no big cash prizes awarded, just trophies for the Top 10 teams (out of a field of around 400) and bragging rights. (An additional side note: Take any information found on user-editable websites such as Wikipedia with a large grain of salt this weekend as Trivia teams have been known to change entries to mess with other teams.)
• Jonathan Frid, who played Barnabas Collins on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, has died. A Dark Shadows DVD set was recently released, Dynamite Entertainment has the current comics rights, and a new film starring Johnny Depp as Collins is set for release later this year.
• It’s been reported via Facebook that artist Tony de Zuniga is recovering from a stroke he suffered earlier this week.
Yesterday’s Panel Quiz Answer
Willie Garvin’s first line in comics was, “Allo, Princess … Seems a long time …” and he said it in Modesty Blaise strip #22 in June 1963.
Today’s Panel Quiz
Whose first lines in comics were: “Hey, Groo! Join us for an evening of brews, bawdy women and cheese dip!”?
Born Today
John Ostrander (1949), comics writer
Steve Keeter (1956), comics writer and artist
Dale W. Berry (1960), comics writer and artist
Evan Dorkin (1965), comics writer and artist
Mark A. Lester (1965), comics artist
Birthdays Two Weeks From Now
Nestor Redondo (1928), comics artist
John Ridgway (1940), comics artist
Doug Cushman (1953), comics artist
Damon Willis (1963), comics artist
Tom Richmond (1966), comics artist
Every Wed. and Sat. California: City of Industry. Comic Book & Collectible Show.
Apr 20-22 Pennsylvania: Monroeville. Pittsburgh Comicon.
Apr 21-22 Massachusetts: Boston. Boston Comic Con.
Apr 21-22 Ohio: Columbus. Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE).
Apr 22 Michigan: Livonia. X-trava Con.
Apr 27-29 Illinois: Lombard. Windy City Pulp and Paperback Convention.
Question of the Week
Which comics creator would you most like to meet and why?
Comics-Related Media
• It’s Friday which means a new Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast will be available at NPR’s Monkey See blog sometime this morning.
• NBC has “Cat and Mouse,” a new episode of Grimm at 9 p.m. E.T.
The Magazine
