More Black Panther books to check out

After the news item from January 14 about DK’s Black Panther the Ultimate Guide two more books were released. This was my review for Color Your Own Black Panther on my Facebook timeline from March 1:

“I just received my comp copy of the “COLOR YOUR OWN BLACK PANTHER” coloring book from Marvel and, damn, am I impressed! I had no idea that these were the size of thin b&w trades at 60 pages! It has a diverse selection of iconic images starting with his Kirby/Sinnott debut in Fantastic Four in the silver-age through his Avengers covers, Jungle Action and Kirby solo series in the bronze-age through all the modern runs as helmed by Priest/Hudlin/Coates. Sal Velluto has 4 covers included where he inked himself and in addition we have 11 Sal&Bob combo images! Sal & I have always tried to produce art that would strongly hold it’s own even if printed in b&w and this is the first time that is being showcased as some of our detailed work was disappointing when printed almost 20 years ago as a lot of the textural fx were obscured in print. Not only does this reproduce work by The King & The Joltin’ One but also by Big John Buscema & Tom Palmer, Gil Kane & Klaus Janson, Mike Deodato, Jr., Alan Davis & Mark Farmer, Brian Stelfreeze & Karl Story, Andy Kubert, Kirby & Mike Royer, John Byrne & Dan Adkins, JRJr. & Janson, Ken Lashley, Doc Bright & Nelson DeCastro, Mike Manley, Mike McKone, Stephen Segovia, Kyle Hotz & Eric Powell and so many more! Even better, all the artists, including the INKERS are listed on the front credits page! The individual images are not identified, though, unless it’s from a cover that they signed. *Special thanks & appreciation goes out to Marvel’s Jennifer Grunwald, Caitlin O’Connell, Mark Beazley, Jeff Youngquist, Jess Harold and everyone else involved in this project and it’s research efforts! *All-in-all, if you’re an old or recent fan/collector of Black Panther and/or the artists this is a MUST pick-up IMHO. **AND AN OFFICIAL INKWELL AWARDS THUMBS-UP!

And on February 15 I commented about Black Panther: The Illustrated History of a King- The Complete Comics Chronology:

“I don’t know if anyone had ordered/picked up this large 14.5″X11.25 hardcover book Black Panther: The Illustrated History of a King- The Complete Comics Chronology released January 9 from Inside Editions and authored by Dennis Culver but I finally got mine which I was interviewed for through a several Q&As email in the fall from Dennis and Katie Kubert. A snippet of it is used on page 93 which starts discussing/showing content from Priest/Velluto & my period on the series with many full page cover art and other large images ending around page 105.

The 2018 Bob Almond/Inkwell Awards Convention Tour

Since I had posted my public appearance info in the top left news flash area some changes were made in the show schedule. After appearing at the Art & Design High School in NYC event “Fanfaire” in February we had to drop the Big Apple Comic Con scheduled for mid-April because while key members of my non-profit had received a promise by the promoter at their last show a year ago and it was personally confirmed with me and the promoter at last August’s Terrificon, we couldn’t connect with him or his artists alley coordinator in February/March. Some folks just don’t have the fortitude to say NO. I had hesitated for years from attending that venue because he struck me as unreliable and this only sealed the deal that my gut was right. Oh well, forward and onward!

 

Our next two shows in April are the following: April 7-8 is the Garden State Comic Fest: Atlantic City Edition. This is a new location for this show that we first attended last year at the Mennen Arena located in Morristown, NJ. The promoters Dave and Sal have been nothing but gracious and supportive of us and we are thrilled to be invited to Atlantic City and probably making it an annual Inkwell tour stop. Following that will be our first time attending the East Coast Comicon on April 27-29 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center, NJ. And after that we only have two shows presently locked in for the year: Heroes Con June 15-17 and Terrificon August 17-19 at their new and larger Mohegan Sun convention center. But there is another new show in September that has invited me to attend but I have to wait for approval before announcing it. Like 2017, this is another exciting year filled with new locations for us and I will reporting new places and dates once I can confirm.