Larry Marder Comic-Con Panel Scheduled!

Friday, July 25

6:00-7:00

Room 2

Larry Marder: The Beanworld Is Back! Legendary Beanworld creator, Larry Marder, is front and center in his first solo Comic-Con panel in 15 years. Learn how beans have been part of Marder's life since the day he was born! The rich visual presentation covers the entire history of his peculiar fantasy dimension including Marder's many influences. This is your opportunity to discover why Beanworld has captivated readers from grade school to grad school since its first publication as a series of comic books in the 1980s. Now, Dark Horse Comics is publishing Beanworld for an entire new generation of fans. Hear all the details about Marder's many up-coming Beanworld projects!

This will be an updated and expanded version of the talk I gave at Stumptown!

Beanworld Sprouts Anew at Dark Horse

So trumpets the headline this week in an interview with me in Publisher's Weekly.

The interviewer, Wil Moss, asked me about the drawing
I made for a colleague's wife's birthday,
that I talked about a bit in a piece that ran in POP!

The drawing above is a recreation of the piece in color.

And below is a direct scan of the original.

Thanks to Jeremy Atkins at Dark Horse for securing the interview with PW.

From the Beanworld Archives!

8" x 10"

Marker and colored marker

1987

I'm guessing that this was an unsold convention sketch. Mostly 'cuz it is marked $7- on the back in my handwriting. Considering the reasonably priced black and white "chip drawings" I was marketing at conventions at the time--I'd have passed up on this drawing myself! Now I like it way too much to part with it.

One of these says I'm going to write about the chip drawings in more depth. How many of you folks still have one or two of 'em?

Two Big Events Today!

It's National Do-Nut Day!

Thanks to the ever vigilant popular culture reporter, Whitney Matheson, over at Pop Candy, I learned that today is indeed National Do-Nut Day. Check out your local do-nut eatery and see if they are sliding free samples across the counter!

It's Charles Brownstein's 30th Birthday.

Hard to believe! I guess I've known Charles about as long as anyone else in the comic book field. I met him during the summer of 1994 when he came up to me at my Bean world table trying to get me to buy an ad on behalf of Image Comics for his fledgling Feature Magazine.

I believe that Charles had absolutely no idea who I was , beyond some dude in charge of Image Comics, and hadn't heard of Beanworld before. Why the guy in charge of Image Comics was behind a table in Artist's Alley, handing out FREE Beanworld Action Figures was probably a bit of a mystery to Charles too.

He was intrigued by the entire circumstance and started talking to me about Beanworld. I think I gave him some issues or trades to make this persistent kid go away.

He came back later, having devoured the issues and proceeded to ask me some of the most precise and perceptive questions about Beanworld anyone, anywhere has ever asked me--ever.

We've been friends ever since.

Charles is one of my best friends and Cory just adores him.

He remains one of Beanworld's strongest boosters and critics.

I sure am glad I gave him those books long ago.

Happy Birthday, Charles.

Have a great party tonight!

Bo Diddley RIP

Bo Diddley is gone. I've never said much about what the Boom'r Band might sound like. I've always saifd that the Boom'rs sound the way you want them to sound. That's what I told Robert, Indigo, and Erica when they asked about it for the Beanworld mini-animation. That's what the Boom'rs sounded like to them and so, that it was the proper accompaniment for their piece.

But one thing I've always been sure about is this: the rhythm in TOTB #6 (Yeah, yeah! The Clang Twang!) was a real hard driving Bo Diddley beat. His rectangular Gretsch guitar was, after all, often called the "Twang Machine." The first time I saw him rocking on that thing on Shindig! --I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. The man could rock and he had a sense of style that was unmatched. Even his album covers always were always a notch better than any of his contemporaries.

The Boom'r Band sure will miss him.

Larry Marder Podcast on Comic Geek Speak!

The guys at Comic Geek Speak have an extended podcast conversation
with me about a wide array of topics.
Click on the above link to hear it.

I kick in after the two minute mark of the stream after an ad for their sponsor, Team Epic. I really enjoyed this interview, including the parts about my tenures at Image Comics and McFarlane Toys. Even though I'm no longer affiliated in any way with either of those crews, I am still quite clear in what I accomplished (or fell short of) during that period of time in my life--almost 15 years.

But of course, my favorite thing to talk about is Beanworld. Of note is the behind-the-scenes, sit-com-like moment at the time marker of 22:27. I'm trying to explain the premise of Beanworld. One of my cats, Abby, decides that she is hungry and audibly meows while she was rubbing up against the phone handset. I can "hear" myself rolling my eyes and going off balance in mid-explanation as I'm shushing her away. I'm talking about Beanworld's food chain and Abby is also discussing with me her agenda of the moment which is MY participation in HER food chain!

This link takes you to the podcast feedback page of the website. The posters go off into a fascinating comparison of Beanworld with Fraggle Rock . I can not for the life of me ever remember this comparison coming up before, and obviously I was too old at the time that it ran on TV for it to have caught my notice. But I find this notion intriguing. I'm going to have to chase down the DVDs and give them a look-see.

Anyway, my thanks to the gang at Comic Geek Speak for the opportunity.

On another note: Check out this link too....for something completely different.