Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A Treat for Aparo Fans

Once upon a time, I thought that I was pretty much the biggest Jim Aparo fan in the world. That was until 5 or 6 years ago, when I (inter)met my good friend Michael from Alabama. He once ran an old school Jim Aparo Fan Club and published a newsletter. He was lucky enough to correspond (and even meet) with Jim several times over the years. This, combined with his passion for all things Aparo, gives Michael an incredible wealth of knowledge and material for his newish blog: http://jimaparofanclub.blogspot.com/ . Michael speaks to every subject, right down to the quality of Aparo's lettering, and is not afraid to showcase a lot of his lesser known Charlton work. It makes for a great read, and it shines a much deserved spotlight on this fine creator who is dearly missed. Great work, MWG!

4 comments:

M W Gallaher said...

I greatly appreciate your kind words and endorsement, Scott! (One quibble: you've put an extra "http://" in that link, so the link dead-ends.) I've had a lot of ideas percolating over the years to do a comprehensive Aparo website, but now I'm glad I waited until the popularization of the blog format, as opposed to the static old-school "museum" style website I had once envisioned. It's a lot easier to build up the content little-by-little...and I've got lots more on the way: the revised checklist, newspaper strip proposals, more early advertising work, posters, discussions on technique and artistic trademarks...and then there are topics from old copies of the print fanzine that I want to revisit.

Scott M said...

Oops... Fixed it! Sorry - was distracted by a CSBG piece this AM. It's a great blog, and you've got a regular reader in me. I'm really looking forward to learning more about JA.

Anonymous said...

I second your endorsement, Scott, for MW Gallaher's Aparo blog. Everyone should check it out... if you are just the least bit interested, or a longtime Aparo enthusiast, or just somewhere in between the site is a treasure trove of info. Yes, thanks indeed MWG.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this link. What a great site!

Aparo was the first artist I remember recognizing his style and enjoying a comic more because of it. His run on Brave and Bold is one of the jewels of my collection.

Although I have found other Bat-artists that I enjoy more, none will ever hold the same place in my heart as Jim. His Batman is the Batman of my youth and the basis for my understanding of who Batman is.