Jack Kirby

Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times writing on Laker Coach Phil Jackson: "His new followers will learn. They will learn to separate hype from the rim-bending reality that Jackson is just another coach if Shaquille O'Neal can't hit a free throw in the fourth quarter. "For now, in his dynasty postpartum, Let's Do Lunch Phil and his sublime coastal cultists share a dream. They wake up, worship the ocean, breathe the dirty air (?) and believe he will lead the Lakers to an NBA title or two or six.

DO gods ride surfboards? The upcoming "Fantastic Four" sequel features one of the most enigmatic and best-loved denizens of the Marvel Comics universe: the detached, philosophical and ultra-powerful Silver Surfer. "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" pits the superhero group against a creature who rides the crests of cosmic waves, exploring the mysteries of existence, bringing with him salvation ... or devastation.

In October, Haspiel will be one of 18 creators featured in the hardcover collection "The Act-I-Vate Primer," which brings to the printed page the inspired spirit of Act-I-Vate Comix, the routinely outstanding Web-comics collective. Haspiel's contribution is a story with his signature character, Billy Dogma, who this time around is reeling from a broken heart. It was a challenging and special story for Haspiel to put together but not a pleasant one. Last December, Haspiel's girlfriend of seven years boarded a flight to spend the holidays in her native England and ended up reuniting with an old flame.

Can a group of mutant teenagers work together to avoid their own destruction and grab a TV following in the process? Fox, Marvel Films and New World Entertainment are betting $4 million they can. The companies are behind tonight's live-action TV movie "Generation X," based on the comic book of the same name, which is a spinoff of the "X-Men" comic-book series. Issues of "Generation X" comics routinely sell more than 200,000 copies worldwide.

Stitches A Memoir David Small W.W. Norton: 330 pp., $23.95 Since the first caveman drew images on walls, human beings have had an urge to document their stories in pictures. While that impulse made its way onto paper as comics by the mid-19th century, the emergence of fully rendered graphic stories didn't begin until the 1920s and '30s -- and the medium's artistic side wasn't completely realized until 1978, the year that both Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's "Silver Surfer" and Will Eisner's "Contract With God" appeared.

When the Fantastic Four make their big-screen debut on July 8, nobody will have a bigger smile than their postman, Willie Lumpkin. As readers of Marvel Comics already know, the bespectacled Lumpkin delivers mail to the FF's headquarters -- that would be the world-renowned Baxter Building. In the newest Marvel Comics superhero flick, Lumpkin is played by none other than Stan Lee, who together with illustrator Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four way back in the early 1960s.

Jack Kirby remembers quitting his job drawing Betty Boop animated cartoons while he was a teen-ager living in New York's Lower East Side because the work was too much like the garment district piecework that was commonplace in the neighborhood he was trying to escape. "We sat at rows of tables and got paid very little," said Kirby.

Superman won't be going up, up, and away from Warner Bros. In a crucial legal victory for the Burbank studio, a federal judge in Los Angeles on Wednesday denied an effort by the heirs of Superman co-creator Joseph Shuster to reclaim their 50% interest in the world's most famous superhero. Superman is one of Warner's most valuable characters, having generated more than $500 million at the domestic box office with five films and billions of dollars more from television series such as “Smallville,” toys and games, and 74 years' worth of comic books.

The online premiere last month of a Black Panther animated series was an exciting event for diehard comic geeks. The Panther, the first black superhero from Marvel, inspired me as a young comic fan. Now, all grown up with academic credentials to justify my comic habit, I can see the good and the bad in the new "motion comic" (a 21st century way to say cartoon). Moving it off the printed page and into animation is an important benchmark, but I'm concerned about its solely digital presentation.

Aman named Wallace and his dog, Gromit, face a predicament: They have crackers but no cheese to put on them. What to do? Take a vacation to a place that has cheese. They look at one another and their minds click simultaneously. The moon. It's made of cheese. So the two of them (the dog is the real brain behind the operation) build a rocket in the basement of their home and set off for the moon.