Excelsior!

I finished my last post with the exclamation "Excelsior" and I realized that many people may not know what that alludes to. Excelsior is the calling card that the immortal Stan Lee left at the end of all of his letters to fans when he was the Editor-in-Chief at Marvel Comics. And that brings me around to the topic that I want to talk about. Comic books.

To some, comics are children's books; books that have pictures for those who cannot read "adult" books. It is unfortunate that that mindset still exists, but I am grateful that the world has opened up to the idea that not only can comic books be great works of literature, but that they can also be great works of art. And such a variety of art. I came to the comic book world later in life than some, but there are artist names that even I recognize as being connected with great stories. Not just great art, but through that art great stories. Jim Lee, for example, who with writer Chris Claremont created the classic X-Men #1 (vol 2) that is still the best-selling comic book of all-time with sales of over 8.1 million copies. The number of people who have seen this man's artwork and have been inspired by it is mind boggling.

X-Men #1 (vol. 2)

A fellow Canadian, Todd McFarlane is a cartoonist, artist, writer, toy designer and entrepreneur, best known for his work in comic books, such as the fantasy series Spawn. McFarlane is the ultimate artist in the world of comics, with his imagery being turned into toys and movies. When he broke away from big business and created his own title, Spawn #1 sold 1.7 million copies, which is still a record for an independent comic book.

Spawn #1

So while artists like Picasso and Rembrandt may have their place in current history books as artists of great renown, I believe that future history books will have a place for comic book artists like Lee and McFarlane between their covers.