the eraser

In 2004 I got a fellow named Stewart McKenny in to work with me for a couple of months. He was good for me because he was a detail maniac. He would put so much more detail than I asked for that I then had to ask him to erase half of it for the sake of the composition, or worse, rub it out myself (Make room for me, Vinnie!). While he was rubbing away furiously, I observed that he appeared to be getting through his erasers at rather an alarming rate. An eraser would be good for a few hours then he'd have to discard it and start a new one. He explained to me that once the corners were worn off the thing was no longer of any use to him. Can't you take a razor blade and cut a new corner? I asked. Oh no, that never works. So, I said, in that case give them to me. And ever since that day, for the last three years, I have been using the erasers he left behind and have not once had to go out and buy one. I haven't seen Stewart in about a year, but today a package arrived in the mail, containing thirty three erasers, all with their little sharp corners worn down.


(The Eraser is one of my favourite old Batman villains. I revived him for DC in the first volume of Bizarro in a story titled Who Erased the Eraser.)


Batman #188 , 1966, © DC comics,

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my pal mr j links me to Feiffer's MUNRO, animated short by Kim Deitch, 1960, youtube. This is brilliant, and Feiffer must surely have loved it.
(update... wrote Kim by accident there. should of course have be Gene Dietch... thanks to Connor Moran in comments for kick in the pants)

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in comments here yesterday Bob Morales gave some links explaining the origin of the double V that Isaiah Bradley wore on his t-shirt in the Captain America yarn which I referred to here on May 4th.
"Shortly after America’s entrance in to World War II, The Pittsburgh Courier launched "The Double V Campaign" (Double V). Under the theme of "Democracy: Victory at Home, Victory Abroad" The Courier remained patriotic, yet pushed for civil rights for blacks..."
I didn't know that. thanks, Bob.
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since I last looked at the Groth-Ellison fiasco at PW the Beat, some anonymous has weighed in with the wisest words on the whole affair, a longish post which ends:
"So, seriously, what is the point of this case? It’s only going to make things worse for Ellison. In fact, it demonstrably has: I never would have read a goofy Fantagraphics history of itself, if for no other reason than to avoid Groth’s smarm, and thus would not have read or heard about his digs at Ellison. My life would have been better for it. But now I know exactly the statements Ellison found objectionable, and I know them because Ellison publicized them to a degree previously impossible. Seriously, man, who wants to hear Fantagraphics talk about itself?
I suspect that I am in the same boat as many, many, many others."
Indeed!
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