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Richard H. Goldwater, 1936-2007

Posted by Sean Taylor on October 9, 2007 at 2:00pm

(reposted from SuperHeroNews)

IN LOVING MEMORY
Richard H. Goldwater
1936-2007

Richard H. Goldwater, President/Co-Publisher of Archie Comics, passed away October 2, 2007, after a courageous battle with cancer. Richard’s father, John Goldwater, was the creator of “Archie Andrews” – America’s perennial teenage “Everyman,” and his girlfriends “Betty Cooper” and “Veronica Lodge.”

In 1941, John and his business partners, Louis Silberkleit and Maurice Coyne, founded MLJ, the company that later came to be known as Archie Comic Publications. Richard joined the Company after college and, after working his way up through the Company learning all facets of running a successful comic book publishing business, took the Company private together with his life-long friend, Louis’ son, Michael Silberkleit, Chairman/Co-Publisher.

As Editor-In-Chief, Richard strived to produce good, clean, wholesome comics suitable for family entertainment. Under Richard’s careful stewardship, millions of fans all over the world have grown up chuckling at the antics of “Archie” and his friends. He helped make the “bff” relationship between “Betty” and “Veronica” and the “Archie,” “Betty” and “Veronica” love triangle an integral part of American popular culture. Over the years, “Archie” and his friends have changed with the times and embraced current fads. They’ve gone from poodle skirts and sock hops to e-mail and in-line skating. But the age-old teenage issues of dating, crushes, school, homework, sports and parents that they struggle with have remained the same. Nowadays, “Archie” and his friends interact with fans online at ArchieComics.com.

When asked about the reason for “Archie's” enduring appeal, Richard told the New York Times in 1973: "He's basically a square, but in my opinion squares are the backbone of America. If we didn't have squares, we wouldn't have strong families."

Richard worked tirelessly to make sure Riverdale was the kind of town you would want to live in. While the main characters have always been “Archie,” “Betty,” “Veronica,” “Jughead” and “Reggie,” Richard made sure that a diverse cast of ethnic characters were an integral part of Riverdale’s population. Just about everyone in America has at one time read an Archie
Comic.

Richard was instrumental in the introduction of new properties, such as “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Josie and the Pussycats,” and in the diversification of the Archie Comics product line via the addition of licensed properties, such as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “Sonic the Hedgehog.” In each case, Richard ensured that the comic stories fit with the company’s strong family values. He took great satisfaction knowing that Archie Comics only produced comics with content that parents could trust to be appropriate for their children. Richard was instrumental in expanding the reach of Archie Comics beyond U.S. Borders. Archie Comics have been translated from English into French, Spanish, German, Greek, Korean, Swedish Danish, Russian, Vietnamese, Hindi and Arabic.

Richard also assisted Michael with efforts to expand Archie’s core characters into other mediums – including countless “Archie”, “Sabrina” and “Josie” animated television series, a long running live action “Sabrina” television series that has been seen in 34 different countries, a “Josie and the Pussycats” theatrical motion picture and “The Archies” musical group that had tremendous success in the 60’s and 70’s.

In commenting upon Richard’s passing, Michael said: “I am proud to know that my good friend Richard played a major role in bringing America’s favorite teenage humor characters into millions of American homes. I will miss him profoundly, both as a life-long friend and business partner.”

Victor Gorelick, Vice President/Managing Editor, said, “I worked with Richard for almost 50 years. He passed on his enthusiasm and love for the “Archie” characters to me. He was my boss and my friend. I’m going to miss him and our almost daily talks. While he would come into my office to go over cover ideas, story topics and editorial direction, we also enjoyed engaging in lively discussions about cars, food, boats and the good old days.”

Richard is survived by his three daughters, Lisa, Taylor and Summer. There will be a Memorial Service to celebrate Richard’s life on Wednesday, October 10th at Zion Memorial Chapel, 785 E. Boston Post Rd. Mamaroneck NY at 2PM (914-381-1809). In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial donations be made to The Center for Hope, 590 Post Road, Darien, CT 06820
(203-655-4693).

Contact: Michael Silberkleit
Chairman/Co-Publisher
Archie Comic Publications, Inc.
325 Fayette Avenue
Mamaroneck, New York 10543
(914) 381-5155 Ext. 213

Faith: Warrior Princess - Featured comic of the week at www.ZGraphicNovels.com

Posted by Bud Rogers on October 8, 2007 at 6:02pm

One of my favorite Christian comics out there is the featured comic of the week at www.ZGraphicNovels.com, Faith: Warrior Princess by Layne Toth, Chris Yambar and Levi Krause.

Check it out at http://www.zgraphicnovels.com/exclusives/

And if you really like it, we have copies available at Community Comics: http://www.communitycomics.com/cc_partners_fwp.html

A "Second Chances" Fan Art

Posted by Gerard Lee on October 7, 2007 at 11:24am

Here is a fan art I did for Jeremy Lee Atkinson(who is a member of our wonderful CCAS Social Network) based on his "Second Chances" story. You can read "Second Chances", along with other fabulous stories like JCServant's "Wildlight", Shan Kodger's "Lightning Prophetess", and many others at:

http://www.cyberlightcomics.com/

God bless you all, and may you have wonderful weeks!

Gerry Lee

Do not let your heart be troubled...

Posted by Howard Lee Kent on October 6, 2007 at 5:37pm

Hello CCAS members....

I just wanted to encourage you all that what God has started in you, He will also finish in you.

Hebrews 6:10 says: "God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them."

What ever part of the ministry you are doing, continue to the very end. I have seen and read a lot of what you have done and I think it is just great. I would love to hear from more of you and I pray for each one of you everytime I log on to the site. Christina Cheek is working with me on a project called "The Overcomers." It will hit different parts in our lives and hope when you read the series, you can relate to the characters' situations and thoughts. More on that later.

I would also like to add that Christina is a wonderful artist and has a great eye for detail. Some people say that she has two.

Just keep up the good work guys and gals and don't let ol'slewfoot get in the way. OK?

God bless you all..............Howard Kent

New Hope

Posted by Jeremy Lee Atkinson on October 6, 2007 at 12:28pm

I'm glad I found this place. It is nice to have a place where I can Be associated with very Talented Christian people. I hope To learn alot from here plus maybe gain support from here as I try to take my comic Second Chances as far as the Lord will allow.

"Shelter of Wings"- a reader's reaction

Posted by Gerard Lee on October 5, 2007 at 5:19pm

The story begins by throwing the reader right into an intense and exciting battle between angels and demons. The one weak spot is that everything happens so quickly that the gorgeous art seems to want to keep the story moving at breakneck speeds, while the dialogue introduces some important information that you may want to slow down and remember for later. Just my opinion:)

I like Jenna. There's something unreal about the angels and demons. The angels are very otherworldly, and take some time getting used to. The demons are a bit too light and comical for me, but this is a Christian fantasy, not a treatise on demonology:) But Jenna's scenes bring the reader 'down to earth' and gives us a familiar world context to catch our breaths before we return to the spiritual realm.

Jenna is in pain and hurting, but she responds quickly to love and seems to genuinely want answers. The scenes where her angelic guardian speaks with her about the Lord Jesus and spiritual things are my favorite, because the writer/artist really conveys the sense of Jenna's wonder well. I'm not so interested in angels and demons, but when they interact with a well written character like Jenna, it's very engaging and entertaining.

In the end, do I think this book glorifies God? Yes. God is treated very reverently in this book. I will buy the next one when it comes out.

Well, that's what I thought, about "Shelter of Wings"

Me and my Blog.

Posted by Anthony Rodriguez on October 5, 2007 at 7:40am

Hmph. Thats not a bad title. I should use that for like a video blog show or something. "Me and My Blog", catchy like "Attack of the Show". Anyway, i finally got another one of these social networking sites up and running. I like doing these. It like 15 minutes of fame for people like me. I just don't what pics i'm gonna put where. I don't want them all to be the same, that makes them all redundant. Hmmmm.......well, thats something to think about. :)

A beautiful thing happened today.

Posted by Steve MacDonald on October 4, 2007 at 3:54pm

A beautiful thing happened today. A warrior for the Lord was freed from this land of dying to join Him in the land of the Living. She fought well, strong, and long, all for His Glory, and was rewarded with eternal, painless, sorrowless life. She was a testimony to His Goodness and Faithfulness, and brought many prisoners the key to the locks on their chains – that key being the repentance of sins and faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.Meanwhile, here on Earth, Lois MacDonald, our mother, grandmother, friend and co-laborer, peacefully breathed her last breath after a three-week struggle trying to regain her health after falling ill and being admitted to the hospital. The last week of her life saw her regain consciousness and communicate with her family. The progress was not enough to keep her with us. She was a blessing to us all. Thank you all for your words of comfort, encouragement, kindness and prayers.

Guardian Heroes #00

Posted by Donald Ensign on October 3, 2007 at 7:00pm

Guardian Heroes #00 (May 2006). Alias Comics/Astounding Studios, Kevin Grevioux (writer), Leonel Castellani (penciler), Eduardo Lemos (inker), $3.50, 24 pp.

Kevin Grevioux, actor and screen writer produced several comics (The Hammer Kid, Valkyries, The Vindicators, Alivs Rex) under his Astounding Studios imprint and published them through Alias before the publisher left the direct sales market last year. These books appeared as Alias was winding down and never had an opportunity to gain any real traction in the marketplace or even produce second issues.

The Guardian Heroes is a highly professionally produced pack- age aimed at a pre-teen audience. The series concept is simple and compelling. Grevioux establishes a Biblical worldview by starting his story quoting from Genesis chapter one. He then presents Biblical characters (Moses, Joshua, Samson, David, etc) as “Heroes of Light” who combat the “denizens of the dark.” In modern times we have “other heroes who fight for truth and justice” like Donar, Imperion, Zhara, Kilowatt, Bolt and Komrade Kazan. A Satan like character named Deadzluv (leader of The Fallen) recruits a crowd of super villains to began his battle to destroy mankind through its children. However a large group su- per heroes are recruited by an angel from the “Ancient of Days”. The angel declares, “All of your shall be assigned one of these gifted children to mentor and protect from the Fallen and their super-villainous minions.” This issue sets the stage and ends with the initial battle for the lives and souls of these gifted children. Grevioux does an excellent job of writing for a young audience and penciler Leonel Castellani uses a high quality animation-like style infusing the art with graphic electricity. Though Grevioux has taken on writing assignments at Marvel I hope he finds a new home for the Guardian Heroes. This is an excellent series that deserves a good long run.

(Review by Don Ensign)

Warning: The Astounding Studios Forum has been hacked and porn ads are contained in it.

www.astoundingstudios.com/

Kathleen Webb’s Elysium Dreams - Featured comic of the week at www.ZGraphicNovels.com

Posted by Bud Rogers on October 2, 2007 at 7:49pm

Kathleen Webb’s comic Elysium Dreams is the featured comic preview of the week at www.ZGraphicNovels.com.

Please head right on over to check out Kathleen's comic and take a few minutes to answer the survey that will follow the comic. Zondervan is very interested in getting feedback from comics fans.

SplineDoctors: Elements of Strong Posing Part 2: Weight & Balance

Posted by UnchartedSpirit on September 28, 2007 at 2:58pm

Check out this little word of instruction; it also applies very much so to comics, especially all you superhero nuts: This post was made on September 27th, 2007

http://splinedoctors.blogspot.com/

Part one just behind it, if you need any more advice... I sure do!

Karl Barth back in prison?!

Posted by Sean Taylor on September 28, 2007 at 11:00am

I don't know if you've been following this story about religious books being pulled from prison libraries, but thank God it has a happy ending... for now.

Yet another example of throwing the baby out with the bath water in order to root out the dangerous religious extremists. This kind of lowest common denominator thinking is just more proof that the collective wisdom of our politicians has dropped.

Common sense approaches like finding and getting rid of the dangerous stuff but leaving the other stuff may take more time and be harder work, but isn't it the more Christian thing to do in this case?

Again, just my thoughts. Your mileage may differ.

My Mom could use your prayers

Posted by Steve MacDonald on September 26, 2007 at 3:53pm

Hi guys. My Mom could use your prayers. She's been in the hospital for almost two weeks. Things happened pretty suddenly - she felt sick, was admitted to a local hospital, they were transporting her to the big city hospital, she had a mild heart attack in the ambulance, and now she's in multiple organ failure but stabilized on machines. We haven't given up hope, but I'm spending most evenings up there (Massachusetts General Hospital, MGH) and my writing energy has gone to updating her CarePage, so I haven't been here in a few weeks.She has been sedated since she got to MGH (she's in a medically induced coma), but they stopped the sedatives so she could wake up and respond to stimuli. But since her liver isn't processing the medication properly it is still in her body, and she hasn't woken up yet even though they stopped sedatives about a week ago.She has been a great Mom to me, but even more than that she has been a great woman of God. She is part of multiple ministries (music ministry, prison ministry, personal active evangelistic ministry, etc.) and has touched thousands of people's lives over the last few decades. She is an active force in my Christian life, both as a model and by her prayers (and probably a hundred other ways as well). She even encourages me on my writing projects and reads the odd Christian comic book that I think she might like (she mostly likes the true-life missions stories, like Sadhu Sundar Singh). Hers is a life of sacrifice for the Glory of God, and I praise God that He has given me 40 wonderful years with her. Selfishly, I'd like a few more years with her, but I know God has a perfect plan for what's happening now, so if you can please pray for God's Will to be done and evident to everyone concerned I would appreciate it tremendously.

Are you a sheep?

Posted by C. Souba Reyes on September 26, 2007 at 11:14am

Hi all,
Today, I saw this amazing message from Pastor Joseph Prince, and I was really inspired and encouraged.
In his sermon he asks this question, "Are you a sheep?" What he means if we are willing to let God lead us, and not try to do things ourselves. He also shows us through Jesus' words how important we are to God, and how much he cares about us as individuals.

In the past few weeks, maybe months God has been telling me to continually trust Him to direct me. Some days I do, and some days I try to figure out things on my own(those are the bad days). I also tell God "well if you want me to do this then let me know," and God responded I think for the first time in my life "Well if you want to do it let me know," lol!

God is awesome, He really does want to gives us our hearts desires especially if He knows our heart is focused on Him. So after asking once again for a definite Word from God, He gave me this verse and I want to share it with you "in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" Psalms 56:11
So what I want to say is..
I'm tired of worrying, I'm tired of being afraid, God I just want to be Your little sheep!
God grant you favor,
Souba

"The Original T.E.A." - Have you seen these yet?

Posted by Gerard Lee on September 26, 2007 at 8:03am

Speaking of superhero comics I like, I want to mention Henry Chmielefski's 'O-TEA' series. Now available in a special edition (collecting issues 1&2) and the newly released part 3, this story is terrific! It starts out good, and keeps getting better as the pages fly by.

Well, take a look at the website, and see if you like what you see. This is a series that I plan to follow as long as I can, and I hope you will give it a chance.

http://www.original-tea.com/

"Hand of the Morning Star"- my review

Posted by Gerard Lee on September 25, 2007 at 10:38pm

I seldom give superhero comics a chance, I will admit. This may eventually change, as I have been pleasantly surprised with most of the Christian Superheroes I did give a chance. Now, how do I choose which hero books I will read? Mostly, it depends on if I know anything about the creators at all. When I heard that Bud Rogers was involved in this book, I decided to give it a chance.

Here is my reaction. I think if you like superheroes, you will enjoy this excellent comic. This story is mostly about very human people struggling with their faiths and beliefs, struggles that manifest at times as exciting battles and daring rescues. I've always been afraid of books about big teams of heroes, worrying that the individual characters will be lost in the crowd, and that the book will be shallow and superficial. This is not the case with 'Hand of the Morning Star'.

The art really amazed me. It's a beautiful fusion between manga and western hero comics. Very nice! I was worried that Zondervan might be misleading folks by using the word manga in it's most general sense 'Comic' rather than the usual meaning among otaku as 'Japanese or Japanese style comics'. But I think manga fans will be very comfortable with the style of 'Hand of the Morning Star'.

I -like- the characters in this book. If you see it in the bookstore, thumb through it. You might be very pleasantly surprised, like I was:)

talent searches !

Posted by dan barlow on September 24, 2007 at 5:57pm

i noticed several searches for comic artists going on right now.

for me it's bad timing. yeah marvel sounds great and others as well. i cant chase these things no more. maybe 10 years ago, before god and family.

i've fallen short on motivation. also i have a job that pays the bills, not as fun as drawing , but i'm blessed to support my family. insurance helps.

what i want, is to have a good comic with christian values out there. something to be a message, have purpose, and meaning.

i think everyone here wants that. but if we had to choose between the big boys and a little indy christian comic , what would we turn down?

i've met several professional artist that are christians, but they choose the big boys with dollars in hand, not the struggling indy with a message. they dont have the time for both. i pray that they will one day give the lord their firstfruits. because this industry is doing real damage to society.

i'm not high an mighty , i struggle to get things done. but we have him for strength.

well i gotta hit the hay. nite..

Uploaded some artwork

Posted by The Last Witness on September 22, 2007 at 9:29pm

I've been taking some time looking through everyone's art (looks great!) and then it hit me. I haven't put any artwork up, so I uploaded 24 images, ranging from pencil/ink to photomanipulation and even a couple of wallpapers. I'll see about getting some more up later. Let me know what you think.

Portfolio Show Fall 2007!

Posted by UnchartedSpirit on September 22, 2007 at 2:57pm

Most of you know me to post the sites of my friend's and fellow student graduates portfolios once they're ready...because of their radically incredible (sometimes creepy though) artwork as well as a chance to promote the Art Institutes so that I may somday see your faces in real life alongside of me at this place...This was our schools biggest show yet! With the MAA graduates taking over an entire floor! So here are the links:

3D MODELERS/TECHNICAL ARTISTS

Andrew Chen - www.andrewchin3d.com

Graham Fratzke - www.grahamfratzke.com

Jana Johnson - www.JanaJArt.com

Denis Osmanbegovic - www.VemaDesign.com

Angela Prendergast - http://angelap.dead-7.com

Royce Moreno - www.roycemoreno.com

Eric Tom - www.erictondesigns.com

Willie Hoag - www.williwhoag.blogspot.com

Daniel Harvey - www.dawnofdankind.com

Jared Skold - www.jaredskold.com

Eduardo Campos - www.edcampos.com