Don't get fuzzed over! Buy the TRS-80 today! 61 (Winter 1981) Dale Luciano, Review of Superman in "The Computers that Saved Metropolis", by DC for Radio Shack: "[The] plot has two WASP school kids using the [Radio Shack's TRS-80 microcomputer, (listed at $849)] computers to aid Superman, whose brain is 'fuzzed over' when he inhales 'nearly invisible' kryptonite crystals, in averting several major disasters integrated by the villain, Major Disaster. The book is available free to schools as a teaching aid and its message is that computers, like microwave ovens, are the wave of the future." Marvel: Beyond professionalism 61 Roy Thomas, Interview: "The thing that was truest in that article [describing his departure from Marvel] ... was the analysis that Marvel has had a tendency in recent years to be very vindictive toward people who leave it to work for the competition. They go far beyond any kind of professional reaction. Stan generally has reasonably good and human instincts, but once in a while he'll just decide that if somebody does something, he's never going to work for Marvel again. He did this with Len [Wein], and with Gerry [Conway], though to date he's never said it about me. He didn't have to. He knows I'd work for him anytime, but that I have no respect at all for Jim Shooter as a professional, and not much left for the whole Marvel organization."	...FEB February 1981 - The Journal asks for financial help in defending itself against Michael Fleisher's $2 million pending lawsuit. Donors receive T-shirts or stationery with the slogan "I Support The Comics Journal and the First Amendment." February 1981 - Shooter fires Lynne Graeme, disbands Marvel's black-and-white magazine department.
Shooter's standards 63 (April 1981) Jim Shooter, quoted in Newswatch: "[Colan]'s a very nice man, I like him very much, he's a hell of an artist - but that does not meet my requirements." Another man's mead 63 Paul Levitz, Newswatch: "If Gene Colan is being positioned as having been rejected from Marvel Comics, we can only say we dearly hope Marvel will continue to reject all their talents of comparable stature." The Shoe fits 63 David S. Marshall, Blood & Thunder: "Stu Potts is, without a doubt, the MacNelly of comics journalism." Artless history 63 Steve Englehart, Interview: "There's been four periods in Marvel Comics. There was '62 to '67, which was primarily Stan's energy; '67 to '72, which was primarily Roy's energy; '72 to about '76, '77, which was a whole bunch of us -- me and Gerber and McGregor and Wrightson and Brunner and Smith and Chaykin -- all these people who came in because we all really wanted to do it. But we were the end of it." Fuck you, too 63 Barry Dutter, Blood & Thunder: "The problem with The Comics Journal is that it gets everyone angry. I doubt you have one reader who has yet to be angered by an article in your magazine."	...APR April 1981 - Greatest America Hero debuts on television, a program that spoofs supehero dramas through hilarious comedic jokes. Anne Elizabeth Moore, 11, watches weekly. April 1981 - Gene Colan leaves Marvel and goes to DC after disputes with Jim Shooter.
Not elite, not a fan 64 (May 1981) R. Fiore, Blood & Thunder [in response to Mantlo's complaint that TCJ's "fan critics are failed comics professionals"]: "I am not a fan (except of the Los Angeles Dodgers). If fans have made me part of their elite, I have not been notified. ... I have never submitted anything to a comic book company, and indeed do not even know how such a thing would be done. ... As I have no great emotional stake in comics about overpriced Japanese toys, my exposure to Bill Mantlo has been somewhat limited. As far as I can tell he is the very model of a modern Marvel writer. ..." The Caesar salad is very good today 64 Thompson, Blood & Thunder [responding to Mantlo]: "Go out to lunch with virtually any of your peers and you can spend a pleasant hour complaining about what narrow-minded, mean-spirited, elitist prigs we are because we didn't like Rom. Vox populi and sales figures - such powerful allies you have!" I see a Pulitzer in the future 64 Dale Luciano, Reviews: "RAW can be approached more as magazine-as-art-object than a magazine of art (though it is that, too) and thereby attempts to elevate our notion of what such an object can be and how it can function.... If Spiegelman ever completes the entire work -- what a loss if he doesn't! -- Maus could well end up a masterwork." Maybe a little elite 64 Groth response, Blood & Thunder: "In a sense, the critic's very existence and value is predicated on an informed level of taste and judgment that is in opposition to prevailing or popular sentiment. This is especially true at a time when mass culture is obliterating powers of perception and discrimination." We have met the enemy 64 Gil Kane, "Forum on Comics Writing": "What's wrong is us; what's wrong is that we accept the limitations of this field, creatively, intellectually, culturally."	...MAY May 1981 - Jenette Kahn takes over DC presidency from Sol Harrison. ...JUNE June 1981 - Crumb's Weirdo #2 appears, billed as the "Male Backlash Issue!" an inside back cover called a "brutality toward women" is dedicated to Cat Yronwode. ...JULY July 1981 - Pacific Comics launches comics line with Jack Kirby's Captain Victory and Mike Grell's Starslayer.
From the Accounting Department 65 (August 1981) Dwight Decker, Opening Shots: "The quantity and types of currency filling the bin are difficult to ascertain with any accuracy. From Barks's illustrations, however, it can be seen that coins make up the vast bulk of Scrooge's money with only occasional sheaves of bills." Who the hell is R. Fiore, a reader asks 65 Fiore response, Blood & Thunder: "Ah yes, who the hell is 'R. Fiore'? ...But this is a paying customer. We must be pleasant. My, you are looking well today. Nice shirt! You've got to be built just right to wear those French Cut ones." I have seen the future and it is RAW 65 Françoise Mouly, Interview: "We expect two things to happen in the future as offspring of RAW. One is that other magazines, like National Lampoon, will start printing the kind of work that we print. Magazines that already print comics will, I think, widen the range of things that they print as a result of RAW. Magazines that do not print comics may start printing comics, because they might see different possibilities that relate more to their editorial approach. It is also possible that someone will put out a mass-market comics magazine which would be on the level of, I guess, Heavy Metal, without being science fiction. That might be fascinating. ..."	...AUG August 1981 Ka-Zar & Moon Knight become Marvel's only Direct-Sales-Only titles.
We're all doomed! Oh God, please help us! 66 (September 1981) Denny O'Neil, Interview: "I know very few writers or artists who are overall models of mental health. And among serious wriers -- gee, do I know any that haven't had a drug problem, an alcohol problem, a nervous breakdown, or a divorce, or all of the above in their personal histories at some point? You'd think that sitting alone in a room with a drawing board or a typewriter would be a safe way to make a living if ever there was one, but it's not, it's risky."	...SEPT September 1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark and Superman II out. Everyone goes.
Excuse our French 67 (October 1981) Thompson, "Across the Atlantic: Kim Thompson on Foreign Comics": "Wait a minute. That brings up a question: how am I going to read foreign comics? I don't know French! Two responses. One: it is possible to enjoy the visual splendor of European comics without reading the language. Two: learn French!"	...OCT October 1981 - Michael Fleisher files $2,000,000 suit against Fantagraphics, Gary Groth and Harlan Ellison. ...NOV November 1981 - EC great Wally Wood is found dead. November 1981 - DC announces it will begin paying royalties and Marvel follows suit. November 1981 - EC enemy Dr. Fredric Wertham dies at 86.
I wanted to share an injury-to-the-eye motif with him 69 (December 1981) William Gaines, Newswatch: "I never met [Wertham] but I always looked forward to it someday." Big Bad Jim 69 Gerry Conway, Interview: "There are so many people who have stories of the things Jim [Shooter] has done that we have to weigh the possibility that he really is ... [laughter] as bad as they say."	...DEC December 1981 - Fantagraphics Books publishes its first release, The Elfquest Gatherum.