Scott Kress at Catskill Comics is the exclusive agent for Mike Grell commissioned art. Fans looking for comic art originals or wishing to commission a special piece for their wall can contact Scott at: www.catskillcomics.com
My DC editor Alex Galer has been stalwart in his support and tireless in his efforts to get the WARLORD omnibus editions off the ground. When I thanked him , he asked if there was anything else I needed to
My pat answer has always been: a pony… with stripes… horizon, not vertical like a zebra. Then, when I was hospitalized earlier this year, my nurse Rebecca presented me with a drawing and a tiny plastic pony… with horizontal stripes.
So I told Alex I wanted a Red Ryder BB gun.
This arrived today!
Thanks, Alex!! (I probably should have asked for a Lamborghini…)
Hi, guys-
For those of you who will be attending the Baltimore Comic Con here’s a sneak peek of a Warlord piece that took me over six months to complete. You read that right, six months from the time I started it until it was finished. A year ago this month I completely lost use of my right hand due to rheumatoid arthritis. By January I had regained enough mobility to begin drawing again, so I started with a layout for a Warlord piece. Then other medical stuff started happening and I turned the drawing face-down on my clipboard to protect it while I underwent a heart valve transplant. While at Galaxycon in Raleigh a fan commissioned a sketch of Black Canary. When it was finished, I took the page off the clipboard and—DOH! There was my Warlord layout on the back!! I wasn’t about to give it up, so I redrew BC for the guy.
The person who buys this piece at Baltimore is going to get a FREEBIE!
Mike
This is a small section of my wraparound dust jacket painting for the upcoming WARLORD OMNIBUS VOLUME 1.
I’ve put this off because it’s so hard. JIM SHOOTER passed away the day before yesterday and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I worked with him on SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPERHEROES back in the ‘70s, an association that was not always pleasant for either of us, but later we became friends. And that’s the best part.
When I began working on SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPERHEROES, I was teamed with Cary Bates who had a cinematic style of visual storytelling. He gave you all the important stuff that had to go into a panel and even called out camera angles, which helped on a nightmare book like LSH where there could be as many as a dozen characters in one panel.
Then came the word: Shooter’s coming back!
I confess, I had no idea who Shooter was, but I soon learned that he had started writing Legion stories in ADVENTURE COMICS featuring SUPERBOY and the LEGION OF SUPERHEROES when he was just 13 years old! HOLY CRAP!
When Jim returned to writing the LEGION in 1975, having more or less “retired” in 1969 after he graduated high school (Slacker!), we began a somewhat turbulent Writer/artist relationship. Jim’s tendency to over-write was the opposite of experiences I had had with Cary Bates and Denny O’Neil where they left enough to the artist to interpret so as to make it more of a collaborative effort. Jim micro-managed everything to the point of including layouts and sketches of bits of equipment that had almost nothing to do with the story. Scripts under Cary and Denny were usually one page per story page—Jim’s ran 60-90 pages. Not that they were bad, just so different. It was like Dad got remarried and one day there was a strange lady in the kitchen—she was nice enough, but her cooking wasn’t like Mom’s.
After we parted company, we continued to see each other over the years on the convention circuit, where—once creative differences were put aside–we finally became friends. The real kind. The gypsy life has a way of bringing folks together just often enough that you look forward to those mini-reunions and can relax and enjoy each other’s company.
Jim was a giant, not just in the comic industry, but in sheer size. Whenever we were asked to pose for photos, I used to jump up on the nearest chair and rest my elbow on his shoulder. Somewhere. I’m pretty sure there’s a photo of me standing with Jim, Mike Richardson and Steve Leialoha where all you can see is my hat.
News of Jim’s death was a gut-punch. He was a kid of only 73 who left an indelible mark on the comic industry over a career that spanned 60 years. A career unequaled, a life too damned short.
The Hall of Heroes is filling up.
Save me a seat, Jim.
–Mike Grell
I never saw a TV set until I was 8, and we didn’t have one until 1958 when I was 11, so I never had the joy of seeing Mel Brooks’ genius at work on Sid Caesar’s YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS until they came out in reruns. But I was definitely there in 1961 when Brooks and Carl Reiner performed THE 2.000 YEAR-OLD MAN on THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW. It’s an absolute masterpiece that is still as fresh and funny as it was 64 years ago, probably because it was—and remains—an example improv genius.
If THE PRODUCERS wasn’t enough to solidify Mel Brooks as a Hollywood legend it was certainly cast in cement a Grauman’s Chinese Theater with the campfire fart scene in BLAZING SADDLES.
But Mel Brooks had already become my all-time favorite in 1963 when I sat in a movie theater waiting for the feature to start and watching the customary animated cartoon. (Back in the previous century movies usually began with a cartoon instead of a commercial) This one wasn’t BUGS BUNNY or THE ROADRUNNER, it was something called THE CRITIC. The screen lit up with a jumble of crazy shapes crawling and bouncing across the screen set to weird music. At the exact moment I thought to myself, ”What the hell is this?” I heard my own thoughts projected from the screen: “What the hell is this?”.
Only in Mel Brooks’ voice.
Google it—you’ll thank me later.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MEL BROOKS! Only 1,901 more to go!
–Mike Grell (Class Clown ’65)
Hi, guys-
I’m sorry to say I have to cancel my appearance at Heroes Con this year due to a glitch in the matrix. Somehow, things got scrambled around and it turns out I’m old and in need of a heart valve replacement. Nothing catastrophic—these days it’s an overnight stay in the hospital and they kick you loose. I asked my cariologist what the recovery time was and she told me she had a patient who ran a marathon on the third day. I guess I’m going to have to buy a pair of running shoes.
At any rate, I’m sorry to disappoint fans and friends who were expecting to see me in Charlotte this year. My in-house editor Jeff Messer will be there in my place and will have a number of exclusive items for sale, including our SABLE OMNIBUS EDITIONS, WARLORD. LEGION OF SUPERHEROES and MIKE GRELL SKETCHBOOKS and his own brilliant graphic novel series SEX, SPIES & ROCK ‘N’ ROLL.
After being skunked year after year hunting whitetails in Wisconsin, my oldest brother used to say e “Next year in Jerusalem” . Mom would say, “But you’re ITALIAN!”, so I’ll just say L’ANNO PROSIMMO A CHARLOTTE.
See you there.
Mike
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NEW SHOW: Mike Grell at Huntsville Pop & Culture Expo, Huntsville, Alabama, April 25-27, 2025
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NEW SHOW: Mike Grell at 3 Alarm Comics, Biloxi, Mississippi for Free Comic Book Day (Saturday, May 3, 2025)
VIDEO MESSAGE FROM MIKE: https://x.com/GrellOfficial/status/1908584926968000911
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My art school chum Art Tyska sent this photo of his granddaughter Elsa with the caption: “Teaching my granddaughter to read the classics.”
Way to go, Art. Hard to believe it’s been 50 YEARS!
Mike
I’m sick of writing obituaries, so I decided to write about a LIVING legend in comics.
Peter David is a fellow gypsy of the convention circuit, a guy whose work I admire and whose friendship has been typical of those formed over years of sporadic meetings on the road. We first met in San Diego back somewhere in the latter half of the previous century, when the show was small enough to get to know other pros over dinner. Next time was in Fort Worth, where we had dinner at Joe T’s Mexican restaurant with Bob Wayne and Terry Austin. Terry sported a $200 pair of cowboy boots and a new Stetson he had bought for about a hundred bucks (this was in the days when a hundred bucks would buy you more than dinner at McDonalds). Peter was wearing a ten-dollar hat that probably fell apart in the first rain and reasoned that he should be able to find a pair of boots for twenty bucks. I think they were made of cardboard. Terry reached up and hung his hat on the impressive set of longhorns mounted over the archway in the restaurant—Peter had to frisbee his to get it up there. Getting it down was another problem, solved by dragging one of the picnic table benches over and hopping up (Yes, we were young enough to hop!).
As is often the case, whenever we met, we were always a bit dismayed to discover our waistlines had grown as our hairlines had receded, but Peter’s attitude never changed. He never lost his sense of humor, even when he lost his health. The challenges he’s faced over the past decade haven’t dimmed his talent.
A few years ago, when Peter was unable to travel, his wife Kathleen came up to me at a convention and said, ”Peter wanted you to have this.” It was a signed copy of Peter’s Mr. Sulu Grabbed My Ass, and Other Highlights from a Life in Comics, Novels, Television, Films and Video Games. Brilliant, funny and insightful– I’m not ashamed to say it became my favorite bathroom reading material.
Recently, Peter’s battle with health issues has suffered a major blow thanks to Medicaid cutbacks (Thank you ever so bloody much, Elon Musk!). In response, Graham Murphy has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help out. You can find it here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-peter-david
Please visit the site and do what you can to help a guy who has left an indelible mark on the comic industry.
–Mike Grell
