Comics

Chalk it up to Spidey-sense, but after the recent box-office success of superhero Spider-Man, Maryland's superintendent of schools has adopted a novel approach to motivate reluctant readers: using comic books and graphic novels to enhance reading lessons. Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick created the nation's first state-sanctioned template of lesson plans featuring word balloons and bubbles and action-packed animated panels that teachers can use for a variety of optional lessons. "I just think that it's an opportunity to do something that will supplement our more traditional reading and be highly motivating to students and will engage them in reading in a much more enthusiastic manner," Grasmick said.

On Saturday, comic book stores across the country are giving away free comic books in an effort to promote the genre and to support individual comic book stores. This year, an estimated 4.6 million free comic books will be given out at stores across the country. One store participating is Gorilla King Comics, at 1711 Aliceanna St. in Fells Point, owned by Ian Sayre. Sayre, 38, opened the store about a year ago. "We love comics," he said. "Gorilla King Comics is a very classy place at which to buy one's comics.

Facebook may have a lot of uses for social networking and time-wasting, but lately it's been offering a creative outlet, too. A new comic-making application called Bitstrips is popping up more and more on Facebook updates. And after just a few months, Bitstrips has turned into something that everyone seems to be talking about. "Basically, it's an app that turns you and your friends into a cast of cartoon characters," explains Jacob Blackstock, Bitstrips' chief executive and creative director.

Facebook may have a lot of uses for social networking and time-wasting, but lately it's been offering a creative outlet, too. A new comic-making application called Bitstrips is popping up more and more on Facebook updates. And after just a few months, Bitstrips has turned into something that everyone seems to be talking about. "Basically, it's an app that turns you and your friends into a cast of cartoon characters," explains Jacob Blackstock, Bitstrips' chief executive and creative director.

The Sunday TV Week and comics have been combined into one section. The new TV & Comics section features color-coded grids for movies, sports and news, and we have brought back the old crossword puzzle that readers said they preferred. The Sunday Doonesbury comic strip appears in the Maryland Closeup section on pages 2 and 3.

Really? According to The Sun, Social Security is a successful, financially solvent, program that isn't in any real danger ("Social Security sets off sparks," Sept. 13)! Where does The Sun get it's non-facts, from the latest fiction book on the New York Times best seller list? The statement that the government is only using the Social Security trust fund "surplus" to pay for other government programs is laughable at best. Now I don't have to turn to the comic section. That was the best laugh of the day. Gail Householder, Marriottsville

You might know and love Flannery O'Connor as the legendary author of short fiction. (She's this humble correspondent's favorite short story writer -- mainly because could take the mundane motions of southern life and skew them into something dark and twisted.)   But did you know that O'Connor also drew weird, counter-culture cartoons?  Apparently, before she forever our consciousness with "A Good Man is Hard to Find," O'Connor was seriously pursuing a career as a cartoonist.

AND NOW, A little funny business.Accent, in conjunction with SUNDIAL, the free telephone information service of The Baltimore Sun, is conducting an electronic survey this week to determine which Evening Sun comics you like -- or dislike -- most.To register your opinions, call 783-1800 (or 268-7736 in Anne Arundel County) any time until midnight Sunday.After you hear the greeting, you'll be asked to punch in a four-digit code on your touch-tone phone. Punch 6300 and you'll be connected with a voice that will lead you through the survey.

McDaniel College is opening the doors of its Englar Dining Hall to the public on select Sundays for a Sunday Brunch on the Hill in conjunction with the its exhibition on newspaper comic strips. The brunch buffet will feature live music and free Sunday comics from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays, Oct. 23 and Nov. 13. The cost for  brunch buffet with complimentary mimosas and Bloody Marys is $10. The exhibiton, Kings of the Pages: Comic Strips & Culture 1895-1950 , will be open to the public 11:30 a.m.- 3:30 p.m. on these two Sundays.

Peter Kuper has nothing against superheroes, funny animals and maligned office workers. Except when that's all people know about the comics. "For most people, it's like a tossup between Dilbert, Garfield and Superman - that is the broad perception today of what comics are," says Kuper, a cartoonist, graphic novelist and comic artist whose work is far afield from such populist touchstones. "You are constantly shaking off that stigma." At 46, Kuper is among a bevy of comic artists trying to stretch the boundaries of what are popularly perceived as the medium's limitations.

Under Armour launched a new marketing plan earlier this year, touting its up-and-coming athletes and most innovative products in an intense but short burst they called “a brand holiday.” It appears to have paid off. The Baltimore-based athletic apparel maker delivered better than expected financial results for the three months ended March 31. Under Armour's income of 7 cents per share income topped analysts' consensus estimates of 3...

Philip X. "Phil" Kaltenbach, a former high school English teacher who later became an expert in the field of collectible comic books, died Tuesday at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Fla., while recovering from foot surgery. He was 63. The son of a Loyola University Maryland dean and a Loyola Blakefield High School administrative assistant, Philip Xavier Kaltenbach was born in Baltimore and raised in Towson. Mr. Kaltenbach was a 1967 graduate of Loyola Blakefield and earned a bachelor's degree from what is now Loyola University Maryland.

It's hard to imagine that gay marriage and Superman could be wrapped into a controversy, but that's happening across the nation as  DC Comics launches a new line of comic books featuring Clark Kent's alter ego. One of the authors signed on for the upcoming "Adventures of Superman" series is Orson Scott Card, who wrote the popular Ender series. He certainly has science fiction cred, but his views opposing gay marriage have caused some bookstores to boycott his newest works and have triggered a petition drive.

A Baltimore comic store has joined the growing public outcry over DC Comics' decision to hire a gay-marriage opponent and author to write part of the coming "Adventures of Superman" series. Joining many shops nationwide, Gorilla King Comics in Fells Point will not sell the two issues expected to be written by Orson Scott Card. "I have a lot of gay customers," says owner Ian Sayre. "I don't want someone to come in here, see that and think that's me or that anyone in the store supports his policies.

It's about time Maryland got its own comic book. Well, maybe not its own comic book, but at least prominent display on the cover of a comic book. This month's first issue of DC Comics' "Justice League of America," available Feb. 20, is being published with a series of alternate covers. The cover itself is a variation on the iconic World War II photo of soldiers raising the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima. In  Justice League of America's version, members of the league (including Catwoman, Green Lantern and Green Arrow)

Master playwright Ken Ludwig set the play "Moon Over Buffalo" in 1953, a time when struggling veteran actors George and Charlotte Hay are alternately performing "Cyrano de Bergerac" and Noel Coward's "Private Lives" at Buffalo's shabby Erlanger Theatre. The decidedly un-shabby Bowie Playhouse is the current home for Prince George's Little Theatre's bright production of "Moon Over Buffalo," running through Feb. 16. In this work, Ludwig creates sturdy plots featuring mistaken identities and frantic characters who run into and away from one another's complaints, slamming doors as they go. The plot centers on George and Charlotte, former theater headliners who are now broke in Buffalo, with unpaid actors leaving their troupe.

Over the next three days, a few hundred thousand Americans are expected to show up at theaters for the premiere weekend of Iron Man, based on the Marvel Comics character. If only the country's 3,000 comics stores could entice even a small percentage of them into their shops. "There might be a few people who come in for their kids, but it won't be as many people as you'd think, as far as the person who's not into comics," says John "Bumper" Moyer, owner of Glen Burnie's Twilite Zone Comics.

As the host of Shaquille O'Neal's All-Star Comedy Jam 2012, Gary Owen always has to be on his game. There's no letup - not when you're the guy charged with keeping the crowd roaring through six different acts putting out more than two hours of material. "It's harder, the further you get into a show, to keep the laughs going," said the Cincinnati-born Owen, who will be the on-stage leader when the jam takes over Baltimore's Lyric Opera House on Saturday. "People may think you're just as funny, but they get tired.

What debate were you people watching ("Biden connects," Oct. 14)? The only thing I saw was a man with ideas for getting this country out of the worst four years economically since the Great Depression and a laughing hyena. Really, how low can The Sun sink in it's editorial positions? Maybe you guys will go down with your leader and after 55 years of reading your (gag) newspaper I won't have to cancel my subscription. All that's left for me in your paper is the comics (and I'm not talking about the editorial page even though it's tough to tell the two apart)