Larry Marder

Larry Marder (born May 29, 1951 ) is an American cartoonist and writer, best known as the creator of comic book Tales of the Beanworld, which began as an "essentially self-published title" in 1984. Beginning in 2009, Dark Horse Books began to reprint Tales of the Beanworld, in two volumes, and then went on to publish two more volumes of new Beanworld comics.

Early life Marder was educated at the Hartford Art School in Connecticut in the early 1970s, earning a BFA degree in 1973. Diana Schutz was set to edit the resurrected series, which would also be collected by Dark Horse.

Other work Marder was involved with "the DLG – Direct Line Group – which [was] a coalition of fifteen retailers that was put together by Gary Colabuono of Moondog's ... [as] an opportunity for the large chain retailers to have a forum to discuss their problems and pool their resources to figure out how they can best help themselves in [comics'] new marketplace". Marder, speaking in 1992 or 1993, suggested that "distributors are ... not focused much on helping the established comic book stores expand", and hoped that the DLG would aid in "promot[ing] environments that are going to help alternative comics grow". Working with Moondog's, Marder described the paradox of "a situation where retailers want the books, and the publishers have the books, but somehow they can't get them to more readers".

Marder served as President of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit organization founded in 1986 chartered to protect the First Amendment rights of the comics community, from 2010 to 2018.

Partial bibliography The following feature work by Larry Marder.

Tales Of The Beanworld #1-#21 (Eclipse Comics) Larry Marder's Beanworld Book 1 (Collects #1–4) Larry Marder's Beanworld Book 2 (Collects #5–7) Larry Marder's Beanworld Book 3 (Collects #8–11) Larry Marder's Beanworld Book 4 (Collects #12–16) Larry Marder's Beanworld Book 1, Dark Horse Books, Collects #1-9 Larry Marder's Beanworld Book 2, Dark Horse Books, Collects #10-21 Larry Marder's Beanworld Book 3, Dark Horse Books, all new material Larry Marder's Beanworld Book 3.5, Dark Horse Books, Collects stories from Asylum 1-4, Larry Marder's Beanworld Holiday Special, MySpace Dark Horse Presents #14 Larry Marder's Beanworld Book 4, Dark Horse Books, all new material Amazing Heroes #100, #136 The Art Of Jack Kirby Asylum #1–2 Freak Force #? Giant-size Mini Comics #1 (Marder also edited #2–4) Goofy Service Doodle Book (ashcan) Grimjack #42 "Introduction" to Hepcats: Snowblind Hungry? (ashcan) Images Of Omaha #2 Lady Arcane #2 "Letter of comment" in Mars #8 "Introduction" to Megaton Man: The Apocalypse Affiliation normalman #6 normalman/Megaton Man #1 'Essay on Jack Kirby' in Phantom Force #2 Rip Off Comix #17 (script only) Scout #17 Shadowhawk #17 Shadowhawk Gallery #1 "Introduction" to Shi/Cyblade #1 Total Eclipse #3–5 Zot! #4

Interviews/reviews

Amazing Heroes #200 Bissette, Wiater (eds) Comic Book Rebels (1993) Comics Interview #142/#143 Comics Scene #31 The Comics Journal #201 (and others) Hero Illustrated #11 Image Illustrated Wizard #22 Online interview by Jeremy York

References, allusions and homages (incomplete) Beans by other artists and references to Marder/Beanworld appear in at least the following publications:

Amazing Heroes #185 Cerebus #200 Dr. Fate #41 Giant-size Mini Comics #1 Hate #8 Marvels #3 Patty Cake #7 by Scott Roberts (Permanent Press, 1996) Shi/Cyblade #1 Sleaze Castle: The Director's Cut Part Zero Thor #340 Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics Wandering Star #5, #9 Zot! #21, #30–31, #34