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Post by chadwilliam on Mar 21, 2018 19:16:58 GMT -5
Another character (or at least his speech patterns) influenced by Herbie:
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 9,627
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Post by Confessor on Mar 21, 2018 23:52:54 GMT -5
Another character (or at least his speech patterns) influenced by Herbie: Wow! I hadn't thought of that, but Alan Moore is a huge fan of Herbie (there's an interview on YouTube where he names him his favourite superhero), so I'm quite prepared to believe this. Has Moore ever come out and explicitly stated that Rorschach's slightly broken mode of speech was inspired by Herbie Popnecker?
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 22, 2018 7:43:09 GMT -5
(...) Other stories were reprints from various Golden Age jungle comics, including Taanda (another Tarzan jobber) and Jo-Jo (a jungle heroine) ... (...) John Byrne would have his first professionally published work in Psycho #20, (...). Just a few corrections: the Tarzan knock-off in Jungle Adventures was named Jo-Jo ('the Congo King'), while the heroine was Taanda. And Byrne's work appeared in Nightmare #20, not Psycho. Otherwise, great post as usual. This time I'm actually a bit familiar with the subject matter, as I downloaded all of the Skywald publications I could find at the Internet Archive (too bad they don't have the romance comics, though) - haven't found the time to do an actual deep-dive on reading any of it, mainly I just skimmed through a few stories and admired the art in many of them - like Buckler's work in the Butterfly story you sampled.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 22, 2018 11:48:12 GMT -5
(...) Other stories were reprints from various Golden Age jungle comics, including Taanda (another Tarzan jobber) and Jo-Jo (a jungle heroine) ... (...) John Byrne would have his first professionally published work in Psycho #20, (...). Just a few corrections: the Tarzan knock-off in Jungle Adventures was named Jo-Jo ('the Congo King'), while the heroine was Taanda. And Byrne's work appeared in Nightmare #20, not Psycho. Otherwise, great post as usual. This time I'm actually a bit familiar with the subject matter, as I downloaded all of the Skywald publications I could find at the Internet Archive (too bad they don't have the romance comics, though) - haven't found the time to do an actual deep-dive on reading any of it, mainly I just skimmed through a few stories and admired the art in many of them - like Buckler's work in the Butterfly story you sampled. Hard to keep the silly names straight. I'll add a caveat that I might be wrong about Katz handling Ka-Zar, in the Atlas years. He worked on some of their jungle comics, in the 50s; but, I haven't been able to verify there were Ka-Zar stories. I was going from memory, from, I believe, a Comics Journal interview, that I could swear said he handled Ka-Zar. They definitely showed Zangar, as I recognized those covers when I was looking through my Skywald digital files. Might have confused it as Zangar is rather like Ka-Zar and they might have referred to that. Either way, Katz is still the best part of Skywald's Jungle Adventures, apart from the one issue with Sheena. Butch Cassidy was probably the best read of the westerns, though Sundance Kid is worth it, if only for the Kirby Bullseye stories.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Mar 22, 2018 12:03:58 GMT -5
The bulk of the material was from defunct companies and much was left to the public domain; but, a good portion was not in the public domain and reprint rights were not sold. A large chunk of the material came from Quality Comics, including reprints of The Spirit, Plastic Man and Doll Man, as well as reprints of Fox Comics' Blue Beetle, under the name The Human Fly... I'm assuming the character was actually called Blue Beetle in the interior, rather than being relettered to Human Fly throughout? I'm surprised, given BB's tentative status as a public domain character, that nobody has revived this version. She's mainly notable as the first African-American superheroine! I didn't know there was a second story extant; if I was a publisher right now I'd definitely try to reprint the existing material and add the new material into a collected volume. It's a good design and there's surely be a market.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 22, 2018 17:39:27 GMT -5
bottom feeder n. 1. A fish or other animal that feeds on the bottom of a body of water. 2. One that feeds low on the food chain; a scavenger. 3. Slang a. An opportunist who profits from the misfortunes of others: "The frazzled, adrenaline-pumped tabloid newshounds [in the movie] are the bottom feeders of contemporary journalism" (Entertainment Weekly). b. A low or despicable person.What does this have to do with our next subject? You'll see! In 1984, two wannabe comic book artists were sitting around in the kitchen, late at night, drawing comics. They were getting punchy and one drew a cartoon of a turtle, with martial arts weapons and ersatz ninja gear. his partner was tickled by the image and drew his own version. Soo, they had 4 and an idea took shape. They worked out a story, parodying themes in current comics. The X-Men had reached its peak, in the wake of the Dark Phoenix Saga and had become Marvel's big seller. That series featured teenaged and early adult mutants, who were heroes and villains. Meanwhile, a young upstart had made a splash with 2nd tier Marvel acrobatic hero Daredevil, by turning it into a mixture of The Spirit and an Eric Van Lustbader novel. The two wannabes threw those ideas together and came up with a phenomena... + + = Eastman & Laird quickly sold out their initial print run of a few thousand copies and went back to press. At this point in time, the Direct Market was coming into its own and was a viable alternative to costlier and more volatile newsstand distribution. Smaller outfits put out their own comics, marketing them to the burgeoning network of comic shops, distributors and mail-order dealers. Early successes, like Cerebus and Elfquest pointed the way and Eastman and Laird followed. To keep the costs down, they published in black & white, as many small presses did, going back to the Undergrounds. When Eastman & Laird's success became known, other wannabes started to get in on the act. New publishers entered the market. It took time; but, by 1986, Eastman and Laird were on the road to becoming millionaires; and, when that reached wide knowledge, the floodgates sprung open and hundreds of wannabes and small presses entered the market. Most were low budget outfits, who printed in black & white on cheap newsprint. Most were little more than copycats, and the field was deluged with comics that followed the same title formula of adjective, adjective, noun, noun and we faced a stampede of Adolescent Radioactive Blackbelt Hamsters, Naive Interdimensional Commando Koalas, and Pre-Teen, Dirty-Gene Kung Fu Kangaroos. The weird thing was that comic shops and distributors bought these things by the case! It didn't matter that they were mostly done on the cheap or were blatant rip-offs, or were just plain awful. The Turtles had a small print run and were soon selling for $150-200 to those who came in late. Suddenly, everyone was looking for the next Turtles. It launched the first major speculative bubble of the Direct Market (though even that had antecedents, with the launches of Shazam and Howard The Duck, in the 70s). According to the Comic Buyer's Guide, around 1984 there were 10 independent publishers (publishing on a consistent basis); by the end of 1987 there were 60 (or more). By the end of 1988 a good chunk of those were gone and we weren't even into the real speculator boom, yet. One of those wannabes was Gary Brodsky. Gary was the son of Sol Brodsky, Marvel's one-time production manager, Stan's right-hand man, and former co-publisher of independent company Skywald. Sol didn't stick around long at Skywald (about 2 years); but, Gary knew what he missed out on and saw a chance to make a bundle in comics. He launched his own company Solson (Sol + son= Gary) and started buying up ideas and hiring writers and artists to churn out black & white TMNT knock-offs and other comics. He quickly hired Rich Buckler, late of Archie's Red Circle line, to act as editor. What followed was a plethora of cheap........well, crap! As you can imagine, they started with TMNT rip-offs, which lasted all of one or two issues. But, why stop at knock-offs when you can swipe the real thing? These are exactly what you think: poorly rendered images of the turtles, performing basic martial arts techniques, probably swiped from Black Belt Magazine or some similar source. If you think Daniel-san was getting his tuchus kicked by trying to learn from a book, imagine what happened to anyone who actually bought one of these, thinking it would teach them martial arts? Sadly, there was no Mr Miyagi at Solson. Then again, try that crane kick in a real fight and the result will be about the same. Meanwhile, Brodsky and Buckler thought, why just jump on one bandwagon? Why not several? Hey, ninjas are popular... First, they put out Ninjutsu, the Art of the Ninja, filled with so much bullshido that it would make Ashida Kim proud! For instance, did you know that ninja's could walk on water? Solson shows you how, only they claimed it was by placing the feet in large clay pots, then balancing with a staff. Mythbusters pretty much debunked every idea of how this might have been accomplished. It still wasn't as cool as the Water Spider Assault Unit... If that wasn't enough, they tried an actual ninja hero... There was a pseudo-ninja/vigilante, from the future... Shades of Deathstroke! Check out the quality interior art... The next George Perez, ladies and gentlemen! What's that you say? You want some creepy soft-core, near porn, rendered by guys who probably didn't date much? Sultry Teenage Super Foxes is fairly notorious. It's pretty much bad T & A that makes AC Comics' material look like something from Alison Bechdel... This was advertised in several Solson comics; but, I can't verify that it was ever published. There has always been a certain subset of female bodybuilding porn and I assume they were going for something like that. Not that She-Hulk didn't swim in these waters, a bit... Solson also had a considerable line of How to Draw comics and books... I picked up the superheroes one for $.50 at a discount bookstore (the kind filled with remaindered books). It was about as useful as those "How to Draw..." segments in early 70s comics, that told you to draw a circle, divide it in half, then make it look like a Curt Swan drawing of Superman. There were a whole lot devoted to "sexy women", including Career Women (NSFW)
I didn't know dressing as the love child of Wendy O Williams and Gene Simmons was a career... Now, Solson wasn't total crap, as witness the previously discussed THUNDER... That actually had potential and some decent art. Alas, it came out at Solson's end and the planned 4-issue mini-series turned out to be a single, cheap issue. Solson also published one of the goofiest ideas of the black & white boom... This came from the seasoned pair of Dick Ayers and Rich Buckler The premise finds Ronald Reagan and his cabinet turned into Super-Rambos, via a super-soldier formula that only works on older men. Get ready for the geriatric Captain America... Why? Well, let's let The Gipper explain... This might have actually worked, if it had been funny. Instead, it is really, really awful, with bad jokes ("Veto him, Mr President!") and some pretty crappy art, from Ayers and buckler. Given Solson's probable rates, I doubt Ayers put much effort into it. Buckler did the covers, pretty much cementing his reputation for art swipes, as he obviously copies Rambo stills, Superman images, and Chuck Norris movies. They got three issues out of a dumb joke premise, which was good for about 6 pages worth of material. At least Not Brand Echh and Mad kept these things short. They even snuck in Buckler's old creation, Deathlok... and Nick Fury... However, the two books that epitomize Solson are these... Now, to be fair, both DC and Marvel had done something like the talent search. However, DC and Marvel actually developed the talent to which the came in contact. Solson was just looking for some starry-eyed rookie they could exploit when it turned into the next Turtles. Gary Brodsky pretty much spells out his style in his How To Publish Comics... Stupid Comics pretty much gives this the savaging it deserves, not to mention Brodsky, himself. Solson lasted a whopping year; then, mercifully, disappeared onto the landfills of comicdom. Rich Buckler kept a pretty low profile after Solson, turning up for a handful of issues at Marvel, as the 80s turned over to the 90s. His reputation for swipes didn't endear him to segments of the fan community, though he put out some fine work at DC and Marvel, leaving aside the obvious swipes. He swung between Kirby and Adams imitations, before developing a sort of mixed style, which he used effectively in the mid and late 70s. His Superman/Shazam treasury edition was quite good and he helped launch All-Star Squadron with some excellent work. He went on to sell surrealist paintings via his own website, until his death, this past year, from cancer. Gary Brodsky went on to continue to cater to somewhere below the lowest common denominator, with puerile and offensive material, about how women have emasculated men and how they need to be dominated. His website offered videos and seminars about mind control secrets and other poo-doo; the kind of crap you would find buried in the classified ads of comic books, back in the day; or in "manly" magazines, like Black Belt and Soldier of Fortune, or anywhere else you find disaffected losers, with low self esteem. Sound a bit harsh? Maybe; but, the guy was a scumbag. I have no idea about Sol; but, at least he worked in comics, rather than hawking this garbage. I suspect his son was a bit of a disappointment. The guy makes John Norman seem like a sensitive man. He also exploited a bunch of clueless writers and artists and promoted poor work from minor actors (Monroe Arnold, of Reagan's Raiders and other Solson comics) Brodsky died in 2016, though he lives on in terrible Youtube videos (with bargain basement production values) and via his website, in case you have money to throw around, though I recommend setting it on fire directly, and cut out the middle man. Confession time: I bought the first issue of Reagan's Raiders, as a laugh, and pretty much the same with the first issue of Ninjutsu, The Art of the Ninja. I also, much later, bought THUNDER, out of curiosity. Those were pretty much the apex of Solson. Even Blackthorne was better, by comparison. There were many companies started in 1986/87 that did things on the cheap; but, had real aspirations to publish some good comics. Many produced junk and went under, while others produced junk and a few shining nuggets, before economics caught up with them. Some, like Dark Horse, actually provided a publishing platform for real art. Solson was out to make a fast buck and died a deserved death. Meanwhile, the black & white boom should have been a warning to the industry; but, juts like Wall Street, no one paid attention and the ground was prepared for an even bigger bubble to burst, which nearly took the industry with it. Next time, we'll try something more positive; a little black & white publisher that turned out a few decent titles, gave some young talent a foot into the industry, and actually, briefly, became the third largest comic book publisher. Come on back for Malibu Comics and watch them go from loose conglomeration of black & white publishers to the Ultraverse, to obscurity.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 23, 2018 0:02:47 GMT -5
As a coda to Solson, I just came across a 1989 Comics Journal snippet (while researching the labyrinthian background of the companies/imprints that made up Malibu) about Gary Brodsky and a subsequent aborted venture, Warped magazine. Brodsky had put out an advertisement, soliciting work and Kevin O'Brien, an amateur artist, answered it and was assigned a Star Trek parody. His deal called for a $600 payment to be issued upon delivery of the job. He received no payment and Brodsky never returned his calls. O'Brien then won an unanswered challenge in Brooklyn Small Claims Court. Charles Wojtkiewicz, who had done work for Solson, was quoted as saying he had been approached by Gap International/Pyramid Books (who Brodsky was working for/with) to do a piece and turned it down when he learned of Brodsky's involvement, after Brodksy skipped out on payments owen the artist.
Brodsky's previous website had Better Business Bureau complaints against it for non-delivery of merchandise and non-response to phone inquiries. Real class act.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 23, 2018 3:21:34 GMT -5
Well, they produced a few nice-looking covers, I guess. But yeah, not Buckler's finest hour to say the least...
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 23, 2018 12:49:40 GMT -5
Well, they produced a few nice-looking covers, I guess. But yeah, not Buckler's finest hour to say the least... Which was the sad thing about Buckler. He was a good artist (even without the swipes); but, not so great as an editor and pretty terrible as a businessman. He had some excellent work for DC and went looking for power/freedom/money/whatever at Archie and Solson. I have to wonder if he bought into Brodsky's nonsense or just thought he could make a quick bundle, like Eastman and Laird. Eastman and Laird weren't the best artists out there; but, they actually turned out to be pretty decent writers and created something different, beyond the initial parody. That was the problem of most of the imitators; they never saw beyond the quick parody and the sales figures. Buckler should have had enough experience to know better.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 24, 2018 23:54:29 GMT -5
In the early to mid-1980s, the Direct Market was becoming a major force in the comics industry. Selling directly to comic shops and other outlets, via small distributors, on a non-returnable basis, was very attractive to DC and Marvel and the had been happy with their early releases in this market. The distribution method was also attractive to smaller publishers, who could market directly to comic fans, rather than go the more expensive route of newsstand distribution. They could have smaller print runs and go back to press if they sold out of an issue; or, could supplement their original sales with back issue sales, after their titles had been discovered. This model had worked very well for the pioneer small press publishers, like Dave Sim, the Pinis, and Pacific and Eclipse Comics. Multiple regional distributors popped up, across the nation, handling store accounts in their areas. Some both distributed and ran their own chain of shops. Some even ventured into publishing, as had the Schanes Brothers, with Pacific. Now, there was an obvious conflict of interests, with a distributor also publishing. They had access to sales figures from other small presses and could gage their print levels accordingly, while other publishers could not. They could also limit competing publishers in favor of their own titles. These criticisms had been leveled against Pacific and they would soon factor into another publisher. One of the new distributors was a California company, started by a collector, named Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. The company was called Sunrise distribution and it catered to a variety of stores in Southern California. Rosenberg had started out selling comics via mail order, when he was 13 and was now doing quite well selling to his pool of clients. He did extremely well during what was known as the "black & white boom," following on the heels of the success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Starting in 1985 and peaking in 1986, the industry was flooded with wannabe Eastman & Lairds, churning out parodies in the same formula, with a few more original ideas. Suddenly, fans and comic shop owners were buying up anything published in black & white, no matter how stupid or amateurish. Two publishers were launched during this time; one on Canada, one in California (with Rosenberg's investment). They were Aircel Comics and Eternity Comics. Aircel had a fairly unique beginning in publishing. The company was an insulation contractor, known as Aircel Insulation. It had government contracts to provide insulation for various buildings; but, lost those contracts. One of its employees convinced the owner that he could make money by financing the publishing of black and white comics, with minimal investment, and more than make up for his lost business. The employee was an artist and fan who had self-published one comic already. His name was Barry Blair and that comic was Elflord. Blair had lived, for a time, in East Asia, living in places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, Cambodia and Thailand. While living there, he was exposed to manga and manhwa, and other comics of the region. He developed a style that mixed East and West, though it had a very strong Eastern element, giving his figures and almost childlike appearance. Elflord was a fantasy series, mixing elements of Tolkien and other noted fantasy authors, as well as the comic stories of Wendy Pini's Elfquest. I never actually read Elflord and wasn't overly enthused by Blair's style; but, it had a strong following and the series lasted through several publishers, while Blair would go on to work for the Pinis, on Elquest spin-off titles. Aircel would also produce the fantasy title Dragonring, the adventure series Samurai, and the sci-f0 tale Warlock 5. Elflord, Samurai and Warlock 5 would have a strong following and Aircel seemed to prosper. Blair both wrote and drew, while soon recruiting other artists. Meanwhile, in California, Eternity Comics was started by partners Brian Marshall and Dave Campitti. Marshall ran Tricorp Enterprises, which handled licensing, separations and print brokering for comics, while Campitti's Campitti and Associates acted as a packager of comics, hiring writers and artists and performing editorial functions. Together, with at least partial funding from Rosenberg, they started Eternity Comics, to publish an idea they had, that was to be titled Young Ex-Mutant Samurai Humans. Campitti hired writer David Lawrence and artists Ron Lim and Mike Witherby. Lawrence hated the name and was able to make the founders see reason and the title was shortened to Ex-Mutants. Ex-Mutants is set in a post-apocalyptic future, where nuclear holocaust has reduced the human race to mutations that could survive in the damaged environment. A scientist, named Cugat, has developed a procedure to sift the DNA of test subjects and return them to a more human form. The discover of a solar cell power unit provides the last link in conducting his experiment. The result is that his test subjects, 4 women and one man, ar transformed into a human appearance, tapping into DNA traits of their ancestors. They are then educated and trained in the martial arts disciplines of the samurai to go forth and repopulate the human secies. However, the mutants of the world do not see them as saviors and seek to destroy them. The series quickly found a decent following and it was one of the better concepts to come out of the black & white boom. The characterization is a bit light and the artist were young and inexperienced; but, Lim handled action well and drew sexy women, a feature that carried over to his follow-up work, on Campitti's Hero Alliance. Ex-Mutants would expand and soon introduce the New Humans, a group of scientists and explorers who were part of a suspended animation project, who awake in the future. One of them would turn out to be the ancestor of Dr Cugat. Further comics explored the world and also introduced a group of bikers, known as the Wild Knights, whose own series would feature writing from rookie Evan Dorkin (of Milk & Cheese and Space Ghost Coast to Coast fame). At this stage, Eternity would also publish Ninja, Earthlore, Mighty Mites; and announced Phigments and Wayfarers. Trouble soon arose at Eternity, with a disagreement about direction, between Marshall and Campitti. Rosenberg brokered a split between them, spinning Campitti off into two new companies: Amazing Comics and Wonder Color Comics, while Marshall continued to run Eternity. The bulk of the titles would follow Campiti to Amazing and World Color, where he would also develop Hero Alliance. Eternity developed new properties. Campitti also began working with Pied Piper Press, run by Roger McKenzie and Mark Hamlin. They were specialty publishers, who developed merchandise and original graphic novels. Amazing would continue publishing Ex-Mutants and some other Eternity works, while World Color was set up to do color comics. It was during this arrangement that Campittie and Kevin Jaure developed Hero Alliance, which first appeared in a graphic novel, from Pied Piper, then a color issue from World. Meanwhile, at Fantagraphics Books, Dave Olbrich gave up his position as managing editor of Amazing Heroes. Olbrich had been with Fantagraphics when they resided in Stamford, CT, and moved with them to California. However, the cost of living was high enough he took a pizza delivery job to help make ends meet. This grew into a full-time management position, that payed better than editing Amazing Heroes and Olbrich left Fantagraphics. After some time in the franchise food service world, Olbrich began to miss comics and would soon find himself unemployed. He sent a resume to Sunrise and was hired as a customer service rep. While there, he watched the black & white boom start to fizzle. He saw the mistakes of other small companies and thought he could do better. he used to discuss his ideas with fellow service rep Chris Ulm, over lunch. He noticed how the Apple computers and printers they used at Sunrise helped streamline the business and felt that similar efficiencies could make smaller publishers even ore profitable. Scott Rosenberg listened to his ideas and had Olbrich put together a proposal and soon offered to finance the company. Olbrich decided to call the new company Malibu, feeling it was a good name that said West Coast and success, as Malibu was known as a rich community. However, the unstable nature of the market put a delay on the launch of Malibu. Sunrise was starting to run into financial difficulty, as clients started having cash flow issues and couldn't pay their bills. This phenomena was happening across the country and several distributors went under or merged as a result. Small publishers started disappearing. This started to affect the publishers where Rosenberg was invested and he was called upon to take a more direct role. The result was that he took over as president of Eternity, World, Amazing, and Imperial (a spin-off of the Amazing & World group), as well as was involved in launching Malibu. While he was financing these companies, he was behind on paying some of his vendors, including Fantagraphics. Soon, the Comics Journal, in issue 115, exposed that Rosenberg was the money man behind these companies, yet wasn't able to pay the publishers he owed. It was suggested that he had funneled money into these companies, rather than pay his debts, a charge he denied. Meanwhile, a dispute had arisien between Campitti and Rosenberg, as Campitti had taken titles to Pied Piper to publish as comic books. After threats and negotiations, those titles would end up coming back to Eternity, where they would remain until they ended. Malibu launched its first titles in 1987, with such books as Dark Wolf, Libby Ellis, The Liberator, and The Trouble With Girls. Dark Wolf was a supernatural superhero, mixing in Batman elements with some demonic enemies. The writer was RA Jones, who would be a mainstay at Malibu/Eternity, with often violent and provocative comics. It started as a mini-series, with Malibu, then continued as a regular series under the Eternity name. Libby Ellis featured a female bounty hunter in a future world and was a decent little comic. It wasn't quite up there with Ron Randall's Trekker or Chuck Dixon and Judith Hunt's Evangeline; but, it was a good read. The art, by Norm Dwyer, had a bit of a similarity to Jaime Hernandez, though not as polished. Liberator was a cynical take on Captain America, with story by Paul O'Connor and crude, but effective art from Jim Chadwick. Jerry Bingham provided a deceptive first cover, making the comic appear more polished than it was inside. Chadwick did subsequent covers. Issues 2 and 3 have cover coloring by one Bruce Timm, possibly between animation jobs. The Trouble with Girls was the standout and was launched with an opening endorsement by mark Evanier, who was a critical darling with Crossfire, at Eclipse. The comic was from Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones and art by Tim Hamilton. The book features the adventures of Lester Girls, a secret agent who just wants to live a quiet life in the suburbs, but has to constantly deal with enemy agents trying to blow up his home, beautiful women throwing themselves at him and all of the other distractions that James Bond puts up with. The series even opens with Lester, sitting on the toilet, reading John Steinbeck's The Red Pony, just as his house is attacked. The book was terrific satire of the world of the movie James Bond, with both allows the art to indulge in action and sexy women, while the writing subverts the idea of a super-agent. Soon, there would be spin-offs, featuring supporting character Apache Dick and the villainous Lizard Lady. Girls would leave Malibu/Eternity for Comico, only to run into their financial problems, leading to a return to Eternity. It had one last hurrah at Epic, as part of the post-Archie Goodwin Heavy Hitters line of books, which failed to attract a sizeable audience. Jacobs and Jones would also pen the excellent fan history of the Silver and Bronze Ages, The Comic Book Heroes The critical attention that Girls brought to Jones would lead to a job writing for DC, where he revamped Green Lantern, Launched El Diablo, and worked on comics like JLA and Batman. In recent years, however, he was arrested for child pornography, in a case that is set to go to trial this year. Jones was an excellent writer and one who had a sense of humor, in the midst of an industry that had turned "grim and gritty." As a fan of his work, I hope that he is proven innocent; however, initial reports suggested a lot of evidence against him; and, if allegations are true, I hope the book is thrown at him. Either way, it is for the courts to determine. While these events were going on, Aircel helped launch another publishing venture, with Adventurers. Adventurers was high fantasy adventure, with much in common with Tolkien and Howard and the world of Dungeons Dragons. It started at Aircel, then moved to its own company, Adventure Comics, under publisher Steve Milo. With the fallout of the black & white bust, Rosenberg shut down Amazing and World/Imperial and merged Malibu and Eternity. The name of the company was now Malibu Graphics, with Eternity Comics acting as the publishing name of the company. Then, in September of 1988, Rosenberg acquired Aircel, adding it to the Malibu Graphics line. A few months later, in January of 89, he bought Adventure Comics. The existing titles would run their course, then, Aircel became the home for more adult material (i hesitate to use the word "mature", for some of it) and Adventure became the home for licensed comics. The combined company went into the 90s, in this form, with Dave Olbrich acting as publisher and Chris Ulm as Editor-in-Chief. Tom Mason came on board as the creative director. This would be the executive team that would shepherd Malibu through the rest of its days. Meanwhile, The Comics Journal continued to attack Malibu and Rosenberg in articles relating to their work. In every instance, they brought up Rosenberg's involvement with the companies, while Sunrise Distribution went bankrupt. Fantagraphics tried to sue Rosenberg and tie his personal assets to their claim and won an initial judgement, that was later overturned and they had to get in line with the rest of Sunrise's creditors. They never recouped the money and continued to hold a grudge against Malibu. Olbrich's past history with Fantagraphics was forgotten, as he was guilty by association. There was also a dispute over the Kirby Awards, which Olbrich had handled under Fantagraphics as was to continue to oversee, until Jack Kirby decided he didn't want his name being the source of conflict over ownership of the awards. The awards were shelved and replaced by the Eisner Awards, which Olbrich helped manage, and the Harvey Awards, which Fantagraphics handled, and which focused on alternative press titles. As the 80s gave way to the 90s, The Comics Journal would remain a major critic of Malibu, ignoring some excellent works from the publisher, though as time progressed, Malibu began to abandon its more eclectic offerings for more mainstream superhero titles. Next, we will explore more of Malibu's offerings, via the Eternity, Aircel and Adventure brand names, including such ong time works as Ben Dunn's Ninja High School, some excellent Sherlock Holmes works, and some reprints of Skywald horror material. We will also look at a rather ill-fated reprint of Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse strips.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 25, 2018 7:01:55 GMT -5
Interesting, I've always wondered why a comic book publisher, Aircel, had a name more suited to a company that designed and/or manufactured parts and equipment for the aerospace industry. Malibu published some cool stuff in the early '90s - mainly I'm thinking of Simonson's excellent Star Slammers (which Dark Horse had to finish).
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 25, 2018 10:14:30 GMT -5
Interesting, I've always wondered why a comic book publisher, Aircel, had a name more suited to a company that designed and/or manufactured parts and equipment for the aerospace industry. Malibu published some cool stuff in the early '90s - mainly I'm thinking of Simonson's excellent Star Slammers (which Dark Horse had to finish). Malibu had some excellent material, before the Bravura and Ultraverse titles, and I want to showcase those, first, before we dive into their shift to those titles. Bravura featured some damn fine material, by veterans who seemed to be fading away at the Big Two, while Ultraverse had a good mix of seasoned pro and younger talent. Still, early Malibu (et al) provided a training ground for a lot of talent that went onto bigger things. Ron Lim would go from Ex-Mutants to Hero Alliance to working at DC and Marvel, making his name on Silver Surfer and Infinity Gauntlet, in the 90s. Evan Dorkin was writing Wild Knights and writing and drawing his own Pirate Corp$, for Eternity, before taking that to Slave Labor and creating Milk & Cheese. After the dispute over Ex-Mutants and the Pied Piper comics, Campitti would go on to write for DC and launch Innovation Comics, which was a strong player, for a few years. Trouble with Girls was a really fun strip, in an era which had very few humor/adventure titles. For fans of James Bond it was a neat twist on the whole thing and would make a great movie series. It was optioned, in the 90s; but, never escaped development hell. Liberator was one of several attempts at a post-modern Captain America, tying it into the more cynical patriotic flavor of the Reagan years. In the first issue, the hero is accompanying the 75th Rangers on a mission to Honduras, to fight the Sandinistas, straight out of the Reagan playbook. Around that time, the US sent troops to Honduras to beef up forces there against possible incursions by Nicaraguan forces, hunting for the Contras, who were being sheltered in Honduras (under CIA supervision). The troops were also there to help prop up the repressive Honduran government, which had a bad history of terror against its own populace, especially a burgeoning labor movement, keeping wages low for textile exports to the US. The comic fit in well with similar projects, like Eclipse's Strike (and Airboy), Dark Horse's The American, and Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell's Zenith, in 2000 AD, which featured similar political and pop culture satire. Aircel was pretty much Barry Blair's baby, for a long while. I'm not a fan of his style, as his characters had a very generic look and the material was a bit stiff. I tended to put the comic back when I saw it was one of his, with the exception of Eternity's adaptations of the novel Logan's Run and its sequel, Logan's World. On the one hand, he did make the characters look as young as they are in the book (21 or younger); but, it lacked the style and punch of George Perez, on the Marvel adaptation of the Logan's Run movie. Blair also tended to gratuitous violence and sexually explicit material, putting out the "adult" title Leather & Lace and a few others. Most of what I saw of Malibu's adult material was either ultra-violent or presented a rather repressed sexuality, akin to your average Cinemax skin flick. If you wanted sexual material, in comics, you could find far better at Fantagraphics or Kitchen Sink, or via European material at NBM, Catalan and Heavy Metal. Aircel would be at the center of some controversy for Malibu, with the series Ripper, which I will get into, in a bit. Malibu/Eternity would also be a source for early manga, as well as home-grown manga, with Ninja High School. We'll get into some of that.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 26, 2018 0:54:42 GMT -5
One of the early Eternity comics was also one of the first American manga titles: Ben Dunn's Ninja High School... The earliest issues were published by Ben Dunn's Antarctic Press, as a mini-series. It proved popular enough that he continued it as a series, at Eternity, for about 30 issues, before taking it back to publish himself, via Antarctic. The series began as a parody of manga and anime, especially some of the story conventions and tropes. The plot finds alien princess Asrial coming to Earth to marry Jeremy Feegle, a student at Quagmire High School, so that the Salusians can lay claim to the planet. Meanwhile, another female, Ichi-Kun, the heir to a ninja clan, must get Jeremy to propose to her, to prove she is worthy of leading the clan. The series was lighthearted, in the tradition of manga, which was something new on these shores. It had more of an American sensibility than some of the manga translations that began appearing, and made for a great gateway into manga. It was never a critical darling or a huge seller; but, it carved out a respectable run in comics, for 30 years. If you enjoy manga or know a manga fan, it's a pretty good series to introduce to them. Eternity would also tread into mystery territory, with Sherlock Holmes. Not exactly your standard superhero fare, though one of the foundations of the modern detective hero; especially, Batman. This series reprinted the 1950s Sherlock comic strip, written by radio scriptwriter Edith Meiser and drawn by Frank Giacoia. This series collected the 1930s Sherlock comic strip, from Leo O'Mealia. O'Mealia adhered closely to Sydney Paget's drawings and the text tended to stick to Doyle's original. Eternity also created new Holmes stories... Both of these are from Martin Powell and Seppo Makinen. A Case of Blind Fear has Holmes encountering HG Wells' Invisible Man, while Scarlet in Gaslight finds Holmes crossing paths with Count Dracula. In both cases, Powell skillfully blends the two characters and their worlds, while Makinen mixes Victorian illustrative styling with later adventure comics. Greg Hatcher, back in the CBR days, rightfully called this one of the best graphic adaptations of Holmes and one that really captures the voice of Doyle. Powell has gone on to write additional Holmes adaptations and original adventures. The collected edition of Scarlet in Gaslight was nominated for the Eisner Award and a 25th Anniversary collection was released by Pulp 2.0 Press, with an intro from Win Scott Eckert, a pulp historian and writer. If you are a Holmes fan and/or mystery fan and haven't read this, you should! Eternity also published a series of Edgar Allan Poe comics, collecting the Skywald stories of Al Hewetson. These are wonderfully atmospheric adaptations of Poe's stories, with a variety of artists, published across the Skywald line, in the 1970s. Eternity collected them together for a new generation of fans. They also collected some other Skywald material, including Victims... This was a series from Scream magazine, at Skywald, from Al Hewetson, and was one of his best. It features two women caught up in crazier and crazier events, with little rhyme or reson. It was the epitome of Hewetson's Horror-Mood, where the horrific atmosphere was greater than the narrative. The heroines were based on actresses Teresa Graves and Britt Ekland... Though there is some Pam Grier and Margaret Markov there, too... Some pretty good stuff there! One immutable law of comics is DON'T F@#$ WITH THE MOUSE! Let me explain; it has never been a good idea to parody Mickey Mouse or attempt to reprint the classic Floyd Gottfredson comic strip adventures of Mickey. The former got the Air Pirates group in hot water with Disney, in a case that went to the Supreme Court and was lost by the Air Pirates. They had created satirical adventures of Mickey and the gang, acting like real people. That's fine and dandy; but, they drew them too much like the Disney models and Disney sued. Parody and satire have been upheld as free speech; but, there has to be some distinction between parody and the original. The court didn't think the Air Pirates achieved that. The latter case was a bit more straight-forward. Eternity had been in contact with Bill Blackbeard, a noted comic strip collector and historian, about public domain material. Blackbeard convinced them that these early Mickey strips were now in the public domain, even though Disney had renewed copyrights. What he failed to note was that Disney had a trademark on Mickey, which prevented his use without their okey-dokey. Eternity hedged their bets by not calling the book Mickey Mouse and by not showing him on the cover. The issue came sealed in a plastic bag. However, the strips inside were the originals. Disney hit them faster than you can say "Hello there!" and a judge ruled that the copyright was still valid on the strips and the trademark further protected the material. Eternity had gotten two issues out before the boom was lowered. Cat & Mouse was a series from Roland Mann and Mytch Byrd, which premiered at EF Graphics, then was picked up by Aircel. It features Jerry O'Neil, a New Orleans cop who is mistreated by his department and turns to crime to get back at them. he picks up a female partner, Mandy Paige and some training by a Yakuza assassin, Kunoichi (which is the term for a female ninja). They are sent into a mafia ambush and turn on their masters, attacking both the Yakuza and the Mafia. The series was action-packed, jumping onto the ninja bandwagon, though at the point where it was winding down. However, the cat burglar and gang war element gave it a fresh hook, rather than making it yet another Elektra clone. Paul Gulacy even did the cover for the first Aircel issue and it lasted for 18 issues and was collected in two trade books. If you enjoyed books like Whisper of the Elektra stories of Daredevil, this is a decent one to try. Pirate Corp$ was an early series from Evan Dorkin. It's allegedly a sci-fi tale; but, what it really is is a "slice-of-life" comedy, that just happens to take place in the future. Dorkin eventually took the series to Slave Labor Graphics and changed the name to Hectic Planet. Dorkin's a fun writer and artist and this shows his early development, before Milk & Cheese and his tv writing gigs. Next up, we will look at Malibu's forays into anime and manga titles (apart from Ninja High School), as well as some of their licensed comics. Come on back for Captain Harlock, Lensmen, Robotech, as well as I Love Lucy, The Three Stooges, and Plan 9 From Outer Space. See how Malibu hadn't quite learned its lesson, as they are busted for unauthorized adaptations of Japanese anime.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 28, 2018 15:19:39 GMT -5
Like many comics companies, Malibu licensed established, popular media properties for comic books, hoping to tap into a built-in audience. Their success with this was pretty mixed (which is about par for the course, for the industry). They had reprints of old material from the Three Stooges and I Love Lucy, as well as Charlie Cha... The Three Stooges featured reprints of old material from St John and Western and Charlie Chan reprinted the newspaper strip from the late 30s and early 40s (which was highly regarded). I Love Lucy also features reprints of the short-lived and somewhat rare I Love Lucy comic strip, from King Feature, which was drawn by Bob Oksner, under the name Bob Lawrence. These followed the characterizations from the tv show and are pretty funny. Oksner was known for adapting tv material, at DC, with Sgt Bilko, Dobie Gillis, and Jerry Lewis. He captures the likenesses, in his own cartoony style and is nice and expressive. Malibu published some managa and anime adaptations, in the early days of the manga invasion. Lensman adapted the anime that was distributed by Streamline, Carl Macek's company (producer of the Robotech series). The movie diverged substantially from the original novels of EE "Doc" Smith. The Lensman Saga was one of the inspirations for the Green Lantern Corps; but, the anime turns the Lensman story into more of an adaptation of the Green Lantern origin than the literary Kim Kinnison. It was a decent feature, though a bit slow in the second act (a common problem in the Japanese storytelling structure). These comics, from the Eternity imprint, adapted that material and the Lensman tv series, also from Japan. However, issues arose from the Lensman rightholders about authority to create Lensman comics. Captain Harlock was an adaptation of Leiji Matsumoto's space opera series; but, the person who sold the rights to Eternity didn't own them in the first place. The series was called to a halt when the actual rightsholders came forward. Robotech II: The Sentinels, adapted the aborted Harmony Gold animated extension of the original Robotech (which was constructed from 3 different animated series). Harmony Gold only created 3 episodes before abandoning it, turning it into a book series. The comics drew from that. When Malibu sold to Marvel, the series continued elsewhere. Malibu/Eternity did a little better with some literary adaptations, especially horror, with comics based on HP Lovecraft and Brian Lumley's Necroscope... Stephen Jones did the adapting on Lovecraft and penned other horror material for Malibu/Eternity/Adventure. He was adept at the material and the Lovecraft stuff has art from Chris Jones (relation?) which works well, with elements of David Mazzucchelli. Necroscope had stories from Martin Powell, who penned the excellent Sherlock Holmes pastiches and the comics were favorites of Lumley fans. Malibu adapted other literary and media properties and Adventure Comics eventually became their imprint for such material (though some were done under the Eternity name; and, later, under Malibu, when they went with that as the publishing imprint of the company, in 1992). They adapted Keith Laummer's retief series, Mary Roberts Rinehart's The Bat, and William F Nolan and George Clayton Johnson's Logan's Run and Logan's World. Retief suffers greatly by rather amateurish art. Figure work is fine, if rather stiff; but, the black and white art lacks depth and texture, which makes it look flat on the page. The Bat suffers from the same problem, though figure work is even worse, and it fails to capture the period of the story. The cover and the interior story tries to tie it closer to Batman, as the 1930 film, The Bat Whispers (based on the play, inspired by Rinehart's work) was one of the inspirations for Batman (from Bill Finger, not so much Kane). They really try to push Batman imagery, even though the Bat character is a psychotic killer. Logan's Run and Logan's World were adapted by Barry Blair; and, for once, his manga/elf style of art actually works in favor of the story, fr my tastes. His characters always looked rather childlike, which is a plus here, as Blair adapts the novel, where Lastday occurs at 21, not 30, as in the film. As such, the world of the novel is filled with children running wild, living hedonistic lives, until their 21st Birthday (Lastday). In the film, Logan is sent in search of Sanctuary, a destination for Runners (those who refuse to adhere to the system and try to hang onto life) and his lifeclock (a crystal, embedded in the palm of the had, which changes color at different stages of life) is turned to a blinking red, signalling Lastday. In the novel, after chasing down a runner (Logan is a Sandman, the enforcement agents of the city), Logan's clock changes to Lastday and he takes it upon himself to hunt down Sanctuary. In both stories, logan goes on a physical and spiritual journey, as he crosses the United States, in search of Sanctuary, while his outlook in regards the system of the City changes. Blair captures the youth of the characters, even if he never really captures the emotion. Logan is a colder emotional story, as Logan learns to love, after meeting and spending time with Jessica. Blar never really captures that, as he focused more on sex than love in his work. It undercuts things here, though it fits the story more closely. Logan's World picks up the first sequel novel, where Logan and Jessica return and Logan must return to the City, to find medicine for his son. Here's some samples from issue one... This isn't bad and it captures the flavor of the two novels well; but, it is undercut by Blair's inability to really convey emotion, either in expression or body language. Malibu continued to add new properties and soon tapped into some with strong fanbases, who were looking for new stories, with Alien Nation, Re-Animator, and Planet of the Apes... Alien Nation had begun with the movie, starring James Caan and Mandy Patinkin, which was adapted by DC. A Fox tv series followed (debuting with the network), which had a cult following; but, was far more expensive than the ratings it drew. The tv series was cancelled with a cliffhanger, though it would be revived in other media, as well as tv movies, which picked things back up. This selection of mini-series helped continue the story and feed the loyal fans who wanted more. The art was decent, if unspectacular; but, the writing was good and captured the personalities of the characters. re-Animator was based on the cult film, adapting and expanding upon it, in a lively manner. Planet of the Apes turned into a surprise hit. Some of that was speculation; but, POTA fans had been starved for material since about 1975/76. Agan, the art wasn't anything spectacular; but, it was expressive and captured the apes well (better than the human characters) and the world they inhabited. It explored areas that the film and tv series hadn't, which added to things, and fed a nostalgia for the earlier movies. A new movie was in development; but, that attempt would fall through, leading to the later, poorly received Tim Burton film. The popularity of the series would even lead to some odd crossovers... Ape Nation featured a cross between the worlds of POTA and Ape Nation, making for a surreal, yet fun mini-series. Due to the way licensed comics are handled, malibu found themselves in possession of the material from the Marvel Comics (as Dark Horse would when they acquired Star Wars and Conan) adaptations of the POTA films. They reprinted them as black & white graphic novels, with movie stills on the covers. Next time, we will look at some other Malibu properties, under their various imprints, before we begin to look at their transitional year of 1992, when they went exclusively with the Malibu name and brokered a deal that would set them up quite well. Come on back for talk of Bruce Lee, Dinosaurs for Hire, Australian superheroes, and some Men in Black.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2018 21:03:05 GMT -5
I read some Malibu ... I Love Lucy and little of the Three Stooges too ... but, I love "I Love Lucy" and that's was a pleasant surprise by Malibu back then and I later regretted giving away those comics.
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