bran
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Post by bran on Jun 20, 2017 10:42:25 GMT -5
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bran
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Post by bran on Jun 18, 2017 3:04:03 GMT -5
Another thing I love about Ennis' portrayal of Frank in this run, which I think people who have a particular disdain for the character can appreciate (and crazyoldhermit touches on in his reviews)... Ennis doesn't romanticize what Frank is or what he does. He portrays Frank Castle as an extremely disturbed, monstrous force of nature who goes out and does something horrible every night in order to prevent himself from doing something even more horrible. This version of Frank isn't your classical Frank who simply does what he does because he has a disdain for criminals and lives to avenge the loss of his family. This Frank Castle is a truly sick man with an undying lust for murderous actions. Lucky for us, he just so happens to focus that monstrous aggression towards the lowest dregs that society has to offer instead of totally losing his grip on reality and lashing out at society in general. It's absolutely haunting and Ennis does an amazing job at getting that across in a manner that isn't constantly shoved down your throat. Ennis's Frank Castle reminds me of colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. What's particularly well done in the movie is when Martin Sheen reads his biography on that boat (and that leaves him with more questions than he had before). We learn that Kurtz was doing everything by the book (went on to best schools, had good grades, had some little combat experience, earned some medals etc) yet perfectionist as he was he was not satisfied with that. For him that was like a high-school cup. So he went on to post-post-graduate post-phd real-life school which is a top level combat - complete and unhinged savagery. Sure some tactics and equipment help but - a savage man is much superior to a civilized man. That was a missing part - that will ensure epic victory for his side (and so it does, he is unstoppable). His Cambodians are considered sub-human savages by Vietnamese/Chineese, in the same token as Vietnamese are considered savages by US military. He is beating them with their own weapon. In his mind, probably, he is on the course all the time - nothing changed (he just reached the higher level of warfare).
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bran
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Post by bran on Jun 18, 2017 1:10:46 GMT -5
I was just looking for some of his other work online, but there ain't nothing else. Yes one of the best writers for Creepy/Eerie. Very creative and always with a clear vision. Apocalypse is particularly memorable, Ortiz's style was a perfect match.
Whoever owns Creepy/Eerie catalogue (is it Dynamite), should try with Budd Lewis Anthology, or Short Stories whatever, with modern editorial and intros by current writers/artists who were fans, see what happens. Current B/W renascence makes it a perfect time right now. If that goes well - the same with Archie Goodwin's stories and so on. But they have to bring a particular author to a younger audience directly and in a smaller serialized form, so they can relate that to Walking Dead or Rachel Rising or Stray Bullets. These cumbersome, blanket-reprints (of all issues of magazines/cb, altogether with old ads, letters and loads of other dated/irrelevant stuff) are almost counter-productive.
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bran
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Post by bran on Jun 16, 2017 7:54:39 GMT -5
Marked Man by Howard Chaykin. Maybe not exactly old style, quite good.
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bran
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Post by bran on Jun 16, 2017 7:42:43 GMT -5
Batman may not be the best example as he has no super-powers, just like Punisher. Definitely - it's not every-man's Superman. Occasional satire is not really ill-fated, it's tongue-in-cheek, and it's broader than "being unbeatable" aspect. For example - the hard truth is: Common thug is a God and common men are cowardly. Alien creature (or human with super-powers) is just a small man's fantasy on how to stop it (via proxy no less). He kind of plays of that, it's certainly not a comfort-fiction. Steven Grant's Punisher is also in more realistic setting, more compatible with Ennis's (crime/noir). Chuck Dixon's run, and I haven't read all of it, would be let's say action/crime. He even made a western version (art - full Buscema) - A Man Named Frank. That's the thing, though - even though he's meant to have no superpowers, effectively Batman does have them because of the way the character is written. He's as much of a fantasy as Superman, perhaps more so for the very reason that it's supposed to be an "ordinary" man that's doing all this outrageous stuff. Hence my suspicion that the Punisher was also being used as just the kind of "small man's fantasy" you mention. No it's not - just the opposite. Punisher is thug for thugs and that's why he defeats them, not because he is a hero or noble (let alone super-hero). He is more brutal than them, he cheats more etc, which puts an interesting spin on the whole thing. (So thugs need to dream up few super-heroes to protect them so to speak. You may even feel sorry for them occasionally.) As I mentioned above that's only Punisher as written by Grant, Dixon, Ennis, plus Rucka, Aaron which is what 1% of total Punisher. All things considered even that "1%" is not old-style/classic crime, it's a different beast, but compatible.
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bran
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Post by bran on Jun 16, 2017 7:11:49 GMT -5
Who can remind me about that very strange and surreal european western strip that ran in the early years of Heavy Metal for many issues? The art was beautiful and the story was...snakey if I recall There is Snake (Abuli/Bernet), but not in early years, that was in the 80s/90s. 8 short stories tops.
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bran
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Post by bran on Jun 16, 2017 6:52:01 GMT -5
When it comes to great old western, a perfect companion to any lazy Sunday afternoon, that fits your description of comfort-read - nothing beats Tex. Sales figures from 40s-now are there to show, however there is a caveat - in order to read it you have to... learn Italian! [Well almost, I am sure there are few issues translated, out of gazillion.] One of the patriarchs of fumetti - Gianluigi Bonelli created Tex in 1948, wrote it for decades with many other writers/artists. Title remained one of the all time best-sellers across the board. No one knows exactly why, but that's how it is. Tex rocks!
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bran
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Post by bran on Jun 12, 2017 7:23:42 GMT -5
not a comment Confessor, but here some more trivia regarding the series:
so Roy brought in SW to Marvel (before anyone knew what in Hell is Star Wars), made a good deal, went on with Chaykin and created comics that would beat Spider-Man in sales 4x over. that's amazing.
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bran
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Post by bran on Jun 8, 2017 13:34:54 GMT -5
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bran
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Post by bran on Jun 7, 2017 15:46:32 GMT -5
DC inkers that were assigned for Kirby's Kamandi, did a wonderful job. They never tried to prettify or average-up Kirby's art (or super-impose their style over Kirby's). As a result it really shines - it's 100% Kirby. The only guy that damaged the art was Kirby himself with some unnecessary dialogs (where Kamandi is telling us exactly what he is doing at the moment as it is not obvious, and drawn beautifully), I guess that was a common practice of the era.
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bran
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Post by bran on Jun 3, 2017 4:12:17 GMT -5
Here George Martin talks about essentially the same thing in tv-shows production. They called/are calling it there Standards and Practices. That's from his experience working on network television, shows are Doorways, Beauty and the Beast and non-network Game of Thrones.
It's pretty funny, starts ~ 35 min mark.
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bran
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Post by bran on Jun 1, 2017 23:20:35 GMT -5
I see your BlackHawk and raise you a Hex in the future I'll dispute Hex as editorial sabotage. Jonah Hex was being cancelled due to falling sales, and Michael Fleisher ( the Jonah Hex writer as far as i am concerned) was offered the opportunity to transform it into a post-apocalyptic nook in an effort to keep the character going. No, it was Fleisher-written series that was canceled. That, as you say falling, series was titled Jonah Hex. Hex's character was watered down to softer version of his former self, stories were so-so, obviously the readers had their say. John Albano was the creator/pan-ultimate writer of Jonah Hex, 1st story published in All Star Western 10, and then in Weird Western Tales. It was a instant fan-favorite, so much so that they added Jonah Hex logo in bigger letters than the title (Weird Western Tales): It's easy to see why - Albano's script is tight - with interesting characters, dialogs done well, superb pacing and IMO great art by De Zuniga (I love his work). Of course the main attraction is his character - just compare Hex with other western-heroes from that era like Pow-Wow Smith. They were all nice and righteous guys that will bore you to death. Despite that - Hex has his own moral compass, it's just... a different one than what would you expect maybe, it's weird like that. Arguably a new sub-genre was born right there - Weird Western. Albano/De Zuniga had a stellar run of 10 stories or so. So all the editors had to do is continue in that direction, let them do whatever they were doing, right? Wrong - they start the brand new series, titled it Jonah Hex, and have their yes-men to write it. Then when it failed, they concluded "aaah it's because it's a western" (so it's not their fault, rigth :-)). In other words - it's not poor writing/art - it's the environment/era! So they start the brand new series "Hex" (that one failed after 18 issues only, aslo written by Fleisher), but removed the Western setting this time around.
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bran
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Post by bran on Jun 1, 2017 21:33:06 GMT -5
In Watchmen, Moore made a humorous comment about what you call editorial sabotage (and downright creation/plotting). There is one super-hero, member of the 1st squad, who was sponsored by corporations - a Dollar Bill. Moore made him utterly incompetent, pompous, over the top-costume, mentally meek, overall ridicules.
The thing is, if you leave to editors, execs or accountants to initiate, write or influence the story you default to what is a comic-book equivalent of Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin (or a Dollar Bill LOL). That's a norm. When they put a spandex on Jonah Hex (the laser gun in his hand, futuristic vehicle instead of the horse), after previously altering the character - a classic case.
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bran
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Post by bran on May 20, 2017 14:52:12 GMT -5
We are in a true golden age where you can find almost whatever comic you could dream of when before the limit was how far would you drive or bicycle in your city? Now comic book buying has few limits since you can by from tons of Internet Stores and comic sites. I completely agree with you, distribution is the king. Mind you the output is amazing as well, which reflects increasing demand (historians will probably say it all started round around 2005 or so), and is still going strong. What is currently referred to as "Golden Age" wasn't even close. Also, some old comics aged really well and you can purchase restored and collected/sorted digital versions for decent amount. Don't know which Phantom you bought but AFAIK Falk/Moore run (concluding with The Inexorables) aged exceptionally well. It has all the exuberance of Pulp-era, spirit of adventure, great art, pre-code romance (not explicit but obviously adult), diverse characters, and 1930s written all over it.
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bran
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Post by bran on May 20, 2017 2:06:21 GMT -5
from Jimmy Palmiotti's take on Red Sonja (Dynamite, one shot), homage to Frank Frazetta:
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