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Post by MDG on Jan 14, 2018 8:47:59 GMT -5
I bought my first of the artist-centric EC hardcovers from Fantagraphics, a Jack Davis collection. The care that Davis put into each panel makes me think he took great pride in his work (as seems to be true of the whole EC stable), especially considering the work was expected to be read by kids and then thrown away. That all of his figures exude character without him recycling any characters (at least not that I've seen yet) is impressive. On the other hand, Davis had the reputation at EC as being a "fast artist" who was able to do a seven or eight page story in three days.
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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Jan 14, 2018 22:21:00 GMT -5
Reading Kull right now from the 1971 series...I like it!
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 17, 2018 12:40:36 GMT -5
Reading Kull right now from the 1971 series...I like it! I have a few random issues of Kull which I picked up in a dollar bin a few years ago and never got around to reading, and I think I'll start on them soon.
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 17, 2018 12:43:39 GMT -5
I thought Tomb of Dracula #6 was a good place for a break because Marv Wolfman starts writing it with the next issue. But really, the pre-Wolfman issues are pretty good too! And they will look very familiar to anybody who's read very many of the Wolfman issues. Colan has been the penciller since the first issues and inker Tom Palmer came on with #3, so the series had certainly looked like Tomb of Dracula. And the regular supporting cast is already gathering! Frank Drake is in the first issue, and both Rachel van Helsing and Taj first showed up in #3! I'm not wishing to take anything away from Marv Wolfman's accomplishments on TOD, not at all! I'm just pointing out that his predecessors gave him a pretty good foundation to start from. I thought that the first 4 issues were quite good, but the writing wasn't as good on issues 5 & 6 (Sorry, Gardner Fox) though the art was quite good.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 17, 2018 13:17:03 GMT -5
Reading Kull right now from the 1971 series...I like it! I picked up Kull #29 off the spinner rack when it was brand new. I thought it was pretty cool and I was thinking I would start buying it regularly. But it was the last issue. And I never got around to picking up the back issues. It's something I can put on the list for when I'm done with The Doom Patrol, Tomb of Dracula, Sgt. Fury, Captain Savage, The Haunted Tank, Sgt. Rock, Futura, Sky Girl, Space Smith, the Atomic Knights and so on.
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Post by urrutiap on Jan 17, 2018 22:09:02 GMT -5
Since yesterday Ive been binge reading the old 1980s Marvel Comics Star Wars issues 36 up to that one Last Jedi issue. I flipped through the Empire Strikes Back issues since Ive seen the movie enough times but the original comic issues of extra Dagobah training and a little bit of the Wampa invading the Hoth Rebel base was cool.
The issue where Vader and Leia were going around getting involved with the purchase of X wings it got a little dumb at the end
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 18, 2018 12:22:20 GMT -5
I read the first of my random Kull, The Destroyer (I'd better be specific since there were 2 different Kull titles in the 70's) back issue yesterday, Kull #19. I liked it. Both art and writing were good, especially the writing, though Kull was more Conan-like than I expected. Anyway, in the letter column they mention that, due to a combination of a paper shortage (their publisher asked them to drop some titles) and relatively low sales, Kull was going to be at least temporarily cancelled with #15 being the last issue. Now that I look on comicbookbdb, I see that there was a 2 ywar gap between #15 and #16, so there you go. I never knew that before.
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Post by Duragizer on Jan 18, 2018 19:47:06 GMT -5
I skimmed through the Ditko issues to refresh my memory of preceding events, and now I'm diving headlong into the Romita era.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 18, 2018 21:12:13 GMT -5
I skimmed through the Ditko issues to refresh my memory of preceding events, and now I'm diving headlong into the Romita era. Pretty soon you'll get to the introduction of Mary Jane and then all those issues where Gwen and MJ and Petey and Flash and Harry are all hanging out at the Bean and saying mean things to each other! The Rhino, the Lizard, the Shocker, the new Vulture, Kraven and the Kingpin are all pretty cool too, I guess. But the best material is the scenes like the one where MJ is supposed to be helping Aunt May move in with Anna May Watson and all she does is turn on the music and start dancing and Anna May says "That's nice. Try not to knock anything over, dear."
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Post by String on Jan 19, 2018 13:26:59 GMT -5
The stories here, all by Moench with art by Gulacy, Craig Russell and others, were entertaining, the main story being about Shang dealing with a birthday death wish sent by his father. Although I know the series got better later with it's racial portrayal of Fu Manchu, it was still odd to see his depiction here, yellow skin and fingernails all. The two-page demonstration of various Shaolin styles of fighting (with Iron Fist doing the demonstration) was fun. As was the reprint of Yellow Claw's first appearance, complete with Jimmy Woo.
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Post by berkley on Jan 19, 2018 13:40:46 GMT -5
I read the first of my random Kull, The Destroyer (I'd better be specific since there were 2 different Kull titles in the 70's) back issue yesterday, Kull #19. I liked it. Both art and writing were good, especially the writing, though Kull was more Conan-like than I expected. Anyway, in the letter column they mention that, due to a combination of a paper shortage (their publisher asked them to drop some titles) and relatively low sales, Kull was going to be at least temporarily cancelled with #15 being the last issue. Now that I look on comicbookbdb, I see that there was a 2 ywar gap between #15 and #16, so there you go. I never knew that before. I remember being quite excited when the Kull series came back, as Kull was always my favourite REH character. It really felt like a brand new series with the hiatus and the different creative team - Doug Moench and Alfredo Alcala, I think? There were various artists but Moench was there for awhile, I believe. And yes, the new series was more Conan-like with Kull wandering around and having adventures, while the earlier series, especially during the Severins' run, was the more traditional King of Valusia Kull, fighting conspiracies against the throne, and supporting characters Brule and Tu. I prefer the traditional Kull but I can understand how the writer of a continuing series might find the King of Valusia scenario a little restrictive and want to take him away from it for a while.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 19, 2018 14:12:26 GMT -5
I read the last episode of Futura today! Futura started in Planet Comics #43 and ran to #64. It doesn't really end on a cliffhanger, but it's in the middle of storyline as Futura has just become the Mariner Queen of a group of adventurers/fishermen. She accomplished this when the captain of the ship decided she should be his mate. Futura had just been rescued from drowning after narrowly escaping some evil bodiless heads who lived in jars in an underwater domed city. When the captain came to claim her, she was rather disagreeable and while fighting off his advances and his condescending tone about the role of women in science fiction comics, she tossed him overboard and he was eaten by a gigantic sea spider. So she became the Mariner Queen! That happened in #63. Stuff like this happens in every episode! In #64 the old captain's son is plotting against her but they are attacked by pirates and through Futura's inspiring leadership (and her sensible blue slippers), the pirates are defeated. But the old captain's son is still brooding over his revenge in the last panel. And that was the last episode of Futura, though I wouldn't be surprised if some comic book company brought her back with new adventures as Futura is in public domain. I'm actually pretty close to finishing several other comics that I read when I take my Golden Age break. There's only about five episodes of Space Smith left and about four adventures of the Atomic Knights left. So I'm trying to decide what to read next. I'm thinking of reading Liberty Belle's 1940s adventures and also Electro in the early issues of Marvel Mystery Comics. And I also remember reading an episode of Tuk, Cave Boy, a long time ago. Simon and Kirby! I think it was in early issues of Captain America and I remember thinking it was pretty cool!
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 20, 2018 8:52:47 GMT -5
I read Spider-Man # 116-120 yesterday. Nothing special in the stories , I just wanted to look at the pretty Romita SR art. During the first arc involving a villain called the Disrupter, Spider-man takes the disguise off him when he's killed and revealed to be a politician. I guess Spider-man was in the habit of taking suits off criminals in order to protect them. Sheesh.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 20, 2018 16:30:12 GMT -5
After finishing Futura, I decided to go ahead and read the first few Liberty Belle episodes ... and they're great! Her first two appearances are in Boy Commandos #1 and #2. And then they moved her in Star-Spangled Comics #20.
(I don't know what issue that splash page is from. There's a limited amount of Golden Age Liberty Belle art available on the Internet. I'm assuming it's a symbolic splash page because I don't think getting big was one of her powers.)
Libby Lawrence is in Poland when the Nazis invade and she goes to Holland then to France then to England, always one step (barely!) ahead of the Nazis. At Dunkirk, her boat is sunk and she manages to swim to safety because she's a champion athlete. She discovers she has some mystic connection to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and eventually she decides to wear jodhpurs and boots to fight Axis saboteurs in the U.S. And because she usually has her hair tied up under wonderful elaborate 1940s style hats, she's sure no one will recognize her if she runs around unmasked with her hair down and no hat. (I think she looks more like Carole Lombard than Veronica Lake.)
I love the art! I don't know who it is, but it's that sketchy but moody Golden Age art with good proportions that I like, but not too cartoony like some of those early Green Lantern stories that I don't like.
Everything Liberty Belle seems so natural for someone in the DC Universe during the war!
And there's some great Golden Age material in the comics that she's in! I read one of the Boy Commandos stories in #2, and it's great Simon and Kirby action!
And I started to read Star Spangled Stories #20 and I never got to Liberty Belle in that issue! (It was pretty late by then.) The first story is The Newsboy Legion, more great Simon and Kirby comics. And then the next story was the Star Spangled Kid and Stripesy, and I don't think I've ever read a Golden Age story of these guys before. All fun! And it was very late by then and I went to bed. In any case, I'm glad I decided to give Liberty Belle a chance! I'm a little surprised she wasn't more popular in the Golden Age. Oh well. She lasted four years in Star Spangled Comics. That ain't bad.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 20, 2018 20:48:30 GMT -5
I finished reading the Night Force collection I picked up a few months back... horror is definitely not generally my thing, but Shax's reviews a while back intrigued me, and I do like me some Marv Wolfman.
I think it could have been really good if they stuck with what was strong (Baron Winters himself, and his house) amd didn't spend so long developing somewhat boring and ultimately disposable characters (like Donovan Kaine), and focused on that instead of implying a team that didn't exist. I feel like the book is almost Doctor Who for the occult, but not quite. It's too bad it didn't last longer, I suspect it could have really been something.
Definitely glad I read it... Has Winters ever been around for anything else? Or are the later series any good? Comic Vine tells me he had a few other appearances (Swamp Thing, Infinite Crisis, Deathstroke, and a couple others), but the descriptions seem like they may have just been wallpaper cameos.
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