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Post by dbutler69 on Oct 5, 2020 14:19:26 GMT -5
I'm using my 2 week vacation to read some old favorites and some classic runs that I bought and haven't read yet. My goal is to read 6 issue runs of about 20 different series. Yesterday I read the classic Miracleman series from Alan Moore . It was the first 7 issues and it was Great. Issue # 6 has the most chilling storytelling device I ever read in a comic and it was just as crazy as when I read it the first time. Eclipse reprinted the stories from the British Warrior magazine. So the first 6 issues are reprinted and original content followed. It was a treat to see star artists draw the first 7 or so Covers. Jim Starlin does issue # 4 ( Looks like Thanos in the background) I also read the first 6 issues of the 1999 Birds of Prey series. Chuck Dixon, Greg Land and Drew Geraci produced great issues and fun action stories that highlights the Black Canary like she's never been spotlighted before. She' smart, sexy and the Bruce Lee of Dc. I will add that Greg Land is not at his tracing phase yet and , although you can see he uses reference materials for the art, it looks superb. I read that Birds of Prey in a TPB from the library years ago. It was really good! It's been years now and I don't remember it that well, but I recall is being sort of like a James Bond type thing, with an all-female cast.
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Post by chadwilliam on Oct 6, 2020 20:57:57 GMT -5
Fungus led to one of Brian Bolland's all time weird covers. I've seen weirder. I recall one that Bolland did of a Civvie slowly loosing his body in blocky chunks. Can't recall the issue or prog number
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2020 8:12:50 GMT -5
Read the "ground-level" indy anthology mag Dragon's Teeth #1 from 1983 last night. Front cover by Frank Cirocco, who did a lot of covers for Epic stuff I liked as well. The first story is a sci-fi first contact story called "First Impressions" by Tony Salmons. It is a decent, but not memorable story. Salmons is someone who I recognize from pin-ups in Marvel Fanfare, and I think I first saw his art in a Fantaco Chronicles issue featuring the Avengers. He has a portfolio in the book as well, which features some of the western-themed fine art illustrations he did outside of comics, and frankly I like that stuff more than any of comic-related work I have seen from him. His stuff is good, but feels stiff when he does sequential stuff imo. His comments accompanying the portfolio didn't endear him to me all that much either, coming off as thinking he is too good to do work-for-hire stuff and wouldn't compromise his art by using house styles or rushing to meet deadlines, and he could only seriously consider comics once printing tech was advanced enough to do his art justice. I continually compare those types of comments to the many things Eisner and Kubert have said about comics being commercial art and doing work that makes the client happy, and it is not surprising Salmons didn't get a lot of gigs in the industry outside of pin-ups here and there. The second story is "Inspiration" by Lela Dowling, which addresses that dreaded question all creative types get-where do your ideas come from? Let me say, I love Dowling's art. Her stuff is gorgeous. But she is more suited to illustration than sequential work. There is no flow or visual storytelling. It is illustrations of the text of the story. I have a couple of collections of her illustrations and I love it, but her strength is there, not in storytelling. The third story is a humorous fantasy story called "Low Profile" by Ken Macklin. I wasn't familiar with Macklin's work, but I enjoyed this story. It is about a dragon surviving into the 20th century lamenting how technology has changed the rules for dragons (he msses the days of knights and castles when he knew the rules and could go out and about and enjoy himself) and forcing him to keep a low profile to keep from being hunted down or from causing havoc, and then deciding t go for a swim as he dives into Loch Ness. I think my favorite line was him lamenting how irrelevant dragon's breath was now since everyone had cars whose breath was so much worse than his-a pointed remark about car exhaust and air pollution form the early 80s for sure. The fourth story is a sci-fi story from Cirocco entitled "Close but No Encounter." It's about aliens investigating earth society to see whether contact is desirable but they do so by entering into the consciousness of three comic book artists and are overwhelmed by the useless fantasy they find there, determining humanity is too infantile for contact to be worthwhile. Pointedly sarcastic in tone and superbly illustrated, it was an enjoyable piece. The fifth story is the one that makes the issue worth getting. Alex Toth's "OoLaLa" Paul Fricke in the Alex Toth in Depth podcast lists this as one of the five Toth stories to study (Episode 3), and what led to to moving this to the top of my to read pile, as I've had this issue for a year or so now. The story is a tribute by Toth to the creators who influenced and inspired him-Roy Crane & Noel Sickles. A pair of aviation adventurers in an experimental aircraft are forced to land in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe because of a case of food poisoning and land in a hidden valley with a Shangri-La like civilization. Their landing coincides with an eclipse, and they are taken for gods and hijinks ensue. Toth is very experimental with his visual storytelling here, in particular with how he orients panels during some of the flying scenes, and his use of spotting blacks here is just amazing. The amount of perceived detail he evokes with his minimalist lines in this is simply jaw-dropping at times. It is a visual tour-de-force, and a fun story to boot. Very much in the vein of classic adventure strips like Sickles' Scorchy Smith or Canniff's Terry and the Pirates. The sixth (and final story) is Rick Geary's "My Criminal Career" about a bumbling fop who tries to take up a career in crime to disastrous results. Typical Geary, i.e. humorous tone, superbly illustrated and fun to read. The Salmons portfolio follows, as well as a partial transcript of a conversation with Jim Steranko at a '77 con focusing on Steranko's story in Tower of Shadows #1 as the interviewer tries to analyze the story using elements of visual symbolism he learned in a film class to break down Steranko's intent and running it by Steranko who seems bemused by the attempt but spun by the interviewer to ameliorate how wrong-headed the analysis was based on Steranko's reactions. I usually enjoy reading Steranko discuss comics, but I found myself skimming large chunks of this one as the interviewer was just uninteresting and his analysis not very insightful or interesting. Like most anthologies, some good, some meh, some bad, but the Toth story alone makes it worthwhile, and there is enough other interesting stuff to supplement the Toth story to add value to it. -M
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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Oct 7, 2020 13:22:38 GMT -5
Has anyone on here done a Red Wolf series review? If not, it is something I have considered having recently completed the run. Granted, I do not have the Marvel Spotlight ish but I feel like someone has already done that...I also don't have the Avengers appearances that precede his solo run.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Oct 7, 2020 13:53:30 GMT -5
Has anyone on here done a Red Wolf series review? If not, it is something I have considered having recently completed the run. Granted, I do not have the Marvel Spotlight ish but I feel like someone has already done that...I also don't have the Avengers appearances that precede his solo run. codystarbuck reviewed Marvel Spotlight #1 in his Misfit Stories thread. link
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Post by tartanphantom on Oct 8, 2020 0:37:37 GMT -5
Just finished reading the King Kong series published by Fantagraphics under its Monster Comics label from 1991-1992. This is a six-issue b&w mini-series, and I recently acquired the last two issues that I needed to complete the run. Overall, the story line follows Meriam C. Cooper's original book pretty closely, and Cooper's son was the consultant for the adaptation. The series is credited as "Adapted and Illustrated by Donald Simpson". Simpson's artwork is a bit inconsistent, sometimes a bit cartoon-ish (especially his rendition of Kong with humanoid feet). At times, it's somewhat reminiscent of Bill Black's work for his AC Comics label. However, the story pacing is steady and very easy to follow to conclusion. I found the series much more entertaining than the somewhat mediocre King Kong one-shot published by Western/Gold Key in 1968 (also reprinted in 1978). Perhaps one of the best things about this series is that while Simpson did all of the interior art, each issue has a great color cover done by various artists who have been considered "heavy hitters" in the cover department-- Dave Stevens, William Stout, Mark Schultz, Al Williamson and Ken Steacy. I've pictured the various covers to give you an idea of their contributions. It seems like this series had a fairly low print run (typical for Fantagraphics), and some issues are easier to find than others. Also, a limited-edition (1000) signed and numbered silk-screen poster print was created for the Stevens cover of issue #1... would love to get my hands on one someday.
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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 9, 2020 13:45:47 GMT -5
Coming to the end of the MC-2 line soon (for me in terms of what I'll buy). Fantastic Five #1-4 (just #5 to go) is maybe the best read, by Tom DeFalco with art by Paul Ryan and Al Milgrom. Wild Thing has turned out to be a fairly light read under Larry Hama, and the brief J2 backups are in the same vein. Ron Lim art is nice though, especially seeing daughter and Wolvie father running around Central Park at night in #4. Spider-Girl I'll take to #18 and then jump off from that (first The Buzz appearance) and check out Buzz and then Darkdevil miniseries... the end. Kaine, and Darkdevil, being tied into some later clone story I know nothing about doesn't help me get into these Spider-Girls. I can catch the gist of the Fantastic Five where it refers to some earlier DeFalco & Ryan run better (but 'Hyperstorm' yet another alternate future Phoenix offspring? yeeesh). The letter's pages and fans reactions to the MC-2 world at the time are a great feature I would've missed out on.
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Post by tarkintino on Oct 9, 2020 14:36:44 GMT -5
Fungus led to one of Brian Bolland's all time weird covers. That.
Is.
Nasty.
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Post by spoon on Oct 9, 2020 22:18:33 GMT -5
Since my last post, I've read Doom Patrol vol. 2 #39-63 and Doom Force Special #1. So that completes the Grant Morrison run and my Doom Patrol binge read. I don't plan on continuing (at least for now), but I'd be interested in hearing what post-Morrison runs of Doom Patrol people like. The only more recent stuff I've read is a few issues of the Giffen run.
I came in as a Morrison skeptic. I have read all that much of his stuff, but I didn't like what he did with X-Men. I know a lot of people worship him, and on the other hand he's often chosen as an overrated creator on the CCF Podcast. I finish his run of two minds. I think he's very creative, comes up with some big concepts, and it's a brisk read rather than the laborious trek I expected. But he goes to the well too many times on certain things (lots of repetition of absurdist ideas) that it comes across as a crutch and a drag after a while. And then there's the Chief thing.
I love the Flex Mentallo origin issue. It used the metafictional concept well without beating it into the ground. I had the impression he was a bigger part of Morrison's run, so I was surprised he was basically just in one arc. The second Brotherhood of Dada arc (the election one) feels like a retread and is one of the weaker parts of the run. If I try to divine some sort of political commentary from the arc, it seems like "be politically disengaged" and "fall back on dumb both sides tropes." It doesn't seem like it's Morrison's lane; he doesn't seem to do it thoughtfully.
The Lee-Kirby pastiche is well-done and entertaining. It's a bit of an endulgence that's not really connected to anything else. Towards the end of Morrison's right, there's a bit of a tone shift. He seems more structured and easier to follow in his plotting. Things make more sense. There is more traditional character development, including Cliff and Jane growing closer. Earlier in the run, the absurdist elements seem somewhat interchangeable. I have a hard time remembering stuff like the names of Jane's personalities or the limitations of someone abilities because it all seems so fleeting. The "rules" are so ill-defined that sometimes it feels like nothing matters. But I feel like the absurdist parts fit Morrison's talents, and perhaps it's not a coincidence that some of the later issues feel weaker.
Now, I gotta write about the Chief's betrayal. As I noted during the Silver Age part of my DP binge, I love the family feel and the humanity of the Drake/Premiani era. I really felt the love and respect Niles Caulder had for his team. He treats them as his equals, not his minions. So Morrison's revelation of the Chief as a crazed, evil mastermind is a repudiation of a core part of the Silver Age Doom Patrol. I'd heard that Morrison was really into magic (as a thing that supposedly exists), and then it dawned on me. Morrison really thinks of this fictional character as his enemy. As a man of science who is very humane (in his original version), the Chief is someone Morrison has to discredit. Such a character can't exist. He brings in Doc Magnus to help defeat the Candlemaker, but he's aloof and doesn't really get it done. And Josh, who as an M.D. would seemingly be a peer who would talk with the Chief never ends up being taken in that direction. His knowledge is de-emphasized. He ends up as inoffensive token who does stuff like watch after Dorothy, take the Chief's abuse without pushing back, and die without being mourned too much.
The silver lining, I suppose, is that we get a third shot at the Niles/Arani backstory, and Morrison manages to make sense of that mess. It actually fits better with his version of the Chief. To me, Morrison's DP builds much more off of the Kupperberg run that immediately preceded it than the Drake/Premiani run. Morrison takes threads from Kupperberg that don't make sense (like his aloof, out-of-character Chief) and finds wasy to reinterpret that. I wonder if that was sloppiness by Kupperberg or if he planned to take Caulder in a darker direction as well. Although Doom Patrol is a part of the Doom Patrol that wasn't rebooted by Crisis, it makes sense in a way to think of pre-Crisis and post-Crisis Niles Caulder as two separate version of the character.
The last two issues are very memorable. Morrison's run had a lot that was bleak, disturbing, cynical, or hallucinatory. But it seems like a heart-felt attempt at a happy ending, though tinged with melancholy. Doom Patrol #63 shows the heights Morrison can reach with focused storytelling. Sometimes it seems like Morrison through as many absurdist and hallucinatory ideas against the wall, almost to show off. But with "The Empire of Chairs" he really builds the premise of the story rather than just going into overload mode. Lionizing the psychiatrist who lusts over her patient is a bit problematic, but it's a thoughtful, character-driven story. I appreciate the ambiguity of the ending. Is all of the Doom Patrol just a product of Jane's hallucinations or is actually another universe Jane was shunted to? Jane gets her rescue and her happy ending. I suppose the "right" answer is supposed to be the latter, but I feel it leaves open the possibility the former is the truth. Morrison is putting a bow on things, and you can treat this as the end if you want to.
Doom Force #1 is a jarring contrast to end the TPB. It's a hiliariously accurate parody of X-Force (and to a lesser extent other contemporary series). The writing is funny, but the artists deserve so much credit for spot-on mimicry of Liefeld's artistic quirks. But there's not much point to drawing out the joke over so many pages. It's be better as a 10-page backup story, and the connection to Doom Patrol is minimal.
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Post by Calidore on Oct 9, 2020 23:43:33 GMT -5
Fungus led to one of Brian Bolland's all time weird covers.
Long ago, I had a British horror novel called The Fungus that was published in the same timeframe and with a cover similar enough that I wonder if one was influenced by the other. Don't know which came first.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2020 23:44:02 GMT -5
Just finished reading the King Kong series published by Fantagraphics under its Monster Comics label from 1991-1992. This is a six-issue b&w mini-series, and I recently acquired the last two issues that I needed to complete the run. Overall, the story line follows Meriam C. Cooper's original book pretty closely, and Cooper's son was the consultant for the adaptation. The series is credited as "Adapted and Illustrated by Donald Simpson". Simpson's artwork is a bit inconsistent, sometimes a bit cartoon-ish (especially his rendition of Kong with humanoid feet). At times, it's somewhat reminiscent of Bill Black's work for his AC Comics label. However, the story pacing is steady and very easy to follow to conclusion. I found the series much more entertaining than the somewhat mediocre King Kong one-shot published by Western/Gold Key in 1968 (also reprinted in 1978). Perhaps one of the best things about this series is that while Simpson did all of the interior art, each issue has a great color cover done by various artists who have been considered "heavy hitters" in the cover department-- Dave Stevens, William Stout, Mark Schultz, Al Williamson and Ken Steacy. I've pictured the various covers to give you an idea of their contributions. It seems like this series had a fairly low print run (typical for Fantagraphics), and some issues are easier to find than others. Also, a limited-edition (1000) signed and numbered silk-screen poster print was created for the Stevens cover of issue #1... would love to get my hands on one someday. I only have the first issue (with the Stevens cover) but I'd like to track down the rest eventually. I am familiar with Simpson from his work on Border Worlds published by Kitchen Sink, and I like his stuff for the most part, but there are times things can go a bit wonky. -M
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2020 1:46:01 GMT -5
Via Hoopla, I just finished reading Wally Wood's Cannon... Wood's R-rated superspy strip produced for serviceman via Overseas Weekly is collected in this hardcover as well as the two Cannon stories Wood did with Steve Ditko for Heroes Inc. Wood's lush brushwork makes this a visual spectacle and the storytelling, while not earth-shattering or ground-breaking, is simply fun Cold War era spy stuff, filled with familiar tropes but executed superbly. Wood fills the strip wit action adventure and gorgeous (mostly in various states of being disrobed) woman. Here's a sample page (behind spoiler tags just in case even though it is one of the few pages without full nudity on it I could find only to link to) Worth checking out unless the R-rated nature of the material is a bar for you. -M
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,057
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Post by Confessor on Oct 10, 2020 4:13:07 GMT -5
Via Hoopla, I just finished reading Wally Wood's Cannon... Wood's R-rated superspy strip produced for serviceman via Overseas Weekly is collected in this hardcover as well as the two Cannon stories Wood did with Steve Ditko for Heroes Inc. Wood's lush brushwork makes this a visual spectacle and the storytelling, while not earth-shattering or ground-breaking, is simply fun Cold War era spy stuff, filled with familiar tropes but executed superbly. Wood fills the strip wit action adventure and gorgeous (mostly in various states of being disrobed) woman. Here's a sample page (behind spoiler tags just in case even though it is one of the few pages without full nudity on it I could find only to link to) Worth checking out unless the R-rated nature of the material is a bar for you. -M I've wanted to read this for a long time. Do you know it has ever been collected in book form?
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Post by earl on Oct 10, 2020 5:21:00 GMT -5
I knocked out a re-read of the Planetary: Crossing Worlds tpb. I loved Jerry Ordways artwork on the JLA take, which is a good alternate DC world story. The Authority tale does tie in to the larger main series story line. The Batman/Planetary issues is one of the best of the whole series I think and fun play on the different takes of Batman.
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Post by tartanphantom on Oct 10, 2020 9:50:55 GMT -5
Via Hoopla, I just finished reading Wally Wood's Cannon... Wood's R-rated superspy strip produced for serviceman via Overseas Weekly is collected in this hardcover as well as the two Cannon stories Wood did with Steve Ditko for Heroes Inc. Wood's lush brushwork makes this a visual spectacle and the storytelling, while not earth-shattering or ground-breaking, is simply fun Cold War era spy stuff, filled with familiar tropes but executed superbly. Wood fills the strip wit action adventure and gorgeous (mostly in various states of being disrobed) woman. Here's a sample page (behind spoiler tags just in case even though it is one of the few pages without full nudity on it I could find only to link to) Worth checking out unless the R-rated nature of the material is a bar for you. -M I've wanted to read this for a long time. Do you know it has ever been collected in book form? Yes, it has-- twice. The first is a tabloid sized softcover called The Compleat Cannon published by Fantagraphics in 2001. There's also the slightly smaller (i.e. easier to store) hardcover edition published in 2014, which is what @mrp referenced in his post.
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