shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,761
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Post by shaxper on Apr 20, 2016 16:09:34 GMT -5
As iconic as T'Challa's Black Panther outfit is, the one for Coal Tiger isn't half bad either I think it might have been a little too "busy" for comics of the time period. That level of detail might not translate well into benday dots, and/or might give second rate pencilers, inkers, and colorists a difficult time. It seems like, whenever we get these images of reject costumes, they are almost always more complex than the stuff that actually makes it onto the page.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 20, 2016 18:24:01 GMT -5
I re-read "Panther's Rage" a year or two ago. It's so great! I actually read Jungle Action #17 and #18 when they were brand new! As a matter of fast, Jungle Action #17 was the first super-hero comic I ever bought! And within months, I was reading Spider-Man, Hulk, Avengers, Iron Man and so on. (But not Jungle Action that much. Distribution was terrible for JA in my area! I only had two of the issues where T'Challa was down South with Monica Lynne. And then it was canceled and suddenly T'Challa was running around with Mr. Little and the Collectors looking for Solomon's Frog!) I got about half the other issues of "Panther's Rage" at used-book stores in the next few years, and I finally ordered nice copies of the whole thing in the 1990s. So, yeah, more than 20 years passed before I was ever able to read the whole thing from start to finish. It was worth it!
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,761
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Post by shaxper on Apr 20, 2016 19:47:20 GMT -5
I feel like I'm finally at the point in Panther's Rage where it's hitting it's stride. Issues #11-13 have all been positively outstanding. I really hope this continues!
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Post by String on Apr 21, 2016 10:38:04 GMT -5
My exposure to Black Panther has been limited over the years (part of the reason why I decided to check out his brand-new title). In fact, till now, I hadn't even heard of this Jungle Action series. But with McGregor, Buckler, Janson and others, it sounds like a sure-fire winner.
Although with his upcoming movie appearance and such, I have to wonder if the prices of these back issues are about to see a significant increase. Still, based on all the great comments so far, sounds well worth hunting them down.
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Post by Batflunkie on Apr 21, 2016 13:26:05 GMT -5
String- The most consistent volumes are the ones that Christopher Priest (Volume 2) and Reginald Hudlin (Volume 3) did
Which isn't to say that the others are bad, just the aforementioned ones are probably the purest interpretations of T'Challa humanly possible
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2016 15:04:08 GMT -5
String- The most consistent volumes are the ones that Christopher Priest (Volume 2) and Reginald Hudlin (Volume 3) did Which isn't to say that the others are bad, just the aforementioned ones are probably the purest interpretations of T'Challa humanly possible I would argue the purest would be the Kirby seriues since he was the creator of the character. Not the best (though love that Kirby series), but it's what the character's creator wanted to do with the character and you cannot get more pure than that, even if it differed greatly with what the IP holder had done with the character after he was created. I never liked the Hudlin version and felt T'Challa was more a mouthpiece for the writer than a character in that series A criticism I think a lot of people were worried about in Coates current run but the first issue was demonstrably not that), but I love the Priest series and recommend it highly. -M
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Post by Batflunkie on Apr 21, 2016 18:33:32 GMT -5
Been reading odds and ends of Ace Comics' library on the Digital Comic Museum, mostly their pulp hero stuff. I feel like a lot of it was ahead of it's time in many respects and seems to have influenced a lot of other characters (Namely The Unknown Soldier and Dark Circle's The Shield)
Shame that they got wiped off the face of the earth once the Comic's Code came into effect
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Post by Farrar on Apr 21, 2016 19:19:48 GMT -5
Currently reading Black Panther's run in Jungle Action. I first tried this run almost ten years ago and gave up after three issues, finding none of the characters nor conflicts particularly interesting, but now, even though none of the individual stories really wows me, T'Challa's struggle to lead a people who resent and misunderstand him compels me tremendously. I just finished #10, "King Cadaver is Dead and Living in Wakanda!", and found this little treasure at the end: I'm really glad they changed their minds. That Coal Tiger pin-up and a watercolor version (provided by the Kirby estate) that has come to be often described as the "original design mock-up" have been shown in The Jack Kirby Collector, and elsewhere, over the years. Here's the watercolor below (found online; in 2013's The Jack Kirby Collector #60 it was printed in b&w). Hard to judge whether this was indeed a prototype for T'Challa, as it's not dated. Over the years some have theorized this mock-up was intended as one of his New Gods or for other projects and for some reason was put aside... but then dusted off later on for use in Jungle Action, to show the creative process, as spoon mentioned.
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Post by String on Apr 23, 2016 16:54:09 GMT -5
Priest's BP run is definitely on the must-read list.
Checking ahead though, this Oct, Marvel seems set to release an Epic Collection of Panther's Rage, reprinting FF #52-53 and Jungle Action #6-24. Looking forward to this now.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,761
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Post by shaxper on Apr 23, 2016 22:05:17 GMT -5
Paused my reading of Jungle Action to spend today with Love and Rockets (vol. 1): Music for Mechanics. I see from so many Amazon reviews that true fans of the series consider this first volume completely skippable and mostly off the mark. Fortunately for me, having never read the volumes that follow, I was able to enjoy much of it. It seems like Jaime had a pretty solid grasp on the narrative he wanted to tell right off the bat (albeit with a sci-fi backdrop here that I rather enjoyed), whereas Gilbert is far more all over the place until discovering Chelo and her village(?) in the final story. While Gilbert's other experiments often confused and frustrated me, I'll admit to deriving some enjoyment from them, even "BEM". "Mechanics" was the one story in the volume I really sunk my teeth into. I really respected Jaime's unwillingness to utilize a conventional plot structure. All the ingredients were there, just waiting to pop in cold precision, but Jaime made it a story of humans living an ordinary life amidst the fantastic instead. I think I'll miss the rocket ships and dinosaurs once Jaime's stories begin to take on a more down-to-Earth backdrop, but I can also see that the strongest elements of this story work precisely because they are so real and true to life. And, am I mistaken, or was there a third Hernandez brother contributing in this first volume? Maybe it was just a pseudonym? Anyway, I've already got the next two volumes and am looking forward to them.
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Post by Spike-X on Apr 24, 2016 6:14:44 GMT -5
No, you're right. Mario Hernandez contributed the odd story here and there.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 25, 2016 12:14:06 GMT -5
I've read almost every issue of the original 50-issue run of "Love and Rockets" and my favorite story by Jaime is the very early "100 Rooms" from issue #4.
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ziza9
Junior Member
Posts: 32
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Post by ziza9 on Apr 25, 2016 16:17:44 GMT -5
Picked this up at Frank and Son (weekly collectables warehouse show) a while back. I just got to it yesterday and loved it. The panel layouts, the mood, Fleming's scripting, lead to a very engaging story.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 25, 2016 16:30:22 GMT -5
I decided I was reading too many comics from the 1960s and early 1970s and also reading too many comics over and over again. So I thought I would gather comics from every decade, from library reprints to digital comics to my own comics and reprints, and get some material I've never read and stuff I haven't read for a while and some comics I've only read once. And here's what I'm reading now: 1930s - Detective Comics #1, Action Comics #1 - I have the Millennium Editions for both of these. I've read them before and there's a couple of stories that I've been known to read a lot (the first Superman and the first Zatara (from Action Comics #1)), but there's a bunch of stories here I haven't read for a while. Among the Millennium Editions, I read Sensation #1 a lot (Wonder Woman, Wildcat, the Gay Ghost, Mr. Terrific) and I read Flash Comics #1 a lot (Flash, Hawkman, Johnny Thunder and the crazy Ed Whelan story about the ventriloquist). And everything in Whiz #2 is GOLD! But Action #1 and Detective #1, not so much. 1940s - The Work of Fletcher Hanks - There's several Fantomah stories and a few Stardust stories that I read over and over, but I barely remember these stories with Space Smith, Whirlwind Carter and Tabu. And the heroic, crime-solving lumberjack. HE IS HILARIOUS! 1950s - Batman in the Fifties - I checked this out of the library last year and it's great! There's a couple of stories I've read a bunch of times (the origin of the Joker and the origin of Catwoman) but there's a bunch of them I've only read once. 1960s - The Amazing Spider-Man #47 to #52 - There's still a few Romita era Spider-Man stories I haven't read. I bought these digitally over the last few years and I read them when I bought them and promptly forgot I had them, so I definitely haven't worn these out. I was laughing out loud at the bit in #47 where Mary Jane is supposed to be helping Aunt May and Anna, but she's just starts dancing and ignoring them and Anna asks her just to stay out of the way so she doesn't trip anybody. 1970s - The Essential Avengers, Volume Six - I will have a lot to say about this! Steve Englehart's run! This volume has #120 to #140, along with several issues of Giant-Size Avengers. I started buying Avengers about #144, but within a year or so, I had #133 to #143 from used-book stores and most of the Giant-Size issues. So I'm pretty excited about reading so many Englehart issues I've never read! (Plus, I love Mantis!) 1980s - Justice League of America #251 to #261 - I was a huge fan of Justice League Detroit when it started but I lost interest and started missing issues towards the end. I don't think I had any issues after #255, so it wasn't until years later that I heard how DC ended the series. I bought all the issues I missed a few years ago, and I read them at the time. I was very sad after those last four issues and I've been meaning to read the series over again from #251 to the end, and maybe I'll be able to assess them a little more objectively. 1990s - Season of Mists - When I started collecting Sandman, Season of Mists had just started. In the 1990s, I read the whole arc a bunch of times, but I bet I haven't read it in 15 years. 1990s - Starman Omnibus, Volume One - I've never read James Robinson's Starman, but I've been hearing about it for years. This showed up at the library recently and I decided it was time to give it a try. 2000s - Detective Comics #854 to #865: Pipeline - Starring the Question (Renee Montoya). When I got back into comics in 2011, this back-up series was something I acquired in back issues that got me excited about looking a little more closely at the years I had missed (2004 to 2011). 2010s - Sensation Comics, Volume One - I just bought this a few weeks ago and it was just laying around. As I had only read one of the stories so far, I decided to incorporate it into my project.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2016 19:17:09 GMT -5
Been reading the old JLA/JSA annual team ups.
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