Confessor
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Not Bucky O'Hare!
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Post by Confessor on Jul 24, 2017 12:57:33 GMT -5
Why do you think the CCA gave westerns more leeway? I'm a big fan of Bronze Age Jonah Hex, but I can't say that I've ever noticed anything in those books that seemed to be sailing close to the wind of what the CCA would allow. I'm genuinely curious about what it is in Jonah Hex #1 that you think might not have been allowed, had it been depicted in a Superman or Batman comic? It has been a while since I read Jonah Hex #1, admittedly. The story involved a kids fighting ring and showed the death of two kids in the story, plus Hex allowed the two guys responsible for the ring to fight to the death and was directly responsible for killing the winner of the fight. Perfectly wholesome family reading, I'd say.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 24, 2017 14:56:33 GMT -5
I read the last issue in the Strange Tales #147 to #168, Doctor Strange #169 to #183 run that I was working on. The next to last storyline with Nightmare trapping Eternity and threatening to destroy Earth by releasing all the hazards and menaces of all time-periods on the frightened and vulnerable populace was pretty cool! Also the Juggernaut! It was quite an awesome Juggernaut appearance with Colan and Palmer depicting old Cain Marko quite a bit differently from any version I've ever seen before. And then #183 is a bit of a disappointment. Now I have to decide what to tackle next. Maybe Iron Man #1 to #60? Captain Marvel's Silver Age series? (I guess I could continue on with Dr. Strange's Bronze Age series, but I think I'll hold off until I get a few more of these Silver Age Marvels under my belt.) I was also thinking of reading the post-Tales of Suspense Captain America issues. There's quite a few I haven't read from #100 to #126 (where The Essential Captain America Volume Three kicks in). I read My Greatest Adventure #85 this morning and I liked it quite a bit, so I'm thinking of tackling the first ten appearances of the Doom Patrol. I also read this last night: First appearance of the Enchantress and the Executioner! I love these Thor stories drawn by Kirby and inked by Chic Stone! And the Tales of Asgard story features one of my favorite panels from that particular series: Gullin the mightiest of the Boar Gods! (How many boar gods are there?!)
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Post by LovesGilKane on Jul 25, 2017 1:24:09 GMT -5
original printing, luckily never gave it up
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bran
Full Member
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Post by bran on Jul 25, 2017 3:44:38 GMT -5
I bought and received this off ebay this week and really enjoyed both tales - especially the second. There's a structure to the storytelling at play here that goes beyond mere formula and it feels as if I'm reading a tale that hasn't been influenced so much by comic books, but by newspaper strips. What I mean is, the stories are told as if the writer has all the time in the world to get his tale going - there's no "OK, by the second page the bad guy commits his crime; fifth page he escapes the hero, eighth page this happens" and so on - but instead you feel as if the writer doesn't really know what's going to happen next himself and is enjoying the experience of adding little side characters and events here and there just to keep himself entertained. this is exactly right, the same applies for Prince Valiant. there is zero 22-pages, or 54-pages or any length-format predictability. the adventure could be a 3-pages mini ark, a short story, or a 2-years long/epic saga. that also influences dynamics of events so it's not repetitive from issue to issue (as you described it). Foster must have had a saga-format somewhere at the back of his mind (while at the same time minding newspapers strip format) because everything fits beautifully.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jul 25, 2017 7:34:33 GMT -5
I just re-read JIM #103 a few days ago. I think this is the issue when the Lee/Kirby Thor run really starts to take off. When Kirby starts creating his own original Asgardian gods, things just seem to get better and better. As great as the Thor feature remains for the rest of the decade, Tales of Asgard has always been my favorite aspect of the Lee/Kirby era. I mean, take the Boar god Hoosier X points out. Is he worshiped by actual boars? Does this mean that boars in Asgard possess the ability to make abstractions allowing them to develop organized religion? Just another reason why Tales of Asgard should have gotten its own series!
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Post by dbutler69 on Jul 25, 2017 9:10:29 GMT -5
I'd call that boar god a Return of the Jedi (Gamorrean guard) ripoff, except that Kirby's creation came 19 years earlier.
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Post by String on Jul 25, 2017 12:35:06 GMT -5
X-Men Archives: Captain Britain #1-7
This '95 mini-series reprints the Jaspers Warp story by Alan Moore and Alan Davis. Also included are the introductory stories by Dave Thorpe that proceeded the main story. I'm really surprised that this story has seen marginal reprinting over the years for it was one of the best stories that I've read in quite some time. Davis recounts in his foreword to the series of his artistic growth throughout this run (a foreword with the great title of 'Stick With It! It Gets Better!') His art in Thorpe's stories was shaky as places (Jackdaw, Brian's elfin companion, never quite looked 'right') but he progressively matures, especially once Moore comes aboard, Moore's sense of horror and drama allowing Davis to explore his own creativity as he figures out new ways to expand the edges and scopes of the limited page counts to supply some truly stunning page spreads and actions shots. And no one does facial expressions any better than Davis, from fear to comfort to love to sheer madness. It was great finally reading the introduction of characters that I've known about for years since reading Excalibur, from Saturnyne to Meggan to the Special Executive from which would rise the Technet. And yes, lest we overlook it, the almighty revelation of Marvel's Earth being Earth 616. 'Tis a little matter though, not much would come from that, I bet.
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Post by Mormel on Jul 25, 2017 15:51:06 GMT -5
She wasn't in the Avengers very long at all! But she was a regular in The Defenders for a while. (In my opinion, it was a HUGE missed opportunity for the Avengers creative team.)
I think Hellcat has her own comic right now. And I think she's supposed to appear in the next issue of The Hulk (it's really She-Hulk, but for some reason, she's just Hulk.).
I very much enjoyed her brief stint with the Avengers! I found it novel that Englehart managed to bring a romance comic star into the world of Marvel superheroics. I liked that Patsy herself was such a superhero fangirl in those issues. I liked the little back-and-forths she had with Beast. One thing that intrigued me, was that it initially seemed that the Cat costume helped augment Patsy's own athletic abilities, and also heightened her senses and intuition. I guess this was dropped pretty early on??
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
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Post by Confessor on Jul 25, 2017 16:16:45 GMT -5
X-Men Archives: Captain Britain #1-7
This '95 mini-series reprints the Jaspers Warp story by Alan Moore and Alan Davis. Also included are the introductory stories by Dave Thorpe that proceeded the main story. I'm really surprised that this story has seen marginal reprinting over the years for it was one of the best stories that I've read in quite some time. Davis recounts in his foreword to the series of his artistic growth throughout this run (a foreword with the great title of 'Stick With It! It Gets Better!') His art in Thorpe's stories was shaky as places (Jackdaw, Brian's elfin companion, never quite looked 'right') but he progressively matures, especially once Moore comes aboard, Moore's sense of horror and drama allowing Davis to explore his own creativity as he figures out new ways to expand the edges and scopes of the limited page counts to supply some truly stunning page spreads and actions shots. And no one does facial expressions any better than Davis, from fear to comfort to love to sheer madness. It was great finally reading the introduction of characters that I've known about for years since reading Excalibur, from Saturnyne to Meggan to the Special Executive from which would rise the Technet. And yes, lest we overlook it, the almighty revelation of Marvel's Earth being Earth 616. 'Tis a little matter though, not much would come from that, I bet. I read these issues for the first time recently too -- maybe three months ago. Absolutely brilliant stuff! I loved it more than I ever thought I'd enjoy Captain Britain.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 26, 2017 16:25:08 GMT -5
I bought and received this off ebay this week and really enjoyed both tales - especially the second. There's a structure to the storytelling at play here that goes beyond mere formula and it feels as if I'm reading a tale that hasn't been influenced so much by comic books, but by newspaper strips. What I mean is, the stories are told as if the writer has all the time in the world to get his tale going - there's no "OK, by the second page the bad guy commits his crime; fifth page he escapes the hero, eighth page this happens" and so on - but instead you feel as if the writer doesn't really know what's going to happen next himself and is enjoying the experience of adding little side characters and events here and there just to keep himself entertained. For instance, although this is a Daredevil story, the bad guy (who is introduced to us when he casually stops by his girlfriend's place only to describe to her how he's just shot the man he suspects - wrongly - she's been having an affair with in the gut and left him to die) is captured when he's recognized first, by a clerk in a hotel and then by a taxi driver who recognizes the escaped hoodlum and mows him down in his vehicle. Daredevil didn't really need to raise a finger beyond going on television (which is treated as a novelty here since the comic is from 1947) and appealing to the public for help. Of course, since we need a story which runs longer than five pages, the killer has to escape from prison and does so in one of those simple yet clever methods often employed in strips such as Dick Tracy, for example - he places a clock in a box, discretely kicks it into a corner, and then draws attention to the ticking coming from the box by panicking about what must be a bomb someone's smuggled into the prison. Dick Tracy always had those little oddball characters or events just popping up on the periphery at the end of a three panel strip compelling the reader to tune in tomorrow to figure out what direction things will take with this new wrench thrown into the works and you get the sense that that's the effect Lev Gleason is going for here - a sort of "and while our attention is focused over here, what's going on over there?" Anyhoo, Daredevil eventually gets his man by calling him out and knowing - oh yeah, that's something I forgot. OK, in the issue before this one, Daredevil's identity was revealed to the public and so he now has to run a newspaper called The Daredevil Press - what do you mean "that doesn't make any sense"? Sure it does. Anyway, in this issue, Daredevil decides he'd like to go back to having a secret identity even though the world knows he's Bart Hill, but he's still working on how he's going to manage that in this issue. Meanwhile, he still has his newspaper to run. OK that's right - that's another thing I like about this - there is a certain continuity from issue to issue and actions in one story have consequences in the next. Back to point though - Daredevil ends up capturing the bad guy in a very practical and rational manner - he distracts the bad guy by getting down on his hands and knees and begging him not to kill him. He even recites Mary Had a Little Lamb when the killer tells him he'll put off shooting him for a bit if he does it. Of course, the second part of his plan is pretty much "while I'm grovelling for my life and reciting nursery rhymes, you Wise Guys jump him from behind" and it works. You know, in re-reading what I just wrote, Daredevil doesn't sound too heroic, but given how realistically sadistic this bad guy is - he doesn't just shoot a guy in the head or heart and kills him with one bullet, but instead shoots him in the leg first, tells his victim that if he can amuse him he'll wait a minute before shooting him again in the arm, does that, then offers the same deal again, and so on - Daredevil agreeing to face this guy unarmed and on his terms really does make him seem, well, daring, fearless, and tough. Plus, once those Wise Guys strike, Daredevil does face the killer one on one and he sure as Hell isn't reciting nursery rhymes then I can tell you that much. So, a really good purchase on my part - Way to go Chad! Your write-up here inspired me to get my hands on a copy of Daredevil, so I snagged an inexpensive #52 on ebay, and it arrived today. The darkness and surprising amount of cruelty on the part of the bad guy is still evident in this slightly later issue, but there is also clearly a shift in progress where the title is becoming more exclusively targeted at kids. The first story in the book is a humor piece given over entirely to Scarecrow, one of the Little Wise Guys, and Daredevil doesn't even make a cameo. The second gives almost no attention to Daredevil himself, instead favoring the kid who is being controlled by the villain. Even the action sequences linger longer on Pee Wee, Daredevil's kid sidekick, whose cute innocence provides repeated unwanted respites from the danger and action. Still enjoyed this story, but I think I need to find earlier issues.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 26, 2017 16:43:45 GMT -5
She wasn't in the Avengers very long at all! But she was a regular in The Defenders for a while. (In my opinion, it was a HUGE missed opportunity for the Avengers creative team.)
I think Hellcat has her own comic right now. And I think she's supposed to appear in the next issue of The Hulk (it's really She-Hulk, but for some reason, she's just Hulk.).
I very much enjoyed her brief stint with the Avengers! I found it novel that Englehart managed to bring a romance comic star into the world of Marvel superheroics. I liked that Patsy herself was such a superhero fangirl in those issues. I liked the little back-and-forths she had with Beast. Englehart made a pretty bold decision in setting up two of the three new Avengers to be women who refused to behave and do what they were told. Patsy was manipulative, single-minded, and driven, and Moondragon was in her own world, both in terms of characterization and morality. There was a tremendous potential for interpersonal conflict here, as well as an opportunity to shake up the team's default attitudes, now challenged by these new members who didn't act like wide-eyed newbies. Really irks me that Conway was so quick to eject them from the series immediately after Englehart got booted from the title.
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Post by chadwilliam on Jul 26, 2017 17:20:16 GMT -5
Your write-up here inspired me to get my hands on a copy of Daredevil, so I snagged an inexpensive #52 on ebay, and it arrived today. The darkness and surprising amount of cruelty on the part of the bad guy is still evident in this slightly later issue, but there is also clearly a shift in progress where the title is becoming more clearly targeted at kids. The first story in the book is given over entirely Scarecrow, one of the Little Wise Guys, and Daredevil doesn't even make a cameo. The second gives almost no attention to Daredevil himself, instead favoring the kid who is being controlled by the villain. Even the action sequences linger longer on Pee Wee, Daredevil's kid sidekick. Still enjoyed this story, but I think I need to find earlier issues. I hope you feel that it was worth whatever you paid for it, Shaxper. My first exposure to the original Daredevil would have been through Crawford's Encyclopedia of Comic Books and therefore, through The Little Wise Guys themselves since it was one of their tales which Crawford chose to reprint in this volume. Issue 49 to be exact. I'm sure a lot of fans resent The Little Wise Guys edging Daredevil out of his own book, but I'm not quite sure it was a mistake. Based upon this issue at least, the title lost none of the seriousness with which Charles Biro/Lev Gleason imbued the book with, nor any of its other sensibilities with the main one seeming to be the Respect the Intelligence of your Audience. This is a pretty gritty story opening as it does at the wake of a young boy who'd been murdered by the ruthless gang pictured on the cover. The Wise Guys each attempt to gain entry into the gang with all but Curly being recognized as potential spies. Curly makes it into the club only to have to watch a fellow member turned snitch subjected to torture by way of lighted matches placed under his finger tips. Curly himself is almost stoned to death at the end, but escapes by threatening to toss a stick of dynamite at the assembled gang when his back is literally against the wall. It's interesting - if I hadn't read this story I would have thought "oh, superheroes weren't selling as much after the war so certain publishers went with slapstick comedy/animal comics/kid tales as their go-to genre around this time". I mean, a bald kid presumably named after one of The Three Stooges? A scrawny 98 pound dumb guy named Scarecrow? That kid who can't be more than two and half feet tall with half his face covered in sheepdog hair? No way are we meant to take this seriously and yet, I can't find fault with the believability of any of them. They may be drawn cartoonishly, but the characters, their environment, and their antagonist really do feel as if pulled from real life. This isn't about naive but well meaning kids going against their better nature and joining a harmless gang before learning a valuable lesson about respecting their parents - this is about kids wise beyond their years adhering to their principles even when doing so could prove dangerous. And the gang of kids who serve as this tale's antagonists are likely going to go right on being crooks and criminals even after their capture because that's how the real world usually works. You can almost hear them thinking about who they're going to have to knife in jail for their next pack of smokes. That's issue 49. As for number 52, yeah I'm not really seeing the same tone being carried over from three issues prior, but I'd be surprised if you read this issue and didn't respect the thought put into it.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 26, 2017 18:46:54 GMT -5
I'm reading Journey into Mystery #104. I used to have a copy of this but it's been a very long time since I read it.
It's so cool! Odin has a bug up his butt because Thor won't renounce Jane Foster, so Loki talks Odin into going to Midgard himself and taking care of things on the ground. Naturally, Odin leaves Loki in charge of Asgard in his absence and, just as naturally, Loki uses the bit of Odin-Power left in his hands to release Skagg the Storm Giant and Surtur the Fire-Demon and they go to Midgard to get Odin.
Well, since it just won't do to have mortal eyes witness such an amazing conflict, Odin puts every human on Earth into a trance and sends them all to another dimension so they won't be traumatized when their mortal eyes see Thor and Odin and Balder fighting a giant caveman and a shiny red Satan-looking critter whatever the heck Surtur is.
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shaxper
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Posts: 22,761
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Post by shaxper on Jul 26, 2017 21:12:42 GMT -5
I hope you feel that it was worth whatever you paid for it, Shaxper. My first exposure to the original Daredevil would have been through Crawford's Encyclopedia of Comic Books and therefore, through The Little Wise Guys themselves since it was one of their tales which Crawford chose to reprint in this volume. Issue 49 to be exact. I'm sure a lot of fans resent The Little Wise Guys edging Daredevil out of his own book, but I'm not quite sure it was a mistake. Based upon this issue at least, the title lost none of the seriousness with which Charles Biro/Lev Gleason imbued the book with, nor any of its other sensibilities with the main one seeming to be the Respect the Intelligence of your Audience. This is a pretty gritty story opening as it does at the wake of a young boy who'd been murdered by the ruthless gang pictured on the cover. The Wise Guys each attempt to gain entry into the gang with all but Curly being recognized as potential spies. Curly makes it into the club only to have to watch a fellow member turned snitch subjected to torture by way of lighted matches placed under his finger tips. Curly himself is almost stoned to death at the end, but escapes by threatening to toss a stick of dynamite at the assembled gang when his back is literally against the wall. It's interesting - if I hadn't read this story I would have thought "oh, superheroes weren't selling as much after the war so certain publishers went with slapstick comedy/animal comics/kid tales as their go-to genre around this time". I mean, a bald kid presumably named after one of The Three Stooges? A scrawny 98 pound dumb guy named Scarecrow? That kid who can't be more than two and half feet tall with half his face covered in sheepdog hair? No way are we meant to take this seriously and yet, I can't find fault with the believability of any of them. They may be drawn cartoonishly, but the characters, their environment, and their antagonist really do feel as if pulled from real life. This isn't about naive but well meaning kids going against their better nature and joining a harmless gang before learning a valuable lesson about respecting their parents - this is about kids wise beyond their years adhering to their principles even when doing so could prove dangerous. And the gang of kids who serve as this tale's antagonists are likely going to go right on being crooks and criminals even after their capture because that's how the real world usually works. You can almost hear them thinking about who they're going to have to knife in jail for their next pack of smokes. That's issue 49. As for number 52, yeah I'm not really seeing the same tone being carried over from three issues prior, but I'd be surprised if you read this issue and didn't respect the thought put into it. Yeah, I can't say the issue I read fully preserved that tone. The lead Scarecrow story is mindless humor with little else, and Pee Wee's presence in the Daredevil story really undermines the otherwise dark tone of the story, in which a wanted criminal is holding up in an apartment, forcing a young boy to do his bidding or else he will kill his father. I still enjoyed it, still found it shocking, and still felt some genuine fear and resentment towards the villain (rare for me to feel in a comic), but the kids absolutely got in the way.
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on Jul 26, 2017 21:23:38 GMT -5
I only have a couple issues of Daredevil so far, but I think it smooths out once it transitions to all Little Wise Guys. Like, I have the impression there's a slightly weird transition period when Daredevil is being phased out where Biro is figuring out the right balance. Once Daredevil is completely written out, he doesn't have to do that anymore and the stories are better for it.
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