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Post by beccabear67 on Feb 15, 2019 18:01:03 GMT -5
I've been working on that eight issue run of Dollar sized Adventure Comics. I think the Len Wein Deadman stories with Aparo or Garcia-Lopez art are my favorite followed by the Levitz & Staton JSA. There is some nice Don Newton art on Aquaman, but then there are two by Don Heck that look really excellent, the first one may be one of his best jobs ever. There's also a Staton Wonder Woman I thought was very good, and also some Staton Green Lantern (maybe before he became the regular artist on the GL solo comic?). The Flash stories are solid and readable (Novick or Heck art) but not anything special like that one 'Spectacular' Dollar one-shot. I skipped the New Gods finale in #459-460 as other than Mister Miracle and Darkseid (and a Lightray 'Secret Origin') I know nothing about the characters, but maybe sometime I will be able to enjoy it. Still a lot left to read, then maybe I can finish the Killraven series in Amazing Adventures.
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Post by Batflunkie on Feb 15, 2019 19:12:26 GMT -5
Maybe there was an over-supply of Marvel Team-Up scripts? Wouldn't surprise me, but why dump it in a non-team up book?
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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 15, 2019 23:48:38 GMT -5
I have occasion to pull out Batman #199, in which a criminal is writing his future crimes into Batman comic books. When Batman gets poisoned by the criminal gang, he buys a Batman comic book to determine how to nab the gang and find the antidote. Though The New Look took effect in 1964 and ran until about 1969 or so, there's really only a small window during that time that really works for me and this issue occupies it. From about Batman 190 until 202, Batman was firing on all cylinders. Before that, I think the title was too focused on what it didn't want to be ("No aliens, no Bat-Mite, no Bat-Dog") to ask what it was that they wanted to be ("uhhhhh… maybe we could have him be part of a group called The Mystery Analysists and maybe update his car?"). Not that the New Look period before this is all bad, it just feels like a case of DC was taking one step forward and then two steps back too many times for it to hit high gear. A moody, nourish set-up on page one and then Batman and Robin come bumbling in with goofy jokes on the next. There's something about these issues here though that made it clear that something finally clicked with Batman. He wasn't quite the Dark Night Detective of Irv Novick and Neal Adams, but he wasn't the same guy who a few months earlier was singing as he fought crooks (against The Eraser in Batman 188) or complimenting Robin on his lousy puns. There was nothing scary about him but nothing funny either. Even Shelly Moldoff's artwork started to click and I don't mean that snidely as Moldoff's work from the late 50's up until the early 60's is why he's my third favorite Batman artist of all time. Before, he seemed to be going for a 'Bob Kane trying to ape Carmine Infantino' style and therefore couldn't look too good without people saying "Hey, Bob Kane couldn't have drawn that!". That weird purplish/grey sky, the way Batman and Robin run without their feet seeming to touch the ground, even how white, round, and glowing Batman's eyes look? I love touches such as these. It was disappointing to finally track down a copy of something like Batman 189's "Fright of the Scarecrow" with its insanely atmospheric Carmine Infantino cover only to open it up to see the story open with Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson driving around in an ice cream truck in broad daylight so they could make some children happy. I'd read a few pages of this, look back at the cover to make sure I hadn't imagined it, and then wonder how an image like that could be used for a story such as this. As for Batman 199 in particular, I like the revelation that Gotham has such a weird assortment of criminals, that even the guy who draws Batman comics in the DC Universe is a criminal who uses his actual crimes as the basis for his stories. I also remember the back-up as well - 'Batman's Seven Step Plan to Save Face' or something like that? A kid impersonates Robin, gets Batman to take him to the Bat-Cave, discovers he's Bruce Wayne, and accepts that even though he'll be going to prison, he'll have a fortune waiting for him once he's revealed what he's learned. Batman's got a plan of course, but every step will have to be timed perfectly for it to work. It's one of those tales where the excitement stems from trying to guess what Batman's up to and then once that's been explained, waiting to see whether or not the crooks catch on to the fact that they're being set up.
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Post by urrutiap on Feb 16, 2019 5:34:11 GMT -5
Im going to be reading issues 50 to whatever else I get done read of the old Marvel Star Wars comic series from the 1980s
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Post by Cei-U! on Feb 16, 2019 9:39:15 GMT -5
becca and Batflunkie: I don't know if that Captain America wo-parter started life as a Marvel Team-Up script but if it was, there was a precedent. Amazing Spider-Man #187, in which Spidey and Cap took on Electro, was a repurposed Team-Up story.
chadwilliam, that change you saw in Sheldon Moldoff's art in those later New Look era stories wasn't due to Moldoff adjusting his style. It was the result of Chic Stone replacing him as the main Bob Kane ghost.
Cei-U! I summon the footnotes!
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Feb 16, 2019 11:26:22 GMT -5
becca and Batflunkie: I don't know if that Captain America wo-parter started life as a Marvel Team-Up script but if it was, there was a precedent. Amazing Spider-Man #187, in which Spidey and Cap took on Electro, was a repurposed Team-Up story. Oh, I didn't know that. I need that for my team-up book collection, then.
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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 16, 2019 12:15:24 GMT -5
chadwilliam, that change you saw in Sheldon Moldoff's art in those later New Look era stories wasn't due to Moldoff adjusting his style. It was the result of Chic Stone replacing him as the main Bob Kane ghost. Thanks for the explanation, Cei-U! I knew that the artwork no longer looked the same, but I chalked that up to a change of inkers or perhaps even Moldoff going for a new look himself. It's strange, I could recognize Stone's work when inked by Sid Greene, but with Joe Giella it looks like two different artists to my eyes. Have to say I prefer Greene. So instead of seeing Moldoff improve his game in those issues, I'm actually seeing Stone go down a notch. Still, I do love that style.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Feb 16, 2019 14:41:16 GMT -5
Really don't understand why they decided to throw Spidey into the mix, but oh well
They probably wanted a guest star to boost sales and IT: The Living Colossus was busy.
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Post by badwolf on Feb 16, 2019 17:03:51 GMT -5
I've been working on that eight issue run of Dollar sized Adventure Comics. I think the Len Wein Deadman stories with Aparo or Garcia-Lopez art are my favorite followed by the Levitz & Staton JSA. There is some nice Don Newton art on Aquaman, but then there are two by Don Heck that look really excellent, the first one may be one of his best jobs ever. I have one of those issues, the one where Flash talks to dolphins. Newton is really underrated, at least I don't hear him mentioned much. He did some great Shazam are during that era too.
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Post by Duragizer on Feb 16, 2019 21:08:21 GMT -5
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Post by Batflunkie on Feb 16, 2019 23:15:44 GMT -5
Doom Patrol V2 #19-#25
Kind of got a taste for Doom Patrol after watching the Titans episode, really liked the atmosphere it set even if previous attempts to get into the comic were feeble at best. It's one of those books that you kind of have to be in the right mood for mentally speaking.
It's a very raw read and so far maybe only slightly edges out Marvel Boy as my favorite Morrison book
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Post by Nowhere Man on Feb 19, 2019 19:10:38 GMT -5
DC Comics Presents #1-2 I'm finally getting around to reading this series. I'm reading select issues of this series for two main purposes: the fantastic Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez art and to get a better grasp of the Pre-Crisis DC universe. This was a fun two part story written by Martin Pasko and drawn by Garcia Lopez. I've always been amused by stories like these that take extreme liberties in terms of defining fundamental origins stories for the Marvel/DC universes that are destined to be ignored or contradicted by future stories. Not to give too much away, but it's a time-travel story involving two warring alien races who once lived on Earth, billions of years ago, and who travel space in "living starships." The story states that life on DC earth started from the biological waste of these starships. Gives a new definition to the mantra that "People are sh!t!" Pasko was most likely being slyly satirical here, but he had to know that this wouldn't last. Still...it's kinda hilarious.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 20, 2019 3:03:44 GMT -5
I like DCCP #1-2, too. The initial issues of that series, the first four I think, all have really fun stories that are elevated to the next level by the artwork. I really need to re-read these at some point in the near future - since I have them in the Adventures of Superman volume by Garcia Lopez (PBHN).
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Post by Duragizer on Feb 22, 2019 3:16:15 GMT -5
Meh. I hate Jim Lee and '90s X-Men, so normally I wouldn't have read these comics, but one apparently has to be familiar with them to get into X-Men Forever, which is a series I've been meaning to check out because it's illustrated by one of my favourite artists, Tom Grummett. I hope it was worth it.
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Post by dbutler69 on Feb 22, 2019 10:16:52 GMT -5
I agree, the first four issues of DC Comics Presents has excellent art and ok writing - and they're all fun stories. #3 is probably my favorite of that bunch in terms of the writing.
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