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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 29, 2019 18:03:04 GMT -5
Lovely stuff, Farrar!!
So much great material to learn about here at the CCF!
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Post by urrutiap on Jul 29, 2019 21:23:57 GMT -5
Earlier today i read issues 229 to 235 of original Uncanny X-Men. Good decent stuff especially the last Brood issues
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,069
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Post by Confessor on Jul 30, 2019 2:28:17 GMT -5
Here's something I just obtained. I love Ogden Whitney's work and I love classic 1950s-1960s romance comics, so when I came across a trade collection of some of Whitney's romance work I snapped it up. The book is Return to Romance: The Strange Love Stories of Ogden Whitney and it contains reprints of some of his 1960-1963 work from the ACG series My Romantic Adventures (though at least one of the stories "Beat Romance" may be from a different series; in the book's table of contents it's misidentified as being from MRA #110). Despite the title, these love stories are not overtly "strange"; the settings and characters are of the everyday variety (instead of say, the prisoners in jails or aliens from outer space that are found in other ACG and/or Whitney series). What struck me most about these particular early '60s stories is the presence of upward mobility for both women and men, and not just through marrying up (though there is that too, but usually not for the protagonists). Rather, in most of these stories the characters--in addition to finding that perfect romantic partner (these are love comics, after all)--also strive to fulfill themselves by becoming financially solvent, professionally accomplished, etc. In these stories we get characters who are doctoral students/professors, business-people, business owners, secretaries (yes, a male secretary), and other jobs/careers. And in most of these stories, the jobs aren't just a "wait until marriage" placeholders. Whitney's art is pared down--often the panels include only one or two characters with no backgrounds and there are a lot of close-ups--but this type of presentation effectively moves these stories along. The spare artwork is also accommodating to voluminous dialogue/though bubbles; these characters talk and think a lot! Also I have always loved Whitney's inking, here's a prime example of his textures (how did Lichtenstein miss this last panel? ) I love Ogden Whitney's art, which I know predominantly from the Herbie Popnecker stories. I can't say I've read much, if any, of his other stuff, but I sort of agree with you that he's really underrated as an artist. Just in the Herbie comics alone his art runs the gamut from comedy to romance to action...and with a deft talent for caricature. He's a very versatile artist.
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Post by Cei-U! on Jul 30, 2019 7:13:05 GMT -5
Whitney's art on Skyman for Columbia back in the '40s is some of the nicest I've seen in Golden Age comics, right up there with Reed Crandall, Jack Burnley, and Lou Fine.
Cei-U! I summon the underappreciated maestro!
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Post by MDG on Jul 30, 2019 9:19:03 GMT -5
I love Ogden Whitney's art, which I know predominantly from the Herbie Popnecker stories. I can't say I've read much, if any, of his other stuff, but I sort of agree with you that he's really underrated as an artist. Just in the Herbie comics alone his art runs the gamut from comedy to romance to action...and with a deft talent for caricature. He's a very versatile artist. I can't think of another artist who could have drawn Herbie as "straight" as Whitney--gives the strip a new level of oddness.
This might be his most famous (or infamous) "romance" story:
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Post by Duragizer on Jul 30, 2019 13:42:36 GMT -5
Looks like resurrection sent Maude Flanders' sanity into a tailspin. Sometimes dead is better.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2019 22:53:24 GMT -5
Batman and Captain America It's gets better with age and one of my favorite works of John Byrne. I really enjoyed reading this today and it's a classic that's really surprise you how well he incorporate these two heroes.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 1, 2019 5:57:40 GMT -5
Challengers of the Unknown #85-87Like the DC Special Series issue I briefly reviewed in this thread about five pages back, these are included in the two Deadman tpbs I have, specifically in the fifth volume. And like that DC Special Series issue, they're here to pad the book out by including just about every obscure appearance by the character in the late '70s, and also, I think, to get customers to buy two books instead of one - by that I mean that the Len Wein stories from Adventure and DC Comics Presents and the 4-part mini-series written by Helfer from the early 1980s could have been included in a single, slightly fatter book (which would seem only logical to me, as almost all of the art in those stories was done by Garcia Lopez, PBHN) rather than being spread out into two volumes. Instead we get a bunch of material in which Deadman is just a supporting character. However, in these issues he at least plays a slightly bigger, and more useful, role. The story itself is an SF time-travel romp: a bunch of mysterious giant cubes start appearing around the world, and terrifying mutated monsters crawl out of them. Prof Haley, the Challengers' resident scientist, figures out that they're from the future, and eventually they come upon Rip Hunter's abandoned time sphere and travel to 12 million AD to find the source of the problem - and figure out the mystery of what happened to Hunter and his crew. Also in tow are Swamp Thing and Deadman - the reasons are not entirely clear unless you know that Swampy showed up a few issues earlier, and Deadman in the issue immediately preceding this story arc (#84 - I used to have all of the revived Challengers issues from the '70s, #s 81-87, way back when). There's some question as to why that issue wasn't also included in this tpb. Written by Gerry Conway, this actually isn't a bad story, and the art, by a then still youngish Keith Giffen and John Celardo, is quite good - at places it's a bit reminiscent of Starlin's work.
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Post by spoon on Aug 3, 2019 15:12:19 GMT -5
I'm continuing a long read-through of a big run of Incredible Hulk that have been at for months. I started at #182 (because that was about where I had stopped off in reading an Essential Hulk TPB a year or so back), and now I've read through #285.
I think when last I posted in this thread, I was at #265. That was right after Hulk had basically been through a "world tour" of sorts, when he met Sabra and Arabian Knight (in their respective first appearances), then encountered the Soviet Super-Soldiers and the Presence, apparently killed Glenn Talbot in self-defense in Japan, fought the Absorbing Man on Easter Island, and finally washed up in Los Angeles. Since then, Betty Ross and Rick Jones started appearing more frequently. Betty had a bit of hiatus after she divorced Glenn Talbot, but Rick Jones was pretty much absent from much of my binge until showing up great frequency starting in the 240s.
There's a pretty good, creepy one-off story where the High Evolutionary wants to kill him. I'm a little suspicious that Mantlo is trying to sneak in an evolution message, because the High Evolutionary's death wish comes from thinking of himself as god-like, but then realizing that there are far more advanced being (the Beyonders). However, political allegory is not really Mantlo's forte, so it's unclear of his intent. I was pretty shocked by the Beyonders part. Secret Wars is still about 3 years away. I know the Beyonder eventually ends up being revealed as part of race of creatures. I'm wondering if Shooter was thinking of this when he came up with Secret Wars or if he just realized it after he started. There's a good story with Glorian and the Shaper of Worlds.
In a back to the beginning theme, Hulk goes to the now abandoned Gamma Base with Betty and Rick. The idea is to use equipment there to try to cure Bruce, but Rick is conflicted about the idea of curing the Hulk. Hulk gets shanghaied by some old space characters to battle the Galaxy Master in outer space. That story is so-so, but the follow-up in #271 is pretty good. It's the second appearance of Rocket Raccoon, and Nantlo's writing really shines here. He somehow plays the funny animal thing straight but also funny, if that paradox makes any sense.
Banner is beamed back to Earth, where he discovers due to additional gamma exposure, that Banner's mind can mostly stay present while he's the Hulk and he has much greater control of when he transforms. The story with Sasquatch and Wendigo is very good, as was a previous Sasquatch/Hulk story a year or two before.
Bruce-Hulk finally gets back to Gamma Base, where Bereet has shown up. Bereet is a female alien "techno-artist"/film director, who previously appeared in the black and white Hulk magazine. Those magazine stories are retconned away with the explanation that they are films created Bereet while observing Hulk with advanced technology. Bereet is one of the strongest elements of Mantlo's run so far. She's a charming, quirky, yet still complex character. She's also a means to comment on the blending of documentary and fiction in a totally non-preachy way. She also has a purse that, like the TARDIS, is bigger on the inside than the outside.
But at this point, Betty Ross is one of the weaker elements of Mantlo's writing. At times, he has characters take big turns in personality/motivation that feels like alterations of characters in service to the plot rather than a natural evolution. One would think that Betty would be relieved that Bruce can now control his transformations and keep his intellect and personality when he is the Hulk. After all, it's a huge improvement over what was the status quo. But she's disappointed that Bruce is not fully cured and pissed off that Bruce isn't as disappointed as she is. I suppose there's a nuanced way to pull off this idea, but Mantlo doesn't achieve that. Instead, Betty is cartoonishly spiteful.
After seemingly being annihilated, the U-Foes are back for a second appearance. I love those guys. There freakish horrific, and it's another thing Mantlo does well. Their leader, Vector, decides they will get fame and power by killing the Hulk in a live broadcast to the world. But when the Hulk defeats them (with help from Bereet), he's the beneficiary. The world sees that Bruce-Hulk now is an intelligent, stable being. With the help of various heroes, Bruce-Hulk get a presidential pardon. In part this is because, he thwarts a supposed alien invasion by a villain that has been lurking in the shadows for a few issues, who turns out to be the Leader.
This begins an arc with the Leader. The Leader tests the new Bruce-Hulk, and finds that the Hulk's new thoughtfulness actually hampers him by preventing from fully harnessing his rage to reach maximum strength. Hulk then gets help from the Avengers, who have recently added the She-Hulk. I think this arc is She-Hulk's first appearance in the Incredible Hulk, which is amazing since she was introduced several years before this. The Avengers take the battle to the Leader's spaceship base. The Leader's Humanoids are used in very creative ways. After a time travel story (which reminded me a bit of Avengers: Endgame), the Leader is defeated. The Hulk is offered Avengers membership, but declines. The last issue I read is an appearance by Zzzax, which implicates Tony Stark's alcoholism in an indirect way.
These intelligent Bruce-Hulk stories may be my favorite of Mantlo's run so far. Aside from the writing, there is a great improvement in the art. Initially, during his run as penciler, Sal Buscema was inked by various people, and the art was very good. But shortly before Mantlo starts as writer, Buscema starts inking his own pencils, and the art is not nearly as good. But after Bruce's mind takes control, Buscema finally gets an inker again - Joe Sinnott.
One of my heretical comics views is my lack of enthusiasm. Though some considered him the quintessential Kirby inker, I like others better. He's one of my least favorite Byrne inkers, and he can't salvage Milgrom pencils. But he really works well with Sal here. There's also an issue penciled by Mark Gruenwald (!) with inks by Greg Larocque.
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Post by Duragizer on Aug 4, 2019 3:57:50 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #21 A supervillain who unironically calls himself the Hate-Monger. And wears a purple clansman outfit. And is Hitler. It's just too much. I can't take this character seriously at all. He's belongs in Howard the Duck, not Fantastic Four.
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Post by Icctrombone on Aug 4, 2019 7:05:29 GMT -5
I think he evolves into a being that embodies hate. I could be wrong.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 4, 2019 13:06:40 GMT -5
Deadman 1-4 (1986)I wish I could say I liked this series, just because the art by Garcia Lopez (PBHN) is so gorgeous throughout. But the story, by Andrew Helfer, just doesn't work for me. As stated in another thread, I found the beginning - with Deadman in corporeal form, his brother and Batman in Nanda Parbat - a bit puzzling, and even after it was explained to me, it didn't help with the rest. Cleveland Brand agrees to let Boston take possession of his body for a week so he can tie up some loose ends, i.e., mainly just get it on with his old flame, circus owner Lorna Hill - which is just all kinds of wrong. And while doing this, he ends up getting his brother killed in the exact same way he did, and this leads Deadman to pursue the killer, which leads to his old nemesis, the Sensei, and his return to Nanda Parbat for some big cosmic confrontation. I found it all a bit tiresome and ultimately uninteresting, and there were several rather odd plot points that didn't make sense. Also, the writing, esp. in the last two issues, became really prone to lengthy bits of expositional dialog, so you get pages that look like this: Now, I'm on record as saying I'm usually not bothered by text heavy comics, a la Don McGregor's work, but even I found this too much. It's like some of Ditko's Mr. A comics. Personally, my favorite Deadman stories were the ones done by Len Wein in Adventure Comics and then that one issue of DC Comics Presents. I liked him floating around in finding himself in different situations helping ordinary people try to deal with their problems. The cosmic/spiritual stuff in this mini-series just didn't do anything for me. All I can say in conclusion is that this was really a waste of some wonderful artwork.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 4, 2019 13:32:24 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #21 A supervillain who unironically calls himself the Hate-Monger. And wears a purple clansman outfit. And is Hitler. It's just too much. I can't take this character seriously at all. He's belongs in Howard the Duck, not Fantastic Four. That never struck me before, but you’re absolutely right. It’s a bit like the recent SF series on Netflix, “Another Life”... Sometimes a concept is this close to being its own parody. Now I’ll never be able to see Hate-Monger without laughing!!!
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 5, 2019 7:49:58 GMT -5
I read (among other things) Legion of super-Heroes #300. Great issue, and I especially love the cover, even though I typically prefer covers that depect something from the issue inside rather than "pinup" covers.
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Post by beccabear67 on Aug 5, 2019 22:08:43 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #21 corny... or a message still needed? Laughing is a good thing though. People laughed at old Adolf a lot at first, it's something they should've been able to keep doing... we need more laughing today I might say actually.
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