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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 19, 2019 22:14:00 GMT -5
"Five Drowned Men' is about five professional men who knew each other in college and on a camping trip they are drowned in the magic stream known as Koehaha, or the Stream of Rutlessness. it doesn't kill you, it makes you evil.
They were persuaded to camp in that spot by Calvin Stymes. He was another classmate, and he invited them for an outing, but his motive was revenge! He wanted them to turn evil and ruin their reputations because of a prank they had pulled on him in college. They had covered a dog with luminous paint and tossed it in his room in the night and it scared him so bad that it turned his hair white and gave him a permanent stutter.
Why did they do this? They were getting him back because he poisoned a dog! Calvin Stymes poisoned a dog (named Brownie) because he doesn't like dogs. They make him jumpy! Did you hear that?!? He poisoned a dog! That's why I call him the most evil villain in DC history! Vandal Savage wouldn't poison a dog! Sinestro? I don't think so! Poison Ivy? Grodd? Queen Bee? Lex Luthor? None of them is that evil. Even Darkseid wouldn't poison a dog!
Ugh! Calvin Stymes! DC's greatest monster!
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 20, 2019 12:25:29 GMT -5
Just a few words about All-Star comics #37 and #38: The premise of #37 looks promising. The Wizard has gathered together some Golden Age DC villains to form The Injustice Society of the World! The Thinker, The Gambler, Vandal Savage, Brain Wave and Per Degaton! And they are arranging mass prison breaks all across the country to form criminal armies that are threatening the nation as they take over large swathes of the country! But it's not so great in execution. I first read this in DC's The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told! It was exciting to see another JSA story when I had at that point seen so few! But even back then it left me a little cold. For one thing the android/robot/simulacrum doubles of authority figures (governors and generals and such) used by the bad guys to cause confusion and to control the invasion process are made of wax and straw and glue! They are golems! Also, this story was just too big for the format. I do want to say a few words about Vandal Savage. He is a lot different here from the way he was portrayed during the Silver Age and after. He's a former caveman who has survived to modern times. I always thought of him as early Homo sapiens. Over at Fawcett, they had King Kull, leader of the Beast Men, also holdovers from the prehistoric era. I always thought DC should tie these characters together. A war between early Homo sapiens led by Vandal Savage against King Kull's Beast Men. 100,000 years ago, Vandal Savage won, but the Beast Men have survived, hiding underground, and now they are attacking Homo sapiens again! The JLA must treat Vandal Savage as an ally if they are going to beat King Kull! But Golden Age Vandal Savage is short and stocky and very hairy. It almost seems like in the Golden Age, he was not Homo sapiens. He was a Neanderthal … or maybe one of the Beast Men (unless they are the same thing)! So maybe the prehistoric conflict was between two factions among the Beast Men, or maybe it was two different races of man-like creatures. And maybe both sides were weakened by the war and that's how homo sapiens emerged on top! (You could work in Anthro and Tor. Also that Neanderthal who sometimes fought with Tomahawk and his crew.) This one is very flagrantly silly, but it gets a lot of points for being entertaining and weird. The entire active membership of the JSA (except Wonder Woman) is killed by a bunch of historical figures that turn out to be wax figures from a wax museum. Fortunately non-member Black Canary is present to go tell Wonder Woman (who is sitting around JSA HQ, looking at the walls and probably thinking about redecorating). So Wonder Woman gathers them up and they are brought back to life on Paradise island by the Purple Ray, and then they go fight the bad guy behind the animated was figures, who turns out to be the security guard at the wax museum. It is weird to see fight scenes between Captain Kidd and the Flash. And Johnny Thunder and Attila the Hun. And Goliath treated like a historical figure. I do like the bit where Black Canary dresses up as the wax figure of Lucrezia Borgia and takes the evil security guard by surprise. I have requested Volume 0 of the All-Star Archives through interlibrary loan, but it hasn't shown up yet. It reprints #1 and #2 of All-Star Comics, before the first appearance of the JSA!
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Post by brutalis on Oct 21, 2019 7:49:08 GMT -5
Read the Wolfman/Colan Night Force (in the collected Hardback) and it still reads wonderfully today. Sad that DC wasn't willing to hold on to this one and allowing it time to build a following. Just when it was beginning to get really interesting and delving into the Baron himself they go and cancel it. Spectacular Colan/Smith art that oozes atmosphere and horror with some truly "Adult" writing exploring concepts in detail and depth beyond what most comic books dared at the time. Marv outdid himself and provided some splendid story work for Gene to explore artistically.
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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 21, 2019 11:05:37 GMT -5
I briefly tried e-editions of Sensational She-Hulk #21-23, Re-introducing The Blonde Phantom.... eeeyeeeeh! Gah! This is exactly why I didn't like Steve Gerber's writing on any super characters... he just makes fun of the whole thing and you feel like a dumbass and robbed. I know he's gone, but when Gerber is bad he is awful, plus he might hold the record for blown deadlines, and even when he was supposed to have been great I think he was not so sharp or witty at all (people possibly just didn't realize sometimes what he was copying from either... like Archy & Mehitabel for one Howard The Duck). Worst three comics I've seen in decades, very little Blonde Phantom or even '40s characters anyway so I say false advertising as The Return Of The Blonde Phantom on at least two of the three. His '70s Defenders... meh, his '70s Guardians... meh. I have them, I'll keep them, but c'mon... Elf With A Gun in Defenders? He is so over the top tounge-in-cheek with the dialogue, and often makes you aware you are reading about ridiculous characters, besides just being sloppy often on basics; how is this good writing never mind comics writing? The only thing in this ballpark I dislike even as much is Martin Pasko on Plastic Man (although a lot of people did bad Plastic Man I feel, even for little kids bad = not actually funny because they oversell every joke or suspension-puncturing point). From now on I see the name Gerber I'm going to totally avoid as the bad read probability is at maximum. Even the goofiest '50s-'60s DC has a little naive charm, here I just see someone trying desperately to impress in how clever and above the material he is half the time... so that his fun is my misery as a reader. Byrne's She-Hulk showed some actual love for the characters and genre but is not my cuppa either, however this later glimpse is a total scripting and plotting m e s s. If you aren't going to be respectful leave the Golden Age characters alone! Think of them as seniors, you don't mock seniors or show-up their foolishness. The artist was okay, I didn't have a problem with that even if not my ideal, sort of a slightly cartoonier Vosburg. But, I erased these... this didn't happen for me now, bad, not good, ecch! The above seem even worse perhaps compared to Bill Everett's last hurrah on Sub-Mariner in the '70s which I'm re-reading in e-editions... #50-63. Now that's the real Namor! There is a gentler humor, there is sheer fantasy (talking crab people?) and it is gorgeous to look at. Namora preserved, Namorita introduced (twice), Betty Dean and Venus back... it's just sad Bill Everett and the readers couldn't have had another dozen years as you get a feeling of limitless possibilities. This time I got to see the last four pages, and the last story plotted, and ultimately the memorial page... originally I'd only had #50-57. Thank you Mr. Everett for these great issues, they are a treasure for as long as anyone is reading comic books! I'm in geek heaven a bit as I also have gone from 0 to 60 with e-editions of Foom! (#3-22) and Amazing World Of DC (#1-17 plus a convention special) fanzines. I've only seen a front or back cover here and there before of any of these!
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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 21, 2019 11:24:02 GMT -5
Read the Wolfman/Colan Night Force (in the collected Hardback) and it still reads wonderfully today. Sad that DC wasn't willing to hold on to this one and allowing it time to build a following. Just when it was beginning to get really interesting and delving into the Baron himself they go and cancel it. Spectacular Colan/Smith art that oozes atmosphere and horror with some truly "Adult" writing exploring concepts in detail and depth beyond what most comic books dared at the time. Marv outdid himself and provided some splendid story work for Gene to explore artistically. I think I took Wolfman and Colan both for granted the first time around. I never felt let down by either ever. I guess you could equate them to the baseball player that hits doubles or even triples sometimes but is always good for getting on base while the player who strikes out a lot then gets all the glory for a grand slam. I bought the first bunch of Night Force including the preview at the time and enjoyed it... somewhere I lost the connection and I don't remember being there for the cancellation. The thing is with comic books, they are a visual medium, to be successful there has to be some very visual easy to identify hook... which the most durable heroes and horror characters all have of course. When you get to something more visually subtle like Night Force or Challengers Of the Unknown... it's an uphill challenge. A lot of successful mystery-horror tv shows in comic form would be as handicapped... the '60 Invaders main characters were ordinary looking people, as was Kolchak who was just a reporter... no Phantom Stranger or Swamp Thing to hook onto and feature on the cover, and they had a troubled enough sales history too. Night Force was great comics, except for the hook... the difference between that album track the music fans talk about among each other and the hit single everybody knows the chorus of?
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Post by brutalis on Oct 21, 2019 13:12:53 GMT -5
Read the Wolfman/Colan Night Force (in the collected Hardback) and it still reads wonderfully today. Sad that DC wasn't willing to hold on to this one and allowing it time to build a following. Just when it was beginning to get really interesting and delving into the Baron himself they go and cancel it. Spectacular Colan/Smith art that oozes atmosphere and horror with some truly "Adult" writing exploring concepts in detail and depth beyond what most comic books dared at the time. Marv outdid himself and provided some splendid story work for Gene to explore artistically. I think I took Wolfman and Colan both for granted the first time around. I never felt let down by either ever. I guess you could equate them to the baseball player that hits doubles or even triples sometimes but is always good for getting on base while the player who strikes out a lot then gets all the glory for a grand slam. I bought the first bunch of Night Force including the preview at the time and enjoyed it... somewhere I lost the connection and I don't remember being there for the cancellation. The thing is with comic books, they are a visual medium, to be successful there has to be some very visual easy to identify hook... which the most durable heroes and horror characters all have of course. When you get to something more visually subtle like Night Force or Challengers Of the Unknown... it's an uphill challenge. A lot of successful mystery-horror tv shows in comic form would be as handicapped... the '60 Invaders main characters were ordinary looking people, as was Kolchak who was just a reporter... no Phantom Stranger or Swamp Thing to hook onto and feature on the cover, and they had a troubled enough sales history too. Night Force was great comics, except for the hook... the difference between that album track the music fans talk about among each other and the hit single everybody knows the chorus of? I can get that about Colan. Subtle and slow doesn't always work well within the confines of the comic book page. Having grown up with Colan's Iron Man, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Captain Marvel, Tomb of Dracula and his various other work across the 60's and 70's, I was certainly at age 20 and in college going to buy anything new Colan drew in 1982. I do love his DC work on Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman and on Night Force in particular. The artistic atmosphere and textures combined with his drawing people outside of the heroic model is a plus in my mind. Having said that, the Good Baron was a bit of the outsider and non-participant for the initial story lines. If he had interacted more personally with the Force and did more than set up the adventures then perhaps the series might have sold better and lasted a bit longer. With Dracula you have an instant character that many know with an immediate story anybody can jump into with. Whereas the Baron was vague and unknown as Wolfman slowly unveiled the character. Much harder to continue with a series when after the 1st year of publication and you don't really know anything about him.
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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 22, 2019 11:50:13 GMT -5
Starting on the 1992 Superman "Panic In the Sky" event issues. The first one ("prologue") introduces a new Supergirl (who is really a creature called Matrix) and involves Warworld, Maxima (she's new to me), and Braniac... luckily I am familiar with Warworld and it's greatest champion sort of through the Justice League animated series. Roger Stern is one of my favorite writers now and he is involved in this storyline. Not crazy about the Jackie Gleason parody alien, that stuff can take you out of the story when overplayed, but it's fairly subtle I guess here, but I'd prefer they not do this, especially with aliens or creatures who should have never seen old earth tv shows or movies. I remember a Martin Short/Ed Grimly giant in a Thor story that was similar to this.... some fans love this kind of thing, it can be what I most dislike, but then the Impossible Man as Humphrey Bogart amused me not at all... I'm more for Popeye snuck into a background type potzrebies. By the end Braniac has taken control of the new Supergirl with Maxima standing beside him, Matrix/Mae/Supergirl and the Warworld crowd chanting Braniac over and over. Mu-hu-ha-ha! The next part ("first strike") a week later in another Super title shifts to Metropolis and the familiar Clark/Supes, Lois, Jimmy and Perry White. The Guardian appears a bit too and some dude named Gangbuster I haven't encountered before. Lots of character moments as well as the Braniac skull ship wrecking and threatening the city and it's people.
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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 23, 2019 12:03:10 GMT -5
Finished the Panic In The Sky storyline (leaving the prologue issue and two more Actions following)... a bit crowded with all the guest stars (Metal Men, New Gods, and Lex Luthor II, oh my) but I'd say they were all handled well. I hated Guy Gardner as often as not which is how I've always felt about him (and his daft haircut). Interesting to see Deathstroke among the allies defending Earth and in a prominent leader role and first person Superman thought of after professor Hamilton. Dubbilex (new to me) friend of Guardian was another important player. Louise Simonson's parts seemed to try to have more humor at times. Stern, Ordway and Jurgens were the other writers. Not entirely seamless but pretty close. So for my first dip into Superman beyond the first smattering of Byrne and restart issues in the mid-late '80s at the time this was worthwhile. They also have this story collected in a TPB for those that prefer that format. Artwork by Grummett, McLeod and Jurgens was often best quality too. There was one issue that seemed a bit rushed and maybe some of D. Hands' work was in that one at the inking stage, these things happen.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 23, 2019 13:24:56 GMT -5
beccabear67 ... I'm not much of a fan of Guy Gardner and the Panic of the Sky was too much for me to read with all of those characters that you mentioned. I think it would be better if they were to cut out one book and edge out the story better and make it more streamlined. It was an epic event that could been handled better. Anyway, I like your assessment here and you did a good job recapping it.
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Post by Graphic Autist on Oct 24, 2019 12:08:56 GMT -5
I recently read Captain America #s 139-159 via the Marvel Epic Collection "Captain America - Hero or Hoax?"
Very enjoyable run of comics with solid art by John Romita and probably the best Sal Buscema art I've ever seen.
This run covers 1971-1973, and has a string of issues where Cap and Falcon have to fight the Cap from the 1950's who happens to be really racist, and thinks the real Cap is a fake.
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 24, 2019 13:13:01 GMT -5
I recently read Captain America #s 139-159 via the Marvel Epic Collection "Captain America - Hero or Hoax?" Very enjoyable run of comics with solid art by John Romita and probably the best Sal Buscema art I've ever seen. This run covers 1971-1973, and has a string of issues where Cap and Falcon have to fight the Cap from the 1950's who happens to be really racist, and thinks the real Cap is a fake. I love those Romita issues. And the Cap from the 50's saga was terrific.
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Post by beccabear67 on Oct 24, 2019 15:54:53 GMT -5
I just have assembled Captain America #172-176 in the 'to read' pile, but I saw the Sal Buscema art in them was looking good. Once in awhile a face will be too long or a mouth too wide, but other than those trademarks he's solid, and his Hulk and Rom are the first ones I knew.
Was it John Romita or John Buscema who drew Captain A. in the '50s? I only saw a couple of those as reprints in '60s Fantasy Masterpieces. It's cool that they wrote him as a different guy from the WWII then frozen in the ice Cap, the cold war Cap!
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 25, 2019 8:44:34 GMT -5
I just have assembled Captain America #172-176 in the 'to read' pile, but I saw the Sal Buscema art in them was looking good. Once in awhile a face will be too long or a mouth too wide, but other than those trademarks he's solid, and his Hulk and Rom are the first ones I knew. Was it John Romita or John Buscema who drew Captain A. in the '50s? I only saw a couple of those as reprints in '60s Fantasy Masterpieces. It's cool that they wrote him as a different guy from the WWII then frozen in the ice Cap, the cold war Cap! Romita. I didn’t think much of the secret empire saga.
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Post by dbutler69 on Oct 25, 2019 9:07:37 GMT -5
I do think the Sal Buscema Cap art is really among his best. Inked by Colletta and all!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2019 16:18:43 GMT -5
DC Archives
Elfquest Archives 1 to 4
Will Eisner's The Spirit Archives 19 to 26
I'm planning on reading these DC Archives and done reading all the DC Archives and hope to have it done by end of November.
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