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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 14, 2014 19:38:44 GMT -5
I had a welcome surprise with Larry Hama's Wulf the barbarian #1 from Atlas comics. It's much, much closer to Jack Vance than to Robert Howard, and unlike most other Atlas comics I've read (yes, I'm looking at you, Ironjaw! ) I'm really interested in finding out how the story evolves. Furthermore, Wulf's world is one I'd be interested in knowing more about! A very worthy first issue to a short- lived series.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Sept 14, 2014 20:14:59 GMT -5
Green Arrow The Longbow Hunters. I've read it before and still liked it. I actually like Oliver in a less superhero story. Down to basics as he said in the book. Simpler times. I'm mixed on Grell's art. I remembered liking it more the first time than I did through this read through. Not saying I disliked it just didn't seem to bowl me over as much this time. It did male me wonder about reading what Grell's did in the ongoing series.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 14, 2014 21:48:01 GMT -5
Grell didn't do the interior art in the ongoing series. Unfortunately.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2014 21:58:34 GMT -5
I had a welcome surprise with Larry Hama and Ernie Colon's Wulf the barbarian #1 from Atlas comics. It's much, much closer to Jack Vance than to Robert Howard, and unlike most other Atlas comics I've read (yes, I'm looking at you, Ironjaw! ) I'm really interested in finding out how the story evolves. Furthermore, Wulf's world is one I'd be interested in knowing more about! A very worthy first issue to a short- lived series. Fair warning, the creative team changed just about every issue of the 4 issue run so the evolution was very scattered...it's reviewed in the From the Sorcerer's Scroll thread somewhere. -M
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 14, 2014 23:11:55 GMT -5
Here's what I got from the library yesterday:
Batman in the Sixties: Hoo-Ray! The pre-New Look stories all seem to be stories I've never read, and there's some good ones! The first Matt Hagen Clayface story! The one where Bat-Girl meets Bat-Mite! Also, early 1960s Joker and Penguin stories that I've never read! I've read all but one of the New Look selections, but most of them I've only read in black and white reprints so it will be nice to see them in color.
Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman, Volume One: Wonder Woman 1958 to 1961, art by Andru and Esposito, stories by Kanigher. This is the era when Hippolyta was blonde and a lot of the stories were about Wonder Girl and the whole series was WHACKO! In the first story (from Wonder Woman #98), she makes a large bridge out of the copper from a single penny. Yup. Flipping through the volume, I came across a revival of Etta Candy and the Holliday Girls. I have never heard of this. I read a few panels and it looks INSANE.
The Essential Doctor Strange, Volume Three: This reprints the first 20 or so issues of Doctor Strange's series from the early- to mid-1970s along with two cross-over issues of Tomb of Dracula. I was reading comics for quite a bit of this time period but I didn't read very many of these. (Just the Doctor Strange/Dracula cross-over. Which is odd because I didn't read Doctor Strange OR Dracula regularly until years later.) I just didn't get into Doctor Strange at first. I started to like him a lot more when I read some of the Ditko stories, either in reprints or in back issues (and Strange Tales back issues were still pretty cheap in the late 1970s. I remember getting #117 for $4 and #135 - #137 for $1 or $2 each. VG-F.) Lots of Steve Englehart, Gene Colan, Tom Palmer, Frank Brunner, etc. in here.
I did eventually started reading the regular Doctor Strange series, maybe around issue #40? I had definitely started reading it by the time Marshall Rogers was the artist. Those were some great comics!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 16, 2014 6:03:51 GMT -5
Adventure comics #400, starring Supergirl.
Ewww, that went downhill quickly. The cover looked pretty good, and Supergirl's short-lived costume had a neat 70s vibe, but the plot... ouch. I would be willing to chalk up the nonsensical developments to the fact this book is aimed at children, but the constant bondage and borderline sadism found therein would seem to disagree with that.
Supergirl, in her guise as Linda Lee, receives a secret message in the following manner: during the evening news, the anchorman reads a letter addressed to her, saying that a message will be briefly flashed on screen; it will happen so fast that only Supergirl could be able to read it. The message is an address and a phone number. Whu???
Linda calls said number, and is asked for help. She flies up to an isolated house and is captured by a robot elderly maid handling a kryptonite-covered lasso. Her captor is the Kandorian villain Black Flame and her three acolytes, one of which builds toys and robots. A robot Streaky (Supergirl's cat), also covered in Kryptonite dust, adds to the maid of might's peril. Because supervillains are logical creatures, Supergirl is next used as a bowling pin in a game involving kryptonite bowling balls. (We're also told of Black Flame's escape from a Kandorian prison, and how she freed three criminals from the Phantom zone for apparently no good reason since she obviously has her hands on a ton of kryptonite of assorted colors). Mind you, Black Flame seems totally impervious to kryptonite; I thought that stuff was lethal to Kryptonians.
The bowling game fails to slay the bound heroine, so the evil doers put her on top of a pile of gold kryptonite dust and set a giant crossbow (with a timer) right in front of her, before leaving her. After all, when you spend time building such elaborate death traps, what sense would it make to see them work?
Supergirl realizes that the toys and robots present can be controlled telepathically; so she orders them to free her and to remove all the kryptonite dust. When the villains come back ("it's been long enough, she must be dead, now"), Supergirl captures them all.
Silly without being charming, psychologically violent (bondage, torture, hatred and the promise of violent death), this issue has little going for it apart from Mike Sekovsky's art. It suffers from a problem often seen in many older comics: things that happen "just because" and that make no sense.
added belatedly: as fate would have it, this very issue shows up in the latest posts of the "The One Where... comic book guessing game" thread. This comic has fans!
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Sept 19, 2014 20:37:12 GMT -5
The Legion of the Night 1-2
I really liked Portacio's art in this story. It fit well with the horror/supernatural angle in the use of Fing Fang Foom. Reading it again this time, it didn't seem as intricate a plot as I remembered it to be but still very entertaining. I thought Portacio did a lot of good art and was a favorite of mine of the "Image" guys but didn't seem to get as much work as Lee and the likes. I never knew there was a short backup story in Midnight Sons Unlimited #9. Gonna have to check that out as it seems Gerber never got to write more with the characters.
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Post by fanboystranger on Sept 19, 2014 21:57:47 GMT -5
The Legion of the Night 1-2 I really liked Portacio's art in this story. It fit well with the horror/supernatural angle in the use of Fing Fang Foom. Reading it again this time, it didn't seem as intricate a plot as I remembered it to be but still very entertaining. I thought Portacio did a lot of good art and was a favorite of mine of the "Image" guys but didn't seem to get as much work as Lee and the likes. I never knew there was a short backup story in Midnight Sons Unlimited #9. Gonna have to check that out as it seems Gerber never got to write more with the characters. I liked this series, too, and I think it's Portacio's best work. I wish it could have another issue or two to breathe a bit more, but it was suitably creepy and interesting. It's mid-tier Gerber for me.
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 20, 2014 6:47:58 GMT -5
Adventure comics #400, starring Supergirl. This was one of Sekowsky's earliest scripts for Supergirl and it's clear he is not terribly familiar with the Kryptonian mythos established by his predecessors. Not only does he depict Black Flame as immune to kryptonite, he shows Earth criminals (including a leprecaun, for pete's sake!) sentenced to the Phantom Zone. Another example of why writers shouldn't be their own editors. Cei-U! I summon the two-minute phone call to Nelson Bridwell that would've prevented this mess!
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Post by paulie on Sept 20, 2014 7:44:34 GMT -5
Adventure comics #400, starring Supergirl. This was one of Sekowsky's earliest scripts for Supergirl and it's clear he is not terribly familiar with the Kryptonian mythos established by his predecessors. Not only does he depict Black Flame as immune to kryptonite, he shows Earth criminals (including a leprecaun, for pete's sake!) sentenced to the Phantom Zone. Another example of why writers shouldn't be their own editors. Cei-U! I summon the two-minute phone call to Nelson Bridwell that would've prevented this mess! The absence of you indicating any follow-up appearances suggests that said leprechaun remains in the Phantom Zone with no chance of a solo-adventure on the horizon!
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Post by fanboystranger on Sept 20, 2014 8:58:28 GMT -5
The absence of you indicating any follow-up appearances suggests that said leprechaun remains in the Phantom Zone with no chance of a solo-adventure on the horizon! Attachments:
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 20, 2014 10:44:17 GMT -5
Double post.
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 20, 2014 10:48:44 GMT -5
Adventure comics #400, starring Supergirl. This was one of Sekowsky's earliest scripts for Supergirl and it's clear he is not terribly familiar with the Kryptonian mythos established by his predecessors. Not only does he depict Black Flame as immune to kryptonite, he shows Earth criminals (including a leprecaun, for pete's sake!) sentenced to the Phantom Zone. Another example of why writers shouldn't be their own editors. Cei-U! I summon the two-minute phone call to Nelson Bridwell that would've prevented this mess! Yeah I always appreciated that Marvel explained their stories and continuity gaps. Kudos to Roy Thomas and others for caring. And I dare say that stories and attitudes that continuity were not important is what made DC # 2 In The 70's.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Sept 20, 2014 11:12:23 GMT -5
The Legion of the Night 1-2 I really liked Portacio's art in this story. It fit well with the horror/supernatural angle in the use of Fing Fang Foom. Reading it again this time, it didn't seem as intricate a plot as I remembered it to be but still very entertaining. I thought Portacio did a lot of good art and was a favorite of mine of the "Image" guys but didn't seem to get as much work as Lee and the likes. I never knew there was a short backup story in Midnight Sons Unlimited #9. Gonna have to check that out as it seems Gerber never got to write more with the characters. I liked this series, too, and I think it's Portacio's best work. I wish it could have another issue or two to breathe a bit more, but it was suitably creepy and interesting. It's mid-tier Gerber for me. One would think in this day and age in comics that more than just superhero comics are popular and many of the non-superhero comics making it into other mediums of entertainment that a supernatural/horror comic would sell. Even if it weren't Gerber writing it I would be interested.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Sept 22, 2014 5:29:44 GMT -5
Two more Atlas comics: Lomax N.Y.P.D. and The Grim Ghost. Both were pretty enjoyable considering the price of admittance.
Lomax is a straight 1970s police book. The title character, a NYPD detective, must untangle the mystery surrounding the murder of his partner, who turns out to have feigned his own demise to flee the Big Apple with his girlfriend and money he stole. The art by Sekowsky is pretty good, and the story is similar to what one could have seen on TV in thise days. Considering the different types of comics that Atlas launched all at once, my guess is that the company wanted to see what would stick. It's refreshing not to see superheroes wall to wall.
The comic had a second story, better than the first: a Mike Ploog tale (unfortunately inked by Frank Springer) with a sensitivity I usually associate with Will Eisner, dealing with a murdered old and homeless man. Touching and beautifully done.
The Grim Ghost is closer to The Spectre than anything I can think of, and no wonder: it is written by Michael Fleisher. This origin story is a lot of fun, but I'm not sure where the character could go next. The title character is an actual ghost, who we learn lived centuries ago in America, where he was a witty, charming and sometimes lethal rogue (practicing as he was the career of a highwayman). Eventually captured thanks to the cleverness of a young and beautiful lady, the bandit was hanged and ended up in Hell, where Satan himself made him an offer: admiring the man's style, the devil would rather have him act as his agent on Earth than spending eternity in a pool of lava. He would therefore be charge to kill evil people (only evil ones) in order to get them to Hell faster. The catch is that our hero would not get to haunt his own time period, but the twentieth century -a time rife with crime and evil.
The ghost is not given his life back, he remains a real ghost. He's also dressed in his highwayman garb, and is riding a flying black horse.
The art by Ernie Colon is always a joy to see when it is not inked by someone inappropriate, and here it shines. His humorous style fits this tongue in cheek mystery book perfectly.
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