Man, I've been reading this thread for over an hour now.

You are really close to having a book, here.

Another pair of high profile releases from Tundra involved Dave McKean. McKean crossed the ocean to New York, where he made the rounds of the big publishers to show his work. This led to working with neil Gaiman, producing the Black orchid mini-series and the covers on Sandman, as well as drawing Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum. The collaboration with Gaiman led to a short work, Violent Cases, in 1987.



The book was originally put out by Escape books and was then reprinted by Tundra. When Gaiman met with Tundra about doing the reprint, he was the rising star of comics, the Second Coming of Alan Moore, in many critics eyes (despite the differences in their writing styles and the types of stories they did). Gaiman knew the value of his name and he negotiated accordingly. According to the Comics Journal interview with Steve Bissette, Kevin Eastman had hoped that Gaiman would do more for them and Gaiman was cagey enough not to do that. Gaiman was experienced in the world of publishing and he treated the arrangement as business. Apparently, there was a bit of friction, as Tundra's aspirations didn't match Gaiman's. Still, Tundra helped bring Violent Cases to a wider audience.

The story revolves around a narrator, who looks like Neil Gaiman, who describes an incident when he was young, where his father was trying to drag him upstairs to bed and the boy wanted to go back downstairs and the father tugged too hard and dislocated his arm. The father takes the boy to see an old osteopath, who turns out to have worked for Al Capone, in America. What follows is a juxtaposition of stories of Capone's violence and violence within the boy's world, whether from his father, other adults, or children. It's done in stark, subdued colors; almost black & white. Like much of Gaiman and McKean's work, it revolves around dreams and nightmares and it looks like something out of a dream or nightmare.



It's not for everyone. In many ways, it is darker than most of Sandman (which I would argue lost much of its darkness as it became a hit). It's not my cup of tea, nor was Mr Punch, their later collaboration. My brain can conjurer enough nightmares without Gaiman and McKean providing material.

Cages I've never actually seen, nor do I have scans. This was McKean on his own, and his style is more basic and draws from elements of Latin artists Alberto Breccia and Jose Munoz, as well as Italian Lorenzo Mattotti.



Cages ran into the Tundra implosion, after 7 issues and was finished up at Kitchen Sink after the merger. It's still a bit of a cult book that only the faithful hunt down.

Next, the last major prestige project from Tundra and the one that has had the longest lasting impact.

We now come to our last look at Tundra and the project that arguably most fulfilled their goals of publishing high quality material and providing a mechanisms for talented creators to produce their dream projects, without commercial considerations: Understanding Comics

Now, when most of you think of the book, I suspect your image is this:



This is the version most people have seen, from Harper Collins, found in most major bookstores' graphic novel section. When I think of it, I think of this:



This was the original Tundra edition, complete with their Mammoth icon (something which appears in the book!). I can't recall if I saw this in Advance (Capital City's order book) or in the Bud Plant catalog; but, I got it as soon as it came out. I had resigned my naval officer's commission and had looked at trying to become a comic book artist. I had applied to and been accepted at the Kubert School. I was reading and using every book I could find about cartooning and comic book art and storytelling. There weren't many. I had all of Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy books, which weren't exactly great instruction, as much as a showcase for Hogarth's art, with his thoughts. Some elements were more useful than others, while parts of it made me feel insecure about my art.



I also had How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way, with Stan Lee and John Buscema. It was a good starter book, with helpful hints about anatomy, foreshortening, composition, points of view and the bare basics of storytelling. However, it didn't go very deep and it only took me so far.



One series of books proved very useful, from Jack Hamm.



These were excellent instruction books, with more detailed techniques for achieving both cartoony and realistic art. They covered things like perspective and proportion, light and shade, texture, hair curls, bodytypes, elements of expression and more. These really helped me, especially in drawing more realistic proportioned characters and clothing. There was still an element missing, though, which was storytelling in comics. For that, there was really only one book:




Comics and Sequential Art is by Will Eisner. of course it is; who else treated comics as serious art, so early? Eisner first published the book in 1985 and it sets down his ideas about the storytelling mechanisms of comics. He looks at things like light and shade, point of view, etc; but, he also talks about how body language can convey ideas, how to use key scenes to tell a story, how to establish mood, etc.. These were the elements that helped turn comic drawing into comic book stories. So, what was so different about Understanding Comics?



The book is Scott McCloud's thesis about how stories are conveyed by the mechanisms of comics. It is filled with examples of how iconography conveys information, how our brains work with the layout of comic panels and also how these mechanisms have been used around the world.



McCloud opens by defining comics and what separates them from just illustration and animation. He establishes a vocabulary for comics and then shows how our brains respond to that vocabulary. He then moves beyond into how time works, how lines affect perception, how color can work and how to link all of the material into actual comic stories. He looks at historical examples of graphic storytelling, such as ancient pictograms and hieroglyphics, the Bayeux Tapestry, the works of William Hogarth, proto-graphic novels (like Rudolphe Topffer) the early recurring comics (like Alley Sloper and Max und Moritz), the classic comic strips and comic books. Throughout, McCloud mixes both an academic and a playful tone. However, another element that sets it apart from Eisner and the art books of Hogarth and Hamm is that it is done entirely in sequential art; it's a graphic novel about how graphic novels (comic books, manga, bande desiness, fumetti, whatever you want to call comics ) tell stories.





Now, I had been studying comics for a bit, so some of this material seemed a bit old hat. For instance, I knew how you could expand or contract time, depending on the number of panels you use. However, the concept of closure was a new idea for me:



Closure is all about how your brain fills in the gaps between panels. Comic panels show you moments in time;yet, somehow, your brain fills in the sequence of actions that take you from one panel to the next. It never struck me before. In animation, they have what is known as "in-betweening"; the sequence of movements that link the key scenes. Animation directors usually laid out those key moments, then "in-betweeners" drew the tedious drawings that moved the character from point A to point B. Closure does this in our brains, when we read a comic. Our brains do the "in-betweening". It is for this reason that an artist must be careful in which scenes he/she choose to depict. If they choose the wrong moments, our brains have trouble filling in the details. If they use too many or too few moments, it alters our perception of time.

If it all sounds rather academic it is; and it isn't! McCloud has fun with it and recognizes when he's getting a bit too pompous and throws in a bit of humor:



Heck, the introduction helps set the dual tone of academic and playful:



The legacy of Understanding Comics is tremendous. The book transcended the world of comic distribution and became a mainstream academic work; a seminal work on the history and critical look at pop culture. It became a standard item in bookstores and libraries around the country and around the world. It won both the Harvey and Eisner awards. A swedish edition won the 1996 Urhunden Prize. The French edition won the Prix Bloody Mary (comes with a celery stalk! ) at the 2000 Angouleme festival (one of the premiere comic festivals in the world). It is THE textbook for the aspiring comic artist.

When I was a bookseller, there was nothing more satisfying than seeing someone looking at the book and seeing it in school libraries, when I visited to consult about graphic novels (my favorite duty, as a bookseller). The book had a modest release, which quickly snowballed into full-fledged star status and a visibility that most publishers would sacrifice their children to achieve. And, through it all, Scott McCloud has been a wonderful ambassador to the rest of the world, for comics. That is Scott McCloud's legacy and it is Tundra's legacy.

ps

I never got to go to the Kubert School. At the time, the cost was something like $11,000 a year and I was not eligible for the GI Bill (the Navy paid for my Bachelor's Degree, up front), nor did I qualify for financial aid (military salary and benefits skewed the computations too much). The idea of loans was unthinkable, as I had existing debt to pay off; so, the dream didn't happen. Looking at it objectively, I doubt my art would have risen to the level to get me into the comic book world; I started focusing on it too late and had a long way to go. Still, the school was intensive training and who knows how things might have developed? Instead, I continued to be a fan and advocate, who spent 20 years as a bookseller, sharing that with customers. That was the most satisfying aspect of my time at Barnes & Noble, before their struggle to stay alive sapped the fun out of it. This is part of why I run off at the keyboard here; it's my outlet for sharing my love of comics.

So, as I said last time, Bill Black and Paragon started out doing black & white fanzines, with some comic stories mixed in.



From the start, the focus was on Golden Age mystery men and women, jungle girls (especially Sheena and Nyoka, and western heroes, especially the Republic bunch and those of the early 50s. Black was also a fan of old horror movies and those elements mixed into his comics. When he started Paragon, he was also doing some work for Warren and even worked a bit with Roy Thomas, at Marvel In fact, the What If? issue, with the 1950s Avengers (3-D Man, Marvel Boy, etc...) that inspired the Femforce. Black had suggested an all-female team of Timely's heroines, but Roy shot it down.

Within these fanzines, you could find reprints of things like old Sheena comics, as well as new characters, like Captain Paragon, the Shade, The Girl from LSD (later renamed Synn) and Tara, the Jungle She-Cat. The artwork was a bit crude, as it often was in fanzines. Paragon also produced some portfolios...



Paragon Golden Age Greats features art from Black, Dan Adkins, and Don newton, as well as a piece by Tom Fagan, the host of the Rutland Halloween parties that turned up in Marvel and DC comics. It also shows Black's tendency to push a good thing a little far, as his pin-up of Harvey's Black Cat features her being tied up by a dominatrix-looking woman, with exposed breasts (nipples covered Wendy O Williams-style). Damsel-in-distress imagery was part of pulps and comics, though this was a bit on the trashier side.

In 1983, Paragon became Americomics and launched some full-color comics, including one titled Americomics.



Issue one features a cover by George Perez, with an interior story of The Shade, by Bill Black. The Shade fights within the dream world and is one of Black's oldest characters. his early appearances featured a standard superhero suit; but, he's upgraded into a more supernatural figure here. The story is not Alan Moore; but, it's fine, for this type of thing. Issue 2 features The Messenger, with story and art by some rookie, named Jerry Ordway. It's definitely not the Ordway we would come to know; but, there are signs of that talent, here and there. We also get another Shade story, where he must face The Terror, who is a version of the Nedor hero The Black Terror (a favorite of Black's). Issue 4 features an Ordway cover (his skills showing great leaps), with a story inside about a woman who accidentally intercepts a bolt of mystic power, turning her into a superhero, Dragonfly. Her life is a little heavy on the soap opera (and it's pretty cliched, though slightly satirical stuff) and the action isn't as well staged as the cover shot. Issue 5 gives us Captain Freedom, the protector of an underwater city. Art is by Vic Bridges, who appears to be heavily channeling John Byrne. Issue 6 is another old Black character, the Scarlet Scorpion (essentially, a Blue Beetle swipe).

Wait, you skipped issue 3! Well, I'm getting to that. Issue 3 features the Blue Beetle; both of them (Dan Garrett and Ted Kord).  Meanwhile, the Americomics Special features the Sentinels of Justice, a team composed of the Charlton Action heroes. How the heck did this come about? Well, Bill Black had also been involved in the Charlton Bullseye crowd and published some work there. When Charlton went belly up, Black published some stuff that had been intended for the revived Charlton Bullseye, which leaned heavily on amateur fan material. Guys like Bob Layton had seen their work printed in this method and this was more of the same. Americomics 3 has a Pat Broderick cover, but Rik Levins and Bill Black provide the interior story. The material indicates it is copyright Charlton and used by permission; so, Black was legitimately publishing this. Same with the Americomics Special, which has a story where The Question, Blue Beetle, Captain Atom and the Nightshade are teamed up as the Sentinels of Justice. Nightshade even gets a new costume and they face The Ghost, a villain from the Charlton stories. However, as the Special was printed, DC had finished the purchase of the Charlton Action Heroes (minus Peter Cannon, who was owned by Pat Morisi). Black makes note of it in the book and previews a new Sentinels of Justice, featuring his own characters. Atomic Mouse, another Charlton property, also made an appearance in issue 4.



AC published various comics with their homegrown heroes, including Captain Paragon, Scarlet Scorpion, Colt, Tara, Nightveil, Bolt and Starforce Six, Dragonfly and others. Most looked rather amateurish, next to DC and Marvel (heck, next to Eclipse and Pacific) and they never set the world on fire. Because of the heavy T&A element, the females did better, which we will get to in a bit.  One book stood out a bit.



Black Diamond featured the adventures of Tiana Mathews, a globetrotting model who is secretly the Black Diamond, an agent of the spy organization Info Com 3. She deals in events surrounding the shady QUANSA organization. The story and art were a cut above a lot of what AC had been doing and the plot was more exciting. It was also different, mixing Marvel's Black Widow and the British Modesty Blaise, with a little Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD for good measure. It didn't go overboard on the T&A, though it is there. Instead, it features a tough, capable female character kicking butt, with guns ablazin'. It was allegedly based on a movie in development, to star B-movie actress Sybil Danning (Battle Beyond the Stars, The Three and Four Musketeers). No movie ever came out. A graphic novel was promised, adapting the screenplay. Somehow, I suspect there was some conning going on here, or at least delusions of grandeur. Black said Danning got in touch after her agent saw a piece in Bill Black's Fun Comics, about Sheena and it mentioned the new movie (which was eventually made with Tanya Roberts) and thought Danning was perfect for it. Danning was put in touch with Black, who passed on info and she put him in touch with the Black Diamond writer/producer, Mike Frankovitch. The comic was the result. The awesome Gulacy covers on the later issues (Black did the cover of issue 1) helped sell it more than most AC books. It's a shame he didn't do the interior, as well.  Danning was featured in photos and pin-ups, to help sell the book.

As you can see, much of the AC model was professional or semi-professional covers, with amateurs on the interiors. The end result was mixed, with enthusiasm making up for skill, in some cases, and just overblown fan projects in others. This trend continued, as AC's covers were often superior to the interiors. That, except for the Golden Age material.



Black continued producing fanzines, with Bill Black's Fun Comics. Like the older Paragon material, these were a mix of articles, Golden Age reprints, fan pin-ups, and new material. Black reprinted some Matt Baker Phantom Lady comics, from Fox, thinking the character was in the public domain. The Fox stories were; but the name was owned by DC comics, via their purchase of the Quality Comics version. They soon exerted their rights and Black started calling the Phantom Lady the Blue Bulleteer, when he used her in other comics. That character grew into Nightveil and would be part of the Femforce. meanwhile, we got more Captain Paragon and the Shade and others.

Next, we will look at the Golden Age western comics that AC put out, an area that made them completely unique in the comics world of the 80s and 90s.

Well, let's get to the heart of AC Comics: the Femforce.

As far back as 1971, Bill Black's Paragon was publishing fanzines with superheroine pin-ups and stories.



There was a lot of T&A and some nude and semi-nude pin-ups; some playful cheesecake (like RC Harvey's work), some borderline pornographic, some just tributes to great female characters. Characters like Sheena and Phantom Lady were great favorites and they appeared in reprints of their stories.

While Bill Black worked with Roy Thomas, on What If?, he suggested a team of Timely's heroines, which Roy shot down. He decided to do it on his own. He first tested the waters in 1981, with the Femzine.



The team there was Synn (aka The Girl from LSD), Tara (the Jungle She-Cat), Phantom Lady (the Matt Baker version, from Fox Comics) and the Blonde Bomber (a Black Canary pastiche). The magazine featured a story with Femforce One: The All-Girl Squad, a tribute to Irish McCalla (the tv Sheena), reprints of the Phantom Lady, Sheena and Spy Girl, and some pin-ups (of course).

This was followed by the Femforce Special, where the ladies fought Lady Luger...



...because you need a Nazi dominatrix for these kind of things! After DC warned them off the Phantom Lady name, AC called the character the Blue Bulleteer, who morphed into Nightfall, then was renamed Nightveil. Added to the team was Ms Victory, aka Joan Wayne. She was an update of an obscure Golden Age character, Miss Victory, from Helnit Publishing, which was bought out by Holyoke (publishers of Catman). Also joining the team was GA comics heroine Rio Rita (also star of movies) and She-Cat (a pastiche of Harvey's Black Cat). The light-hearted story was filled with boobs, bondage, and brawls.

If it sounds like AC was aiming at the lowest common denominator, remember that many a comic company used the same themes to sell comics. Fiction House and Fox made an entire publishing line based around these facets and even the bigger houses tread these waters. Wonder Woman, in the 40s, was as kinky as it got. Black Cat was filled with judo and deathtraps. As Black like to point out, it was no worse than tv shows, like Charlie's Angels, where camera shots of breasts and behinds were quite common. The tone was light, with tongue firmly in cheek and other parts thrust here and there. A series followed, which is still going (currently at issue #178).



In the 90s, AC followed the trend and had models dressed as some of their characters at conventions. They even produced low-budget movies with the heroines, which they sold via their website and mail-order. In the late 90s, as the Bad Girl fad was in full swing, and things like Verotik and other pron comics were on the stands, AC pushed things a bit further than cheesecake and pulp thrills. Some of their comics got into other fetish territory, like Big Uns, with giantesses and new issues of Femzine, that got borderline pornographic (at best). Included were some scenes with the Blue Bulleteer that were pretty much rape poses, minus the actual act of rape. It was pretty sleazy and didn't do much for AC's image. They published a Femforce Pulp Portfolio, which mostly consisted of a female military character in bondage scenes, being rescued by the heroines. This was a far cry from Good Girl Art Quarterly, where they had pin-ups and adventures, plus reprints of GA "good girl" cheesecake comics.



It's hard to fault AC too much, when you had the likes of Jim Balent's Catwoman and the Milo Manara Spider-Woman cover at DC and Marvel (respectively). AC was catering to their audience. If nothing else, they were using a model similar to Fantagraphics, whose Eros Comics line helped fund the publishing of more artistic work, like Love & Rockets. For AC, Femforce paid the bills that allowed the company to put out Best of the West and Golden Age Men of Mystery. The latter is part of our wrap up, as we look at AC's reprinting of Golden Age mystery men.

How was the reproduction on the AC Golden Age reprints? I bought similar things by Pure Imagination and other publishers and the quality was often hit 'r miss.