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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 16, 2018 11:00:43 GMT -5
Like our pal Prince Hal, I too grew up in awe of the talents of caricaturust supreme Mort Drucker. There was a while there, circa 9th and 10th grade, when I wanted to *be* Mort Drucker. When I chose this year's topic, I knew I would be including one of his brilliant movie parodies on my roster. The only question was which one? Boney and Clod? The Poopsidedown Adventure? Then it hit me: there could be only one. 9. “The Milking of the Planet of the Apes,” MAD #157 There’s all kinds of good reasons to pick this one. It was a clever takedown of the whole PotA phenomenon satirizing all five movies in the series, capturing the essence of each individual film while poking holes in their absurdities. It was also a tour de force by the estimable Mr. Drucker, who not only delivered his usual sterling portraits of the cast but, almost unbelievably, caricatured those actors in full makeup so that you could actually recognize Roddy McDowall and Maurice Evans beneath their simian superstructures. But the real reason the story made my list is a personal one: I bought this issue the same weekend my best friend Don and I went to an all-night Planet of the Apes film festival at the long-since-demolished Auto-Vue Drive In, one of the craziest, most memorable weekends of my high school days. Cei-U! I summon the monkey madness! |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 16, 2018 11:48:20 GMT -5
#9 Worms of the Earthin Savage sword of Conan #16-17 Marvel comics, 1976  Worms of the Earth is one of Robert E. Howard’s most famous non-Conan stories. Set it Roman Britain, it is a tale of horror and revenge, and its adaptation by Roy Thomas, Barry Smith and Tim Conrad is, quite simply, a thing of beauty. I was a true Smith devotee in my youth and wanted nothing more than to draw like him. Here his work allies the excitement of American comics with the classicism of the old masters. Conrad (who drew most of the story) never misses a step as he goes from inker of the first chapter to full artist of the rest. Since his early style was heavily reminiscent of Smith’s, there is no sudden transition in the art and we are treated to a visual feast full of bogs and witches and creatures roaming subterranean domains, even as we hear the wind blowing on the heather. Lyrical and powerful, this is an adaptation that can not be topped, as far as I am concerned.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 16, 2018 11:54:56 GMT -5
My number 9 comes from Western/Dell and Alex Toth.....  Zorro was the hottest thing to hit tv, since some mother's exploding apple pie, in the 50s. Disney brought us Guy Williams, matching wits with the evil Capitan Monistarrio and the hapless Sgt Garcia, as well as a host of other schemers and criminals. Don Diego de la Vega crossed swords with many a blackguard; though, being television, he usually disarmed them. Dell had a lively business going, creating comics based on film, tv, cartoons and historical events. They hit the jackpot when they hired Alex Toth to do zorro.    Toth captured the likenesses, in his own style, and mirrored the plots of the series; but, man did he jazz it up. Western/Dell/Gold Key could be rather sedate in their adaptations; but, not Zorro. Toth was a life-long fan of swashbucklers and he knew his fencing techniques and his storytelling techniques. This series was a masterclass in sequential storytelling, which is why it has been reprinted on several occasions (that and continued interest in Zorro). Toth's Don Diego dances through panels and even conversations are lively and fun. If there was one comic for aspiring comic artists to study, it's this one. It shows you everything you need to know about graphic storytelling. It's also a damn good read. |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,197 
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Post by Confessor on Dec 16, 2018 12:12:22 GMT -5
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Tundra, 1992) Adapted by Bo Hampton  Published in 1992, Bo Hampton's adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a pretty faithful -- although somewhat abridged -- version of Washington Irving's classic American Revolution era ghost tale. I'm not gonna lie, my interest in Irving's story was initially sparked by the excellent Sleepy Hollow movie by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci. However, for all its excellence, that movie only takes the barest bones of Irving's story and then runs with them in a very different, although equally entertaining, direction. Hampton's graphic novel, on the other hand, sticks very closely to the original story and actually features an abridged version of Irving's text in the comic's narration boxes. Weirdly, there are no speech balloons anywhere in this adaptation, leaving Irving's prose and Hampton's sumptuous painted artwork to carrying the narrative. And make no mistake, this is a damn atmospheric re-telling of the story. Most of the ghostly atmosphere that the graphic novel imparts to the reader must be laid squarely at Hampton's door. His art is absolutely gorgeous and suceeds in transporting you right there to Tarrytown, New York (a.k.a. Sleepy Hollow), alongside lanky schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, as he courts the hand of Katrina Van Tassel, against the backdrop the town's ghostly, haunted atmosphere and the looming threat of a spectral headless horseman. This is a comic that is ideal for Halloween reading, but, really, if you settle down with this comic on any chilly winter's evening, it's sure to give you the heebie-jeebies. 
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 16, 2018 13:09:53 GMT -5
Like our pal Prince Hal, I too grew up in awe of the talents of caricaturust supreme Mort Drucker. There was a while there, circa 9th and 10th grade, when I wanted to *be* Mort Drucker. When I chose this year's topic, I knew I would be including one of his brilliant movie parodies on my roster. The only question was which one? Boney and Clod? The Poopsidedown Adventure? Then it hit me: there could be only one. 9. “The Milking of the Planet of the Apes,” MAD #157 There’s all kinds of good reasons to pick this one. It was a clever takedown of the whole PotA phenomenon satirizing all five movies in the series, capturing the essence of each individual film while poking holes in their absurdities. It was also a tour de force by the estimable Mr. Drucker, who not only delivered his usual sterling portraits of the cast but, almost unbelievably, caricatured those actors in full makeup so that you could actually recognize Roddy McDowall and Maurice Evans beneath their simian superstructures. But the real reason the story made my list is a personal one: I bought this issue the same weekend my best friend Don and I went to an all-night Planet of the Apes film festival at the long-since-demolished Auto-Vue Drive In, one of the craziest, most memorable weekends of my high school days. Cei-U! I summon the monkey madness! I truly think Mort Drucker is one of the top five artists of all time. A Mort Drucker STNG parody just missed my list. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 16, 2018 13:12:21 GMT -5
9. Savage Dragon 118-121
Publisher - Image
Year - 2004
Writer- Erik Larsen
Artists- Erik Larsen
 Erik Larsen has never shied away from sharing his political opinions in the pages of the books that he writes. In this 4 issue arc the hero Savage Dragon is put into the spotlight by a billionaire called Ronald Urass as a write in candidate for the 2004 election between George W Bush and John Carey. After being harrased by reporters about his sudden candidicy, he is contacted by President Bush and offered his Vacation home to rest and get away from the constant attention by the media. He is attacked at that home and goes to Washington afterwards to find out if Bush set him up. Long story short, it turns out to be an imposter posing as Bush , as the real one is being held by a terrorist group. Dragon rescues the real mccoy, but the twist for this arc is that , when the election results are revealed ,Dragon is elected as President as the write in candidate. 
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 16, 2018 15:04:57 GMT -5
#9 Worms of the Earthin Savage sword of Conan #16-17 Marvel comics, 1976 Worms of the Earth is one of Robert E. Howard’s most famous non-Conan stories. Set it Roman Britain, it is a tale of horror and revenge, and its adaptation by Roy Thomas, Barry Smith and Tim Conrad is, quite simply, a thing of beauty. I was a true Smith devotee in my youth and wanted nothing more than to draw like him. Here his work allies the excitement of American comics with the classicism of the old masters. Conrad (who drew most of the story) never misses a step as he goes from inker of the first chapter to full artist of the rest. Since his early style was heavily reminiscent of Smith’s, there is no sudden transition in the art and we are treated to a visual feast full of bogs and witches and creatures roaming subterranean domains, even as we hear the wind blowing on the heather. Lyrical and powerful, this is an adaptation that can not be topped, as far as I am concerned. Oh, I should have remembered this. I'm going to dig this out and rediscover it properly! |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 16, 2018 15:12:48 GMT -5
Marvel Premiere #33-34 ('The Mark of Kane,' adapting Robert E. Howard's "Red Shadows")Script by Roy Thomas, art by Howard Chaykin (Marvel, 1976-1977)  Not much I can say about this, except that it's a really nicely done adaptation of a classic Solomon Kane story. I've seen some occasional criticism of Chaykin's rendering of Kane as a rather flamboyantly dressed swashbuckler, rather than the ascetic Puritan envisioned by Howard, but I give it a pass because I'm just such a big fan of Chaykin's work. And I think this adaptation of "Red Shadows" is better than the one from the mid-1980s, even though the depiction of Kane there is more 'correct.' 
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 16, 2018 15:28:37 GMT -5
My number 9 comes from Western/Dell and Alex Toth..... Nice! Shoulda been on my list, totally forgot. |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,860
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Post by shaxper on Dec 16, 2018 15:29:11 GMT -5
9. Star Trek (Marvel)by Marv Wolfman, Mike W. Barr, Martin Pasko, Dave Cockrum, Luke McDonnell, Gene Day, and others (Marvel, 1980-1982) Star Trek is an over-explored franchise. Want the story of Captain Picard's first trip to the dentist? Chances are, someone has written it. And, let's be honest: the bulk of licensed Star Trek books and comics are forgettable or worse. But this little regarded volume, initially adapting the first motion picture – which was ambitious, odd, and had a totally different look and flavor than anything that came before or after it – is the only one to (ultimately) further explore that oft dismissed period in Trek history, before the better remembered films hit the screen and permanently changed the flavor of the series. Thus, this series is awkward, clumsy, and utterly different than any other licensed effort to tell a Trek story. It truly is a pioneer, out there on the (then) final frontier of what an ongoing, post-TV series Star Trek franchise should feel like. Add to that a constantly rotating creative team (often rotating right in the middle of an issue), and there's an even wilder, more unpredictable feel to the whole thing. No one really seemed to have a plan for what to do with this series, and I feel that made this voyage into the unknown all the more genuine and fun. More than anything else, it's a little more time spent in my favorite fictional universe, without adhering with slavish devotion to an existing interpretation of the franchise. Much like the far more successful Star Wars comic of this era, Marvel's Star Trek is the most free the franchise ever was to take new risks and charge forth in bold new directions. And it worked more often than it didn't. 
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2018 16:22:12 GMT -5
On the Fourth Day of Christmas, Santa brought unto me the holy spear once wielded by Longinus... Parsifal adapted by P. Craig Russell and Patrick C. Mason; Star* Reach; 1978 (originally serialized in Star *Reach #8 and #10 (1977)  Based on the second act of Wagner’s Parsifal, in turn based on the poem by Wolfram Eschenbach, in turn based on the grail romances by Chretien de Troyes  At university, I took a course on Myth, Saga and Romance in which I first read Eschenbach and Chretien de Troyes (and the Nibelungenlied to complete the Wagner/PCR connection), which is right around the time I got my first taste of operatic comics with the Thomas/Kane adaptation published by DC the same year. It was later I discovered PCR’s operatic adaptations, and his Ring cycle and Parsifal vie neck and neck for my favorite of these, and I knew the Ring was going to get some love here based on past experiences, so I chose Parsifal to make my final 12. I have always been fond of grail stories, and the Arthurian cycle in particular, but also of the Fisher King, and the spear of Longinus and the Wandering Jew myth are two of my favorite elements of folklore, and all of these are represented in Parsifal (though in this case the Wandering Jew elements are in the form of the witch Kundry). Mason’s adaptation is skillful and adept, and Russell is reaching the early part of the peak of his career, his illustrations, layouts and storytelling are superb, and he is just beginning to experiment with color in his overall artistic package, which brings another level of enjoyment to this work. -M |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,860
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Post by shaxper on Dec 16, 2018 17:06:24 GMT -5
On the Fourth Day of Christmas, Santa brought unto me the holy spear once wielded by Longinus... Parsifal adapted by P. Craig Russell and Patrick C. Mason; Star* Reach; 1978 (originally serialized in Star *Reach #8 and #10 (1977) Based on the second act of Wagner’s Parsifal, in turn based on the poem by Wolfram Eschenbach, in turn based on the grail romances by Chretien de Troyes At university, I took a course on Myth, Saga and Romance in which I first read Eschenbach and Chretien de Troyes (and the Nibelungenlied to complete the Wagner/PCR connection), which is right around the time I got my first taste of operatic comics with the Thomas/Kane adaptation published by DC the same year. It was later I discovered PCR’s operatic adaptations, and his Ring cycle and Parsifal vie neck and neck for my favorite of these, and I knew the Ring was going to get some love here based on past experiences, so I chose Parsifal to make my final 12. I have always been fond of grail stories, and the Arthurian cycle in particular, but also of the Fisher King, and the spear of Longinus and the Wandering Jew myth are two of my favorite elements of folklore, and all of these are represented in Parsifal (though in this case the Wandering Jew elements are in the form of the witch Kundry). Mason’s adaptation is skillful and adept, and Russell is reaching the early part of the peak of his career, his illustrations, layouts and storytelling are superb, and he is just beginning to experiment with color in his overall artistic package, which brings another level of enjoyment to this work. -M I...need...this!! |
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Post by Prince Hal on Dec 16, 2018 17:10:58 GMT -5
On the Fourth Day of Christmas, Santa brought unto me the holy spear once wielded by Longinus... Parsifal adapted by P. Craig Russell and Patrick C. Mason; Star* Reach; 1978 (originally serialized in Star *Reach #8 and #10 (1977) Based on the second act of Wagner’s Parsifal, in turn based on the poem by Wolfram Eschenbach, in turn based on the grail romances by Chretien de Troyes At university, I took a course on Myth, Saga and Romance in which I first read Eschenbach and Chretien de Troyes (and the Nibelungenlied to complete the Wagner/PCR connection), which is right around the time I got my first taste of operatic comics with the Thomas/Kane adaptation published by DC the same year. It was later I discovered PCR’s operatic adaptations, and his Ring cycle and Parsifal vie neck and neck for my favorite of these, and I knew the Ring was going to get some love here based on past experiences, so I chose Parsifal to make my final 12. I have always been fond of grail stories, and the Arthurian cycle in particular, but also of the Fisher King, and the spear of Longinus and the Wandering Jew myth are two of my favorite elements of folklore, and all of these are represented in Parsifal (though in this case the Wandering Jew elements are in the form of the witch Kundry). Mason’s adaptation is skillful and adept, and Russell is reaching the early part of the peak of his career, his illustrations, layouts and storytelling are superb, and he is just beginning to experiment with color in his overall artistic package, which brings another level of enjoyment to this work. -M This looks beautiful. NERD ALERT: I did a paper on the Fisher King for an Arthurian Lit class. I loved the story, and wrote about the possibility that the word "fisher" is a possible mistranslation for the French word for "sinner." All because of a missing accent circumflex.  |
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Post by MDG on Dec 16, 2018 17:22:00 GMT -5
9. The Rats in the Walls Richard Corben, Skull #5, Last Gasp, 1972 Issues 4 and 5 of the underground horror book Skull focused on H.P. Lovecraft adaptations and pastiches. And, as with a lot of the undergrounds, the results are… uneven. But Corben was usually the high point of any issue. Not part of the Cthulhu mythos, The Rats in the Walls shows Lovecraft’s preoccupation with man devolving back into more primitive forms (like The Lurking Fear, Arthur Jermyn). Corben effectively establishes the mood and growing desperation of the protagonist and, as usual, doesn’t shy away from the gore.  {More Art!}  .jpg) |
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Post by coke & comics on Dec 16, 2018 17:27:02 GMT -5
9. Queen of the Black Coast from Conan the Barbarianby Roy Thomas, John Buscema, and friends Marvel, 1976-79 When the topic was announced and I briefly doubted my ability to come up with a good list, I was quickly reassured that Conan counted and I had read well over a dozen good Conan stories. But this was not always the case. My introduction to Conan was Conan the Barbarian #136 by Bruce Jones and John Buscema. This would probably forever make Buscema's take on Conan definitive in my mind (apologies to BWS). And I loved it. It was a cool story with an odd twist. But I never pursued Conan further. I focused on the Marvel Universe, and around the age of 18 tried to carve out a realistic understanding of what it meant to collect the Marvel Universe, and decided the Howardverse would be too much to include. But then along came Dark Horse, reprinting old Marvel material. And now it was easy to get the issues I had chosen not to hunt for a decade earlier, and I devoured book after book of the Dark Horse reproductions. In some sense, I just want to vote for the entire Roy Thomas era I have now read in the lovely Dark Horse trades and enjoyed so thoroughly. But it seemed best to break up at least a little bit, as each artist deserves their due. So here's a vote for half of it instead. Buscema is my Conan artist, and the saga of Belit from their seductive meeting in issue 58 to her tragic end in issue 100 is what's most embedded in my mind about a generally great 100+ issues of comics. We'll talk about Conan again. 
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