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Post by tarkintino on Jun 12, 2020 11:37:34 GMT -5
I never figured out why the publishers jumped so heavily on Sword & Sorcery/adventure/barbarian series. Conan was a hit, but the character already had a following-didn't mean a lot of comic readers were clamoring for more of that stuff. I always think of this house ad; I think Warlord was the only series that lasted into double digits: This house ad brings back a wealth of great early 70s DC memories. Thanks for posting it.
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Post by MDG on Jun 12, 2020 11:47:25 GMT -5
I never figured out why the publishers jumped so heavily on Sword & Sorcery/adventure/barbarian series. Conan was a hit, but the character already had a following-didn't mean a lot of comic readers were clamoring for more of that stuff. I always think of this house ad; I think Warlord was the only series that lasted into double digits: Warlord had the benefit of a single steady creator who was a bit of a fan-favorite at the time. And it still struggled in its first year. Justice Inc., was the major odd man out in that group as it was not an S&S book and had the benefit of having been a pulp that had been brought back in a paperback series alongside Doc Savage in the 70s. They definitely went all-in on the S&S books and it didn't pay off. Yes, and a Justice Inc. book would have made more sense if there'd been a successful Doc Savage comic at the time (as pulps, I think they were written by the same "house" name, though not necessarily the same writers). I don't remember if The Shadow was still being published when this ad came out.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 12, 2020 12:09:04 GMT -5
Warlord had the benefit of a single steady creator who was a bit of a fan-favorite at the time. And it still struggled in its first year. Justice Inc., was the major odd man out in that group as it was not an S&S book and had the benefit of having been a pulp that had been brought back in a paperback series alongside Doc Savage in the 70s. They definitely went all-in on the S&S books and it didn't pay off. Yes, and a Justice Inc. book would have made more sense if there'd been a successful Doc Savage comic at the time (as pulps, I think they were written by the same "house" name, though not necessarily the same writers). I don't remember if The Shadow was still being published when this ad came out. The Shadow was still running but was on its last legs. Marvel's Doc Savage magazine was running but the regular comic had folded. Both Doc Savage and The Avenger used the house name of Kenneth Robeson but the writers were definitely different. Lester Dent wrote the vast majority of the Doc Savage pulp novels. Most of the Avenger pulps were written by Paul Ernst though he got a ton of advice from both Dent and Walter Gibson.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 22, 2020 14:49:06 GMT -5
Scene of the Crime 1-4 (story in Vertigo Winter's Edge). May - Aug. 1999. Writer: Ed Brubaker. Artists: Michael Lark & Sean Phillips. Brubaker and Lark (with Phillips joining on inks with issue #2) bring us a tight little mystery starring Jack Herriman. Herriman is a young P.I. whose father was a police detective. Herriman lost his eye in a bombing that killed his father when he was a young boy. After significant scrapes with the law and a drug problem, Jack has become a P.I. working out of an office in the Scene of the Crime Gallery owned by his Uncle Knut, a Weegee-like crime photographer. Jack is hired on a missing persons case that ultimately turns deadly and leads him to investigate a San Francisco sex cult with a long sordid history of crimes of the worst kind. Along the way Brubaker and Lark build up enough background on Jack and the supporting cast to keep us interested in more than just the underlying mystery. Brubaker is one of my favorite current comic book writers and one who I will follow to almost anything he writes. Lark is one of the best current artists with a pleasantly retro style that still manages to be nicely modern. Phillips, who has gone on to do extensive work with Brubaker, is another of my current favorite artists. The mystery is decent if a bit predictable. Brubaker and Phillips will go on to do much better work. What really sells the book are the characters and the small moments that keep it moving forward. They also do a great job of showing the not so glamorous side of P.I. work and that Jack isn't necessarily on top of everything all the time. So was it gone too soon? Well this one is different than previous entries because it was a completed mini-series and we weren't promised more. But it's my thread, dammit, and I'll make the rules up as I go along. And we did get a nice short story in Vertigo Winter's Edge #2. So the answer is, yes, it was gone too soon. For all that Criminal and The Fade Out cover some of the same ground that Scene of the Crime covered, I would love to see some more cases with Jack Herriman. Particularly since Brubaker is more accomplished at noir writing twenty-one years on and I'd love to see Lark return to a pure noir book.
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Post by hondobrode on Jun 22, 2020 16:42:33 GMT -5
My favorite version of the JSA ever, put to death because then-EIC Mike Carlin hated them and ordered them killed during Zero Hour. Stupid and senseless, Cei-U! I summon the unforgiveable sin! Mike Carlin was never E-i-C just sayin
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 20, 2020 15:42:39 GMT -5
The Scorpion 1-3 Feb. - July 1975. Writer: Howard Chaykin. Art: Howard Chaykin (with a lot of assistance on #2). Issue 3 by Gabriel Levy & Jim Craig. This one will be fairly quick because codystarbuck covered it and Atlas/Seaboard at length in his The Other Guys thread. Needless to say, Atlas came out of the gates with a pretty diverse line of comics that should have had something for everyone. I've not made it any secret that I'm a fan of the pulps. And this is Chaykin channeling those pulp sensibilities. Moro Frost, aka The Scorpion, is a freelance adventurer and, maybe, eternal champion. The book is set in a 1930s straight out of The Shadow and Doc Savage. In issue #1 The Scorpion is hired to find out who is sabotaging Empire State Airlines, which gives Chaykin an excuse to draw vintage aircraft, vintage motorcycles and damsels in distress. The second issue appeared to find Chaykin in a time crunch and he got assistance from a number of people to finish the issue, including Berni Wrightson, Mike Kaluta and Walt Simonson. Great names, but the result does look a bit like a hodgepodge (Wrightson's work really sticks out). The story isn't quite as strong either, deviating into a paranormal area with zombies, voodoo practioners and mystical transformations. Still it was a decent story and the book wasn't yet grounded enough that the mystical happenings seemed out of place. What we have is a pulp hero who is in business and isn't going to let sentimentality get in the way of it. The Atlas line was a failed experiment and Chaykin left after issue two. In Back Issue #26 Chaykin indicated that he left because he was behind and couldn't keep up with the schedule. He also indicated that Alex Toth was supposed to have come in and taken over and that story was later published as The Vanguard. What we ultimately got in issue #3 was a very bad Spider-Man clone by Gabriel Levy, who appears to have worked almost exclusively during the death throws of Atlas and Jim Craig. Now let us never speak of it again. So was it gone too soon? Yes. No. And it kind of wasn't. How is that for equivocation? Had Chaykin had the time to devote to the book and had Atlas survived, this was a book I'd have loved. And it was very well done. Unfortunately the pulp revival of the 70s didn't really set the world on fire (The Shadow, Doc Savage, Justice, Inc.). So the Chaykin iteration of the book was gone far too soon for me. On the other hand the third issue is an abomination that should have been killed in its cradle and had its ashes scattered to the four winds. Ultimately the book was reincarnated by Chaykin as Dominic Fortune. And that feature has, unfortunately never had a long shelf-life either. But we can have Wolverine appearing in a dozen books a month. Why can't we have nice things?
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 20, 2020 21:20:36 GMT -5
Yeah, Scorpion was a great idea; but, I think Dominic Fortune was the better strip. Chaykin was helped out on the writing, there, with Denny O'Neil.
Most of the Atlas line got revamped by the 3rd issue (if there was one) as Martin Goodman reneged on his promises. That company was backward from day one. Jeff Rovin, who had worked for Warren, was put in charge of the color comics, while Larry Lieber was put in charge of the black & white magazines.
The only revamp I actually kind of liked was Phoenix, as he became the Protector, though it was a Green Lantern rip-off (which was a Lensman rip-off). The early biblical allusions were interesting; but very up and down.
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Post by dbutler69 on Oct 21, 2020 9:35:22 GMT -5
Well, I read just one issue of Dominic Fortune in Marvel Premiere #56 and I thought it was very good. Plot by Len Wein & Chaykin with script by Dave Michelinie, layouts by Chaykin with Terry Austin finishes.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 21, 2020 12:21:23 GMT -5
Well, I read just one issue of Dominic Fortune in Marvel Premiere #56 and I thought it was very good. Plot by Len Wein & Chaykin with script by Dave Michelinie, layouts by Chaykin with Terry Austin finishes. That one is good (an unused plot from what was supposed to be Marvel Super Adventure #2); but the really great stories (aside from the first one) were in Rampaging Hulk. There's one with an ersatz Shadow, on a dirigible, at Christmas. Those stories are also where you find out that Dominic Fortune is actually Davey Fortunoff, as he and Sabbath go back to the old neighborhood.
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Post by dbutler69 on Oct 21, 2020 14:26:49 GMT -5
Well, I read just one issue of Dominic Fortune in Marvel Premiere #56 and I thought it was very good. Plot by Len Wein & Chaykin with script by Dave Michelinie, layouts by Chaykin with Terry Austin finishes. That one is good (an unused plot from what was supposed to be Marvel Super Adventure #2); but the really great stories (aside from the first one) were in Rampaging Hulk. There's one with an ersatz Shadow, on a dirigible, at Christmas. Those stories are also where you find out that Dominic Fortune is actually Davey Fortunoff, as he and Sabbath go back to the old neighborhood. Other than a couple of issues of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, I've never read a black & white magazine. I guess I'll have to rectify that oversight some day.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 21, 2020 16:46:08 GMT -5
That one is good (an unused plot from what was supposed to be Marvel Super Adventure #2); but the really great stories (aside from the first one) were in Rampaging Hulk. There's one with an ersatz Shadow, on a dirigible, at Christmas. Those stories are also where you find out that Dominic Fortune is actually Davey Fortunoff, as he and Sabbath go back to the old neighborhood. Other than a couple of issues of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, I've never read a black & white magazine. I guess I'll have to rectify that oversight some day. By that point (thanks to the tv show) the Hulk magazine was full color, as are the Dominic Fortune stories in the back half; at least, through Issue 23. Issues 24-26 had black & white Huulk stories, but Dominic Fortune continued in color, as Chakin had colored them, as well (I think he painted over his drawing, based on the look).
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 22, 2021 17:25:28 GMT -5
Chase 1-9 & 1,000,000. Feb - Nov. 1998. Writer: D. Curtis Johnson. Artists: J. H. Williams III & Mick Gray. Former P.I. Cameron Chase starts a new job with the Department of Extranormal Operations. Her assignments include monitoring and neutralizing super-powered individuals who are a threat to the public. It's also clear to the reader, but not to Ms. Chase that she herself has super-powers that dampen the talents of other metahumans. She also has a background that makes her very distrustful of anyone in a costume, no matter what side of the law they profess to be on. Over the course of the nine actual issues (and the guest appearance in Detective that introduced her) Chase met up with or had adventures with the likes of Green Lantern, Firehawk, The Suicide Squad, The Rocket Reds, an iteration of the Teen Titans, Klarion the Witch Boy, the JSA (kind of), and, of course, Batman. All while slowly delving in to her background and bringing her to the realization of her meta-abilities. And never downplaying her abilities as a detective and her disdain for supers. D. Curtis Johnson is primarily a computer programmer who did a handful of comics in late 90s/early 00s. J.H. Williams III was pretty new at this point but would go on to greater fame for doing Promethea, Sandman: Overtures and Batwoman. For relative novices they did a great job here. Williams, in particular, shows consistent growth. So was it gone too soon? Oh absolutely! This is the kind of deep dive title that actually makes a shared universe fun. It's an excuse to bring in the obscure and forgotten while having a valid excuse (more than sales) to bring out better known characters now and then. And the creators were well up to the job, giving us an interesting hard-boiled protagonist, with some supporting characters that showed growth potential and a premise that makes sense in a super-hero universe. Unfortunately it's also the kind of book that's seldom going to generate a lot of sales.
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Post by DubipR on Aug 24, 2021 7:01:39 GMT -5
I loved Chase so much. I like that she's still around in the DCU.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 23, 2022 18:49:13 GMT -5
El Diablo 1-16. Aug. '89- Jan. 1991. Writer: Gerard Jones. Penciler: Mike Parobeck Rafael Sandoval is a new City Councilman in the small city of Dos Rios, Texas, which appears to be on the Texas-Mexican border. Having been elected to the city council after being a public defender he is beholden to the current mayor and head of the local Democratic machine Tommy Longstreet. Sandoval grew up on the streets of Dos Rios and was headed to gangs and a life of crime before he was saved (at least in part) by Father Guzman, who also taught him how to box. Finding that even from within the halls of power he can't make enough of a difference Sandoval has taken to fighting crime as El Diablo. During the course of the series he gets help from a group of late high school students who call themselves Los Diablos. While it's set in the DCU, El Diablo very much lives in its own corner. El Diablo is fighting local problems of drug dealers, small crime, child abuse, white supremist's etc. At the same time Rafael Sandoval is trying to ensure that his long ignored constituency has a voice and a place at the table while still recognizing that one man alone can't change a system that's been the way it has for over a century. When all is said and done he cares about his town, his people and what he's trying to do. So was it gone too soon? While it lasted longer than any of the other books I've looked at so far...Hell yeah. Again, this was something different. Which is probably why I liked it and why it didn't sell. There was a lot of politics in this book. And zero world-shattering fights against super-villains. It was a small book, but it may have, ultimately dealt with the biggest stakes of all, peoples lives. Leaving aside Gerard Jones' problems (and they were massive), he was a good comic book writer and this was a well-written book with a lot of very well done supporting characters. Mike Parobeck was a damn treasure who left us far to soon. I genuinely liked a lot of the characters in this book and genuinely disliked a lot of the antagonists. And it probably didn't hurt that I had a crush on Yolanda Ybarra.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 24, 2022 6:08:53 GMT -5
El Diablo 1-16. Aug. '89- Jan. 1991. Writer: Gerard Jones. Penciler: Mike Parobeck (...) I've been interested in reading this series ever since I first heard about it (in one of Greg Hatcher's old columns for CSBG). It's too bad it'll probably never get a collected edition. The way you describe it here makes it sound a bit like another 'gone too soon' series that I liked, Ragman.
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