|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Jan 14, 2024 22:30:04 GMT -5
I remember a podcaster saying that Perez never achieved success with any of his creator owned properties. Some guys are better just doing existing characters. However, Perez created or co-created several successful characters for DC and Marvel, under work-for-hire; so, he was more than capable of creating new characters. The difference is, he didn't necessarily hold back the great ones, for himself or there wasn't a strong independent market, at the time (like when he co-created Raven, Cyborg and Starfire, as well as Deathstroke, or Taskmaster, at Marvel). Perez didn't branch out into creator-owned material until much later, partially because he was quite well compensated without ownership, thanks to royalties and was in there, on the ground floor, for the better royalty deals, at DC, which included rights for use in other media. |
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Jan 14, 2024 22:54:47 GMT -5
I met Peter David, at a Gencon, after the first couple of issues had been published, but before the series was finished (I think they were late with it, by that point). I asked David about who came up with some of the easter eggs and stuff in a few scenes and he was rather vague, as I recognized a few names and was curious as to who was contributing which ideas, to figure out who had the more "interesting" interests. No idea about Peter David; but, I came to figure out and learn that Perez definitely had to have come up with a few specifics, like the image of Franco Saudelli's The Blonde, on a background wall, behind the bound secretary for a skin magazine photographer, where JJ Sachs follows up a lead. The secretary is pretty much an homage to Saudelli's work, let alone the Blonde cameo, in a photo on the wall, behind her.
The problem with the series is that it isn't light enough to be fun, like The Blonde, or some of Eric Stanton's stuff (like The Kinky Hook or Sweeter Gwen), or as gripping as crime drama, like Ms Tree or a Spillane novel. Perez was better suited to the lighter end of things and David wasn't exactly a master of hard boiled crime fiction.
I think the difference between Chaykin and a lot of his contemporaries, who tried to do "Adult" material was that Chaykin was less inhibited and probably had fewer hang-ups about his interests. He also had a sense of humor about it, like in American Century, where the main character is involved with a woman who works for a cheesecake/fetish photographer outfit, inspired by Irving Klaw and Bettie Page. There is a page where you see them shooting some bondage-themed photos and the bound model has thought balloons about a mundane activity, like shopping. Also, the focus of the storyline isn't on the photography sessions, but about the characters involved with the operation, particularly a woman who is a secretary or something similar, not a model.
It's kind of like reading a comic and being able to tell if the writer and/or artist has ever been in a fight, buy how they depict one (same for a pro wrestler, as ones who never have aren't always good at faking one convincingly).
|
|
|
|
Post by commond on Jan 21, 2024 3:37:45 GMT -5
Punisher #35-40 (1990)
I've been slowly making my way through Mike Baron's Punisher run, mainly because I'm interested in Baron's non-Nexus work, but also in the hopes that it might be as good as his Flash run. It's nowhere near as good as the Flash run. In fact, it's mostly trash, but it does offer up some B film fun at times like this doozy. This storyline ridiculous.
It's a six-part bi-weekly storyline titled Jigsaw Puzzle that sees the return of one of the few reoccurring villains from the Baron run, Jigsaw. Jigsaw is working with a mysterious figure named The Reverend, who the Punisher has crossed paths with before. The first time Frank met the Rev he was convinced he was an agent of God. This time, he's decided that his true master is Satan and that his mission is to eliminate the majority of the world's population and start civilization again from a small group of followers. I guess he's meant to be the Punisher's version of Ra's al Ghul. That's not the ridiculous part, however. The Reverend has mystic healing powers (it's implied throughout that he's a mutant), and has promised Jigsaw that he'll heal his face if he does his bidding. This leads to a motif where characters keep getting facial injuries. Jigsaw mutilates Frank's face to the point where Frank is on death's door, but a local indigenous character rescues Frank and stiches up his face with dental floss. There's even a local tour guide who gets involved and spends an inordinate amount of time fretting over a cut to her face that she fears will ruin her good looks. Frank ends up sleeping with her halfway through the story. The Rev ends up healing Jigsaw's face, then Frank shows up and shoots Jigsaw dead. Wait, it gets better! That forces the Reverend to conjure up Satan, who turns out to be Belasco pretending to be Satan. Belasco helps the Rev resurrect Jigsaw from the dead. Frank chases Jigsaw through the jungle and ends up cutting his face to shreds on some brambles. Then he negotiates with the Rev to have his face healed. The Rev is free to go, but can't resist turning his helicopter around to fire on the Punisher and Frank blows up his copter. By this stage, Belasco has peaced out.
I can only imagine that this story was down partially tongue-in-cheek. Baron ended up apologizing for the storyline in the letters page. It was hot on the heels of the Punisher squaring off against Doctor Doom during the Acts of Vengeance and fans were not happy with the direction the book was taking. I didn't even mention the whackier parts of the story like the Punisher having a van that turns into an airplane which he flies to Venezula, or the fact that he's suddenly into reading Wilhelm Reich and quoting Simon and Garfunkel.
Because it's a bi-weekly storyline one artist can't keep up with the deadlines, so they use Baron's old Badger collaborator, Bill Reinhold, a young Mark Texeira, and some guy I've never heard of called Jack Slamm. I'm wondering if that's a pen name. Reinhold is the best penciler the Punisher has had to date in a series that has had surprisingly weak artwork and Texeira's work has a certain rawness to it, but the Slamm issue... the art isn't bad, but for some reason he turns Jigsaw into an overweight, middle-aged creep when the other two have been penciling him as completely ripped.
Belasco was supposed to be Mephisto and solicited as such in Marvel Age, but I guess he was taken or something.
The best part in the entire storyline is when Frank is about to mess up Jigsaw's face again and says, "Say hello to your old face."
|
|
|
|
Post by zaku on Jan 21, 2024 4:56:12 GMT -5
Punisher #35-40 (1990)[...]Baron ended up apologizing for the storyline in the letters page. [...] Yes, I remember this. Yet the Punisher lives in the Marvel Universe, where risking death from being hit by a car has the same chances of being vaporized by aliens or crushed by Frost Giants. Either you make him live in his own continuity (like the Max series) that is relatively "realistic", or you make him interact with the rest of the MU (as they did in the more recent series). The strange hybrid of his continuity in the late 80s / early 90s not had the courage to take either path. |
|
|
|
Post by commond on Jan 21, 2024 5:33:58 GMT -5
Punisher #35-40 (1990)[...]Baron ended up apologizing for the storyline in the letters page. [...] Yes, I remember this. Yet the Punisher lives in the Marvel Universe, where risking death from being hit by a car has the same chances of being vaporized by aliens or crushed by Frost Giants. Either you make him live in his own continuity (like the Max series) that is relatively "realistic", or you make him interact with the rest of the MU (as they did in the more recent series). The strange hybrid of his continuity in the late 80s / early 90s not had the courage to take either path. It was definitely odd. Baron occasionally used established characters such as the early crossover with Daredevil and the Kingpin storyline. There was a two-part story sandwiched between the Doc Doom issues and the bi-weekly story where Frank battled Donald Pierce's Reavers, but largely Baron was intent on operating outside of Marvel continuity. Even stranger, to me, was the difference in characterization between Baron's Punisher and Carl Potts' Punisher in the pages of Punisher War Journal. This is particularly evident in the way Frank treats Microchip. In Baron's book, Frank constantly belittles Microchip and doesn't give a crap when his son is killed. There's an issue where Microchip's lowlife brother-in-law is killed in the crossfire and Frank can't understand why Microchip is upset since Frank would have had to have killed him anyway. At the same time, he cracks jokes and sleeps with women. Potts' Punisher is far more introspective and much more sympathetic to Microchip. |
|
|
|
Post by zaku on Jan 21, 2024 5:56:43 GMT -5
Yes, I remember this. Yet the Punisher lives in the Marvel Universe, where risking death from being hit by a car has the same chances of being vaporized by aliens or crushed by Frost Giants. Either you make him live in his own continuity (like the Max series) that is relatively "realistic", or you make him interact with the rest of the MU (as they did in the more recent series). The strange hybrid of his continuity in the late 80s / early 90s not had the courage to take either path. It was definitely odd. Baron occasionally used established characters such as the early crossover with Daredevil and the Kingpin storyline. There was a two-part story sandwiched between the Doc Doom issues and the bi-weekly story where Frank battled Donald Pierce's Reavers, but largely Baron was intent on operating outside of Marvel continuity. I wonder if it was his choice or an editorial mandate. I imagine there were a lot of Punisher readers who had never read a superhero comic in their life. On the other hand, it would also be pointless to have the Punisher kill super-villains because 1) they never remain dead. Never. 2) readers of, I don't know, Spider-Man would have rightly been annoyed if Shocker had been killed by the Punisher. |
|
|
|
Post by commond on Jan 21, 2024 6:09:06 GMT -5
It was definitely odd. Baron occasionally used established characters such as the early crossover with Daredevil and the Kingpin storyline. There was a two-part story sandwiched between the Doc Doom issues and the bi-weekly story where Frank battled Donald Pierce's Reavers, but largely Baron was intent on operating outside of Marvel continuity. I wonder if it was his choice or an editorial mandate. I imagine there were a lot of Punisher readers who had never read a superhero comic in their life. On the other hand, it would also be pointless to have the Punisher kill super-villains because 1) they never remain dead. Never. 2) readers of, I don't know, Spider-Man would have rightly been annoyed if Shocker had been killed by the Punisher. I'm inclined to think it was a Baron thing as he had fairly "out there" ideas on his Flash run. Honestly, I don't understand the Punisher book. Apparently, it was selling hot cakes yet there wasn't a regular artist on the book half the time and they let all sorts of newcomers cut their teeth on the book. Can anyone else think of a book where you'd get ugly Klaus Jansen art one minute, early Whilce Portacio art the next, then issues with huge Erik Larsen hair followed by fill-ins by Russ Heath. It was bizarre. It was almost as though it didn't matter what was between the pages the character was simply that hot. Personally, I think Punisher should be a street level character and deal with street level threats. The Doom stuff was a company mandate, the Reavers story I didn't mind, and the Belasco thing was so weird that it was never less than entertaining, but in general I think the Punisher should mostly be involved in his war against organized crime. Maybe a writer like Mark Waid could broaden the dimensions like he did with Daredevil, but I'd be on the fence about it until he won me over. That said, there are a lot of street level villains with powers in the Marvel universe. |
|
|
|
Post by commond on Jan 23, 2024 19:11:05 GMT -5
The Transmutation of Ike Garuda #1-2 (1991-1992)
This was a two-part prestige format series written by Elaine Lee with art by James Sherman. Lee had created Starstruck in the early 80s, her own original off-Broadway play that she adapted into a comic with Michael Kaluta. It was originally serialized in the States in the pages of Heavy Metal magazine and then collected into a graphic novel by Epic in 1985.
Ike Garuda is a sci-fi noir that borrows some elements of Philip K. Dick and/or Blade Runner. I'm not the biggest sci-fi fan in the world, and I freely admit that I had to read the second issue twice to better understand the story because of the number of characters involved, the confusion over double identities and erased memories and the sheer amount of exposition involved. However, I imagine that a more astute reader would revel in the plot. The art was cool. Sherman is best known for taking over from Mike Grell as the regular penciler on Legion of Super-Heroes. I'm not sure how his work here compares to his regular DC and Marvel work, but he appeared to bring a European sci-fi aesthetic to his work while resembling Gulacy at times. It was nice work.
Certainly a cut above the average Marvel comic being released at the time.
|
|
|
|
Post by chaykinstevens on Jan 24, 2024 3:15:47 GMT -5
The Transmutation of Ike Garuda #1-2 (1991-1992)
This was a two-part prestige format series written by Elaine Lee with art by James Sherman. I think it was stapled not squarebound, and cost a dollar less than a prestige format comic. |
|
|
|
Post by commond on Feb 4, 2024 19:39:34 GMT -5
Daredevil #284-291 (1990-1991)
This was Ann Nocenti's final stretch on Daredevil after Romita Jr left to do Man Without Fear with Frank Miller. As a kid, I dropped Daredevil as soon as JRJR left. I was fiercely loyal to artists at the time, to the extent that I wouldn't buy fill-in issues drawn by someone else. I quite like Lee Weeks, however, and Al Williamson sticks around for a while to give the book a similar look to the JRJR issues. Romita Jr was supposed to return to the book as soon as he was done with Man Without Fear, but the project took longer than expected and ballooned from a graphic novel into a limited series and JRJR never returned to the ongoing title.
Nocenti pens one final lengthy storyline about Matt returning to New York City after being in Hell and then a single-issue story that wraps up her run and puts the toys back in the box in typical Marvel fashion. The stories aren't the weirdest thing Nocenti ever wrote, not even within the pages of Daredevil, but they did make me wonder how the hell I got into this stuff as a kid as these comics are clearly not written for children. They're written for adults and direct market readers. Either I was a weird kid or I was blinded by the costumes. It's not just this book, either. I feel the same way when I read Baron's Punisher or Claremont's X-Men. Nocenti fell into comics backwards through a job advertisement in the Village Vanguard. She was notorious for cramming her political views into the comics she wrote. That never bothered me, but she had this weird habit of using odd characters as her mouthpiece like the children in her final issue who deliver a damning indictment of US involvement in the Gulf War. For the most part, the stories being weird meant they were interesting and it's better to be interesting than mediocre. I don't think other readers would be quite as generous, but reading this stuff felt like putting on an old familiar glove.
I'll probably continue reading through to issue 300 to see how the book changes in tone and how Weeks gets on with the art.
|
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 4, 2024 20:27:47 GMT -5
I loved Nocenti's work on Daredevil. It's true that she wasn't shy about pushing her political views, but I thought she managed to do it without depicting the other side in an overly negative light. (Bad guys were bad guys, for sure, but that wasn't because of their political bias). She even poked fun at people on her side of the aisle. You're absolutely correct, commond, that run was not aimed at kids -even though kids could enjoy it thanks to the action and the drama. Could anyone but Nocenti have managed to do a "Daredevil vs Ultron" story and make it not only work, but be a moving story about identity? Probably, but they would be on a very short list. |
|
|
|
Post by commond on Feb 5, 2024 18:42:18 GMT -5
I'm a fan of the Nocenti run too, but it's an acquired taste, and it helps if you were onboard at the time.
|
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 6, 2024 4:27:59 GMT -5
You guys might be interested in a recent interview with Ann Nocenti released by the Dollar Bin Bandits:
|
|
|
|
Post by commond on Feb 13, 2024 18:50:36 GMT -5
Daredevil #292-300 (1991)
D. G. Chichester took over as the writer of Daredevil with issue #292 and Lee Weeks and Al Williamson remained as the art team until issue #300. Chichester had been an editor at Epic and done some writing there leaving Epic in 1989 to become a freelancer. He took over from Bob Harras on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1990 and got the Daredevil gig in '91.
Chichester immediately moves the book in a different direction from Nocenti, but unlike modern comics where creative teams often wipe the slate clean and ignore the work previous creators had done, Chichester follows the continuity that Nocenti established and takes time to write her characters out of the book. The early issues aren't that special, and feature guest appearances by who else but the Punisher and Ghost Rider, but the intrigue builds as Chichester gears up towards his Last Rites storyline, which is a sequel of sorts to Born Again only in reverse as Matt sets about destroying the Kingpin's life. It had been five years since the Born Again storyline, and I imagine that Chichester felt as the fallout from Born Again had never been properly addressed. Last Rites isn't as good as Born Again, naturally, otherwise it would be more highly regarded, but it's an engrossing story and should have been on my pull list all those years ago. Matt does some questionable things in his pursuit to bring the Kingpin down, most notably seducing Typhoid Mary and sleeping with her so that she reverts to her Mary persona, then setting her up to committed to a mental institution. That's cold. Issue #300 is a great Kingpin story and lays the groundwork for some of the latter depictions of their relationship.
The artwork is fantastic, especially when Al Williamson returns as the inker on the book. Weeks never had another run on a book after this. I guess he didn't enjoy the monthly grind. That's a shame as he was one of the better Marvel artists at this time. I believe he wound up working on the Superman animated show while doing smaller comic book projects.
As much as I enjoyed the Chichester/Weeks run, I think I'll slam on the breaks as I don't know if I want to go down the Fall from Grace road. I definitely think the Weeks run are issues that I should have bought at the time and the Last Rites story should have been on my radar as a Marvel guy.
|
|
|
|
Post by commond on Mar 3, 2024 2:20:48 GMT -5
Blueberry 1: Chihuahua Pearl and Blueberry 2: A Ballad for a Coffin (1989)
This was my first serious look at Jean-Michel Charlier and Jean Giraud's Blueberry comics. Suffice to say, they're some of the best comics that Marvel were publishing at the time. Not that they can stake much of a claim to French comic books from the 70s, but they deserve credit for introducing them to the American market and by proxy the English speaking comic book world.
The stories aren't as grim as I was expecting. I thought they would be more in line with the spaghetti westerns of the era. That said, they're not really in line with the Western pulp magazines either. Blueberry is an atypical Western hero, just not a Clint Eastwood or Franco Nero type. Apparently, he was based on the French actor, Jean-Paul Belmondo, of Breathless fame.
The art is much different from other Moebius that I've read. In fact, at this stage I believe he hadn't dreamed up his Moebius alter-ego yet. His work on Blueberry was staunchly realistic, which is a fascinating contrast to his sci-fi and fantasy work. It's impressive that the same artist could produce such vastly different work.
I read these books on Sunday afternoons, which felt like catching an old Western on the television. Comfort reading if ever there was some. Definitely interested in reading the further adventures of Lieutenant Blueberry.
|
|
