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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 27, 2024 18:43:46 GMT -5
The Lansdale/Truman Hex is outstanding. And just what the character needed to breathe some life back into him. And it’s not really that far from the traditional Hex.
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Post by berkley on Jul 27, 2024 19:16:04 GMT -5
DC Direct Currents #65 (August cover date, 1993)The regular cover this month is yet another attempt to do something with Catwoman, this time based on her appearances in Batman Returns, Batman: The Animated Series, and Showcase '93. This series is written by Marvel's Jo Duffy with art by Jim Balent of Vampirella fame. There's a Batman: Sword of Azrael trade paperback available, and probably the coolest book DC released this month, the long awaited Batman vs. Grendel series! The blurb is far too short and the coloring makes the art look like shit, but I was all over those when they came out. There's some crossover between the "space" books, Green Lantern, L.E.G.I.O.N '93 and The Darkstars, and The New Titans reaches its 100th issue to little to no fanfare. Mark Waid brings us a Metamorpho miniseries, and there's another Ragman miniseries with Joe Kubert doing the covers. On the flipside, Vertigo brings us Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo. I'm a diehard Fleisher Jonah fan, and I don't consider the Vertigo Jonah to be "my" Jonah, but I do respect the fact that they brought Jonah back. Plus Truman's art is always a treat. Vertigo also bring us The Vertigo Jam featuring short stories featuring the stars of each ongoing title. There's also news about the new "The Face" arc in Sandman Mystery Theatre. Looking through the solicitations, Russ Heath is doing a Legends of the Dark Knight story. I'm always curious when older Silver Age greats do work like this. Collen Doran is penciling Eclipso, which continues the odd run of artists on that book. Guy Gardner is doing a Year One story. Spare us.
I'm definitely curious about the Russ Heath Dark KNight story, or anything drawn by Heath really.
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Post by DubipR on Jul 28, 2024 14:23:01 GMT -5
DC Direct Currents #65 (August cover date, 1993)The regular cover this month is yet another attempt to do something with Catwoman, this time based on her appearances in Batman Returns, Batman: The Animated Series, and Showcase '93. This series is written by Marvel's Jo Duffy with art by Jim Balent of Vampirella fame. There's a Batman: Sword of Azrael trade paperback available, and probably the coolest book DC released this month, the long awaited Batman vs. Grendel series! The blurb is far too short and the coloring makes the art look like shit, but I was all over those when they came out. There's some crossover between the "space" books, Green Lantern, L.E.G.I.O.N '93 and The Darkstars, and The New Titans reaches its 100th issue to little to no fanfare. Mark Waid brings us a Metamorpho miniseries, and there's another Ragman miniseries with Joe Kubert doing the covers. On the flipside, Vertigo brings us Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo. I'm a diehard Fleisher Jonah fan, and I don't consider the Vertigo Jonah to be "my" Jonah, but I do respect the fact that they brought Jonah back. Plus Truman's art is always a treat. Vertigo also bring us The Vertigo Jam featuring short stories featuring the stars of each ongoing title. There's also news about the new "The Face" arc in Sandman Mystery Theatre. Looking through the solicitations, Russ Heath is doing a Legends of the Dark Knight story. I'm always curious when older Silver Age greats do work like this. Collen Doran is penciling Eclipso, which continues the odd run of artists on that book. Guy Gardner is doing a Year One story. Spare us. 1. I really liked Jo Duffy's Catwoman that lead into Chuck Dixon taking over and really took another counter-Bat title into overdrive. Balent's art did help, I will admit that for a teenage DubipR. I still like that run quite a bit. 2. Batman/Grendel.. I remember when this was announced and then solicited. Still a favorite Bat book of mine. 3. Lansdale and Truman's Hex Two Gun Mojo was, like Slam said, a great introduction to a new genreation of western fans. I've always enjoyed Lansdale since I read Dead in the West back as a teenager. It was a weird acid western like book, like a bit of Lansdale's writing so it fit. The other two series that followed were entertaining as hec too. 4. I don't remember Russ Heath doing a Batman story. Wish I had this when I met him and did work with him before his passing. |
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Post by commond on Jul 28, 2024 16:32:39 GMT -5
DC Direct Currents #66 (September cover date, 1993)  This month sees the debut of the new Hawkman series. Being the unobservant sob that I am, I failed to realize the Hawkworld series had been cancelled six months prior. I went back and checked the solicitation for the final issue and they actually tell readers to be on the look out for this new Hawkman series. It ran for about three years, which is roughly the same amount of time that Hawkworld lasted. Even integrating the character into the DC Universe didn't seem to help. Legends of the Dark Knight gets a nice piece of press for its 50th issue. I love that cover by Brian Bolland. The Golden Age is released this month. I know that's a book that has a lot of fans on the CCF. It's amusing to me that twice they mentioned a gold foil logo on the cover of each issue. That actually makes three for three on special covers so far. Flash #80 has a new art time, and a foil enhanced cover! After all that foil, it's amusing that the last preview is for the Lobo Convention Special where Lobo hits the convention circuit to find a bagged copy of Superman #75 because he laughed so hard reading his first copy that he tore it in half. On the Vertigo side, a second wave begins with a Black Orchid ongoing title that will become another of the early cancellations. Meanwhile, Peter Milligan and Ted McKeever hook up for a book so twisted that it requires a special warning about its content. Milligan sure was busy in the early Vertigo days with three books out in the same month. The solicitations feature a ton of artwork. The Kaluta Spectre cover is amazing. That series had great covers. Mike Carlin does this annoying gimmick where he has a memo slapped over the top of the Superman art. Alan Grant does his last issue of The Demon, which may not mean much to a lot of folks, but if you read Direct Currents, you know. Also nearing the end of a long run is Mike Grell.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 28, 2024 20:12:52 GMT -5
DC Direct Currents #66 (September cover date, 1993)This month sees the debut of the new Hawkman series. Being the unobservant sob that I am, I failed to realize the Hawkworld series had been cancelled six months prior. I went back and checked the solicitation for the final issue and they actually tell readers to be on the look out for this new Hawkman series. It ran for about three years, which is roughly the same amount of time that Hawkworld lasted. Even integrating the character into the DC Universe didn't seem to help. Legends of the Dark Knight gets a nice piece of press for its 50th issue. I love that cover by Brian Bolland. The Golden Age is released this month. I know that's a book that has a lot of fans on the CCF. It's amusing to me that twice they mentioned a gold foil logo on the cover of each issue. That actually makes three for three on special covers so far. Flash #80 has a new art time, and a foil enhanced cover! After all that foil, it's amusing that the last preview is for the Lobo Convention Special where Lobo hits the convention circuit to find a bagged copy of Superman #75 because he laughed so hard reading his first copy that he tore it in half. On the Vertigo side, a second wave begins with a Black Orchid ongoing title that will become another of the early cancellations. Meanwhile, Peter Milligan and Ted McKeever hook up for a book so twisted that it requires a special warning about its content. Milligan sure was busy in the early Vertigo days with three books out in the same month. The solicitations feature a ton of artwork. The Kaluta Spectre cover is amazing. That series had great covers. Mike Carlin does this annoying gimmick where he has a memo slapped over the top of the Superman art. Alan Grant does his last issue of The Demon, which may not mean much to a lot of folks, but if you read Direct Currents, you know. Also nearing the end of a long run is Mike Grell. LODK #50 was good. I had bailed on Hawkworld pretty early on (the regular series) and missed the various reboots and retcons, until the post JSA revival, where they set up that Hawkman is always Carter Hall reincarnated. Somewhere around here I have a signed Hawkman flyer, from Steve Lieber, when he was in Springfield, for a convention. Loved his art on anything, especially as the 90s played out, with some awful Image-style art. Nice to see someone with a firm grasp on the basics and a damn good storyteller. Plus, he invoked his teacher, in his work. The Golden Age is several kinds of awesome, as a post-war JSA adventure, as a thriller, as a character piece, as a visual work. Loved Paul Smith's art and how he modified his style to bring in elements of Alex Raymond and Reed Crandall to it, really capturing the period well, right down to the cut of the costumes and hairstyles. I used to have the promo poster they sent to comic shops.....  Not much in the Vertigo side that appealed, at that point. When Grell called it quits on Green Arrow, so did I. I think that was the longest sustained run of a title I ever had, though Starman was close. |
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Post by commond on Jul 29, 2024 15:53:08 GMT -5
DC Direct Currents #67 (October cover date, 1993)  Finally, Batman makes the front page. Regardless of how people feel about the Knightfall storyline, it's strange that they didn't hype it more in their free periodical. It has consistently taken a back seat to the Superman books, and it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that sales on the Batman books only picked up with Batman #499. It eventually led to Batman and Superman being the top two ranked books for August 1993, but I still find it odd. Even in this issue, the next page is devoted to the return of the one true Superman with Carlin continuing to do his annoying gimmick of slapping a memo over the promo art. Carlin actually does some writing this month, as well, bringing back The Metal Men for a four issue miniseries. On the Vertigo side, we have the Hellblazer Special by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. If I ever put together my top 10 DC comics from the 1990s, Ennis' Hellblazer would have a strong chance of placing in the top 10. I'd like to tell myself that in 1993, I would have bought the Hellblazer Special over a Batman or Superman comic, but I'm not sure that I was fully converted yet. From memory, I gave up superhero comics in '94. I didn't buy any of the Knightfall books, but I did buy some of the Reign of the Supermen stuff. Vertigo also offers us a Phantom Stranger one shot with art by Guy Davis. Curious. Not fitting in either Vertigo or the mainstream DC Universe is Streets, which gets its own little corner of the mag. The Spectre cover this month is by renowned fantasy artist Greg Hildebrandt. Garth Ennis takes over as the writer on The Demon, which I had totally forgotten about. Not really Ennis' thing, is it? McCrea joins him in a precursor to their Hitman run. And there is also a ton of crap for sale like t-shirts, pins, and temporary tattoos.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 29, 2024 15:58:46 GMT -5
DC Direct Currents #67 (October cover date, 1993)Finally, Batman makes the front page. Regardless of how people feel about the Knightfall storyline, it's strange that they didn't hype it more in their free periodical. It has consistently taken a back seat to the Superman books, and it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that sales on the Batman books only picked up with Batman #499. It eventually led to Batman and Superman being the top two ranked books for August 1993, but I still find it odd.  Ennis' Hellblazer is 100% one of my top ten books of the 90s. I bought that Phantom Stranger one-shot, but have zero memory of it. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 29, 2024 21:31:01 GMT -5
Not a fan of Batzreal or really anything in that whole run, beginning to end. It was LODK and Batman Adventures, for me and LODK was kind of running out of steam. I don't believe I continued it after #50, or much after, until Marshall Rogers came back to do a story.
Aside from Sandman, wasn't much in the Vertigo crowd, yet, either.
I was also distracted by Comics' Greatest World, from Dark Horse, though Kirby knows why! Didn't stick with it after the intros. Luckily, James Robinson's Grendel Tales: Four Devils, One Hell was just starting up.
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Post by commond on Jul 30, 2024 16:30:17 GMT -5
DC Direct Currents #68 (November cover date, 1993)  Robin finally get his own ongoing title. It lasted a whopping 183 issues until it was cancelled and replaced with Red Robin. Robin was published for 16 years. That's incredible given how many of these DC books fail. Inside, Mike Barr is trying to revive the Outsiders for the 90s. Howard Chaykin and John Francis Moore bring us an interesting looking Batman/Houdini Elseworlds story. Superman also gets his first Elseworlds tale, Superman: Speeding Bullets. There's also a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy adaptation which has art by Steve Leialoha that must be nice. Blackmask is a "compelling psychological crime drama with a superhero twist." And the S.T.A.R. Corps get a miniseries because Superman is hot property. Tommy Monaghan makes his debut in The Demon Annual #2. Grell writes his final issue of Green Arrow but no mention is made of it. On the Vertigo side, there's a new Sandman hardcover, and another ongoing title that wouldn't last, Scarab. I believe the creators wanted to bring Doctor Fate over to Vertigo but their ideas were deemed "too extreme" for an existing character and so they created an original character instead. As much as I love Vertigo, they really struggled to land ongoing titles in the early going.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Jul 30, 2024 16:54:26 GMT -5
On the Vertigo side, there's a new Sandman hardcover, and another ongoing title that wouldn't last, Scarab. I believe the creators wanted to bring Doctor Fate over to Vertigo but their ideas were deemed "too extreme" for an existing character and so they created an original character instead. As much as I love Vertigo, they really struggled to land ongoing titles in the early going. If Scarab was ever intended to be an ongoing series, it must have become a limited series by the time the first issue was published, as it says 1 of 8 on the cover. |
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Post by commond on Jul 30, 2024 17:45:28 GMT -5
Here’s an excerpt from an interview with the writer, John Smith:
You also gained some notoriety among US readers for your Vertigo miniseries "Scarab". I read that was intended to be an ongoing series, but what happened?
Oh God. It’s a long and depressing story paved with poor intentions and misguided efforts. Like I said, it started out as ‘Doctor Fate’. I’d been submitting all this stuff to DC and not really getting anywhere when I got a phone call out of the blue one day from Stuart Moore asking if I’d like to take over writing ‘Doctor Fate’. I’d never really read DC Comics in any big way - all I knew about the character was from his appearance in Alan Moore’s ‘Swamp Thing’ – but opportunities like that don’t come every day so I said yes. Then someone there decided my take was a bit too extreme for Doctor Fate so Stuart asked me to revamp the proposal using a new character and new backdrop. The similarities are pretty obvious and in hindsight it wasn’t the cleverest idea ever but there you go. Stuart wanted me to create an alternate Golden Age history, a Vertigo take on all that ’40s stuff, which I did, all connected to this big background storyline which was gonna reintroduce all these Lost Heroes to the Vertigo universe, but we had to ditch all that when the continuing series got cut down to an eight issue miniseries. I think Vertigo had overestimated their own selling power and a lot of their new titles just didn’t get the advanced orders they expected and from what I understand Karen Berger just said: "No. Chop it down to a miniseries." Which, you know, considering it started off as a monthly ‘Doctor Fate’ comic…
I’ve since heard she hates my stuff anyway. There were lots of censorship problems and strange directives issued by Karen Berger and all my enthusiasm kind of fizzled away the more I was forced to change stuff. I mean, ditching all these supporting characters, ditching the continuing subplot that tied all the storylines together – it was just doomed to failure from the start.
(I remember one bit of censorship concerned a throwaway line about "anus-eyed children". It didn’t really mean anything in the context of the story – it was just a disturbing image meant to convey a disturbing atmosphere - but it was that kind of stuff they kept complaining about. There didn’t seem to be any logic to it all. You sort of expect some kind of editorial restraints in stuff for ‘2000AD’ because of its young(ish) readership but this was a horror comic from the much-touted new adult Vertigo line and it just really pissed me off that they wouldn’t stand by me and let me write the stories I wanted to write. Basically the whole ‘Scarab’ thing was a fiasco from beginning to end.
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Post by Calidore on Jul 30, 2024 19:14:05 GMT -5
Here’s an excerpt from an interview with the writer, John Smith: You also gained some notoriety among US readers for your Vertigo miniseries "Scarab". I read that was intended to be an ongoing series, but what happened? Oh God. It’s a long and depressing story paved with poor intentions and misguided efforts. Like I said, it started out as ‘Doctor Fate’. I’d been submitting all this stuff to DC and not really getting anywhere when I got a phone call out of the blue one day from Stuart Moore asking if I’d like to take over writing ‘Doctor Fate’. I’d never really read DC Comics in any big way - all I knew about the character was from his appearance in Alan Moore’s ‘Swamp Thing’ – but opportunities like that don’t come every day so I said yes. Then someone there decided my take was a bit too extreme for Doctor Fate so Stuart asked me to revamp the proposal using a new character and new backdrop. The similarities are pretty obvious and in hindsight it wasn’t the cleverest idea ever but there you go. Stuart wanted me to create an alternate Golden Age history, a Vertigo take on all that ’40s stuff, which I did, all connected to this big background storyline which was gonna reintroduce all these Lost Heroes to the Vertigo universe, but we had to ditch all that when the continuing series got cut down to an eight issue miniseries. I think Vertigo had overestimated their own selling power and a lot of their new titles just didn’t get the advanced orders they expected and from what I understand Karen Berger just said: "No. Chop it down to a miniseries." Which, you know, considering it started off as a monthly ‘Doctor Fate’ comic… I’ve since heard she hates my stuff anyway. There were lots of censorship problems and strange directives issued by Karen Berger and all my enthusiasm kind of fizzled away the more I was forced to change stuff. I mean, ditching all these supporting characters, ditching the continuing subplot that tied all the storylines together – it was just doomed to failure from the start. (I remember one bit of censorship concerned a throwaway line about "anus-eyed children". It didn’t really mean anything in the context of the story – it was just a disturbing image meant to convey a disturbing atmosphere - but it was that kind of stuff they kept complaining about. There didn’t seem to be any logic to it all. You sort of expect some kind of editorial restraints in stuff for ‘2000AD’ because of its young(ish) readership but this was a horror comic from the much-touted new adult Vertigo line and it just really pissed me off that they wouldn’t stand by me and let me write the stories I wanted to write. Basically the whole ‘Scarab’ thing was a fiasco from beginning to end. I don't remember Scarab, but I do know John Smith's work from 2000AD. He's probably most famous for Indigo Prime and Devlin Waugh, which are both...quite something (I enjoyed both). He's one of those guys with a completely individual voice and style, and I can kinda see how Vertigo would first be interested in him and then wonder after seeing what he brought if this would really work.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Jul 30, 2024 19:30:23 GMT -5
OK I am legitimately curious.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 30, 2024 21:20:41 GMT -5
I got all of the issues of Scarab, but by the third issue I was wondering why I got it and whether or not I wanted to stick it out. If it had been an ongoing series, I would have dropped it; but, since it was a mini, I saw it through. Quite frankly, James Robinson's take on the Golden Age characters, in Golden Age and Starman, was far better and more developed, with more of an honoring of what had been done and interesting stories, without generally resorting to shock value or weird for weirdness sake. I never really felt the superhero element of Scarab worked. Robinson et al made reference to the character in the revised JSA series, early on; but that was about it. I suspect Berger wanted something more like Sandman Mystery Theater, which did a much better job of giving us a Vertigo take on 40s mystery men, or like Animal Man or Doom Patrol. I never felt Scarab was up to those levels and I was a casual reader of both, in trade format.
In terms of the series, the lead character is bonded with this alien object, the Scarabaeus, which his father brought back from an inter-dimensional labyrinth. It infuses him with power, but it becomes a sort of symbiotic relationship, where the Scarabaeus feeds off of him and his adventures. It sounded kind of cool, at the start; but, the series is mainly set when the character is 78 and has lived with the Scarabaeus attached to his body, since the 1940s and it isn't exactly a stable relationship. I'm not a horror guy and the supernatural, in general leaves me cold, when there aren't definite rules governing how things work, to fuel the plot and this fell squarely in both territories. There were vibes of Moorcock's Elric, but nowhere near as well written or as interesting.
Batman/Houdini was terrific as the two characters gel quite well, especially with Houdini's work debunking psychic and supernatural frauds, which fits in with Batman's detective stylings and rational outlook on things. They also throw in a Wright Brothers Flyer, for a bit of fun. Plus, the whole escapology angle. Chaykin and More were a good writing team and Mark Chiarello did some beautiful painted art for it.
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Post by commond on Jul 31, 2024 16:14:28 GMT -5
DC Direct Currents #69 (December cover date, 1993)
  DC's other big cash cow gets his own monthly series. It would last a respectable 66 issues before coming to an end in 1999. I'm not sure how popular Lobo remained in the decades afterwards. It feels like he was product of the 90s. Peter David brings us an Aquaman miniseries, Time and Tide, that takes a look at at his origins and early career while setting up his new ongoing book. Bloodlines reaches its conclusion in case anyone cared. There's a Two-Face flipbook that features Golden Age art by Joe Staton on one side and modern art on the other. Doug Moench and Kelly Jones are back for another Batman Elseworlds tale called Dark Joker -- The Wild. The Spectre gets another special cover in an attempt to drum up sales, I imagine. There's a Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale Batman Halloween Special that also has a fancy cover. DC adapts Stalone's Demolition Man, and finally there's news about the first Milestone crossover which is designed to launch a second wave of titles. Speaking of crossover events, I had no idea that Vertigo tried to do one with their annuals. It was called Children's Crusade and it began with a special written by Neil Gaiman and penciled by Chris Bachalo. I guess they were trying to present Vertigo as a shared universe, but it's a little disappointing to see them pull the same commercial trick as the regular Marvel and DC lines. That said, it appeared difficult for them to keep up with the pace of putting out two new books a month. The second preview this month is for the new Sandman Mystery Theatre arc, The Brute. Between the Vertigo and DC Universe solicitations there's another volume of Gregory, which gets lumped with Streets in the mysterious "others" section. Looking through the solicitations, a lot has changed since I first picked up this newsletter and became enamored with the titles I could never afford. Alan Grant is no longer doing The Demon or L.E.G.I.O.N. Mike Grell has left Green Arrow. The Bierbaums are no longer doing Legion of Super-Heroes. The era that I loved is over.
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