Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 19, 2023 9:34:06 GMT -5
#6 – Cloak & Dagger (mini-series #1–4, 1983–84) + (ongoing series #1–11, 1985–87) + ( Strange Tales on-going series #1–11, 1987–88)  Spinning out of the pages of Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, today's entry is the first three solo series starring Cloak & Dagger. A large part of Cloak & Dagger's appeal is that they inhabit a darker side of New York City than the world that the likes of the Fantastic Four or the Avengers move in. Both their initial appearances and their early solo series were very much a journey to the seedy under-belly of the Marvel Universe. These are a pair of teenage runaways who inadvertently got involved in a criminal chemist's trials for a new synthetic type of heroin. Though they survived being dosed with the experimental drug, it gave them super-powers and now they haunt the seedy, crime-filled streets of New York, battling drug pushers, pimps, and child-murderers – and, unlike some other Marvel super-heroes, they are not afraid to kill. Something else that plays into the duo's appeal is their striking and memorable visual design, which was concocted by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Ed Hannigan. Lastly, an additional factor that really endeared the pair to me as a kid was that they were teenagers; when I was reading their early appearances in the '80s, they weren't that far away from my own age. I should also note at this juncture that I'm a big fan of poor old Bill Mantlo. The tragic accident he suffered in the early '90s robbed comics of one of its most promising writers IMHO – and Cloak & Dagger are arguably his greatest creation. In addition to penning the duo's earliest appearances in Spectacular Spider-Man, Mantlo also wrote their first four-issue mini-series and their later ongoing bi-monthly series. When the duo moved into the re-launched Strange Tales, Mantlo worked on the series up until issue #6, after which he briefly left Marvel for DC and inker extraordinaire Terry Austin took over the writing with mixed results. In all honesty, although Cloak & Dagger's first 4-issue mini-series is good, it's not a patch on the duo's earlier appearances in Spectacular Spider-Man. Some of that is down to Mantlo's dialogue feeling a little…I dunno, "bulky" or over-written (though it's still very readable). The second series was stronger overall and when Mantlo was on point, he delivered some really gripping and thought-provoking street-level comics. To sum up, I adore these two characters so much that I'm happy to read any of their early appearances, regardless of the overall quality. Back in 1984, getting them in their own comic, after having already fallen in love with them in the pages of PP:TSSM, was a fantastic thing for teenage me.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 18, 2023 21:16:28 GMT -5
Long backstory on this one: so my son has a particularly nasty form of lupus. He gives us scares regularly and, for the past month, it's been so bad that we've been in and out of hospitals. A lot. Naturally, I've run down my sick days over this (as well as staying home during the worst of covid to care for my mother and keep my kids home too). Last Friday, I found out that payroll was deducting our sick days 2.5 weeks after we took them, so I had exceeded my sickday balance without knowing it! After much pleading with my HR director, he agreed to convert my personal days (I never take pesonal days) to sick days in order to get me back in the green. He then warned me that missing any more work without having sick days would result in discipline (as well as a loss of seniority and possibly insurance coverage!). I figured I'd be fine since we gain another sick day a week from now. Sure enough, I got majorly sick over the weekend and had to come in today barely able to function. It's okay, I figured. It will be better tomorrow. Well I just had the highest fever spike I've ever had in my life -- we're talking fever hallucinations, in and out of consciousness, spasming/shaking -- terrifying. Fortunately, the worst of it has passed, which is why I'm coherent enough to type this, but holy heck. It's looking like it might be a snowday tomorrow. Please pray for me. I really really need to not go to work tomorrow. Jeez...that sounds like a really nasty bug you've got. Get well soon! And fingers-crossed you get snowed in tomorrow. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 18, 2023 19:09:20 GMT -5
Sorry to hear that, MRPs_Missives. Having to say goodbye to a beloved pet, even if it's the best thing for that pet, is really, really hard. I feel for you. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 18, 2023 14:29:47 GMT -5
Excuse my pedantry (and quite possibly my ignorance as well), but how is this a spin-off? Bradley was the star of his own strip in a number of issues of Neat Stuff, and he was also the star of his own strip in the pages of Hate, albeit with less emphasis on his family, admittedly. So, it's not like he was a co-star who broke out into his own starring strip. The feature that started in NEAT STUFF #1 was "The Bradleys", with Buddy living at home with his parents. Even if he later got his own masthead in some stories in later issues of NEAT STUFF, Buddy's own feature in HATE! is a spin-off of the one named after his whole family. Ah, OK. I'm not massively familiar with the character, but one of my good mates back in the day used to buy both Neat Stuff and Hate, along with the UK counter-culture comic magazine Revolver and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comics from a local secondhand record shop/head shop. So, I used to sometimes read these kinds of comics. I certainly remember Buddy Bradley, but I thought he was always the star of his strips, even in the earlier Neat Stuff. Guess my memory is faulty. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 18, 2023 13:34:21 GMT -5
Angry youth and alternative music comes alive! #7- HATE! (1990-2011)Excuse my pedantry (and quite possibly my ignorance as well), but how is this a spin-off? Bradley was the star of his own strip in a number of issues of Neat Stuff, and he was also the star of his own strip in the pages of Hate, albeit with less emphasis on his family, admittedly. So, it's not like he was a co-star who broke out into his own starring strip. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 18, 2023 9:33:20 GMT -5
#7 – Sir Edward Grey: Witchfinder ( In the Service of Angels: 2009) + ( Lost and Gone Forever: 2011)  This is an example of my being a fan of the spin-off, but I have never read the main, parent series in which the spin-off originated. Sir Edward Grey first appeared in the pages of Mike Mignola's Hellboy and got his first solo mini-series in 2009. Grey is a nineteenth century paranormal investigator and there were two mini-series published before Jan 2014, and therefore eligible for this year's event. The first, In the Service of Angels, sees Grey in Victorian London investigating a series of grisly occult murders perpetrated by a supernatural bear-like creature, and in the second, Lost and Gone Forever, he travels to the American Wild West to find a missing nobleman, requiring him to battle an evil witch and a bunch of undead cowboys. Of the two mini-series, Lost and Gone Forever is by far my favourite, not least because it sees the marvellous John Severin on art chores. His highly detailed, but slightly unkept artwork is a perfect fit for a "Weird West" comic such as this. That said, Ben Stenbeck's art on In the Service of Angels is pretty nice too and very much in the Mignola signature style. Mignola's writing is really good, with each adventure beng a well-crafted detective yarn, with deliciously creepy supernatural trappings. Grey is an engaging character: a Victorian English gentleman, possessed of a stiff-upper lip, and pretty good in a fight. He certainly makes for a memorable hero. I have no interest in reading the main Hellboy comic, but these Witchfinder comics are a really fun read.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 18, 2023 1:09:28 GMT -5
A Beatles/LotRs mash up ticks all the boxes for me ...   |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 17, 2023 9:24:14 GMT -5
My impression is the comics are bigger in Europe than America. I've been to cons in Germany, Poland, Italy, and found them obsessed with Barks and Rosa. I mostly know Scrooge from Duck Tales. Did it not air in the UK? Yeah, so I just asked my non-comic reading wife and she knew exactly who Scrooge McDuck was. Apparently, there were comic books and a very popular cartoon (Duck Tales?) featuring him when she was a little girl and she reckons that a lot of people in the UK would know him. So, I'm clearly talking out of my ar*e. He must've just passed me by. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 17, 2023 8:13:26 GMT -5
I'm constantly surprised by the amount of love Uncle Scrooge gets in the forum. He's obviously a cherished character to a lot of folks, but it must be very much an American thing, I guess. The character isn't known over here in the UK (though, the main Disney characters like Mickey, Donald, Goofy etc are, of course). Yeah, no. Others here are probably more knowledgeable about this, but I can say off the top of my head that Uncle Scrooge is quite popular in a number of European countries like the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Spain, etc. In fact, I recall listening to a podcast interview with Don Rosa years ago in which he claimed that the Disney comics, and Scrooge in particular, are more popular outside of the US. Oh, OK. I stand corrected. I never come across the character as a kid in the '70s and I'm pretty sure I don't know anyone else here in the UK who would recognise the name of the character. The Disney cartoons were very popular over here in Britain, as I say, and I do recall reading comics featuring the likes of Mickey, Goofy, Donald Duck etc, but I don't ever remember reading Uncle Scrooge at all. I mean, I dare say some of his strips must've been published over here, but I don't think they made much impact on the public conciousness. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 17, 2023 6:22:32 GMT -5
I have never in my 62 years have read a story containing Uncle Scrooge. I suspect I would hate him the way I hate Dr. Smith and Sheldon on Lost in space and the Big Bang theory , respectively. I'm constantly surprised by the amount of love Uncle Scrooge gets in the forum. He's obviously a cherished character to a lot of folks, but it must be very much an American thing, I guess. The character isn't known over here in the UK (though, the main Disney characters like Mickey, Donald, Goofy etc are, of course). |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 17, 2023 6:19:33 GMT -5
#8 – Jack of Fables (2006–11)  OK, full disclosure here: I've only read the first two TPBs of this series (which collect the first 11 issues) and I last read them so long ago that I have only very hazy memories of them. But I do remember really enjoying this spin-off series. Jack of Fables is written by Bill Willingham, who also wrote the main Fables series, of course. It follows the solo adventures of Jack (of "Little Jack Horner" fame) in the Mundy (human) world after he is banished from Fabletown for breaking several Fable laws in Fables #34. The series follows him as he hitchhikes away from Hollywood into various escapades, with a few million stolen dollars in his suitcase. The art in the issues that I'm familiar with is mostly by Tony Akins, with a little help from Steve Leialoha. It's a pleasing mix of the slightly cartoonish and the highly detailed, which works perfectly in a series such as this. In all honesty, Jack isn't always the most likable character – he's a conman, a womanizing git, and an all-round douche bag -- but he is, at least, an assh*le that you can root for. While Jack of Fables isn't as good as the main Fables series – not by a long shot! – it's still a fun read and well worth checking out if you are a fan of the main series.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 16, 2023 8:58:57 GMT -5
#9 – The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Nemo Trilogy (2013–15)  This trilogy, which spun-out of Alan Moore's alternate-history League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, focuses on the life of Captain Nemo's daughter and heir, Janni Dakkar. She had first been introduced in the Black Dossier and also appeared in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century. The three-volume series covers a roughly 50 year period in Janni's life, as she captains the Nautilus through adventures in Antarctica, Berlin and the Amazon rain forest. During these adventures, she and her crew do battle against Queen Ayesha (from H. Rider Haggard's 1887 fantasy novel She), Adenoid Hynkel (a thinly veiled parody of Adolf Hitler from Charlie Chaplin's 1940 film The Great Dictator), and mad scientist Heinz Goldfoot (from the 1965 comedy spy film Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine), among others. As is usual with Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics, there are also lots of obvious and not-so-obvious references to classic literature and pop culture. For example, the likes of Tom Swift (an Edisonade adventurer), the female android Maria (from Fritz Lang's Metropolis), the creature from the Black Lagoon, and strange beings from H. P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness all make an appearance here. Moore's writing is, as ever, absolutely top notch and artist Kevin O'Neill does his usual brilliantly inventive job of depicting the various exotic locales and bizarre horrors that Janni encounters along her way. Over the course of the Nemo Trilogy, Janni develops from her slightly two-dimensional origins in the Black Dossier and Century into a well-rounded character and a captivating heroine. This mini-series serves up a cracking adventure story, with thrilling action sequences and superb visuals. It's also a slightly lighter read than most of the LoEG books.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 16, 2023 1:50:13 GMT -5
I feel like this post is not really assuming good faith on supercat's part. As you say yourself, he was clearly not trying to be deliberately insensitive, so why mention it? |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 15, 2023 6:57:03 GMT -5
#10 – Hit-Girl #1–5 (2012–13)  Spinning out of Mark Millar's Kick-Ass, the Hit-Girl mini-series sees the titular foul-mouthed, pre-teen killing machine starring in her own comic for the first time. Here, Mindy McCready (a.k.a. Hit-Girl) attempts to settle down to life as a regular High School kid, navigating romantic interest from boys and cruel bullying from girls, while trying not to spill anybody's blood. Oh, and she's still intent on cleansing the streets of New York City of its organised crime contingent. I know it's not everybody's cup of tea, but I loved the black humour and cartoonish ultra-violence of Kick-Ass and that very much continues into this Hit-Girl mini-series. Undoubtedly, part of her appeal is the contradictory juxtaposition of a sweet-looking 12-year-old girl who is also a skilled enough fighter to kill adult gangsters and hoodlums in the most bloodthirsty and gory ways. She's like Betty Kane's Batgirl, if Batgirl behaved like Frank Castle in the Punisher MAX series! The twist here though is that while Mindy can easily murder a dozen gun-toting mobsters, making it through High School, with all its social complexities and toxic bullying culture, is another matter. Not that Hit-Girl is a particularly clever book; Millar is certainly not embarrassed to be writing a shallow, self-aware comic, with blood and guts a-plenty. So, while this mini-series does deal with school bullying to a degree, the totally over-the-top and massively tongue-in-cheek slaughter is never very far away. John Romita Jr's art is very much in his later, blocky stye, which you'll either love or hate. Personally, I'm a fan, so that's OK. You can also tell that Romita is really enjoying himself having to draw so much over-the-top violence and gore (it's not something he really got to do in his regular Marvel assignments). To sum up, Hit-Girl is, in all honesty, a pretty shallow comic, with lots of sickening violence, ridiculously unrealistic action sequences and plenty of dark humour. Simply put, it's a really fun read! There have been subsequent Hit-Girl solo series, but this initial one is the only one that was published before the Jan 2014 cut off for this year's Classic Comics Christmas event.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Dec 14, 2023 9:30:14 GMT -5
I've been thinking about the creepier moments in Tolkien's works lately and I think he would have made a very good horror writer. For me, one of my favourite creepy moments is when the fellowship are in the mines of Moria. The way Tolkien conjures up a palpably oppressive and sinister atmosphere in this section, as the fellowship make their way through the darkened mines, is masterful.
Other moments in The Lord of the Rings that have a creepy, horror-esque flavour to them are the Ringwraith's pursuit of the hobbits through the Shire and the scene where Frodo and Sam encounter Shelob -- particularly Tolkien's description of her eyes shining in the darkness and silently advancing towards the hobbits.
What are your favourite creepy moments in Tolkien's legendarium?
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