|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 17, 2023 4:41:14 GMT -5
Jesse gets my vote with one of my true favorite covers, that of the first Defenders comic in what would be an unbroken run of purchases from that issue to the end of the run. It was also the cover I used back when I was challenging myself to satisfy both the current and previous week's topic in this very contest, when I faced my steepest challenge: to find something that is both a favorite John Buscema cover and a favorite Jim Starlin cover!
(Speaking of which, I recently discovered my Brave & Bold Classic Cover Contest Challenge remains incomplete, so there's one more B&B co-star I need to use in this contest! Who do you suppose that might be? I'm not telling...yet!)
|
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 17, 2023 4:33:25 GMT -5
Between both your 10 worst and your 10 favorites, you guys have touched on something like 10 of my very favorite comics. Evidently, the horror bug that carried me into this hobby in the first place stayed stronger in me than I realized.
Tales of the Zombie is one that hasn't come up much on the forum, but I'm right there with you both on that one! I was utterly fascinated by the house ads in the color line promoting that magazine, and I wanted that comic so bad! With its completed arc of redemption, the original run feels very like a true comic novel, and consequently it was one of the only comics I was satisfied to see stopping where it did. And that concluding issue, #9, also included one of the few comics stories that did literally scare me, the deeply disturbing "Herby the Liar Said It Wouldn't Hurt".
(On par with "Herby", one that would have made my list is "Maniac", a Simon & Kirby masterpiece reprinted in Black Magic #1 in the 70's. At 13, one of the genuine fears I had--and one I suppose most children share--was losing my parents, and Kirby capitalized on that fear very effectively a couple of times, with the nightmarish orphanage of Granny Goodness in Mr. Miracle and with the threat of removal to an "institution" in "Maniac". The highly disturbing twist in "Maniac" haunts me to this day.)
|
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 15, 2023 16:30:11 GMT -5
While sorting through my Arak, Son of Thunder collection to work out which issues I am still missing, I discovered that #45 has a pin-up of Valda by a young Todd McFarlane. In the commentary, Roy Thomas mentions that Todd is doing the artwork on a forthcoming Valda, the Iron Maiden miniseries. This is the first I've ever heard of this. Obviously, the miniseries never eventuated, but Roy talks about it like it is in the bag and will be coming out in a few months. Does anyone know any details about this project and why it never eventuated? This was 1985, and would have been not long after Todd took on the art duties on Infinity, Inc. Maybe the forthcoming Crisis caused DC to put the kibosh on it (and Arak itself only lasted another 5 issues), but I am curious. I'd be especially interested in seeing any art from it. Thomas also promised a Helix series that never eventuated, either (and I'd forgotten that Arak was a member of that group, somehow!). It may have been a case of attempting to apply pressure for a greenlight by promoting the proposals as done deals? |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 15, 2023 16:21:22 GMT -5
I was alluding to "Dottie Cottonman" in my earlier post: according to the MS. article, she was slated to be the editor of this return-to-basics approach, but Robert Kanigher ended up as editor and writer instead. This, err, character assassination seems to me to suggest some ill will surrounding whatever office politics led to Mrs. Woolfolk being replaced by Kanigher.
Also, I seem to recall Kanigher doing some recycling of stories from his 50's-60's run in that immediate post-Diana Prince era. I think he did the same in the 60's, when Wonder Woman reverted to a "Golden Age" style for a while.
|
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 14, 2023 11:42:53 GMT -5
As I recall, Giordano had a sentimental attachment to the Charlton Action Heroes, particularly to Sarge Steel, which he had drawn, since as editor he had spearheaded this stretch of Charlton's publishing history. Karl Kesel told me at a con that when he was inking some book w/ Sarge Steel in it (Suicide Squad?), when he received the pages, the Steel character was already inked by Giordano. Giordano also laid a similar claim to the Human Target, doing the penciling or inking on every solo story up to 1991's HUMAN TARGET SPECIAL. He must have been jealous of his babies. |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 14, 2023 8:30:39 GMT -5
As I recall, Giordano had a sentimental attachment to the Charlton Action Heroes, particularly to Sarge Steel, which he had drawn, since as editor he had spearheaded this stretch of Charlton's publishing history.
And he wouldn't have wanted a rival publisher snapping up the rights for cheap.
|
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 14, 2023 8:26:55 GMT -5
This one got my attention by being one of the few comics not from DC to feature work from Jim Aparo, at least after his Charlton days:  It was just a pin-up page, but at least it was Aparo pencils, unlike his contribution to the DC Hunger book, where he only inked 2 pages of Sal Amendola pencils. |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 14, 2023 8:19:38 GMT -5
It wasn't uncommon for Bob Haney to introduce the B&B co-star until fairly late in the issue (Diana arrives on page 11 here), and Haney wasn't writing any of the Batman solo books (did he ever?), so I'm pretty confident this one was prepared for B&B, despite Diana's replaceability in the plot. (I am, however, very receptive to the likelihood that the previous team-up was intended for an issue of WONDER WOMAN, not B&B.)
It's very interesting that this issue appeared a week before the Diana Prince era came to an end. That's awkward timing, but evidence suggests that the reversion may have been rushed. I guess when B&B editor Murray Boltinoff initiated this one, he didn't know that the Delaney run was about to be aborted.
The Amazonian Guardian Angel is certainly a weird inclusion, but hey, that's Bob Haney. Maybe he wanted some opportunity to acknowledge Diana's heritage, or thought it would be an interesting visual for Aparo to render.
Another notable point of interest: the Wonder Woman logo on this issue is not the official one, but a one-off created with some commercial font. This was an anomaly for B&B except in cases where the co-stars didn't already have an established logo (Bat-Squad, 4 Famous Co-Stars, and the Joker). I've long wondered why that was. Certainly, the then-current logo made for an awkward look back on issue 87; maybe it looked even worse when squeezed into the new cover dress next to the larger new Batman logo? Still, it's a great cover even if it doesn't accurately depict the interior. DC was doing some terrific cover coloring around then, and that green sky is surprisingly effective.
Curiosities from the letters page: Boltinoff announces that next issue (#106) will feature a Wonder Woman team-up, suggesting that either the letters page was out of synch or the contents were moved ahead of schedule when they realized Diana would be back in her star-spangled panties this month. But looking back at the lettercol from issue 104, it also touts Wonder Woman as next issue's co-star! It also explains that Aparo missed doing issue 103 (Metal Men, drawn by Bob Brown) as well as half of #102 (Teen Titans, finished by Neal Adams) due to a bout of the flu (although it just might have been another unfortunate event that sidelined him around this time), so maybe Aparo's schedule threw things into turmoil for a while there. The letters page also reveals that Boltinoff initially planned to run a Metamorpho backup in JIMMY OLSEN, which he had just taken over. I can tell you this decision cost him at least one potential reader...
|
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 13, 2023 18:34:00 GMT -5
My wife's always incredulous that I can remember specific places I got particular comics. I've always assumed that most of us collectors have such memories of at least some of our collection. But it's really only a few out of the thousands that I can conjure up such detailed memories. The funny thing is that they're not all remarkable favorites, they're really quite random. For instance, I can pinpoint where I got GIANT-SIZE CREATURES #1, WESTERN TEAM-UP #1, neither of which were all that big a deal for me.
|
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 13, 2023 16:33:32 GMT -5
One last note: one of my first Marvels was a coverless copy of Spider-Man 100 or 101 or whatever that I found on the sidewalk (yes, that used to happen) Indeed it did! That's how I obtained BRAVE & BOLD # 93, featuring Batman in the House of Mystery, in 1972 or '73. It was just lying on the sidewalk, right about here:  |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 11, 2023 19:18:47 GMT -5
"Think before you act, then act without thinking."
Mark Z. Danielewski, The Familiar Volume 3: Honeysuckle and Pain
|
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 11, 2023 13:58:49 GMT -5
TALES TO ASTONISH #52, February 1964, Marvel Comics Penciled by Jack Kirby:  Can you spot the error on this cover? |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 9, 2023 18:58:23 GMT -5
Gotta be honest, as a kid, it was hard for me to accept Transformers and G.I. Joe existing in the same universe as the superheroes. I mean, just where were Cap, Iron Man, Thor and others when the Autobots and Decepticons were fighting? I know we shouldn’t think about such things. I often did not. When Riddler had Batman in a death trap, I never wondered where Superman or Hawkman were. They had their own problems. If one put a nanosecond of thought into it, and who did, perhaps they were off-planet. Or busy. However, at times, I thought about it when an earth-shattering event (or something like it) occurred. When Bane engineered a breakout of Arkham Asylum, I did wonder where exactly others were. I know we aren’t supposed to think too hard, but are you telling me that Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Hawkman, to mention a few, didn’t hear about that? Was there really no-one who could have lent a hand for 2 hours? Not even an hour? I believe that was the first time I thought about it deeply (Superman was dead at the time, right?). It made me wonder how believable it was for Batman and super-powered heroes could conceivably exist in the same universe. I remember fans complaining about the No Man's Land storyline in the Batman books, where an earthquake destroyed Gotham: why aren't Superman, Zatanna, Green Lantern, et al. helping to rebuild it? I don't think the writers ever gave a really convincing explanation, but as far as I was concerned, it's pretty easy to argue that superhero intervention wouldn't have been inadvisable. Post-Crisis Superman wouldn't have had the appropriate expertise to rebuild a skyscraper, install an appropriate electrical system, plumbing, etc. And super-speed means nothing to concrete's cure time! Maybe he could use some New Genesis-level tech to build an entirely new city, but then you have the headache of deciding who gets what: do you create high-tech but modest efficiency apartments for the poor but provide better accommodations for the rich, or for big businesses? Green Lantern could have been helpful, but even recruiting a large group of Corps members--which would probably violate the Guardians' policy--they could only focus on helping a relatively few rebuilding efforts at a time. But why not let Zatanna just say "tliuber eb mahtog"? Well, how do we know that every one of Zatanna's spells won't immediately undo itself when she dies? Is Batman going to trust the magic experts' word on that, even if they tell him otherwise? |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 9, 2023 13:55:15 GMT -5
I loved this issue and it had me eager to read SWORD S AGAINST OF SORCERY. This had to be one of the most unexpected places for a backdoor pilot in all of mainstream comics! The scene where Fafhrd and the Mouser choose to return to their world after a brief exposure to "civilization" stuck with me, and I purchased their ongoing DC comic faithfully throughout its way-too-short life. And I, for one, liked this Catwoman design--wasn't it an Alex Toth creation? I always wondered about this, too, but I'm guessing it was because O'Neil was only editing DC's only two WW titles ( Weird Worlds) at the time, but since Weird Worlds was devoted only to Burroughs characters until its eighth issue, which came out in August of '73, he had no other choice but to shoehorn them into his next-to-last issue of Wonder Woman. I'm thinking there must be some other odd first appearances like this, but can't think of any right this moment. If there are, I'm sure someone will. And, oh, MWGallaher, I was disappointed that they changed the name-- inexplicably -- from Swords Against Sorcery, which made so much more sense. Maybe they thought "Sword of Sorcery" might align nicely with "House of Mystery", one of their better-selling titles of the time. |
|
|
|
Post by MWGallaher on Oct 8, 2023 16:26:08 GMT -5
I loved this issue and it had me eager to read SWORDS AGAINST OF SORCERY. This had to be one of the most unexpected places for a backdoor pilot in all of mainstream comics! The scene where Fafhrd and the Mouser choose to return to their world after a brief exposure to "civilization" stuck with me, and I purchased their ongoing DC comic faithfully throughout its way-too-short life.
And I, for one, liked this Catwoman design--wasn't it an Alex Toth creation?
|
|
