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Post by MWGallaher on Oct 6, 2023 17:39:25 GMT -5
I recently came up with the idea to watch all of the prime-time network television programs that aired the day I was born--if not the specific episode, at least a representative sample from around the time. I've started by watching an episode of Jackpot Bowling with Milton Berle (courtesy of youtube), which was pretty weird stuff. That episode aired about 8 months after my birth, but that's not a show one can expect to be exhaustively archived and available!
I had already seen the final Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Comedy Hour episode, which aired that night. Yes, the Ricardos had their final bow when I was making my debut.
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Post by MWGallaher on Oct 6, 2023 17:33:55 GMT -5
I was introduced to the character in the early 70's JLA, and I was one who cheered his exit from that series. It wasn't until Tony Isabella's SHADOW WAR OF THE HAWKMAN that he clicked with me, and since then he's been a big favorite. I love the classic Silver Age costume design, and I think later revisions, particularly Truman's wingless, bubbles-around-the-eyes helmet, or the various "extreme!" metal helmet designs, detracted from the appeal.
It was probably decades before I recognized that the yellow cross lines near the toes of his boots were meant to suggest talons.
Oh, and count me on Team Murphy Anderson. Kubert's great, of course, but I loved the immaculate 60's world that Murph depicted.
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Post by MWGallaher on Oct 6, 2023 15:07:10 GMT -5
It sounds like the legend about Steinem and this issue putting pressure on DC to go back to basics isn't quite accurate. According to the article in Ms. #1, DC already intended to do so, with Dorothy Woolfolk at the helm. Would even a famous figure like Steinem backed by a magazine that hadn't yet seen print be able to coerce DC's into such a decision? And wait, was Dick Giordano even an editor at the time, or had he gone back to the drawing table? He certainly wasn't in charge of all their super-heroes!
The fact that Woolfolk was slated to take over as editor may explain Robert Kanigher's allusions to her when he ends up editing and writing the book instead of Woolfolk...
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Post by MWGallaher on Oct 5, 2023 17:49:17 GMT -5
I didn't read Deathmate, but I couldn't decide whether it was an inspired concept or utterly misguided one, since at the time, Image and Valiant had completely opposite approaches to the medium.
At Image, it was all about "cool" art. Writing and storytelling were not as important as the dazzle. Full page splashes, pin-up style drawings, hectic imagery, if the reader got a thrill from the exaggerated art, it didn't matter if they couldn't make sense of the story.
At Valiant, Jim Shooter's policies dictated clarity in storytelling over everything else. Simple compositions, straight-on, medium-distance panels, tamping down on the pizzazz if it threatened to obfuscate the plot. Heck, I once read a Valiant comic and didn't realize until I got to their idiosyncratic last-page credits that it had been drawn by Steve Ditko, that's how much Shooter's vision suppressed artistic style!
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Post by MWGallaher on Oct 2, 2023 19:54:15 GMT -5
After starting with the Frank Robbins bit, I was surprised that you didn't mention that Robbins was the writer of the first stories of Man-Bat, George's lead-off in the Five Worst list. The fact that I just bought the Phantom Stranger Omnibus should demonstrate where I stand on that character. One of Aparo's two best features, that's enough on its own. There may have been some weaknesses, but it was a trailblazer in incorporating a variety of monster menaces, with mummies, sorcerers, ice giants, the Flying Dutchman, Frankenstein, the Hunchback, all sorts of terrific threats for the mysterious man in black to take on. I didn't pick Man-bat , it was Morbius that was my first pick. Man-bat totally slipped my mind and probably would have been one of my favorites. The issue with the Ice giants is one of my favorite tales in the Phantom Stranger series. I think shaxper missed the mark on this series. Wow, right after I'd listened I'd have sworn Man-Bat was in there...I guess I was just in a Robbins frame of mind, and had Morbius and Man-Thing rattling around in my very overworked brain pan. Here's the Dell Dracula panels that most stuck in my brain:  That lazy starburst panel after the Dr. Jekyll-like opening just really works for me on some pop-art level. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Oct 2, 2023 16:19:40 GMT -5
Here's where I came in, with my first issue of Wonder Woman back in 1972. According to Mike's Amazing World, this issue went on sale in March, but I vividly remember reading it by flashlight waiting for a lunar eclipse, so that would have been July 26, 1972. Either it stayed on the stands for a long time, or I was going back for another perusal, probably due to the prurient aspects of the artwork...
Other than the bum-focused panel compositions (the most prominent example of which is shown in the post!) I most remember being fascinated by the Dr. Cyber character, with the cool mask and name. Looking at the scripting, I'm struck with the frequency we'd see superheroes exclaiming "Oh sweet lord" and "Good god" and "Oh my lord". I don't think it was just a Denny O'Neill thing but perhaps it was--I recall a Superman lettercol where a writer complained about the overuse of "Omigod", and O'Neill was writing that around this time, too.
I must have been pretty lost with this story, but it drew me back for the following issues, keeping me just a bit past the reversion to the old, original Wonder Woman, so I'm looking forward to reminiscing on those as we finish up here.
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Post by MWGallaher on Oct 2, 2023 15:13:24 GMT -5
Great episode, guys!
After starting with the Frank Robbins bit, I was surprised that you didn't mention that Robbins was the writer of the first stories of Man-Bat, George's lead-off in the Five Worst list.
Now as for that list, some of your picks would have made my list of Five Best, and others I'm at least extremely fond of...
Like Man-Bat. Come on, "Who can we have Batman fight? How about Man-Bat?!" I had a kid tell me about that character's first appearance when I was 12, and I couldn't believe it really existed. It sounded like an awesome idea to me, something I liked even better than Batman himself.
Morbius? Incredible visual, and out of the zillions of super-villains who screw themselves over with ill-advised science experiments, turning yourself into a vampire is one of the best. Easy to explain, since we all know what vampires are. I remember appreciating details like Morb' having hollow bones, making him light enough to glide. Good work from Pablo Marcos in Vampire Tales and Frank Robbins in Adventures into Fear.
Son of Satan was a disappointment in the long run, but those first couple of installments are some of my favorite Herb Trimpe work ever. I'll never forget him riding a chariot pulled by flaming demon horses, with a crazed look in his eye and a trident in his hands. Like you, I was shocked that Marvel would even publish such a provocative title, but I knew I had to have it when they started promoting it (originally under the early, ultimately rejected title of The Mark of Satan, as those of us who were clever enough to crack the cryptographic code on the Bullpen Bulletins page without having the FOOM key.
Speaking of which, those coded messages also revealed that Man-Wolf was initially intended to be "J. Jonah Jameson Presents My Son the Man-Wolf!" Another strong visual, and I enjoyed his short run in Creatures on the Loose. Yeah, there was a better werewolf in the lineup, but the more the merrier, I say. I'm very curious about Marvel's original plans for a Man-Wolf character that Rich Buckler reported to have worked on, I'm guessing for the never-published Savage Tales #2 (which would have been a very different magazine than what took that number in the revival a few years later).
Baron Blood? OK, not a favorite, but interesting that yet another character on this list was drawn by Frank Robbins.
Man-Thing--I'm with Jeff, here. I love books where the lead character isn't available for the usual kind of character development. Man-Thing, the Zombie, and Godzilla are three of my faves from 70's Marvel.
The fact that I just bought the Phantom Stranger Omnibus should demonstrate where I stand on that character. One of Aparo's two best features, that's enough on its own. There may have been some weaknesses, but it was a trailblazer in incorporating a variety of monster menaces, with mummies, sorcerers, ice giants, the Flying Dutchman, Frankenstein, the Hunchback, all sorts of terrific threats for the mysterious man in black to take on.
I bought Strange Sport Stories #1 off the stands, despite having little interest in sports. The bizarreness of the bowling story went past me, but I assume the Rip Van Winkle angle had to do with Rip playing ten pins with the little people in the original story. And I doubt the editor was that unengaged with the material, as Julius Schwartz was said to be a huge sports fan, eager to get that genre functioning on the American comics stands.
The Dark Shadows comic is one I have no attachment to--I don't have any sentiment for any Gold Key comics--but Jeff's comments had me looking for samples. The art's by Martian Manhunter's Joe Certa, and it's interesting to see how many of the conventions Certa used on the John Jones series appeared here: concentric circles, overlaid figures depicting a character's transformation, the dashed-line approach to indicating invisibility.
Dell's Dracula was one of my early comics, specifically the reprint of the first episode. Tony Tallarico's art doesn't command a lot of respect, but it was highly memorable in a pop-art way. Yes, the comic was awful, and I realized that after I made the mistake of buying it, but I'll never forget it.
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Post by MWGallaher on Sept 30, 2023 16:57:59 GMT -5
I didn't want to intrude on the Mod Wonder Woman thread, but in case anyone here really does needs a consultant on James Joyce, I've kept a copy of Finnegans Wake on my nightstand for over 10 years now...
In a surprise development, it appears I won't be on furlough next week. I was in a good position to weather the shutdown, and worked from home today--Saturday--to get some software testing completed before I would have had to stand down. I suppose I'd probably lament missing many days of work as I wrap up my NASA career (I've postponed my original retirement date a few months, to next spring), but I did have some plans to fill the days that I'll have to postpone now.
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Post by MWGallaher on Sept 30, 2023 5:39:35 GMT -5
I was re-examining the first issue of WONDER WOMAN I ever read (issue 200, up next in rberman 's All-New, All-Mod Wonder Woman issue by issue thread!). I doubt that I've looked at that comic in at least 40 years. In the reprint slot, a new sequence introduces a reprint from WW #144, with Diana reminiscing to I-Ching about a crush she had on some boys when she was a teenager. There's a reference on page 2 to "Wonder Girl's family", and I began to wonder if young MW had been confused, realizing that I was about to see Wonder Girl--clearly Wonder Woman as a girl--alongside Wonder Woman herself. When I turned the page, I discovered that readers in 1972 were spared Robert Kanigher's unexplained transition from Wonder Girl (and Tot) being Princess Diana to being separate individuals. The reprint in #200 alters the costumes on the older and younger versions of the Amazing Amazon: Issue 144:  Issue 200:  Adult Diana becomes an unidentified Amazon, not wearing the familiar eagle and star-spangled shorts. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Sept 29, 2023 6:45:18 GMT -5
Here' a very different sort of "period piece" adaptation I've fantasized about seeing: 40's/50's style pulp adaptations of classic DC characters. I'm talking text magazines with short novels and short stories, B&W illustrations, doing the characters as if they were pulp heroes rather than conventional superheroes. For example...
TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED, with stories of Alan Scott, whose magic ring and green lantern allows him to walk through walls and hypnotize people operating rather like The Shadow, the reincarnated Carter Hall and sorcerer Kent Nelson and ghost-in-disguise Jim Corrigan facing Lovecraftian menaces out of Weird Tales...
STRANGE ADVENTURES, a sci-fi pulp with stories about Ray Palmer as a shrinking scientific explorer rather than crime-fighter, Adam Strange, the Man of Two Worlds (a straightforward adaptation, right?), Rip Hunter the Time Master, Robot Man, the human brain in a metal body, the Metal Men...
MY GREATEST ADVENTURE, a men's adventure pulp starring the Sea Devils, Challengers of the Unknown, Cave Carson Under Earth, Blackhawk...
HOUSE OF MYSTERY, a horror/scary pulp with features like the body-possessing Deadman, Phantom Stranger in short stories reminiscent of The Whistler or Mysterious Traveler, Swamp Thing...
SWORD OF SORCERY, a fantasy pulp with characters like Nightmaster, Claw the Unconquered, Hercules Unbound in the new post-apocalyptic age of reborn gods, Stalker, Atlas, the Black Pirate...
ACTION DETECTIVE, a down-to-earth pulp with stuff like heavyweight champ Ted "Wildcat" Grant cleaning up corruption in the world of sports, the Hourman with modest one-hour power boosts, Mr. Terrific, the man of 1000 talents, and Sandman with his gas gun...
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Post by MWGallaher on Sept 28, 2023 18:39:42 GMT -5
THE BOUNCER #11, 1944  Well, I guess I've got this one sewn up, with "Your Favorite Pin-up." By the way, some really cool Fox jungle comics are coming up in my Jungle Gems thread. Fox's jungle books turn out to have had a consistent and utterly baffling policy across their jungle line--I thought it was an aberration in my earlier Fox jungle comics reviews, but no, it's just they way they did things... |
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Post by MWGallaher on Sept 28, 2023 16:52:03 GMT -5
I bought my first-ever Omnibus edition recently, DC's PHANTOM STRANGER OMNIBUS. I was surprised at how they handled the first four installments of the 1960's revival, each issue of which incorporated two reprints; one from an issue of the 1950's PHANTOM STRANGER, and one Dr. Thirteen story from STAR-SPANGLED COMICS (again, the 1950's):
The reproductions of the original 6-issue PHANTOM STRANGER comic don't include the stories that were incorporated into the 1960's series. That makes sense--no point in duplicating pages.
But the Dr. Thirteen stories are simply deleted from SHOWCASE #80 and PHANTOM STRANGER (1969) #1-3! Dr. T shows up and begins telling a story, then the page number skips ahead 6 and he's shown wrapping it all up!
That's not how I would have done things. Dr. Thirteen was an important co-star in those early issues, and it's pretty chintzy to excise his contributions to save 24 pages out of a 1000+ page book.
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Post by MWGallaher on Sept 28, 2023 13:03:33 GMT -5
The Incredible Hulk belongs in the 60’s, an era when being “different” was something to hide, and never to celebrate…or to even acknowledge. I imagine a spartan military aesthetic dominating the desert southwest setting in a film dripping with Cold War anxiety and paranoia and propaganda. Hippies, LSD, communes and cults and conservative conclaves, Reds collaborating with aliens on American soil, psychedelic music, with a Hulk proportioned like the early Kirby and Ditko versions, not an impossible-to-hide 8 foot 1000 lb monstrosity.
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Post by MWGallaher on Sept 26, 2023 18:42:54 GMT -5
...and it just now hit me that this run started in the 12-cent era! Somehow, that just doesn't feel right to me.
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Post by MWGallaher on Sept 26, 2023 18:37:18 GMT -5
I thought using the merged symbols as a logo was cool. I can't think of any prior comics that dared to do that, nor of any other characters whose symbols are iconic enough to get away with it.
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