Giant-Size Geek

Monster Monday: Madame Xanadu 1981 poster and cover by Michael Kaluta

2012-02-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

This nifty little poster was a full color glossy insert to Madame Xanadu #1 from 1981.

This special one-shot gave Michael Kaluta's character the star treatment in a story by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers. I believe this special was aimed at the direct market only. The pin-up makes Xanadu look like a Doctor Strange type character.

Here is Kaluta's cover to the special, sans any logos or letters, from the back cover. Englehart and Rogers had more Madame Xanadu stories in the pipeline, but these morphed into the character Scorpio Rose for Eclipse Comics--see They Stole Frazier's Brain for more details. Nuff Said!

John Carter of Mars by Alan Davis

2012-02-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

I just discovered that Marvel released a John Carter of Mars Omnibus featuring all the comics they published in the 1970s.

Here is cover and as you could expect, Davis does a superb job capturing Carter, Tars Tarkas, and Barsoom. Notice that Dejah Thoris here doesn't match the version in the Marvel Comics tales.

Here is the pencil version of this artwork. I am not quite sure but I believe that Davis drew this a while back even before the current JC mania in advance of the movie. Alan writes on his website that "ERB's Mars books have been a favourite for many years and I have often thought about how I might handle the stories. This was one attempt to come up with a slightly different look from the usual comic book versions of the characters."

For more Marvel Comics with John Carter, check out my article on Giant-Size Marvel titled Gil Kane and Dave Cockrum on John Carter Warlord of Mars. Nuff Said!

Wonder Woman versus Ms. Marvel by Mike Deodato

2012-02-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a DC-Marvel fight I wish we could really see one day: Wonder Woman versus Ms. Marvel by Mike Deodato!

Even though he is currently a Marvel guy, I think Deodato has it figured out who would win in this match. Hey, check out another cool Deodato commission on Giant-Size Marvel with Hulk versus Spider-Man! Nuff Said!

Neal Adams and John Carter of Mars

2012-02-07T06:30:00.000-08:00

I am eagerly awaiting the John Carter movie coming out next month. I read the first three novels last year and liked them a lot; the first novel in particular was quite amazing for having been written in 1911. I read the Marvel Comics adaptions in the 1970s and liked those, too. I always wondered what an artist like Neal Adams would do with the John Carter material. There following illustrations give us all a clue as to what that would have been like.

These illustrations come from Heritage Magazine from the 1970s. Was this a preview of a longer story planned for a future issue? Or a graphic album for a publisher? Not sure at all! But the first illustration shows the crash of a spacecraft on Mars. I read that this fellow is Flash Gordon--didn't get that right away but it makes sense.

Second illustration shows Flash getting saved from a sneaky Red Martian. His savior is none other than John Carter of Mars! But wait, what is in that container that Flash is standing over?

It turns out the none other than Tarzan of the Apes is somewhat comatose inside that container! What an awesome team-up adventure this would have been, if Neal Adams had drawn that at the height of his artistic ability!

Questions: do any super-fans out there know why Neal Adams had created these illustrations and what his ultimate plan was? Have John Carter of Mars and Tarzan ever met in any work of fiction? (I know that Philip Jose Farmer had his Tarzan and Doc Savage analogs meet in A Feast Unknown.) Please let me know! Nuff Said.

BBC Being Human Season 4 Episode 1: Farewell Old Friends!

2012-02-06T22:53:00.000-08:00

Warning! Spoilers for the first episode here.

Wow. After months of waiting for the fourth season of BBC's Being Human to start, the premiere finally happened last night. How would the show survive Mitchell's departure? Would we see the birth of George and Nina's baby? And which actors would come into the show to replace Mitchell?

I had heard rumors of other people leaving, too. But I stayed away from those spoilers and was greatly surprised from the very first few minutes of the season opener.

SPOILERS after the break…

The first thing we come to understand is that Nina was murdered by the vampires. I paused the playback to see if I missed an episode or webisode--but no--Nina was killed off camera! A strange choice but I understand that Sinead Keenan decided to leave the show and not return even for a cameo.

George is left alone to care for the baby, which he can't bring himself to name. Poor kid, to make matters worse the crib is covered in crosses to guard against a vampire abduction. George was always a crazy comic relief character for me in this show. Without Mitchell and with the tragedy of Nina's death, George isn't so fun to watch in this episode. Lots of crying and screaming. Annie's trying to keep him together but not having much luck as cups of tea are not enough!

The vampiric Old Ones are on the way over from South America and they want to dance the tango on humankind. In the beginning of the episode we saw a cheesy future ripped off from "Days of Future Past" in the X-Men where the monsters are in control of the world. They want George's kid as a present. Despite the fact that Annie says she killed vamps before, one comes in and snaps up the kid pretty easily!

While I said I stayed away from spoilers, I did hear rumblings about Russell Tovey leaving the show. I assumed that would happen at the end of the year, but no way, it happens in the very first episode this season! He went out heroically but the writers wrung every tear-jerking moment possible in the end, as George named the baby Eve.

The writers did an incredibly gutsy move, getting rid of two of the big stars of the show, leaving only Annie as the original cast member around. Perhaps they were forced into a corner by both of the actors wanting to leave. I am honestly not sure how this will all shake out. Misfits got a bit dull in the third season after Robert Sheehan left. (I only just realized Michael Socha is the brother of Lauren Socha from Misfits.) It will be up to the next episode to see how Hal (Damien Molony) plugs into the cast and their house. Nuff Said!

Monster Monday: Doorway To Nightmare with Michael Kaluta and Madame Xanadu

2012-02-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

I often bought comics just for the cover alone, if the artist was one of my favorites: Bernie Wrightson and Neal Adams were certainly in that group and Michael Kaluta soon joined them. When DC Comics decided to create a new horror anthology title in 1978, Joe Orlando asked Kaluta to design the cover.

Madame Xanadu's first appearance was on the cover to Doorway To Nightmare #1. Kaluta created her at request of Joe Orlando, according to this article on Wikipedia. Unlike the hosts of House of Mystery/Secrets, Xanadu was integral to the self-contained stories in each issue. Usually the plot revolved around a visitor to her Tarot shop and it went from there. The first issue featured a story by David Micheline and Val Mayerik.

The cover to issue #2 makes even better use of the Tarot card motif than the first one. I am not a Tarot guy, everything I know comes from Marvel and DC Comics. The most famous cards being Death, The Devil, and The Hanged Man. After that, I am clueless.

The third issue featured a beautiful night scene making use of different shades of blue. It is Xanadu on the cover but you almost think it could be a different vampire-like character. The story inside does have to do with a woman who falls in love with a vampire.

Here is the original art to the vampire cover. It is beautifully and simply conceived. I love how the bat shrieks and the drop of blood that matches the title of the story: Blood Red Tear.

Doorway To Nightmare #5 has Madame Xanadu playfully running her finger along the top of a bottle that seems to imprison a demon. And here is why Xanadu is a great creation that has grown since her 1978 debut. She can be spooky and mysterious but at other times can be playful and mischievous. Xanadu isn't overly buxom but she is sexy in a classy way.

Here is the original art to that cover. The line work that Kaluta put into this is amazing. I always wondered how much artists like Wrightson and Kaluta got paid for covers. I read somewhere it definitely helped them pay the rent.

I haven't read any of the Madame Xanadu Vertigo series that came out a few years ago. I have enjoyed her recent appearances in Justice League Dark. Nuff Said.

Movie Posters: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai

2012-02-03T09:16:00.000-08:00

Last week I found Phantom City Creative among a new batch of Planet of the Apes movie posters. PCC also did an amazing job on this poster for the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai!

Amazing job, right down to the electric logo and the likenesses of all the movie actors. John Lithgow's expression is priceless. Peter Weller looks geeky, even though we all know Weller as a tough guy now from his recent roles on Dexter and Fringe.

Here is the theatrical movie poster from 1984 when the movie was released. Everything about that jacket and tie on Peter Weller screams the 1980s. They dressed Robocop like he was Madonna's boy toy.

Buckaroo Banzai was sort of like an American Doctor Who combined with the pulp sense of Doc Savage. He didn't have just five amazing guys but a large team of geeks and freaks. Motifake's poster with Team Banzai is a perfect example. Nuff Said!

Barry Smith 1975 Robert E Howard Portfolio: Conan, Solomon Kane, and more!

2012-02-02T08:57:00.000-08:00

Last week I showed off a few plates from Barry Smith's pen and ink Tupenny Conan portfolio from 1974. A year later in 1975, Smith published this full color portfolio of assorted Robert E Howard heroes.

Conan of Cimmeria. Barry Smith draws very detailed backgrounds and the stained glass on the side makes Conan pop out of this scene. Notice the fountain on the lower left, which reminds me of the Tower of the Elephant from Conan the Barbarian #4.

Solomon Kane. We've seen Kane stories illustrated by a number of artists, but this plate makes me wish Barry Smith had drawn a Kane short story for Marvel. Smith adds a lot of details to make us believe this Puritan is equipped to fight evil.

Thoth Amon, Conan's wizardly adversary. He resides in a resplendent city state, unlike Conan, who camps out in the wild.

Valeria of the Red Brotherhood. If you read Marvel's adaption of Red Nails in Savage Tales, you would recognize this lady immediately. I always liked her, perhaps even more than Red Sonja, because she was an interesting character and a formidable fighter.

For more Barry Smith splendor, check out Cap'n's Comics post last week, and my own ever lovin' site Giant-Size Marvel! Nuff Said.

The Shadow "Lamont Cranston & Margo Lane" poster by Michael Kaluta

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

I recently came across this gem that was published as a poster in 1976.

Lamont Cranston (aka The Shadow) and Margo Lane enjoying a night out on the town, with his alter ego hanging over them in the painting. I remember this one fondly as I painstakingly tried to copy this in pencil for a high school art class. I could not match the mastery of Michael Kaluta! Nuff Said.

Planet of the Apes: New posters by Martin Ansin and others

2012-01-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

Back in 2010, I reveled in artist Martin Ansin's trippy portrayal of The Flash. This week, SlashFilm brought to my attention this poster to make any film fan go Ape!

Ansin's poster for the very first 1968 Planet of the Apes film was done for a marathon at the Alama Drafthouse. Now this will be going on sale today as part of a set of posters, then later it will be sold individually.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes by Phantom City Creative. I love this film the most out of the entire series, even though I think the first one was the best written and directed. The poster captures all the key elements: Caesar, Lisa, the Gorilla rebels, and the climactic scene at the end with Breck.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes by Rich Kelly. This artist chose the perfect scene to illustrate, the moment the Apes remove their helmets and reveal to the world that they are not human!

The prints will be sold as a set on Thursday, January 26th for $230. Any remaining individual prints will go on sale on Friday, January 27th. Follow @MondoNews for on sale announcements. Nuff Said!

Barry Smith's Tupenny Conan Portfolio

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

I recently found these scans of Barry Smith's Tupenny Conan Portfolio from 1974 on Heritage Comics auctions. What a great discovery--I always wanted to own this item as a kid but couldn't afford it!

The cover to the portfolio is striking because of the intricate line work on the background with the leaves and vegetation. Conan ought to be completely hidden, but he pops out subtly, due to Smith's mastery with light and shadows. Looking at this I wanted to be a master craftsman like him with a pen. I had a different type of career instead, but just looking at the image again I feel the same way.

Conan hunting through a flatland covered with vines and grassland. This is a great artist who can make you feel something looking at the main character through blades of grass that he painstakingly drew. This reminds me of an illustration used for an advertisement in Savage Tales #2, which I wrote about on Giant-Size Marvel.

You may recognize this illustration, as it was used for the cover and back cover to Marvel Treasury Edition #4 in 1975. You can only really see the fine detail in the original black and white version.

This plate featured Conan on a horse against the backdrop of a sweeping vista. There is a storm brewing in the clouds, in the horse, and Conan is the guy who can master all of it. If you want to see another cool Conan illustration, check out my article on King-Size Conan #1.

I originally thought that I had a pretty good scoop here with these scans. Now I see Cap'n's Comics posted even more scans last year on his site, do check those out when you get a chance! Nuff Said.

Monster Monday: Uncle Creepy by Berni Wrightson

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

I regularly bought all kinds of Warren Magazines in the 70s. When I knew that Bernie Wrightson, the artist behind DC Comics Swamp Thing, was a semi-regular contributor, that meant I kept a sharp lookout for any work by him. Wrightson did great stories for Warren but he also drew the frontispiece illustrations featuring the mascot character, Uncle Creepy!

Uncle Creepy's head sits on top of a book, adorned by a melting candle, in Creepy #68 from 1975. The color works well here on this one. Some of the other inside covers were limited to one or two colors.

Creepy #64 from 1974 featured a more intact Uncle standing by a rotting corpse.

The line work from this illustration in Creepy #75 (1976) is nicely detailed with Wrightson's style. He has a theme going on here, with people losing their heads!

This bicentennial themed illustration from 1976 Creepy #76 features a rare collaboration between Walt Simonson and Wrightson! According to what I read, they were all pals during this period and hung out together frequently. I think this is an interesting blend of their two styles, which I never would have thought to put together.

In looking up assorted facts on this material, I discovered that Dark Horse published a collection last year, Creepy Presents Bernie Wrightson, which contains all of his stories and pinups in one volume. Nuff Said!

Jack Kirby Fourth World Gallery: pinups by Byrne, Simonson, and more!

2012-01-21T11:38:00.000-08:00

Whenever I feel a bit down, the best therapy is always to go explore my long boxes. A couple of weeks ago, I came across the 1996 pin-up special, Jack Kirby Fourth World Gallery!

New Gods assembled by Walt Simonson. I really think Simonson drew my favorite interpretation of these characters after Kirby. Orion of the New Gods was a great series and still holds up to reading today.

Orion by John Byrne. Of course, Mr. Byrne was no slouch at capturing the power cosmic of these Kirby characters as well. Love how he draws Orion coming out of an exploding galaxy here.

Lightray by John Byrne. Magnificent vista of New Genesis in the background! Lightray has to be the most positive character in the history of comics.

Mister Miracle by Steve Lightle. Funny that Lightle resisted the urge to go for a full profile shot and instead drew this image of Scott Free in space. Was this a rejected cover for an earlier series?

Forever People by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding, who do a pretty good job of drawing these timeless hippies alongside the Infinity Man.

Seeing these images makes me feel good about the original incarnations of these characters. I usually like Grant Morrison's work, but I feel his re-imagining of the New Gods in Seven Soldiers was a huge mistake. Even worse were the final fate of the New Gods in Final Crisis. I am sure someone is planning for their return in the New 52 DC Universe. Will it be the classic versions or Morrison's weird take? Let's wait and see. Nuff Said!

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

2012-01-03T08:08:00.001-08:00

I just finished reading Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
as part of our Beyond Reality book club reading group on GoodReads. I definitely thought the premise behind Spin was a great SF concept: the Earth gets wrapped in a membrane which cuts it off from the Sun, satellites, and the stars. As time proceeds normally on Earth, outside the membrane time is accelerating at mind boggling speeds. Aliens, or whoever caused the bubble, seem to have propelled the Earth on the fast track to the end of the solar system.

As a kid I always shuddered to think of the Sun expanding and consuming the Earth. And then I would feel some relief when the teacher said, this won't happen for billions of years! This book taps into that fear and it propelled me through to the end. Several of the concepts that Wilson has created around this are fascinating, involving time displacement, a Martian colony, nanotechnology, etc.

The main narrator is a doctor, Tyler Dupree (swear that name sounds like it came from another novel), who is not a genius but is the best friend of the mercurial genius who helps solve the mystery of the Spin membrane, Jason Lawton. Jason has a twin sister, Diane, who Tyler loves but can't have because he's poor and they are rich. This part of the novel is a good classic structure: an outsider who observes great epic things happening and can tell us all about them in the novel. The Spin event occurs when they are kids and their whole lives are defined by it. Jason becomes the head of an agency that works with Nasa to analyze the Spin membrane and what is happening outside the Earth. Diane becomes involved in a religious cult that sees the apocalypse coming down the horizon. Tyler becomes a doctor and takes a job as Jason's personal physician. The main problem I had with this book, which prevented me from giving it 4 or 5 stars, were these 3 characters. They didn't seem that vibrant to me. Tyler spends decades pining away for Diane, resisting all but one other relationship. Diane seems like an idiot, involved in a stupid cult that almost kills her. Jason is the least well developed, he's just there to be the genius who figures it all out, with no relationships of his own other than the one with his father.

I am still glad I read the book. With cool SF concepts and a sprawling plot that spans decades, I can see why this novel won the Hugo award. Three out of five stars. For more discussion on Spin, check out The Incomparable podcast episode 11 (To Be Continued). They made an interesting comment about how many of the SF concepts in Spin had been previously used in other works. Nuff Said.

Retro Gals: Charisma Carpenter, Tangi Miller, Amy Locane

2012-01-03T08:08:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of actresses who stand out in supporting roles on television, yet fade away from the spotlight once the series is over. Here are three TV actresses from the 1990s that I encountered recently on cable.

Charisma Carpenter, who most geeks remember from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the spinoff Angel in her role as Cordelia Chase. Charisma was red-hot during the Whedon years (1998-2003) and her character in the Buffyverse often stole the show with the best lines. A few Cordelia zingers that really get me laughing...

Look, Buffy, you may be hot stuff when it comes to demonology or whatever, but when it comes to dating, I'm the Slayer.

Whatever. They were cranky. So they're like, "Let's lose some heads." Uh! That's fair. And Marie-Antoinette cared about them. She was gonna let them have cake!

You're a sheep. All you ever do is what everyone else does just so you can say you did it first. And here I am, scrambling for your approval, when I'm way cooler than you are 'cause I'm not a sheep. I do what I wanna do, and I wear what I wanna wear. And you know what? I'll date whoever the hell I wanna date. No matter how lame he is.

Of course, it didn't hurt Charisma's appeal that she was the hottest girl on Buffy and fell in love with the archetypical nerd, Xander. When Cordelia migrated over to the Angel spinoff, I didn't think her character worked quite as well without the other women to counter her personality. The writers kept trying to setup a romance with Cordelia and Angel, but that always seemed forced to me. She might have had more fireworks with Wesley, the failed Watcher who was her complete opposite. Throughout her Whedonverse career, you would have to think that Charisma was destined for rom-com superstardom.

At the same time she was on Buffy and Angel, Charisma was also in a variety of magazine spreads: FHM, Maxim, Fit, Edge, etc. This culminated in her ultimate exposure in the June 2004 issue of Playboy magazine, where the headline read Naked Charisma. If you were a fan, then you no doubt bought the magazine. It was a great photo shoot, but in a way I think this killed the momentum in Charisma's career. Instead of moving onto to another series, she made guest appearances on various shows (Charmed, Veronica Mars) and headlined some cheesy TV movies like Cheaters Club. I do have to admit my Charisma-antennae pops up and I'll even watch her in a crappy show like Legend of the Seeker (fast forwarding the DVR to her appearance). Charisma was on Supernatural recently with James Marsters (which I missed, darn it) and is back on the ABC Family show The Lying Game starting January 2nd. Collider recently did an interview with Charisma about the show and what else she has been up to. Carpenter Central is another good source.

Tangi Miller, from the 1998 JJ Abrams show Felicity. Felicity was a show that I’m not embarrassed to say that I watched from start to finish. It was an early indicator that JJ Abrams was a very good TV show creator and producer. I got all caught up in Felicity’s early college life and it was a show I could watch with my wife. Tangi Miller played Elena Tyler, Felicity’s lab partner who eventually becomes a close friend. Miller played Elena with a quiet grace and attractive beauty, but I remember having some trouble with her character arc. In the first season, she has an affair with a Professor (played by Chris Sarandon), where I expected major repercussions to fallout in later episodes. But somehow the entire affair was forgotten! I was certain the Tangi Miller would make it big after Felicity in another TV show, or at least to the level of someone like Gabrielle Union, but it hasn’t come to pass. Miller has made several guest appearances, including a supporting role in Tyler Perry’s Medea’s Family Reunion.

Amy Locane, from the very first Melrose Place season 1. She only lasted 13 episodes on that show. Although what triggered my memory of Amy wasn’t MP but a 1997 movie called Prefontaine. I’ve seen this movie about 5 times, each time I watch it, it makes me want to go for a run—or at least a brisk walk. The movie is a biopic about Steve Prefontaine, a long distance runner who went to the University of Oregon and trained under coach Bill Bowerman, hilariously played by R. Lee Emery (from Full Metal Jacket). Amy Locane played Nancy Allerman in this flick, a very natural and sweet performance.

I wondered what happened to Amy after 1997—she had the looks, talent, and on screen charisma. But amazingly, she never appeared as a regular in another TV series. Her most notable role was in the 2002 film Secretary starring James Spader. Sadly, Locane has recently been in the news about her involvement last year in a fatal car crash; she’s currently out on bail.

In case you were curious about Amy Locane’s short lived arc on Melrose Place, including her short lived romance with Grant Show (Jake), here is a video that sums it all up in 7 minutes! Nuff Said!

Monster Monday: DC House of Mystery covers by Bernie Wrightson

2012-01-02T12:04:00.000-08:00

When I think of winter, my memories go back to being trapped in the house due to piles of snow outside. With the early darkness due to the tilt of the sun's axis, there was nothing more scary than reading DC's House of Mystery.

And who was better at illustrating HoM covers than fear master Bernie Wrightson? This cover from issue 211 (cover dated Feb 1973) was one of his most inspired: a vampire hit by a holy cross, wielded by skeletal hands from the grave!

House of Mystery 209 from 1972 featured a gravedigger about to meet the grim reaper. I hope he dug himself a prime location in the graveyard. Wrightson chose a great angle for this illustration, straight from the bottom of the grave looking upward.

The cover from House of Mystery 213 is one that has haunted me forever. Who doesn't get weirded out by strange noises and pops in the house when you're alone reading or watching TV? Or worse, just at the moment you are about to fall asleep? I always imagine Gremlins out to get me and this cover is the culprit for putting that idea in my head. These two are real nasty goofballs, bending the rooftop antennae and fuzzing out the TV with static. Oh what fun this generation has missed out on--whacking the TV or adjusting the antennae signal to get the best picture! The only frustration they can know is not finding a program on iTunes or finding a Torrent with no hosts.

None of the House of Mystery stories inside had much to do with the covers, but they were worth buying just for the excellent artistry of Bernie Wrightson. Nuff Said!

Mister Miracle by Mike Grell and Bob McLeod

2012-01-01T16:54:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year 2012! A new year, perhaps the one where everything ends on December 21st if the Mayans were right. Not that I put any weight on that prediction, but I can't believe this year has finally arrived. No resolutions, other than to write more blog posts than I did in 2011.

I stumbled across this great commission of Mister Miracle by Mike Grell and Bob McLeod on Kirk Dilbeck's gallery on ComicArtFans. My prediction: 2012 will see Scott Free's aerodiscs in mass production. Nuff Said!

Flash variant covers by Jim Lee and Ivan Reis

2011-12-08T23:00:00.000-08:00

The new Flash series has had some terrific variant covers. I loved last month's Flash #3 cover by Jim Lee...

I wasn't entirely sure about the new Flash costume, but all the artists that have drawn it make it work. The speed force effects on this cover, with the blue background, make the Flash pop out in the foreground. If you want to see a version of this cover without the logo, take a look at Alex Sinclair's DeviantArt site. I wish DC would release this as a poster.

Ivan Reis illustrated this cover to issue #2, a new take on Flash's costume spilling out in energy form to envelope his body.

Over on Tim Townsend's Deviant Art page, I found this black and white inked version of the cover. This is the first time Townsend has ever inked Reis...I think they make a great team. Nuff Said!

Greg Capullo Variant Covers (and pencils) for Flash and Justice League

2011-12-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

Greg Capullo has knocked me out on his new DC Comics artwork since the reboot occurred. I've enjoyed his rendition of Batman a lot, but I think if we get to see him tackle some of the other DC characters, we're in for a treat. These variant covers are good examples.

Flash #2 featured Barry Allen warping through space and time. I love the speed force lighting, the dial on the bottom (blowing out the scale OMG), and the colors are really good as well.

Here are the pencils to this cover, from Capullo's Deviant Art website.

Justice League #3 features Capullo's take on DC's pantheon. He's got a great take on Superman and Wonder Woman.

The pencils to JL #3. I really would love to see Capullo draw the Flash after he's done with Batman. Hopefully he will stay at DC Comics for a long time. Nuff Said!

Micronauts Special Edition covers by Jackson Butch Guice and Joe Rubinstein

2011-12-01T22:05:00.001-08:00

I was touched by the sad tale of Bill Mantlo's life after his car accident, which resulted in head trauma and his life in a Queens rehabilitation center. One of the most affecting moments was the one where his son, Adam, showed Bill the covers of various comics he wrote for Marvel: Hulk, Cloak and Dagger, ROM, and of course, the Micronauts. One of my favorite series from the 1970s, the approach that Mantlo and Michael Golden brought to this licensed toy property really made it work.

I dug out some of my old issues and remembered this set of covers from Micronauts Special Edition (baxter reprints) from 1982-83. The interiors featured the Golden art from the first twelve issues, but the covers were executed by Butch (aka Jackson) Guice and Joe Rubinstein.

Guice took over the series around the time these reprint covers were published. Michael Golden was a very hard act to follow. I remember Gil Kane drawing some issues and Pat Broderick did some nice work for a while. When Guice took over, I remember seeing some potential in his work. He progressed very quickly on the series and eventually went on to draw an X-Men/Micronauts crossover with Bill.

The first twelve issue Micronauts formed a nice little graphic novel, with the team going from the Microverse to Earth and back home to confront the Vader-like Baron Karza. It was probably a job that few people at Marvel wanted and the creative team made it something special.

I also remember Bill Mantlo taking the time to write me a postcard after I praised one of his stories in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. I've heard similar tales from other fans. If you're interested in helping out his family, this article contains a donation link. Nuff Said!

Avengers Assemble! John Byrne Commissions

2011-11-30T21:06:00.001-08:00

John Byrne has done some amazing commissions over the past few years. I can't help but be impressed by the following pieces where the classic Avengers Assemble once again...

Rich Cirillo (from ComicArtFans) has not one by two pieces of the Mighty Avengers, with colors provided by Cirillo himself. A true Avengers fan loves many incarnations of this team, but which one would you select for a commission from your favorite artist? According to Cirillo, "...this piece is actually two requests on one board: The Avengers circa issue #1 (A tribute to Jack Kirby) and the group of circa issue #28 (A tribute to Don Heck)." I loved both the short lived "Hulk" era (which only lasted 2 issues) plus the new team with those reformed criminals Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver.

The second piece features the Roy Thomas / Steve Englehart eras with the Vision, Mantis, Swordsman, Beast, Yellowjacket, etc. This actually forms a poster when paired with the first illustration.

Jim Warden (from ComicArtFans) also went for an Avengers commission from Byrne in a very big way. This one is titled "Avengers Universe" and according to Warden it features "...a crowd scene of his choice of characters from the Avengers starting with issue 1 and going through his run on the title." Look at how many versions of Iron Man are here--I counted at least 4! There is more than one version of Wonder Man and I suspect the Wasp as well. I love all the little details here: the Lady Liberators in the back, the Super Adaptoid on the right, even Warlock and Captain Marvel are in there.

For more fantastic artwork, click on Cirillo's ComicArtFans gallery for more (including Golden and Hughes) and check out Jim Wardens DOA (Distinctive Original Art) Gallery (Zeck, Chadwick, Davis, etc). Nuff Said!

Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson Original Art from Green Lantern #74

2011-11-11T10:27:00.001-08:00

Some of the first Green Lantern comics I remember reading were from 1968-1970, when Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson were the art team.

Issues #73 and #74 featured Sinestro and the return of Star Sapphire and featured this dynamic double page spread of the two adversaries fighting above the beaches of Coast City. This two-part story had everything—action, romance, agony—and for a while it looked like Carol Ferris was going to wipe Sinestro on the ocean floor.

The Gil Kane Unchained page on Facebook recently posted the original art to this splash page, and it looks terrific. Gil Kane’s crazy camera angles really made an airborne fight scene look like no other comic book. Anderson’s ink style was very smooth and polished. You have to go back and re-read these comics while playing Donovan’s Sunshine Superman in the background. Nuff Said!

Uncanny X-Force: The Astonishing Jerome Opeña!

2011-09-17T10:25:00.001-07:00

My last post was all about gloom and doom on the comics industry. Most modern comics aren’t my cup of team nowadays, but I have been enjoying Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force. Remender has lots of cool sci-fi concepts that he throws into these stories about a band of rogue mutants (Archangel, Psylocke, Deadpool, Fantomex, and Wolverine). The first arc, The Apocalypse Solution, was drawn by Remender’s Fear Agent collaborator, Jerome Opeña. The artwork in that short 4 issue tale was very impressive and Opeña’s style reminded me of Michael Kaluta in some panels. Opeña returned to the series in issue #14 and has drawn the last two issues of The Dark Angel Saga. Again his artwork is just staggering to me, as if Kaluta and Craig Russell blended their styles together. Dean White’s color work cannot be underestimated here, the panels look like they were painted! Throw in the fact that my favorite cyborg assassin Deathlok is now part of the team, the book could not be any more awesome. Remender created an awesome sequence in issue #15 where an artificial world undergoes evolution in mere hours, which gave Opeña ample room to create a set of amphibious creatures. The plot, which features Warren Worthington’s Death persona finally taking over his mind, threatens to bring about a new Age of Apocalypse on Earth.

I think if I was at Marvel, I would put Remender and Opeña on a Killraven mini-series. Nuff Said!

Reboots, Deaths, and Rebirths Are Getting Me Off the Monthly Comics Grind

2011-07-30T11:07:00.001-07:00

My DCBS order deadline came and went, and for the first time in a couple of years, I ordered nothing. I debated for a while about whether I would jump on the new DC Universe bandwagon. DCBS had some good discounts on all those #1 issues. In the end, I couldn’t get excited about this latest iteration of the DC Universe. I lived through so many events and changes already: the Silver Age, Bronze Age, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Millenium, Invasion!, Zero Hour, Final Night, etc. What is coming now just seems like taking a Lego city set, smashing it on the floor and rebuilding it. The end result will resemble something of what you had before, just slightly askew.

I could get behind the New DC a little more if they pulled a Julius Schwartz move and just reinvented the characters for a brand new age of comics. The problem I have is DC’s insistence that all the important events of the past 20 years still happened in a compressed five-year period. Tom Bondurant has a column on this topic: “Batman’s history calls for the biggest suspension of disbelief, because it reaches into the histories of both the Justice League and the Teen Titans. In the current timeline, where Damian Wayne is a product of Batman: Son of the Demon’s night of passion between Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, one can argue credibly for a Bat-career of at least fifteen years, and probably more.” Not just Batman, but Barbara Gordon’s journey from Batgirl to Oracle, Dick Grayson from Robin to Nightwing, etc. Or something like the Green Lantern saga. Hal Jordan became GL, served for a long time, then became Parallax and Kyle Rayner took over, then Rebirth happened? This all happened in five years? My suspension of disbelief is broken. Of course, I have no problem believing a guy puts on underwear and goes out to fight crime. But there you go, it’s my fan longevity that is the real problem.

There is another article that I appreciated, over on Speed Force by Greg Elias, titled Saying Goodbye to the Flash Story. The long-term readers like myself, who followed DC since the Silver Age, appreciated an arc in the Flash family where the baton was passed from Barry Allen to Wally West. The story of the kid sidekick who made the transition to lead superhero was exciting, and Wally was a better character in many respects because he was flawed. Just as Kyle Rayner was when he took over as Green Lantern, or Connor Hawke when he became Green Arrow. This second generation of heroes came together in Grant Morrison’s JLA series, one of the best expressions of the DC Universe concept. For those of us who liked these changes, the past few years have seen a reversal. Oliver Queen as Green Arrow was reborn, then Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, and finally, bland Barry Allen was brought back to replace Wally West. Poor Wally—DC Comics won’t even mention his name at all in the latest go-round of promotions. Gone is the hope that Wally would star in a Speed Force spinoff series; Kyle Rayner at least gets the spotlight in one of the GL books. Some of us were even delusional enough to dream that Wally West might return as the Flash after Flashpoint ends, but that proved to be lunacy. As Greg Elias pointed out, if you are mourning the generational saga of DC Comics, that is finally over. Although in truth it ended a while ago, with the Rebirth series.

Over at Marvel Comics, I can’t find anything better there. I can’t understand why Marvel spent the past few years bringing back Bucky, unfolding the Winter Soldier saga, and promoting Bucky as the new Captain America, only to kill him off once again. I am sure he will return at some point. But that is another symptom of a larger problem. The superhero characters are worn out after 50 years of publishing. Deaths and Reboots are the only thing that keep them alive. They are electric shocks on a dying patient. Sales are down—kill someone off! I am down to one Marvel comic that I am getting, which is Avengers: Childrens Crusade. Three more issues to go, then I am done with Marvel.

There are a few DC Comics that I can see buying in collected editions. The Flash by Francis Manapul, despite all my bitching and moaning on the Flash saga, looks to be visually appealing. I think Manapul stands a chance of becoming a good writer. Action Comics, from Grant Morrison, might be an interesting twist on Superman’s origin, and Rags Morales artwork is very nice. I can’t say the same for the regular Superman title.

For non-superhero comics, The Walking Dead and Scalped are superb and I get those in collections. The latter was announced to be ending next year with issue #60. But the best news from San Diego this year was Brian K. Vaughan’s return to comics with SAGA from Image. That is something to look forward to. But for the superhero material, I think I had better stick with my longboxes. Nuff Said!

State of the Superhero Shrine, 2011

2011-07-26T12:42:00.001-07:00

I stopped the addiction of collecting action figures and statues long ago, but I did hang onto what I had collected during the past 20 years. Here’s my small shrine at home. Some of my co-workers recently gifted me with a Hallmark Thor Keepsake Ornament and a Captain America Keepsake. On the latter, Cap is busting out of Avengers #4. The ornament opens up to an actual comic book, mini-sized, with the Jack Kirby artwork inside. A great gift. Nuff Said!