Intelligent Designs

HAPPY SUPERMAN DAY!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 19:51:00 +0000

HAPPY SUPERMAN DAY!

I love Superman. Plain and simple. And this is a day when we celebrate all things Superman and my way of celebrating is to share my 10 favorite Superman comics-related images.

This image is by artist Frank Quitely from ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #1

This image is by Alex Ross and was used as an extra piece of art included in the KINGDOM COME collected edtion by Graffiti Designs.

This piece is by Berni(e) Wrightson and was included with color in SUPERMAN #400 in 1984. The black-and-white plate shown here was part of an 11”x17” portfolio that was released to coincide with SUPERMAN #400 celebration and included 17 plates each by a different artists.

This piece by George Pérez was created as part of the Superman 50th Anniversary celebration. It was a limited run of 2500 signed and numbered 18”x24” prints. My copy, scanned here, is one of the 125 signed and numbered “Artist Proof” editions.

This 1985 cover by George Pérez is one of the single most iconic cover images ever and fully captures the utter and total grief of Superman over the loss of his last living relative from the planet Krypton.

This is believed to be the very first painting ever done of Superman c. 1941 and is by artist H.J. Ward. Commissioned by Superman’s publisher at the time, Harry Donenfeld, it hung in his office for years afterwards.

Cover credit for this on the DC database is Bob Oksner. It really looks to me like a Curt Swan & Bob Oksner collaboration, but I’ll concede to the website’s credit on this. Maybe Swan gave Oksner a loose layout or something.

This one is definitely a Curt Swan & Bob Oksner collaboration. Most people prefer Murphy Anderson’s inks with Swan but I’m one who prefers Oksner.

This is my favorite single drawing of Superman done by John Byrne. This one was inked by the great Terry Austin and was included in THE ART OF JOHN BYRNE back in 1980, a full 6 years before he took on the MAN OF STEEL reboot of Superman for DC Comics.

And finally, this ACTION COMICS #485 cover from 1978 by Neal Adams which reprinted SUPERMAN #233 from 1971. The original iconic Adams cover was way less dynamic than this new one.

This is an honorable mention. Alex Ross painted an imaginary picture here in which the George Reeves Superman form the ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN TV series of the 1950s comes face to face with Christopher Reeve’s SUPERMAN from 1978.

YES, WE COULD ALL GET ALONG IF IT WASN'T FOR FRAGILE EGOS

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 02:18:00 +0000

I don't often inject negative commentary on my blog, but today I feel like doing so.

Imagine being 73 years old and so fragile; so precious, that you must crow about taking pride in pathological grudge-holding over a single-word tweet from 7 years earlier and stroke your ~~dick~~ ego publicly to the cheers of online fluffers by mocking, name-calling, and ridiculing a professional peer for having the sheer audacity to attempt to reach out privately and talk about that tweet.

I’ll avoid weighing too deeply into the details since I have no dog in the hunt other than being a voyeur who is rather shocked at the sheer childishness of one of the players in this nonsense—nonsense that none of us should have ever even been aware of. But one party had to jump out there onto the social media playground and start bullying the other one. The story I’m about to present is true but the names have been changed to protect the innocent and to afford this post plausible deniability as satire.

MOE VON ROYSTER is a white male comic book legend (I mention his ethnicity and sex because it becomes somewhat relevant). He is an artist and a writer with 50+ years of experience in the comics and publishing industry. He has worked for all the major publishers at various times and is well-known for pushing boundaries in his work and is an entertaining raconteur at public appearances. His work incorporates a level of sexual and violence graphicness that you did not often see in creators who were known for mainstream comics work in the 80s. However, as the business itself kind of caught up to him in terms of mainstream sexuality and violence, he experienced some modest level of decline in popularity and opportunity within the business, but not any more so than most other creators of his generation. Comics are notoriously generational in that sense in that the publishers themselves are always chasing the next new superstar creator and will rather harshly toss aside older creators without a second thought.

Royster notably has always been smart enough and creative enough to find new avenues for getting his work out there. His work ethic cannot be criticized, and the quality of his work is technically well-done always. Whether the content resonates with the primary comics-buying customers is another story. Maintaining relevancy as one ages has always been a struggle in this industry. Royster’s work has become increasingly niched in the markets that he appeals to. And while I understand pushing the edges of what is considered appropriate can certainly be a way of drawing media attention, I do not have much sympathy for those who do so and then cry “foul” when they get the negative attention that they were so clearly seeking. And this is where the story begins.

In 2017, Royster was creating and publishing through a large publisher known for letting creators have more creative freedom than most mainstream publishers. Assuming his usual role of provocateur, he created a series called THE FRENZIED STATES OF DELIRIUM which took his usual jaded politically and socially charged approach to telling a brutal satire about an America completely torn apart by terrorism (read: Muslim) and then feigned surprise and hurt when the publisher pulled one of the issues from circulation after complaints.

What were the complaints about? A cover that graphically depicted a dead, brown-skinned man hanging with his pants down around his ankles and his genitals bloody from being cut off. The corpse hangs from a neon sign which says: “Free Happy Ending With Any Homestyle Meal.” As a professional, when called on it by the publisher he provided a less provocative cover so that the issue could be recirculated.

The complaints; however, as happens frequently in the social media age, grew into a chorus online, and yes, some became quite vocal in their attempts to “cancel” Royster and his works. In his anger about his public critics within the industry at the time, Royster apparently took names and logged them all into his little black book of grudges never to interact or work with ever again. Which is his right. It is also his right to lump them all into his grudge book equally as if they all equally tried to murder his dog in front of him. One unfortunate person who happened to get added to the grudge book was a younger and less experienced comic book writer who happens to be a white female.

This is where WENDY GARFUNKEL enters the story.

Garfunkel, known for her witty scripts. She fosters a reputation for positivity through her strong social media presence which I'm sure helps her stay relevant with other pros and with fans. She reacted to a query about the Royster cover that got recalled by the publisher with a single-word tweet: “Repulsive.”

She didn’t write a column about it. She didn’t have public conversations about it. She didn’t sign petitions to get Royster black-balled in the industry. She simply reacted to the image of a hanged brown-skinned man with his genitals cut off with the word “Repulsive.”

Fast-forward to January 2024.

Royster pops onto his Facebook page to say that someone “purporting to be Wendy Garfunkel” has sent him a friend request. To which he guffaws about it and mocks her. This brings about the usual chorus of supportive and copycat guffaws and mockeries from his fan base in the comments because as the Trump era has made abundantly clear, once the celebrity bully starts a-bullyin’ then his fans are gonna feel like it’s their turn to join in like fawning boot-licking manager, Paul Heyman, following 2 steps behind Roman Reigns on the WWE.

And, as one would expect on Facebook, Garfunkel then got asked by some of her fans about whether it was really her who sent that friend request. Remember, nobody else in the entire world would have known about the friend request had not Royster made it public with a screenshot and accompanying mockery (yes, I'm over-using the word, but it's what it is). Eventually Garfunkel responded with an explanation. Yes, she had sent the friend request. Her reason for sending the friend request was to reach out and hopefully open the door for communication so that the two of them could talk about what happened back in 2017 and maybe work it out. She also asked everyone to not keep going on about it because the last thing she wanted was a stupid “feud” within professionals in this business. But she did clarify that her thinking for sending the friend request was predicated on a couple of things: (1) she was attempting to prevent involving others in it and keeping the entire thing privately between just them, and (2) if she had just sent a message, he probably wouldn’t have seen it because you have to be friends with someone for the message to go through to their main inbox and she didn’t know whether he would see the message.

This explanation was received with derision by Royster and his hooting congress of super-fans. But Garfunkel’s response was to express disappointment, attempted to move along and requested others do so as well.

So, for weeks it appeared the entire exchange had disappeared into the ether of past forgotten social feuds. Royster, however, made it clear that it was not forgotten. In fact, he has been quietly obsessing over it for the last month. A few days ago, he published a blogpost that might very well be one of the most embarrassing examples I've seen of narcissistic personality disorder on parade for the world to see.

Published on his Substack, Royster took 2600+ words to exclaim as a badge of honor his pride at holding grudges like a pitbull holds onto a raw steak. He writes: “Call it a character flaw should you so choose, but I hold a grudge, and firmly, certainly when there’s been no reasonable cause to release that grip.

Forgiveness, in my world, must be earned. There is a vast chasm between an apology and an amends, neither of which, I might add, were tendered or forthcoming with all this ‘bygones be bygones’ bullshit.”

I will remind the reader, this is over a single tweet from 7 years ago that said one word: “Repulsive.” And this is an objectively true description of the cover. Royster intentionally designed and drew a repulsive cover for the sole purpose of arousing people’s ire and then retreated into the protective cave of “free speech” when the public’s ire was aroused.

Also, it is fine to say that “forgiveness must be earned” but to deny the other person the very opportunity to even try (and mocking their attempt) is the dividing line between what constitutes a character flaw and what constitutes simply being an asshole.

What follows is his INTERPRETATION of what her motivation and meaning was behind using the word “repulsive.” Rather than attempting to engage in a private conversation and actually asking her what she meant by it, he is willing to accept his own mind-reading as absolute fact. Indisputable. Immutable.

He takes apart her use of the word “rift” when referring to their conflict here by predicating it all on his personal and connotative definition of what a “rift” means. Then he calls her a “hyena” then somehow recontextualizes her use of the single word “repulsive” as a “series of smears, of such busybodied opportunistic shittiness.”

Then he pronounces himself Moe Von Royster . . . “a prince, and not to be fucked with.”

To which, I will just say that watching a 73 year-old acting this childish and publicly parading such an easily fractured ego would be shocking if I had not spent the last 8 years or so watching the ex-host of THE APPRENTICE daily sucking all media attention to stroke his bruised and swollen ~~dick~~ ego.

And I cannot begin to effectively convey my unbounded ~~disappointment~~ joy at typing these last three words.

Pathetic and embarrassing.

SUMMER 2023 CATCH-UP ART POST!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 18:03:00 +0000

SUMMER 2023 CATCH-UP ART POST!

If you are attending PULPFEST/FARMERCON this year (Aug 3-6, 2023) in Pittsburgh, I will have on hand this extremely limited run of only 10 Giclée 12" x 18" prints of my "Monstrous—Savage—Wild" work—hand-drawn and digitally colored. This is me artistically honoring the 90th Anniversary of Doc Savage with a "3 Docs" imagery inspired by Doc's mythology as well as certain pastiches found in works within the Wold Newton mythology begun by Philip José Farmer.

Giclée prints are currently the most sophisticated method of print production on earth—extremely high-quality archival printing made with the finest materials and printed with the best inks available.

Each print will be signed and numbered and priced at $100.

These are the only physical versions of this piece and once they are gone they are gone.

Any that don't sell at PULPFEST/FARMERCON, I will make available directly through my Facebook page or by email at khowell66@gmail.com. Also, if you are planning to attend the Con and want to private message me to reserve one for you, I'm happy to do so. First-come first-serve.

Also debuting at PULPFEST/FARMERCON this year is a special Deluxe Limited 50th Anniversary edition of Philip José Farmer's DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE.

I designed 2 different cover for foil-stamping and Meteor House ran a poll for which one to use and the vote was effectively 50/50 so . . . they decided to do this limited run with half the print run featuring the Hidalgo Mayan Temple graphic and the other half featuring a profile of classic Doc.

The back cover features a gold foil stamp of a dirigible mooring to the Empire State Building where Doc's headquarters take up the top floor.

I also designed the interior limiting page that will feature the other cover design so that all copies will have one for the cover and the other for the interior.

The endpapers are designed with a bronze marbling image background and the Doc Savage Coat of Arms that I designed a number of years ago with Win Scott Ecker based on Philip José Farmer's notes.

Next, I want to share the work I did for Meteor House's new editions of Philip José Farmer's JESUS ON MARS. The limited collector's hardcover edition sports a wraparound cover and the paperback a different piece for its cover. I also wrote an afterword for this edition, Mars landscape endpaper design, an interior illustration, and one more drawing for the signature page inside the hardcover.

You can learn more about this book by watching my unboxing video on YouTube.

This is a series of classic movie monster portraits done for an art patron who now owns all the originals. These were all done by hand using a 2-color scheme with colored pencils. I am considering using these for a postcard set, but I'm not convinced yet that it's a worthy project to invest in. If it happens, I'm sure I will time it around a Halloween timeframe.

T-SHIRTS!

This OFFICIALLY LICENSED T-Shirt is a cover design for an imaginary comic book based on the late Chris Farley's MATT FOLEY: MOTIVATION MAN.

CLASSICALLY MONSTROUS! Featuring four 2-color monster portraits.

ELECTRI-FRIGHTENING! Featuring the Bride of Frankenstein in a 2-color portrait.

IT'S MONSTER SURFING TIME! Inspired by the 1964 novelty song.

THE MISER SISTERS: THEY'RE TOO MUCH!

What can I say? I like to play with gender-swap designs sometimes and this Christman design imagines what the Rankin-Bass Miser Brothers might look like if they were Sisters instead.

PIN-UPS!

Over the last year or so, I created 3 different pin-ups for the BIG BANG ADVENTURES comic. So far, my KNIGHT WATCHMAN FAMILY pin-up appeared in issue #17 and ROBO-HOOD in issue #22. The OBLONG TABLE OF AMERICA has not been printed yet.

Fun Notes:

• "Brimstone" the magical dragon sidekick for Knight Watchmen (which you can see in the pin-up) was designed by me and named by artist-extraordinaire Rick Lundeen!
• The "Oblong Table of America" and all the character pun names and designs were created by me drawing spiritual inspiration from Roy Thomas & Scott Shaw!'s CAPTAIN CARROT AND HIS AMAZING ZOO CREW comic book.

This is a DEBBIE HARRY portrait I did with charcoal pencil on stipple paper. I found a separate photo shoot from the 1970s and used that as reference for her body image I imposed onto her sunglasses lens.

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: BIG BANG ADVENTURES #22: THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY! PART 3

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Sun, 07 May 2023 23:08:00 +0000

THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY!: PART 3 (BIG BANG ADVENTURES #22)

Writer: Pedro Angosto

Artists: Jorge Santamaría (penciller)/Juan Moreno (inker)/Ulises Kuroshima (colors)/Adam Pruett (letters)

Editor: Gary Carlson

Publisher: Big Bang Comics

Order print or digital directly from Indyplanet

"Sometimes you have to walk right into the abyss and HOPE for the best." — Pedro Angosto

The end has finally come.

It was January 2022 when I first shared my thoughts on THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY! PART 1 and we are on the cusp of Summer 2023 and PART 3 is almost available through IndyPlanet and your local comic book stores. A huge thanks to Big Bang Comics for making a digital review copy available in advance.

I could just sit here and grab my thesaurus and just keep looking up more creative superlatives to lavish praise on this story. But my first thing to say is that I think it is deserving of Big Bang Comics to consider repackaging this 3-parter into a stand-alone graphic novel collection because I believe it is a perfect intro book for the modern reader to the expansive Big Bang Universe of characters. But before I go into some of the meat of the plot and execution of this comic, let me get personal for a moment.

I've reflected a bit recently on comics in general, super-heroes more specifically, and the influence of my own age and nostalgia to grasp exactly what it is that draws me in or pushes me out as a reader. Honestly, at this point in my life, I don't read much in terms of regular monthly comics. And that is not intended to be a dig at the comics of today but it almost can't help but be taken that way. There is a demonstrable difference in mainstream comics today versus those I grew up reading and collecting. Because of technology and the vast influence of nerd culture in today's world, comics today are increasingly dense in detail and production value and more organic writing styles. But what is lost so often is the thrill of new discovery and the simplicity of story-telling that kept a more narrow focus but took advantage of the elements that make up a larger shared universe of characters. That hint of more to learn about was a draw for readers then but can be a deterrent these days as the larger shared universe looms large and heavy over everything in this world of "content" creation as paramount driving force in entertainment, including comics. There was a naivete to the comics publishing world of those decades past as they were still the bastard step-children of their corporate owners plugging along as a fairly cheap entertainment option and building libraries of potential trademark options to license.

As a kid, though? All you knew was it was weekly soap and space opera with colorful tights and cosmic concepts triggering a dopamine rush of vicarious thrills that could only be found in those cheap little newsprint pamphlets. Now that the technology has caught up and we have super-heroes driving our entire entertainment culture through TV, film, games, and every possible toy and knick-knack, it's an entirely different global context for any comic book published today. The competition for sales and fans is exceedingly harsh.

So, what does all this have to do with THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY? This comic, in 3 parts (BBA 14,17, and 22), is one of those rare moments in comics that captures that earlier time period in comics perfectly by creating something new but with the same flavor. Inspired most clearly by the 1980s run of DC Comics' NEW TEEN TITANS by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, it is a sprawling story best read all together. And this is why I wanted to write a little about Part 3 now that we have the complete story to digest.

Writer Pedro Angosto has his own approach that continues his previous narrative patterns. The story hits the ground running and it never lets up until the end. And in the course of 44 pages, he fulfills the promise of Big Bang Comics past by completing Galahad's transformation to the White Knight and resolving a number of lost or dangling plotlines AND introducing the NEW Round Table of America AND an all-new group drawing inspiration from DC's INFINITY INC. I'll let you look them up if you're unfamiliar.

I'm just incredibly impressed by how solid this massive story held together and stuck the landing. Jorge Santamaría's pencils with Juan Moreno's inking is a sublime accomplishment. Gorgeous work and brilliant visual storytelling. You can see the Pérez inspiration in the way he crafts the flow of the page and uses those larger canvases for incredible action sequences but reserving the smaller panels for the more intimate moments. It's just such a good job capturing and evoking the emotions of the moments.

Angosto and Santamaría pepper the pages with Big Bang "Easter Eggs" a'plenty including glimpses of new characters and the unexpected returns of old. In fact, when and if they do collect this story into a trade paperback, I hope there will be a guide to all of the Easter Eggs and characters. Any new reader should be intrigued by the larger Big Bang Universe from this story and from this issue. There are hints of things that have gone before, there are hints of things to come, there's new surprising complications that are set up.

I know I could just sit here and do a plot retelling, but I honestly don't want to spoil the experience. The comics aren't that expensive and they're completely worth your time and money to give them a try. If you haven't read Parts 1 and 2, then order all 3. If you've already read Parts 1 and 2, then I don't expect you need any convincing from me to pick up Part 3.

THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY! is a comic to make longtime comics fans feel like they are kids again! And that's a rare thing these days.

*Postscript*

It should be noted here now that Part 3 is available, I so thoroughly enjoyed Part 1 that I wound up contributing pin-ups to both Parts 2 and 3. These were done months before actually having the chance to read the comics themselves. And as I prefer to focus on the positives in my write-ups, had the comics not been something I could recommend, then I would have just stayed silent. As it turned out, I'm quite proud to have my art associated with such quality comics.

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY, PART 2 (BIG BANG ADVENTURES #17)

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 19:29:00 +0000

THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY: PART 2 (BIG BANG ADVENTURES #17)

Writer: Pedro Angosto

Artists: Jorge Santamaría (penciller)/Juan Moreno (inker)/Ulises Kuroshima (colors)/Adam Pruett (letters)

Publisher: Big Bang Comics

Order print or digital directly from Indyplanet

The final fate of Robo-Hood! A crushing betrayal and secret reveal—at the same time! A life-changing discovery and an unbearable loss! Gender-switching! Wide-screen action!

This comic has it all, my friends.

My thoughts on this comic have been brewing for 3 or 4 months and I finally have time to write them down. But let’s get this out there before I say anything else, THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY Part 2 picks up after the events of Part 1 but surpasses the quality level, and Part 1 was already exceptional. At this point in time, Big Bang Comics is matching and exceeding the quality of super-hero comics by the Big 2 when Pedro Angosto is writing and artists like Jorge Santamaria are drawing.

THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY, with it’s thick 27 pages of story, is a loveletter to Wolfman and Pérez’s NEW TEEN TITANS circa “The Judas Contract” and “The Terror of Trigon” in terms of style but carves it’s own identity as something fresh and relevant to today. Wolfman and Pérez worked within a paradigm of expectations for mainstream super-hero comics but managed to push the boundaries of maturity in story-telling and content as had never before been done so consistently and so well. And this is where Angosto and Santamaria are channeling the spirit of that era for this 3-parter.

From a purely visual standpoint, Santamaria is on fire. So many double-pagers intensely dense with detail and movement. His design sense is off the charts. I would be recommending this comic simply for more people to see his art even if the story did not hold up.

Thankfully, the story does hold up. Angosto is brilliant at homaging without copying. Which makes this story resonate, in my opinion, even if one has never read a Whiz Kids story before. There is such a deep sense of history within this story that I can’t even tell what is original to it and what is actually based on earlier extant Big Bang stories. Angosto gives the readers everything we need to know within the comic itself.

One thing I have enjoyed within all of Angosto’s stories for Big Bang is his inclusion of mythological and religious concepts and themes. They tap into those archetypal connections within different cultures that resonate on a primal level with all of us. It’s those recurring mystical and heroic archetypes that have evolved into the super-heroes of our popular culture today and especially resonate in comics—the art form in which they were birthed.

The villains and heroes of this story hearken back to ancient Christendom (Robo-Hood/Galahad), Islam (The Old Man of the Mountain/Sword of Allah), Judaism (Lilith), and Norse Mythology (Valkyrie) which is a compelling choice that I loved. Angosto’s choices for “the heroes formerly known as the Whizzards” is a diverse and interesting upgrade for that team. Might I suggest they could be called “The Cavalry”? But I digress…

As with Part 1, this story focuses on Galahad and his journey from sidekick to Knight Watchman to a fully realized adult hero and leader. But along the way he is gut-punched emotionally over and over again. If fire forges the strongest sword, then Galahad will be unbreakable when Part 3 concludes this arc. And I do not say this lightly. Readers should be warned that the assaults and pain that Galahad endures in this story may unsettle sensitive readers as they are bold creative story-telling choices but effective. He is also blessed with the opportunity to step up in a very personal way to try and shepherd the darkness into the light with great potential for the future.

With so much action, Angosto and Santamaria do take the time to slow things down to focus on the personal and emotional journeys that anchor the super-heroics. The Galahad story, of course, but also the Merlin and Robo-Hood arc. Both are essential to the elements that make this story work so well.

Readers familiar with DC comics, and especially familiar with the characters of Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne will hear their echoes within this comic. But I promise you it will not be anything like what you expect and that’s the best part of the whole thing. The story flows perfectly and it surprises throughout.

I’m ready for Part 3!

*I should probably note that this comic is a bit too mature in content and language to be considered an all-ages book. This comic is probably appropriate for, oh, 12 years-old and up. YMMV though.

I’m reposting my earlier review of Part One here below for those who might be interested.

THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY: PART 1 (BIG BANG ADVENTURES #14)

Writer: Pedro Angosto

Artists: Jorge Santamaría (penciller)/Juan Moreno(inker)/Daniele Caramanico (colors)

Publisher: Big Bang Comics

So, truth be told, I'd been waiting for this comic for quite awhile. It feels like The Last Whiz Kids Story had been first teased a couple of years ago (but my memory may be playing tricks). I'm a sucker for a few comic book tropes, such as Parallel Earth stories, Pastiche Character stories,Time Travel stories, Origin stories, and . . . Last stories. When given the freedom to do a "Last" story, it really gives a writer the opportunity to go in directions that might otherwise be deemed unwise as they may leave characters in a place that is difficult to return to. So, given that Big Bang is essentially a parallel earth comic book line built with pastiche characters, it just seemed like I'm already primed to enjoy it. But give it to writer Pedro Angosto to once again impress me with how well he has matured into a writer of these super-hero tales to the point that I'm not feeling like he is outright emulating anyone else. He dedicates this first of a 3-parter to Marv Wolfman and George Pérez for obvious reasons—the entire concept of the Whiz Kids was essentially the Big Bang version of DC's Teen Titans. Pedro is operating as a writer within a paradigm that embraces the more fast-paced and adventure style of the Bronze Age of comics moreso than the modern slow-paced, dialogue slog of hyper-continuity that undergirds so much of what comes out of DC and Marvel these days. And I say that without really intending it as a criticism of the Big Two because I recognize that storytelling styles inevitably change. But it is an approach that doesn't often speak to me anymore within the comic books themselves. What I love about Pedro's comics is that I always feel like I'm dropped right into another world and I enjoy every minute of the ride. And that is what it felt like when I was buying Marv and George's NEW TEEN TITANS off the 7-11 rack back in the day.

Imagine if WATCHMEN had begun not with Rorshach investigating the mysterious death of The Comedian but rather it had been set within the DC universe proper and began with Robin investigating the mysterious death of The Question. This is essentially the set-up for THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY. We have a mystery that begins on a rooftop in Midway City with Kid Galahad standing over the body of Mr ?, a trenchcoat and fedora wearing vigilante who wears a full-face mask with a question mark in the middle instead of a face. Galahad is in deep contemplative detective mode, well-taught by Knight Watchmen—yes, the Twilight Paladin himself, taking in the clues and bringing the reader up to speed. There are some more visual nods to WATCHMEN in the detail of the backgrounds but I was actually grateful that Santamaría did not copy the grid design from WATCHMEN but instead stayed on point with his own storytelling abilities.

There is a great benefit to the format BIG BANG ADVENTURES uses, with 48 pages of story, because it lets the story breathe and move more naturally. I would say that, having never seen a script, it gives the impression to this reader that Santamaría is trusted to pace the story visually to maximum effect. While at its core, this story revolves around a mystery, it is really about Galahad's personal journey to adulthood and finally stepping out from under the shadow of Knight Watchmen and fulfilling his destiny. Over the course of this grand story, we get introduced to Galahad's Subterranean Base, which is his own version of Knight Watchman's Watchtower, flashbacks to his younger days as sidekick to Knight Watchmen, and a classic "getting the band back together" series of encounters as Galahad gathers his Whiz Kids around him to confront a global threat that is targeting kids.

The charm and the fun of the comic is the characterization and the interplay between the different characters, particularly Galahad and speedster Cyclone who tragically lost his legs in the same disastrous adventure that took the life of his mentor, The Blitz. These are brothers in spirit who have known each other since childhood as sidekicks to 2 of the greatest heroes of The Round Table of America. This feels like both the Last Whiz Kids Story but also like the origin tale for a new team that will exist after this 3-parter, and I can say I'm fully invested in where the story goes in Parts 2 and 3. This is a lot of content, including a couple of text pages and pin-ups, that it is serious bang (pun intended) for your buck. Also, that twist on the last two pages is fantastic. If you are new to the Big Bang Universe, that should send you running to some back issue dealers to find out more.

This is good super-hero stuff, it's retro and it's also not. A very difficult thing to accomplish and yet it feels seamless. It's an interesting place that Big Bang Comics sits right now under the writing direction of Pedro Angosto. They started out in the early 90s as a parody/pastiche of DC Comics but now that they've published as much as they have they have their own 30 years of so of legitimate history and continuity to play with now. From humble beginnings, in the last few years, they've set themselves up as something of a vanguard for super-hero comics of a quality the meets and often exceeds the Big Two themselves. That consistency of quality and publishing schedule is impressive and I make sure I never miss an issue.

If you are inclined to seek out back issues to acquaint yourself with the history of the Whiz Kids, you can order a couple of them direct from Big Bang here: BIG BANG COMICS #6 and Whiz Kids Special.

You can order this and back issues of BIG BANG ADVENTURES exclusively at the Big Bang Comics store on IndyPlanet in digital or print. I always recommend the print for the full experience.

BOOK REVIEW: THE PERFECT ASSASSIN by James Patterson & Brian Sitts

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 20:28:00 +0000

THE PERFECT ASSASSIN

(A DOC SAVAGE THRILLER)

By James Patterson and Brian Sitts

Available November 2022 from all major booksellers

I opened the door. An automatic sensor turned on a bank of industrial lights overhead. As my eyes adjusted, I suddenly felt totally sober again. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.

We were in a huge room with a high ceiling and no windows. It was filled with metal shelves in long, neat rows. It looked like a natural history archive. It had the smell of old paper, old chemicals, old leather.

“Welcome home, Doctor.” said Kira.

Anyone who has ever engaged with me in a discussion about books and writing should already have a sense that I have a real problem with ghost-written books—that is, I do not like writers who take credit for someone else’s work even though I know it is a long-standing practice in the industry. I still don’t like it. Under that umbrella, I also do not like it when certain authors—in this case James Patterson—turn their names into a book factory in which other writers actually write the books but Patterson gets his name in 4-inch letters plastered across the cover of the books while the actual author’s name appears as an after-thought. In this case, Brian Sitts, the author (as in, the one who actually wrote the words that are published and not the outline on which the story is based), has his name buried at the bottom of the cover and at such a low-level transparency that it effectively disappears.

And considering that this is a “Doc Savage” novel, I am sure that someone reading this is wondering whether I have the same problem with other Doc Savage novels given that no matter who wrote them they all were, with one notable exception, credited to the house-name “Kenneth Robeson.” My answer would be no. I do not have the same problem with house-names because that particular industry tradition is one where the named author is something of a character himself (or herself in the case of female house names such as “Carolyn Keene” from the Nancy Drew series). Lester Dent was the most prolific “Kenneth Robeson” in the heyday of Doc Savage pulp adventures and Will Murray the most recent. The notable exception that I mention above in which Doc Savage was published previously with an author credit to someone other than Kenneth Robeson was the classic ESCAPE FROM LOKI by Philip José Farmer which detailed the story of how Doc and his five colleagues first got together. And now fast forward to the year 2022 and THE PERFECT ASSASSIN, credited to “James Patterson” as primary author and Brian Sitts as secondary, with the series tag “A Doc Savage Thriller.”

Even given my general misgivings about how the James Patterson machine works, I approached this book with an open mind. I was curious how it would tie into the original Doc Savage books (if at all) and whether it would outright betray the core principles in terms of character and morality that those pot-boiler pulp action stories trafficked in. Would Sitts try to duplicate the Robeson entertaining action prose style or would it embrace the choppy simplistic Patterson style? Would I be engaged with the new characters or long for the originals? Would it be interesting? Would it be entertaining? Would it be infuriating?

Well, it’s not infuriating. It’s somewhat interesting. I was moderately entertained. The characters were not as engaging as they could potentially become.

As I said, I had an open mind but I still had some hesitancy given that the previous Patterson/Sitts effort to do this with Doc Savage’s sister property, THE SHADOW, had by all accounts gone off into crazy-land and taken The Shadow character and pulled a “Jonah Hex” on him by abruptly transplanting him into the future which placed the original character in a setting that did not work at all for him. However, I felt a bit more positive about this one because rather than using Doc Savage (Clark Savage Jr.) himself, this story is set in the modern day and centers around Doc’s great-grandson, Doctor Brandt Savage. This is easier for me to walk into with a readiness to accept given that he is, for all intents and purposes, an all-new character. The idea opens itself up with potential to do something new and moving the concept forward rather than trapped forever in the pre-World War II era. As I am fond of pointing out, if you aren’t moving then you’re stagnating. And it is the same with fictional characters. There’s a risk of stagnation if your characters stay stuck in the past, never-changing, never-growing, forever. If the concept and characters are strong enough, they should be adaptable to a diverse range of changes and growth and sometimes you don’t know until you try and either fail or succeed.

Oddly, there is little in terms of discernible style to the Sitts prose. I think the longest chapter is four pages. Some chapters are as small as half a page. It’s an odd style of writing. I know it’s common with these modern popular thrillers but it feels choppy and awkward to me. There’s so little opportunity for the reader to engage with the characters and be in the moment; to enjoy the prose. It feels like it could almost be written by an A.I. as there is an utter loss of an author’s perspective or voice in the writing. The original pulp adventures were churned out every month and yet they somehow had a style to them that makes them still enjoyable to read even today, if not for the stories, then for the enjoyment of the prose itself. The robotic construction in the writing for THE PERFECT ASSASSIN is such that it almost feels like an extended outline of a story rather than a complete novel. In fact, I suspect that if it had been formatted more traditionally, those 108 chapters and 316 pages, would have come in closer to around 200 pages and about half that number of chapters.

All that being said, I stuck with the plot, such as it is, which is pretty standard Patterson fare about a regular someone getting pulled into danger and intrigue by a mysterious someone else. The authors introduce the reader to 2 main characters, Brandt Savage (of course) and his co-star, and catalyst for this story, is a bronze-haired female calling herself “Meed.” Her story covers similar ground as what Marvel has done with their Black Widow character in the films. But that’s not something to be too critical about as the idea of a female character raised to be an assassin in a training school for assassins is not unique to Marvel either. Unfortunately, Meed is consistently the more interesting character than Brandt, which is unfortunate for a book that is supposed to be jump-starting a new series of “thrillers” starring this new Doc Savage. He seemed weak, as a person (not his body) and I was trying to figure out why I had this impression. I finally realized the reason—and in a way I think this may be the key to how this version of the character could potentially grow into something good if successful enough in sales to continue—Sitts does something with Brandt that I don’t think was ever done with his great-grandfather in the writing.

Whenever the narrative shifts to a chapter about Brandt, the perspective shifts to first-person. So we are inside Brandt’s head. We hear his fears, his anxieties, his nervousness, his insecurities. Why does this matter? I think it matters because for readers of the original Doc Savage stories, Doc’s inner thoughts are a mystery for the most part. He was a man of action. Sure, he was obviously a genius, because the reader was told this, and the number of inventions he created along with his multiple doctorates and surgeon skills establish his bona fides. But we never got inside his head much to see what inner demons he was battling. Farmer tackled some of that with his Doc Savage pastiche, Doc Caliban. While the Caliban stories could reflect the prose style at times, there was still a Farmerian filter that deconstructed the implications of such a character. In Brandt, we have a young professor who is somewhat embarrassed of his connection to the legendary Doc Savage to such an extent that he has contemplated changing his last name. But as that is the name on his diplomas, he’s content to just let it lie. This little tidbit is a key to the struggles Brandt is going to need to overcome to ever fully embrace his role as the inheritor of the Doc Savage mantle. He is a character with the genetics necessary to be a hero, but none of the desire or the motivation to do it. Meed functions as the catalyst for his journey to becoming a hero and she has her own lineage connection to the past that is a conduit for her and Brandt to forge an unbeatable team. This is not a story about a carbon copy of the original Doc and his amazing five assistants. They were a product of their day. This is a flawed and reluctant Doc and his single partner who has her own hidden motives for why she needs to push him into accepting his destiny.

I was pleased to see that the Patterson machine did not undo the past or do an “everything you know is a lie” approach. No. Everything you knew is true, mostly, although there are some new wrinkles introduced and established connections with Doc Savage history is interwoven throughout. He smartly avoids filling in the gaps of what happened to the original Doc Savage and even maintains a noticeable vagueness about Brandt’s unnamed parents and who they are. He is aware of his famous great-grandfather, but has not ever known him, so his journey of self-discovery is also learning about his great-grandfather. There is no betrayal of the original character and concept but there is most definitely a major change introduced to it. The most intriguing to me involves the importance of “twins” in the very concept of genetically engineering the perfect human. I feel like Sitts or Patterson (or maybe both) has read Farmer’s Doc Caliban, but I can’t prove it. However, the twins idea, name-checks, and the new twists we learn about Doc and his lineage are surprising enough to bring me back to see how that is developed in future installments.

My overall impression of THE PERFECT ASSASSIN is that it could have been more creatively skilled with its prose style and achieved its goals better. The end products winds up as a perfectly middling exercise and unlikely to garner new fans of Doc Savage but also unlikely to please current Doc Savage fans. However, even with the exceedingly simplistic writing style and choppy construction, I enjoyed it well enough and it ended strong with the new Doc Savage ready to start on a new adventure and I would like to read more about him.

COMICS REVIEWS: HEROES UNION #1, BLUE BARON #1, BIG BANG ADVENTURES #14—THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY PT 1

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 01:14:00 +0000

Writer & Bookrunner Darin Henry

This column's reviews, although I hesitate to call them "reviews" simply because it is bit more gonzo than that, are going to hearken back to classic Bronze Age comics from Marvel and DC—I would say....circa early '80s. The first column focused on the latest comic from Big Bang Comics, featuring the Knights of Justice, and I will be covering the newest Big Bang comic in this as well. But before I get to that, there is a new upstart in the battle of the independent retro-comic book publishers. I'm speaking of a new little company calling itself Sitcomics™ with the tagline: "It's TV you read!" Sitcomics is the brainchild of veteran sitcom writer Darin Henry and these are not "comic" books, instead they call them Binge Books™.

Binge Book™ Back Cover Numbers

The Binge Book format seems to be conceived to appeal to modern binging sensibilities but also the aging generation who does not feel particularly good about the digitalization of comic books and wants something physical in their hands to read. A Binge Book is printed, first of all. The books are not made available, legally, in a digital format outside of the occasional free preview download (such as BLUE BARON #3 which you can preview digitally here). This is an enormous 68 pages perfect-bound comic with glossy card stock covers and, notably, include a unique number on the back cover. THE HEROES UNION give you your own "Member Number" and BLUE BARON gives you your "Battle Brigade Number" respectively. The availability of these comics is strictly through comic book stores. They are not print-on-demand or available direct from the publisher. These are legit limited print run comics that are specifically targeted to comic book readers through local comic book shops. Whether this will, over time, enhance their collectibility I can't say. But it does mean that you will have to let your local comic book shop know you're interested so they can stock it or you will need to order from a comic shop who lets you order online and be willing to pay shipping costs to get your hands on it. Depending on your thirst for brand new old-school super-hero comics with some writing and art by old-school comics creators, you can choose your method. Feeding into that old-school nostalgia, you will also note the cover designs that are busier action images, as opposed to the more modern pin-up style cover approach, along with top-left corner images and even an "Approved by the Comics Code Authority" stamp (which is pure nostalgia given that the CCA does not even exist to grant or decline the stamp anymore).

Overall, if that's your jam, I highly recommend seeking out some of Sitcomics' Binge Books. For now, here's a few words about the two I made the effort to try out for you.

THE HEROES UNION #1

Writers: Roger Stern (script/co-plotter) & Darin Henry (co-plotter)
Artists: Ron Frenz (penciller)/Sal Buscema & Chris Nye (inkers)/Glenn Whitmore (colors)

Publisher: Sitcomics™

What better way to evoke early 80s Marvel Comics than to bring on one of best Marvel writers of that time period, the esteemed Roger Stern, to co-plot and script this first outing of The Heroes Union? Well, you could pair Stern with artists Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema, both Marvel stalwarts from that same time period, is that the best you can do? Apparently not, because Sitcomics also brought on longtime digital colorist Glenn Whitmore to give the whole thing a classic color vibe and Marvel and DC veteran inker Brett Breeding to ink Frenz on the cover.

That's pretty damn good.

There's a lot to set up in this single issue, but thankfully, there's 68 pages so there's plenty of breathing room to pace the story accordingly. Stern helps set up the Binge Universe (which is as good a name as I could come up with in the moment) by giving us hints and glimpses of a history here that can unfold over time in other stories and other titles, but for now he establishes for the reader what we need to know: Who, or What, Is The Heroes Union? Clearly the Union is the Binge U's version of The Avengers. Uniquely, while the characters who make up this newest incarnation of the Union legacy team may track with certain common tropes, none of them smack of being pure pastiche or homage to a specific Marvel character. I think that is a great benefit to the comic and to the line of comics itself that they are carving out their own world of characters within a certain "style" of art and writing without copying or homaging specific characters or stories.

The story and art are well-done and consistent with the 80's feel they are going for but within a 21st century milieu. That means there is a certain level of acceptable naivete in this world in which super-heroes exist, but without a need to examine the absurdity of that concept or a need to overcompensate by approaching it in a hyper-realistic fashion. This is old-school comics, including the nearly non-existent these days, "thought balloons" that give us insight into characters' thoughts without the need for endless exposition in dialogue or caption. I'm not saying it needs to be in every panel of a comic, but it is a tool that needs to be returned to the modern comic book writer's toolbox and Stern knows how to wield it.

In classic first issue fashion, the story begins with a young/new hero, for this one it is the character calling herself Startup, receiving the invitation to join a team. So, her journey of discovery is the reader's journey as well. It is a solid way to introduce the concept and the characters (see the inset image which is a splash page type image included on the inside cover as a sort-of roll call of the team members). Very quickly, the action kicks in and the reader gets aliens, space ships, other planets, lots of action and intrigue. Basically, its everything you wanted to get back in the day when you were buying comics like this off a spinner rack for 50 cents. But maybe a bit better given the better quality of printing and paper stock and the freedom of creating their own continuity rather than writing within a larger continuity. The last couple of pages provide the reader with a Who's Who type glossary of the characters for handy dandy reference and it looks like the space is intended going forward as a Letters Page/Binge Bulletins space. All I know is that it was fun to read and I think it's worth checking out.

Which brings us to the comic book teased at the end of THE HEROES UNION #1 . . .

THE UNBEATABLE BLUE BARON #1

Writer: Darin Henry
Artists: Ron Frenz (penciller)/Sal Buscema (inker)/Glenn Whitmore (colors)

Publisher: Sitcomics™

My second outing with a Binge Book was Blue Baron. In brief, Blue Baron is pretty much a mashup of every patriotic super-hero with The Phantom in that Blue Baron appears to be immortal but he's really a generational identity passed down for 300 years from father to son to grandson. For this one, creator Darin Henry takes on the full writing duties and demonstrates that his experience writing for television translates well to the comic book medium. He is joined ably by 80s Marvel vets, Ron Frenz as penciller and Sal Buscema on inks. So, visually, this comic looks like a classic Bronze Age Marvel book in all ways except that the characters are all-new.

This issue revolves around a common comedy trope in movies, tv, and yes, in comics. But I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by how it avoided a cliched resolution but rather uses it as a way to kick-off the series with a completely different status quo than expected. Other than that, the comic is just a good rollicking adventure with lots of clever moments. Highly recommended.

BIG BANG ADVENTURES #14

THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY PART ONE

Writer: Pedro Angosto
Artists: Jorge Santamaría (penciller)/Juan Moreno(inker)/Daniele Caramanico (colors)

Publisher: Big Bang Comics

Imagine if WATCHMEN had begun not with Rorshach investigating the mysterious death of The Comedian but rather it had been set within the DC universe proper and began with Robin investigating the mysterious death of The Question. This is essentially the set-up for THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY. We have a mystery that begins on a rooftop in Midway City with Kid Galahad standing over the body of Mr ?, a trenchcoat and fedora wearing vigilante who wears a full-face mask with a question mark in the middle instead of a face. Galahad is in deep contemplative detective mode, well-taught by Knight Watchmen—yes, the Twilight Paladin himself, taking in the clues and bringing the reader up to speed. There are some more visual nods to WATCHMEN in the detail of the backgrounds but I was actually grateful that Santamaría did not copy the grid design from WATCHMEN but instead stayed on point with his own storytelling abilities.

There is a great benefit to the format BIG BANG ADVENTURES uses, with 48 pages of story, because it lets the story breathe and move more naturally. I would say that, having never seen a script, it gives the impression to this reader that Santamaría is trusted to pace the story visually to maximum effect. While at its core, this story revolves around a mystery, it is really about Galahad's personal journey to adulthood and finally stepping out from under the shadow of Knight Watchmen and fulfilling his destiny. Over the course of this grand story, we get introduced to Galahad's Subterranean Base, which is his own version of Knight Watchman's Watchtower, flashbacks to his younger days as sidekick to Knight Watchmen, and a classic "getting the band back together" series of encounters as Galahad gathers his Whiz Kids around him to confront a global threat that is targeting kids.

The charm and the fun of the comic is the characterization and the interplay between the different characters, particularly Galahad and speedster Cyclone who tragically lost his legs in the same disastrous adventure that took the life of his mentor, The Blitz. These are brothers in spirit who have known each other since childhood as sidekicks to 2 of the greatest heroes of The Round Table of America. This feels like both the Last Whiz Kids Story but also like the origin tale for a new team that will exist after this 3-parter, and I can say I'm fully invested in where the story goes in Parts 2 and 3. This is a lot of content, including a couple of text pages and pin-ups, that it is serious bang (pun intended) for your buck. Also, that twist on the last two pages is fantastic. If you are new to the Big Bang Universe, that should send you running to some back issue dealers to find out more.

This is good super-hero stuff, it's retro and it's also not. A very difficult thing to accomplish and yet it feels seamless. It's an interesting place that Big Bang Comics sits right now under the writing direction of Pedro Angosto. They started out in the early 90s as a parody/pastiche of DC Comics but now that they've published as much as they have they have their own 30 years of so of legitimate history and continuity to play with now. From humble beginnings, in the last few years, they've set themselves up as something of a vanguard for super-hero comics of a quality the meets and often exceeds the Big Two themselves. That consistency of quality and publishing schedule is impressive and I make sure I never miss an issue.

If you are inclined to seek out back issues to acquaint yourself with the history of the Whiz Kids, you can order a couple of them direct from Big Bang here: BIG BANG COMICS #6 and Whiz Kids Special.

You can order this and back issues of BIG BANG ADVENTURES exclusively at the Big Bang Comics store on IndyPlanet in digital or print. I always recommend the print for the full experience.

*I should probably note that this comic is a bit too mature in content and language to be considered an all-ages book. This comic is probably appropriate for, oh, 12 years-old and up. YMMV though.

Marvel's ETERNALS Movie Review Spoiler Free

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 16:09:00 +0000

ETERNALS

Director: Chloé Zhao
Studio: Marvel Studios
Release Date: November 5, 2021
Rating: PG-13: fantasy violence and action, some language and brief sexuality.

Official Website: https://www.marvel.com/movies/eternals

Following the events of AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2019), an unexpected tragedy forces the Eternals, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years, out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's most ancient enemy, the Deviants.

Review: "Based on the Marvel Comics by Jack Kirby"

It's been a long time coming to get that singular attribution on an MCU film! That gave me the feels when the credits rolled.

As the first 45 minutes of exposition and wooden acting plodded along, I thought the critics might be right in their negative reviews. But then....our first scene in the modern day with Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo happens. And from here on out, the film picks up speed and moves forward. It felt almost like that's where the movie itself actually starts and the first 45 minutes was just prologue or something. Which maybe explains the 2 hours and 37 minute runtime.

One of the first things people mentioned coming out of the previews was that ETERNALS is unlike any other MCU movie and the marketing has claimed ETERNALS changes the MCU forever.
Both are correct.

In fact, it not only doesn't feel like any Marvel movie so far, it actually feels very much like Marvel Studios doing their own version of DC's Justice League. For those who've complained about Henry Cavill's dour version of Superman, Richard Madden as Ikaris (the Superman analogue here) makes Cavill's Superman seem downright cheery and bubbly. Angelina Jolie as Thena (the Wonder Woman analogue) is an extremely necessary jolt of star power that helps balance the others who don't quite have her level of screen charisma.

The actual comics history and purpose of The Eternals is substantively changed to fit within the MCU paramaters and for the most part, I think it works quite well. In the end, not only does The Eternals add to the history of Earth in the MCU, it makes a dramatic change to the landscape that is about on par with the "blip" and Loki's introduction of timeline variations and multiversal implications. I'm sure these will be plot points referenced in other films and shows going forward. Not the least of which is the future of Dane Whitman and his family's legacy.

On the cosmic level of the MCU, The Eternals has reset the power structure on the space/time chess board and I'm intrigued by the vast possibilities of where this story can go in the future.
The mid-credits sequence is the most "Marvel" moment of the entire film, and it will also elicit fanboy squeals of delight by old school Marvel kids from the 70s and 80s who are now grumpy too-old-for-comics fans. 😃 The after-credits sequence is an excellent and intriguing after dinner dessert tease.

I enjoyed it immensely. For a longtime Kirby Eternals fan, I was suprised by so many thematic and conceptual elements that were retained but also suprised by the new ideas and expansions logically brought into the mix. A few head-scratchers in terms of wondering why some particular choices were made (such as no Zuras at all and Ikaris's hair color change) but taken as a whole, it all pretty much worked for me.

MODERN-RETRO COMICS REVIEW: BIG BANG ADVENTURES #8—KNIGHTS OF JUSTICE

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 19:21:00 +0000

Welcome to my first MODERN-RETRO COMICS REVIEW! What and why is a "MODERN-RETRO COMICS REVIEW"?

As an ongoing series of blogposts, this will quite simply be, new reviews of a contemporary comic book (or series) created in a style meant to evoke a simpler, and less corporate, time in the world of comics publishing. In more fan-friendly language, these are modern comics created today that attempt to recapture the feeling of comics from what we know as the Bronze, Silver, and Golden age of comics.

In 2005, DC Comics was in the midst of another corporate flog at the teat of the CRISIS cow with INFINITE CRISIS and all the cross-over marketing. That same year Marvel Comics was doing the same with their ever-reliable X-Men-related books with a corporate cross-over event called HOUSE OF M. Marvel also rebranded post-bankruptcy as Marvel Entertainment with an intention to produce their own theatrical films based on the comics properties they retained film licenses to and entered into a partnership with Paramount Pictures to co-finance and distribute the films. And in 2005, Image Comics still occasionally, but irregularly, published Big Bang Comics. That year Big Bang published a comic titled ROUND TABLE OF AMERICA: PERSONALITY CRISIS #1 and I positively reviewed it as part of the Talkback League of A$$Holes Comics Reviews. Rather than link to the legacy site, I've included that review after my current review. I refer you to that earlier review because it relates to the current comic I'm reviewing in a couple of ways: PERSONALITY CRISIS was a solid bronze-age style comic written by Pedro Angosto and the new comic I'm reviewing is also written by Pedro Angosto. Let us see how the 16 years have treated Angosto and his writing!

Which brings up to 2021 and . . .

Wraparound Cover by Pablo Alcalde

BIG BANG ADVENTURES #8: KNIGHTS OF JUSTICE.

Writer: Pedro Angosto
Artist: Pablo Alcalde

Publisher: Big Bang Comics

Big Bang Comics, a creator-owned imprint overseen and edited by Gary S. Carlson, first saw life through the small press company Caliber Press, then for a number of years Image published the imprint. And most recently Big Bang Comics publish their own imprint through IndyPlanet. The conceit and the charm of the Big Bang Universe is that even though it did not exist until 1994, it exploded into existence with an entire fictional publishing history dating back to the 1940s. Within this history, the vast pantheon of characters and heroes exist within a framework of style that evokes the real comics artists of the past as well as style and design of DC comics and Marvel comics. This melding of these various art and storytelling styles have resulted in 37 years now in which the Big Bang Universe has evolved into something much more than pastiches of Marvel and DC characters. The Big Bang Universe has become its own thing. If the entire history of super-hero comics as experienced through those of each era who were reading them at the time were Excalibur, Big Bang Comics is young Arthur, the last to pull the sword from that stone and lead the way for this modern insurgency of retro-comics independent publishing made possible by modern digital technology.

In BIG BANG ADVENTURES #8, writer Pedro Angosto and artist Pablo Alcalde do an amazing job capturing the feel of the 70s era of the Silver Age telling a story of Earth B's KNIGHTS OF JUSTICE, the team of heroes formed in the Golden Age of the 1940s. The roll call of heroes includes Dr. Weird (a Spectre-like character who, weirdly enough, first appeared in real-life comics history in a fanzine where it was eventually drawn by a young Jim Starlin), (Green Lantern-esque) The Beacon, The Badge (sort of an amalgam of Capt. America and The Guardian), Venus (a tip of the hat to Wonder Woman), Thunder Girl (a nod to Mary Marvel), and other familiar seeming characters.

Variant Cover by Jorge Santamaria

Set in 1947, post-WWII, an assault on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. by the Alliance of Evil results in the successful abduction of Venus where she is made prisoner of Pluto, the God of the Dead. With Venus trapped in the Underworld, all love begins to vanish from Earth in dramatic fashion. The Knights of Justice set off to rescue Venus from the Underworld. Whether they succeed or not is for you to find out by reading the comic!

The writing is fun. Angosto captures each character's voice in ways that evoke the simplicity of earlier comics, but within the context of deeper emotional connection than was common in those days. This gives the comic a resonance that makes it feel relevant for today even when the setting and style is from a past era. Angosto incorporates many elements of Roman mythology, and especially those unique aspects of the Underworld mythology as the Knights face individual external challenges but also internal challenges as well in their quest to save Venus. As someone who spent a good portion of their childhood devouring books on the Greco-Roman myths, I enjoyed the hell out of Angosto's skill at incorporating the Knights into the many different aspects of those myths and telling a clear narrative with educational value and a moral point of view.

Pablo Alcalde was born to draw this type of story. Because I'm a fan, I love to see those grand full-page action shots and Alcalde weaved in 9 of them plus a gorgeous double-page spread. This is the advantage of Big Bang publishing their own comics these days—they are not bound to some pre-determined page count or frequency. As a result, we get an opportunity to read stories like this one where the artist has an opportunity to breathe and really tell the story in the best visual way. Alcalde knows how to tell a story sequentially with just the right level of detail to keep everything clear and clean. I want to see more from this artist!

Simon Loko is the color artist for this comic and I want to compliment his work at adapting modern digital coloring and modern advancing printing production to capture the feel of the coloring style of older comics. The color art is not flat nor is it overly rendered, which creates a perfect blend of modern and retro. Solid lettering work by Adam Pruett as well. This is what artistic collaboration looks like!

To round out this comic, which I've already read 3 times, Angosto includes a text piece about how and why he returned to writing superhero comics and a pin-up section is included in the back with 11 contributions featuring various Big Bang Universe characters.

All-in-all, this is a pretty sweet 52-page comic book for $8.95 in print or $2.99 for a digital download. Click HERE to order directly from IndyPlanet.

*From Sept. 22, 2005*

ROUND TABLE OF AMERICA: PERSONALITY CRISIS #1

Writer: Pedro Angosto
Artist: Carlos Rodriguez (pencils)/Albert Puig (inker)
Publisher: Big Bang Comics (by way of Image)

This was the most satisfying comic bought this week and read by this grizzled, grumpy old comic book fan. What a joy to read. Seems like Big Bang Comics may be the only place where I can find modern super-heroes who still feel like the type of characters I grew up with. The more that the Avengers sit around a argue incessantly over who gets to kill the Scarlet Witch, the more that the JLA sit around and argue incessantly over whether to lobotomize somebody, the more that I have to read stories about heroes executing villains, the more I have to read and see the particular sex habits of super-heroes, the more I gravitate to Big Bang and their stable of respectable heroes.

Sitting back this week and reading THE ROUND TABLE OF AMERICA: PERSONALITY CRISIS, I felt like I was being reintroduced to old friends that, in fact, I've had very little exposure to. However, I’ve always liked them and supported the whole concept behind the company. In the same week that I trudged through the depressing JLA: CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE comic, the one with Zatanna on the cover, the love and enthusiasm between the covers of RTA: PERSONALITY CRISIS put DC's comic to shame. These are heroes through and through who know how to function as a team and as friends.

For the uninformed out there, the analogs for the Round Table of America characters goes a little like this: Ulti-Man (Superman), Thunder Girl (Shazam!), Beacon (Green Lantern), Blitz (Flash), Ms. Merlin (Zatanna), Knight Watchman (Batman), and Hummingbird (Atom/Hawkman). Each of these heroes function as certain heroic archetypes and in PERSONALITY CRISIS they each find themselves face to face with a Jungian archetypal nemesis based on their own private fears and desires. Ulti-Man comes face-to-face with Ultragirl the concept that the world is all illusory. The villain behind this grand series of battles is, of course, the Living Archetype.

Formerly Jungian psychiatrist Doctor Archeimedes E. Tipe, the Living Archetype uses a mystical wooden scepter that grants him the power to physically materialize archetypes. Here lies the endearing charm of Big Bang Comics, the illusion of 50 years worth of publishing history. When Thunder Girl's alter ego, Molly Wilson, searches the RTA's computer database to learn some background on the Living Archetype, we readers are given flashback glimpses into the RTA's past battles with the Living Archetype. Most likely these earlier stories have not yet been published but it doesn't matter. And they may never be published. But, it feels right. Reading a single RTA comic feels like you're joining a decades long history of continuity. But it's all just an inclusive game between the publishers and the readers. Personally, I'd love to get a chance to one day read a "reprint" of one of the adventures where the Living Archetype turned both the members of the RTA and the members of Earth B's Knights of Justice into toddlers -- by releasing their "inner child", natch.

This comic is a one-shot and I appreciated that. There was no "writing for the trade" here. There was no "set up" going on. There were no pages filled with a bunch of static heads talking. This comic had a beginning, a middle, and an end. It is plot driven but distinctive in its characterization. Similar to the style of many a Gardner Fox-scripted JLA comic in the 60s, the reader is treated to a plot based on actual science -- in this case, the studies and teachings by Carl Jung about universal archetypes and the theory of the collective consciousness. But more than that, Angosto also advances the personal stories as well by his choices as to what archetypes each hero faced and how each hero dealt with it. Thunder Girl was the standout in this comic where we see just a glimpse of the power potential within her as well as an idea of where her story will ultimately end. There was no sense of campy winking at the reader as so often happens when modern superheroes are approached with a retro feel. This is a comic that is not embarrassed about the fact that it is about superheroes. The artwork was also very polished and professional. Carlos Rodriguez is at least as good as the guy drawing the high profile mini-series DAY OF VENGEANGE right now (Justiano?). I got no real sense that he was specifically trying to "ape" another artist in his stylings (as is common with a lot of Big Bang comics). He stands out on his own as a fine artist and storyteller and I actually appreciated the fact that he just stayed true to himself here.

This was a great superhero comic. Search it out and buy it. And for some reason I now have the urge welling up within me to cry out MAKE MINE BIG BANG!

BOOK REVIEW—TRUE BELIEVER: THE RISE AND FALL OF STAN LEE

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 21:22:00 +0000

BOOK REVIEW

TRUE BELIEVER: THE RISE AND FALL OF STAN LEE

By Abraham Riesman

Publisher : Crown (February 16, 2021)

Language : English

Hardcover : 416 pages

ISBN-10 : 0593135717

ISBN-13 : 978-0593135716

“Let your motto then always be 'Excelsior', for by living up to it there is no such word as fail.”

― P T Barnum, The Art of Money Getting

"What was [Stan] like?" . . . It depends on who you talk to at what moment."

— Larry Lieber

“. . . I know my father's creativity versus Mr. Lee's creativity, and Mr. Lee was an excellent marketer, he was an excellent manager, excellent self-promoter. I honestly don't believe he had any creative ability."

— Neal Kirby (son of Jack Kirby)

Abraham Riesman, the author of TRUE BELIEVER: THE RISE AND FALL OF STAN LEE, sidebars his writing to inform us readers of both the mission and the difficulties of being a biographer. The mission being one that sifts through the faulty memories, missing evidence, and tries to slice through it all with an Occam’s razor to find the truth—and in lieu of truth, at least some semblance of a reasonable viewpoint. I don’t know if Riesman has been to law school, but he makes sure to drive this point home to the reader: There is no more unreliable source for a biographer than the subject of the biography himself. This is reminiscent of one of the first things mentioned in both Trial Practice and Professional Ethics classes in law school: Your client will lie to you.

This seems counterintuitive, but it is a truism. The client has a vested interest in telling their lawyer whatever they think will help their case and avoiding those facts that might hurt their case. Likewise, when people talk about themselves, the stories they tell tend to morph to fit the audience they are being told to and how the storyteller wants the listeners to think about him or her. Psychologically, this can make the job of an objective biographer quite difficult. Autobiographies can never be objective, because the authors are writing about themselves; likewise the usual celebrity biography that springs forth with the cooperation of the celebrity. These can be well-written and entertaining, but they are basically just opening statements in a case that cannot be challenged or rebutted. It is a narrative crafted by someone who has a vested interest in controlling what is said and how it is said.

I am someone who was born about 5 years into the Marvel Age of comics, which is recognized as starting in 1961 with the publication of FANTASTIC FOUR #1 by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. So, my childhood on into adulthood was one that tracked along with the ups and downs of Marvel Comics and was aware of Stan Lee many years before I ever took note of who Jack Kirby or (fellow artist and co-creator of Spider-Man) Steve Ditko were. I would wager that I first came to know who Kirby and Ditko were because of repeatedly checking out from the local library a 1974 paperback collection from Fireside Books called ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS that reprinted the first appearances of Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Thor, Hulk, and Doctor Strange. Stan Lee was credited as the author and he wrote introductions to the stories in his well-established hyperbolic purple prose. And as was Stan’s pattern over the years, he told the stories of what inspired the characters’ creations, took pretty much all the credit for their conception, then heaped much praise on Kirby and Ditko for bringing his concepts to life on the printed page. And this is the narrative that most people who aware of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics know. Then there are those who, like myself, have always enjoyed a higher level of curiosity about the inner workings of the business and, so, enjoy seeking out and reading a lot of these “inside baseball” type of books and articles about comics history. We are the ones who will go into a book like this with a pretty good knowledge of the many conflicting stories and claims about the creator credits Gordian Knot at Marvel Comics. Even with a pretty thorough collection of information in my own head from decades of exposure to this stuff, I encountered new facts and new information to add to the complicated image of Stan “The Man” Lee.

Riesman’s book does a professional job weaving together a comprehensive narrative that spans chronologically from Stan’s grandparents through to Stan’s own death and beyond. He provides no less than 30 pages of extensive citations and notes at the end of the book, which is not anything I’ve yet seen in a Stan bio, and there’ve been plenty. This is a key distinction for Reisman’s book that also helps absolve it of baseless assertions that the author has an “anti-Stan” agenda or is a “hit piece.”

There are certainly quite a bit of difficult and dark aspects to the book, but the author makes it very clear that he includes these with personal trepidation. That is, he is not going to avoid including these things simply because he doesn’t like them or because a reader might see Stan painted in a negative light. He lets the reader choose how to weigh the (cited) evidence he is presenting. The writing is engaging precisely because Riesman infuses his narrative with personal feeling and acknowledgment of his own discomfort. As such, he reflects the same feelings that many readers might have. By doing so, he makes it okay by affirming those feelings but also not backing off simply because it gets uncomfortable.

To me, the most fascinating voice in the book is from Stan’s younger brother, Larry Lieber, who offers up a lot in both what he says but also in what he intentionally avoids saying. The picture I came away with from this book was a humanized Stan Lee. This is not at all the Stan that Stan himself would want us to know, but it is probably the closest we will get to the true Stan.

What becomes clear by tracking along with Stan chronologically through the years is that we begin to see a very clear picture, at least to me, of a competent writer who was a good editor but was Barnum level bullshit pedaler with a severe inferiority complex masked by an over-confident and gregarious character he presented to the world. He was a man who wanted to be famous but was never talented enough to get out of the low-rent world of the comic book business, so he made himself the most famous comic book guy in the world to see where that could take him. You see this throughout the book, that even while working in comics and presenting the face of Stan “The Man” to readers, he was incessantly trying side hustles to get himself the hell out of there. Were it not for the expensive habits of his wife and daughter, he very well may have stepped out and tried something else. Unfortunately, so many of his choices (and life is nothing but cumulative choices) were driven by the need to keep his wife and daughter in the expensive lifestyle that had grown accustomed to.

Part of the incongruity in Stan as a human being is that fame and fortune were such massive driving forces in his life choices but at the same time, he was someone who would give you the shirt off his back if he liked you and you needed it. At the same time, he treated his own family (except his wife and daughter) like detached acquaintances at best. Larry seems the most sad about this in that Stan would toss Larry work here and there, but in his own sunset years, Larry seems not very grateful and more resentful that his older brother kind of kept him on a meager fishing line professionally over the years and now Larry recognizes that he lost so many opportunities because of that. And now, in his 80s, he lives alone and is writing his own stories for himself.

Stan and his wife, Joan, lived a public lifestyle of excess and she was especially known in their circles for drinking too much and then embarrassing herself and Stan by her drunken behavior. Stan was devoted to her but that inferiority complex in him probably contributed to his submissive support for her outlandish activities and spending. Had they lived in more of a moderate sense, they could have gone into a retirement quite rich and comfortable. Instead, he had to keep working on into his nineties just to keep up with his wife’s needs until her death, and his daughter JC’s even more absurd demands afterwards.

The vast success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially after Disney purchased Marvel for 4 billion dollars, was a two-edged sword for Stan. It was the realization of the hype he had been spinning about Marvel since the beginning coming true finally, but beyond his funny little cameos on-screen, he had signed away the profit margins he could have had for a yearly stipend instead. Moreso, he had to bristle a little knowing that back in the ‘90s when Marvel was in bankruptcy, he passed up a chance to actually purchase the company which would have finally made Marvel truly his. Sure, he put on his well-practiced smile for the red carpets, but by all accounts, he never even bothered to watch the actual movies. He liked the attention, but he had little to no interest in the characters or the movies themselves. But that sort of fact doesn’t fit the narrative that people want to read about.

Watching the “Rise” of Stan in this book is so fascinating because of reading those years and seeing it in my head alongside my own experience as a child reading the comics and what my perception was. I’m not sure how someone who did not have my own life experience will feel reading those sections, but it’s a bit like reading the diary of someone you thought you knew and discovering that their self-perception and life was nothing like you realized. So much of Stan’s “Rise” was reliant upon artists and writers with much more skill and creativity than Stan himself possessed. But one thing he did possess was the power to spot talent and to hitch his creative wagon to their horse. He also benefited from a natural but well-practiced charisma that served him well while putting his extraverted personality out into public speaking engagements around the country. He was laying the foundation for a particular persona and self-serving narrative that exists to this day. And the book does not present this as particularly malicious or intentionally harmful. This is Stan being Stan and charging through life without introspection and with blinders on so that he doesn’t necessarily see how his words or behavior might be construed (or misconstrued) by others. Stan was incapable of declining credit (there’s that pesky low self-esteem again) and found it difficult even when pressed about it, to acknowledge the other artists as even CO-creators. The one time he gave Ditko co-creator credit for Spider-Man, he could not help himself from saying it in such a way that Ditko could tell he didn’t really believe it. When pressed, Stan said “I have always considered Steve Ditko to be Spider-Man's co-creator.” Of course, Ditko was quick to point out that Stan still did not say Steve Ditko was factually Spider-Man’s creator but that he had always “considered” him to be. The use of that weasel word was enough for Ditko to dismiss it. And this is indicative of Stan throughout his life. He may not be the world’s best writer, but he would give Clarence Darrow a run for his money in choosing his words very carefully when he is speaking on the record.

There are two elements of the book that are going to be particularly polarizing to many readers. The first is the inclusion of the crazy stories about Stan’s daughter JC, and the second is the conflict with Jack Kirby over who created the characters in those early days of Marvel.

The thing about including the stories about JC is that they are absolutely necessary to any objective biography that deals with the final decade or so of Stan’s life. That last 10 to 15 years of Stan’s life is a minefield of fraud, mismanagement, theft, and abuse. Where Stan’s “Rise” is a fascinating view into how he somehow succeeded in the 80s and onward at making himself the patron god of a business that he had no real involvement in or use for other than as a propellant for his rocket to Hollywood fame and fortune. Stan’s “Fall” is a heartbreaking tale of somebody desperate enough to involve himself with shady and criminal types in scheme after scheme defrauding investors and consumers for years and years. It is a tale of a man who is tired and broken and taken advantage of by those same people, then others, and always his daughter who allegedly was both physically and verbally abusive to him as she would swing from one bipolar episode to another. Stan is even on the record near the end of his life incapable of even confidently saying that his own daughter loves him. If that makes you sick to your stomach to hear, it should. Stan was a human being and by the end of his life, he had been drained of every last drop of life by a circle of vampires, including his own daughter who took him to court to get the controlled trust Stan set up for her broken up so that when he died she could get everything and not have to go through a third-party trustee. Riesman makes very sure that anything he says about JC has sources cited, even if the source is not publicly available (such as the private audio recordings of the two of them that were shared with the author). In any objective biography, the relationship with JC is a necessary component of understanding Stan, so she and their relationship is absolutely essential to this work.

The conflict with Jack Kirby, that in and of itself, is a subject worthy of a book. And there have been those as well. In comics fandom circles, there are those who take the position that Jack created everything, those who say Stan created everything, and then there are those who say it was something in the middle. Riesman says that none of those are very helpful to a biographer. A biographer is not comfortable speculating that it must be something in the middle simply because he can’t make the case one way or the other. It is a question that can never truly be answered precisely because at the time those original comics were being cranked out by a hack writer and his stable of fast-drawing freelance artists, they were considered throw-away children’s entertainment. Nobody was keeping records of meetings or notes about plots and very few, if any, scripts. There’s not even a lot of the art around because it was not seen as valuable. They stored the pages away in warehouses where, over the years, much of it was destroyed by water, fire, rodents, or stolen by the occasional employee. It was not until the late ‘80s and early ‘90s that Marvel finally got around to cataloging and returning what art they still had to the artists from the ‘60s. It is notable that Ditko, according to first-hand reports from people who visited Ditko in his office after that, used those returned Spider-Man pages as cutting boards for himself. As horrifying as that sounds, it does indicate the mindset of the ‘60s work-for-hire freelancer. The art was done for that month’s paycheck and never thought about again. There was no after-market for the art yet.

Riesman does a good job of giving the reader Jack’s side of the story and Stan’s side of the story. (Sidebar: If anyone wants an exhaustive resource for Jack and Stan’s own words on the topic, I recommend the ‘STUF SAID oral history book from TwoMorrows publishing.) He does interject as the author to point out how unhelpful both men’s memories are on this topic. Both Jack and Stan could contradict themselves in the same breath while telling us their “absolute truth” about who did what. But there are indicators that help present a bit of the picture that lets us know that Jack maybe contributed a bit more than Stan wanted to admit, but also that Stan contributed a bit more than Jack wanted to admit. The most obvious indicator is that once Jack left Marvel to write and draw his own comics at DC, back at Marvel, and other publishers, his own writing style is demonstrably distinct from Stan’s and even his own pacing and plotting is notably different. Jack’s FOURTH WORLD books, or THE DEMON, or OMAC; for example, do not track with the types of plots and storytelling that we were used to seeing on, say, FANTASTIC FOUR for 100 issues in collaboration with Stan. Likewise, Stan fairly quickly transitioned out of writing and onto the editing only side after Jack bolted for DC. It’s not like Stan only collaborated with Jack up till then, but from the way Riesman tells it, it does appear like Stan had become quite reliant upon Jack even if it was just to bounce ideas off of him—or get some. Jack bolted sometime in 1970. Stan stopped writing by 1972 and his creative output after that was particularly telling—especially his unyielding commitment to try and make putting funny word balloons onto photos into something people want or his penchant, when riffing creatively, of going into rather racy and sexually immature directions. In the end, we are left with a writer who was not particularly creative but had a knack for exuberant and outlandish self-promotion and an artist who was very creative but was very uncomfortable tooting his own horn. Together they tapped into a magical synergy that formed the foundation for a new way of telling stories within the constraints of corporate owned properties and without which the multi-billion dollar Disney/Marvel monster would not exist.

If your only experience with Stan Lee is his public persona, then this book should be eye-opening. This is not a book that presents Stan as a bad person. It presents Stan as full person. Someone who could be funny and charming and gregarious (sometimes to a fault) but also someone who could be moody, spiteful, mean, duplicitous, and selfish. Much like you and I, he was complicated, and Riesman has written a fairly definitive biography of Stan Lee that will stand the test of time.

Also, before I wrap this review, I want to say that this book should be made into a movie promptly by the writer and director behind the Oscar nominated THE BIG SHORT, Adam McKay. And they should hire Sam Rockwell to play Stan.

That’s my free Hollywood advice.

Excelsior!

THE MYTHS OF RALTARNEE by Philip José Farmer

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 23:42:00 +0000

The late, great Philip José Farmer has prolific library of books and other writings available. Farmer passed away in 2009 and his devoted fan base (of which I am one) continue to seek out his work. These include posthumous publications, collaborations, and original works by other authors that are connected to the fantastic worlds he created over the many decades of writing. One of the more interesting aspects, to me, of Farmer's writing is how often he was involved in projects where he was not the marquee name. His ego was such that he was willing to be the partner, part of a round-robin style project, or as in the focus of this blog post—providing evocative phantasmagorical commentary accompaniment to the fantasy art of painter Boris Vallejo.

From 1995 through 1999, Farmer wrote the accompanying commentaries for Vallejo's Fantasy Calendar series from Workman Publishing. The Philip José Farmer International Bibliography website does have listings for all the calendars, but does not really give you a fair taste of how cool they really are. Any Farmer completist really needs to seek these out and add them to your collection. It seems pretty clear that the process was that the paintings from Vallejo were selected for the calendar and then they were presented to Farmer who let the visual imagery guide his imagination into whatever creative tangent or imaginary world they birthed within his author's mind. Fans of Farmer's World of Tiers books will find a lot within these calendar commentaries that could easily slide into the parallel worlds mythology of the World of Tiers if they want them to.

I'm going to use this blog to reproduce the text from the 1996 calendar along with their corresponding picture for the month just to give the reader a taste but also for a representative historical example of an obscure writing of Farmer's that has been unavailable anywhere else for 25 years as of 2020.

Enjoy...The Myths of Raltarnee and Other Character Profiles by Philip José Farmer inspired by artwork created by Boris Vallejo!

All image descriptions copyright © 1996, 2020, by the P J Farmer Family Trust.

MYTHS OF RALTARNEE: MYTH 1
In the complex of parallel universes known as Raltarnee, one creation-story is known everywhere: That Raltarnee is the Original Goddess, self-created, and creator of all universes and all forms of life.
It is also generally accepted that Raltarnee created many worlds from the original one, and a goddess for each. The worlds came out of pre-nothing, in a long line that stretched from infinity to eternity, and many are doomed to perish.

MYTHS OF RALTARNEE: MYTH 2
One universe created by Raltarnee, the Supreme Goddess, was called the World of Never-Ending War. After she made it, she created many goddesses and gods. She then said to them: "Whoever survives will be the everlasting deity of this world."

The last two warriors were shape-shifting goddesses. In their final battle, one took the form of a giant stone ape, and one of a centauress. This universe is now completely lifeless.

MYTHS OF RALTARNEE: MYTH 3
Mormak was a minor god created by a goddess as her mate. But he was not happy with his rank and power, and warred on the goddesses of a hundred worlds. All are now locked up in the Place of Neither Entrance Nor Exit. During the war, Mormak enlisted Rekmall, a refugee shape-shifter from the Universe of Never-Ending War.

What Mormak does not know is that Rekmall is really Raltarnee. She's been amusing herself by helping him in his war, but soon . . .

MYTHS OF RALTARNEE: MYTH 4
Although Raltarnee has created goddesses for each universe, she has not made them her equals.

Their powers are limited.

Raltarnee has given Sunai gossamer wings and useless arms. This has spoiled Sunai's joy in the godlike abilities she does have. After an aeon of suffering, Sunai prays to Raltarnee to either give her arms power or slay her. Raltarnee's face begins to form on the peak as she answers Sunai's request through the medium of the mountain.

MYTHS OF RALTARNEE: MYTH 5
The Supreme Goddess, Raltarnee, repopulated the World of Never-Ending War. Her first two creations, only half-formed, seem to soar up from a vent in the earth like images shaped from the breath of a human on a cold morning. Raltarnee did not like what she saw. Thus, what you see here are two incomplete creatures vanishing, drawn back into the vent like a breath now being inhaled.

MYTHS OF RALTARNEE: MYTH 6
Pamati was one of the earlier goddesses to be created by the Supreme Goddess, Raltarnee. Pamati then made two beings to help her expand and reshape the rather small world given her. One was Phoneet, goddess of the air; the other was Shooshkram, goddess of the sea. Pamati reserved the rule of the land for herself, and she also kept the final say in the councils of the air, the sea, and the land.

MYTHS OF RALTARNEE: MYTH 7
The laws of physics do not always apply in the universes of Raltarnee. Thus, the atmosphere of a Jupiter-size but low-gravity planet in a certain universe supports a tiny, wind-driven, floating moon.

The half-goddess Duthina desires to become a complete goddess and the only one in this universe. She has caught and tamed a creature that would look to us like a unicorn. She plans to fly on it to the moon, where the ruling goddess Seegreet lives, in hopes of capturing and imprisoning her.

MYTHS OF RALTARNEE: MYTH 8
Every seven years, a high priest is chosen by lot to be sacrified to the goddess Theetuni. He is taken to an islet and chained to a rock where a gigantic monster destroys him. Lhahl, whose lover has been chosen, tamed the flesh-eating, winged, unicorn-like beloved beast of Theetuni. Daring the goddess's wrath, she has slain the monster with the help of the steed.

There are similar myths on Earth, but the sacrifice is always a woman who is rescued by a man.

Things are not so int he worlds of Raltarnee.

THE THOUGHT THAT THINKS IT CAN
Thorma is an afterthought of the world-spanning brain that was buried deep under the soil aeons ago. Those who made it have perished. Now, the brain is dying. Erosion has exposeds part of its semimineral, semiprotein latticework. If this part is reburied, the brain may revive, and Thorma and the many living figments of the brain may live on. But on of the brain's forethoughts is devouring its creator. Thorma, after a dangerous search, has found the Flying Ax. It is the only thing that can slay the creature.

THE ARCHANGEL OF SPACE AND TIME
New universes are created in a dreamer's sleep. He knows, deep in his mind, this truth: Without matter, there is no space; without space, there is not time. The new matter appears in the realm of dreams—outside the dreamer's world.

The winged creature, full-fledged from the dreamer, seems to be collecting rocks in the serial void. But he is pushing the debris outward. Thus matter expands, creating new space. And thus time is created on the edge of the burgeoning world.

QUEST OF THE TWO SISTERS
Sithima and Taulyka of the planet Erana are searching for their sister, Arbatru. Shagii, Lord of the Movable Keep, abducted her long ago.

During their quest, they fought and subdued the Bird-That-Sees-Evil. Now they use it to track down the Movable Keep. But they are starving. The balloon-creatures sent by Shagii to ingest the two sister are tasty and energyful, though very dangerous to them. Luckily, the balloon-creature is the favorite prey of the Bird-That-Sees-Evil.

THINGS BETTER UNMET
Nadha has fled from the unendurable into a terrifying swamp. Among the swamp's raveners is an entity that might save a threatened wayfarer—if it so desired.

Nahda recognizes the necklace around the swan-thing's neck. She'd lost it in the swamp. She also sees the swan-thing's thick, unbirdlike tail dipping into the water. Suddenly, she knows that the bird is a shape-shifted limb of the python-thing in the water. The swamp is a living creature, and it's decided to save her.

ALABASTER CITY
The Alabaster City sits on top of the gigantic mountain in the center of the only continent on the planet Oormamteb. In the city, on a table cut from an emerald, is a drinking cup fashioned from a diamond. From each of the four sides of the cup flow two things good and two things bad.

Many have sneaked into the city to steal the cup. Only Torwyn has gotten close enough to touch it before flying away in terror. The cup's guardian is raging; his majic is shredding. Torwyn's wings. Although Torwyn will fall to his death, he will become a legend to outlast the city.

THE BEST OF CHRISTMAS 2019

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 00:28:00 +0000

Here's your official BEST OF CHRISTMAS list of the Top 10 Holiday Specials and Top 5 Movies, Specials, and Songs!

TOP 5 CHRISTMAS SONGS

5. Wrapped in Red by Kelly Clarkson

4. You Make It Feel Like Christmas by Gwen Stefani & Blake Shelton

3. Christmas Canon by The Trans-Siberian Orchestra

2. One Last Sleep by Leona Lewis

1. A Christmas Twist by Si Cranstoun

TOP 5 CHRISTMAS COMEDIES

5. Daddy's Home 2 4. Four Christmases 3. Elf 2. A Christmas Story

1. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

TOP 5 WORST CHRISTMAS COMEDIES
5. Christmas With the Kranks 4. Mixed Nuts 3. Fred Clause 2. Santa Claus: The Movie

1. A Merry Friggin' Christmas

TOP 5 UNDERRATED CHRISTMAS MOVIES

5. The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas 4. Surviving Christmas 3. Rise of the Guardians 2. Ernest Saves Christmas

1. Arthur Christmas

TOP 5 NON-COMEDIES

5. Klaus 4. Krampus 3. It's A Wonderful Life 2. Love, The Coopers

1. Love, Actually

TOP 5 CHRISTMAS...TERTIARY

5. Gremlins 4. Krampus 3. Lethal Weapon 2. Die Hard

1. Trading Places

TOP 10 BEST TV SPECIALS

10. The Night the Animals Talked 9. The Year Without A Santa Claus 8. Frosty the Snowman 7. How the Grinch Stole Christmas 6. A Very Murray Christmas

5. A Claymation Christmas Celebration 4. A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All 3. A Charlie Brown Christmas 2. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

1. Santa Claus is Coming to Town

AND DON'T FORGET YOUR BEST LAST-MINUTE or AFTER-CHRISTMAS GIFT!

COLOR ME INTROVERTED

Only $9.99 @ Amazon

Flashback Art Gallery (1977-1988)

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 04:45:00 +0000

About 8 years ago, I published a "High School Art Flashback" blog post where I scanned in some old art of mine and shared it here. At the time, I planned to post some more but...life happens. Well, this past week my aunt mailed me a package returning to me a bunch of drawings I had given her back in 1980. This got me reflecting on my past again and I grabbed some of those drawings and dug out a few more from the garage and this is the result: a smorgasbord of quirky and nerdy things I drew ranging from about age 12 (middle school) through to about age 21 (college). I don't know if anyone but me finds this sort of thing interesting, but I like having these preserved digitally. I had a bad habit back when I was a child of throwing away any drawing I did that I did not perceive as "perfect." So, I actually have but a small percentage of all the sketching and drawing that I did during those years. Most of these survived because other people (mother, grandmother, aunt, etc.) held onto them.

I drew this Dr. Strange piece in 1977. At the time, I did not really know what I was doing or much about art supplies. I knew that I liked drawing on "boards" so I tended to scavenge large gift boxes from my mother and cut the bottom out of the boxes and used those as art boards. This particularly drawing was done with black and colored sharpies and the figure of Dr. Strange was based on a Gene Colan drawing in a comic book.

In 1978, I was pretty well obsessed with Star Trek, Star Wars, Space: 1999, and whatever else I could find that was science-fiction-ey. These are my attempts at drawing The Enterprise (Star Trek) and the Eagle 1 (Space: 1999). I'm pleased to see I was attempting to figure out the shading on the Enterprise and I can see that the intricacy of the Eagle 1 design had me completely flummoxed. I'm not much better even now at visualizing that sort of mechanical design in drawings.

The next piece is a little comic book I drew using a 7/11 Slurpee mascot named "Chuckle Cherry." I have no memory of drawing this so I cannot explain its existence. I can barely find anything online that even verifies the existence of "Chuckle Cherry" except I did finally come across this vintage photo someone posted online of an inflatable version of him that was apparently a part of the marketing at that time.

All I can really say in my defense is I must have really loved Cherry Slurpees that year.

Jump to circa 1980 and the above pencil drawing of a cat is one I did of our cat, "Darth Vader," while he slept on my pillow on my bed. The Donald Duck drawing is one I'm pretty sure I traced using carbon paper, but I cannot remember actually drawing this so I cannot say for certain. It's a mish-mash of sharpies and water-based markers though. This is the cover I was copying (or maybe tracing).

I basically spent a lot of my time just drawing characters who had a look that I liked. Baron Karza, the villain of the Micronauts toy line and the comic book, was one such character. I'm pretty sure this drawing is my attempt at copying a panel by Micronauts artist Michael Golden.

Continuing my obsession with favorite characters, I was also beginning to get into specific artists. The Wolverine drawing is copied from an issue of The Uncanny X-Men set in the Savage Land and drawn by John Byrne and Terry Austin. If I remember right, it was Wolvie being thrown into the air by Colossus? The Thing and the Hulk was me just copying the little faces that Marvel used in the corner boxes of their comics at that time. I'm fairly certain that my drawing of The Wasp was riffing on her pose on this Avengers cover but wearing a costume she had on in a different issue that I liked. It's funny looking back on it because the elements of this very basic costume are all stylistic design elements (wizard collar, puffy sleeves, sash, buccaneer boots) I continue to like to this day and have used in my own super-hero costume designs.

My first exposure to The Doom Patrol was with their 1970s version. Above is my drawing based on artist Joe Staton's redesigned/updated character design for Robotman. The other drawing is my attempt at a dramatic image of Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk.

Some cartooning from that time period. A drawing of Harvey Comics' Hot Stuff, the Little Devil, cartoonist Dik Browne's Hagar the Horrible, and a gag I thought up of poor Mickey Mouse running for his life from a hungry eagle.

In 1982, DC Comics' Swamp Thing was turned into a movie and they relaunched his comic book as Saga of the Swamp Thing. I was into all things Swamp Thing so, of course, I did a drawing of the character in an attempt to imagine him in my own unsettled "style."

Another odd compulsion in me my whole life is getting on these kicks where I would do exhaustive series of character drawings based on a gag. For example, in elementary school on into early middle school I would obsessively draw sharks and dolphins dressed out in Marvel super-hero costumes. In my young mind, the "men" were the sharks and the "women" were the dolphins. Well, the next phase in that type of compulsive drawing behavior was this desire to play around with the simplistic image of Pac-Man and re-imagine a world of stock characters who were essentially human except they had Pac-Man faces and I would give them names that were some sort of Pac-Man puns. Yes, it makes no sense, but it became some sort of creative challenge to see how many variations I could come up with. I drew way too many of them to share them all. But here's a few samples to laugh at. Note that I was experimenting on cartooning with a "big foot" sort of style and using different line-art texturing techniques.

First off is just a basic Pac-Man followed by the Saturday morning cartoon version and then "Mr. Spac" (Mr. Spock).

From left to right are President Richard Paxon, the Hunchpac of Notre Dame, and Indiana Pac.

The Empire Strikes Pac

A couple of years later, in 1984, I drew this cartoon playing with the Marvel Comics' What If? series showing what would have happened if the very UN-bullet-proof Captain America had not equipped himself with a bulletproof shield. I notice that the cartoon figures are still a bit stiff but much improved over the Pac-Man cartoons 2 years before. I'm still using the same sort of "big foot" on the characters.

1985 starts to showcase a nice jump in drawing technique and experimentation that I credit to my college art classes at Temple College.

Mike Grell's Warlord (DC Comics) character meeting Grell's Star Slayer (Pacific Comics) character

Sergio Aragones' Groo the Wanderer

Playing with high contrast black and white ink drawings and female forms. Shadowcat from The X-Men (note once again my fondness for puffy sleeves and sash). The other 2 drawings are from a photoshoot in a Penthouse magazine. I wish I could remember the photographer's name. At the time, I know the joke was that you only read Playboy of Penthouse for the articles, but I was picking up an occasional issue specifically for the photo pictorials by this one photographer because the artistic design really connected with me back then.

The last 2 years of college I knocked out a few interesting pieces. The first is The Joker as The Devil and my attempt at drawing Watchmen (which I don't believe had even concluded at the point I drew this). The Joker drawing was an attempt at mixing my pencil technique with markers. I notice some stylistic elements here that are reflective of stuff I draw even today. The Watchmen piece is a total disaster in retrospect in terms of anatomy and physics. I cannot at all figure out what I thought Nite-Owl was doing being dropped down on a rope from his ship but yet he's just floating there above it. It makes no sense. But I am impressed that I at least tried some perspective tricks and badly envisioning the anatomical features of Bubastis there in the back. It was a nice effort for a teenager maybe.

Below is short poem/story written by a friend in my dorm that I illustrated. I think I had some good ideas here and not the absolute worst in execution but there's some real need for a better understanding of how to do certain effects using ink.

The last piece is a watercolor painting I did for my painting class.

Bill Maher And The Ruffled Capes of Comic Book Fandom: A Response

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 01:49:00 +0000

On the January 25, 2019 episode of REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER, Bill took off on his "New Rules" segment to double-down on his own reaction to the passing of Stan Lee back in November 2018, by responding to the collective geek culturati and their angry response towards him. As you might recall, he had made some dismissive statements best summarized as akin to another "Bill," William Shatner, and his infamous skit on SNL where he told a bunch of Star Trek fans in costume to "grow up." And, as the online geek culture is anything if not predictable, the response to his comments have been sharply critical. Nobody likes being told that something they like is childish, just as people on the Right politically don't like it when Bill mocks them for supporting the current president.

My purpose of writing this is not to attack Bill Maher or to defend Bill Maher. My purpose in writing this is to actually look at his entire statement, so we have full context, and respond accordingly with an attempt to see whether he has valid points buried within his mockery or whether he's just going for cheap laughs at the expense of others.

Here's the actual video clip of the 6-minute segment if you want to watch it:

I've transcribed the entire segment below and will put Bill's words in red, like Jesus's words in the Bible (or Superman's trunks if you prefer), to more easily distinguish between his words and mine.

...and finally to every person on social media who's asked me since November, "Bill what do you have to say about Stan Lee?" and every paparazzi outside a restaurant who's still shouting at me "Bill! What about the Stan Lee thing?"

Okay, your day has come.

Tonight's editorial is about Stan Lee, who, if you missed it, died in November and a few days later I posted a blog that was in no way an attack on Mr. Lee but took the occasion of his death to express my dismay at people who think comic books are literature and super-hero movies are great cinema and who, in general, are stuck in an everlasting childhood.

This is an important distinction for him and it should be to all of us. He was not disrespecting Stan "The Man." He was, however, intentionally disrespecting adults who read comic books and/or enjoy super-hero movies. I'm not going to focus in on the irony of his attitude towards super-hero movies given that he was more than willing to take a paycheck for a cameo in one. That's an immediate goto, apparently, within much of the geek bloggers and commentators, but it has no merit as far as I'm concerned. Appearing in a super-hero movie, to Bill, would obviously be no different than appearing in any other "kids' movie." As he makes plain and clear, he sees a hard line distinction between what is children's entertainment and what is adult entertainment. This is a topic we will return to throughout this article and we will discuss the merits, or lack thereof, when it comes up.

I think there are two key issues that reveal a certain attitude in Bill. The first is the conflation of the idea of "comic books are literature" as the equivalent of "super-hero movies are great cinema." The second is the lump sum opinion that people who think like that are "stuck in an everlasting childhood" and the implication that this is a prima facie bad thing.

To the first point, there is certainly an elitist snobbery in his perspective. And that's not meant as a criticism, necessarily, but an observation that many have made over the years about Bill Maher. To be fair, this is part of what makes him entertaining as both a comedian and as a political commentator. He positions himself within a persona of someone who consistently looks down his nose at others with a knowing smirk of superiority. I believe this is more shtick than something actual about him, but I do not know him personally and cannot say with certainty. But I do think I'm right. So, any statement he makes like this has to be taken within the context of his role as a comedian who intentionally dips his toe over the lines of common propriety for reasons of triggering emotional discomfort in those listening. He also exposes his own willful ignorance about comic books in that he does not know, or does not care to be informed beyond his limited exposure, that comics at this point is a medium of illustrated storytelling that has achieved much more than merely super-heroes beating up bad guys, even if that is what the general public associates it with. But his unwillingness to even entertain the notion that it might legitimately be something more than what he already believes it to be is the same sort of closed-mindedness that he criticizes in others.

To the second point, that same elitist snobbery informs his derision of a group of people for being, as he puts it, "stuck in an everlasting childhood." I think I know what he means here. I think he means that adults who still like super-heroes have never grown up or matured. There is a germ of something there that is worth someone exploring (not me and certainly not him) as to why, if you are a "grown up," that you would (A) still primarily entertain yourself with the most simplistic narrative form of "good guy vs. bad guy" type of fiction rather than something more nuanced and applicable to the real world, and (B) get so upset by a comedian making fun of you for liking what you like.

Bragging that you're all about the Marvel Universe is like boasting that your mother still pins your mittens to your sleeves.

Yes, this is a joke. But, it's also a mean-spirited and belittling joke that is especially demeaning when applied to an entire group of people that Bill, by his own admission, does NOT know and does NOT care to know, and does NOT care to learn about. It's not even a clever joke as it is essentially just another variation of the "lives in your parents' basement" type of joke. It's swinging at a tee ball rather than actually trying to hit a fast ball. It's lazy.

You can, if you want, like the exact same things you liked when you were 10 but if you do—you need to grow up.

Bill's elitist, or superior, persona dangles the possibility that you have the RIGHT to like the same things you liked when you were 10, but then he uses that just to smack you across the face with a demand that you "grow up." The reason that rubs people the wrong way is that no matter who you are, whether an adult or a child, telling someone to "grow up" is about as effective and helpful as telling your significant other to "calm down" in the middle of an argument. Basically, Bill is just posturing at this point. He's performing for his audience and the other celebrities on the stage with him, who he feels are fellow intellectuals and will join him in his mockery.

That was the point of my blog. I'm not glad Stan Lee is dead—I'm sad you're alive!

This is arguably a funny one-liner, but the pointed truth within it is that he does not care who Stan was or what Stan did and this is the source of his smugness in this context. The fact that he doesn't know anything about Stan somehow inexplicably makes him conduct himself as if he is better than those who do. The reason why this is troublesome is that it is the same basic elitist bigotry that magnifies divisions in our culture rather than the non-judgmental acceptance of an enlightened society. It is troublesome because, in his ignorance, he's assuming he knows enough about a certain group to make a judgment call even though he's made it clear he does NOT know much at all about the group he is criticizing. And he's taking the moment of his opportunity as a celebrity with a bully pulpit to essentially...bully these people. This is much like the sort of verbal behavior that is construed as bullying in any other context.

And, by the way, if someone says you're being childish and you react by throwing a tantrum—you're not iron man you're 'iron-y' man.

He is 100% correct here. A tantrum just proves his point and ends any possibility of broadening his mind. You don't get any further than the South- and North-going Zax if you're just going to hurtle insults back and forth.

Well, let me tell you, people were pissed about this post.

I wasn't even aware that I had ruffled so many capes until I saw that 40,000 Twitter followers unfollowed me like that!

To which I say 'good riddence!'

Follow Yogi Bear!

Yes. He thinks it's funny to dismiss comic book fans with a reference to Yogi Bear. So what? Seems pretty....I don't know....childish?

Director Kevin Smith accused me of taking a shot when no shots are necessary.

Except, again, my shot wasn't at Stan Lee. It was at, you know, grown men who still dress like kids!

Really? Bill's most strident and personal criticism of someone is that they dress like a kid?

First of all, this elitism problem that Bill is exhibiting smacks more about a larger societal problem going on and that is of adults who arbitrarily ascribe notions of maturity to things as insignificant as hair styles and clothing choices. If we're really aspiring to a society in which we are judged by our character and by the merits of our achievements, then I would expect that the manner in which you dress yourself only matters insofar as you are clean. If a childish idiot dresses in a suit and tie, but conducts himself like we expect an adult to be, that does not make him any less childish or less of an idiot. Look at the president as an example of that one. Clothing is not an indicationof maturity but may be rather a reflection of authenticity or inauthenticity. If the way you dress is a reflection of, and expression of, who you are inside, then I don't see any problem with the way Kevin Smith dresses or anyone else. And shame on Bill Maher for using his bully pulpit to shame Kevin over something so subjective and silly. Doing something like that is childish. Bill needs to grow up, I think.

One commenter said that Stan Lee 'has inspired children to believe in something bigger than them' and then added 'Congrats you're a cunt on the same level that Ann Coulter is a cunt!'

Other people tweeted things like 'I learned about social justice and racial tolerance by reading comic books.'

Okay, but now you have pubic hair—read James Baldwin, read Toni Morrison, read Michael Eric Dyson.

Even a book as dumb as the Bible gets this: 'When I was a child I spoke as a child; I understood as a child; I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things' . . . including my X-Men bedsheets!

Bill keeps hitting this same drum but he's missing the point. What are the "childish things" that the Bible was speaking to? I would say the Bible was not speaking about putting away your toys as much as it was speaking about putting away your petty judgments of others, your petulant stubborness, your unwillingness to understand others, your inclination to pick on others who are different than you. Within that interpretation, I would say the admonition is to Bill to put away his "childish things" and "grow up"—in other words, stop demeaning others simply for enjoying the life they have in the way that they choose to.

Can we stop pretending that the writing in comic books is so good?

Oh please, every super-hero movie is the same thing: a person who doesn't have powers gets them; has to figure out how they work; and then, has to find a glowy thing!Justice League—glowy thing. Iron Man—glowy thing. Spider-Man—glowy thing. Captain America—glowy thing. Glowy thing! Glowy thing! Glowy thing!

Here is a prime example of Bill conflating comic books with super-heroes and with super-hero movies in particular. They are connected but they are not the same thing. What he's criticizing here, in the guise of demeaning adults who like movies with super-heroes in them, is the formulaic storytelling of Hollywood and the inability to break from the established format. This is a totally valid criticism. But it is a criticism that can be extended to many more genres of films than simply super-hero films. You know what the "glowy thing" is? That's what Alfred Hitchcock called the "McGuffin" and it is in nearly every popular movie in history. This is not a problem found solely within super-hero films. This is just Bill looking for something to mock, but it's a logical fallacy to isolate one group like this for criticism while ignoring the fact that it is a general problem with an entire industry.

And again there's nothing wrong with a man writing comic books.

There is something wrong with adults thinking they're profound.

The folks at Stan's company, Team Stan, wrote an open letter to me and said "You have a right to your opinion that comics are childish and unsophisticated. Many said the same about Dickens Steinbeck Melville and even Shakespeare."

*pause*

No they didn't!

No! No one ever said that!

No one ever said "King Lear" or "Moby Dick" was childish and unsophisticated.if you ever read a book without pictures you'd know that!

Team Shakespeare should write YOU an open letter!

Yes, Howard the Duck...Hamlet—same diff!

"To thine own self be true" meet "Hulk smash!"Comics are for kids! That's why they sell them next to the 'Pokey Man' cards and not on the aisle with the condoms and the lube!

Okay. Fair point UP to a point. Yes, the vast amount of super-hero comics are anything BUT "profound." And, yes, those of us within the geek culture probably should stop pretending that they are. That's not to say that over the course of decades in which millions of super-hero stories have been told that there have never been any "profound" stories. But from a generalized standpoint, comic books—super-hero comics particularly—are a hack production churned out within a proven simplistic formula. Nobody is out there arguing the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew are "profound literature" and we may want to stop expecting everyone else in the world to treat Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN or Grant Morrison's INVISIBLES as "profound literature."

They are certainly very good comics and have merit, but it is a stretch to elevate them beyond the level of some of the best that monthly comic books have produced.

Even those writers who have elevated the super-hero genre are still trapped within the limits of the medium and the culture that surrounds it. We may occasionally get an exceptionally well-written Batman or Superman story, but to rise to the level of profundity? Highly unlikely. What tends to happen is that we project profundity onto our comics as a way of justifying to ourselves their worth as something more than shiny baubles of nostalgia that we cling to. And I do not say that with any hint of criticism of myself or of anyone else. But I do think it is a more objectively accurate statement.

And by that same token, I'm going to say that there are exceedingly few TV shows, books, and films that truly deserve to be labeled as "profound." Fans like to point to graphic novels like BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS by Frank Miller and WATCHMEN by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons as great examples of super-heroes as literature. Perhaps they are. However, I'm going to disagree by saying that in my opinion, between those two, WATCHMEN comes the closest to achieving that designation. It may still miss the mark, though, because its entire conception and execution is intentionally a commentary on the super-hero story form from within the form and for fans of super-heroes who are maturing. It is a deconstruction of the super-hero genre, but by being integrally a part of that very same genre, it forces itself into that level that does not quite achieve the designation of true literature.

But that's probably for experts in academia to debate.

In terms of comic books that I personally believe are actually profound, there are a few that I own, but I would point you to just one from 2011: HABIBI by Craig Thompson. No super-heroes in this Islamic fairy tale but it is as much literature as Shakespeare or Melville. The blending of words and art are integral to the reading experience and puts the lie to the idea that no comic books can be profound literature.

However, Bill's criticism here smacks of the same sort of thing you hear from adults who can't find any way to muster an interest in an animated film because "it's a cartoon" and "cartoons are for kids." That's a willfully ignorant point of view. I cannot stand willful ignorance.

I'm sorry, but if you are an adult playing with super-hero dolls—I'm sorry, I mean 'collectible action figures'—why not go all the way and drive to work on a big wheel?

Cheap shot. Not worth addressing. As with any cheap shot, it speaks more of the one who says it than the target.

Grown-ups these days, they cling so desperately to their childhood that when they do attempt to act their age they have a special word for it now..."adulting!""Hey world, look at me! I just made my own eye appointment"—hashtag adulting! "Eating vegetables"—adulting! "Today I wiped my own ass! I guess I'm turning into my dad!"

Marriages have been destroyed because the husbands—adult men—can't stop playing video games!

When your wife wants to have sex and you can't come to bed because you're about to level up in Fortnite, don't be surprised when your relationship does this: GAME OVER!

Another fair point here.

And this is why Bill's commentary and criticism is worth hearing.

We live in a time where a good many of us are explicitly embracing our inner child and the question is whether we have allowed the inner child to take over. Is this good or bad?

I think that the answer to the problem here is that everyone needs to achieve a balance. If you do not achieve a balance between your grown-up outside and your inner child then you run the risk of becoming an angry, jaded adult elitist who frowns upon anyone who does not fit your perception of what it means to be an adult OR you wind up being an adult who cannot process and manage those things that adults must handle.

Dr. Stephen Diamon, Ph.D. wrote something that describes Bill Maher and his reaction to folks like Kevin Smith when he wrote: "'Grown-ups' are convinced they have successfully outgrown, jettisoned, and left this child—and its emotional baggage—long behind. But this is far from the truth.

In fact, these so-called grown-ups or adults are unwittingly being constantly influenced or covertly controlled by this unconscious inner child. For many, it is not an adult self directing their lives, but rather an emotionally wounded inner child inhabiting an adult body. A five-year-old running around in a forty-year-old frame. It is a hurt, angry, fearful little boy or girl calling the shots, making adult decisions. A boy or girl being sent out into the world to do a man's or woman's job."

As with most bullies, what the bully is most critical of tends to be what he is jealous of. Bill comes off here as someone who maybe actually wishes, or needs, to reconnect with his inner child but he is afraid of what others might think—which is sad.

I think most of us recognize the obvious when it comes to the geek fan culture and that is that many of us are obsessive compulsive types and the attachment to these comics, toys, and games is not normal, or rather I should say...normative. So why do we do it? Is it that we are simply childish? Are we unwilling to grow up?

For some of us....yes.

Let's not dance around it.

We all know people like this that use their collecting hobby as an excuse to avoid growing up. And, unfortunately, these tend to be the loudest and most obnoxious of us. These are the tantrum throwers. These are the misogynists who bully female fans and pros online, for one example. They are grown up babies who never matured and their emotional and intellectual reactions are stunted in childhood.

But for most of us this is not the case. For Kevin Smith, this is not the case. Jim Henson once said The most sophisticated people I know—inside they are all children." I think that's the key here.

For us, Bill, we are adults who take our adulthood seriously but also enjoy life by remembering what it is like to be a child. When we make a joke online that we are "adulting" we expect that everyone who reads that actually gets the self-aware joke in it—the wistfulness of what was and never will be again. For any of us to live in the current zeitgeist where a malignant narcissist like Donald Trump is president and "white power" is a thing again and social media attacks without mercy anyone for anything they may have ever said or done without any sense of compassion or allowance for personal growth or evolution—is it any wonder that we find comfort in memories attached to the safer and simpler days of our youth? There are no adults playing with their dolls. That's a mischaracterization, a caricature, of the collector culture.

There's much to criticize but if you're going to criticize, Bill, at least have the integrity to learn more about what you're criticizing.

In fact, if you open your mind, you might find that there's quite a bit that is exceptional within this "super-hero" culture than you are aware of. There is a camaraderie within the best parts that you rarely find elsewhere. There is wanton LACK of judgment and rather a culture of acceptance. These are the people who give freely of their time and talents to volunteer at Children's Hospitals, just as one simple example, to bring a smile and a moment of awe and wonder to sick children. These are people, overall, who read a lot more than just super-hero comics and your blanket insults demean you rather than them.

To sum up, Bill Maher does not know enough about comic books or the culture of comic book fandom for anyone to take his criticisms too seriously. But if it really riles you up to hear his words, then I would challenge you to ask yourself whether there's a germ of truth, as applied to your own life, behind whatever pissed you off so much.

Socrates wrote "An unexamined life is not worth living."

We should all take a breath and examine our own lives and wherever there is room for improvement, we should take steps to do so. One of the easiest ways to self-improve is to educate yourself about something before criticizing it. I would hope Bill could do that rather than reflexively insult and mock those he doesn't understand.

BEST OF 2018 PART 2: MOVIES

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 05:39:00 +0000

PART 2: MOVIES

I don't track all the movies I watch throughout the year, but I do track the films I see in the theater and I have tried to recall all I watched on streaming services like Netflix and Hulu that I had never seen before. Without including repeated viewings and only on movies I had never seen before, my estimated numbers are as follows: I saw over 65 movies in the theater and over 20 on streaming services. I did not see every movie (obviously), especially those I didn't expect to enjoy on any level and December films I haven't gotten around to yet. For my "Best of 2018" list, I have put the results into my own specific categories. I will share my top 1, 2, and/or 3 for each category.

BEST THEATRICAL FILM OVERALL

A STAR IS BORN

No other film was even close.

BEST STRAIGHT-TO-STREAMING FILM OVERALL

GERALD'S GAME

MOWGLI:
LEGEND OF THE JUNGLE

THE OTHER SIDE OF
THE WIND

*Honorable mention: THE RITUAL and BRIGHT

WORST THEATRICAL FILM OVERALL

HOLMES and WATSON

WORST STRAIGHT-TO-STREAMING FILM OVERALL

MUTE

FULLMETAL
ALCHEMIST

HOLD THE DARK

*Honorable Mention: THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX

MOST OVERRATED PIECE OF FANCY GARBAGE

THE PHANTOM THREAD

MOST UNDERRATED GEM

SUMMER OF '84

SO BAD IT'S GOOD EVEN IF IT'S A DIE HARD RIP-OFF

SKYSCRAPER

BETTER THAN IT HAD ANY RIGHT TO BE

THE SPY WHO
DUMPED ME

🐓BLOCKERS

UNCLE DREW

*Honorable Mention: SHERLOCK GNOMES

BEST HORROR FLICK

MANDY

HEREDITARY

HALLOWEEN (2018)

*Honorable Mention: OVERLORD and A QUIET PLACE

WORST HORROR FLICK

WINCHESTER

FUNNIEST COMEDY

GAME NIGHT

TAG

UNFUNNIEST COMEDY

HOLMES AND WATSON

EARLY MAN

LIFE OF
THE PARTY

BEST KIDS FLICK

TEEN TITANS GO!
TO THE MOVIES

WORST KIDS FLICK

THE GRINCH

BEST "TRUE" STORY

VICE

CAN YOU EVER
FORGIVE ME?

BLACKKKLANSMAN

*Honorable Mention: THE FRONT RUNNER

WORST "TRUE" STORY

COLLETTE

OPERATION FINALE

BEST DOCUMENTARY

THE ZEN DIARIES OF
GARRY SHANDLING

WON'T YOU BE
MY NEIGHBOR?

THE KING

*Honorable Mention: THEY'LL LOVE ME WHEN I'M DEAD

BEST SUPER-HERO MOVIE

SPIDER-MAN: INTO
THE SPIDER-VERSE

AVENGERS:
INFINITY WAR

BLACK PANTHER

LEAST SUPER-HERO MOVIE

AQUAMAN

DEADPOOL 2

VENOM

BEST ANIMATED MOVIE

SPIDER-MAN: INTO
THE SPIDER-VERSE

INCREDIBLES 2

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3

WORST ANIMATED MOVIE

EARLY MAN

MOST UNEXPECTEDLY GOOD

TOMB RAIDER

NOT NECESSARILY GOOD BUT STILL FUN

THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME

WELL-INTENTIONED GARBAGE

THE 15:17 TO PARIS

BEATING A DEAD HORSE

ONCE UPON A DEADPOOL

*Honorable Mention: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—FALLOUT

BEST SURPRISE

A SIMPLE FAVOR

THE ENDLESS

UNSANE

SHOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER

HOTEL ARTEMIS

MEH

RED SPARROW

BEST SEQUEL or REBOOT

THE EQUALIZER 2

AVENGERS:
INFINITY WAR

JURASSIC WORLD:
FALLEN KINGDOM

*Honorable Mention: ANT-MAN AND THE WASP

WORST SEQUEL or REBOOT

OCEAN'S 8

*Honorable Mention: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—FALLOUT

BEST VIDEO GAME BASED

READY PLAYER ONE

*Yes. I know that it's not actually "based" on a video game, but it's ALL ABOUT video gaming.

WORST VIDEO GAME BASED

RAMPAGE

BEST NOVEL ADAPTATION

A SIMPLE FAVOR

READY PLAYER ONE

WORST NOVEL ADAPTATION

MAZE RUNNER:
THE DEATH CURE

THE HOUSE WITH A
CLOCK IN ITS WALLS

BEST VANITY PROJECT

A STAR IS BORN

HEARTS BEAT LOUD

WORST VANITY PROJECT

OCEAN'S 8

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
FALLOUT

COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY

THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS

BEST TALKING ANIMALS MOVIE

WATERSHIP DOWN

*Just because Netflix chose to break it into 4 shorter chunks doesn't make this any less a movie, as far as I'm concerned.

WORST TALKING ANIMALS MOVIE

CHRISTOPHER ROBIN

*A film that only gets worse the more you remember it. So it's probably best to forget it.

BEST SCI-FI FLICK

COLOSSUS: THE
FORBIN PROJECT

UPGRADE

ANNIHILATION

*Yes. I know that COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT is from 1970. But I got to see it on the big screen for the first time in 2018 and it was one of the best sci-fi movies I saw.

BEST COEN BROTHERS MOVIE

THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS

BIGGEST WTF MOVIE

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU

BEST OF 2018 PART 1: BOOKS

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 07:02:00 +0000

PART 1: BOOKS

According to GoodReads, I read 32 books during 2018 and . . . here they all are:

CRYPTID CINEMA: MEDITATIONS ON BAYOU BEASTS & BACKWOODS BOGEYMEN OF THE MOVIES by Stephen R. Bissette

Exhaustively researched and entertaining.

THE TWO-BEAR MAMBO by Joe R. Lansdale

Quirky deep south Texas/Louisiana mystery. Inspired me to check out the Hap & Leonard TV Show and I'm glad I did.

GOOD OMENS by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

Simply brilliant and entertaining blasphemy that will make you laugh out loud.

FEAR: TRUMP IN THE WHITE HOUSE by Bob Woodward

Factual and disturbing in how quickly a single malignant narcissist could dangerously dismantle the spirit of America and the constructs of self-government by the people and for the people.

18 STRAIGHT WHISKEYS by Michael Easton

An author who speaks to my deepest self like no other and in this brilliant collection of poetry he runs the gamut of rapturous love to the darkest corners of our most personal hells. And somehow he finds humorous wordplay on one page and slices your heart open on the next.

OUT OF THEIR MINDS by Clifford D. Simak

Originally written in 1970, this book is a product of the time it was written but stays entertaining as it explores the nature of fictional realities crashing into each other and invading our own.

DEMON SEED by Dean Koontz

A movie I had seen but had never read the novel before. This rewritten and modernized version of the novel that the 1977 Fritz Weaver film was based on. It was impossible to put down. The satire is strong in this one and I laughed while reading it at the same time I was horrified.

LAST WORDS by George Carlin

So interesting to hear Carlin's autobiography read by his soundalike brother. Great insight into George's brilliantly conflicted mind and how he found his comedy voice.

HE IS LEGEND: AN ANTHOLOGY CELEBRATING RICHARD MATHESON Edited by Christopher Conlon

I love anthologies and this one was a very good collection of stories based on or inspired by the writing of Richard Matheson.

MYSTERY MEN by David Liss (author) & Patrick Zircher (illustrator)

Gripping graphic novel from Marvel Comics told in the spirit and style of the old pre-comics age pulp fiction magazines but with all new characters that should have existed in the Marvel universe but did not...until now.

THE EVOLUTION OF FAITH: HOW GOD IS CREATING A BETTER CHRISTIANITY by Philip Gulley

Excellent book to provoke some thought in those of us who were raised in the Christian faith but have realized how badly the institutional Church has concocted a God that is incompatible with the idea of love incarnate. Gulley provides much to ponder and challenges each of us to pursue our own path and views on God rather than panderously cowtowing to the weight of the propaganda orthodoxy.

SAGA: VOLUME ONE by Brian K. Vaughn (author) & Fiona Staples (illustrator)

Maybe I'm not the target audience, but while I recognize that it was well-written and well-drawn, it did not resonate with me.

THE HARE HYPOTHESIS by Iain Spence

I was introduced to Iain Spence's atavistic trending model in SUPERGODS and I was curious to read more about it. It's mostly incoherent but there's some germ of something inside the theory that feels like there's some germ of truth buried inside the incoherence. But damned if I could crack that nut.

SO, ANYWAY... by John Cleese

So anyway...this book is hilarious and insightful. If you get a chance, I recommend the audio version read by Cleese himself.

THE SHADOW: MIDNIGHT IN MOSCOW by Howard Chaykin

Nobody does Shadow comics as well as Chaykin. Fantastic Shadow adventure set during the early days of the burgeoning Cold War.

HILLBILLY ELEGY: A MEMOIR OF FAMILY AND CULTURE IN CRISIS by J.D. Vance

Sometimes painful to read but fascinating insight into and opportunity for greater understanding of generational abuse, trauma, and just exactly how in the HELL those who would benefit the absolute least from a Trump presidency were so easily deluded into voting against their own (and the country's) interest.

PARADOX BOUND by Peter Clines

Essentially the closest I've ever come to an American version of Doctor Who. And it's entertaining as Hell as our intrepid time traveller hops through "history" not "time." It's a subtle but very important distinction as the race to find the lost American Dream is on!

THE MEGAROTHKE by Robert Ashcroft

New author and a great sci-fi horror thriller but one that delves deeply into dark archetypal fears and excellent social commentary with relatable and challenging characters.

THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY: HOW A FORBIDDEN RELIGION SWEPT THE WORLD by Bart Ehrman

One of my favorite authors, Bart Ehrman's latest book explores just exactly how a little band of 1st century apocalyptic cultists turned their cult into the religion that changed the world.

HEAVENS ON EARTH: THE SCIENTIFIC SEARCH FOR THE AFTERLIFE, IMMORTALITY, AND UTOPIA by Michael Shermer

Another one of my favorite authors, Michael Shermer takes an open-minded but scientific approach to exploring concepts, beliefs, and alleged proofs of life-after-death, immortality, and other related ideas.

TRUMPOCRACY: THE CORRUPTION OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC by David Frum

Another one of my favorite authors, THE ATLANTIC editor David Frum details in convincing and convicting ways how insidious the influence on our country's soul and spirit by placing a malignant narcissist into the most powerful political seat in the world.

BLOOM COUNTY: BRAND SPANKING NEW DAY by Berkeley Breathed

The brilliant 2017 collection of all-new Bloom County comic strips.

GREEN LANTERN: EARTH ONE—VOLUME ONE by Gabriel Hardman & Corinna Sara Bechko

My favorite graphic novel of the year. This is what the GREEN LANTERN movie should have been.

SUPERGODS: WHAT MASKED VIGILANTES, MIRACULOUS MUTANTS, AND A SUN GOD FROM SMALLVILLE CAN TEACH US ABOUT BEING HUMAN by Grant Morrison

Engrossing examination of the history and cultural influence of the super-hero comic book.

THE STRANGE HARVEST OF DR. AQUARIUS: JACK KIRBY'S PUBLIC DOMAIN SUPER-HEROES TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME! by Jeff Deischer

Good idea but mediocre execution. Great title, though.

THE OUTSIDER by Stephen King

Fantastic old-school King that also furthers some of the more obscure aspects of the shared King-verse.

INSPIRED: SLAYING GIANTS, WALKING ON WATER, AND LOVING THE BIBLE AGAIN by Rachel Held Evans

Interesting insight into Rachel Held Evans and her personal journey from the collapse of her evangelical faith in embracing a new and greater view of God and how to find value in the Bible again.

LONG TITLE: LOOKING FOR THE GOOD TIMES: EXAMING THE MONKEES' SONGS, ONE BY ONE by Michael A. Ventrella & Mark Arnold

More information than you ever thought possible about every single song ever recorded by The Monkees and somehow they made it all very enlightening and entertaining.

LIVE LONG AND...WHAT I LEARNED ALONG THE WAY by William Shatner (with David Fisher)

I always enjoy Shatner's memoirs and reflections. This one felt especially poignant and vulnerable.

ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE: A SORTABIOGRAPHY by Eric Idle

Entertaining as hell. As with the Cleese book, I recommend reading this as an audio book so that you can hear Eric reading it in his own voice.

JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL by Richard Bach

I read this long ago when I was a child. I reread it again in 2018 as an adult. The book garners a lot of criticism but I appreciate the simple metaphor and the message that we must be bold and push ourselves always higher.

KIRBY: KING OF COMICS by Mark Evanier

Very little new to me in this book, but it was a nice overview of comic artist and creator Jack Kirby's life and career by someone who knew him very well.

INKTOBER 2018 GALLERY!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 03:31:00 +0000

This gallery represents my 2018 participation in my first-ever INKTOBER CHALLENGE which provides daily prompts for artists to create an original drawing in ink every day for the entire month of October.

I've never done a challenge like this and surprised myself by completing the entire month without ever missing or skipping a day! The challenge to myself was to always try to give the prompt a surprise twist of some kind, whether by focusing on a more unusual use of the word or by digging up some obscure character. Sometimes it was a providential prompt that gave me an excuse for drawing something I've had an itch to do for awhile. Most of the drawings took about an hour or two. Some took much longer. I also experimented with techniques to keep it interesting. The most common tool I utilized was my Copic sketch marker with the brush tip. I played with cross-hatching, stippling, and even gray wash with my Copic sketch marker set. I never planned ahead, but sat down, looked at the prompt, and got to work and my artistic choices were made in the moment.

I had fun and I hope you enjoy viewing my art!

DAY 1: POISONOUS
DAY 2: TRANQUIL
DAY 3: ROASTED
DAY 4: SPELL
DAY 5: CHICKEN
DAY 6: DROOLING
DAY 7: EXHAUSTED
DAY 8: STAR
DAY 9: PRECIOUS
DAY 10: FLOWING
DAY 11: CRUEL
DAY 12: WHALE
DAY 13: GUARDED
DAY 14: CLOCK
DAY 15: WEAK
DAY 16: ANGULAR
DAY 17: SWOLLEN
DAY 18: BOTTLE
DAY 19: SCORCHED
DAY 20: BREAKABLE
DAY 21: DRAIN
DAY 22: EXPENSIVE
DAY 23: MUDDY
DAY 24: CHOP
DAY 25: PRICKLY
DAY 26: STRETCH
DAY 27: THUNDER
DAY 28: GIFT
DAY 29: DOUBLE
DAY 30: JOLT
DAY 31: SLICE

*Notes* 1-Poison Ivy, 2-Tranquility Base (on the moon), 3-Dean Martin (circa early '70s Celebrity Roast era), 4-Zatanna the Magician, 5-Jay Avery's Super Chicken, 6-Tex Avery's lecherous wolf, 8-League of Starmen, 9-Gollum with the One Ring, 11-Nick Lowe vs. Elvis Presley, 12-The Prince of Whales..., 13-Jack Kirby's The Guardian, 14-Popeye "clocks" Bluto, 15-King Joffrey from Game of Thrones, 16-Barely remembered Wonder Woman villain, Angle-Man, 18-I Dream of Jeannie, 19-The Human Torch gives Ben Grimm (the Thing) a hotfoot, 20-The very fragile and breakable Mr. Glass, 21-Marvel's ridiculous former Nazi super-villain turned aspiring super-hero called Brain Drain, 22-The Six-Million-Dollar-Man (and the Bionic Woman), 23-Obscure swamp villain named Mudd from the Captain Carrot comic book, 24-Another Captain Carrot character, but this time Peter Porkchops whose better known as Pig-Iron, 25-A kiss goes wrong between Porcupine Pete and Infectious Lass of the Legion of Substitute Heroes, 26-Every stretchy super-hero and villain (32 of 'em) I could think of, 27-Martin Greim's forgotten hero Thunder Bunny, 28-The Grinch presents a present to Max, 29-Double-Header (rejected Legion of Super-Heroes member) and Duo Damsel (formerly Triplicate Girl of the Legion of Super-Heroes), 30-Frankenstein's monster has an electrifying encounter with his Bride, 31-Michael Myers (the Shape) "slices" Laurie Strode.

MS. BIGFOOT & THE CRYPTIDS Educational Coloring Book NOW AVAILABLE!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Sat, 18 Aug 2018 21:56:00 +0000

NOW AVAILABLE!

I THINK, THEREFORE I COLOR VOL. 4:

MS. BIGFOOT & THE CRYPTIDS

It's funny. When I created the first volume of I THINK, THEREFORE I COLOR, I really did not have a plan for future volumes but thought there was a chance I might do some. So, with each successive volume I have found myself driven to challenge myself to bring something new to the concept. With the first volume, I researched dozens of philosophers and drew individual caricatures.

The second volume I did the same with key painters from history but I expanded the concept by including line drawings of a representative painting for each painter. Inspired by the recent election cycle, I focused the third volume on the U.S. Presidents. But, I thought this topic is one that has been about done to death so I gave it a twist by using my trademark otters as stand-ins for the individual presidents. I also sought out more obscure and entertaining information about the presidents so that my book could stand out from others in the research approach.

The fourth volume, MS. BIGFOOT & THE CRYPTIDS is another attempt to tackle a normally dry educational topic like "critical thinking" and include information and coloring pages devoted to well-known cryptids such as "Bigfoot," "Nessie," and "Yeti" but also lesser-knowns such as "Buru," "Ozark Howler," and "Snallygaster." Learning about cryptids and cryptozoology is fun and a more entertaining backdrop for learning how to approach and evaluate new information.

Teachers are granted copyright by the author to make classroom copies. There is also a recommended resources page included.

Only $10.99 on Amazon!

Click HERE to Order Today!

ALSO AVAILABLE!

THE TEN GREATEST SUPERMAN STORIES EVER TOLD

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 02:01:00 +0000

DC Comics celebrates the 80th anniversary of the publication of ACTION COMICS #1 with the publication of the celebratory ACTION COMICS #1000 on April 18 this week—exactly 80 years to the date since the first issue hit the newsstands. The original ACTION COMICS #1 had a cover date of June 1938 which leads many to think it must have hit the newsstands around the country in June but according to testimony in an old lawsuit between DC Comics and Bruns Publications, the on-sale date for the comic book was April 18, 1938. That single comic book, cover priced 10¢, introduced readers to such unforgettable characters as "Chuck Dawson", "Sticky-Mitt Stimson", "'Pep' Morgan", "Scoop Scanlon" among others and in recent years has sold in auction for over $3 million!

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot to mention that ACTION COMICS #1 notes the first appearance of a super-strong defender of the weak leaping around in circus tights and a cape—Superman! In a 13-page story written by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Joe Shuster (a reworked version of their failed attempt at selling the concept as a newspaper comic strip), they introduced the world to Clark Kent. Kent was sent to Earth as an infant in a rocket ship by his parents right before their unnamed home planet was "destroyed by old age." Crashing onto Earth, the baby was found and turned over to an orphanage where he amazed everyone with his "feats of strength." Once fully grown, he found he could leap 1/8 a mile and hurdle tall buildings in a single bound, outrun a train, lift "tremendous weights," and "nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin." Kent determined that with such great powers came a great responsibility (that sounds marvelously familiar) and created his "Superman" persona as a champion of the weak and the oppressed. And in that first story he does this dramatically by saving a woman about to be executed for a crime she did not commit, protecting a woman being beaten by her husband, and rescuing ace news reporter Lois Lane from a gangster who had abducted her.

The sales numbers and popularity indicate that the appearance of the first cape-clad super-hero struck a chord with the public and sparked a phenomenon that has never disappeared. After Superman appeared there was a literal glut of copycats and derivatives that began appearing month after month that tended to be based on one directive: "Bring me something like this Superman guy." While 80 years of comic books have brought thousands upon thousands of other super-heroes, some of whom have arguably become more popular than Superman himself, none of them will ever be able to claim to be first. Superman was the first. All else are derived from him in some capacity. In 80 years, a lot has changed about Superman, especially whenever DC decides he is losing relevancy and makes some major change. But eventually the cycle shifts and things always seem to roll back to the basic conceptual elements and look. The concept is so basic and archetypal that it can morph itself to fit into whichever cultural mileau it exists within, which is why the character of Superman is always relevevant even if comic book, film, and TV writers may not always understand how to tell relevant stories. The failure is on the writers and not on the concept or the character himself.

In light of this unprecedented pop-culture event—the 80th Anniversary of Superman—I wanted to shine a focus light on my list of the 10 greatest single-stories about Superman ever told in comics. Some of these stories span more than one issue but the key aspect of each is that it is a complete story that stands apart from the weight and the mass of the tens of thousands of stories that have been published featuring Superman.

10. SECRET ORIGINS #1 "The Secret Origin of the Golden-Age Superman"

Writer: Roy Thomas

Artists: Wayne Boring (pencils)/Jerry Ordway (inks)

This is essentially the last-ever full on retelling of the very first Superman story (from ACTION #1) but fully informed by additional elements added to the character by his co-creator Jerry Siegel in subsequent stories. These additional elements include the name of his home planet, Krypton, and his Kryptonian name (Kal-L), the inclusion of his adoption by the Kents, and the naming of the newspaper that Lois (and later Clark) work for—The Daily Star. Note that the changes to his name (Kal-L to Kal-El) and the changes to the name of the newspaper (Daily Star to Daily Planet) were elements that came later. These original elements were relegated to the "Earth 2" Superman. In DC continuity, this became their built-in explanation for the differences between the original "Golden Age" versions of their characters and the modern "Silver Age" versions.

Since this version of the origin appeared after CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, it became the last official retelling of the golden age origin because post-CRISIS, DC had removed Earth 2 from their continuity thus erasing the Golden Age Superman at the same time. As writer, Roy Thomas, wrote on the splash page: "The CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS is ended....but the paradoxes remain. Even flourish. These are stories which need telling, and they shall be told. But perhaps the most perplexing, the most poignant of these paradoxes is the passing of the original Superman from the collective memory of virutally all mankind...but we remember him...and this is his story. His first story."

Roy Thomas, a child of the golden age, and a writer who was there during the rise of DC's chief competitor Marvel Comics (even Editor-In-Chief at one point) brought to the writing a nostalgic love and a modern eye. He wisely paired one of Superman's primary artists from those early years so many decades earlier, Wayne Boring, to pencil the story and current fan-favorite inker, Jerry Ordway, to pair together for the art. The three of them created the definitive version of the Golden Age Superman and it still stands tall as one of the best retellings of one of the most familiar stories of all time.

9. ACTION COMICS #554 "If Superman Didn't Exist"

Writer: Marv Wolfman

Artist: Gil Kane

This story stands out first of all because of the art by one of the all-time greats, Gil Kane. Kane is an artist known for his dynamic anatomy and superior design ethic (he designed the Green Lantern costume worn by Hal Jordan, for example). In a world where our history has been rewritten and humans have lost their violent tendencies because we were conquered by aliens thousands of years ago, there are no heroes to be found. No Superman. No Batman. No Wonder Woman. This is a world where the heroic ideal never arrived. It is within this context that 2 young boys, Jerry and Joe, conceive of an idea. That idea is expressed artistically by young Joe who draws their new hero on a cave wall; their Superman who is really strong, can fly because his cape captures the wind, and does only what is right. Their creation magically comes to life, inspiring humanity and freeing them from the control of the aliens—even demonstrating empathy and understanding for the aliens and their own plight.

The story is really an exploration of the deeper impact that a character like Superman can have beyond just entertainment. It also serves as a beautiful way to honor Jerry (Siegel) and Joe (Shuster), who originally created Superman.

8. SUPERMAN #230 "Killer Kent Versus Super Luthor"

SUPERMAN #231 "The Wheel of Super-Fortune!"

Writer: Cary Bates

Artists: Curt Swan (pencils)/Dan Adkins (inks)

In this "imaginary tale" two-parter, we encounter a Superman who is not Kal-El but rather Lex-El. In this new version of the story, driven mad with grief over the loss of his wife, Jor-El commits an act of genocide and destroys his home planet of Krypton. He escapes the destruction with his son Lex-El in a rocketship bound for Earth. After landing, Jor-El adopts the identity of a small town doctor in Smallville and puts a wig on Lex to protect his identity as he starts his career as the quite-bald Superboy.

Clark Kent is the son of 2 notorious bank robbers who pay a criminal scientist to implant a stimulant in Kent's brain that will guarantee that no matter how he is raised, he will be "the greatest criminal who ever lived."

Young Clark and Lex become best friends but Jor-El flips out again and insanely tries to destroy Smallville. Through a complicated series of events, we get to the point of Lex becoming a reporter for the Daily Planet, meeting Lois Lane who has no love for Superman—only for Kent, and a galvanized "Killer" Kent wielding a machine gun and swearing to destroy Superman.

Kent and Superman engage in a series of conflicts until Kent learns Superman's secret identity and launches one last attack. Superman ultimately prevails and the brain implant in Kent short-circuits killing him. Once Kent has died, Lois's head clears and she loses her feelings for him, Superman realizes that her brainwaves were being inadvertently manipulated by the implant in Kent's brain putting her into a suggestible state whenever she was around Kent. The story ends with a close-up of Kent's body as Superman's voice-over intones: "Tragic...only in death is Clark free of the awful curse of Markem's Chromo-Stimulant...Free from the evil that tortured his and distorted his face into a look of hate!"

7. SUPERMAN ANNUAL #11 "For the Man Who Has Everything..."

Writer: Alan Moore

Artist: Dave Gibbons

Widely recognized as one of the most popular Superman stories ever written. This story has been adapted into at least one animated adaptation in JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED and one live-action adaptation on the SUPERGIRL tv series. Why does this story resonate so much? I think Ian Dawes at Sequart nailed it when he noted here that it is essentially THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST but with Superman instead of Jesus. Both stories illustrate the "necessity of a heroic figure to choose to suffer...to sacrifice something of [himself] in order to make that gesture."

In brief, Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman visit Superman in his Fortress of Solitude bearing gifts for his birthday. What they discover upon arrival is a catatonic Superman with a strange alien plant attached to his chest. The plant, we later learn is called the "Black Mercy," is a parasite that survives by attaching to its host body and infiltrating the host's mind to determine their deepest heart's desire and letting the fantasy unfold. Like the humans in THE MATRIX, the host is unaware that the fantasy is not the reality, and because the fantasy is their deepest desire then they are not necessarily inclined to try and fight it.

As the heroes attempt to determine what the plant is and how to free Superman, we see what is happening inside of Superman's mind. He is living his life on a Krypton that never exploded and is married with a son and a daughter. Batman risks his own life to rip the Black Mercy off of his friend but winds up with it on his own chest. The reader sees Bruce Wayne's deepest desire, in which his father overpowered the criminal and his parents were never killed. Before the plant is torn from Batman's chest, he grows up and is happily married with a teenaged son.

The story climaxes when the alien villain, Mongul, who sent the Black Mercy to Superman winds up with the flower on his own chest and sees himself as having murdered Superman and all the heroes and hailed as the new emperor of Warworld.

6. SUPERMAN #296-299

Writers: Cary Bates & Elliot S. Maggin

Artists: Curt Swan (pencils)/Bob Oksner (inks)/Bob Wiacek (partial inks on #297)

I'm not sure if this was the first time that DC did a complete story that spanned 4 complete issues, but it still stands strong as one of the first and best explorations of the deep tension between the Clark Kent and the Superman identities. In Part 1, "Who Took the Super Out of Superman!," an alien named Xviar effects a change in Superman in which he only has his powers after he puts on his costume (think GREATEST AMERICAN HERO). Superman, unaware of Xviar's meddling, determines that it must be his body telling him that he needs to choose either Superman or Clark rather than continue as both. There are some fantastic moments in this issue, including the moment where Clark saves someone by allowing himself to be clipped by a car, then unexpectedly waking up in a hospital afterward as a needle is inserted in his arm. Before he realizes that he regains his powers when he puts on his costume, there is a funny scene as he exits the hospital by slipping his costume on and moseying through the halls.

In Part 2, "Clark Kent Forever—Superman Never!," Superman decides to live for one week as only the non-powered Clark Kent. Without powers, Clark finds himself becoming more assertive and confident since he does not have to hide his powers anymore. He stands up to the workplace bully, Steve Lombard. He tells off his boss, Morgan Edge. He even single-handedly breaks up an Inter-Gang operation. And most notably, he asks out Lois on a date and she finds herself actually falling for Clark finally. Their first real kiss sweeps her off her feet.

LOIS: "Clark, where have you been all my life?"

CLARK: "Would you believe...the office next door?"

Smooth, Clark.

Part 3, "Clark Kent, Get Out of My Life!", is the week where Superman decides to be a full-time Superman—no Clark Kent. A new villain, Solarman, arrives on the scene and Superman takes him down. While Clark is absent from his apartment for the week, Xviar takes that opportunity to sneak in there and swipe some hi-tech equipment that Superman had stored in a hidden closet. A dramatic moment occurs when a goon from Inter-Gang, desiring revenge on Kent, also breaks into Clark's apartment while Xviar is in there. Xviar promptly disintegrates him. We also discover that Xviar's plan in doing this to Superman was to distract him long enough for Xviar to gather together the equipment he needs to destroy Earth.

In Part 4, "The Double-or-Nothing Life of Superman!", the alien Xviar pits Superman against 9 of his greatest villains. He has irradiated Superman's costume such that with each use of his powers to defeat a villain he is building up towards an explosion of power and energy such that when he delivers that final punch Superman himself will inadvertently destroy the planet. Thankfully, Superman figures out the plot and does not utilize his super powers to defeat the final villain and simply has to wait for the radiation to fade away before capturing Xviar and delivering him to a space prison.

In the end, Superman self-actualizes: "Poor Lois--I tried to decide whether Clark or Superman is more important...and I realized that to do away with one would be to kill half of myself—whoever I really am! So even before I got rid of my power problem, I'd decided meek, mild-mannered Clark Kent will still walk the streets of the city...while up in the sky...the world will still watch and thrill to the sight of...a job for Superman!"

5. SUPERMAN #423 & ACTION COMICS #583

"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"

Writer: Alan Moore

Artists: Curt Swan (pencils)/George Pérez (inks SUPERMAN #423)/Kurt Schaffenberger (inks ACTION #583)

In 1986, DC Comics decided to restart Superman from scratch with THE MAN OF STEEL mini-series by writer/artist John Byrne. This was the first intentional reboot of the character. This story was the final story about the version of Superman we had all known before. When speaking of Superman we would now speak of pre- and post-MAN OF STEEL.

Alan Moore delivered a story that began in the future (1997) with a reporter interviewing Lois Lane about the last days of Superman's life before he disappeared 10 years before. As the story goes, there was a period of time in which most of Superman's villains had either died or just sort of disappeared. But then there is a horrific breakdown of expectations as some of his least dangerous enemies (such as Bizarro, Toyman, Prankster) reappear but take on murderous activities. Luthor brings back Brainiac as Superman gathers up his circle of friends and family and hides them safely within his Fortress of Solitude.

There is an assault by the Legion of Super-Villains and a creepy Brainiac-controlled Luthor attack. At one point, Luthor begs Lana to kill him, which she does but Brainiac continues on using Luthor's body as a puppet. In the course of the battle, all of Superman's friends are killed except for Perry White, his wife, and Lois.

The villain behind it all is revealed to be a distorted version of Mr. Mxyzptlk who had decided the time had come to stop just being mischievous but to become fully evil. Because he is so powerful, Superman is pushed to the point of having to kill him. To self-punish, Superman subjects himself to Gold Kryptonite to strip himself of his powers then disappears into the Arctic wasteland presumably to die.

The story concludes by letting us know what the reporter does not realize—that Lois's husband, Jordan Elliot, is actually the unpowered Clark Kent in disguise. And we see their young son Jonathan playfully squeeze a piece of coal in his hand turning it into a diamond.

4: SUPERMAN #300 "Superman 2001!"

Writers: Cary Bates & Elliot S. Maggin

Artists: Curt Swan (pencils)/Bob Oksner (inks)

In 1976, to celebrate the 300th issue of SUPERMAN comics, they published this story that imagined the world of 2001 where Kal-El's rocketship landed on earth in the year 1976. The story of how he arrives on Earth is the same but once he arrives, he is not found by a kindly old couple but rather draws the attention of the U.S. and Soviet military. Navy Lieutenant Thomas Clark is the one who recovers the ship. The rocket is taken back to a military base where the super-powered young Kal-El climbs out. General Kent Garrett has a costume made for the flying boy and gives him the name "Skyboy."

In the 1990s, Skyboy prevents a third world war from escalating but in the end, General Garrett dies and Skyboy decides to give up the costume and try to blend in with humanity as Clark Kent, reporter. However, in 2001, a new plot against the world and a 4-armed android send Clark diving into the ocean to recover his old Skyboy costume. Calling himself Superman he saves the world and defeats the android and disappears again. This time, however, he's holding onto the possibility of returning if he is ever needed again.

A highlight of this comic book, in retrospect, is the vision of 2001 that artist Curt Swan visualized. Yes, there appear to be a lot of floating vehicles and male fashions that include flared collars and ascots.

3. ACTION COMICS #436

"The Super-Cigars of Perry White!"

Writer: Elliot S. Maggin

Artists: Curt Swan (pencils)/Vince Colletta (inks)

This comic is such a product of its times and so charming in its simplicity. In gratitude for his helping Superman save some young mutants from the evil Calixto, the mutants decide to secretly give Perry White a box of cigars that have the ability to give him whatever super-powers he desires while he's smoking it. The charm of watching Perry White getting to essentially be Superman for awhile, but all the while, chomping on a lit cigar is entirely as entertaining as you would expect.

In the end, he winds up with one super-cigar left and decides to put it in his vault...just in case: "I, for one, don't want to have super-powers ever again! That is, unless I absolutely need them!"

2. SUPERMAN FOR ALL SEASONS #1-4

Writer: Jeph Loeb

Artist: Tim Sale

Brilliantly structured, SUPERMAN FOR ALL SEASONS is told in 4 parts with each part being titled after a season (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) and a different narrator, which also means an entirely different point of view. The focus overall in this story is a grand overview of Superman. Artistically this is accomplished with lots of gorgeous double-page spreads and large imagery through the simplified graphic lens of artist, Tim Sale.

Part 1 is narrated by Clark's adopted father, Jonathan Kent, and the emphasis is on Clark as...Clark. The boy and the man he was before he became Superman. Part 2 is narrated by Lois Lane and the focus is on the worldview-changing impact the presence of Superman was on her and on the entire city...and even the world. Part 3 is narrated by Lex Luthor and keys in on how Luthor perceives himself and also how he so perfectly figures out ways to hurt Superman in psychological ways that tick away at the hero's self-confidence. Part 4 is narrated by Lana Lang, the girl Clark left behind when he moved to Metropolis. This is the full-circle part of the story where we get to see Superman now through the eyes of Clark's childhood love. We see how the farmer's son is still the farmer's son while at the same time he is the world-changer—the Superman.

1. ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #1-12

Writer: Alan Moore

Artist: Frank Quitely

This 12-issue story is the ultimate Superman story. Structured on the 12 Labors of Hercules, writer Grant Morrison wanted to explore different aspects of the character's full history. In a brilliantly effective manner, he and artist Frank Quitely squeeze the entire origin of Superman into a single page. From that start point, the story takes off and tackles everything from the loss of Clark's adopted parents to silly confrontations with super-powered suitors attempting to steal Lois from him, to a dramatic encounter with various Supermen from the future, fellow Kryptonians attempting to conquer Earth, becoming stranded on Bizarro's crazy world and encountering the depressed normal Zibarro, and ultimately facing down Luthor for the last time and his own certain death.

Utterly and equally mythological, archetypal, nostalgic, modern, emotional, and as perfect a distillation of who Superman is and why he is.

ACTION COMICS #1000 Variant Cover by Steve Rude

AN OTTERLY COLORFUL LOOK AT U.S. PRESIDENTS is NOW AVAILABLE!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 19:22:00 +0000

NOW AVAILABLE!

I THINK, THEREFORE I COLOR:

AN OTTERLY COLORFUL LOOK
AT U.S. PRESIDENTS

A labor of love for the last 6 months as I've researched and cartooned all 45 presidents (with a plan to keep this book updated with new editions whenever the office turns over).

The goal for this educational coloring book is not to retread the same grounds that a student usually covers during their years in school or reading thick biographical volumes. This book takes a . . . unique approach which allows I THINK, THEREFORE I COLOR: AN OTTERLY COLORFUL LOOK AT U.S. PRESIDENTS to be different and a bit more fun. Within these pages there are notations included of the dates each president was in office and a selected quote or two. The focus, however, is more on sharing some lesser-known or forgotten interesting facts about each president. Of course, there are also otters. Few things are as cute and adorable as otters. Those playful mammals—members of the weasel family—that populate rivers and zoos have become a mainstay of the modern world of memes and video clips. So what could make learning some presidential history more fun than otters playfully dressed up like presidents? Not much! Have fun learning in the least painful way possible—coloring some very silly otters.

Only $12.99 at Amazon and Prime Members get Free Shipping.

ALSO AVAILABLE!

NO FANTASTIC FOUR IN MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE.....OR MAYBE THERE IS?

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 22:36:00 +0000

In an alternate reality somewhere in the vast multiverse, Friday, June 9, 2017 saw 20th Century Fox (Fox) releasing FANTASTIC FOUR 2, their announced sequel to Josh Trank's interminably awful 2015 disaster on digital celluloid FANTASTIC FOUR. Thankfully, for our reality, Fox's plans for a sequel have not only not materialized, by all accounts, they have not even been discussed much if at all. But back in 2015, Fox sure did have some plans and they made sure we all knew about it!

That 2-year silence has led some comics fans, myself included (I even facetiously proposed a #OcuppyFF movement), wonder aloud whether Marvel Studios might be negotiating behind-the-scenes some sort of shared ownership of the FANTASTIC FOUR (FF) film license that would allow the FF characters to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Perhaps it was some sort of karmic harmonic confluence of some kind, but on the heels of this historic date passing us by like a failed prophesy date-setting for the Apocalypse, I noticed an influx of several clickbait-ey type posts online making the social media rounds declaring that MCU head, Kevin Feige, has made it explicitly clear that the FANTASTIC FOUR are not headed to the MCU from Fox—along the lines of a deal similar to that made with Sony that allowed SPIDER-MAN to have his "Homecoming" as a full-fledged member of the MCU after repeated film missteps in the Sonyverse.

Newsarama, a website devoted to comics industry news and commentary, posted the following report on June 13, 2017 with the bold headline "No FANTASTIC FOUR In MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE, Says KEVIN FEIGE"—

According to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, not only does Marvel have no plans to incorporate the Fantstic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the conversation isn't even on the table.

"[We have] no plans with the Fantastic Four right now," Feige told AlloCiné in a Facebook video. "No discussions about it."

Feige's comments come after a fan-submmited question echoed persistent rumors that the FF could appear in the MCU in a deal similar to the one Marvel struck with Sony to allow Spider-Man: Homecoming to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. . .

And so, the string of shares and comments on social media of comic book fans both cheering and lamenting began. Either cheering because they hate the Fantastic Four characters or lamenting because their last, best hopes held out that "Phase 4" of the MCU might include the first family of the Marvel Universe finally "done right" on film seem utterly dashed by Feige's statement.

However, might I suggest that this is following a very familiar politician-like pattern as what went down when Marvel was quietly negotiating with Sony to get them to allow Spider-Man to appear in the MCU. Fifteen months before it became "official" that Spider-Man was jumping from the Sonyverse to the MCU, Feige was dismissing the very idea, but as we all know, a multi-million (billion?) dollar negotiation like requires months, if not years, of lawyer haggling to get both sides to sign off. Note the similarity in Feige's words in this report from October 2013 when asked about the idea of Spider-Man joining the MCU:

Over at the French website Reviewer.fr, a new interview with Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige has gone live. Appreciating that Feige is on the publicity rounds at the moment, and that interviews with him aren't in short supply, this nonetheless had one or two interesting bits in it that are worth pulling out.

Firstly, for instance, Feige confirms that there was a conversation about inserting Oscorp Tower into Joss Whedon's The Avengers film, which would have crossed the Spider-Man cinematic world (which is owned by Sony) with what Marvel is up to. Feige said in the end though that "the deal was never close to happening".

He also confirmed that there are no plans to bring Spider-Man into a future Marvel film. "They have movies they want to make, we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Thor stories, and Cap stories, and Avengers stories", adding that "it would be cool to happen sometime. But I don't know when that would be"

The bottom line is just to say that when Feige says that there are "no plans with the Fantastic Four right now", that is the same turn of phrase as FBI Director Comey saying there are "currently no open investigations into the president." "[N]o plans . . . right now" does not at all mean "no plans . . . ever."

So, until Fox craps out another FF movie to preserve their license, there's always hope that the next "Homecoming" will be Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben—THE FANTASTIC FOUR!

THE WAY THINGS OTTER BE 2-1-17

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 19:12:00 +0000

2016: THE YEAR MORE PEOPLE LIVED THAN DIED

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Sun, 01 Jan 2017 05:03:00 +0000

So, 2016 has come to an end and I am just as guilty as everyone else for bad-mouthing this entire year. The collective hatred and dread regarding 2016 reminds me of the infamous “Summer of the Shark.” You remember that, right? Back during the summer of 2001, there was a media feeding frenzy of ridiculous over-coverage of shark attacks and it blew the whole country up into hysteria over why shark attacks were increasing. However, statistically, shark attacks on humans, in terms of actual numbers, were slightly less than average that year. Of course, the coverage of shark attacks stopped completely when the twin towers came down on September 11. That provided the media with some real meat to consume and they promptly stopped propping up a false story to get people to tune in to the news and to buy their papers.

Well, in 2016, it was even more insane because we now live in the world of social media dominance where “clicks” on stories and ads equal revenue, so the more “click bait” they can chum the waters of social media with the more money pours into their profit margins. Kicking off 2016 with coverage of the deaths of David Bowie, Alan Rickman, and a string of other near-forgotten former greats in entertainment, including the previously presumed immortal Abe Vigoda, all dying just within January appeared to set up a portent of great disaster for 2016. And this stigma never seemed to shed, and I will share that I went and looked through the January celebrity deaths from the previous 15 years and it really was a remarkable (but arbitrary) grouping of celebrities that January 2016 in comparison to other Januaries. However, this does not make 2016 a terrible year. Every year has ups and downs. I think the families of those who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks of 2001 would have a very difficult time agreeing that 2016 was the worst year ever.

I say all of that to say this—while most articles and blogs reflecting on 2016 are going to focus on the negatives, I’m going to break that mold and instead refocus our memories and experiences on a few great and positive things that happened in 2016. The best way to go forward into 2017 is to stop letting this collective negativity sour all of us over what was an historic year. And it was historic in bad ways and in good ways. Every year has deaths. Every year has wars. Every year has political victories and losses. Every year is full of pain but it is also full of joy. Let’s take a look back at 2016 in all her greatness!

IN 2016 . . .

A WOMAN WON THE POPULAR VOTE FOR PRESIDENT!

In 2016, the United States saw the first major political party nominate a female to run for president and even though she lost the electoral college count, she won the popular vote by almost 3 million votes.

Three.

Million.

That is historic and sets the stage for a very near future where the sex/gender of our presidential candidates are irrelevant in terms of qualifications.

A NEW PRIME NUMBER WAS DISCOVERED!

Mathematicians discovered the number 2^74,207,281 – 1. This means it has roughly 24 million digits and is about 5 million digits longer than the previously known prime number.

THE CHICAGO CUBS WON THE WORLD SERIES!

For the first time in 108 years, the Cubs won the World Series. So, the century-old jokes about the Cubs are officially done.

And that should be a reason to celebrate in and of itself.

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE GOT FUNNY AGAIN!

Not only did SNL give us Tom Hanks as David S. Pumpkins—instantly one of the funniest new characters to appear on SNL in years but their skewering of the 2016 presidential race, with Alec Baldwin introducing his magnificent Trump caricature, was easily on par with the brilliant SNL skits during the 2000 presidential race.

BRAIN CHIP ALLOWED A QUADRIPLEGIC TO MOVE HIS FINGERS AGAIN!

Not only did the implanted chip allow a quadriplegic man to be able to move his fingers again, he was able to play Guitar Hero! Also, stem cell injections allowed stroke victims to be able to walk again! This was a grand year for scientific advancements in this area!

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DEMONSTRATED ORIGINAL THOUGHT!

Yes, that’s right, some of Google Brain’s AI personalities have begun sending messages to each other through self-designed encryption codes.

TV RAISED ITS OWN BAR FOR EXCELLENCE!

Television stepped up to the plate and hit these three brand-new brilliant series straight out of the ballpark: Stranger Things, The Crown, and Westworld.

MORE CELEBRITIES LIVED THAN DIED!

For example, here’s a selective list of famous people who might have died in 2016 but they didn’t.

They are still alive!!!

Jimmy Carter! Mary Tyler Moore! Stan Lee! Kirk Douglas! Brian Blessed! Grace Slick! Queen Elizabeth II! Ringo Starr! Alan Arkin! Don Rickles! Steve Ditko! Woody Allen! Dick Van Dyke! Carol Channing! Carol Burnett! Betty White! McCauley Culkin!

All these celebrities, and many more, did NOT die in 2016!!!

So, remember 2016 the way it should be remembered.

It was the worst of times; it was the best of times—as it is every year.

But if you’re reading this, then you survived 2016.

And that is good.

ANNOUNCING "20 PAINTERS & PAINTINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW," AN ALL-AGES EDUCATIONAL COLORING BOOK

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 04:51:00 +0000

AVAILABLE NOW!

I THINK, THEREFORE I COLOR:

20 PAINTERS & PAINTINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

ONLY $9.99
CreateSpace E-store is my preferred Online Venue but if you prefer to take advantage of your Amazon Prime Free Shipping click here.

I had this particular project on my heart and mind for a long time and I'm excited to finally have it finished and available for purchase! It was a joy to create and I hope my enthusiasm and inspiration shows in my work. All of the line art was entirely hand-drawn by me! To steal (sort of) a line from my friend Mark Sparacio: No computers were harmed in the creation of these 40 drawings!

This educational coloring book is the second volume in the "I THINK, THEREFORE I COLOR" series and features striking caricatures of 20 notable painters and line-art versions of one of their most famous paintings perfect for coloring. Spanning over 5 centuries, these artists and their paintings are deserving of your mad coloring skills. For as we all know, learning new stuff is always better when you're having fun doing it!

Download a preview here: https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1200133

Like the I Think, Therefore I Color Page

#adultcoloringbooks
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LEGEND OF TARZAN Swings Solidly to ☆☆☆1/2 out of ☆☆☆☆☆

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Howell) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 05:18:00 +0000

THE LEGEND OF TARZAN
☆☆☆1/2 out of ☆☆☆☆☆

For those who don't know, I am a lifelong fan of the Tarzan character. In fact, I am drawn to all the mythical "feral man" archetypes including Tarzan, Ka-Zar, Mowgli, and others. The thing about Tarzan is that much like the Frankenstein Monster and Dracula, most people have a rather simplistic and distorted view of the character influenced by film and tv bastardizations that bear very little similarity in depth with the original literary version. Perhaps we might call the novel version the "prime" version?

I also have to add that other than the 80s film GREYSTOKE: THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, LORD OF THE APES starring future Highlander, Christopher Lambert, pretty much every Tarzan movie is close to unwatchable after the age of 8. The primary reason for it, in my opinion, is that the filmmakers usually have no desire to translate the character from the novels to the big screen -- they want to just churn out some cheap jungle action with a stuntman running around in a loin cloth, or in John Derek's TARZAN, THE APE MAN, make some jungle-based soft porn starring your wife.

So, does THE LEGEND OF TARZAN break the mold and give us a Tarzan for our times? For the most part, the answer is yes. It's not a perfect film, but it is a good movie and it is entertaining throughout (altho a couple of slow spots in the middle). The best thing about the movie is Alexander Skarsgård who absolutely nails the role of Tarzan/John Clayton every moment he's on screen (minus the forced hug at the end). He's giving it his all internalizing the beast within as a John Clayton who has turned his back on the jungle to assume his role as England's Earl of Greystoke. The motivation for he and his wife, Jane, staking out a new life in England is John's grief over the loss of their child. It's a solid motivation and the stoic Lord Greystoke can't help but show his pain through his eyes. Skarsgård gets it. He is physically everything the Tarzan of the novels describes tall and athletic. He is brooding but charismatic; cunning and clever; driven and intense; and always in conflict between his human nature and ape nurture.

This film, for the first time (at least that I can recall) makes the effort to bring out from the novels the fact that the apes that raised Tarzan are not normal apes. They are the Mangani. They are much more intelligent, organized, and violent than normal gorillas. This film incorporates the famous jewels of the hidden ancient city of Opar. (I'm told that this was mentioned in that awful Caspar Van Diem TARZAN movie from the '90s, but I've apparently blocked out those details.) I thoroughly enjoyed the backstory flashbacks giving Tarzan's origin story and establishing the conflict with his ape father but also the camaraderie between Tarzan and his ape brother -- whose signal of brotherly affection is a slight bump with the back of his hand, which is used effectively for both humor and drama.

Really I cannot find anything to criticize about Skarsgård's performance. I know I came away from this film very glad that he did not get cast as Thor because it very likely would've prevented him from taking on this role as a 19th century super-hero. Lord Greystoke is a man of few words but all of his actions have impact and meaning, even if it is just a nod of his head or a bend of a finger. So, what the filmmakers have done is surround him with people who talk....a lot. The exposition and dialogue that the lead character might usually be informing the audience with is put into the mouths of those surrounding him. His wife, the American Jane Porter, is played by Margot Robbie and she has quite the mouth on her. She's feisty and sassy but also compassionate and strong. She was so strong that it actually bothered me that she was forced into the damsel in distress role for nearly the entire film. I would've liked to have seen her partnering with Tarzan more equally. The character, George Washington Williams, played by Samuel L. Jackson, is based on a real person but is saddled with a motormouth of bad dialogue. As I mentioned, I understand the need for someone to drive the story's dialogue since Tarzan is mostly silent, but man...I wish they could've written it stronger. His manner of speaking was anachronistic and more of the modern annoying American tourist type of dialogue. Christoph Walz was...well...the same bad guy he's been for the last 25 movies he's been in. I love the guy, but I want the casting directors to start challenging him with something more different than whether his character has facial hair or not.

The storyline is also a bit preachy and involves a slavery storyline as well as ripping a little from the real world with King Leopold of Belgium attempting to win a real-life game of RISK over possession of the African Congo. It really does turn into a super-hero movie by the huge climax where Tarzan is basically Land-Aquaman but I loved it. It was a silly romp and very satisfying. I definitely hope it does a brisk business this weekend because I'd love to see Skarsgård's Tarzan in another adventure.

#legendoftarzan

Intelligent Designs

HAPPY SUPERMAN DAY!

HAPPY SUPERMAN DAY!

YES, WE COULD ALL GET ALONG IF IT WASN'T FOR FRAGILE EGOS

SUMMER 2023 CATCH-UP ART POST!

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: BIG BANG ADVENTURES #22: THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY! PART 3

THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY!: PART 3 (BIG BANG ADVENTURES #22)

Writer: Pedro Angosto

Artists: Jorge Santamaría (penciller)/Juan Moreno (inker)/Ulises Kuroshima (colors)/Adam Pruett (letters)

Editor: Gary Carlson

Publisher: Big Bang Comics

Order print or digital directly from Indyplanet

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY, PART 2 (BIG BANG ADVENTURES #17)

THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY: PART 2 (BIG BANG ADVENTURES #17)

Writer: Pedro Angosto

Artists: Jorge Santamaría (penciller)/Juan Moreno (inker)/Ulises Kuroshima (colors)/Adam Pruett (letters)

Publisher: Big Bang Comics

Order print or digital directly from Indyplanet

BOOK REVIEW: THE PERFECT ASSASSIN by James Patterson & Brian Sitts

THE PERFECT ASSASSIN

(A DOC SAVAGE THRILLER)

By James Patterson and Brian Sitts

Available November 2022 from all major booksellers

COMICS REVIEWS: HEROES UNION #1, BLUE BARON #1, BIG BANG ADVENTURES #14—THE LAST WHIZ KIDS STORY PT 1

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AND DON'T FORGET YOUR BEST LAST-MINUTE or AFTER-CHRISTMAS GIFT!

Flashback Art Gallery (1977-1988)

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BEST OF 2018 PART 2: MOVIES

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INKTOBER 2018 GALLERY!

DAY 1: POISONOUS

DAY 2: TRANQUIL

DAY 3: ROASTED

DAY 4: SPELL

DAY 5: CHICKEN

DAY 6: DROOLING

DAY 7: EXHAUSTED

DAY 8: STAR

DAY 9: PRECIOUS

DAY 10: FLOWING

DAY 11: CRUEL

DAY 12: WHALE

DAY 13: GUARDED

DAY 14: CLOCK

DAY 15: WEAK

DAY 16: ANGULAR

DAY 17: SWOLLEN

DAY 18: BOTTLE

DAY 19: SCORCHED

DAY 20: BREAKABLE

DAY 21: DRAIN

DAY 22: EXPENSIVE

DAY 23: MUDDY

DAY 24: CHOP

DAY 25: PRICKLY

DAY 26: STRETCH

DAY 27: THUNDER

DAY 28: GIFT

DAY 29: DOUBLE

DAY 30: JOLT

DAY 31: SLICE

MS. BIGFOOT & THE CRYPTIDS Educational Coloring Book NOW AVAILABLE!

THE TEN GREATEST SUPERMAN STORIES EVER TOLD

AN OTTERLY COLORFUL LOOK AT U.S. PRESIDENTS is NOW AVAILABLE!

NO FANTASTIC FOUR IN MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE.....OR MAYBE THERE IS?

THE WAY THINGS OTTER BE 2-1-17

2016: THE YEAR MORE PEOPLE LIVED THAN DIED

ANNOUNCING "20 PAINTERS & PAINTINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW," AN ALL-AGES EDUCATIONAL COLORING BOOK

LEGEND OF TARZAN Swings Solidly to ☆☆☆1/2 out of ☆☆☆☆☆

Marvel's ETERNALS Movie Review Spoiler Free