The Beast Must Die (Amicus,1974)

Anyway, this…
Peter Cushing is/was/will always be  EXCELLENT! And here’s how we get to there from here…

Peter Cushing made 90 or so movies (and The Bitch ain’t one). That’s a lot of movies and sometimes the only reason to watch them is Peter Cushing. Even in the worst of his movies Cushing remains the steely calm at the eye of a storm of camp; the one man taking it all seriously enough to pin your attention to the screen; enhancing rather than undermining what is, in all probability, a load of seedily eerie nonsense. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t erupt into a frenetic flurry of startling physicality when required, because he could. Even better, not only was he a fine screen actor but he was agreed by all to be a genuinely decent and gentle man. So profound is the consensus on this that you could be forgiven for being permanently tensed to receive some terrible reputation soiling revelation.  As of this writing no news has reached me that Cushing’s home was built from the bones of missing hitchhikers or that he liked to set fire to tramps and laugh, so we’ll adhere to the accepted text of his life.

Peter Cushing was raised in a comfortably middle class Surrey home where he appears to have wanted for little. His childish exuberance in play seems to have held fast throughout his life and found the perfect home in the adult equivalent of make believe; acting. He did, however, want for support in his desire to act. His father wasn’t keen and, sadly, Cushing remained estranged from his elder brother, David, due to Cushing’s career choice until David’s death. When Cushing was 40 his father declared him a failure which was both appalling parenting and a trifle premature as at the age of 44 this failure would headline two of the most successful films in British cinema history;The Curse of Frankenstein (1958) and The Horror of Dracula(1959). (Anyone rolling their cynical eyes at my assertion earlier that Cushing could act, and act well, could do worse than to watch these performances back to back. Sure it’s the same man but they are very, very clearly different characters.) 44 is hardly the bloom of youth and so it looks like success came late to Peter Cushing, but he had been quite successful for a while. In 1940 he had even been in the Americas and also in Laurel & Hardy’s A Chump at Oxford (1940) amongst other well received movies. Following his return to Blighty (due to a small thing called WW2; he did not serve, he was not fit) he trod the boards and the sound-stages with Laurence Olivier (Hamlet, 1948), starred opposite a bewigged Richard Burton in Alexander The Great (1958)  and appeared in the 1954 BBC adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 ; now widely regarded as Television’s first masterpiece. Indeed, the small screen was where Cushing found his biggest success as his cinematic career stubbornly failed to gain traction. Such a common and popular sight was Cushing in the  domestically screened plays of the day that to deny he was successful prior to Hammer would be to have a very narrow definition of success. But there’s a kind of success that doesn’t put money in the meter and that was the kind Cushing had. Well, until Hammer hit the anvil of success big style with The Curse of Frankenstein.

After that it was all gravy (vein gravy!!! Sorry.) but it had been a tough road. Luckily Cushing hadn’t had to walk it alone. In 1942 Cushing had found emotional support in the form of Helen Beck whom he married on April 10th 1943.  The tenacity and sincerity of Cushing’s love for Helen was such that swans look like slackers in comparison. Together they helped each other through periods of depression and physical illness, eventually enjoying the silliness of cinematic success as they deserved. In 1971 Helen Cushing died. After her death Peter Cushing was different. Oh, he was still Peter Cushing. He was still lovely. Still polite and gracious to all on set. Still able to keep visitors in stitches all afternoon. But he couldn’t stand to have anyone interrupt his sight-line when filming now. And now he would be sighted less when not required on set. And, at least once, he would request his wife’s portrait be used when such props were required for his character to react to. And for a while the tears he wept on screen were real. He never got over it but he didn’t forget he still had a life to live. So he got on with it. Peter Cushing was a charming English eccentric who always treated every film as though it mattered; he embodied strange notions such as courtesy and civility but was nobody’s fool. He died in 1994.

I like to think I first encountered Peter Cushing’s filmed presence when lax parenting ensured I was, while still a child, allowed to stay up and watch horror movies on Friday nights. But then I like to think all sorts of things. No, it’s far more likely that Cushing’s relaxed command of the screen imprinted on me earlier via his several forays into child oriented fantasy movies. I would certainly have thrilled to his performance as The Doctor in Dr. Who And The Daleks (1965) and Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966) Why, I can only imagine the good natured esteem they are held in by today’s easy going Who fans (AKA “Whosers”). You may be a bit thrown by the dates on those movies after all according to my passport I’m not quite that old. But back then, when we killed our own food, the only other outlet for visual entertainments was the time limited and channel light medium of Television. So, to maximise receipts movies remained in circulation a lot longer; even boomeranging back to more bums on seats some years after their initial release, as in the case of these entertainments. Sometimes, though, I’d catch a movie fresh as tomorrow.

Peter “This Nation’s Saving Grace” Cushing, Caroline Munro (who could make masonry blush) and Doug “You May Know Me From…” McClure in the Amicus motion picture presentation At The Earth’s Core (1976)

In fact one of the greatest cinematic experiences of my young life was going to “The Picture House” to see At The Earth’s Core (1976). Yes, it was a sheltered life, cheers. In this one Cushing played a primly bumbling professor who reached the earth’s core in a Very Big Drill accompanied by Doug McClure, a man who resembled an affably sybaritic cousin of George Peppard. There they found not only a subterranean race ruled by men in wholly unconvincing monster suits but also a sweaty Caroline Munro; yes, I have heard the sound of a hundred Dads crossing their legs simultaneously.

I would also have seen Cushing sporting a tinselly wig on TV in Gerry Anderson’s weekly live action exercise in failing to predict the future Space: 1999 circa 1976. From 1969 onwards Cushing had been making sporadic appearances on The Morecambe & Wise show, all of which were part of a long running joke about his seeking payment for his first appearance. This joke ended in 1980, I told you it was long running. And believe you me back then everybody watched Morecambe and Wise, or they got shipped off to Australia. Yes, there is a point beyond the ubiquity of Peter Cushing in The Dream Life of Albion, although I am moving steadily away from it. See,  1976 ,the year of At The Earth’s Core’s release, would also see the release of another fantastical entertainment for children featuring Peter Cushing. Yes, Peter Cushing witnessed the passing of the baton of escapist children’s entertainment from Edgar Rice Burroughs to George Lucas.

“Far too many men are hobby-less…Without the escapism which comes only from dabbling with adult toys, their minds are prey to all the frustrations and fears of the working day. So many, it seems to me, lose happiness as they grow up. Their entire absorption in their careers and adult responsibilities bring lines of worry and premature old age. It is not silly or childish to have an interest in hobbies…”
Peter Cushing in TV Mirror, July 1956 (taken from Peter Cushing; A Life in Film by David Miller, p.74)

He’s talking up the case for hobbies there; toy soldiers in particular. But he could have been talking about comics. He was known to have liked those too. Other than that bit where his mother dressed him like a girl, Peter Cushing was a healthy young British lad, and like all such stout hearted chaps had a healthy interest in comics. Little Peter Cushing is documented as favouring the periodicals Gem and Magnet. I looked them up and they seem a bit fusty and musty in comparison to the comics of even my far gone youth never mind today’s stuff. Cushing’s favourite was the Greyfriars feature written by Charles Hamilton (AKA Frank Richards). Greyfriars was, as you all know, the school in which the famous character Billy Bunter was boarded up. These strips no doubt involved high spirited tuck shop centred larks enabling readers to delight in the gentle rebellion of the characters and their thrillingly close shaves with having their backsides beaten with a stick.  Yes, comics were somewhat more sedate and establishment friendly back then. Basically, these are the kinds of comics Pat Mills has spent his life ensuring never happen again. Given the demands on his finite time by his other hobbies of painting, model soldiers, model building together with his full time jobs of actor, loving husband and being the most decent man in the world, Cushing seem to have let the comics slip away. He did, however, have sufficiently fond memories to later reminisce in print and on Television about these early paper pals. Bless his cotton socks. Had he kept up the habit he would have no doubt have been thrilled to bits to find himself on the comics pages himself. Although it was hardly the Magnet his image graced.

Today Dez Skinn is chiefly renowned for his role in the whole Miracleman fiasco currently keeping Padraig O’Mealoid out of mischief, but before inadvertently embroiling some of comics finest talents (and Todd McFarlane) in Comics own Bleak House saga Mr. Skinn livened up 1976-84 by publishing House of Hammer/Halls of Horror. This was a B&W magazine focusing primarily on Hammer but also, and increasingly as Hammer slipped from relevance, on the wider area of the Horror genre. Now, given its title and somewhat lurid cover imagery even my comics illiterate parents could tell it wasn’t exactly Buster or Whizzer and Chips so I had to bide my tiny time. Luckily, and this really was terribly fortunate, there was a newsagents in the market who had a near full run HoH that, judging by the static size of the pile until I got stuck in, no one was interested in except little old Cresta drinker me. When I finally read HoH I liked it just fine, but what I liked most were the comic strips. A lot of these (naturally) were Hammer films which was nice; what was nicer was the level of talent was pretty impressive. Brian Lewis always stood out with his highly European layouts although I don’t know what happened to him, but I know what happened to Brian Bolland (Vampire Circus (1972)) and John Bolton (the further adventures of Father Shandor from Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)).

Neither of those movies have Peter Cushing in by the way, but HoH did adapt The Gorgon (1964), Horror of Dracula and Twins of Evil (1971) etc etc so obviously there are plenty of pages of comics in these magazines graced by the cadaverous visage of Peter Cushing.  I can’t provide any scans or, indeed, any particularly original information as, sadly ,I have no physical evidence of my having purchased this magazine due to a hilarious misunderstanding where my parents thought that because I had grown older I had grown up; burning all my comics in my absence. Memories! It doesn’t matter though because Dez Skinn his very self  has a whole load of images and words about this very magazine at HERE.  If that doesn’t keep you busy I don’t know what will. Oh yeah, and that 1977 children’s entertainment? That film. ..sigh, okay Star Wars, STAR WARS okay? Star Wars was adapted into the comics form for Marvel Comics and was drawn, at George Lucas’ suggestion, by one Howard Victor Chaykin. I am still cruising on the fumes of the happiness my seven year old mind distilled on opening a Star Wars comic and finding Peter Cushing drawn by Howard Victor Chaykin. And in a risky narrative manouver there’s where I’ll choose to leave it – with a small child experiencing a magical confluence of all he thought was wonderful in the world; a lot of which he still finds wonder in. I’ve never really been one for goodbyes; best to go out on a high note. How smashing! How Cushing!

Thanks, Peter Cushing!

Happy Centenary!

Bibliography

No man, no matter how awesome he be, is born replete with Peter Cushing lore. Consequently, I am indebted to the books below for allowing me to beef up the preceding with something other than whimsical nostalgia. There’s some of that, yes, but that’s not the fault of these books. And nor are any (inevitable) errors; they’re all mine.

Peter Cushing: A Life In Film
By David Miller, Titan Books, h/b £18.99 (2013)
This is the one-stop 24 hour all night garage for all your Peter Cushing information needs. Need to know how many guineas Cushing was paid for a role? What kind of fry ups the builders who worked on his house made? (“Wonderful!”, seriously). A mammoth effort of research rendered down into a breezyily paced and detail studded chronological chronicle of the man known as Peter Cushing. EXCELLENT! Unless you have no interest in Peter Cushing in which case I’m not really sure why you have read this far. Or if your taste can be trusted.

A History of Horrors: The Rise and Fall of Hammer
By Denis Meikle
Scarecrow Press, h/b £44.95 (2009)
This one is thoroughgoing history of Hammer Studios and so covers all their films with Peter Cushing in as well as the many which lacked his presence. I found this particularly informative about the less familiar, to me, pre-success Hammer period and the studio’s final flailing at various, perhaps thankfully, unrealised projects (Nessie! Vampirella!). Although the price and paper suggest it is some tedious reference affair Meikle makes his subject interesting and even slips in some very good jokes now and again.   Comes with an introduction by Peter Cushing in which he says nice things about, well, everybody, dear hearts. Simply everybody! Simply VERY GOOD!

A Thing of Unspeakable Horror: the History of Hammer Films
By Sinclar McKay
Aurum Press Ltd, h/b £16.99 (2007)
This is another history of Hammer but written with the emphasis firmly on the entertaining. McKay’s frothy approach does mean that it is still enjoyable even if you have already read a history of Hammer, but slack editing lets through a few errors even I could spot. (Yes, Hilary Mantel, I know I have no room to talk.) To McKay’s credit unlike other, cleverer, books he doesn’t shy away from the nightmarish horror of the execrable On the Buses movie series. As a casual and light hearted introduction to Hammer it’s GOOD!

Peter Cushing: The Complete Memoirs
by Peter Cushing
Signum Books, h/b £19.99 (2013)
A centennially stimulated repackaging of the  two previous Cushing autobios (An Autobiography, Past Forgetting) with the 1955 memoir The Peter Cushing Story as a single volume. This didn’t arrive in time for me to read it but I’m sticking it on the list because it is a primary source for all the other books. I have read the two autobios though, back when I had more hair on my head than up my nose, and recall them being charmingly wobbily canters through the life of the great man himself related in his own endearingly effusive style(!). His memoirs may be surprisingly light on Hammer but are startlingly frank regarding some of the more distressing events in his life. This new edition also has some quite lovely informal photos of Cushing rocking his perennial cravat and slacks look down the ages. It’s the man himself in his own words so it could never be less than EXCELLENT! However, the reader does have to supply their own slippers, biscuits and hot tea.

A Selective Peter Cushing Filmography

Peter Cushing Suffering For His Art with Veronica Carlson.
On the set of Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)

The Baron Frankenstein Series
The Curse of Frankenstein (1956)
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
The Evil of Frankenstein (1963)
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
Frankenstein Must be Destroyed (1969)
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1972)

The Van Helsing Series
Horror of Dracula (1957)
The Brides of Dracula (1960)
Dracula A.D. 1972 (1971)
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1972)
Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1973)

Portmanteau/Anthology (Basically, Like EC Horror Comics) Films
Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1964)
Torture Garden (1967)
The House that Dripped Blood (1970)
Tales from the Crypt (1971)
Asylum (1972)
From Beyond the Grave (1973)
The Uncanny (1976)

Miscellaneous
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1958)
The Mummy (Hammer, 1959)
The Gorgon (1964)
The Skull (1965)
Blood Beast Terror (1967)
The Vampire Lovers (1970)
Twins of Evil (1971)
Horror Express (1971)
The Creeping Flesh (1972)
Madhouse (1973)
The Beast Must Die (1973)
The Ghoul (1974)
Legend of the Werewolf (1974)
House of the Long Shadows (1982)

Children’s Entertainments
Night Creatures (1962)
She (1964)
Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)
Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966)
At the Earth’s Core (1976)
Star Wars (1976)
Arabian Adventure (1978)

AVENGERS #12: I’ve tried, really I have, but I find Hickman’s AVENGERS titles so bloodless and over-plotted that I just can’t get into them whatsoever.  Here we are at what would be the “one year mark” for a “normal” comic, at the five months-old mark (and people wonder why Marvel is driving sales now?), and I’m so very very cold to this one and it’s sibling title. Only “Spider-Ock teaching those kids how to be selfish” showed any real spark. I find this so very EH.

BOUNCE #1: I don’t understand what Joe Kelley is trying to do here? “Speedball, except with swearing and explicit drug use?” That’s not so very appealing, and then the first issue ends with an “alternate reality”, and I’m trying to figure out what I’m rooting for? Some of the wilder ideas (A superhuman who IS a drug, shadowy conspiracies run by lizard-eaters, etc.) probably work a lot better with the mainstream-like art by David Messina that some of Casey’s other co-creators.  I liked it fine, but I’m having a hard time deciphering the actual premise. Call it a very strong OK?

DAREDEVIL #26: this book is moving from strength to strength, and I think that the new enemy is one of the strongest ones that DD has ever faced… but, damn, I can’t for the life of my recall his name. Akemi? Ashema? Somewhere in that range. Too bad it wasn’t something like “Devildare” or something else easily remembered (Like, dunno, “Bullseye”, maybe?), as that would mark a perfect nemesis. Either way, this book is VERY GOOD.

FANTASTIC FOUR #8: There’s been something just a few degrees off from this renumbering, that I wish I could put my finger on — but it’s just dying in sales on our racks. Plummmmmet. Which is a damn shame, because this was as near as perfect of a single issue of a superhero comic book that I read this year. Ben Grimm on his one “day of being human”, visiting the past of Yancy Street even before his sainted Aunt Petunia, and its just a great great little Done-In-One. VERY GOOD.

FLASH #20: Excited, oddly, about a new “Reverse Flash”, but, like much of the Manapul/Buccellato era, it’s just not delivering it’s potential in my eyes. I really really want to believe, but the fairy is dying right in front of my very eyes. It tries so very very hard, and I desperately want to like it but like a poor marksman, it. keeps, missing. its. target. (KHAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!)

(Christ, I’m a nerd)

I honestly can’t generate more than an OK, though I *want* it to be a VG, y’know?

GREEN LANTERN #20: And so ends an era. Really, this deserves an essay of its own, but Geoff deserves some amazing props for turning what was a (lets face it) second string character into a genuine franchise. Some people deride the “rainbow corps” (and, yeah, it probably went a step too far), but at least there are really legitimate differences and motivations and backstories between the various Corps.

I am personally of the mind that Geoff’s run ran 3-4 years too long — I’m not convinced that anything after “Blackest Night” was really particularly good — but you GOT to give it up to Geoff for what he’s accomplished in the run, overall.  I think even moreso because MY expectation is that the franchise of GL is going to crater out without Geoff at the helm… largely I think that the audience was essentially tolerating much of the excess in the line due to perceiving it as a creative vision. We’ll see.

This last issue, sadly, wasn’t much special — the villain of this story has been uninteresting, and the final crossover dragged on way too long, with way too much handwaving and gnashing of teeth — so I’m not inclined to go over an OK, but I do want to make special mention of the “text pieces” scattered throughout the issue which (and this is really straight from Jeff Lester, I am sorry for stealing!) read like nothing more than signatures collected in a high school yearbook, with all of the empty insincere praise that entails — I’m shocked there’s not a “Have A Great Summer!” in there somewhere, honestly — the nadir probably being Diane Nelson’s. I’d be shocked if she could recite the rest of that.

Yeah: “Have A Great Summer!”

GREEN TEAM #1: Here’s the good news: We’re guaranteed to get more issues of this than from the first series (which had just two issues, after it’s debut in “1st Issue Special”, both cancelled before they shipped), as this will last AT LEAST until issue #8. It’s hard to think that it will get much more beyond that, however, since there wasn’t a ton of ACTUAL premise on display in this first one. I get that on paper it’s “rich kids buy superpowers”, but that only happens for ONE of the “team”, and that only on the last page. Has no one heard of “in media res“? Plus? I liked them better as, y’know, little kids. Well, copyright resecured, I guess.

I *love* this description of the cancelled first series: “In the first of the two unpublished adventures, the boys were pitted against giant lobsters and the Russian Navy. In what would have been the third issue, the Green Team face a villain called the Paperhanger who had special wallpaper that grew plants and trees, and who was a dead ringer for Adolf Hitler. They dispatch all menaces, then disappear into history in their private jet.” Oh oh, the wacky wacky 70s…

This was highly OK, but needed to be so so much better to escape the event horizon of the current DCU

HALF PAST DANGER #1: Nice try, but another example of “burying the lede” and starting the story long long before the story should actually be started — “WW2 adventurers FIGHT nazi dinosaurs!” is a great idea, but so much of this comic was walking through woods and sitting in bars and things that were not actually fighting nazis OR dinosaurs. Plus Stephen Mooney’s art is just too anatomically awkward in places.  There’s virtually no genre serialization that couldn’t learn a lot by studying the structure of, say, an episode of Star Trek, and applying that to EACH INDIVIDUAL issue of the comic. Yet another OK on display in this one.

OCCUPY COMICS #1: I think this might be a year too late to do any good, but I liked virtually every page of this polemic of a comic. You could also call this “time capsule comics”, because that’s likely how this will seem in a decade (sort of like how the 9/11 comics are today), but that doesn’t stop this from being a solid little anthology, and (I thought) VERY GOOD.
POWERS BUREAU #4: there are times that I think that Bendis has single-handedly done more harm to the very idea of creator-owned comics than another other guy in comics. As a working retailer, I am constrained to point out that this issue is nearly a full month late, and that’s after they utterly wasted having a few issues “banked” by shipping the first two bi-weekly and bragging how they were absolutely “guaranteed” to ship on time. And now we’re already selling fewer copies than we did of the prior series, *sad trombone noise*

And the shame of it is that the book is very readable again, after a pretty dire patch of thinking it was better than it was — I thought this issue was solidly GOOD.

UNCANNY X-MEN #6: Speaking of Bendis, he’s just killing it here. KILLING.

I don’t know why — maybe because the Claremont DNA makes “chatty” a good move for x-books? I don’t know, but this (and “All New”) are absolutely “good” Bendis, and I thought this issue, with art by the incomparable Frazer Irving, was VERY GOOD.

YOUNG AVENGERS #5: Really GOOD ending to the first arc, and they’re all given a plausible reason to be a team. It’s just too bad that “Avengers” comics are as common as STDs on a hooker these days, because the clutter on the shelf (there are FOUR “Avengers” comics just this WEEK) is leaving this one the poor-selling stepchild.

Right, then, that’s me — what did YOU think?

-B

Who’s gonna take the bait on that Shade book…

Fantastic Four 243 and 245

A running theme in these posts is most definitely going to be the very transgressive and transformative nature of the comics themselves.  The bulk of my collection (suitable for giving away to relatively all ages) is from a time before “This Business” had identified status quo as a desirable state and condition for merchandising purposes.  Costumes, names, characters, all seemed up for grabs.  Case in point – John Byrne’s barn burning pace on Fantastic Four.  Invisible Girl No More – Galactus Falls.  Byrne did a really, really nice job showcasing the talents of Sue Storm.  Her invisble force projection power (vague and uninspiringly defined by recent art teams) was given a huge “level-up” under his able draftsmanship.  Similarly, watching a group of Marvel’s finest and also-rans take Galactus down a peg over the course of 3 issues blazed with a kind of manic pace that’s not very common today.  As our beloved mainstream titles get lost in wandering stories spanning actual years of the fleeting readership’s lives it’s important to remember what made this stuff “Can’t miss” as opposed to “Days of our Lives” never-ending soap opera horseshit.

Star Trek 10 – 11 – 12

The Mirror Universe concept gets dusted off here and by the end of it everything is blown up and Kirk is literally strangling himself.  Awesome.  Sidenote, for the LONGEST time I only had issue 11 of this arc.  Can you imagine the fever dreams I had?

RESTOCKED – Don’t Panic.  Most of that is reprints.

THOR 247

Thor and Firelord find themselves in the bewitching thrall of a gypsy’s magical diadem.  No worries, here comes JAne Foster to challenge her to (and win cleanly, I might add) a girl knife fight.  APPROVED BY THE COMICS CODE AUTHORITY!  Thor gets the patented “I say thee, NAY!” moment but not until AFTER Jane wins the fight on her own.  Take that, Bechdel Test!

Superboy starring the Legion of Super Heroes 200

Wow, great Cockrum costumes.  Duo Damsel’s wedding dress is gorgeous.  Starfinger, on the other hand…jesus.  Just…no.

Amazing Spider-Man 258 and 270

In 1985 Ron Frenz and Tom DeFalco took over from my boy Roger Stern (He of ASM 251 ENDINGS fame) and went on quite the little tear themselves.  in 258 Spidey discovers his swanky black threads are an alien symbiote and he battles it with the FF.  That resulted in the classic Spidey wears a bag on his head bit.  ”Kick Me” sign and all.  Then, in 270 he somehow gets pulled into a fistfight with a former herald of Galactus and after a really well done cat and mouse game finds himself lured into the open.  It’s at this point Peter goes full “Ralphie beats up the bully” from A Christmas Story on Firelord and beating him into unconsciousness   He only snaps out of it when Captain America taps him on the shoulder and is like, “Whoa, son.”  The man who killed more Nazis than anyone else in history just told you to take a chill pill, Spidey.  Time to switch to decaf.

Milk, good. Donut, good. Comic, good.

Adventures of Superman 463

This comic broke my “Superman and the Flash are forced to race under a dubious premise” cherry and it was soooooo good.  Really dynamic stuff from Art Thibert of all people sees Superman breaking through to the developing core of the Wally West character.  Wally being all insecure but trying hard to earn it.  It’s a comic about people who are learning, growing, and destroying a Mxyzptlk altered Mt. Rushmore…oops.

Unicorns do exist

Wonder Woman #0

Thanks Azzarello.  20+ issues of pushy gods, bad puns, and about 12 issues of wasted Cliff Chiang and I’m practically willing to forgive it all because of this #0.  It’s a great “Young Diana” story about learning the virtue of Mercy and the importance of staying true to your heart.

But no, I don’t see an audience for this kind of book, do you?  

Welp, that was the week that was.  Looking forward to next week when we discuss our favorite Hostess Pie interludes!

12 REASONS TO DIE #1
A PLUS X #8 NOW
ADVENTURE TIME #16
ADVENTURE TIME FIONNA & CAKE #5 (OF 6)
AKANEIRO #1 (OF 3)
ALL STAR WESTERN #20
AQUAMAN #20
AVENGERS #12 NOW
BART SIMPSON COMICS #83
BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED #16
BATMAN INCORPORATED #11
BATMAN LIL GOTHAM #2
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #20
BOUNCE #1
CROSSED BADLANDS #28
DAMSELS #7
DAREDEVIL #26
DARK HORSE PRESENTS #24
DARK SHADOWS YEAR ONE #2
DEADPOOL #10 NOW2
DMC DEVIL MAY CRY VERGIL CHRONICLES #1 (OF 2)
DOCTOR WHO VOL 3 #9
FANTASTIC FOUR #8 NOW2
FEARLESS DEFENDERS #4AU NOW
FIVE GHOSTS HAUNTING OF FABIAN GRAY #3 (OF 5)
FLASH #20
FURY OF FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN #20
GHOSTBUSTERS #4
GI JOE COBRA FILES #2
GREEN LANTERN #20 (WRATH)
GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS #20 (WRATH)
GREEN TEAM #1
HALF PAST DANGER #1 (OF 6)
HELLRAISER DARK WATCH #4
IRON MAN #258.3
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #652 NOW
JUDGE DREDD #7
JUSTICE LEAGUE #20
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #20
LOBSTER JOHNSON SATAN SMELLS A RAT ONE SHOT
MARVEL UNIVERSE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #14
MASKS #7
MASSIVE #12
MIND MGMT #11
MINIATURE JESUS #2 (OF 5)
NOWHERE MEN #5
OCCUPY COMICS #1
POWERS BUREAU #4
RED LANTERNS #20 (WRATH)
RED SONJA #75 RUBI CVR
REVIVAL #10
SAVAGE HAWKMAN #20
SCARLET SPIDER #17
SEX #3
SIXTH GUN #31
SOLID STATE TANK GIRL #1 (OF 4)
STAR WARS DAWN O/T JEDI PRISONER OF BOGAN #5 (OF 5)
STAR WARS LEGACY #3
STEED AND MRS PEEL ONGOING #8
SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #10 NOW
SUPERMAN #20
TALON #8
TEEN TITANS #20
TMNT VILLAIN MICROSERIES #2 BAXTER STOCKMAN
TRUE BLOOD ONGOING #13
ULTIMATE COMICS WOLVERINE #4 (OF 4)
UNCANNY AVENGERS #8AU NOW2
UNCANNY X-MEN #6 NOW
UNWRITTEN #49
WASTELAND #45
WORLD OF ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #29
X-MEN LEGACY #11 NOW2
YOUNG AVENGERS #5 NOW

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A PLUS X TP VOL 01 EQUALS AWESOME
ARCHIES 1000 PG COMICS DIGEST TP
BRICKJOURNAL #23
CHRONICLES OF KING CONAN TP VOL 05 BLACK DRAGONS
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FLASH GORDON TP VOL 01 ZEITGEIST
GODZILLA HALF CENTURY WAR TP
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NAZI ZOMBIES TP
NEIL GAIMAN MAKE GOOD ART HC
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SLAINE GRAIL WAR GN
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TORPEDO TP VOL 03
UNCANNY X-MEN BY KIERON GILLEN TP VOL 04 AVX
WOLVERINE BEST THERE IS TP COMPLETE SERIES

As always, what do YOU think?

…and no, nobody does answer that question. But then who cares – it’s 1980′s Gil Kane! Anyway, this…

SECRET ORIGINS #28
Starring:
Midnight
Art by Gil Kane
Written by Roy Thomas
Lettered by Jean Simek
Coloured by Tom Ziuko
(Also Nightshade by Rob Liefeld, Robert Greenberger et al.)
DC Comics, $1.50 (1988)
Midnight created by Jack Cole

I found this a few years ago, it was wedged in the back of a bargain box and only eyes trained in Shamballa to spot the word “Kane” on a comic book flickering past in a four colour blur allowed  me to halt my fingers long enough to pull it towards me; like a tiny child rescued from a rushing river. A rushing river whose waters were Time! A child who was not a child but a comic! It’s not a comic people talk about a lot but, by Mishima’s slippers, it is an astonishing piece of work by Mr. Gil Kane. It starts like this…

In order to impose some sense of order and consistency on the post CRISIS DC Universe SECRET ORIGINS delivered 50 issues during the years 1986-1990, with each issue being dedicated to presenting the newly established origin of one or more DC characters. That’s right, in 1986 -1990 DC Comics actually gave enough of a chuff about continuity to have given it a bit of thought so it all worked out nicely. I think we can all agree that the Nu52 has had none of that. Although DC’s total banjaxing of their own continuity does still give us the joy of seeing Baleful Brian Hibbs going all puce every single time he realises that Batman now hasn’t been Batman long enough to have had all those Robins. Yes, there was a time when DC Comics didn’t just pretend everything made sense they actually made it make sense. Obviously Rascally Roy Thomas was all over this series like a rash. So much so that he wrote this comic. And Gil Kane’s only gone and drawn it!

GilRoy worked together on many magnificent series/characters all of which are better remembered today than this. Which is a shame. Mind you, I’m not even sure this character has ever appeared again.  Feel free to correct me, as ever. Midnight first appeared in the Quality published Smash Comics #18 (Jan 1941). The strip was certainly drawn, and probably written by, Jack “Plastic Man” Cole hence the little credit box in the splash above. Just as The Death Patrol were a copy of The Blackhawks so was Midnight essentially The Spirit. Yes, there is a text feature by the Rascally one I have cribbed from. Midnight then is a man in suit and a domino mask who decides, inspired by the character whose adventures he narrates on old timey radio, to right wrongs and smack bad guys about. His name comes from the fact that he confronts his enemies at…midnight! This is clearly a very poor gimmick that the bad guys would soon twig to ending in a dead man in a suit with a domino mask. Inspired, I have submitted to Dan Didio a treatment for a Nu52 treatment of the character which is basically the same except he attacks his foes when they are mid shite. Take my word, people have a really hard time defending themselves when they are on the pot. Anyway, I think it has the requisite level of class modern DC Comics requires and I breathlessly await their response.

As much as I treasure Roy Thomas, and his work here is entertaining and sprightly as befits the pulpy period set material, I am actually here to talk about Gil Kane. Because 1980s Gil Kane is what I’m all about. Sadly I wasn’t invited to personally watch Kane create the art on these pages but to me it looks like he’s using markers. That’s the sign of a confident man right there. Of course, so I hear, he would have broken down each page into rough layouts down to the panel level. Usually then some tightening up would transform the layouts to pencils and then, naturally, the final inking. But Kane, so I’ve read, would skip the pencils and just bang! ink over his layouts. With markers. That’s…confidence. That’s Gil Kane. Worship at your convenience.

Of course the markers may be a mundane reason for the obvious lightness of detail in Kane’s work. Certainly in “The Secret Origin Of Midnight” Kane continually veers away from heavy detail.  So much so that his hatching is very rarely even crossed. Cross hatching and heavy detail were the mark of illustrators and, for Kane, there was a clear delineation between artists who favoured continuity and those who had an illustrative bias. Kane was a continuity first guy. To clarify this Kane would often cast it in terms of his work versus that of the Filipino school. Hence his documented dissatisfaction with Rudy Nebres inking of his pencils on the Marvel John Carter series. The reader’s eye was meant to flow through Kane’s pages obeying the visual rhythm set by the artist himself. When detail occurs it occurs in controlled quantities and its purpose is specific. Here city scenes seem detail rich but on closer inspection the illusion of detail is the result of an accumulation of what turn out to be visual generalisations. Kane saves the more honest detail for when he shows a face in close up. On these occasions he uses his hatching to cue in the mood of the subject regardless of light sources as with the noir movies of his youth. Basically for Kane illustration is used to convey intensity. Here it’s usually the intensity of the villainy of a bald fat man but my point remains.

Also present on these pages is Kane’s constant attempts to differentiate between the flesh and the forms of the world it inhabits. It might be argued that there is a concerted and clear divide between the living and the inert in Kane’s art. This is a city based tale packed with artfully implied period detail, including suits that make natty look tatty. At no point is there any confusion on the part of the reader between the person and their clothing. This is due to Kane’s skill at drapery but also to the fact that he varies the level of detail and line-weight between the clothes and the flesh that they drape. Noticeably so.  A striving for seperation, and yet also some balance, between the natural and the manufactured line was an important part of Kane’s artistic ambition. He would always be quick to praise Lou Fine, an artist who Kane felt had achieved excellence in both the geometric and organic line. However, in all fairness I should note that Gil Kane could draw men in hats better than Lou Fine.

Oh, don’t worry this comic contains all the explosive movement, bombastic gymnastics, panel breaking, in-panel montages, punched people back flipping and chisel chinned cavorting that the most frenetically entertaining and irresistibly enjoyable work of Gil Kane always contains. I just thought I’d highlight a couple of things I wouldn’t usually mention. If I came off sounding like someone having a dry drunk please don’t let it put you off this comic should you see it. After all, it’s 1980s Gil Kane and that’s VERY GOOD!

After all, if 1980s Gil Kane is anything he’s certainly – COMICS!!!

(Really, that was a pretty shitty week for comics — I kept most of what shipped LAST week up on the shelf too, just to fill in room….)

AGE OF ULTRON #8 (OF 10): So, I’m reading this and I’m literally thinking, “Why am I reading this? This doesn’t count, this story didn’t happen being the inner-level alternate reality of an alternate-reality-driven comic. The last page when, dunno, something huge drops on New York, and the city goes up in hellfire and destruction? I’m thinking “Yeah, and…?” I mean, it didn’t happen, and it’s all just time-travel, alternate-reality nonsense, and there’s eight and one half minutes of my life that I desperately wish I had back. Wake me when the Angel-girl shows up to unthread this…. AWFUL.

AVENGERS ENEMY WITHIN #1: This is the first part of the CAPTAIN MARVEL / AVENGERS ASSEMBLE crossover, conveniently not attached to either series. I don’t know, this is pretty drama-free to me, because, just like AGE OF ULTRON above, I’m fairly confident that Kelly Sue DeConnick isn’t going to murder Carol, so “the enemy within” of her comic-book illness isn’t really much of anything at all, now is it? This also wasn’t really written with a new reader in mind — I felt like it thought that I knew what was going on when I opened page 1, and I really don’t, especially. And, more importantly, nothing on display here warmed me to Carol or Captain Marvel, or made me want to read or learn more about any of it. Foo! Also? The art was really bad, I thought — Scott Hepburn doesn’t seem to have basic control of anatomy or human proportions. I also have to give this one an AWFUL, though that’s more a limitation of the SavCrit scale… “Very EH” might be slightly more accurate…

DOOMSDAY.1 #1 (OF 4): John Byrne has been killing it with these sci-fi books now — I thought this was very much a airport best-seller from the 70s or something, and that’s not even slightly a complaint: there is an easy level of craft and professionalism on display here, with many dramatically distinct characters. This isn’t saying a LOT, since, like I said “shitty week of comics”, but I thought that this was easily the best thing that I read this week. VERY GOOD (and available on our digital store, he said fruitlessly)

DREAM MERCHANT #1 (OF 6) : One of two named “Dream” books, and the one I couldn’t really follow very well. The art by Konstantin Novosadov has some nice ethreal qualities, but it gets colored far too dark in too many places, and he kind of bobbles the faces again and again. The writing I thought was too self-indulgent, and should have covered twice the ground in half the space. WHAT IS THE ACTUAL PREMISE OF THIS COMIC? It’s really not in issue #1. A very very low OK. (You could also get this at our digital store… and the coloring might be tuned to a screen, for all I know)

DREAM THIEF #1 (OF 5): Our other “Dream” comic is much easier to follow as Jai Nitz gives you a reason to care for the protagonist, and set out a controlling mystery very effectively. And I thought the art by Greg Smallwood was extremely effective in the flashback-to-dreams sections. The story is kind of Little Nemo in Slumberland meets The Spectre, and while I found the mystery compelling, I’m not sure that the body count produced makes the book really my cup of tea. Still, this is a very very solid GOOD, maybe even a bit higher.

That’s what I thought at least, what did YOU think?

-B

(So awkward, still.)

Keep an eye out for a new “giving away comics” post a little bit later. Currently, this 100% opinion piece!

Something you may not know about us working donut professionals is that we keep odd, lonely hours. Between one and five-thirty am every day not only am I awake and functioning at a high level it is exceedingly rare for me to utter a single word. Take a second to think about your day. Have you ever been silent for four and a half hours and not asleep?

What a nutty life.  Much, much more after the jump.

Anywho, in order to fill those hours when I can’t speak to anyone I listen. I listen actively and intently to all manner of media. Albums, comedy specials, NPR, Hood Internet mixtapes, TV Series. Hell, I HEARD more Friday Night Lights, House of Cards, and Cheers than I ever actually watched. I also found that I am not averse to the sound enthusiasm. Podcasts such as our own esteemed “Wait, What?!” Marc Maron’s WTF, Grantland, and Nerdist…sweet, sweet, Nerdist brought me a new arena of entertainment.

Let’s clear one thing up right now. I am a faithful Ben Blacker apostle. I listen to Thrilling Adventure Hour, every one of his Nerdist Writer’s Panels, and literally anything else he and his writing partner, Ben Acker, produce. These guys are legit trailblazers. Architects of a new endeavor. Check ‘em out!

Hey, Kids! Shine up your astro-spurs and dust off your robot fists!

http://www.nerdist.com/podcast/nerdist-writers-panel/

http://www.nerdist.com/podcast/thrilling-adventure-hour/

(Bonus: Latest behind the scenes episode #115 features a sneak peak at upcoming comics pod co-host Heath Corson.)

At any rate, I was toiling away one morning and listening to him chat up some guy named Ryan Condal.

http://www.nerdist.com/2013/04/nerdist-writers-panel-84-ryan-condal/

Ryan was/is responsible for adapting Cullen Bunn’s Sixth Gun for television. To be fair, frank, and clueless I didn’t know this was going on and I haven’t read more than two issues of Sixth Gun. Here’s a quick recap of the surrounding hullabaloo featuring our own Savage Graeme!

January 22 – May 8

Graeme ‏@graemem22 Jan
Congratulations to @cullenbunn @brihurtt @crabtree_bill @OniPress for the Sixth Gun getting a pilot order for the TV version.

Jay Faerber ‏@JayFaerber6 Apr
Congrats @cullenbunn — the Sixth Gun is apparently an early favorite of the NBC pilots! http://www.deadline.com/2013/04/primetime-pilot-panic-the-early-buzz/

Brian Hurtt ‏@brihurtt8 May
At end of day @cullenbunn and I intend to stay focused on the one thing we do have control over. The comic. Thanks for all your support!

cullenbunn ‏@cullenbunn9 May
Don’t give up hope for THE SIXTH GUN tv show just yet. http://ht.ly/1W0trk

Whew, that’s a rocket ride. Throw your entire career related highs and lows into a basket and it would be tough to match that six-month run.

Aye, Verily.

This episode of “Writer’s Panel” had gone up prior to the bad news so Condal was still very hopeful and excited. Throughout the interview he was kind, considerate of others feelings, and seemed an all ‘round good egg. Additionally, his twitter icon is Shatner – as Kirk – mid ‘KHAAAAAN’ scream and his background is Frazetta’s “Conan the Destroyer” so say hello to my innermost gristmill, Mr. Condal. We are close on a level few humans have words for. I salute you.

However, missing in all his amiable chat with Blacker was any mention whatsoever of Bunn, himself. The man, along with artist Brian Hurt, who is more responsible than anyone for the vision of the Sixth Gun as a “thing” did not rate a single mention. It should be said, of course, that it may have been edited out and certainly Blacker knows Bunn as he’s mentioned him numerous times on other shows. I’m not saying – unequivocally – Bunn’s been given short shrift. However, they both mention Oni Press, the production company that holds development rights for all Oni Press offerings (“Closed on Mondays,” a division of Oni created back in ’03 if you’re curious.) and various other people associated with the project.

What I am saying about Cullen Bunn is simply this: He’s not up front – where a creator should be.

They just needed to move that pic of Cuse over the creator credit and it would have been perfect.

Without getting into Hickman-esque diagrams it’s clear that Cullen Bunn is down the ladder. Is he going to write any of this? Is he going to get a producer credit? Is this creation going to secure his working life – financially and creatively – for the foreseeable future? Have we been sold a bill of goods in the “Creator Owned” arena?

At it’s average, The Sixth Gun was selling under five thousand copies and he’s ending it at issue 50. According to Publisher’s Weekly that’s just Beer Money under most models. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/53365-the-kirkman-bendis-debates-four-years-later-creators-look-stronger.html

In the realm of “Creator Owned” not all contracts are written equally. For example, we have no idea how far Cullen’s creative rights extend to development in other media. Does he get to say what goes in and what stays out? Does he get to exercise final say over any decisions in regards to merchandise? In the link to his blog post above he mentions that the showrunners were “open to feedback.” Very reassuring.

What’s Oni’s mutated role in all this? They may be oh so happy to write a contract that gives creators control of a 3,000 issue-selling comic but does “Closed on Mondays” offer extended rights? Or is that a new raft of deals, reduced options and shares? As our own Abhay once opined:

THE SIXTH GUN is a comic book published by Oni Press. Oni Press is a comic publisher founded in 1997, and since 2003, it’s been the sister company to Closed on Mondays, a production company that Oni describes as “created specifically to help Oni Press creators and titles find life in mediums outside of comics” which “works closely with Oni creators and staff members to find [appropriate] creative partners.” Like other similarly situated comic companies, Oni refers to their comics as “creator-owned” — though when comic publishers have sister companies that work closely with creators, some people might find it a little fuzzier what creator-owned means exactly– or at least, it’s my limited understanding that reasonable minds might differ on that point. All the crowing and chest-puffing of this past year aside, the label “creator owned” on a comic seems sort of like the label “organic” on a box of cookiess– it’s not exactly clear to me what that means, and I don’t know if it’s a good idea for me to always assume what’s being sold is healthy just based on that label.

http://www.savagecritic.com/reviews/abhay-the-sixth-gun/

Hear, hear Mr. Khosla.

Contrast this position with that of one Robert Kirkman. A person, who since launching stage two of his career post-manifesto has, essentially, written the book on how to “get yours.” You can’t look at a thing that is Walking Dead without knowing Robert Kirkman made that choice. His was the power of “No.” Right from the outset he saw through a plan that got him dirty but left him free, clear and holding permanent rights to the kind of success Jack Kirby might only achieve in a fever dream.

Cullen Bunn, on the other hand, working with a loose definition of creator owned, a bright burning dream, a restrictive in house production company deal, and sub five thousand sales may well have felt his options were reduced to one simple, “Yes.”

Yes or No?