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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2016 0:53:45 GMT -5
Thanks for posting the picture of Mangog ... Cei-U!
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Post by hondobrode on Jul 18, 2016 1:55:51 GMT -5
I'm anxiously awaiting the Greatest Lava Man Stories tradebook THE Lava Man lead THE Lava Men and have some stories that are just crying out for Thor & Avengers fans to let Marvel know they've somehow not gotten to this collection quickly enough. Is that what you meant ?
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 18, 2016 2:05:43 GMT -5
I'm anxiously awaiting the Greatest Lava Man Stories tradebook THE Lava Man lead THE Lava Men and have some stories that are just crying out for Thor & Avengers fans to let Marvel know they've somehow not gotten to this collection quickly enough. Is that what you meant ? I'd love to see the Lava Man and his Lava Men face off against Spider-Man's Molten Man and Iron Man's The Melter The Human Torch could referee and whatever remains of this battle can be served as pudding
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Post by hondobrode on Jul 18, 2016 2:19:59 GMT -5
sweet sweet toasted pudding to kill the skrulls
is that what you were thinking
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jul 19, 2016 7:34:18 GMT -5
Strange Tales #113 Story Title: “The Coming of the Plantman!” Cover Date: October, 1963 CreditsScript: Stan Lee (plot); Jerry Siegel [as Joe Carter] (script) Pencils: Dick Ayers Inks: Dick Ayers Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Sam Rosen Cover Art: Jack Kirby (pencils); Don Heck (inks); Sol Brodsky (alterations) Synopsis: The Torch goes on a date with his new girlfriend, Doris, but is berated by her for showing off as the Human Torch. While the Torch is trying to figure out why Doris isn’t impressed with his flaming powers, Doris’s father, Mr. Evans, is angry at his gardener, Sam, because Sam is using one of his crazy inventions (a plant IQ increaser) on the plants when Evans just wants him to do the gardening. Evans gets angry and fires him but the gardener vows to get his revenge. While experimenting with his device in his garden during a thunderstorm, a lightning bolt saps zap’s Sam’s device and somehow alters his gadget to actually make it work. After experimenting with his device to control plants, he becomes "Plantman" and uses his new plant control powers to break into the jewelry story where Evans works as manager, steal the contents of the safe, and frame Evans for the crime. The Torch vows to Doris that he’ll clear her father’s name, and discovering Plantman, the two do battle. Plantman escapes by dousing him with dew and binding him with vines. Plantman then decides to make his base in Central Park, and after attacking and scaring off some civilians, the Torch learns his location and manages to defeat him by creating a giant fireball that evaporates the plants moisture. The plants turn against Plantman because of this and destroy his device, but Plantman manages to escape the Torch by hiding in a hollowed out tree trunk. Character Appearances: Human Torch [Johnny Storm]; Plantman [Sam Smithers] (introduction, origin); Doris Evans (introduction); Mr. Evans (introduction) Comments: Now that was one supremely goofy story. If you’ve followed my Strange Tales reviews so far that’s saying something. The most glaringly bad aspect of this little tale is the atrocious dialog of Jerry Siegel. I get the feeling that he was either instructed to inject humor into the story or at least influenced to do so by Stan’s work. He just doesn’t have the chops for snappy dialog and puns. Here’s an example during the final Plantman/Torch confrontation: Plantman: “Confuse that pesty teen-ager with a leaf-storm! Torch: “Whaddy expect me to do, Plantman, beg you to LEAF me alone? You’ll have to do better’n this!” That’s embarrassing by any eras standard. The icing on the cake is the utterly unlikable Doris Evans. She has the charm of cranky 80-year-old Puritan woman with an ulcer. She easily wins “worst supporting character” of The Marvel Age for me. What makes it even worse is that she’s Johnny’s first real love interest. Poor Johnny. I think she’s why he’d go on to have such a rough love life. The shrew obviously scarred the poor boy's soul… Character Development: Johnny comes off as shallow and a bit spineless in this one. He thinks to himself after Doris makes him ride the bus with her as opposed to flying her as the Torch, “Yiicchh! If this slowpoke wasn’t so doggone pretty, I-I’d…” Yet he doesn’t have the stones to tell her to love it or leave it. The fact that she’s apparently the only girl that isn’t in awe of his powers makes her and the situation even more insufferable. Personal Rating: 3. Really bad, but almost so goofy it’s good. But mostly it’s just bad. Historical Rating: 6. I give this an above average score for the introduction of his first love interest and for Plantman. Plantman was always a minor villain, and a rather lame one at that, but he’d prove to have staying power.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2016 8:28:35 GMT -5
Of all the Strange Tales that I read this story is got to be the most goofiest story that I ever read and I was very disappointed in the writing of Jerry Siegel (as Joe Carter) in this book and I was hoping for a better script. This was in my mind was hastily put together in the last minute trying to write a solo story for Johnny (Human Torch) Storm that I felt it was kind of lame myself.
Great Review here and nicely sum up Robert and I wished it was a better story to begin with and I did not care for the love interest for Plantman here. That's made it too goofy for my taste. It was a bad story to begin with and I were Jerry Siegel I would be embarrassed to write it in the first place.
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Post by Farrar on Jul 19, 2016 18:36:27 GMT -5
Good review/commentary, Robert. Yeah, the story isn't the greatest (to put it mildly ). I think I must be one of the very few readers who actually liked Dorrie Evans, even if she was very one-note back in those Strange Tales days. And even though she was a mainstay in that Torch series--short-lived as that series was--she never even appeared in the main Fantastic Four book, at least not until the early 1970s (FF #134), when she was shown to be married with children. And IMO, Stan's heart was in the right place for giving Jerry Siegel the Torch assignments when Siegel needed the work. Same goes for Jim Warren, when later on he too gave Siegel some writing assignments.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jul 19, 2016 19:24:47 GMT -5
A Dorrie Evans fan?! Will wonders never cease! I did forget to add that, as usual, Dick Ayers art was wonderful. I continue to feel that his talents are being wasted on this series, though. I've become a big fan of Ayers art through my Silver Age reading.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 19, 2016 20:58:57 GMT -5
A Dorrie Evans fan?! Will wonders never cease! I did forget to add that, as usual, Dick Ayers art was wonderful. I continue to feel that his talents are being wasted on this series, though. I've become a big fan of Ayers art through my Silver Age reading. That is a sentence I never imagined that I'd hear.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jul 19, 2016 21:11:13 GMT -5
A Dorrie Evans fan?! Will wonders never cease! I did forget to add that, as usual, Dick Ayers art was wonderful. I continue to feel that his talents are being wasted on this series, though. I've become a big fan of Ayers art through my Silver Age reading. That is a sentence I never imagined that I'd hear. I'd put him above Don Heck. I like his style. He's not nearly as interesting as Kirby or Ditko, but he's a solid Silver Age artist.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 19, 2016 21:29:13 GMT -5
That is a sentence I never imagined that I'd hear. I'd put him above Don Heck. I like his style. He's not nearly as interesting as Kirby or Ditko, but he's a solid Silver Age artist. I'd put him way below Heck. His penciling on Human Torch was atrocious and his inks really detracted from Kirby's work on FF.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jul 19, 2016 21:34:23 GMT -5
I'd put him above Don Heck. I like his style. He's not nearly as interesting as Kirby or Ditko, but he's a solid Silver Age artist. I'd put him way below Heck. His penciling on Human Torch was atrocious and his inks really detracted from Kirby's work on FF. So you don't like his Sgt. Fury work? I think it's great.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 19, 2016 21:41:56 GMT -5
I'd put him way below Heck. His penciling on Human Torch was atrocious and his inks really detracted from Kirby's work on FF. So you don't like his Sgt. Fury work? I think it's great. I've never read Sgt. Fury. I can only base it on Human Torch and FF. He was awful on both those strips.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jul 20, 2016 0:06:05 GMT -5
Well, we'll have to just agree to disagree on this one. The writing was terrible on the Human Torch, but the art is the lone saving grace in my eyes.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 20, 2016 0:44:32 GMT -5
When I was reading Marvel in the 60s, both Heck and Ayers were at the bottom of my list of favored artists. At best, they were serviceable. They did their jobs but their work did not inspire me at all. Heck could draw nice looking females but he wasn't really appropriate for the superhero genre. He really belonged in westerns, detective, romance..not action oriented stories. Ayers told the story cleanly and that's about the best I can say about it. Among the rest of the bullpen: Kirby,Colan.Ditko,Romita,Buscema,Steranko, Wood, Everett,Adkins,Severin and others, those 2 were on my bottom ladder rung
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