He self-published through an imprint called Albogenesis. I think Top Shelf handled the distribution of he trades and such, but it still had the Albiogenesis logo/trade dress.

-M

On the seventh day of Christmas, childhood mem'ries gave to me...

#6 Russ Manning




You know how things used to be better when you were young? And how most of the time when you revisit your old favourite TV show, comic or vacation spot it's never quite as good as how it used to be? Well, Russ Manning's Tarzan isn't like that. 

To be frank I had but a vague memory of Manning's classic comic strip before re-reading it thanks to IDW's recent reprinting. I did recall a few images of blue winged men, a bald lilliputian warrior, and priests who wore triceratops masks. Naturally, Manning's vision of Tarzan, Korak and Jane was the way these characters  had to be represented, as far as I was concerned; reading Edgar Rice Burroughs novels as a teen, that's the way I pictured them. But let's be frank: I first was engrossed in the Tarzan comic strip between the ages of four and seven, and bits and pieces was the best I could manage.

But oh, what a joy to realize that the strip is every bit as good as I thought it had been. The art is gorgeous, classic and sober but dynamic and elegant. The designs are magnificent and exotic. Burroughs' creations are treated with respect, as are the African natives (which was not always true in the originals). The wildlife is depicted with great care.



The first prose book I read was a French translation of The son of Tarzan. The first comic strip I followed in newspapers (I couldn't read, yet, but imagined what the characters must have been saying while waiting for my dad to read the story to me) was the syndicated Tarzan. The lord of the jungle always held a special place in my pantheon of imaginary heroes, and Russ Manning is in no part responsible for it.

My relationship with Manning's work is very similar to your own, and when I see his work(especially on Tarzan) it definitely fills me with that sense of nostalgia and its very nice to see that unlike many other things that evoke that feeling the quality of Manning's work is actually good. Have you read his Tarzan in The Land That Time Forgot? It's everything I love about his work in a graphic novel sized serving.

It doesn't conclude, because it's still being serialized, but don't worry, almost every issue feels like a whole year of Uncanny X-Men or Batman ploting, there's enough meat to keep you very happy. In a way you could even consider it has arcs that conclude.

Awesome. I will buy anything Allred does. Not everything is brilliant, but even his lesser work is better than most creators best stuff!

6) Bill Everett (papa of Sub-Mariner!)

I cannot remember when I was not a fan of Bill Everett. I know that his most famous creation, and which will ever be synonymous with his own name, is a turn off to some, but I just love the pomposity, arrogance and even dickishness of Namor, Sub-Mariner, Prince of Atlantis.

It is also very helpful that nobody in comics draws water, those whipped-up swirls and abyssal waves so deep with enchantment, like Everett does.

Everett's Sub-Mariner is a magical thing, and the master breathed life into his creation like no other over three epochs. Quite a feat.

There was that golden age splendour in which Everett embarked in rich graphic experimentation almost unknown at the time, and this was followed by the tense atomic age incarnation in which Everett was probably creating at his peak, and leavened the chill in the air with his Atlantean romps.. And lastly there was that lovely, most whimsical bronze age expression in which the master gave up the ghost in mid creation of the character he birthed to life full decades earlier.

I love them all, I love the artistry, I loved the wizardry of William Blake Everett.

Sure the Lee/Kirby Namor is nifty, but there remains something special to read and behold a Sub-Mariner book done 100% by the man who first brought him to light.