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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 3, 2024 12:48:21 GMT -5
Escapist: Amazing Adventures, Escapist: Pulse-Pounding Thrills(Dark Horse, 2018)  On the heels of reading the novel that inspired these comics, I decided to pull these two hefty tpbs off of the shelf and finally give them a read as well. Near as I can tell, they collect all of the material originally published in the eight issues of The Escapist series that Dark Horse published on a more or less quarterly basis in 2004 and 2005. The underlying conceit of the series is that it pretends that the Escapist comics described by Chabon in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay actually existed, and purports to reprint various Escapist comics published over the years – although with the exception of the origin story, they are those published in the late 1950s and afterward, after the demise of the fictional Empire Comics, when the ownership of the Escapist and associated characters changed hands from one questionable publisher to another over the course of several decades (and even ‘illegal’ Escapist stories appeared). There are also text pieces discussing various aspects of this period in the Escapist’s publication history by the likes of, e.g., cat yronwoode or Roy Thomas, and even Chabon himself (meanwhile, his novel is referred to by others as a ‘monograph’). The contributors are a veritable a who’s who list of writers and, esp. artists, including Howard Chaykin, Ron Randall, Marv Wolfman, Joe Staton, Paul Gulacy, Gene Colan, Jim Starlin, Jeff Parker, Eduardo Barreto, Norm Breyfogle and so, so many more. Will Eisner even contributed a short piece featuring a meeting between the Spirit and the Escapist which was apparently the last comics work he ever did prior to his death. However, like any anthology type series, it’s a mixed bag. Some of the contributions are really good, others are solid, while there were a few that I just didn’t like very much. All in all, though, I’m glad I have this – it’s a great companion to Chabon’s novel.
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Post by spoon on Oct 5, 2024 21:12:33 GMT -5
I've been reading Batman: The Brave and the Bold Bronze Age Omnibus Volume 2. So far I've read Brave and the Bold #110-117. There are two of these (the Mister Miracle and Atom stories) that I previously read earlier this year, but I wanted to read them again to experience them as part of the run.
My impressions of the Haney/Aparo run are consistent with what I've heard from other folks here. Jim Aparo's work is so fantastic. It's just the rendering of the art. It's also the storytelling in how he lays out the panels. It's also his lettering. I grew up reading Aparo's post-Crisis Batman comics in the 1980s, but I'm thrilled to have read a lot more of his late 60s and 70s work over the past few years.
Bob Haney's stories are really off-the-wall. When it comes to the Silver and Bronze's Ages, I've been much more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan. Many DC stories seem less sophisticated with their plot gimmicks, formulaic stories, and emphasis on one-off stories. Haney's stories, though, are a weird hybrid. The Atom story in which he reanimates Batman's braindead body is emblematic. It's such a macabre concept. On the hand, it feels very DC in telling this violent, macabre story with a pseudoscientific gimmick that requires so much suspension of disbelief. How can the Atom even make the necessary moves himself practically speaking to get these results. There's also more violence than I expected. So many of these stories include someone getting shot (with bullets, not rayguns) at point blank range. On the other hand, so many of them survive. The Sgt. Rock story, which is driven by a backstory of Rock's involvement in an execution in WWII for cowardice, also is very dark concept. Then, there's the Spectre story that involves a series of strangulation murders, including an exotic danger performing for a "talent scout" afterhours.
There's also the messiness of Batman teaming up with Earth-2 characters like Wildcat and the Spectre as if they just live on the same Earth. I understand, though, that the Spectre is sort of a special case. Didn't DC just start using him during the Silver Age in stories that take place on Earth-1 (or are implied to), just without explicitly stating that there's a separate Earth-1 Spectre?
Haney also has his own unusual characterizations. In the Metal Men story, Jim Gordon gets replaced as Police Commissioner. Batman has a thought bubble about how old and decrepit Gordon is. I kept waiting for the revelation that Batman was being influenced by a telepath or something. But, no, he just seems to have a low opinion of Gordon in story. Haney will do unusual things like this that don't seem to be carried over to other stories. I've heard of Batman's violent thoughts and words about the Joker as being another unusual characterization, but it actually makes a lot of sense. The Joker keeps killing people. It would more odd to be sedate about catching him, like it's just a game. Whether or not you buy into the idea of putting these stories on a separate Earth-B, they do have a very distinct tone.
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Post by Duragizer on Oct 6, 2024 1:25:18 GMT -5
Wizzywig: Portrait of a Serial Hacker Bought a copy a few years ago and finally got around to reading it today. I really liked the art, moderately liked some of the humour, but by-and-large, the story and characters did nothing for me. 6/10, mainly for the art.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 6, 2024 8:19:35 GMT -5
Marvel Team-up #36 and 37.
Written by Gerry Conway, pencilled by Sal Buscema.
Good Lord. How to judge these comics? As quarter-bin material, they were perfect: silly but amusing, with biff-bam-pow level of action. Perfect comics for ten-years-old me. I don't want my money back.
On the other hand, they read as if Conway was going for a Gerber-style parody of super-hero comics. That would be fine if it was deliberate, but I didn't find myself laughing enough to confirm it.
The co-stars are Frankenstein's monster and Man-Wolf, respectively, and both are presented as misunderstood and lonely creatures. The origin of the monster is however retold incorrectly, which is surprising considering that his own book wasn't that far back in the past at the time... (a) he did not kill his creator, and (b) he was not preserved in a vat of chemicals until today, he was frozen like Captain America.
Some scenes make no sense whatsoever, which is why I was reminded of Howard the duck and the way Steve Gerber makes fun of clichés. And once again, perhaps that was Conway's goal. For example, at one point, a lone lady skiing in the mountains is attacked for no reason whatsoever by the henchmen of our Mad Scientist Du Jour. Spidey and Frankie disperse them, but the lady slips over the edge of a conveniently-placed chasm. She is pulled back from certain doom, only to whip out a gas gun and put our heroes to sleep! "It was a set-up! Uuuuh..." moans Spidey. Only it wasn't! Our heroes wake up in a cabin where the lady reveals she's an agent of SHIELD, and she needs their help against the villain she was investigating. Why in Artie Simek's name did she need to put them to sleep, then?
Special tip of the hat to Sal Buscema who tried to put some canine emotion on the face of Man-Wolf; in some images, he looks like an appropriately forlorn pooch. That was cute.
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Post by Ricky Jackson on Oct 6, 2024 12:56:10 GMT -5
I've been reading Batman: The Brave and the Bold Bronze Age Omnibus Volume 2. So far I've read Brave and the Bold #110-117. There are two of these (the Mister Miracle and Atom stories) that I previously read earlier this year, but I wanted to read them again to experience them as part of the run. My impressions of the Haney/Aparo run are consistent with what I've heard from other folks here. Jim Aparo's work is so fantastic. It's just the rendering of the art. It's also the storytelling in how he lays out the panels. It's also his lettering. I grew up reading Aparo's post-Crisis Batman comics in the 1980s, but I'm thrilled to have read a lot more of his late 60s and 70s work over the past few years. Bob Haney's stories are really off-the-wall. When it comes to the Silver and Bronze's Ages, I've been much more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan. Many DC stories seem less sophisticated with their plot gimmicks, formulaic stories, and emphasis on one-off stories. Haney's stories, though, are a weird hybrid. The Atom story in which he reanimates Batman's braindead body is emblematic. It's such a macabre concept. On the hand, it feels very DC in telling this violent, macabre story with a pseudoscientific gimmick that requires so much suspension of disbelief. How can the Atom even make the necessary moves himself practically speaking to get these results. There's also more violence than I expected. So many of these stories include someone getting shot (with bullets, not rayguns) at point blank range. On the other hand, so many of them survive. The Sgt. Rock story, which is driven by a backstory of Rock's involvement in an execution in WWII for cowardice, also is very dark concept. Then, there's the Spectre story that involves a series of strangulation murders, including an exotic danger performing for a "talent scout" afterhours. There's also the messiness of Batman teaming up with Earth-2 characters like Wildcat and the Spectre as if they just live on the same Earth. I understand, though, that the Spectre is sort of a special case. Didn't DC just start using him during the Silver Age in stories that take place on Earth-1 (or are implied to), just without explicitly stating that there's a separate Earth-1 Spectre? Haney also has his own unusual characterizations. In the Metal Men story, Jim Gordon gets replaced as Police Commissioner. Batman has a thought bubble about how old and decrepit Gordon is. I kept waiting for the revelation that Batman was being influenced by a telepath or something. But, no, he just seems to have a low opinion of Gordon in story. Haney will do unusual things like this that don't seem to be carried over to other stories. I've heard of Batman's violent thoughts and words about the Joker as being another unusual characterization, but it actually makes a lot of sense. The Joker keeps killing people. It would more odd to be sedate about catching him, like it's just a game. Whether or not you buy into the idea of putting these stories on a separate Earth-B, they do have a very distinct tone. Yeah, basically. The 70s Adventure Comics Spectre run also seems to be Earth 1 (or at least not Earth 2), but there definitely was never an explicit Earth 1 version, like Superman, Batman, etc |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 7, 2024 7:37:49 GMT -5
The Escapists(Dark Horse, 2017; collecting the 6-issue series first published in 2006)  So, in my review of the two Escapist tpbs ( see above) I mentioned that they likely collected all of the material from the 2004-2005 Escapist quarterly series. Well, they don’t. A story in the last issue of that series is not included in either of those books, as it then became the first issue in this limited series. That story was written by Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Philip Bond, with a few ‘Golden Age’ Escapist panels by Eduardo Barreto.  Set in Cleveland, OH, in the same reality as that presented in Michael Chabon’s novel, that story introduces Max Roth, a young elevator repairman and aspiring comics writer, Case Weaver, a young aspiring commercial artist, and Denny Jones, Max’s best buddy who works at his dad’s sheet metal company but who has a passion for handwriting and calligraphy. Max uses a life insurance payout after his mother’s death to buy the rights to the Escapist, and then enlist the aid of his two friends to publish a revived Escapist comic series together. The rest of the issues in the series follow up on that premise; the three young creators have some surprising initial success with their indie venture, in part because of the attention garnered by an ill-advised publicity stunt in which Denny dresses up like the Escapist and then ends up accidentally stopping an armed robbery. However, the fallout from that incident and certain other problems crop up eventually. I really enjoyed this. Even without reading any of the material from the earlier Escapist comics, this can be enjoyed as a nice epilog to Chabon’s novel. And I liked the format, with the main story featuring Max, Case and Denny (drawn by Steve Rolston), interspersed with pages from their Escapist comics (drawn by Jason Alexander). 
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
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Post by Crimebuster on Oct 7, 2024 14:35:47 GMT -5
I read Sisterhood of Steel #1-8, the "complete" Epic run.
Complete in the sense that it ends there. Not so complete in the sense that it feels like the series has barely begun when it ends.
As a fantasy series about a group of militant women in a dangerous world of swords and sorcery, there's really not a whole lot of action, and a great deal of focus on the interpersonal relationships between the women and the internal politics of their group.
I haven't read the follow up graphic novel, but I'm sure it can't tie up the story, since this series had barely finished setting up the story when it ended.
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Post by spoon on Oct 11, 2024 21:32:25 GMT -5
Continuing my Omnibus reading, I read Brave and the Bold #118-125. I had previously read the Metal Men team-up in #121, as I own that the original comic It continues the odd mix of whimsical and dark.
We get more unusual team-ups, including a very creative means of sending Batman to Kamandi's time involving the issue of B&B a couple issues back featuring Wildcat. It seems like this creates a "Flash of Two Worlds" problem since this Batman lives on an Earth where there's a comic series that has issue that discloses his identity. Maybe it's a different version of the B&B comic.
Sometimes the series has cringey depictions of non-white people, although it's mixed in with bits of understanding. The "villains" in the Metal Men story are Native American terrorists, but they reconcile with Batman and he pledges to help them. Batman also show concern for restoring an idol to an African group that it belongs in the Plastic Man/Metamorpho story. There's a whiff of "yellow peril" in the Flash story from #125 though.
The stories don't shy away from violence, showing people getting shot and so on. Sometimes, there doesn't seem to be much worry about the moral fallout of decisions. Man-Bat gets a couple people killed in #119 due to his desire for glory and money, but Batman doesn't seem nearly as concerned as he should be. Batman also seems to think it's an acceptable tradeoff to let a Burmese warlord keep a female aviator prisoner as his "toy" in exchange for some gains in the war on drugs, although there is a twist to that story.
One of my favorites from this group is #122 featuring Swamp Thing. In some of these issues, Aparo shows a great facility to slightly modify his style to suit the guest star. While still being faithful to the distinct Aparo style, he appears to use some moodier inking for Swamp Thing.
We get another Sgt. Rock story in #125. It's a metafictional story in which Aparo, Bob Haney, and Murray Boltinoff are major characters. It's definitely a funky story, and having normal guys lends suspense to the danger. It's so weird that I could worry that the creators could actually kill themselves off. It's weird in the Haney/Aparo fashion, because there seems to be no particular in-story reason for the metafictional angle of this story. Like, there's no villain breaking down the barriers between realities. My best guess is that the plot was thin and this offbeat element was a way to spice up a story that would be ho-hum if it just had to be driven by other elements of the story (including Rock's involvement).
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 12, 2024 3:09:27 GMT -5
I read Sisterhood of Steel #1-8, the "complete" Epic run. Complete in the sense that it ends there. Not so complete in the sense that it feels like the series has barely begun when it ends. As a fantasy series about a group of militant women in a dangerous world of swords and sorcery, there's really not a whole lot of action, and a great deal of focus on the interpersonal relationships between the women and the internal politics of their group. I haven't read the follow up graphic novel, but I'm sure it can't tie up the story, since this series had barely finished setting up the story when it ended. I read this series for the first time a few years ago and really liked it. But yeah, it's apparent that writer Christie Marx definitely had a longer story in mind and it's too bad that low sales (I'm assuming) meant that it got rather hastily wrapped up. Vosburg's art is also quite nice - he really put in the extra effort when he liked what he was doing. |
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 14, 2024 11:33:06 GMT -5
The Brave & The Bold #57  So, poking around Amazon to see some upcoming "DC Finest Collections" and I noticed one for Metamorpho:The Element Man, a character I'd always heard of, but never read. And I have to say that I really enjoyed the first issue, it does silly and serious quite well and very much reminded me of Metal Men |
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 15, 2024 5:59:10 GMT -5
Does anybody remember Hannibal King, the vampire detective?
I took a break from Detective Comics, and I’ve been reading Tomb of Dracula. I got the digital version of the The Complete Tomb of Dracula from the library. I finished Volume Two yesterday and I started Volume Three today. The first issue in this volume in #25 … and it’s the first Hannibal King!
I didn’t start reading Tomb of Dracula when I was a kid until just a few issues from when it ended. But I got quite a few back issues from the used-book stores so that I had most of the issues from #50 to the last issue, #70. And I had scattered issues from the 30s and 40s. And I loved Hannibal King! Blade and King were after the same vampire (I think his name was Deacon Frost) in one story arc. It was so great! That Colan/Palmer art! Wowee!
Somehow I had completely forgotten about Hannibal King. So it was really awesome to start this new volume of Tomb of Dracula and stumble across his first appearance. I had never read his first appearance until today. Reading these Dracula stories in a bunch like this, instead of month by month, it gets a bit repetitive. The Hannibal King story was a very nice change of pace.
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Post by spoon on Oct 15, 2024 21:11:57 GMT -5
I read Night Nurse #1-4 as reprinted in the Women of Marvel Omnibus. All issues are written by Jean Thomas and drawn by Win Mortimer, with Linda Fite joining as co-writer in #4.
There are really three nurses. Is Night Nurse supposed to be the blonde, Linda Carter? The first issue has a mangled, messy sabotage/extortion plot that I'm still not sure I can make sense of. The other three issues are much better. I have no clue what the sales figures were, but I'm imagining a first issue that underwhelmed readers too much to recover from.
Night Nurse #2 has a plotline that weaves in power imbalances between doctors and nurses, as well as men and women. I like that it was willing to turn a critical eye toward a member of the hospital staff and it has a great twist. It's dark than I expected. Night Nurse #3 is more of straight suspense story, although Nurse Georgia Jenkins does get her character moment. Night Nurse #4 takes Christine Palmer away from the hospital for a little bit of gothic fiction. To me, Chris is the most interesting of the protagonists, and there are two don't even get cameos in this issue. We get a bit of a swerve in the mystery. It feels a bit tacked on, but the shock of the moment almost makes up for how forced it feels.
If you can power through #1 to absorb the intros of the main characters, #2-4 are worth reading.
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Post by spoon on Oct 19, 2024 19:02:38 GMT -5
I'm back to the second Batman: Brave and the Bold Omnibus with Brave and the Bold #126-136.
Aquaman guest-stars in #126 in a story featuring a Nazi fugitive that's forgettable in part because Jim Aparo only inks John Calnan's pencils. Also, there's a bit about an undersea "satellite" in "orbit" which cries out for different terminology. In #127, Bob Haney tries to find a middle ground in a story about illegal immigrant smuggling by condemning the trafficking but depicting the immigrants sympathetically. It's a reminder that some issues that made about a certain moment are actually constant themes. Wildcat guest stars, and I wonder why we see so much of him. I previously read the Mister Miracle story in #128 just a month ago. It's interesting that it gets sort of political in featuring a Middle Eastern monarch in a key arms deal with the U.S., but not political enough to ask questions about the U.S. allying with absolute monarchs. Granny Goodness gets some texture a character that I've found lacking in other appearances I've read.
For the first time in this volume, there's a two-parter in #129 & #130. Green Arrow and the Atom guest-star in a struggle against the Joker and Two-Face over a cursed ancient artifact originally given to Alexander the Great. It's pretty engaging in both the action and the plotline, but we do get the B&B trope of a hero acting out of character with no real consequences. There's also a scene with the Atom on an arrow years before that happened with Ant-Man and Hawkeye over in Avengers. B&B gives us both Wonder Woman and Catwoman (plus a visual Sammy Davis Jr. cameo). This is apparently one of those issues that prompts the Earth-B idea because Catwoman is responsible for someone's death. In #132, someone decided we should a Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter guest appearance. Richard isn't that interesting, but I'm a bit curious about whether one of the villains whom he seems to know he a pre-existing character in his own series. There's also an interesting final gag in the last few panels.
To me, the last few issues are some of the more interesting in this bunch. Batman and Deadman team against a mobster in a tale that seems a bit like a Mission: Impossible episode. I really like the mobster's backstory in this issue and how Deadman is deployed. Deadman is one of those characters, who because he rarely has long-running series of his own I haven't read that much of him. But I do find him intriguing as I try to grasp the rules of how he works. This issue actually got me interested enough to consider buying a TPB or HC featuring Deadman.
Green Lantern is featured in #134's Cold War tale of defection and torture. I found it a somewhat disturbing read, which I guess means it did what it was supposed to.
Finally, there's another two-parter in #135-136 that starts with the Metal Men and then add Green Arrow for the second issue. I find the Metal Men interesting, but here they sometimes aren't given enough to do. They create drama because of the interesting ways then can put in peril. Ruby Ryder, who tried to seduce and brainwash Plastic Man in #123, returns. At the end of that issue, Ruby was arrested and seemed to be some serious criminal charges. But in quirky B&B fashion, there's no mention of that here. She free to squabble with Bruce Wayne over a property. There's a bizarre love triangle between Bruce, Ruby, & a "humanoid" android named Jason Morgan. I struggle with my suspension of disbelief as Jason gets a court to probate a century-old from his "father"/creator/all-around jerk Dr. Thaddeus Morgan. If Gotham City is in New Jersey, I don't think that should fly, but Earth-B may have a strange legal system. Another oddity is how the legal system seems to value artificial people differently in how Jason and Tin are treated. There another legal twist later on that makes more sense than redistributing assets via a will a century after they were distributed via intestacy. Another quirky twist: for the second time in a few issues, Green Arrow goes undercover despite his very distinctive appearance. Something about the inking of #136 looks strange, like from a smaller original that was enlarged or there was an uncredited guest inker or something.
I've got a question for those who may know. In her appearance in #123, Ruby Ryder seemed to be portrayed as an existing character from the Plastic Man mythos. Here, she's featured with no appearance from Plas. So is she actually a Bat-title based villain? What's her deal?
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 19, 2024 22:12:19 GMT -5
I read Night Nurse #1-4 as reprinted in the Women of Marvel Omnibus. All issues are written by Jean Thomas and drawn by Win Mortimer, with Linda Fite joining as co-writer in #4. There are really three nurses. Is Night Nurse supposed to be the blonde, Linda Carter? The first issue has a mangled, messy sabotage/extortion plot that I'm still not sure I can make sense of. The other three issues are much better. I have no clue what the sales figures were, but I'm imagining a first issue that underwhelmed readers too much to recover from. Night Nurse #2 has a plotline that weaves in power imbalances between doctors and nurses, as well as men and women. I like that it was willing to turn a critical eye toward a member of the hospital staff and it has a great twist. It's dark than I expected. Night Nurse #3 is more of straight suspense story, although Nurse Georgia Jenkins does get her character moment. Night Nurse #4 takes Christine Palmer away from the hospital for a little bit of gothic fiction. To me, Chris is the most interesting of the protagonists, and there are two don't even get cameos in this issue. We get a bit of a swerve in the mystery. It feels a bit tacked on, but the shock of the moment almost makes up for how forced it feels. If you can power through #1 to absorb the intros of the main characters, #2-4 are worth reading. NIGHT NURSE IS SO GREAT!! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 19, 2024 22:19:09 GMT -5
I’m still reading Tomb of Dracula and I’m up to #37, the first appearance of Harold H. Harold! I used to have most of the issues from early in the 40s up to the end at #70, and I remember Harold most fondly. But I never read his first appearance until today.
I think I would’ve liked it much better if I had first read it back in the 1970s. There’s just too many 1970s Marvel dialogue cliches. It’s OK. Entertaining. I’m glad I read it. The art is great.
I remember that the character was eventually turned into a vampire and I’m wondering whatever happened to him after that.
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