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Post by profh0011 on Nov 1, 2019 17:09:49 GMT -5
I love Sutton's art from this period. Over decades, his style kept evolving, and always seeming to become looser and more impressionistic. There's still a lot of "Wally Wood" influence here, in how CLEAN and sharp the linework is....
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fhrex
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Post by fhrex on Feb 1, 2020 16:34:04 GMT -5
I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Jose Gonzalez fan, myself
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fhrex
Junior Member
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Post by fhrex on Feb 1, 2020 21:17:13 GMT -5
Being an old timer has its advantages. Back in my heyday, many Harris Comics fans requested me as a Vampi artist, but after visiting their offices, they would have none of it. Besides, it would have required relocating to New York, as they insisted on artists working in house. Would have been a blast and a dream come true for me working on Vampi.
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fhrex
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Post by fhrex on Feb 1, 2020 21:52:03 GMT -5
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fhrex
Junior Member
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Post by fhrex on Feb 1, 2020 22:11:43 GMT -5
BTW, if any of you are figure collectors, the Phicen/Tbleague 50th Anniversary Jose Gonzalez figure IS TO DIE FOR! They've got the head sculpt perfect!
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fhrex
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Post by fhrex on Feb 24, 2020 20:18:55 GMT -5
didn't intend to shut down the thread....was just showing my Vampi fandom. Been one since 1972. Even had a fan letter published in issue 17.
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Post by profh0011 on Feb 25, 2020 17:36:50 GMT -5
"Where to start with Vampirella?"
Michael York said in " THE THREE MUSKETEERS"... "I've never washed the legs of a woman. but I have done those of a horse. And with a horse, you start at the top, and work your way down."OH WAIT. You meant something else...
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fhrex
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Post by fhrex on Mar 2, 2020 10:04:50 GMT -5
"Where to start with Vampirella?"
Michael York said in " THE THREE MUSKETEERS"... "I've never washed the legs of a woman. but I have done those of a horse. And with a horse, you start at the top, and work your way down."OH WAIT. You meant something else... LMAO!
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Post by profh0011 on Oct 8, 2020 14:43:59 GMT -5
An off-the-cuff rant by me about VAMPIRELLA #20-23, on Ernie Laczo's " International House Of Horrors" FB group. Can you feel the enthusiasm? I sometimes wonder why some people leave a series so quickly. Archie Goodwin left after only 8 episodes. (Then again, except for " IRON MAN", I've never seen Archie stay long on any comic-book series... and his " IRON MAN' was probably my least-favorite of all the work he ever did.) T. Casey Brennan left after only 4-1/2 issues. Now, sorry to say this, just personal taste, how things strike me... I didn't mind. I wasn't too thrilled with his episodes. Then my FAVORITE comics writer of the early 70s-- STEVE ENGLEHART-- came on. My God, if anyone could really follow Archie, it was Steve. Archie did the first 4 issues of " LUKE CAGE, HERO FOR HIRE", and then Steve took over, doing what to this day remains my FAVORITE run (a short run) of that series, EVER. Steve blew Roy Thomas completely out of the water on " THE AVENGERS", even at the start when he hadn't figured out what he was doing. I've long felt that book never REALLY recovered from when Gerry Conway drove him away from it. Steve took over " The Beast" series from Conway with only its 2nd installment, and COMPLETELY blew Conway out of the water. Englehart did what was, frankly, the BEST issues of " CAPTAIN AMERICA" since Jim Steranko left. That was a LOT of crap in between! And so, here, Steve took on Vampirella-- starting with " HELL FROM ON HIGH", a 22-page story (the longest yet!!) in which he revealed that Vampi DIDN'T REALLY kill Conrad's brother as Conrad & Adam had thought since before they met her. And then he followed it up with " THE BLOOD QUEEN OF BAYOU PARISH", an 18-parter (which, I admit, I don't recall-- heh). Insanely, NEITHER of these stories were featured on the covers. OY! And then Steve followed it up with " INTO THE INFERNO", a story he described to me vividly in an E-MAIL some years ago. A story for which ENRICH painted an absolutely STUNNING cover!! A story which-- INSANELY-- was NEVER PUBLISHED!!! Seriously, folks-- W T F !!!!!!! More next time. STAY TUNED to this channel!
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Post by chaykinstevens on Oct 8, 2020 15:21:37 GMT -5
And then he followed it up with " THE BLOOD QUEEN OF BAYOU PARISH", an 18-parter (which, I admit, I don't recall-- heh). Do you mean 18-pager? And then Steve followed it up with " INTO THE INFERNO", a story he described to me vividly in an E-MAIL some years ago. A story for which ENRICH painted an absolutely STUNNING cover!! A story which-- INSANELY-- was NEVER PUBLISHED!!! Seriously, folks-- W T F !!!!!!! On his website, Englehart said, "Unfortunately, my quickly growing workload at Marvel made me drop Vampi much sooner than I would have liked, but not as soon as it seemed. I wrote the fourth issue in my run, titled "Into the Inferno," and mailed it off to the Warren offices without making a copy. Yep, they lost it somewhere in-house, so editor Bill DuBay wrote a completely different story under that already-announced title. And I learned never to leave myself with no backup ever again."
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Post by tarkintino on Oct 8, 2020 16:59:25 GMT -5
An off-the-cuff rant by me about VAMPIRELLA #20-23, on Ernie Laczo's " International House Of Horrors" FB group. Can you feel the enthusiasm? I sometimes wonder why some people leave a series so quickly. Archie Goodwin left after only 8 episodes. ( Then again, except for "IRON MAN", I've never seen Archie stay long on any comic-book series... Star Wars being an exception; I believe he wrote Marvel's Star Wars from issues #11 - #45 (including the adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back), #47, #50 and the 4-issue mini-series adaptation of Return of the Jedi. That, and he also wrote the Star Wars newspaper strip from 1980-84.
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Post by profh0011 on Oct 8, 2020 17:13:41 GMT -5
Yep, that was a typo. And STAR WARS... you know, maybe Archie just never cared for super-heroes. SW was fabulous, in the Marvel Comics, and in the newspaper strips (which I'm pretty sure I got collections of after-the-fact). I really liked Carmine's work on the book... but Williamson in the papers... WOW!
It's like... if only FLASH GORDON in the 30s had that kind of writing!
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Post by profh0011 on Oct 10, 2020 15:21:31 GMT -5
At the FB group, they covered #24-25. Since a 4-part story was involved, I decided to comment on #24-27.
What a gorgeous ENRICH cover on #24! This was, in fact, the cover on the 1st VAMPIRELLA comic I ever had... but, it was a Mexican edition, and the story inside was "Who Serves The Cause of Chaos?" by Goodwin & Sutton. It would take some years before I got ahold of the US edition to see what was really on the inside.
Sadly, I'm afraid I'm of the opinion that this is the EXACT point where the series starts to GO TO HELL. Let me explain why I feel that way...
Steve Englehart told me about the 3rd full story he wrote... "Into The Inferno". Vampi & Pendragon visited a spooky mansion, and while there, discovered a strange stairway in the basement. It led down, down, down... ALL the way down TO HELL. When he described this to me, I got all excited. What an idea! I'd love to read this thing. Sadly... NOBODY ever did.
Somehow... Steve mailed in his script without making a copy of it. And... it somehow got lost in the mail. Apparently with a deadline looming, EDITOR Bill DuBay decided to jump in and come up with a replacement story... ALSO called "Into The Inferno", as per that Enrich cover (which now had NOTHING to do with the story inside!!).
I wonder how late the thing was, because after 22 pages and 18 pages, this issue only had 13 pages of Vampirella, and ended on a cliffhanger. Maybe that's all Jose Gonzales had time to do? The next issue had 12 pages. In effect, DuBay did 25 pages... but split over 2 issues. Way to screw your readers out of more money.
But it get worse. This thing wound up being a 4-PARTER... and after Englehart unceremoniously was booted out of game, DuBay left after only those first 2 short chapters. Part 3 was written by Len Wein, but the 12 pages he did, the art was split between someone named "Escolano" and Gonzales. And then , the issue after that, this NASTY piece of work was finished off by Jose Toutain with Jose Gonzales, at a mere 8 PAGES... and, with garish, distracting COLOR slapped on top of it all. Seriously-- WTF
My first exposure to DuBay was much later, when he seemed to alternate between writing some of the better Vampi stories... and some of the ALL-TIME WORST. Not to forget, some of the horribly wretched DREK he was writing for "1984" / "1994" magazine, stuff so awful he wound up starting to use a psudonym-- "Will Richardson"-- in order to rebuild his reputation with fans.
I was also reminded of a story Arnold Drake told me... of how, shortly after he created a brand-new feature for DC Comics (one they still use to this day)-- "Deadman"-- he was BOOTED off his own creation after only 2 issues, because his slimeball editor Jack Miller wanted to make some extra money, and somehow convinced HIS boss to replace Drake. Miller didn't even stick around that long... but Drake NEVER came back to his creation after that. I call that CRIMINAL behavior.
I relate trhis story... because in the back of my mind, I can't shake the suspicion that DuBay did the SAME thing. Was Steve's story lost in the mail? Or did DuBay conveniently "lose" it IN THE OFFICE, so DuBay could do some writing instead? Englehart never came back to the feature he had already proven himself the 2nd-best writer on (after Goodwin).
Following this distasteful sequence... the Vampi series changed into a stretch of unrelated, stand-alone world-hopping adventures with her & Pendragon. They were nice... but ALL the momentum Goodwin & Englehart had built up was GONE.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Oct 10, 2020 15:42:42 GMT -5
Part 3 was written by Len Wein, but the 12 pages he did, the art was split between someone named "Escolano" and Gonzales. GCD says Tony Isabella ghosted that story for Len Wein.
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Post by profh0011 on Oct 12, 2020 19:21:00 GMT -5
Here I respond the the latest comment from the other guy at the FB group... "Warren's VAMPIRELLA magazine, issues 26 thru 29. There were two notable developments that occurred in the magazine during this period. The first was writer Flaxman Loew's (not his real name) taking over the writing chores on Vampi's continuing series, beginning with "The Curse of The MacDaemons" in issue #28. I have no idea who Loew really was and I've seen both Mike Butterworth and Bill Dubay identified as possible candidates. Either way, I've never cared much for his stint as the writer for Vampirella, where several times her character was little more than a spectator to the supernatural goings - on around her. This was also the period where she developed her famously round heels, which has sadly remained one of her prominent characteristics ever since."Backtracking a bit... someone at the Classic Comics Forum told me that # 26 (part 3 of 4), Tony Isabella actually was ghosting for Len Wein (according to the GCD), which, if true, means Len only wrote # 45 (ANOTHER part 3 of 4 started by DuBay!!!) WTF? Myself, I noticed that Jose Toutain seemed to be listed as an editor on some other company's mags, so I'm wondering... did he write # 27 (part 4 of 4), or someone else, and if so, who? Part 4 was done IN COLOR. Or something. Once again, it annoys me that Englehart started out with such a blast... and then, due to a mistake (or was it sabotage?) he was gone, and the guy who replaced him didn't even bother sticking around long. As noted, # 28 features the first of 13 (not consecutive?) stand-alone stories by "Flaxman Loew". (WHO THE HELL is this, really?) I thought these stories were "okay"... but a major step down from Goodwin & Englehart. There were the kind of stories I'd expect to see in GOLD KEY horror comics... which is not necessarily a bad thing, but, I think, you get my meaning. 9 of those 13 were illustrated by JOSE GONZALEZ, which is in their favor, although all of those are 12 PAGES. OY. # 36 had art by JOSE ORTIZ, who I was surprised to learn was the single MOST-prolific Warren artist, having done more stories for Warren than any other artist!!! Never knew that before. He's never been one of my favorites... but some of his stuff was okay. 3 of them-- #39-41-- had art by LEOPOLD SANCHEZ. Some of his work was okay... but, again, never a favorite.
I wonder, was Gonzales getting bored, or was he finding better-paying work elsewhere? Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself, here, but it did seem a good place to point up how the series began to get more chaotic as it went.
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