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Post by berkley on Aug 10, 2020 12:23:48 GMT -5
Trade ad for unproduced Kirby Captain Victory movie form the early 80s... -M Jack Kirby brought us Captain Marvel?! With all of Jack's creations to pick from, they brag about a character for which he and Joe Simon drew, what, a single issue? Odd... It's almost seems as if someone told them that Kirby had created all of Marvel's superhero characters so they just listed a bunch of them at random.
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Post by dbutler69 on Aug 10, 2020 15:56:06 GMT -5
Anything worth while in those packs ? Depends what you mean--I didn't look at them, but probably ok value for readers. I might pick a couple up for my grandson. I know the dollar store near us (in Rochester) used to sell a 3-pack of comics (or am I thinking of Ollie's?) about ten years ago. There's usually be one worthwhile comic oit of the three, though it was mostly 90's comics (ugh).
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Post by mikelmidnight on Aug 11, 2020 11:39:02 GMT -5
Jack Kirby brought us Captain Marvel?! With all of Jack's creations to pick from, they brag about a character for which he and Joe Simon drew, what, a single issue? Apparently there's a story out there that C.C. Beck approached Kirby about helping him revive Captain Marvel at DC when Kirby was there, and Kirby is the one who went to bat for him and convinced the editors to do a new Captain Marvel book (or Shazam! as it was going to be called then), but because of certain animosities and office politics editorial didn't want Kirby on the book so gave it to the Superman office to launch instead. Not sure if that is an allusion to that story or not. Of course it could have been an error/confusuion by a production dept. not that familiar with Kirby and it should have been the Marvel Heroes which got changed to Captain Marvel or some such as well.
It was probably a goof. Although, after hearing about the Beck and Kirby story, I've always wondered whether the Jimmy Olsen arc was originally intended for Billy Batson.
Can you imagine those issues being drawn by CC Beck?
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Post by MWGallaher on Aug 14, 2020 9:06:20 GMT -5
In Flash Comics #12, on sale in October 1940, a new, destined-to-be-forgotten comic book hero debuted, Les Watts, Radio Amateur: At the end of his 4th appearance, in Flash Comics #15, the following announcement was made: And sure enough, in Flash Comics #16, the change occurred, with lettering corrections making it obvious that the substitution occurred after the original lettering was completed: Les concluded his adventures in Flash Comics #28, and the final panel announced the feature's replacement: I don't have much to say about this obscure character, but I am curious why they bothered with the name change. I wondered if it might have been due to the objection of Boody Rogers, whose character Sparky Watts debuted earlier in 1940. If so, the new name is an amusingly grudging way to comply, still verging on trademark violation but not quite as blatantly ("It's Sparks, not Sparky!"). It's interesting that they bothered to keep readers informed of the retitling and replacement. I guess we'll never know if any of these mundane backup features (like 'Cliff' Cornwall or Scoop Scanlon or Barry O'Neill) had any kind of engaged fanbase who would really care. I find it kind of sad that we have no record--as far as I know--whether the hundreds of filler backups in Golden Age comics ever inspired enthusiastic devotees, or whether their creators had dreams that these characters would become major successes.
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 14, 2020 12:55:04 GMT -5
Have often wondered how the bigwigs made decisions about which back-up characters to use. I'm guessing that in the days of publish or perish, when they were just looking to copy what was doing well as they flooded the stands with titles, the publishers couldn't have afforded or been bothered to use sophisticated surveys or polls, even if such tools existed. I wonder if there was any way besides reader mail (Did they get much in those days, pre-letter columns?) to gauge the popularity of features. I'm sure sales were the key factor, and it was obviously the cover feature that did the heavy lifting for the anthology books. I doubt anyone knew which if any back-up features were popular or not. Aquaman, for instance, never appeared on a cover until he showed up in the first B and B JLA tryout in 1959. My guess is that because Mort Weisinger "created" Aquaman, he kept using him in his books. He and Green Arrow were the only super-hero characters aside from the Big Three to survive the end of the Golden Age, and I doubt it was because Weisinger had sales figures that proved their popularity. I think when sales started to slip, the editors would try a new character or give a back-up character a shot at the cover. See Adventure Comics, for instance, which went from gas-masked Sandman in 1939 to Hourman to Starman to Manhunter to purple-and-yellow Sandman until Superboy took over in 1946. Maybe Cei-U! would know more about this?
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Post by tonebone on Aug 20, 2020 8:37:04 GMT -5
Controversial opinion: I think this particular change made the panel less cluttered and easier to read. Particularly on cheap newsprint. The strong vertical shape works better than the figure he removed. I think Colletta could have EASILY inked the figure, but the strong vertical corner of the building is a stronger design.
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Post by kirby101 on Aug 20, 2020 10:32:11 GMT -5
I don't. I think Kirby was showing Loki appearing in the middle of a crowd. He is surrounded by bystanders. Colletta made it lose some of that impact. Sometimes "cluttered" conveys something. It wasn't Colletta's job to edit Kirby's storytelling. It was his job to ink what Kirby drew. And anyway, we know his intention was to ink it faster, not "improve" the panel.
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Post by tonebone on Aug 27, 2020 15:05:50 GMT -5
Wegmans? Are you from Rochester? Yeah--well, Fairport We have Wegman's in North Carolina, now. Overrated.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2020 19:12:24 GMT -5
So according to Jonathan Ross who did the Ditko documentary, Sturdy Steve said when he designed Spider-Man, the color scheme was supposed to be orange and purple, not red and blue...
From Ross's discussion of his documentary with Forbidden Planet...
Not quite sure Spidey would have had the same cachet if they had stuck with orange and purple...
-M
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Post by kirby101 on Sept 18, 2020 10:10:59 GMT -5
Orange and purple would have been a little weird.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2020 23:43:49 GMT -5
Uncle Walt just posted this commission drawing he did....Calvin and Hobbes-Dragon Riders! and Walt's explanation of how it came to be... -M
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2020 0:40:49 GMT -5
"Choosing a career illustrating comics is like giving yourself a life sentence at hard labor in solitary confinement." -Wally Wood
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2020 0:20:43 GMT -5
now I can't unsee it... -M
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Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2020 0:53:56 GMT -5
Feeding into my Toth kick, another Toth video (in addition to the Alex Toth in Depth stuff by Paul Fricke) of interest is from Cartoonist Kayfabe, which is the channel of Ed Piskor (creator of The Marvel Grand Design and Hip Hop Family Tree books) and Jim Rugg (creator of Street Angel, Afrodiasiac and other books), a channel I am just beginning to explore but one I am finding lots of interest on. This Toth video looks at his One for the Road collection...
If you love Toth, check this out, if you're not into Toth, root around their channel for other stuff of interest. Next up on their channel for me is their look at Steranko's Outland.
-M
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Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2020 14:16:16 GMT -5
Full story at Bleeding CoolI also saw one of the producers reach out to the Mego Community at the Mego Museum forums, so it seems they are pretty actively seeking contributors at this point. Not sure if anyone here has material or anecdotes to contribute, but it's worth spreading the word. -M
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