|
Post by thwhtguardian on Jun 28, 2019 19:05:53 GMT -5
Anthro - Showcase 74, Anthro 1-6. March 1968 - August 69. Writer/Artist: Howie Post This a perennial favorite of mine! Between the art, the humor and the perfect mix of action and heart it just works on all levels for me. Although not written or drawn by post there was a great play on the "Gift of the Magi" using Anthro in one of those DC Christmas specials about ten years back that was really good.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 19, 2020 16:07:00 GMT -5
Yeah...I haven't been here in a while. I also haven't been reading a lot of comics in a while. Manhunter - Detective 437-443. November 1973 - November 1974. Writer: Archie Goodwin. Artist: Walter Simonson. Goodwin, who was freelance writing/editing for DC at the time was tasked with trying to increase the sales on Detective Comics. Obviously changing the status quo on Batman was a non-starter so he decided to see if he could do a back-up feature that might pull in a few extra readers. The art-work was provided by a young Walter Simonson and working Marvel style the two created magic. The feature benefited from a number of things. One was the relaxation of the Comics Code which allowed a level of violence that wouldn't have been available a few years earlier. One was that Goodwin, as editor, was able to largely do what he wanted and with the low sales on the book there wasn't going to be a lot of blow-back. And one was, and Goodwin acknowledged, the short space available for the stories. These are densely plotted and propulsive stories that put one more in mind of the better adventure strips of the 30s and 40s than the other comic book features that were contemporaneous. This was an "adult comic" in the best sense of the phrase. It was capable of being read by all ages but the combo of intrigue and adventure really felt like the men's fiction series' that were popular at the time (The Destroyer, The Hitman, etc.) without being gratuitous. Simonson is able to put a lot into a very small space without it being crowded and showed the story-telling chops that would only improve with time. Alas, when Goodwin took an editing job with Warren incoming editor Julius Schwartz decided he could do without The Manhunter. The short saga was wrapped up with a book-length team-up with Batman that was, to my mind, not entirely successful but was still a good ending. So was it gone too soon? Well from the write-up is seems kind of obvious I'd say yes. But I say that advisedly. If Goodwin and Simonson had been able to stay on the feature I'd love to have seen it continue. Without them...or without them being committed to the same level of quality...then no. If it had continued I'd have preferred it remain a bit outside the main DCU. Not that it had to be divorced from it...clearly Paul Kirk had a history. But less would have been and frequently is more. Still this was a brief shining bit of intrigue and pulp in the 1970s.
|
|
|
Post by dbutler69 on Feb 24, 2020 10:51:44 GMT -5
I read the Manhunter stories a couple of year ago and they were quite good. Yes, the ending did seem a bit disjointed compared with the rest, but still a good series. And sure, if you could have had Goodwin & Simonson continue on this fully dedicated instead of ending it when they did, that would have been preferable.
I'm not s big fan of the later Simonson art, (I'm in the minority, I know) but his work here is great.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on May 19, 2020 14:19:22 GMT -5
The Spectre - Adventure Comics 431-440. Feb. 1974 - Aug. 1975. Writer: Michael Fleisher. Artist: Jim Aparo, et. al. (three unpublished stories were drawn and published in Wrath of the Spectre #4, Aug. 1988) When Supergirl graduated to her own book in 1972 Joe Orlando tried to turn Adventure into a book that followed its name. The book drifted for a number of issues with none of the features (Adventurer's Club, Vigilante, Captain Fear, Black Orchid) apparently clicking with buyers. I will eventually try to get to most or all of those features. Orlando's mystery books were apparently some of DC's best selling titles at the time. So it seemed a no-brainer to do a hybrid super-hero mystery book (which was kind of Black Orchid). Thus the Spectre returned to DC written by Michael Fleisher, a relative newcomer who had been doing some work in the mystery books, and drawn by the great Jim Aparo. The feature was a throw-back to the very early Spectre stories with the character embracing his charge to confront and punish evil. And punish he did! Obviously Spectre and his alter-ego police Lt. Jim Corrigan are all about finding criminals and punishing them. And there would be a danger of this becoming a crime-of-the-month book. But Fleisher did something that was far outside the norm for any DC book at the time in establishing some issue-to-issue continuity using Earl Crawford (a Clark Kent doppleganger) who wants to break the story on The Spectre and Gwen Sterling, an heiress who was saved by Corrigan and the Spectre and immediately falls in love with him. While Marvel had been doing issue-to-issue continuity for years it was very rare at DC until the exodus of Marvel writers and editors to DC and this is one of the rare examples outside of Kirby's DC work to this point. Of course both of these characters are problematic, but I'll get to that in my final determination. The feature was cancelled and replaced by Aquaman with issue 441. The reason stated in the letters column was that the sales weren't good, having started out strong and then cratering. But the truth may be somewhat different. The text pages in The Wrath of the Spectre reprint series indicate that sales did drop from the initial issues (as these things tend to do) but were still above a number of books that weren't canceled or changed. There seems to have been a back-lash against the book by fans for its violence by a "super-hero." Paul Levitz talks about this being a big topic at conventions at the time. Oh how times have changed. So was it gone too soon? A few years back I'd have said unequivocally yes. Now it's a bit more of an equivocal yes. In a number of ways the book was ahead of its time with the increased violence and the issue-to-issue continuity. But a number of things about it were problematic even considering that the book is almost 50 years old. While the greater DCU isn't explicitly referenced it's pretty clear that this takes place on Earth-1 (it says so in one of the letter columns). Crawford and his boss and the cops do one of those things that drives me bat-guano crazy in superhero stories...that it's perfectly believable that an alien God-like being can come down and save everyone, that magic is real, but ghosts are just a step beyond. Except when the story makes it necessary for people to not believe in aliens or magic or what have you. And Gwen has that "love at first save" trope happening that had a gray beard when Burroughs trotted it out in almost every book. Still and all this was one of the best books DC was doing in that time period. And Fleisher likely would have grown into the job as he was a very green writer at that point. For those who are interested the Text pages in the Wrath of the Spectre reprint series from 1988 are really interesting. Paul Levitz said some stuff about the comics coming out in the mid-70s that would make old fans heads explode.
|
|
|
Post by berkley on May 19, 2020 17:16:32 GMT -5
I like the artwork and usually anything supernatural in comics will catch my interest but the premise behind the Spectre, as far as I understand it (which I admit isn't much, having read very little Spectre) has never really grabbed me. It always feels like he should be doing something a little more large-scale than dealing with individual criminals. Possibly this feeling dereives from the influence of Moore's Swamp Thng and how the Spectre was used there.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 19, 2020 17:20:48 GMT -5
Loved your write up on the Spectre in Adventure Comics. One of my favorites.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on May 19, 2020 17:48:59 GMT -5
I like the artwork and usually anything supernatural in comics will catch my interest but the premise behind the Spectre, as far as I understand it (which I admit isn't much, having read very little Spectre) has never really grabbed me. It always feels like he should be doing something a little more large-scale than dealing with individual criminals. Possibly this feeling dereives from the influence of Moore's Swamp Thng and how the Spectre was used there. He frequently has been used on a larger scale. He has on many occasions had a cosmic power level that allows him to literally juggle planets. Which makes it really hard to come up with a realistic threat. Fleisher and Orlando specifically wanted to avoid that in this run because the previous iteration of the character had been so overpowered he'd been viewed as impossible to make interesting. The answer here was less to power him down and more to make it necessary for Corrigan to use at least some of his police powers to have to find out who the criminals were so the Spectre could deal with them. It may not have been completely successful but it was certainly more interesting (to me). The 1980s version used a seriously powered down Spectre, something that was also done with Dr. Fate, Superman and other epic-level powerhouses from time to time. I think that the Ostrander/Mandrake run in the 90s was by far the best the character was ever treated because the superheroics were secondary to the journey of discovery that Jim Corrigan underwent.
|
|
|
Post by electricmastro on May 19, 2020 22:14:31 GMT -5
On something more obscure, Marvel’s Comet Man, Spellbinder, and Motormouth from the late 80s and early 90s would be interesting to see talked about more.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 11, 2020 17:33:48 GMT -5
Skull the Slayer 1-8, Aug. '75 - Nov. '76. Writer & Artist: Damn near everyone at Marvel in the Bronze Age. It's 1975 and Marv Wolfman has just become EIC at Marvel. As such he has the power to green-light a book he's been sitting on for a long time, Skull the Slayer. The concept, while not anything we haven't seen before, has potential. A small group of people are pulled through the Bermuda Triangle to a lost world/other dimension/other world where they have to fight dinosaurs and survive. Wolfman did the first three issues, followed by an issue by Steve Englehart, with Bill Mantlo rounding out the final four issues. Along the way we got two pencilers (Steve Gan and Sal Buscema) and four inkers. The turnover clearly effected the book and possibly exacerbated its early demise. With the lack of continuity in the creative team it seems like a forgone conclusion that there would be a lack of continuity in the book. But even Wolfman couldn't keep straight what he was doing with the titular character going from being an Air Force pilot, to a member of the "Corps" to Army Special Forces in the space of three issues. The general idea of the book had worked for Burroughs and Doyle and would work for Mike Grell on Warlord. But it was not to be at Marvel with this property. Steven Gan's art was generally pretty good. And Sal did his normal yeoman work. So was it gone too soon? Lord no! I know there are a number of people here who have fond memories of this book. I did too. I bought issue #8 off the stands and was fairly enthralled. I can only think that others, like me, had not revisited this in a number of years. Because this book is a disaster saved only by decent art. None of the writers had a clue where they were going, what the rules of the world were, what made a book like this interesting. Add to that the fact that none of the lead characters were well written in any way. In a book with four main characters having two of them be complete assholes and two being complete ciphers is a bold move, but not one that pays off. I don't need to like the protagonist of my books...but it's probably best if I don't long for them to die. I'd happily feed Skull to the dinosaurs. And also Dr. Corey as well. Cancelling this book was a mercy killing that took about seven issues too long.
|
|
|
Post by MDG on Jun 12, 2020 8:43:06 GMT -5
I never figured out why the publishers jumped so heavily on Sword & Sorcery/adventure/barbarian series. Conan was a hit, but the character already had a following-didn't mean a lot of comic readers were clamoring for more of that stuff. I always think of this house ad; I think Warlord was the only series that lasted into double digits:
|
|
|
Post by dbutler69 on Jun 12, 2020 9:01:54 GMT -5
So was it gone too soon? Lord no! I know there are a number of people here who have fond memories of this book. I did too. I bought issue #8 off the stands and was fairly enthralled. I can only think that others, like me, had not revisited this in a number of years. Because this book is a disaster saved only by decent art. None of the writers had a clue where they were going, what the rules of the world were, what made a book like this interesting. Add to that the fact that none of the lead characters were well written in any way. In a book with four main characters having two of them be complete assholes and two being complete ciphers is a bold move, but not one that pays off. I don't need to like the protagonist of my books...but it's probably best if I don't long for them to die. I'd happily feed Skull to the dinosaurs. And also Dr. Corey as well. Cancelling this book was a mercy killing that took about seven issues too long. My only knowledge of this comic is from an issue of Marvel Two-in-One, where they tried to wrap up the series. Let's just say it did not leave me clamoring to see more of Skull the Slayer, though it wouldn't be fair for me to judge the series itself by that. I don't remember much about t (other than not liking it much) but I do have a vague remembrance of Skull the Slayer not being very likeable.
|
|
|
Post by brutalis on Jun 12, 2020 9:16:49 GMT -5
Skull the Slayer 1-8, Aug. '75 - Nov. '76. Writer & Artist: Damn near everyone at Marvel in the Bronze Age. So was it gone too soon? Lord no! I know there are a number of people here who have fond memories of this book. I did too. I bought issue #8 off the stands and was fairly enthralled. I can only think that others, like me, had not revisited this in a number of years. Because this book is a disaster saved only by decent art. None of the writers had a clue where they were going, what the rules of the world were, what made a book like this interesting. Add to that the fact that none of the lead characters were well written in any way. In a book with four main characters having two of them be complete assholes and two being complete ciphers is a bold move, but not one that pays off. I don't need to like the protagonist of my books...but it's probably best if I don't long for them to die. I'd happily feed Skull to the dinosaurs. And also Dr. Corey as well. Cancelling this book was a mercy killing that took about seven issues too long. One of those should of could of comics for certain if they had gone a different route. If they had gone science vs dinosaurs with a steady writer/artist team there is no reason Skull shouldn't have done better. If kept to more ERB Pellucidarian adventures with the idea of a current soldier lost in time and place then maybe more folks would have kept reading. Slap something together playing fast and loose and for sure a guaranteed stinker. Think I had 1 issue and the MTIO wrap up and wishing that there was something "more" to the "Slayer" story.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 12, 2020 9:30:31 GMT -5
I never figured out why the publishers jumped so heavily on Sword & Sorcery/adventure/barbarian series. Conan was a hit, but the character already had a following-didn't mean a lot of comic readers were clamoring for more of that stuff. I always think of this house ad; I think Warlord was the only series that lasted into double digits: Warlord had the benefit of a single steady creator who was a bit of a fan-favorite at the time. And it still struggled in its first year. Justice Inc., was the major odd man out in that group as it was not an S&S book and had the benefit of having been a pulp that had been brought back in a paperback series alongside Doc Savage in the 70s. They definitely went all-in on the S&S books and it didn't pay off.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 12, 2020 9:36:28 GMT -5
Skull the Slayer 1-8, Aug. '75 - Nov. '76. Writer & Artist: Damn near everyone at Marvel in the Bronze Age. So was it gone too soon? Lord no! I know there are a number of people here who have fond memories of this book. I did too. I bought issue #8 off the stands and was fairly enthralled. I can only think that others, like me, had not revisited this in a number of years. Because this book is a disaster saved only by decent art. None of the writers had a clue where they were going, what the rules of the world were, what made a book like this interesting. Add to that the fact that none of the lead characters were well written in any way. In a book with four main characters having two of them be complete assholes and two being complete ciphers is a bold move, but not one that pays off. I don't need to like the protagonist of my books...but it's probably best if I don't long for them to die. I'd happily feed Skull to the dinosaurs. And also Dr. Corey as well. Cancelling this book was a mercy killing that took about seven issues too long. One of those should of could of comics for certain if they had gone a different route. If they had gone science vs dinosaurs with a steady writer/artist team there is no reason Skull shouldn't have done better. If kept to more ERB Pellucidarian adventures with the idea of a current soldier lost in time and place then maybe more folks would have kept reading. Slap something together playing fast and loose and for sure a guaranteed stinker. Think I had 1 issue and the MTIO wrap up and wishing that there was something "more" to the "Slayer" story. There was absolutely no direction at all. Not even really from the creator, Wolfman. And even he couldn't seem to keep straight the details from issue to issue so we saw Skull go from being a fairly new pilot (presumably in the Air Force from the mission he's flying), to being in "The Corps," to being Army Special Forces in the space of three issues. The discontinuity and the lack of direction would be more forgivable if the characters weren't just so damn unlikable though.
|
|
|
Post by The Captain on Jun 12, 2020 10:08:48 GMT -5
Skull the Slayer 1-8, Aug. '75 - Nov. '76. Writer & Artist: Damn near everyone at Marvel in the Bronze Age. It's 1975 and Marv Wolfman has just become EIC at Marvel. As such he has the power to green-light a book he's been sitting on for a long time, Skull the Slayer. The concept, while not anything we haven't seen before, has potential. A small group of people are pulled through the Bermuda Triangle to a lost world/other dimension/other world where they have to fight dinosaurs and survive. Wolfman did the first three issues, followed by an issue by Steve Englehart, with Bill Mantlo rounding out the final four issues. Along the way we got two pencilers (Steve Gan and Sal Buscema) and four inkers. The turnover clearly effected the book and possibly exacerbated its early demise. With the lack of continuity in the creative team it seems like a forgone conclusion that there would be a lack of continuity in the book. But even Wolfman couldn't keep straight what he was doing with the titular character going from being an Air Force pilot, to a member of the "Corps" to Army Special Forces in the space of three issues. The general idea of the book had worked for Burroughs and Doyle and would work for Mike Grell on Warlord. But it was not to be at Marvel with this property. Steven Gan's art was generally pretty good. And Sal did his normal yeoman work. So was it gone too soon? Lord no! I know there are a number of people here who have fond memories of this book. I did too. I bought issue #8 off the stands and was fairly enthralled. I can only think that others, like me, had not revisited this in a number of years. Because this book is a disaster saved only by decent art. None of the writers had a clue where they were going, what the rules of the world were, what made a book like this interesting. Add to that the fact that none of the lead characters were well written in any way. In a book with four main characters having two of them be complete assholes and two being complete ciphers is a bold move, but not one that pays off. I don't need to like the protagonist of my books...but it's probably best if I don't long for them to die. I'd happily feed Skull to the dinosaurs. And also Dr. Corey as well. Cancelling this book was a mercy killing that took about seven issues too long. Cannot agree with you more. A decent concept but executed horribly, this was an unmitigated disaster. I picked up all of the issues over the course of 8 months between 2015 and 2016, paying just under $20 for the run (including wasting $5.25 on #6, which I impulse-bought because it was the last issue I "needed" to complete the run). Read it once, will never read it again. Oddly, I saw the TPB of this series at Ollie's last year at some point for $4.99 and considered picking it up so that I could sell the issues but keep the story, and then thought "why the hell would I do that for something that was so bad?" I promptly put it down and never gave it another glance.
|
|