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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 4, 2024 13:38:27 GMT -5
I wouldn't say I'm surprised it never was a continuing comic, but I think Edgar Rice Burroughs' Beyond Thirty would have made a dynamite series. It's about a possible future in which America remained isolated while the Euro-asiatic continent was ravaged by a terrible war that essentially put an end to civilization there. An American explorer eventually travels to the ravaged old world and adventure ensues. In those dystopian future stories, I'm always fascinated by what new civilizations might have emerged and how a renewed nature might have changed the landscape. It's like having a box of toys containing we know not what, and pulling out one nifty new thing after another. ( The Mucker would also have been darn cool, although I think there's at least one online comic series about the character). Tim Truman would have killed on a book about Billy Byrne. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Apr 5, 2024 5:34:28 GMT -5
I wouldn't say I'm surprised it never was a continuing comic, but I think Edgar Rice Burroughs' Beyond Thirty would have made a dynamite series. It's about a possible future in which America remained isolated while the Euro-asiatic continent was ravaged by a terrible war that essentially put an end to civilization there. An American explorer eventually travels to the ravaged old world and adventure ensues. In those dystopian future stories, I'm always fascinated by what new civilizations might have emerged and how a renewed nature might have changed the landscape. It's like having a box of toys containing we know not what, and pulling out one nifty new thing after another. ( The Mucker would also have been darn cool, although I think there's at least one online comic series about the character). With how well Tarzan and John Carter have done in comics over the years it is pretty surprising this was never a comic or even for just a back up. I mean, there have been Pellucidar comics, and even the Venus stories were adapted a few times. |
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Post by mikelmidnight on Apr 5, 2024 11:14:23 GMT -5
Back in the 1970's, I'd have loved to see Mayer's Superfolks adapted as a comic, preferably by Ralph Reese. However, by the mid-80s the influence had already permeated the comic field, and it would be redundant.
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Post by berkley on Apr 5, 2024 19:22:31 GMT -5
I wouldn't say I'm surprised it never was a continuing comic, but I think Edgar Rice Burroughs' Beyond Thirty would have made a dynamite series. It's about a possible future in which America remained isolated while the Euro-asiatic continent was ravaged by a terrible war that essentially put an end to civilization there. An American explorer eventually travels to the ravaged old world and adventure ensues. In those dystopian future stories, I'm always fascinated by what new civilizations might have emerged and how a renewed nature might have changed the landscape. It's like having a box of toys containing we know not what, and pulling out one nifty new thing after another. ( The Mucker would also have been darn cool, although I think there's at least one online comic series about the character). With how well Tarzan and John Carter have done in comics over the years it is pretty surprising this was never a comic or even for just a back up. I mean, there have been Pellucidar comics, and even the Venus stories were adapted a few times.
Maybe because the others were series and thus had more of a chance to catch someone's eye? Beyond Thirty aka The Lost Continent was a standalone tht might easily escape the notice of casual ERB readers. I agree though - great, classic scenario - and one that hasn't become outdated as the lost cities and civilisations of ERB's Africa, Venus, and Mars have done!
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Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 5, 2024 20:28:09 GMT -5
Has there ever been a Thundarr the Barbarian comic? Seems like a no brainer. Given how popular Green Lantern is, I'm surprised one of the small press companies that work on old public domain characters have never done a Lensmen comic. How about Perry Rhodan? (might be that exists, just not in English).
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 5, 2024 21:27:42 GMT -5
Has there ever been a Thundarr the Barbarian comic? Seems like a no brainer. Given how popular Green Lantern is, I'm surprised one of the small press companies that work on old public domain characters have never done a Lensmen comic. How about Perry Rhodan? (might be that exists, just not in English). Perry Rhodan was done in Europe, as I have seen samples. No Thundarr comic. It's owned by Warner Bros, so DC could theoretically do it, if they wanted. Malibu did The Lensman, based on the Japanese tv series that followed the OVA, that Streamline distributed, in an English dub, back in the 90s. Neither was particularly faithful to EE Smith, though it looked cool. Malibu did several manga and anime series, including Captain Harlock and Project A-Ko They also did and adaptation Of Keith Laumer's Retief series. |
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Post by berkley on Apr 5, 2024 21:55:53 GMT -5
I have to qualify this a bit since technically there was some short-lived newspaper strip activity, and even two early 90's Belgian comic one-off books, but overall Nero Wolfe never got a comic book series proper. This surprises me considering how prolific Rex Stout was and the popularity of the character in detective novel circles.
I missed this earlier but I think Gene Colan would have been great as a Nero Wolfe artist. Not only in Nathaniel Dusk but even in some of his superhero work, e.g. Daredevil, his scenes with people in street clothes, especially when drawing "tough guy" characters, hoods and the like, for some reason reminded me of hard-boiled fiction, even though Daredevil wasn't then a deliberate hard-boiled superhero mix like it became under Miller.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 5, 2024 23:19:37 GMT -5
I have to qualify this a bit since technically there was some short-lived newspaper strip activity, and even two early 90's Belgian comic one-off books, but overall Nero Wolfe never got a comic book series proper. This surprises me considering how prolific Rex Stout was and the popularity of the character in detective novel circles.
I missed this earlier but I think Gene Colan would have been great as a Nero Wolfe artist. Not only in Nathaniel Dusk but even in some of his superhero work, e.g. Daredevil, his scenes with people in street clothes, especially when drawing "tough guy" characters, hoods and the like, for some reason reminded me of hard-boiled fiction, even though Daredevil wasn't then a deliberate hard-boiled superhero mix like it became under Miller.
Colan would have killed on Nero Wolfe. So would Don Newton, for that matter. |
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Post by berkley on Apr 6, 2024 0:23:39 GMT -5
I missed this earlier but I think Gene Colan would have been great as a Nero Wolfe artist. Not only in Nathaniel Dusk but even in some of his superhero work, e.g. Daredevil, his scenes with people in street clothes, especially when drawing "tough guy" characters, hoods and the like, for some reason reminded me of hard-boiled fiction, even though Daredevil wasn't then a deliberate hard-boiled superhero mix like it became under Miller.
Colan would have killed on Nero Wolfe. So would Don Newton, for that matter. Newton I don't know well enough to picture how his style would have looked in that kind of thing. The only memory I have to go by is an Avengers Annual - very nicely drawn, but from memory it was all superhero stuff, not many everyday street scenes or what have you. I haven't seen any of his work that might have featured more characters in street-clothes, etc, as the Daredevil series did at Marvel.
There's a specific Daredevil scene that comes to mind right now in this context: I forget the issue #, but it's the one where "the Frog" (of all characters!) is arrested and has to go on trial with Matt Murdock in court. The Frog always looked faintly ridiculous to me in costume but the way Colan drew him in street clothes he was very convincing as a tough hood, relaxed, confident, and not giving a crap about anything or anyone - and to give Stan Lee due credit, his dialogue enhanced the impression of the artwork rather than worked against it, as could sometimes happen with the "Marvel Method". It was a brief scene, perhaps only a panel or two or not much more, but it left an impression that's stayed with me all these years, one of many instances of Colan's art doing so.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Apr 6, 2024 5:23:36 GMT -5
Has there ever been a Thundarr the Barbarian comic? Seems like a no brainer. Given how popular Green Lantern is, I'm surprised one of the small press companies that work on old public domain characters have never done a Lensmen comic. How about Perry Rhodan? (might be that exists, just not in English). I talked to Steve Gerber about that once in the late 90's and he said there were talks for Jack Kirby to do a Sunday newspaper strip based on the series but it was canceled. Oh, what could have been! |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 6, 2024 20:33:01 GMT -5
that would have been amazing! LOTS of strange tech for Kirby to imagine there. Too bad!
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Post by berkley on Apr 6, 2024 23:12:28 GMT -5
I've never seen Thundarr, though I'll certainly give it a look one of these days. I probably would have been a little too old to fully appreciate it but as it happens I don't think we ever got it on any of our channels anyway, since I never heard of it until years later on the internet somewhere.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 8, 2024 21:00:50 GMT -5
I've never seen Thundarr, though I'll certainly give it a look one of these days. I probably would have been a little too old to fully appreciate it but as it happens I don't think we ever got it on any of our channels anyway, since I never heard of it until years later on the internet somewhere. ABC TV, 1980-1981, a rare Saturday Morning Cartoon that got more than one season order. It's actually really good, from a story standpoint and the action is lively enough, especially compared to other cartoons of the era. Plus, Kirby's designs on some of the villains and Alex Toth designed the main characters, but had to leave the production, which is why Kirby was brought in. Steve Gerber and Marty Pasko on scripts, plus Buzz Dixon, Mark Jones (Leprechaun franchise) and Mark Evanier. Picture Kirby's Kamandi, minus the kid, with a somewhat toned down Conan as the hero, aided by a hot Asian sorceress, who is the only one who knows what is going on, among the trio. Thundarr's bestest buddy is Ookla, a Mok, which is kind of a mix between a lion and a human/ape (inspired, a lot, by Chewbacca), whose name comes from a joke about the Univ of California-Los Angeles (UCLA.....Ookla). The villains are evil sorcerers, would-be conquerors, marauding mutants and the like. The locales are the ruins of 20th Century Earth cities, so lots of familiar sites, given a Planet of the Apes make-over. The dude with the rotating head is the evil wizard Gemini, who appeared in two episodes (1 each season). Thundarr is voiced by Robert Ridgely, who also voiced Tarzan, for Filmation's Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle and The New Adv. of Flash Gordon. He was also in Beverly Hills Cop 2 (the Mayor), Blazing Saddles (Boris, the Hangman), Boogie Nights (Colonel James) and voiced the Devil (and other voices) in The Nine Lives of Fritz The Cat. Ariel (the sorceress) was voiced by Nellie Bellflower, who appeared on Happy Days, as a stripper, who Fonzie is going to marry (but doesn't know she is a stripper) and as a lady cop, in an episode of Barney Miller. She also voiced Eowyn, in the Rankin-Bass animated Return of the King. Henry Corden (the later Fred Flintstone, after Alan Reed died) voiced Ookla and some of the villains. Other voice artists included Stacy Keach Sr, Keye Luke (Master Po, on Kung Fu and the voice of Zoltar, on Battle of the Planets), Michael Ansara (Star Trek, I Dream of Jeanie), Nancy McKeon (Jo, on Facts of Life), Joan Van Ark (Knots Landing and also voiced Spider-Woman, in her cartoon series), Chuck McCann (comedy and character actor, noted for Far Out Space Nuts, with Bob Denver and lots of 70s tv), Hal Smith (Otis Campbell, on The Andy Griffith Show and tons of cartoons, including villains on Scooby Doo), Alan Oppenheimer (Dr Rudy Wells in the 1st season of the Six Million Dollar Man, voice of Skeletor and Ming the Merciless), Janet Waldo (voice of Judy Jetson) and Avery Schreiber (Second City veteran, who had a double act with Jack Burns, in the 60s and 70s). Filmation debuted its own fantasy series the following season, Blackstar, then He-Man came along, in 1983. |
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Post by Rob Allen on Apr 20, 2024 14:31:24 GMT -5
Comedy stars of the 1950s -
The Three Stooges had multiple comic book series.
So did Abbott & Costello.
Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope each had long-running comic series.
Why wasn't there a Bowery Boys comic book?
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,867
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Post by shaxper on Apr 20, 2024 15:02:39 GMT -5
I'm a little surprised The Greatest American Hero didn't get a comic until 2008.
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