don perlin question

[dan bailey]

just got through skimming a don perlin interview & didn't notice any reference to what i'm vaguely remembering, so i'll raise the question here ...

back in the mid-'70s, probably, i remember reading a syndicated feature story in the statewide paper on a christian strip (or maybe a full-fledged comic) that perlin was doing at the time. i think the story, or at least the accompanying artwork, contrasted that work with a panel of his ghost rider artwork showing johnny blaze's flaming skull.

anyone have any idea of the details on what perlin work that story might have focused on? he was never one of marvel's (or anyone else's) superstars by any means, but over time i came to appreciate his solidly competent work on werewolf by night & ghost rider back then.

[devildinosaur]

just got through skimming a don perlin interview & didn't notice any reference to what i'm vaguely remembering, so i'll raise the question here ...

back in the mid-'70s, probably, i remember reading a syndicated feature story in the statewide paper on a christian strip (or maybe a full-fledged comic) that perlin was doing at the time. i think the story, or at least the accompanying artwork, contrasted that work with a panel of his ghost rider artwork showing johnny blaze's flaming skull.

anyone have any idea of the details on what perlin work that story might have focused on? he was never one of marvel's (or anyone else's) superstars by any means, but over time i came to appreciate his solidly competent work on werewolf by night & ghost rider back then.I'm not sure of the article you mention, but I loved his work on the Defenders when I was a kid. Or is my memory failing me in my old age?

[matewan1990]

I'm not sure of the article you mention, but I loved his work on the Defenders when I was a kid. Or is my memory failing me in my old age?

Perlin did Defenders from the late 80s or 90s until it ended, I believe. His art was what kept me reading the title. That and J.M. DeMatteis' stories. That was a great run on Defenders. I didn't like it when the Defenders started using painted covers, though, so I dropped it and had to go back later to pick up some of the issues I'd missed.
Great stuff. I'm supposed to do an interview with Don in the next few days. I'll ask him about the Christian comics strip.

[devildinosaur]

Perlin did Defenders from the late 80s or 90s until it ended, I believe. His art was what kept me reading the title. That and J.M. DeMatteis' stories. That was a great run on Defenders. I didn't like it when the Defenders started using painted covers, though, so I dropped it and had to go back later to pick up some of the issues I'd missed.
Great stuff. I'm supposed to do an interview with Don in the next few days. I'll ask him about the Christian comics strip.Excellent! Tell him he has a fan forever!

[dan bailey]

not that anyone else cares (or so i hope -- if you do, some sort of therapy might be in order), but last night, browsing through a just-acquired "alter ego" back ish (#8, spring 2001) i came across the answer to the question i posed above some 13 months ago ...

"this next imitation (of the original capt marvel) came neither from comic books nor from fanzines, but from a newsstand magazine. in the mid-'70s the publication 'nashville gospel' featured a four-page strip about a hero called gospelman. 'mild-mannered country singer chet hank' finds a so-called powerpack left behind by alien visitors 10,000 years before. by holding it and saying the words 'great speckled bird' (which is what the emblem on the medallion looks like) chet is changed into gospelman ..."

the artist? don perlin.

how in heck the strip rated a (wire-service-written, almost certainly) newspaper feature front, i haven't the vaguest idea.

one way or the other, this one sounds like a case for scott shaw!'s oddball comics column.

[Cei-U!]

For those who don't know country music, "Great Speckled Bird" was a nickname of C&W pioneer Roy Acuff (derived from an early Acuff hit).

Cei-U!
Dare I summon Gospelman?

[Red Oak Kid]

For those who don't know country music, "Great Speckled Bird" was a nickname of C&W pioneer Roy Acuff (derived from an early Acuff hit).

Cei-U!
Dare I summon Gospelman?

... and Chet is probably for Chet Atkins and Hank is probably for Hank Williams Sr..

Ya know, there just ain't enough country and western superheroes.

[dan bailey]

... Hank Williams Sr..


whose grave, btw, is maybe 2 miles from here.

in which morbid vein, btw, i was somewhat surprised to learn while skipping through another old "alter ego" (7, i think) that chic stone died in 2001 or so in a small city about 5 miles from here. how in hell he ended up in prattville, alabama, i haven't the vaguest idea. though at least that explains how he ended up credited on inks in a comic i picked up a few weeks ago that turned out to have published by dagger enterprises, a short-lived mid-'90s publisher that appears to have been headquartered a mile or so from where my lcs of choice now stands.

[DDM]

Perlin did Defenders from the late 80s or 90s until it ended, I believe. His art was what kept me reading the title. That and J.M. DeMatteis' stories. That was a great run on Defenders. I didn't like it when the Defenders started using painted covers, though, so I dropped it and had to go back later to pick up some of the issues I'd missed.
Great stuff. I'm supposed to do an interview with Don in the next few days. I'll ask him about the Christian comics strip.

The New Defenders #152 ended in 1985 or 1986 just in time for Angel, Beast, & Iceman to form X-Factor; whereas, the other remaining Defenders--Andromeda, Manslaughter, Brunhilde--seemingly died battling the Dragon of the Moon & a corrupt Moondragon who also seem to perish in the battle.