What Classic Comic Have You Read Lately? Pt. 2

[dan bailey]

Steely Dan's name was taken form The Naked Lunch, a novel by William S. Burroughs, so it could be a reference to that as well.

And since the Burroughs reference was to a ... very adult concept, shall we say ... I'm quite intrigued by the comics character with that name. Regardless, better that the reference is to Burroughs than to that horrible, horrible, vile, ghastly, horrible band.

[Cei-U!]

better that the reference is to Burroughs than to that horrible, horrible, vile, ghastly, horrible band.

Steely Dan, too??? Why not just say "Every band Cei-U! likes sucks" and be done with it?

Cei-U!
I summon my copy of "Aja"!

[dan bailey]

Steely Dan, too??? Why not just say "Every band Cei-U! likes sucks" and be done with it?

Cei-U!
I summon my copy of "Aja"!

Somehow, I just knew you'd like those ... people.

I won't even bother asking your opinion of He Who is Not to be Named (but whose initials happen to be "Jimmy Buffett").

[MDG]

And since the Burroughs reference was to a ... very adult concept, shall we say ... Regardless, better that the reference is to Burroughs than to that horrible, horrible, vile, ghastly, horrible band.

Steely Dan, too??? Why not just say "Every band Cei-U! likes sucks" and be done with it?

Gotta go with Dan on this one--I was really shocked (and disappointed) watching one of those "rockumentaries" years ago when a member of SD said a lot of things I agreed with.

[Cei-U!]

Gotta go with Dan on this one--I was really shocked (and disappointed) watching one of those "rockumentaries" years ago when a member of SD said a lot of things I agreed with.

Wait, you were shocked and disappointed because he agreed with you? I'm usually thrilled when people agree with me.

Cei-U!
I summon the confusion!

[Cei-U!]

I won't even bother asking your opinion of He Who is Not to be Named (but whose initials happen to be "Jimmy Buffett").

Buffet's okay in small doses but he's too much of a one trick pony for me to muster any real enthusiasm. I would be perfectly happy if I never heard "Margaritaville" again. Talk about overexposure!

Cei-U!
I summon my lost shaker of salt!

[Simon Garth]

Read the orginal X-Men #1-10. Enjoyable stuff in a fairly dim way. All the best & worst of Lee & Kirby in each issue - tremendous energy in the stories, even when they don't make much sense, new powers pulled out of the characters' butts to suit the story, terrific energy and storytelling in the art but with identikit faces and ridiculous exaggerated expressions.

Fun to read, but the lasting impression was that they were pretty daft comics.

[Simon Garth]

Also re-read Infinite Crisis 1-7. No idea why, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Still the same utter trainwreck that I remembered - if anything, it's even worse read as a series than in individual issues.

I know I've been heavily critical of aspects of Kirby's art over the years, but the comparison between those early X-Men and this nightmare really show up his strengths compared to more flashy modern artists. Kirby('s art as published here) may have limitations - eg faces, weird muscles, shadows in strange places etc - but his ability to portray action in story is fantastic. In contrast, there are parts of IC where I literally have no idea at all what's going on - combination of bad storytelling and muddled / over-coloured art.

Similar sort of comparison in the writing as well - Lee may have drastically over-explained everything that was happening in those issues, and written some really terrible dialogue, but at least you could understand the story. Johns' story just doesn't make sense, and his dialogue is, in it's own more modern way, even more hokey and unbelievable than Stan's.

[Romero]

Just finished Marvel's Contest of Champions mini that I picked up all three for 25 cents each.

So, yeah.

I guess every hero in the Marvel U at the time made an appearance, even if it was one panel, and they didn't have any lines, or they were part of the 3-4 pages of heroes standing around asking each other what the hell was going on!

Then they made up a bunch of new heroes, all of whom seemed to have their identities tied directly into their country of origin. I guess they were hoping these characters would take off??

The point was that some God-like being, whose name now actually escapes me, was in a contest with some other "secret" being to try and get his brother, The Collector, brought back to life. They pitted the heroes against each other to find four pieces of a magic sphere scattered across the earth. However, they eliminated using any of the god-like, Inhuman, Eternal, or Alien supers, so they would only use the human or mutant ones.

The actual contest only used about 24 heroes, which was a mix of A-listers, these new characters, and some C-list characters like Arabian Knight and Sabra. They completely skipped using some real heavy hitters, for whatever reason.

Throw in some clumsy political commentary about various National and ethnic conflicts in the world, and a third issue cover that gives away the "twist" and you have a series worth every quarter! LOL.

Bill Mantlo wrote the script, which took three authors to come up with the story for this. JR Jr with Pablo Marcos on art was pretty good.

I did like that each issue had a mini-version of the MU Handbook in the back, running through brief descriptions of most MU heroes, including some dead ones.

[CromagnonMan]

DC Special Series #16 'Jonah Hex Spectacular'

This is one of the better Jonah Hex stories ive read so far, in my quest to read the full run.

It is best described as "the last Jonah Hex story" as it details Jonah Hex's last adventure and subsequent violent death at the ripe old age of 66.

Set in 1904, it is interesting and fun as it has Jonah commenting on modern inventions like the automobile and early air flight.

I probably liked this issue so much as i find the era between the end of the Wild West and modern civilization fascinating.

Jonah's corpse ends up being literally preserved for posterity, and paraded in the Wild West Revue shows popular at this time, which is hardly fitting, but i suppose that did end up to some of the Wild West heroes. Or at least it does in movies.

Jonah does manage to get revenge on one of the rogue show bosses from beyond the grave , which is satisfying in some way, but i wont spoil this.

The story ends in 1972, with Jonah being displayed sadly at a modern amusement park.

Also in the issue is a good Bat Lash story (the only one ive read actually) and another Scalphunter story. The Jonah Hex and Bat Lash stories being the most enjoyable for me at least.

Also, all the artwork in this issue is above average, nice and crisp lines and inking, when compared to the regular JH series.

I would recommend this issue. I dont know if its worth the high prices it currently goes for, the last one i saw was $27, but its certainly worth $5-$10.

[Polar Bear]

Finally finished Dark Horse's John Carter: Warlord of Mars tome reprinting the Marvel series from the 1970s.



It was certainly worth what I paid for it.

The first year-and-a-half of issues, by Marv Wolfman and (mostly) Gil Kane, I found quite compelling. Then, that team left and Claremont/Vosberg took over, and ... I don't know, I kind of skimmed. I'd expected myself to like the Claremont issues better than those of Wolfman, but it was quite the opposite. But given the cover price, I can hardly argue.

The artwork looks (mostly) gorgeous in black-and-white, especially the issues inked by Rudy Nebres, and the characters' situations are often compelling. It's very text-heavy, compared to today's comics, so it's a different frame-of-mind when reading.

Special shout-out: Bill Mantlo did the Annual #2, which I started out skimming, but WOW! He really knocked my socks off by mid-story, so much so that I went back and read what I'd skimmed. Bad science, of course, but very creative.

In short: A buy.

[Scott Harris]

I just read Crimebuster #0:



This is a mid-90's book from AC Comics, which specializes in using public domain golden age heroes. The story in it are reprinted from issues of Fem Force.

Honestly, it's not that bad a story. This issue came out in 1995 -- by the way, I don't know why they numbered it 0, it's the only issue of Crimebuster they put out -- so the art is really 90's. Big guns, bir armor, big hair, whatever. But it's not terrible.

The premise behind the AC-verse is pretty basic: a bunch of Golden Age heroes were put on ice in a place called The Vault and now they've been revived.

So Crimebuster is back, sporting a gritty mid-90's black leather jacket just because. He visits his old pal Loover, who is now a doddering old man in the hospital (considering he would have been in his 90's at least, that's fair enough). After CB leaves, though, Iron Jaw -- who put himself into suspended animation as well -- shows up and heaves Loover out a 10th story window. Yikes.

Naturally, Crimbebuster vows revenge. He tries to take this revenge while Iron Jaw is in the middle of a big gang war in Miami, where for some reason Iron Jaw is now headquartered. Iron Jaw is actually just about to murderize to members of Fem Force - She-Cat and somebody else -- when Crimebuster and his buddy Reddevil (akak the Golden Age Daredevil) swoop down in a jet and snag him with somie big iron cables.

He immediately turns the tables and manages to crash the jet into a neaby nature preserve. Groggy from the crash, Crimebuster staggers out of the wreck, right into Iron Jaw's waiting arms. It's just about all over for Crimebuster...

...except one of the monkeys in the preserve bites off Iron Jaw's ear! Distracted, Iron Jaw grabs at his ear, forgetting he's holding a giant slab of concrete over his head that he was about to kill Crimebuster with. The concrete falls and knocks Iron Jaw out! Saved, Crimebuster adopts the monkey as his new sidekick, Squeeks Jr. Hooray!

Then there's a weird epilogue where Iron Jaw gets out of jail, the end. I guess this was setting up more Iron Jaw vs. She-Cat stories or something, because I'm not aware of any further Crimebuster appearances in Fem Force. But who knows.

Not as terrible as it could have been.

[Cherokee Jack]

Been sorting thru comics that need to be put in boxes. Most are from the last ten years, but some are a bit older that I set aside ages ago to re-read. And of course some of the others, I am also going to re-read. I'll try and list them as I go, with a few comments, time permitting.

First up:

SPIDER-MAN:TANGLED WEB # 11, and # 21, a St. Valentine's Day issue, and a Christmas issue, both courtesy of Darwyn Cooke/Jay Bone. Need I say more? Highly recommended.

[Cherokee Jack]

MY TERRIBLE ROMANCE # 1.

This comic came out in the early 90s from New England Comics. It features b & w romance comic reprints fron the early 50s. Also has a five page history of romance comics, and a cover gallery. One of the stories has early Harry Harrison/Wally Wood art.

The indicia has a satirical jab at 50s comics, as it says, "Formerly Western Crimes Against Indians."

I doubt this had a very high press run, but if you see it at a show, it's worth buying.

http://www.comics.org/issue/343904/cover/4/

[mrc1214]

Just finished Hawkworld by Ostrander,Truman,Nolan etc. What an amazing run. Nolan's art is some of the best work I have seen. Its rare that Ill take that much time just admiring the art. And the stories we're great. Ostrander is one of the great comic writers. Its a damn shame they cancelled this books for the Hawkman re-boot or whatever.