What Classic Comic Have You Read Lately? Pt. 2

[Roquefort Raider]

The Starlin issues are really phenomenal. But I'm guessing that some of what made it interesting also led to its cancellation. It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. A lot of the Starlin stuff is bleak, about going crazy, etc. It works very well for a short time, but a bit sad with longer exposure.

That's quite true, and Starkin's run was perfect as it was, culminating in Warlock's death. Bringing the character back for the several indigestible Infinity Thisandthat series was a mistake, I think.

The best way to bring Warlock back, in my opinion, was the way Abnett and Lanning did (howver briefly that lasted): as a reborn character not quite ready to leave his cocoon, with some of his original innocence back. I miss Guardians of the galaxy!

[spoon_jenkins]

I somewhat randomly picked up Essential X-Men volume 8 the other day. I just needed some continuity-heavy empty calories in my reading diet, I think.

This volume 8 reprints the "X-Men in Australia" stuff and the entirety of the Inferno crossover with X-Factor. Most of the art is by Marc Silvestri, who I don't have much experience with. There are some fill-ins by Rick Leonardi, who I think is under-appreciated. "My" era of X-Men was Claremont with Paul Smith and John Romita, Jr. I've also read a bunch of the Cockrum stuff and a bit of the Byrne. I always assumed the quality fell off sharply after the book became saddled with the artists who would go on to become some of the Image founders.

ANYWAY, I was pleasantly surprised by the book as a whole. It wasn't great, but I liked the Silvestri art more than I like his contemporaries (Liefield, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio). The dialogue and narration weren't quite as bloated as some of Claremont's later stuff. (Maybe being bi-monthly encouraged him to rush it along a little quicker.) Inferno seemed convoluted, and not in a fun, drawn-out Claremont way, but in a rushed, forced-crossover way, but it was helped by the Simonson art. His Beast looked great.

Final verdict: worth the 7 bucks I spent on it, and it makes me consider getting the Essentials 1-7.

I know there are several folks here who stopped reading X-Men after Byrne left, or Smith left, or JRjr left. But I think folks should try both the Silvestri and Jim Lee stints. Sometimes they're judged too much on the Image work. Silvestri is pretty good at working humor into his art. I think you'd probably like Essential X-Men 7 as well, which has several Silvestri. Admittedly, I'm a big X-Men fan, but the only one of the first Essential X-Men I wouldn't give a big thumbs up to is vol. 3. That's basically the second Cockrum stint.

I'm still reading Essential Spider-Woman 2. There's a publisher of sleazy British tabloids named Rupert M. Dockery who buys an L.A. paper. I didn't know he'd made such an impression by the early 80s.

[inferno]

Couple of Halloween ashcan minicomics --

SPACEHAWK from Fantagraphics this year reprinting a Basil Wolverton story from the early 1940s in anticipation of an upcoming reprint project. This story was pretty wild. Space cops, a brain transplant into a Uranian dinosaur. Dumb fun, worth reading.

Reprinted by Fantagraphics last year -- "Jet Witch" From Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #254, 1961. A fun Carl Barks story. Donald has a wild Halloween night on a Gyro's jet-powered broomstick. Thumbs up.

[dr chimp]

peter milligan's Bad Company - and very enjoyable it was too. Vietnam in space for first half and man losing his humanity and some sort of post apocalypse story in second half as man becomes the very thing he hates. Nice layered story that mixes action and effects of war in equal measures.

[Johnny P. Sartre]

peter milligan's Bad Company - and very enjoyable it was too. Vietnam in space for first half and man losing his humanity and some sort of post apocalypse story in second half as man becomes the very thing he hates. Nice layered story that mixes action and effects of war in equal measures.

Fantastic story! Milligan, even early on did amazing character studies and had a lot of depth to his stories.

[dr chimp]

Reading Marvel Masterworks: Tales of Suspense Volume 2.

I'll say what we are all thinking - how awesome is googam

[Polar Bear]

I read Korak, Son of Tarzan 46 and 47, the first two DC issues (1974). Art on the main feature is by Frank Thorne, who is not up to his full game here, in my opinion. We also have two backups for #46, Carson of Venus with art by a young Kaluta--one that draws beautiful trees and clouds, but has trouble with faces--and Pellucidar with art by a young Weiss who still has a lot to learn. Fascinating to see three top artists who are not exactly at their peak (yet). Pellucidar gets dropped as of the second issue, when Korak drops from 52 pages to a standard 32. (It will--ahem--resurface as half of DC's Weird Worlds.) I think it's safe to say the stories are of more interest from an historical perspective than as great works in and of themselves. I'll continue to acquire these slowly.

This was not true of the Tarzan issues I picked up. DC 100-page Super Spectacular #DC-19 (odd numbering system) is all Manning Tarzan, reformatted from newspaper strips--very enjoyable eye candy, despite occasional poor printing (hey, what do you expect in the 1970s?). I also enjoyed Tarzan #233, a hundred-page issue with Kubert originals and Manning strips, along with other jungle stories. Kubert is doing a good job putting together attractive packages. I'm going to prioritize these Tarzan hundred-pagers ahead of many other items on my want list.

[tony ingram]

I actually have that issue in the original comic. Bought TOS #15., #17, #18, #24 and #27 a few months ago as part of a job lot with Tales to Astonish #10 and #29 and a dozen assorted issues of Journey into Mystery (again, pre-Marvel) and DC's My Greatest Adventure (pre-Doom Patrol) and House of Secrets. Have to say, I prefer the Marvel monster books to the DC stuff. It just reads as more inventive.

[Bad Wolf]

I know I've never forgotten Googam.

[Aaron King]

I know there are several folks here who stopped reading X-Men after Byrne left, or Smith left, or JRjr left. But I think folks should try both the Silvestri and Jim Lee stints. Sometimes they're judged too much on the Image work. Silvestri is pretty good at working humor into his art. I think you'd probably like Essential X-Men 7 as well, which has several Silvestri. Admittedly, I'm a big X-Men fan, but the only one of the first Essential X-Men I wouldn't give a big thumbs up to is vol. 3. That's basically the second Cockrum stint.

I think Silvestri is definitely helped by the Marvel stable of inkers. They seemed to have minimized the scratchiness of the Image school of art.

I sort of OD'd on the X-universe when I was younger after being hooked by Claremont & Simonson on New Mutants and X-Men. As the years wore on and Fabian Nicieza and Scott Lobdell were writing with people like Joe Madureira and Andy Kubert were doing the art, the constant soap opera held less appeal to me and I simultaneously moved into more cerebral stuff like Gaiman's Sandman and simpler stuff like Silver Age DC.

After reading the Essential, though, I think it might be fun to start with Giant Size X-Men and go through all of Claremont's X-Universe through X-Men #1 or so. Toss in New Mutants (my first favorite comic) and the Claremont and Davis runs on Excalibur.

Has anyone seen long retrospective interviews with Claremont on his time in the mutant corner of Marvel? Something meaty, like a Comics Journal interview? I'd be interested in seeing him expound on all the weird waves of domination, degradation, and humiliation he put his characters through. It seems like someone's always getting tied up, mind-controlled, or corrupted. He also had a nice sense of creating endings and catharsis without permanently breaking the toys he was given.

[Slam_Bradley]

Blue Beetle Companion by Christopher Irving


I'm well aware that it's madness to say, when reviewing a book, "this isn't what I would have done". But, well, this book isn't what I would have done.

There's definitely a story to be told here. And Irving tells parts of it. The Blue Beetle is one of the few superheroes to span the decades since the 1940s. There's a lot of history there...but only bits of it get told. I can't parse the decision to devote fully 60% of the book to the Golden Age version of the character. Yes it's an important era, but frankly, most readers aren't going to be terribly interested in it. Particularly when the Ted Kord version gets fairly short shift.

More perplexing are the odd digressions, such talking Busy Arnold and Quality Comics because it was maybe possible that Victor Fox and Arnold might possibly have maybe done business together. Maybe. There are a number of other digressions. Not quite as odd as that one, but that make you wonder what the author was thinking.

I won't argue strenuously against the inclusion of a transcript of a Blue Beetle radio program. I found it mind-numbing but I can't say it absolutely didn't belong.

There is just enough interesting stuff here to barely make it worth a read. But it's not a terribly good or compelling read.

[dr chimp]

Lob and Druillet - Delirius. 1970s french hard sci-fi. Story is a bit of a bog standard romp but the art is pretty outrageous often told over Euro book sized splash pages. Couldnt find anything much from this volume to link to so heres something from an earlier volume

[Reptisaurus!]

Blue Beetle Companion by Christopher Irving


I'm well aware that it's madness to say, when reviewing a book, "this isn't what I would have done". But, well, this book isn't what I would have done.

There's definitely a story to be told here. And Irving tells parts of it. The Blue Beetle is one of the few superheroes to span the decades since the 1940s. There's a lot of history there...but only bits of it get told. I can't parse the decision to devote fully 60% of the book to the Golden Age version of the character. Yes it's an important era, but frankly, most readers aren't going to be terribly interested in it. Particularly when the Ted Kord version gets fairly short shift.

I had the exact opposite problem with the Hawkman companion. The Golden Age version was skimped over. Their was a nice index to all the Hawkman stories - Except the Golden Age Stories. I'm SURE I can find summaries of Hawkman comics from 2004 on the internet - But there's much less information about the formative stuff, and that's what I cared the most about.

[Scott Harris]

Well, after someone suckered me into buying the ComicBase comic book indexing program (no names... pmpknface), I started indexing all my comics and discovered that I was missing an issue of Boy Comics that I had previously checked off my list. Actually, two, though I am certain I bought one of them and have somehow lost it. But anyway, the other one I apparently just missed, which is irritating, but on the other hand it means there were two Crimebuster stories I haven't read yet.

Until now! Feast your eyes on the magnificence of Boy Comics #66:




Yes, this is exactly what it looks like. Amazingly, though, the story is significantly crazier than it looks. Witness:

Crimebuster's pal, district attorney Loover, gets invited on a pleasure cruise. he can't go, though, so he sends Crimebuster in his place. The cruise is great, except there's this one loudmouthed jerk named Privet who ruins everyone's fun by constantly haranguing the rich guy who owns the ship.

Anyway, the cruise is... cruising along... when disaster strikes! A foreign nation, not expecting any ships in the area, has just tested a new nerve gas bomb by dropping it on a derelict ship. When the cruise ship sees this wrecked vessel, they sail in to offer help... and sail right into the gas cloud, instantly killing everyone on deck. The captain and the ship's owner are also knocked unconscious with nerve gas damage.

Crimebuster takes command and radios for help and a naval vessel sends a little boat out to them with a doctor on board. He has the antidote to save the sick men. However, Privet tosses it overboard secretly and everyone blames Squeeks! Noooo! Except, then they find that the radio has also been smashed, which clearly wasn't done by Squeeks. CB goes on the prowl to find out what's happening and discovers Privet in the wheelhouse.

it's too late, though; Privet crashes the ship into the derelict vessel. The ship starts to sink, so they deploy the boats, only Privet tries to shove the women and children out of the way to save himself. One of the ship's officers fires a pistol at him and misses, but Privet falls overboard. The others get away in the lifeboats, but Privet appears to be going down with the ship.

Later, though, they wash up on the shores of an uncharted desert isle -- and Privet washes up too. It seems deserted, but someone finds a human footprint, so they decide to go in search of the people. Instead, a pack of lions appears. CB tells everyone to be calm, especially after a white youth wearing a loincloth jumps out of the bushes and starts talking in gibberish. But Privet panics and shoots the lion dead. This angers the jungle boy, but he takes them back to his camp...

...which is a village populated by super-intelligent apes who communicate with the jungle boy using some kind of ape language. The lions and the apes apparently have some sort of accord, so the apes are angry about the lion getting killed and they appeal to the jungle boy for aid, as he apparently is their ruler. So the jungle boy throws Privet into a cage.

CB ends up making friends with the jungle boy and realizes (from the boy's throne, which is half of a ruined airplane) that he is the long lost heir to an aviation fortune; his parents and he disappeared when he was a baby on an attempted flight around the world, but he apparently survived and was raised by apes. CB convinces the jungle boy to let Privet go and decides not to bring the jungle boy back to civilization. He is happy where he is.

But Privet has other plans, because he heard thinks he can show the boy off as a circus freak. So he sucker punches the kid and tosses him into a big sack, which he then carries to the rescue ship which has just arrived. His ruse doesn't last long, though, as CB discovers the jungle boy has been brought aboard. There is a scuffle and Privet falls overboard... right into a school of sharks, who instantly devour him. Whoops!

The rescue ship's doctor administers the antidote to the rich guy, CB returns the jungle boy to his island home to rule over his intelligent ape brethren, and CB sails off, another case closed!

And that's just one of the two stories. Charles Biro FTW!

[pmpknface]

Nice pickups Scott! On the BOY Comics and the software! I flipped through my ASM #66 this weekend.... before I got it signed in person by Stan Lee!