What Classic Comic Have You Read Lately? Pt. 2

[Reptisaurus!]

Love the Kirby Black Panther series, as far removed as it was from the MacGregor/Graham epic in Jungle Action, which I also loved.

I just read the MacGregor/Graham stuff for the first time - I liked the art better than the Kirby run, but Kirby's writing was much, much, better.

And I'm sure that everyone agrees with me. How could you not?

[Rob Allen]

ESSENTIAL WARLOCK (Marvel Premiere #1, 2 and Warlock 1-8 so far):

...this strange series, that i suppose, was inspired by Jesus Christ Superstar? But no, i see it came out before that movie did in 1973.

JC Superstar started as an album in 1970, then a Broadway show in 1971. So it did come first.

I agree that the series left much to be desired. It started so incredibly well and then Roy and Gil handed it off to others who weren't up to the task.

There was no time travel stated or implied, IIRC. You just had to believe that HE could build a world in that amount of time.

[AZBarbarian]

I just finished Planetary (entire run). Was a very good read.

[Polar Bear]

Yeah, I enjoy 90% of Planetary. The Godzilla homage early on sticks with me as something I particularly loved. The new eyeglasses for the Johnny Storm-knockoff, or the crummy way he treated the Lone Ranger mythos, not so much. Still, it was well worth it.

I read the 1970s Atlas Phoenix 1-3. It was ... fine. All right. Neither bad enough to cull nor good enough to buy, if you know what I mean. It's often a bad sign when you slow down to look at the ads while reading a comic. Sal Amendola's panels is energetic, but his drawing really never has the sheer artistic brilliance of that issue of Detective ("Night of the Stalker") inked by Dick Giordano.

I also read 2011's Annihilators 1-4--basically, Cosmic Avengers vs. Dire Wraith/Skrull plot in the front of the book, Rocket Raccoon + Groot story in the back (though the RR&G stories had a higher page count!). Both stories are mindless fun, the first for a fan of the Spaceknight-who-must-not-be-named, and the second for its sheer chaotic bravado. My wife even enjoyed the RR&G story--pleasantly odd. I've never read any other Marvel "Cosmic" relaunch books, and I never felt lost--bravo!

[thwhtGuardian]

I just finished Planetary (entire run). Was a very good read.

The Batman issue is one of my favorite comics of all time, I may need to revisit it now.

As for my readings today I re-read John Byrne's Nextmen #21 today, I'm not a huge fan of his but this is the first appearance of Hellboy so for me it's an essential part of my collection. However on just about every other previous reading I've skipped the first twelve pages; they've never held my attention as I have no idea who they are or what's going on in the story. I have zero experience with the Next Men but today, for probably the first time since I first bought the book back in the late 90's, I actually read the beginning of the book ad I found myself intrigued.

Basically, what I'm saying is,are there any here who would recommend this book?

[FanboyStranger]

Basically, what I'm saying is,are there any here who would recommend this book?

It's a good book. Probably the best thing that Byrne has done as writer/artist, and certainly the best thing he's done in the past twenty years. Don't skip out on 2112, which is the prequel to the story.

[thwhtGuardian]

It's a good book. Probably the best thing that Byrne has done as writer/artist, and certainly the best thing he's done in the past twenty years. Don't skip out on 2112, which is the prequel to the story.

If I were to pick it up would you suggest beginning with 2112? I've never heard of it, but I'm not very well researched on Byrne's catalog of work.

[FanboyStranger]

Yes, definitely. It is available in the first volume of IDW's Next Men omnibii, but it's not too hard to find around. (I actually found my copy in a quarter bin years ago.)

The backstory for 2112 is that it was supposed to be the start of Marvel's 2099 line, which Byrne had been developing with Stan Lee and a few others. Byrne fell out with Marvel, but repurposed the story as the prologue to Next Men.

Here's a picture of the cover (I believe this is the second or third edition):

[thwhtGuardian]

Yes, definitely. It is available in the first volume of IDW's Next Men omnibii, but it's not too hard to find around. (I actually found my copy in a quarter bin years ago.)

The backstory for 2112 is that it was supposed to be the start of Marvel's 2099 line, which Byrne had been developing with Stan Lee and a few others. Byrne fell out with Marvel, but repurposed the story as the prologue to Next Men.

Here's a picture of the cover (I believe this is the second or third edition):

The back story there sounds almost interesting enough to be a comic in its own right, I think I'll have to nose around for that omnibus by IDW.

I mean, that cover has dinosaurs and in good conscience you really just can't say no to a book with a cover like that.

[berk]

I just read the MacGregor/Graham stuff for the first time - I liked the art better than the Kirby run, but Kirby's writing was much, much, better.

And I'm sure that everyone agrees with me. How could you not?

I'd like to see someone re-create the MacGregor/Graham Panther's Rage in Kirby's style (writing and art); and I don't mean in Christopher Priest's "Happy Pants" manner, which was completely off the mark. And then it might be interesting to continue the exercise by finding someone to re-do Kirby's Panther series in the MacGregor/Graham style of writing/art.

I figure someone like Grant Morrison could pull off the writing in both cases: he's shown that he can imitate different sorts of voices when he wants to. There are lots of artists who have imitated Kirby at one time or another, so that wouldn't be a problem. Not too sure who could do the Bill Graham artwork, though.

I'm semi-serious about this, BTW: I think it would be an interesting experiment.

[Polar Bear]

I figure someone like Grant Morrison could pull off the writing in both cases: he's shown that he can imitate different sorts of voices when he wants to. There are lots of artists who have imitated Kirby at one time or another, so that wouldn't be a problem. Not too sure who could do the Bill Graham artwork, though.

I dunno; I think frequent Morrison collaborator Frank Quitely could come close.

[Simon Garth]

I just read the MacGregor/Graham stuff for the first time - I liked the art better than the Kirby run, but Kirby's writing was much, much, better.

And I'm sure that everyone agrees with me. How could you not?

I'm tempted to question your sanity, but that's unfair - everyone has their own favourites and preferred styles and all that, and I guess MacGregor could be slightly wordy whereas Kirby's dialogue was sort of... Kirby's dialogue had... Kirby's dialogue.... are you mad?!

[Roquefort Raider]

I'm tempted to question your sanity, but that's unfair - everyone has their own favourites and preferred styles and all that, and I guess MacGregor could be slightly wordy whereas Kirby's dialogue was sort of... Kirby's dialogue had... Kirby's dialogue.... are you mad?!

I laughed out lout at this! Thanks, Simon!

[Slam_Bradley]

I'm tempted to question your sanity, but that's unfair - everyone has their own favourites and preferred styles and all that, and I guess MacGregor could be slightly wordy whereas Kirby's dialogue was sort of... Kirby's dialogue had... Kirby's dialogue.... are you mad?!

Saying MacGregor is slightly wordy is like saying that lake in Utah is slightly salty. The man frequently put more words on a comic page than you'd get in a decent sized novel chapter. A couple of times he put that many in a single panel.

[thwhtGuardian]

I finally got into Tintin today and honestly it may top out as one of my favorite comics of all time. I remember liking the cartoon as a kid and I loved the movie that came out last year but I had never read the comics themselves until just today. I bought The Crab with the Golden Claw, The Shooting Star, The Secret of the Unicorn, Red Rackham's Treasure, The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun and while I've only read through the first two of those volumes I've already ordered more and I can't wait for them to arrive.

It simply boggles my mind that these books were being put out during the Golden Age of comics, both in terms of story telling and in their art they're just so far ahead of the books being put out by DC at that same time that I can't grasp the difference in quality. I'm not saying Golden Age Superman and Batman were bad, there are a great many stories from back then that I really enjoy but Tintin just trumps them so easily.

I imagine that this reaction is similar to when I first tasted peanut butter, I of course don't remember what I thought then but it must have been similar to the thoughts I'm having now.