Month: July 2010

from Superman #295 (Jan 1976) by Elliot S! Maggin, Curt Swan & Bob Oksner

Anyway, I had quite the busy New Comics Day, and I didn’t get a chance to read any of said Comics What Are New that evening after work, but I did get to briefly glance at a few, both bought by me and left on the shelf at the shop, so let me throw my uninformed opinions out regarding them:

• Marvelman Family Finest #1 – A nice, thick, and extremely light funnybook, printed on black and white on plain ‘ol newsprint…I’ve only read whatever original Marvelman comics Eclipse Comics reprinted as part of their Miracleman hoohar, plus what was in this Marvelman special (itself reprinted by Eclipse as Miracleman 3-D). I’ve liked what I read, and it looks like more of the same here…good, clean superhero-y fun, with charming art and some appalling lettering. Of course, what the people really want (whether they know it yet or not) is reprints of the ’80s Marvelman revival by Alan Moore and his super-pals, and Lord knows when we’re getting that, but this classic Marvelman stuff has its value, too, I think.
• Fantastic Four Annual #32 – Wasn’t going to pick it up, because good gravy, $4.99, but I flipped through it and saw 1) some nice art by Bryan Hitch, 2) a few amusing bits of dialogue, and 3) one of my favorite goofy Marvel villains…and it looked like there was a lot going on in this comic, so I think my funnybook dollar is well-spent here. Come on home with me, Fantastic Four comic book.
• The Smurfs: Smurfnapper – Like I noted yesterday, I’m very excited about this. I know the Smurfs have bit of a cheesy reputation in the States, thanks to the cartoon from a couple of decades ago, but the Smurfs have a fine legacy of print comics and this $1 special is a good introduction to them. If you’re a fan of Carl Barks’ Duck stories, or of Jeff Smith’s Bone, the Smurfs comics fit right in with them. Well worth your dollar…and hopefully worth your $5.99 a pop once they start putting out the new editions of the albums!
• Batman & Robin #13 – Haven’t even cracked it open, but the cover has Robin about to beat Joker with a crowbar as drawn by Frank Quitely, and that’s not only a beautiful thing to behold, but it gives me a reason to run this thing again:
  
  You know, it doesn’t matter what else I accomplish with this site…that I had reason to create that animation all these years ago is enough to justify my efforts here.
• Hercules: Twilight of a God #2 – No idea why someone decided we needed another series in the Bob Layton Hercules saga, since the last installment of Layton’s run was…how many years ago? Was it in Marvel Comics Presents? Anyway, I liked this version of Hercules, so I’m glad this series is coming out (and it’s probably only doing so because Marvel’s got some buzz with their other Hercules books), but it seems just a wee past its sell-by date. (Unlike most other superhero books which are absolutely cutting-edge, yes, I know.)
• Batman: The Odyssey #1 – Gentlemen, ladies…I think we have something to tide us over ’til Frank Miller and Jim Lee’s All Star Batman returns next year. This comic is just full-on craziness, and it’s awesome. Neal Adams, I salute you.
• Hellboy: The Storm #1 – Hey, it’s a new Hellboy comic.

  Sorry, not much else to say about it. Hellboy‘s always good readin’.

• Irredeemable #15 – I always like to point out when a new issue of this or Incorruptible comes out, since Mark Waid is doing some fine superhero serial writing on these two comics. But I also wanted to point out this Twitter post of Mr. Waid’s, where he says
  

  “Annnnd today was the day I stopped reading super-hero comics. One that I won’t name finally broke me. Collection stops as of now. No joke.”

  Which of course got all the folks on the Twitter all a’tweetin’ about “which comic could it be?” I bet it’s Darkwing Duck. Don’t tell pal Ian.*

  But it got me wondering what could possibly happen in a superhero comic that would make me quit reading superhero comics? I mean, sure, I’ve read my share of bad ones from which I could extract no entertainment value (either sincerely, ironically, or otherwise…if there is an “otherwise” left outside of those two options), but what would make me give up on a whole genre? I mean, I read New Warriors #1 (1990), and I’m still here.**

  I should note that Waid later clarifies it was the latest in a string of awful comics…I suppose after reading a whole bunch of terrible ones, that would give me pause as well. But such bad luck, reading a bunch of comics and not a good one in the group? That’s pretty rough.

  Anyway, please don’t fill up my comments section trying to name which comic it was. And go easy on Mr. Waid…the man’s read more superhero comics than most of us have even heard of, so he’s entitled to give ’em up if he wants. But be as hard as you’d like on Ian. He probably deserves it for some reason or ‘nother.

• X-Women #1 – No, I didn’t buy this comic, just glanced through it enough to wonder why they even bothered to put dialogue in it. It’s page after page after page of nearly-naked, sometimes wet, generally gape-mouthed gals who sort of resemble characters you might know from the X-Men line of comics presenting their bits, posing sexily, and occasionally hugging, as drawn by Milo Manara. Granted, it’s beautifully-illustrated, and finely detailed, but boys, you’re going to want to hide this one from Mom. Not under the mattress, she knows about that spot already.

* I’m only kidding, Ian. Honest!

** Here comes the hate mail.

from Superman #250 (April 1972) by Cary Bates, Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson

A while back I noted that televised news in the Marvel Universe must be like having professional wrestling on the air all the time, but, you know, at least that’s safely predictable. I think I’d be more comfortable watching Marvel News and seeing “Sub-Mariner and Dr. Doom have teamed up to fight the Fantastic Four,” which is something I could deal with, versus never knowing what new horror awaited me whenever I’d turn on DC News: “Top story tonight: Superman’s giant ant head…the world’s leaders react!” “The Dow dropped 300 points after today’s appearance of the Zebra Batman.”

I don’t know how much of that I’d be able to take.

I suspect the daily news would be easier to handle in print form.

So I was poking through a copy of Star Warp magazine, dated Summer 1979, and within was the article “The Force Can Be With You” — in which the author first outlines what we know about The Force as revealed in the first Star Wars movie, and then suggests methods by which you, the reader, can develop your very own Force abilities.

For example, the articles suggests practicing on moving peas with your mind, or trying to guess cards held by another person, and

“…have your friend hide something, say a button. Again, you let the Force guide you until you find it. […] If you’ve succeeded with the peas and the cards, it should only take you five minutes to find the button the first time. Eventually, you should be able to work up to finding the button before your friend has even hidden it.”

Emphasis mine, by the way, because that’s awesome.

Anyway, after you’ve done that, get a load of this:

This next article, however, is absolutely 100% serious: “DARTH VADER VS. MUFFEY!” Yes, Muffey, the robot Daggit from the original Battlestar Galactica:

“Muffey springs at Darth’s throat. His metal jaws can find no grasp on Darth’s armor. Darth swings his lightsaber playfully at Muffey, lopping off one of the daggit’s ears. Muffey goes for Darth’s ankles, snapping ferociously. Darth simply snickers and lops off the daggit’s tail.”

And so it goes, with a gratuitous but probably deserved backhanding of Boxey, Muffey’s owner. But Muffey gets his second wind, takes out Darth’s “life support panel” on his chest, and Darth totally bails, zipping back to his home universe via a convenient space/time warp.

Yeah, yeah, I know…but count your blessings, it could have been Darth/Muffey slash fiction.