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So I generally like Daredevil, though I haven’t been much interested in what’s been done with the character over the last, oh, decade or so. When this new Daredevil #1 came out this week, I didn’t have any intention of picking it up, but 1) just look at this gorgeous cover:
…and 2) Mark Waid was writing it, so I thought I’d peek inside at a page. Or two. Then three. Then four. Then…ah hell, fine, I’ll buy it. It does a great job of giving a fresh, non-angsty start to the character without forgetting everything that’s gone before, with the vast majority of the past decade’s storylines basically summed up by Daredevil with (paraphrasing) “yeah, things have been pretty crap for me recently.”
The one recent plot development that does carry over into this new series is the public exposure of Daredevil’s secret identity, and the problems that Matt Murdock has trying to deny everything while that particular genie slowly crawls back into the bottle. It makes for an entertaining read, as this way of dealing with the identity-outing is quite a bit more down-to-earth and (please pardon the expression) “realistic”-seeming than, I don’t know, amnesia spells or deals with the devil or the thousand different ways Superman protected his identity in the Silver Age. No Daredevil robots here!
Anyway, it’s a fun book, with more of a classic House of Ideas feel with its appealing combination of melodrama, exciting superheroics, humor and charm. Here’s hoping it can avoid any intrusive crossover company events and be left to develop on its own, without interruption.
• • •
Also of note:
Sergio Aragonés Funnies, filled with single-page gags, autobiographical stories, and funny shorts, all from Sergio’s masterful pen. The only thing wrong with this comic is that it only started
now, and hasn’t been running for decades.
Rocketeer Adventures #3 – each issue’s been a mixed bag, though that makes it sound worse than I mean. It’s all fine and entertaining, with some standouts and other stories just simply “pretty good,” which mostly only suffer in comparison to Dave Stevens’ original Rocketeer stories. So, you know, there’s no shame in coming in second to those. I liked Ryan Sook’s lead story in this new issue the most, and while I think I would have preferred Joe Lansdale and Bruce Timm’s story to be an actual comic story and not just prose-with-pictures, I’m not going to complain about a new Joe Lansdale short story that happens to be illustrated by Timm. I mean, honestly.
Also, each issue has featured the “main” cover by Alex Ross, and a more limited cover reusing Stevens’ art from previous Rocketeer-related publications. I’ve been sticking with the Stevens covers…nothing wrong with the Ross covers, but it feels more…”right” to get the Stevens ones, I guess. Or maybe I’m just being a sentimental ol’ dope.
You might as well give it up, because you can’t beat this:
Scanned from
FOOM #10 (June 1975). I sure hope the poor guy had some battery-operated fans in there. Also, he wasn’t carrying a sign – that’s the title of the article superimposed over the photo. I only mention it because I know you jokers will crack wise about it in the comments.
Tomorrow: some non-FOOM content. Hopefully.
So I’ve been going through this recently-acquired run of FOOM magazines, Marvel’s self-produced news and interview ‘zine, and it turns out that entries for that character creation contest I mentioned yesterday appeared in more issues. Issues #2 (Summer 1973) and #4 (Winter 1973) had some fine examples of reader creativity, like this fella:
I would totally have loved to see, like, the Avengers fighting this guy. Reminds me a bit of the dude Superman’s fighting at the end of
this post.
And then there’s this dude:
Pfft. “Wolverine.” Like anyone’s gonna go for a character with
that name.
There are some now-known folks from Before They Were Famous Funnybook Creators who contributed to this contest. I think this is the same Bill Morrison who’d go on to work on Simpsons comics:
…but I’m pretty sure this is the same Steve Rude of
Nexus fame:
Has twice the absorbing power of competing absorbing super-characters! Cleans up big messes
fast!
Issue #4 also had an extensive list of entrants’ names, including several folks who would go on to be comics pros (or at least have the same names as comic pros). A few that stick out include Bill (“William”) Jaaska, Steve Vance, James O’Barr, Larry Mahestedt, Stan Woch, Jerry Ordway, Fred Hembeck, and Carl Potts.
“Reggie Hudlin” pops up, but no idea if it’s the same guy. Could be! Also in the list? A certain Mr. “Danny DiDio.”
Like I said, this was just a list, so I have no idea what character concepts they may have submitted. I’m guessing Didio’s was “Annoying-Online-Fandom Man.”
So some of you may remember the saga of Humus Sapien (originally “Humus Sapiens”), a contest-winning fan-made character who first appeared in Marvel Comics’ news ‘n’ interview ‘zine FOOM #3 (Fall 1973). The character was supposed to be used in a comic at the time, but the folks at Marvel never got around to it…until the year 2001, when the character finally made its professional debut in an issue of Thunderbolts. It’s a fun and interesting story, and you can read a newspaper account of the events right here.
Anyway, that issue of FOOM announcing Humus Sapiens’ victory also ran a few shots of other submissions, a few of which I’d like to share here:
The name of this character certainly gets right to the point:
“IN THIS ISSUE: Mr. Kung-Fu faces the nefarious menace of…Señor Judo!”
I like the Legion of Super-Heroes-vibe I’m getting off this next fella:
He probably would have got along just fine with Substitute Legionnaire
Infectious Lass.
This next fella sort of reminds me of Spider-Man’s Iron Spider outfit:
Sort of like a low-rent Doctor Octopus, only not able to reach as far, and with the very specific power of quickly feeding bits of food from the seabottom into his mouth.
This next fella raises more questions than he answers:
Is he part rock? Is he a practicing Christian? Whatever’s going on, he doesn’t look too happy about it.
And now…um….
I will say I have to admire the fact that this dude’s costume is basically just super-flares.
This one cracks me up:
…mostly because I’m picturing him as just some guy who got his hands on a sword and a Viking helmet and is always following Thor around and trying to be his pal. “C’mon, man…just swing by the apartment. I got the new Candlemass album!”
I sorta like the look of this guy’s costume:
…though his power appears to be the ability to make huge oil stains on your driveway. Hey, thanks, guy, got that covered.
I’m going to guess this character’s ability is not taking your guff:
…and proceeding the beat the crap out of you. And looking
damn good while doing it.
Now, this character didn’t have a name printed along with him:
I’m going with “The Sensual Scotsman,” assuming, of course, that isn’t redundant.
Detail of “truth about UFOs”-type ad from Super Star Heroes #1 (December 1978):
“A UFO is sighted over Centreville, VA in December 2002…exactly one year later, Mike Sterling starts his comics blog.
Coincidence?”
BONUS: to fight the coming (or, rather, ongoing) UFO invasion, we’re gonna need a well-armed populace. So scrape together your eleven 1978-dollars and send in for this:
I suspect what kids were expecting (“HA! Take that, car!” [shoots gun, car explodes]) was quite a bit different from what they ended up with (“Oh, look, I can shine a red dot on the wall for the cat to chase”).
NAMOR HAS HAD IT
WITH THESE MOTHERFREAKIN’ SLYTHERIN
from Marvel Mystery Comics #8 (June 1940) by Bill Everett
– reprinted in Marvel Super-Heroes #1 (October 1966)
I know the first thing that would cross
my mind is economic concerns.
Even so, this panel is hilarious. At first, I was baffled, but now I find it brilliant. Roy Thomas, I salute you.
image from What If? #13 (Feburary 1979) by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Ernie Chan
Now, if I were Bully, I’d probably have dozens of examples ready to go, but alas, I am no stuffed bull, and thus only have the two immediately available. But I do so love the occasional chart, diagram, or other collection of evidence used when someone is trying to puzzle out some secret identity or other:
I also liked when the handlettered text is thoughtfully arranged so that none of it would be obscured when someone placed their thumb over the page.
And then there’s this cover detail from one of the earliest Superboy stories I ever remember reading (in a ’70s reprint):
I hope those aren’t a pair of Clark’s glasses made using the glass from his Kryptonian rocket ship that brought him to Earth as a baby. The material for those are in limited supply, and you’d figure Clark would keep better tabs on them.
I wonder if there’s something like this in a Green Arrow comic, with pictures of Oliver Queen and Green Arrow side by side with the notation “Queen’s beard and Arrow’s beard – CONNECTION?”
images from Superboy #93 (December 1961) by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye, and Batman #134 (September 1960) by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff
So now that I finally started using my Tumblr site, I believe I finally found a purpose for it (aside from using it to comment on friends’ posts and reblogging awesome things, like this unused Superman versus Titano cover by Curt Swan). I think I may be using it as a “commentary track” or “greatest hits” supplement for this site, revisiting old posts and images and providing some additional info, background material, or just reminding folks of some of the older, sillier stuff. Okay, I did just repost that recent Klarion pic but c’mon, that pic is fantastic.
In other news…I’m sure most of you are aware by now of the Diamond street dates thing, in which retailers can get their comics on Tuesday in order to prep them for Wednesday sale, and woe betide you if you sell them early. I hear tell that Diamond has “secret shoppers” out there in the wild, enforcing the Wednesday street dates. Well, considering I yell even at Employee Aaron if he even looks at the books as I’m breaking down the order, I think I’m pretty safe there.
But anyway, this Tuesday, we had a large order of gaming product come in from Diamond, along with our usual comics order. I mean, a very large order. It was all prepaid for by a customer, so we had the coin of the realm on hand to take care of it, but still, it’s a bit imposing when you check the status of your UPS shipment and discover sixty boxes waiting for you. There’s always that fear that maybe your finger slipped while placing your orders three months ago and you accidentally ordered 15,000 copies of Green Hornet: Aftermath #4 and they all turned up today and OH GOD. But no, it was just the games stuff, and it was about fifty boxes all of approximately the same size and shape and while Aaron and I were tempted to build a fort with them, alas, we were too busy.
It was also a fairly sizable comics ship week as well, with a handful of notable items, like Superman #713, the next issue after the surprise Krypto fill-in for the scheduled Muslim superhero story. Some folks claimed the fill-in had something to do with the powers-that-be not liking the originally-planned story showing Superman rescuing a kitten, as it undermined the strength of the character or something. Well…guess what happens in this new issue? Go on, guess. Okay, it involves a roof, not a tree, but if anyone’s really going to split hairs over that, they are welcome to jump up my hinder.
Oh, and Superman #713 has this awesome Jeff Smith variant, and they should totally give Smith his own Superman series to do. (And speaking of Smith, the new issue of Rasl is out this week, too.)
The next issue of the Flashpoint: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown mini is also released this week, which turned out to be the only Flashpoint book I’m reading. I wasn’t going to be reading any of them, but those cats over at the War Rocket Ajax podcast convinced me to give it a try via their discussion of it on the show, and they were right: this is the stuff.
And this action figure is out this week. This is a gargantuan hunk of plastic. You could probably concuss a pony with this thing. I am praying this is how Tom Hardy looks in The Dark Knight Rises.
- Those of you who are on the Tumblr, and didn’t want to interact with me there because my regular Tumblr site Estate 4.1 depressed the hell out of you…well, I remembered that I had grabbed the “mikester” user name there a long time ago, but never did anything with that account, so Mike Sterlng’s Progressive Tumblr is now open for business. Mostly I’m just using it so I can comment on and occasionally reblog friends’ posts without breaking the Estate 4.1 “character.”
Estate 4.1 will still be continuing, so don’t you worry your pretty little heads over that.
- Bully, the Bull Who Is Stuffed and a Bull And Is Stuffed Also, sticks it to comic book stickers!
- This week’s Nobody’s Favorites is a character that…I actually sort of liked the idea of, just for how crazy it sounded.
- MAVERICK PUNCH!
- So the Dark Knight Rises teaser poster for the film is out. Kind of a neat design.
- H at the Comic Treadmill writes about currently taking a hiatus from comics and the previous times he’d done so.
…I was trying to think if I’d ever had a comics hiatus, and…well, not since I’ve started selling the things, obviously, but before that? I think once I started buying comics regularly, I never stopped. My purchasing dipped a bit at times, sure. And even now, the number of comics I actually pick up each week is pretty low. But I’ve never hit a point where I felt the need to give them up entirely. I suspect even at my lowest ebb I’d still be buying Swamp Thing. If there was one coming out, of course.
- And I wanted to post a special thanks to Matt and Lynnea, readers of the site who were nice enough to stop by the store, say “hi!” and see me in all my disheveled, unshaven and sweaty glory. Yes, they were just that lucky. Thanks again for visiting, guys!
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