Watching for parodies.
Okay, this week on the site is a little wonky, given some early morning medical stuff I’ve got going on, so this may be the last post here ’til next Monday.
Anyway this week the new issue of Kevin Smith’s Quickstops came out, and I’ve been enjoying these. I saw this cover and thought “that’s pretty funny,” I’ll get this version:
…and then I saw the other cover with the Watchmen parody, and the decision was made for me:
As as longtime appreciator of Watchmen ephemera, this is right up my alley, but it reminds me that there have been other parodies and references that I passed up at the time and sorta/kinda regret doing so. Like this one from 1987:
Not that I need to add another weird wrinkle to the old comic collecting I still do for myself, along with old fanzines, those last few Seaboard/Atlas comics I need, Popeye comics, and Nancy and Sluggo stuff. But, you know, what the heck.
Speaking of new comics for the week, you got your copy of this, right?
The Venn diagram of “high brow” and “low brow” forms a single circle for this comic. That’s meant as a compliment.
Since we now have The Three Stooges vs. Cthulhu, the world needs a “The Marx Brothers vs. The Masque of the Red Death” comic book…or maybe The Marx Brothers comic called:”A Night at The Phantom of the Opera”…
I picked up a copy of WATCHCATS in a quarter bin sometime in the nineties. Other than the cover and first page, there’s nothing to recommend. The only thing I remember is that it was not a straight parody — a few characters had sorta-WATCHMEN parallels, but that’s it.
For some reason the third stooge rads to me as Curly Joe Dorita and I’m particularly amused at the notion of that somewhat older iteration of ten boys being the ones who have to deal with such eldrich horror.
And, to riff on Sean’s comment, how about Abbott and Costello Meet Pinhead?
@ Greta
@ Greta
Yes!
…or, how about Abbott and Costello meet Zippy the Pinhead … ?
@Sean
Wheeler and Woolsey and Wendigo
@ Greta
…add Wonder Wart-Hog to the mix…
“those last few Seaboard/Atlas comics I need”
Destructor & Planet of Vampires are the best!
“The Three Stooges vs. Cthulhu”
First time EVER Cthulhu got an eye poke!
“The Marx Brothers comic called: ”A Night at The Phantom of the Opera”…”
YES. Get Dave Sim to write it. if he can still be funny.
“Curly”
I think that’s Regular Curly, the artist just slimmed them all down a bit.
@ Snark Shark
Re:Seaboard/Atlas —I think about 15 years ago the company tried to make a comeback,helmed by Martin Goodman’s grandson, and published a few relaunch titles including Wulf, Phoenix, The Grim Ghost and maybe a few more. I don’t know who currently has the rights to the characters, but I think it would be cool if Seaboard/Atlas tried for another relaunch or Kickstarter campaign, but this time went for a retro 1970s aesthetic, as if they were continuing from the first cancellation…and if they tried to recruit as many of the old Bronze Age artists and writers who worked on the original titles as they could…Pat Broderick, Larry Hamma, Howard Chaykin, etc. They could also get other great Bronze Age talent –John Byrne, Walt Simonson, Jerry Ordway, Sal Buscema, Jim Starlin, Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, Steve Skeates, Steve Englehart, etc. to work on some of the characters…it might be fun to see Simonson do Iron Jaw, Starlin do Demon Slayer or Grim Ghost, Byrne do The Tarantula or Devilina, Buscema do The Brute, Ordway do The Destructor, and so on. Of course, Chaykin could return to The Scorpion and Broderick could do more Planet of the Vampires, and Hamma could do more Wulf. Lastly, it would be cool to print on newsprint, like Alterna Comics was doing, and keep the price point low but the nostalgia factor high!
“for a retro 1970s aesthetic”
That’s certainly the only way it would work for me, I think.
?Unfortunate that the 2 main creators for Destructor, Archie Goodwin & Steve Ditko, have both passed. I can’t remember who did the inking.
Did Broderick ever improve again after Batman, Year Three? I liked his work on Captain Atom, Planet of Vampires, but HATED his work on Batman, Year Three, which is over 30 years old now.
@ Snark Shark
The third major creator on Destructor was Wally Wood on inks. But I believe Jerry Ordway could do a good job following in Ditko and Wood’s footsteps art-wise, as Ordway’s art always seemed to be in the Wood tradition.
But so many cool artists could do great with a project like this…. Pat Boyette is long gone, but imagine Michael T. Gilbert drawing The Tarantula. Or Jim Starlin on Moorlock 3000. Maybe some Val Mayerik art on Devilina.
I always liked Pat Broderick on Micronauts…I thought that he–and Butch Guice–were worthy successors to Michael
Golden. Broderick also did an interesting, but short-lived, comic with Roger McKenzie called Sun Runners. I think Broderick is still a talented artist.
But this would also be a cool thing to have Bronze Age talent resurrecting these characters. John Byrne on Tiger-Man…Barry Windsor-Smith on Iron Jaw …P. Craig Russell on Demon Slayer…lots of possibilities…bring in Doug Moench, Don McGregor, Steve Englehart, Roy Thomas, etc.
Oh, yeah, those could all work!
“Wally Wood”
Well no wonder it looked so good! Jesus! That was a LOT of talent on one book!
“Sun Runners.”
Read an article on that in Back Issue! It looked interesting.
“Ordway’s art always seemed to be in the Wood tradition.”
With a LITTLE Dave Gibbons thrown in!
@Snark Shark
You might check with Mike to see if he has back issues of Sun Runners …it went through at least three publishers…Pacific, Eclipse, and, I think, Sirius. There were seven or so issues. Broderick drew the first four and then Glenn Johnson took over on the art. Also cool was that the first few issues had back up stories about a private eye wooden ventriloquist’s dummy that had come to life named Mike Mahogany, with great
Paul Smith art.
Dave Gibbons’ art, to me, always felt modeled after Curt Swan’s aesthetic, only it wasn’t as stiff looking.
“Sun Runners”
Probably another thing I’ll get around to looking for EVENTUALLY.