tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56188797404600695752024-03-12T04:52:03.470+00:00Too Busy Thinking About My ComicsProudly Unaffiliated With Any Idiot SwarmUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger694125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-24950314837632270672015-10-27T17:02:00.000+00:002016-06-29T22:49:41.993+01:00Superhero 101: Secret Six, Journey Into Mystery, Spandex (Part 7 of 7)Concluding the baker's dozen of key superhero comics begun <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/superhero-comics-101-part-1-of-2.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>, and continued <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-part-2.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>, <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-part-3-of-4.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>, <i><a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-authority-ultimates-part.html" target="_blank">here</a></i>, <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-ultimates-part-5-of-7.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a><b> </b>& <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-ultimates-part-6-of-7.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a><b>.</b><br />
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I had meant for this <i>Superhero 101</i> series to be wrapped up in two or at most three posts. But then I realised that I've never really taken the chance to discuss the likes of <i>Watchmen</i>, <i>Batman Year One, </i><i>Marvels</i>, <i>The Authority</i> and <i>The Ultimates</i>.<i> </i>So many others have done so,of course, and a fair few of their number have been smart and insightful critics. Why struggle to reinvent the wheel?<br />
<br />
Yet it'll soon be time to retire <i>TooBusyThinking</i>,<i> </i>and it struck me that I might never again have the freedom to chinstroke away about these classic comics. <b></b>If I was ever going to digress wildly on the topic of early widescreen comics, now is the time. Hence the seven rather than three parts of <i>Superhero 101. </i><br />
<br />
By contrast, the last three choices in the series below<i> </i>are titles that I very much have discussed over the past few years. To write in any great depth about them again seemed - even for this blog - an indulgence too far. But I wouldn't want to give the impression to any stray visitor that I thought any less highly of <i>Secret Six</i>, <i>Journey Into Mystery</i> and <i>Spandex</i> than the books I've recently rattled on about. If what follows seems in places disrespectfully brief, it's only because I've paid my regards at length before. Evidence of that lies in the labels tab to your right on this very blog.<br />
<i></i><br />
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<b>11. 2006-2015 <i>Villains United/ Secret Six,</i> by Gail Simone & a host of artists</b><br />
<br />
Like all of the other titles in <i>Superhero 101</i>, Gail Simone's <i>Secret Six</i> is first and foremost a compelling and frequently moving action/adventure series. But what marks her
stories out in the context of the long history of the super-book is
Simone's determinedly empathetic attitude towards her cast of disordered
and frequently dangerous supervillains. Of course, super-villains have long been portrayed with varying degrees of sensitivity and compassion. One of the hallmarks of Lee, Kirby and Ditko's Marvel Revolution was their depiction of the likes of Doctor Doom and The Lizard as tragic as well as "evil" figures. By the same token, comics featuring groups of super-villains have appeared throughout the super-book's history, from the appropriately-named <i>Super-Villain Team-Up </i>to <i>Wanted</i>. It's a minor tradition, but a tradition all the same.<i> </i>Keenly aware of the approach taken by John Ostrander during his long run on 1987's <i>Suicide Squad</i>, Simone ensured that she associated each and every one of her "super-villains" with a specific and all-too-real criminal pathology. At the same time, she ensured that her characters displayed every bit as much individuality as their disorders would allow. On a practical level, this allowed her to differentiate each of her cast - core members and guests alike - in a way that vague ideas of good and evil would never allow. As such, it swiftly became impossible to think of, for example, Catman
or Scandal Savage as anything so reductive as "super-villains". As time has passed, the labels of hero, anti-hero and villain have become ever more unhelpful. Criminals the Six quite evidently are, and most of them are deeply dangerous individuals. Yet Simone ensures they're people first. Even the various sociopaths that clutter up the DCU become fully-rounded
and entirely singular personalities when they pop up in her tales.<br />
<br />
Thought of as a problem solving tool, Simone's character-building
also offers solutions to several of the serial comicbook's least
convincing conventions. Why do super-villains wear costumes, adopt
particular personnas and shticks, target specific super-heroes, and
continue to do so when their efforts always end in failure? Driven as
they are by their varying demons and disorders, the Secret Six are
mostly all locked into tragic and largely inescapable patterns of
behaviour that answer precisely those questions. Rather than a comic
that ignores such patterns of destructive behaviour, it investigates
them, explains them and uses them to ask questions about individual
culpability and social justice. Between disorder and
free will stand the likes of Bane and Deadshot, each with a different
measure of choice and each with a different brand of compulsion. To what degree are they responsible? How should they be restrained? Can they be redeemed, and should they be given the opportunity to try? Would the world be better off without them? <br />
<br />
Few if any of the title's characters are ever likely
to find peace, which, again, constantly prompts the question of how could they do so? All of them are running from themselves. Indeed, they can
hardly manage to work together on a single project without betraying
each other. Often they don't even know why they're behaving as they
are. Even when they do, it's rarely of any help. Whether their opponents
can hurt them before they hurt themselves is a constant theme of the
book. Usually, both disasters occur simultaneously. For some, the
association of character with destiny is a boon. For many, it's anything
but, and there's a great deal that's recognisably everyday about the
Secret Six's attempts to separate what they want from what they ought
to.<br />
<br />
In many ways, <i>Secret Six</i> is a reactionary's nightmare. Simone is clearly determined to avoid portraying her cast as The Other, as the uncontrollable and irredeemable expressions of evil that must be despised, feared, hated, punished and destroyed. Sympathy for the devil is not an approach welcomed by the right, while the suggestion that the devil doesn't actually exists is similarly heretical. It's a difficult trick to pull off without seeming like a fluffy-hearted apologist, but Simone consistently achieves it. Even as we're encouraged to care for her cast and root for their safety, they're also presented as deeply fractured and profoundly dangerous individuals. To empathise with the various and often terrifying members of the Six is in no way to excuse their actions or minimise their threat. But in accentuating their essential humanity, obscured and twisted as it is, Simone underscores that crime is rarely a career rooted in rational and considered thinking. In essence, her cast are broken human beings, and their attempts to make life meaningful are constrained by forces that are significantly beyond their control. The idea of The Criminal dissolves into a sequence of singular individuals who, for this reason or that, have committed crimes. Simple, so-called solutions appear more and more absurd. <br />
<br />
On one level or another, the various and ever-changing members of Simone's Secret Six are all aware of the advantages of belonging to a group. Of course, different characters perceive different benefits, while their perceptions might obscure other, more fundamental needs. But for whatever reason, the cost of being alone is often far, far greater than that of attempting to belong in one way or another. Some seek a measure of emotional intimacy, or security, or self-advantage, or revenge, or so on. But in the various ways in which they try and fail to belong lies the measure of their wounds and their humanity. Little that the superbook has thrown up can compete for pathos with the moments in which the Six attempt to treat one another with kindness and concern. Since this is merely a pressure-cooker example of our own day-in, day-out experiences, it's impossible not to recognise that the Secret Six are often far more like ourselves than we'd want to admit. <br />
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<b> </b><br />
<b>12. 20<i>10's Journey Into Mystery,</i> by Kieron Gillen & a host of artists</b><br />
<br />
Most of the comics recommended in <i>Superhero 101</i> can be read in a single sitting. Even the various different incarnations of the Secret Six can be enjoyed in separate and self-contained collections. But Kieron Gillen's run on <i>Journey Into Mystery</i> needs to be read in its entirety. Taken as a story, it's an absolute and admirable triumph. But for the purposes of this baker's dozen, it's also a textbook rich in strategies for the rejuvenation of wornthrough and humdrum characters. At the beginning of Gillen's run on <i>JIM</i>, there seemed few takes on classic Marvel characters less interesting than that of Kid Loki. By its end, there appeared few if any to match him. Popular fiction is constantly torn between a tendency towards exhaustion and the necessity for renewal. Gillen's <i>JIM</i> is a rare example of the latter quality winning out.<br />
<br />
Gillen himself has always been quick to credit Matt Fraction with the
idea of rebooting the God of Mischief as a
young and potentially innocent child. Yet it's Gillen's long stint on <i>JIM</i> - in
company of a considerable number of artists - that fulfilled the set-up's
promise. For those interested in Gillen's own thoughts on the matter, I'd heartily <b><i><a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/an-interview-with-kieron-gillen-on-kid.html" target="_blank">suggest the interview</a></i></b> he kindly gave <i>TooBusyThinking</i> a few years ago. I've also sung the title's praises elsewhere on <i>TooBusyThinking</i>. For those keen to read an astute introduction to JIM's essential
and admirable qualities, I'd recommend Tom Ewing's fine 2012 <a href="http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2012/10/the-house-always-wins/" target="_blank"><b><i>eulogy for the series</i></b></a>. (If you haven't read <i>JIM </i>before, then please beware of spoilers.) <br />
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<br />
<b>13. <i>Spandex</i> #3: featuring <i>Not If You Were Last Person On Earth</i>, by Martin Eden, as collected in 2012's <i>Spandex: Fast And Hard</i></b><br />
<br />
There was never any doubt in my mind that Martin Eden's decidedly independent superhero titles deserved to be mentioned here. (The adventures of both the O-Men and Spandex can be found at Eden's homepage <a href="https://spandexcomic.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>.)<i> </i>With his deceptively naive art, it's easy at first glance to presume that Eden's storytelling is undercooked and haphazard. Nothing could be further from the truth. For all their frequently rough-edged charm, his pages can be both sophisticated in design and highly effective. Craftmanship shouldn't be confused with sleek conformity, the predominance of which can leave the typical super-book seeming blandly homogenic. By contrast, Eden's small press comics - a few of which have been collected by <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spandex-Fast-Hard-Martin-Eden/dp/0857689738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445707790&sr=8-1&keywords=spandex+fast+and+hard" target="_blank"><i>Titan</i></a> - suggest a future in which individual expression might trump both the inertia of fanlad expectations and the superhero industry's business plans.<br />
It's all too easy to despair of the majority of corporate superhero tales, and
to damn the genre accordingly. But that would be as unfair to the finest
creators at the majors as it would be to those who've chosen a more
independent approach. I suspect, however, that the latter
group might have a greater chance of producing work that's singular and
involving. As Eden's work testifies, small-press superhero comics can be
idiosyncratic and daring in ways that the majors might think twice, and more than twice, about. <br />
<br />
Yet it would be an insult to suggest that <i>Spandex's</i> worth lies in its stylistic difference. As I attempted to express - <a href="http://sequart.org/magazine/11797/the-year-in-comics-week-21-spandex-fast-and-hard-by-martin-eden/" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a> - some years ago, it's a comic that's both highly moving and deeply principled. A view of the world from the streets of Brighton and its LGBT community, Spandex expresses a diversity, empathy and quirkiness that's often missing in the super-book. In particular, the splendid <i>Not If You Were The Last Person On Earth</i> is a tale of despair and renewal that's the equal of any in the genre. I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone<b>.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Superhero 101</b><br />
<br />
1. <b>The Spirit (1946-52)</b>, by Will Eisner & his studio<br />
2. <b>The Amazing Spider-Man #17</b>, by Steve Ditko & Stan Lee et al<br />
3. <b>The Death Of Superman</b>, by Jerry Siegel & Curt Swan et al<br />
4. <b>The Forever People #8, </b>by Jack Kirby with Mike Royer et al<br />
5. <b>The Defenders #31-41 + Annual #1</b>, by Steve Gerber & Sal Buscema et al<br />
6. The X-Men #141-2, by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Terry Austin et al <br />
7. <b>Watchmen</b>, by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons et al <br />
8. <b>Batman Year One</b>, by Frank Miller & David Mazzuccelli et al <br />
9. <b>Marvels</b>, by Kurt Busiek & Alex Ross et al <br />
10 <b>The Ultimates</b>, by Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch et al<br />
11. <b>Secret Six</b>, by Gail Simone et al<br />
12. <b>Journey Into Mystery</b>, by Kieron Gillen et al<br />
13. <b>Spandex</b>, by Martin Eden<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-19205181243085513812015-10-26T17:03:00.000+00:002015-11-29T15:36:50.932+00:0041 Captivating Comics Panels<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguKCZe2Huwh8vghc7WyTyEfTKaYRTRLxmc3vnUFpTpMn8x737Ra1eflOrfUs4x5F1YFQCkoG4J8d1VLYHESFq3qWTkW2qBEP0RgAfgS_CjK4YBgCuFdaBo6gvKmAbth7skWGvjpqGx7vqL/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguKCZe2Huwh8vghc7WyTyEfTKaYRTRLxmc3vnUFpTpMn8x737Ra1eflOrfUs4x5F1YFQCkoG4J8d1VLYHESFq3qWTkW2qBEP0RgAfgS_CjK4YBgCuFdaBo6gvKmAbth7skWGvjpqGx7vqL/s640/1.jpg" width="452" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>Optic Nerve</i> by Adrian Tomine, as printed in 2015′s <i>Drawn and Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels.</i></td></tr>
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For once last time before<i> TooBusyThinking </i>leaves the stage, here's<i> </i>the most recent <i>Comics Panel Of The Day </i>frames from the <i>TBTAMC</i> Tumblr. If you've a moment to fill, I hope this
does the job....<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRBtshUfBnBJ_TncHT6SYKCSruoIQl1ZMCw4EKEHi4_6aDAOimYfrwqwQwKGz7z1If7K5-NUtD6VZOoM2iYEA1E1ION5CZN9sX4SJROkj-KoCi6FT64IbyX3TqT2edjrrdPmxiE4fUyi-8/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRBtshUfBnBJ_TncHT6SYKCSruoIQl1ZMCw4EKEHi4_6aDAOimYfrwqwQwKGz7z1If7K5-NUtD6VZOoM2iYEA1E1ION5CZN9sX4SJROkj-KoCi6FT64IbyX3TqT2edjrrdPmxiE4fUyi-8/s640/-.jpg" width="620" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1962′s <i>Adventure Comics </i>#293, by Jerry Siegel, Curt Swan, George Klein et al.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNG8e11ZdUzOgsnts1-ZRK8bqdX12uauoE-PI0rCOVMZwTzIvDaCs0RqP7ea4TQ-NBOPx6dUHHLbghE0Kcn88RTSO00DsE6s6m61F54cFpsyo0KAZ51GlA82imvXd2KBaPBq1FYtZ6lcdt/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNG8e11ZdUzOgsnts1-ZRK8bqdX12uauoE-PI0rCOVMZwTzIvDaCs0RqP7ea4TQ-NBOPx6dUHHLbghE0Kcn88RTSO00DsE6s6m61F54cFpsyo0KAZ51GlA82imvXd2KBaPBq1FYtZ6lcdt/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="post_body">
From <i>Slaine The King</i> in 1987′s <i>2000 AD </i>#509, by Pat Mills, Glenn Fabry et al.<br />
<i>Comics panel of the day #150</i></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEXoC5SKNPAK5TOfBAUQycsOZir-AQJueCz3wZ78MzR9MYIm0Q8VCCbExARFTmPlnBOQuT-EmscANVbSyVUoJDq2RPijx7k66ns2w23E97fbjolvIbPbrEx-mU_6yTaS562s8jXDOpqMAo/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEXoC5SKNPAK5TOfBAUQycsOZir-AQJueCz3wZ78MzR9MYIm0Q8VCCbExARFTmPlnBOQuT-EmscANVbSyVUoJDq2RPijx7k66ns2w23E97fbjolvIbPbrEx-mU_6yTaS562s8jXDOpqMAo/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1955′s <i>Moomin’s Desert Island</i> by Tove Jansson,as reprinted in 2013′s ninth edition of <i>Moomin The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip</i>. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk4-8rta_1djLJb8YI4Aglur-G0Ty40syU7zwfdw4ICGoqyhguTbxAKhdGevTfw-DjM4suOaXyxu1d0MYdmas6Z6DqJtwoppeM0V0vyD5Ec80THyyzgN9I0KCDhFs61p646FohMtDBL6XR/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk4-8rta_1djLJb8YI4Aglur-G0Ty40syU7zwfdw4ICGoqyhguTbxAKhdGevTfw-DjM4suOaXyxu1d0MYdmas6Z6DqJtwoppeM0V0vyD5Ec80THyyzgN9I0KCDhFs61p646FohMtDBL6XR/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2006′s <i>J.R.R. Tolkien The Hobbit Revised Edition, </i>as adapted by David Wenzel and Chuck Dixon.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMc9m_tmGkdby3WmN5rDxNt4JaKUHaIMADwLiww3A9f5ZYqTUtguL7AuNCIca4MAHsp6pTAQ1ligsFlzrrFTBpPkGlwfHH8VFsgweCzj-jVQ13cX1OfIIaoCv2c92WQl1sstFV-HlGKlR/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMc9m_tmGkdby3WmN5rDxNt4JaKUHaIMADwLiww3A9f5ZYqTUtguL7AuNCIca4MAHsp6pTAQ1ligsFlzrrFTBpPkGlwfHH8VFsgweCzj-jVQ13cX1OfIIaoCv2c92WQl1sstFV-HlGKlR/s1600/-.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>Black Paths</i>, by David B, as printed in English by SelfMadeHero in 2011<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKpS0kRu31G06OG9FPC8u-jA9pwgfIrRzldmUYnP0Zx_-k7zECuB_CQ22TEqxwWLVrU5GeZC6-4pWsLSeOt_9WEtXellhTwegADI-WyoGinp5_APN3t9HCuNZuZkhmWccGHfljCO6YGBaX/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKpS0kRu31G06OG9FPC8u-jA9pwgfIrRzldmUYnP0Zx_-k7zECuB_CQ22TEqxwWLVrU5GeZC6-4pWsLSeOt_9WEtXellhTwegADI-WyoGinp5_APN3t9HCuNZuZkhmWccGHfljCO6YGBaX/s640/-.jpg" width="606" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1966′s <i>Tales Of Suspense #66</i> by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Frank Ray et al, as reprinted in 1990′s <i>Marvel Masterworks: Captain America. From Tales Of Suspense Nos 59-81.</i></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD7kcnBWpuDZjF1YIJjxYtOYbhMDC2r1PWcyDHW0I8_4Elxg6-wnjn8ttE5yzHMfu1ss57ueEliijBtheMgNty6bn3cPxGCOOFpHN-zyhKHefWh6r12oly95hP3l-CsBFZW-ug1-VtXkYI/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD7kcnBWpuDZjF1YIJjxYtOYbhMDC2r1PWcyDHW0I8_4Elxg6-wnjn8ttE5yzHMfu1ss57ueEliijBtheMgNty6bn3cPxGCOOFpHN-zyhKHefWh6r12oly95hP3l-CsBFZW-ug1-VtXkYI/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the 2004 English language reprint of <i>Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind</i> Volume 1, by Hayao Miyazakis<i>.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd2a2kzxDO60Zu1w0zmYj5Mee7i7CzBRjYNkzciwSyxRZzAQhkiF-sBnqenlfhHtX3AXj6VL1awon-2liqRZ0X6qYEI917zIzhZxFQqqL4MbaAlohtJQwofb_Up95ZZP-UHxAzPNWKPcTU/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd2a2kzxDO60Zu1w0zmYj5Mee7i7CzBRjYNkzciwSyxRZzAQhkiF-sBnqenlfhHtX3AXj6VL1awon-2liqRZ0X6qYEI917zIzhZxFQqqL4MbaAlohtJQwofb_Up95ZZP-UHxAzPNWKPcTU/s1600/-.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1965′s <i>The Brave And The Bold</i> #62, by <i>Gardner Fox, Murphy Anderson et al..</i></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3p19bWjdtTyTgFUMh9m1vAGjjiJwrGmHaG7oQNyCH1NvCiu96O8ZhKb2muphj-APe30myhpFTe1_7M2g9Z7gA-a0VOxeDaBr7vOFXjouXaGlotwKZIvrosoRf0DnFB1l3M0fs_Vp4oIy/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3p19bWjdtTyTgFUMh9m1vAGjjiJwrGmHaG7oQNyCH1NvCiu96O8ZhKb2muphj-APe30myhpFTe1_7M2g9Z7gA-a0VOxeDaBr7vOFXjouXaGlotwKZIvrosoRf0DnFB1l3M0fs_Vp4oIy/s640/-.jpg" width="401" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2011′s <i>Xombi</i> #4, by John Rozum & Frazer Irving et al.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB4B9hhIHjYi-e_NcCdM346gHu8rd4UW8pZzKqX6piU132FQPqC4vCzDYqGGydtXBH1P7WD62ljofJlaJJPtH59qyzlp5PZVeHqpmJgMFrq96BMTws-b6LQJYLcwne1wsiDxXuu-L1x63_/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB4B9hhIHjYi-e_NcCdM346gHu8rd4UW8pZzKqX6piU132FQPqC4vCzDYqGGydtXBH1P7WD62ljofJlaJJPtH59qyzlp5PZVeHqpmJgMFrq96BMTws-b6LQJYLcwne1wsiDxXuu-L1x63_/s1600/-.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2014′s <i>Supercrash</i>, by Darryl Cunningham.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimRMZCqMGR9CTlS_nso7u71lOdEzpQAd7Os8pMiDGw-N_-o9-hY9jGXrwJjj__NcWCfTl_EV8_ls8ngH5K6A7Jk86UqPBhcwODdkQ3XoX3WblAYkDrKc49DCgCO1AmNvC3pmqbrgioEbQ3/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimRMZCqMGR9CTlS_nso7u71lOdEzpQAd7Os8pMiDGw-N_-o9-hY9jGXrwJjj__NcWCfTl_EV8_ls8ngH5K6A7Jk86UqPBhcwODdkQ3XoX3WblAYkDrKc49DCgCO1AmNvC3pmqbrgioEbQ3/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1973′s <i>The Perishers No 15</i> by Dennis Collins & Maurcie Dodd.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvFakPTVuW6ckyeGLMc8UqSBx84uX7XO24J6dJ6rSe7DSRTCEwejQw2qDoYRFb_9-c0yas_xLF3T3Mk9pqgyURwArdMoIRJpSLIITRCGhOc-FaBowOmUAK08DwyjdqJ0WKHVsSyY1ivg5M/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="542" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvFakPTVuW6ckyeGLMc8UqSBx84uX7XO24J6dJ6rSe7DSRTCEwejQw2qDoYRFb_9-c0yas_xLF3T3Mk9pqgyURwArdMoIRJpSLIITRCGhOc-FaBowOmUAK08DwyjdqJ0WKHVsSyY1ivg5M/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>The Sky Shark</i>, by <i>Keith Watson,</i> as appeared in <i>The Topper Book 1972.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSPkePLPHfsC9mWg2B4zW7B4TQAUrh47lR-qwKx8cGPY3T3A4MVn-GEs8ASHA7TPHNvQcU1SupbC1jDzTwS8a4iIJjoo0pPDeb2sHjTAzMzH3-RvXriZx8ZgXnKifMWkNtxuZ0RoAdCaHL/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSPkePLPHfsC9mWg2B4zW7B4TQAUrh47lR-qwKx8cGPY3T3A4MVn-GEs8ASHA7TPHNvQcU1SupbC1jDzTwS8a4iIJjoo0pPDeb2sHjTAzMzH3-RvXriZx8ZgXnKifMWkNtxuZ0RoAdCaHL/s640/-.jpg" width="602" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1971′s <i>The Sub-Mariner</i> #35<i> </i>by Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema, Jim Mooney et al<i>. </i></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6RHXaolyWy3V7sYNjCE8aRwAcEZ6HDgi-wpSaXyq851raa5610hyphenhyphen8e_3ng38QEVmjUIuuzG9TEaRss1cpLwE4Q6j5qzzwFbqbbIkGIc423VVrDuvT0Xq4LRJGSOtO6g6DEDIornL3CsB9/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="592" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6RHXaolyWy3V7sYNjCE8aRwAcEZ6HDgi-wpSaXyq851raa5610hyphenhyphen8e_3ng38QEVmjUIuuzG9TEaRss1cpLwE4Q6j5qzzwFbqbbIkGIc423VVrDuvT0Xq4LRJGSOtO6g6DEDIornL3CsB9/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2012′s <i>Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland</i>, by Pekar & Joseph Remnant</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBzxnGjSHHaR7w3g0x5J5z5SgKQCcGxH3e2KAKQzbUymiPi7Y9KenCw3ybbajf9NqGh2HNVKTeeGyyzX4knMPIlToUfA-RFqGm8ZQwp11TuAq4otlTFjlspCRF-fvxMmkDUsDlgjk_llbR/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBzxnGjSHHaR7w3g0x5J5z5SgKQCcGxH3e2KAKQzbUymiPi7Y9KenCw3ybbajf9NqGh2HNVKTeeGyyzX4knMPIlToUfA-RFqGm8ZQwp11TuAq4otlTFjlspCRF-fvxMmkDUsDlgjk_llbR/s640/-.jpg" width="417" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1997′s <i>The Savage Dragon/Marshal Law </i>#1, by Pat Mills, Kevin O’Neill et al</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9-DWQeb19DJmkKAIP2mabmZtZg1QxjKvKMGxvJ9GtXtzNkV88DPGGMm5lraJp-R875_1Dd5bA8aXQYpwoMEDCF3kJtrwnwIocFwJl50NgMIXnIvUTdCi51n8g33txnidM_O-SxDL4c6M/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="592" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9-DWQeb19DJmkKAIP2mabmZtZg1QxjKvKMGxvJ9GtXtzNkV88DPGGMm5lraJp-R875_1Dd5bA8aXQYpwoMEDCF3kJtrwnwIocFwJl50NgMIXnIvUTdCi51n8g33txnidM_O-SxDL4c6M/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1940′s <i>Batman </i>#1, by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson et al</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg_SXW4MIBow7_PkaQnlH91dss95RM7hIiL51bGwq-xou6M31q5NcXFdGyFCZ7I2tKI7_rzVFZMsjahG2V4o_N2XhnRCF5pDV9MGU2C5voawXKcoefdjAB-ALmeHkR2o4BzXQwJxIUFrVF/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg_SXW4MIBow7_PkaQnlH91dss95RM7hIiL51bGwq-xou6M31q5NcXFdGyFCZ7I2tKI7_rzVFZMsjahG2V4o_N2XhnRCF5pDV9MGU2C5voawXKcoefdjAB-ALmeHkR2o4BzXQwJxIUFrVF/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2015′s <i>Adventures On The Yes, Ono & May Bee</i>, as appeared in <i>Viz </i>#247, creators uncredited.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTCoY5j9cwWPVOiGzOqACs-bNk_mjLLnSzexmaCNuOfZBh3qZgsPWWmXfQKbcibIeznbvWGKMq40hY7b7X9h6efjfnlsKBszo0EVp1-biMWMvty_YzPoY4N4fO059tiwF0SUYwnoKTyH65/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="628" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTCoY5j9cwWPVOiGzOqACs-bNk_mjLLnSzexmaCNuOfZBh3qZgsPWWmXfQKbcibIeznbvWGKMq40hY7b7X9h6efjfnlsKBszo0EVp1-biMWMvty_YzPoY4N4fO059tiwF0SUYwnoKTyH65/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the <i>Plastic Man</i> feature in 1943′s <i>Police Comics</i>, by Jack Cole</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOejOfCyazSJWylavzg1UKcVrTL48iAWvqINBfBLNa06THxkSZQzj6PtPpvUfeeFqWPzZJLydTzhVDLQdjM5Bwl9nQMN-JcTDH1XafhnivOg4ZtQbwxVl5-qdq3jvcnauGZJqPDdgiGVJ4/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="542" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOejOfCyazSJWylavzg1UKcVrTL48iAWvqINBfBLNa06THxkSZQzj6PtPpvUfeeFqWPzZJLydTzhVDLQdjM5Bwl9nQMN-JcTDH1XafhnivOg4ZtQbwxVl5-qdq3jvcnauGZJqPDdgiGVJ4/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2007′s <i>The Vampires Of Prague</i>, as appeared in <i>Hellboy: The Troll Witch and Others, </i>by Mike Mignola & P. Craig Russell.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb96X7p9FBo_eGAqlXXA_kwJa7aNdZWRiWDYNobjs2RD4l7igIW9luokoaXjFrMpbLjVNZW3Ob-B5ZAxIfgzHpumsDeU0q8juW4RLKDC3Fi4IOMmERIwbXm5cvZcGoXYE4BkYKeNZUx1GF/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb96X7p9FBo_eGAqlXXA_kwJa7aNdZWRiWDYNobjs2RD4l7igIW9luokoaXjFrMpbLjVNZW3Ob-B5ZAxIfgzHpumsDeU0q8juW4RLKDC3Fi4IOMmERIwbXm5cvZcGoXYE4BkYKeNZUx1GF/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Forbidden Journey</i>, from 1958′s <i>Alarming Tales</i> #4 by Jack Kirby, as restored for 2013′s <i>Simon & Kirby - Science-Fiction</i>.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrmAMNko3oJyhJ3TUo40xNifuhYVz3QWuY-CaFoyI1wLH01fW1o4d15lGty-iD2qOHYuDis0jh7JlbLBb8yS-jNi2UQPONJ1CtBJDrHCGyyJ0huMkVB2iWfSoWnXFX5qfJNBdPbHd5EEUO/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrmAMNko3oJyhJ3TUo40xNifuhYVz3QWuY-CaFoyI1wLH01fW1o4d15lGty-iD2qOHYuDis0jh7JlbLBb8yS-jNi2UQPONJ1CtBJDrHCGyyJ0huMkVB2iWfSoWnXFX5qfJNBdPbHd5EEUO/s640/-.jpg" width="572" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>F</i>rom 2007′s <i>The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite</i> #4, by Gerard Way, Gabriel Ba, Dave Stewart et al.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFAIhWGTVNCajwxreOjQ6TkHBMqLUPlxQJGN-LlHfm1BgEjMDGWhQ7gpGSMLGA0HxM3qrKk7ZhFQdxeiV6KyGEgQsidjO3DwDmoG3JVSGepDDC5HE2hyUsqUZCmYdX8SMOF35CXez8YNVf/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFAIhWGTVNCajwxreOjQ6TkHBMqLUPlxQJGN-LlHfm1BgEjMDGWhQ7gpGSMLGA0HxM3qrKk7ZhFQdxeiV6KyGEgQsidjO3DwDmoG3JVSGepDDC5HE2hyUsqUZCmYdX8SMOF35CXez8YNVf/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2003′s <i>Catwoman</i> #24, by Ed Brubaker & Cameron Stewart et al. (Panel slightly cropped to avoid gutter-spanning text box.)</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcx_kRxmdA7ybbRf5bDeNGnDyrAqqu4XRY5NgGDdHIZVChfgPiTMudZIRwN8Sf396zUtQnerhChHrWhOFXVppD-7d3noWZTdAtXNd66IL7AkU_sIsQYGB8Qs51kHIadkl5S0pTSfgnJYVt/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="598" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcx_kRxmdA7ybbRf5bDeNGnDyrAqqu4XRY5NgGDdHIZVChfgPiTMudZIRwN8Sf396zUtQnerhChHrWhOFXVppD-7d3noWZTdAtXNd66IL7AkU_sIsQYGB8Qs51kHIadkl5S0pTSfgnJYVt/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1952′s <i>It’s A Woman’s World </i>in <i>Mystery In Space </i>#8, by John Broome, Bob Oksner, Bernard Sachs et al.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUMRJp6tn3gBrHR-MCpk23C9I6_xhKQe-U4jdY17Xm-OE3DVMECYDZtpXjdUQBYqNollhhzNu3oOfwtKDF13ClDmcNSkhDtWCKcZvMGd6SKFQaJaJOJVNuLdtST3uv7cYeNruM-XhribRJ/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUMRJp6tn3gBrHR-MCpk23C9I6_xhKQe-U4jdY17Xm-OE3DVMECYDZtpXjdUQBYqNollhhzNu3oOfwtKDF13ClDmcNSkhDtWCKcZvMGd6SKFQaJaJOJVNuLdtST3uv7cYeNruM-XhribRJ/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2012′s <i>Saga</i> #8, by Brian K Vaughan, Fiona Staples et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1hVxFC20IJxcxJwxltA8M4cUY4C0T-59ka0xc22yCwf6fSy-gs1PIoqKVLf0djS8rvj6FxCfJyoGnwX0g3VjFltitd_debglgt3ILEuSmaZ6hqFby1t6X3FyFxZ9foW4T1HpT6RkPQGw9/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1hVxFC20IJxcxJwxltA8M4cUY4C0T-59ka0xc22yCwf6fSy-gs1PIoqKVLf0djS8rvj6FxCfJyoGnwX0g3VjFltitd_debglgt3ILEuSmaZ6hqFby1t6X3FyFxZ9foW4T1HpT6RkPQGw9/s640/-.jpg" width="398" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2012′s <i>My Friend Dahmer</i>, by Derf Backderf.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAYIcd1WMpI_fLSJiW_MQo9Yx8ljX7OHal5jhovD6u1D9b2PQPC-5AOeGbhk8EMYBz1uTnEUf6kZAkciP6U3PYjMPoXkIzsDypTTYYMZDC1rd_s_HognWJ4q2RjkXKVp4wb7Fx8EexkSVg/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="598" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAYIcd1WMpI_fLSJiW_MQo9Yx8ljX7OHal5jhovD6u1D9b2PQPC-5AOeGbhk8EMYBz1uTnEUf6kZAkciP6U3PYjMPoXkIzsDypTTYYMZDC1rd_s_HognWJ4q2RjkXKVp4wb7Fx8EexkSVg/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2012′s <i>The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 2009</i>, by Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyL-Jfyl9SyxZ3JpmMxUF8FQknATDqB_nFmjnp5Tbar37b430OAzSjW1_Oasxg-rAO34Go7rS1A6xRnpd8I5h53IUuuThj9gH0Y3l7Oe8jrT_p10E9Crc0qXk5y-kvAWca68Ldz8uyxTqS/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyL-Jfyl9SyxZ3JpmMxUF8FQknATDqB_nFmjnp5Tbar37b430OAzSjW1_Oasxg-rAO34Go7rS1A6xRnpd8I5h53IUuuThj9gH0Y3l7Oe8jrT_p10E9Crc0qXk5y-kvAWca68Ldz8uyxTqS/s640/-.jpg" width="514" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1964′s<i> Journey Into Mystery</i> #101, by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, George Roussos et al, as reprinted in 1993′s <i>Marvel Masterworks Vol 26: The Mighty Thor</i>.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4VWYzv0AiTCjXvBX064UbgHhjSHoQTC3KNr3abCkcINZ_eVMU_PRJ8U9lPq-jHhcfTMUpLq9N7Girk6y6IOO5xtLsx3CgLEepsD-ktCEyCDYlB7gHJgNsKo798kV8Pu6JjF3nLnwcyAJZ/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4VWYzv0AiTCjXvBX064UbgHhjSHoQTC3KNr3abCkcINZ_eVMU_PRJ8U9lPq-jHhcfTMUpLq9N7Girk6y6IOO5xtLsx3CgLEepsD-ktCEyCDYlB7gHJgNsKo798kV8Pu6JjF3nLnwcyAJZ/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2004′s<i> Hard Time</i> #1, by Steve Gerber, Brian Hurtt et al.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAE2ZCoZ3ISm2Lna15wzzSNn72eSuxq4k9mDl9P11AnfhLbXFc97KCIpdpo0mPla0IDvw6aLpNhaAOysvZrJZjKPu5JrGfrngxNAr38HDGu889AUh3VCPgGbt0wWJH1bIDnps96PHSyJ1Y/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAE2ZCoZ3ISm2Lna15wzzSNn72eSuxq4k9mDl9P11AnfhLbXFc97KCIpdpo0mPla0IDvw6aLpNhaAOysvZrJZjKPu5JrGfrngxNAr38HDGu889AUh3VCPgGbt0wWJH1bIDnps96PHSyJ1Y/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2011′s <i>Don Quixote Volume One</i>, adapted from the novel by Miguel de Cervantes by Rob Davis</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaSmz5cGdduJvH5LZeN35KzOXHAD6oDv8R6bthpN3E9pqRfRwBYYD5y_c2VYo_I58zfDJeifILzQYYV23GFqUOovsphJikyp4VJiHr_lM6ZTT1MiZ6CS6m58PsAJznTUWgtcNwsJ6ko5Kv/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaSmz5cGdduJvH5LZeN35KzOXHAD6oDv8R6bthpN3E9pqRfRwBYYD5y_c2VYo_I58zfDJeifILzQYYV23GFqUOovsphJikyp4VJiHr_lM6ZTT1MiZ6CS6m58PsAJznTUWgtcNwsJ6ko5Kv/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1980′s <i>Judge Dredd: Otto Sump’s Ugly Clinic Part 3,</i> as published in <i>2000AD</i> #188, by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Ron Smith. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjGpulwWjAXUkPTrxxPO4LSGJQ3Tu5OeVlgPNIW3XtMns9V6gRfgscIXWMMUTRMBMqg-E9cDCKMdsH3WkpyM9f-Jhydfig1J8nXUvaP3qyWhmjGFK_clLvgSuna5w-0x6pSN-NoaRU4rBR/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjGpulwWjAXUkPTrxxPO4LSGJQ3Tu5OeVlgPNIW3XtMns9V6gRfgscIXWMMUTRMBMqg-E9cDCKMdsH3WkpyM9f-Jhydfig1J8nXUvaP3qyWhmjGFK_clLvgSuna5w-0x6pSN-NoaRU4rBR/s1600/-.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1972′s <i>Daredevil The Man Without Fear</i> #52, by <i>Roy Thomas, Barry-Windsor-Smith et al</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVGqgK7oGHlTDvj7oG2v641nlwkTs0uU1Gsqk56Qu4W7dqNEveMq7wCqeOX_R9BASxhcVpH1gXNejYsjQopekatMpkwE5ELKguswfeJ1DETgS312NTmq1HtQ_QQfZlg5-AnBxJIM-NknmS/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVGqgK7oGHlTDvj7oG2v641nlwkTs0uU1Gsqk56Qu4W7dqNEveMq7wCqeOX_R9BASxhcVpH1gXNejYsjQopekatMpkwE5ELKguswfeJ1DETgS312NTmq1HtQ_QQfZlg5-AnBxJIM-NknmS/s1600/-.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1984′s <i>Crossfire</i> #1, by Mark Evanier, Dan Spiegle et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBVMDyCUANCSaGrdLrD0vZ-exoCpqHjlUCtwau8ZSGHPPWg-Y9byU4_e8ye4B1jNLE3DRSUXQ9r5nN34g6mj_DsARm_16IWYgHt8V6alBG0jUDA3b4BgyRw0LX_nNLNOTA2lDYfPa-G8KQ/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBVMDyCUANCSaGrdLrD0vZ-exoCpqHjlUCtwau8ZSGHPPWg-Y9byU4_e8ye4B1jNLE3DRSUXQ9r5nN34g6mj_DsARm_16IWYgHt8V6alBG0jUDA3b4BgyRw0LX_nNLNOTA2lDYfPa-G8KQ/s640/1.jpg" width="570" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1998′s <i>JLA </i>#15, by Grant Morrison, Gary Frank et al</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPWgOG4I7p_ouDBjkd5boB_qMJ54una1DrNs-GgEYH_MA8BSGXP5jk4oTh3hd-lB_Qm9Qx9DTAM2hyphenhyphenJzbP60QP1SX7LTH89ZaYCzCBmQ5YKpmtoaS_szWh54jHqT5Lc7VEMCkSAjluN5aH/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPWgOG4I7p_ouDBjkd5boB_qMJ54una1DrNs-GgEYH_MA8BSGXP5jk4oTh3hd-lB_Qm9Qx9DTAM2hyphenhyphenJzbP60QP1SX7LTH89ZaYCzCBmQ5YKpmtoaS_szWh54jHqT5Lc7VEMCkSAjluN5aH/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1966′s <i>Fantastic Four </i>#49, by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Joe Sinnott et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtHv6e-dLikBZW6HtSZrzda7rPUk0koUKc8uC1oLRQM_5Tmazo_A4NJDvZi0kHvtOKdsC1UFhYOPNaPzKMjMvXQY08LnLSXFqd2vj4D_xXURdzpiK6gsiYWEC9EO6cdZfDUhZ28xzJ8yFy/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtHv6e-dLikBZW6HtSZrzda7rPUk0koUKc8uC1oLRQM_5Tmazo_A4NJDvZi0kHvtOKdsC1UFhYOPNaPzKMjMvXQY08LnLSXFqd2vj4D_xXURdzpiK6gsiYWEC9EO6cdZfDUhZ28xzJ8yFy/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1962′s <i>Justice League Of America</i>, by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, Bernard Sachs et al.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg3tleYRQodPtrmQe7y6qduhqNX7D-H1Fg08xopJ44JuIZK_SQow8tRHBHbSfGml97K_j6Donlxge6DT59nXR0Ljs-p4VgS_3vcjCXOjuLsbdnEbg4X-P4h-AcNDu69ENYDaDFNAD9OGCk/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg3tleYRQodPtrmQe7y6qduhqNX7D-H1Fg08xopJ44JuIZK_SQow8tRHBHbSfGml97K_j6Donlxge6DT59nXR0Ljs-p4VgS_3vcjCXOjuLsbdnEbg4X-P4h-AcNDu69ENYDaDFNAD9OGCk/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2012′s <i>August Moon</i>, by Diana Thung.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_fQknZIM1EcxdbiezGjCORrKxwi4_YSyD-ONvyAagxQJKQvGGuXxQp9dGDAzHGhWBN1LBWyn_lyESjKnzyqbNiF8qj46_c55cM-azK2VWCmE_8q7QFZPrQVzYPQuwMOrJV0wKhD-ICR9c/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="594" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_fQknZIM1EcxdbiezGjCORrKxwi4_YSyD-ONvyAagxQJKQvGGuXxQp9dGDAzHGhWBN1LBWyn_lyESjKnzyqbNiF8qj46_c55cM-azK2VWCmE_8q7QFZPrQVzYPQuwMOrJV0wKhD-ICR9c/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2013′s<i> Porcelain - A Gothic Fairy Tale</i>, by Benjamin Read & Chris Wildgoose.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRmaJU7spTuP7oh5lZdQ1nQsaW7Kyg9NiQrXGVjfoc0dJyG6LuL510L2INC54EuXYZo54zmSNxAkASBDVvnXQLKE7FiBepx9BHpPTOStKBk3gEEIA4Gav88yx9A0BjPSrwoG0g2hd-Dr25/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRmaJU7spTuP7oh5lZdQ1nQsaW7Kyg9NiQrXGVjfoc0dJyG6LuL510L2INC54EuXYZo54zmSNxAkASBDVvnXQLKE7FiBepx9BHpPTOStKBk3gEEIA4Gav88yx9A0BjPSrwoG0g2hd-Dr25/s640/-.jpg" width="410" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1997′s<i> Ghost World</i>, by Daniel Clowes.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAP2GoY5fgjMBEJrRFeTscTIGIdm2XDrZVuv00tNVakbyoef-XuUEsgT2L2ct5dUCaWkHhZ-qPkiTP6K6vSHoo-ffo-GUT0Knpl5IntR6UM3unB2Lu9j4m4_zcTmGkCItSrSWN2L3BYOlX/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAP2GoY5fgjMBEJrRFeTscTIGIdm2XDrZVuv00tNVakbyoef-XuUEsgT2L2ct5dUCaWkHhZ-qPkiTP6K6vSHoo-ffo-GUT0Knpl5IntR6UM3unB2Lu9j4m4_zcTmGkCItSrSWN2L3BYOlX/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2004′s<i> Ex Machina #5,</i> by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris et al.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUWsttWGxY_9qH6mFk0pzaH5qxCWoXAyqMmI-rinp7nmWPg1IctNJdrsyqBshwcn39yJ597jPeiOuq528Opl72p1AhglwmyAu6KVikfTX5YkVH9HIa4ApzE1_0vcs-36fthCtNZYWfhh8L/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUWsttWGxY_9qH6mFk0pzaH5qxCWoXAyqMmI-rinp7nmWPg1IctNJdrsyqBshwcn39yJ597jPeiOuq528Opl72p1AhglwmyAu6KVikfTX5YkVH9HIa4ApzE1_0vcs-36fthCtNZYWfhh8L/s1600/-.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2008′s<i> All Star Superman</i>, by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely et al.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-61424102179518036142015-10-25T12:12:00.001+00:002016-06-29T22:49:32.858+01:00Superhero 101: The Ultimates (Part 6 of 7)Continuing the baker's dozen of key superhero comics begun <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/superhero-comics-101-part-1-of-2.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>, and continued <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-part-2.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>, <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-part-3-of-4.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>, <i><a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-authority-ultimates-part.html" target="_blank">here</a></i> & <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-ultimates-part-5-of-7.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>.<br />
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<b>9. 20002's The Ultimates I and II, by Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch (cont) </b><br />
<br />
In this, as in so many other ways, Bryan Hitch's artwork was
of ill-calculable benefit to <i>The Ultimates </i>project. Ignoring the risk of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> appearing impertinent and demanding, Millar pushed Marvel into buying Hitch out of his contract with Crossgen. (Millar has stated that he turned down Marvel's suggestion of two big-name artists for <i>The Ultimates</i>, convinced as he was that only Hitch would do.) It would prove to be an exceptionally canny investment. The
widescreen approach places an exacting and exhausting responsibility
upon the artist's shoulders. Weaknesses that might be obscured in the
text-heavy, plot-saturated super-books of the past will stand out for all to see in
widescreen comics, where the art is tasked with carrying a relatively
huge degree of the storytelling. As Hitch had proven on <i>The Authority</i>, he was more than up to the task. After all, that ur-text of the widescreen approach was as much his creation as Ellis'. </span><br />
<br />
No other artist's work during the period succeeded in transmitting the conviction of the real as Hitch's did. Whether depicting a war between super-humans and alien shapeshifters or the subtle emotional beats of a floundered love affair, Hitch's meticulously detailed and rigorously staged artwork brought Millar's script to vivid life. There would be entire issues - such as <i>The Ultimates</i> #7 - without super-heroic conflict of any substantial kind. Many a fan-favourite artist might stumble in the absence of punches being thrown and ray beams projected, but the empathetic subtleties of Hitch's approach left Millar free to be as restrained in his scripts as the story demanded.<br />
<br />
To call Hitch's art hyper-real - as so many have - is to express a delight
at how
plausible and beguiling his artwork can be. Yet it's also to seriously
under-estimate how individual,
and indeed idiosyncratic, Hitch's pages are. It also suggests that the key to his art's success lies in his painstaking - and frequently beautiful - representations of the mundane. (As with the sets of the likes of <i>Star Wars</i> and <i>Alien/s</i>, even much of the futuristic technology in Hitch's art suggests a lived-in and often worn-through world.) But if his method were merely to
replicate the world, then a great many others would have mimicked his
achievement. None have. No amount of photograph reference and assiduous
cross-hatching will produce pages that are the equal of his. Having begun his career by aping Alan Davis' art, Hitch had progressed to a style that others might struggle to emulate. For all of
Hitch's
remarkable ability to suggest a world that's at once entirely typical and yet simultaneously extraordinary, he's also an artist steeped in the long tradition of superhero comics. It's an obvious point, but sometimes the obvious needs
expressing. Accordingly, Hitch's super-hero art isn't any way a rejection of
comics tradition
so much as an expert evolution of it.<br />
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A glance at 2009's <i>Captain America:
Reborn</i> is perhaps the best way of establishing the point. There, Hitch homaged
a substantial number of artists who'd previously worked on the character's
adventures. Even the work of craftsman as unfashionable as the brilliantly
singular Frank Robbins were lovingly and recognisably referenced in Hitch's panels. So skilfully
was this done that a neophyte would never need notice that Hitch was tipping
his hat to any number of other styles. The deeply respectful appropriation was achieved
without Hitch's own style appearing uncharacteristically inconsistent. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">As any illustrator worth their salt aspires to, Hitch has absorbed any number of influences from within and without comics. The subsequent synthesis can appear to have little to do with four-colour tradition. But to</span> focus on Hitch as a master of comics-realism without recognising his virtues as an expert superhero artist - among many other skills - is to miss the essential qualities of his success. As with Millar, the singular appeal of Hitch's work on <i>The Ultimates </i>lies
in the way it combines open-minded experimentation with an expert
command of tradition, a love of the subject matter with a rejection of
its long-held conservatism.<br />
<br />
The determination to respect tradition while projecting verisimilitude and contemporaneity drove many other aspects of <i>The Ultimates</i>. In reaching out to the non-comics devotee, Millar was
determined to portray a world that was far more than the intimidating
accumulation of decades worth of comics continuity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> But how to make the likes of Captain America seem not just contemporary, but vital? </span>Part of the solution involved a process of layering that involved both the apparently trivial and the livewire contentious. To
suggest that <i>The Ultimates</i> was as in the moment as any other mainstream popcorn event, Millar and Hitch filled <i>The Ultimates</i> with references to real-world celebrities from George W Bush to Freddie Prinze Jr,
Robert Downey Jr to Samuel L Jackson. (The lifting of the latter's features and
film-screen cool for a new take on master-spy Nick Fury was a particularly audacious signal
that <i>The Ultimates</i> was ill-concerned with fannish sacred cows.) But on a
decidedly less disposable level, as we'll return to later, Millar's script was
also centrally concerned with the politics of the post-9/11 world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although many would miss his point, and many
more claim that he'd made it ineptly, Millar's questioning of America and, by
implication, Britain's foreign wars was sincere, forceful, and, as events would
show, far-sighted.
<br />
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Other comics had shown super-heroes to be misguided to the point of authoritarianism and psychological disorder. The likes of Seventies superheroes The Punisher and Wolverine had established the popularity of the superhero as merciless murderer, while Gruenwald, Hall and Ryan's <i>Squadron Supreme</i> had portrayed a team of superheroes sliding well-meaningly from social crusaders to international tyrants. But the genre's taste for brutality and even nihilism would win out over more measured and thoughtful traditions. Depressingly facile readings of <i>Watchmen</i> led to led to the traumatised serial killer Rorschach being adopted as role model and sales winner for an industry obsessed with reactionary vigilantes. The idea of the morally flawed superhero as a cautionary tale became more and more supplanted by a celebration of lawless brutality. <br />
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It was a battle for the super-book's ethical soul that <i>The Authority</i> and <i>The Ultimates</i> would appear to join on the side of the hang-em-high brigades. Like the worst of post-<i>Watchmen</i> callousness, each team were placed firmly in the narrative space reserved traditionally for the hero. Their enemies were menacing, their responses were necessarily extreme, their victories hard-won. Yet both Ellis and Millar also made it perfectly clear that the distance between their apparent champions and the unvarnished good that they claimed to serve was immense and unbridgeable. In Ellis' tales, The Authority were clearly law-scorning fascists disguised - to themselves as much as anyone else - as progressive champions of a more ethical world order. In <i>The Ultimates</i>, the situation was a touch more complicated and yet, essentially the same. There, it was the ignorance and mendacity of America's post-9/11 regime that Millar was primarily taking aim at. No matter how successfully <i>The Ultimates</i> fulfilled their patriotic duty, and no matter how pressing and appalling the firefights they engaged in, the end result was the escalation of already-appalling circumstances. In both series, the likes of alien invasions could be turned back by super-powers and derring do. Not so the establishment and maintenance of a just and equable world. In their own ways the descendants of Alan Moore's <i>Miracleman</i>, both <i>The Authority</i> and <i>The Ultimates </i>insisted that extra-legal violence bred only disorder and tyranny. </div>
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At moments, Millar's slaps at Bush and his rightist allies involved repositioning the Ultimate Captain America as a contemptuous, how-high xenophobe. At others, the writer's purpose was revealed through an invasion of Ultimate America by an alliance of foreign states both terrified and furious at the Republic's protracted flouting of international law. Millar being Millar, the satire alternated between the gleeful and the serious, the contentious-for-its-own sake and the bravely confrontational. But Millar's point remained constant; heroic deeds can't redeem an ignoble cause, while the shock and awe of modern-day weaponry cannot possibly replace diplomacy and nation-building. Striving not to insult either the soldiers or the civilians who'd been
caught up in the so-called War On Terror, Millar's scripts provoked even
as they lacked the pulpit's clarity. Accused of wanting his cake and eating it, Millar provided Hitch with scene after scene of inventive and protracted uber-violence that often seems quite disconnected with any broader ethical framework. (Is the slaughter of The Chitauri in volume one, for example, a parody of gung-hu chauvinism and its tendency to reduce opponents to The Other, or is it a celebration of the same?) In truth, it's impossible to see the two volumes of Millar and Hitch's The Ultimates as a rigorously worked and consistently barbed allegory. Although I'd be delighted to be proven wrong, it seems more likely that Millar pushed his political convictions at moments while, at others, he surrendered joyfully to the rush of the dramatic scenarios he'd planned out. At moments, the violence serves an ethical agenda, while at others, it's violence for the fun of comicbook violence. Whatever, the presence of the satire in <i>The Ultimates</i> keeps alive the possibility that every scene means something more than its surface declares. Even its apparent inconsistency of approach leaves the comic feeling contentious and, through that, alive.<br />
<br />
For superhero fans who objected to brave "Charlton Heston" Captain America fighting world-threatening evil while
clearly provoking the same, the experience could be as baffling as it
was infuriating. Were these superheroes representations of the good or its absence? Were they role models or cautionary tales? Were they being mocked or celebrated? And whose side was Millar on anyway? The answer, as always, was that Millar was on his own side and that was that. It was a confrontational approach to take in a time of national hysteria, and the criticism he received was considerable and fierce. Given that Millar's own politics are a contentious mix of the
confrontationally conservative and the throw-up-the-barricades radical, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ultimates</i> frequently felt as if he was picking a fight with everyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Debates about other contentious aspects of <i>The Ultimates</i> - gender roles and cultural representations in particular - only strenghtened the suggestion that Millar was out to provoke for the sake of the heat it might generate. Whatever the interpretation, and I think the comic's a far more complicated and playful experience than that, it's a process of tension and friction that helped make <i>The Ultimates</i> an invigorating and indispensable read in an exceedingly difficult time. <br />
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Are opinions still divided on <i>The Ultimates</i>? I hope so. Millar could clearly start a fight in an empty field over a laughably imaginary bull, and yet, many of the debates thrown up by <i>The Ultimates</i> were undoubtedly grounded in principled and purposeful concerns. What's more, he was speaking out against the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan when most - if not all - of his colleagues on mainstream books were keeping, at best, timidly quiet. What's more, time has proven his analysis correct. The War On Terror has created nothing but ill. If this baker's dozen of super-books is concerned with the bare bones of how to make the super-book interesting, then Millar's approach is surely worth its inclusion. </div>
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<i>to be concluded.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-64646972662704749332015-10-24T11:03:00.002+01:002016-06-29T22:49:17.207+01:00Superhero 101: The Ultimates (Part 5 of 7)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]-->Continuing the baker's dozen of key superhero comics begun <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/superhero-comics-101-part-1-of-2.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>, and continued <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-part-2.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>, <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-part-3-of-4.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a> & <i><a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-authority-ultimates-part.html" target="_blank">here</a></i>.<br />
<br />
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<b>10. 20002's The Ultimates I and II, by Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch (cont) </b><br />
<br />
Jump ahead a month or two and everything had changed for Millar. His continuation of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Authority</i> with Frank Quitely had marked
him out as the superhero comicbook's coming man. From has-been to zeitgeist-setter in next to no time, or so the shorthand would have it, Millar was then headhunted by Quesada and Jemas'
new regime at Marvel and put to work on their new Ultimate line of comics. In 1998, Millar had failed to interest Quesada - then editor at the Marvel Knights imprint - in a mini-series about the son of an obscure Spider-Man villain named The Shocker. Now Millar was suddenly central to Marvel's new, tone-setting flagship project. It's hard to imagine an assignment more in tune with Millar's own passions and convictions. For fifteen years as both fanboy letter writer and professional scripter, he'd argued that the combination of impenetrable storytelling and exhaustingly demanding continuity was killing the super-book. Quesada and Jemas were of a similar, if not always identical, disposition, and the Ultimate line would feature reboots of iconic characters unencumbered by opaque narratives and unfathomable back-stories. Back-to-basics deconstructions of the likes of Spider-Man and the X-Men - the latter under Millar's stewardship - would prove immediate successes, with the former far outstripping the character's pre-existing and unreconstructed titles. (According to the sales figure in the public domain, <i>Ultimate X-Men</i> would outsell all of Marvel's other mutant books except - with no little irony - for Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's <i>New X-Men, </i>itself a radical reworking of the property. Even there, the month-on-month figures for the two vying titles were consistently very close indeed.)<br />
<br />
But as pleased as he was to
land a book as prestigious as <i>Ultimate X-Men</i>, Millar was determined to push for
a reboot of <i>The Avengers</i> too. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His new
bosses were unconvinced, and who could fault them? They were looking for Marvel
properties that might be streamlined and spruced up for the 21st century. At first glance, The Avengers was anything but that. Although the past few years had seen Kurt Busiek and George
Perez gather critical acclaim and top ten sales for the title, The Avengers remained a property that seemed hopelessly mired in continuity and irredeemably unfashionable. As such, The Avengers remained what
it had been since the late Seventies; a middle-ranking and somewhat passe franchise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, it was way
down the list when<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it came to properties
to rework for a broader audience of unfans. <br />
<br />
Although Millar himself had largely ignored The Avengers for decades, he was convinced of the property's promise. As a child, he'd devoured the earliest of the superteam's adventures as reprinted in Marvel UK's black and white weekly titles. With his characteristic scepticism towards received
wisdom, Millar was convinced that the DNA of a breakout sales success could be extracted from the mid-Sixties work of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in particular. (Millar's long been sure that the finest incarnations of a great many superheroes coincide with his childhood's favourite comics. Whether that's right or not, his radical reworking of classic set-ups have frequently proved to be massive successess.) His stubborn, enthusiastic conviction - allied to his recent
successes - won the day. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Retitled as <i>The Ultimates</i>, Millar's Avengers would be launched in 2002. In its first month, it's reputed to have shifted more than 160 000 copies, From a standing start, it crashed into the top five of America's comic sales chart and remained there for the whole of its run. </span>For Millar, <i>The Ultimates</i> would become his most widely acclaimed
work on a corporate-owned comic. (<i>Civil War</i>, for one, would sell a great many more copies, but it would never be as generally admired as <i>The Ultimates</i>.) For Marvel, the result would be far more than
an unexpectedly popular and credible title. When Marvel Studios developed The Avengers as a
movie franchise, it drew liberally from Millar and artist Bryan
Hitch's work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The profits were to be
astronomical. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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In <i>The Ultimates</i>, Millar furiously and gleefully stripped
away decades worth of continuity and narrative shibboleths. From there, he and Hitch
refashioned great strips of Marvel's history from scratch. Only those aspects of The Avengers' set-up considered vital by Millar would remain, and they would be rebuilt according to his own judgement. For all of his love for the earliest source material, Millar's scripts would be frequently radical and challenging. Janet Van Dyne would suffer horrific domestic abuse at the hands of Hank Pym. Tony Stark would remain a very public drunk. Steve Rogers would be anything but a New Deal progressive. The hands of Bruce Banner's alter ego would no longer be unconvincingly free of blood-stains. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">(Controversy has
typically been central to Millar's method, and, tellingly, his least
successful years in the business - in 1998/99 - were marked by the quality's
absence.) </span>If the other on-going
Ultimates title were recognisably distillations of long-running titles, the
Ultimates themselves were a far more radical proposition. (I'll discuss the comic's politics in the final piece in this series of posts, but suffice to say, they too were contentious.)<br />
<br />
In that, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ultimates</i> forcibly expressed Millar's frustration with the vast majority of the superhero comics published by
Marvel since Jim Shooter's rise to Editor-In-Chief in
1978. (Millar would read surprisingly few Marvel comics during the long years following Shooter's ascension. Although he and Grant Morrison would browse the company's output during their mid-90s flirtation with Marvel, only Denny O'Neil's <i>Iron Man </i>run from the early 80s has been consistently and appreciatively name-checked by him.) The most inventive and invigorating reboot on
this scale that the genre had seen, <i>The Ultimates </i>is essential reading in this context if
nothing else. Just as it was an ambitious attempt to reinvigorate a property and a company, it was also an attempt to reframe the superhero comic as a whole. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">All long-standing genres are at heart an argument with themselves, and few in superhero comics can pursue an argument with, shall we say, Millar's partisan resolve. </span></div>
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As such, Millar and Hitchs <i>The Ultimates</i> is a very different beast to Ellis and Hitch's <i>The
Authority</i>. For all the debt that
Millar has constantly acknowledged to Ellis' widescreen approach, he was pursuing a
very different agenda. Where Ellis appeared
to be arguing that even superheroes could be interesting, Millar was bent on
establishing that the very genre was in itself dynamic and fascinating. Where Ellis
gave every impression of speaking to a niche audience of dissatisfied fans,
Millar appeared determined to reach out to <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>the superhero audience as a whole while reaching
far beyond its relatively small numbers. Convinced that superheroes could and should be
absolutely central to the age's popular culture, Millar was out to do even
more than reinvigorate the monthly superhero comicbook. After
all, films such as <i>Batman</i>, <i>Blade</i> and the <i>X-Men</i> had packed out the multiplexes
and topped the video charts. Why couldn't comics speak to the same consumers? Why couldn't comics generate at least something of the same profits, of the same kudos. It's easy to imagine Ellis, whose work has ranged ambitiously across any number of genres, rolling his eyes at the very thought of the superhero becoming central to the mass market entertainment of the time. But that was Millar's mission, and it would remain so until he decisively diversified the subjects of his projects in the second decade of the century. By then, the superhero would have become a culturally ubiquitous type, with three of the most profitable movies of all time featuring one or more of Marvel's characters. If the comics themselves remained a nice concern, the genre has risen to a dizzying degree of prominence. </div>
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The widescreen approach, as we discussed last time, offered
a means to speak to folks who were unfamiliar with the traditional, and frequently
demanding, language of superhero comics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(So too did decompression, as Bendis and Bagley proved for a good many
years with their run on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ultimate Spider-Man</i>.) Yet to change the form without invigorating the content would've been a
futile gesture. Comics fans and
professionals still sadly under-estimate how demanding and off-putting the
storytelling in superhero tales can often be. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Yet even when their narratives are clear, the world
that they're describing can seem alienatingly lacking in verisimilitude. A lifelong
devotee of Richard Donner's groundbreaking work on <i>Superman The Movie</i>, Millar
was convinced that the remarkable absurdities of superheroes had to be
constantly grounded in the illusion of normalcy. Just as Donner had sold the
Man Of Steel to mainstream 70s audience through a skillful juxtaposition of the
fantastic with the everyday, so <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Millar
sought to root <i>The Ultimates</i> in a convincing mix of the typical with the
absurd. Events on panel were to be limited to that which could be convincingly
portrayed on screen during a modern-era blockbuster movie. Backdrops as varied as those of contemporary New York and the interior of a World War Two transport plane were to be as convincing and compelling as the brawling of super-people. As the ability of
Hawkeye to kill with a fingernail will testify, this is hardly the same thing
as realism. But as a rigorously maintained approach, it ensured that the
storytelling avoided a great measure of taken-for-granted comics boilerplate. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">At its best - as in Millar and Hitch's masterful depiction of an assault upon an alien stronghold in NYC durin<i>g The Ultimates</i> #8 - it established a thrilling fusion of the plausible and the flatly impossible that few if any other superhero titles have surpassed. </span></div>
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<i>to be concluded</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-87501578542758632862015-10-20T00:42:00.001+01:002016-06-29T22:49:01.951+01:00Superhero 101: The Authority & The Ultimates (Part 4 of 7)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]-->Continuing the baker's dozen of key superhero comics begun <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/superhero-comics-101-part-1-of-2.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>, and continued<i> <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-part-2.html" target="_blank">here</a></i> & <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-part-3-of-4.html" target="_blank"><i>here.</i></a><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">10.
2002's <i>The Ultimates</i>, by Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Frank
Miller's work in the Eighties remains the single greatest influence upon
today's superhero comics. But Warren Ellis' achievements from the following
decade come a very close second. Despite his never having been a fan of the
superhero genre, Ellis' twelve issue run on <i>The Authority</i> - in
collaboration with artist Bryan Hitch - remains a foundation stone of the 21st
century superhero tale. Indeed, a comic which adequately replicated the look
and feel of 1999's <i>The Authority </i>could still pass as a convincingly
contemporary product at both Marvel and DC. Sixteen years have passed, and
yet, little often appears to have changed. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Few creators
have ever thought to name their own stylistic breakthroughs, but it was Ellis
himself who apparently coined the term "widescreen comics" to
describe his era-defining approach to <i>The Authority</i>. At the time, he <a href="http://www.popculturecorn.com/print/issues/may99/interview-warrenellis.html" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: blue;">declared</span></i></a> to Matt
Springer that the title would feature;</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">"Property
destruction on a massive scale. It's a superhero book gone widescreen, it's
$200 million just on the special effects, it's a Jerry Bruckheimer production
with script by Sylvester Stallone, Cecil B DeMille and Timothy Leary. It's as
big and mad and beautiful as Bryan Hitch and I can make it. If teenagers need
superhero comics, then this is what they should be like -- pure bloody
adrenaline, strange days, and big things blowing up. And why not?"</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Quite what
that term has come to mean in the years since is hard to nail down. It is, as the
jargon of making sense of jargon would have it, difficult to unpack. What at
first appears straight-forward is anything but. Not only has <i>widescreen</i>
come to describe a style that's strongly influenced by cinematic storytelling,
but one in which the narrative typically progresses in a measured fashion
towards a spectacular and protracted third-act climax. As such, the terms <i>widescreen</i>
and <i>decompression</i> - meaning the absence of both the super-book's traditionally
hectic pace of storytelling and its dense weight of incident - have become
synonymous. Frequently, both terms are used as catch-all labels for modern-era
comics that supposedly cheat the readership with thin, flaccid, and meandering
content. Style, or so some will argue, has frequently triumphed over substance. What could be
further from the "pure bloody adrenaline" that Ellis had once aspired
to?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In truth, "widescreen"
in its broadest modern sense does Ellis' late Nineties work on the super-book
no justice at all. For his approach on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Authority</i> was
as exciting as it was radical, and he can hardly be blamed for how his style
has been appropriated by others. Like the majority of successful genre
revolutions, Ellis' was at most a step or two ahead of the pack. But
then, that's part of what allowed his work to become so speedily influential.
On the one hand, his audience could recognise the value of his innovations. On
the other, they were free to embrace change without being thrown by the
entirely unfamiliar. Immaculately choreographed and spectacularly staged
set-pieces evoked the heights of blockbuster movies, while slower and more
thoughtful passages delivered exposition, atmosphere, attitude and character.
(I'll be returning to Hitch soon, if it should seem that I'm unduly ignoring
his vital and considerable contributions here.) Here was a method that felt not
just fresh, individual and intriguing, but eminently imitable. Here was a
beguilingly streamlined approach that broke with the boilerplate of superbook
tradition and yet appeared to offer a stable and emulatable blueprint into
tomorrow. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In its wake, age-old conventions
like the thought bubble became redundant and largely disappeared. Continuity
began to seem ever-more cumbersome and archaic. Sleek, incidentful and
accessible, <i>The Authority</i>, and those Ellis titles like it, even promised
to be welcoming to non-comics readers. If this was widescreen, then widescreen
was direct, clear, eventful and recognisably intertwined with infinitely more
popular mediums such as film and TV. Not every panel, or even every page,
needed to hysterically snare the reader's attention anew. Not every thought,
emotion or action had to be spelled out and pedantically placed into the
context of continuity. Not every conflict had to played out according to
long-established conventions. As with Moore and Miller before him, Ellis was
clearly one for respecting the reader and trusting in their ability to read on
without mollycoddling. In return, the ride was to be made, yes, "big and
mad and beautiful".</span><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Of course,
the roots of the widescreen approach go back many decades in American, European
and in particular Japanese comics. But the richly idiosyncratic form of it that
Ellis pioneered was used to transmit a beguiling cocktail of his personal
fascinations. Not only were the ingredients of his tales both singular and
distinctive, but they were often strangely contradictory too. A profound
humanism co-existed with a deeply cynical attitude to power and convention. A
fierce and scornful loathing for self-serving ideologies was partnered with a
sweet and touching faith in individual potential. For all that its contents
were described with terms such as hyper-realism, hyper-cynicism, and
hyper-violence, <i>The Authority</i> is at its core smart, funny, exciting,
daring and, yes, touching. As in much of Ellis work, the world may be in
terrible shape and its ruling elites entirely despicable, and yet, there's
profoundly decent heroes - often disguised as disaffected anti-heroes - to lead
the revolution. In that, the series was far more than horizontal panels,
wisecracking conversations, and brutal, bloody, imaginative climaxes. Rather,
Ellis had matched stylistic innovation with a deeply individual and purposeful
brand of story. His tales were founded upon high concepts extracted from
contemporary science journals. He embraced the thriller's knowingly laconic
world-weariness and yet delighted in impishly hybridising a whole range of pop-cultural
influences. To aspire to Ellis' widescreen style from the period without using
it to express an equally compelling personal agenda is to miss the very thing
that made <i>The Authority</i> so compelling. Alone of his contemporaries at
the time, only Ellis cracked how to make superheroes seem counter-culturally
cool without simultaneously appearing at all naive and conservative. Others
came close, but none came closer. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Why not then
choose a comic written by Ellis rather than Mark Millar's <i>The Ultimates</i> for
this baker's dozen? Why not <i>The Authority</i>? Millar's work in the period,
by his own admission, drew heavily from Ellis', and it's no matter of chance
that the Scotsman determinedly nailed down Bryan Hitch as his collaborator on <i>The
Ultimates</i>. Yet given the limits of this list of 13 superhero titles, <i>The
Ultimates</i> seems to me to engage with the genre in ways and to a degree that
<i>The Authority</i> doesn't. Of course, this doesn't make <i>The Ultimates</i>
a better series, and nor does it make it any less worthwhile. But where Ellis
often seemed to be saying that even superhero comics can be interesting and
enthralling, Millar was celebrating the genre through a direct engagement with
its long tradition. The debt that <i>The Ultimates</i> owes <i>The Authority</i>
is undeniably considerable. Yet, Millar did what few of those who followed
Ellis' example thought to, in that he brought his own fascinations and style to
the widescreen project. In short, he made it his own. Of course, Millar is a
lifelong fan of the superhero comic. As such, his work on <i>The Ultimates</i>
would inevitably tap into the traditions of the genre in a way that Ellis would
never have considered. Where Ellis depicted analogues of superheroic types,
Millar recast genre icons. Where Ellis rejected continuity of all but the
barest kind, Millar ruthlessly wrestled with forty years of backstory and
rebooted it according to his own taste. Where Ellis stood outside of the mass
of superhero fandom, Millar placed himself square in the middle of contemporary
debates. If <i>The Authority</i> is a critique from a frustrated if brilliant
outsider - "If teenagers need superhero comics" - then <i>The
Ultimates</i> is a love letter from a lifelong if frequently disappointed
acolyte. In that, it simply has more to say about the joys and the frustrations
of the superhero genre. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Millar has spoken of how
liberating he had found <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Authority</i>,
with its daringly direct approach to politics, its rejection of
continuity-based storytelling, and its cheerful, stripped-back embrace of
meticulously rendered spectacle and shock. But truth to be told, Millar's own
style was becoming more and more - for want of a better word - cinematic as the
late Nineties progressed. Before <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Authority</i> had
even appeared, Millar's run on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Superman Adventures</i>
had featured an epic two-part clash with a nefarious alt-world Jor-El. Much of
what would become known as widescreen was there present, from the scale of the
conflict's set-pieces to the brevity of Millar's text. In what was typically
dismissed as a children's cartoon book, Millar expressed his fascination for
welcomingly transparent storytelling, the logic of the three act structure and
the mass appeal of Hollywood summer blockbusters. (The Eisner Awards would
later reward his writing for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Superman Adventures</i>
with an enthusiasm the marketplace sadly hadn't.) But what was missing was the
freedom to dare and contend that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Authority</i> had
embodied. In Ellis' hands, <i>The Authority </i>had smartly challenged, for
example, homophobia even as it critiqued genre conventions. From its example,
it seems, Millar regained his determination to follow his own star, to
challenge and outrage and entertain and innovate according to no-one else's
light but his own. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">As such, Ellis choose well when
he pushed Millar forward as his successor on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Authority</i>. No
doubt he recognised that the Scotsman would respect the spirit rather than the
form of the book. To continue as a simulacrum of Ellis and Hitch's storytelling
would've been a betrayal of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Authority</i> and
all it had stood for. </span><br />
<br />
<i>with my apologies for the formatting snafu that I just couldn't find a solution to</i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">to be
continued</span></i><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span><br />
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<![endif]-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-48578687427184800422015-10-13T18:04:00.000+01:002015-10-24T13:58:51.249+01:00Superhero 101: Marvels (Part 3 of 7)Continuing the baker's dozen of key superhero comics begun <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/superhero-comics-101-part-1-of-2.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a> and continued<i> <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/superhero-101-part-2.html" target="_blank">here</a></i>. <br />
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<b>9. Marvels, by Kurt Busiek & Alex Ross (1994)</b><br />
<br />
<i>continued from last time's discussion of Alex Ross' art;</i><br />
<br />
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The very title of Kurt Busiek's <i>Marvels</i> is, of course, an example of
smart-minded wordplay. After all, what could be a more appropriate masthead for
a comic detailing forty or so years of Marvel Comics continuity? Yet Busiek's
story is a great deal more than an exercise in fannish nostalgia, and the
comic's title carries a far more ominous meaning than at first might seem
obvious. In New Testament Greek, <i>teras</i> can mean both <i>marvel</i>
and <i>monster. </i>No surprise then, that<i> </i><i>Marvels</i> should depict a world that's at least as cursed as
it is blessed by its superhuman inhabitants. <br />
<br />
As seen through the eyes of New York news photographer Phil Sheldon, the
comicbook history<i> </i>that's depicted in <i>Marvels</i> is simultaneously wonderful
and terrifying. The dawn of the Forties might deliver the miracles of the android
Human Torch and the water-breathing Sub-Mariner, but it also sparks the
conflict between the two that leads to a tsunamic inundation of New York City.
Events that the smug and the mendacious might refer to as "collateral
damage" are generally ignored in the standard superhero narrative. Lives
are ruined, crowds slaughtered, nations overthrown, worlds destroyed, galaxies
devastated, reality itself periodically undone, and yet, little seems as
important as the hero's own immediate concerns. It's a taken-for-granted sin of
omission that Busiek cannily avoids. How might an endless - and endlessly
lengthening - procession of remarkably powerful individuals and groups impact
upon the likes of you and I? Sometimes the consequences in <i>Marvels</i> are
salutary, and, more often than not, they're unsettling and even flat-out
depressing. The emergence of the mutants triggers all-too-recognisable examples
of mob rule and lynchings. The arrival of the apocalypse in the body of
Galactus reveals public opinion to be a profoundly glib and asinine business.
Of course, many other creators had mined the same plot device, but never with such skill and at such length. To see life in a superhuman-filled
world from the perspective of everyday individuals is to experience canonical
cornerstones from a fresh and surprising perspective. Uncertainty reappears in
the context of long-familiar situations, and even the most informed and jaded
of readers might be returned to a childlike state of wonder and apprehension. <br />
<br />
<i>Marvels</i> succeeds in working on a remarkable number of levels. It's a
celebration of genre, a comics history, a fictional biography and a welcome
injection of empathy into an often blithely unempathetic tradition. But all of
this is grounded in the surprisingly innovative way in which Busiek puts the
very idea of the superhero to use. In <i>Marvels</i>, the wonders and terrors
of an immersive superhero universe are used to evoke our own unpredictable and
frequently taxing lives in our own essentially meaningless existence. Like us,
Busiek's denizens of the MU are faced with constant uncertainty allied to the
near certain arrival of any number of traumatic challenges. Like us, they're
compelled to confront the marvellous and the monstrous in the context of their
everyday travails. As such, Busiek takes the superhero genre and quite
deliberately uses its outlandish traditions to express the absurdity of our own
lives. If you like, Marvels is, at heart, an existential superhero tale, with
its comicbook witnesses being every bit as baffled and enthused, benighted and
enlightened, purposeful and powerless as we are. Caught in perpetually hostile
circumstances, they hang on as best they can while remaking their world-views
in a sincere if desperate attempt to make sense of the incomprehensible. One
will cling to bigotry, another to humane faith, but the big picture always remains
beyond their grasp. In what may well be the most touching of all the scenes in
the book, Gwen Stacey is shown innocently celebrating the strange and beguiling
beauty to be found in a superheroic universe. (The aftermath of an Atlantean
invasion of New York, she declares, is like living in 'a snow globe'.) But that
same appalling beauty will soon show its Janus face, as she's murdered by the Green
Goblin. Marvels and monsters, all at the same time, again and again.<br />
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It's an approach that allows Busiek and Ross to break free from the
straightjacket of the superhero as wish-fulfilment. Quite the opposite is true
in its pages. Life for Sheldon and his fellows is unpredictable, capricious,
unsettling and, ultimately, bewildering. Even the ever-accelerating pace of
change in the Marvel Universe becomes a playful metaphor for the befuddling
pace of change in our own lives. (For flame-generating androids,
taken-for-granted inter-stellar travel and ultimate nullifiers read AI, GM
crops, mass surveillance, drone warfare and so on.) It's no little business to
have pulled off such a trick. With the misdirection of a master, Busiek scrupulously
avoids any suggestion that Marvel's Earth should be almost if not entirely
unrecognisable by comparison with our own. The very existence of a science that
might create gods and monsters from the likes of us ought to have utterly
transformed Marvel Earth, if not more probably destroyed it. But <i>Marvels</i>
isn't about realism in any of its more callow forms. Instead, and in company
with all the comics on this list, it embraces the joy of the fantastical while
using it to discuss more fundamental concerns. In <i>Marvels</i>, the
thoughtfulness and the city-flattening punchups dovetail one with the other.
Each is immeasurably stronger for the other's presence.<br />
<br />
Phil Sheldon ends <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marvels</i> in the
manner of a suburban Gilgamesh. He may never have slaughtered monsters and
challenged the gods, but he has dared to depict the super-people and struggled
to make sense of their role in the grand scheme of things. The attempt has
ultimately resulted in tragedy and disillusionment, although not, in the end,
in unshakable despair. As with Gilgamesh, Sheldon's been forced to accept that the
world is ultimately no more understandable than it is predictable or controllable.
The superheroes have proved to be fallible, and the fact of that has devastated his faith.
Only the less appetising aspects of the human experience appear constant and
reliable. Leaving behind a collection of his photographs, Sheldon retreats into
retirement. There he hopes to embrace the 'ordinary', and, in doing so, to
fulfil the roles of good husband and honest neighbour. He's left what he's seen
to future generations in the form of his photojournalism, but he's failed in
his attempt to grasp and express, as he'd once hoped, what "the Marvels
... should mean to us". <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What's remains
is to do the best he can with whatever strength and time he can find. Everything
else is an absurdity, and perhaps even that is too. Of all of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marvels</i> many achievements, its bravely
downbeat ending is perhaps the finest. It asks questions even as it insists
that the answers are nowhere to be found. Few other superhero tales have been as
brave, and fewer still as successful. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><i>to be concluded </i></span><br />
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<![endif]--><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-4659441942509957782015-10-06T18:00:00.003+01:002016-06-29T22:48:01.368+01:00 Superhero 101: Watchman, Batman Year One, Marvels (Part 2 of 7)Continued from the first part of<i> Superhero 101</i>, which can, should you so choose, be found, <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/superhero-comics-101-part-1-of-2.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhavscU30-TeF_C8e7Df6njrhRP5pjq-FwVR8g4CO3q1lRb2vQIN43nw8yEWgAgR9HzyO8VuGrUSZYyLaRJCKSqzESkMaUhxHJnM9_bQl4D5Dy4w1anw2aFrwezguHG6cd6EOSG-oy9f90w/s1600/-.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhavscU30-TeF_C8e7Df6njrhRP5pjq-FwVR8g4CO3q1lRb2vQIN43nw8yEWgAgR9HzyO8VuGrUSZYyLaRJCKSqzESkMaUhxHJnM9_bQl4D5Dy4w1anw2aFrwezguHG6cd6EOSG-oy9f90w/s640/-.jpg" width="418" /></a></div>
<b>7. <i>Watchman</i>, by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons et al (1986/7)</b><br />
<br />
There's been a staggering amount of tosh spoken about Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' <i>Watchmen</i>. But then, it's the kind of staggering achievement that encourages all
of us to speak in the purest of tosh. The least helpful criticism of
the book has discussed<i> Watchmen</i> in terms of a perceived clash
between genre comics and
'proper' literature. On the one side of the debate sit the outliers of
literary taste-making, who've claimed Moore and Gibbons' work for their
lists of greatest 20th century novels. On the other, there's the
traditionalists from the opposing camps of high art and superhero
fandom, who, despite their fundamental differences, often agree that <i>Watchmen </i>is something of a imposter. Neither a novel in the traditional sense or a meat-n'potato superhero tale, <i>Watchmen </i>is,
it seems, too childish in form and content to appeal to the Academy
while all-too high-faulting for the meat-and-potato comics fan. A
pleasingly significant degree of the culture is now content to sidestep
such puritanical point-scoring, and yet, the debate over how <i>Watchmen</i>
should be defined and evaluated in terms of traditional forms remains
depressingly active. (Even today, an adult checking a copy of <i>Watchmen</i>
out of a local library runs the risk of pitiful glances and patronising
comments from librarians and customers alike. Reader, I was that
borrower. ) <br />
<br />
Yet all such arguments are patently absurd. As is surely obvious, <i>Watchmen</i>
isn't in any way an attempt to produce a superhero story which can
equal the novel in all its glories. Nor is it a dizzingly radical
departure from the typical content of a conventional superhero tale.
Rather, <i>Watchmen</i>
shows that the superhero story can speak to complex, challenging issues
without losing any of its traditional content or appeal. Moore and
Gibbons exult in the likes of secret identities, super-continuties,
hyper-tech, fiendish villains and so on. At the same time, they display
a meticulous, and indeed gleeful, command of decades-worth of comicbook
storytelling. Where innovation occurs, and it frequently
does, it's grounded in knowledge, love and skill. As such, the book's
form is undeniably ambitious, but its narrative content can often be
endearingly, lovingly conservative.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnu1_b_Xanarj-F4N60rn1ATPEadgce6pdeDzIgn2edvJ47MuG8z3ojGEMwFRJgzOSMpxlwsibzfTu5V9NmOOYo15NYMsGj8SvsROhi7k5eGQuViilvWh6N-mjWGUIIBwjLyxwiLMcr9UJ/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnu1_b_Xanarj-F4N60rn1ATPEadgce6pdeDzIgn2edvJ47MuG8z3ojGEMwFRJgzOSMpxlwsibzfTu5V9NmOOYo15NYMsGj8SvsROhi7k5eGQuViilvWh6N-mjWGUIIBwjLyxwiLMcr9UJ/s640/1.jpg" width="408" /></a></div>
This it seems to me, is the trick that Moore and Gibbons performed
with such brilliance. Rather than decrying the genre's value, they
embraced it with a devotees' expertise and passion. So great was their
respect that neither opted to complacently retread the genre's past
glories. Instead, Moore and Gibbons hybridised the superhero tradition
with the mystery novel and the political thriller. (Had it been
published today, the book would have immediately been labelled as
dystopian, so great is Moore's disdain for the state and its
self-proclaimed servants.) As with so much of the best of the superhero genre, <i>Watchmen's </i>plot discussed
the limits of individual and state power. In it, a team of retired
super-people reunite to track down the murderer of one of their fellows.
As they attempt to do so, the psychologically fragile, if not entirely
fractured, superheroes come face-to-face with the realities of how
social order is imposed and maintained. In the end, <i>Watchmen</i> reveals itself to be both a
critique of the very idea of the superhero in addition to being a celebration of the same form's potential. So rich is the genre's promise, the
book suggests, that it can even be used to deny its own worth. As such, <i>Watchmen </i>is
neither a pathetic stab at provoking the shocked, admiring applause of
the broader culture's gatekeepers or a self-righteous sneer at the
mainstream superhero comicbook. Instead, it's a fabulously told costumed
crimefighter tale that, for all its faults, remains as
thought-provokingly as it's entertaining. <br />
<br />
But of course, only a particularly foolhardy debater would suggest that there's only one thing to be learned from <i>Watchmen</i>.
Yet the bar it sets is high, and few have come close to rising to the
challenge it's established. One of the most structurally ingenious of
all superhero tales, it also contains several of the genre's most
enjoyable set-pieces. (Fun is rarely in short supply in the pages of <i>Watchmen</i>,
although it's not always discussed in terms of the sheer fun it
provides.) For all its sophistication,<i> Watchmen</i>
always remains blissfully readable. To return to it, and then to return
again, is to continually notice layers of meaning that welcome further
study without ever once demanding it. Although it's a wonderfully clever
book - or at least, it is until the story collapses at the book's
climax - it never sacrifices plot and character for the story-derailing
egotism of aren't-I-clever worthiness.<br />
<br />
Predictably, when DC Comics contentiously and hubristically
decided to publish tens of prequel chapters to the series in 2012, none
came anywhere close to the quality of the original. In amongst a tide of
dreadfully - and on occasion even offensively - mediocre landfill
superhero books were a small number of pleasantly inconsequential
distractions. But overall, <i>Before Watchmen</i> was a laughably pathetic expression of
corporate ignorance, incompetence and greed. Little if anything of substance, it
seemed, had been learned from <i>Watchmen</i> at all, which says a great
deal about how the opportunities thrown up by Moore and Gibbons' work
have been repeatedly squandered by the industry over the past three
decades. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjKtjBeSconIWFIBSEc2zIZC68vIwEn47TKNFpS6j5aRib5hXicjOE8c2KUE_UN73v9YG0cH0gkXDv2butUaxm-nZw25nSkHbIenymeZsrKu0P_Ms06QBWrhZZ8tVo8bmmJJzMQVNGNq0a/s1600/-.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjKtjBeSconIWFIBSEc2zIZC68vIwEn47TKNFpS6j5aRib5hXicjOE8c2KUE_UN73v9YG0cH0gkXDv2butUaxm-nZw25nSkHbIenymeZsrKu0P_Ms06QBWrhZZ8tVo8bmmJJzMQVNGNq0a/s640/-.jpg" width="416" /></a></div>
<b>8. <i>Batman Year One</i>, by Frank Miller & David Mazzuccelli et al</b><br />
<br />
Frank
Miller's influence upon the superhero genre during the first eight
years of his career was as profound as it was electrifying. Indeed, it
might convincingly be argued that his footprint eclipses that of any
other single creator on today's mainstream superhero books.
(This is not always a particularly good thing, in that it's frequently
the more facile aspects of Miller's best creative years that have
appealed to his progeny) As such, there's a strong case for
including several of Miller's most significant runs of the period here:
his first tilt at <i>Daredevil</i> in 1979 to 1983, his return to the character in the mid-Eighties, and, of course, his epochal <i>The Dark Knight Returns</i> from 1986. Yet 1987's <i>Batman: Year One</i>
- his last significant stylistic contribution to the genre - seems to
me to be the most brilliant distillation of Miller's momentous
contributions.<br />
<br />
Working with artist David Mazzucchelli's brilliant
comics-noir storytelling, Miller's script delivered his most effective fusion
of the crime and superhero genres, with the latter being expertly
grounded in his adoration and understanding of Eisner's <i>The Spirit</i>. The tale of how the young Bruce Wayne choose to become The Batman, <i>Batman: Year One </i>is
in many ways a stubbornly stiff and traditional tale. For all its
glorious Gothic moodiness, it's a straight-forward crime yarn in which
the corrupt are many, the irredeemably criminal are beyond the law, and
the only choice is between absolute good and absolute evil. (Down these mean streets an honest, bat-eared man must walk, and so on.) Only the
sorely tempted and then ultimately redeemed Jim Gordon emerges as
anything close to a convincingly rounded character. Yet such is the pace
and command of the storytelling that the tale never looses its capacity
to beguile.<br />
<br />
The result was a
form of comics realism that would, in the coming decades, enable the superhero to prosper in
both film and TV. Merged with the legitimacy and appeal of more
conventional crime narratives, the superhero comic could now efficiently
avoid embarrassing those who might associate costumes and powers
with camp and juvenility. In the hands of master craftsmen such as
Miller and Mazzucchelli, the result felt radical and compelling. Totally eschewing the presence in the plot of super-villains, <i>Year One </i>suggested
a minimal, straight-faced use of superhero conventions allied to a
convincing if ersatz suggestion of social verism might indeed be a way to
reach a broader audience. <br />
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<i>Year One </i>was the last of the mid-80's superhero titles to break through to a broader readership. If it never had the wider reach of <i>Watchmen</i> and <i>The Dark Knight Returns</i>, it has perhaps wielded a greater influence than either over<i> </i>the monthly superhero book itself. As a
default approach for generations of lesser talents,
Miller and Mazzucchelli's masterwork has inspired
decades of wearisomely bleak, po-faced tales that exult in brutality,
hopelessness, reactionary self-pity and unleavened machismo. That there's more than a touch of
irony about the importance of<i> Batman Year On</i>e to the latter approach is
undeniable. After all, Miller's tale was concerned with how a sense of
hope and purpose might be clawed back from a thoroughly corrupt culture.
(It's a theme <i>Batman Year On</i>e shared, from its writer's ever-more right wing perspective, with both <i>Daredevil: Born Again</i> and <i>The Dark Knight Returns</i>.) That spirit of optimism would sadly be frequently missed by many of Miller and Mazzucchelli's imitators. Similarly, <i>Year One</i>
tended to suggest rather than revel in violent excess, but that
admirable and effective restraint has also frequently been ignored. <br />
<br />
Optimism
and indeed subtlety of any kind would also be regrettably absent from
the majority of Frank Miller's later work. There, occasional bursts of
stylistic audacity would be sadly placed into the service of ever-more
reactionary - and finally patently Islamophobic - ideals. Mazzucchelli, his stint on the superhero book now wonderfully concluded, moved on successfully to projects in which costumed crimefighters were conspicuously absent.<br />
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<b>9. <i>Marvels</i>, by Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross et al (1994)</b><br />
<br />
Neither <i>Watchmen</i> nor Miller's Batman tales appear to have been designed as manifestos
for the future development of the superhero form, but they were long
taken as such. Sadly, the consequences of this have been typically malign. Nothing has been more typical of the superhero genre than the wrong lessons being learned from the very best exemplars. The
commercial as well as artistic success of Moore, Gibbons, Miller and
Mazzucchelli pointed to a need for a profound love of superheroes, a supreme level of craftmanship, and a fierce determination to challenge the genre's self-defeating conservatism. All
too often, the lessons that were actually taken in led in exactly the wrong direction for all but a small niche of readers. For them, a spurious conception
of realism, an adolescent obsession with despair-sodden
hyper-violence and a deeply standpat attitude to change pointed the way to a bright future of perpetually despairing indulgence. <br />
<br />
Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross' <i>Marvels</i> exemplifies
the fightback during the Nineties against this still all-too-often
dominant obsession with fan-blokeish excess. (Other notable acts of
determined and inspired resistance could be found in Mark Waid's long
run on <i>The Flash</i> and Grant Morrison's <i>Justice League</i>.) On
the surface, <i>Marvels</i> could appear as concerned with
the shallows of superhero-realism as
any of the period's let's-do-it-for-the-fan-lads product. Yet Alex Ross' painted pages expressed an entirely different take on
reality than was typical during the period. In truth, his work was
quite unlike anything that the super-book had previously thrown up.
Painters there had been before in the genre, and yet, none had drawn on
the classic American tradition of illustration with the fondness and
fidelity that he did. The result was a powerful
suggestion of verisimilitude in which the superhero could seem as convincingly
mundane as a litter-strewn sidewalk or a smoke-obscured newsroom. By the
same token, that studied mundanity was also gloriously vivid and fresh.
If Ross' art lacked by design the crisp, matter-of-fact quality of the
moment as directly experienced, it did suggest the intensity of
realworld events as experienced in flashbulb memories and wakening
dreams. What better, for a tale that dealt with forty years of Marvel
Comics history, to use an illustrative style that had traditionally suggested both wistfulness and
verity?<br />
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Once again, the genre moved forward by, as logic would demand, refusing to stand still. To see, for example, <i>Marvel's</i> take on Giant-Man striding across the
rooftops of Manhattan was to experience a childlike sense of wonder for both
super-bloke and metropolis liberated from decades of
by-rote craftsmanship. This wasn't realism, of course, but a deeply
romantic approach laced heavily with nostalgia and fannish excitement.
Ironically, an illustrative style that was largely long passe in the
world beyond comics had convincingly brought every once-young fan's
daydreams to life. This, Ross' pages suggested, is what it would really
look like if childhood-imagined encounters with passing superheroes - <i>real</i> passing superheroes - could actually occur.<br />
<br />
As CGI would soon allow the movies to
achieve, Ross' art helped to constrain the burden of imagination for the
dedicated genre reader while delivering a significant measure of feeling and spectacle. To translate the work of the likes of Kirby and
Ditko into a convincing vision of the everyday took a measure of conviction
and determination. But the work of Ross dramatically reduced the effort needed to place the
patently unreal - indeed impossible - into our ever-so mundane
existence.The problem of disbelief had always limited the genre's reach. In Ross pages storred another potential strategy for escaping the deadend of ever-decreasing audiences. That his achievements were substantial and satisfying in their own right only made the future look all the more exciting. <br />
<br />
<i>to be concluded, with reference to Kurt Busiek's splendid script for Marvels and a discussion of four titles from the 21st century. </i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-4899972589645143072015-09-27T23:00:00.002+01:002016-06-29T22:46:57.920+01:00Superhero Comics 101: The Spirit, Spider-Man, Superman, The Forever People, The Defenders (Part 1 of 7)Time tends to make traditionalists of us all. We may not buy into anyone else's conservatism, but we're still likely to generate a backwards-looking orthodoxy of our own. That which we've enjoyed ossifies into canon, and canon is all too easily taken as a statement of what's acceptable and what's not. With that in mind, I'll readily admit that what follows is a patently absurd business. Yet, with <i>TooBusyThinking</i> winding down, and the new blog which will partially replace it still taking shape, there's a few old ideas that I'd like to work through before I'm finished here. What follows is one of them.<br />
<br />
The superhero comic has been with us for 80 years or so. How could anyone starting largely from scratch begin to come to grips with all of that history? After all, there's so much more than just superhero comics to get to grips with, and yet, getting properly to grips with the costumed crimefighter tradition would be challenging enough in itself. From such idle speculation came the idea of baker's dozen of the most inspiring and illuminating superhero strips since 1938's <i>Action Comics</i> #1. If we only had 13 examples of the genre to pick from, how could we possibly choose? The very absurdity of the task appealed even as it intimidated. These wouldn't be the supposedly best stories, or even the tales by the supposedly best creators. Nor would the list attempt to include examples of as great a number of stylistic approaches as the format allowed. By its very nature, just about every creator and comic would be absent from the list, while its contents would inevitably tend towards the exceptionally familiar. Mea culpa. The conceit would simply offer thirteen approaches which, taken together, might function as a helpful basic tool-kit for solving practical problems in today's super-books.<br />
<br />
Or at least, might function as such in the unlikely event that anyone shared my own entirely untrustworthy brand of backwards-looking orthodoxy.<br />
<br />
No matter how playful the intentions, this is - of course - a daft and presumptuous idea. But it's still a compelling if quite impossible business, and, after all, what's the last few weeks of a blog for if not that? <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFUqVlgt8kOVGW4hZa-oweKuF4rNHp998S8W9DIvwhzi7GbEJV4Ihj6i73lK9JbciBnh6In9P-NfCSANevszweiH9VT4KGDaZMNfGAWsVi-zEawERZEiT2kkMhyBvUR_U7trpB48J7UVq/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFUqVlgt8kOVGW4hZa-oweKuF4rNHp998S8W9DIvwhzi7GbEJV4Ihj6i73lK9JbciBnh6In9P-NfCSANevszweiH9VT4KGDaZMNfGAWsVi-zEawERZEiT2kkMhyBvUR_U7trpB48J7UVq/s640/-.jpg" width="454" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's tempting to opt for the kind of rain-sodden noir page that's now frequently associated with Eisner, but the above page from September 1948's <i>The Story Of Gerhard Shnobble</i> shows another side of The Spirit's appeal. The tale itself is a wonderfully perverse fusion of the absurd and despairing, and its storytelling would shame many a 21st century book. Just to take a moment to enjoy the above page is to perceive an almost lost command of daring, capability and pathos. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>1. <i>The Spirit</i>, by the Will Eisner Studio (1945 to 1952)</b><br />
<br />
Every syllabus is grounded in presumption, and I'll be frank about mine; Will Eisner's post-war work on <i>The Spirit</i>
is by far the most brilliant and important superhero strip there's ever
been. Working with a host of often extraordinary and always highly
competent collaborators, Eisner developed both the form and content of
his superhero/crime mashup in a host of remarkable ways. Yet for all his
astonishing ambition, daring and achievement,<i> The Spirit</i>
remained a series of perfectly self-contained and satisfying seven page
stories that welcomed the general reader who knew nothing of the
character or indeed comics themselves. Eisner often bemoaned the
commercial compromise that led to his weekly, seven-page newspaper strip
featuring a superheroic lead. Yet the tension between his desire to tell
adult stories and the pop-culture framework of the superhero-starring
tales created stories that were as immediate as they were thoughtful. What a later
generation might see as a substantial dash of magical realism allowed <i>The
Spirit </i>to speak to adult audiences in a broad variety of genres and
tones. From hard science fiction to the sweetest of romances, <i>The Spirit</i> ranged daringly across story-types while always delivering tales that were accessible, entertaining and thought-provoking.<br />
<br />
Eisner's breathtaking storytelling has often and
rightly been praised from its ambition and effectiveness. His desire to
inform comics with lessons learnt from illustration, 'high' art, theatre
and especially film resulted in work that constantly pushed the boundaries of the form.
Regrettably, it's a little less common to hear praise for his determined
capacity to develop his craft while consistently connecting with a mass
audience. The superhero comic, if not the superhero film, has become
more and more of a niche pursuit. As it's turned away from
the broader audience, it's become less and less welcoming to the
general, inexpert reader. To study Eisner is to be inspired that those
decades of wilful isolationism can be reversed. After
all, it's no accident that the few superhero comics which have broken
through to mass acceptance - <i>Watchmen</i>, <i>The Dark Knight Returns</i> - were crafted by writers and artists who'd studied Eisner in depth. <br />
<br />
Yet
to read the majority of today's superhero comics, you'd imagine that a
significant number of today's creators know little of <i>The Spirit</i>
at all. How else to explain the frequent absence of so many of the
multitude of problem-solving approaches that might be gleamed from it?
If all that remained of the genre was <i>The Spirit</i>, the form could
be rebuilt from a careful study of Eisner's stories. It might even turn
out to be a more ambitious and invigorating form than we often see
peddled in comic shops today. Even
the highly regrettable racism that flares up on occasion in <i>The Spirit </i>can serve as a
vital lesson in how humane ideals can be terribly undermined by
unexamined prejudice.<br />
<br />
<i>Reading the whole of Eisners' considerable output during this period would be a taxing business. (It would also involve reading the lull in the quality of the feature that occured in late 1951 and early 1952.) But if I might suggest five stories, totalling just 35 pages, then they</i><i> would be</i><i><i> March 1946's The Last Trolley, November 1947's Crime Is A River, September 1948's The Story Of Gerhard Shnobble, </i>January 1950's Sand Seref, and July 1952's Outer Space . </i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiWFLsER2h6XdDk6o79jfcSGw2iczjhLz9apWJCgvFlLSsgovLk5Eg7doxrfqMX-iCCB-43E2AdlNCa_vm0R_jSN3yWB9jVq3LEXUrdezHr7ujzAMIpq7K6y3Ctwj0EHawo4cwGg82O8vc/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiWFLsER2h6XdDk6o79jfcSGw2iczjhLz9apWJCgvFlLSsgovLk5Eg7doxrfqMX-iCCB-43E2AdlNCa_vm0R_jSN3yWB9jVq3LEXUrdezHr7ujzAMIpq7K6y3Ctwj0EHawo4cwGg82O8vc/s640/-.jpg" width="440" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">November 1961's <i>Superman</i> 149, with its cover by Curt Swan and Shelly Moldoff. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>2. The Death Of Superman, by Siegel, Swan, Weisinger et al (1961)</b><br />
<br />
An out-of-continuity tale that told of the Man Of Steel's assassination by Lex Luthor, <i>The Death Of Superman</i>
still retains its power to move as well as surprise the reader. With a
ruthless logic that leads to a pathos-drenched conclusion, the script by
Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel reveals that Superman's fatal flaw is
his Christian faith in human redeemability. Cast as both Judas and Satan
to Kal-El's Christ, Luthor first convinces Superman that he's reformed
and then mercilessly slays him. Unlike the post-1985 descent of the
superhero genre into crass extremes of bleakness and blood-thirstiness,
Siegel and the masterful penciller Curt Swan play out their tragedy with
restraint grounded in magnanimity. For all of that, this is hardly a tale
lacking in drama and spectacle. Perhaps drawing on film of the early
days of Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem during the year for
genocide, Siegel crafts a tale-closing trial of the unrepentant Luthor
by the Krypton citizens of Kando that's a masterpiece of tension and
unexpected twists. (Swan's depiction of the gloating murderer
anticipating his freedom remains
one of the greatest single frames in comics history, a subtle and
chilling depiction of a sociopath in what he wrongly believes to be his
moment of triumph.)<br />
<br />
Without the slightest sign of the influence of Lee,
Kirby and
Ditko's then-nascent Marvel Revolution, <i>The Death Of Superman</i>
exemplifies the very best of traditional superhero storytelling. More
than that, it shows - even at this distance in time - how vital and
poignant such an approach still can be. The characters are essentially one-dimensional stereotypes, but Siegel uses that to discuss one of childhood's greatest fears, namely, the loss of a parent or carer. If even a figure as reliable, constant and noble as Superman can fail, then what is there to rely on and believe in? In <i>The Death Of Superman</i>
, the loss of the Man Of Steel leads not to a
collapse of principle amongst those closest to him, but rather to its
rededication. As Siegel's script implies, no man or woman survives forever, but their influence can long outlive them. As powerful a morality tale as it remains for adult readers today, its effect upon its original, youthful audience must have often been remarkable. <br />
<br />
For all that the
Superman books of the period lacked any strict sense of what would now
be called continuity, they possessed a remarkably rich variety of
supporting characters and fantastical set-ups. With a willingness to
frequently discuss themes that might disturb as well as entertain, the
Man Of Steel's adventures under the guiding hand of editor Mort
Weisinger could be surprisingly touching and intriguing. By all
accounts, Weisinger was a frequently cruel and callous manager.
Sadly for those of us who'd like to associate lessons worth learning
with admirable teachers, there's still much to be said for key aspects
of his approach. More importantly, the achievements of the professionals who toiled under Weisinger's autocratic rule have left a host of fascinating stories that stand as some of the most enthralling and moving in the genre's history. .<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7b5ib3VkJOHAw4J4Cy19N8T78rdJFllnlNKo3HhBDjJ8fvR25C5ywZubTdjvANh650CvTAE-Bmp5bE5k1vb2gzVeMIojQUfkdu2HT_uYTPt_EM4BUMAMZpG3yKHkyPLfInwQ0v8QYjccQ/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7b5ib3VkJOHAw4J4Cy19N8T78rdJFllnlNKo3HhBDjJ8fvR25C5ywZubTdjvANh650CvTAE-Bmp5bE5k1vb2gzVeMIojQUfkdu2HT_uYTPt_EM4BUMAMZpG3yKHkyPLfInwQ0v8QYjccQ/s640/-.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">June 1965's <i>Amazing Spider-Man</i> #25, cover by Steve Ditko</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
No single Sixties Marvel comic displays the virtues of the company's
then-new and revolutionary approach so effectively as does Steve Ditko
and Stan Lee's <i>Captured By J Jonah Jameson</i>. Instead of a clash of
one-dimensional ideals, as had been typical for the superhero genre up
until then, Marvel injected a second dimension of personal neuroses
which drove their characters into ever-more entertaining and moving
personal conflict. It was an approach which could, and soon typically
would, swing from pathos to bathos, but it's shown at its very best in
1965's <i>Amazing Spider-Man</i> #25. Another done-in-one tale that's
rich, complex and highly satisfying, it features a collision between
Peter Parker's school and work-life as newspaper owner J Jonah Jameson
hires a scientific genius to track down Spider-Man. Not only is the tale
packed with incident, but character rather than
spectacle-for-its-own-sake is what drives the storytelling.<br />
<br />
For all that the superhero comic is frequently defined as a pathetic exercise in wish-fulfilment, <i>Amazing Spider-Man</i>
presented a far more nuanced experience. Caught between school and
employment, childhood and adulthood, powerlessness and a complex series
of taxing personal dilemmas, Peter Parker represented not
wish-fulfilment so much as adolescence's endless and irreconcilable
conflicts. For all that his costumed conflicts could be thrilling, they
rarely ended in definitive victories. Even when they did, Parker's
private life remained a series of frustrations and disappointments. As such, this was escapism laced with a hefty charge of realism. It
was a take on teenage life that had little to do with the eternal
summer of the likes of Archie
Comics, in which the same
players returned happily to the same high school set-up for decade upon
decade. Characters in <i>Amazing Spider-Man </i>not only aged, but
changed, and life rarely if ever treated them with undiluted kindness. It was a radical shift in the very essence of the super-book that sparked a giddy sense of
excitement. What might possibly happen next? As such, Ditko and Lee's
work on the character really did offer something new under the sun; the
superhero as metaphor for a specific and inescapably trying life-experience.<br />
<br />
As with
Eisner, Ditko and Lee used Spider-Man to tell tales of everyday
conflicts and quickly-passing triumphs. Effectively the plotter as well
as the artist by this time, Ditko's ability to set and solve complex
narrative problems with his ingenuity shines out from every multi-panel
page, while Lee's script remains playful, compelling and frequently
hilarious. Strangely, all-too-few few of today's superhero tales attempt
to follow their
example of using the superhero tale to explore mundane reality. <br />
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If any superhero series might vie with <i>The Spirit</i> for the title of the genre's most impressive achievement, it would be Jack Kirby's <i>Fourth World</i>
saga. Told through four inter-locking titles published from late 1970
to early 1974, it pioneered a mythos that described the epic war between
immensely powerful gods of New Genesis and Apolokips. Within that
framework, Kirby investigated the corrupting effects of totalitarian
ideology while spinning an audaciously ambitious superhero epic. In
doing so, Kirby refined and further developed the Sci-Fi/Fantasy
conceits that he'd brilliantly put to use during the Sixties in Marvel
titles such as the <i>Fantastic Four </i>and <i>Thor</i>. More inspiring
yet, he embedded his tales in the political debates of the turn-of-the
Seventies. Fascinated and inspired by the age's counter-culture, Kirby
raged against militarism, consumerism, predatory politicians and the
excesses of the mass media. Of course, Kirby had repeatedly established
himself as a comics genius in the long decades of achievement prior to <i>The Fourth World</i>,
and yet nothing in his exceptional catalogue can match it for its
singular, shocking brilliance. (It was largely through the influence of
Kirby's work that the sub-genre of 'cosmic' superhero tales began to be
perceived as a distinct tradition.)<br />
<br />
The Fourth World is a
landslide of new characters and concepts, designed to function as a
comics novel in which characters might change, and even die, as they
always had in the likes of novels and films. So heady is the rush of
Kirby's radical new ideas and approaches during these years that his
stories can almost seem intimidating in their invention and ambition.
Concepts that other creators might have used to establish a long running
status quo were here burned through and replaced by ever-more audacious
set-ups. <br />
<br />
But for all that the series was concerned with an apocalyptic showdown on Earth between two halves of a warring alien race, Kirby's <i>Fourth World</i> stories are as notable for their moments of quiet as they are for their thunderous punch-ups, for their philosophical curiosity as much as their daring sturm und drang set-pieces. Nor are these comfortable tales wherein the triumph of good feels complacently assured. At moments, as in Darkseid's apparent execution of The Forever People or Orion and Lightray's desperate confrontation with the Deep Six, there's a sense of absolute dread and awe in the face of the unknown that few have ever come close to emulating. <br />
<br />
In recent years, many have conspicuously claimed to be working in the tradition of Kirby, and yet, it's a struggle to mention more than a handful of creators who've grasped the substance rather than the surface show of his achievements.<br />
<br />
<i>For those intimidated by the prospect of the four collected volumes that make up The Fourth World saga in reprint, I might suggest four classic tales: Orion and The Deep Six, from New Gods #5 and 6; Himon, from Mister Miracle #9; The Pact, from New Gods #7: and The Prisoners Of The Power, from The Forever People #8. </i> <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1976's <i>The Defenders</i> 36, cover by Gil Kane and Mike Esposito</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The first half of Steve Gerber's run on <i>The Defenders</i> in
1974/5 is peppered by smart moments and principled stands rather than
consistently outstanding storytelling. But his final year on the book reclaimed
for the superhero the sense of thought-provoking strangeness that the
ubiquity of the Marvel method had, for all its successes, started to
erode. In doing so, he also injected a degree of character that the
super-book had as yet never previously seen. Reframing The
Defenders as a group of traumatised individuals being surreptitiously
supported by Doctor Strange, Gerber hurled the team of misfits into
conflicts with a series of disconcertingly absurd antagonists. As an encounter group rather than a standard-issue fighting team, The Defenders suddenly possessed the air of uniqueness that had previously escaped them. Their gallery of super-villains also became corresponding weird and purposeful. From the
vainglorious Headmen, who'd mutilated their own bodies in search of
power, to the New Age philosophising of Nebulon, these villains
satirically expressed the confusion and unease of the current affairs of
the Seventies. Yet for all of that, Marvel's
characters had rarely seemed as charmingly, fallibly human. Gerber excelled at identifying and expressing his character's personal agendas in such a way as to make even the least promising figures appear compelling. Politically sharp and
consistently entertaining, Gerber's issues showed how a team of
disparate and only marginally popular characters could be winningly lent
their own identity and sense of purpose.<br />
<br />
Of course,
the superhero comic cannot help but be political. Whenever a character
is shown to be taking the law into their own hands, there are inevitably
questions raised about the manner in which society is, and
self-evidently, fulfilling its obligations. The genre had begun with the
populism of Siegel and Shuster's Superman and swiftly been used to
express the idiosyncratic feminism of Marston and Peter's Wonder Woman.
The superhero industry would soon shiver away from anything so contentious
as questioning social content, but throughout the Sixties and Seventies,
the superhero comic would often been used deliberately to express
deeply-held political convictions. From the introduction of the Black
Panther in Kirby and Lee's <i>Fantastic Four</i> to the partisan playing out of a radical agenda in O'Neil and Adams' <i>Green Lantern/Green Arrow</i>,
the costumed crimefighter had become more and more a deliberate - if
often confused and simplistic - expression of humanist beliefs. But
Gerber's work in his last year on <i>The Defenders </i>is an example of a
more subtle if no less heartfelt approach to combining politics and
superheroes. It encompasses the personal and the political all at the
same time, and does so in a way that avoids the sometimes-alienating
sense of the pulpit and the soapbox. For all their withering satire,
Gerber never slipped into cynicism or partiality. At all times, his
faith in humanity remained as fiercely obvious as did his weariness at
the species' constant propensity towards ignorance and injustice. <br />
<br />
As
he never hesitated to express, Gerber was fortunate to be pared with
the old-school storytelling of Sal Buscema for these stories. Buscema's
fierce schedule as a layout artist for Marvel prevented him from
delivering much that was spectacular, but his careful, clear and
compelling pages ensured that Gerber's out-there tales always remained
comprehensible and involving. When pared with sympathetic inkers such as
Klaus Janson, the result could be beguiling. As with the pages of
Superman artist Curt Swan, no-one ever needed to struggle to follow
Buscema's pages. For them, the story was everything. For all that their
approach is today often regarded as unfashionably pedestrian, there's
much to be said for its virtues. As out-there as Gerber's work could be,
and The <i>Defenders i</i>s frequently and disconcertingly out-there, Buscema made sure that events could always be understood and enjoyed.<br />
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Seen in a particular light, Claremont and Byrne's <i>Days Of Future Past</i>
can seem like nothing more important than a textbook summarising much
of the best and some of the very worst of the genre's preceding twenty
years. Byrne's art fuses the work of Kirby and Neal Adams - long the
superbook's two dominating visual influences - in a highly efficient and
entertaining way that smooths out his progenitors' eccentricities.
Similarly, Claremont's style amped up the Stan Lee's love of melodrama
while embracing many the genre's longest-standing conventions. Yet <i>Days Of Future Past </i>can
also read as if it were the Ur-Text for a great deal of the
mainstream's subsequent output until the present day. The roots of the
superhero book's long fascination with what's become known as 'grim and
gritty' tales are many and difficult to untwine. But in this tale of a
future Earth in which a fascist genocide of the mutant race has already
occurred, Claremont and Byrne popularly established a tradition of
alt-world tales in which all manner of appalling things could be
inflicted upon hapless superheroes. Unlike many of their successors,
however, Claremont and Byrne successfully fused the bombastic with the
sensitive and the meaningful, and <i>Days Of Future Past</i> is still - for all it's been constantly strip mined for lesser purposes since - a powerful and admirably succinct story.<br />
<br />
Reading
lists aren't by their very nature nought but a record of remarkable
innovation. Sometimes the way in which a genre's traditions are reframed
is as important as radical new developments. The Claremont/Byrne run on
<i>X-Men</i> is of significance for many reasons; an admirable respect
for female characters, a passionate concern with social justice played
out through metaphor, a concerted attempt to develop the super-book
without losing its traditional appeal, a winning fascination with
continuity as story-tool rather than fan-indulgence, and so on. In that,
Claremont and Byrne reshaped the superhero comic without
revolutionising it. The consequences of this echo loudly down to the present day, with <i>Days Of Future Past </i>in
particular being in many ways the cornerstone of so much of today's
superhero tales. Escaping its influence, or at least merging it with new
inputs, has challenged creators ever since. If a neophyte were to ask
for a single story which best summed up the history of the genre in film
as much as comics since the early 80s, then <i>Days Of Future Past </i>would surely be it. More than even <i>Watchmen</i> and Frank Miller's epochal <i>Batman</i>
tales, this is the most influential comicbook still directly affecting
the content of today's monthlies. For our purposes, it's also an example
of a supreme competency that provides the context for remarkable sequences. Claremont and Byrne weren't geniuses of the order of Eisner and Kirby, and, by all accounts, would never claim to be. But together, they created work that was so consistently able that moments of brilliance would inevitably - and laudably - occur. <i>Days Of Future Past</i>, it's hard not to believe, should be the
bar which all superhero tales aspire to reach as a matter of course.<br />
<br />
Less cheerfully,<i> Days Of Future Past</i>
marks the triumph of the superhero comic that's pretty much concerned
with no-one but superheroes. Where Ditko and Lee's Spider-Man featured a
single costumed crimefighter in the context of a commonplace existence,
the X-Men of the 80s focused on a huge cast of mutants who had little
if any lasting involvement in the everyday world. By the 21st century,
the corporate superhero comic would largely - if not exclusively -
concern itself with little beyond a large class of superhumans and their
fantastical existence. I suspect there's a significant correlation
between that and the continuing cultural peripherilisation of the superhero comic. <br />
<br />
<i>to be completed;</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-29331038137679129362015-09-14T12:11:00.001+01:002015-09-14T12:48:37.791+01:0040 More Splendid Comic Book Panels<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbqXPN11c6dP-IH1yZRWzEw3OtapbyFwPC1OWHRbBx8WVsGkuM3NmpyO_m-9w22CDAVNjXxlC4ODKu7umTCiIPC_U6ZOyLUIT363nHuGMktYJHE4Y9ktjznKzsN_Zhsxh9JX4xvfdwj-kL/s1600/--.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbqXPN11c6dP-IH1yZRWzEw3OtapbyFwPC1OWHRbBx8WVsGkuM3NmpyO_m-9w22CDAVNjXxlC4ODKu7umTCiIPC_U6ZOyLUIT363nHuGMktYJHE4Y9ktjznKzsN_Zhsxh9JX4xvfdwj-kL/s640/--.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1970's <i>The Flash</i> #201, by Robert Kanigher & Murphy Anderson, in which quinquagenarians Iris & Jay Garrick attend Earth 2's version of Woodstock. (Rather wry, that the Spiked General's lyrics appear to be gently mocking the <i>Make War No More</i> tag-line that had been added to all of DC's war stories during the period.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For almost four months now, the <i>TooBusyThinking</i> <a href="http://colsmi.tumblr.com/" target="_blank"><i><b>Tumblr </b></i></a>has featured a <i>Comics Panel Of The Day</i>. I've posted a collection of those frames here at<i> TBT</i><a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/50-great-comics-panels.html" target="_blank"> </a><i><b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" target="_blank">before</a></b></i>, and what follows is nothing less or more than the panels which have gone up at the Tumblr since. If you've a moment to fill, I hope this does the job....<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGG3SpbafeMoscXyczBB90Xy5nZ2Wln6uMQhXA5QihD3vkAL_oxpc2_Xfv-ryA3PAdsqFEV2c47tjReSd-fbacLROcP8ATGvktb4yU7gFnMPvvoDDqhwsHFc3OGQKZR-ojnEKf6gfODf6E/s1600/-%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGG3SpbafeMoscXyczBB90Xy5nZ2Wln6uMQhXA5QihD3vkAL_oxpc2_Xfv-ryA3PAdsqFEV2c47tjReSd-fbacLROcP8ATGvktb4yU7gFnMPvvoDDqhwsHFc3OGQKZR-ojnEKf6gfODf6E/s640/-%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rock and roll infiltrates the English comprehensve school: From <i>The Bash Street Kids</i>, by, I presume, Leo Baxendale, as reprinted - without any credits or further information -<i> in 2004′s Beano & The Dandy - Focus On The Fifties.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVOELxBJUlx1qUaxMMhKX7Shr1tK-BkLfxM_hXWCEfk5NjsjNq4xHLCtPXL8vNrB8gvOs7QVcnu9CI3YyslTxq_NnIeRLAjmRFMGRLSrg-S-Q68HNoJn09XUOHMC2xJY_fGNiv39BaZuE1/s1600/-%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVOELxBJUlx1qUaxMMhKX7Shr1tK-BkLfxM_hXWCEfk5NjsjNq4xHLCtPXL8vNrB8gvOs7QVcnu9CI3YyslTxq_NnIeRLAjmRFMGRLSrg-S-Q68HNoJn09XUOHMC2xJY_fGNiv39BaZuE1/s1600/-%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>Uzumaki (Spiral)</i>, by Junji Ito. Originally printed in Japan in 1988/9, the above is scanned from the 2010 English language edition by Viz.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirVOvMHUazbKhcLUOqHZFYQhygBemrAU8Rolh6Zl_t-44OG_QaiOuOwuRjimfZLe0ExkVMm_UR312KgsvbnqlF7LKDjuRN0M-zxD2x890mXSgblyTzBUbtZcN0OSRSfIHmEORLIScpDuyw/s1600/-%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirVOvMHUazbKhcLUOqHZFYQhygBemrAU8Rolh6Zl_t-44OG_QaiOuOwuRjimfZLe0ExkVMm_UR312KgsvbnqlF7LKDjuRN0M-zxD2x890mXSgblyTzBUbtZcN0OSRSfIHmEORLIScpDuyw/s1600/-%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2014′s <i>Better Days</i> in <i>Detective Comics</i> #27, by Peter J. Tomasi, Ian Betram et al</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1974′s <i>Sugar Jones,</i> as appeared in the<i> Pink Annual </i>1975.<i> </i>Sadly, the creators went uncredited.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2014′s <i><i>Abigail and the Snowman #1</i></i>, by Roger Langridge.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2015′s <i>E Is For Extinction #3, </i>by <i>Chris Burnham, Dennis Culver, Ramon Villalobos, Ian Herring et al.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-gCV04bRC_Iut1f95lpU3TMMGq5VO2WBANa6B6D92sPKqVCOHOgK95dtCEqZHtKdHJPUzUzCo4vTxn2tn5zBCuV3Nou9b4tRnVjTZbly5xNIuvI-2UmjqKPwwXR-GX31FwRXEeEgHR3XM/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-gCV04bRC_Iut1f95lpU3TMMGq5VO2WBANa6B6D92sPKqVCOHOgK95dtCEqZHtKdHJPUzUzCo4vTxn2tn5zBCuV3Nou9b4tRnVjTZbly5xNIuvI-2UmjqKPwwXR-GX31FwRXEeEgHR3XM/s640/--%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="602" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2006′s <i>The Arrival, </i>by Shaun Tan.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkw70Gh-8Klg6b5_CTCZeXShow_E6-TDInNmQkQKNwisziQYv_DOEGUKCHEctphJm5fiq140fV4fBGVI-X9nXPqa69GhWaEzlFlHiWKB7fdwiYF34BC3lq7_Yuhmx_4ClPca_wMSj9oxVW/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkw70Gh-8Klg6b5_CTCZeXShow_E6-TDInNmQkQKNwisziQYv_DOEGUKCHEctphJm5fiq140fV4fBGVI-X9nXPqa69GhWaEzlFlHiWKB7fdwiYF34BC3lq7_Yuhmx_4ClPca_wMSj9oxVW/s640/--%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="446" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1963′s <i>The Incredible Hulk #6, </i>by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko et al.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRZU37RyPygyshMFeXDYRaGKi5eBJjj7Svsphzl_JIih7BlECoW0HfEsR-KD2vyVL_kEgoRLZ4UFhFvl61WF6kFiBn70Jn2InfE9TxNHUaq__MUTUnIEI55mPEe1nW7xo7Z9LW73Afjp2z/s1600/-%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRZU37RyPygyshMFeXDYRaGKi5eBJjj7Svsphzl_JIih7BlECoW0HfEsR-KD2vyVL_kEgoRLZ4UFhFvl61WF6kFiBn70Jn2InfE9TxNHUaq__MUTUnIEI55mPEe1nW7xo7Z9LW73Afjp2z/s640/-%2523%2523.jpg" width="634" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1973′s <i>Rupert Annual</i> by Alfred E Bestall, his final bow on the character.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjFwv977mAM6azmcoP5Rf13vLyy8Ekw5d7GFr7Go2enyCudcrB0ObZQNNkO7FGJV80PeTg_0jMsrUaVGOXVQV0Gh85o7VwNG3gdQPqYBY_A-WTtQPKvSJXcfiZKEKQbNLSV1SJOYNWGxl8/s1600/--%2523%2523.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjFwv977mAM6azmcoP5Rf13vLyy8Ekw5d7GFr7Go2enyCudcrB0ObZQNNkO7FGJV80PeTg_0jMsrUaVGOXVQV0Gh85o7VwNG3gdQPqYBY_A-WTtQPKvSJXcfiZKEKQbNLSV1SJOYNWGxl8/s640/--%2523%2523.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1976′s <i>The Eternals </i>#1, by Jack Kirby with John Verpoorten, Gaspar & Glynis Wein.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmw-6hxIRuElyHqpogBHRzJiydoxsLohGeWhOof6xmY_cY6ALOZqgKPsJRGkzzx5BpWhYRPXCeOXBX_ruv858HD53FnJiBon17Th2krmbLf812VwpLETKUXLMdLU36Ld5pYsJoDMzSqAWy/s1600/--%2523%2523.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmw-6hxIRuElyHqpogBHRzJiydoxsLohGeWhOof6xmY_cY6ALOZqgKPsJRGkzzx5BpWhYRPXCeOXBX_ruv858HD53FnJiBon17Th2krmbLf812VwpLETKUXLMdLU36Ld5pYsJoDMzSqAWy/s640/--%2523%2523.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2015′s <i>Abe Sapien</i> #23, by Mike Mignola, Scott Allie, Kevin Nowlan et al.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuU4LVSKXJwNdq2WYbd8EPTSnFtregDlFQfhJ_2DB7ZIYtdNRCj9tlJ5BBZtu3pbc68YB1MvSs9yVrWmaH54yTmt79-xe0GBsN8sSfHGr8R_xNuhQN9Y0KBIqTAg2mPqxsfDcmPMS4xVRZ/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuU4LVSKXJwNdq2WYbd8EPTSnFtregDlFQfhJ_2DB7ZIYtdNRCj9tlJ5BBZtu3pbc68YB1MvSs9yVrWmaH54yTmt79-xe0GBsN8sSfHGr8R_xNuhQN9Y0KBIqTAg2mPqxsfDcmPMS4xVRZ/s640/--%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1977′s <i>Mrs Weber’s Diary </i>newspaper strip, by the great Posy Simmonds.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcFp9Dkwl0ywwhq4NjorXFKwhbJi5WSy0jruX3gQmkYQvG3rgLZvKxatQ9gi10C0XCqfAnsFESM3TixSRCNxc1EIA_Taetfykyvjiag0Bw967D5EsdvqwXITvLTKkox86tFAbn1MJxBMIL/s1600/-%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcFp9Dkwl0ywwhq4NjorXFKwhbJi5WSy0jruX3gQmkYQvG3rgLZvKxatQ9gi10C0XCqfAnsFESM3TixSRCNxc1EIA_Taetfykyvjiag0Bw967D5EsdvqwXITvLTKkox86tFAbn1MJxBMIL/s640/-%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Chapter 10, </i>by Pat Mills, Brian Bolland et al<i>, </i>as printed in 1978′s<i> 2000AD </i>#70<i>.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGxQaXOjjxwytNJTmq1AOJdOO8jmd1P5yQvuqoMQeGP3OdR8FoYJ0Ar2x7L8Yp0m6VnhallGaVnXyGOUmJUgI9HvUvExBChi-bIVBatZ8VT-CYAIjzqUW_naI5YSf3bwSxhoOpqqgeRiXj/s1600/--%2523%2523.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGxQaXOjjxwytNJTmq1AOJdOO8jmd1P5yQvuqoMQeGP3OdR8FoYJ0Ar2x7L8Yp0m6VnhallGaVnXyGOUmJUgI9HvUvExBChi-bIVBatZ8VT-CYAIjzqUW_naI5YSf3bwSxhoOpqqgeRiXj/s640/--%2523%2523.JPG" width="508" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1999′s <i>Star Spangled Comics #1, </i>by <i>Chris Weston, Geoff Johns et al.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIbjW2jKSykCTtHChhCKjcm3-y3beK5-zYUG6OXfO21O0YHVx0FcGWQ7B48AQMDnTZ4p9WSbPN4ZC6zv4oRs3InihQJTIQC5-ZVs9GQg-Fp7i6bmqKfBCIfy6txqnOqC58b5D9QFtaw6Rh/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIbjW2jKSykCTtHChhCKjcm3-y3beK5-zYUG6OXfO21O0YHVx0FcGWQ7B48AQMDnTZ4p9WSbPN4ZC6zv4oRs3InihQJTIQC5-ZVs9GQg-Fp7i6bmqKfBCIfy6txqnOqC58b5D9QFtaw6Rh/s640/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>The Sleeper Shall Awake!</i>, in December 1965’s <i>Tales Of Suspense</i> #72, by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, George Tuska et al<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZpmyyCdB1bpLGsRfMRxo31ra2LfWl88H0DNQIF1ZvbaKSwKR1aWi93eNqRiX_QwCWPEyWha6dkwN8w9oytm8J1dXUehdk5SbwTi_BVKNmgCCJKfN2Q-7IsbAqWe0F4WcQDcp7R__IDxjw/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZpmyyCdB1bpLGsRfMRxo31ra2LfWl88H0DNQIF1ZvbaKSwKR1aWi93eNqRiX_QwCWPEyWha6dkwN8w9oytm8J1dXUehdk5SbwTi_BVKNmgCCJKfN2Q-7IsbAqWe0F4WcQDcp7R__IDxjw/s640/--%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>Splodge</i> by, I believe, Ken H. Harrison, as published in <i>The Beano Book 2002</i>.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisHn-NtY0TdFai_tfDxzh6H526WOrWkg4Y2NatSjKonioePiGlU37bllrStXPXxWesQsyp-ZK-6C4pBPWuY3EUyjVoCPtL130eyu7G1VwdYW6vZGEBJ2-Km_OAFMRFkhuQvkJXdsxfJFob/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisHn-NtY0TdFai_tfDxzh6H526WOrWkg4Y2NatSjKonioePiGlU37bllrStXPXxWesQsyp-ZK-6C4pBPWuY3EUyjVoCPtL130eyu7G1VwdYW6vZGEBJ2-Km_OAFMRFkhuQvkJXdsxfJFob/s640/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="620" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 31/7/1944′s <i>Johnny Hazard</i> by Frank Robbins. <i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSv9OlIq72lwlpddbo-yQv0btkqiaOfRuQIfIrPDgVJ2ErljGa24NkIybKu5SHAElQmRbt7iau68Paeu0XtlEMl6BHvY8k0hKBiJMFvoF0FsJlEJs1f-vZSwSN528o2PF578Ptlw6ghHTh/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSv9OlIq72lwlpddbo-yQv0btkqiaOfRuQIfIrPDgVJ2ErljGa24NkIybKu5SHAElQmRbt7iau68Paeu0XtlEMl6BHvY8k0hKBiJMFvoF0FsJlEJs1f-vZSwSN528o2PF578Ptlw6ghHTh/s640/--%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2010′s <i>Thor The Mighty Avenger #1</i>, by Roger Langridge, Chris Samnee, Matthew Wilson et al<i>.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8h-pIgDHTHRl9sgq_GIOULOu7v23Gwhsk5N9S6lddD1poKddODPVEhhT8V8D7qOes15HKSoBv4zdKGxZ41z8KEQI_KtRgLVv7lfmIC-yKq_grWwTskmcRMTHnTk0QtwE0gRuRRHu-Kk9V/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="576" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8h-pIgDHTHRl9sgq_GIOULOu7v23Gwhsk5N9S6lddD1poKddODPVEhhT8V8D7qOes15HKSoBv4zdKGxZ41z8KEQI_KtRgLVv7lfmIC-yKq_grWwTskmcRMTHnTk0QtwE0gRuRRHu-Kk9V/s640/--%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2003′s <i>Jeremiah: Mercenaries</i>, by Hermann<i>.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxKIaXfJTDtW99pfsvqc59nTEELNQZA16IxYHID4q11sQ7ht81bw6hyO5UlEyjekZQUq7WpWQ1jgQHunEaGFTAfAv2ILcC6djwCHTJhZ_T8z-rcYBmGChme4y2lSwszsUvPAuL6TM3V4MV/s1600/---%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxKIaXfJTDtW99pfsvqc59nTEELNQZA16IxYHID4q11sQ7ht81bw6hyO5UlEyjekZQUq7WpWQ1jgQHunEaGFTAfAv2ILcC6djwCHTJhZ_T8z-rcYBmGChme4y2lSwszsUvPAuL6TM3V4MV/s640/---%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1983′s <i>Chronocops, </i>by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons, from <i>2000AD </i># 310.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlzdu7nBA_-ntnUzbWEckcbD2hfYuc4enNw1YjqwtzxBWQHXkj2qGwvZvEnRSkfG9zXbCvvbTOcF8WgBJ6nO9alHmJ2_cvTS9BHudyN3lZfuZAvWHaP1BmfPWXsaRG-3BAtOQIdDjb88OM/s1600/-%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="590" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlzdu7nBA_-ntnUzbWEckcbD2hfYuc4enNw1YjqwtzxBWQHXkj2qGwvZvEnRSkfG9zXbCvvbTOcF8WgBJ6nO9alHmJ2_cvTS9BHudyN3lZfuZAvWHaP1BmfPWXsaRG-3BAtOQIdDjb88OM/s640/-%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>The Mystery Legionnaire</i>, by Jerry Siegel, John Forte et al, which appeared in 1963′s <i>Adenture Comics #305.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdW7DoRtOhf6snu4N__ZCgEYl4xfhvrmaLcEvU1RriJL6orhEeTxGnLsFFaXpTRkonIguR00_nIH2POsKguWeyec4ywlS38gzRuptDz6CvCJQsFISG6BQwSypI6MK4n3JRQZ7YBYVm70a/s1600/-%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdW7DoRtOhf6snu4N__ZCgEYl4xfhvrmaLcEvU1RriJL6orhEeTxGnLsFFaXpTRkonIguR00_nIH2POsKguWeyec4ywlS38gzRuptDz6CvCJQsFISG6BQwSypI6MK4n3JRQZ7YBYVm70a/s640/-%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2015′s <i>Kaijumax</i> #1, by<i> Zander Cannon.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLQh4Jjna1J1-zvOCrfPokAzaXhgfN5cx-UrkQeZCwN3Pg5ToyW_hP0WzgIBQyfjIl3QRw06Xc1Fcp9ayiAaM87WEtwHZ7pTTbcgGwYmAoLfaolFY2xp23D8jR-CMSj3cUe8Ct4-VXGU4s/s1600/-%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLQh4Jjna1J1-zvOCrfPokAzaXhgfN5cx-UrkQeZCwN3Pg5ToyW_hP0WzgIBQyfjIl3QRw06Xc1Fcp9ayiAaM87WEtwHZ7pTTbcgGwYmAoLfaolFY2xp23D8jR-CMSj3cUe8Ct4-VXGU4s/s640/-%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>Our Sheriff’s An Ape</i>, as printed in <i>The Beezer Book</i> 1971<i>, </i>creator/s sadly uncredited.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivH2IrqapgWkt1NlOZgEK9HFHA9IkQpijoShus0gSTkUmrUswUnbnTIT7kKWFKnNU42YsryLQVreJfMC3BQUCQTV7nPSMbJg2AQ9gVsUhNFZhw5WMOPvyF5xk8e5kquMvXr5dRIpgY6twO/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivH2IrqapgWkt1NlOZgEK9HFHA9IkQpijoShus0gSTkUmrUswUnbnTIT7kKWFKnNU42YsryLQVreJfMC3BQUCQTV7nPSMbJg2AQ9gVsUhNFZhw5WMOPvyF5xk8e5kquMvXr5dRIpgY6twO/s640/--%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2011′s <i>Wolverine: Debt Of Death</i>, by David Lapham, David Aja, Bettie Breitweiser et al.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIy6mXBcl3Odi3pp_6wBzFXq7-0Z3P9g3BYFqlRiUJ5SapomLDnzeKcmMKB0BvDSfz_6WLUqYUsQA84MNE4zhiYit6FjHEOgsEb6vy3ScP3hvgGGnyDvQ_fYwrW4G1q1ngkdbIn5YyL3Ca/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIy6mXBcl3Odi3pp_6wBzFXq7-0Z3P9g3BYFqlRiUJ5SapomLDnzeKcmMKB0BvDSfz_6WLUqYUsQA84MNE4zhiYit6FjHEOgsEb6vy3ScP3hvgGGnyDvQ_fYwrW4G1q1ngkdbIn5YyL3Ca/s640/--%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1979′s <i>The Super Friends </i>#24<i>, </i>by Denny O’Neil, Ramona Fradon, Bob Smith etc al.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6PPD4UDvbFpWZuNIqI6Ll-Syye1S5RkK5SJECjBxWR3VRTep42wwrXOmf5TbmuVkyjINy_xRnHs1Pohgk4_rtntXm17C-_8a1xV0D_c_6k5eMoHWz1dJa_tfifPEyzMmAJT5vSWb-hHYo/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="544" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6PPD4UDvbFpWZuNIqI6Ll-Syye1S5RkK5SJECjBxWR3VRTep42wwrXOmf5TbmuVkyjINy_xRnHs1Pohgk4_rtntXm17C-_8a1xV0D_c_6k5eMoHWz1dJa_tfifPEyzMmAJT5vSWb-hHYo/s640/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the 2011 collected edition of Alan Grant & Arthur Ranson’s <i>Mazeworld</i>, with this frame having originally been published during 1998 in<i> 2000AD. </i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCB60rDLnYZvnzD6fdQ2qdn7UDQSvmHM4O0mC8ILzboA9rHDP2oCqN3Jgph_KFqZeyyMe0Mm7M0sA-oOF0qTE-0p7bPIQWfxJQvnpQl-Gerd9XL8ZVpw6oOsXsppH-yLr2BS_ezSsiLlyn/s1600/-%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCB60rDLnYZvnzD6fdQ2qdn7UDQSvmHM4O0mC8ILzboA9rHDP2oCqN3Jgph_KFqZeyyMe0Mm7M0sA-oOF0qTE-0p7bPIQWfxJQvnpQl-Gerd9XL8ZVpw6oOsXsppH-yLr2BS_ezSsiLlyn/s640/-%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="512" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From a 1964 instalment of <i>Dick Tracy</i>, by Chester Gould, as reprinted in 1990′s <i>Dick Tracy: America’s Most Famous Detective</i>.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOZhKy_QcIUxrj7E6YUgXGMawT1nHgTBzSs302RGqwDiD_ypgQ5eACtsA5OotBStEGWKNGmq0w-48tpFr0Cgr31iCw0p19gxr2jUUfJaT8F2xfF_hNxzxhZ-I8u6XCAj_XM1Dpx4xa5gtq/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOZhKy_QcIUxrj7E6YUgXGMawT1nHgTBzSs302RGqwDiD_ypgQ5eACtsA5OotBStEGWKNGmq0w-48tpFr0Cgr31iCw0p19gxr2jUUfJaT8F2xfF_hNxzxhZ-I8u6XCAj_XM1Dpx4xa5gtq/s640/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="530" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1998′s <i>Chronos #1</i>, by John Francis Moore, Paul Guinan, Steve Leialoha et al.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKeoVeXw4D4kBDNEMuvzkyif9wjPslY5Rhye-j2CyB47wFItjDr9uA1asYQdR-PKT4QDYIu1NI_88MO0oUjI4pLsTi3Z0oHTvCrs53Xgp5EGUfL4WVvBH6lgj1G3vToKsBXyw5xAiAXsmv/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKeoVeXw4D4kBDNEMuvzkyif9wjPslY5Rhye-j2CyB47wFItjDr9uA1asYQdR-PKT4QDYIu1NI_88MO0oUjI4pLsTi3Z0oHTvCrs53Xgp5EGUfL4WVvBH6lgj1G3vToKsBXyw5xAiAXsmv/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2014′s <i>Regular Show: Disaster 20</i>, by Jake Wyatt<i>, </i>as published in <i>Kaboom! Summer Blast!</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJbEwoFj1AEr1fV993SJx-9ochAw_D3_3RVAYPF4JVkai5z2ubOapRFxgCN2nJFyMmcfdzoZ-DwfTWwLe61kOXE40Q0rFCBSLcIpqYnXkAH8hzbnwaLP_5zk4MGDQGBke-2xsbRXMQD0uz/s1600/-%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJbEwoFj1AEr1fV993SJx-9ochAw_D3_3RVAYPF4JVkai5z2ubOapRFxgCN2nJFyMmcfdzoZ-DwfTWwLe61kOXE40Q0rFCBSLcIpqYnXkAH8hzbnwaLP_5zk4MGDQGBke-2xsbRXMQD0uz/s640/-%2523%2523.jpg" width="454" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1964′s <i>Aquaman </i>#18<i>, </i>by Jack Miller, Nick Cardy etc al.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcpN0h5AUqrtAa3G_MwwvjmtGO0CPBPLZaKi_0jtT-KGoFOPHQlyuI1dL27Ce06gvXy5h373TAmxOjJzT2cjI_ul59MHPVeyISFJmXV5JWLpgPHjztecZUDmaWSHJBRxx92-_AEV2-fBIy/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcpN0h5AUqrtAa3G_MwwvjmtGO0CPBPLZaKi_0jtT-KGoFOPHQlyuI1dL27Ce06gvXy5h373TAmxOjJzT2cjI_ul59MHPVeyISFJmXV5JWLpgPHjztecZUDmaWSHJBRxx92-_AEV2-fBIy/s640/--%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1947′s <i>Crime Toughest Guy</i>, by Peter Treadway & George Tuska, from <i>Crime Does Not Pay</i> #54.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuYuLXBUY_bVDxJlTTQCihsS5UoVXIXZcZnNS7kTwkG-gvjEZKGN0eSdlfd-SwirAsgjl1mufSMN93eQ3Wb6s76w9ky4oQQk444E7hgbmHVD07pBlcqp1rqWS9s1vYZCBHMDSsYmUTSADY/s1600/-%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuYuLXBUY_bVDxJlTTQCihsS5UoVXIXZcZnNS7kTwkG-gvjEZKGN0eSdlfd-SwirAsgjl1mufSMN93eQ3Wb6s76w9ky4oQQk444E7hgbmHVD07pBlcqp1rqWS9s1vYZCBHMDSsYmUTSADY/s640/-%2523%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1993′s adaptation of the movie <i>Bram Stoker’s Dracula</i>, by Mike Mignola, Roy Thomas, John Nyberg et al<i>.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyUtnu6gn5zhTrUz2DGBKNG6d2ZNAS6kH_O53jiJSnnPLptqMSQpvLbmZuU_XtPX7pirdt5EUceh4hTPGIx7-xX1J2yxbba9YOV4lsomtjHDInUzo22TWu5Nq-04qUGyENmlNIeXO4r0ul/s1600/-%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyUtnu6gn5zhTrUz2DGBKNG6d2ZNAS6kH_O53jiJSnnPLptqMSQpvLbmZuU_XtPX7pirdt5EUceh4hTPGIx7-xX1J2yxbba9YOV4lsomtjHDInUzo22TWu5Nq-04qUGyENmlNIeXO4r0ul/s640/-%2523%2523.jpg" width="419" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From1998′s<i> Madman/The Jam #1</i>, by Mike Allred, Bernie Mireault et al. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZVBL3EaqtCt8wEwzp0mHoYQXQMLcL2VG0pMpcIaRZ6DbgwYFfEHfvSIBOkrnZtbmw6Ze3LvMjmOAUjIVCo4WJ628eOhAQlf5-9TRr78qa3whR_SDFej-WxlzmeVB3swc-g_hwT2qgXNb7/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZVBL3EaqtCt8wEwzp0mHoYQXQMLcL2VG0pMpcIaRZ6DbgwYFfEHfvSIBOkrnZtbmw6Ze3LvMjmOAUjIVCo4WJ628eOhAQlf5-9TRr78qa3whR_SDFej-WxlzmeVB3swc-g_hwT2qgXNb7/s640/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="468" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1959′s <i>Roy Of The Rovers: Spend A Day With Roy Race</i>, as reprinted in 2009′s <i>The Second Bumper Book Of Roy Of The Rovers</i>, which sadly failed to mention either who created the strips or where the stories originally appeared.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZns3c2jX8qlisiydpnrGYLNNmqBAbZH4Scw6d5DJV8fDJdptbFYhVi_UTjJStMwcLAWgA2jlhABO_X-HzuTgLQYiIZ_CkVhtXrUcUryctlDNHfQTrJmD9zouk7VpTybYDLziIzH6nrqH/s1600/-%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZns3c2jX8qlisiydpnrGYLNNmqBAbZH4Scw6d5DJV8fDJdptbFYhVi_UTjJStMwcLAWgA2jlhABO_X-HzuTgLQYiIZ_CkVhtXrUcUryctlDNHfQTrJmD9zouk7VpTybYDLziIzH6nrqH/s640/-%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1997′s <i>Star Seed</i>, by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Howard Porter et al, as printed in <i>JLA Secret Files </i>#1.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj82DG1rbkJefrEa0Q6DIt40clNyoxDGEubyNtABaVlu4Vy_bEserqpelPDqXS3F5NktHLobWTC0LwqeKaaNeUWQXM3K5btFicpwEx0i77HAfxzAadrOpPM_ErMP3gPMgkczuV821jupHpL/s1600/--%2523%2523.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj82DG1rbkJefrEa0Q6DIt40clNyoxDGEubyNtABaVlu4Vy_bEserqpelPDqXS3F5NktHLobWTC0LwqeKaaNeUWQXM3K5btFicpwEx0i77HAfxzAadrOpPM_ErMP3gPMgkczuV821jupHpL/s1600/--%2523%2523.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2000′s <i>Streetwise</i>, by Nick Cardy<i>.</i></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8phvv4GWOOaRjV094wqxiY04lCG3fwcNxhk0R6AnYvbzj8voPXItG3o7h-x6YonQtuDz9B8Q1Z5VpHrD80gN1ST7X-33oXgVREtPqC356zYxO8lOPGZ8AFP_xnKOo9rG2ieGDsvA8xi1j/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8phvv4GWOOaRjV094wqxiY04lCG3fwcNxhk0R6AnYvbzj8voPXItG3o7h-x6YonQtuDz9B8Q1Z5VpHrD80gN1ST7X-33oXgVREtPqC356zYxO8lOPGZ8AFP_xnKOo9rG2ieGDsvA8xi1j/s640/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1969′s <i>Wonder Woman #1</i>84, by Mike Sekowsky, Dick Giordano et al<i>.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9ccoE7Cq8RW06qIzxTozkPK71kgqTi80HGAucPWfdFbC88idYyXQr-IcW3uYwM4hj0xUm9MmO8-bNf-PyssHniCsevxQE8fg79U_Pte3Vl6VzsHDAUusPcs21rJJShc2voL8qR-UG9PJy/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9ccoE7Cq8RW06qIzxTozkPK71kgqTi80HGAucPWfdFbC88idYyXQr-IcW3uYwM4hj0xUm9MmO8-bNf-PyssHniCsevxQE8fg79U_Pte3Vl6VzsHDAUusPcs21rJJShc2voL8qR-UG9PJy/s640/--%2523%2523%2523.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>The Stealer in</i> <i>Whoopee</i>! <i>Annual </i>1975, whose creators, I’m sad to say, went uncredited.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWkUDdUBfnz_H6hP6V1ZwKt4aXbSftCik9ss7OKou5g3CrtKpRZW30nrWGoZhG9AEZtkrs7dvI56wUKMEIlK_s939V5pMggCPBPJU2q_K2BVNR-_XbZLb9RIE7YTD5x45thTfPFOIUyTxa/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWkUDdUBfnz_H6hP6V1ZwKt4aXbSftCik9ss7OKou5g3CrtKpRZW30nrWGoZhG9AEZtkrs7dvI56wUKMEIlK_s939V5pMggCPBPJU2q_K2BVNR-_XbZLb9RIE7YTD5x45thTfPFOIUyTxa/s1600/--%2523%2523%2523%2523.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1985′s <i>Johnny Nemo Magazine #1, </i>by Peter Milligan & Brett Ewins, as reprinted in 1989′s <i>Johnny Nemo</i> from Deadline Books.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYAoTHNRw9L75oRDYj7kVxQYZ6x1eDysN7-0qZqgWjwbh_2NSKXXUESUwM5jLq2jMxABSu4UY-5sCUw_kOjTBdm3WXq4Am-TYQZXzNsxUVPOKsllJBz72362c7scTLtZGlRTY6NZQkuBQj/s1600/-.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYAoTHNRw9L75oRDYj7kVxQYZ6x1eDysN7-0qZqgWjwbh_2NSKXXUESUwM5jLq2jMxABSu4UY-5sCUw_kOjTBdm3WXq4Am-TYQZXzNsxUVPOKsllJBz72362c7scTLtZGlRTY6NZQkuBQj/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1971's <i>The Flash </i>#209, by Cary Bates, Irv Novick, Dick Giordano et al. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-53169216129872515042015-09-09T22:31:00.000+01:002015-09-09T22:38:48.193+01:00Some Thoughts On 2014's 'The Flash: Pilot'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The pilot episode of <i>The Flash</i> appears to quiver with a
determination to succeed that's frequently indistinguishable from desperation.
As if unaware that superhero tales are the mainstream's money-spinning order of
the day, the show's creators kick off with a palpable resolve to appeal to as
broad an audience as possible. Perhaps that anxiety is nought but the product
of some remarkably flat writing, and perhaps that was the result of a diktat or
twelve imposed from higher up the production processes' chain of suits. But whatever its cause, the result is a story that's repeatably both timid and banal.<br />
<br />
Neither
lead actor Grant Gustin's considerable charm nor the sporadic brio of the
action sequences can fully compensate for the production's safety-first assumption that the audience is emotionally and imaginatively stunted. Accordingly,<i> The Flash: Pilot </i>is a show that tells us what to think and feel, and
then, with all the deliberateness of a ploddingly patient remedial teacher, tells
us all over again. More patronising yet, it swiftly signals up that whatever thoughts and emotions are going to be suggested will be reassuringly stripped of all complexity and intensity. The shock of the new, or even of the convincingly heartfelt, will just have to shock elsewhere. The cast are predictably handsome when not outrageously beautiful, comfortable, uncomplicated, and, through no fault of their
own, almost entirely facile. Even those rare moments which stray close
to feeling, such as the young Barry Allen's beating in the programme's
first five minutes, are kept free of anything that might actually disturb. Has
there ever been a pummelling in a small-screen drama marketed at adults that's so utterly denuded of pain
and humiliation? It's violence as an exercise in threat-stripped nostalgia, an obvious feint of pathetically faked punches and notably absent sound-effects. Since the previous scene had already joyously declared that Allen is eventually to become the fastest man alive, his younger self's faux-mauling carries no threat at all. All this will soon be over. None of this will truly matter. Desperate not to overly tax our minds or hearts, <i>The Flash</i> protects the viewer from all uncertainty and despair beyond the passing mystery of
Harrison Wells' somewhat suspicious behaviour. <br />
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When the fundamentally agreeable Guskin is onscreen, it's impossible not to empathise with <i>The Flash's </i>boilerplate dilemmas. But in the moments when he's absent, and with the glorious menace of Tom Cavanagh's Reverse Flash as yet hidden from view, the show sits as flat as any run-of-the-mill, pre-Whedon bubble of affectless inconsequentially.<i> </i>The obviousness of the production's faintheartedness extends to its attempts to project <i>Pilot </i>as something other than a superhero show. Yet embedding <i>The Flash</i> in the least challenging traditions of the police procedural only lends <i>Pilot </i>an unhelpful air of obsolescence. Rather than delivering a sense of comforting 21st century familiarity, it stupefies with its archaic inappropriateness. (By contrast, 1981's <i>Hill Street Blues</i> makes the pilot's approach look profoundly conservative in both style and substance.) Equally, striving for an old-school Western's approach to the framing of showdowns when Allen and weather-controlling meanie Clyde Mardon clash only amplifies the sense of timourness. Lifting a hint of Sherlock Holmes' eccentricities without the slightest
suggestion of inspiration, Barry Allen's superior deductive abilities
are supposedly established by having him lie eccentrically on a sidewalk
while sniffing a trace of 'fecal matter'. So artless is the
appropriation that any sense of Allen as an individual dissolves into
this poor impersonation of a pop-culture icon.<br />
<br />
These aren't examples of post-modern playfulness so much as a worn-through patchwork of barely warmed-over cliches being idly substituted for craft and imagination. For all the occasional verve of <i>The Flash's</i> action sequences, and despite the periodic and promising attempts to ground the action in urban mundanity, the overall result is a tame expression of bottom-line fearfulness. Put up with the silliness of the superhero material, we seem to be being assured, and the showrunners of <i>The Flash</i> will ensure it delivers a reassuring mass of numbingly familiar humdrum. It's a calculation that appears to assume that fans of superheroics will put up with any amount of mediocrity in return for five minutes of costumes-on action and a general lack of scorn for the broadest conventions of the genre. To the makers of <i>The Flash</i>, the problem seems to be all those other millions of potential viewers, who care little if anything at all for super-people and their super-quarrels, while appearing to want nothing more than nothing much at all from their viewing. <br />
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Least appealing of all is the show's script, which, laced with a deadening weight of earnestness and bromide, reduces every actor's role to its melodramatic fundamentals. Characters such as Caitlin Snow, Joe West and Eddie Thawne never rise above the status of the least substantial type, although they do at least offer easily-identifiable stereotypes for the cast to inhabit. But John Wesley Snipp, as The Flash's long-imprisoned father, is called upon to impersonate the human equivalent of a weather-beaten woollen square upon which oldy-worldly homilies have been ham-fistedly sown. The poor man does his best. "I love you son", Snipp declares in the pilot, as if the audience needs emotional truths spelt out as one might the contents of a shopping list for a sadly occluded child. Of course, Guskin is lent a matching declaration of love in return, for there are no hidden depths in <i>The Flash</i>, where sub-text and text are nearly always one and the same. If there's a tragedy at play in that scene, it's that of two able actors being asked to emote with such little material to rely upon. That love might be displayed rather than declaimed, and that the audience might have the patience to watch such a relationship unfolding, clearly never occurs to the pilot's makers.<br />
<br />
Similarly, when the brutally martyred Mrs Allen appears briefly in flashback, she's seen through a haze of techno-Vaseline and obscured by a saint's entirely unsullied virtue. With nothing of the unsettling distance between reality and perfection suggested by a Norman Rockwell painting of a family Christmas dinner, the Allens are so tritely angelic that they inspire only snickering and yawns. Even little Barry is already a moral paragon, perpetually taking punches in defiance of the bullies who prey on his uncool classmates. Where can a character go, when he's already a superhero-in-waiting while in primary school?<br />
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Show not tell would surely be a tenet of the Wise Old Owl, and few must be the number of Film Studies courses that would pass a script so determinedly ladened in exposition as <i>Pilot</i>. When Caitlan Snow's private suffering is revealed, it's reeled out as a flatly literal litany
of loss. When Barry Allen encounters the Reverse Flash in his disguise of Harrison Wells, he announces that he's 'always wanted to meet' the elder man. When Iris West meets Allen for the first time after his nine months in a coma, she declares that he's 'awake', as if the blindingly evident observation might underscore her qualities as a journalist. When Joe West and Allen clash over the identity of a mystery super-villain, the ensuing argument spells out twenty years of backstory in painfully literal soap-speak. And so on, and on. Only rarely is action
allowed to trump speechifying. When Doctor Snow ineptly
greets the freshly-awakened Allen with a request for him to pee into a
test-tube, her guilelessness reveals something of her personality. In that moment, we're trusted to pay attention and rewarded with a chuckle too. A rare, passing marker of
competency, it suggest the writers lacked only the will to polish
their beats into a serviceable drama. <br />
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With no little irony, it's the stuff of the superhero genre that, combined with Gustin's <i>gee-whiz-me</i> charisma, ends up saving the show. Whether it's his wrist-breaking test run in an absurdly bare-limbed experimental get-up or his bafflement at racing cross-country in a second, the mix of modest protagonist with absurdly prodigious abilities beguiles. Chad Rock's given no chance to convince, let alone shine, as the run-of-the-mill psychopath that's the episode's protagonist, and yet, in the very same frames, Gustin's bravery and vulnerability charms as it convinces. It's this performance that stays in the mind after <i>Pilot's</i> credits close, a portrayal of a superhero that's second only to Christopher Reeves as Superman. In his wake, a small but promising scattering of costumed crimefighter traditions appear all the more convincing and compelling; a newspaper from the future, a mysterious secret hideout, a developing population of superhumans, the red skies of a crisis, the suggestion of a yellow-costumed speedster at the scene of Mrs Allen's murder, and so on. These would be the generic qualities that would ensure the first season's success, while the safety net of all those primetime cliches would prove to have never been necessary in the first place. In a world in which three of the highest grossing movies of all time are superhero films from the past few years, who could ever have imagined differently?<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-41630521011311903202015-09-04T11:54:00.001+01:002015-09-04T18:36:21.251+01:00Reading For Absences; On Growing Up With Comics That Didn't Remotely Reflect America - A Friday Guest Post By Osvaldo Oyola<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><i><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This
week's Friday guest post is an autobiographical piece by Osvaldo Oyola that's as insightful as it's charming. Chatting with Osvaldo in the comment boxes of posts here at TooBusyThinking has always been a pleasure, and his thought-provoking blog <a href="https://themiddlespaces.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">The Middle Spaces</a> is one I regularly visit and enjoy. With a shameful degree of chutzpah, I asked Osvaldo if he'd consider writing about the stories that had caused his youthful self to question the way in which comics represent society. Graciously, he set about the task and I couldn't be more chuffed with the result. For many of us who grew up in Britain reading American comics, New York was a kind of wonderland. As such, Osvaldo's account of not just growing up in NYC, but reading and questioning comicbooks there carries a real charge of fascination. </span></i><br />
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">You can find Osvaldo on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/themiddlespaces" target="_blank">here</a>. In addition to his own blog, he's also contributed to The Hooded Utilitarian <a href="http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/" target="_blank">blog</a> and Bronze Age Babes <a href="http://bronzeagebabies.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">too</a>. </span></i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8MfECLfjp8pGahLt_wzsMm6_ExqvZgCleUJMOcQMnnl7qshJRea0SChlxXD3taLV8auFPLKIkfAMyVFuvM9yG2OE6kYkfGOEIB_rFEcyBBPLt8ZyL5WAIh63VU25h540G4FPN_0jYOruI/s1600/ASM233-235+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8MfECLfjp8pGahLt_wzsMm6_ExqvZgCleUJMOcQMnnl7qshJRea0SChlxXD3taLV8auFPLKIkfAMyVFuvM9yG2OE6kYkfGOEIB_rFEcyBBPLt8ZyL5WAIh63VU25h540G4FPN_0jYOruI/s640/ASM233-235+%25282%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Issues from 1982 of <i>Amazing Spider-Man</i>, by Roget Stern, John Romoita Jr et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US">When I think about becoming aware of the
fact that, despite my love of superhero comics, they did not remotely reflect the
New York City, the America, I grew up living in, I think of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Amazing Spider-Man</i> #235. I was mostly a
Marvel Comics kid, so there was no recourse to claiming that Metropolis is not
a real place, even if we all know it is supposed to be one view of New York,
just as Gotham is another. Marvel was supposed to be “The World Outside Your Window,”
but the more I learned to really look, the harder it became to believe that
claim. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ASM</i> #235 came out in August of
1982, so I was entering 6<sup>th</sup> grade. There is nothing particularly
socially relevant about the Roger Stern-penned issue (with pencils by John Romita.
Jr.), but it was the first time I sought out a comic because it had a Latino
character - Tarantula. (I’ve briefly written about this before when I wrote
<a href="https://themiddlespaces.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/on-collecting-comics-critical-nostalgia/" target="_blank">an overview of my collecting practices</a>.) My
friend and classmate Reynaldo told me he’d gotten <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Amazing Spider-Man</i> #233 and that it featured a guy that might be
Puerto Rican.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We couldn’t be sure (and
it’d turn out we were wrong), but it was the first time either of us had
noticed a character who spoke in the mix of Spanish and English that we did in our
day to day lives. To quote what I wrote last year, </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">“So what if he
was a villain? For a moment his visibility in the Marvel Universe was our
visibility. We were being fed a stereotypical Latin American revolutionary
villain type who turns out to be just another greedy thief, but our hunger for
representation made the possibilities he represented delicious…with his pointy
shoes, red outfit and bandanna, Tarantula was not all that different from some
of the sketchy neighborhood characters we feared and admired.”</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnub_QJq52-zbvzyAk1oFb8tWygxr4z7w7ucKyer1tvvXrocSsw261HI2bXFUm_teM5gmcGm1nGtxV1AScw0Yu_jfSg0R8Yw0aF67rzChn0ostobG22BFGamOC3HsY5Ycgf9atHsK2Llcu/s1600/ASM135-Tarantula-Org.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="632" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnub_QJq52-zbvzyAk1oFb8tWygxr4z7w7ucKyer1tvvXrocSsw261HI2bXFUm_teM5gmcGm1nGtxV1AScw0Yu_jfSg0R8Yw0aF67rzChn0ostobG22BFGamOC3HsY5Ycgf9atHsK2Llcu/s640/ASM135-Tarantula-Org.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>Amazing Spider-Man</i> #135</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US">Yes, Tarantula was first introduced way
back in the early 70s, but we didn’t know that. Everything in the world of
superhero comics was fresh and new to us. What did we know of White
Tiger—Marvel’s first Puerto Rican superhero—and his cancelled series in the
1970s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu</i> mag,
who would not even be allowed to be a hero without developing a junkie’s
personality regarding his powers? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvCTAeOu0vOVoJmS1if5Bj4eSSi5-02ZPfe9DD05fk6B7fK0gsy3TEnJanKn14kPtXBmgLiqkRy9WuAQuDftWHt6UzKvVVndqSZAwdJm23xEAXCihpo7YA8nTpKDm2u0Ed4rhLoOSH72yN/s1600/DHoKF22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvCTAeOu0vOVoJmS1if5Bj4eSSi5-02ZPfe9DD05fk6B7fK0gsy3TEnJanKn14kPtXBmgLiqkRy9WuAQuDftWHt6UzKvVVndqSZAwdJm23xEAXCihpo7YA8nTpKDm2u0Ed4rhLoOSH72yN/s640/DHoKF22.jpg" width="472" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1976's Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu, cover by Bob Larkin, White Tiger tale by Bill Mantlo, Keith Giffen, Rivo Rival et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US">Perhaps
Tarantula was a sign of something I would not have been able to even verbalize
until I got my hands on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Amazing
Spider-Man</i> #235, the need for the Marvel Universe to reflect something more
like the world I existed in. Suddenly, the stark absence of Latino characters
was made real by the presence of a C-lister who would turn out to be from a
fictional country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe Tarantula was a
sign of the progress we’d been promised, the narrative we’d absorbed
unthinkingly that the world would come to accept us more, that we could be
whatever we wanted, without knowing that the dominant culture decides what the
world looks like regardless of what we might see with our eyes and experience
for ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All you need do is
consider how there is still no Latino equivalent of even Black second-string
characters like Luke Cage and Black Panther to understand the degree to which
such representation is a low priority in the superhero milieu (even Miles
Morales doesn’t count, the kid can’t do it all alone, and as far as I know the
Brian Michael Bendis has never bothered to explore Miles’ relationship to his
Latinidad).<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>To a couple of 11-year
old Puerto Rican kids <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Amazing Spider-Man</i>
#235 seemed like a moment of promise, but was really a seed for ongoing
cognitive dissonance.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIGeQ9nQRp8TjyyFc5vkH3xN5M_B2mlUDqoCjzC69wFZb3lDQuotnf0wIGmBtISa7N1y_iiCJC4FSRP8ErqwJYEbboS3mwUlcyu2_cg_DDgZJxryovbdA5ZlP6RxvIE7MTHiSo8PKV_ajo/s1600/Marvel%2527s_Greatest_Comics_Vol_1_39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIGeQ9nQRp8TjyyFc5vkH3xN5M_B2mlUDqoCjzC69wFZb3lDQuotnf0wIGmBtISa7N1y_iiCJC4FSRP8ErqwJYEbboS3mwUlcyu2_cg_DDgZJxryovbdA5ZlP6RxvIE7MTHiSo8PKV_ajo/s640/Marvel%2527s_Greatest_Comics_Vol_1_39.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1972's <i>Marvel's Greatest Comics</i> #39, cover by Jim Starlin, Joe Sinnott et al, interior by Kirby, Lee, Sinnott et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US">Earlier that same summer I was introduced
to the Black Panther. Well, not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">introduced;</i>
I knew he existed and had seen him in a few older issues of <i>Avengers</i> and maybe
an issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marvel Team-Up</i>, but that
summer I scored a box of Kirby-era <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fantastic
Four</i> tales as reprinted in the pages of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marvel’s
Greatest Comics</i>. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">MGC</i> #39
represented the first appearance of T’Challa and the FF’s visit to Wakanda and I
was fascinated by his need to prove himself against Marvel’s First Family.
Black Panther was the kind of character who stood apart from the rest of the
superhero world, and even if later he’d be just as wrapped up in the assumptions of
American Exceptionalism as any other superhero comic character, I sensed there
was something special about him. Despite joining the Avengers or becoming a
teacher in a New York City public school (things they’d had him do way after
his first appearances), his very presence and the existence of Wakanda made
those editorial choices seem strange even to my young mind. An African
character couldn’t exist in his own world, for his own sake, but had to be made
to matter in terms of our own. I wouldn’t read Don McGregor’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jungle Action</i> run of Black Panther until
just last year, and if you ask me, the stories are no better being set in
Wakanda. The unspoken assumptions about African people echo loudly.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwxz1OaqxV8ounbzQ6X8hKjJKXujy6EXykwIXsjS6kEbsYtp9dskBcNv-P5geQ9nJvu5SOBeI6CFdG9X4i72oIblw7qiwkLiyzr4F5GnyHtu5R6QNZi8EIovAvZu_ui59gRBbCqW21klV-/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwxz1OaqxV8ounbzQ6X8hKjJKXujy6EXykwIXsjS6kEbsYtp9dskBcNv-P5geQ9nJvu5SOBeI6CFdG9X4i72oIblw7qiwkLiyzr4F5GnyHtu5R6QNZi8EIovAvZu_ui59gRBbCqW21klV-/s640/-.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kirby, Lee & Sinnott's <i>Fantastic Four</i> #52, from where the reprint in <i>MGC</i>#39 originated.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US">I found those issues of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marvel’s Greatest Comics</i> at an outdoor
flea market near Chinatown in </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a stall full of boxes and boxes of
comics—more comics than I’d ever seen in one place before. </span><span lang="EN-US">Most of the comics were priced out of my range (or at least out of
the range within which I could convince my mom to pay for them—I didn’t have
an allowance), but nearly 10 year old reprint comics were affordable at
something like 25 cents apiece. These days they are probably worth less than
the paper they’re printed on, but they were invaluable to me. Calling out to my
mom to come find me where wherever she was browsing, I anxiously waited by the
box, afraid the issues might disappear if I went to go find her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was near closing time and the sky was
threatening rain. The guys running the stall were already packing up
(explaining why I was able to negotiate a good price for the already cheap
comics. I’d leave with nearly 40 issues for less than 10 bucks). My cries
caught the attention of people around me. Among them, strangely enough, was a
newswoman for a local cable news program and her cameraman, doing a local
interest story about the flea market. I didn’t know what cable TV was—it hadn’t
reached Brooklyn, yet—but when she asked me if I wanted to be on TV I didn’t
hesitate. Suddenly, I was being expected to answer questions about the comics I
collected—questions I had never really considered before. In that moment—though
it would only be clear to me many many years later when comics would become a
crucial part of my scholarship—I was being asked for the first time to express
my expertise with comics, which meant I had to develop a vocabulary for one. I
may have had an 11-year old’s limited conception of the imbricated layers of
comic industry, art, and cultural practice, but I was also deeply embedded in a
moment that would in retrospect demonstrate how all three could shape
identity—their influence spreading both into the private domain I created by
piecing together comic narratives as I started to see myself as a “collector,”
and out into a public world where the cultural weight of these characters and
the economic reality of the industry determined their availability for use in
that private imaginative world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I never
got to see that news segment, and thus myself on TV. I don’t even have a way of
knowing if that interview ended up on the air, but whatever I said (I don’t
even remember) felt important, and clearly there is no overestimating the
importance of Jack “King” Kirby on comics, but it was a crucial moment for me both
in the discovery itself and the circumstances surrounding it. I started
thinking about<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> why</i> I sought out the
comics I enjoyed.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZu60kZEj7fbzU46FHUlMOzplffqsKR4pwZeVJcUtfjT6DEx7yuHiShJzkv67n97DX2-4orniObA2sKLJdf5ke07g0_zhn7dNP2OQSYebGL5C6WWHMUJuKv8kWzGutr_G12zve5kDyE0ph/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZu60kZEj7fbzU46FHUlMOzplffqsKR4pwZeVJcUtfjT6DEx7yuHiShJzkv67n97DX2-4orniObA2sKLJdf5ke07g0_zhn7dNP2OQSYebGL5C6WWHMUJuKv8kWzGutr_G12zve5kDyE0ph/s640/-.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1984's <i>Power Pack </i>#1, by Louise Simonson, June Brigman, Bob Wiacek et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US">I don’t remember why I sought out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Power Pack</i> #1 when it came out (in 1984),
but I loved it. I followed that series as closely as I could follow any series
back then, before the days of access to a comic shop, direct distribution, a
pull-list and a direct source of income. Of course, I couldn’t rave about it
too much at the time: liking a comic about four vanilla kids would not
have been cool. But having recently collected the entire Louise Simonson-penned
run and re-read it, I find it really holds up and it is clear to me what was so
appealing to me about it at age 13. It treated kids with respect. It captured
the voices of children, was a comic about children, for children, and took
their concerns seriously. The central concern of the Power children was whether
or not they should inform their parents about their secret identities, and the
way their opinions shifted as they considered the consequences of such an act
still ring true to the sensitive and intelligent potential of kids. I think
kids develop and keep secrets because they see them as a central part of adult
life, where many an obvious thing goes unremarked upon or willfully
denied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The translation of such a
perspective into the superhero world, what with its masks, secret plans,
misunderstandings and moral dilemmas, makes perfect sense to me. It is also
clear that despite living in 1980s New York City race was one those things that
went uncommented on. This is most obvious when Simonson brings the crack
epidemic in as the backdrop for a plot about some homeless criminal
super-powered teens in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Power Pack</i> #31
and 32 (1987) and the Power’s kids lack of sympathy for them. I plan to write
with in more depth about the series in the near future, but re-reading it in my
40s I was struck with how superhero comics are failing kids by not providing
them the kind of complex representations of moral quandaries that are analogous
to their own lives. It is for this reason, I think, that the current <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ms. Marvel</i> series is so successful. It
gets teenage life right.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicrbQpQnfJ70ZFXBbNrK13pNOtH-CRD0R5QQqgYxNgODB7R8lB07OdUgq9MkJQ-VUJQIhNsiRgk5nveWxcdprw3iRMzBYIi8iBHnVRUD3HkDAtusdPgT_eSzZL5l8fJJQqOa8bg6Q23SHb/s1600/Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_281.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicrbQpQnfJ70ZFXBbNrK13pNOtH-CRD0R5QQqgYxNgODB7R8lB07OdUgq9MkJQ-VUJQIhNsiRgk5nveWxcdprw3iRMzBYIi8iBHnVRUD3HkDAtusdPgT_eSzZL5l8fJJQqOa8bg6Q23SHb/s640/Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_281.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1985's <i>Fantastic Four</i> #281, by John Byrne, Jerry Ordway et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Fantastic
Four </span></i><span lang="EN-US">#281 (August 1985) is another example of a
comic that got me thinking, perhaps unintentionally about representation in
comics. In becoming the malevolent Malice through the influence of the power of
Hate-Monger, it became clear what only some readers had up-to-then considered a
possibility; Sue Richards, the Invisible Girl (she’d be a “woman” soon)
was the most powerful member of the Fantastic Four. Despite some deeply
problematic assumptions inherent <a href="https://themiddlespaces.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/misogyny-to-the-rescue/" target="_blank">in </a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" target="_blank">how Reed adopts a misogynist attitude to defeat his wife</a> in her new guise, John
Byrne worked to slowly build Sue’s character towards her adoption of a new more
appropriate name: the Invisible Woman. While more than likely Byrne was only
trying to address the underwhelming way that Sue had been written since back in
the Kirby days rather than actually make some kind of overtly feminist
statement, having read those <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marvel’s
Greatest Comics</i> made me realize not only how overdue such a handling of the
character actually was, but how similar problems plagued even the most capable
of female characters in superhero comics.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US">Again, noting absences, reading against the
grain, led to a fuller understanding of was going on in comics. Such a degree
discernment is a frequent part of engaged comics reading, but the lens too
often is focused on the convolution of continuity, not the quality of
representation.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwHnH4lkb44pVpZSMiDeFe-9gB7nKgHOBq_1VinDO6-2toyNXpv1vfnHLp8Lh6edaSLRR1andm6DdnCZc2iY3jObqlOrlvhTGXePDGFd1SPko6xj3-ygMHlStZtVpulm-zOzvkDH_9Zncp/s1600/tFoS-cov.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwHnH4lkb44pVpZSMiDeFe-9gB7nKgHOBq_1VinDO6-2toyNXpv1vfnHLp8Lh6edaSLRR1andm6DdnCZc2iY3jObqlOrlvhTGXePDGFd1SPko6xj3-ygMHlStZtVpulm-zOzvkDH_9Zncp/s640/tFoS-cov.jpg" width="406" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US">I
took a long break from collecting comics, basically from 1988 to around 2002 or
so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the late 90s I started reading
some again. I borrowed them from friends and housemates, but it wasn’t until I
had my first “real” job that afforded me some disposable income and a lunch
hour long enough to take the walk up to Forbidden Planet near Union Square that
I slowly got sucked into comics again. However, it wasn’t until I re-read
Jonathan Lethem’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fortress of
Solitude</i> for a grad school seminar in 2007 that I started to take comics
seriously as an object of study. It is for this reason, that despite not being
a comic in and of itself, I am including the book in this “autobiographical”
list.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US">Lethem’s re-use of the traditions of (mostly) Marvel Comics to
evoke the strange absurdities of race, geography and identity, and his
masterful entwining of comics and music and graffiti, speaks to my experience as
a kid growing up in a complex social and economic Brooklyn landscape in the
1970s. I’d end up writing my Master’s thesis on the book, and including a
chapter on it in my doctoral dissertation five years later. The novel allowed
me to begin to put words to what had been my experience reading comics since
childhood. It addressed that very silence in issues of race and gender by means
of the protagonist’s understanding the world (in part) through his contact with
superhero comics, as in when he struggles with the “colorblindness” his mother
tries to instill in him in light of the racial quagmire of his gentrifying
borough:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span lang="EN-US">“Black Bolt couldn’t open his mouth because a single syllable of his
speech was so powerful it might crack the world apart.” </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPyfWJIPaBOs_yYtyIGXhGK604emyXT-_NplOyVDc-KtwJgxoAbWcMWWDPhMu_l5ZBsZVuo1SbToNrfD1RHqXZ4PSOgb28cOcW7uMiLM_wWtR9UwXiMWZXwRT5eUVMHQjNIpGUesPDoHiH/s1600/scan0009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPyfWJIPaBOs_yYtyIGXhGK604emyXT-_NplOyVDc-KtwJgxoAbWcMWWDPhMu_l5ZBsZVuo1SbToNrfD1RHqXZ4PSOgb28cOcW7uMiLM_wWtR9UwXiMWZXwRT5eUVMHQjNIpGUesPDoHiH/s640/scan0009.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1968's <i>Fantastic Four </i>#83, by Kirby, Lee, Sinnott et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US">As I suggested above
there is a dissonance between our idealized notions of diversity and racial
harmony and the lived experience of the social turbulence and frequent violence
of those contact zones. For many well-meaning people to acknowledge that
turbulence is to condone it, or even to create it. To speak of it is to shatter
the “harmony” only made possible through eliding the presence of the
marginalized.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Despite my focus on comics reading
practices, the ways readers provide (or should provide) a form of closure
through their engagement with the medium in a way that I think moves beyond
mere visual closure of the type Scott McCloud explains in his seminal work <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Understanding Comics</i>, my own reading of
and writing about comics is not only about <a href="https://themiddlespaces.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/i-know-it-when-i-see/" target="_blank">resistantengagement that re-circuits and re-imagines those imaginary worlds</a>. Using
the excuse of an independent study while working on my doctorate I got my hands
on the complete run of the first volume of Los Bros Hernandez’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love and Rockets</i> and fell in love.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUGfJuAknPe7OMVUGmPBaLdQDZ8yj4NJreSOmla_xMyFvj84mS16RDJwLbd0YxzFuysAUNJqs1UhQ-YdiEq5A10OiFNILCZkPQgknkjzUiN6OoGsLGEcfVvlDhO-V5PsEbKOtSFAzB2gYu/s1600/LnRX-riri.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUGfJuAknPe7OMVUGmPBaLdQDZ8yj4NJreSOmla_xMyFvj84mS16RDJwLbd0YxzFuysAUNJqs1UhQ-YdiEq5A10OiFNILCZkPQgknkjzUiN6OoGsLGEcfVvlDhO-V5PsEbKOtSFAzB2gYu/s640/LnRX-riri.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US">Art and story by Gilbert Hernandez</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For those who may not know, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love and Rockets</i> is a comic book series by
Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez that began in the early 1980s, ran into the
mid-1990s, and then restarted in the 00s. While not a superhero comic, the
influence of superhero comics (along with things like Archie, romance
comics, and luchador and monster movies) is imprinted on the two distinct
storylines and sets of characters, representing a broad range of diverse
Latinidad. I actually find it disappointing that these days the Love and
Rockets collections separate out Jaime’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Locas</i>
stories from Gilbert’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Palomar</i>,
because in how they were originally printed the two communities and their
distinct concerns and contexts complemented each other, depicting a broader
world. Furthermore, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love and Rockets</i>
is written with a real punk rock spirit - not a simple recapitulation of trendy
codes of rebelliousness, but a challenge to the establishment about music,
about race, about sexuality, about fashion and about justice, and the degree to
which the establishment is willing to pursue a scorched earth policy to enforce
its norms<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvywTx3ok2BH1iSoHeM83viSoOx5LuRNpn864bjEOuderzO94FG9aty28SedfV-cxRG2q3N-UpZNbG-2iB7VXs-cD0O7JSIfcCLvE7uHer1xJMBUFUyDwC8H6Wydw7rLmujORSoDgCyL9h/s1600/LnRX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvywTx3ok2BH1iSoHeM83viSoOx5LuRNpn864bjEOuderzO94FG9aty28SedfV-cxRG2q3N-UpZNbG-2iB7VXs-cD0O7JSIfcCLvE7uHer1xJMBUFUyDwC8H6Wydw7rLmujORSoDgCyL9h/s640/LnRX.jpg" width="496" /></a></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Gilbert Hernandez’s story arc <i>Love and
Rockets X </i>is a great example of the comic’s heights. The elder Hernandez moves
his focus from Latin America to southern California to create a transnational
context for his characters and concerns. Moving the characters of Riri and
Marciela from their full and rich depictions in Palomar as young women to where
they are undocumented flower girls and cleaning ladies avoids the narrowing of
their identities to the caricature of the “illegal alien,” while simultaneously
exploring the complexity of overlapping communities in transnational space, all
under the shadow of the coming upheaval of the L.A. uprising in light of the
Rodney King verdict, even if that shadow only exists in the readers’ minds, and
was not yet a context for Gilbert’s writing. The comic does a brilliant job of
portraying the feeling that whatever peace there might be in American
communities is a fragile one, supported by the complicity of those who do not
think of themselves as oppressors. Anyone paying attention at that time should
have seen uprising (however, futile) coming, even as we should see it coming
nowBoth Jaime and Gilbert’s story occasionally
take up the issue of comics in their work (something I’ve been writing about in
some of my scholarly work), like Gilbert’s characters discussing the
recapitulation of racist imagery in popular comic characters in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Poison River</i>, or Jaime’s Maggie’s
obsession with female superheroes and her own comic book collection (check out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God & Science: Return of the Ti-Girls</i>).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgY1ok5SiO4T-6OTHws8mbovHC0LCyWWIW8hcCxXJBFB2Ru7yvaThxCPtf4vgwS1_Tbd8SppXKGsOZQRCQdKuHkzvuu9gbQxfBxZrTCpJPGIqFKb7ik0sZI8k4mkn0S2aGZ4W4AovScVR/s1600/LnR-GaS.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgY1ok5SiO4T-6OTHws8mbovHC0LCyWWIW8hcCxXJBFB2Ru7yvaThxCPtf4vgwS1_Tbd8SppXKGsOZQRCQdKuHkzvuu9gbQxfBxZrTCpJPGIqFKb7ik0sZI8k4mkn0S2aGZ4W4AovScVR/s640/LnR-GaS.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US">Art and story by Jaime Hernandez</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US">Anyway, my point here (if I have one
outside of just giving readers a sense of the trajectory of my tastes and
concerns) is that I have to varying degrees worked on developing a way to read
comics to hone not only a level of discernment, but to move readers to use that
discernment to consider absence as a force that shapes the world these comics
think they are reflecting. One of my grad school professors once suggested to me
that literature was not a way of writing, but rather a way of reading, and I
took that to heart to the degree that I see my literary scholarship as really a
subset of a cultural studies approach. There is no such thing as a “neutral” or
“apolitical” way of reading anything, let alone comic books. All readers
already have an implicit “reading practice” based on cultural assumptions, and
I see my own reading as a way to point out to those who deign to read what I
have to say how to move towards a self-examination <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">of</i> their forms of examination, their assumptions and conclusions.<i> </i></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US"><i>Again, my sincerest thanks to Osvaldo for contributing so generously to TooBusyThinking.</i></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-52398487927440418932015-09-03T23:30:00.001+01:002015-09-03T23:31:15.439+01:00On 'Judge Dredd, Enceladus: Old Life', and 'Meanwhile' : Several More Splendid Comics Read In August 2015 (Part 3) <i>Continuing TooBusyThinking's celebration of the severeal recently-read comics, which began <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/from-e-is-for-extinction-to-abe-sapien.html" target="_blank">here</a> and continued <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/from-batman-to-from-city-to-sea-several.html" target="_blank">here</a>:</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJLrNRYbkPBYcfnWWrfCL63QjtoK3T9KbbU8zU6DEPp812AqNejofDYc6unps4xiF4qU87XiXiAVWIMFvgROwKZC2DawuYVMseN3DtK0QsTqUe-BO6b4EjSxmF0O_PUpAlUNTAnWVkjmMO/s1600/scan0180.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJLrNRYbkPBYcfnWWrfCL63QjtoK3T9KbbU8zU6DEPp812AqNejofDYc6unps4xiF4qU87XiXiAVWIMFvgROwKZC2DawuYVMseN3DtK0QsTqUe-BO6b4EjSxmF0O_PUpAlUNTAnWVkjmMO/s640/scan0180.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<u><b>1</b></u>.<br />
<br />
The end of the world has descended on Judge Dredd's home of Mega-City One so frequently that it's hard to feel too invested in yet another Armageddon. But Rob Williams and Henry Flint's <i>Enceladus: Old Life</i>, which is currently running as <i>2000AD</i>'<i>s</i> lead feature, has succeeded in making 2137AD's latest apocalypse convincingly epic, unsettling and gripping. It's a strip I'd love to elbow out the time to discuss at greater length here at <i>TooBusyThinking</i>, but for the moment, I thought I might nominate the above page - from <i>2000AD</i> #1943 - as my favourite from any I've seen this year. Any well-written conversation between Joe Dredd and Dirty Frank is inevitably going to represent a clash of pretty much irreconcilable world-views, given that both are tragically locked into their own unrelenting forms of psychological disorder. (The two may agree that their City needs to be saved, but their understanding of why and even perhaps how is always likely to fundamentally diverge.) To have Henry Flint represent Dredd's patrician-fascist perspective is compelling enough. But to have D'Israeli generously parachuted in mid-chapter to portray Frank's grasp of the desperate situation is an early-Christmas of a surprise. In contrast to Flint's dynamically disconcerting art, all wind sheer, snow and forbiddingly monumental architecture, D'Israeli's beatifully baffled Frank seems all the more adorable and suspectible. Accordingly, <i>Enceladus: Old Life's</i> impending cataclysm really does matter, because this immensely odd and fascinating couple have been placed with such precision by Williams right in the path of the oncoming uber-calamity. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6n7P0HfPJN4Nz3j8qwgjbX4YOAWWJoDoO6ONDH3m5DDXfjkLO8C9q50If4en81clpa1CX0RikMEqFmSs_0qHIR0L5oDBUYbiS4la7xLYEqR8TOS9BLVogq2gbJaEuVBLsZ-War4N-Ne9d/s1600/scan0183.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6n7P0HfPJN4Nz3j8qwgjbX4YOAWWJoDoO6ONDH3m5DDXfjkLO8C9q50If4en81clpa1CX0RikMEqFmSs_0qHIR0L5oDBUYbiS4la7xLYEqR8TOS9BLVogq2gbJaEuVBLsZ-War4N-Ne9d/s640/scan0183.jpg" width="442" /></a></div>
<u><b>2</b></u>.<br />
<br />
Those who fondly recall the short-lived wave of ambitious British comics magazines of the late 80s and early 90s - <i>Deadline</i>, <i>Revolver</i>, <i>Crisis</i>, and so on - should immediately latch onto to Soaring Penguin Press's <i>Meanwhile... . </i>Like its predecessors from a quarter of a century ago and more, <i>Meanwhile...</i> is driven by the conviction that there's a smart and discerning adult audience that's keen to support a broad and engaging range of styles and genres. It's a strategy that almost inevitably produces longueurs along with enchantments, although which strip falls into which category will of course depend upon the reader's own taste. For me, the best of <i>Meanwhile's</i> strips so far are Krent Able's corporate-scorning satire <i>Inc</i>, a surreally stomach-turning sneer at 21st century rapacity, and Gary Spencer Millidge's <i>Strangehaven: Destiny</i>, a measured, good-humoured melange of smalltown mundanity and Fortean incursions. Each alone is worth the price of entry and more. <br />
<br />
(More on <i>Meanwhile</i>, which is now on its third issue, can be found at Soaring Penguin Press's homepage <a href="http://www.soaringpenguinpress.com/" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>.)<br />
<br />
<i>To be continued</i> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-72576420238239978982015-09-01T21:45:00.001+01:002015-11-14T18:00:10.893+00:00From 'Batman' to 'From The City To The Sea': Several More Splendid Comics Read In August 2015 (Part 2)Continuing <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/from-e-is-for-extinction-to-abe-sapien.html" target="_blank"><u><b><i>yesterday's</i></b></u></a> tip of the hat to the best of the comics that came my way in August;<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGfY7u-qfaAAHnDyXQmCODWpxTEAsrxQtJ3Lmd-mljphCGlsR05lNqbbig0UxsEtDEdEdFwDJPzYoq_C4Phsv0Q-fwPFOF_-_nu_68RupLHhqJUjA8nW0t2aUFVkmDNG2u3Cj_mtxAEssa/s1600/scan0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGfY7u-qfaAAHnDyXQmCODWpxTEAsrxQtJ3Lmd-mljphCGlsR05lNqbbig0UxsEtDEdEdFwDJPzYoq_C4Phsv0Q-fwPFOF_-_nu_68RupLHhqJUjA8nW0t2aUFVkmDNG2u3Cj_mtxAEssa/s640/scan0002.jpg" width="408" /></a></div>
<u><b>1</b></u>.<br />
<br />
Praise continues to shower down on writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo's tenure on <i>Batman</i>, and it would be churlish to deny that the storytelling in issue 43's <i>Superheavy</i> is anything other than considered, efficient and, on occasion, macabrely inspired. Quite contrary to the idle habits of 21st century decompression, the pages here are often densely packed with text and peppered with imaginatively spectacular and meticulously staged set-pieces. (The O'Neil/Adams homage that's the showdown before a fish-tank full of sharks is particularly tense and ingenious.) What's more, new super-villain Mr Bloom is as fearsome and disturbing an antagonist as any I've seen introduced into the Dark Knight's rogues gallery in my lifetime, which in itself is no little achievement. In a marketplace saturated with underachieving superhero titles, Synder and Capullo's <i>Batman</i> makes for an untypically engrossing and ambitious read. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsCZt5wTCcfyB-OoNeOvRL8_PoqniTlJKGgdYqg6pcOxNGb-w7OND9tdOE22Pu2pStaSTSPwnYvY-1q-Vy9QGn02OQBjUa7nFHvt5iZXqYSsb1D3SPSYD-jhsr_sBFZC2D_fbDSjs34DxL/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsCZt5wTCcfyB-OoNeOvRL8_PoqniTlJKGgdYqg6pcOxNGb-w7OND9tdOE22Pu2pStaSTSPwnYvY-1q-Vy9QGn02OQBjUa7nFHvt5iZXqYSsb1D3SPSYD-jhsr_sBFZC2D_fbDSjs34DxL/s640/-.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The collaboration between Greg Capullo, inker Danny Miki and colourist FCO Placencia is at its most eye-catchingly effective in this wordless double-page spread. The determination of all concerned to avoid the cliches of modern-day superhero storytelling is surely obvious. Like the best widescreen popcorn movies, these pages take a familiar brand of conflict and imaginatively recast it as an event. Especially impressive is the sense of weight and speed that's lent to the shark-laddened water that explodes out of the shattered aquarium tank. We might quibble that the two set-up panels immediately before that money-shot feel cramped and unsatisfying, but the sequence that follows succeeds in combining both horror and good-humour. The way that Jim Gordon, for example, clings to the back of a criminal-chomping shark in panel 7 is hilariously distasteful, and yet, it also exists for a very good reason: Batman needs a platform upon which to lean while he's gunning down his opponents. It's a joyful degree of ambition that's here to be seen, an admirable determination to make the most of the promising material at hand. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
But to this very-occasional reader, what's most fascinating is Synder's reinvention of both Bruce Wayne and Batman. By this I don't mean the repositioning of Commissioner James Gordon as a scientifically-augmented Bat-surrogate, although that's a trick that's ably played. Rather, it's Synder'sdecision to strip Bruce Wayne of both his childhood trauma and his experiences as Batman that fascinates. Not, I hasten to add, because I've the slightest interest in whether the character's status quo is ever going to be restored; Super-Hero Reboot Exhaustion Syndrome has long since set in, I fear. But rather because Synder reveals that Wayne had, prior to his peculiar bout of born againism, clearly degenerated into an excessively disturbed and morally bankrupt Frankenstein. Concerned that future generations would lack a Batman of their own, Wayne had been working on a machine that would spit out a never-ending sequence of fully grown and fundamentally disturbed Bat-clones. Somewhere in my memory is the suggestion that this was a beat first introduced in one form or another by Grant Morrison, but kudos for Synder and his decision to place the appalling conceit at the centre of Batman's continuity. For whether we're meant to see Wayne as a victim, a villain or even a demon-possessed avenger, the sheer chutzpah of Synder's storytelling really does deserve a round of applause. To state so explicitly that DC's number one superhero has long been either criminally insane or perhaps even profoundly bedevilled surely runs against all the rules of don't-rock-the-boat corporate comics. Batman's a <i>what</i>? Batman did <i>what</i>? And for <i>how long</i>? Anyone banking on selling merchandising to middle America based on that version of the Bat must rate their salesmanship very highly. As Sir Humphrey was want to declare when faced with a politically dangerous proposal, <i>it's very brave.</i>...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwAse44yZVKVEL6_KityGSfRxSuBYPQBdYFXNCrWuqCO8e_HIJWDrq2EtTVUa_enhQzC-VcM6zyYwf0uPYy5uqdn1BlQOsZqracUSaqSSu7C4Zq0BoAbkSld0jcz2Mrv1ya6zV3DsWpWPM/s1600/scan0175.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwAse44yZVKVEL6_KityGSfRxSuBYPQBdYFXNCrWuqCO8e_HIJWDrq2EtTVUa_enhQzC-VcM6zyYwf0uPYy5uqdn1BlQOsZqracUSaqSSu7C4Zq0BoAbkSld0jcz2Mrv1ya6zV3DsWpWPM/s640/scan0175.jpg" width="444" /></a></div>
<u><b>2</b></u>.<br />
<br />
There's no escaping stories, or even escaping the compulsion to discover what stories there are to be found, as Tim Bird plays out in his wistful, questioning, and sweetly inspiring <i>From The City To The Sea</i>. A gentle, smart meditation on the way in which geography, culture and character combine to create meaning, Bird's five chapter tale depicts an everyman's odyssey from the crowds and clamour and claustrophobia of London's deep history to the tideline at which Britain disappears away under the ever-shifting North Sea. As a playful example of comics reportage, Bird's journey from heaving Underground carriages through suburbs and 'edgelands' to almost-deserted beaches is sharp-eyed and lyrical. As the artist's evocatively naive style establishes both the details of the mundane world and the persistence it takes to transverse it, we're encouraged to consider again the underpasseses, woodlands and housing estates of our own experience. As such, the journey Bird portrays along the sinews that join one only-apparently workaday reality with another suggests not just the singular qualities of taken-for-granted places and times, but also the way in which the traveller's past will inevitably shape their perceptions. The estates of Purfleet, for example, may be peppered with the hard facts of unnoticed satellite discs and disregarded rubbish bins, but they're also coloured by Bird's memories of the fine print of Bram Stoker's <i>Dracula</i>.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj1uwoKdZwVmTK5CK_8jxGaN4zE8ZcmfF85U3LJCacoKPvEqbvTnBwxa9W0wWeMV8lkSAWMWCJPK1N38ESTX5draamho_gbS9fJuJhf3veT_EuRZZNLNtPnNuyAx9NkbAQQbTydui2wO7H/s1600/scan0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj1uwoKdZwVmTK5CK_8jxGaN4zE8ZcmfF85U3LJCacoKPvEqbvTnBwxa9W0wWeMV8lkSAWMWCJPK1N38ESTX5draamho_gbS9fJuJhf3veT_EuRZZNLNtPnNuyAx9NkbAQQbTydui2wO7H/s640/scan0003.jpg" width="446" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bird's style embraces naivety, but it's anything but ill-considered. <i>From The City To The Sea</i> is in many a surreptitiously virtuosic book, in that Bird uses a broad range of layouts and panel designs to carefully evoke specific spaces while cleverly manipulating the audience's sense of time. Although I'm fond of the way he uses the rarely-seen likes of 12-panel pages to suggest the slow passing of the minutes, my favourite pages involve just four frames, each taking up half-a-side of two facing pages. In each, Bird - or should that be Bird's narrator? - is placed centre-frame, suggesting a figure that's slogging through a long, long walk. The ever-more-bowed posture as the sequence continues accentuates the impression, and results in the impression that the character is having to press onwards merely to stand still. Just as it's impossible not to believe that distances are indeed being covered, the journey comes across as anything but a skipping pleasure. Each frame, untypically large for the book, also suggests a monumental sense of scale, as if each landscape Bird's passing through is distinct and massive in its own right. At least the last paragraph, with its suggestion of light and even dawn along with the untrammelled presence of nature offers the promise that the expedition is drawing to a close. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Having delivered a wonderfully succinct false climax, in which reality seems neatly reduced to the pensive peace of seafront and waves, Bird presents us with an oceanside world that's anything but bled of inspiration. Over a ridge and there's chips to be bought, birds to be fed and interrogated, the Maunsell Forts on the horizon to be recognised and recalled, and so on, and on. Even at the ocean's edge, where nothing at first appears to connect with
anything else, our narrator's thoughts are shown to be quietly recasting
reality. As such, the very waves of the sea beat as askew metronomes to underpin
the poetry of the shipping forecast. <i>From The City To The Sea</i> is a beguiling reflection on not just the poetry of the prosaic, but on the impossibility of reducing the world to a mute, flat backdrop. As Bird's surrogate on the page ends up asking of a demanding seagull, tell me about this place. Of course, the seagull doesn't answer, but that's not the seagull's job. It's ours, or so Bird suggests. Aren't we always asking questions of seagulls, as it were, and even when we fail to notice that we're doing so? As an encouragement to do exactly that, in addition to being a splendid comic in its own right, I can't recommend <i>From The City To The Sea </i>enough. <br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Tim Bird's homepage can, and should, be found <b><a href="http://www.timothybird.co.uk/grey-area/" target="_blank">here</a></b>, while 'From The City To The Sea' can be purchased from Avery Hill Publishing <a href="http://averyhillpublishing.bigcartel.com/" target="_blank"><b><u>here</u></b></a>.</i><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-66211864350911562662015-08-31T22:15:00.001+01:002015-09-09T10:01:20.256+01:00From 'E Is For Extinction' to 'Abe Sapien', 'Captain Britain & The Secret Defenders' to 'Ashen': Several Splendid Comics From August 2015 (Part 1 of 3) What follows is a<i> </i>celebration in capsule review form of the best
comics to come this way during the past month. I've listed the titles in alphabetical order, which should help avoid any unintended suggestion of preference.<br />
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A return to more cheerful if still characteristically ghoulish times, <i>Abe Sapien</i> #23 features the second and concluding part of a monster-hunting flashback to the days before Hellboy's demise. A wryly shadowladdened tale of small rural towns, know-nothing neighbours and supposedly legendary lake monsters, it sees a typically dogged and bemused Abe Sapien and Hellboy on the trail of murderers both human and monstrous. Working from a story he'd developed with series creator Mike Mignola, Scott Allie's droll, laconic script establishes him again as that rarest of
modern day comics editors, worthy of respect as a storyteller in his own
right. Justly or not, most writers paired with artist Kevin Nowlan emerge from the process with their reputation enhanced, but Scott Allie's work fits laudably into the best traditions of the Mignolaverse. All too little seen in the interiors of comics these days, Nowlan's storytelling remains an absolute joy, beautifully staged, persistently clear, moody, characterful and ingenious. Taking responsibility for the lettering and colouring too, Nowlan's art beguilingly portrays a universe that's laced with occult horrors and dotted by all-too-human dolts and reprobates. In <i>Abe Sapien</i> #23, it's not the Lovecraftian creatures that terrify, but the insular and self-interested everymen pontificating in bars, harbours and corner shops. As this Twenty-First century seems designed to prove, that sounds about right.<br />
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Recommended to me by several generous readers of <i>TooBusyThinking</i> over the years, Ricardo Delgrado's <i>Age Of Reptiles</i> is, just as I've been promised, a remarkable series. But it's also one of the most profoundly unsettling comics I've ever experienced. In what's surely a Creationist's nightmare, Delgrado portrays a prehistoric past awash with the most richly bizarre and forensically accurate of fauna and flora. (The double-page spreads which here-in depict a seawall collapsing and the resulting, devastating tsunami in particular deserve to be even more widely known and acclaimed.) Yet in the end, <i>Age Of Reptiles</i> is page after chilling page of the war of all against all, existence stripped to its brutal core, savage and wonderful all at the same time. For anyone perturbed by the proposition that existence might just be entirely meaningless, <i>Age Of Reptiles</i> can be a profoundly unsettling read.<br />
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I read about Case Van Weerdhuizen's dark fantasy <i>Ashen</i> at Robin William Scott's <a href="http://minicomiccourier.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><i>blog</i></a>, <i>The Mini Comic Courier. </i>I can be a shameful old cynic, but Robin's a smart critic, and I've never known him to rave about a comic without good reason. And as he insists, <i>Ashen</i> truly is an outstanding achievement; innovative, ambitious and poignant. Why not read Robin's review for yourself - find it <b><a href="http://minicomiccourier.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/ashen-tale-of-two-sisters-by-chase-van.html?m=1b" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a></b> - before perhaps following the link at <i>The Mini Comic Courier </i>to Weerdhuizen's homepage, where you opt to read <i>Ashen</i> for yourself.<br />
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It's worth pushing past the undeniable pleasure of reading David Cameron's words coming out of the mouth of Ewing's lead super-villain in <i>Captain Britain And The Secret Defenders</i> #2, for there's much more to savour here than you'll find referenced in the net-chat headlines. In the last analysis, Ewing and Alan Davis' tale is a determined expression of faith in the face of the seemingly inexorable rise of Britain's wretched, rapacious Right. That the tale's a great deal of fun helps puncture all threat of worthiness, founded as <i>CBATSA#2</i> is on a joyful appropriation of some of <i>2000AD</i>'s most beloved characters and concepts. With a skill at expressing charm and decency unmatched since Curt Swan's long heyday, Davis' dynamic work with Mike Farmer reads as a masterclass in action/adventure storytelling. But the closing quote from Billy Bragg's always-hopeful, oft-heartbreaking song <i>Between The Wars</i> makes sure that no-one who cares to pay attention can miss Ewing's meaning. Yes, this is a tale that expresses contempt for the ideology of Britain's current lords and masters. But far more importantly, <i>Captain Britain And The Secret Defenders</i> expresses a refusal to capitulate to either cynicism or defeatism. An expression of hope in times when hope is hard to find and harder yet to generate, it's a welcome blast of joyful, unyielding humanism. <br />
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Not everyone comes to a love of <i>Doctor Who</i> through the intermittent - if frequently considerable - joys of the TV series. For me, it's been far more the decades of often exceptional licensed comics that have inspired my regard for the Time Lord and his universe. (I can recall enjoying, as a very young nipper in the mid-60s, the Doctor-less Daleks strip on the back page of <i>TV21</i>, a peerless weekly comic that intoxicatingly combined the joys of Gerry Anderson puppet shows, primetime American TV exports and Skaro's most nefarious.) Most months now seem to bring a fine Doctor tale or two from one publisher or another, and this month saw two particular pleasures emerge from Titan Comics. In the first, Al Ewing, Rob Williams and Simon Fraser brought their 15 issue Eleventh Doctor epic to a close, complete with the sweetly emotional beats that have been the hallmark of the series; grief threatens, as it always seems to, but friendship, as we'd hope, finally endures.<br />
<br />
As for the splendid <i>Four Doctors </i>limited series, by Paul Cornell and Neil Edwards, I've already expressed my regard in <b><a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/on-doctor-who-four-doctors-1-by-paul.html" target="_blank"><i>a blog post </i></a></b>from earlier this week.<br />
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Were there really stray cries of sacrilege and unworthiness to be heard when Chris Burnham, Dennis Culver, Ramon Villalobos and Iain Herring's <i>E Is For Extinction</i> debuted last June? In the outrage-foundry that's the comics blogosphere, no smart and engaging comic goes unpunished. If we can bring ourselves to forgive the comic's helmsmen for the crime of not being Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, and surely only an idiot wouldn't, then what's there on the page stands as a riot of humane intent and inventive storytelling. For those who adore Morrison and Quitely's <i>New X-Men</i>, this is a fond tribute to both its substance and show. (If it doesn't claim to push any envelopes itself, it most certainly celebrates those creator's characteristically ambitious approach.) For folks such as myself, who struggled with the <i>New X-Men's</i> askew mix of meta, wish-fulfilment and pell-mell storytelling, <i>E Is For Extinction </i>is a pleasingly affectionate reframing of the source material. Yes, <i>E Is For Extinction </i>sweetly satirises even as it lovingly homages Morrison's mutant-book project. But then, there's much from 2001-2004's <i>New X-Men</i> to satirise. All determined and daring jousts at the status quo end up leaving behind their own cliches. How could they not? Morrison's turn of the century revolt against the mutant book's then-ossified style was as serious-minded as it was extravagantly irreverent. By the end of his run, his success could in part be measured by the fact that his X-Men seemed every bit as peculiarly singular as Chris Claremont's ever had. And so it goes. <br />
<br />
Stripped of the <i>New X-Men's</i> defining mix of turn-of-the-century exuberance and ever-so-worthy intent, <i>E Is For Extinction </i>replays comics history as astute, affectionate farce far more than tragedy. As aged mutant heroes drag their weary bodies into battle for one more Dark Phoenix epic, Burnham and Culver playfully cycle through any number of Morison's themes and plot-twists. With Villalobos' wonderfully zestful art matched to Herring's effervescent pop-art colours, the title charms and fascinates from beginning to end. Quite frankly, <i>E Is For Extinction </i> is, as I so rarely get to write, an absolute hoot.<br />
<br />
<i>to be continued</i> <br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-76962207251282185882015-08-26T19:20:00.003+01:002015-08-27T23:20:38.393+01:00On Doctor Who: Four Doctors #1, by Paul Cornell, Neil Edwards, Ivan Nunes et al (Some Fantastic Place #10)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzf8JHqgJnTW5iWW3zPpb_DE_ksnxuwcvmsK55utfaUD6pYPlutCnwY46J3SKRXAYqxlH0lIN0k8Ah_3gbjCzxZJfaHiOk5K4BURSpVYFdGzSQin7oybcYmM44Tiwjzfljop3ylJE8N_HA/s1600/scan0039.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzf8JHqgJnTW5iWW3zPpb_DE_ksnxuwcvmsK55utfaUD6pYPlutCnwY46J3SKRXAYqxlH0lIN0k8Ah_3gbjCzxZJfaHiOk5K4BURSpVYFdGzSQin7oybcYmM44Tiwjzfljop3ylJE8N_HA/s640/scan0039.jpg" width="408" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover by Neil Edwards</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><u>1</u></b>.<br />
<br />
One of the features I used to run with in the early days of this blog had the title of <i>Some Fantastic Place</i>. Knowing that <i>TooBusyThinking </i>could suffer from a surfeit of over-righteous chin-stroking, I'd use the <i>SFP</i> posts as a counter-weight. We Aspies have a habit of being over-analytical, and it's a constant struggle to keep a sense of perspective while maintaining an air of sincerely meant good humour. At times, crass if earnestly-meant tub-thumping threatens. Mea culpa. As such, the <i>SFP</i> pieces were my attempt to both remind myself and reassure any stray visitor that, yes, I really do know that comics can be an awful lot of fun.<br />
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<u><b>2</b></u>.<br />
<br />
Each of the <i><i>Some Fantastic Place </i></i>posts started with a statement of intent<i> </i>not unlike this one;<br />
<br />
"It's
shamefully easy to obscure a comic's strengths under a weight of
analysis and opinion. So this time, let's not get bogged down in worthy
appraisals. Instead, let's take a
more relaxed, emotional and even scandalously personal path to
evaluation. Let's do away with all
pretence at intellectual rigour, critical theorising, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">fanboy</span></span> indignation and continuity cop<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">ness</span></span>. Let's just start looking for <span style="font-style: italic;">good </span>things, on whatever scale they might arrive. Why not also celebrate imaginative
single panels, witty snatches of dialogue, unexpectedly appropriate
sound effects, and so on. Why not focus on the things that we <span style="font-style: italic;">would </span>have noticed and treasured when we had far fewer comics to enjoy and far more time on our hands?" <br />
<br />
Indeed, no matter how fearsomely inept a story might seem, there's nearly always something that might be said in its favour. Assuming that such shining moments really do exist has frequently helped to undermine my own preferences, or, to be more honest, my prejudices. To my constant surprise, I've found just about every comic will yield something of value if it's approached in a trusting manner. It's a way of seeing that I ought never to have abandoned.<br />
<br />
When we were nippers, we rarely if ever reached for a comic with the slightest degree of cynicism. We simply assumed that it would be enjoyable, and so it was likely to be. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CVariant cover by Kelly Yates</td></tr>
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<u><b>3</b></u>.<br />
<br />
As I tend to, I'd sketched out a brief list of pros and cons after reading last week's debut issue of <i>Doctor Who: Four Doctors</i> by writer Paul Cornell, artist Neil Edwards, colourist Ivan Nunes et al. Two things immediately struck me. The first was that the list of the things I'd enjoyed was a substantial one. The second was how much longer it would take, by comparison, to express my relatively few concerns. It's far harder to carp than it is to cheer, and since there's few enough works of art that can't be legitimately criticised, carping often feels unavoidable. After all, isn't it dishonest, and to the point of sycophancy, to acclaim a tale without signing up its problems?<br />
<br />
To spell out a concern or two typically takes more space, more thought, and more care than it does to note a far larger number of accolades. For a critique can all too easily become a slander, a sweeping statement of unsupported opinion that's unlikely to sidestep seeming arbitrary and insulting. (After all, by some strange rule of the human psyche, a barb always seems to carry far more weight than a bravo.) As such, a comprehensive review of <i>Four Doctors</i> would always risk compromising the fact that it's a remarkably smart and enjoyable read. In truth, it's one of the most entertaining comics I've come across in months if not years. But how to express that, without either muddying the truth or appearing uncritically fawning?<br />
<br />
As such, and given the freedom of this blog, I thought I might summon the <i>Some Fantastic Place</i> format from the grave, and use it to discuss just a few heartening aspects of <i>Four Doctors</i>. That is, in truth, how we tend to discuss the things we've enjoyed with friends anyway, in a wayward sequence of examples and impressions. As in a friendly conversation across the dinner table, the points that follow aren't intended to be exhaustive or definitive. Nor are they listed in order of preference or supposed importance. They're just the first three or four positive qualities out of many that came to mind.<br />
<br />
(Please do be aware, <i>spoilers</i> lurk from this point onwards.) <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJSiK3hh74ZB16g75hayvbYhtPquoOItinsIfgoO25fEjbGKoWLhXZHhM3zd1qUo7gfyjFefAQ_Trrzwm_1ORvxb-gvHp4OPS2VpA9LNnxYYn6GlEce2hpoYX6gpZ9NJ-gtAtcFlqpXsr/s1600/scan0048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJSiK3hh74ZB16g75hayvbYhtPquoOItinsIfgoO25fEjbGKoWLhXZHhM3zd1qUo7gfyjFefAQ_Trrzwm_1ORvxb-gvHp4OPS2VpA9LNnxYYn6GlEce2hpoYX6gpZ9NJ-gtAtcFlqpXsr/s640/scan0048.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<u><b>4</b></u>.<br />
<br />
As we might expect from a character who's belatedly come to see herself as a control freak of sorts, it's appropriate that Clara Oswald drives much of <i>Four Doctors </i>#1's main plot. Deliciously in character, Cornell has her display her typical mix of principle, empathy, energy and bull-headedness. Similarly, Edwards' art nails Jenna Coleman's skill at projecting a successful teacher's domineering charisma. Convinced that a meeting in the Paris of 1922 between the 10th, 11th and 12th Doctors will lead to the 'end of all things', Clara tracks down the companions who might help forestall disaster. In itself, this apparent convergence between the continuity of TV's Who with that of Titan's comics brings with it a pleasurably fannish shiver. But referencing the what-ifs of continuity and crossovers will only carry a team of storytellers so far, and here it's the sparkily captivating dialogue that smartly turns the promise of a team-up into a dramatic pleasure. All three women are recognisably in character, with the speed at which Gabby and Alice accept Clara's word standing in hilarious contrast to their respective Doctor's coming inability to get along. Best yet, Cornell establishes each woman as a substantial and admirable figure even before the various incarnations of their Timelord friend even appear. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilz7RK90CfuylXj41HTKc2lZ_X6ZrjKsWy9998W6gOvWOD2ML4vzWsEOascCXBQTDxnGbyR184fwROds8W6tzligC2jVZupdWlpSc_l-i9R7f2sUYooizykMZJHlLk7JmWIy4hUzsl2kTl/s1600/scan0049.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilz7RK90CfuylXj41HTKc2lZ_X6ZrjKsWy9998W6gOvWOD2ML4vzWsEOascCXBQTDxnGbyR184fwROds8W6tzligC2jVZupdWlpSc_l-i9R7f2sUYooizykMZJHlLk7JmWIy4hUzsl2kTl/s640/scan0049.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<u><b>5</b></u>. <br />
<br />
As discussed at <i>TooBusyThinking</i> <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/what-does-your-crime-require-paul.html" target="_blank"><b>before</b></a>, few contemporary comics writers can match Cornell when it comes to the smartly profitable use of continuity. And so, <i>Four Doctors</i> is studded with references to Who lore, from Daleks to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, from Clara struggling to hide her relationship with the 11th Doctor from him to her use of the Tardis' telepathic circuits. Best of all, none of this is intrusive, let alone gratuitous. Cornell obviously knows that events have to be perfectly understandable to those who know nothing of Voort or Timelord, and so he uses continuity in an appropriately layered fashion. For those familiar with the Doctor's fifth-ever TV serial from 1964, the changes that he and Edwards show in the planet Marinus and its inhabitants will be intriguingly shocking. For those such as myself, who've yet to watch <i>The Keys Of Marinus</i>, events are still made perfectly clear. It's a usage of continuity that rewards the knowledgeable reader without ever penalising the neophyte.<i> </i>Because of that, the references to <i>this </i>event and <i>that</i> concept in the script intrigue rather than intimidate. A beguiling story that offers the reader the option of digging deeper into an immersive world will always serve as an incentive to read, and watch and listen, further. <br />
<br />
Accordingly, and despite having a heretical lack of fascination for the First Doctor's adventures, the thought of watching <i>The Keys Of Marinus</i> now feels quite irresistible. If this is the <i>after</i>, then I'm just going to have to experience the <i>before</i>.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyLTRTDowynsbMGWf8YgX4m8BghAYmUp35x6Uqx7eACVN-NCa2FE2afIHZT_2PtlH5qo9hBB0tn_zo9-vPM6iDa04A_dPFSLccYiBDuV_ojpJ0qHl2QWFou9DXxMQUJU1vw_TJeenck8gr/s1600/scan0050.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyLTRTDowynsbMGWf8YgX4m8BghAYmUp35x6Uqx7eACVN-NCa2FE2afIHZT_2PtlH5qo9hBB0tn_zo9-vPM6iDa04A_dPFSLccYiBDuV_ojpJ0qHl2QWFou9DXxMQUJU1vw_TJeenck8gr/s640/scan0050.jpg" width="406" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The scene featuring the War Doctor on Marinus see the very best of artis tNeil Edwards
and colorist Ivan Nunes. Together they create the unsettling sense of a
vast desert tombworld whose inhabitants lack the perspective to
appropriately mourn what's been lost. Brilliant touches abound; the
silent, monumental space-ship that's an entire Dalek army's grave;
the manner in which the Voord Group Mind abandons one human host and
claims another; the suggestion of heat-haze created by the thin,
contour-following lines of colours on the steel-coloured body of a Voort
fighter; the bows of submission as one host replaces another. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>6</b></u>.<br />
<br />
Cornell's writing for comics has often seemed
to be driven by
the desire to deliver the richest possible experience in the pithiest possible form. And so, in the <i>Four Doctor's</i> remarkable<i> </i>opening five page scene, spectacle constantly and subtly supports
exposition, while both combine to ensure that the anti-war subtext is
clear if never distractingly obvious. It's an introduction that's so well written and illustrated that it's hard to credit how
much incident and information it contains. An entire page of three
panels given over to the bringing down of a Dalek craft? A whole side
given over to the War Doctor and his alien allies? None of this implies
dense and involving storytelling. Yet that's exactly what this sequence of 16 panels, at an average of just 3 frames a page,
delivers. Rather than the slackness of 21st century decompression, this
is rich and rewarding fare.<br />
<br />
Here the War Doctor - from 2013's TV special <i>The Name Of The Doctor</i> - is shown leading the resistance to a Dalek attack on the planet Marinus. On screen, the War Doctor was a lone, furious, boneweary and utterly alienated individual. In that, it took a leap of faith at first to see the similarities between him and the other versions of the same character. But Cornell adroitly shows how much the War Doctor has in common with his fellow incarnations. Just as the other Doctors would, he's seen bravely acting for the oppressed, building alliances, scheming strategies, inspiring faith, and walking the difficult line between independent player and citizen of Gallifrey. Only his ends seem different, as he ruthlessly connives to turn an army of Daleks to 'dust'. (If other Doctors have occasionally committed similarly ferocious acts, they never embraced, as here, the role of foot-soldier while doing so.) Set in an earlier stage of the Time War to that shown in the War Doctor's sole TV appearance, it's a melancholic vignette that's haunted by all the suffering and disillusionment that we know is still to come. Even as the War Doctor promises to represent his allies' apparent best interests to the Timelords' High Council, the reader can fell pretty sure that little of such good intent will prosper. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSCODlku9ntSrZsi9HEzOCOS6LLs8fZEG1UFrpnlWHVjMA5CkFCPGOxrWsmMKDlKMcD6B5L0wdnGl9yrTk1zE7u6a5qvIDa-QHJEnybyuNyOiQM4QhnfaMXC6_d0irpu8BDZvehyphenhyphenpzAAAX/s1600/scan0053.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSCODlku9ntSrZsi9HEzOCOS6LLs8fZEG1UFrpnlWHVjMA5CkFCPGOxrWsmMKDlKMcD6B5L0wdnGl9yrTk1zE7u6a5qvIDa-QHJEnybyuNyOiQM4QhnfaMXC6_d0irpu8BDZvehyphenhyphenpzAAAX/s400/scan0053.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of the above page.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As if that wasn't enough, Cornell and Edwards also use the scene to introduce the changes to the environment and inhabitants of Marinus that the open conflict between Timelords and Daleks has wrought. Just as the War Doctor has, the planet's lifeforms have embraced the transformations that traumatic conflict has made seem necessary. These aren't, Cornell suggests, changes to be regarded as either desirable or unavoidable. As this introduction to <i>Four Doctors</i> makes plain, the evolution towards more efficient warlike forms comes at the cost of what might be called, for the sake of brevity, an essential humanity. These freedom fighters of three separate races have adapted to fight bloody wars in acid deserts, but acid deserts is all it's won them. Eventually, as <i>The Name Of The Doctor </i>showed<i>, </i>much of Gallifrey itself will be wasteland. In that light, it's hard to believe that the survivors on Marinus will long survive, let alone, after their own fashion, prosper. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2FthkBQX6nzVxunnFmhsWN53DcPYfW3bod87WsNXzH1CvKWAGdiUG0gGWH7QAvuszpX1EYEVmBk6Qo0nIIHyV5DWsHutyiWENfnKhaKGs0iqgWRoBBfXtqOsJKDjSiFBC_7CmZR4ybZXS/s1600/-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2FthkBQX6nzVxunnFmhsWN53DcPYfW3bod87WsNXzH1CvKWAGdiUG0gGWH7QAvuszpX1EYEVmBk6Qo0nIIHyV5DWsHutyiWENfnKhaKGs0iqgWRoBBfXtqOsJKDjSiFBC_7CmZR4ybZXS/s640/-.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Variant cover by Joshua Cassara & Luis Guerrerro</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>7</b></u>.<br />
<br />
Truthfully, <i>Four Doctors</i> #1 offers far too many delights to suit the <i>Some Fantastic Place</i> format. The temptation to rattle on is strong, but rules are rules. And so, I'll just have to leave unmentioned the creator's canny decision not to show
the Daleks as they suffer the horrors of 'accelerated evolution'.
(Another writer might have chosen to kick off the series with the
spectacle of the suffering of the Doctor's greatest opponents. Yet the
decision to avoid such a pleasantly prurient spectacle sets up the
sepulchral eeriness of the War Doctor's visit to his foe's crashed
ship, while leaving the joys of Dalek destruction in Cornell and
Edwards' back pocket for later issues.) Similarly, I'll not discuss the
constant and beguiling game-playing between script and reader, as the
possibilities for time to be rewritten while continuity stays
essentially the same are signed up. Even the charm of the Eleventh
Doctor's hitherto-unsuspected part
in reforming the moral content of French-Belgian popular literature will
have to be left to one side, as will the unexpected return in the comic's cliffhanger of a long-since-seen concept from a Cornell TV Who tale. <br />
<br />
Instead, let me simply emphasise that I strongly suspect <i>Four Doctors</i> #1 would be well worth your time. <br />
.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-34351269544107244022015-08-25T18:30:00.000+01:002015-08-25T18:30:25.716+01:00It's Darkseid, But Not Quite Darkseid Yet (On Jack Kirby's Fourth World Part 3)<i>This is the third part of TooBusyThinking's looks at Jack Kirby's
Darkseid. Each is largely self-contained, but should you be at
all curious, the first post can be found <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/who-was-jack-kirbys-darkseid-part-1.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</i><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-cgvthJ5-Pqc_fsBhpCRowq8RJuDj0ohbJOMIokudUzOWffVi5leYLmLO2SP13EsNWotA3sv6sipET3SfaN2fqp051RByNWC6AvJi64uc5G9FdussLfE9SB3ZY40IaLbcsJycufweWMH6/s1600/scan0106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-cgvthJ5-Pqc_fsBhpCRowq8RJuDj0ohbJOMIokudUzOWffVi5leYLmLO2SP13EsNWotA3sv6sipET3SfaN2fqp051RByNWC6AvJi64uc5G9FdussLfE9SB3ZY40IaLbcsJycufweWMH6/s640/scan0106.jpg" width="634" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All panels come from 1970's<i> The Forever People</i> #1, by Jack Kirby with Vince Colletta</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>1</b></u>.<br />
<i><br /></i>
Kirby's depiction of Superman as a deeply tortured alien in <i>The Forever People </i>#1
makes for fascinating reading. But it also reduces The Forever People
themselves to the status of supporting players in their own debut tale.
After a wonderfully boisterous - and distinctly unDC-like - opening
scene, the Forever People's search for their kidnapped friend Beautiful
Dreamer takes second place to Superman's angst. The result was the
oddest mixture of quite different storytelling approaches, each
associated with a distinct period of comics history. Kirby's tormented
Superman portrayed the last son of Krypton as he might have been
depicted in a post-1961 Marvel comic, essentially decent and yet
psychologically hamstrung by a crippling inability to belong. By
contrast, The Forever People and their mysterious ally Infinity Man themselves belonged to the pre-Marvel
superhero tradition of one dimensional forces for good. Untouched by
poor Kal-El's doubts and desires, Mark Moonrider and his comrades were
broad types whose godly purity of purpose left seeming feeling
counter-intuitively archaic by comparison with Kirby's Man Of Steel. (For
all that Kirby drew from the counter-culture of the late-60s for the
young super-gods' ideals and appearance, they were in essence little
different from the characters to be found in his and Simon's 1940's
kids gang tales.) Finally, in the wild exuberance of Kirby's concepts
and storytelling, there was a sense of a revolutionary new approach to
the superhero comic being developed. Without leaving behind the bulk of the genre
traditions that Kirby himself had been so absolutely central in
developing over the previous three decades, <i>In Search Of A Dream</i> presented a fantastic gumbo of radical new ideas, pell-mell storytelling, and richly contemporary resonances.
That this took place in the largely staid DC universe, and with the
company's oldest major player at its heart, only made the project seem
more revolutionary. Yet Kirby never quite reconciled the different
traditions that he called upon for <i>The Forever People</i> as an ongoing title. Despite some wonderful
individual tales - such as <i>The Power!</i> in <i>TFP</i> #8 - the young gods remained but lightly amusing types, their broad
personalities sitting poorly with Kirby's richly ambitious tapestry of Fourth World tales.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiyrvUcWUSBCCUlUOFyPLFF5zOfoyHpBS63yqWJzwPe0JJdMKnIeLx3SZL8H7_TL6_6XK2xsPBxAFjergdt-fKDAsmoNnm8bE9jkosjmR0UTzg0_1xYZVP6jMKO78wXlf99TtjzRv7E-IP/s1600/scan0105.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiyrvUcWUSBCCUlUOFyPLFF5zOfoyHpBS63yqWJzwPe0JJdMKnIeLx3SZL8H7_TL6_6XK2xsPBxAFjergdt-fKDAsmoNnm8bE9jkosjmR0UTzg0_1xYZVP6jMKO78wXlf99TtjzRv7E-IP/s640/scan0105.jpg" width="634" /></a></div>
<u><b>2</b></u>.<br />
<br />
<i>In Search Of A Dream</i> similarly presented a fascinating and yet ultimately dissatisfying depiction of Darkseid. Unlike the Forever People, the character would soon develop into a richly repellent embodiment of fascism, but, for the moment, Kirby's methods worked to partially undermine his own ambitions. On the one hand, <i>The Forever People </i>#1 continued the process of drip-feeding information about the mysterious Darkseid's wide-range of nefarious activities begun in <i>Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen</i>. For the first time, the pages of In <i>Search Of A Dream</i> saw Darkseid explicitly labelled as evil by another character, as Kirby had both Vikyn and Big Bear declare. (So despicable was Darkseid, that he'd kidnapped the young Beautiful Dreamer and stolen her off, like a villain in a fairy story, to the wildlands of Earth.) On a more mundanely earthbound if thoroughly despicable level, Darkseid is also once more shown micro-managing the activities of Inter-Gang. (For those who'd see Darkseid simply as a comicbook version of Hitler, this alone should shake their convictions. The idea of the Fuhrer directly commanding every small cadre of killers under his theoretical control is self-evidently absurd.)<br />
<br />
Apparently determined to emphasise that Darkseid is more than just a stone-faced crimelord, Kirby presented the following conversation between an Inter-Gang 'capo' and a raygun-wielding footsoldier;<br />
<br />
'capo':- "When <i>Darkseid</i> gives an order, it <i>must</i> be obeyed! Inter-gang is only <i>small</i> apples in the <i><br /></i><br />
<i> crime empire</i> he's building!"<br />
<br />
muscle:-"There's more to <i>Darkseid</i> than <i>that</i>! He makes me believe that <i>Dracula</i> is <i>alive</i> and <i>well</i> in<br />
<i>Transylvania!"</i><br />
<br />
The impression given is that Kirby was doing more than associating Darkseid with a broad range of despicable activities, from corporate scheming to gangsterism, fiendish genetic engineering to the kidnapping of young women. In addition, Kirby was also deliberately identifying the as-yet rarely seen Darkseid with a range of criminal stereotypes. To schemer, gangster and master supervillain was now added the status of girl-snatcher and the suggestion of stereotypical vampire lord. (When Kirby later revealed the whereabouts of Beautiful Dreamer, he had Darkseid adopt an arms-outstretched pose that evoked Bela Lugosi's Dracula. It was a suggestion that left Darkseid seeming enervatingly out-of-time.) (*1) For the moment, this crush of cliches would fail to coalesce into a distinct and individual character. Kirby's attempt to evoke how fascism intrudes into every sphere of public life brought with it an inevitable problem. The more that Darkseid was shown to be involved in a wide range of villainy, the less convincing he threatened to become as an individual. How then to make sure that the metaphor didn't obscure the character? In <i>The Forever People</i> #1, Darkseid would exist as an awkwardly mixed aggregation of fictional types, intriguing and yet insubstantial. If his brief appearances as a talking head suggested a heartless scoundrel with unprecedented power and influence, Darkseid himself remained a cypher. <br />
<br />
<i>*1:- As we'll come to, a far, far more successful use of the iconography associated with the Universal Monsters would be achieved by Kirby in the charming Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #142/3</i><br />
<br />
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<u><b>3</b></u><b>.</b><br />
<br />
Part of that lack of personality and presence was caused by the character's design. What would soon become iconic was initially underwhelming. At first, Kirby keep Darkseid's grey, stone-lined visage essentially impassive. Famously inspired by actor Jack Palance and his capacity to transmit a blood-curdling malevolence, Kirby's depiction of Darkseid as yet projected little beyond the insouciance of absolute power. This, of course, was part and parcel of Kirby's intentions. To have Darkseid rarely express extremes of emotion while constantly radiating malice placed the character far outside the typical range of comicbook antagonists. But for the moment, the result of such purposeful underplaying was to again leave Darkseid seeming considerably less impressive than his own fiendish designs. If Kirby had revealed that the Darkseid of these early appearances was in fact a lieutenant in the service of some even more villainous character, no-one would have been too surprised. <br />
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Even as Darkseid's resources and schemes became more and more obviously substantial, the result remained the same. Terrible things are afoot, but the New God who's behind all the mayhem doesn't as yet entirely convince. This remains true even after The Forever People lead Superman to what's revealed to be a secret subterranean base, from which pours Darkseid's 'faithful...Gravi-Guards', creatures so powerful that Earth's greatest superhero is helpless before them. It's not the first sign of an underground base that's been carved into the Earth by Darkseid's minions, of course; we discussed Mokkari and Simyan vast hidden genetics laboratory in the second part of these posts. But here there's a sense that Darkseid's ambitions are escalating. Unlike the 'evil factory' of <i>SPJO</i> #135 that's populated by just two Apokolitian scientists and their experiments, the facility discovered in <i>In Search Of A Dream</i>
contains troops, the machinery for probing minds and Darkseid himself.
Yet once again, Darkseid's reach and ambitions are far more impressive
than he is. For all his scheming, Darkseid's ambitions will completely
fall apart through an accidental alliance between Superman and an
anarchic band of youthful New Gods acting outside of Supertown's
supervision. Coincidence and brute force turn back Darkseid's forces and
stymie his plans in a matter of mere moments.<br />
<br />
If the depiction of
Superman in <i>The Forever People </i>#1 lacks the traditional measure
of undiluted nobility, then Kirby's portrayal of Darkseid falls short
when it comes to suggesting a malefactor of substance as well as
wickedness. As such, it's telling that Darkseid is never so fearsome a
character as when Infinity Man describes him to Superman. '<i>Holocaust </i>and <i>death</i> is what he <i>serves</i>!'
he explains, looking momentarily appalled by the very idea that such a
monster could exist. Nothing that Darkseid evokes during his on-panel
appearances in <i>The Forever People</i> #1 can match this moment of
quietly profound horror. For the moment, Darkseid was more powerful as
an vaguely-articulated idea than a presence. <br />
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<u><b>4</b></u>.<br />
<br />
As discussed last time, Kirby allocated but four panels in <i>The Forever People </i>#1 to Darkseid's first appearance as anything other than a face on a view-screen. For the most part, it was a deeply anti-climatic sequence, packed - once again - with brilliantly compelling snares, and yet, lacking in the appropriate markers of individual charisma and menace. Not only was far too little space allocated to the showdown between Superman, Infinity Man and Darkseid, but Kirby's compositional skills for once repeatedly eluded him. (Only in the portrait of Darkseid that you can see above did the reader gain a shiversome sense of Darkseid's imposing physical mass matched to his utterly malignant personality.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFWig_av8HrOHRTCzbnhTtJRhC5tN_UzClCwj0B1U6mJg8tgxpRcYlS6TX49HYfs0pOcjzgrDNnwSj3AV4FAZQKJQIoyvToy4nKDXhSGMirweo8uOKVVp6Lfgk9IegEwR-F-vK2LnvAIbj/s1600/scan0110.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFWig_av8HrOHRTCzbnhTtJRhC5tN_UzClCwj0B1U6mJg8tgxpRcYlS6TX49HYfs0pOcjzgrDNnwSj3AV4FAZQKJQIoyvToy4nKDXhSGMirweo8uOKVVp6Lfgk9IegEwR-F-vK2LnvAIbj/s640/scan0110.jpg" width="638" /></a></div>
Kirby had Darkseid first step directly into the Fourth World tales on <i>In Search Of A Dream </i>fifth-last page. (You can see the panel in the scan placed directly above, although tight binding in DC's first 4th World collection prevents my showing you the whole page.) Appearing in a frame placed in the bottom row of page 20, he gave Darkseid but one-sixth of the side to establish his malign presence. Constrained by word balloons and Infinity Man's helmet and right shoulder, Darkseid appears relatively unimpressive. Rather than dominating events, he almost appears to be unconvincingly puffing up his own importance. The arms being deliberately and yet defensively crossed, the left leg that's awkwardly extended before him, the cape that hangs rather tamely to his calves when it might be billowing; the impression is of a senior functionary rather than an imperial monarch. Yes, this is an undeniably powerful individual, and yet, first impressions being so important, it's by no means an obviously almighty one. It might even be imagined that this Darkseid is some inhuman creature who's impersonating a god, a conceit that might compel if only a greater sense of transgression and threat was present.<br />
<br />
There seems little doubt that Kirby had been determined to subvert the traditions by which super-villains were traditionally revealed. In terms of the dialogue he gave Darkseid, he was undeniably successful. Here was an alien warlord who, despite his fearsome appearance, chose not to resort to fisti-cuffs while admitting to his foes that his schemes had come to naught. For a moment, Darkseid calls to mind the Doctor Doom of Kirby and Lee's Latveria trilogy in 1969's <i>Fantastic Four</i> #84-86, arrogant, forthright and yet not entirely ignoble. But in just a little time, Darkseid will prove to possess little that's laudable on any level beyond a fierce animal regard for himself and his brood. As such, Darkseid only sounds as if he's honestly owning up to Superman and Infinity Man over a failure to find an interpretation of 'the equation' in Beautiful Dreamer's mind. (This, the first mention of Anti-Life, will go unexplained for a while further.) As future tales would show, Darkseid's simply so very proud that he'd <i>far </i>rather admit to defeat than allow others to deduce that he'd fallen short.<br />
<br />
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More devious yet, Darkseid is using this front of apparently honest malice to mask his plan to vaporise all of his foes, both Kryptonian and godly, with soon-to detonate 'Radion bombs'. This is undeniably compelling material, and yet, once again, good intentions are compromised by untypically counter-productive choices on Kirby's part. For all its sinister promise, Darkseid's death-trap relies far more on the stupidity of his would-be victims
rather than his own fiendish powers of cunning. Although neither Superman or
Infinity Man note the big red 'Radion' bombs that Darkseid has placed beneath
the couch bearing Beautiful Dreamer, they can hardly be said to be
anything other than highly obvious. Without this detail, Darkseid's plan to teleport away while his opponents are vaporised might have appeared masterly. Instead, he's made to appear careless while they're left looking astonishing thick. (Infinity Man, who clearly knows both what Radion weapons look like and the truth of Darkseid deceitful nature, is incredibly slow in noting the terrible danger that's placed right in front of his eyes.) As a result, Darkseid seems desperate and none-too-smart, while his opponents appear to be even less perceptive. Tension ebbs away as the brief showdown immediately degenerates into camp.<br />
<br />
For whatever reason, Kirby doesn't even show Darkseid teleporting away from the scene prior to the detonation of his death trap. The character declares that he has "the power to vanish as quickly as (he) appeared", and then, in the following frame, Superman announces "H-he's gone". This is telling and not showing, and it's just more one sign that <i>The Forever People</i> #1 was, for whatever reason, created in haste as well as enthusiasm. The result is a jarring moment that baffles the reader even as it denies them the pleasures of a ghostly, sinister departure. <br />
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<br />
<i>To be continued, in two week's time, with a look at the game-changing </i><i>'The New Gods' </i>#1.... Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-87003707069351548572015-08-21T23:01:00.001+01:002015-08-21T23:15:46.727+01:00The Last Days Of Gardner Fox & Howard Sherman's Doctor Fate (Part 3 of 3)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNQWOL-b_usMhwpKZn7LVui4oWiZ9vORyV2fYsXzjTYfQhTG2j4H2cWXJAHKIHiDHVon-p48PLF8API9-fO3HMrdHV1U3_9ZRO6SEyl82Y8Ko_joR6fp43MXcMY_ENjAhOBtHuJzt2phEk/s1600/scan0083.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNQWOL-b_usMhwpKZn7LVui4oWiZ9vORyV2fYsXzjTYfQhTG2j4H2cWXJAHKIHiDHVon-p48PLF8API9-fO3HMrdHV1U3_9ZRO6SEyl82Y8Ko_joR6fp43MXcMY_ENjAhOBtHuJzt2phEk/s640/scan0083.jpg" width="470" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Howard Sherman's cover to <i>More Fun Comics</i> #72, which presented the first sign of Fate's new half-face helmet. The cover's promise that the strip would be 'different' was entirely correct, but 'startling' was a less accurate enticement.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>This look at the career of the Golden Age Doctor Fate, which concludes below, began <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/who-is-doctor-fate-and-why-are-there-so.html" target="_blank">here</a>, and continued <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/on-fall-of-gardner-fox-howard-shermans.html" target="_blank">here</a>:</i><br />
<br />
<u><b>20</b></u><b>.</b><br />
<br />
Doctor Fate's second sweeping reboot of 1941 occurred in October's <i>More Fun Comics </i>#72.
Whether in a spirit of optimism or desperation, DC appears to have been gambling upon a bowdlerised Fate's ability to appeal to a larger
audience. Just a few months before, he'd displaced The Spectre as <i>More Fun Comics'</i> regular cover star. Ahead was a run of nine consecutive covers,
the last five of which would feature a rather different version of Doctor Fate.
(After that, he'd never once escape the title's interior pages.) In
what would remain an unexplained change, Fate's helmet now
only covered the top half of his skull. It's hard not to presume that this
was a further attempt to make Fate both more sympathetic and less
intimidatingly opaque to his young readers. Instead of the unsettling
absence of facial expression created by the old helmet's design, Sherman
could now ensure that the character transmitted at least a limited range of recognisable
human responses.<br />
<br />
It was an innovation that was only
partially successful. Unlike more typical superhero masks, Fate's
half-face helmet still defeated any attempt to suggest the key messages
transmitted by the eyes, the eyebrows and the forehead. Nor did Sherman take full advantage of the opportunities for expression he was given, and few of his panels would show Fate's mouth indulging in any
memorable bout of smiling, shouting or even teeth-gnashing. Just as Kent Nelson
was an interesting idea sabotaged by lacklustre execution, so the decision to change Fate's helmet presented an opportunity that was never truly grasped. Perhaps
matters might have been somewhat helped had Sherman returned to the trick of
showing Fate's eyes that had last been seen in the Doctor's
debut appearance, but even that option was left unexplored.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgML5koeWDL0z2SLl6VKKUxHlDor-ibsApGuuUb54axBJVuDPs3puC6NgE47uG0qiAbBtpfqLgV1zAhc0VAYbUSKYpyB5sWZnzHZtZB3_qR78QFKjoLocb_S2uN9C2oicjCJ0SyLgANBwoH/s1600/scan0084.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgML5koeWDL0z2SLl6VKKUxHlDor-ibsApGuuUb54axBJVuDPs3puC6NgE47uG0qiAbBtpfqLgV1zAhc0VAYbUSKYpyB5sWZnzHZtZB3_qR78QFKjoLocb_S2uN9C2oicjCJ0SyLgANBwoH/s640/scan0084.jpg" width="468" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #79: Fate's half-face helmet didn't help to make the character a more emotionally compelling character. Indeed, it frequently looked as if the golden headgear had been jammed uncomfortably and unreliably onto Nelson's head, leaving some rather worryingly exposed ears.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>21.</b></u><br />
<br />
The helmet was only the most immediately obvious of the changes. Others swiftly became obvious.
Where once Doctor Fate had been almighty, now he was reduced to the
rank of identikit costumed strongmen. Even as Superman was gradually
accumulating powers and the methods of using them, Fate was downgraded
to
a measure of
super-strength, a considerable degree of invulnerability, and the
capacity
to fly, or rather oddly<i> run</i>, through the air. It was a
standard-issue
set of powers that left him pretty much indistinguishable from a host of
other third-string superfolk. <br />
<br />
But with
his nostrils suddenly exposed, Fate now had a convenient weaknesses;
gas. Commonsense has always declared that the more powerful the
character, the less interesting their stories. The evidence of Fate's
remaining tales might be used to suggest that the opposite can also be
true. Although his body still remained almost indestructible, being
'composed of
molecular energy (and) immortal', Fate's lungs had somehow escaped being
so
strengthed. Every three or four issues, Fate would be briefly and
repetitively floored by a handkerchief soaked in chlorophyll, a garage
filling with carbon dioxide, a chamber awash with water, and so on. But even
that range of threats offered little that could be made interesting, visibly or otherwise, within
the boundaries of taste established by DC. (Mind you, even editorial
carte blanche couldn't make suffocation a constantly engrossing
business.) The Achilles heels of super-heroes function best when they
can throw a light on a character's capabilities and character; how
will Superman cope over time with the effects of Red Kryptonite, what
will Wonder Woman do to compensate for the enfeebling loss of her
bracelets? Yet all that Fate's new weakness could illustrate was the
relatively simple and repetitive matter of escaping from locked,
oxygen-starved rooms. <br />
<br />
Once again, original and distinctive
qualities of Fate's had been replaced for apparently very good reasons
and yet to little if any good effect. The new version of Doctor Fate was
simply poorly designed. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKD2FbERWJ7SG-8UDYSyFPl_h8PnMOd4lgtSRJPnMKlW52FDx_1oQOJ4B1lQIG6cZKpztVrqO_eNR-pqyrjnAEC9TKWnN1SHvbsGApX6k4ERsloMgmzyd6K_aVHYz7zh9i1cqN4-DL1pfc/s1600/scan0164.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKD2FbERWJ7SG-8UDYSyFPl_h8PnMOd4lgtSRJPnMKlW52FDx_1oQOJ4B1lQIG6cZKpztVrqO_eNR-pqyrjnAEC9TKWnN1SHvbsGApX6k4ERsloMgmzyd6K_aVHYz7zh9i1cqN4-DL1pfc/s640/scan0164.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #72, October 1941: Fate, who used to teleport through the walls he couldn't smash through, can now be corralled by sliding metal panels. Worse yet, the villain who's trapped him is nothing more than a gangster, politely dressed with his tie and braces.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>22</b></u>.<br />
<br />
But the transformation of
Fate went even further than a change in appearance and power-set. Gone
was all but
the most trivial signs of magic, with even the Salem Tower being largely
banished from the strip. (When it was shown, it was nearly always from
the inside, as if its external appearance was simply too disturbing.) Even the alien Nabu and his training of the young Kent Nelson, so recently introduced, were completely ignored. A
few trivial aspects of the original feature's pseudo-occult trappings
did make an appearance in <i>More Fun Comics </i>#72. But even
there, the crystal and ring that allowed Fate to monitor Inza's safety
carried no more sense of the supernatural than Dick Tracy's 2-way wrist
radio.<br />
<br />
Now Fate was reduced to a two-fisted opponent of
American petty ganglords and hoodlums. It was if the various unworldly and
mighty powers of the old Fate's adventures had willed themselves and
their various realms quite out of existence. Absent too were the lunatic
super-scientists with a taste for more than just a career in larceny, along with any nefarious, spell-casting felons. All that was
left was a cartoon America and a narrow range of low-ranking, unintimidating criminals. Instead
of the likes of Wotan and his determination to destroy the Earth, now
there was Fingers Beaumont and his bank frauds. These were minor threats
to public order, dangerous to individuals, who tended to be from the
upper classes, but of no threat at all to the powers that be. Fate had
become the equivalent of an affable if charmless neighbourhood policeman whose beat mostly took him through his city's least challenging districts. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit2EDQkkTKw-n53PzLif7YST2UzS4Kz0S5kfU-PzJ0AAga3F6xxoUPHizaTKGzWYHXcBpkXhi7ag9osA-mRbgNM6P6JCtzlZyr52BZKREwMSB2AZ9YLAP9hM5jYwvIhNg25HFLJYtu3mqj/s1600/scan0085.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit2EDQkkTKw-n53PzLif7YST2UzS4Kz0S5kfU-PzJ0AAga3F6xxoUPHizaTKGzWYHXcBpkXhi7ag9osA-mRbgNM6P6JCtzlZyr52BZKREwMSB2AZ9YLAP9hM5jYwvIhNg25HFLJYtu3mqj/s640/scan0085.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1942's <i>More Fun Comics</i> #75: the new Doctor Fate, saving nice shop owners from plate-smashing protection rackets.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Conflict was reduced to the most banal of scales, the most routine of showdowns. A crime was
committed, a hoodlum identified, a trap set and overcome, a bout of
circus brawling indulged in, and always, a comforting closing panel of
triumph. The old innovation and brutality only very occasionally sparked into life, and it never carried with it a spark of gleeful
invention. No trace
remained at all of the Doctor Fate who'd once destroyed an opponent's
soul in order to prevent him reincarnating. No hint appeared of Fox's previous habit of drawing on the broadest range of influences to enliven his tales. Once or twice, a
tale-closing punch-up resulted in a criminal's death, but even then, it was one that would have probably
been classed as manslaughter by a friendly jury. An attempt to knock Mr
Who unconscious, for example, resulted in his being accidentally
hurled through the bottom of a boat into a lake. Fate let him sink
without lifting a finger to save him. (Perhaps he was scared of his
helmet and cloak dragging him too far under if he tried.). Despite that, there was no suggestion that Fate was doing away with the criminal element once he'd defeated it.He was just, shall we say, a smidgen over-enthusiastic.<br />
<br />
Anyway, the size-changing Mr
Who would be back soon enough. The original Doctor Fate had made a
despicable habit of ensuring that his opponents couldn't ever return and seek revenge.
Mr Who wouldn't have lasted a second with that take on the character. Now he was free to reappear, and reappear again. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4YitkA3jwPkBxzo9Yuj9hr1kWMhSJ8X_OdR5r2Y8hwefySs7rzktIPeelNVfKY0XQNOqHSpZ23UpVtnf7Ei5LPhFY4600Wm19ZVxAsdQu_KahEXI0ko7fenk_AE6ulBRzYkl-a1q7tV8p/s1600/scan0086.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4YitkA3jwPkBxzo9Yuj9hr1kWMhSJ8X_OdR5r2Y8hwefySs7rzktIPeelNVfKY0XQNOqHSpZ23UpVtnf7Ei5LPhFY4600Wm19ZVxAsdQu_KahEXI0ko7fenk_AE6ulBRzYkl-a1q7tV8p/s640/scan0086.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1942's <i>More Fun Comics</i> #79: at moments, Sherman's old compositional skill would re-emerge, but the elderly blowhard Mr Who never seemed a frightening prospect even when in gigantic form. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>23</b></u>.<br />
<br />
The
reboot pushed Inza ever further out of the limelight, although she was at least finally granted a surname; Cramer. For months at a time she would be
entirely absent from the strip. When she did reappear, it was usually to partner
Nelson to a soiree of some sort at which a middling menace would emerge. That would usually be Inza's contributions to the tale done and dusted. Once or twice she was allowed a moment of spirit; a sword thrown at a
costume ball which released Fate from a noose, a bravely-accepted
performance as bait for The Octopus and his henchmen. But on the whole,
Inza existed as nought but a mostly absent girl-friend, a hostage
and, when faced with Fate's prone body, a tearful mourner."No more to sail on adventures with him!", she'd wailed when Fingers Beaumont's hoods had thrown Fate off a cliff. Of course, the superhero had quickly recovered from his apparent death, but poor Inza would never again go sailing on adventures with him anyway.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzdHNus6U7BjLPtrRHxit1LX7EC4pQBJH05krXCvgREakRYjILmLTVinr64p5FQXUFSMibcPwx7QzpDkBBAJXi2nGB0NDzqtEoduiSYPKVNeZWnuSaXUduSjscDPoGCtlwZ-8O8Dvbifx/s1600/scan0087.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="612" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzdHNus6U7BjLPtrRHxit1LX7EC4pQBJH05krXCvgREakRYjILmLTVinr64p5FQXUFSMibcPwx7QzpDkBBAJXi2nGB0NDzqtEoduiSYPKVNeZWnuSaXUduSjscDPoGCtlwZ-8O8Dvbifx/s640/scan0087.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #90, April 1943. Having lost half his
helmet, Fate had now also misplaced his cloak and belt. (Sherman, who'd once
seemed strongly influenced by Shuster and Lou Fine, now appeared to be
channelling something of Simon and Kirby's dynamic style.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
When something of Fate and Inza's old relationship reappears for a single adventure in 1943's <i>More Fun Comics</i> #90, the strip suddenly threatens to spark back into life. As if nothing much had ever changed, Inza unexpectedly steps forward to challenge, support and encourage Kent Nelson, while his respect for her is clear and endearing. It's a return to form that regrettably only lasts for a few pages. Soon Fate has left Inza behind, running daftly through the air away from her while declaring that he doesn't want to 'expose (her) to danger'. As she disappears from the tale, so too does any air of excitement. So far has Fate fallen by this time that he's then reduced to fighting Din Din the kidnapped dog, who understands and obeys every word of his gangster captor.<br />
<br />
The series would sink even further, although in truth there really wasn't that far for it to sink.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioMgE4l49ZgfpGpvXy7yPRxwT67wH5a6ne1XMDEUecF64B3WPeKwT4ug-kL6hNE0YiAxEXznLTTolOBfbfRGuzxrVY-SwhlmYTuaqA3dC3nr5jT8yvJik8CHWg8NYv-E5hYY7_hS_64dGf/s1600/scan0088.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioMgE4l49ZgfpGpvXy7yPRxwT67wH5a6ne1XMDEUecF64B3WPeKwT4ug-kL6hNE0YiAxEXznLTTolOBfbfRGuzxrVY-SwhlmYTuaqA3dC3nr5jT8yvJik8CHWg8NYv-E5hYY7_hS_64dGf/s640/scan0088.jpg" width="560" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1943's <i>More Fun Comics</i> #92: Doctor Fate is reduced to beating up a diminiutive criminal who's already in his custody. Somehow the sequence seems so tired and pathetic that it doesn't even appear brutal. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>24</b></u>.<br />
<br />
These many and various changes need not,
of course, have made Doctor Fate an
uninteresting character. Will Eisner's The Spirit and Simon and Kirby's
various everyman superheroes made for consistently fascinating features
during the period. Indeed, having few if any special abilities often
helped
to make the likes of Denny Colt and Paul Kirk endearingly assailable.
But Fox and Sherman had placed an essentially over-familiar heroic type
into an essentially over-familiar setting with an essentially
over-familiar storytelling formula. In many ways, Doctor Fate's
post-1941 adventures were no more routine than his earliest tales had
been. But the first if ever-developing set-up in 1940/1 had offered the
chance for
constantly changing and eye-catchingly singular scenes. No matter how
predictable the plot, the events were frequently engrossing. Fox would
draw
from a broad range of sources - from myths to pulps to high culture -
while Sherman would impose a dark and unified aesthetic that suggested a
fascinatingly odd, complex and dangerous universe. But in their
attempts to make Doctor
Fate a commercially successful strip, DC surrendered to the
illogic of the lowest common denominator. In trying to make Fate like
every other
top-selling character, they'd ended up with a strip that lacked any
unique
properties of its own. For the new Fate to excel, Fox and Sherman would
have needed the freedom to invigorate the already threadbare traditions
of the mainstream urban superhero genre. Instead, they were locked into an
inescapably enervating routine. The few super-villains on show were as
secondhand and unexceptional as Fate himself. The blue-skinned piscene
crime boss the Octopus, with his handily Fate-choking gas gun, and the
Clock, with, yes, his perfectly round face, could have appeared in any
other superhero strip. None of them were interesting in
themselves, or suggested anything interesting about Fate and his world.<br />
<br />
They were all simply there because they were, because they were there. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj24F_GktfLuAqAooadzGNd3waQsu5u8lb5nucrKxA6GS4ec8sVLezbHmfo5jRqddjyrO2sZvYS-vGVJY3tredSq5zoAJNR-7RgYJdoOmE3AG_z12IH0f6sWeJCWz9V5BQmqrmkhtGPbcbO/s1600/scan0165.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj24F_GktfLuAqAooadzGNd3waQsu5u8lb5nucrKxA6GS4ec8sVLezbHmfo5jRqddjyrO2sZvYS-vGVJY3tredSq5zoAJNR-7RgYJdoOmE3AG_z12IH0f6sWeJCWz9V5BQmqrmkhtGPbcbO/s640/scan0165.jpg" width="516" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From More Fun Comics #85, November 1942</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>25</b></u><b>.</b><br />
<br />
The very last throw of the dice with Fate was the invention of a new public-spirited vocation for Kent Nelson. In 1942's <i>More Fun Comics</i>
#85, Fate's alter ego was given to suddenly declare that, just as
"Doctor Fate heals
men's souls", so he "should help heal their bodies". It was a strange
way of looking at Fate's work. The first Fate had been concerned with
little but exterminating challenges to the occult status quo, while the
half-helmeted version spent his time avidly beating up hoods and con men.
Healing souls had never appeared to be a concern of either incarnation.
But then, healing bodies itself would only occupy a handful
of Fate's adventures until cancellation arrived. Of the remaining
fourteen Fate stories to see print, Dr Nelson would only appear in four.
Elsewhere, it was,
with the exception of the loss of Fate's bright yellow cloak and belt,
business as normal. <br />
<br />
So
little use was made of Nelson's medical practise that it's hard to see
why anyone thought the innovation was worth bothering about. But then,
the strip seemed to be being deliberately purged over time of anything
other than a costume, a crime, a criminal and a punch or two. In the
final seven months of Doctor Fate, neither Nelson's doctoring or Inza
Cramer were even once referred to. (The latter had, with a sad
inevitability,
had responded to Nelson's new career with a newborn determination to
become
a nurse. Yet the Inza of the
earliest Fate stories would surely have aspired to be a doctor too, if
she'd ever thought to abandon her position of considerable influence for a
profession in health care.)
For all that the post-Golden Age superhero comic has been keen to
strip mine old stories for inspiring ideas, nothing from this period of
Fate's career has ever been adapted for later use. Little could be more
indicative of its quality<br />
<br />
After 18 months of
Nelson as MD, Inza as occasional date and nurse, and Fate as the foe of a cardboard
underworld, the strip simply disappeared after
July-August 1944's <i>More Fun Comics</i> #98. Sherman had gone by the
end of 1943, to be replaced by first Stan Aschmeier, an adequate if
largely
uninspired artist, and then Jon Chester Kozlak, whose largely humorous
style was free of even homoeopathic traces of the macabre. With
everything that had made the character so different and compelling
excised from the strip, Fate no longer the slightest commercial or
artistic reason to exist. It's hard not to believe that Fox had long
accepted that fact. For all that they're professional, his final scripts
are painfully dull. To the outsider, there seems to be nothing beyond his craft of Gardner Fox in those stories at all. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZq-qntZgENTxh-iYm7lya7IB-Pa8GoJq8P4EkAdcQWIsWzGbSXTlHR9NXZdgCZ1BIoZ6VeLJzEggZ6heZ7qA8QpblpbuQ5FH_rCLTvucO6QsIa3rHqdNEKyQfmKH_kD3E1S3YKbNwYeov/s1600/scan0089.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZq-qntZgENTxh-iYm7lya7IB-Pa8GoJq8P4EkAdcQWIsWzGbSXTlHR9NXZdgCZ1BIoZ6VeLJzEggZ6heZ7qA8QpblpbuQ5FH_rCLTvucO6QsIa3rHqdNEKyQfmKH_kD3E1S3YKbNwYeov/s640/scan0089.jpg" width="406" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1944's <i>More Fun Comics</i> #98, the very last panel of the very final Golden Age Doctor Fate tale. Drawn by Jon Chester Kozlak, it seemed a rushed and largely uncared-for tale. Sherman's art had been wildly inconsistent since the arrival of the half-helmeted Fate, with the evidence suggesting a number of different inkers of differing quality at work over his pencils. But his art had rarely lacked interest and energy. His absence for the last six Fate stories makes it feel as if the strip had already been declared dead and buried, and perhaps it had been. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>26</b></u>. <br />
<br />
Today there might well be an online outcry from disappointed loyalists at such a sudden disapppearance, a wave of
Tweets decrying the mistreatment and loss of a beloved character, a blog or two that traced
the historical context along with the corporation's sins, and,
almost inevitably, a splash of fan-lad invective. Of course, no such options existed in
1944. But in essence, what happened to Doctor Fate between 1940 and
1944 seems remarkably similar to what's occurring to
many corporate-owned superpeople today. Some few contemporary reinventions
flourish and take root, while most, whether well-judged or not, crash and
burn. Of course, many things in the comics industry have changed, and changed out of all recognition. And yet, the market must still be attended to. So too must corporate politics and the entirely legitimate self-interest of creators. How could these factors ever not be of decisive importance?<br />
<br />
There's a new <i>Doctor Fate</i> title on the stands at the moment, a fresh spin, we're told,
on an old, old property. Perhaps it's terrific. Perhaps it'll survive
and even prosper. If so, then hurrah for all involved, and if not, then
another Doctor Fate will inescapably be along soon. Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman's creation, in all its different incarnations, is just too beguiling a prospect to ever let fade away. But then, unlike the Forties, superheroes today are rarely allowed to lay fallow for long, and certainly not for the 19 or so years that the Golden Age Fate was absent for the page. That, if
nothing else, has undeniably changed. <br />
<br />
. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-22786949174328792632015-08-20T01:05:00.000+01:002016-08-01T21:40:32.471+01:00On The Fall of Gardner Fox & Howard Sherman's Doctor Fate (Part 2: 1941)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTptCfc11awcC49szHd_Xi4j-5mMqI9UxIuwhsM5wOYu4xUPAaEZOM_LVYjpMHhtrfzyGH4GOsBvN-V5dmO5TZ13lpE0I7iOBF1MP1VAUa23T3qdi4bqKFhhs2rKnqrKHSBLvEZVQCvLqN/s1600/scan0070.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTptCfc11awcC49szHd_Xi4j-5mMqI9UxIuwhsM5wOYu4xUPAaEZOM_LVYjpMHhtrfzyGH4GOsBvN-V5dmO5TZ13lpE0I7iOBF1MP1VAUa23T3qdi4bqKFhhs2rKnqrKHSBLvEZVQCvLqN/s640/scan0070.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #61: Doctor Fate pushes the Pirate Planet, and all of its inhabitants, 'into the great maw of the terrifically hot sun'.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>Continued from <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/who-is-doctor-fate-and-why-are-there-so.html" target="_blank">here</a></i><br />
<br />
<u><b>13</b></u><b>.</b><br />
<br />
As Roy Thomas explains in the forward to the <i>Golden Age Doctor Fate </i>Archive Edition, <i>More Fun Comics</i> and <i>All-Star Comics</i>
were published by what were in essence two quite separate companies
operating under the DC banner. As such, there's no reason to imagine
that the words spoken by Fate in one title were ever intended
to apply to his appearances elsewhere. Yet for a brief while, Doctor Fate's own strip did indeed seem to
be informed by the backstory outlined in <i>All-Star Comics </i>#3. Although no
mention was made of The Elder Gods and their making of Fate, the
character did suddenly begin to discuss his adventures in the
distant past. It was a shift that occurred as the Doctor Fate strip
sheered away from its flirtation with technological opponents. Magic was
once more the focus of events, and in that context, Fate was to declare
to Inza in <i>More Fun Comics</i> #63 that he'd been alive when the Jerome family home "was built back in 1698". At the end of the same adventure, he'd reinforce the same
point by explaining that he had "lived long beyond the ken of mortal
men". Then, one month later, Fate wistfully explained that he'd known
the 'evil' Aztec god Mayoor "centuries ago when the world was young". <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRCv97sRGX_A5e2ZcQ_yTrwAqBtvVLh4vGol-v7I2jLKdmogO_ejuuiaqHlBerB2wFZ3Twz8dhaSHai0VABlv21jSZb0QGPwqrX4RQJRdwh6kLmIQNYaQ3PCrL_xF-zexa9veXm7mzqycH/s1600/scan0169.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRCv97sRGX_A5e2ZcQ_yTrwAqBtvVLh4vGol-v7I2jLKdmogO_ejuuiaqHlBerB2wFZ3Twz8dhaSHai0VABlv21jSZb0QGPwqrX4RQJRdwh6kLmIQNYaQ3PCrL_xF-zexa9veXm7mzqycH/s640/scan0169.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1941's <i>More Fun Comics</i> #64</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For the first time, Fate's history was beginning to take a satisfyingly coherent shape. In February 1941's <i>More Fun Comics</i> #64, his description of an assailant as "human!" could now be confidently read as a statement of his own otherness. With each passing month, his history would be enticingly developed. In <i>More Fun Comics</i> #65, Fox would go on to deliver the fullest statement yet of Fate's
learning. Now, in addition to his previously mentioned occult studies, Fate was said to know everything of
'the knowledge of ... those races that dwelt before our written history
began... (along with) Magic and the lost arts,
the secrets of nature and the universe....". A mention of physics was, however, conspicuously absent. Fate was now, it seemed, an ancient, inhuman sorcerer with no reliance on any kind of science at all. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAkadY4gBnBxGsZoC_AMNbFvRpWsDMaDr2aac3nlG_Fd24qqETH-fhCfBW4EK-kKPVwB9oD94D5j7yip52QlGWRocOOdA94X-3VRi42Bvlod2Nc24JruXZ9aFJz1pRz8D_3obiJyz5FPQ_/s1600/scan0175.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAkadY4gBnBxGsZoC_AMNbFvRpWsDMaDr2aac3nlG_Fd24qqETH-fhCfBW4EK-kKPVwB9oD94D5j7yip52QlGWRocOOdA94X-3VRi42Bvlod2Nc24JruXZ9aFJz1pRz8D_3obiJyz5FPQ_/s1600/scan0175.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From March/April 1941's <i>All-Star Comics</i> #4; Fate suddenly takes America's side in the soon-to-be declared war against the Axis.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>14</b></u>. <br />
<br />
But in the spring of 1941, and with
America facing the ever-more imminent prospect of war, Doctor Fate's
feelings towards America changed significantly. Along with his fellow
members of the Justice Society Of America in <i>All-Star Comics</i> #4, Fate
embraced a campaign "against the subversive activities of the 'Fifth
Column'." Unlike in his previous appearances, here was a Fate who
appeared to take the danger to the U.S.A. in a decidedly personal
manner. Not only was he evidently furious, but, for the first time, Fate was shown
bowing respectfully to the authority of American institutions such as the
F.B.I.. Never before had he paid the slightest attention to the law of any nation. Even the functionaries of the afterlife had been forced to follow his will. Only 'Wisdom who rules the world' and the Elder Gods had ever caused Fate to display deference. That was an imperium that he was soon to abandon. Even as he turned the leader of the sabotaging Bund to stone, Fate assured
his colleagues in the Justice Society that the spell would be reversed once a trial began. The Republic's courts, it appeared, and not Fate himself, had suddenly become sovereign.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMUAUN3AdiQTG6vkZSlCLkOCuRNawY-7ZUyH2ABBFJUhi02ZNRMsp_mmwqV_CPS43kX8qRXSfGadbgMT_5TBV_1nXvLMmJveyQN9Ek7MSzKtjIhoAAGZV_gD4OZEQfTiM6jS5WOrJwafAi/s1600/scan0071.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="576" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMUAUN3AdiQTG6vkZSlCLkOCuRNawY-7ZUyH2ABBFJUhi02ZNRMsp_mmwqV_CPS43kX8qRXSfGadbgMT_5TBV_1nXvLMmJveyQN9Ek7MSzKtjIhoAAGZV_gD4OZEQfTiM6jS5WOrJwafAi/s640/scan0071.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1941's <i>More Fun Comics</i> #64</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Fate also appeared oddly merciful during the last few instalments of his first year in <i>More Fun Comics</i>.
In March, he seemed uncharacteristically keen to avoid killing the Fish
King Of Nyarl-Amen. It was a measure of restraint that arrived
surprisingly out of blue, given that Fate had just burned to death every
single one of the kings' soldiers as they attacked Hawaii. Prior to now, there had only ever been two punishments that Fate had been content to administer to his foes. The first was execution, and the second some form of macabre and eternal imprisonment. In each case, the audience had been encouraged to revel in the suffering of his enemies. Now the King Of Nyarl-Amen was allowed by Fox to dispatch himself, falling accidentally on his own sword after Fate had thumped him around. In April, a similarly restrained approach was taken with the depiction of the magician and extortionist Sarkiss. Banished by Fate 'forever from the world of men', Sarkiss simply disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Perhaps, as Fox's narration might be thought to imply, he'd been transported into space for a swift, gruesome death. Perhaps he was merely sent somewhere far away from the human race. But whichever reading we opt for, there was a distinct and uncharacteristic absent of relish when it came to Sarkiss's punishment. Rather than the whole story setting up the thrill of his misery and anguish, he was simply pushed off-stage with a minimum of spectacle and gusto.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH6VUCINymrdTQJr-R-MtJbFwi81DPDAuQ7_3o-_XEiekSF8qqxihiySFkq0AEAULClRrmY-NtzEPKOGNxoofDIsff_6zqe4E8TLquVY3UIx3_a0BjlEjSos3gftOTUl0EJxhmjqKuG0JF/s1600/scan0160.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH6VUCINymrdTQJr-R-MtJbFwi81DPDAuQ7_3o-_XEiekSF8qqxihiySFkq0AEAULClRrmY-NtzEPKOGNxoofDIsff_6zqe4E8TLquVY3UIx3_a0BjlEjSos3gftOTUl0EJxhmjqKuG0JF/s640/scan0160.jpg" width="474" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #66, from April 1941; Inza is overwhelmed, although it's hard to imagine that too many others were.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>15</b></u><b>.</b><br />
<br />
With April 1941's <i>More Fun Comics</i> #66 came a sweeping and devitalising reboot of Doctor Fate and his world. Without any foreshadowing at all, Fate revealed himself to be not an eternal and inhuman agent of ancient powers, but a distinctly
W.A.S.P. American named Kent Nelson. At a stroke, the degree of intriguing weirdness in the strip was
dialled enervatingly down. Out went the possibility that the origin from <i>All Star Comics</i>
was in any way canon, and in came ever-more
pedestrian adventures, with one of Kent's first acts being to declare
that the likes of "Vampires, Ghouls" were nothing but imagined fancies. Similarly, Inza too was transformed. Suddenly, Fox had her bemoan her lack of a love life, an absence of opportunity that Kent Nelson swiftly reversed. Soon she'd be spending her appearances clinging to Fate in terror. Even the art itself had changed. Beginning in the previous month's adventure, Sherman had abandoned his claustrophobic four-row, eight-panel
pages in favour of a far
more fluid and expansive style. If the artist's work had undeniably improved in terms of overall quality, its grim effectiveness was considerably reduced. <br />
<br />
This
second origin tale would in essence remain associated with the
character right up until the present day. Now Fate's knowledge and might
were said to come from an alien figure
discovered by Nelson's archaeologist father in a Pyramid built long,
long ago by an extra-terrestrial race. Freeing the offworlder - 'Nabu The Wise', born on "the planet Cilla ... half-a-million years ago" - from suspended animation resulted in the accidental death of the elder Nelson, and Fate, who'd suddenly gained a father, now equally suddenly lost him. It was, however, a tragedy that he swiftly recovered from, and, unlike poor shattered
Bruce Wayne, it was one that he never again referred to. Perhaps rightly feeling a twinge or two of guilt, Nabu briefly
assumed the role of authority figure and superhero trainer before
heading back off to the stars. (Like Kent's sorrow at his father's passing, Nabu would never again be heard of.) No more Doctor Fate the creature of the
Elder Gods, no more Fate the immortal defender, no more Fate the master
through self-study of magic and science.<br />
<br />
Instead, Fox and Sherman
recreated Doctor Fate as the heroic identity adopted on occasion by a blond, bland, privileged citizen of the Republic. The result was to hugely diminish the playful thrill of terror and dauntlessness that Fate had previously inspired. Yes, a human secret identity might have offered the audience a character to sympathise and even identify with. But Kent Nelson himself was flat, humourless bore. Not only did he lack the charm of a Clark Kent or Jay Garrick, or the vigor of Ted Grant and Al Pratt. He also lacked the story-framing advantages offered by an interesting occupation, for Kent appeared to do little of anything at all. As such, Fox was reduced to having Nelson stumble over mysteries at exclusive classical concerts and suave house parties. Although something of his feature's sense of dark menace
would remain for five more months worth of tales, it was diluted with a rooster of science-based
criminals, an absence of inventively bizarre plot beats, and scenes such as that of a yellow-caped Nelson improbably attending
society event. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhjAY56Ne1a3QaphzdslKqqwYjvFW43Ich0SMYys2FTgzyGnNKTxsBr3Yi_cyohZR3JMkN_avFbqnmR2tPIe8dWq7d-bG1As3tn1_6MH2W32yzpVFn5_qZdHvM3DXaKu08lEGQbqSWvkcq/s1600/scan0075.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhjAY56Ne1a3QaphzdslKqqwYjvFW43Ich0SMYys2FTgzyGnNKTxsBr3Yi_cyohZR3JMkN_avFbqnmR2tPIe8dWq7d-bG1As3tn1_6MH2W32yzpVFn5_qZdHvM3DXaKu08lEGQbqSWvkcq/s640/scan0075.jpg" width="506" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #68: the cosmic executioner Doctor Fate is reworked & his secret identity Kent Nelson, blandness personified, takes centre stage. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>16</b></u>. <br />
<br />
What was lost with Kent Nelson's introduction was the freewheeling bleakness, vulgarity and cruelty of Fox's original scripts. Grabbing his out-there inspirations from wherever he could while paying little attention at all to narrative sense, Fox and Sherman had created dreamlike horror tales that rudely celebrated their utterly diabolical protagonist. In his brutal triumphs over the fiendish powers of a predominantly hostile universe, the original version of Fate suggested nothing of the good, wholesome and obedient American citizen. As such, the passing of Fate mark one was as inevitable as it is to be regretted. Out of the fecundity and confusion of the earliest years of the superhero comic was emerging a consensus of what was, and in particular, what wasn't enjoyable and appropriate. The young readers of DC's products were continuing to opt for the likes of Superman and Batman over the shadowy, gruesome tales pioneered by Doctor Fate and the Spectre. At the same time, the ghoulish contents of <i>More Fun Comics </i>were unlikely to sit well with a DC that saw itself more and more as a purveyor of decent, trustworthy family entertainment. (Superman's radio show had begun in 1940, while the following year brought the Fleischer and Famous <i>Superman</i> cartoons; it's hard to believe the first year of Fate's feature would have sat well with a company expanding so rapidly into the mainstream.) As such, there was every incentive for Fox to dial down the dark strangeness of his Doctor Fate tales. The wild experimentation of 1939 and 1940 in the nascent superhero genre was turning to entrenchment. To add the by-now familiar genre conventions of affluent secret identities and screaming, dependent girl-friends offered to make the strip less singular, disturbing and alienating. In short, it promised sales, and profits. <br />
<br />
It's all too easy to bemoan the way in which most of the first wave of superheroes were speedily stripped of their most idiosyncratic and challenging features. Yes, conservatism and commerce triumphed over diversity and naive imagination. Yes, the loss of so many vital features of so many fascinating strips is greatly to be regretted. Yet, how could things have ever been different? The likes of Doctor Fate existed solely to make money. If Fox and Sherman could make something of a living from the strip, and even perhaps enjoy the process of storytelling a touch too, then that would have stood as a considerable success. Few thought comic books counted for anything, and fewer still imagined that they might be art of any kind. The rare likes of Will Eisner were sure that comics could be used to create work of lasting value and importance. But nobody could have ever imagined that strips such as Doctor Fate might be remembered, treasured, collected and even on occasion debated some 75 years later. Doctor Fate was trash comics, landfill product shovelled out at speed to beguile young children and rack up publisher's profits. Because of that, Fox and Sherman's work remains vital, coarse, ingenious, untrammelled and captivating. Frequently, their stories didn't even succeed in making sense, and so their pages carry with them a liberating, hilarious air of devil-may-care street surrealism. Flying under the radar of culture's gatekeepers, Fox and Sherman were free - for a short while - to pursue the most absurd ideas. As with all despised and peripheralised popular artforms, the result could be transfixing. <br />
<br />
But then, as always, the opportunity is closed off, and the oddities largely disappear<b> </b><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEe21EPIZ5T743Qp6rybF6IF_Y4o4qpjr9T2Gc3e4iymSPQKPJBxrkyCPeUkDQ4gdEJ7cjPo0SUNhNkZSHvazY4I_7Pl4o_pTWTptT3gMnXKwB_Oi-B0Z7-YXY4BnZHkaGojEPDYQ4LlGH/s1600/scan0080.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEe21EPIZ5T743Qp6rybF6IF_Y4o4qpjr9T2Gc3e4iymSPQKPJBxrkyCPeUkDQ4gdEJ7cjPo0SUNhNkZSHvazY4I_7Pl4o_pTWTptT3gMnXKwB_Oi-B0Z7-YXY4BnZHkaGojEPDYQ4LlGH/s640/scan0080.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #69: finally Fate is felled, and yet, the super-baddie is so unimpressive that the sequence merely undermines the protagonist's appeal.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>17</b></u>.<br />
<br />
Not everything that had made Doctor Fate so special was at first lost. For five more months, the strip existed in an indeterminate state, now veering towards the old peculiarities, now turning to more enervating conventional fare. At moments, it's hard not to imagine that Fox had taken plots designed for Fate's previous set-up and stripped them of their worst and most enticing extremes. The same tale as introduced Kent Nelson's lacklustre origin also featured Negal, a purple-skinned giant who appears to rule over some at least of humanity's dead. Challenged by Fate to ensure that no shades ever cross over to the mortal plane of Earth, Nergal reaches for a huge club and declares his contempt. Sadly, only four frames were allocated to this confrontation, which is swiftly closed by Fate destroying a presumably human skull held by Nergal. So shocked is the otherworldy titan at this display of Fate's power that, shoulders slumped, he agrees to close the border between 'the land of the living and the world of the dead'. Compared to Fate's previously savage methods for ending conflict, it's a rational and restrained if forceful approach. (The dead shades who had previously escaped Nergal's nether-world in order to steal the souls of the living escape with no punishment at all.) But it's all also far less fun.<br />
<br />
As if informed that Doctor Fate should behave in a far more restrained and conventional fashion, none of the antagonists featured by Fox between May to September of 1941 are dispatched at his hands. One, defeated, leaps from a window to his death. Another is trapped in the form of a living shadow and prevented from ever becoming human again. Three are destroyed in attempts to do the same to Fate, who is now occasionally vulnerable to powerful energy blasts and willing to surrender in the face of blackmail. For all the effort invested in rebooting the series, these are stories marked by a constant air of under-achievement. Even the goals of most of these villains seem wearyingly unambitious. When the Luthor-like 'scientific wizard' Karkull announces that he's going to be 'the greatest criminal alive', it's hard not to suppress a sneer. This is a dastardly genius whose 'beam of transareal power' succeeds where all else has failed in flooring Doctor Fate Yet rather than change the social order, or at the very least put himself at the head of it, Karkull simply wants to rob bank vaults. Just as magic seemed to be being deliberately removed from the strip, so too gradually went the idea of the super-villain as an insanely tyrannical challenge to the status quo. Fox's antagonists might now threaten the powers that be, but they less and less wanted to be in power themselves. Unlike many of Fate's previous foes, these super-villains didn't even have the madness in their souls to attempt the destroy the Earth if they couldn't rule it. <br />
<br />
It did, of course, make sense to introduce a significant degree of weakness into Fate's power-set. After all, a hero who can't be threatened is, theoretically, one that the reader's can't worry for. But the ratcheting down of Fate's abilities and extra-judicial excesses only served to make him seem more conventional, while Kent Nelson was sorely lacking in charisma. Perhaps if his opponents had stayed as outlandish and powerful as they'd once been, then Fate might have become more endearing in his vulnerability to their might. But his enemies were themselves reduced in strangeness and ambition, which left the balance of power in the strip unchanged even as the tales themselves became more and more commonplace. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCN-WeCjcY0LkLULlFGJ7BwmzOt9cuua_5hHNkGYZMycw1Jql1BWJhzcXIYV31fdyQtmRiwj3EMIFrRE9yardVMXvzTAfJbsrsYjdvA7cBCO37myIvmtdg7D5kfyqUk_K_sywshaUq7y8z/s1600/scan0076.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCN-WeCjcY0LkLULlFGJ7BwmzOt9cuua_5hHNkGYZMycw1Jql1BWJhzcXIYV31fdyQtmRiwj3EMIFrRE9yardVMXvzTAfJbsrsYjdvA7cBCO37myIvmtdg7D5kfyqUk_K_sywshaUq7y8z/s640/scan0076.jpg" width="532" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #68: Inza is reduced to a stereotypical hostage-in-waiting.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>18</b></u>. <br />
<br />
Inza's fate was even less enticing. Rarely did she have anything more admirable and vital to do in the revamped strip than serving as Nelson's plus-one at a variety of upper class events. Whatever mysterious influence she'd previously wielded in the wider world falls entirely away. In the place of Fate's female friend and ally appears a frequently scared and occasionally borderline hysterical girlfriend, frightened to be left alone and given to insist that Fate attend to matters that he's quite obviously already dealing with. (Of all of the reasons why Doctor Fate would carry Inza with him into danger, it's surely the least edifying.) It's a saddening business, to say the least, to imagine that part of the plan to keep the strip alive involved quite deliberately reducing Inza to a frequently cowardly and hectoring sexual stereotype. Yet a change this sudden and lasting could hardly have happened by accident. (In <i>More Fun Comics</i> #71, as if to hammer home the sexism of the new take on Fate, a helpless Inza is depicted surrounded by woebegone, needful children as the end of the world approaches.) At moments, as in her encounter with Adam Igorovich in <i>More Fun Comics</i> #71, Inza for a moment shifts back to her previously smart, calm and highly competent character. Perhaps, as I'd like to believe, Fox's heart wasn't happy with the new version of Inza, or perhaps he simply forgot that she was no longer supposed to be fascinating and formidable.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyJ_pjBJgieHbxBnczkb2xH34PhWAZ2KTPPvz9s-f9baM2X9Oi_U6BYCYNdXi0VDLx8Kdxaorh_XP1lsGm9EgbA-KJYcKsumCOUOOnkDbergP8fimj47qOWZTUPljkbg1kh2OR2K-pkWGL/s1600/scan0081.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyJ_pjBJgieHbxBnczkb2xH34PhWAZ2KTPPvz9s-f9baM2X9Oi_U6BYCYNdXi0VDLx8Kdxaorh_XP1lsGm9EgbA-KJYcKsumCOUOOnkDbergP8fimj47qOWZTUPljkbg1kh2OR2K-pkWGL/s640/scan0081.jpg" width="634" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #70, wherein a rather pathetic Doctor Fate fears what his enemies will do to him while warning Inza that he may not be able to protect her. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>19</b></u>.<br />
<br />
The penultimate installment in this sequence of revamped Fate tales reads now as if it were in part a quite deliberate farewell to Fox and Sherman's original take on the character. That may well be an illusion generated by hindsight, and yet, the series was about to take one more massive step away from its original set-up. With an even more conventional version Fate about to appear in just two months time, Fox brought back both Wotan and Karkull before condeming them to horrendous deaths. It was as if the writer suspected that he'd be unlikely to get to play with these wonderfully unhinged characters again. Not since the opening two issue fight with Wotan that had begun the strip had there been a villain brought back to face Fate for a second bout. (Of course, much of that was because the old Doctor Fate was in the habit of decisively killing off his opponents.) With genuine care for continuity, Fox returned the two old antagonists to action with a tale that detailed how they'd escaped the dooms that Fate had condemned them too. For a moment, it's as if the strip has returned to better days. With a statement that evokes the strip's very first frames, Fox even has Kent Nelson declare to Inza that Wotan and Karkull are 'master scientists'.<br />
<br />
But Fate himself has become a very different creature in the time since he'd first seen off Wotan. Poor Kent Nelson, as we're shown in some detail, now proves to be an intimidated and clueless superhero who lectures Inza at anxious length on the returned super-villains' incredible abilities. It doesn't make for an inspiring, or even interesting, spectacle; <br />
<br />
"Things that they could do with short radio waves, with uranium beams and electronic tubes surpass belief. If I didn't know how they did it, I'd think it was black magic. If they use their powers as I think they may, they could easily wipe the human race off the Earth!"<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4Nj1VFCtGkEpgo48G2StqB2_wjWOJ7-828lo5_C0pIQoTUkJe-c_TqibIQevrDljrJucx3WWd5c1LC0HA-jPCbNq7lhGqqJ3p7chMAbLm2kZ45XnEFRg7VCH3sTfvbzv310aBFnA7ZVn/s1600/scan0082.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="604" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4Nj1VFCtGkEpgo48G2StqB2_wjWOJ7-828lo5_C0pIQoTUkJe-c_TqibIQevrDljrJucx3WWd5c1LC0HA-jPCbNq7lhGqqJ3p7chMAbLm2kZ45XnEFRg7VCH3sTfvbzv310aBFnA7ZVn/s640/scan0082.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #70; more evidence of the new Fate's intimidated, clueless approach to superheroing. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For all that Fox had returned old fiends into play, and even paid serious respect to their backstory, Fate himself had become an unenticingly reduced protagonist. Nervous, uncertain and even fearful, he now lacked either Fate's previous indomitable sense of purpose or anything like a well-formed plan of action. When Wotan and Karkull are finally defeated, it's not through anything but the former's incompetence. Aiming to destroy Fate with a his 'flames of energy', Wotan sets both himself and his contemptible partner alight. In the following conflagration, even the villains' henchmen are burnt alive.<br />
<br />
The reader looks in vain for the sheer oddness of the likes of alien soldiers on a tropical beach suffocating from a surfeit of oxygen, or psychopathic roots who've forgotten they're merely parts of trees, or Central American pyramids raised up into orbit, and so on, and on. Even before Doctor Fate's strip was wiped almost entirely clear of its original strengths in October 1941's <i>More Fun Comics</i> #72, there was little left to be saved.<br />
<br />
<i>This tale of Doctor Fate's decline and fall concludes <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-last-days-of-gardner-fox-howard.html" target="_blank">here</a></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-61494848039608602532015-08-18T18:01:00.000+01:002016-08-01T20:34:02.172+01:00Who Is Doctor Fate, And Why Are There So Many Of Him? (Part 1)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLf6m7WQpt9cX5suQwV_VgAvCBGjf7prsi6fGoXQBpxBSnepSj15QXGIQc_qh1LjIzldmuYg6EYxjHiEXovSDbrg70WhReEgE70B3wHJu_3Q7tcuHqfoOt-9bwyqx0RP4ekIx4zYbj1HhS/s1600/-.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLf6m7WQpt9cX5suQwV_VgAvCBGjf7prsi6fGoXQBpxBSnepSj15QXGIQc_qh1LjIzldmuYg6EYxjHiEXovSDbrg70WhReEgE70B3wHJu_3Q7tcuHqfoOt-9bwyqx0RP4ekIx4zYbj1HhS/s1600/-.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This respectfully slight crop of a Fox/Sherman panel from November 1940's<i> More Fun Comics</i>
#61 shows the first version of Doctor Fate in his pomp, a beguiling
hybrid of occult adventurer and superhero. Fate's Salem tower had first
appeared in <i>MFC</i>#58, where
Gardner's script described it as having windows but no doors. Yet
Sherman's art rarely hinted at windows at all, which ensured that the
Tower long seemed mysteriously impenetrable. (Fox did somewhat cheat on the matter of doors, however, writing that Fate could emerge 'from his doorless house by means of a sliding panel!'. That would be a door then.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>1</b></u>.<br />
<br />
Teasers
and spoilers and misinformation! Eternal events, continual crossovers!
All-new creative teams, and then, all-new creative teams! Allegedly
unfamiliar characters in exceptionally familiar costumes! Endless
reboots with you-mustn't-miss-this number ones! Trend-jumping!
Niche-pandering! Incentives, alternatives and exclusives! Homages and
shameless thievery! Deaths, rebirths, deaths and more deaths! Breakups,
despair, sex, angst and torture! Great ideas reworked and reworked until even the original take feels wornthrough and inessential. The litany of desperate-seeming,
profit-chasing strategies has become as familiar to superhero fans as
it's predictable, tiresome and, ultimately, inutile. In the incessant
yelping of 21st century hype, it so often seems as if snakeoilmanship
trumps story and promo eclipses product. All too frequently, the
superhero comic itself seems an inefficient and inconvenient obligation
that stands awkwardly between baying consumers and anxiously scheming
corporate strategisers.<br />
<br />
But it's hardly a new
phenomena. We know this, and yet, the present feels so ferociously
overloaded with the call and the response of the net. Haven't we plainly
passed over the event horizon into an entirely different world where the comics industry is concerned?
Perhaps, although I doubt it. The same fundamental commercial
imperatives are still evidently at work as they were, say, in the late 1930s.
Comics must be sold, audiences must be attracted, profits must be
returned, careers must be furthered and mortgages simply have to be paid.
No matter how technology has sped up and intensified the process of
flogging comics, the flailing search for cash-spinning novelty has
always driven the vast majority of the superhero business. In truth,
it's not our tarnished and no-longer new century that's the historical
anomaly, but rather, those incredibly rare past moments when the
superhero book seemed briefly stable in its style and content. For
periods that we now associate with a particular form of storytelling and
packaging - from the Golden Age to The Dark Age and beyond - can seem
profoundly protean and even blisteringly inchoate when studied in any
detail. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM_890FOM1sLMlZX1w6ljzq5pFCfHUfDWBDVXdoaXA7oK1n1pdZk0gQNGSSqrwU3QkR8KsssPKef9oalHr7Bn8_gQ4Hmvur87tMjZyUZd95ibGubd4VS535Bz9rDKF3NerKUrsMnsjf8QY/s1600/scan0172.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM_890FOM1sLMlZX1w6ljzq5pFCfHUfDWBDVXdoaXA7oK1n1pdZk0gQNGSSqrwU3QkR8KsssPKef9oalHr7Bn8_gQ4Hmvur87tMjZyUZd95ibGubd4VS535Bz9rDKF3NerKUrsMnsjf8QY/s640/scan0172.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three and a half years later and a very different Fate appeared in <i>More Fun Comics</i>
#96, from March/April 1944. Massive changes to the strip's set-up,
along with the replacement of artist/creator Sherman with Jon Chester
Kozlak, had failed to make a commercial success of the character.
Cancellation was a mere two more months away. (Oddly enough,and on a
very minor note, this late-era tale would see the clearest-ever
depiction of those windows that Fox had originally intended for Fate's
Tower, although any sense of occult menace was neutered by, amongst many
other choices, Fate's odd taste for sleeping in his crime-fighting togs
and half-face helmet. Bless him. This was no longer a weird, unsettling
strip in any shape or form.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>2</b></u>.<br />
<br />
Recently, I
discussed the radical politics that were absolutely central to the
earliest years of Siegel and Shuster's Superman. (<a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/superman-radical-rebel-some-thoughts-on.html" target="_blank"><i>Here</i></a>.)
Yet that profoundly left-leaning agenda would, by the turn of the
Forties, begin to fade, and soon, little trace of it at all would
remain. As such, even Superman in his early pomp was subject to
substantial change. Yet at least The Man Of Steel was to a degree
protected from the wildest of transformations by his massive commercial
success. Lower down the food chain sat the features whose
underachievement provoked endless tinkering and, eventually, sudden and
ignominious cancellation. While preparing the Siegel and Shuster post, I
found myself reading the adventures of Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman's
Doctor Fate, who'd been launched by DC in the spring of 1940 as part of
an attempt to compete with an explosion of Superman-inspired
superheroes by the likes of Fox, Fawcett, Quality, Centaur, and Timely.
In 1938, there had been next to no competition for Siegel and Shuster
breakthrough strip. But from the spring of 1939 onwards, DC faced an
ever-escalating number of superhero strips that it initially struggled to
respond to. After Batman's debut on the newsstands of March 1939, there
was a lull of more than half-a-year in which the company introduced no
other new superheroes bar the Sandman. (Even there, The Sandman was a
throwback to the vigilante crimefighters of the pulps and exploited
little of Superman's colourful, kinetic promise.) But come October, DC
began to pump out a mass of variations on the theme of Superman into the
marketplace, spearheaded by a first wave of Hawkman, Flash, and Johnny
Thunder. In March of 1940, as DC's determined marketgrab continued, came
<i>More Fun Comics</i> #55 and Doctor Fate, by Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman .<br />
<br />
Despite its title, which at first glance might be thought to promise rather innocent fare, <i>More Fun Comics </i>had
already featured a number of horror-tinged superhero strips. Several
years before, it had starred Siegel and Shuster's Dr Occult, an occult
detective who'd briefly been transformed into a fully fledged costumed
lead. It was a tradition that Siegel exploited further when he and
artist Bernard Baily's undead and all-powerful Heavenly avenger The
Spectre appeared in <i>More Fun Comics </i>#52. It seems odd, to say the
least, to have two fundamentally omnipotent magical supermen featuring
in the same title at the same time. Surely Doctor Fate and The Spectre were just too similar to each other? But the powers that be at DC were obviously betting
upon there being a niche of young readers with a ravenous appetite for
supernatural superheroes. <br />
<br />
In what follows, I've
briefly outlined Fate's original four year career and noted some key
developments in that relatively short-lived strip. In doing so, I'm well
aware that I'm often reading his strips in a way that wouldn't have
happened at the time. Continuity as we now understand it was quite
unknown, and neither creators or readers were concerned with internally
consistent fictional worlds. No matter how gifted and inspiring a
creator's work, an idea introduced
in one month's story could forever after be entirely ignored. Nor was
the audience for these cheap, disposable kids comics bothered with
anything beyond the slightest measure of sense and a life-enhancing rush
of fun. As isolated from literary respectability as it's possible to
conceive of short of hardcore pornography, the superhero book could
appear little but a gaudy mechanism for extracting money from children
in return for hysterically dynamic distractions. As such, the following
outline of how this strip appeared to develop on a tale-to-tale basis
isn't intended to suggest any kind of over-arching and intricate
narrative plan on the part of Fox, Sherman or their bosses. But it is to
say that the Doctor Fate strip underwent a series of changes that even
today would seem quite dizzying. As if deliberately designed to gut the
character of the slightest trace of individuality, these transformations
reduced Fate from a fearsome, inhuman executioner to a
run-of-the-mill child-friendly crime-fighter.<br />
<br />
Today's post discusses the Doctor Fate strips from much of his first year of appearances in both <i>More Fun Comics</i> and <i>All-Star Comics</i>. The concluding piece will follow Fate's rapid decline during the remainder of his Golden Age career. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD4qM2ALlsEVprQqcay2wr454I9_44Ombba3nNoGX4k2kzrS6QTQdenKIaTbf0JuCxJX0rvXoi5dNjSjeHU1-Q9vgE1RMMTUlc_s0Ljx1mLJvV5bpNmqvb5ZcLzzT4Lr9M6mR4VOCCvWwQ/s1600/scan0154.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD4qM2ALlsEVprQqcay2wr454I9_44Ombba3nNoGX4k2kzrS6QTQdenKIaTbf0JuCxJX0rvXoi5dNjSjeHU1-Q9vgE1RMMTUlc_s0Ljx1mLJvV5bpNmqvb5ZcLzzT4Lr9M6mR4VOCCvWwQ/s640/scan0154.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics </i>#55, May 1940</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>3</b></u>.<br />
<br />
Cover-dated May 1940 and on sale in the last days of March, <i>More Fun Comics</i>
#55 introduced the backstory of writer Gardner Fox and artist Howard
Sherman's Doctor Fate with what would now be termed an info-dump. (See
above.) At the off, Fate was a peculiar mix of superhero, scientific
adventurer and sorcerer. Although he was clearly a master of comicbook
magic, with the power to erase memories with a word and to transport
himself through walls, Fate was also described as a "physicist
extraordinary". Indeed, it seemed as if it were his mastery of science
rather than magic that lent him his greatest measure of power. When faced with an entire planet of alien pirates, for example, he used an 'atom smasher' in the handy form of an earthly pistol that he'd found on 'distant Uranus'. Yet on the whole, Fate preferred to manifest his power through the conduit of his own body. From his
studies of physics, Fate had apparently earned how to transfer with
a thought "energy into matter, and matter into energy". (This was, of
course, Einstein's E-MC2 as filtered through a huge measure of wishful
thinking and pulpish gobbledygook.) Although Fate
would constantly draw upon magic for both knowledge and fighting
prowess, he initially appeared to be primarily a scientist whose
learning allowed him to defend "mankind against
.... lost sciences". Armed by this ill-defined mixture of science and sorcery, Fate was able to fly, project all manner of spells, prosper underwater and in outer space, and travel to different dimensions including the 'cold regions' of the underworld. Just in case this didn't seem direct and hyper-masculine enough, he was also capable of punching any number of opponents into unconsciousness and even death.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7aHx2LJQwdfHDBMK90x1wb5d7ezwnLN9nBe_VbQpBvyfnQpM8FuMzUYtEuZZPTAuiFsN8c3Hbb0B3pewHJ9Zp-ONqiH3qL2t8xfzitQQg9n4wGvGAiB2hz8y2JqRmc2dJS36redoRBg6Z/s1600/scan0058.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7aHx2LJQwdfHDBMK90x1wb5d7ezwnLN9nBe_VbQpBvyfnQpM8FuMzUYtEuZZPTAuiFsN8c3Hbb0B3pewHJ9Zp-ONqiH3qL2t8xfzitQQg9n4wGvGAiB2hz8y2JqRmc2dJS36redoRBg6Z/s640/scan0058.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics </i>#61, November 1940</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>4</b></u>.<br />
<br />
But who and what exactly was
Doctor Fate? Unless told differently, the assumption on the part of
the audience would have surely been that Fate was one of them, a human
being from 1940. If Fox never confirmed as much, he left clues that at
first suggested such assumptions would be correct. To be a "physicist"
in the throwaway adventure fictions of the period was typically to be a
pioneering contemporary scientist, and Fate's early mentions of atoms
and molecules and energy and matter would have seemed very much of the
moment. Yes, there was also talk of longlost civilisations in Fox's scripts,
of "ancient mysteries that were partially destroyed", and yet, the writer also added that "Fate has learned the ultimate secret of the universe". The
implication there seems to be that the fantastical degree of power
wielded by Fate was the result of scientific knowledge only relatively
recently acquired. The magic was more than useless, but the science made all the difference.<br />
<br />
In that, both Fate and his evil
nemesis Wotan seemed to have come to their might through
similar paths. ( Wotan was the villain in Fate's opening two appearances.) Each had studied 'the mysteries of the past', and each
had mastered the 'secret of eternal energy'. (All of Fate's opponents for the first year of his existence were self-evidently irredeemable, which appears to have been thought a fine excuse for the fierce and callous ways in which he dispatched them.) Presumably, the two had
been fighting using magic for the "years" that Wotan declares they've
been enemies, with their breakthroughs in atomic physics having happened
more recently. It's a conflict that's obviously taken a
toll of them both. Wotan plainly loathes and fears Fate, while Fate
quite deliberately hurls Wotan through a window to his death during his
feature's first appearance. In the following month, and
with Wotan having survived the attempted execution, Fate punches him
unconscious with the declaration that he's "wanted to manhandle" his
nemesis "for a long time". Obviously, Doctor Fate's mission was a
long-established one, with his abilities having developed over a
considerable period of time.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2DdPPD2TfKz_GKu2CWKpV95GCatfLw6IFiWadYk3vclvSbMCUFZsFczXftv79t-F8s5GvjkTo3mPiYd-2l7ObRkGjMG39Q3zgVtFahGTMLqIjhzsRxN69HjM_FbAu7gA0rRvaWMhOghA/s1600/scan0055.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2DdPPD2TfKz_GKu2CWKpV95GCatfLw6IFiWadYk3vclvSbMCUFZsFczXftv79t-F8s5GvjkTo3mPiYd-2l7ObRkGjMG39Q3zgVtFahGTMLqIjhzsRxN69HjM_FbAu7gA0rRvaWMhOghA/s640/scan0055.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From More Fun Comics #55, May 1940: at first the evidence that Fate was a human being.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>5</b></u>.<br />
<br />
Quite why Fate had adopted his
costume, and in particular his full-face
helmet, was never explained. Even when the strip was fundamentally
retconned in 1941, no reason was given beyond it being a gift from an extra-terrestial. As a costume, it transmitted a series of mixed messages. On the one hand, it immediately labelled Fate as a superhero. On the other, Fate's helmet called to mind a
knight-errant, a servant in some greater cause whose trials demanded a
far greater degree of protection than most other superfolks required. In
Fate's first adventure, Sherman showed some unmistakeably human eyes
peering out through the helmet's eye-pieces, but subsequent tales
presented nothing but shadows. (By January 1941's <i>More Fun Comics</i> #63, Fate's obviously-human hands would be obscured by yellow gloves, leaving only the back of his neck and his rather vulnerable ears to even suggest he was a human being.)<br />
<br />
The result of this masking of his expressions was a strange fusion of menace and pathos. If the absence of facial features left Fate seeming implacable and unknowable, it also intensified the sense that his life was nothing but duty and the jeopardy it brought. There's something deeply piteous about Fate's isolation from the wider world, as if the sacrifices he's made have robbed him of all comfort and rest. Fun certainly wasn't something that Doctor Fate could ever be imagined having. Indeed, he was never once shown in the first year of his feature without helmet or full costume, with the exception of his cloak suddenly and carelessly disappearing in his inaugural appearance. The closest Fate comes to an everyday human experience of any kind comes in October 1940's <i>More Fun Comics</i> #60, where Fate, studying alone in his Tower, declares that the 'study of the three fates is an interesting one'. It was the nearest that the first incarnation of Fate ever came to expressing the slightest measure of joy in anything apart from executing his opponents.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRshAhCKcv4aieeTwxXyBZKxPcW0T30GAOx1MyFnONcPF_CTjEHcqeywgze92qPpJP4_j3zWy7Sdd0LGl6S_c4hhUoyxCLJbCd-qBJ67g5u-yh60aPcdIbzr6F4yHUsVolR8nIlPTDwsBC/s1600/scan0057.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRshAhCKcv4aieeTwxXyBZKxPcW0T30GAOx1MyFnONcPF_CTjEHcqeywgze92qPpJP4_j3zWy7Sdd0LGl6S_c4hhUoyxCLJbCd-qBJ67g5u-yh60aPcdIbzr6F4yHUsVolR8nIlPTDwsBC/s640/scan0057.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #42</td></tr>
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<u><b>6</b></u>.<br />
<br />
Fate's mission, as we'll come to in greater detail, was an ever-changing one. But in essence, he stood between the peoples of the Earth and the evil powers that threatened them. Three types of peril would rouse him to action. The first involved a direct attack upon his person, the second an assault on humanity, and the third an imminent danger to his friend and assistant Inza. Typically, an attack on Inza would alert Fate to a broader peril.(Quite why Fate's opponents so often drew his attention by attacking Inza was never explained. The evidence was that it was a wholly misjudged strategy.) And so, the invasion of her rooftop apartment by 'Maylayan Poison Bats' led to Fate tracking down Mango The Mighty, an unfortunately named magician-cum-extortionist transformed mercilessly by Fate into a 'tiny statue of clay' and locked away forever. It was a rare example of Fate opting not to slaughter his enemies, although it could hardly be considered a merciful decision. (Eternal imprisonment of one sort or another was also dished out to Wotan and The Three Fates.) By contrast, Fate's other foes tended to meet swift and horrific deaths. He favoured two particular methods of execution. In the first, he would punch his foes into unconsciousness and then leave them to tumble to the earth and their death far below. In the second, he would immolate his opponents, as he did to the army of Nyarl-Amen's Fish Men, Mayoor, Raymond Rall and the heavily populated 'pirate planet' of the Globe Men, which Fate hurled into the sun. What was genocide by fire to Doctor Fate?<br />
<br />
The pleasures of Fate's earliest escapades lay in a unique mixture of strangeness and schadenfreude. Fox mashed together the bleakest, daftest influences and made from them dastardly super-menaces for Fate to defeat; evil Mayan Gods, lurking fishes in service to the Book Of Thoth, robot armies, and so on. If there was to be no doubt that Doctor Fate would overcome his adversaries, there was the suspense involved in anticipating the horrible ends he'd deliver to his foes. It was in many ways one-note vigilantism dressed up in a variety of pulp-era genre traditions. But that in itself was, and remains, a singular and beguiling set-up.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcX2q2NsiL0iC1_pMihflNtKNEIilpena_-8tPbnvpjPE-DfYezsgbw-lu82v379iuO3zi7pZ8mr1Oi1tgOx4bMLKXgFEFE5WR10iJd_abkQZ5x5xGmx5IjeQ8LMhlkQSpD0DISJyiMfr/s1600/scan0167.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcX2q2NsiL0iC1_pMihflNtKNEIilpena_-8tPbnvpjPE-DfYezsgbw-lu82v379iuO3zi7pZ8mr1Oi1tgOx4bMLKXgFEFE5WR10iJd_abkQZ5x5xGmx5IjeQ8LMhlkQSpD0DISJyiMfr/s1600/scan0167.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #58, August 1940: "By contrast, Fate's time away
from the battlefields of science and magic involved nothing but waiting and studying in his
lonely Salem tower."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>7</b></u>. <br />
<br />
But for all that
he was apparently at first a human being, Fate wasn't at first portrayed
as an American subject. He may have owned a Tower on American territory, but that didn't mean that he paid his taxes to either the State or National capitals. Even to discover that Fate was present in the
Republic had been a shock to Wotan, who evidently didn't expect to find his
nemesis in the U.S.A. at all. Until March/April 1941's <i>All-Star Comics</i>
#4, Fate was always presented as an individual who protected the world
without belonging to any one part of it. Although he spent most of his
adventures defending America, and all of them defending Americans, Fate
was continually understood to be following a far wider brief. When
approached by a cadre of concerned scientists in <i>More Fun Comics</i> #62, he was
described as one who'd "done the world many a service in the past". In
that, Fate was the Earth's sole guardian angel, and not just America's. If he
was, for example, urgently concerned about Raymond Rall's robots
destroying the U.S.A.'s 'coastal defences', Fate clearly thought of the
Republic as a victim rather than his wounded homeland.<br />
<br />
These first tales created a sense of America as a weak and perpetually beleaguered nation. Since Fate's solo adventures recognised the existence of no other superheroes, it was always down to him to save the U.S.A. and the world beyond from an endless parade of apparently invincible menaces. The threats to the Republic in the first year or so of Fate's strip could be found everywhere; on and under the high seas, in the Central America jungles of 'The Yucatan', from distant areas of space, or even in the Catskill mountains. That America had to rely so completely upon a sorcerer who wasn't even apparently a citizen suggested a world in which typical mortals and their governments were by their very nature helpless.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_F4r-e_qd7oW5xB4VjcrCBnqCjuwvB2-UpoWUuc3k5J-_kiXfJ3_Kub1CxCGN8SstdACSVnpJnVELKqoRcEoQ4Lnp5wQmRwgrUkLgLmyNB9Yql54CYC8YUlqlKsH2fFVwWuzP7jtrQ4gV/s1600/scan0059.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_F4r-e_qd7oW5xB4VjcrCBnqCjuwvB2-UpoWUuc3k5J-_kiXfJ3_Kub1CxCGN8SstdACSVnpJnVELKqoRcEoQ4Lnp5wQmRwgrUkLgLmyNB9Yql54CYC8YUlqlKsH2fFVwWuzP7jtrQ4gV/s640/scan0059.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #62, December 1941</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It
may even be that Fate knew little about the world of 1940 at all. It
often seemed that his companion and assistant Inza's importance to him
lay in her knowledge of the globe beyond Fate's tower. (Only in the tale of the Fish Men's attack on Hawaii is Inza entirely absent from Fate's adventures.) A remarkably
independent woman in the context of the day's comics, it was Inza who
provided Fate with a conduit to both America's intelligence chiefs and
the various leaders of the globe. It really is as if Fate belonged only to his
mission, and, beyond that, had little contact or perhaps even interest
in anything but. By contrast, Inza evidently had a life beyond her exploits as Fate's
confident and assistant. She was shown holidaying abroad on cruises and
partying with America's upper classes. (In a wonderfully suggestive scene in February 1941's More Fun Comics #64, she's depicted on 'a glistening pleasure yacht' in the company of the explorer Bill Credon, clearly at ease and alone in the company of no-one but him; a platonic relationship seems the least likely assumption.) Wealthy and impossibly well-connected, Inza filled the space in the superhero narrative usually occupied by a secret identity. It was Inza who, through one means or another, tended to uncover the threats that Fate would resolve, and Inza who was able to enjoy the moments of peace that his efforts secured for everyone. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVm6D5Pf9kj_gStJBibiAnU1jxgI5Hz-_F4GpDvLkYNMwBwrJhdekJehoCoh15izLfGYJMtyZP5K_Rpr27F503cQlMBy1QnNR7IeRMTJn3dKqSxY7q1V070uSYl1Ru6SW7JCwIGtgrifd/s1600/scan0060.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVm6D5Pf9kj_gStJBibiAnU1jxgI5Hz-_F4GpDvLkYNMwBwrJhdekJehoCoh15izLfGYJMtyZP5K_Rpr27F503cQlMBy1QnNR7IeRMTJn3dKqSxY7q1V070uSYl1Ru6SW7JCwIGtgrifd/s640/scan0060.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #63, January 1941</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>8</b></u>.<br />
<br />
Quite what Inza's relationship was with Fate was for that opening year, it was left largely to the reader's imaginations. Of course, Inza's presence was invaluable to Fox, who could use her in
conversations with his otherwise-laconic protagonist. But the trick
brought with it the mystery of the two character's relationship. What were they to each other? The evidence that they might be lovers was slight. (In several panels, Fate took Inza's hand when they were entering unsettling territory, while she once ran arms outstretched and terrified towards him.) Yet their relationship was remarkably close, founded in a mutual respect and fondness, and it was made all the more intriguing by the absence of romance. Despite Inza offering no apparent advantage to Fate when it came to the
business of facing down evil, the sorcerer-superhero was constantly
carrying her off into danger. Why Fate brought her with him when he
visited the likes of the land of the dead was never clear. But then, he
also carried her off into conflicts with Wotan, Mango, 'The Wizard', a
ship full of aliens, a formidable army of tiny invaders, and so on. Was he so needy that he required an audience, or even just a trustworthy
human being's reassuring presence? Did he value her insight and advice? (In MFC#59, he responded with homicidal gusto to her recommendation that a troop of 'space men' be destroyed.) Was she in some fashion way even an
apprentice to him? For all that she was constantly being kidnapped,
attacked, set on fire and so on, Inza was undeniably brave, independent,
clear-headed and, as we've noted, exceptionally well-connected. Fate knew, for example, that Inza was a effective conduit to the world's leaders. What more could a sorcerer want in a novitiate? <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2PXZmlZxvbdRB31hxV_8Id9HMnXgrdjv4lXZPf3-6UN-S-aPOsgCQtbA3F-z82Ez6jtq6ftMsvSGo6f0B59OlGF4JPLTFpQsd4uiAZBE5sjOOGrnNwRDfFFPocFuaEsBl_UkmYUg5Seu8/s1600/scan0063.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2PXZmlZxvbdRB31hxV_8Id9HMnXgrdjv4lXZPf3-6UN-S-aPOsgCQtbA3F-z82Ez6jtq6ftMsvSGo6f0B59OlGF4JPLTFpQsd4uiAZBE5sjOOGrnNwRDfFFPocFuaEsBl_UkmYUg5Seu8/s640/scan0063.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #50; Fate seeks the aid of Inza as she relaxes in her penthouse</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Whatever it was that bound the two together, it's hard not to believe that Fate relied deeply on Inza. For her to simply call his name was to have him appear by her side. (It was a useful business given how dangerous her association with him often proved.) It was a two-way process. Although Inza could offer Fate little by the way of fisti-cuffs and spellcasting, she was forever bringing him vital information. (Of all the people in the world, only she, it appears, had been given a magical orb that gave her direct contact with him.) In that, Inza frequently served as Fate's early-warning system. If she wasn't stumbling upon foot-high otherworld-invaders on country roads, she was encountering black magic in country homes. Nor was she little but a useful if vulnerable lightning rod,
forever attracting the dangerous attention of fiendish powers. Fate
wholeheartedly trusted her to 'scout around' and discover where magical
artifacts such as the Lost Book Of Thoth might be found. It may even have been that
Fate relied upon her to make sense of the world of 1940 and 1941. After all,
in <i>More Fun Comics</i> #59, she passed on to Fate the news gathered
from the radio of the SS Garden's capture. Perhaps monitoring the media for possible threats was her responsibility, or perhaps Fate, for all his super-scientific background, struggled to make sense of 20th
century technology. In <i>More Fun Comics</i> #62, he appeared quite baffled by the nature of Raymond Rall's 'metal men' and relied on Inza to explain the situation. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj91t_HKyQk5DqJ-PMdAlWaVTIpAnj2lglmhgI32MFQJFIto0vIOjp57LhyphenhyphenjIcq5J1NTorQJeEOPXs1p8jl7Tg0_tL211zQedvnIuQlCAlDpdOtTFZg8vQR8gM9CEd8lTTxb4IjUgVqVxsH/s1600/scan0155.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj91t_HKyQk5DqJ-PMdAlWaVTIpAnj2lglmhgI32MFQJFIto0vIOjp57LhyphenhyphenjIcq5J1NTorQJeEOPXs1p8jl7Tg0_tL211zQedvnIuQlCAlDpdOtTFZg8vQR8gM9CEd8lTTxb4IjUgVqVxsH/s640/scan0155.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From More Fun Comics #56, June 1940</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>9</b></u><b>.</b><br />
<br />
The second
of Fate's adventures establishes both the scope of his world and his
standing within it. As you can see above, Fate presumes both that he's
known to 'the boatmen of the Styx' and that his power will inevitably intimidate them
into obeying his will. (As Fox has the purple-clothed skeleton -
Charon? - concede, "...Doctor Fate...can go anywhere he will".) Taking
Inza
on a tour of the Regions Of Death, Fate locates and questions "Wisdom, who
rules
the world". Then, in a breathless sequence, Fate communicates with "the
Elder Gods", who dispense
advice through the form of a giant eagle. Here Fox is drawing
exuberantly on his love of myth, legend and pulp fiction,
from sci-fi to horror and sword and sorcery. Fate, we're shown, is a
player on a cosmic stage, mighty, unrelenting and indomitable. In his
sixth appearance, he will even be shown destroying the power of "The
Three Norns! The Norns Of The Norsemen! The Spinners of the Ancient
Greeks!" before sealing them forever in their New York State mountain lair. <br />
<br />
Trying to discover more about Fate in these
tales requires a great deal more attention and energy than would ever
have been intended. Yet it's impossible not to seize on passing
references and imagine that they're relevant. In Fate's third
appearance, Fox described his protagonist as a "Professor of secrets
that sank beneath the sea with Mu and
Atlantis ... (along with those) ....of
Egypt and Chaldea'. For the chin-stroker willing to push a point that
was never designed to even be leaned on, there's a hint there that
Fate's title of "Doctor" had been earned rather than grandstandingly
claimed. But at the same time, the same tale also introduces a new sense
that the invincible Fate is something other than human. When speaking
with Inza about his mission, he speaks of aiding "mankind" in a fashion
that suggests he belongs to some other race. Yet, even if that part of
his original set-up is beginning to blur, then his self-proclaimed
mission is becoming clearer. Now we're shown that he regards human laws
as being inadequate, since they "don't admit such things as black
magic". Under those circumstances, Fate has taken it upon himself to
act as judge and jury and,
very frequently, executioner too. As he explains to Inza after pursing
Mango The Mighty to an unfortunate end, "perish all who discover
secrets not meant for human use". Fate, it would appear, is not just
policing dangerous magical acts, but even potentially dangerous magical
knowledge. To simply discover such "secrets" would be, it's implied, to
draw the profoundly threatening attention of Doctor Fate<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoxLPlCuJ2p11tx7ncFoxPIhaP3GOXoYp4UlsLfwJ73mZG_9MepHTnHdgyC34jIyvUuDySLfMVwxQt9A_85y_6a-rRXpf4Y1kcHsJsnTajg9VDalCmDqThoXwMStNhjkc6F91B3PkCAluv/s1600/scan0174.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoxLPlCuJ2p11tx7ncFoxPIhaP3GOXoYp4UlsLfwJ73mZG_9MepHTnHdgyC34jIyvUuDySLfMVwxQt9A_85y_6a-rRXpf4Y1kcHsJsnTajg9VDalCmDqThoXwMStNhjkc6F91B3PkCAluv/s640/scan0174.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pure pop-Lovecraft, from Fox & Sherman's contribution to Winter 1940's <i>All-Star Comics </i>#3.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>10</b></u><b>.</b><br />
<br />
As the months passed,
the idea of Fate as a scientist faded somewhat into the background, with
magic becoming the largely unchallenged focus of the strip. In August
of 1940, Fate was shown ensconced in his Salem Tower, 'ghost-haunted' and situated
right in the centre of Lovecraftland, a shadow-filled fortress that's
almost entirely devoid of comfort. Most probably because of a
quite understandable inconsistency on Fox's part, Doctor Fate's purpose
is at that point made even more odd and thought-provoking. For now we're
told that Fate fights sorcerers "against whom black-magic officials are
powerless....". If we're to take this and the previous story at face
value, and of course we're not, then a black magic inspectorate had been
formed since Fate's last appearance. (It is a lovely idea, and it's
perhaps a shame that we never saw such a thing.) Previously the laws
hadn't even recognised black magic, but now the problem is of a more
practical bent. In such throwaway language lie worlds of possibilities. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmjsIb9spdjgd0P528MuWj7tPQBViK49SF-i1HunaNJJt2ZSUyDRfDXN7oZd2Pf4kkW4ZAwdrrHZA1M6Jjl8LwoH0mZZsn5PomiptGKfGK76B29O5Rldw4KXXklg6Tzmi2LgAPPtMDyK8V/s1600/scan0156.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmjsIb9spdjgd0P528MuWj7tPQBViK49SF-i1HunaNJJt2ZSUyDRfDXN7oZd2Pf4kkW4ZAwdrrHZA1M6Jjl8LwoH0mZZsn5PomiptGKfGK76B29O5Rldw4KXXklg6Tzmi2LgAPPtMDyK8V/s640/scan0156.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #62, December 1940</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>11</b></u><b>.</b><br />
<br />
For a while,
Fate adventures were marked by a notable consistency of content. But three of the four
months from September to December 1940 saw him battle not evil
magicians, but nefarious scientists. It's a change of emphasis that saw
the strip temporarily losing a significant degree of its uniqueness. For
the first time, Fate was struggling against enemies who could have been
comfortably pitted against any number of costumed
brawlers, from Superman to Captain Marvel and the Sub-Mariner. The
ghostly and almighty Spectre, who shared the pages of <i>More Fun Comics</i>
with Fate, would frequently shift from one class of antagonist to
another, and the storytelling of Siegel and Bailey allowed him to do so
successfully. But Fate was never quite so comfortable with the likes of
'Mighty Space' invaders, mad scientists, solar intruders and metal robots. By comparison with The Spectre's dead-white flesh and
monkish cowl, Doctor Fate looked in many ways like a typical superhero.
Without a distinct and outlandish setting of his own, he tended to seem
run-of-the-mill. (Having said that, several of Sherman's panels during
this period - as with the one I've scanned in above - were undeniably
beguiling. It's a skill of the artist's that I've discussed <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/four-apparently-naive-panels-from-early.html" target="_blank"><i>before</i></a>.)<br />
<br />
As 1941 appeared, Fate's actual mission had expanded even further. No longer there
to simply protect humanity from nefarious magicians, or even those who
knew the dangerous secrets of sorcery, Fate was now opposed to "All men
who conspire against
their fellows". A prime example of comicbook mission creep, it saw Fate
declaring that every such cruel conspirator "should pay their debt with
their lives".<br />
<br />
And so they did.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRCGhIIyFCV7aBNUC4wv7JqZcT4eNZsb9bRzv6MeR1Q_nVVq7B7TFOzExeObd9vlySjmOqNGEF7FqHxZ_f3F_PRg_Z1HBetoVxvPwey6IzrkLJm5OhnXbmxrqp1qpxg3xopu6M0gqj9E3I/s1600/scan0159.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRCGhIIyFCV7aBNUC4wv7JqZcT4eNZsb9bRzv6MeR1Q_nVVq7B7TFOzExeObd9vlySjmOqNGEF7FqHxZ_f3F_PRg_Z1HBetoVxvPwey6IzrkLJm5OhnXbmxrqp1qpxg3xopu6M0gqj9E3I/s640/scan0159.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>All-Star Comics</i> #3, late 1940, by Fox & Everett E. Hibbard</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>12</b></u><b>.</b><br />
<br />
Yet by far the most significant change in the character's set-up occurred not in Fate's strip
itself, but in December 1940's <i>All-Star Comics</i>
#3. In what was the debut of The Justice
Society Of America, a superteam of many of DC's costumed crimefighters, Fate rather casually explains to comedy relief Johnny Thunder that
he very
much isn't human, that he "never was a child", and that he was created
instead by 'The
Elder Gods' and set on Earth 'to fight evil sorcery'. (It's a slice of
backstory that suggests something of the setup William Moulton Marston
would invent for Wonder Woman in 1941.) Written by Gardner Fox himself,
it's the briefest of origin tales and appears, at first glance, to
trample over the first eight of Fate's solo appearance. (It certainly suggests that there was at least one previous meeting of the JSA's members, in which the normally taciturn Fate explained his deepest secrets to his colleagues.) Yet there's
nothing in this single Fox/Hibbard panel to directly contradict what had already been published,
and much of what's previously seemed opaque can now fall satisfactorily
into place. No less an authority than Roy Thomas has argued that the
contents of this panel suggest a "background different from the mere
"student of ancient mysteries'" mentioned in Fate's debut. That's undeniably true, and yet, there's plenty of enigmas in Fate's
first eight published scripts that this revelation can help to make
sense of. For one thing, the new origin explains why Fate had discussed
humanity as being in some way distinct from himself. Indeed, it even
helps flesh out why those Elder Gods in <i>More Fun Comics</i> #56 were so quick and keen to assist him. Doctor Fate, it seems, was their creation.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgus1KcdPXAXuUkkBYxnkbw3VPSPv1JaTTKXcgOW_CySpBXDBFHOl0Uv0aCipNynEm56oenoBJ221B9rK6sSw9x9AIml8zMoNi-TvLOQLJNus7gr13-NPHiCeB1JMyrF8hZ8g5z6SBt1oFB/s1600/scan0061.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgus1KcdPXAXuUkkBYxnkbw3VPSPv1JaTTKXcgOW_CySpBXDBFHOl0Uv0aCipNynEm56oenoBJ221B9rK6sSw9x9AIml8zMoNi-TvLOQLJNus7gr13-NPHiCeB1JMyrF8hZ8g5z6SBt1oFB/s640/scan0061.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>More Fun Comics</i> #56, June 1940: the sole reference to the Elder Gods prior to Fate's origin tale - or is it origin panel? - in 1941 <i>All-Star Comics</i> #3.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<i>continued<a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/on-fall-of-gardner-fox-howard-shermans.html" target="_blank"> here</a>;</i> <br />
<i></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-6069854091106152832015-08-14T10:47:00.001+01:002015-08-14T10:56:25.185+01:00The Things I Wish I’d Known About Teaching Comics, by Greg Carpenter<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><i><i>In 'The Things I Wish I'd Known', guest contributors reflect on the
lessons they've learned through their experiences with comics. With a
keen interest in the insight of everyone from first-time
readers to established professionals, podcasters to performers, it's a semi-regular Friday feature here
at TooBusyThinking. </i></i><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5566ancxckrUv0XEHMevQaswiMmIpfoEs5MNMIOwHYHeRfH_DHd0XJkG_eD8u8d6UsFpfRemyGSW0Ba2xAthTFR0OhbAMILinjNPWJCaEDFz2Y7A0SXy1vL6mfwmanl6FrIV6eODPtpeX/s1600/-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5566ancxckrUv0XEHMevQaswiMmIpfoEs5MNMIOwHYHeRfH_DHd0XJkG_eD8u8d6UsFpfRemyGSW0Ba2xAthTFR0OhbAMILinjNPWJCaEDFz2Y7A0SXy1vL6mfwmanl6FrIV6eODPtpeX/s640/-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1987's <i>Watchmen, </i>by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span lang="EN-US"><i><i> </i></i></span></b><span lang="EN-US">I'm absolutely chuffed to be able to welcome writer and teacher Greg Carpenter to </span><span lang="EN-US"><i>TooBusyThinking</i>. With his academic hat on, Greg teaches English in a Nashville University. In his writing, he discusses a broad range of matters pop cultural with a lightness of touch, an admirable degree of insight, and a welcome lack of the slightest pinch of pretension. Greg's first book </span><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US">is scheduled to be published by <a href="http://sequart.org/" target="_blank"><i>Sequart</i></a> later this year.</span> Entitled </span><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"><i>The British Invasion, </i>it focuses</span><i> </i></span><span lang="EN-US">on Alan Moore, Grant Morrison & Neil Gaiman, The same publisher hosts Greg's regular Monday column <a href="http://sequart.org/author/greg-carpenter/" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a></span><span lang="EN-US"><i>, </i>while his<i> </i>writing has also appeared at <i><a href="http://rogerebert.com/">rogerebert.com</a><span id="goog_2069137697"></span><span id="goog_2069137698"></span> </i>and<i> <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/archive/contributor/696/" target="_blank">popmatters</a>. </i>You can, and I'd recommend that you do, find Greg's Twitter feed <a href="https://twitter.com/tgregcarpenter" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC5t_smusY_1YVVmGyul7oyB4PvSZZjV5Eek8lvYFNhHiG06-TiEEnirNTBFUpD0_kHLNmYt-2G7wSJ5cegNhkgVZUaTcqGylswfmfC1AhyeFqo0B1DLisKQmuqg8dN45Za4QWzTsKv9zw/s1600/scan0002.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC5t_smusY_1YVVmGyul7oyB4PvSZZjV5Eek8lvYFNhHiG06-TiEEnirNTBFUpD0_kHLNmYt-2G7wSJ5cegNhkgVZUaTcqGylswfmfC1AhyeFqo0B1DLisKQmuqg8dN45Za4QWzTsKv9zw/s640/scan0002.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1963's <i>The X-Men</i> #1, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Paul Reinman et al (I take every responsibility for this scan; it's how I like to picture Greg's teaching.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b><span lang="EN-US">The Things I Wish I’d Known … About
Teaching Comics</span></b><br />
<br />
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<![endif]--><span lang="EN-US">When I was an undergraduate, I took a class
in dystopian fiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since it was
essentially a science fiction course, I assumed the professor was pretty cool,
so I started recommending some comics that would fit the curriculum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was dismissive at first, but he finally
agreed to read something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loaned him
my copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Watchmen</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next week he gave it back to me with a
note.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can still remember what it said:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Greg—you’re
right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Tis good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Particularly the prose pieces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it would’ve been better as a novel
without any of the pictures</i>.”</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">So much for him being cool.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Of course, the problem was actually larger
than just him being uncool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
response—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Watchmen</i> would be better
without the pictures—might just be the stupidest response ever given to a work
of art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s like saying <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Citizen Kane </i>should’ve been a play or
that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Swan Lake </i>would work better
without all that funny dancing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it
shows what the academy’s attitude towards comics was like only a few years ago.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">When I entered graduate school, the idea of
focusing on comics was like a Juilliard student deciding to major in the
kazoo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t even a question to
ask.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So comics became my escape
instead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a day spent reading
hundreds of pages of badly translated French literary theory, nothing was quite
so satisfying as cozying up with the latest issue of Grant Morrison’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">JLA</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Those 22 pages were all my tired brain would permit before drifting off
to sleep.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Qp7uyz-93qXmcadtk3V-x_jmW0lvBygjWgeAiceAa0UyK6wtDPryEPQOcavxHX1bS7bCFKWQ5QGNisMk66qlKP_P33mjE0VGG8e0dIb1mipZpev5UtU955mmq4-D4TqojQyzFlBOL5fw/s1600/scan0141.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="604" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Qp7uyz-93qXmcadtk3V-x_jmW0lvBygjWgeAiceAa0UyK6wtDPryEPQOcavxHX1bS7bCFKWQ5QGNisMk66qlKP_P33mjE0VGG8e0dIb1mipZpev5UtU955mmq4-D4TqojQyzFlBOL5fw/s640/scan0141.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1997's<i> JLA</i> #6, by Morrison, Porter, Dell et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US">When I started teaching, I kept my two
literary universes safely separate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Teaching was for Shakespeare, Thoreau, and Hemingway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leisure reading was for Moore, Gaiman, and
Morrison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that all started to change
one day when my wife casually asked, “Why don’t you teach a comic book class?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I wasn’t the first—not by a long shot—but I
was isolated from the growing community of comics scholars in a way that meant
I still had to feel my way through the process intuitively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now that I’ve taught the comics class several
times … well, I still don’t know what I’m doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that’s pretty much true of all the
classes I teach, which either says something about teaching or about me—or
maybe both.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">What follows are a few of the more
surprising things about teaching comics that I’ve learned along the way. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of this is anecdotal, so take everything
with the proverbial grain of salt.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></b><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKN5HDr7XU6kNmBAtjvx7FojrYi7vdvFFxDapUlnAy7dwvhEsewgLfgDpnIyF3eMdVecahyNmJCUlPcX2y4r3N_CZ058VUubW4ruvhXvVfn0LIFqmgxyQCMKvsO9g-2R9jBRf752E7xnPg/s1600/a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="608" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKN5HDr7XU6kNmBAtjvx7FojrYi7vdvFFxDapUlnAy7dwvhEsewgLfgDpnIyF3eMdVecahyNmJCUlPcX2y4r3N_CZ058VUubW4ruvhXvVfn0LIFqmgxyQCMKvsO9g-2R9jBRf752E7xnPg/s640/a.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2002's<i> Alec: After The Snooter</i> by Eddie Campbell</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">1) Don’t
let the book bill inhibit you</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I’ll always remember the first graduate class
I took in my specialty—American Drama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
went to the campus bookstore and picked up all the wonderful books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when I got to the checkout counter and
they rang up the bill—over $170—I had to sift through that beautiful stack and
try to decide which of the many plays I thought I could do without.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since that time, I’ve vowed not to put my
students in that same situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
comics, this became particularly problematic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At $20 bucks a pop, the book bill can add up pretty quickly, especially
if you’re dealing with books that you might only spend a week or less of class
time discussing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The situation has improved, however, since
those days when I kept talking myself out of teaching comics because it was
cost prohibitive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the benefit of
the online used book market and the rise of digital comics, students can cut
the final bill by 50% or more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if
the class is designed for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">depth </i>rather
than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">breadth</i>, it’s still possible to
keep the book bill in line (and far cheaper than some of the other subjects
like science or engineering where the academic book publishers give new meaning
to the words <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">price gouging</i>).</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></b><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMMC9OHkscRUTg7MviR14HD7J5-b5ZmM-vpX5v8W5_kviev16otKJcpImDUaAF-0Dsw5swsXONttdvkI1SDYeW5hoorS-kl_wvvf6Xkuxv9JO3S9MtAEYXF4nwNW6zkt7aujcIt-s0BtNd/s1600/-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMMC9OHkscRUTg7MviR14HD7J5-b5ZmM-vpX5v8W5_kviev16otKJcpImDUaAF-0Dsw5swsXONttdvkI1SDYeW5hoorS-kl_wvvf6Xkuxv9JO3S9MtAEYXF4nwNW6zkt7aujcIt-s0BtNd/s640/-1.jpg" width="438" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1953's <i>Mad </i>#3, cover by Kurtzman & M. Severin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">2) People
in academia are incredibly squeamish about the word “comics”</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">When I first proposed the class, I used a
one-word title for it:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Comics.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, when the department chair officially
listed the class, he changed it to “The Graphic Novel.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being somewhat literal minded, my first
reaction was to panic—afraid that I needed to drop all the serialized
collections I was teaching and to refashion the course around the history of
the original graphic novel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I can be a little slow on the uptake.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">When I finally realized that he had simply changed
the course title to something he considered more … dignified, I sighed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next time I taught it, I again labelled it
“Comics,” but I added the option of renaming it, “Comic Books.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the listing appeared, I was surprised to
learn I was teaching “Graphic Fiction.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Now of all the artificial terms we toss around for the medium, “graphic
fiction” is my least favorite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve taught
graphic fiction before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blood Meridian</i>, it was written<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>by Cormac McCarthy, and it’s
brilliant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And although I haven’t read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fifty Shades of Grey</i>, I’m sure you could
structure a class around that as well.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">All of which is to say, for some reason, when
combined with “fiction,” the word “graphic” doesn’t make me think of
comics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides, I was pretty sure that
neither Spiegelman nor McCloud were going to qualify as fiction anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I told the chair to change it to either
“Comics” or “Comic Books.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">He changed it to “The Graphic Novel".</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg82h1_6oZ_qAgcRVtz7RSQz9vpRreg_9eD5B3edbncyD53S8_-4Rw_yNUPTszsuOTmqtNprmAZeIeuc0zHR8u5C1Vcf2iMQcPdMfjx70zEHQu4UR3bjlAoAAvysUEv_qxUxXD-4ZnTBdXS/s1600/-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg82h1_6oZ_qAgcRVtz7RSQz9vpRreg_9eD5B3edbncyD53S8_-4Rw_yNUPTszsuOTmqtNprmAZeIeuc0zHR8u5C1Vcf2iMQcPdMfjx70zEHQu4UR3bjlAoAAvysUEv_qxUxXD-4ZnTBdXS/s640/-1.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1990's <i>Animal Man </i>#25, by Morrison, Truog, Farmer et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">3) Most
students will have already read … <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nothing</i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">This was a shock to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t get me wrong—I didn’t expect a class
full of people debating the merits of Wayne Boring versus Curt Swan, but when I
polled my first class of 20 students, only two of them had ever read a comic
book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I gulped before broadening the question
to include comic strips and another three students raised their hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“None of you have ever read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Peanuts</i>? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Garfield</i>?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve never felt quite so marginalized as I
did in that moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These were good
students—junior and senior English majors—but somehow the bulk of them had
managed childhood without ever reading comics.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And these were the students who were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">interested </i>in the subject.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I would normally just write it up to a
statistical anomaly, but every time I’ve taught the course I’ve seen similar
numbers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the students are
interested in comics either because of the movies or because it seemed like a
new and interesting medium. It’s an adjustment, talking about comics with
people for whom names like Jack Kirby and Alan Moore mean nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s also liberating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just had to remind myself that whenever I
started to talk about something I thought was obvious or boring, for most of
the students it was brand new.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wanna
blow a college student’s mind?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell them
the story of DC “buying” Superman from Siegel and Shuster for $130 bucks a
piece.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or read them the official
restrictions mandated by the Comics Code Authority.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></b><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpfkm-453kWNMc_4DyEBH25_0rtVVidPILZh1nP9K39FtROUhtPfoZoIj81HhQntgbfF04ropEaqalan2_SzpU-Poz9Gf-BfZHeoj2zLXno1qXo7O8iwzQaZmhVvUFFuhpPhAU7RjPSsAS/s1600/-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpfkm-453kWNMc_4DyEBH25_0rtVVidPILZh1nP9K39FtROUhtPfoZoIj81HhQntgbfF04ropEaqalan2_SzpU-Poz9Gf-BfZHeoj2zLXno1qXo7O8iwzQaZmhVvUFFuhpPhAU7RjPSsAS/s640/-1.jpeg" width="396" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2003's Batman 614, by Loeb, Lee, Williams et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">4) The
comics that students <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have</i> read tend
to be, well … random</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">My first jazz album was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kind of Blue</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My first Beatles was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sgt. Pepper</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe that’s
the geek in me, but I like to begin things with the consensus favorites. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So when I asked my small number of
comics-reading students what they had read, I expected to hear titles like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Watchmen</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Dark Knight Returns</i>, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maus</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or perhaps, I thought, they might’ve read
some of the more popular licensed comics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After all, my own gateway comics as a kid were Marvel’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star Wars </i>and DC’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star Trek</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Instead, strange as it sounds, the most
frequently mentioned title has been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Batman:
Hush</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not exactly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kind of Blue</i>, is it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least I was able to say I had read it
before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I enjoyed it mildly—probably many of you have
as well—but I can’t say it’s in my top 10.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s not even in my top 10 Batman stories.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And then there’s Deadpool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I were to go back in time and write a memo
to my future self it would probably just say, “DEADPOOL!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know nothing about Deadpool, but within
that small minority of students with some experience in reading comics,
Deadpool looms incredibly large.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take
that for what it’s worth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">On a more serious note, what this limited,
anecdotal experience suggests to me is that many of us in the comics-reading
community have little awareness of how comics are marketed to and perceived by non-readers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Likewise, it suggests that as a community, we
aren’t necessarily doing a great job of introducing new readers to the medium.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZzleF-v16E7z1fvPqscNgIeCafbD4SHJzqnQQvjneryGt0IA1YNoqamY-UvzcGz-V6CvkXREMZqckaTch6m2AvkRbr3qIszIcdCILeeo0C6B9PZhpBPWbnPLyoP8EQBOR0TDY0_c1A5dI/s1600/scan0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="502" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZzleF-v16E7z1fvPqscNgIeCafbD4SHJzqnQQvjneryGt0IA1YNoqamY-UvzcGz-V6CvkXREMZqckaTch6m2AvkRbr3qIszIcdCILeeo0C6B9PZhpBPWbnPLyoP8EQBOR0TDY0_c1A5dI/s640/scan0001.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1986's <i>The Dark Knight Returns</i> #1, by Miller, Janson, Varley et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">5) English
majors need coaching on how to read stories with pictures</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It’s a little surreal to sit in a room with
over 20 English majors who have read Joyce, Faulkner, and Eliot, and hear them
complain that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Dark Knight Returns </i>is
too hard to understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But so many of
the things that we take for granted—the reading order of panels on a page, the
difference between word balloons, thought balloons, and caption boxes—all those
things that most of us learned intuitively, are actually quite alien to the
novice adult reader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve had students
get hopelessly lost trying to identify who is speaking in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Dark Knight Returns</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is
Miller narrating?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is Batman?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is Robin?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Every now and then you just have to direct everyone to a page and walk them
through it—just to make sure everyone is reading properly. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And it’s also important to remember that
most English majors, trained in reading prose, tend to focus on the words and
just … absorb the pictures along the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As a result, when you can go back and point out that Frank Miller splits
the Harvey Dent panels or that the sign outside the retired Hollis Mason’s
apartment says, “We fix ‘em!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obsolete
models a speciality,” it’s like they’re learning to read all over again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The nice thing here is that once they start
paying attention to the pictures, they start pointing out things that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you </i>haven’t noticed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s when the real fun begins.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></b><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDJErAlVqGy-fI57kqHz5CR6dQWi7Y-xFXrjNQMykAzuj_MH5yu2QPhi6LpCRBdifEH7IYkjGF9L1y8TAAnv3lYXQR9Q8UiKYcp9nNpknxkKArcExbQmR2FNdbxcAg1jK9ucuJpnG-AMaY/s1600/Understanding+Comics+by+Scott+McCloud.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDJErAlVqGy-fI57kqHz5CR6dQWi7Y-xFXrjNQMykAzuj_MH5yu2QPhi6LpCRBdifEH7IYkjGF9L1y8TAAnv3lYXQR9Q8UiKYcp9nNpknxkKArcExbQmR2FNdbxcAg1jK9ucuJpnG-AMaY/s640/Understanding+Comics+by+Scott+McCloud.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1993's <i>Understanding Comics</i> by Scott McCloud</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">6) Scott
McCloud is your friend</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I know some people may feel like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Understanding Comics </i>has been
overpraised or they may take issue with some of McCloud’s theoretical points,
but I can’t imagine trying to teach comics without him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the first couple of weeks of class,
McCloud essentially team-teaches it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>‘Nuff said.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></b><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNXX3LvWgus7UIHk6ErOkieinDeM2S7h_FZsnogaSK4M0dxvO8JX-ikvQXVsaQWZMM_cj6x6DhQVtHXAB5MNO2h5HpTG9yuax37r6TfzCSpY9Bd4WVnYjB264uMONjL-QDy1sHIeH9iJd/s1600/Sandman+%252319+by+Neil+Gaiman+and+Charles+Vess.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNXX3LvWgus7UIHk6ErOkieinDeM2S7h_FZsnogaSK4M0dxvO8JX-ikvQXVsaQWZMM_cj6x6DhQVtHXAB5MNO2h5HpTG9yuax37r6TfzCSpY9Bd4WVnYjB264uMONjL-QDy1sHIeH9iJd/s640/Sandman+%252319+by+Neil+Gaiman+and+Charles+Vess.jpeg" width="290" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1990's <i>The Sandman</i> #19, by Gaiman, Vess et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">7) Don’t
be too precious about your darlings</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Unlike other forms of literature, my
favorite comics mean something personal to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Moby-Dick</i> is a work of genius,
but for me, Grant Morrison’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Animal Man </i>is
far more special.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, once you
introduce something to a class of students, that sense of being special goes
out the window.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine hearing someone
dismiss the four stories in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sandman:
Dream Country </i>as “just weird.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or
think about having someone label <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All-Star
Superman </i>as lightweight and stupid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Pretend you just heard someone shrug off <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maus </i>as “not very moving.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s what it’s like to discuss things in an academic classroom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">You just have to remember that these are
students who are trained to dissect the likes of Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare
with cold-hearted, dispassionate precision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nothing is sacred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re simply
treating comics the same way they treat any other medium—poetry, drama,
fiction, film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Comics are no different.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US">Which, by the way, is the whole point of
the class, isn’t it?</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH-bcPqB8JeC12Ilc3IExB4acNmVBP5r3aD1DMiBY1V9TRMBQHxnyv6ENNqdkkkkHUZ3jcaavKkYJaOME4KeR7yOm4f9ugHAjUpr4GHaUXiKngueYmIed0vdReqrT0Y1XcdZNdy0T8xikB/s1600/scan0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH-bcPqB8JeC12Ilc3IExB4acNmVBP5r3aD1DMiBY1V9TRMBQHxnyv6ENNqdkkkkHUZ3jcaavKkYJaOME4KeR7yOm4f9ugHAjUpr4GHaUXiKngueYmIed0vdReqrT0Y1XcdZNdy0T8xikB/s640/scan0003.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1964's <i>The Amazing Spider-Man</i> #19, by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><span lang="EN-US">Once again, my sincerest thanks to Greg, a good egg if ever there was one.</span></i><i><i> Should you have a moment to fill, previous 'Things I Wish I'd Known' posts have seen Lee Robson discuss <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/the-things-i-wish-id-known-1-lee-robson.html" target="_blank">writing for comics</a> and Martin Gray write about <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/martin-gray-on-blogging-about-comics.html" target="_blank">comics blogging</a>. </i></i><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-58185045480915986132015-08-11T23:00:00.000+01:002015-08-26T16:00:41.808+01:00On Forever People #1; When Superman Upstaged The Newest Gods (Who Is Jack Kirby's Darkseid? Part 2)<i>This is the second part of TooBusyThinking's looks at Jack Kirby's
Darkseid. Each is largely self-contained, but should you be at
all curious, the first post can be found <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/who-was-jack-kirbys-darkseid-part-1.html" target="_blank">here</a>. In what follows, I've had to swerve to discuss Kirby's early-70s storytelling in general along with Superman's role in 'The Forever People' #1. To my surprise, it was tough to describe Darkseid's development without taking such an apparent detour; </i><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNWFQRhVgOEap2MrvXAeK_M4_L5NkDPZwiI6oyqd2pthIKvhEky9Cksr1FJ8S2npY2qtAWJDXYAzgu0_l8drEasF5iLWPC2cKdxLUnp81GzM1c4XYW2Vh4h_T8Zg0q7WRNb0w_tUo6phik/s1600/-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNWFQRhVgOEap2MrvXAeK_M4_L5NkDPZwiI6oyqd2pthIKvhEky9Cksr1FJ8S2npY2qtAWJDXYAzgu0_l8drEasF5iLWPC2cKdxLUnp81GzM1c4XYW2Vh4h_T8Zg0q7WRNb0w_tUo6phik/s640/-1.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On sale in late 1970, The Forever People #1 bore a cover by Kirby with
inks by Vince Colletta & editorially-ordered changes to Kirby's
Superman by Alan Plastino. (Plastino was charged with redrawing Kirby's Man Of Steel for the comic's interior pages, as you can see from the panels below.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>1</b></u>.<br />
<br />
It can be hard to remember today, but
the Fourth World titles delivered a substantial culture shock to many of
DC's readers in the early years of the Seventies. (It's difficult not
to presume that a great many editors and creators at the company felt
similarly confused and even disconcerted.) It wasn't just that Kirby's
singularly vigorous and expansive style had long been intrinsically
associated with Marvel Comics, although that in itself could be
bewildering enough. (The various New Gods titles never looked on the
stands as if they belonged to DC's range of comics. Kirby's aesthetic
was just too raw, too daring, too idiosyncratic, too <i>impolite</i>.)
Nor was it simply a matter of Kirby's new titles introducing a
completely new, complex and substantial mythos to the DCU. After all,
the shock of the previously unimagined could have been managed so as to
reduce the audience's disorientation. But Kirby, so long cooped up at a
Marvel that he felt constrained and undervalued by, was charged up with a
revolutionary's passion. Trusting in the audience's intelligence,
curiosity and patience, he fired out issue after issue of fastmoving,
demanding, and wonderfully peculiar tales. Long before a status quo had
been established for any of his new projects, or so it often seemed, Kirby
would move on to new concepts, new characters, new conflicts. The
vagaries of the comics business would compound his attempts to initiate this
new and more demanding approach to the American monthly. It could be hard enough for his
audience to keep up when the Fourth World titles arrived at the
newsstands on time. But the age's wretched distribution meant that
comics rarely arrived precisely on time and
exactly in sequence. Frequently, they never actually arrived at all. In such an
uncertain marketplace, Kirby's was a particularly demanding approach. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgj7B5EwkFFMdSuZztPvyAFsmLXi38SEs5sdezDsAytq3jepFiKLZ-mVeXV2fb7DtAxgGiOhsmmXR0Q0h_JVu6ubox98rm-2E2RCx2h6hju8VjHIR0Rd7Jv4mLFj56o-Kv7eYd2dXnH60a/s1600/scan0130.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="594" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgj7B5EwkFFMdSuZztPvyAFsmLXi38SEs5sdezDsAytq3jepFiKLZ-mVeXV2fb7DtAxgGiOhsmmXR0Q0h_JVu6ubox98rm-2E2RCx2h6hju8VjHIR0Rd7Jv4mLFj56o-Kv7eYd2dXnH60a/s640/scan0130.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A detail of a Kirby pencil sketch of Darkseid from the 70s, as inked by Jim Starlin for 1994's <i>Jack Kirby's Heroes And Villains: Black Magic Edition.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For those that could hang on, it all made for an
intoxicating ride. But some sympathy might be felt for those readers who
chose not to buy into Kirby's method. History has tended to imply that
they were unhelpfully conservative consumers, who, in unconscious
conspiracy with DC's reactionary hierarchy, denied future generations
the wonders of a complete Fourth World Saga. Yet most of them were very
young and understandably casual in their allegiances. (Comics were,
after all, still a mass medium, and they functioned for most as
disposable distractions rather than fannish obsessions.) What Kirby
offered was a far more exacting and by-necessity immersive experience
than even Marvel during its mid-60s peak had ever pursued. No single
issue could be missed, let alone nonchalantly read, for fear of the
essential information that might be missed. That there were four
individual titles to hunt down and make sense of in concert with one
another only raised the degree of difficulty for the typical reader.
Like many an innovator, Kirby's ambitions were too far in advance of his
time. A publishing programme that could have easily prospered in the
comics shops of the mid-80s was always going to stumble, if not
necessarily collapse, at the turn of the 70s. That the Fourth World
titles always generated a profit is a mark of how successful Kirby's
first wave of DC work really was. <br />
<br />
What made it worse
for the typically undedicated reader was that Kirby's storytelling was
frequently as opaque and confounding as it was breathtakingly
innovative, eventful and involving. In that, the dramatic punch offered
by each individual Fourth World comic as a reading experience was often
undermined by Kirby's laudable insistence on change, on intricate
world-building and entertaining digressions. If this wasn't always so,
it often was. If no Fourth World episode was ever less than entertaining
and thought-provoking, the catharsis offered by each instalment could
be undercut by Kirby's restless, driven approach. (It often seemed that
he'd run out of pages long before he'd properly
finished the story at hand.) Nowhere was this more true
than with <i>The Forever People</i> #1, in which Darkseid's key
confrontation with Superman and The Infinity Man was crowded into just
four panels and two-thirds of a single page. Inevitably, it was
something of a disappointment, and it remains so to this day.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfm1sFH_CjWAaTh9R9JvA-rx6wp17RARnzjeFbub0tpybLVTy3mIu-IFyiWvlBHPb2NW1_lo8zQTiroi49KtMAWMAUyI38pTxBAa7TMZSdYJhEvkc8DlaM-njKSEh06gDVhCyF9eYLoHYD/s1600/scan0131.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfm1sFH_CjWAaTh9R9JvA-rx6wp17RARnzjeFbub0tpybLVTy3mIu-IFyiWvlBHPb2NW1_lo8zQTiroi49KtMAWMAUyI38pTxBAa7TMZSdYJhEvkc8DlaM-njKSEh06gDVhCyF9eYLoHYD/s640/scan0131.jpg" width="528" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kirby pencils for November 1984's <i>New Gods</i> #6. a mixture of reprints & a new Fourth World tale. The frame comes from July 1996's <i>The Jack Kirby Collector </i>#11,
which points out that some of the dialogue was unused. (It also
suggests that Kirby was expressing a criticism of George Lucas' apparent
appropriation of his work in <i>Star Wars</i>.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Even as a nipper, I adored the Fourth World titles.
But I can well understand why others didn't. Similarly, I'm hardly
astounded when folks approaching Kirby's 1970-72 work today find it
harder to enjoy and admire than they'd imagined they would. Kirby was
indeed a genius, and the acclamations to that effect are anything but
misleading. But that doesn't mean that the likes of <i>The Forever People</i> and the <i>New Gods</i>
are always easy reads, let alone entirely successful experiments. For
all that it's a heresy to write, we do new readers no favours if we lead
them to expect an immediately transcendental experience. To a
sensibility formed from exposure to the 21st century's well-mannered
superhero mainstream, much of Kirby's Fourth World might appear
discouragingly rough-hewn. It's only a general truth, of course; some
issues, such as the brilliant <i>Himon</i> from <i>Mister Miracle</i> #9 and <i>The Pact</i> from <i>New Gods</i>
#7, are reassuringly focused and self-contained But the past is indeed
another country, and people did indeed do things differently there. As
for Jack Kirby, he did things in ways that no-one else could imagine,
let alone adequately emulate. Today's commonsense assumptions about what
is and what isn't a good comic simply may not apply, and a neophyte
could require an open mind fortified with, at first, a fair degree of
curiosity and patience<br />
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<u><b>2</b></u>.<br />
<br />
It wasn't until December 1970 and the debut of <i>The Forever People</i> #1 that readers saw anything more of Darkseid than his head and shoulders. Kirby had seeded his first three issues of <i>Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen </i>with aspects of the Fourth World's backstory, but <i>The Forever People: In Search Of A Dream </i>launched exuberantly into the details of the ancient conflict between the New Gods of Supertown and Apokolips.<br />
<br />
It
wasn't enough for Kirby to introduce the powers, personalities and
purpose of Mark Moonrider and his fellow members of Supertown's youngest
warriors in <i>The Forever People</i> #1. He also established the
Forever People's ability to switch places across dimensions during times
of great peril with the magnificently powerful Infinity Man. In
addition, Kirby sketched in a great deal more detail about Darkseid, his
methods, powers, resources and ambitions. Suddenly the reader was
thrillingly bombarded with Boom Tubes, Mother Boxes, Supertowns,
Super-Cycles, Super-Wars, Sigma-Blasts, Evil Machines, Gravi-Guards,
Heavy Mass Galaxies, Anti-Gravity, the Anti-Life Equation, Radion Bombs,
secret Underground bases and Darkseid's Invasion Of Earth. That in
itself might be considered a demanding enough business for even the
finest of creators. But Kirby also used <i>In Search Of A Dream </i>to
introduce what remains perhaps the single most radical reinterpretation
of Superman in the DC canon. It was, perhaps, too much of a challenge
for even Kirby to deliver all of that - and even more! - in one single,
tidy 24 page story without causing a measure of bafflement. The result
was an uneven and often perplexing stew that was also consistently
exciting, intriguing and, to established fans, even provocative. <br />
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<u><b>3</b></u>.<br />
<br />
It's
worth taking a digression to consider how thorough and profound was
Kirby's new vision for the Man Of Steel. For how was it that Darkseid,
during his very first substantial walk-on appearance, ended up playing
second fiddle to Superman of all characters? To include DC's premier
superhero of course made perfect artistic and commercial sense. Kal-El
had already unknowingly brushed up against Darkseid's ambitions
in the pages of <i>Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen</i>. As such, he was
already caught up in the New Gods' war and made perfect sense as a guest
star. (If Darkseid had shown no interest in the rest of Earth's
superheroes, Superman had from the off appeared to unsettle him.)
Commercially, the presence of Superman on the front cover as well as the
interior pages of <i>The Forever People</i> #1 could do nothing but good. No other DC property during the period came close to matching Superman's status and sales.<br />
<br />
Yet
Kirby wasn't content to feature Superman as he was commonly depicted in
the comics of the period. Gone was the cosily assimilated Kal-El of the
previous few decades.
In what's unfairly
if understandably been referred to the Marvelisation of Superman, Kirby
accentuated the character's alien heritage. Suddenly, Superman had
acquired some profound neuroses. Instead of a Clark Kent who
felt
very much at home on Earth, and who was largely welcomed and adored
by the planet's citizens, Kirby gave us an isolated, unsure
extra-terrestial who wondered if he was 'secretely' resented, feared and
hated;<br />
<br />
"For the <i>first</i> time in many years -- I feel I'm alone -- <i>alone!</i>'<br />
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<br />
In that, Kirby's portrayal of a desperately lonely Superman driven to
despair by
his alienation from humanity turned just about every given about the
character on its head. The result was a moving and ultimately
tragic tale of
Kal-El the Kryptonian in perpetual, painful exile, a 'stranger in a
strange land' willing even to
abandon Earth in its hour of greatest need in order to visit a world of
similarly gifted individuals. (*1) This was, Kirby plausibly argued, the result of Superman feeling that he was "a <i>minority of one</i> in a world of teeming <i>millions</i>".
It was a crushing sense of aloneness that would drive him to
uncharacteristically selfish acts. And so, Superman's first thought when
encountering an evidently beleaguered Forever People was;<br />
<br />
"I must gain the confidence of these super-kids -- if I ever hope to achieve what I came for."<br />
<br />
Shockingly,
this wasn't the musing of a hero set on assisting a group of strangers
in obvious need. This was Superman as a manipulative and
rather desperate con-man, who hid his true motivations under a cloak of
altruism.Not just emotionally battered and
perhaps even shell-shocked, but disturbingly dishonest too? It was a
version of Superman who, for all that he was fascinating, might even
have undercut the
commercial value of his presence in the comic. After all, a more traditional
depiction of him could have helped ease readers into the complexities of
the Fourth World. But when even Superman himself was being shown in
such an unfamiliar and compromised light, <i>The Forever People</i> could have seemed an even more intimidatingly strange prospect.The unconvincing effect created by DC nervously having Kirby's dynamic version of Superman completely redrawn by old-school artist Al Plastino only added to the overall sense of oddness. <br />
<br />
<i>*1:- I doubt the reference to the Heinlein book so beloved to the time's
counter-culture was an accident, particularly given that The Forever
People was a sincerely-meant celebration of the potential of America's youth. </i><br />
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Kirby
determinedly made sure that his Superman had good reason to feel so
ill-at-ease and desolate. For all that it might be said that Superman
had been transformed too
quickly and too completely, the verve and pathos of Kirby's storytelling
carries the reader through any lurking doubts. Out of the blue, the Man
Of Steel's presence was, we're shown, threatening to devalue rather than
inspire humanity's highest aspirations. His very reason for existing was
dissolving before his eyes As the heavyweight
boxer Rocky declares to Clark Kent, "What have I done -- that <i>Superman</i>
couldn't do <i>better</i>? He can put down an <i>army</i> of <i>title-holders</i>! With
<i>Superman</i> in the picture, the fight game is a <i>farce</i>! If only I could meet
him on his <i>own</i> terms!"<br />
<br />
No wonder that <i>In Search Of A Dream </i>has
in places become seen as more of a Superman tale than a story of the
Fourth World. The most touching and insightful moments of the story
feature not the various New Gods, but their decades-old and world-famous
guest star. Not only that, but Superman's powers resolve the tale's
major physical jeopardy while his despair dominates the story's
denouement. Mass-market collections such as 1987's <i>The Greatest Superman Stories Ever</i> <i>Told</i>
have claimed Kirby's tale for the Man Of Steel's own tradition, and
such books have probably reached more readers than ever enjoyed <i>The Forever People's </i>solo adventures. <br />
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At the tale's end, Kirby even shows Superman being abandoned by The
Forever People as a regrettable deserter from the front line against
Darkseid. So desperate is Kal-El to reach the home of the New Gods that
he ignores their pleas for him to stay. More than anything, more even
than the prospect of Earth's suffering, Superman wants to experience
what it is like to belong. Not even Big Bear's declaration that the fall
of Earth will destroy the sanctuary that's Supertown can influence the
Man Of Steel to remain and fight. He is, Kirby makes clear, a deeply
traumatised individual. Despite the ever-sunny Serifan's support for his
choice, the rest of The Forever People turn their back on him. As Mark
Moonrider declares, 'We'll carry on <i>without</i> him!". That Superman
has promised to return if he's ever needed is, Kirby implies, a sign of
self-deception. Kal-El - and this is very much Kal-El rather than Clark
Kent - has chosen on one or another level to ignore all the evidence
that the planet is in immediate peril. Having placed his own needs
before those of Earth's many billions of inhabitants, Superman has even
repressed the awareness that he's done so. "I hope you can <i>live</i> with your <i>conscience</i>", says Big Bear, and for the moment, Superman appears in little doubt that he can. <br />
<br />
At the final second, and with Supertown almost in reach, Superman accepts with some reluctance that he 'may be <i>deserting</i> mankind when it <i>needs</i> (him) <i>most</i>!".
With the collapse of his determination to escape, the Boom Tube
carrying him towards his enticing destination implodes. As he regains
his feet on Earth, we see that The Forever People have gone and day has
become night. Bowed with despair, Superman is left by Kirby as a broken
man, who, having being tempted beyond measure, has barely escaped with
his soul intact. It is, of course, a way of discussing how Anti-Life
itself operates. Even Superman, Kirby tells us, can be tested and
tempted to place his interests above everyone else's. Even Superman can
be driven to run for the supposed peace of unthinking belonging and the
oblivion it promises.<br />
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<u><b>5</b></u>.<br />
<br />
In
this, Kirby also established that the New Gods are a different order of
being to even Earth's favourite adopted son and greatest defender.
Superman can be worn down by the tumult of everyday life, but the Gods
themselves exist on a higher, purer plane, where abstract moral
principles and personal motivations are often one and the same. They
are, in that, closer to the original, pre-Marvel Revolution model of the
superhero, who embodied heroic convictions untrammelled by the
complexities of truly individual personalities. In that clash between
the high opera of the Gods and the more mundane worldviews of everyday
human beings would lie many of the Fourth World's greatest charms. (The
interaction between Gods and men in <i>New Gods</i>' #6's <i>The Glory Boat</i>
comes particularly to mind.) It's certainly no accident that the Fourth
World's two most compelling heroic figures would be, by virtue of
biology and upbringing, creatures of both Supertown and Apokolips. For
Mister Miracle and Orion, life would be a far more trying and
conditional business than it was for their fellows from either Kirby's
heaven or hell. Caught between their exposure to two starkly opposing
ethical codes, they'd emerge as the most individual and engaging of all
the Gods, with, of course, the exception of Darkseid himself.<br />
<br />
But there's an argument to be made that the Superman of <i>In Search Of A Dream </i>was
the Fourth World's most touching figure. What a shame that Kirby never
got to take that depiction any further, and that we never saw him redeem
himself in the Forever People''s eyes. (A consistently more
conventional Kal-El would star in all of the Fourth World's appearances
in Jimmy Olsen's book.) Not before or after have we been given a Kal-El
who's so profoundly unhappy, so fundamentally weary of responsibility
and conflict and isolation. (*2) In that, <i>The Forever People</i> #1 stands with the likes of 1960's <i>Superman's Return To Krypton</i> and 1964's <i>The Death Of Superman</i>
as one of the character's saddest stories. It was a tremendous
achievement on Kirby's part, and yet,as we'll discuss next time, it did
leave the Godly characters in the book short of page-time. Of them all,
it was Darkseid and the mute, kidnapped figure of Beautiful Dreamer who
were the most diminished by Kirby's focus on Superman. Both of them, and
particularly the Lord of Apokolips, would be far better served as Kirby
soon kicked into his stride.<br />
<br />
<i>Continued <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/its-darkseid-but-not-quite-darkseid-yet.html" target="_blank">here</a></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-5329951161341911772015-08-10T13:18:00.000+01:002015-08-12T11:51:57.744+01:00Where To Start With 2000AD? <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6dCaJwWKKQS-obmdYkEnVv6_VWyUTSZch4G9W_8hQ9Phj7FURFzD9o2YlDBsf5UMz7tiViXXbLoQ3QdzMQZ6od6C38YgjFVuuDwrd3dkFoMMXFKlJk25fFr246Sz0S8TuS7ZhyphenhyphenY7XRYqf/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6dCaJwWKKQS-obmdYkEnVv6_VWyUTSZch4G9W_8hQ9Phj7FURFzD9o2YlDBsf5UMz7tiViXXbLoQ3QdzMQZ6od6C38YgjFVuuDwrd3dkFoMMXFKlJk25fFr246Sz0S8TuS7ZhyphenhyphenY7XRYqf/s640/-1.jpg" width="496" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Last week's <i>2000AD</i>, with a Glenn Fabry/Ryan Brown cover. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A few years ago, I started to write a <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/how-to-2000-ad-bluffer-writes-beginners.html" target="_blank">series</a> about those <i>2000AD</i>
strips that I imagined would most appeal to action-adventure
comics fans who knew little of <i>The Galaxy's Greatest Comic</i>. I'm
not entirely clear why I stopped penning the pieces after
three posts, but I suspect I felt others were far better qualified for
the task. (But then, that's always true; it's a rare generalist that can
outshine an expert.) But
coming across my notes again, I thought I might at least put them to some small
use.<br />
<br />
In what follows, I've suggested a dozen titles that might introduce the
broad and substantial world of <i>2000AD</i> to neophytes. In a post to
arrive at a latter date, I'll suggest a further dozen collections that
might ease the newcoming reader even further into the comic's vast back
catalogue. As such, what's here isn't intended to summarise the best of <i>2000AD's</i>
contents, or even nail down its most important stories. Nor does it
attempt to provide a representative sample - if such was even possible -
of <i>2000AD's</i> dominant styles or genres. It certainly doesn't
include all of the most important and influential of the creators who've
contributed to the title. All it does is suggest entrance points to
what can be, my American friends assure me, an intimidatingly large and
distinct body of work.Yes,
there's a huge number of characters, tales and creators that I've decided - often reluctantly - not to
mention. That doesn't mean that I don't admire the storytellers and enjoy their work. It's just that those strips didn't <i>quite </i>belong here. (I <i>suspect</i> many will appear in subsequent lists.) The vast number of the initially excluded includes some of my all-time favourite
comics. No <i>Nikolai Dante</i> here, no <i>Zombo</i>? No Simon Fraser,
no Brian Bolland, no Robbie Morrison? It feels like a betrayal, it
really does. Mea culpa. But next time...... <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSdwSV_zx1BTaDHobGw6BGAkfwNj-pQ9YW8HsuzvtqfY0lUutbc3ufPhzw4ON9p09ILyXk9pwfmbDTj8mu8qPi0Rsm6GDRxn64Uql2bWtzw_ZM59JqFFp4GL6HvlvslYQRk9cSYtXKLXf/s1600/-.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSdwSV_zx1BTaDHobGw6BGAkfwNj-pQ9YW8HsuzvtqfY0lUutbc3ufPhzw4ON9p09ILyXk9pwfmbDTj8mu8qPi0Rsm6GDRxn64Uql2bWtzw_ZM59JqFFp4GL6HvlvslYQRk9cSYtXKLXf/s640/-.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 38 years ago, 1977's <i>2000AD </i>#13, the cover of which features of montage of various artist's work.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For these reasons, I've tended towards collections with largely
self-contained stories and consistent, accessible styles. However, as the list
continues, I've added a titles that are less so, although the
same principles still largely apply. As is inevitable, I've changed a
few of my original choices as a result of the last few years. Tharg stands still for no reader. <br />
<br />
So, this is my list, and nothing but. Tell me, if you would, <i>yours</i>.<br />
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1. 1980 & 1983's <i>Nemesis Books</i> 1 and 3, by Pats Mills & Kevin O'Neill, which, for whatever it's worth, I wrote about <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/how-to-2000-ad-part-2-bluffer-offers.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>. You can find the same stories, and considerably <a href="http://shop.2000adonline.com/products/digitalgn_the_complete_nemesis_the_warlock_01" target="_blank"><i>more</i></a>. in <i>The Complete Nemesis The Warlock</i> volume 1. But for those who'd prefer colour over black and white for their first excursion into <i>2000AD</i>, the Deviant Edition - above - is for you.<br />
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2. 2012's wonderfully clockpunky <i>Brass Sun: The Wheel Of Worlds</i>,
by Ian Edginton & I.N.J. Culbard. (If I had to give one and only one
graphic novel to a curious someone who loved YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy and
wanted to know if comics were for them, it would very likely be <i>Brass Sun</i>.) <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1zdzeR4uSK2toRSBemRSlRZZ9Y1HCDDGJHoIw2OKSxCsshCvcUPHWqSALlh-RYn1G_XRP8dAMoJiDmuEonm5kJRSxM23_pmCISG2Q9DDrA8-UIULBNS4YpzkhlxqFSMpSg_smF5emC25Z/s1600/-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1zdzeR4uSK2toRSBemRSlRZZ9Y1HCDDGJHoIw2OKSxCsshCvcUPHWqSALlh-RYn1G_XRP8dAMoJiDmuEonm5kJRSxM23_pmCISG2Q9DDrA8-UIULBNS4YpzkhlxqFSMpSg_smF5emC25Z/s640/-2.jpg" width="514" /></a></div>
3. 1989's <i>The Dead Man</i>, by John Wagner & John Ridgway, a brooding dark western/sci-fi tale which I wrote about <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/how-to-2000-ad-part-3-bluffer-offers.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a><br />
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4. 1990's<i> Judge Dredd: America</i>, by John Wagner & Colin
MacNeil, a dark, challenging tale that takes the frequently anti-fascist
subtext of the strip and places it page-centre, where even the most
wilful reactionary might struggle to miss it.(The above scan's for the new available-in-America edition, while British readers can also acquire the title as part of the <i>Judge Dredd Mega
Collection</i> <a href="http://www.judgedreddcollection.com/" target="_blank">partwork</a>.)<br />
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5. 1984-1986's <i>The Complete Ballad Of Halo Jones</i>, by Alan Moore
& Ian Gibson, the hugely influential and impressive 50th century
odyssey that began with the observation that <i>2000AD</i> needed female protagonists too.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCKceOdw15LQ4qcLbraW_EGjFZEZ6PtywOku52tO81EtpupOL7ldpDQutCIHa0-XUOA_yLiL_hXBxgHSOyhF_xx4w-TncYvkMdCulDNOZcesTzi8F8If9NkN60emW-T8ej7pKxJrHtmWQx/s1600/-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCKceOdw15LQ4qcLbraW_EGjFZEZ6PtywOku52tO81EtpupOL7ldpDQutCIHa0-XUOA_yLiL_hXBxgHSOyhF_xx4w-TncYvkMdCulDNOZcesTzi8F8If9NkN60emW-T8ej7pKxJrHtmWQx/s640/-5.jpg" width="454" /></a></div>
6. 2009's<i> Cradlegrave</i>, by John Smith, Edmund Bagwell et al, a smart & unsettling contemporary horror tale.(I wrote about the fine storytelling in <i>Cradlegrave<a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/on-grifter-9-cradlegrave-whats-point-of.html" target="_blank"> </a></i><a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/on-grifter-9-cradlegrave-whats-point-of.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>.)<br />
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7. 1986/88's <i>Bad Company</i>, by Peter Milligan, Brett Ewins &
Jim McCarthy, a deeply disturbingly future-war
strip that's laced with a disconcertingly counter-cultural hit of
psychedelia. Beyond '88, the strip's still well-worth reading, but it's
the tales from the first three years that are by far the most
satisfying.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKFuD61lnC2vDCtk6C1V7gxHB4HzXU5IzDlAh8TewvvIYybLdkdQaohgF6dxC4OXmAL8naIrSYCDWhvKlWr2miQnJLE8WPId0kZ2hRwVIe0Qn-EpZTlH6WaIDxwYMpZkwPqnzsw9U5C3vA/s1600/-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKFuD61lnC2vDCtk6C1V7gxHB4HzXU5IzDlAh8TewvvIYybLdkdQaohgF6dxC4OXmAL8naIrSYCDWhvKlWr2miQnJLE8WPId0kZ2hRwVIe0Qn-EpZTlH6WaIDxwYMpZkwPqnzsw9U5C3vA/s640/-7.jpg" width="460" /></a></div>
8. 1983/4's <i>Slaine</i>,
by Pat Mills, Mike McMahon et al, a sword and sorcery tale grounded in
Celtic mythology that I 've frequently struggled with. However, the
collaborations on the feature between Mills and uber-artist McMahon are <i>utterly</i>
beguiling. Indeed, I wonder if the brilliant McMahon's pages have ever
been more compelling, bringing out as they do the very
best of Mills' gleefully confrontational scripts. <br />
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9. 2006's <i>Stickleback: England's Glory</i>, by Ian Edginton &
D'Israeli, a wonderfully rich gumbo of steampunk and horror that
features a truly macabre criminal protagonist.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYcqf_EfrYSnOOVkIoOwSJLOFm4h5fAFdj17MrD7IDbrkOlnwHt1hOpykegWgia6Tj1Iv-hR4dQwvdGIchghHlru3Ufc6-hs-kJ85ws1_ZmenLJhAagAGFFldc10B6l5Tyb6PZtKaiX53M/s1600/-10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYcqf_EfrYSnOOVkIoOwSJLOFm4h5fAFdj17MrD7IDbrkOlnwHt1hOpykegWgia6Tj1Iv-hR4dQwvdGIchghHlru3Ufc6-hs-kJ85ws1_ZmenLJhAagAGFFldc10B6l5Tyb6PZtKaiX53M/s640/-10.jpg" width="488" /></a></div>
10. 1989's<i> Zenith: Phase Three</i>,
By Grant Morrison & Steve Yeowell. To my mind,this is still the
finest work that Morrison has ever put his name to, with he and Yeowell
taking their entertaining, witty superhero strip and elevating it to the
genre's very front rank. I rather ignored the earlier <i>Zenith </i>strips
in the late 80s, and as a consequence came to this relatively cold,
which is why I suspect that seasoned comics fan could do the same. Those
who've followed Morrison's 21st century superhero work will certainly
find much that's reassuringly familiar here, which should compensate for
any initial dislocation. I
should say, however, that other folks whose opinions I respect would
disagree. (I've previously written about Zenith <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Zenith" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>.)<br />
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1990's <i>Psi-Judge Anderson: Shamballa</i>, by Alan Grant & Arthur
Ranson, an ominous, melancholic hybrid of sci-fi and Weird Tales horror. It too has recently received an excellent edition as part of the <i>Judge Dredd Mega
Collection</i> <a href="http://www.judgedreddcollection.com/" target="_blank">partwork</a>.<br />
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2014's
<i> Judge Dredd: Trifect</i>a, by writers Al Ewing, Simon Spurrier & Rob Williams and artists Simon Coleby, Carl Critchlow, D'Israeli and Henry Flint. <i>Trifect</i>a is a collecton of the triumphant crossover tale
that wound together three quite different and apparently distinct strips which
were being published simultaneously in <i>2000AD</i> during 2014; <i>Dredd</i>, <i>Low Life</i> and <i>The
Simping Detective</i>. Highly ambitious and highly enjoyable, it should prove a useful graduation text for <i>2000AD 101</i>. It also allows me to include perhaps my favourite ever strip from the comic, Williams and D'Israeli's <i>Low Life</i>,
which features the perpetually downtrodden and not <i>entirely</i> compos
mentis Dirty Frank. Bless him. (I've written about <i>Low Life</i> in a variety
of places before, including <a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/on-rob-williamss-daken-dark-wolverine.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>.)
None of which is to slight The Simping Detective, a fine series whose
earliest adventures I've recently read for the first time and greatly
enjoyed. <br />
<br />
<u><i><b>(</b></i></u><i>Coming soon; 2000AD: The Intermediate Level reader's guide.)</i>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-39143220368436630902015-08-04T20:00:00.000+01:002015-08-11T23:03:22.118+01:00Who Was Jack Kirby's Darkseid? (Part 1 - October 1970 to January 1971)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgovpiz3TLd3e-bNGO-YZ9h2ilVODxXmnDrrVa58P4-98scUwToca70oSlRxYTxqibD8cEUNa9nxslxJ4QK-LUUzj48N-AdHtbLgtFTKYMW_wPxr9JA0vLXa2Ti0iLw9BhFe-1h_VQ0j2K4/s1600/scan0052.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgovpiz3TLd3e-bNGO-YZ9h2ilVODxXmnDrrVa58P4-98scUwToca70oSlRxYTxqibD8cEUNa9nxslxJ4QK-LUUzj48N-AdHtbLgtFTKYMW_wPxr9JA0vLXa2Ti0iLw9BhFe-1h_VQ0j2K4/s640/scan0052.jpg" width="434" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Darkseid; a detail of an unused <i>New Gods </i>page from 1971, as published in Mark Evanier's <i>Kirby: King Of Comics</i>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><u>1</u></b>.<br />
<br />
A string of undeniably memorable versions of Darkseid have appeared in the years since Jack Kirby's epochal <i>Fourth World</i> titles were cancelled. Several especially compelling takes come immediately to mind; Englehart and Roger's depiction in the 1977 reboot of <i>Mister Miracle</i>; the portrayal by Starlin and Mignola in 1988's <i>Cosmic Odessey</i>; Burnett, Timm, Dini et al's Lord Of Apokolips as developed for 2000's <i>Superman: The Animated Series</i>. Yet none have ever seemed to truly capture the essence of Kirby's original. That characters should develop over time is, of course, not only inevitable, but necessary. Yet with Darkseid, the issue is less that he's been interpreted differently and more that something essential has been accidentally left behind.<br />
<br />
I've always thought this as strange as it's regrettable, and yet, I've never had the sense to try and figure out why - or indeed even if - this misinterpretation has occurred. Perhaps it's simply a question of my boyhood love for the New Gods. As a 9 year during the summer of 1972, I'd come across a copy of <i>The Forever People</i> #8 in a Portobello newsagent. It was without doubt the strangest comic I'd ever read, and a huge part of that was down to Darkseid. Brutish and courteous, sadistic and merciful, malevolent and rational, mighty and yet decisively thwarted, he was clearly a supervillain unlike any other I'd ever seen. No matter how interesting the teen-God members of the Forever People themselves were, it was Darkseid who compelled attention, drove the plot, and, eventually, resolved its conflicts. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqnzLgZk2R1-8KEdTuUtt2ZZs1K3XIrg6Kkp1yluUF4VNaor5H1ZLAXNgW_e6AqZOo9zKo4ql6aOoynKT_Tq7ZEoe3quQ6P_hdhiztNHBuYX4kHH5xY4J3m9yD44-CZY6B6p7A6KY2F_7/s1600/scan0048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqnzLgZk2R1-8KEdTuUtt2ZZs1K3XIrg6Kkp1yluUF4VNaor5H1ZLAXNgW_e6AqZOo9zKo4ql6aOoynKT_Tq7ZEoe3quQ6P_hdhiztNHBuYX4kHH5xY4J3m9yD44-CZY6B6p7A6KY2F_7/s640/scan0048.jpg" width="444" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A detail from the final page of February 1971's <i>New Gods</i> #1, inked, as is all but two of the following scans, by Vince Colletta</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
What follows is my attempt to work out the character of Kirby's Darkseid during those two wonderful years in the early 1970s, when DC Comics had handed The King four spaces in their publishing schedule and essentially trusted him to do as he pleased. (Disappointed at first by the sales figures, the company has since reaped untold riches through the exploitation of Kirby's world-building. Who knows what other Fourth World properties he might have created for the company, and what other profits DC might have secured, if only Carmine Infantino's administration had kept faith with Kirby?) In what follows, I'll discuss each of Kirby's New Gods titles from 1970 to 1985 and note, as best I can, how Darkseid was portrayed. It'll take awhile, of course, but what's a comics blog for? Future instalments will appear each Tuesday until the far-from-onerous task is done. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjzipJB850eUoSMNvHfDxbu6mr5aXJDtYgRqLtWIDzOQOOflsECrv7phTMZT5B8gLusxmh46POvaVriOZwdjBEEoSy4RZRCWnw2MVOUEht5PBX3QELEP-Khew_dZJ00uMTCKqnsFdrjbef/s1600/scan0020.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjzipJB850eUoSMNvHfDxbu6mr5aXJDtYgRqLtWIDzOQOOflsECrv7phTMZT5B8gLusxmh46POvaVriOZwdjBEEoSy4RZRCWnw2MVOUEht5PBX3QELEP-Khew_dZJ00uMTCKqnsFdrjbef/s640/scan0020.jpg" width="406" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Darkseid's first appearance, from 1971's <i>Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen</i> #134, by Jack Kirby with Vince Colletta</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>2</b></u>. <br />
<br />
It's almost 45 years since the first appearance of Jack Kirby's uber-supervillain Darkseid, who debuted in October 1970's <i>Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen</i> #134. As an opening bow, it amounted to no more than a single run of
the mill panel. Today, it's likely that the introduction of such an important character would be given a great deal more space. Yet Kirby allocated just a ninth of the page and its penultimate frame to Darkseid's initial appearance. (See above & below.) In it, Clark Kent's new boss Morgan Edge, the
fiendish "President of the Galaxy Broadcasting system", reveals that
he's far more than a souless media tycoon with a taste for hiring the
assassins of Inter-Gang. As if attempting to have Clark Kent murdered
wasn't henious enough, Kirby now revealed Edge to be the
self-proclaimed "servant" of the previously unseen and never-before-mentioned Darkseid. To everyone else,
Edge had played the role of the supremely confident entrepreneur,
revelling in power and psychotically disconnected from any trace of
conscience. But to Darkseid, Edge expressed absolute obedience. Gone was
the middle-age hipster, his speech purged of the slimy faux-intimacies
of "buddy" and "baby". Now Edge's sentences were
uncharacteristically pithy and obsequious. Whoever this grey-faced Darkseid was, his power was absolute and his rank unchallenged. A king of sorts, and almost certainly alien too, "great Darkseid" appeared supremely assured. This, Kirby was telling us, was a man, or something in the shape of a man, who was used to being unthinkingly obeyed. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KXL2SgT7wXcm1kCFArF53REWjZI9xTbyDS_DGVKxeX9tDVTGaYc-CZVX5p6KOwFIgrztxOzUbUYcsikWl3QccJyBgkJTN1ol8GDXgFsR8OgLjL58i7SP2aN14LcTzA4f6QtoFbJhjNUm/s1600/scan0055.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3KXL2SgT7wXcm1kCFArF53REWjZI9xTbyDS_DGVKxeX9tDVTGaYc-CZVX5p6KOwFIgrztxOzUbUYcsikWl3QccJyBgkJTN1ol8GDXgFsR8OgLjL58i7SP2aN14LcTzA4f6QtoFbJhjNUm/s640/scan0055.jpg" width="436" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The final page of SPJO#134, with Darkseid debut in context. I've often wondered, was Kirby purposefully underplaying Darkseid's importance? Did he run out of space? Was Darkseid's introduction in this particular issue a last minute thought? </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Yet for all of that, Darkseid's direct dealings with Edge raised some beguiling questions. Why was a ruler of such apparent might dealing directly with a business mogul such as Morgan Edge? It was, in Darkseid's very first appearance, a sign of a quality that few of those who've used the character since Kirby have ever picked up on. For the Darkseid of the original Fourth World titles was as hands-on a despot as comics have ever seen. Yes, he controlled an entire planet of Gods, and, yes, he'd created a cadre of underlinings along with armies of savage warriors in order to further his ends. But Kirby's Darkseid was also given to directly managing all manner of schemes and any number of individuals, from apparently immortal behemoths to distinctly fragile human beings. In the months to come, we'd discover that all manner of relatively minor players in his empire, from hoodlums to businessmen and scientists, were able to contact him for on-the-spot direction. Today we might suspect that Darkseid was employing AI technology to simulate his presence and control his minions. But Kirby's meaning would swiftly become clear: Darkseid was constantly and intimately involved with the activities of a huge number of his followers. He was <i>everywhere</i>.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_oDcr_4GXsv45NjnDxWOp2WrNLxUCGNadW4CizdcneaNHXnekkY7WYk_GDIIad7Vyke0E-PmOH05uW5KuIn5IHCU8PoEFQUDuc-rrAIS74HsIgiiLD6ZLYOd9_-qelFoy6JGSvtA7tTOs/s1600/scan0044.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_oDcr_4GXsv45NjnDxWOp2WrNLxUCGNadW4CizdcneaNHXnekkY7WYk_GDIIad7Vyke0E-PmOH05uW5KuIn5IHCU8PoEFQUDuc-rrAIS74HsIgiiLD6ZLYOd9_-qelFoy6JGSvtA7tTOs/s640/scan0044.jpg" width="558" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From<i> Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen</i> #135</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>3</b></u>.<br />
<br />
The following month's issue of <i>Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen</i> underscored both Darkseid's taste for micro-management and his insistence on absolute obedience. It also established that Darkseid controlled technology far in advance of Earth's, that he was bent on imposing some kind of domination upon the planet, and that he was determinedly attempting to keep his various and nefarious activities secret.<br />
<br />
In <i>The Evil Factory</i>, Kirby also introduced the alien scientists Mokkari and Simyan, who've been experimenting upon the stolen cells of a number of American citizens including Superman and Jimmy Olsen. Their intention was to develop a variety of technologies to counter the threat that Superman poses to Darkseid's designs. (Hence, for example, the 'fine spray' of 'synthesised Kryptonite' along
with a variety of "evil" genetic manipulations the two have developed.) In that, it seemed that Darkseid's preference for acting in the shadows was motivated by a fear of the last son of Krypton, although the situation would soon prove more eerily complicated. Regarding themselves as "representatives" of Darkseid's "forces on Earth", Mokkari and Simyan's sense of mission combined with their obvious Otherness to establish Darkseid as far more than just the self-proclaimed liege of the likes of Morgan Edge.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK2k1ELEjq6Su8riHElyB9z8NrH1TaIT9L0CHhDm8ms5BRkd_4V8VPrp4o3sJOIw4NxW51HjaA4jhx6qbh5wT444xk3zJETbLPA82pfaXmHDFPvhJ1Ic9ww7nMO3H24X57r7ohcbacrGT3/s1600/scan0054.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK2k1ELEjq6Su8riHElyB9z8NrH1TaIT9L0CHhDm8ms5BRkd_4V8VPrp4o3sJOIw4NxW51HjaA4jhx6qbh5wT444xk3zJETbLPA82pfaXmHDFPvhJ1Ic9ww7nMO3H24X57r7ohcbacrGT3/s640/scan0054.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From January 1974's <i>Mister Miracle</i> #18, as inked and lettered by Mike Royer. (See below.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Kirby established Darkseid's lack of trust in his underlings through a scene in which he's shown to have been secretly monitoring Mokkari and Simyan's conversation prior to their contacting him. Luckily for them, they've expressed nothing that he doesn't approve of. It's here that Kirby gives us the first sense of Darkseid's personal philosophy of power. In response to Simyan's declaration that Darkseid is "stern (but) he <i>rewards</i> his loyal and efficient servitors", the latter declares that only fools work for "mere praise". At this stage in his career, Darkseid is canny enough to know that he has to recompense his underlinings for their achievements. He is, in that as well as many other things, a distinctly pragmatic creature. So pragmatic is he, that he appears to have somehow acquired, studied and grasped the implications of Mokkari and Simyan's work even before they've fully grasped it themselves. They might not be aware that they've created "an uncontrollable organic murder machine!", but Darkseid most certainly is.<br />
<br />
Darkseid's propensity for barking out soundbites of his personal beliefs would remain. (The penultimate panel of the last Kirby-helmed issue of <i>Mister Miracle</i> would find Darkseid proclaiming that "Life at best is bittersweet!" before bursting out in laughter at his own cruel profundity.) A caring professional might imagine that he was, on some traumatised level, attempting to deny anyone or anything the authority to interpret events. By the same token, it's easy to imagine that a profoundly narcissistic Darkseid simply loved to lecture those around him. The two drives are, of course, hardly irreconcilable. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQhN-qfd6ucqHA_qNfTFepmpsOt5QjrpaNvZqjhqGr5f4NA0FyHoWMOmP8H-cb50L8g1wd0IOPf8qGsz6jh6gB6obMaxGhHLvEKju-UjiSGCHUqg2jOknKItg0ChBZGfnjLWlRdEZrz0Ob/s1600/scan0045.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="556" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQhN-qfd6ucqHA_qNfTFepmpsOt5QjrpaNvZqjhqGr5f4NA0FyHoWMOmP8H-cb50L8g1wd0IOPf8qGsz6jh6gB6obMaxGhHLvEKju-UjiSGCHUqg2jOknKItg0ChBZGfnjLWlRdEZrz0Ob/s640/scan0045.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From<i> Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen</i> #135</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>4</b></u>.<br />
<br />
It's frequently said that Kirby's inspiration for Darkseid was Adolf Hitler. That's evidently true, and yet, it's a point that's often taken far too literally in the blogosphere beyond the lairs of learned Kirby scholars. Of course, Jack Kirby's loathing for the Third Reich is matter of record. He co-created Captain America in order to express it, he fought against the Nazis in the Republic's army during the Second World War, and his art frequently returned to those years and events in the decades that followed. But in truth, there's little of Hitler himself as an individual to be seen in Darkseid. Rather, Darkseid embodies many of the lessons that can be learned not just from the self-proclaimed Fuhrer's career, but from despots of all stripes. (Of course, the same principles can be seen at work in democracies too, as Kirby had the demagogue Glorious Godfrey express in 1971's <i>Forever People</i> #3.) Unlike Hitler, Kirby's Darkseid shows not the slightest trace of any ambition beyond absolute power. Not for him, for example, the likes of senseless, despicable theories of racial conflict. Rather, as Kirby would quickly establish, Darkseid was determined to acquire the "Anti-Life Equation" and extinguish the individual consciousnesses of every living sentient creature. In that, Darkseid is Hitler's insane lust for power abstracted to the purest degree. It is, if you like, a Fascism of one. Darkseid's vision of perfect order is one in which he and only he is capable of individual thought and action. If he has to continue to motivate his servants through a fusion of fear and reward for the while, Darkseid's ideal is a reality that's devoid of anyone's voice but his own.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4KcdE4Qsi-b5kQshyphenhyphenyrQxywS0W96BcVFNddZy0AuyX24koxGOW6C5pft3MzMJfPvW3bM6AZ0p5RZnOPzN9uqzJrCpryrDr2MViosmPXk17fkxCETQR7d9APh4CE2FXIfUTc3noRWzvJnY/s1600/scan0056.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="614" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4KcdE4Qsi-b5kQshyphenhyphenyrQxywS0W96BcVFNddZy0AuyX24koxGOW6C5pft3MzMJfPvW3bM6AZ0p5RZnOPzN9uqzJrCpryrDr2MViosmPXk17fkxCETQR7d9APh4CE2FXIfUTc3noRWzvJnY/s640/scan0056.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From July 1965's Tales Of Suspense #67, by Kirby, Lee, Ray et al.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Kirby clearly didn't see Darkseid as any straight-forward representation of Hitler, who'd he previously pictured as a manic, repellent tyrant, powerful in his will, dangerous in his scheming, and yet little but pathetic and contemptible. Whether in his 1940s work with Joe Simon or that with Stan Lee in the 1960s, Kirby's comicbook take on Hitler had little in common with his depiction of Darkseid. By comparison, Darkseid rarely expresses any extreme of emotion, let alone a hysterical mania, while he poses by contrast a deeply intimidating physical presence. In short, Darkseid was highly unlikely to ever be flattened from a single blow by Captain America or frightened by the unexpected appearance of the Red Skull. If Darkseid was in any way Hitler, then he was also Stalin, Mao and any number of their despicable ilk. As such, the character's apparent omnipresence evokes the terrifying capacity of the totalitarian state to dissolve away the barriers between a public and a private existence. Wherever good folks are attempting to live free and independent lives, there's Darkseid directing his assassins, or monitoring perhaps a million conversations, or organising the theft of the noblest citizen's very D.N.A. In his brief opening bows, Darkseid functioned as autocrat and aphorism-spouting propagandist, military officer and bureaucratic overseer. He'd even soon turn up in poor Dave Lincoln's soon-to-be demolished front room, to enjoy a gloat and organise a punch-up, as occured in <i>New Gods</i> #2.<br />
<br />
None of this was an accident of Kirby's storytelling. He obviously knew very well what he intended Darkseid to represent. In <i>Forever People </i>#2, from the May of 1971, Kirby had the tyrant declare that "<i>Darkseid never</i> rests! His shadow falls <i>everywhere</i>". As such, he expresses a variety of truths about dictatorship, rather than any specific biographical details about this or that historical individual. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjbm191z-NuGnl9KHHtZHDLDFa-1GRfNGn-72j5kf74s2vwzaiNGQc3mgHsmF8vxunpOrLAxhjHnVcYjU5R3upbgtcoYutETtQeqWKTLJy1bZrosJZWNh-F0Ft_OUVnQXc5KDbvQBjdDOR/s1600/scan0053.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="574" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjbm191z-NuGnl9KHHtZHDLDFa-1GRfNGn-72j5kf74s2vwzaiNGQc3mgHsmF8vxunpOrLAxhjHnVcYjU5R3upbgtcoYutETtQeqWKTLJy1bZrosJZWNh-F0Ft_OUVnQXc5KDbvQBjdDOR/s640/scan0053.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Perhaps the most imposing take of Hitler that Kirby ever contributed to, as appeared in December 1963's <i>The Fantastic Four</i> #21, with script by Stan Lee & inks by George Bell. Yet even here, there's doubt that the figure is Hitler at all, while the character has spent the preceeding pages disguised as the Hate Monger; whether this Hitler would have been so substantial an opponent without a mask to hide behind is left open to debate.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>5</b></u>.<br />
<br />
The philosophy that Darkseid began to express in <i>Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen</i> #135 is recognisably that of a sociopathic political operator. "A<b> </b><i>great</i><b> </b>lie can <i>smash</i> truth!", Kirby has his creation declare in <i>SPJO</i> #135. In those words, Darkseid embodies the threat posed by the power-hungry as they manipulate the most dangerously irrational aspects of human psychology. Not for him the sentimental belief that "good" will inevitably overcome "evil". As Darkseid declares, "Death can <i>eclipse</i> life!". Thinking that they'll advance their own causes by serving Darkseid's ruthless ends, the likes of Mokkari and Simyan are only helping to ensure that they'll ultimately cease to exist as individuals at all.<br />
<br />
In only Darkseid's second appearance, Kirby had established the character as a fearsome tyrant who believed he'd reduced the business of governing to a science. Without even showing anything of the character bar his head and shoulders, Kirby had established Darkseid as the most intriguing and intimidating new superbook villain in years. <br />
<br />
<i>This look at Jack Kirby's Darkseid is continued<a href="http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/on-forever-people-1-when-superman.html" target="_blank"> here</a>;</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-10637648944316687452015-08-03T21:00:00.000+01:002015-08-03T21:00:21.541+01:00From Star Wars: Green Leader to Hip Hop Family Tree, Incognegro to A Day With Querstret: 15 Fine Comics Read in July 2015<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIyzj5uAr-aIuRy40Y94JVROsa0EN4bWlnb4dfsFQ3qCpGn7OE20fezE757Q5Ew98N0-PrwSd5twex7k5GvI_TwgMbjRtRN-1ElCMMB-7BkOK1GIcE3w-VFYX4p4BrHPLdFjlsiTeIcFw1/s1600/scan0037.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIyzj5uAr-aIuRy40Y94JVROsa0EN4bWlnb4dfsFQ3qCpGn7OE20fezE757Q5Ew98N0-PrwSd5twex7k5GvI_TwgMbjRtRN-1ElCMMB-7BkOK1GIcE3w-VFYX4p4BrHPLdFjlsiTeIcFw1/s640/scan0037.jpg" width="458" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido's <i>Blacksad: A Silent Hell</i>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>In
which the blogger, in the name of full disclosure, celebrates the
comics he's particularly enjoyed and appreciated over the past month.
Along the way, I've here and there added a few comments, although the
absence of such shouldn't be read as a lack of respect. I often bash out
a few notes after I've read something, in case I might want to write
about it later, although there's rarely the time to actually do so.</i><i><i> Hence, the few orphan ideas which follow.</i></i><br />
<br />
<i>As
is usual with such lists here at TooBusyThinking, there's no order of
preference in what follows; it's all good and I recommend it all.
Finally, please do feel free to add your own current favourites below;
I'm always chuffed to be pointed in the direction of the really good stuff; </i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7QYRindM0KojVixxLEq0w5H5xuXA1XChHfKqWXkBJo2ywX6J44uAg6lbGS9xiHWdwCHz3yX35GSsIGF3kz3fOGTqPk8cb6ATSC1gn7ikxNUFf-Ukz0k73eeIuGsD3bYsm4HJgw2YSFBn0/s1600/-.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7QYRindM0KojVixxLEq0w5H5xuXA1XChHfKqWXkBJo2ywX6J44uAg6lbGS9xiHWdwCHz3yX35GSsIGF3kz3fOGTqPk8cb6ATSC1gn7ikxNUFf-Ukz0k73eeIuGsD3bYsm4HJgw2YSFBn0/s640/-.png" width="446" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2015's <i>Hip Hop Family Tree Volume 3</i>, by Ed Piskor</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I'm at a loss to explain why there aren't more pop culture histories like Ed Piskor's fine <i>Hip Hop Family Tree</i>
being produced. It's such a perfect medium for a fan's
loving expertise, and yet there's so little advantage being
taken of the opportunity. Even if the focus is narrowed to just musical
movements, there's so much potential, so much to discuss, and so little
being done. Why not a sequential history of the early years of rock and
roll, or of the initially exceedingly British madness of pomp rock? Of
rave, be-bop, swing, roots reggae, grime, Brit-pop, or any one of any
number of genres? Yes, there's unlikely to be a market for such books
that can compare to the one that Piskor's so lovingly tapped. But from a
supremely selfish point of view, I do wish more folks were producing
such histories. There's good work out there, but I'd love there to be a great deal more. <br />
<br />
Even for those with little
interest in Hip Hop and the social history that's tied up with it,
Piskor's work doubles up as a joyful celebration of mass market American
comics. From the Trimpe-does-Kirby hands on the book's cover to, for
example, an appearance of J Jonah Jameson, a Liefeld homage and a lovely
appropriation of Kurtzman's "It's Melvin" cover to <i>Mad</i> #1, <i>Hip Hop Family Tree</i> radiates a fan's love of comics as well as Hip Hop. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn2tSRAfCgjXl2E_7ZTtuLBADw6m10NPXeCMKNoxrS8BUhMx73-rhXXAfL8OaEdat_AGjJL5zwJh8Bwn1drGwprPk-1bnEeyUuJFxWsLxr8U8otXh9XTCBcKAwGwR_bYy-rSIAM66JRUu0/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn2tSRAfCgjXl2E_7ZTtuLBADw6m10NPXeCMKNoxrS8BUhMx73-rhXXAfL8OaEdat_AGjJL5zwJh8Bwn1drGwprPk-1bnEeyUuJFxWsLxr8U8otXh9XTCBcKAwGwR_bYy-rSIAM66JRUu0/s640/-.JPG" width="454" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David B's <i>Black Paths,</i> as published in a English translation by <i>SelfMadeHero</i> in 2011</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
David B(eauchard)'s <i>Black Paths</i> is the most
enthralling graphic novel that I've read in a very long while. Quite why
several of its few available English language reviews are so qualified
baffles me. From where I'm sitting, it's an indisputable treasure. In
essence, it's the story of a society collapsing under the weight of PTSD
in the wake of World War One, a calamitous situation that Beauchard
represents during moments of extremity with brilliant adaptations of
futurism and dadaism. Set in the besieged, short-lived and doomed
city-state of Fiume in 1919, <i>Black Paths</i> focuses not just on the
unmitigated horrors of war, but on the catastrophic collapse of faith
which they caused. It sounds heavy going, but it's anything but. At its
heart lies the efforts of demobbed soldier Lauriano to lay the ghost of a
slaughtered old comrade while navigating an unlikely love affair with
cabaret singer Mina. Around their sweetly observed and gently tragic
story rotates a cast of gangsters of all stripes, from street-fighting
thugs to ludicrous jackbooted despots and henchmen. Of course, it
doesn't end well, but then, the moment didn't.<br />
<br />
I wish I knew more about both <i>Black Path</i>s
and the period it's discussing. I wish I knew and understood the
paintings and theorists that Beauchard has homaged. It would certainly
be good to know more about the storyteller's politics, his ambitions,
his intentions. I worry, to take but one example, about Beauchard's
depiction of Gabriele a'Annunzio. For all its contempt, is it still too
kind? Accordingly, I wish there was a smart commentary or two on <i>Black Path</i>s to fall back upon.
The lack of attention that's still paid to foreign language comics in Britain and America brings with it a disconcerting lack of context.
It's a terrific shame, because there's so much to learn about Beauchard
and his work, and yet, there's so little writing on the subject to be
found. I'd swap 99% of what's being written about comics, film and TV
programmes yet to be released for one good essay on <i>Black Path </i>and its creator. If you should know of one, or hopefully more, please do let me know.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu4pyv-i3Vo-YuibsZSzG52iS-uRpP7mPrFG7FTNKBvFwnEaHzysD4cAL6NkTUC_Gj9xj3B9m1ZeX4bDncNbEobDzM2EOB33B6hplEMecRPxYOpIfBgmJBHN65rSBwDgw7sRi6kef7Kt7n/s1600/scan0033.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu4pyv-i3Vo-YuibsZSzG52iS-uRpP7mPrFG7FTNKBvFwnEaHzysD4cAL6NkTUC_Gj9xj3B9m1ZeX4bDncNbEobDzM2EOB33B6hplEMecRPxYOpIfBgmJBHN65rSBwDgw7sRi6kef7Kt7n/s640/scan0033.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nigel Parkinson's <i>Dangerous Dan: Secret Agent</i>, from <i>The Beano </i>of 11/7/2015, which also contained Morph guest starring in <i>Dennis The Menace</i>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLU3D29ck0_FSGXsfIAi3t-IeT6FB2gX625nxd6lzW6knN8n-JMVGiQ8QMXZNtSdVtCpcOr0mPzTZSntOV9wylneHb0sW73Y1IPAU50RBbRRb9Tz17cuzIYaJFTvgktFOUweYLDQD8ZD2-/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLU3D29ck0_FSGXsfIAi3t-IeT6FB2gX625nxd6lzW6knN8n-JMVGiQ8QMXZNtSdVtCpcOr0mPzTZSntOV9wylneHb0sW73Y1IPAU50RBbRRb9Tz17cuzIYaJFTvgktFOUweYLDQD8ZD2-/s640/-.JPG" width="412" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Daniel Warren Johnson's <i>Star Wars: Green Leader</i>,
a webcomic that's even this UnFan of its source material can recognise
as a perfectly formed comics masterpiece. A heart-wrenching tale told
without a single word, it packs a huge amount of spectacle and emotion
into just eleven pages. If you've haven't read it, you can find it <a href="http://www.space-mullet.com/2015/06/05/green-leader/" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Obg0szifsBq17VVBLRtEX4awEKF-tDkz-wBH_eZwdWq1fXGIz2KXHajgxPusEWj846xsqiT6ETvccNDwOyGHp4dLpYhut-qg12uuQUgzP08h2I9sCPy5HQa7kMqJQUo3L65WxcLlTll7/s1600/scan0013.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Obg0szifsBq17VVBLRtEX4awEKF-tDkz-wBH_eZwdWq1fXGIz2KXHajgxPusEWj846xsqiT6ETvccNDwOyGHp4dLpYhut-qg12uuQUgzP08h2I9sCPy5HQa7kMqJQUo3L65WxcLlTll7/s640/scan0013.jpg" width="438" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Phenomenomix,
by Hunt Emerson & Kevin Jackson, as appears in each and every issue
of the Fortean Times, a quite essential read that you can learn more
about <a href="http://subscribe.forteantimes.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuX_qGQXr6Fvq1Qi7Zch59T7qdAH8jKPTsdxWL4csqND2oc1_02RXNDRy9PEA8CmCpRX_fMC3SuBjGbE9I1Ioq_i0QJo_GTj93JK85EVC1crg5qzFYmujovhOUxFIab9W96vF6N_7At8fn/s1600/scan0032.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuX_qGQXr6Fvq1Qi7Zch59T7qdAH8jKPTsdxWL4csqND2oc1_02RXNDRy9PEA8CmCpRX_fMC3SuBjGbE9I1Ioq_i0QJo_GTj93JK85EVC1crg5qzFYmujovhOUxFIab9W96vF6N_7At8fn/s640/scan0032.jpg" width="464" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2008's <i>Incognegro</i>, which succeeds in being both utterly terrifying and credibly inspiring, by Matt Johnson and Warren Pleece</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dZwf7tlcKKze-Ppzy3hvHrhnOfqlPElJvfmh7DWRRgWmXFonJfs_ld6GVYHOaiBLBM3HXg2J9a7TOEoTBxoUz0Ers71QmSloikju4aHxQYcsby58pS1SiSxg-UxUEatZLy8M-ZIKMPkH/s1600/scan0010.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dZwf7tlcKKze-Ppzy3hvHrhnOfqlPElJvfmh7DWRRgWmXFonJfs_ld6GVYHOaiBLBM3HXg2J9a7TOEoTBxoUz0Ers71QmSloikju4aHxQYcsby58pS1SiSxg-UxUEatZLy8M-ZIKMPkH/s640/scan0010.jpg" width="438" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2015's <i>A Day With Querstret</i>, by Elizabeth Querstret, which collects her hourly strips from 1/2/2015 & can be acquired <a href="http://www.querstret.co.uk/" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0z8O6H2nQaCZ6IXncO-2adkKONynvXt-1FH8cZ_oyPTPk-nExLFGGeu8x6P1c5Hpt8KT00UvvpSwu0zMaP3YvePtXSN3G7_kr8yIEtcUKgnQa9qLxoSYcH5cvibkFkHK4JxUFnWbrjeBQ/s1600/scan0036.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0z8O6H2nQaCZ6IXncO-2adkKONynvXt-1FH8cZ_oyPTPk-nExLFGGeu8x6P1c5Hpt8KT00UvvpSwu0zMaP3YvePtXSN3G7_kr8yIEtcUKgnQa9qLxoSYcH5cvibkFkHK4JxUFnWbrjeBQ/s640/scan0036.jpg" width="406" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2006's <i>Neil Gaiman's Mr Hero: The Newmatic Man</i>
#5, James Vance, Ted Slampyak, Art Nichols et al, which I suspect would
be alot of fun to write about. Rereading the series recently for the
first time in almost twenty years, I was pleased to find its
steampunk-lite charms entirely intact. As a considerable bonus, each of
the <i>Mr Hero's </i>first five issues contained quite wonderful <i>Technophage</i> pages with art by Bryan Talbot & Angus McKie. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnlLKtq17PeTXS4OB-HZP5yx28hMGrmNJQc7L3CU-A80aoQ2gpYAkopxpHX8mY1jwIEBIb4YOnuioKRJyA4ccVq_JQvrE-zD4VsUGfiqysfSfHpDfflq0ViMZWtMsbgDfNiQuLjXutij8q/s1600/scan0001.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnlLKtq17PeTXS4OB-HZP5yx28hMGrmNJQc7L3CU-A80aoQ2gpYAkopxpHX8mY1jwIEBIb4YOnuioKRJyA4ccVq_JQvrE-zD4VsUGfiqysfSfHpDfflq0ViMZWtMsbgDfNiQuLjXutij8q/s640/scan0001.jpg" width="446" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A pleasure to see Robert Deas' <i>Troy Trailblazer </i>returning in the pages of<i> The Phoenix</i> #187</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixr9Y548ZSYqov6Htd8h6N2FNNvNOv4o8-lwiJC8IEocBmm_fEn7PP0ERiXG_XiZydhQMyVGISWxkNh6lWOsfhHG2T752lTdUk4rfNUnIdwprAJAmqBvc53zWUye_3s64C6E4encpiUY-T/s1600/scan0014.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixr9Y548ZSYqov6Htd8h6N2FNNvNOv4o8-lwiJC8IEocBmm_fEn7PP0ERiXG_XiZydhQMyVGISWxkNh6lWOsfhHG2T752lTdUk4rfNUnIdwprAJAmqBvc53zWUye_3s64C6E4encpiUY-T/s640/scan0014.jpg" width="406" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2015's unsettling<i> And Then Emily Was Gone</i> #1, by John Lees, Ian Laurie, Megan Wilson & Colin Bell, which you can find <a href="http://www.comixtribe.com/comics/and-then-emily-was-gone/" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPjC3jacTQTZTC7KGljTZaUcOS0MKF77fgiJw0Nen_Ewy5wnuvm97wQcrnBH62s7sMbIdeu3p2wh50W8sPRlI0teaWMQKeK7KNYeAGnQE5SSzvvv1Yeh1pV1DAXrk-eMq6tCsytVv42ojJ/s1600/scan0016.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPjC3jacTQTZTC7KGljTZaUcOS0MKF77fgiJw0Nen_Ewy5wnuvm97wQcrnBH62s7sMbIdeu3p2wh50W8sPRlI0teaWMQKeK7KNYeAGnQE5SSzvvv1Yeh1pV1DAXrk-eMq6tCsytVv42ojJ/s640/scan0016.jpg" width="594" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jim Medway's <i>Ring Ring</i>, from 2008's <i>Teach Your Granny To Text & Other Ways To Change The World</i>, produced by Nick Stanhope.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I loved Jim Medway's 2012 graphic novel <i>Playing Out</i> and heartily lauded it in <i>Q</i>
when I writing for the magazine. So it was a joy to stumble up two
Medway strips with cat-faced casts in a book from 2008 that my wife had
bought to use at school. I can't imagine that I'd ever have otherwise
come across the short tales. Finding them carried all the pleasure of
chancing upon a previously-unknown single by a much loved band. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcJWaMFfg1vHrsnOHr6aUjwOtwkLCjaZPugB_8IsTE9zNtI7l3t0_1RQER7KVnGTklP14arFtd6_qOa-CMTW9hllBOCxyKrGCoBhGVlbZaBISCCfB2sgsoCeVYisCKLNizH2Pz5BKMbTmh/s1600/scan0008.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcJWaMFfg1vHrsnOHr6aUjwOtwkLCjaZPugB_8IsTE9zNtI7l3t0_1RQER7KVnGTklP14arFtd6_qOa-CMTW9hllBOCxyKrGCoBhGVlbZaBISCCfB2sgsoCeVYisCKLNizH2Pz5BKMbTmh/s640/scan0008.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2013's <i>The Movement</i> #7, by Gail Simone, Freddie Williams II et al, the two collections of which I've recently been enjoying.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjay8vGu-gWCCCj6BXDS-0urZQigDkl7MUs9qbkg8TWXZMdulUEqgZqqmZBqhAHeDeSD0xfLVkiKtoM8Nxpj43b3tn8R4hXVnKdyJarEK0KfzgUr1U53vT6L2mlxUdaH_BL8R-kS2PWvpzy/s1600/scan0009.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjay8vGu-gWCCCj6BXDS-0urZQigDkl7MUs9qbkg8TWXZMdulUEqgZqqmZBqhAHeDeSD0xfLVkiKtoM8Nxpj43b3tn8R4hXVnKdyJarEK0KfzgUr1U53vT6L2mlxUdaH_BL8R-kS2PWvpzy/s640/scan0009.jpg" width="444" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2012's <i>Where's North From Here?</i>, a collection of strips by David Ziggy Jones that can be acquired <a href="http://www.samu.co.uk/shop.html" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAeOpuOWiddYWV-BNWAB_jkzAD6J3IiLT9eUalR9HK94-D6Au3gdSTAxGoUbPoHkaG7K73ExNOQYRmIwp8YpCRXhqMF1Tt6vk2QDtdpTNzuNQRnBc7i9Pba6CHDUK25VB4YUYWbPvA0bV3/s1600/scan0018.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAeOpuOWiddYWV-BNWAB_jkzAD6J3IiLT9eUalR9HK94-D6Au3gdSTAxGoUbPoHkaG7K73ExNOQYRmIwp8YpCRXhqMF1Tt6vk2QDtdpTNzuNQRnBc7i9Pba6CHDUK25VB4YUYWbPvA0bV3/s640/scan0018.jpg" width="410" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of John Kenney's illustrations in 1956's Ladybird Book <i>William The Conqueror.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I made no distinction between comics and Ladybird
Books when I was a nipper. After all, the Ladybird format of a page of
writing followed by a side of art was redolent of the weekly
comic/educational primer <i>Look And Learn</i>, which contained the Sci-Fi/Fantasy strip <i>The Trigan Empire</i>. If <i>Look And Learn</i>
was, for all its blocks of text, a comic, then Ladybird Books were
something obviously similar. Recently finding an eminently affordable copy of <i>William The Conqueror</i>,
as written by the wonderfully named L. Du
Garde Peach, brought me face to faceagain with the above page by John Kenney,
which entranced me as a child and beguiles me now. No matter what
Peach's text said, Kenney's William, here smugly unbowed before a snow
storm that's anything but ignorable to his trudging men, always seemed a
villain to me.<br />
<br />
<i>There's a pile of recent 2000ADs still to be read, August's Viz, and a few superhero titles too; I'm certainly looking forward to the Batgirl Annual & the second issue of E Is For Extinction.What's above isn't meant as a summary of everything's that good, but rather, just a momento of good things that I've happened to bump into. </i><br />
<br />
<i>TooBusyThinking will return tomorrow.</i> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-2257394972754567352015-08-02T15:00:00.001+01:002015-08-02T15:00:43.832+01:0050 Great Comics Panels<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh42abckfBvcc4_At1qdyC7DXon8MFmpSzOKbiLziRtai2VxtwsPWKWj-GHAAdd7s4Km2C2BEeTJX0SJw69-8u4mGU2J20igewEmm5h48EqrZvUxEZayTLAu31jOvmDTD6ei0jaBpcfb-lR/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh42abckfBvcc4_At1qdyC7DXon8MFmpSzOKbiLziRtai2VxtwsPWKWj-GHAAdd7s4Km2C2BEeTJX0SJw69-8u4mGU2J20igewEmm5h48EqrZvUxEZayTLAu31jOvmDTD6ei0jaBpcfb-lR/s640/-.JPG" width="530" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2014′s <i>Young Avengers Omnibus</i>, by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie et al (Comics panel for the day no 25)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>TooBusyThinking</i> has a sister Tumblr, which you might, if you were so inclined, find <i><a href="http://colsmi.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">here</a></i>. I post there on a daily basis, while leaving the longer pieces for here. One of the Tumblr's regular features is <i>Comics Panel Of The Day</i>,
the last 50 examples of which I've posted below. I can't say I've any
good reason to do so, beyond the fact that I was curious to see how
they'd all look together. Yet, perhaps what follows might fill a minute
or two of dead time for you with 50 examples of interesting, single-frame
storytelling. If so, then I'd readily consider that a good excuse for an
otherwise entirely navel-gazing indulgence. The panel from <i>Uncanny X-Men</i>
#141 that's immediately below is the most recently-posted panel on the
Tumblr, and the sequence then works backwards in order of appearance to
the 32nd of the series. There's no logic to the choices beyond the
matter of what caught my eye on any particular day. Some I love more
than others. Some are admittedly less enticing than the majority of their fellows. (Of them all, I
probably find the frames from <i>Jupiter's Circle</i> #5 and <i>The Nao Of Brown </i>the most beguiling.) But hopefully, they've all something to recommend them.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZzVxUK5_GE_DdHg0_Bfew5lXNjV1TkchPiGqElGczyfjt5nK8oxljx3kfMRegGgLRQ0sWzycKoDAbetJDVLZnilSe4kQs1_dp1htAtScMNmftWkq3EqEJqgW_WeBF6CKLGYuI9fQmH0hD/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZzVxUK5_GE_DdHg0_Bfew5lXNjV1TkchPiGqElGczyfjt5nK8oxljx3kfMRegGgLRQ0sWzycKoDAbetJDVLZnilSe4kQs1_dp1htAtScMNmftWkq3EqEJqgW_WeBF6CKLGYuI9fQmH0hD/s640/-.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1981′s <i>The Uncanny X-Men </i>#141, by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Terry Austin, Tom Orzechowski, Glynis Wein et al.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Y61U-j6Wj4G8zfNbG_ChUItxTqYfb-i-pJxhvIFS4Igo3UkNLtixgqyCVl6UkIhOSa90zgxHbpwMqmTcVYkBsS5SINRkNrrUba4NoNZfFGPKHHcx8IMAhYBESFnafGX_NLvUQDRA9kxc/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="622" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Y61U-j6Wj4G8zfNbG_ChUItxTqYfb-i-pJxhvIFS4Igo3UkNLtixgqyCVl6UkIhOSa90zgxHbpwMqmTcVYkBsS5SINRkNrrUba4NoNZfFGPKHHcx8IMAhYBESFnafGX_NLvUQDRA9kxc/s640/-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>Chicago ‘68</i> by Spain, as reprinted in 1990′s <i>The Best Comics Of The Decade Volume 1</i>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2568GjaZJsnRNo7zHc1xssnds33mXWQK4CcjwIHF-GfE_MRYRprxcSjGeSkVJTfQ9fH0fteF7dlqt8VeziPT6ScPT8bUIhN4fFD9vQPy_0qc7XmGCyuGqi90ZYSaiiIYR_fds-oldRjkJ/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2568GjaZJsnRNo7zHc1xssnds33mXWQK4CcjwIHF-GfE_MRYRprxcSjGeSkVJTfQ9fH0fteF7dlqt8VeziPT6ScPT8bUIhN4fFD9vQPy_0qc7XmGCyuGqi90ZYSaiiIYR_fds-oldRjkJ/s640/-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>Belle Of The Ballet</i>, by George Beardmore & Stanley Houghton, as reprinted in 1961′s <i>Girl Annual</i>..</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD9ejzIJ8WruFsT9iB7w__qkbyRuMfFZ-bqaKT9bRA507xXZq1ys436at6ZWUGp2UMl9sO9kdWnbMeIp2TLXSMYFI9nCEs1PT3XU8P0jyzR3u1phhg_BYgPRuXKeVSHrUGhXNB8nzOiFGh/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD9ejzIJ8WruFsT9iB7w__qkbyRuMfFZ-bqaKT9bRA507xXZq1ys436at6ZWUGp2UMl9sO9kdWnbMeIp2TLXSMYFI9nCEs1PT3XU8P0jyzR3u1phhg_BYgPRuXKeVSHrUGhXNB8nzOiFGh/s640/-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>The Incal</i>, by Jodorowsky & Moebius, as reprinted in 2011 by SelfMadeHero.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij_dEERjRyh7VdqNQwyJSJe-XD-1daG6BqneOhV9Jix848SdV4zboi-_PQJFvbY3NXcpcQZLKCIWPUDEiYLqKSmXgt-05EQleH2YwdXIStGwZjk_I9KAGgiv-ZoP8MmiyjT_eT7NxV-T8R/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij_dEERjRyh7VdqNQwyJSJe-XD-1daG6BqneOhV9Jix848SdV4zboi-_PQJFvbY3NXcpcQZLKCIWPUDEiYLqKSmXgt-05EQleH2YwdXIStGwZjk_I9KAGgiv-ZoP8MmiyjT_eT7NxV-T8R/s640/-.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1951′s <i>Devils In Baggy Pants!</i>, by Harvey Kurtzman & Wally Wood<i><br /></i>in <i>Two-Fisted Tales</i> #20.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3u77praSsjl5gJW9qt2FmrgZ-F531Q1Y_CETeQG1_aMIkeb0SdbKAWbQ91S7SUQ0oFvYiNFziHtbvAI7fswFMEXQ8LGiurWhUeO-1cqpeodUQKHSUPv7SrDDWhZrkiHQz1tdtFY_Lemr6/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3u77praSsjl5gJW9qt2FmrgZ-F531Q1Y_CETeQG1_aMIkeb0SdbKAWbQ91S7SUQ0oFvYiNFziHtbvAI7fswFMEXQ8LGiurWhUeO-1cqpeodUQKHSUPv7SrDDWhZrkiHQz1tdtFY_Lemr6/s640/-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1999′s <i>Hellboy Jr</i> #2, by Mike Mignola with Dave Stewart<i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHiIHJQxpjOBYblH56Sa6CANzqcmmnx2kS45xYo7H6rrcp97gUq5ev-UwdnEumxWtfN_mnr-qJbXAgG2v0lf0IXaCF3frw-UwXrBeuh4vFhYXt0bzDgrXPqkN_EBDt1I3_NEPU128UnMlG/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHiIHJQxpjOBYblH56Sa6CANzqcmmnx2kS45xYo7H6rrcp97gUq5ev-UwdnEumxWtfN_mnr-qJbXAgG2v0lf0IXaCF3frw-UwXrBeuh4vFhYXt0bzDgrXPqkN_EBDt1I3_NEPU128UnMlG/s640/-.JPG" width="375" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From autumn 1966′s<i> Thunderbirds: Destination Sun </i>by
Frank Bellamy & Alan Fennell, as originally printed in <i>TV21</i> 83-98 & reprinted in 2010′s <i>Century 21: Volume 4 Above And Beyond</i>. </td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_rqXViGTSgw6mMNIkf9uX-gtu9PZPAhtSdOBKxfR94KuLRsTTXsADFjz-Yle-rJJ-3dHYp-Xcd4CodxaI72dnYrTNn8X-aztpCJSptz5Ipxj2meC06NfEigtwswgzaY-OUK_5YznxAJly/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_rqXViGTSgw6mMNIkf9uX-gtu9PZPAhtSdOBKxfR94KuLRsTTXsADFjz-Yle-rJJ-3dHYp-Xcd4CodxaI72dnYrTNn8X-aztpCJSptz5Ipxj2meC06NfEigtwswgzaY-OUK_5YznxAJly/s640/-1.jpg" width="546" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From October 1968′<i>s The X-Men #49, </i>by Werner Roth & Arnold
Drake et al; the newly-born Hank McCoy announces his strength, if not
his temperament, to his unsuspecting father. .</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXDkZrj8r04ih4N3tqMqacpQMzkTeYQKz1FDmhTiDrGMmdQq1Wf6UQBVhJs9XfGOLjr8wDFsEHatGl01cgTdOkO6TdwXRQiJFYm0hVlifPRZRO9CP489hwjlZ3uFX8q75HHx4XfhMyse8O/s1600/-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXDkZrj8r04ih4N3tqMqacpQMzkTeYQKz1FDmhTiDrGMmdQq1Wf6UQBVhJs9XfGOLjr8wDFsEHatGl01cgTdOkO6TdwXRQiJFYm0hVlifPRZRO9CP489hwjlZ3uFX8q75HHx4XfhMyse8O/s640/-2.jpg" width="510" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 31/8/1952’s <i>Outer Space: The Last Man On The Planet Moon, </i>by Jules Feiffer & Wally Wood et al, as reprinted in 2008′s <i>Will Eisner’s The Spirit Archives </i>#24.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB_ynjMc44_glsu9TCuOA2UlCnGqRQVOH_XFkyzGqtByLrl2MPb2NjHrCFp1AsMa94mGDEWFeE6kLjT9P_Fpv8rLlZIa0Lf1l6aTq7oSrD78vDwvFlrd_5Vs9wgZgOVuPcqXcPwSZX54Qr/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB_ynjMc44_glsu9TCuOA2UlCnGqRQVOH_XFkyzGqtByLrl2MPb2NjHrCFp1AsMa94mGDEWFeE6kLjT9P_Fpv8rLlZIa0Lf1l6aTq7oSrD78vDwvFlrd_5Vs9wgZgOVuPcqXcPwSZX54Qr/s640/-.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Herge’s <i>Tintin In Tibet</i>, as published in the English language translation of 1962.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE-MeyrIbJMGaLkIwKVguprHs0NJVdcQNXbCOYgEZKF06Yp0DjVbuab8X0PA3W0NmlVtBiy7ak9KmRCRGkDgiTJBYy_y-eGCKL6ne14gP-kvHNrkWV7aL2dkgJYwqc-22zqx4wm9JrjxZw/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE-MeyrIbJMGaLkIwKVguprHs0NJVdcQNXbCOYgEZKF06Yp0DjVbuab8X0PA3W0NmlVtBiy7ak9KmRCRGkDgiTJBYy_y-eGCKL6ne14gP-kvHNrkWV7aL2dkgJYwqc-22zqx4wm9JrjxZw/s640/-.JPG" width="522" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the untitled Doctor Fate feature in 1941′s <i>More Fun Comics #68</i>, by Gardner Fox, Howard Sherman et al. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4RlNiBe_5Pin1GsDTuKdxSEwvwCSfzPAiwFvYjD8ydkbNwL74T6J3O8QzsczCZYUZwHEqgNX3VvkxvjpedV9uW3zPzYdEy5viun32nVFiHy2rkwnNn_Sceww-KO4nFW-TUC9_LVPzvNlu/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4RlNiBe_5Pin1GsDTuKdxSEwvwCSfzPAiwFvYjD8ydkbNwL74T6J3O8QzsczCZYUZwHEqgNX3VvkxvjpedV9uW3zPzYdEy5viun32nVFiHy2rkwnNn_Sceww-KO4nFW-TUC9_LVPzvNlu/s640/-.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2012′s <i>Blacksad: A SIlent Hell</i>, by Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido<i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfMqNcvskyVIn_Z5PBj88KtBiK5NkGBv8rQ9MUjd-hjz8Up67dK3PoAMH6C9jEIBhp8tZhuVneTw6uZ9IrYORyVX0SNY3iyGLrMlQI0ZQYjW52x_Btz4qFcNsuaSA-KXxfpcS7wNpB8JYx/s1600/-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfMqNcvskyVIn_Z5PBj88KtBiK5NkGBv8rQ9MUjd-hjz8Up67dK3PoAMH6C9jEIBhp8tZhuVneTw6uZ9IrYORyVX0SNY3iyGLrMlQI0ZQYjW52x_Btz4qFcNsuaSA-KXxfpcS7wNpB8JYx/s640/-2.jpg" width="409" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2014′s <i>The Movement</i> #11, by Gail Simone, Freddie Williams II, Chris Sotomayor et al<i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKr0NTolc66B2xRfrFdG0pAJeKalP7BkRUzQlaIhHv87EGW9GbsFRqNf8NE6EQc5ygY0TNyQiyvqWRq_-UoL-0c1NLoKUQYEYah_nzy9QYdRAb2s8apUlnpVKa-bVSa9rP-5da8OoEcUD0/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKr0NTolc66B2xRfrFdG0pAJeKalP7BkRUzQlaIhHv87EGW9GbsFRqNf8NE6EQc5ygY0TNyQiyvqWRq_-UoL-0c1NLoKUQYEYah_nzy9QYdRAb2s8apUlnpVKa-bVSa9rP-5da8OoEcUD0/s640/-1.jpg" width="536" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1987′s <i>Espers</i> #5, by James D. Hudnall, John M Burns et al<i>.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4g85fRdGB0srEunPZWfB-zjdctpr9_6DyTp8RcIdx4W1HfmhKPD0woujxjifAwsD3C8sE86gbdkseJb65EJZOLzkXGgGye-JOJwh-WQUp1kYxpK1e8lyV45-4eoc-Bj5oNo5JvUEspMlg/s1600/-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4g85fRdGB0srEunPZWfB-zjdctpr9_6DyTp8RcIdx4W1HfmhKPD0woujxjifAwsD3C8sE86gbdkseJb65EJZOLzkXGgGye-JOJwh-WQUp1kYxpK1e8lyV45-4eoc-Bj5oNo5JvUEspMlg/s640/-2.jpg" width="413" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1995′s <i>Neil Gaiman’s Teknophage</i> #5, by Rick Vietch, Bryan Talbot, Angus McKie et al<i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipsIN_cHv4rGY9_ohAX9Lno7iume4x1UcuD1C5l_fGjYO5FLbGs636lrdyoZ4MLz4fHokfDRGMrc6o4JCyTYjCTIKlNEcBuWpc1vj8KPV-n0ZbZed6TxZE3pOgw0ze8J14DmJHJgc-SagM/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="632" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipsIN_cHv4rGY9_ohAX9Lno7iume4x1UcuD1C5l_fGjYO5FLbGs636lrdyoZ4MLz4fHokfDRGMrc6o4JCyTYjCTIKlNEcBuWpc1vj8KPV-n0ZbZed6TxZE3pOgw0ze8J14DmJHJgc-SagM/s640/-.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1974′s<i> Kamandi The Last Boy On Earth! </i>#23, by Jack Kirby & D. Bruce Berry<i> </i>et al.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK1JMG8W-zPHDsLSFtCy0p5YDzMI3p06h1pdXkjvR5wYA_Mif0_4eTi6EW5xDVKNhyphenhyphen1k_e3a8us1rW7uftn59EVgX3_f3vKFnbOTTERaEu83jSFXqaC3KSHNcfNDO8wU9WsjVH51d7B0l4/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK1JMG8W-zPHDsLSFtCy0p5YDzMI3p06h1pdXkjvR5wYA_Mif0_4eTi6EW5xDVKNhyphenhyphen1k_e3a8us1rW7uftn59EVgX3_f3vKFnbOTTERaEu83jSFXqaC3KSHNcfNDO8wU9WsjVH51d7B0l4/s640/-.JPG" width="612" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>This Land…This Terror</i>, by Colin Barr & Dom Regan et al, from <i>The Freedom Collective TPB</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgszlUkJtdipREhCALWygl-SlwZKIinjwdu6R97HyuD0bhCsLYGCDIE9nO0njHMmt1-e7Usu9uY7gPMvX0djfSpkjoNY1iBkJfXQ479fbQhap9FmW-8Uu55LfHV2NcXrUXjyd35Wb0WBkfN/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgszlUkJtdipREhCALWygl-SlwZKIinjwdu6R97HyuD0bhCsLYGCDIE9nO0njHMmt1-e7Usu9uY7gPMvX0djfSpkjoNY1iBkJfXQ479fbQhap9FmW-8Uu55LfHV2NcXrUXjyd35Wb0WBkfN/s640/-1.jpg" width="604" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2012′s<i> The Nao Of Brown</i>, by Glyn Dillon</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe0Tmzb_cznmRMq-2J1ZHu23OEWHVXFV91wQQYIjfLppD6BMkiqymaTlz3sZITT89BGZ6o3bjOQXgYAWkgggX3arh8MZ3JEPKiLzHoa-ELKHB-_3aQ8KqVAQtYGKJ4OanF4gX7IzraYZRA/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe0Tmzb_cznmRMq-2J1ZHu23OEWHVXFV91wQQYIjfLppD6BMkiqymaTlz3sZITT89BGZ6o3bjOQXgYAWkgggX3arh8MZ3JEPKiLzHoa-ELKHB-_3aQ8KqVAQtYGKJ4OanF4gX7IzraYZRA/s640/-.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2013′s <i>Batman ‘66 #1</i>, by Jeff Parker, Jonathan Case, Wes Abbott et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdijuW9RR500SH3W9YE0vrG0Z6c1lH9x9p9_GDu6KMKUJ2Thpni_TGJQgMl_Vk0Dv0YD14qLIeE2iNYqkTxlSHHSGmfH3DwxjPjK8k7ZsFKDBp9Dp8NyOpKF_ahcRdBEXGZ6aX_vhCR-C/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdijuW9RR500SH3W9YE0vrG0Z6c1lH9x9p9_GDu6KMKUJ2Thpni_TGJQgMl_Vk0Dv0YD14qLIeE2iNYqkTxlSHHSGmfH3DwxjPjK8k7ZsFKDBp9Dp8NyOpKF_ahcRdBEXGZ6aX_vhCR-C/s640/-.JPG" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1994′s <i>Sandman Mystery Theatre #18</i>, by Matt Wagner, Steven T. Seagle, Guy Davis et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqPCED5FEQ5JGN2AjZ2KbkuOomEgRpr8pXpK1faLlPXfXyJ793rX3Oir4xza0HE6btQ7CqkJwlHH2X5pgfRGgt_NSMzR8Q8tU1npRHt-Pf3e7i6EpI5XnZt9NhpACELbRiW3fteyWGlsd/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqPCED5FEQ5JGN2AjZ2KbkuOomEgRpr8pXpK1faLlPXfXyJ793rX3Oir4xza0HE6btQ7CqkJwlHH2X5pgfRGgt_NSMzR8Q8tU1npRHt-Pf3e7i6EpI5XnZt9NhpACELbRiW3fteyWGlsd/s640/-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>Justice Society Of America: For America And Democracy</i>, in 1941′s <i>All Star Comics</i> #4, by Gardner Fox & Everett E. Hibbard.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLdwgz6e3XkPQsyYfQkJqOSvyMpPgBI9YXNdJe8guoflVM5TTTFtJfl1_Z2s9qWR9clvms77iKMLChHA54k__LzmCuWpsx6MjeKg7xMVCmZAqVvEaRNG2AUNO_1AlTCiFW9-Dy5q2adE5v/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLdwgz6e3XkPQsyYfQkJqOSvyMpPgBI9YXNdJe8guoflVM5TTTFtJfl1_Z2s9qWR9clvms77iKMLChHA54k__LzmCuWpsx6MjeKg7xMVCmZAqVvEaRNG2AUNO_1AlTCiFW9-Dy5q2adE5v/s640/-.JPG" width="449" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2010′s <i>Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure</i>, by Hoshino Yukinobu</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUZ2KBWDpWCdj_mSfK9KDoOTgwShGC88iSm4l_V29ZXo6WdNOwyUKwlQwycB3lv7KbtIjQehOgQVhPq3_9_qSCT26TEAt7whb2izn-RoTGPy_2OMi10NDmUMrdjEijYFkw1V6WQnScivmd/s1600/-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUZ2KBWDpWCdj_mSfK9KDoOTgwShGC88iSm4l_V29ZXo6WdNOwyUKwlQwycB3lv7KbtIjQehOgQVhPq3_9_qSCT26TEAt7whb2izn-RoTGPy_2OMi10NDmUMrdjEijYFkw1V6WQnScivmd/s640/-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2015′s <i>Archie #1</i>, by Mark Waid, Fiona Staples, Andre Szymanowicz et al</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY2-w9Rsj54m_uepjXhSDb6UP8_gKf0TZiy2GGiV6CXUX-exWOw19BnPtIwYm8AsR8IO6BL1ZbHHZ5kD4wstvLQ-SsYZkzlzhXfr3zA5Ws84rmMs_47MiFzttcMhja8nkEwOt_B26nWdEL/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY2-w9Rsj54m_uepjXhSDb6UP8_gKf0TZiy2GGiV6CXUX-exWOw19BnPtIwYm8AsR8IO6BL1ZbHHZ5kD4wstvLQ-SsYZkzlzhXfr3zA5Ws84rmMs_47MiFzttcMhja8nkEwOt_B26nWdEL/s640/-.JPG" width="540" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A slight crop of a panel from 2015′s <i>Jupiter’s Circle #3</i>, by Mark Millar, Wilfredo Torres, Ive Svorcina et al</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb9yA0xUYhIk0IuHMWuGL34Etz3MPgePhMohHjWxyRJqv1CCdS7eUt4ev3uXfI9Rvo28_ei_P4GXhaqneDt6OtxnE1aCMTsZ_EjzX05scToj5qm_Fb9vVUVZ3UQoUfkEMZOanirFRGPu-O/s1600/-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb9yA0xUYhIk0IuHMWuGL34Etz3MPgePhMohHjWxyRJqv1CCdS7eUt4ev3uXfI9Rvo28_ei_P4GXhaqneDt6OtxnE1aCMTsZ_EjzX05scToj5qm_Fb9vVUVZ3UQoUfkEMZOanirFRGPu-O/s640/-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>Batman: The Joker’s Happy Victims</i>,a mini-comic that was given away with Kellogg’s <i>Pop-Tarts</i> in the mid-60s. Produced by E. Nelson Bridwell, Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson et at, it was reprinted in 1975′s <i>The Amazing World Of DC Comics</i> #8.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupKANltHjCpwtC9N4R-YK8j0Ldqw7xfws52Z0J8znOzpo6dIIBOqKoEDfs-F1FptlMM7xR7nicDa08JipnMtFQm6Odqrl39bDV2MeQxJ-seMxk7qr7z3dE0k98e5v5dTLpEZDXETPO1w9/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupKANltHjCpwtC9N4R-YK8j0Ldqw7xfws52Z0J8znOzpo6dIIBOqKoEDfs-F1FptlMM7xR7nicDa08JipnMtFQm6Odqrl39bDV2MeQxJ-seMxk7qr7z3dE0k98e5v5dTLpEZDXETPO1w9/s640/-.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1976′s<i> Valerian & Laureline: The City Of Shifting Waters</i><i>, </i>by Jean-Claude Mézières & Pierre Christin, as reprinted by Cinebook Ltd in 2010.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHwE1oAZKwMojmWIr6T2q0vuz4LGeYSWDTZEs5NyQLibQ701yWvkNHvibundq581NChpirvE3BDrRNiGh9It5cENPvTC-4SBNadwbZdAxU1MiXZh_ZhFFmQL-KX40DDwM4GXXUWfh7gpB-/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHwE1oAZKwMojmWIr6T2q0vuz4LGeYSWDTZEs5NyQLibQ701yWvkNHvibundq581NChpirvE3BDrRNiGh9It5cENPvTC-4SBNadwbZdAxU1MiXZh_ZhFFmQL-KX40DDwM4GXXUWfh7gpB-/s640/-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1986′s<i> You Are Torquemada</i><i>, </i>by Pat Mills & Bryan Talbot, from <i>2000AD’s Dice-Man #3.</i><i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQXR0BKV_U3CWFT4xUAfWAkWgvU2PY7QqZU2jOUfw1YvNvzfKCmb_60wc2N1sP_F8MgLAVhLgZgK3Qh9nJbgL3lRtTgvxs3Wm72iOqXh3InXE_BOHh0HWUydS0BAw_rCnKEzDOMdjXdfva/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQXR0BKV_U3CWFT4xUAfWAkWgvU2PY7QqZU2jOUfw1YvNvzfKCmb_60wc2N1sP_F8MgLAVhLgZgK3Qh9nJbgL3lRtTgvxs3Wm72iOqXh3InXE_BOHh0HWUydS0BAw_rCnKEzDOMdjXdfva/s1600/-.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1968′s<i> The Avngers King-Size Special #2</i><i>, </i>by Roy
Thomas, Don Heck, Werner Roth, Vince Colleta et al. (I find the absence
of any fishing gear on or around those ‘late-night Bay fishermen’ to be
.. somewhat suspicious.).<i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBvlm3msjNQ4k9KLpGVosB6VCnWUdY0_Skb5TjOA2wsNyiNOYy_hcFBmWS8jD5MJecEGz7IU3djhtpQ9e3XCG_NJrokvCp6-7abaV913jn6JmJrhd7yTbDygWBxLrY5Z8lzhIhfW2-p0N-/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBvlm3msjNQ4k9KLpGVosB6VCnWUdY0_Skb5TjOA2wsNyiNOYy_hcFBmWS8jD5MJecEGz7IU3djhtpQ9e3XCG_NJrokvCp6-7abaV913jn6JmJrhd7yTbDygWBxLrY5Z8lzhIhfW2-p0N-/s640/-.JPG" width="558" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2014′s<i> Ordinary #3</i><i>, </i>by Rob Williams<i> </i>& D’Israeli.<i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUH1t134ozn9HAyVrB-vGVmXnWC9V3h7Zxf7jjkMXgYkezCKEGYBx6PJ_SjSkGE8RdvCnor3LJnuh6SevAEN6s-6SfsO4YsCtC2_lbUKNczNKftMmw6pGOJR_nx_uN3LkXcwsQsT8yQjt/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUH1t134ozn9HAyVrB-vGVmXnWC9V3h7Zxf7jjkMXgYkezCKEGYBx6PJ_SjSkGE8RdvCnor3LJnuh6SevAEN6s-6SfsO4YsCtC2_lbUKNczNKftMmw6pGOJR_nx_uN3LkXcwsQsT8yQjt/s640/-1.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1992′s<i> Justice Society Of America #5</i><i>, </i>by Len Strazewski, Mike Parobeck, Mike Machlan et al<i>.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyGJweuvB72oiToy5kGqABx-AT_5WAS_P2bzMBrvBX1waqaFp0azExn9fkTVfGZyhEjNQhw9jfmOFfBibdJLYv3Ynht6IpcMmOTqD-XDXclLXYjl2P35bCg5wVZFSTy9AgGUvzkfK6aXPz/s1600/-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyGJweuvB72oiToy5kGqABx-AT_5WAS_P2bzMBrvBX1waqaFp0azExn9fkTVfGZyhEjNQhw9jfmOFfBibdJLYv3Ynht6IpcMmOTqD-XDXclLXYjl2P35bCg5wVZFSTy9AgGUvzkfK6aXPz/s640/-2.jpg" width="410" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2013′s<i> Hawkeye #13</i><i>, </i>by Matt Fraction, David Aja, Matt Hollingsworth, Chris Eliopoulos et al<i>.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhgLmJGWOIgK8nT-SakYeQjYNBmaVeX5H2_zRkF6ufLX_HroBqj9lIu6EgonUdVi-jbHCgzM620HByjBbuNziW1bnR-ptpTBvAA0OpTm2NVtEpt-3d7ilUFpXrA6NL0XW3xR1xFFkkMPzl/s1600/-4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhgLmJGWOIgK8nT-SakYeQjYNBmaVeX5H2_zRkF6ufLX_HroBqj9lIu6EgonUdVi-jbHCgzM620HByjBbuNziW1bnR-ptpTBvAA0OpTm2NVtEpt-3d7ilUFpXrA6NL0XW3xR1xFFkkMPzl/s640/-4.jpg" width="428" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2013′s<i> Dungeon Fun #2</i><i>, </i>by Colin Bell & Neil Slorance</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR4jkbPZYH8MQRZ6yCT_QEun-3b9NOxUNaljyn0ciHQbpgkuKYdnV9jZL3ESkpHhQz51sU6crAQlQ_wmFHRF-VmCquhTsZQKN2yRlYUjilUfkqf1EYkFDBwI_P63kxGFS1IhgjGpZgFvgb/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR4jkbPZYH8MQRZ6yCT_QEun-3b9NOxUNaljyn0ciHQbpgkuKYdnV9jZL3ESkpHhQz51sU6crAQlQ_wmFHRF-VmCquhTsZQKN2yRlYUjilUfkqf1EYkFDBwI_P63kxGFS1IhgjGpZgFvgb/s640/-.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1983/4′s<i> Doomlord</i><i>, </i>by Alan Grant, John Wagner & Heinzel, as originally appeared in the relaunched <i>The Eagle</i> & collected in Hibernia’s <i>Doomlord</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirS-wFTv1uRh8BBnsJ3eHLKoK15NHvIbt9M1QehJMpAVjCcnQxXEK8KNwLPCujWHMBEV2iYwyPeAbXZ2Q9LNqXUKyZdurFawKwzMyPoDEwZazyzFZ2iGR2kxJY_8LUJAkZFl-bxCsyFZBW/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirS-wFTv1uRh8BBnsJ3eHLKoK15NHvIbt9M1QehJMpAVjCcnQxXEK8KNwLPCujWHMBEV2iYwyPeAbXZ2Q9LNqXUKyZdurFawKwzMyPoDEwZazyzFZ2iGR2kxJY_8LUJAkZFl-bxCsyFZBW/s640/-1.jpg" width="624" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2014′s<i> Bongo Free-For-All</i><i>, </i>by Nathan Kane, John
Delaney, Andrew Pepoy, Nathan Hamill & Karen Bates, a charming
Simpsons homage to the Dr Strange tales of Steve Ditko with Stan Lee</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVyxuT9A-IPIwsuPZhKvp88HsKNOEzMjeRe5D1xwi9TxmrzY9_l6i6cv3UfFqk0vzhsSLJkAeCyJWiIV9zoMcyrIG7tfmZKHYb4uPHhWRofmbw2Dq8H9qbvHLgHyjM1gV_SmlP7Od-pNUk/s1600/-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVyxuT9A-IPIwsuPZhKvp88HsKNOEzMjeRe5D1xwi9TxmrzY9_l6i6cv3UfFqk0vzhsSLJkAeCyJWiIV9zoMcyrIG7tfmZKHYb4uPHhWRofmbw2Dq8H9qbvHLgHyjM1gV_SmlP7Od-pNUk/s640/-2.jpg" width="450" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1990′s <i>Critical Mass: Doctor Zero </i><i>, </i>by D. G. Chicester, Margaret Clark, Dan Spiegle et al.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr9GQKtfNwp4vpCQ-cUBro6ev-HQfVB8DBeOfPrLanDwKSeQXcgodDCASY2b69vwhcnc8jxP9panbiKXFuZ-8drp7TXPwwQl8WLub1qG026r_DczdZA7Yq5GzQfySbjzW35N-hUX0TyD_U/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr9GQKtfNwp4vpCQ-cUBro6ev-HQfVB8DBeOfPrLanDwKSeQXcgodDCASY2b69vwhcnc8jxP9panbiKXFuZ-8drp7TXPwwQl8WLub1qG026r_DczdZA7Yq5GzQfySbjzW35N-hUX0TyD_U/s640/-.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2014′s <i>Silver Surfer #4 </i><i>, </i>by Dan Slott, Mike Allred, Laura Allred et al, as reprinted in the same year’s <i>Silver Surfer:New Dawn</i> TPB.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY71LW4jsiyb2blZ8vZqMJ3-EljhQUHRDLhQU2HENGHL4TrX93riNJNVFthJUDnVTIfmhHw2YzS7h3LWk0_K4k_KYarvNFvUrQrDwShAADokK78pf7HI6SV05jeEw8Rz61f3FzGKqRRzCn/s1600/-4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY71LW4jsiyb2blZ8vZqMJ3-EljhQUHRDLhQU2HENGHL4TrX93riNJNVFthJUDnVTIfmhHw2YzS7h3LWk0_K4k_KYarvNFvUrQrDwShAADokK78pf7HI6SV05jeEw8Rz61f3FzGKqRRzCn/s640/-4.jpg" width="359" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>The Hunting Party</i><i>, </i>by Pierre Christin & Enki Bilal, as reprinted in the book’s 1990 English language edition from Titan.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDd32XDL682uNBJIpnJsbq50jRsk3mRttCr6f61_-0D5R-JbSgLm1gtmB1rDf_d0o3lMovI2SbmJuyN6G-1dzCj_7ODI3vE9e48Nxdumfi5Tz2oPsbwV4IqJf3yXKRDp2yWxLdAfTYAHnN/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDd32XDL682uNBJIpnJsbq50jRsk3mRttCr6f61_-0D5R-JbSgLm1gtmB1rDf_d0o3lMovI2SbmJuyN6G-1dzCj_7ODI3vE9e48Nxdumfi5Tz2oPsbwV4IqJf3yXKRDp2yWxLdAfTYAHnN/s640/-.JPG" width="358" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1985′s <i>A Little Story</i><i>, </i>by Gilberto Hernández, as reprinted in the 2007 edition of <i>Heartbreak Soup</i>, from Fantagraphics.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNRCsis6hsyJKs7X3jSG_f0VNlpc25goIeGp9PjydWSqWzDfJW6GxpQzSzvsMyc3beWV_irBmda0hF7JLOwAUATWtwJ9DQFDqtljVCsv6R5XkXyVB4qpGfezQnDAO4poNsP5JTT2jzkVxc/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNRCsis6hsyJKs7X3jSG_f0VNlpc25goIeGp9PjydWSqWzDfJW6GxpQzSzvsMyc3beWV_irBmda0hF7JLOwAUATWtwJ9DQFDqtljVCsv6R5XkXyVB4qpGfezQnDAO4poNsP5JTT2jzkVxc/s640/-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1982′s <i>Wolverine</i><i> #1, </i>by Chris Claremont, Frank
Miller, Joe Rubenstein, Tom Orzechowski & Glynis Wein. (If you’re
going to fill a panel with exposition, then at least make the whole darn thing <i>interesting</i>.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC-_heDjPsZ-HR8fhASFmh7p9_uK0W9WVXo0Dx1MtodXY2vP5GrfxN-6xEydGXPCuQEc5bdeyJEeX7UNRIZ49LNpY7xgR46zZSLJjJBlbArwxZX9S_xEAotTt06sYEBzM6950onGQ9tc3a/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC-_heDjPsZ-HR8fhASFmh7p9_uK0W9WVXo0Dx1MtodXY2vP5GrfxN-6xEydGXPCuQEc5bdeyJEeX7UNRIZ49LNpY7xgR46zZSLJjJBlbArwxZX9S_xEAotTt06sYEBzM6950onGQ9tc3a/s640/-.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2015′s <i>Battleworld: Thors</i><i> #1, </i>by Jason Aaron, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, Joe Sabino & Marte Gracia.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwaSCG9OAIwMv7BSsv3mmn312GQuc2fZeGVvmpNsweBLUCmVOaSFi-c7PcEItjahyphenhyphenufoLejjuWp1D594191JnIrqeeIu4Vlj2v5EUzNFVzQGPHzi6cVgUdVjKyvTi79PBcqWEzmJCmnqgk/s1600/-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwaSCG9OAIwMv7BSsv3mmn312GQuc2fZeGVvmpNsweBLUCmVOaSFi-c7PcEItjahyphenhyphenufoLejjuWp1D594191JnIrqeeIu4Vlj2v5EUzNFVzQGPHzi6cVgUdVjKyvTi79PBcqWEzmJCmnqgk/s640/-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1985′s <i>Groo</i><i> The Wanderer #1, </i>by Sergio Aragones , Mark Evanier, Stan Sakai & Tom Lyth.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8qkHrC6Ds5CeoVIWHMX_ZzLL9NaZ7pIxtTfvVwi5mmjepOIxQ4hqnkjn_JhMOCfKdaf7aXJw7M0toAUvb1eV2ouddt8-x8c_NAoWTto88MyRuZr0jrDtqHk48hbsel7ToNMGPoZ5INy9j/s1600/-6.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8qkHrC6Ds5CeoVIWHMX_ZzLL9NaZ7pIxtTfvVwi5mmjepOIxQ4hqnkjn_JhMOCfKdaf7aXJw7M0toAUvb1eV2ouddt8-x8c_NAoWTto88MyRuZr0jrDtqHk48hbsel7ToNMGPoZ5INy9j/s640/-6.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1939′s <i>Superman</i><i> #1, </i>by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCDCTK-N9mwlbxW8Iq8s_XF_43FCeHmLB0okXqYuFu7FLyQc3HIzTIooFctLXLI0GaxtxRQjZeoroA4vcb_JnLJSDP5qZAkmpNNcEeWrEmFREeJ3wsV1Xlj21G9nC1wYTUIG9hEf4mT8mD/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCDCTK-N9mwlbxW8Iq8s_XF_43FCeHmLB0okXqYuFu7FLyQc3HIzTIooFctLXLI0GaxtxRQjZeoroA4vcb_JnLJSDP5qZAkmpNNcEeWrEmFREeJ3wsV1Xlj21G9nC1wYTUIG9hEf4mT8mD/s640/-.JPG" width="452" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2013′s <i>The Man Who Laughs</i><i>, </i>by David Hine & Mark Stafford, adapted from the original novel by Victor Hugo.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2XBAlVJbjBlZKnuOYP9jOaZNePsmcSzz0IlXfk00uQUlXJCsvTSsdYJdyDPOzU-rPQ-zpxCItxhqmtWVcx1QcKG03LBGs2D9GoylQNomAiKryD8kQEFuT5w312gJIb1a2Q8z3F6xcQSug/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="624" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2XBAlVJbjBlZKnuOYP9jOaZNePsmcSzz0IlXfk00uQUlXJCsvTSsdYJdyDPOzU-rPQ-zpxCItxhqmtWVcx1QcKG03LBGs2D9GoylQNomAiKryD8kQEFuT5w312gJIb1a2Q8z3F6xcQSug/s640/-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1965′s <i>Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2</i><i>, </i>by Steve Ditko, Stan Lee et al.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT1TcvPcZAEK5uYFjIbh_cAARpBFQxvPYjWuSnVcWmokWSCvP_gUI916yl59IAx6yfkFkF3Ma5aoa61UIOK_93C4WFW2Dmt1dx_SzbJixFKpjUKXPJgB94OmcGBRM_bsEgW1TLaEN9Vc0m/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT1TcvPcZAEK5uYFjIbh_cAARpBFQxvPYjWuSnVcWmokWSCvP_gUI916yl59IAx6yfkFkF3Ma5aoa61UIOK_93C4WFW2Dmt1dx_SzbJixFKpjUKXPJgB94OmcGBRM_bsEgW1TLaEN9Vc0m/s640/-.JPG" width="248" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>The Trigan Empire, </i>by Don Lawrence,<i> </i>in 1968′s <i>Look And Learn</i> #346<i>..</i></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidrqkHsttjeSA3zAfFzWH-x3CGW45ISlbqoF3IkkYcgLuNt9UFWPdUbt1PR00qJHFvjHMM8YoHq82McMjqgylvajhMx4X_s8dEPK6Ff3gs9myT053YSfEqE4FHWR_uydaFKvjz-8VY6WdF/s1600/-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidrqkHsttjeSA3zAfFzWH-x3CGW45ISlbqoF3IkkYcgLuNt9UFWPdUbt1PR00qJHFvjHMM8YoHq82McMjqgylvajhMx4X_s8dEPK6Ff3gs9myT053YSfEqE4FHWR_uydaFKvjz-8VY6WdF/s640/-2.jpg" width="450" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 1984′s <i>New Mutants </i>#18, by Chris Claremont, Bill Sienkiewicz et al, as reprinted in 1990′s <i>The Demon Bear Saga.</i></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDNe5d9OKCSUGxMG3h9nswoiwOuJSS4NKoLbk81yiwyPdpT52iz_d9aaUSOvfblbJB6svtbHFoHGE9gysHieJeP6GJI4wYLywefNMNnDFPGDoUAgiXDtX1CrN0FzNeDuK6S3vffe8Wq2so/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDNe5d9OKCSUGxMG3h9nswoiwOuJSS4NKoLbk81yiwyPdpT52iz_d9aaUSOvfblbJB6svtbHFoHGE9gysHieJeP6GJI4wYLywefNMNnDFPGDoUAgiXDtX1CrN0FzNeDuK6S3vffe8Wq2so/s640/-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2007′s <i>Batman/The Spirit</i>, by Jeph Loeb & Darwyn Cooke, as reprinted in 2007′s<i> The Spirit Book 1.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-rCZTw17dhAzWTlxG_toveZ8cr-1J0JAb5z7A2I5rP5EG6KgmutKGOrY3rgJeqTEvMLwIVB6BP3RcWvEqZ6kEms3O6AoWZCuaaE6enfT0Iiz6hTu-Brd5T6idoIRGKthSNVHEimslNwGH/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-rCZTw17dhAzWTlxG_toveZ8cr-1J0JAb5z7A2I5rP5EG6KgmutKGOrY3rgJeqTEvMLwIVB6BP3RcWvEqZ6kEms3O6AoWZCuaaE6enfT0Iiz6hTu-Brd5T6idoIRGKthSNVHEimslNwGH/s640/-.JPG" width="556" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>The Creature From Kosmos</i> , in 1963′s <i>Tales To Astonish</i> #44, by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, H E Huntley, Don Heck et al, as reprinted in 1972′s<i> Marvel Feature #8</i>.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju-b36T9voEomO8zhZoADwoPBw-2Ujs37_bfhWwWXiKhVcTVbsIA88L6HS5KmTHO5xFTP7sFHUBkkrM-6c1gkbSVKDR-QZOmTz8WGCM5oxnATE5hqH2YzO_pltc-Kyfb_bUmjYh1W0fpDQ/s1600/-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju-b36T9voEomO8zhZoADwoPBw-2Ujs37_bfhWwWXiKhVcTVbsIA88L6HS5KmTHO5xFTP7sFHUBkkrM-6c1gkbSVKDR-QZOmTz8WGCM5oxnATE5hqH2YzO_pltc-Kyfb_bUmjYh1W0fpDQ/s640/-1.jpg" width="528" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 19/10/1939′s <i>Flash Gordon: The Ice Kingdom Of Mongo</i>, by Alex Raymond & Don Moore, as reprinted in Titan’s 2012<i> Flash Gordon: The Tyrant Of Mongo</i>.</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjssQVP8Mn9razLAd_t5RoU56G5j3tnjKk5sBnDlceZIHLrlfD-l8FbB2PMSjNk6QyJCMZdImN3jIE0e63aetiPRK8cDff3WHVj0MBgOUTnft4deqh5uhU2t2qEgAoO24Eg-qPNe6raUcj-/s1600/-4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjssQVP8Mn9razLAd_t5RoU56G5j3tnjKk5sBnDlceZIHLrlfD-l8FbB2PMSjNk6QyJCMZdImN3jIE0e63aetiPRK8cDff3WHVj0MBgOUTnft4deqh5uhU2t2qEgAoO24Eg-qPNe6raUcj-/s640/-4.jpg" width="556" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <i>The Granny Annex</i>, by Rob Davis & Simon Gane, in 2014′s <i>Die! Boo! Die!: The Horror Comic For Kids….That Dare To Read It!</i></td></tr>
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<i>There'll be a new post here at TooBusyThinking tomorrow, should you have a moment to while away...</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLBqYQhybYE1ix9897hCpMQs5GNLr6Y12x46DESwrIDgIUctW2MnjEdJDXLdcenKzo58xdx1RTFqrq0-gsb6EofRcjkQ9KGCZKuEUrZyotomlbdtVHrNSxmLffRgVC4HT2yLbOhsam0Qfw/s1600/-.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLBqYQhybYE1ix9897hCpMQs5GNLr6Y12x46DESwrIDgIUctW2MnjEdJDXLdcenKzo58xdx1RTFqrq0-gsb6EofRcjkQ9KGCZKuEUrZyotomlbdtVHrNSxmLffRgVC4HT2yLbOhsam0Qfw/s640/-.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Special bonus end-of-post frame, from <i>Zero X: Prisoners Of The Eye-Leaves</i> in 1969′s <i>TV21 #237</i>, by Angus P. Allen & Mike Noble.(<i>Comics Panel Of The Day #15.)</i></td></tr>
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. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10