Archives December 2022

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KC Carlson. Art by Keith Wilson.

by KC Carlson

When taking care of an ongoing bad routine (from severe stuff like drinking to excess and smoking to minor stuff like biting your fingernails), normal recommendations a lot of always has something to make with the phrase “breaking the habit”. It’s also frequently used by long-time comic book fans who think they have worn out of reading comics and just want to quit “cold turkey” (another one of those phrases). Now, while both of the phases are very crucial ways of taking care of hazardous routines like acholism or nicotine addiction, I don’t think there’s anything inherently hazardous about reading comic books. Unless 1) you’re not paying your mortgage or rent and getting comic books instead or 2) you’re prone to the rising violence and general grossness in current comics and are plotting to kill your comic book merchant to get unrestricted complimentary comic books.

If you are in the middle of #1, please seek professional help immediately. If #2 is true, you’re a complete idiot. While you might inadvertently get away with murder, unrestricted complimentary comic books would dry up nearly immediately, as diamond will cut you off dead for nonpayment (and might possibly take your house, as well).

For a lot of comic book fans, “breaking the habit” and “cold turkey” aren’t really necessary. Sure, you may be sick to death of overly violent superhero comics or may unexpectedly loathe everything that an individual publisher may be publishing, but that’s no reason to quit comics altogether. The field is a huge, satisfying place, and in any given month there are always dozens (if not hundreds) of new (and old) things to try.

Maybe we must look at it as “Modifying the Habit”. Don’t stop reading — try something else.

TRADE new FOR OLD

Gasoline Alley

When I say “old,” I’m not kidding. There is a lot of terrific older material out there, starting with newspaper strips. Take advantage of the fact that this is a new golden Age for comic strip reprints. There are a lot more classic newspaper strips being reprinted and collected (with respect and love) than at any other time in history. (Maybe too lots of — it’s tough to collect everything you might want.) For those of you who feel there isn’t enough “heart” in comic books, may I direct you to such classic strips as Gasoline Alley, little Orphan Annie, or Mary Perkins on Stage. even slam-bang classics like Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon (must reading for any true comic fan) have equal amounts of heart-tugging moments. If everyone read Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, there would be a lot more much-needed understanding and empathy in the world. and secretly subversive strips like the lost (and now found) classic Pogo puts pretty much everybody on notice at some point. even modern classics like The far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, and Bloom county (and offshoots) are now available in their entirety.

Essential Avengers

If you want to stick with comic books, both marvel and DC showcase their history in excellent Masterworks and Archive hardcover collections, as well as inexpensive vital and showcase presents lines of trade paperbacks (occasionally known as “phone books” to those who still remember what phone books were). I love these reprints of older material, as they are vital to getting a manage on why these characters are so terrific in the first place. There’s a reason why so lots of characters have passed the “test of time” and become classics. If you just know the characters from marvel NOW! and DC’s new 52, here’s your chance to discover why they’re so great.

Batman: The Black Casebook

Collections of older material are also vital for playing “Find the Influence” — discovering which older stories and creators are inspiring newer artists, writers, and storylines. This is especially fun for grant Morrison fans. DC actually collected a selection of Silver Age Batman stores — Batman: The Black Casebook — selected by Morrison as inspiring the “Batman R.I.P.” storyline.

I’LL trade YOU A TOM SEAVER FOR A JERRY McNERTNEY

Thor: The Mighty Avenger

Another fun game is to trade creators around like they were baseball cards. Were you getting a little burned out on brain Michael Bendis on the Avengers books? Why not try a lesser-known writer like Roger Langridge on Popeye or Snarked or even his lamentedly cut short marvel book, Thor: The Mighty Avenger? Or the upcoming Rocketeer: Halloween Horror. Or you can even try time-traveling, by reading proto-Bendis on his early indy work like Goldfish, Fire, or Jinx — or even his early Powers work at Image.

BUT I might miss SOMETHING…

If you change your mind, the thing about missing a few issues of a top modern writer — that stuff is always going to be reprinted, if not as a second issue printing, then as a trade paperback or hardcover slightly down the line. except for those few out-of-nowhere overnight successes, comics for reading have never been much easier to get. and this is especially so with the development of digital comics.

With frequent reprinting and updating, nearly anything worth reading is now available as a TPB, hardcover, or digitally. (Is this destroying collectability? Probably. but that’s a different topic. Is anybody actually getting for collectability anymore?) There’s absolutely no reason why you couldn’t — or shouldn’t, if you’re bored — temporally modify your reading habits. To be a lot more blunt: if you’re getting bored with what you’re reading, try something else. (And maybe declining sales may actually kick some publisher butt to stop publishing boring comics! Ah, but I can dream!…)

Dick Tracy

I’ve been reading comics for decades now and plan to for several more. I can’t remember a time where it’s been much easier for casual comics readers to sample things that they’ve seen in the motion pictures or on TV or heard about on the internet. For you long-timers like me who are increasingly saddened by what you’re reading currently, do what I’m doing and just walk away — over to my bookshelf or comic book stash to read long-neglected things (Dick Tracy), stuff I’ve stashed and haven’t read yet (DnA’s cosmic marvel books, lots of Alan Moore and grant Morrison) or things deserving of a re-read (Astro City), or maybe best of all, stuff that’s long been unavailable without a struggle or a fortune (Pogo, Mickey mouse strips, golden Age Superman and Batman).

To poorly paraphrase Journey, don’t stop reading (or re-reading)! Don’t kick the routine — modify it! Recharge your batteries and read something GREAT!

____________________________________

KC CARLSON SAYS: It’s incredible how lots of things I’ve rediscovered through the process of moving. There’s something about actually holding old collections in your hands that makes you want to read them again (or for the first time!). To try this for yourself, you don’t even have to move. Go reorganize your collection or bookcases. Or step your collection from one room to another. If you don’t believe me, ask my wife. She’s pulled enough stuff to keep her busy all year (or at least the cold wintertime so far).

review by KC Carlson

In his Forward, DC president and publisher Paul Levitz states that there really isn’t a “DC Vault”. I, politely, beg to differ. While there may be no DC vault like Scrooge McDuck’s legendary vault, or the original Fortress of Solitude with its vault-like door and giant key, there is a real DC vault — and I worked there for about 8 years. It’s the DC office itself, currently in midtown Manhattan, filled with creative, intelligent, and good people and with its history largely on display in every hallway, every office, and even every elevator bank.

The DC vault is the story of those offices, the people who worked in them, and the wondrous work they produced. as with any corporate history book, the main emphasis, though, is on the company itself.

Several of the artifacts reproduced in The DC vault — a “museum-in-a-book” similar to the earlier marvel version — are actually up on the walls in the offices. The evolution of the DC logo seen on the Afterword page was right around the corner from the “Starman Hallway,” a short corridor spotlighting all of the various DC characters that were named Starman over the years (more than you’d think!). and the 6th floor elevator foyer was the home of a giant-size reproduction of the poster that was included in Graphitti Design’s deluxe version of the history of the DC universe — a mind-blowing group shot of over 50 DC characters as drawn (and signed) by over 50 legendary artists. Or at least it was there when I was.

(Personally, I always managed to find a couple of extra minutes after leaving production to wander by and stand slack-jawed at the display case of what seemed like hundreds of mad magazine tie-in products, just outside the office of mad editors Nick Meglin and John Ficarra. It was like the mecca of stupidity and made me proud to be in the same building with it. The mad offices also had a fully decorated Christmas tree in their lobby for 11 months out of the year — every month except December.)

Other artifacts were items I used every day, like DC’s unique letterhead and memo pads and the DC color chart, although to the outside world these were rare treasures, especially the color chart which was no longer needed after the sweeping changes made in production techniques thanks to computers beginning in the 90s. I still have a couple of my personal memo pads.

Other items are just plain cool: a working Junior Justice society of America Decoder and a reprinted membership certificate from the early 40s, ashcans (“dummy” comics used to retain copyright protection for titles), rare promotional comics and postcards, cover sketches, reproductions of buttons (as stickers here), and one of DC’s legendary holiday cards. Of special note are some of the surviving memos and notes from the original crisis on infinite Earths project, one of which is Dick Giordano’s request to Jenette Kahn to kill Supergirl. It looks like one of those “Do you like me? check yes or No” notes that you’d send to your crush in junior high school. another note, in editor Bob Greenberger’s handwriting, lists DC’s various pre-superheroic age characters, DC’s various dimensions, and — confusedly — what appears to be instructions for a star trek cover. (BG edited the star trek books for DC.)

But my favorite artifact here is the “Frequently Asked Questions” letter which was apparently sent out to everybody who asked a question of the Superman editors in the late 60 and early 70s. Back in those days, it seems that everybody who wrote a letter to DC got a “thank you” postcard, and several different sample postcards from various editors are reprinted in the book. The Superman FAQ is remarkably detailed (I’m guessing it was written by E. Nelson Bridwell, DC’s walking encyclopedia at-the-time), ranging from questions about the various forms of Kryptonite and what they do, what the letters DC mean in DC Comics (Detective Comics), the current roll call of the legion of Super-Heroes, to “No, sorry, we do not stock back issues.” but at the bottom of page one (it’s a long letter!), this jumped out at me:

“Quite frequently we receive letters from readers who describe themselves as super-heroes desiring to join the legion of Super-Heroes. There are far too many of these for us to use them all, but we will print the best in The legion Outpost department in adventure COMICS…”

Wow! I never got a letter from somebody telling me about their superpower when I was editing the Legion! What were legion fans smokin’ back in the 60s?

The text, by former staffer, writer, editor, and DC Junior Woodchuck Martin (Marty) Pasko is informative and breezy. He’s got almost 80 years of DC history to cover and not a lot of space — because there are a lot of excellent graphics — so the narrative moves pretty rapidly. Pasko shines in his recounting of DC’s earliest days with new anecdotes about many of the eccentric characters from the era, especially in DC’s dealings with William Marston (“Charnullnull

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Bloom County: The complete Collection Vol. 1

by KC Carlson

At first glance, Bloom county seems like an odd choice for archival quality comic strip collections, considering that it’s only some 30 years old (as opposed to some of the 50, 60, 70, or even older strips currently being archived). and all of its original collections are still in print. but upon closer inspection, there are a lot of gaps (and dropped strips) in those collections, leading to a fairly big cache of “lost” or uncollected strips, demanding a complete reprinting. With the publication of Bloom County: The complete Library: volume One 1980-1982 (the first of a projected five volumes), the vaults have been thrown open and those “lost” strips are finally coming back into the light. and what a fascinating story they tell!

First off, this is like reading a absolutely different comic strip altogether. As the series starts, the only recognizable regular in evidence is young Milo Bloom – and he’s not quite himself yet. The rest of the strip is populated with lots of elderly folks, including Milo’s grandfather. initially identified as major P. Flynn, but later known as major Bloom, he’s an elderly right-winger who owns and runs the boarding house where lots of of the characters in the strip live. helping him is his (apparent) partner (the name thing confuses me), Bess, also known as Ma Bloom, who keeps the major on an even keel and affectionately cares about everyone – including the cockroaches who live in the house, whom she feeds frequently as if they were pets. There’s also a basset hound named Rabies (a holdover from Breathed’s college comic strip, The Academia Waltz, see below) and a couple of other elderly borders, Rubie Tucker (and her cat, Spartacus) and Pops Popolove – all three of whom nearly right away disappear.

Most of the first year of the strip has never been collected (except for a few strips in the Bloom county Babylon collection, and then without any kind of annotation or explanation of just what the hell they were). I’m guessing that at least 40 or 50% of the strips here haven’t seen the light of day considering that they were first published in newspapers back in 1980 and 1981.

In Bloom County: The complete Library, annotation is the name of the game. This first volume starts out with an introduction by Breathed, spilling some crucial elements in the creation of the strip and indicating that this warts-and-all collection includes “some big awful ones” – an outstanding admission from a designer who’s been a part of some creative revisionism in previous reprint collections. (Although I suspect that, due to the nature of the strip, occasionally some of the changes were of the legal necessity type. We will probably never actually know.) normally the changes are nothing too drastic – some re-written dialog here or some cleaned-up artwork there. but it took me less than 15 minutes on the Internet to discover sites with before-and-after changes from original printing to collected version. So people have noticed.

Things have been changed or compromised beyond Breathed’s control anyway. Beginning, believe it or not, in the second published strip, where the punchline of a joke was changed (presumably by the syndicate) from “contraceptive jelly” to “denture adhesive”. We know this because of the book’s strip-by-strip running annotation. There are actually two tracks of notes here: Breathed’s insightful comments, and historical notes (usually describing forgotten politicians and minor celebrities) by the library of American Comics’ creative director Dean Mullaney and associate Editor Bruce Canwell (who also supply the historical background and setting of the strip in their informative introduction). One wishes for a lot more comments from Breathed, but what is here is illuminating.

Other introductory matter includes a smattering of strips from Breathed’s college-era The Academia Waltz, reprinted from the university of Texas, Austin’s The daily Texan, circa 1978 and 1979. These are also annotated and feature some strips that were eventually re-worked for Bloom County. Of special interest are the six non-continuity Bloom county strips produced by Breathed and supplied to the syndicate as substitutes in case regular strips arrived late. They are all reprinted here for the first time.

Back to the strip itself. The early Bloom county was undoubtedly a strip in search of a direction, and that search involved lots of different experiments, both creatively and stylistically. It’s been fairly well-documented that the strip’s origins are much influenced by Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury, both blatantly and unconsciously – and to which Breathed freely, if uncomfortably, admits several times in this volume. some of that may be because of the syndicate’s intent – Breathed wasoriginally hired to do Bloom county to replace Doonesbury in the Washington post after the latter strip defected to a rival newspaper. There is an artistic similarity, at least until Breathed’s special artistic style eventually coalesced. after that first year or so that it took Breathed to break out of his shell, Bloom county developed its own manic style of energy that eventually could not be mistaken for the a lot more sedate Doonesbury.

It was a bumpy road at first, certainly not helped by the introduction of a now-forgotten character called Charles Limekiller, an occasional crazed vagrant of a character who pertained to live in the Bloom boarding house. In Breathed’s words, he was “a sloppy retread of Doonesbury’s Duke” – something pointed out in a series of spicy letters from Trudeau to Breathed. Limekiller is all over the first year’s strips, rapidly changing appearance and personalities, probably in an effort to get him away from any perceived “Dukeness”, but also because it’s fairly evident that Breathed had no idea what to make with him. As Breathed says in his notes, “Being without focus, I was muddling about, trying to find a center. Thievery occurs effortlessly in this state.”

To be fair, there are other strips besides Doonesbury that Breathed was pinching from, at least unconsciously. all of the kids in this strip talk and reason remarkably like adults (ala Peanuts) and talking animals are a time honored tradition in comic strips considering that (at least) Mickey Mouse, but I’m guessing that Breathed had at least a passing interest in Pogo, one of the most popular and popular (as well as political).

Meanwhile, Milo (virtually the only character from this era who survives throughout the run of the strip) is pretty much carrying the younger generation point of view, but he’s trapped in a storyline where he’s handling his pending puberty by having conversations with the shower room mirror (another Doonesbury rip). This includes some strips where Milo fears that he’s going bald, which feature him imagining that he’s prematurely aging to match the other characters in the strip. We also discover Milo’s obsession with Betty Crocker about this time.

Some relief eventually comes when the next recognizable “classic” Bloom county character appears: Feminist schoolteacher Bobbi Harlow arrives on the scene, and Milo (as well as all the other boys) right away starts crushing on her. Bobbi’s time as a major character is relatively short (she’ll be gone in about three years) but not before introducing the lovable (not) yuppie lawyer Steve Dallas (another Academia Waltz holdover) as wildly improper date material. That’s only until yet another regular, Vietnam vet Cutter John (a renamed Siagon John, also from Academia Waltz) , rolls in and literally sweeps Bobbi off her feet and into his wheelchair.

Before Steve and Cutter John show up, the next regular cast member to appear is young Michael Binkley, being both psychologically and physically tortured by his football coach, major Bloom, in pretty much his last gasp as a major character of the strip. At this point, Binkley is physically not the Binkley we know and love – the distinctive hairstyle does not appear for several weeks – but we right away see him for the bundle of neuroses that he is, even if his anxiety closet is still quite a ways away. Still, it’s great that Milo finally has somebody his own age to speak to on a regular basis. It’s during a school field trip to Washington, D.C., where Milo and Binkley get lost during the White house tour, end up in the Oval Office, and nearly inadvertently start a nuclear war, that Breathed makes his first tentative steps into political commentary.

Shortly after arriving home, Binkley, trying to verify to his daddy that he’s a normal boy, brings home what he thinks is a German shepherd – but instead is a penguin. The penguin is not identified as Opus, but it’s undoubtedly him – he right away sits down and watches TV. Not knowing what he’s got, Breathed has the penguin stick around for a couple of strips, but then he disappears for another six months – indicating that it will be a full year into the strip until Opus the Penguin becomes a regular Bloom county player.

[Here’s your useless trivia question for the day: What were the first words spoken by Opus in the Bloom county comic strip? Answer: “Tuphlem Grdlphump” (Opus attempting to say “Tuba Player”). deceive your friends! Later, after Opus reappears in the strip, he famously mispronounces “Public Servant” as “Bozo”.]

There were still a lot more missteps to come: The next character introduced is a horrible (and thankfully forgotten) character called Ashley Dashley III, the obnoxious TV station manager intended as a satire of Ted Turner. He is noteworthy for enabling Breathed to spout off about the FCC and self-imposed television censors, such as another forgotten character, Otis Oracle. Charles Limekiller eventually went to work for Dashley as a TV newsanchor, so at least Breathed was combining his bad characters together, which afforded the opportunity of giving the promising new ones space to shine.

Cutter John’s eventual intro was like a breath of fresh air – literally in some senses, as lots of of the character’s best scenes occurred in the terrific outdoors, giving high-speed rides to Bobbi, the kids, and eventually all the local critters in his wheelchair. The crazy rides began adding manic energy to the strip (doubly good when taking care of a brightly optimistic wheelchair-bound character), and the influx of animal characters (including Hodge-Podge and Portnoy) gave Breathed a forum for the animal rights part of his nature. They supplied the strip a sweetheart of a “quiet” center for the wildness that was to come. By now a lot of of the early, and older, characters had vanished. Bloom county was nearly home.

And we’ve only barely seen bill the Cat. wait until this strip kicks into high gear in volume 2.

You would think that reading several hundred strips (almost 300 pages!) of a series desperately battling to find its special identity would be a tedious undertaking. It is not. It’s a fascinating study into the creative spirit from the germ of inspiration (or evident lack thereof), to the flopsweat of emptiness – verging on absolute theft to the edge of adrift. and then a small spark. and another. A delighted accident or two. A nearly missed opportunity. A lot of really hard work. and then, unexpectedly your office is filled with stuffed penguins.

Bloom County: The complete library looks to be a fiercely terrific comic strip reprint series from The library of American Comics and IDW Publishing. That’s as it must be. The original work by Berkeley Breathed was pretty fiercely terrific itself. even if it took a little time to get there.

____________________________
KC Carlson has been working in, around, and adjacent to comic books considering that the 1970s, a lot of notably for DC Comics as an editor (including Collected Books) in the 90s. KC’s Bookshelf is an ongoing attempt to catalog the terrific comic book collections and history books that must be on your bookshelf.

Purchase

Bloom County: The complete library Vol. 1

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by Josh Crawley

I know the chances are pretty slim someone is going to need this & read it this year, but I’m behind on my own wrapping and crafting of custom X-Mas gifts, so you’ll get what I give you. (Also, I never write these soon enough. I should just start writing next year’s Christmas column in a couple weeks.)

We’re going to do this a little bit out of order, but bear with me.

WRAPPING COMICS?
Wrapping comics is a pain the bum. They’re flimsy, and you can bag & board them before wrapping (which you should probably do anyways), but that really does take the surprise out of it. Also, who knows who’s going to throw it around before you get it and mangle it. “So maybe I should put it in a box?” You say. Correct! most people have flimsy clothing boxes laying around, and while they seem nice, they aren’t. They’re too big.

Unless you get sneaky and use ones designed for children’s clothing (and lingerie). one of the local dollar stores sells a pack of four or five for, you guessed it, a dollar. While you’re there, but sure to grab some tissue paper and pad the heck out of that box, too!

HARDCOVER OR SOFTCOVER?
Personally, I’m all about hardcovers. Plus, if you don’t have access to a decent box for wrapping (see above), they still wrap pretty decently. Softcovers? Not so much. Also, as was pointed out to me by Sam (a regular customer at the retail store), some of them really aren’t nice quality gifts. Sure, the content may be great, but the presentation? Not so great. For example? The new editions of Transmetropolitan. They’re designed well, people say terrific things about the story and art, but the reproduction isn’t really bookshelf quality, let alone gift quality.

That being said, my list of last minute gift ideas is going to start out with a softcover…

LAST minute gift IDEAS!

green lantern Corps: Recharge

Green lantern Corps: Recharge is a terrific gift for that person in your life who liked green Lantern: Rebirth, or maybe just that fan of Kyle Rayner that hasn’t picked a comic book up in ten years. The Corps, though, didn’t rate getting collections in hardcover until the recent emerald Eclipse, much to my disappointment.

Batman: private Casebook

Need something for that Batman fan that really liked the animated series? Why not pick up a copy of the Batman: private Casebook hardcover, written by Paul Dini? (I actually plan on giving this to someone who hasn’t read comics in a few coons’ ages). A terrific follow-up (or something for someone who thought Batman: R.I.P. itself was over-rated) would be the Batman: Heart of Hush hardcover (a stand-alone tie-in to Batman: R.I.P.).

Yeah, I managed to get more Dustin Nguyen product in a column; deal.

Superman: Red Son

Need something for someone who likes Superman and Eastern Bloc propaganda posters? The Superman: Red son Deluxe edition hardcover should be just about right!

Immortal Iron Fist Omnibus

For that pal who likes pulp-inspired superheroes  in a contemporary setting, with some martial arts thrown in, the Immortal Iron Fist Omnibus by Matt fraction (with Ed Brubaker) would be nice under the X-Mas tree. If you liked Fraction’s work there, but don’t know his pre-Marvel work, it’s criminal if you haven’t read Casanova volume 1: Luxuria in hardcover.

Criminal: The Deluxe Edition

Speaking of criminal, You can’t go wrong with the Criminal Deluxe edition hardcover by Brubaker & Sean Phillips.

I could probably do this for another couple hours, but I really need to let my body recover from a pretty busy weekend (including the Shibs opening for the Subatomic CD release party). I also need to finish up some of those presents I mentioned, but that’ll have to wait until tomorrow night.

Want more of me running my mouth? check Twitter. need to tell me something? email & post info below!

josh@westfieldcomics.com

Westfield Comics
ATTN: JOSH
7475 Mineral point Rd STE 22
Madison WI 53717
______________________
Josh Crawley is the tenured Master of disaster for Westfield Comics, not to be confused with Josh Crawley, the keyboardist for Everclear.

Purchase

Green lantern Corps: Recharge

Green lantern Corps: emerald Eclipse

Batman: private Casebook

Batman: Heart of Hush

Superman: Red son Deluxe Edition

Immortal Iron Fist Omnibus

Casanova volume 1: Luxuria

Criminal: The Deluxe Edition

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Marvel Masterworks: physician unusual Vol. 5

by Robert Greenberger

One of the very best parts of Marvel’s continuing Masterworks program is that for numerous characters, they have now went into the seventies as well as it was one of their many fertile as well as innovative periods. A second generation of talents, notably writers, began working on the stalwart heroes. among them was Steve Englehart, who dealt with personnel however is finest understood for his politically-tinged run on Captain America as well as The Defenders. one of his overlooked gems was his partnership with Frank Brunner on physician unusual as well as now those tales are due for collection.

Englehart told Mania, “I believe all of us understood comics were as great as they’d ever been that we were all on the crest of a wave. I don’t believe we ever thought about that waves ultimately crash. however we understood it was a excellent time to be in comics, having total innovative freedom, at the most prominent comics venue. We understood we were a generation, as you state – the very first to find into comics having refrained from doing anything else in advance (work-wise) – the very first that was essentially college kids, for whom marvel was extremely much designed, as well as who now had the possibility to compose as well as draw for people just like us.”

Marvel Masterworks: physician unusual Vol. 5 really begins a new age for the sorcerer ultimate as the last vestiges of the Steve Ditko age are cast off as well as new, much more cosmic tales take center stage.  After losing his title in 1969, the great physician appeared right here or there, regaining a routine berth in the recently introduced marvel Premiere in 1971. Unfortunately, it was a hodgepodge of creators as well as directions for the very first eight issues, as witnessed in volume 4.  Noteworthy with MP #6, though, was the arrival of Frank Brunner, who then missed the next two issues.

When he returned in MP #9, he was gone along with by Englehart, who discarded the H.P. Lovecraftian direction as well as went cosmic. “We had total innovative freedom,” he told Mania, “with no editorial edicts. Roy [Thomas] or whoever may suggest an idea, however he never insisted on it. His well-known words to me were, ‘If you can turn the book in on time as well as make it sell, you can keep doing it; otherwise, we’ll discover somebody else who can.’ as well as that was it. So because I did that, to the degree of having unusual offer so well as to go monthly for the only time in its life, I might do whatever I wanted. as well as I did.”

On his own website, Englehart notes, “The Dr. unusual run falls into two parts: the very first half was performed in close partnership with artist Frank Brunner; the second half I plotted alone. The second half’s artist was the legendary gene Colan, however there’s no rejecting that Frank provided Dr. unusual a distinct look as well as feel.

“When I’d very first encountered Stephen unusual in The Defenders, I’d written him essentially as a superhero who shot rays out of his palms. When I handled his solo series, I chose I ought to discover a bit about actual magick – as well as it led to a continuing rate of interest in the subject.

“Frank as well as I each had concepts of what we wished to finish with this series, so we’d get together at my location or his, set out our respective interests, as well as spend the evening – commonly a long evening – in the incredibly fun process of merging the two. In the end we always had much more than the sum of our parts, as well as it led to some extremely advanced storylines.”

Marvel Masterworks: physician unusual Vol. 5 Variant Cover

The cosmic stories provided us the arrival of Shuma-Gorath, which led to the ancient One ascending to a higher airplane of existence as well as elevating Stephen unusual into the next sorcerer supreme. There was romance with Clea, the risk of Siseneg, as well as a see with Benjamin Franklin (who winds up bed linen Clea!) as well as much much more in these stories taken from marvel Premiere #9-14 as well as physician unusual #1-9.

“When Frank Brunner [turned out to be] as well painstaking to keep routine deadlines, the remarkable gene Colan replaced him as artist, however not as co-plotter – gene puts all his skill into his art. So I felt it was incumbent upon me to preserve the level of magickal question Frank as well as I had had on my own, as well as it seems to have worked out since we went monthly with #13 – the only time this title has offered that well. It fell back to bi-monthly as soon as this run ended,” Englehart added.

The story from Dr. unusual #1-5 ended up being the basis for the CBS telefilm in the late 1970s as well as the run has been consistently reprinted with the years, as befits this traditional set of stories by creators at the top of their skills.

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Wayne Markley

by Wayne Markley

Secret Wars

As marvel slowly wraps up its monster crossover secret Wars, I thought I would take a two part blog to look at most, if not all, of the series that tied into this version of secret Wars. all of these titles took place within the context of secret Wars on different sections of earth that were created when all the various dimension collided together and formed a patchwork earth consisting of multiple areas with different policies and environments. some of the books were labeled with big mastheads called Battleworld, and other were not, even though all of the books are part of Battleworld. The books that have this banner I have marked as such. I will review the whole secret Wars story itself when it is concluded and collected down the road. At this point it looks like it might wrap up in December. As a quick aside I think it is remarkable that you would do an eight part miniseries (now stretched out to 9 parts) and not have it done far enough in development for it to come out on time. secret Wars is at least two months late at this point and it slips additionally every week. In fact, the new post-Secret Wars titles started shipping last week, and while they do not give away the conclusion to secret Wars, they show quite a bit of what need to happen at the end. I will go over this at a later date, but ideal off the bat I would recommend the new Invincible Iron man and remarkable Spider-Man books. now onto the secret Wars limited series.

1602: Witch hunter Angela

1602: Witch hunter Angela was a four issue series by Marguerite Bennett and Stephanie Hans and others. I did not care for this series as it suffered from the same problems I had with the monthly books Angela and Loki. That it is heavily fantasy based and to me it was not a very clear story. like Loki, the story is far a lot more complicated than needed for the sake of creativity and doing something different. I know it was a nod to Shakespeare, but it did not work for me. I cannot even come up with a basic synopsis of this story. but to be fair I know a number of people who loved this book.

1872

1872 is a four issue series by Gerry Duggan and Nik Virella. This story is set in the old west, in 1872 to be exact, and it is set in a town called Timely. There, Sheriff Steve Rogers is trying to stop Roxxon from building a dam and half the town is incredibly corrupt. Along the way there are appearances by Red Wolf, Ghost Rider, doctor Banner, Natasha, Carol Danvers, a hybrid Punisher/Iron man and much more. This was a clear vision of the marvel universe set in the past with a great story and tons of action. It is very creative and original without being so complex that the story gets lost. I would not mind seeing this world continued in another series. Recommended.

Korvac Saga

Korvac Saga is four issue series by Dan Abnett and Otto Schmidt. This was a story inspired by the classic Avengers Korvak Saga but is nowhere as good as the original. This tales features the Guardians of the Galaxy and wonder Man. This is a science fiction tale that attempts to do a whole cosmic event but I found this to be lacking drive or passion. The story did not draw me in and I did not care about the outcome by the time I got to it. I also found the art to be very muddy and dark.

Age of Ultron Vs. marvel Zombies

Age of Ultron Vs. marvel Zombies (Battleworld). This was another four issue series this time by James Robinson and Steve Pugh. This story is set in a steampunk world and while not the best of these miniseries (they are coming, not to worry) it was not bad. As the title suggests a number of Avengers, or versions of them, including wonder Man, Wasp, Vision and others fight a hoard of marvel Zombies led by a zombie versions of Ultron and Magneto (I know, a zombie robot?). It is overall a fun romp with tons of action and some interesting characters based on the standard marvel characters.

Marvel Zombies

Marvel Zombies (Battleworld) is a four issue series by Simon Spurrier and Kev Walker. This is generally shield vs. marvel Zombies. Well, by shield I indicate Elsa Bloodstone, agent of shield vs zombies. She is trying to save a special baby (I will not give away why he is special) across a wasteland filled with zombies. The art is beautiful and the story is well thought out. This is mostly fights and the heroes getting in a tight spots and then finding a way out of it, but it works. It was fun to see a lot of the various marvel heroes as zombies as drawn by Kev Walker. A good book that is a very different feel that the Age of Ultron vs. marvel Zombies book.

Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders

Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders is a two issue series by Al Ewing, Alan Davis and mark Farmer. This was one of the best of these miniseries if only, and largely, because of great art by Alan Davis and mark Farmer. This is a quick story telling the tale of a new female Captain Britain and the political struggle after the protectors of Yinsen city are killed. as with a number of these series there are ramifications for the bigger secret Wars storyline where certain characters suspect all is not what it must be. This is another title where I could see the characters continuing in a post secret Wars world.

Captain marvel and the Carol Corps

Captain marvel and the Carol Corps is a four issue series by Kelly sue DeConnick and Kelly Thompson with great art by Laura Braga and Paolo Pantalela. I loved this series. This book paid homage to the concept of Bombshells while telling an complex story about the Carol Corps, an all female flying battle squadron in the Battleworld who seem to suspect something is not as it seems. The story was clean and quick paced and kept you guessing till the very end where it was going. I really took pleasure in the art that has a great good girl feel while having great colors. Yes, colors. It is unusual when the colors actually stick out but they did in this book. I would seek this one out.

Civil War

Civil war is a five issue series by Charles Soule with art by Leinil Francis Yu and Gerry Alanguilan. This book is heavily influenced by its namesake as it tells the story of a breach of the peace between Iron and the Blue. This leads to conflict and tensions between Iron man and Captain America and a slew of other marvel heroes. This book looks good and reads well and is a lot of fun. It is not as good as the book that inspired it, Civil War, but it is a very entertaining book that is on the better end of all of these miniseries. There are a number of twists and turns as the story moves along which I appreciated as this was not just a rehash of the original concept.

Mrs. Deadpool and the howling Commandos

Mrs. Deadpool and the howling Commandos is another four issue series by Gerry Duggan and Salva Espin. now as I have pointed out in the past, I am not the world’s greatest Deadpool fan, but this book was great. first off you have the howling Commandos, no, not Dum Dum Duggan, Gabe Jones and the crew, but the Monster of Frankenstein, Living Mummy, Werewolf by night (complete with a symbiote), Man-Thing and Deadpool’s wife.   It is a mix of action, adventure and a large dose of humor as the good people take on Dracula and the bad guys. Of course Deadpool is also in the story, but as a ghost, which seems quite proper given the rest of the cast of characters. overall a very fun read that has me looking forward to the upcoming (monster filled) howling Commandos title.

Deadpool’s secret Secret Wars

Deadpool’s secret Secret Wars is a four issue series by Cullen Bunn, Matteo Lolli and Matteo Buffagni. This books gets my vote as the most creative concept as the story is set in 1984 during the original secret Wars except it is being retold with Deadpool (looking very good for Deadpool) in the middle of the whole war. even if you have read the original secret Wars this book is creative enough to entertain and offer a few surprises. nearly all of the marvel universe pops up here in one place or another and there is a fair amount of death and mayhem. There is humor, but not as much as you would generally expect with Deadpool.

Ghost Racers

Ghost Racers (Battleworld) is four issues from the writer of the most current incarnation of Ghost Rider, Felipe Smith and art by Juan Gedeon. This has a special story that involves a large variety of Ghost motorcyclists having races for Arcade and a worldwide audience. The story is generally set up like a video game but the lead character, Robbie Reyes, is written in such a way that you actually care for him and the outcome of the story. After the first two issues I was going to give up on this book but I am pleased I did not as I really like the conclusion which I did not see coming. It is also very entertaining to see all the different Ghost Riders, including the original western Ghost Rider, T-Rex Ghost Rider and lots of others.

Guardians of Knowhere

Guardians of Knowhere is four issue series written by Brian Bendis and drawn by Mike Deodato. This series is clearly created to be one of the bigger draws of these miniseries and it features the Guardians of the Galaxy and friends. It is a complex story with Gamora breaking Doom’s law and Angela going after her but the Guardians stepping in and all sorts of the guest stars and the standard marvel cosmic factors. This is very well done book but it left me cold. It is rare that I do not like a Bendis book this one for some reason do not work for me. It might be I need to go back and read it in one sitting as often Bendis’ work is better when read as a whole rather than monthly installments, such as Powers for example.

This wraps up my look at the first half of the secret Wars crossovers. I will attempt to cover the rest of the series in my nextinstallment which will include an exceptional Hulk series and Thors, which was one of the best of these books. It must be noted that a number of characters appear in a lot more than one book in different situations and time periods and dies in one Battleworld yet lives in another. As far as I could tell the few characters that remained the same across all the books were Dr. Doom, sue Storm, Dr. Strange, and the Thors (like the Ghost motorcyclists there are many different Thors, some which are familiar and some which are hybrids of other characters and the Thor we all know and expect.) also I must note that all of these miniseries will be collected into trade paperbacks starting next month.

That is all for this time. As always everything I have written here is my opinion and the thoughts expressed here are in no way reflect the thoughts or opinions of Westfield Comics or their employees. I welcome your feedback about all of these books. What did you enjoy? Why? What did you hate? Why? I can be reached at MFBWAY@AOL.COM. Well…to be continued.

Thank you.

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Showcase Presents: The Witching Hour

by Robert Greenberger

When Dick Giordano was hired away from Charlton Comics by DC Comics in 1968, he brought along not only an armload of exciting talent, but he also brought with him years of experience producing books in every genre imaginable. taking a look at his output during his two year editorial tenure, you can see him trying some of this and some of that.

As a result, you can look at Dick’s output as a veritable cornucopia of fun books. mark Evanier noted, “Dick did at least edit Deadman for a short time. He was handed a feature on the road to cancellation and could do nothing to change that. The same was true of many of his assignments then: secret Six, beware the Creeper, Bomba the Jungle Boy, The Spectre, Blackhawk, etc. His revamps of teen Titans and Aquaman were much-admired around the office and by the much more vocal fans but the former only lasted two years after Dick left the editorial division and the latter ended when he departed. A revival of All-Star Western also did not endure long after Dick left. only one book he launched — The Witching hour — did. hot Wheels was not a success, nor was The Hawk and the Dove.”

Of all the books he launched, though, only The Witching hour endured long past his departure from staff. In the capable hands of Murray Boltinoff, the title lasted though issue #85 at which time it was a casualty of the DC Implosion and was folded into The Unexpected.

In his tribute, KC Carlson noted this spring, “The Witching hour was filled with creative surprises throughout the first lucky 13 Giordano-edited issues. consider this creative line-up: Toth, Adams, Bernie Wrightson, Denny O’Neil, Gil Kane, Wein, Sergio Aragones, Conway, Murphy Anderson, gray Morrow, Don Heck, Steve Skeates, Wolfman, George Tuska, Nick Cardy, Mike Sekowsky, Pat Boyette, Sid Greene, Jack Sparling, Bob Brown, bill Draut, Win Mortimer, and Jerry Grandenetti. pretty scary, eh, kids?”

Now, the first 21 issues of this oft-forgotten title are being collected in showcase Presents: The Witching Hour, Vol. 1. In the wake of Giordano’s successful relaunch of house of Secrets, this title followed the new model of having horror hosts. because Cain and Abel headlined house of mystery and house of secrets respectively, Giordano turned to the three witches, mostly inspired by Macbeth with each fulfilling the requisite roles of archetypal Maiden/Mother/Crone. The first cover blared, It’s 12 O’Clock…The Witching hour which lasted until the thirteenth issue when 12 O’Clock was replaced with Midnight, a catch phrase that remained with the series.

The Witching hour #1

Giordano’s Charlton cronies can be seen in the 13 issues he edited, he gave veterans like Pat Boyette plenty of work but he also was using young men like Steve Skeates who rarely missed an issue. Sergio Aragones, then a frequent contributor to the books coming from Joe Orlando, wrote various tales for this title as well.  Under the covers, from either Nick Cardy or Neal Adams, we had Mordred, Mildred, and Cynthia cackle and take us from tale to tale.

In this volume you can see some of the earliest works from newcomers like Gerry Conway, Bernie Wrightson, Michael William Kaluta, and Jeff Jones. Marv Wolfman wrote some of his first stories for Dick’s books and is here along with Len Wein. Future DC editor, and Marv’s neighbor, Alan Gold even shares one writing credit report with Marv, introducing the aliens Marv would later reuse and dub the Psions. direct sales founder Phil Seuling even makes a surprise appearance, writing one story while future playwright Ron Whyte and science fiction novelist Alan Riefe also contributed. veterans were not excluded as George Tuska branched out from his marvel assignments to draw quite a few stories here, reminding us of his crime Does Not Pay days. gray Morrow, already a vet by then, makes his DC Comics story debut with this series. and there’s plenty of Alex Toth goodness with the bridging sequences, although Adams drew the frame for Dick’s final issue.

There are some unexpected choices found here such as the team of Bob brown and Murphy Anderson, Jose Delbo and Gil Kane.  Story credit reports were mostly lacking so fans have been playing detective with ace researcher John Wells cleaning up much of the first 32 issues over at the Grand Comics Database.

He notes that Sergio Aragones plotted all the stories in TWH #8 while the artists (Neal Adams, Nick Cardy, Alex Toth) scripted them. Skeates scripted “Double Edge” (w/Toth), “Double Take” (w/Tuska), and “Double Cross” (w/Gil Kane) in #12. Toth, typically, chose to rewrite portions of Steve’s story much to Skeates’ chagrin.

Boltinoff took over the book burning off Dick’s inventory fairly rapidly but you already see his hand as George Kashdan, Bob Haney, LeeElias, and Art Saaf begin to fill the pages. Boltinoff himself penned several tales under the pseudonyms Al case and bill Dennehy. and as DC began using Philippine talent, one of the last stories in this collection is by the remarkable Nestor Redondo.

In some ways, this is one of the better collections of mystery anthologies from the showcase line given the strength of the talent between the covers.

The cover for The Witching hour #1 comes from the Grand Comics Database.

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Wayne Markley

by Wayne Markley

I have written a number of times in the past about the work Craig Yoe (and his cohorts) has been doing in collecting and reprinting the odd and obscure parts of comic history. He regularly publishes Haunted horror and odd Love, two comics reprinting horror and romance stories from the ‘40s-‘70s showing just how odd comics have been in the past. These are great snapshots of comic history. He also does very great hardcover collections reprinting different aspects of comic’s history, and this time I am going to look at three of these collections. It varies from classic fairy tales by the legendary Walt (Pogo) Kelly and a couple of collections of horror comics that have long been forgotten by modern fans, if they even had any idea they ever existed.

Walt Kelly’s Fairy Tales

Walt Kelly is without question best remembered for the classic newspaper strip (and the comic before that) called Pogo. but Walt Kelly did a number of comics before Pogo and a lot of these stories, but by no indicates all of them, were recently collected by Yoe in a sensational hardcover called Walt Kelly’s Fairy Tales. before going over the contents of this book let me talk about the book itself. It is a large oversized hardcover with an embossed cover with gold leave pages and the design looks like a children’s book from the turn of the last century. It is just a beautiful piece of design. It is over 300 pages and given the price of $39.99, it is a bargain.

Inside there are 24 stories all telling classic fairy tales written and drawn by Walt Kelly. some of these are well known, such as Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and Rip Van Winkle, while others are lesser known such as The wise men of Gotham (which has nothing to make with Batman), tiny folk and the Dragon, and big Claus and little Claus. all of these are proper for all ages and are a happiness to read. a lot of of these stories first appeared in the 1940s in a comic called Fairy tale Parade which was published by Dell from 1942 to 1944. now these are not complete reprinting of Fairy tale Parade, just the stories by Walt Kelly.

While reading this volume it struck me how much Kelly’s art progressed over this period of time. You can see him becoming a lot more and a lot more polished and developing the style that would come to Pogo in later years. These early stories reminded me of the Our Gang stories that Kelly did that Fantagraphics collected a few years ago. In these stories the art is undoubtedly Walt Kelly, but it lacks the distinct Kelly look that developed over time and can be a lot more clearly seen in the later stories in this collection. overall this is a great read for kids, adults or adults reading to kids.

Ghosts and girls of Fiction House

Ghosts and girls of Fiction house is part of Craig Yoe’s Chilling Archives of horror Comics (Volume 11 in fact). It is a full color hardcover coming in at nearly 200 pages. It reprints a number of horror stories about dames in various states of duress reprinted from both Jumbo Comics and Ghosts, both published by Fiction house in the 1940s and 1950s. There is a lot to take pleasure in in this book, from the introduction by Michael price to the lengthy historical articles about the characters and the artists. then there are, of course, the stories themselves. nearly all of the stories are Ghost Gallery by Drew Murdoch. These stories are similar to DC’s Roy Raymond, except Drew was first. Each story is a standalone story and involves a ghost and, generally, women in peril. While there is a formula, it works in that there is a fair amount of creativity in the stories so you are not reading the same thing over and over. Well, at least based on the stories reprinted in this collection.

The early stories are drawn by Bob Hebberd and later stories are drawn by Alex Blum and even later by Jack Kamen, who became well known for his work for EC Comics. There are also other artists here and there. I took pleasure in these stories, and they did tend to be creepy (and at times silly). It did make me want to read a lot more and I would not mind seeing a complete reprinting of these stories. Or at least a second volume. also I would be remiss if I did not mention the cover gallery, mostly from Ghosts, where there are a number of examples of good girl art of women being threatened by ghosts and other horrors. These are not lurid like the men’s adventure magazines that would come later, but you can see the attempt to deal with that audience. (This actually came out of the pulps from the 30s where women in peril was a popular theme on the cover images.) overall this is a great book showing a niche of comic history that is often overlooked and rarely seen.

Haunted horror Vol. 3: Pre-Code Comics So Good, They’re Scary

While going over Yoe’s horrorcollections, he also recently released the third hardcover collecting the comic of the same name, Haunted Horror. This volume is subtitled Pre-Code Comics So Good, They’re Scary. I really like these collections, even though I read the comics that came before this hardcover collection because the HCs are oversized and the art looks so much better in this large format. This book, as with nearly all of the Yoe Library, makes for easy reading as they can be read all at one time or you can read a story or two and come back to it at a later date. Unlike modern comics where it is a never ending soap opera (including horror comics) these are short (generally 10 pages) stories that are both scary and unsettling, sometime just because of how bad they are. great material for horror fans or people interested in the history of comics. I must mention that lots of of these stories are as good as, or better than, the a lot more well-known EC stories that get all the acclaim.

I take my hat off to Craig Yoe for once again finding and bringing to light an nearly lost part of comic history. I am all for anything that shows off some of the outstanding diversity in the history of comics outside of superheroes. In the coming months ,Mr. Yoe has a lot more of the line of Archives of Chilling horror planned and I for one cannot wait to read them. Also, it must be noted that all of Craig Yoe’s collections are put together by Yoe and his team, and the design work is some of the best in the business, but the actual publisher of record on all of these books is IDW. Mr. Yoe and his staff put the books together, editorial, design, content, etc. but IDW does the actually printing, distribution, etc. It makes for a very great combination.

Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: The Last of the Clan McDuck HC

As a quick side note, Fantagraphics just released the fourth volume of their complete reprinting of Don Rosa’s Disney work. as with the prior volumes, this is comic storytelling at its finest and the historical and background articles are fascinating. This volume begins the reprinting of the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. This has always been a modern high point in Duck history, and Rosa’s insight to what he was doing, why he did what he did, the scary amount of research he put into each story, both historical and on Bark’s stories, is amazing. This volume once again includes Rosa’s breakdowns for pages that were never used but show insight to what may have been. Rosa shows the McDuck family line back to the earliest days of England and the Romans. (This part of the story did not make the final cut so this is the first time these pages have ever been seen in print.) This alone is worth the price for any Disney or Duck fan.

I would recommend any of these books for holiday gifts or for your own library. everything I have written here is my opinion and in no way reflects the thoughts or opinions of Westfield Comics or their employees. I would love to hear what you think. have you read any of these books? What do you think? Did you take pleasure in them as much as I did? I would like to know. I can be reached at MFBWAY@AOL.COM. As always,

Thank you.