Archive for October, 2008
Like this:
The tale is told in Brave and the Bold No. 163, from June 1980, with Paul Kupperberg and Dick Giordano doing the honors. In it, a well-organized gang is hijacking oil trucks in both Gotham City and Metropolis, driving up the cost of gas.
Batman handles the Gotham end, because helping soccer moms fill up their 1979 Aspen Wagons is more important than the Joker’s latest plan to poison the city’s Harvey Wallbangers. This not being a job for Superman, it falls to Black Lightning to work the Metropolis angle.
We open with Batman foiling one heist, but missing several others. Black Lightning fares worse: He bursts into the cab of a moving oil tanker, has fisticuffs with three armed hoods, and may get an old lady killed.
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What happens to the old lady? I don’t know, Kupperberg and Giordano never say. In addition to that mistake, Black Lightning also completely forgets he can throw lightning bolts for the entire issue. Whether that’s Kupperberg’s oversight or Giordano’s, I can’t tell.
Anyway, after some detective work, both heroes track the hijacked oil to a facility midway between Gotham and Metropolis. They throw down with an indeterminate number of militiamen, who are commanded by a former army general who’s also a Gotham City senator.
The general/senator is stockpiling gasoline for one of those insane, implausible plots that only make sense to comic-book supervillains:
With two heroes and a millions of gasoline around, you’d expect such a story to end with a massive explosion. They just couldn’t afford such a thing back in 1980, though. As Black Lightning explains:
Over $1 a gallon? Man, times were tough back then.
A few months ago, Beaucoup Kevin wondered aloud why so many conservatives are Star Trek fans, when the show clearly depicts a multiracial cast existing in harmony in a near-socialistic universe.
My first answer was a little flippant: “Because quantum torpedoes make things blow up real good.” My second answer had a bit more thought: “Star Trek presents the fantasy that a military commander, wielding a mighty starship, can be the ultimate force for good in the universe.”
Think about it: Kirk could usually solve the most ingrained problems with a good bluff and a few phaser shots. The Federation’s civilian leadership was usually depicted as incompetent, to the extent that it existed at all. Kirk was basically David Petraeus at warp speed.
Consider two examples from the Original Series:
The Apple: The Enterprise finds a race of humanoids kept in a childlike state by a computer tyrant named Vaal. The Enterprise destroys the computer with a heavy phaser barrage, leaving the natives to discover self-determination for the first time.
A Taste of Armageddon: The Enterprise finds two planets who have been at war for centuries. But they now handle the war by computer, with the “casualties” reporting dutifully to disintegration booths to commit suicide. Kirk exposes the planets to real warfare, with the prospect of real destruction, and they are forced to find a way to live together.
Those two episodes contain about 75 percent of the Bush Doctrine. Maybe we can run the ol’ corbomite bluff on the Sunnis and Shiites.
Whoops. Nearly forgot something there.
I’m in a bit of a quandary. I have my eyes on a rather pricey item for an Xmas gift for the missus; being a stay at home dad, however, I’d be buying it with her own money (gosh, dear, it was nothing, really). Also, she’d notice a certain amount of currency disappear from our bank account when I get it. So, I’m turning to eBay for a solution.
I’ve listed original comic character commissions here. Low low prices for single figure portraits, a few bucks more for multiple figures. For readers of this blog who might follow The Ineffables (all five of you), anyone requesting an Abraham Lincoln will get a giant robot thrown into the composition free of charge. Who else offers that?
Pictured: my ode to the Adam West Batman, “Some Days You Just Can’t Get Rid of a Bomb.” (Alas, my rope ladder/shark attack homage won’t fit on the scanner.)
October’s monster theme closes with:
The Demon #2
I’ve mentioned before that while I have a ton of 70’s Kirby in my long boxes, I’m hesitant to drag them out here because I can only sound like a fool trying to add to the volumes that have already been said about Jack Kirby. I can’t leave this series out of my October posts, however, because it’s my personal favorite of Kirby’s works and also the place where I first encountered the King.
This is another example of Kirby trying to expand the subject matter of comics beyond superhero fare into the back half of his career. With just a couple exceptions, a Jack Kirby comic was a fantasy or sci-fi affair rather than the chronicles of a costumed crime fighter. Most series’ took a cosmic turn, filled with ginormous space gods and bizarre alien gadgets. Even the New Gods, which had mythic overtones, was replete with Mother Boxes and Boom Tubes and Mobius Chairs and other technologies, far removed from the magical creatures the title of the series might have implied. Usually, if Jack Kirby was drawing a crumbling ruin, it was a fortress left in prehistory by alien visitors.
Kirby hauled out a somewhat different visual vocabulary for the Demon. A Kirby monster is a Kirby monster, but transplanting the creatures to a shadowy woods with an ancient stone fortress and witches dancing around a bonfire under the stars is quite a bit different from most of Jack’s back catalog. Jason Blood’s cast of supporting characters lurked in quiet studies leafing through crumbling manuscripts and Jack made it as compelling as Reed Richards hanging out by the Negative Zone portal.
This second issue is the conclusion of the Demon’s origin story, showing us the pawn of Merlin who had a human soul grafted to it (literally, a demon possessed by a man) sent out into the world with no inkling of his true nature to battle evil when the need arose. Ancient enemy Morgaine Le Fey tries to raid Merlin’s tomb in Castle Branek only to wake the cackling guard dog named Etrigan which the wizard keeps in his employ. Later, Jason Blood and another of those law officers from a remote European village (still on horseback and sporting only one arm in which to carry his kerosene lantern into the castle’s darkened corridors) take off to the woods to track down Le Fey and her minions before they can conclude their nights deviltry.
These panels which conclude the climactic fight scene slay me: they start as a typical bombastic Kirby fight scene before going horribly, horribly wrong at the end. As if the title of the book wasn’t going to scare some potential readers away, Jack has to go and turn up the brutality in the middle of his funny book.
DC Universe: Last Will and Testament is one of the most suspenseful comics I’ve ever read.
Yeah, that’s the one where Geo-Force decides to take on Deathstroke at the end of the world, written by Brad Meltzer. Of course it’s got some ridiculous portions*. But Meltzer found the one thing, literarily speaking, that Geo-Force can do better than anyone else.
He can die.
Usually, your knowledge of comic book tropes inhibits your sense of suspense — you can be reasonably sure Batman will not end up RIP. But for a C-lister like Geo-Force, your knowledge of kayfabe turns it into a genuine page-turner.
What kind of character shields would a guy like Geo-Force have? Is Geo-Force more of a Steel II, or more of a Red Tornado? Aren’t Looker and Technocrat both dead? With Geoff Johns on the loose, no C-lister is safe.
Also in this book, Meltzer does a great job of setting up Geo-Force’s internal conflict. Not only is he a C-lister, he’s the nominal head of a C-list country. Markovia’s been conquered and reconquered for centuries. And being in the DCU, there are individual people more powerful than his country. And then there’s that deal with his half-sister …
You’ll notice I titled this piece “Leave Geo-Force Alone.” Expect a series of posts pointing out the hidden strengths of the DCU’s most-maligned tinpot superhero.
* Why wouldn’t Geo-Force know what his own name means in his own native language? What’s that bit where GF tries to pull out the sword? Why would Rocky Davis be the confessor for the DCU — and why would he have a literal confession booth?
This week’s page comes courtesy of fellow PANELista, Craig Bogart. And just to be fair, this is not from a “superstar artist:
(click image to enlarge)
(previous weeks: 9/12/2005, 9/19/2005, 9/26/2005, 10/3/2005, 10/10/2005, 10/17/2005, 10/24/2005, 10/31/2005, 11/1/2005, 11/2/2005, 11/3/2005, 11/4/2005, 11/5/2005, 11/6/2005, 11/7/2005, 11/14/2005, 11/21/2005, 11/28/2005, 12/5/2005, 12/12/2005, 12/19/2005, 12/26/2005, 1/2/2006, 1/9/2006, 1/16/2006, 1/23/2006, 1/30/2006, 2/06/2006, 2/13/2006, 2/20/2006, 2/27/2006, 3/6/2006, 3/13/2006, 3/20/2006, 3/27/2006, 4/3/2006, 4/4/2006, 4/5/2006, 4/6/2006, 4/7/2006, 4/8/2006, 4/9/2006, 4/10/2006, 4/17/2006, 4/23/2006, 5/1/2006, 5/8/2006, 5/15/2006, 5/22/2006, 5/29/2006, 6/5/2006, 6/12/2006, 6/19/2006, 6/26/2006, 7/3/2006, 7/10/2006, 7/17/2006, 7/24/2006, 7/31/2006, 8/7/2006, 8/13/2006, 8/21/2006, 8/28/2006, 9/4/2006, 9/11/2006, 9/18/2006, 9/25/2006, 10/2/2006, 10/9/2006, 10/16/2006, 10/23/2006, 10/30/2006, 11/6/2006, 11/13/2006, 11/20/2006, 11/27/2006, 12/4/2006, 12/11/2006, 12/18/2006, 12/25/2006, 1/1/2007, 1/8/2007, 1/15/2007, 1/22/2007, 1/29/2007, 2/5/2007, 2/12/2007, 2/19/2007, 2/26/2007, 3/5/2007, 3/12/2007, 3/19/2007, 3/26/2007, 4/2/2007, 4/5/2007, 4/9/2007, 4/16/2007, 4/23/2007, 4/30/2007, 5/7/2007, 5/14/2007, 5/21/2007, 5/28/2007, 6/4/2007, 6/11/2007, 6/18/2007, 6/25/2007, 7/2/2007, 7/9/2007, 7/16/2007, 7/23/2007, 7/30/2007, 8/6/2007, 8/13/2007, 8/20/2007, 8/27/2007, 9/3/2007, 9/10/2007, 9/17/2007, 9/24/2007, 10/1/2007, 10/8/2007, 10/15/2007, 10/22/2007, 10/29/2007, 11/5/2007, 11/12/2007, 11/19/2007, 11/26/2007, 12/3/2007, 12/10/2007, 12/17/2007, 12/24/2007, 12/31/2007, 1/7/2008, 1/14/2008, 1/21/2008, 1/28/2008, 2/4/2008, 2/11/2008, 2/18/2008, 2/25/2008, 3/3/2008, 3/10/2008, 3/17/2008, 3/24/2008, 3/31/2008, 4/7/2008, 4/14/2008, 4/21/2008, 4/28/2008, 5/8/2008, 5/12/2008, 5/19/2008, 5/27/2008, 6/2/2008, 6/9/2008, 6/16/2008, 6/23/2008, 6/30/2008, 7/7/2008, 7/14/2008, 7/22/2008, 8/4/2008, 8/11/2008, 8/18/2008, 8/25/2008, 9/8/2008, 9/22/2008, 9/29/2008, 10/6/2008, 10/13/2008, 10/20/2008)
“The Mid-Ohio-Con 2008 Charity Auction is now live on eBay. The auction features original art drawn by many of our guests at Mid-Ohio-Con 2008, as well as a number of other special contributions. All proceeds from the Mid-Ohio-2008 charity auction will be donated to The Hero Initiative and The Make-A-Wish Foundation.”
Click here for all the listings.
The auctions includes this piece from our very own Andy Bennett:
All this back-and-forth campaing attacks has really got me down, so instead here’s some election year humor for you:
First from some person’s Livejournal entry, “The Campaign is Getting Ugly” D&D game:
“GM: OK, the bugbear attacks you. What do you do?OBAMA: I send one of my 672 henchmen after it.
MCCAIN: OK, seriously. Why does he have so many henchmen? I’m a level 72 ranger and he’s only a level 8 paladin.
OBAMA: Well, if you’d bought the Grassroots Organizing and Oratory/Colgate Smile proficiencies you could min max it so that you…
MCCAIN: Why is he even IN this campaign? I thought this was supposed to be a high level party.
OBAMA: Well, maybe some people got tired of the grim and squinty “Matterhorn, son of Marathon” shtick you keep doing. Dude, could you be any less original?
MCCAIN: Oh my god, I did not leave my left nut in a tiger cage in the Tomb of Horrors to spend my Friday nights mopping up after the new kid.
OBAMA: “My friends, I am a totally unoriginal grizzled character class stereotype. I should lead the party because I have more testicular damage than that one.”
MCCAIN: Yeah, well, you pal around with dark elves.
OBAMA: OH NO YOU DIDN’T.
MCCAIN: Whatever, so’s your mom.
OBAMA: So’s your FACE.
MCCAIN: So’s your Mom’s face!”
And next, here’s a particularly funny product description (for a heater, of all things) from the ever-clever online retail site woot.com a few weeks ago:
“Paris London, voter: My question is about the economy. Oh my God, what the hell are we going to do? What the hell, man? Somebody, for God’s sake, do something!Senator Mac: My friend, a lot of Americans are angry, confused, and fearful right now. I should know. I’m one of them. People are hurting, and not just those people who deserve it. Why, just the other day, I paid $6.99 for the very same buffet I used to pay $6.49 for. And that was the early bird special. It’s clear that something, anything, needs to be done, no matter how feckless or ineffectual. So I am instructing my subordinates to suspend my campaign until the next question in this debate. It’s time to get serious, my friends.
Senator Bam: While they’ve been living the high life on Wall Street, all the lowlifes are living on Main Street. Things have been positively 4th Street, but a nightmare on Elm Street. We’ve seen 221 Baker Street turn into 21 Jump Street. But look: the thing we have to do is cut the strings on these golden parachutes. I pledge to you that within two years, I will eliminate not only golden parachutes, but every color of parachute besides the red, white, and blue.”
The new Hulk DVD comes with a coupon for 20% off a subscription to Marvel’s online comic service. Tempted by the offer, I revisited the site and sampled some of their free comics… and still found them to be awful. Garish recoloring that renders linework insubstantial, a collection that is a mile wide but only an inch deep with many series’ offering only one issue or incomplete runs of a collection you‘re only borrowing… I’ll stick with my DVD-Roms and lament the day Marvel pulled the plug on the complete series scans they once offered.
But hey, what’s this? Marvel might be guarding their back catalog too closely, but that doesn’t mean that manufacturer Gitcorp can’t get licenses elsewhere. Lo and behold, I’ve just cracked open my complete DVD-Rom collection of Star Trek comics– every comic ever published by Gold Key, Marvel, Power Records (three by Neal Adams!), DC Comics, Malibu, etc., including every series from Kirk’s to Janeway‘s. As always regarding this format, I can’t recommend them enough. Okay, I haven’t been tempted by the Archie and Jughead collections, but there’s hope for future projects of this nature. If they ever put out a set with Neal Adams and Jim Aparo Batman comics or a complete Justice League of America, I’d have my reading time booked up for the next twenty years.
I could stare at the old Gold Key series covers for hours:
Send me more of these, please.
Johanna Draper Carlson reviews PANEL: Work, the 11th volume of our anthology series, over at her Comics Worth Reading blog. Unfortunately, it’s not all that positive.
“Unfortunately, the package is the most satisfying part of the assemblage. I can appreciate the imagination that goes into the various comic attempts, but as intellectually interesting as some of them are, none of the stories or art will stay with me.”
Let this mark the passage of Dolemite himself, Rudy Ray Moore.
For me, Moore’s kind of a difficult figure. On the one hand, I think the idolization of pimps is one of the most corrosive aspects of pop culture. On the other hand, he pulled it off with such good humor that it’s hard to hate.
Plus, he killed Monday, whooped Tuesday and put Wednesday in the hospital. Then he called up Thursday to tell Friday not to hurry Saturday and Sunday.
Don’t know what I’m talking about? You better ask somebody. Or at least click on the link above and check out some of the rhymes.
And here’s the trailer to Dolemite (NSFW)
October’s theme continues: The Frankenstein Monster #6
I first became familiar with Mike Ploog’s work in books like Ghost Rider, Werewolf By Night, and Man-Thing. He was Marvel’s go-to guy for all the oddball characters in the early 70’s; I wouldn’t equate his style as typical of a horror comic, but rather cast his brand of goofy caricature (a term I use lovingly) as fitting a line of books that had a certain pervasive weirdness to them; anyone so inclined can scroll down to the very first WBM post to see examples from a favorite old Man-Thing.
So I was a bit surprised when I started tracking down Marvel’s old Frankenstein series and saw the completely different tone on these pages. Heavier, more detailed, brooding, yet retaining his sense of the bizarre. Either he was simply at a different point in his career when working in this series (which predates his tenure in Man-Thing by several months), or perhaps he had a fondness for this material which inspired him to put a little more love into the book.
The story: Frankenstein’s monster, brought back from the frozen north into modern times, is stalking Europe to find the last remaining descendants of his creator’s family to complete the mission of revenge he started in Mary Shelly’s book. He comes to the crumbling ruins of Castle Frankenstein at the same time as a local law officer (almost four decades ago, it seemed reasonable that the constabulary in remote European villages would still be on horseback, wearing a sword and scabbard; not sure how that would fly today) who is investigating the disappearance of a number of convicts from the town jail. The villager recognizes the legendary creature and assumes he is responsible for the disappearances. Frank tries to reason with him, then beats him senseless before moving on to the castle.
Lots of scans this week; there were just too many great looking panels to choose from. Here’s Frank exploring his old homestead, where he finds a bunch of twisted mutants lowering a victim into a pit. A fight breaks out when they see him, and during the melee he gets a view into the hole where a giant spider is spinning a web around its latest offering. I love writer Gary Friedrich’s contribution to these panels: he employs an old device many readers may not be familiar with, called a “caption”, which allows the writer to add a bit of a literary touch to the narrative rather than simply scripting a movie storyboard. I won’t say one method is more or less valid than the other, but the old school way certainly adds a lot more flavor to the story and makes for a much denser read. Check out the panels below, and the text that had me checking to make sure I wasn’t holding an old EC comic in my hands.
Frank gets chained to a wall before the villain appears and explains his master plan. His kidnapped felons have their wills drained by giant spider venom before joining his army of slaves, a fate planned for our, er, hero. He is then left alone to await his execution, the spider lurking in the pit before him. He tries pulling loose some of the masonry he is chained to only to release a torrent of water from an underground source behind the wall; he has a choice of facing the giant spider or drowning. As the water rushes in from the small breach he has made, the constable he met earlier enters the chamber, followed soon by the villain whom he recognizes as his own boss (sheriff? Burgermeister? Whatever). The two men engage in swordplay as Frank watches, realizing that the level of the water draining into the pit has risen, allowing the spider to float up to the top and escape the pit!
Constable escapes, villain drowns, and Frank wrestles a giant spider while the castle crumbles around them. Good stuff. Even better: as the ancestral home of the Frankenstein family collapses, Friedrich manages to insert the word “paroxysm” into the script. That word appears so much in 1970s Marvels it must have been code for something; perhaps the centerpiece of some form of drinking game devised by the writers or somesuch.
More goodness from the collection of fellow PANELista, Tom Williams. And remember, if you have this comic, please refrain from guessing. For everyone else, guess away:
(click image to enlarge)
(previous weeks: 9/12/2005, 9/19/2005, 9/26/2005, 10/3/2005, 10/10/2005, 10/17/2005, 10/24/2005, 10/31/2005, 11/1/2005, 11/2/2005, 11/3/2005, 11/4/2005, 11/5/2005, 11/6/2005, 11/7/2005, 11/14/2005, 11/21/2005, 11/28/2005, 12/5/2005, 12/12/2005, 12/19/2005, 12/26/2005, 1/2/2006, 1/9/2006, 1/16/2006, 1/23/2006, 1/30/2006, 2/06/2006, 2/13/2006, 2/20/2006, 2/27/2006, 3/6/2006, 3/13/2006, 3/20/2006, 3/27/2006, 4/3/2006, 4/4/2006, 4/5/2006, 4/6/2006, 4/7/2006, 4/8/2006, 4/9/2006, 4/10/2006, 4/17/2006, 4/23/2006, 5/1/2006, 5/8/2006, 5/15/2006, 5/22/2006, 5/29/2006, 6/5/2006, 6/12/2006, 6/19/2006, 6/26/2006, 7/3/2006, 7/10/2006, 7/17/2006, 7/24/2006, 7/31/2006, 8/7/2006, 8/13/2006, 8/21/2006, 8/28/2006, 9/4/2006, 9/11/2006, 9/18/2006, 9/25/2006, 10/2/2006, 10/9/2006, 10/16/2006, 10/23/2006, 10/30/2006, 11/6/2006, 11/13/2006, 11/20/2006, 11/27/2006, 12/4/2006, 12/11/2006, 12/18/2006, 12/25/2006, 1/1/2007, 1/8/2007, 1/15/2007, 1/22/2007, 1/29/2007, 2/5/2007, 2/12/2007, 2/19/2007, 2/26/2007, 3/5/2007, 3/12/2007, 3/19/2007, 3/26/2007, 4/2/2007, 4/5/2007, 4/9/2007, 4/16/2007, 4/23/2007, 4/30/2007, 5/7/2007, 5/14/2007, 5/21/2007, 5/28/2007, 6/4/2007, 6/11/2007, 6/18/2007, 6/25/2007, 7/2/2007, 7/9/2007, 7/16/2007, 7/23/2007, 7/30/2007, 8/6/2007, 8/13/2007, 8/20/2007, 8/27/2007, 9/3/2007, 9/10/2007, 9/17/2007, 9/24/2007, 10/1/2007, 10/8/2007, 10/15/2007, 10/22/2007, 10/29/2007, 11/5/2007, 11/12/2007, 11/19/2007, 11/26/2007, 12/3/2007, 12/10/2007, 12/17/2007, 12/24/2007, 12/31/2007, 1/7/2008, 1/14/2008, 1/21/2008, 1/28/2008, 2/4/2008, 2/11/2008, 2/18/2008, 2/25/2008, 3/3/2008, 3/10/2008, 3/17/2008, 3/24/2008, 3/31/2008, 4/7/2008, 4/14/2008, 4/21/2008, 4/28/2008, 5/8/2008, 5/12/2008, 5/19/2008, 5/27/2008, 6/2/2008, 6/9/2008, 6/16/2008, 6/23/2008, 6/30/2008, 7/7/2008, 7/14/2008, 7/22/2008, 8/4/2008, 8/11/2008, 8/18/2008, 8/25/2008, 9/8/2008, 9/22/2008, 9/29/2008, 10/6/2008, 10/13/2008)