Archives
Bob’s Thoughts

May 2006

JUST A THOUGHT

   This month, Marvel starts "Civil War", yet another in the (seemingly) endless parade of company wide crossovers that the Big Two have been doing for quite sometime. Enough already! Concentrate on creating stories with some depth that have art that doesn't look like it was drawn by someone who has never studied anatomy instead of company wide crossovers that promise major changes, but don't really deliver. It reminds me of the constant re-boots of Superman that occurred over the years, where each time the character was made less powerful, only to see his powers increase over time to the next re-boot. There is always going to be dead wood when many creative people deal with such a large cast of characters as the stables of the Big Two contain. Best solution...ignore the dead wood and change where change is needed without resorting to apocalyptic measures. Strengthen the storytelling and insist artists draw the comics. Stop killing, maiming, de-powering and re-launching characters already and get back to telling good stories!

AC

Best of the West #56
   Not a great deal of information on this one, except that it will have stories about The Haunted Horseman, Redmask, the Durango Kid, the Lone Rider, Black Diamond and Rocky Lane by Ray Krank, Gardner Fox, Dick Ayers, Fred Guardineer and Frank Bolle. If you enjoy straight forward western comics, this is the place. SRP $6.95
Golden Age Greats Fine Art Special
   A whopping 152 page collection of some great Golden Age material including two Flame adventures by Lou Fine, Espionage by Will Eisner, a double dose of Mort Meskin and Jerry Robinson on The Fighting Yank and The Black Terror and 3 stories of Señorita Rita by Nick Cardy, Jerry Grandenetti and Bob Lubbers. If you have wondered about all these AC books, here is an excellent place to get started. The Lou Fine material is top notch, I enjoy Eisner's Espionage so much that I wish somebody would do a whole book of the character and you just can't beat Meskin and Robinson anywhere or anytime. Also, of course, the Señorita Rita material manages to combine good story with good girl art, something that doesn't always happen. All of this has been previously reprinted by AC, so use caution, but worth a squint. Only available through Diamond. SRP $24.95
Men of Mystery #56
   An all Fawcett issue featuring Spy Smasher, Commando Yank, Ibis the Invinceable, Nyoka and, since the Marvel Family is off limits, a tale of Young Marvelman. Fawcett is probably best remembered as the company that lost to DC in a copyright infringement suit over Captain Marvel. Yet, they did have a large stable of characters beyond the Marvel family, and most of them were very good. The Young Marvelman story comes from the English version of the Marvel Family. After Fawcett closed up shop, the company in England who had been reprinting the Marvel Family began producing new stories featuring a Capt. Marvel clone, Marvelman. Like his American counterpart, he had a large family of characters, although I'm not sure if Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny made it across the Atlantic. Also, some welcome biographical information on Carl Pfeufer.SRP $6.95 < Get Men of Mystery #56 for $3.99 when you mention this column >

CHECKER BOOK PUBLISHING GROUP

Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon 1951
   Reprinting the dailies and Sundays from January 1951 into the spring of 1952. Caniff was one of the master's of the comic strip format and the Steve Canyon adventures are enjoyable, although you might want to hunt up the Terry and the Pirates work to really see Caniff in action. SRP $17.95

DARK HORSE

Tarzan: The Joe Kubert Years Vol. 3
   Reprints some more of Kubert's version of Tarzan as published by DC in the 70s. Art and story are by Kubert with the addition of a story featuring Korak with inks by Russ Heath. Don't have any issue numbers on this one, but it is kind of a moot point, as Dark Horse is announcing this volume as the final in the series. Kubert's version of Tarzan was well done, but the way he ignored much of the original Burroughs' source material was not. An interesting sidelight to his tenure on Tarzan is that DC had to remove him from the series. As I've heard it, the licensing agreement between Burroughs and DC allowed the material produced for DC to be reprinted for the large European Tarzan audience. The Europeans, used to the "liquid" line work of Hogarth and Manning didn't like the harsh lines of the Kubert style. They admired the storytelling, but didn't like the art. This is why later issues from DC were done in a smoother line style.If you are a fan of Kubert, you will probably enjoy this and the other volumes in the series. SRP $49.99

DC

Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 4
   Reprints Justice League of America #122-124, 135-137 and 147-148 with words by Maggin, Bridwell, Pasko, Levitz and art by Dillin and McLaughlin. Bleahh is the first word that comes to mind with this one. Fans of the JSA, or of Captain Marvel, since Earth-S makes an appearance here, may find something of interest here, but these were very contrived stories with even weaker art. Better to look for the earlier volumes of this series when the content was a bit better, or, if you really want a Captain Marvel fix, buy the Power of Shazam graphic novel by Jerry Ordway!SRP $14.99
Flash Archives Vol. 4
   Reprints The Flash #125-132 by Broome, Fox, Infantino and Giella. Just as the volume listed just above this one is trite and contrived, here is the real deal direct to you from the Silver Age. Although The Flash was never my favorite, I thought it was really cool the way his costume came out of his ring. SRP $49.99
Showcase Presents Haunted Tank Vol. 1
   Reprints G.I. Combat #87-119, Brave and the Bold #52 and Our Army at War #155 by Kanigher, Kubert, Heath, Novick, Grandenetti and Abel. WWII didn't really end in the 40s...rather it continued on in comic books up to the present day. The Haunted Tank series covered the adventures of one particular tank during WWII, only this tank was protected by the ghost of Jeb Stuart. Things used to be much simpler years ago and this batch of stories is from the 60s, when many comics were of a simpler mindset. The art on this series is great, but the stories are a bit lacking, since the "haunted" aspect of the series often gets in the way. SRP $16.99

GEMSTONE

Carl Barks' Greatest Ducktales Stories Vol. 1
   I don't often list Gemstone Disney comics, since most of the time they are nothing more than a collection of bad European stories, or are the umpteenth reprinting of Barks' work. What I forget, however, is that not everyone has read the Barks stories and that maybe a gentle nudge will get people to take a look at one of the masters of comic storytelling. The stories that Carl Barks wrote and drew for Western Publishing weren't just gag strips that featured a temperamental Duck like the character seen in the Disney cartoons. Rather, Barks created two types of tales: short humor stories featuring Donald at his irascable best and longer adventure stories that took Donald and company around the world. These longer adventures aren't just funny animal tales, but are well crafted graphic stories that have a depth and scope that puts them alongside the best super hero comics, it's just that they feature ducks rather than people. In order for this all to work, Barks also created a rich supporting cast for Donald and created Scrooge, fleshed out Donald's nephews and created the Junior Woodchucks, whose handbook also figures into many of the tales. This volume reprints six of Barks' longer tales that were adapted for the DuckTales cartoon show and each story is well worth the reading. Definitely worth a squint and something you should be adding to your bookshelf. Consider yourself nudged! SRP $10.95

IMAGE

The Art of Brian Bolland
   Brian Bolland arrived on the artistic scene in the late 70s and has since gained a tremendous reputation for his tremendous covers and, to my mind too few, interior stories. Very little information about this one, but it is apparently going to be a retrospective and biography of Bolland and as such, will most likely contain scads of art. A bit overpriced with an SRP of $49.99 (there is also a signed and numbered edition for $79.99), so consider taking a squint at this one before you plunk down your money.

MARVEL

NOTE: It has been announced the Peter David will be the writer for the first arc of the Dark Tower series.
Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allan Poe #1 (of 3)
   After short stops at DC and Dark Horse, Richard Corben (aided and abetted by Rich Margopoulos) makes a stop at Marvel with a 3 issue B & W series adapting the works of Poe. Corben is one the best horror artists in comics and I would say his work is only surpassed by Berni Wrightson. Corben started work in underground comics in the late 60s and has turned out a tremendous body of work since then (and not all horror). It's a shame that much of his earlier work, is no longer in print, especially his Warren work (the same can be said for Wrightson in terms of Warren). He's done Poe before and adds a great sense of atmosphere to the stories. From the looks of this, it is all new material. Should be worth a squint and, dare I suggest it, worth taking home and reading. SRP $3.99 ea.
Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four Vol. 10
   Reprints Fantastic Four #94-104 by Lee, Kirby, Romita and various inkers. Never thought I would see the day, but the entire run of the Kirby/Lee FF is now available in hardcover and in color! These last stories are good and of greatest fascination is the changeover from Kirby to Romita. It has long been questioned who did what between Lee and Kirby and, once Kirby leaves the series with #102, it becomes quite obvious that Kirby had a large hand in the stories. Lee does not understand who the characters are, nor does he grasp how it all works and the departure of Kirby becomes evident in more ways than just the art. To Marvel's credit, this reprinting covers the last, Romita pencilled storyline with the Sub-Mariner completely and it will be interesting to see if this particular Masterworks series will continue. SRP $49.99
Essential Classic X-Men Vol. 2
   Reprints X-Men #25-53 and Avengers #53 by a whole slew of people. I've often mentioned that there are "Un" Essential volumes and this is one of them. In their first incarnation, the X-Men were not all that popular and these stories will show you why. Bad art coupled with weak story seemed to plague the merry mutants once Kirby and Lee took their leave of the series and what you have here is a large helping of what was wrong. Eventually, sales dropped so low that Roy Thomas and Neal Adams were allowed to do pretty much whatever they wanted on the strip, but even they couldn't save it. If you really want to see what the early X-Men was about, pick up the first Essential Classic X-Men volume, which reprints the series from issue #1 (back when they were more of a kid gang due to Kirby's influence) or the X-Men Visionaries volume that reprints the Thomas/Adams run. There are some oddities, however, such as Barry Smith's first published story (an Kirby pastiche). Also included here are the 2 issues Steranko did for the title that just don't seem to work (Steranko not working? Only here.). For the completist only. SRP $16.99
   Marvel wins again for ugly cover of the month. The winner: Marvel Milestones: Black Panther, Storm & Ka-Zar. Grotesque doesn't even begin to describe the Black Panther.

PURE IMAGINATION

Alex Toth: Edge of Genius Vol. 1
   The first of 3 books that will reprint over 400 pages of Toth's work from 1952-54. Toth was one of the outstanding stylists of comic art and the 50s are considered to be one of his best periods. Each volume will feature the usual superb reproduction that one has come to expect from Pure Imagination and there will also be historical notes and an overview of Toth's career by Greg Theakston. SRP $25

TWOMORROWS

Alter Ego #58
   A detailed look at the screenplay Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas wrote for the never produced X-Men movie form Orion Productions with tons of art by a slew of people. Also, Timely/Marvel artist Vic Carrabotta is interviewed by Jim Amash. SRP 6.95
Back Issue #16
   Everything you ever wanted to know about comics that tied into toys, including: Marvel's G.I. Joe series with Larry Hama, Denny O'Neill and Herb Trimpe; Arthur Adams on Gumby; Sal Buscema and Butch Guice on Rom and Micronauts. Also, coverage of Masters of the Universe, Transformers, Captain Action and Jack Kirby's Super Powers comics. All this and more and all old! SRP $6.95
The Jack Kirby Collector #46
   Lots of coverage of Kirby's Fourth World work for DC, a 1950s story that has never been reprinted before and front and back covers done by Kirby and inked by Royer and Byrne. SRP $9.95 <TOP>