The Spirit #13 - Warren

April 1976 - Warren's Spirit magazine may be my all-time favorite format for Will Eisner's classic creation.

There's something charmingly cruddy about the cheap paper and hyperbolic ads in the back that just seem to work for me, in a way that the glossy, high-quality DC Archives series do not.

Apparently, I'm in the minority on this, because Warren's Spirit series was never that big a hit, only lasting sixteen issues. Even now, copies of the magazine can be found eBay for just a dollar or two, which is astounding considering how much great material Warren crammed into any given issue.

I don't see any point doing reviews of the stories, since what the hell could I have to add? So let's just show the always-superb, always-inventive splash pages Eisner gave us with these nine stories:

The final story, "The Story of Gerhard Shnobble" is a classic even by The Spirit's lofty standards. According to TwoMorrows' The Warren Companion, Eisner himself revised the story a bit for its reprinting in Harvey's even shorter-lived 1966 Spirit series, and that is the version reprinted here.

Needless to say, an excellent issue!

Amazing Spider-Man Ad - Marvel

This dynamic ad ran in yesterday's issue of Marvel Premiere, promising "A daringly different look"--i.e., a Japanese version of everyone's favorite web-slinger.

Sadly, no such daringly different version of Spidey ever showed up. The next issue of Marvel Premiere was Bizarre Adventures, not Spidey.

Our pal Joe Jusko mentioned this aborted project in his interview here a few months ago: "I started doing Rampaging Hulk covers as well as other miscellaneous one shots. I did a cover for a proposed "fumetti"(telling a comic story with photos) version of a Japanese Spider-Man TV show(!)"

...apparently, though, the show looked so cruddy that Marvel decided to scrap the book. I dunno--from Joe's painting here, the show looks insane.

Which means they definitely should've done the book!

Marvel Preview #19: Kull The Destroyer

Summer 1979 - Kull the Conqueror was one of those characters that really deserved to be a bigger comics star than he was.

Between his b/w magazine, his color comic, and his appearances in other mags like this, King Kull racked up an impressive roster of writers and artists who toiled on his stories, and while the comparisons to a certain Cimmerian are inevitable, I found them distinct enough that you could enjoy both and not feel like you were getting warmed-over Conan, or Conan with a different name, or whatever.

The cover, like many a Marvel mag, is by Bob Larkin, and while Kull and Thulsa Doom look cool, I will admit the bikini-clad damsel looks less than terrified.

After an inside-cover by Ernie Chan, the Kull story is "Riders Beyond the Sunrise" by Roy Thomas(adapted from a Robert E. Howard story, 'natch), Sal Buscema, and Tony DeZuniga. It's basically a Kull origin story, where we get to see Kull fight a bunch of bad guys, rescue a toothsome wench, and fight the nasty, evil Thulsa Doom to the death!

Next is a text feature, "Tiger of Atlantis", by Jim Neal, detailing Kull's history as told through Marvel's comics.

Following that is a real treat, an eight-page pin-up section called Kull II, featuring art by John and Marie Severin!:

The first five are by John alone, and then the last three are penciled by Marie and inked by John. All of them are cool:

Ending the book is a Solomon Kane tale, "The Footfalls Within", by Don Glut, Will Meugniot, and Steve Gan, featuring Kane liberating a small village from being turned into slaves by a villainous group of pirates. Featuring honest-to-gosh nudity, though it is from "native" tribal women, so I guess it falls under that National Geographic rule of not being "real" nudity.

A solid package all the way around. Any book with two Severins is worth whatever the cover price.

KISS Ad - Marvel

How the hell(appropriate term) have I not bought a copy of this yet?

I'd love to see Marvel reprint this, their Tommy adaptation, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and that issue of Marvel Premiere starring Alice Cooper in some sort of hardcover slipcase edition. Reprint rights be damned, this is rock n' roll!

The Hulk! Ad - Marvel

This ad ran on the inside cover of yesterday's Jaws 2 adaptation, and it uses one of my favorite iconic shots of the Hulk, ever.

I'm not sure who drew this (it looks a little John Buscema inked by Ernie Chan to me. Anyone else have a better suggestion?), but the Hulk never looked so massive to me, or more threatening, and Banner looks so passive and weak. A perfect visual representation of the inherent dynamic found in the character.

Marvel Super Special #6: Jaws 2

1978 - Wow.

I am constantly amazed at the sheer volume of crummy movies that Marvel saw fit to adapt into comics in the late 70s and early 80s. I think--heck, I know--I could do a whole theme week of that stuff. But until then, let's talk about Jaws 2, shall we?

The cover with the iconic shark is by Bob Larkin, and the inside art is by the famous team of Gene Colan and Tom Palmer (Palmer also colored the book). Yes, Marvel wasted two legendary talents on an adaptation of Jaws 2.

I'm not going to bother relating the plot of the movie, because its pretty much "A lot of people get eaten by sharks." All the filmmaking lessons of the first film were completely forgotten, and this time around we get the shark, and lots of it.

I guess Marvel didn't want to pay Roy Scheider (Rest In Peace, Roy!), since the Chief Brody seen here bears no resemblance to him. There weren't any other stars in the movie (Robert Shaw having been chomped to death in the first film in the single greatest movie death scene, ever, and Richard Dreyfuss having become a huge movie star), so poor Roy pretty much had to carry the movie on his shoulders all by himself.

Like I said, there's a number of big, gory shark attacks in the movie and in the comic, none more goofy than the one featuring two kids who have stopped in the middle of their sailboat race to get some action, when the shark makes his(?) move:

...holy crap, that's a Galactus-sized shark!

Of course, Brody gets rid of this shark by shoving an electricity-filled pipe in his mouth. Scheider told himself "Enough with the sharks, already" and would not appear in, yes, Jaws 3-D.

The magazine also features an interview with director Jeannot Szwarc, who, while being honest about the artistic merits of the film, drags down the first film to the sequel's level:

I think time has shown us that Jaws is, in fact, a classic; Jaws 2, less so. Szwarc went on to direct Supergirl and Santa Claus: The Movie. I'll refrain from further comment, he's probably a very nice man.

A fun book, and one could argue its actually better than the film itself, because of Colan and Palmer. They could draw the hell out of anything.

Howard the Duck Magazine Ad - Marvel

Marie Severin rules, even when drawing a sexy chick with a duck's face.

Hulk Movie Magazine - Titan

Summer 2003 - This one ain't going down easy.

Like I talked about yesterday with Tim Burton imposing his vision onto the Batman universe, the Hulk movie is another example--maybe the best example--of a director imposing his "vision" onto characters that can't support it, even with the Hulk's broad shoulders.

I get the feeling that Marvel and Avi Arad were so thrilled to land the Oscar-winning Ang Lee to direct their Hulk movie that they told themselves whatever he and co-screenwriter James Schamus came up with would be pure cinematic gold.

This souvenir magazine features interviews with all the cast--Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Josh Lucas, Nick Nolte, and Sam Elliott(whose role as Thunderbolt Ross seemed to consist of seventy-five variations on the phrase "Ok, boys, let's take 'em down!") plus Lee and Schamus.

There's also a nice piece on the Hulk in the comics(name-checking Lee, Kirby, Thomas, Trimpe, David, McFarlane, and Keown, and showing off some covers), the special effects, the Hulk video game, and even a talk with Lou Ferrigno!

During the special effects article, there are some preliminary character sketches and it's here where we see one of the places the movie went wrong:

...yes, it's the Gamma-poodle!

All I can think of when I see this was seeing the movie with a group of friends on a Saturday. After the scene of the Hulk essentially beating the Gamma Poodle to death, there was a slight pause, and in the back of the theater you could hear the voice of a small child, worrily asking their Dad "did the doggie die?"

Batman Returns #2 - Topps

Summer 1992 - My post on the Batman movie magazine two weeks ago garnered such a response that it didn't take me long to go out and find more mags of that type to talk about.

Of course, the best place to start is with the Batman sequel, Batman Returns. At the time, I absolutely loved the movie, and was completely buying into the idea that these Bat-Movies were the best comic book film adaptations, ever.

With the benefit of hindsight(and approximately forty million comic book movies having been produced since), I can see the Burton Bat-Films for what they are--solid attempts at presenting Batman to a mass audience not as a buffoonish clown with a gut, but a grim avenger of the night.

But I also see that the characters and concepts get crushed under Burton's obsessive focus on the same themes that are in nearly all his films--loneliness, sadness, missed chances. Oh, and clowns. Lots of clowns.

After the massive success of the first film, it seems Warner Bros. pretty much let Burton do what he wanted for the second film, and he went a tad overboard.

Danny Devito as the Penguin was great casting, but the design of what is normally a goofy character was so hideous and dark that its just too much. Indeed, this magazine is actually just a giant poster folded up. There were three issues in the series, and when you fold this one out, you get the Penguin "teaser" poster:

...I mean, who wouldn't this on their wall?

Audiences felt the same, and while Batman Returns was a hit, it fell far short of the first film. And indeed, with the next film, both Burton and Michael Keaton were gone, turning the franchise over to Joel Schumacher.

But the less said about that, the better.

P.S.: The last page features an ad for the third and final issue, featuring lots of photos of Michelle Pfeiffer in her skin-tight Catwoman costume. Crap! Why didn't I buy that one?!?

Superman and Batman Magazine #4 - DC

Spring 1994 - Another fun-filled issue starring the heroes of the DCU!

As you can guess from the cover, Robin the Boy Wonder takes the center stage in this issue.

After the regular "Daily Planet" feature (concerned this time about an anti-gun Batman PSA comic called Seduction of the Gun, as well as featuring a small piece about former TV Jimmy Olsen Jack Larson) is a cute "Draw Your Favorite Comics Hero" section, where one kid draws the Joker...?

The first comic feature is "Trial Run" starring Batman and Robin, by Kelley Puckett, Mike Parobeck, and Rick Burchett, which does indeed star Robin. As usual, Parobeck's worth is spot-on and gorgeous.

Next is a How to Draw Superman feature, an article on "Karate Kids", and then this issue's Hero File stars Captain Marvel...er, Shazam!, and features an awesome pin-up by Ty Templeton:

The Shazam! story is called "The Scarab Necklace" by Jerry Ordwat, Parobeck, and Burchett. Why, again, wasn't there a Shazam! comic just like this one?

The last page is about Batman:TAS director Kevin Altieri, featuring a goofy caricature by Bruce Timm.

Another solid issue, and I'll always wonder by Captain Marvel never got his own animated series...

Crime Machine #2 - Skywald

I have to admit, I was a tad disappointed to learn that Skywald's Crime Machine was filled with nothing but reprints from old crime comics from the 1950's, not original material.

When I first learned of this mag's existence, I was dreaming of some of talent Skywald was using at the time for its Nightmare and Psycho books, except on crime material. I mean, even the name sounds cool and hard and mean--Crime Machine. But, no. Maybe that's why it only lasted two issues?

Anyway, Skywald did spring for a new cover by Tom Palmer, which is quite nice. The Table of Contents features top cop Nat Grover(not exactly "Cannon" or "Hunter", but...) introducing the stories, talking fast so hopefully the reader won't discover he's just paid 50 cents for a book full of reprints(ok, I'll stop).

The first story is "No Jail Can Hold Him!" by an unknown writer(alas, all of these tales writers are lost to the mists of time) and drawn by Carmine Infantino and Vince Alascia. A mobster's bookworm brother breaks him out of jail, and in doing so they take some hostages and force one of them to promise to name their upcoming child after him! They do which buys the hostages some time, enough for the cops to catch up with them and open fire!

The bookworm brother gives up with one of the more unconvincing changes of heart, ever: "I don't know what came over me. Please let me go back to my Sunday School teaching again...I don't want any more excitement!" And the cops buy this.

One odd thing(well, one more odd thing) in this story is that, judging by the lettering, all the names of these characters have been changed somewhere down the line. Whether it looked like this in its original appearance in Prison Break #5 (1951, Avon) or was altered by Skywald, I don't know.

Next is "Francine O'Connor...The Empress of Crime!" drawn by the late, great Tex Blaisdell(a former Kubert School instructor of mine, great guy with amazing stories to tell), about a beautiful moll who felt no remorse about killing people who got in her way! The story takes a million twists and turns in just seven pages, and has room for this panel:

Good old-fashioned nightmare fuel!

Third is "Charlie Lupetti and His Bullet-Proof Gang", drawn by...unknown! It features a criminal with enough chutzpah to try and break into prison! It has a fun, ghoulish ending, more horror comic-ish than you'd expect.

Following that is a text fiction piece "The Corpse In The Lake!", and then we have "Lou 'Limpy' Savatto--Hired Gunman", again by unknown, about a kid who runs away from home and quickly falls into a life of crime. It ends with the uninspiringly-named "Limpy" dead, "lay[ing] in a pool of his own gore." Hmm, maybe Dr. Wertham was right...

Next is "Leech McCoy--Incendiary Killer!", credits also unknown, but featuring a much different art style than the rest of these tales--its much more realistic and seems photo-referenced in some spots, with a lot of heavy blacks. Leech--or Leach, as its spelled in some places in the story--gets it in the end, of course, but he was hoping to take the dirty rat coppers with him!

After that is the wonderfully titled "Juanita Perez, The Gypsy Killer!", again by the Tex Blasidell. Juanita is a tough little broad, always using her feminine wiles to talk dim bulbs into stealing for her--but as Juanita says:

I had a girlfriend like this once.

Next is "Waxie Gordon!" (what is with these mobster's names? Limpy, Leech, Waxie?) drawn by Mike Becker and Rocke Mastroserio. Waxie is a two-bit pickpocket who ends up running the whole show! That is, of course, until he runs into Uncle Sam's T-Men!(sorry, I slipped into Walter Winchell there for a second) It features one of the most gripping final panels in the history of comics!:

You monster!

...as if anything could follow that, we've got "The Masqueraders" written and drawn by ?, from I.W.'s Justice Traps The Guilty #83. It features a gang of masked crooks, some nice clean art, and a detective who notices a clue so obscure it would've put Batman to shame.

Then there's another text piece, "Death In The Air!" and following that(*whew!*) is "Easy Money" by Becker and Alascia, again from Avon's Prison Break, about a crook brought down by a double-cross. Why, I oughta...

Then we end with one more text piece, "Habit Traps A Killer!" I'd love to describe what happens, but after reading so many similar crime stories I was so exhausted that I barely remember what it said, and that was twenty minutes ago. You have to give Skywald credit--this mag may have been filled with old reprints, but they squeezed in as much as they could in sixty-eight pages.

Oh, and there's an ad for David Cassidy and Bobby Sherman posters, contrasting quite nicely with the out-of-date crime material.

Dracula Lives! Ad - Marvel

I love this ad.

That is all.

Tomb of Dracula Ad - Marvel

Gene Colan + Dracula + black and white = can't go wrong.

Crazy Ad - Marvel

I never got into Crazy too much--I was more of a Cracked man, myself.

But after having read the first issue a way back, I was impressed at the high level of talent it attracted. Maybe at the next comic con I'll try and pick up some of them on the cheap and give Crazy a proper look-see.

Vampire Tales Ad - Marvel

I always liked the Morbius character. I would've loved to see him participate in one of those DC/Marvel crossovers in the 70s, like with The Phantom Stranger or Deadman. That would've kicked supernatural ass.

Planet of the Apes Ad - Marvel

I'm hip-deep in projects this week, so I decided this was the perfect time to do an oft-planned week of Marvel magazine ads.

As good or bad as Marvel's general output was, their sense of showmanship was second to none, and the ads they ran in their b/w magazines made you need--not just want--their publications.

It occurs to me I haven't talked about Marvel's POTA magazine very much, I'll have to rectify that soon.

The Destroyer #1 - Marvel

I picked up a random issue of The Destroyer a month or so ago, and was pleasantly surprised by what I found--the story, even coming in the middle of it, was terse and exciting, and the artwork by Lee Weeks was solid.

This is the very first issue, which kicks off the way any good Marvel magazine should--with a cover by our pal Joe Jusko, whose name you can see as the second file folder behind Remo Williams'.

The magazine opens with a martial arts master being asked to train Remo Williams, for a super-secret project to "cure" America.

Meanwhile, former police officer Williams is being convicted for a murder he says he didn't commit. Williams is sent to the electric chair(!), but then we find that the whole thing is a ruse--Williams was knocked out, given plastic surgery, and is told he's being given "a second chance at life", by a mysterious man with a hook for a hand named MacCleary.

Then there's all kinds of super-secret stuff going on, featuring a council meeting in a dark room, discussing America's safety, a giant radioactive atomic bomb-firing handgun, and some dim-bulb who finds himself in the middle of all this by stealing the gun.

He ends up holed up in a house after the FBI tracks him down, so they send Remo Williams in, which leads to this disturbingly unusual panel:

...you didn't see this happen much to Nick Fury!

The issue ends with a really brutal fight between the guy, named Arlo Deetz, and Remo, with Remo karate-chopping off Arlo's right hand and beating him to a pulp. He secures the gun, and then disappears, off to train with his mysterious martial arts trainer.

These Remo Williams stories are tough and no-frills, and I assume writer Will Murray is partly aping the original novel's style. Either way, they make for an exciting read, and the lack of James Bond-esque crazy gadgetry is cool. Lee Weeks' art is perfect for these stories--simple and effective.

And, except for the Punisher ads on the back cover, you'd be hard pressed to know these were done by Marvel at all, so different in tone than most of the other stuff they were putting out at the time.
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On a completely unrelated note, I've done my first "Guest Blogger" piece over at my pal Pierre's excellent Frankensteinia blog.

So if you just can't get enough of my thoughts on obscure bits of comic book arcana(and who can?), go check it out here. Thanks!

Point Blank #2 - John Brown/Acme/Eclipse

I've talked about the joint publication Point Blank before, and enjoyed the first issue so much I had always planned to find the other issues.

Sadly, that should be other issue, singular, because Point Blank folded up shop after a measly two issues.

Which is a darn shame, since both the conception and execution of the magazine was well done--presenting European "noir" strips, in black and white in a nice big magazine size.

Maybe if Eclipse had started out with some more commercial material(to American comic readers, at least) instead of the low-key stuff they chose Point Blank would've lasted longer. Oh well.

Like the first issue, the book opens up with "Marvin" by Giancarlo Berardi and Ivo Milazzo, about a private eye who was a former Hollywood screen idol and who is now working on a case ("The Case of Marion Colman") to find a missing girl, but gets in way over his head.

The story and art are just great, very atmospheric, but there's even an extended sequence set on a battlefield, which artist Milazzo does as well as any war comic I've seen in a while:

...I love that final panel. That feels like an explosion to me.

Next is "Dieter Lumpen" by Jorge Zentner and Ruben Pellejero, starring in two stories, "Time Bomb" and "His Master's Voice." Having won a game of Russian Roulette in the previous issue, Dieter finds himself wandering across Asia, where he meets a dangerous dame(of course!) and gets caught up in a local war. Like the last issue, this story features a superb noir-ish splash page:

While "Marvin" was a continued strip, "Dieter" wraps up here, to be replaced by a new strip in the third issue...*sigh*.

Batman Official Movie Magazine - Topps

1989 - I wouldn't normally think to cover mags like this here, since, unlike the Warren ones, these things were pretty much just boring, slick long-form ads, with none of the goofy flights of fancy that occurred before Stock Art guides started being issued.

But when I saw this for sale for a measly buck from the same eBay seller I was buying other things from, it was too good(?) to resist.

Back in 1988/1989, I simply could not get enough info on the Batman movie. Quite simply, I was obsessed with it, and since this was pre-internet (back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth), info was much harder to come by.

In the end, I sort of diminished the fun for myself of seeing the damn thing, because before I had even walked in the theater I knew way too much about what happened in it. (I've since learned from that, and keep my efforts to a minimum nowadays)

Anyway, this magazine is, as you would expect, a big sloppy wet kiss to the Batman movie, filled with articles on Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, and their respective characters. Plus there's stuff on the Batmobile, the production design, the Batwing, etc. There's even a still from a cut scene from the movie:

...you see that happen sometimes, since giant blockbusters like this get tinkered with pretty much right up to its release. There's also some neat pre-production concepts(like Tim Burton's initial ideas for the Joker, who looked more like the Scarecrow), and some brief history of Batman as a comic book character.

Most surprisingly to me was a fairly long piece of collecting Batman merchandise. Sure, it was in Warner Bros.' best interest to make that seem cool, since they were about to deluge America with a tidal wave of Bat-Crap, but it still makes for a fun piece:

...collecting any and all Aquaman stuff is expensive enough, I can't imagine what kind of cash you have to lay out to collect Batman merchandise, or where the hell you would even store it all!

I'm a little surprised that the Official Movie Magazine concept is still around, in this post-internet world, but I still seem them all the time, for every major league blockbuster. I guess some concepts are just too good ever to go away completely.

Hmm, maybe I'll buy the upcoming one for The Dark Knight and compare...

The Superheroes Monthly Vol.1 #11 - DC/Egmont

The British Superheroes Monthly magazine mostly focused on the Big Three every issue, so it's nice to see the Winged Wonder get some love this time(although it does kinda look like Batman is chasing him here). Nice painting by Bryan Talbot.

The main story is indeed Hawkman(and Hawkgirl!), "Creature of a Thousand Shapes" by Gardner Fox and Joe Kubert, from their first appearance in Brave and the Bold #34.

After the letters page put together by editor Vanessa Morgan is the second classic, "Earth's Final Hour!" by Mike Friedrich, Dick Dillin, and Joe Giella, from Justice League of America #86, an unusually Aquaman-centric story.

On the inside back cover is a PSA, "Can You Help Superman Unmask the Evil of Nick O'Teen?", with a certificate that you can send in to get a "Free Superman Kit", which includes a poster, an 8-page comic, certificate, and badge. Neat-o!

On the inside front cover is an ad for four "Super-Annuals" that, from their covers, look absolutely astounding:

...man, I have got to get my hands on these someday.

Criminal Vol.2 #1 - Marvel/Icon

Feb. 2008 - If you'll indulge me for today, I wanted to talk about a really great comic that, to me, cries out to be in the magazine format.

Criminal is from Marvel's Icon imprint, written by Ed Brubaker (whose Captain America run, in my mind, is about as good as any Cap run, ever) and drawn by Sean Phillips.

The title is an anthology of sorts, featuring different multi-issue storylines featuring different characters, all of them living in the hard-bitten crime noir world that the title suggests.

This is the third series so far (the first two being Coward and Lawless), and this time focuses on a boxer, his best friend, a criminal enterprise, and (of course) a thick-skinned dame who the boxer can't get out of his mind.

The art by Phillips is superb, as is the moody coloring by Val Staples. I especially love this sequence, where even though the dame is beautiful, she still has that beaten down look that everyone in crime fiction does:

The reason I say this should be in the magazine format is because of the presentation. Not only is the story for and about adults, but it also features editorial pieces about crime movies (in this case "The Secret Ingredient of Crime"), as well as an "appreciation" of genre author David Goodis. The ads in the book are not your typical comic book ads for candy and video games, either--they're for crime fiction magazines like Crimespree or book publishers like the Hard Case Crime series.

In fact, the only thing I don't totally love about the presentation is the paper stock--it's shiny and bright, and even though I'm sure it highlights Phillips' beautiful work better, this kind of story cries out to be on that cheap newsprint stock Marvel and Warren used to use.

This is the kind of comic that would appeal to non-comic-book readers, since it assumes a familiarity with crime novels and movies that, say, the average Amazing Spider-Man reader probably doesn't have. It's an ideal candidate to be a breakout book, the kind that gets sold in regular bookstores and even (gasp!) newsstands and drugstores.

I know from previous examples that the magazine format is a hard sell(notice IDW's attempt with Doomed), but nevertheless I'd love to see Criminal give it a shot sometime.