Some of you may not know that my wife Kat and I do a movie podcast called Married With Clickers. Every May we focus exclusively on disaster movies for what we call ArMAYgeddon. To help relieve our guilt about laughing at people's cinematic misfortunate, we have decided to give 25 cents to the Red Cross's relief efforts in Nepal for every ArMAYgeddon episode downloaded this month.
There are five episodes this month, covering The Swarm, Titanic (1943), Meteor, The Day the Earth Caught Fire and San Francisco. If you download them all, you've help add $1.25 to the fund. We can be found by search for Married With Clickers on iTunes, as well as Stitcher radio. Episodes can be downloaded directly from our Libsyn site at the link below.
http://marriedwithclickers.libsyn.com/
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Steve Ditko Cover of the Week: Journey Into Mystery #58
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Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Add It To My Want List: Batman - Mask of the Phantasm
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Thursday, May 21, 2015
Happy Birthday Lee Elias
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Thursday, May 14, 2015
Charlton Notebook: Just Married #81
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Thursday, April 23, 2015
Trade Marks: Black Beetle - No Way Out
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You've Been Warned: DC Special Series #6
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Wednesday, April 22, 2015
My Reading Pile: December 1978
I haven't done these in a while, but I've been reading and re-reading from this era a lot in the past couple of weeks so I thought I would see what I actually read back then as a 6 year old.
I don't recall how this Scooby-Doo issue came into my life, but I did end up reading quite a few of the Marvel/Hanna-Barbera books back then. I know that I had some Laff-A-Lympics, for sure. Scooby-Doo #8 is the only issue of the Marvel version of this series that I remember owning. I think that the Gold Key creative team of Evanier and Spiegle was still in place as Chase Craig remained as editor. I'm not sure what happened to these titles. Maybe the licensing got too pricey?
Godzilla #17 is what inspired meto revisit this month as someone posted the cover on an internet group and I dug out my old copy. How could I not have picked this up as a 6 year old. I was absolutely nuts for dinosaurs and Godzilla (I would soon be a proud owner of a Godzilla Shogun Warrior). This remains a very fun book as S.H.I.E.L.D. uses Pym particles to turn Godzilla into the cutest little thing that you ever did seen. Gabe learns that those teeth as still sharp, though.
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Back in the olden days, kids like me learn about major events in Peter Parker's life through reprints such as Marvel Tales #98. I surely couldn't afford an original back then and there were no Essentials or Masterworks so I did a lot of Spidey reading via Marvel Tales. It was just fine to learn about Gwen's death a few years late as I was not exactly plugged into the fanboy network as a 6 year old.
If you know me at all, you'll know that Brave and the Bold is my all-time favourite series so you will usually see an issue during these entries. Brave and the Bold #145 remains near and dear to my heart as it introduced me to The Phantom Stranger and contained some of Jim Aparo's finest B&B artwork, in my humble opinion. It was also one of my first experience with a voodoo-based story. That kind of thing leaves an impression on a boy!
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Back in the olden days, kids like me learn about major events in Peter Parker's life through reprints such as Marvel Tales #98. I surely couldn't afford an original back then and there were no Essentials or Masterworks so I did a lot of Spidey reading via Marvel Tales. It was just fine to learn about Gwen's death a few years late as I was not exactly plugged into the fanboy network as a 6 year old.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Gil Kane Cover of the Month: Our Army At War #3
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Reprint This! The Adventures of Alan Ladd
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Monday, April 20, 2015
Hidden Gems: Marvel Super Action #4
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Tuesday, April 14, 2015
R.I.P. Herb Trimpe
I learned this afternoon that Mr. Trimpe has passed away. From all accounts, he was a great human being. I was an admirer of his artwork and I've reworked a piece I wrote on him 7 or 8 years ago.
Herb Trimpe was a real Marvel mainstay for those of us who devoured comics in the Bronze Age. Although mostly associated with the Incredible Hulk, he could draw everything from westerns to monster books. I’ve always admire his clean look which almost seemed to be the Marvel ‘house’ look because he worked on so many titles.
The strange thing is; I still think his best work was his first full length story – the “Phantom Eagle” from Marvel Super-Heroes #16. How many artists hit the ball completely out of the park on their first at-bat in the big leagues? Here are a couple of pages from that issue.
Trimpe also has a real knack for cover design – so many of his Hulk covers played with perspective to make them even more dynamic. Sometimes even just a slight tilting could bring a static image to life. Here’s my favorite of his Hulk covers (also used for a Power Records cover, IIRC) and one of his best western covers. It’s just dazzling – it’s really too bad that westerns went out of fashion because I truly believe that many artists excelled in that genre.
Trimpe definitely became the go-to guy at Marvel when they began licensing everything under the sun (see. Shogun Warriors, Godzilla and G.I. Joe to name but a few). Obviously Jim Shooter had faith in Trimpe, and put him on one high profile assignment after another. His versatility is indeed one of his real strengths as he really could do nice job on just about anything. You want a re-cap of Star Wars in a single page? Herb’s your man.
Like so many skilled Bronze Age artists, Trimpe seemed to fall off the radar screen at Marvel. Tastes change and it’s too bad that so many artists seem to be put out to pasture long before their time. He’s still doing work from time to time (I believe his did a recent BPRD issue for Dark Horse) For those looking to get a taste of Herb Trimpe at this best – I highly recommend tracking down that Phantom Eagle story, his work of the latter issues of Nick Fury and his take on Ant-Man in Marvel Feature. Frugal Hulk fans know that there’s a goldmine of fun Trimpe art in the Essentials volumes.
Rest in Peace, Herb. You will be missed. Thanks for the countless hours of entertainment.
Monday, April 13, 2015
Kids' Corner: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
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Thursday, April 09, 2015
Highlighting House Ads: Atom 2
I've said it before and I'll said it again: I love the Atom! He's one of my all-time favourite heroes but he has never had what could be described as a top tier Rogues Gallery. To be honest, it's not even second tier. Chronos is his Joker. That's a bit sad. Chronos actually isn't a terrible villain, but his costume has always left a lot to be desired. Those pants!!! This is a fun ad, though as it introduces Chronos and his time-based powers. As much as I love the cover to Atom #2, it actually does not let the reader know anything about the villain. I'm always happy whenever I see bags with dollar signs on them! This is classic early 60s DC house advertising: super busy, a variety of fonts and tons of charm.
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
Crystal Ball Covers
If you read enough comics, you'll realize that crystal balls were used as a cover gimmick in many genres, over many decades. Let's take a look at a handful of them.
Let's start with Warlord #20 (April, 1979). Of all of the long-running DC series of the 70s and 80s, Warlord may be the one with which I am the least familiar. I have read a bunch, but it never really clicked with me. I should probably give it another chance. I like this Mike Grell cover a lot. He's crammed a lot onto the page, but it doesn't seem too busy. Great design. This was a favourite gimmick for the series as crystal balls were also featured on the covers of issue 16 and 63.
I am sure that somewhere along the way, I have declared myself to be a fan of John Force, Magic Agent. If I haven't, let me do it. now. The cover to Magic Agent #2 (March-April, 1962) is a great example of ACG charm. It's so clean, simple and innocent that it's hard to imagine that they were trying to compete with Marvel and DC. I love Kurt Schaffenberger, and he was a great fit on this type of series. It's too bad he didn't do the interior artwork but Paul Reinman is also underrated.
I cannot discuss crystal ball covers without including Mike Kaluta's awesome cover to House of Secrets #99 (August, 1972). It's obviously an homage to M.C. Escher's Hand With Reflective Sphere, a lithograph first printed in 1935. My guess is that this was on dorm rooms across America back in '72 and that Kaluta's cover resulted in a collective "Whoa - far out, man!". Great stuff and one of the most iconic covers from that series.
Let's visit the superhero genre, as countless heroes have appeared in crystal balls over the years, including the JLA (Justice League of America #21 and #29) and the Legion (LOSH #303). I'll go with Invaders #30 (March, 1979), though, as I actually had it as a kid. I'm not a huge fan of Alan Kupperberg but this cover is decent. I'm not sure that I'd want to be stuck in a confined space with someone called The Whizzer.
For my final selection, I am returning to the horror genre with the cover to The Witching Hour #77 (July, 1977). I am sure that we can all agree that the story title "Coffee, Tea... or Kill!" is awesome, but so is Luis Dominguez' cover. I've seen skeleton Doctors, Santas, Cabbies and Pilots but this is the first Skeleton Stewardess (sorry, Flight Attendant) that I've ever seen. Very patriotic witch, too.
That is just the tip of the iceberg. There are tons of great Crystal Ball Covers out there, so keep your eyes peeled.
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That is just the tip of the iceberg. There are tons of great Crystal Ball Covers out there, so keep your eyes peeled.
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