Outland Revisited

I've always liked this film, but over the past decade or so I've heard many people refer to it as weak High Noon rip-off. Unfortunately, sometimes a film can develop such a reputation that it is difficult to see it without importing certain biases. I caught it again on late night digital cable last week, and was pleasantly surprised by how much I still like it. Sure, it has flaws as well as elements of High Noon, but the whole coroporate corruption angle makes for a nice 80s update.

The real strongpoint here is Connery's slow burn. Like many of you, I kind of cringe when I think of much of the Scotsman's work over the past 20 years. Here, he is at his best when he is very human - best represented in the scene where his wife leaves him by video message (nice). I don't recall ever feeling sorry for a Connery character before. I'd say that this film is primed for a remake, but it really hasn't aged all that much. Sure, some of the computer screen shots could use an upgrade, but the sets and costumes are as effective as they are low tech. Much like John Carpenter's the Thing, and Ridley Scott's Alien - the atmosphere here is palpable, it's one of desperation compounded by remoteness. For a thinking man's thriller, you can do much worse than Outland. Now, if only they'd stop showing the same dark and dirty print on TV!

Reprint This! Blackhawk #252-#273

Here's a new feature to my blog - a chance to highlight all of the good stuff that should be put into TPB form for all to enjoy. I'm starting with a fairly obvious choice, but many of you may not be aware of the wonderful take on Blackhawk by the team of Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle. Blackhawk is a tough, tough series to keep fresh as, in many ways, it was no longer a viable strip after the end of WW2. The series was kept alive at Quality and it was still quite an entertaining read in the 50s. The transition to DC was a rough one, and the Junk Heap Heroes experiment could have proven fatal.

The final two issues of that Blackhawk series, pencilled by personal favourite Pat Boyette, were the strongest Blackhawk stories in eons. My guess is that Mark Evanier had those issues in mind when he started writing this early 80s masterpiece. Somehow Evanier and Dan Spiegle were able to find the right balance of action, adventure, drama and humour that had eluded so many Blackhawk creators in the past. Even though the war was ancient history, the Evanier/Spiegle team created a timeless feel to their book and made us relive the threat of Hitler and the Nazis as well as the optimism in the Blackhawks' cause.

Many comic books have tried to return to WW2 (Wonder Woman in World's Finest, the Invaders) but none made it as compelling as this series. Dan Spiegle remains one of the most underrated comic book artists of all-time and I am starting to see he and Evanier as one of the greatest collaborative teams in comic book history. Spiegle can draw everything and anything, and his stories move along beautifully. Perhaps that is why he is rarely mentioned in the same sentence as a Kirby or and Adams - he never makes you stop and say 'Wow - look at that!' He just knows how to tell a story. As a bonus, you've got wonderful covers by the likes of Kane and Cockrum.

This is a perfect candidate for reprint treatment, and I simply cannot understand why DC hasn't done it yet!

Steve Ditko Cover of the Week: Blue Beetle #3

I love the fact that, after leaving Marvel, Steve Ditko continued to produce Spider-Man covers for those fine folks in Derby, Connecticut. Ditko somehow accomplishes the impossible, making the former Oddball Hall of Famer Blue Beetle seem almost cool. BB's action pose is pure Spidey goodness, and kids must have scratched their heads wondering why they suddenly felt compelled to actually purchase a Charlton comic. I wonder if the Madmen would have eventually ended up as a Spidey foe, but they seem a bit too weird for the Marvel Universe. Ditko obviously has a thing for clown-like characters. The colours are borderline garish but great, and Ditko has really managed to infuse this cover will an enormous amount of kinetic energy. Charlton's brief Giordano-led renaissance was a sight to behold but all good things must come to and end. Luckily, Ditko had a few more wonderful Blue Beetle covers in his arsenal before the whole thing imploded.

Enter the Dragon Covers

There aren't many things as cool, or as disorienting, as a hall of mirrors. The final sequence to Enter the Dragon featuring a hall made up of reportedly 1,000 mirrors helped make Bruce Lee an icon. Comic book creators were also keenly aware of the dramatic possibilities afforded by a hall of mirrors. There are plenty of covers, which I've decided to call Enter the Dragon covers (much cooler than Hall of Mirror covers, dontcha think?), with all sorts of different twists on the themes. Here are a handful of the best:

The team of Andru and Esposito created countless classic covers over the years, and this cover to Wonder Woman #134 is no exception. I've heard said that if you are ever looking for a specific comic book cover theme, check out Wonder Woman, as every bit of ground has been covered. Wonder Woman is somewhat taken aback by her hostile reflections, and we can only wonder if the Mirror Master has decided to make a cameo appearance in the Amazon's title. This raises an interesting questions (and fans of Heroes may have some insight) - why is our Mirror-self always nastier than our real life persona?

A few years later, Neal Adams decided to try his hand at an Enter the Dragon cover for Detective Comics #389. The Mirror Batman makes the Mirror Wonder Woman look downright friendly. DC was wise to have Neal Adams do so many covers in the late 60s, but I really feel like they shot themselves in the foot with their giant Detective Comics with Batman and Batgirl logo. On this cover, it almost seems that Batman is hunched over so that he doesn't bang his head on the logo. All in all it makes for a somewhat squished Enter the Dragon cover, which doubles the claustrophobia, I guess.

Around the same time, the folks at Marvel decided to get in on Enter the Dragon with Gene Colan's Daredevil #61 cover. Luckily, for DD's sake, it seems that the 6 Emissaries of Evil has been reduced to a mere threesome, the newly dubbed Trio of Doom (whatever happened to the good old Marvel alliteration?). While it is quite a handsome cover, there are a couple of things that bother me. First, Daredevil's reflection is all wrong - the leg nearest to the mirror should be reflect, but perhaps I'm being a bit anal. Second, and this is the big one, is precisely what effect would a hall of mirrors have on a blind man? Would DD simply focus on hearbeats etc...? It seems like a simple solution to me. I guess I've got to go back an re-read the issue.

I've saved the absolute best for last. It's the best only because I owned it as a child, and things that have nostalgic value to me always win top honours. It's my blog so I can make up whatever rules I want. The late 70s was a great time to be a kid - Twilight Zone episodes were still re-run on a regular basis, and the Gold Key comic remained on spinner racks more than a decade after the show's cancellation. I'm certain that I obtained Twilight Zone #90 as part of a 3-pack on a road trip - probably along with a Little Lulu and Adam-12. This cover is absolutely gorgeous. I assumed that it's by George Wilson, but I can never be sure with Gold Keys. It's a real shame that they didn't provide creator credits and I would love to see the Gold Key titles indexes some day. Don't ask me to do it, because I'm lazy and I'd just put down Frank Bolle for everything.

Folks, that's just the tip of the iceberg. I'd love to hear about some of your favourites.

Steve Gerber: Adventures Without Fear

This morning, I logged onto my computer at work and was saddened to learn that Steve Gerber had died.

One of the first comic books I remember owning was Howard the Duck #10. It was published a few months before my 5th birthday. I am not sure how this ended up in my hands, but I’m guess my parents saw a duck and Spider-Man and must have thought this was the perfect comic book for me. My road to becoming and uber-cool comic book fan was somewhat delayed by the fact that I absolutely hated this book. Like many monsters, I tend to hate things I don’t understand and boy did I ever not understand this comic. It stayed in my collection, and I tried to read it again several times over the next few years. Each time, I grew more frustrated, as I simply did not understand what was going on. Sure, there was some sort of straightforward story that I could follow, but there was also something beneath the surface that I just didn’t get.

That was my intro to the world of Steve Gerber. I guess you could say that I hated him before I even knew who he was.

Of course, we don’t remain petty little children forever and over time, I read more and more of Steve Gerber’s work and the light bulb hidden in the basement of my puny brain eventually came on.

Steve Gerber was one of the most important comic book creators of all-time. His ability to blend humour, fantasy, science-fiction, politics and action into a big bowl of satirical gumbo was something that hadn’t been seen before in comics. I’ve been reading the Essential Man-Thing collection lately, and I’m amazed at how he can make reference to Lord of the Rings and the Hanoi Hilton on a single page without it coming across in the lame ‘there goes the gang at Marvel trying to be cool again’ manner that we’ve seen so often. A true testament to the man’s talent is that his books have not aged at all. They are still wonderfully entertaining to this very day.

When Stan Lee christened him as Steve ‘Baby’ Gerber, it was kind of like calling a fat guy ‘Tiny’ or a bald guy ‘Curly’. Steve’s fight for creators’ rights demonstrated a level of maturity and intelligence that belied his nickname. I don’t have a real appreciation of the inner workings of the funnybook industry, but it is obvious that Gerber’s lawsuit against Marvel was struck a real chord, and he became a source of inspiration for many other creators. It is a real challenge to be influential on both a creative and political level. Steve Gerber managed to do both beautifully. He was a rare breed and I am very, very happy that I never gave up on trying to understand Howard the Duck #10.

Rest in peace, Steve. Thanks for everything.

The Veronica Martian Chronicles

A long time ago, we used to be friends… Unfortunately, you were nowhere near as cool as Veronica Mars so I stopped calling.

Veronica Mars, the Nancy Drew for the new millennium is about as cool as it gets. Actually, she’s so cool that it requires suspension of disbelief, but that’s ok. I was pretty late to this series (partially because it was only slowly picked up by Canadian networks during its initial run), but have enjoyed marathon DVD sessions. This is a bit of a tweener series – probably too hip for the CSI crowd and too complex for the ‘I want Heidi Montag’s life’ crown. Hence, like all superior shows it dies a premature death. I’ve just finished the second season and I have been reluctant eyeing Season 3 on my local video store’s shelf. As I did with Freaks & Geeks and Like Arrested Development, I try to savour every episode – relishing every witty retort, every clever detective technique.

Season 2 was a real improvement over the 1st one. Getting rid of the whole Kane family saga was wise, as the Lily flashbacks grew tiresome and Duncan was the show’s weakest character (and actor). We also get to see the more sinister elements in Neptune, as Veronica is now contending with tough gangs rather than simply wannabe frat boys. I’m constantly impressed with the writing – the ability to lace a good mystery with plenty of witty banter is a real skill, and it is done beautifully here. If you’ve ever wanted to know all about Veronica Mars, but were afraid to ask, take a chance. Pick it up and see what everyone missed while it was on.

You've Been Warned: Brave and the Bold (2007) #1

Even though it only cost me $1, I felt very hesistant to pick up this book as it's risky seeing your favourite series of all-time relaunched. It reminds me of that Tina Fey line about the rumore Bennifer remake of Casablanca "It's for those who liked the original, but wished it was terrible". Waid script start off just fine - a bit of a classic Batman mystery and some decent dialogue. Then we hit Vegas. I thought that only TV writers were obsessed with Vegas, now we've got to see out favourite JLAers playing poker. By this point, I've pretty much given up.

Actually, it was the mental exhaustion from trying to follow the action in the Batcave fight that first made me groan. I can't believe I used to really like Perez (we're talking post-Dillin JLA and Song of the Tiger here, folks). I could not make heads or tails of what was happening in most of the fight scenes. By the time I saw Bruce and Hal chatting up some women in circa 1981 Studio 54 outfits, I knew that I would not be buying #2. I kept expecting Terry Long to show up in one of his suits with super-wide lapels. When is the last time George Perez turned on the TV or read a magazine? I recommend picking up a copy of the original Brave and Bold #200 to cleanse the palate.

Steve Ditko Cover of the Week: Machine Man #11

Marvel relaunched Jack Kirby's Machine Man after a hiatus of nearly a year with Steve Ditko taking over the art chores. It may some like heresy to Kirby fans, but I think it was a major improvement. The flexibility and fluidity that Ditko gave to Machine Man really makes the character work for me - you need a bit of whimsy in a series about a robot. The cover to Machine Man #11 is pure bliss for a Ditko fan. It is so simple, and yet so powerful. He's playing around with perspective here - the right arms seems to be reaching out to the reader for help as the left arm disappears into nothingness. This creates a real sense of vertigo. It still astonishes me that DC and Marvel would often have someone other than Ditko provide the cover for his books. This man knew how to design a cover - and Machine Man #11 is one the finest he did in the late 70s.

A Month of Pure Dick

I’m not exactly the world’s greatest expert on science-fiction but I decided to dive headfirst into a rather unsettling experiment. I would read four books by Philip K. Dick back to back to back to back. By the end of the month, my brain hurt, but I think that’s because it expanded a good deal. I’m still a little unsure out what to make of some of the themes and ideas in Dick’s books, but I always say that's a good sign. Here's a quick overview of the 4 novels I tackled.

The Man in the High Castle
As I understand, this is seen by many to be Dick’s masterpiece. It is both epic and approachable (did I just use wine terminology?). The comic book fan will enjoy the What If?/Elseworlds feel to it as Dick does paint a pretty convincing picture of how WW2 might have ended. The book brought Stephen King’s The Stand to mind, as they both deals with macro issues trickling down to a micro level. I am still fascinated by the Japanese obsession with Americana that Dick so vividly described. It is hard not to see him as being quite prescient. A fine read that I’d recommend to anyone, not just nerds.

Dr. Futurity
As I understand this is a fairly minor work by Dick, but I enjoy it immensely. The complexities of time travel and its impact on the future (or present, as it were) are explored here and I was left contemplating some pretty big issues. It’s not as grand or sweeping as some of his other books, but it is an enjoyable read and left me quite satisfied.

Dr. Bloodmoney
This is a rambling epic with certain similarities to The Man in the High Castle, as people contend with a very uncomfortable post-apocalyptic future. Survivalism and anarchy are two of the major themes here, but the main thread that runs through the book is greed, or is it jealousy? Or is it bigotry? Or is it genetic & ethics? What I am getting at is that the one shortfall of this book is that too many major themes are explored, and none are resolved in a satisfying way. The whole time I was reading it, I thought ‘this would have made a great movie in the 70s’, but I’m guess I would have been disappointed with the ending. The concept is great, and the execution is good but somewhat flawed.

The Eye in the Sky
After reading this mind-bender, I had to take a break from Dick. It is perhaps the most challenging of his books that I’ve read. The challenge is that the narrative is somewhat obtuse and the ideas being explored here (mostly question of perception of realities) are doomed to leave the reader search for more satisfying answers. I am glad that it made my brain expand a little bit, but I kind of wish I has read it as an undergrad. My streetcar commute and solipsism do not mix well.

Doll Man's Knotty Adventures

Doll Man is one of the more interesting characters of the Golden Age. Although small in stature, he ended up having more legs (and showed more legs) than all but a handful of superheroes of the era. Perhaps one of the reasons for his staying power were the wonderfully creative covers designed for both Feature Comics and Doll Man’s eponymous title. Many of these covers feature all sort of wonderful bondage-based traps for our man Darrel Dane. Here’s a look at a few of my favourites.

All of the Doll Man bondage covers the cover to Feature Comics #93 is my favourite because of the sheer craziness of the trap. A James Bond villain could not have designed a better Dolltrap. This is about as crazy as it gets – as the villain took the time to hammer the pistol into place and used a very complex system of rope and knots. Correct me if I’m wrong, but won’t Doll Man be just fine if he simply back up and creates some slack in the rope? Like any Bond villain, I am certain that this guy was defeat because he was too clever for his own good.

The cover to Feature Comics #124 is an example of using everyday household objects as a part of your superhero torture plans. I am not sure exactly what is going on here, but I imagine Doll Man put a wrinkle in the villain’s plans. This obviously steamed off the bad guy who, feeling pressed for time, quickly thought up an ironclad way of ridding himself of his mini-foe. Doll Man’s fate depends on how quickly the iron’s automatic shut off kicks in.

The final selection for this round of Doll Man bondage covers comes from Doll Man #10. Like all of the others traps, the villain who set this one must have incredible fine motor skills. It’s must take a lot of patience and concentration to tie such teeny tiny knots. The Encylopedia Brown in me can tells me that Doll Man has been capture in England, as the hot and cold water faucets are on the wrong side (at least as far as us North Americans are concerned). So, not only is he dealing with some water torture; he might be groggy from jet lag. This may explain why he hasn’t figured out that all he needs to do to escape is grow back to normal size. Darrel Dane, you may be the smallest knife in the drawer, but you ain’t the sharpest.

Single Issue Hall of Fame: Captain America #259

Sure, this issue may come across as a bit of an After School Special, but sometimes you need a little warm & fuzzy preachiness in your early 80s funnybooks. While the cover may lead you to believe that this will simply be a throwdown between Cap and our man Otto, there's much, much more going on here. Cap has been asked by and old army buddy (he must have 10,000 of those) to track down his son, who has runaway to join a biker gang. OK - the fact that the bikers all look like they're audtioning for Easy Rider 2 is a bit funny, but it's tough to deny the power of Captain America's unrelenting earnestness. Added to all of this is a second storyling involving Doc Ock's desire to steal Cap's shield. It's amazing how much gets accomplished in a single issue. In the end, we learn that family is more important than gang membership. Sure it's a bit sappy, but it's an example of solid storytelling. Whenever I look back to stories that I've enjoyed reading over and over, I'm never surprised to see Dave Michelinie's name in the credits. Mike Zeck was always such a good fit for Cap - methinks a TPB of the stories put out by that creative team would look nice on my bookshelf.

Steve Ditko Cover of the Week: Cheyenne Kid #10

Ditko drawing a western? It happened, true believer and it looked good. Most of us associate Ditko's work as existing exclusively in the Super-Hero and Horror genres, but early in his career he tackled a wide variety of genres. This cover to Cheyenne Kid #10 (a book I'd love to track down one day) shows that Ditko had a good feel for what makes a western cover work. This wonderful portrayal of Custer's Last Stand may not be on par with the Paxson painting, but it's pretty impressive. Lots of great action, interesting perspective and you really see the dignity and desperation of the central figures.

It's too bad that Stan Lee didn't ask Ditko to contribute some covers during the Mighty Marvel Western period. There were some great Kirby covers to be sure, but I would have loved to see what Ditko would have done with characters like Rawhide Kid, Iron Mask or the Fat Man. I'd be interested in knowing whether or not Steve enjoyed drawing westerns or if, like many artists, he found drawing horses to be a pain in the saddle.

Quick DVD Reviews

Starter for 10
This is a lovely little piece of British filmmaking. James McAvoy is getting all sorts of press for Atonement, which is great because his role here (and as the glue in Last King of Scotland) was greatly overlooked. I haven’t seen a decent coming of age tale in a long, long time. So many are either too light (just about any American teenage comedy of the past two decades) or too dark (If… comes to mind). This one strikes the perfect balance – it’s as bittersweet as your 20th year. Grade: A-

Hot Fuzz
Another British comedy but this one is much more broad and has all the subtlety of an Arsenal fan. Lots of good laughs, especially in the first half as we get some nice ‘fish out of water’ moments. The plot gets in the way a bit in the second- half, but it’s still better than 90% of the comedies produced. For all I know the overly long and ridiculous shootout at the end was a clever shot by shot remake of the overly long and ridiculous shootout at the end of Bad Boys 2 (I wouldn’t know – haven’t seen it), but the joke wore thin and it ended up feeling over long and ridiculous. Grade: B+

300
This one didn’t do it for me. Felt like gladiator porn. I watched it in bits and pieces over 3 nights, so that’s not a good sign. I did like a few of the shots – especially the heavily silhouette stuff. It would have worked better as a straight battle movie – without all of the mystic/mythical stuff and if they had used a better computer for Xerxes’ voice. Grade: D

Lilliputian Bondage Covers

As I flipped through a stack of Kamandis, one cover in particular jumped out at me. Kamandi is tied down in a most Swiftian way. It occurred to me that I had seen some other covers that paid homage to Gulliver’s Travels, with a large central feature at the mercy of a group of miniature people with a bondage fetish. A few other covers with this them came to mind (as well as Alex Toth’s splash to Brave and Bold #53), but I am certain there must be others.

The aforementioned Kamandi #45 cover by Ernie Chan is from the post-Kirby era, a period in which there was cover to suite almost every theme. Wrap-around Snake Cover? Check! VW Beetle Cover? We have that! Giant Crab Cover? Look no further! Kamandi faced a lot of threatening creatures during the 70s, but these tiny humans really seem to be giving him a tough time. I’m normally not the biggest Ernie Chan fan, as his covers have a really generic feel to them, but I like the overall design here.

Like Kamandi, Turok and Andar faced every threat imaginable on a monthly basis, so it only makes sense that they’d eventually run into some little people with a lot of rope in Turok, Son of Stone #17. Andar seems to have drawn the short straw, but luckily the pygmies are so engrossed in their knot-tying that they have not noticed Turok striking a ‘Blue Steel’ pose while try to move the mountain out of the way. All kidding aside, this is one gorgeous painted cover. I believe this cover was reprinted during the Gold Key years.

One of the best covers from the pre-Hero age at Marvel is Jack Kirby’s cover to Tales of Suspense #20. The Colossus is a classic Kirby monster, and it’s obvious that he wields a bit more strength than Swift’s Gulliver. The ship’s captain and the first mate don’t seem to be on the same page in terms of dealing with Colossus, so that might explain why the rest of the crew seems so disorganized. This cover is simply a thing of beauty and might be the finest of all Lilliputian Bondage Covers.

The cover to Justice League of America #215 is pretty much the antithesis of the Kirby cover. Both have a ton of action and characters, but George Perez’s cover here is irritatingly noisy. While I love the notion of a normally microscopic Atom super-sized, the perspective is really jarring and the ‘up the nose’ shot just doesn’t work if it’s not from Gil Kane. Superb concept, but poor execution. This cover teaches us that a Lilliputian Bondage cover is a fickle thing, and must be mapped out carefully from the beginning. Sorry George – quite often your crowd shots work, but this one simply does not.

There’s a quick look at Lilliputian Bondage Covers – I’d love to hear of any other that you’ve stumbled upon.

Charlton Notebook: Charlton Bullseye #8

After some time as a quasi-dormant reprint factory, Charlton came up with a pretty unique idea in 1981. They’d publish an anthology series (much like DC’s Showcase) but feature unknown talent (much like DC’s New Talent Showcase). It was a pretty risky experiment, and I’m assuming that it failed quite miserably, but it is quite interesting to check out all of these years later. It does seem odd that this series hit the stands at the zenith of Miller’s Daredevil, Claremont and Byrne’s X-Men and Wolfman and Perez’s Teen Titans. The Big Two were cranking out very professional looking opuses, and Charlton decided to counter with what amounts to a comic book one notch above a fanzine. The funny thing is; it works – at least for this issue.

While the book may appear to be a typical Charlton horror, it actually features two very nice science fiction stories. The first story, written by Bill Anderson and drawn by Mark Heike (who stuck around in funnybooks for quite some time), is a great little tip of the hat to EC, as it features an eerie lead up to a funny twist ending. It is very nicely executed. The second story “Escape From the Rock” is a very entertaining story with story and art by Michael Grace involving a prison run by aliens. Whatever happened to him? He had some real talent, as this is a very impressive debut. The final story is a bit more of a ‘paint by numbers’ Atlas-like horror story by Mark Heike involving a portal to hell. It’s not as good as the others, but still a solid piece of bronze-age horror. All in all, this book was a pleasant surprise that ended up being more than just another Charlton oddity.