Strange & Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko

      
                           Strange & Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko

                                   Writer: Blake Bell

                                   Hardcover: 220 pages

                                   FANTAGRAPHICS; Reprint July 2008

                                   ISBN: 9781560979210

Enigmatic and reclusive. Two words that no one would deny apply to Steve Ditko.

I seem to have been waiting a very long time for someone to have written a sizable biography of  one of my favourite creators in any medium. Ditko of course, is most famous for his co-creation of Spider-Man, but as this biography takes a chronological look at his work and life we see just how much he has achieved. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there is considerably more Ditko out there than I had supposed.

Written by Blake Bell, who is considered the pre-eminent Ditko scholar, a name that I first became familiar with from an introduction which he wrote for Action Heroes Archive vol. 1, released by DC. Bell’s linear approach is perfectly matched to Ditko’s career which went through distinct phases through the decades. Bell’s writing style is clear, open and frank and whilst he obviously holds Ditko in high regard, he doesn’t allow his reverence of the subject to obscure some of the harsher aspects of Ditko’s career or personal interactions.

As you would expect, all quotes are sourced and included in the sources are one or two anecdotes which were rightly kept separate from the main body of the work but when read at the end of each chapter add a great deal to the overall enjoyment of the book. One thing that is missing from this volume is an index. I was surprised that there was not one as other works of this nature have benefitted from the inclusion. I also found it annoying that printed in the book is an internet link to a Ditko bibliography which doesn’t work. I understand that the internet is not a solid state object and that often the loss of information is not the fault of the compiler of that information, but what I don’t understand is why, if the hard work of compiling a Ditko bibliography had already been done, it could not have been printed in this book.

One of Bell’s most interesting points is how early in Ditko’s career his Randian philosophical beliefs began to permeate his work. This was a surprise for me, but I will admit that I’m not particularly knowledgeable in regard to Randian Objectivism. But Bell clearly has a solid grounding in an area that has dictated Ditko’s choices for most of his life and convincingly shows the reader early examples of it in Ditko’s work, including his Spider-Man strips.

The physical quality of this volume can not be overstated. High quality paper and binding are very obvious as soon as you handle the book, but there are a few more subtle extras which betray the publishers (Fantagraphics Books) desire to create an above average package. If you remove the dust jacket, title and author are embossed on to the front cover and something that I didn’t notice at first, the entire hardback cover has Ditko drawn panels printed on it in a grey on grey colouring, only visible in the right light. I appreciate that this doesn’t raise the quality of the work itself, but, if it were not there I don’t believe that you would pay less for the book. Another added bonus is the opening few pages that reprint Ditko’s first comic sale, in full, with oversized reproduction of the highest quality. This acts as a sort of introduction to the subject and I believe it was well placed at the very start of the book, engaging the reader with Ditko’s work before looking at the man that created it.

The final pages of the book include a gallery of covers by Ditko. If memory serves, they are all public domain images from Charlton Comics publications, each is reproduced as a full page, oversized image and to my mind showcase some of the finest comics covers ever produced. In fact if you look at an earlier post on this blog, you’ll see that I chose an early Charlton cover by Ditko as one of my Great Covers posts. So perhaps I’m a little biased on this, but it seems Bell, at least, agrees with me.

After reading Strange & Stranger I believe that the only way will see a more concise presentation of the life and work of Steve Ditko is in the unlikely event that Ditko himself offers his services to someone like Bell. There are undoubtedly gaps in this biography, but that is to be expected when dealing with a subject that has guarded his personal life so closely as Ditko has. Bell has done an amazing job working with the restrictions imposed upon him.

Whilst Strange & Stranger is very much a biography, the amount of artwork included on every page allows it to be seen as an art book in it’s own right and as stated above, the quality of the reproduction is flawless, I particularly enjoyed seeing Ditko’s un-inked pencil work later in the book. There really is something here for everyone, whether you are an avid fan of Ditko already or have a broader interest in comics in general, you will not be disappointed by Strange and Stranger.

In closing I’d like to say that Strange & Stranger was my favourite Christmas present and I’d like to offer my thanks again to my partner and son for getting me a copy. Love to you both.

Mad Thinker

John Byrne’s Fantastic Four #232-295 (plus extras)

See the bottom of this post for info re: ISBN’s and Volume contents.

I would say that there are three outstanding and exceptional runs on the Fantastic Four comic, one of them, which I’ve mentioned in a previous post, was of course courtesy of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, another was by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo over forty years later. And sitting right in the middle of these two, is the work of John Byrne.

Strangely, the runs mentioned all began almost exactly twenty years apart, so if there is a twenty year cycle of excellence for the Fantastic Four, we should expect something very special in 2021. In fact, it’s my intention to be the FF scribe by that year.

Byrne’s run on the FF is the second longest of any creative team, only Stan and Jack produced more consecutive issues. It was considered at the time to be a return to a Golden Age for the team.

As far as Byrne’s concerned, he had an edge over most creative partnerships as he was the sole creator of the book. He has said in interview that a singular creative vision is able to produce a strip more closely resembling the creators intent. Well, yes, that makes sense, but it doesn’t count for much if the creators intent and vision is not to the buying public’s taste. However the sales of FF over the years of Byrne’s tenure as creator and the fact that he was the sole creator for such an extended time (five years) would suggest that his stories “worked”.



Cover from FF 252

  But as any comic reader will admit, the number of issues produced and the quantity of copies sold are not always directly proportionate to the quality of the product. Think of all of the X-Titles and Image craziness with incentive-multiple-cover-polybagged-trading-card-insert-limited to 200 copies per customer, in the 90’s.

But Byrne was working in an earlier time, when, frankly, shit did stink. So sales did count for something and Byrne’s work was well above average and a retrospective of this era in general could not be considered complete without mention of Byrne’s work across the medium and the FF in particular.

What we get over the course of the Byrne run is a sense of character and changing roles within the family unit. There’s nothing particularly new in the run but it is a return to the fundamentals of the team, indeed, the first issue that Byrne produced was titled “Back to Basics” which sets the tone for the next few years worth of stories.

That’s not to say that we have five years of  comics that simply maintain the status-quo. We see Johnny grow from a teen into a young man, particularly in regard to his romantic involvement with a long term supporting character. He still has his hot-headed and impetuous nature, but his wants, needs and desires grow up with him. We see Sue realise her potential with an increase in confidence and ability plus a fitting name change to Invisible Woman. Ben…..Hmmm, well the Thing angle is a bit of a disappointment for me, I’ll give you a bit of perspective.

In 1983 Byrne was commissioned to produce an ongoing Thing comic. He did, it was OK. So how do you go about creating a stand-alone comic for the Thing?

You estrange him from the other members of the FF.

Byrne writes the character of Ben Grimm with believability and depth, that’s not the problem. The problem is, for the reason mentioned above, there is a huge portion of the Byrne run devoid of the Ever-Lovin’ Blue Eyed Ben. It really is a great loss. I’ve always seen FF as a true family, it’s not like the Avengers with a rotational membership. The Fantastic Four is a single entity comprised of four particular individuals.




Panel from FF 284

  I have nothing against the character of She-Hulk, Ben’s replacement, but she ain’t him. And this is for a LOT of issues. This is the only major negative point in an otherwise memorable run, but I have to say, for me it’s a BIG one.

The stories themselves are exactly as they should be. High-Adventure, cosmic threats, explorative jaunts into the Negative Zone and nefarious plots from a certain dastardly European monarch. Two of the most memorable arcs are Doom epics. In one we have the team in a situation where they assist Doom in regaining his Latverian throne because of the chaos, terror and poverty caused by his overthrow. It’s a very well crafted tale that leaves both the reader and the FF with an ambiguous feeling in regard to the morality of their actions. Have they been expertly played by the conniving Doom? The other story transplants the four into surrogate bodies, sans powers, with Reed in particular mercilessly tortured by the atrocious but charismatic Doctor.

Good stuff.

This is not a particularly cheap run to get hold of  in either single issue or collected format. However, the trade paperbacks are printed on good quality paper, it’s glossy and I prefer matte, but that is a purely personal preference, based on the fact that the original art was produced for newsprint.



Panel from FF 262

 John Byrne’s Fantastic Four is well worth a read. It’s a high point in regard to both Byrne’s career and Fantastic Four history. It’s also a benchmark in the comic media of an era when comics had grown up in terms of character and story development, but hadn’t yet reached the “gritty” phase that firstly bolstered and later, nearly destroyed an industry that I love. The issues contain intelligent and well crafted stories, but with a sense of wonder, discovery and most importantly of all, adventure.

The entire run, including some worthy extra issues (and some not so worthy) has been collected in eight trade paperbacks, there is also a Volume 0, which collects some one off issues produced by Byrne before the main body of his run, but as I don’t have it, it’s not commented on in this post.

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 1 – ISBN 9780785107798

Fantastic Four #232-240

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 2 – ISBN 9780785114642

Fantastic Four #241-250

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 3 – ISBN 9780785116790

Fantastic Four #251-257, Annual #17, Avengers #233, Thing #2

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 4 – ISBN 9780785117100

Fantastic Four #258-267, Alpha Flight #4, Thing #10

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 5 – ISBN 9780785118442

Fantastic Four #268-275, Annual #18, Thing #19

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 6 – ISBN 9780785121909

Fantastic Four #276-284, Secret Wars II #2, Thing #23

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 7 – ISBN 9780785127352

Fantastic Four #285-286, Annual #19, Avengers #263, Annual #14, X-Factor #1

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 8 – ISBN 9780785127369

Fantastic Four #287-295

Mad Thinker Reads- Fantastic Four by John Byrne


MT

Black & White Reprints

When it comes to value for money (which I’m unabashed to admit is a concern for me) there’s no beating the Showcase Presents and Essential editions. I suppose that by definition I am a comic collector, but I see myself more as a comic reader and the black & white collections that are produced by the Big Two (and increasingly by other companies, Dark Horse in particular) are a great way to read comics that are often difficult or pricey to get hold of.

The only disadvantage is the lack of colour. But is that really so bad?

The vibrancy and instant eye appeal that the colour reprints provide is a great draw, but the more Showcase and Essentials that I read the more I come to appreciate the format. For me there is a purity with the black and white art that colour can detract from. Ditko is a prime example. Most of Ditko’s work was pencilled and inked by his own hand, so what you see in a black and white Ditko reprint is “pure” Ditko. What you get on the page is exacly as he produced it. When you start adding colour, particularly darker shades, it can muddy the line an leave the reader with an impression of the art that was unintended by the artist. I suppose that what I’m saying is that the colour can distract from the subtlety of the finished ink work.

But that’s just me. Not everyone will want to pore over artwork in the way that I sometimes do, and rightly so, the primary reason for comic art is storytelling, not showcasing the work of a specific artist. There is another consideration though and as ever, it comes down to a matter of taste: Some art just looks better left uncoloured. If you’re sceptical fair enough, but Gene Colan’s Tomb of Dracula is a great example. Gene Colan’s pencils under Tom Palmer’s inks on ToD are really beautiful. The only way to read them is in black and white. It’s a shame that they were ever coloured, when you put them in context with the horror theme of the comics the addition of colours is garish and unnecessary. So with the Essential ToD, what was printed as cheap alternative has become a definitive edition in terms of clarity and beauty, it’s just unfortunate that some of the art was retouched to cover lady bits.

I’m not advocating that all comics be black and white, just that some artists are better served by not being coloured and no pencil and ink artist should need to rely on a colourist to complete their work. There are of course exceptions.

Joe Kubert’s Enemy Ace is one such exception.

I wrote that last sentence about 10 minutes ago and I’ve been trying to articulate my reasons for writing it and in all honesty, I can’t. I have no idea why some art works better in black and white and other art works better with colour. Looks like this post is about to fizzle out. What can I say.

How about this?

Don’t discount a cheap black and white reprint as inferior to a colour reprint. Sometimes the cheaper option is a better product. I’d suggest browsing both volumes and making an informed choice afterward.

Mad Thinker

Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Written by Jim Steranko & Stan Lee

Art by Jim Steranko

248 Pages, Paperback

Collects Nick Fury strips from Strange Tales # 150-168

ISBN 9780785107477

What you get with this collection is the complete Steranko run of the Nick Fury feature from Strange Tales. At the time Strange Tales was being published as a split book with Nick Fury and Doctor Strange with alternating cover art of Fury and Strange.

What you don’t get are any of the later Nick Fury comics by Steranko that were published in Fury’s solo book, which was titled (potential confusion warning) Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Those comics have been collected in a volume called “Who Is Scorpio”. I’m tempted to go off on a rant saying that the two volumes could have been titled Nick Fury by Steranko Vol. 1: Who Is The Supreme Hydra/Yellow Claw and Nick Fury by Steranko Vol. 2: Who Is Scorpio/Your Daddy. But I won’t….for now. Confused?

So most people that are going to buy this book are probably going to do so because of the Steranko connection, or so you’d imagine. Nick Fury hasn’t left the mark that other Silver Age characters have and later re-boots haven’t popularised him as much as Marvel would have hoped. Having said that, Fury hasn’t drifted into obscurity like some other characters and he still has a role in the Marvel Universe. In fact, Fury’s more recent resurgence in the Ultimate Universe seems to have spilled over into the mainstream Universe. That this book was released ten years ago speaks more for Steranko’s popularity than Fury’s.



Strange Tales # 167

 I’m the first to admit that I’m not very familiar with Steranko. Aside from reprints of the three Captain America issues that he produced this volume is all that I own. Of course, it’s not as much of a surprise when you consider the small amount of comics that he’s produced over the years. According to the after word Steranko has many and varied other artistic outputs to keep him occupied.

This volume gets of to a slow start in terms of Sterankoism. The first half of the page count is written by Stan Lee (mostly) with pencils by Steranko over Jack Kirby layouts. Everything seems pretty much run-of-the-mill B-List adventure comic. I’m sure like me, you’ve read worse, but there’s nothing in act one to talk about. Steranko, probably on the insistence of his new employer, uses a style that is Kirby-esque. Adequate sequential art, with little to herald him as the cutting edge creator that he grew in to.

Strange Tales # 168

Act two introduces a new storyline, with script and art duties falling to Steranko. Here we go then? Well, not quite. The story concerns the return of the Yellow Claw as a major threat to world peace and as the pages roll by, crazy Sci-Fi elements are added which show that Steranko is allowing his imagination to run free. Anyone unfamiliar with Steranko’s later work (like me) will be thinking “Ahh…So this is what it’s all about.” I experienced a kind of false enlightenment at the start of act two, purely because the style changes as soon as he’s left to his own devices and I’m thinking “Jim, you’re making this your own.”. It’s good, better than act one and the layout and composition are distinctive, if not the artistic rendering itself.

And then it’s over.

The final plot twist is revealed and the world continues to turn. I’m not awestruck or overwhelmed, but I am satisfied. Steranko’s Nick Fury is……..Enjoyable.

But wait. Hold on. One minute. What’s this. Twelve more pages.

The dozen or so pages I’m referring to are sometimes known as Strange Tales # 168 and they are a different animal altogether to any previous pages by James “Greatest Hair On Any Man” Steranko.

Within this post (not including the cover image at the top) two of the three images I’ve posted are from # 168, the other is from # 167. The differences are profound. Prior to # 168 Steranko takes inspiration from the American tradition in general, Jack Kirby in particular, but for the final issue we suddenly see a very different style, one that borrows from the European (Italian) style.

I found the plot of the last issue to be forgettable, but the art shows a quantum leap in Steranko’s technique. Clearly he didn’t develop this from one issue to the next, so I wonder why he hadn’t shown it to his audience in earlier instalments.



Strange Tales # 168

 The layout and composition of the panels is much less rigid, it seems that the artist is applying a sense of design rather than just a narrative to the pages he’s producing. For readers more familiar with modern creators I found a similarity between this and J. H. Williams III’s work on Promethea, a sense of the page rather than just the panel, the whole being greater than the sum of it’s parts. It’s expertly meshed though, the narrative is enhanced, rather than detracted from by the composition.

What we’re a left with is a readable Silver Age adventure comic, with the last few pages acting as a teaser for what comes next. It’s actually quite frustrating, but it’s a great starter, heavy with promise, if this is your first exposure to the work of Jim Steranko.

But what does come next? Well, Ill be trying to get a copy of Who Is Scorpio, I’ll let you know how that works out for me.

Mad Thinker

Great Covers #3 - Jack Kirby’s Mister Miracle

I wanted to do a “Great Covers” for Jack Kirby’s Mister Miracle because I love ‘em and they’re also some of the few original printings of Kirby that I own. But I just couldn’t decide on a single issue. So here we are with a four cover collage.

Starting top left and working clockwise we have #1, #6, #9 and #13 of Mister Miracle vol. 1. Cover dates between March 1971 and March 1973.

These are excellent examples of Kirby in full swing of his third wind. His first being his initial employment (notably with Joe Simon) in the Golden Age, then his legendary resurgence in the early sixties creating the modern Marvel mythology (alliteration unintended), and then this in the seventies, a superb series of inter-related titles known as the Fourth World.

The Fourth World books were woefully underselling at the time and ended up being prematurely cancelled, but today, like his work for Marvel, they’ve provided a spine for the Cosmic stories of the DC Universe and are seen as the great body of work that they are.

No one can draw power and dynamism like Kirby. Mark Evanier says in his Kirby biography, Kirby: King of Comics, that Jack would start his drawing from the top left of the page and work down to the bottom right, as if he could already see the finished piece before him.

Jack, if you were a living woman of similar age, I’d kiss you.

Mad Thinker

Batman Chronicles: Volume Four

Batman Chronicles: Volume Four

ISBN: 9781401214623

Writer: Bill Finger

Art: Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson & Others

Collects material from: Detective Comics #51-56, Batman #6-7 & World’s Finest Comics #2-3, from 1941

Ahh…The Bat-Man.

He holds a very special place in my heart. My absolulte, favourite, number one, top comic book character of all time, forever. The most versatile of all the masked avengers. Ol’ Pointy Ears was the first American character I read (see the Intro Post of this blog) and the only one that I’ve read consistently. So easy to get wrong, but when a writer/artist team get it right, the results are spectacular. A couple of favourite pairing that springs to mind are Doug Moench /Gene Colan and Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle. But the comics we’re discussing now pre-date those creators by generations, we’re talking Golden Age here, ladies and Gentlemen, 1941.

So, why am I writing about The Batman Chronicles: Volume Four when I haven’t previously mentioned one, two or three. Easy. The first three volumes were read before I started this blog and I feel it would be unfair to review them without being entirely familiar with their contents. So I’ll start with Four and continue through the later volumes as I read them, when I do re-read the earlier collections, I’m sure they’ll get a mention.

For anyone unfamiliar with DC’s Chronicles, they are a paperback printing very similar to the hardback Archives, obviously cheaper (I’ll get back to that later), but the most significant difference is the ordering of the material. In the Archive volumes the Batman and Detective Comics issues are printed in separate collections, whereas the Chronicles reprint all the Batman stories from Detective Comics, Batman and World’s Finest in chronlogical order, allowing, in my opinion, a seamless progression in the readers mind of the growth of all involved with the creation of the strips.

Yes, yes. Thanks for that, but what about the strips, I hear you cry.

By 1941 Bill finger had been writing practically every appearance of Batman since his creation. I’ve got a lot of time for pretty much anything that Finger wrote, but by 1941 things were getting a little bit formulaic, that being said, it was a very good formula and at no point does it get boring, it’s just that nothing is really being added to what would become the Batman Legend. These are solid, readable and entertaining stories, they just aren’t the best stories that Finger has written. There’s a considerable amount of time spent outside of Gotham (Dick and Bruce do seem to spend a lot of time on vacation, but they’re millionaires, so why not?) so whilst the backdrops are fresh, the stories are at least partially recycled from earlier strips. There are however several memorable moments, one in particular being a great return of the Joker, with his Practical Joke Gang. In all fairness to Finger, even when he’s not on top form, he’s still better than most and he manages to tell complete and succinct tales in what would now be considered as a very low page count.

There are a few disappointments with this volume and the Chronicles in general. Firstly, specific to this volume, is the cover. Jerry Robinson, despite his infuriating lack of credit, was the driving visual force behind the early Batman strips, so I have no idea why the terrible cover, pencilled and inked entirely by Bob Kane, was chosen for this volume. I don’t want to sound bitchy (but I’ll say it anyway) Rob Liefeld could have done a better job at rendering Batman’s extremities than Bob Kane did on this cover. For some unaccountable reason, our heroes have been drawn with the malformed hands of toddlers.

More generally, concerning the Chronicle editions is the noticable ink spread. In many places the text is difficult to read, I assume this is due to the low quality of paper, this also has an impact on the art which can appear to be in soft focus at times.

To end on a positive note, there is one small but wonderful element that is rarely mentioned in connection with Batman- Fred Ray. This volume offers two covers from Ray, World’s Finest Comics #2 & 3. Ray is better known for drawing Superman, so with me not being a great reader of Supes, he’s not an artist I’ve had a great deal of exposure to. I’d like to change that. On the strength of the covers that I’ve seen in this and previous volumes I’ve really come to appeciate his clear line style, which seems a generation ahead of it’s time. A pleasant surprise and I look forward to seeing more Ray in future volumes.
My recommendation concering the Batman Chronicles really depends on the monetary aspect. If you can afford to buy the Batman and Dark Knight Archive Editions you will certainly be getting a better quality product. But you’ll pay considerably more for the privelige. If however, you’re on a budget, the Chronicles offer you a chance to read some fine (and not so fine) Golden Age Batman stories at a very affordable price.

Mad Thinker



Devlin Waugh: Swimming in Blood

 

Devlin Waugh: Swimming in Blood

Pages: 224 - Paperback

 

ISBN: 1904235170

 

Writer: John Smith

 

Artists: Sean Phillips & Others

“The name's Waugh. Devlin Waugh. I'm here to steal the show.”

Devlin Waugh is one of the most quotable characters in all of comicdom. Quite an achievement considering how little has been written about him since his initial creation and rise to fame. He first appeared in Judge Dredd Megazine Vol. 2, # 1, in 1992, which I very clearly remember reading very shortly after it hit the stands. Swimming in Blood, the first story arc for this character, shone from that first issue and the subsequent 10 or so instalments were an absolute joy to read. In the annual 2000 AD poll of that year Waugh was voted by readers as their favourite character. The one and only time that anyone other than the Man Himself, Dredd, has been knocked from the top spot. High accolades indeed.

Swimming in Blood is a bloody, fantastic read. It is in fact bloody fantastic. The basic premise is an underwater penal colony is hit with a vampiric viral outbreak, the prison is quarantined and the Vatican send in their man Waugh, expert exorcist and practitioner of underhand fisticuffs to sort the rotters out. The result is a claustrophobic, survival horror masterpiece, with added bottom slaps.

It really shouldn’t work, but it absolutely does. Waugh is Noel Coward’s mind in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body. I could talk about Devlin forever, but I’m going to leave it at that because if you’re reading him for the first time, I don’t want to take anything away from the experience. The story races along like a 21^st Century zombie, shifting effortlessly from farce to face ripping without stumbling once. A seamless blending of art and narrative that is impossible to disentangle, exactly as good comic book storytelling should be. Phillips uses photographic images in a few panels, which I would usually not welcome, but in this instance, they are used sparingly and specifically only in reference to the “outside world” ie. anything not taking place inside the prison. The effect is a subtle reminder to the reader that what is taking place inside the prison is far from the normal experience for most of the protagonists.

All of this leads us to a satisfying, if very slightly rushed, climax. Which changes our Hero absolutely and yet not at all.

But. The above review only deals with “Swimming In Blood”, the first part of this collection, approximately one third of the page count. The remainder collects "Brief Encounter", "Fetish", "A Mouthful of Dust", "A Love Like Blood" and "Body and Soul". The last two being illustrated text pieces.

I’m sorry to say that the Halcyon Days of Devlin Waugh have so far only been seen in his first outing. The remaining stories in this volume are mediocre, with varying degrees of exposure to Waugh. In “Fetish” for example, Waugh’s introduction to the story takes place roughly half way through the page count and frankly, it feels like an after-thought.

However, I have no intention of dwelling on the negatives of this volume because they are so outweighed by the positives. The “Swimming in Blood” story is a fine addition to any collection, a truly brilliant modern comic and if you happen to get a bit of mediocrity with it, consider it as a freebie.

So, keep your dander up and prepare yourself for a trouncing.

Recommended,

Mad Thinker.

Great Covers #2 – Space Adventures 10, Steve Ditko

Space Adventures # 10, Spring 1954, by Steve Ditko

An early cover by Ditko. He’d been professional since 1953 and his first published cover was on a comic cover dated February 1954, (The Thing #12) also pulished by Charlton, a company he had a long standing association with.

I don’t know how many covers he’d had printed prior to this but the date suggests it could have only been a handful. To my eye it shows that he found his mature style early in his career. It’s pure Ditko and recognizable at a glance.

What Kirby does for heroics and energy, Ditko does for menace, paranoia and base fear. Ditko’s work was often inked by himself too (unlike Kirby) so what you see is exactly what he wanted to produce.

This cover was used for the black and white reprint collection Steve Ditko: Space Wars, published by Vanguard, ISBN: 9781887591676, which I intend to write about in the not too distant future.

Mad Thinker

Jack & Stan Do It Again For The First Time

Where is the future that was promised to us when we were kids?

Do any of you own flying cars, or even hoverboards?

How many of you have seen a gorilla fight a robot?

The closest thing to the future that I was expecting are those shoes that have tiny wheels on the soles. But I’m in my thirties, I can’t wear those. And frankly they’d be a poor substitute for the rocket powered roller skates that Santa didn’t buy for me.

Why do I have these expectations? I’ve suckled from the teat of many works of fiction over the years, some were forgettable, but some have had a long standing effect. In retrospect it’s not difficult to see why some have stayed with me: Believability.

Not a word that can often be attached to the outlandish stories that were produced in the Silver Age of Comics, but bear with me. What’s believable about a group of friends stealing a spaceship only to gain super-human powers in orbit? What about when they meet an entire race of inhuman allies that have secretly lived in the Himalayas for a jillion years? Not to mention Atlantean/Human Halflings, WW2 androids or the Living Fuhrer.

What about when this group are given distinct personal qualities that often clash, but are able to continue working together, as a team, because of the close relationships built on love, respect and shared responsibilities?

OK, now we’re getting somewhere.

I know It’s been said elsewhere, but really, there was nothing in comics like Fantastic Four before that incredible series began and it’s still one of the greatest runs of comics ever. Over 100 issues of perfection.

Fantastic Four 1-102 (Nov. 1961-Sep. 1970) and Annuals 1-6, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and (mostly) Joe Sinnott had everything comics need and a lot more. Yes, there’s plenty of action, some of the best that you’re ever likely to read. Time travel, giant robot gorillas, dastardly inter-galactic plots and more. All of it expertly scripted, plotted and rendered in the Merry Marvel Way, but what really sets it apart is the humanity of the characters.

For every encounter with Dragon Man there’s an everyday occurrence which results in drama. Reed and Sue’s courtship, with the added interference of Namor is handled beautifully, one of the many themes that still impacts on the present day comics. The wedding issue, perfectly balanced with a super-human threat, the mundane and the absurd amalgamated into intense drama.

After the wedding and Sue’s announcement of her pregnancy we see Reed obsessing over Sue’s safety, taking her out of the team for the sake of their unborn child, ultimately showing Reed’s and the teams desperate struggle in the Negative Zone due to the possibility of a birth defect.

Compellingly human reactions regardless of the science-fiction cause.

We see the team move house, suffer financial instability, jape and joke at each others expense and even go their separate ways under the stress of it all, only to realise that their bonds as a family unit are stronger than the petty niggles that they see in the others. Real life, I’ve been through this and I’m sure you have too.

This is as much soap-opera as super-heroics.

One of my favourite moments, which is really just an off-hand comment by Reed, is when Ben is expressing his inability to understand even the most basic scientific principle, Reed remarks “You’re not fooling anyone Ben, remember I went to college with you and I know you’ve got a Degree.”

Compare Fantastic Four to other team books at the time. You'll see Super-Buddies working together flawlessly, slapping each other on the back and complementing their team-mates brilliance after defeating villain of the month. Those other books were often well structured, with solid art, but had essentially stagnated. They were offering nothing new and their sales had been stable but small. Of particular note in this area, albeit a few years earlier, is Challengers of the Unknown. A pleasurable read and Kirby's prototype Fantastic Four, but lacking the sharp and well paced dialogue of Stan Lee, it just doesn't quite hit the mark, as evidenced by it's patchy publication history.

Stan and Jack's precision character building is a staple of modern comics, often attempted but rarely achieved with the same level of success. But with so many other things, what was once the exception has now become the rule. It would be easy to see these comics as dated, because they are. They are undoubtedly a product of their time, but that is what makes them timeless, it was the sixties, every concept was given room to breathe, it was a time when innovation and experimentation was encouraged and when the first issue was published Stan and Jack had nothing to lose, the company was practically dead. Things turned around though.

The Heroic Age returns to modern Marvel, taking inspiration from the groundbreaking stories written nearly half a century ago by Stan, Jack, Steve and friends. The house style created by a select few, still having an impact on one of, if not the most influential publisher of comics today.

And The Fantastic Four is the book that started it all. Get the collected editions if you don’t already have them, and if you do own them, read them again. You’ll see the past, the present and I’m hopeful that they usher in a very bright future.

Mad Thinker Reads....The Fantastic Four by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby.

MT

Hellblazer: All His Engines

Hellblazer: All His Engines

Mike Carey (W)

Leonardo Manco (A)

Vertigo

ISBN: 9781401203177

This is an Original Graphic Novel not a TPB.

This isn’t the first time that I’ve read this comic, that I’ve gone back and read it again shows that it has merits.

I’ve read all of Mike Carey’s Hellblazer issues and this rounds off my collection nicely, but the strength of Carey’s writing is in the interactions between characters.

Anyone that’s read more than a handful of Hellblazer issues will recognise the relationship between Constantine and his drinking buddy/chauffer/whipping boy Chas as one that has been developed, sometimes conflictingly, through many years and many writers. Carey, in the space of around 5 panels and a little internal monologue, allows the long term reader to feel a privelige of already being aware of the history, but also clues in the casual reader as to how the normal Constantine and Chas get-together’s usually go awry and that their friendship can often be a little strained to say the least.

The story of the Supernatural Turf-War is well designed but Carey crafted better in his run on the ongoing title, but in All His Engines, I think it’s fair to say that the Supernatural story was used as the impetus to the Buddy Story. Carey does an excellent job of getting Constantine to do the right thing by his mate and still not tarnishing his image as a Double Bastard. Even Constantine’s selfless risks are shrugged off, quite convincingly, as self preservation.

Carey also hits the delicate balance between Magician and Con-Man that some writers have difficulty maintaining, indeed, he tangles them together so deftly and naturally that the story wouldn’t function were the balance to tip one way or the other.

Leonardo Manco is also doing a balancing act. Carey’s script makes it plain that Constantine feels out of his natural element, hopping around L.A. at noon on a glorious sunny day. Manco takes the cue and his heavily shadowed style is reigned in as appropriate. Which makes it all the more noticable when Constantine does pass back into the shadows, or on a few occassions, where the shadows are pre-empted by a very clear line style in one part of the panel, degenerating into solid black as the eye moves across the page.

The colours are appropriately washed out with only a strong red or green as needed.

My only complaint; as with so many modern comics, it was such a quick read. Either it could have been produced with a lower page count (at a lower price), or more text (therefore more characterisation).

Overall-

WORTH OWNING

MT.