What Comic Books Have You Read Today?

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

Report what comic books you have read today--and tell us a little something about it while you're here!

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...Mo' G-W.........

  PREZ #1-3, DC, 2015

  This is quite good!!!!! I got #1 of this in '15, then lost track. Yes, Joe Simon's 70s concept. #4 awaits me. This apparently was a planned 12-parter that ended up as just a 6-parter - plus a 12-page Election 2016 conclusion!!! I also found out that it won the Reuben Comic Books category for that year. I support that there was no book of all 7?:-(??

[Jeff of Earth-J]

New:

Marvel #1
Flash #750
Lois Lane #9
Strange Adventures #1

Old:

IMMORTAL DOCTOR FATE (1985) & DOCTOR FATE LIMITED SERIES (1987)

JACK KIRBY’S SECRET CITY SAGA #0-4 (plus three one-shots): This is the transition from stories in The Jack Kirby Omnibus to those in The Steve Ditko Omnibus. This series had a lot of potential. In addition to the Ditko art, the #0 issue and the one-shots had stories with art by Walt Simonson, Dick Ayers, John Severin and Don Heck, written by Roy Thomas.

[The Baron]

New Gods #1 (February/March 1971), by Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta

I was given a copy of this - actually one of those Millennium Editions that DC put out back around the turn of the century.  I haven't read much - if any - of Kirby's Fourth World stuff, so my knowledge of it is largely filtered through other writers' and artists' interpretations of the concepts. It's interesting to finally see some of the original stuff.

Some random thoughts:

1)The "new gods" thing is certainly an interesting concept.  I can see why Kirby would never have been allowed to do it at Marvel.

2)That "Cosmic Segway" that Orion uses to get around is certainly a unique mode of transportation.

3)None of these characters is especially distinctive or appealing to me visually.  The look of a character is very important to me, and none of these characters has an especially interesting appearance, to my mind. With the sole exception of Darkseid, they all look like generic "cosmic" characters.

4)As is usual with Kirby characters, he wanders into "No one actually talks like that, Roy" territory.  Kirby generally manages to carry that off, but sometimes it's a little jarring.

5)I don't think I'd ever known what an amoral jerk Metron was.

6)I do like the look of Apokolips, with it s enormous firepits.  It's like Mordor writ large.

7)I feel like this isn't Kirby's best art. Could it be Colletta's inking, when I'm used to Royer's?  I'm not really smart about those kinds of distinctions.

Overall: It's an interesting idea, imperfectly carried off.  Still, glad I got a chance to read it.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

“I can see why Kirby would never have been allowed to do it at Marvel.”

Not only wouldn’t he have been allowed to do it (kill off Thor and the other Asgardians), he famously said, “I’m not giving them another Silver Surfer.”

“As is usual with Kirby characters, he wanders into "No one actually talks like that, Roy" territory.”

Kirby’s dialogue used to bug me (especially the line, “Hey! Don’t rattle your gonads in my ears, Mr. Big! Mama Nature doesn’t care!” from Silver Star), but now I find it part of the appeal. Some time ago I adopted the POV that, yeah, no one actually speaks the way Kirby writes dialogue, but no one speaks like Shakespeare, either. More recently I read a scholarly article espousing that (paraphrasing here), as with Henry James, the reading experience is richer if one has to work a bit to understand it.

“I feel like this isn't Kirby's best art. Could it be Colletta's inking, when I'm used to Royer's?”

I think that’s exactly what it is. Royer was brought aboard around the fifth issue or so, and the art was distinctively different.

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...I recent got three books mail-ordered from.........uuhh, Wal-Mart.

  Spider-Man,  LIFE STORY - Real good! .ight Marvel continue with this " real-time aging-concusions to storylines " franchise, I hope, I hope, I hope? Not necessarily in this universe.

  Little Lulu WORKING GIRL - Large-sized Drawn & Quarterly hardcover first of five volumes best-of John Staey collection. Only read a bit as yet.

  Pearls Before Swine THE SATURDAY EVENING PEARLS - PBS strip collection from 2009. Seems to be a bit before the strip really hit its stride-before Pastis could afford better assistants. B&W - are current-day books color? I baven't fully started here get. J think the strip's been treading water as of late, perhaps Pastis is more concerned with the " badly drawn " non-PBS characters Sunday strip sociopoliticalal-cultural commentaries?

[Detective 445]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

“I feel like this isn't Kirby's best art. Could it be Colletta's inking, when I'm used to Royer's?”

I think that’s exactly what it is. Royer was brought aboard around the fifth issue or so, and the art was distinctively different.

Mark Evanier's blog post on the topic.

[Philip Portelli]

New:

Gwen Stacy #1: Set prior to her debut in Amazing Spider-Man #31 D'65), it focuses on Gwen's senior year of high school with Harry Osborn and her then-boyfriend! It involves her father, Captain George Stacy, with a young Jean DeWolff against the Enforcers with a shock ending. There are references to the MU but one word not mentioned is "Spider-Man", though there is a neat cameo.

At least, Marvel is not retconning Peter's high school years which they easily could have done given the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series and the first movie.

Strange Academy #1: a Marvel Magical mix up of Harry Potter, DC Super Hero Girls and X-Men, novice mystics from across the MU go to school, taught by Doctor Voodoo with other wizards, witches and sorcerers including the Son of Satan! Interesting cast. We'll see how it goes.

Star Trek: Year Five Valentine Special: beautifully written and drawn, Kirk lets another woman, this time a starship captain as bold as he is, get away due to his own doubts and career goals. It ties in to both the series and the films neatly.

Old:

Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time #1-12 (2013): IDW's contribution to the Time Lord's 50th Anniversary, of a grander scale but not as heart-warming as Day of the Doctor. Each Doctor gets his own issue/quirky story as their companions are kidnapped at the end. This culminates with the Eleventh Doctor tracking down the villains and summoning his past selves for the epic confrontation. 

Some bits are a bit hollow like Sara Jane being with the Third Doctor with no reaction from the Fourth. The same with the Ninth Doctor with Rose with the Tenth focused on Martha (Sorry, Donna!) and, worse, the Eleventh's under-whelming reunion with Amy and Rory! Also too much depends on a shape-shifting penguin! Still it's a fun read!

[The Baron]

Do not be hating on Frobisher!  :)

Philip Portelli said:

Also too much depends on a shape-shifting penguin! Still it's a fun read!

[The Baron]

Countdown Special: New Gods #1 (March 1998)

 

“In Search of a Dream!”, from Forever People #1 (February 1971), by Kirby and Colletta

1. I thought I hadn’t seen any of these before, but this story is familiar. I must have seen a reprint of it, somewhere.
2. Is this the on e where they had another artist re-draw Superman’s face?
3. Overall, for me, the Forever People have a strong whiff of “an older guy tries to write hip young characters and doesn’t quite get it right” to them. You saw a lot of that in popular culture of the time, as the “Greatest Generation” types tried to relate to the 1960’s youth culture.
4. So, the black guy is called ”Vykin the Black”? OK.
5. I always liked the scene between Superman and the boxing champ.
6. A favorite line: “There’s more to Darkseid than that! He makes me believe that Dracula is alive and well in Transylvania!”
7. Infinity Man = Captain Planet’s “spiritual father”?
8. It always seemed out-of-character to me for Superman to even think about going off to Supertown while Darkseid was loose on Earth.

“Murder Missile Trap!”, from Mister Miracle #1 (March 1971), by Kirby and Colletta

1. I’ve heard of Thaddeus Brown, but never encountered him before.
2. So, Scott Free was just sort of wandering around Earth?
3. Steel Hand is not one of the more noteworthy villains in comics history.

“The Pact!”, from New Gods #7 (February 1972), by Kirby and Royer

1. OK, so it’s “The New Gods: The Early Years”. Interesting seeing Darkseid when he was still on his way up, but wasn’t master of all he surveyed, yet.
2. “The Queen Mother, you academic chicken!” No one wrote things that no one would ever actually say better than Kirby did.
3. Interesting to finally see the exchange of hostages, always wondered if that had been shown.

Overall: I’m glad I got a chance to read it, it’s a bit of comics history I’d never seen before.  I’d say that the third story was probably my favorite.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

“I thought I hadn’t seen any of these before, but this story is familiar. I must have seen a reprint of it, somewhere.”

It’s not only been reprinted elsewhere (The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told, for example), but it’s also been re-told (by John Byrne and others).

“Is this the one where they had another artist re-draw Superman’s face?”

Not “the one, but “one of the ones” (by Al Plastino).

“Infinity Man = Captain Planet’s “spiritual father”?”

I like to think that Infinity Man is actually Kirny’s “Him” (a.k.a. Adam Warlock). That’s why he wore the face-covering helment.

“I’ve heard of Thaddeus Brown, but never encountered him before.”

He was in onluy that one issue.

“So, Scott Free was just sort of wandering around Earth?”

He had only just escaped from Apokolips (in “The Great Scott Free Bust-Out!” from Mister Miracle #9, the sequel to “The Pact”). John Byrne’s EYKIW has him arriving on Earth in the year 1802, but Darkseid didn’t get around to acting on it until “1970.”

“I’d say that the third story was probably my favorite.”

Kirby’s too. Either that or “The Death wish of Terrible Turpin (also from New Gods) or “Mother Delilah” (from a 1950s issue of Boy’s Ranch).

I just yesterday (honestly!) I came across Greg Potter’s explication of “The Pact!” I hope to transcribe it to post here, but I probably won’t get to it for several weeks.

[Philip Portelli]

Actually he's a very interesting character from the Doctor Who comic books from England who got carried over into a few novels. He went from being stuck as a penguin to preferring to be a penguin!

No mean feat that!

The Baron said:

Do not be hating on Frobisher!  :)

Philip Portelli said:

Also too much depends on a shape-shifting penguin! Still it's a fun read!

[Philip Portelli]

Thanks to "The Pact", I never saw Highfather as being the light to Darkseid's night. He was willing to sacrifice his own son to a hellish existence while raising with love and comfort the offspring of the devil tormenting his son. Darkseid knew "The Pact" was temporary. He was still plotting war on New Genesis. It was all just a way for stalling for time! 

Scott Free was a victim of both sides!