Report what comic books you have read today--and tell us a little something about it while you're here!
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Report what comic books you have read today--and tell us a little something about it while you're here!
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I recently got THE EC ARCHIVES: PANIC Volume 1 that was EC's own MAD copy with art by Bill Elder, Wally Wood, Jack Davis and other MAD artists. This had more movie parodies and several issues were banned.
And I got THE EC ARCHIVES: THE COMPLETE EXTRA! by Johnny Craig, John Severin and Reed Crandall! Five issues featuring World Press globetrotting and womanizing Dateline reporter Keith Michaels, macho photographer Steve Rampart and intrepid girl reporter Geri Hamilton who is not protected by any (super) man!
With the Instocktrades discount, these $19.99 books were under $13 and well, well worth it.
In fact I plan on getting PANIC Volume 2, VALOR and PIRACY!
PANIC: Panic does not get nearly the credit it deserves as a predecessor of MAD magazine, nor does Al Feldstein get the credit he desreves for its success. Harvey Kurtzman's MAD comic book was an undisputed success, but he edited only the first few issues of MAD in its magazine format. Demanding a 51% controling interest from Bill Gaines was a tactical error on Kurtzman's part. When most of us think of MAD magazine, we're remembering the work of Al Feldstein, not Harvey Kurtzman. The comparison I like to make is Feldstein's MAD to Kurtzman's later efforts, such as Help!, Trump and Humbug.
NEW DIRECTION: I like all of EC's "New Direction" series. I commented on each of them (except Piracy) in turn further back in this discussion. [See p.698 (Valor), p.701 (Aces High, Impact, Psychoanaysis), p.703 (MD, Extra) for my thoughts on those series.] If you like those, I can also recommend EC's entire line of "Picto-Fiction" black & white magazines as well.
My friendly neighborhood comics shop sends emails letting me know what pre-orders are coming in the month ahead, and I realized I hardly buy any superhero stuff these days.
On my list is Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Black Cat and whatever iteration of She-Hulk that Marvel deigns to offer (it tends to let the series run for anywhere from six issues to 18 months, then kill it and re-title it). No Even fewer DC heroes -- just Zaranna and Barbara Gordon: Breakout -- which surprised me. None of the big guns from either company, and no team books or team-up titles.
Instead, I'm getting a lot of crime, adventure, and mystery/noir type series: Ordained, End of Life, Gun Honey, Tyler Rake: An Extraction Story, The Other/Half, Dick Tracy, the upcoming sequel to 100 Bullets subtitled The U.S. of Anger and Beauty, There's also The Twilight Zone and the latest Groo the Wanderer miniseries.
Fortunately, most of these aren't ongoing; many are short-run series that are slated to end with four or five or six or eight issues. At today's prices, that is much easier on my wallet.
Most of these aren't ongoing; many are short-run series
That seems to be a refrain on this board these days, and it's certainly my experience. I'm gravitating to short-run books as well, whether Big Two or other, and usually in collected form.
I know Jeff and others here have expressed appreciation for his Kirby Kopy days..
Just to clarify, I appreciate those days only because he got so much better so quickly. If Rob Liefeld's work work ever showed any improvement, I might have grown to appreciate his early stuff, too, but he current work looks pretty much the same as it did when he was 20.
(Was he Barry Windsor-Smith yet? It's late, and I'm not going to look it up.)
I don't know specifically when it happened (and I'm not inclined to look it up, either), but for anyone who doesn't know, "Windsor" was his mother's maiden name and he took it to homor her.
Even fewer DC heroes -- just Zaranna and Barbara Gordon: Breakout -- which surprised me.
It surprises me, too. You should be reading Tom King's Wonder Woman. (Everyone should be.)
I should note that I frequently supplement what's on my pull list with stuff from the dollar bins and sometimes specials, so I do have a (bare) sense of what's current.
I did get Wonder Woman: Black and Gold 2026 Special, and enjoyed much of it. Don't recall if any of those stories were by Tom King.
I know fandom at large gushes over Tom King's works, but I'm not fully sold. I've read collections of his Human Target and Strange Adventures, pseudo Vertigo books, plainly not in continuity (which is fine by me). I liked some of the wrinkles King added to Christopher Chance's personality, but found his treatment of Adam Strange as distasteful as the old three-issue limited series that also deconstructed the character. I like my heroes from the past to be heroes, thank you very much.
I also read the collected Heroes in Crisis and didn't like it. The idea of a secret sanctuary for heroes to deal with their PTSD was more than enough to hang the story on, and could have been an engine for many more stories. That potential was wasted with a wholly unnecessary murder mystery -- and I like mysteries and crime stories -- and the destruction of the sanctuary at the hands of Lois Lane (!).
So tell me, what good work is Tom King doing in Wonder Woman? I know Steve Trevor was dead (again? That trick never works) but may be back. What else you got?
So tell me, what good work is Tom King doing in Wonder Woman? I know Steve Trevor was dead (again? That trick never works) but may be back. What else you got?
I’ll try to field this one, since I am also an enthusiastic fan of Tom King’s Wonder Woman.
First, let me note that you put your finger squarely on Tom King’s worst work, IMHO. I agree wholeheartedly that his Adam Strange and Heroes in Crisis were terrible — heck, both actively offended me. (I have not read Human Target yet.)
I would note that both were decent stories, until the wholly unnecessary twists — and shock value — of heretofore blameless heroes suddenly committing murder. King’s subsequent work hasn’t relied on this gimmick, so maybe he learned something.
The overarching story in Wonder Woman begins with Wonder Woman’s daughter interviewing an old man in prison, who is gloating over Diana’s death.
Obviously, this is set in the future, as Wonder Woman isn’t dead and doesn’t yet have a daughter (or didn’t, when Wonder Woman #1 came out). This is mostly just a framing device, as the series takes place in the present.
Some aspects of the series are how this daughter came about — her conception and birth, and currently her babyhood with Wonder Woman. There are also back-up stories from different periods of the girl’s life (her name is Trinity), co-starring her babysitters and eventual older “brothers,” Damian Wayne and Jon Kent. (King ignores the unpopular aging-up of Jon Kent; he is the same age as Damian here, and the bickering and competition are pretty funny as they grow from pre-adolescents into their late teens. Trinity also ages up in these stories, but is often amusingly bratty. It was fun to see these young heroes acting like actual children, which King based on his own.)
In the front of the book, Wonder Woman discovers and battles the hidden king of America, The Sovereign. It turns out that there has been an oligarchy in charge of the U.S. since its inception — this is less hard to believe than it used to be — and there has been a royal family in back of the White House all along. Being an old-fashioned royalist — and patriarchal white supremacist — the king wants to turn the clock back to the 1700s and put women and Black people back in their place. Again, not as hard to believe as it used to be. No. 1 on his hit list is Wonder Woman, who represents much of what he finds wrong in today’s society. And it turns out he has a magic lasso as well, one that is black and is more or less the opposite of Wonder Woman’s. Trinity wields three lassos, so a third has yet to be introduced (unless it’s Donna Troy’s).
The Sovereign employs many of Wonder Woman’s traditional foes against her. Some know whom they’re working for, and some don’t. Along the way, King gets to upgrade these characters to be actual threats. (What he does with Mouse Man is particularly effective. Yes. Mouse Man.)
Meanwhile, we get more flashes of the future, and it's a grim, fascist place. It’s all caused by someone called The Matriarch, who is physically as powerful as Wonder Woman, and basically kills the Justice League and takes over the world.
As it turns out, we saw her get born. She’s the daughter of an Amazon named Emilie, whom we saw give birth in a flashback in Wonder Woman #19. King supplies the reasons she turns out so rotten, so this isn’t out of the blue. (And King also cements the clay-statue origin for Wonder Woman, as it should be.)
And now, with the last three issues, the grown-up Matriarch has made her debut, threatening to make the future we saw in Wonder Woman #1 come true. Much of it already has come true (Trinity's birth, the fate of the Sovereign). That’s where we’re at now, and so far so good.
Great superhero adventure, Alan Moore-like retcons, political commentary. What's not to like? Well, some may not like the art, which makes Wonder Woman look a bit like a linebacker. Which she probably would, so I personally have no complaint. And there are elements in our society that won't like the political commentary, which is basically "fascism is bad." It's disheartening to me that there are Americans who disagree with that. But I assume they're not reading Wonder Woman.
And, man, I can't wait until you try Absolute Wonder Woman! It's even better, because the writer is free to re-write everything except the core concept. Those two books are probably my favorites right now.
I forgot to mention Steve Trevor. Yes, he was killed again. But refreshingly, nobody thinks it's permanent. In fact, we see him in the Greco-Roman underworld, struggling to get back. Every time Charon or someone says he can't do something, he does it. Which shows why he's deserving of Wonder Woman. Along the way, he runs into some other previously deceased characters, like Jason Todd. He also meets Trinity as a teenager, who's come to rescue him, but fails. (Time works differenty in the underworld.) There's a lot of world-building going on in these scenes, and it's entertaining. Especially since they're respecting the audience; it's obvious Trevor will escape death. We just don't know how yet. (And neither does he.)
I should also mention that King makes better use of the army of Wonder Girls than most writers do. They don't get a lot of screen time, so we get more or less a shorthand. But Donna, Cassie and Yara have distinct personalities for a change.
"So tell me, what good work is Tom King doing in Wonder Woman?"
"I’ll try to field this one, since I am also an enthusiastic fan of Tom King’s Wonder Woman."
OMG. Cap!
Thank you so much for fielding this one! I had no idea where to begin!
Now all I have to say is, "What he said."
Thanks, Jeff! And I don't know if it came out in my summary, but one of the cool things about King's Wonder Woman is that in addition to a crackerjack story, it's thematically accurate. The Sovereign hates Wonder Woman because she's an uppity woman who won't do what she's told. The subtext since the strip's invention is that women are equal to (or better than) men, and King hits the right notes there. He's establishing "No, thank you" as a catchphrase of a kind, as Wonder Woman politely, and routinely, declines to be subservient.
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