Monthly Archives: September 2012

Justice Inc. #1-4 (1975)

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Quote:
My weapons … the gun i call Mike and the knife Ike! Once again, They are my only friends … my only allies … and my hope!

 

Just as The Shadow series was about to draw to a close, DC released this short-lived series featuring another 1930s pulp character, the Avenger, with most of the original stories written by Paul Ernst writing as Kenneth Robeson. Like The Shadow series, Denny O’Neil handled the writing duties and had a crossover story in The Shadow #11. The art in the first issue was by Al McWilliams but what makes the series stand out is the art on the remainder of the series by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer. Jack Kirby is of course the comics legend who helped create characters such as Captain America and other Marvel staples such as the Fantastic Four, X-Men and the Hulk as well as the Fourth World mythos for DC.

The first issue features the origin of the Avenger. Richard Benson is an adventurer and explorer who boards a plane to Montreal with his wife and daughter. On returning from the bathroom, he finds his wife and daughter missing along with another passenger. Everyone else on the plane insists that they were never on it and in an ensuing fight Benson is knocked out cold. He awakes three weeks later in hospital to find that his skin and hair have turned white and that he can mold his face so as to mimic others. Benson then sets off to investigate what happened to his wife and daughter and avenge them.

All the stories can standalone but, as he picks up new members for his Justice Inc. crime fighting operation along the way with each issue, should be read in order if possible. The first story is about a hostile company takeover but the remaining stories all feature some technological or scientific discovery as the focus of the story.

The series features more pulpy goodness from O’Neil and fabulous art from Kirby. The technology based stories and face changing antics of the Avenger puts me in mind of the Mission Impossible TV series and it would be interesting to find out if O’Neil was influenced by this or if it was a feature of the original pulps. Worth a look for fans of Jack Kirby if you can find it.

Tales of the Austin Books Labor Day Sale 2012

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As with every Labor Day weekend of the past umpteen years, Austin Books and Comics hosts their annual anniversary sale (35 this year). Within the main store, all back issues are 50% off. Also, this weekend they showcased the recently relocated and freshly stocked Sidekick location, full of 50% off graphic novels and $1 comics. For the Austin comic geek, this is one of the biggest events of the year.

This year, I met up with authors Chris N. Brown and Paul O. Miles to checked out the goodies. I’m not much of a back issues collector so I managed to escape with out buying anything, choosing to save my funds for the Sidekick store. Paul picked up a ½ a dozen or so selections. Chris went absolutely apeshit, grabbing what appeared to be 50 comics but may have been as little as 30. Either way, he required a box.

Since my 800 sq foot house isn’t getting any bigger and I already own around 700 graphic novels (not to mention around 5,000 books), I tend to air on the conservative side with my purchases during this sale. While in the Sidekick store, I only picked up 4 books, though there were countless others I wanted (and may still pick up in the near future.)

The Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen
Written by Otto Binder,Cary Bates, Alvin Schwartz, E. Nelson Bridwell, Jerry Siegel, and others
Art by Curt Swan, Susan S Kelly, John Forte, Creig Flessel, Marion Kaye, and others
Cover by Brian Bolland

Promo copy:

Cub reporter Jimny Olsen stars in this light-hearted volume collecting his most memorable adventures from the late 1950s and 1960s, guest-starring Superman! Jimmy undergoes startling transformations into Elastic Lad, The Wolf-Man of Metropolis, The Human Porcupine and more in these stories from SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN!

I have a secret love for the Jimmy Olsen tales. They are quirky and goofy. It’s not at all surprising that many of these stories were written by Otto Binder, who wrote many of the similarly-veined Fawcett Captain Marvel tales.

The Plain Janes
Written by Cecil Castellucci
Art by Jim Rugg

Promo copy:

Noted young adult novelist Cecil Castellucci and artist Jim Rugg launch MINX with THE PLAIN JANES, a story about four girls named Jane who sit at the reject table at lunch.

When transfer student Jane is forced to move from the confines of Metro City to Suburbia, she thinks her life is over. But there in the lunch room at the reject table she finds her tribe: three other girls named Jane. Main Jane encourages them to form a secret art gang and paint the town P.L.A.I.N. — People Loving Art In Neighborhoods. But can art attacks really save the hell that is high school?

I picked up the excellent Janes as a gift got a friend’s 12 year old daughter. Hope she enjoyed it as much as me and Brandy did.

Chiaroscuro: The Private Lives of Leonardo da Vinci
Written by Pat McGreal and David Rawson
Art by Chaz Truog and Rafael Kayanan
Cover by Stephen John Phillips and Richard Bruning

Promo copy:

The passions of one of history’s greatest artists are captured in this volume collecting the dark and provacative 10-issue Vertigo maxiseries. Framed around the story of Salai, a young man whose beauty entrances the great maestro, CHIAROSCURO follows the struggles and triumphs of da Vinci’s illustrious career, from his early work in Florence and Milan to the painting of the Mona Lisa and his epochal rivalry with Michaelangelo.

I collected this series back when it came out but somehow missed two issues of the run. I can finally read the complete story.

Eerie Presents: Hunter
Written by Rich Margopoulos, Budd Lewis, Bill Dubay, and Jim Stenstrum
Art by Paul Neary, Ken Kelly, San Julian, Alex Ni

Tales of the Austin Books Labor Day Sale 2012 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

The Shadow #1-12 (1973-1975)

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Quote:
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

 

I have been wanting to re-read Andrew Helfer’s run on The Shadow from the 80s for a while now. But when I went into the loft to dig them out I got sidetracked by DC’s first comic series with the character. The majority of issues (10) were written by Denny O’Neil with the other two written by Michael Uslan. O’Neil has worked on a vast number of titles for DC and Marvel and includes the Hard Traveling Heroes Green Lantern/Green Arrow story, a run on Batman and a revivial of the Question in the 80s. Uslan is better known as a film and TV producer and has been a producer on a number of the modern DC film adaptations including all the Batman movies. The art duties were handled by Michael Kaluta (5 issues), Frank Robbins (4 issues) and ER Cruz (3 issues). Kaluta’s work I know from Starstruck and a recent run on Madame Xanadu but the other two artists are new to me – in fact ER Cruz seems to be a bit of a man of mystery himself.

Each issue is a standalone story with no overall arc so each can be read on their own. The stories are true to the pulp origins of the character and set in the 30s (when the radio serial and books first appeared). The Shadow is a vigilante dispensing, often fatal, justice to organised crime gangs. He has unexplained mystical powers to hypnotize and evade adversaries and slip into the shadows. He has a number of alter egos including a rich socialite and in some ways can be seen as a precursor to Batman. He also has a team of associates that he uses to gather information and help him in his pursuit of criminals.

In general the stories were good examples of the pulp style. However, at 18 or 20 pages long, they were a bit too short for me – a lot of the story development and detection work was skipped to fit in the action within the page limit. The art was generally fine. This early example of Kaluta’s art was a bit cruder than his later Mucha influenced style but fit in well with the overall mood of the pulps. The Robbins art had more of a cartoony style but was still enjoyable to view. I probably liked the art by ER Cruz best as it was a bit cleaner than Kaluta’s and a bit more realistic than Robbins’. If you are a fan of pulp writing, the Shadow or Denny O’Neil then it is probably worth your while tracking this series down.