Tony Isabella's Bloggy Thing: May 2012

Thursday, May 31, 2012

THE EMPTY COCKPIT

For reasons explained in my previous bloggy things, I’m looking at
comic books that went on sale in July or 1963. All-American Men of
War #99 [September-October 1963] was one such comic book.

The cover is by Irv Novick, who also drew the Johnny Cloud story it
illustrates. “The Empty Cockpit” (15 pages) was written by editor
Robert Kanigher. Johnny Cloud was a Navajo fighter pilot and one
of Kanigher’s many attempts to diversify the characters appearing
in these titles. If he were still alive and writing these comics
today, I’m sure we’d see more African-American soldiers, a Muslim
soldier, women soldiers, and even gay soldiers.

The issue also featured “Sgt. Rock's Combat Corner,” a single-page
letters column. When this feature started appearing in Kanigher’s
war titles, the letters usually concerned military information and
history. The feature would eventually evolve into the more usual
letters column.

The second and final story in the issue was “Attack From Yesterday”
by Hank Chapman with art by Jack Abel. Chapman was one of the best
writers of the 1950s, doing dozens of horror, war and other stories
for Atlas/Marvel. Abel worked for many comics publishers and was
one of the nicest guys in the industry.

In 1963, if I bought a DC war comic, it was usually Our Army at War
with Sgt. Rock or Star Spangled War Stories with its wild tales of
soldiers fighting dinosaurs. Fun stuff.

Look for more comic books from this month in future bloggy things.
Lots more to go.

******************************

I have a huge stack of X-Men comics to talk about, but I’ll keep my
comments as brief as possible. I’m currently reading comics dated
December 2011, so I’m closing in on my target goal of being almost
current with the X-titles.

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD

I’ve mentioned my lack of enthusiasm for the “Curse of the Mutants”
event. It was tedious going and, every time I thought I was done
with it, there would be another aftermath issue. Despite that, I
did enjoy two spin-offs from the event.

The two X-Men vs. Vampires anthologies featured some good stories.
In the first one, I liked “From Husk ‘Til Dawn” by James Asmus and
Tom Raney - what a great title - and a Dazzler tale by Christopher
Sequeira and Sana Takeda. The second issue had a swell Karma story
by Howard Chaykin.

During the “Curse of the Mutants” event, the powerless Jubilee was
turned into a vampire...and has stayed that way. In the four-issue
Wolverine and Jubilee series, Logan tries to help Jubilee hold on
to her humanity and cope with her new life. Written by Katherine
Immonen with art by Phil Noto, it’s an entertaining series with a
lot of suspense and a lot of heart.

X-Men was launched as part of the “Curse of the Mutants” event and
it’s been the least interesting of the X-Men titles from its start.
It went from “Curse” to a Spider-Man team-up involving humans and
mutants being turned into lizards. Then we got one of the “Curse”
cling-ons. Then we got a story in which the tedious Neo got wiped
out by even more tedious villains and which involved a X-Men battle
the mutants forgot about and which I will certainly forget about as
soon as I post this. Then there was that equally forgettable trip
through the Bermuda Triangle with Doctor Doom. Unless you are an
X-Men completist, you really don’t need this title.

Astonishing X-Men threw me because it was alternating between two
distinct stories. I’m not talking an “A” plot and a “B” plot here.
I’m talking this issue has this story and the next issue has that
story and the issue after that goes back to the first story. What
the heck was that about?

The better of the two stories had a group of X-Men accompanying the
young mutant Armor to her native Japan for the funeral of her mom
and brother. At the same time, Mentallo is seizing control of the
monsters on Monster Island and blackmailing Roxxon with them. The
names of the monsters have been changed to protect the brilliantly
guilty Daniel Way, but we all know who they are. It’s an exciting
and fun story with Armor’s situation adding a great deal of heart
to the mix. Really good stuff.

The lesser of the two stories had the Brood infecting both mutants
and SWORD agents on a space station. X-Men transformation stories
are as common as X-Men alternate reality stories. Neither excites
me much.

On a more positive note, Astonishing X-Men #43 was a spiffy done-
in-one adventure starring Emma Frost and Danger. It was written by
James Asmus and drawn by David Yardin with Norman Lee and Rachelle
Rosenberg. Emma has become a favorite of mine.

Generation Hope #9 is another good done-in-one, exploring what can
happen when Hope and her team don’t reach a newly-powerized mutant
in time. It’s written by Kieron Gillen with art by Jamie McKelvie.

New Mutants continues to flounder. Following “Age of X,” Cyclops
recruited the team to deal with X-Men unfinished business. While
I can understand the concern - only 200 mutants left on Earth and
all - that scenario never gained traction before it was kicked to
the curb for the interminable “Fear Itself” event. Nothing to see
here, at least not anything worth the looking.

I’ll give Wolverine writer Jason Aaron props for one element of his run
on the book. The Red Right Hand’s revenge on Wolverine was about
as chilling and nasty a scheme as I’ve seen. It wasn’t worth all
those issues, but it was memorable. The issue in which all Logan’s
super-hero pals track him down and tell him how much they love him
was also memorable, albeit not in a good way.

Peter David’s X-Factor continues to entertain and surprise me. It
also managed to avoid the events, which helps the title entertain
and surprise me issue after issue.

What I like about X-Men Legacy is the journey Rogue has been on in
the book. What I don’t like is that journey going on as long as it
has. But I also like how writer Mike Carey has handled Legion, the
scary son of Charles Xavier. What I also don’t like is Rogue and
several X-Men having adventures in space. Less than 200 mutants on
Earth, remember? Overall, I’m still enjoying the title. If I were
buying it instead of borrowing it, I’d keep buying it.

One more for the road. X-Women was a 2010 one-shot wherein Rogue,
Storm, Kitty, Psylocke and Rachel Summers go on a vacation and have
an adventure. Written by Chris Claremont and drawn by the amazing
Milo Manara, it’s spiffy fun and sometimes that’s all I need from
a comic book. Worth looking for.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2012 Tony Isabella

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

GET MORE TONY: MARVEL FIRSTS 1970s VOLUME 3

Hitting the comics shops today is MARVEL FIRSTS THE 1970s VOL, 3 reprinting The Champions #1 and Black Goliath #1, both conceived and written by me. The book's roster also includes Skull the Slayer, Ulysses Bloodstone, Starlord, Guardians of the Galaxy, Omega the Unknown, the Eternals, Nova, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, The 3-D Man, Devil Dinosaur, Machine Man, Moon Knight, She-Hulk, and the very first issue of What If! It's 376 pages of action and suspense for $29.99. Make Mine Marvel!

RAWHIDE WEDNESDAYS 12

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

VAST ACCUMULATION OF STUFF SALE 5/29

Here are the new items for sale from my Vast Accumulation of Stuff.
Here’s how these ongoing sales work:

First come, first serve. In other words, the quicker you e-mail me,
the better your chance of getting the item or items. All items are
in very good or better condition unless otherwise noted.

Bonus savings. If your order totals between $50 and $99.99 before
shipping charges, you get an additional 5% off. If your order is
over $100 before shipping charges, you get an additional 10% off.

Items will be shipped via United States Postal Service. There is
a $5 charge for shipping and handling via media mail. That charge
helps defray my expenses. If the charge seems high, look at it in
light of the low prices on most of these items.

Payments are by check, money order or PayPal. My PayPal address is
the same as my email address. Purchases will be shipped within a
week of checks clearing, money orders received or PayPal payments
received.

Because this is a one-man operation done between family, household
and work responsibilities, these items are only available to buyers
within the United States and to APO buyers.

Here are this week’s items...

ACT 7, SEVEN, MAKING 12, TWELVE, OF DITKO’S 32S by Steve Ditko. 32-
page black-and-white comic book. 2011. ($1)

ACT 8, SEVEN, MAKING LUCKY 13, THIRTEEN DITKO’S 32S by Steve Ditko.
32-page black-and-white comic book. 2011. ($1)

A DITKO 14 #14 by Steve Ditko. 32-page black-and-white comic book.
2011. ($1)

ANGEL OMNIBUS. IDW. ($8)

BATMAN: BRUCE WAYNE THE ROAD HOME. DC hardcover. ($8)

BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD by Judd Winick, Doug Mahnke and others.
DC Comics. ($10)

BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL: MASSACRE by Hiroaki Samura. Dark Horse
manga. ($5)

BOOK OF HUMAN INSECTS by Osamu Tezuka. Vertical. HC manga ($7)

CHAFF N’ SKAFFS: MAI AND THE LOST MOSKIVVY by Amanda and Luke
Feldman, illustrated by Luke Feldman. HC children’s book ($5)

CHILL by Jason Starr and Mick Bertilorenzi. Vertigo GN ($4)

CRIMINAL MACABRE: THE CAL MCDONALD MYSTERIES OMNIBUS VOLUME 1 by
Steve Niles. Dark Horse. ($8)

DEAD@17: THE COMPLETE FIRST SERIES by Josh Howard ($4)

DEATH KAPPA so bad its...nah, it’s just bad DVD ($1)

DITKOMANIA #85. Fanzine. (75 cents)

DITKOMANIA #86. Fanzine. (75 cents)

FANTASTIC FOUR: THE WORLD’S GREATEST COMICS MAGAZINE by Erik Larsen
and others. Collects 12-issue series. HC ($12)

FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN by Gerry Conway & Allen Milgrom. Reprint
of original series and Flash back-ups. ($7)

HOUSE OF MYSTERY: UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT by Matthew Sturges, Luca
Rossi and Jose Marzan, Jr. Vertigo. ($5)

HUMAN TARGET by Len Wein, Bruno Redondo and Sergio Sandoval. DC.
($6)

JUNGLE BOOK (NBM; 2009) by Rudyard Kipling, art by Tieko. Oversized
HC ($5)

OUT OF PICTURE: ART FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN Volume 1 (Villard,
2007), features short illustrated stories. Oversized softcover
($6)

OUT OF PICTURE: ART FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN Volume 2 (Villard,
2008), features short illustrated stories. Oversized softcover
with more pages than first volume ($8)

SCRAPBOOK OF FRANKIE PRATT: A NOVEL IN PICTURES by Caroline Preston
HarperCollins, 2011. HC. ($5)

WELCOME TO TRANQUILITY: ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE by Gail Simone and
Horacio Domingues. DC. ($5)

Thanks for your patronage.

Tony Isabella

GREAT GRASSHOPPERS!

I’ve been telling you repeatedly that Fantastic Four Annual #1 came
out in July 1963 and changed my life. What I haven’t mentioned is
that my interest in comic books was winding down at that time. Of
the 137 comics listed by Mike’s Amazing World of Comics as coming
out that month, I only owned 22 of them. Of those 22, I bought or
traded for 12 of them as back issues...and only bought ten of them
off the newsstands.

I’ve never owned or read The Adventures of the Fly #27 [September
1963]. I’d gotten the occasional issue of that title or the Jaguar
in trades, but they were always add-ons to sweeten deals. I would
not buy Archie super-heroes with any regularity until they started
doing their Marvel imitation. I didn’t consider them as rip-offs
but comedies, the same reaction I had to the Batman TV show. I was
able to enjoy them on that basis.

John Rosenberger drew the cover and the 20-page, two-chapter cover
story: “The Great Z-17 Mystery” and “The Menace Of The Invisible
Planet!” All the issue’s stories were written by Robert Bernstein,
best known for his Superman writing, though he also wrote a handful
of stories for Stan Lee around this time.

The issue also had a five-page Fly Girl story - “Fly Girl’s Pet” -
drawn by John Giunta....and the single-page “The Black Hood Teaches
Karate,” drawn by Rosenberger.

I’ve got two more comics from July 1963 coming up for Thursday and
Friday, then I’ll switch back to December 1951 for a bit.

******************************

Yesterday’s bloggy thing had me waxing nostalgic about some stuff
and then updating you on some other stuff. I’m walking that same
bloggy path today.

This year has been the slowest of my professional career, at least
when it comes to paying gigs. However, I did recently complete a
trio of assignments for a client and he was incredibly pleased with
my work. It’s not that I can’t still do good work. It’s just that
I don’t get many opportunities.

My stating the above fact will delight some people. Many of them
will be people who have never created or written anything of worth
in their entire lives. Many of them will be miserable sods without
the great wife and kids and friends and life I have even when I’m
not getting paid big or small bucks for writing. It’s hard for me
to care what they think or say about me, though I confess it does
please me to know I have it so much better than them.

A couple friends/readers seem to think I won’t accept work-for-hire
jobs. That’s simply not the case. I’m open to almost anything as
long as its work I think I can do well...that pays a decent wage or
has other benefits to make up for low pay...that doesn’t violate my
moral code. I do believe I can do my best work when the editor’s
hand is the lightest.

I’m not even against entering into creative partnerships. Heck, if
DC had honored its partnership with me, Black Lightning would have
been just the first character I created in that partnership. That
partnership agreement was a good and fair one for both the company
and myself. It wasn’t me who trashed it.

One way or another, I will get back to comic-book writing. There
are two speculative projects on my desk that I’ll be getting back
to next month...in between my son’s graduation from Ohio State and
my garage sales. After that, I’ll look at whatever opportunities
have been offered to me and, if there aren’t any, I’ll explore the
opportunities I can make for myself.

That’s all the self-promotion I can take for a while, so this will
be a short bloggy thing...much like myself. Come back tomorrow for
another Rawhide Kid Wednesday.

© 2012 Tony Isabella

Monday, May 28, 2012

VAST ACCUMULATION OF STUFF SALE 5/28

I have a Vast Accumulation of Stuff and I want to sell most of it
in the next five years. Some of this stuff is being offered first
to readers of this bloggy thing of mine.

Every Monday, I post a list of still available items. This items
will remain available until I either offer them on eBay or put them
in my summer-long garage sale.

Every Tuesday, I list new items for sale. Here’s how the sales
work:

First come, first serve. In other words, the quicker you e-mail me,
the better your chance of getting the item or items. All items are
in very good or better condition unless otherwise noted.

Bonus savings. If your order totals between $50 and $99.99 before
shipping charges, you get an additional 5% off. If your order is
over $100 before shipping charges, you get an additional 10% off.

Items will be shipped via United States Postal Service. There is
a $5 charge for shipping and handling via media mail. That charge
helps defray my expenses. If the charge seems high, look at it in
light of the low prices on most of these items.

Payments are by check, money order or PayPal. My PayPal address is
the same as my email address. Purchases will be shipped within a
week of checks clearing, money orders received or PayPal payments
received.

Because this is a one-man operation done between family, household
and work responsibilities, these items are only available to buyers
within the United States and to APO buyers.

Here’s the list of items still available...

ACT 4 by Steve Ditko (2010) ($2)

APOLLO’S SONG by Osamu Tezuka ($5)

BATMAN: DARK JOKER - THE WILD by Doug Moench, Kelley Jones and John
Beatty HC ($10)

BATMAN: HUSH UNWRAPPED by Loeb and Lee HC ($20)

BATTLE ROYALE 13 by Koushun Takami & Masayuki Taguchi with English
adaptation by Keith Giffen unopened ($3)

BEST OF STAR TREK by Mike W. Barr, Diane Duane, Peter David, Tom
Sutton, Dan Jurgens, Curt Swan, James Fry & Gordon Purcell ($8)

BIG NATE IN A CLASS BY HIMSELF by Lincoln Peirce HC ($5)

CAPTAIN BRITAIN VOL. 1: BIRTH OF A LEGEND by Chris Claremont, Herb
Trimpe and others HC ($20)

CITY OF SPIES BY Susan Kim, Laurence Klavan and Pascal Dizin ($5)

CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION: INTERN AT YOUR RISK Manga by Sekou
Hamilton and Steven Cummings ($4)

DEATH FROM THE SKIES: THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE END OF THE WORLD by
Philip Platt Ph.D ($5)

DEVIL DOG: THE AMAZING TRUE STORY OF THE MAN WHO SAVED AMERICA by
David Talbot with illustrations by Spain Rodriguez HC ($7)

DITKOMANIA #78 fanzine (75 cents)

DITKOMANIA #79 fanzine (75 cents)

FRANK CHO: APES AND BABES BOOK ONE HC ($15)

GACHA GACHA THE NEXT REVOLUTION by Hiroyuki Tamakoshi Volume 1, 2,
4, 6, 7, 8, 11 ($6 each)

GREEN LANTERN: SLEEPERS Books One, Two, and Three by Christopher J.
Priest, Mike Baron and Michael Akn HC prose trilogy (all three for
$22)

IN PLAIN SIGHT: SEASON ONE DVD unopened ($20)

INU-YASHA: A FEUDAL FAIRY TALE 4 by Rumiko Takahashi ($5)

INU-YASHA: A FEUDAL FAIRY TALE 5 by Rumiko Takahashi ($5)

IRON MAN VS. WHIPLASH by Marc Guggenheim, Brandon Braga & Phillippe
Briones ($6)

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #57 ($5)

JUNIOR MISS #33 [Marvel; 1949] good condition ($10)

JUSTICE LEAGUE GENERATION LOST Volume 1 HC ($20)

JSA: BLACK REIGN by Geoff Johns and Rags Morales ($4)

KICK ASS by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. HC ($10)

KITCHEN PRINCESS 7 by Natsumi Ando and Miyuki Kobayashi ($3)

KITCHEN PRINCESS 8 by Natsumi Ando and Miyuki Kobayashi ($3)

KONG: KING OF SKULL ISLAND by Joe DeVito HC ($13)

LEGION LOST by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Olivier Coipel HC ($20)

LOSERS: TRIFECTA by Andy Diggle and Jock ($5)

MAMMOTH BOOK OF EXTREME FANTASY ($5)

MIGHTY SAMSON #1 Gold Key ($16)

MIGHTY SAMSON #3 Gold Key ($10)

MIGHTY SAMSON #4 Gold Key ($10)

MIGHTY SAMSON #5 Gold Key ($10)

MIGHTY SAMSON #6 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #7 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #8 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #9 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #10 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #11 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #12 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #13 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #14 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #15 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #16 Gold Key ($6)

MONSTERS, INC. Collectors Edition 2-Disc DVD unopened ($5)

NEW TEEN TITANS: WHO IS DONNA TROY by Wolfman and Perez ($10)

PRETTY GUARDIAN SAILOR MOON Vol. 1-4 plus CODENAME SAILOR V Vol. 1-
2 (all 6 for $32)

SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #31 by Alan Moore, Rick Veitch and John
Totleben ($2)

SAMURAI DEEPER KYO 1 by Akimine Kamijyo ($3)

SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY VOL. 1 by Grant Morrison and others HC
unopened ($20)

SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY VOL. 2 by Grant Morrison and others HC
($20)

SPIDER ISLAND: HEROES FOR HIRE #1 by Abnett, Lanning and Hotz ($1)

STAR TREK: THE MODALA IMPERATIVE by Michael Jon Friedman, Peter
David and Pablo Marcos ($8)

STAR TREK: WHO KILLED CAPTAIN KIRK by Peter David, Tom Sutton and
Ricardo Villagran ($7)

STAR WARS #80 by Jo Duffy, Ron Frenz, and Tom Palmer ($4)

STAR WARS: LEGACY VOLUME FOUR - ALLIANCE ($6)

STAR WARS: LEGACY VOLUME SEVEN - STORMS ($7)

STAR WARS: LEGACY VOLUME NINE - MONSTER ($7)

STAR WARS: LEGACY VOLUME TEN - EXTREMES ($7)

STAR WARS VECTOR VOLUME TWO ($7)

SUPERMAN/BATMAN: THE SEARCH FOR KRYPTONITE by Michael Green, Mike
Johnson, Shane Davis and Matt Banning ($5)

SUPERMAN: BRAINIAC by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank and Jon Sabal ($4)

SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN DELUXE EDITION by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank
and Jon Sabal HC ($12)

TEEN TITANS: BEAST BOYS AND GIRLS ($5)

TERRY MOORE’S ECHO: BLACK HOLE ($5)

TERRY MOORE’S ECHO: THE LAST DAY ($5)

TOY STORY 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION DVD 2-Disc Set unopened ($5)

TWO-STEP by Warren Ellis, Amanda Conner, and Jimmy Palmiotti ($5)

WAKING DEAD BOOK TWO by Kirkman and Adlard HC unopened ($15)

WONDER WOMAN ARCHIVES VOLUME 5 HC unopened ($25)

Thanks for your patronage.

Tony Isabella

I’VE GOT TO HELP RONNIE

Fantastic Four Annual #1 came out in July 1963 and changed my life.
It made me realize that writing and drawing comic books was a for-
real job...and I wanted that job. I have worked at many other jobs
in my six decades on Planet Earth, but, when anyone asks me what I
do, I always tell them I’m a comic-book writer. To celebrate that
awakening, I’m writing about other comic books that were shipped to
newsstands in that pivotal month.

The Adventures of Little Archie #28 [Fall 1963] is not a comic book
I would’ve read back then. The only issue of Little Archie I owned
as a kid had a dinosaur on the cover. My love of such prehistoric
critters outweighed another strong emotion.

Comic-book stories about adults and teens when they were children
creep me out. I didn’t care for Little Archie. I didn’t care for
Superbaby. I shuddered at stories when the Legion of Super-Heroes
or Lois Lane were turned into toddlers. Even Tiny Titans has been
a tough sell for me and it’s hilarious.

It’s not directly related to this phobia of mine, but TV shows like
Toddlers and Tiaras and Dance Moms disgust me. The idea of tarting
little kids up with the full consent and participation of parents,
teaching them to shake their little asses like strippers, and then
putting them on TV for the delight of pedophiles...that’s as wrong
as it gets. Every adult who appears or works on those shows should
be arrested, convicted and jailed. But I digress.

The Adventures of Little Archie #28 was a 68-page comic book. The
comics stories were divided between Bob Bolling and Dexter Taylor,
both of whom wrote and drew their stories. The cover is by Bolling
and, according to the Grand Comics Datebase, it’s the only time he
drew a cover based on one of Taylor’s stories.

Most of the Little Archie adventures are just that. The kid goes
after a car thief, befriends an alien frog-creature come to Earth
to investigate the “inferior human race,” contends with a stranger
trying to steal a doll from Veronica and, with Betty, survives an
auto accident because he and she were wearing seat belts. A few of
the stories are of the more realistic “kids learning valuable
lessons about life” variety. Sounds like an entertaining mix for
those readers who aren’t creeped out.

Maybe I should face my phobia and write some kids comics. Little
Punisher, anyone?

******************************

Sainted Wife Barb and I were driving around Medina running errands
Saturday afternoon. We drove past the recently-closed Super K Mart
that was once our favorite place to shop in Medina. It was open 24
hours a day for a long time. It had groceries, clothes, and much
more. It was a life-saver when we discovered we were out of milk
or bread for our young children and they had to be up, dressed, fed
and at school in a hour or so. We bought Christmas presents there.
Video tapes. CDs. Toys. Trading cards. We bought lunch meat and
cheese at its deli counter, birthday cakes at its in-store bakery.
Good prices, good selection, good service...until all those things
became not so good.

The Medina K Mart started slipping even before it had significant
competition from Buehler’s, Giant Eagle, Marc’s and Walmart. Each
and every one of those stories worked hard to get business. They
made regular improvements, added new services, kept their stories
in a clean and tidy manner. K Mart just deteriorated. It cut its
hours. It never seemed as clean as it should be. I would always
check the dates on stuff because it wasn’t unusual to find outdated
products on the shelves. After a few years, there was no reason to
shop there. Even when it held its going-out-of-business sale, it
raised prices rather than lowering them. Sad.

Barb and I have lived in Medina for over 25 years. Businesses and
stores and restaurants have come and gone. We miss some of those
places to this day. Others we’ve forgotten.

Most of the kids our kids grew up with are away at college most of
the year. Some of them won’t be moving back home when they finish
school. Probably not even our own kids. Those are the changes we
really don’t want to face but know we must. Sadder.

Awash as I am with melancholy nostalgia, it seems like a good time
to update my friends and readers on a few things.

My planned summer-long garage sale won’t start until sometime next
month. Our garage needs to be cleaned and prepared before we set
up the tables that have been loaned out several times in April and
May. I have to organized the stock from last year’s sales and add
a bunch of new stuff to the mix. I want to make sure my customers
have lots of cool things to choose from.

The plan is still to hold at least two advertised sales per month.
But we’ll be leaving the “store” up so that fans and retailers can
contact me and make appointments to shop on days and at times more
convenient to them. My plan is to restock the “store” frequently,
encouraging return visits. I’ll keep you posted.

Several times this year, I’ve alluded to a situation weighing quite
heavily on me and that I couldn’t write about. I’m still not ready
to write about it, but that time is coming soon. Until then, know
I have resolved the situation and, as much as possible, will move
forward and away from it. Sometimes you have to make really tough
decisions. I’ve made one of those and am satisfied it was my best
course of action. Cryptic much?

Besides I’ve resolved the situation, I will again be able to attend
conventions. At the moment, I’m only scheduled to appear at one:
The Akron Comicon, Saturday, November 10, from 10am to 6pm, at the
University of Akron Student Union.

If you’re a convention promoter who’d like to have me as a guest at
your event, e-mail with details. If my schedule allows it and if
we can work out the nuts-and-bolts of my appearance, I’d be happy
to attend your convention. The same holds true if you want me to
speak at your school or library or other function.

Podcasts, radio, TV? I’m not in love with them, but I’ll at least
consider them. If we’re talking TV, we probably need to find me a
handsome media double. Otherwise your viewers might think they’re
watching a rerun of Tales from the Crypt.

While I’m still not eager to do a lot of interviews, especially if
they want to cover the same ground I’ve covered in dozens of other
interviews, I will try to accommodate such requests. Just show me
a little common courtesy, okay? Don’t send me questions before I
agree to the interview. Don’t expect overnight responses because
I fit these things in around my writing and my family and household
obligations. Finally, though I can scarcely believe I have to say
this, you’re supposed to say “thank you” after I’ve answered your
questions.

I used to work from time to time as a consultant, advising comics
publishers, editors and creators. I got paid for that work, but I
never really liked doing it. At least a couple times a month, I’m
asked to look over someone’s proposal for a new comic book, comic
strip, etc. As a favor. Often a favor being asked by someone with
whom I’ve never had any real prior contact. I almost always turn
that down and some of the favor-seekers get real nasty when I turn
them down. I don’t think I owe every one who’s ever bought one of
my books or read my columns my free creative services. So, like I
said, I almost always turn down such requests.

I’m getting mellow in my dotage. Just last week, I was asked to
read and make suggestions on a writer’s proposal for a new project.
I was in a good mood and agreed to do so. Much to my delight and
surprise, I had fun showing the writer a few different ways she
could take her characters and stories.

The moral of the above is that I no longer have that hard-and-fast
rule against lending a helping brain on occasion. I expect I will
still turn down most of the requests, but it’s not the closed door
it once was.

We’ll resume this discussion tomorrow.

© 2012 Tony Isabella

Sunday, May 27, 2012

JERRY AND THE VIKING

The Adventures of Jerry Lewis #78 came out in July 1963, the same
month in which Fantastic Four Annual #1 came out and changed young
Tony Isabella’s life forever.

What else can I tell you about The Adventures of Jerry Lewis #78?
Well, there’s a Viking on the cover. And he’s holding a whip. And
Jerry is one of the rowers along with several unhappy guys wearing
red go-go pants. Okay...I got nothing.

Let’s just get right to today’s reviews of various Free Comic Book
Day comic books. None of which have a Viking with a whip on their
covers.

******************************

My “best of show” award today goes to Archaia Entertainment’s Mouse
Guard: Labyrinth and Other Stories. If I were a young kid handed
a hardcover anthology for free, I would be thrilled. What a fine
and spiffy idea.

David Petersen’s “The Tale of Baldwin the Brave” (nine pages) is a
genuine delight with a nice moral at its conclusion. That story’s
followed by five more, all of them, at the very least, interesting.

I got a big kick out of Nate Crosby and Chris Eliopoulos’ Cow Boy
story. The title hero is “a young bounty hunter determined to put
his entire outlaw family in jail.” It’s a great concept and I’m
looking forward to reading the book.

Archaia’s presentation of this material was first-rate. If any of
the FCBD publishers deserves to gain customers from their offering,
it’s Archaia.

The runner-up of today’s batch was Walt Disney’s Donald Duck Family
Comics from Fantagraphics. Counting the cover and back cover, it’s
34 pages of Carl Barks goodness. Two Uncle Scrooge stories, one of
them featuring the Beagle Boys. A Donald Duck story. Eight pages
of single-page gags. The stories of Carl Barks are timeless to me,
though I first read them as an adult. I really hope today’s kids
can enjoy them as much as I do.

Voltron Force: Shelter from the Storm (Viz Media) wasn’t going to
appeal to me. The only mecha-manga or mecha-anime I’ve ever liked
was the Exo-Squad series my pal Will Meugniot worked on many years
ago. So I’m clearly not the audience for this comic book by Brian
Smith (story) and Jacob Chabot (art). But this free comic delivers
a decent chunk of story and should appeal to young and old readers
who dig this sort of thing. Free Comic Book Day isn’t supposed to
be for just me. It needs to have comic books that will attract and
entertain a variety of interests and tastes. I’d say this one has
a good change of reaching its target audience.

Anti/The Ride [12-Gauge] falls into the category of Free Comic Book
Day offerings that needed an adviser. The flipbook has excerpts of
two titles, but no introductory material to give the reader a leg
up into what those titles are about. Anti seems to be some sort of
demon invasion thing and nothing in its 12 pages stands out. The
Ride, a black-and-white series, seems to be about a serial killer.
It’s got a little more going for it, but, without any explanatory
material, not enough to get me interested. Modern comics creators
of episodic series need to learn the truth that was drummed into me
at Marvel by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas: Every issue of a comic book
is someone’s first issue of that comic book.

Finding Gossamyr/The Stuff of Legend [Th3rd World Studios] is a bit
closer to what I like to see in a FCBD giveaway. Written by David
A. Rodriguez with art by Sarah Ellison, Finding Gossamyr gets 14
pages to hook prospective readers. It still needed to give those
readers a leg up - I’d suggest smaller credits on the inside front
cover to make room for explanatory copy - but that chunk of story
was intriguing.

I can’t say the same for The Stuff of Legend part of this issue.
It starts with two pages of character images and names sans further
information on those characters...and its four page preview wasn’t
enough to interest me.

Jurassic Strike Force [Silver Dragon] was another FCBD failure in
my eyes. No introductory material on a largely wasted inside front
cover and ten pages of a man-like dinosaur in armor fighting robots
in some sort of “Danger Room” training exercise. It looks slapped
together from whatever material was on hand. If you’re gonna play
FCBD, bring your “A” game to the field.

Hermes Press promoted the publisher’s My Favorite Martian: The
Complete Series Volume One with its Free Comic Book Day offering.
The cover reminds me of a TV Guide cover and I sort of think that’s
where it came from. Inside the issue, we get “Destination Mars,”
a 21-page story from the second Gold Key issue [July 1964]. It’s
drawn by Dan Spiegle and likely written by Paul S. Newman. There
are also single-page MFM gag pages, two of them, and a selection of
other MFM material. If someone is interested in the original show,
this free comic book should get them thinking about springing for
the hardcover collection. Thumbs up for this FCBD comic.

From Drawn & Quarterly, Anna & Froga/Moomin Valley Turns Jungle was
another fine free comic book for kids, though this slightly older
reader loved it, too. Quotes from reviewers actually gave a decent
leg up to those of us discovering Anna & Froga for the first time.
Charming stuff with just a little bite.

The newly-colored Moomin Valley Turns Jungle comic strips were easy
to get into even without a leg up. Tova and Lars Jansson’s strips
have fun characters and situations. If I could afford the books,
I’d buy them all. Instead, I’ll be requesting them from my local
library system. Good stuff.

Just about the only kind of comic book I can’t get into are those
based on video games or role-playing games. I find them worse than
comic books that read like video games or role-playing games. My
wizard casts a spell consigning you to your basement. That said,
younger readers who do enjoy these pastimes will likely enjoy the
Sonic the Hedgehog comic books published by Archie Comics. Since
Archie has published well over two hundred Sonic comics, I would be
surprised if those younger readers haven’t already discovered the
Sonic comics. But, if they haven’t, this free comic book will be
a treasure for them.

More FCBD and X-Men reviews coming later this week. I’ll be back
tomorrow with another bloggy thing.

© 2012 Tony Isabella

Saturday, May 26, 2012

EVEN PROTOPLASMIC BLOBS NEED LOVE

From July of 1963, we have Adventure Comics #312 [September 1963],
featuring “The Super-Sacrifice of the Legionnaires!” Those super-
kids of the 30th Century are playing Russian roulette with bolts of
lightning. The lightning will flow through the body of the first
hero struck by lightning and revive the deceased Lightning Lad. On
the downside, whoever gets struck by the lightning will die. When
I look at this Curt Swan/George Klein/John Forte cover today, I’m
thinking “stupid kids,” but, back then, I thought it was very cool.
Talk about real friends!

“The Super-Sacrifice of the Legionnaires” (14.34 pages) was written
by Edmond Hamilton and drawn by John Forte. If you’re confused by
Forte’s cover credit, it’s because he inked the heads of the Legion
members.

SPOILERS AHEAD

This story and Keith Giffen are responsible for the flat-out oddest
Legion sexuality of all time. In this story, Saturn Girl fixes the
“contest” to ensure she will be the fried Legionnaire. But Proty,
Chameleon Boy’s intelligent shape-changing protoplasmic blob/pet,
takes her place and sacrifices his/her/its life for Lightning Lad.
Except, according to Giffen in a decades-later Legion story, what
actually happened was Lightning Lad’s body was revived with Proty’s
mind. Which only Saturn Girl knew. Just as she knew who she was
marrying and doing the future fandango with and having kids with. I
suspect Giffen’s spin on the marriage was bounced from continuity
three or four Legion reboots ago, but I’m still too creeped out to
research it. Mind you, I’m not against Saturnian/protoplasmic blog
marriages. I just find it very sad that Saturn Girl and Proty had
to hide their love that way.

SPOILERS OVER

Backing up the lead story is “Lana Lang, Hollywood Star,” a 10-page
Superboy drawn by George Papp, in which Clark Kent’s neighbor gets
hired to play a movie jungle queen. The writer of this story has
not yet been identified, so I’m just going to go with Diablo Cody
until someone proves me wrong. I don’t really believe Diablo wrote
this story, but, when I made a similar joke about Ryan Reynolds a
few days ago, my blog got a link in his Twitter feed. I wanna see
if that works a second time.

******************************

Comments to this bloggy thing have to be approved by me before they
are posted. That doesn’t mean I don’t love them because I do love
them a lot. But approval defeats and vexes the trolls and usually
sends them scurrying off to places where their churlish behavior is
tolerated and even applauded.

Looking at some of your recent comments...

Ben Herman wishes DC would reprint my first Black Lightning series.
So do I...and the second one as well. DC’s not interested. When
my creation was heading towards his 25th anniversary, I asked DC if
I could negotiate a license to publish reprint volumes of my first
and second series. The company laughed in my face. If I thought
another such inquiry would yield a different result, I would take
another shot at it. Sigh.

Some of my bloggy readers only like comics from a certain era or of
a certain genre, usually the super-hero genre. That is certainly
their right, but I think they’re missing out on some great stuff.
Check with your local library system. You might be able to sample
some new and different comics at no expense.

Despite one reader’s comment, there’s no evidence that Superman is
the newly-gay character in the New 52 Universe. DC specifically
said it was an iconic male character who had not yet been shown in
their new universe. That eliminates Superman. I can’t recall for
certain, but I think this version of the news was being reported by
Fox News and other discredited right-wing organizations. In other
words, they are making up shit. Again.

I didn’t list all of my favorite websites last weekend. I’ll get
to the others soon.

Mark Verheiden loves “Rawhide Wednesdays,” as do all classy refined
readers of this blog. Unfortunately, unless Marvel rushes out the
second Essential Rawhide Kid volume, we only have eight more weeks
of western wonderment to come. I can’t afford to buy later issues
at present. My current plan is to follow “Rawhide Wednesdays” with
another weekly theme. Sgt. Fury has been suggested, but I’m open
to another suggestions as well.

Fantastic Frank asked if I would be a guest on his blogtalk radio
show. I’m not doing live appearances or interviews right now, but
that could and almost certainly will change later this year. I’m
also hoping to resume attending comic-book and related conventions.
Interested parties should contact me via e-mail.

Brad Walker posted that actress Felicia Day is the star and creator
of The Guild, which I knew but forgot to mention when I wrote about
the series appearance in a Free Comic Book Day giveaway. Day has
also appeared on an episode of Supernatural and several episodes of
Eureka. She was superlative in both. Were I young and unmarried
enough to have a fantasy girl, she would be her.

Bill Thomas asked if I would be blogging about Tony DeZuniga, who
passed away a short time ago. When we lose a comics creator, I’m
most likely to write about it on my Facebook page, which is what I
did on that sad occasion.

My friend Steve Chaput commented on his disinterest in all things
X-Men. However, I’m sort of in to them at the moment, so you and
he can expect more of my comments on them over the next few weeks.
I generally write about whatever shiny object appears in my brain.
Lately, that’s been X-Men and Free Comic Book Day comics. Sooner
rather than later, other shiny objects will catch my attention and
I’ll write about them. It’s the way of the blog.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2012 Tony Isabella

Friday, May 25, 2012

BLACK DON’T COME OFF

Action Comics #304 [September 1963] hit the newsstands in the month
of my awakening. Backtrack a bloggy thing or three to understand
what I mean by "month of my awakening.".

Although my memory of this issue is vague, I almost certainly read
it when it was published or soon thereafter. Superman comic books
were frequent trade material in my neighborhood, though the ranks
of comic-book readers were thinning out as my peers got older and
allegedly outgrew comics.

Comics publishers certainly believed their audience turned over on
a regular basis. This issue’s “The Interplanetary Olympics” is a
reworked version of the Superman story of the same title in Action
Comics #220 [September 1956} from seven years prior. The reworked
version was written by Leo Dorfman, penciled by Curt Swan, inked by
George Klein and ran 12 pages. The original version ran 10 pages
and was drawn by Al Plastino. As tentatively identified by comics
detective Bob Bailey, that original version was likely written by
Edmond Hamilton.

The cover to Action Comics #304 was penciled by Swan with inks by
Sheldon Moldoff. The cover to issue #220 was penciled and inked by
Plastino.

Also written by Dorfman, “The Maid of Menace” introduced a new foe
for Supergirl. The Black Flame was Zora Vi-Lar, a super-criminal
who escaped from the bottle city of Kandor. Drawn by Jim Mooney,
Zora was a combination of cute and evil. The 12-page story was a
favorite of mine from that era.

Bad girls. Whatcha gonna do?

More comics from the month of my awakening coming soon.

******************************

DC Comics has made this announcement: “One of the major iconic DC
characters will reveal that he is gay in a storyline in June.” The
announcement has generated hundreds maybe even thousands of online
comments and much speculation as to the identity of this character.
What it appears we know, besides the character being gay, is that
he hasn’t yet been introduced in the “New 52" Universe.

I’m all for the inclusion of more diverse characters in super-hero
universes. I’m okay with a new gay character who was straight in
the old DC Universe continuity, the one that was rendered null and
void by the New 52 Universe. Well, mostly null and void, as Batman
and Green Lantern got to carry most of their baggage from that old
universe to the new one.

That character you liked from the old DC Universe is still the same
guy he was. He’s just in the old universe, the one that is never
coming back and would you like to buy this bridge. The new version
of that character is just that: a new character.

Black Lightning, the character I created in a partnership with DC
Comics that DC has never fully honored, has been suggested once or
twice in the online chatter. I suspect some of that chatter came
from folks trying to get me riled. Amateurs.

How would I feel about Black Lightning being the new gay character?
I’d be against it.

I’d be against it unless I was the one writing it.

Given my contentious relationship with DC and my profound lack of
confidence in their ability or desire to ever do right by either my
creation or myself, I’m sure they would muck it up. The New 52 is
filled with badly-written and badly-drawn comic books. There are
some good and even great titles among them, but some of the others
are among the worst comics DC has ever published.

However, for the sake of this bloggy thing, let’s imagine a reality
where I either have reclaimed Black Lightning from DC Comics or the
company has decided not to be douche bags when it comes to me and
my creation. What would I do?

I’ve been telling friends for some time that if I ever wrote Black
Lightning again that I would largely reinvent the character. He’d
still be Jefferson Pierce. He would still be a teacher and man of
faith. He’d still have the electrical powers, though I’ve figured
out some new ways to use those powers in my long absence from the
character. But, just as I added then-modern sensibilities to Black
Lightning when I wrote his 1990s series, I’d recreate Jeff Pierce
for 2012.

When I was writing Black Lightning in the 1990s, I actually thought
about having him meet and become romantically involved with a man.
I ditched the notion because the obvious chemistry between Jeff and
his ex-wife was so much fun to write.

I started thinking about it again after a conversation with a black
writer at a convention. He had asked me about handling sensitive
social issues in comics scripts and I told him what I had planned
to do with a gay black male character I had introduced in an issue
of the 1990s Black Lightning. As I saw it, Jeff Pierce would have
seen the struggle of LBGT people as akin to the struggles of black
people in our country. It was entirely in character for Jeff to be
supportive of that struggle.

The writer took offense at what he clearly thought was a slight of
some sort. He rubbed his arm and said something along the lines of
“black don’t come off.” With all due respect, “gay don’t come off
either.” The conversation ended on a friendly note, but that quick
moment of awkwardness stayed with me.

Are white Americans more supportive of equal rights for LBGT folks
than black Americans? Quite a few Americans believe that, though
I’m not one of them. For me, it’s a civil rights issue plain and simple.
Not the same struggle black Americans faced and, sadly, continue to
face, but a civil rights issue nonetheless.

I realize some deeply religious blacks are opposed to equal rights
for gays. I think they are wrong to oppose them. In the case of
Christianity, I think the message of Jesus is pretty clear in the
matter. Love thy neighbor. Simple and elegant.

I realize some blacks resent the struggle for equal rights of LBGT
Americans being put on the same level as their struggle. There’s
a difference, to be sure, but it’s not a big enough difference for
anyone to support denying equal rights to gays.

Obviously, it’s not just some blacks opposing equal rights for the
LBGT community. It’s an issue that raises all sorts of emotions in
all sorts of people from all walks of life.

The contentious nature of this debate. The personal drama of those
who are on the front lines of this debate. The often high price a
gay person has to pay to accept, embrace and live what is in their
hearts and very beings. These are the building blocks of terrific
stories and writers should always strive to tell terrific stories.

Is Black Lightning gay? Maybe. I know I could write some of those
terrific stories exploring what it would mean for Jeff Pierce if he
were. What it would mean for the teacher. For the man of faith.
For the involved participant in his community. For the super-hero.
I could write the hell out of those stories.

In the real world, I won’t get the chance. DC isn’t going to even
try to do right by me or Black Lightning. If they were to remake
Jeff Pierce as a gay man, I probably won’t be happy with how it’s
handled. Don’t blame me. Blame DC’s long history of messing up my
creation. I’ve no reason to be optimistic.

I don’t think the chances of Black Lightning being the major iconic
character who is now gay in the New 52 Universe are very high. I
might think of him as iconic, but I don’t imagine the powers that
be at DC Comics do. But, if he were and if that would bother you,
I can offer this consolation to you:

The Black Lightning stories I wrote in the 1970s are still there.
Unchanged.

The Black Lightning stories I wrote in the 1990s are still there.
Unchanged.

Enjoy those.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2012 Tony Isabella

Thursday, May 24, 2012

55 DAYS IN PEKING

Let’s call July 1963 the month of my awakening. It was the month
when Fantastic Four Annual #1 changed my life and made me want to
make comic books for a living. For the next several days, I’ll be
writing about comics from that month.

Dell’s 55 Days at Peking [September 1963] was an adaptation of that
year’s historical drama starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and
David Niven. The movie is set in China during the Boxer Rebellion,
specifically the Battle of Peking [August 14-15, 1900] with foreign
diplomats under siege in their compound.

Heston plays United States Marine Corps Major Matt Lewis, charged
with defending the trapped diplomats. Gardner is a sultry Russian
Baroness. Romance blooms. Niven plays Sir Arthur Robinson...and
can’t understand what Gardner’s character sees in that crazy gun
nut. Then Heston and Gardner die in an earthquake in Los Angeles.
It’s possible I’m a little confused here.

The 32-page adaptation was written by Paul Newman with art by Mike
Sekowsky (pencils) and Mike Peppe (inks). Sekowsky and Peppe also
drew a one-page fact filler on the Boxer Rebellion. This sort of
comic book, adapting a movie I would have had no interest in seeing
at my then-age of 11, wouldn’t have even registered on my comics-
buying radar. I would have quickly passed it over in favor of one
of DC’s Superman or Batman titles or even DC’s Jerry Lewis or
Dobie Gillis comics.

Look for more comics from the month of my awakening over the next
several days of this here bloggy thing.

******************************

Speaking of being under siege, I’ve fallen behind in my mission of
getting caught up with the X-Men this month. I’m currently reading
X-titles dated August of last year...and enjoying them more than I
had anticipated.

The X-Men living on Utopia and maintaining close ties with nearby
San Francisco is a plot element that continues to work for me. It
may not make tactical sense for most of Earth’s remaining mutants
to be living in one place, but it’s nice to see our often maligned
mutants getting some love from non-mutants.

X-Events keep popping up like crabgrass. Curse of the Mutants was
tedious with the only saving grace being Cyclops coming up with an
absolutely diabolical plan to take down the invading vampires. If
Marvel can keep Scott Summers balanced and not allow him to stray
too much back into the dark side, he can continue to emerge as one
of the Marvel Universe’s most effective leaders. That’s a terrific
journey for the character.

Alternate X-realities keep popping up like super-crabgrass. In Age
of X, Legion, who has multiple personalities, can reshape reality,
and is the son of Charles Xavier, creates a new reality via one of
his personalities. The X-Men and other inhabitants of Utopia live
lifetimes in a mere seven days. The actual Age of X storyline was
so-so at best, but the aftermath, with many mutants retaining their
memories of the other reality and struggling to deal with them, has
been fairly interesting. But can we cool it with alternate realities
for a few years?

Based on my reading its first eight issues, Generation Hope is the
weirdest of the X-titles. Hope is the first mutant birth since M-
Day - “No More Mutants” - and was raised in the future by Cable.
Now that she’s back in our time, other young mutants have started
to appear. She gathers five of these - The Five Lights - and forms
a team to find other new mutants and help them control their power.
Hope’s Lights includes a feral boy who operates on instinct and a
young artist with a power that defies easy description. Then they
fought an unborn child.

Writer Kieron Gillen is really bringing it to Generation Hope. All
the other X-writers will have to up their game to stay in the race
with him.

I love Namor’s alliance with the X-Men. He’s a good fit with them
and they with him. I think New Atlantis being Utopia’s neighbor is
brilliant. What I didn’t love was Namor the First Mutant, a title
that lasted around a dozen issues.

Namor the First Mutant was hampered from the get-go because it spun
off from Curse of the Mutants, an X-event that went on too long and
had too many epilogues. Then we got an equally tedious story arc
of Namor in Hell. It wasn’t as tedious as that Wolverine in Hell
story arc in Wolverine, but it was pretty awful. I’m not surprised
Namor didn’t find an audience this time around. I hope Marvel will
give him another chance soon.

Speaking of Wolverine, his current series is like the patron saint
of tedium. Here’s the one plot the title has:

Wolverine did terrible things to people in his past. Those people
or their kin want revenge and do terrible things to Wolverine and
those he cares about. Wolverine survives the terrible things done
to me. Those he cares about, not so much. Wolverine does terrible
things right back at the people who did terrible things to him and
his. It’s the circle of life, if, by life, I mean really bad comic
books...and I do.

The X-Men’s enormous cast of characters lends itself particularly
well to anthology titles. In 2010, we got Nation X (four issues)
and, in 2011, X-Men: To Serve and Protect (four issues). While not
every story in every issue was a hit with me, there were sufficient
good stories for me to recommend these two titles to you. Both are
available in trade paperback collections.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2012 Tony Isabella

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

RAWHIDE WEDNESDAYS 11

Previously in Tony Isabella’s Bloggy Thing:

The Rawhide Kid is one of my favorite comics characters. Inspired
by Essential Rawhide Kid Vol. 1, which reprints Rawhide Kid #17-35,
I write about the Kid every Wednesday. There are spoilers ahead.
You have been warned.

Jack Kirby’s cover for The Rawhide Kid #27 [April 1962] is a strong
one. The Kid and the girl he would rescue are clearly in jeopardy.
The Dick Ayers inking gives a ruggedness to the scene that enhances
the scene. The Stan Goldberg color scheme - the Kid, the girl and
several foes in full color and the rest of the Apaches in a solid
grey - adds to the sense of dread. A fine cover.

Like previous issues, Rawhide Kid #27 has three tales starring the
title hero and a non-character anthology story. Rawhide wouldn’t
get a longer adventure until issues #32, the last issue featuring
Jack Kirby’s interior art on the character.

Even with the reduced page counts for these stories, Stan Lee does
some first-rate writing. How much Kirby had to do with plotting is
an unknown and unknowable thing. With stories this short, I can’t
imagine the plots were too loose or too tight. Like I said, no one
can say for sure.

“When Six-Guns Roar!” (7 pages) has a terrific supporting character
in big Peaceable Morgan, the bearded owner of the Bar-M ranch. He
gives the Kid a job despite his reputation...on the condition the
Kid hands over his guns. When other ranch hands think this makes
the Kid fair game for bullying, they learn otherwise from the Kid
and from Peaceable Morgan.

The usual way situations like this would work out for the Kid would
have Morgan being a bad guy tricking the Kid into participating in
some crime. Not in this story. Morgan’s a genuinely good man and
it’s his foreman who’s in cahoots with the Bolton Gang. When the
Gang raids the ranch, it’s the Kid who takes them down and receives
the accolades of the cowboys who’d been against his being hired by
Morgan. Here’s where logic takes a hike in order to maintain the
status quo of the Kid always on the road.

The Kid has an honest job with a boss and fellow workers who like
and respect him. He’s happy there...and leaves anyway. Maybe he
thought his presence would bring more trouble to the Mar-M or that
the law would come after him there, but he never expresses either
concern. He just leaves what looked like a pretty good situation
for him. Go figure.

Lee, Kirby and Ayers pack a whole bunch of action into the six-age
“The Girl, the Gunman, and the Apaches!” The Kid warns the family
of settlers in a solitary wagon that they traveling through an area
“crawlin’ with Apaches!”

Rawhide spots the “Apache attack signal,” which consists of three
clouds of smoke. Building a fire to send smoke signals seems like
an unnecessary effort to me when you could just use a hand signal
or shout “Go get ‘em!”

The Kid drives off the Apache raiders, but not before Red Wolf (or
Red Wolfe as he is called in one panel) grabs the lovely daughter
of the driver and makes off with her. The family wants to go after
her, but Rawhide claims that mission for himself.

Challenging Red Wolf to a duel for the young woman, the Kid beats
the Apache in a fistfight. In all fairness, the Apache is somewhat
distracted by the “legend” of the Rawhide Kid. The tribe’s chief
is as good as his word and lets the Kid and the young woman leave.

Red Wolf and a few braves aren’t as honorable. They go after them.
Sending the young woman ahead, the Kid uses his gun to stampede a
buffalo herd. Red Wolf and company haul ass out of there.

Lack of logic again rears its head in the final panels of the tale.
The Kid doesn’t take the woman all the way back to her family. He
leaves her where he reckons she can ride safely back to them. He
is taken with her, but thinks:

“I’ve got to go now! Before I tell her how beautiful she is —- how
I admire her courage! An owlhoot like me got no right expectin’ to
court a girl like her!”

The girl thinks:

“What a schmuck! He can’t ride with me a few more minutes to make
sure that future member of the Village People doesn’t turn around
and kidnap me again?!”

I’m kidding. What she really thinks is:

“If only he’s turn back! If only he’s stay! But I can’t expect a
famous western adventurer like him to give a second thought to a
nobody like me! He’ll never know it, but I’ll always love him!”

The Kid rides away from a good job. Then he rides away from a babe
who loves him. I think he has commitment issues.

Next is “The Fury of Bull Barker” (five pages), a non-series story
by Stan Lee and Don Heck. This is one of my favorite of the non-
series stories. Rough-and-tumble Bull Barker is enamored of lovely
Nancy Carter, but neither she nor her dad want the big lug to come
a’courting. Barker is a good man. He’s got his own spread and he
has money in the bank. But he lacks refinement.

Enter Frank Hilton, referred to the Carters by Nancy’s brother. He
seeks a job while he’s studying the law. He’s a handsome man with
manners and a sense of style. I hated him at “studying the law,”
but Nancy is impressed. Bull keeps trying, but to no avail.

At the town’s monthly square dance, Bull asks Nancy politely if he
can have a dance. Since Barker asked so nicely, Nancy agrees and
that’s when Hilton gets all up in Bull’s grill. When Bull doesn’t
back down, Hilton draws a gun on the man. When Bull shows no fear,
Hilton shoots him in the arm. That just makes Bull mad.

With one arm, Bull knocks the gun out of Hilton’s hand and starts
to punching on him. It’s seven panels of gripping action and every
bit as effectively staged by Heck as if it had been drawn by Kirby.
Nancy reevaluates her romantic choices.

In the last panel of the story, we see a wedding: “And so they were
married! That’s right! Bull and Nancy! Surprised? Why? After all,
there’s no law that says the rough and tumble character without the
college education never gets the girl, is there?”

One more note. There were names Stan used over again in these and
other stories. Barker was one of those names. There was an Atlas
war comics character called Sgt. Barney Baxter. There were thugs
named Barker in two western stories before this one and in one or
two afterwards.

But “Nancy Carter” is the name that really caught my attention in
this story. Around six months later, Lee and Kirby would restart
Two Gun Kid. This time, the Kid was the masked identity of lawyer
Matt Hawk and the hero’s romantic interest was schoolteacher Nancy
Carter. I hope Bull never found out.

There’s more than a wee bit of craziness in “The Man Who Caught the
Kid” (five pages), the third Rawhide Kid story of the issue. The
Rawhide Kid is on the run for a posse and this isn’t one of those
dumb posses. They are good. The Kid is just better, fooling them
with a posed rifle.

Rawhide is practically home free when he spots a creep beating his
horse...and that’s not a euphemism for anything, you guttersnipes.
The Kid is almost at the border, but he turns around to rescue the
house from its brutal owner because, as we all know, there “ain’t
nothin’ lower than a man who beats a helpless animal!”

By the time Rawhide is finished educating the horse owner, he has
been surrounded by the posse. The Kid reckons the lawman has got
him fair now. The lawmen agrees and then says:

“But it seems to me that my job is to bring in outlaws! Badmen!
You coulda gunned us down before son, but you didn’t!

“And you gave up yore chance for freedom to save the life of that
coyote’s hoss! In my book, Kid, he’s the badman...not you!

“So we both win out!! I’m bringin’ back a prisoner...and you, you
still got some ridin’ to do to reach that border!

“I don’t reckon it matters what label a hombre wears! No matter
what they call ‘im, we’re watchin’ a man ride off!”

I wish I could describe the hilarious scene in which the lawman has
to explain this turn of events to his boss, but I’ve still got some
ridin’ of my own to do to reach that border.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2012 Tony Isabella

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

VAST ACCUMULATION OF STUFF SALE 5/22

Here are the new items for sale from my Vast Accumulation of Stuff.
Here’s how these ongoing sales work:

First come, first serve. In other words, the quicker you e-mail me,
the better your chance of getting the item or items. All items are
in very good or better condition unless otherwise noted.

Bonus savings. If your order totals between $50 and $99.99 before
shipping charges, you get an additional 5% off. If your order is
over $100 before shipping charges, you get an additional 10% off.

Items will be shipped via United States Postal Service. There is
a $5 charge for shipping and handling via media mail. That charge
helps defray my expenses. If the charge seems high, look at it in
light of the low prices on most of these items.

Payments are by check, money order or PayPal. My PayPal address is
the same as my email address. Purchases will be shipped within a
week of checks clearing, money orders received or PayPal payments
received.

Because this is a one-man operation done between family, household
and work responsibilities, these items are only available to buyers
within the United States and to APO buyers.

Here are this week’s items...

BATMAN: DARK JOKER - THE WILD by Doug Moench, Kelley Jones and John
Beatty HC ($10)

BATTLE ROYALE 13 by Koushun Takami & Masayuki Taguchi with English
adaptation by Keith Giffen unopened ($3)

BEST OF STAR TREK by Mike W. Barr, Diane Duane, Peter David, Tom
Sutton, Dan Jurgens, Curt Swan, James Fry & Gordon Purcell ($8)

CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION: INTERN AT YOUR RISK Manga by Sekou
Hamilton and Steven Cummings ($4)

INU-YASHA: A FEUDAL FAIRY TALE 4 by Rumiko Takahashi ($5)

INU-YASHA: A FEUDAL FAIRY TALE 5 by Rumiko Takahashi ($5)

KITCHEN PRINCESS 7 by Natsumi Ando and Miyuki Kobayashi ($3)

KITCHEN PRINCESS 8 by Natsumi Ando and Miyuki Kobayashi ($3)

MIGHTY SAMSON #1 Gold Key ($16)

MIGHTY SAMSON #3 Gold Key ($10)

MIGHTY SAMSON #4 Gold Key ($10)

MIGHTY SAMSON #5 Gold Key ($10)

MIGHTY SAMSON #6 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #7 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #8 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #9 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #10 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #11 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #12 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #13 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #14 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #15 Gold Key ($6)

MIGHTY SAMSON #16 Gold Key ($6)

SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #31 by Alan Moore, Rick Veitch and John
Totleben ($2)

SAMURAI DEEPER KYO 1 by Akimine Kamijyo ($3)

STAR TREK: THE MODALA IMPERATIVE by Michael Jon Friedman, Peter
David and Pablo Marcos ($8)

STAR TREK: WHO KILLED CAPTAIN KIRK by Peter David, Tom Sutton and
Ricardo Villagran ($7)

STAR WARS #80 by Jo Duffy, Ron Frenz, and Tom Palmer ($4)

SUPERMAN/BATMAN: THE SEARCH FOR KRYPTONITE by Michael Green, Mike
Johnson, Shane Davis and Matt Banning ($5)

SUPERMAN: BRAINIAC by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank and Jon Sabal ($4)

SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN DELUXE EDITION by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank
and Jon Sabal HC ($12)

Thanks for your patronage.

Tony Isabella

IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR

1963. In July of that year, my family drove to upstate New York to
visit relatives of my father. At 11, I wasn’t thrilled with this
vacation. But comic books will get you through boring times and,
back then, every stop along the road sold comic books. I bought a
lot of them and couldn’t tell you which ones if my life depended on
it. With one notable exception.

My parents weren’t happy with my spending my “souvenir money” on a
whole lot of comic books. I figured it was my money and I should
be able to spend it as I liked. Reading those comic books was how
I dealt with the tedium of the long drive.

When we got to the town where our relatives lived, we stopped by a
cigar and magazine shop owned by my father’s uncle. I headed for
the comics display, but my parents got between me and the comics.
Not wanting to have a scene in the store, they told me I could buy
one and only one more comic book. That would be it for the trip.

If I could only buy one more comic book, then, defiant little cuss
that I was, I was going to buy one that cost a quarter. The flaw
in my plan was...I already had the DC annuals on the display and
wasn’t at all interested in the Archie or Harvey giants.

Then I spotted Fantastic Four Annual #1. I had only read one issue
of Fantastic Four prior to this, the issue with Kurrgo, Master of
Planet X. I hadn’t like the issue at all. It was unnerving to see
super-heroes fighting with one another in much the same manner that
I fought with my siblings. Kurrgo looked like a sickly potato man.
The art didn’t look as “clean” as DC super-hero art. And, even at
that age, I realized someone had screwed up the end of the story by
mixing up “enlarging” and “shrinking.”

None of that mattered to me in the smoke shop. I was a man - okay,
a boy - on a mission. I didn’t care if that annual was any good or
not. I was going to show my parents I could outsmart them, even if
it was only in this minor way. I bought the annual.

It changed my life.

Fantastic Four Annual #1, as I’ve proclaimed on numerous occasions,
is the greatest comic book of all time. It was 72 pages of sheer
excitement and wonderment. I read it several times that night and
several more times on the rest of the trip. I didn’t reread any of
the other comics I had bought.

At 37 pages, the annual’s “Sub-Mariner Versus the Human Race!” was
the longest comic-book story I had ever read. Sub-Mariner invades
New York City. A deathly ill Reed Richards seems helpless to stop
him and his forces. Namor takes Sue Storm prisoner. We learn the
history of Atlantis. Action and human drama with great characters.
What an epic!

The other features drew me more into the young Marvel Universe as
I read the origin of the Fantastic Four, their meeting with Spider-
Man, informational pin-up pages of the FF’s villains and question-
and-answer pages with the heroes. I studied the annual’s amazing
diagram of their Baxter Building headquarters. A brand new world
opened up for me.

Back in the real world, we were spending the night in the “family
cabin.” It was a large cabin with a huge common area, a kitchen,
and several bedrooms above the open common area. It was not in the
best of shape, as I recall, and there had been critters of varying
kinds residing in the cabin whenever humans weren’t there. Maybe
even while humans were there.

My three siblings and I slept on cots in the common area. Despite
the unfamiliarity of the place, we all slept soundly, exhausted by
the long drive.

I got up at the crack of dawn. While the rest of the family slept
on, I grabbed my small stack of comic books and went to the porch.
But the only one I wanted to read in that lovely woodland solitude
was Fantastic Four Annual #1.

I knew comic books were written and drawn by adults. The credits
for Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers didn’t reveal that to me,
though the DCs of the day lacked such recognition for their writers
and artists. However, reading that comic book that quiet morning,
it suddenly hit me that writing and drawing comics were real
jobs. Butcher, baker, comic-book maker...and I knew what I wanted
to be when I grew up.

The quiet of the morning was shattered when my older sister woke up
screaming. Sometime during the night, an errant breeze or maybe a
critter had knocked dried insects and insect husks and Lord knows
what else from the rafters onto her cot and, as I recall, only her
cot. I took it as the universe exacting justice on her. She had
been her usual bossy self on the long drive, taking my folks side
in the “buying too many comic books” debate. She’s never forgiven
me for being the cuter, smarter and more talented child. At least,
she seemed to like our younger brothers better.

I enjoyed the rest of that vacation. We went to the Baseball Hall
of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. I loved both the Museum and the
town. I’ve visited a few times since, and, every time, there has
been something new to excite me and the familiar charm of the area
to soothe my oft-contentious spirit.

In case you were wondering, I did have money left to buy a couple
Hall of Fame souvenirs. I couldn’t tell you what I bought or where
they ended up over the years.

Sad to say, I don’t have my original copy of Fantastic Four Annual
#1. It went missing somewhere along my several moves from here to
there and there to here. I bought a copy in much better condition
over two decades ago and cherish it to this day.

Fantastic Four Annual #1 hit the newsstands in July 1963. It’s a
key month in my comics career. I’ll be writing about other comics
from that month in upcoming bloggy things, switching back and forth
between the month of my birth, this month of my awakening and a few
other important months. I know I’ll have fun writing about these
comics and I hope you’ll enjoy reading about them.

I’ll be back tomorrow with another Rawhide Kid Wednesday and, after
that, with the usual mix of news, views, and reviews.

© 2012 Tony Isabella

Monday, May 21, 2012

VAST ACCUMULATION OF STUFF SALE 5/21

I have a Vast Accumulation of Stuff and I want to sell most of it
in the next five years. Some of this stuff is being offered first
to readers of this bloggy thing of mine.

Sales have been disappointing to date, so I’ll be fine-tuning the
operation in the weeks to come. Every Monday, for example, I’ll be
posting a list of previously offered unsold items. This items will
remain available until I either offer them on eBay or put them in
my summer-long garage sale.

Every Tuesday, I’ll be listing new items for sale. Here’s how the
sales work:

First come, first serve. In other words, the quicker you e-mail me,
the better your chance of getting the item or items. All items are
in very good or better condition unless otherwise noted.

Bonus savings. If your order totals between $50 and $99.99 before
shipping charges, you get an additional 5% off. If your order is
over $100 before shipping charges, you get an additional 10% off.

Items will be shipped via United States Postal Service. There is
a $5 charge for shipping and handling via media mail. That charge
helps defray my expenses. If the charge seems high, look at it in
light of the low prices on most of these items.

Payments are by check, money order or PayPal. My PayPal address is
the same as my email address. Purchases will be shipped within a
week of checks clearing, money orders received or PayPal payments
received.

Because this is a one-man operation done between family, household
and work responsibilities, these items are only available to buyers
within the United States and to APO buyers.

Here’s the list of items still available...

ACT 4 by Steve Ditko (2010) ($2)

APOLLO’S SONG by Osamu Tezuka ($5)

BATMAN: HUSH UNWRAPPED by Loeb and Lee HC ($20)

BIG NATE IN A CLASS BY HIMSELF by Lincoln Peirce HC ($5)

CAPTAIN BRITAIN VOL. 1: BIRTH OF A LEGEND by Chris Claremont, Herb
Trimpe and others HC ($20)

CHARLES DARWIN ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES: A GRAPHIC ADAPTATION by
Michael Keller with illustrations by Nicolle Rager Fuller ($5)

CITY OF SPIES BY Susan Kim, Laurence Klavan and Pascal Dizin ($5)

DEATH FROM THE SKIES: THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE END OF THE WORLD by
Philip Platt Ph.D ($5)

DEVIL DOG: THE AMAZING TRUE STORY OF THE MAN WHO SAVED AMERICA by
David Talbot with illustrations by Spain Rodriguez HC ($7)

DITKOMANIA #78 fanzine (75 cents)

DITKOMANIA #79 fanzine (75 cents)

FRANK CHO: APES AND BABES BOOK ONE HC ($15)

GACHA GACHA THE NEXT REVOLUTION by Hiroyuki Tamakoshi Volume 1, 2,
4, 6, 7, 8, 11 ($6 each)

GREEN LANTERN: SLEEPERS Books One, Two, and Three by Christopher J.
Priest, Mike Baron and Michael Akn HC prose trilogy (all three for
$22)

IN PLAIN SIGHT: SEASON ONE DVD unopened ($20)

IRON MAN VS. WHIPLASH by Marc Guggenheim, Brandon Braga & Phillippe
Briones ($6)

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #57 ($5)

JUNIOR MISS #33 [Marvel; 1949] good condition ($10)

JUSTICE LEAGUE GENERATION LOST Volume 1 HC ($20)

JSA: BLACK REIGN by Geoff Johns and Rags Morales ($4)

KICK ASS by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. HC ($10)

KONG: KING OF SKULL ISLAND by Joe DeVito HC ($13)

LEGION LOST by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Olivier Coipel HC ($20)

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: THE GREAT DARKNESS SAGA THE DELUXE EDITION
by Levitz and Giffen HC unopened ($20)

LOSERS: TRIFECTA by Andy Diggle and Jock ($5)

MAMMOTH BOOK OF EXTREME FANTASY ($5)

MONSTERS, INC. Collectors Edition 2-Disc DVD unopened ($5)

NEW TEEN TITANS: WHO IS DONNA TROY by Wolfman and Perez ($10)

PRETTY GUARDIAN SAILOR MOON Vol. 1-4 plus CODENAME SAILOR V Vol. 1-
2 (all 6 for $32)

SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY VOL. 1 by Grant Morrison and others HC
unopened ($20)

SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY VOL. 2 by Grant Morrison and others HC
($20)

SPIDER ISLAND: HEROES FOR HIRE #1 by Abnett, Lanning and Hotz ($1)

STAR WARS: LEGACY VOLUME FOUR - ALLIANCE ($6)

STAR WARS: LEGACY VOLUME SEVEN - STORMS ($7)

STAR WARS: LEGACY VOLUME NINE - MONSTER ($7)

STAR WARS: LEGACY VOLUME TEN - EXTREMES ($7)

STAR WARS VECTOR VOLUME TWO ($7)

TEEN TITANS: BEAST BOYS AND GIRLS ($5)

TERRY MOORE’S ECHO: BLACK HOLE ($5)

TERRY MOORE’S ECHO: THE LAST DAY ($5)

TOY STORY 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION DVD 2-Disc Set unopened ($5)

TWO-STEP by Warren Ellis, Amanda Conner, and Jimmy Palmiotti ($5)

WAKING DEAD BOOK TWO by Kirkman and Adlard HC unopened ($15)

WONDER WOMAN ARCHIVES VOLUME 5 HC unopened ($25)

Thanks for your patronage.

Tony Isabella