Alan Moore's Green Lantern annual #3

Ever since reading my first Moore story back in 1985 (Swamp Thing #40) I've been a Moore fanatic picking up everything with his name on it. When he left DC it was a hit or miss thing but in the early days everything he wrote was head over heals above any other comic, it was MAGIC! One of my favorite of his (and I had many) was his Green Lantern annual #3 that he did with Fables and the Elementals, Bill Willingham.

 

The differences between Alex Toth and David Mazzucchelli's Batman

Miller and Mazzucchelli 

nail it out of the park with their

Batman: Year One

They have created one of the most realistic depictions of what a superheroes first outings might be like, mistakes and all.

Tony Salmons does the Hulk

Tony Salmon's Hulk is electric. 

Seeing it is like getting a shot of adrenalin.

Hey! A Jim Steranko effect! The hallucinatory effect on comics!

"Hey! A Jim Steranko effect!" Neal Adams formed the words using the mist lines radiating from the pit in his Deadman series.

I'm not sure what Adams was referring to because I don't remember Steranko ever spelling things out using visual effects, but he did do some pretty crazy/cool stuff in his day!

Kevin Nowlan in Tales of the Green Lantern corps #3

Kevin Nowlan's 

A Sense of Obligation 

a true classic of the comic medium!

The time was 1987. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's Watchmen was coming out. I tried to get everything by Alan Moore because almost everything that he wrote was amazing. I'm sure I got The Tales of the Green Lantern Annual #3 because of his 6 page "In Blackest Night" short in it. But this issue also contained another amazing story in it, "A Sense of Obligation" written by Richard Bruning and illustrated by Kevin Nowlan. I know I've seen work by Kevin Nowlan before on various covers of Defenders or in such titles as Dr. Strange #57, in a back up piece to Dalgoda called "Grimwood's Daughter" and the amazing the Outsiders annual #1 but this piece was special. In this piece he outdid himself. Not only did he do an amazing job penciling this issue, he did a near perfect job of inking as well as doing one of the most remarkable coloring jobs I have ever seen!

Tony Salmons; My favorite artists, part 1!

I’m sure everyone remembers, or at least can understand, the impact that Alex Ross’ art had on them the first time they set eyes on it. And for some the same can be said for Bill Sienkiewicz or Art Adams or (put favorite artist name here). Well for me Tony Salmons was like that. I first saw his work on Marvel fanfare #19, on a Cloak and Dagger story written by Bill Mantlo.

The many faces of the Thing!

The first of Marvel's super hero titles was the Fantastic Four #1 introduced in 1961. One of the most beloved of the characters of that group has been the Thing.

The Thing along with his Fantastic Four has had many different looks over the years. Marvel has seen fit to give him a new look in the incarnation of the their super team.

Master Of Kung Fu - A Bronze age classic!

I discovered Gulacy's Master of Kung Fu in the 80's but discovered Doug Moench's Master of Kung Fu in the last decade as I was trying to complete my Gulacy run. I didn't have very high expectations of the rest of the series but after reading some of the Mike Zeck issues I became intrigued and later infatuated. At a time in the industry when comics were still considered disposable culture, Moench's 100 + issue run is surprisingly high quality and was consistent the whole way through.

A shocking scene between the Hulk and Umar from Defenders #3 by Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire

 



When I first saw this in the Defenders mini series from 2005 I couldn't believe what I was reading. "Did a Marvel comic actually refer to the sex lives of their heroes?" This is the kind of thing that adolescence think about often but is never spoken about in polite society. Well it seems that in the new millennia Marvel feels that it is suitably material for their audience. I'm thrilled that someone is finally taking the piss out of these sacred cows. It's about time and who better to do that than the team of Giffen, DeMatteis and Maguire, those guys that made the Justice League relevant again after the Crisis at DC in the 80's. If you like your heroes and you like ribald humor I'd recommend you pick up a copy of this mini. It's pretty fun stuff.

Deadman - My favorite Super Hero

My first comic, part 2! Star Wars 7 - 9!

All month I've been posting on Facebook's "30 Day Comic Book Challenge". I thought I should present my posts here for your amusement.
Day 1 - Your first comic book - It's hard to say what the first comic book that I bought was because I don't remember how I got many of the comics that I owned as a kid but the first comic I remember buying and reading was a plastic wrapped 3-pack I got at my local hobby shop (remember hobby shops?) . It was of Star Wars 7-9!

These were the first Star Wars comics after the original movie adaption finished. They were put out in January through March of 1978. I probably got them because I got anything about Star Wars at that time. Like all kids of that age in 1978 I was fascinated by everything Star Wars and got all the toys I could.

Wonder Man / Wonder Woman - Power man / Power Girl

In October of 1964 Stan Lee introduced the new character to the Avengers; Wonder Man!

In the story he was created by the Masters of Evil to destroy the Avengers. The Avengers took him in as a full member but at the end of the issue, rather than betray the Avengers trust in him, he decided to sacrifice his own life to save them.
 Well it seems that DC didn't like the name of Wonder Man. It was too close to their own very popular Wonder Woman so DC threatened a law suit against Marvel.

The Avengers nemisis - The masters of Evil!

I have been an Avengers fan for as long as I have been a comic fan. One of my very first comics was an Avengers and it still remains a favorite even today. And of the all of the Avengers killer foes, the one that has been the most challenging, the most diabolical, the most deliciously menacing to me has been The Masters Of Evil! They keep popping up giving the Avengers a run for their money!

Move over men of Marvel! Make way for The women of the DCU!

When I think of strong male characters, I think of Marvel, but when I think of strong female characters I think DCU. I know this is subjective as much has been made of the X-Women, but personally speaking, I love the women of the DCU!

Review of Jay Piscopo's Sea Ghost #1!

Jay Piscopo is the man! I've been seeing Jay Piscopo's fantastic creations on Facebook for a few years now.
He is the kind of friend you want to have on Facebook! It seems like every day Jay is posting new and incredible drawings of the most interesting super heroes that you've ever seen! Jay has an incredibly inventive mind and prolific output. You can see more of his output on his  his Facebook page -

Facebook Comic Con site.

Jay's done a number of books from the Cap'n Eli universe. I got to see Sea Ghost, a 30 page, full color one-shot. It's a great book!

http://www.theseaghost.com/

Interview with Cabra Cini's writer Sam Johnson!

Through a Facebook friend, writer Sam Johnson, I saw a really cool comic of his called Cabra Cini: Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman. It’s about a girl who comes from the mean streets of prostitutes, pimps and junkies and has become a dimension hopping magician, ala Constantine, that is also a private detective/"voodoo lady" for hire. 

Sam has created an exciting 8 page story with artist Bruno Letizia in “Digital Visions #4”.

My first comic! Part 1.

Everyone has some comic that they fondly remember from childhood. That comic that had something magical about it that you couldn't stop thinking about. The one that was so compelling that you actually learned to read so that you could understand what they were saying in the pictures. The one that you would dream about years later and never know if it was a real comic or just something that you dreamed up.

CATWOMAN!

Catwoman fast became my favorite superheroine after Brubaker and Cooke started the new series in 2002.

I just love her attitude and confidence. She's no longer the sex kitten, dressed in slinky costumes showing off her insecurities, now she is the fun loving cat who doesn't play it up for no man!

Review - The People that Melt in the Rain!

Way back in the beginning of 2009 I joined this web comic site, Smack Jeeves. I was checking out all the comics they were hosting. One comic really stood out from the rest. It was called the People that Melt in the Rain.
The People That Melt in the Rain on Smack jeeves

A review of Curse of the Vessel #0

 I just got my Curse of the Vessel #0 in the mail today. 

Curse of the Vessel official site 

An anthology of Graphic Fiction edited by Ivan Brunetti

I just bought this really cool book in Half Price Books of Berkeley. I've been a big fan of the alternative comics scene since the mid 80's when I picked up the first volume of RAW books edited by Spiegleman and  Mouley. This book continues in the RAW vain of presenting cutting edge alternative comics! Ivan has put a lot of the great RAW creators like Spiegleman, Burns, Panter, Beyer, including the 60's underground greats like Crumb, Green and Dietch, as well of a lot of the more modern creators of Alternative comics that I am not so familiar with like Ware, Seth, Woodring, and R. Sikoryak. He then rounds the whole thing off with reprints of some classic comic creators like Schults, Kurtzman, and Herriman. There are way too many greats to list in this short intro!

The first thing that struck me about the book was the striking cover by Seth! It, in itself, is an incredible work of graphic art! First he has chosen 3 colors, black, gray and blue. Then he puts a shine on the main title but prints the rest in this metallic ink that when you hold it just right in the light, it has a dull shine to it! Seth has also illustrated various parts of the cover (the spine, and back cover) with short comics about comics! In one 2 panel strip entitled "The Connoisseur", a richly dressed gentleman in a top hat asks a working class newspaper vendor from a by gone age, "Have you any graphic fiction my good man?" the vendor replies, "Nah, just comic books." to which the the smartly attired gentleman faints with the reply, "My Word!"

 It's a wonderful take on the whole comic deconstruction genera in the wonderful style of Spiegleman and McCloud!

An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Yale University press

 

The Great Comic Book Heroes

This blog is about just what it says, the great comic book heroes, all of them.