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