Showing posts with label Tarzan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tarzan. Show all posts
Sunday, January 23, 2022
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Recently Read: Golden Age Marvel Comics, Vol. 1
This volume is tabula rosa for Marvel comics, reprintings of
the earliest comics Marvel published, starting in 1939: Marvel Mystery
Comics 1-4. The (Golden Age android) Human Torch gets his start here;
some of the other serialized strips are the Tarzan ripoff Ka-Zar (pulled
over from the company's pulp magazines), Ferret, a bland detective with
a ferret on his shoulder, The Angel, a bland superhero with no powers,
the robot Electro, boldly drawn by Steve Dahlman. The star of the show
is Bill Everett's lovingly written, drawn and colored Sub-Mariner, here,
as always, an enraged terrorist wanting to sometimes destroy western
civilization and helping it at others. A Roy Crane-influenced war strip,
American Ace, died too soon, but every issue of Marvel Mystery Comics
is worth your time, a precious snapshot of comics history.
Beware: avoid the original 2004 printing, which I unwittingly paid good money for. It's the worst comic book reprint reproduction I've ever seen; it looks like a bad microfiche source, wretchedly "fixed", with illegible lettering, dropped out and darkened art in every panel and incorrect coloring. That reconstruction was by Jerron Quality Color in Sparta, Illinois. The cover price was $50! The 2011 edition, by Pacific Rim Graphics (art) and Wesley Wong (colors) is markedly improved.
Beware: avoid the original 2004 printing, which I unwittingly paid good money for. It's the worst comic book reprint reproduction I've ever seen; it looks like a bad microfiche source, wretchedly "fixed", with illegible lettering, dropped out and darkened art in every panel and incorrect coloring. That reconstruction was by Jerron Quality Color in Sparta, Illinois. The cover price was $50! The 2011 edition, by Pacific Rim Graphics (art) and Wesley Wong (colors) is markedly improved.
Monday, March 3, 2014
Recently Read: Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert, by Bill Schelly
Schelly's biography of one of the most influential and accomplished cartoonists is definitive - I can't imagine another will be needed.
Kubert lived a life necessarily made somewhat unexciting due to the prodigious hours required at the drawing board to create a lifetime's worth of professional cartooning. From a cartoonist and comic reader's point of view, however, Kubert's life was indeed adventurous. From his early dealings, at the age of 11 and 12, with the first comic book companies in existence, to his founding of the Joe Kubert School, late period graphic novels and amazing work accomplished in between, Kubert lived a fulfilling and visionary life.
Man of Rock is a little too fawning and redundant in places, especially towards the end; small criticisms which can't hurt the integrity of this well-researched book. Kubert's work on characters like Tarzan, Tor, Sgt. Rock and Hawkman have brought joy to hundreds of thousands of readers and Man of Rock is a great resource for those wanting to know more about the person who drew them so masterfully.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
PulpFest 2012 Pics
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