Comics Review: The Rocketeer--Thrills, Spills, and Chills

The Rocketeer is my third favorite Disney film. (Tron and Tron: Legacy are #1 and #2, respectively. No, their animated films don’t rate with me, nor their Star Wars. I do like several of their MCU films.) I am also a big fan Dave Stevens’ artwork. I got an issue of Back Issue featuring an interview (1-20-25) and I saw a documentary about him. I’ve also bought a recent Rocketeer comic (5-24-22), though the series was not done by Stevens. Shamefully, I did not own any of Stevens’ original comics. I’d never read them.

I actually remember the first time I saw Stevens’ artwork. I was at the comic book store in El Paso and the owner, Mickey, was doing a commissioned drawing of this picture of Betty. It was somewhat mesmerizing. Mickey was a good artist and doing a really good copy of it, as well. He might have mentioned what he was drawing, but I didn’t have any opportunity to buy the comic at the time, if he even had a copy there.

Stevens passed away in 2008, too young, at 53. The Rocketeer was almost the least of his art projects, but easily what he was best known for. (His commercial artwork was very impressive.) He only did two Rocketeer stories, which were serialized in Pacific Presents and at some other independent publishers. Stevens had plenty more ideas, but comic book work just didn’t pay as well as commercial work. Also, he didn’t work that fast, especially as a perfectionist. This panel of Butch the bulldog is famous for holding up an entire issue for weeks as he wasn’t satisfied with the dog’s paw.

Stevens’ Rocketeer has been reprinted multiple times. I could scarcely believe running into this IDW (the current Rocketeer publisher) reprinting on shelves at Barnes & Noble. Was it a mirage? I didn’t argue. I just grabbed it and ran to the register. It is in the compact format with slick pages. On some level, I sort of wished for a full-size version or even a gallery edition (like the Warlock book I bought later). About a third of this 360+ page book is Stevens’ original work and the rest features short stories by an all-star group of creators. For $14 bucks, this was an absolute steal.

The Rocketeer was a work of personal passion for Stevens. He loved Art Deco and the 30’s/40’s era. Our hero, Cliff Secord, is essentially a self-portrait. Peevy is his animator friend, Doug Wildey. Betty is 50’s pinup queen, Bettie Page. Dave’s relationship with Bettie is a whole another story. You can look that up yourself.

If you’ve watched the movie, you’ll find elements of it in the comics, but they do not correspond. Stevens, working on a serialized story, wasn’t just making it up as he went along with each chapter; he was doing it page-by-page. It’s amazing that it’s coherent at all. When Disney made the movie, the first thing the screenwriters had to do was create an actual villain and a plot.

In the first story, it’s basically Cliff finding the jetpack, being reluctant to give it up, and being chased by the jetpack’s owners. Cliff’s overriding motivation in this is being jealous about his girlfriend, Betty, who gets mixed up in the affair.

This leads into the second story, as Cliff follows Betty to New York, trying to keep her from leaving the country. Cliff’s very dark backstory from his time in the circus comes up while there. He teams up with a character reminiscent of the Shadow (or a combination some other pulp characters) and he stops a murder. Betty does return home to be with Cliff.

I’m kind of glossing over the story, and its fine, but the reason to buy this, or any other Rocketeer reprint, is for the artwork. It’s just stunning. The rest of the volume could have been crap and it would have still been worth it.

It’s not crap. It’s mostly 8-page stories by some the best comic book writers and artists in the industry. The Rocketeer and Dave Stevens had a lot of admirers. There’s a bunch of stories in here and they vary widely in styles, but still keep the setting and dynamic between Cliff and Betty.

The Mike Allred story is a direct sequel to Stevens’ work, but the stories are all episodic. Keeping with the original, there’s not a coherent timeline for Cliff’s adventures, other than WWII happens and the Rocketeer is involved. In a couple of stories, it’s established how he works for the government and he fights in both theaters of the war.

You might wish for more than the peek that these stories give you. I’m sure some of the creators would have liked to have done more. The series editing seemed to be really light in terms of the stories given who was involved in creating them. (A couple of anachronisms slipped in. Dave was a stickler for being authentic in his stories.) The new issue that I bought a couple of years ago, Rocketeer: The Great Race, would give creators more space to work.

It’s hard to pick a favorite among the short stories. There’s a few clunkers. Given the pulp nature of most of them, they’re a bit exhausting to read, so pace yourself. Certainly, Bill Sienkiewicz gets the prize for the oddest, as he illustrates a cartoon spoof of the Rocketeer. Between the stories are pinups by Stevens and others, including Alex Ross paintings.

Okay, this one is a classic. Perhaps the best compliment I can pay is that this trade leaves you wanting more. A lot more.

Comics Review: Darkness, Flash, Luna, and Moonstar

I’ve picked up a few random comics at Zia Comics lately. I think I got these mostly in lieu of buying $40 trade paperbacks. I’m glad there are at least a few new comics coming out now that I’m interested in.

The Darkness #3

This one is kind of evil. I mean, it’s unsettling in an unpleasant and not really entertaining way. A mobster commanding some cute and some scary-looking tentacle demons against his enemies isn’t exactly a heroic setting. As the story moves forward, the good guys and bad guys will likely be better defined, but not here.

Somewhat less said about this the better, storywise. I don’t know what the difference is between this rebooted series and the original is. It seems about the same. Marc Silvestri is the writer on the comic, not the artist, though the art is very good. It is un-inked. The pencils are directly colored over. It’s good, but looks unfinished. I wish I’d found a Witchblade comic, instead. At least, she’s a cop with a supernatural entity attached to her and she’s easier to root for.

Flash Gordon #0 New Worlds to Conquer Prologue

The cover sold me on this. In the premise, essentially Flash Gordon takes off to Mongo and overthrows Ming there. He then makes the mistake of returning to a post-modern earth. He’s a hero, but soon shuffled off into a military bureaucracy to train recruits and stay out of the limelight. Being Flash, he can’t stay out of trouble though and leads his students on an unauthorized mission.

There’s a very strange dichotomy in this comic where Flash is absolutely classic Flash, but everyone else is, unfortunately, all too modern. It’s a bit humiliating watching Flash Gordon dealing with basically HR people and Gen Alpha kids. Still, he’s smart and doesn’t waiver in his convictions.

Free Comic Book Day was supposed to have an issue of this series available. I would have got it, if I’d had the opportunity. The publisher also produces a Flash Gordon on Mongo series. I think I’d probably be more interested in that, but this wasn’t too bad. This company, Mad Cave, also produces comics of The Phantom, Gatchaman, and Speed Racer.

Moonstar #1 and #2

I am a fan of this character (7-1-25 New Mutants and 6-15-25 X-Force), but I am surprised to see a solo series starring Dani Moonstar. This seems like a mini-series, but it’s not indicated anywhere. This follows up on a Magik solo series storyline, which is somewhat summarized in the opening two pages. (I’m kind of sorry I missed that, because I’m a fan of that character, too.)

Dani is paired with her Pegasus, Brightwind, and returns home to be with her parents. However, her former teammates from the Society of the Eternal Dawn track her down and ask for her help. This is awkward, since she helped bring down their organization. Regardless, they need her help in finding a lost artifact that’s causing mass murders.

In nearby Boulder, Colorado, an immortal Viking, Kyron, is using the sword to create an army of undead. Dani’s status as a Valkyrie gives her some special insight in combating this threat. As such, one of her comrades sacrifices herself to allow the other one, Kian, to save Dani, so she can continue the fight.

Next issue, Dani and Kian go to a lost tomb in China following a lead. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dani in a romantic relationship. It’s still not happening here, as her and Kian are constantly sniping at each other, but there’s some emotional tension. Kyron is there and Dani has to fight a spirit form of her departed grandfather. He makes off with another artifact and takes Dani’s soul, as well!

Well, I have to get the next issue. (Especially since they shut down the “archive” site I was reading new comics off of.) There’s all sorts of stuff going on in the story that relates to other X-Men stories, but I could follow along well enough. The artwork is kind of anime-inspired. Dani’s normally never drawn cute, but with those big eyes, she is here. I appreciate that the writer, Ashley Allen, also seems to be a real fan of the character and kept the continuity with Dani’s personality and backstory. I didn’t appreciate the $5 price tag, but I really enjoyed these, so I’ll make an effort to get the next issue.

Luna Snow World Tour #1

I nearly forgot about buying this one on a previous trip. After I read it, the comic immediately went on display, instead of the review pile. I absolutely got this for the retro-disco cover with Dazzler. It’s too ketch to resist. This is a variant cover and Dazzler, regrettably, isn’t in the book.

I don’t know much about this character’s history, but Marvel is publishing a comic book about her because she’s in the popular Marvel Rivals computer game. (From my watching, Cloak and Dagger are popular characters in game, so expect a revival of them.) From the intro, Luna Snow is an ice-powered superhero and a K-pop star. (She predates K-pop Demon Hunters, by the way.)

In recent continuity, she was working for Emperor Doom, but then turned on him. She starts her comeback tour and is immediately confronted with the consequences of her actions. Some of the crowd is angry that she was allied with Doom. Some of crowd liked Doom’s rule and mad she turned on him. 

A riot ensues, but no problem. A new singer, Vibe, shows up and pacifies the crowd.

Luna is suddenly completely unpopular, while Vibe cleans up. Vibe’s doing a little too well and Luna is suspicious. Fellow superheroes, Sunfire and Wave, share Luna’s concerns and join with her, as kaiju show up at a Vibe concert in the Philippines. They have to fend them off.

Rick Jones, the Marvel Comics version of Jimmy Olsen, joins the group at the next concert in New York City. Vibe’s manager is revealed to be Starfox, former Avenger and brother of Thanos. He’s using his powers of Eros to spread love in an angry world and offers to make Luna his new avatar. She refuses and, ironically, Vibe is the one to drive Starfox off. The heroes’ reward for freeing the crowd from this supernatural manipulation is getting booed off stage. Luna and the others are okay with this result.

You know, I kind of loved this. The artwork is again cute and anime-inspired. There are not huge stakes in this, it’s almost a silly little story. Yet, there’s some actual deep themes present. Luna is having to deal with being famous and being manipulated. She’s also taking fallout for backing one side and then another. The public no longer trusts her either way. What’s interesting was the ending. There was no neat resolution; she’s still an outcast. The character just became interesting with new possibilities.

If Marvel was doing more thoughtful and sincere comics like Luna Snow and Moonstar, I’d be more inclined to buy more new comics. Unfortunately, these are outliers. I feel lucky I ran into these.

Comics Review: Dark Age and Filmation Part 2

 

Part 1

Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation

At nearly 300 pages, I have a decent excuse for not reading this thing quickly.    I already had preview copy of this that I’d used for a reference about the Josie and the Pussycats cartoon (though not a Filmation cartoon) and the Sabrina cartoon (7-22-24 and 9-29-23).  Even the preview was pretty informative.    Getting the full version of this seemed like the best option as a substitute for my original, unfulfilled order.    (Twomorrows had given me the option of getting anything comparable or three magazines.)

       

The preview maybe gave me the impression the full book would have more information about Filmation’s cartoons and live action shows.    This really isn’t the case.    It’s more about the production and financing of the shows.    There’s no episode synopsis of any shows and barely any information on individual episodes.    We do get plenty of anecdotes about the making of the shows, at least.

   

This is also something of an autobiography for Lou Scheimer, one of the three original partners at the studio.    Honestly, probably the most interesting part of the book was Lou describing his early years before starting the studio.    I wouldn’t say he led an extraordinary life, but he had a great recollection of his colorful life.

The small studio had done some small jobs and was essentially out of business, but somehow picked up the rights to do a Superman cartoon.    They had to fool the investors into thinking they were fully staffed to get the funding.    This led to producing cartoons featuring other DC superheroes.    This relationship would continue on for many years in many itinerations.    Unfortunately, this would include a Batman show featuring Bat-Mite.    (Lou made sure to say that the character came from the comics.    They didn’t invent him.)               

The studio used limited animation to save money.    They’d use a library of stock footage for certain common scenes.    They felt it was a tradeoff to reuse some high-quality loops, rather than use subpar animation all the way through.    Also saving money, Lou used his own voice for some minor characters in various cartoons, along using with family members.   

Filmation’s first big hit was Archie.    The shows were greatly helped by the Archies’ musical group soundtrack, including the big hit, Sugar, Sugar.    Lou was extremely pleased that Archie Comics went out of their way to promote the cartoons, unlike DC.    Again, this relationship lasted for the several years and many different series.   

They also launched Sabrina.    She’d been an obscure, but memorable, Madhouse character that Filmation successfully turned into a star.    You can probably thank them for Sabrina’s lasting popularity and also Josie and the Pussycats.    Rival studio, Hanna-Barbera, wanted in on the action and developed another minor Archie character into a singing group.    Sabrina would even spawn a spinoff cartoon in the Groovie Goolies.                         

Bill Cosby’s Fat Albert cartoon had a long and twisting development, but it would turn out to be Filmation’s longest-running cartoon series.    Interesting, the show was never considered a black show by the kids or adults watching.    (True.    That’s how I felt watching it.)    The kids were also not poor.    (Certainly, Fat Albert wasn’t missing any meals.)    The gang was hanging out at the junkyard, because that’s what kids do.    (Again true, from my own childhood hanging out in a vacant lot.)    Still, Cosby felt the show was discriminated against because it never won an Emmy.   

Gene Roddenberry wanted to continue the just-canceled Star Trek series and turned to animation.    It was envisioned as a continuation of the series, not a kid’s show, with the original actors providing the voices along with some great sci-fi writers doing the scripts (such as Larry Niven, one of my favorites).    It was also produced without network interference, which explains why it turned out so well.    This show did win an Emmy, though Lou was sloshed at the ceremony while accepting it.       

This led into a live action era of Filmation.    I watched some of these shows as a kid.    This included Shazam, Isis (be still my heart), Ark II, Space Academy, and Jason of Star Command (which was my favorite).       

One of my favorite Filmation series was their Flash Gordon show.    This was a great-looking cartoon.    They rotoscoped actual models for the animation of the spaceships, not to mention the characters.    The show was originally part of an animated movie.    I didn’t know this and haven’t seen it.    There’s some discussion about having this movie and the more famous Flash Gordon live-action movie out at about the same time.    Filmation also made series for other action heroes: Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, and Zorro.

An original action hero they produced was Blackstar.    I remember this show.    It was kind of cool and kind of dumb (in a word: Trobbits). However, it would serve as a prototype for their future He-Man show.    (Thundaar the Barbarian, produced by Ruby-Spears, has also been cited by others an inspiration.)    By the way, Filmation produced a whole bunch of other Saturday morning cartoons I’m skipping over, but are covered in the book.    

       

The live action models

I'm admittedly a Teela fan.

Adam Hughes DVD insert card

Filmation had been dependent on the networks buying their programs.    In the 80’s, they switched to first-run syndication to produce He-Man.    Making 65 episodes kept their studio fully employed for a year.    This was a big deal for them, because Filmation produced their animation in the US.    The other studios were out-sourcing their work.    This kept the animation union happy, who were often on strike against those other studios. (Well, not that happy.    There was no pleasing them.)

He-Man was a huge hit.    More episodes were made along with a spinoff show for girls, She-Ra.    Along with this popularity, the studio was constantly having to defend themselves against media watchdog groups protesting cartoon violence.    This was ironic, since the studio was infamous for doing morals and values messages after every show.    The other criticism was that they were just making commercials to sell toys.    (Angry parents don’t want to buy their kids toys, apparently.)     

Forrest Tucker is in orange.

In the 70’s, Filmation produced a live-action show called, Ghostbusters, about two guys and a gorilla fighting ghosts.    You probably never saw it.    One of the funnier anecdotes from the book describes a story about star, Forrest Tucker’s, ahh . . . manhood.    It was apparently longer than Milton Berle’s.

In the 80’s, this concept was revived in a movie about four guys fighting ghosts using the same name.    You might have seen this one.    Unsurprisingly, Filmation sued Columbia Pictures over the name and concept.    They won, but didn’t get much of out it.    Specifically, they didn’t secure the animation rights.   

Filmation offered to do an animated version of the newer Ghostbusters, but Columbia decided they’d outsource it to someone else.    Filmation brought out their own animated show based on their old live-action show and put it out first.    Columbia later released their own show based on their movie and called it, The Real Ghostbusters.    What a cluster F!    All this did was confuse everybody.    The best that could be said about this is that both shows produced some cool toys.   

One fallout of their syndication focus was that the networks stopped talking to them.    Producing cartoons for Saturday morning for three networks allowed for some failures.    Now, they would no longer buy shows from Filmation.    They had to basically bet the studio on their own productions.    Their Ghostbusters didn’t do so good.    Their next show was BraveStarr, which was attached to a toyline. This didn’t do well, either.    (It might have been the sort of scary anthropomorphic horse.)       

After two failures and a couple of failed animated theatrical fairy tale movies, it was suddenly over.    Filmation was sold to a holding company for their back catalogue.    The studio employees were fired.    Just a few years before, they were riding high with He-Man and now they were out-of-business.    Lou tried to keep the studio going with new projects, such as He-Ro son of He-Man, but the market had changed.       

The ending of the book gets really sad.    Lou worked at his own studio, but couldn’t get any projects off the ground to air.    Unbelievably, he was working on adult animation that was near soft-core naughty stuff.    What a change from shoving in morals and values in at the end of every episode!   

Lou was also promoting shows with gay stuff for reasons that will become apparent later.    He’d regretted not doing a gay awareness episode of Fat Albert.    (Things might have gotten awkward there in the clubhouse.)    There was a constant theme running through most of their shows involving diversity and gender equity.    They kept wanting to have the first this or that token in a cartoon.    The shows themselves were nearly produced just for the sake of promoting diversity.    It got obnoxious to read about constantly.   

Lou’s long time wife became ill and passed away.    He also became sick and needed constant care.    His lesbian daughter was caring for him.    He was estranged from his son, who had adopted children.    Finally, he was contacted by a writer, who wanted to do this book, who was also gay.    Lou was proud of his studio’s work and of his former animators, who went on to be successful themselves.

It was a bummer ending.    This book was interesting, but not quite what I was looking for regarding the subject of old Saturday morning shows.    I don’t know if I could recommend this to anybody, even Filmation fans.    Other than that Forrest Tucker wang story (it is pretty funny), you likely wouldn’t care about the rest of it.   

I’m afraid this is more largely indicative of Twomorrows’ work in general.    They cover so many subjects that I’m interested in, but the material seldom delivers what I’m looking for.    It’s mostly so much behind-the-scenes and scandal stuff, rather than covering the material itself.    I almost have to wonder what the First Comics Companion would have been like, if I’d been able to get that instead.