The centerpiece of Pernille's artbook was a painting she did for a magazine cover, probably ImagineFX. This turned out to be one of my better sketches. I held off on doing it until I had plenty of time and was in the right mood. Here's a couple of pics of the pencil sketch.
Justice
League Europe #14
This was a poor concept to begin with. The group might be called, “The Justice
League of America,” but it was always implied that they were there to protect
the world. From reading a couple of
issues, it was always mostly American superheroes with Europe as a
backdrop. Maybe Justice League International Missions would have been a better
concept for the title. Just show the JLA
working around the world with some local superheroes. Too bad, I’m not a DC editor in the 90’s.
As to this issue, the superheroes aren’t even in costume for
it, so the characters weren’t even taking the story seriously. I didn’t understand the “villain” in
this. Was he even a villain? It all seemed too silly. Yeah, that’s my whole review for the
issue. It wasn’t even worth this amount
of effort. (And how did Toho's lawyers miss this obvious reference to Godzilla?)
Teen
Titans #17
At last, we have a winner, as far as my tastes are
concerned. I’m not sure what volume of Teen Titians this would be in 1998. None of the original Titans are in this. Atom
is a team leader in this, but he is able to grow to giant size and he’s
definitely not a teen. Argent is another prominent
member. I don’t know anything about her
other than the entry in my DC Comics
Encyclopedia. (Yes, I know about Wikipedia.) She’s very appealing here and clearly a
favorite of the artist. The character
seems to have just disappeared since this iteration of the title. Actually, I didn’t even know about this
version of the team.
In any case, the story is simply Atom and Argent
ill-advisedly hosting an open tryout for new members and drawing an attack from
a super-villain group. This is why you
need a Robin in the group, somebody
with enough brains to think these things through. This set up did create lots of action and
characterization opportunities.
I didn’t recognize a lot of the characters, but there were
familiar faces making cameos, like Superboy,
Supergirl, Robin (Tim Drake, who isn’t and was never
gay), Spoiler (Tim’s long time
girlfriend and not a beard), Impulse
(by next year, I’ll be saying, “Tim Drake was never a transsexual Muslim
feminist), Arsenal (I’m not angry
over this Tim Drake thing, because there’s nothing in current comics I consider
canonical), and a very welcome appearance by Captain Marvel Jr. (Since
Captain Marvel later got officially renamed Shazam, what’s Junior called?
CM3? Does that make any sense?)
Captain Marvel Jr. is such a natural fit for the Titans
you wonder why didn’t happen before this.
Argent calling him “Lightning Boy” was the best line in the book. Then Junior thinks, I can’t say “I’m Captain Marvel,” because then I’ll turn back into Freddie Freeman and have to go back to
playing first base for the Atlanta
Braves. Okay, part of the
statement is directly from the comic book, part of it is mine, but it is
steeped in comic book lore. (If Captain
Marvel is now Shazam, he can’t say his own name without turning back into Billy Batson. My head is hurting.)
Admittedly, most of the guest stars in this seem to be
here to promote their own books, like Robin, Supergirl, and Superboy, who has
his own team, The Ravers. Wow, that team is not only unnecessary, it
really sounds dumb. I may seem to be
ragging on this a lot, which I am, but the issue is intentionally funny in
places and just fun in general. This is
the kind of stuff, we read comics for: interesting characters, good story,
great art, and having fun.
The
Warlord #76
Dudes fighting on dinosaurs! What more do you need?
How about this! It’s a freaking D&D Bard using Song of Rest to heal his comrades!
Anyway, this issues precedes the ones I reviewed earlier (5-30-20). It’s more fun fantasy sci-fi-ish adventure. Unfortunately, all the issues I’ve seen were after series creator, Mike Grell, left the book. I’d like to see his original version of the character and his artwork. Warlord had a pretty decent run at DC, but there wasn’t much of a market for kind this title and other non-superhero ones like it at the time. Conan at Marvel was about the only one that was ever really successful. Speaking of which . . .
Conan
#29
Marvel let Conan go for a while to Dark Horse. (They got him
back later, as I reviewed King Sized Conan and the Life and Death trade.) DH
seemed to be trying to stay very close to Conan’s life timeline, so they were
respecting the material. The art in this
issue has a painted quality that looks like something out of an issue of Heavy Metal. The story though is the problem, specifically
the lack there of. It’s written by Mike Mingnola, who’s better known for
this artwork. I can’t wholly blame him
as it’s based on “a fragment” of an REH
story, and it’s been turned into a three-part tale. It’s decompressed storytelling to the
extreme.
Fury
of Firestorm #20, #22, #25
I collected Firestorm
for a short while in the 80’s. I forgot
the reason why. It was probably because
of Crisis on Infinite Earths. I also collected Amethyst for a while because of that series. There’s a Firestorm trade paperback of older
material at Zia Comics that I keep
getting close to buying, but the price keeps putting me off. I’ll save it for the day that there’s nothing
else at the store I want to buy.
I wanted to like Firestorm. The character looks cool. Well, the flaming head is problematical. Ghost Rider and Flaming Carrot must also have issues entering rooms with sprinkler systems installed. Firestorm is overpowered (he can transmute inorganic matter into whatever form he wants) and yet always seems to be overmatched by even mundane foes with a little smarts.
He’s a combination of a high student, Ronnie Raymond, which somewhat explains his lack of intelligence, and also a scientist, Martin Stein, who should be very intelligent. Firestorm ends up being his own sidekick, with Professor Stein being a disembodied invisible head following him around. Their transformation into Firestorm is awkward as it didn’t require them to be anywhere near each other. In a narrative sense, this skips over the tediousness of making every story about getting them together, but realistically it makes having a secret identity ridiculous, as Stein could suddenly disappear whenever Ronnie wills it.
The Firestorm in the CW
Legends show (and the Flash) made a little more sense. They had to touch, Wonder Twins style, to transform.
He didn’t have the transmuting powers, but fired energy blasts. I still didn’t understand the Legends didn’t
rule nearly every fight with this guy in their lineup, at least against normal
foes.
Firestorm was supposed to be like Spider-Man, right down to the Marvel-esqe alliterative name. He should have relatable issues to the
readers. (People who are young and in
school and people remembering what it was like.) Unlike Peter
Parker, he lacked the motivation and truly tragic backstory. Ronnie’s problems seemed to always fall flat
or be too mundane. Stein probably had
the more interesting personal life, because it intertwined with his
professional life. He should have been
the star of the book really.
Something I noticed over these three issues that would
have made Firestorm potentially fascinating was his split personality. Firestorm was mostly Ronnie, but actually his
own person. Ronnie had a girlfriend,
Stein had love interests, but Firestorm had his own girlfriend in Firehawk. It felt like there could have been a whole
lot more made of Firestorm not being either of the people who composed
him.
I can remember DC making a sincere effort at promoting
this character at the time, but he wasn’t interesting enough as he was. Changes were eventually made later. I wasn’t following the character at the
time. I think they made him the fire
avatar, like Swamp Thing was the
earth avatar (or whatever they called it).
It was too little, too late.
As to the issues themselves, #20 and #25 were setups to
fights in the next issue, which I don’t have.
#22 just recounted Firestorm’s origin.
I’m sure I read Firehawk’s origin in one of these too somewhere. (They were really promoting her in these
issues.) In other words, these were not
great issues. I’d like to at least
praise the artwork, but I can’t. It’s
great and dynamic in places, but mostly dark, muddled, and awkward. (I know all about bad artwork. I do plenty.)
I don’t know if it’s poor inking or bad pencils with the inker trying to
cover it or save it. (The art team isn’t
the same on these three issues.)
Strangely, this was the same problem when I was reading this comic in
the 80’s.
In sum, this character needs to be rethought in terms of powers and origin. The psychological aspect of Firestorm’s persona would be interesting to explore. Lastly, you can see what a difference having appealing art makes in selling a comic book. Overall, Firestorm feels more like a more marketing effort by DC editors than a creative one.
So, I’d bought a couple of comics at Zia Comics a couple of weeks ago while waiting for a repair to my truck. Those were for other people. Before I went there, I’d gone to Coas Books and raided their bargain bin and gotten plenty for myself. You never know what you’re going to find there. Once, for example, I found a bunch of comics from the 50’s.
(Archie and Uncle Scrooge, Huckleberry Hound, Classics Illustrated, Dennis the Menace Christmas Part 1, Part 2. There are a few others listed in late 2013. You can look for those yourself. I should have put a separate tag on these.)
These 12 issues are a bit eclectic. There’s no way to logically group these. I do notice that there’s no Marvel Comics here. There were Marvels there, but I wasn’t
interested in any of them, which is the usual for me. I blame the closing of Hastings for this anti-Marvel bias.
I bought a huge number of comics at the time (which led to a terrible
time at the cash register). I kept a few
of the DC comics, but divested
myself of all of the Marvels. They were mostly
from the 2000’s, and they were all bad.
I’m still not over it.
Betty
& Veronica #1
This is a Free
Comic Book Day edition. I assume
it’s about the same as the original, but has a section at the back promoting
the CW Riverdale show. Adam Hughes only did three issues of
this series, but I’ve had a terrible time collecting them. I have all of them, but they’re in three
different formats. Two of them are in
digest form, so I’d like the full-size versions. Now, I’ve got two of them in comic book
format; I just need #3 now.
Adam Hughes is one of favorite artists and best known for
his cheesecake. Here he is doing two of
my favorite comic book girls, Betty
and Veronica. That said, his script is way too precious in
dialogue. It’s hard to read when your
eyes are rolling. Also, the colors in
this are really washed out and muted.
It’s not bright and colorful, even when totally appropriate for a story
taking place in the fall. What’s really
disappointing are the character designs for the girls. Maybe Hughes sort of toned down his
interpretation because of his reputation and the context of a teen book. They’re just not as glamorous as the two most
famous high school girls in comics should be.
All that said, I’m keeping this and looking for that other
issue. It’s still really cool-looking
and not bad to read. If only Archie Comics had more actively pursued
top-notch talent to do some special issues.
There’s no way they could hire someone like that for an extended stay,
but I’m sure there’s lots of talent who would love to do their take on a comic
they probably read as children.
Unfortunately, I think Hughes had some production delays. In spite of his fairly conservative take on
the characters, he was also getting protested because of his previous
work. (Some people don’t want women in
comics drawn attractively.) So much for
this experiment at Archie Comics.
Mighty
Morphin Power Rangers #6, #7, #9, #11
I’d heard good things about this comic, but passed up
getting any individual issues or a trade.
Finding these four issues loose at a discount was a good opportunity to
try it out. First, the production is top
notch. The comic is physically made out
of quality materials. The story takes up
all but four pages of the issue. Two of
those pages are even a little Bulk &
Skull continuing comic strip. The
artwork is excellent. The story is
unfortunately basically decompressed in presentation, but is solid. This was obviously written by someone (Kyle Higgins), who knew and loved the
source material. If a new comic could
come close to being worth $4, this comes the closest.
These are not an “adult” versions of Power Rangers stories. They are also not just like the
original series. They’re not a kid’s
show based on recycled footage of a Japanese Sentai show. These are
basically superhero-like comics in the Power Rangers setting. The stories are more developed than the show
and the characters are given some space to grow, but they are action-oriented
adventures.
But just to be honest, while I watched Power Rangers, I
was a bit out of their age-range when they first came out. I was mostly watching for the girls (RIP Thuy
Trang). I’ve watched some
of the follow up series, even on Mexican stations in Spanish, because they’re
kind of fun, but I don’t really think highly of the franchise. (I should mention that this series is based
on the original team and villains.) So,
these are great if you’re a Power Rangers fan, but if you’re not a big fan, they’re
okay.
I couldn’t help but notice this ad. If I find one of these, being the wrestling
fan, I’ll have to try one.
Hold it. I thought I was done with this. I didn't even watch an Elvis film marathon on the This network last weekend. (They weren't the four best Elvis films. I did watch the Beach Party marathon before it, though.)
Just to show that Elvis is still relevant (to people still receiving paper newspapers and probably a senior citizen), this came out last week. Now . . . wait . . . this cover looks familiar. Quick check. Yes, they've used it before in 2008 (with a slightly different picture).
Finally. I call this "The PO Notebook" and haven't posted any sketches from her art book. We'll change that. Pernille's Disney-like character designs are very clean and appealing. I'd like to draw more like this, but probably a bit more . . . umm . . . sexy.
The one one the left is actually based on a black & white anime sketch by another artist. (Hey, it's a sketchbook, not a filing system.) The one on the right is based on a Pernille painting.
