What comic book fans of the 70s obsessed about

Way back in March of 1970 the comic book everyone was talking about was Iron Man #23. The reason all the Marvel aficionados were abuzz was due to the unusual printing format of the issue itself. Upon picking up the magazine of the spinner rack at the local 7-11 many Iron Fans were stunned that there was no real splash or title page to the issue. We all said What The..? Within days all the cool kids were talking about it and without a steady stream of info from the internet that exists today we had to resort to speculation, anger, threats and yes, even some tears as frustration set in.
What was odd about Iron Man #23 was that it appears the splash page, that first introductory full page panel that grabs your attention and sets the scene for thrills and excitement to follow, was used for the cover itself! In the two page spread above one can see that the story begins on the cover! It didn't seemed to have been originally planned that way as the credits seem rather perfunctory and placed more in mind for the little space available than giving full creator credits like most issues. Pretty unusual for the day indeed and what was even more odd that the cover is not artistically disconnected from the interior story! As all Marvel fans know each cover of their magazines that does not exactly match up to the story is not false or misleading advertising. No! It is actually a snapshot of an alternate and wholly separate Marvel reality!

When you think about it (and I do) Iron Man #23 is probably the only comic book published by Marvel where the cover is actually a part of the 616 multiverse! Minds were blown. Not right then, though. That happened years later, when the 616 universe began to be explored and fully realized. But comic book fans have the amazing ability to obsess upon and recall even the tiniest and most insignificant occurrence. So when the Marvel multiverse began to receive full saturation over the various titles many fans did indeed lose their crap when they remembered Iron Man #23.

One wonders what occurred that caused the planned cover for Iron Man #23 to have been replaced by the splash page. Lost in the mail? The Dreaded Deadline Doom? Screw up? We may never know. But Marvel made up for it later in that very same issue with this full pager by George Tuska, Mike Gaudioso (aka Esposito) and letterer Jean Izzo. The colorist is uncredited and that's a shame because it was a pretty good effort.

Pretty neat, huh? This page would have made a great Third Eye poster like those funky Doctor Strange ones!

Remember those days?

THAT PERIOD WHERE FRANK MILLER WASN'T DRAWING MUCH OTHER THAN COVERSBECAUSE MARVEL KNEW WE WOULD BUY ANYTHING BY FRANK MILLER WITHOUT CHECKING THE INTERIOR ART FIRST

I would have bought this issue anyways because ROM that's why!

Flash Fact

Ow. Contemplate the amount of detail erased from that Tales of Asgard panel penciled by Jack Kirby. Well, at least it got published. If anyone else had tried to ink the high amount of news rack-flooding titles of early Marvel's output the company would probably have failed long ago.

While I agree with many that Vince Colletta could be the creative kiss of death for any comic book he worked on, he deserves more industry and fan respect than he usually receives. The man rarely missed a deadline, if ever. If Vinnie had been given an estimated percentage of all the money he routinely saved a publisher by having them avoid the high cost of of idle printing presses due to missing a publishing date he would have been a very wealthy man.

Have you had any formal art training?

The long-lost and infamous '501' jeans commercial from 1991 directed by Spike Lee and featuring Rob Liefeld.



Don't get me started.

Speculators

Here's the first one.

Planetary #20 vs. Infected

How likely is it that the cover art for the novel Infected was inspired by the cover of Planetary #20 drawn by John Cassaday? These are some facts. Planetary #20 was published in September 2004 and may have been prepared some time prior to that date due to publishing delays. Infected was published as a novel in 2008 based on a 2006 Podcast (a sequel is due late this year). Since both covers feature a close up of an eye with an angular iris, I imagine the odds are pretty good against this being a coincidence.

While similarity in cover art is something that happens a lot in publishing, particularly for Mystery and Detective novels, I don't see a stylistic coincidence between these two covers even though the "eye in the triangle" is not a new idea. It is possible that there is some fan overlap between the two forms of publishing media and one idea might have inspired the other. If someone knows of Sigler and his Podcast work then it is highly probable they are also aware of Ellis and Cassaday and vise versa. Most of the creators involved in both the Planetary series and Infected are well known on the internet and could be considered "internet literary celebrities" in some circles.

This cover appears to be an example of an art swipe from a comic book by a publishing company that didn't care about creator rights or failed to vet the art properly.

By the way, both the Planetary series and Infected are good reads from edgy writers (and artists) with a unique, sometimes creepy voice. Go out and get them.

The End?

Keep the ads on the ad pages

It's bad enough that Marvel has a serial killer selling cars, but now the U.S. Army is paying for product placement type ads in comic books (And what's up with the name tag on that soldier that reads "MUTART" in that other ad anyways?).

I understand that the days of the Count Dante account supporting a comic are long gone but I wish Marvel (and others) wouldn't allow the military to place advertising within the stories themselves. Comic Books are still perceived to be disposable fare for children and teens by the greater public. What's next, a cartoon character selling booze and cigarettes?

I could think of a few things that would serve the comic better to have showing on the Avenger's penthouse entertainment system than a commercial for the military. For instance, a Hayley Mills film like "Sky West and Crooked" would not be out of place.
If Marvel wants to promote the armed services then they should just have that old G.I. Joe cartoon running in the background. That show probably faked more kids into joining up than any number of "MUTART" ads would ever do.


Or Wolvie could have drifted off watching the bestest television show ever!
Comic book readers are somewhat of a captive audience. Product placement in the movies is one thing, there is no way to show commercials for added revenue otherwise. But comic books have full pages already devoted to advertising. Short of tearing out those pages there is no way for a reader to avoid at least giving them a glance, hence money well spent by the marketing agencies. So do me a favor and keep the ads on the advertising pages.

My Not-Good-For-Hotlinking or Swiping-the-Funny Out of Context Panel of the Day

Like BeaucoupKevin (who tilts his) or Robby Reed (who provides small, 5x5 pixel thumbnails) I have also decided to from now on post my comic panels and photos in a form that discourages the 3 people that read this blog from snark-concept theft and indiscriminate hotlinking.

Until further notice this is the posting format of pictures included in my rants about unnecessary hyper-sexuality in comics while still secretly getting traffic hits via search results for cheesecake drawings of Super-Heroines. Nor will I provide info about where the image is from, thereby hurting any potential back-issue sales from an intrigued reader.

Here is my funny, yet insightful, commentary featuring Red Sonja in her chainmail bikini.

- From some comic. Look for it yourself if interested.

Tags: Blogging Red Sonja Hot link this suckers!

Comic Book Blogging Now Officially Uncool

The nature of pop-culture trends is that they have a short shelf-life. As exposure increases the novelty wears off and what was cool and hip becomes tiresome and annoying. When groovy becomes mainstream it swiftly fades into a best-forgotten novelty. Examples of this would be when songs by the Beatles were covered by the Four Freshmen, when the mode of dress that was a matter of survival for disadvantaged inner-city youths became the fashions of affluent Caucasian teens and when high-stakes poker became an evenings' diversion of television and film celebrities.

So like other cultural fads comic book blogging has now lost it's cache as a chick-magnet and springboard to greater literary and artistic pursuits that will give us all truck loads of cash. This is made never so evident as when recently the mainstream comic book industry begins to use our shtick as a parodic feature for meta-contextual self-snark.

Marvel takes the fun out of comics. I've heard that said almost daily since 1990 but until today I never gave the statement any credence.

From Marvel's Bullpen Bulletins' page of New Excalibur #11 (Nov 2006)

Tags: Comic Book Blogging Trend Ort, Trends, Fads, Oh no, my Go-Bots!