Like the Jimmy Olsen & Thrilling Wonder covers, here is another example of the pulp serving as the inspiration for the comic book.
Amazing Stories, January 1927
Strange Adventures #5, February 1951
This is pretty blatant and I think less an homage than a direct rip, particuarly since the guys doing comics in the industry at the time were also very knowledgable about, if not involved in, the pulp industry in the past (particularly Edmund Hamilton).
The one difference being the age groups the magazines were meant for. It is obvious from just the covers the more adult demographic was the target of the 1927 pulp. The comic version of the concept apparently required the outline of a body to let the reader know there was an invisible person on the platform, when it was a clearly obvious element on both covers from the strategic placement of eyeglasses and personal accessories.
Pulps and comics evolved similarly over time, eventually borrowing ideas and elements from the other. But as time passed comics were seen more as the annoying little brother of the digests and paperback books the pulp magazines transformed into. In 1951 when Strange Adventures was published there were several pulp-like magazines still in existence, but they were fading and would soon disappear, finally giving up and mostly becoming as a genre-form the magazines we know today.
Tags: Art Swipe
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Amazing Stories vs. Strange Adventures
As it was, so shall it ever be
Astounding Science Fiction, March 1955
Excerpt from - Sense From Thought Divide by Mark Clifton
"Do you realize, Swami," I asked, "that the one great drawback throughout the ages to a full acceptance of psi is the lack of permanent evidence? It has always been evanescent, perishable. It always rests solely upon the word of witnesses..." I opened my lower desk drawer and pulled out a couple of the Auerbach cylinders which we had used the night before. I laid them on top of the desk. "These cylinders," I said, "act like photographic film. They will record, in permanent form, the psi effects you command. At last, for all mankind the doubt will be stilled; man will at once know the truth; and you will take you place among the immortals."Tags: Pulp Skeptic
I thought it was pretty good, and that, with his overweening ego, it would surely do the trick. But the Swami was staring at the cylinders first in fascination, then fear, then in horror. He jumped to his feet, without bothering to swirl his robe majestically, rushed over to the door, fumbled with the knob as if he were in a burning room, managed to get the door open, and rushed outside... I drew a deep breath, and exhaled it audibly. My testing procedures hadn't produced the results I'd expected, but the last one had revealed something else. The Swami believed himself to be a fraud!
Rescuers idle thanks to feeble-minded leaders
1,000 trained rescuers who went in to relieve over-worked local New Orleans emergency crews spend the day in sexual harassment class and handing out fliers for FEMA.
I'm just getting more and more angry about how the Katrina After-Disaster is being handled. I know corporations run America but in the middle of rescue operations is it really necessary to submit the responders to the corporate BS environment that the rest of us have to deal with?
Let them get to work! These are professionals of action and they are not ones to sit around when people need help. They are so determined, in fact, that a strong leader is needed to make sure they don't do anything fool-hardy. Hopefully that kind of leader will step forwards soon and ignore the photo-ops and get on the job.
I promise you I'm going to be recalling these past and future weeks and taking this anger with me to the polls next time (especially after seeing the BBC footage that American networks will not air due to the horrifying content of the images). The next group in your offices won't be any better, but at least they won't be you.
Right now all Americans outside the event see is people homeless and property damaged, and the impact of that will fade over time. The media reports that people have died, but there are not (and should not be) any visuals. People know it intellectually but not viscerally, and I hope they don't forget what has happened.
Tags: Katrina Incompetent
Comic Book PSA: Sun Science
See the crap people had to go through before the internet?
Strange Adventures #88, 1958
As a kid whenever I needed to know the diameter of the sun (and that was more often than you'd think) I had to do all these steps. I stink at math, so I had to do it about three times before I got it correct. You kids these days have got it too good.
Tags: PSA
Bob Denver, Dead at 70
Bob is most remembered for his time on Gilligan's Island, but as a kid I had to watch Far-Out Space-Nuts each Saturday because my sister had dibs on the TV, and that Bob is the one that is burned into my brain.
The spaceship is ready to chart the starsNext in line...Tina Louise gets to go to her grave with the horrible knowledge that all men preferred Mary Ann over her.
To go where no one's ever gone
Flight preparations were almost made
Barney: Breakfast, Lunch, I said LUNCH, NOT LAUNCH!
Where in the world did the Spacenuts go
And how will they ever return
Now they got a home, where the strangest creatures roam
Honky's there to help them along
Step right up, take a look at the stars
You're leaving the world behind
Step right up, you won't believe your eyes
At what those Far Out Space Nuts find
At what those Far Out Space Nuts find
Tags: Bob Denver
Bat-Critique by Green Arrow
This is why I dig green Arrow...
What a great commentary by writer Joey Cavalieri on Batman's obsessions.
Tags: Green Arrow
Keeping it in the Superman Family
I can't even begin to describe how many things are wrong with this cover. This art shows just how ineffective the Comics Code Authority really was, because whoever signed off on this was an idiot or a perv.
What's up with Supergirl? She looks hypnotized or something by that horn she's gripping. It's as if it holds some power...some...strange fascination that is totally without secondary meaning at all.
Tags: Seduction of the Innocent
Monday, September 05, 2005
Golden Age Flash - MURDERER!
The characters of the Golden Age of comics often put a final end to their foes. While many times the villain died by their own hands and the hero didn't work to hard to stop it, sometimes the good guy outright whacked them. Don't feel bad though, they usually returned later, cackling with madness. Batman once machine-gunned some hoods from a plane and the Hawkman used ancient weapons to end the life of his enemies because they 'deserved it'.
The Golden Age Flash always seemed too much the caring father-figure to deliberately kill someone. In modern times he's always the mentor to others and represents the model other heroes strive to emulate.
Yet as this cover shows he's taking out a cult of evil using his super-speed!
Hitting the robed evil-doers at speed tosses three of them into high power lines, the smoldering corpses spark violently. A fourth villain gets thrown at extreme velocity head-first into the power pole, surely fatal, if he survived being struck by the super-speeding Flash in the first place. The final robed figure has a fate is yet to be determined, but you can tell he's scared to death by the panic in his wide eyes, visible through his hood. He's running, knows it is useless to flee but panic rules his actions.
Through it all the Flash holds an expression that reveals nothing. No anger, no sadness, he snuffs the cult with as much feeling as a man turning off a lamp.
Tags: Golden Age
FSM Hates Kansas
Monarch Books, 1964
While browsing for nifty pulp and SF images I came across this and thought it a funny bit of confluence. You can't get much more alien than the Kansas School Board.
Tags: Wingnut
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Dear Marvel,
When the Whedon & Cassaday team returns to Astonishing X-Men after hiatus, please show less sex toys in the comic.
Thanks.
Tags: Seduction of the Innocent
The Jury of the Trial of Starboy!
I'm freaking stunned that professional hostage, wannabe-hero, Legion mascot, pain in the ass, jury-member Jimmy Olsen didn't vote to acquit Starboy at his murder trial. It was clearly self-defense and Jimmy is such a Super Suck-Up I'm surprised he didn't take that opportunity to weasel in and try to be Starboy's sidekick. "I helped, huh? Huh? Didn't I help? Huh? I'd help on an adventure too, Thom! Can I call you Thom? Huh?"*
But then, Jimmy is so stupid he probably pushed the wrong button and (if he even discovered the error) he wasn't man enough to ring them up on the time-phone and correct the vote.
What an ass-bite.
* Thom Kallor is Starboy's real name
Tags: Silver Age
Texas is full
The Governor of the great state of Texas, one of the countries largest states, a bragging state, a state full of people that always claim to do everything bigger and better than everyone, a state that gets lots of financial attention because that's where the President claims to be from...says to take Katrina evacuees elsewhere because the state is full.
Bet they'd have plenty of resources available for rich white folks with guns. Sounds like NIMBY to me.
I guess Texas does racism bigger and better than everyone else also.
Tags: Katrina Racism
BONUS Groin Injury Sunday: Booby-Trap
Since South African law enforcement and society are helpless or don't care about the issue then all I can say is...about darn time! That'll teach him.
Ironic, isn't it...that device is defined as a booby-trap.
Tags: Groin Injury Saturday
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Groin Injury Saturday: Dracula
Marvel had a great magazine with the Tomb of Dracula. Written for the most part by Marv Wolfman and drawn in it's entirety by the master Gene Colan. It had a 70 issue run long after horror titles had faded and spawned several spin-offs.
For my money, Colan is also one of the few artists who, like Kirby, can make a rendering of a punch look like it actually has some force behind it.
You never see Sue Storm's breasts fly in opposite directions when she gets hit by Dr. Doom, do you?
One of Dracula's most tenacious foes was Blade. This revenge-minded fellow had some cast-iron 'nads of his own, that's for sure. In his early appearances Blade was mostly mortal, no special vampire-given abilities other than light-sensitivity and was probably immune to bites. So when he goes at it against a creature that can fold a tank into a ball he's either retarded or very brave. In most of their altercations Blade and the other Marvel vampire hunters got their hindquarters handed to them by Drac. Blade never gave up though and often managed to stick Drac real good a few times, even killing him once.
In this scene Blade is easily manhandled by Dracula. Blade fights dirty so of course he puts a boot to the vampire's crotch. Admirable try, but it didn't work very well.
Colan is the only guy who should ever draw the Lord of the Vampires. Just look at Drac's face and the panic in Blade's features.
Dracula, being strong and dead below the waist, shrugs off the hit. The plucky team of vampire hunters only escape by circumstance.
It was shown early in the Marvel Dracula books that the Lord of the Vampires is a force of nature and evil personified, but he's also impotent. Once turned into a creature of the night, Dracula lost his soul. The souless undead, as it has been shown in various Marvel horror titles, can't appreciate things like music and sex.
In fact, it took a cult of devil-worshippers to cast a spell that let Vlad get a different kind of wood so he could impregnate a human female.
So for this weeks entry I have to say it wasn't Blade, as good as he is, that caused the groin injury. Rather, it was the emasculating evil of the Curse of the Vampire! I could take being a monster, just make sure that some parts are less undead than others.
Tags: Groin Injury Saturday
Vitamin K
For those of you not getting your daily recommended amount of Vitamin K, here is the August 2005 issue of PS Magazine featuring the wonderfulous art of Joe Kubert!
PS Magazine is a military preventive maintenance comic illustrated by Joe Kubert (with maybe art assist from the kids?) and published monthly. Joe has done this book for years, following other artists like Mike Ploog, Murphy Anderson and PS creator Wil Eisner.
Even non-military types not interested in the magazine itself can appreciate a great Kubert scene like this...
Wow!
And the magazine is always full of handy tips like "Don't Drink Contaminated Water" and "Keep Your Gun In A Sling"!
Check it out!
Tags: Joe Kubert
Donny Osmond...MURDERER!
I don't really care about Donny Osmond...heck, who cares about him? I want to know where the contest winners are today and why they entered this old Tiger Beat contest. I want to know what they have done with his hair-clippings.
Man, wouldn't it be great to leave some of his hair at crime scenes and then call in some anonymous tip about it?
Hilarity would result, I'm sure.
Tags: Celebrity My Evil Plan
Michelangelo vs. Curt Swan
Throughout the Silver Age a theme that ran in most DC comics was the "Super-hero as Messiah" parallel. Alan Moore explored this in most of what he wrote for the company. His descriptions of how normal people viewed Superman and others as a pantheon of modern gods are memorable. The Silver Age never came right out and said it but they alluded to it for the perceptive reader to catch. I really couldn't assert that it was on purpose or not but biblical and religious themes abounded. I doubt it was accidental, though. Comic books have a history of exploring and illuminating many subjects not normally questioned.
The EC comics of the 50's routinely addressed racism, religion and social issues much more starkly than any 60's or 70's mainstream comic I have ever seen. Comics of the 60's were figuratively bloodless and portrayed an Ozzie and Harriet idealized dreamworld. But this was the marketing reality of comic books still reeling from the backlash of 50's censorship.
These images from the Sistine Chapel (v2, 1512) and Superboy #135 (v1, 1967) are similar in layout, but are quite the opposite in their content.
There is an interesting inversion of the two images. In the work by Michelangelo, a deity is magically creating life, represented by the mythological Adam.
In the Superboy cover drawn by Curt Swan it is mankind, represented by the Mechano-Master, that is returning the gift of creation by using science to kill God.
That is uber-neat. Very subtle, those DC guys. Did anyone other than adults get the references? It is unlikely the art and word balloons on the Superboy cover in just that specific layout had not been intentional on the part of the creative team. I doubt coincidence was involved and the art may have been a deliberate commentary or satire.
Nearly a year earlier Time Magazine published the famous "Is God Dead?" story and I'm sure the effects of that controversy were still rippling through the American consciousness and the minds of creators of popular media. While the Nietzsche phrase "Gott is tot" (God is dead) is often quoted it is also almost always misunderstood or misapplied. Nietzsche meant it a little more subtly than how it is usually distilled for the low comprehension and short attention span of the average public. Nietzsche meant that God has less relevance in life than in times past. The idea goes far deeper than that of course than I will cover here. Popularly the phrase is usually misrepresented either as a statement that the physical creature of God is deceased or in ways that cleverly, albeit simplistically, show an assault on the body of God. Much as in the Superboy cover art.
Time Magazine, April 1966
I won't say who the Mechano-Master is, but long-time readers will be familiar with the armor's color scheme and the enmity to the Superman Family. That Man vs. God sub-plot still exists today in the Superman titles and is sometimes worth picking up for a read.
Tags: Art Swipe
Time Travel is nasty
I had no idea the time dimension was so pink and meaty...
It also appears that emerging from trans-chrono travel into the absolute now resembles a weird intrusive close-up of some egg-laying process.
I'm not kidding when I say that every single time I see this cover I have to look at it twice. I keep thinking it says Fist Through Time.
Tags: Cover Art
Friday, September 02, 2005
Darn right Claremont wrote this
Wow. Take this scene out of context and it's really fetish-y.
Tags: Seduction of the Innocent
September never ended
One thing I have become aware of in my years is that almost every wall calendar I have ever seen has a crappy photo attached to the month of September. It's like the guys that design calendars are burnt out from July 4th and are saving up all their creative juices for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I imagine that it's difficult after all these years to be original with an image of a pumpkin, turkey and Santa.
Who doesn't get a calendar and not immediately flip to their own birth month? Looking at most calendars leads me to believe that September is the pity-month. For example, Waterfall calendars run out of all the good falls by the time the 9th month rolls around. Previous months get Niagara and Victoria Falls and my spread gets some tiny trickle from a hill in Wisconsin that looks like a do-it-yourself waterfall kit from a suburban garden.
That is not fair because September is when my birthday is. What does that month got? Labor Day! Big fat hairy deal.
Speaking of which...
An old Hasselhoff Knight Rider and crappy wireframe KITT photo is the best they could do for September? I'm insulted, disappointed and nauseous at the same time! September is the throw-away time of year, obviously. At least the July, October and December photos are themed to the month.
July 2005
The 1st Amendment clearly isn't meant for everyone...
October 2005
The horror...the horror...
December 2005
Let's just keep that present wrapped, ok?
If I have to look at a Hasselhoff photo then at least it should be one representing ironic absurdity. Nope, I get the tribute to mediocre television for my month. Just think, if we still followed the old Roman calendar I could have had Flag-Waving Dave from July as my wall-defiling image.
Tags: Birthday Hasselhoff
Comic Book AD: That's a familiar plot (contains 40s era stereotypes)
Here's some old ads for Grape Nuts Flakes featuring Volto and his idiot-pal Jimmy. If you have ever seen a fruit pie advertisement or any Marvel comic printed in the last 35 years you will recognize the story formula.
Volto appeared in a few 40's era books pushing breakfast cereal. I read somewhere he was a character in a few actual comic stories but I couldn't find any confirmation of it.
More than likely he was strictly a product-related creation, much like Spider-Man or Batman are today.
Another damned "Jimmy" getting into trouble and needing a super-hero to save him.
Because he's stupid, Volto is getting mauled by a bear. Jimmy distracts the bear and Volto kills it. On the way home, the bear's angry mate seeks revenge and Volto tosses it into a crevasse.
Jimmy needs rescuing after Volto directly exposed him to danger. And where are all the 'Junior Rangers' he saved?
Volto always makes a situation worse before he makes it better.Damn damn damn.
I am already obsessively compelled to yell Shazam!, 3X2(9YZ)4A and Kimota! at least once a day because you never know. Now I have to add Volto to that list.
It could happen.
Tags: Comic Book Ad
People vs Pets
Not surprisingly, because people have their heads up their rears for the most part, I got heat about my comments about Hurricane-victim pets and none about Dr Doom crying. I really thought people would complain about the sarcastic Doom reference and I actually hesitated to include it. Instead I got hate comments when I maintained people are more important than animals and they should, if donating, do so accordingly.
Well, let's keep it perspective. Look at these 2 images and tell yourself which one your money or other donations should go to if you had to pick one...
A babyor
A dogTags: Katrina Incompetent Wingnut
Thursday, September 01, 2005
I Want In On This
Shrödinger's Cat Toy
Freaking brilliant! Marionette should patent, copyright and trademark this fast!
Note to all Net-Beasts: If you don't go to Dance of the Puppets everyday, you should.
Also: The life of Moon Girl!
Tags: Toys Innovation
Katrina Thoughts
- Anyone who donates money to a Hurricane Katrina pet-assistance organization instead of a group that helps people deserves a beating. Donate to both or donate to the important one. People come first. Animals will do fine on their own, or not, that's nature.
- The devastation from Hurricane Katrina is indeed a terrible tragedy for people, but if no one creates a Photoshop picture of Dr. Doom standing knee-deep in water and shedding a tear I will lose all faith in human nature.
- I hope people remember the price-gougers and who they were after a semblance of order is restored.
- While it was good to see President Bush talk about releasing US reserves of oil to combat the most recent excuse for a gas price-hike, I would also have liked him to be more Presidential. It would have been nice to see him with sleeves rolled-up at a disaster command post pretending to give a damn instead of accepting gifts at stupid ceremonies while people were being washed away by rushing waters.
- I hope we learn from this. Once again a disaster proved that while people and services do their best to cope, we are still woefully unable to handle a major event. If the limits are in the preparedness services we need to increase their capability. An obvious statement. Unfortunately, Disaster Services are usually on the bottom of the budget pile. A few years ago the Los Angeles Earthquake Response office was in the lowest level of the most damage-prone building of the city. The same mechanisms that are in place to deal with terror attacks are those that we use to address natural disasters and it isn't working. We can't expect everything to be all better though. We have to face up to the fact that an attack or disaster won't get better, but can only be lived through and then we carry on and rebuild.
- I am glad to see other countries pitching in with assistance. I'm sure they aways have in the past but sooner or later during any disaster some pundit will bring up the notion that America always gives and never recieves. So far I have not seen any of that mud-slinging from the media or people in the real world and I think I won't.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Down With Homework
I first read this issue of MAD through a reprint as a kid. I really dig the subversive cover as it was designed, as the blurb says, to be snuck into class. I imagine lots of youngsters carried this around and were successful in not getting it confiscated by fascist teachers. In the 50's it was fake comic covers, in the 70's it was fake coca cola covers for beer cans. Or so I heard.
This issue of MAD #20 from 1955 has a couple of classic stories in it, the first one by Wally Wood is a favorite of mine. I also put these pages on Flickr as a photo set. Check it out if you want.
Sound Effects!: By Wally Wood. Great short feature lampooning the cliches of the crime noir genre. While in comic form it is more about the era of radio. An entire story told in sound F/X. Marvel should have done that instead of 'Nuff Said a few years ago.
Paul Revere's Ride: Based on the famous poem by Longfellow. Stories like this were probably carefully calculated and included only to keep the howling of Congress, Werthem and uptight parents at bay. In the 50's the comic and fluoridated water industries were under heavy attack by self-appointed morality-police morons trying to tighten the reins of power and crush free thought. It was just a bit harder to rail against comics or movies when they featured some respected culture...like Fantasia and the WB cartoons did with toons that included opera and classical music.
Cowboy!: This is a great expose of how a stereotype is depicted in film and for this story, of television in particular. The story has a great layout. The TV version (note the black and white panels) of cowboy runs parallel to the 'real life' cowboy, telling the same story. Of course, most real world stories end up a little different than what is shown on television and they diverge quickly. This should be mandatory reading for any teen-ager of today, followed by a book report explaining how this relates to the Real World vs Their Unrealistic Fantasies Of Being Wealthy Ravers Who Hack Computers And Drive Cool Cars.
The house ad & letters page are also good, and you can find these pages here.
Comic's first interracial kiss?
As far as I can tell this is the first interracial kiss in mainstream comics, not counting interstellar aliens or magazines. There were probably other examples but I haven't seen any, and they may be one-sided or the kind where people are forced to do it against their will a la Star Trek's Capt. Kirk and Lt. Uhura.
I'd have to say that this embrace between Daniel (Iron Fist) Rand and Misty (Bionic Woman) Knight counts as the first.
Misty & Danny have been snuggling off-panel in his book for a few years, but the relationship was down-played until Chris Claremont and John Byrne wrapped up a story from IF's canceled magazine in a 2-issue tale in Marvel Team-Up #63 & #64 (v1, 1977). Any regular reader of the Iron Fist title knew what was going on between them but it wasn't until MTU #65 that we got the payoff. The relationship was also little creepy in a Hal & Arisa/Kitty & Collossus way since going by his story history Danny was about 17 when he and a much older Misty hooked up.
But there is more!
What? What did he say?
That's what I thought he said. I miss 1970's comic book activism.
I've looked but I can't find the letter's page that had a negative response about their relationship in it. Iron Fist was all over the place in Marvel around that time and I may have missed where the letter ended up being printed.
Well, in the place of that disappointing missive here's that kiss again!
Can't stop progress, dude.
