Strange and Fury

by Allan on February 3, 2013 at 1:29 pm
Posted In: Cover Design

Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #6, Steranko

Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #6, November 1968

Jim Steranko sent Marvel’s erstwhile WWII sergeant into space in this wild cover from the sixth issue of SHIELD. He didn’t produce the interior, sadly: he’d left the series with the previous issue, and would pencil just one more cover. But it’s clear he had a great time drawing this. Steranko was a unique stylist and his mere handful of comics still loom large as influential decades later. I love the Wally Wood touches on this cover!

It’s an image that reminds me a lot of one drawn by Carmine Infantino a few years earlier for Mystery in Space. I wonder if this was perhaps an influence, even subconsciously?

Mystery in Space #90, Infantino

Mystery in Space #90, March 1964

That’s great cover too, and was, interestingly enough, also Infantino’s penultimate effort on Adam Strange. He drew the following month’s cover and left for pastures new. The inks on this, as ever, were by Murphy Anderson.

Steranko and Infantino: masters of their cosmic craft!

Mystery in Space cover ©2013 DC Comics
SHIELD cover ©2013 Marvel Characters, Inc

Comments Off

Batman vs Gorilla!

by Allan on January 28, 2013 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Wacky comics

Here’s a fun little romp reprinted in DC Special #16: Super-Heroes Battle Super-Gorillas.

Batman Battles Gorilla

Okay. So there’s this criminal genius, see, and he invents this device that can imbue him with the abilities of any animal. So what animal does he choose? Yep, that’s right—a kangaroo…

Anyway, it all goes wrong for bionics* expert Walter Hewitt when he decides to use his machine on a gorilla he buys from a traveling circus: the experiment backfires and the gorilla ends up with his brain!

Initially the gorilla, Karmak, mentally commands Hewitt to go on a rampage around Gotham City. Not surprisingly he is soon confronted by Batman, who defeats him easily. Karmak is sure that Batman only won because he’s too experienced a fighter. If he, Karmak, uses his new smarts, he’s sure he can overcome the caped crusader. He’s right, and soon uses the brain-swap device on Batman. Now Karmak has all Batman’s fighting skills! Luckily enough, the dark knight detective retains the rest of his brain power and personality.

Karmak

Then, in a surprising move, Karmak decides to strap some explosives to his chest and taunt Batman. If the bomb explodes, he explains, it will destroy Gotham—and it cannot be removed! Batman, who’s cleverly drenched his gloves in a serious anesthetic, soon puts Karmak to sleep. But, to his dismay, the bomb is still ticking! Gasp!

Batman Strains

Luckily, Batman quickly realises that the bomb stops ticking when Karmak is not on the ground. He hauls the prone gorilla above his head and stands there, puffing hard at the exertion. Robin lends his sturdy thigh muscles to the effort, until…

…er, nothing happens.

The bomb stops ticking of its own accord and everyone goes home. As a reward for starting this whole thing in the first place, Hewitt is awarded a job by Batman!

Now that’s odd.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

*This bizarre effort was written by Gardner Fox. As usual for a Fox script, we learn some unusual facts in passing, such as ‘bionics’ being “the study of living creatures and the attempt to duplicate their special abilites.”

Art by Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella.

DC Special #16

Images ©2013 DC Comics

Comments Off

Strange Adventures From Beyond the Unknown

by Allan on January 20, 2013 at 1:43 pm
Posted In: Cover Design

During the early 1970s Julie Schwartz was in charge of filling DC’s sci-fi reprint titles. Strange Adventures and From Beyond the Unknown offered the buying public a rare chance—rare in comics at any rate—to engage their imaginations with tales of scientific extrapolation and wonder. While the latter title had been all-reprint from the start, Strange Adventures had been an anthology book for most of its life. It latterly became home to Deadman, before being given over to Adam Strange reprints.

In order to give a bit of added value to those who may have read the stories the first time round—and to give the comics a slightly more modern look—Schwartz often commissioned brand new versions of the old covers. Here is the impressive cover to From Beyond the Unknown #12 (Sept 1972):

From Beyond the Unknown, Joe Kubert

This was actually Joe Kubert’s modern take on an original image by Murphy Anderson. Here is the cover to Strange Adventures #147 (December 1962):

Strange Adventures, Murphy Anderson

At the time this cover originally saw print, Strange Adventures still featured all-new material. It wouldn’t become a reprint title until issue #217, when Schwartz unofficially re-christened it Adam Strange Adventures and used it to re-present the Rann-based shenanigans of the eponymous hero. He backed these up with Atomic Knights reprints and a wide variety of sci-fi shorts from DC’s rich history of SF anthologies. A rich history which had, sadly, come to an end by 1972—hence the reprints. It wouldn’t be until that late-1970s that DC tried again, launching a new version of Mystery in Space and debuting the Time Warp title. Both were impressive in their ambition. Both equally short-lived.

Images ©2013 DC Comics

Comments Off

Tempest

by Allan on January 13, 2013 at 5:56 pm
Posted In: Original Artwork

Here’s another piece from my collection of original artwork, this one by Phil Jiminez. It’s page 9 of the Tempest mini-series published by DC in 1996.

To me—and I suspect most Gorilla Daze readers—Tempest will always be Aqualad, young sidekick of Aquaman. If his erstwhile team mates in the Teen Titans had all got new code names (Nightwing, Arsenal, Troia, Darkstar, er, Donna Troy…), then Garth deserved no less I guess. And, so it was that by the mid-90s many changes had occurred in the young Atlantean’s life: Aquaman had long hair, a beard, and a harpoon for a hand, and Aqualad had lost his girlfriend, been through periods of depression, and died a couple of times… Ah comics.

In this series, his latest return from the netherworld, Garth was given new powers, a new name, and a funky new costume. The former included rather nebulous abilities involving the temperature of water, and lightning from his eyes. The new costume was largely based upon the very short-lived number that Aquaman wore in a 1980s mini-series. That costume had been designed by Neal Pozner, and a variation of it was given to Garth in memory of the recently deceased writer-editor.

The Tempest mini-series is one of those series that makes little sense unless you’re familiar with the continuity that leads into it—and I must confess I’m not. I love the Silver Age Aquaman of Fradon and Cardy and Aparo stripe, but after that I lost track. I do like Phil Jiminez’s work, though. He brings a George Perez-influenced sheen to his comics, with detail to dazzle the eyes: as can be seen here. The series is notable, too, for the faux return of Tula—Aquagirl—and some rather nasty violence, with a disembowelment being particularly disturbing. Ramona Fradon this ain’t!

Apart from the costume and powers changes, the most interesting thing about Tempest is the editorial pages in the fourth and final issue. There, Jiminez essays an extremely moving tribute to Pozner, his first love.

Tempest art, Phil Jiminez

Tempest #1, Phil Jiminez

Tempest #1, Phil Jiminez

Artwork by Phil Jiminez and John Stokes. Stokes was an appropriate choice: he spent many years in British comics drawing the adventures of Fishboy!

Images ©2013 DC Comics

 

Comments Off

Black Widow, Only Female?! — No way!!

by Allan on January 5, 2013 at 5:02 pm
Posted In: Miscellaneous

Black Widow, Colan and Everett

Striking a blow for feminism back in 1970, the Black Widow reveals a universal truth. Marvel should probably have marketed this image as a T-shirt. It would’ve surely looked good on all women carrying a copy of Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch under their arm, or perhaps waiting in line for the Wonder Woman collected edition with the introduction by Gloria Steinem wherein she decries DC’s de-powering of the character.

I suppose one could make an argument for dialogue like this being in keeping with the general trend for “relevance” in comics in the early 1970s, though I doubt writer Roy Thomas had that in mind. Relevance tended to be somewhat heavy-handed and grafted on—especially over in DC comics—while this arises much more naturally as a sign of the Black Widow’s strong character. Indeed, I think the Black Widow series was Marvel’s first to feature a solo female lead. It paved the way, less successfully, for the likes of Shanna, The Cat, and, er, Night Nurse a few years later.

Interestingly, a similar comment to Natasha’s was made in the 1974 Doctor Who story The Monster of Peladon. There, a young princess is heard to proclaim that she can’t manage her political responsibilities as she’s “only a girl.” Outraged, the Doctor’s then-companion Sarah Jane Smith retorts, “There’s nothing only about being a girl!”

Hear, hear!

Art by Gene Colan and Bill Everett, from Amazing Adventures #5.

Image ©2012 Marvel Characters, Inc

4 Comments