The Comics Bin

3/18/11

Dear Comics Diary, 2010

Cover of J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic BiographyBetter late than never, here's my twitter diary of comics I read in 2010.
This list doesn't contain many of the single issue comics I read, just the compendiums and TPBs.

1/4/2010    Start the new year right with 'The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days' by Les Daniels & Chip Kidd
1/17/2010    "Reading ""Crisis on Infinite Earths"" compendium. ridiculously complete history of the creation"
1/30/2010    "Iron Man vs Dr Doom... explosions, intrigue, Camelot and time travel. Should be great, but I'm just not that into it."
1/30/2010    Read Hunter X Hunter #3 last night. Related to Battle Royale?
1/31/2010    Reading 2 vol. set of Humbug magazine. I <3 the annotations @ end. Exclnt companion to this. 2/4/2010    "Reading ""The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels"" Nice basic list of 60 graphic novels + discussion of graphic novels
2/4/2010    "Read 'The Flash: Emergency Stop' last night. Fun story with ""The Suit."" Also the ""Speed Force"" uniform."
2/10/2010    "The ""Incal Noir"" by Moebius & Jodorowsky is one of the best sci-fi graphic novels IMHO"
2/16/2010    "Reading 'Uncle Sam & the Freedom Fighters: Brave New World'. Good story, despite mutations. A luscious Phantom Woman."
2/18/2010    "Just discovered Naoki Urasawa's ""20th Century Boys"" #manga series. I'm hooked"
2/18/2010    20th century boys...for some reason I want to relate this to Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner. Why?
2/18/2010    About to read Batman: R.I.P. by Grant Morrison
2/18/2010    "I'm 1/2way thru ""Big Man Japan"". Mockumentary re: bygone days of monster fighters. sad,funny, odd #manga #japan"
2/20/2010    "The 2nd reading of Batman RIP makes more sense, but the story still has some odd gaps"
2/20/2010    "You caught me looking at "The Devil's Panties Volume 2"
2/20/2010    Kim Deitch is always a master. The art & story on 'Alias the Cat' enthrall me. Waldo is a devil!
2/21/2010    "Finished "Big Man Japan" The ending confused the kids--they haven't seen enough old monster movies vis a vis Ultraman"
2/24/2010    Nosing around TFAW in Milwaukie. Picked up the last copy they had of Stumptown #2. 2/25/2010    Reading comics w/the covers over my head: Countdown to Final Crisis. Mary Marvel just got powers back frm Black Adam
3/5/2010    Blog post: Reviews of what I read in February
3/6/2010    "On Vol 4 of Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys -- getting intense, building obstacles"
3/7/2010    Reading "J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography" by Rick Geary. 100 pg bio of the FBI "director for life."
3/7/2010    Fact: In 1960 the FBI had only 5 black employees, all servants to the director.
3/7/2010    Fact: in 1920 Hoover oversaw the detention of 6,328 immigrants as subversives. Only 1000 found ""guilty"" & none deported
3/7/2010    Geary's artwork on "Hoover" manages to be both utilitarian & occasionally impressionistic!
3/7/2010    what would Kirk do? 'Goats The Corndog Imperative' by Jonathan Rosenberg
3/11/2010    Reading "Diana prince:wonder woman" in Comics Journal #299."
3/16/2010    picked up Green Lantern #47 at #eccc10. Convoluted story by John Broome, art by Gil Kane . Loved it.
3/16/2010    I'd never read any of the "Pol Manning" GL stories
3/19/2010    BridgeCityComx Hey-o! Scott Pilgrim fans, listen up... the wait is over Vol. 6 is coming on July 20!
3/20/2010    Got this by Rucka & Lieber at #eccc10. Lieber said he was paid to stay away during film production
3/20/2010    Reading Stumptown #2 by Greg Rucka & Matt Southworth. Lots of #pdx scenery in the detective story
3/20/2010    "Reading Siege #1. Allusions to Iraq intel, Oklahoma city bombing, religious right"
3/20/2010    "Earlier I re-read Ellie Connelly ""preview"" --like a Victorian mystic tintin in america"    http://www.ellieconnelly.com
3/24/2010    Reading the "New Avengers, Vol. 1" by Brian Michael Bendis"
3/27/2010    Reading 'A Wrinkle in Time' to my 4th grader
3/27/2010    Finally reading 'The Bizarre Comics of Boody Rogers.' Seen 'em as a kid. Yes, they're still bizarre."
3/27/2010    Just read 'Avengers Disassembled.'
3/27/2010    Next up: 'Whiteout Vol. 1' by Rucka & Lieber. I just read why she killed her husband...sort of.
3/29/2010    The bizarre book of Boody Rogers
3/31/2010    Still reading Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys. Finished 5,6,7. Getting 8 & 9 next. How many volumes are there?"
3/31/2010    While I'm reading Naoki Urasawa's, I figured I'd also try his "Monster" Anyone hooked on that?"
4/1/2010    with Identity Crisis, Brad [Meltzer] was working out some serious personal issues heh."
4/4/2010    Nice turn of the story by Gaiman on "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" Did not disappoint a tried & true fan
4/4/2010    Also liked addt'l material esp. "Pavane" & "Black & White World". All stories tended to be a bit talky."
4/12/2010    Avengers on the brain! "Secret Invasion" last night, Avengers, Vol. 2 tonight"
4/21/2010    Looking forward to the release of 'Wally Gropius' by Tim Hensley. Reminds me of European "BD"s like tintin"
4/23/2010    Get the 1st chapter of Sarah Oleksyk's story "Ivy" free. Sarah will be at stumptown comics fest #pdxcomics"
5/18/2010    Read Yoshihiro Tatsumi's 'Black Blizzard'. Cinematic, I can see why he called it #gekiga, not #manga"
5/18/2010    Here's an excerpt from 'Black Blizzard'.
5/18/2010    gekiga -> manga is akin to Will Eisner calling his work 'graphic novels' as opposed to "comic books""
5/20/2010    Surprised by "The Farewell Appearance of Daphne Dean in 'The Flash Archives Vol 4'. Thot I'd read all the early Flash"
5/2/2010    Reading Veitch's 'The Maximortal,' a twisted vision of a "real" superman incl. Einstein, Oppenheimer & a faux Disney
5/12/2010    Finished Deitch's 'Shadowland'. Holy crud! "DaVinci Code"? More like a "Dali Code"! Amazine story & art!
5/12/2010    Reading 'Shadowland'. One review on Amazon says "This is Deitch's DaVinci code.""
5/14/2010    So, I started to read the #manga Old Boy. Vol 1 was intriguing. Maybe the female lead gets more believable
5/23/2010    Reading Chris Ware's 'Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth'
6/1/2010    Looks good! RT: @comicinfo: As FEAR AGENT Ends, Writer Rick Remender Reveals Secrets"
6/1/2010    Read 'Ghost World: Special Edition' last night. Good, but essentially GW + screenplay with some extras.
6/1/2010    re-reading the comic makes me want to watch the movie again...'Ghost World'
6/1/2010    Also read 'Mercury' by Hope Larson. Good story. The art style grew on me as I read it.
6/1/2010    Just read 'Brat Pack' by Rick Veitch -- definite talent for the gross & twisted. A mature tale of sidekicks gone bad
6/5/2010    Got 'Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka' @ the library. Did not realize it was vol. 6. Great stuff    want to start from beginning
6/5/2010    I read 1/2 of 'Persepolis' today. Surprisingly full of insight & humor. The art is honest & clean
6/6/2010    Saw they've got "20th Century Boys" dvd out. I'll have to rent it at Movie Madness #manga
6/8/2010    Reading 'Tales of the Fear Agent'-- great! 2-4 page sci-fi/noir tales reminiscent of 50's EC comics, with a bite."
6/13/2010    Reading 'Nightwing & Flamebird Vol. 1' by Greg Rucka, looking forward to vol 2."    http://amzn.to/dy1WtJ
6/16/2010    Cool! Another Portland comic. I've been reading Stumptown #pdxcomics
6/17/2010    Yes! reading 'Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, Vol. 8' tonight for bedtime."
6/17/2010    Also, if I stay awake long enough: 'Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Vol. 1'. Start from the beginning this time"
6/18/2010    'Carl Barks: Conversations' is a fun, occasionally repetitive set of interviews w/Barks. Great to hear his perspective"
6/18/2010    'Carl Barks: Unmasking the Myth of Modernity' is a bit heavier, but still good bio. I preferred 'Conversations'
6/21/2010    Dan Clowes says 'Wally Gropius' is his "favorite book of the year by a wide margin..." I'm gonna buy it
6/21/2010    If you love Archie comics, prepare to be shocked by 'The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo'. Scandalous! (tee hee)
6/23/2010    on the nightstand: 'Hopeless Savages Volume 2' by @Hopelessjen and Bryan Lee O'Malley.
6/25/2010    Read 'Pluto:Urasawa x Tezuka Vol 3'. 8 vol. series is a retelling of "Greatest Robot on Earth"
6/25/2010    Interesting the way Urasawa re-imagines the story- art more "realistic" vs Tezuka's almost iconic style."
6/27/2010    Reading 'Haunted' by Philippe Dupuy. compelling scribbles, dredging up funny, dreamlike stories. running themes
6/27/2010    Haunted's running = pun (ow!) recurring plot of running, & themes that reappear. pits, art, dogs, guts, gaps, & forest friends
6/30/2010    Started 'Invincible Iron Man Omnibus Vol. 1' by Matt Fraction last night. Good bio-terror/Iron man/Stane plot
7/7/2010    Boing boing mentioned 'Basil Wolverton's Culture Corner' today. Great stuff!
7/20/2010    'Werewolves of Montpellier' looks good. I'll have to check it out.
7/30/2010    Sir, I am a poet. (Drew Weing's "Set to Sea")"
8/1/2010    Jean Craighead George = great kid eco-writer. 'Who Really Killed Cock Robin?' = one of my favorite 5th grade books
8/9/2010    Summer reading? Try 'Consider Phlebas' by Iain Banks. Episodic like Star Trek, yet 'way more graphic.
8/9/2010    'The Atrocity Archives' by Charles Stross is what happens when the "IT crowd" meets Cthulu.
8/9/2010    'The Jennifer Morgue' was more cohesive than "Atrocity Archives". If Ian Fleming played D&D..."
8/13/2010    Reading 'Naoki Urasawa's Monster #1'. Bit melodramatic, but not what I expected. Surgeon tracks a psycho killer
8/13/2010    'Temperance' sounds like a graphic novel spawn in the vein of philip dick.
8/14/2010    read 'Werewolves of Montpellier' last night. Clean art, laconic style, sparse dialog, nice story.
8/14/2010    1 reservation re:'Werewolves': the stylistic characters (crows, dogs, bunnies) all looked too similar
8/14/2010    Now I want to read more by Jason: 'I Killed Adolf Hitler': assassin goes back in time, Hitler steals time machine.
8/14/2010    More Jason 'The Left Bank Gang': Cartoonists Hemingway, Pound, Fitzgerald & Joyce struggle in Paris
8/25/2010    Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me. I still want this
8/26/2010    Read 'The Left Bank Gang' last night. Hemingway, Fitzgerald & Pound as starving cartoonists in 20's Paris, w/a twist
8/26/2010    Also started 'X-Men: Kitty Pryde and Wolverine'. Can't believe I've never read this story
9/2/2010    Note to self: Read 'The Best American Comics Criticism' 2010.
9/3/2010    Action is character. F Scott Fitz. shoulda been writing comics. An alternative: Jason's "Left Bank Gang"
9/8/2010    @GNReporter talks w/Cathy Malkasian re: Temperance. If you like allegory (eg Narnia Chronicles) you might like this
9/9/2010    Reading 'Petey & Pussy'. Crazy foul-mouthed cat & dog w/bald men heads have adventures. Weird!
9/10/2010    I've been reading quite a bit of Jason lately. Would you say he's of the Franco-Belgian school?
9/11/2010    My reviews of "I Killed Hitler", "Left Bank Gang" and "Werewolves of Montpellier".
9/13/2010    Peter Bagge's Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me = funny+thoughtful. I eschew Libertarian politics but he has some great points
9/25/2010    Amazon says 'X'ed Out' by Charles Burns will be out in October. Anyone read an early review copy? Looks good
9/26/2010    'The Last Musketeer' is a cartoon movie serial, mixing 3 musketeers, robots & alien invasions, yet still chivalrous
9/26/2010    I found 'You Can't Get There From Here' the least engaging. Frankenstein & monster have girl troubles.
9/26/2010    'Tell Me Something', similar to "Living & Dead", minus the zombies, plus thieves. Somehow more engaging."
9/26/2010    'Meow, Baby!' Jason strip & short gag stories w/mummies, skeletons, zombies & angels. In vein of laconic Gary Larson"
9/26/2010    'Almost Silent' by Jason collects "Meow, Baby" "Tell Me Something" "You Can't Get there..." & "The Living & The Dead"
9/26/2010    'Pocket Full of Rain' is Jason's "origin story." Collected from "Mjau Mjau" magazine, interesting in its unevenness."
9/26/2010    If you like silent films, romance flicks, or zombie movies, check out 'The Living and the Dead'. A sweet tale."
9/26/2010    Bits of weekend were filled with Jason's blank-eyed dog/crow people. After 3 books (see link) wanted to fill the set...
9/26/2010    'Hey, Wait...' is Jason's "A Separate Peace" carried through to the end.
10/1/2010    Been reading Rucka's 'Queen & Country Vol. 1'. Tight spy action in vein of Le Carre, but with strong female character.
10/1/2010    Now 'Queen & Country Vol 2' I'm liking Carla Speed McNeil's rendition of characters. None of the art pulls any punches
10/2/2010    Some comics I'm a total sucker for. eg: 'Tom Strong' is Doc Savage re-imagined w/a polyethnic/species cast
10/2/2010    Also Peter Bagge's 'Apocalypse Nerd'. Gotta love it 'cause he takes pot-shots at everyone, an epic Hate-fest
10/8/2010    Underground, by Jeff Parker & Steve Lieber, mentioned on BoingBoing today
10/13/2010    Anyone disillusioned w/voting this fall _must_ read 'Citizen Vince'. Gangsters v Pols in this Reagan era novel
10/23/2010    Reading 'Ocean' by Warren Ellis. Cool hard-tech solar system space thriller.
10/29/2010    Steve Lieber & Jeff Parker's "Underground" in glorious black & white."
11/16/2010    Getting 'The Freak Brothers Omnibus' for my birthday. Of all the drug-culture #comix, these guys are the funniest
11/16/2010    Also got 'Best American Comics Criticism'. Interesting love/HATE piece on Spider-man by Peter Bagge, & other essays
11/17/2010    The Freak Brothers showed up on my doorstep today
11/25/2010    Lying in bed reading the 'The Freak Brothers Omnibus'
12/4/2010    Reading Greg Rucka's "Queen & Country vol 3." Then going to get an x-mas tree
12/4/2010    Later... I'll pick up Naoki Urasawa's "20th Century Boys, Vol. 11". The twists & turns of the story are compelling
12/14/2010    Reading '3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man.' a 3-sided tale of a poor giant hired by the CIA in the 60's.
12/14/2010    Naoki Urasawa's '20th Century Boys' is still compelling @ vol 11. How many more? Some twists in this one!
12/15/2010    Some musings on "3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man" #graphicnovels #comics"
12/20/2010    Reading 'CHEW Vol. 1.' Mix of humor, sci-fi, "men in black" & cannibalism (mostly humor). Hard for some to stomach?
12/20/2010    Also on my "to read" pile: Chester Brown's "Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography" Looks great!"
12/29/2010    Jason's "dead mickey"

3/12/11

Meanwhile...

A 1965 Judge Parker daily comic strip panel by...

Image via Wikipedia Whatever happened to the dramatic soap-opera type comics that used to be in the daily papers? Probably fifty years ago some families would follow these sagas from day to day as the tensions built, and unwound. Today the Oregon still has Judge Parker, but it's been banished from to comic section, left to wander the classifieds.

Meanwhile, Mary Worth, Mark Trail, Rex Morgan MD, Apartment 3-G and Steve Roper drift along, still drawn, but drawing hardly any attention.

Here are some panels I clipped from those odd strips in the 80's, when they'd already lost readership. The story is frozen in time...

3/9/11

Black Terror in Exciting Comics #61

In 1948 superheroes were losing their popularity, and comic fans were shifting their interests toward gangsters, teen and romance stories, and Westerns. Exciting Comics #61 from May, 1948 is a microcosm of that sentiment. Previously the Black Terror dominated the cover of this series, but in 1948 the covers feature mostly Judy of the Jungle. A few issues later, with Exciting Comics #67, the format drops superheroes entirely and changes to a Western comic, then ends its run.

The contents of comic reflect the publisher's confusion. Inside is an 8-page Judy of the Jungle story "The Deadly Triangle" by Ralph Mayo, this 10-page Black Terr story "The Deadly Choice" with art by Mort Lawrence, a three-page text story called "King of the Chimpanzees" by Charles S Strong and masthead art by Ralph Mayo, a one-pager gag called Zippy by Al Hartley, an eight-page Roger Dodger story by Art Gates, a story with Rick Howard, the Mystery Rider by a mystery artist, a 2-page "how-to" called Junior Judo, subtitled "Another Real Lesson in Judo" by and the last story is the last appearance ever of Strut Simmons in a 7-page story by Ed Good.

A side note about Mort Lawrence, who probably drew this Black Terror story. He is best known for his work on Atlas Comics' Young Men series (1953–1954) which reintroduced Captain America and Bucky as communist hunting super-heroes. He does a respectable job on this story, and I especially like the final two panels. You can see more of Lawrence's work here.

Here's the summary of "The Deadly Choice": A crime boss named Torch is released after five years of jail time and, despite the pleas from his girlfriend Candy, is determined to get his revenge on the D.A. who put him away. He hears the D.A.'s little girl has a rare disease called Cardocomitis, and plans to steal the girl's medicine. Fortunately for the D.A. and his daughter, pharmacist Bob Benton (aka The Black Terror), and his assistant Tim (aka Tim), are delivering the Cardocin medicine.

The thugs break in and grab the medicine. To avoid further danger to the DA and his daughter Bob and Tim let the thieves go, but as soon as they're clear the Terror Twins burst into action. I love the panel where they're crashing through the D.A.'s front door. This is the panel that shows of their powers the most, unfortunately they aren't in costume.

The thugs get away, and Bob decides to run an ad in the paper offering $10,000 to anyone who can provide some Cardomicin serum. Time is short, the girl can't last more than 3 days without her medicine, but luckily Torch answers the ad. For the meeting with the crime boss, Bob and Tim pose as an aging industrialist and his wife and pay a visit to the gangsters.

A fight ensues (still not in costume) and in the confusion Candy grabs the medicine in an effort to take it to the D.A.'s daughter. The chase ends up at the railroad yards where Torch tries to shoot his girlfriend. Candy pulls her own gun. "Don't make me do it, Torch," she says. "Ugh! I didn't thing you'd..." he replies.

The final two panels are my favorite in the story: "It'll be hard for a while, Candy-- but you'll forget." Says the Black Terror to Candy."Some day you'll be able to live the kind of life you really want."
"And you saved a kid's life..." adds Tim.

Reflecting the movement away from superheroes, this story is also a microcosm of the passage from superheroes in the 40's to the gangster comics in the 50's.The Terror Twins are hardly ever in costume, and show almost none of their powers. Except for the pharmacist angle, this story could have had Mickey Spillane characters rather than superheroes.

There's an emphasis on gangster dialogue, so much that it's almost annoying. Note the 6th panel of the 2nd page where the thug says "r-e-e-t" or during the fight scene on page 6 "pardon my boardin' house reach, toots!"

Unlike the earlier Black Terror stories, Jean is nowhere to be found. The leading lady is clearly Candy. She's drawn as if draped over the page, sultry, bad, yet trying so hard to be good.

I thought the caricatures were much more pronounced in these stories, almost in the style of Will Eisner or Jack Cole. Take, for example, The Torch's right-hand man Snake. Also, the artist took seemed to have a lot of fun drawing Candy throughout the story, and also the scenes when Bob and Tim are posing as the industrialist and his wife. Note, too, the curve of the car as it moves across the traintracks in the 3rd to last page.

Atmostpheric - Amazing Fantasy #15 sells for $1.1 million

ComicConnect.com sold a copy of the first appearance of Spider-Man, Amazing Fantasy #15, for $1.1 million. According to Time Magazine that beats an auction of "Detective Comics #27, Batman's first appearance from 1939, to become the second most expensive comic ever sold (Suitably, Superman's first appearance in 1938's Action Comics #1 remains in first place; a copy sold last year for $1.5 million)."

Comics A.M. quotes the CEO of ComicConnect.com on the sale. “The fact that a 1962 comic has sold for $1.1 million is a bit of a record-shattering event," says Stephen Fishler, "That something that recent can sell for that much and be that valuable is awe-inspiring.”

Last weekend at the Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle a vendor had 5 of these in sealed CGC protectors. I was drooling over them, but didn't bother to ask the price. My son, however, was more interested in the Scott Pilgrim T-shirt he'd just bought. I can't help but wonder where to draw the line between fine art, nostalgia, madness and imagination. In this case are we seeing people who grew up with Spider-Man amassing enough money to purchase back their childhood?

I'm reminded of one time I was at my local comic book store Excalibur Comics in Portland. They had a copy of Amazing Fantasy for sale in the neighborhood of $500. A patron, who was a mechanic for the import garage from down the street, was calculating how many cars he'd have to fix to cover the cost of the comic (answer: 3).

Condition is everything when it comes to these types of prices, and it comes down to an ephemerality which borders on something closer to religious faith, or homeopathy. In contrast to the $1.1 million version of the comic, you can buy a Very Fine copy of Amazing Fantasy today from the same place that had the auction for only $160,000. These buyers, however, are pushing into the Wall Street investment area. Personally, I prefer to read my comics.

Incidentally, the one in the picture from the Time Magazine article (which I've shown above) is probably not the one that sold for $1.1 million. There's too much "Marvel chipping" on the picture.