Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Man-Gods From Beyond The Stars #1,


Marvel Preview magazinepresents Man-Gods From Beyond The Stars #1, 1975- A stunning science fiction cover by Neal Adams begins this magazine format variety series. Alex Nino illustrates the cover story, mixing futuristic and primitive settings with masterful ease. Varying shades of grey add depth to his graphic shapes and bold linework. Dave Cockrum's tale is capably inked by the Crusty Bunkers, which include Adams among their ranks. The interior page shown above is by Nino. This is number 1 of 2 Marvel Preview issues with Adams art and/or covers and 1 of 1 Marvel Preview issues with Nino art and/or covers. See today's posts or more Adams,Nino or Marvel Preview issues. See also this blog's Adams checklistTop 10 Adams comics or Nino checklist.
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Sunday, August 11, 2013

"The Sword and the Sorcerers"

Chamber of Darkness #4 ->
Chili #12
Kid Colt Outlaw #145
Marvel's Greatest Comics #26
Millie the Model #181
Our Love Story #4
Rawhide Kid #75
Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #77
The X-Men #67 (reprints The X-Men  #12)

Supporting Characters:
  • Len Carson
  • Whitney, his publisher
  • Morro, Starr's minstrel
  • O'Neal, a police officer

I'd venture a guess that few Marvel Zombies picking up the fourth issue of Chamber of Darkness realized that they were seeing history unfold before their pre-teen eyes. "The Sword and the Sorcerers" by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith is an obvious prototype of Conan the Barbarian (who would make his legitimate Marvel debut six months later), right down to the loincloth and horned helmet.

  • "The Sword and the Sorcerers" (#4, April 1970; one-shot character Starr the Slayer)
Writer Roy Thomas, penciler-inker Barry Smith
Conan the Barbarian #16 (July 1972); The Conan Saga #6 (Oct. 1987); The Essential Conan, Vol. 1 (Marvel, 2000, ISBN 0-7851-0751-7)
I know what you're thinking, Groove-ophile. "Who-the-what? What's so famous or first about him?" Well, we all know that Roy Thomas and Barry (pre-Windsor) Smith teamed up to produce the hottest, coolest, bestest sword and sorcery comic of all time, Conan the Barbarian (we do, don't we?), but did'ja know that about six months prior to that dazzling debut, Thomas and Smith teamed for a warm-up/try-out stab at sword and sorcery with a character called--yep, you guessed it!--Starr, the Slayer? Didja know that self-same savage made his debut in Marvel's Chamber of Darkness #3 (January, 1970)? Did'ja know that fateful feature was reprinted in Conan the Barbarian #16 (April, 1972)? Well he did and it was. Who knows, without Starr, Roy might never have convinced Smilin' Stan to take a shot at Conan--or Barry, for that matter! And then where would we be? Conan-less! Perish the thought! So, it's time to give old Starr his due, for without him, we might never have gotten the barrage of sword-slinging swingers we so enjoyed back in the Groovy Age! G'head, Groove-ophile! Get your groove on with Starr, the Slayer in "The Sword and the Sorcerers!"It's a comic that dosen't suck,but I put it up anyway.

Synopsis for "The Sword and the Sorcerers"

The story begins as a sorcerer known as Tull,attempts to kill off Starr the Slayer.Trull,looks allot like a writer Len Carson-obvious a take off on Lin Carter
' who is selling barbarian stories of Starr the Slayer that come to him in dreams.Trull,must came the name Jephro Tull.Trull summons up a big demon and grasp Starr.The Slayers managed to get free and throw his sword at Starr the Slayer,before the sequence interupted by Len Carson waking out of a dream. Carson-plans to kill off Starr in the next story because the dreams are putting too much of a strain upon his health.Carson calls his publisher Whitney-obvious a reference to Whitney Ellesworthe.Len Carson,arrogantly tells him,this is the story and he'll kill off Starr in the end of this final tale.This is also a reference writers like Sir Arthor Conan Doyle,who wanted to kill off Sherlock Holmes.Imagine,what if say Robert E.Howard,wanted kill off Conan.You can see the connections Roy Thomas was making between Conan outlasting his creator Two Gun Bob and another writer with the middle Conan,wanting to off his creation.Lin Carter wrote or co-wrote Conan stories,so his is used as a substitute for Howard.Bob Howard,claimed,he did simply wrote Conan stories,but had the Cimmerians ghost tell him tales of his adventures and REH simply wrote them down.You can see the creative wheels as Thomas put two and two together to create this story.
 On his way to the office,poilkce officer ask Len Carson how much enjoyed the lastest Star the Stayer story.O'Neal, Starr assaults Carson-  out of an alley with accusations of assassin upon his lips.Starr see him more evil than Trull,being he somehow summoned him into this city,whose crystal minerettes dwarf the towers of proud Zardath. The writer is unbelieving, even to the point that Starr raises his sword and strikes him down.Len Carson dies,as pages of his last tales scattered upon the darkenned alley. Starr wakes in his own world and relates a dream to his faithful minstrel Murro wherein he struck down a grave threat to his life. 

We can assume,publisher Whitney never receives the final   Starr the Slayer tale,since Len Carson will found dead by a unknown murderer.Starr lives in his other world,as we can assume the fictional alternate world of  Starr the Slayer's adventures are written by other hands.A kind of statement of a creation,outlives his creator by other authors,despite he might want to do with his creation after his death.

Barry was obviously still working on mastering the human form as Starr the Slayer's torso, while nicely muscular, changes from panel to panel, swinging the pendulum from anorexic to bulky. That aforementioned loincloth looks to be two times the size of Starr's midsection in some shots, resembling a diaper that hasn't been pinned properly. Acknowledging the prototype, Roy and Barry reprinted the story in Conan the Barbarian #16 (July 1972) and it's been reprinted a few more times since. That Conan #16 also featured a reprinting of "Night of the Frost-Giants" from Savage Tales #1, the reprintings a result, no doubt, of Barry missing a deadline.


Note the unusual fitting of Starr's jockey shorts
[Page16.jpg]

Thursday, August 8, 2013

The Superior Spider-Man #7


THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2013

The Superior Spider-Man #7

The Superior Spider-Man #7 - 365 Days of Comics
The Superior Spider-Man #7
The Spider-Man crew over at Marvel has been getting a lot of flack since their killing of Peter Parker, er...suppressing of Peter Parker? It's hard to say what exactly the real Peter Parker is theses days. He's like a soul or spirit that is tied to his old body, which is now also occupied and controlled by Doctor Octopus. Anyway, regardless of what Pete is now, he is involved in an interesting era of Spider-Man comic books.And Marvel digs the Spider-Man grave even deeper.

Some Spoilers ahead.if your just too fracking lazy to go read this comic first..though it's not really an issue where spoilers matter. (You can skip the next 2 paragraphs)

The Superior Spider-Man #7 feels like the beginning of the end for Doctor Octopus in Pete/Spider-Man's body fiasco. Pete's spirit is discovering that he may actually be able to have an effect on his former body. In previous issues, Pete has tried yelling at Otto from the spirit world (or whatever), but Otto has not been able to hear or feel Pete. Issue #7 marks the first time Pete is heard by Otto, in Otto's head. Also, The Superior Spider-Man #7 marks the first time Pete is able to actually move Otto's body (which is really Pete's).Why such a total prick like Doctor Ock dosen't  go around totally fucking up Peter Parkers life robbing banks,raping both Aunt May and Mary Jane Watson is beyond me.

Otto notices something is off, but unfortunately for him, he is unable to figure out what exactly is happening because Otto/Spider-Man is urgently called for, by the Avengers. The Avengers have known Spider-Man for a long time and they too sense something is awry. When they call Spider-Man for an intervention regarding his brutal behavior towards criminals lately, Spider-Man gets aggressive and the beginning of a battle ensues.

Dan Slott, The Superior Spider-Man writer,if you say so does a fine job with The Superior Spider-Man #7. At this point in the story most of the fun is tied up in:
  • Finding out just how aggressive and brutal Otto can be.
  • Finding out if Pete will be able to effect Otto from the spirit world.
  • Finding out if anyone (including the Avengers) will find out that Otto has tagged-in as Spider-Man.
  • Reading the Otto-Spider-Man's dialog. He speaks a lot like Otto so he often uses terminology which is goofy or very awkward for other characters to react to.
Slott has been criticized by so many "Spidey fans" for killing Peter Parker, but The Superior Spider-Man carries on the idea that Pete is still sort of alive.Dan Slott should tarred,feather and burned at the stake,for being paid to write crap in the first place. It just seems like a story about Pete losing control, and trying to gain it again. In some ways it feels like when Pete started using the symbiot. Pete started acting differently and lost control of who he was. Same thing...kind of.

Thanks to Dan Slott, I'm looking not forward to Peter Parker's future for the first time in years.

Art wise...well, here's the thing. When I was getting back into comic books it was around Marvel's Civil War event. I really loved Humberto Ramos' art on Wolverine and the over-exaggerated character thing worked for me, at that time. Over the years I got burned out on the style. It's not bad, just not my thing anymore. Admittedly though, I thought his work on The Superior Spider-Man #7 was toned down and worked a little better for me. Then again, I could just be extremely interested in the story and thus anything that touches the story is great.

Oh, and before I score the book...Cardiac. Yes! I loved Cardiac back in the Mark Bagley days ofThe Amazing Spider-Man. It's nice to see the character used again. Thanks, Slott.
The Superior Spider-Man -Doc Ock takes over Spider-Mans body.Just when you think the character finds a new low,After just another Day-they at Marvel Comics dig deeper into the trash whore Spider-Man barrel.Marvel gets time to jump off now.Maybe Tom Breevort the Ultimate Marvel Zombie could starting up new number one issues.That should stopping reading for good. Thanks to Dan Slott, I'm not looking forward to Peter Parker's future for the first time in years.Breevort,Dan Slott-I hope you read this,while totally fracking my good memorie about Spider-Man,who joined superhero asshole ville since the Whole,Lets dump the Peter Parker/Mary Jane marrage,because we are just allot of overated,egotistical Marvel Fanboys,with big egos and brains the size of microbes.


Cardiac - The Superior Spider-Man #7 - 365 Days of Comics
Cardiac - The Superior Spider-Man #7

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Before Dreadstar December: The Metamorphosis Odyssey, The Price, and Dreadstar the Graphic Novel

The Metamorphosis Odyssey was originally serialised in Epic Illustrated #1-9, acting the magazine’s initial centrepiece/ongoing narrative. It wasn’t Jim Starlin’s first creator-owned work, having done some stories featuring Darklon the Mystic for Eerie previously as well as some stuff in Star Reach, I believe, but it was his first attempt at something big and bold.Darklon the Mystic was a bit scewy in it's writing and hin ted at connections to the Star Theif material at Marvel-no matter what they have to say. He took a drastically different approach with this story, doing painted art, first in black and white and, then, in colour. That painted approach is what unifies these three works and separates them from Dreadstar the ongoing series. As well, if you’re familiar with DreadstarThe Metamorphosis Odyssey stands out for having a more ‘adult’ approach with not being afraid to show some nudity and by featuring only one character that would later show up: Vanth Dreadstar. And, honestly, he’s not the lead/protagonist you’d imagine.
The plot of the story is fairly simple: Aknaton, an immortal mystic/’god’ from the race Osirosian, collects a group to end an ongoing conflict with the conquering, unstoppable Zygoteans. The Zygoteans wiped out Aknaton’s race basically and they were, as far as we’d be concerned, gods. Immortal, highly advanced, and unable to stop the Zygoteans, only slow them. Aknaton has come to the conclusion that the entire Milky Way galaxy will fall to the Zygoteans and puts into action his ‘final solution.’ Centuries before, he planted the seeds for this plan on various worlds.
There’s Za, the first of his cannibal race to achieve intelligence.Somehow,Za's world struck me as unbelievably stupid.No way would any echo systyem breed one lifeform and no other.Za came from a world,where his species was all there was.Jim Starlin,like many comic creators thought this one original and I saw it as lambly silly,plus improbable.
 Juliet, a 15-year-old girl from Kansas (Aknaton seems to be the inspiration for the Egyptian pantheon).He story was a mishmash of hillbilly white trash soap,on the who gives a crap high scale ten level.
 and Whis’Par, the culmination of the artificial life Aknaton had created on the forest world. She was a big butterflie chick,also on the high improbable crap level.
He also retreives Vanth Dreadstar, a warrior leading his world against the Zygoteans thanks to a mystical sword that Aknaton left on his world. It’s bonded to them, appearing when he needs it, giving him advanced strength, and healing abilities. Aknaton’s plan is to destroy the Milky Way galaxy using the Infinity Horn, a weapon of such destructive capabilities and requiring Za, Juliet, and Whis’Par to use it and also have them transcend to become a new kind of being (never seen)..Maybe this all seemed wow to some,but I found rhe comic extremely dull,rediculas and stupid.Some dicks the Zygoteans,named after a Zygot,in a cell,who were unbeatable made no sense.Aknaton,came the Osironeans-possibly inspired by similar guy in Doctor Who-the Osirons,where space Egyptians,way befor Stargates Ga'ould.Despite their vast age and knowledge,they took they lost and took out a stupid way to end the rulw of Zygoteans

 Vanth and Aknaton survive, traveling in stasis to another galaxy, eventually landing millions of years later. In a rage over what happened, Vanth kills Aknaton who welcomes death after what he did, though still saying that it was necessary.
If you’ve read Dreadstar, you’ll know this plot since it was recounted many times. Starlin said in an interview in Epic Illustrated #9 that The Metamorphosis Odyssey was a way for him to tell a story about the Vietnam War. Vanth represents the warrior that follows orders only to find out how monstrous those orders are; Whis’Par is the believer who knows the big picture and still goes along with it; Juliet questions everything from the beginning; and Za doesn’t question and doesn’t seem to care about the big picture, willing to go along with what Aknaton (the government/authority/god) says. Since reading that, I’ve debated how effective this interpretation of the story is. I can see where Starlin is coming from, but it doesn’t really work for me. I guess Aknaton simply destroying the Milky Way galaxy is the same as surrender/retreat. He can’t beat the Zygoteans, so he napalms everything, deciding that it’s better to die than to be slaves to conquerers. It’s not an easy position to defend — but it’s also difficult to say he’s entirely wrong. If his race, the most powerful and advanced, couldn’t stop the Zygoteans, what chance did any other have?
What can we say about Metamorphosis Odyssey? This is why Guttenberg invented the printing press-so Jim Starlin could retread badly the Adam Warlock crap badly.
The events here influence Vanth Dreadstar and also give readers a head’s up about Starlin’s storytelling (if you didn’t already know from his runs on Captain Marvel and Warlock): he isn’t afraid to make big, sweeping changes. Only one character from this story survives (though, I guess, Za, Whis’Par, and Juliet survive… kind of) and, at the end, he wants nothing to do with violence or war, overcome by guilt for his participation in the deaths of billions (trillions?). Out of the three ‘preludes,’ it’s the only one that stands on its own completely. When it ends, you could never read another story starring Vanth Dreadstar and be just fine.
Starlin’s art is in a process of transformation here as he learns what he can and can’t do with paints. I don’t know how many problems stem from the printing/paper/age of the paper, but, sometimes, his colour work is muddled and not very good. The story begins in black and white and looks very strong that way. There’s a nice, soft texture to his line work in the black and white art. I particularly love the chapter about Za, introducing him as the only intelligent, truly sentient creature from a race of primitives. It’s Starlin doing the opening of 2001: A Space Odysseyand the art is gorgeous. Expansive landscapes, lots of mist and fog… The introduction of colours paints is hit or miss. Part of the use of paints is Starlin basing some characters on models. Vanth Dreadstar appears to be Starlin himself, while he used friends for other characters. One notable model is Frank Miller as Juliet’s father (and it’s pretty obvious if you know what Miller looks like).
The Metamorphosis Odyssey is also the title of all of these stories. This is really book one with The Price acting as book two, the graphic novel Dreadstar as book three, and the Dreadstar ongoing series as book four. It’s an unfinished story. One thing that I wish Starlin would return to do is finish Vanth Dreadstar’s life as he suggested he would in that interview in Epic Illustrated #9: “At the end of the series, when I finally decide to kill Vanth Dreadstar off, [Za, Whis'Par, and Juliet will] be brought back in. I’ve got the end all plotted out.”
The Price was originally published as a black and white graphic novel for Eclipse and, later, was coloured using a process to shift from black and white paints to colours, reprinted in Dreadstar annual #1. It’s an odd book, because it barely has Vanth Dreadstar in it at all. Instead, it introduces us to the new galaxy that Dreadstar and Aknaton arrived in at the end of The Metamorphosis Odyssey, the Emperical Galaxy, with a particular focus on Syzygy Darklock. In this galaxy, a war between two empires has been going on for centuries. On one side is the Monarchy, a 12-century old dynasty, and, on the other, is the Instrumentality, a theocracy. Neither side wants the war to end having based their entire societies and economies around it, sacrificing lives but never truly advancing or gaining on the enemy. Syzygy Darklock is a bishop in the Instrumentality’s church and a powerful, highly skilled one at that. He’s something of an up-and-comer, a threat to the Lord Papal, the ruler of the church. At the beginning of The Price, Syzygy’s brother is killed and the story is about him gaining revenge and the cost of doing so.
The idea that power comes with a high cost is one that Starlin returns to again and again. He also ties it in with an idea he uses less, but still crops up from time to time: no matter how smart and powerful you are, you’re just a pawn of fate or someone smarter and more powerful. The murder of Syzygy’s brother is a ruse to put the bishop on a path to gain the necessary power and knowledge to be worthy of his fate. A powerful wizard sets it all in motion, willingly sacrificing his life to Syzygy’s anger, knowing that he served the universe in a larger way. Syzygy, on the other hand, sacrifices his body for power. When he obtains a large amount, he loses an arm, a leg, an eye, and is badly burned (hence his grotesque appearance on the cover). More than that, when more power is necessary, he sacrifices his loyal friend, a nun in the church, to an eternity of damnation and torment. Unlike Vanth Dreadstar, he willingly does monstrous deeds — first, for revenge, and, then, because he’s seen his fate and embraces it even with guilt. It isn’t until the final pages that Dreadstar appears as Syzygy finds him, beginning to prepare him for his fate.
Starlin’s art in The Price builds on his work in The Metamorphosis Odyssey, though I’ve only seen the colour version. It’s hard to separate his line work from the painted colours since they’re so overpowering. Knowing that he didn’t do the colours makes it more difficult to discuss his art. Here, though, he does do something that would show up in the next book: he draws a giant cat-god, using a very realistic approach to the character’s head. I don’t know why, but Starlin seemed to have a real fascination/interest in cats. It’s actually a little strange to read this if you’re just familiar with Syzygy from the ongoing. Seeing him as a regular human, not the weird mystic… strange.
Starlin’s storytelling in this is a little overbearing. Lots of captions, lots of dialogue. There’s a big infodump to the begin the story as he explains the entire history of the Monarchy/Instrumentality conflict. His dialogue can be a little too on the nose at times with characters expressing themselves in obvious, blunt ways. It’s something that seems clunky now and becomes problematic at various times, but I don’t mind as much here. These stories are meant to be very obvious and direct.
The Dreadstar graphic novel was the third graphic novel published by Marvel and done in exchange for Starlin doing The Death of Captain Marvel. It picks up where The Metamorphosis Odyssey left off with Vanth Dreadstar on an alien planet, pissed off, and half insane. He abandons his sword and succumbs to his injuries, found by the residents of the planet, a race of cat-people. The cat-people were bred by the Instrumentality to be warriors, but turned out to be peaceful and good farmers, so they were left to farm and provide food for soldiers. In their village, a human woman who was a scientist along with her dead husband takes in Vanth and nurses him back to health. Eventually, they fall in love and spend decades together (though Vanth doesn’t age as a result of his mystic sword (which returns to him of its own accord one night). When Syzygy lands on the planet, he and Vanth begin meeting once or twice a month to talk and learn, developing a mentor/protege relationship. Syzygy slowly teaches Vanth everything he’ll need to know to meet his destiny of ending the war. Except Vanth wants no part of that, happy to leave his violent life behind him. Until a Monarchy raiding party destroys the village, kills his wife, and leaves him hungry for revenge. He takes it by joining the Monarchy military, rising through the ranks until he’s in a position to kill the king and threaten his successor with the same treatment if he doesn’t work to end the war as Dreadstar and Syzygy have laid out. In the end, the two prepare to continue the task at hand.
It’s hard to ignore the influence of Star Wars on this story. The Vanth/Syzygy stuff is very similar to the Luke/Obi-Wan stuff in the film, right down to the excuse Luke has for leaving with Obi-Wan to fight the Empire. Starlin uses many of the same visuals with similar looking houses and a land-speeder. I don’t mind, it just jumped out at me quite a bit.
The storytelling is brisk here as Starlin prefers to tell rather than show. Decades pass in a page before years pass quickly as well. We never get a strong sense of how peaceful/great Vanth’s life is as a farmer. It’s told to us, but Starlin knows that it isn’t the appeal of the story. Watching Vanth return to his former ways is teased with a violent outburst at Syzygy as he tries to convince Vanth to leave. It really hits home when he goes after the king of the Monarchy, donning his old outfit of a blue hooded shirt. He hadn’t worn that since collapsing at the beginning of the story and it becomes his initial ‘costume.’ He also draws Vanth as slightly pudgier before he returns to his old self. He wouldn’t really gain weight because of his strange nature, but it visually shows him as ‘soft’ and ‘weak’… and ‘content.’
Starlin sends home the message that the war must end during Vanth’s time in the military. One of the reasons he’s promoted is to take him out of active service because he’s been winning too many battles. It’s upsetting the stalemate condition that Monarchy lives in with the Instrumentality, but is saving lives. Vanth is concerned with ending the war to save lives, wanting to end the corruption that only helps those in power.
The graphic novel effectively builds off the previous two to have the two ‘leads’ cross paths and join forces, setting up the ongoing series.
Dreadstar short story was published in Epic Illustrated #15, originally meant for another magazine at Marvel, but used here to act as a prologue for the ongoing series, which was to be Epic’s first creator-owned ongoing comic. The short has Vanth and Oedi (the sole survivor of the cat-people) at an Instrumentality mining colony to steal a ship. In the process, they get found out and a woman is trapped after some of the rocks collapse. Vanth shows off his compassion by using his power to save her, proving that he’s better than the Instrumentality (her own people) when they do nothing. It features one of my favourite pages, which I’ve scanned in.
It’s a decent little short that introduces Oedi as part of the team and shows Vanth and company in action against the Instrumentality. It also introduces Willow, who will become a member of the team. She’s the woman Vanth saves though we don’t know yet that she’ll join the group.
This short is the last time we see Starlin use this softer pencil art style. With the ongoing, he returns to his more traditional pencils and inks. I do like his shading here. It’s a nice transitional piece from his painted work to more ‘standard’ comic art.
Tomorrow, we begin Dreadstar December proper with the debut issue of the ongoing and the proper introduction to Dreadstar and Company.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction Giant Size Special Issue Marvel Comics

Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction Giant Size Special Issue
Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction was a 1970s black-and-white, science fiction comics magazine published by Marvel Comics' parent company, Magazine Management, under the imprint Curtis Magazines.
The anthology title featured original stories and literary adaptations by writers and artists including Frank Brunner, Howard Chaykin, Gene Colan, Gerry Conway, Richard Corben, Bruce Jones, Gray Morrow, Denny O'Neil, Roy Thomas, and others, as well as non-fiction articles about science fiction and interviews with such authors as Alfred Bester, Frank Herbert, Larry Niven, and A. E. van Vogt, some of whom had their works adapted here.

Marvel Comics
Despite the best of intentions,this late issue was a mixed bag of totally rejected stories.The proty child being the worse example of a totally shit story.You get an interesting cover by Don Newton, cover for Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction Special #1, 1976.and the rest is crap