Newsstand: December 1981

Looking at the comics cover-dated December 1981, the month seems notable more for stuff I didn't buy at the time. I don't think I bought any of these comics when they were initially released, but I either got them as back issues or reprints. So, the list of comics I wish I had bought as new in December, 1981 includes:

All-Star Squadron #4 Once I started reading All-Star Squadron, I was hooked, and collected everything back to the first issue. At this point, however, I probably thought it was just another superhero comic. Or hadn't even noticed it yet.

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15 Actually, I've never actually read this. And possibly Frank Miller's name wouldn't have meant anything to me when this was published (although it might have, since he was writing and drawing Daredevil by this point). But it just seems to me that if I knew more about comics at that point, I wouldn't have let a Frank Miller-illustrated Spider-Man comic pass me by.

Nexus #1 Nexus would become one of my favorite comics, but it wasn't really on my radar until issue #3 came out with its flexi-disk read-along soundtrack. And it would be quite some time before this first issue was reprinted in an affordable format. So I didn't become a fan of Nexus, Mike Baron, or Steve Rude as early as I might have.

In fact, if I did buy any of these comics when they were released, it probably would have been Condorman #2. Because I was fascinated by the idea of a Disney movie about a superhero, and was super-excited about that movie. (I have it on DVD, but haven't watched it. Will it hold up to my memories? I'm almost afraid to find out.)

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Newsstand: November 1981

In addition to the second and third issues of Dragonslayer and Raiders of the Lost Ark, I see that November, 1981 saw the arrival of Jack Kirby's Captain Victory #1, the first comic from brand-new publisher Pacific Comics. I probably didn't buy this the moment it came out, but I'm pretty sure I bought it before issue two was published. So I'm counting it as a comic I bought when it was new.

This would probably have been my first real exposure to Jack Kirby's work, at least with me being aware of his name being connected to it. My recollection is that I found it exciting, but also kind of weird. I felt he drew his heads too square. I also remember thinking that he put quotation marks around words for no apparent reason, and his dialogue overall was kind of silly compared to what I was used to at that point.

Today, when I read some of his other almost-contemporary writing (in the pages of Losers or Kamandi) I can see that, while idiosyncratic, it has a great deal of urgency and energy to it. His art also has a certain bold, in-your-face quality that, while not as nuanced as his work from the 60s, moves across the page like nothing else.

Ultimately, the Jack Kirby from this period onwards is my Jack Kirby. When I think of his work, I appreciate what he did in the pages of Marvel comics in the 60s, and I still adore his work from the 70s. But the first stuff that pops to mind is the stuff that was brand new when I was just becoming a fan. My Jack Kirby is the man who created Captain Victory and Silver Star. My Jack Kirby is the artist of the soon-to-be-reprinted Super Powers comics based on the toys.

While these characters and others have been revived recently, I wish someone would reprint Captain Victory. I don't have those issues any more, and would love to reread them.

In a number of ways, I think finding Captain Victory #1 on the counter of Comics and Comix on Telegraph Avenue may have been the real starting point for my comics collecting days. Not only was it the first issue of a new series, but it was the first issue published by a new publisher. Knowing that gave this issue a certain sense of moment and weight when I bought it. It would have been the first time I bought a comic for reasons other than it featured a familiar character.

So, yeah, this was probably it. This was probably where it all began.

 

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Newsstand: October 1981

If I bought Krypton Chronicles #1 last month, then I probably bought the second issue this month. Even if I didn't, there were at least a couple of other comics I remember buying in October, 1981.

Dragonslayer #1 would be another movie adaptation that I purchased. I remember reading it before the movie, and that I was pretty excited. I had already been excited about the movie, probably based on articles in Starlog Magazine. The idea of a movie featuring a big dragon seemed pretty cool. I haven't seen the movie in years, so I don't know if it holds up at all, but as a kid, I thought it was great.

The New Adventures of Superboy #22 would be the first issue of Superboy I ever read. I know I picked it up because of the promise of a Krypto the Superdog story on the cover. I don't remember much about this issue specifically, but when I think about this series, I fondly remember the innocent charm it had. When Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul created a modern-day Superboy series in Adventure Comics a few years ago, I felt like they captured an updated version of that tone. But their run on the series ran less than a year, and while Jeff Lemire did an okay job of continuing that tone, it wasn't quite the same.

I probably read Raiders of the Lost Ark #2, but I have nothing to add beyond what I wrote last week about issue #1.

And that's about it for this month. Next week: November!

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First, congratulations on Marineman’s nomination for an Eisner award for Best New Series. Well deserved. If you haven’t read it, and have an iPad or similar device, the first issue is available digitally from Image Comics for free. Seriously, check it out.

The other week, I finally, properly read Stumptown, by Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth (also up for an Eisner). I had read the serialized version, but there were big delays between issues when it came out. Plus, I was so behind on my comics reading at that point, I accidentally read the fourth issue before reading the third. So, really, reading this new collected edition was the first time I’ve read this story properly. And, having done so, I think this may be my favorite Greg Rucka comic book series. (Maybe even my favorite Rucka series overall.)

Stumptown tells the story of Portland, OR private detective Dex (short for Dexedrine) Parios as she searches for a missing girl, in order to erase her gambling debts at a local casino. Both the story and the art are straightforward and down-to-earth, full of local Portland details that give it a strong sense of place. While the delays in the original issues may have been down to Matthew Southworth, ultimately the results are worth it. Rucka has said that they won’t release the next story until they have most of the issues done already. That's great, because it means no delays, but also that the book will still be drawn by Southworth.


I mentioned in an earlier blog about how much I enjoyed his most recent novel, which may turn out to be the final Queen & Country story. And while I love that series tremendously, and I love Rucka’s two Whiteout stories, Stumptown has them beat for me. Unlike his other comics work, it’s much more human and down to earth. As relatable and real-world as he makes the espionage setting of Queen & Country, it’s still a globe-trotting spy story. Whiteout still has its exotic setting. But Stumptown is an ordinary story about (relatively) ordinary people in a normal city, motivated by ordinary petty things.

I recently read Brad Meltzer’s latest novel, The Inner Circle. What I really enjoyed about it was how what looked to be a centuries-old conspiracy, in the vein of The DaVinci Code, boiled down to petty, venal, human emotions. And that’s what I loved about Stumptown; despite some characters’ ties to real-world organized crime, the story is ultimately about love, loyalty, and family.


I had read interviews where Rucka cited ‘70s and ‘80s TV detective shows like The Rockford Files, Simon & Simon, and Magnum, PI, as influences on Stumptown. Fortunately, he’s created his own version of those sorts of series, instead of “creating” a thinly-veiled adaptation of something he loves. What Stumptown has in common with those shows is its focus on a normal human being, not a superhero, just trying to make a buck by doing a job anyone could do. Dex, his detective hero, doesn’t have superpowers, and she isn’t superintelligent. She’s determined and stubborn and observant. In short, she’s someone you believe could actually exist.

The situation she finds herself trying to solve is equally believable. The fate of the world isn’t at stake. There’s no secret weapons or larger-than-life villains here. It’s just a story about how people love each other, or want to be loved, and what that love or lack thereof drives them to do.

I’ll always have a soft spot for Greg Rucka’s work. A couple of years ago, I was trying to put together a comic convention for the library. I knew that the only way it would succeed would be for us to get a big-name writer to headline the show. And Rucka was always at the top of my list. And he came to our little convention, and helped make it a huge success.

On top of that, he was an incredibly nice guy. Polite and friendly and down-to-earth, there was nothing of the superstar about him (which, for a guy with acclaimed runs on Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, is no mean feat). When you listen to him talk about his stories, it’s clear that he has a passion for, and deep understanding of, the characters he is writing. Doesn’t matter if it’s a character he owns, or a company character like Superman or the Punisher. He understands what drives those characters, and sees them all as deep, complex beings.

Most importantly, he’s a Doctor Who fan. So, you know, gotta love him.

I’ve also got a soft spot for detective comics, particularly those starring women. One of these days, I’ll probably blog about the first issue of Comics Scene Magazine, and the influence it had on me. One of the articles in it (if I recall correctly) was an interview with Max Allan Collins, who was just beginning his Ms. Tree series. That would probably have been one of the earlier alternative comics I started following, and it also led me to Collins’ prose work, which led me to other mystery writers. (It also led me to Dick Tracy, but that's another story.) So whenever someone starts a new female detective series, I’m at least curious.

So congrats to Rucka and Southworth for their Eisner nomination, and just for creating a great comic. I look forward to the next installment, whenever it turns up. I have every confidence that it’s going to be great.

I read the Batman/Doc Savage Special comic this morning, teaming two of my favorite characters. More than anything, it's pretty much a prologue to a new series, First Wave, which sets up a new fictional universe where traditional heroes like Batman and Black Canary are given more of a crime/noir/pulp feel, interacting with actual pulp characters like Doc Savage and the Avenger. The series will also be featuring Will Eisner's Spirit, and a new version of the WWII fighter pilot team, the Blackhawks. All characters I love, in a world designed to evoke the spirit of the 30s and 40s. It's written by a writer I like (Brian Azzarello) and drawn by an artist I love (Phil Noto). It's almost as if someone had decided to create a comic book series just for me.

So it's pretty impossible for me to be objective about it. I loved it. (And I'm not the only one.) The only thing I would have prefered is if it had been a bit more self-contained, instead of mostly introduction and setup for the main series. But since it was always intended to be a piece of something bigger, that's not really an issue.

Setting this series in its own fictional world, with new, slightly different, versions of familiar characters, is probably a good idea. Comics (and comics fans) have become so continuity-dependent that this is the only way to team Batman and Doc Savage (and all the other characters) without shoehorning in a contrived reason for how they can somehow coexist without ever having met before. This way, Batman, Doc Savage, the Spirit, and all the rest can have adventures together because, in this context, they've always been together.

Perhaps more importantly for the success of the story, this new pulp/noir/superhero world allows the characters to coexist with integrity. One major problem with reviving pulp heroes like Doc Savage is that they are very much of their time. Put them in the modern world, where everyone now carries a pocket-sized computer, and Doc and his companions either need to be changed radically or they seem out of date. Keep them in the period the pulps were written in, and the stories become period pieces, and consequently quaint and charming and cozy. And they become as much about the period as they do about the adventures, which isn't really in keeping with the spirit of the originals.

In this version, we get the style and panache of a period piece, but the characters can still take advantage of technology like cell phones and tape recorders. Doc Savage doesn't use a lot of gadgets here, but presumably we will get to see him using stuff like his little capsules of anesthetic gas, or his aides using their supermachine guns, and they won't look silly or old-fashioned next to a Batman using the latest high-tech computers or a super-slick Batmobile. (And, really, does anyone want to see Doc Savage driving a Corvette? Or a Prius?)

By "creating" a new version of Batman for this world, Azzarello gets to add some new twists. The obvious one that everyone seems to have seized upon is the fact that he's carrying guns, but that's just a throwback to the character's earliest appearances. More interestingly, this is a Batman at the start of his career, and it shows. Instead of a mature, experienced Batman, master of all the world's martial arts, confidently taking on Doc Savage, we see a Batman who barely escapes from that fight with his life. Because this Batman may not yet be this world's greatest detective, he won't necessarily be the dominant character in the First Wave story. (For that matter, he doesn't necessarily even have to survive.)

We may also be seeing Doc Savage at the beginning of his career. In the books, he starts his "mission" after the death of his father; in this story, his father has recently passed away. Azzarello even hints at the parallels between these two men: both orphaned, both set on their missions by their parents, either directly or indirectly. It suggest a more complex relationship than the usual (and facile) "dark/light" contrast that gets played up whenever we get a team between characters like Batman or the Shadow and Superman or Doc Savage.

No idea how long-time fans of Doc Savage will react to this new version, but I'm also not sure that matters. Purist fans can reread the original stories if that's what they're looking for. Those stories tend to be much more plot and action based, at the expense of character, and also pretty formulaic. I think today's comics audience is looking for more depth of character and variety of plots. If Doc Savage (or any of the heroes of yesteryear) are going to find favor with today's audiences, they need to be presented in a style that feels fresh and contemporary. Batman/Doc Savage accomplishes that without losing what makes the characters special.

Yesterday, I raved about how Adventure Comics lived up to my lofty expectations. Unfortunately, that's not always the case.

Last week, I read The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. I'm a fan of Del Toro's films, and Chuck Hogan has apparently won awards for his mystery writing. (I thought I had read good reviews of his novels, as well as comics by him, but I was confusing him with Charlie Houston, I only just realized.) Unfortunately, this book, the first of a trilogy, wasn't particularly good.

To me, it reads like the treatment for the first act of a movie. It's 401 pages long, and not only does nothing really happen, but the characters are almost nonexistent. Only one is really fleshed out to two dimensions, and he's still not that interesting. I can see that if the characters were played by charismatic actors, and the action was unfolding visually on the screen instead of being described--sometimes in excruciating detail--on the page, this could be the first third of a cool movie. Instead, it's a fairly uninvolving opening installment to a prose trilogy, and there's not really enough there to make me want to read part two, a whole year from now.

Also a bit disappointing--though nowhere near as much--was the first issue of Doom Patrol from DC Comics. I've been a Doom Patrol fan since the 80s, through all its various permutations. I was particularly looking forward to this one, because it features the original characters, and it's written and drawn by creators who I like. And it is very pretty, and the characters are fleshed out more than those in The Strain.

Unfortunately, it's not a particularly good first issue. It opens at the tail end of an adventure that doesn't seem very well set up, and the rest is follow-up on the consequences of that adventure. I didn't feel as if it really established the current status quo for the team so much as it expected me to already know it.

I get that I'm not always going to be completely up to speed on every comic book character, because I don't read every comic. But if any issue of a series should help the reader get caught up on background and current events for a character, it should be the first one. I felt as if this would be an effective second or third issue, but as a "welcome back" for the Doom Patrol, something felt missing.

I have a confession: Several years after lambasting Geoff Johns for his comic, Green Lantern: Rebirth, Green Lantern has become one of my favorite superhero comics. It's got just the right mixture of Hill Street Blues, Star Wars, and superheroics. Instead of an endless string of battles against supervillains, one after another, Johns' Green Lantern is pretty much just one big story, which has gotten even bigger as it currently embraces the rest of DC Comics' superhero universe in the pages of Blackest Night.

I'll probably write more about Green Lantern and Blackest Night at a later date. But today I want to rave about Geoff Johns' newest comic, Adventure Comics #1. Certainly my favorite comic of the week. If it keeps up, probably my new favorite superhero comic.

While I try not to be too much of an old man, bitching about why can't comics be just like the ones I used to read, truth is, there are comics I used to read and love and can't find anything like any more. One of them was The New Adventures of Superboy. I liked the small-town setting, and the fact that, unlike Superman stories, the Superboy tales were less about him fighting supervillains and more about his life on the farm and his relationships with his friends and family.

(Of course, it's possible that the actual comics were nothing like that. But that's the thing about nostalgia, isn't it? You don't want to reexperience something just like you did before; you want to reexperience it the way you remember experiencing it the first time.)

I'm not a huge fan of the current Superboy. Nothing wrong with him; in fact, I really liked his earlier adventures by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett, with their neo-Jack Kirby vibe. But that's because I was a fan of those creators, not of the character specifically. I was planning on buying this new Adventure Comics series, because I like Geoff Johns and the artist, Francis Manapul, not because it was about Superboy. (Oh, and because it has a Legion of Super-Heroes backup.) It was a comic I was anticipating enough to order, but not one I was necessarily more excited about than the other superhero comics I get.

Then I was listening to the podcast of the Superman panel from this year's San Diego ComiCon, and James Robinson (one of my all-time favorite comics writers, and the man responsible for my reading Superman comics again) described Adventure as having a Ray Bradbury or Norman Rockwell feel to it. And I realized that's how I remember those older Superboy comics feeling. And while I love the comics I am currently reading--otherwise I wouldn't be buying them--I'm not getting anything that feels quite like that. So I started getting excited.

The comic totally lived up to my anticipation. We see Superboy on the farm, going to school, rescuing a girl who falls in a river, and talking to his friend/father Superman. (He's not a son; he's a clone. Not sure what the right term for his relationship to Superman would be.) No supervillains, no fights. And while there are hits of trouble down the road, they seem more rooted in character than plot contrivance. It's exactly the comic I was hoping for.

And the art is nice, too.

Plus, it's got the Legion of Super-Heroes as a backup feature. I first discovered the Legion when it was being written and drawn by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen, pretty much universally recognized as one of the team's golden ages. I kept reading it even after Levitz left, but gradually drifted away. It just wasn't the same for me, and apparently I wasn't the only one. DC has tried numerous revamps and reboots for the series, none of which have restored it to its former glory (by which I mean sales).

I think switching to the backup format may be the best idea yet to rebuild interest in the feature. It keeps the Legion in the public eye without the burden of carrying their own book. Perhaps more importantly, the short page count forces Johns and his fellow creators to focus on one or two characters at a time. One of the Legion's selling points--at least for me--has always been its big cast. However, I can see why trying to learn all those characters can seem off-putting to new readers. Giving the Legion a format that allows more of a focus on the individuals will help ease readers into the series, instead of dumping them in the deep end.

Will the series continue to hold my interest and excite me? Only time will tell. But for now, I'm hooked.