I can't help shilling for Comixology from time to time. But sometimes I have to. I really, really do. I mean, I run a blog largely dedicated to old comics-- which I liberally define as "anything published prior to the year 2000"-- and a big part of that includes yakking at length about Uncanny X-Men back when Chris Claremont was writing it and Wolverine was but a hairy, beer-swilling pup. Or whatever it is you call baby wolverines. Right now they're selling 45 classic issues of Uncanny X-Men for .99 each. I already bought them all for 1.99 apiece, and I considered that a bargain at the time. If you haven't experienced the foundation of practically everything people love about Marvel Comics these days, this is your big chance to catch up.
The art is outstanding throughout, with Dave Cockrum and John Byrne pencilling most of the issues and a few guest art teams here and there. And wow, beyond the visual treats, these are fun comics to read. They're occasionally goofy, but they have all the theatrics and high drama you could possibly want in a superhero comic, with in-depth characterization of even the least-loved and lowliest of cast-offs. You know, like Banshee. Poor guy. And the long-simmering "Dark Phoenix" storyline is one of those seminal comic book events, an era-defining tale, as is "Days of Future Past," which seems to have inspired a movie recently with a lot of familiar characters. Where have we seen them before?
Anyway, Marvel can't seem to leave this stuff alone. They must have retold all of Claremont's stories more times than DC has redone "Crisis on Infinite Earths." Even Marvel movie guru Joss Whedon couldn't resist dipping into the Claremont well when he wrote his own much-lauded run not so long ago.
Showing posts with label Comixology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comixology. Show all posts
Friday, May 16, 2014
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Re-downloading those Gold Key Star Trek comics inspires this Captain Kirk ink drawing...
Not really. Actually, it was the other way around. I've been writing about Comixology and drawing lately and working on this drawing reminded me I needed to get those Star Treks back onto my phone. Any excuse for drawing Trek characters, though, is a good one. Grabbing the new Comixology iPhone app requires we download all our comic books again. There are a few series I absolutely cannot do without: Kamandi, New Mutants, Teen Titans and, of course, Gold Key Star Trek. I'd add New Gods and Mister Miracle if they were available. There's one more, but I blog about it elsewhere because it falls outside our mission statement here. It's nice being able to carry around entire runs of Fantastic Four, Uncanny X-Men and Amazing Spider-Man, too.
The first thing I did when I started the app is fill one very important area of it with Kamandi. Yesterday, I started the process of re-acquiring my digital Trek books from IDW. You have two options. One is to purchase the individual issues, which is my preference. Be warned, though-- for some reason the first few substitute the old Checker Publishing softcover artwork for the original comic book covers. Then they start in with the original and very lovely photo-montage covers and-- even better-- the off-model fully-painted ones! The other option is to buy them in little groups as collections. At $11.99 a pop, that's probably the cheaper of the two, but for me, money is little or no object.
Well, even if you think I'm an ass for shilling for Comixology-- I haven't meant to; it's just worked out that way-- please enjoy Captain Kirk wearing something of a smirk. I need to fix his left eye, mouth and chin, but I'm almost as satisfied with this drawing as ol' Kirk here is with himself!
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
A few more words on Comixology...
Okay, so I downloaded and set up the new iPhone app, downloaded a few of my comics to it and gave it a try. Not bad, not bad. I think it's as good a reading experience as you could expect on an iPhone with its relatively tiny screen. Comixology seems to have addressed my main complaint-- the difficulty of getting out of a comic once you're in one so you can read another. This was driving me crazy. Where the heck do you press the screen? I found it a lot easier in the new app.
One feature that's gone is the ability to buy comics within the app itself. I found that out via IDW's website. There's all this new Amazon.com-related info there, none of which I understand. I have a ton of IDW comics on Comixology and I was a little concerned when I couldn't find their listings on the actual website. The ones I've already paid for are still there, so that was a relief. I'll say it again-- buying a license to read comics on your various devices is not the same as buying the actual comics and you're subject to losing access to a lot of books you've paid the same price for as you would a physical copy no one can come confiscate from you.
This is why I haven't invested heavily in old school Star Wars comics on Dark Horse's website, as much as I crave Archie Goodwin-Al Williamson-Carlos Garzon magic. And also those Carmine Infantino-drawn oddities like talking rabbits, Sergio Aragones as a space pirate and whatnot. With the license reverting to Marvel, I have this worrisome feeling the Dark Horse issues will vanish from computers around the world.
So not being able to find single issues of IDW's Powerpuff Girls (one of the best comics to come along in quite some time, but I don't cover it here because it's not archaeological) had me thinking along those lines. Did something happen with the Amazon purchase? I'm at work and can't research this further or look into whether the various parties are working through legal agreements or if I'm just an idiot who can't search Comixology properly. I lean towards the latter. The point is, my stuff is still there. And I don't really care about buying comics within the iPhone app. I can never remember my Apple password anyway!
One plus of the changeover to the new app is the $5 gift card Comixology gave me. And lo and behold, Marvel Monday just happened to have Amazing Spider-Man for .99. This was exactly what I was hoping for. Well, not quite. What I really wanted was Fantastic Four #50 and some more Nick Cardy Teen Titans, but I'm not going to complain because I picked up five classic Spidey issues, four by Steve Ditko and one by John Romita. I love me some Ditko-Romita-John Buscema-Gil Kane Amazing Spider-Man.
Well, the next step is re-downloading everything. You can find all your books in something called the "cloud," which makes me think of magical nonsense spaces and floating castles of pink gingerbread and blue sugar-cream where knights in gleaming armor and ladies in flowing damask fly around on winged dragons, but apparently is just a computer server somewhere.
One feature that's gone is the ability to buy comics within the app itself. I found that out via IDW's website. There's all this new Amazon.com-related info there, none of which I understand. I have a ton of IDW comics on Comixology and I was a little concerned when I couldn't find their listings on the actual website. The ones I've already paid for are still there, so that was a relief. I'll say it again-- buying a license to read comics on your various devices is not the same as buying the actual comics and you're subject to losing access to a lot of books you've paid the same price for as you would a physical copy no one can come confiscate from you.
This is why I haven't invested heavily in old school Star Wars comics on Dark Horse's website, as much as I crave Archie Goodwin-Al Williamson-Carlos Garzon magic. And also those Carmine Infantino-drawn oddities like talking rabbits, Sergio Aragones as a space pirate and whatnot. With the license reverting to Marvel, I have this worrisome feeling the Dark Horse issues will vanish from computers around the world.
So not being able to find single issues of IDW's Powerpuff Girls (one of the best comics to come along in quite some time, but I don't cover it here because it's not archaeological) had me thinking along those lines. Did something happen with the Amazon purchase? I'm at work and can't research this further or look into whether the various parties are working through legal agreements or if I'm just an idiot who can't search Comixology properly. I lean towards the latter. The point is, my stuff is still there. And I don't really care about buying comics within the iPhone app. I can never remember my Apple password anyway!
One plus of the changeover to the new app is the $5 gift card Comixology gave me. And lo and behold, Marvel Monday just happened to have Amazing Spider-Man for .99. This was exactly what I was hoping for. Well, not quite. What I really wanted was Fantastic Four #50 and some more Nick Cardy Teen Titans, but I'm not going to complain because I picked up five classic Spidey issues, four by Steve Ditko and one by John Romita. I love me some Ditko-Romita-John Buscema-Gil Kane Amazing Spider-Man.
Well, the next step is re-downloading everything. You can find all your books in something called the "cloud," which makes me think of magical nonsense spaces and floating castles of pink gingerbread and blue sugar-cream where knights in gleaming armor and ladies in flowing damask fly around on winged dragons, but apparently is just a computer server somewhere.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
A few words on Comixology...
While I've got several bookshelves at home groaning under the weight of trade collections of old comics like New Gods, New Teen Titans, New Mutants, Uncanny X-Men, Tomb of Dracula, Creepy, Eerie and assorted other old school delights, my primary reading source for vintage comics (and new) these days has been Comixology. And despite a glitch here or there and the lack of Fantastic Four #50 and the rest of the Nick Cardy/Bob Haney-era Teen Titans, I'm pretty well satisfied with Comixology.
I carry a huge collection of individual issues around with me on my iPhone. Or, rather, I did until the other day when Comixology retired their old iPhone app in favor of a new one. I only just downloaded it so I can't say if it's an improvement over the old. The old one was a little frustrating when I wanted to stop reading one book and switch to another. Finding the sweet spot on the screen proved difficult and I'd be stuck paging through a comic, back and forth, while puffing out my cheeks or whatever the hell it is I do when I'm mildly annoyed. But it was worth it to have a collection like that at my fingertips, especially when waiting for a bus or riding a train.
Comixology's at-home reading app has vastly improved. The newest reading method beats their older one. When they gave customers the option to beta-test it, I found it more responsive and easier to enjoy because the pages displayed larger. You can zoom way in on panels and really look at the details. Of course, since most of these comics came out in the days of cheap printing on newsprint, and they've been subject to some at-times clumsy restorations, this isn't always the best way to experience them. The guided-view technology is generally well-handled, with panel transitions appearing almost cinematic at times. Guided-view provides zoom-ins for emphasis and scans full-page panels in ways that seem well-chosen. I haven't noticed whoever programs that for any particular book screwing much of anything up as far as reading flow goes, and in fact, for some newer books where the panel-to-panel order can be... er... confusing at best, Comixology has managed to provide a clarity which enhances the reading experience. You know, by actually giving you one when the artist has failed to.
While my preferred way of reading will always be sitting up in bed with an actual book in my hands, turning real pages, Comixology is providing me with a convenient way to tote a lot of books around while also saving shelf space at home. I tend to worry about licensing agreements giving out and since thanks to copyright laws and corporate issues you can't download the comics and store them on your own hardware to preserve what you paid for forever (you're actually buying a license to read them rather than the ownership of the actual comics), but as long as Comixology and the publishers maintain friendly relations and my books stay available, then I have no complaints about the service.
Getting 5 bucks to spend thanks to the iPhone app changeover is pretty nice, too. I just wish I could spend part of it on Fantastic Four #50!
I carry a huge collection of individual issues around with me on my iPhone. Or, rather, I did until the other day when Comixology retired their old iPhone app in favor of a new one. I only just downloaded it so I can't say if it's an improvement over the old. The old one was a little frustrating when I wanted to stop reading one book and switch to another. Finding the sweet spot on the screen proved difficult and I'd be stuck paging through a comic, back and forth, while puffing out my cheeks or whatever the hell it is I do when I'm mildly annoyed. But it was worth it to have a collection like that at my fingertips, especially when waiting for a bus or riding a train.
Comixology's at-home reading app has vastly improved. The newest reading method beats their older one. When they gave customers the option to beta-test it, I found it more responsive and easier to enjoy because the pages displayed larger. You can zoom way in on panels and really look at the details. Of course, since most of these comics came out in the days of cheap printing on newsprint, and they've been subject to some at-times clumsy restorations, this isn't always the best way to experience them. The guided-view technology is generally well-handled, with panel transitions appearing almost cinematic at times. Guided-view provides zoom-ins for emphasis and scans full-page panels in ways that seem well-chosen. I haven't noticed whoever programs that for any particular book screwing much of anything up as far as reading flow goes, and in fact, for some newer books where the panel-to-panel order can be... er... confusing at best, Comixology has managed to provide a clarity which enhances the reading experience. You know, by actually giving you one when the artist has failed to.
While my preferred way of reading will always be sitting up in bed with an actual book in my hands, turning real pages, Comixology is providing me with a convenient way to tote a lot of books around while also saving shelf space at home. I tend to worry about licensing agreements giving out and since thanks to copyright laws and corporate issues you can't download the comics and store them on your own hardware to preserve what you paid for forever (you're actually buying a license to read them rather than the ownership of the actual comics), but as long as Comixology and the publishers maintain friendly relations and my books stay available, then I have no complaints about the service.
Getting 5 bucks to spend thanks to the iPhone app changeover is pretty nice, too. I just wish I could spend part of it on Fantastic Four #50!
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Early Uncanny X-Men finally available at Comixology
Isn't it strange X-Men managed to go so long without an adjective? It has precedents. After all, the Avengers starred in The Avengers. Daredevil settled for "Here Comes." But with all the incredibles, amazings, mightys and invincibles, you'd think someone at Marvel would have already slapped some kind of descriptor on these kids before the middle 70s. Exasperating, exaggerated, exacting. Anything. Right?
These issues join the already-available later ones comprising the "Dark Phoenix Saga." Now you can check out the earliest days of the international X-Men, the characters who made this book one of Marvel's flagship franchises after the original version sickened and didn't exactly die, but entered a sort of zombie-state. Reprints, we call them.
What does this mean? It means I just bought a bunch of comics I've bought many times before (including the originals!) in various forms (including, once again, the originals!) and we're going to have some fun with them here sometime in the future after I read them yet again and decide just what the heck I want to point out. Probably something obvious other people have pointed out about ten thousand times before, but I'll stupidly treat as if I'm the first because that's what I do. This is my way.
It also means I'm missing Dave Cockrum right now. That guy could draw. The stories in these issues are your usual Marvel gang-warfare stuff with a few surprises and then-unique touches but the art was the main draw for me. The character designs really dazzled my junior high self and I spent a lot of my free time copying Cockrum's splash pages and coolest panels-- there are many of them in these issues-- instead of studying and doing homework...
Now I DRIVE the school bus!
Monday, August 19, 2013
Colleen Doran's "A Distant Soil" is another one of those books I've been meaning to read for years!
This was inevitable. Last night I bought the digital version of the new remastered A Distant Soil. I may buy a printed copy, too. In fact, I will. Apparently, it's inescapable.
I've followed Colleen Doran's career through interviews and magazine articles for about as long as I can remember, but I'd never actually read a comic she worked on before this year. I've always admired her artwork-- it's gorgeous-- and respected the way she broke herself into comics at the age I was still just reading them and vaguely dreaming of drawing Uncanny X-Men "when I [grew] up," and how she fought through a lot of crap that would have beaten a weaker person.
A couple of months ago, I saw through a friend's feed she was on Facebook, thought what she had to say was interesting, started following her. She's one of those pros who actually engages her followers. She'll "like" your comment if it's a good one, respond if it moves her to and dispute you if she thinks you're wrong. There are probably a lot of pros who do the same thing (I wouldn't know, since I'm pretty shy about friending the ones who have personal but not fan pages and I'm too Facebook-averse in the first place to spend a lot of time searching for "official" pages to follow), but I consider this kind of engagement above and beyond, especially from someone writing and drawing a ongoing series.
Then I bought the Shade the Changing Man issues she penciled. While I really dig Peter Milligan's work on X-Force/X-Statix (I consider this run flawless in every way), the story itself is mediocre by the standards of some of the other contemporaneous Vertigo titles and that supposedly edgy inking job doesn't do Doran's pencils any favors. Then I bought the latest two issues of A Distant Soil. Beautiful books, not sure what's happening in them because I've missed so much already, the Comixology guided view format isn't the best way to experience the story due to the way Doran designs pages. That's no complaint about the book, because obviously you're meant to hold the actual paper thing in your hands and read it that way.
Taking all this together, with the release of this "definitive" edition of the first part of A Distant Soil it seems now is the time to crank things all the way back to the beginning and finally read something I believe I should have been reading all along. This is the kind of thing that pleases me. Something buzzing in the back of my mind, some recurring encounter with material and finally, when everything aligns, a chance to get into it in a major way right from the beginning. Love and Rockets, Xenozoic Tales, Jack Kirby's Fourth World books, Creepy and Eerie magazines, Lone Wolf and Cub and now A Distant Soil.
So that's another one we'll be talking about here before much longer. I'd have started with a little more today but I've only read a few pages. Hey, I also bought the first year of The Amazing Spider-Man plus some later issues and I didn't even get to open them. Something about jetlag and just not having enough time to do everything I'd like to do in a day!
I've followed Colleen Doran's career through interviews and magazine articles for about as long as I can remember, but I'd never actually read a comic she worked on before this year. I've always admired her artwork-- it's gorgeous-- and respected the way she broke herself into comics at the age I was still just reading them and vaguely dreaming of drawing Uncanny X-Men "when I [grew] up," and how she fought through a lot of crap that would have beaten a weaker person.
A couple of months ago, I saw through a friend's feed she was on Facebook, thought what she had to say was interesting, started following her. She's one of those pros who actually engages her followers. She'll "like" your comment if it's a good one, respond if it moves her to and dispute you if she thinks you're wrong. There are probably a lot of pros who do the same thing (I wouldn't know, since I'm pretty shy about friending the ones who have personal but not fan pages and I'm too Facebook-averse in the first place to spend a lot of time searching for "official" pages to follow), but I consider this kind of engagement above and beyond, especially from someone writing and drawing a ongoing series.
Then I bought the Shade the Changing Man issues she penciled. While I really dig Peter Milligan's work on X-Force/X-Statix (I consider this run flawless in every way), the story itself is mediocre by the standards of some of the other contemporaneous Vertigo titles and that supposedly edgy inking job doesn't do Doran's pencils any favors. Then I bought the latest two issues of A Distant Soil. Beautiful books, not sure what's happening in them because I've missed so much already, the Comixology guided view format isn't the best way to experience the story due to the way Doran designs pages. That's no complaint about the book, because obviously you're meant to hold the actual paper thing in your hands and read it that way.
Taking all this together, with the release of this "definitive" edition of the first part of A Distant Soil it seems now is the time to crank things all the way back to the beginning and finally read something I believe I should have been reading all along. This is the kind of thing that pleases me. Something buzzing in the back of my mind, some recurring encounter with material and finally, when everything aligns, a chance to get into it in a major way right from the beginning. Love and Rockets, Xenozoic Tales, Jack Kirby's Fourth World books, Creepy and Eerie magazines, Lone Wolf and Cub and now A Distant Soil.
So that's another one we'll be talking about here before much longer. I'd have started with a little more today but I've only read a few pages. Hey, I also bought the first year of The Amazing Spider-Man plus some later issues and I didn't even get to open them. Something about jetlag and just not having enough time to do everything I'd like to do in a day!
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Mad #1 for the very acceptable price of zero dollars and zero cents!
I checked out Comixology last night and found a run of the early full-color comic book days of venerable humor mag Mad. The premiere issue (October-November 1952) is free and the others are $1.99, which seems to be Comixology's (or DC's) basic price point for classic reprints. Of course I snagged the free issue and I plan to buy the others as soon as I'm able. Lots of expenditures happening right now that take precedence over my comic book addiction.
Mad magazine. You may have heard of it. Does anyone still read Mad? Is Mad still relevant or even irrelevant these days? The last time I discussed Mad magazine with anyone it was Jack Davis himself way back in 1996 and his take was he didn't care that much for whatever it was Mad was doing that year. But because he's Jack Davis, one of the classiest gentlemen ever to work in comics, he didn't belabor the point and we got back to discussing working methods and materials.
Strangely enough, this comes a day after I spent an after-school teacher's meeting drawing Alfred E. Neuman over and over in various styles on my hand outs. And also other characters saying, "What? Me worry?" And less than a week after learning right here on this blog that Comic Book Creator magazine has a look at Harvey Kurtzman in the works (something I'm very much looking forward to, since I know very little about Kurtzman or his career despite his having influenced my sensibilities and those of millions of other kids who grew up with Mad).
NOTE: And for those of you who enjoy my idiot take on vintage comics, I have a massive post coming up about Slug. Remember Slug? She was the rebel leader from Marvel's Micronauts comic. There's not enough information about Slug online so I'm doing my part to increase the load.
Mad magazine. You may have heard of it. Does anyone still read Mad? Is Mad still relevant or even irrelevant these days? The last time I discussed Mad magazine with anyone it was Jack Davis himself way back in 1996 and his take was he didn't care that much for whatever it was Mad was doing that year. But because he's Jack Davis, one of the classiest gentlemen ever to work in comics, he didn't belabor the point and we got back to discussing working methods and materials.
Strangely enough, this comes a day after I spent an after-school teacher's meeting drawing Alfred E. Neuman over and over in various styles on my hand outs. And also other characters saying, "What? Me worry?" And less than a week after learning right here on this blog that Comic Book Creator magazine has a look at Harvey Kurtzman in the works (something I'm very much looking forward to, since I know very little about Kurtzman or his career despite his having influenced my sensibilities and those of millions of other kids who grew up with Mad).
NOTE: And for those of you who enjoy my idiot take on vintage comics, I have a massive post coming up about Slug. Remember Slug? She was the rebel leader from Marvel's Micronauts comic. There's not enough information about Slug online so I'm doing my part to increase the load.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
I just bought some old Superman comics for .99 each
Yeah, digital at Comixology. They're running a Superman sale which I'm sure has a lot to do with a certain Time-Warner flick that's coming out this summer. Or has already come out; I'm in Japan and our release schedule is different here. For whatever reason-- call me foolish, call me irresponsible-- but it occurs to me I bought nothing but Action Comics. Action Comics #1 (I'm relieved I didn't have to pay $175,000 for it, although I could have afforded it quite easily) plus one by Curt Swan and several by John Byrne.
It's fashionable these days to mock Byrne, but I won't hear a bad word said against Curt Swan. And once I get some time to read these comics, I'm going to spend a little time exploring them here while giving Byrne a fair shake. I don't mean the kind of shake a shark gives its prey. I mean a truly fair reading of the four comics I bought, although that's surely too small a sample size to make any kind of accurate assessment of what he accomplished.
I may clown around a lot here but this is a pro-Superman blog. I've got an incredibly expensive Hot Toys figure of Christopher Reeve back home to prove it. Superman and Babe Ruth. That's all I ever think about.
It's fashionable these days to mock Byrne, but I won't hear a bad word said against Curt Swan. And once I get some time to read these comics, I'm going to spend a little time exploring them here while giving Byrne a fair shake. I don't mean the kind of shake a shark gives its prey. I mean a truly fair reading of the four comics I bought, although that's surely too small a sample size to make any kind of accurate assessment of what he accomplished.
I may clown around a lot here but this is a pro-Superman blog. I've got an incredibly expensive Hot Toys figure of Christopher Reeve back home to prove it. Superman and Babe Ruth. That's all I ever think about.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Is Kamandi selling pretty well these days?
The reason I ask is Comixology keeps adding Kamandi to their DC catalog. The reason (I feel sure) is DC is providing the material they've already prepared for their Kamandi reprints and it isn't costing them much money above what they've already spent to offer the issues digitally as well. But what I like to imagine is those of us who are Kamandi fans are also at the forefront of a pro-Kamandi wave swelling through comics and both DC and Comixology are responding to massive demand.
I also like to imagine I helped inspire this movement. Yeah, my month devoted to that wonderful Kamandi series kind of skidded off a cliff and exploded (driving too fast for conditions, swerved to avoid work and hydroplaned on a wet mountain road read the accident report) but that doesn't mean my love for Kamandi has dimmed by any means.
We're up to #24 (December 1974) on Comixology. It showed up this week and I bought it. Kamandi washes up on some rocky shore and meets a group of what I'm guessing right now are people. Some of them look human; others, I'm not so sure. It's heavily influenced by William Peter Blatty and all those Satanic possession movies the kids were crazy about during the mid-70s. I swear if it wasn't Pazuzu possessing some poor little rich girl it was some poor little rich boy as the Anti-Christ. Even Carl Kolchak went mano-a-paw-o with a demon dog on Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Okay, other than its title, "The Exorcism!" and a cover promising supernatural mayhem of the ultimate evil kind, this Kamandi may not be about Satan or devils after all. Just some ugly guy called the Curse.
In the interest of honesty, the reason I'm hedging on the whole Satan thing after being such a clown about it anyway is I've only skimmed the first five or so pages of "The Exorcist!" No time. No time for sergeants, no time for Kirby. That's a sad state of affairs. I've got two years of Kamandi on my computer and my iPhone and no time to read them.
But I've formed some hasty early impressions. Because where would this blog be without half-assed judgments? "The Exorcist!" does feature a truly spectacular double-page spread of the most haunted looking haunted house you've ever seen. Jack Kirby and D. Bruce Berry really outdid themselves with that drawing. I'll try to find time to show you this weekend. Besides my takeaway vision of the haunted house, I really love how Kirby draws water. Clumps of black ovals. I've never seen water that consists of clumps of black ovals, and yet it reads as water. Also, I think it's kind of weird that Kamandi, who has recently escaped from a lot of human-looking robots-- a major disappointment for the "last boy on earth," forever searching for others of his kind-- and after an experience with talking killer whales, doesn't immediately demand to know who these new characters are. Especially the ones who look human.
I'm sure part of the reason is their opening gambit is to attack the poor kid and start whaling the tar out of him, but I have a feeling the main reason is Kirby just isn't wasting any time with a lot of chit-chat in these stories. It's action first, characterization second. Nothing wrong with that.
Anyway, if I get some breathing room I'll read the whole thing and see if I'm right or wrong! Or, alternately, you could go buy it and read it and tell me if I'm right or wrong!*
*I get no money at all for this shilling. I'm doing it out of the kindness of my withered little heart. I really love Kamandi and think people should read it, and this is where they can do that. Legally, anyway.
I also like to imagine I helped inspire this movement. Yeah, my month devoted to that wonderful Kamandi series kind of skidded off a cliff and exploded (driving too fast for conditions, swerved to avoid work and hydroplaned on a wet mountain road read the accident report) but that doesn't mean my love for Kamandi has dimmed by any means.
We're up to #24 (December 1974) on Comixology. It showed up this week and I bought it. Kamandi washes up on some rocky shore and meets a group of what I'm guessing right now are people. Some of them look human; others, I'm not so sure. It's heavily influenced by William Peter Blatty and all those Satanic possession movies the kids were crazy about during the mid-70s. I swear if it wasn't Pazuzu possessing some poor little rich girl it was some poor little rich boy as the Anti-Christ. Even Carl Kolchak went mano-a-paw-o with a demon dog on Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Okay, other than its title, "The Exorcism!" and a cover promising supernatural mayhem of the ultimate evil kind, this Kamandi may not be about Satan or devils after all. Just some ugly guy called the Curse.
In the interest of honesty, the reason I'm hedging on the whole Satan thing after being such a clown about it anyway is I've only skimmed the first five or so pages of "The Exorcist!" No time. No time for sergeants, no time for Kirby. That's a sad state of affairs. I've got two years of Kamandi on my computer and my iPhone and no time to read them.
But I've formed some hasty early impressions. Because where would this blog be without half-assed judgments? "The Exorcist!" does feature a truly spectacular double-page spread of the most haunted looking haunted house you've ever seen. Jack Kirby and D. Bruce Berry really outdid themselves with that drawing. I'll try to find time to show you this weekend. Besides my takeaway vision of the haunted house, I really love how Kirby draws water. Clumps of black ovals. I've never seen water that consists of clumps of black ovals, and yet it reads as water. Also, I think it's kind of weird that Kamandi, who has recently escaped from a lot of human-looking robots-- a major disappointment for the "last boy on earth," forever searching for others of his kind-- and after an experience with talking killer whales, doesn't immediately demand to know who these new characters are. Especially the ones who look human.
I'm sure part of the reason is their opening gambit is to attack the poor kid and start whaling the tar out of him, but I have a feeling the main reason is Kirby just isn't wasting any time with a lot of chit-chat in these stories. It's action first, characterization second. Nothing wrong with that.
Anyway, if I get some breathing room I'll read the whole thing and see if I'm right or wrong! Or, alternately, you could go buy it and read it and tell me if I'm right or wrong!*
*I get no money at all for this shilling. I'm doing it out of the kindness of my withered little heart. I really love Kamandi and think people should read it, and this is where they can do that. Legally, anyway.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
I own the first 30 issues of Fantastic Four...
Plus Annual #1 where Namor goes off on the human race and invades New York City with an army of blue dudes wearing fishbowls on their heads. Not the print originals, of course. How much is Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961) going for these days? There's a graded example (CGC FN+ 6.5, white pages) online at Heritage Auctions with a recent offer of $18,500. An 8.5 went for $52,000. That's a little out of my price range, I'm afraid. No, I own reprints. Reprints, reprints, reprints.
I've had the Fantastic Four Essential collections for a long time, and I used to have the fat Fantastic Four Omnibus that was so heavy I couldn't rest it on my stomach while reading in bed or it would squeeze my dinner out of me as if I were a Play-Doh Fun Factory. I gave that one away before I moved back the US following my first stint in Japan as an English teacher, otherwise I would have had to purchase a second seat ticket from Air Canada to take it with me.
Comixology is my current source for vintage comics. Publishers have been putting out re-colored versions of various classics so long they have a nice back catalog of stuff they're adding to Comixology a little at a time. They usually run you about 1.99 each, although sometimes you can find 99-cent sales or even freebies. With the files available, there's no reason not to put the books online. The hard work has been done, so overhead is minimal at this point. Easy money for Marvel and DC.
I frequently find myself pondering the appeal of early Fantastic Four. I'm not denying it exists; I love the Stan Lee-Jack Kirby era Fantastic Four, after all. What is that appeal's substance, however? That's what I think about, in search of a magic formula, I suppose.
When we look at Fantastic Four #1, we're looking at something fairly raw and even clumsy. The plot mechanics barely stand up to close scrutiny. Why in the hell would a top scientist take his girlfriend and her kid brother on an illegal rocket jaunt? Even by the lax standards of comic book logic, that's pretty stupid stuff. Kirby's art seems relatively timid, not at all the bold, bombast we've come to associate with the King, and it's poorly served by gloopy inks.
Perhaps we have to put it into context, stack it up against DC's contemporaneous efforts. I know the talent were doing their level best to put out good product, and a lot of these guys and gals rank pretty high in my pantheon of greats. Plus there was this little thing called the Comics Code. The last time someone tried to do something truly interesting with comics, the government got involved and not to say, "Nice job you're doing entertaining the little chaps, Mr. Gaines!"
But despite a few stand-out stories and some awesome-- if a little mechanical and stiff at times-- art, the formula wears thin pretty fast. DC comics of that era don't really seem to be about anything in particular. Especially if it's an "Imaginary Story!" Which might be more interesting than any of the so-called "real" stories because it dares embrace weirdness. So if you ask me what issue was it where we saw Superman turn into a fat version of himself or when did he grow a long beard or turn into a gorilla or gain a whole new set of powers or whatever, I'm likely to answer, "All of them." What does it really matter?
Now imagine you're a kid who's starting to feel a bit jaded by all of this and you see the cover of Fantastic Four #1 glaring out at you from the newsstand like a pugnacious new kid to your neighborhood. A little loud-mouth with a dirty face. It's rude, it's coarse, it's even a little ugly. But you can't take your eyes off this newcomer. You open it and the inside is more of the same. And look at that squashed orange guy ripping that tree out of the ground to hit his friend with it. Immediately, you sense it's got something those tight-assed DC comics don't have.
Charisma. That's it. It's got charisma. The plot isn't just some one-off that's essentially the same as last month's with the details changed. You probably don't even question Reed Richards's poor decision-making process. That might be due to the frantic pacing, but I like to think it's because Stan and Jack are going somewhere and taking us along with them. It's not just a plot; it's an actual story. It matters. Or at least it does by comparison to its competition.
And it just got better and better until DC was forced to react and turn to new talent, style experiments and the like (I'd argue Marvel inspired DC to put out a lot of their cooler books, even if they didn't sell all that well). By the time Doctor Doom shows up in Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962), things are really starting to cook. From that point, issue-by-issue, you get to witness Kirby come into his own again, giving his career that huge push that made him the super-legend he is today and Lee develop the inimitable voice of Marvel, bizarrely made up of WWII-era slang and hyperbolic carnival barker come-ons. It's captured there for constant rediscovery on Comixology, the same way recordings capture the exponential aesthetic growth of the Beatles from "Love Me Do" to "Carry That Weight."
My favorites, though, are the Fantastic Fours inked by Chic Stone. They have the energy and slightly unformed quality of the earliest issues and a little bit of the structure of the later Joe Sinnott-inked issues, which leave me a tiny bit cold. I like Sinnott's slickness, but his issues just don't have the energy of Stone's. To carry the Beatles analogy a bit further, it's kind of the way I admire the heady pop craftsmanship of Abbey Road, but I end up listening to the peppier Help! and back-to-back self-topping albums Rubber Soul and Revolver more often.
Anyway, the first 30 Fantastic Fours are now available on Comixology and I own them. I plan to keep buying these until they get just past the Galactus caper. After that, a lot of the energy and charisma seeps out. You get the idea Stan and Jack were looking elsewhere after that point.
I've had the Fantastic Four Essential collections for a long time, and I used to have the fat Fantastic Four Omnibus that was so heavy I couldn't rest it on my stomach while reading in bed or it would squeeze my dinner out of me as if I were a Play-Doh Fun Factory. I gave that one away before I moved back the US following my first stint in Japan as an English teacher, otherwise I would have had to purchase a second seat ticket from Air Canada to take it with me.
Comixology is my current source for vintage comics. Publishers have been putting out re-colored versions of various classics so long they have a nice back catalog of stuff they're adding to Comixology a little at a time. They usually run you about 1.99 each, although sometimes you can find 99-cent sales or even freebies. With the files available, there's no reason not to put the books online. The hard work has been done, so overhead is minimal at this point. Easy money for Marvel and DC.
I frequently find myself pondering the appeal of early Fantastic Four. I'm not denying it exists; I love the Stan Lee-Jack Kirby era Fantastic Four, after all. What is that appeal's substance, however? That's what I think about, in search of a magic formula, I suppose.
When we look at Fantastic Four #1, we're looking at something fairly raw and even clumsy. The plot mechanics barely stand up to close scrutiny. Why in the hell would a top scientist take his girlfriend and her kid brother on an illegal rocket jaunt? Even by the lax standards of comic book logic, that's pretty stupid stuff. Kirby's art seems relatively timid, not at all the bold, bombast we've come to associate with the King, and it's poorly served by gloopy inks.
Perhaps we have to put it into context, stack it up against DC's contemporaneous efforts. I know the talent were doing their level best to put out good product, and a lot of these guys and gals rank pretty high in my pantheon of greats. Plus there was this little thing called the Comics Code. The last time someone tried to do something truly interesting with comics, the government got involved and not to say, "Nice job you're doing entertaining the little chaps, Mr. Gaines!"
But despite a few stand-out stories and some awesome-- if a little mechanical and stiff at times-- art, the formula wears thin pretty fast. DC comics of that era don't really seem to be about anything in particular. Especially if it's an "Imaginary Story!" Which might be more interesting than any of the so-called "real" stories because it dares embrace weirdness. So if you ask me what issue was it where we saw Superman turn into a fat version of himself or when did he grow a long beard or turn into a gorilla or gain a whole new set of powers or whatever, I'm likely to answer, "All of them." What does it really matter?
Now imagine you're a kid who's starting to feel a bit jaded by all of this and you see the cover of Fantastic Four #1 glaring out at you from the newsstand like a pugnacious new kid to your neighborhood. A little loud-mouth with a dirty face. It's rude, it's coarse, it's even a little ugly. But you can't take your eyes off this newcomer. You open it and the inside is more of the same. And look at that squashed orange guy ripping that tree out of the ground to hit his friend with it. Immediately, you sense it's got something those tight-assed DC comics don't have.
Charisma. That's it. It's got charisma. The plot isn't just some one-off that's essentially the same as last month's with the details changed. You probably don't even question Reed Richards's poor decision-making process. That might be due to the frantic pacing, but I like to think it's because Stan and Jack are going somewhere and taking us along with them. It's not just a plot; it's an actual story. It matters. Or at least it does by comparison to its competition.
And it just got better and better until DC was forced to react and turn to new talent, style experiments and the like (I'd argue Marvel inspired DC to put out a lot of their cooler books, even if they didn't sell all that well). By the time Doctor Doom shows up in Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962), things are really starting to cook. From that point, issue-by-issue, you get to witness Kirby come into his own again, giving his career that huge push that made him the super-legend he is today and Lee develop the inimitable voice of Marvel, bizarrely made up of WWII-era slang and hyperbolic carnival barker come-ons. It's captured there for constant rediscovery on Comixology, the same way recordings capture the exponential aesthetic growth of the Beatles from "Love Me Do" to "Carry That Weight."
My favorites, though, are the Fantastic Fours inked by Chic Stone. They have the energy and slightly unformed quality of the earliest issues and a little bit of the structure of the later Joe Sinnott-inked issues, which leave me a tiny bit cold. I like Sinnott's slickness, but his issues just don't have the energy of Stone's. To carry the Beatles analogy a bit further, it's kind of the way I admire the heady pop craftsmanship of Abbey Road, but I end up listening to the peppier Help! and back-to-back self-topping albums Rubber Soul and Revolver more often.
Anyway, the first 30 Fantastic Fours are now available on Comixology and I own them. I plan to keep buying these until they get just past the Galactus caper. After that, a lot of the energy and charisma seeps out. You get the idea Stan and Jack were looking elsewhere after that point.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Free is the best price point!
Did you manage to score any of those free Marvel #1 comics? Marvel offered 700 first issues through Comixology and apparently inspired demand so great Comixology's servers couldn't handle it. While most of the offerings held little to no interest for me-- Marvel Ultimates, Marvel Zombies, Marvel Now, Avengers vs. X-Men and stuff like that-- I did find 84 comics both old and new I loaded into my digital shopping cart. Then I couldn't complete the transaction because Comixology wouldn't let me sign in.
The shopping process went as usual. Maybe a little more slowly, but not so much it taxed my patience. Then the sign-in stage and nothing but a blank screen. I left it for a while, watched a little Japanese television-- celebrities who graduated from the top universities here taking a kanji quiz while dressed in high school uniforms-- then came back to find that same blank screen. I turned off my computer and picked up an actual book. I'll try again tomorrow, I thought.
Now Marvel and Comixology have suspended the offer so I'm out in the cold. I'm a little disappointed, but those are the breaks in this digital age. Fortunately, I'd previously bought a few of the number ones offered-- New Mutants, Fantastic Four and some others from the good ol' days.
But there were some oddball choices (for me) I was really looking forward to having in my Comixology library. Wolverine and Jubilee, for example. Young Avengers. The first Joss Whedon Astonishing X-Men and the Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men with Kitty Pryde riding the giant space bullet into apparent oblivion. Some updated Dracula story. FF, a new Fantastic Four book with a different cast and Mike Allred art. Not stuff I'd cover here where my focus is on comics from the last century, but things I wanted to read nevertheless.
Well, maybe they'll take the lessons learned from this event and do something similar in the future. I still think Comixology is a wonderful site, especially for a person living overseas where it's difficult and expensive to come by print issues of various comics. And, after all, free is my favorite price point.
The shopping process went as usual. Maybe a little more slowly, but not so much it taxed my patience. Then the sign-in stage and nothing but a blank screen. I left it for a while, watched a little Japanese television-- celebrities who graduated from the top universities here taking a kanji quiz while dressed in high school uniforms-- then came back to find that same blank screen. I turned off my computer and picked up an actual book. I'll try again tomorrow, I thought.
Now Marvel and Comixology have suspended the offer so I'm out in the cold. I'm a little disappointed, but those are the breaks in this digital age. Fortunately, I'd previously bought a few of the number ones offered-- New Mutants, Fantastic Four and some others from the good ol' days.
But there were some oddball choices (for me) I was really looking forward to having in my Comixology library. Wolverine and Jubilee, for example. Young Avengers. The first Joss Whedon Astonishing X-Men and the Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men with Kitty Pryde riding the giant space bullet into apparent oblivion. Some updated Dracula story. FF, a new Fantastic Four book with a different cast and Mike Allred art. Not stuff I'd cover here where my focus is on comics from the last century, but things I wanted to read nevertheless.
Well, maybe they'll take the lessons learned from this event and do something similar in the future. I still think Comixology is a wonderful site, especially for a person living overseas where it's difficult and expensive to come by print issues of various comics. And, after all, free is my favorite price point.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Old comics on Comixology
Living in Japan, I don't have easy access to the latest American comics. Japanese comics, yeah. I can walk over to Lawson and buy tons of those. But for American comics, I have to go all the way to Tokyo to visit Blister. Fortunately, I don't buy a lot of new monthlies. I do, however, buy lots of hardcovers of things like Nexus, Creepy, Eerie and softcovers of things like Swamp Thing, New Mutants, Uncanny X-Men and the like. For those, I go through Amazon.jp. Very fast and it's fun to get boxes even if I know what's in them. The delivery guy and I have a great relationship, too.
In fact, the last time I ordered something from Amazon.jp, he recognized my name and brought it to the wrong apartment-- my old place, which is right across the street from my new place. He thought he was doing me a snappy favor. Poor guy was very apologetic once we got things straightened out.
Anyway, the point is, if you live in Japan, unless you happen to be in a location convenient to Blister, digital comics are your best bet for keeping up with the American sequential world. Comixology carries almost everything. I've been feeding my Walking Dead habit there, for example. It's not perfect. You don't actually own the comics even though you pay the same amount someone would if he or she went to a physical store and bought a physical copy there. You're paying $1.99, $2.99, $3.99 or more for simply a license to read the comic on your computer (via Comixology's reader, which has its own positives and negatives), or on your iPhone (which is pretty cool if you're waiting for a doctor or a bus). I won't kid you and say that concept doesn't suck. If I pay for something, I want to own it outright, without limitations.
Well, I suppose I could order print copies online from other sources, but then I'd have to wait two weeks or more to read what you can read on the same day it hits the shelves. Like I said, I live in Japan. These are just little things I've weighed and my conclusion is Comixology is the way for me to go. Or Dark Horse Digital, which is similar but exclusive to Dark Horse comics. These are the ways I buy my comics.
Still, I love to read the old stuff more than the new stuff... Well, Comixology can help you out there, too. DC and Marvel are constantly adding their back catalog to Comixology. It seems they focus a lot on back issues related to events in current titles so they can bundle them all together in special sales events meant to increase interest in their current product, but they're bulking up some of the ancient books I like to talk about here.
Let's see-- just recently I bought a bunch of the universe-spawning Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Fantastic Four, the complete first volume of Swamp Thing (twenty-four issues featuring Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson and Nestor Redondo, among others), the first two years or so of the Alan Moore version, the first seven issues of New Mutants plus the original Marvel Graphic Novel (a bargain at $3.99), some 1960s-vintage Teen Titans, two issues of the first volume of X-Men drawn by Jim Steranko, some Neal Adams Batman, John Byrne's Next Men, plus a lot of random stuff I can't remember right now because I'm at work and not at home where I can read my comics. Many of these I own in collected editions and the like, but now I have a nice collection of really sweet old comics I can talk about here.
So expect a lot of Swamp Thing, New Mutants and Teen Titans coming your way. And a lot of Jack Kirby. Which I will analyze, deconstruct, poke affectionate fun at and generally mess around with.
You know, same crap as I always do here. Only shinier.
In fact, the last time I ordered something from Amazon.jp, he recognized my name and brought it to the wrong apartment-- my old place, which is right across the street from my new place. He thought he was doing me a snappy favor. Poor guy was very apologetic once we got things straightened out.
Anyway, the point is, if you live in Japan, unless you happen to be in a location convenient to Blister, digital comics are your best bet for keeping up with the American sequential world. Comixology carries almost everything. I've been feeding my Walking Dead habit there, for example. It's not perfect. You don't actually own the comics even though you pay the same amount someone would if he or she went to a physical store and bought a physical copy there. You're paying $1.99, $2.99, $3.99 or more for simply a license to read the comic on your computer (via Comixology's reader, which has its own positives and negatives), or on your iPhone (which is pretty cool if you're waiting for a doctor or a bus). I won't kid you and say that concept doesn't suck. If I pay for something, I want to own it outright, without limitations.
Well, I suppose I could order print copies online from other sources, but then I'd have to wait two weeks or more to read what you can read on the same day it hits the shelves. Like I said, I live in Japan. These are just little things I've weighed and my conclusion is Comixology is the way for me to go. Or Dark Horse Digital, which is similar but exclusive to Dark Horse comics. These are the ways I buy my comics.
Still, I love to read the old stuff more than the new stuff... Well, Comixology can help you out there, too. DC and Marvel are constantly adding their back catalog to Comixology. It seems they focus a lot on back issues related to events in current titles so they can bundle them all together in special sales events meant to increase interest in their current product, but they're bulking up some of the ancient books I like to talk about here.
Let's see-- just recently I bought a bunch of the universe-spawning Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Fantastic Four, the complete first volume of Swamp Thing (twenty-four issues featuring Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson and Nestor Redondo, among others), the first two years or so of the Alan Moore version, the first seven issues of New Mutants plus the original Marvel Graphic Novel (a bargain at $3.99), some 1960s-vintage Teen Titans, two issues of the first volume of X-Men drawn by Jim Steranko, some Neal Adams Batman, John Byrne's Next Men, plus a lot of random stuff I can't remember right now because I'm at work and not at home where I can read my comics. Many of these I own in collected editions and the like, but now I have a nice collection of really sweet old comics I can talk about here.
So expect a lot of Swamp Thing, New Mutants and Teen Titans coming your way. And a lot of Jack Kirby. Which I will analyze, deconstruct, poke affectionate fun at and generally mess around with.
You know, same crap as I always do here. Only shinier.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
It's Cass-Batmas in Japan already, and I haven't even started my shopping!
While Dan Didio recently replied, "Sure" when asked for the one millionth time if Cassandra Cain would re-appear in the ongoing DC universe narrative, it doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon. But we Cass fans are a never-say-die bunch of Quixotic fools, so we're doing something pro-active to hurry along that fabled day. Yes, it's the Support Cass Campaign, a day of celebration and comic book purchasing, one that I hope will become an annual tradition and, eventually, a national holiday.
The idea is, on August 31st (today in Japan) you go to Comixology and buy Batgirl #1. I think this is a marvelous-- er-- a DCelous idea. As the old saying goes, "Money talks, bullshit (and waffles) walk." I'm going to participate as soon as I get off work today if I can find my credit card. I've already done a little bit to support Cass by staggering as a sweaty human wreck into Blister in Tokyo-- despite having the flu, as it turns out-- and paying a ridiculous amount for a battered copy of Batgirl: Fists of Fury, a book I've bought twice before. I've bought three goddamned copies of this thing, DC! Do what I tell you!
Just kidding. But not about the three copies. I still own two copies of Fists of Fury. One I gave to an EFL student at a previous job. Share the epic goodness that is Cass, I always say. Well, I sometimes say that. Occasionally. Rarely. I just now typed it and it's the first time that sentence has ever crossed my mind. I have a Fists of Fury at my mom's house back in the US and the new one on my shelf alongside all the Marvel, Dark Horse, Fantagraphics and IDW books I buy. I'm proud of my little Fist of Fury book. It's in good company. It's the little book that could starring the little character who could, until someone, somewhere, deemed it necessary she could no longer.
Maybe she could again. With her mom barely old enough to vote and her dad also missing in action (as far as I know), it might be a long wait. But in the meantime, you'll have a digital copy of Batgirl #1 to remind you of the good old days, when she was silent and running and fisty and furious. And a new holiday I call Cass-Batmas.
Which we should celebrate by not speaking for 24 hours, dressing all in black and kicking copious amounts of ass. And... I don't know... maybe by spending time with loved ones, drinking eggnog, exchanging gifts and decorating a tree of some kind. I can't think of any other holidays where we do such things, so that seems like a good idea to me.
The idea is, on August 31st (today in Japan) you go to Comixology and buy Batgirl #1. I think this is a marvelous-- er-- a DCelous idea. As the old saying goes, "Money talks, bullshit (and waffles) walk." I'm going to participate as soon as I get off work today if I can find my credit card. I've already done a little bit to support Cass by staggering as a sweaty human wreck into Blister in Tokyo-- despite having the flu, as it turns out-- and paying a ridiculous amount for a battered copy of Batgirl: Fists of Fury, a book I've bought twice before. I've bought three goddamned copies of this thing, DC! Do what I tell you!
Just kidding. But not about the three copies. I still own two copies of Fists of Fury. One I gave to an EFL student at a previous job. Share the epic goodness that is Cass, I always say. Well, I sometimes say that. Occasionally. Rarely. I just now typed it and it's the first time that sentence has ever crossed my mind. I have a Fists of Fury at my mom's house back in the US and the new one on my shelf alongside all the Marvel, Dark Horse, Fantagraphics and IDW books I buy. I'm proud of my little Fist of Fury book. It's in good company. It's the little book that could starring the little character who could, until someone, somewhere, deemed it necessary she could no longer.
Maybe she could again. With her mom barely old enough to vote and her dad also missing in action (as far as I know), it might be a long wait. But in the meantime, you'll have a digital copy of Batgirl #1 to remind you of the good old days, when she was silent and running and fisty and furious. And a new holiday I call Cass-Batmas.
Which we should celebrate by not speaking for 24 hours, dressing all in black and kicking copious amounts of ass. And... I don't know... maybe by spending time with loved ones, drinking eggnog, exchanging gifts and decorating a tree of some kind. I can't think of any other holidays where we do such things, so that seems like a good idea to me.
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