Monday, October 7, 2013

COMICS THAT SHOULD HAVE GONE 100 ISSUES

Comic books pretty much seem to be feast or famine.  Either you get the best writer imaginable—or you get somebody that writes things dumb enough to insult a child’s intelligence.  Either the artist is so amazing you find yourself doubting that a human being could actually create such beauty with a mere pencil—or he’s somebody whose friends told him “You’re really good” but they lied.  And either you get 1,000 and counting stories of SPIDER-MAN, SUPERMAN, and BATMAN—or your favorite comics gets cancelled after six issues.  Or maybe 30.  Sometimes, they last 50 or 60.  But they could have gone a lot longer.  Nothing against the big guns, but there are literally DECADES of their stories that I could live without.  On the other hand, some gems get cancelled when they’re hardly out of the gate.

HAWKMAN, THE ATOM, SUPERGIRL—It’s funny.  These are all household names, but they’ve all been cancelled after only two or three years’ worth of issues.  Oh sure, if you add up all the various back-ups, reboots, and alternate versions, they each probably add up to about 100 issues or so, but let’s ignore all the extraneous versions.

Ignore the present Supergirl with her awkwardly designed costume (really? is her logo really in her bikini area? or is that a red chastity belt?), also ignore the last version that premiered in SUPERMAN/BATMAN who was a jerk and then was kidnapped by Darkseid and finally got her own comic that got really bad really fast, and certainly ignore the Peter David dead angel/alien shapechanger or whatever-the-heck-it-was version.  Take us back to the “I’m Superman’s cousin and he trained me” version that appeared in her own movie, the cartoons, and various SUPERMAN comics from the 50’s thru the 80’s (and also whenever Alex Ross paints her).  That version—Superman’s teenage cousin trying to make it through high school and keep her secret—that’s a great concept and deserved a lot more issues/stories.

Same thing with the others.  Over at Marvel, all the big guns from the 60’s (even less popular ones like DAREDEVIL) have hit over 500 issues!  (Or cancelled ones like DR. STRANGE have still racked up 100-200 issues.)  Half of DC’s big Silver Age guns were cancelled before their 40th issue or so.  Can you imagine HAWKMAN over at Marvel?  They would have put John Buscema on it and it surely would have given us at least 100 cool issues.  Or THE ATOM?  It might have started with 20 or 30 issues of crime-fighting drawn by Steve Ditko, then maybe Jack Kirby could have taken over and made it (micro) cosmic for three or four years!  Then bring in Jim Starlin or John Byrne to take it into the wild blue yonder.

THE CREEPER—This is the saddest of all.  I would have loved to have seen 30 or 40 (or 100!) issues of BEWARE THE CREEPER plotted and illustrated by Steve Ditko!  What a missed opportunity!  And I’m not all about bashing DC and lauding Marvel.  After Ditko left, I would have been very happy with, say, DETECTIVE artist Marshall Rogers taking over the art for two or three years!  And Steve Gerber on writing chores would have been awesome!  Then, a series is not complete unless John Byrne gets to do whatever he wants with it for at least two years!

SHAZAM! THE NEW BEGINNING!—Or whatever you want to call it!  I’ve read that (back in the days when the terms “Earth-One” and “Earth-Two” really meant something) this mini-series (of a new, Earth-One CAPTAIN MARVEL) by Roy Thomas and Tom Mandrake sold well, well enough to warrant an ongoing series…but DC dropped the ball and it never happened.  John Byrne and (separately) Alex Ross also pitched new series proposals, but they were rejected.  (WHO rejects John Byrne or Alex Ross?!?)  The great artist Jerry Ordway got to do a new series—which he WROTE, not drew.  (?)  I also liked the more innocent Earth-S version that was supposedly a true continuation of the 40’s stories (Cap and ALL his friends were trapped in suspended animation and revived in the then-present 70’s!), especially the E. Nelson Bridwell stories illustrated by Alan Weiss and (later) Don Newton, but the Alan Weiss version was cancelled before it could have had any effect on sales and the Don Newton version was always only a back-up feature.  I guess my point here is—with all this amazing talent all of whom had great passion for the feature—you’re telling me we couldn’t have gotten one solid series to 100 issues or more?!?  (It’d be awesome to see Jim Starlin’s version of THIS Captain Marvel!)







Sure, some comics shouldn’t last more than six issues (if that!) and a number of good concepts HAVE hit 100 or so issues—THE DEFENDERS, POWERMAN/IRON FIST, GHOST RIDER, and MASTER OF KUNG FU all come to mind.  They all had their chance, and we got some pretty good stories out of their 100 or so issues.  ROM was actually a pretty good comic, and that made it to issue #75, and that was probably enough.  Some of these can be considered long-term mini-series and 75-100 issues is all it really takes to tell the story.  Others die way too early.




HOWARD THE DUCK—One of the finest comics ever.  With the wry, satirical, introspective, political and social commentary writing by the great Steve Gerber, coupled with the realistic, lyrical, beautiful, dynamic art of Gene Colan inked by the very best in the business like Tom Palmer and Klaus Janson, this comic turned the comics world (and to some extent the real world) on its ear for about three years.  Maybe that’s as long as such a bright star could be expected to burn, but I’m pretty sure that pros Gerber and Colan were so invested in the feature that they would have been happy to continue it for at least 100 issues.  I mourn those 70 or so stories that will never be.

OMEGA THE UNKNOWN—Likewise, Steve Gerber’s OMEGA concept of a strange boy connected in some way to a mysterious Superman-type from the stars is something that should still be continuing!  Here’s one that should be on issue #500 and counting, not cancelled after a mere ten.  This time, Marvel dropped the ball.  And never picked it up.

I mourn the loss of personal favorites like DEATHLOK and KILLRAVEN, but maybe they ran their course.  Maybe some sci fi concepts need to be limited and self-contained, as well as spooky things like MAN-THING, TOMB OF DRACULA, SWAMP THING, and DEADMAN, or period books like INVADERS or ALL-STAR SQUADRON.  Other favorites like MOON-KNIGHT and SPIDER-WOMAN keep getting revived—both recently in great runs by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev—and maybe returning every few years is a good way to go for some concepts.




KAMANDI—This is a sci fi concept that seems open-ended and could still be going on; there should be KAMANDI children’s books, novels, movies and/or a TV show, etc.  The WEDNESDAY COMICS version drawn by Ryan Sook really showed the modern-day viability of the “Last boy on Earth” concept when done right.

THE SPECTRE—The Spectre is one of those characters who seems better than any actual handling of the concept has shown.  The closest to the ideal is the spooky (and even disturbing) Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo vengeful version from ADVENTURE COMICS in the 1970’s.

And I think POWER GIRL and BLACK PANTHER deserve some sort of honorable mention.  And how about the original (cowboy on a motorcycle) VIGILANTE?  Of course, if we’re getting into pure revivals of various Golden Age characters (unrelated to whatever CRISIS/FLASHPOINT/etc.-related, continuity-shattering reboot is happening at the moment), we could bring back WILDCAT, HOURMAN, STARMAN, DR. FATE, THE SANDMAN, DR, MID-NITE, (good versions of) PHANTOM LADY, DOLL MAN, and probably quite a few others.  PLASTIC MAN!!!

Let’s not forget the independents.  Hopefully, the incredible and moody FATALE by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips will last for at least 100 issues, and Busiek and Anderson’s ASTRO CITY too (it’s just about there, isn’t it?).  HELLBOY is a great creation, but I sure wouldn’t mind Mignola still doing the art as well as writing.  On the other hand, the Image boys SPAWN and SAVAGE DRAGON are around 200 issues now…but I’m not sure anybody cares.

I think Neal Adams’ Continuity Comics MS. MYSTIC and MEGALITH (or MEGALITH AND THE REVENGERS) could have really had legs, but that company lacked writers and artists who weren’t pale copies of Adams himself.




And it’s not just an arbitrary number of issues I’m talking about.  No, I’m talking about time passing, new artists and writers coming in and getting their chance to jump on a train that’s going somewhere.  I wish there were a lot more bi-monthly or quarterly books out there that took their time to do a quality story.  There’s a LOT of monthly books out there that are just taking up space.  I would love to see a number of features that were presented annually, in 48-64 page graphic novels (true graphic novels, with a planned out beginning, middle, and end).  One good AQUAMAN graphic novel a year might just be wonderful!  CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, METAL MEN, RIP HUNTER TIME MASTER, LOIS LANE, JIMMY OLSEN, PHANTOM STRANGER, DR. STRANGE, NICK FURY, ANT MAN too—these are all viable concepts that maybe can’t sustain a monthly MAGAZINE, but would make for really good standalone BOOKS!

So, to sum up: Some series have had way too many stories (No thank you, I don’t need 40 issues of SPIDER-MAN or WOLVERINE every single year!) and some have way too little (see everything above).  And we should be really grateful for people like Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby who really knew how to start things off right and give some of our favorite characters such strong foundations. 

Thursday, October 3, 2013

MESSAGE COMICS

I miss message comics.

When I was a kid in the 70’s and 80’s, I read a lot of comic book stories that had some sort of message, including some that were reprints or back issues from the late 60’s.

Some of my favorite comics of all time are the Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW stories from the late 60’s.  Some of them leaned left like when they made fun of Spiro Agnew, brought down an environmentally unsafe corporation, or even the incident that started the whole series arc in #76 when Green Lantern protected a white slumlord from a mixed race mob of justifiably angry tenants.  He was immediately chastised by one of the black tenants and dropped his head in shame.  Then the observing Green Arrow chimed in too.  We can probably assume that the rich, white Oliver Queen was previously some sort of conservative, but then he lost his fortune, grew a beard, and became the super-hero liberal to beat all super-hero liberals!  Some would say that he was the heart of the DC Universe.  It’s a shame that version of Green Arrow is gone, possibly forever.  Now, on TV and in the New 52, Oliver’s rich and clean-shaven again and any trace of social concern seems gone as well.  Green Arrow became an obvious liberal as soon as he changed his clothes.  For Green Lantern, the process of expanding his social concern would take the whole rest of the series—which was cancelled with issue #89, even though the series was making news nationwide and probably increasing in sales.  Some of the issues the stories tackled could be seen as conservative concerns though, as there were strong stories against drug abuse and cults.  They tackled racism, Indian rights, overpopulation, and standing up to (the Guardians') authority (the last of which is ALL Green Lantern seems to do the last few years!).  In issue 87, they introduced the still popular John Stewart as the first black Green Lantern—as well as DC’s first black super-hero!  I didn’t see any of these as propaganda though, they just made for good stories.  And you want creators to tell stories that they care about—even if you disagree with them—because that will make for better stories.  After the book was canceled, the green team went their separate ways in separate back-up series—Green Lantern ended up in the back of THE FLASH and Green Arrow continued in the back pages of ACTION COMICS.  Here, Elliot S! Maggin continued the social relevance by crafting a multi-issue story about Green Arrow’s crusade against drugs.




A few months after GREEN LANTERN was canceled, Stan Lee and Gil Kane gave us three issues of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (numbers 96-98) that appeared without the Comics Code Authority stamp because they contained drug references and Peter’s friend Harry Osborn was sent to the hospital after an overdose of pills.  (Interestingly, Gil Kane was the longtime GREEN LANTERN artist before Neal Adams took over.)  Issue #99 had Spider-Man break up a prison riot and then go on the Tonight Show where he made a plea for prisoners’ rights!  It’s hard to imagine that these stories weren’t somehow inspired by the high profile GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW stories.

When Neal Adams went on to start his own company Continuity Comics in the 80’s, some of the best stories were ones that he wrote himself and often contained an environmental message, especially in his MS. MYSTIC issues (first published by Pacific Comics in 1982 and then reprinted at Continuity starting in 1987).

From 1973 to 1981, Spire Comics published 60 Christian-themed comics all by longtime ARCHIE artist Al Hartley, with many of them starring Archie Andrews and his Riverdale friends.  While these are some of the most well-loved and remembered Christian message comics of all time, there have been a number of other Christian comics produced before and since these, some with overt Christian themes and some more subtle.  With his millions of comic-style tract booklets, Jack Chick is potentially the world’s most published author.  There are a lot of Bible adaptations all over the world, and some of these are the biggest-selling comics ever.  THE PICTURE BIBLE illustrated by the incredible Andre LeBlanc has sold in the multiple millions and its revamp by LONE RANGER artist Sergio Carriello looks to be just as popular in the years to come.




The messages and histories of other religions have certainly been represented in comic book form too.  Philosophies make their way into comics as well, as seen by things like Steve Ditko’s MR. A.  Even scientific theories like Neal Adams’ (him again!) expanding Earth theory make their way into at least short stories.  Robert Kanigher's war stories are considered to be really "anti-war stories."

The underlying theme of the X-MEN comic has morphed through the years.  The early stories tackled the idea of just being different, and how being different is not a bad thing.  That book also was canceled at the height of its powers under artist Neal Adams (they like to cancel him!) and writer Roy Thomas.  After it was revived with a multinational cast (the Canadian Wolverine, the African Storm, the German Nightcrawler, the Russian Colossus, etc.), the being different theme changed a bit into an anti-racism theme as mutants and regular humans are still brothers under the skin and shouldn't hate or be fearful of each other.  In recent years, the theme has expanded to include a gay/straight analogy.  No matter which era the book is in, the ongoing theme seems to be “Don’t hate others just because they’re different than you.”  Perhaps we can call this series an example of “long-term message comics.”

In the 60’s and 70’s, a lot of younger, socially conscious writers and artists were coming into the business and making their mark.  And they wanted to talk about these things.  Even the SUPERMAN stories of the era were about something!  An old school artist (Curt Swan) and editor (Julius Schwartz) coupled with young (even teenage!) writers (Cary Bates and the aforementioned Maggin) brought something new and interesting to the classic hero.  As the most powerful being on Earth (and much of the universe), Superman was often given challenges of the morals and the mind rather than just punching things.  Over at Marvel, Steve Englehart put CAPTAIN AMERICA through a crisis of (patriotic) faith and Steve Gerber gave us HOWARD THE DUCK and DEFENDERS stories completely unlike anything that had come before—stories with a variety of messages.  Amazingly enough, some of the best stories about the human condition starred an all-powerful alien from Krypton or a talking duck from another dimension!




In the years since, at both major companies as well as smaller or independent ones, there have been attempts at message stories here and there—maybe an “anti-gun story” over here or a “drugs are bad” story over there, but nothing really high profile, long-term, or effective.  Though I suppose the long CIVIL WAR crossover event at Marvel a few years ago could be seen as a veiled discussion about gun registration as the super-hero community was torn down the middle about registering their powers and personal information with the government.

For the most part, mainstream comics have settled into plain action/adventure stories and that’s it.  Like “movie industry-lite,” they just want to do special effects spectaculars.  And, surprisingly enough, that’s not comics’ strongest suit.  Comics’ strongest suit is that they get you to care for the characters.  A mix of big budget movie-style action and low budget TV character development over years of stories, comics can delight and thrill and make you care.  And like in real life, drugs, racism, abortion, gender relations, religious conflicts, and countless other social issues should crop up in our characters’ lives.  And how they deal with these issues determines to a large extent how we care about them—the characters AND the issues.

Without a strong, thought-out handling of these issues, comics (and movies, and TV, and books, etc.) are just a bunch of punching and explosions.  And that might thrill in the moment, but those aren’t the stories that stick with you.  Whether you agree with them or not, at least message comics make you think.

I miss message comics.