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Even The 'King' Swiped From Time To Time

Playboy Jack Kirby

I've always been a big fan of Jack Kirby so this post is by no means any type of put down.  On the contrary, it shows that even the greatest, most influential comic artist lifted or swiped a reference image from time to time.

Before the internet where any reference image can be brought up in seconds, back in the day, artists had to collect files of reference images from books, magazines, photos and store them in filing cabinets called -- swipe files.  I'm sure Jack was no exception.  Case in point; Sue Storm.

In the early to mid-sixties, Kirby always portrayed Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four as a glamorous public hero always seeking the current fashion trends.  When she wasn't getting herself captured (at least in the early issues) she was out shopping for the trendiest wardrobes or the newest hairstyles.  So it is no surprise that Jack Kirby would reference Sue Storm with only the glamorous of imagery (when his characters weren't exploding off the pages)

Click to embiggen this NSFW picture.

Above on the left you will see the splash page from Fantastic Four issue 22 (late 1963) while on the right you will see an image from the artist Vargas published in Playboy (1963).  Kirby's perfect swipe from Playboy to give Sue Storm that extra glamor including the kookie hat (customized by Reed Richards).

Even the King swipes from time to time.

That's not saying he couldn't draw circles around these swipe happy artists of today, he can.  In fact, there is no one before or since that can blow the borders off of a comic page as Jack Kirby.  So when he slips in a little swipe from time to time to give Sue Storm a bit of glamor, cut the King some slack, will'ya?

This ain't a swipe, it's pure Kirby!

Tales Of High Adventure # 2 Now Available

Tales of High Adventure returns with all new original yarns!

A quarterly book of prose stories and illustrated tales as published in the pulp magazines of the 1930's and 1940's such as Weird Tales, Astounding Stories, Spicy Mystery Stories, Amazing Stories and Startling Stories!

Perfect for a casual summer read!

This issue features all new original stories:

Rooftops by Mark D. Howard

The Creeping Invaders by C. L. Bishop

Homeworld by Paul J. Fini

When Jazz Was Hot And Cars Were Cool And Deadly by Kris Neri

Imagination by Michael Blackbourne

Stopping A Bullet by Jeff Pawlak

Pulp thrills live on in Tales of High Adventure!

Print version available though ComiXpress for only $4

(flip through a pulp digest like they were meant to be)

Digital eBooks only $.99 available through:

Amazon for the Kindle

And Barnes & Noble for the Nook
 

If you like this issue check out the original Tales of High Adventure! still on sale

Tales of High Adventure for NOOK

Tales of High Adventure for Kindle

Tales of High Adventure in Print at ComiXpress

Make Every Day An Avengers Day

Ya gotta love Marvel's Silver Age.  The heroes' light-hearted interaction with a populous that adored and worshiped them (and at other times hated them).  When else in the Marvel continuum would the mayor of New York declare an Avengers day to apologize for the way he treated Earth's Mightiest Heroes. 

But with the new Avengers movie finally being released here in the states, lets make today Avengers Day!

A Three Pack A Day

Celebrating the time when comics came in packs of three and you never knew what that third comic was going to be (unless you learned to be tricky)! These are a group of the actual three comics that came in the old plastic bag three packs.

Thor 238:  Not so memorable issue of Thor Fighting trolls along with Jane Foster and Ulik.  But what was really interesting was that Odin, who had lost his memory and dressed in overalls, was fighting a bunch of rednecks.  Now that is a scene to remember!

He thought his name was Orrin but he still spoke in the traditional Asguardian language.

Daredevil 124:  Don't remember much of this issue and I've lost it in the mists of time.  The Gil Kane cover and the Gene Colon art was there as well as the presence of the Black Widow.  I'll have to track this one down again. I think I traded it for some Spider-mans.

Hulk 190:  Russian tanks, Toad Men and the Hulk's love life in the form of Jarella what's not to like about that!  Herb Trimpe's art was in top form being inked by Marie Severin.  The Hulk never looked so good petting bear cubs.

UPDATE:  Wouldn't you know I forgot to add the tags or labels or whatever Google is calling these now.  Nothing like a non-intuitive interface that needs you to click more times than before to make your life easier.  Have I mentioned how much this new Blogger interface sucks?  Hulk smash indeed!

The Avengers Go Old School

Click to make Hulk size!

A Three Pack A Day

Celebrating the time when comics came in packs of three and you never knew what that third comic was going to be (unless you learned to be tricky)! These are three comics that actually came in the old plastic bag three packs.

With these three comics, Marvel forever changed my young mind with what a comic is. These were just standard, run of the mill issues but compared the the mild fare coming out of DC, these covers exploded with bright colors, dire-straights for the heroes and a sense of action that I never recalled seeing before. Of course, it could've just been my impressionable young mind...

Amazing Spider-man 147: Two arachnid supers going at it in the streets of NYC with a dead cop (yes, he is dead, look at the blood), Spidey inches away of the same fate as the entire city looks on. Man! I've had Spider-man comics before this one but with Ross Andru's dynamic fight scenes and drama of the escape of the Tarantula is just plain thrilling. This is also the return of the dead Gwen Stacey (cloned that is) and the Jackal pulling the scenes. With the cliffhanging ending of Spider-man being tossed off the Brooklyn Bridge in chains it would take me twenty years to finally find out what happened.

Iron Man 77: Again with the awesome cover, Iron Man getting blasted, his protective armor beginning to shred - they don't make comic covers like this anymore! The story is forgettable with the end of some super-villain war but that cover more than made up for it.

Captain America 188: The last time I saw Cap he was quitting but now it seems he was back but getting his ass kicked. Not only is this cover dynamic in a way you just don't see anymore, but Cap is fighting an unbeatable villain. You can see my recap of the issue here. But Cap's awesomeness as he finally pounds the Druid's henchmen and then finally the Druid himself cemented Captain America as one of the greatest comic book heroes.

After this three-pack, I became a strict convert over to Marvel. Sure, I'd pick up some DCs from time to time but they would never compare.

A Three Pack A Day

A Three Pack A Day 4

Celebrating the time when comics came in packs of three and you never knew what that third comic was going to be (unless you learned to tricky)! These are three comics that actually came in the old three packs.
So from DC we have...

Justice League of America 124: Good stuff here as the JLA battles dead JSA members on Earth II. The interesting thing about comics in the early 70's was that there were a lot of reprints from the silver age and the golden age being released at the same time. As a young kid with no concept of a continuous comic universe, all these artists, styles and heroes were mish-mashed within the same era. In this example, they were all one Justice League to me. I always thought Capt. Midnight was awesome. The JSA members were always a bit of a mystery to me and was always intrigued with the lineup and the characters.

Superboy Staring the Legion of Super-heroes 213: Now this was one comic I never got into that much even as a young kid. Superboy in space with all these weird heroes never made sense to me. This was one that my brother held onto because of the Glactosaur eating the space-ship. This one didn't come out of the paper bag much (yes, our comics were piled in a paper bag).

Tor 4: Dinosaur and cave-man mayhem with Joe Kubert. Kubert wasn't at his finest with this series but for some people, like my younger brother, the dinosaurs spoke volumes. Tor had his little monkey sidekick no doubt added for comic relief.

Bonus Book:
Batman Family 2: Right during the height of watching the Batman television show reruns this showed up in my bag'o'comics. I believe most of these stories were reprints but the Batgirl stories were fun and there were a couple of them. I flipped through this one a lot especially the pin up the the golden age Bat-man Family including Bat-hound and Bat-mite.


A Three Pack A Day

A Three Pack A Day 3

Celebrating the time when comics came in packs of three and you never knew what that third comic was going to be (unless you learned to tricky)!

Today from Marvel we have....

Marvel Tales 52: Everything from the dynamic cover by John Romita to the interior pages of a shirtless Spider-man (he's human after-all) to his hand to hand battle with the Kingpin, this reprint of Amazing Spider-man 69 burned Spidey into my young little brain. This was all part of the ancient Petrified Tablet storyline which I've never completely read even after all these years.

The Tomb of Dracula 23: Right during the era of Chicago's Friday evening Creature Features program this issue of TOD popped up in a three pack. Gene Colon's very dynamic realism was quite the contrast to the super-hero stuff I was use to but why did Drac have a mustache? Boggled my mind at the time but it was still creepy what with the mansion, lurking spirits and the count himself.

Captain America 176: This one will forever be a classic in my mind. A very quite issue as Cap/Steve Rogers debates if this man out of time should kill off CA. What's great about this issue is it recaps his origin, guest stars some of the Avengers and leaves you hanging with Cap deciding that yes, the star-spangled avenger my 'die' Being young and unable to buy comics that frequently I had no idea why he was making this decision (prior issues being about the Secret Empire within the US Government) or what happened afterwards (the birth of Nomad) but the issue stood on it's own. Again, this one left quite an impression on my for it's non-action story.

A Three Pack A Day

A Three Pack A Day 2

Celebrating the time when comics came in packs of three and you never knew what that third comic was going to be (unless you learned to tricky)!

More from DC!

Superman 291: This came out during the era of those crazy Timex commercials so what better way to promote your watch then to have Superman take it through it's paces. Superman takes the watch through glaciers, volcanoes and it still keeps tickin'. So what does this have to do with superhero action you might ask? Well some down on his luck looser comes across the watch and because the watch was handled by Supes in all these extreme environments it grants him super powers to challenge even superman. Nothing like seeing a normal guy belt superman around the world, nicely drawn by Curt Swan, btw. For some reason, this simple story was fun mostly because of the brilliant art by Swan and the insane twists for having Clark and Supes appearing at the same time.

Claw 2: DC's foray into pulp fantasy to challenge Marvel's Conan. Drawn by Ernie Chau (Chan), who would later ink much of Buscema's Conan work, it's your typical swords and sandle yarn. The battle with that two-headed creature was pretty awesome as Claw makes it stab itself in it's eye. Wasn't much into this stuff at the time so it was mostly just put in the pile.

Tarzan 241: Adaption of Edgar Rice Burroughs "The Castaways". Drawn by Joe Kubert gives the story a nice, loose pulpy flair. The attempted human sacrifice at the end of the issue is pretty intense. That scene would make me come back to this comic over and over.

A Three Pack A Day

A Three Pack A Day

Celebrating the times when comics came in packs of three and you never knew what the third comic was (unless you were tricky).

Back in the early Bronze Age of comics my mom use to pick up a couple of 20¢ Marvel and DC comics from an actual News Stand. She'd pick up one each for my brother and me. These were the first comics I remember owning and many of which I still have today.

But around this time I also remember seeing them sold by threes in plastic packages. Sold usually at dime-stores and the news stands, this is how we began collecting comics. I still have may of these very issues and it was always a blast getting the three packs because you weren't quite sure what the third comic was as it was sandwiched between the front and back facing issues. Some times my brother and I would end up with just one pack to share and we'd fight over who got the extra comics, but most times we'd each get our own pack. It didn't really matter as we'd pile them all into one big paper bag (oh the horror!!).

So starting with my earliest recollection of the three packs we have....

From DC Comics:

Superman 277: A typical tale where a safari hunter/writer, Ted Mailerway, decides to hunt the biggest game in town which would be Superman's identity. Of course Supes out smarts him with his super-speed and quick changing abilities. But in the end, Ted does piece it together on his way out of Metropolis. I was amazed by seeing Curt Swan's multiple Superman image panels.

Ghosts 29: I think there were three ghosty stories. Nothing that really stuck in my mind. I think my mom bought this pack mostly for her as she liked Superman and Ghost stories.

Kamandi 20: Ah, my introduction to Jack Kirby. Explosive action! Robots! and talking apes! A post-apocalyptic Chicago (the town where I then lived). What's not to like for the young 6 year old boy? Beautiful cover and one of my favorite comics of all time.

And from Marvel:

Marvel Tales 45: A reprint of an Amazing Spider-man tale (sixty something I believe). Medusa, drawn by Romita sr.) was quite the character of feminine power. But what really blew me away in this issue is that Norman Osbourne, who was slowly recovering from amnesia being the Green Goblin, sees visions of removing Spider-man's mask but is unable to see Parker's face. I've never seen anything like this! A hero unmasked by a villain!

Avengers 116: A great issue in the middle of the Defenders / Avengers war. Both teams were after The Evil Eye of Prester John. All cool but what really blew my 6 year old mind was the battle between the Vision and the Silver Surfer in the pit of a volcano! Flippin' out of this world!

Red Wolf 9: A lesser of Marvel's heroes but one that I've always liked. But it was the cover that always stuck in my mind. You don't see comic covers like this any more!

Pop Music Super Heroes Vol 3

Continuing our exploration of Superheroes appearing in pop music today brings us to the conclusion with a couple of cool tunes. You can check out Vol 1 and Vol 2 to get caught up to speed.

Today we being with Chicago's very own Veruca Salt with their rendition of "Spiderman '79"




Next up we have Henry Rollins performing "Ghost Rider". He has two versions of this song and I went with the one from '87. The other one, which is much heavier sounding was from The Crow soundtrack.



Back on over to DC we have The Dukes of Stratosphere with "Brainiac's Daughter".



And finally we have The Who preforming the Bat-man theme song from 1966.



Check out set one, set two and Encore here.

Pop Music Super Heroes Set 2

Yesterday we began the exploration on super-heroes in pop music. Today we continue that with a focus on the hero that started it all; Superman! It's not surprising that this man from Krypton has iconic status and is almost the go-to figure when looking for that all-encompassing super-heroic image with him being the first man in tights, an outsider, an alien, powerful and invulnerable yet isolated and alone.


Yesterday, Donovan showed up with his Supergirl song and today he's here with Sunshine Superman featuring both Superman and the Green Lantern



Next up we have Jim Croce with "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" featuring Superman and the Lone Ranger.



REM comes up next with "I Am Superman" which is actually a cover from a 1969 band called the Clique.



Finally we have The Spindoctors with Jimmy Olsen's Blues (A Pocketful Of Kryptonite).



Check out set one and set three here.

Encore here

Pop Music Super Heroes Set 1

Though comic books and super heroes have been a part of the American landscape since the late 1930's it has really been in the last 40 years or so that these same comics and heroes have been elevated to a higher status in America's pop culture.

With the cosmic artwork of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko of early to mid 60's Marvel comics, the underground acid culture adapted comics as their own. The heroes began making their way into the blown minds of a counter-culture that would soon become the main-stream.

Not only Marvel but DC characters too became enmeshed with pop art and popular culture and rock music and comics began a marriage that is even stronger today.


"Catch Me Now I'm Falling"
The Kinks
Featuring Captain America





Magneto and Titanium Man
Paul McCartney and Wings
Featuring Magneto, Titanium Man, and the Crimson Dynamo




Superlungs my Supergirl
Donovon
Featuring Supergirl



And of course....

Iron Man
Black Sabbath
Featuring Iron Man






Tomorrow Set II: Superman
Set 3
Encore

The Sword of Shannara Comic Strip '78

Back in 1978 there was a syndicated comic strip called "Bestseller Showcase". It featured illustrated versions of the best selling novels of the time. One story they featured was Terry Brooks' The Sword of Shannara.

The time period is interesting because Holmes' Basic Dungeons and Dragons was just coming out and D&D was just beginning to create some buzz among the hobby shops. Was it a coincidence that the editor of the strip at that time chose to go with a high fantasy story about elves, dwarves and dark lords just at the beginnings of what would be a rebirth of a fantasy genre ushered in by a strange fantasy role-playing game? It's also interesting to note that this is the same year that Bakshi's Lord of the Rings animated film came out.

The strip is drawn by classic illustrator Gray Morrow. It's also interesting to notice the character designs have that early D&D/Holmes feel to it, no doubt inspired by the book's original cover art, before fantasy become more polished in the mid to late 80's.


Say what you will about Brooks' story, I would have loved to have seen this strip at the time. I had just gotten into the Holmes Blue Book, was reading the Conan books and collecting the Marvel comics and just watched and begin reading The Lord of the Rings and seeing this type of fantasy in comic strip in the newspaper would have just been another thing I would have obsessed about (and lowered my math grades even more!).



More about the artist Gray Morrow

Avengers Assembled!

Those of you who watched the Superbowl this weekend caught a 17 second glimpse of the new Avengers preview clip. As much of a tease as those 17 seconds were, the bigger blast was the following full teaser Besides getting a bigger taste of what might be happening in this summer's blockbuster we get the pièce de résistanc; the first glimpse of Earth's Mightiest Heroes assembled!

Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain America, Hulk and Iron Man, together for the first time! Of course, Widow looks a bit out-classed with only her pea-shooter but considering that she can take down enemies with her thighs we'll just have to see how it plays out.

As a young kid and Avengers fan in the early 70's I never even dreamed that one would ever see these heroes together on the big screen in a big budget blockbuster. Of course, it'd be even more complete seeing GiANT-man/Goliath and the Wasp.

So for your summer anticipation....

And Now A Word From Captain America About SOPA

And now a Public Service Announcement from our Star Spangled Avenger.

Click on me for in yo'face Cap!

The Old Marvel Universe and the Marvel Movies

With our upcoming ICONS campaign and with the upcoming Avengers movie release later this summer I've been thinking a a lot about how the movies relate to the Marvel Universe that I grew up with.

Regardless of some of the movie elements tying in more with the Marvel Ultimates line, I think that the movies, especially in a particular order, pretty well mimic the thrill of the original Marvel Universe of the Silver Age.

So how would one watch these movies best to recreate the initial excitement of the characters created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and other silver age creators? We'll this is what I've put together:

Captain America: The First Avenger
The obvious beginning; Jack Kirby's and Joe Shuster's 1941 star-spangled creation put the Timely/Atlas/Marvel comics on the map. A well done film which stands as a strong foundation to the marvel movie universe and introduces the super-serum which appears again in The Incredible Hulk. I suggest skipping the post credit sequence, just end it with Cap 'disappearing'.


X-Men: First Class
Though the X-Men comics began in 1964, the same month that the Avengers debuted, I felt that because a portion of this begins during WWII and concludes in the early 60's, this is the obvious second film in the series. The X-Men were always a bit off on their own so this just reinforces that aspect of the movie universe. Another good flick and sets the foundations for the Mutant heroes.

Fantastic Four
Yes. The first FF movie. After Cap and the 'death' of the super-hero during the 1950's (thanks to Prof. Wertheim) superheroes didn't make a comeback until the early 1960's. DC had the Justice League and Marvel came out with the Fantastic Four. As a movie, it has it's problems but I still liked the first one enough. We'll get to the second one in a bit.

Hulk
The second super-hero book marvel put out was Hulk, so the Ang Lee movie places here. I still like this movie especially since it has the Hulk jumping around the desert in a purple spedo.


Spider-man
The Hulk comics only lasted 6 issues but it's canceling made way for the coming of Spider-man in Amazing Fantasy #15. Though the Spider-man series wouldn't actually begin until a few months later, Sam Raimi's first Spider-man movie shows up here.


Now, Thor actually made his debut the same month that Spider-man did but I'm going to hold off on Thor a bit until we enter the more cosmic era of the Marvel Universe timeline.

Iron Man
So now we come to the next hero created, Iron Man. With Robert Downey's portrait of Tony Stark and the Golden Avenger (complete with clunky original Iron Man armor) is a perfect fit for this movie series. SHIELD begins to make it's film universe appearance here.


Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
We begin now with the cosmic era of the Marvel Universe with the introduction of Galactus and the Silver Surfer in this, yes, sub-par flick. Sure it's a bit of a let down, what with Mr. Fantastic doing his fantasti-dance and all, but they did get the Surfer's look right, though Galactus was a huge disappointment. I swear, if you look closely at that cloud at the end you can just barely make out the head of the Big G - barely. But it's included here for continuity sake.


Thor
Okay, in full cosmic mode. Though Thor was getting cosmic a bit before the FF introduced the Silver Surfer and Galactus with the late 1965 appearance of the Destroyer and the full grandeur of Asgard I think it actually fits better after FF2. Again, SHIELD is present with hints towards the Avengers.

Spider-man 2
With the 'death' of the Green Goblin in mid-1966, Doc Ock became Spidey's main protagonist. While the rest of the Marvel Universe went cosmic, Stan Lee kept Peter Parker and Spider-man grounded in the dramas of day to day real-life. Thus Raimi's second flick places here.

The Incredible Hulk
With Ed Norton's portrail of the troubled Bruce Banner, the introduction of the Abomination and the birth of the Leader I'll place The Incredible Hulk here. An appearance by Tony Stark (and SHIELD) unifies the Universe and begins the build up to the Avengers.

Iron Man 2
We start to break a way from the early 60's chronology a bit by this point as a drunken Tony Stark doesn't really appear until the late 70's (or 80's?). But you do have Whiplash, a classic late 60's Iron Man villain and Titanium man. SHIELD's presence along with the Black Widow tie up things nicely for the debut of the Avengers.

X-Men 1
Since the X-men and the Avengers comic series both began in September 1963, I'm placing the first X-Men movie here (for now) though I think after the release of the Avengers movie I would place X-Men after it. But until that happens I'm happy with it here.


The Avengers
The release date of May 2012 should give you plenty of time to view these Marvel movies in this order to 'relive' so to speak, the thrill of the birth of a comic universe that changed comics.

From here I would place
Daredevil
X-Men 2
Spider-man 3 (if you can tolerate another viewing of it)
Ghost Rider
X-men 3

You Don't Pull On Superman's Cape...

After finishing the fantastic historical book Men of Tomorrow by G. Jones, I got really pumped up for some Superman action, most notably the earliest newspaper strips of the underwear clad hero. These were exclusively written by Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Joe Shuster, creators of Superman (with a little help from their studio) for National Periodicals (DC Comics) wayyyy back in 1939.

Siegel and Shuster's pulp influences shine through as this Superman is grim, a bit of a smart-ass, and a cold-hearted do-gooder before DC (without Siegel and Shuster) removed all edge from the hero.

In just only six months of the strip, we have one suicide attempt, 6 death (most of which are by the hands of Superman himself), one case of animal experimentation (let's face it this one is just plain cruel), child abuse from a orphanage superintendent and Superman delivers some cold justice and Superman's 'cold justice' is literally letting you die.

Here's just some examples from the first few months of the strip (pardon the images as I couldn't scan them from my book but had to take photos).

This speaks for itself.

Superman's patented style of 'persuasion' as he liked to call it.

A little too much 'persuasion' perhaps?

Thugs attempting to escape in a plane? Not with Superman around and
his form of Justice!

Cold, Superman, cold. Dick Cheney better watch out, Superman don't like no war-profiteers.

Oh, and this is just an amazing sequence for any comic strip....

No, Clark, sadly this is not a gag....

Ambrose looks a bit agitated, as well he should for in the next sequence....

Yes, Clark, he's dead. DEAD! Ambrose! Noooooooooooooo!

I love this old Superman strip. He's mostly fighting gangsters, graft and corruption at all levels, definitely a sign of the depression era. Siegel and Shuster's hero was pretty dark and grim, much on the same level as Batman was back then too - a direct influence from the pulps that these creators grew up with in the 1920's. But they were heroes in the eyes of the readers as everyone felt the oppression and hopelessness of the times with breadlines, unemployment and the shadows of the coming war. Superman struck a chord of the times and began an industry.

It's sad that today's comic strips are nothing compared to the grim fantastic tales of the origins of adventure strips. They lack the sexuality of Flash Gordon, the noir of Dick Tracy, and the cold violent reality of the times from Superman. Maybe the print media wouldn't be on the ropes so much if they advanced their comic strips with the times. But times are different and they're constantly changing faster today than ever. It sure would be great to have strips like this promoted by your local great metropolitan newspaper.