Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Last month, the world's challengiest comics company published a magnificent thirteen titles.
Will it be equally ambitious, this month?
No.
It won't.
In fact, it'll only bring us three books.
Clearly, it's decided to concentrate on quality over quantity.
And does so by doing something or other.
From that cover, I'm going to guess the pulp adventurer's up against more zombies than you can shake a stick at, while the internet informs me that a voodoo witch is also involved.
That sounds like bad new for all involved.
And he's up against the Lizard King!
No, that doesn't mean he's confronting Doors frontman Jim Morrison. Instead, he's doing something that involves the death of Woogins.
I know. I can't believe it either. Woogins was my favourite comic book character of all time! And now he's gone!
But that's not all. We also witness the deaths of Marius and Manlius!
How will we ever carry on without Manlius?
Perhaps more significantly, we experience our first meeting with Ironjaw's adoptive father.
And I suspect that means we get to discover more about the past of the metal-mandibled mayhem-meister.
Devilina hits her second issue!
Unfortunately, it's also her last!
But that's not all we find, because the issue also takes a look at everyone's favourite new movie that's setting the box office alight; Flesh Gordon.
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25 comments:
“Metal-mandibled mayhem-meister”
:D
b.t.
SCORPION 2:
Let’s start with that cover. Story goes that Martin Goodman didn’t like the cover that Chaykin turned in, so he had Ernie Colon draw a new one. Now, I loved Chaykin’s super-stylish cover for the first issue, but I have to say, for once I agree with Goodman — I think Chaykin’s original cover for #2 (it’s online if you want to compare the two) is strangely static and unexciting. To me, Colon’s cover is much more dynamic and probably more likely to get comics fans to part with their two bits.
As for the story and art inside, I think #2 isn’t quite as good as #1 but there isn’t a HUGE drop in quality. The art does look a bit rushed in places (The Scorpion himself looks pretty goofy in the next to last panel of the last page) but overall it ain’t bad. The various panels inked by Wrightson look especially nice. I liked the ‘street level’ crime plot in #1 but i enjoyed seeing The Scorpion tangle with the supernatural in #2.
I haven’t pulled IRONJAW 3 out of the Atlas long-box to refresh my memory yet, but for now, I’ll just note that according to the GCD, despite the cover blurb declaring the story is called ‘The Lizard King’, no such character appears inside. The actual story title is a real mouth-full : ‘The Wolf-Cowled Head-hunters of Amun-Rak’. Now I’m wondering why IJ’s opponents are clearly wearing reptillian head-gear on Marcos’ cover instead of wolf-cowls….
b.t.
Can anyone point me in the direction of a scan of Scorpion 2? I’d love to see Chaykin inked by Simonson!
Matthew:
Diversions Of The Groovy Kind has scans of all 3 issues of THE SCORPION.
b.t.
I saw 2 deer in my garden, this morning! Got some good photos, too.
Where's that coat of mine?
Phillip
Hmmm… Atlas lasted just about the same as Timely”s Atlas superhero revival in the mid 1950s with Cap, Subby, and Torch?
Maybe the name Atlas is the real problem?
CH
I'd never even heard of Atlas/Seaboard until a few years ago - how much longer until these comics are put out of their misery??
Phillip, you've had rats in the attic and your house has been infested by flies so deer in the garden makes a nice change!
I've only just discovered that Peter Sarstedt wrote a sequel to his classic #1 hit Where Do You Go To My Lovely - it's called The Last Of The Breed and appeared on a 1997 album called England's Lane. Anyway I've been listening to the sequel on YouTube and it's OK but definitely not an instant earworm like the original.
Colin - you ever hear of Skywald comics? There were a few companies out there publishing comics in the USA besides the majors of archie, marvel, dc, harvey, gold key 50 years ago. Mikes Amazing World of Comics is really worth a look.
Colin - Squirrels visit too, two of whom I hand-feed ( that seemed too mundane to mention, however! ) Also, I saw my first ever hornet, last week. With global warming, hornets must be moving up to Yorkshire, from warmer climes down south!
Phillip
COLIN - over the past few months i’ve had deer, coyotes, a type of woodpecker as big as a chicken. Joy of living next to woods!
Best moment: a vulture was eating a dead raccoon near the street. I stopped the car to watch… about 10 feet away. Suddenly the buzzard jumps up and back about 3 feet! Almost instantaneously a large hawk swooped down to presumably smack the head of the buzzard, stun it, and circle back for some good eatin’!
Excellent, thank you.
So I read IRONJAW 3 last night. The so-called ‘Wolf-Cowled Head-hunters’ are depicted as wearing snake/lizard head-gear throughout the entire comic, not just the cover. Odd! Otherwise, the most entertaining thing about the issue is a disgruntled letter from a Ms. Eileen Beauchamp of Cincinnatti Ohio about IRONJAW 1, in which she lambastes Mike Sekowsky’s art, Michael Fleisher’s script and the overall air of rampant misogyny. She finishes with : ‘Come on now, Fleisher! Come on now, Rovin! This is pure 100% Grade A CRAP.’
I wanted to weigh in on DEVILINA 2, but I can’t find my copy. Oh well.
b.t.
Charlie, there are no vultures around here but plenty of seagulls even though I live more than 20 miles from the sea. I hadn't heard of Skywald comics but I do visit Mike's Amazing World Of Comics every so often.
Phillip, when I was a kid there was a farmer's field behind our house with 3 or 4 horses in it and if we had stale bread or cake we'd hand-feed it to the horses.
I've just paid my TV licence fee of £174.50 and for the first time ever my annual reminder arrived by e-mail rather than by post so the times they are a-changin' but I still chose to receive a physical paper licence rather than a digital one - how long though until the BBC removes that option and only digital licences are available?
I live in Southern California, in a fairly suburban area, but we get skunks, raccoons, possums, hawks, wild geese, rattlesnakes, coyotes, deer (once in a blue moon) and though I’ve never seen one with my own eyes, we’ve heard from neighbors who’ve seen bobcats in the area. We did see (on the local news) a young bear wandering around our neighborhood once, which was surreal. Sucker was FAST, and quite agile, hopping over fences like fricking Spider-man!
b.t.
Colin - Farmers' fields are behind me, too - hence the wildlife. Those horses sound nice, in childhood. My TV licence is due in August. To me, it's too expensive; but Rewind TV, & a couple of other channels are keeping me in the game. Those channels that show 60s/70s/80s videos all day are a good standby.
Charlie - That giant woodpecker sounds interesting.
b.t. - UK animals are mostly harmless, thank goodness (although the UK press creates 'devil dog'/XL Bully scares, periodically.) Having bears roaming around - particularly in a wooden house - can't be good for the nerves!
Phillip
What Do you UK gents pay TV tax on…? I.e., I mainly watch a few streaming services not anything broadcast over the air to an antenna. Just need a smart tv connected to internet (or use the smart phone or a pc).
Well I'm going to disagree with b.t. about Iron Jaw #3, Steve, which is... well, good would be pushing it a bit, but its definitely the best issue. If for no other reason than the lack of female characters means it's not particularly rapey like the others.
I suppose that might be considered faint praise, but it is quite entertaining. For an Atlas comic.
Check out the opening pages for instance, where Iron Jaw returns home to Amun-Rak to meet up with his old bandit chief mate, only to encounter the local sheriff and his men instead. As battle ensues, the bandits show up and his friend offers to help him out... in return for 600 gold pieces.
Iron Jaw starts bargaining over the price of his rescue - he won't pay more than 300! - while holding off the sheriff's army single handed ("Bah! You sheep-soldiers fight like children").
Its like something out of Monty Python. Or maybe one of the better Sláine stories by Pat Mills.
Sure Michael Fleischer doesn't have much of a sense of humour, but that gives it all a deadpan quality which kind of works. Especially combined with Pablo Marcos' over the top, absurdly drawn barbarians with their ridiculous 90s Image style muscles.
-sean
Charlie - With a tv, BBC licence fee must be paid ( even if you never watch the BBC! ) Controversy swirls around this, and several other issues. Some viewers would prefer to only pay for channels they watch, and to make the BBC subscription only. Others say the BBC's independence (there's debate about that, too) would be compromised by such a move.
Phillip
And is the UK taxing you if you do not have a TV, but if you have a PC or a smart phone or some such device which could stream video services, like the Disney Channel or a sports channel, etc.?
You're okay as long as BBC stuff isn't watched on those devices.
Phillip
Wow… so BBC knows if you are watching via internet devices and will tax you accordingly and assumes you are watching if you have a “cable” subscription that includes BBC or have an old-timey antenna TV?
sean :
Yes, I noticed that IRONJAW 3 was less rapey than usual for that series. As you mentioned, it’s quite the sausage fest — page after page of nearly naked musclebound man-on-man action. I think there may be a total of two or three panels featuring actual female-type persons in the entire comic. They’re there just to have (off-stage, implied) sex with our hero, but at least they seem willing, so that’s progress of a sort, I guess? Of course, neither of the two ladies get to speak, not a single word. But hey, baby steps!
And I thought it was surprisingly well-drawn, the figures less mushy and distorted than usual for Marcos.
I liked the throwaway bit where IJ used his metal mouth as a defensive weapon, chomping on one of the sherrif’s men in battle. We don’t get to see our hero actually EAT the guy, but it’s ‘cannibal-adjacent’ (it’s an Atlas comic written by Michael Fleisher after all).
b.t.
Charlie - I don't really know. I think it works based on fear of prosecution, rather than capture rates. There are long & drawn out videos about it ( just skip to any interesting bit - if there are any! )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCVps7N0YYE
Phillip
I like the panel where Iron Jaw whistles for his steed. How does he do that with, you know, an iron jaw?
And on the subject of his steed, it seems rather inappropriate for such a manly man. I mean, aren't unicorns just a bit... girly?
-sean
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