Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
A new month has begun and an appropriate post is born.
The Vision, getting a bit defeatist there.
Also, he seems to be calling Captain America, "My love."
It seems a new era has begun in the life of everyone's favourite android.
But, then again, perhaps he's right to be alarmed.
After all, he and his gang have found themselves on the Squadron Supreme's world. The one that seems to be in a state of permanent existential crisis.
And the Serpent Crown seems to be involved!
Conan seems to have taken to riding around on a giant pig, which is an unlikely new look for him.
As for Dagon, I first heard of him in an HP Lovecraft tale whose title currently eludes me. I seem to recall it involving fish people and a mysterious island.
Come to think of it, that tale may have been called Dagon.
Then again, it might not have been.
I'm not sure I have total faith in a story guest-starring Uri Geller to be a literary masterpiece.
I'm also not sure the phrase, "Think Tank," strikes terror into my heart.
I do, however, like it when we get to see multiple Daredevils in one shot, in order to signify movement.
As regards plot, it seems the man without fear and the man without usable cutlery unite to take on the deadly scheme of Mind-Wave.
If Mind-Wave's plans depend on having straight spoons, he's in serious trouble.
All I know about this one is what's on the cover.
All I know about this one is what's on the cover.
From it, I'm assuming Ben Grimm's now been given his Thing-like exoskeleton, so he can resume his crime-fighting career.
I've no knowledge at all of this one but am - based on no evidence but his powers - going to assume Blizzard is the early Iron Man villain formerly known as Jack Frost.
It's the Wedding of the Year, as a not-overly memorable villain makes his debut and tries to rob all the guests at Betty and Ned's big bash.
I don't like to sit in judgement but I can't help feeling that, when you can be defeated by a chandelier falling on you, you're probably not a top-drawer wrong-doer.
Doc Samson helps Clay Quartermain and Thunderbolt Ross capture the Hulk in an adventure I assume to be setting things up for the tale in which the sock-it-to-'em psychiatrist does some rummaging around in the Hulk's subconscious.
I've no knowledge at all of this one but am - based on no evidence but his powers - going to assume Blizzard is the early Iron Man villain formerly known as Jack Frost.
It's the Wedding of the Year, as a not-overly memorable villain makes his debut and tries to rob all the guests at Betty and Ned's big bash.
I don't like to sit in judgement but I can't help feeling that, when you can be defeated by a chandelier falling on you, you're probably not a top-drawer wrong-doer.
Then again, at least you're not a villain who can be defeated by a big fan.
I've no information as to what happens in this one. Therefore, I'm going to assume Thor and Firelord are in one of those mythical South/Central American countries that Marvel is so fond of.
No doubt, this means some low-down dictator's going to get a good slapping and a quick overthrow.
Jack Kirby again portraying Captain America on the brink of total hysteria.
Posts
32 comments:
That FF story's one I recall getting, in 'The Complete Fantastic Four'. An early(ish) George Perez fest, this month (FF & Avengers.) Perez got even better, during Conway/Shooter's run. Around this time, the Vision beat Hyperion, more easily even than Thor (which seemed daft, Englehart's Thor's power exceeding all the other Avengers combined! ) Steve - the Blizzard (resembling Jack Frost) popped up again in the Michelinie era!
Phillip
I bought every single one of these back in the day, but I might as well not have, considering how little I remember about them. Even the Kirby CAPTAIN AMERICA is hazy.
AVENGERS 147: is Nelson Rockefeller President of the US in the Squadron Supreme’s world? I have an image of him putting the Serpent Crown on his head stuck in my brain.
I only had the Cap America and Falcon comic of the above list ( although I recently picked up Conan # 62 in a charity shop. I've never liked ole "spoon bender " Geller ever since he said he used his powers to "moved," the ball when Scotland had a penalty against England in the Euro finals in 1996. Yeah he seriously said he did that and felt so guilty that he bought an uninhabited island (Lamb Island) to apologise and "give back" to us as an apology for this act of evil
The “still only $$$” blurb on the cover was never a good sign for us kids. Never.
Surely Marvel (and DC) could have found some more 17 year olds to work for pennies to write their stories and keep the cost down? Conway was 17. Shootet was like 14.
And now that I think about it, why not some 17 year olds (like in 1940) to do some drawing? Not to knock Fr@nk R@bbins but his work sooo reminded me of 1940 which is when the old-time greats were breaking into the new comic-book industry as teen agers.
I mean Gil Kane started drawing at age 17 in 1942 so…
Chicago Joe
Now that I think about, the transition from Robbins to Kirby in CAPTAIN America was the most extreme artistic transition of all time?
THOUGH transitioning from Kaluta to Robbins with the SHADOW was a senses- shattering transition as well.
OMG… Charlie just learned Ms Charlie saw WHAM live in Concert! First person i met who’d done that!
Phillip, that FF story appeared in The Complete FF #37 which was the final issue.
Paul, I recall Uri Geller using his "mental powers" to help the Tories win an election a few years ago.
Charlie Joe :
I think transitioning from the Marvel Meat and Potatoes pencils of Sal Buscema to the Wild and Weird art of Frank Robbins was probably a way more jarring “needle scratch” moment for Cap fans than going from Robbins to Kirby. In the latter case, they pretty much swapped out one loud, frenetic, Over The Top artist for another loud, frenetic, Over The Top artist.
To this day, I see lots of online comments from fans of our generation who were seemingly traumatized when Our Pal Sal was replaced by that Freaky Frank Robbins. Personally, I thought Sal was getting somewhat formulaic and dull around that time and though I was initially a bit startled by Robbins’ art, about three or four pages in, I was totally digging it and by the end of that first issue, I was A Fan. And have been, ever since.
I’m sure that going from Kaluta to Robbins had to have been a huge shock to fans of THE SHADOW. As it happens, my first Shadow comic (#7) was drawn by Robbins, so it wasn’t a problem for me. I only collected the Kaluta issues years later. These days, I love the Robbins and Kaluta issues about equally.
b.t.
That's even worse than he done to Scotland!
At this time Captain America was my favourite US Marvel and like most comic fans at the time I was outraged when Frank Robbins took over the art. However, it soon grew on me to the extent I am now a big fan of the guys style. There are a few blogs etc on Mr Robbins by many fans looking back, feel the same now although many fans remain traumatized by his work . b.t. I also enjoyed Robbins Shadow art as much as Kaluta's.
Colin - Once again 'the first will be last' strikes, in my comics buying history!
Phillip
Phillip, my first ever issue of Ms Marvel was the final one (#23) and my first issue of Red Sonja was also the final one (#15).
In July 1976 I went on a school day-trip to Bristol Zoo and during that trip I encountered US Marvel comics for the first time! Obviously by then I was very familiar with UK Marvel comics but discovering genuine American Marvels was an absolute revelation. The comics cost 10p each so I bought ten for £1 but the only two I can actually remember are included in this month's covers - Conan The Barbarian #62 and Daredevil #133 featuring Uri Geller as a guest-star.
According to that issue of Daredevil, Uri Geller got his amazing power to bend spoons (and move footballs and influence election results) when he was four years old and a UFO appeared above his house in Israel. Clearly the kindly aliens wanted to transfer their powers to little Uri so in the future he could help Mankind by ruining cutlery.
HAPPY BANK HOLIDAY UK gents!!!
This seems like a perfectly timed holiday to read the free comic books one gets at FREE COMIC BOOK DAY on the first Saturday of May!
YOU DUDES ARE LUCKY! Charlie is schlepping for the man today!
COLIN - Too funny. Id never heard of this URI cat! I did a little Youtubing and I see that the vulnerable Johnny Carson, who had a late night talk show in the United States for many many years and was very popular, skewered him on an interview on August 1, 1973. URI couldn’t bend squat!!!
If Uri were alive today he could claim he uses “QUANTUM PHYSICS”
I'm not convinced Uri Geller had - or has - any special powers.
I mean, no offence Paul, but does Scotland losing at football require any special explanation? And it's hardly unusual for the British - well, in fairness, mainly the English - to vote Tory.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/22/uri-geller-promises-to-stop-brexit-using-telepathy
So much for telepathy, eh?
-sean
Charlie, Uri Geller is still alive, aged 79.
Actually a meeting between Dr Strange and Uri Gellar would have been a better option than DD.
Sean well we already have a 300 plus year curse on us by signing some enchanted papers back in 1707!!! so we were already open to some charleton faking special powers on us. I would have thought Uri might have moved on (down?) and might be supporting Reform now.
One last thing about Frank Robbins — I recently bought a cheapish old issue of DETECTIVE COMICS for the Batgirl back-up story drawn by Don Heck, and Robbins’ first Batman art job from a previous issue was eliciting howls of Fan Outrage on the letters page. Holy Deja Vu, Batman!
b.t.
“…was MET with howls…”
b.t.
On third thought, “…was eliciting etc” is correct. Withdrawn, yer honor!
b.t.
BT- folks howling about Fr@nk R@bbins or D@n H@eck, whether elicited, solicited, or formerly prohibited may be discredited or enlisted to make one’s point. All good at SDC!
Steve, I think the mysterious island in that Dagon story turned out to be the body of a gigantic monster or something like that but it's been a long time since I actually read the story.
Steve, I believe you are correct that the Lovecraft story about Dagon was called 'Dagon'. It was also filmed under the title 'Dagon' -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gArYSHXzMFk
Dagon also gets a shout in 'Shadow Over Innsmouth', and Alan Moore's 'Neonomicon'.
So anyway, I've just been reading Conan #62 online. Partly because I'm not too familiar with the Bêlit era - after about #40ish most of the Conan comics I've read were the b&w SSoCs - and also the woman on the cover made me curious how a black character was going to be handled (spoiler: as badly as they usually are when they appear in Conan stories).
The best thing you can say for that issue is that Steve Gan's inks over John Buscema's pencils worked well (although it looked a bit rushed on a few pages, and I think I detected one or two other Filipino hands at work in places).
Storywise it's pretty average stuff at first, with Conan searching the jungle for his woman, who's been snatched away.
It's when we get to Bêlit suddenly meeting Amra, a sort of Hyborian Tarzan of the rapes (not a typo! - he is clearly not a man who takes no for an answer) that the story gets dodgy. Especially once Amra - who it seems regularly takes delivery of kidnapped scantily clad wenches - drags Bêlit back to his place, a ruined city in the jungle where he's shacked up with this black chick, Makeda, who is not happy to find him returning with company.
Women, eh? Always complaining when you bring back another one to cop off with...
-sean
That movie didn't have much to with Lovecraft's story, but it was it was a wild ride, I must say.
I think the actual god Dagon was actually associated with agriculture, not giant fish monsters. I dunno.
M.P.
Sean and M.P. :
Stuart Gordon’s DAGON is actually an adaptation of HPL’s ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’. I think it’s one of his better Lovecraft adaptations — atmospheric, chaotic, genuinely creepy in places and of course, loaded with sex and violence. Not as gleefully transgressive (or as fun) as RE-ANIMATOR, but more entertaining than FROM BEYOND and ‘Dreams in the Witch House’ (on Showtime’s MASTERS OF HORROR series).
b.t.
Thanks for the correction, b.t. I have to admit my knowledge of Lovecraft largely comes from checking internet annotations while reading Alan Moore's Providence.
M.P., hey, it's been a while (where've you been?) Anyway, I think you might be right there, and it seems the association of the ancient Middle Eastern deity with fish is largely the result of biblical mis-translation.
Funnily enough, I don't recall any mention of Dagon inside that issue of Conan #62. Although admittedly I did skim some of Houseroy's captions during the more ridiculous parts, and might have missed a reference.
-sean
*Inside that issue of Conan
Obviously there was only one #62. Duh.
-sean
Sean-
I've been remiss!
Or plain lazy. Nice to talk to you again, pal.
I need to get back in the mix!
Cheers,
M.P.
Sean and M.P. :
Stuart Gordon’s DAGON is actually an adaptation of HPL’s ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’. I think it’s one of his better Lovecraft adaptations — atmospheric, chaotic, genuinely creepy and of course, loaded with sex and violence. Not as gleefully transgressive (or as fun) as RE-ANIMATOR, but more entertaining than FROM BEYOND and ‘Dreams in the Witch House’ (episode of Showtime’s MASTERS OF HORROR series)
b.t.
Post a Comment