Friday, November 22, 2019
UTHEORY OF : JSA Savage Times TPB
Another great JSA TPB I found at Ollie's...JSA : Savage Times TPB from 2004...Collects JSA issues 39-45 from 2002-03...Great to find so many of these but the fact that they're at Ollie's means that DC printed way too many of em...More great superheroics involving many elements of DC's storied past from writers Geoff Johns and David Goyer and artists Leonard Kirk and Keith Champagne...Starts off with an eye-poppingly cheesecake Power Girl story drawn by Patrick Gleason and Christian Alamy...Another TPB that shows why JSA was one of DC's best titles for several years...
(And for a DC fan it's hard to resist any book with a cover that shows Captain Marvel fighting Metamorpho...like some lost issue of Brave & Bold or Super-Team Family...Shazam!)
Thursday, November 21, 2019
UTHEORY OF : Wonder Woman Spectacular 1978 (DC Special Series # 9)
Here's another one worth checking out. Wonder Woman Spectacular (DC Special Series 9) from 1978. Actually on sale in late 1977. Glorious cover by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez and Dick Giordano. A giant WW image! An armored Hitler on a horse! Wow!
Story is a massive WW2 epic written by Jack C Harris and art by Jose Delbo, Steve Ditko and Russ Heath inked by Dick Ayers and Vince Colletta. That's quite an art combo! The legendary Ditko draws the sequences involving the gods and the Amazons and unfortunately only portrays WW herself in one panel. Did he ever draw her anywhere else?
Art is strong elsewhere as the 80-page format lends itself to larger panels and layouts. One-shot hero the Bombardier looks like a cross between Spy Smasher and Dr. Mid-Nite. Only thing is Colletta does his usual art-trampling (and maybe Ayers does too) to the point where I can't tell which non-Ditko pages are by Delbo and which by Heath. And I never thought I'd say I couldn't recognize Russ Heath's wonderful style...
Recall having this as a kid and glad I found it once again...
Story is a massive WW2 epic written by Jack C Harris and art by Jose Delbo, Steve Ditko and Russ Heath inked by Dick Ayers and Vince Colletta. That's quite an art combo! The legendary Ditko draws the sequences involving the gods and the Amazons and unfortunately only portrays WW herself in one panel. Did he ever draw her anywhere else?
Art is strong elsewhere as the 80-page format lends itself to larger panels and layouts. One-shot hero the Bombardier looks like a cross between Spy Smasher and Dr. Mid-Nite. Only thing is Colletta does his usual art-trampling (and maybe Ayers does too) to the point where I can't tell which non-Ditko pages are by Delbo and which by Heath. And I never thought I'd say I couldn't recognize Russ Heath's wonderful style...
Recall having this as a kid and glad I found it once again...
Thursday, November 14, 2019
UTHEORY OF : Gunfighters # 61
Gunfighters was another Western title that Charlton brought back for reasons unknown in the late 70s, but it managed to last for 33 reprint-filled issues...Here's Gunfighters 61, cover-date July 1980...Excellent cover by Rocke Mastroserio had bn used in this title in 1967 and wld be used again in 1984...Charlton got its money's worth...Stories are all reprints from 1956-61...Great Kid Montana story with Pete Morisi art, but they recolored his distinctive gray hair as brown...The Kid's planning to retire until fate intervenes...Also a nice 2-page Wyatt Earp story from Morisi...Wild Bill & Jingles (Jingles! Because a hero needs a chubby sidekick) story with Maurice Whitman art, Lash Larue with Charles Nicholas art and Masked Raider with Mastroserio art all are just OK...This one's worth picking up on the cheap for that swell cover and those two Morisi stories...
Friday, November 1, 2019
UTHEORY OF : Tarzan (Limited Collectors' Edition 1974)
Another great recent pickup...Limited Collectors Edition C-29 from 1974...Two of the first eight issues of this oversized series were devoted to Tarzan, so the character must have been doing well for DC.
Reprints the 5-part Return of Tarzan story that had run in Tarzan # s 219-223 the previous year. One of the many things I love abt these DC and Marvel tabloids is the impact of seeing comic art magnified to this size. Doing so here really increases yr appreciation for Joe Kubert. Obviously an amazing war comics artist for decades, but his work on the first few years of Tarzan for DC was terrific.
Reprints the 5-part Return of Tarzan story that had run in Tarzan # s 219-223 the previous year. One of the many things I love abt these DC and Marvel tabloids is the impact of seeing comic art magnified to this size. Doing so here really increases yr appreciation for Joe Kubert. Obviously an amazing war comics artist for decades, but his work on the first few years of Tarzan for DC was terrific.
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