Up on the Wall ...

I hang 10 new comics on my cubicle wall every week. i don't do it to remind me of my childhood or bunnies or whatever. I hang them up cuz the shit looks good on my wall and i can forget where i am for a few brief, imaginative moments throughout the day.

After I started researching these books in depth and discovering the writers, artists, story-arcs, and cultural/sociological relevance, i began to see a similarity in the enjoyment of the comics genre to the pasttime of following a sports team like the Red Sox or maybe a tennis diva. You could maintain an infinite involvement with statistics, relationships and storylines without having to buy tickets to the game (why would anyone ever pass that up?!) and the admirers are a loyal crowd. I admit without hesitation to my friends or other comics aficionados that i'm in it for the art. I love the potential animation that a color newsprint page presents from an issue of Metal Men or Looney Tunes, but I'm a technology geek, too, so I like to sort and collate information. It orders my world.

If you're not enthralled with comics, just skip the technical stuff and enjoy the artwork. i call that "reading", too.

Adventures On the Planet of the Apes #4 (“Trial By Fear”), Feb/1976

On the cover, an Orangutan judge decrees: “The defendant has been found guilty … and the sentence is death!” and the Charlton Heston look-alike in shackles responds: “Dirty animals, you won’t get away with this! I swear I’ll have my revenge!”

All I can say to that, is, you should be polite when you’re visiting someone else’s planet.

Superman #82 (“Back For Good”), Oct/1993

This is one of my favorite variant, specialized covers; a full mylar wraparound with liquid silver, emerald green and gold with a clenched-fisted Superman in his superhero tights, emblazoned on the centerpiece. This issue had at least one other cover variation (non-mylar) that shipped in one of those Big “S” sealed plastic bags and I was really lucky to find this particular copy for a buck with a protective bag and board. At the same time, I snagged some 50-centers at my favorite Cup of Kryptonite coffee/comic shop near the airport right after the owner, Kyle had picked up the collection this comic was in. This one exhibits no sign of the typical superfine surface scratches, an unusual thing for these special mylar covers. I think I have only one other that is in such great condition. The spine is tight with no puckering and I would grade it at NM 9.8.

Captain Marvel #43 (“Destroy! Destroy!”), Mar/1976

It doesn't show through on this scan but the cover colors are spectacular  -- the “Captain Marvel” red lettering with yellow highlight makes for a garrish, hotdog-style title that pops off the page. When I first saw this in the 50-cent bin at the store, the cover was grubby enough to imagine that the last owner had actually been eating an oscar myer wiener slathered with mustard while enjoying Steve Englehart’s writing with Al Milgrom’s artwork, and color assistance from Bernie Wrightson.

That puts this comic into an interesting intersection of Wrightson’s and Englehart’s timeline. Wrightson had just a few years earlier been doing spectacular musculatures with “The Swamp Thing” at DC (I think his skill, and possibly, style came through the inspiration of meeting Frank Frazetta in 1967), and Englehart was soon to be jumping ship in the opposite direction, going to DC, after having editorial disagreements with Marvel. I love, love, love Wrightson’s Swamp Thing – but it is the cameos of Englehart’s lifestory that capture my attention here.

Engelhart’s condensed bio is on Wikipedia along with his liberal political ideology and how it dovetails with his comicbook writing.  Earning a degree in psychology, he served in the army during the Vietnam War and was discharged honorably as a conscientious objector! Wiki states:

Englehart brought a complex, freewheeling style to Marvel's comics, often dealing with philosophical or political issues in a superhero story, such as a celebrated run on Captain America (with artists Sal Buscema and Frank Robbins) that reflected the then-ongoing Watergate scandal.

And that’s not all. Along with artist Frank Brunner, Englehart gets snagged for a Dr. Strange story arc in Marvel Premiere #13/14 as a result of a character named Sise-Neg (spell it backwards), a sorcerer who time-travels backwards to collect all magical powers ever created. He travels ultimately to the Big Bang of the Universe and becomes omnipotent. Sound like a familiar three-letter word? After publication of issue #14, Stan Lee noticed the conclusion of the storyline and feared the market loss of creationist readers and demanded that Englehart and Brunner print a retraction stating that “God” should have been “a god”. In an interview in 2005, Brunner tells how the artist and writer responded: he and Englehart, posing as a minister from Texas write a fake letter of praise for the storyline and send it to Marvel. Marvel gets the letter, serendipitously prints it, and Lee’s retraction order is dropped.

Brave and the Bold #66 (“Metamorpho and The Metal Men”), Jul/1966

Metamorpho is a character that I became interested in after discovering the 6-issue series that Dan Jurgens and Jesse Delperdang published with DC in 2007 (“Metamorpho Year One”). Jurgens wrote through all the issues but only pencilled the first two (followed by Mike Norton pencilling on 3 thru 6), but Delperdang’s color work really got me going.

This Brave and the Bold is one of four featuring Metamorpho (also appearing in #57, #58, then #66, #68) in B&B Vol 1. I don’t have 57 and 58 but the artwork is delicious, and what better character combination could you ever achieve than Metamorpho with The Metal Men?? I think the highlight of The Metal Men series was from the artwork of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, and the orginating artist for Metamorpho, Ramona Fradon, presents a similar character style to Andru and Esposito but slightly more emphatic action with delightfully whimsical pencilling flowing from her covers and story panels. I believe for the first four or five issues of Metamorpho Vol. 1, Ramona did all aspects of the art, inside and out.

For Issue #66, Fradon did the cover (Charles Paris contributing color) with Mike Esposito adding his inks to the interior story.

The Tomb of Dracula #14 ("Dracula is Dead!"), Nov/1973

“Blade has managed to slay Dracula by impaling him in the heart with one of his wooden daggers. However, before the vampire hunters can get rid of Dracula’s body, the villagers in Dracula’s thrall break into the mortuary and overpower the heroes, taking away Dracula’s corpse.”

This is another example of an awesome 50-center I pulled out of the bins at Cup of Kryptonite and it will be one of those that hangs at home for  ghoulish Halloween atmosphere in the coming weeks.

How about the dialog on the cover?

“You’re doomed, Dracula! We brought you back to life – only so that we could kill you again!“ 

Poor Dracula. Sounds like my life at work every day.

Ok, does the cover have ANYTHING to do with the storyline? Sometimes stories are written last, around the cover, sometimes it gets kinda loose and sometimes the cover action doesn’t even relate to an internal panel but is simply ‘atmospheric’. Angry mobs waving pitchforks, flaming torches, and crucifixes are appropriate for any godless monster sleepwalking into your average contemporary village. Throw in a gorgeous, unconscious, blonde damsel draped in Dracula’s arms and you’re instantly marketing the right literature to any 13-year old kid in 1973 standing at the magazine rack. Only twenty cents at the register, duh, gimme a Defenders-101 for fifty cents while yer at it.

Well, that's only five -- the others were not as notable (another Brave and the Bold and some more Tomb of Draculas). If you like this post i'll do more, please leave me a note and let me know what you thought about it.