THAT COMIC SMELL: Remote Meet Up

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“What the hell is an internet?”
Hello everyone. That Comic Smell is joining the ranks of many other fine podcasts by going remote. Yes, we are unfortunately stuck like this for the next while so hope you all don’t mind our attempt at chatting over Skype. We finally get a chance to catch up and chat some good old fashioned comics. What we’ve been reading whilst stuck in doors. How we are all getting on with being indoors. How there are silver linings to every bad situation and a lot less chomping. None of us had any food. No Biscuits. No tea. It’s not right!

As a little bonus, head across to our Twitter (@ThatComicSmell) to get a daily recommendation from our very own Fernando (#NandosComicOfTheDay)

This and all the usual comics chat on…

That Comic Smell!

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Important Literary Journal (Kyle Baker)
Tetris (Box Brown)
Follow Me In (Katriona Chapman)
I am C3PO (Anthony Daniels)
Pyongyang (Guy Delisle)
Beam Me Me Up Scotty (Jimmy Doohan)
Ellerbisms (Marc Ellerby)
The Hulk #161 (Herb Trimpe, Steve Englehart)
Atomic Hercules (Tony Esmond, Adam Falp)
Whatever Happened To The World of Tomorrow (Brian Fies)
Apollo (Matt Fitch, Chris Baker, Mike Collins)
Kora (Chris Geary)
The Eternals (Jack Kirby)
Kamandi #23 (Jack Kirby)
The Sculptor (Scott McCloud)
Rom (Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema)
Be Pure. Be Vigilant. Behave. (Pat Mills)
The Hands of Shang Chi - Master of Kung Fu (Mike Zeck, Doug Moench)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill)
Bell Time (David Robertson)
Secret Wars (Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck)
Kai and the Monkey King (Joe Todd Stanton)
Goblins 2 (Sloth Comics)

SCOTLAND IN COMICS 11: THE INCREDIBLE HULK

In 1975, The Hulk was trawled in Angus MacTavish’s net on Loch Fear. The fisherman in his surprise cried, “Och, mon---It is na’ possible--!” Hulk replied, “Let Hulk loose, puny human—or Hulk will smash!” Pretty soon, the Hulk had turned into Bruce Banner and gotten involved in a bizarre feud between MacTavish and a shady guy called Jaimie Macawber. In this sequence we have a castle and a kilt.

The green one was later out on the loch again with MacTavish, when their boat was cut in two. The reader is treated to the Hulk retaliating by punching the (sort of) Loch Ness Monster in the face.

The story makes no sense, a fact that annoyed Kim Thompson. Now known for his involvement with the Comics Journal, back then he was a Hulk reader who had his letter published a few issues later. "The Lurker beneath Loch Fear!" was written by Len Wein and drawn by Herb Trimpe. It was published as The Incredible Hulk #192.

COMICS STAMPEDE 3

Well, here he is...

A nice Hulk sheet from Madagascar in 1999.

Artists include Sal Buscema, Steve Ditko, Gary Frank, Ron Garney, Dale Keown, Jack Kirby, Adam Kubert, Marie Severin and Herb Trimpe.

TWO STALWARTS (HAPPY ANNIVERSARY HULK part 5)

Another artist who did a lengthy stint on the Hulk was Herb Trimpe.

For many who were reading the comic in the early '70s, he is the definitive Hulk artist. I was never taken to that extent with Trimpe (as I mentioned before it's Sal Buscema for me). But he did give the Hulk a real character and drew a lot of memorable stories - a Tyrannus one featuring Mogol the robot, and a couple of encounters with the Glob come to mind.

My favourite of his work though was a tale which had the Hulk having one of his "Why doesn't everyone just leave me alone" sulks, only to have his own shadow attack him:


















Poor Hulk. That scene is so tragic and melodramatic that it's funny. It must surely go down as a classic Hulk moment.

Another name associated with the Hulk for a long time was Peter David. He wrote the comic for over ten years. I'd read some David before, and had noticed if he wrote a story, there was usually a bit more to it than in other super-hero comics. I recall a Spider-Man story about a serial killer (the Sin-Eater, I think), and another nice one examining J. Jonah Jameson's reasoning behind his hatred of Spider-Man - a story whose mood was much aided by being inked by Kyle Baker.

Quick history lesson: When Marvel Comics printed Hulk #1, the character was grey. But he was coloured green from the first page in #2, and stayed that way for the next 25 years, no-one ever mentioning it in the story, and subsequent reprints of Hulk #1 recolouring him to green. Knowing he had been grey at first was a fact only die-hard fans knew, and there was no suggestion that the skin colour change had actually "happened". However in 1985, the idea that the Hulk was originally grey was written into continuity. The Hulk was separated from his Banner persona and emerged as the grey Hulk again.

One real standout Hulk issue by David was drawn by John Ridgway in 1987. It featured this grey Hulk:


















I think Adam Kubert drew a good Hulk. This effective little sequence is from a story that jumped ahead ten years to have the Hulk's sidekick Rick Jones tell the story of the decade. In it, Banner undergoes his metamorphosis without displaying any stress:












Nice storytelling there too, with the Hulk's exit suggested, but not shown.

David finished his run in 1998, but would return to the Hulk a few years later, and has also written one-off specials.