TRANSFORMERS CLASSICS UK

In the interests of full disclosure, I must write that I was involved in a small way during the production of this book. However I would have written favourably on it even if I hadn’t been. This book is a collection of comics which were produced by the Marvel UK office in the mid 1980s. I enjoyed the initial run at the time, as mentioned here.

As well as the stories themselves, with terrific artwork from John Ridgway, Geoff Senior, and many others, there are really fascinating behind the scenes articles. These include photos of the offices, and new interviews with most of the artist and editorial staff involved. Lots of artwork produced for poster, sticker and transfer giveaways is reproduced.

It was interesting to note that so many of the team producing the comic were practically novices, learning their craft on the job. Amazing, when you consider the big success Transformers quickly became, and the all-conquering multimedia franchise it has ended up as.

It’s also amusing to see British pop culture explained for an American audience. Hence the description of British annuals as being hardback books that come out close to Christmas and bear the following year’s date on them.

One gripe I would have is that as someone that read the original comics, I am used to seeing these stories in their original dimensions, as opposed to their new smaller size here. I imagine this shrinkage wouldn’t bother you if you hadn’t seen them before in the first place.

The volume is sizable, just shy of 300 pages. A lot of love has gone into the production, as evidenced in IDW editor James Roberts’ introduction. A terrific volume.

COMMANDO 50th ANNIVERSARY - and Doctor Who in Comics.

The University of Dundee has an exhibition on of artwork from Commando comics, currently in its 50th year of publication.





Ian Kennedy gets his own frame with four covers.



The covers are certainly impressive. So are the pages themselves.



There are also scripts on show.



A piece that struck me was Jordi Penalva's "Noose for a Hero" cover. I already liked it, but to see those vivid red clouds in the original painting was impressive.



The exhibition runs until 19th November and is well worth a visit.

There's another on at the National Army Museum in London too, which has huge Ian Kennedy banners outside.

I also recently visited the Doctor Who in Comics 1964-2011 exhibition at London's Cartoon Museum. They have terrific John Ridgway and Roger Langridge pages. John Ross' work was interesting - he doesn't use any black space at all on the artwork itself. I was especially impressed by a fully painted Ron Turner page. I love his Journey to the Stars stories from Speed comic.

I haven't been to the Museum before so the regular material on show was all new to me too. Highlights for me were pages of Frank Hampson Dan Dare, David Lloyd V For Vendetta and Joe Colquhoun Charley's War. It was also interesting to see the Charles Schulz original, with all its erased pencils under the inks. He really worked hard at making Peanuts look effortless.

JOHN RIDGWAY PART TWO

The second instalment of my interview with John Ridgway is now up at tcj.com

JOHN RIDGWAY

The Comics Journal website is running part one of an interview I conducted recently with artist John Ridgway. Have a look here.

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.