WUP ASS KING SIZE

A couple of years ago I wrote this. It annoyed me at the time that I couldn't find Beland's cartoon to put in there too. Well, it turned up. I knew I had it somewhere...

SPIDER-MAN AND ZOIDS

I just enjoyed a blog article by Steve Goble on Spider-Man and Zoids. I enjoyed it as I read that Marvel UK comic every week back in 86, so Steve's piece was a nostaglic trip. He goes into detail about the differences between the original US comics and the British reprints throughout the entire 51 issue series. Except he wrote that he didn't have issue 51, and so missed the end of the series. I felt his pain, and leapt to his rescue. If you can stomach two grown men waxing lyrical about mid 80s Marvel comics, have a look here.

R.I.P. TONY DEZUNIGA

I've just read the very sad news that Tony Dezuniga has died. A great artist from the Philippines who did a lot of work for the big US companies in the 70s and 80s. Here is some artwork from the stories I really enjoy that he drew. Dezuniga and John Albano created the western character Jonah Hex in the early 70s.

He had a crack at Star Wars. Around the same time, Marvel were publishing a magazine called The Rampaging Hulk. This had some quite racy back up stories. So a youngster who wanted to read about The Hulk off the telly also got to read the adventures of Shanna the She-devil.

In the early 90s Marvel UK were publishing Strip. The comic reprinted Dezuniga's Punisher stories from years before. Dezuniga was the first of a wave of Filipino artists who were given work by DC Comics because they could be paid much less than US artists. In fact Dezuniga acted as an agent of sorts for a "Filipino invasion". This led to another favourite comic of mine - the adaptation of War of the Worlds by Yong Montano. There was also Ernie Chan, a very good artist, especially his inking. Dezuniga was criminally underused in comics once the 90s began, which is a shame, but he had already left behind a great body of art.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

When I was a kid I liked the Avengers comics. From a young un’s point of view you can buy a comic with Spider-Man in it, one with Batman in it, or you can cheat and get one comic that has loads of superheroes in it.

If one character in a comic was great and getting more was a bonus, the Jim Shooter/Dave Michelinie era was like getting away with murder. Look at the opening page to “The End…and Beginning!”.



Later on in the same story they had a sequence featuring a man and a woman in a sensual embrace. It seemed very risqué at the time.



There was a great one by 70s superstar artist John Byrne where Count Nefaria became all powerful and was able to defeat the Avengers easily. They all tried to stop him to no avail. There is tension throughout the story while everyone wonders where Thor is, as surely he could defeat him?





So imagine my excitement back then when I saw that they were going to be showing a TV programme of the Avengers! Unbelievable!

And imagine my disgust at some bloke in a bowler hat and a woman sticking a flower in his lapel. OK, she did shoot his champagne bottle, but that was hardly in the league of tackling intergalactic menace Korvac!

Now they’ve finally made a live action Avengers movie, but it’s years too late for me to conjure up the same excitement. Oh well…



The Avengers was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Captain America was created by
Kirby and Joe Simon. Iron Man is credited to Lee, Don Heck and Larry Lieber as well as Kirby.

Here’s a very nice written piece by Neal Kirby on watching his Dad working at the drawing board as a kid.

SCIENCE MUSEUM

I had a visit to the Science Museum in London last week.

Very interesting place to see, but then what a bonus: a Frank Hampson wall!

Four original pages of Dan Dare. They were all fantastic.

And then later on, more: an Enki Bilal wall.

Eight pages from La Femme Piege.

In the space exploration area, they have a display based on Amazing Stories magazine.

They currently have an exhibition with artwork by Suzanne Treister called Hexen 2.0. I can see it making a good underground comic.

The shop had a couple of nice comic books; Robot City by Paul Collicutt and Robot by Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal.


There was even a display on a book called The 1950s Kitchen by Kathryn Perry that was open at a page with this four panel strip. Always interesting to see comics used in advertising.

So go along to check all this stuff out. Even without the comic bonuses, it’s a great museum. Just look at the layout of Making the Modern World hall. Really impressive.

DUMP PENCILS

I’ve been productive comics wise this month. I’ve pencilled twelve pages of my story Dump in the past two weeks. Here are four of them...

JOOST SWARTE

After decades of fascinating snippets of Joost Swarte work appearing in the likes of Raw, there is now a translated book of his work “Is That All There Is?” It’s a lovely collection, full of humour and great artwork. The title comes from the fact it’s quite a small book, and contains his lifetime’s comics work. However, if you order from the publisher direct, you get an extra minicomic with a few more bits and pieces.

HOW ABOUT THOSE COMICS STAMPS?

(AKA COMICS STAMPEDE 7)

The current set of commemorative stamps from Royal Mail have images from comics. The presentation pack has the ten stamps, a miniature edition of The Dandy, and a card with information on the ten comics featured.

The text is written by Graham Kibble-White and contains sentences such as the following: “The last significant comics launch came in 1977, with the sci-fi themed 2000ad.”

Ignoring many interesting comics that have launched in the past 35 years, I assume he is terming significance as financially successful.

But then what of Viz? You may recall that not only was it a big selling comic – it was actually at one point “Britain’s 5th best selling magazine - and you’ll never buy a bigger pile of shite" as the cover stated. Viz is not included because comics for Kibble-White are kids’ stuff that they used to make. Nostalgia rules here. There was a similar flavour to his book from a few years ago. Loads of good info, but from the limited point of view that comics are all but a dead issue. Something to look back on with fondness. He’s not a writer you look to find out what interesting comics are coming out now.

That's my wee niggle. It's still a very nice set.

PETER BAGGE RESET
I’m obviously not scanning the internet as often as I should. It took opening up the latest Previews catalogue to see that Peter Bagge has a new series out soon. A new comic from Bagge is always a cause for celebration. I previously did a lengthy interview with him in 2008, you can have a look here if you so wish. Since his big series Hate and Neat Stuff, he seems to be following a pattern of releasing a new graphic novel every 2 or 3 years, which is just fine by me.

His new comic is called Reset and is published by Dark Horse. This summary is from their website:

If you could relive major events in your life, would you take a stab at making things better—and would your best attempts only make things worse? Or would you use your second chance to put your most twisted, perverted fantasies in motion? These are questions washed-up actor and comedian Guy Krause asks himself after he signs up to be the main research subject for a virtual-reality experiment.

Excited about this series, I asked Peter to tell me some more about it…

DR: You're quoted as saying "I originally envisioned Reset mostly taking place in the virtual fantasy world of protagonist Guy Krause’s imagination". Are there similarities between this story and Other Lives?
PB: Yes, in that they both touch on the use of computer technology as an escapist tool, while also revealing much about someone's character by the way he or she uses it.
DR: Krause is a willing guinea pig in this story. Does he give informed consent? In the cover image he seems perturbed.
PB: Yes, he signs a contract, though as you'll find out when you read it NO ONE is "fully informed" re: this technology. I'd be giving away too much if I explain why, though!
DR: That image reminds me of Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. Were you influenced by that movie in creating this comic? Or is that way off?
PB: Not influenced, but not way off either. Again, I'm trying not to give too much away!
DR: Ha ha! OK, what can you say? Why should I buy this comic, Peter?
PB: To answer all these questions you've been asking, David! This book contains the KEY TO LIFE!
DR: Ha ha! Brilliant! I don’t doubt it! What else can we look forward to from you in the future? Do you have any other comics lined up after this one?
PB: Yes, a biography of Margaret Sanger. Go figure!
DR: Have you actually finished Reset?
PB: I'm almost done with issue 4, the final issue.



I’m looking forward to reading this. The first issue will be in the shops April 18, 2012.

COMICS STAMPEDE 6

Oh, look what's coming in March...


Details can be found here.