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Sunday, March 17, 2024

Favourite comics: Avengers #94 - Neal Adams, John Buscema, Tom Palmer & Roy Thomas

Without doubt one of my all-time favourite comic series is Marvels “Kree–Skrull War" which was published over 9 issues of the Avengers (#89-97) from June 1971 to March 1972. However, it would not be until June 1976 when I first became aware of this comic classic when I purchased the UK “Avengers” weekly comic #148 which reprinted the first part of “Avengers” # 93 ("This Beachhead Earth"). Sadly, I had missed the the first part of the Kree-Skrull War series as I had cancelled my UK Avengers subscription some months earlier. The US "Avengers" #94 (cover above by Neal Adams) is not the best issue in this excellent series (it’s still a belter) but it was the first US issue of this story arc (and the first US Avenger back issue) that I purchased in 1979 from Glasgow’s “Listen” record store for around £1.25p. The story arc, which was written by Roy Thomas, featured art from some of comics’ all-time greats including Sal Buscema, Tom Palmer, John Buscema, and Neal Adams. This issue alone features the triple talents of Tom Palmer (inks) John Buscema and Neal Adams - Enjoy.
Above: UK Avengers # 148 – this was the last issue of the comic which then merged with the Mighty World of Marvel from #199 and continued the Avenger series .
Next up: Avengers #96 where Neal Adams ramps up the art to a ridiculous degree. This was the first back-issue I felt I had to save up to purchase (from AKA comics in Glasgow around 1982) .I am ignoring #95 (for now) as I have not yet managed to purchase this issue (but it’s on my radar)!

Monday, March 4, 2024

Bring on the back ups. Ramona Fradon RIP

I was sad to read that Ramona Fradon passed away on 24 February. For todays comic book fans Ramona’s name may not be that well-known, but she was a pretty big deal in the 1950’s /1960’s where she worked for many years on DC’s Aquaman (in “Adventure” and Worlds Finest comics) before co-creating one of DCs strangest (and coolest) characters Metamorpho with Bob Haney. In 1965, Ramona left comics to raise her family before returning to the field again in the 1970’s working on DC titles including “Plastic Man”, “Super Friends” and “Freedom Fighters”, she even drew a fill in issue of Marvels “Fantastic Four” (#133). However, it was her work on DC’s mystery/horror titles like “House of Mystery “ where her clear uncluttered animation style art was really appealing on these types of stories. Among the many comic strips she drew for these titles my favourites was “The Spawn of the Devil” from “House of Mystery” #235. The story may lend from Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist but it was as close to a genuinely scary story as DC's "House of Mystery" ever got. Enjoy:
Above: Cover to House of Mystery #235 by Luis Dominguez.
My first memory of Ramona’s work was in the Super DC Giant featuring Aquaman (S-26) special from 1971. I later became aware of her work when she returned to comics in the mid 1970’s where she provided some fun art and excellent covers for Plastic Man.

Friday, February 23, 2024

Top Tens: Frank Brunner

Frank Brunners first venture into comics was as an artist and writer for “Web of Horror” (Major Publications) before moving to Warren where he worked on their “Creepy”, “Eerie” and “Vampirella” titles. However, it was at Marvel where I first came across Brunners work in the 4th issue of the re-launched “Doctor Strange , Master of the Mystic Arts" title in 1974. Although that would be the last US issue of this comic that I would see for a few years, I was fortunate enough to read his excellent Dr Strange strips when it was reprinted a few years later in UK Marvels weekly titles “Avengers” & “Super Spider-Man” starting from his first Dr Strange work in Marvel Premiere. Although Brunners comic strip career was relatively short he worked on some of Marvel’s best comics and produced some of their most striking covers of the 1970s - some of my favourites are shown below.
"Howard the Duck" - #2 - March 1976 - Along with his work on Dr Strange, Howard the Duck contains my favourite Brunner art. Although he only drew two issues of Howards own comic along with a couple of strips in "Giant Sized Man-Thing" his artwork is fun, adventurous and exciting without ever becoming overly cartoony. You can see some of Franks art from "Howard the Duck" #1 here.
Red Sonja #12 - Cover art only - November 1978
Ka-Zar #4 - Cover art only - July 1974 - This is a pretty poor issue of Ka-Zar that featured some of Don Hecks poorest art.
Supernatural Thrillers # 11 - February 1975 - Cover art only - My most recent back-issue purchase from last week based only on Brunners amazing cover (and perhaps the cover price of only £3).
Journey into Fear #17 - October 1973 - Cover art only.
Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #6 - December 1975 - Cover art only - Brunner painted a few covers for Marvel's monthly titles including "Savage Sword of Conan"
Giant Sized Man-Thing #4 - May 1974 - Cover art by Brunner.This issue also featured the first solo tale of "Howard the Duck" by Brunner and Stever Gerber.
Marvel Premiere # 12 -August 1973 - Cover by Brunner with internal art by Brunner/Crusty Bunkers. Marvel Premiere # 9 at header - July 1973 - with internal art by Brunner and Ernie Chua. As noted above my first (and favourite) Frank Brunner comic was "Dr Strange Master of the Mystic Arts" #4 - you can see some pages here.
Super-Team Family # 3 - February 1976 - Cover art only - I think this may have been Brunners only DC cover.
Cover from Grand Comic database.
Brunner has for the most part now left the world of comics and now focuses on producing commissions, the occassional comic book cover for companies like Dynamite, and fine print portfolios - the above painting is taken from Heritage Auctions.

Thursday, February 8, 2024

Gone but not forgotten: "What's love got to do with it ?"- Romance comics - Steranko, Romita, Colan

As we enter February, the “commercially” sanctioned month of love I thought it would be as good a time as any to visit possibly the most maligned of all comic book genres – the romance comic. Although these comics were of little (if any) interest to most boys back in the day, the fact was that romance comics were huge with thousands of titles published between 1947 and 1977, despite this and seeing these comics in the spinner racks it never crossed my mind to even peek inside a romance comic let alone buy one. Well, that was up until around 2010 when I heard that these titles included art by many of comic’s greatest artists including John Romita Senior, John and Sal Buscema, Jim Steranko and Alex Toth. Arguably the most sought after of these titles from the 1970s period is the above issue of “Our Love Story” (#5 - June 1970 - cover by John Romita) which featured Jim Steranko’s only romance strip and art by John Buscema, Gene Colan and John Romita.
Above the excellent splash page to the first story in this issue by Stan Lee - "But he's not the boy for me!" by John Buscema and Frank Giacoia.
The second Stan Lee story in this issue is "But he's the boy I love!" with art by Gene Colan and John Romita.
Rounding of this issue is the excellently illustrated strip “My Heart broke in Hollywood!" by Jim Steranko.
Although I only have a handful of romance comics in my collection it seems that the letters pages did not wax lyrical over the content of the actual strips and the heroes latest battles, instead they focused on the more real life issues of the trials and tribulations of dating and young love.
My only other issue of a Marvel romance comic is the above #4 of "Our Love Story" (cover by John Romita from April 1970) with some great art by Gene Colan,Sal Buscema,Frank Giociao and Don Heck.
My third and only other romance comic is of DC's popular "Young Love" #73 (below) from April 1969. Although the art in this issue is not as impressive as the two Marvel titles above, it does feature an excellent story illustrated by the great Alex Toth.
Around the late 1970's romance comics seemed to vanish from the spinner racks just like the Western, humour and war comics that thrived at this time. While many romance comics seemed on the face of it to be drab soap opera dramas, I'm sure many (mostly) girls enjoyed them as pure escapism, perhaps that’s why they "disappeared" at a time when comics were becoming darker and had to be taken "seriously". Personally, as I read these comics (especially the Marvel issues) you could see the soap opera romance elements of these wonderfully fun tales being played out in titles like Spider-Man , Daredevil and many others superhero comics.

Monday, January 29, 2024

Favourite comics: Superman #247 - Must there be a Superman?

The early 1970's was the period that Superman shed his silver age trappings of silly hoaxes and imaginary stories in an effort to making him more relevant to the readers of the 1970's (and perhaps to also compete with Marvel). One of the central tales in the revamping of the character was the above #247 (January 1972) where the question was asked " Must there be a Superman?".
The first time I saw the above cover (by Curt Swant/Murphy Anderson) featuring the Guardians of the Universe I thought (hoped?) that this would involve a meeting between the Green Lantern and Superman. Instead the tale which was Elliot S Maggins very first comic book story, revolved around the much deeper (comic book) concept of whether or not Superman's very presence on Earth was hindering the development and evolution of Humanity. At the time (1972) this was a pretty mindblowing concept and a cracking issue.
Afer being knocked unconscious while trying to avert a tragedy in space Superman is rescued by the Guardians of the Universe who tell him that his actions may be impeding the progress of humans.
While Superman considers what they said, he gets involved in the problems in a migrant camp where some striking workers are being verbally and physically abused by their boss. A teen (Manuel) who was being assaulted tells Superman of his story of moving from Mexico to the US to find better opportunities. While visiting Manuels village the locals plead with Superman to sort out their labour problems for them, Just then an earthquake strikes which Superman stops. He then tells the crowd that while he can solve problems like natural disasters, they must be responsible for the things that they can control.
As he flies away, he hears a news story about a ship being battered by the waves at sea and jets off to save them. Back on Oa, the Guardians watch his actions on a large screen and are convinced that they have succeeded in making him reassess his role in humanity's development.
In additon to the above main story, this issue also included an excellent back-up tale of "The Private Life of Clark Kent" by Denny O'Neil with some stunning art by the SwanAnderson team.
In this sotry Clark Kent learns that a receptioanist at WGBS' brother is running with a teenage gang. Clark decides to help and confronts the youths without the aid of his Superman alter ego. This 8 page tale has some fun touches like the above page where Clark trys smoking a pipe.
This issue rounds up with a nice reprint from "Action Comics" #338 (1966) - back in 1972 we got a lot of quality comics for our 25 cents (or in my case 7 1/2p).

Favourite comics: Avengers #94 - Neal Adams, John Buscema, Tom Palmer & Roy Thomas

Without doubt one of my all-time favourite comic series is Marvels “Kree–Skrull War" which was published over 9 issues of the Avenger...