And when I say " let´s take a look " I mean " damn, this part has become too long to be part of the main post so let´s put it into its own post ".
Like with so many other things I initially just wanted to do a short write - up in the main post ( which can be found here ) but like with the Normani spin - off post and the Taryn Terrell / Gail Kim spin - off post I realized that I had more to say about Fabian Nicieza ( and Greg Capullo ) than I thought.
Just so there are no misunderstandings about the genesis of this post. My brother tells me that when he reads these posts he sometimes gets the impression that my sole purpose to write these posts is to come across as cool or the sole defender of the poor, downtrodden and misunderstood comic creators. Which could not be further from the truth because you won´t find a person on this planet who is less cool than me if you tried.
Yes, comic books have arrived in the mainstream and are cool - but only in as far as potential sources for movies and tv series. At conventions you might get accolades but only if you manage to draw in a big crowd. The small time comic creators who are struggling are still unnoticed by the masses. Especially when they are working in what might be categorized as the independent field of comic books. There are several things I as a person or as part of a team together with my brother accomplished in the german comic community that were perceived as impossible but since we have never gotten any recognition for our pioneering comic book work that was too way ahead of its time from the german comic book world itself I have no illusions that it will not happen with the general public.
As for me as a comic blogger and comic book afficionado, that only gets you credit if you were famous before. I swear, I have never seen so many b - list and c - list ( and to a lesser extend even some a - list ) celebrities confess to being closet comic nerds than when comic book related movies started bringing in the big bucks. It´s like they could not jump the comic book band waggon quickly enough hoping it would bring a career boost.
Where where all these so - called comic book enthusiasts all those years when comics were having a hard time ? We could have needed them then.
But no, you are only a cool comic book person if it translates into money, fame, publicity or a combination of all three. And you can´t look like a comic nerd and you have to have at least one thing the SJW crowd can exploit for propaganda like being racially diverse ( but only if that race is discriminated ) or of a certain gender or sexual orientation which means that as an old, short, fat, physical unfit spanish male straight caucasian dude with health problems living in Germany I certainly don´t qualify.
Just to clear that up for those people who might get the impression that I am entertaining any illusions of grandeur being the big hero and savior of comic creators. But let´s get back to comic book talk and Fabian Nicieza.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentinia he moved to America when he was four and grew up in New Jersey. Fabian Nicieza started at Marvel Comics as a manufacturing assistant and advertising manager writing short articles for Marvel´s promotional magazine MARVEL AGE. The older comic book fans among my readers might remember this in - house ad publication fondly.
I recently went through some old comic book boxes and I just could not bring myself to part with them. They remind me of the time when reading Marvel Comics was still exciting. The younger comic book readers out there might have seen some excerpts from MARVEL AGE as part of the plethora of EPIC COLLECTIONS, omnibuses or other reprints Disney is putting out. And I am really glad they decided to include this kind of material in theses books. I know that in some cases it probably is done only to boost the page count to a more profitable number but I am just glad that Today´s generation gets exposed to this kind of material.
Pulling it back to Fabian Nicieza, his first writing gig was on the NEW UNIVERSE title PSI - FORCE. This was a new endeavour by Jim Shooter that was supposed to catapult Marvel Comics into new heights of popularity and prosperity but as I know from personal experience it is not as much fun being ahead of your time than later chronicles might lead you to believe. The american comic book readers were not ready for a more realistic comic book universe and it showed in Marvel´s sales numbers.
Anyway, Fabian Nicieza first wrote issue 9 of PSI - FORCE and then became the regular writer with issue 16, working on the title until it´s final issue number 32. Now I know that then Marvel editor - in - chief Tom DeFalco has a lot of critics but as longtime readers of this blog know there are several comic book series he oversaw as an editor or directly wrote that I enjoyed a great deal like his SPIDER - GIRL books, his iconic six year run on FANTASTIC FOUR with Paul Ryan or his also six year run on THOR ( and the spin - off THUNDERSTRIKE ) with Ron Frenz, two of my favourite artists.
It was on THOR that Tom DeFalco co - created THE NEW WARRIORS with Ron Frenz during ACTS OF VENGEANCE and when they launched their own title he must have had a keen eye for potential because he put Fabian Nicieza and artist Mark Bagley in charge of that book basically launching two careers. I remember that I bought the first issue and another one with a guest cameo by the Punisher ( remember this was in the 90s ) but didn´t pursue it any further. I kept hearing some rumours about how good THE NEW WARRIORS were but I had so many other Marvel titles ( and DC titles for that matter ) to keep me entertained that it wasn´t until the FOREVER YESTERDAY saga in issues 11 to 13 that I came back to the title.
What can I say ? I´m just a sucker for alternate reality stories especially alternate realities in which everybody dies and back then I kept reading a title until it started to disappoint and with THE NEW WARRIORS it took a long time to get to that point. And it certainly wasn´t under Fabian Nicieza´s watch. He was the first writer, he wrote most of the first 53 issues and to this day he still considers issues 1 to 25 of THE NEW WARRIORS to be the best work of his career. And who am I to argue ?
That part of his run has been reprinted in the NEW WARRIORS OMNIBUS HARDCOVER so anybody who wants to make up his mind for himself - and is not into dollar bin diving - can do so now. After Mark Bagley left Darick Robinson took over the art duty whom I knew from his work on Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis´ post CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS relaunch of the Justice League so I read most of Fabian Nicieza´s issues of the book.
For Marvel he also wrote ALPHA FLIGHT 87 to 101 ( I left that title for good with issue 50 so I didn´t read any of Fabian Nicieza´s issues ) and AVENGERS 317 to 325. I read some of these issues since I had fallen off the title with issue 319 but was back on board with issue 327. Back in those days I would skip issues if I didn´t like the art or the story but it´s strange that I skipped some of these issues while I managed to endure the cringe fest that was issues 333 to 340 of AVENGERS. Thank God with issue 341 Steve Epting and Tom Palmer became the regular art team and stayed on the book until issue 375 which was the big wrap up of THE GATHERERS SAGA, another alternate reality in which everybody dies mind f - word.
Fabian Nicieza also wrote the first NOMAD mini series with then up and coming artist James Fry III ( I wonder whatever became of him ) as well as the first 20 issues of the following NOMAD ongoing series. I read that title up until issue 9 or issue 10 so I missed all the issues penciled by Rick Mays.
Speaking of mini series related to Captain America, he also wrote the four issue prestige format mini series THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA : SENTINEL OF LIBERTY with artist Kevin Maguire. Whom I also knew from the Keih Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis post CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS relaunch of the Justice League. Anyway, back at that time the project was supposed to be a tie - in to a Captain America movie that never happened and Kevin Maguire really wanted to make this his masterpiece.
Which sadly lead to him falling behind on schedule until the powers at Marvel brought in artists Steve Carr and Kevin West to finish up issues 3 and 4. I can understand that decision from the business side since it took forever for these issues to come out but from the historian side of it I just wish Kevin Maguire would have gotten the opportunity to finish the book.
Now while all of the comic books I mentioned this far are really great series we haven´t even come to the gist of this post which is Fabian Nicieza´s indispensable work on the x - titles. You see why I had to give him his own post ? That guy is so underrated and also underappreciated.
Fabian Nicieza first delved into Marvel´s mutant melangerie co - writing the last three issues of NEW MUTANTS with Rob Liefeld where they co - created Shatterstar and most importantly Deadpool. The title than transformed into X - FORCE where Fabian Nicieza began as a scripter. He became the full writer with issue 12 and stayed on the title until issue 43.
Like a lot of people I bought the first issue of X - FORCE for investment purposes ( hey, it was the 1990s and we all thought we would get rich through comic book collecting ) but aside from issue 3 which was a crossover with Todd McFarlane´s adjective - less SPIDER - MAN I didn´t read it. I started with issue 15 when Greg Capullo took over as the regular artist which was one issue before the big crossover X - CUTIONER`S SONG.
Back then all the big crossovers were based on the X - Men and unlike many of the new ones they had repercussions - as small as they may have been - on the x - universe. And since there were so many x - men books they could do a story with 17 or 21 parts within the span of 3 months.
X - CUTIONER`S SONG was one of the few times where they wrote Cannonball right. I remember that the X - Men had to go up against X - Force and there was a briefing where Charles Xavier explained why Cannonball was one of the most dangerous mutants out there : first he was trained by Xavier himself so he had the same training as the X - Men and knew how to defend himself from psychic attacks. Then he studied under Magneto so he was familiar with the tactics of the evil mutants.
And last but not least he got combat training from Cable so he was a brilliant strategist and a master of guerilla tactics. Man, I miss the times when Sam was written as a competent confident character although at this point Marvel had already turned him into another mutant dressman.
Anyway, another bonus of the X - FORCE issues from the X - CUTIONER`S SONG story was that Greg Capullo got to draw the x - teams including a lot of mutant massitas and his version of Storm was imposing and very sexy.
At this point you might have guessed that Greg Capullo is one of my favorite artists and I think there are two big injustices concerning him.
The first one is that Disney still hasn´t put out his excellent run on QUASAR in trade. During his run it was one of Marvel´s must read titles and there is a great story line in there that might appear in a special DEATH IN COMICS post. That´s right Quasar has come back from the dead.
The second one is that most people didn´t discover him before his work on SPAWN where he took over the art from Todd McFarlane with issue 26 and constantly knocked it out of the park until issue 200 ( !!! ). He also worked on the ANGELA series and various other iMAGE titles like THE CREECH or THE HAUNT but he really solidified the SPAWN franchise.
ALL I WANNA DO IS ZOOMA ZOOM ZOOM ON BOOM BOOM´S BOOM BOOMS
Coming back to Greg Capullo´s work at Marvel he was only on X - FORCE until issue 25 but I stayed a bit longer because Tony Daniel took over.
Right now I don´t like his art but back then he was still in the THE TENTH phase where he drew very hot babes which also was the selling point.
Speaking of which while Greg Capullo was on X - FACTOR he drew his share of hot babes and let me tell you Boom Boom never looked that good ! To her stripper name she now got the stripper body. Awooo, what a tomato !
Longtime readers know that buxom Tabitha Smith a.k.a. Boom Boom is one of my favorite female Marvel mutants. She was Marvel´s version of Power Girl on NEW MUTANTS ( and later on X-FORCE ) and I´m sure the guys on the team suggested her stripper code name when she hit puberty and her mutant powers were not the only things that developed tremendously.
Even the bad guys knew that Boom Boom was born for porn and in one instance she was even used as bait for the rest of the team. But mainly as bait for Cannonball who at that time was training Tabitha all day and all night. At day he was training her in the danger room putting her through the paces to be a valuable member of X - Force. At night he was taming Boom Boomx in the bedroom with his own rockhard member where he drilled her relentlessly to be his obedient personal blow up sex doll.
Anyway, the bad guy in question placed Boom Boom ( and also Warpath and Syren but he couldn´t care less about then ) in a special contraption that secured her arms while the rest of her overdeveloped teenage body was on full display. As an added incentive he put her into water so her ripe melons would be wet at all times. Whatever happened to super villains who can appreciate good old pervy super heroine bondage ?
This particular super bad knew what his audience craved because to pass time he did a closer inspection of her body with special attention to Boom Boom´s big boom booms. To do that he ripped off almost all of her clothes which made him finally understand why Cannonball wanted to spend so much of his private time with a girl that was so much younger than him.
But after seeing - and probably extensively groping - her booming teenage porn star body and her boner inducing boom booms he knew why Sam was Cannonballing her so hard. He even thought about aborting his plans and disappear in his secret hideout to turn Boom Boom into his sex slave.
As longtime readers know Boom Boom was not only in my pick for an X - Men team she also secured herself the number one position in my first ever COMICBABE BATTLE post about the x - tremely x - rated x - babes !
Coming back to X - FORCE, after Fabian Nicieza left I was just about to give up but somehow I managed to hang on during Tony Daniel´s issues and then Adam Pollina came to the book which gave it a new lease on life.
Around the same time Fabian Nicieza also wrote the second volume of X - MEN until issue 45 mainly with artist Andy Kubert. He was one of the main writers and editors during such iconic crossovers like the aforementioned X - CUTIONER´S SONG or THE PHALANX CONVENANT which introduced one of the most popular mutants of all times - Blink - and AGE OF APOCALYPSE.
Which strangely enough resurrected Blink due to heavy reader demand.
Coming back to the topic of movies, Today Fabian Nicieza is best known for his contributions to the lore of Cable and Deadpool which were bigger than Rob Liefeld´s. Still you hear more of Rob Liefeld because Hollywood.
Fabian Nicieza wrote the first mini series of both as well as the first issues of the CABLE ongoing series and CABLE AND DEADPOOL. So you will see his name in a plethora of reprints that are now flooding the market. Some like the DEADPOOL & X - FORCE OMNIBUS HARDCOVER include issues by Greg Capullo but you can also find them in such trades like X - CUTIONER´S SONG or the ASSAULT ON GRAYMALKIN LANE Marvel premiere hardcover.
There is still another series Fabian Nicieza wrote that I have to mention before I can close this topic. Which is THUNDERBOLTS, one of the best series that Marvel ever put out. Fabian started with issue 34 reuniting with his collaborator from THE NEW WARRIORS, Mark Bagley. Mark left the title after issue 48 at which point Patrick Zircher took over art duties.
Fabian Nicieza stayed on THUNDERBOLTS until issue 75. After that the title was then revamped as that awful super villain fight club and the less said about that the better. Oh, he also wrote some stuff with Citizen V.
One of the many subplots he used during his tenure on THUNDERBOLTS involved the Scourge of the Underworld, created by the late Mark Gruenwald to get rid of fourth or third level villains and is his essay on HOW WOULD YOU FIX ? Nathan Summers ( where have I heard this name before ? ) explains how he would solve the problem of his identity.
Now despite all his accolades in the comic book field Fabian Nicieza sadly also wrote the first four issues of NFL Superpro and as somebody who knows that sometimes you can get more entertainment out of a really badly written comic than a mediocre one I want to add another video.
With all the stuff about Fabian Nicieza in this post I didn´t get to write much about Today´s other comic book related birthday which is Steve Rude, the Dude, who turns 62. Which might be for the best since I am still sad that he has left comic books for good. He is best known for his work on Nexus of which I found a few issues at the Comic Con in Dortmund.
One of the reasons why I finally decided to try my hand at publishing comic books again is the fact that Steve Rude is not working in comics anymore, not out of a delusion that I might somehow replace him but more to the fact of " Well, he suffers from depression. What is your excuse ? " It is heartbreaking that even such artist´s artists like Steve Rude are struggling with their work. Anyway, I am more determined then ever to do a special Steve Rude spotlight post somewhere along the way.
Since I have split up the original post I want to include the days of birth past for December the 30th beginning with Caity Lotz who turned 32. I only know her as White Canary a.k.a. Sarah Lance on Arrow and Legends Of Tomorrow or like I like to call it Lesbians Of Tomorrow. Now don´t get me wrong, I am all for hot girl one clone girl action especially if it involves Caity Lotz wearing such daring outfits like the one below. But there are limits to how much feminist propaganda one can take and after a while it was getting on my nerves that every historic male figure was either totally incompetent, gay or turned out to be a woman. And that all the historic female figures were completely brilliant without any negative traits and much more openly active than what was realistic at that time. I can get behind John Constantine being gay because his sexuality was always a bit murky in the comics. Plus he´s british. And it is great to see more of him after his tv series got undeservedly cancelled. But can we please have a limit on all the SJW politically correct racial gender bending propaganda ?
We continue with Eliza Dushku who celebrated her 38th birthday and whom the older dudes among my readers might remember as Faith on Buffy that had a lot of strong female characters played by such hot actresses like Sarah Michelle Gellar and Charisma Carpenter. Still they somehow managed to do it without it becoming too preachy or annoying.
Cult tv bikini sexbomb Charisma Carpenter is best known as Cordelia Chase on Buffy and the spin off Angel although Today´s kids may better know her from her recurring role on Veronica Mars which means they missed a lot of scorching bikini scenes with Charisma´s huge 34D beach balls.
One of these days I´ll have to get the first season of Veronica Mars to find out how it all started since I came in at the tailend of that season - as usual. Besides Veronica Mars Charisma Carpenter was also in episode 11 of season 5 of Burn Notice where she showed that she still has the goods.
Charisma´s huge funbags alone are worth the price of admission . Daimn !
Lloyd Kaufman turned 70 and while I could write another lengthy post about him I am restraining myself and only adding Today´s cartoon video featuring one of his more famous creations, Toxie, the Toxic Avenger.
Fred Ward celebrated his 76th birthday and while he is best known for Tremors he also starred in the comic book related The Incredible Hulk tv series and the third The Crow movie ( which I don´t think many people saw ). He was the main character in one of my favorite movie franchises that never came to be Remo Williams : The Adventure Begins but I totally forgot that Anna Nicole Smith was his co star in The Naked Gun 33 1/3 - The Final Insult. Daimn, she would have been a heck of a Power Girl !
Which must have been what 89 year old billionaire J. Howard Marshall was thinking when he married the then 26 year old Playmate Of The Month of May 1992 and Playmate Of The Year 1993 in 1994. His family was probably not very thrilled about this since they assumed she only married him for his money which she planned to inherit as soon as possible by having lots of freaky sex with the old guy in as many positions as you can think of. Of which horny J. Howard Marshall probably was aware from the get - go.
This must be the absolutely best way to go : after getting filthy rich you marry a young and flexible blonde Playmate Of The Month with giant 41DD boobs whose only goal in life is to kill you with sex. Who knows to which endurance testing hardcore sex orgies the overinflated living blow up love doll submitted the lucky guy - we only know that it took her thirteen long months to succeed. Man, that was probably the best year of his life !
Anna Nicole Smith didn´t last much longer either with her untimely death in 2007 but instead of engaging in all the negative gossip and rumors about the steady decline of her film career I want to remember her at her best .
Speaking of hot blondes, Fred Ward also appeared in Joe Dirt alongside Brittany Daniel who reprised her role in Joe Dirt 2 and you can also see her in It´s Always Sunny In California, Just Shoot Me !, Club Dread, That 70´s Show, That 80´s Show or Dawson´s Creek. Although for me Brittany will always be the buxom blonde twin who saved my worst summer.
Longtime readers may remember my post from my return to Spain and how far away from everything it is back home. I don´t know if it was during the time when my mother tried to get me to cold turkey comics but one year there was really not much on tv and as I had already read all the books and comics I had brought from my last trip to civilization I was starving for entertainment in form of movies and tv especially involving hot women.
Unfortunately my parents had the control over the remote at that time so the only chance to wrestle it away from them was while they were making dinner. Which meant I was stuck with prime time tv shows which were not really known for including a lot of scantily clad girls. You have to remember this was pre - 24h nonstop tv and naked chicks going at it on HBO. But as fate would have it I discovered Sweet Valley High, which would have been your average teen show if not for the fact that it had two incredibly hot blonde sexbombs with hardbodies that make guys go crazy as the main protagonists who were twins to top things off. Brittany played Jessica Wakefield while her real twin sister Cynthia Daniels - whom you might know from her role in The Basketball Diaries with Leonardo DiCaprio - played Elizabeth Wakefield. This show really helped me through some rough ( and hard ) times and on some days a scene with Brittany / Cynthia in a hot outfit - or even better - a bikini was the highlight of that day.
Here is the best scene from Joe Dirt and I really don´t have a good excuse for why haven´t I already bought this movie for my cult siren collection.
As promised we are closing out things with another video about Freddie Frinton the unknown genius behind the Dinner For One phenomenon.
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The same procedure as every year, James.
