Longtime comic readers know that before Frank Miller revolutionized comic books with the Man without Fear and then again with the Dark Knight and a third time with Sin City he worked on many different Marvel books. And a lot of them involved your friendly neighborhood webhead.
Now when the idea first popped into my head to make a different tribute for Frank Miller´s birthday this year instead of the usual DAREDEVIL post I was not sure if there was enough material. I knew he had done a few SPIDER - MAN issues and at least two annuals but beyond some covers in my Spider - Man folder I was not certain that I could actually pull it off.
Thankfully there was more than enough and after compiling all the original art and covers from AMAZING SPIDER - MAN, SPECTACULAR SPIDER - MAN and MARVEL TEAM - UP I even had to leave some of them out.So for those of you who have read these issues I hope it brings back some nostalgic feels or at least one or two " Oh, yeah, I totally forgot that he did that. " and all others might want to check out these issues if they only know Frank Miller from the work I listed above. I think there is a collection called THE COMPLETE FRANK MILLER SPIDER - MAN and some of these issues are even included in the DAREDEVIL BY FRANK MILLER OMNIBUS COMPANION.
Today we have a lot of links since I had most covers only in bad quality. So besides Heritage Auctions I have to give major props to the PENCIL INK BLOG which saved my ass by providing covers and interior art for Amazing Spider - Man 219 , Amazing Spider - Man Annual 14 plus the original art for the cover , Annual 15 , Spectacular Spider - Man 51 , 55 and 56 , Marvel Team - Up 99 , 102 and last but not least Marvel Team - Up Annual 3 and 4.
You can find many interesting covers and interior pages there from such comics like Spectacular Spider - Man 27 , 28 and 57 , Spider - Man and Daredevil Special Edition 1 , Incredible Hulk 258 , Silver Surfer 18 , Action Comics 566 , New Gods 4 , 5 , 8 , 9 and 10 and Sandman 3 . Since we are on the subject of Jack Kirby, the wraparound cover of issue 6 of the reprint of New Gods that I used in my last post was found on TRASH FILM GURU and COMICS ALLIANCE has 15 Of Jack Kirby´s Wildest DC Covers for you.
To wrap up the links one final " thanks " shoutout goes to MARVEL COMICS OF THE 1980s who posted the original cover art from Amazing Spider - Man 215 as well as from Amazing Spider - Man Auunaul 14 and 15 that I used.
We start Todays birthday checklist with Denys Cowan who turns 57 and I have to say that I have come across his name in more and more comics over the last few years. But if that is a sign of a more eclectic taste in regards to my reading material or only owed to the fact that he worked on a lot of titles I really can´t say. Because besides a long list as a fill - in artist at DC he drew The Vigilante whom you might recognize from the Arrow tv series and Denys´ Cowan´s art gained popularity on a long run of Dennis O´Neil´s The Question in The Question and The Question Quarterly. If you have seen any trades of this character it´s probably from these issues.
Speaking of Arrow, Denys has also graced the pages of Detective Comics, Steel and Mike Grell´s Green Arrow which is the best Green Arrow series bar none in my opinion. I can´t pimp this series enough although I have tried in my special Green Arrow spotlight in three parts where I went over the entirety of all the Green Arrow comics - at least up to 2007 which is when I wrote these - and separated the good from the bad. In fact, these post are ones that I am especially proud of which is why they are included in the posts with the label Everything You Need To Know About TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN which are linked to at the end of each post. So if you want to check them out just use the links above or go to the bottom of this post. Coming back to Mike Grell´s fantastic Green Arrow series, DC is finally putting it out in trades and readers who are new to the mythos of the Emerald Archer will find a lot of stuff from the tv series in the issues like the hood which was lifted directly from the printed page.
As you will be noticing I am pimping a lot of comic books Today and you really can´t fault Denys Cowan´s choice in regards to what he drew.
It may not have been a conscious choice - I´m sure at that time you took the assignments you could as an artist or you didn´t eat - but at Marvel he worked on a lot of Bronze Age titles that are in vogue Today like Black Panther, Marc Spector : Moon Knight a White Tiger back - up in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider - Man and another long run on Power Man and Iron Fist of which you can find a big part in the Epic Collection Power Man and Iron Fist : Revenge. I remember that I bought some issues at the 2009 Leonberg Comic Fair and I even mentioned in my post about my adventures there that I would not have bought the issue by Denys Cowan if I hadn´t read so many issues from Mike Grell´s Green Arrow by him.
Since we are on the subject of Denys Cowan´s artwork at Marvel, my internet source tells me that he was the initial artist for Deathlok but I know for a fact that the character was co - created by Dough Moench and Rich Buckler who drew the first issues. So I did a little research and I can now confirm that Denys Cowan drew the latter half of the 1990 Deathlok mini series and the following regular series. I didn´t read everything from this but I read the mini series and parts of the ongoing series and what I read was pretty interesting. I really don´t know why I never finished the run but if you are interested in Deathlok you should definitely give this a try. Yep, it´s another cool series from the awful 90s. Who´d have thought ?
By the way, I´m still majorly pissed off that they managed to sneak that character beside me on Marvel´s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. since he´s one of my favorite time traveling reanimated dead corpses . I´m supposed to be knowledgeable about these things but they really pulled a fast one here.
Coming back to Denys Cowan, one of the the reasons why I am now so familiar with his name is that he was one of the founders of Milestone Media. Which I didn´t read when it came out probably because I couldn´t appreciate the idea behind it. Which was not to create more black comic characters but comic characters of a different ethnicity than caucasian.
Well, as longtime readers might remember I bought a whole bundle of 42 comics for 19.49 EUROS in 2016 which included my first Milestone issues from Hardware, Icon and Static. One of these days I have to do the follow - up with the reviews of the Valiant and Milestone comics I bought.
The interesting thing I learned about Milestone Media is that it was not a label or imprint of DC comics but its own company that produced comics which were then licensed to DC comics. Which is a fancy way of saying that they retained creator rights on all of the characters and if DC was not pleased with the content Milestone was not obligated to compromise. At Milestone Denys drew covers and was the regular artist on Hardware.
On top of that he worked for television animation and has been a writer, artist and producer on Static Shock. Which is a cartoon series that I should have known about as a comic fan but which somehow got past my radar.
Since I have already posted all the good Milestone videos I could find on YouTube here is one about the evolution of The Question in the comics who not only played an interesting role in the animated Justice League Unlimited series ( which is the best animated Justice League series ) but also served as Alan Moore´s inspiration for the Watchmen´s Rohrschach.
We have a nice connection to Milestone Comics with Jody Watley who celebrates her 59th birthday. I think her popularity was on the downswing when Milestone was formed but she was still doing her own thing and I always felt that she did not reach the cult status she should have held.
Jody Watley started her career at 14 as a dancer on Soul Train where she became one of the most popular ones because she was a trendsetter for dance moves and fashion style. She became a member of Shalamar - which I´m sure doesn´t mean anything to my younger readers - and started her solo career in March 1987. Jody co - wrote six songs on her debut album.
Okay, after our detour to black history month it´s back to Whitey with Fred Hembeck who turns 65. He did a lot of funny strips and pin ups in all the Marvel publications I was reading in the 80s and I have to confess that it wasn´t love at first sight. Back then I was really picky when an artist not met my criteria for good art - and I guess that is still true to some extent - and I didn´t get Fred Hembeck at all. His figures look stiff, he pokes fun at my favorite characters, their faces are strange looking and what the hell is up with their knees ? He doesn´t draw knees just the weird round things where the knees should be and I did not share Doctor Who´s fondness of round things. It took me a long time to appreciate Fred Hembeck´s work.
Unlike the work of Dann Thomas who celebrates her 66th birthday. As you might have guessed from the name she is the wife of Roy Thomas and has worked in comic books from 1981 to 1994 which were my years of finding my place in american comics and evolving my tastes in reading material.
Which as you also might have guessed involved a lot of the comic books she wrote. I am outing myself here to some extent where the age is concerned but does anyone remember the Arak, Son Of Thunder series that came out from 1981 to 1985 ? Well, guess what. That was based on a concept she suggested, namely a native american discovering Europe.
The series was written by Roy Thomas and the artists were co - creator Tony DeZuniga and Ernie Colon whom you might recall I just mentioned in my post about the spanish comics from my misspent youth. Yep, we keep coming back to the same people again and again here. The series was also published here in Germany where it was part of Ehapa´s line Die Grossen Phantastic Comics that included Don Lawrence´s Storm, Mike Grell´s Warlord, Brian Bolland´s Camelot 300, Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld and Taar. Although the series lasted 50 issues only a dozen or so found their way here and for some reason they called it Arok instead of Arak.
One corners of the DC universe where she did the main writing work with her husband involves a group I have become more interested in recent years : the Justice Society of America and their legacy characters. The reason for that is that I did not even know that Young All - Stars existed, I had read Infinity Inc but like I mentioned in a recent Jerry Ordways post the series never made it to Germany and so I only had access to the few scattershot issues my brother bought in Spain and I still haven´t found the Johnni Thunder series. I have however read the America vs the Justice Society trade which is the best complete overview of the team´s entire history. Still on my " to read " pile is The Last Days of the Justice Society.
You won´t hear her mentioned in the current ramblings of all the SJWs about getting women into comics, female comic characters and Wonder Woman but Dann Thomas was actually the first woman to receive writing credit on Wonder Woman with issue 300. If you haven´t checked it out yer the anniversary issue is a 72 page whopper with art by such greats as Gene Colan ( who was the regular artist at that time and I still regret not buying the spanish hardcover collection of his work on that title ), Rich Buckler, Ross Andru, Dick Giordano, Keith Giffen or Tom Mandrake. And just take a gander at the gorgeous wraparound cover by Ed Hannigan.
At Marvel the couple co - wrote Doctor Strange : Sorcerer Supreme, Avengers West Coast, Saga of the Sub - Mariner and Black Knight and while you can find most of them very easily Saga of the Sub - Mariner was a more elusive beast - at least for me. I could not find it up until Today.
The thing is I had only seen issue 10 at a con a very long time ago - which I grabbed up immediately - and I never saw another issue anywhere else.
What hooked me right away is that unlike Elektra Saga which just reprints the Daredevil issues in which she appeared or Wolverine Saga which is just a catalogue of Wolverine´s story with some art from various comic books Saga of the Sub - Mariner is actually a completely new story that retells the complete history of Marvel´s king of Atlantis - at least up to that point. It is superbly written by Dann Thomas, beautifully penciled by the aforementioned Rich Buckler and inked by the great Bob McLeod whom you also don´t find much in Today´s comic pages. What is it that such a master of the craft can´t get work yet every time you open a new Marvel comic you have to fight not to vomit because the art is so bad ?
Now I can´t tell you how chances are to find single issues but there is a trade paperback called Sub - Mariner & The Original Human Torch that includes the complete 12 issue mini series plus the 4 issue mini series Saga of the Original Human Torch from 1990 ( I just keep pimping comic book series from the 90s in the post ) by Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler - again - and Danny Bulanadi. I can´t say anything else about the trade because I just ordered it through amazon and it will not be here for two to three weeks.
Well, how´s that for a forgotten Namor mini series that is so obscure that it was not even mentioned in the recent SUB - MARINER MEGA POST over at link partner COMIC BITS ONLINE ? Eat your heart out, Terry Hooper !
This section gets longer and longer but there are two more birthdays I have to cover. First off Gene Hackman turns 88 and besides starring in a gazillion movies like The French Connection, Target, Mississippi Burning, No Way Out, Bat 21, Narrow Margin, Company Business, Unforgiven, The Firm, The Quick And The Dead, Crimson Tide ( with the famous scene about who was the best artist on Silver Surfer ), Absolute Power, Enemy Of The State, Heartbreakers ( where he starred opposite Jennifer Love´s Huge Tits ) or Heist he was my generation´s Lex Luthor in the first two Superman films and the much ignored The Quest For Peace. So I just had to mention him on a blog that took part of its name from the Man of Steel.
Speaking of the original Superman movies, so far also no actress has surpassed Valerie Perrine as Luthor´s aide / sexbomb Miss Teschmacher.
Isn´t it strange how the guys at Hollywood always act like the old movies are tame compared to Todays entertainment that´s so cutting edge and risky yet because of the political correctness BS the last version of Miss Teschmacher was a sexually non threatening girlie with as much charisma as a glass of milk while we had a 39B Playboy cover model in the original version who was the first actress to purposely display herself nude on american television ? Many people don´t know it but centerfold Valerie Perrine also appeared in one of the best known scenes from the first Cannonball Run movie and the reason for that is that she´s uncredited.
The most remembered scenes from that movie involve the Lamborghini Babes played by Tara Buckman and cult siren Adrienne Barbeau. I have written about Adrienne Barbeau before who was in such cult classics like The Fog, Swamp Ting, Escape From New York and - arguably - Creepshow.
Now I don´t think I have to explain the Lamborghini Babes whose main trick to avoid getting hassled by the cops is flashing some cleavage.
Which doesn´t work on this hot lady cop played by Valerie Perrine.
Speaking about Cannonball Run, one of my pet pevees on this blog is celebrating all the brave actresses who turn insufferable dreck into bearable entertainment by taking their clothes off or at least show what their Mama gave them and who don´t get enough recognition for that.
Now if you have seen Cannonball Run you will remember the hot waitress with the extra - large double whoppers in the opening scene whose name is not in the opening credits, in the end credits or on any internet page ( and believe me fella, I´ve looked ). Well, just recently I found a clip with some scenes of Farrah Fawcett from the movie and her scene is also in there. So far I just called her The Busenwunder Waitress but now I can tell you that her real name is Vickie Reigle. Now in Germany Vickie is not really a good name for a woman - just ask german singer Nikki who had to suffer a lot of dirty jokes because of her name ( what rhymes with " Nikki ? " ).
Since I still haven´t gotten around to do a cult siren post on her and I do not know when I have the next chance to mention her I want to include this clip of Adrienne Barbeau on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson where she looks absolutely stunning ! Hubba hubba, what a tomato !
As you might have guessed at this point I have an affinity for obscure things so I wanted to include a clip from the 1988 Superman cartoon by Ruby Spears that most people seem to have forgotten. Not only because it incorporated many trappings from the Richard Donner Superman movies like Lex Luthor having a bumbling henchman but also since it is the first time he has a female assistant. Although she goes by Jessica Morganberry - which I do not find easier to remember than Eve Teschmacher - she was clearly modeled after Valerie Perrine. And naturally the producers had to make this secretary less of a steamy sexbomb and more of a clutz like Otis probably because the little boys could be shot into puberty prematurely.
Our last anniversary is in the Dearly Departed section and I was not sure if I should include belgian comic creator Jeff Nys because I discovered his comic series Jommeke just a few years ago during the Gratis Comic Day.
Apparently the strip had already been published in Germany under the name of Peter und Alexander and in english as Jeremy. Since I could not find a clip of the Jommeke movie in good quality and I can´t understand a word in all the other videos here is one where you see somebody ( maybe the artist ? some explanations would have been nice ) inking the strip.
Since all the other videos in this post are rather short ones I want to include at least one that is a bit longer. I often get asked whom I am writing these posts for and why I always include so many videos. As longtime readers know I spent a few months in Spain looking for a job in a very secluded and isolated village and when I could not watch tv my only access to any kind of entertainment was the internet. So my target audience are persons looking for something interesting to read about comics and pop culture, hopefully funny and uplifting. I modeled my blog after one I frequented whenever I was down so my goal is that people come here and spend a few hours reading, looking at some great art and finding some entertainment with a few videos. I try not to overdo it and always cover five different areas : comics, movies, hot babes, music and cartoons. I want to close with another series people may not be aware of since they only know the recent adaptions of The Chronicles Of Narnia.
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest / best of the best
Oh, Father Neptune ! What dread deed you ask of your avenging son !
