Tales from the Bronze Age

This is mandatory viewing for anyone who grew up reading DC Comics in the late 60s, early 70s. Longtime comic writer/onetime Jack Kirby assistant Mark Evanier interviews DC writer/editor/onetime publisher Paul Levitz about going from 14 year old fan to publisher. It's two fanboys-turned-pros who discuss their early disillusionment with the industry and how they made things better for artists.

Levitz has some horror stories about how DC treated its talent; but there's also some hope toward the end when Levitz (and others) worked to give neglected artists their due (and royalties).

Due to the time difference (Evanier is in LA, Levitz is in NY) Levitz seems to be getting sleepy toward the end, and some of the questions from viewers that Evanier introduces aren't questions at all, just comments, leaving the low-energy Levitz to just give one-word non-answers.

But there are a lot of stories about your favorite DC artists an inkers from the silver/bronze age and what the staff at DC really felt about them. (most cringe-worthy: DC executive tells Evanier to tell Kirby to try to draw more like Curt Swan.)

Review: Action Comics #1000

The good:

The standout in this anniversary issue is "The Car," a story idea so simple it's amazing no one has thought about it before. We've seen hundreds of retcons, and reboots of the Superman mythology over the past 80 years, but this is the first story to ask, what exactly happened to that car Superman smashed on the cover of Action Comics #1?

Genius!

It could have been titled, "Action Comics #1: The Next Day." We find out what happened to the car, and by extension, what happened to the owner of the car who, as you remember, was kidnapping Lois Lane at the time he met up with Superman. The clever story is by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner, with exceptional art by Olivier Coipel.

The whole book is an homage to Superman, but only "The Car" is an homage to Action Comics.

They brought some creative icons back and they're always welcome: Neal Adams! Jim Steranko! Jose Garcia Lopez! Jerry Ordway! Marv Wolfman! Paul Levitz! Any comic book with only one of these creators is worth picking up ... and studying.

There's an amazing greatest hits package by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason who give us a quick 80-year history through a series of full page recreations. Beautiful.

It ends with a Brian Michael Bendis, Jim Lee cliffhanger which introduces a whole new villain and storyline to be carried out in the future. It's intriguing for now, let's see where it goes.

The head scratchers:


There are two stories where Superman and Lex Luthor stand around and chat. Really, two? Lex Luthor bores me for the same reason the Joker does. He is the default villain. Make a Superman movie, use Luthor as the villain. Make another Superman movie, use Luthor as the villain, make another Superman movie, Luthor. Reboot the franchise: Use Luthor, reboot the franchise again? Luthor, yet again.


And he's not that good a villain.

The other disappointment was the Curt Swan chapter. Yeah, I get it, he was the Superman artist for 20 years, but the unpublished art they use doesn't even have Superman (just his narration, what a cheat!), and secondly, they must have been working with some really rough pencils because after it was digitized and colorized and photoshopped, very little of it looks like Curt Swan's work, same for the full page of Superman by Swan and inked by Kurt Shaffenberger, these two had extremely distinctive styles, all washed out by the time Photoshop got finished with them. I would have been happy with a single page of Superman flying from Swan and Murphy Anderson.

Do they drag out the Superman Day celebration (where something evil is afoot) every anniversary issue. It just seemed very familiar.

Though it's Action Comics' landmark issue, it's all about Superman. Where are the homages to the heroes of its back-up features.  We have two cameos of the Justice League en masse, but no Zatara? Where's the Human Target, Tex Thompson, The Vigilante, the Atom, Green Arrow? When comics had substantial page counts, Superman didn't carry Action alone. I loved those backup features. If I wanted to read just all Superman  stories, I'd get Superman, if I wanted some variety, I'd get Action.

Adventure Comics 395

So back on Krypton they had these triceratop creatures who had giant flat-screen TVs on their heads that showed the viewer the animal's intentions, which for the most part were eating the viewer. In fact I think this was the only channel on triceratop TV, the triceratop eating you.

Let's look at some practical implications. If that animal is charging you, do you really need to read its mind to know what it wants to do?

Second, apparently, DC Comics invented the flat-screen TV.

Seriously though...

This was not the Kryptonian Thought Beast's first appearance in DC Comics, I know he appeared before but I couldn't tell you when or where. It might have been one of those Mort Weisinger stories of Superman going back in time to Krypton where he, Lois or Lana were always screwing around with Kryptonian history.

I read this when I was 7. I didn't buy it though, one of my brothers or sisters might have brought it in the house. Either way I remember staring at the vivid colors on the Swan-Anderson cover and falling in love with Supergirl.

The book disappeared (I suspect mom threw it out), this was before I was buying/collecting, so years later I tracked down the issue and snapped it up. (Pre-eBay, no easy feat). Upon revisiting the book I was surprised that the cover image represented the back-up story! And the art inside was by Kurt Shaffenberger, and as good as he was, he wasn't as good as Swanderson.

All in all, a lot of fun for 15 cents, and then 10 years later for $5.

TPB Review: Supreme

I complain a lot that comic books today lack a sense of wonder, and worse, fun! Alan Moore thought the same thing when he was writing Supreme for Image. Supreme was Moore's homage to the Weisenger-era Superman. After starting the trend of gritty, realistic comics in the '80s, he was in the '90s almost apologizing. Making them fun again.

Each issue started with a modern-day story, then switched to a thematically linked flashback drawn in the style of the silver age, and for an added touch, printed on intentionally yellowed paper. How cool is that? For a half hour you were ten again reading from a big stack of silver-age comics. Then the modern story would wrap things up.

I loved they got 1960s Supergirl artist Jim Mooney to do the flashback Suprema story. I was in comic nerd heaven. If only they could have gotten Curt Swan to do an issue.

The books are available in trade paperback. Go! Pick them up!

Best Curt Swan Inker

This is a post for the true comic book geeks. Who was Curt Swan's best inker? Swan was of course the Superman artist from the '60s to the '80s. The question is who was his best inker. If you're a baby boomer and read Superman in the '60s, the answer is probably George Klein. Clean lines, a massive chest, a 'Mad Men'-era haircut. Truly manly.

Then the '70s came along and Murphy Anderson started inking, and everything changed. The lines were feathered, and Superman was dragged out of the '50s. Sideburns! Anderson would be my favorite inker and though most of his work on Swan was from the early '70s, he'd still pop up through the '80s on one-shots. DC definitely needs to put out a Swanderson trade paperback.

The late '70s also gave us Bob Oksner, Dave Hunt and Kurt Shaffenberger. Oksner was probably the most true to Swan's pencils. Not a lot of flair, but a real solid Klein-like consistency. Shaffenberger could make any penciller look like Shaffenberger. Compare his work on Swan to his work on his own pencils and you'll see little difference. Shaffenberger did make the most perfect S insignia though.

When asked, Swan said his favorite was Al Williamson, an EC Comics veteran who, once again, put his own imprint on Swan's pencils. It is an interesting look.