And thus, the Cryer bites it.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Skull Mob 5-10
Today's Webcomic:
Skull Mob #5/Bad Rapture Chapter 3/Page 10.
And thus, the Cryer bites it.
And thus, the Cryer bites it.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
My Top 10 Jack Kirby Comics
One more Jack Kirby Top 10 List to close out Jack Kirby Day. Here's my Top 10 Jack Kirby Comics Series. This whole list should be pretty obvious (and a bit of a retread of the last list), but let's do it anyway.
10. Devil Dinosaur-
The Plot: In the dawn of Prehistory, a primitive boy named Moon Boy, and his "brother" Devil, a red T-Rex, have crazy adventures.
The Legacy: Like most of Kirby's 70s series, Devil Dinosaur is not well received by critics or audiences, and is generally looked down upon by most. Still, it's got a pretty strong cult following, and Devil seems to pop up every few years in a mini-series or guest appearance. I also saw him on an episode of "The Super Hero Squad Show".
Why I Love It: It's a comic about a red T-Rex fighting other dinosaurs, giant men, giant spiders, giant ants, and aliens from outer frickin' space. How is that not awesome?
9. The Eternals-
The Plot: At the dawn of time, giant, armored spacegods called the Celestials showed up on Earth and performed experiments on Primitive Man. The end result was three races, Humans (that's Us!), Eternals, a race of immortal, god-like beings, and the Deviants, a race of genetically random monsters. Flashforward to the present (well, the 70s anyways), and the Celestials have returned to observe and pass judgement on the planet. If we are deemed unworthy, the Celestials will exterminate all life on Earth!
The Legacy: The Celestials have become an essential part of Marvel's pantheon of cosmic gods, and Kirby's origin of humanity has become a part of Marvel's basic Mythology. Also, a Celestial pops up in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Why I Love It: Ahem. Giant Armored Space Gods. One of them has a code ON HIS THUMB that has the power to END ALL LIFE ON OUR PLANET! After reading the Eternals, everything else not written by Kirby just seems boring.
8. The Demon-
The Plot: When Camelot falls, the only one to escape and protect the secrets of allmighty Merlin is Jason Blood, who, in reality, can transform into the monstrous Etrigan the Demon! Let those who serve Evil Beware the Power of Merlin's Demon!
The Legacy: Again, outside of Darkseid, the Demon is the most prominent and enduring character Jack Kirby created at DC, and has been revived numerous times. The Demon has appeared in several DC Cartoons and there's been some toys of him.
Why I Love It: It's not your typical Kirby book. Kirby didn't feel comfortable doing Horror comics, so you get to see the King operating out of his wheelhouse. So there's lots of crazy stuff going on in this series. Plus, there's lots of monsters, and nobody does monsters better than Kirby did. Not even me.
7. Kamandi the Last Boy-
The Plot: After the great disaster, mankind has been reduced to primitive animals, while the animals have become intelligent and replaced humankind. In the midst of this chaos arises Kamandi, the last intelligent boy on earth. Desperate to return humanity to its former glory, Kamandi wonders the insane wilderness, looking for a better tomorrow.
The Legacy: Largely forgotten, but Kamandi has popped up here and there, most notably on the cartoon "Batman: The Brave and the Bold".
Why I Love It: There's never a dull moment in Kamandi's world. Every issue is a crazy, wild trip full of talking animal societies, mutant insects, robots, super intelligent dolphins, and so forth and so on. You really don't know Fun Comix until you've read Kamandi.
6. Thor-
The Plot: Lame Dr. Donald Blake finds a walking stick that turns out to be the hammer of Thor. Thanks to a mystic enchantment, the hammer turns Dr. Blake into the Mighty Thor. Now, the thunder god fights evil and stuff.
The Legacy: Three huge big budget movies that've made lots of moolah, more merchandise than you can shake a stick at, and a core character in the Marvel Universe. Seriously, right now you can go to a Toys R Us anywhere and score a toy Mjlonr, which is pretty much identical to Kirby's original design.
Why I Love It: Once Kirby got rolling on this series it was a hoot. From Thor's brawls with Hercules to his showdowns with Loki, to the excellent "Tales of Asgard" back up stories, to the Magedon epic... man, those were some killer comics.
5. Fantastic Four
The Plot: After trying to beat the Ruskies into space, four intrepid would-be astronauts are exposed to cosmic rays and become... the Fantastic Four! Now, Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, and the ever loving blue eyed Thing do their best to protect the world from evil. Because that's what you do, y'know?
The Legacy: A couple of kinda crummy movies. Some toys and cartoons. The best thing this series gave us (and Marvel) was a plethora of brilliant characters including Dr. Doom, the Inhumans, the Black Panther, Galactus, and, of course, the Silver Surfer. Also, this essentially led to the birth of the Cosmic Comics Genre.
Why I Love It: It introduced the Silver Surfer and Galactus. It gave birth to the Cosmic Comics Genre. It essentially put me on my Life Path. Plus, the stories are awesome. And it was Kirby's longest run on a comic to boot.
4. Captain America
The Plot: 90 pound weakling Steve Rogers wants to beat up Nazis, but he's too big a weenie, so he volunteers for a special program where is injected with the Super Soldier Serum and becomes awesome Captain America and punches Nazis. Then he gets frozen in ice and wakes up years later so he can punch more Nazis.
The Legacy: Again, three big budget movies that've made lots of moolah, tons of merch, a central character of the Marvel Universe, the Iconic Shield, and, perhaps most importantly, the original Captain America completely redefined Action in Comics.
Why I Love It: I love the whirlwind craziness and nonstop action of the original 1940s comics. I love the brilliant action-movie coolness of the 1960s comics. And I love the sheer weirdness of those crazy 1970s comics.
3. OMAC
The Plot: In the world that is to come, a single war could envelope the whole world in nuclear armageddon, so the World Peace Agency uses a giant satellite called Brother Eye to turn a loser named Buddy Blank into OMAC, the One Man Army Corps!
The Legacy: Arguably even more obscure than Kamandi, OMAC was in an episode of Batman: Brave and the Bold, and that's really it. Various revivals have been attempted, but none of them are anything like the original. Not really anyway.
Why I LOVE It: There are only two reactions to OMAC, instant revulsion or instant love. Obviously, I loves it. I mean, this series is so utterly, brilliantly, unrepenatantly INSANE... I don't even have the words to properly describe how beautiful this series is.
2. Mister Miracle
The Plot: Born on peaceful New Genesis, but raised on nightmarish Apokalypse, daring Scott Free escapes to Earth and becomes Mister Miracle, the world's first super escape artist! But the forces of Apokalypse don't wanna let Scott go, so our hero has to making death defying escape after death defying escape if he wants to keep his freedom.
The Legacy: All of the 4th World books get revived every few years. Mister Miracle appears in an episode of Justice League Unlimited and Batman the Brave and the Bold.
Why I Love It: Every issue has lots of crazy escapes, cool gadgets, and some crazy villain looking to kill Mr. Miracle. Plus, there's Big Barda, Kirby's best female character, barreling through the book like a female freight train. And then there's Mr. Miracle himself, who not only has the coolest costume ever, he's a fast thinking, hard working hero who solves his problems by having more guts and faster moves than his enemies. Speaking of which, this series also gave us Granny Goodness, a truly terrifying villain who represents motherhood gone acidic. "Himon" is my second favorite comic story of all time.
1. New Gods
The Plot: Peaceful New Genesis and dark Apokalypse stand on the brink of cosmic war. Vile Darkseid has traveled to Earth in hopes of discovering the Anti-Life Equation, a powerful idea that will give Darkseid absolute control of all life in the Universe. Yeah. Opposing him is his son, Orion, who was raised on New Genesis, and is destined to meet his father in battle.
The Legacy: The most important thing to come out of the New Gods is Darkseid, who has proven to be the greatest villain in the history of the DCU (yes, the Joker can suck it).
Why I Love It: Jeeeeeez. "The Glory Boat"? "The Pact"? "The Deathwish of Terrible Turpin"? BEST. COMICS. EVER. MADE. BY. ANYONE. EVER.
And with that, we close out Jack Kirby Day. Night.
10. Devil Dinosaur-
The Plot: In the dawn of Prehistory, a primitive boy named Moon Boy, and his "brother" Devil, a red T-Rex, have crazy adventures.
The Legacy: Like most of Kirby's 70s series, Devil Dinosaur is not well received by critics or audiences, and is generally looked down upon by most. Still, it's got a pretty strong cult following, and Devil seems to pop up every few years in a mini-series or guest appearance. I also saw him on an episode of "The Super Hero Squad Show".
Why I Love It: It's a comic about a red T-Rex fighting other dinosaurs, giant men, giant spiders, giant ants, and aliens from outer frickin' space. How is that not awesome?
9. The Eternals-
The Plot: At the dawn of time, giant, armored spacegods called the Celestials showed up on Earth and performed experiments on Primitive Man. The end result was three races, Humans (that's Us!), Eternals, a race of immortal, god-like beings, and the Deviants, a race of genetically random monsters. Flashforward to the present (well, the 70s anyways), and the Celestials have returned to observe and pass judgement on the planet. If we are deemed unworthy, the Celestials will exterminate all life on Earth!
The Legacy: The Celestials have become an essential part of Marvel's pantheon of cosmic gods, and Kirby's origin of humanity has become a part of Marvel's basic Mythology. Also, a Celestial pops up in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Why I Love It: Ahem. Giant Armored Space Gods. One of them has a code ON HIS THUMB that has the power to END ALL LIFE ON OUR PLANET! After reading the Eternals, everything else not written by Kirby just seems boring.
8. The Demon-
The Plot: When Camelot falls, the only one to escape and protect the secrets of allmighty Merlin is Jason Blood, who, in reality, can transform into the monstrous Etrigan the Demon! Let those who serve Evil Beware the Power of Merlin's Demon!
The Legacy: Again, outside of Darkseid, the Demon is the most prominent and enduring character Jack Kirby created at DC, and has been revived numerous times. The Demon has appeared in several DC Cartoons and there's been some toys of him.
Why I Love It: It's not your typical Kirby book. Kirby didn't feel comfortable doing Horror comics, so you get to see the King operating out of his wheelhouse. So there's lots of crazy stuff going on in this series. Plus, there's lots of monsters, and nobody does monsters better than Kirby did. Not even me.
7. Kamandi the Last Boy-
The Plot: After the great disaster, mankind has been reduced to primitive animals, while the animals have become intelligent and replaced humankind. In the midst of this chaos arises Kamandi, the last intelligent boy on earth. Desperate to return humanity to its former glory, Kamandi wonders the insane wilderness, looking for a better tomorrow.
The Legacy: Largely forgotten, but Kamandi has popped up here and there, most notably on the cartoon "Batman: The Brave and the Bold".
Why I Love It: There's never a dull moment in Kamandi's world. Every issue is a crazy, wild trip full of talking animal societies, mutant insects, robots, super intelligent dolphins, and so forth and so on. You really don't know Fun Comix until you've read Kamandi.
6. Thor-
The Plot: Lame Dr. Donald Blake finds a walking stick that turns out to be the hammer of Thor. Thanks to a mystic enchantment, the hammer turns Dr. Blake into the Mighty Thor. Now, the thunder god fights evil and stuff.
The Legacy: Three huge big budget movies that've made lots of moolah, more merchandise than you can shake a stick at, and a core character in the Marvel Universe. Seriously, right now you can go to a Toys R Us anywhere and score a toy Mjlonr, which is pretty much identical to Kirby's original design.
Why I Love It: Once Kirby got rolling on this series it was a hoot. From Thor's brawls with Hercules to his showdowns with Loki, to the excellent "Tales of Asgard" back up stories, to the Magedon epic... man, those were some killer comics.
5. Fantastic Four
The Plot: After trying to beat the Ruskies into space, four intrepid would-be astronauts are exposed to cosmic rays and become... the Fantastic Four! Now, Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, and the ever loving blue eyed Thing do their best to protect the world from evil. Because that's what you do, y'know?
The Legacy: A couple of kinda crummy movies. Some toys and cartoons. The best thing this series gave us (and Marvel) was a plethora of brilliant characters including Dr. Doom, the Inhumans, the Black Panther, Galactus, and, of course, the Silver Surfer. Also, this essentially led to the birth of the Cosmic Comics Genre.
Why I Love It: It introduced the Silver Surfer and Galactus. It gave birth to the Cosmic Comics Genre. It essentially put me on my Life Path. Plus, the stories are awesome. And it was Kirby's longest run on a comic to boot.
4. Captain America
The Plot: 90 pound weakling Steve Rogers wants to beat up Nazis, but he's too big a weenie, so he volunteers for a special program where is injected with the Super Soldier Serum and becomes awesome Captain America and punches Nazis. Then he gets frozen in ice and wakes up years later so he can punch more Nazis.
The Legacy: Again, three big budget movies that've made lots of moolah, tons of merch, a central character of the Marvel Universe, the Iconic Shield, and, perhaps most importantly, the original Captain America completely redefined Action in Comics.
Why I Love It: I love the whirlwind craziness and nonstop action of the original 1940s comics. I love the brilliant action-movie coolness of the 1960s comics. And I love the sheer weirdness of those crazy 1970s comics.
3. OMAC
The Plot: In the world that is to come, a single war could envelope the whole world in nuclear armageddon, so the World Peace Agency uses a giant satellite called Brother Eye to turn a loser named Buddy Blank into OMAC, the One Man Army Corps!
The Legacy: Arguably even more obscure than Kamandi, OMAC was in an episode of Batman: Brave and the Bold, and that's really it. Various revivals have been attempted, but none of them are anything like the original. Not really anyway.
Why I LOVE It: There are only two reactions to OMAC, instant revulsion or instant love. Obviously, I loves it. I mean, this series is so utterly, brilliantly, unrepenatantly INSANE... I don't even have the words to properly describe how beautiful this series is.
2. Mister Miracle
The Plot: Born on peaceful New Genesis, but raised on nightmarish Apokalypse, daring Scott Free escapes to Earth and becomes Mister Miracle, the world's first super escape artist! But the forces of Apokalypse don't wanna let Scott go, so our hero has to making death defying escape after death defying escape if he wants to keep his freedom.
The Legacy: All of the 4th World books get revived every few years. Mister Miracle appears in an episode of Justice League Unlimited and Batman the Brave and the Bold.
Why I Love It: Every issue has lots of crazy escapes, cool gadgets, and some crazy villain looking to kill Mr. Miracle. Plus, there's Big Barda, Kirby's best female character, barreling through the book like a female freight train. And then there's Mr. Miracle himself, who not only has the coolest costume ever, he's a fast thinking, hard working hero who solves his problems by having more guts and faster moves than his enemies. Speaking of which, this series also gave us Granny Goodness, a truly terrifying villain who represents motherhood gone acidic. "Himon" is my second favorite comic story of all time.
1. New Gods
The Plot: Peaceful New Genesis and dark Apokalypse stand on the brink of cosmic war. Vile Darkseid has traveled to Earth in hopes of discovering the Anti-Life Equation, a powerful idea that will give Darkseid absolute control of all life in the Universe. Yeah. Opposing him is his son, Orion, who was raised on New Genesis, and is destined to meet his father in battle.
The Legacy: The most important thing to come out of the New Gods is Darkseid, who has proven to be the greatest villain in the history of the DCU (yes, the Joker can suck it).
Why I Love It: Jeeeeeez. "The Glory Boat"? "The Pact"? "The Deathwish of Terrible Turpin"? BEST. COMICS. EVER. MADE. BY. ANYONE. EVER.
And with that, we close out Jack Kirby Day. Night.
My Top 10 Jack Kirby Characters
A better sketch of my Hero, the King of Comics, Jack Kirby:
I like this one better than the one from this morning.
Anyway, I said I'd do some Top Tens. Right now is my Personal Top 10 Favorite Jack Kirby Superheroes! Yes, I'm gonna limit it to Heroes, which, unfortunately knocks out Dr. Doom, Darkseid, and Galactus. Anyway, let's get on with it:
Honorable Mention: The Black Panther: Besides being the first Black Superhero in comics history (and, quite frankly, the most iconic and memorable black superhero in comics history (nobody remembers you, Blade)), the Panther was cool for a lot of reasons. For starters, he was the anti-Dr. Doom, namely, a normal human with no powers who go toe to toe with superpowered beings, while also being the ruler of his own country. While Doom was a fascist dictator, Panther was a benevolent king of a country where everyone was prosperous and worked together for the greater good. Also, his costume is the model for less is more. It's so simple but so utterly brilliant in its design.
10. Devil Dinosaur: Fools mock Devil Dinosaur, but us hip cats know that the Red T-Rex is the real deal! Solid! Anyway, Devil Dinosaur is a dinosaur who beats up any monster stupid enough to get in his way. How cool is that?
9. Etrigan the Demon: Gone! Gone! The Form of Man! Return the Demon Etrigan! Kirby's second greatest anti-hero, the Demon was also his 2nd most iconic creation at DC (Darkseid being the first). Etrigan has appeared in numerous comics, cartoons, and toys, and is one of Kirby's most popular cult characters. Sadistic, vicious, ugly, and unpredictable, Etrigan is almost the antithesis of a typical Kirby hero, which is part of what makes him cool. Also, he breathes fire and cackles in the face of certain doom. Gotta love that.
8. Kamandi the Last Boy on Earth: Kamandi's got a lot of potential strikes against him. His design is simple (ripped jean shorts and boots and that's it), his hair is ridiculous, and he's got no superpowers going for him. Also, he's so obscure, you gotta be a super Kirby fan to even know who he is. BUT, what makes Kamandi so awesome is his endless supply of grit. Trapped in a world of talking, intelligent animals and relegated to being nothing more than a pack animal, Kamandi won't take no crap from no talking apes or dogs or whatever. Give Kamandi some guff, and he'll give it right back with his fists a flying. I like that.
7. The Thing: How can you not love the Thing? The ultimate blue collar hero, Ben Grimm is a monster with a heart of gold, forever cursed to be an ugly Thing. A roughneck brawler, Ben was never that bright, but what he lacked in brains he made up in guts, smashing anyone stupid enough to mess with his extended family, the Fantastic Four. His rock cover hide is one of the most iconic designs in comic history.
6. Thor: Welp, do I really need to do a run down on this one? 3 blockbuster movies. Tons of merchandise. That iconic hammer designed by the King. Kirby took classic mythology, invented new mythology, and then combined it with his modern day superhero sensibilities. All that cool stuff you see Thor do with his hammer in the movies? All Kirby.
5. Captain America: Again, I shouldn't really have to explain Captain America. I've always loved the character, long before I even knew who Kirby was. Love the costume, love the shield, love the never say die attitude. I loved the comics, and I loved both the movies, both of which borrow liberally from the King. Need I say more?
4. OMAC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: Ahem. OMAC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The One Man Army Corps!!!!!!!!!! He is from The WORLD THAT IS TO COME!!!!!!! HE HAS A MOHAWK!!!!!!!! A Computer from Space Aids and Protects in the Fight with Evil!!!! In the world of the Future, Any War could lead to Nuclear Extinction, so OMAC exists to Prevent all Wars by PUNCHING PEOPLE IN THE FACE UNTIL THEY STOP BEING WARLIKE!!!!!!!! To Bring Peace, OMAC MUST BE VIOLENT!!!!! COMIXXXXXX!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3. Orion: Kirby's other anti-hero, Orion is more complex and interesting than Etrigan. He's also an ultraviolent spacegod who blows people up with Death Rays. Orion is a strangely conflicted character. Born on the nightmare world of Apocalypse, but raised on the peaceful world of New Genesis, Orion is an argument for Nurture overcoming Nature, as Orion strives to overcome his internal demons in his quest to bring peace to the universe by destroying his own father, Darkseid, lord of Apocalypse. One of the many things that I love about Orion is that no one has ever done a better job of writing or presenting the character than Kirby did. Kirby's version is still the most definitive. Also, again, Death Rays.
2. Mister Miracle: The flip side of Orion, Mr. Miracle is born on peaceful New Genesis, but raised in the hellish world of Apokalypse. Mr. Miracle was trained to be a mindless soldier and killing machine, but instead chooses the path of peace, escaping to Earth to become, not surprisingly, an escape artist. I love the costume. I really, really love the costume. I love the gadgets. I love the daring escapes. I love Big Barda. CRAP! I forgot to put Big Barda in my Top Ten! CRAP! I really should plan these Top Tens better. Anyway, Barda's awesome. Mister Miracle is awesome. I'm fawning, aren't I? Moving on...
1. Silver Surfer: When I was 9 years old, I saw a drawing of a silver skinned alien flying on a silver surfboard. This image set my brain on fire and made my want to read comics. So, I started reading Silver Surfer comics. The Surfer traveled through space, battling various evil aliens, while occasionally having run-ins with his former master, Galactus, a giant, god-like being who ATE PLANETS. These comics made my mind explode in a supernova of creative possibility, and so, at the tender age of 9, young Joseph Morris swore that when he grew up, he would make comics. And so he did. The Silver Surfer was created by Jack Kirby. That is why he is my King. Without him, my life loses most of its meaning.
Anyway, I said I'd do some Top Tens. Right now is my Personal Top 10 Favorite Jack Kirby Superheroes! Yes, I'm gonna limit it to Heroes, which, unfortunately knocks out Dr. Doom, Darkseid, and Galactus. Anyway, let's get on with it:
Honorable Mention: The Black Panther: Besides being the first Black Superhero in comics history (and, quite frankly, the most iconic and memorable black superhero in comics history (nobody remembers you, Blade)), the Panther was cool for a lot of reasons. For starters, he was the anti-Dr. Doom, namely, a normal human with no powers who go toe to toe with superpowered beings, while also being the ruler of his own country. While Doom was a fascist dictator, Panther was a benevolent king of a country where everyone was prosperous and worked together for the greater good. Also, his costume is the model for less is more. It's so simple but so utterly brilliant in its design.
10. Devil Dinosaur: Fools mock Devil Dinosaur, but us hip cats know that the Red T-Rex is the real deal! Solid! Anyway, Devil Dinosaur is a dinosaur who beats up any monster stupid enough to get in his way. How cool is that?
9. Etrigan the Demon: Gone! Gone! The Form of Man! Return the Demon Etrigan! Kirby's second greatest anti-hero, the Demon was also his 2nd most iconic creation at DC (Darkseid being the first). Etrigan has appeared in numerous comics, cartoons, and toys, and is one of Kirby's most popular cult characters. Sadistic, vicious, ugly, and unpredictable, Etrigan is almost the antithesis of a typical Kirby hero, which is part of what makes him cool. Also, he breathes fire and cackles in the face of certain doom. Gotta love that.
8. Kamandi the Last Boy on Earth: Kamandi's got a lot of potential strikes against him. His design is simple (ripped jean shorts and boots and that's it), his hair is ridiculous, and he's got no superpowers going for him. Also, he's so obscure, you gotta be a super Kirby fan to even know who he is. BUT, what makes Kamandi so awesome is his endless supply of grit. Trapped in a world of talking, intelligent animals and relegated to being nothing more than a pack animal, Kamandi won't take no crap from no talking apes or dogs or whatever. Give Kamandi some guff, and he'll give it right back with his fists a flying. I like that.
7. The Thing: How can you not love the Thing? The ultimate blue collar hero, Ben Grimm is a monster with a heart of gold, forever cursed to be an ugly Thing. A roughneck brawler, Ben was never that bright, but what he lacked in brains he made up in guts, smashing anyone stupid enough to mess with his extended family, the Fantastic Four. His rock cover hide is one of the most iconic designs in comic history.
6. Thor: Welp, do I really need to do a run down on this one? 3 blockbuster movies. Tons of merchandise. That iconic hammer designed by the King. Kirby took classic mythology, invented new mythology, and then combined it with his modern day superhero sensibilities. All that cool stuff you see Thor do with his hammer in the movies? All Kirby.
5. Captain America: Again, I shouldn't really have to explain Captain America. I've always loved the character, long before I even knew who Kirby was. Love the costume, love the shield, love the never say die attitude. I loved the comics, and I loved both the movies, both of which borrow liberally from the King. Need I say more?
4. OMAC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: Ahem. OMAC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The One Man Army Corps!!!!!!!!!! He is from The WORLD THAT IS TO COME!!!!!!! HE HAS A MOHAWK!!!!!!!! A Computer from Space Aids and Protects in the Fight with Evil!!!! In the world of the Future, Any War could lead to Nuclear Extinction, so OMAC exists to Prevent all Wars by PUNCHING PEOPLE IN THE FACE UNTIL THEY STOP BEING WARLIKE!!!!!!!! To Bring Peace, OMAC MUST BE VIOLENT!!!!! COMIXXXXXX!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3. Orion: Kirby's other anti-hero, Orion is more complex and interesting than Etrigan. He's also an ultraviolent spacegod who blows people up with Death Rays. Orion is a strangely conflicted character. Born on the nightmare world of Apocalypse, but raised on the peaceful world of New Genesis, Orion is an argument for Nurture overcoming Nature, as Orion strives to overcome his internal demons in his quest to bring peace to the universe by destroying his own father, Darkseid, lord of Apocalypse. One of the many things that I love about Orion is that no one has ever done a better job of writing or presenting the character than Kirby did. Kirby's version is still the most definitive. Also, again, Death Rays.
2. Mister Miracle: The flip side of Orion, Mr. Miracle is born on peaceful New Genesis, but raised in the hellish world of Apokalypse. Mr. Miracle was trained to be a mindless soldier and killing machine, but instead chooses the path of peace, escaping to Earth to become, not surprisingly, an escape artist. I love the costume. I really, really love the costume. I love the gadgets. I love the daring escapes. I love Big Barda. CRAP! I forgot to put Big Barda in my Top Ten! CRAP! I really should plan these Top Tens better. Anyway, Barda's awesome. Mister Miracle is awesome. I'm fawning, aren't I? Moving on...
1. Silver Surfer: When I was 9 years old, I saw a drawing of a silver skinned alien flying on a silver surfboard. This image set my brain on fire and made my want to read comics. So, I started reading Silver Surfer comics. The Surfer traveled through space, battling various evil aliens, while occasionally having run-ins with his former master, Galactus, a giant, god-like being who ATE PLANETS. These comics made my mind explode in a supernova of creative possibility, and so, at the tender age of 9, young Joseph Morris swore that when he grew up, he would make comics. And so he did. The Silver Surfer was created by Jack Kirby. That is why he is my King. Without him, my life loses most of its meaning.
Happy Jack Kirby Day!!!!
It's Jack Kirby's Birthday, so let's give it up for the King of Comics! Wooooooooo!!!!!
I've got a little drawing I did of the King here...
Yeah, I need to spend more time drawing from real life...
Anyway, my artistic deficiencies aside, this is now my new favorite National Holiday! Without Jack Kirby, Comics would SUCK. Kirby redefined action comics with his and Joe Simon's breakout series "Captain America", which also gave us one of the most timeless and beloved superheroes ever. Kirby continued to redefine and refine comic art throughout the course of his 50 year career, so much so that Kirby is an essential part of our comics DNA. He pioneered both the Romance and Cosmic Genres in comics, and without him there would be no Marvel comics. Seriously, he saved the company. They moving the furniture out, and Stan Lee was in a corner crying. All those blockbuster movies that have made Marvel a worldwide phenomenon? None of those (except Spiderman, although Kirby had a hand in even Spiderman's creation, albiet a slight one) would exist without Kirby. Hell, even with the new, obscure "Guardians of the Galaxy" film, Kirby created America's Sweetheart, Groot, as well as the main villain, Ronan the Accuser. Kirby gave us everything, and quite frankly he never got back what he deserved. Speaking of which, I think there's a fair amount of charitable events being held in the King's honor today, so that's worth checking out if you've got the time and spare scratch.
Speaking of spare scratch, I did a drawing of Cactus Joe and Pengy Penguin dressed up as Mr. Miracle and Oberon that can viewed on my Patreon site for a measly pledge of a dollar a month. Check that out at: www.patreon.com/torcpress.
I'll be back later today with a couple of Kirby Top 10s and maybe some other Kirby odds and ends.
I've got a little drawing I did of the King here...
Anyway, my artistic deficiencies aside, this is now my new favorite National Holiday! Without Jack Kirby, Comics would SUCK. Kirby redefined action comics with his and Joe Simon's breakout series "Captain America", which also gave us one of the most timeless and beloved superheroes ever. Kirby continued to redefine and refine comic art throughout the course of his 50 year career, so much so that Kirby is an essential part of our comics DNA. He pioneered both the Romance and Cosmic Genres in comics, and without him there would be no Marvel comics. Seriously, he saved the company. They moving the furniture out, and Stan Lee was in a corner crying. All those blockbuster movies that have made Marvel a worldwide phenomenon? None of those (except Spiderman, although Kirby had a hand in even Spiderman's creation, albiet a slight one) would exist without Kirby. Hell, even with the new, obscure "Guardians of the Galaxy" film, Kirby created America's Sweetheart, Groot, as well as the main villain, Ronan the Accuser. Kirby gave us everything, and quite frankly he never got back what he deserved. Speaking of which, I think there's a fair amount of charitable events being held in the King's honor today, so that's worth checking out if you've got the time and spare scratch.
Speaking of spare scratch, I did a drawing of Cactus Joe and Pengy Penguin dressed up as Mr. Miracle and Oberon that can viewed on my Patreon site for a measly pledge of a dollar a month. Check that out at: www.patreon.com/torcpress.
I'll be back later today with a couple of Kirby Top 10s and maybe some other Kirby odds and ends.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Skull Mob 5-8
Today's Webcomic:
Skull Mob 5/Bad Rapture 3/Page 8.
Our heroes give the Cryer something to really Cry about.
Ironically, I watched the episode of the Simpsons where Homer uses Starfish as throwing stars just the other day. Weird.
Our heroes give the Cryer something to really Cry about.
Ironically, I watched the episode of the Simpsons where Homer uses Starfish as throwing stars just the other day. Weird.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Skull Mob 5-7
Today's Webcomic:
Skull Mob 5/Bad Rapture 3/ Page 7.
We talked a fair amount about the sibling rivalry between Death Moth and Doom Eagle in the previous issue of Skull Mob, so there's no need to really go into that again. Plus, it's all kind of there on the page. Perhaps the most notable thing then about this page is Panel 4. The Blue Liquid that creates smoke/steam on Death Moth's Shield is, in fact, the Cryer's tears. That was one of those things I've never had time to properly explain, but the Cryer's tears are acidic, and could potentially kill a person exposed to them. So there's that.
We talked a fair amount about the sibling rivalry between Death Moth and Doom Eagle in the previous issue of Skull Mob, so there's no need to really go into that again. Plus, it's all kind of there on the page. Perhaps the most notable thing then about this page is Panel 4. The Blue Liquid that creates smoke/steam on Death Moth's Shield is, in fact, the Cryer's tears. That was one of those things I've never had time to properly explain, but the Cryer's tears are acidic, and could potentially kill a person exposed to them. So there's that.
Monday, August 25, 2014
Skull Mob 5-6
Today's Webcomic:
Skull Mob #5/ Bad Rapture Chapter 3/ Page 6.
I'm not sure how long the Cryer (the Angel with the giant head who is, y'know, crying all the time) has existed inside my brain. I can remember drawing the character while I still lived in the old house out on the gravel road, so, at the very least he's been around since 1996. Yeah. I've not really gotten to do anything with him in the comics though, so at the very least "Bad Rapture" has given me the opportunity to make use of some of the villains I haven't gotten much of a chance to mess around with yet.
Boolah had an interesting take on the Cryer, viewing him as an Angel that cared Too Too much, whose attempts to "help" people typically involved killing them. The description immediately made me think of the Abominable Snowman from the Old Bugs Bunny cartoons... "I'm gonna pet him an' squeeze him an' love him an' call him George."
Oh, and before I forget (and yes, this will get old fast) a great new way to support TORC Press is to sponsor us on Patreon. I'm currently reposting all of Bad Rapture to date (almost all of SDF 8 is up), and if you donate a measly dollar you can view the first 5 pages of my Lost Comic, "SDF: Cyclopean".
I'm not sure how long the Cryer (the Angel with the giant head who is, y'know, crying all the time) has existed inside my brain. I can remember drawing the character while I still lived in the old house out on the gravel road, so, at the very least he's been around since 1996. Yeah. I've not really gotten to do anything with him in the comics though, so at the very least "Bad Rapture" has given me the opportunity to make use of some of the villains I haven't gotten much of a chance to mess around with yet.
Boolah had an interesting take on the Cryer, viewing him as an Angel that cared Too Too much, whose attempts to "help" people typically involved killing them. The description immediately made me think of the Abominable Snowman from the Old Bugs Bunny cartoons... "I'm gonna pet him an' squeeze him an' love him an' call him George."
Oh, and before I forget (and yes, this will get old fast) a great new way to support TORC Press is to sponsor us on Patreon. I'm currently reposting all of Bad Rapture to date (almost all of SDF 8 is up), and if you donate a measly dollar you can view the first 5 pages of my Lost Comic, "SDF: Cyclopean".
Friday, August 22, 2014
Skull Mob 5-5
Today's Webcomic:
Skull Mob 5/ Bad Rapture Chapter 3 Page 5.
Alrighty, now here is a great page. No, not for the art (it's a frickin' blob of grey with some color on the edges... not my smartest decision ever), but for the cool writing my partner Boolah came up with. This is what I want out of a crossover story, because on this page you have Dust (from Skull Mob), Razorfish (from SDF), and Eyemo (from HFSAC) working together as a unit to defeat the enemy. Three unrelated characters from different comics fighting as a group. That is Comix, and that is what it means to be a crossover. Cool page. Darn cool page.
Alrighty, now here is a great page. No, not for the art (it's a frickin' blob of grey with some color on the edges... not my smartest decision ever), but for the cool writing my partner Boolah came up with. This is what I want out of a crossover story, because on this page you have Dust (from Skull Mob), Razorfish (from SDF), and Eyemo (from HFSAC) working together as a unit to defeat the enemy. Three unrelated characters from different comics fighting as a group. That is Comix, and that is what it means to be a crossover. Cool page. Darn cool page.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Skull Mob 5-4
Today's Webcomic:
Skull Mob #5/ Bad Rapture Chapter 3. Page 4.
So, when I got the script for Skull Mob 5 from Boolah, this is immediately what I pictured in my head for this page. The pile of dead Angels reminded me of the opening splash of New Gods, with the various dead gods littering the landscape. Throw in Death Moth's shield ricocheting from Angel to Angel, and I thought that overall it was a pretty cool image. Where I screwed up was having the image in relation to the dialogue, as its hard to tell that Platageddon is saying the first line. Hopefully the extra long tail denotes that the dialogue balloon goes to Platageddon, but if that's not obvious, then that would be my bad. I'm still getting used to Digital Lettering.
Also, I recently started a Patreon site. If you like TORC Press and feel like throwing a little funding my way in support of the webcomics, head to www.patreon.com and search for TORC Press, or I think you can go to my Patreon site directly at www.patreon.com/torcpress.
So, when I got the script for Skull Mob 5 from Boolah, this is immediately what I pictured in my head for this page. The pile of dead Angels reminded me of the opening splash of New Gods, with the various dead gods littering the landscape. Throw in Death Moth's shield ricocheting from Angel to Angel, and I thought that overall it was a pretty cool image. Where I screwed up was having the image in relation to the dialogue, as its hard to tell that Platageddon is saying the first line. Hopefully the extra long tail denotes that the dialogue balloon goes to Platageddon, but if that's not obvious, then that would be my bad. I'm still getting used to Digital Lettering.
Also, I recently started a Patreon site. If you like TORC Press and feel like throwing a little funding my way in support of the webcomics, head to www.patreon.com and search for TORC Press, or I think you can go to my Patreon site directly at www.patreon.com/torcpress.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Skull Mob 5-3
Today's Webcomic:
Skull Mob 5/ Bad Rapture Chapter 3. Page 3.
Ahhhh. My favorite kind of page. An easy page. A simple transition from the Burning Hotel to the Burning Forest on Earth.
Ahhhh. My favorite kind of page. An easy page. A simple transition from the Burning Hotel to the Burning Forest on Earth.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Skull Mob 5-2
Today's Webcomic:
Skull Mob #5/ Bad Rapture Chapter 3. Page 2.
The idea for the Vermin Angels to possess some sort of Doomsday Device was all Boolah, and, again, it is a very neat-o idea, and more importantly, it seeds the creative ground for possible future stories. I think in our emails I referred to it as a potential McGuffin, because I like throwing around that term whenever possible cause I think it makes me sound smart.
Also, we get to see Xipe Topec at his most terrifying. I imagine my girlfriend is not a fan of this page...
The idea for the Vermin Angels to possess some sort of Doomsday Device was all Boolah, and, again, it is a very neat-o idea, and more importantly, it seeds the creative ground for possible future stories. I think in our emails I referred to it as a potential McGuffin, because I like throwing around that term whenever possible cause I think it makes me sound smart.
Also, we get to see Xipe Topec at his most terrifying. I imagine my girlfriend is not a fan of this page...
Monday, August 18, 2014
Skull Mob 5-1
Today's Webcomic:
Skull Mob #5/ Bad Rapture Chapter 3. Page 1.
Aaaaaaaaand we're back. Didja miss us? Bad Rapture is up and running again, this time picking up with Chapter 3, which just happens to be the start of Issue 5 of Skull Mob. That's not confusing at all, is it?
This opening sequence set inside the Burning Hotel was all Boolah's idea, and it's a cool one. It gives us a chance to check in with Mr. Dodo/Xipe Topec, who has obviously got a personal investment in the battle between our Geek Heroes and the Evil Angels, considering he is personally manipulating both the titular Skull Mob as well as Killboy and Spookshow.
One of the things I immediately wanted to do when I conceived of this Event Comic was that I wanted each Comic/Chapter to look differently from the others. So, after we get my faux-Kirby style in HFSAC, we transition over to my splattery inked/greywashed faux-Ralph Steadman style for Skull Mob. Hopefully the difference in style is at least a little jarring, even if the underlying DNA is still my own.
Aaaaaaaaand we're back. Didja miss us? Bad Rapture is up and running again, this time picking up with Chapter 3, which just happens to be the start of Issue 5 of Skull Mob. That's not confusing at all, is it?
This opening sequence set inside the Burning Hotel was all Boolah's idea, and it's a cool one. It gives us a chance to check in with Mr. Dodo/Xipe Topec, who has obviously got a personal investment in the battle between our Geek Heroes and the Evil Angels, considering he is personally manipulating both the titular Skull Mob as well as Killboy and Spookshow.
One of the things I immediately wanted to do when I conceived of this Event Comic was that I wanted each Comic/Chapter to look differently from the others. So, after we get my faux-Kirby style in HFSAC, we transition over to my splattery inked/greywashed faux-Ralph Steadman style for Skull Mob. Hopefully the difference in style is at least a little jarring, even if the underlying DNA is still my own.
Monday, August 11, 2014
Production Updates
Alrighty, let's see what's going on in the TORCverse right now.
To reiterate (and since I buried it with my last post), SDF #8/ Bad Rapture Prologue is available for sale in the online store at http://www.torcpress.com/store/. Go buy a copy, eh?
In the meantime, we are one week away from the start of the next chapter of Bad Rapture, as "Skull Mob" #5 starts on Monday, August 18th. Obviously, I'll be spending my weeknights after getting home from the Mill working on that bad boy.
I recently completed t-shirt designs for Professional Wrestler "The Working Man" Frank Wyatt. The dreaded Axebomber promised not to take my head off if I worked him up some kickin' t-shirt designs, and hopefully I obliged the big man. After all, I like my head.
In further addition, I have been informed that the greatest one man band in the universe, The Dr. Orphyus Project is preparing to rise from the ashes and unleash its Death Jazz powers upon an unsuspecting world once again. As a loyal conspirator of the Mad Doctor, this means that it will soon be my sworn duty, once again, to create a series of mind blowing Crudimation videos to help warp the minds of the unfortunate victims exposed to the force of musical nature that is the DOP. So, that's gonna be fun.
Other than that, me and my gal Mei are gonna get our food on this weekend at the Taste of Champaign. I hope that empanada stand is back. I'm craving me some empanadas.
To reiterate (and since I buried it with my last post), SDF #8/ Bad Rapture Prologue is available for sale in the online store at http://www.torcpress.com/store/. Go buy a copy, eh?
In the meantime, we are one week away from the start of the next chapter of Bad Rapture, as "Skull Mob" #5 starts on Monday, August 18th. Obviously, I'll be spending my weeknights after getting home from the Mill working on that bad boy.
I recently completed t-shirt designs for Professional Wrestler "The Working Man" Frank Wyatt. The dreaded Axebomber promised not to take my head off if I worked him up some kickin' t-shirt designs, and hopefully I obliged the big man. After all, I like my head.
In further addition, I have been informed that the greatest one man band in the universe, The Dr. Orphyus Project is preparing to rise from the ashes and unleash its Death Jazz powers upon an unsuspecting world once again. As a loyal conspirator of the Mad Doctor, this means that it will soon be my sworn duty, once again, to create a series of mind blowing Crudimation videos to help warp the minds of the unfortunate victims exposed to the force of musical nature that is the DOP. So, that's gonna be fun.
Other than that, me and my gal Mei are gonna get our food on this weekend at the Taste of Champaign. I hope that empanada stand is back. I'm craving me some empanadas.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Captain Victory vs. Captain Victory
Recently I did a blog post comparing and contrasting Jack Kirby's "Forever People" #1 with the relatively recent New 52 "Infinity Man & the Forever People" #1. Welp, I recently scored Joe Casey, Nathan Fox, Jim Rugg, and Ulises Farinas's "Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers" #1, published by Dynamite. I read it yesterday, and I'm still not sure whether I like it or not. Anyway, I figured that if you're gonna walk in the footsteps of the greatest talent that ever graced our amazing medium with his genius, then you might as well stand in the reflection of that presence. Kirby's 70s work was never well received (GRAAAAAAAA!!!!!), and his 80s work even less so (even I have trouble defending it when I'm in one of my stupider moods), so Captain Victory was never hailed as a great work of comic art. But "weak" Kirby is still better than anything Marvel's published in the last decade (yeah, I said it. Prove me wrong), so there's that. Anyway, we'll do this the same way, I'll do a Kirby page, then a page of the new Joe Casey book, and we'll see what we end up with.
Kirby's Captain Victory Page 1: Splash Page. Captain Victory standing in front of a classic Kirby exploding universal motif. We get a fair amount of bombastic dialogue and text that explains nothing. Still, looks cool.
Casey's Captain Victory Page 1: 3 stack horizontal panels, 3 panels on bottom. I have no idea what I'm looking at in the artwork. Just a bunch of colors, really. Text block in the third panel tells us the fearsome warrior Mekkanos has tracked down and attacked the Dreadnaught: Tiger, and its leader, Captain Victory.
Kirby CV Page 2: 1-2-2 Panel Page. Captain Victory and Klavus discussing something. They are obviously on a space ship. Slow start for a Kirby comic.
Casey CV Page 2: Part of a double page splash. There is a shot of the Dreadnaught: Tiger (presumably). Under attack (I think). The words "Fire" "Bomb" "Kill" "Dead" form the panel borders. It looks neat, but I'm not entirely sure what's going on.
Kirby CV Page 3: 1-1 Panel Page. We get a shot of Tallant IV, a nice little planet. On the lower panel, we see that the planet has become a withered, lifeless husk.
Casey CV Page 3: I bunch of unrelated panels. There's a robot head, a swirly man, I don't know, an eye, an explosion, a hand reaching for a burnt hand. There's words, and an upside down Captain Victory yelling about how Blackmass is pulling Mekkanos' strings. I seriously have no idea what's going on.
Kirby CV Page 4: 4 panel page. Captain Victory and Klavus discussing their plan of action. Captain Victory heads for the bridge, despite the fact that Klavus warns him that that is where the attack will be focused. Again, surprisingly slow start to a Kirby comic.
Casey CV Page 4: 2-1-2 panel page. The bridge of the Dreadnaught as its under attack. We get introductions to the command crew of the Dreadnaught, namely Klavus, Tarin, Orca, and Mister Mind. The redesigns on everyone are actually pretty cool.
Kirby CV Page 5: 1-2 panel page. The crew of Victory's spaceship scrambling in preparation for battle. Captain Victory is outfitted with a portable command post, which looks kind of like a TeeVee you wear as a helmet. Ridiculous? Sure, but also very Kirby.
Casey CV Page 5: 1-2-1-1 panel page. There's an explosion and Captain Victory is incinerated and dies. Boom! Cool page.
Kirby CV Page 6: Splash Page. Captain Victory with his crazy box helmet on relaying commands while the crew of the ship continue to scramble. Cool page.
Casey CV Page 6: 2-1-4 page. Lots of close ups and yelling. There's stuff about Body Banks (which contain clones of Captain Victory), and a Body Bank explodes. All the yelling reminds me of something out of Star Trek.
Kirby CV Page 7: Part of a double page spread. Enemy ships explode out of the dead planet! The crew beg Captain Victory to leave the bridge, but the Cap will have none of that nonsense.
Casey CV Page 7: 1-2-3 Panel Page. Captain Victory's memories are downloaded into a new clone body. Two bodies are ejected into space. Klavus calls for a Star Drive to escape.
Kirby CV Page 8: Other half of double page spread. Troops scrambling and there's a giant cannon on the bridge. I love these kind of Kirby pages.
Casey CV Page 8: 2-1-1-2-1 Panel Page. The ship warps out. Klavus and Tarin check the wreckage of the Body Bank, and decide they need to try to find the Captain Victory clone bodies that got ejected.
Kirby CV Page 9: 1-1-2 Panel Page. There's an explosion on deck and Captain Victory is killed (whoa, de ja vu...). Tarin calls for Restorative Surgery, while Klavus assumes command and order all batteries to step it up to Rapid Fire!
Casey CV Page 10: 2-2-3 Panel Page. A flashback to Captain Victory first assuming command and discovering that he's got a bunch of Clone bodies as part of the job. Then Klavus kills him in a scene reminiscent of the scene from Fantastic Four when Dr. Doom steals the Silver Surfer's powers. I assume it was intentional.
Kirby CV Page 11: 1-1 Panel Page. Laser cannons Fire! Enemy Ships EXPLODE! BOOM!
Casey CV Page 11: 1-1 Panel Page. A trippy page about Captain Victory dying and being reincarnated. Very cool looking page. Thumbs up to Jim Rugg. I should look for more of his work later on.
Kirby CV Page 12: 1-2-2 Panel Page. The space battle continues, meanwhile, the enemy leader, the Lightning Lady escapes in a spaceship from the hidden side of the planet. I gotta admit, I have absolutely no idea why a race of Evil Alien Bugs would have a Lightning Woman as their leader. That makes no sense. Very Kirbycrazy.
Casey CV Page 12: 1-2-3-1 Panel Page. Captain Victory awakens in his new body. Not much to it, but, again, the page looks nice.
Kirby CV Page 13: 1-2 Panel Page. Lightning Lady and her crew of bug men discuss what to do next. Apparently, the ship is powered by the Lightning Lady herself. Maybe that's why she's the leader. Huh. Anyway, Kirbycrazy.
Casey CV Page 13: 1-2-1-1-1 Panel Page. Back in the present, the crew discuss the missing clones. Across the universe, a comet crashlands on what looks like Earth.
Kirby CV Page 14: 2-3-2 Panel Page. The Bug People discuss where to go. Sounds like they're heading for a certain familiar rock...
Casey CV Page 14: 5-1-3 Panel Page. What looks like a young Captain Victory climbs aboard a trash boat and passes out.
Kirby CV Page 15: Splash Page. One of Kirby's infamous Collage Pages. Yep, the Insect Men are heading for Earth.
Casey CV Page 15: 1-1-1-1-1 Panel Page. A naked child flies through the clouds. Wha?
Kirby CV Page 16: 2-1-2 Panel Page. The aliens (called the Insectons) head for Earth. Meanwhile, in the sick bay of the giant ranger vessel, Captain Victory's personality and memories are downloaded to a new Clone body.
Casey CV Page 16: 1-1-1-1 Panel Page. Uh, burning babies, and a giant Mister Mind. A kid wakes up. Trippy.
Kirby CV Page 17: 2-2-2 Panel Page. The newly awakened Captain Victory discusses the results of the battle with Klavus.
Casey CV Page 17: Half of a splash page. There's a cityscape and the boy is all ghostly and I have no idea what I'm looking at.
Kirby CV Page 18: 2-2-1 Panel Page. Captain Victory decides to use a WORLD KILLER to destroy the broken planet Tallant IV. Yeah. I'll say it again... WOOOOOORLD KILLLLLLER!!!!!!
Casey CV Page 18: Other half of the splash page.
Kirby CV Page 19: 1-1-2 Panel Page: The World Killer (which is an awesome Kirby Machine, by the by) is launched into Tallant IV. The ship gets ready to jump to Light Speed.
Casey CV Page 19: 2-1-3-1 Panel Page. The boy awakens in a room where he is looked after by a guy who kinda looks like Klavus. Coincidence?
Kirby CV Page 20: 2-2-2 Panel Page. Okay, for some reason, when the ship jumps to light speed, you either have to sleep for 100 years, or hang onto handles on the wall. Whaaaaaa???? I will freely admit, this sequence has never made any sense to me. Although I do think it's kind of a funny idea that people are blasting through hyperspace desperately hanging onto hand grips. Anyway, goofy page.
Casey CV Page 20: 1-2-2 Panel Page. The crew is still trying to figure out what to do. Also, they figure out that there's two clones floating around in space somewhere.
Kirby CV Page 21: 3-1-2 Panel Page. Tallant IV explodes.
Casey CV Page 21: 1-1-1 Panel Page. A comet crashes down on what looks like a wrecked industrialized world. Yokay.
Kirby CV Page 22: 1-2-2 Panel Page. Mister Mind shows up and tells the Captain and Klavus that the Insectons headed for Earth.
Casey CV Page 22: 1-2-1-1-1 Panel Page. A couple of aliens in grungy cloaks inspect the impact, while creepy drones float in the sky.
Kirby CV Page 23: 2-2 Panel Page. The crew prepares to head for Earth, and we learn a little about Mr. Mind.
Casey CV Page 23: 1-1 Panel Page. A twisted, burnt up clone of Captain Victory emerges from the wreckage. The End.
Kirby CV Page 24: Uh, hard to describe the panels on this one. Moving on... We're on Earth, and a couple of small town cops run into Captain Victory.
Kirby CV Page 25-26: A double page spread: The massive Dreadnaught Tiger emerges from cloaking and fills the night sky, immediately firing on a distant mesa. WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
So, what do I think, now that I've been through both books?
Well, I kinda like Joe Casey's Captain Victory more now than I did when I read it yesterday. There's some really cool, really trippy artwork, which I like. The story is almost a shorthand version of Kirby's Captain Victory #1, but there's that whole subplot with the missing Clones, which I'm not sure I'm into. There's some cool stuff here, but there's also a lot of confusing storytelling and a whole plot that I'm not sure works. I'm a little worried this is gonna be another excuse for Joe Casey to twiddle his thumbs and pontificate on stuff, instead of a bad ass cosmic war comic featuring the adventures of Captain Victory and his bizarre crew. Still, I liked it better than DC's Infinity Man. I'll give it an issue or two.
As for Kirby's Captain Victory... well, it's Kirby. It's cool. I mean, that shot of the Dreadnaught Tiger is cooler than anything Marvel's done since... well, since Kirby stopped working for them. It's a little slow by Kirby standards, and some of it is just so odd... but I like odd. Although I consider the 80s stuff to be somewhat weak, it still gave us some really cool, killer stuff. So there's that.
Kirby's Captain Victory Page 1: Splash Page. Captain Victory standing in front of a classic Kirby exploding universal motif. We get a fair amount of bombastic dialogue and text that explains nothing. Still, looks cool.
Casey's Captain Victory Page 1: 3 stack horizontal panels, 3 panels on bottom. I have no idea what I'm looking at in the artwork. Just a bunch of colors, really. Text block in the third panel tells us the fearsome warrior Mekkanos has tracked down and attacked the Dreadnaught: Tiger, and its leader, Captain Victory.
Kirby CV Page 2: 1-2-2 Panel Page. Captain Victory and Klavus discussing something. They are obviously on a space ship. Slow start for a Kirby comic.
Casey CV Page 2: Part of a double page splash. There is a shot of the Dreadnaught: Tiger (presumably). Under attack (I think). The words "Fire" "Bomb" "Kill" "Dead" form the panel borders. It looks neat, but I'm not entirely sure what's going on.
Kirby CV Page 3: 1-1 Panel Page. We get a shot of Tallant IV, a nice little planet. On the lower panel, we see that the planet has become a withered, lifeless husk.
Casey CV Page 3: I bunch of unrelated panels. There's a robot head, a swirly man, I don't know, an eye, an explosion, a hand reaching for a burnt hand. There's words, and an upside down Captain Victory yelling about how Blackmass is pulling Mekkanos' strings. I seriously have no idea what's going on.
Kirby CV Page 4: 4 panel page. Captain Victory and Klavus discussing their plan of action. Captain Victory heads for the bridge, despite the fact that Klavus warns him that that is where the attack will be focused. Again, surprisingly slow start to a Kirby comic.
Casey CV Page 4: 2-1-2 panel page. The bridge of the Dreadnaught as its under attack. We get introductions to the command crew of the Dreadnaught, namely Klavus, Tarin, Orca, and Mister Mind. The redesigns on everyone are actually pretty cool.
Kirby CV Page 5: 1-2 panel page. The crew of Victory's spaceship scrambling in preparation for battle. Captain Victory is outfitted with a portable command post, which looks kind of like a TeeVee you wear as a helmet. Ridiculous? Sure, but also very Kirby.
Casey CV Page 5: 1-2-1-1 panel page. There's an explosion and Captain Victory is incinerated and dies. Boom! Cool page.
Kirby CV Page 6: Splash Page. Captain Victory with his crazy box helmet on relaying commands while the crew of the ship continue to scramble. Cool page.
Casey CV Page 6: 2-1-4 page. Lots of close ups and yelling. There's stuff about Body Banks (which contain clones of Captain Victory), and a Body Bank explodes. All the yelling reminds me of something out of Star Trek.
Kirby CV Page 7: Part of a double page spread. Enemy ships explode out of the dead planet! The crew beg Captain Victory to leave the bridge, but the Cap will have none of that nonsense.
Casey CV Page 7: 1-2-3 Panel Page. Captain Victory's memories are downloaded into a new clone body. Two bodies are ejected into space. Klavus calls for a Star Drive to escape.
Kirby CV Page 8: Other half of double page spread. Troops scrambling and there's a giant cannon on the bridge. I love these kind of Kirby pages.
Casey CV Page 8: 2-1-1-2-1 Panel Page. The ship warps out. Klavus and Tarin check the wreckage of the Body Bank, and decide they need to try to find the Captain Victory clone bodies that got ejected.
Kirby CV Page 9: 1-1-2 Panel Page. There's an explosion on deck and Captain Victory is killed (whoa, de ja vu...). Tarin calls for Restorative Surgery, while Klavus assumes command and order all batteries to step it up to Rapid Fire!
Casey CV Page 10: 2-2-3 Panel Page. A flashback to Captain Victory first assuming command and discovering that he's got a bunch of Clone bodies as part of the job. Then Klavus kills him in a scene reminiscent of the scene from Fantastic Four when Dr. Doom steals the Silver Surfer's powers. I assume it was intentional.
Kirby CV Page 11: 1-1 Panel Page. Laser cannons Fire! Enemy Ships EXPLODE! BOOM!
Casey CV Page 11: 1-1 Panel Page. A trippy page about Captain Victory dying and being reincarnated. Very cool looking page. Thumbs up to Jim Rugg. I should look for more of his work later on.
Kirby CV Page 12: 1-2-2 Panel Page. The space battle continues, meanwhile, the enemy leader, the Lightning Lady escapes in a spaceship from the hidden side of the planet. I gotta admit, I have absolutely no idea why a race of Evil Alien Bugs would have a Lightning Woman as their leader. That makes no sense. Very Kirbycrazy.
Casey CV Page 12: 1-2-3-1 Panel Page. Captain Victory awakens in his new body. Not much to it, but, again, the page looks nice.
Kirby CV Page 13: 1-2 Panel Page. Lightning Lady and her crew of bug men discuss what to do next. Apparently, the ship is powered by the Lightning Lady herself. Maybe that's why she's the leader. Huh. Anyway, Kirbycrazy.
Casey CV Page 13: 1-2-1-1-1 Panel Page. Back in the present, the crew discuss the missing clones. Across the universe, a comet crashlands on what looks like Earth.
Kirby CV Page 14: 2-3-2 Panel Page. The Bug People discuss where to go. Sounds like they're heading for a certain familiar rock...
Casey CV Page 14: 5-1-3 Panel Page. What looks like a young Captain Victory climbs aboard a trash boat and passes out.
Kirby CV Page 15: Splash Page. One of Kirby's infamous Collage Pages. Yep, the Insect Men are heading for Earth.
Casey CV Page 15: 1-1-1-1-1 Panel Page. A naked child flies through the clouds. Wha?
Kirby CV Page 16: 2-1-2 Panel Page. The aliens (called the Insectons) head for Earth. Meanwhile, in the sick bay of the giant ranger vessel, Captain Victory's personality and memories are downloaded to a new Clone body.
Casey CV Page 16: 1-1-1-1 Panel Page. Uh, burning babies, and a giant Mister Mind. A kid wakes up. Trippy.
Kirby CV Page 17: 2-2-2 Panel Page. The newly awakened Captain Victory discusses the results of the battle with Klavus.
Casey CV Page 17: Half of a splash page. There's a cityscape and the boy is all ghostly and I have no idea what I'm looking at.
Kirby CV Page 18: 2-2-1 Panel Page. Captain Victory decides to use a WORLD KILLER to destroy the broken planet Tallant IV. Yeah. I'll say it again... WOOOOOORLD KILLLLLLER!!!!!!
Casey CV Page 18: Other half of the splash page.
Kirby CV Page 19: 1-1-2 Panel Page: The World Killer (which is an awesome Kirby Machine, by the by) is launched into Tallant IV. The ship gets ready to jump to Light Speed.
Casey CV Page 19: 2-1-3-1 Panel Page. The boy awakens in a room where he is looked after by a guy who kinda looks like Klavus. Coincidence?
Kirby CV Page 20: 2-2-2 Panel Page. Okay, for some reason, when the ship jumps to light speed, you either have to sleep for 100 years, or hang onto handles on the wall. Whaaaaaa???? I will freely admit, this sequence has never made any sense to me. Although I do think it's kind of a funny idea that people are blasting through hyperspace desperately hanging onto hand grips. Anyway, goofy page.
Casey CV Page 20: 1-2-2 Panel Page. The crew is still trying to figure out what to do. Also, they figure out that there's two clones floating around in space somewhere.
Kirby CV Page 21: 3-1-2 Panel Page. Tallant IV explodes.
Casey CV Page 21: 1-1-1 Panel Page. A comet crashes down on what looks like a wrecked industrialized world. Yokay.
Kirby CV Page 22: 1-2-2 Panel Page. Mister Mind shows up and tells the Captain and Klavus that the Insectons headed for Earth.
Casey CV Page 22: 1-2-1-1-1 Panel Page. A couple of aliens in grungy cloaks inspect the impact, while creepy drones float in the sky.
Kirby CV Page 23: 2-2 Panel Page. The crew prepares to head for Earth, and we learn a little about Mr. Mind.
Casey CV Page 23: 1-1 Panel Page. A twisted, burnt up clone of Captain Victory emerges from the wreckage. The End.
Kirby CV Page 24: Uh, hard to describe the panels on this one. Moving on... We're on Earth, and a couple of small town cops run into Captain Victory.
Kirby CV Page 25-26: A double page spread: The massive Dreadnaught Tiger emerges from cloaking and fills the night sky, immediately firing on a distant mesa. WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
So, what do I think, now that I've been through both books?
Well, I kinda like Joe Casey's Captain Victory more now than I did when I read it yesterday. There's some really cool, really trippy artwork, which I like. The story is almost a shorthand version of Kirby's Captain Victory #1, but there's that whole subplot with the missing Clones, which I'm not sure I'm into. There's some cool stuff here, but there's also a lot of confusing storytelling and a whole plot that I'm not sure works. I'm a little worried this is gonna be another excuse for Joe Casey to twiddle his thumbs and pontificate on stuff, instead of a bad ass cosmic war comic featuring the adventures of Captain Victory and his bizarre crew. Still, I liked it better than DC's Infinity Man. I'll give it an issue or two.
As for Kirby's Captain Victory... well, it's Kirby. It's cool. I mean, that shot of the Dreadnaught Tiger is cooler than anything Marvel's done since... well, since Kirby stopped working for them. It's a little slow by Kirby standards, and some of it is just so odd... but I like odd. Although I consider the 80s stuff to be somewhat weak, it still gave us some really cool, killer stuff. So there's that.
Saturday, August 9, 2014
SDF #8 Now Available for Sale!
One advantage of my little two week break is that I've had the time to do all of the boring, tedious digital nonsense that is required to get a book ready for Print. So, I did that. SDF #8/Bad Rapture Prologue is now available for sale from TORC Press. It's $3.50 plus $1.50 S&H for a full Color, 16 Page Comic. Here's the Cover:
One of the quieter TORC Press comics, this issue details the day to day lives of the Community Watch Group as the storm of "Bad Rapture" looms large over the last forest on Earth. We check in with Octopus Jones, Cheryl, Doom Eagle, the Chupacabra, Mr. Mystery, the Puzzelor, Razorfish, Sally Mander, Killboy, and Spookshow, while the dreaded Vertionce finally discovers the location of the Dawnchilde.
It's a nice little book. You can score a copy at: http://www.torcpress.com/store/ or if you don't wanna do that, e-mail me at cactusfnjoe@hotmail.com, and we'll figure something else out.
Of course, you can read the whole thing for free right here on my blog, so why should you score a for real copy? It's pretty simple, besides the fact that comics are at their best in the Print format, buying a copy is a great way to show your support for TORC Press, simple as that. So there you go.
It's a nice little book. You can score a copy at: http://www.torcpress.com/store/ or if you don't wanna do that, e-mail me at cactusfnjoe@hotmail.com, and we'll figure something else out.
Of course, you can read the whole thing for free right here on my blog, so why should you score a for real copy? It's pretty simple, besides the fact that comics are at their best in the Print format, buying a copy is a great way to show your support for TORC Press, simple as that. So there you go.
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