Comic Coverage

Comics Behind the Comics: It's Clobberin' Time!

Of all the renowned superhero catch phrases, one of the biggies belongs to Ben Grimm, a.k.a. The Thing of the Fantastic Four. First shouted out as he charged into battle way back in Fantastic Four #22 (1964), "It's Clobberin' Time" has been Ben's tried and true war cry ever since.

However, did "It's Clobberin' Time" just kinda happen...or did Ben Grimm try (and reject) a number of different phrases before landing on that famous phrase?

* from Hanna-Barbera's wretched "Fred and Barney Meet the Thing"

Worst Cover Ever: Sanity Shat-tering Cover

It's once again time to start the shambling zombie-march towards Halloween '08 with the Blog of Horror. Much like last October, I'll be turning many of my recurring features over to the creepier side of comics. Sure, I'll be covering other stuff as well (like this weekend's FallCon here in the Twin Cities), but the strange, spooky, and weird will definitely be front and center.

Something I saw today at the comic shop easily covers all three of those categories, as well as qualifying for...

I should say right at the top that this frightening sight wasn't an actual comic book cover, but the cover of Comic Shop News. I've been a fan and reader of the weekly comic shop freebie since way back in the 1980's, and its covers are always a welcome sight. Except for today.

Rather than shattering your psyches all at once (like mine was), let's take it slow and build toward the terror, shall we?

First off, we've got a guy with a spooky

Glowing Eyes Helmet-Thing!

Next, a grim Glowering Dude peering out of the darkness!

A sprawling Hellish City belching flames as far as the eye can see!

So, what demonic terror-lord presides

over this flaming horror-scape?

The bloated, floating head of
William Shatner!

Promoting a new line of William Shatner Presents titles from Bluewater Comics (based on the various sci-fi novels the actor has "written"), I think the puffy visage of The Shat completely nullifies whatever apocalyptic dread they were shooting for.

Friday Night Fights: She's a (Phantom) Lady

Among the female superhero set of the 1940's, there were two basic groups of girls. One was portrayed in a more modest style of costuming while the other group was portrayed in...well...a much less modest (and much more provacative) "Good Girl" art style. One of the most...uh...memorable of this racier Good Girl set was Phantom Lady. Originally published by Quality Comics beginning in 1941, then later with Fox Feature Syndicate, debutante Sandra Knight secretly fought crime using a "black light projector" while clothed in a skimpy costume (which she later explained as a deliberate tactic to distract male criminals).

As the decades zipped by, Phantom Lady and other Quality Comics characters were eventually snapped up by DC Comics and retroactively integrated into their Golden Age pantheon. Which brings us to Starman #44 (1998) as Phantom Lady became the focus of that fine title's occasional "Times Past" flashback adventures. Retro-fitted as Ted (Starman) Knight's cousin, the 1943 setting opened with a catty call-out from a broom ridin', pistol-packin' Prairie Witch!

Woah! Them's fightin' words! Let's flash forward to the Girl Girl vs. Bad Girl clash over the streets of Opal City, ending with a thorough thrashing and a witty kiss-off from the Peek-a-Boo Powerhouse!

(click on the pages for a larger oggle, er...look)

 

Want more female fisticuffs? Check out Friday Night Fights: Ladies Night,
courtesy of the Fightin' Mad Bahlactus!

Off to FallCon

Celebrating its 20th year, the Minnesota Comic Book Association's FallCon has come a long way from its humble beginnings in local VFW halls and the spectacularly kitschy, un-PC Thunderbird Hotel to become one of the premiere comic book conventions of the upper midwest. Having been staged at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds for the past several years, the 20th anniversary sees the FallCon moving over to the Grandstand, the sprawling site's largest building.

I'm told it will be a much roomier experience with tons of new cool stuff...but that remains to be seen.  I'll be heading over there later today with camera in hand, so I plan to post a brief report on my impressions tomorrow. As with most FallCon visits, I'll be there primarily to scoop up great deals on back issues (the deals are there, you just have to look around), since the FallCon's programming has traditionally been...well, let's just say "lacking".  Maybe that'll change this year.

Anyway, stay tuned.

UPDATE: It looks like my skepticism was well-founded. After paying a ridiculous $11 to get into this thing, it was pretty much the exact same experience as last year's FallCon. Yeah, I found some great back issue deals (really the only reason I bother going), but if you really want a report, read my 2007 post. I'm not writing another one. I may still blab a bit on the tottering comic book stack, but as for the rest...meh. 

Happily, I was only there for a couple of hours.  I mean, when it comes right down to it, I'd much rather enjoy a wonderful fall afternoon reading comics on my deck than...well...this:

The Spectre's Guide to Ironic Punishment

I am THE SPECTRE. In life, I was police detective Jim Corrigan. In death, I have been charged by a Heavenly entity named The Voice to eliminate all evil from the world. Not bound by humanity's notions of law and justice, I am free to punish criminals in ways you might deem "cruel and unusual", yet at the same time fitting in a deeply ironic fashion.

Yes, irony. For one such as me, punishing evildoers in ways that evoke their own wicked methods and modes of operation is a point of professional pride. A "calling card", if you will. 

Take my punishment of Peter and Eric in Adventure Comics #432 (1974), for example. Hair stylists by day, these brothers and their supermodel associate were assassins by night for corrupt businessman Maxwell Flood. After I preyed upon his guilty conscience, an unstable Flood fled to Peter and Eric's salon and into the choking embrace of Eric's hair dryer...which begged for a fitting salon-themed punishment!

(click on the page for a larger view)

Ironic punishment.  Not for the faint of heart.

 

As for Peter, I turned him into a pile of sand.  

Yes, not especially ironic...but satisfying nonetheless.

POLL: Who Should Join the BIZARRO BAD GUYS?

For the past couple of years, I've staged voting campaigns to form Bizarro versions of DC's Justice League and Marvel's Avengers. Both campaigns were a great deal of fun (for both readers and myself), so let's continue the tradition...though not with Bizarro superheroes, but Bizarro supervillains! 

Here's the deal:  I've mined various internet photo sites to dredge up some of the world's weirdest, goofiest, or just plain worst-looking supervillain costumes...which, to use the twisted logic of Superman's imperfect double, qualifies them for membership to the Bizarro Bad Guys!

Every four or five days through October, you'll get to vote on a different character category, picking who you believe deserves to be a member of:

The contestant in each character group who gets the highest number of votes by Wednesday, October 29th will make the cut....and join the final line-up of the Bizarro Bad Guys on Halloween Day!

Which villainous characters will you be voting for?  Well, to kick things off, you'll be casting your ballot for Bizarro Dr. Doom!  First, take a look at the four Dr. Doom contestants in the gallery below (if you dare).

Next, click on your choice for your least favorite costume.  

Or your favorite if you're using Bizarro-logic!

Online Surveys & Market Research

As for the other villains...stay tuned!

Simply the Best: The Lycanthropic Leg-Lock

One sure sign of a "Simply the Best" cover is one that could literally stop me in my tracks. Even though it was waaayyy back in summer of 1975, I still vividly recall the cover of Marvel Team-Up #37 standing out like a neon sign. 

As both a Spider-Man fan and a fan of "all-things-monster", a clash between the Wall-Crawler and the Man-Wolf was a no-brainer for my 25¢ investment.

Who's this Man-Wolf guy? Well, I'll tell you: While exploring the moon's surface, astronaut John Jameson (son of The Daily Bugle's irascible publisher) found an other-dimensional ruby named the Godstone, which myteriously attached itself to his body. When Jameson returned to Earth, the light of the full moon would activate the Godstone and turn him into a savage, white-furred werewolf. I just love Man-Wolf's snarling face here on the cover, and how his funky yellow radiation suit (to supposedly minimize moon rays) and superheroic-proportions gave the character a real space-age flair...which put some thematic distance between him and the standard werewolf mileau (fog-shrouded Carpathian villages, gypsies, etc.). Although not much effort was put into explaining his presence in the story, what nine year-old boy would even care?  Simply said to be a prisoner of the evil Baron Ludwig Von Shtupf (no relation to Lili Von Shtupp of Blazing Saddles), the Man-Wolf was unleashed on Spidey and his guest star from the previous issue.  Which leads me to....

This blurb!  For any kid still on the fence after seeing the spectacle of a Spidey in Man-Wolf's lycanthropic leg-lock (as unlikely as that would be), this blurb was surely enough to shake the quarter from his grasp.  Besides "Action Aplenty", the Frankenstein Monster was in there, too!  Translation: Kid Nirvanna!

Making that great day even better, the previous issue was actually still on sale nearby, making my trip to Duluth's Downtown Book an epic, unforgettable experience. Spider-Man meeting both a werewolf and the Frankenstein Monster? It was almost too much for my young mind to take in. Needless to say, these covers, and the stories inside, remain sentimental favorites of mine all these years later.

Friday Night Fights: You're a Wonder, Wonder Woman

Note:  Hey, just because Bahlactus decided to take an impromptu day off doesn't mean I have to, so I'm presenting my already-prepared Friday Night Fights: Ladies Night entry anyway. So...let's get to it! 

Not familiar with how comic book publishing schedules worked, my boyhood friends and I were continually surprised by what we found on the bookstore shelves and 7-Eleven spinner racks of the late 1970's. One of the biggest surprises (literally) were the so-called treasury editions that would just sort of appear out of the blue with little to no publicity.  The whopping 10" x 13" format made them almost irresistible to buy, regardless of their subject matter.  Typically the vehicle for reprints of older stories, treasury editions would occasionally feature original stories that took full advantage of their "widescreen" proportions. 

One of these original productions was DC Collectors' Edition C-24 (1978), which featured Superman vs. Wonder Woman. Although boys like us constantly debated "Who Would Win" when it came to various intramural superhero battles, we tended to shy away from male vs. female match-ups. Whether it was a latent sense of gallantry (highly doubtful) or the whole awkward mystery of girls, Superman vs. Wonder Woman was greeted with guarded interest and more than a little discomfort. 

As it turned out, it was a spectacularly entertaining story.  Written by the great Gerry Conway and dynamically illustrated by the sublime Jose Garcia Lopez, this clash of DC's Golden Age royalty was set during the Golden Age itself in the midst of World War II. Wisely ignoring the usual "Earth-1 / Earth-2" fiddle-faddle, Superman and Wonder Woman individually uncover an Axis plot to disrupt something called "The Manhattan Project" (yes, that Manhattan Project). However, unlike Superman's wary approval of the project, an outraged Wonder Woman refused to let mankind create an atomic bomb and began sabotaging a Chicago research site! Naturally, Superman arrives to stop Wonder Woman's rampage, leading to a brief but bruising fight that eventually took them to the moon! Let me give you just a taste of the wonderfully choreographed fight, courtesy of Jose Garcia Lopez (click on the image for a super-sized view)...

OUCH! Happily, the fighting didn't last too long, as Superman and Wonder Woman set their differences aside and joined forces to defeat the twin Axis threats of Baron Blitzkrieg and Sumo the Samurai...though not before setting off the world's first atomic explosion!

Just an all-around great story....especially now that I finally own it!  I recently nabbed a copy on eBay and it arrived in yesterday's mail...so I couldn't wait to share some of the spectacular imagery. Hope you enjoyed it!

Blog of Horror: Crackin' Skulls (Win a Prize)!

Continuing the Blog of Horror's march toward Halloween (and to celebrate my 600th post), I thought it would be fun to do another contest for those trivia-saturated brains out there. In the past, I've had you identify characters with blue names, black names, red names, and even patriotic characters for the 4th of July...but this time of year requires something a little creepier, don't you think? With that in mind, I've tracked down twenty-one comic book skull characters, or, more accurately, characters whose heads are either covered with skull masks or (in some cases) are actual exposed skulls! Although a few of them are good guys, it should come as no surprise that the vast majority of them are bad guys. 

The first person to correctly identify all 21 characters...or to identify the most characters by high noon on Tuesday, October 14th will win a free month of Netflix movie rentals* (preferably some scary movies, considering the season)!

One more thing:  I'm going to turn off the comments for this post, since I don't want anyone "borrowing" the answers of others to help complete their own lists.  In this age of Google and Wiki-assisted research, I've gotta do something to keep it challenging! 

UPDATE: D'Oh!  I forgot to post a link to my email address!  So, if you want to send in an entry, click here.

With that, have fun Crackin' Skulls!

 

* The prize is for two free Netflix movie rentals within a one month period.

Cover to Cover: Bring on the (really bad) Bad Guys IV

Part FOUR?! Are there really that many silly, cheesy, and downright lousy bad guys out there in the comic book universe?

Oh, you have no idea.

In fact, the more research I do, it seems that A-listers like Two-Face, Lex Luthor, and the Green Goblin are in the vast minority compared with the teeming masses of mediocrity that pass for comic book villainy.

For example, for every A-list Batman villain, there seems to be five or six losers like the Human Eraser, a “rubber headed” felon who, counter to the cover of Batman #188 (1966), was not able to erase matter.  Rather, he only covered up (or “erased”) the evidence of other criminals’ crimes for 20% of the take.