Random Coolness (Part 11)

More of the small details that made a BIG impression on me, randomly plucked from the nostalgia-drenched regions of my comic-addled brain. 

1.  The technical drawings of Eliot R. Brown: As soon as The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe hit the stands in 1983, I was instantly hooked. A fifteen issue mini-series, the Handbook exhaustively 

chronicled Marvel's massive catalog of characters (living and dead), vehicles, weapons, headquarters, artifacts, and other minutia geeks like me gobble up. As exacting and interesting as the information was (they even listed how much weight characters could bench press!), one of the coolest aspects of the Handbook series was the amazing technical drawings of a designer and science-whiz named Eliot R. Brown. Despite the absolute impossibility of comic book tech...well...actually working, Brown's highly detailed drawings and schematics somehow made them seem (kinda-sorta) plausible.  I mean, look at this guy go....and these are just Iron-Man's gloves and boots (click to enlarge)!

Pure malarky, of course...but speaking as a kid who'd spent hours drawing breakaway diagrams of the Six-Million Dollar Man's bionics, I loved this stuff. 

2. Kirby Mouths: Jack Kirby drew like nobody else...and that included parts of human anatomy that bore little resemblance to the way real body and facial features functioned. 

One of those endearingly exaggerated body parts was the male mouth, which Kirby often drew with the lower corners hitched well below the bottom lip line. It's a mouth position you can imitate with some effort (come on...you know you want to try it), but it's not a facial expression you're likely to see reflected anywhere in reality. But that's part of the magic of Kirby's Marvel years...where anatomically illogical quirks and shortcuts wonderfully conveyed the hyper-drama and explosive action The King perfected.

3. Marvel's bottom-of-page promo blurbs: A bit like cable news text crawls along the bottom of the TV screen, Marvel's bizarre little promo blurbs were also curiously irresistible to read. Printed in tiny type at the bottom of each story page, these snappy phrases not only plugged other Marvel mags on sale that month, but they also made it clear that things were happening all across the Marvel Universe. A very simple but effective little gimmick that (to this day) is still an endearing and (inexplicably) comforting aspect of 1970's Marvel Comics.

 

Comments

[Al Bigley]

I always thought it odd that Marvel's handbook spotlighted the technical aspects of the heroes, altho Marvel was best known for the emotional and dramatic facets of the characters.

Then, DC cpmes out with their handbooks, and the series is more about hero histories and motivations, which you woulda thought was how Marvel woulda gone with theirs...

And odd switcheroo...

Al Bigley

[Mark Engblom]

Well, or you could look at it this way: Marvel, from the very beginning, had put forward a more "realistic" type of superhero, from their personalities to the real-world locale of New York City...so the ultra-detailed tech seems to spring from that tradition rather organically. I see what you mean, though, Al. I remember being disappointed with DC's less technical approach....especially when it came to calibrating the Flash's speed or Superman's strength.

[Mystik Tomato]

I think that DC has the right idea with that, though. It seems that if you put specs on the heroes and then ignore it for the sake of the story, (Like the infamous Spidey vs. Firelord match-up) it's going to cause a couple of people to wonder what the problem is.

Of course saying "The Flash runs really fast. No, like, REALLY fast." isn't really much better.

Also, making a Kirby-Mouth while talking is hard.

[WesC]

I borrowed a friends copy of the 15th issue of the original Marvel Universe series - the "weapons and paraphernalia" issue. I was awestruck by just how incredible and "credible" they made it all seem.

I had only been reading comics (other than GI Joe) for a couple of months and that issue introduced me to characters and concepts that blew my 13 year old mind!

The Falcon's wings, Ant Man's helmet and who is this Paladin guy, man he looks cool.

Those books really gave a newcomer a leg up on trying to figure out the who's and what's of such a complex place as the Marvel Universe.

I can only imagine that before those titles, trying to figure out some of that stuff must have been very frustrating, but rewarding in it's own way.

[zubzwank]

The "handbooks" which I like but which came out during a non-comics period for me, were covered pretty well in a fairly recent back issue of BACK ISSUE magazine.

Kirby mouths-yeah, especially the Thing's!
You could turn a tractor-trailer around in Ben's mouth sometimes w/no problem.

[ShadowWing Tronix]

I didn't read too many Marvel comics in the 70's (being born in 73), but those bottom-of-the-page blurbs were parodies in some of the Radioactive Man comics. Now I know where that came from.

[ShadowWing Tronix]

Ooop, forgot to say thanks.

[Al Bigley]

One more thing-The DC Handbooks had dramatic action poses of the characters! Marvel? Dull images of the characters just standing there...Holy reversal!!

[Mark Engblom]

You're right, Al...the Marvel Handbook *did* have some pretty static poses. However, I vaguely recall Marvel stating that these books, in addition to being sold to fans, were also (supposedly) intended to serve as a reference tool for Marvel writers, artists, and editors. As such, maybe the original intent of the character artwork was to serve as essentially a "model sheet" that would clearly show the character's girth, posture, costume details, coloring, etc. for the assigned artist.

Maybe that was just hooey all along, but that's at least one explanation for the low-wattage character poses.