League Assignment: Comics!

I'm sure many a league member has much  more in depth, continuity driven and detail oriented posts about specific comics, graphic novels and superheroes.  I only dabbled in comics and even unearthed in my "geek confessions" that I never owned a true Superhero comic book ever if you don't count Spawn or Rob Lefield garbage.  Instead, I'd like to talk more about the phenomenon that is comics and comic culture. What is it about comics that have gained them such universal notoriety?  You really have to live under a rock to not know even the basics...Movies, games, television have all moved into bringing the world of comics into our popular conscientiousness.  Moms, Dads, Girls, Guys...it doesn't matter, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who never heard that Batman fights the Joker or that Superman is from Krypton.   Why is that?  When did these seemingly dubbed children's characters entered into the universal monomyth to quote James Joyce and become true world-wide archetypes who reflect the full spectrum of the human condition and the timeless struggle between good and evil?

Come to think of it, how do I know what I do about comics when I have not bought any comic since 2004?  How do I know about the Suicide Squad, the "new 52", the Court of Owls, Angela's re-emergence into the world of DC, Free Comic Book day??? Come to think of it, how does my wife know not only who Wolverine is, but that his name is Logan and his skeleton is made of adamantium!?!  I never told her this either, I swear to God and she never picked up a comic in her life!  Comic and Comic news is simply inescapable even if you aren't directly looking for it...it goes to show; if you are even slightly interested in pop culture, comics will find their way to you.   That really says something about the amazing occurrence and popular notoriety of what was long overlooked as trivial "kids stuff". 

That's one thing I loved about comic culture...you could never pick up an issue of Batman and still gather so many secondary details in all other entertainment formats which all take up realms of their own.  You have Mask of the Phantasm, the animated series, amazing video games from Sunsoft to Rocksteady, the Tim Burton and Chris Nolan renditions giving the Dark Knight a total flavor all their own...or maybe you're an Adam West fan...I'm not here to judge.  Clark Kent goes synonymously with George Reeves,  Christopher Reeve or Dean Cain!  Take your pick.

As opposed to Marvel and DC, I was first exposed to comics through the newer company of the 90's; image comics.  I remember finding an issue of Spawn number 11 and it just blowing my 10 year old mind...blood? guns? Super-detailed futuristic soldiers?  Glossy pages and bright colors? I couldn't believe it!  Granted, the series itself was nothing like this random-ass issue...I know, I collected 1-100.  But this really got me head-on into comics...I dabbled in all the image stock under the misguided idea that Image was somehow this adult format that had characters who swore, had scantily clad women and blood...you know adult the way we thought "Mortal Kombat" was the thinking man's game when we were 11.   I looked into Shadowhawk, Youngblood, Wetworks, Gen 13, and Team 7...I know a bunch of garbage but out of the trash came a real gem and that was the Maxx by Sam Keith... what a transcendentally amazing book with great content and even better art...the biggest shame was how the book fizzled out and how the MTV Oddities Cartoon left the series hanging right as the page-for-page cartoon was warming up.

Mainstream superheroes not your style?  Don't worry!  The world of underground comics, Zines and alternative press like Optic Nerve, Scud: The Disposable Assassin,  Iron West,  Jimmy Corrigan, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and  Lenore are all there for the picking!  What about the offensively hilarious works like Milk and Cheese or Hate Magazine?  You could traverse Japanese anime and manga  by reading the expertly crafted stories like the cyber-punk noir tales of Ghost in the Shell or Akira or visit the post-apocalyptic world of Tank Girl from the U.K. All of these classic books where the things I looked into...I loved the painterly and crafted styles of Dave McKean and Ashley Wood, the painstakingly detailed look of Geof Darrow or Ulysses Farinas, and the graphical styles of Rob Schrab, Doug Tennaple and Jim Mahfood.  Allen Moore revolutionized the anti-hero to a whole new level with the Watchmen.  We then had the modern sagas that also snowballed into their own sub-genre's like Walking Dead and Scott Pilgrim, both of which stand out much better as graphic novels than the live-action translations they spun off into.

Some comics broke new ground winning numerous accolades and achieving acclaim within the highest echelons of academia like the epic works of Art Spiegelman's Maus, Joe Sacco's "Footnotes from Gaza", the coming of age tale of the Iranian Revolution "Persepolis", the adolescent story of coming out of the closet in "Likewise" or the online politically drenched what-if saga "Shooting War" by Anthony Lappe.  This all came from a genre that was potentially banned by the insanely anti-communist/anti-"subversive" congress of the 1950's who created the totalitarian Code Authority banning everything from the world "Zombie" to the existence of an "inter-racial relationship"...and go figure...because of that, we owe comics as we know them today to Mad Magazine...what a saga.

Retro Toy Safari takes comics to the furniture!

Kal at the Kave of Kool highlights some majorly impressive comic memories!

Fortune and Glory Days takes us around the block with the Man of Steel!http://myvintagetoybox.blogspot.com/2013/04/league-of-extraordinary-bloggers-comic.html

League Assignment: Cowboys (catchup)

 

Last week’s topic was a little vague, and the vagueness continues this week! This week’s assignment from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers, if you’re man (or woman) enough to accept it:
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“Cowboys.”
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Are you starting to see a theme here? Stick with it this month and I think you’ll be happy with the results.

Hey Dudes...Onto post number 2...Coyboys.  I dig it.  Watch out for those jackrabbits and that killer cacti.

This is also coming in late but I honestly tried to get this one out a few days back but honestly was looking for the title of one of my cited sources and I just found it this afternoon.  I'd like to talk about a few different types of cowboys, from cyborg, to pirate to space cowboys, this archetype character shows time and time again that the saga of the old west can live and relive at an infinite amount. 

 

Hong on the Range - William F. Wu - this comic series based on the work of fiction from 1989 tells the tale of Louie Hong who travels across the desolate futuristic American west on the run from bounty hunters and the law after a gang of cyborgs blame him for a bank robbery.  Very cool artwork, stylized characters and a very cool steampunk look to it.  Definitely give this a read if you can find it from Image comics. 

 

Iron West - Doug Tenaple - another great steampunk-laden saga filled with robotic bounty hunters in a great black and white ash-can style from Earthworm Jim's creator.

Scud: the Disposable Assassin - Rob Schrab...has a lotta western inspired story-telling from this robot hitman who rides a mechanical horse, has guns that never run out and is essentially a weapon for hire. On top of that was the spin-off series "Tales from the Vending Machine" which actually had an issue which was set in the old-west with a powerful strong silent type by Ruben Martinez.

If reading about futuristic cowboys ain't your thing...try blasting away some varmints on either an 8 or 16 bit console. 

Gunsmoke -  Great NES 8 bit shooter...shoot shoot shoot and shoot some more to a killer western soundtrack in an Ikari Warriors style birdseye blaster!

 

 

Wild Guns - For 16 bit, this Western future shooter nails the arcade inspired action and has very innovative control style with furious action.  I only got a change to play a mod of this on my PC with a Keyboard and I must say, it wasn't the same.

Mad Dog McCree - This LaserDisc engine arcade cabinet blew my mind when I saw the dollar a try game at Hershey Park's arcade.  This was like no other game I ever saw and really was quite a spectacle.  Even by today's standards, I still think of it with fondness...not so much for the glitchy, grainy Sega CD version.

Check out the League hub at Cool and Collected for this week's post.

League Assignment: Young Dick Tracy

This week’s challenge comes from Classick Materia over at the Cold Slither Podcast, and it’s a good one…
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In the spirit of Young Indiana Jones, Young Frankenstein, or Young Einstein, come up with a “Young ___” prequel or series.

It took me a bit to think of a young angle that wasn't already done or would sound ridiculous...
I mean how could you depict the "Young Muppet Babies"...we've already got teenage versions of Batman, Peter Parker was a high school kid, we saw Anakin in his horrible awkward years (all of them) so what could I pick? 

Keep in mind, I wanted to choose something that really could use some re-energizing so I looked no further than a Young Dick Tracy!  I just think it could be the shot in the arm that totally underutilized franchise needs.  The comic always had that "old man" feel too it in the PM Times-Tribune next to Mary Worth and Judge Parker...a real "funny papers" comic strip even though it did have some deep story lines and well written interwoven character stories that endured for decades.  I loved the Disney movie and the toy line that followed...(not so much the video game) but I tell you, I was a die-hard Tracy fan as a kid.  I even had the plush Dick and Breathless dolls.  (The only true Dolls I ever owned)

But think about it, I'm not talking Dick Tracy in High School or the Lil' Coppers and Crooks but more Dick Tracy in the academy, seeing him learning the ropes seeing the back-stories of Pat Patton and other fellow partners and officers, seeing the beginnings of his romance with Tess.  There would be a lot going on all while you have a great setting and set of antagonists that really steal the show.

One question: how much?

And who's to say it would even have to be Tracy-centric.  We could completely focus on his rogues gallery which, in my opinion, gives Batman's a run for the money.  There could see the rise of the numerous gang-land kingpins and henchmen from them being bad seeds to paying their dues to their initiations.  Flat-top Jones was such a major character that fans went into mourning after his character was finally murdered.   To command that kind of respect could only be properly paid tribute to through a full telling of the back story...not including Big Boy Caprice, Numbers, Shoulders, Little Face, Nifty, Shaky, 88-Keys, Blowtop Jones, Prune Face, Influence, the Brow, Mumbles, Lips Manlice, Itchy, Measles...man are you writing this down?  It would be like Goodfellas if the movie never ended!

Check out these Extraordinary Bloggers...fellow writers, sorry it's been a month btw, got a new job and a baby whose due date is rapidly approaching so I've been very busy if you can imagine!

Shezcrafti dabbles in tweenage turtles.

Flying Monkeys and Ewoks is going with a young Mz. Croft, interesting.

Random Nerdness goes full out with a series I really can't understand the reason why hasn't been released, I like the cut of your jib, my friend.

Infinite Hollywoodtime goes with some young Toxie...anything Tromaville works for me!