Showing posts with label the question. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the question. Show all posts

Friday, July 17, 2009

Friday Night Fights! G-7! First Time...I Hurt Your Face!




http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/The_First_Time_Ever_I_Saw_Your_Face/1113864





A little Roberta Flack to accompany this twin fist to face action, from BLUE BEETLE and the 1980s, by Len Wein and the sadly missing Paris Cullens.






http://www.spacebooger.com/ remembers the first time, and every time...

Monday, June 15, 2009

Characters I Want To Write! Four to Grow On!

Of course we'd all like to be writing comics, when in reality we'd rather be drawing comics. Perhaps I might have had the latent talent to draw, but not now. Writing is an arduous process, denying one the hope of ever being confident in your chosen craft. I'd rather be a metallurgist or something viable like that.









Characters I'd love a chance to create stories for, in some kind of way...here's four of 'em.









Frankly I find it almost offensive there isn't a regular monthly SAVAGE SUB-MARINER comic available. Here's one of the cornerstones of Marvel Comics, a character who's been around since the 1940s, relatively unchanged to this day. He's the inspiration (and superior) to Aquaman. One of the first legitimate "anti-heroes" in comic book history, Namor has fought hero and villain with equal ferocity in his existence. The Avenging Son has pasted every major Marvel character in the kisser at least once, which has to be some kind of precedent.









I think the thing to remember about Namor as a character: he's just not going to do what anyone thinks he should do. Namor needs to be arrogant and proud, uncompromising, and to that end he should be teamed up with other characters. A nice, simple unit of secondary characters would offset Namor's belligerence, if that's the sore point for "today's" readers.










The Creeper is a character I've gotten wood for, and the connective tissue for me if the Creeper's mishmash of influences, all of them cool. If you took the Shadow and turned him into a Steve Ditko Spider-Man with an ape-sh*t color scheme, then you have the Creeper.





I think, as you can see, the Creeper wasn't designed to be a "clown" character. He's crawling down walls and laughing like a maniac, but it's all an act. What isn't an act is how he scares the hell out of everybody. Frankly, if you think of the Creeper running on all fours at you, I think you'll understand my meaning.














Here's another yellow-garbed character who really gets yanked through the smarmy "too cool" school of comic book fan. Known as "The Whizzer", this character was also created in the 1940s, with the unbelievably Pulpy/comic book origin of gaining his powers, as a child living in Africa, from an injection of mongoose blood. That's right, folks. Super-speed from mongoose blood. The cool thing is, I like the origin. You could do something with the origin, whether you know it or not. It's downright entertaining. But here's the deal: Robert Frank is a speedster, and the good thing about him is there's no "Speed Force" at Marvel (that's right, the "Speed Force"...which is supposed to explain why there are so many speedsters at DC Comics, as they all "tap into" this "Force." Sounds kind of like something else that a bunch of mid-late 30s age men fondly recall from a certain Blockbuster Movie of their early childhood.) What I'm saying is, the Whizzer is like any other character: he could be cool. He could be awesome. Somebody just has to see him that way. And that would be yours truly.














The Question is a woman nowadays, but back in the 1960s he was a man (created, as was the Creeper, by artist Steve Ditko) who expounded the black/white worldview of Objectionism. Reporter Vic Sage's quest for justice enabled him to wear a special featureless mask designed by his friend Professor Rodor. The Question is a character with two fists and a very clear, very defined sense of right and wrong. "A is A." There is no middle ground, there is no "gray area" where it concerns morality and ethics. Either you ARE a criminal, or you are NOT a criminal. You make the choice.





I love the Question, his spooky visual, his even more disconcerting judgement. What the Question does is remove any notion of chance or Fate...you are what you are. And you must face the consequences for your choices. Often as not, the cowards who cannot face themselves end up dead by their own hand, or while trying to escape. The Question continues on.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Merry F**kin' Christmas to You!



This may be the greatest unknown Christmas cover ever. Not only for its pedigree (the infinity man Neal Adams and the great Dick Giordano,) before you even get to the image itself: a 1970s blond secret agent/private dick trying to help a broken-legged Rita Farr lookalike while a crazed evil Santa in a hopped-up sleigh/dragster is about to turn them into potted meat.



Actually, this could qualify for All-Time Great Cover status the more I look at it. I even dig that the lighting effect on the two targets from the Dragsleigh's headlights creates a "mask" for the agent/dick, so he comes off a little like the Question, one of my favorite characters ever:


All in all, what you want in your covers is a scene that demands, utterly, for you to read its interiors. This does that for me, "Hot Wheels" tie-in or not. I was more of a Matchbox man myself.