I posted a review at ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics):
Monday, April 7, 2014
Happy Marriage?!: Daddy's Bills Bills Bills
I read Happy Marriage?!, Vol. 5
I posted a review at ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics):
I posted a review at ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics):
Sunday, April 6, 2014
I Reads You Review: CRISIS ON MULTIPLE EARTHS Volume 2
DC COMICS – @DCComics
WRITERS: Gardner Fox, Dennis O’Neil
PENCILS: Mike Sekowsky, Dick Dillin
INKS: Sid Greene, Joe Giella
LETTERS: Gaspar Saladino, Joe Letterese, Milton Snapinn, Ira Schnapp
ORIGINAL COVER ARTISTS: Mike Sekowsky and Murphy Anderson; Mike Sekowsky and Joe Giella; Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson; Dick Dillin and George Roussos; Joe Kubert; Neal Adams
COVER: Jerry Ordway
208pp, Color, $14.95 U.S., $22.95 CAN (2003)
Several years ago, I was one of the winners of a raffle at a local comic book shop (well, at least my version of a local comic shop). The prizes had mostly been picked through by the time I visited the store again, but I ended up being lucky anyway. Sitting on the prize table, almost alone, was a copy of Crisis on Multiple Earths Volume 2.
I am a fan of DC Comics’ Silver and Bronze Ages, and here was a book full of Justice League of America reprints from the late Silver Age and at the precipice of the Bronze Age. As far as I was concerned, I won the raffle.
Crisis on Multiple Earths Volume 2 reprints the following Justice League of America issues with August to September cover dates: #55-56 (1967), 64-65 (1968), 73-74 (1969), and 82-83 (1970). The book also reprints three pin-ups that were originally published in Justice League #76 (cover dated: October 1969) and Limited Collector’s Edition C-46 (cover dated: August-September 1976). Why did DC Comics pair two issues of Justice League of America?
Well, it starts with Flash #123 (cover dated: September 1961). In a story entitled, “The Flash of Two Worlds,” the Silver Age Flash (Barry Allen) meets his Golden Age counterpart, Jay Garrick. It turns out Garrick, along with the rest of the original Justice Society of America of the Golden Age of comics, inhabit an alternate universe. This meeting of the Flash characters from two different comic book eras turned out to be a historic meeting. Apparently fans liked it, and there were more such issues of Flash.
This set the stage for the first crossover between the Silver Age Justice League of America and the Golden Age Justice Society of America: “Crisis on Earth-One” (Justice League of America #21, cover dated: August 1963) and “Crisis on Earth-Two” (Justice League of America #22, September 1963). In this two-part tale, the Justice Society teams up with the Justice League to combat a team of villains from both worlds. These evil-doers travel between the worlds using vibratory devices made by the Fiddler (a Flash villain). After kidnapping both Flashes, they plan on committing crimes, and then, each villain will spend the money on the version of Earth where nobody knows him.
From that point on in 1967 until 1985, the JLA/JSA crossover became an annual event in Justice League of America comic book series. I know that these JLA/JSA team-ups are essential stories that led the way to DC Comics’ universe-changing event series, Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, I’m reading them because they are a kind of comic book that I like the most. If you, dear reader, do need some historical perspective, Martin Pasko’s introduction to this trade paperback, “Crisis Behind the Scenes,” is excellent.
The stories in this book also reflect the changes going on in the comic book industry in the late 1960s. Golden Age Justice Society of America and longtime Justice League of America writer, Gardner Fox (who had written 65 consecutive issues of the JLA series), gave way to then emerging new talent Dennis O’Neil. Artist Dick Dillin became Justice League of America’s penciller. He replaced regular JLA artist Mike Sekowsky, who began his comic book career when the industry was in its infancy (in 1941 with Timely Comics). Even Sekowsky’s inker, Murphy Anderson (who also began working in the 1940s), gave way to Sid Greene and Joe Giella as Dillin’s inkers.
As I am largely unfamiliar with that era of comics, I didn’t notice much of a change in the creative staff, except in the kind of stories Gardner Fox and Dennis O’Neil wrote. Fox’s JLA-JSA stories are fanciful, like children’s fantasy stories (Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz). O’Neil’s stories are more cosmic, and the threats to the heroes are more immediate and dangerous. Change and death are prominent themes, especially in the 1969 crossover.
I enjoyed reading this trade paperback, and I would recommend it to JLA fans. Crisis on Multiple Earths Volume 2 makes me look forward to finding the other volumes in the Crisis on Multiple Earths trade paperback series, although I do wonder how many are currently out of print.
B+
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Friday, April 4, 2014
I Reads You Review: Batman #28
DC COMICS – @DCComics
WRITER: Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV
PENCILS: Dustin Nguyen
INKS: Derek Fridolfs
COLORS: John Kalisz
LETTERS: Sal Cipriano
COVER: Dustin Nguyen
VARIANT COVER: Howard Chaykin and Jesus Aburto
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (April 2014)
Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger
DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. have begun the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the debut of Batman (in Detective Comics: cover dated May 1939). Part of DC Comics’ year-long celebration is the launch of the new, year-long, weekly comic book series, Batman Eternal. The series launches on April 9, 2014 and will apparently consist of 60 issues.
Batman Eternal will feature Batman, his allies, and Gotham City, and will be written by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Ray Fawkes, Kyle Higgins, and Tim Seeley. Writer John Layman was originally scheduled to write for Batman Eternal. Although he is no longer associated with the project, the work he finished before departing will apparently still be seen in the first 12 issues. Batman Eternal will work in tandem with the ongoing, regular Batman comic book series, which is written by Scott Snyder.
Batman #28 offers a preview of Batman Eternal. It contains a 24-page story entitled “Gotham Eternal.” The story opens in a near-future Gotham, where a mysterious young female infiltrates The Egyptian, “the only nightclub left in New Gotham.” She runs afoul of a group of heavies who seem to run the club. How do Batman and Selina Kyle fit into this scenario, and what does the young female need so badly that she would risk her life to enter this club?
I’m intrigued by Batman Eternal. Why, you ask? Well, I’ve been a life-long Batman fan, and I am excited about the 75th anniversary. And although I have never bought very many of them, I am always curious about weekly comic book series. Batman #28 hints at a dark, dystopian-lite future that finds Batman imperiled. So, what the heck? I’m in.
Batman #28 includes a six-page preview of American Vampire: Second Cycle – WRITER: Scott Snyder; ARTIST: Rafael Albuquerque; COLORS: Dave McCaig; and LETTERS: Steve Wands
B+
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
I Reads You Review: MINISTRY OF SPACE #1
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics
WRITER: Warren Ellis
ARTIST: Chris Weston
COLORS: Laura DePuy
32pp, Color, $2.95 U.S., $4.63 CAN (April 2001)
Cleaning my house and digging through boxes will yield treasures… or maybe comic books I forgot I had. I found copies of Ministry of Space, the three-part, alternate history miniseries written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Chris Weston. The first two issues of Ministry of Space were published by Image Comics in 2001, with the third and final issue not being published until 2004.
First, a quick historical overview: near the end of World War II, the United States, through the program, Operation Paperclip, recruited the scientists of Nazi Germany for their scientific expertise. This is how the U.S. advanced its defensive missile and rocket and space programs. The U.S. wanted to deny these Nazis’ knowledge to the United Kingdom and especially to the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.), which did manage to capture some German scientists.
Ministry of Space #1 introduces an alternate-Earth history in which British soldiers and operatives reached the German rocket installations at Peenemünde ahead of the U.S. Army and the Soviets. Thus, the Brits get the Nazi rocket science brain trust. With this acquisition of key German personnel and Nazi technology, Sir John “Jacko” Dashwood, Air Commodore of the Royal Air Force, creates the Ministry of Space. This ministry’s mission is to develop British space technology and to claim space for “King and Country and the British Empire.”
Ministry of Space #1 has an interesting premise. It certainly makes me wonder if our world would be better off if the British had won the space race. Then, I remember the British Empire, its mass murder of indigenous people for their natural resources, and the “White man’s burden.” So was the British Empire better or worse than the American and Soviet empires? You can consider that a rhetorical question, if you wish.
Premise aside, Ministry of Space #1 is sometimes aloof, sometimes tepid, but despite Dashwood’s machinations, surprisingly positive, as if to suggest that there is hope for mankind in Dashwood’s plans. Chris Weston’s art, with its retro feel, and Laura DePuy’s colors recall Frank Hampson’s Dan Dare. Ministry of Space also reminds me of the delightful British color adventure and genre films of the 1950s and 1960s that I watch on Antenna TV.
B
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
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