UPDATE: Wednesday, October 28 is also the release of DC Comics’ Legion: Secret Origin #1 (of 6) and whoever buys a copy of the first issue gets a Free Promo Legion Flight Ring while supplies last, so it will definitely be LEGION WEEK here at Westfield Comics!!!

KC Carlson's in this photo somewhere.

by KC Carlson

Has to be just a few things this time around, because my LCS didn’t get any Diamond Previews (Stupid Diamond!) this week, so I’m just going to concentrate on Marvel and DC (‘cause I can get their info from la internet), and I’ll be back next week with some indy and book picks!

October’s going to be a weird month for comics. At DC, somehow they’ve managed to set up their schedule so that they are issuing 52 different #2 issues — which are almost impossible to talk about since we won’t see any of the #1s for another few weeks yet. (And get this.. Next month is all #3’s!) “What are the new DC Comics going to be like?” may be the most important question since “Toilet paper: Over the top or behind and under?” The ultimate answer: Only you can decide!!!

As for Marvel, their big summer storylines (Fear Itself and X-Men: Schism) are wrapping up simultaneously — although there’s plenty of new concepts and titles springing out of both those events. And there’s an upheaval in the Hulk-centric books this month — but isn’t there always? He’s (They’re?) just that kind of guy.

STUFF I REALLY LIKE

Daredevil #5

Daredevil #1 by Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and Marcos Martin was one of the most refreshing superhero comics I’ve read in years! It harkens back to the old freewheeling DD of years past — before he was dipped in absolute misery — but the real magic of the book is that it doesn’t deny anything from the last decade or so of the series. In the current era of instant reboots every 20 minutes, it’s almost inconceivable to see a creative team focusing on adding to the legend of the character, rather than taking away from it. But it’s not all fun and games — Waid is a well-known expert in both character-building and -destroying, meaning that behind all the fun, there are actual consequences for the characters. I love it when a creative team does a complete job of entertaining me.

Avengers 1959

Anybody else love the 1950s Avengers subplot (more than ably illustrated by Howard Chaykin) from the last New Avengers arc as much as I did? Then you’re gonna love Avengers 1959 — a five-part miniseries both written and drawn by Mr. Chaykin, who has a unique flair for Fifties-style projects. Nick Fury and a bunch of morally-challenged characters and by Chaykin. I’m SO there!

Avengers: The Children's Crusade #8

I’m also loving Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, which, if you haven’t been paying attention, has been dealing with not only the Avengers but the Young Avengers and various X-Men all trying to resolve the Scarlet Witch situation once and for all. It’s getting down to the wire as October’s issue #8 (of 9) is announcing “The Death of an Avenger!” which would usually be a total turn-off for me, but since the most entertaining thing about this series is that I don’t think it’s going where I think it’s going — and how many comics can you say that about? — a death seems almost secondary to the plot. Or at least secondary to the ultimate resolution.

Amazing Spider-Man #671

Mary Jane Watson with Spider-Powers? Kewl. Maybe I need to re-think this Spider-Island thing… If you’re trapped on Spider-Island too long, do you start to see other people as hamburgers and turkey legs?

Casanova: Avaritia #2: Hey! I saw that movie! I don’t think this thing is the same as that thing....

The solicitation copy for Casanova: Avaritia #2 says: “This Issue: Something Happens!” Why can’t more comics be like that?

BOOK-LIKE THINGS

Marvel Masterworks Captain Marvel Vol. 4

Marvel Masterworks: Captain Marvel Volume 4 features the original Marvel Captain Marvel (but not the original original Captain Marvel… Oh, never mind!), reprinting issues #34-46, a particularly good run featuring work by Steve Englehart, Jim Starlin, Al Milgrom, Chris Claremont, and others. This volume features the story that ultimately leads to the character’s death, but readers at the time did not find this out for a couple more years. So consider yourself forewarned (or forearmed… I can never remember which). Remember, Captain Marvel is on Roger Ash’s approved list of comic book characters that stayed dead.

Annotated Sandman Vol. 1

The Annotated Sandman stands to be one of the biggest Gift Books of the season this year because, just like Hypnotoad, everybody loves Sandman! Now they can look super smart-reading it, because it will be forever linked to actual literature! (“And here is where Dodgson was inspired to write Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Gaiman’s unique use of staples in Sandman #42.”*) Since most of us already know it’s literature, we can look forward to seeing all of the commentary, historical and contemporary references, hidden meanings, and more, presented side-by-side with the series’ art and text. I’m hoping that they point out the actual panel where you start both The Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (but for Sandman, you have to play it backwards — but don’t tell anybody!!!). It’s the first of four beautiful (and big! — it’s almost 12” x 12”) hardcover volumes. Volume One is 560 pages, collecting Sandman #1-20. Please note: the comic pages are presented in beautifully toned black and white (see example). Published by Vertigo.

* not an actual quote (hopefully).

Also worth looking at this month is Tales of The Batman: Don Newton Vol. 1 (saluting the late, great artist) and Marvel Firsts: The 1960s, but Bob Greenberger will be along soon to tell you more about both.

The Shade #1

DC MINIS: As if 52 new comic series weren’t enough, DC has added a number of new miniseries to their October schedule — some with long-awaited characters and concepts. One of the most eagerly anticipated is The Shade, the antihero from the acclaimed Starman series. Starman writer James Robinson returns in the 12-issue series, and Cully Hamner is the regular artist, with Starman artist Tony Harris providing the covers. An attack at the Starman Museum sets the stage for a globe-hopping (and time-travelling!) adventure, revealing secrets of the Shade’s true origin . . . The Huntress returns in a six-issue miniseries written by Paul Levitz, the creator of a completely different Huntress (Earth-2 Batman’s daughter). I’ll be very intrigued to see how he might change the character (if at all) for her New 52 debut. This storyline will eventually tie into events in Birds of Prey. Art is by Marcus To and John Dell . . . My Greatest Adventure resurrects one of DC’s classic titles for two of their newest characters. The adventures of Garbage Man by Aaron Lopresti and Tanga by Kevin Maguire continue from Weird Worlds, adding a new Robotman series by Matt Kindt and Scott Kolins. It’s a six-issue series . . . Penguin: Pain and Prejudice is a five-issue mini detailing the dark and painful past of the Bat-foe. It’s by novelist Gregg Hurwitz and artist Szymon Kudranski . . . Neal Adams’ Batman Odyssey returns for a seven-issue Volume 2, picking up right where they left off.

Legion: Secret Origin

LEGION-O-RAMA: Seeing as how DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes franchise is reportedly staying pretty much the same post-New 52, there seems to be a little added LSH activity this month. A six-issue miniseries by Paul Levitz, Chris Batista, and Rich Perotta begins in October, taking a definitive look at LSH origins in the new DCU. Legion: Secret Origin fills in the gaps about not only the Legion’s earliest adventures, but explains how the United Planets was formed, and offers details on R.J. Brande’s first assassination attempt . . . One of my favorite LSH stories is finally back in print! Superboy’s Legion is a great look at an alternate Legion, dreamed up and written (and inked) by life-long Legion fan Mark Farmer and pencilled by long-time LSH cover artist Alan Davis. It’s a loving Elseworlds tribute to the concepts and characters of the Silver Age Legion. Don’t miss it . . . And the much-loved Legion of Super-Heroes Archives are back in the high-quality hardcover format. The 240-page Volume 13 reprints Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #224-233, featuring work by Jim Shooter, Paul Levitz, Mike Grell, Joe Staton, Jim Sherman, and others in stories featuring Stargrave, The Fatal Five, and the Dark Circle.

DC Comics Presents: Superman: Secret Identity #1

DISAPPOINTING COLLECTION: One of my all-time favorite Superman stories — Superman: Secret Identity — by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen is finally back in print — but not in the quality book collection that it deserves. Instead, it’s being presented in two issues of DC’s $7.99 comics reprint format. (I remember when this format used to be a buck.) But at least it’s back for a new audience to enjoy. And hopefully we can share the secret about why it’s being reprinted now in a month or two.

FINALLY, SOME THINGS JUST CONFUSE ME: DC’s New 52 is still weeks away, but that isn’t stopping them from soliciting both a 1,216-page hardcover collection of the first issues of “The New 52” (at just $150) and a portfolio set of all 52 #1 covers (for $129). All of which will still be completely unseen before you have to order them. Confidence or foolhardiness? You be the judge! . . . Similarly, Marvel has three new posters (Wolverine and the X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and Fantastic Four) for October. Which are represented in the new Marvel Previews by three giant black boxes with only the word CLASSIFIED. (What a waste of a page of Marvel Previews!) Now, they ultimately may be cool posters — but who buys a poster sight unseen?

More comics goodness next week!

KC CARLSON: Reminding you that sometimes logic and comic books don’t mix. Try chocolate sauce and dynamite instead.

Legion Lost

Today, the writing partnership of Andy Lanning & Dan Abnett enjoys a reputation for exciting, cosmic tales, exploring the universe aspect of the Marvel Universe. The justly-deserved reputation, though, wouldn’t have been possible without the English duo first spending some time in another future and another reality. After toiling on English comics then a ton of Marvel tales, they were invited to take on the Legion of Super-Heroes beginning with Legion #122 and Legionnaires #78 in late 1999.

Legion of the Damned

The franchise had proven durable since its debut in 1958 and at this point, enjoyed two monthly series but sales were soft and it needed a boost. Once the new writers got their feet wet, they sat with editor Mike McAvennie and brainstormed some new ideas, including sending half the team to the far reaches of the universe. As the plan formed, they used both series final issues to set up the new status quo with the storylines Legion of the Damned and Widening Rifts. The former story heralded the arrival of Olivier Coipel as the artist, making his comics debut.

In spring 2000, the books went away followed, after a brief beak, with Legion Lost, a year-long series that followed this half of the team. Soon after, a companion title, Legion Worlds, arrived to explore what happened back home while spotlighting several of the unique planets in DC Comics’ 31^st Century.

Legion fans took a little time to adjust to Coipel’s grittier interpretation of the characters but were ready to embrace him with Legion Lost while the project garnered good reviews and solid sales. However, the maxiseries never gathered enough support to be collected. The new management at DCE has finally rectified this oversight and this spring we will get a 296-page hardcover collection appealing to fans of the Legion and fans of Coipel, who has become one of the Big Name artists at Marvel these days. Also providing art for the series was Pascal Alixe, with Lanning inking both for some nice consistency.

The Legionnaires have to find their way home while dealing with the Progeny, antagonists native to the distant galaxy. The heroes find themselves forging an alliance with the Kwai, aiding them in their struggle for survival. Along the way, the team had to remain focused although sexual tensions among several of the teammates complicated their lives.

One of the knocks against the Legion is that more often than not, it was insular and self-referential so if you hadn’t been reading the series for years, you were hopelessly bewildered. On the other hand, the creators had the freedom of telling their stories with only period nods to the greater DC Universe so there was a nice self-contained aspect to the series.

Legion Lost tightened the focus, allowing old and new readers to get acclimated. Much as the renegade Progeny character Shikari met the team — Monstress, Brainiac 5.1, Umbra, Kid Quantum, Saturn Girl, Live Wire, Element Lad and Chameleon — so could anyone intrigued by the series. Its terrific space opera and science fiction as we learned more about the Progeny’s goal, to eradicate all traces of life that did not conform to the Progenitor’s idea of acceptable life. The writers did a marvelous job of mixing new lifeforms and new civilizations while letting each member of the Legion change and grow. There was also enough team energy as well so it was truly a satisfying read and holds up today.

Purchase Legion Lost.

Purchase DC Comics Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes – Legion of the Damned.

Devil Dinosaur. Art by Jack Kirby.

As 1960s British Invasion band The Troggs once famously sung, “Love Is All Around”. (They also more famously sung “Wild thing, you make my heart sing”, but the licensing clearance for that song is probably a lot more expensive.) But “Wild Thing” may be closer to the ultimate comic book romance — and it’s probably the favorite love song of both Anthro and Moon Boy, “wild things” who both ultimately found their true loves, although one was a cute cave girl (Embra), while the other appears to be a giant red Tyrannosaurus Rex, who’s probably a mutant. (Oh, and before I get into trouble, the latter is probably not a romantic love. Or have I inadvertently shipped a brand new romance? Egad!) Such is the state of contemporary superhero comic book romance. Bonk Bonk Bonk, indeed!

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought a quick look at comic book romance might be appropriate. Until I thought about it harder and realized that almost every epic romance in comic books ultimately ends in tragedy or death — just as all good soap opera should. For every Reed and Sue Richards, there are a hundred Scott Summers and Jean Grays. Ooo, tragedy and death!

So with that in mind, Happy Valentine’s Day!

Young Romance #1

(It’s Okay — It’s Short — and Partially Made Up)

Once upon a time, there was a whole genre of comic books devoted to romance. It was called… uh… Romance Comics. Like everything good in comics, Jack Kirby was involved, creating the first romance comic book title (called Young Romance) in 1947 with his partner Joe Simon. It was a very popular genre and attracted a huge and loyal readership — mostly young women, many of whom (gasp!) really enjoyed reading comic books about things that interested them. Romance comics were largely a mystery to young boys, however, mostly because boys had the entire rest of comic books (superhero, crime, western, sci-fi, horror, jungle, etc.) to choose from. Romance comics even featured different advertising than other comic books, mostly about stuff that would only interest girls. That, added to all the kissing and hugging and mushy stuff, made romance comics not very interesting to young boys. So most boys didn’t care much about them at all.

(Until many years later when the stupid boys suddenly realized that not only were many of the romance comics written and drawn by their favorite creators, but there were also a lot of cute girls in them! So, finally, they started buying them, and because of that, they drove the back issue prices up. Stupid boys!)

Then one day, in the ancient and mysterious 1970s, giant comets crashed into the Earth, and eventually the greenhouse gasses killed off all the comic book genres. All except superhero comic books. Many crackpot historians believe that alien fanboy visitors may have really been the cause of it all. Nevertheless, romance was dead.

Thus endeth the history lesson.

Lois & Clark from Adventures of Superman #525. Art by Stuart Immonen & Jose Marzan Jr.

Okay, Then, Where Was I?

Actually, there was plenty of romance to go around in superhero comics (although most young boys were probably distracted by all the flying around and funny underwear). Given all of the tragic love stories to come in the genre, ironically, the very first one is one of the most classic, endearing (and enduring) fictional romances of all time. I refer you to When Clark Met Lois from Action Comics #1, 1938.

No matter what Earth, or which version of the characters, or even the sheer craziness of the Weisinger era of rivals and embarrassing plots, Superman and Lois Lane have always been comics’ “it” couple. Their romance has endured everything — from bad writing to even death itself. While it took forever to get them down the aisle, it appears to be a union that no man — or supervillain — can put asunder.

The Superman mythos features not just one, or two, but three strong, lasting romantic bonds. Besides Lois and Clark, there’s also the long-standing marriage of Clark’s adopted parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent — better known as Ma and Pa Kent to fans. Obviously, there was a lot of love in that household. As there was between Kal-El’s birth parents, Jor-El and Lara, who sacrificed everything so that their son could escape Krypton’s inevitable destruction and find a new life — and loves — on another planet. It’s a wonderful trifecta of healthy — and inspiring — relationships.

Not every relationship in the Superman family was as lucky. Daily Planet editor Perry White and his wife were separated (and possibly divorced?) in previous continuity, although I’m not sure what his status is now. (There should really be a Facebook for DC characters — or at least an updated Who’s Who!) Similarly, Lois’ sister Lucy Lane was once married to Planet reporter Ron Troupe and had a son, who apparently has disappeared into continuity, and Ron and Lucy’s current relationship (if any) is undefined, especially since Lucy is currently seemingly insane.

Alicia & Ben from Fantastic Four #19. Art by Jack Kirby.

Ben & ‘Licia, Sittin’ in a Tree…

Only the hands of creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby could bring us a tragic but incredibly moving romance between a man trapped inside a monster — Ben Grimm, The Thing — and the blind sculptress Alicia Masters, who could touch the man within. In true comic book style, it was a romance that seemed destined for heartache, especially when it was discovered that she was actually the stepdaughter of one of the FF’s early foes, the villainous Puppet Master, who apparently caused her blindness. Alicia played a pivotal role in a classic early FF storyline (the so-called “Galactus trilogy”), where she pleads with Galactus’s herald, the Silver Surfer, to spare the planet and its people, an event which would have long-reaching ramifications years later.

Ben, when he’s not being all cuddly or in clobberin’ mode, tended to be a mopey boyfriend, eventually driving Alicia into the arms of another — his teammate (and playful rival), Johnny Storm, the Human Torch. Alicia and Johnny eventually marry, and Ben forlornly drags himself to the wedding. But wait! It turned out that she wasn’t really Alicia at all — it was a Skrull named Lyja who abducted Alicia and took her place for years! But that’s okay, Johnny still loved her (ew!). Things turned tragic after Lyja sacrificed her life to save Johnny. (Later, she “got better” and returned, still in love with Johnny.) After Secret Invasion, Alicia became part of a support group for people who were replaced by Skrulls. (Is this covered by National Health Care?)

Things were still strained between the real Alicia and Ben. Eventually, Alicia left him (and the Earth) when she became romantically attracted to the Silver Surfer, and the two traveled the galaxy together for years. After they broke up, Alicia returned to Earth, where she and Ben have had a seemingly on-and-off relationship for the last several years. Notably, when The Thing was recently returned (temporarily) to his human Ben Grimm form, the first person he turned to was Alicia, and they spent some “off-camera” time together. Awww…

Love in the Legion from Legionnaires #59. Art by Jeff Moy & Cory Carani.

Superhero team books, most notably the many iterations of the Legion of Super-Heroes and various X-Men teams, are generally rife with potential romantic entanglements. Perhaps because these teams prominently feature a lot of adolescent characters, all thrust together in a largely enclosed environment. Like High School. And when you add in all those raging hormones… Well, do I hafta’ spell it out for you?

The Legion has seldom had a time where there have been fewer than 20 members, and if you add in all the previous members, Substitutes, honorary members, time-traveling part-timers, Science Police officers, etc. — and then multiply them by the number of times the Legion has been rebooted — well that’s a few more than 20. So the potential romantic entanglements are practically infinite, yet on the whole, many of these kids in the future are relatively stable in their mating/dating habits.

Especially the main Legion Threesome — aka the Founding Members — Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad (or Live Wire, depending on which reboot you call “home”). In the early days of the LSH, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad were THE Legion pair, always together and often acting like they were already an old married couple. (In fact, they were the second LSH couple to marry, after the somewhat surprising re-bound romance of Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy.) But one of the fun things about the reboot was that you could kinda mess around with readers’ expectations and see what happened if — in another place and time — Imra (Saturn Girl’s real name) got fed up with Garth’s (Live Wire) wild ways and decided that maybe Cosmic Boy was the ideal dream-date for her. So fans got to see it both ways (but not together — you pervs!). Nowadays, with Admiral Levitz back at the LSH helm, things are pretty much back to normal.

Duo Damsel laments from Adventure Comics #369. Art by Curt Swan.

Speaking of Duo Damsel, long-time Legion fans remember her unrequited crush on Superboy from the early days of the Legion. But fans knew (and so did Duo Damsel herself — SINCE SHE LIVED IN THE FUTURE !) that she and Superboy were never going to be an item as long as her initials weren’t L.L. Yet, if you even mention a certain scene of Duo Damsel crawling through Superboy’s 20th century secret tunnel on a mission — and suddenly realizing that she and Superboy will never be together — to a Legion fan of a certain age, they will be instantly reduced to a blubbering mess. It is one of the most iconic moments in LSH history. Not a memorable battle. Not a shocking death. A young girl moping over a lost love — and then finding a new resolve. For those of you who have always wondered, that’s what makes the Legion such a big deal. That particular moment is an emotional touchstone for a generation of Legion fans.

Jean & Scott get married from X-Men #30. Art by Andy Kubert & Matt Ryan.

The X-Men, on the other hand, in its earliest, somewhat directionless 1960s years, seemed obsessed with the ongoing saga of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, until Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum and John Byrne arrived to really shake things up. Claremont became known for writing women and relationships particularly well, and obviously, both Cockrum and Byrne were quite adept in artistically conveying beautiful people having fascinating connections. So, for a long time, that was the superhero book to read if you liked romantic entanglements. And this was where the Scott and Jean thing came to a head, tragically, but memorably (at least for now).

Much has been written about the Scott/Jean pairing, and specifically about the whole “Dark Phoenix” storyline (which famously did not go the way the creators originally intended — and ultimately set in motion a whole house of cards regarding both character’s futures). So I’m not going to dwell on the details here (Google is your friend), except to say that several Marvel creators have invented a complete cottage industry around all the possible variations and ramifications and What If’s? of this classic romance/storyline.

Later, after both Cockrum and Byrne had moved on and Claremont got unceremoniously booted from the X-books, carefully scripted relationships devolved into just sex, and more and more artwork looked “inspired” by lingerie catalogues. While still under Claremont, Scott married a Jean look-alike (Madelyne Pryor), had a child, and attempted to leave superheroics. But Claremont had no control over what happened next. To no one’s surprise, Jean came back, Scott abandoned his wife and child to go back to Jean, Madelyne went insane and tried to kill everybody, Scott eventually married Jean, and Jean eventually died again, in Wolverine’s arms (and a lot of readers think that Logan and Jean are actually the great mutant romance) — while Scott was infatuated with a new arrival to the team, Emma Frost. Believe it or not, things got even worse later, as this has become Marvel’s premiere “Never-Ending Story”, and canny readers expect that Jean will eventually return again (if she hasn’t already, in another guise).

Some love is bittersweet.

Silver St. Cloud. Art by Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin.

As this is running long (as usual), I should wrap things up, although I didn’t get a chance to discuss my favorite Bat-romance (Silver St. Cloud), or the especially twisted tale of the Vision and Scarlet Witch, or even the often sad legacy of the “Schwartz Women” (Iris West, Carol Ferris, Jean Loring, Shiera Sanders Hall, and Sue Dibny, all faithful wives who wound up villainized, abused, dead, or multiples of the above). Perhaps another column someday. But feel free to use the comments box below to mention your favorite comic book romance — or disagree with my choices!

While romantic conflict is always a staple of any good superhero story, it’s also important to remember that it should be just that — one element among many, combining to make a story that’s exciting, compelling, action-packed, yet moving and significant. While superhero stories by their very description should always include some sort of “super” element, as well as something “heroic”, the really good ones should always have more. And romance is just about as universal as you can get.

Which is why a romantic subplot or two is always a plus in superhero comic books. Everybody loves seeing the hero get the girl — or boy!

KC CARLSON sez: My own Valentine, the ever-loving Johanna Draper Carlson (Comics Worth Reading), gently reminded me that not all great comic book romances occur in traditional superhero comics. So I’ve talked her into doing a future column so you can meet Zot and Jenny (Zot!), Abby and Mark (aka The Crusader) (Love and Capes), and Tom and Lily (True Story, Swear To God), among others. Look for it soon!

Thanks, honey! “You make everything… groovy.”

Classic covers from the Grand Comics Database.

Archie's Mad House Vol. 1

1. Archie’s Mad House: One of Archie Comics’ odder (and older) titles, Archie’s Mad House barely had any Archie characters in it at all! The core title ran 65 issues from 1959-1968, although the Archie gang only appeared in the first 18 issues. Under various name and format changes, the book continued on in some fashion until 1982. Those who remember the title probably recall some incredibly strange superhero stories — most notably starring Captain Sprocket or Ronald the Rubber Boy — in the 1960s. A slightly younger fan might remember the 1970s Mad House Glads — the third great Archie feature based on a rock band (after The Archies and Josie and the Pussycats) — who took over the title. The Glads were fronted by Clyde Didit, sometime mascot of the original Mad House comic. (The character also made occasional appearances in the pre-Pussycats Josie comics, although he looked different.) The rest of the band was made up of his three brothers, Dippy Didit, Dick Didit, and Dan Didit, but much of the focus was on the band’s crazed groupie chick, Fran the Fan, and a fashion-obsessed mod known as Rod the Mod — and both eventually became the focus of the feature, pushing the band aside. Fran subsequently dated both Clyde and Rod and she was frequently the center of attraction (especially when Dan DeCarlo drew her on covers).

I’m not sure if Fran and the Didits will be in Craig Yoe’s Archie’s Mad House reprint anthology, a new 204-page hardcover from IDW collecting selections from the bizarre title, but hopefully there’ll be some behind-the-scenes info on the series, as little has been written about its origins. The IDW book looks mostly to draw from the title’s earliest years, when it was a bizarre combination of typical Archie-style hijinks, the popular monster mags of the era, and a less-than-subtle rip-off of the format and satire of early Mad Magazine (post-Kurtzman). They weren’t exactly alone in this, as the very clever cover copy of the book indicates by namechecking other popular humor magazines of the times.

Sabrina's first appearance anywhere, from Archie's Mad House #22. Art by Dan DeCarlo.

Also notable in these early Mad House issues: it’s the location of the earliest appearances of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She first appears in issue #22 (Oct. 1962), written by George Gladir and drawn by Dan DeCarlo, and makes sporadic appearances for several years after. What’s most interesting about these early (and rarely reprinted) appearances is that this Sabrina is not the Sabrina you know and love from the Saturday morning cartoons and more recent TV appearances (not to mention her way-cool manga-esque incarnation by Tania del Rio). This early Sabrina is a bad girl! She uses her powers to snare unwitting boyfriends and to torture would-be-rivals for said boyfriend’s attentions. When she’s at home, she tends to lounge around in very un-demure outfits, thinking evil thoughts. At this point, Sabrina is not considered one of the Archie cast of characters. She doesn’t become part of the gang (with an accompanying personality change to being friendly and helpful) until her animated series began in 1970.

While it may be shocking to today’s Archie readers to find out Sabrina was not originally conceived as the wholesome, kid-friendly character she is today, it really wasn’t that unusual at the time. For many longtime Archie fans, the late 50s and early 60s were Archie’s “golden era”, at least in terms of creativity and personality-based storytelling. Also at this time, both Veronica and Reggie weren’t exactly good upstanding solid friends of the gang like they are today. Veronica was a “witch” in her own way, in terms of how she dealt with both Betty and Archie, as well as being downright cruel to Jughead on occasion. Most Archie/Reggie encounters ended with at least one of them with a black eye. The more sharply defined characterizations of the era made for more conflict and richer stories than the latter-day stories where all the Archie gang are good friends (with occasional differences of opinion). These harder-edged Archie characterizations faded away in the late 1960s, probably not-coincidentally around the time they made their debut in the then-closely-parental-group-controlled “everybody is friends”/no-conflict atmosphere of Saturday Morning children’s television. The comics then changed to reflect the character’s blanderized TV personalities.

That’s one of the main reasons that I’m very much looking forward to reading the freewheeling Archie stories of this era, as well as the stranger-than-fiction faux superheroes like Captain Sprocket and Superchick/Mighty Chick/Mighty Girl. (They weren’t exactly consistent with names at Mad House — including the title of the book, which was either Mad House or Madhouse.) And wait ‘til you meet Lester Cool and Chester Square! This book will be filled with wonderful artwork from many of Archie’s greatest artists, including Dan DeCarlo (Betty & Veronica, Josie), Samm Schwartz (Jughead), Joe Edwards (L’il Jinx, Captain Sprocket, Super Duck), and Orlando Busino (Tales Calculated to Drive You Bats). In addition, you may be surprised to hear that the legendary Wally Wood was also an occasional contributor to Archie’s Mad House, and some of his stories will be included.

Chester Square and Lester Cool from Archie's Mad House #21. Art by Dan DeCarlo.

As the sell copy says (and I can’t better it), Archie’s Mad House “brilliantly combines satire magazines, superhero send-ups, monster magazines, sexy teenage girls, surrealism, beatniks and hippies, and wackiness.” Archie’s Mad House is one of comics’ authentic “Sputnik moments” from the days when mainstream comic books had more than just superheroes to choose from. (Published when Sputnik was actually in orbit!) Don’t miss this great slice of little-known comic history from IDW.

Dark Horse Presents #1

2. Dark Horse Presents #1: Comic’s greatest modern-day anthology returns with a first issue line-up that will make your heart rush! It features new work from Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, and Richard Corben; a new Concrete (one of the stars of the original DHP!) story by Paul Chadwick; a new Star Wars Crimson Empire story; an all-new all-color Finder story by Carla Speed McNeil; the return of Michael T. Gilbert’s Mr. Monster; a new prose piece by Harlan Ellison (who apparently isn’t dead– yay!); AND a sneak peek of the highly anticipated prequel to 300 — Xerxes by Frank Miller. And that’s just the first issue!

Buy why waste time reading me blathering on and on about how great this is when you can get the lowdown from Dr. Dark Horse himself, Mike Richardson. Mike recently spoke with Westfield’s Roger Ash about the project and you should go immediately here to read all about it (if you haven’t already).

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 1

3. Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: In one of comics’ most unexpected team-ups, Fantagraphics Books is pairing with Disney to present the definitive collection of the classic Mickey Mouse newspaper strip. It concentrates on the epic run of artist and writer Floyd Gottfredson, considered not only to be one of the greatest cartoonists of the 20th Century, but also “the” Mickey Mouse artist.

Gottfredson’s Mickey stories are nothing like the easy-going personality of the current host of everything Disney. These rip-roaring adventure tales not only portray Mickey as the scrappiest, rough-and-tumble mouse of all time, they are also said to be the foundation of all Disney comics to follow — including the classic work of “The Duck Man”, the amazing Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories of Carl Barks. Talk about Epic Mickey!

While many of the classic Gottfredson Mickey Mouse tales have been reconfigured into comic book format and reprinted as such, the entire original newspaper strip has never been comprehensively collected in English — until now!

Starting with the strip’s 1930 launch (and initially featuring work by the legendary animator Ub Iwerks), Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Volume 1: Race to Death Valley includes more than a dozen complete Mickey tales in a 260-page hardcover — and all restored from Disney’s original negatives and proof sheets. Plus, there’s more than 50 pages of fascinating supplementary features, all in full color: behind-the-scenes artwork and publicity material, as well as commentary and essays from noted scholars, including Warren Spector, Floyd Norman, Thomas Andrae, and David Gerstein (co-editor of the project with Gary Groth). Check out Roger’s recent chat with Gerstein for more details on this wonderful project.

Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Volume 1: Race to Death Valley (the first of a projected 13 volumes, sales pending) is one of comics’ major archival projects of the year. Fantagraphics’ decades-long devotion to high quality earns this project Westfield’s highest recommendation.

Fear Itself #1

3.1. Fear Itself Event: I spoke about this new Marvel project at length last month here,  so I won’t spend a lot of time repeating myself (for a change). But now we have an idea of what we’re up against, as the first issue (and the inevitable tie-ins) have been officially announced. At least right now, it looks pretty under control — the core Fear Itself book (7 issues, by Matt Fraction, Stuart Immonen, and Wade Von Grawbadger), the “shadow” title: Fear Itself: The Home Front (7 issues by Christos Gage, Peter Milligan, Mike Mayhew, Elia Bonetti, and others), a couple of series tie-ins, and a pair of stand-alone books. I generally enjoy these “sidebar” event titles, as they tend to offer up a “worms’ eye view” of the main event, from the eyes of the average citizen of the Marvel U or the less-than-top-tier heroes, and how they cope with yet another major disruption to their way of life. By their very nature, they’re not as inherently exciting as the “real deal,” but they have the opportunity to offer up insight and background to the main event as it barrels along at top speed.

So far, there are only a couple of tie-in series to Fear Itself, those that Fraction himself are involved in. The Fraction-written Invincible Iron Man will be directly connected, as will the new incarnation of Journey Into Mystery starring the Thor supporting cast (while Fraction launches a new Mighty Thor title, which apparently isn’t going to directly tie-in, at least for right now). Fraction explains some of this in his recent interview with Westfield’s Roger Ash here, which is a must-read, if only to hear Fraction’s thoughts on Man-Thing (Marvel’s premiere Fear-based character, if you weren’t already aware).

Fear Itself: Sins Past

There’s the Fear Itself Spotlight, which is the Marvel Spotlight magazine installment about the event, featuring interviews with both Fraction and Immonen, as well as a look at other big Marvel events from the past, and a feature about the original Journey Into Mystery Thor run, written by Bob Greenberger . . . And then there’s Fear Itself: Sin’s Past #1 — one of those really annoying Marvel reprint projects that also include a short (usually five pages or less) all-new “framing sequence”. Ostensibly, this book reprints the first appearance of Fear Itself’s Big Bad, Sin (aka The Red Skull’s daughter), which would be cool if it didn’t occur in the middle of Mark Gruenwald’s wackadoodle run of crazy Cap stories — this one featuring Captain America regressed to a 98-pound teenager (and trying to fight in a really baggy costume) facing a teenage death cult and the Sisters of Sin (who, like Sin, have a super-creepy origin story: that of young girls rapidly aged to adulthood). Not essential. Hopefully Marvel will come to their senses and put up the handful of new pages on their website at some point, if they’re actually important.

And that’s it (so far) for Fear Itself tie-ins. Of course, Marvel has yet to release the full Fear Itself checklist… That may be something to fear itself!

Miss Fury

4 & 5. The Fury and the Furry: Two cool selections from the Library of American Comics this month: Miss Fury is a 240-page collection of the very best stories of the first female superhero created and drawn by a woman, the acclaimed Tarpé Mills. Starting life as the second (of many) characters called the Black Fury, this sexy costumed adventurer (with a catsuit outfit) first debuted in 1941 as a Sunday-only comic strip. Eventually, she became known as Miss Fury, and her adventures continued until 1952, when Mills largely retired from comics. Marvel Comics (then known as Timely Comics) reprinted many of these comic strips in comic book format from 1942 to 1946. In 1979, Mills began a graphic novel featuring Miss Fury, which ultimately was unfinished — although this collection will include pages from the project. While the Miss Fury material has been reprinted a number of times over the years by small publishers, for this latest outing, the very best stories have been selected by Trina Robbins. Mills’ Miss Fury work was so popular with WWII G.I.s, the beautiful character was often painted on the nose cones of their bombers. Making her a true bombshell heroine.

Bloom County The Complete Library Vol. 4

Also this month, IDW’s acclaimed Bloom County collections continue with Volume 4, complete with Bill the Cat on the cover. These strips are from the period in which creator Berkley Breathed won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. He also broke his back in a ultralight plane crash — which caused not only a delay of the strip, but became fodder for the infamous Steve Dallas breaking his back sequence — although in that case, it was because Steve was attacked by an enraged Sean Penn. I hate when that happens.

As with previous Bloom County volumes, IDW (and Westfield) are also offering a limited edition of Volume 3, including a signed (by Breathed) and numbered bound-in bookplate — strictly limited to 500 copies.

DC Comics Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes - Legion of the Damned

6. DC Classic Reprints: Legion of Super-Hero fans are rejoicing over DC’s announcement of a reprinting of Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, and Olivier Coipel’s massive Legion Lost 12-issue series in a 296-page hardcover. Bob Greenberger will have a more detailed preview of this soon. In the meantime — and if you want to check out this LSH dream team, but haven’t got the dough for a giant hardcover — their work also appears in DC Comics Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes — Legion of the Damned, a 96-page softcover reprint collecting Legionnaires #78 & 79 and Legion of Super-Heroes #123 & 124. More recent LSH is in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes: The Early Years, a 144-page paperback collection of Paul Levitz’s recent untold flashback tales, illustrated by Kevin Sharpe and Marlo Alquiza . . . Ever wanted to read Neal Adams’ vintage work on Deadman, but couldn’t afford the giant hardcover? Deadman Vol. 1 collects most of the Strange Adventures run (#205-213) for a fraction of the hardcover price . . . One of the more important DC historical series (as well as a great read!) is finally being reprinted in a nice hardcover format. Infinity Inc.: The Generations Saga collects the earliest adventures of Infinity Inc., starring the sons and daughters of the original Justice Society of America members (some of whom — like Power Girl and Jade — are big names in the DCU today). These early stories from All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc. are written by Roy and Dann Thomas, with art by Jerry Ordway, Mike Machlan, Tony Dezuniga, Don Newton, and others — including early, pre-Spawn work by Todd McFarlane. 192 pages . . . While not a book, fans of Jill Thompson and cute eternal beings should check out The Little Endless Portfolio set. Twelve 8” x 10” prints (six featuring images from The Little Endless Storybook and six from Delirium’s Party) are printed on high-quality matte paper and shrink-wrapped into a four-color folder.

Milton Caniff's Male Call

7 & 8. Hermes x 2: Hermes Press is offering up two interesting projects this month. Milton Caniff’s Male Call: The Complete Newspaper Strips: 1942-1946 collects Caniff’s popular comic strip, which was only carried in U.S. military publications during WWII. Starring the popular and sexy Miss Lace (just “Lace” to her friends, which included pretty much every G.I. in the service!) in adventures that were just a little bit risqué — perhaps a bit more racy than traditional civilian features, but not enough to create problems with military censors. Ultimately, Lace became one of the most popular military-based cartoon characters ever (along with Sad Sack, Willie & Joe, and Pvt. Snafu — but Lace was in a class of her own). Hermes’ new book replaces the long-out-of-print 1987 Kitchen Sink collection, including every strip along with unpublished comics, ad material, an introductory essay by Caniff historian R.C. Harvey, a historical essay, and other special features. 156-page hardcover (w/dust jacket) in black & white and color.

My Favorite Martian

On the surface, Gold Key Comics’ My Favorite Martian seems like an unusual series to collect. Based on the popular (yet seldom seen today) 1960s sitcom, the My Favorite Martian comic ran nine issues from Gold Key between 1964 and 1966. The first seven of these issues are being published by Hermes as My Favorite Martian: The Complete Series : Volume One — a 224-page full-color hardcover. (Why not include issues #8 & 9? They’ll be in Volume Two, with reprints of the British TV21 material.) Volume One features some great artwork by Russ Manning, Dan Spiegle, and Mike Arens with stories by Western publishing legend Paul S. Newman. Don’t miss it.

Hellboy: Buster Oakley Gets His Wish

9. Hellboy: Buster Oakley Gets His Wish: Not much to say about this one other that it’s writer Mike Mignola teaming up with artist Kevin Nowlan for an all-new one-shot! While it’s not exactly Mignola doing the whole thing again, in some ways this might be better. At the very least, it’ll be AWESOME! (What’s better than a giant spacecraft of mutated livestock? Am I the only one able to compare?) . . . Also check out the new B.P.R.D. miniseries, The Dead Remembered by Mignola, Scott Allie, Karl Moline, and Andy Owens about 14-year-old firestarter Liz Sherman, and Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever #3 by Mignola, John Arcudi, and John Severin! They’re Hellboylicious!

Super Dinosaur

10. Buy a kids comic (but read it before you give it to your kid): With Super Dinosaur #1, Image’s Robert Kirkman puts his money where his mouth is and creates his first all-ages comic book, about a 10-year-old kid and his best friend, a nine-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus Rex who loves to play video games. And who actually looks like a video game character himself, being all armored-up and packing some huge weaponry. Plus, he talks and apparently really enjoys taking baths, so girls will like him as well! (He’s so dreamy!) Is it just me, or does the evil Doctor Max Maximus look kinda like a prominent comic industry figure? (Perhaps I’m reading too many comic books!) Anyway, Super Dinosaur looks to be packed with action and fun, as well as well-drawn (by Jason Howard). It’s for everybody, so everybody should like it!

KC CARLSON sez: Hmmmmm… Teenage witches; hippies; a giant stone man; a mouse who thinks he’s Indiana Jones; a couple of WWII vintage pin-up queens; a scruffy, spitting (alleged) cat; a Martian; a talking dinosaur who’s packing big guns; and whatever the hell Hellboy is. Yeah… just another day at the office.

I love my job.

Warning: Government studies have proven that continued use of this column may cause warping.

Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom

by Wayne Markley

Over the last forty plus years, one of the best writers of comics books (and one of the most controversial figures in comics) is Jim Shooter. From a teenage progeny to the Editor-in-Chief at Marvel to taking Valiant Comics to one of the most successful publishers of the 1990’s, Jim has done it all. And he has accomplished a lot outside of comics to boot. I decided to write about Jim this time out because I have been reading his current revivals of the Gold Key characters he had brought back to life almost 20 years ago once again, this time for Dark Horse, and he has once again found a new way to look at Magnus, Robot Fighter, Doctor Solar and Turok, Son of Stone.

Showcase Presents: Legion of Super-Heroes VOL. 04 SC

Jim started as a writer in the mid-1960s as a writer for DC Adventure Comics featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes. While Jim was just a teenager at the time, he wrote some of the most beloved stories by Legion fans ever done. These were fun stories that were extremely creative as well as very original. He wrote stories that were a reflection of the time, while creating a whole world around the Legion that made you feel like you knew all about this future. Plus, he was always mixing things up and adding new characters and even killing some characters, which at the time was almost unheard of. And true to form, the dead character, Lightning Lad, came back to life. Yet these were great stories that still hold up today. And luckily for fans all of his Legion work is available in DC Showcase: The Legion of Super-Heroes.

Secret Wars SC

As time went on, Jim landed at Marvel Comics as a writer and an editor. As with most editors at the time at Marvel, the chief editor would come and go on a regular basis. So it was no surprise that Jim landed in the job of Editor-in-Chief at Marvel. He remained there for almost 10 years as the top dog, and comic historians have a number of stories, both good and bad, about Jim’s run while in that position (let’s say it was not without controversy). He was able to get Marvel books to come out on time and seemingly eliminated the “dreaded deadline doom” which forced reprints in the monthly books. He was also the mastermind behind some of Marvel’s biggest successes stories of the time, such as Secret Wars, which introduced Spider-Man’s Black costume (which would later become the super villain, Venom). He also helped to develop the Direct Comics Market with the introduction of Dazzler as a direct only title. At the time this was a very gutsy move.

Once again over time, Jim left Marvel and landed up at a startup company called Valiant Comics. Valiant started out as a company doing licensee comics and magazines for the World Wrestling Federation and Nintendo. Unfortunately, neither of these properties caught on so Jim and his business partners were forced to look for a new way to make money. They came upon the idea of licencing the old Western/Gold Key characters of Magnus Robot Fighter, Doctor Solar and Turok. And around these characters they built a complex and whole universe. During the speculator boom of the 1990s, Valiant had some of the most popular titles being published. But, buried under all the hype, there actually were some excellent titles, mostly written by Shooter, along with Bob Layton and Bob Hall. Jim was able to take what were basically B-level characters and make them into fascinating reads with Grade A storytelling. But as the speculator boom busted, and the dynamics of management at Valiant changed, Jim was forced out on his own. Unfortunately, very few of the Valiant stories have ever been collected, but there are a number of single issues available at Westfield Comics.

Next, Jim went on to form a new group of investors and formed Defiant Comics. And then he went on to the short-lived Broadway Comics, (with the people behind Saturday Night Live) and then (stick with me here) back to Acclaim Comics, who had bought out what was Valiant. But none of these companies found any success and, to be honest, Jim’s storytelling was not at the level it once was. Perhaps the only thing that is really memorable from this whole period was the discovery of David Lapham at Defiant.

Legion of Super-Heroes #38

Over the next few years in the early 2000, Mr. Shooter worked on a number of different projects, both inside of comics and outside of comics. But his name once again become the talk of the industry in 2007 when it was announced he was returning to write the Legion of Super-Heroes, which he first wrote when he was 14. This is over 40 years later, and even someone as jaded as I was looking forward to his return as the Legion had been adrift for years with characters that had been changed, tweaked, mutated, and ruined to the point where they bore little resemblance to those in the classic stories from the 60’s and 70’s. But when the books were published, the great return of Jim Shooter was a bust. Not only was his return to the Legion not very good, barely better than the rubbish that came before it, it became so bad the Jim did not even write his last issue (or at least his name was not on the book). To his credit though, it was well know within the industry that Jim was having battles with DC about what he wanted to do with the Legion versus what DC wanted to do with the book. Granted, one would think that Jim and DC would had have a joint vision before he took over the book, but alas whatever that vision was it quickly fell apart.

Magnus, Robot Fighter #1

After his disastrous return to the Legion, I had little hope when it was announced that Jim would be writing Magnus, Turok and Dr. Solar for Dark Horse comics. But once again I was proven to be wrong as these books have turned out to be excellent. Granted there have only been three (or in the case of Turok, one) issue so far, what I have read so far is the best of what made Jim Shooter a legend. He has taken old characters and breathed new life into them for a second time, (after having resurrected these same three characters at Valiant) with new origins and new directions and compelling stories. As much as I poo-pooed the revival of these books, I was wrong. They are well worth your time and effort to check out and are a really good read.

I would also like to recommend (how is this for ironic?), both Adventure Comics and Legion of Super-Heroes. Both titles are currently being written by Paul Levitz and both titles have, for the first time in years, a sense of fun and adventure that has been missing for ages.  The stories in Adventure have featured the Legion in their early days when they first met Superboy, while the monthly title, the Legion of Super-Heroes, focuses on the modern tales of the Legion. I have long suspected that Paul was behind the crud that was passed off as the Legion over the last few decades, but now he has made his return to one of his favorite titles, I am glad to once again be a fan of the Legion. Now if only Paul would take over the JSA and make it a readable book once again.

As always, anything in this column is my personal opinion and does not reflect the thoughts or opinions of Westfield Comics or their employees. I welcome your comments, review copies or thoughts at MFBWAY@AOL.COM.

KC Carlson

by KC Carlson

“There’s a place where I can go…”

These are the opening lyrics to the Beach Boys’ In My Room. Gary Usher wrote those words and Brian Wilson wrote the music in 1963, and it quickly became an anthem for the sensitive and introspective. Brian always claims it was just about the bedroom that he and his brothers shared — and where the Beach Boys’ harmony “sound” was first forged. But raise your hands if you think the song is actually about more than that.

Oddly, a few months before, John Lennon wrote a song called “There’s a Place”, which appeared on the first U.K. Beatles album Please Please Me. On the surface, it appears to be a Motown-influenced song about romance (The Beatles’ stock-in-trade at this point), but as with most things Lennon, if you peel the onion back, you discover that the place the singer (Lennon) wants to go when he feels low and blue is actually in his own mind.

The title of Lennon’s song was directly inspired by the Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim song Somewhere from the 1957 Broadway musical (and 1961 film) West Side Story. It features the lyric “Somewhere, there’s a place for us” as sung by the doomed romantic leads of the piece. Their romance is complicated by the differences in their ethnic backgrounds and the racist attitudes of those around them. In their minds, there is a better place for them.

Meanwhile, back in 1965, British songbird Petula Clark sung I Know a Place, a clever Tony Hatch-written follow-up/rewrite of her giant 1964 hit Downtown. Both songs have a similar theme – getting away from it all, in this case “Downtown”, where “you can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares” or go to the place “where the music is fine and the lights are always low!”

Meanwhile, the Stones wanted you off their cloud, the Kinks were la-la-la-ing it up under a Waterloo Sunset, and later on, the Who were off with their friend Thomas on an Amazing Journey. Obviously, there were a lot of folks in the 1960s looking for a different place to go.

So what does all this have to do with comics? I humbly beg your indulgence for another paragraph or three…

I Know a Place

My favorite place to go isn’t any place physical. I don’t have a “room” anymore, although I do have this man-cave of an office, where I try to do my writing while surrounded by thousands of CDs, record albums, cassette tapes, and dozens of functional and non-functional iPods, turntables, cassette decks, amps, Walkmans, hard drives, burners, and about 40 miles of cable connecting them all. There’s also 40 years’ worth of music magazines and pretty much any worthwhile rock history book written in the last few decades. All of which are turned off or blocked out while I’m writing, as concentration is a fleeting thing these days.

I think I’ve written before of how, once I got into the professional end of comics, I suddenly realized that I needed a new hobby. Because my old hobby was now my profession, and if I didn’t have something other than comics to think about after thinking about comics most every day for 8-12 hours straight… well, let’s not go there.

So, yeah, I have a few CDs… Superman bought a lot of them for me. And I know a little bit about the history of the tunes… because I don’t read comics 24/7/365.

But this isn’t about that (except maybe a little). I do have a favorite place for music, but it’s between a pair of headphones late at night with an ice-cold beverage. The experience is not that much different than thousands of other crazy people like me around the planet. (Except maybe they can stay awake for the entire CD.)

There Are Places I Remember

My favorite place to go isn’t really a place at all. As cartoon George Harrison said in Yellow Submarine (and as the real John Lennon sung about above): “It’s all in the mind, you know.”

Getting there has always been a matter of some dispute. Some lucky individuals can get there on their own. Some require assistance, whether it be through spiritual means, artificial substances, hypnosis, or even the simple act of falling asleep and entering REM (rapid-eye movement) sleep.

There used to be a way to get there on the internet, which involved deciphering clues buried in 42 different web pages, including the Wikipedia page for Circus Peanuts, Dial B for Blog’s expose on BEM, this site, and this site, both of which should be self-explanatory. Sadly, the internet being what it is, some of those 42 pages are no longer functional and the way to true nirvana is lost forever (sob).

But all is not lost, dude. One of the easiest ways to stimulate frequent visits inside your own cranium is the simple act of using outside stimulus to engage your imagination. There are probably hundreds of ways to accomplish this (including some that I could actually write about here, including such mass media as television, movies, radio, magazines, newspapers, and more recently such internet activities such as message boards, video sharing, podcasts, and even blogs like the one you are now reading). For more on mass media, may I introduce you to the works of Marshall McLuhan (or failing that, perhaps I could introduce you to Woody Allen, who could introduce you to Mr. McLuhan himself).

I’m a particular fan of the literature part of mass media, including books and manuscripts, which amazingly includes my usual topic of comic books (see, Roger, I told you I’d eventually get to my point).

Journey to the Center of the Mind

By reading comic books (and without really thinking about it too much), I have traveled to wondrous places. Throughout my journeys, I’ve been around the world, around the universe, and around the cosmos as well.

Fantastic Four #577

I’ve been to the Blue Area of the Moon, the canals of Mars, and the dungeons of Apokolips. I’ve been to the 31st century, and I’ve battled dinosaurs in World War II. I’ve been to many of the 52 Earths, to Cynosure, the Microverse, Skartaris, Gemworld, K’un-L’un, and to countless Marvel-verses. I’ve been to the Negative Zone so many times, I always wonder why anybody would want to go to a place SO negative. (I’m convinced at least part of the comics Blogosphere is located there — possibly trapped for all eternity!)

I’ve been so tiny, I’ve seen the insides of androids, or traveled by telephone lines, or been mistaken for toys. I’ve been so large that I’ve punched Godzilla in the face and actually prevented planets from colliding. I’ve been so strong that I’ve pushed my way through dimensional walls and even dragged the island of Manhattan around on a chain (I might have just dreamed that one).  I’ve met so many versions of King Arthur, Merlin, and the rest of the Knights of the Round Table that I’ve lost track of how many.

I’ve met heroes and villains, presidents and dictators, cowboys and mad scientists, princesses and Amazon warriors. I’ve met babies that spoke their own language, as well as aliens from the future who did the same. (Good ol’ Interlac!) I’ve met mild-mannered news reporters, teenage geniuses, and millionaire playboys. I’ve met the boy with the most comic books in America and the kid who collects Spider-Man. I’ve even met the Architects (and secretly plotted to push them all into an empty elevator shaft).

Owly

I’ve met owls who “speak” in images, road runners who speak in rhyme, and Junior Woodchucks who carry guidebooks with all the knowledge of the universe within. I’ve traveled to the planet Smoo, adventured with Ozma, and witnessed philosophical debates between a robot and an angel. I’ve seen beans explore the arts and culture while building their own society, witnessed a superheroic romance that actually works, and wondered about a character who was flaming, but not necessarily a carrot.

I’ve seen rabbits wielding swords, medieval mice who do the same, and a slacker who must battle the evil ex-boyfriends of the girl that he loves. I live next door to the world’s oldest teenager, who just can’t decide between two amazing girls, and just down the street from the spitfire child of divorced parents with the coolest aunt on the planet.

I’ve visited the geek shopping dream of Akihabara, met the stretchable young boy who dreams of being a pirate, and am afraid of the guy who kills by writing your name in his notebook. I’ve played Xbox with Gabe and Tycho, had thrilling steampunk adventures with the Heterodyne Boys, and marveled at Skull The Troll’s actual middle name.

Complete Peanuts

I’ve quaffed root beer with a beagle in World War I, I’ve taken over countries and done other things I can’t remember with Uncle Duke, and I’ve sacked out on the sofa while mailmen, dogs, my children (who have been teenagers for 40 years), door-to-door-salesmen, and the neighborhood kids traipse through the living room. (Just thinking about it makes me hungry for a sandwich.) I’ve talked with dead grampas, eaten lasagna with an obnoxious cat, tap-danced with penguins, and wondered about talking sawdust. I’ve been transmogrified, hung out with cows that were smarter than me, and sadly discovered that “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

I often prefer the adventures of the Mini Marvels and the Tiny Titans to the full-sized versions. I terribly miss the Inferior Five, Forbush Man, and Stanley and his Monster. In another life, I think I was a detective at the Maze Agency. Or was that the O’Day and Simeon Detective Agency? I dunno… it’s a mystery.

Triplicate Girl

When I was younger, I romanced girls who could fly, shrink, read minds, create lightning, split into three girls, become a phantom, predict the future while asleep, create shadows, had wings, was a witch, and one that was a princess but actually was a snake. Or maybe I dreamed all that, as well.

And here’s the thing. Even if the places I go aren’t always completely enjoyable, I can just wait a few weeks and try again. There are constantly new experiences to behold. And if repeated visits to that particular venue continue to be disappointing, I don’t have to abandon my traveling completely — there are virtually hundreds (if not thousands) of other places to go. The possibilities are limitless. If I don’t like what my friends currently are doing, there’s a pretty good possibility that I can find a place where I can relive a big chunk of their previous adventures. And that will be good.

Back in the real world, I have been tremendously lucky to have worked in this field — to have worked with, or met, hundreds of the talented men and women who fuel our imaginations on a regular basis. They are the ones who regularly open up all those new — and better — places for me — and all of us — to travel. Further, their characters, concepts, and stories provide the inspiration for others to tell stories of their own (even those with outrageous lies about hidden clues on 42 different web pages).

A Note on Process and the Cosmos

After deciding the topic of this particular essay, I began my usual process of preparing to write about comic books: reading something that has absolutely nothing to do with comic books. Most often, it’s a music or band history book. In this particular case, it was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down A Dream (Chronicle Books), the companion book to the excellent (and Grammy-winning) four-hour 2007 documentary (with the same name) about the band, directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Late in the book, I came across this quote from Petty, which made me feel like I was on the right track, as well as being grateful to having strong ties to the history of both comics and music:

TOM PETTY:  Johnny Cash said this to me one day: “This is noble work.” I wasn’t sure what he meant. “Noble work?” He goes, “Yeah, it makes a lot of people happy.” That hit me like a bolt to the brain. Why didn’t I ever have that thought before? I was probably thinking about me being happy. This basic idea Johnny shared seemed revolutionary in some odd way. It makes millions happy. Then I went and played some shows and looked out and as far as you could see people are jumping up and down. They’re happy. It helped me to see the value of it and what it meant in these people’s lives, because, really, what it means to them is exactly what it meant to me. Music has always been my passport to a better place.

KC sez: I feel the same way about comics. And especially about the people who create them. Unfortunately, they seldom get to see their fans jumping up and down. Maybe we should think of more ways to show that appreciation. At your next convention, tell someone how much you like their work. Send a fan letter. (Old-fashioned, but still appreciated.) Talk up a book you really enjoy to your friends, whether in person or online. Don’t be afriad to share your love of a comic unashamedly in public.

This one’s for Cash and Petty and everybody who creates something that makes people happy. Especially my comics friends who slave over drawing boards and computer screens, often all alone. They do noble work. They take us to better places. We should jump up and down for them once in awhile.

KC CARLSON learned how to read by reading comic strips and books. He tried (but failed — not their fault) to learn how to dance by listening to Cash and Petty, among others.

Heroic Age

by KC Carlson

This month, the Big Two launch their newest big initiatives to attempt to collect all our money, Marvel’s The Heroic Age and DC’s Brightest Day. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – it’s just that both companies also have several other things brewing this month, and you might miss them in all the hubbub, bub. But, like it or not, that’s what you have me for – I’m the guy who always says “Hey! What’s going on over there - behind that curtain!” More on that in a minute. Lemme get Brightest Heroic Age Day out of the way first.

I’d like to be able to say that both of these events are shiny new original concepts – and it may be true that elements of both may be things that we’ve never seen before – but both stunts build on what has come before and both are just the next big chapter of what has become the never-ending storylines of both the MU and DCU. I do find it fascinating that both companies have decided to push the big RESET button at virtually the same time, however. (More on this and “The Old Order Changeth” in an upcoming KC Column.)

And yet, I find some of the individual offerings of both new events some of the most potentially exciting comics in a long time. I guess I’m really concerned about the sheer tonnage of what may be coming our way in the next few months.

Marvelous

Enter the Heroic Age

By my count, there are 17 different titles (not counting variants) being published under The Heroic Age banner this month. Here’s my handy checklist:

Heroic Age Magazine
Deadpool #23
Avengers #1
Avengers Assemble #1
Avengers Spotlight #1
Atlas #1 (Watch for Roger’s interview with writer Jeff Parker!)
Captain America #606
Black Widow #2
Fantastic Four #579
Age of Heroes #1
Enter the Heroic Age #1
Heroic Age: Prince of Power #1
Invincible Iron Man #26
Origins of Marvel Comics #1
Avengers, Thor & Captain America: Official Index to the Marvel Universe #1
Secret Avengers #1
Thunderbolts #144

Granted, a lot of these are one-shot, supplementary (and technically non-comics) items about The Heroic Age, including features, interviews, indexes, handbook pages, origins, and other ephemera. But that’s still a big chunk of books! And remember, Heroic Age is a marketing title, not one big Event, so most of these books have independent storylines (at least right now!). If you bought them all at cover price, it would cost you $68.83! Aren’t you glad you’re a Westfield subscriber with a discount? And if you’re not – why aren’t you?

X-Men Legacy #236

Also consider that this month Marvel is also listing:
* 21 titles (14 of which are listed as “chapters”) of the new, major mutant storyline: X-Men: Second Coming
* a mini-Hulk event (no, not about a tiny Hulk! Stay focused!) of three titles essential to World War Hulks
* a new imprint (Astonishing) with just two titles (for now)
* more projects in their Women of Marvel Comics push
* 11 Spidey-related titles (including some new ones, and not counting Ultimate or Astonishing titles)
* as well as 654,430,279 new Deadpool titles! (Not really. April Fool!)

I feel for ya’, dear readers, for the decisions that have to be made in ordering books these days. I’m right there with you. I had to cut back on my reading and collecting in a big way a few years ago, which made it seem easy (at the time) to just cut off all of Marvel’s “cosmic” books and characters – which I felt were going nowhere. But that was before Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (and Keith Giffen and others) re-set Marvel’s cosmic corner of the universe in a big way. Now, I hear how great all of these books are on virtually a daily basis, but it seems that too much time has passed to catch up, and I still don’t have the money to go back and get them all at this point. I kinda wish I had gotten these books instead of some of the over-hyped and ultimately disappointing books that I did get. So, just another reminder of how important it is to choose carefully and buy what you actually might like and enjoy rather than just buying some series by rote because there’s a big splashy marketing campaign.

Thanos Imperative: Ignition

I also bring this up to mention that D’n’A’s cosmic corner books (notably Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy) are taking some well-deserved time off this month – except for the opening blast in their next cosmic event: The Thanos Imperative: Ignition #1, which looks like it will be taking off in a big way next month. A word to the wise, if you’re looking for something different.

Avengers #1

The most interesting thing about the new Avengers title isn’t who’s a member. We’ve known for a long time that the whole point of this was to get Cap, Iron Man, and Thor all back on the team together. Hawkeye back in his Hawkeye persona is a plus as well, and Spidey is just gravy. I’m sure that there will be a couple of other membership surprises in Avengers #1 (or within a couple of issues). But the most interesting thing about the series takes place behind-the-scenes. Both Brian Bendis and John Romita Jr. have been Marvel superstar creators for a decade or more, but this incarnation of the Avengers will be the first time the two have ever worked on a long-term project together.

Secret Avengers #1

More of a mystery: Who are the members of the new Secret Avengers series written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Mike Deodato, which I am also recommending? Marvel has been teasing the fans with a series of images showing the shadowed outlines of the characters in question. After serious study of these images, I have come to the conclusion that these are the members of the new Secret Avengers: The Silhouette (either the Marvel or the Watchman character), the Phantom Blot, Felix the Cat, The Shadow, The Shade, and Splash Brannigan. Either that, or all six of them are Venom.

No evil shall escape my sight

Brightest Day

Meanwhile, let’s break down DC’s Brightest Day, with 10 titles, for a combined cover price of $32.90. Here’s the list:

Brightest Day #1 & 2
Green Lantern #54
Green Lantern Corps #48
Justice League: Generation Lost #1& 2
Birds of Prey #1
The Flash #2
Justice League of America #45
Titans: Villains For Hire Special #1

Not quite as many as Marvel’s Heroic Age, but this does include two bi-weekly ongoing titles, representing a major buying commitment. Also, if Blackest Night ends up the way that I and many other readers are expecting, I wouldn’t be surprised to see many other new (or returning) titles added to this list in the next few months. A revamped Titans for one.

DC Universe Legacies #1

Here’s a sampling of what else is going on in the DCU this month: DC Universe Legacies #1 (of 10) is much-needed look at the history of the DC Universe from the dawn of the Mystery Men (the original Justice Society era) to the present day, written by Len Wein and drawn by Andy Kubert, Joe Kubert, and J.G. Jones. It’s a dream project for DC continuity geeks (like me), and I can’t wait to see how the new details of the mysteries of the DCU will unfold here, especially in the hands of these great talents.

Legion of Super-Heroes #1

Many of the DC selections this month are doing a kind of “What year is this, anyway?” thing in my brain these days, as I’m faced with the prospects of ordering titles starring Barry Allen as the Flash; my favorite era of the Justice League is again written by Keith Giffen; the Birds of Prey are back again with both Babs and Dinah, and both Gail Simone and Ed Benes. But the biggest brain shock of this month for a longtime Legion of Super-Heroes fan (and former LSH editor) is the excitement of seeing legend… (wait for it) …dary Legion writer Paul Levitz return to his favorite book for the third time. Another Legion “bouncing boy” with multiple visits to the 31st century, Keith Giffen, once told me that there was something about the concept that keeps bringing people back to it over and over again. Hopefully, this is true of the Legion fans as well. I’m deliberately trying to stay away from advance info on the series (other than hearing that Yildiray Cinar (with that name, he could qualify as a Legion member!) and Wayne Faucher will be the new artists on this go-round).

I’m a little sad that Geoff Johns had a fairly limited run on the Legion, but he took on the very important role of resetting (not rebooting) the LSH continuity back to roughly where Levitz had left it decades ago (amazingly without undoing anything that went afterwards) in the Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds series and collection. This new Levitz series picks up on those mysteries, as well as Johns’ Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes storyline, as well as new questions – like the one posed by the first issue cover. Whose hand has both a LSH flight ring as well as a Green Lantern ring? I get chills…

Zatanna #1

The other DC project that I’m excited about is Zatanna #1. DC has been attempting to launch an ongoing title about the Mistress of Magic since the late 1990s, when I was still on-staff there. I’m pretty sure that writer Paul Dini was attached to the project even back then. Since then, Dini has been using Zatanna on and off in his Batman stories over the years. At the same time, she’s been getting more and more “screen time” as a member of the Justice League in recent years. And now with the gorgeous artwork of Stephane Roux and Karl Story, and Dini at the keyboard, it looks like Zatanna’s time has come at last. Nioj eht nuf!

Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne

DC’s also got two other “big” projects this month, that I’m sure lots of fans will be very interested in, but not so much me. First up are the first two issues of the six-part Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne story. That will be the ultimate epilogue for Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis as well as the payoff of his Batman: R.I.P. storyline. There are some great artists lined up (Chris Sprouse in #1 and Frazier Irving in #2) that I am excited about. But for me, this storyline has gone on way too long (with way too much extraneous stuff between the key elements of the story). I’m ready for the big wrap-up, but really more interested in what comes afterwards.

Superman: War of the Supermen #1

Also coming this month is Superman: War of the Supermen, a four-part weekly series written by James Robinson and Sterling Gates and drawn by a passle of artists. This one finishes off the year-long “New Krypton” storyline that, quite frankly, has bored me to tears. A long political struggle that has taken Superman out of his familiar distinctive costume for most of the year and put him in some sort of jackbooted neo-nazi looking uniform, exiled him from Earth (and from the comic that bears his name), and has him standing around for most of that year being ineffectual and indecisive is not really my idea of a great Superman story. (Really enjoyed the Supergirl title this year, however!) I chalk both of these series up to “forgone conclusions.” Let’s move on to something else. Both characters deserve better.

And in other parts of the comics continuum…

Brody's Ghost

I know that many of you out there are fans of Mark Crilley, especially his acclaimed work on the wonderful Akiko series for young adults. He’s been doing a lot of projects away from traditional comic book publishers in the past few years, including the four-volume manga series Miki Falls, among other projects, but he’s now working on a new project for Dark Horse Comics. Brody’s Ghost is the first in a six-volume series. It tells the story of a young man named Brody who encounters the ghost of a teenage girl who needs help tracking down a dangerous killer. First, Brody must be trained by the spirit of a centuries-old samurai to unlock unbeknownst supernatural powers. Roger Ash has the details of this great new series in an interview with creator Crilley, coming up soon, right here at the Westfield blog.

Best of Dan DeCarlo

A couple of weeks back, I wrote extensively about Dan DeCarlo and his struggle to claim creative ownership of his creation Josie (of Josie and the Pussycats fame), a character based on his wife. I mentioned that IDW was compiling a collection of DeCarlo’s work for Archie Comics. That collection, Archie: The Best of Dan DeCarlo, Volume 1 is now available for ordering and is highly recommended. You may not know his name, but everyone who’s read comics for more than 15 minutes is familiar with his work.

Dan DeCarlo had a nearly 50-year career working for Archie comics, most of it in total anomonity (except for his very distinctive style and his facility in drawing the female form). During that time, he drew over 400 consecutive issues of Betty and Veronica, over 100 issues of Josie, was the primary artist on the Archie comic book in the 70s and 80s, and took over the Archie syndicated comic strip after Bob Montana retired. His style became the “Archie style” and other artists were instructed to “draw like DeCarlo.” Further, DeCarlo drew virtually every Archie cover, from the mid-60s to the mid-70s, and many more for the next 30 years. Almost every one of the classic Archie character Pin-Up pages in the 60s, 70s, and into the 80s were his as well. Even if you didn’t know his name, you knew his work.

Just as Carl Barks was the “good Duck artist” before his identity was revealed as the artist of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, for most of his career DeCarlo was known as the “good Archie artist”. This 152-page, full-color hardcover features reproductions shot from the original artwork and recolored, and it does a lot for setting the record straight and giving this great artist the recognition that he has long deserved. All of the stories are from DeCarlo’s generally accepted best period – from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. A wonderful volume for everyone in your family to share.

Moving Pictures

Kathryn and Stuart Immonen’s Moving Pictures is now available in print form for ordering, after originally appearing as a weekly webcomic. Here’s the catalog description: “During World War II, the Nazis pillaged much of Europe’s great art collections. Museum curator Ila Gardner and SS officer Rolf Hauptmann are forced by circumstances to play out an awkward and dangerous relationship in a public power struggle. Moving Pictures unfolds along two timelines which collide with the revelation of a terrible secret, an enigmatic decision that not many would make, and the realization that sometimes the only choice left is the refusal to choose.” 144 B&W pages, published by Top Shelf.

Overstreet 40 Batman

Overstreet 40 Captain America

With the seeming collapse of Gemstone Publishing last year, there has been buzz around the comics community about whether its most famous publication, the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, would continue. Apparently, we needn’t have worried. The 40th Annual edition of THE comic guide to comic book pricing will be published in July, but you can pre-order it right now. As usual, there are two covers to choose from: a classic Batman and Joker piece by Mark Chiarello or a WWII-era cover of Captain America and Bucky by Darwyn Cooke. They’re hard to choose between! In addition to the hundreds of pages of comic listings, this volume also includes articles on Conan the Barbarian #1 and a look at the important comics of 1970. More than just a price guide, Overstreet is an essential comic book reference guide to the publication history of graphic storytelling, with information reaching back over a century. As always, the Price Guide is available in either hardcover or softcover. Always recommended.

X-Men Forever Giant-Size

CREATOR WATCH – Harlan Ellison and Kyle Baker team up for a Spirit Black & White story in The Spirit #2 … Booster Gold gets a creative makeover when writers Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis and artist Chris Batista take over the title in Booster Gold #32. Giffen & DeMatties’ old JLI crony Kevin Maguire provides the cover … Mike Grell takes on some rare Marvel work when he provides pencils and cover for X-Men Forever Giant-Size #1 … Frank Frazetta fans should be all over Dark Horse’s new Thun’da, King of the Congo Archive, collecting all six issues of the legendary master’s work, as well as scattered Thun’da back-up stories from other comics. Also features the work of Bob Powell and Gardner Fox. 224 full color pages in Dark Horse’s gorgeous hardcover Archive series.

Justice League: Generation Lost

YOU’RE COVERED! – David Finch’s first work at DC will be covers for Brightest Day #1 & 2. But before he gets to DC, he’s also doing a boatload of variant covers for the X-Men: Second Coming books … Other DC ongoing cover assignments include Tony Harris on Justice League: Generation Lost, Andy Kubert on Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, and Andy and Joe Kubert on DC Universe Legacies … Darwyn Cooke provides a variant cover to DC’s newest Vertigo ongoing: I, Zombie #1 … Walter Simonson provides the cover for Jonah Hex #55.

Thor

SHORT TAKES – A “beloved X-Men” dies in X-Men Second Coming. Didn’t a beloved “dead” X-Man just come back? Talk about your beloved revolving door policy in the X-books … Pepper Potts (aka Rescue), one of the best things about the current Invincible Iron Man series, gets her own one-shot this month, written by Kelly Sue Deconnick and drawn by the ubiquitous TBA (who has been getting more and more work at Marvel lately, no?) … Supergirl battles Power Girl in Justice League of America #45. Could it be because the JLA is in Brightest Day and the JSA is not? I bet that’s it … Thor #610 promises Thor vs. Thor as the real Thor battles the insane clone of Thor and hopefully more Thor’s as well, as I haven’t typed Thor nearly enough in this sentence. Did you know that Jan Brady had an unknown sister named Thor? Thor! Thor! Thor! Anyway, I don’t think that I’ve ever really wanted a comic character dead before (comic creators, yes!), but this insane Thor clone has to go! (Or at least form the Insane Thor Posse!) That’s enough about Thor. My fingers are Thor … Catman fans should not miss Secret Six #21! I don’t know why. They just shouldn’t … Wonder Woman #44 leads into Wonder Woman #600 (Auggh! I hate New Math!), but don’t miss #44, because it looks like something important happens there as well. Wonder Woman has an eyepatch on the cover for one thing! … Speaking of New Math – Wolverine #900! Wasn’t X-Factor #900 and Deadpool Team-Up #900 enough? I say yes! The only real #900s? The upcoming Action Comics #900 (later this year!) and Detective Comics #900 (a couple of years down the road)!

Spectacular Spider-Girl

THIS AND THAT – The Marvel comic that would just not die is back again (with a slightly modified title) – Spectacular Spider-Girl #1 is written by Tom DeFalco and drawn by Ron Frenz. But the creators aren’t making it easy for her new debut – she takes on the Punisher! … In addition to their new #1, the Legion of Super-Heroes also appear in Adventure Comics #11 and team up with the Doom Patrol in The Brave and the Bold #34 … Somehow, I don’t think Luke Cage’s so-called retirement is going to stick for long. He’s currently starring in his own miniseries (New Avengers: Luke Cage) and will be the head honcho of the (mostly) all-new Thunderbolts … Speaking of Thunderbolts, Man-Thing pops up in issue #144. I’m thinking lots of scared burnt villain flesh. The perfect opportunity for a scratch & sniff cover variant, no? … The Shield, Inferno, Hangman, and The Web team up for the first time in The Mighty Crusaders Special #1, which I’m guessing will lead to the Crusaders’ own regular title … Speaking of the Shield, he battles Magog in Magog #9 … Most cramped comic book of the month? The Many Loves of the Amazing Spider-Man #1 is only 48 pages. Who are they kidding? … House of Mystery #25 presents an old-fashioned writer’s Round Robin story as five scribes (Matthew Sturges, Bill Willingham, Alisa Kwitney, Dave Justus, and Paul Levitz) try to write each other into a corner. Art is by Luca Rossi and Jose Marzan Jr. … Wanna play poker with Adam Hughes? DC has imprinted his artwork onto playing cards and poker chips and produced the Cover Girls of the DC Universe Poker Set as a new and unique DC Direct item. But you gotta know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em! … Speaking of DC Direct, Amanda Conner fans should check out her design for a new Power Girl bust (And when they say “bust”… never mind.) … Other cool comic statuettes this month include Klondike Uncle Scrooge and Classic 60th Anniversary Charlie Brown. Both are from Dark Horse and are part of their classic collectable tin box line. As always, these are sculpted by Yoe! Studio and are beautiful collector’s statues, limited to 950 numbered pieces … DC’s Earth-Two has always been one of my favorite comics concepts, and Roy Thomas’ legendary Alter Ego #93 zine takes a look back when DC needed just two universes to entertain hundreds of thousands of fans. Plus, a revealing discussion with the seldom interviewed DC editor George Kashdan! BTW, did you know that TwoMorrows publications (including Back Issue) now include a color section?

Blackest Night

BOOKSHELF - DC unleashes 7 (7!) Blackest Night-related hardcovers in July, but they are available for pre-order now! … My personal pick for DC hardcover this month is Adventures of Superboy Vol. 1, a shoulda-been-an-DC-Archive collection (but I don’t really mind paying $40 instead of $60, either). It contains the earliest adventures of Superman when he was a boy from More Fun Comics #101-107 and Adventure Comics #103-121. Several stories here are by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and many of them have never been previously reprinted. Highly recommended! … Meanwhile, Bob Greenberger’s pick of the month will most likely be DC’s long-awaited (and finally resolicited) Showcase Presents Suicide Squad. Bob edited the original series, as he will tell you all about in an upcoming column, here at the Westfield blog … Bob is also spotlighting the Thor: Warriors Three collection from Marvel, featuring the work of John Buscema and Charles Vess, among others. Watch for his review in a couple of weeks … The second collection of Nancy comic book stories written by John Stanley is now a part of Drawn & Quarterly’s acclaimed John Stanley Library. Collecting 152 pages of the best kid’s comics in a handsome hardcover collection featuring stories about the spooky Oona Goosepimple, Spike, and Mr. McOnion. Everybody loves Nancy! … Also for kids of all ages is BOOM! Studios’ new hardcover Walt Disney Summer Classics, featuring 112 pages of great summertime stories with Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck, Goofy, Minnie Mouse, and Bucky Bug! Just the thing to keep you occupied during this year’s seemingly weekly blizzards! … Product Update: The 100 Greatest Looney Toons Cartoons by animation historian Jerry Beck was originally scheduled to be released last year. It’s now on track for May and is being re-listed this month. The 246-page hardcover includes more than 300 color illustrations for the 100 must-see cartoons featuring Bugs, Daffy, Road Runner, Tweety and Sylvester and many more, selected by cartoon fans, animators, and historians from around the world.

KC CARLSON: Buying and reading comics since 1960. And won’t shut up about it!

Life & Death of Ferro Lad

by Josh Crawley

For some reason the past few years, the winter season puts me in the mood to read Legion of Super-Heroes. While i don’t have a great number of Legion comics, my collection of them grows slowly every year. The past two years have been especially great for reprint collections, whether it’s the many Showcase Presents collections, An Eye for an Eye followed up by The More Things Change by Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen & Co., or the book I’m itching to get to soon, The Life & Death of Ferro Lad (as part of the DC Comics Classics Library hardcover line). If you’re interested in reading some L.o.S.H. yourself, 1,050 Years of the Future has a great sampling from many eras. (Normally I’d be torn about recommending Great Darkness Saga, due to the lack of a great introduction/set-up), but it’s out of print for some reason. My guess would be DC is waiting to make it an entry in the previously mentioned DC Comics Classics Library line, but at this point I wouldn’t hold my breath. After all, this is the company that has let Born to Run and Terminal Velocity (two AMAZING Wally West Flash stories by Mark Waid & Co.) go out of print.

And on that tangent, time for some quick link-blogging, and then I’m out of here. Too many holiday gifts to get finished (and too much Phantom Hourglass to play).

‡ I don’t have much by Mark Schultz. Most, if not all, of what I have are comics he’s written. I have become a great fan of his art (even if some people just consider him a “poor man’s version” of Al Williamson). I’ve really enjoyed looking at the Various Drawings books Flesk Publications has put out, but I’ve never bought any of them. I think I’ve found the first one. Blue Book will not be available through book or comic stores, so be sure you follow the link for details. It sounds like a high quality version of an ashcan you’d buy at a convention, but I really don’t mind; 8.5 by 5.5 inches is nice size for preliminary artwork.

‡ Last week you may remember me mentioning X Necrosha: The Gathering, which had some coloring by my friend Chad Fidler. Well, he recently posted some of the colored, non-lettered pages in his deviantART gallery. He also posted pages from Witchblade #88 (written by Ron Marz and collected in Witchblade Volume 2: Awakenings) that he worked on, in addition to more Top Cow work and Athena Voltaire pages!

Parker the Hunter

‡ It seems a little early for End of/Best of the Year lists, but they’re out there. Looking at the Barnes and Noble list (by Douglas Wolk), I made an interesting observation: I haven’t read any of them. Not in full, anyways (Final Crisis). I do want to read Luba, and the others all sound interesting. And the Honorable Mentions I haven’t even partially read, but I definitely want to read Darwyn Cooke’s Parker The Hunter adaptation and Scott Pilgrim Volume 5. I’m thinking of working on my own list, but I usually end up forgetting stuff. Plus, I like to actually wait until after the end of the year. I’ll probably just end up doing my own list after I read a bunch of others to remind myself what came out this year.

‡ Ever wondered how comics went primarily from newsstands to comics book stores? Jim McLauchlin of Hero Initiative posted a nice essay on Phil Seuling, the answer to your question.

Gossip Girl

‡ While I don’t always agree with her, Johanna Draper Carlson’s comments on the Gossip Girl manga preview were pretty much spot on. And no, I will not admit to knowing anything else about Gossip Girl.

Feel free to contact me with creators you’d like to see spotlighted, comics for review, comments, concerns, corrections, questions, or even just your favorite beer. Be sure it says ATTN: JOSH if it’s sent post, otherwise we may have issues. If you just want more of me running my mouth, check Twitter.com/joshcrawley.

josh@westfieldcomics.com

Westfield Comics
ATTN: JOSH
7475 Mineral Point Rd STE 22
Madison WI 53717
______________________
Josh Crawley is the tenured Master of Disaster for Westfield Comics, not to be confused with Josh Crawley, the keyboardist for Everclear.

Purchase

Legion of Super-Heroes: The Life & Death of Ferro Lad

Legion of Super-Heroes: The More Things Change

Mark Schultz: Various Drawings Vol. 3

Witchblade Vol. 2

Final Crisis HC

Luba HC

Richard Stark’s Parker the Hunter HC

Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe

Adventure Comics #4

by KC Carlson

This originally was going to be a much different column. Then all hell broke lose in the comics world in the last week or two.

First off, The Walt Disney Company bought Marvel Comics. Which I guess is a pretty big deal, but I don’t see much of a huge change coming in the way comic books are done at the company – at least initially. Disney would have to be crazy to change what is effectively the biggest and most profitable comic company in America – at least in terms of Direct Market sales. No, I think that this is one of those “let’s toss a lot of money around because we might get a movie or two out of it down the road” Hollywood-type deals. I definitely fall into the “Disney bought Marvel before somebody else did” camp of thinking on this. And Disney will get some characters that they can market to boys and young men to counter all the Princesses and Fairies that Disney is best known for.

Then, in reaction, Warner Bros. Entertainment announced the reorganization of DC Comics, making it part of the newly christened DC Entertainment. There’s roughly about 4,865,296 other people talking about this on the internet – probably all right this second. But although I have a lot of thoughts about this one, I ultimately think at this point, it’s all just “loose talk” and idle speculation and there will be much more to talk about in the future, when things settle down. I believe that this particular move is also mostly about movie money. I also think that it will have much bigger implications on DC Comics than the Disney move on Marvel will have, but probably not much change in the short turn. The reasons I think this all fall to one man, Paul Levitz, who is stepping down from his roles as President and Publisher of DC Comics (but will remain with the company as a consultant for a time).

I can’t say with any certainty whether Paul’s departure will be a good or bad thing for DC (again, too soon to tell), but I can say that DC Comics will be a much different place without him. Hopefully, the new caretakers of the place will know enough to keep his number handy in recognition of his long-standing place not just in DC’s history, but in his often unheralded (and occasionally behind-the-scenes) efforts for creators’ rights and his place in the origins and care and feeding of the Direct Market Distribution system. This is perhaps a controversial statement these days, but the Direct Market would and could have been a lot worse off without him.

I also think – after the initial shock wears off – that Paul will be a much happier person after all the dust settles. Especially since the flurry of announcements this week also indicate that Paul will now be able to make his long-awaited (and anticipated!) transition back to another early love, writing comic books, and his first new writing assignment will be The Legion of Super-Heroes. And while the other DC news is potentially scary, the Levitz/Legion revival is the best news I’ve heard in a long time!

This will be Paul’s third go-round as Legion scribe (not counting a stray short story here and there, including one nervously edited by me!). His last stint on the Legion was especially noteworthy for propelling the Legion to the top of the DC sales charts, cementing the Legion’s status as one of its best franchises, and creating one of the all-time (not just Legion) DC classics in The Great Darkness Saga with his long-time fan-favorite artistic collaborator, Keith Giffen.

(If DC were smart, they’d quickly find a place for Paul to tell JSA stories again, especially since the new writers there seemingly don’t quite “get” what makes the JSA work. (Hint: It’s all about family and tradition.) Heck, DC should invent a special “Earth-2” book just for Paul, so he could write “his” JSA, including his much-loved versions of Power Girl and the Huntress, who just both still happen to exist there.

Paul, welcome home!

But Wait…

I’ve been remiss in not talking much about the Legion here, both about what’s been going on in the current books lately or about my role as former Legion editor. Let’s try to rectify some of that.

Legion of Three Worlds

I stopped reading Legion of Three Worlds after the second issue. Not because I wasn’t enjoying it (I was!), but because I had learned of the upcoming delay in the production of the book – mostly since artist George Pérez wanted to take his time and do a great job! I normally hate when artists pull that stunt, but here I was okay with it because 1) Pérez was drawing about 30 pages per issue. 2) Pérez was drawing three different versions of the Legion, plus about 50 villains, various Green Lanterns, Guardians, and other characters – easily about 100 characters per issue (and more in issue 5!). Characters were spilling out of the panel borders! 3) The story was just complicated enough that I knew I’d forget what was going on from issue to issue – mostly because I’d probably read about a hundred or more comics in between each issue of the series, not to mention the dozens of TV series I follow. Plus the 7-12 different prose books I’ve got going at any given time. Plus, movies – most of which are serialized as well these days. That’s a lot of stories to follow! My poor tired brain can’t always keep them straight.

So I waited until they were all published before I read them, all in one sitting. Unfortunately, I learned about some of the “surprises” that happened in the series because they had repercussions in some of the other more current comics I read – one thing I hate about the “they all gotta be connected” way of storytelling these days. (Something I probably share with a lot of fellow Westfield subscribers, who only get their comics once or twice a month.) Is it weird to not read all the comics the same week they were published?

Anyway, Legion of Three Worlds was one of the best Legion stories in years, maybe decades. It was super-compressed, so that big things were happening every few pages – or there was a big, giant Pérez double-page spread to drool over! There wasn’t much room for characterization (always a problem in LSH stories) but writer Geoff Johns excelled in expressing character in what the character had to say – and it never hurts to have a pro like Pérez on board to show character in the artwork. Also, not much room for characters  to shine (My god, there were three versions each of most of the prominent characters!), but Johns did a good job in spreading around the “star moments” to the appropriate characters. If I had the space here I could easily rattle off dozens of “perfect” moments in the series.

I had a lot to be worried about, especially after my normally loving wife had cynically put it into my head early in the series that “you know, a lot of the characters are just gonna be cannon fodder. They’re probably going to kill off ‘your’ Legion to make room for a new one.” Thankfully, a chance meeting with Geoff Johns at last year’s Wizard Chicago Con gave Geoff the opportunity to say “I hope you’ll be pleased with what happens with ‘your’ Legion – especially with XS and Gates, who I loved writing!” Thankfully, I was very pleased at how the whole thing turned out, especially since most of the characters did survive, although it was often a brutal and bloody fight.

In fact, I enjoyed the first two issues so much, I pre-ordered the hardcover collection before the series was even completed. It’s scheduled to ship in late October, so there’s still a chance to order it before it’s available.

The Return of a Classic Title

Adventure Comics #3

I was very pleased to hear the announcement that the Legion was to be revived post-Final Crisis, especially since it was announced that it was to be placed in the also revived Adventure Comics, the title comic of the Legion’s first series home. That was a nice bit of nostalgia, as well as the resurrection of a great DC trademark. I was also pleased to hear that Geoff Johns would be writing it, especially since I thought he did such a great job on not only Legion of Three Worlds, but also the Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes story in Action Comics as well as The Lightning Saga, which co-starred the Legion in that year’s JLA/JSA crossover.

To say that I was shocked when Adventure Comics #1 (actually #504) showed up and I discovered that the Legion was just the back-up feature behind the Superboy lead would be downplaying my actual reaction, especially since I had never warmed up to this particular version of the Superboy character (excepting the early Karl Kesel-scripted stories) and I kinda wished he was still dead. In fact, my early title for this review was “Holy Murray Boltinoff!”, a tip of the hat to the DC editor who originally dumped the Legion out of it’s already sad – but at least regular – berth as the back-up in Action Comics into the quasi-limbo of occasional Superboy back-up. (Something which took the Legion several years to claw its way back out of, inadvertently creating organized Legion fandom in the process.)

And then I read the issue. And had to choke back my initial knee-jerk reaction after reading the incredibly poignant Superboy story written by Johns and beautifully illustrated by Francis Manapul. They had me at Page 2, with that incredible Kansas sunset and Superboy confessing to Ma Kent “I can’t believe I ever hated Smallville.”

Also very interesting are Superboy’s diary entries about “What does Superman do?” and “What does Lex Luthor do?” considering that it was revealed that the character shares genetic material with both those individuals, shortly before Superboy’s “death” in Infinite Crisis.

Issue 2/505 was even better, with Superboy’s first “real” conversation with Wonder Girl since his death and return. And both Ma Kent and Krypto playing a big part. Perfect. Adventure Comics is now my favorite superhero comic book.

Superman: Secret Origin #2

Yeah, I’m still a little bent about the Legion just being the back-up, although I hear from “knowledgeable insiders” that this is more of a placeholder as DC’s PTB work out the details of just what the Legion’s place in the new DCU will exactly be. And it looks like with the recent announcements, Paul Levitz may now be more of a part of those discussions. Sounds good to me, although I will be a little sad if Geoff Johns isn’t a part of the LSH’s future. (Although it looks like they’ll be a part of the Johns-written Superman: Secret Origin. So at least that’s something.)

I’m very much enjoying the slow way that the current Legion is being (re-)introduced, with most of the team operating fairly normally in the 31st Century, but still with a few members mysteriously operating in the present-day DCU, and others MIA. It hasn’t totally escaped me that the new status quo for the current Legion could very possibly be where the continuity of Levitz’ last Legion run ended (with somewhat of a gap of time between the two) with all the other alternate Legions being placed in other DC alternate universes. Such as the “Threeboot” Legion being “assigned” to Earth Prime and the “reboot” Legionnaires wandering the Multiverse as the “new” Wanderers, as per Legion of Three Worlds #5.

Interesting times are ahead for the Legion of Super-Heroes. I’ll be one of the first in line to watch what happens.

So. What?

So what is it about the Legion? I get asked this a lot by folks in the “real world” (that strange neither-world where people don’t know anything about comics beyond Batman, Spider-Man, the X-Men, or Superman) and even a lot of younger comics fans who just don’t get the Legion’s appeal. In some ways, at its essence, the Legion of Super-Heroes was originally to comics what the X-Men have now become. In its simplest terms, both groups are a huge collection of heroic characters, mostly young and idealistic, with very specific super-powers or amazing abilities who band together to help other people. Some key details vary: The X-Men are (usually) set in the present day, are usually multiethnic (with the occasional alien tossed in), and have a lot of stories which deal with them being persecuted by a world that largely fears them. The Legion is (usually) set 1,000 years in the future, consists of mostly all aliens (generally one from each planet), and has a lot of stories about their organization itself (the Legion is all about rules and rosters) or about the political system in which they work. Unfortunately, despite being all “aliens”, the Legion mostly looks like a bunch of white American kids (especially in their early years) playing at galactic paramilitary war games, which is probably why the X-Men passed them in popularity a few decades ago. Despite living in the future, The Legion has always had a tough time keeping up with the times.

The real key to both series’ popularity is what I call the identifability factor. Both series have a huge cast of characters that are somewhat underdeveloped personality-wise because each character has so much competition for “screen time”. Many of the characters were basically blank slates.  (At least initially. With both franchises now decades old, most of the key characters are well-defined, although there are still countless minor or incidental characters mostly defined by their powers.) Because many of the characters were tabula rasa, young readers could project themselves into these characters, based on the slightest of reasons. (“Wow, Element Lad seems really shy – just like me!” or “Phantom Girl is really cute! I wish I could be Ultra Boy so I could be her boyfriend!” Or any of dozens of other scenarios not made explicit by the comics themselves – most notably the long-standing early fan-based speculation of which Legionnaires might be gay, based mostly on their not having specific boy- or girl-friends.)

In a sense, the early Legion could be seen as one of the first role-playing scenarios based on comics. Indeed, two different role-playing games were ultimately based on the Legion, with their Sourcebooks being highly collectible. Quite notably, Legion writers got very involved with these games as both Paul Levitz and Tom and Mary Bierbaum wrote extensively for these sourcebooks, with the latter including information about then-current storylines which unfortunately never made it into the comics themselves. A similar, although slightly more sophisticated, thing happened with the X-Men, especially with the second-generation team introduced in 1975. Even in the 90s, when I was editing the Legion’s exploits for DC Comics, Legion fans made a very big deal of telling me how much they identified with this character or wished that character wasn’t so dense or butt-headed, both in their letters and when I met them at conventions. It’s been said many times before, but Legion fans are really something! (Just what that something is, exactly, is occasionally debated.)

What the Legion Was to Me

The Legion (in Adventure Comics) was the first comic book series I seriously collected. To get many of the back issues I needed, I traded in all of my old Disney comic books (mostly Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories and Uncle Scrooge) at the very first comic shop I ever saw, a small store that I don’t recall the name of, that suddenly popped up one day in downtown Janesville, Wisconsin, in the early 1970s. (And was gone a short time later – less than a year, I think.) As a nostalgic adult, I now sort of regret the trade. At the time, I thought I outgrew the “kiddie” Disney books and was transitioning into (I thought) the more sophisticated world of superhero comics. Obviously, I know better now, so there are those little pangs of regret. But I don’t regret getting the Legion books, or my choice of that being the first series to seriously collect.

I also think I glommed onto the Legion because it featured a large group of characters, and I was an only child, with parents largely distracted by other things. I often spent big chunks of my childhood without anybody to talk to or play with, so I had to find things to do to entertain myself (like reading comic books), and the Legionnaires were pretty good substitutes when real friends weren’t available. Even today, I still prefer group books over single character series.

Part of the reason I got into the Legion was a particularly geeky one – I liked to make lists. The Legion was a listmaker’s dream! I had lists of the Legion members, their real names (odd, but memorable, names like Rokk, Tenzil, Salu, and Tinya), the planets they came from (Braal, Bismol, Ismk, Bgtzl), their super powers, and which ones were boyfriend and girlfriends. Plus, there were the Substitutes, the Super-Pets, the honorary members, the Legion of Super-Villains (and all the villains, for that matter). Later on, there were the Legion Reserves and the Legion Academy members and the Science Police members. And the Wanderers and the Heroes of Lallor. So many characters!

And this is only the front cover!

Don’t believe me? Check out the wraparound cover to Who’s Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes #7. It features 271 different head shots of Legion characters. And that wasn’t even all of them. And this was in 1988. There’s probably at least a hundred more by now…

And, sadly, there were the lists of dead characters. There were a lot of dead characters in the Legion over the years. The death of Lightning Lad in 1963 (later resurrected by the sacrifice of Proty I) (or was he?…) was often cited as the first superhero death. It was almost like they were cannon fodder or something…

On Editing the Legion

When Mark Waid, Tom McCraw, and I spent several months determining how to streamline the Legion and all its various far-flung stoylines and situations prior to the big Zero Hour event – now known as the Legion Reboot – I kept trying to break down what the Legion was in its most basic form. I kept coming back to this phrase: “Kids in the future in space.” That was the Legion that I grew up reading, and I felt that’s what made the series so special.

First, it was about kids, or teenagers to be more precise. Anybody who has seen a John Hughes movie knows how difficult it is to be a teen. Between confusing thoughts, raging hormones, alienation from your parents (real or not), and just plain trying to figure out how the world works and how you fit into it, being a teenager is rife with great conflict and storytelling possibilities. Everybody lives through it somehow and can easily relate to it. It’s rite of passage writ large.

Secondly, “in the future” implies change, hopefully of the optimistic kind. Or at least it was that way in the days when the Legion was first conceived, including the earliest days of the Space Race, and the flood of technology that came from it. The Legion was also forged in the early days of the struggle for Equal Rights for all. And the Legion had its heart in the right place, as it was initially an interstellar teen version of the United Nations, although almost all of the characters were initially depicted as white teenage kids, with the occasional “token” alien. Not very forward-thinking, in retrospect.

Finally, “in space” has always fueled the thoughts of adventure – from the earliest myths of the gods’ adventures in the night sky (as depicted by the stars) and including the entire body of science fiction and epic space battle, in its long history of depiction in prose, film, radio drama, TV, and comic books. Space also implies technology, much of it the quantum kind, either to keep our frail bodies alive in the void or to cover vast distances in less than a lifetime.

And then you can add in all the crazy personalities, interpersonal relationships, procedurals, interplanetary politics, super-pets, ineffective super-powers (and characters), Miracle Machines, and so much ephemera that today you need multiple server farms to contain it all.

That’s quite a lot for a crazy little cult comic book, huh?

I’m really looking forward to the next chapter. Hope you are too!

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So anyway, that’s what the Legion is all about.

This is just scratching the surface about Legion Lore. In upcoming columns, I’ll talk about my time editing the Legion, including all the controversial stuff that I did while I was there – like the Reboot – and some of the fun stuff as well – like working with new talent and their crazy ideas – on the page and off – and other secrets. And if you’re really good, I’ll tell you about some of the really dumb things we did (or almost did). Maybe I can even talk some of my old cronies into joining me.

So, feel free to drop me a note (or leave a comment) if you have any questions about the Legion – especially about the Reboot Legion era. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find somebody who does!

Long Live the Legion!

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KC CARLSON still often wonders about the revelation that the resurrected Lightning Lad was actually taken over by the mind of Proty I. And was married to Saturn Girl. And had children with her. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!) And that one of those children grew up to be one of the Fatal Five. Yeah, I don’t really miss some of the old Legion continuity….

Purchase

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds HC

Adventure Comics #3

Adventure Comics #4

Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes SC

Justice League of America: The Lightning Saga SC

Superman: Secret Origins #2

(The cover for Who’s Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes #7 came from the Grand Comic Book Database.)