Congrats to ADDTF for one solid year of reading comics naked.

Also, welcome back ADD and In Sequence.

Did I miss anyone?

 
Mouse Ears

I still roam around the comic book message boards now and again, and one of those topics that always pop up is why, if certain superheroes are incredibly well-known to the general populace, their comics aren't popular. And, what can be changed about the character to make the people who recognize the symbol also embrace the superhero in its native form. For example, Green Lantern atire is fairly popular urban wear, and I'm willing to bet very few people wearing the shirts and sweaters have read any of the comics. And its not just due to the Justice League cartoon, either. They were selling well before even that came around. This doesn't even touch on Superman, Batman or Spider-man clothing, tattoos, etc.

I was thinking about all this because of Mickey Mouse. He's still one of the most popular entertainers and recognizable icons of the last century, but what has Disney actually done with him? Other then The Sorceror's Apprenctice and Mickey's Christmas Carol, I doubt most people can remember a single cartoon he's starred in, if they've even ever seen one. The only star vehicles that Disney has provided for The Mouse have been a good short previewed before a bad movie, some silly 3-D thing for their theme parks and a cheap and tacky television cartoon. But it's not Mickey's baffling popularity that interests me. By this point he's popular for being popular, and despite not being centre stage in Disney productions, those three circles that make up his head and ears are still pervasive in everything the studio does.

What I find most interesting is that Disney seems fairly comfortable with the knowledge that their most famous commodity doesn't need to earn his keep. And, most importantly, his fans don't seem to mind either. In fact, I'm willing to bet that any attempts to reintroduce The Mouse within his original medium will be met with either complete indifference or frustration that the real thing isn't nearly as great as the symbol led you to believe.

posted by Steven at 11:16 PM

 
Free Comic Thursday - Mickey Mouse

Which isn't to say that Mickey didn't kick ass once, long ago.

I first heard about Floyd Gottfredson, artist of the Mickey Mouse newspaper strip, through the The Comic Book-Book, back in the day when information of near-forgotten comic artists was hard to come by. That book changed my entire comic reading experience. Up until then I was entirely focussed on the present stories being churned out by Marvel and DC, and had no idea of the depth of history or the fabulous work that had come years before my time. My love for old comics isn't misplaced nostalgia, though it may seem that way sometimes. No, it's an acknowledgement that even if many of the comics of years past were as bad or worse as the ones produced today, well, considering the sheer volume of work that has accumulated over decades, there's more quality comics in existence then I will ever have time to read. How could anyone ever get bored or jaded with the medium when there's whole new, unexplored worlds out there? If anything, this blog owes its very existence to The Comic Book-Book, for exposing me to creators like Gottfredson, Barks, Cole, and many others. The slippery slope of my passion for comics begins there.

Gottfredson is yet another artists' artist, someone who is known by only a few but who has a tendency to make an impression on those who read his work. Mickey, like Little Orphan Annie, is a character whose early exploits are dismissed by people who have a preconceived notion of what the character is capable of, little realizing that their worlds are anything but sunshine and merriment, but are rather filled with intrigue, suspense, bloodshed, fisticuffs, murder and other shadowy pursuits. They also each have a particular affinity for defeating Nazi submarines.
posted by Steven at 12:34 AM

 
Cannonball Rules!

No, really...
posted by Steven at 10:53 PM

 
Free Comic Day - Cannonball Vs Nimrod: Cold Robot; Cold Hearts!

Mike Robot's classic X-Men saga, Cannonball Vs Nimrod: Cold Robot; Cold Hearts!

What?
posted by Steven at 10:28 PM

 


Gary Panter, "King of Punk Art", is one of the most influential cartoonists of the past quarter-century. He has earned critical acclaim as a set and character designer for televison and animation, magazine illustrator, album cover artist, interior designer, world-reknowned cartoonist and fan of Turok, Son of Stone.

At around what age did you first encounter Turok? Did you ever try to draw your own Turok comics as a kid?

I guess I encountered Turok when it first came out. I began to see it in barber shops. One of my first oil paintings in the 5th grade was a copy of the cover of KONA with the charging T-Rex.

Turok seems to really stick out on your list of comics you enjoyed as a kid. Your other selections (Dick Tracy, Popeye and Little Lulu) are all considered to be examples of great comic art, unlike Turok. What appealed to you about Turok comics, made them seem "magical", then and today? It was the dinosaurs, wasn't it?

I'm part Choctaw and I was crazy about dinosaurs so I could identify with it easily and want to be in a comic story like that. I thought it was drawn well. I was facinated by the way the dinosaurs opened their mouths really wide in pain when they got shot in the mouth with a poison-tipped arrow.

Considering that you knew a fair amount about dinosaurs at that age, how did Turok and its portrayal of "honkers" rate in that sense? Did factual inaccuarcies bother you, like the cavemen living in the same environment as dinosaurs? Or did the sheer excitement and power of a comic packed with dinosaur goodness overwhelm any misgivings?

I did feel a little superior in the knowledge that dinosaurs and men weren't really contemporary, but also I suspected and still suspect that there are still a few prehistoric throwbacks lurking about in the dark places of Earth.

You mentioned that a friend of yours knew about your love of Turok and sent you the link to a Turok site. I've found that Turok is one of those things that creates a sense of secret fellowship and understanding, especially among people who remember and enjoy these comics. Has this happened to you?

Turok certainly does, but many things do, too. I was equally crazy about Magnus Robot Fighter. For me , the ultimate thing like that is THE SUSAN SHOW or SUSAN'S SHOW because I've only know four people who ever saw it.

Your work often deals with strange beings struggling in a brutal, unforgiving land, much like Turok. Most comics seem to concern themselves primarily with conflict between characters, unlike Turok, which gave equal time to dealing with man interacting and fighting against nature and his environment. Is this yet another influence being filtered through your sensibilities, or am I talking out of my ass?

I think that it's true that I am interested in creating a cultural sign system behind the characters that has an authoritarian or unfortunate tendency. The environment and historical moments are characters. What the character's say is another story but impacted by that environment. That's me really talking out of my ass.

How did you feel about the repetitive nature of Turok's adventures?

I only owned a few Turoks, but I noticed the repetition. It didn't bother me much. A lot of time I didn't read the whole comic at once. It was a stepping off point for very elaborate fantasies about amusement parks that one inhabited for a time. I drew many amusement parks and would build many little cardboard, plastic and clay parks based a lot like the situation of Turok and Andar.

Finally, I just wanted to say that when I read that you enjoyed Turok, one of the first thoughts that entered my head was that you would be the perfect canidate to revamp the character. Not that I would ever want you to ditch your more personal work, but that I can't think of anyone who would be more suited to the task. It would rock like fists of steel.

Jimbo does border on that. What a thought! Thanks.

I'd like to thank Gary Panter for taking the time out of his busy schedule to talk about Turok. Please check his website, where you will find samples of his work, a free weekly strip, and his blog. And don't forget that Panter is still taking comissions.

Panter's latest, Jimbo in Purgatory, will be available from Fantagraphics next month.
posted by Steven at 12:56 AM

 
Free Comic Thursday - DalTokyo

"Jimbo's kind of a nice guy in a near-future world that's much more out of control than he is. The world he's in I call DalTokyo, which I think is about more confluent culture and the more hybrid forms that might come out. What if Dallas and Tokyo were mixed together, or the Mayans and the Egyptians?" - Gary Panter
posted by Steven at 12:05 AM

 
...We Salute You

Even more fascinating then the repetitious nature of Turok, Son of Stone was in its complete absence of any present-day concerns. In almost all speculative fiction that I can think of there is usually a character who relates to the time in which the work is written. Turok, Son of Stone is a stranger in a strange land story on two levels. Turok and Andar are themselves from an era different from our own. By omitting any connection to post-industrial civilization, Turok, Son of Stone forces the reader to engage Turok and Andar on their own level, and appreciate their innovation and intelligence in a way that may be diluted by making them from our time, or worse, placing them within a present day context.

Turok debuted in 1954 within Four Colour #596 with art chores handled by Rex Mason. The writer for this original story is unknown, though it is believed that the editor of the title, Matt Murphy, is likely Turok's creator. There is no mystery surrounding the identity of Turok's definitive author, though. Writer Paul Newman contributed the scripts for Turok from issue #8 on, for an astounding bi-monthly 26-year run from 1956 to 1982, easily the longest lifespan of any Dell/Gold Key adventure title. For this and his thousands of other scripting jobs, Newman was named "Most Prolific Comic Book Writer" by the Guinness Book of World Records. The artist most closely associated with the title was Alberto Giolitti who drew or oversaw nearly as many Turok, Son of Stone issues as Newman wrote, starting with issue #24. Supposedly, Gioletti used his son as a model for the Son of Stone, a resemblance shared with the artist himself. These men, along with a small smattering of other contributors, created hundreds of action-packed tales with a compellingly pure drive rarely seen in comics.

The two other adventure titles Dell/Gold Key produced which are closely associated with the time of Turok's publication, Magnus, Robot Fighter and Solar, Man of the Atom, had much shorter runs and are therefore harder to track down at an affordable price. Not so Turok, which, though I've seen it for as high as $20, can usually be found for $3 or lower. The next time you're in the shop scooping up that week's armload of new releases, put one back and take a chance an old-school adventure story. You won't be disappointed.

Come back tomorrow for quite possibly the coolest thing I have ever posted on this blog, though considering what I usually write, that may not be much enticement. Regardless, it's Turok related, so you can't afford to miss out.
posted by Steven at 12:24 AM

 
Free Comic Thursday - Congorilla

Most mainstream comic book fans are so enamoured with the idea of distancing themselves with from some of the more ludicrous elements of past titles that they end up embracing rather dubious elements from other mediums. If you think that anything short of a select few titles currently available from Marvel or DC can hold up next to a comic about a giant golden gorilla with the mind of a man teaming up with a purple alien gorilla with four arms (scroll down, Champ) because of the excessive use of widescreen art or decompression, well, I despair for the four-colour future. Has there ever been another medium that has so thoroughly embraced the potential of our simian friends? I think not.
posted by Steven at 12:12 AM

 
For those about Turok...

"Each week I was sullen until I got a comic with a dinosaur on the cover. Usually it was Turok, Son of Stone." - Brian Bolland.

Turok, Son of Stone is the greatest genre comic book ever created. I don't know what genre it is exactly, but there you have it.

The title starred two Pre-Columbian Americans from the Kiowa tribe of the Dakotas, Turok and his young charge, Andar. In their first adventure, the duo stumbled into a mysterious land which they named The Lost Valley. It was a place forgotten by time, where menacing tribes of our prehistoric ancestors and ravenous dinosaurs roamed overgrown jungles and swamps untouched by the outside world. Accidentally trapped within the valley, Turok and Andar used their superior cunning and tools to outwit and escape the dangers they faced. They were helped in this pursuit by their discovery of a plant which, when spread upon their arrowheads, could fell the gigantic "honkers", or dinosaurs, so named because of the call they made when attacking.

The comics of those days were almost all self-contained anyway, but Turok, Son of Stone took the concept further. Like various other pieces of narrative fiction, Krazy Kat or Doc Savage for example, Turok, Son of Stone used a mostly repetitive plotline in nearly every installment. Turok and Andar would strive to find some way out of the Lost Valley, encounter hostile inhabitants, and overcome these obstacles to try again another day. The book had only two narrative pursuits, escape and survival. There was no romance and little characterization. The interest lay in the variations it spun on this basic survivalist scenerio. Turok and Andar's attempts to escape might be taken in small steps, such as climbing atop the highest point within Lost Valley to briefly see the plains they left behind, or following a species of fish native to the Dakotas back to its point of entry into the valley. And they might run out of poison and have to search for more, or face a "honker" that was immune to its effects, to give a few more examples.

According to its detractors, this repetition of plot is one of the faults of the series, but Turok, Son of Stone's numerous supporters know that these people are on crack, as this was one of the title's main virtues. There was never any doubt as to the who, what, where, and whys. Even if you weren't acquainted with the series already, prolific writer Paul S. Newman made even that basic information abundantly clear issue to issue. What was most interesting was the how. Everything else was streamlined to make room for pure, undiluted adventure.

As usual, Toonopedia has even more on this excellent series. Though the official Turok site is geared mostly towards the hideous video games, they do have a small page set up to explain Turok's history. You can also view a gallery containing nearly all of the Turok covers, which, like most of Dell/Gold Key's non-licensed adventure titles, consist of stunning paintings. These covers are fondly remembered by many, including storyboard artist Pete Von Sholly, who has created his own covers for Turok comics never published.
posted by Steven at 12:27 AM

 
Free Comic Thursday - Nick Cross

Nick Cross is an Ottawa-based animator that has provided a few back-up stories for fellow animators and self-published comic artists in the area. In The Incomparible Life of Hot-Dog Wienerscoff, the title character finds salvation from his thieving ways through an unlikely saviour and a butcher knife. Or thrill to the artistic exploits of Hyman, the surly panda. There's plenty else on the site, including short pieces of animation. The short film U-Girl comes highly recommended.
posted by Steven at 12:07 AM

 
This Party is Awesome!

Some comic blogger I turn out to be. There's a new Smithsonian book of comics coming out and I didn't hear about it until now.

"I have this in the form of photocopied proof. It's an almost schizophrenic collection, running the gamut from Julius Schwartz' DC stories of the 1950s to the post-RAW indy-comix scene." - Dirk Deppey, via R. Fiore.

The two previous Smithsonian books, one devoted to comic strips, the other to comic books, are probably the best primer on pre-60s comics you'll likely come across. Highly recommended. I found mine in a used bookstore and on eBay, respectively, each for well under ten bucks, Canadian, and worth at least ten times that amount.

Could this beat out Gasoline Alley, Complete Peanuts and McSweeney's #13 as my must-have of 2004? Hmmm. Perhaps.
posted by Steven at 5:26 AM

 
One Man Army Corps

I really like this old article from the New Yorker on Simpsons writer George Meyer, considered by many to be one of the most important contributors to the popularity of that show. It's certainly more entertaining then the show has been in recent years. The article mentions a 'zine by Meyer entitled Army Man, a page of which you can view here.
posted by Steven at 1:01 AM