The World According to Sam
A few caveats:
Since I’m as old as
dinosaur crap, some of this is pretty ancient stuff.
It’s a little Marvel-heavy
since for years I followed almost nothing from DC except the Batman and Kirby
titles.
And, I got a little carried
away with my justifications and they turned into mini-dissertations.
Also, there’s WAY more than
10. (Hey, it’s my list, I’ll make it as long as I want!)
I’m not going to attempt to
rank them, I just offer them up as truly great runs.
Lee and Kirby’s Fantastic
Four
This was pretty good, right
out of the gate, but I’m thinking especially of the issues starting right
around #47, when Joe Sinnott takes over the regular inking chores, right up
until Kirby’s departure from Marvel with issue 102. Sinnott starts inking just
around the same time Kirby begins to open up his layouts and really go bananas.
In my opinion, Joe was the best artist that ever inked Kirby. There are others
who inked Jack’s pencils more faithfully, but I think the minor degree of
refinement Joe adds is just right.
Nobody ever did giant,
cosmic threats from beyond space and time, or balls-out, killer action better than Kirby did then, (or ever). And no
one ever thought of so many great characters and ideas in rapid
sequence as Stan and Jack did with the Fantastic Four. Galactus, Blastarr, Doc Doom, The Silver
Surfer, Black Panther, The Inhumans, The Negative Zone, and on and on and
on… Stan’s scripting, which often felt a little too overblown on some of the
more down-to-earth titles, (like Daredevil, say), was perfectly matched to the
titanic galactic imagery of Jack’s FF.
I’m not going to revisit
the debate over who created what here. It will forever be an unknowable truth.
All I do know is that the team of Stan and Jack together built something
greater than either of them ever did on their own, or with other collaborators.
This is a brilliant and
very long run of superior comics.
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| Who else but Jack 'King' Kirby? |
Joss Whedon and John
Cassiday’s Astonishing X-men
While I don’t love all the
choices Whedon makes with the storietelling here, he certainly knows how to
write a scene that keeps you reading. His stories are compelling and he doesn’t
skimp on the action. He weaves a fairly interesting tale, and his
characterization is top notch. He also returned Kitty Pryde to the lineup,
which pleased me enormously.
However, the real story
here is Cassiday’s art. Of all the guys who do the “wide screen” style of comics storytelling, (no panels taller than
they are wide) he does it best. While Bryan Hitch is certainly effective in that
style, his heavily photo-traced approach, while impressive, always leaves me a
bit cold. Cassiday on the other hand still delivers a sense of the drawing
being pulled from the artist’s imagination. His art is solid, strong and
expressive, and has an appealing simplicity, while still being anatomically believable.
But it’s the continuity I like best. It’s bold, straightforward and flawlessly
paced.
Jim Steranko’s Nick Fury
Agent of Shield
This isn’t a long run but
it’s pretty amazing. Especially the Who
is Scorpio storyline. It was at this point Jim stepped beyond merely aping
the Marvel-style Kirby dynamism, and began to add in his own cinematic, and
modern-art influenced innovations. It’s a bit more about the art than the
writing, but the stories are certainly fun and solid. His experiments in pacing
and page layout, and color use, utilizing it for its psychological and visual
impact, were progressive. This included the judicious use of limited color and black
and white panels. He also does the first 4-page gatefold ever done in the
comics. At the time, these comics were truly mind blowing.
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| Pop art sensibilities nicely wrangled into comics fun by the innovative Jim Steranko |
If you throw in the few
amazing issues of Captain America he did around the same time, and give a nod
to a couple of the things Neal Adams was doing, this is really the creative
hinge between the Silver Age, and whatever you want to call the next wave of guys
who came in. Guys like Wrightson, Jones, Kaluta, Gulacy, Windsor-Smith, Corben,
Byrne, Zeck etc, etc.
This is VERY influential
stuff.
 |
| Startling use of colour from Jim Steranko |
Doug Moench, Paul Gulacy,
Mike Zeck and Gene Day’s Master of Kung-Fu
A few other artists crop up
here and there in this astounding run of comics, (Including Toronto’s Jim
Craig!) but these three artists all do absolutely fantastic, long chunks of
this run. With a solid overall continuity supplied by Doug Moench, the book takes
the chop socky movie genre and successfully marries it with the James Bond spy
trend in this globe-trotting adventure. It’s all perfectly spiced with the unresolved
father-son issues of Shang Chi and his crazy, world domination bent father, Fu
Manchu. There’s some nice spicy romance in there too.
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| A unique layout from Gene Day |
Gulacy fully absorbs the
inventive storytelling lessons of Steranko and really digs into his rendering
and choreography. He hits his stride nicely here. Zeck follows up by injecting
a little Buscema-esque layout technique into the storytelling, and quickly
sorts out his unique graphic style.
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| Another amazing page from Mr. Day |
But the most interesting,
and saddest story, is Gene Day’s. Beginning as the inker for Zeck, he improves
at an astounding rate, and eventually takes over penciling AND inking the book.
He re-incorporates the Steranko-Gulacy storytelling style and adds a few cool
touches of his own.
I don’t know if you guys have seen his stuff, but there are
a few issues that are truly incredible. Sadly, he doesn’t get to do nearly enough
before his heart explodes from a bad diet, a crushing work schedule, and zero
exercise. I truly believe he would have become one of the great modern masters
had he lived. Unfortunately, his early death has left him largely forgotten.
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| An utterly astounding use of panel to panel flow in this incredible 2-page spread by Gene Day |
For those who may be interested, there's a nice little bio-appreciation of Gene Day, written by Dave Olbrich here:
Roy Thomas and John
Buscema’s Savage Sword of Conan
I especially love the
stories inked by Alfredo Alcala. I chose this series over Roy and John’s run on
the color Conan comic for several reasons. First, the larger format and larger
originals gave John a bit of room to breathe in the layouts. They are
frequently much more interesting than what he was doing on the regular comic.
Also, the spicier and more adult parameters of the black and white line allowed
them to better capture the spirit of the original REH stories. And, to me at
least, the black and white art feels somehow more “right” to present the
adventures of Conan. There was no color in the Hyborian age! It was dark and
gritty and grey.
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| Buscema and Alcala make us truly feel the ancient world of Conan. |
No inker captures the
crusty and shiny textures of this lost time better than Afredo Alcala. His
baroque rendering perfectly evokes a sense of time and place. Buscema is
rumoured to have disliked Alfedo’s inks, which he claimed were overdone, but
more likely he just felt they overpowered his pencils. However, in my opinion,
John’s layouts are powerful enough to be utterly unmistakable even under the
frenzied rendering of Alcala’s inks. Tony DeZuniga and Pablo Marcos also do
some great inking on the series.
The books get a little
weaker later on, but there are about 30 really great issues. Eventually, Roy
runs out of REH stories to adapt, and John gets a little “conaned out” from doing
both books. Also, Tony DeZuniga, who eventually becomes the regular inker, gets
a bit sketchier after embellishing some outstanding issues in the early part of
the run.
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| A lovely cover by Boris |
Also the covers were often very awesome. Early issues by Boris Vallejo and later ones by Earl Norem are just marvellous, amongst others.
Jack Kirby’s Kamandi
Okay, a word of
explanation. As far as Kirby’s DC tenure goes, I have to admit, that the Fourth
World stuff is more in keeping with the creative, explosive, cosmic stuff Kirby
did so well. And I do think the New Gods was an amazing effort.
However, the truncated
nature of the story, which was always meant to be finite and reach an ultimate
conclusion before cancellation cut it short, leaves one with a niggling hunger
for a measured resolution. This is a desire that wasn’t really satisfied by
Kirby’s later Hunger Dogs addendum.
Also the Fourth world companion books Mr. Miracle and The Forever People were
not great. Mr. Miracle is serviceable, but without any real spark, and the
faux-hippie silliness of The Forever People is just downright laughable.
Anyway… on to Kamandi!
Kirby quickly leaves his Planet of the Apes inspired beginnings behind and goes
it one (or two, or three) better! He consistently turns out a really fun and
unpredictable adventure series, with a few standout stories of particularly
high quality. It was during this run that my “realism” prejudiced teenaged mind
finally began to understand and appreciate the beauty of all things Kirby.
Denny O’Neil and Neal
Adams’s Green Lantern/Green Arrow
In addition to this being
some of Neal Adams’ finest, and most expressive, artwork the book has the
distinction of being one of the first to effectively apply the problems of the
real world to the superhero genre. It explores issues of racism, politics, drug
abuse, psychosis, and religious fervor amongst others. Though Stan Lee gave the
timely issue of drug use a stab a bit earlier in Spiderman, it gets a much more
measured, mature and personalized treatment by O’Neil and Adams here. Plus it
still has some cool intergalactic stuff thrown in to spice things up. Again,
this level of realism in the writing and the art was highly influential for later comics creators.
Len Wein and Berni
Wrightson’s Swamp Thing
This was Wrightson’s only
tenure on a regular comic title. Even though he eventually cracked under the
scheduling strain of penciling and inking an entire book in such a detailed
style, it is an exceptional visual achievement. Only one issue, where other
inkers were brought in to speed up production, suffers in lost quality.
The stories by Wein run the
gamut from amazing to just passable, but there are several great ones. The
origin issue is very solid, and has all the moving pathos that Marvel’s Man-Thing
lacked. The Archane issues are terrific, and nicely set the stage for Alan
Moore’s later use of the character. The Ravenwood Witches, and the Tunnel 13
issues are just great too.
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| Bernie's bat will always be my personal favourite. |
However, the standout for
me is Swampy’s trip to Gotham and his dealings with Batman. Say what you will
about Neal Adams, Gene Colan, Norm Beyfogle, Jim Lee, Dick Giordano, David
Mazzuchelli, etc. I think this is the coolest Batman ever drawn! He is dark and
creepy, and powerful, and both the rendering and graphic use of the cape are
utterly astounding. The book is really Berni’s baby, and he goes to town. With
the exception of some of the black and white stories he did later for Warren
publishing, this is his finest comics work. Dripping in black and covered in
cobwebs, it’s moody and creepy as hell! His later stuff even on Batman lacks
the energy and focus of this seminal series.
Alan Moore’s and Stephen
Bissette’s Swamp Thing
Especially the issues inked
by John Tottleben. Personally I think Alan Moore was the only 80’s “British
Invasion” writer who lived up to the hype. (Neil Gaiman can bite me!) With his
inventive and exploratory take on Swamp Thing, Moore really opened up the
character’s potential. By making him a vegetable god, rather than just a swamp
monster, Moore pushed the limits of imagination and horror. Here, Moore is just
a damn fine writer, slugging his first big American gig out of the ballpark.
Bissette’s art, while lacking somewhat in anatomical solidity, lacks nothing in
terms of mood, creepiness and inventive layout.
The story about the
fear-eating Ouija board monster still sends shivers up my spine. Bbrrrrr…
Miller and Mazzuchelli’s
Batman Year One
Although this is a limited
series rather than a “run”, I have to include it here. This is Miller before he
got all weird after 9-11 and Mazzuchelli at his very best, with a stripped down,
Toth-like rendering style and some perfectly paced storytelling. A joy to read,
and an intriguing insight into Batman, before his experience afforded him the
unassailable confidence his character has today.
Unfortunately Miller’s more
recent take on Batman, with Jim Lee, is a disaster. I know that this is
supposedly a “re-imagining” of the character, but he’s not a character that
interests me in any way. Mazzuchelli moved out of mainstream comics to do some
offbeat weird stuff with some idea of greater depth and meaning, but for me
it’s all just comes off as self indulgent and inaccessible. Now he does no
comics at all. What a shame!
Read these poor lost souls
when they are at their very best in Year One.
Frank Miller’s Daredevil
I like both runs here. The
earlier one, where Miller writes and pencils with inks by Klaus Janson, is
terrific, and the later issues with Mazzuchelli really rock. This is the one
where Frank really put all the pieces together. The Film Noir drenched dialogue
and art style, the staccato pacing, the balletic battles over a gritty
cityscape, the trials and tribulations of a superhero with no real super
powers. Just great!
His meeting with Captain
America is absolutely classic! But the big ones are, of course, The Electra stories, which are fantastic,
and Miller and Mazzuchelli’s Born Again
storyline. Simply the best Daredevil comics ever made, in my estimation. The
subsequent, terrible, photo-manipulated Alex Maleev art makes me want to puke
up a camel.
Joe Kubert’s Tarzan
What can you say? A
consummate professional takes on the one of the greatest adventure characters
ever created. The issues adapting the original ERB stories definitely come out
on top here, but they are all fun, terrific, adventure stories drawn by one of
comics very best artists in his prime.
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| Savage, untamed and awesome Tarzan by the incredible Joe Kubert. |
Milton Caniff’s Steve
Canyon
Much is said about the
brilliance of Terry and the Pirates, but for my money, I prefer Canyon. Caniff
has already hit his stride in terms of his drawing style, which was still
developing in the early Pirates stuff. The best chunk here is from it’s
beginning just after the second world war, until about 1955. The adventure,
world politics and romance elements are at their best balance during this time.
As the strip aged, the soap opera themes eventually took center stage, but for
several years it was a great strip, with amazing art and terrific, punchy
dialogue.
“Tell them to go fry their
hats!”
Claremont and Byrne’s X-Men
(Including the year Paul Smith drew it after Byrne left)
Claremont’s at his best
here, before the whole thing got too complicated with myriad false implanted
memories for half the characters, before the time travel stuff got out of hand,
and before the cast got so huge it bogged down the storytelling. I almost like
the Paul Smith issues best because he had this stripped down style I think worked
nicely, and they did a lot with Kitty Pryde, a character of whom I’m very fond.
But Byrne’s run here, and his later FF run, is about the best stuff he ever did
before he became an irredeemable hack.
Will Eisner’s Spirit
Well duh…
Nocenti, Romita Jr. and
Williamson’s Daredevil
What great comics!
Nocenti’s stories have a nice, skewed, alternate point of view, and cover some
interesting new territory. Romita Jr. is at his peak! Vigorous, lively, clear
as a bell storytelling. The best mix of Kirby dynamism, Toth simplicity and
Buscema solidity. Later some of that structural and anatomical integrity gives
way to speed somewhat, but he’s great here.
However, Al Williamson is
the real lynchpin on this book. In his last regular art gig, his flawless
inking adds even more anatomical solidity, and his black spotting is perfect.
Having achieved a nicely loose, but surprisingly accurate, inking style in his
later years, he pulls these great Romita Jr. pencils up to an astounding level
of facility. (And yes, the Lee Weeks art on Daredevil is awesome too. In fact I
think Williamson inked some of that too. Weeks is one of the greatest pencilers
ever, and sadly underrated, as far as I’m concerned.)
Howard Chaykin’s American
Flagg
Howard was great here. He
was really stretching the boundaries of storytelling and content, and nicely
weaving satire in with the action and adventure. He uses a simpler, looser
rendering style on the art here which is ideal to the subject matter. Though he
later takes this sketchy approach too far, (in my opinion), here it’s nicely
balanced, evocative and expressive. His progressive use of sound effects is
very interesting too. Also, it’s just downright hilarious. Howard does a lot of
experimenting, both visually and in terms of content, and it isn’t always
successful. But hey, at least he’s trying stuff! And when it works it’s
awesome.
Mike Mignola’s Hellboy (And related milieu.)
What’s not to love here?
It’s a crazy, red-skinned, devil-man with a big gun who battles spooky supernatural
threats along side a team of weirdoes, mutants, and military men. Mike’s art is
like the marvelous comics love-child of Frank Frazetta and Alex Toth, with a
high contrast sense of mood and design that is second to none. Mike has also
chosen outstanding collaborators for the expanded Hellboy line, like Duncan
Fegredo and Guy Davis. This is just awesome, fun comics.
Honorable Mentions
Walt Simonson’s Thor
Baron and Rude’s Nexus
Abuli and Bernet’s Torpedo
Mark Schultz’s Xenozoic
Tales
Lee and Kirby’s Captain
America
Wolfman and Colan’s Tomb of
Dracula
Lee and Romita’s Spiderman
Dave Stevens’s Rocketeer
Well, that’s it. Take it as
you will.
Ultimately, what I learned
from this is…I read too damn many comics…
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