Cyberspace Comics market report, reviews and more

November 30, 2010

Comic Book Cover Swipes Exposed #35 Wolverine

Filed under: Swiped: Comic Book Cover Swipes Exposed! — Doorman @ 2:09 pm

After looking at hundreds of comic book covers, it becomes quickly apparent that not every cover is 100% original. Whether done intentionally or even underhandedly, there’s something about uncovering these “swipes” that adds a new element of fun to reading and collecting comics.

Frank Miller swiped his own pose when providing the cover art for the final issue of Destroyer Duck.

Wolverine #4
Wolverine #4
December 1982
Frank Miller
Destroyer Duck #7
Destroyer Duck #7
May 1984
Frank Miller

On Ebay: Wolverine | Destroyer Duck | Frank Miller

November 29, 2010

One-Shot At Greatness #35 Savage Dragon Destroyer Duck

Filed under: One-Shot At Greatness — Doorman @ 9:38 am

Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!

Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck #1Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Date: November 1996
Cover Price: $3.95
Writer: Steve Gerber
Artist: Chris Marrinan

*Warning! Plot Spoilers Below*

There’s trouble brewing in Chicago! Dr. Brainard is assembling his group of Anomalous-Americans – no doubt for some evil plot. Specimen Q is one of Brainard’s past experiments and he’s come to Chicago to find the person responsible for trapping him within a full-body suit of armor. However, a rampaging creature in armor doesn’t go unnoticed in a big city and he’s soon attacked by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and, later, by the Savage Dragon. Fortunately, the Savage Dragon is powerful enough to knock loose some of the armor revealing Specimen Q is … Destroyer Duck!

The Savage Dragon eventually learns that Destroyer Duck means the city no harm and he takes him along for a trade-off (an electronic sitar for the Ringmaster’s hypnotic disc) that’s going down in a shady warehouse. Once there, the duo gets embroiled in a mix-up with the Elf (from Gerber’s run on the Defenders), Spider-Man, some members of the Circus of Crime and Howard the Duck, himself (along with Beverly). In order to create confusion, the Elf summons thousands of ducks – utter chaos! However, the Dragon manages to make the trade and Destroyer Duck grabs Howard and Beverly – escaping the manic warehouse.

They discover that the electronic sitar is one of Brainard’s devices – instrumental in his bid for power, which is being challenged by the Vicious Circle (another group of super-villains). So, the Dragon and Destroyer Duck throw themselves in the middle of this battle between super-villain teams but no one is able to stop Brainard’s escape. After the turmoil, Dragon & DD enter Howard & Bev into the Witness Protection Program with their new looks and identities (Leonard & Rhonda Martini) and send them off to Buffalo, New York.

Story-wise, this team-up is lacking. There seems to be too much thrown in to it, making it a bit unfocused. Yeah – there are some super-teams battling … but the warehouse trade-off seems like a random event thrown into the plot. And, well, it kind of is. But, it’s really the most important part. Again, with Destroyer Duck books, it’s all about the story-behind-the-story. This warehouse scene interacts with Spider-Man Team-Up #5 (featuring Spidey & Howard the Duck), which shows the same scene from another angle. But, this “kidnapping” of Howard from the Marvel Universe was Gerber’s way of saying that he got Howard out of Marvel and left them with a soulless shell. His way of sticking it to the man, if you will. The backmatter of this book contains writings from Erik Larsen & Steve Gerber that explain this “unofficial crossover” and the motivations behind it much better than I ever could. But, I’d only recommend this to any fan of Gerber, Howard or creator’s rights.

On Ebay: Destroyer Duck | Steve Gerber | Savage Dragon

November 27, 2010

Minimate Spotlight #28 Ghostbusters

Filed under: Minimate Spotlight — Donny B @ 6:24 pm

Action figures have long been a perfect compliment to comic books, since every kid (or kid at heart) has that natural desire to act out adventures with their favorite heroes off the drawn page. Every so often, a unique style of figure comes along that breaks the mold, so to speak. Each Saturday, Donny B will be showcasing various offerings from Art Asylum’s take on the ‘block figure’, with a weekly spotlight on Minimates.

Continuing our look at Art Asylum’s Ghostbusters line, this week’s focus is on the very 80’s styled Gozer, and the Terror Dogs, displayed in a faithful recreation of the first GB movie’s climax:

The Terror Dog was relatively new territory for Art Asylum. Only once before had they released an animal Minimate (Muffit from the original Battlestar Galactica series was the first), and since AA is amping up the production value of their releases, they found a way to not only make the Terror Dog a fun diversion from the usual formula, but they also packed it with a surprise. Underneath all of the sculpted pieces that make the animal form, there is a basic Minimate body holding it all together. Seeing the opportunity to be true to the movie and give buyers a treat, AA designed the Terror Dog to be taken apart to reveal a hidden character: a very disheveled Louis Tully!


Behind the Images:

For this week’s first image, I basically just superimposed Gozer and the Terror Dogs over a screen capture of a scene from the end of the first Ghostbusters film. The lower quality of the image was a direct result of working the Minimates into a screen capture – the movie was filmed long enough ago that getting a really nice quality shot is pretty much impossible without heavy restoration. So instead of putting in 5 or 6 hours to essentially recreate the background, I simply took over-saturated photos of the Minimates so that they would match the image quality of the screen capture.

The second image was a straight-up photograph with some tweaking and a replaced background. I set them on a wooden desk, and that worked as a pretty decent base for a late night dock scene. I muted and re-colored this image in much the same fashion as the Kree Soldiers image that was featured back in October.

On Ebay: Ghostbusters
On AtomicAvenue: Ghostbusters

November 26, 2010

Retro-Read #34 Destroyer Duck

Filed under: Retro-Read — Doorman @ 3:37 pm

With years spent reading single issues here and there, juggling storylines of dozens of titles, I decided it was time to find a better way to read comics. So, it was off to the back issue bins armed with the longest want list you’ve ever seen! Putting together series after series and reading them in their complete goodness, I was reborn as the Retro-Reader!

Destroyer Duck #1Publisher: Eclipse Comics
Number of Issues: 7
First Issue: 1982 ($1.50)
Last Issue: May 1984 ($1.50)
Writer: Steve Gerber (#1-5), Buzz Dixon
Artist: Jim Starlin (#1-5), Gary Kato

*Warning! Plot Spoilers Below*

Duke “Destroyer” Duck’s not having a great week. His woman’s left him for another man and his best pal, the Little Guy, has just blinked out of existence. Months pass filled with morbid thoughts and cognac – that is, until, his pal the Little Guy shows up at his door, wounded. As he bleeds out on the floor, he explains to Destroyer Duck how he found himself on Earth, a world he never made – filled with pink-skinned primates. On Earth, he was made to work for Godcorp, Ltd – a mega corporation that ended up taking advantage of him. They used him up until nothing was left and as he took his last breath, Destroyer Duck vowed that they’d pay.

Bent on avenging his friend, Destroyer Duck hops dimensions to planet Earth to wage war against Godcorp. During his stay on Earth, he manages to gather a team around him made up of the Little Guy’s Lawyer, Cherries Jubilee (her sister is currently being taken advantage of by Godcorp) and other strange characters. They take on some weird villains including Pahkmani the Devourer and Cogburn the Corporate Man – all before they engineer the explosive destruction of Godcopr Ltd. Following their victory, Destroyer Duck is trapped on Earth and has to make the best of it with his new-found friends.

The Bad: I quickly lost interest once the initial plotline was over and the original creators left the book. All sense of purpose had been pulled from the series, at that point. I imagine that a lot of the fun of this series is lost if you don’t know the behind-the-scenes story.

The Good: At the time, this was surely a shocking paring of legendary creators. This title also launched Eclipse’s line of color comics and rose funds for Gerber to continue his lawsuit with Marvel. Sergio Aragones’ Groo debuted in issue #1 as a back-up feature.

The Verdict: Destroyer Duck is an interesting concept. To truly appreciate it, you’ve got to know the story behind the comic. Y’see, years before, Steve Gerber had created Howard the Duck for Marvel Comics and he proved popular enough to warrant his own series. Eventually, Gerber and the forces at Marvel disagreed over the book and Gerber was fired and replaced. Now, Gerber took great issue with this – How could Marvel fire him from a book he created? Naturally, he felt that it would have been nice for him to leave the book when he was ready (like how Stan Lee left his creations – Fantastic Four, X-Men, Hulk, etc – in the hands of others). And so was born one of the first battles for creator’s rights, as Gerber took Marvel to court over the ownership of Howard the Duck. Joined by Jack Kirby (another pioneer of the battle for creator’s rights – who felt sleighted by his treatment by Marvel, as well), Gerber launched Destroyer Duck – a not so subtle poke at the big corporation (Marvel). In fact, the Little Guy in the story is quite obviously intended to be Howard the Duck. And, as Gerber points out – Howard magically appeared at Marvel (via Gerber’s ultra-creative mind) where they exploited him and used him up (in Gerber’s opinion). So, it was left to Destroyer Duck (I imagine Gerber felt like DD in his lawsuit against Marvel) to take down this evil corporation Godcorp (aka Marvel) in order make them pay for their unethical actions as an evil corporation.

PHEW! Got it? Good! So anyway, knowing all of this makes the initial five issues really enjoyable. Otherwise, it’d be just a really weird comic full of talking ducks, pheromone-emitting women, a universal-jointed villainness, and other craziness. Unfortunately, once Godcorp is brought down, the series loses almost all of its draw and the last two issues couldn’t capture my interest. The series was canceled with issue seven and Howard was left in Marvel’s control. Or, was he? During the course of the series, Destroyer Duck occassionally wondered if the Little Guy that had bled out on his floor was merely a Godcorp construct created to lure another duck to Earth. So, if that thought is true – maybe the real Little Guy is still out there waiting to be rescued!

But, that’s a tale for another time. Anyway, I really enjoyed the first five issues but only because I understand why the book was created. Sure it’s a bit heavy-handed with its “symbolism” but it’s a fun poke at Marvel – made visible in front of the whole comics community. And, whether you side with Gerber or Marvel, I think this series has earned itself a unique place in the history of comics. So, my recommendation of this series is based on the story-behind-the-story, the sheer creative audacity it took to make it and its importance to the comics community moreso than the actual creative output itself.

On Ebay: Destroyer Duck | Jack Kirby | Steve Gerber

November 25, 2010

Famous Fanmail #34 Christos Gage

Filed under: Famous Fanmail — Doorman @ 10:30 am

You may not be surprised to learn that most people in the comic business grew up reading comic books. However, you might be interested in knowing what they were reading. Here’s a look at “Famous Fanmail”!

Christos Gage has written some great runs on Union Jack, Thunderbolts, Avengers: the Initiative and many others. He’s also written for TV shows like Law & Order: SVU and Numb3rs. He got a letter printed in Thor #446 (cover date – April 1992), sharing his reactions to the “new Thor” storyline.

Thor letters page with Christos Gage

On Ebay: Thor | Christos Gage

November 24, 2010

Glow In The Dark Comics #16 Cristian Dark

Filed under: Glow in the Dark Comics — Doorman @ 10:20 am

During the speculator boom in the 1990s comic book market, publishers enhanced comic covers to increase sales. These gimmicks included shiny foil, holograms and even pop-ups! But, one of the coolest enhancements was the glow in the dark cover. Let’s shed some light on the subject, shall we?

Cristian Dark #2 glows in the darkPublisher: Darqüe Studios
Cover Date: April 1993
Cover Price: $2.50

Darqüe Studios proved that glow in the dark cover enhancements weren’t just for the mainstream publishers with the second issue of Cristian Dark. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it to glow strong enough on it’s own so I had to use a blacklight – that’s why this one looks purple instead of the usual green hue..

On Ebay: Cristian Dark

November 23, 2010

Comic Book Cover Swipes Exposed #34 Avengers

Filed under: Swiped: Comic Book Cover Swipes Exposed! — Doorman @ 1:53 pm

After looking at hundreds of comic book covers, it becomes quickly apparent that not every cover is 100% original. Whether done intentionally or even underhandedly, there’s something about uncovering these “swipes” that adds a new element of fun to reading and collecting comics.

Marvel’s MC2 Universe is set around 15-20 years beyond the current Marvel Universe. MC2’s version of the Avengers frequently enjoyed Avengers cover swipes.

Avengers #25
Avengers #25
February 1966

A-Next #5
A-Next #5
January 1999
Ron Frenz

On Ebay: Avengers | A-Next

November 22, 2010

One-Shot At Greatness #34 Spider-Man: Back in Quack

Filed under: One-Shot At Greatness — Doorman @ 11:56 am

Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!

Spider-Man: Back in Quack #1Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: November 2010
Cover Price: $3.99
Writer: Stuart Moore
Artist: Mark Brooks, Ray Height
Cover Artist: Skottie Young

*Warning! Plot Spoilers Below*

The Service Organization of Philanthropic Individuals, or S.O.O.Ph.I., has brainwashed the Mayor of New York City (J. Jonah Jameson), Beverly and Howard the Duck into joining their cause. They intend to spread their influence over the millions of NYC residents but Spider-Man‘s not too keen on that notion. So, he manages to snap Howard back to reality and it’s up to our duo to rescue the City from S.O.O.Ph.I.’s evil plans.

There’s nothing deep going on here. There isn’t any big twist or even all that much biting social commentary that Howard books were originally laced with by the late, great Steve Gerber. But, there is an air of fun and adventure here. A spotlight on Howard is always welcome in my book – even if it needs to be shared by Spider-Man in order to get more people to buy it. And, when that spotlight is so obviously filtered through a warm regard for Steve Gerber and his importance to Howard (and other creations), I appreciate it even more. Adding to the Gerber tribute is a Man-Thing back-up feature.

On Ebay: Marvels Comics | Howard the Duck | Stuart Moore

November 19, 2010

Retro-Read #33 Savage

Filed under: Retro-Read — Doorman @ 10:39 am

With years spent reading single issues here and there, juggling storylines of dozens of titles, I decided it was time to find a better way to read comics. So, it was off to the back issue bins armed with the longest want list you’ve ever seen! Putting together series after series and reading them in their complete goodness, I was reborn as the Retro-Reader!

Savage #3Publisher: Image Comics
Number of Issues: 4
First Issue: October 2008 ($3.50)
Last Issue: January 2009 ($3.50)
Writer: Jeff Frank, Steve Niles, Dan Wickline
Artist: Mike Mayhew

*Warning! Plot Spoilers Below*

Herds of werewolves have been settling into towns and cities, quietly gathering power and influence. In Arcana, Texas, a mysterious man named Sam has shown up with the intention of eliminating the evil that the werewolves represent. But, in his savage attacks on the weremen, it becomes apparent that he’s no ordinary man, either. In fact, he’s a shapeshifter, as well – some may describe him as a yeti or Bigfoot. However, he’s aware that larger forces are at work that want him eliminated. With his time growing short, Sam selects his successor … but, will he be able to impart enough training in his protege before the fight is taken out of him?

The Bad: Once you get past the initial story plot of Bigfoot vs werewolves – there isn’t much more of a hook.

The Good: I always enjoy a good versus story – and Bigfoot vs Werewolves is one I haven’t seen before – so that was the initial point of interest that caught my eye. Mike Mayhew’s painted covers are very cool looking and summon up a great feeling of intensity.

The Verdict: This mini-series only feels like issues #1-4 of a much larger story that hasn’t been told yet. It’s clear that there is a lot more to be uncovered about some of the characters and forces that are only briefly mentioned. However, I don’t get that feeling about the new main character. By the end of the book, he’s become the main focal point – but I don’t feel like his story has much of a future purpose. Sure, someone’s out to get him … but, he himself, is now a drifter of sorts. Artwise, Mayhew’s covers suck you in but his interior pencils can never hope to live up to the painted art on the front. Unfortunately, this series is pretty high on concept but low on delivery.

On Ebay: Steve Niles | Bigfoot | Mike Mayhew

November 18, 2010

Famous Fanmail #33 Marc Guggenheim

Filed under: Famous Fanmail — Doorman @ 8:19 am

You may not be surprised to learn that most people in the comic business grew up reading comic books. However, you might be interested in knowing what they were reading. Here’s a look at “Famous Fanmail”!

Marc Guggenheim has written Blade, the Flash, the Amazing Spider-Man and many other comics. He’s also been the producer on TV shows like No Ordinary Family, Eli Stone, Flash Forward, Brothers & Sisters, C.S.I.: Miami, and more. He got a letter was printed in Thor #369 (cover date – July 1986), featuring his reaction to the Frog-Thor storyline.

Thor letters page with Marc Guggenheim

On Ebay: Thor | Marc Guggenheim

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