Marvel Two-In-One #87 [1982] (Random Comics Theatre)

 Random Comics Theatre

Marvel Two-In-One #87 [1982] 

MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE was a long-running team-up book featuring the most popular Fantastic Four member, The Thing (Ben Grimm), meeting just about everyone else in the Marvel universe. Including, sometimes, himself. It ran for 100 issues and 7 Annuals from 1974 to 1983. About half of the run, including this issue, is drawn by Ron Wilson, who also followed it up with almost three years on a Thing solo series. As you might expect, Wilson is heavily influenced by the work of Ben Grimm creator Jack Kirby. It's doubly obvious in this run of issues where he's inked by Chic Stone, who did some excellent inking over Kirby in the mid-60s. 

I was reading the book for a little over a year at this point, and remember really enjoying it for a while. At age eleven, and largely unfamiliar with the Kirby originals, I really liked the art and and the look at the wider Marvel universe that I was unfamiliar with, and Ben Grimm is easily the most visually appealing of the Kirby characters. Tom DeFalco was the regular writer for most of the time I'd been reading the book, and reading it now it seems a bit clumsy in the exposition and set-up, pretty much paint-by-numbers Marvel plotting and scripting overall, but honestly, that's kind of what you wanted from the book at the time. That didn't prevent this from being the last consecutive issue I bought, but that was probably a larger dissatisfaction with the Marvel line, which I pretty much dropped completely by the end of 1982 except for FANTASTIC FOUR (and that, in retrospect, I'm not sure why I kept reading as long as I did).

Anyway, this issue features Ben teaming up with the Scott Lang version of Ant-Man, in a sequel to an early Kirby FF issue where the team go after Doctor Doom to the microworld Sub-Atomica with the original Ant-Man, Henry Pym. This time Ben suddenly begins to shrink and vanishes to nothing in Reed's lab, where thanks to various plot contrivances none of their usual ways to shrink and rescue him are available. Fortunately, a nearby ant hears of their problems, and spreads the word through the ant grapevine to Scott Lang, who comes to help. Did I mention the clumsy plotting?

Ant-Man shrinks down and finds Ben, who appears to be quite happy to have been taken to be a champion in a trial by combat against some lizard people. And-Man finds there's more going on, involving hypnotic fruit and a planned invasion of the lizard people's world, and eventually rescues Ben and snaps him out of his spell for some action.

So, not great, but kind of what the book should be at the time, introducing wider concepts of the Marvel universe through random team-ups with its most appealing character. I can see why I liked it at the time, and I can also see why after over a year of this I'd had enough, was beginning to see the cracks and ready to move on. I still really like the Wilson/Stone art, even now knowing how derivative it is of even better work. 

The Jam Special #1 [1987] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

The Jam Special #1 [1987] 

This comic is the first solo outing for Bernie Mireault's offbeat hero, The Jam, consisting of four reprints seen in the back of Matrix Graphic's NEW TRIUMPH series from 1985-1986, plus a new 13-page story. It was meant to lead to an on-going series from Matrix in early 1988, but instead we got a colour one-shot from Comico later in 1988, and then the on-going series eventually came from Slave Labor in 1989, eventually seeing 14 issues (plus colour reprints of #1 to #5) from various publishers ending in 1997. There was then a 2-issue crossover with Mike Allred's Madman. As far as I know that's the last the character was seen.

I started reading with the on-going series, it was a few years before I finally got the colour special, and even longer before I got this special. It's pretty interesting, very different from what the series would become, although most of the elements are there from the start. The Jam, aka Jammer, is Gordon Kirby, a regular guy in a homemade costume who goes out and tries to fight crime. Gradually his actions bring him into contact with a detective named Jane Marble and a group of fanatics called Flarks.

Mireault's writing and artwork starts off a bit raw, but always energetic, and quickly grows in skill so by the end of the book he's pretty much at the mature level seen in his later work.

Superman #356 [1981] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

Superman #356 [1981]

This is right from the start of the era that I became a serious comic book fan, trying to buy every new issue of each series I was enjoying, instead of the scattershot approach of earlier times (and around the time I could go solo or with my older brother to the various local newsstands instead of going every few weeks with a parent). My run of SUPERMAN from that time begins five months earlier, with #351, and lasts about four years.

The title was in a fairly well-worn groove by that point. Cary Bates had come in as a Superman writer back in 1967 and written the character steadily ever since in various titles, returning to the main title a few issues earlier after a run on ACTION COMICS. That sounds like a long time until you realize that Curt Swan had been drawing the character in various books continuously since 1950, and it was probably a rarity in the 30+ years since then that more than a month went by without a Swan-drawn Superman story. Even the inker, Frank Chiaramonte, had been Swan's main inker for over three years.

So I'm saying, these guys knew what they were doing when it comes to Superman comics, maybe as much as anyone but his creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel...

This issue features the return of Vartox, an alien super-hero who had returned every few years since his 1974 debut, also by Bates and Swan, and not coincidentally the same year Sean Connery starred in the movie ZARDOZ. Look it up, if you dare. This time Vartox comes to Earth and secretly enlists Superman's help to figure out what's really happening on a planet which has tricked him into being their champion. Their plan involves Superman pretending to be an enemy of Vartox and fighting him, which fills the action quota for the issue, and leads to the conclusion next issue.

Pretty decent stuff. While in retrospect not my favourite era of Superman by any of the creators, it was exactly what I wanted to read when I was ten. Not sure how I'd feel about it if it didn't have the heavy odour of nostalgia wafting from every page.

The back-up is a "World Of Krypton" short, which has very little to do with Krypton, and I suspect might be a repurposed generic science fiction short from one of those anthology titles. Especially since it's written by Paul S. Newman, one of the most prolific comic book writers of all time, but one who did very little work for the super-hero lines. On the other hand, his earlier "Krypton" story from a few issues earlier was more related to established continuity, so who knows. It's pencilled by Jose Delbo, a solid journeyman artist in the middle of a long run as WONDER WOMAN artist, and inked by Kim DeMulder, a then-recent Kubert School graduate. A real meeting of generations. It's solid, but unspectacular.

Cover is by Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano, so, y'know, very Neal Adamsy.

And since I was looking it up, it seems my reading list from the time was pretty mainstream. From DC, in addition to SUPERMAN, I was getting ACTION COMICS, NEW TEEN TITANS, LEGION, BATMAN, DETECTIVE COMICS, THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, DC COMICS PRESENTS, WORLD'S FINEST, JUSTICE LEAGUE, GREEN LANTERN, FLASH, SUPERMAN FAMILY, ADVENTURE COMICS, and SUPERBOY. From Marvel my reading was FANTASTIC FOUR, MARVEL 2-IN-1, AVENGERS, X-MEN and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN.

Ant Boy #2 [1988] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

Ant Boy #2 [1988]

This is the second of two issues of this Matt Feazell series published by Steeldragon Press in 1988.  The feature had run in the back of most issues of Steeldragon's CAPTAIN CONFEDERACY series from 1986 to 1988, and this series reprints the stories from the early issues and other sources, plus some original material by Feazell, some of it Ant Boy and some not. There are still a few backups from later issues of CC that have never been reprinted, as far as I know.

Feazell is a prominent mini-comics artist, as prominent as you can be in that field, mostly published by his own Not Available Comics, often featuring his signature character Cynicalman and drawn in stick figures. These stories are more elaborately drawn than most of his work.

As you'd guess from the title, Ant Boy is the star of the show and is a human boy raised by ants who learns English from comic books and becomes the defender of his colony*.

(*see "The Origin Of Ant Boy", ANT BOY #1)

Two of the Ant Boy stories in here are reprints.  One features Ant Boy accidentally digging into a teenager's basement and discovering rock music, and the other has Ant Boy in pitched battle with the fabled enemy of all ants, the Lawnmower (see cover).

There are also two new Ant Boy adventures, the epic romance "Ant Boy In Love" (pencilled by Dave Patterson) and "Ant Boy Meets Plainman", where he fights against a tractor. Which is kind of anti-climactic after the big Lawnmower battle.  There are also a number of unrelated short comics, the most entertaining of which is "At The Mall", a one-page autobiographical story about Feazell giving his mini-comics marketing spiel at a mall signing.

An entertaining comic overall. Feazell is still at the mini-comics game, you can see his most recent work at http://www.mattfeazell.net/CYNICALMAN/.

Valentine Variations of Sugar & Spike by Sheldon Mayer

 

A selection of Valentine's Day covers by Sheldon Mayer for his series SUGAR & SPIKE from 1960 to 1966. 

You know, Mayer did thematic covers, stories and features (cards, write-your-own pages, paper dolls) for all these issues, you could probably easily put together a 100 page book of these that would sell steadily every year, if you owned the rights and were actually in the business of selling comics...

Tales From The Heart #5 [1989] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

Tales From The Heart #5 [1989]

TALES FROM THE HEART was a series written by Cindy Goff and Rafael Nieves and drawn by Seitu Hayden (and later by Aldin Baroza), with eleven issues published from 1987 to 1994, initially from Entropy for two issues, then by Slave Labor for the next nine. There were also two related specials, a bit off to the side of the main narrative and in full colour, published by Marvel/Epic in 1990 and 1992. There were two collections in the 1990s collecting the first six issues.

The series is based on Goff's experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in the early 1980s, though fictionalized to be about the lead character "Cathy Grant" and a small group of other volunteers she's working with. Starting with her training in 1983, the series then moves to the Central African Republic for stories about her tour there. It's a delightful series, one of my favourites of all time, which sadly didn't seem to find an audience (the editorial by Dan Vado this issue says it sold 2025 copies) and remains unfinished. Whenever there's a publisher that starts picking up orphaned comics of this era I keep hoping TALES will be among them, with at least a complete reprint and a perfunctory epilogue, ideally with a whole second volume at least as long as the existing material telling the rest of Cathy Grant's story. It's a fascinating mix of humour and drama, history and education, exploration and introspection, examination of the cultural baggage that people bring in to new situations and much more.

This issue's cover is drawn by Peter Krause and Hayden, part of a string of guest artist covers, presumably to get some more attention to the series. Other artists on covers for the book include Charles Vess, Matt Wagner, Grass Green, Brent Anderson, Charles Troug, Brian Stelfreeze and Jill Thompson, plus Neil Gaiman writing an introduction to one of the collections.

The story this issue is about a vaccination program that the volunteers start for local villages, with a lot of different sections showing all the things the book does well. There's a lot of humour to make taking the serious issues discussed of malnutrition and disease a lot easier. There's a lot of information about the technical details of the program, and some drama about the difficulty for the volunteers in realizing how little they can actually do against systemic problems that make even getting a clean glass of water a daunting prospect for most of the local population.

Anyway, very enjoyable comic, I definitely have to pull out the full set of issues for a long overdue re-reading sometime, and keep hoping we get more of it someday.

Hero Hotline #2 [1989] (Random Comics Theatre)

 Random Comics Theatre

Hero Hotline #2 [1989]

HERO HOTLINE was a six-issue mini-series published by DC in 1989, created by Bob Rozakis and Stephen DeStefano. That same duo had created the 'MAZING MAN series at DC for a series that lasted twelve issues back in 1986, followed by two specials in 1987 and 1988 (a third and final special would follow in 1989, a few months after HERO HOTLINE finished). Cover inks are by original 'MAZING MAN inker Karl Kesel, while interior inks are by veteran artist Kurt Schaffenberger in one of his last major works in a career that went back to Fawcett in the 1940s.

The premise of this series is that the titular organization, run by an unseen boss called the Coordinator, takes phone calls for people requiring superhero help for problems of a considerably-less-than-Crisis level, then dispatches the appropriate hero from their roster of third-string but lovable misfit heroes. 

Basically a classic workplace sitcom premise set in the fringes of a wider superhero universe. Its a very similar premise to DAMAGE CONTROL, created by Dwayne McDuffie and Ernie Colón over at Marvel, about a group that cleans up after the big superhero battles. In fact, I had to check and saw that it was very much a Swamp Thing / Man-Thing or X-Men / Doom Patrol situation, with the first issue of DAMAGE CONTROL only a few weeks before HERO HOTLINE #1. But both preceded by preview stories in anthology books as well...

(DAMAGE CONTROL wins that race, by the way, with a short story in the 1988 MARVEL AGE ANNUAL, but both books were obviously created without any real knowledge of the other)

Anyway, it's a fun little book, with some great cartooning by DeStefano and sharp scripting by Rozakis. The main story in this issue is a hostage situation on a school bus which involves the children of Microwavabelle. Along the way there are a lot of side-missions which look at the other heroes and sub-plots which build towards some unexpected twists at the end of the mini-series.

I recently finally picked up the last of the issues of the weekly run of ACTION COMICS from 1988 that I needed, which includes a four chapter introduction to the characters, so someday soon I'll have to finally read the whole thing in order.

And, learned while writing this, Rozakis did disclose the identity of the Coordinator in a column a few years back. It's hinted at pretty clearly in the series, but if want to know you can read about it here. And if you don't want to know before reading the series, avoid the Wikipedia or other online database entries for the team.