Michael Zulli, R.I.P.

Sad to hear of the passing of Michael Zulli at the too young age of 71. A long-time favourite comic book creator of mine, with a wide variety of work.

Some earlier posts on his work:

Tundra Sketchbook Series #3 [1991] by Zulli
On the 2015 PUMA BLUES collection/finale
On the TMNT story "Soul's Winter"
On the unfinished SWEENEY TODD (w/ Neil Gaiman)

I'll update this post over the next few days with a few notable images.

This was a double page spread that Zulli did with Dick Giordano inks, Danny Vozzo colours, Todd Klein letters (on the other pages, at least) and a Neil Gaiman story for THE SANDMAN #53 [1993].  Just a spectacular image, moreso for something done in the constraints (and compensation levels) of mainstream comics of that era.

"Night Gaunts" is a Lovecraft inspired painting, circa 1990, intended for an unrealized Tundra book of Lovecraft related comics, eventually published in TABOO #8 [1995].

Zulli's covers to THE PUMA BLUES from 1986 to 1989, the series he created with Stephen Murphy. Bold design unlike almost anything else being published then.  Exquisite rendering, intriguing glimpses at the various aspects of the complicated story.

LONGSHOT (1998) was an interesting one-shot of the Arthur Adams / Ann Nocenti created character (a rare creation credit of the era acknowledged in the book) who had been a member of the X-Men for a while.  It's a 48-page Zulli pencilled story "Fools" written by frequent collaborator J. M. DeMatteis and inked by the legendary Al Williamson, the only example of that artistic team.  Very unusual, with a lot of the frequent DeMatteis traits, allusions to classic children's literature, themes of losing your way and finding grace.  Well worth seeking out.

From THE SHADE #4 [1997], a spin-off of the Tony Harris / James Robinson STARMAN series, written by Robinson. MZ only drew this final chapter of a story about generational grudges and revenge. Some nice bits in the art, but you really need to read the whole mini-series to understand it.  Well worth it, with other great artists on the other chapters.

I believe the first collaboration of Zulli and DeMatteis was on the 1990s series SEEKERS INTO THE MYSTERY, which had a variety of interesting artists.  Zulli did a story called "Falling Down to Heaven" from #6-#9, with a quartet of brilliant covers.

A sample of the challengingly eclectic contents of SEEKERS that Zulli expertly realized, original art and printed colour version.

At the height of Ninja Turtles fever in the early 1990s, Zulli did the very off-beat "Soul's Winter" trilogy.  Apparently not liked by some TMNT fans, while adored by others.  I know what camp I'm in.  I wrote about it previously over here.

Tales From The Outer Boroughs #1 [1991] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

Tales From The Outer Boroughs #1 [1991]

This was a comic created by Douglas Michael, published in 1991 by Fantagraphics.  Until today I assumed it was a one-shot, never having seen another issue, but it turns out that there were five issues of the series published between 1991 and 1992.

Prior to this I had read Michael's one-shot THE ELVIS MANDIBLE, published by Piranha Press, and liked that. His work reminds me a bit of Rick Geary's work, which I'm quite fond of, and I'm not surprised in searching right now that both of them did work for NATIONAL LAMPOON magazine.

This issue has a 32-page story called "Mister Seebring".  It's told in a series of single-page scenes, each with a separate title, which makes me think this might have been serialized somewhere before this publication.  The title character is a mysterious individual who talks to a photo of his dead dog, which sends him out to the suburbs and an old acquaintance. We gradually find out the details of a murder plot, complicated by a snooping neighbour.  Pretty well told little story with a lot of twists in just a few pages, feels a lot like something you'd see as a subplot of a David Lynch project.

Might have to track down the other issues, though I'm unclear if anything from this issue continues in those.  Doesn't look like there was ever a reprint of the series.

Lex Luthor - The Unauthorized Biography [1989] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

Lex Luthor - The Unauthorized Biography [1989]

This is a prestige format one-shot published drawn by Eduardo Barreto and written by James Hudnall published by DC in 1989. The cover, painted by Eric Peterson, takes a bit of design influence from Tony Schwartz and Donald Trump's then-recent book THE ART OF THE DEAL.

Lex Luthor is of course the long-time arch-villain of Superman, created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel.  For most of his history portrayed as a mad scientist, in and out of jail between having his schemes foiled by Superman. He was modified in the 1986 revamp of Superman (by Marv Wolfman, John Byrne and others) to be a businessman whose criminal activities were largely unknown. Eventually a lot of aspects of his previous history were added back.

This story features a down-and-out reporter named Peter Sands who decides to write a biography of Luthor. He digs up a lot of secrets and rumours, attracting the attention of Luthor, and getting Clark Kent caught up in a murder investigation.

A pretty decent story that seems to build well on what I know of some of the backstory that had been developed for this version of Luthor.  I'm not really well read enough in the next few years to know if anything established in here led to other stories, or was just ignored or contradicted.

But the real reason to get this is as a showcase for the work of Eduardo Barreto. Always a solid artist for DC in the 1980s, on books like ATARI FORCE and NEW TEEN TITANS, he does a great job with what's mostly a straight-ahead crime story (there's only one brief obscured panel of Clark Kent as Superman).

Looks like this was only reprinted once, in a 2018 book SUPERMAN- PRESIDENT LUTHOR with some chapters of a later storyline where Luthor enters politics.  A corrupt billionaire running for President, where do they get their crazy ideas...

Mark D. Bright, R.I.P.

Sad to note the passing of comic book creator Mark D. Bright at age 68. He was most active in comics from 1981 to 2000,  with the occasional later work, with his longest and best remembered run being ICON with Dwayne McDuffie from the Milestone comics line from 1993 to 1997.  That was my favourite on-going book for a good chunk of that time, where he started good and just got better throughout, up to the powerful final issue (which I wrote about previously on writer Dwayne McDuffie's passing).  Over the years I would find quite a few highlights from earlier in his career, like the run of IRON MAN and GREEN LATERN work, and enjoyed some of of his later work like A. BIZARRO with Steve Gerber in 1999 before he moved on to mostly non-comics work.

A few samples of Bright's work, IRON MAN with Dennis O'Neil, Ian Akin & Brian Garvey, SPIDER-MAN VS. WOLVERINE with Christopher Priest and Al Williamson, ICON with Dwayne McDuffie and Romeo Tanghal and A. BIZARRO with Steve Gerber and Greg Adams.

Dave Darrigo, R.I.P.

Just wanted to note the recent passing of comic book writer Dave Darrigo, best known for writing the 12-issue series WORDSMITH, drawn by artist R. G. Taylor and published by Renegade Press from 1985 to 1988 (later reprinted by Caliber in two books in 1990).  That was the story of Clay Washburn, a "penny-a-word" pulp fiction writer in Great Depression era New York, cranking out work under various pen-names and in multiple genres for the popular dime magazines of the era.  Through a dozen issues the story follows Clay's life, mixed with segments of his writing, as the 30s go on, he deals with trying to break into more respectable writing, various relationships, as well as reacting to the increased global tensions ultimately leading to WWII.

It was an excellent series, with a lot of small stories evoking the feel of life in the era and how all of it becomes fodder for Clay's writing.

Darrigo was also a fixture of the Toronto comics scene as the original manager of the Dragon Lady comic book store in downtown Toronto.  I only knew him casually through that, enough to say hi to, but enjoyed the times I got to talk to him. He was inducted into the Joe Shuster Awards Hall of Fame in 2010.

Darrigo and Taylor, as drawn by Taylor.

Some pages from WORDSMITH depicting the variety of opinions that Clay's writing inspired.

Hard Time #6 [2004] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

Hard Time #6 [2004]

HARD TIME was a series created and written by Steve Gerber and drawn by Brian Hurtt (with some additional writing in later issues by Mary Skrenes and inking by Steve Bird and Rick Burchett), published by DC under one of their shortest-lived imprints, Focus, for twelve issues in 2004, followed a year later by a second series, HARD TIME SEASON TWO, without the Focus branding and lasting seven issues.

The Focus line seemed to try to try to try to target somewhere between DC's then-still Comics Code approved main line and the "mature readers" labelled Vertigo line.  There were three other books in the line, KINETIC, TOUCH and FRACTION, none of which lasted more than eight issues. Among other things they all seemed to have a muted colouring style with a limited palatte (which ended up being less used in the second series).

I kind of think this might have worked better as a Vertigo book, with a lot of sometimes awkward, sometimes ridiculous attempts to avoid "adult" language.

Anyway, the series is about Ethan Harrow, who starts the story as a 15-year-old who gets involved in a school shooting (which he thought was a prank, not knowing his partner-in-crime brought real bullets) and sentenced as an adult to 50 years  of hard time (hey, that's the name of the book).  At the time of the shooting Ethan also started to exhibit a power, an invisible entity that can leave his body and wreak havoc while he's unconscious. Initially completely oblivious to that entity, he gradually becomes more aware of it.

By this issue Ethan is already in trouble with several groups in the prison, in particular the homicidal religious fanatic Gantry, who can sense something about Ethan's entity and thinks it's demonic. For most of this issue Ethan is trying to race back to his cell ahead of Gantry to put some plans in place, but gets distracted by various things, like a visit by his lawyer.  He makes it back just in time, managing to save his own life, but ending up sent to a month in solitary.  There he finds himself increasingly in control of his entity, moving beyond the bars of the prison.

This was a really strong series, obviously influenced by a lot of prison dramas of the era, especially the HBO series OZ.  It developed a lot of interesting characters and balanced the gritty prison elements with the increasingly outlandish fantasy elements.

DC published a complete collection of all 19 issues of both series back in 2020.

Scooby-Doo #14 [1996] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

Scooby-Doo #14 [1996]

Scooby-Doo debuted as a TV cartoon in 1969, and very quickly was adapted to comics, first from Western / Gold Key in 1970 and later from Charlton, Marvel, Harvey, Archie and then finally DC, which still publishes it to this day. During the Western run some of the issues were done by Dan Spiegle and Mark Evanier, who would later also do some Scooby-Doo stories at Marvel in the late-1970s, and then three more for this 21-issue run of the series at Archie in the mid-1990s.  They even got a then-uncommon at Archie credit blurb on the cover for some of their issues.  Along the way of course Spiegle and Evanier collaborated on many other comics, including BLACKHAWK, CROSSFIRE and HOLLYWOOD SUPERSTARS.

Under the Dan Spiegle cover is the 22-page story "The Balloon Busters", also drawn by Spiegle and written by Mark Evanier.  The gang take in a parade with giant balloon floats, which is attacked by a fire-breathing dragon balloon.  Naturally Shaggy and Scooby run for cover, in a nicely drawn sequence, while the rest of the gang follow the balloon until it gets away, then come back to investigate at the department store which sponsors the parade, which they find is having financial problems, with a rival store owner trying to buy it.

Fun little story, always interesting to see Spiegle doing this style, very on-model with the characters from the cartoon while everything else is a slightly more open version of his usual adventure comics artwork.