The Power Of Shazam One Million [1998] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

The Power Of Shazam One Million [1998]

This is a one-shot published between #43 and #44 of Jerry Ordway's 1995 to 1999 THE POWER OF SHAZAM series, published to tie in with a DC crossover that deals with characters in the 853rd Century. It's by the regular team of the series at the time, Jerry Ordway writing, pencilling and doing the cover (over a poorly aged computer art background) and Dick Giordano inking.

I'm pretty unfamiliar with the crossover except for a handful of  issues of other series I read, and I only recently got the other issues of this series around this issue and haven't read most of them yet, so a lot of it isn't something I can follow, but Ordway does a pretty decent job of making it as clear as possible. Suffice to say the story involves the far future, about one million months from now, and the return of various heroes in different forms.

The art is much more interesting than the writing.  Ordway had launched this run with a painted "graphic novel" in 1994, but had mostly just written (and painted the covers) for the subsequent on-going series.  He returned to the art for this last half-year of the series, and really just has one of those timeless styles, with classic elements but still feeling modern in the 1990s and not looking dated at all almost three decades later.  This particular story premise also gives him a chance to do some design work on the one-off characters and future architecture and technology.

Mildly recommended more as a diversionary part of the entertaining full series than as a standalone.

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.

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.