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Miracleman #2
Jun. 2nd, 2018 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
history79
"Because we tried to set it in as realistic a world as were capable of, we found that every aspects of the character’s life presented us with new questions. If superheroes were real, then what would their relationships with their loved ones be like—especially in the case of a character like Marvelman, who is literally two completely separate people? Would there be psychological ramifications of constantly being the junior partner—constantly being the Billy Batson, who has to say the magic word and turn into the invulnerable superhero, in order to achieve anything? That could get to you after a while. We started to think about those ramifications. We also thought about what the political ramifications of some of these things would be. What would the government’s part be in all this? Where did this extraordinary technology come from in the first place to actually give someone another body at the utterance of a magic word? So, the whole Marvelman continuity kind of spread out from there. And, very early on, we started thinking about why Marvelman has been out of the picture all these years. What happens to his former sidekicks?"
- Alan Moore
( Read more... )
Miracleman #1
May. 31st, 2018 09:09 pmhistory79
"Picking up on a character like Marvelman was something that really put a lot of my unproven theories to the test, because right from the start you’ve got the problem that the character is faintly ridiculous. The standards of the 1950s and early 1960s were very, very different to anything we’re familiar with today, at least in terms of English comic books. So, you’d have Marvelman meeting fairy tale characters or scientific super-villains from another planet, and this was all, apparently, completely consistent and logical. No one really bothered with consistency back then! And yet, I approached the character thinking it would be arrogant to simply say, “Well, none of these previous stories ever happened and I’m now going to tell you a completely revamped story.” There’d be no point in actually doing that story about Marvelman, because the whole thing is to stick to the original continuity. But, I thought that it could maybe be reinterpreted in such a way that would make the character a lot more credible and a lot more involving. So, I looked at those ridiculous fairy tale adventures and thought, “Well, this plainly couldn’t have happened. And yet, this is part of the Marvelman continuity. What about if this happened entirely in his mind in some way? What if there was a whole other story going on?” And, I gradually, probably leaning heavily upon Philip K. Dick, came up with the idea of these people who were kept in a dream state, with programmed dreams, for a number of years. And, I thought that would explain the odder 1950s and ‘60s stories."
- Alan Moore
( Read more... )
Twisted Tales: Roomers
Oct. 23rd, 2016 08:05 pmlego_jokerBecause why should cyberghostface have a monopoly on posting tales of the weird, of the creepy, of the unexpected this time of month?
When I was a wee lad, I once took some banjo lessons from a nice Mr. Jones. It suitably traumatized me for the rest of the week, and probably a few days after that.
Fast-forward several years, when some urge I can no longer remember prompted me to go and read several more issues of Twisted Tales. To my relief as well as vague disappointment, I began to realize why no-one really talks about any TT stories besides "Banjo Lessons". Most of TT's oeuvre - to be brutally honest - is hackwork, relying on much the same formula as the horror cinema of the time: gore galore, nudity galore, and splashy twist endings galore. Logical plotting was not a priority, to the point where some of the stories' Wikipedia write-ups are scarier than the stories themselves.
To make things worse, Bruce Jones insisted on personally writing (almost) every story, and while he's rightfully hailed as the West's Junji Ito, even his creativity had limits. TT puttered to a fairly sad end after ten issues, with one particular story in #9 being a red-faced admission that the party was pretty much over.
But before TT folded, it managed at least one indisputable gem - a story that managed to be haunting and heartfelt all at once, without any need for blood or boobs or even speech bubbles. It's more of an illustrated short-story than a proper comic, which lends it unique pacing and atmosphere but also makes it a pain to trim without letting all the air out. I've done the best I could here, but I urge the lot of you to seek out the whole thingby any means necessary.
( A Tale of Two Roomates, behind the cut... )
cyberghostface have a monopoly on posting tales of the weird, of the creepy, of the unexpected this time of month?When I was a wee lad, I once took some banjo lessons from a nice Mr. Jones. It suitably traumatized me for the rest of the week, and probably a few days after that.
Fast-forward several years, when some urge I can no longer remember prompted me to go and read several more issues of Twisted Tales. To my relief as well as vague disappointment, I began to realize why no-one really talks about any TT stories besides "Banjo Lessons". Most of TT's oeuvre - to be brutally honest - is hackwork, relying on much the same formula as the horror cinema of the time: gore galore, nudity galore, and splashy twist endings galore. Logical plotting was not a priority, to the point where some of the stories' Wikipedia write-ups are scarier than the stories themselves.
To make things worse, Bruce Jones insisted on personally writing (almost) every story, and while he's rightfully hailed as the West's Junji Ito, even his creativity had limits. TT puttered to a fairly sad end after ten issues, with one particular story in #9 being a red-faced admission that the party was pretty much over.
But before TT folded, it managed at least one indisputable gem - a story that managed to be haunting and heartfelt all at once, without any need for blood or boobs or even speech bubbles. It's more of an illustrated short-story than a proper comic, which lends it unique pacing and atmosphere but also makes it a pain to trim without letting all the air out. I've done the best I could here, but I urge the lot of you to seek out the whole thing
( A Tale of Two Roomates, behind the cut... )
Eclipse Monthly #1
Jan. 13th, 2013 11:18 amskjamDo you miss Eclipse Comics? I certainly do. Let's lookl at the first issue of Eclipse Monthly, their first color anthology comic.
Three pages each of four ten-page stories, and two pages of a six-page story. WARNING: "Dope" is an adaptation of an early Sax Rohmer story, and has period racism.
( Back to 1983. )
Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!
Three pages each of four ten-page stories, and two pages of a six-page story. WARNING: "Dope" is an adaptation of an early Sax Rohmer story, and has period racism.
( Back to 1983. )
Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!
Mai the Psychic Girl #1
Oct. 30th, 2012 03:45 pmskjamHi again!
Digging in my longboxes, I found one of the first few manga to make it in a legal translation to the United States. Indeed, it was part of the first wholesale translated manga importation attempts. Viz teamed up with Eclipse Comics (remember them?) to present three bi-weekly series, Kamui, Area 88, and today's offering, Mai the Psychic Girl.
Among the reasons this series was chosen for the initial launch was that it was relatively short, and Ryoichi Ikegami's art was Western-influenced, which Viz thought would go over well with the skittish general American readership. (They figured they already had the small but fanatical manga fandom by the balls, so they didn't need to cater to them.) As part of the "seamless translation" process, the pages were flipped to read left to right, then individual panels were flipped to restore handedness, and extensively retouched to allow Englishy sound effects. This resulted in what were for the time very expensive comics.
Twelve pages of thirty-eight.
( Twenty-fifth anniversary of publication, by the way )
There was a collected edition, but I believe it's out of print.
Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!
Digging in my longboxes, I found one of the first few manga to make it in a legal translation to the United States. Indeed, it was part of the first wholesale translated manga importation attempts. Viz teamed up with Eclipse Comics (remember them?) to present three bi-weekly series, Kamui, Area 88, and today's offering, Mai the Psychic Girl.
Among the reasons this series was chosen for the initial launch was that it was relatively short, and Ryoichi Ikegami's art was Western-influenced, which Viz thought would go over well with the skittish general American readership. (They figured they already had the small but fanatical manga fandom by the balls, so they didn't need to cater to them.) As part of the "seamless translation" process, the pages were flipped to read left to right, then individual panels were flipped to restore handedness, and extensively retouched to allow Englishy sound effects. This resulted in what were for the time very expensive comics.
Twelve pages of thirty-eight.
( Twenty-fifth anniversary of publication, by the way )
There was a collected edition, but I believe it's out of print.
Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!
Dru's Inventory Project - Part II
May. 28th, 2010 07:22 pmwizardruSo a few weeks ago, I began inventorying my comic collection. Said collection, of course, stretches back to the 1970s...so it's going to take a while. As part of the effort, I'm going to continue to occasionally post stuff from the vault. Whether it amuses me for good or ill....as I've come to realize that I've got some questionable stuff in there.
It illustrates to me pretty clearly how comics were bought back in the day. Before the internet and online previews and so forth, we had the occasional magazine or house promotion to let us know about upcoming stuff. We could flick through an issue in the store before buying, perhaps...but a lot of stuff I got in the 1990s involved following a writer or artist whose work I enjoyed. Sometimes to my detriment.
Last time I brought you some pages from DC's Zero Hour, circa 1994. This time I thought I'd go a little more indie, a little more obscure. I almost did a scan of old Power Man and Iron Fist issues, but decided I'd save that for later. Instead, I decided that what we needed were gun-toting Vegas Showgirls. IN THE RETRO-FUTURE.
( Fab-U-Lous! )
publisher: Eclipse, creator: john k. snyder iii
It illustrates to me pretty clearly how comics were bought back in the day. Before the internet and online previews and so forth, we had the occasional magazine or house promotion to let us know about upcoming stuff. We could flick through an issue in the store before buying, perhaps...but a lot of stuff I got in the 1990s involved following a writer or artist whose work I enjoyed. Sometimes to my detriment.
Last time I brought you some pages from DC's Zero Hour, circa 1994. This time I thought I'd go a little more indie, a little more obscure. I almost did a scan of old Power Man and Iron Fist issues, but decided I'd save that for later. Instead, I decided that what we needed were gun-toting Vegas Showgirls. IN THE RETRO-FUTURE.
( Fab-U-Lous! )
publisher: Eclipse, creator: john k. snyder iii
jlroberson( Dial-Up Beware )
Tags-- publisher: eclipse, publisher: fantagraphics books, title: amazing heroes, year: 1985, creator: alan moore, creator: bill sienkiewicz, creator: marv wolfman, creator: george perez, creator: william messner-loebs, creator: dave sim, creator: keith giffen, creator: chris claremont, creator: howard chaykin, creator: jaime hernandez, creator: gilbert hernandez
Tags:
- creator: alan moore,
- creator: bill sienkiewicz,
- creator: chris claremont,
- creator: dave sim,
- creator: george perez,
- creator: gilbert hernandez,
- creator: howard chaykin,
- creator: jaime hernandez,
- creator: keith giffen,
- creator: marv wolfman,
- creator: william messner-loebs,
- publisher: eclipse,
- publisher: fantagraphics
Going past the theatre for eighty years
Jul. 30th, 2009 07:56 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
dr_hermes.insanejournal.comI almost always like little vignettes like these, showingh the passsage of time while telling a story. Here it just seems to be the eighty-odd years of a man's life spent in the same town. The most obvious changes are the cars and the theatre, but the types of movies shown show how our dreams changed as well. You might also say the condition and upkeep of the buildings and street reflects the man's well-being, too (or maybe the other way around). It's all fairly poignant.
This is from the seventh issue of ECLIPSE, back in November 1982. I don't know anything about Kevin C Brown, and google has let me down, but his style looks familiar... maybe he did something for NATIONAL LAMPOON?
This is from the seventh issue of ECLIPSE, back in November 1982. I don't know anything about Kevin C Brown, and google has let me down, but his style looks familiar... maybe he did something for NATIONAL LAMPOON?
In memorium: The King of Pop
Jun. 25th, 2009 04:12 pmsherkahn.insanejournal.comMichael Jackon, the King of Pop, has passed away.
1959 - 2009. R.I.P.
While much can be said about the man, the talent can not be denied.
In tribute to the kindler, gentler time when the man embodied "wonder" and his performances took showmanship to a new level.
1959 - 2009. R.I.P.
While much can be said about the man, the talent can not be denied.
In tribute to the kindler, gentler time when the man embodied "wonder" and his performances took showmanship to a new level.
( Captain Eo )
