My Drawings From December 2011

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Detective Comics, No. 322

Written by - Dave Wood

Pencils & cover art by - Sheldon Moldoff

Inks by - Charles Paris

I'd like to start 2012 off with one of the strangest Batman comics I've ever read entitled 'The Bizarre Batman-Genie' from 1963. As well as this I've also been reading 'The Black Casebook' (2009) which contains reprints of 'classic' Batman stories that inspired Grant Morrison's 'Batman R.I.P.' and also features an introduction by the man himself. Here Morrison talks about how when he came to writing a new Batman story he found that many of the ideas he was coming up with had already been done at some point over the past 70 years of Batman's existence. So what Morrison decided to do was to treat this 70 years worth of publication as actual events that occurred to Bruce Wayne over a period of roughly 15 years and approach it from the angle of what kind of psychological effects this might have on a man. Morrison says that this approach, "required me to deal with and recuperate some of the more problematic areas of that long history, in particular the despised "sci-fi Batman" era of the 1950s when the Dark Knight Detective was thrust awkwardly into stories involving other dimensions, time machines, space travel and colourful alien worlds." 'The Bizarre Batman-Genie' isn't included in 'The Black Casebook', but for me is one of the strangest Batman stories I've ever seen.

The plot features a group of criminals who have stolen an ancient lamp and magic powder from somewhere in Europe and have taken it back to the US. There plan involves them throwing the powder over Batman which turns him in to a genie for one hour in which they use him to commit their devious crimes. It's certainly not one of my favourite stories but was worth a read for the novelty value. But it is only from reading Grant Morrison's thoughts on Bruce Wayne's life that give this story, along with many other ridiculous tales, the context in which to understand them. Morrison states that "Batman keeps a 'Black Casebook,' his own version of the X-Files, where all the bizarre, supernatural or logic-defying encounters of his career can be recorded." I like this idea a lot, this idea for me elevates potentially throw-away child's fantasy story ideas into something slightly more believable; something unexplainable and modern.

Top 10 Films of 2011

What a year for films it has been and 2012 looks to be as good if not better with the likes of The Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus, The Avengers, The Amazing Spiderman and The Hobbit to look forward to. There are some films that are missing from the following list because either; a). I didn't get to see them in time but I'm sure would have made it, b). They weren't good enough c). I forgot about them. (yes I know The Adjustment Bureau isn't there but if it was a top 20 it would have been no.11)  But for now I'd like to share my top 10 films of the previous 12 months, let me know what you think!

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Top 10 Comic Covers Of 2011

Once again it's that time of the year where I like to look back over the previous 12 months and compile lists of my favourite things. First up is my favourite comic book covers of 2011 (some of them have even entered into my favourite covers of all time).

10.

Action Comics #1 - Rags Morales & Brad Anderson

9.

Severed #3 - Attila Futaki

8.

The Shade #1 - Tony Harris

7.

Swamp Thing #1 - Yanick Paquette & Nathan Fairbairn

6.

Animal Man #1 - Travel Foreman

5.

Moon Knight #5 - Alex Maleev

4.

Uncanny X-Force #19 - Rafael Grampa

3.

Daredevil #1 - Paolo Rivera

2.

Batwoman #2 - J.H. Williams III

1.

Detective Comics #880 - Jock

Action Comics, No. 434

Written by - Cary Bates

Pencils by - Curt Swan

Inks by - Vince Colletta

Cover by - Nick Cardy

Well, it's been a while (almost 4 months) since my last blog entry, and what a busy 4 months it's been! It's nearly Christmas now and the bad weather is finally here to stay, so what better way to spend these dark cold nights than wrapped up in some classic comics! I absolutely love the image on the front cover of this issue which depicts Superman (not Clark) squirming in a dentists chair as the dentist tugs away at one of Superman's back teeth; my favourite part is the female nurse in the background close to feinting. Some of my all-time favourite covers are from DC's Action Comics. There seemed to be periods where there would be a good run of covers for a few issues and then some not so good; I guess it was all down to the particular team that was involved in the book at the time as the turn-over of talent was fairly quick it seems. 

This is issue 434 of Action Comics from 1974 and the title of the story is 'The Krypton Connection'. The premise of the story is Clark is tricked into eating chocolate that gives him super-toothache. Lois takes him to a new dentist that is handily working out of the building next-door to the office. Once in the chair he is sedated with gas to which he expects no effect but somehow he is knocked out. Lois then notices that the woman working in reception is the same woman who delivered the chocolates to Clark. When confronted, the woman blasts Lois with a 'Memory Extinguisher' and sends her on her way. Whilst sedated Clark hallucinates visions that explain who the dentist and his assistant are; they are Dr. Xadu and his wife, Emdine Ze-Da. They then proceed to brainwash Clark into wanting to destroy the world.

One of the quirkier moments of the comic that I enjoyed was just before Clark ate the chocolate, he finds on his desk a machine gun. He picks up the gun and immediately it starts to glow, then a burst of different colours fill the panel to which Clark exclaims "Great scott!". Just then a guy called Steve Lombard (sports presenter) pops his head around the door and explains that it's a novelty item called a 'Razzle Dazzle Gun' that "shoots out psychedelic streams of light! All it takes to set it off is the body-heat of your hand!". Bizarre!

Green Lantern: Willworld

(re-issue cover)

Written by - J.M. DeMatteis

Art by - Seth Fisher

Green Lantern: Willworld was originally published by DC Comics in 2001 and has just recently had a reprinting. Willworld is the story of how a young Hal Jordan came to master the use of his power ring, set in a world created entirely by the imaginations of other Green Lanterns.

The story was originally developed from artwork by Seth Fisher after he pitched ideas with some concept art to Joey Cavaleri; it was decided that the art style would be the starting point for a Hal Jordan story. Seth Fisher stated that, " I wanted a writer that would shrug off some of the spandex clichés that I was worried could limit my art, but still tackle the fantastic. I wanted it to be surreal and yet grounded at the same time.", he also went on to say, "We wanted a book where I could squeeze my imagination for everything it was worth and 'Green Lantern' just seemed to have the most potential that way."

(original cover)

For me, Green Lantern: Willworld, is almost certainly all about the art; it is the driving force behind the story and the characterisation. That's not to say J.M. DeMatteis' writing isn't up to scratch; in fact the writing perfectly compliments the imagery and brings a subtle level of humour that is required to guide the reader along. The world that is created by Seth Fisher is Green Lantern crossed with Alice in Wonderland and Yellow Submarine viewed with a head full of mescaline; a surreal psychedelic playground combined with mind-boggling quantum physics.

Eclipse Monthly, No.5

Story, Art and Cover by Doug Wildey

Eclipse Monthly is an anthology style comic printed in full colour by Eclipse Comics, Issue #5 was published in 1984 and features two stories; the first is 'The Masked Man' by Barney McAllister and the second (and the one I'm more interested in) is called 'Rio' by Doug Wildey.

Douglas S. Wildey was born in 1922 in New York. During World War 2 he was stationed in Hawaii, where he began his art career as a cartoonist for the base newspaper. Following the war he freelanced for the magazine and comic book company Street and Smith Publications. He then went on to draw mainly Western Stories including Buffalo Bill, Gunsmoke and Indian fighter; it seemed at this time, Wildey had produced work for almost every publisher except EC (the good one).

In 1952 Wildey and his family moved to Tucson, Arizona. In 1954 he began to produce work for Atlas Comics (a forerunner of Marvel Comics) which were mainly composed of Western stories. Around this time his work also began to appear in some Atlas horror-fantasy comics such as; Journey Into Unknown Worlds, Marvel Tales, Mystic, Uncanny Tales, Mystery Tales and Strange Tales.

In 1964 Doug Wildey became involved in the creation of the Hanna-Barbera animated series 'Jonny Quest' which ran for one series until 1965. Following this, Wildey returned to comics drawing mainly western stories for many more publishers, including the following story 'Rio' which is from 1984.