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1277 days ago
Well, the time has come to set this little blog aside. I loved writing this when I had the time, but, unfortunately, I've often not had enough time to write, and I think that's caused the blog to suffer. I'd like to thank all of you who have read it over the last year and several months, and you can still frequently read reviews by me at silverbulletcomicbooks.com. Thanks again, and I'll see you at the conventions.
1280 days ago
After enjoying John Byrne's artwork so much in yesterday's blog entry, I decided to pull out another Byrne comic from his golden era. This one's from four years later than the one I discussed yesterday, and it was released in the midst of Byrne's famous run on Fantastic Four , which is still being collected these days. The story is "What if the Fantastic Four had not gained their super-powers?" and it's actually rather fun. Instead of stealing a rocket and going into space, Reed waits and is able to travel to another galaxy and become a hero. One day, New York is attacked by a giant monster, the very creature from the cover of Fantastic Four #1, and Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben try to find out what's going on. Of course, the monster is sent to the surface by the Mole Man, and hilarity ensues. It's actually a very nice story. Byrne obviously loved the interplay between the characters and the way they integrated as a family, so he plays up the relationships between ...
1281 days ago
In 1978, the two big artists were George Perez and John Byrne. Then as now, Perez was known for his amazing work with crowded super-hero comics, while Byrne was known for his ability to make his characters seem very human. So it's neat to contrast two pieces of art, one by Byrne and the other by Perez, of the same scene. It's intriguing that Byrne's piece is clearly the better of the two. Look at the two images. They're really almost exactly the same. The characters all appear next to each other in basically the same places and poses, but notice how much more life Byrne gives his illustration. Hercules, for instance, has a completely sort of rage on the Byrne page, more typically heroic for the character. Or notice how the Vision and Quicksilver both seem to hover around their beloved Scarlet Witch, showing how protected she was. The Black Panther is content to be himself, regal and open to the events, while Hawkeye is hostile to the government sticking its nose ...
1282 days ago
Best. Toy comic book. Ever. So I picked up this comic book when on vacation in Victoria this weekend (had a wonderful time, thanks for asking, though it was a pain taking three extra ferries to get over there) and read the comic for the first time probably since I bought it back in the day. And the damn thing is wonderful. It's exciting, it has stunning artwork, the story moves like a rocket - the whole thing is so intriguing and interesting that it's easy to see why everyone loved this comic when it came out. Much of the credit has to go to artist Mike Golden. Golden's been pretty much invisible in the industry over the last few years (I know he drew some Jackie Chan comics several years ago, but I have no idea what he's done in the last while), but he did some fantastic work during the Carter Administration. Golden, at least when paired with inker Josef Rubenstein, looks a bit like a more dynamic version of Bernie Wrightson, all full of emotion and action and a ...
