Covered-Rerun: Warlock, the Ultimate Comic Book

by geoff on January 27, 2012 at 9:10 am
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(origianly published Feb.11, 2011 at pulpink.blogspot.com)

Warlock was the comic for me when I was 14-15. In Jim Starlin’s hands it was a masterpiece of cosmic space-opera, replete with cigar-smoking trolls, beautiful women (more likely to kill you than kiss you) and galactic revolution against an evil empire(before Star Wars!), all topped off with a mystic quest to come to terms with identity, fate and the meaning of existence! And all of it masterfully orchestrated in the hands of the most interesting and innovative comics creator of his generation. Wow. Can’t top that! And for a period of about a year and a half–Warlock was the best book on the comics racks.

The fallen figure positioned at the bottom of the page was a favorite motif of Starlin’s during these years–he uses it at least two or three times during his Warlock run, and at least once on Captain Marvel; nevertheless, it’s always effective. And it contributes to a sense of monumentality(-those fallen heroes seem enormous-)-appropriate to the stories he was telling.

 

I chose to play around with the color scheme on this one. I’m a sucker for that blue in the sky that dominates the original–but I wanted to try a warmer palette–and see its impact on the emotional character of the piece. apologies for the wonky logo!

 

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Saving Mankind

by geoff on January 26, 2012 at 9:32 am
Posted In: blog

Babyheads Thursday!

 

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Say it ain’t so, Moe!

by geoff on January 24, 2012 at 7:33 am
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Babyheads Tuesday! The Stooge Project-cancelled?!!!!(click on the image to go to today’s strip)

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Covered Re-run: Klik-Klak,Kamandi & Kirby

by geoff on January 22, 2012 at 8:05 am
Posted In: blog

(originally published on Feb.10,2011 at pulpink.blogspot.com)

This was the first issue I bought of Kamandi back in ’73. I’d held off in part because it wasn’t a traditional super-hero book, (no colorful costumes!) and because it had been abruptly inserted into the DC lineup in place of the New Gods( or was it The Forever People?)

I found this cover irresistible–still do. The image of an enormous insect on a leash, leaping from the page, was too exciting, too intriguing to ignore, and so I plunked down my 20 cents and walked out of the drugstore with Kamandi no.12.

 

Suffice to say, I was hooked right away and bought every issue thereafter until Jack left the series.  And while Kamandi‘s origins lie in DC publisher Carmine Infantino’s hope to capitalize on the “Planet of the Apes” craze, Jack made it his own, so much so that from a contemporary vantage point, I think Kamandi holds up much better than the “Apes” movies themselves–or at least the sequels. And while it’s often dismissed as an “Apes” rip-off,  Kamandi is filled with imaginative characters that by all rights should have found their way into those movies. Characters such as Klik-Klak, the giant grasshopper who adorns this cover and its follow-up, and who was as good a friend as Kamandi ever came across and who was lost to Kamandi, and to us, all too soon. Despite only a few appearances, Klik Klak made a strong enough impression that he’s remembered fondly 40 years after the fact.  Jack could do that, create incidental characters that were unforgettable.

 

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Covered Re-run: Gil Kane

by geoff on January 21, 2012 at 8:12 am
Posted In: blog

(originally published Feb.8, 2011 at pulpink.blogspot.com)

As a little guy I get a kick out of the Atom as a colossus. Great cover by Gil Kane in period when he did a lot of great covers for DC, on the Atom and Green Lantern in particular. The covers he did for DC are very different in their use of pictorial space from those he did for Marvel in the Seventies. The Marvel covers are -for the most part–divided between upper and lower tiers, compressing the area in which Kane placed his figures. In contrast, the DC covers from the sixties allow for more vertical freedom, and so we see a good deal more flexibility and freedom in Kane’s compositions. I’m guessing this was an editorial directive, because a good many Marvel covers of the seventies are composed accordingly, the artists might have been told that the action takes place within such and such an area below the logo. At the point in the sixties when “The Atom” cover was done, there doesn’t seem to have been such a directive at DC, and so their covers, by Kane, Infantino, Kubert and especially Adams-are unique in the freedom with which they play around with space.  So this is one of Kane’s best, I think–and it’s wonderful for the way he pulls the viewer up and into the space, making the 6″ x 9″ picture area seem vast and The Atom himself as monumental as–oh–Mount Rushmore.

 

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