A digression with Proof

Proof#24, the most recent issue of Alex Grecian & Riley Rossmo's Image series was recently released. Diverging wildly from what was originally solicited ("My date with Bigfoot"), this doesn't even feature Rossmo on art, instead utilizing Chris Grine. It also steps back from the main cast to tell a story about one of the minor supporting characters, a fairy boy named Joy.

I'm reminded of Bill Willingham's Fables which has often told done-in-one stories of minor Fables and with guest artists to deliver said digressions. Also like Fables, this issue takes some cues from a classic children's story, namely Pinocchio.

Joy was adopted by the Chupacabra shortly after his birth way back in Proof#5. Although the Chupacabra is a horrendous carnivore who feeds on anything, it also seems to play the part of whatever creature's skin it's currently inhabiting. Garbed in the body of a kindly mother, it's been playing the part (with many fiendish overtones) and now little Joy has decided to find his father, determined to learn if he's alive.

Those of us who recall the series lore on fairies are already assured of his father's grim fate. I'm not sure why excerpts from Pinocchio run through the story when the two tales don't seem to parallel at all. Given that Joy's quest is ultimately fruitless, the accompanying text may as well have been from Huckleberry Finn.

Grine's artwork is definitely a far cry from Riley's scratchy Sienkiewicz-influenced style; if anything, Grine seems to pine for the likes of Disney or Tezuka; check out those Astro Boy-like eyes on Joy above!

Oh, Proof#24 also has another installment of Kelly Tindall's Archie Snow! What's the good word, Archie?

Wha--? Well! Fine! Be that way! Ornery old cat...

Underground: think "comics" not "comix"

Underground is a new five-issue limited series from Image written by Jeff Parker (Agents of Atlas, Interman) and Steve Lieber (Whiteout). Parker's previous creator-owned title, Mysterius the Unfathomable, did not do great business despite being simply wonderful; hopefully better things await Underground.

While at San Diego, I bought the black & white preview copy of issue #1 from Lieber. Consequently, I approached issue #1 with some trepidation. I had placed Underground on my file so I was obliged to buy it, but what did I need with two copies of issue #1? What could the full-sized color version add?

As it turns out, a fair bit. There were minor art alterations, but I was genuinely impressed with the colors from Ron Chan. Check out this panel from the preview:

Compare to the finished copy:

Also, note the brilliant colors in the scenes set above ground:

Then, note the sepia-like tones for scenes set underground:

And in some panels, full color mixes with the browns:

I would say that the book was incomplete without the colors; this was a fine black & white comic as it was run in the preview edition, but it was meant to be experienced in color. Colorists are locked in a constant battle with letterers as the least-appreciated people in comics; for my part, I give a nod of approval to Ron Chan for his work on Underground.

What else is there?

Oh yeah...the story. So, it seems that the small town of Marion has some spectacular caverns which one entrepreneur would like to see opened up as a tourist attraction. The local rangers, notably Wesley Fischer, are against the maneuver. Complicating matters are a pair of illegal dynamiters setting off charges in the caverns for their employer.

I don't believe that I've ever visited an underground cavern, but Parker seems to write about it with familiarity. Likewise, Lieber's pencils bring the underground scenes into believable life.

It's a little refreshing that Underground doesn't seem to have a Big Hollywood-style premise attached to it, instead bringing the feel of an independent film, which is what one would hope from an independent publication (the two-page ad for Image United in the back is for the Big Hollywood fans). Also, having come off a recent Frank Capra binge (mentioned yesterday) I came to recognize his use of straw man antagonists, which makes me appreciate that while Wesley is something of an everyman (everywoman?), the conflict is not immediately one-sided; the townspeople of Marion have a legitimate desire to see the caverns renovated into a tourist site because they need the additional income it would bring.

Based on Underground#1, I don't know what exactly to expect from the story; however, based on Parker & Lieber's track record, I expect great things.

Uncle Billy, you cad!

So. I've been watching a lot of director Frank Capra's films lately, mainly movies I had seen before but not closely after one another. I began to notice that Capra had quite a few actors he liked and would use and and again. I knew about James Stewart and Gary Cooper starring in several films, but, for instance, I didn't realize Jean Arthur was in three of his movies.

But perhaps the biggest surprise was Thomas Mitchell. I've seen him turn up in some interesting places recently, such as Only Angels Have Wings (a non-Capra film which starred, huh, Jean Arthur). Mitchell is no doubt best remembered for his role as Uncle Billy in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life.

But this wasn't Mitchell's only part for Capra. He also featured in Lost Horizon, and some 7 years before playing Uncle Billy he was reporter Dizzy Moore in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

There he is in the attached picture with Jean Arthur. Although Arthur was in the film as James Stewart's love interest, her character also had a willing suitor in Mitchell's Dizzy Moore.

Wait. What?

Mitchell went from playing a rival for Stewart's leading lady to his beloved but addled uncle in just seven years? Wow. And apparently Arthur turned down a chance to star in It's a Wonderful Life. Maybe that was a good idea...

Great Films of the Golden Age Part 8: United Artists

For the eighth and final look at the film studios of Hollywood's so-called "Golden Age" we have what wasn't really a studio - United Artists. Assembled by Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin. United Artists certainly made films, but not in the style of the other studios; it was primarily a distributer of films.

United Artists still exists today, but only as a shadow of its former itself, a mere franchise owned by MGM (itself owned by Sony). Regardless, in its prime UA was the home of independent filmmaking and was initially successful, what with having been founded by four of the most popular entertainers of the day.

My favorite United Artists pictures of the Golden Age in chronological order are:

• The Gold Rush (1926)
• The General (1927)
• City Lights (1931)
• Scarface (1932)
• Modern Times (1936)
• The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
• Foreign Correspondent (1940)
• The Great Dictator (1940)
• To Be or Not to Be (1942)
• Spellbound (1945)

6 comedies, 1 gangster picture, 1 adventure film and 2 thrillers. Appropriately, 4 of Chaplin's films make my list. 2 films are by Hitchcock and 2 of them satirize the Nazis.

And with this the final in my "Great Films of the Golden Age" series, I bid you adieu; adieu.

Great Films of the Golden Age Part 7: RKO

RKO was not the largest film studio of the so-called "Golden Age," but they had a wonderfully diverse line of films. Everything from King Kong to Top Hat to Citizen Kane! They even distributed Disney's films back in the day.

I have a lot of favorite RKO films, but here are my top 10 in chronological order:

• King Kong (1933)
• Bringing Up Baby (1938)
• Gunga Din (1939)
• Citizen Kane (1941)
• Suspicion (1941)
• The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
• The Spiral Staircase (1945)
• It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
• Notorious (1946)
• Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

2 fantasy films, 2 comedies, 1 adventure film, 2 dramas, 3 thrillers. Half of them star Cary Grant, who has been extremely well-represented in this series of lists.

Index#10 tomorrow!

Issue #10 of the Official Index to the Marvel Universe is released to all fine comic book stores tomorrow. I blogged about it here!

Great Films of the Golden Age Part 6: Columbia

Of the major film studios in the "Golden Age" of cinema, Columbia was one of the least powerful. Unlike most of the other studios, they did not own a large chain of theatres, which was common practice until the late 40s (and the end of that system was a major contributor to the end of the "Golden Age"). Columbia was altogether more modest and had to get most of their star power from the other studios. It's rather remarkable that Columbia survived, thrived and is with us today.

Of course, in the 1930s Columbia had one major advantage: they had director Frank Capra, who brought them box office and Academy Award gold in 1934 with It Happened One Night and made some of his best-remembered pictures with them.

My ten favorite Golden Age Columbia films in chronological order are:

• It Happened One Night (1934)
• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
• Lost Horizon (1937)
• You Can't Take it With You (1938)
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
• Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
• His Girl Friday (1940)
• Penny Serenade (1941)
• Dead Reckoning (1947)
• Lady From Shanghai (1947)

7 are romance/comedy with 1 fantasy and 2 film noirs. Half of them were directed by Frank Capra while another 3 star Cary Grant.