The Marvelous Non-Marvels

The comic book marketplace introduces nearly a hundred new products every week; something always slips under the radar, even the super hero comics from the big two publishers (Marvel & DC). In that spirit, I think it's interesting to look at the non-super hero comics Marvel has published over the last year because I don't believe I've read any reviews of them on the internet. In some ways, it strikes me that a non-super hero Marvel comic has a more difficult time gaining attention than such material found at Boom!, IDW, Dark Horse or Image.

ANITA BLAKE

ADAPTED FROM: The series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Adapted by Jessica Ruffner and Ron Lim.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Anita Blake is a professional reanimator (much as the Great Gildersleeve was a water commissioner) who keeps running into vampires in the course of her work, sometimes using her talents to assist the police, but always menaced by the seductive Jean-Claude, who wants to make her his servant.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: I read the first Blake novel Guilty Pleasures when I was a co-writer on the Guilty Pleasures Handbook for Marvel; what can I say, I was young, humble and wanted to see my name on something other than super heroes.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: Anita runs into vampires who posture at her; she postures back; they go their separate ways. The story is firmly in the Daishell Hammett school of detective tales, concerned more with characters' dialogue and suggesting at menace rather than action driving the plot. People in Anita's world are very casual about the supernatural; at one point, a young reanimator Anita is helping to train is attacked by two vampires who bite him; does Anita charge to the rescue, teaching the vampires a lesson in pain? No, she more or less shoos them away and their master scolds them. One cover depicts some vampiric snake creatures which seems promising; the creatures become snakes for only one panel in the story itself and don't actually start a fight. In that Hammett vein, Anita doesn't play detective so much as she's constantly thrown into events beyond her control and triumphs by outliving her enemies. I always feel sorry for the innocent bystanders, though.

As a long-time fan of Ron Lim, there are two ways to consider his art in this series; on the one hand, Lim is aping the style of Brett Booth (Anita Blake's original artist); on the other hand, Lim is working without an inker, making this the purest Lim I'll probably ever see published. I do admit some disappointment with Lim's work in one issue where he depicts Anita having a telephone conversation over the course of a page. Isn't it comics 101 to switch out at least one panel to show us the person on the other end of the conversation? Special props to the colorist, Laura Villari, whose work is all the more vital without an inker present.

DARK TOWER

ADAPTED FROM: The series of novels by Stephen King. Adapted by Peter David, Sean Phillips, Luke Ross and Michael Lark.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Roland the gunslinger pursues the mysterious Man in Black across a wasteland of mutants and monsters, confronting supernatural horrors with a western flavour.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: Nil.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: This is genuinely great material which I found easy to slip into despite my lack of familiarity with the Dark Tower novels and comics. I think anyone could drop in on Dark Tower at the start of any story and find their way without difficulty; it's a simple premise and the stories keep moving forward with cracking good dialogue and playful narration.

Richard Isanove's colouring keeps a uniformity to the series, which is no small feat; Sean Phillips, Luke Ross and Michael Lark each have styles of their own, but Isanove could fool you into thinking the series has only one artist. Special props to Luke Ross, whose storytelling skills are utterly magnificent in a way so few comics today are; in the Little Sisters of Eluria#2, he has one page with 21 panels! That issue contains 180 panels total, twice as many as the average comic book! And he does this for artistic effect, using the smaller panels in #2 to increase the sense of claustrophobia and menace, switching in issue #3 to larger panels (92 total) for a flashback sequence. Give this man more work, please!

ENDER'S GAME

ADAPTED FROM: The series of novels by Orson Scott Card. Adapted by Aaron Johnston, Pop Mhan and Giancarlo Caracuzzo.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: In Ender in Exile and Speaker for the Dead, having committed xenocide against the Formic race, Ender seeks redemption; in the prequel Formic Wars, the early days of Earth's war with the Formics is depicted.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: Nil, although my sister always spoke highly of the novels.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: Again, I came into Ender in Exile with no familiarity with the source material or the comics which had come before, yet I was suddenly drawn in mid-story thanks to sharply-defined characters, fine dialogue and an easy-to-grasp storyline. The Formic Wars were difficult to get into because of the larger cast and different setting, but Speaker for the Dead was much more involving. Kudos to Pop Mhan, whose talents have grown since I last recall seeing his art.

15 LOVE

ADAPTED FROM: Marvel Comics' own Millie the Model. Rebranded by Andi Watson and Tommy Ohtsuka.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Mill Collins is a struggling young tennis player who takes on a new coach in the hopes of avoiding expulsion from a prestigious academy.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: I've read Millie the Model. Stop judging me! I write handbooks!

WHAT IT'S LIKE: I suppose this occurs in the Marvel Universe, since Millie the Model is Mill's aunt; I doubt making the connection more explicit would have helped this book garner attention, but it's worth noting this is the one comic in the feature bound to turn up in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. It's actually an excellent piece of work! It's clear to see how it was meant to surface around 2002 based on the manga-esque art of Ohtsuka and the lower-case lettering from Russ Wooton; it's also difficult to see it ever finding the teenage girl audience who would most appreciate it. But it's an engaging read, focusing on the dramas of Mill and her coach trying to establish mutual trust. Mill has an adversarial tennis player nemesis from the start of the series, but their big showdown is actually the second-last match of the series - the real drama comes between Mill and her coach during the final match. I've heard tennis comics are popular in Japan and based on 15 Love I can see why.

HALO

ADAPTED FROM: The video game series and Eric Nyland's novel the Fall of Reach. Adapted by Brian Reed and Felix Ruiz.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: John-117 is a Spartan II super-soldier trained from childhood to put down insurrection on Earth's colony worlds, but when the extraterrestrial Covenant appear, the Spartans' new job is to ensure humanity's survival.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: I'm actually a huge Halo fan, having played all of the first-person shooter games up to the present; I don't read the novels, however.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: Yet another series which I can't judge based on its strengths as an adaptation! However, based on my overall familiarity with the Halo universe, the Fall of Reach comics do a fine job with John-117's personality (not easy to get across because he doesn't emote) and Ruiz, who I didn't think was well-suited to Marvel's super hero comics, does an excellent job with the spaceships, aliens and weapons, keeping consistency with the source material.

JOHN CARTER

ADAPTED FROM: The series of novels by Edgard Rice Burroughs. Adapted by Roger Langridge and Filipe Andrade.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: John Carter finds himself on the planet Mars, where the indigenous Tharks treat him like a pet; then he discovers there are human-like residents on Mars.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: Nil.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: Andrade is another artist who I'd had some doubts about based on his super hero work, but even though all I've read is the first issue of A Princess of Mars, it's clear his gifts are in science fiction environs. I enjoyed the first issue quite a bit, thanks to some fun dialogue and how the Tharks are portrayed as uninterested in Carter, rather than hostile.

OZ

ADAPTED FROM: The series of novels by L. Frank Baum. Adapted by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Various adventures in the magical land of Oz, including the Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz and Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: I read most of Baum's Oz work when I was in junior high. I read everything the local libraries had in stock, at any rate.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: These are beautiful comic books! Although I would never have imagined Oz under Young's visuals, his designs are so different from what I'm used to that I look forward to each new character introduction; he did a smashing job with my personal favourite, the Very Hungry Tiger. Fun dialogue, fun stories, fun art...what's not to love?

THE STAND

ADAPTED FROM: The series of novels by Stephen King. Adapted by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Mike Perkins.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: After a catastrophic plague reduces Earth's population, various survivors gather together to confront the supernatural horror of the Dark Man.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: Nil.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: I've heard a lot of good things about the Stand, but coming in mid-point I have to say, I think I need to have read the novels to appreciate this material. The cast is bloody huge and the stakes aren't quite clear to me. I don't even get a sense of this series depicting a world where 99% of the population is dead - thanks to the largely rural settings, it seems about as densely populated as the real world. I'm glad to see Perkins sticking with this series for consistency's sake, yet I wonder if it'll hurt his recognition amongst comics fandom when he'd been building a pretty good name for himself on Captain America. Ah, but maybe people will be reading the collected editions of the Stand comics for decades to come.

ZOMBIES CHRISTMAS CAROL

ADAPTED FROM: The novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Repurposed by Jim McCann and David Baldeon.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: As a zombie plague ravages London, Ebenezer Scrooge learns from three spirits how he's been the unwitting carrier of the disease and only he can set the world right.

MY PRIOR EXPERIENCE: I've read A Christmas Carol and experienced various radio/film adaptations.

WHAT IT'S LIKE: I think Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has much to answer for. This book is an odd duck, being a rather faithful adaptation of A Christmas Carol except for how scenes are altered to admit zombies into them. By attempting to adhere to the structure of Dickens' book, it makes for an atypical zombie story...for one thing, the zombies lose!

Star Trek: the Star Trek - but is it Star Trek? A Star Trek review about Star Trek.

I don't believe my friends have ever called me to account for myself for not having seen Marty, Brokeback Mountain or the Hurt Locker. But when certain friends learned I hadn't seen 2009's Star Trek*? Oh mercy, I was called on the carpet. From the aghast faces my friends made, you would think I had confessed to consuming human flesh, not that I hadn't watched some high-grossing sci-fi action epic.

Truth be told, I did turn down an offer to watch the film in theatres with a friend. Later, when a friend suggested it as an option during a group movie night, I vetoed it, receiving some comment. Later still, I had the film only a few paces away from the checkout counter at a video store when I was planning to watch the film accompanied by Rifftrax with a group of friends, until one member of the group suggested we watch the Rifftrax of Twilight: New Moon instead (she had cause to regret this and wound up angrily complaining that we were stuck watching Twilight: New Moon). It's only because Star Trek turned up on Netflix that I finally gave in and watched it.

I avoided the film for a couple of reasons. First, because I used to be a Star Trek fan, but my love for the franchise had been ground down from years of Star Trek: Voyager and Enterprise until I just wanted to put it all behind me. Second, I suspected that Star Trek was best enjoyed by new (or casual) audiences, not an old warhorse like me (similar to how my parents could never adopt Star Trek: the Next Generation as their own).

Having seen the film, my original impressions were justified. It's not for me. I wouldn't call Star Trek a bad movie (no matter how much it overdoes lens flare), it's a pretty good movie on its own terms. The film's real problem is that it isn't willing to stand on its own terms.

Had the film made a clean break from Star Trek lore I could have respected that, but so much screen time is spent inserting references to the previous iteration of Star Trek. It's a problem I've seen before in comic books when super hero universes are supposedly rebooted, yet the creators can't help remarking on what's come before and revisiting familiar plots & characters.

The references to earlier Star Trek continuity are also puzzling, used without a sense of the original context. For instance, in Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country, there's a scene where Spock quotes Sherlock Holmes; this is repeated in Star Trek. However, while in the former the Holmes quote was inserted as a piece of warm comedy which humanized Spock, in the latter the quote comes during a scene designed to make the audience dislike Spock and side against him. Star Trek also revisits the Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario story from Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan, but while in the earlier film it was an example of how Kirk had always cheated death, in the newer film we learn Kirk took the Kobayashi Maru test three times before passing it, which undermines the point of the story in its original form.

There's also a running theme of the cast being bad at their jobs, which I think is meant to indicate their youth and inexperience, but should probably have been stopped after the second instance. Instead, we wind up with a Spock who's bad at being a Vulcan, a Kirk who's bad at being a leader, a Sulu who's bad at piloting, a Chekov who's bad at the transporter and a Scotty who needs Spock to be the Miracle Worker; only Uhura & McCoy remain unscathed and consistently portrayed as competent professionals (Uhura taking her clothes off and McCoy being a drunk notwithstanding).

I'd forgive all these creative decisions if the plot were up to snuff. It isn't. It's a bog standard illogical-villain-seeks-revenge plot with nothing original to make it stand out. There's no sense of scope, wonder or anything at all unearthly, which the Star Trek franchise - even at its worst - usually attempts to achieve. Heck, I'll make a token defense of Star Trek: Generations for trying to tell a story about something cosmic and awe-inspiring.

The film is well cast; Bruce Greenwood dominates every scene he's in and should've had a larger part. The sets look great. The special effects are what you'd expect. Shame about the story... If only the film had been called "Space Guys" I wouldn't have had to spend so much time thinking about it...and no one would have demanded I go see it.

For my favourite review of this film, please read Priest's.

*= aka "Star Trek: the Star Trek," so as not to be confused with Star Trek: the Motion Picture or Star Trek: the Original Series.

Indulge me as I talk about radio transcription

I don't discuss my old-time radio hobby very often, but it's probably the most substantial of all my hobbies; I may watch two classic films and read 50 comic books average per week, but in the last 20 years I've listened to old-time radio programs on every single night spent under my own roof. In my unemployed or student days, I sometimes listened from 10 AM to 1 AM, thanks to the internet.

Thus: transcription. One of the problems in radio archiving is that so much old-time radio programming has been lost to the mists of time; most programs from the 30s & 40s were performed live once and then forgotten; not recorded, not rebroadcast. For instance, the serial program I Love a Mystery gained a reputation as one of the media's all-time greatest adventure shows, but very little still exists (especially from the program's first run) so it's difficult for latter-day listeners to judge the merits of the series.

Various programs were recorded - Amos N' Andy was an early example, having been recorded in advance so its episodes could be distributed to non-affiliate stations. Information Please began recording their shows in advance because it depended on the quick-witted responses of its panel of experts to answer questions in an entertaining manner. Transcription enabled the editors to cull the program down to it's best material. The show's network at the time were quick to deny transcription would overwhelm radio; "Would you rather kiss a girl or her picture?" as NBC put it. However, after World War II transcription arrived in full force, thanks in part to recording technology captured from the Germans. By the 1950s, most radio comedy and drama was transcribed.

Why was radio transcription controversial in the 1940s? For those of you who don't know much about old-time radio, allow me to summarize the good and the bad of radio transcription:

The Good

1. Availability of cast Programs no longer needed to fear the absence of a scheduled guest star or the sudden illness of a lead performer because the show could already be in the can before it was even advertised. It also freed up film actors who didn't normally have time to commit to a weekly program, allowing them to record their episodes whenever it was most convenient for them.
2. Production values Small-time programs which formerly had to rely on organ music and no sound effects could now afford to insert canned music & sound effects into their shows.
3. Archiving Thanks to transcription, we have much more old-time radio preserved from the post-WW2 era than we do the pre-WW2 era. Further, the post-WW2 shows tend to have very crisp, clean audio.

The Bad

1. The laugh track As canned laughter replaced live audience reactions, phoniness crept into the comedy shows. Editing canned laughter was not a seemless process and resulted in some shows having painfully-obvious reused audience laughter (as in some latter-day Edgar Bergen shows I've heard).
2. Musical arrangements Too many programs borrowed from the same tiny music library. It's disappointing to hear one show which uses the same musical bridges & backgrounds every episode...it's even more disappointing to hear another show drawing from the same pool (ie, Rocky Fortune, Barrie Craig, That Hammer Guy). The days of live studio orchestras were gone, but no one wanted to admit it.
3. Loss of spontaneity Actors fluffing their lines or ad-libbing may have been undesirable in dramatic shows (Sam Spade being an obvious exception; Howard Duff's ad-libs are frequently the best moments), but they're just about as crucial to comedy as the live audience. Too many comedy programs fell into predictable routines; Jack Benny is my favourite of the old-time radio comedians, but even I have difficulty with his last few years on the air as his cast had shrunk, no longer went on remote broadcasts, fell into reusing old scripts/gags and were well-past the days when a cast member fluffing a line could provide unexpected hilarity (ie, the famous "chiss swease sandwich," "Drear Pooson" and "grass reek" fluffs).
4. Assembly line production It was great that transcription meant Humphrey Bogart could have his own weekly radio show (Bold Venture), but because he recorded his shows together as quickly as possible, listening to one episode means you've heard just about every episode.

To put it most simply, the transcription era was too clean. I'm sure it was wonderful for writers and producers to have their programs transpire exactly as envisioned, but it was done at the cost of the human element. Pre-transcription shows feel as though they have stronger emotions because the performers are acting out in front of a live audience with live co-stars, a producer pointing at the clock on the wall, a script which could fall out of your hands (as once happened to Peter Lorre on Mystery in the Air) and musicians and sound effects men who need to hit the right cues.

Additionally, the transcription era arrived just as television was coming in; television started out as live broadcasts which weren't archived so they held the same intensity radio formerly prided itself on. As television eroded radio's influence, an additional problem crept into radio broadcasts: the pool of performers was shrinking. That is, when a performer like Howard Duff was blacklisted there was no one new coming up in the ranks who could replace him; when Jeff Chandler died, there was no new Jeff Chandler to fill his shoes. Some radio performers stuck in to the bitter end - William Conrad, John Dehner, Ben Wright - but most dropped out and the latter-day performers weren't up to snuff (YMMV). Variety suffered as well - the movie adaptation, horror-themed programs, high adventure and comedy stars went away, leaving little more than detectives, cowboys, soap operas and the occasional sciece-fiction show.

As budgets were slashed, programs had difficulty coming to terms with reduced cast lists. I find it aggravating to hear 1950s detective programs where the lead actor narrates about 75% of all dialogue heard in the show (often with canned music and almost no sound effects). Few low-budget shows can thrive on the force of a single personality (Nelson Olmstead being a rare exception), fewer still had any dynamic personalities to speak of.

With slashed budgets and diminished verve, 1950s radio transcriptions are, generally, my least favourite shows to delve into. That said, CBS held some standards: Suspense, Gunsmoke and the Jack Benny Program kept their quality up for some time and their latter-day shows Escape and the Stan Freberg Show are definite highlights from the dying years of radio.

Yesterday I began following Cerebus

There was a time when I knew of Dave Sim's Cerebus as "one of those artsy-fartsy comic books only those Comics Journal-types read." Then I connected to the internet during the age when the series was "derided by all, especially those Comics Journal-types."

Strangely, I became a fan of Dave Sim's work through his post-Cerebus output, which certainly isn't discussed in as much volume or detail as any of his 300 Cerebus issues. I bought his 2008 graphic novel Judenhass, quite enjoyed it and soon became an infrequent follower of his book glamourpuss which started at about the same time. Recently, I began buying up the Cerebus Archive, where he discusses his attempts to break into the comic book market and the many mistakes he made as a young cartoonist; I've found the latter series to be so fascinating as a portrait of the rim of 1970s comic book culture that it suddenly struck me...why don't I read that Cerebus book which is ultimately responsible for all of these other projects?

Even though I've been attempting for years to better educate myself in the world of comics (having been a super hero-only type for far too long), Cerebus carries a lot of baggge based on the cursory information I've learned at internet columns and blogs over the last 13 years. I understand that the latter years of Cerebus become a soapbox for Sim's editorializing, but...being that I enjoy Judenhass, glamourpuss and Cerebus Archive, clearly I already enjoy his editorializing. Therefore, my decision is to start working my way through Cerebus one volume at a time until I decide I've had enough (or run out of volumes).

In fact, one of the amazing things about Cerebus is that I can easily obtain the entire series - I think every shop in town carries a set. It caused me to reflect that outside of Dave Sim and Stan Sakai, just about any highly-regarded independent comic book creator's output from the 70s & 80s is nigh-difficult to acquire. Thanks to the shifting interests of audiences, self-destructed publishers, dead creators and retired creators, you won't find many indie hits of times past on your local comic store's shelves. Heck, even a bigwig like Scott McCloud hasn't kept his colour issues of Zot! in-print.

I'm barely into the first volume of Cerebus and so far I'm enjoying it. Already I've seen a remarkable evolution in Sim's style. Early issues of Cerebus play out as something of a Conan parody, which is interesting because in Cerebus Archive Sim expresses how he had little interest in Conan, yet the parody itself is so gentle he could have run the material in Marvel's Savage Sword of Conan with only minor alterations (that the protagonist is a talking aardvark is sometimes the only "funny" part of this "funny animal" book).

Thus far the Elrod character (Elric by way of Senator Claghorn) has been a fun, broad addition to the series and in general the series' dialogue is playful and diverting, helping to steer the stories out of familiar tropes by having characters respond to outrageous situations in a realistic, comedic manner.

Cerebus: I'm reading it.

Unearthed: All-Star Squadron#48

Last time in Unearthed I looked at All-Star Comics#62 and briefly discussed how it began my interest in comics history, Earth-2 and Hourman. Appropriately, I'm continuing this theme with All-Star Squadron#48 (1985), which I first read shortly after All-Star Comics#62.

Just like All-Star Comics#62, this book appeared without explanation. One summer while visiting my grandfather, it turned up in his house. It was suggested my cousins James & Andrew had left the comic behind during an earlier visit, but it's origins weren't definite.

Checking the cover, we have the Shining Knight pit against Dr. Fate, Robotman & Firebrand while a caption helpfully informs us "The Shining Knight is BACK! Only this time he's on the OTHER SIDE!" Another blurb reads "Camelot 1942!" which turns out to be the title of the story inside. Finally, a blurb promises us "Special Guest Star Blackhawk." Following up on some ideas Colin Smith has been considering, this cover brings up a few things:

1. With the exception of Hourman, Winston Churchill and our surprise villain, all the major players of this comic are presented on the cover.
2. Further, the cover sets out the problem: the Shining Knight has turned against the heroes (just like Wildcat on the cover of the previous Unearthed).
3. The caption explaining the problem is probably necessary; without it, the Shining Knight might as well be a contestant on the Dating Game choosing his match.
4. The Blackhawk blurb was actually exciting to me - I had exactly one issue of Blackhawk back then and it was always thrilling to realize I was up to speed with the story (since I had no idea who the Shining Knight, Robotman or Firebrand were; I did wonder if Robotman was connected to the more famous Robotman).
5. Do note that for this comic, Dr. Fate is wearing the half-mask version of his helmet. I think it was originally introduced in the 1940s to give artists a wider range of expressions for the character or perhaps to make him look more like other conventional super heroes; of course, comics being what they are, we were eventually treated to an explanation about him trying to overcome the possibly-sinister machinations of his patron wizard Nabu by exposing his mouth. Let me tell you, those comic books have serious Daddy issues.

A banner atop the opening splash page gives us an introduction to the series concept: "1942 - a world at war! And against the forces of Axis darkness, the mightiest heroes of Earth-Two have banded together, under direct orders of the President, as the All-Star Squadron." This was the 1985 equivalent of today's recap pages; many comics had to explain their concepts within two lines of text because back then you could actually sell your pages as advertising space. It's true! Even so, two lines aren't enough to explain what Earth-2 might be...or about World War II, in case you didn't learn it at school...or which country's President they're referring to, I suppose. Note that the All-Star Squadron's name is derived from All-Star Comics.

Creator credits go to writer Roy Thomas, fan turned writer; Mike Harris, listed as "guest penciler" and not a name I'm familiar with; and inker Vince Colletta, infamous amongst fandom for erasing Jack Kirby's pencil lines to save time and thus possibly the least-liked inker in comics history. That's no reflection on Colletta's prowess as an inker, simply his notoriety.

We open on the Shining Knight riding his flying horse Winged Victory (a pretty good name for a WW2-era horse...but isn't it from Camelot?). The Knight investigates a crumbling castle and finds a silent knight (not the Silent Knight; he turned up in a later issue of All-Star Squadron because...I digress). The Shining Knight attacks the interloper and is startled to find his liege King Arthur behind the helmet. He lowers his guard, overjoyed to see his lord and master, but "King Arthur" knocks him out with a sock to the jaw.

Over the Atlantic Ocean on page six, Firebrand, Robotman, Hourman & Dr. Fate are mid-flight to London. During the flight, Firebrand uses her flame powers to perform some spot-welding on Robotman, who's trying to improve his rockets and armor plating. It seems British PM Winston Churchill requested the All-Star Squadron's aid, although Hourman notes Dr. Fate is the only one asked for by name. Even though Hourman does possess super powers (for an hour at a time), we'll see throughout this issue that he feels unequal amongst his peers; as I stated in my last Unearthed, Hourman was an early favourite of mine and it's mostly due to this issue - I really emphasized with characters who felt a little out of sorts. Come to think of it, I don't believe I ever read an issue of All-Star Squadron where Hourman was the key hero who saved the day, but I recall several where he was stuck on the sidelines just trying to stay alive and keep his confidence up.

Anyway, the All-Stars' plane arrives in London just in time for the Battle of Britain. The Blackhawks join the fight and Hourman starts to gush about them, having heard what great pilots they're supposed to be (we both like the Blackhawks? Hourman and I were separated at birth). As Hourman's powers don't include flight, he's stuck aboard the plane while the other three bail out to engage in aerial combat against the Germans.

So, while the other three All-Stars can fly, Robotman soon discovers those last-minute modifications he made to his body on the plane really should have been tested first; his jets can't manage the new weight from his added armor and he begins to plummet out of the sky. The following four panel sequence is worth examining:

In just four panels with a fixed "camera" (no close-ups), we go from: 1) Robotman in peril; 2) Robotman's humorously desperate attempt at a solution; 3) Robotman's seeming doom; 4) Robotman triumphant. Take particular note of Robotman's face, which isn't a particularly emotive one, yet his open jaw in panel one demonstrates his terror and his wide grin in panel four delivers his sense of accomplishment. I'm not saying Mike Harris & Vince Colletta were a two-headed Alex Toth, but in an age where blank-faced photorealistic models recite the farmer's almanac to each other, it's nice to find a super hero comic with peril, emotion, humour and triumph in just four panels, no matter where you have to look to seek it.

There's also a nice moment during the fight where Firebrand hopes the pilots whose planes she just wrecked manage to save themselves via parachute. It's becoming increasingly accepted for super heroes to kill faceless "lackeys," especially in stories set during World War II, so it's refreshing to see the opposite attitude expressed - she even notes how she used to be all right with killing soldiers, but at some point had an epiphany.

There's also an interesting moment where Dr. Fate smashes through a German plane and Hourman compares him to Superman. Honestly, given the sort of power Dr. Fate displayed back then and that as a member of the Justice Society he was a public figure, it would have been neat to see people favourably refer to Superman as "a regular Dr. Fate!"

With the skirmish over, the All-Stars meet the Blackhawks; Blackhawk himself aside, the others just fade into the background (excepting the ostentatious garb of Chop-Chop). Winston Churchill arrives and ushers Blackhawk and the All-Stars into a meeting (the rest of the Blackhawks depart, lest they clutter up the story) and Winnie explains how the Shining Knight went to explore the site where Camelot once stood, based on reports of strange happenings. The Shining Knight hasn't reported back to Churchill (and he's supposed to be Churchill's bodyguard!), so it's up to the All-Stars (and Blackhawk) to investigate.

As the heroes fly to their ally's last known location (Hourman riding aboard Blackhawk's plane) a bit of exposition creeps out: Fate isn't as powerful as he used to be, but can sense something mystical; Robotman, however, is picking up something unusual as well; Firebrand is a little distracted by the Shining Knight's peril, having earlier held an attraction to him. To their surprise, the trail leads to a very well-kept castle, staffed with knights, King Arthur and Merlin the Magician.

Without speaking a word, Merlin attacks Firebrand & Robotman, but Dr. Fate gets physical with the sordid sorcerer and knocks him apart - "Merlin" is nothing more than a robot. Ah, then King Arthur must be as well, you'd suppose? Not quite. "Arthur" removes his mask to reveal himself as...

Wotan? Not that I'd ever heard of Wotan before, but he dumps a lot of exposition in that panel to bring first-time readers up to speed. Suffice to say, he's one of Fate's personal enemies, although the exact nature of the threat he poses isn't made clear. Anyway, whatever danger Wotan himself poses is beside the point when he can simply make the Shining Knight fight in his stead:

And so, once again we end a story with a couple of Earth-2 heroes taken out of the fight and another placed under the control of a villain and forced to attack his comrade.

I still haven't read All-Star Squadron#49. Somehow resolving cliffhangers doesn't seem that important when you're a child, you accept that you're going to be in the middle of the story just about all the time - you learn to enjoy the middle, find entertainment in the unit of story you're presented with. I did, however, become a big fan of the All-Star Squadron and did my best to collect it at second-hand stores over the years (I never saw a copy on the news stand, which was the only place I could buy new comics until '88). Sadly, All-Star Squadron was just about to hit Crisis on Infinite Earths when this issue came out and the elimination of Earth-2 was, understandably, a blow the series couldn't recover from.

If there's one thing I remember about this comic from my first reading to now (other than the cover), it's the panel of the Shining Knight crying when he thinks he's been reunited with King Arthur:

Perhaps it's because I hadn't seen a hero cry before. Again, kudos to Harris & Colletta for the emotion on display. There are some places where details are lacking, notably backgrounds; there's no way for me know, but I can assume Colletta has a lot to do with the sparse details.

It was fun for me to be exposed to characters like Firebrand & Robotman, heroes who clearly had backstories behind them but whom I hadn't so much as heard of before; to this day, those two aren't the type to get action figures or animated programs. Dr. Fate won me over with the visual of his action figure so I was excited to see him in action during this issue (as opposed to being hospitalized in All-Star Comics#62). Hourman continued to grow on me as I saw him as little more than a normal person in extraordinary circumstances. I feel it's a pity that Hourman has become defined by his Miraclo powers over the last couple decades because I rather like the All-Star Squadron depiction of him as the least-impressive man in the room.

Following this story is a three page portfolio by Mike Clark of Dr. Mid-Nite, Wonder Woman & Green Lantern. The Mid-Nite pin-up really struck me at the time:

Looking at it now, I have some problems with Mid-Nite's body posture and Hooty (the owl)'s proportions, but back in 1985 I was seriously awestruck by this image. I hadn't seen Mid-Nite in costume before (he was in civilian garb in All-Star Comics#62) and I thought the grim, shadowy depiction of him perched on the tree branch was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I know that many comic book fans develop an early love for Batman the shadowy coolness he's supposed to project, yet Batman hadn't made an impression on me (I didn't come around to Batman until the mid 90s when I began regularly watching his animated series). Mid-Nite was my Batman. To this day, he and Hourman remain my pet favourites of the "Earth-2" heroes.

Also of note: on the letters page there's a very small advertisement for Roy Thomas' other Earth-2 series of the time, Infinity Inc.:

You can just barely recognize the signature of Toddy Mac himself; not that I was ever a tremendous fan of McFarlane, but this would have been my first exposure to his art. Little did anyone in 1985 guess he'd become a revolutionary force in the industry, stand as the most successful creator in the business, spend his money on balls, become mired in shameful litigation and end up in bankruptcy. 'Tis a tangled web.

You are listening to me speak

Or, you could be.

I presented a talk on Angola at my church (Holy Trinity Anglican, Calgary) this morning; thanks to the quick-footed Rob Petkau, it's already available for download at the church website on the download page. Hop on over and give it a listen, yeah?

I've listened to the first few minutes and I think once you get over the terrifying sound of my voice, you may enjoy it.

I see Slave Labor is in the news...

Comic book publisher Slave Labor Graphics (SLG) recently announced they would no longer be publishing comic books in their traditional format, instead selling electronic copies or bound trade paperbacks/graphic novels.

It's certainly sad news for fans of indepedent comic books as that already-small market is drying up even further. I know I enjoy reading something other than super hero stories and movie pitches, which is the alternative SLG offered.

I began reading SLG with Jim Rugg's hilarious Street Angel, which enjoyed only six issues despite massive acclaim on the internet. Shortly after Street Angel's end, SLG began publishing James Turner's Rex Libris, which offered a similar sense of humour which was right in my wheelhouse; it wasn't until Rex finished its 13 issue run that I began to have concerns about SLG - Turner's follow-up book, Warlord of Io, printed only one issue thanks to the comic book marketplace's indifference to its existence. Io became an electronic comic book, then a trade paperback, but the trade was the only place to get the entire story - a little frustrating for fans like me, who were trying to collect it as it came out (and so wound up with anywhere from 2-3 copies of the installments in separate formats).

Sadly, SLG doesn't seem to be making waves in the electronic format - evidently their best-selling ecomic has sold only 200 copies! I've tried to support other SLG books, but independent comics are, by their nature, against the grain. Comic fans complain about how homogenous Marvel/DC/Archie content can be, but it at least locks in an audience who are willing to sample multiple titles - that is, if you can sell Avengers to a reader, you might induce him to try Herc, Deadpool or X-23.

So, despite my goodwill toward SLG and a concerted effort at buying SLG material, I haven't gone far beyond Rugg & Turner's works - I read a decent trade called Midnight Sun and tried to collect Captain Blood: Odyssey (I still don't know if I have all the issues which were published) and the Royal Historian of Oz (the last issue was cancelled but made available electronically; I'm still smarting over the Io matter, but I'll get to it eventually).

I wish SLG well and hope they hang in there, but retreating from the single issue format makes it even less likely that I'll be paying attention to their publications - it means I'll have to go browse their less-than-ideal online store, when I much prefer getting my comic books from a shop.