Thursday, May 22, 2025

The Incredible Shrinking Particle [Omniverse]

In the waning days of Google+ (remember that site?) I did a series of superhero-themed posts inspired by Wold-Newton essays with the conceits that there was only one Earth (encompassing both the Marvel and DC and possibly other "universes") and the world tended to work like our own, despite its somewhat altered history. This served to both ground the characters in history--making them more "realistic" and making history stranger! The name for the series was taken from Mark Gruenwald's 1979 fanzine about alternate comic book realities.

Like baby Kal-El, those posts were rescued from the dying G+, and the Flashback Universe seems a good place for some of them to crash!


It took a bit of chutzpah for a guy who almost died in an ant-hill on the occasion of its discovery to name a physic-defying particle for himself, but that’s what Hank Pym did in 1961, and somehow, he got it to stick.

He didn’t get there first, of course. That mad genius Miguelito Loveless tortured James West with shrinking in 1875, but that incident was classified. It’s likely Pym’s own experimentation was spurred by the tragic case of Scott Carey, “the Shrinking Man,” a few years earlier. Or perhaps he had heard of Darrell Dane’s exploits as Doll Man in the 1940s? (The late thirties to late forties were the heyday of chemists and pharmacists inventing super-powering concoctions. They were churning them out like they had soft drinks and tonics in the late 19th Century. There was a brief resurgence of this in the late fifties and early sixties, but by the seventies, the FDA and DEA made sure this was only the province of major corporations and government agencies.). At Ivy University, Ray Palmer was making his discoveries around the same time, isolating the magical particles through a lens made from exotic “dwarf star matter.”

On the subject of dwarf star matter, it seems that South America has the largest supply. Alexander “Dr. Cyclops” Thorkel was shrinking things in his lab in Peru. The radioactive cloud that passed over Scott Carey off the coast of Southern California likely originated in South America. Ray Palmer would later discover a hidden civilization of shrunken alien humanoids in the Amazon rainfrost, purportedly made so by a malfunction in their ship’s drive which used dwarf star matter. Perhaps their crash is the ultimate source?

Thursday, May 8, 2025

More Lost Marvels

A few weeks ago, I mentioned Fantagraphics' Lost Marvels, a new archive series of presumably non-superhero, forgotten Marvel material. Volume one is out now and is Tower of Shadows, collecting most of the material from the 9 issues of the horror anthology series. Volume two is titled Howard Chaykin vol. 1 and collects his work on several minor Marvel characters like Dominic Fortune.

Volume 3 seems to have been announced last week. It's Savage Tales of the 1980s. Based on the description from Fantagraphics, I assume it collects the eight issues (Oct 1985 - Dec. 1986) of Savage Tales volume 2. Its somewhat artsy cover is amusing to me as it strikes a very different vibe than the typical cover of the actual series:

Anyway, it's interesting to me that an article from April 28 on Comics Beat essential gave a different description and list of contents for this volume:

In November, Fantagraphics will publish Lost Marvels No. 3: Savage Tales. Best known for Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith’s Conan the Barbarian and the first appearance of Gerry Conway and Gray Morrow’s Man-Thing, 1971’s Savage Tales was a stunning comics magazine in the spirit of Creepy and Heavy Metal. This volume will collect all 11 issues of the series featuring work from Stan Lee, John Romita, Dennis O’Neil, Al Williamson, Jim Steranko, John Buscema, and a host of other legendary creators delivering a high-octane combination of fantasy, horror, and action.

This clearly sounds like first run of Savage Tales instead. It clearly would not have included the Conan and Kull stories that appeared in that volume since Titan now has the Robert E. Howard properties license, but presumably the Ka-Zar stuff and other things.

Does the switch mean we won't be getting this material in Lost Marvels? The specificity of "of the 80s" in volume 3 title suggests to me that maybe there is still a consideration of publishing the Savage Tales vol 1 (i.e. "of the 70s") material, but we'll see. 

It doesn't sound like there's more to come. This is what an article from Publishers Weekly back in March had to say:

Subsequent Lost Marvels volumes will include...stories from Marvel science fiction titles like Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, and action/war material like Doug Murray and Michael Golden’s The ‘Nam. Dean hopes to collect Chamber of Darkness, the companion title to Tower of Shadows, featuring a similar mix of horror and fantasy.

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Big-Ass Sword


Coincidentally, the day after I posted about the anthology comic I bought in Germany, Fantasy 3000, I saw this article about an upcoming (English language) collection from Rebellion of the Big-Ass Sword stories that have appeared in that anthology by writer/artist Andreas Butzbach. 

The ad copy says: "In a world far from our own reality, a robot warrior wanders through a vast and hostile techno landscape, filled with strange lifeforms and mechanical beings left over from a long, forgotten war. At the robot’s side is a talking Skull. On his back, a BIG-ASS SWORD!

Anyway, it's up for pre-order.

 


Thursday, April 24, 2025

Comics Find in Germany

 While on vacation last week, I went into a bookstore in the Franfurt Airport and saw some Germany comics. There was a book of various Flash Gordon reprints and a few comic anthologies from a publisher called Weissblech Comics. I picked up this anthology, Fantasy 3000:


These are big: 80ish pages and large format--maybe like 10'x`12'-ish, though I haven't measured it to get the exact dimensions. It contains 3 strips: "Warriors of Gorakon", "Big Ass Sword", "The Sword of Tuatha", "Gorrn", and "Space Pilot Resi Stenz" with a range of art styles. Here's the splash page of the first story:

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Middle-earth in Blacklight


It's well known that hippies were into Tolkien's work. Some of its themes appealed to them, certainly, but like with Lee and Ditko's Dr. Strange comics, there was also the idea that the works might somehow be drug-influenced. The author, it was assumed, might be taking the same trip as them. This was, of course, a false belief, but it was one that existed.

I this appreciation of Tolkien filtered through 60s countercultural and mixed with the prevalent cultural representations of fairytale fantasy led to a subgenre or aesthetic movement within fantasy, most prevalent in the late 70s and early 80s, before D&D derived fantasy came to ascendancy. While this subgenre likely finds expression in literature and even music to a degree, I think it is most recognizable and definable in visual media. It's evident in works like Bakshi's film Wizards and the Marvel comic Weirdworld (both in 1977), and in the Wizard World sequences (starting in 1979) of Mike Grell's Warlord. Elfquest (1978) shows the influence to a degree. Bodē's Cheech Wizard (1966) and Wally Wood's Wizard King (introduced 1968 but significantly presented in 1978) are either the oldest examples or its direct progenitors.


Essentially, the subgenre eschews the serious world-building of LotR for a more drug-influenced riff on The Hobbit, often with greater use of anachronism, camp, and sexiness, and often with a degree of psychedelia. Beyond the Tolkien influence, these works tend to share a number of common features:  a "traditional" visualization of elves and dwarfs as "little people," arising in folklore and classic illustration, but coming more directly from Disney animation and the fairytale comics of Walt Kelly; the influence of Denslow's Oz illustrations or the design aesthetic of The Wizard of Oz (1939); absurdism and humor borrowed from underground comics and Warner Brothers cartoons; unreal landscapes and visually alien settings informed by Sword & Sorcery and science fiction comics rather than historical or mythic sources of Tolkien.

Given they were contemporaries, D&D shows some in influence from these sources, primarily in its early art and occasionally humorous tone. But as a game that arose from wargaming there was always a thread of verisimilitude or equipment fixation that runs counter to this freewheeling psychedelic adventure vibe. Also, the violent, heroic narratives tended to have less room for the silly or less competent characters of psychedelic fantasy works.

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Warlord by Mike Grell Omnibus Vol. 1


We finally have a solicitation for the Warlord Omnibus mentioned back in the fall. It supposedly only has a price of $75.00, which seems low given the page count (1040 pages).

In any case, it's supposed to include 1st Issue Special #8, Warlord #1-50, and Amazing World of DC Comics #12. For a volume 2 (if there is one) that leaves the non-backup stories from Warlord #52-71 (#51 is a reprint), Warlord Annual #1, Warlord (1992 limited series) #1-6, and Warlord (2009) #1-16 for a total of around 1005 pages in that one, by my count.

Thursday, March 27, 2025

Comics I Liked This Week

 Not all of these were new last week, but that's when I got around to reading 'em!

Absolute Martian Manhunter #1: I a fan of Martian Manhunter and particularly a fan of new interpretations of the character from the DeMatteis/Badger limited series, to American Secrets, to the underappreciated series by Orlando and Rossmo. This title sits firmly in that tradition with a first issue that is something like the traditional origin of Martian Manhunter meets Shade, the Changing Girl, and I dig it.

An FBI agent, Jones, is nearly killed in a bombing and since he's been having hallucinations and seems disconnected from his life. As he (against orders) investigates the bomber and tries to make sense of his motives he discovers the was only saved by somehow bonding with an alien intelligence. Or possibly that Other is a manifestation of something already within him--maybe his own mind? At this point, it's unclear. Deniz Camp's story is intriguing and well done, but I feel like the really star here is the psychedelic art of Javier Rodriguez, that reminds me of the pop art inspired comics work of Guy Pellaert or Alberto Solsona.

Bug Wars #1: This one is on issue 2, I think. Slade Slaymaker, along with his brother and mother, is forced to move back into the home where his entomologist father died a grisly death. It's a home with secrets. Not the least of which is that there are warring tribes of diminutive insect-riding humanoids having epic battles in the unkept backyard!

Ad copy calls this "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids meets Conan" but I feel like Aaron and Asrar are fulfilling the promise of Sword of Atom or the Hulk stories set in Jarella's world in a gritter, modern way.

The Seasons #1: This title from Remender and Azceta is actually on issue 3 now. The series is set in an alternate 1920s (I think).   A decade ago, the parents of the Seasons sisters disappeared. Now Autumn has discovered where they might be, and how it might be connected to a creepy carnival that has just arrived in New Gaullia where Spring Seasons is. Will Spring be able to avoid falling prey to the carnival's clowns?

Remender said that they wanted to do something that paid homage to "paid homage to Tintin, Miyazaki, Winsor McCay, and Jeff Smith’s Bone." I feel like those influences are very much on display in the style and setting of the first issue. There's also a tinge of horror lurking in the background that adds intrigue to the whimsy.

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