Retro in 3D

One of the things in comics that really drives me crazy is to hear or read somebody say that some certain super heroes are “outdated”. I think of it this way: Today's outdated is tomorrows retro! (don't ask me what I means, it just comes to me sometimes.

In 1952 the movie industry started experimenting with the concept of 3-D movies. By 1953, everybody had to see one, and the craze was born (Or so I have been told, I am not THAT old you know). It seemed that by that time, everybody wanted to jump on the 3-D bandwagon. Including comics. There was 3-D Batman comics, Tor, House of Terror, Mighty Mouse! However, only one company actually gave the go-ahead to create a super hero especially for the 3-D fad.

Dated December 1953, Harvey Comics released Captain 3-D #1 (complete with the glasses of course.

Editor's Note: You can download this issue, but you'll need a pair of classic green and red 3D Glasses to enjoy the 3D effect. - Jim



[ Captain 3D ]

The good Captain was created by the team of Simon and Kirby. (And as a special side note, it was also one of the first assistant jobs performed by none other than Steve Ditko) Captain 3-D was actually created 50,000 years before by a Doctor Five. I am actually surprised that they did name him Dr.Three, but that is just the way my mind works. The Doctor created the “chosen one” to combat the race of cat-people, and he was kept as a two dimensional drawing in what was called the book of D (D was everything to this advanced civilization. They even had weapons which used D power.) To make a very long story short, the cat people's contenant sank, and the remainder of the race had to go into hiding.

Skip to modern times, (or back in 1953 anyway) the current guardian of the book of D is wounded by the cat people, stumbles into a book store, hand the book to the owner, Danny telling him not to sell that one. Just then the cat-people follow him in and shoot him dead. Danny then chases they cat-people with guns off, and starts to examine the book. (I will tell you right now, if I had a dead person on my floor, I would not be taking the time to examine a book. But again, that is just me.)

Danny sees the drawing, puts on the special glasses (which I forgot to say was the way the drawing became 3-D) and releases Captain 3-D from the book.

There was only 1 issue of Captain 3-D. They were in the middle of production on the second when Harvey found out that the 3-D fad was already beginning to lose it's luster, so they put a halt to it.
By 1955, the whole 3-D craze was losing it's popularity.

But one issue was enough to inspire Roy Thomas to create a new 3-D hero in Marvel Premiere #35, 1977, 3-D Man! Although the origin wasn't as long, and you didn't have to use the special glasses to read the comic, 3-D man had a uniqueness about him.



However, he only had a handful of appearances, much to my disappointment. (Though he did most recently appear in Jeff Parker's Agent's of Atlas before it was cancelled.)

Through the years, I have read a few articles about both these heroes, but in each one, the term “outdated” was used. Now I can't help but think, with all the 3-D movies, TV and other technologies, maybe now they would be “retro”.

- Clayton

Once More Into The Breach

Editor's Note: Today we are proud to welcome everybody's favorite French speaking Flashback artist back to the posting biz: Pierre Villeneuve!  Pierre is back to let us know what he thought of this summers movies. - Jim



Hello Friends! It's been a while! No...no... I am not writing a blog about Shakespeare. I just thought that the line...

"Once more unto the breach dear friends... once more."

... because it sounded better then just "I'm back". :) Damn... lots of stuff happened since last fall. What to start with?? The Green Lantern movie?? The X-Men:First Class one?? Transformers?? Captain America. The Green Lantern:Emerald Knights Blu-Ray??

Then I realised that there is no way that I could choose just one.
So lets get started.

X-men: First Class



I had fun watching this film. It had the same flavor... the same essence then the first X-men movie. Not just by re-using some footage from the first X-men film.... but by taking a similar approach with the mood of the film... the atmosphere... the music.

And I liked how they made this a period piece. Yes some of the continuity does not really work with the other films. Word is that when they made First Class... they pretty much ignored what happened in X3 and X-men Origin: Wolverine. No idea if that is true.

But it was a little annoying whenever something would jump at you not matching with the previous films... but not enough to ruin this film. Depite it's flaws.... it was a fun film to watch. I wonder if they will make a second First Class movie... and if they will start it with the JFK assassination??
I guess we will have to wait and see.

Thor



Another film that was fun to watch. Yes... yes.... it was not perfect... but damn it was fun. Most of the actors did a good job in this film. I loved Odin and Thor. I loved the scene when Odin cast Thor out of Asgard.... and I had goose bumps when Odin held the hammer close whispering "He who holds this hammer... if he be worthy... shall possess the power of Thor".

I would have preffered a more classic version of Thor... one that did not have so much of the Ultimates version in it.... but sadly... there seems to be no way around this. Marvel seems determined to add some Ultimates elements to their movies. So when I saw Hawkeye.... instead of going "Cool! They included Hawkeye in the film"... I was more like "Damn!! They made Hawkeye a Shield Agent and seems to aim to use the Ultimate version of the character".

And with what we saw of the Avengers so far.... it looks more like the Ultimates then the classic Avengers. Oh well. But despite the Ultimate flavor of the film.... it did not stop me from enjoying the Thor film.

Green Lantern



I LOVED THIS FILM.

Damn I had a great time watching this film. The 3D in Thor was pointless. There was not much depth. It showed that it was added after the fact... and they did not do too good a job of adding the 3D to the Thor film. But the 3D in Green Lantern was very good. The best 3D I have seen yet in a film. Although I did not see Avatar in 3D.

I was worried that I would be tired of Green Lantern's origin. I read it in Emerald Twilight. In Secret Origin. I read it/saw it in New Frontier. I saw it in First Flight. So I was worried that I would be tired of seeing the origin of Green Lantern... one.... more.... time. But it was not a problem.

Most of the actors did a good job. And Mark Strong was an AWESOME Sinestro. Damn he did a GREAT job. I liked Mark Strong in Sherlock Holmes and in Kick Ass..... and I LOVED him as Sinestro. Also since the Sinestro Corps/Green Lantern Corps War.... I am more and more a Sinestro fan.
Could the Green Lantern movie have been better?? Absolutely. The constructs could have been easily better... and Parrallax could have been better. Did no one learn anything from the Galactus cloud in the FF movie?? But it did not keep me from enjoying the film. I was worried about the Green Lantern costume when I first saw some photos of it. But in the movie... it works fine. Even the mask... which is the worst part... after 10 minutes you get used to the mask and don't think about it anymore.

I don't understand how the critics blasted this film.

It was on par with Thor in my book. The story/plots holes/special effects were pretty much on the same level in both film. I would have expected a similar rating for both films. Hard to understand how Thor got good reviews... and how Green Lantern got creamed by the reviews.

I guess people can accept a movie with a magic hammer... but a movie with a magic ring is too silly for them?? Oh well.

Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon



I am not a Transformers fan. I did not expect to see that film.... a friend forced me to see it. :) But I have to admit that I actually had some fun watching it.

Captain America



The last piece of the puzzle leading to the upcoming Avengers movie.

Once again... the 3D was pointless. I thought Chris Evans did a good job playing Steve Rogers... and damn those scenes where he is a 90 pounds weakling are pretty cool. Loved the actor playing Erskine. And the rest of the cast did a pretty good job.... with one exception.... Howard Stark. That guy had NO charisma. I did not expect him to have the same charisma as Robert Downey JR.... but damn.

The movie built the origin story slowly... which was fine.... but when there was the musical part of the film .... I almost walked out of the theatre. It felt like this scene would never end. Damn.... they were trying wayyyyy to hard to show us how silly the comic book version of the costume was. So of course they HAD to change it.

That they changed the costume.... fine. No one really expects them to be faithfull to the comic. But seeing them bend backward in such a way to show us how silly the comic version of the costume would have been?? How riduculous it would have looked?? They were trying wayyyyy to hard in my book.
Also... after taking their time telling the origin of the character.... then we got these quick clips of Cap on various missions. It felt like "Oh crap.... we took too much time with the origin... now we have to wrap everything up quick". So the second part felt rushed. Although I got a kick whenever he would throw his shield. I was really happy that they kept that part. I was worried that they would think that it is too silly to have Cap throw his shield and have the shield ricochet a few times before coming back in Cap's hand.
And of course.... at the end when Cap wakes up in modern time... they HAD to go with the Ultimate version of that tale.

Oh well.

And sadly... the theatre where I went did not play the Avenegers trailer at the end of the Cap movie. :(
Have a great weekend!

- Pierre

Old World Monsters

Nothing haunts me more than an unfinished project, and buddy, let me tell you, I have got more than my fair share of 'em. Now, before I erroneously cast myself as a guy who can't complete anything, let me say this: I have finished a ton of projects. The downloads page on this very site is testament to that. Still, sometimes I've started a project and for one reason or another had to abandon it. Sometimes it's my fault. Sometimes not.

One of late that I've regretted pulling the plug on is the sequel to the League of Monster's story that Pierre and I were working on for Zuda. Zuda went under before we could finish it which is a durn shame because we both had some great stuff to show you in that comic. Namely, we were going to introduce the world to the incredibly fun Old World Monsters, a team of creatures from Europe. Today, I"ll show you some of the character concepts Pierre created for this story:

First up is Gentleman Jack, the ghost of a 17th century highway man:

 Next is a character I intended to be our brooding Red Tornado type of character, The Green Golem:

Countering the Golem's reserved nature would be this hot tempered beauty, The Bride:

The final member of the group is a character originally designed by the insanely talented Jerry Hinds, but used with his kind permission in this story; Baba Yaga.

These four characters and the story that introduced them was going to sort of be my homage to the story that introduced those classic Jim Shooter villains The Fatal Five. 

Except whereas Shooter cast The Fatal Five as black and white villains, I was going to go the more Marvel route of making the Old World Monsters all anti-heroes to one degree or another.

Pierre and I got about a third of the comic completed before the closing of Zuda made the project financially unfeasible. Still, I wouldn't say this project is completely dead. As the market changes and Pierre and I get more time to work on other things, I wouldn't be surprised if this story didn't bounced back up to the top of our list of things we would both like to work on.

Hope you liked this behind the scenes preview(?) of the Flashback Universe!

- Jim

Another Man's Trash

Editor's Note: Today Clayton continues his article from last week telling us why he choose some of the Golden Age heroes he picked to appear in Agency 1. - Jim


I brought them all back for different reasons. But the main reason is because when the companies “threw away” these guys, they threw out a whole lot of potential stories that are begging to be told! And I am not ashamed to be digging through another man's trash when I see a treasure! And so many of these characters are just too interesting to let dust cover on 'em! Here are a few more that I'll be working with. (Art is from Agency 1 by Celso Ricardo)

Zippo (Hillman, 8 appearances)




You guys are going to laugh, but the only reason I brought this guy out of limbo is because I was told I couldn't use a character like him in today's comics. That he wouldn't “fit in” All I can say is: Just watch him!

Black Cobra (Chesler, 4 appearances)



The name and costume caught my attention. And again, I had to think about this guys potential. And believe me, for a guy who only had 4 appearances (that is before he went to Ajax-Farrell), he had a lot of potential!

Scarlet Arrow (Harvey. 2 appearances)



I looked at this guy an “imperfect musketeer” that can get the job done. Again, there is much potential, and many stories to tell about this guy! And only through Popbox do we get to see that little mini-me type of ancestral ghost! And I will tell you that right away, we dive into the type of character that wasn't touched upon in his two little appearances.

Enjoy this issue of Clue Comics 4 which has appearances by many of the characters that will be appearing in Agency 1!



- Have a great day!

Will Captain America Beat Godzilla?

Today, my Father-in-Law and I are going to go see the Captain America movie. Other than Green Lantern, this is the only other movie I’ve seen this summer. I expect it to be on par with other superhero movies of late. And based on boxed office predictions, the par for the course seems to be dropping.

(That the latest posters seem to be going with a NO MASK look is worrying...)



I expect CA to make about $65 million in its opening weekend (give or take 5%) That sounds okay, but really, superhero movies seem to be hurting as of late and the trend is not good. Check out these stats for recent movies as compared to the stats of what Hollywood considers are some classic Franchise Killers.

	Budget	1st Week Box Office	Budget/1W
Green Lantern	200	18	9.00%
Catwoman	100	18	18.00%
Superman Returns	209	52	24.88%
Green Hornet	120	33	27.50%
Van Helsing	160	51	31.88%
X-men First Class	160	55	34.38%
Thor	150	62	41.33%
Godzilla 1998	130	55	42.31%
Hulk 2000	137	62	45.26%
Ghost Rider	110	52	47.27%
Fantastic Four	100	56	56.00%
Daredevil	78	45	57.69%

The far right column is the key metric. The greater percentage a movie's first week box office is of it's total cost, the higher the chance it will make back its budget and have a sequel. (This is due to diminishing returns the studios get because a greater percentage of the profit is doled out to the actual theater as each week progresses.)

What's interesting is that Godzilla and Hulk are considered by fan boys to be bombs, but comparatively, they both did actually did better than all of the superhero movies that have come out this summer. And that's without adjusting for inflation!

Looking at this chart better illustrates the point. Green Lantern (GL) and Catwoman are on the far left of the chart. Notice the gap between Catwoman's cost and the first week revenues. A similar gap exists between Thor and Godzilla. (X-men is close too.)



Looking at this chart, three thoughts come to mind:

• Hollywood has changed it's definition of success
• Ghost Rider and Daredevil did better than Thor and X-Men First Class
• We are probably NOT going to see a Green Lantern sequel :D

See you at the movies!
- Jim

The Kirby Krackle Konspiracy

How many times have people commented on the indosyncratic technological designs during the Silver Age?



Many people attribute this to stylistic choices made by Jack Kirby as he chronicled the adventures of various characters, but I think I know the real truth. What we think of as the Kirby style with huge terminating dots and metal inlays that swoosh in wild directions on machines with seemingly no purpose are actually a barely understood form of arcane runic designs which have been integrated with the technology.


The source of these designs all stem back to early magic/technology integrations Victor Von Doom made while at college. It was only Jack Kirby who dared show us how these items really looked!

Some theorize that Doom was combining the long forgotten power of ley lines and Nazca designs to make technology do things more efficiently and faster than ever before.  Doesn't this Nazca Whale does look similar to designs Kirby uses in some of his art?

He was already experimenting with such innovations prior to his scholarship to college, but he made his real progress while working on experiments there. That is what amazed Reed Richards so much when he stumbled upon Doom's notes. Reed was so impressed with the theories, that he would later use of them in his own inventions, so much so that people now associate their origin with him.

After Doom was expelled, the government seized his notes and his work would later appear in some of the tech used by SHIELD.

Of course agents of both HYDRA and AIM would get their eyes on these notes which is why we see it in Captain America.


Now the question arises, Did Doom come up with this himself? The answer is no. We see this form of technology appearing in ancient lost civilizations

in Attilan:


and in Wakanda, 


Some people suggest the true origin of this Rune Tech is the home of the Eternals brought here from space by the Celestials...


But that doesn't explain how how this technology shows up even in alternate dimensions and parallel universes...


Others argue that it is simply a stylistic attribute of Kirby's art, but that can't be right because this style shows up in other artists renderings as well.



Obviously, Jack Kirby was onto something!

The Return of The Zebra (and Friends)

Editor’s Note: In the upcoming first issue of Popbox Entertainment’s The Agency, fans of the Golden Age will be see publisher Clayton Neal is reintroducing the public to some interesting Public Domain characters (as seen in this preview image from Issue One.)



I asked Clayton to explain why he choose the Golden Age characters he did and here is Part One of his reply. - Jim

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The answer is different for each one, yet it boils down to the same thing. Let me take them in the order of amount of appearances they actually had back in the golden age of comics!

The Zebra (Harvey Comics, 28 appearances)


He is actually considered to be one of the weakest characters in the vast public domain files. Even I was surprised that he had the most appearances than the other chosen heroes. It has been stated that a zebra in the wild will only fight when he is pinned by a predator. However, if you were to read his origin, that is basically what happened to John Doyle, and why he became the Zebra in the first place. Truth is, I loved the concept, and the character since I was a little kid. When I found out that the character was in the public domain, I had to have him!

Nightmare (Hillman 14 appearances)


I am using this guy because I had envisioned a hero who wore one of those old skeleton Halloween costumes. I came across this guy, and thought I could blend the two characters. I loved the concept of him, although I am not too sure about bringing back Sleepy, his sidekick.

Micro-Face (Hillman, 10 appearances)


OK when I saw this guy I laughed at both the mask, and the name. But I re read his stories several times, and thought about what the possibilities would be if somebody (Like our Dr. Insainnus) amplified his powers into something maybe out of the movie “Love Potion #9”! You can see the results in The Agency: Prelude to A Nightmare” #1!

Check back next week for more of my favorite public domain heroes. Until then, enjoy this issue of Green Hornet comics. It doesn't have the Green Hornet story, but it does feature the origin of the Zebra.



- Clayton

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End Note from Jim: The images of Nightmare and Micro-Face were taken from the Public Domain Superheroes Wikia which is a fantastic community of people working together to compile the most comprehensive resources of Public Domain Superheroes you will ever find. Check it out!