Writer-artists, eh? They're a tricksy bunch. You can never tell whether they're going to produce something great, a pure distillation of one singular vision, or something terrible, like someone's decorating shirt that got recycled into being a dust-cloth that then got recycled into being a tramp's pants that then got dropped in some sick. For every Amazing Screw-On Head there's a U.S. War Machine; for every Generations there's a Generations III.
Kaare Andrews is undoubtedly a great artist, that much we know; he's also written a few books, such as Spider-Man: Legend of the Spider-Clan and, erm, Thundercats/Battle of the Planets. He's just about to have his prestige format Spidey mini-series, Spider-Man: Reign, come out from Marvel, and if it's anything like his other writer-artist work (except possibly Thundercats/Battle of the Planets, but to be quite honest I've not read that, so it's possible it was the next Watchmen and simply nobody noticed) it'll be well worth picking up.
At this juncture, however, I think it would be wise to remind people of one of Kaare's greatest skills - cover artistry. For a period of a couple of years back in the early 2000s, he produced some striking covers for Bruce Jones' run on the Hulk, pastiching everything from Norman Rockwell to Maurice Sendak. Offered without comment for your appreciation (okay, so maybe offered with a slight comment, but it's an unobtrusive one, or at least it was until I started this unwieldy paranthetical aside), here are a few of his pieces from that period. Aren't they lush?
At the risk of incurring the terrible wrath of H.I.T.B.O.G. (Hal's In-Their-Basements Over-excited Geeks), it has to be said - Hal Jordan sucks.
There are some of you who may not be familiar with Hal Jordan. He's a fighter pilot and all-round swell guy who was gifted the power of a magic ring which lets him fly and create shapes out of green energy, which he can then smack people about the head with as Green Lantern, a name which becomes extremely silly if you think about it too hard. He's also as interesting as an advanced trigonometry texbook and as fun as a week in a Mexican prison. Face it, fanboys, Hal Jordan is simply the most boring drink of water in comics. Even Cyclops is more gripping than Tedious Old Uncle Hal.
Never fear, though, because there's one Green Lantern who'll rock your socks and clean your clocks, or something. No, not the whiner with the crab mask, or the one who presents the Daily Show, or the one who smells of pee and pale ale. I mean Guy Gardner, the dumb-as-a-bag-of-drunk-baby-rabbits, misogynist, boorish, arrogant, conceited, fun one. Here he is in all his glory:
So many comics characters are easily derided for being wish-fulfilment fantasies for boys. The most noble man, the most principled warrior, the greatest leader. Guy Gardner isn't like that. Guy Gardner is a wish-fulfilment fantasy for people who are bored rigid by Superman and who think Captain America would be a better fighter if he took that stick out of his butt.
Others have tried, with varying degrees of lack of success, to do similarly with Guy by dint of changing his codename, or giving him alien heritage, or killing him and bringing him back to life with new powers, but these experiments have generally just produced bad comics. Guy Gardner's a simple character, an uncomplicated character. That doesn't mean to say he's a one-dimensional character - far from it. In the right hands, Guy can be nuanced without losing the personality traits which make him interesting and entertaining, which is certainly more than you can say for Hal Jordan.
There are loads of books out at the moment aimed at that sort of Christmas stocking-filler market - you know the ones, they're all called things like "Why Do Men Have Nipples? And One Hundred Other Pointless Wastes Of Time". There's one in particular which purports and presumes to tell the general public what they are ashamed of. Strictly speaking, it's not "Hey you, you bite your toenails, you hideous ming," although that would be fairly unique in terms of things to wake up to on Christmas morning, I suppose. It's more along the lines of "These are your guilty pleasures: David Hasselhoff. Pot Noodle. ABBA..." and so on.
I don't know about you, but I resent that. Not that someone tells me I like these things, or things of that ilk, but rather that they presume that I'm in some way guilty about it. I have no guilt! I have four Meat Loaf albums! I have a complete set of Amalgam comics (and believe me, you'll be hearing about them soon enough)! I own four Tremors movies on DVD!
In comics, there's a preposterously high number of things we're not supposed to like or take seriously. Rob Liefeld. Aquaman. Spawn. You get the idea. Of course, one of the largest sub-categories in the uncool comics database is that of comics creators who had their heyday in the 1970s and 1980s without ever setting the world alight - kudos to the man who's able to stand up tall and proclaim his love for Herb Trimpe or Roger Stern.
For me, it's Sal Buscema. Quite apart from the fact that he's always been in the long shadow cast by his brother, "Big" John Buscema, Our Pal Sal isn't generally regarded as having had the "classic" run on a particular title that John had with the Silver Surfer or the Avengers, this despite the fact that he pencilled over 100 issues of Spectacular Spider-Man between 1988 and 1996. One thing he absolutely has over the vast majority of his peers (and over most of these whippersnappers who call themselves funnybook drawers these days) is the amount of expression he manages to squeeze out of the faces of his characters, particularly given the angular, sparse linework he's known for. I mean, look at this:
If you're not convinced yet, check this page out.
It seems that nowadays, Sal Buscema has effectively retired from pencilling, content to ink Ron Frenz on Spider-Girl. To be honest, it seems a bit of a waste not to have him laying down the pencils himself. If you've any interest in Buscema's art, then the issues of Spectacular Spider-Man which lead up to issue 200 are probably sitting in a 50p box in a comic book shop near you. Why not go and buy a bundle of them? I promise I won't judge you.
In the early 1960s, Marvel Comics came up with a ton of characters who have proven to have real staying power, some of whom even escaping from comics fandom to lodge themselves in the consciousness of the wider public. There’s Spider-Man, of course, and the Hulk. Thanks to recent big-budget noisemakers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and Daredevil can probably join those ranks too, with Iron Man and Captain America on their way.
That’s not to say that all of these Stan-Jack-Steve-era creations are household names, though. Your gran, I am sad to say, almost certainly has no idea who Nick Fury is, and the baristas at your local Starbucks will look blankly at you if you ask them whether they prefer Namor in the jerkin or the trunks. That’s okay, though, because they’re B-listers (Fury and Namor, that is. No slight intended against your gran). We don’t necessarily have to expect that they’ll be emblazoned across kids’ birthday party paper plates and duvet sets. There’s at least one of the classic Marvel characters, however, who must be feeling a little gypped about now.
I’m talking about Thor, of course. He was one of that original burst of heroes from Mighty Marvel, but to date there’s been no attempt to bring him further into the public eye. He’s had one fairly kitschy cartoon series (altogether now – “’Cross the rainbow bridge of Asgard, where the booming heavens roar…”), but that was 40 years ago, and he had to share the limelight with the Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man and Namor. Where was his show on the Marvel Action Hour? Where is his mammoth action movie? Why isn’t Thor famous?
I’ll tell you why. It’s because he looks ridiculous. Look at this.
There’s no way he looks like anything other than a stripper and part-time RenFaire attendee with a Joan Collins shoulderpad fixation. It’s okay, though, because sometimes he has a beard as well, and that totally makes up for it. Face it, tigers, there’s just no way to make Thor a viable visual as he stands without getting Fabio involved.
What’s the solution, then? What can be done with Thor to remove the frankly daft nature of his appearance? Well, we don’t need to solve this particular puzzler. Walt Simonson, who produced the second-best Thor run ever, has already come up with the answer. Don’t try to remove the silly aspects and leave the reasonable ones behind – there’d be very little left. No, you have to go in the other direction, and come up with a redesign that’s so over the top that it goes from the ridiculous to the sublime. This, my friends, is Beta Ray Bill.
He’s Thor, right, but a giant space horse skull alien version. It’s not an obvious step to take, true, but it’s one that works. The goldilocks look has been excised, and the bizarre aspects have been played right up. It worked, too - the sheer craziness of the concept has proven to be Bill’s Unique Selling Point. He makes for a great visual, and the incongruity of the look when married with his noble warrior persona has, against all odds, made him a lasting presence in the Marvel Universe, most recently in his own miniseries and upcoming membership of Omega Flight. He also makes for a great action figure.
No insult against Jack Kirby intended, of course – he so nearly created a perfect visual. He just forgot to make it a giant space horse skull alien. Understandable, really.
Welcome to One Hundred Days of Comics, an almost certainly doomed attempt to get me doing some writing on a regular basis again. The point is pretty simple - every day, I write about comics. I pick one thing, one aspect or character or story or creator or point in time, all concerned with comics, and write about it.
Let's see how long this lasts, shall we?
Feel free to chip in at any point in the comments with suggestions for things you'd like to see me write about, or screeds of rage at the fact that I have a different favourite Howling Commando to you, or unconditional statements of admiration for my impeccable good taste in all things Power Man & Iron Fist related.
First things first, though. Space horse.
