Panels and Pages… Art and Artists… Creators and Conventions… Musings and Memories…
Classic Iron Man vs. Magnus: Robot Fighter, Commission, 2001
Mankind advances more than 2000 years into the future, and the greatest superhero of the era apparently can’t distinguish between a robot and a man in a suit of armor?
No matter, it’s a superb piece of art by the terrific Paul Smith. And a perfect way to honor both characters’ 6oth anniversary.
Magnus, Robot Fighter #20, November 1967
Gold Key was never a publisher of choice for me as a kid. It had to be a really slow day at the comics rack, and I had to be flush with cash (meaning a few extra coins) to pick up the one Gold Key title I liked: Magnus Robot Fighter.
Russ Manning’s vision of the future was so clean and pristine that I didn’t much care about the stories, I just loved the art. Beautiful futuristic cities, and crazy badass robots. Oh, and his men and woman were gorgeous. Natural selection had apparently taken leaps and bounds by 4000 AD.
The future looked really bright — minus that whole totalitarian robot situation, of course.
Magnus Robot fighter turns 60 in 2023. 1963 was apparently a good year for armor.
Iron Fist #1(1975) Re-Imagination, 2005
Continuing our Iron Man 60th anniversary series, here’s another great Bob Layton piece.
This time, we have a 2005 re-imagination of Gil Kane’s Iron Fist #1 cover(1974). Bob completely changes the POV of the action, transforming the piece into his own — while still honoring the original.
Since the background equipment is still intact in Bob’s version, lets call it: “One Minute Earlier.”
Iron Man #258.1, July 2013
Iron Man celebrates his 60th anniversary in 2023. (Actually, Tales of Suspense #39 was on the newsstands in December of 1962 with a cover of date of March 1963. But why quibble?)
What better way to honor Shellhead’s anniversary than with a dramatic —and iconic — 2013 title splash from Bob Layton’s (breakdowns by Dave Ross) “variant” story of the Armor Wars sequel.
Bob, with John Romita Jr. and David Michelinie created the original and memorable Armor Wars I in 1987, and a few years later was scheduled to be the solo writer and on the sequel. But… Valiant comics presented Bob an offer he couldn’t refuse, and he jumped ship at Marvel. John Byrne stepped in and wrote the already announced sequel, and then 23 years later, Layton — with Michelinie and Ross — had his chance again to do his own take.
Follow all that?
Don’t worry, if I got anything wrong, Bob will definitely let me know.
Happy Anniversary, Tony Stark.
“The Lighter Side of…,” Mad #305, September 1991
Dave Berg loved to draw his friends, neighbors and colleagues into his Mad Magazine “Lighter Side” series. On this great strip, Mad Publisher William (Bill) Gaines and other staffers get the full Berg treatment. I love this.
Mad staffers here are —
Leftside, front to back:
Lenny Brenner, Tom Nozkowski, Charlie Kadau, Joe Raiola
Rightside, front to back:
Nick Meglin, John Ficarra, Sarah Friedman, Andrew Schwartzberg
(Thanks to my pals Joey Cavalieri and Charlie Kochman for filling in the names of folks I didn’t know.)
Ambush Bug Stocking Stuffer #1, February 1986
Every once in a while the lettering — or sound effect — is the draw for me.
That’s never been more evidenced than on this zany Ambush Bug holiday issue page by the even zanier Keith Giffen.
“Crisis on the only Earth we’re allowed to use!”
The most meta — and accurate — statement in the history of comics.
Welcome to our 12th and final day of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.
Warmest thoughts and best wishes for a joyous Holiday season and a Happy New Year!
And, as always, thanks for sticking around.
Peace. (And see you in 2023.)
Batman #239, February 1972
It’s surprising — and definitely a miss — that only a few “Christmas” superhero stories have had made much impact in the comic book format.
But of the ones that do exist, Batman’s “Silent Night, Deadly Night” (Denny O’Neil) is one of the key holiday classics for Silver Age/ Bronze Age fans.
I’m not sure I had ever seen an original page from this story prior to acquiring this one, a few short weeks ago. None have ever been offered by Heritage Auctions for sale, and their database is a reasonable bellwether for historical availability, at least in this century.
Did I wildly overpay? Probably. Did I pay the right price? Possibly. Do I want to get into a bidding war with someone else who wants this page and find out?
Nope.
And that, my friends, is how you have unexpectedly large bill come due during holiday season.
Great page, legendary story, and the sweet spot of my superhero comic book reading era.
There was nothing I could do.
Welcome to Day 11 of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.
Oddly, you can only find this classic story in two reprints beyond the original — this 1974 DC treasury, and the sixth and final volume of DC’s Batman Showcase black and white reprint series.
Green Lantern #84, July 1971
Neal Adams pencilling and Bernie Wrightson inking? Seems like an impossible combination. First thought, one would overpower the other, or, even worse, combine into some sort of Frankenstein’s monster (pun intended) of comic book art.
Well, not only is it possible, its terrific — at least in this one specific issue of Green Lantern. (Bernie himself said he was extra careful not to dominate Neal’s pencils here.)
And on this great page, you can clearly see the result — both styles complement each other. (The coloring in the printed issue unfortunately diminishes the impact of that last great panel. But heck, it is dark out.)
I’m delighted to own a page from this classic issue — and classic series.
Welcome to Day 10 of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.
Plop #23, October 1976, “The King Of The Ring”
Wallace Wood revisits his Mad comics chops with this terrific parody of Lord of the Rings.
Terrific, but little seen, because it appears in a later issue of Plop, when sales were low, and… it’s only been collected one other time — in digest format — a few years later.
With the exception of (perhaps) the title splash this is the best page in the issue, mashing up gags about hobbits, the seven dwarves and Prince Valiant — all in the distinctive Woody style. (And yes, one word balloon is definitely not PC in the original, but it was nearly 50 years ago, and appears to have been modified.)
Welcome to Day Nine of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.
Tom Strong #12, June 2001
Alan Moore has fun with his “silver-age” heroes (Tom Strong and friends) meeting their “golden-age” counterparts (Tom Strange and friends) in this great two-parter.
The entire series is apparently finally getting an omnibus – or compendium, or something — in 2023, and it’s about time. (All of the “America’s Best Comics” material needs the same treatment.)
Al Gordon provides quality inks for Chris on this early issue, as Sprouse and Karl Story had not yet become a “permanent” pencilling and inking team.
Plus… great cover homages on these early to classic silver age covers. (See below.)
Welcome to Day Eight of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.
