Bram Stoker’s Dracula, #3, December 1992 (& A Topps Gallery, 1992-1995)
Better late than never — Topps Comics actually launched its first title, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, in October, not November of 1992. By mid 1993, we had film adaptions, SF anthologies, Kirby superheroes and dozens more under our belt.
It was a wild ride.
In early 2023, we will have a more extensive look back with some new art, photos, memorabilia, etc. In the meantime, here’s a gallery of previously posted art. (Each piece links to the original post.)
Recreation/ reimagination, undated, both approximately 2008
The late, great Darwyn Cooke would have turned 60 last week. Not sure what I can say that hasn’t already been said here —or more likely elsewhere — but he was arguably the greatest talent of his generation, and the work and the man are missed.
Legend has it that Darwyn and I got into some pretty heated debates during the course of our business relationship, and I confirm that is a fact. But I always knew that those arguments came from his deep passion for the craft, and, as they say, I never took it personally. The last time we saw each other was at the 2015 Comic-Con and we had a fun — but all too brief — chat about Parker, DC superheroes, and a few other odds and ends before we both needed to move on.
Like I said pal, you are missed. Catch you on the other side.
I just discovered that Sandy Jarrell @sandy_jarrell has taken all the great Darwyn recreations he can find and colored them. Love it!
One part Joe Shuster. One part Alex Toth. One part Jack Kirby.
All parts Steve Rude.
And I can’t (or won’t) get flowery about a classic Superman image — from the era when “The Dude” first started working with mainstream publishers. (World’s Finest)
Simply a classic. Period.
See you next week with our continuing summer tribute to the Man of Steel.
Eric Powell brings his offbeat sensibility to the good doctor in this two-page gag story featured in a Secret Wars parody comic.
I acquired this page directly from Eric at SDCC a few years back, and apparently the other page had just sold to another lucky purchaser.
Missed it by that much.
(Full two-pager presented below.)
The TPB cover by our pal Jim Mahfood is much more interesting than the comic book cover, which is a gag without much art.
Doctor Doom has a terrific legacy in the pantheons of Marvel humor. Stan and Jack did a hilarious send-up of the FF-Doom-Silver Surfer multi-parter in the very first issue of Not Brand Echh in 1967. (The amazing published splash page here is from the actual story of course, not the parody.)
Doctor Doom — Marvel’s first iconic super villain of the Silver Age* — celebrates his 60th anniversary this year.
And I have a question.
How are the MCU pros going to create a new on-screen look for the character that is true to form, but doesn’t look goofy as hell? These folks are the best in the business, but that’s a hell of challenge. Lesser talents have failed, not once, not even twice, but three times.**
They could go all black (always a safe choice) and make the costume more technological and futuristic, but… I believe George Lucas already beat them to the punch by about 45 years.***
The comic book Doom costume is one of those that almost makes sense in 2D, but three-dimensional? Oof.
I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the results, maybe even later this year, if we’re lucky.
And, as always, we digress.
Here, the versatile Ron Lim creates a dramatic splash page with the most Doctor Doom you will ever see in once place. You see, the good doctor has this cool hobby of building robots in his spare time.
Lots of them, apparently.
Fun fact footnotes:
Ok, Sub-Mariner beat Doom by a full issue — or more than 20 years, depending on how you count Silver Age vs. Golden Age — but I can’t fully embrace him as a villain. (This despite the fact that Doom and Sub-Mariner later appeared together in a comic book called Super-Villain Team-Up.)
** Two contemporary big budget film releases, plus the officially unreleased Roger Corman version. I probably shouldn’t count that, but I do. Sue me.
*** Lucas has yet to acknowledge that Darth Vader is essentially a mash-up of two Jack Kirby comic book creations, Doctor Doom and Darkseid. C’mon George, fess up.
Clayton Henry’s cover to the Fantastic Five is an homage (swipe?) of Kirby’s FF Annual #2
Doctor Doom’s first appearance features a ridiculous bird for good measure.
I couldn’t imagine I’d ever see Bill Sienkiewicz create a Jack Kirby version of the Hulk, and then I ran across this odd and trippy one-shot issue featuring an unusual pairing of the Sentry and the green goliath.
And sure enough, during some flashback scenes / dream sequences, we do indeed see Bill’s Kirby-style Hulk, crackle and all.
As a bonus, on this great page, we get “traditional” Bill art along with the Kirby homage.
Definitely a keeper.
Bill combines classic and contemporary images on some beautiful pages throughout this one-shot.
If you’re Chris Giarusso, cartoonist extraordinaire, it’s Green vs. Red vs… Blue?
The Hulk’s co-creator, Stan Lee, would have turned 99 years old today. He might not have ever envisioned a world of rainbow-colored Hulks, but “Hulk Splash?” That’s a gag worthy of Not Brand Ecch.
Happy Birthday Stan. Say hello to Jack and the rest of the team for us.
This “sequel” Eternals series couldn’t have gone quite as planned.
Peter Gillis launches as writer, but Walter Simonson takes over mid–stream. Sal Buscema starts us off on pencils, (ands in some case, inks) but the art team shifts a few times too with a variety of Bullpen artists from the era, until we finally get here, the double-sized last issue, with pencils by Paul Ryan and inks (mostly) by Al Williamson, with assists fromSam de la Rosa.
All pretty odd stuff for a limited-series.
That aside, this is dynamic page featuring Eternals and Avengers working together to defeat their common foe. And hey, based on the film trailers alone, it’s obvious the Eternals exist in the greater MCU, so a crossover like this down the road is not the craziest idea you’re going to hear today. (It’s still early, so trust me on this.)
Eternals opens in theaters on Friday. (Well, technically tonight in many locations.)
Who’s Who in the Eternals? Convenient scorecard presented above.
Jack Kirby’s Celestials walk the earth, courtesy of Neil Gaiman and John Romita’s 2007 mini-series, as detailed previously here.
And finally, after a year or so of pandemic-related delays, they (presumably) walk on the big screen this Friday.
Early buzz on the film is quite good, but if I’m guessing, regardless of story and cast performance, Kirby fans will judge the film on whether the cinematic realization of the Celestials matches — or even amplifies — Jack’s giant vision.
In a few days, we will all see for ourselves
Oddly enough, Arishem (the greatest of the Celestials, apparently) appears on the final page splash in many of the first few issues as the tease for the following issue. The only hiccup is that he doesn’t typically appear in any of the following issue’s action.
One comic book. One grasp (and possibly a final one) at straws for a struggling comic book publishing company.
Sixty years ago today, Fantastic Four #1 hit the newsstands.
DC had slowly started its own superhero revival five years prior with the appearance of the Silver Age Flash. By the time the FF appeared, DC had establishes enough heroes to create a Justice League team comic book.
Heck, even Archie Comics launched some superhero titles (The Fly, The Shield, etc.) ahead of Marvel.
But Fantastic Four made an impression. Flawed heroes, who barely got along with each other? Fearsome Foes and supporting characters? Continuity, for goodness sakes?
Talk about late to the party — but making an entrance.
Within a few issues, Fantastic Four was the first, and ultimately greatest, soap opera saga in comics. And it didn’t take much longer for Jack Kirby to fully establish himself as the greatest visual storyteller the medium had ever seen, and for Stan Lee to become the greatest showrunner (and, for better or worse, showman) in comics’ history.
The original stories, of course, were much less complex and sophisticated than they are today. (As were the readers.)
Example: This great Steve Epting splash page from issue #586 is from a story that features time travel conundrums and a multiverse gone somewhat amok.
Heady stuff. But you should expect nothing less from Marvel’s First family.
The World’s Greatest Comics Magazine, indeed.
Stan the modest Man: The slogan “Greatest Comic Magazine in the World” became “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” in the following issue, and stuck around for more than 30 years.
