Marshall Rogers on Mister Miracle: covers, house ad, con sketch

Jack Kirby created a great character in Mister Miracle, and like most Kirby creations, other artists have been able to put their own spin on them.  Marshall Rogers did a short but great Mister Miracle run that started in 1977.

This DC house ad announced that Mister Miracle was starting up again.   Although Rogers has a wildly different style from Kirby, he captured the dynamic fun behind the character.  The costume retains Kirby's design and the way he flies on the aero-discs is wild.  Rogers put some thought into how a hero would balance himself on those things.  You've got Barda standing there in her Kirby bikini, with Oberon looking on--disdainfully or ornery? 

It blew me away that Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers were behind this revival.  Englehart was one of my favorite Marvel writers and his Detective Comics with Rogers was underway.  I already knew the Englehart/Rogers team was magic and on par with Lee/Kirby, Thomas/Smith, Claremont/Byrne, etc.  I was amazed that Rogers could produce 2 books per month!  I believe Mr Miracle was bi-monthly and Detective was less than 12 times per year, so that may explain it.

Mister Miracle 19 was the start of the new run.  Kirby's last issue, number 18, was published in 1974. Only 3 years had passed before DC had tried to revive the character.  This cover is not only good for a re-launch, it is fairly iconic, because it has Mister Miracle facing off against the evil war-mama of Apokolips, Granny Goodness.  Talk about domineering mother-figures, Granny subjected Scott Free to all kinds of torture as a child.  Naturally she returned to bedevil both Scott and Big Barda in this issue.

Englehart's stories had some elements that Kirby purists detested, such as the scene where Scott divests himself of Mother Box.  He felt that Scott Free was too dependent on the device and would be more heroic if saved himself without any aid.  Mother Box is one of those inventions that miraculously came true later, if you equate the Source to the Internet and our iPhones, iPods, mobile devices to Mother Box.  I can't live without mine and after this run ended, Scott Free went back to his Mother Box as well.

Englehart didn't last long on Mister Miracle.  His last issue depends on whether you count his nom de plume John Harkness, which appeared on the credits for Mister Miracle 22.  Rogers left the series as penciller with that issue, but stayed on as cover artist for a while.

The cover to Mister Miracle #24 is another one that captures something important about Scott Free.  He is the child of two worlds, born on New Genesis, raised in Apokolips, often used as a chess piece in the war between Darkseid and Highfather.  But the World's Greatest Escape Artist can escape almost any trap, except one: cancellation!

I recently discovered this cool Mister Miracle and Big Barda drawing that Marshall Rogers did in 1978, showing DC's greatest married couple racing through the volcanoes of Apokolips.  Rogers did wonders with Big Barda's costume and Kirby headgear.  Nuff Said!

Link: Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 1

Link: John Cogan Gallery at ComicArtFans.

Jack Kirby Mister Miracle cover progression: pencils to inks to color

Mister Miracle is one of my favorite characters created by Jack Kirby.  Out of all the New Gods, the story of Scott Free, sent as a baby to Apokolips by Highfather in a bid to stave off war, was the most compelling.  Not only did Mister Miracle have the best costume (sorry, Tim Gunn, I disagree), the best gadgets (a Mother Box and lots of nanotech before there was nanotech), the best origin (escaping from a totalitarian regime ring any bells for a Jewish artist?)--but he also had the best girlfriend, Big Barda.



TwoMorrows has published a lot of cool Mister Miracle pieces, but this one, the cover to the Jack Kirby Collector #21, seems so iconic that it could have been a cover on the original series.  I use the same words over and over to describe art that I love.  Words like really, great, and poster.  But this image is really great and it should have been a poster. 



Tommy Kohlmaier owns the version of this cover that was inked by Bob Wiacek.  Compare this to the original pencils below.  Wiacek keeps the King's lines intact, adds a few dimensions and smoothes out a few things.



Here are the original pencils for this piece (owned by Tod Seisser), which was published originally in the 1971 Kirby Portfolio.  That portfolio had some other New Gods drawings as well, worth checking out here.  Nuff Said!

Link: Fantastic Four Omnibus Volume 2 HC (reprints FF #31-60 in a giant-sized hardcover)
Link: Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 1
Link: Tommy Kohlmaier Gallery at ComicArtFans
Link: Tod Seisser's Gallery at ComicArtFans.
Link: TwoMorrows Publishing.

Jack Kirby's Birthday: Amazing Heroes 100 Tribute

Today is Jack Kirby's birthday today and we Giant-Sized Geeks celebrate this the way others do any religious holiday.  Kirby was a God among comics creators!  That fact entitles you to sit back and read a few Kirby comics today.





There have been a lot of publications about Jack Kirby that honor his contributions to the comic industry.  One of my favorites was Amazing Heroes #100 (from 1986).  It featured a great cover by Jack Kirby, inked by Steve (The Dude) Rude.

This issue of Amazing Heroes was jam-packed with content.  It had an article by Mark Evanier and a series of written tributes to the King by industry professionals, such as Frank Miller, Jerry Ordway, Steve Rude, Stan Lee, etc.  A few of the artists contributed some drawings.




Probably one of the most touching tributes was William Messner-Loebs contribution.  Messner-Loebs was the writer-artist who did Journey: The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire, and later wrote many other comics like Flash, Impulse, and Comico's Jonny Quest.  In this cartoon, he expresses his love for Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos:  Now, no matter how placid or bland my immediate surroundings, I can close my eyes and call up the glorious anarchy of the Howlers!  I feel the same way about various comic-book characters.  Messner-Loebs fell into a bad financial situation in the early 2000s, but according to the Wikipedia article, he is doing better now.  I hope so.




Kevin O'Neill, the artist most of you will know from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, drew this fantastic gun on steroids, powered by Kirby, pumping out idea bullets and spewing genius.  I swear I saw Marshal Law carrying this weapon, I'll have to re-read those issues to look for it.





Scott Shaw!  delivered this cartoon giving a mighty big hand to Jack.  Scott Shaw had a website called Shaw Cartoons that you can visit.  Both O'Neill and Shaw are recognizing Kirby's skill at taking any object and blowing it up, making it larger than life.  What was extra nice was that Scott also gave a shout out to Kirby's wife, Roz.




Dark Horse Comics lined up their stable of artists to provide a little jam tribute to the King.  The most notable artists here are Paul Chadwick, who drew his creation, Concrete, on the left.  In the middle, I see Ron Randall's Trekker character.  I wish I could name all of the rest.

I was inspired to explore Amazing Heroes #100 after visiting The Kirby Museum.  Check it out, I think you will find lots of Kirby magic there.  Nuff Said!

Link: Fantastic Four Omnibus Volume 2 HC (reprints FF #31-60 in a giant-sized hardcover)
Link: Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 1

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

I started reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on our vacation.  I already knew how popular this book has become across the United States and I have seen people reading Stieg Larsson's trilogy everywhere.  At our B&B, we met a couple from Denmark; they had read the series and were quite enthusiastic about it.  It's not just a bestseller here, it's a global phenomenon.

The first book centers around the mystery of a girl, Harriet Vanger, who disappeared from a rich Swedish family during the 1960s.  Instead of a detective solving this 40 year old cold case, it's a journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, and a hacker, Lisbeth Salander.  Salander is the girl in the title and the reason for the series popularity.  Salander is short, thin, decorated with tattoos and piercings, and fundamentally lacking in most social skills.  She suffers the loss of her mother and home, being committed to a mental institution, and one of the most horrific rape scenes I've read in a bestseller.  But Lisbeth is a survivor, highly intelligent and skilled at hacking--which is why this book will appeal to geeks.  Although be prepared--the book was written in 2004 and the tech involves iBooks, Zip Disks, and other tech (like a Palm handheld) that is now outdated.

The most popular mystery series usually have some kind of genius, like Sherlock Holmes, and a partner like Dr. Watson, who exists for exposition.  Blomkvist partially fills this latter role, although he has old fashioned investigative skills that complement Salander.  He is a crusading journalist, and he seems like the James Bond of journalists, because women are constantly falling into his bed.  Which is probably why Daniel Craig will play Blomkvist in the (American produced) film version.  Blomkvist and Salander investigate the mysteries on two separate tracks and eventually collide.  The setting of a mystery is also important, and the locations in Sweden are foreign and interesting to most readers from the United States.  The first book is centered around Hedeby Island in Sweden, a convenient closed-off location for a murder.  One thing I've learned: Swedish people really seem to drink a lot of coffee and eat a lot of open-faced sandwiches.

The mystery in the first book is fascinating, though I figured out what happened to Harriet early on, that didn't spoil my enjoyment.  It's not a perfect book by any means.  Larsson makes a number of mistakes that seem glaring, like switching character viewpoint within a scene.  But the characters, setting, and plot hooked me until the end.

Dragon Tattoo comes to a satisfying conclusion, but there are dangling plot threads in Salander's life that form the core of the story in the next two books.  Salander herself is the mystery and the people coming out of her past are the threat.  What I found terribly lacking in the latter two books is that Blomkvist and Salander are separated until the very end of each book.  They do work together in a remote fashion, but it's such a shame, because this duo has great chemistry.

Another fault of Larsson's almost my derailed my enjoyment of these two novels.  As a journalist, he obviously had a great deal of knowledge about politics, police, business, government and sexual oppression.  The middle section of each book is overwhelmed with these details, to the point where Salander is driven into the background.  In The Girl Who Played with Fire, I could put up with it, because watching the police detectives trying to unravel the mystery knot that Larsson created is entertaining.  Salander is in such an impossible situation that it seems insurmountable.  She emerges in the last third of the book to untie this knot and confront one of the demons that has haunted her entire life.  The showdown at the end of Fire is intense and it breaks off in a cliffhanger worthy of The Empire Strikes Back.  Luckily, I didn't have to wait to read the final chaper.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest starts right after the end of Fire and Salander's life and freedom are still in jeopardy.  There are some great scenes for the first 200 pages or so, but afterward, the middle section of the book drags into this conspiracy with the Swedish spy agency that had ties to Salander's family.  There is an elaborate sting operation and a back and forth game of intrigue between Blomkvist and the spies.  I quickly grew bored with this material.  Without Salander in the forefront, I almost gave up altogether.  Some readers on GoodReads had experienced the same fatigue and suggested skipping the middle section.  I took their advice, picking up on the last 150 pages where Salander's trial started.  I didn't feel like I missed anything important and the last section of the book concerning Salander's fate and final conflict was thrilling.

I graded the Millennium trilogy on GoodReads.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: 4 stars. The Girl Who Played with Fire: 3 stars.  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest: 2 stars.  In short, the series is flawed but still entertaining, I just wish Larsson had lived to have some editing and be able to write sequels.  Salander's sister Camilla is mentioned repeatedly and must have been in his mind for future books.  I have to wonder if Camilla was supposed to be Salander's Moriarty?  Nuff Said!

Link: My profile on GoodReads
Link: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Link: The Girl Who Played with Fire
Link: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Link: Reg Keeland, Stieg Larsson's English Translator

Walter Simonson Batman and Manhunter Last Stand Commissions

Walt Simonson has done many things over his career, but I'll always have an excitement around Manhunter, the classic revamp that he did with Archie Goodwin in the 1970s.  This is one of those rare characters that DC has left untouched since Goodwin and Simonson killed off the character in Detective Comics #443.  Simonson did finish off a silent story epilogue in the Manhunter Special Edition 1999 (where the above pinup comes from), but he's also done some commissions and covers.

Simonson didn't draw the cover to Detective Comics 443, Jim Aparo did.  Here's Simonson's take on that cover, featuring Batman and Manhunter fighting together.  It was done for Jim Warden on ComicArtFans.

David Mandel bought this one of a kind illustration.  Robert Shaw made a comment about it:

A 14" x 17" epic Manhunter illustration donated by Walter Simonson to the Help Dave Simons drive I am helping with. According to Walter this is the first time he has drawn Manhunter since the series he worked on with Archie Goodwin and the only Manuhunter piece of this quality in the world.

And here is a cover from the 1984 Baxter reprint of the Manhunter saga.  Nuff Said!

Link: Jim Warden's Gallery at ComicArtFans.

Link: David Mandel's Gallery at ComicArtFans.

Link: Robert Shaw Manhunter piece and comments.

Legion of Super-Heroes pinup by Steve Lightle, Re-mastered for the 21st Century

If you are a Legion fan, no doubt you already have this book called Legion of Super-Heroes: 1050 Years of the Future.  It has a lot of great Legion stories and memories, but it also has some of the greatest illustrations, re-colored with modern techniques.

This pin-up by Steve Lightle is a great representation of the mid-80s era of the Legion.  You've got a character that Lightle co-created, Quislet, front and center.  But you've also got Timber Wolf, Light Lass, Mon-El, and my favorite Legionnaire, Dawnstar.

Now I had to really think about where this piece first appeared.  I searched through all my Legion back issues and came up with nada.  But the answer was on the table of contents in the Legion book.

Steve Lightle's illustration was a part of the 1986 History of the DC Universe portfolio.  This portfolio was published to co-incide with the History of the DC Universe prestige series by Marv Wolfman and George Perez.  It also celebrated the birth a new DC Universe...one that would actually destroy the Legion team that I loved.  Thanks to Geoff Johns, all that evil has been undone. Nuff Said!

Link: Legion of Super-Heroes: 1050 Years of the Future

Brian Bolland Zatanna DC Comics Variant Covers 1-4

The new Zatanna series by Paul Dini has had some good solid stories featuring the mistress of magic.  What's even more magical are these variant covers by Brian Bolland.  I've seen these issues selling for $10 or more at comic book stores.  Here are the first four covers published so far...



Zatanna #1 re-introduces the character with the old pulling a rabbit out of a hat trick.  Instead of rabbit, it's the nightmare imp Fuseli.  It's a great little gag by Bolland, who used to tease us with Judge Dredd covers in the 80s.  The look of disgust on the demon's face is wicked.

Notice one thing here about Zatanna: no hat!  I think she looks better without one.



Zatanna is tormented by twisted visions of Catwoman, Dr. Light, and Batman on issue #2 cover, but this is just Fuseli tormenting her dreams. Perhaps Ms. Zatara should get a prescription for Ambien.

The tophat is back!  But it is almost falling off to one side.



Issue #3's cover is the least effective of this set.  Zatanna is in disguise, perhaps running away from a fight?  No, she's going in the backdoor of her stage show.  This issue featured the ghostly return of her father, Zatara, which longtime DC readers will remember.  The joker on the deck is Brother Night, the villain she's been fighting in the first story arc.

Tophat is back, fully on, just hiding that luscious hair perm Zatanna conjured up.



Issue #4 has Zatanna vs the Royal Flush Gang while she's in Las Vegas.  Brian Bolland can take any goofy villain and wring something out of them, and the Flush gang is pretty laughable, travelling around on flying cards.  The Queen of Hearts can't wait to knock that silly tophot off Zatanna's head.

If only DC could get Bolland to draw an actual Zatanna story, that would truly be a feat of magic.  Nuff Said!

Jim Lee and Scott Williams Icons Preliminary Cover & Sneak Tweet at Legion of Super-Heroes story

Jim Lee's Icons: The DC Comics & Wildstorm Art of Jim Lee book will be coming out this October.  Here is a version of the cover that Lee and Scott Williams did, which was ultimately revised.

It is a nifty and iconic cover!  Lee and Williams are superb at drawing the big guns of the DC Universe.  Thanks to Scott Williams for sharing this on his deviantART site.

The final cover shows the DC Universe trinity as even more godlike, and dare I say it, Iconic.  Shoulders hanging back, chests thrust forward, looking to the sky as if they have an epic destiny to fulfill.

This retrospective book will also contain a brand new 70s era Legion of Super-Heroes story by Lee and Paul Levitz.  Yesterday, Lee twittered a tease, showing this panel with Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl.

I am almost literally drooling at the mouth in anticipation for this and DC Universe Online.  As a die hard Legion of Super-Heroes fan, as well as a Jim Lee fanatic, I've already pre-ordered this Icons from Amazon..  Nuff Said!

DC Comics White Lantern Variant Covers Assembled and Disassembled

If you are a DC Comics fan, today the Internet split in half and revealed a heavenly vision: all 12 of the variant White Lantern covers joined together.  And just as some thought, when pieced together, the image appears to be inspired a bit by the Sistine Chapel.  Instead of Bible Genesis, you have DC Universe Genesis, with the Ring-entities from Green Lantern providing the magic.

Let's look at this magnificent image from a few different angles.



Ryan Sook, along with Fernando Pasarin and Joel Gomez, knocked themselves out here.  If I had to pick my favorite single covers out of this set, it would be the Hawkman cover from Justice Society of America 42.  There is something I love about the regal pose (worthy of an Egyptian King) and the detail on those feathers.  When you join this together with Hawkwoman from the other cover, it is even more impressive. 



Here is the entire poster joined together, courtesy of DC Comics The Source blog.  I am sure this is a no-brainer to make this image into a poster.  I will buy it on place it up on the ceiling of my garage.  Whenever my wife speaks in the garage from that time forward, I will shout SILENCIO!  Just like the guards do at the Vatican.  And after I do that, I will be living in the garage for the rest of my adult life.



Here's one row of the White Lantern characters seated: J'onn J'onzz, Hawkwoman, Hawkman, Firestorm, and Hawk.  A lot of people are taking note of the entities behind each character, such as Blue for J'onn J'onnz and Red for Hawkwoman.  Does it really mean something?

I take more meaning from the fact that all these guys lined up are the heroes.



On the flip side, we have Maxwell Lord, Osiris, Professor Zoom Reverse Flash, Jade, and Captain Boomerang.  Clearly, all of these are real evil characters, except for Jade.  But if I had to guess, I would say that she could turn bad, too.  Her posture is very strange.



On the left side of the poster, we have Deadman, holding the White Ring in his fist, a really nice pose that Sook came up with for the character.  On top of Deadman there is the evil Guardian midget dude (sorry, haven't read this month's comics yet if his identity was revealed) who is stealing all the Ring entities.  It's pretty clear that he would love to steal the White Lantern entity, too.



On the opposite end from Deadman, we have Aquaman.  You have to dig a guy who can wear all that chain mail in the ocean.  Nekron, the villain of Blackest Day, hangs ominously over the Atlantean prince.

Marvel is usually the king of marketing and hype.  But today clearly is a day where DC Comics pwned Marvel and proved they've got more good stuff coming after Blackest Night.  As Hal Jordan himself said on the DC Source Blog:

"THIS JUST GAVE ME THE BIGGEST FANGASM OF MY LIFE! " 

Couldn't have said it better myself, buddy.  Nuff Said!

Link: AN EPIC PIECE OF BRIGHTEST DAY ART

White Lantern Professor Zoom variant cover by Ryan Sook

Ryan Sook is a major talent for DC Comics.  I loved his Kamandi work in Wednesday Comics and have been waiting to see what his next project will be.  Yesterday I discovered he was the artist behind these special White Lantern variant covers.



Green Lantern Corps 51 had the Flash's main foe, Professor Zoom on the cover in a White Lantern uniform.  No idea what the image really means as I won't read the comic until my shipment arrives.  The comic store I visited were selling the variants anywhere from $7 - $12 depending on the character.

John Babos over at Comics Nexus is keeping track of all the White Lantern variants.  Babos also has pieced the variants together and discovered they form an interlocking image, somewhat like the Sistine Chapel.  Nuff Said!

Black Canary by Steve Rude

I've been missing Steve Rude's classic takes on various DC and Marvel characters.  Here is a nice illustration of Black Canary.

I really dig how Rude plays with the light source and shadows in this elegant little drawing.  Nuff Said!

Link:  Steve Rude's Gallery at ComicArtFans.

Ex Machina 50: Some Thoughts on The End, Jim Lee Variant Cover

Last year, I discovered Brian K Vaughan and Tony Harris’ brilliant Ex Machina series.  Vaughan has become one of my top favorite writers of modern comics. In Ex Machina, he created a character named Mitchell Hundred.  Alien machinery is embedded in Hundred's skull that allows him to listen and talk to any man-made machine: guns, cars, elevators, electric power grids, computers, etc.  He has strange dreams which allow him to build devices like a jet pack, armor, and weapons. Hundred is aided by his friends, Bradbury and Kremlin, into becoming New York City's first superhero: The Great Machine.  He then becomes the Mayor of New York City after preventing the destruction of one of the World Trade Center buildings. 

What I like the most about Vaughan is that he believes stories should have an ending.  Y: The Last Man had a stunning and memorable conclusion after 60 issues, and Ex Machina 50 closes off the story of Mayor Hundred.  It is difficult for me to become surprised at how stories unfold, but Vaughan ambushed me once again.  Hundred has ambitions, you see.  He wants to go further than simply being a mayor, he wants to enter Presidential politics.  This has been mentioned throughout the series.  The first issue started off with Hundred in the future (our present day) ruminating about some dark and terrible things that he had done; we finally catch up to that moment in this final issue.  I was fairly shocked after learning this secret.  My reaction was one of total disgust and abandonment of this character I had grown to admire over the arc of the story.  But that is also my reaction to most politicians that I admired, too.

Jim Lee’s variant cover to the final issue isn’t something you would normally associate with the artist.  It’s entirely appropriate to the story, the origins involving the 9/11 attack, and it even gives away an important moment on the right hand side: the word BANG.  Nuff Said!

Link: Ex Machina, Book 1 (Deluxe Edition)