Todd Klein's Blog, page 141

And Then I Read: GREEN LANTERNS #49

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Aaron Gillespie, art by Roge Antonio, colors by Hi-Fi, letters by Dave Sharpe.

In the second part of “Rebel Run,” Jessica’s GL partner Simon catches up with her and throws his support behind her. Though he’s supposed to be retrieving  Jessica for Hal Jordan, instead the two of them investigate the strange fit of rage that overtook her, causing injuries to many, that Jessica has no memory of. The answers lie with Accampo, a criminal that Jessica was supposed to be making a deal with to secure incriminating evidence on an important trader, Obazaya V’Sheer. She has no memory of that either, but when they catch up with Accampo, they’re soon headed for V’Sheer’s private pleasure planet.

On the one hand, this story feels like a fill-in between epics. On the other hand, I like the smaller mystery and crime-solving feel. And when Hal Jordan shows up on the wrong side for our heroes, I was actually a bit outraged, so I fell for it all completely. Well done.

Recommended.

Pulled From My Files #91: MORE X-MEN LOGOS

This and all images © Marvel.

Late in 1994 I was asked by Marvel to design a new CHRONICLES tagline to go with an X-MEN logo I’d already done for them. This is the first of four marker sketches for that tagline. What I’d do in a case like this is make a few photocopies of the main logo, draw the tagline in pencil and ink it with markers. These sketches were either photocopied again and mailed to Marvel, or I might have been using my first scanner at this point. The first sketch mimics the ragged X, which itself mimics the first X-Men logo by Sol Brodsky and Artie Simek.

Sketch 2 is more typical of the block letters I often used for logos.

Sketch 3 is a taller version of that.

Sketch 4 is the same as 3 but with a narrower and solid black drop shadow.

Sketch 4 was chosen, and here’s the final inked version with marks to indicate how it should be placed under the main logo.

Strangely, I also have this completely different version, a final logo not a sketch, using a different X-MEN logo I also designed. Perhaps this one was done earlier, and before they used it they decided to go the other way.

The printed cover dated March 1995. As you can see, they ignored my placement suggestion and put it on top of the main logo to save space on this too-crowded cover.

Around the same time I did marker sketch designs for X-CALIBRE. This one is pretty busy, with a circle on the X to tie it to the X-Men costumes, and telescoping drop-shadow.

Version 2 uses the same idea with a deep black drop shadow instead of telescoping.

The third sketch uses a much thinner black drop shadow.

The first sketch was chosen, here it is on the cover of issue #1. Despite the color hold to red lines that flattens it somewhat, I think it looks pretty good. Telescoping logos were on the way out by 1995, this may have been one of the last ones I did for Marvel.

I tried telescoping on another title later in 1995, using the well-known Jim Steranko X-Men logo as the starting point.

The second sketch goes back to that X-Men logo I’d already done for Marvel. The main problem with the design is that it’s so tall, taking up too much cover space.

A heavy black drop shadow and smaller PRIME doesn’t help at all, and I think looks worse than version 2.

When the book came out, it had another version of the logo with PRIME on the right side. I’m pretty sure I did that, but don’t have a copy of it. It certainly helped with the too-tall problem, and even then gets partly covered by character art. It’s surprisingly still readable, even so.

More of these when I have time.

And Then I Read: EUROPEAN TRAVEL FOR THE MONSTROUS GENTLEWOMAN by Theodora Goss

Cover illustration © Kate Forrester.

A sequel to “The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter,” which I thoroughly enjoyed, this one is just out recently. The premise is somewhat similar to that of Alan Moore’s “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” but with mainly female protagonists. The cast of the first book includes the main viewpoint character, Mary Jekyll, her young sister Diana Hyde (daughters of the two aspects of the Stevenson character), Catherine, the panther woman from Wells’ “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” Beatrice Rappaccini, the poisonous daughter from the Hawthorne story, and Justine Frankenstein, the “bride” created for Frankenstein’s monster. Catherine is the writer of the book as we read it and she tells it, and the story is often interrupted by  comments from the other characters, adding details or disagreeing with Catherine’s narrative, an unusual narrative idea that occasionally gets in the way of the story, but usually adds to it. New characters this time are Irene Adler (Sherlock Holmes’ female counterpart), Mina (Harker) Murray and Count Dracula from the Stoker novel, and Lucinda Van Helsing taking off from the same book. Another important character makes a late appearance, which I won’t spoil.

As the title suggests, the Athena Club, as the women call themselves, are summoned to Europe initially to find and save Lucinda Van Helsing, who is being experimented on by her father. (All the women have been victims of similar treatment.) Mary, Diana and Beatrice lead off, and are followed separately by Catherine and Justine once the first three disappear. It’s a long book with many twists and turns, plenty of thrilling adventures, and exotic locales from Paris to Vienna, the Carpathian mountains to Budapest, all well researched. Other literary and historic figures make appearances, and each character has moments to shine, and moments to fail and be helped by her companions.

A work of fiction requires one to suspend disbelief. The characters must seem real. That’s even harder when the characters have pasts in other books. The one area in this one where I felt the author took a wrong turn was in the handling of Count Dracula. All the characters and their back-stories differ at times from their creator’s versions, but Dracula differs too much, in my opinion, and I could not accept the role he plays in this story completely. I kept waiting for the “real” Dracula to be revealed, and it didn’t happen.

In all, though, it’s a wonderful read, just the kind of thing fantasy and horror fans are likely to enjoy. By all means start with the first book, then read this one. I’m on board for the next one whenever the author can produce it!

And Then I Read: OTZI by Rick Veitch

Image © Rick Veitch.

Rick has sent me his latest self-published work, OTZI. The book is square, 8.25 by 8.25 inches, 142 pages, all in black and white except the covers. There are no dialogue balloons or captions. Every page is a single large panel. It’s a wordless story except for a section about two-thirds in where newspaper stories, signs, and text messages add information.

I knew a little about the real Otzi, nicknamed “The Ice Man,” among other things, whose mummified remains were found in a glacier in the Alps near the border of Italy and Austria. He was found by two tourists, a husband and wife, who thought at first he might be a more recent fatality, but when the remains were retrieved and tested, he was found to have lived between 3100 and 3400 BCE, or about six thousand years ago. The remains have been heavily tested and investigated, and provide many insights into the time period and the people of that time.

I knew a little about that from newspaper articles, but I did not connect the real Otzi with Rick’s story until the section where some text revealed it. Rick’s story is fantasy with some science fictional overtones. At first we see Otzi as he was, in his native ice and rock environment, but he is soon drawn into a phantasmagorical experience of stones flying in formation, and a meeting with a being that seems made of energy. I won’t spoil the story by revealing more, but simply say that Otzi is brought into the modern world and soon has a cult following before disaster strikes. I don’t understand the ending, which is again wordless, but the journey was interesting and visually stunning. The book can be found on Amazon.com among other places, and I recommend it, as I do all Rick’s self-published books.

And Then I Read: MISTER MIRACLE #9

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Tom King, art and colors by Mitch Gerads, letters by Clayton Cowles.

This is a mighty eccentric and surreal book. It starts with the Jack Kirby creations of Scott Free (Mister Miracle) and his wife Big Barda, as well as the New Gods and their twisted counterparts, minions of Darkseid. Then it’s filtered through the possible madness of the title character (what is real, what is only in his head?). The reading experience suggests to me things like the novel “Catch 22” by Joseph Heller, the work of Franz Kafka, and the surreal humor of Monty Python and the Firesign Theatre.

We seem to be in negotiations over the end of the current war between New Genesis and Apokolips. At the negotiating table on Apokolips are Scott and Barda and Lightray. Across from them are Kalibak, Kanto and others of Darkseid’s elite. The negotiations are bizarre, and interrupted by side trips like a swim in the Apokolips firelakes. I don’t know what to make of it, but it has such unexpected and sometimes funny moments that I can’t help wanting to read more. Looks like Darkseid shows up in the next issue. That should be interesting.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: HAL JORDAN & THE GL CORPS #47

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Robert Venditti, pencilled by Fernando Pasarin, inked by Oclair Albert and Eber Ferreira, colors by Jason Wright, letters by Dave Sharpe.

Part Four of the “Darkstars Rising” story finds Hal Jordan on a distant planet with Hector Hammond, who has wiped Hal’s memories clean so he doesn’t even remember being a Green Lantern. Hammond hopes to fulfill Hal’s request for help with the Darkstars by himself killing all of them. Back on Earth, Guy Gardner, a newly recruited Darkstar, wants to take personal revenge on his own father. His friend Arkillo opposes him in that effort. On New Genesis, Kyle Rayner’s attempt to enlist the New Gods in their crusade has put him and his driver, Space Cabby, in jail, along with Cabby’s ship. Back on Mogo, GL headquarters, casualties are mounting in the war with the Darkstars, and it looks like it’s about to get a lot worse.

I’m enjoying all these storylines, even though I’ve never much cared for the Darkstars as either heroes or villains. Writer Robert Venditti is doing fine work here as he approaches his big finale in issue #50.

Recommended.

And Then I Read: HAL JORDAN & THE GL CORPS #46

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Robert Venditti, art by Clayton Henry, colors by Pete Pantazis, letters by Dave Sharpe.

As seen on the cover, Guy Gardner has joined the Darkstars, who the Green Lantern Corps are about to go to war with, once they line up some help. Guy’s first act of vengeance is against his own father, who beat him as a child. A good look at the sort of justice the Darkstars deal out. Hal has sprung Hector Hammond from an Earth jail, and taken him to a distant planet where Hal hopes to explore how Hammond can help him beat the Darkstars. Hammond’s ideas on this are surprising. John Stewart is enlisting help from the Zod family, formerly of Krypton. He needs some high-tech equipment he thinks they can provide…if they will. Kyle Rayner is having the least success on his mission to get help from the New Gods, and is in their custody as his scene opens.

This worked well for me despite, or perhaps because of, the four-fold  narrative. It reminds me a bit of the early Justice League of America issues from the 1960s, where each hero or hero team would have a chapter, all working toward a similar goal. In this case, of course, three are, one is not. Recommended.

Incoming: BRONZE AGE BATMAN, PENGUIN

Images © DC Entertainment.

Another of these huge hardcover books has arrived, covering THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD issues 110-156 .I knew I must have worked on something inside, and looking at my Lettering Archives, I see it was only issue #153. This was a team-up between Batman and Red Tornado written by Cary Burkett with art by Don Newton and Bob Smith. I did letter some later issues of the title, but that’s the only one in this book. Very generous of DC to send me two copies!

Also in is this trade paperback featuring The Penguin. It includes my lettering on DETECTIVE COMICS #611, and BATMAN #548-549. Nice cover by Jason Pearson.

Hardly a week passes when I don’t receive at least one reprint collection containing some of my lettering. After forty years of working for DC, I guess that’s not surprising. You may well wonder what happens to all those books, and the answer is, many of them end up on eBay. If you’re interested in following my auctions, here’s a LINK.

In addition to selling new arrivals, I sell older items from my shelves as I gradually reduce what I’ve saved. I’m not getting any younger, and if I don’t think I’m likely to read something again, it goes up on eBay at some point. Sorry for the commercial, but I thought some of you might like to know.

And Then I Read: THE FLASH #48

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Joshua Williamson, art by Howard Porter, colors by Hi-Fi, letters by Steve Wands.

One of the most common story ideas for time travel, at least since the 1952 Ray Bradbury short story, “A Sound of Thunder,” is that changing anything in the past can have unexpected consequences in the present or the future. Over the last decade or more, that’s been a recurring theme in Flash comics, and it just keeps getting more complicated through successive attempts to change the past for one reason or another. In this storyline, Wally West is in the 25th century’s Flash Museum, where he rediscovers Jai and Irey, once his children, now wiped out of existence by changes in the time stream. Hunter Zoloman, Zoom, is there too, trying to convince Wally to help him change time one more time in order to get his children back, and no doubt other things Zoom wants. Wally and Iris West have been brought there by the 25th century’s version of the Flash Rogues’ Gallery, who act as enforcers for a Temporal Court. Before long, Barry Allen and Wally West are battling each other both physically and ideologically over Zoom’s plan.

Complex, but I like time travel stories that have consequences, and this one appeals to me. Recommended.

And Then I Read: THE BURNING CITY by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Cover illustration by Darrell K. Sweet.

Whandall Placehold lives in Tep’s Town, also known as the Burning City because beneath it is a fire-god, Yagen-Atep. Periodically that god awakes, enters the minds of some of the men of Tep’s Town, and sends them on a rampage of setting fires and causing destruction. Tep’s town is ruled by gangs, and Serpent’s Walk is the gang of the Placehold family. The gangs, called Lordkins, spend most of their time trying to steal from each other and from the “kinless,” people outside the gangs. Ruling over Tep’s Town are the Lords, who have their own gated stronghold outside Tep’s Town, and who are assisted by the Lordsmen. As the book progresses, young Whandall explores every part of his world, even making friends with an Atlantean Sorcerer, Morth, who is reported to have killed Whandall’s father. He also infiltrates Lord’s Town and is befriended by the young daughter of a Lord. Then a Burning comes, and Whandall is taken over by the fire god, participating in the fires and other evil deeds. This convinces him he needs to escape Tep’s Town, something that few Lordkins have been able to do. With the help of some kinless friends, he succeeds, and finds a new life in a wider world outside Tep’s Town, eventually becoming a successful trader and a family man. Yet, Tep’s Town continues to call him, and eventually he must return and face what waits him there.

I tend to think of Niven and Pournelle as hardcore science fiction writers, but Niven’s early work included fantasy stories beginning with “The Magic Goes Away.” This book is connected to those. Despite the many fantasy elements, I kept looking for scientific explanations, and trying to figure out the setting. It certainly seemed like California, and Tep’s Town suggested a prehistoric Los Angeles, complete with an area similar to the La Brea Tar Pits. I enjoyed the book, but the uneasy mixture of fantasy and reality pulled me out of the story at times. Still, it’s an epic tale with lots of adventure and action, including an amazing set piece at the end that forces a battle between two gods.

Recommended.