Jim Shooter's Blog, page 4
December 23, 2011
Jerry Robinson and Steve Ditko
Defiant 1 offered a link to a must-read article in this comment:
Interesting blog post about Robinson teaching Ditko...
http://blakebellnews.blogspot.com/2011/12/being-punked-by-jerry-robinson-other.html?spref=tw
Defiant1 has left a new comment on your post "Jerry Robinson http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/12/jerry-robinson.html?showComment=1324615552055#c4127676358749850686
Interesting blog post about Robinson teaching Ditko...
http://blakebellnews.blogspot.com/2011/12/being-punked-by-jerry-robinson-other.html?spref=tw
December 21, 2011
Sex and Drugs
Let's do the drugs first. Whoo-hoo!
Drugs
I think I wrote the first drug use story in the Comics Code era. It appeared in this issue of Action Comics:
It was the second feature, a Legion of Super-Heroes story entitled "Forbidden Fruit." Comic Book Database, www.comicbookdb.com, while often useful, gives credit for writing this story jointly to Mort Weisinger and me. Why do they do that? Mort never co-wrote anything with me, or even made a significant edit on any of my scripts. Sigh. No, I wrote it, just me.
The story was published in April of 1969.
The story, MY story:
A very rare fruit from Planet Oomar in the Tenth Galaxy called the lotus fruit contains a highly addictive, psychotropic chemical. A nefarious miscreant, referred to only as the "Doctor," controls the only source of the fruit in this galaxy. Through some ambitious machinations the Doctor manages to manipulate a Legionnaire—Timber Wolf, as it happens, but anyone would do—into drinking the distilled nectar of the lotus fruit. One shot of the concentrated nectar is enough to get Timber Wolf thoroughly hooked.
The Doctor's plan is to get Timber Wolf to get other Legionnaires hooked, and then…? Who knows what evil lurks….
Timber Wolf is driven by his addiction to cooperate. He'll do anything the Doctor asks in order to earn his next piece of fruit.
Timber Wolf offers his girlfriend, Light Lass, a lotus fruit, but something odd in his manner makes her suspicious. She refuses.
Light Lass clandestinely follows Timber Wolf, sees him eat the lotus fruit he offered her and witnesses its effects. Later, she follows him on his way to meet the Doctor, desperately seeking more fruit.
The Doctor offers Timber Wolf a big basket of lotus fruit if he will promise to share it with other Legionnaires. Timber Wolf would agree to anything at this point.
Light Lass uses her gravity manipulation powers to levitate the basket out of the Doctor's hands and grabs it. She has come prepared. She places a sensor in the basket wired to a small explosive device on her belt. If it goes off, the blast will surely kill her, though the collateral damage will be slight. If one of the fruits in the basket is but touched, she dies. No one else will be harmed.
Timber Wolf almost takes a piece of the fruit he wants so badly, but cannot. Not if it means his beloved will die.
Timber Wolf summons enough willpower to resist his addiction long enough to strike down the Doctor.
Light Lass calls the police. Disarms the bomb. Yes, it was for real. And she allows Timber Wolf to eat a lotus fruit to end his suffering. She holds him, comforts him. Her faith in his love led her to risk all. His love for her saved her, and now her love for him will see him through the dark time ahead. He'll have to go through a difficult rehab, but he'll be okay, she knows it.
The End.
But that's not how the story saw print. The Comics Code Authority rejected the story.
There was nothing specific about drug use in the 1954 Comics Code, still in effect in 1969, but there was a catch-all provision:
"All elements or techniques not specifically mentioned herein, but which are contrary to the spirit and intent of the Code, and are considered to be violations of good taste and decency, shall be prohibited."
Drug use fell under that dictum, apparently. If you are not familiar with the 1954 Comics Code, it's available in many places. Here's one:
http://www.comicartville.com/comicscode.htm
So, Mort Weisinger and DC caved in. I had to rewrite the ending so that Timber Wolf was cured the second his love for Light Lass broke the spell of the lotus fruit. Here's the last scene:
To this day, I don't know why that ending is supposedly better, or why it satisfied the Code.
So, why did I try a drug story?
In the late 1960's, drugs were all around. I suppose they always had been, but suddenly the world was on a binge and it wasn't confined to the shadows. Even in my seemingly innocent and idyllic suburban high school. A guy named Mike sat behind me in Physics II high as a weather balloon on the substance du jour every day. And he'd tell me all about it in rambling whispers. Even if I wanted to listen to the lecture on atomic orbitals instead.
He financed his stationary trips by selling nickel bags of marijuana ($5, yes, I'm that old) and did a brisk business. Another guy whose dad owned a pharmacy illegally sold legal drugs—mother's little helpers, go-pills, any prescription upper or downer you wanted. Cough syrup with codeine was a big commodity. NyQuil, when it came along, was too. Some idiots even sniffed glue. Butyrate Dope was the Cadillac of sniffables, maybe because of the name. I never saw any evidence of heroin use, but I wouldn't dismiss the possibility.
A girl named Sue, a beautiful, brilliant girl, and one of the top ten in my class, saw me at the mall one day and asked me if I'd give her a ride home. Sure. She invited me in. We were sitting in her family's kitchen, drinking coffee with her parents ten feet away in the living room. Oblivious to danger (high, I guess) she chirpily recited to me the list of drugs she'd done: "I ate this, then I ate that…." I kept trying to tell her ixnay. No luck. I don't know what happened after I left….
I didn't go to college, but I spent a lot of time on college campuses while in high school and thereafter. I took art classes at Carnegie-Mellon University. (It was still called Carnegie Tech when I first started the classes.) Think there were drugs to be found in the College of Fine Arts building? I believe smoking weed was a course requirement, at least in the theater department.
Because I took classes at Carnegie Tech/Carnegie-Mellon, I was entitled to use the Hunt Library. I practically lived there. That's where I first got my hands on a copy of Seduction of the Innocent, by the way.
I also occasionally spent time at the University of Pittsburgh. I was in a special program that provided science geeks like me the opportunity to perform lab assistant grunt work for science professors doing research. Actual experience (however grunty) in an actual lab, plus being coached, advised and taught by a real scientist…wow, groovy.
I was told that people there cooked LSD for themselves and their friends. I saw the darkroom. Were they kidding? Pranking the doofus high school kid? I don't know, but there sure was a lot of LSD around. It wasn't even illegal back then. Several people offered me some. Free. I turned it down.
I didn't do any drugs at all back then. Not even alcohol. No money, no time. And since I wasn't likely to succeed because of my looks or athletic abilities, I didn't want to muddle my mind any more than it already was.
I have had two drug experiences in my life. In high school, I often had to stay up all night working to make deadlines for Mort. It was hard. Coffee and No-Doze didn't cut it. A guy I knew gave me some spansules he said would help. Ritalin, he said, a mild stimulant. I looked it up. Yep. A mild stimulant.
Late one night, as I was fading out with a drop-dead deadline looming, I took two, as advised. Suddenly wide awake, I did two days' worth of work, eight pages of script and layouts, in a few hours. Then I drove at 4 AM to the main Post Office in downtown Pittsburgh in my beat-up junkyard-ready 1963 TR4 (bought for $400) flat out in fourth gear on winding, follow-the-creek roads (like McLaughlin's Run, for you 'Burgh people). Thank God there was no one else on the road. I mailed the work air mail special delivery—the stamp cost an outrageous $.55!—which would get the package to DC Comics the next day, saving my job.
Then I drove around like a mad loon at 110 MPH. If there had been a squirrel I could have caught I would have eaten it raw. If my girlfriend had been around, well…let's just say I was extremely motivated. Sometime before normal people were on the roads (it was Saturday), I started to wind down. I went home and slept all day, all night and woke up Sunday morning.
Mild stimulant?
A friend had a Physician's Desk Reference. I paged through it until I found a pill that looked like the ones I'd taken. Dexedrine. The highest dosage.
Got rid of the rest of those pills in a hurry….
Many years later, a girlfriend made pot brownies. She insisted I eat one. We were in a safe place, no obvious risk factors. Okay.
It put me to sleep fast. No tolerance for the stuff, I guess.
That's it.
Anyway….
I was doing commercial, advertising comics for U.S. Steel and others when Stan's Spider-Man drug story and Denny's Green Lantern/Green Arrow/Speedy (Speedy…! Heehee!) drug story came out. I never read them. Were they good?
However, I have seen a lot of stories involving drugs since. Generally, it seems to me that they are dorkier and more comic-booky than "Forbidden Fruit" as published, in my opinion. The addicts are caricatures, the pushers are caricatures, the effects of the drugs are either cartoony-bad or cartoony-beneficial, giving the user unbelievable stamina, strength or imperviousness to pain. Sorry Frank.
The portrayal of drug use in comics is one of our great failings. One of the reasons that Big Entertainment Media laugh at us. Not that they often get it right.
NEXT: Sex and Drugs Part 2 – Sex
Drugs
I think I wrote the first drug use story in the Comics Code era. It appeared in this issue of Action Comics:
It was the second feature, a Legion of Super-Heroes story entitled "Forbidden Fruit." Comic Book Database, www.comicbookdb.com, while often useful, gives credit for writing this story jointly to Mort Weisinger and me. Why do they do that? Mort never co-wrote anything with me, or even made a significant edit on any of my scripts. Sigh. No, I wrote it, just me.
The story was published in April of 1969.
The story, MY story:
A very rare fruit from Planet Oomar in the Tenth Galaxy called the lotus fruit contains a highly addictive, psychotropic chemical. A nefarious miscreant, referred to only as the "Doctor," controls the only source of the fruit in this galaxy. Through some ambitious machinations the Doctor manages to manipulate a Legionnaire—Timber Wolf, as it happens, but anyone would do—into drinking the distilled nectar of the lotus fruit. One shot of the concentrated nectar is enough to get Timber Wolf thoroughly hooked.
The Doctor's plan is to get Timber Wolf to get other Legionnaires hooked, and then…? Who knows what evil lurks….
Timber Wolf is driven by his addiction to cooperate. He'll do anything the Doctor asks in order to earn his next piece of fruit.
Timber Wolf offers his girlfriend, Light Lass, a lotus fruit, but something odd in his manner makes her suspicious. She refuses.
Light Lass clandestinely follows Timber Wolf, sees him eat the lotus fruit he offered her and witnesses its effects. Later, she follows him on his way to meet the Doctor, desperately seeking more fruit.
The Doctor offers Timber Wolf a big basket of lotus fruit if he will promise to share it with other Legionnaires. Timber Wolf would agree to anything at this point.
Light Lass uses her gravity manipulation powers to levitate the basket out of the Doctor's hands and grabs it. She has come prepared. She places a sensor in the basket wired to a small explosive device on her belt. If it goes off, the blast will surely kill her, though the collateral damage will be slight. If one of the fruits in the basket is but touched, she dies. No one else will be harmed.
Timber Wolf almost takes a piece of the fruit he wants so badly, but cannot. Not if it means his beloved will die.
Timber Wolf summons enough willpower to resist his addiction long enough to strike down the Doctor.
Light Lass calls the police. Disarms the bomb. Yes, it was for real. And she allows Timber Wolf to eat a lotus fruit to end his suffering. She holds him, comforts him. Her faith in his love led her to risk all. His love for her saved her, and now her love for him will see him through the dark time ahead. He'll have to go through a difficult rehab, but he'll be okay, she knows it.
The End.
But that's not how the story saw print. The Comics Code Authority rejected the story.
There was nothing specific about drug use in the 1954 Comics Code, still in effect in 1969, but there was a catch-all provision:
"All elements or techniques not specifically mentioned herein, but which are contrary to the spirit and intent of the Code, and are considered to be violations of good taste and decency, shall be prohibited."
Drug use fell under that dictum, apparently. If you are not familiar with the 1954 Comics Code, it's available in many places. Here's one:
http://www.comicartville.com/comicscode.htm
So, Mort Weisinger and DC caved in. I had to rewrite the ending so that Timber Wolf was cured the second his love for Light Lass broke the spell of the lotus fruit. Here's the last scene:
To this day, I don't know why that ending is supposedly better, or why it satisfied the Code.
So, why did I try a drug story?
In the late 1960's, drugs were all around. I suppose they always had been, but suddenly the world was on a binge and it wasn't confined to the shadows. Even in my seemingly innocent and idyllic suburban high school. A guy named Mike sat behind me in Physics II high as a weather balloon on the substance du jour every day. And he'd tell me all about it in rambling whispers. Even if I wanted to listen to the lecture on atomic orbitals instead.
He financed his stationary trips by selling nickel bags of marijuana ($5, yes, I'm that old) and did a brisk business. Another guy whose dad owned a pharmacy illegally sold legal drugs—mother's little helpers, go-pills, any prescription upper or downer you wanted. Cough syrup with codeine was a big commodity. NyQuil, when it came along, was too. Some idiots even sniffed glue. Butyrate Dope was the Cadillac of sniffables, maybe because of the name. I never saw any evidence of heroin use, but I wouldn't dismiss the possibility.
A girl named Sue, a beautiful, brilliant girl, and one of the top ten in my class, saw me at the mall one day and asked me if I'd give her a ride home. Sure. She invited me in. We were sitting in her family's kitchen, drinking coffee with her parents ten feet away in the living room. Oblivious to danger (high, I guess) she chirpily recited to me the list of drugs she'd done: "I ate this, then I ate that…." I kept trying to tell her ixnay. No luck. I don't know what happened after I left….
I didn't go to college, but I spent a lot of time on college campuses while in high school and thereafter. I took art classes at Carnegie-Mellon University. (It was still called Carnegie Tech when I first started the classes.) Think there were drugs to be found in the College of Fine Arts building? I believe smoking weed was a course requirement, at least in the theater department.
Because I took classes at Carnegie Tech/Carnegie-Mellon, I was entitled to use the Hunt Library. I practically lived there. That's where I first got my hands on a copy of Seduction of the Innocent, by the way.
I also occasionally spent time at the University of Pittsburgh. I was in a special program that provided science geeks like me the opportunity to perform lab assistant grunt work for science professors doing research. Actual experience (however grunty) in an actual lab, plus being coached, advised and taught by a real scientist…wow, groovy.
I was told that people there cooked LSD for themselves and their friends. I saw the darkroom. Were they kidding? Pranking the doofus high school kid? I don't know, but there sure was a lot of LSD around. It wasn't even illegal back then. Several people offered me some. Free. I turned it down.
I didn't do any drugs at all back then. Not even alcohol. No money, no time. And since I wasn't likely to succeed because of my looks or athletic abilities, I didn't want to muddle my mind any more than it already was.
I have had two drug experiences in my life. In high school, I often had to stay up all night working to make deadlines for Mort. It was hard. Coffee and No-Doze didn't cut it. A guy I knew gave me some spansules he said would help. Ritalin, he said, a mild stimulant. I looked it up. Yep. A mild stimulant.
Late one night, as I was fading out with a drop-dead deadline looming, I took two, as advised. Suddenly wide awake, I did two days' worth of work, eight pages of script and layouts, in a few hours. Then I drove at 4 AM to the main Post Office in downtown Pittsburgh in my beat-up junkyard-ready 1963 TR4 (bought for $400) flat out in fourth gear on winding, follow-the-creek roads (like McLaughlin's Run, for you 'Burgh people). Thank God there was no one else on the road. I mailed the work air mail special delivery—the stamp cost an outrageous $.55!—which would get the package to DC Comics the next day, saving my job.
Then I drove around like a mad loon at 110 MPH. If there had been a squirrel I could have caught I would have eaten it raw. If my girlfriend had been around, well…let's just say I was extremely motivated. Sometime before normal people were on the roads (it was Saturday), I started to wind down. I went home and slept all day, all night and woke up Sunday morning.
Mild stimulant?
A friend had a Physician's Desk Reference. I paged through it until I found a pill that looked like the ones I'd taken. Dexedrine. The highest dosage.
Got rid of the rest of those pills in a hurry….
Many years later, a girlfriend made pot brownies. She insisted I eat one. We were in a safe place, no obvious risk factors. Okay.
It put me to sleep fast. No tolerance for the stuff, I guess.
That's it.
Anyway….
I was doing commercial, advertising comics for U.S. Steel and others when Stan's Spider-Man drug story and Denny's Green Lantern/Green Arrow/Speedy (Speedy…! Heehee!) drug story came out. I never read them. Were they good?
However, I have seen a lot of stories involving drugs since. Generally, it seems to me that they are dorkier and more comic-booky than "Forbidden Fruit" as published, in my opinion. The addicts are caricatures, the pushers are caricatures, the effects of the drugs are either cartoony-bad or cartoony-beneficial, giving the user unbelievable stamina, strength or imperviousness to pain. Sorry Frank.
The portrayal of drug use in comics is one of our great failings. One of the reasons that Big Entertainment Media laugh at us. Not that they often get it right.
NEXT: Sex and Drugs Part 2 – Sex
December 20, 2011
Mile High Times
Friday afternoon, Chuck Rozanski picked me up at the Denver International Airport. My trip from Newark Liberty had been the usual ordeal. Maybe a little more so. I had to go through one of those full body scans. I'm sure the scan-pic will be on the web soon, so anyone so bored as to be wondering whether it's boxers or briefs will know. We were held at the gate for a while because the aircraft maintenance people had to change a lightbulb. I guess it was an important one. So, we were late taking off and late arriving.
Therefore, Chuck had a long wait for me. As he was hanging around outside the secured area, he noticed a lot of military people also sort of hanging around. They had on camo pants and boots, but on top wore loose sweaters. All of them. No weapons showing. But these people weren't just passing through on their way somewhere, they were on duty. Eagle-eyed Chuck also noticed TSA types scattered about, Denver and State Police here and there and people in civvies who were people-watching with intensity.
The Watchers noticed Chuck noticing them. A group of Watchers, trying to be discreet and failing, sort of surrounded him.
Then I showed up and we went on our way. Chuck pointed out the Watchers as we left. Wow. Was there a terrorist threat? Or was it just Christmas/holiday season precautions?
Anyway….
We went to one of Chuck's warehouses. Chuck's troops put me to work signing comics for online customers.
After a while, Chuck's other weekend guest, Mike Kott showed up. Mike and his lovely partner Sue run the Intergalactic Trading Company.
http://www.intergalactictrading.com/
Mike is a long-time friend of Chuck's—and mine, for not quite as long. A great guy.
Chuck took us to dinner at Hamburger Mary's, a burger-lover's paradise. Unbelievably great. Then we went to Charlie's, an LGBT friendly bar to see a show.
The show was a benefit for Toys for Tots. Toys for Tots, as you may know, is run by the United States Marine Corps Reserves. Its mission is to provide Christmas toys for needy children. If you're not in favor of that, you're a Grinch.
The show was produced by two members of the Imperial Court of the Rocky Mountain Empire, a social and charitable LGBT organization.
Here's a picture of me with Phantashe, a Baroness in the Court, one of the producers of the show and a star performer. "Pull my hair," she told me. As you can see, I'm not a real aggressive hair-puller:
Phantashe's co-producer was Dan Rutledge, the Emperor. A very nice guy. A gentleman of, indeed, Royal stature.
There were an amazing number of acts crammed into two hours. Some performers were gay, some straight, some in drag, some not. There were funny acts and serious ones. Some lip-syncing and some real singers. One young woman played the guitar and sang. Brilliantly. Twice.
Chuck donated a lot of money—and lest you think otherwise, these times are as brutal for him as they are for many. He also donated a mountain of new toys. Few things touch me more than concern for kids, so I was impressed.
They had a "fifty-fifty" raffle. Buy a ticket for a buck, win, and you get half of the raffle proceeds, the rest going to Toys for Tots. If you paid ten bucks, they'd give you a string of tickets stretching from the floor over your shoulder and back to the floor. And, of course, I'm a little over 6'7". Hmm.
I bought a $10 string of tickets. I won. HA! Cheating, says I! But, I donated the winnings to Toys for Tots. I think anyone in that room who won would have.
The show ended too soon, Chuck, Mike and I went back to Chuck's farm, and after a too-brief chat with Chuck's wonderful, brilliant wife Nannette, I retired. Slept like a potato.
Morning comes early in Boulder, Colorado. City-fied potatoes like me probably couldn't survive if we had to get up in time to wake up the rooster every day so we could milk the chickens or whatever the rustics do, but, I actually crawled out of bed before dawn and the day began, ready or not.
Good breakfast, then off to the Mega-store.
Chuck gave Mike and I a tour of the place. It's part warehouse, part events venue and part retail outlet. It's vast and spectacular.
Perhaps he needs a bigger banner….
Here's a picture of me with Chuck's brilliant (of course), beautiful number one daughter, Rowan. I asked for a wallet sized print so I could show people back home that I hang with Hot Chix.
I didn't get a picture, but another of Chuck's daughters, beautiful, brilliant Tannith, #3 in a series of four, was also in attendance. Absent, due to being on other continents, were Aleta and Elsbeth.
I signed books at a brisk pace and talked with many people. Half a dozen or more people there admitted that they read this blog! A few said they found out about the event here. Glorioski!
Chuck asked me to give a talk. I said, "Chuck, there aren't very many people here. I can talk to people one-on-one if they come by the table." Chuck said there are lots of people! So, I went to the presentation area. There were, I don't know, more than 100 seats. I'm lousy at estimating such things. Once Chuck announced that I was going to speak, the presentation area filled up! The Mega-store space is so big that it could devour an army! There were way more people there than I'd guessed! I did a Q&A for an hour or so. It was cool.
Back to my table. Chuck ran an auction in the presentation area. I signed many more books.
Besides me, Chuck had invited any creators who wished to come and have a table, free. Two guys took him up on it. Here's a picture of me, Chuck and those two:
Cory Watts, Chuck, Jim Shooter and
Scott Bedford at the Jason St. Mega StoreApparently, I'm losing it, because I swear the guy who is not Scott told me his name was Phil. On Chuck's site (where the photo came from) he's identified as Cory. I don't know.
Anyway….
Those two have created a yet-to-be-launched fantasy property that's terrific. You should see the art! They got a lot of attention from the crowd. At one point, when I had a break and went to their table to see what all the fuss was about, I couldn't get near enough. Later, as the event was winding down, I got a chance to talk to the guys. They're nice guys and talented. Stupid me can't remember the name of the property and didn't write it down anywhere. Sigh. If anyone can supply that info, I'll post it here.
While the show was still going on, I was whisked to the airport and made it home with no more than standard difficulty. And, once home, I slept like a potato.
NEXT: Sex and Drugs, Really
Therefore, Chuck had a long wait for me. As he was hanging around outside the secured area, he noticed a lot of military people also sort of hanging around. They had on camo pants and boots, but on top wore loose sweaters. All of them. No weapons showing. But these people weren't just passing through on their way somewhere, they were on duty. Eagle-eyed Chuck also noticed TSA types scattered about, Denver and State Police here and there and people in civvies who were people-watching with intensity.
The Watchers noticed Chuck noticing them. A group of Watchers, trying to be discreet and failing, sort of surrounded him.
Then I showed up and we went on our way. Chuck pointed out the Watchers as we left. Wow. Was there a terrorist threat? Or was it just Christmas/holiday season precautions?
Anyway….
We went to one of Chuck's warehouses. Chuck's troops put me to work signing comics for online customers.
After a while, Chuck's other weekend guest, Mike Kott showed up. Mike and his lovely partner Sue run the Intergalactic Trading Company.
http://www.intergalactictrading.com/
Mike is a long-time friend of Chuck's—and mine, for not quite as long. A great guy.
Chuck took us to dinner at Hamburger Mary's, a burger-lover's paradise. Unbelievably great. Then we went to Charlie's, an LGBT friendly bar to see a show.
The show was a benefit for Toys for Tots. Toys for Tots, as you may know, is run by the United States Marine Corps Reserves. Its mission is to provide Christmas toys for needy children. If you're not in favor of that, you're a Grinch.
The show was produced by two members of the Imperial Court of the Rocky Mountain Empire, a social and charitable LGBT organization.
Here's a picture of me with Phantashe, a Baroness in the Court, one of the producers of the show and a star performer. "Pull my hair," she told me. As you can see, I'm not a real aggressive hair-puller:
Phantashe's co-producer was Dan Rutledge, the Emperor. A very nice guy. A gentleman of, indeed, Royal stature.There were an amazing number of acts crammed into two hours. Some performers were gay, some straight, some in drag, some not. There were funny acts and serious ones. Some lip-syncing and some real singers. One young woman played the guitar and sang. Brilliantly. Twice.
Chuck donated a lot of money—and lest you think otherwise, these times are as brutal for him as they are for many. He also donated a mountain of new toys. Few things touch me more than concern for kids, so I was impressed.
They had a "fifty-fifty" raffle. Buy a ticket for a buck, win, and you get half of the raffle proceeds, the rest going to Toys for Tots. If you paid ten bucks, they'd give you a string of tickets stretching from the floor over your shoulder and back to the floor. And, of course, I'm a little over 6'7". Hmm.
I bought a $10 string of tickets. I won. HA! Cheating, says I! But, I donated the winnings to Toys for Tots. I think anyone in that room who won would have.
The show ended too soon, Chuck, Mike and I went back to Chuck's farm, and after a too-brief chat with Chuck's wonderful, brilliant wife Nannette, I retired. Slept like a potato.
Morning comes early in Boulder, Colorado. City-fied potatoes like me probably couldn't survive if we had to get up in time to wake up the rooster every day so we could milk the chickens or whatever the rustics do, but, I actually crawled out of bed before dawn and the day began, ready or not.
Good breakfast, then off to the Mega-store.
Chuck gave Mike and I a tour of the place. It's part warehouse, part events venue and part retail outlet. It's vast and spectacular.
Perhaps he needs a bigger banner….Here's a picture of me with Chuck's brilliant (of course), beautiful number one daughter, Rowan. I asked for a wallet sized print so I could show people back home that I hang with Hot Chix.
I didn't get a picture, but another of Chuck's daughters, beautiful, brilliant Tannith, #3 in a series of four, was also in attendance. Absent, due to being on other continents, were Aleta and Elsbeth.I signed books at a brisk pace and talked with many people. Half a dozen or more people there admitted that they read this blog! A few said they found out about the event here. Glorioski!
Chuck asked me to give a talk. I said, "Chuck, there aren't very many people here. I can talk to people one-on-one if they come by the table." Chuck said there are lots of people! So, I went to the presentation area. There were, I don't know, more than 100 seats. I'm lousy at estimating such things. Once Chuck announced that I was going to speak, the presentation area filled up! The Mega-store space is so big that it could devour an army! There were way more people there than I'd guessed! I did a Q&A for an hour or so. It was cool.
Back to my table. Chuck ran an auction in the presentation area. I signed many more books.
Besides me, Chuck had invited any creators who wished to come and have a table, free. Two guys took him up on it. Here's a picture of me, Chuck and those two:
Cory Watts, Chuck, Jim Shooter andScott Bedford at the Jason St. Mega StoreApparently, I'm losing it, because I swear the guy who is not Scott told me his name was Phil. On Chuck's site (where the photo came from) he's identified as Cory. I don't know.
Anyway….
Those two have created a yet-to-be-launched fantasy property that's terrific. You should see the art! They got a lot of attention from the crowd. At one point, when I had a break and went to their table to see what all the fuss was about, I couldn't get near enough. Later, as the event was winding down, I got a chance to talk to the guys. They're nice guys and talented. Stupid me can't remember the name of the property and didn't write it down anywhere. Sigh. If anyone can supply that info, I'll post it here.
While the show was still going on, I was whisked to the airport and made it home with no more than standard difficulty. And, once home, I slept like a potato.
NEXT: Sex and Drugs, Really
December 16, 2011
Eduardo Barreto
I understand that Eduardo Barreto died a day or two ago as well. I didn't know him, but he did a couple of jobs for companies I ran along the way. He was a tremendous talent.
Joe Simon
Joe Simon
Joe Simon passed away on Wednesday.
I met Joe Simon in the Green Room at QVC HQ in West Goshen, Pennsylvania some years ago. He was there to do a promotion for a slate of comics collectibles. Me too. I'd never even seen a picture of him, but he recognized me and introduced himself. What an honor to meet him! Joe was one of the most gracious and nicest people I've ever known. We got together a few more times after that, and each time he couldn't have been nicer. And, of course, he was a fundamental force in our industry, a giant upon whose shoulders we all stand. What a great man. What a great loss.
Joe Simon passed away on Wednesday.
I met Joe Simon in the Green Room at QVC HQ in West Goshen, Pennsylvania some years ago. He was there to do a promotion for a slate of comics collectibles. Me too. I'd never even seen a picture of him, but he recognized me and introduced himself. What an honor to meet him! Joe was one of the most gracious and nicest people I've ever known. We got together a few more times after that, and each time he couldn't have been nicer. And, of course, he was a fundamental force in our industry, a giant upon whose shoulders we all stand. What a great man. What a great loss.
December 14, 2011
Mile High Comics Appearance
I'm going to be signing at Chuck Rozanski's new Mile High Comics Mega-Store this Saturday. I don't often do signings and conventions anymore, but Chuck has been a good friend for over 30 years. He asked me to help out with his Christmas Season event at his new store and I couldn't let him down. He's helped me out many times and never let me down. This is an excerpt from the Mile High Comics Newsletter, December 7th:
Jim Shooter Will Autograph Comics For You!
Howdy!
Big news this morning, as I have a tentative agreement with comics legend, Jim Shooter, to sign autographs for fans at next week's Christmas Gift Auction at our new Jason St. Mega-Store! We do still have to work out the travel arrangements, but presuming that we can make all the logistics work, Jim will be signing autographs for us at Jason St. next Saturday (December 17th), from 10 AM -3 PM. There will be an initial limit of 3 free autographs per person in line, but once we get everyone through the line at least once, we will let folks get back in line. Having Jim Shooter visit us here in Denver again will be great fun! Jim was last here in 1992, when he helped us open our first Mega-Store, in Thornton...
In case you missed my earlier announcements, our December 17th Jason St. sale will be focused on providing those who can attend the sale with a huge spectrum of last-minute stocking stuffer gifts. We have several thousand action figures available, racks full of T-shirts, pins, buttons, posters, collectible cards, plush toys, Star Trek and Star Wars collectibles, and a huge selection of rare Disney items. My goal on the 17th will be to help everyone find perfect last-minute gifts from our immense new store. I will also be hosting one of my world-famous 1,000 item no-minimum-bid auction that day, with at least 500 cool gift items among the offerings. Join us at Jason St. a week from this Saturday and I promise you that you will fill your entire holiday shopping list, at wonderful bargain prices.
For those of you who cannot attend the sale in person, I have a special Jim Shooter autograph offer. Buy any comic book, graphic novel, or magazine written or edited by Jim from our website this week and you can ask for it to be signed by Jim for only $2 per item! Jim has agreed to sign up to 500 items for us, with the $2 signing fees going to help defray his travel costs Denver. If you would like to participate in this unique autograph offer, just place your order for Jim Shooter items via our website, and then let us know which comics/books you liked signed in the "notes" section for them to be autographed. For each item you wish autographed, please order a Jim Shooter Signed Item Fee. We will then have Jim sign them for you. Each Jim Shooter book that you have signed will come with a small certificate of authenticity with the date, and the Mile High Comics logo. Even if you cannot attend the Jason St. sale in person on the 17th, this still gives you a way to have comics signed by Jim! All Jim Shooter autographed items will ship on Monday, December 19th.
Here's a follow up from the December 12th Newsletter:
Free ACTION #2 Variant -
Jim Shooter Autographs Almost Sold Out!
Howdy!
I want to start off today by thanking everyone who has pre-ordered Jim Shooter autographs from us. We are now rapidly approaching the 500 autographs that Jim graciously agreed to provide to everyone who shops with us via our website. I am reasonably certain that Jim is willing to up that limit, and to keep signing all of his comics that are ordered via the website by Friday afternoon. But there are obviously the limitations of time and physical ability. Signing that many comics takes a long time!
So you know, Jim will be arriving in Denver at noon on Friday, and will be signing pre-orders for us all afternoon, in the order in which they were received. If you would still like to have Jim sign some of his comics for you, please be sure and order them via our website right away. Each signature incurs a $2 fee, which will go to help offset Jim's travel costs. That having been said, each of the comics that Jim signs will come with a nice certificate of authenticity for you. If you live in the Denver area and would like to meet Jim in person, those same certificates will be available for $2 each at our Jason St. signing party (4600 Jason St, Denver CO 80211). The Jason St. signing will run from 10 AM - 3 PM this Saturday, with Jim signing right up to 3 PM. He will give a small talk and host a Q&A from 11 AM - Noon, after which I will be auctioning 1,000 items for no-minimum-bid, with a special focus on inexpensive last-minute holiday gifts. If you can come by to our Jason St. party this Saturday, please do!
ACTION COMICS#2 Variant Edition
(…)P.S. We do still have free table space available for any local comics creators who would like to join the Jim Shooter signing on Saturday. Please contact David Saindon, the manager of our Lakewood, Colorado retail store at 303-238-8125, or write to him at david.saindon@gmail.com. All the revenues that you might generate from your comics, are yours to keep…
I think this is going to be fun. If you're in the area on Saturday, please stop by. I'd be very happy to see you.
The Mile High Comics Newsletter appears in my inbox every few days. Besides the latest offers and specials, it usually has tales of Chuck's adventures along the way, everything from reports on the cons he attends (his San Diego Comic-Con reports are incredible) and comics buying expeditions to what's going on with his family and the farm. Chuck's a collector of Native American pottery as well as comics, and has some interesting experiences to relate about that, too. It's always a fun read full of personality and insight. If you're interested, you can check out the Newsletter and/or sign up for it at the Mile High Comics site:
http://www.milehighcomics.com
By the way, in case you didn't know, in 1996, Chuck wrote this book:
Here's a typical page:
I think this is great, and very useful. It inspired me to track down some items that I wanted to own.Chuck always signs off on the Newsletter thus:
"Happy Collecting!"
Seems appropriate here, too.
NEXT: Sex and Drugs
December 13, 2011
To Kill or Not to Kill
JayJay here. Earlier today Rob commented on A Review: Captain America & Bucky #624:
Here's Jim's Answer:
RE: Heroic characters killing or not, here's what I think: Heroic fiction often tends to place heroes in life or death, kill-or-be-killed situations. If no one ever actually does get killed, if it always turns out that there was a nobody-dies alternative, then the jeopardy was false and can become tedious.
Stan in the 60's managed to do it well enough -- not have heroes kill anyone, that is -- so that it never bothered me that the building destroyed was, fortunately, abandoned, that people were "thrown clear" by the blast, that everyone got out alive. Stan seldom had anyone killed.
Other writers didn't do so well. In Green Lantern, for instance: When Green Lantern's ring was, without any set-up, revealed to automatically protect him from mortal harm to undo the dramatic death he'd just suffered, when Green Lantern was "proven" dead, but the Guardians, I think, were able to bring him back because there was still an "atomic spark of life," I realized that rabbits would always be pulled out of the hat. Reading those "yarns," as Julie called them, was all about guessing or seeing the clever trick at the end -- the "twist," to use Mort's term -- not the human drama.
These days, writers use death for drama with reckless abandon. And it has the same effect as the GL gimmicks -- we become inured to it, and it becomes tedious.
My feeling is that each heroic character should be true to his core concept. Some few will not kill. Period. Most, I think, will kill in extremis. Some, of the new bad-boy "hero" ilk will kill when it is "fair" enough, but not really unavoidable. Some kill seemingly callously or carelessly. "It's okay, they're bad guys."
Whether the characters at any particular level on the killing scale are "heroes," I suppose, is up to the beholder. To me, the latter two categories might be protagonists, but aren't heroes or heroic in my book. Doesn't mean they aren't legit protagonists, or can't be done, or shouldn't be done. Do them well, I say. True to their core concepts.
But be conscious of consequences. Think through and reflect the ramifications. For example, Claremont once had a scene in which Wolverine killed several of the bad guy's henchmen brutally and unnecessarily -- "It's okay, they're bad guys" syndrome. Wolverine does this in front of Storm. Her reaction? "I can't look." She averts her eyes.
No, she wouldn't. She would stop Wolverine, or, failing that, she would thenceforth consider him a bad guy. Storm falls in the will-not-kill, or possibly the kill-in-extremis category. Seeing Wolverine unnecessarily gut several of the villains flunkies, who weren't at that moment doing anything heinous and were in no way a match for Wolverine or a threat to him would change Storm's relationship with Wolverine forever. I told him do it and deal with the logical consequences, or change it.
Which brings us back to Stan, and other good writers. Death is serious. Handle with care.
Jedi Knights and Harry Potter wizards are clearly superheroic. heck, the HP kids are children-who kill bad wizards. Plenty of kids look up to them.
and the rest of them are "normal people" the same way Batman is lol i.e. not really.
and yet, I still looked up to Luke Skywlaker though he blew up the Death Star and killed thousands of people; sliced off arms, and casually knocked people into the Sarlaac pit.
Rob
December 12, 2011 6:12 PM
Here's Jim's Answer:
RE: Heroic characters killing or not, here's what I think: Heroic fiction often tends to place heroes in life or death, kill-or-be-killed situations. If no one ever actually does get killed, if it always turns out that there was a nobody-dies alternative, then the jeopardy was false and can become tedious.
Stan in the 60's managed to do it well enough -- not have heroes kill anyone, that is -- so that it never bothered me that the building destroyed was, fortunately, abandoned, that people were "thrown clear" by the blast, that everyone got out alive. Stan seldom had anyone killed.
Other writers didn't do so well. In Green Lantern, for instance: When Green Lantern's ring was, without any set-up, revealed to automatically protect him from mortal harm to undo the dramatic death he'd just suffered, when Green Lantern was "proven" dead, but the Guardians, I think, were able to bring him back because there was still an "atomic spark of life," I realized that rabbits would always be pulled out of the hat. Reading those "yarns," as Julie called them, was all about guessing or seeing the clever trick at the end -- the "twist," to use Mort's term -- not the human drama.
These days, writers use death for drama with reckless abandon. And it has the same effect as the GL gimmicks -- we become inured to it, and it becomes tedious.
My feeling is that each heroic character should be true to his core concept. Some few will not kill. Period. Most, I think, will kill in extremis. Some, of the new bad-boy "hero" ilk will kill when it is "fair" enough, but not really unavoidable. Some kill seemingly callously or carelessly. "It's okay, they're bad guys."
Whether the characters at any particular level on the killing scale are "heroes," I suppose, is up to the beholder. To me, the latter two categories might be protagonists, but aren't heroes or heroic in my book. Doesn't mean they aren't legit protagonists, or can't be done, or shouldn't be done. Do them well, I say. True to their core concepts.
But be conscious of consequences. Think through and reflect the ramifications. For example, Claremont once had a scene in which Wolverine killed several of the bad guy's henchmen brutally and unnecessarily -- "It's okay, they're bad guys" syndrome. Wolverine does this in front of Storm. Her reaction? "I can't look." She averts her eyes.
No, she wouldn't. She would stop Wolverine, or, failing that, she would thenceforth consider him a bad guy. Storm falls in the will-not-kill, or possibly the kill-in-extremis category. Seeing Wolverine unnecessarily gut several of the villains flunkies, who weren't at that moment doing anything heinous and were in no way a match for Wolverine or a threat to him would change Storm's relationship with Wolverine forever. I told him do it and deal with the logical consequences, or change it.
Which brings us back to Stan, and other good writers. Death is serious. Handle with care.
December 12, 2011
A Review: Captain America & Bucky #624
JayJay recommended that I review this book because it's been getting a lot of positive buzz online, much of it with regard to the allegedly well-portrayed romance at the core of the story.
The Cover
Baffling.
The logo pops pretty well and is readable. It incorporates Captain America's shield. "Captain America & Bucky" it says, which would lead one to figure that this book is about those two.I'm familiar with a great deal of comic book material but not some of recent vintage. I don't know who the male character pictured is. A Soviet, I guess, from the red star on his shoulder and the hammer and sickle in the background.
If I don't know who the guy is no new reader would have a clue.
And the female character? How many non-comics readers know of Marvel's Black Widow?
We comics-savvy types know that the female character is dressed like the Black Widow and has reddish hair. I'm not sure it's her, though. She doesn't look like the Black Widow I remember, facially or any other way. Doesn't have the figure. And her head is too big.
Her girlish figure and proportionately large head cause me to suspect that maybe she's supposed to be a young girl. A very young Black Widow, maybe?
But the drawing is pretty bad. Hard to tell whether the artist meant for the character to look young or it's just bad draftsmanship. Look at her face and head. Distorted, poorly constructed. And extra cartoony compared to the rest of the image.
The Black Widow is Russian, so the hammer and sickle background makes sense, especially if this issue takes place when she was young.
I think a lot of people even some people like me, who know comics but aren't up to date might think these two are the villains of the piece.
What we have here is another pin-up in a seemingly endless parade of pin-up covers. The male character looks sort of dangerous and menacing, which supports my villains-of-the-piece theory. I don't know what to make of her. Her pose is strange. What's she doing? And her expression…? What it's meant to convey is unfathomable.
His upper arm overlaps hers in a bad way. His bulging muscles, colored, shaded and rendered similarly to her shoulder create a minor visual conundrum. Bad composition. Not disastrous. Just not good.
I would never pick up this comic book because the cover is bland, uninformative and not compelling. That would be a shame, because some nice art and some good words can be found inside.
The cover was by Ed McGuinness and Morry Hollowell.
The Interior
The inside front cover says this:
"1941. ORPHANED AFTER THE LOSS OF HIS FATHER, JAMES "BUCKY" BARNES BECAME THE MASCOT AT FORT LEHIGH AND GAINED A REPUTATION AS A NOTORIOUS TROUBLEMAKER (my italics for emphasis). AS WORLD WAR II LOOMED, BARNES WAS SELECTED FOR A ONE-OF-A-KIND SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT WITH THE ARMY: TO BE THE NEW PARTNER FOR STEVE ROGERS, AKA CAPTAIN AMERICA. AFTER SURVIVING COUNTLESS HIGH-RISK OPERATIONS, BUCKY WAS ULTIMATELY LOST, PLUNGING INTO ARCTIC WATERS AND PRESUMED DEAD…
Who writes these intro pieces for both Marvel and DC? Does anyone edit them?
I write these blog posts fast. It's all first draft, no editor. JayJay catches a few things, occasionally, but she's no copy editor or proofreader. Ask her. I know misteaks creepe inn. But wouldn't you think publishing houses with allegedly professional editors and proofreaders would see to it that intro copy for publication was on point and precise?
Is the assertion that Bucky was a troublemaker germane to this story? If not, editor Lauren Sankovitch, why is that tidbit mentioned? P.S. It doesn't turn out to be germane, in my opinion.
Think about what is said in this intro. Bucky Barnes was a "notorious troublemaker." So they reward him with a one-of-a-kind special assignment. Why would the U.S. Army select a troublemaker for an arguably important position? Were there no well-behaved, athletic, young orphans available?
As I recall, the original Bucky caught Steve Rogers changing to his Cap costume and more or less blackmailed Cap into letting him become Cap's assistant. That, at least, makes some kind of sense in comic book logic, thank you, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
Anyway….
No splash. The story opens with a panel showing an urban street scene with 1940's or early 1950's American cars in evidence. Captain America comes crashing out of a window several floors up and makes it safely to the street. Gunmen in the room Cap abruptly left fire at him. Bullets bounce off Cap's shield.
Astute readers who bothered to read the inside cover intro copy might realize that the captions are Bucky's narration. Comics-savvy me figured that out. Some civilians might not get it.
Page two begins with a caption that says "1958." Cap is running past a newsstand. The newsstand vendor pulls a gun, intent on shooting Cap. Cap notices him, attacks him, disarms him and sticks his own gun in the guy's face. The vendor's dialogue has angle brackets around it: "<No! Please don't!>" A caption tell us that the vendor is speaking Russian, so even new readers or civilians, who might otherwise be puzzled by the angle brackets or ignore them have a fighting chance of grasping their purpose. Good.
Cap cold-bloodedly shoots the vendor.
Now that seems unusual.
It must be pointed out that we don't actually see Cap's shot ripping into the vendor, but the evidence is pretty convincing: Cap's gun pressed against the guy's face, Cap firing and the vendor lying on the street as Cap turns away. I believed it.
Then a car races towards Cap. Cap fires his gun at an overhead power line, severing it. He hurls his shield at the car's windshield. The driver says "<Oh, no.>"
Cap's shield smashes the windshield causing the car to swerve and crash into a hydrant. The street is awash with water from the broken hydrant. Gunmen pile out of the wrecked car. Cap answers the "<Oh, no.>" that he could not possibly have heard: "<Unfortunately, yes.>"
Cap is poised to plunge the sparking end of the power line into the pool of water in which the gunmen from the car are standing. Turn the page….
Zap! Fried gunmen. Cap calls them idiots.
An unreadable sound effect presages an entrance. I eventually figured out it was "KLIK." The sound of a gun being cocked?
A beautiful, reddish-haired woman in a black dress confronts Cap. She wears a pillbox hat with a net veil. She is armed with a pistol and a grenade. Cap says, "This isn't supposed to be a live ammunition exercise."
Now, wait a minute. We have seen sparks fly as bullets glanced off of Cap's shield. Cap severed a power line with a shot from the same gun he stuck in the face of the vendor. Plenty of live ammo used, so…. What's the point here? That it wasn't supposed to be a live ammunition exercise but everybody ignored the rules? Or what?
Cap and the pillbox hat woman have a momentary stand-off. It is interrupted by a man who seems to be in charge.
As Cap mentioned, turns out it was all a training exercise. For the gunmen, who we gather are Soviet spies, and I suppose for Cap and for the pillbox hat woman, too.
The pillbox hat woman is called "Black Widow" by the man in charge. "Cap" is called "Winter Soldier" by the man in charge and then by Black Widow. Winter Soldier? Okay. Winter Soldier strips off the top half of his Captain America costume revealing one metallic arm emblazoned with a red star. He's the guy from the cover!
Black Widow doesn't look like the female character on the cover. Her mother, maybe. The jury is still out about the identity of cover girl. Even for comics-savvy me. Seriously. These days, when Miles Morales is Spider-Man and I've totally lost track of who Superboy is, I'm suspicious of everything.
Winter Soldier is criticized for being overly brutal.
The question of whether or not live ammo was supposed to be used or not is moot, but we do learn that Black Widow's grenade is a smoke-generating fake. Was her gun loaded like Winter Soldier's and at least some of the gunmen's? Who knows?
So, what was up with the live-ammo-or-not thing? Beats me. Instead of being fully focused on the story, in the back of my mind I'm searching for significance in it. Bullets flew, but Black Widow's grenade was fake. What does it mean? Nothing discoverable, to me, anyway. It just seems like sloppy writing and lame editing.
The exercise is over. The narrative captions start up again, and we segue into the Winter Soldier's personal flashback to his origin. Here it is:
Ed Brubaker and Marc Andreyko wrote this story. They do some things well. They construct scenes well, for the most part. They get information across efficiently, for the most part. The dialogue is terse and functional, though fairly naturally so. The characters are people who would speak tersely and functionally. Story architecture I'll get to later. (A clue: There is none.)But this page is where they lost me. Or maybe where Marvel Comics lost me. Story-wise, I mean. Marvel Comics lost me job-wise on purpose in 1987.
Obviously, now, the narrator is Bucky, the character briefly introduced on the inside front cover. It is revealed that Bucky is Winter Soldier. If new readers paid attention to the inside front cover and the first narrative captions, they would have a shot at understanding what is revealed here. If not, Heaven help them.
Now obviously the narrator, Bucky remembers his pre-Winter Soldier past.
First giant logical problem: Nothing in this story contradicts my understanding or would inform a new reader that Bucky is any more than an athletic young man who had undergone some serious training. Not a super soldier or super-human in any way. So why would the Soviets invest a great deal of effort and expense bringing him back to life, replacing what he'd lost (an arm, for instance, with a robotic arm), and programming his blank-slate mind so that they could use him for their own purposes? The glib explanation offered is that they recognized his value to their cause.
What?
What exactly was his value to their cause?
Surely, in all the Soviet Union, there was a strapping young man with all his limbs intact who could be trained.
How much training could Bucky have had? So much that he had no equal, no potential equal among the millions of young Soviets? So much that it made sense to rebuild and program Bucky rather than spend a similar time intensively training someone else?
They trained the Black Widow, didn't they?!
It's not as though they used Bucky's previous identity as a propaganda tool. It apparently was kept secret that Winter Soldier had been Bucky. Especially from him.
And the name "Winter Soldier." What? That term was coined in the early 1970's. It was a reference to the whistle-blowers who exposed Viet Nam War atrocities. It was derived from the introduction of a pamphlet Thomas Paine wrote in 1776.
A Soviet operative in 1958 called Winter Soldier doesn't make a whole lot of sense and could be offensive to some people.
Anyway….
Winter Soldier is a Soviet "secret weapon" in the Cold War, as is Black Widow. He kills people for the government. One would assume that she does too, though she isn't shown doing so in this story. They are clearly romantically attracted to one another. They have this scene together:
Think about these two people who are romantically involved. Two killers. I guess they can work it around in their heads that they're each merely doing their duty. Like soldiers.He's attracted to her, a killer. But he's programmed. Killing is okay with him, and hey, she's cute.
She's attracted to him. But he's excessively brutal, remember? Even in a training exercise. A pretty nasty, despicable customer.
She's apparently fine with that.
Whatever turns you on….
And she doesn't have the excuse of being programmed.
What kind of person is she?!
Second giant logical problem: Winter Soldier and Black Widow know the overlords they serve are callous bastards who have "eyes everywhere." They know that, if their secret affair were discovered, they'd both be "sent to Siberia. Or worse." They both fear the government they work for.
So why do they serve these harsh taskmasters who keep their relationship confined to secret trysts? Are they that dedicated to communism or the Soviet Union? Do their jobs pay that well? What?
Why don't they use their considerable talents to escape the oppression they suffer? Could it be that they enjoy their work and the benefits are good?
I don't know.
Winter Soldier is sent on an assassination mission. A complication arises. The intended victim has his young daughter with him. Winter Soldier shows a hint of humanity. A crack in his programming? He is reluctant to risk harming the little girl. Fortunately, Black Widow has, without authorization, tagged along. She takes the child aside and comforts her as Winter Soldier finishes the vic off with his knife, in grisly fashion.
Hey! This mission takes place in West Berlin! Both Winter Soldier and Black Widow surely could easily seek asylum in the Free World. Nobody uses that term anymore, but I will.
Nope.
I'll speculate here that Winter Soldier's programming prevents him from doing so and Black Widow won't go without him. But the issue is never addressed.
Winter Soldier is enraged at his bosses for not informing him that the target's child might be present. Things are tense.
We learn in an offhand comment that Black Widow "belongs" to some other dude, the "Red Guardian." No further mention of him.
The writers take us into another flashback page:
Huh?"…Cap fixed me."
What?
Okay, there's a red-gloved hand holding a glowing cube. Comics-savvy me guesses that Captain America somehow used the Cosmic Cube to undo what remained of Winter Soldier/Bucky's programming and restored his memory. Must be some fancy dancin' in that tale.
What would a new reader have made of this?
Many would pitch the book at that point and never bother with comics again. "I don't get it. What the @#$%&?"
We aren't clued in as to when the Cosmic Cube thing happened. Guess you had to be there.
Cut to Bucky, no longer Winter Soldier, and Black Widow visiting Bucky's younger sister in a nursing home. In the United States, one would surmise. From the apparent age of his sister, "Becca," it must be close to the present. If Bucky was, say, 16 at the beginning of WW II, Becca would have been, what 14 or so, maybe? Less? So if she's 80+, as she appears, this must be 2011 or no more than a few years earlier.
Bucky looks like maybe he has aged a little. Black Widow looks like she may have aged a little. If they were in their 20's in 1958, they'd be in their 70's when Becca was 80-something and in a nursing home. What's up with that?
I wonder if the writers have had experience with Alheimer's patients. I have. Becca's dialogue is bad and so, so wrong.
But whatever.
Then, Bucky and Black Widow ride off on a motorcycle. She says, "Now let's go catch some bad guys…"
The end.
Sigh.
This isn't a story. It's all exposition. All set up. None of the potential conflicts offered along the way go anywhere. The potential rift between Winter Soldier and his bosses? The potential clash between Winter Soldier and whoever the Red Guardian is? The many, many potentials of the dangerous romance between Winter Soldier and Black Widow?
Nothing.
Seems that all things are swept aside by the deus ex machina of the Cosmic Cube. And suddenly, we're in the present, or near present.
I guess the story happens next issue when Bucky and Black Widow catch some bad guys.
I wonder if Captain America is actually in the next issue of Captain America & Bucky. More than his hand in a flashback, I mean.
Brubaker and Andreyko seem to have some useful skills. With a good editor, they might be dangerous. Sorry, Lauren.
The art by Chris Samnee is very, very good. Appealing, clear and effortlessly readable. The coloring by Bettie Breitweiser is very good. Clear. She creates the illusion of depth. Lots of gray, but these days, everyone seems to overuse gray. It's the color du decennie.
Captain America & Bucky # 624 doesn't feature Captain America or the Bucky I know—false advertising—but it is enjoyable and has some good things to recommend it.
NEXT: I Don't Know – Something Groovy
December 11, 2011
Avengers #200
JayJay here. Some of our readers have commented about the article and video about Avengers 200 and the history of Ms. Marvel, so I suggested Jim have a look. For those unfamiliar with it, here's the link:
A Video Breakdown of the Sad History of Ms. Marvel, Sex SlaveAnd here's what Jim had to say:
I found my copy of Avengers #200. I read it. I agree with the consensus, it's heinous. But, I don't remember much about how it got that way.
I am credited not only as Editor in Chief but as one of the co-plotters. However, I didn't see anything in the book that jogged my memory. No bits that I remember suggesting. No corrections of the sort I might have made to a plot passed before me.
But I did see many things I would have had changed if I'd seen the plot. For instance, leaving aside the Ms. Marvel mess for the nonce: Iron Man thinks it's okay for the weird, mysterious child to be given a "laser torch" and electronic equipment so he can build a machine. What?! As the massive machine is being assembled, no one bothers to question what it is or does. What?! Trouble ensues. No kidding, really? Good grief.
At that time, I didn't approve plots. Editors did. I can think of no reason that plot would have been passed before me. I don't remember participating in a plotting session. David Michelinie lived far away and seldom came to the office. He and Bob Layton plotted books together mostly over the phone, then Dave wrote them up and presented them to the editor. I don't know to what extent George Pérez was involved. George often added bits and scenes, or made small changes to stories he was drawing, so possibly that is why he was given a plot credit. Usually writers didn't mind George's modifications because they were generally pretty good.
Generally, the first time I saw a book was when the finished pages were given to me to sign off on before they were sent to Chemical Color, the separators. There were exceptions, of course, books with which I was more involved. I don't think this was one of them. But, possibly I made some suggestions that garnered me a "co-plotter" credit, and if so, what was I thinking?
And, I guess I signed off on this book.
I regret it.
But, in those days, in any case, the buck stopped at my desk. I take full responsibility. I screwed up. My judgment failed, or maybe I wasn't paying enough attention. Sorry. Avengers #200 is a travesty.
Maybe outstanding editor and outstanding human being Jim Salicrup, who has occasionally honored this blog with his memories can lend some information about Avengers #200. If he says I participated, believe him. I don't know.
A note: At the time, as I recall, David Michelinie and Chris Claremont were feuding, so that may have had something to do with this story. Ask Chris. Or Dave. Preferably both. Or Jim Salicrup.
Again, mea culpa. Sorry.
TOMORROW: For sure, A Review: Captain America & Bucky #624
A Video Breakdown of the Sad History of Ms. Marvel, Sex SlaveAnd here's what Jim had to say:
I found my copy of Avengers #200. I read it. I agree with the consensus, it's heinous. But, I don't remember much about how it got that way.
I am credited not only as Editor in Chief but as one of the co-plotters. However, I didn't see anything in the book that jogged my memory. No bits that I remember suggesting. No corrections of the sort I might have made to a plot passed before me.
But I did see many things I would have had changed if I'd seen the plot. For instance, leaving aside the Ms. Marvel mess for the nonce: Iron Man thinks it's okay for the weird, mysterious child to be given a "laser torch" and electronic equipment so he can build a machine. What?! As the massive machine is being assembled, no one bothers to question what it is or does. What?! Trouble ensues. No kidding, really? Good grief.
At that time, I didn't approve plots. Editors did. I can think of no reason that plot would have been passed before me. I don't remember participating in a plotting session. David Michelinie lived far away and seldom came to the office. He and Bob Layton plotted books together mostly over the phone, then Dave wrote them up and presented them to the editor. I don't know to what extent George Pérez was involved. George often added bits and scenes, or made small changes to stories he was drawing, so possibly that is why he was given a plot credit. Usually writers didn't mind George's modifications because they were generally pretty good.
Generally, the first time I saw a book was when the finished pages were given to me to sign off on before they were sent to Chemical Color, the separators. There were exceptions, of course, books with which I was more involved. I don't think this was one of them. But, possibly I made some suggestions that garnered me a "co-plotter" credit, and if so, what was I thinking?
And, I guess I signed off on this book.
I regret it.
But, in those days, in any case, the buck stopped at my desk. I take full responsibility. I screwed up. My judgment failed, or maybe I wasn't paying enough attention. Sorry. Avengers #200 is a travesty.
Maybe outstanding editor and outstanding human being Jim Salicrup, who has occasionally honored this blog with his memories can lend some information about Avengers #200. If he says I participated, believe him. I don't know.
A note: At the time, as I recall, David Michelinie and Chris Claremont were feuding, so that may have had something to do with this story. Ask Chris. Or Dave. Preferably both. Or Jim Salicrup.
Again, mea culpa. Sorry.
TOMORROW: For sure, A Review: Captain America & Bucky #624
December 9, 2011
Jerry Robinson
Jerry Robinson died on Wednesday. He was 89.
He was a great artist, innovator and creator renowned for his work on Batman in the 1939 and the early 1940's. He did many, many other things as well. He was an illustrator. A syndicated cartoonist. An author and historian. And a hero. He was a champion of the rights of cartoonists all over the world, often at great personal risk. He helped free a Uruguayan artist imprisoned because of his political cartoons, smuggled money to cartoonists in the Soviet Union who were disenfranchised and destitute because of government oppression, and aided Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in their fight to gain recognition and compensation for creating Superman.
I met Jerry only once, at the Baltimore Comic-Con a couple of years ago. I spoke with him briefly. He seemed to me to be a wise and thoughtful man. A gentleman, in all the best senses of the word, albeit with the heart of a lion. He was honored with a special Harvey Award for his many achievements. He gave a wonderful, unforgettable speech.
He was great.
Jim Shooter's Blog
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