Will Pfeifer's Blog, page 47

Advance Team Tuesdays: The big, bad badguy

I apologize for the no doubt jarring absence of Advance Team Tuesdays last week, but the holiday played havoc with my blogging schedule (and plus I'm lazy). But here's a brand-new installment, in which we meet the biggest of the badguys, this guy...
I'm reluctant to reveal too much about him, but suffice to say that he's the toughest, most powerful foe our hapless hero Zack McKinley has to face. Just look at that face!
In fact, just look at that face. Looks a bit like this face, doesn't it?

Pure coincidence, I assure you. Really.

Will Elder Weekends: One more Mole!

Here's our last panel from the Kurtzman/Elder crime spoof "Mole," revealing the almost final fate of our antihero. (Spoiler Alert: In the story's last panel, he digs his way straight to the electric chair.) I remember thinking that the sight of his bare ass was (a) hilarious and (b) strange, because it just wasn't the sort of thing you saw in comic books back in those days -- it wasn't even really the sort of thing I remember seeing in Mad Magazine, though, admittedly, back then I was more of a Cracked Man myself. And it would be a few years before someone would slip me a copy of National Lampoon in study hall and I'd see how much cartoon nudity you could really pack into one publication.
Nice touch with the spikes on the bottom of the show, by the way. That Elder!
Next week: The Christmas countdown commences!

Buy my comics, make me rich: Iron Man 2.0 #10

Haven't had one of these posts in a while, but I wanted to alert all you loyal readers of X-Ray Spex to the fact that I do, in fact, have a comic book hitting the stands Wednesday, Nov. 23.
It's the 10th issue of the Iron Man 2.0 limited series -- or, to be more specific, it's the second half of the 10th issue of the Iron Man 2.0 limited series. I was hired to pinch hit and script the last dozen pages or so, plus the final two issue in the 12-part series. (Nick Spencer and Joshua Hale Fialkov handled the rest of the writing chores.) I haven't written anything for Marvel in a long, long time, so it was a lot of fun to script Rhodey, Tony and the gang.
As always, if you read it, stop by the comments section and let me know what you thought.

Will Elder Weekends: More Mole!

Here's another couple of panels from "Mole!," the Kurtzman/Elder story from MAD #2. It's not as packed with background jokes as most Elder images -- in fact, by his standards, it's fairly simple -- but it's still beautifully drawn and wonderfully strange all the same. I love the expression on the guy's face and all those guns surrounding him. Elder is justifiably considered one of the greatest mimics in comic book history -- if not the greatest -- but he was a master cartoonist in his own style, too.
Next week: Still more Mole!

Farewell, Batman

The last episode of "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" aired Friday night on Cartoon Network. If you (a) don't have a kid or (b) aren't a comic book nerd, you probably didn't watch and don't care. Well, I fall into both categories.
Created to appeal to a younger audience, "Brave and the Bold" skipped the whole Dark Knight persona and returned the Silver Age Batman to the screen -- and it was great fun. On any given episode, Batman could fight Merlin with the Demon and Green Arrow, save Christmas with Red Tornado, be killed repeatedly by an omnipotent Joker, fight a red kryptonite-crazed Superman or save the world from Starro -- with the help of an obscure DC hero like Bwana Beast.

Why is Batman fighting mind-controlled dinosaurs with the help of the Creature Commandos in the War That Time Forgot? How does Batman travel to the world of Kamandi to battle Gorilla Grodd? Why is he on an alternate Earth to prevent the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by a steam-powered John Wilkes Booth cyborg? Who cares? It was so much fun that you didn't worry about it. The folks behind "Brave and the Bold" cherry picked DC comics history for co-stars and villains, coming up with characters the general public never heard of, like Ace the Bat Hound, Sportsmaster, the Gentlemen Ghost, Phantom Lady and Blockbuster for Batman to interact with.
What's more, the show used these characters better than they've been used in print. The two-part Starro story gave Bwana Beast a touching send-off where he died saving the world, honored by his fellow heroes and mourned the love of his life, Vixen (another laughing stock in print who finally got some dignity on this show). One episode focused on the Doom Patrol and replayed the final issue of the original series, where the team of arguing oddballs agreed to sacrifice their own lives to save a handful of people they didn't know. The show even added a modern twist, with people watching on TV honoring them by repeating in unison "We are all the Doom Patrol... We are all the Doom Patrol." All that and background references not only to Grant Morrison's run on the Doom Patrol comic, but extra-obscure mentions of Morrison's Flex Mentallo and even his Doom Patrol spoof, Doom Force. And Batwoman -- a 1950s character best forgotten -- was revived for a wild gender-bending adventure where she and Batman switched bodies, and Batman learned walking in heels isn't as easy as it looks. My daughter missed the "Some Like it Hot" reference at the end where the smitten villains says "Nobody's perfect," but I sure didn't.
And that's the one of the best things about the show: all those references to old comic books (and pop culture) never got in the way of the story. My daughter has never read a Batman comic book (except, of course, for the Batman: Brave and the Bold tie-in comic, which is almost as good as the cartoon), but she didn't care if she'd never heard of Kamandi or Big Barda or Plastic Man. She just knew that the cartoon was fun, it was funny and Batman always, always, always figured out a way to beat the bad guy and still seem like a nice guy.
Batman doesn't have to be grim-and-gritty to be impressive. He just has to be Batman. He's a hero, remember? Unfortunately, in comics, he more often just seems like a jerk. But not here. As Rich Sands said over at TV Guide, "The Brave and the Bold" was "the most joyful incarnation of the character since Adam West donned the cape and cowl in the 1960s." Is it any wonder my daughter loves that show, too?
Friday's finale brought back two series favorites, Aquaman and Bat Mite. Voiced by John DiMaggio (aka Bender on "Futurama"), Aquaman was arguably the breakout star of the show, always energizing an episode with his bombastic attitude. In comics, Aquaman is seen as (a) a joke or (b) someone who has to be "dark" and "grim" to prove he's no joke. On this show, he was neither. Yes, he was very funny, but he also had a real lust for life and when the chips were down, he'd always come through. I wish Aquaman could be written this well in the comics. Hell, I wish I had written him this well during my short stint on his book.
And Bat Mite was the deux ex machina of the series, the guy who used his fifth-dimensional magic to change Batman's world. On one memorable episode Bat Mite (voiced by Pee Wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens) hosted three short shows starring alternate versions of his hero -- a dead-on adaptation of the Manga version of Batman from the 1960s, a hilarious Scooby-Doo parody with lame animation and guest star "Weird" Al Yankovic and, best of all, a faithful adaptation of the "Bat-Boy and Rueben" spoof by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood from the 1950s comic book version of Mad. I stared at Wood's drawings translated to animation, mouth agape in astonishment, by my daughter just laughed at the jokes. As far as she knew, this was just another Batman cartoon -- and a really funny one, at that.
On the series finale, Bat Mite decides he wants this show canceled to make room for a dark and gritty version, so he changes Batman's world to make the show jump the shark. Our hero gets a wife and cutesy daughter, uses a toy-inspired Bat Luge instead of the classic Batmobile and fights crime with an Aquaman voiced by Ted McGinley instead of John DiMaggio. Eventually, Ambush Bug -- a very obscure DC hero whose main power is that he knows he's a comic book character -- helps save the day, restoring order to Batman's world. (Ambush Bug, in one of the episode's many, many meta-jokes, is voiced by Henry Winkler himself, who of course jumped that shark as the Fonz all those years ago.)
But, in the end, the show is canceled anyway, and the final scene is a party in the Batcave. As heroes mingle in the foreground (my favorite bit was seeing Kamandi pet Ace the Bat Hound as his evolved canine friend, Dr. Canus, looked on), the giant penny and other Bat props are taken down in the background. Ambush Bug congratulates Batman, saying it was "a good run." Batman, voiced perfectly, as always, by Diedrich Bader, corrects him. "A great run." And then he turns to the camera...
"And until we meet again, boys and girls, know that wherever evil lurks in all its myriad forms, I'll be there with the hammer of justice to fight for decency and defend the innocent. Good night."
My six-year-old daughter thought it was a great episode and immediately wanted to watch it again. I did too, but I had to excuse myself for a second. I think there was something in my eye...

Advance Team Tuesday: Meet the Cast, Part 5

This week, Advance Team Tuesdays return (thank the lord) and the cast of villainy continues. Our focus today is on femme fatale Abigail Apollo, one of the people (maybe....) battling our hero, Zack McKinley, for the eventual fate of planet Earth. You've already heard of her, assuming you read all the panels I post on this blog as carefully as I do...

... but here she is meeting Zack for the first time. Don't worry: In a few pages, they're trying to kill each other.

Remember, "The Advance Team" graphic novel hits the stores next spring, but you can advance order a copy now. Check with your favorite online (or actual) bookseller.

Will Elder Weekends: Mole!

That's Melvin Mole from the Kurtzman/Elder story "Mole!," which originally appeared way back in Mad #2. Along with "Starchie!," it's one of the first things I ever saw by Elder, in a reprint of Mad comic book stories in one of those Mad Super Specials from the 1970s that some kid brought to class.
I'd seen comic books before, obviously, and was familiar with Mad Magazine (who wasn't?), but this was something different. There was something earthy about Elder's art, with all those shadows, hairs (especially in this story) and bric-a-brac in the corners of the panels. And, of course, this story -- and this panel in particular -- had a level of violence you just didn't see in comics. Or movies. Or anywhere else, for that matter. (Notice the tip of the cop's pinky flying off.) I know when I read it originally I knew it was supposed to be "funny," but the feeling I came away with was more one of fascination that I'd seen something unlike anything I'd ever read before. It didn't seem, somehow, like it was intended for kids -- though, of course, that made this kid all the more eager to get his hands of more of the same.
Next week: More Melvin Mole!

'Keep on Walking'

Please forgive the lack of an Advance Team Tuesday post this week, but I'm cranking under the deadline of a wholly unrelated (and, I think, largely unannounced) comic book project right now, so truth is, I just didn't get a chance to post it.
In the meantime, here's a great supercut video compiled by Brian Carroll entitled "Keep on Walking" featuring nothing but characters walking away from the camera. Keep an eye out for some of my favorite movies, including "The Hudsucker Proxy," "2001," "A Clockwork Orange," "The Royal Tenenbaums," "Pulp Fiction," "Fight Club" and plenty of others. They're extra tricky to spot, because, for the most part, all you see are the backs of characters.

Keep On Walking from Brian Carroll on Vimeo.

Will Elder Weekends: Poopeye!

Not only does Will Elder effortless capture the look of E.C. Segar's iconic Popeye, but in this sequence, he nails Hal Foster's Tarzan, too. (And Kurtzman, of course, uses the Foster-esque caption boxes in this section instead of the standard wood balloons of the rest of the story.)

Advance Team Tuesday, Meet the Cast, Part 4

In this week's thrilling installment of "Meet the Cast," the focus falls on one Orson Arson, musician, rock star and all-around bad influence on the youth of America ... including one youth in particular.
[image error]
Of course, that's just the image of Mr. Arson on a concert ticket and, as you'll discover when you read "The Advance Team," not a very current picture either. Truth is, Orson Arson isn't in the book a whole lot -- but his appearance -- along with his music -- makes quite an impact on our young hero.
Want a copy of "The Advance Team" for your very own? You'll find advance ordering info here and here. It hits the stores in March, so clear a prominent space on your bookshelf.