May is a tiny production month for Atlas-Seaboard with only two, color comics wear a May date.
IRONJAW #3 offers a tremendous tale by Fleisher and Marcos. Ironjaw, who in the previous issue rejected a kingship, finds his way back home to find his adopted father Tar-Lok. Tar-Lok is a grand character and his exchanges with Ironjaw are very entertaining. The two clearly have an affection for each other, but they won't lift a hand to assist each other before a price has been bartered. There are robbers, sheriffs, and serpent-headed cannibals in this wildly imaginative tale that introduces us to the Great Machine, the god that Ironjaw worships and has invoked repeatedly in the first two issues. Well let's just say the "Great Machine" is a relic from our time and is actually a humble humbug managed by a corrupt cleric more interested in the collection plate than his flock. Ironjaw is shown to be a naive yet devout individual who ignores his father's advice to quit throwing money at his "god". This a well-paced self-contained story with energetic artwork and a very entertaining and funny script.
SCORPION #2 gives us another Moro Frost adventure by Howard Chaykin. This time there is voodoo and curses galore. The Ernie Colon cover isn't all that accurate of what goes on inside the book so beware. The story is another period piece, a bit confusing in places but filled with vivid characters and situations. The artwork is another group-project with diverse hands throughout. This is another indication that Atlas is fragmenting, and Chaykin has clearly pulled away from the project.
Aside from the second installment of the black and white
DEVILINA magazine (more on the black and white publications later this year), this is the whole of the Atlas-Seaboard May offerings. One more month and the train comes off the rails for good.
More Atlas-Seaboard to come in June. Rip Off
I think of all the Atlas titles Iron Jaw was perhaps the only one that improved from issue 1 (which was pretty awful). Sadly, with issue 3 the Scorpion imploded into a sub standard superhero comic. Still it was great days to be a comic fan.
ReplyDeleteI've grown to appreciate that Mike Sekowsky-drawn first issue of Ironjaw, but I thought the same thing back in the day. The Scorpion's fall from grace was the hardest to take in many ways because those first issue had such promise.
DeleteAw, darn it, I've got to dig through the boxes and see if I can come up with Ironjaw. I'm sure I blew a quarter on it and read while watching Firing Line.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention The McNeil-Leher Report!
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