Rip Jagger's Dojo: Ralph Reese

Showing posts with label Ralph Reese. Show all posts

Sunday, July 19, 2026

Thunder Agents Classics Volume Six!

This is my review of the sixth and final volume collecting up the original run of Tower Comics' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (including spin-offs Dynamo and NoMan) as collected by IDW. While these reprints are not ideal in every way, they are handsome enough and offer the vintage 60's saga in a handy-to-read format unlike any I've possessed.

These tales are less impressive than their mighty legend, not unlike the beloved EC Comics, but nonetheless they are worthy stories which showcase the strengths and weaknesses of Silver Age comics thoroughly. Wally Wood and company (Dan Adkins and Ralph Reese mostly) are at their best as are Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, Chic Stone, Reed Crandall, and so many others. Artistically George Tuska and Mike Sekowsky turn in some strong work but alas the stories lack much of the spy glamour which attaches to the more atmospheric Wood stuff.

Here are the final issues of the classic original run which are included in this latest volume, which sadly does not feature one of these great recreation covers by Ryan Brown. This one is only credited to Wally Wood, though clearly it's been given a brush up. All the new material from the final issues is here right up through the finale which featured only a few pages of fresh material.

There was a delay of many months between issue seventeen and eighteen of the run. The cover of the eighteenth issue is by Reed Crandall and the nineteenth is a composite.

A full year passes before issue twenty hit the stands. It's almost all reprints with only one new quick story reprising the origins of THUNDER and Dyanano. The cover is by Chic Stone.

Next week the focus will be on that other Tower super agent.

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Friday, January 18, 2019

Conan The Believer!

I've waxed on before about how Conan the Barbarian #1 was a revelation for yours truly. I'd already drunk the Marvel kool-aid and was a "True Believer" and it's only right that now, several decades later I pick up yet another reprint of that significant book, this emblazoned with the "True Believers" brand.

Also on hand is the great story from Howard -- "The Tower of the Elephant", perhaps the single most elegant of the first Windsor-Smith era.

There's a hearty taste of Gil Kane who was set to take on the Cimmerian when Windsor-Smith left for a time.

But he returned to finish one more epic tale, though it's a bit ragged in places, and I wish they'd used the artwork originally intended for this particular comic -- a great way to correct a blunder from days gone by.

We get some dandy Neal Adams artwork, an artist whose ability to capture the real worked especially well in presenting a vivid landscape for the Cimmerian's adventures.

And so far it wraps up with some art from Conan's most important artist the late great John Buscema and the story with began a saga and introduced Belit. There are some more of these due next week, taking stories from the pages of Savage Tales and King Conan.

It's a fine way for Marvel to get their most successful licensed character back onto the stands. Of course all of these were written by the Rascally One himself, Roy "The Boy" Thomas.

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