The Black Racer!

Even the giants sleep. And many think that must've been what happened to Jack "King" Kirby when he concocted The Black Racer, the Fourth World's emissary of death. Admittedly looking at this black man perched atop a pair of flying skis, poles in hand, encased in bright red and blue armor, you might not immediately think of the Grim Reaper, but there you go.

The Racer debuted in the third issue of New Gods, allowing the book to actually live up to its broad spectrum title and taking the limelight from Orion.

Our first glimpse of the Black Racer, "black" apparently only because of his apparent racial origin, is as he pursues Lightray, or as the Racer calls him "Light-Ray".

You get the definite sense from these few pages that the Racer is someone you don't want to encounter, even if you have the power and speed of a denizen of Supertown. The Racer appears implacable, relentless, inevitable.

Until he's not. In the story Metron arranges a Boom Tube to transport the "Messenger of Death" to Earth, away from Lightray, sparing our young hero. Once on Earth, the Black Racer quickly finds others who resemble him, sadly committing crimes in the streets of the hectic city. He senses a change in his mission, or at the very least a relocation.

He finds paralyzed Vietnam veteran Willie Walker (ironically named for sure) and we see that destiny has indeed led the Racer to this bedside where the man who had been the Racer gives up the ghost and the mission and Willie Walker assumes the deathly role.

He then goes out to perform his grim mission of bringing doom to those who as he puts it "are marked for oblivion".

When not bringing oblivion, the Black Racer disappears into the frail form of Willie Walker, who remains paralyzed, but now bears a great secret which the reader shares, and just possibly dreads.

There's a pretty good notion  here, but sadly the bright four-color nature of the Black Racer undermines what might've been one of the most gruesome of the New Gods.

It's hard to take even Death seriously if it shows up in brightly colored armor atop flying skis. The absurdity of the image undercuts the potential power of the idea.

But here's a glimpse at an early version of the Black Racer by Kirby. In this rendition we see that the Black Racer's gaudy armor was something else. Neatly he is divided into two halves, a bright and a dark half. Admittedly the star on the end of the pole doesn't help much, but you have to wonder what they were thinking when the palette was selected for the Racer.

Red and yellow and blue are simply not the colors we associate with death. In later stories of course, his colors have been altered to darker hues. If the Black Racer were truly a "Black Knight", then perhaps the symbolic connection with that most profound and lasting of black nights Kirby was seeking would take hold.

One thing about the classic Black Racer though, you can't miss him if he chooses to select you for oblivion. There's that much for sure.

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Valley Of The Shmoon!

I was visiting my new favorite store Half-Price Books yesterday when I chanced across a real bargain. For very small money (way less than half price I'll tell you) I was able to carry home two volumes from Dark Horse Comics featuring the late 40's and early 50's comic strip and comic book phenomenon called "Shmoo".

Above under a vivid cover by Pete Poplaski is the second volume in the 2011 collection titled Al Capp's Shmoo The Complete Newspaper Strips, an over-sized presentation of Al Capp's original Li'l Abner strips introducing and then developing the legend of the Shmoo, a fascinating creature discovered to be ceaselessly friendly and endlessly delicious, the ultimate beast offering modern humans what we want most  in a creature, the perfect commodity.

The Shmoo became a smash hit, and cultural phenomenon in an era before the internet or even television much was around to promote it. The Shmoo fad came with a thunder and then went mostly, but left a number of relics of interest to comic book fans.

The first volume of this exploration of the Shmoo titled Al Capp's Shmoo, The Complete Comic Books focused on comic books produced by Toby Press under the eye of Al Capp, but not produced directly by him. Part of the Dark Horse Archives series, the 2008 publication offers up the five regular comic books and a sixth pamphlet of unusual size. This rather lovely volume features another new and frankly adorable Poplaski cover.

The guide to all thing Shmoo in these volumes is Denis Kitchen, who offers up essays and  examines the Shmoo phenomenon in some detail. It seems the Shmoo was seen as a satirical threat to both the political Left and the political Right, and if you can create something which stings both the polarized sides of the ceaseless American debate, then you've done a great service to the republic indeed. But as we learn over and over again when we explore things like the Shmoo, is that we're really exploring ourselves.

Here is a cover gallery of the Toby issues included in the comic book volume.

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Eclipse Of The Spectre!

Here's one of Nick Cardy's best covers, this compelling scene rendered one for the Silver Age run of DC's The Spectre.

And here's that same artwork, somewhat altered for a French comic reprint. For some reason, the Spectre's ominous mug is eliminated save for the two staring eyes and added a swirling background, which does blend in rather well. We have here either some ghostly six ball, or just possibly this is the ultimate fate of Charlie Brown, perennial Peanuts loser and everyman. Lucy Van Pelt should tremble indeed at the wrath of this Spectre.

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The King's Black Light!

These black light rendering of classic Jack "King" Kirby images are weirdly lovely. They make you look afresh at the the pictures you've stared at all your life. The Silver Surfer was inked by Joe Sinnott and the Infinity Man and Beautiful Dreamer pages by Vinnie Colletta.

UPDATE: For more on the history of the two Fourth World images check out this link.

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Mark Of Infinity!

This French comic book cover image of Mark Moonrider, the leader of Jack Kirby's offbeat kid gang The Forever People at once looked familiar and unfamiliar to me. This clearly seems to be a Kirby image, inked by Vince Colletta, but I don't recollect Moonrider in this pose. Then it struck me.

Someone has taken this poster image of The Infinity Man, the superhero the Forever People change places with from time to time and flipped it left to right and then altered the image to resemble Mark Moonrider. That's what has been done. The question is why someone would go to the trouble to fabricate a image of Moonrider, not a character which I'd thought garnered much specific fan interest, at least not more than his fellow Supertown hipsters.

That can be evidenced by the fact, that though Mark Moonrider is on the other issues of this French comic of sundry DC reprints, he's not much featured, at least no more so than Beautiful Dreamer or Serifan. In fact Big Bear seems to be the focus on these two.

Weird.

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Comics Crimewave!

Hard Case Crime's Seduction of the Innocent by Max Allan Collins is the third of his Jack and Maggie Starr mysteries set in and around the world of comic strips and comic books, which as we learn can be a quite lurid one indeed, filled with mayhem on the page and off. 

Underneath this utterly compelling Glen Orbik cover, we find a story about one Dr.Werner Frederick, a crusader against  comic books who bears a striking similarity to a historical cultural figure of note. Boiling out of this hysterical melee there is  murder and Jack Starr is called upon to uncover the truth.

One of the clever things about how Collins puts these books together is that he gets his longtime creative partner Terry Beatty to illustrate them. Here we see an excellent example of Beatty's clean and effective and attractive style, evoking more than a whisper of Johnny Craig here.

Seduction of the Innocent is the third Jack Starr mystery. The first, titled A Killing in Comics  is concerned with a murder around the ownership of a most successful and oddly familiar superhero.

The second volume titled Strip for Murder concerns the murderous feud between two of the most successful and famous comic strip artists, a feud inspired by real people and strangely real events.

The fusion of pulp mystery fiction and comics is nothing new for the Collins and Beatty team. Early in the Hard Case Crime series run, they brought out Deadly Beloved, a novel developed from their own long-running comic book series Ms.Tree.

Collins has become one of the great pulp writers of his generation, and when teamed with Terry Beatty both seem to bring out the best in one another. There is a charm and wit which seems to exude from their work, making it irresistible fun. Seduction of the innocent indeed.

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King Of The Space-Ways!

Spent a wonderful late winter day enjoying some warmer temperatures and reading Flash Gordon, specifically those issues of the comic book produced by King Features under their own brand in the years 1967 and 1968. This was ulitmately a failed experiment by the venerable comic strip syndicate, but it did produce some handsome comics.

The debut issue features an Al Williamson cover. Williamson is also the artist in charge inside the comic and in tandem with writers Larry Ivie and Archie Goodwin produces an utterly fantastic rendition of Flash, Zarkov, and Dale as they struggle against the forces of Ming the Merciless and then return to Earth to penetrate its crust to confront a subterranean society. The issue is exceedingly handsome througout and offers up big entertainment. To read the whole issue check out this link.

Alas the consistency problem which will plague this series becomes evident in the second issue as Frank Bolle steps in on art chores. I did seem to detect the hand of Mike Sekowsky in places, but that might've been my imagination. The cover is splendid by Gil Kane. The work here is perfectly fine, but is a step down from the first issue which evoked the best of the Alex Raymond heyday of the classic hero. Bolle is a sturdy and reliable storyteller, but quiet. The story, again by Goodwin,  seems somehow more pedestrian, despite the fact it reintroduces a classic villain to the fold.

The third issue under an outstanding Williamson cover with our hero and heroine in fine form despite the polka-dots, showcases the writing of Bill Pearson and the evocative artwork of Ric Estrada.  I really like what Estrada did here, providing a dynamic comic book story, but it's not what most folks expect out of a Flash Gordon story, at least in looks. We get to meet two new Mongo races though, the Lizard Men and and a race of shape-changing centaur creatures called Unitaurs. There is also a one-eyed giant dubbed a "Monolith".

I should mention here that interspersed between these books is a back-up serial by Wally Wood and later by Gil Kane about Flash and some space pirates which appeared in pages of The Phantom. The writer of these charming little lightweight adventure stories is apparently unknown. The cover Kane produced for issue two seems to be related to this ongoing tale.

The fourth issue of the series introduces the "Lost Continent" of Mongo which will more or less be the setting for the remainder of the King Features run. Archie Goodwin is again teamed with Al Williamson who does the cover too. It's a stirring story, classic Flash Gordon as the trio penetrate an unknown land filled with dangerous folk, offbeat machines, and peculiar creatures.

The search of the Lost Continent and the battle against Ming continues in the next issue, again by Goodwin and Williamson. Another great Williamson cover closes out his contribution to the series. Larry Ivie writes the second of two stories in the issue about an unusual plague, and adds information to the back story of one of the oldest Alex Raymond characters. It's a solid example of what I think King Features hoped this series might become.

Things shift in the next issue as both Goodwin and Williamson depart for good. The are replaced by Bill Pearson and artist Reed Crandall. Pearson's scripts reveal a solid understanding of Flash lore, but do unfortunately lack the crispness of Goodwin's. It's not much of a fall off though, and anyone falls short of the later great Archie Goodwin. The story is pretty entertaining though as Flash and his colleagues again penetrate the Lost Continent and confront the "Cliff Men" (cave men with antlers) led by a mysterious hooded character who turns out to be bald-headed chap who plays a big role in the next issue. Though more static than Williamson's version, I rather like Crandall's handsome take on Flash and friends, as can be seen in the cover he produced above. As you can see the fetish for Dale to wear polka-dots doesn't go away.

The story is interrupted by some choice Mac Raboy reprints. Handsome though they are, they point to an inability to meet the production schedule, a weakness for a fledgling comic book producer looking to make inroads in the market at the time. That's a Raboy cover too by the way.

Pearson and Crandall return in the next issue, one handsomely decorated by an Alex Raymond image from the original series. This one is special to me in many ways as it was my very first Flash Gordon comic ever. It was very nice to read it again after so many years and this time in its proper story context. The story continues from the last issue as Flash and Dale and Zarkov again match wits with races and threats on the Lost Continent of Mongo. The Kangaroo Men called "Proles" are especially entertaining.

The wheels begin to come off with the very next issue as we are presented with the first of two reprint issues. Admittedly these are high-quality reprints show off the classic Alex Raymond work from the original series.  Raymond art forms the cover too.

This issue completes the two-part reprint interlude of classic Alex Raymond material. The cover artist for this issue is unidentified.

Pearson and Crandall are back for one more King Features issue, but oddly their work is under a Dan Barry cover which has pretty much nothing to do with the material underneath. Flash and Dale and Zarkov are navigating a river, again on the Lost Continent I think, when they fall into the clutches of a pygmy race called the Kirans (which I think was a ultimately confusing attempt to tie this story into the last two issues of reprints). The Kirans hold them captive and the trio have to struggle with what is real and unreal to try and save themselves from mortal danger.

And that wraps up the King Features experiment in comic book publication, at least in terms of Flash Gordon. But the story wasn't over quite yet.

Material produced for the King line by Pearson and Crandall gets published in the debut Charlton issue. Here Flash has to confront an old enemy in an odd new way and a new enemy who poses a truly deadly and frankly really terrifying threat to the whole of Mongo society. This is topsy-turvy adventure and pretty exciting really, but alas it's all there would be from this successful team.

Pearson returns though for the first story in the next Charlton issue, but the artist is a fledgling talent by the name of Jeff Jones. As it turns out this somewhat notorious art job was never supposed to see publication, but was produced by Jones and a friend in a whirlwind sitting to meet the deadline and get paid before King Features experiment in comics ceased to exist. It shows once again that the monthly publication of comics requires greater organization than many believe.  The cover of this issue is by Pat Boyette who would take over the series, but that's a story for another day.

A few pieces of art have surfaced over the years. The cover art above is a beauty by Crandall, though it doesn't really correlate to any of the stories he produced for the series. Possibly a cover for the tenth or eleventh issue. It's sure handsome though.

This final piece appears to be one final cover image from Crandall for the twelfth issue apparently, but appears to my eye unfinished though it does show off well the Crandall version of Raymond's classic heroic trio.

The King Feature years of production have many charms but like most comic book publishers ultimately fell away when profits didn't match expectations. It turns out it is easier and apparently more profitable to let others produce the comics and whatnot with the license you manage. King Features has since found that the more comfortable road.

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