The Eternals Question!

I've been slipping around from tome to tome trying to find something which gives me the same wonderful excitement, both visceral and intellectual, which I derived from my recent re-reading of Jack "King" Kirby's epic "Fourth World" books for DC. The closest work he did was upon his return to Marvel a few years later after the DC experiment soured. That project was dubbed "The Eternals" and had the mighty Kirby delve into theories popularized by Erich Von Daniken and others which suggested that ancient astronauts came to Earth and are responsible for much of both human history and myth.

It's a fantastic notion, largely poppycock, but nonetheless a properly grand and sprawling canvas to put some of those epic characters Kirby was so famous for. To be honest, though I was a true-blue fan and devoted buyer of all the comics at the time, I've always held The Eternals in some disdain, as I always felt they fell short of the majesty of the New Gods. They do, but the truth is Kirby was not given the space to develop them like he was the Fourth World books. The Eternals saga ran in one title for nineteen issues and one annual from 1976 to 1978.

In that rather limited time, Kirby introduced Celestials, Eternals, Deviants, and even some intriguing Humans, races who have a conjoined destiny of which the Human side was unaware. "The Eternals" saga lays out the parameters of man's place in the larger world and offers up an intriguing insight to our natures, both the better and lesser aspects. I began reading the story using the trade reprints from some years ago with little memory aside from a few key scenes and quickly I found that I had underestimated this last great Kirby epic.

I hope to uncover the saga over the next few weeks in a series of posts which not only reprise the series, but also focus on those aspects of the tale which fascinate me in particular. If you're not a fan of Kirby, or of  his later work, I apologize for the focus, but hopefully you'll give it a chance. I'm not going to worry especially about spoilers, so if you've never read this story, I recommend you do not read my posts as I will reveal many of the better secrets. For those who have, I invite you to take the tour with me. I don't know where it will end up (neither I suspect did Kirby himself) but I am very much looking forward to it.

What was Kirby up to with this series? I think he was doing what he always did, asking the essential question about humanity. Did he believe in ancient astronauts? I prefer to think he was more sophisticated than that, but neither do I think he necessarily disbelieved it. It was an intriguing way to get at those core queries about humanity. That's the Eternals questions I hope to fathom a bit over the next several days. "Who are they? What are they? Why are they?"  Which is really in the final analysis: Who are we? What are we? Why are we?

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THUNDER Agents - The Spider's Web!

The Spider's Web is the title of the second storyline from IDW's THUNDER Agent franchise and it's a diverting story, filled with twists and turns and loaded to its tippy top with plot developments. The artwork has shifted from Andrea DeVito to Roger Robinson and it's a marked improvement as Robinson gives these Agents the delicate and sophisticated polish they need.

The story begins with Dynamo battling dinosaurs in the heart of New York City and swiftly changes gears from there. NoMan is made director of the THUNDER Agents as Agent Kane spends her time deciphering the alien "Judgment Tower" the team discovered in the last storyline. A new agent named John Janus shows up and it's difficult to tell which side he's on at first or later. This is a storyline filled with intrigue and betrayal and like most modern THUNDER Agent stories a sense of history, so the less said the better for fear of severe spoilage. I will say, I found the twists and turns a bit overwrought by the end, blunting the story's emotional impact somewhat, but I will say this did feel like a distinctly THUNDER Agents story, and not just some typical superhero yarn.

I don't know how much longer IDW will keep putting out the Agents, but as long as they are this good, I'll keep getting them, at least in trade form.

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The One And Only Cap!

In celebration of Independence Day, here's an elegant "Marvel Masterwork Pin-Up" of Captain America by his co-creator Jack "King" Kirby with inks by Sol Brodsky.

This poster appeared in the back of The Avengers #10, a momentous issue which introduced the very important Immortus. For more on this particular issue by Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Dick Ayers, check out this link.

And here's a fantastic gallery of some of my favorite Jack Kirby Cap covers!

Have a happy holiday!

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Interesting Times!

We live in interesting times, something we are often advised to avoid. The economics of the United States are falling into disrepair as a caste system begins to increasingly assert itself. The verities of what once was touted as the "American Dream" are being plowed under so that those with it can keep it. That's a dim assessment, but alas it is what I see looming. The "I've-Got-Mine-Fuck-You" Society scratches up one lame-brained slogan after another to attempt to justify Dickensian notions which will ultimately reap the whirlwind.

Living in a part of the country where you can still find folks who remember living in "company towns", it's truly sad to see that mindset reasserting itself. To see that people, citizens, are being fragmented and pitted against one another is disgraceful. Once, a few years ago the very folks who tout these techniques would've screamed it was un-American, but now they sing a different tune, one adjusted to soothe their masters. Whether it's cancelling unemployment compensation without any credible jobs program in place, attempting to crush the public postal service with peculiar and onerous healthcare payments, or restricting the core value of any democracy, the ability to cast a ballot for representation, there are too many examples by the modern crowd that the "people" matter less than their paymasters.

The public good is held in disdain as the marketplace is lauded as the solution to all problems. That's obvious poppycock, and why it's given the time of day is intellectually abominable. The marketplace can solve some problems, but it is not and never will be a replacement for the creation of a fully-developed citizen. We are not customers, we are not employees, we are citizens, something other and over those other lesser  and sadly increasingly limiting definitions. 

Right now, me and mine are fine. But it will not last, not for any of us. Hold on to your hats, these are most interesting times!

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Dr.Goldfoot And The Bikini Machine!

Being a big fan of Vincent Price, I have to admit this title has long been one I wanted to lens at some point. I finally did, and it was a weird experience to say the least.

Dr.Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine is a spoof of course, a send up of several genres, most notably the spy movies of the 60's. To that end Frankie Avalon plays a hapless junior spy who has to fight the evil machinations of Dr.Goldfoot played to the hilt by Vincent Price. And thank goodness Price does his over-the-top best in this movie or it would have almost nothing to recommend it to viewers save for some handsome girls in gold bathing suits.

This is a shambles of a story in which the vile Goldfoot sends out robotic women programmed to seduce and quickly defraud as many rich guys as they can across the globe. One such rich guy played by Dwayne Hickman falls victim to the scheme and soon joins forces with Avalon and the pair seem to simultaneously battle and swoon in the path of Goldfoot's forces. The movie ends with an overlong hair-brained chase scene.

Clearly the movie is going for zany with more than a few fourth-wall breaking gags and cameos. It's not a movie that takes itself seriously, so there's no point in dumping on it excessively. Save that I'll point out it's only when the always charming Price is on screen is anything interesting much happening. He's so good that he sells it, even in this vehicle which was designed to fall short.

Watch this, if you must, for Vincent's greatness. Otherwise give it a pass. There's a sequel called Dr.Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. That one made in Italy where the original did good box office, looks mildly better, maybe.

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Astro Boy!

The other day I was on a specific mission for my wife at my new favorite bookstore - Half-Price Books when I stumbled across a real bargain. For a fraction of the listed price I found a brace of dvd collections dedicated to the 1960's TV version of Osamu Tezuka's manga creation, known as Astro Boy.

I never saw Astro Boy in my youth. I've only seen a fragment here and there of the show which so many hold in such high esteem. But here in two sets were nearly sixty of the original cartoons for a relatively tiny price, and so I snatched them up.

I've only watched the first episode as I type this but I was fascinated by the story, familiar but different at the same time and surprisingly emotive. And the animation, black and white and limited, it solved the storytelling difficulties with some skill and some distinctive character.

I don't know how quickly I'll plumb the depths of these collections, but I look forward to seeing more of these distinctive cartoons which seem to have impressed folks so mightily over the years. And it's finally nice to know first hand what folks are talking about.

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Atomic Days And Knights!

I've at long last read The Great Disaster, the rather stupendous Showcase volume from DC which attempts to gather together the sundry tales which relate the retro-continuity saga of how the Earth fell victim to a rather surprising atomic war in October of 1986 and how human society dealt with that.

The book is divided into discrete sections. The first titled "Pre-Disaster Warnings" contains stories from the back of Weird War Tales concerning the "Emperor of Weehauken" by Sheldon Mayer and Alfredo Alcala, a man who travels from the future to our present day, and a Superman yarn which lays out the potential future as hinted at in pages of Kamandi by Jack Kirby.

The next section called "The Day After Doomsday"  offers up over a dozen tiny vignettes from the back pages of Weird War Tales, The Unexpected, and The House of Mystery which give glimpses of life after society has crumbled. There's a distinct Twilight Zone tone to these brief yarns by Len Wein, Steve Skeates and others. My favorite is a trilogy of stories about the last man and woman on Earth named "Adam and Gertrude", with delightful artwork by Jack Sparling.

The third section is titled "Tales of the Atomic Knights" and reaches back to the masterfully crafted vintage stories from Strange Adventures by John Broome and Murphy Anderson. To my knowledge, all the Atomic Knight stories are here and that alone is worth the price of admission to this book. You'll believe that an profoundly avereage man dressed in an atomically-altered Medieval suit of armor can ride a gigantic mutated Dalamation across a surprisingly benign atomic wasteland -- you really will.

The next section titled "The Gods Return" begins with Jack Kirby's Atlas one-shot and then offers up all twelve issues (not just ten despite the solicitation details) of Hercules Unbound.  The first six issues by Gerry Conway, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Wally Wood are lush and vibrant, then the series takes a turn as writer David Michelinie and later Cary Bates finish up the saga with artwork by Walt Simonson under sundry inkers, his own to great effect in the last two issue. It is with these stories that the Atomic Knights return to DC lore, though in ways very surprising.

The penultimate section is titled "More Tales of the Post-Apocalyptic World" and offers up a quartet of stories from the back pages of Kamandi written by Gerry Conway, Paul Levitz, and David Anthony Kraft with artwork by Pablo Marcos and Mike Nasser.

The volume closes out with "Alternate Endings", a post-Crisis view of the Atomic Knights from the pages of DC Comics Presents when Superman uncovers the "real secret" of the Gardner Grayle. How this one fits into the overall storyline is anyone's guess these days, but it's a snazzy story on its own.

All in all this is a utterly fabulous book,  a truly sprawling collection of disparate stories by some talented writers and artists from the Silver and Bronze Ages of DC. The story of "The Great Disaster" is not all here, there's more revealed in the pages of Kamandi and OMAC and elsewhere, but the thread is here for those who wish to find out more about one of DC's most clever conceits.

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