Not Brand Echh #2 - The Crossover Issue!

Dear Stan and the Gang,

    Brand Echh #2 was even better than the first excellent issue. Seeing the "Marble" heroes matching jibes and wits with heroes from across the broad expanse of the comic book spinner racks was outstanding. DC, Gold Key and even Tower Comics come in for some nifty joshing as the laugh meter ticks over aplenty.

    My favorite story this issue was "Peter Pooper vs. Gnatman and Rotten" by Stan and Marie. Mirthful Marie is proving to be a mainstay of his MAD-like project and given her EC roots an appropriate choice. She does a rockem' sockem' job of capturing the essentials of the popular TV show that exploded into the consciousness a few years back and the blend with Spidey's world was seamless. Little nasty Rotten in particular was always a crack up.

    Marie was also the artist on my second favorite yarn co-starring "Knock Furious" of SHEESH and "Dynashmoe" from BLUNDER. The THUNDER Agents from Tower Comics by Wally Wood, Gil Kane, and so many other greats haven't gotten the attention they deserve and it's nice to see the lads at Marble are up to the task. "Nobody's" constant body-shifting was a hoot. The lighting gags in particular got a chuckle from me -- Woody would be proud. 

    Don Heck was not far behind in Roy's story putting together two metal giants in "The Unrinseable Ironed Man Meets Magnut, Robot Biter". God Key tapped the great Russ Manning to give us a really different kind of superhero in Magnus and the send up here is ideal. No one at Marvel or "Marble" draws more exotic and compelling robots than Dashing Don and it shows up well in this time-traveling nonsensical yarn. 

    All in all a first-rate second issue and a good sign that the Marble heroes and zeroes are here to stay a while. Looking forward to seeing some interesting spins on some classic origin yarns in the next issue. 

                                                                                                                        Sincerely (Not),

                                                                                                                        Rip Jagger

Notes and Comments: In Alter Ego #95 Roy Thomas reveals that he got last dibs when it came to the three stories and felt somewhat stuck with Magnus, Robot Fighter a comic he clearly seems to regard as lesser because of its quarterly status at the time. Stan got the plum Batman TV show spoof along with headliner Spider-Man and got rising star Marie Severin for the art. Roy suggests, and I agree that as good as Don Heck's art is for the story he does like John Severin's in the first issue it doesn't hew broadly enough into parody, something Heck had shown he could do in the past. Gary Friedrich's spoof of the THUNDER Agents matching wits with SHIELD I suspect has been the surprise hit of the book, though I think it wanders a bit in its focus despite some outstanding visual gags by Marie. Thomas indicates that Stan Lee rewrote some of Friedrich's gags in this story and that might account for the mild confusion I sense in the story as it...ahem...blunders along. 

Here are some covers from the "Distinguished Competition" featuring the heroes lampooned this time out. 

The next time Marvel tears into its own when they take on three of their most famous origin tales.

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Classic Crisis #18 - Saga Of The Black Spheres!

1967 was a transitional year for the annual Justice League and Justice Society crossovers. The artist on all of the crossovers, and all of the League adventures since the very beginning was Mike Sekowsky. He'd soon be leaving the League for other opportunities, and this was his last crossover event. But his final crossover cover featuring the adult Robin of Earth-2 (inked by Murphy Anderson) is a knockout.

"The Super-Crisis That Struck Earth-Two!" was written by Gardner Fox and for a final time by the team of Mike Sekowsky and Sid Greene. The story begins simply enough on Earth-2 in China when a bandit named How Chu is about to be executed by firing squad. Before he can be shot a mysterious black sphere enters his body and gives him super strength which he uses to escape. In Chicago an identical sphere enters the body of jewel craving stenographer Claire Morton, in London one enters the body of money-hungry business Horace Rowland, and likewise a former baseball player named Marty Baxter gets entered. All four of these people become super-villains. The JSofA meets to deal with this threat. The team consists of Mr.Terrific, Wonder Woman, Wildcat, Hawkman, Hourman, and for the first time initiate Robin the "Man" Wonder. They divide into teams and go off to battle the super-villain threat. Robin and Wildcat face off against Marty (Smashing Sportsman) Baxter, and Wonder Woman faces Claire (Gem Girl) Morton. The JSofA are defeated. In Part 2 Mr.Terrific and Hawkman face off against Horace (Money Master) Rowland, and Hourman battles How-Chu (who doesn't get a nifty nickname). Again the JSofA members are defeated. They regroup where Johnny Thunder is waiting and they describe the defeats. Johnny sends his Thunderbolt off to battle the four villains, but T-Bolt returns defeated. Then Thunderbolt is ordered to bring the Justice League to Earth-2 and suddenly Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Superman appear. They've been battling a similar threat and have had equal misfortune. The teams agree to pool resources to solve the Earth-2 problem then apply it to Earth-1. Thunderbolt tells them that the Black Spheres are actually alien intelligences who have entered the bodies of humans to survive and soon will take them over body and soul. The stage is set for the next issue.

 

"The Negative-Crisis on Earths One-Two!" by Fox, Sekowsky, and Greene picks up the action with the combined JLofA and JSofA looking for Black Spheres that failed to bond with humans. They mine and process these Black Sphere radiations and imbue four of their members (Wonder Woman, Hourman, Green Lantern, and Flash) with the power suspecting the energy might pervert their will. Then they divide into teams to battle the villains. But the team of Superman, Robin and Hourman soon come to blows when Hourman turns bad. He is defeated with water. Then the team of Hawkman, Green Arrow and Flash likewise fallout when the Flash turns villain. He is defeated with an allergic reaction to wisteria. Mr.Terrific and Wildcat have to fight Green Lantern but find his weakness is no longer yellow but wood like the Earth-2 GL. Wonder Woman and Johnny Thunder fight also but Thunder is able to defeat the Amazon by making her laugh with his rather bad jokes. Realizing that laughter might defeat all the Black Sphere villains, Johnny goes to their hideout and begins to tell his lame jokes. But they work and the baddies do laugh purging them of the hostile raditions. The heroes gather afterwards, decide the villains deserved not to be blamed for what they done under the influence of the spheres and then the League makes plans to use humor to defeat the threat on Earth-1.

(Is this cover inspired by JLA #56?)

This tale is not quite as gonzo as the previous year's effort, but it's still a wacky story. The pacing of these two issues were notably quicker than previous crossovers, with a remarkable amount of the story taking place off stage. This also adds to the slapstick quality of the tale. The villains are rather peculiar, people overcome by their passions makes sense, but they are never really dealt with in terms of character after they become bad. The resolutions seem to come very quickly, almost in a pro forma way. This is probably on account of the camp way comics were interpreted at the time. Clearly the Batman TV show influence is still being felt, if only in the way Robin of Earth-2 is featured on the cover of the first half. The cover to the second half of the tale by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson is one of the classic images of the era, and spawned many swipes over the years. I remember seeing both of these covers in ads of the period and I yearned to read the stories underneath. The stories were disappointments only in the sense that neither cover really conveys what went on in each story. Robin is not featured to any extent once he's introduced and the face off between heroes does happen but not in the direct fashion on the cover, and not between the heroes pictured.

The next year will bring change to the crossovers and to Earth-2 in a big way.

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Not Brand Echh #1 - The Debut Issue!

 Dear Marble Gang, 

    I absolutely loved the debut issue of Brand Echh! This little glimpse of the "Marble Universe" was a rip-roarin' beginning to what I hope is a long run for one of the best new comics in many a moon. The front cover by the great Jack "King" Kirby is a stunner and demands the absolute attention of all who encounter it. The mystery of "Forbush Man" is one I pray will be revealed in due course as that little glimpse on the cover is just not enough for this fanboy. 

    My favorite feature by far in this issue was "The Silver Burper" by Stan and Jack and Frank Giacoia. It's a nifty spoof of the most recent Fab 4 issues in which the Silver Surfer ran afoul of the maniacal Dr. Doom. Here Doom becomes "Doctor Bloom" and he's more fun and less odious. The almost-FF of "Mr. Fantastical", "Inevitable Girl", "Human  Scorch" and "The Thung" were madcap and antic and totally convincing in the bizarre "Marble" world in which they thrived. 

    The Human Scorch is also in my second favorite tale, "The Human Scorch versus The Sunk-Mariner". I've been enjoying the Golden Age reprints in Fantasy Masterpieces and the original battle between these two icons of yesteryear from Mavel Mystery Comics #9 is well captured by Roy Thomas and the Ross Andru-Mike Esposito team. I see Bill Everett had a bit to do with this issue as he had done with the original but his contribution is hard to detect. '"Chaplain America" was a neat surprise and I don't doubt we'll see him again.

    Coming in third on my list is "The Fastest Gums in the West!" by Roy and Marie Severin. "Mirthful" Marie has a flair for parody and its on full display here with the cowboy stars battling it out in a mere four pages. Even Ghost Rider gets a mention, if not an appearance. 

    Sadly the weakest of the four stories in this fine issue was still entertaining though. Having the actual team of Gary Friedrich and John Severin take on this spoof of their Sgt. Fury book was a great idea. Unfortunately the art on "A Day of Blunder" seemed almost too much like the original and not quite as broad as the rest of the stories in the issue. Severin's work looked great for certain, but it didn't seem to be part of the "Marble Universe" style, at least in these early stages of what its supposed to be. 

    All in all a great beginning and I look forward to more Brand Ecch soon. 

                                                                                                                         Sincerely (Not)

                                                                                                                         Rip Jagger 

Notes and Comments: Brand Echh #1 is a gleeful beginning to the series. It would not get its more famous title of "Not Brand Echh" for several more issues though the cover reads that way. The gimmick of spoofing current issues of Marvel Comics is a great way of targeting the existing Marvel fan but does pose a limitation for new readers who might like parody but don't know the source material. Any good spoof needs that context to flourish and while the FF story succeeds quite well all of the other three are pretty insular in their gags. The Golden  Age spoof is the wittiest of the three remaining stories and Roy Thomas indicates he unintentionally might've been influenced by a vintage parody story about Captain Marvel from Nuts #5, a 50's MAD lookalike. Bill Everett's participation or lack of same created a bit of a buzz when Everett went to Stan complaining about the story he'd been given and the instruction to follow the zeitgeist of MAD's Harvey Kurtzman. Apparently Stan took this as a slight and called Roy in for a dressing down and to remind him who signed the checks. Personally I'd have loved to see what Everett could have done with the issue, but Andru and Esposito were well practiced with parody given their experience on their own magazine Get Lost from some years before. 

Here are the comics getting the poke this issue.

More Brand Echh is on the way. 

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The Sunday Funnies - What's A Jeep?

Fantagraphics has a real winner in the fifth volume of E.C. Segar's Popeye series. As the title "What A Jeep?" reveals the delightful fanciful critter which can tell the future and walk through walls because of its fourth-dimensional nature is a big part of the action in these tales. 

The dailies pick up with Popeye still "Dictopater" of his "Sheeps" in Spinachovia, the land he discovered and fashioned to fill up his desire for a place to be his own boss and other peoples' too. These are some hilarious moments as Popeye with his itty-bitty crown in place atop his rounded noggin tries to soothe the uproar in his "Sheeps" (it's what he calls his citizens) as they demand wives, and later peace when another territory wants to go to war. The former demand for women results in some awkward solutions involving mermaids and later pre-ordered brides. The war is solved with typical Popeye logic when he goes and fights most of it on his own when his cowardly subjects prefer not to bother. Eventually he wearies of being a leader despite having the monstrous Toar on his side and heads back home with Olive where soon enough a box arrives for the latter and in it is a "Jeep". The delightfully mysterious Eugene the Jeep then becomes the focus for several storylines, one in which a rich man wants to buy the critter and we discover his mysterious powers, and finally one in which Popeye is led by the prognostications of the Jeep to seek out his long-lost father. The search for Poopdeck Pappy wraps up the run of dailies and they find him and bring him back to add to the rich cast of Thimble Theater. 

In the Sunday pages it's a lost less hectic with Wimpy once again dominating the proceedings. Much of the early entries deal with an odyssey to Slither Creek to look for gold. It ends up after much hijinks that only Wimpy stumbles across any and they return home where he opens up his own eatery which quickly goes bust. Some great gags are had when Olive tries to get Popeye to have a more modern attitude to dating and eventually the Jeep too invades the proceedings to grand effect. 

The "Sappo" strip undergoes the greatest transformation during this period. The series is as we left it focused on the inventions of Prof. Wotsasnozzle which reduce weight and size and later allow mirror images to come to life. But quickly the feature becomes a gimmick in which Segar plays with making images out of the alphbet and later numbers. This is an absorption of "Popeye's Cartoon Club" into the Sappo strip which gets smaller as the time wears on. 

Fun stuff indeed, but that's come to be expected. There's one more volume in the Fantagraphics run of Segar's classic run. More on that next week. 

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The Secret History Of Marvel Comics!

The Secret History of Marvel Comics by Dr. Michael Vassallo and Blake Bell is a remarkable tome utterly crammed with fascinating images by artists we all know and admire. The focus of the book though is one man -- Martin Goodman the publisher of Marvel Comics as well as it turns out nigh countless other brands. Much of comics history has been hagiography, but as the passage of time has allowed a more objective perspective to enter the game we see what was always just before out eyes. The early publishers of comics and the pulps before that were hucksters like as not and making a buck and a quick one at that was the goal. To that end we see in this biography of sorts how Martin Goodman shucked and jived his way through many a marginally legal (and sometimes outright illegal) business deal to make the most he could and pay his employees the least he might get away with. 

Goodman does not come off in this story as a good man, but he does come across as a full-blooded one. He's a man who made a lot of money ultimately, but as is shown time and again had the uncanny knack for missing out on even bigger opportunities just as the fruit was about to ripen. He's shown here as a man of small but focused ambitions and those compulsions didn't allow him to even apprehend a larger and more generous picture. He comes across as grasping, needlessly brutal at times and just plain cheap and chintzy. But there is always the suggestion that he was possessed of some sort of charm which drew in talents time and time again. In addition to the well-known Marvel, Atlas and Timely, the companies he oversaw were Leading, Vista, Canam, Zenith, Bard, Non-Pareil, Manvis, Animirth, Chipiden, Stadium, among many others. Little shell companies popped up monthly to play hob with finances. 

It's well documented that Goodman's sleazy accounting resulted in his losing Joe Simon and Jack Kirby when they weren't getting all they were owed from Captain America royalties. But that was just a single instance of Goodman shortchanging talent, the talent he relied on to make his bucks. He seemed to feel all of them were replaceable. Much is said about the earliest days of his pulps and to be honest that is the focus of this book. The simultaneous move into comics in the late 30's and early 40's is seen as just part of the whole of the Goodman publishing effort. He went on to actually sort of create what we think of as male "sweat magazines" and was not at all sky about publishing books that took full advantage of female pulchritude. True to form, Goodman sold Marvel just as it was on the verge of flowering into the dominant comic company of the era. His disastrous attempt to come back into the comics field in the middle 70's with Atlas-Seaboard followed the boom and bust model he'd perfected in his headiest days. 

The story of Martin Goodman occupies just over one hundred pages of this book. The remainder of the pages, nearly another two hundred showcase the artwork of some of the giants who made Goodman's companies function. Here's a partial list of the famous Marvel talents given space: Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Alex Schomburg, Bill Everett, Syd Shores, Carl Burgos, George Klein, Joe Maneely, Artie Simek, John Severin, and Gene Colan. Stan Lee himself is given several pages of his work. Kirby has the most with nearly forty pages of exotic pulp work exhibited. Other artist too get recognized, many not immediately known for working for Timely or Marvel. Here's a partial list: Frank R. Paul, Jack Binder, Dave Berg, Matt Baker, Roy Krenkel, Al Williamson, Stan Drake, Mort Walker, and Hank Ketchum. I haven't listed them all yet and most get several page. If you like pulp illustration this is an amazing book. 

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Who Says A Blog Has To Be Good??

A lot is happening in April if all goes as planned. Some features will be continuing and some will be returning after making for the "King of Monsters". The central focus though will be on one of the most riotous and raucous planets in the Marvel mythos, and that is Earth-665 the home of "Marble Comics" and of a certain fondly remembered spoof comic dubbed Not Brand Echh! 

I love Not Brand Echh! It speaks to all that was endearing about the Marvel Bullpen, a willingness to not take themselves too seriously and a willingness to invite all their readers to have a laugh or two or ten at their expense. This the realm of "Marble Comics" and features such luminaries as Spidey-Man, Charlie America, Ironed Man, the Fantastical Four, The Revengers, and a little guy named Forbush Man. I will be taking a good leisurely look at each of the thirteen issues of the classic Silver Age run. I've debated long and hard how best to respond to these delightful books and I think I've hit on a keen plan. I will write a classic LoC (Letter of Comment) to Stan and the Gang regarding each issue. That way I can indulge myself in the delightful fantasy of coming to each issue as a new reader, fresh and unbowed by the hoary weight of time. 

In "The Sunday Funnies" feature it will be all Popeye this month with the two final volumes of the wonderful Fantagraphics reprints of E.C. Segar's original strips followed hard by both volumes of the memorable and sometimes stunning strips by  Bobby London from the late 1980's. London tried his damnedest to make Popeye relevant to a modern world and get the strip some attention and he did, but it was a mighty struggle. 

On Saturdays look for reviews of books about comics. I've been reading a lot of great nonfiction about the men and women who make the comics I crave written by the fanboys who gobbled them up with such glee so many years ago. Expect to see some of these more curious tomes pictured above get a highlight as the month unfurls.  Pre-historical information about the genesis of Marvel Comics, a peek at the ultimate fanzine, and the intoxicating work of Fred Hembeck, if it all works out. 

And if time permits, I might even check out the funny animal tome above. But we'll have to see how the month unfolds. 

And finally the "Classic Crisis" series will return, representing some vintage Dojo material about some of the most incredible comics ever concocted, those featuring crossover between DC's Justice League of America and their Earth-2 counterparts the Justice Society of America. These teams are not alone and are joined by heroes and heroines from Quality Comics and Fawcett Comics as well DC heroes from the future and the past. 

Who says a blog has to be good? Well regular readers of the Dojo know full well it ain't me. Enjoy amigos! 

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April Foolish - The Impossible Man?????

It's April Fools Day and I'd like to celebrate that most delightful of utterly foolish holidays with one of the delightful of utterly foolish comic book characters. Impossible Man is an outrageous character who can do outrageous things, and all to get a chortle or even a guffaw from his targets. He craves attention. 

While he does rate the cover this was an oddball issue of the FF since it featured not the usual single book-length story but rather two smaller adventures. So in his debut poor Impossible Man doesn't even rate the full treatment given others like Miracle Man, Mole Man, and Kurgo Master of Planet X. Impossible Man is really the first interstellar threat the FF faced since sending the Skrulls to munch in the meadows in the second Fab 4 adventure. 

Part of a long tradition of tricksters, Impossible Man, from the planet Poppup in the Tenth Galaxy, first arrived on Earth in the eleventh issue of the venerable Fantastic Four comic circa 1963. He was an interplanetary tourist looking for a good time and found until the Fab 4 figured out that ignoring this cosmic pest was the best way to send him packing. And he did for a long long time. 

The green man from space disappears from the pages of the FF  and everywhere else until the advent of the "Bronze Age of Comics" and then, then he finds himself more comfortable in a comic book landscape where self-aware irony was more wildly appreciated by the fanboys who dominated the market. Impossible Man was the Deadpool of the time, a character who clearly seemed to be aware of his narrative reality and who altered himself like a strange blend of Plastic Man and Snapper Carr, a mascot but one with mad skills. He returns in the pages of the Fantastic Four when they are in the midst of one of their periodic struggles with Galactus and to keep the "Big G" from gobbling up Earth, Impossible Man offers up Poppup and we learn if you've met one Poppupian you've met them all. They give Galactus intergalactic gas and the reader a whimsical treat. Then with all the Poppupians having become Impossible Man he comes again to Earth to see what he can get up to. 

In a tale which was dreamed up by Roy Thomas and drawn by George Perez, the FF along with Impossible Man are trying to get from Central Park to the Baxter Building and it's a hectic mess of a commute. It ends up in the Mighty Marvel Bullpen where we meet Stan, Jack, Roy, George, Archie, Len Wein, and the imposing John Verpoorten among others. This little side trip was inspired by Jack Kirby's cover for the issue which show Impy making use of Iron Man's gauntlet and Thor's hammer. How'd that happen? Well a visit to the Marvel offices supplies the answers. 

For a bit Impossible Man was a resident of the Baxter Building and so showed up alongside Ben Grimm in a light-hearted tale about Alice Masters and her statues coming to life thanks to three relic villains from days gone by in a fun issue of Marvel Two-In-One. It's mostly hijinks and not real danger that makes this bouncy tale spring to life, written by Ralph Macchio and Mark Guenwald and drawn magnificently by George Perez with Gene Day inks. 

Impossible Man gets a back up story in this low-key but fondly remembered issue of MTIO. It's in this issue that he makes a female version of himself and sets out to find a new world for the a Poppupian people. Ron Wilson draws a fine story by Tom DeFalco with some tasty Chic Stone inking. 

The journey didn't last long as Impossible Man turns up in this issue of Spider-Woman by Chris Claremont and Steve Leiloha. To be honest this story never really gets going and Impy's transformations lack the potency of earlier appearances. 

Things are much improved in an X-Men annual in which Impy is back on Earth and runs the mutants ragged running across the Marvel Universe attempting to stop his wild scavenger hunt which includes things like Nick Fury's eyepatch, Doc Strange's window, and the X-Men's entire school among many other things. There are diverse hands on this one but Chris Claremont and Michael Golden lead the way. 

A few years later Claremont takes up with Alan Davis to showcase a battle across the globe between Impossible Man and Warlock of New Mutants fame. The New Mutants chase after the ever-changing pair as they duke it out to determine dominance. It's a weirdo-on-weirdo fest of the finest order. 

Jim Valentino takes up the Impossible Man challenge next in the pages of Silver Surfer with Ron Lim supplying the art. Impy often makes other races across the galaxy angry and he hopes that the former herald of Galactus can give him some cover when the shooting breaks out. There are some tasty transformations in this one for certain. 

In his first "Summer Vacation Spectacular" from 1990 Impossible Man really breaks out in all his goofy glory. He comes to  Earth to visit and rampages across the Marvel Universe interacting with Spider-Man, Quasar, Dr. Strange, She-Hulk, the Wasp, the Invisible Woman, Doc Doom and even the Punisher. We have a network of related short yarns by talents like  Roy Thomas, Greg Capullo, Mark Gruenwald, Rurik Tyler, Jim Valentino, Danny Bulanadi, Aaron Lopresit, Luke McDonnel, Peter David, Butch Guice, Barry Crain. and more under one of my favorite Al Milgrom covers. 

The following summer in 1991 the Impossible Man returns looking for his lost kid, number 4,682. This time he encounters Psycho Man, Hank Pym, Thor, and assorted Asgardians. The talent in this issue includes Mike Gallagher, Barry  Crain, Kieron Dwyer, Phil Winslade, and others under Michael Golden's awesome cover. The X-Men do not appear though. 

Marvel Comics Presents from that same year supplies yet another tale connected to the summer spectacular in which Impossible Man checks in with Daredevil thanks to writer and artist Dave Manak. 

The final Impossible Man yarn in this collection is from 1995 and is full of all the hyperbolic flaws of that era when Impy checks in with Cable and the X-Force while they are on vacation. He wants the taskmaster Cable to take three of his slacker kids in hand and make something of them. It all hits the beach thanks to writer Jeph Loeb and artists Matt Ryan and Rurik Tyler. 

This is a fine fun collection of zany stories which offer glimpses into the broad spectrum and history of Marvel Comics for nearly thirty years. Beginning with that classic first story by Stan and Jack and winding its way all the way forward to the time when Marvel nearly went bust. It's a fun read if you can find it cheap. What better way to celebrate April Fool's Day than indulging in some Impossible Man. 

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