My Fantastic Four Reading Project
By Dan Brown Hey y’all, I just finished my latest reading project. I had set myself the goal of reading the first 200 issues of Fantastic Four in order. It took me months, but I finally got it done. The verdict? The first 100 of those issues are great, the rest . . . well, it was the 1970s. I’m also now convinced the creative team of artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee wasn’t an equal partnership – Kirby was the real force behind the book’s success. More on that in a moment. About my reading projects: From time to time, I set myself a goal so I get the most out of my comic habit. I’ve read lots of FF in the past, but there were still some gaps I wanted to fill in my knowledge of Marvel’s First Family. For example, I knew the frenemy character Thundra came from Femizonia, an alternate future where warrior women rule the world, but I had never seen her origin story. So I set out to read the first nine volumes of The Essential Fantastic Four, the black-and-white compilations collecting all issues from the team’s debut issue in 1961 to No. 207. Kirby and Lee were the original creative pairing on the series (Fantastic Four No. 1 is considered the starting point for the Marvel Age). Kirby left the title, and the House of Idea, in 1970 after issue 102. That original burst of cosmic creativity is still considered among the best runs in comics history. After the King departed for DC, the title struggled to find a consistent tone and look. I’m betting no one wanted to follow Kirby – it would be like being in a band and your opening act is the Beatles. How could you hope to top what came before? So artists like Rich Buckler, Keith Pollard, John Buscema and Sal Buscema cycled in and out of the lineup. Such names as Len Wein, Bill Mantlo and Roger Slifer did the same on the writing side. They all tried their best. I started reading FF as a kid in 1977 with issue No. 183. This was a time when superheroes like the Thing and Mister Fantastic would regularly lose their powers, so there was more of a focus on supporting players – the afore-mentioned Thundra, Tigra, the Impossible Man, and so on. The series was a riot of guest stars. Writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez were a highlight of those later years, but their time was fleeting. They would later reunite at DC on New Teen Titans. And one thing is impossible not to notice. Lee stayed on as scripter until issue 125 following Kirby’s exit. What struck me is how bad the writing and dialogue were without Kirby – my conclusion, he was writing FF on his own since the beginning. I’m sorry if this offends Lee partisans, but go back and check for yourself. It’s clear as day. At the risk of sounding like a Kirby fanatic, which I am, the guy went on to create the Fourth World web of interconnected properties at DC. Meanwhile, Lee stopped writing monthly books and was booted upstairs to the publisher’s office. And my next reading project? I’ve cracked the first of the two colour omnibuses containing sometime Canadian John Byrne’s run on FF, which picks up close to where the Essential titles leave off. Here we go again! Would love to know what comics you’ve been reading lately. Let me know in the comments! Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 34 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group book club.
New Volume Of Public Domain Deepens, Enriches Tale Of Competing Creators
By Dan Brown Out this month, the second volume of Chip Zdarsky’s Public Domain graphic novel is a rare thing. It’s a sophomore collection that enriches the storyline of an ongoing comic series, putting the characters in new and surprising situations. Subtitled Build Something New, it grabbed my attention, then left me wanting more.If you haven’t checked it out, Public Domain tells the story of two aging comic creators.One, the writer, is lionized by fans of pop culture who adore him at comic conventions. The other, the artist, is held in high regard by comic purists but got shafted after helping to create an enduring character that has spawned a multimedia empire, including big-screen adaptations. If that sounds like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to you, that’s because it’s supposed to. Here the Lee figure is the crusty Jerry Jasper and the Kirby equivalent is Syd Dallas. The launching point for the first volume, collecting the initial four issues of Public Domain, was something like, “What if Jack Kirby had got legal control of the characters he drew for Marvel Comics in the 1960s?” Like Lee, Jasper’s talents as a scribe are questionable and his true talent is self-promotion. Like Kirby, Dallas was an influential artist but doesn’t get enough props for the pioneering work he did back in the day. A superhero named the Domain is the duo’s most famous creation. When the series begins, the Domain is the centrepiece of the Singular Comics empire, which includes any number of slick, special-effects driven motion pictures. The face of the actor who plays him is plastered on billboards, buses, you name it. The fact Dallas is forgotten except by the most diehard fans doesn’t sit well with his two sons. After a legal knife fight, Dallas gets the rights to produce Domain comics back, and having missed most of their childhood because he was metaphorically chained to the drawing table, Dallas wants to make the return of his Domain to the printed page a family affair. This leads to a situation that would have delighted many real-life comic fans: Both creators can publish their own versions of the character. In Build Something New, the reader sees the beginnings of a fresh battle, as the former partners prepare to go head-to-head. The second volume goes way beyond the initial premise. The story deepens, broadens, and gets even richer. As in the first Public Domain anthology, there are many twists, almost every one unanticipated by me – which I love. Zdarksy, a Canadian artist/writer, is firing on all cylinders here. His art is economical. His dialogue is lively. The established characters are well on their way to being fully fleshed out, so he introduces interesting new ones. Part of this volume takes place in the 1980s, and those segments had a melancholy-yet-energetic feel that, for whatever reason, reminded me of the flashbacks in the landmark DC series, Watchmen. And even though Public Domain was inspired by actual comics history, Zdarsky keeps the industry in-jokes to a minimum. If you’re at all interested in stories about the people behind the superheroes you love, you should read this new graphic novel. In fact, do yourself a favour: Get BOTH volumes of this engrossing series – the one just published and the previous collection as well. You’ll thank me. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
The Marvel Universe: An appreciation
By Dan Brown Did you ever have one of those posters showing all the Marvel superhero characters gathered together in one place? Over the decades, successive generations of Marvel artists have depicted that crowded scene – row after row of colourful do-gooders, a cast of literally thousands, standing at the ready to fight evil.. Whether this heroes’ gallery was drawn by Jack Kirby, John Byrne or Michael Golden or someone else, my jaw hits the floor every time I see it. I am in awe of the creative energy it must have required to come up with backstories and costumes for all of them. So what I want to do this week is take a moment to praise the folks at Marvel for doing such a good job of churning out one interesting character after another since 1939. This will come as no surprise to regular readers who know I was raised on Marvel Comics in the 1970s. (And don’t worry, DC fans, I’ll do a tribute to that company’s stable when I figure out the right way to do it.) When it comes to being prolific, no other comic publisher has the track record Marvel does. What a riot of invention! What a unique assemblage of talent! What a big bang of creativity that set and kept the Marvel Universe in motion! The Marvel Universe is what results when the right talented people get together and are allowed the freedom to let their minds wander. It’s an example of what no less an authority than Willy Wonka calls “pure imagination.” Jack Kirby and Stan Lee – who launched such comics as the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk and the Uncanny X-Men – were undeniably the creators among creators at Marvel. I don’t want to get too much into the weeds on the question of which man possessed the real vision, so let’s just state for our purposes here today that Kirby and Lee combined are among the greatest and most prolific American originators of characters, in the same league as Walt Disney, Jim Henson, Dr. Seuss and Mark Twain. It’s true the different creative teams at Marvel were motivated by economic necessity. They never met a trend they didn’t try to plunder, like the disco craze. No sooner, it seemed, had Studio 54 opened than Marvel came up with the mutant Dazzler – who has all the powers of a disco ball! When kung fu movies likewise hit it big, Marvel answered with Shang-Chi and Iron Fist. Sometimes the plundering was done for the right reasons, as when characters like Black Panther and Power Man were devised to give black readers heroes of their own. Although some fans have by now grown weary of the offerings from Marvel’s movie division, the studio hasn’t even begun to scratch the surface of the vast library of characters it owns. No one would call the comic-book Agatha Harkness a major Marvel character, but there’s currently an entire series streaming right now devoted to her solo adventures. A series about Wonder Man – another B-list character – is set to debut next year. As someone who appreciates and values imagination, I can’t help but be deeply impressed by how productive Marvel has been over the decades, creating a surplus of diverse characters who have now become recognized around the world. And yes, the chumminess of the Marvel Bullpen was likely an illusion created by Lee to help infuse the Marvel brand with an air of fun, but at the end of the day we are still left with what all of those artists, writers, colourists, letterers and editors wrought: An entirely original group of compelling heroes. There’s literally a character for everyone. I stand in awe. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 31 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
