“…the breakfast cereal!”
Uncanny Origins #11
Marvel Comics (July, 1997)
The Black Knight: “Bloodline”
WRITER: Glenn Herdling
ARTIST: Mark Campos
COLORIST: Bob Sharen
LETTERER: Jack Morelli
EDITOR: Joe Andreani
English: Title page of The Commonwealth of Oceana. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In this time of social and political division how does a writer address this in his or her stories? One solution is to not do so, as novelist James Harrington makes a case for. Sometimes you just need an escape since current events are all over the place. That doesn’t mean you never should. It’s really up to you as the writer. I do it for Jake & Leon but not Captain Yuletide or any other story I write. There is nothing wrong with either decision but it seems like there is more pressure to “speak out” rather than simply tell a fun story.
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“What are we shooting at?” “Who cares, we’re in a 90s comics. Just keep shooting!”
R.E.B.E.L.S. ’94 #0
DC Comics (October, 1994)
“Less Than Zero”
WRITER: Tennessee Peyer
LAYOUTS: Arnie Jorgensen
FINISHES: James Pascoe
COLORIST: Stu Chaifetz
LETTERER: Gaspar Saladino
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Peter Tomasi
EDITOR: Dan Raspler
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King Kong vs. Godzilla (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’m not sure how to read this interview with Adam Wingard. He’s helming the upcoming crossover movie with the Legendary Pictures versions of Godzilla and King Kong, but while he promises good fights (which I hope we’ll get to see) he also says “If I had my way, I want people to really be teary-eyed at the end of the movie, and be that invested in to what’s going on”, which is not what I watch giant monster battles for. There have been times you felt for either monster in their previous incarnations, but if he’s going for something more than that (think Peter Jackson’s Kong but more empty “emotions” without substance) I don’t think that’s going to work. But we have until 2020 to find out.
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There, I acknowledged reviewing this book in the comic.
Yeah, it may be every two weeks but I still have more of this book to go through. Then I can get Chapter By Chapter back to one article a week as I review a fiction book rather than one that might as well be.
Over at The Clutter Reports I took a look at another version of Optimus Prime, this time from the Classics line. Speaking of Transformers we have the last of the Spotlights we need to go over before going to the next storyline and based on the teaser at the end of Escalation this may be the most important one besides the Shockwave story. Meanwhile we’re getting into the tie-in comic to Phantom 2040, one of two cartoons to feature the Ghost Who Walks (Defenders Of The Earth being the other one, but I reviewed the ones I have already). We’ll also be concluding the first story arc for Voltron’s Devil’s Due run, but there is another one to come and it’s the reason I went over the Vehicle Team last night.
Otherwise it’s all Wertham again as we dig into chapter 10 of Seduction Of The Innocent. Well, I wanted to know if they were exaggerating Dr. Wertham’s failure to understand comics. They weren’t.
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This is the only footage I could find online, but I own the DVD, which I need to finish watching (add that to the list), so I know something more about it. Like Super Dimensional Fortress Macross and Harmony Gold, Beast King GoLion didn’t have enough episodes for a weekday TV series, which is why World Events Productions picked up three series to create The Voltron Trilogy. More on that in a couple of weeks, because we never got a trilogy. Like Robotech an attempt was made to create a mythos that would combine the various series created into Voltron. So when they ran out of adventures of the team now called the Lion Force, they created the Vehicle Team Voltron Force, although I remember them being called the Vehicle TEAM when I was a kid.
Armored Fleet DaiRugger XV was the tale of a group of space explorers from multiple planets who used the titular robot to protect their fleet from a competing planet who didn’t want to share a planet, even blowing up planets they couldn’t have all to themselves. They’re kind of jerks that way. The “Galaxy Garrison” footage came from this show, and it would be established that Chip, a member of the Vehicle Team, was the twin brother of Pidge from the Lion Force, since their character models look so similar. (It also established they have a sister, so the “Pidge” of Legendary Defender could claim that was an homage…although the real reason is the voice actress wanted to play a girl character.)
The robot consists of 15 vehicles (which is where the “Fleet” comes in) that combined into a super robot, but it was also made up of three teams–air, land, and sea–that could combine into larger vehicles when necessary. This allowed for multi-terrain exploration but if separated could defend themselves long enough to get together and form their version of Voltron. Tonight we’ll be looking at five episodes of the Vehicle Voltron team, since the official YouTube channel already has them in a separate playlist. Oddly it’s not the first five (I’m betting you have to pay for those) but episodes six through ten. And then we’ll try to figure out why this version is barely remembered by WEP and all but the classic fans. I think the last time they show up anywhere besides this is the Devil’s Due comics I’m reviewing, so I’m doing this one to get everyone up to speed.
Chapter By Chapter Special: Seduction Of The Innocent ch. 10 part 1
Here we go again, kids.
Normally, Chapter By Chapter is me reading a fictional book one chapter at a time to study each part of the story. In this special review series however we are looking at Seduction Of The Innocent, a non-fiction book as the writer, Dr. Fredric Wertham, tries to make the case that comics were a bad thing for kids in the 1950s. The book had a huge impact on the comic industry and fans. We will examine what he is saying not exclusively by today’s standards, but the time in which the book was made to see where Wertham was right, and where he was horribly wrong.
Apparently the Upas tree, or more precisely the Antiaris, has a variety of uses, some of them toxic and some beneficial. Of course Wertham would only see the former in a comic book. It has been used for arrow poison and in rituals, but has also been uses for wood veneer, clothing dyes, and Wikipedia also mentions potential medicinal uses. And yet one definition I found for upas was “a poisonous or harmful influence or institution”, which is most assuredly how Wertham is using it.
We are at the point where Wertham discusses the comic creators, but interestingly he tries to pull blame away from the writers and artists (while telling them their art sucks) and focuses all of his scorn against the publishers, and he may have some points here. Publishers can be rather ruthless to each other. Remember, the Comics Code was used to go after one particular publisher. And some of the practices we’ll be taking about here probably did happen back then and were horrible.
Also remember that Wertham is doing this “for the children”, which is usually a good way to protect yourself when forcing censorship on people. He joined the crowd who kept acting like comics were for kids, only acknowledging adults also read comics. Remember, I’m not necessarily complaining about the problems he saw. I’m complaining about the levels he saw them when it was obvious he rarely knew what he was talking about. When it comes to the behind-the-scenes stuff however, he is probably more right in this chapter than he has before. Granted that isn’t saying much but here me out. There’s still plenty to complain about here, especially in the beginning. This is still a man who doesn’t understand comics.
Chapter 10: The Upas Tree
Read his thoughts before reading mine. Perspective is important.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on August 21, 2017 in Comic Spotlight, Seduction Of The Innocent and tagged book review, Chapter By Chapter, Comic book, comic creation, commentary, Dr. Fredric Wertham, Seduction Of The Innocent.
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