Today is Memorial Day so this morning’s link is to a website all about Memorial Day and why it matters.
I don’t really follow memes but I hope there’s a lot of “Darkseid is (silly comment)” memes out there.
Now I’ve reviewed the stories, the Clutter Report this week is a review of the Dark Horse collection of the He-Man Newspaper Comics. There’s more Eternia to come but that series is all reviewed now.
As for this week, we start the second DC run of Star Trek. See, my collection is put into a chronological order combining all the runs, which will run into a few confusions as Marvel, DC, and IDW had different takes on a few ideas. The Mirror Universe is probably the biggest given what happened in DC’s first run versus Marvel’s “Paramount Comics” second run. If you want to see a review in proper printing order check out Siskoid’s Blog Of Geekery. I can’t link to the right category so you’ll have to search for yourself but it’s worth it. Otherwise the reviews will make sense here even if the number order doesn’t.
We also have the penultimate Chapter By Chapter review of Tom Clancy’s Op-Center but that will be on Tuesday since I’ll be doing my annual Memorial Day posting on Monday. I would have done a drawing but I made the mistake of going back on that medicine at the doctor’s request and it started making me sick again, which explains some of the posting delays this weekend. I will not be taking it and will have to simply work around my bathroom issues because it beats being semi-conscious and nauseous. I will however find a good tribute video. I hope you have a good Memorial Day weekend and for those of you in a country with one please take some time to remember those who died so you could live free. Otherwise have a good week everyone!
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As I write this Wednesday’s edition of “Yesterday’s” Comic is focusing on Star Trek comics. I just completed Early Voyages, which focused on the Christopher Pike years of the Enterprise. As I prepare to go into what currently passes for the chronological order of my comic collection, I’m about to start the Captain Kirk years, and this will be all over the place when it comes to publishers and in DC’s case volumes since they had the license more than once. First up in the current timeline is a book & record, or in this case comic book and record, that I thought would be easier to examine as a Saturday Night Showcase.
The Crier In Emptiness is one of a series of audio dramas Peter Pan Records produced, later splitting some of them up and including them in comic adaptations for their Power Records comic book & record series. This series featured numerous audio drama/comic packages with licenses from other kid-friendly franchise and even included original DC and Marvel stories. This story (or just the audio drama…or maybe just the comic adaptation–I’m going by what little I could find on the internet since there are no credits on the record or the comic) was written by Alan Dean Foster, who has written many Star Trek novelizations as well as other science fiction and fantasy works. (He even made novelizations and original novels based on the Michael Bay Transformers films, and they’re better than the movies.) The Grand Comics Database claims the penciling on the comic was done by John Buscema, with Dick Giordano and Terry Austin both doing the inks. I don’t know if they’re right because again, no credits on the record or the comic. No colorist written, and you may see why they wouldn’t want to be credited given the huge visual errors involved. The story however is really good and I’m happy to bring it to you tonight. Enjoy!
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“Can’t you guys get your own phones?”
Dear Justice League Free Comic Book Day 2019
DC Comics/DC Zoom (May, 2019)
WRITER: Michael Northrop
ARTIST: Gustavo Duarte
COLORIST: Marcelo Maiolo
LETTERER: Wes Abbott
This is a sampler for the DC Zoom graphic novel for kids, containing two of the letters asked of the heroes by kids. (Not actual kids I don’t think.)
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For my birthday one year a friend gave me a copy of Dark Horse Comics’ collection of the Masters Of The Universe newspaper comic strips. I hadn’t heard of these until then and I was really curious about them. I decided to make it a monthly review series to give me time to read each of the storylines, although Val Staples (who worked on the project and also runs He-Man.org, where I get most of the scans for the Masters Of The Universe and Princess Of Power minicomics when they come up in Free Comic Inside rotation) requested I not spoil the stories. I only did so when necessary and with a bit spoiler warning.
Now that I’ve reviewed the final storyline it’s time to look over the series as a whole. I avoided spoilers whenever possible in the story reviews, at the request of one of the people behind the collection and while I’ll try to do so here as well some may slip through without the spoiler warnings I did on the individual reviews. I want to be able to give my overall thoughts without worrying about tripping over myself so here’s the short version.
While the newspaper comics weren’t perfect, many but not all of the problems due to the inherent problems of doing an action story three panels a day plus working around not everybody having the Sunday comics, overall I found the stories very enjoyable. The cast was used well, the art is really good, and I would recommend this Dark Horse collection to fans of He-Man. As for the specifics, read on if you don’t mind risking a spoiler or two.
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Yes, there was a Police Academy comic. No, it wasn’t based on the movie. Unless one came out after this.
Yep, that existed. and they made a comic book.
It’s a good thing New York has superheroes with these cops.
Police Academy #2
Marvel Comics (Mid November, 1989–yes, they were doing the “mid month” thing at this time)
“The Beast From 2 1/2 Fathoms” and “The Cookoo Commandant”
WRITER: Angelo Decesare
PENCILER: Howard Post
INKER: Jacquelle Roettcher
COLORIST: George Roussos
LETTERER: Rick Parker
EDITOR: Sid Jacobson
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While I get annoyed that comics and video games seem to trying to shove kids aside (mainly the biggest comic publishers, DC & Marvel), I don’t want those media just for kids either. The same goes for animation. Cartoons can tell more adult stories as well as kids stories, which explains the anime craze here in the states. Other grown-up cartoons are either subversive comedies or ignored unless they can also market it to kids. However, the folks at the Cannes Film Festival are trying to come up with a strategy to allow these movies to finally get a chance to find an audience.
