Redartz: Good day, and welcome! One of the great strengths of the medium of comics is the versatility it displays. No less than film, books or television, comics can entertain, educate, shock, inspire, tug at the heart and tickle the funny bone. It's the last two that we are dealing with this time.
More specifically, the subject is to consider the ability of our favorite characters to star in both stories of drama and stories of humor (hence our title above, with a nod to Steven Sondheim). I'm sure that all of us could , given a character, come up with a stirring dramatic story featuring said character. The challenge is to also recall an entertainingly humorous tale as well! As an example, I'll start off. And the subject of my picks are my old favorite, Spider-man.
Spider-man is ideally suited for this subject. At various times, and by different creators, the character has ranged from comic to tragic, usually blending both in the same story. Some of you may bring up other examples from Spidey's backstory, but I'm going with "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man" as my dramatic entry. A short story, half of ASM 248; but with volumes of impact. Without spoiling anything (in case any of you haven't read it), the story tells of Spider-man's meeting with a young fan. The tale, by Roger Stern , Ron Frenz and Terry Austin, perfectly captures the essence of Peter Parker's heroism and humanity. And I defy you to read it without getting a lump in the throat before you're through.
On the other hand, my humorous pick is a comical gem. "Untold Tales of Spider-Man" Annual from 1996, by Kurt Busiek, Mike Allred and Joe Sinnott, is a perfect example of Spidey's capacity for fun. The story of Peter's date with Sue Storm caps a hilarious battle of egos between Pete and his friendly nemesis, the Human Torch. Some of you might recall that I did a full review of this book some time ago; the book is worth another mention. Brilliantly written, and perfectly illustrated, "A Night on the Town" is guaranteed to give the reader a giant size dose of laughs.
And that's just one (two, actually) example of a character who carries tears and laughter equally well. What others can you think of?
18 comments:
(Thumbs-up for the Sondheim shout-out, there, Red!)
This topic is tougher than I thought it would be at first glance, though-- Man, once you get past Spidey, it's a LOT harder to come up with widely-known comic book characters who've been able to span that same broad tonal/emotional spectrum in their book(s).
Let me go ahead and look at the Hulk, since he's where I'm best-versed, so to speak. And he's had plenty of tear your heart out at the roots issues, at least in his simple-Hulk iteration. Issue #147-"Heaven is a Very Small Place"; Issue #156, where he is torn form K'ai/Jarella (for the second time); #182- with Crackajack Jackson; issues #205-207- w/ (omigod) the death of Jarella; and the end of the Planet Hulk arc (IIRC), when EVERYTHING is wiped out, including his queen, who was carrying his child. And I might add issue #170, where we see a protective, caring Hulk-- who finds himself unable to kill a deer in order to provide food for an injured Betty.
But-- on the light-hearted comic side of the equation? The Hulk has funny moments, but they are generally just as a bit of relief, not issues where the overall tone is light. Except maybe, like, the Rocket Raccoon issue-- where the humor and tone are so forced that it is a STRUGGLE to get through it-- and the Hulk is barely a guest star in his own book at that. OH--! Wait-- there was a graphic novel-- let me look it up-- Yes! Jim Starlin. The Thing and The Hulk: The Big Change. I haven't read this in forever, but I do seem to recall that it had a VERY Buddy Film caper vibe to it-- I'm gonna put that one in as a placeholder for the time-bein'----
HB
I'm currently re-reading my trade collection of Untold Tales of Spider-Man and couldn't agree with you more. Though I'm rushing this note and don't have any specific examples, my choice for best Marvel character has got to be my favorite, the Thing! No one switches from hilarious sayings and circumstances to tragic monster angst than bashful, blue-eyed Benjy!
ON A COMPLETELY UNRELATED NOTE
(And possibly bending our etiquette and protocols in the process-- so Red, feel free to pull me back, if necessary--)
Yer pal HB has been doing a series of on-line ZOOM play-readings on Youtube, and this evening is a biggish one: tightly condensed stagings of Thomas Heywood's "KING EDWARD THE FOURTH, Parts 1 and 2". Heywood was a contemporary of Shakespeare's, and these guys were ALL writing plays around the same historical subjects. I have a decent supporting role in part 1, in case anyone wants to pop in and take a look.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P0TDgzdqXjg
No obligation at all, mind you. This is very niche literary material-- and I'm not 100% convinced of how well ZOOM is serving to convey theatrical life. The folks that are loving it are the hardcore Shakespeare Fanboy crowd-- who make up a hefty chunk of the theatrical circle I'm currently engaged with. Lord, the minutia that they will choose to get into heated arguments about. . . In fact, I was ready to posit an "Other Types of Fandoms" topic for today's discussion if Red didn't have one to toss out already, just based on how similar that behavior is to our own Deep-Basement Fanboys of yore. . .
That's it-- til later, all!
HB
HB- glad you liked the title today; thought you would catch it. one might say that a funny thing happened on the way to our forum...
And also glad you chimed in on ol' Greenskin. I remember numerous funny moments with him among the Defenders appearances. Have never read that Rocket Raccoon issue though.
Oh, and you're absolutely fine giving us all a heads-up regarding your readings tonight! I'll try to check it out. Aaaand, I like your topic suggestion as well. Mind if I borrow it?
Disneymarvel- That whole series you are reading ("Untold Tales of Spider-Man") is excellent! Any fans of the webslinger would enjoy that book. A great homage to the Lee/Ditko era.
As for the Thing, great choice. As you said, Ben covers the whole range from drama to humor wonderfully. Few characters in comics have the wealth of great one-liners that Bashful Benjy has...
HB- Brackenbury, correct? Ah, now I have a voice to go with your name. And a fine theatrical voice it is!
Thanks kindly, Red-!
Yup-- Brackenbury was the third of my three characters-- You may have witnessed my long-delayed entrance--- when my Camera icon dropped off of my zoom window, and I UTTERLY panicked. . . oof, live television! Teammates, this thing is too long to sit through unless you have a love for the material, I daresay--- BUT, if you care to take a glance at it, it'll be on Youtube for the foreseeable future--
DONE for the night--
HB
Well Red... that's a tough question, lol.
Besides what you mentioned and The Thing. I can't think of anything.
I'd have to go back to Golden Age: Plastic Man and The Spirit.
Now, you could probably do a bit of the reverse wherein asking, "What were your favorite serious moments for Archie." LOL.
Aunt May comes to mind. She had plenty of dramatic moments - getting kidnapped, having heart attacks, marrying Doctor Octopus etc but there are also two very funny stories featuring Peter Parker's perpetually whining and worried relative:
"What If Aunt May Had Been Bitten By The Radioactive Spider?" - this was a back-up story in an issue of 'What If' circa 1982 (can't recall which one) where Aunt May realises that Peter has forgotten his packed lunch and chases after him, getting bitten by the radioactive spider in his place.
Marvel Team-Up featuring Aunt May & Franklin Richards in which Aunt May is transformed into the Golden Oldie, the latest Herald of Galactus.
One story is a What If spoof and the other is a dream but both are terrific and show a completely different side of Aunt May where she is portrayed as funny and cool instead of the annoying, whining old bat that she normally was.
HB, I couldn't find your performance on YouTube. "This video is not available" is all I got.
Colin-- golly, harshin' poor Aunt May's groove, y'are-! She has possibly suffered as much from inconsistent writing over the decades as any character I can think of, off-hand. (Johnny Storm falls into this category big-time, IMO) But I do love her, and you're right, she's a solid choice for this topic. Her absolute best was in. . . Spectacular Spider-Man? Late 90's? When there had clearly been a decision to have her die "for real"-- and her last conversation with Peter was lovely and quite moving (mind you, I read it only once, 20+ years ago, so the specifics are fuzzy). But then of course they managed to undo it in just a matter of a couple of months-- I don't even recall the trick or mechanism involved. It was a pretty darned bad time at Marvel back then.
HB
Ah!
And here is the link to the reading.
I'm the fellow labeled "Tom Howley" in the opening screen. You can't miss it--- I'm the one who forgets the name of his third character. . . (*sigh*). . .
HB
. . . trying the link again. . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0TDgzdqXjg
Let's see---
HB
Charlie- good point, Archie did indeed have some dramatic tales; even while known as a humor strip. Also agree with your Golden age suggestions. Perhaps it was easier for those characters to fit both humor and drama, as comics were perhaps taken a bit less seriously at that time.
Colin- Aunt May! Love it! Some of her moments are classic. Like in Amazing Spider-Man Annual , when she is upset she missed "The Beverly Hillbillies" on tv while captured by Dr. Octopus. And speaking of Aunt May,
HB- yes, there were several very good stories in that time about May and Peter coming to terms with themselves prior to her 'death' in ASM. Which was also a very solid book. Why they retconned all those tales later, I'll never know. Guess for the same reason Phoenix and Norman Osborn came back...
HB - I did go to your youtube link. I was able to tell who you were quickly (did we see your visage on your homage to your Hulk Man Cave a while back?).
Anyhow, when you were struggling to recall the name of your character in the 3rd Act, I started chuckling thinking about all the times I've had a brain stall, LOL.
But after a few seconds I was fully expecting you to just blurt out, "Hulk Smash Puny Humans!!!" and slam your fists down in great fury, LOL!!!
Alas, you kept your composure which I think was the better approach.
I can only assume that HB's YouTube performance is blocked outside the United States because all I get is "This video is unavailable" :(
Coming a bit late to this...
The best blend of comedy and tragedy is to be found in Judge Dredd imo, by which I mean the core stories by John Wagner, his sometime writing partner Alan Grant and (early on) occasionally Pat Mills.
Despite what would seem to be a fairly limited concept at the start - tough cop of the future - the series broadened out from standard comic book action stuff with stories where the main character was secondary to all kinds of stuff going on in the city, in a manner not unlike Eisner's Spirit.
So you could read broad farce about say, the League of Fatties, the Ugly Craze or an orangutan elected mayor - much of which proved to be unnervingly prescient about the world we now live in - yet at other times you'd get the pathos of "America", or the more straight forward "Judge Death Lives".
All of which contributed in different ways to the main theme that kept the series interesting - is Dredd a fascist?
-sean
Colim J-- I'm checkin' with our Artistic Director on that accessibility question, thanks. It would be a DEEP irony if this particular circle of theater folks were unable to share their work with Great Britain via this platform, as they are by and large a BIG bunch o' Anglophiles, many of them having done studies over there, etc, etc--
AND-- I'd like to go ahead and make three late additions to the discussion topic, if I may, eh?
1) The FANTASTIC FOUR-- especially during Byrne's run-- did a nice job of working across a broad dramatic spectrum (a lot like Spidey). "A Small Loss" (Sue loses their second child, after a desperate bid to enlist the aid of Doc Ock to solve problems with the delivery) was just devastating. I know that being a parent drove that pain home like a hot rail-spike. And in a similar vein was an issue where Johnny quits being the Torch after a lonely, neglected, abused, unhappy little boy sets himself on fire in an effort to be like his hero-- and finally succumbs to his injuries in the hospital. It's a tough read. At the other end, we have the issue where She-Hulk is at odds with a girly-magazine publisher who has gotten unauthorized photos of her sun-bathing atop the Baxter Building. And of COURSE there's just about any issue where The Impossible Man is the central figure. "The House That Reed Built" is also a quiet, calmly-paced hoot with a very light tone (in which the FF really don't appear at all, iirc).
2) Did I mention WHAT IF-? earlier? One of the most poignant stories in that first run was "What if-- Susan Richards Had Died?" (based on FF Annual #2, I think? Birth of Franklin?) The depth of Reed's grief is terrifying throughout the story, and is conveyed brilliantly via images, words, and sequence. Ben's realization near the conclusion of how the end is going to transpire is equally simple, moving, and eloquent. On the flip side-- ha! WHAT IF-? #34, anyone?
3) And finally-- an obvious one that we do tend to overlook 'cause it's just a touch after our prime: BONE That sweet, grand epic of a series runs the full gamut from silly (THE GREAT COW RACE) to tragic (with the deaths of beloved supporting characters late in the series).
HB
Sean- You have piqued my interest: will have to check out "Judge Dredd" and give him a look.
HB- You picked three fine choices to add to our list. The FF surely had many moments on both ends of the dramatic spectrum. And great shoutout for Bone; that is a terrific series. Anyone who has not seen it yet- consider this a vocal endorsement. Jeff Smith is incredible...
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