Redartz: If you're any fan of American Baseball, you've heard about the recent "Field of Dreams" game. If not, you may be familiar with the iconic Kevin Costner movie by that title. Well, in both cases, part of the charm (perhaps the whole point) is the magical blending of past and present. Or to paraphrase James Earl Jones' speech, ...All that was good...and could be again...".
Anyway, it seemed like it might be fun to apply that approach to comics. Just how, you ask? Well, in a two fold question form, that's how. And for our UK contingent, never fear- you can answer these questions too; they aren't baseball specific. Shall we begin?
The first part of the question parallels the movie, bringing the past into the present. Therefore, your challenge is to think of a comic book or series from the past (say, before Marvel circa 1961). Then offer your ideal creative team of Bronze age-or-later vintage to bring new life to that title.
My submission: It's common knowledge that I loved Marvel's "Man-Thing " series, especially under Gerber and Ploog. And the book still gets reboots in our current world. So, let's dig waaaay back to the EC Comics of the 1950s and try Ghastly Graham Ingels on the book! Bet he'd be a perfect fit...
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| Man-Thing by Mike Ploog |
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| Old Witch by Graham Ingels |
The second part of the question is based upon the recent game, wherein the present was revised as the past. Your challenge here is just the opposite of the first part, i.e. name a recent (Bronze age or later) comic or series, and present a classic creative team from the Halcyon Days of Early Comicdom.
My submission: Anyone familiar with "Lady Luck"? A cool character created by Will Eisner and Chuck Mazoujian,published as part of the famous "Spirit Sections", and by Quality Comics. To my mind, the first choice for a contemporary artist for her would be Bruce Timm. I'd buy that book in a heartbeat!
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| Lady Luck by Gill Fox |
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| Batgirl by Bruce Timm |
Oh, and incidentally- for any fellow baseball fans out there, feel free to toss in a comment or two about the movie and/or the game. If you haven't guessed yet, I enjoyed both. And I'm ecstatic that next year's Field of Dreams game will involve the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Cubs. Oh, for a ticket...
29 comments:
Hmmm, all kinds of interesting possibilities here….
Your idea of ‘Ghastly’ Ingels drawing Man-Thing is a natural — the man definitely knew his way around a spooky swamp (and various oozes and slimes and sludges, etc). He also drew amazing werewolves and vampires and (especially) reanimated corpses, so I’d love to see him doing pretty much ANY of Marvel’s Monsters.
Wracking my poor brain trying to come up with other ‘Old / New’ and ‘New / Old’ combos. Part of my trouble is that so many artists had careers that spanned the Golden Age through the Bronze and beyond — Kirby, Kubert, Wood, Toth, etc. So, to make this work at all, I’m gonna have to pluck my artists from specific time periods.
For example: I think it would be fun to see Simon and Kirby in their wild, knockabout early 40’s style doing Marvel’s Daredevil. Flip it, and I’d dig seeing late 60s / early 70s Gene Colan drawing the Golden Age Daredevil and the Little Wise Guys.
We could pull a ‘Bill and Ted’ — kidnap some artists from the early to mid 1950s and put them to work on a special issue of SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN. Conan by Joe Kubert, Solomon Kane by Reed Crandall, Red Sonja by Bill Everett (or Jay Scott Pike) and Kull by Wally Wood. Yes, I know he inked Ross Andru’s pencils on KULL #1, but I’m talking Young, Fulla Piss and Vinegar, Swinging For The Fences Wally Wood here, at his most exuberant and detail-obsessed — just imagine what the Valusia palace and throne room would look like (not to mention the ladies in their ‘Hollywood Historical’ couture).
This last one is kinda muddy, a top-notch artist from the 80s to the present, on some characters who debuted in the 40s and are still popular today. Jaime Hernandez writing and drawing Betty and Veronica would be AMAZING.
b.t.
I would have liked to have seen The Justice League of America rendered by Reed Crandall. I remember when I first saw his work in a DC Super Spectacular. I thought it would be neat to see (though I loved Dick Dillin).
I also would love to have seen Jim Aparo do The Spirit. That would have been awesome!!
Heres a good one for you - that could actually have happened - Wonder Woman by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland.
I guess maybe thats cheating a bit by choosing a character thats been around constantly since the 40s... but unlike Supes or Batman I don't think anyone's ever really done a satisfactory update. Its not just that Moore and Bolland could do the super/mythic stuff well, but they also both have the skills, brains and style to rework that curious blend of feminism and kinkiness from the Marston original (not an easy thing to do).
I know a lot of people like The Killing Joke, but a WW one-shot instead back then would have been a better use of the pair than another "dark" Batman so soon after Miller's DKR and Year One imo.
You know who I reckon would do a good Lady Luck, Redartz? Jaime Hernandez.
He might not be known for working on pre-existing characters, but its obvious from Love & Rockets - particularly early on when he played around a lot with superheoey/pulp imagery - that he has the kind of feel for old skool comics thats rare post-Stan Lee.
Another of the few who really get the sensibility of old stuff - as opposed to knowing continuity, Roy Thomas Style - is Howard Chaykin. Although obviously in an iconoclastic manner not to everyone's taste (you could say that about Moore, but he also works in other modes, like his note-perfect Spirit with Dave Gibbons).
Not sure what I'd suggest for Chaykin though - he already has The Shadow, Blackhawks, Buck Rogers and the Boy Commandos. I guess he could do a uh... interesting Lady Luck.
Ok, back soon with some thoughts on the other way round, old geezers doing newer stuff.
The short version for now: b.t. has it right - you can't just go for Wally Wood, you want him young; and the really obvious one is Frank Frazetta on Conan (thats a no-brainer, right?)
-sean
*"[Chaykin] has already done The Shadow..." etc
Sorry about the poor editing toward the end there (its late where I am).
-sean
I think I would need to go obscure here as previously noted so many old comic characters have been updated and many artists from the bronze age were active in the 1940S etc.
So for an old (obscure) character I would pick “Nightmare and Sleepy” from Clue Comics. Nightmare was a pro wrestler who became a masked hero. and Sleepy was his teenage manager! To draw this, well it has to have been the great Bernie Wrightson – Or Terry and the Pirates (ok a newspaper strip) drawn by Alex Toth a or Chris Samnee.
For an older artist the great Mac Raboy drawing Warlock or the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Nightmare and Sleepy
http://fourcolorshadows.blogspot.com/2012/03/nightmare-and-sleepy-alan-mandeldan.html
Lou Fine on Dr. Strange.
Darwyn Cooke doing any or several of the Timely/Atlas (i.e., Marvel) Golden Age characters.
sean:
Well, of COURSE mid-1950s Frazetta drawing a Conan comic would be great. And also pretty OBVIOUS. I was TRYING to think a bit ‘outside the box’, if you please, and so imagined Joe Kubert drawing Conan in a mix of ‘Tor’ style savagery and ‘Viking Prince’ style Ancient World glamour. =Harrumph!=
Also — it just so happens that the thought of Frazetta doing Conan comics was SO bloody obvious that it entirely escaped my mind! Genius hiding in plain sight! And yes, you’re absolutely correct, if we could get Frazetta at his 50s best (Johnny Comet, ‘Squeeze Play’, ‘Untamed Love’ etc) to do a Conan comic — and you KNOW he’d probably get some of his buddies to help out, at the very least enlisting Krenkel to design those Hyborian Age cities etc — Ishtar’s Jugs, that would be 100% amazeballs.
b.t.
I'm sure all you Reds fan noticed the Tim Anderson, of the White Sox, walk off home run at the Field of Dreams game a week ago?
(Crickets....? LOL!)
Charlie would have dearly loved to see Jack Cole (Plastic Man creator) take over Spidey as writer and artist.
His rendering of Plastic Man suggest he would have really been the equivalent of Ditko in quirkiness, mirth, charm, irreverence...
Charlie wonders if Reed Crandall, given the helm at Sgt Fury, could have made raised it to the level of Kubert's Sgt Rock? Instead of "superheroes in army fatigues" we might have been treated to a more serious rendition?
Lou Fine, who reminds Charlie of Michael Angelo with a style of incredible beauty yet possibly bordering on "cartoonish," could have done wonderful work on Namor the Sub Mariner in much the same way that Everett did during his final days?
IT's hard for Charlie to envision bronze artists rendering GA titles.
b.t. has a wonderful thought with Colan doing GA Daredevil. The GA Dardevil was already quite well done so the step up in art quality might not cost GA DD it's GA charm, were Colan restricted to the script at hand.
I would love to have seen a Colan (or Kaluta!) do GA Sandman, Hour Man, or Dr. Midnite. THose stories often seemed to have been set at night, or in settings with mood. If two guys can do moody atmosphere its Colan and Kaluta!
Lastly, the late 1960s Steranko (Shield) on The Blackhawks. A team of non-super-heroes, with technology, and attractive femme fatales... I mean, it seems Shield is simply the natural evolution of The Blackhawks! And Steranko set the benchmark on Shield so give him the Blackhawks!
Red - I love this topic! Charlie is off to look at his long box of GA comics for inspiration!
Hmmm... I dare say letting Burne Hogarth take a whack at Kamandi sounds quite intriguing. Hogarth was superior... the best... on Tarzan for a few decades.
Kirby just seemed to struggle with folks in loin cloths and animals by the time he got to Kamandi
Hogarth could have worked miracles with Devil Dinosaur as well! I mean... seriously... a red dinosaur? Was Jack enrolled in Walt Disney's night school at this time?
Any thoughts on Hal Foster doing the "sword" comics like Conan?
Would we have embraced an intelligent Conan.. without helpless damsels riding his leg on every cover???
Dr. Suess on anything Fr@nk R@bbins did.
Will Eisner on Kirby's Dingbats!
A young Wally Wood (EC version of Wally) doing DC's Starman! Wood could do sci fi. Starman was sci fi.
Actually Starman, The Ray, and The Condor were all rebooted in the late 1990s or so, by DC, in solo titles.
Starman had very GA style art and his reboot didn't do much for Charlie either. A young Wally Wood would have done miracles whether for GA or BA Starman.
As for The Ray and The Condor... that BA art left me cold. Ironically, I propose having Lou Fine do their reboots since they really had not been in comics, but for one(?) JLA-JSA cross over in 50 years, like roughly 1945 to 1995 or so? (Is this breaking the premise of the discussion?)
Way to take the ball and run with it, guys!
Frazetta on Conan? Yeah, I'd buy it. And also I'd grab Charlie's Dingbats with Eisner's touch.
Ok, here's a shameless one: Carl Barks on "Howard the Duck". Come to think of it, wouldn't you love to see a showdown between Howard and Scrooge Mcduck?
Edo- great call on Darwyn Cooke. He would've been great on any of those vintage books. He actually did his rendition of the Spirit, which was excellent. Imagine him on, say...Phantom Lady...
Okay, one more . How about Skottie Young doing the Newsboy Legion? Or the Little Wise Guys? Or Little Lulu?
Skottie Young doing the Newsboy Legion - brilliant I'd buy that Red
Tim Anderson played Junior College ball in the town where I live. He's a class act who's come back many times over the years and given back to the school. He was something to watch even as an 18-19 year old.
Graham - Anderson is much appreciated by us White Sox fans! That walk off homer in the "Field of Dreams" game a few weeks ago gave us a 9-8 win over the much hated Yankees!
I also notice that Red's photo of the Field of Dreams above shows the 4 White Sox players walking out of the corn field! Thanks Red!
Oddly Andersen IIRC says he has never seen the "Field of Dreams" movie, lol.
Red - I know how much you love The Hammer - Enemy Ace. What about EC'd George Evans, who drew those gorgeous WW1 aerial battles taking a crack?
Charlie- Evans on Enemy Ace- terrific! Of course EC had a full roster of fine war storytellers. How about Harvey Kurtzman or Jack Davis?
Great ideas all over the place!
Charlie:
Dang, dude, you’re on fire today — Eisner Dingbats, Steranko Blackhawks, JACK COLE ON SPIDER-MAN ?!! Love it.
McScotty:
Samnee on Terry and the Pirates is perfect. He’s clearly a modern day descendant of the Caniff / Sickles school without being in any way derivative or imitative. I’ve been trying to match up some of my other favorite ‘Current’ artists — Goran Parlov, Olivier Coipel, Frank Quitely — with appropriate GA characters, and not having much luck yet. Oh, and hey — just yesterday I stumbled upon a Terry and the Pirates ‘Sunday page’ by Tom Grindberg done as a commission for some lucky fan. It’s frankly an excuse for him to draw the Dragon Lady in lots of sexy poses but it’s BEAUTIFULLY done.
Graham:
Aparo on The Spirit — yes please! Fantastic idea. I always loved seeing him doing off-beat characters in BRAVE AND THE BOLD, like Kammandi and Sgt. Rock. Though of course his spandex super-people were always great too. I used to fantasize about him taking a shot at Marvel characters one day (how I would have LOVED to see him draw a Captain America story)….
b.t.
Red and Charlie:
Why do I get the feeling Evans may actually have drawn an Enemy Ace story or two? Or maybe I’m getting him mixed up with John Severin (who absolutely DID do a short-lived Enemy Ace series of back-ups in UNKNOWN SOLDIER).
Here’s a weird I twist I’ve been toying with (as if today’s challenge isn’t already challenging enough): BILL AND TED’S FREAKY FRIDAY. Pair up a Golden Age artist and a Bronze Age (or later) artist and HAVE THEM SWAP ASSIGNMENTS. Like this:
Matt Baker (1948) draws Black Orchid — Nestor Redondo (1973) draws Phantom Lady
Mort Meskin (1948) draws Dominic Fortune — Howard Chaykin (1975) draws The Black Terror
Fletcher Hanks (1940) writes and draws Warlock — and Jim Starlin (1975) writes and draws Stardust
(That last pairing may seem utterly random and bonkers at first — but think about it for a second or two…)
b.t.
I should note that we sort of got one of those modern creators doing a Golden Age(-ish) story a few years ago: the Shadow Hero by Gene Leun Yang and Sonny Liew. They told the origin of a very obscure Golden Age hero, the Green Turtle, who was created by a Chinese American comics writer and artist, Chu Hing, and was probably intended to be a Chinese hero. I wrote a brief review of that book at another site recently (with a few sample panels). The short summary: it's quite delightful and well worth reading.
Otherwise, I have to say, on Frazetta: sure, him doing Conan comics would have been extremely cool, and in fact, it would have been awesome seeing him do the art on Tarzan or, better yet, Ka-zar (dinosaurs!) as well. However, during his brief career as a comics artist, he did Westerns, some funny animal stuff and 'funny people' (Lil' Abner), jungle/barbarian stories (Thun'da), romance and even a little super-hero work (Shining Knight). So that together with his later paperback covers give us an idea of what his Conan stories would have looked like. Personally, I'd be interested in seeing his art on something he almost never did in comics form, i.e., full-on, long-form space opera. He did a few Buck Rogers covers for Famous Funnies back in the 1950s that give us a tantalizing view of what could have been, but personally I would have loved to see Frazetta's art on a run of, say, Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica. Or even some dystopian SF, like Logan's Run.
And since I mentioned Shining Knight, I think Frazetta doing Marvel's Thor would have been absolutely epic.
b.t., I always wanted to see Aparo draw Captain America, too.
I was thinking about some of my favorite artists that first made a splash in the 80s (and still rockin’ today)…
Long before Hellboy, Mike Mignola was a solid super-hero artist on books like ALPHA FLIGHT and COSMIC ODYSSEY. So I think it would be fun to see him drawing The All Winners Squad (Cap, Subby and the Torch) fighting nasty Nazis.
Gorillas and voluptuous full-figured ladies — who better to draw Sheena, Queen of the Jungle than Arthur Adams?
Kevin Nowlan has always reminded me a bit of Lou Fine, so maybe have him take a crack at The Ray or Black Condor.
b.t.
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