Review- MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA STRANGE TALES VOL. 5

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA STRANGE TALES VOL. 5 (Marvel, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Strange Tales Nos. 40-48 (cover dates November, 1955- July, 1956)

Writers: Carl Wessler, Paul S. Newman, and other unidentified writers

Artists: Bill Benulis, Bill Everett, John Forte, Paul Reinman, Fred Kida, Robert Q. Sale, Dick Ayers, Joe Orlando, Joe Maneely, Bernie Krigstein, Doug Wildey, Bob Powell, Tony DiPreta, Bob Brown, Larry Woromay, Bob Forgione, Ed Winiarski, Joe Sinnott, Bernard Baily, John Severin, Steve Ditko, Bob McCarty, Vic Carrabotta, Jim McLaughlin, Jack Abel, Manny Stallman, Bill Walton, Mort Meskin, and covers by Russ Heath, Carl Burgos, and Sol Brodsky

Wow! There is a marked improvement across the board from the previous volume. The writers have figured out how to write clever stories within the confines of the Comic Code Authority, and the editors brought in a higher caliber of artists. Bill Everett and Steve Ditko absolutely shine here, especially in glorious “high definition”. While there is only one Ditko penciled story in this book, we get three Bill Everett stories along with a cover. Everett is truly one of the greats, as demonstrated by the page below. 

Issue 42's The Faceless One! is another Everett penciled work of art. Carl Wessler's script is extremely clever if familiar and predictable here in 2013. Everett is a genius, and I am really looking forward to reading my copy of the Bill Everett Archives Vol. 1 someday.

More brilliance from Bill Everett. No photoshop artwork back then, kids.

John Forte is another exceptional artist who isn't given much recognition these days. This statement is true of many of these artists. Just replace John Forte with the name of any of these forgotten greats. It is also worth noting that these cats toiled in anonymity and near poverty to create this stuff. Art for the sake of art, and if you could eat and pay the rent, all the better. 

The whole UFOs as a metaphor for the fear of Communist infiltration during Cold War-era America is a recurring theme throughout the book. Many of the values held near and dear to the denizens of mid-20^th century America are comical to read in the here and now. The Vanishing Brain! is a prime example of this. In it, Professor Hayden is a smug intellectual elitist who frowns upon jocks and those who are physically active, just like the sissies who dominate the world today. He ends up walking through a break in the time flow and wound up in the Paleolithic Age, where he gets captured by Neanderthals and turned into a slave. This physical labor makes him become a musclebound, virile specimen. Once he makes a break for it and returns to our century, he finds that the girl he loves has found a “puny specimen like that” and “doesn't deserve the love of a real man”...while having his arm around his former rival for her affections. I hope that Phil and Hank wound up being happy together. 

The genius of Steve Ditko.

Issue 48's I've Got To Hide! is brilliant. At only 4 pages long it crams in tons of story, and it seems to get ready to go nuts and then is reeled in in the last two panels. If you removed them and continued the story in a different direction this could be one sick tale. 

Look kids, it's the future! This guy has a phone WITHOUT a cord that he can carry with him. Wow!

Some of these stories are corny, others dated, and all are lovable relics of their era. This stuff bleeds charm and is worth owning for historical value. Collecting the original issues would be expensive and time consuming.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.25 out of 5.

The OCD zone- I heart the Marvel Masterworks line of hardcovers.

Linework restoration rating: 5 out of 5. Consider these the Masterworks the BluRays of comic books, painstakingly restored in “high definition”.

Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. Dots or solids? Color values? These are questions better posed as a philosophical argument rather than a technical one, since it boils down to preference. I love it all as long as it is faithful to the original color palette. Are the colors on the screen when you watch BluRays of a '60s TV series garish when compared to the original television broadcast, or is the more modern format merely taking advantage of what was originally there that you couldn't see given the technology restraints of the day? Discuss.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Super thick, smooth coated stock. The paper has a slight sheen which I like a lot.

Binding rating: 5 out of 5. Whew! The stiffer binding found in Volume 4 was nothing more than a hiccup. This has the same superb sewn binding that I have come to know and love, laying perfectly flat from the first page to the last.

Review- MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA STRANGE TALES VOL. 4

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA STRANGE TALES VOL. 4 (Marvel, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Strange Tales Nos. 31-39 (cover dates August, 1954- October, 1955)

Writers: Paul S. Newman, Carl Wessler, and other unidentified writers

Artists: Sid Greene, Bill Benulis, Bill Savage, Art Peddy, Paul Reinman, Al Eadeh, Bob McCarty, Jim McLaughlin, Joe Maneely, Carl Burgos, Paul Tumlinson, Ed Winiarski, Chuck Winter, Werner Roth, Mort Lawrence, Joe Sinnott, John Romita, Sr., Dick Ayers, Ernie Bache, Vic Carrabotta, Bob Powell, John Forte, Jack Katz, Bob Forgione, Jack Abel, John Forte, Kurt Schaffenberger, and Norman Maurer

Marvel might have done better to juggle the contents of the first three volumes so that the Pre-Code stuff ended with Volume 3 and Volume 4 started with the post-code material. The quality takes a nosedive with issue 35, when the Comics Code Authority kicks in. The writing was B-level before the Code, and sunk down to abysmal levels once the Code was implemented. 

The artwork is good and sometimes even great. I really appreciate the ink and brush artists here in this modern photoshop era of comic book artwork. These guys were good because they had to be. Making a mistake was costly to a comic book artist back then.

All of the stories in issue 31 are great, but it's The Strange Ones! that really takes the cake. We find a group of scientists who, as mutants, help humanity and search out for others of their kind to help keep the world safe. This is, in a nutshell, the premise of the X-Men nearly a decade prior to their debut. They even use the word mutant for chrissakes! Paul S. Newman should have sued Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Marvel for stealing his idea. 

Issue 32's Harley's Friends is a tale of an old miser who buys an old abandoned lodge in the woods...the better to hide his money! In an attempt to find a safe place to hide his loot, he pries up some floor boards, and that's when he finds them. Three corpses. Rather than, I don't know, scream or call the cops, he instead chuckles how they won't steal his money. As he further descends into madness, he begins sitting them at the table, at the fireplace, even putting them in his car as he drives into town. The man who murdered them goes to check on the bodies. He has a heart attack due to the shock of them having gone missing and falls into the hole in the floor where the bodies were stored. When Harvey returns to the cabin he puts his friends back in the floor he is delighted to find another “friend” waiting for him. The killer comes to, banging on the floor, but Harvey assumes it's his imagination playing tricks on him and allows him to suffocate. 

While issue 34 is the final pre-Code issue collected in this book, it is the first watered down one as well. Gone are all macabre elements, gone are all shock endings, and gone was my enjoyment until issue 38. While there are some okay stories in 34-37, they pale by comparison to the issues that came before and after. Issue 38's No Escape! plays like an episode of The Twilight Zone. In it, a disenchanted married couple come to an agreement that they should have never been married. Then there is a show on television showing them all of the different outcomes that could have come if they didn't meet. As it turns out, all of them end up with them being married, so they decide that they were meant to be. Awwww. I won't give away the twist ending.

Issue 39 is better still, as we get stellar Bill Everett artwork in Karnoff's Plan! Also in this issue, Blind Spot!, with artwork by the incredible Sid Greene, is a riff on the age old beauty is in eye of the beholder cliché, but done with a space alien bent. UFOs and the fear of Communist infiltration factor high in these stories, just like they did in most entertainment of the day.

This is a decent, albeit incredibly uneven read. It's worth owning for the artwork and historical significance alone.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- I love the Marvel Masterworks line. I haven't been giving them enough love lately, letting my backlog languish in favor of other things.

Linework restoration rating: 5 out of 5. Think of these Masterworks as Blu-Ray releases of comic books. Painstakingly restored and presented in “high definition”. These books are expensive but they are the gold standard in terms of presentation.

Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. Some folks like the high resolution restoration found here. Others enjoy the warts and all approach of the high resolution scans found in books by publishers like PS Artbooks and Fantagraphics. Which approach do I prefer? I prefer properly restored material like this but love well done scans too. I'll put it to you this way, though: I'd rather have a well done scan than a poorly restored book. My love of well done scans and properly restored material is nearly equal, and for entirely different reasons. Both ways have their pluses and minuses. Maybe I'll write a blog entry about this sometime. Would anyone be interested in such a dry technical read?

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Ahhh, the pleasant aroma of Chinese made books. The toxic ink on the thick coated stock paper sourced from virgin Amazon rainforest trees. The sweet aroma of broken asbestos tiles, mercury from recalled thermometers, lead paint chips, and Godzilla knows what other industrial and toxic Chinese waste, mixed with the tears of the children working the sweatshop printing presses makes huffing these books a joy.

Binding rating: 4.5 out of 5. This binding is somewhat stiffer than Masterworks of similar vintage. It lays flat for 90% of the book, but modern Masterworks tend to lay flat for the entire book. For Marvel this is a disappointment. This binding is on par with a mid-2000s DC Archive. Solid but stiff and durable. I can live with it...this time.

Review- CREEPY COMICS VOL. 1

CREEPY COMICS VOL. 1 (Dark Horse, 2011; Softcover)

Collects Creepy Nos. 1-4 (cover dates July, 2009- October, 2010) and two stories that originally appeared on Myspace Dark Horse Presents

Writers: Michael Woods, Dan Braun, Joe Harris, Neil Kleid, Shawna Gore, Mike Baron, Joe R. Lansdale, Craig Haffner, Doug Moench, Cody Goodfellow, Bill Morrison, Andrew Foley, and Nicola Cuti

Artists: Saskia Gutekunst, Angelo Torres, Jason Shawn Alexander, Brian Churilla, Hilary Barta, Greg Ruth, Nathan Fox, Rahsan Ekedal, Eric Powell (covers), Bernie Wrightson (frontispiece), Kevin Ferrara, Dennis Calero, Chuck Pyle (cover), Gene Colan (frontispiece), Michael Wm. Kaluta, Paul Komoda, and Ken Kelly (cover)

Damn! The newish Creepy series reads like a best-of sampler of the original title's finest moments. Old favorites and new blood mix to deliver Grade A quality Horror with the same black humor and ironic twist endings that fans of the original series know and love. 

In The Curse we see a young man with the ability to warp reality earn his heart's desire. The gift becomes a curse, especially when it becomes apparent that his mother has the same ability. This story appears across three of the issues. This title is presented in the same Horror anthology format as the original and uses multi-part stories like the latter era of the title. 

The Doll Lady from issue 4 is another one that really stands out. There's a local urban legend about a crazy old lady who has a life-size baby doll in her front window. She supposedly lost her daughter decades ago, went nuts, and dresses this doll daily. Kids think that the house is haunted and it becomes a rite of passage to knock on the door. A reporter whose brother went missing years ago decided to investigate this lady and her doll collection...and that's all you'll get out of me. 

This title is published quarterly, so years can pass between collections. I don't mind the wait when the quality is this high. Volume 2 was released recently.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- Dark Horse makes good quality trade paperbacks. There are two full color stories included which are exclusive to this release, taken from the Internet-only Myspace Dark Horse Presents.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. I love the thick coated stock paper used in this book. It's got that sweet toxic Chinese ink scent to it, likely mixing in heroin, making it pleasurable to inhale and causing me to buy more and more of these books.

Binding rating: 4 out of 5. This has glued binding. Nothing to see here.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 4.5 out of 5. The cardstock cover has a coating of decent thickness.

Review- ESSENTIAL WEB OF SPIDER-MAN VOL. 1

ESSENTIAL WEB OF SPIDER-MAN VOL. 1 (Marvel, 2011; Softcover)

Collects Web of Spider-Man Nos. 1-18, Web of Spider-Man Annual Nos. 1, 2, and Amazing Spider-Man No. 268 (cover dates April, 1985- September, 1986)

Writers: Louise Simonson (1- 3), Danny Fingeroth (4-6, 10, 11), Peter David (7, 12, 13), David Michelinie (8, 9, 14-18), Bill Mantlo (11), and Ann Nocenti (Annual 1 and 2)

Artists: Greg LaRoque (1-5) Jim Mooney (1-3, 5, 10), Charles Vess (cover artist for 1, 8, Annual 1), John Byrne (cover artist, 3-6, ASM 268), Vince Colletta (4, 8, 9, 17), Mike Harris (6, 13-15), Sal Buscema (7, 12), Armando Gil (7), Geoff Isherwood (8, 9), Howard Chaykin (cover artist, 10), Bob McLeod (11, 12), Kyle Baker (13-16, 18), Marc Silvestri (16-18), and Arthur Adams (Annual 2)

I bought every single one of these issues off of the stands on the day of release. This title was always like the red-headed stepchild of the Spider-titles, lacking a consistent creative team or approach. I didn't care for most of these issues as an 11-12 year old kid but enjoyed them as an adult for the most part.

Issue 1 was released on Thursday, December 27, 1984. This would be the newsstand/ 7-11 release date. The Direct Market was 3 weeks ahead of the newsstands, at least in Metro Detroit at that time. Your mileage may vary depending on where you lived. It came out the week after Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man No. 100, the events of which lead directly into this issue. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If/when the Masterworks get to this point, all three titles will need to be merged into one line, as the storylines tend to bleed into one another and will result in an unsatisfying read if you have to jump from book to book to read them. Or, worse still, we will get multiple issue repeated, i.e. Kraven's Last Hunt, across multiple lines. Either way it's a lose-lose scenario.

Issue 10 has a true variant cover floating around out there. I refer to variants as printing discrepancies, not “dealer incentives” where comic shops order extra copies to get a 1:50, 1:100, 1:200, etc., variant to sell above cover price. The copy of issue 10 that I bought off of the spinner rack at 7-11 had a .75 cover price with a .65 price tag covering it. .65 was the cover price on the Direct Market edition. I know because I checked at the time. My best guess is that some Canadian newsstand editions got mixed in and repriced on the distributor level, or they were misprinted with a .75 cover price and then repriced accordingly. The copy shown in this book has a newsstand edition .65 cover price, fueling my theory. This is truly one of the great mysteries at our time. Leonard Nimoy needs to resurrect In Search Of... and do an episode where he gets to the bottom of this.

This issue covers are mostly inventory or “iconic” covers, which is early aughts speak for cover images that have nothing to do with the story inside and could be slapped on any issue at any time. Issue 1 had a great Charles Vess cover which had nothing to do with the story inside, and the covers for 8, 11, 14, and Annual 2 could have appeared anywhere as well.

The chicken scratch artwork that would define the '90s began here, at least for me. Kyle Baker, Marc Silvestri, and even Art Adams (whose early work I despise but I like his modern stuff) emphasized flash over substance. This style of art drove me out in late '89/early '90 and kept me away until a decade or so ago. Bob McLeod's artwork in issue 11 and 12, however, is incredible. He is an underrated and seemingly forgotten great from this era.

The writing is decent if inconsistent. David Michelinie cuts his teeth on the character on this title before assuming the flagship title (Amazing Spider-Man) a year or so later. Peter David also wrote a couple of issues, although issue 7 may have been an inventory story that could have just as easily appeared during his run on Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man.

So while I read and reread all of these issues repeatedly during this time, I don't have much nostalgia for these issues. They simply weren't that good for me to remember them fondly. Having said that, I look forward to the day that I can upgrade and buy Masterworks or an Omnibus of this stuff.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- OCD alert! OCD alert! Web of Spider-Man Annual No. 1 is incorrectly placed after issue 9. It was released after issue 6. The logical place for this issue would be after issue 6 and the Amazing Spider-Man No. 268 (crossover issue) and before issue 7.

These Essentials remain a bargain. 500+ black and white pages printed on pulp paper for $19.99 MSRP. Cheaper than a movie ticket and pop and popcorn combo. My only gripes about the line are the lack of page numbers and the lack of cover artist credits. DC puts page numbers on their Showcase Presents line of phonebooks. The cover artists were often different than the artist for the issue, so a dedicated cover artist section on the table of contents is necessary.

Linework restoration rating: 5 out of 5. I know these issues inside out. If there are dropped lines, I didn't catch them...and I'm ridiculously anal about this sort of thing.

Paper rating: 3 out of 5. These phonebooks are printed on cheap pulp paper, which is fine for what these books are supposed to be: inexpensive reads. The pulp paper lends a nostalgic air to the proceedings as well, even though this title never used pulp paper. Web of Spider-Man was among the first Marvel titles to use the flexograph water-based inks on bright white stock.

Binding rating: 4 out of 5. Glued binding. Nothing to get yourself worked up over. This book lays pretty flat for the most part.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. Broken record time: I like the lamination that Marvel uses on their cardstock covers. OCD tested, OCD approved.

Challenge- Flash Gordon: IDW vs. Titan

I occasionally do videos, like the infamous Marvel Vs. DC Omnibus ones that made the rounds at Bleeding Cool a year ago. Those can be seen on my youtube channel, which you can find by watching the video below. My friend, OCD enabler and partner-in-crime Ferjo Byroy swears by the IDW Flash Gordon book. I enjoyed the Titan...but which is superior? YOU decide!

Review- MORBIUS THE LIVING VAMPIRE #2 (2013) and ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH

Morbius The Living Vampire #2 (Marvel, cover date April, 2013)

Writer: Joe Keatinge

Artist: Richard Elson

It's been seven agonizingly long weeks, and the second issue has finally hit the stands. The players are all in place, and things continue to build. We have Dr. Michael Morbius, the star of the show. Wanda Evans and her son Henry, Henry's babysitter Becky, and Noah St. Germain, the crime lord of Brownsville. Brownsville is a depressed, forgotten section of the city not unlike Detroit. 

Henry has fallen in with his uncle, St. Germain. Morbius meets Becky, and in a it's-a-small-world-after-all scene finds out that she is Henry's babysitter. Morbius goes with the family to retrieve Henry and things go sour. A throwdown between St. Germain and Morbius occurs, and Morbius, not having fed for days...well, that would be telling. 

The story moves a bit slow but is well written and well drawn so it makes things easier to swallow. This will probably read better in a collected edition when you have 5-7 issues in a row served up. Joe Keatinge has made Morbius seem the most human out of the entire cast. Morbius doesn't know exactly what to do, but he knows that he wants to do the right thing. Richard Elson's artwork and Antonio Fabela's color art are both spit-shined to perfection. This is a slick, seamless read, and it will be four long weeks until issue 3 is released. I'll be waiting with bated breath...

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- I stand corrected about my review for issue 1, where I bitched about two of the 22 story pages being solid black with a line of dialogue. As it turns out, Marvel Comics offer 20 pages of story instead of 22. I guess I haven't been paying attention or counting pages with my current Marvel Comics. My bad. For those who say hey, where are the other two pages!?! Comic book page counts have fluctuated over the years, from 22-23 per issue to as low as 17 during the '70s. The economy, advertising revenue, and creator workload are all factors. In other words...relax, folks.

I still dislike self covers at $2.99, but would probably dislike real covers and a $3.99 price point even more.

Escape From Planet Earth (Rainmaker, 2013)

My hatchlings have been bugging me to take them to see this for weeks, and with Winter Break upon us I agreed to take them to see it this afternoon in 2D. I am completely over 3D. My son is 6 and my daughter is 3, and they loved it. I thought that it was formulaic, contrived, and insipid. There was not one scene where I laughed or really even enjoyed. I didn't hate this movie, it just left me cold. There's nothing objectionable for parents to concern themselves with except for the horrid product placement for 7-11. Product placement sucks ass. I have been decrying it since it first reared it's ugly head back in the '90s. 7-11 should give me a Slurpee just for seeing this lameass film. Oh well, I'm not the target audience for this turd, just the guy who buys the tickets and concessions. You could do worse than this movie, but you could also certainly do much, much, much better.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 1.5 out of 5.

Review- THE METABARONS ULTIMATE COLLECTION

THE METABARONS ULTIMATE COLLECTION (Humanoids, 2012; Hardcover)

Collects Metabarons Nos. 1-17 and the Metabarons: Alpha/Omega one-shot (cover dates January, 2000- May, 2002), originally published in France as a series of eight graphic novels between 1992 and 2003

Writer: Alejandro Jodorowsky

Artist: Juan Gimenez

The sins of the father shall be visited upon the son. This age old concept goes back to The Bible and probably even earlier than that. Metabarons takes this concept and spins it into a multi-generational science fiction epic, with each son having to kill their father in order to assume the title of Metabaron. 

The robots Tonto and Lothar tell the stories in a sequential flashback narrative. There are a total of five Metabarons, each more disturbing than the last. Mutilation rituals are enacted on each descendant, a result of wounds incurred by Othon von Salsza, the first Metabaron. 

Jodorowsky occasionally steers into adolescent sexual fantasy areas. Either that or it is my American hang-ups over such things being in comic books that makes a few of these scenes seem sophomoric. Here in America we don't even wince when someone gets shot, but show a breast and everyone is up in arms. 

These Humanoids books are definitely adult fare and are sophisticated, dense reads that require revisiting. I probably should have read this twice before even reviewing it, as I have undoubtedly missed things. These books are beyond the scope of my admittedly more mainstream tastes but I enjoyed them nonetheless.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This is a superb, high-end package. If you like your books with top notch production values and built in ribbon bookmarks, then Humanoids books are right up your alley. They even have great stories in them! Win-win.

The US single issue comics were censored from the original French publication. Since this is divided into eight chapters with a few assorted extra chapters in the back, I am going to assume that this is presented unedited as originally published in France. Any clarification about this would be greatly appreciated.

And yes, the remaining original cover art for the US comics are included in a cover gallery in the back of the book.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Beautiful, thick coated paper stock with a slight sheen.

Binding rating: 5 out of 5. Superb sewn binding. The book block is not glued square to the spine, allowing the book to pay flat, a must when you get into the 500+ page range. 

Hardback cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. The image is printed on the hardback itself, and is coated with an extremely thick coating which should hold up well. The Metabarons logo is a reflective silver dye and a nice touch.