New York Comic Con 2024 was a tremendous amount of fun. My favorite place to hang out during the show was Artist Alley, where dozens of talented creators were set up. Here are just a few highlights from Artist Alley.
Sorah Suhng is an incredible artist who is acclaimed for her depictions of beautiful, sexy, powerful women. Suhng has been working professionally since 2007. In addition to her artwork for Action Lab Entertainment, Archie Comics, Coffin Comics and Valiant Comics, Suhng is the creator of the illustrated prose novel Karnal Confessions and the graphic novel Aurora. I picked up her NYCC exclusive Vampirella cover.
Got to purchase Drafted, the long-awaited original graphic novel memoir from Rick Parker about his time in the United States Army, when he was drafted to serve during the Vietnam War. Drafted is available from Abrams Books. I’m really looking forward to reading it.
I’ve been a fan of artist Clayton Henry for a number of years now. He drew the excellent Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands miniseries that came out in 2018, and he’s currently doing great work on the Superman books from DC Comics.
Joyce Chin and Arthur Adams are two very talented artists with hyper-detailed art styles. They’re married, so they always table together at shows. I’m a fan of both of their works. Chin drew the Superman: Silver Banshee miniseries I spotlighted in a recent blog post. I asked her to do a drawing of the Silver Banshee character in my supervillains theme sketchbook, and she did a stunning piece.
The first issue of Bill McCay’s sexy creator-owned series Kim the Delusional is finally out, and I picked up a copy from him at NYCC. Keep an eye out for the Kickstarter campaign for issue 2, which will be launching next year.
Tim Sheridan wrote the excellent Alan Scott Green: Lantern miniseries from DC Comics that came out last year. I really enjoyed it, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to briefly char with Sheridan about his work.
I’m a huge fan of the Superman comics from the late 1980s thru the 1990s. For me, that is MY Superman. Jose Marzan Jr. was one of the regular artists during the so-called “Triangle Era,” having had a long run inking Stuart Immonen on Adventures of Superman.
Red-hot cover artist Nathan Szerdy draws some of the sexiest women in comic books. I bought a copy of his Nuka Cola book which collects together a number of his amazing covers & pin-ups. He also signed his variant cover for the first issue of Hack/Slash: Body Bags.
A few months back I gave my Star Wars theme sketchbook to Mike Lilly so he could do a commission piece of Grogu in it. I picked up the sketchbook from Lilly at NYCC, and he did an amazing job. It’s always great to see Lilly at comic cons. He’s both a talented artist and a genuinely good guy.
I was introduced to Sedat Oezgen through our mutual friend Niall Orourke. Oezgen in relatively new to comics, but he’s already worked on series such as 2000 AD and Conan. I found his artwork very impressive, and I hope to see much more of him in the future.
It was good to once again meet longtime artist Alex Saviuk at NYCC. I’ve been a fan of his work since his lengthy run on Web of Spider-Man from Marvel Comics. I bought the variant cover he drew for the first issue of the new Defenders of the Earth series from Mad Cave Studios, and he was kind enough to autograph it for me.
That’s all for NYCC 2024. I had a real blast, and I’m grateful to all of the comic book professionals who made time for the fans at the show.
I wanted to post a few brief thoughts concerning comic book artist Mark Bright, also known as M.D. Bright, who passed away on March 27th.
Bright entered the comic book industry in the late 1970s. He worked on a variety of series in the first half of the 1980s, most notably the Falcon miniseries written by Jim Owsley that was published by Marvel in 1983. Bright and Owsley would work together again during the final year of Power Man and Iron Fist in 1985, and would reunite periodically throughout the next two decades.
Iron Man #225 cover penciled by M.D. Mright and inked by Bob Layton, published by Marvel Comics in December 1987
Bright became the regular penciler on Iron Man at Marvel beginning with issue #200 in late 1985. He remained on the series for two and a half years. During his stint on the book, the acclaimed team of co-plotter & scripter David Michelinie and co-plotter & inker Bob Layton, who had previously revolutionized Iron Man in the late 1970s, returned to the series. Michelinie, Layton & Bright worked together on the now-classic “Armor Wars” storyline that ran in issues #225 to #231, which saw an increasingly-fanatical Tony Stark going rogue and attempting to destroy all traces of his armor technology. During his Iron Man run, Bright penciled the Spider-Man vs. Wolverine special written by Owsley.
In 1988 Bright became the artist on the Hawkeye feature in the Solo Avengers split book. He also began working for DC Comics on a variety of assignments, among them the Green Lantern feature in Action Comics Weekly written by Owsley, while also penciling several issues of G.I. Joe for Marvel.
Action Comics Weekly #621 co-plotted & scripted by Jim Owsley, co-plotted & penciled by M.D. Bright, inked by Jose Marzan Jr., lettered by Albert DeGuzman and colored by Anthony Tollin, published by DC Comics in October 1988
In late 1989 DC published the six issue Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn, a post-Crisis retelling of Hal Jordan’s origin. Emerald Dawn led into a new ongoing Green Lantern series, and Bright alternated with Pat Broderick and Joe Staton on penciling duties while also drawing the Emerald Dawn II miniseries.
In 1993 Bright became one of the creators to work at the Milestone Media imprint, where he penciled the Icon series written by Dwayne McDuffie. Bright was the artist on nearly every issue of the entire 42 issue run of Icon.
G.I. Joe #92 written by Larry Hama, penciled by M.D. Bright, inked by Randy Emberlin, lettered by Rick Parker and colored by Bob Sharen, published by Marvel Comics in November 1989
Owsley, now known as Christopher Priest, once again teamed up with Bright in 1997, this time at Acclaim / Valiant Comics, on the superhero buddy comedy Quantum and Woody. Although it was plagued by sales problems, suffering both a year-long hiatus and then cancellation, Quantum and Woody was nevertheless well received, becoming something of a beloved cult classic. Bright would also draw several issues of Priest’s very well-regarded Black Panther run published under the Marvel Knights imprint.
One of Bright’s last jobs in comic books was Bill Jemas’ ill-fated six-issue satiric Marville miniseries. Following this, Bright moved into storyboarding, working on commercials, television and movies.
Quantum and Woody #1, co-plotted & scripted by Christopher Priest, co-plotted & penciled by M.D. Bright, inked by Greg Adams, lettered by Dave Lanphear & Comicraft and colored by Atomic Paintbrush, published by Acclaim / Valiant Comics in June 1997
I always considered Bright to be one of those good, solid, professional artists who make up the backbone of the comic book industry. He had a clear style, effective storytelling, and could always be counted on to meet a deadline. I found his depictions of Iron Man, the Falcon, Hawkeye, the G.I. Joe team and the Green Lantern Corps to all be appealing.
I never read Icon, since as I’ve previously recounted I unfortunately passed on the majority of the Milestone titles when I was in high school. I did read a few issues of Quantum and Woody, but I never really got into it. Nevertheless I recognize that both those series were beloved by their audiences, and I imagine Bright’s quality work played a role in that. He will definitely be missed.
Welcome to the ninth Comic Book Coffee collection. I’ve been posting these daily in the Comic Book Historians group on Facebook. The challenge was to see how many different pencilers I could find artwork by featuring coffee.
41) Ramona Fradon & Mike Royer
We have selected panels from Plastic Man #14, penciled by Ramona Fradon, inked by Mike Royer, and written by Elliot S! Maggin, published by DC Comics with an Aug-Sept 1976 cover date.
It’s a late night at the headquarters of the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Chief tells his secretary Sundae to put on some coffee while he briefs his agents about a dangerous new threat to national security. The Chief details to Plastic Man, Woozy Winks and Gully Foyle the gruesome origins of the oozing menace known as “Meat By-Product… The Dump That Walks!” By the time the Chief is finished describing this monstrosity in excruciating detail, Plas and Co are so completely grossed out that when Sundae attempts to serve them coffee, donuts and cream-filled Danishes, they’re ready to toss their cookies.
I love Ramona Fradon’s artwork. She has such a distinctive, unconventional, cartoony style. She brought a very offbeat, fun, comedic sensibility to Metamorpho the Element Man, the character she co-created with writer Bob Haney and editor George Kashdan in 1965. That definitely made her very well-suited to draw Plastic Man a decade later. Fradon stated in interviews that he was one of her favorite characters to have worked on.
Fradon is inked here by Mike Royer. Fradon loved Royer’s inking of her pencils on this story, and has said she wishes they’d had other opportunities to work together. It’s certainly a great collaboration.
In the November 10, 2017 strip, Iris is having late night coffee with her boyfriend Zak. Iris and Zak had previously dated, but she wasn’t certain if they should be together, since she was several years older than Zak. However, following her break-up with Wilbur she decided to give her relationship with Zak another shot.
Paralleling this, in the December 5, 2017 strip, Wilbur has returned home from his travels abroad. Over morning coffee (complete with a Hello Kitty coffee mug) he is catching up with his daughter Dawn. Wilbur had a disastrous time in Bogota, where a woman attempted to scam him out of his money. This has left him wondering if he should try to get back together with Iris, not knowing she is now involved with Zak.
Jumping forward a year to the November 26, 2018 strip, Mary agrees to foster Libby, a one-eyed tabby cat. Libby is definitely a mischievous kitty, and when Mary tries to have her morning coffee the tabby knocks over her milk. Mary ultimately cannot keep Libby, because her boyfriend Jeff is allergic to cats. Fortunately Mary’s neighbor Estelle agrees to adopt Libby.
I liked the Libby storyline. Libby reminds me of Champ, one of my girlfriend Michele’s old cats. Champ was a one-eyed cat as well, the runt of the litter. She was a sweet & affectionate kitty, and we were sad when she passed away from old age.
I’ve been a fan of June Brigman’s work ever since she co-created Power Pack with Louise Simonson at Marvel Comics in 1984. Brigman has often worked with her husband Roy Richardson, an accomplished inker. June and Roy have been drawing Mary Worth since 2016. They both love cats, so I’m sure they enjoyed introducing Libby to the strip. Please check out their awesome cat-centric sci-fi series Captain Ginger written by Stuart Moore from Ahoy Comics.
43) Mark Bright & Bob Layton
Iron Man #228, layouts by Mark Bright, finishes & co-plot by Bob Layton, script & co-plot by David Michelinie, letters by Janice Chiang, and colors by Bob Sharen, published by Marvel Comics in March 1988.
One of the qualities of David Michelinie & Bob Layton’s runs on Iron Man that I have always appreciated has been their ability to write Tony Stark as a flawed, sometimes unsympathetic person while keeping his actions completely in character and believable. Unlike some of the writers who followed them, they never had Stark acting in a wildly implausible manner simply to advance the plot.
Witness the now-classic storyline “Armor Wars” which saw Stark desperately attempting to destroy the technology he developed that was now in the hands of others. As the story progressed, Stark became more and more obsessed, manipulative and ruthless, but the execution of this made it feel this progression was genuine.
Iron Man #228 sees Stark planning to attack the Vault, the federal penitentiary for incarcerating super-powered criminals, in order to destroy the Guardsmen armor that was developed from his technology. While planning their assault, Stark and his close friend Jim Rhodes stop at a nearby greasy spoon for some coffee. This scene by Layton, Michelinie and Mark Bright allows for a momentary pause in the action, enabling us to see the friendship and rapport that exists between Stark and Rhodes.
There’s very nice lettering by Janice Chiang on display here. I love her work, and can usually spot it in an instant.
I’m not quite sure what to make of Stark’s anecdote, though…
“Took me three weeks to get rid of the blueberry stain. Had to tell the guys at the gym it was a tattoo.”
Sounds like it could be the punchline to a dirty story. Whatever the set-up might have been, I doubt the Comics Code Authority would have approved!
44) Bob Oksner & Vince Colletta
This page is from the Lois Lane story “A Deadly Day in the Life” penciled by Bob Oksner, inked by Vince Colletta, written by Paul Levitz, lettered by John Costanza, and colored by Jerry Serpe. It appeared in Superman Family #212, published by DC Comics with a November 1981 cover date.
The relationship between Lois Lane and Superman in the Bronze Age was certainly somewhat of an improvement from how it was handled in the 1950s and 60s. Lois was at least somewhat less catty and scheming and manipulative than she had been previously depicted, and Superman appeared to genuinely care for her.
At the same time, looking at in from a 21st Century perspective, it becomes much more obvious that Lois is in a relationship with a man who is actively hiding a major part of his personal life from her, and who regularly gaslights her whenever she comes close to uncovering the truth.
Nevertheless, given that the Bronze Age writers were required to maintain the Lois Lane-Clark Kent-Superman love triangle, they did fairly good work. Paul Levitz writes Lois and Superman as two people who are comfortable with each other. Bob Oksner’s background drawing romance and humor stories made him well-suited to penciling scenes like this. Likewise, Vince Colletta’s own work in the romance genre results in an effective inking job.
Plus, I love the novelty of Superman using his heat vision to brew a cup of coffee for Lois. Jim Thompson sent this page my way. Yes, this IS from the same story he spotlighted where someone hurls a grenade into Lois’ bathroom while she’s taking a shower, and she tosses it back out the window before it explodes. Good thing she had that cup of coffee beforehand!
45) Stuart Immonen & Jose Marzan Jr
As a follow-up to our last entry, these pages are from Adventures of Superman #525, penciled by Stuart Immonen, inked by Jose Marzan Jr, written by Karl Kesel, lettered by Albert DeGuzman, and colored by Glenn Whitmore, published by DC Comics in July 1995.
Prior issues of the Superman titles had introduced to Clark Kent’s old high school rival Kenny Braverman, who gained superpowers and joined a covert government agency… you know, like pretty much everyone else in comic books eventually does. Braverman, who adopted the identity Conduit, learned that Clark was Superman and attempted to murder all of Clark’s friends and family. In a final battle with Superman, the hate-filled Conduit’s powers consumed his body, killing him.
In this issue Clark is reunited with Lois Lane, who he believed had been killed by Conduit. Clark explains to Lois that he is seriously considering giving up his secret identity to be Superman full-time, to prevent anyone else from being in danger due to their association with him.
Lois tells Clark she wants to go get a cup of coffee in the nearby town, but with one proviso: Clark needs to do it a Superman. Changing into the Man of Steel, he goes to a nearby diner to order a cup of coffee, only to discover that everyone is ill-at-ease around him. Some people are expecting a super-villain to attack any minute; others simply don’t know how to act around him.
Meeting up with Superman outside of town, Lois explains to him:
“You NEED a secret identity. It’s what protects you from people… and it’s what connects you to people. Under that costume you’re Clark Kent — you’ll always be Clark Kent. You can’t live without him… and neither can I!”
I feel that the post-Crisis continuity improved Lois Lane’s character a great deal. As I explained before, I was never overly fond of Lois. I couldn’t understand why Clark / Superman wanted to be with her. Even the efforts to make her less of a caricature in the 1970s were hampered by the need to maintain the Lois Lane-Superman-Clark Kent love triangle. I think a clean break was needed for Lois, and Crisis provided John Byrne with that opportunity.
Of course, having subsequently read some of the original Siegel & Shuster stories, I now realize Byrne was actually returning Lois to her original conception, the intelligent, assertive, tough-as-nails investigative reporter of the early Golden Age, and away from the catty, scheming version that existed in the 1950s.
I also like that Byrne had Clark wanting to win Lois as himself, not as Superman, because Clark Kent was his real self, and “Superman” was the secret identity.
Byrne’s work with Lois and Clark definitely set the stage for Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, Dan Jurgens and others to write the characters in an interesting, adult relationship, and for Lois to finally learn that Clark was Superman.
In this issue Karl Kesel does really good work with the couple. The artwork by Stuart Immonen & Jose Marzan Jr expertly tells the story. And, wow, that coloring by Glenn Whitmore on page 19, with the sun setting in a dusky star-filled sky, is beautiful.
I know there are fans that are older than me who grew up on the Silver Age or Bronze Age comic books and did not like the changes made to these characters. I can understand that. I can only say that I read these stories when I was a teenager. So for me this will always be MY version of Lois and Clark.
It’s been a few years since I’ve regularly followed any DC Comics titles. However, over the past several months I have bought a number of DC trade paperbacks.
I eventually noticed a general theme to these TPBs: They had stories that were set on Earth 2, or in the future, or in alternate realities. I’ve come to realize that while I like a lot of DC characters, I long ago got tired of monthly titles where there is a never-ending illusion of change. On the other hand, stories set on other Earths, or eras, or that fall under the “Elseworlds” umbrella provide creators with opportunities to present different takes on familiar characters, and tell stories that are more self-contained, with somewhat greater consequences.
(It’s funny… When I was a teenage comic book fan I was hung up on continuity, on whether or not stories were “real” and actually “counted.” Nowadays I just want to read an enjoyable, intelligent story, and it doesn’t matter to me if it takes place on Earth 67 or Earth B or whatever.)
Gotham City Garage falls into that “alternate reality” category. No, it is NOT a book about the guy who repairs the Batmobile (although that was actually a pretty good episode of Batman: The Animated Series). Inspired by a line of collectible statues that re-imagined several of DC’s female character as tattooed chopper chicks, Gotham City Garage was a digital first series that was then published as a twelve issue miniseries that was later collected into two trade paperbacks.
This past June artist Lynne Yoshii was a guest at the Women in Comics convention at the Brooklyn Public Library. I was not previously familiar with Yoshii, but the art she had on display looked incredible, so I purchased one of the issues of Gotham City Garage which contained her work. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it, and subsequently got the first TPB. The second one finally came out last month.
Gotham City Garage is written by Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing. After the majority of the Earth was devastated by an environmental catastrophe, Lex Luthor seized control of Gotham City, which he has rebuilt as a domed city called the Garden. Aided by a fascist Batman and an army of robots known as “Gardeners,” Luthor implanted “Ridealongs” within the brains of the population. These implants pacify negative emotions and instill loyalty to Luthor.
Only a handful of individuals escaped becoming brainwashed zombies in Luthor’s dystopia. They are now based out of the Gotham City Garage, a safe haven in the wastelands built by Natasha Irons.
Kelly and Lanzing utilize the teenage Kara Gordon as the audience identification figure. Seemingly a loyal member of Luthor’s staff, Kara has to hide the fact that her Ridealong does not work. Outwardly she smiles brightly and chants “Lex loves you” but inwardly she is miserable, the only person with free will in a city of lobotomized slaves.
The first issue opens with the Gardeners finally rumbling to Kara’s secret. She is only saved by the intervention of Jim Gordon, who tells her to flee the Garden. He also informs the shocked teenager that she is not actually his daughter, that he adopted her when she was an infant to protect her from Luthor. Escaping the city, exposed to yellow sunlight for the first time, Kara quickly realizes that she has superpowers, and is in fact an alien.
Fleeing the Gardeners, Kara encounters chopper-riding rebels from the Garage: Big Barda, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Silver Banshee. Initially suspicious of her, the women nevertheless help Kara defeat the Gardeners and bring her to their headquarters. Although naïve and inexperienced, Kara / Supergirl joins the rebels, quickly becoming an important ally in their struggle to stay free from Luthor’s control.
Gotham City Garage is a female-driven book. The majority of the protagonists are women. Kelly and Lanzing do excellent work writing Supergirl, Batgirl, Big Barda, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, and the other heroines.
I enjoyed the student & mentor relationship they set up between the young, idealistic Kara and the embittered Barda, who all these years later still suffers PTSD from her horrific upbringing on Apokolips. The voices that Kelly & Lanzing give to both Kara and Barda feel authentic.
The series offers up interesting and visually striking re-imaginations of a number of DC’s iconic characters. One of the most effective of these is Harley Quinn, not just visually, but also conceptually. Although incredibly popular, Harley Quinn can nevertheless be a problematic figure. She is a woman who was manipulated by, and is in an abusive relationship with, the psychotic Joker. After she migrated from DC’s animated universe into its mainstream continuity and spun off into a solo title, Harley Quinn’s ties to the Joker were often downplayed. Obviously the writers & editors at DC realized that it would be awkward to have a series starring a character who was a disciple to a mass murderer. Nevertheless, you still had a character whose origins were rooted in emotional abuse and Stockholm Syndrome.
The way that Gotham City Garage improves upon Harley Quinn is by providing her with an agency lacking in her mainstream counterpart. In this reality Dr. Harleen Quinzel was recruited by Luthor to develop the Ridealongs. Agreeing to work with Luthor as much for self-preservation as to satisfy her scientific curiosity, Quinzel perfects the system that gives Luthor control of the city’s populace. Too late realizing that she has enabled Luthor to turn the people into mindless drones, Quinzel rebels. Attempting to both sabotage the Ridealongs and free herself from Luthor’s control, Quinzel deliberately scrambles her own brain patterns. This results in a new, humorously irreverent, sarcastic personality with a penchant for extreme violence.
In what is an effective turn-around, it is Harley who creates the Joker. She inspires Lloyd, one of her former patients who she liberated, to adopt her outrageous sense of fashion and her dedication to cartoonish acts of anarchy.
The twelve issue series is a more or less complete arc that reaches a definite conclusion that nevertheless leaves open the possibility of future stories. There was at least one dangling subplot, namely what happens to Zatanna and Silver Banshee, but perhaps Kelly & Lanzing were leaving that for another day.
The artistic line-up for Gotham City Garage is impressive. Certainly I have to give much praise to Lynne Yoshii, who got me interested in this series in the first place. Yoshii has a really fun, dynamic style. She also does really good work with her storytelling, her layouts delivering both action and emotional character moments. Yoshii’s pencils for issue #2, which are inked by Jose Marzan Jr, were both exciting and humorous. I hope that we see more from her in the near future.
I also like the artwork by Brian Ching. He has a style somewhat reminiscent of Kieron Dwyer and Dan Panosian. Ching’s work has a gritty tone that is also slightly cartoony & exaggerated, which is perfect for the post-apocalyptic setting.
Another effective contributor to Gotham City Garage is Aneke, who illustrates “Bad Seeds” in issue #3, which spotlights Harley Quinn, and flashes back to reveal her origin. Plus I love how Aneke draws Harley’s wacky pet hyenas.
As I observed in the past, it appears to take a particular skill set to work on these “digital first” titles. A penciler needs to be able to lay out the pages so that the top and bottom halves work as separate pieces on the computer screen, but also work together as a single, uniform page in the print edition. I feel that most of the pencilers who contributed to Gotham City Garage did a fairly good job at accomplishing this.
The covers are mostly of the pin-up type. I usually am not fond of these types of covers, since they reveal little about the actual contents inside the books. Unfortunately that seems to be the default style for DC (and Marvel) cover art in the 21st Century. At least most of them are well drawn. Dan Panosian’s variant cover for issue #1 featuring Wonder Woman is certainly striking, and it was a good choice to re-use to for the first collected edition.
Also along for the motorcycle ride are colorist Kelly Fitzpatrick and letterer Wes Abbott, both of whom do good work.
Gotham City Garage is a fun series with good artwork, an enjoyable and thoughtful alternate take on the DC universe.
In previous editions of Strange Comic Books, I’ve looked at certain comics that had varying degrees of oddness. However, this latest entry really is an especially bizarre item. Published by Marvel Comics, the Captain America: The Drug Wars special is mind-bogglingly weird.
A little background first: if you went to school in the 1980s and early 90s, you might remember that Marvel and DC used to work with various government agencies and private companies to publish what were the comic book equivalent of Public Service Announcements or After School Specials. These were distributed to schools around the country, and featured popular superheroes in stories educating students about drug addiction, teen pregnancy, child abuse, asthma and, um, tooth decay… yeah, what can I say, not all childhood dangers are created equal. As you can imagine, none of these comic book PSAs offered what could be regarded as particularly subtle or nuanced examinations of complex societal problems.
Captain America was one of the characters to appear in these. There were not one but two specials entitled Captain America Goes To War Against Drugs that were created by Marvel in the early 1990s. I was reminded of these recently when someone mentioned them as part of a discussion on Comic Book Resources about the “Streets of Poison” story arc. Cap is perhaps not the most judicious of choices to use as a spokesperson to convince kids not to use drugs, considering he gained all his physical abilities via the Super Soldier Serum. Though, to be fair, Steve Rogers volunteered for Operation Rebirth because he selflessly wanted to help protect the world from Fascism rather than, say, break the record for most home runs in a season of baseball. I’m sure you can see the difference between Cap and Barry Bonds.
Oddly enough, the first of these specials was sponsored by Guardian Life Insurance, who less than a decade before had been depicted in Captain America #291 as an evil corporation scheming to rip off supervillains in a massive life insurance scam. I guess Guardian wasn’t one to hold a grudge.
These two specials were, unsurprisingly, about as heavy-handed as you can get in terms of depicting drug use in a negative light, and in hammering home, over and over, the “just say no” message. But obviously that was their point. In the end they were well-intentioned propaganda devices that clumsily but earnestly were hoping to protect teenagers from turning into dope fiends, or something like that.
No, where things get odd is when Marvel decided to reprint the two Captain America Goes To War Against Drugs stories as Captain America: The Drug Wars in 1994 and sell it in comic book shops. They even had a brand-new cover for it, courtesy of S. Clarke Hawbaker. (Whatever happened to S. Clarke Hawbaker, anyway? I always enjoyed his work.)
And then we get to the actual material within Captain America: The Drug Wars. The first story is more or less straightforward, with Cap trying to help out a teenage athlete named Mitch who has become addicted to drugs. Yes, straightforward, except for the fact that Mitch gets his supply from an alien drug dealer. Really!
However, these extraterrestrial narcotics smugglers are more or less a side issue in this tale. As Cap astutely points out to Mitch, it doesn’t really matter who he got the drugs from, but rather what the drugs are doing to him, like, say, causing him to accidentally knock out people with his fastball during high school baseball games. Oops!
To be fair, veteran comic book writer Peter David does a good job scripting a story that has a Very Important Message without it becoming too cringe-worthy. And there’s some pretty good artwork courtesy of Sal Velluto & Keith Williams.
It’s only in the second installment that the proceedings become insanely anvilicious. Cap, still working on tracking down the drug ring seen in the prior chapter, has joined forces with the teenage superhero group the New Warriors. Following the criminals to their lair, Cap and the New Warriors find it defended by a quartet of super-powered teenage criminals with the names Weed, Crack, Ice and Ms. Fix, collectively known as the Drug Lords… no, I am not making this up! And then Silhouette of the New Warriors unmasks the hooded mastermind lurking in the shadows. Yep, it’s those pesky alien drug pushers, the Tzin, once again.
The Tzin leader and the Drug Lords escape by teleporting to an orbiting spaceship. We soon see that the Drug Lords may have gained their powers through the use of narcotic substances, but (of course) this has also turned them into addicts.
Back on Earth, Silhouette pays a visit on her friend Dorreen, only to discover the teen dance prodigy is using drugs to relieve the pressure she’s under. This is all observed by Ms. Fix, who has been trailing Silhouette. Ms. Fix realizes that Silhouette, who uses crutches, wants to regain full mobility, and tries to tempt her into joining the Drug Lords. Silhouette surreptitiously summons Cap and tricks Ms. Fix into teleporting them all to the Tzin spaceship. During the fight the ship gets trashed, and the Drug Lords’ supply goes up in flames, causing them to turn on their alien masters. Cap, Silhouette, and Dorreen (who somehow also managed to end up on the ship) teleport back to Earth before everything goes boom. Wrapping things up, Silhouette offers to help Dorreen overcome her addiction.
The writer on this half of the book is George Caragonne, who penned a handful of stories for Marvel in the early 1990s. What makes Caragonne’s association with this anti-drug comic especially odd is that soon after he became the editor of Penthouse Comix. And then a year after that he committed suicide. Yeah, all joking aside, that was a really awful end for him.
Having the story focus on Silhouette was a good decision on Caragonne’s part. As so effectively established by writer Fabian Nicieza in the ongoing New Warriors series, Silhouette was a former athlete who became partially paralyzed, but who continued to actively fight crime, not letting her disability hold her back. So she was an ideal character to utilize in attempting to show that you do not need to fall back on mind-altering substances when adversity strikes.
This second part is penciled by A Distant Soil creator Colleen Doran, with inking by Greg Adams. I have to say it looks very beautiful. Doran and Adams probably could have phoned it in if they wanted to, given the somewhat hokey, throw-away nature of the story. Instead they turned in some real quality artwork.
It’s worth nothing that, by collecting those two PSAs as Captain America: The Drug Wars, those stories became an official part of Marvel canon. I kid you not. The Tzin even received a profile page in the Captain America: America’s Avenger handbook-style special in 2011, with a profile image illustrated by Gus Vasquez.
I’m still waiting for someone to bring the Tzin back. Because when you think about it, they actually had a somewhat more plausible scheme for conquering the Earth than most other alien invaders. If you really are that hell-bent on attempting to take over the Earth, which has several thousand superheroes living on it and has successful driven off the Skrulls, Kree and Galactus on multiple occasions, then there are certainly worse schemes to hatch than getting the teenage population of the planet addicted to drugs. Sounds like Marvel’s next big crossover if you ask me!
I’ve been meaning to do a post about Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang’s run on Wonder Woman for a while now. I really enjoy it; currently it is the only DC Comics New 52 title I follow regularly. I recently learned that Azzarello & Chiang will be departing from the series sometime in the near future. So, no time like the present!
Azzarello has a really good handle on Wonder Woman. He understands the contradictions in the character: she is a highly trained, skilled, dangerous warrior, yet she is also an envoy of peace. Azzarello scripts Princess Diana as someone who recognizes that force must sometimes be utilized in the cause of protecting the innocent, but she tries to avoid doing so out of anger or malice. She hopes to provide everyone with an opportunity to prove themselves before having to resorting to violence.
It’s interesting that Azzarello utilizes an aspect of the character from the original Golden Age stories by William Moulton Marston & H.G. Peter, that Diana wears her bracelets not just for defense, but to restrain her boundless strength & anger, lest she loses control. In this way, Azzarello has Diana acknowledge her own incongruities: she must accept her own capacity for violence, and control it, before she can ask others to do the same.
This has become even more of a challenge for Diana in recent issues. The long-exiled first son of Zeus, known only as the First Born, has escaped from his thousands of years exile at the Earth’s center, ready to kill everything in his path and seize control of Mount Olympus. The First Born was prepared to slay Diana’s mentor the god War, which would have given him all of War’s powers. This forced Diana to kill her former teacher first, a very painful choice. It was one made even worse by the fact that it meant that now she is War, a role that she does not want to play, as it goes against all her beliefs.
Another aspect of the Azzarello & Chiang run that I’ve enjoyed is their re-interpretation of the Greek deities. Instead of a group of dignified-looking humanoids clad in white togas, these gods of Olympus are an assortment of bizarre, dysfunctional freaks. Which, when you take even a moment to think about it, makes perfect sense. If you ever read the original Greek myths, the gods are typically depicted as selfish, petty, vain, capricious, vengeful entities that squabble amongst themselves, abuse their powers, and typically create more harm than good. Azzarello’s writing captures those qualities spot-on, scripting a group of scheming, preening politicos who switch allegiances at a mercurial speed. The physical conception of these entities by Chiang perfectly encapsulates their twisted priorities & agendas.
The events of Azzarello & Chiang’s overall story arc are, naturally enough, caused by the machinations of the gods. Zeus, the millennia-long monarch of Olympus, has vanished, leaving a power vacuum that his fellow deities wish to fill. His long-ago actions to the First Born have also come to rear their ugly head. When it was prophesized that his first child would kill him, Zeus attempted to kill the then-infant First Born, setting the later on a millennia-long path of resentment-filled carnage & violence.
At the same time, Zeus’ infamous serial philandering has had consequences. The disguised deity seduced & impregnated an ordinary mortal woman named Zola. Zeus’ jealous wife Hera, once again unable to take out her anger on her all-powerful husband, set out to kill Zola. This is where Diana came in, protecting & befriending the pregnant woman. Along the way, Diana herself learned that she was the result of a tryst between her mother & Zeus. Hera also found out, and transformed all of the Amazons on Paradise Island into snakes.
Eventually Zeus’ son Apollo rose to the throne of Olympus and stripped his mother Hera of her divinity, making her a mortal. This presented Diana with a serious dilemma. As much as she disliked Hera, she now had to protect the former Queen of Olympus, since she was probably the only being who might one day restore the Amazons to normal.
This led to a really interesting situation: Zola and Hera, who hated each other’s guts, found themselves looking after each other, often having to aid one another in their mutual quest to survive the many dangers they faced. Out of that was eventually formed a grudging friendship. Even more interesting, the now-mortal Hera painfully began to gain a measure of humility and humanity. Along the way Hera made some hysterically inappropriate social faux pas as she learned about acting in a tactful, polite manner, as opposed to an imperious deity. So her development has been an interesting mix of drama and comedy.
In the last several issues, we have seen Apollo attempting to bend the First Born to his will. Instead, Apollo learns that hatred nurtured over millennia does indeed burn hotter than the Sun. The First Born violently seizes Olympus, and is prepared to brutally obliterate all who oppose his will. Diana, with a re-powered Hera and the once-more human army of Amazons at her side, must embrace the mantle of War in order to defeat the First Born.
By the way, Zeus has been conspicuous by his total absence from Wonder Woman so far. Having caused this whole entire mess to begin with, no doubt he’s laying low for now, waiting for everyone else to do his dirty work. I would not be at all surprised if Azzarello has Zeus finally show up just as the dust is clearing, ready to once again assume rule of the gods and carry on with business as usual. I guess we shall see.
Cliff Chiang superbly illustrates Azzarello’s stories. The art on these issues is simply amazing. Chiang’s Diana is beautiful & strong. The action sequences are dynamic & gritty. The quiet character moments are full of personality & emotion. This really is top-notch stuff. I recently heard someone compare Chiang’s work to Jaime Hernandez. I had not thought about that before, but yes, now I can see there are certain qualities to their art that are similar. Certainly each of them are amazing at drawing interesting, expressive characters, utilizing strong storytelling, and imbuing their work with drama.
In addition to totally redesigning the Olympians, Chiang also did a make-over for Orion of the New Gods, who has been popping in and out the pages of Wonder Woman for the last year and a half. Although I prefer the original Kirby design, I have to admit that Chiang’s interpretation of Orion is undoubtedly one of the better revamps that I’ve seen throughout the New 52 line.
I guess that Chiang is not nearly fast enough to pencil & ink an ongoing monthly series, and so he has occasionally had other artists spot him. Most recently Goran Sudzuka pitched in to help, drawing Wonder Woman #s 24-26, and contributing some layouts for Chiang on #28. Jose Marzan Jr. came onboard with some nice inking over Sudzuka on #s 25-26. They did very nice work, and it complements Chaing’s art quite well, not clashing at all. The rich, lovely coloring by Matthew Wilson no doubt helps to maintain an overall tone to the series.
I haven’t yet seen a definitive final issue for Azzarello & Chiang’s Wonder Woman run announced yet. It’ll probably be within the next six months. I’ll certainly be sorry to see them leave. But if they manage to maintain the quality that they’ve shown over the past two and a half years, then they will certainly be going out on a high point, in style.
In My Not So Humble Opinion 
