Monday, March 11, 2019

This Week's Comics: 3/6/19...including a Brief History of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

March 6, 2019

In Print:

Firefly #4 (Boom!) Another most excellent issue. This is by far the best Firefly adaptation (series) that I've seen...and I've been around for all of them. The art is a little Big Foot, and I'd prefer realism on a title like this, but it still works...and it is pretty cool. (Still, Boom!, if you can hire Neal Adams or Mike Grell, I won't object.) This issue continues on a startling idea that came up in the previous one...the revelation that Mal and Zoe committed a war crime. Inadvertently, of course, but still...wow. That's a pretty brilliant move, actually. This Greg Pak fellow knows what he's doing. And one of the things he does best...far, far better than any previous writer of the comics adaptations...is capture the humor of the show. He knows these characters. Also, good news: while there is a little end of arc pause for this title--just one month, I think it said--there is going to be anOTHer Firefly book to fill the gap: Firefly: Bad Company, which will focus on Saffron, the robusty red head from "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and "Trash"). So far as I can tell, this is NOT a one shot. Woo hoo!

Justice League #19 (DC) Well, this sounded good when I read about it, which is why I took the plunge--I rarely buy this title. A new Justice League? Groovy new costumes? Sure, let's go. But it all seemed pretty silly. I don't think that Scott Snyder was meant to write Justice League.  His touch is too light here...Superman super sneezing to distract Perry White, Wonder Woman "learning a little magic trick" from Zatanna, Batman sotto voce proclaiming that Gotham City is "more fun" than Metropolis...really? And the art by Jorge Jimenez was not bad, but it, too, just seemed too light for this book. And to top it off, the villain was Mr. Mxyzptlyx--my least favorite Bad Guy ever. He's just such a stupid idea. The kind of idea that makes comic books look like throwaway kid's stuff. Nope, not for me.

Previews #366 I love Previews. Mostly because it's exciting to see What's Coming, but also because it helps me to keep up with what's going on in books that I don't read. Because there are way too many comic books to be able to read (or afford to huy) them all...but y'know,  I still kinda care about that shit.  "Oooh, a new Six Million Dollar Man book? What's going on there?" You can take Salem out of the country, but....

Turok Volume 4, #2 (Dynamite) Strange. On the Dynamite website, this series...well, apparently MINI-series, damn it...is Volume 2 of the series from this publisher. See?



But the indicia on the inside front cover (and I am grateful to Dynamite for keeping that information where it is suPPOSEd to go, rather than hiding it the way Marvel and DC are now doing), says this:




Now, granted most people wouldn't give a shit about this even if they did notice, but for some reason I did, so I went on a little walkabout. Didn't find an explanation for this volume discrepancy, but I did find this interesting bit of history: 

Turok debuted in Dell Four Color #596, which was published in  December 1954 by Western Publishing. (Apparently this was a partnership deal, as Dell Comics was a separate publisher.) I guess he didn't set the readership afire, since a second installment didn't appear until Dell Four Color #656, which appeared the following year (in October 1955). That must have been to somebody's liking, though, as he then got his own title from Dell--starting with issue #3...were those the days or what...and continuing through issue #29 (1956–62). At that point, Western ditched Dell and went in-house, so issues #30–125 (1962–80) came out under the Gold Key Comics banner.  For reasons unknown to me (but time will tell), the final four issues of this run...#126–130 (1981–82)...came out under Western's Whitman Comics imprint. Confused? Yeah, me, too. Does this mean that Turok's first 130 issues were published by four different companies--Dell, Western, Gold Key, and Whitman--or is it Whitman, Whitman, Whitman and Whitman? And, more importantly, why do I care? I can't answer that. But I can tell you that Turok went away for a long time after that 130th issue. The cover of which looked so Gil Kane-ish to me that I went searching for information...which led me to what appears to be pencil art for Turok #131 (http://vlcomic.com/read/comic-turok-son-of-stone-eng/130). Hmpf. But apparently it wasn't Mr. Kane, but Frank Bolle...who was the artist on the newspaper strips Winnie Winkle and The Heart of Juliet Jones. So there's that. (Hey, I wonder if anybody ever collected those old Winnie Winkle strips. (Looks like a NO on that, by the way.) 

ANYway...in 1992, Valiant Comics brought Turok back in Magnus: Robot Fighter #12. Turok then appeared in the company-wide crossover event Unity, and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, appeared the next year (1993). Valiant published 53 issues before Acclaim purchased the company, and then things get a little confusing. According to Wikipedia, Acclaim bought "Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #0–47, Original Turok: Son of Stone #1-2, Turok Dinosaur Hunter Yearbook in 1994, and the two-issue miniseries Turok the Hunted in 1996."  I had to poke around a bit to find out that Acclaim did indeed publish its own Turok stories, but apparently they didn't favor the Continuing Series idea, so it gets a little sporadic looking there: 


Turok: The Empty Souls
Turok: Spring Break in the Lost Land
Turok/Timewalker: Seventh Sabbath #1 - Part One: Time Enough For Dying
Turok/Timewalker: Seventh Sabbath #2 - Part Two: Original Sin
Turok: Redpath
Turok: Child of Blood
Turok: Tales of the Lost Land
Turok #1 - Little Triggers
Turok #2 - Snakes in the House
Turok #3 - Pieces of Fate
Turok #4 - Good Things Come...
Turok Online Exclusive Webcomic
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Turok 2: Adon's Curse
Turok/Shadowman - Army of One
Turok - Extinction (in Acclaim Adventure Zone #1)
Turok - While the Cat's Away... (in Acclaim Adventure Zone #2)
Turok - Dinosaur Rodeo (in Acclaim Adventure Zone #3)
Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion

Turok: Evolution

So make of that what you will. Looks to me like Acclaim published 20 issues, though. (And did some video games, too.) The last Acclaim Turok appeared in August 2002.

Then in October 2010 Dark Horse published Turok...but it pooped out after four issues. (They did publish ten archive edition volumes collecting the first 67 issues of Turok, though, so bonus points for that.) 

February 2014...enter Dynamite. Their first go at it ended after 12 issues, but they came back for more: a guest-starring spot in a five-issue miniseries called Gold Key: Alliance, another five issue series in 2017, and now...here you come again, Dinosaur Hunter. The first issue wasn't great, but was good enough to bring me back for issue 2, as  you can see. And? Well...on page 2, panel 2, Turok says to his brother, "...but I'm certain we're longer in any land familiar to us." And I know that's not a big deal, but it bugs me...because I can't help but feel that typos wouldn't appear if the people in charge really cared about their work. And that sloppiness appears in some other ways, too. The art, for instance. It is actually pretty good for the most part...even a little Neal Adams-y at times (and there's not much praise higher than that so far as I'm concerned)...but there are also some key moments where I actually can't tell what is going on. Case in point, on page 3, panel 4, seven Union soldiers come through a space / time portal. Then on page 4, panel 6, one soldier comes through the panel. He looks like the Captain who was leading the group...but that doesn't make any sense. Nothing happens in the rest of the issue to clear this up, so maybe next issue? But I don't know if I'll be back for the next issue. The last spoken line--"Come with me if you want to live."...which is stolen from Terminator--irritated me. Maybe I just need a better sense of humor, but hey, to each his own. One other good point, though: the cover I got, which was by Butch Guice, was really most excellent. (The Bart Sears cover was also most excellent, btw, but I liked this one better.) So at least there's that.

BTW...so if my count is correct, Dynamite's Turok Volume 4 (2?) issue #2 is the 226th solo outing for Turok. Not too shabby...though a lot less than I would have guessed for such an iconic character.


Wulfbourne #1 (Scout) I'd never heard of Scout Comics before, but a quick look at their website tells me that they've been at it for at least a little while. I picked this up primarily because of the cover copy, which read, "The combination of Hellboy and Adventure Time you didn't know you needed." (Gregg Schigiel) Isn't that a great line? Well...I don't think it's true. At all. There is nothing Hellboy or Adventure Time-is about this book. It was okay-ish...but seriously on the amateur side. For one thing, many of the words and pictures functioned separately...like there's a picture and then a block of text. It's more like reading an illustrated kid's book...but worse. I kind of liked the art...and I thought that Brian Middleton had a very good design sense on some of the pages...but the story was pretty weak. In fact, I think the entirety of the issue could have been (effectively) compressed into eight pages or less. My guess would be that Mr. Middleton is an artist who decided he was a writer, too...because hey, anybody can write comic books, right? So while it did have its moments, it didn't have enough of them to milk another $4 out of me.




And on the DIGITAL FRONT, this week brought me

The Walking Dead #188 at the month old price of $1.99 (did I mention that that's $2 cheaper than the On Time price? And now that I'm in the rhythm of it, I am getting my monthly dose of TWD, so it worked out for me.) And I just gots to say...this book has always been better than the tv show, but now it is SO MUCH better that I don't know if I can even stand to continue watching the show. The comic book is a complex story about re-establishing civilization and about human relationships and allathat. And I also have to point out that while there is no Daryl Dixon, we do have a live and breath Rick, Karl, and Sophia. The tv show...it just seems to be about body counts and how to top the horror and gore of last week's outing. The show is fast becoming exactly what I thought it was when I saw the first season advertisements and decided that I didn't want to watch it. 

In this issue of the comic: There are zombies, of course. But the real conflict is between the leader of The Commonwealth and Rick and the Gang. And it's a conflict that simmers below the surface...at least for now. 



Meanwhile #1 I finally got around to buying the first issue of this one...which features The Return of Gary Spencer Millidge's Strangehaven. 16 pages of it, matter of fact. Plus the cover. And in color. Mostly. And? Well, I'm a little pissed that it took me so long to find out that this existed. This thing came out in October 2014 and had a digital release of March 25, 2015, but I just heard about it a few months ago, and only then because I was checking Comixology to see if they had uploaded Strangehaven yet. And I was a fuckin' subscriber, man. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Gary Spencer Millidge still owes me some issues on that, but I don't expect to see anything come of it. I think I at least deserved a fuckin' email saying, "Hey, thanks for your support...and Strangehaven is back if you're still interested." That's gratitude for you, isn't it?

ANYway....




Detective Comics #437 through 443...which were on sale for a mere 99¢ each...and most of which weigh in at over 80 pages. (They sold for the outRAGEous price of 60¢ apiece back in the day.) The cover of #437 caught my eye because I used to own that book (sigh)...and then when I saw the price and page count for subsequent issues...and saw that it featured the Manhunter saga by Goodwin and Simonson...well, I just had to do it, y'know? And as I read #437 I just marveled at Jim Aparo's art. I never appreciated that guy back then, but now...wow. Just great stuff. There's a panel where he has a group of figures standing in the park, but he "shoots" in through the branches of a tree. It's just excellent. Hey, I can show a panel for review purposes, can't I? Yeah, that's legit. Okay, here it is:



I took out the words out of deference to the fact that I wasn't "reviewing" the script here. But isn't that just a wonderful shot? Yeah. 

There are lots of other great folks in the pages of these big comic books. Such as? Well...how about Murphy Anderson, Bernard Baily, Pat Broderick, Howard Chaykin, Jack Cole, Steve Ditko, Carmine Infantino, Bob Kane, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert, Sheldon Moldoff, Jim Mooney, Jerry Robinson, Mike Sekowsky, and Alex Toth? I mean...that's a freakin' Who's Who of comic book artists. And I'm not even going to get started on the writers...except to say that Jack Kirby is one of them. You might could wanna invest the $7 to get this run before the sale ends. (Though even at Comixology's full price--$1.99 apiece, so less than $14--it'd still be one hell of a bargain. And keep in mind that we're talking about 500 pages of comic book art and story here.)

And the rest? 

#437 was a straight up Batman story.
#438 starts off with a surprise: when I looked at the details, I saw that the cover was Mike Kaluta / Tatjana Wood / Gaspar Saladinoa production. I am usually able to spot a Kaluta a mile away, but had no idea this was his work. Perhaps in part because it was an early piece...he'd only been in comics for four years when this issue came out. After that, there the issue started with a 12 page story by Archie Goodwin and Jim Aparo. It's not a great story...but it's not terrible, either. And it does have a big moment with respect to Ubu (Ra's al Ghul's right hand man...and utterer of the memorable line, "I mash the face to jelly!") It also has a character whose last name is KOLB. 

(He's a bad guy). Oh well. After that there's a Gardner Fox / Gil Kane story, "World of the Magic Atom," which is reprinted from The Atom #19. 24 pages and a pin-up. It also co-stars Zatanna, and it's always nice to see her and her fishnets. Also also, there's a sequence in this story in which Atom fights a lizard that looks a lot like a little dragon, and it could have come straight out of those great "Sword of the Atom" stories. (Matter of fact, since this bit occurs in a micro-universe, I have to wonder if maybe it's 
what inspired Jan Strnad to create the whole Sword of the Atom thing.) And Gil Kane...man, that guy could fuckin' draw, y'know? You really get a grasp on how awful most of the current comic book art is when you see the work of somebody like Gil Kane. Not only did he know where to put stuff, he also knew what to leave out. And the angles, of course The Man knew angles like nobody else. Except maybe Will Eisner. 

She/it, ahmo have to leave it there before this goes novel-length.  More news if it happens.

Sword Daughter #1 by Brian Wood, so when I saw it on sale for 99$ per issue, I went for it. And, unlike my usual wont of letting things steep in (metaphorical this time) dust before I get around to them, I read it immediately. My first thought upon hitting the last page was, "Shit, what was that, like ten pages long? Or less?" Which still would have been okay for 99¢, but I went back to check it. 26 pages. Seriously? Well. I suppose I'll be taking a look at issue #2, then, won't I? Which, by the way, is also on sale for 99¢...as are issues 3, 4, 5 and 6. So...all of those for less than $6. Which is kind of strange, because the Volume I collection is also on sale...for $4.99...but it only includes issues 1 - 3. Whuuut? Comixology has some great deals, for sure, but it pays to poke around before you click that buy button: check single issue vs. collection, check Comixology vs. Amazon price.  Anyway, I think I'm going to go  buy another one of these things.

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