Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Dick Ayers: Most Interesting Writer In Comicdom?
Dick Ayers is by no means a lightweight in the world of comics. He's already garnered himself a place in history for his extensive artwork on almost the entire Marvel lineup of the Silver Age, notably including work on Strange Tales and Rawhide Kid. You name the Marvel character, and he's pencilled it or inked it. Sometimes both.
But what you may not be aware of Mr Ayers' gripping and elegant prose style. It must be said that when you speak of classics of American literature, the name of Dick Ayers springs instantly to mind. If Dick had been writing for Marvel in the sixties, instead of just drawing - well, it may be that comics would be held in higher regard today.
Don't just take my word for it! Sample the loquacious literary genius for yourself! Here's an excerpt from from Dick's introduction to the first Marvel Masterworks edition of Human Torch - the first paragraph, no less:
Refreshing my memory of the Human Torch series I worked on, the first story appearing in Strange Tales #101 and having the inventory number V-846, I received the penciled and lettered art April 10, 1962. Jack Kirby had pencilled it. My assignment: to ink it. I delivered the finished, inked art on April 14th - thirteen pages!
Gripping stuff. I'm on the edge of my seat. Let's cast our eye a little further down the page.
Kirby, when he'd assigned me the inking of his daily and Sunday newspaper adventure strip, Sky Masters, told me to adapt Wally Wood's style of inking as he had once been the strip's inker. That got me to add blacks, clothing patterns, cast shadows and weight to pencilled lines with my #6 Windsor Newton brush.
Oh my god! Not the #6 Windsor Newton! Dick, what were you thinking? Don't worry, he livens things up with some catty comments on the next page. Discussing the artwork of Silver Age veteran George Roussos, he has this to say:
I didn't care for the depiction of The Thing with the chunky block look.
Meow! Hiss! I guess we'd better cut to some of his closing comments.
When I inked stories to conserve time I'd ink over every pencil line so that there would be very little pencil to erase. Erasing over the ink would cause graying in spots and it would have to be corrected, causing loss of valuable time. There are some Rawhide Kids with two handles of six-guns in the holsters because I didn't like the way Kirby drew six-guns. I didn't erase Kirby's penciled handles. I left the erasing for Stan to do. He didn't erase, so sometimes there are two gun handles in each holster!
That is SO funny! Stop it, Dick, you're killing me! *chuckles* Well, that's all I've got time for today. I'm sure you too now agree that Dick Ayers is one of the greatest writers ever born. You're probably longing to find some of his writings, so that you can take them to bed with you and do strange and orgasmic things with them under the bedsheets. I know I am!
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Heroes
There's been some buzz about Heroes. Buy pretty much any new comics and you'll be treated to an abundance of ads for this show. It caught my eye and I went about trying to discover whether this was a show worth watching.Heroes is a show about unconnected people with powers. It follows the lives of Claire Bennet, a high school student who is able to heal any injury, Peter Petrelli, who dreams about flying, Niki Sanders, a woman in trouble with the mob and Hiro Nakamura, a Japanese businessman who thinks he can bend the space-time continuum and is obsessed with Star Trek. There are other characters, but I'll try not to give away everything from the first couple of episodes.
Heroes is a superhero show with a bit of thought put into it. Unlike the other heroic offering currently around, Smallville (which I'll admit I can't stand), Heroes doesn't try to shove morality down your throat. These characters, for the most part, are flawed. Only one of them jumps up and screams "I'm a superhero! Must protect the innocent!" All of the characters are interesting in their own way, but the stand outs are Niki, police officer Matt Parkman and my personal favourite, Hiro. NBC are putting up a blog for Hiro, which can be found here.
Writer/Producer Jeph Loeb is attached and has written the third episode so far. While his presence does not necessarily mean gold, it's a good sign.
Heroes has yet to arrive in Australia, but I think it's worth watching when it gets here. NBC.com also offer the most recent episode for viewing at their site.
It may not be a perfect show, but it does satisfy as good heroic tv.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Where were you a year ago?
a month or so Phrancq mentioned The Boys in passing. i haven't really had much time for single issues in the last few months, but since i've been Recovering From A Painful Injury of late he's been piling me up high with comics of all varieties, but the most recent package included the first 3 issues of this new Wildstorm title.
effectively, in creating The Boys, Garth Ennis (famous for, among other things, Preacher) has nabbed Darick Robertson (illustrator of, among other things, Transmetropolitan) and gone out to show that what superheros really need is, among other things, to be insulted, beaten the crap out of and then raped by a very large bulldog. there's more swearing in the first 3 issues than a drunken conversation with Vinnie Jones, a psychopathic Frenchman who looks like Spider Jerusalem (who headbutts people), a sociopathic Female who looks like Yelena Rossini (who rips peoples faces off), a Vaugely Regular Guy (who looks like Simon Pegg from, among other things, Spaced and Shaun of the Dead)... and did i mention the bulldog? no, seriously.
i loved Transmet. it's got me through some bad times of my life and my trades have been so well thumbed i've had to give a few away and replace them (kinda like the last 3 copies of Snow Crash i've owned, but i should stick to the point) and for ages and ages i've been waiting for something else as nasty and brutally self-indulgent to show up, and i think that The Boys is it. it is, right now, exactly what i needed to remember that "people are scum, no matter what they look like" (Spider Jerusalem - Transmetropolitan Book 2).
now, i know that i'm comparing The Boys to Transmet when it's actually written by Ennis and not Ellis... but then that's a lot to do with The Boys having more of the satirical feel of Transmet. Preacher (the only thing i've read by Ennis to date) is more... for want of a better word: serious, and grounded in... reality. Robertson seems to have brought a lot of the jokes along with him which seems to be part of what gives The Boys a feeling of being another Transmet, but in a different time-period, with superheros and an whole new set of Bastards. and a fucking big fucking bulldog called Terror who fucks things on command.
... and no, i'm not joking.
