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Banned from the DCMBs since 2002.
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I recently revisited this story:

https://www.worldcomicbookreview.com/2019/12/24/revisiting-manhunter-review/

This story (not a title, but a series of back-up stories) blew away my little 15 year old head when I read the collected works. It was written in such a different style to other comics I was reading at the time - Gerry Ordway's Fury of Firestorm, Len Wein's Green Lantern, or Roy Thomas' All-Star Squadron:

a. Goodwin packed in the narrative text when he needed to, and then used silence for many of the combat scenes. That was strange and innovative.

b. It was no-holds-barred, desperately violent. I don't recall a similar line of dialogue around the time in any other comic where a villain openly threatens that he is going to shoot the good guy in the head. We'd see that frequently in Batman nowadays, but not Batman of Aparo and Adams back in the late 70s.

I think what I didn't understand until I wrote the review was the espionage backdrop of the era. In interviews, Simonson repeatedly talks about Manhunter as the toe-dip into martial arts. Yet no one has thought about The Day of the Jackal movie being released that year, and the high profile, incandescent vengeance of Israel over the Munich Olympics massacre.

I tagged Walt Simonson when I posted this story on Twitter, hoping he'd chime in, but no luck.


Pimping my site, again.

http://www.worldcomicbookreview.com

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You read it in collected form at 15. I read it in serialized form when it first appeared. Blew my nine-year-old mind, especially the ending.

It was also my introduction to Walt Simonson's art which was totally different than anything in comics (especially the relatively staid DC Comics) at the time. To this day, he's one of my top ten Batman artists largely based on this story.

Too bad DC animated doesn't adapt this, using Simonson's art as the storyboards/character designs.

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Regarding your sugestion, G-man, I've wondered why more comics adaptations into movies or animated series don't follow the art style of the comics they originally appeared in. That seems to me to be the most natural way to adapt them. With the loose visuals in Sin City and 300 movie adaptations, I'm hard-pressed to think of another that tries in any way to visually adapt the style of the comic art into any of the movie adaptations.


But on the subject of Goodwin/Simonson Manhunter, like yourself G-man, I read these as they came out serialized in DETECTIVE COMICS 437-443, in 8-page segments that left you hungry for the next issue, that you had to wait 60 days for. With a 20-page finale in issue 443 that had remarkable closure for that timee. There was a very visual and cinematic style with action spread across a lot of small panels on a single page. You could see its creators put a lot of thought and time into it.

And while I like the 1984 collected one-shot reprint issue, it was colored by Klaus Janson, and I still prefer the colors in the original serialized issues.

If you're still out there reading, T-Dave, there's also an 8 X 11" magazine size reprint of this story in black-and-white that came out in 1979 or 1980 you might like. At that time, the only collected edition available.

Around 2000, DC had another reprint edition of the series, with 15 or 20 pages of a new Goodwin/Simonson story that I thought was overpriced, and the new story a very mediocre offering. I much prefer the 1984 reprint edition. I believe this new edition came out not long after Goodwin had died.



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For anyone who hasn't read them, you can read them online at:


DETECTIVE 437, Nov 1973, 8 pages (36 page issue, begins after 12-page lead story) :
https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-437/full

DETECTIVE 438, Jan 1974, 8 pages (100-page issue, Manhunter begins page 88) :
https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-438/full

DETECTIVE 439, March 1974, 8 pages (100-page issue, Manhunter begins page 90):
https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-439/full

DETECTIVE 440, May 1974, 8 pages (100-page issue, Manhunter begins page 90):
https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-440/full

DETECTIVE 441, July 1974, 8 pages (100-page issue, Manhunter begins page 90):
https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-441/full

DETECTIVE 442, Sept 1974, 9 pages (100-page issue, Manhunter begins page 89):
https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-442/full

DETECTIVE 443, Nov 1974, 20 pages (100-page issue, first story)
https://comiconlinefree.com/detective-comics-1937/issue-443/full


Great in this format, to have not only the Goodwin/Simonson stories in their original form, but also all the lead Batman stories by a great range of artists, and a great selection of Golden-Age and Silver-Age reprint stories, plus all the house ads and letters pages.
Different online-scan sites have different advantages. This one allows you to scroll right down to the Manhunter stories, especially useful in these long 100-page issues. But there's a lot to savor here, if you're not just interested in the Manhunter material. The first Batman story by Englehart/Almendola in DETECTIVE 439 is the 1974 ACBA award-winner for best story of the year. As are multiple chapters of the Manhunter series. Goodwin and Simonson also won best writer and best artist awards for the series.

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Here's the 1984 collected edition:

MANHUNTER
https://comiconlinefree.com/manhunter-1984/issue-Full/full


For the awards the series won, see the back cover, on the last page.




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On DETECTIVE COMICS 443, the fnal issue of the Goodwin/Simonson Manhunter run, Jim Aparo did the cover, with a few interior pin-ups in that 100-page issue it was part of.

Here is a mock-up of the cover as Simonson wanted to compose it, if he were permitted to draw it instead of Aparo.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/89509111336979526/?nic_v3=1a1Sre3jM

Clearly it is Simonson who drew this, I can't read the date on it next to his signature.

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brutally Kamphausened
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Originally Posted by Wonder Boy
For anyone who hasn't read them, you can read them online at:


DETECTIVE 437, Nov 1973, 8 pages (36 page issue, begins after 12-page lead story) :
https://comiconlinefree.net/detective-comics-1937/issue-437/full

DETECTIVE 438, Jan 1974, 8 pages (100-page issue, Manhunter begins page 88) :
https://comiconlinefree.net/detective-comics-1937/issue-438/full

DETECTIVE 439, March 1974, 8 pages (100-page issue, Manhunter begins page 90):
https://comiconlinefree.net/detective-comics-1937/issue-439/full

DETECTIVE 440, May 1974, 8 pages (100-page issue, Manhunter begins page 90):
https://comiconlinefree.net/detective-comics-1937/issue-440/full

DETECTIVE 441, July 1974, 8 pages (100-page issue, Manhunter begins page 90):
https://comiconlinefree.net/detective-comics-1937/issue-441/full

DETECTIVE 442, Sept 1974, 9 pages (100-page issue, Manhunter begins page 89):
https://comiconlinefree.net/detective-comics-1937/issue-442/full

DETECTIVE 443, Nov 1974, 20 pages (100-page issue, first story)
https://comiconlinefree.net/detective-comics-1937/issue-443/full


Great in this format, to have not only the Goodwin/Simonson stories in their original form, but also all the lead Batman stories by a great range of artists, and a great selection of Golden-Age and Silver-Age reprint stories, plus all the house ads and letters pages.
Different online-scan sites have different advantages. This one allows you to scroll right down to the Manhunter stories, especially useful in these long 100-page issues. But there's a lot to savor here, if you're not just interested in the Manhunter material. The first Batman story by Englehart/Almendola in DETECTIVE 439 is the 1974 ACBA award-winner for best story of the year. As are multiple chapters of the Manhunter series. Goodwin and Simonson also won best writer and best artist awards for the series.


and

Originally Posted by WB
Here's the 1984 collected edition:

MANHUNTER
https://comiconlinefree.net/manhunter-1984/issue-Full/full

[ Completely re-colored by Klaus Janson.]
For the awards the series won, see the back cover, on the last page.



All links updated.


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