RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books comic book characters you love, who never quite made it

There are so many characters I enjoy re-reading stories of, that are wonderfully fun characters, that only appeared in a few stories.

But stories that however sparse and commercially unsuccessful, I treasure.

One I was re-reading is a backup series in the early 80's series SUN-RUNNERS 2-4, a hardboiled Phillip Marlowe-type private detective called "Mike Mohogany", who is a former ventriloquist dummy come to life. Written by Roger McKenzie and illustrated by Paul Smith.





Another I really enjoyed was "Greenberg the Vampire", who appeared in a Dec 1981 issue of BIZARRE ADVENTURES magazine, issue 29, written by J.M. Dematteis, and illustrated by Steve Leialoha. A laid back and friendly vampire living in contemporary New York City. (A magazine issue possibly harder to find, because it also has a beautifully illustrated version of Stephen King's "The Lawnmower Man", by Walt Simonson.)

Greenberg the Vampire was brought back in a 1986 Marvel Graphic Novel (# 20, Dematteis and Mark Badger) that was a disappointment and, my taste, not nearly as well done as the first story.



Those are two of mine. Feel free to list your own favorites.

Another I love, probably the first of this type I sought out, is Steve Ditko's the Creeper.

Around 1975 I got into the Creeper, after first seeing him in DETECTIVE 443 (a reprint of his first appearance in SHOWCASE 73, from 1968)



After his first appearance in SHOWCASE 73, he starred in BEWARE THE CREEPER 1-6 (by O'Neil/Ditko, 1968-1969).
And had two guest appearances, in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 70 (by O'Neil, Dillin/Greene, 1969) and BRAVE & THE BOLD 80 (by Bob Haney/Neal Adams/Dick Giordano, 1968)
Then in DETECTIVE 418 (O'Neil/Novick/Giordano, 1971)
Then in DETECTIVE 447 and 448 (by Wein/Chua/Giordano, 1975)
And THE JOKER 3 (O'Neil/Chua/Garcia-Lopez, 1975)
And by Ditko again in FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL 7 (1975)

After that there was a Creeper backup series in WORLD'S FINEST during the DC implosion era that I felt was very different from the previous appearances.

The best appearance since then was in JUSTICE LEAGUE 6 and 7, by Giffen-Dematteis and Maguire (1987).

Plus a few other short-lived series since then that also took the character in a way different direction.

I liked 'Mazing Man by Bob Rozakis and Stephen DeStefano. It was a fun series that had a short run with some specials. They also did a series called Hero Hotline that I also liked.

Another series that didn't quite make it was Great Lakes Avengers. They had some appearences here and there but where I really liked them was in their very own mini-series. It got some buzz at the time because each issue they killed a member off. Now that's something that doesn't appeal to me generally but how they do it provides for some great reading and I as a reader really ended up caring for this off beat team.

I loved Hero Hotline! They were in Infinite Crisis. They had assisted in evacuating some city.

MAZING MAN was a fun upbeat series. DeStefano was one of a large crop of talented humor artists of the early/mid 1980s.

I also liked Phil Foglio's adaptations of MYTH ADVENTURES, while they lasted.
Foglio had a one-shot called D'ARC TANGENT (1982) that was intended as an ongoing series but only lasted for one very good issue. About 2 aliens who have a strong psychic bond, and one survives their traumatic separation and crash-lands on earth in medeival times. A good and intelligent science-fiction story.



I actually never heard of the Great Lakes Avengers!

I looked up the 1989 miniseries.
By DeStefano, the same guy who did MAZING MAN!

Another I really loved is Dominic Fortune, by Howard Chaykin.

I first saw him in MARVEL PREVIEW 20 (1979, the first BIZARRE ADVENTURES issue), that collected the first two Dominic Fortune stories, reprinted from two previous Marvel magazines.



Then the series continued in new full color stories in HULK magazine 21-25 (1980), scripted by Dennis O'Neil, with Chaykin doing gorgeous full-color painted art. Fun period stories set in the 1930s, with stories doing tribute to Golden Age comics artists, an evil Shirley Temple, a buffoonish version of the Shadow, Nazis, zombies, and other imagery evocative of the 1930's, from the same era as O'Neil/Kaluta's THE SHADOW, but with a fun blend of tongue in cheek humor. I felt Chaykin's later work on AMERICAN FLAGG while good was not as fun as this brief run.

It is also in everything but name a continuation of Chaykin's character THE SCORPION (1975) for Seaboard Atlas. Although Chayin's art and storytelling ability in the later Dominic Fortune series is visibly improved. But if you read the BIZARRE ADVENTURES 20 issue and HULK stories and crave more, you can check these out.

Dominic Fortune is in Chaykins "Avengers 59" that just came out.

Thanks, I'll have to check that out, G-man.



Chaykin has done about a dozen variations of Dominic Fortune over the last 35 years, but I think he got it right the first time.
I think that particular run in HULK magazine were enhanced by the tight scripting and humor that Dennis O'Neil added to the mix. And the painted art that Chaykin did so well in that era.

This? I tried it and didn't care for it. I do like Chaykin's art.

I didn't see that. I was referring to this:

The ones I love and am familiar with are MARVEL PREVIEW # 20 (1980) and backups in HULK magazine 21-25.



I'm not familiar with the updated versions, that may or may not follow in that style. The newer stuff (if it's like Chaykin's other recent work) is pen-and-ink, whereas the HULK stories are painted art.

Thanks for your recommendations, Grimm. And you too, G-man.
I'll check them out.

Besides their mini a couple of years they had some appearences mostly in the West Coast Avengers title when John Byrne was on it. I think you would probably like the mini. (it was collected in tpb) It was one of those fun series that had alot of heart. For example, Big Bertha is actually a pretty model who's career is stalled because the midwest is a bad location. She stays anyways because of her friends.

They also had a few one-shots here and there. For a while they kept reinventing themselves based off of who was the "hot" team at the time. (GLX,New Great Lakes Avengers,Great Lakes Initiative,etc.) Fun stuff.If I remember right,Byrne had planned on doing a GLA mini-series when he was doing Avengers West Coast but after he left the book,it fell by the wayside.

Thanks for the suggestion, M E M, and Allan1 as well.

This sounds like exactly the kind of stuff I like.

Another character I like is Wonder Man, who has also gotten a one-shot here and there, but mostly appeared in AVENGERS, from about 150-220 in the 1975-1983 era.




I especially liked an opening segment of him in AVENGERS 181 (by Dave Michelinie, John Byrne and Gene Day) where Wonder Man and the Beast went to an Erroll Flynn movie together, and Beast got a bit philosphical explaining things to the more naive Wonder Man.

I also remember a scene in AVENGERS ANNUAL 10 (by Claremont and Golden) where someone comes to Avengers mansion and asks Wonder Man how things are going.
WONDER MAN: "well, I'm between engagements."
OTHER GUY: "Oh, unemployed, huh?"
WONDER MAN: "Exactly."

I like how Wonder Man is basically brought back from the dead, a living dead guy who can't be injured, and stories take him back and forth from being immensely powerful and superhuman, and at other times naive and vulnerable, despite his powers. He works very well as a supporting character. Maybe a one-shot here and there, but not quite rising to the level of having his own series.

I always thought WM worked best in those earlier Avenger stories too. Sort of a reluctant hero who had so much power but also alot of fear and insecurity. Even his costume he had for a long time (the red safari jacket) was a recognition of being a reluctant superhero. Wonder Man became boring after he worked through all his insecurities IMHO.

I know you're ignoring me, but I need to chime in and say how much I agree here. I'm a Simon William expert. He's my favorite all-time Marvel character. A Superman without all the corporate branding or godlike status. He was the 1930's Superman in modern America. His relationship/chemistry with the Beast is a timeless team-up, and it was his "normal" clothes (jacket, sunglasses, etc.) that first got me to notice him. Everyone else was wearing spandex. This guy was wearing clothes I could buy. Awesome. When he changed his look after he moved to the West Coast, I didn't enjoy it as much. The strength of using those sunglasses gave him an edge over just walking around with glowing red eyes.

Also, I always loved his use of hip/belt-rockets built by Tony Stark as his only mean of flight. When Busiek/Perez changed him into a purple-pure-energy being, I gave it a thumbs down. Glad he's back to the normal red-and-black sunglasses look.

BTW, he actually DID have his own series for awhile in the late-80's...



...but they never knew quite where to take him. There was a shitty storyline about how he was only as strong as his confidence allowed him to be. Lame.

I love Wonder Man so much, I saved up the money as a teen and bought (still own) his first appearance:



I'll just take the simple, humble stuntman Simon Williams any and every day of the week.

Here he is from 1986, in the jacket I liked so much too, courtesy of Bill Sienkiewicz (interior story by Dave Michelinie and Kerry Gammill)

I was lucky enough to start reading AVENGERS right when they brought him back as a regular character in the series. And this one-shot was about the time I largely lost interest in Marvel. I can't fairly assess whether Wonder Man got boring after that, since I wasn't reading at that point.

I was surprised to see, when I keyworded WONDER MAN to get this cover, that he had a 29-issue series starting in 1991!

You just make yourself look crazier when you pretend you're not reading my posts, David. We all know you are. I know you are. You know you are. Just roll with it and talk like a normal person. Otherwise, the disconnect is just....silly...

Your desperation is showing.

Your lack of comprehension is showing.

That's Never Stopped Me Before.

Don't stop dreaming about tomorrow, Frank...

It'll soon be here!

Heh

That's kind of like Jon is now in the Stormwatch series.

The DC Comics adaptation of Fritz Leiber's "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser".

Yeah, I have that four-issue series.
I picked it up after-the-fact in 2002 when I was on a completist Mignola buying spree (along with his complete HELLBOY run, DRACULA movie adaptation, first writer/artist story in LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT, a single issue of SUPERMAN, and other stuff)

I actually was a little disappointed with this one, because I felt Williamson's inks blunted the quality of Mignola's art, that they were not a great collaborative team.

Two other appearances I like of Fafhrd and Grey Mouser were in CONAN 6 by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith (an amusing two page meeting with Conan).

And a brief 5-issue run of SWORD OF SORCERY (1973) by Dennis O'Neil, Howard Chaykin, "Crusty Bunkers" (i.e., Neal Adams and artists of his Continuity studio), Walt Simonson and a few others.

Heh. I didn't know about the 1990-91 mini. It was the "Sword of Sorcery" title I was thinking of. I have a few stories in the Swedish DC anthology "Gigant" from the 1970's. (Yay for cheap back issues!)

Verily and Amen.



Some of my favorite stuff I got for cover price or in the 50-cent bin, and I can't believe they're tossing away gold like this so cheap.
God bless e-bay and Amazon for filling out my collection with hard-to-find comics and trades at dirt-cheap prices!

E-man started out in Charlton Comics and had 10 issues. He still pops up here and there but those were the best IMHO. It would be nice seeing these collected in hardcover. E-man had a longer run with First Comics but the satire was usually to heavy handed and mean spirited for my taste.

I remember the E-MAN Charleton issues (1974-1975) and the later 1983 series from First Comics. I'm not a fan of Joe Staton's art for DC, but I think his work on the Charleton E-MAN series was among his best work.


I'm especially fond of John Byrne's Rog 2000 backup series (his first pro work?), in E-MAN issues 6,7, 9 and 10, later collected with some other earlier CPL fanzine material in Pacific Comics' 1982 one-shot ROG 2000 magazine size b&w reprint. With a really nice wraparound cover by Byrne.
Here's Byrne's beautiful 1982 cover for the Pacific reprint collection:


And for anyone unfamiliar with Rog 2000, here's a site that affectionately displays just about every story and pin-up of Rog 2000 in chronological order:

http://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2010/08/complete-rog-2000.html

Yeah, those Rog 2000 swing dance issues were great.

Oh it's spelled Charlton! HUH

Hmm. My old favourite which never went anywhere was actually a team: Infinity Inc.



I was an avid reader of All Star Squadron from about the time I was 15 or 16 and loved the appearance of a mysterious group from the future - the 1980s - in WW2.

I was a big fan of Brainwave Junior ( stupid name but an innovative idea for 1984 - the son of the JSA's biggest foe joins their children's group), Obsidian and Jade, Silver Scarab, and the girl Wildcat, Yolanda Montez. I regretted Roy Thomas' decision not to include a child of the Silver Age Flash and the Silver Age Superman and Lois Lane in the group. Northwind and Nuklon didn't do much for me: both seemed half-baked concepts.

Too many of the characters suffered at the hands of Geoff Johns in JSA, the Crisis in 1987, the writers of that big Eclipso event years ago, and even by Neil Gaiman - his use of Fury (daughter of the Silver Age Wonder Woman) in The Sandman was a very major plot line but left the emotionally scarred and fragile character almost beyond reasonable use going forward.

The newer versions of Infinity Inc have almost no resemblance to the original version.

I too enjoyed All-STAR SQUADRON (especially ANNUAL 1, that tied together the origins of the Golden Guardian, The Atom, and Wildcat with some wild new twists)


But the series I enjoyed even more was YOUNG ALL-STARS, that (with golden age Superman and Wonder Woman ret-conned away in CRISIS) created more pulp-oriented versions of Superman and Wonder Woman in new characters, in an alternate through-a-mirror-darkly sort of way. I also felt the art was very consistent with the Golden Age, much of it with beautiful art by then-newcomer Michael Bair.

Between INFINITY INC and YOUNG ALL-STARS (the two replacement books for ALL-STAR SQUADRON), I slightly preferred YOUNG ALL-STARS for its greater focus on the Golden Age continuity, whereas I saw INFINITY INC as more of an attempt to modernize the Golden Age heroes and bring them into the 80's, with more trendy outfits and so forth.

I was surprised when I got the INFINITY back issues to see this was Todd McFarlane's first work! I first discovered McFarlane later, when he was doing INCREDIBLE HULK (issues 330-344) with Peter David, which I still consider his best work.

NOBODY FUCKS WITH IRON MUNROE IN MY TOWN!!!

Wow. Just realized. Iron Munro. Simon Williams/Wonder Man. I think I've got a Golden Age Superman fetish...

Since my very first DC issue was the debut of Dick Grayson as Nightwing and the origin of Deathstroke the Terminator in the Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (Wolfman/Perez), I had no real knowledge or grasp how the Golden Age superheroes my grandfather collected fit into modern comic books, if at all. Then, the second DC book I picked up was Crisis on Infinite Earths #5 = Mind. Blown. Then, I saw a striking cover of a series that was ending: All-Star Squadron. It was the last issue, where Mechanique had been holding back the temporal changes from The Crisis (for some reason that I think was lost when Roy Thomas was forced to end the series due to the continuity changes). So, a group picture the All-Stars took in the middle of the book changed by the end of the book, to show that Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman no longer existed in their era. And THAT was the last issue. Next was something called Young All-Stars. Needless to say, I immediately sought out back issues of All-Star Squadron (including the much-elusive-for-me-during-childhood special one-shot "Last Days of the Justice Society of America" where they go to Asgard) and continued to collect Young All-Stars for some time to come. I hope they killed Neptune Perkins at some point. What a gaywad. I was okay with the Native American/Canadian flying owl guy. And besides the trauma of losing TNT to something as random and simple as a car exploding (leaving "Dynamite" to join the group) I enjoyed most of the run. But, it was obvious that after All-Stars was pulled, Roy had to kind of force it. He never really got his stride back, though...

No! you don't say!

Something about strong men in casual clothes? Betcha like Doc Savage too. His shirts were always ripped. Ooooooh.

I never got into Young All Stars. I gave up All Star Squadron not many issues after Roy Thomas floundered and Jerry Ordway left. The editorial impact of the Crisis storyline upon the title was a deathblow.

Getting momentarily back to Wonder Man and the Avengers, my favourite obscure Avenger is Tigra. Not sure about the bikini, but it is hard to avoid in order to demonstrate the concept that she was covered in striped fur. The first time I saw the character was in an Avengers comic when I was a kid: the Avengers were messing around with Ghost Rider and the character has to jump into water from great height.... And being a cat person, landed on her feet all while hating being in water (tigers actually love water so the editor cocked that one up). Given the powers she was always a female version of Black Panther in the Avengers (it would surprise me if they were ever in the same story), but somehow, despite being tiger-ish, didn't require the same suspension of disbelief as Black Panther does (how is it that a half tiger woman seems more believable than a king of a country absconding responsibility and running off to join an American super group?).

The excellent work in New Avengers had Tigra singled out and tormented by The Hood and his cronies, to demonstrate that villains can win: Tigra has a nice moment of character when she courageously steps in despite being emotionally and physically abused to help stop the villains.

I don't go out of my way to buy comics featuring the character but I'm always quietly pleased when I stumble across Tigra in a comic.

I was forced to masturbate to pulp novels in my past life...




You and I share an enjoyment of Simon, but not of Tigra. Or, at least, I hated how she was written in West Coast Avengers. Last I heard she was a booty-call for Hank Pym. And wasn't she originally some kind of strange substitute for the Hellcat character?

Talk about a fucked-up character, Patsy Hellcat. W-T-F?

"Forced" meaning "home alone." "Past life" meaning "yesterday."

As an aside, it kills me that Warren Ellis is working for Marvel and my life is STILL a Nextwave-free existence. If there was ever a book that would get me to buy my first comic in almost four years, it'd be Nextwave.

Mister Miracle for some reason. Something about being the greatest escape artist of 2 separate universes (originally 5 universes before Crisis) appealed to me even though his solo comics never did much for me.

Aztek...he RAWKED

As for the thread, I always dug Anarky. Though, I guess it was more an editorial decision to under cut the character than a lack of fan appreciation.

Bastid.

I just got this comic last year. The Johnny Blaze GR (who I always thought was the physically weaker version of GR) tore ass through the Avengers, including the big three!

I liked Trencher. It lasted about 6 issues.

More the other way around. Tigra used to be the Cat before she became covered in fur and wore the costume Patsy Walker ended up with when she became the Hellcat. I like them both but it's sad what has happened with Tigra.

he was also in an issue of Monster Massacre where he fought Bisley's monkey character.

Ah gotcha! Okay. I vividly remember HATING Tigra in the WCA. They just didn't know how to write her. The last thing a kid wants to read about is some moody bitch with emotional problems...

here's some GA Superman pron for your fetish. . .

GA=. . .aww, you know it already!

http://thegreatcomicbookheroes.blogspot.com/2012/03/planetarys-doc-brass-and-his-league-of.html

I like how they put Elixir of Power inside quotation marks, like there's an implication that it's not really an elixir of power. It's probably just steroids.

...and Captain Triumph is PCG's bro.

Awesome! I liked some of his other posts, dealing with Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, & Steve Ditko (probably my top three favorite artists)

cocaine is a helluva drug.

Another favorite of mine is SILVERHEELS, which was a three-issue series produced by Pacific Comics, up until Pacific ceased publication in 1984, scripted by Bruce Jones, with beautiful Frazetta/Wrightson-esque painted art by Scott Hampton.



It took me a while to wrap my head around what Jones was trying to do with the series. While set in the future, it has a late-1930's feel to it. It's a future where Nazis have taken over Earth and are exploring out into space, and are attempting to have their cadets join a galactic federation of alien races.
I think Jones was trying to tell a story from the perspective of how someone living in the late 1930's would envision the future, as at that time it seemed the Nazis (up till 1942) had taken almost all of Europe, and seemed would inevitably take over the world. That Earth's future would be ruled by Germany, and a master race of space-exploring "Nazite" Germans would colonize space.

The title character is Native American, and Silverheels manages with some cleverness and manipulation to join the Nazi military cadets to participate in the competition among them, to select one cadet to represent Earth in an extraterrestial alien federation, despite that Silverheels' fellow cadets clearly view him as racially inferior, and openly plan kill him at the first opportunity.

The three issues ended the series unresolved in May 1984 (Hampton apparently produced pages very slowly), when Pacific Comics folded. And in 1987 Eclipse finally released a SILVERHEELS graphic novel that collects the 3 previous issues, with a 20-page new conclusion.




The three issues also contain a backup series that has another of my favorite sparsely-seen characters, "Robotus Ridiculous" by Ken Steacy.
Starring a robot named Flan, who is a mechanic by trade, and has a charming nostalgia for machines built in the 1950's, that he considers an era when machines were better built than in any era that came after it.



Flan also saves the world and gets impressive parades in his honor, and an issue later makes one mistake and is suddenly as globally hated as he was just adored. A very fun and playful character, and an interesting concept, of a robot who grumpily favors old technology, the same way humans are nostalgic for and glorify past eras.

Also nice were several artist portfolios of Hampton and Steacy, with photos of the artists and many nice pin-up pages.

DYNAMO JOE, published by First Comics, sporadically from 1985-1988, is another of my favorites I recently just rediscovered in my collection.

Set about 1000 years in the future, it focuses on a robot-shaped tank and its crew, in a future galactic war with an unseen alien race. The Dynamo Joe tank has a two-man crew, one from a human warrior race, and the other, Dynamo Joe robot's mechanic, of an anthropomorphic cat race, who has a love for earth culture and colloquialisms he inadvertently doesn't get quite right, with humorous results.

It initially ran as a backup in MARS 10-12, until that title was cancelled. (these 3 issues later reprinted as DYNAMO JOE SPECIAL 1 in early 1987)


It then appeared as one of three anthology features in FIRST ADVENTURES 1-5 in Dec 1985-April 1986.
When that title was cancelled,
The storyline continued in a three-issue DYNAMO JOE limited series, in May-June-July 1986.

And then that series, after a few months of hiatus, continued as the DYNAMO JOE regular series, issues 4-15, in 1987-1988.

So this series really struggled to remain on the stands for a few years!

In some ways it reminds me of Joe Haldeman's THE FOREVER WAR, a solid storyline that is a hybrid war and science-fiction title, but with very likeable characters and a lot of humor, that gives the series a great balance.

I'd recommend starting with the DYNAMO JOE SPECIAL that reprints the first 3 stories, and also has about 10 pages of synopsis and character profiles, and better printing, that is a good introduction to the series.
Good stuff.

TOR LOVE BETTY, from Eros comics (an imprint of Fantagraphics).




That's Tor Johnson, of Plan 9 From Outer Space fame, and a pro wrestler before that. This one-shot was a nice tribute to both him and Bettie Page.

I was just looking again at my collection of Pacific Comics' SUN RUNNERS series, and the "Mike Mahogany" backup feature in issues 2-4, by Roger McKenzie and Paul Smith. Another great character with too few appearances.

The title character is a ventriloquist's dummy, whose standup comedian owner is murdered, and the dummy comes to life and becomes a hardboiled private detective, and inadvertently ends up on the trail of his former owner's killer.
Here's a sample, the first page of the series.

Part Philip Marlowe, part Pinocchio, and maybe a touch of Eisner's THE SPIRIT, this is a fun little series that's complete in 3 issues. It's also among the first times I saw Paul Smith do both pencils and inks of his own art (the only other I can think of offhand from that period was Paul Smith's Howard the Duck story in BIZARRE ADVENTURES 34, another excellent story.)

There was a double-page house ad for the series in SILVERHEELS 2 (and possibly ran in other Pacific titles) that would have made a nice wraparound cover for a collected edition of the three 8-page stories.

Another I love is ARAK by Roy Thomas (circa 1981-1985). And though he didn't quite make it, he did have a respectable 50-issue run, plus an annual or two.
ARAK was created when Roy Thomas left Marvel because of Shooter, and then contracted to do work for DC. That's when he started ALL STAR SQUADRON (so he could play with DC's Golden Age heroes), and to get his Conan fix, he created ARAK. I love the concept (contrary to the normal direction of migration) of a native American sailing over to Europe, adapting to Scandinavian/Viking life, and then exploring the rest of Europe. The only part I didn't like were the injected mythological characters. I would have preferred the series (with more historic accuracy) to just have the character explore the wars and kingdoms of Europe, Africa and Asia in that era. That to me would have been more engaging than Satyrs and winged horses and so forth.

I especially recommend ARAK 1 and 2. And the preview story in WARLORD 48.



But a very respectable run, as failed characters go. And while somewhat visually similar, far from just a rip-off retread of Conan.

To my knowledge, there have been no revivals.

Another black-and-white series from 1981-1982 worth looking at is ISMET, about a galaxy-spanning war with an evil empire fought by a dog named Ismet and his other anthropomorphic animal friends, in a brief 5-issue series.

The amateurish early issues improved at a remarkable pace up through issues 4 and 5, in both story and art. And I think it's safe to guess that artist Greg Wadsworth was a student of Dave Sim's CEREBUS series, that largely explains the series' rapid escalation in quality.

The last work by Wadsworth I know of was a short backup titled "Night of the Living Teddy Bears" in CEREBUS 54 (Sept 1983). Unfortunately to my knowledge, ISMET was never concluded. Too bad, a great rising talent in those years.

Anyone else a fan of Giffen's Ambush Bug character?



I love him best in DC COMICS PRESENTS 52.

And in subsequent issues of ACTION COMICS 560, 563 and 565 shortly after that first appearance, before he went on to star in a couple 4-issue miniseries and one-shots. Giffen's art changed dramatically at that point, and the silliness just went too far over the top for me.

The last I really enjoyed was DC COMICS PRESENTS 81.

I also recall a SECRET ORIGINS story where it gave about a dozen origins for Ambush Bug, all of which were humorously absurdly untrue.

I think, for quite a while, Ambush Bug had "made it," given the number of series and one-shots he had.

But when Giffin's-ahem-"borrowing" art from others became public DC more or less pulled the plug.

Giffen's swipes go back to his peak period work on LEGION. Even before the Great Darkness Saga (LEGION 290-294) Giffen was visibly swiping pages from LONE SLOAN/DILIRIUS by Phillippe Druillet that was serialized in HEAVY METAL in the late 70's.

Starting in 1984, Giffen's art dropped off a cliff in quality, and he was swiping pages from Toth and Munoz. But when the art was not as beautiful and detailed as during his 1982-1983 LEGION period, I think readers began to abandon him. Lots of artists swiped Neal Adams (Buckler, Grell, Brunner, Sienkiewicz, to name just a few) and their careers don't suffer for it. Giffen had the added detriment that his new work really, REALLY sucked, and fans stopped buying it.

The later AMBUSH BUG mini-series work likewise was a decline from the above stories I listed. They were less funny, and just became annoyingly silly. The earlier Ambush Bug stories in DC COMICS PRESENTS and ACTION COMICS were playful, but also struck the right balance. Others may have loved the miniseries, but an issue or two in, that's when I got off the train.

Another seldom-seen character is "Captain Fear", created by Bob Kanigher and Alex Nino, that for a long time only appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS in 1973-1974 across issues 425 and 426 (by Kanigher/Nino), and 427, 429, 432 and 433 (By Skeates/Nino).

Here's the complete first story from ADVENTURE COMICS 425 (Jan 1973) 8 pages.

And parts 2 and 3 in ADVENTURE 426 (March 1973)8p and 427 (May 1973)7p .

Here are parts 4, 5 and 6, in ADVENTURE 429(Oct 1973)7p, 432(Apr 1974)7p and 433 (June 1974)7p


From the last Nino story, in ADVENTURE 433.


The character later saw a brief resurrection in UNKNOWN SOLDIER 254-256 (Aug, Sept, Oct 1981) as a 6-page backup series by Michelinie/ Simonson. All 18 pages reprinted in THE ART OF WALTER SIMONSON collected trade in 1989. Unfortunately the pages for parts 2 and 3 have the pages printed out of order, but still with better printing than the original.

Here are some sample pages:
http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/podcast/wwwt02gallery/




There have been some brief cameo-type appearances many years later by others:

SPECTRE (vol 3) issues 40-42 April-June 1996, by Ostrander and Mandrake.

TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED (vol 2) issues 1-8, by Azzarello and Cliff Chiang, Dec 2006-July 2007. In the "Dr Thirteen" backup stories, includin Captain Fear with other 1970's characters Dr Thirteen (from Aparo's PHANTOM STRANGER era) and "I, Vampire (from 1980-1982 HOUSE OF MYSTERY series). So this was a pretty crowded story.

Plus a reprisal by Simonson of his earlier series in THE JUDAS COIN (2012).

And a few other forgettable cameos.
In SUPERMAN/BATMAN 75 by Levitz/Ordway(Oct 2010).
And OUTSIDERS (vol 4) issue 26, in March 2010, by Dan Didio and Philip Tan.

The ones I love are the earliest Nino and Simonson stories, that explored the more exciting and paradoxical aspects of the character. There certainly aren't many escaped-slave Carib-indian pirates sailing around the Spanish Colonial seas in comics, in the 1970's or now.

In the comic series PLOP, there were quite a few characters in one-shot stories I would have liked to see more of. A handful of them did have a much later second story in PLOP.

Here's the first 6-page "Comic Book McFiend" story from the fanzine AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS, issue 6, June 1975:
https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/93482.html

The complete AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS 6 issue here:
https://view-comic.com/amazing-world-of-dc-comics-issue-6/


An issue dedicated to editor/artist Joe Orlando, who began DC's Mystery line of comics, along with PLOP and SWAMP THING, the Fleisher/Aparo Spectre run in ADVENTURE COMICS 431-440, among other milestones.
And Joe Orlando was previously one of the EC artists in the 1950's glory days of EC. There were a lot of great unpublished stories and covers in this Orlando tribute issue.
Also included was the story "Judgement Day" by Orlando, possibly the single best story EC ever published, that I already posted in a Pre-Code comics stories topic.
Plus an interview of Orlando, and an overview of his career and accomplishments, particularly at DC. Orlando even did covers and other art for TIME and NEWSWEEK.

Among the other great features in that AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS 6 issue is this story with "Comic Book McFiend", a kid with mountains of comics and an all-powerful genie like mentor/friend, with powers that are a variant of Billy Batson/Shazam.

This was a rejected story from PLOP, that I was suprised otherwise never saw print except in this obscure form. I thought it was a very enjoyable story for one rejected. Which is odd, and obviously others liked it too, at the very least among DC's editorial staff, because a sequel to it saw print in PLOP 24.

To my knowledge the only two appearaces of the character.

Here's the second "Comic Book McFiend" story, from PLOP 24, Nov-Dec 1976, the last issue of the series:

https://comiconlinefree.com/plop/issue-24/4

A great and little-used character is a villain named Brynocki, who was a villain in MASTER OF KUNG FU 33-35 by Moench, and Gulacy/Adkins in 1975.
Later re-aappearing in 72-75, by Moench, and Zeck/Patterson.
And one last appearance in issue 119 in Dec 1982, by Moench/Sylvestri.
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Master-of-Kung-Fu-1974/Issue-33?id=29964#1

He was a cute little Disney-looking robot servant of a character named Mordillo, who created robot killers, and Shang Chi follows the path back to a private island Mordillo owns, that's kind of like a Disney theme park of robots and death traps for Shang Chi and his friends. Brynocki is something of a caretaker for the island and its killer machinations, who is extremely loyal to Mordillo. Even beyond his master's death in subsequent stories, Brynocki continues to serve him.

While innocent-looking and prone to speaking in cheerful good-natured catch-phrases and playfully taking on different cliche roles and costumes, Brynocki is deadly dangerous. The paradoxes and ironies make him a very likeable and interesting character.




It was nice that he was handled exclusively for so long by Moench. Having only one writer gave him a consistency over multiple appearances.

He also had one appearance by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema in ROM 47 (another series I really enjoyed).
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/ROM-1979/Issue-47?id=53195


The only other appearance I'm aware of was in THE THING 1-3 (2006 series) by writer Dan Slott, with art by Andrea Devito.
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/The-Thing-2006/Issue-1?id=123183

Man, a lot of guys at Marvel were drinking the bongwater back then, weren't they?

If you mean they came up with some wild off-the-wall stuff, then yes, I'd agree. I think the 1970's and 1980's saw the rise of some very intelligent and inventive material, but also very fun material.

There's a lot of stuff done these days that I consider an unimaginative re-invention and re-tread of that better era. Such as Didio and Giffen's OMAC re-tread, or the 12-issue FF:THE WORLD'S GREATEST COMIC MAGAZINE. Or stuff on the Marvel side like DAREDEVIL: RED, or HULK:GRAY, or SPIDER-MAN:BLUE. Or the stretched out crossover event with Spiderman clones, that was ultimately just an exploitative re-tread of the clone story done in the 1970's.
All these stories and many more give a reference to popular stuff from that earlier era, but really offer nothing inventive or new. Another I re-read recently were the "Marvel Monster Group" re-treads from 2005 of the pre-Marvel monster stories (single one-shot issues in a mini-crossover of DEVIL DINOSAUR, MONSTERS ON THE PROWL, FIN FANG FOUR and WHERE MONSTERS DWELL, plus an all-new NICK FURY'S HOWLING COMMANDOS six issue series). I wanted to like all these series, but they are just a re-invention of stories that have already been told, with very little new added to the equation.

They are intended to exploit the nostalgic love by older readers for the earlier material, but ultimately just cheat the reader and add nothing new to those earlier stories.

The same with Neal Adams' recent BATMAN: ODYSSEY and new DEADMAN six-issue series. They give reference to the earlier better stories, but are themselves unimaginative and substandard. I prefer that 1956-1990 period, where they actually were coming up with new ideas. And weren't afraid to tell a complete story in 8 or 12 or 25 pages. Whereas now they'll stretch that story into a 6 or 12-issue series, to fill a collected trade. As opposed to actually giving us 6 or 12 well-told and original stories.

Agree. I think I bought all the Ambush Bug stuff but I really didn’t care for the art style in the mini series. Just finished the Defenders Masterworks with his earlier art and it looked very similar. I actually didn’t care for his Legion work after Great Darkness Saga either but I think I’m in the minority there. Now those early Bug appearances were a different matter. Supes had a golden age look that I liked and like you said the humor was just right.

Yeah, Giffen's work was in decline even before the end of the "Great Darkness Saga" (LSH 290-294). But I still enjoyed the stories in 295-306, and the art was still nice, if not quite as detailed as the issues that preceded them. I especially liked the stories in 296-297 (re-telling the Legion's origin, with a special focus on Cosmic Boy), 298-299 (focusing on Invisible Kid and Sunfire), issue 301 (with Chameleon Boy and R J Brande on their home planet), and 305 (wrapping up the Collosal Boy/Shrinking Violet storyline).

.

Another series I loved is "the Masked Man" by writer/artist B.C. Boyer. It is somewhat similar in style to Will Eisner's THE SPIRIT, featuring a similar looking masked hero, and his shorter chubby friend, who writes about his hero friend and narrates the stories. In each issue, they meet someone and help them, in stories that are both funny and tragic human interest stories.



It first appeared as an anthology series in ECLIPSE magazine issues 7 and 8, that last 2 issues of that black and white anthology series, in 1982.

Then it appeared in the anthology's new form of ECLIPSE MONTHLY 1-10, in 1983-1984. While there were a number of regular series in this anthology, "The Masked Man" was the only series to appear in every issue.

Then the series spun off into its own title, as THE MASKED MAN 1-12, from 1984-1988. The last few issues 10-12 going to a black and white format, as many titles from Eclipse, Fantagraphics and other publishers did in this period, to remain solvent during a difficult period for the comics industry.



There was also another 8-page backup series by B.C. Boyer called "The Incredible Seven" that ran in Don McGregor's SABRE series, in issues 4, 5 and 6 in 1983 (that I believe was Boyer's first sale to Eclipse, but ran after the first Masked Man stories were published).
Boyer tied in and concluded this earlier backup in a Masked Man story in ECLIPSE MONTHLY 5, Feb 1984.

After the MASKED MAN series ended in 1988, B.C. Boyer disappeared from comics for a while.
Boyer came back into comics a few years later and did a series called HILLY ROSE 1-9, from 1995-1997. A humorous whimsical mixture of Walt Kelly's "Pogo" series, that combined elements of Cho's LIBERTY MEADOWS, and a futuristic space travel backdrop. With a lot of decorative and fun Norman Rockwell-esque pin-up pages and color back covers.This was likewise a black and white series. Rough economic times in the comic industry, amid a glut of substandard black and white titles in that era, killed both MASKED MAN and HILLY ROSE, and seemed to push Boyer out of comics into other work.
Too bad, I liked his stuff a lot.

Complete issues scanned online:

ECLIPSE MONTHLY
https://viewcomiconline.com/eclipse-monthly-issue-1/

SABRE (B.C. Boyer "Incredible Seven" backups in 4-6. Concluded in ECLIPSE MONTHLY 5)
https://viewcomiconline.com/sabre-issue-4/
https://viewcomiconline.com/eclipse-monthly-issue-5/

HILLY ROSE
https://viewcomiconline.com/hilly-rose-issue-1/

Here's an updated link to that second story.
https://viewcomiconline.com/plop-issue-24/

.




Gah!

Yet another online library of scanned comics is either permanently or temporarily down.
I'm not wild about all the pop-up ads on ReadComicOnline.li, but it seems to the most stable and reliable online comics site, and all others have gone by the wayside.
So here is (yet another) set of updated links to the same two "Comic Book McFiend" stories :

Also at :
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Amazing-World-of-DC-Comics/Issue-6?id=100342

I always find it weird that Jonah Hex got the love he got. Horrific scars, Confederate, mercenary. I know he had a moral code (like Enemy Ace) but still, amazing longevity for a character like that.

Well, I've noticed that any story in comics that deals with the Civil War is an issue that is very difficult to keep in stock. There are a lot of Civil War buffs. I once in my job phoned a client who was in North Carolina and in the course of small talk discussed regional history and the Civil war, and he said something to the effect of "A lot of good men died in that war...", as if he knew them personally !!
I was like "Uhh... yeah..."

In the former Confederate States, there is a large percentage of locals who are deeply immersed in that history, who know that history extremely well, or even have a revisionist romanticised reverence for the "Old South".

So, I'm sure that mindset taps into some of Jonah Hex's enduring popularity.

Beyond that, I also see Jonah Hex as an anti-hero in the vein of Clint Eastwood's "the man with no name" bounty hunter character in the 3 Sergio Leone spaghetti western films. A ruthless bounty hunter who kills and stacks up the bodies without a second thought.

I guess Jonah Hex has a sort of personal moral code of sorts. There are particular people he feels sympathy for, that he either defends or avenges. And occasionally criminals he lets go because they have turned away from their criminal past, or participated in crimes against their will.
And others Hex kills by the dozen without a second thought, or even takes satisfaction in killing. Kind of like Conan or Tarzan, he is not accountable to the laws of civilization, he is a law unto himself, the law of the jungle, or as termed in this country, "frontier justice".

Jonah Hex in many stories is an almost supernatural force of nature, almost indestructible, a gunman who seemingly can't be killed, who is terrifying because he can't be stopped, and if he is coming for you, you're as good as dead already.

So the Confederate element is certainly a big part of his appeal, and in issues that rolled out his origin, the Civil War is where his disfigurement and legend began.

On the other point you make, about Jonah Hex's disfigurement making him oddly popular despite that, there are actually, across many decades of comics history, many disfigured or monstrous characters who tend to be very popular with readers. Ben Grimm/The Thing, Swamp Thing, Two-Face, the Joker, Dr. Doom, and Orion (in New Gods), to name a few I can easily recall.

I think of Jonah Hex as a Michael Fleisher creation, but Jonah Hex was actually created by John Albano and Tony Dezuniga, who did the series for about 3 years, before Albano moved on and Fleisher took over the character in 1974.




Jonah Hex first appeared in ALL STAR WESTERN 10 and 11, beginning February/March 1971.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/All-Star-Western-1970/Issue-10?id=54086
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/All-Star-Western-1970/Issue-11?id=54087

Then the series changed title to WEIRD WESTERN TALES (and Jonah Hex appeared in 12-38, before being moved to his own title in 1977) . Fleisher took over the writing with WEIRD WESTERN issue 22, in May 1974.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Weird-Western-Tales-1972/Issue-12?id=54097

And then continued after 1977 for another 92 issues with JONAH HEX in his own title. All written by Fleisher.
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Jonah-Hex-1977/Issue-1?id=38854

And then in 1985-1987, as said in prior posts, he was time-transported and re-invented as a post-apocalyptic future character in the
HEX series for another 18 issues, also by Fleisher
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Hex/Issue-1?id=54066

And then there's also the DC SPECIAL SERIES 15 story (1978) set in the early 1900's, where Jonah Hex's final fate is revealed, where he was killed, then stuffed and mounted, and his remains made part of a travelling wild west show. Bizarre !
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/DC-Special-Series/Issue-16?id=62923
Also from the brain of Michael Fleisher.



And no exploration of the brain and collected work of Michael Fleisher would be complete without mentioning his run on The Spectre in
ADVENTURE COMICS 431-440
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Adventure-Comics-1938/Issue-431?id=41517

In the New 52 comics Hex time traveled to our time.
He got plastic surgery to fix his face.
He time traveled back to his time.
Hex killed a bad guy claiming to be Hex.
Hex assumed a new name.
Hex rode off into the sunset with Talullah.
That was the last Hex story I saw.

.

Man, Jonah Hex has become a time-traveling maniac !

I recall after an absence a few years, there was a JONAH HEX: TWO-GUN MOJO miniseries around 1995 or so by Tim Truman, .that seemed to be very popular and a critical success as well.

Then circa 2006, I saw another JONAH HEX series on the stands, that I was surprised was once again drawn by Tony Dezuniga, that as I recall was another very long run..


And while maybe not achieving X-MEN-level high sales, JONAH HEX seems to keep coming back in a number of series and storylines, each generating some degree of enduring popularity.