Daddy Issues

 

 

 

 

My father was born in 1899. When I shared that with a co-worker recently, he found that unbelievable. But he was. And 62 years later, he and his 3rd wife (he outlived the first 2), had a 'whoooops' moment and I was the result. Thus, two generations spanning the 19th and 21st Centuries.

My father lived a colorful life, given his rural roots. Inducted for service in WWI, he shipped east for training and before he could be deployed, the war ended. He contracted the Spanish flu that went global in the aftermath of the war and nearly died anyway before making it back home. He worked as a coal miner when the most advanced equipment deployed besides manpower was mule power. The 20's were a roaring time for him, from the tales told, and an alcohol-enhanced wild automobile ride in that era resulted in the loss of all digits on his right hand except for the index finger and thumb. He spoke of local gangsters and of the Herrin Massacre (Union miners v.s. strikebreakers, death toll 20+) from what sounds, in aftermath, first-hand perspectives. He made moonshine and likely supplied one of the local gangs, led by Charlie Birger. He also got pinched for the 'shine when a neighbor sneaking into his corn crib to steal some roasting ears uncovered his still.

 

 

 

 

In some ways, his life reminds me of something from the pulps, if  not comic books.

 

 

He was 4F for WWII, but worked in an ordinance plant making ammunition for the war effort. The post-war years were spent farming and mining simultaneously. A life lived so large takes a toll, however, as does black lung disease & diabetes. Despite siring a final offspring (for a grand total of 6) at age 62, his health was in sharp decline. By the time I was old enough to know him as 'Dad', he wasn't able to do the usual father and son things. He was barely able to walk, and not unassisted. He was elderly, feeble, and very unhappy with the sedentary and limited life style he was saddled with.

 

The Hong Kong flu was the second pandemic he'd experienced, and it proved too much for him. But he left my mother and myself with a steady income thanks to his hard work and the resulting Miner's Widow Benefit she received...so long as she never, ever, ever re-married. In those olden times, a widow who got a new husband was no longer eligible for a pension. My mother, both practical and faithful, did not intend to take the pension my father had worked so hard for and throw it away on a marriage that might or might not succeed. So I was raised without what I would call any sort of consistent male role model.

Except for maybe Clark Kent. And Bruce Wayne. Hal Jordan was in there, too, as was Barry Allen, Carter Hall, and Ray Palmer. Comic books were a key and consistent source of male role models for me in those early years. Later, I'd meet grandpas, too, like Ted Grant, Alan Scott and Jay Garrick, the inspirations for the 'Dad' generation of the heroes above. Maybe this is why, as modern versions of all these characters are marched out, re-imagined, re-defined, I'm a little resistant to the changes. It's like spitting on my Dad, you see.
 

 

 

As I've met other comics fans and read musings of still more, I find I'm not alone. There were lots of young boys in my generation who, in part or whole, felt their upbringing was impacted positively by male role models in comics. So, in honor of Father's Day, let's take a look at some of those mensch from the 4-color pages, as well as some series that incorporated Daddy Issues.

Superman...I could really identify with the Last Son of Krypton because he had lost not one father, but two. And what great fathers. One was a leading statesman-scientist on the far-flung planet Krypton, and capable of launching his infant son in a rocket to safety on an alien world when his homeworld exploded. The other was a humble, strong and moral man capable of adopting an alien son and loving him like his own. Not since Joseph told Mary, 'I've got this.' has there been such a display of guiding, gentle and accepting fatherhood.  





 








Batman, in the days before he became a psychopath who goes through more Robins than the Children's Crusade went through rugrats, was a hero born of the loss of his father and his mother to a ruthless criminal. He was also the Darknight Detective who helped another grieving youth named Dick Grayson avenge the death of his parents, becoming the boy's adoptive father in the process. Darwyn Cooke in his excellent 'JLA: New Frontier' got this just right. It's a shame the power and nobility of the gesture has mostly been lost in the current comics milieu.







Ben Parker may not have been Peter's biological father, but when he took on the job of raising his nephew, he was the sort of Dad we all wished for. He molded the young boy into a decent human being, and his death forged that teen into Spider-Man. And arachnophobic criminals haven't stopped looking nervously over their shoulders since. 

 

 

 

A bit of an oddity in Dad-Son relationships came from DC with their product-tie in hero, Captain Action. Based on the Ideal action figure, the hero in comics was given a son to serve as 'Action Boy'. Clive and Carl Arno were one of the few father and son superhero teams, and -the- only father and son action figure set I'm aware of. Widowed archaeologist Clive Arno shared a cache of magic coins unearthed in an excavation with his son, Carl, and together they shared boy's nights out by dressing as fanciful Mystery Men and taking on crime cartels, alien menaces and madmen bent on world domination. Plus, he let Carl keep a black panther, faithful Khem, as a pet! Now that's my kind of Dad.

 

Kinder and gentler Dads weren't the only variety out there, though. Over at Marvel, Odin set the standard for displaying tough love. When his heir apparent, Thor, proved that being raised as royalty led to arrogance, willfulness and conduct considered rude, crude and mythologically unacceptable, he stripped him of his powers, his nifty Uru hammer, and his birthright, then cast him down to fend for himself on savage Midgard as a lowly, lame mortal. At least until he could learn some manners.

 

Professor Charles Xavier may not have had kids of his own, but his School for Gifted Youngsters was home for any mutant youths who needed one. And in many instances, he became their surrogate father and protector. While most of the examples herein have been lost in the shuffle of modern comic storytelling except as a flashback, Professor X's impact in the lives of his 'children' has remained a focal point of the series. And he wasn't above a little tough love himself. When the other mutants threatened to leave if he took in the former villainess, Rogue, he was ready to help 'em pack.
 








Outside the Big Two companies, fatherhood also found focus at times. I still remember the first time I picked up a copy of 'Lone Wolf and Cub'. Apparently, the family that slices and dices together, stays together!


 






 'Invincible' also carries a strong sense of family in its stories. It just ain't easy having one of the most iconic heroes on the planet for a father, and when you develop powers of your own, it gets even harder. The creative team has done a great job of exploring home life behind the masks with their primary characters, while keeping the action consistent and all with a good sense of humor and something lacking in many, many titles these days: Fun!
 









In days gone by, DC has also had some fun with the generational theme of fathers and sons. One 'World's Finest' ongoing imaginary series (later shown to be some sort of Kryptonian computer program to determine how the offspring of the World's Finest team would drive their fathers crazy) was the Super Sons. Clark Kent, Jr. and Bruce Wayne, Jr. were more than willing to slip on their respective dad's costumes and take their more youthful crimefighting style to the streets when the old guard seemed to be taking too long to crack a mystery. Readers dug their hip lingo, and the way they would rebel and handle things their own way, sticking it to The Man! Hey, man, it was the 1970s.

There were other stories dealing with Superman and Batman parenthood, some 'imaginary' and some in the regular continuity but the result of a trick or a temporary crisis.

Maybe our real surrogate fathers, we of the generation left to find male role models due to mortality or separation from our actual fathers, aren't so two-dimensional after all. Maybe our surrogate fathers are the men behind the panels, the stories and the art. Men like Stan Lee. Joe Kubert. Jack Kirby. Julius Schwartz. Steve Ditko. Denny O'Neil.  Curt Swan.  Murphy Anderson.  Cary Bates.  Thanks, fellas. You made a world...infinite worlds...of difference in the lives of many lonely boys and girls. Happy Father's Day.

 

Who Was That Masked Man? And What Was He WEARING????

One month from today, Disney launches its big screen summer release 'The Lone Ranger' starring Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp as John Reid and Tonto, respectively.  The trailers have a moody, washed out, sepia quality that earths up the Old West in a way the painted desert of Clayton Moore never did.  Tonto is a wise and wisecracking shamanistic figure who seems ready to go on a vision quest at the drop of a Stetson.  Hammer cuts an impressive figure as the Masked Rider of the Plains, wearing his trademark mask but accessorizing with a long black duster and perhaps more traditional and accurate clothing of the American West than Ranger fans have seen before.  All told, it's quite a departure in tone and look from previous and iconic handlings.  Will it succeed in creating a new generation of fans for these characters?  Will it disgust and alienate fans of the older visions of the Ranger?  Will it make a buck or two billion for Disney, Inc.?   Never count out the House of Mouse for successfully updating tales, legends and icons, and never count out director Gore Verbinski, who took a Disney theme park ride/attraction and lovingly turned it into a fine film (though the sequels to the first 'Pirates of the Caribbean' were only so-so for me).  It's a risky move, and no doubt.  The last artistic-slash-big summer blockbuster chance a company took on the venerable but elusive Western, with a solid cast, a director with a proven track record, and a solid vision of doing right by past genre giants as Leone and Ford at least as far as the Western elements were concerned, was 'Cowboys and Aliens'. 

Budget: $163,000,000 (estimated)       Opening Weekend: $36,431,290 (USA) (29 July 2011)    

Gross: $100,215,116 (USA) (28 October 2011)

Ouch. 

 

So I've been watching and reading and trying to get a feel for how receptive the movie-going public, young and old, is to the re-imagining as the release date draws nigh.  Seems about 50/50 between those who can't wait, and those who could wait an eternity without witnessing what they expect to be a cinematic and box office train wreck (a beautiful old steam locomotive one, too; I've seen the extended trailers!).  One comment this week did pique my interest more than some others from the nay-saying owlhoot camp.  When the moderator of the Captain Action FB group posted a picture of the new 12" Lone Ranger action figure just released in Disney Stores, a veritable and vitriolic chorus went up:

 

"That ain't the way the Lone Ranger dresses!  Give us the canon look, red shirt and black pants or sky blue suit!"

 

One of the more colorful comments opined:

 

"The new Ranger dresses like a New Orleans pimp. I wonder if his sidearms have pearl handles...."

 

A few cooler heads posed that, actually, The Lone Ranger has sported many looks since his radio days, and both the red-and-black and sky blue togs were 'canon' only in that more people had seen them via comic books and the classic TV show than any of the others.  Clearly, time to take my own vision quest...one to find out, collectively, What Has The Ranger Worn?  A lot, actually, and some of it as different from those 'canon' styles as the new movie version.  First, let's look at those heavy 'canons'. 

 

 

Ah, yes.  Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels.  Nostalgia just doesn't get any better than this.  Loved the show, respect mightily Mr. Moore, Mr. Silverheels, and John Hart (the substitute LR of the series) immensely.  When I picture the perfect brunch in Heaven, I want to sit down over biscuits, bacon, eggs and grits with Fred Rogers, Bob Keeshan, Jim Henson, and Clayton Moore.  That being said...

 

I never saw the Lone Ranger outfit of the series as sky blue.  To me, that's baby blue.  And about as inappropriate and tenderfooted as any color one can conceive for dropping into the Old West.  Can you imagine the cleaning bill???  The heart of the series, and the leading actors, overcame that look, but I've never been fond of it except as a nostalgic bit of childhood, and as close to a white knight, paladin look as the character could have.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  

 

 

I've always been a bigger fan of the red shirt look, though it's probably no more Old West accurate than the blue.  When paired with black jeans, it is a strong color combo in a 1950's screen cowboy way, and at least gives the Masked Rider a little more edge. 

 

Both the red and the blue, in the hands of some great artists, have managed to give The Lone Ranger a very iconic, and at times bordering gritty, look.  It's truly a testament to those artisans that they could make these versions work on a scale for young readers; their layouts in Dell, Gold Key, Dynamite and other modern companies are at times moody, atmospheric, action-packed and just plain fun. 



 

 

But as those older and wiser heads pointed out, red or blue do not a Ranger make.  There are several other 'looks' the Masked Man bore in promotions for the radio program, advertisements, and books.  The voice actors for the Ranger on radio, in the tradition of the time that they make public appearances or have publicity photos done in the costume of their characters, appeared in a black and white costume.  Mostly black. 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other pulps and promotional-style art, the Ranger was....he had....well, let's say he was kind of a checkered mess.  Can you say, 'Masked Harlequin of the Plains'?  Even Marty McFly  in 'Back to the Future 3' would have made fun of this guy and considering his own 1950's style Western dress plunked down in the real Old West, that's saying something.  Let's give a hearty 'Hi-NO, Silver!'.  Now -this- makes him look like part of a New Orleans Krewe.

 

 



At times, in similar art forays (in this case, Bubble Gum Cards), he was given a more...what?  Brownish or cream colored shirt.  At least, against a desert backdrop, he might blend.  A little. 

 

 

 



 

 

 

A few depictions had the Ranger covering up some of the fashion faux pas under buckskins and coats...not a bad look, really.  Not at all. 

 

Finally, movie serials had a slightly different look for him, and I think it may have had a bit to do with making him fit more in the style of his descendant, Britt Reid, AKA The Green Hornet.  The mask looks like it's trying to skirt between being the usual domino face fair, and the full-coverage mask that the Hornet was initially envisioned in. 

 

 

And so, yes....the Lone Ranger has sported many looks over the years.  In his last big-screen adventure, he actually retained the mostly iconic bluesuit look. 

 

 

 

 

 

And yeah, that worked out so well.  Klinton Spilsbury, ladies and gentlemen.  The studio took Clayton Moore to court to keep him from wearing the mask in public, as he spent his golden years introducing the character to a whole new generation of little buckaroos and buckarooettes, and gave it to this guy.   The guy they had to re-dub every line of dialogue for in the finished film because his voice was 'squeaky'.  Movie cost in the $18,000,000 ballpark to make, grossed $8,000,000.  Let that be a lesson to you, Corporate America:  Do not take saints to court.  You may win the case, but you have paved your way to ruin. 

 

 



Clearly, clothes alone do not make the man.  So let the new Lone Ranger sport his new look.  Tonto, too.  And while we decide if the new imagining is Good or Ungood, let's grab some popcorn and juju fruits, huddle down in our theater seats, and watch as the new team fights for law and order in the Early West.

 

 

 

We've Got You Covered: 10 Great Comic Book Covers

My friend Mike Curry and I share a geeky, wonder-filled heart of a child ('We alternate keeping it in a jar, one week his house, one week mine!', as Forry J. Ackerman would say.) where comic books are concerned. Few things take us on such flights of fancy as memories of great comics, characters and plotlines past, and few things delight us more than finding and sharing with each other modern kernels of creative genius in modern comics. I can't speak for Mike, but these sessions never fail to remind me of rainy weekends spent with cousins reading and comparing and action-figuring our way through the comic scenes that struck our fancy. Magical times.

 

In the most recent session the topic of '1,001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die' came up. I bemoaned that the tome I had just read bearing such a title wielded a count of roughly 161 books as read, with 840 mostly Manga, French or various foreign language books as yet-to-be-read. Probably my lifespan would have to rival Vandal Savage's to ever see that 1,001 count completed.

Mike offered, however, a variation that was terribly intriguing. While it would not be hard to make a list of the 1,000 or so comic stories we've loved over the years, much more challenging would be the task of limiting such a list to smaller numbers. Even the covers. 'Some people have posted Ten Best Comics Covers Ever lists. Can you imagine? I wouldn't even know where to start, much less limit it to ten!' That challenge spoke to me as well, in a happy, nerdy, inner-child way. While there are tons...tons....of comic book covers that should make that list (Marvel's Silver Age origin covers alone could fill it without a sweat, thanks to Misters Kirby, Ditko, Steranko and others), I started to think of a subjective way to narrow the field. Maybe just the comic covers that made my fingers literally itch to read -that- story, to crack open that cover and devour the contents like a chocoholic ripping into a candy bar wrapper.

At their most captialist capacity, isn't that what a good cover strives to do after all? Some would be born aloft by being not only artfully rendered, but offered visually as blurbs in comic I already had. In other words, tempting but at the moment, unatainable. Several of the older covers would fall into that capacity for me. These were the ones featured on interior house ads, sometimes seemingly in every...single...comic I owned at the time, reminding me time and again how very cool an upcoming issue was and how my life would be somehow irrevocably dimmed were I not to bask in the four-color goodness therein. Cruel ads placed by sadistic Silver Age hucksters who never considered the four issues I currently read were all from the ancient Hospital Auxiliary Gift Shop nickel pile and had been published five or more years previous. How, oh how would I -ever- find those elusive treasures of comic book coolness that hit stands four years and 11 months ago in the far-flung past of pre-adolsence??? Luckily, rabid fandom fanned the flames of online back issue outlets like Mile High Comics and eBay as the years passed, making such elusive riches not only accessible but affordable. But I digress...

And so, here are 10 of the top Coolest Comic Book Covers Ever based on the criteria of being ones I most could not wait to open. I've included a blurb with each to better explain why or how they made the cut for me. I've also included a gallery of Honorable Mentions at the end.

This cover makes top of the list because it was just so 'wrong', you knew the story was going to be right.  'Wrong' as in, back lo those many years ago, no DC heroes shared any panels or appearances with Marvel heroes.  Ever.  Period.  But here they were, and not just any old comic heroes, but the veritable iconic comic book faces of BOTH publishers, about to duke it out!  Second thought after much blinking and eye-rubbing was:  "Oh, Parker...you poor slob.  You're about to get your webbed butt handed to you!"  Even so, the cover was so inspired, so brilliant, so BIG, as in the Treasury Edition size, that fandom united could not wait to get a copy in our mutually sweating palms to bask in this ultimate team-up/battle nerdgasm. 

 

After finding TWO Green Lanterns in one of Hal Jordan's exploits and discovering the wonders of DC's Earth One and Earth Two, I was all about learning all I could about the counterparts of other heroes between those two realities.  The 100 Page Super Spectaculars gave glimpses of those Golden Age heroes in their original stories so one could better appreciate the next JLA/JSA team up,  The covers of the 100PSS issues became things of wonder because they incorporated so many dual images/versions of those worlds, but this one...this was the first one that seemed to have them -all-.  I literally spent hours looking over this cover and identifying the wonderful, colorful figures I did not yet know.  And taking delight in the details, like the way current continuity, white-smock-wearing Wonder Woman was relegated to the back cover while her classic Earth Two counterpart got to take her rightful center stage pose with Earth One Batman and Superman.  And my old/newfound pal, Wildcat, looking so formidable, as did Earth Two's adult Robin, rocking that Batman costume hand-me-down that I still love.  And my first glimpse at the hero so audacious, he actually wore the words FAIR PLAY on his costume!  To quote the animated Brave and the Bold's Aquaman, 'Outrageous!' 

Ever since an impromptu and shrouded appearance in a mainstream DC comic where costumed parade participants suddenly found themselves enchanted and possessing the powers of the heroes they portrayed, I was fascinated by the Big Red Cheese in the yellow work boots who had some kind of magic word that empowered him to trade punches with Superman.  When DC decided to bring back the original Captain Marvel, I was primed...the blend of modern DC comics embodied by Superman's rendering to the left, and C.C. Beck's signature, simplistic, Golden Age rendering of Cap on the right, had me hooked with one magic word.

Marvel's entry into the Captain Marvel copyright wars also snagged me, first with a love of the white-and-green suited Cap of such astonishing covers in the early run of his title.  Unfortunately, I wasn't yet a sophisticated enough reader to appreciate the Gene Colan renderings inside the books.  But Gil Kane's work and change of the costume held more appeal, and this cosmic cover by Jim Starlin hooked me into the galactic, nega-band powered adventures of the displaced Captain of the Kree. 

 

If there was anything I loved as much as comics, it was monsters.  Marvel's 'Tomb of Dracula' and 'Ghost Rider' and later even Morbius the Living Vampire would fuel my young cravings for the macabre eventually.  But 'Werewolf by Night' was the my gothic graphic love because of covers just like this one by Mike Ploog, as well as Ploog's interior art that continued the action seen here in panels that could barely contain the energy of the tormented lycanthrope Jack Russell (heh...what a great canine name!) 






Below, the Bad Guys get their own Adams cover!  Variations of iconic costumes fascinated me as a kid, and none moreso than the Superman-Batman Revenge Squad.  There's just something alluring about a subtle change of color, a slightly different emblem, and downright sinister when you incorporate the darker tones with Kryptinie 'S' sigils and death's head bats!  Neal Adams, like Ploog above, carried his artistic chops into the interiors as well, and created a story I can still 'see' in my mind's eye even today.

 

 

My love of Curt Swann/Murphy Anderson, below, led to many cover attractions in the early years of my fandom.  But I think in its own geeky, strange way, this is their coolest.  My little 10 year old noggin just couldn't wrap around all the wrongness of this cover!  Red Batmobile?  Brainiac channeling Mr. Mxyzptlk?  Krypto colored like Streaky the Super Cat????  Whu---wha----WHY????  All the answers, plus tons more playful gaffes, waited for me inside that issue.  I finally got to explore them fully in 2012 when I scored a copy. 

 

The Gil Kane cover of 'Captain Action' issue 2 was not a typical one; you could barely see the heroes, Cap and his son, Action Boy, in the cockpit of their wonder vehicle, the Silver Streak. But what a great action cover! 

For years after seeing it, all my action figure heroes had 'hover cars', which I wrongly assumed the Streak was, based on this image.  And this cover led me to find out who this strange Captain Action was; he became my action figure Holy Grail, and a source of future collecting. 

 

I mentioned love of the macabre, right?  Leave it to Neal Adams to embody that in a hero who straddled the world between the living and the dead, and between horror comics and costumed adventure tales!  Deadman was my first 'oddball' character obsession.  B'wanna Beast infatuation would come later, but his Mike Sekowsky covers could not compare. 

Sex sells comics.  How else do you explain Marvel's 90's Swimsuit issues?  If you'd already fallen hard for Batgirl on TV, how could your pre-pubescent heart not fall for this Murphy Anderson cover?  His work inside the book below was just as classy, tasteful, and drop-dead gorgeous.  *Happy sigh*  

 

 

And here is the gallery of covers that almost made the cut, each with their own reasons.  'Giant Size X-Men' #1?  Same reason that 'Justice League' #1 is here...those covers made me wanna know alllll about these characters and/or how they were going to interact in a team frame work.  Ditto on Alex Ross's 'Kingdom Come' and 'Masks'.  Hulk #141?  It looked like DC's Captain Marvel (albeit with green hair) was clocking the Hulk!  How cool is -that-?  Only made cooler with the contribution of all-time underrated artist Marie Severin. Captain Atom?  Because that villain, The Ghost, was just too cool to 10 year old eyes.  By the same token, the Gentleman Ghost fighting the super-science fictiony intergalactic Hawkman of Thanagar made me want to read that strange-opponents-as-bedfellows story because of both theme and Joe Kubert art.  And while The Atom Earth One and Earth Two counterpart team-ups were never as satisfying to read as the Lantern's for me, this cover literally explodes!  It's also my favorite rendering of the latter version of Al Pratt's costume.  And the Phantom?  Charlton was never, for me, a big cover contender...until this image.  I'd already read some of Falk's books of The Phantom, and the strips, but this image finally...finally....made the Ghost Who Walks look as stunning as he should...without being just one of the slam-bang, pulp covers of those Falk paperbacks.  Teen Titans always rocked, often with Nick Cardy covers as their run stretched into the 30-numbered issues.  They also had a lot of supernatural, almost horror comic, threats they faced, at least on those covers.  Finally, Curt Swan's renders of the Giant Size DC Superman covers often hooked me.  Green and orange Supergirl?!?  A Kryptonian villain as powerful as Superman and in traditional Krypton garb?!!?  And Bizarro...Bizarro meets Frankenstein?!?!  Usually, however, I was disappointed by finding the interior reprints were rendered by Wayne Boring or someone besides Anderson.  Now I respect Mr. Boring's work tons.  But back then, well...after those covers, the comic book candy inside could never live up to the delicious promise of those wrappers.