Number 1236: Inspiration for Carl Barks...?

One of my favorite Donald Duck stories (which I still own in the form of my original 1957 subscription copy of Walt Disney Comics and Stories #204) is the untitled story the Grand Comics Database lists as “Losing Face.”*

Donald, Daisy and the kids are taking a ride near Mt. Mushmore, and Daisy wants to swing by and see the giant carved head of Senator Snoggin.

Donald is nervous. Daisy asks him what's wrong, and he tells her a story of he and the boys getting a job the past spring cleaning up the park grounds for the tourist season, including a clean-up of Senator Snoggin's head.

While cleaning, Donald has trouble with an eagle. After being kicked out it comes back at Donald with a vengeance.

Donald spills a weed killer, which turns Senator Snoggin's nose bright red. In order to get rid of the stain, which won't wash off, Donald uses a jackhammer, which breaks off the senator's nose.

Donald and the boys build a new temporary nose with plaster, with disastrous results.

Donald whittles the nose down to its original shape, but needs to use the jackhammer to set pegs to hold the nose on.

 

The ultimate gag is after Donald tells Daisy the story the whole thing comes apart.

I've always thought this was one of Barks' masterpieces of gag building, pacing and drawing; one of his best.

Imagine my surprise to be flipping through issues of Pep Comics from 1943-44, and find a three-part story, “Catfish Joe,” which has some of the same elements as the later Barks story.  Check it out. From Pep Comics numbers 43, 44 and 45:

Okay, so what do you think happened? Here's a thought, what if Carl Barks, in the early part of his comic book career, was going through comic books to see what others were doing. He saw this story and it had some gag elements he liked. Years later he recalled some of those elements and put them into this classic Donald Duck story. As you can see, “Catfish Joe” is no Donald Duck and Larry Harris** is no Carl Barks.

The Donald Duck story by Barks is funnier, better written and better drawn than “Catfish Joe,” but it gives one pause about the creative process and where those ideas come from. I could say that Barks remembered the story consciously and used it as a springboard for his own, or I could let Barks off the hook and say that he had cryptomnesia, which is thinking a memory is an original creation. Memory is a tricky thing.

The two stories make for an interesting comparison.

*I'm sorry that I can only show panels from the Barks story and not the whole thing. I have heard that Disney lawyers troll the internet looking for copyright infringements.

**Harris isn't a bad artist, but uneven from panel to panel. His art reminds me of a cross between Roy Crane and Al Capp. I've never heard of Harris before. It's possible that the Larry Harris of “Catfish Joe” is this Larry Harris, gag cartoonist of the fifties and sixties.

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Reading the DC New 52: Month Three

We've skipped around a bit this month in reading the DC New 52, jumping forward to review Aquaman: The Trench in the week it came out, and also you'll notice we've moved on to next month already without reviewing Suicide Squad: Kicked in the Teeth.

I want to read Suicide Squad, I know it ties into Resurrection Man, Detective Comics: Faces of Death and later to the Batman "Death of the Family" crossover, but at the same time I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like it, since I didn't like Adam Glass's alternate-reality lead-in, Flashpoint: Legion of Doom.

You commenters have expressed mixed opinions about negative reviews -- if I'm pretty sure I won't like something, but I read it, is it fair to review it to talk about what I didn't like? Or should I only review things I approach "blind" -- if I think I already have an opinion about something, should that disqualify it from review?

Anyway, I've got Suicide Squad right here, but I'm going to hold off until it's really integral to something else I'm reading before I crack it open. Your results may vary, but I think there's something healthy, if you will, about letting a book sit when you recognize you're not in the headspace to enjoy it, even if the book is relevant right there and now.

Otherwise, this month of the DC New 52 felt "gray" to me going in -- three different Bat-family titles, plus Demon Knights, Grifter, and Men of War -- none of these ground-breaking or super-relevant like a new Justice League or Green Lantern title might be. Some books I had been looking forward to, like Demon Knights, but in all not the most exciting month.

As it turns out, all three of the Bat-family titles were pretty good. Gail Simone really impressed with Batgirl: The Darkest Reflection, breathing for me new life into the stale Barbara Gordon character. Batwing: The Lost Kingdom was a great old-school "Bat-apprentice" story in the style of Dennis O'Neil's Azrael, marred only by the announcement that writer Judd Winick is leaving the title. And Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason's Batman and Robin: Born to Kill met my high expectations -- I only wish this title would have stretched a little farther to produce an unexpected Bruce/Damian story, instead of telling well the story we already expected.

Demon Knights: Seven Against the Dark is clearly the best book of the month, a complete story told in seven issues that feels more like a Vertigo book, like a collection of Fables, like a two-hour television show, than a standard collection of comics. If you asked me after the first two issues of Grifter: Most Wanted, I would have said it was a sleeper hit, one of the strongest DC New 52 debuts so far, but the book loses a lot when artist CAFU departs, ending in disappointing fashion.

It is, in all, a very "dark" month, with a predominance of books from DC's Edge line. Batman and Robin, Batgirl, and Batwing all involve mystery and bloody murder, as Bat-titles do; Demon Knights is the most "fanciful" of the books, involving swords and sorcery, but of them all has some of the most gruesome torture and beheadings. Grifter and Men of War are tamer by comparison, but neither offers the uplifting superheroics one might expect from a Superman comic, for instance.

I've been reading a little of Mark Waid's recent Daredevil, and also Waid talking about Daredevil, and I begin to agree that writing dark comics is easy; writing interesting superhero comics that aren't so grim is hard. Next week I'll be reviewing Kyle Higgins's Deathstroke, which is super-violent; Higgins uses violence well in his story and there's nothing wrong with that, but looking at all the Month Three books together, there's an extent to which the darkness becomes repetitive.

Being as I am a sucker for crossovers and continuity, what I liked most this month were the additional hints of the alien Daemonite threat; we didn't see much of this last month, but now Grifter ties into Stormwatch and even Demon Knights has a subtle connection. We trade-waiters will have to wait another two months for the Voodoo collection for more; meanwhile next month has Swamp Thing, with ties to Animal Man, and Superboy, with ties to Teen Titans and Legion Lost, to tide over my crossover cravings.

The books this month were not bad -- the Bat-titles and Demon Knights at the top of the pack -- but neither were they the most exciting. Despite Superboy and Action Comics, next month is a slow one, too. Eyes on the horizon for Month Five, however; with Titans and Legion Lost, plus Birds of Prey and Green Lantern Corps, that should be a good one.

Like I said, Deathstroke next week, and then we'll jump ahead a few months to review Batman: The Dark Knight: Knight Terrors. Plus Doug's got reviews of some classic DC/Marvel team ups -- don't miss it!

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Number 1235: “Release the kraken!” The last Whiz

This is the final posting of our Fawcett week.

Captain Marvel's last adventure in Whiz Comics came in issue #155, cover dated June 1953. There would be more of Captain Marvel Adventures (the last issue, #150, had a cover date of November, 1953), but Whiz Comics, the Old Number One, the first comic book in a long string of comics under the “A Fawcett Publication” colophon, was finally cancelled. I'd like to know if the Captain Marvel comics were making money up until the Superman verdict. I assume they were.

By that time in 1953 horror was big in comics, and Fawcett's titles and covers reflected that. Whether the stories were genuinely horrible isn't the point, they were aiming at the monster crowd.

In his final Whiz, Captain Marvel faces the kraken, a monster out of classical mythology.

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Review: Hawk and Dove Vol. 1: First Strikes trade paperback (DC Comics)

The DC Comics New 52 debut Hawk and Dove: First Strikes had the elements for success. Sterling Gates had written character-heavy stories in Green Lantern Corps and especially Supergirl, such to suggest he could explore well Hawk and Dove's often-complicated private lives. Rob Liefeld, love him or hate him, was there at this Hawk and Dove's "old" DC Universe conception, and brought a sense of legacy and continuity to the title.

These elements never quite come together, however, before the title is cancelled at the end of this volume. Gates's story has potential but doesn't distinguish itself before Liefeld takes writing chores. Liefeld's art starts relatively strongly but loses detail as the book continues, and his writing equally lacks the verve needed for modern audiences. By the end, First Strikes is just not all that interesting, and its cancellation seems right and justified.

[Review contains spoilers]

Sterling Gates's issues of Hawk and Dove see the duo fighting rival bird avatars trying to steal their power, while also dealing with fissures in their own partnership. Hawk and Dove's relationship to the Lords of Order and Chaos who granted their powers has been explored before, but Gates hints at a mythology involving a War Circle of avatars like Hawk -- and at the same time, that Dove's powers may come from somewhere else, and that her abilities may be greater than she or Hawk knew before.

More compelling than new villain Condor and the War Circle, however, is Gates's depiction of the interaction between Hawk Hank Hall and Dove Dawn Granger. Their partnership, here at the beginning of the newly-rebooted DC Universe, is thornier than in their old title's later years -- often they're fighting their enemies side-by-side but not necessarily together. Hank resents Dawn replacing his brother Don as Dove; he also worries that Dawn's boyfriend Deadman may hurt Hawk and Dove's effectiveness, even as he purposefully tries not to be too involved in Dawn's personal life. Dawn hides a new secret past that involves some connection to Don (never, unfortunately revealed in this book) and struggles to balance her role as peacekeeper with her more violent tendencies. That Hank and Dove are young, conflicted, and represent different approaches to superheroing has always made them compelling; all of this is a sound foundation with the potential to drive the series forward.

But Gates's story takes five issues to unfold, including two set at a White House banquet that are almost entirely an action sequence. There are nice touches here for Hawk and Dove fans -- the appearance of old characters like Hank's father and ex-girlfriend Ren, and a mention of Dawn's old boyfriend Sal -- but the story moves slowly. Condor largely tells Hawk and Dove about the War Circle in exposition, such that it's not vivid as a story piece, and there's few other supporting cast or subplots for Hawk and Dove to feel like a fully-realized world.

For the last three issues, Rob Liefeld writes as well as draws. Liefeld gets points for a generally smooth transition -- even as First Strikes's plot begins to go in a different direction, Liefeld roots it in the War Circle mythology, such that it would be easy to think Hawk and Dove has just one writer overall. Liefeld's first solo issue, however, is an unremarkable Batman story; Hawk and Dove are sporadically lectured and praised by Batman, the kind of Batman story that readers have seen hundreds of times and that could as easily have starred Hawk and Dove as Booster Gold or any other second-tier hero. In Liefeld's second and third issues, he pits Hawk and Dove against the sorcerer D'Khan and his henchman, the Hunter; these are silly characters who speak in clichés and whose costumes are severely dated, and by the end there's little in the book to interest a modern reader. When First Strikes ends, to some extent, it's a blessing.

It becomes difficult to actually "see" Rob Liefeld's art, to separate one's opinion of what's actually on Liefeld's page from the work he's done before or his own exaggerated persona. Comic book art need not be proportional nor anatomically correct, nor are artistic tics necessarily a bad thing -- Liefeld demonstrates here a tendency toward open mouths and clenched teeth, but this is no better or worse necessarily than Walt Simonson's squarish heads, Barry Kitson's solid-shaped hair, or Gary Frank's pointed chins. There are times in First Strikes where Liefeld's work is quite outstanding, often it seems when the artist has relaxed a bit -- his Dove on the book's cover, if one ignores the over-stretched Hawk next to her; or the scene where Hawk and Dove question Condor in a police station, where the de-powered villain looks quite menacing.

Where Liefeld's art begs detraction, instead, are instances like the Batman chapter, where Robin Damian Wayne is almost the size of Dove -- as if he were Red Robin Tim Drake and not Damian -- until he shrinks no larger than Dove's thigh in the final scene. There's also a sequence where the villain Blockbuster tries to steal an amulet from Hawk -- Liefeld doesn't draw the amulet at all until pages later when it suddenly appears around Hawk's neck just as Blockbuster grabs it. Liefeld's panels are the most dynamic especially in the book's first issues; afterward, a variety of inkers (including Liefeld himself) give the black lines a sketchy look that lessens the impact of Liefeld's figures. And Liefeld's character designs, especially toward the end of the book, hearken too much to the nineties to be useable now.

The original Hawk and Dove series by Barbara and Karl Kesel was a fan-favorite, and the title's New 52 resurrection in Hawk and Dove: First Strikes was equally welcome. Much like the DC New 52 Static Shock, one has to hope that the characters have enough life to them that they can survive what was simply not a strong enough debut. Neither Gates nor Liefeld did anything wrong necessarily -- in comparison to Static Shock, Gates and Liefeld's book is cogent, just not exciting, whereas Static failed to tell a clear story month to month. Given all the work done by Geoff Johns and others to bring Hawk and Dove back to the DC Universe proper after years in limbo following Armageddon 2001 it would be a significant shame for these characters to fall by the wayside again for good.

[Includes full covers, character designs by Jim Lee and sketchbook by Rob Liefeld]

Next week -- the DC Comics New 52 Deathstroke is full of blood and ... irony? Batman: The Dark Knight is the best team book you're not reading? New reviews coming up -- be here!

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Review: X-Men: Phoenix Rising hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest review by Doug Glassman.]

While Uncanny X-Men: From The Ashes addressed the short-term effects of the Dark Phoenix Saga, this unusual trade introduces what may be the most important retcon in comic book history. Jean Grey returning to life changed comics forever. For those who call death in comics a “revolving door,” this book is the push that keeps the door going despite all attempts to stop it. It’s a revision so intricate that it required two unrelated books to pull it off and a new title to keep it going. X-Men: Phoenix Rising was the brainchild of Kurt Busiek, and it helped put him on the map as one of the best -- and most underrated -- comic book writers.

Yet apart from the idea, and a misspelled “thank you” credit, Busiek had nothing to do with X-Men: Phoenix Rising. He had merely pitched the idea of Jean Grey’s resurrection to Roger Stern, and it spread like wildfire, reaching John Byrne and eventually Jim Shooter, the EIC. Shooter had one caveat: if Jean were to return, she had to be innocent of the slaughter of the D’Bari in Dark Phoenix Saga. Busiek did this by retroactively making the Phoenix a being separate from Jean Grey. As shown in the middle of this trade, Fantastic Four #286, the Phoenix took on Jean’s physical form and basic structure, but its own hunger eventually won out over Jean’s humanity.

The first issue, Avengers #263, is relatively irrelevant, mostly existing to demonstrate Namor’s Avengers debut while the team searches for an unknown artifact at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. It had to be collected here, of course, but if I had been reading Avengers at the time, I would’ve been disappointed. The continuation of the story through the issue of Fantastic Four, on the other hand, is much stronger, coinciding with the team’s return to Earth after a long trip through space. Walt Simonson makes a few little jabs at fans complaining about the space stories; apparently readers were tired of “cosmic” stories at the time. These people were politely shut up a few years later by Infinity Gauntlet.

The third act, the first issue of X-Factor, is where the real change begins, starting with three of the original five set to retire, Iceman working as an accountant, and Cyclops as a father in Alaska. Around this time, anti-mutant hatred was really ramping up, and the five X-Men decide to masquerade as mutant hunters in order to rescue threatened mutants. In this first issue, they save Rusty Collins, whose fire powers flare up mid-kiss. People are too afraid by him and repulsed by his mutant nature to help or listen to him, but the disguised X-Factor pull it off; Rusty became a major character in the book and a fairly memorable mutant in general. Another major character introduced is Cameron Hodge, who seems to be Angel’s friend and assistant but who eventually becomes one of Marvel’s biggest bigots.

I’ll make my art notes first. The artwork is from John Buscema, Tom Palmer, Walt Simonson and Jackson “Butch” Guice, making it a solidly drawn book. Simonson’s writer/artist work is always amazing. Invisible Woman has some very unfortunate '80s hair, but otherwise, the art doesn’t stand out. Sue Storm had only been Invisible Woman for a short time, and Jean Grey initially thinks she’s an X-Sentinel (a robot disguised as a mutant) because she doesn’t call herself “Invisible Girl.” Jean herself stays in her half-ripped captive uniform from Uncanny X-Men #125. This is a bit odd; no one thought to give the mentally-damaged woman a pair of pants until the first issue of X-Factor?

So the writing ... I have issues with the writing. Some of the following issues may have been addressed in later stories. If they are, please let me know in the comments; I can only go so far with the Official Handbook. My problems have nothing to do with the central concept; Busiek found a genuinely clever way to bring Jean Grey back and not have her be guilty of genocide. If it feels a little hollow today, it’s because many other comics have done similarly large retcons without as much thought put into them.

The problem is that it makes a huge mess of who was doing what during the Dark Phoenix Saga. What, exactly, was the Phoenix? Technically, it was a replica of Jean Grey, but was it simply a vessel for the Phoenix Force or did it have a mind of its own? You feel a lot of pity for the Phoenix, a creature doomed from the start.

There’s also a lot of “over-writing”, with people speaking in paragraphs when only sentences are needed. Simonson’s Fantastic Four issue is very guilty of this; he might have been in Thor mode when he wrote it.

The real fumble of this story is what they do with Scott Summers. He’s first seen having an argument with Madelyne Pryor, a facsimile of Jean whom he married in Uncanny X-Men: From The Ashes. When he learns that Jean is alive, he leaves home and his wife and infant son behind. At the very end, we see Madelyne crying when a commercial for “X-Factor Investigations” comes out. This is not a valid reaction for Cyclops. No matter how much soul-searching he does, I do not buy for a minute that Cyclops, a man who grew up in an orphanage and had just found his father a few years earlier, would ever walk away from his child. I understand that they needed to get the original five X-Men together for X-Factor, but this was a poor way to do it. Cyclops has arguably never recovered from this moment; it’s a cornerstone of his “dickish” persona.

In all, X-Men: Phoenix Rising is essential reading for understanding the Marvel Universe, but not essential reading for pleasure. The dialogue is often clunky and X-Factor #1 just brings the whole thing crashing down. However, it’s worth at least a look for a major retcon done well.

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Number 1234: Faux Fawcett

This is number three of four postings this week from Fawcett comics. But these are Fawcett comics not published by Fawcett.

Fawcett licensed their comics for publication in other countries, including the UK. This story comes from an issue of Captain Midnight, #100 to the British, but reprinted from the American Captain Midnight #50 (1947). I like the crisp black line printing, which I prefer to the usual sloppy Fawcett print jobs (see Monday's posting for a couple of good examples).

I know little about the character. I know Captain Midnight was an aviator, a popular radio programme (spelling in honor of our British cousins-in-comics), and later a TV show, with reruns retitled Jet Jackson. According to some things I've read, the comic book version was different than the mainstream version. Someone with more familiarity with the character will probably have to confirm that.

The story is credited to William Woolfolk for the script, and Leonard Frank for the artwork.

When Fawcett folded their comic book line in 1953 — a combination of losing the lawsuit brought by DC for copyright infringement on Superman by Captain Marvel, and too many comic book titles flooding the stands — they sold some of their titles and non-Marvel characters to others. This story is the first issue of Danger and Adventure #22 (1954), actually #1, but continued from This Magazine is Haunted. Charlton, who bought the rights, published an Ibis the Invincible as well as Nyoka the Jungle Girl story in this issue. It was the only Ibis story reprinted by Charlton in this title, which lasted another few issues before being cancelled. I don't know If they continued Ibis somewhere else, or just left him standing with his Ibistick in his hand.

“The Viking Horde” is an old story, reprinted from Whiz Comics #45 (1943), identified by the GCD as being drawn by old-timer Alex Blum, although probably in collaboration with an unknown inker.

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