Datajunkie offers up an incredible amount of Ditko delineated giant monster madness discovered within various issues of Charlton horror comics.

Stan “The Man” Lee may have made a number of morally questionable decisions over his career, but deciding to place Steve Ditko on Spider-man wasn’t one of them. Ditko was at least as stylized as Kirby, but when it came to superheroes he was a bit of an odd fit. That’s why he was perfect for certain characters, ones which required a special kind of nervous energy that seemed to work on the inside as opposed to simply bursting out. Ditko’s philosophical beliefs may have been black-and-white, but no one has been able to visually craft characters living in conflict quite as effectively as he did.

Recent years have seen horror films which were scorned upon their initial release dragged out of the vaults, dusted off, and given a well-deserved polish. Unfortunately, the same resepct hasn’t been afforded their counterparts in comics. First there was the unnecessary retooling of the EC Comics, and now Marvel Comics is bortching their own material by censoring their Bronze Age horror reprints. The Groovy Age of Horror has posted just a few side-by-side examples showing the difference between the original Tomb of Dracula published over a quater-century ago and the reprints from the most recent Essential volume. Essentially abhorrent, maybe.

I hate when companies hire hacks to go in and retool someone’s hard work, especially when they make no effort to warn the public that they’re receiving damaged goods. And does anyone else find it the least bit disturbing that we’re growing more close-minded and puritanical as the years progress? How is it that the Marvel of 30 years ago was more daring than the supposedly edgy Marvel of today? What does everyone else think?

Mike Sterling, my mirror universe counterpart, has posted another one of his fine abridged message board debates, this time concerning what would happen if Wolverine attempted to fight Godzilla.

“This is a retarded thread. Against the real Godzilla the entire Xmen roster would be dead. You even knew this when you made the thread, so what was the point?”

Read through to the end of the post. The final comment had me on the floor.

The infamous EC Comics have had a rather sporadic publishing history. From their initial demise due to the implementation of the Comics Code Authority in the 50’s, through the black and white Russ Cochran hardcovers to my favourites, the regular-sized Gemstone publications of the early 90’s. Now it appears that the complete EC library will finally be reprinted in colour for the first time ever. Unfortunately, as great as this news is, there is a catch or two.

Previous collected editions of the classic EC Comics line reproduced the stories in black-and-white which, although showcasing the beautiful line art rendered by such EC greats as Graham “Ghastly” Ingels and Wally Wood, did not preserve the wonderful coloring expertly applied by EC and Marvel Comics veteran, Marie Severin. The EC Archives editions will present these stories with all-new colors based on the originals, but utilizing new methods of shading and texture to enhance and improve each story’s impact.

If Marie Severin’s colouring was “expertly applied” then why do they feel the need to “enhance and improve” her work with “all-new colors”? This is insane. I’ve seen this kind of recolouring process botched before. I nearly picked up the Red Sonja reprint until I realized that new shading had seemingly been added by an office intern who had just discovered the burn option in Photoshop. And even if the rumours are true and Marie Severin is overseeing the recolouring process herself, why not just do a retouch instead of adding shading and texture. Samples of the recolouring can be found here.

Bill K. of Egon has posted his thoughts on the recolouring job in a post on The Comics Journal message board and they echo my own.

I think what is not being understood here is that these artists drew these comics with the knowledge that flat color would be mechanically applied to their linework (as did just about every artist working in mass-market American comic books until recently). The burden of “texture and shading” fell on the linework and the artists developed their styles accordingly. Imposing modelled color over the linework threatens to create the effect of two different solutions at odds with one another. The gradient effects and “airbrushed” highlights in this preview — while more restrained than they could have been — still stick out like a sore thumb to my eyes.

And as if that isn’t enough, if the promotional covers circulating are any indication of their design sense, the names of the people writing the introductions are going to be covering all that gorgeous recolored artowork anyway.

What a fucking disgrace. I think I’m going to hold onto my old newsprint issues, thanks.

As I mentioned yesterday, I used to run a comic blog, and it’s always a pleasure when my two main passions coincide. At the San Diego comic convetion over the weekend, Robert Kirkman, writer of the excellent zombie comic The Walking Dead, called out Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn and numerous toy lines, during a panel. Kirkman asked the question that is on the mind of many a comic and horror fan; when is McFarlane going to get back to the foundation of his enterprise, the drawing of comic books, on a regular basis?

Even better than the clip above (which I can’t recommend unless you’re a fanboy, and even then you should skip to the 5 minute mark) is the reaction from certain factions of the comic community.

Robert, you just made my day. Way to fight the good fight!

In your face McFarlane! In your comic-ruining face!

And so on…

I have no love for McFarlane or his work, but I respect his decision to do what he wants with his time and it baffles me that anyone would presume that because he built his company on comics he should be beholden to them. He’s made it pretty clear from the beginning that comics were merely a stepping stone towards other aspects of the entertainment industry and not a passion upon itself. This tendency to be dismissive of certain artists when they try to branch out and try new things outside their usual genre or medium, including horror, is just sad.

Oh, and the last bit of dialogue was cut out in that clip.

McFarlane - And thanks for making money for Image.
Kirkman - Someone has to.

I’m hoping to one day achieve the record for most Jack Kirby posts in a horror blog. Datajunkie has over 40 pages of The King’s obscure supernatural work from the pages of Spirit World on display, with enough Kirby Krackle, Kirby Kollage, and rarely-seen Kirby Kleavage to satisfy anyone. Make sure you look around while you’re there for even more Kirby madness.  And remember, don’t plan on visiting Paris in the year 1983!

Bookgasm recently showed some Kaiju love by reviewing the Marvel Monster collection. This book contains both the recent parodies/homages of the sub-genre released last year, and the atomic age comics that inspired them. These were the creatures that stalked the pages of Marvel Comics before the advent of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, The Avengers and most of the characters that made the company famous. In fact, in many of those early super-hero comics you can see Kirby and Lee easing into the super-hero racket by featuring bouts between the new-fangled heroes and the brutes that came before.

To whet your appetite for four-colour monster mayhem, may I suggest The Monster Blog, which not only tracks every monster comic Marvel produced back in the day, but is also home to every Kirby monster comic not yet reprinted in the modern era. From Monstro… The Menace From The Murky Depths to I Accepted The Deadly Challenge of Zarkorr, we’re talking 39 wonderful stories by the man who would become what many, including this author, believe to the greatest superhero artist who ever lived.

Don’t ask! Just click it!

I was introduced to The Heap in elementary school, when I first read The Comic-Book Book. This sequel to All In Color For A Dime was a collection of essays on various Golden Age comics. Those essays were my first introduction to such disparate characters as Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein, Jack Cole’s Plastic Man, Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse… and Hillman Periodical’s The Heap.

The idea that there existed a prototype for Swamp Thing and Man-Thing, two comic monsters I was obsessed with at the time, was fascinating to me, and that adoration for The Heap only increased with the scarcity of his appearances. I must have read that essay on the Heap a dozen times, thrilling to second-hand accounts of a German Flying Ace becoming a mindless muck monster and inadvertent hero.

Now no one else need suffer as I did. Tomb It May Concern has posted a second story of The Heap to go with the first. I hope he keeps them coming.

House of Irony member and fellow tubbing enthusiast Doug Nagy was kind enough to mention this foundling site on one of the recent audio editions of The Movie Blog. In the same podcast linked to above, Nagy takes a stand for all the Mighty Thor fans out there who are sick of the trash talk. Nagy, I’m here to tell you you’re not alone.

Really Scary: We’ re doing this interview at the New York Comicon. Are you a big comic book fan?

Kane: I used to be, back when I was in college. Not so much anymore, but when I was in college, I started collecting The X-Men and Thor. I always liked Thor. By the time I got out of college I had a subscription to almost all of the Marvel Comics.

Next time some punk gets on your ass, Nagy, remember that you have Kane in your corner.

And in one fell swoop I thank a friend, return a favour, mention The Mighty Thor and keep within the parameters of this blog. Now if only I could dig up some Garden of the Dead news so I can thank Kevin for helping me with the design work.

Peter Fonda gives a rambling post-hippie interview to LatinoReview about his upcoming role as a demon in Ghost Rider.

I like the comic, why not? Play the devil…better than a beekeeper in North Florida.

And…

The first comic I figured that was done for me was Mad Magazine and although I made the cover of Time magazine 3 times, Life magazine 1 time and god knows how many other things, it was when I made the cover of Mad Magazine I knew I hit what I called the pinnacle. I was so cool.

I think I’m the only person on the planet genuinely excited to see this movie. That said, I was thinking the other day about how cool it would have been if, instead of attempting to grafting blockbuster CGI filmmaking on all their properties, Marvel were to go the exploitation route instead. Imagine, a full-throttle biker/revenge flick with a skull-faced badass getting into scummy barfights. Hopefully they’ll make a direct-to-video sequel and all my dreams will come true.

Hidden amidst plenty of interesting tidbits in this Fangoria convention report is news that the Hellboy franchise has been picked up by Paramount.

Even though it seemed to have everything working for it, I wasn’t at all impressed by the Hellboy feature. The best part of the comic was it’s unique visual style, and while no one could expect film to replicate the jagged darkness of Mignola’s comic exactly, it seemed that Del Toro went out of his way to cover the Hellboy aesthetic with his own. Hopefully the second movie will come closer to the source material.

I love trash. And other than snakes on a plane nothing could fill my sleaze-filled heart with as much glee as a flaming motorcyle duelling a helicopter. According to Nicholas Cage, that’s exactly what we can expect to see in the upcoming Ghost Rider adaptation.

The reason the movie was delayed, I know that’s been on people’s minds. There were some effects that finally got authorized by the studio which (director) Mark (Steven Johnson) really wanted and they’re pretty big and it took time to put them together and design them. So we had to delay it and I think it’s good because it’s something we really wanted to fight for with ‘Ghost Rider’ going into battle with a helicopter…

That’s one man who knows how to choose his battles.