The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1978 - 1987

Ugh. Life just gets tough sometimes, doesn't it?

Here's what I've been reading. Some really great comics and creators, actually. I'll try to do another feature on Latinx creators in the near future, one where I don't fall apart halfway through :D.

(Gotta just mention this one - apparently Robin was licensed to Nabisco, so could not be used in this story, hence The Protector joining, and sometimes leading, the Titans in this story.)

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 749: Marvel Premier #6, January 1973

I've begun, this week, to delve back into the mysteries of my dissertation, though it's a slightly altered one than the one I took a break from almost a year ago. I think the comics portion of the work is going to have to be removed, as I simply can't work with the supervisor I'm working with anymore. Which means that the Lovecraft aspects of the work are coming more to the fore. So it's a nice (sort of) coincidence that I came across this comic today. I've had it for a few years now and, somehow, have never got around to reading it. The inside cover notes that it's based on ideas from Robert E. Howard, but there's a remarkable amount of HPL dripping from the sea-drenched shores and gables of the tale.

That said, I couldn't find any of the referenced creatures and deities in my Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, which makes me think it's not quite as complete as it could be. Perhaps that's another project for another time.

I like Doctor Strange and his over-the-top magicalness. His calling out each of the names of his powers is reminiscent (or maybe that's the other way around) of the tradition in anime and manga of naming and shouting an attack before it happens. What this gestures to is perhaps a culture that sees magic and the spiritual as far more a part of life than one does in the Western world. It's a worldview I appreciate a good deal, as, apparently, does Marvel's Master of the Mystic Arts. I'd love to follow along with this story, in the hopes that it continues its Howardian/Lovecraftian bent, though I imagine comics this old will be tough to track down. Thank goodness the Calgary Expo is coming up.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 340: Marvel Premiere #38, October 1977

Yet more elves today, though in a far better story and a far better art style. After having become enamoured with the Secret Wars version of Weirdworld, I did a bit of searching to see where the title had come from, and lo and behold, there's a bunch of Doug Moench-penned stories spanning the late 70s and early 80s. I actually have a couple of the Marvel Super Special issues that feature Tyndall and Velanna (though at this very moment I have no idea where they are, as they aren't filed with the rest of my magazines. I hold out hope that they're somewhere in my parents' basement).

This is, of course, a very different Weirdworld to that in which Arkon searches for his lost home. Though given the nature of the realm, it's entirely likely that it's exactly the same world, just, you know, weird.

Ploog's art is lovely, and Velanna is, for a tiny person with pointed ears, quite innocently erotic. That's not so surprising, given the propensity for 60s and 70s science fiction and fantasy to always feature a beautiful, desirable woman, be it upon the cover or between them. This initial story of the two doesn't give Velanna much to do, so her character is very much wrapped up (pun intended) in her flowing locks and spider-web clothes. Hopefully she'll see a bit more action in the later stores (which I'll read and blog once I've figured out where the heck they are).

Alright. I think it might be time to leap back into the collection proper, rather than continuing to pour through my quarter bin finds. Onward!