The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 858: Omega the Unknown #7, March 1977

The first of our fill-in issues standard superhero fare. Villain robs bank, innocents caught in the crossfire, superhero responds, punches are thrown. I suppose that's going to be the case most of the time with a fill-in. A writer can't do too much to diverge from the main story, but still has to make the comic exciting enough that, as I've noted many times about serialized fictions, the reader comes back in a couple of months.

And while there isn't much plot development, Scott Edelman, our fill-in writer, does try to emulate the style of storytelling that Gerber and Skrenes have cultivated, to a certain level of success. That aside, though, not much happens in today's comic.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 844: Superman Family #194, March/April 1979

It's no secret that I have a thing for the Man of Steel. He was the first superhero. How can we not revere him, even in some small measure. For me, though he hasn't always been my favourite character to read, he's always stood for the best that superheroes, and by proxy of their metaphor, we, can become. Ben Saunders, in his book Do the Gods Wear Capes? labels Superman as the Platonic good in fictional form. I think I agree, though he's not always been treated as such.

Superman Family is a cool comic - I like the idea that rather than buying four or five different series, you can get this one that includes stories about all of the cast of the Super-titles. What I didn't realize about this comic, which I picked up on the cheap from the Calgary Expo this year, is that it's the last part of a multi-issue story which I actually have the previous bits of. So I could have read the story in proper sequence, had I just glanced at my collection before reading it. Ah well. These things are likely to happen, really.

The central story features art by John Calnan, an artist I've never heard of before. I'm torn about his style, and really it's over one particular aspect of the art: The characters all look like they're posed action figures. Part of me loves it, and part of me hates it. There's a staticness to the movement and pose of the characters that almost pushes into the realm of the uncanny. But on the other hand, it takes that stylizedness of superhero art and applies it to the motion of the comic, not just the appearance. And I can't decide whether it's brilliant or mediocre.

Also, whoever drew that cover has no idea how human (or Kryptonian) physiology works. Unless Supergirl has a rubber spine.

To be continued.

The 40 Years fo Comics Project - Day 256: Dead of Night #11, August 1975

I'm not sure how much attention is paid to the Marvel Comics horror renaissance of the mid-seventies, but it seems to me to be a fairly important moment for that genre. Though horror comics had their heyday in the decade or so before Wertham got his slimy claws all over the industry, Marvel's introduction of horror characters into their superhero universe side-stepped the problems of the Comics Code and gave us a Vertigo-esque corner of their shared universe a full 15 years or so before DC made their own dark space for dark superheroes. The likes of Hellstrom, Man-Thing, Bloodstone, and other B-listers in the Marvel U find their apotheosis here, and I've been tentatively exploring these creepy old stories for a few years now.

According to the Marvel Wikia, The Scarecrow who appears in this issue, also called Straw Man to differentiate him from the villain Scarecrow, has had a handful of appearances, is a weird spirit who opposed the demon Kalumai, and has never really had a go of his own as a character. Really, at least from this reading, he seems more like the sort of character around which a story might be hung, but not necessarily told. He manifests through a painting, so perhaps stories following the painting, rather than the character, would make this silent (aside from his insane laughter) spirit a more compelling character. Of course, had Dead of Night lasted beyond this issue, we might have seen him develop more fully. The sporadic appearances he makes over the next decade or so seem to do little to flesh him out.

Which, really, means that we'll likely have a film treatment some time in the next 5 years or so, and controversy over the lack of remuneration that creator Scott Edelman will get once Disney starts marketing little plush "Marvel's The Scarecrow" dolls, and everyone will come away from the theater saying "It was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. Disney really are getting these Marvel movies right!"

Or not. Whatever. Okay, on to more random comics tomorrow. See you then.