Comments on: A Year of Cool Comic Book Moments – Day 200

By: Tony Isabella

Tony Isabella — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:32:30 +0000

Thanks, wwk5d.

By: wwk5d

wwk5d — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:43:36 +0000

Wow…this is nice. I don’t think I could pick just one ‘moment’.

By: Blackjak

Blackjak — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:21:18 +0000

Just wanted to say, I ordered issues 1-8 from Silveracre comics (UK) for a real bargain. Arrived last week. Looking forward to reading them.

By: Rebis

Rebis — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:17:16 +0000

Great moment, Brian.

To Tony Isabella: It’s been years since I’ve read that comic — since it first came out and I bought it and took it home. That’s quite a while ago now. But I’ve always remembered its heart, along with the grace of Walter & Samuel’s coming out. (A story like that was much rarer 14 years ago. Handled as well as you handled it, well, that’s still rare in superhero comics today.) You wrote some beautiful drama — and it was accompanied, of course, by that gorgeous mixed-media art. Hopefully you take heart that it’s not only been remembered by some of us all this time, but now new fans are discovering it.

By: Tony Isabella

Tony Isabella — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:54:49 +0000

JJ, Blackjak, and others…

You kids are making my day. If only DC felt the same way about my work…

By: Blackjak

Blackjak — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:48:21 +0000

Yup! I’m going to have to go and buy those issues. Mile High, eBay… wherever I can find them.

By: JJ

JJ — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:35:10 +0000

First time “year of…” has inspired me to go buy the back issues, and Mile High had them all at a good price.

By: danjack

danjack — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:41:43 +0000

reminds me of a situation of mine where for the life of me i couldn’t remember the name of a man who i’d known who died of AIDS. He and i did some performances together [he was the lead and i was background] and he was always very nice to me. It drove me crazy and i was so dissappointed in myself that i couldn’t remember his name. Then i found the program from his funeral and now i have his name in my memory forvever. So, this story, while also being great, rings a personal bell for me. Thanks!
DFTBA

By: Ethan Shuster

Ethan Shuster — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:54:30 +0000

That series — I suppose this early run of issues — was a favorite of mine, even though I knew it probably wasn’t going to last. Stuff that good and different and set apart from the Superman / Batman superhero dynamic rarely last long. Not sure why.

But, that era of DC did have a number of mainstream comics that seemed almost experimental because they were out of the norm. They of course didn’t last very long. Hourman and Martian Manhunter both come to mind.

By: adam barnett

adam barnett — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:54:18 +0000

Folks, those first 8 issues of BL are some of the finest comics you’ll ever read. But even though you’ll end on an unresolved note, consider stopping there. The drop in quality is jarring.

By: Ryan A. Brandt

Ryan A. Brandt — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:56:07 +0000

I haven’t commented on any of these, but I had to on this one.

For me, the moment is this line…

“Don’t tell me he was a hero. Heroes die all the time and then they come back. This was the man I loved– and he’s not coming back!”

Because in that one line, with Samuel Daly lamenting the loss of his love, even the watered-down notion of death in comics feels real and tragic. That was powerful and it’s the type of emotional drama I WISH I could write in my own works.

I’ll have to track this series down now, no doubt.

By: John Cage

John Cage — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:27:53 +0000

The whole lot of pages are great, but man, that first page is awesome (and not just because it looks world’s better than any comic I can remember reading back in 1995). I agree with Snapper — “I can’t remember his face” is such a random, real, heartbreaking line, it’s the moment for me too.

Have a good day.
John Cage

By: Gehrigan

Gehrigan — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:10:07 +0000

I loved these 8 issues and it was the only time I really enjoyed Black Lightning as a character. The new costume was also a great re-imagining for BL. Shame they had to go back to a more generic design. Tony Isabella you are the man!!!

By: Dalarsco

Dalarsco — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:30:32 +0000

Damn. I’ve been trying to cut down on expenses, but I think I need to do some back-issue bin cruising and find these 8 issues.

By: Diggity

Diggity — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:23:55 +0000

Wow. I’d read good things about Isabella and Newell’s BLACK LIGHTNING (I think from either Randy Lander or Don MacPherson) but this was my first chance to actually see some of it. That is powerful stuff.

By: Bill Reed

Bill Reed — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:21:24 +0000

That black and white art is gorgeous.

By: diagnull

diagnull — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:28:06 +0000

Never read BL, but based on these scans, I would totally buy a trade of these 8 issues.

-D

By: Alan Coil

Alan Coil — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:58:20 +0000

“As you can see, there is a mix of color and basically black and white throughout the issue – the past is colorized and the present is a murky dark mess…”

I absolutely love Eddy Newell’s art.

http://www.eddynewell.com/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=lastup&cat=0

And check out this one he did for Moonstone.

http://www.eddynewell.com/cpg/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=36

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:57:31 +0000

It’s all good, Tony, feel free to answer whatever questions you’d like here!

By: Jacob T. Levy

Jacob T. Levy — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:30:24 +0000

I got those eight issues at the time– in part because I’d become familiar with Isabella online, and understood that this was a creator’s long-awaited return to his creation.

They were superb. That brief run was, along with Chase, one of the great overlooked gems and lost opportunities of the 90s.