Comic Book Resources

The panel can’t be from that far back in time. The lettering looks like— I want to say John Costanza? 90s John Costanza. Or maybe it’s Novak. Or Morelli. Bah.

I’d assumed the Castle thing was hacked out during hiatus by the entire Castle writing staff, but I haven’t read it, so I’ve no idea. The show is fun, though. But I’ll watch anything Fillion’s in.

Definitely have to track down Venus on the Half-Shell, since I call myself a Vonnegut scholar. And of those Marvels comics, I liked the Fantastic Four one, as it faked being an FF-approved comics magazine, with all the various bits you’d get from that.

Don’t you dare say anything bad about the Star Trek Blueprints. (fixes Hatcher with a steely glare)

the sort of thing you’re talking about can be called Diagetic Texts, i believe. Although what you’re describing seems to lean toward something that might be written by someone not initially involved with the source material. Diagetic Texts can be seen all the time in comics. Off the top of my head, it is used in the Surrogates at the end of each chapter, and Moore did it in the Watchmen, as well as all of the LoEG books. Not exactly the same, but similar.

As for the artist…it looks like Wally Wood to me. I am by no means a Wood conoseur, but it sure looks like what he would have drawn.

TVTropes calls it Defictionalization and has a lot of examples, though most aren’t in-universe books becoming out-of-universe stuff.

As far as comixkid’s terminology goes, this is when a strictly diegetic element take on a nondiegetic existence; a copy of a book in your nondiegetic hand really can’t be diegetic by standard definitions.

I don’t get the ‘Give me a white’ panel and how it relates to the Pentagon.

Who is the Daredevil book pretending to be written by? I don’t see any name on the cover unless it’s down at the bottom right. I can’t make out what’s written there.

I read Venus On The Half-Shell long long ago. I’ve never read any Vonnegut aside from one crappy short story, so I had no idea Kilgore Trout was not a real person. For years I actually looked around for other books he’d written, but I never found any. I finally came across a later edition in the ’90s that had Farmer’s name on it and an explanation of how the book was written. I was disappointed to learn I’d been misled, but I had to agree it was a cool idea.

I don’t get the ‘Give me a white’ panel and how it relates to the Pentagon

The character, Nuke, was a drugged out Pentagon-bred super soldier that was created by Frank Miller for his Born Again storyline in Daredevil. He’s popped up several places since then, including Thunderbolts, where he is a current cast member. His pill popping, psychotic nationalism, and involvement in several “secret” Pentagon-led wars have all been seen as commentary on our military state of affairs circa the 1980′s, when he was created.

Who is the Daredevil book pretending to be written by? I don’t see any name on the cover unless it’s down at the bottom right. I can’t make out what’s written there.

It’s one of several Marvel one-shot books that came out about ten years ago as a fifth-week stunt, purporting to be Marvel comics as they are actually published in the Marvel Universe. The one shown is kind of cool because Daredevil doesn’t have an ‘official’ license in the MU, unlike the Fantastic Four, so the book is supposed to be what the “Marvel writers and artists” made up to explain Daredevil. I think Tony Isabella wrote it and I can’t remember who drew it. The point is, there were lots of Marvel stories up until then that had Marvel heroes appearing in their own Marvel comics, so for a goof that week they put out four or five books that were showing us what those books actually looked like.

I don’t get the ‘Give me a white’ panel and how it relates to the Pentagon.

What Andrew said, but the point is that in the original story it was the real Pentagon…. not a rogue military operation or a deranged general or Hydra. Nuke the psychotic pillhead killer was presented, at least in Miller’s original, as an instrument of U.S. military foreign intervention. It was only when the Kingpin was able to bribe someone into letting him briefly borrow Nuke for his own nefarious purposes that it stopped being official U.S. business.

Which is pretty unflattering to most career military people, all of whom in my experience are decent honorable guys trying to do the right thing. But you know what? They got over a Marvel comc being rude about them.

I believe Eddy Newell drew that DD comic. He’s a very talented, underrated artist. The ’90s Black Lightning series, when done by Isabella & Newell, was great. I wonder what he’s doing now.

I really liked the in-universe Marvel Comics event. The Cap comic, which was by the “real” Rick Jones and Steve Rogers, was a hoot.

If only we had Fox News in the ’70s & ’80s! We had no one to point out how morally bad those comics were, to pick on poor, misunderstood Tricky Dick or those sensitive folks at the Pentagon! Of course, we had Fox News when Cap dissed France, and I don’t recall Fox News sticking up for them…

I do recall quite a bit of Internet outrage over the Ultimate Cap panel when it was first published. I additionally recall a bit of strife on this very blog when said panel was listed as one of the most iconic of all time.

Regardless, Shortpacked! is right; Cap’s always been a lefty. The people truly irritated about this aren’t actually comic readers, or they’d already be aware of this.

The Dare-Devil comic book was written by me and drawn by Eddy Newell. We had a lot of fun with it, working in nods to my run on Ghost Rider, Simon and Kirby comics, Charles Biro comics, and the like.

Whenever Captain America gets around to taking cheap shots at ACORN or CAIR or NOW or Planned Parentood, I’m sure there will be no outrage whatsoever.

Random topics deserve random, scattershot responses!

Satan’s Death Blast was the first Spider novel I ever read. Believe me, folks, Greg isn’t kidding when he says that the Spider is over-the-top and ultrviolent, even compared to the other pulps. That said, there is some good writing hidden underneath all that, especially when Page occasionally slows things down to get inside the Spider’s head and shows you just what sort of toll this madness is taking on him.

I haven’t read the Spider Chronicles collection, but Dawn has. She liked most of the stories (with the notable exception of the one written by Ann Nocenti).

Greg, have you had a chance to pick up the ‘Spider vs the Empire State’ collection? It reprints Page’s nazi-allegory-takes-over-America trilogy. Good stuff.

I still need to read through my copy of the Avenger Chronicles.

The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer was better than it had any right to be.

I don’t get the ‘Give me a white’ panel and how it relates to the Pentagon

In addition to what Andrew and Greg said, it should be noted that Nuke is given pills to affect his moods by his handlers – one to work him up into a killing frenzy, one to bring him down from such, and one to keep him calm and docile between missions.

The color of the pills were, of course, red, white, and blue.

Cap’s always been a lefty.

Well, ever since Englehart started writing the book, post-Watergate. Prior to that he was much more right-wing.

I do recall quite a bit of Internet outrage over the Ultimate Cap panel when it was first published.

From the French? Toward Marvel? Or just from the usual internet suspects, around the comics blogosphere? Because if you mean the latter, I don’t think that counts.

In fact, though, I guess there was a little blowback on it. In a featurette on one of the animated Avengers DVDs, Mark Millar himself mentioned getting some. But my actual point is that he then laughed it off, explained that it was just a tossed-off comment that was completely in character anyway, and wryly concluded that he probably wasn’t going to be invited to any comics conventions in France for a while. That strikes me as a much more sensible response than rushing to apologize — especially when said apology consists of throwing your lettering guy under a bus.

I haven’t read the Spider Chronicles collection, but Dawn has. She liked most of the stories (with the notable exception of the one written by Ann Nocenti).

I admit that was my least favorite, but it was mostly because she was trying to sneak some literary merit in there.

Greg, have you had a chance to pick up the ‘Spider vs the Empire State’ collection? It reprints Page’s nazi-allegory-takes-over-America trilogy. Good stuff.

On the shopping list. Delighted it’s available again, for sure. That’s one I’d only read about.

I just remembered something about that Dare-Devil one-shot that ties in with another of today’s random comments. Though we never spelled it out, the last page of the story revealed that the secret crime boss of New York was the mayor. I didn’t like Giuliani before or after 9/11.

Personally, I don’t think either the “A for America” or the “Tea Party” things are any big deals- certainly not enough for an editor to apologize over. Still, they ARE mistakes, and they should at least be acknowledged as such. What annoys one about Millar is that he’s acting like, because it’s just a comic book, he can do whatever he wants and the rest of us have to take it. Of course it’s OK for Captain America to be a jerk, just because it’s HIS version! Then again, this is far from his most offensive comics-related slur… his diatribe towards comics fans -the people who BUY his stuff- in WANTED was more offensive (and proof that, for all his writing talent, he’s a jerk.)

And btw, Greg: I like you and your column, I’ve said that numerous times. But I can’t help but feel that you think most of us comics fans are immature and don’t have the right to be peeved at stuff in the comics we buy. OK, maybe there is some truth to that, but you make it sound like it’s an automatic fact, which is pretty ironic from someone who writes a blog about comics himself (THERE’s a fairly well-respected activity in the real world, eh?) I don’t think you do it intentionally, but you definitely sound like that at times. You might want to reread your blogs and think about that before you post them. Or like someone else said: comic book characters aren’t real, you don’t have to respect them- but the PEOPLE who emotionally invest in them, you do.

But I can’t help but feel that you think most of us comics fans are immature and don’t have the right to be peeved at stuff in the comics we buy.

All right then, let’s get it on the record. I think fans have every right to be peeved about paying money for something that it then turns out they don’t care for.

But there are a great many fans that get peeved — more than peeved, from what they write it’s more like spit-spraying rage — at creators for ‘mistreating’ characters, as though the characters are real people that actually sustain injury. And yes, I think that level of rage is ridiculous. Moreover, of all the potential outlets for the fury this engenders in those fans, they never seem to light on the course of action that might actually make them feel better — which is to simply stop reading the book. Most of them not only keep up with books they hate, they seem to be actually spending money on them to do it. I think that’s insane.

That is my actual position regarding the areas of comic fandom I find ludicrous. There are lots of areas of my own fannish behavior that I think are pretty silly too, but at least in my silliness I’m not giving myself an ulcer over what Jeph Loeb might be doing to the Ultimate universe. You have to have a sense of humor about these things or you will make yourself crazy.

As for the Tea Party thing, speaking of crazy, I think anyone of any political persuasion responding to a fictional comic-book character’s comment made as an aside in an adventure story as though it was an actual policy statement by a real human being with political clout, is completely nutty. It’s the equivalent of, oh, say, if the South African government had held some sort of official press conference to denounce what Murtaugh and Riggs said about their country in Lethal Weapon 2. The fact that Joe Quesada dignified this nuttiness with an apology is embarrassing.

That’s my actual opinion. For the record.

I agree with Bill Reed that the mystery panel is more modern than the 60s. That REALLY looks like Terry Austin’s inking to me. Maybe something from Marvel’s WHAT THE? in the late 80s?

There’s something about that Visual Trivia panel that says “George Tuska trying to work in a humorous vein” to me. But I’m probably wrong.

I like my modern-day Captain America relatively left-wing (by American standards – it’s not like he’s ever going to be a “socialist” or advocate “death panels”), or at least not a “my country, right or wrong”-style patriot. But I don’t think you can say he was always left-wing. Was there something left-wing about fighting the Axis powers in WWII?

I’ll give you the modern look, but who was making sarsaparilla jokes in the 80s? That’s why I think it must have been earlier…. in fact, my first thought was 1950s but the woman’s hairstyle is way too modern. 1960s is sort of splitting the difference.

Now that John points it out though that really DOES look like Terry Austin… which makes me wonder if it was maybe some commercial piece from Continuity Associates.

I hate how Castle has been new every other week (if we’re lucky enough) for the past two months or so. I wonder what’s slowing their production so much? Budget? Cast/crew issues? It’s frustrating. I also got the book as a birthday present a couple months back, but I still haven’t taken the time to read it.

No idea what Eddy Newell is doing now, but here’s his site:

http://www.eddynewell.com/cpg/index.php

I can’t identify the mystery art, but I suspect the panel may be the final panel of a humor piece, thus the punch line of a continuing joke.

As I think it is a humor piece, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Marie Severin. Spoof, maybe? From 1970.

“Under a Yellow Sun” was actually quite good in its time, but the only thing that choked me was that I paid $8.00 Canadian for it at a time when I was spending something like $1.50 Canadian per comic (they may have just risen to $2 a piece around that time, but still!)

Got Heat Wave for Christmas. Think it was supposed to be a gag gift, but I read it anyway. The yarn does hold up pretty well, and the story certainly “plays fair” with the whodunnit.

It also reads exactly like an episode of the show with the serial numbers filed off. Castle even has his own Mary Sue in Jameson Rook, which threw me for a loop. A fictional character writing a fictional character based on himself? Gets a bit heady if you think about it too long.

I’m surprised you didn’t mention the Giant Rat of Sumatra. I read a Holmes pastiche of that story several years back (the one by Richard Boyer), but apparently several authors have taken a stab at writing that particular Sherlock story.

I also read the Lost tie-in book “Bad Twin.” I don’t remember disliking it, but the fact that I can’t remember a thing about it probably says something.

I got HEAT WAVE for Christmas too. I thought it was way too short for the price tag, and I remember being rather annoyed that they didn’t drop the real writer’s name somewhere. I don’t think it was written by Max Allan Collins, though, Greg, because I also got a Collins novel, A KILLING IN COMICS, for Christmas and I didn’t sense any real similarities in writing style. It was probably Marlowe and/or members of the show’s writing staff.

That last picture, it looks very 80s to me. It really reminds me of some artist that was kind of big back then. I can’t remember who, of course, which isn’t very helpful. The most specific I can get with my thoughts is DC artist, mid/late-80s. I would think the sarsaparilla joke because it’s the 80s. Just an idea.

Like the other people, I could see it being Terry Austin. It could totally be a What The? Maybe some kind of Captain America, who’s from the olden times in 80s America. Which ruins my DC-artist theory … Anyway …

The drawing looks like Joe Staton to me. Of course, I’m not very bright.

I also think it looks like Austin’s inking. Marie Severin is a reasonable guess, since she did so much humor work for Marvel. But there’s something about the woman’s face that doesn’t look like Severin to me – but that could be because I’m not used to seeing her inked by Austin.

I hope we get a definitive answer on this one! Is Mr. Peterson really saying he has only that panel?

Is Mr. Peterson really saying he has only that panel?

Yes, he says that’s the only clue he has. Apparently he was hoping to buy the original. And now you know as much as we do.

“All right then, let’s get it on the record. I think fans have every right to be peeved about paying money for something that it then turns out they don’t care for.

But there are a great many fans that get peeved — more than peeved, from what they write it’s more like spit-spraying rage — at creators for ‘mistreating’ characters, as though the characters are real people that actually sustain injury. And yes, I think that level of rage is ridiculous. Moreover, of all the potential outlets for the fury this engenders in those fans, they never seem to light on the course of action that might actually make them feel better — which is to simply stop reading the book. Most of them not only keep up with books they hate, they seem to be actually spending money on them to do it. I think that’s insane.”

Greg Hatcher is, oh, only about 200% right. I’ve seen people complain on message boards – in 2010, mind you – what an abomination Civil War is (and not was), because they just can’t let go. I will never understand why some fans do not follow the simple advice of “read what you enjoy”.

“Was there something left-wing about fighting the Axis powers in WWII?”

Historically? Yes. Most of the right at the time was isolationist.

From the perspective of this Canadian, Captain America works best when he is neither left nor right. He doesn’t work for me if he is embracing one ideology over another, or being jingoistic or worse. He works best as the living personification of the American Dream.

Also … doin’ one thing and one thing only… killin’ Nazis.

@Julian:

I think it’s more complex than that. I had in mind things like the American Communist Party’s isolationism. I’m no historian, so I consulted some on-line sites with info on isolationism. The most useful one (or at least the easiest to use) I found was http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/cou/us/usiso-is.html, which doesn’t appear to be biased one way or the other. Here are a some quotes from the discussion of isolationism there:

“The isolationists were men and women from every walk of American life. The core of the movement was the Republican senators, many of which were from the progressive movement. There were also Democrats, but the most prominent isolationists were Senate Republicans, men like William E. Borah (Idaho), Robert Marion La Follette (Wisconsin), Hiram Johnson (California), Arthur Vandenburg (Michigan), and Burton K Wheeler (Montana)…. There were also men fundamentally opposed to anti-Semitism and racism like Norman Thomas…. Until the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941), the Communists were also involved…. For the vast majority the primary motivation was an opposition to war.”

(The site also contains a link from the general discussion of isolationism to discussion of individual isolationists.)

I’m not arguing that many, perhaps most as you say, right-wingers were isolationists (and for brevity, I’ve left out quotes about them). But the isolationists included a good number who were left-wingers, or at least embraced some policies that I think we’d consider left-liberal. Again, I’m no historian, but the sources I’ve consulted suggest that progressivists, Republican or not, supported such things as conservationism, breaking up monopolies, banking reform, etc., among policies we might consider relatively right-wing/conservative. And my impression is that the bulk of isolationist sentiment came from fear of getting embroiled in a devastating war after the experience of World War I.

Interestingly, while the Communists didn’t oppose US entry into the war till Hitler invaded the USSR in June 1941 (well after the Nazi invasions of Poland, France, Belgium, etc., and the Battle of Britain), Captain America debuted in December 1940 (though the issue was dated March 1941), well before Pearl Harbor and the US entry into the war. (Just to be extra-clear, I’m definitely _not_ trying to pin everything on the Communists.)

@John Dunbar:

I agree that Cap is the expression of the American Dream – it’s just that for me, that dream seems more left-wing than not! I’m thinking in particular of a broad streak of social egalitarianism.

Funny how as soon as you mentioned this, I assumed it was something to do with the Tea Party folks – even though I hadn’t heard about the ‘controversy’ before this. They are the absolute queens of drama.

Regarding Humanatee’s comment–

The Communist isolationists also sprang to my mind immediately when I read the previous comment.

And it needs to be pointed out very clearly regarding the Progressive Republicans that Republicans in general were not all that conservative at that time. The most conservative members of Congress in those days were actually Democrats and some of the most liberal were Republicans. And there were also very conservative Republicans and far-Left Democrats. The parties were really not seperated on a liberal-conservative axis as we’d define it today. I know this is basically what you already said, but people so commonly let their modern prejudices get in the way when they look at historical politics that I felt it was important to emphasise it again.

Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, whom you mentioned ran for office at times as a Republican and other times as a Socialist, with no real difference in his policies.

John Dunbar:

I’ve seen people complain on message boards – in 2010, mind you – what an abomination Civil War is (and not was), because they just can’t let go. I will never understand why some fans do not follow the simple advice of “read what you enjoy”.

CIVIL WAR was four years ago, but THE INITIATIVE, SECRET INVASION, DARK REIGN, and finally SIEGE have all basically been continuations / spinoffs of what was set up in CW. In effect, John, Marvel’s been telling one company-wide god-awful story for the past four years. I think the fans have every right to ‘not let it go’, because Marvel never learned to let it go themselves and kept cramming it down everyone’s throat.

After being out of print for many, many years, Farmer’s “Venus on a Half-Shell” has finally been reprinted. In a classy Hardcover edition, no less, and not only that story is included but a variety of other stories he wrote as fictional authors around the same period. My favorite is “The Adventure of the Peerless Peer” by John H Watson, in which Holmes travels to Africa during WWI to track down the lost Lord Greystoke, meeting several other pulpy characters on the way. There’s also a great ‘what-if’ type of story, “The Jungle-Rot Kid on the Nod”, which is Tarzan by way of William S. Burroughs.

Having never really read Captain America, I would REALLY like someone to explain to me why Nelson Rockefeller was wearing a snake on his head.

It was the Serpent Crown, an ancient Lemurian artifact that controlled his mind. It wasn’t actually in Captain America, though; it was Avengers #147, and it took place on the Squadron Supreme’s world.

I haven’t read “Heat Wave” (but I love “Castle)” but while I was paging through it at work one day, I was very surprised that it never, ever seems to be break the illusion of being written by Castle. I expected something, the acknowledgments, and afterword, SOMETHING would let slip the real author, but no, they committed to the ruse 100%.

That’s kinda cool.