CSBG Archive
A Year of Cool Comics – Day 112
Here is the latest in our year-long look at one cool comic (whether it be a self-contained work, an ongoing comic or a run on a long-running title that featured multiple creative teams on it over the years) a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here‘s the archive of the moments posted so far!
Today we look at “Talking With David, ’95″ from Starman #5, by James Robinson, Tony Harris and Wade Von Grawbadger…
Enjoy!
One of the most interesting aspects of Starman was the special one-off issues that would be sprinkled throughout the series.
We’ve already seen one of the “Tales of Times Past” issues (which are stories of the past taken from the journal of the immortal Shade), and now we’ll take a look at another one of the other regular one-off stories, “Talking With David.”
David Knight was the older brother of Jack Knight. He was the first to take over for his father, Ted Knight, as Starman. He was killed in the opening pages of Starman #0, which led to Jack becoming the reluctant replacement as Starman.
Starting with Starman #5, Robinson introduced a yearly bit called “Talking With David” where Jack and David would meet up (click on the double-page spread to enlarge)…
Naturally, in this first meeting, it is kind of weird for Jack – and he does not take it particularly well…
But eventually, they realize it is silly to fight (look at the work that Harris does on their expressions here)…
And then it settles into actually “talking” with David…
This is such a novel idea and it’s impressive how well Robinson kept it up throughout pretty much the rest of the series (there would be exceptions, of course).
Harris and Von Grawbadger really outdid themselves on all the facial expressions they did here – it helped the story immensely.
Great stuff.
13 Comments
stealthwise
April 23, 2010 at 7:15 am
I think that you could fill out the rest of this year with just Starman. That series was so well done.
Mario
April 23, 2010 at 8:03 am
As impressive as all the Starman moments have been, it’s still hard to believe Robinson’s written such great comics after experiencing him for the first time with Cry for Justice. Oh well, I’m still going to tackle the first omnibus.
Dean Hacker
April 23, 2010 at 8:06 am
One of the unique devices that Robinson used to really raise the level of this series.
Anthony Strand
April 23, 2010 at 8:30 am
Beautiful. James Robinson back when that name used to mean something.
The Dude
April 23, 2010 at 9:15 am
I’ve read Starman and loved it but haven’t read Cry for Justice.
But I am curious because whenever Brian posts a Starman moment or James Robinson’s name is mentioned, there’s always a “what the hell happened to him?” feeling among the comments.
Is Cry for Justice really that horrendous?
Andy
April 23, 2010 at 9:24 am
Cry for Justice is pretty ungood. It would probably get a lot more slack, though, if Robinson didn’t come into it with all his expectations. Sort of like how, say, X-force is pretty ignored now, but if Alan Moore was writing it, it’d be baffling in its lack of quality.
This is a great comic, BTW.
Da Fug
April 23, 2010 at 10:40 am
How ’bout some Leave it to Chance?
Anonymous
April 23, 2010 at 10:46 am
Not really true, becausee many of the people who hated Cry for Justice, including myself and all the commenters saying they’re shocked this is the same guy, never read Starman before reading Cry for Justice. Look at the comments in the Starman posts. Many of the commenters are people who hated Cry for Justice and they make it clear that Brian’s posts are their first exposure to Starman, so they likely had no expectations in place when reading CFJ.
Going by message boards and convention Q&A’s a lot of people seem to actually like X-Force.
chad
April 23, 2010 at 1:22 pm
even though i never cared for the talking with dave part of star man thought i was a little creepy jack talking to the dead. still showed how good star man was. to have jack with the talks with his brother relize how important his choice to take up the mantel was.
Craig B.
April 23, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Count me among the many people who loved the Starman series and absolutely hated Cry for Justice. The latter was a lousy series and made all the worse because it’s the current reflection of someone who did something so much better years ago.
Mike Loughlin
April 23, 2010 at 4:14 pm
I like Tony Harris’s current style, but I miss his Starman art. It was funky, and nothing else on the stands looked anything like it. Von Grawbadger and he made a dynamite team.
stealthwise
April 23, 2010 at 5:56 pm
I have to agree about Harris, as he seems to be relying a bit much on photorealism in things like Ex Machina.
Nerd News Round Up-April 24, 2010
April 24, 2010 at 11:46 am
[...] Comics Should be Good: A Year of Cool Comics – Day 112 [...]