Search Results for: steranko

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD – Comics That Deserve a Second (Or First) Look!

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Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD.

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD began as a series that ran in the comic Strange Tales starting with issue #135.  Each issue featured a Nick Fury tale along with a Dr. Strange adventure.

Fury had transitioned from a soldier in WWII to a government spy working for SHIELD (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division) in the 1960s.  Many of the characters that fought alongside Fury in WWII were now spies under his command.  Like James Bond, Nick Fury found himself dealing with criminal organizations set to destroy the world.

With issue #151 of Strange Tales, Steranko came on as inker over Jack Kirby’s pencils.  With #154, Steranko become the penciler, inker and co-plotter of the series.  Then with issues #155 – 161, Steranko wrote, pencilled and inked the tales.  With issues #162 – 168, Steranko continued to write and pencil the issues, but was joined by different inkers.

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, spun off into it’s own comic after #168 of Strange Tales.  The series lasted 18 issues, although Steranko’s contributions ended with issue #7.  Steranko was given complete control of the series, but he had trouble meeting the monthly art deadlines.  Steranko wrote issues 1 – 5.  He provided the covers for issues 1 – 7 and the art for issues 1 – 3 and 5.  Those Steranko issues are classics.  Adult (for comics) stories plus art that has stood the test of time.

If you’ve never read Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, you should give it a glance.  Or perhaps it’s time for a second look.

Or maybe Marvel should consider reviving Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD.

Can you imagine how cool a new comic series set in the the 1960’s starring Nick Fury would be?  That’s right, set the series in the 60’s.  Make Fury the cigar-smoking, ex-war hero who is now America’s answer to James Bond.   

Can you imagine Fury fighting to keep the USA safe from Hydra, the Red Skull, Scorpio and other menaces out to destroy our way of life.  No longer a soldier, Fury is now a secret agent working for S.H.I.E.L.D. [not yet the head of the top secret organization].

Think how awesome these stories could be.  Heck, they’d be worth the price of admission for new Steranko covers!

The New “Walking Dead” Poster

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That’s the Alex Ross poster that will be available at Comic-Con to promote the up-coming season of AMC’s The Walking Dead.

I’m glad that the poster features art, but I’d have rather seen something from Charles Adlard or Tony Moore.  If they wanted to go with an artist not associated with The Walking Dead, then how about Steranko or Francesco Francavilla?

Z-View: HeroesCon 2013

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That’s the self-titled Corduroy Mafia at Heroes Con 2013.  From left to right we have Brian Jones, me, Gene Gonzales, John Nacinovich and Royce Thrower. How we gave ourselves the name Corduroy Mafia is a tale for another time.  Instead I present my HeroesCon 2013 summary.

The Drive Up:

Doralya and I left Friday morning.  We planned to leave earlier, but a late start got us on the road at about 5am.  Traffic was terrible, two different wrecks slowed us down and it rained almost the entire way.  From now on, we plan to drive up the night before the con starts.

The hotel:

We usually stay at the Weston, but this year it was the Hampton Inn Charlotte – Uptown.  What a great hotel!  It’s super-clean with the friendliest staff I’ve ever seen.  Free shuttle service and free breakfast made the stay even better. I’d definitely stay here again!

Main Goal of the Show:

My main goal was to meet (for the first time) and get a sketch from Rick Burchett.  I’m happy to report that Rick is as nice as he is talented — yeah, he’s really that friendly!  I hoped to get Rick to draw Jack Carter (Stallone) with Chris Mills/Rick Burchett’s character, Grave Digger (Lee Marvin).  Rick said he could make that happen!

I then got Greg Rucka to autograph two of my Atticus Kodiac novels.  I’ve been a Rucka fan since before he started working in comics — and was pleased when he teamed with Rick Burchett on Lady Sabre.  Eric Newsome was at the table as well.  Eric assists with the Lady Sabre website and more.  Since I am a backer of their Lady Sabre Kickstarter, I knew the password to get an advance look at a Lady Sabre script!  Eric also reminded me that he had done a Stallone sketch for the SZ!  It was great talking to Rick, Greg and Eric.

Books signed:

  • My original hardcover Berni Wrightson’s A Look Back
  • My first edition Chandler by Steranko
  • Two of my Greg Rucka Atticus Kodiac novels
  • Road Trip by Sean Murphy.  

All books autographed — mission accomplished.

Sketches:

  • Dave Wachter (mini-head sketches): Lords of Flatbush and Bullet to the Head
  • Drew Moss (busts): Get Carter and Rocky
  • Jerry Gaylord: Get Carter and Demolition Man
  • Mitch Gerads (head sketch): Expendables 2
  • Mike Torrance: several sketch cards
  • Gene Gonzales (head sketch): Get Carter
  • Manny Aguilera: Over the Top and Demolition Man (surprise gifts from LittleJohn312 & Patricia), Get Carter.
  • Rick Burchett is going to do my piece from home.

Panels:

  • The Inkwell Awards (and keeping with tradition, LittleJohn312 and Patricia joined me).
  • Jim Steranko (again with LJ & P) – Steranko is a charmer and captivated the crowd with his great stories!
  • Crime Panel: Greg Rucka (Whiteout), Jason Latour (Loose Ends), and Jason Aaron (Scalped) interrogated by Vito Delsante.  

It’s only been in the last several years that I’ve made a real effort to attend panels.  Without a doubt, they have made the con experience even more fun.

Drink and Draw:

Because of weather it was held in the lobby of the Hilton.  Jack the Radio provided live music — they’re good!  The place was packed, but the Hilton staff was very accommodating and brought out more seats. Patricia, Doralya and I enjoyed watching and messing with LittleJohn312 as he attempted to win some art — and he did!

HeroesCon Auction:

As always the auction was a fun night.  LittleJohn312 won a Wizard of Oz piece (as well as the companion piece that was in next day’s auction).  The move to have professional auctioneers is helpful, but Alison’s presence as the Mistress of Ceremonies was missed.

Kickstarter:

Some HeroesCon guests had Kickstarter projects that I had backed.  I made sure to swing by and congratulate each on their Kickstarter success:

  • Greg Rucka / Rick Burchett with Lady Sabre
  • Jeremy Haun with Bad Karma  (I missed seeing Alex Grecian, B. Clayton Moore & Seth Peck)
  • Eric Powell with The Goon movie

Meals:

The biggest surprise is that we only ate at Fuel once.  It was good to keep that tradition alive, but not over do it.  The best meal we had was at Fujo Bistro — we will definitely hit that place again next year!  Bojangles and Einstein’s Bagels also got our business.  Sadly we did not make it to Mert’s.

The Drive Home:

We left about 5:30 and arrived home at about 12:30am.  Traffic and rain were both light and we were exhausted, but in a good way.

In closing:

HeroesCon this year was huge with twice the floor space as previous years.  The wider aisles made movement easier.  There were also additional sections this year with chairs and tables for con guests to sit, eat and visit.  The bigger painting area was also a plus.

I’ve had to rewrite this sentence several times, because I come off like a real fanboy trying to say how “cool” it was to meet Rick Burchett and Steranko.  Let’s just say it was great and leave it at that.

Seeing old friends and meeting new ones is always a fun part of the show.  I won’t try to list them all because invariably I would leave some out.

Thanks to Shelton and his crew for another great HeroesCon — see everyone next year!

“Nick Fury: Agent of Shield” Should be a TV Series

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Nick Fury: Agent of Shield should be made into a tv series.

I am not talking about the Samuel L. Jackson movie Nick Fury.

What I am talking about is the 1960’s ultra-cool Steranko Nick Fury.  That’s right, set the series in the 60’s.  Make Fury the cigar-smoking, ex-war hero who is now America’s answer to James Bond. 

The war is over, but Fury is fighting to keep the USA safe from Hydra, the Red Skull, Scorpio and other menaces out to destroy our way of life.  No longer a soldier, Fury is now a secret agent working for S.H.I.E.L.D.

Think back to how awesome those stories were.  Now imagine how cool they could be translated to a weekly series.  I’d tune in.  Wouldn’t you?

Top 50 Marvel Covers from the Marvel Age

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CBR.com recently posted the results of a poll of fans to determine the Top 50 Most Memorable Comic Covers of the Marvel Age. Congratulations to my buddies, Mike Zeck and John Beatty for placing three covers in the top 50. 

Using just the covers from the poll here is my top ten: 

  • 10. Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars #1  (Art by Mike Zeck and John Beatty)
  • 9.  Amazing Spider-Man #33  (Art by Steve Ditko)
  • 8.  Daredevil #181  (Art by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson)
  • 7.  Amazing Spider-Man #39  (Art by John Romita)
  • 6.  Wolverine (mini-series) #1  (Art by Frank Miller and Joe Rubinstein)
  • 5.  Captain America Annual #8  (Art by Mike Zeck and John Beatty)
  • 4.  The Incredible Hulk Special #1  (Art by Jim Steranko with a little help from Marie Severin)
  • 3.  Silver Surfer #4  (Art by John Buscema and perhaps Sal Buscema)
  • 2.  Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #4  (Art by Jim Steranko)
  • 1.  Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1  (Art by Jim Steranko)

While I don’t think that anyone would argue that they weren’t great covers selected but what about…

Those covers just came to me quickly as I was putting together this post.  What other classic Marvel Age covers did we miss?

The Top 10 Characters from Marvel & DC

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Recently CBR.com posted the results of a poll of comic book readers to determine the top 100 Marvel and DC characters.  Using just their list of the top 50 for each company, I present my top 10…

10.  Namor – 539 points (7 first place votes):  There was a summer when I was a kid in elementary school that I thought that Namor was the coolest cat walking swimming.  He looked like Spock, was a Prince, could breathe on land and sea.  Yeah, Namor was the man.

09.  Black Widow (Natasha Romanova)- 452 points (3 first place votes):  I’ve read fewer stories with the Black Widow than any of the other characters in my top ten, but I like this character.  The first time I really noticed her potential was in a black and white magazine that featured her in a story drawn by Paul Gulacy.  Around the same time, Frank Miller put her to good use in Daredevil.

08.  Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) – 1495 (17 first place votes).  Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, Mike Grell, Trevor Von Eden and Jock all have worked their riffs on the Green Arrow.  I’ve enjoyed all versions… especially those without the trick arrows.

07.  Luke Cage – 633 points (3 first place votes):  I can still remember picking the first issue of Luke Cage: Hero for Hire off the newsstands, reading it and thinking, yeah, this is how it would in real life if someone got super-powers.   When I was in junior high I had a “shop” class and one of the things we had to create were business cards.  It had to be for a business that wasn’t real and we couldn’t use our own names.  My card read “Blackjack Joey – Hero for Hire.” So you can see the influence that Luke Cage had on me.  Bonus points to anyone who can figure out where Blackjack Joey came from.

06.  Question (Vic Sage) – 382 points (6 first place votes)  Although I never read the original Question stories, I really dug the Denny O’Neil / Denys Cowan / Rick Magyar stories.  Add in the covers by Bill Sienkiewicz and you have a top ten character.

05.  The Punisher (Frank Castle) – 995 (17 first place votes)  I’m talking about the real Punisher.  You know the one who appeared in the mini-series and graphic novels by Steven Grant, Mike Zeck and John Beatty.  You can throw in a bit of Miller and Romita Jr’s riffs, but count me out when the Punisher becomes a substitute teacher or starts hanging out with Microchip or any other sidekick.

04.  Daredevil – 2280 points (71 first place votes):  If Frank Miller wrote Daredevil and either he or David Mazzucchelli drew the series, I’d be a lifetime subscriber.

03.  Wolverine – 2728 points (54 first place votes)  Wolverine during Claremont, Byrne and Austin’s run was the coolest character ever.  His biggest fault was he became too popular and was everywhere.  Miller’s mini-series was cool.  Chaykin has done some neat stuff with Wolverine as well.  Unfortunately, too many people tried to work their magic on Logan and I lost interest.  I’d still return to read stories about the runt if the right creator took the reins.

02.  Nick Fury – 619 points (7 first place votes):  I remember buying an issue of Nick Fury: Agent of Shield off the stands when I was elementary school.  I’d never seen a comic that looked so cool.  Steranko was is amazing.  When I attended my first comic convention, the first items I purchased were a complete run of Steranko’s Nick Fury comics [and an issue of his publication, MediaScene].  Someone find a way to get Steranko to do covers for a Gulacy drawn, Doug Moench written Nick Fury series set in the 1960’s.  The time is right.

01.  Batman (Bruce Wayne) – 6585 points (313 first place votes)  It doesn’t matter who draws Batman [Neal Adams, Marshall Rogers, Jim Aparo, Frank Miller, etc.], what kind of stories [funny, serious, set in any time period or genre], Batman works.  That has to make him the #1 character… at least in my book.

John Beatty Week: Day 4

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John Beatty Week: Day 4.  Today with have the first of a three piece trifecta.  The year was 1978 and a 17 year old John Beatty decided it would be a cool idea to create a portfolio of pieces that would showcase his talent.  John was [and continues to be] a Captain America fan, so of course Cap and Buckey was a natural. 

By the way, if you look closely you should be able to spot John’s name and year a la Steranko, Neal Adams and Al Hirshfeld.

All Time 10 Best Marvel Panels

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Recently, in honor of Marvel Comics 70th birthday, CBR.com had a poll opened to their readers to come up with the Top 70 Most Iconic Marvel Panels Off All Time.  I decided to play along, and just using the choices from the survey came up with my Top Ten List.

10.  A Steranko panel from his classic Captain America run which ended way, way too soon.

09.  Thanos turns to stone as the Avengers and everyone else look on.

08.  Gwen was dead, Spidey was ticked and we were shocked!  Of course that was back in the days when characters stayed dead and comics weren’t rebooted every couple of years.

07.  Daredevil was back.  Miller was writing him and David Mazzuchelli was pencilling.  It was good to be buying Daredevil again.

06.  The end of the Warlock series.  Perhaps Starlin’s greatest work.  Ah, seeing Pip, Warlock and Gamora brings back some great memories.

05.  Daredevil — from my favorite run on the book.  Frank Miller and Klaus Janson.  It didn’t get any better than them when they were hitting stride.

04.  Another classic Steranko image from his run on Cap!

03.  Who didn’t fall for Mary Jane when she told Peter [Spider-Man] Parker: “Face it, Tiger… You just hit the jackpot!”  Of course I was about 7 years old at the time.

02.  Another classic panel from Miller and Janson’s run on Daredevil.

01.  A classic panel from Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin’s run on The X-Men.  It’s a great shot of Wolverine sneaking in through the sewers to save the day.  Fans [me included] couldn’t wait for Wolverine to be showcased solo.  Of course this was in the days before Wolverine had his own book, his own movie series and was known throughout the world.  Back then he was just the runt who tried to hold in a rage that sometimes got away from him.  Of course he was still the best at what he did… and what he did wasn’t pretty.  LOL.

Dave Johnson & Howard Chaykin Pull No Punches

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It’s no secret that I’m a Dave Johnson fan.  It’s no secret that I’m a Howard Chaykin fan.  Up until today I did not know that Howard Chaykin is a HUGE Dave Johnson fan.  At WonderCon this past weekend Chaykin helped moderate a panel along with and about Dave Johnson.  As you can imagine, it was insightful, funny, informative and pulled no punches.  Here’s a taste from a CBR.com report:

Chaykin: . “Dave is consistently the finest cover designer working in the field today. He finds the bridge between the intellectual and the emotional.”

Johnson {when he was praised and not fired after submitting a radical cover): “I realized I just had to be fearless (when creating a cover).”

Johnson (on his influences): “John Byrne, Michael Golden. Byrne is a total *******, though—I met him once and I vowed never to do that again.” Chaykin chimed in again: “The good thing about Byrne is, as long as he’s alive, you know you never have to be the most despised man in comics.”

The piece by Dave Sikula is really well written and informative.  It goes on to tell how Steranko vindicated Johnson after he was over-ruled by an editor, why it’s tough to be the cover artist for Eduardo Risso, what Byrne, Art Adams and Michael Golden have in common, how Johnson approaches covers and much more.  You can read the whole piece right here.

Greatest Comic Characters

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EmpireOnLine.com posted their choices for The 50 Greatest Comic Characters of All Time. Using just their picks, here are my top ten:

I only really read Iron Man way back when David Micheline and Bob Layton were charting his adventures. That coupled with the fact that I really liked the movie is enough to put Iron Man in the number 10 spot.

Superman was Empire’s #1 character. I can see why: Superman is one of the most popular characters ever created. He’s been the star of comics, radio, tv and movies. For my tastes though, he’s just too dang powerful. Superman has super speed, super strength, super hearing, x-ray vision, he can fly, he’s impervious to pain and he’s really, really nice. Unless he’s up against a chunk of Kryptonite [and isn’t THAT stuff easy to find], where’s the drama? Still, I did love me some Superman when I was about 5 and that’s good enough to get him the number 9 slot.

At number 8 we have Captain America. I’ve enjoyed the good Captain in bursts over the years. When I was a wee lad, I loved Jack Kirby’s Cap. You’d open to the splash and there was Cap having just been thrown out of a plane without a parachute or maybe he was already in battle against Batroc the Leaper! Years later Steranko did a couple of issues and they were beautiful. I still go back and read them from time to time. When I was in college, my buddies Mike Zeck and John Beatty had a nice run on Cap. I went along for the ride and had a blast.

Up until high school my favorite comic character was Spider-Man. It didn’t matter who was drawing him; although John Romita Jr., Gil Kane, and John Byrne were favorites. Spider-Man aka Peter Parker always seemed to be in just a bit over his head. Despite that, he always tried to do the right thing. And that’s why he comes in a number 7.

The Punisher never looked better than when he was being drawn by Zeck and Beatty. Throw Steven Grant into the mix as the writer and you have a winning team. They did the first Punisher mini-series and took him from a second rate villain to one of the most popular characters ever. And that’s where the troubles started. Suddenly the Punisher had his own monthly comic. He was teamed with a partner [Microchip?] and ended up doing things like being a substitute teacher. Ugh! Still there were more bright spots from time to time. Grant, Zeck and Beatty re-teamed for a couple more Punisher graphic novels and John Romita Jr. had a nice little run with the character. The high spots are enough to take the character to the sixth spot on our list.

Mike Mignola’s Hellboy is number 5. I’ve been riding the Hellboy express since his first appearance in Dark Horse Presents scripted by John Byrne. It’s been a fun trip, although I wish Mignola did more of the driving. Guest artists are fun, but Mike’s writing coupled with his art really makes Hellboy soar. And hey, the movies ain’t bad either!

Wolverine’s journey is very similar to the Punisher’s. Once he got his own series things went south. At first Wolverine was the mysterious, violent character in the X-Men. Then when he got his own series he was living on an island and wearing an eyepatch with the name Patch. Huh? Give me the Wolverine from the Claremont, Byrne and Austin run on the X-Men. Give me the Miller and Rubstein Wolverine from their mini-series. Give me the Barry Windsor Smith Weapon X Wolverine. Just keep the eyepatch for yourself. Wolverine comes in fourth.

Third place belongs to Frank Miller’s Marv from Sin City. How can you not dig the big lug? I wish Miller would give us more.

The # 2 spot goes to Daredevil on the strength of Frank Miller and Klaus Janson’s run back in the early 80’s. That was comics are their best.

Batman gets my number one slot. It doesn’t really matter who writes or draws the character. Think about it. Batman has been done as comedy, as camp, with the focus on Bruce Wayne, with the focus on Batman, as a vigilante, as a confidant to the police, as a wanted criminal, with a kid partner, as an old man, as a young man finding his way. Batman just works and that’s why he’s my number 1 choice.

Happy, Happy to JBI

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Yesterday I received an e-mail from my buddy, Wild Bill Black that several of Jim Ivey’s friends were getting together to belatedly celebrate Jim’s 82nd birthday. Although it was short notice, I worked it out so that I could get over and share in the festivities.

I first met Jim back in the mid-70’s [the decade, not his age]. Jim was the owner of The Cartoon Museum in Orlando, Florida and the main man behind OrlandoCon. My buddy, John Beatty and I were still in high school, but would make the trek over to buy our comics and original art from Jim. Jim’s shop was an amazing place. At the time there weren’t many places that you could buy original art, but Jim’s Cartoon Museum was wall to wall art. Kirby, Steranko, Barry Windsor-Smith, Paul Gulacy, John Buscema… and so much more. You never knew what you’d see or who you’d meet while at The Cartoon Museum. I can’t begin to tell you how much time I spent there and I wouldn’t trade one hour there for a day anywhere else. Beatty and I made the trek to Jim’s at least once a week. Usually we’d end up playing cards but always having a great time no matter what we were doing. When I moved to Orlando to attend UCF, I’d go to the shop several times a week [my wife always knew where to find me]. We’ve stayed in touch over the years, but never as often as I’d like.

So today about 15 of us met to celebrate Jim’s 82 birthday. Jim, true to form, had prepared cards for each of us [and true to form — had enclosed a scratch off lottery ticket. Mine was good for a free ticket!]. Each of us had brought cards and gifts and a story or two for Jim. In fact, Jim looks shocked in the photo above… I hope it wasn’t from something I said!


It was great seeing Jim again. It was also a lot of fun hanging with Wild Bill Black. Special props to “The AAB” for putting the plan in place. And once last shout out to Jim Ivey — “Happy, happy, SIR!”

It’s a Small World – The Travels of a Gulacy MOKF Page

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“It’s a small world.” How often have you heard that cliche and thought, it’s really not that small?

In the late 70’s up until 1983, I collected and dealt in original comic art. I had an inside track to quite a few artists since John Beatty [who was working in the business] and I had been friends since junior high. My favorite artist at the time was Paul Gulacy [a very talented, very nice guy] who pencilled and sometimes inked a series called “Master of Kung Fu” [written by the equally talented and nice, Doug Moench].

I was fortunate enough to eventually meet both of these guys and even commission some art from Paul… but I digress. Long before I ever met Paul, I was able to get one of my favorite MOKF pages [a panel from it is posted above]. It practically fell into my lap for a great trade. I couldn’t believe my luck! I had one of my favorite pages from the series.

Fast forward less than a year. I placed an ad for art that I was selling and offering for trades. A guy called up and wanted to purchase the Gulacy page. Well, at this point I owned other Gulacy pages and was even speaking to Paul via phone on a fairly regular basis so I sold the page.

In 1983, I was getting ready to graduate college and get a “real job.” I decided to sell off my entire art collection [except for a Stallone piece by Paul – which I still own, thank you very much!] Over the years, I’ve thought about all of the art I’ve owned [and that included pieces by Steranko, Byrne, Miller, Zeck, etc.], but it’s that MOKF page that I’ve missed the most.

Fast forward to last week [we’re moving through time at a breakneck pace, aren’t we?]. Comic art collector Mike Shields posted up some of the art from his collection and guess what page he has in it? “Wow!, [said in a Bill Black-like voice] that’s right, Mike Shields now owns the very same Paul Gulacy page!”

I sent Mike an e-mail telling him how I came to own the page back in 1979 and that I had sold it in 1980. In closing I said that I was glad that it had ended up with a big Gulacy fan and that I wondered how many people it had gone through to end up with him.

Mike wrote me back and told me that he checked his records on how he came to purchase it. Seems he saw an ad in 1980 from a guy with the initials CZ! Yep! Mike purchased the piece from me 22 years ago and has had it in his collection ever since! How cool is that?

Sometimes it DOES seem like it’s a small world after all!