Savage Tales #3

The first volume of Marvel's Savage Tales was a black and white magazine edition that was slanted more towards fantasy adventure. Characters such as Conan the Barbarian and Kazar fit it's mold perfectly. Though there were a few exceptions, like the Man-Thing who's first ever appearance in the premiere issue, was rooted deeply in science fiction horror. 

In the mid-1980s, Larry Hama sought to revive the title. The second volume was a black and white magazine just like it's predecessor. But instead of sword and sorcery type adventures, this edition was geared towards war and conflicts from the past, present and near future. It's from this comic mag that we get a pair of stories set during the Vietnam War that the amazing comic book The 'Nam would come into fruition. 

In this issue alone, we see a episode set during the Bolshevik revolution of a forgotten police action carried out by American and Canadian troops to keep the Czar in power. A moonshiner takes revenge on a rival responsible for the death of his dog and the destruction of his impressive collection of Elvis vinyls. Desperate women seek military protection during an uprising set in 19th century colonial India. Airplane flying rebels seek to scavenge a crashed Soviet bomber in the aftermath of a nuclear Holocaust while in another different story set in a similar apocalypse, friends see medical attention for their critically injured mentor. A Nazi courier crosses enemy lines and angry live ammunition to deliver important top secret documents during the Watch on the Rhine. Lastly, The American Calvary tracks a legendary American Indian throughout the Sonoran Desert.

Unfortunately, this 1986 offering isn't one of the issues that features a The 'Nam precursor. I have that entire series run, plus a couple of Punisher tie-ins. So I would love to have those 2 issues to round out the full run. That means I'll be on the lookout for issues #1 and 4! Incidentally, a third story set in South Indochina was scheduled to appear in volume 2 of Savage Tales. Alas, the series was cancelled with issue #8. However, that story actually is not lost as it was retooled and saw print as The 'Nam #8!

Along with the editing talents of Larry Hama, there's a slew of Marvel greats including Dick Ayers, Herb Trimpe, Chuck Dixon (going by his Christian name Charles) and the fantastic John Severin. I've been a fan of his work ever since I was cutting my teeth on Cracked Magazine. Severin was the first artist I could recognize by his art style alone. He does double duty penciling the Russian Revolution and the American Calvary adventures. The cover art was by Mitch O'Connell.

An interesting read. I'm definitely wanting those The 'Nam forerunner stories but I don't think I'm in it for the entire 8 issue run.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Frontline Combat #9 (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

From the letter from the Editor placed on the inside cover, this was to be the first of 7 issues devoted to the American Civil War. Readers had requested the conflict of 1861-1865 be included in EC's war torn title. However, Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines felt that a single issue just wasn't enough space to adequately devoted to this important period in American history.

Frontline Combat was a sister series to the very macho Two-Fisted Tales, which originally focused on adventure stories. The book started off well, but with the end of the Korean War, EC saw a decline in sales. Ultimately, Frontline Combat's last issue would be #15. 

This issue would focus on the start of the war. There are 4 segments, all penned by Kurtzman. The first chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln from childhood to his inauguration as the 16th President of the United States. Readers then experience the first shot of the Civil War with the siege of Fort Sumter. The action heads West to the neutral state of Missouri as both Confederate loyalists and Union soldiers fight over possession of Camp Jackson. Lastly, we witness Union overconfidence turn the battle of Bull Run/Manassas into the Rebels first major victory of the early days of the war. 

While this issue highlights the constitutional crisis of the legality of the succeeding Southern States, slavery is never overtly addressed in this book as the main cause of the Civil War. Yet in true EC twist fashion, the narrator of the opening segment on Lincoln is revealed on the last page as being a black man who lives in Charleston, South Carolina on the eve of the Fort Sumter blockade. 

The artists featured in this issue are Jack Davis, John Severin, and Wally Wood. Cover art by Harvey Kurtzman. The one-page prose story was replaced with excepts of the inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln, featured in the opener titled 'Abe Lincoln!'

Though the full 7 parts of the Civil War series never came about, Two-Fisted Tales did devote a pair of issues to the Civil War before being cancelled in 1955 at issue #35. For those who might wish to follow up on learning more on the Civil War in comics and graphic novel form, check out Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War by Ari Kelman and Jonathan Fetter-Vorm,  Marvel's 4-issue Epic Battles of the Civil War and the 'Big Bad Ironclad!' and 'The Underground Abductor' entries in the Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series for all-ages readers.

Completing this review completes Task #21 (Set in the 1800s) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #16 (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

In the 15th issue of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, the super spy was killed off by a gun-toting assassin named Bullseye. The death of Nick Fury marked the end of the spygame comic despite a 'To Be Continued' tagline. 

However, fans would soon learn that you can't keep a good spy dead for long as Fury would reappear in the pages of Avengers #72 a year later in 1970. Obviously, Bullseye didn't off Nick Fury. It was one of those handy-dandy Life Model Decoys that kicked the bucket. (A small aside. Has there ever been a storyline where a LMD thought it really was Nick Fury and once faced with the real McCoy the android went berserk and took over for the director of SHIELD? That would be an awesome story! If it has been done; where do I find this amazing tale?)

At about the same time Nick's death was being addressed with the Avengers, Marvel decided to bring back Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. Instead of a new volume starting at issue #1, the House of Ideas decided to continue on with issue #16. However instead of rehashing what occurred in Avengers #72, Marvel inexplicably decided to reprint a trio of Fury's very first SHIELD story line with material that appeared in Strange Tales #135-138.  Featuring scripts by Stan Lee, plotting and layouts by Jack Kirby and final art by John Severin. Let's not forget lettering by 'Artful' Artie Simek! Issues 17 and 18 contained reprinted material from Strange Tales as well. The only new material were the covers. Marie Severin penciled this cover as well as #17. Big brother John assisted Herb Trimpe for the finale cover.

If these 3 issues were Marvel's ways of testing the waters for interest in a new SHIELD, it didn't work. After a decade that saw a glut of super spy and Cold War clock & dagger properties, the 1970s signaled an cooling off period for the genre. Nick Fury would pop up in other titles, especially the pages of Captain America. He'd also partake a few solo missions in some of Marvel's showcase series. 

With the Reagan 80s bringing the Cold War into the 21st century and beyond with futuristic programs like Star Wars, interest in the clandestine adventures of Col. Fury and SHIELD reignited. He took on SHIELD after discovering the agency had been corrupted by ROXXON in Nick Fury Vs SHIELD. Then in 1989, Fury starred in his first of 3 graphic novel team ups with the X-Man Wolverine while also starring in the third Volume of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD ( volume 2 was another reprint series) which ran for 47 issues.

Classics. But when I bought this I was hoping for the rest of the story. Not reprints.

Completing this review completes Task #9 (With the Word 'Agent' in the Title) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather

Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather is Ron Zimmerman's 2003 retooling of the Rawhide Kid legend. The big controversy behind this book was that through all the thinly veiled hints and innuendo, it's supposed to be implied that the Rawhide Kid was gay. Here's the thing, I don't think Rawhide is really gay. I think it's one big joke that fans of Marvel Westerns are in on and the prank was pulled on the House of Ideas.

The late Ron Zimmerman was among things besides a comic book writer, he was also a stand-up comedian and satirist. I think Zimmerman took the idea of homo-eroticism in Western lore, especially with cowboys, got Marvel on board and took a chance to make his version of Blazing Saddles. 

The entire story was a comedic farce. There's absolutely nothing serious here. The mayor of the town is an ancestor of the Bush family (He looks like W too!). There are also ancestors of some of your favorite funny men from 60s and 70s sitcoms. Icons of the classic TV Westerns such as Laura Ingalls Wilder, the Cartwrights of Bonanza and many more guest star as well. Only the spelling of the characters is changed slightly; probably to avoid copyright issues. Slap Leather is satire. Slap Leather is parody. 

The addition of comic book legend John Severin on artwork added some gravitas to this project. It's probably why Marvel to this day still claims the Rawhide Kid as an LGBTQ+ icon. Severin was an artist on the original Rawhide Kid series. Yet I am telling you, this 5 issue miniseries is anything but serious. If this book was published in the 70s or 80s, today's readers would probably criticize it today as being unsympathetic or homophobic. But Zimmerman pulled the wool over everybody's eyes and was able to take a whole lot of stereotype and humor about gays and somehow fooled everyone into thinking that this was a book full of pride. But I think it's really a secret thumb-nose to any and everyone on both sides of the issue. 

That's not to say that this wasn't a funny read. The gang of outlaws who seek to 'rape and pillage the town' of Wells Junction are hilarious. They're totally incompetent and yet their wordplay is so clever. Catastrophe Jen is one of the best Western comics characters to be introduced in the past 40 years!  The banter between the inept Sheriff and his son who is embarrassed by the lawman's lily-liver was so brilliant. I thought Rawhide was great too in how he interacted with the Sheriff's bratty child. The scene where the Kid wants the townsfolk to leave before high noon and they all get insulted by not being recruited to help save their homes. Such great irony! I just felt that the part that everyone circles the wagons around, Rawhide's sexuality, was actually the joke and not some big step in helping the homosexual community become less marginalized.

If you are a fan of Westerns. If you can overlook the change to Marvel canon. If you can laugh at humor that is far from P.C., you will like this book. You might think I am wrong and decide that Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather really is pro-LGBTQ+. That's okay if you do. Just as it's appropriate for me to think that the joke is on you!

No matter what, this is an essential classic of modern comics. It's just up to the reader to decide what merits of this work make it a paradigm of sequential art.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Omnious Omnibus, Vol.1: Scary Tales & Scarier Tentacles

The premise behind the Ominous Omnibuses is to collect all 23 volumes of Treehouse of Horror annuals that were issued from the now defunct Bongo Comics. This is to occur with the publication of 3 slipcased hardcover editions. Though whether this will happen in just a few months or annually until 2024, I just don't know. 

Along with the material found in the Halloween annuals, these collections are supposed to house horror themed material from other Simpsons related holiday titles and some never before published material. But right now from a collector's standpoint, all I've got is a massive headache.

Let's do a little comic book math. There's 23 total ToH books in existence and I don't own any of them. These comics aren't very easy to find and when I do stumble across them, they're selling for an average of $15 per book. So $15x23=$345. If all 3 omnibuses retail for the $40 MSRP of this issue, I should only have to pay $120 plus tax. Overall, going this route seems the most economical, even if I have to wait a couple more years. Yet, because of how this book was edited, I can't mark anything off of my wish list yet.

Instead of collecting the comics whole, publisher Harry N. Abrams decided to cut all the books into pieces and catalogue the stories based on genre type! There are stories about aliens Kang and Kodos, frights about alternate realities and legends of things that go bump in the dark. Plus, there's a whole lot of shorts, parody ads and vignettes about life in Springfield that I've read in many a Simpsons regular series comic book.

While I am unhappy with how these stories have been collected, I have been thrilled with many of the surprises in this book. There's Simpsons yarns written by Star Wars' Mark Hamill, The Goldberg's Patton Oswalt and Doug TenNapel (Cardboard). I had thought that celebs didn't appear in Simpsons comics, but we get visits by Alice Cooper, Lemmy Kilmister and the living embodiment of Ned Flanders, Pat Boone! in a trio of stories written by the stars themselves.

My favorite story in this collection was an EC Comics tribute that featured inks by Al Willamson (Weird Science, Weird Fantasy) and pencils by John Severin (Two-Fisted Tales)! I never thought I'd ever see the Simpsons rendered by a pair of EC legends! But I did and it was fantastic. The story might have been a bit disjointed. But it was a visual dream come true!

Over 400 pages of Simpsons frights. A great way to start off my Halloween 2022 reads. I just wish this book could have been in order like an actual omnibus and not a mix-matched catalogue of titles organized by genre. I really wanted to get a few volumes off my wish list and right now, I now have 2 future editions of omnibuses added to it.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Spoof #2

Parody has been a regular staple of Marvel Comics. These funny books usually haven't been met with much success. However titles like Not Brand Ecch and What The?! are considered cult classic fan favorites. This title is not one of them.

Spoof ran sporadically over the course of 1970-1973, producing

a grand total of 5 issues! The biggest draw for those few who still

remember this series were the covers. Featuring art by the great

EC Comics legend John Severin, these covers had amazing

caricatures of 1970s icons such as Blacula, Marcus Welby and

Richard Nixon.

Ironically, this issue, which I happen to purchase over Father's

Day weekend, was the only one that featured a single property

- a parody of the groundbreaking sitcom All in the Family. That

show starred Carrol O'Connor as the bigoted Archie Bunker.

Bunker would often tell people that he was through with them

with the send-off 'see you in the funny papers.' In this spoof, he

learns that life in the tumultuous 1970s might actually be better

than living in those Sunday Comics.

In this issue we've also got a glorious spoof on the anthology

horror film The Vault of Horror and the EC Comics that inspired

the movie. This one featured a story by future New Teen Titans

scribe Marv Wolfman and artwork by another EC alum, Marie

Severin (John's sister).

Lastly we've got a Tarzan spoof in which after years of living as

a domesticated lord, the King of the Jungle returns to deepest

darkest Africa. Only Tarzan finds that the continent has

modernized in his absence. This was the most political of the 3

stories. It was also my least favorite.

With artwork by both of the Severins, I feel that Spoof was

Marvel’s attempt to rival Cracked Magazine. But I know that isn’t

the case as both artists were frequent contributors to both

Marvel and Cracked at this time. Maybe this was just another of

Stan Lee’s flights of fancy that didn’t take off with the average

Marvel reader of the 1970s.

One thing is for sure, this book is about as borderline adult as you

can get in a Comics Code book. Look at Charlie Brown and

Nancy posed like Fritz the Cat and his girl on the top left corner.

Plus, there’s plenty of double entendres and blatant take about

sex, drugs and gettin’ naked.

Above all, this book was a flop because it couldn’t be produced

in a timely and consistent manner.

An interesting look at one of Marvel’s earliest duds. Not terrible

stuff. But definitely not ‘The Galactus Saga’ either. The art is

quite stunning however. I gotta say, I love those Severins!

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Extra! #2

A treasure hunt for Nazi gold in the icy fjords of Norway. A doctor with a crisis of faith assisting a small island imperiled by a volcano. And a crazed hoodlum takes an up-and-coming reporter hostage in a burning building. It’s all in a days work for the staff of the fictional EC newspaper, Extra!

For it’s less popular New Direction titles, this one isn’t bad. The twists aren’t as shocking as the days of Tales from the Crypt, but the excitement is still there. Plus there’s great art from legends like Wally Wood and John Severin.

WORTH CONSUMING!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.