American Tall Tales

From the staff book exchange shelf at my school.

Title: American Tall Tales
Publisher: Scholastic
Date: 1991
Writer: Mary Pope Osborne
Artist: Michael McCurdy

Not a comic, but another interesting example of mixing story and illustration.

Collection of retellings of American folktales by Magic Tree House author Mary Pope Osborne.

These are very definitely the author's own take on the legends of 19th Century America, but she includes extensive notes on the origins of each of the iconic characters, many of which were actually the inventions of specific 19th Century authors, that only later made their way into the realm of folklore.

The stories are presented in a flamboyant style that captures the flavor of tales told around a campfire, and the personalities of the heroes and heroines shine bright as their larger-than-life deeds are recounted.

There is plenty of humor, but the Author's best work is bringing out the more serious side of the stories, particularly in the tales of steel-driver John Henry and New York City firefighter Mose.

The incorporation of song lyrics (as performed by Pete Seeger, and later Bruce Springsteen) into the John Henry story felt a bit like the author was trying too hard, but I do have to admit that I was singing the song in my head as I read the story.

Michael McCurdy's wood-engraving illustrations are simply spectacular and a huge part of the charm of this book.

Rating: 7/10

Doom Patrol #44

From the Ramdom stack of unread comics.

Title: Doom Patrol
Issue: 44
Date: May 1991
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciller: Richard Case
Inker: Mark McKenna
Colorist: Dan Vozzo
Letterer: Jay Workman
Editor: Art Young, Tom Peyer

Who runs America? Who runs the world? Why is the Pentagon the shape it is?

Dorothy and Flex Mentallo are prisoners of the Men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. in a secret chamber beneath the Pentagon, and the machine known as the Ant Farm is about to exterminate imagination and strangeness from the world.

Well, there is no lack of strangeness in this story. I read this issue in isolation, and it has a lot going on, so I'm sure I missed quite a bit. But what I did get was excellent: the wild telephone-company conspiracy theories, the dropped references to everything from the Principia Discordia to Apocalypse Now, and the surreal final confrontation in which Dorothy has to make a dangerous bargain for the power to save her friends.

This was a visual spectacle and a total trip down the rabbit-hole in terms of storytelling. It tried a bit too hard to juggle too many characters, but it had so much delicious strangeness, that I can forgive the somewhat scattered focus.

Rating: 7.5/10

Shade: The Changing Man #18

Finishing up the last of the small stack of comics that I brought with me when we moved overseas. I have a big collection of comics back home. Mostly bargain-bin fodder, but a decent sized collection. Twenty-five longboxes or thereabouts. And that's after I ditched five longboxes for pennies-on-the-dollar to clear space a year or two ago.

Of those, there are probably about three longboxes worth of unread comics, most of which I bought during buying sprees in bargain bins at stores and conventions. 

During the last days of packing for our move to the other side of the world, I figured I'd grab some unread comics, but I was pretty short on space. I had a bit of room in a carryon bag, and I knew that comics I crammed in there were in danger of getting wrecked.

So my criteria when I went into the unread comics stack was pretty simple. I grabbed books that were already bagged and boarded (most weren't) until I had all that would fit. The result was a very random mix.

I'm down to my last few. After this one, seven more to read.

Title:Shade: The Changing Man
Issue: 18
Date: December, 1991
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Peter Milligan
Penciler: Chris Bachalo
Inker: Mark Pennington
Colorist: Daniel Vozzo
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Alisa Kwitney, Karen Berger
Cover: Jamie Hewlett


This is the finale to the American Scream storyline that formed the main narrative in the early issues of Vertigo's Shade: The Changing Man (technically this is pre-Vertigo, but it's the series that was brought under the Vertigo umbrella). 

Shade is being backed into a corner. His only chance to save Kathy and defeat to American Scream is to return to Meta and kill Wisor. But he doesn't know how to get there, and he isn't sure he can do the deed even if he does find a way home.

There are final confrontations all round as Shade and Agent Rohug confront Wisor, and Wisor is forced to confront his own creation, the Scream.

The opening scenes are the usual frenetic insanity that is to be expected from Shade, with appearances by Christopher Columbus and an animate version of Mount Rushmore. The climactic faceoff is good, if a bit neat in its resolution, but the real gem of the issue is the epilogue sequence, which is poignant and heartfelt, and lays the groundwork for a new direction for Shade's story.

Rating: 7.5/10

Ghost Rider #15

I still have some of the hastily-grabbed stack of comics that I took with me when we moved overseas. Here is one of them.

Title: Ghost Rider
Issue: 15
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: July, 1991
Writer:Howard Mackie
Penciler: Mark Texeira
Inker: Mark Texeira
Colorist: Gregory Wright
Letterer: Janice Chiangs
Editor: Bobbie Chase, Chris Cooper

Glow-in-the-dark cover! Glow-in-the-dark cover is more 90s than you could ever hope to be!




In case you're curious, it does still glow a little bit after 24 years. Look!

Got a scorecard handy? So, Ghost Rider is not Johnny Blaze. He's some guy named Dan Ketch. Well, I guess technically, it's the same ghost rider, but it's Dan Ketch transforming into him. Oh, and Johnny Blaze is trying to track down Ghost Rider and kill him with a gun that shoots hellfire. Meanwhile, Ghost Rider/Ketch are trying to track down a vampire named Blackout, who is trying to track down, well, more victims I guess. Then there is also a team of female mercenaries who are flying around in a helicopter trying to get their hands on Ghost Rider's motorcycle. This all happens with a supporting cast of vampire victims, New York City cops, and (racist stereotype) crack-smoking gang members.

The story is an over-wordy mess for about the first third or so, but I have to admit that writer Howard Mackie does a decent job of maneuvering all of the above-listed moving parts into a reasonable climax and resolution. It still ends up being too wordy, but the story does a nice job of keeping everyone relevant right through to the end while serving up a heaping portion of melodrama.

In the final panel, the cops are asking the remaining characters, "What happened here?". The answer is "You got a few days?" That actually sums up this story pretty nicely.

Rating: 4.5/10

Donald Duck Adventures #16

I didn't get much at the recent Granite State Comicon. I was running my table and never had a chance to do much shopping. My son did pick up this as a freebie from a dealer who had a box of free comics for kids.

Title: Donald Duck Adventures
Issue: #16
Date: 1991
Publisher: Disney
Artist: Vicar
Editor: Len Wein

Two stories. First up, incompetent meteorologist Donald gets assigned to a remote weather station on a mountain in South America. He's convinced it's an important assignment, when really the weather bureau is just looking for a way to get rid of him. The nephews tag along for fun.

But the fun turns perilous when a giant roc bird (straight out of the Tales of the Arabian Nights, or possibly from the D&D First Edition Monster Manual) makes off with the entire weather station shack for use as nest-building materials, with Donald and his nephews inside!

The second story has Donald getting into the house-painting business. The house is haunted, of course, and the nephews can't wait to sneak in and play some ghostly pranks. But in the end, they're the ones getting spooked.

Both stories were fast-paced, and fun without ever feeling like they were talking down to the audience. There were plenty of plot twists, and a nice balance with the Donald Duck character. He wins some and he loses some here.

This was nothing groundbreaking, but it was some good fun that really is enjoyable by kids and adults.

Rating: 7/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #38

Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Issue: #38
Date: July, 1991
Publisher: Mirage Studios

When I rediscovered comics in the late 1980s (I'd been a Marvel fan as a kid), it was still relatively early in the b/w comic boom that began with Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. TMNT had been going for a couple of years when I got my first comic shop subscription at the original Newbury Comics location on Newbury St. in Boston. At that point the first couple of issues had already jumped in price enough to turn me off of picking them up. I stuck to the books I could get at cover price (Robotech, Elflord, Adventurers, Mai: The Psychic Girl, Lone Wolf & Cub, Watchmen, and Kamui were on that first subscription).

I mention all of the above as my way of explaining that this issue is the first issue of TMNT that I've actually ever read. My only other experience with these characters has been through the very sanitized and family-friendly movies and cartoon show.

I wouldn't go so far as to describe the humor in this issue as "adult", but the raunchy factor is certainly up a few notches from the animated "Heroes on a Half Shell" (a nickname that makes no sense at all, come to think of it). The basic plot here has a couple of incompetent aliens abducting Raphael (and a cow; what is it with aliens and cows?) and dodging the equally incompetent government forces that are trying to blow their flying saucer out of the sky.

There are a couple of good jokes and a lot of really bad lowbrow humor. I did like the advice that one particular page would be best enjoyed while listening to the song "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins. Unfortunately, the laughs generally were neither frequent enough nor clever enough to keep my attention.

Rating: 5/10