Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio. This week, Bennett looks at some of this year's top distractions.If I have learned anything about life it’s that you always have to have something to distract yourself with, though I’ve got to admit that the older I get the harder it is to find that something. For instance I know that I’ll be seeing Iron Man 2 in May but after that the rest of the year is a bit of a blank. In August new episodes of The Venture Bros. will start on Adult Swim and Venture Bros. co-creator Jason Publick has just announced that this season’s final episode has been upgraded to a full hour “special.” It’s supposed to air sometime in December which will definitely help me get through the Holiday season.
All of which makes me deeply grateful for the direct sales market for keeping me in a state of constant distraction. Last week’s major diversion was The Newsboy Legion by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Vol. 1 HC (though for reasons inexplicable Amazon lists the volume as The Newsboy Legion Vol. 1 Featruing Simon & Kirby as if instead of being the books creators they’re the comic’s back up feature). I’ve been waiting for DC to publish this for most of my adult life and happily this volume doesn’t disappoint.
But among some of the other items I’m most looking forward to there’s…
Marvelman Classic Primer #1
Marvel finally announced its initial plans for Marvelman with Marvelman Classic Primer #1 coming out in June and #1 (an ongoing series) and the undoubtedly high ticket Marvelman Family's FinestMarvelman Classic Vol. 1 Premiere HC (which reprints the Marvelman stories in chronological order) due in July. All of which suggest that Marvel is serious (i.e. willing to spend money) to try and convince a readership which only knows the Alan Moore/Neil Gaiman MM stories via rumor that he is an important character of historical significance.
Which is nice but there’s a part of me that would like to believe that Marvel is doing at least some of this to cheese DC off. It’s the same part of me that wonders what Time-Warner will do to raise the profile on their Shazam franchise so the marketplace won’t confuse the two properties.
Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom
You can place this one in the literally years in the making but well worth the wait category; Tom Strong has always struck me as a supposedly simple that’s deceptively difficult to write (unless you happen to be Alan Moore). At the end of his run a lot of brand name writers took their turn writing him with mostly disappointing results but I have high hopes Peter Hogan will bring his unruly sensibility to the project. Plus new art from Chris Sprouse will always make my day.
But this is the one I’m probably looking forward to most which is coming out from IDW in May. Here’s a confession that will probably surprise no one; growing up I never read Archie Comics. Comic reading wise I leapfrogged over the ducks and mice so Archie was never even an option; I was all about superheroes from the very beginning but happily my interests have widened as I’ve gotten older and have come to appreciate the work of Archie artists such as Bob Bolling and Stan Goldberg. But recently I’ve fallen madly in love with the work of Dan DeCarlo.
I’ve been digging my way through DeCarlo’s work in the 50’s and 60’s and have found his characters have a wonderful vitality which transcends time. All the hair styles and clothes of his teens are of course perfectly appropriate for the period but when you look at their faces (especially their eyes) you can see they’re very much alive.
I’ve grown especially fond of She's Josie which became much better known later as Josie and the Pussycats, especially Josie’s best friend Pepper who unfortunately didn’t make the band and unfortunately disappeared without a trace. With her short dark hair, glasses and snarky attitude Pepper was an original and I’d love to see her return.
These earlier Archies are also worth reading because of all the material in them that the publisher wouldn’t dare to do today, what with their obsession with their wholesome image. I’ve seen references to divorce, characters openly lusting after each other and... then there’s this panel. In the context of the times it’s undoubtedly completely innocent. Probably.
And I was fully prepared to trumpet “you can now follow me on Facebook!” but this week I discovered you can also follow my 70-year-old dentist, the company I send my rent checks to and the local bagel place. This confirms my gnawing suspicion that the cool kids are moving onto the Tweet.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.