Pulp-Powered Comics: Hellboy Seed of Destruction

Having read the entire series a few years ago, I recently took the chance to look over the first volume of the ongoing series of miniseries Hellboy: Seed of Destruction again. The character, at least in his early incarnation, was decidedly adventure pulp in origin only coated in a fine layer of Lovecraftian horrors. But until recently I never noticed the striking resemblance between his first adventure and those of Doc Savage.

Basically, Hellboy is Doc Savage.

Artist Mike Mignola and scripter John Byrne have crafted a story about an intrepid agent with uncanny abilities that makes him far and away better than an average man and his allies. His father’s death sets off his first adventure. One his quest, his company of heroes follow him. A clear similarity begins to show itself.

Now clearly, it is by no means a straight pastiche. Hellboy is a demon with filed off horns. Instead of the Fearless Five, his aides are the fish-man Abe Sapien and pyrokinetic Liz Sherman. (His other allies would come later.) His father is killed by evil toads, not a South American assassin.

But I think the similarities are worthy of attention. Over the last sixteen years of stories, Hellboy, his supporting cast, and their ongoing narrative have easily become the most widely known neo-pulp characters in fiction.

I digress. I am here to talk about Hellboy: Seed of Destruction. The series gives us a brief origin of the character that opens up as many questions as it might solve before we leap head-long in to the story. The team quickly find themselves in to an ever growing web of evil crafted by the half-alive mad monk known as Rasputin. Things get complicated and Hellboy finds himself battling to save the world.

Mignola’s skills as a storyteller were still rough around the edges at this point. John Byrne providing the script to Mignola’s plot helps some, though at times the characters seem slightly off in their decisions. Viewed as a standalone though, it is nothing short of epic.

Each book in the series seems to stray farther and father from that initial pulp premise. But Seed of Destruction is definitely a good piece of pulp. Recommended.

Pulp-Powered Prose: Doc Savage!

We have spent quite a lot of this month so far discussing Pulp comics and will continue to discuss a few more as we go. Why? Because many of the best pulp-inspired stories come out of modern comics. It’s one of the reasons I consider Pulp Empire so important.

But one place the pulps are still alive is in noted pulp historian Anthony Tollin’s series of Doc Savage reprints. Produced through Nostalgia Ventures, this thirty-five volume (so far) series reprints two classic Doc stories per issue with a combination of classic covers and the more up to date James Bama covers from the sixties and seventies. Inside, you will find a historical essay or two, and more importantly, two great adventures of Doc, Ham, Monk, Johnny, Renny, and Long Tom.

I have picked up a few so far, mostly through my local Half Price Books, but I would recommend everyone start from the beginning of the classic series. That means finding a copy of Doc Savage #14: “The Man of Bronze” & “The Land of Terror”. It features the first two stories of the classic pulp hero; stories that clearly have inspired everything from the A-Team to Superman.

“The Man of Bronze” introduces Doc and his team and sends him out on his first major adventure. He goes to South America to find his father’s killer and in the process finds a secret tribe, a group of tribal assassins, and a greedy business man. And a whole hell of a lot of gold.

“:The Land of Terror” is more gruesome than the usual Doc tale as Doc and company travel to a lost bit of the world where dinosaurs still walk the earth. While not as good as “The Man of Bronze” and far more violent than other Doc tales, it still makes a decent second novel in this collection (if for no other reason than it was the second story).

An autobiography of Doc writer Lester Dent and a history of the character’s origin as written by pulp historian Will Murray close out this volume.

And that leaves thirty-five more volumes to go!

While Doc remains a mostly forgotten hero in a lot of the world’s eyes, a new series at DC and an upcoming movie project seem set to bring the character to explosive life once again. In the mean time, go find a couple copies of these amazing pulp replica editions. I suspect you will find yourself just as engrossed by the epic adventures as I was. Recommended.

Pulp-Powered Comics: Batman/Doc Savage Special

This book seemed to have a simple goal: introduce the readers to the First Wave version of Batman a few months before the first issue of First Wave hits the stands. If it happened to reintroduce Doc Savage to the masses more the better.

With words by Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets) and art by Phil Noto (Jonah Hex), the series definitely has a quality pedigree. But despite Noto’s lovely art, Azzarello’s story goes from feeling a little slow early on to rushed by its conclusion.

The two heroes find themselves at cross purposes, but quickly form a working relationship of sorts, not all that far removed from that of mainline DC’s Bruce Wayne and another guy named Clark. What it fails to do is give a solid lead in to the upcoming First Wave series.

Thankfully, the preview art I presented on this site a few months ago follows the initial story as a teaser. First Wave only started last month, but expect a review of the first two issues later this month. Meanwhile, Batman / Doc Savage Special is Mildly Recommended.

Super-Powered Comics: Diamond Destinations April 2010 (for June comics)

p. 35: King Conan Volume One: The five over-sized issues of King Conan in this book are my favorite Conan comic of all time. From a person that once ran a Conan comic website, that is strong praise. Everyone should read it.

p. 79: Batman Beyond #1: Terry McGinnis returns in comic form. I have no idea how good this book will be, but the return of the future Batman is definitely reason to celebrate.

p. 87: The Spirit #3 and Doc Savage #3: It’s Pulp Month here, so I think its would be best to cover these two new pulp-oriented ongoings. The first issues hit in the next couple weeks so be sure to check them out.

p. 107: Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom #1: It is without original co-creator Alan Moore, but Chris Sprouse’s always gorgeous art returns to Tom Strong. Peter Hogan wrote the amazing Terra Obscura for the ABC line, so I think this book has tons of potential to be a really great sleeper hit, Alan Moore or not.

p. 140: Jurassic Park #1: IDW moves to the front of the catalog and this book leads it off. I am not sure how big a deal a new Jurassic Park comic really is, but this will certainly be an interesting read. The concept takes the movie through real time and makes Tim and Lex Murphy the now adult leads. Should be interesting to see how this one plays out. And the Frank Miller dinosaur cover doesn’t hurt either (though I am pretty sure it comes from an old JP card set and isn’t original to this book.)

p. 173: Hack/Slash: My First Maniac #1: Hack/Slash has definitely had its ups and downs as a series, but with a move to Image, this book should be sitting in a lot more solid place for many months to come. If you enjoy slasher movies, you should definitely be reading this book, as it gives an interesting new and heroic twist to the genre.

p. 174: Dynamo 5: Sins of the Father #1: I am a huge fan of Jay Faerber’s little corner of the Image universe. While his artists are now working over at DC, he has teamed with Julio Brilha to bring back Dynamo 5 in limited series form. And to up the fun, he has brought in Invincible’s Omni-Man and Rob Liefeld’s Supreme to up the ante! This one should be a lot of fun and I highly recommend it.

p. 180: Brigade #1: Speaking of Rob Liefeld, here he has the return of Brigade! I always liked the team even through the pains of their original limited series, only to see them all slaughtered in the ongoing book. Here, Liefeld teams with the original artist Marat Mychaels to reboot the concept. Say what you will about Liefeld, but I am on-board for this one.

p. 181: Sea Bear & Grizzly Shark: Let’s just let the cover do the talking for this one.

p. 189: God Complex #7: I don’t think I have mentioned this well-written new book by Daniel Berman, John Broglia, and Mike Oeming yet. The basic concept is simple: Apollo decides to stop being a god and live as a mortal. Zeus and the rest of the family become less than happy about it. And the adventure begins! A great fun book that never takes itself too seriously. Anyone who enjoys fun comics should give this one a try.

p. M19: Deadpool: Wade Wilson’s War #1 & 2: Normally I am not much of a fan of Marvel’s current Deadpool titles. But you get Jason Pearson on art and my opinion can quickly change. This book is sure to be beautiful, even though the solicitations don’t really clear up what it is about. I think it is supposed to be his origin story, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

p. M27: Spider-Ham 25th Anniversary Special #1: I do not know what is more amazing. Is it the return of Peter Porker, Spider-Ham? Or is it the Joe Jusko cover it is wrapped in?

p. M31: Avengers Academy #1: I have no idea how this book differs from the original concept of Avengers: The Initiative, but I am happy to see it has new characters and excellent art by Mike McKone. Could be a winner.

p. M51: Hawkeye & Mockingbird #1: I am more of an indy comics buyer, but Marvel has guaranteed I will regularly be buying at least two of their regular titles with this book. Atlas was already a guaranteed sell, and I am nothing if not an unrepentant Hawkeye fanboy. Jim McCann wrote a pretty decent limited for these two last year and this one has the potential to be a great book as well. And it has Crossfire and Phantom Rider!

p. 218: The Royal Historian of Oz #1: While I don’t know the names Tommy Kovac or Andy Hirsch, I can’t argue with a new Oz comic for only a buck. Amaze Ink has me for at least one issue with this one.

p. 218: Shadoweyes: Also from Amaze Ink this month is a new graphic novel featuring the beautiful art of Ross Campbell. Campbell has previously drawn the gorgeous Wet Moon and The Abandoned, so I am guessing this future superhero tale will almost certainly be gorgeous.

p. 250: Pale Horse #1: One of my biggest complaints about Boom as a publisher is their lack of previews. While I am curious to learn more about this Western tale of an ex-slave, previews are nowhere to be found. Michael Alan Nelson has been more miss than hit for me as a writer, so I am going to pass it up. Hopefully I am not missing out on a good book do to bad marketing.

p. 252: Darkwing Duck: The Duck Knight Returns #1: On the other hand, Boom’s other new book pretty much sells itself. Darkwing Duck has a definite cult following and should make a big splash at Boom. Now if they can just get the continuance of Greg Weisman’s Gargoyles....

p. 290: Ghostopolis: Doug TenNapel, creator of Earthworm Jim, has produced some great comics over the last few years like Earthboy Jacobus and Iron West. He has left Image for his latest OGN, a kids book called Ghostopolis. It looks like an interesting dark fantasy, which isn’t typical kiddy fare, but neither was Harry Potter a little over a decade ago.

p. 292: Unfabulous Five: The Greasers From the Black Lagoon #1: Humanoids is back to self-publishing in America and part of the deal is the return of this great series (formerly part of Image’s Lucha Libre anthology) to print. Hilarious pseudo-super hero tales of washed-up luchadores. What more can you ask for?

p. 300: Super Pro K.O.! volume 1: It is an unwritten rule that wrestling comics fail. They fail hard. But this cartoony, over the top series by Oni Press might actually manage to make wrestling comics cool.

p. 324: Battle Smash vs. Saucer Men From Venus: And wrestling may be a them of this month’s previews with this lucha superhero series from Viper Comics.

p. 337: Alter Ego #94 and Back Issue #41: Two new issues of Twomorrow’s great comic history magazines. And they both now feature sixteen color pages, which ups their greatness that much more. Back Issue is a guaranteed buy from me ever six weeks, while this issue of Alter Ego looks good as it continues the magazine’s look at DC’s Earth Two.

p. 369: Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose Minimates boxed set: This may be the officially oddest Minimate set ever.

p. 388: Tonner Tomb Raider: Amanda Evert Doll: I haven’t played a Lara Croft game in years, but when did she get an evil goth enemy? And now that figure has a Barbie-style doll!

That’s it for this month. We will leave you with one last terrifying look at the Tarot minimates.

Pulp-Powered Prose: Tales of the Shadowmen volume one

Created by J.-M. & Randy Lofficier to revive classic French pulp heroes, Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 1: The Modern Babylon is an English language pulp anthology. Strange it seems at first, until you realize it is meant as a tie in to their two books Shadowmen, which give the history of these characters in details. But I digress, this is about Tales, so let’s focus on it.

The first thing you see is an excellent cover by Mike Manley featuring Judex, something of a French version of the Shadow (though he appeared years before the American character), and Frankenstein's Monster. The illustration clearly comes from Matthew Baugh’s opening tale “Mask of the Monster”. The story gets the anthology off to an exciting, action-packed start while introducing me (and I am sure many others) to some new classic characters.

Bill Cunningham continues the excitement with his story of an obscure pulp figure of France, Fascinax, in “Cadavres Exquis”. The story is another Shadow-esque riff, but it takes the character and puts him through hell as he faces his arch-foe Numa Pergyll.

The next high light is Wold Newton grandmaster Win Scott Eckert’s “The Vanishing Devil”. It takes French pulp character Francis Ardan and makes his similarities to Doc Savage more than just similarities. He is clearly Clark Savage, although Win always slides just a step away from saying it out right (probably do to copyright issues). He goes on a rip-roaring French adventure that puts him up against Yellow Peril villian Doctor Natas, a character Eckert makes clear is actually Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu. And this still isn’t the craziest bit of crossover storytelling this book has!

The editors write “Journey to the Center of Chaos”, a story combining H.P. Lovecraft created characters with an entire band of obscure characters, including the rather strange Sar Dubnotal. And of course a Cthulhu Mythos horror manages to pop up its evil head.

Two tales of Edgar Allen Poe’s original detective (and Frenchman) C. Augustine Dupin follow. Samuel T. Payne’s “Lacunal Visions” is somewhat disappointing. John Peel’s “The Kind-Hearted Torturer” is a much more entertaining and well written affair as the detective teams up with none other than the Count of Monte Cristo.

Chris Roberson does give us the story even stranger than Eckert’s with “Penumbra”. Framed around a French silent film from 1915 called Les Vampires, it stars the same director’s Judex. As he seeks to uncover the origins of the vampires, he encounters one Kent Allard, later the similarly attired Shadow. He also meets a young couple named the Waynes, Thomas and Martha. In the process you get a secret of a certain caped crusader’s origin that is only possible in a Wold Newton book such as this.

The book closes with Brian Stableford’s “The Titan Unwrecked”, a story starring Allan Quatermain, Ayesha, Dracula, and numerous literary and business figures of the turn of the century. Bad things start happening and things get almost as crazy as “Penumbra”.

A few more lesser stories round out the book, but even these so-so tales at least feature some truly unique figures. The writers really do cover the spectrum of pulp figures from obscure to quite common.

All in all, this book is a fun and exciting bit of pulp fiction. Though it’s a little pricy for a trade paperback at $22.95, I would say it was definitely worth it. Strongly Recommended.

Super-Powered Comics: Diamond Destinations February

pg 63: Brightest Day #0: Probably the biggest news story of the month is this puppy. I don’t know what it will be about, but it is clearly a direct follow-up to Blackest Night, and that should make it a top seller.

pg 69: Batman: Arkham Asylum - Madness: This popped up out of nowhere, but I think the potential of a Sam Keith Arkham story is great. Unfortunately (especially for a barely advertised project) the solicitation copy gives little to no information about the story itself.

pg 70-71: Doc Savage #1 and The Spirit #1: The First Wave expands with two new ongoing series focused on its pulp heroes. Savage gets Paul Malmont, writer of The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, a novel that turns pulp writers in to pulp heroes, with art by Howard Porter. Porter’s style seems tailor-made for Doc. Plus the $4 backup is assuaged by Avenger back-ups by Hard Case Crime author Jason Starr & Simon Dark’s Scott Hampton. At the same time, DC steals Richard Starkings’s favorite creators with Ladronn on covers and Moritat on interiors of a new Spirit book. And the editors wisely picked Xenozoic Tales writer Mark Schultz to bring the story. Each issue will steal a page from old Batman issues with an additional 8 page black and white backup. It should be interesting to see who DC finds to fill those slots past this month’s Denny O’Neil and Bill Sienkiewicz story. I am truly excited for these two, more so than even the FIrst Wave limited itself.

pg 99: DV8: Gods & Monsters #1: I won’t lie; I was an unrepentant fanboy of Warren Ellis’s DV8. The series fell apart after he left, but now the great Brian Wood (of Demo fame) brings the characters back in a new eight issue series. This has the potential of being a really solid new superhero book from Wildstorm, something the company has missed for months (outside Astro City of course).

pg. 139: Turf #1: I know next to nothing about British television host Jonathan Ross, but I can say his weird-crime period piece looks amazing. Tommy Lee Edwards is a hell of an artist and he is in perfect form with this release. I hope it proves to be as big a seller as it well should be.

pg. 148: Haunt #7: This issue finally resolves the sometimes hinky art provided by Ryan Ottley over Greg Capullo’s layouts. How do they manage it? They make Greg Capullo the new artist. Now I’m sure much of his superstar status has faded since the days he worked on Spawn, but I have been a fan of Capullo since Quasar. (Yeah, I am that old.) This should just take Haunt another step forward on its road to greatness.

pg. 170: Magdalena #1: Ron Marz has carved out quite the little universe for himself at Top Cow. His Witchblade and Angelus are good, solid stories and now he is continuing that tradition with Magdalena. I am a huge fan of the character, but sadly will probably be skipping this one despite all its pluses. Why? The $3.99 price tag.

Marvel pg. 13: You want to know the best way to get people to buy your one-shots? Solicit them without any information about their actual titles or creative teams. But hey, since they all say Siege, I’m sure they will still sell well.

Marvel pg. 15: Black Widow #1: It took a movie appearance in the upcoming Iron Man 2, but Black Widow finally has her own series! While i am not the biggest fan of artist Daniel Acuna, but writer Marjorie Liu is definitely one of the best new writers Marvel has. Plus, unlike so many other Marvel titles, for $4 the reader at least gets 40 pages of content.

Marvel pg. 37: Savage Axe of Ares: I was a big fan of Marvel’s magazines and I am happy to see they are continuing their black & white follow-ups to those mags this month. Ares seems to be a good fit for this kind of book. We will see what kind of stories we get from the writing team of the three stories in this one.

pg 218: Cold Space #1: Samuel L. Jackson in outer space. I’m not quite sure what to make of it, although the preview art makes it look like Mace Windu in Mass Effect. Again, the $4 price tag probably means I won’t be ordering this one myself.

pg 236: Green Hornet Year One: Matt Wagner on Green Hornet. Nuff said.

pg. 351: Mr. Potato Head: Kiss Collector Set: WTF? No seriously, I know Kiss loves merchandising, but is there actually any call whatsoever for Potato KISS? I find this rather disturbing.

pg. 279: Bayonetta Play Arts: Bayonetta Action Figure: Have you ever wanted to own the craziest costumed video game character in 9 1/4" plastic form? Well, now you can, thanks to this $40 import figure!

That wraps up another set of highlights! Be sure to add to your pull lists accordingly, folks!

Super-Powered Comics: Diamond Destinations January

I am a bit late on this one, simply because I haven’t been in the comic shop for a couple weeks. But let’s hurry up and see what looks good:

p. 52: Buffy the Vampire Slayer #33: This issue features the big reveal that is all over the internet now. Still not sure how I feel about this one, but I would guess this issue will be a huge seller for Dark Horse.

p. 80: First Wave #1: DC’s revival of classic pulp characters under the pen of Brian Azzarello begins in full force this month. This follows directly after the events of Batman/Doc Savage, and will apparently pick up plot points from that story. With art by Rags Morales this book should be a real beaut, but it remains to be seen how much Azzarello can bring to the table for the classic pulp characters.

p. 116: American Vampire #1: Another series promises you Stephen King actually writing a comic and this one seems to actually be delivering it. However, I still strongly suspect that writer Scott Snyder is doing little more than working from King notes for the book’s back-ups. The book does seem to have an intriguing concept, and it does have 40 pages for its $3.99 price tag.

p. 142: Image United: Interlude #1: Well, invariably Image United was going to have some delays and for the second month we get no new issue here. But we do get a book that is potentially even more interesting, as several other Image characters make appearances in this special issue, all drawn by their artists. Invincible leads the pack, but from those shadows, I am guessing we will also be seeing at least Pitt in this book. Any guess on the other folks?

p. M85: Millar & McNiven’s Nemesis #1: I am by no means Mark Millar’s biggest fan, but this combination of the Batman and Joker in to one character leaves me intrigued. We will have to see how they play out on the printed page, but I suspect this could be the buzz book of 2010.

p. 229: Incredibles #8: I just wanted to point out the most recent issue of the Disney/Pixar/Boom book simply because one of my all time favorite writers and extreme Fantastic Four fan Karl Kesel is writing the most recent issue. Hopefully he will stick around for a long time to come.

p. 238: Green Hornet #1: The other huge release of March is the arrival of Kevin Smith’s take on the Green Hornet. This could either be an amazing book akin to his Daredevil run or more akin to the mediocre Batman: Cacophony. We will have to wait and see, I suppose. He has submitted every script though, so no worries of delays on this book.

p. 263: four different A-Team books: IDW wasted no time getting a hold of this license. I think the preview of the film looks excellent, but I think IDW is overdoing it with 4 titles in one month. This may be a huge gamble for the company.

p. 290: WWE Heroes #1: Wow. Just wow. Wrestling comics have always been an iffy prospect, and this one looks to be just a step above those terrible WWF books Valiant released in the early nineties. And by that I mean it makes even the worst of the Chaos! Comics titles look like a Gaiman masterpiece. It’s sad, because I think there is a potential market for wrestling comics, but this is not the way to do it.

p. 312: Back Issue #39: Every other month, this magazine brings retrospectives on some of the best comics of yesteryear. This month it brings you the funniest with an April Fools themed edition, complete with a Spider-Ham cover. And we all know Spider-Ham is worth the price of admission alone.

p. 316: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: It is Seth Grahame-Smith’s next novel after Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. Do you need to know anything else?

p. 354: TNA Impact! figures: They have nothing to do with superheroes (except for maybe Sting), but I have to say I found it amusing to see the ads mention the show was on FoxSportsNet, even though it has been on SpikeTV for about three years now, I believe. Time to update your info, ad guys!

p. 358: Did you ever want to spend $200 for a non-moving Thundercat? Well now you can with the Cheetara statue!

p. 398: You know DVDs are coming out too fast after the movies initial release when Previews lists Daybreakers, Book of Eli, and Legion all on DVD prior to their release dates this month.

There you go, my look at this month’s Previews.

Super-Powered Web: First Wave, First Look

I am comfortably sitting just above my goal for today, so I thought I would take some time out to look at one of the most exciting projects coming down the comic pipeline next year. DC has decided to revive several pulp concepts in a shared universe (presumably one of the DC 52) and it looks gorgeous. The story actually debuts tomorrow with Batman / Doc Savage by Brian Azzarello (the perfect writer for this project) and Phil Noto. Then some time next year it continues with The First Wave by Azzarello and artist Rags Morales. The project seems to have an interesting combination of pulp characters and powerless DC heroes. Check out the amazing Rags preview images below (and be sure to click on them to see them full size and more easily read Azzarello’s commentary on each).







All images courtesy The Source.