The 80- and 100-Page Giants - DC Comics Message Boards

DC Universe [all categories]

DC Universe Archives

The 80- and 100-Page Giants (Page 3)

profile | register | preferences | faq

UBBFriend: Email This Page to Someone!
This topic is 15 pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

next newest topic | next oldest topic

Author	Topic: The 80- and 100-Page Giants
Cave Carson Member	posted December 21, 2001 05:08 PM Hey! I have the exact same deal with MY buddy! IP: Logged
James Friel Member	posted December 23, 2001 06:30 AM quote: Originally posted by Steven Utley: ...Honestly, I wonder sometimes if Kanigher wasn't on drugs. I always felt that way about Ditko: How could anyone so straight and literal--an objectivist, fer chrissakes--have drawn those Doctor Stranges? Yeah, Kanigher sometimes showed not only no connection to the comic book "reality" he was supposedly chronicling, but also very little to the world the rest of us lived in either. Wonder Tot and Bird-Boy were just the tip of the iceberg. If only his brand of lunacy had been just slightly more in sympathy with fannish tastes, he'd be remembered as the greatest writer of the Silver Age--DC's Stan Lee. IP: Logged
Terence Member	posted December 23, 2001 08:02 AM Heh! Don't usually read Wizard, but picked it up last month for the article on Ditko. Apparently he was quite disturbed and confused when it was pointed out to him that folks were getting high reading his Dr Strange. Kept on going on about how that wasn't intended. And I noticed that in their 'comprehensive' checklist of Ditko's work, that they left out the Wonder Woman Spectacular from 1977(?). Par for the course, I suppose. IP: Logged
Uncle Stan Member	posted December 23, 2001 02:39 PM I've been suggesting a Max Mercury 100-page Special for a while; chock full of old quality Quicksilver stories. IP: Logged
casselmm47 Member	posted December 24, 2001 05:02 PM quote: Originally posted by Terence: And I noticed that in their 'comprehensive' checklist of Ditko's work, that they left out the Wonder Woman Spectacular from 1977(?). Par for the course, I suppose. ...Just to spread a bit of unusual holiday cheer towards Wizard, they actually did remember the WW Spectacular... it was listed as DC Special Series 9 (the books actual title). Normally, I'd have expected Wizard to miss this title. Cass IP: Logged
Terence Member	posted December 24, 2001 05:24 PM I then stand corrected. Now, if only someone could explain to me the depiction of the Golden Age Wonder Woman, described in the text as Diana in the latest issue, I'd be a happy man. IP: Logged
Steven Utley Member	posted December 26, 2001 07:45 AM By all accounts, James, Steve Ditko is a very strange man. I don't have to live next door to him, however, or listen to his objectivist tirades, which leaves me free admire his work or ignore it as I may choose. And do I admire it or ignore it? Well, among the handful of stories I wrote for DC during the 1970s, my personal favorite is the one illustrated by Ditko, all three pages of it -- "The Planet of Loathing," Mystery in Space # 115, cover-dated January 1981. It's not first-rate Ditko, but I can't convey how pleased I was when I first saw the issue. IP: Logged
James Friel Member	posted December 27, 2001 02:50 AM quote: Originally posted by Steven Utley: By all accounts, James, Steve Ditko is a very strange man. I don't have to live next door to him, however, or listen to his objectivist tirades, which leaves me free admire his work or ignore it as I may choose.... Yeah. I've been a Ditko fan since before AF #15. I was always a little bummed that DC chose Carmine Infantino to re-vitalize the Batman in 1964 instead of either Ditko or Joe Kubert. I worked for Eclipse for a year in the mid-80s, and heard a few Ditko stories from cat yronwode--he doesn't actually sound like much of a ranter in real life--my impression was that he was a pretty ordinary but very shy sort of a guy. IP: Logged
Old Dude Member	posted December 27, 2001 08:13 PM WHOA! Can you imagine Ditko having taken over Batman for "The New Look" and then being told soon after to change the Caped Crusader to match the Adam West version during the Batmania time? BA-BOOM! IP: Logged
James Friel Member	posted December 27, 2001 11:39 PM quote: Originally posted by Old Dude: WHOA! Can you imagine Ditko having taken over Batman for "The New Look" and then being told soon after to change the Caped Crusader to match the Adam West version during the Batmania time? BA-BOOM! From all accounts, the man is a professional who has no problem with the concept of work-for-hire or with working to the employer's specifications. Still, it would have been odd. IP: Logged
James Friel Member	posted December 27, 2001 11:43 PM So Steve--I just came across an old copy of Star Spangled War #126,from 1966,featuring on the cover a helmeted, machine-gun-wielding gorilla. Sgt.Gorilla, in fact. Think there were enough simian war stories to fill a Gorilla Warfare book? IP: Logged
Steven Utley Member	posted December 28, 2001 10:54 AM Dc could probably publish an 80- and a 100-Page Giant and a slipcased two-volume trade-paperback set of its gorilla stories, and never repeat itself. Somewhere, I've a list of my favorites, including "The Gorilla Boss of Gotham City," "Titano the Super-Ape," a Son of Kong lookalike/behave-alike in "Tunnel of Doom" from Star Spangled War Stories, Congorilla and "The Abominable Snowman," and Green Arrow and "The Ape Archer." The Wonder Woman story in which she turns into an ape is Exhibit A in my case for Robert Kanigher, dopehead. IP: Logged
James Friel Member	posted December 28, 2001 11:44 AM And that's not even counting Flash stories featuring Grodd, or the Congorilla series. I meant just war stories, though. IP: Logged
Steven Utley Member	posted December 28, 2001 11:53 AM Hmm, well, besides the aforementioned "Tunnel of Doom," there's a 1960s Tomahawk yarn about (if memory serves) "King Colosso." And, in a very different vein, there's an episode of Sam Glanzman's great U.S.S. Stevens called "King of the Hill," about the fatal convergence of two different sorts of primate at a supply depot. IP: Logged
Cave Carson Member	posted December 28, 2001 12:10 PM I have Mystery In Space #115 on layaway at my shop! I'm going to pick it up today, as a matter of fact. Did anyone ever read Steve Ditkos' Package? Oh...the horror..... ------------------ "He came in a crate...to win the hearts and admiration of the BLACKHAWKS! But behind the chimpanzee's appearance was a sinister motive--one which was soon to endanger the lives of each and every Black Knight! For a villain master had a bizarre plan which seemed certain to make the BLACKHAWKS rue the day they welcomed...BRAVO-THE BLACKHAWK CHIMP" --Blackhawk # 183, April 1963 IP: Logged
Steven Utley Member	posted December 28, 2001 12:40 PM Is this really the place to discuss Steve Ditko's package? IP: Logged
Cave Carson Member	posted December 28, 2001 09:03 PM Not bad! "Planet of Loathing" is sandwiched in between a Tuska-drawn story and another written by Arnold Drake! My personal favorite part of LOATHING was the aliens comment: "We wish to help your world enter its true GOLDEN AGE." I couldn't help but shout out (to no one in particular) " Utley HATES that term!!!!" Great story, where are the others....? ------------------ "He came in a crate...to win the hearts and admiration of the BLACKHAWKS! But behind the chimpanzee's appearance was a sinister motive--one which was soon to endanger the lives of each and every Black Knight! For a villain master had a bizarre plan which seemed certain to make the BLACKHAWKS rue the day they welcomed...BRAVO-THE BLACKHAWK CHIMP" --Blackhawk # 183, April 1963 IP: Logged
daytripper Member	posted December 29, 2001 06:15 PM I read the Ditko packages on a regular basis. They are good, but I think that he tries to cram too much story into too little space. For example, his characters like to curse like @3#$%!! a little too much. He could tell the stories a little more slowly and dramatically. His art, though, is just as good as it ever was. You can tell his level of interest in his stories at any given time, however, since some stories are more detailed and well drawn, hence his interest is high, and when they are a little sketchy, and stock poses are used, when he doesn't seem quite as interested. I may be wrong. At his best today, Ditko as an artist is just as good as he was years ago. IP: Logged
dylanfan Member	posted December 29, 2001 08:17 PM Ditko is the number two man on the comics totem pole I am building in my backyard. (The King is #1, in case ya didn't know!) Anything he did was full of an air of avant garde and mystery. His Dr. Strange was as spooky as comics could get for me. I haven't delved into the Package material yet, but I have plans to add it to my list soon. I really liked the Speedball stuff he did in the late 80's...yeah, a bit of a Peter Parker rehash, but great art. And I loved his Legion stuff. That was the only Legion I had ever read as a kid, so when I think of Legion, I think of Ditko, which surely makes me some sort of odd freak. ------------------ Visit my fanpage devoted to the Marvel Masterworks series! Go to www.marvelmasterworks.freeservers.com Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board: http://pub52.ezboard.com/fmarvelmasterworksfansitefrm1 IP: Logged
Dave the Wonder Boy Member	posted January 01, 2002 05:22 PM Most of the Adam Strange stories in MYSTERY IN SPACE were only 7 to 10 pages each. I'd like to see a series of 100-page collections of these Adam Strange stories. The entire run could be reprinted in about 7 or 8 100-page issues. SHOWCASE appearances too, and possibly some of the other Adam Strange 60's and 70's appearances in other titles, after the Infantino run is all reprinted. I think this would be a real service to fandom, because this MYSTERY IN SPACE run is pricey and somewhat difficult to find. Some others I'd like to see are 40's Moldoff Hawkman stories, and STAR SPANGLED Enemy Ace stories. IP: Logged
Steven Utley Member	posted January 02, 2002 08:40 AM If any of you still haven't checked out "The Old Electricians 'Go-Go' Check-list," proceed straight to http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/files/Forum21/HTML/000555.html Instant time-travel. IP: Logged
India Ink Member	posted January 02, 2002 04:46 PM Thanks for the electrifying plug Steven. IP: Logged
Steven Utley Member	posted January 16, 2002 08:27 AM In his latest installment of "The Old Electrician's 'Go-Go' Checklist," India Ink quotes Frank Walton of Pittsburgh, Pa.: "You should see the 31 DC comics I've accumulated--all featuring apes on the covers. Most are gorillas, and there's an occasional chimp--but I don't count monkeys! Naturally, Titano is a favorite of mine, and I have every cover he ever appeared on--from SUPERMAN No. 127 to JIMMY OLSEN No. 84. Others I have are WONDER WOMAN No. 78, TOMAHAWK No. 61, SEA DEVILS No. 30, BRAVE AND BOLD No. 65, JIMMY OLSEN No. 24, FLASH No. 127, STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES No. 126, BRAVE AND BOLD No. 49, and TOMAHAWK No. 86." I tell you, a collection of DC's greatest gorilla stories is an idea whose time must come! IP: Logged
Steven Utley Member	posted January 16, 2002 01:14 PM Reckon DC will publish three more 80-pagers and another 100-Page Giant this year? Care to hazard guesses as to the contents? My picks: a "lost" Wonder Woman annual, Ramona Fradon's Aquaman, replicas of the Batman Giant devoted to villains (and not entirely the villains you might guess) and the 100-page Weird book with the Berni Wrightson cover. Except to say that 2002 marks the 60th anniversary of Wonder Woman's debut in an eponymous book, I can't defend my choices. IP: Logged
India Ink Member	posted January 16, 2002 06:05 PM Of late I've been going over some of the Super-Specs for the "Superman in the 70s" thread (over on the Superman forum). It's interesting to note that the Specs began at issue 4 (DC-4)--an all Mystery collection with a Wrightson cover, then there was the Love Stories collection that was re-released recently (I really loved that comic, made me regret that I was too embarassed to buy any romance comics back in the seventies), then came the "World' Greatest Super-Heroes" collection (DC-6) with a wrap-around Neal Adams cover (spotlighting both JSA and JLA members). I think this last is a likely choice for any future Super-Specs, although the Mystery collection would also be a good choice. In fact all the wrap-around Adams covers would make for good re-releases. Although, in actual fact I liked the non-wrap-around covers--the ones that had a cover gallery on the back showing covers of some of the comics reprinted in the given edition. I already mentioned one Flash Super-Spec, but there was another one I also liked a lot (not part of the regular Flash run, and I don't have the DC- issue number at hand right now), which had a big long GA Flash story in it (from All-Flash Quarterly), with a beautiful Flash splash page that showed the Speedster on the cover of a magazine, rendered in black & white and looking very realistic in contrast to the cartoon-style artwork of the story. ------------------ Ink's links: for Book of Oa-- http://www.glcorps.org for DC golden age sites-- http://www.best.com/~blaklion/dc_links.html for Superman-- http://www.stta.nu for Superboy http://www.superboy-lives.com for Superman in the 70s: http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/files/Forum30/HTML/004040.html for Wonder Woman: www.hometown.aol.com/linastrick/dpindex1.html IP: Logged

This topic is 15 pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 All times are ET (US)	next newest topic \| next oldest topic
Administrative Options: Close Topic \| Archive/Move \| Delete Topic
	Hop to:

Contact Us | DC Comics