PURE EXCITEMENT!
July 25, 2007 3:33 PM Subscribe
As Image Comics prepares to resurrect Golden Age comics under the rubric of public domain, it may be worth revisiting heroes of yore, like Stardust (by Hank Fletcher), Fantomah and Titan. Even more can be found through the Pure Excitement reprint webzine, (unfortunately burdened with clumsy navigation— modify the final segment for all 36 issues).
Of course, a fair number of them do show up on the Stupid Comics page, like Fantomah versus the Weird Gorillas, alongside more modern mockeries of books like Man or Astroman and Superman meets the Quik Bunny.
Of course, a fair number of them do show up on the Stupid Comics page, like Fantomah versus the Weird Gorillas, alongside more modern mockeries of books like Man or Astroman and Superman meets the Quik Bunny.
Yeah, I wonder if I could get that blown up and printed on my wall...
posted by klangklangston at 3:47 PM on July 25, 2007
posted by klangklangston at 3:47 PM on July 25, 2007
I highly recommend the recent Fletcher Hanks anthology I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets. It's full of some of the most completely insane comics stories I have ever read.
posted by Guy Smiley at 4:59 PM on July 25, 2007
posted by Guy Smiley at 4:59 PM on July 25, 2007
What Guy Smiley said. Hanks was an idiot savant.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 5:20 PM on July 25, 2007
posted by beaucoupkevin at 5:20 PM on July 25, 2007
Ah the Golden Age. A time when young boys with super powers often paid house calls to talking anthropomorphic tigers. And are then attacked by vampires. Were-tiger vampires. Or something.
posted by Hollow at 5:27 PM on July 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by Hollow at 5:27 PM on July 25, 2007 [1 favorite]
"Mr. Tawky Tawny don't take no shit." Hollow, that is excellent.
posted by oddman at 5:50 PM on July 25, 2007
posted by oddman at 5:50 PM on July 25, 2007
I'm no doctor, but I think he's past caring.
Fun stuff, kk!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:54 PM on July 25, 2007 [2 favorites]
Fun stuff, kk!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 6:54 PM on July 25, 2007 [2 favorites]
Yummy!! Now thees eez wi Eye reed MehFi!
Kee!Kaw! Ay carumba! 'Dat's 'da good stuff!
Deez bones! Deez bones! Ay! Ay! Ay!
Klangklangston ahoy! You da bossiest Boss der iz!
posted by humannaire at 7:23 PM on July 25, 2007
Kee!Kaw! Ay carumba! 'Dat's 'da good stuff!
Deez bones! Deez bones! Ay! Ay! Ay!
Klangklangston ahoy! You da bossiest Boss der iz!
posted by humannaire at 7:23 PM on July 25, 2007
This is a great post. Cheers
posted by ZippityBuddha at 7:31 AM on July 26, 2007
posted by ZippityBuddha at 7:31 AM on July 26, 2007
I really, really hope that Image project gets done right. Remember a year or two ago, when a lost Siegel-Shuster Superman story was unearthed and released with glaring, nasty computerized color? That sucked, and I'd hate to see a giant exercise in that kind of style-clash.
posted by COBRA! at 7:34 AM on July 26, 2007
posted by COBRA! at 7:34 AM on July 26, 2007
Awesome. My dad had a bunch of Classics Illustrated that I really liked. My favorite? Ceasar's Conquests.
posted by electroboy at 8:16 AM on July 26, 2007
posted by electroboy at 8:16 AM on July 26, 2007
If anyone ever unearths a Stardust Tijuana Bible, it'll be a perfect storm of 1930s outsider comic art-- and really freakin' weird!
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:39 AM on July 26, 2007
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:39 AM on July 26, 2007
It's modern creators doing Golden Age characters.
This already happened All-Star Squadron was amazing for at least the first twenty or thirty issues or so. I kinda lost interest in it after the Crisis On Infinite Earths threw everything back in the golden age of comics for DC & All-American characters all higgledy piggledy - but what a run. Roy Thomas insisted on keeping Hawkman with the original fullhead mask that made him look so cool. Those were the days, boy. The art by Jerry Ordway and Rich Buckler was particularly impressive. They'd purposefully minimize the use of the big name characters still in modern continuity so you'd think the Crisis wouldn't have affected it much, but I noticed it kinda deteriorate into a sorta soap opera for Liberty Belle and Johnny Quick. Meh. Up until then though, great stuff! They'd revisit past stories and retell them with a new edge to it. Fun ride.
I'm sure this Image Comics thing will be a fun ride too, but it just bothers me that they're returning to these characters as they fall into the public domain - not necessarily because they want to tell these stories, but only because legally they can (make money doing it). Seems kinda counter-intuitive somehow.
The people behind DC purposefully rewrite continuity every ten years or so, solely because it means they can tell the same stories over and over. They call it retconning, but I call it an excuse to teach the same old tricks to a new generation of dogs. Maybe once or twice that's okay, but you can only go back to the same trough so many times before you feel like a pig.
posted by ZachsMind at 5:59 PM on July 26, 2007
This already happened All-Star Squadron was amazing for at least the first twenty or thirty issues or so. I kinda lost interest in it after the Crisis On Infinite Earths threw everything back in the golden age of comics for DC & All-American characters all higgledy piggledy - but what a run. Roy Thomas insisted on keeping Hawkman with the original fullhead mask that made him look so cool. Those were the days, boy. The art by Jerry Ordway and Rich Buckler was particularly impressive. They'd purposefully minimize the use of the big name characters still in modern continuity so you'd think the Crisis wouldn't have affected it much, but I noticed it kinda deteriorate into a sorta soap opera for Liberty Belle and Johnny Quick. Meh. Up until then though, great stuff! They'd revisit past stories and retell them with a new edge to it. Fun ride.
I'm sure this Image Comics thing will be a fun ride too, but it just bothers me that they're returning to these characters as they fall into the public domain - not necessarily because they want to tell these stories, but only because legally they can (make money doing it). Seems kinda counter-intuitive somehow.
The people behind DC purposefully rewrite continuity every ten years or so, solely because it means they can tell the same stories over and over. They call it retconning, but I call it an excuse to teach the same old tricks to a new generation of dogs. Maybe once or twice that's okay, but you can only go back to the same trough so many times before you feel like a pig.
posted by ZachsMind at 5:59 PM on July 26, 2007
...I mean, essentially what these Image Comics guys are going is just grabbing up anything that's falling into the public domain so they can claim ownership for whatever the law allows. That's snarky. Once something falls into the public domain it should be usable by humanity, not just the first greedy grabhand that does the legal wrangling to claim ownership of it.
Does anybody really sing the happy birthday song anymore? That used to be a staple growing up, but now it just doesn't happen. Not cuz people care that they might get sued for launching into an improvised rendition of it cuz the muse strikes them. It's just that the muse doesn't strike anybody anymore cuz it's not in the public domain anymore. It's just taken the fun outta the song, I think.
posted by ZachsMind at 6:24 PM on July 26, 2007
Does anybody really sing the happy birthday song anymore? That used to be a staple growing up, but now it just doesn't happen. Not cuz people care that they might get sued for launching into an improvised rendition of it cuz the muse strikes them. It's just that the muse doesn't strike anybody anymore cuz it's not in the public domain anymore. It's just taken the fun outta the song, I think.
posted by ZachsMind at 6:24 PM on July 26, 2007
Too bad rasterbator hangs each time I try to send it through. Anybody know if there's a way to do that with photoshop or quark?
posted by klangklangston at 10:36 AM on July 27, 2007
posted by klangklangston at 10:36 AM on July 27, 2007
« Older Cubicle therapy, anyone? | REAL LIFE SUPER HEREOS!!!1! Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by marxchivist at 3:41 PM on July 25, 2007