Journey's End

 

Dear Friends,

With a mixture of sadness and optimism, I would like to bid you all a fond farewell, as I sign off from The Peerless Power of Comics. I've enjoyed contributing to this effort immensely--but essentially, I feel I've accomplished what I set out to do and would like to pivot to other interests and take a breather.

More of an explanation has to do with time constraints, as well as the creative impulse which has played such a large part in putting together this scrapbook of my memories and impressions of the comics I've read over the years.  As you can imagine, maintaining a regular blogging schedule requires working it into your daily/weekly routine, while also taking into consideration the ever-present onus to conceive and bring an idea for a post to fruition.  In the first few years of blogging, brimming with ideas and eagerness, that was all surprisingly manageable; but as I've changed and grown over the years and my priorities have shifted, I've found that creative spark has become something I've had to dig deeper for, rather than simply relying on inspiration that always seemed to flow from my thoughts and through the keyboard almost of its own accord. And so, concerned that the quality I endeavor to bring to the PPC might begin to suffer as a result, I opted to tip my hat and make a gracious exit.  After over eleven years and having produced over 2,400 blog posts, it feels like the correct decision--and combined with the need I feel to reallocate my time to other responsibilities and pursuits, doing so has left me in a positive frame of mind for whatever might be around the corner in my future.

To those of you who have graced these posts with your interest and comments through the years, you've contributed immeasurably to the hopefully welcoming and humorous atmosphere I've attempted to impart--in addition to the thought-provoking back-and-forth which is a necessary component of the PPC, for myself as well as no doubt others who have had the pleasure of reading your thoughts. We are all comics fans, here and throughout this medium--and for each of you, your take on a writer, or a story, or a penciler, inker, or character has brought something different and interesting to the roundtable that we share. I've been known to suggest to some of you that you take a crack at blogging yourself, for however long you care to, and see what direction(s) it takes you in. I, for one, would be eager to see how your own impressions on the subject of comics shape its format and content.

To those visitors who preferred to withhold comment but frequented this forum on a regular basis or even occasionally, thank you for making the PPC reading experience part of your week. Various statistics outlets can give one an idea of how many people frequent your site, where they're located, which post(s) they're reading, etc., but when you blog you nevertheless take a shot in the dark as far as how successfully or even if your content will catch on with people. If you've been a reader here, then your enjoyment of comics gave us something in common, and made you a welcome guest in my book.

Lastly, to Marvel Comics--where do I begin to express my gratitude? Having spent over a decade of my life adapting my memories of your stories to these pages, I found it to be just as rewarding an experience as when I was bringing home a fresh stack of your books from the store, plopping down on the couch or a bed, and eagerly flipping open fresh pages to a Marvel story. (Your staff and assembled talent may have felt a monthly publication schedule was tight, but for we readers it also turned out to be a considerable anticipation-builder.) I came aboard as a reader during the early 1970s, and began to assimilate this wealth of fictional excitement and imagination which took me through high school, college, and beyond, while improving my vocabulary of ten-dollar words in the process. Within the PPC where both stories and talent share the spotlight, I've strived to strike a balance between the appreciation and admiration of a fanboy and the more scrutinizing and discerning eye of a sometime-reviewer, bolstered with healthy doses of humor and wry observation. In short, Marvel and its writers, artists, inkers, colorists, letterers, et al. have played a part in my creativity and drive flourishing through the years, while providing me with so much enjoyment along the way. If a person sees those things reflected within the PPC, it's gratifying to bring an end to the blog on such a note.

As for my immediate future, I'll still be frequenting the PPC behind the scenes (a little tweaking here, a little fine-tuning there), while also maintaining its limited presence on X (fka Twitter).  Once again, my humble thanks to each and every one of you for taking this journey with me, and all the best to you.

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Clip 'Em and Collect 'Em--Marvel Value Stamps!

 

In 1974, you may recall seeing the beginnings of a curious promotional concept popping up in the letters pages of Marvel's line of comics:

Thus began the push to "clip and collect" Series A of the new Marvel Value Stamps, consisting of numbered, recycled images of Marvel characters in postage stamp form. I imagine that people might have been hesitant to immediately begin clipping the first stamps which were spotted, since Marvel had yet made no announcement as to their purpose, much less why one might want to collect them; in addition, naturally you might have been reluctant to take a pair of scissors to the comics you'd just bought, particularly since in some cases you might have inadvertently clipped out part of that issue's story on the page's other side.

Nevertheless, the stamp of approval is given to yet another

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Marvel Trivia Question

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What were the benefits of clipping and collecting Marvel Value Stamps?

Should Auld Connections Be Forgot

 

Though it may have been the only thing to be done in order for Marvel Comics to continue in the 21st century to make their 20th century characters the foundation of their publishing business, it's regrettable to some degree that the company was forced to free itself from the constraints of continuity and simply insert their characters in stories that exercised only a modicum of familiarity with past behavior and history. In a way, it could be said that they were jettisoning one set of constraints only to be bound by others--for while many character origins had been revised to avoid being hamstrung by untenable connections to previous points in history, there are a number of scenes which can no longer be drawn on to help define the makeup of those classic characters who are still having adventures five decades after their introduction.

All things considered, I'd imagine such concerns are trivial matters to the Marvel of today, given the juggernaut success of their films and streaming content that help to sustain and are in part sustained by their print material--and certainly, there's enough present-day domestic and global conflict to keep Marvel's writers busy with character-building moments. Yet there are certain scenes and connections which are no longer feasible--particularly for characters like Captain America, who, regardless of what time period he was reawakened in, is locked into World War II as the time in which he originally fought and became a legend. And with it now being over 75 years later, there are few to no instances left for him to be provided with story material that allows him to interact with those friends and comrades who were also alive during that brutal time in history--meetings that resonate with the heroism of those who, unlike Cap, had to resign themselves to death.

For example, one such battle awaited Lord Montgomery Falsworth, who fought in the war as Union Jack and who must do what little he can to stop the killing spree of his brother, the man known as Baron Blood. In spite of Cap's urging to leave this fight to those better suited to it, Falsworth is adamant that he be allowed to do his part.

But a younger man instead insists on stepping into the Union Jack uniform, making it possible for Cap to do what he must to bring an end to Baron Blood's killing. Nevertheless, Falsworth breathed his last that day--a touching ending to the story, and a farewell to a part of Steve Rogers' life that helped to mold the Captain America we know today.

Similar scenes have played out at one time or another, depending on the passage of time and the circumstances in which a character felt his own time had come. Instances such as when Cap was notified that Jeff Mace, the Patriot, was on his deathbed from cancer--or when Bucky Barnes, as the new Captain America, wanted to pay a last visit to one of the Young Allies, Pat O'Toole ("Knuckles"), at a veterans hospital.

But unless a writer of today happens upon a character who was ten or fifteen years old at the end of the war, Cap isn't likely to have further encounters with wartime survivors like Anna Kappelbaum.

And there are others of Marvel's flagship characters who have immutable roots in the past, people who don't (or didn't) have the luxury of having ingested a serum which slowed their aging process--most notably, the Fantastic Four, whose origin story has been revised to that of a government-cancelled starship project which Reed Richards and his friends decided to launch anyway, this time stripping the moment of any motivation having to do with a foreign power. But the four individuals remained young and vital through the decades since (while bringing up two growing children), even having experienced character-building moments that would otherwise anchor them in 20th century history--conversations which we must assume have almost certainly been wiped from their present-day thoughts.

(To those of you who have kept up with their current stories, I can't help but be curious: Just how far back do the memories of the FF go now?)

Nick Fury's origin was also tweaked to accommodate his adventures in the 21st century, being treated with an "infinity formula" which slowed his aging process. Nevertheless, age was very much on his mind in 1972 when he suspected an agent he was romantically involved with of being interested in the younger Captain America, leading to a volatile scene with Fury's "rival."

Yet we're forced to take into account the fact that Fury was given his age-slowing formula just before the end of World War II, which paints this scene in a different light than that of an "old warhorse" being consumed with jealously and rage over a celebrated and younger man who fought in the same war but hadn't paid his dues in the years of conflict which followed. For one thing, it means that Fury's anger at Cap is likely based at least in part on the fact that his formula is less effective than whatever age-slowing elements exist in Cap's super-soldier serum. Though jumping ahead to the present, we also have to contend with whatever year Marvel has now established for Cap being found and revived by the Avengers (I'm guessing it's around the year 2000?), which means Fury's clash with Cap couldn't have taken place as written since it firmly places Cap's revival in 1964.

All of this comprises a train of thought that might not amount to much--particularly if Marvel has somehow sifted through all of this and created an approach they're satisfied is working for their readers. For the last ten years or so, they've proven that they can prune or even cut down a few trees, with no apparent harm to the forest--i.e., their characters seem to need no substantive ties to the past (other than the sparse details of their origins) in order for meaningful and even compelling stories to be produced, an assertion which contemporary readers and movie-goers appear to agree with. And while characterization stemming from connections to the past remains important, there are arguably ways to achieve it other than by looking back to the past, or to past characters, to provide its framework. I don't happen to be fully on board with either of those statements, given how past events in comics have so often been the impetus for the drama to come, something that writers Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, et al. were so adept at making use of; yet I would concede that in the here and now, Marvel's comics are still doing their job of entertaining their readers while having shifted to a different formula of storytelling than what was to be found in their earlier body of work. Whether there's any merit to that statement, of course, remains in the province of the reader.

 

All The News That's Fit To Disclose

Thanks to my investment advisor, who's known for some time of my fixation on comics, I've indulged in some fascinating reading lately on Marvel's annual reports from the 1990s--a topic which normally wouldn't elicit much interest from the average comic book reader, considering that annual reports generally make for pretty dry reading. What makes the subject a little bit different in this instance is that, with the company's IPO in mid-1991 which made 40% of its stock available for public trading, its annual reports to its new shareholders were presented in (what else?) comic book format, with all the facts and figures cleverly folded into a fully-produced story.

Yet the true draw here is that these reports, begun when Marvel Entertainment Group had every reason to believe the company's outlook was rosy, chart decisions, acquisitions, divestments, and various other factors which would eventually lead to Marvel filing for bankruptcy at the end of 1996--though you'd never know that was on the horizon from the positive spin of the tale featured in its (to my knowledge) final report from 1995, where not even a hard news man like J. Jonah Jameson is interested in digging for the real story.

The plot of the story by Gary Fishman is easy reading: Essentially, the Impossible Man--all for the sake of fun, of course--has stolen the Bugle's pages on the Report, leaving it up to Spider-Man and a number of other heroes to recover them in time to meet Jameson's deadline.

For a more unvarnished look at Marvel's financial straits during the '90s, I'd recommend two sources: First, the Wikipedia entry* on the subject, which very briefly breaks things down by year--and then, for a more investigative approach, a well-written article** from 1998 in The New York Times which does an excellent job of bringing to light everything and everyone that was involved. What I found particularly interesting in the article was the importance placed on speculators, whose penchant for buying multiple copies of a single issue and hanging onto them on the assumption that they would be worth far more than their cover price over time gave Marvel a false sense of how many consumers were actually fueling the market. (Which makes me strictly bush league in that regard--on occasion I'd buy an extra copy, maybe two, of an issue I thought likely to increase in value substantially, but the article speaks of people who would buy twenty copies of issues across the board, many of whom would become retailers in their own right.)

*Marvel Entertainment: Public offering and acquisition; Bankruptcy and Marvel Studios
**Adam Bryant, "Pow! The Punches That Left Marvel Reeling" - May 24, 1998

I haven't delved into the pages of the '91-'94 reports, but I found some of the names that popped up in the company's Board of Directors to be surprising:

Wrapping up the story was a page which offered a look at plans for increasing its exposure in other venues--most notably its "Marvel Mania" themed restaurants which fared poorly, and a Marvel Universe section at Universal's Orlando theme park (which ended up recycling the Marvel Mania concept and toning down the Marvel "universe" to a simple theme store.

On a closing note, and in the interest of full disclosure, my advisor treated me to not just one but two copies of the '95 report--which leads me to believe he knows more about being a speculator than he's willing to let on.

BONUS!

Covers from the 1991-94 Annual Reports.

Where Strikes Humus Sapien, There Follows... Death!

We've seen one example of how sometimes it could be a shot in the dark getting your foot in the door and becoming part of the creative team at Marvel Comics, with patience being a large part of the equation--even when a contest or some other initiative by the company virtually put out the welcome mat for you. But a twenty-eight-year wait is pushing it, don't you think? Let's take a look back to the spring of 1973, and the first issue of Marvel's new fan-based magazine, F.O.O.M., short for "Friends of Ol' Marvel" (egad)--an in-house effort at bringing together the rank and file of Marvel fandom, which this time didn't outsource the company's fan interest to a mail-order setup such as Marvelmania but, like the original M.M.M.S., returned its operation to the hands of Marvel staff and made the extra effort to reach out to and interact more with its very vocal readership.

And in its fervor to ignite the interest of those fans in this new endeavor by establishing a spirit of fan participation, this little ITEM! was nestled in with the magazine's introduction pages which would certainly give an indication of the level of fan response that Marvel was hoping to tap into:

As we'll see later, the response to the contest was quite a turnout, with some notables among those who made submissions: Chris Padovano, Fred Hembeck, Steve Rude, Andy Olsen (with a nod to Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool--quite a fascinating piece on Mr. Olsen, Rich!), Mary Jo Duffy, Marc Silvestri, Carl Potts, and Jerry Ordway. (And those were just the names that I was able to recognize.)

The contest remained open until the end of August of that year, when a winner was finally selected and presented in that quarter's issue of FOOM: Michael A. Barreiro, whose character, Humus Sapiens, a super-villain, also received a personal acknowledgement from Stan Lee, who went on to say that the character would be used in an upcoming "Marvel super-spectacular," with Barreiro receiving a page of original artwork where his character appeared--rewards which pretty much stayed within the parameters of the original contest notice.

In order to include some info on Barreiro, a follow-up on the contest appeared in the next quarterly issue (Winter, 1974, though its cover misprinted the date as '73). But quite a bit of discussion had apparently taken place in the Bullpen in the meantime, with Roy Thomas deciding to not only change Barreiro's character from villain to hero, but also nailing down where Humus Sapiens would appear: as part of the proposed new X-Men team, with Barreiro receiving a credit on the splash page. That would imply that Thomas was also designating the character to be a mutant.

As we know, however, Barreiro's character didn't show up in the new X-Men lineup, either in the team which premiered in 1975 or among any subsequent member additions thereafter--nor was there any mention or sighting of the character at all in the decades that followed.  By all indications, Humus Sapiens had turned out to be a nonstarter.

And that brings us within sight of another

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Marvel Trivia Question

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Whatever became of "Humus Sapiens"?

Try Your Hand!

If you had aspirations toward working at Marvel Comics as a writer or artist, you probably took more than a second glance at The Official Marvel Comics Try-out Book published in 1983, which offered you a chance to submit your work samples directly to the source--and, best of all, since by all appearances Marvel was "hiring," you didn't have any concerns of how to get your foot in the door or having your work rejected outright. You were also on a level playing field with other applicants, since each person was applying their talent to the same pages of the sample story in the book which was in various stages of completion. Depending on what area you wanted to concentrate on, you could add your own touches and flair and submit work that would be distinct from anyone else who was hoping to be the next Chris Claremont or John Romita.

Taking a leaf from How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way, a much larger and more detailed instructional aid published in 1978, the Try-Out book clocks in at only 32 pages, but naturally has a format geared for work submission, its weighted pages oversized at 11" x 17" and designed for removal from the book's spine--though many would also have picked up the book just to hone their developing skills. Given its title, it has a only a minimum of introductory and explanatory segments and doesn't go into nearly the detail of its 1978 predecessor; its strength, rather, lies in the fact that it's a hands-on book in the truest sense, and no doubt appealed to those who wished to have a "starting point" in front of them.

Starting with the actual (but unfinished) comic story which gives you a few completed pages by Jim Shooter, John Romita Jr., Al Milgrom, Christine Scheele and Jim Novak, you'll then find sections that break down the work into try-out areas where you can add inking and/or coloring to pencilled and/or inked pages, add lettering to pages which have been scripted, pencil pages that have been plotted, write your own plot, or script pages that have been plotted and pencilled. No doubt there were those who rolled up their sleeves and tried their hand in more than one area, taking advantage of the enthusiasm which a publication that had "Official Marvel Try-Out Book" as its title was bound to generate.

The house ad for the book doesn't appear until April of the following year:

Nearly a year later, perhaps to get a little more mileage from the book's jaw-dropping $12.95 price tag, Shooter decided to capitalize on the book's title and grandfather the concept into a formal contest which in essence "put the word out" that Marvel was actively looking for new talent--and to sweeten the pitch, there was now a bona fide work assignment waiting for the winners, as a new full-page ad appearing in the company's January 1985 books details:

The revised ad was supplemented by a mention in the Bullpen Bulletins section (or what was left of it by 1985). Given its wording, there was apparently a production slip-up that delayed the Bulletins blurb until the following month instead of coinciding with the January ad; yet an explanation has now been added which clarifies that the contest was a way of satisfying rabid fans who were clamoring for the full comics story that remained incomplete in the Try-Out book. To cover his bases, Shooter adds that purchasing the book wasn't required to enter the contest.

Reportedly, over 19,000 submissions were received by Marvel--which, not even tabulating purchases of the book which were made before the contest was conceived and added to the mix, amounts to over a quarter of a million bucks in sales.

It wasn't until February of '86 before the winners were announced, one of whom you'll likely recognize immediately:

Only the Bulletins winners' annoucement includes the wording regarding the winners' "first regular professional assignment," while the ad is careful not to imply that additional work will be forthcoming.

To follow up on the annoucement, the ASM story which would have finished the "Personals" story begun in the Try-Out book never materialized, though Bagley of course went on to pencil a full run of Ultimate Spider-Man and other assignments. Hazlewood, the inking contestant, would mainly make his stamp at DC Comics--while Riggs, formerly a graphic artist, would shift to inking work in Marvel's UK line as well as finding later work at DC. Neither Pasda nor Duffie have been credited in published work (to my knowledge).

A less hyped try-out book was the 1996 X-Men-themed effort (with an intro by Bagley) that makes a point of mentioning the use of computer technology in comic book production, while being less accommodating as far as available pages to work off of directly.

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since the mid-'80s, of course, so Shooter's message in the final announcement welcoming further submissions post-contest has accumulated a lot of dust. And boy, has Marvel changed its tune and retracted the welcome mat:

"Marvel does not accept or consider any ideas, creative suggestions, artwork, designs, game proposals, scripts, manuscripts, or similar material unless we have specifically requested it from you. Marvel is continuously developing and creating its own ideas and materials, and we don’t have the resources to review or respond to unsolicited material. Unfortunately, any unsolicited material you send will not be read or shared. It will be destroyed, and it will not be returned.

"While we can’t accept your unsolicited submissions, please know that Marvel is always looking for new comic book artists and writers. We constantly read and review indie, self-published, creator-owned, and web-comics, review popular online art communities, ask other artists for opinions and recommendations, and host portfolio reviews at conventions from time to time. If you are an aspiring comic book artist or writer, we suggest you publish or publicly post your material, continue to create, and if you have the right stuff...we’ll find you."

Or, as Mark Alford bottom-lines it in his commentary on the subject: "Don't call us, we'll call you."

BONUS!

Mark Bagley talks about his try-out experience and subsequent career.

HURry, HURry, Step Right Up! SEE A Marvel Masterwork!

(With a tip of the hat to Blue Magic)


While I can't say I'm a fan of cover art being peppered with promotional captions and/or word balloons, I must say that, back in the day, part of the fun of picking up new comics was in letting my eyes be inundated by all of the "must-see" promotional material that would be so creatively crafted to catch and hold the attention of the person ever so slowly spinning swiveling the spinner rack.

And since the cover was arguably the issue's method of selling itself, all you really had to do was to tune out the Marvel "mania"--i.e., train yourself to pick out only what was necessary to understand the gist of what was happening in the issue. Most of the time, though, all the sales blurbs were pretty successful at catching and holding our attention, so urgent did they seem at getting their message across; and in addition, Marvel was so adept at tucking away little nuggets of valid story information in their pitches that it was hard to see what harm it would do to read through it all. Truth to tell, it was fun.

And there were the hooks: "This Is It!" "This Is The Big One!" "At Last!" "If You Buy Only One Mag This Month, It Must Be This One!" "You Must Not Reveal This Issue's Shock Ending!" And in the finest tradition of carnival sideshows, there was also:

See?

The Pencil and Brush of "Fearless" Frank Giacoia

A fixture at Marvel Comics during its Silver Age period and into its Bronze was artist Frank Giacoia, whose inking credit (along with those of Syd Shores, Dick Ayers, and Dan Adkins) graced many a splash page across Marvel's entire line of books. I was always surprised to see his embellishment work on a story, as it seemed he "floated" between assignments; in those instances, he was generally filling in until the book's regular inker either returned or could be lined up. Much of his work could be found on issue covers, as well, but it was always his story work that I was pleased to see, as his style was always reliable and complimented the pencils rather than suppressed them to any degree. There were surely those pencillers who appreciated what a strong inker brought to their table; but I have no doubt that many were happy to have old pros like Giacoia and Shores assigned to their books, knowing that the work would be handled on time and consistently professional.

Giacoia's work in comics dates back to 1940, when he and Carmine Infantino were assigned what would become their first published work--an insert for the new Timely Comics title, U.S.A. Comics. It was Infantino who inked Giacoia's pencils on a story featuring the Golden Age character, Jack Frost (no relation of course to the Iron Man villain who would go on to become Blizzard):

In his first appearance, Jack becomes quite the crimebuster, in a virtual sea of crimebusting mags that apparently flew off the shelf during this period. Though at his story's end, it looks like he may not stay on the side of the law for long!

When Timely morphed into Marvel Comics, it was a rare day when you would see pencilling work from Giacoia. One job that comes to mind is a Sons of the Serpent arc in The Avengers, with Giacoia handling pencils on Part 1 of a two-part story. Along with inker Sam Grainger, he turns in quite a nice collection of pages.

An "unsung" but no less distinguished inker for most of his time at Marvel (a category which I'd also apply to Shores), Giacoia would receive a thoughtful dedication in the 1989 graphic novel, The Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives, one year after his death at the young age of 63.

I made every effort to find a mention of Giacoia's passing in the (very abridged) Bullpen Bulletins page of Marvel's books around the time of his death, which was then using most of its limited space to promote profiles of various Marvel editors, but I came up empty. If anyone can track it down (assuming such a mention exists), I'd appreciate any info on it because I'd certainly like to include it. In its absence, hopefully our tip of the hat to the man here at the PPC will serve to give a well-deserved acknowlegement of Giacoia's contribution to the medium.

Frank Giacoia, circa 1970 (inking FF #97)

(with thanks to Alan Kupperberg via Sean Kleefeld)

Giacoia, along with Josef Rubinstein, was added to the Inkwell Award's 2016 class of the Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame.

BONUS!

Have a look at a few selected PPC posts which feature Mr. Giacoia's work.

Fantastic Four #93

Amazing Adventures #13

Daredevil #16 and #17

Captain America #106

The Defenders #1

Amazing Spider-Man #102

Fantastic Four #114

Amazing Spider-Man #s 106 and #107