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Saturday, September 16, 2017

Reading Room 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY "Vira the She-Demon" Conclusion

In the prehistoric past, a lone woman, Vira, is granted skills and knowledge by the mysterious Monolith which she uses to manipulate the hostile and less-intelligent men around her to keep herself alive, manipulating their supersitious fears by appearing to be a supernatural being.
Transitioning to the post-2001 world, we encounter astronaut Vera Gentry, assigned to a lonely outpost...
As in the movie and previous issue, the protaganist is "transitioned" to a higher life-form
But what happens when the subject doesn't become a "new seed"...you'll find out next Friday!
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Friday, September 15, 2017

Friday Fun 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY "Vira the She-Demon" Part 1

Once more, Clarke and Kubrick's mysterious Monolith becomes a metaphor...
...as Jack (King) Kirby asks the questions only he can answer...in his inimitable style!
It's not clearly indicated how long after the events of the movie this never-reprinted tale from Marvel's 2001: a Space Odyssey #2 (1977) by writer/penciler Jack Kirby and inker Mile Royer takes place.
In the flick, it took months for The Discovery to make it to Jupiter, but astronaut Gentry implies this is almost a second-rate assignment no one wants!
Plus, considering how many lives were lost on the ill-fated Discovery mission, why is she working alone?
But she's still wearing a movie-style spacesuit, so it's probably within 20 years of the movie...
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Thursday, September 14, 2017

Reading Room SILENT INVASION "The Stubbinsville Connection Part 1: Atomic Spies!" Conclusion

In the paranoid America of the 1950s, newspaper reporter Matt Sinkage discovers...
Lots of questions, but few answers.
Here's a little background from the authors...
Silent Invasion will return...
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Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Reading Room SILENT INVASION "The Stubbinsville Connection Part 1: Atomic Spies!"

Here's a long-lost series that deserves to be revived...
..with it's weird n' wild genre-mixing that's back in vogue in pop culture!
Do We Have to Tell You?
Writers Larry Hancock & John Ellis Sech and illustrator Michael Cherkas start the saga off with a bang, eh?
Renegade's Silent Invasion #1 (1986) came as a surprise to comics fans at the tail-end of the 1980s b/w explosion.
It wasn't a spoof or rip-off, as most of the era's title's were.
The creative team's only credit before this was a detective strip; Dick Mallet; that appeared in the back of Cerebus for several months!
But publisher Deni Sim saw potential in the presentation they made to her, and gave the go-ahead for a bi-monthly book.
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Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Len Wein (1948-2017)

Most remember Len Wein for co-creating Swamp Thing, Wolverine, and the All-New, All-Different X-Men...
FOOM Magazine #10 Cover Original Art by Dave Cockrum
(...particularly, Storm, Colossus, and NightCrawler.)
But I prefer to remember his earlier, quirky projects like...
Hot Wheels #6 Cover Art by Neal Adams & Dick Giordano
Hot Wheels
(based on the cartoon series based on the toy line)
Wild West Action #1 Cover Art by Syd Shores and Mike Esposito
The Bravados
(An ethnically-diverse assortment of Western heroes)
and his (believe it or not)...
Secret Hearts #148 Contents Page Art by Gray Morrow
...romance comics work!
Len was not a one-trick pony!
He had an interest in almost everything imaginable...and it showed in his work.
BTW, all the links are to material that hasn't been reprinted since publication in the early 1970s!
Check them out!
BONUS: Here's the printed version of the X-Men-themed cover for Marvel's FOOM #10...
...and that's why I wanted to run the original art!
The two-color (as compared to comics' usual four-color) printing really muddied up the art!