Showing posts with label Bruce Jones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bruce Jones. Show all posts

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Reading Room UNKNOWN WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION "Kick the Can"

It's said that space opera = "horse opera" with rayguns instead of six-guns...
...and just like the revisionist westerns of the '60s and '70s, this Bronze Age tale is a more sophisticated version of that concept.
Written and illustrated by Bruce Jones, this never-reprinted tale from Marvel's Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #4 (1975) takes the cliches of both horse opera and film noir, puts them in a sci-fi setting and makes them work in a way the Comics Code would not have allowed in a color book.
(Helping a wife escape her husband through extra-legal means and deliberately allowing someone to die were both no-nos to the Code.)
Plus, Jones' classical illustration style gives the tale an emotional resonance a more-stylized artist wouldn't have achieved.
BTW, Jones is still active in the field, as his LinkedIn site shows.
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Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Reading Room ALIEN WORLDS "Few and the Far"

In space, things aren't always as they seem to appear...
...as this never-reprinted tale from Pacific's Alien Worlds #1 (1982) demonstrates not once, but twice...
Admit it.
Writer Bruce Jones and artist Al Williamson fooled you!

Thursday, January 14, 2021

Trump Reading Room ALIEN WORLDS "Ride the Blue Bus"

Was this the future Don the Con had in mind for us?
Thanks to him, we were edging ever closer and closer to it.
But next week, we reverse course...
This never-reprinted post-apocalyptic tale by writer Bruce Jones and artist George Perez from Pacific's Alien Worlds #7 (1984) has an odd quirk.
Both Toby's friend, Juke, and the unnamed bus driver are illustrated as black/ethnic.
Yet neither is colored differently than the blond/blue-eyed Toby!
Was this deliberate?
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Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Happy 40th, Flash!

Before we end 2020, we wanted to acknowledge that it's the 40th Anniversary of Flash Gordon.
Though critically-reviled when it came out, the movie has attained cult-classic status, primarily due to the soundtrack by Queen...
...and over-the-top performances by (among others) Brian Blessed (Hawkman Prince Vultan), Topol (Dr Zarkoff) and Max Von Sydow (Ming the Merciless).
The adaptation was written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by legendary artist Al Williamson (who, ironically, was also doing the equally-magnificent graphic novel version of The Empire Strikes Back at the same time)!
Interestingly, Williamson inked the entire Flash adaptation, while allowing the talented Carlos Garzon (himself, no slouch) to ink the bulk of Empire.
Read it, from the beginning...HERE!
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Thursday, August 6, 2020

Reading Room ALIEN WORLDS "Collector's Item"

With eBayAmazon, and other sites on the 'Net, it's hard for fans today to perceive when it was a real achievement to track down a...
...like the final card in a set it took months to complete!
Written by Bruce Jones and illustrated with some kool pseudo-Mars Attacks! card graphics by Ken Steacy, this tale of trading cards and terror from Eclipse's anthology Alien Worlds #8 (1984) perfectly captures the obsessive-collector mindset all of us suffer from at one point or another during our FIAWOL (Fandom is a Way of Life) period.
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Sunday, May 20, 2018

Reading Room ALIEN WORLDS "G•A•M•E•W•A•R•S"

It's said you can tell a comic story is well-crafted...
...if it makes sense without captions and dialogue!
I'd say this never-reprinted tale from Pacific's Alien Worlds #5 (1983) fulfills that criteria, eh?
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Understanding Comics
by Scott McCloud

Friday, July 1, 2016

Reading Room CLIFF HANGER "Chapter Six: Blazing End"

...It's the big finale!
All will be explained as we go!
Get your popcorn and soda and ride along...
Don't ya love a happy ending?
Writer Bruce Jones and artist Al Williamson end their tribute to 1930s-50s movie serials in Eclipse's Somerset Holmes #6 (1984) in grand style with the hero getting the girl, the villain's base destroyed (with the chance the villain might have escaped), and the possibility of a sequel, which unfortunately, never appeared!

Friday, June 24, 2016

Reading Room CLIFF HANGER "Chapter Five: Slaves to the Fiend"

Take a deep breath and dive in, fans...
Next Week:
The Thrill-Packed FINALE!
This penultimate chapter of the serial appeared in Eclipse's Somerset Holmes #5 (1984), written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Al Williamson.
BTW, notice something different about the above description of the comic?
Between issues #4 and #5, Pacific Comics shut down due to cash-flow problems.
Eclipse Comics picked up a number of properties from their creators who were left high and dry by the shutdown, including Somerset Holmes and Cliff Hanger.
Besides finishing the 6-issue series, Eclipse also published a tpb collection of the Holmes (but not the Hanger) tales...