Best! Weekend! Ever! (or, "Tales of TerrifiCon 2019, Part Four") ~~ A "Comical Wednesday" Post

By the time the end of my second day at TerrifiCon 2019 rolled around, I had had a great time, a wonderful time, and -- dare I say it? -- a terrific time... and I was pretty relaxed, to boot. So relaxed that the very same guy who'd allowed himself to be photographed only to avoid being impolite to Greg Hildebrandt willingly posed for, and just as willingly paid for, a photo of himself (shown above).

Yep, as the running title of "Best! Weekend! Ever!" implies, I had... well... certainly one of the best weekends I've ever enjoyed, and definitely the best weekend in recent memory.

And frankly, I owe it all to my friend John.

Regular readers of my blog have seen John's name before, usually in relation to some movie or concert he and I have seen together. He and I have a lot in common and have been friends for about thirty years now.

John's job pays pretty well, and it enables him to be extremely generous, to friends, co-workers... It's kind of amazing, actually.

My attendance at TerrifiCon this year -- my ticket, the motel room, meals, and the little "bonus" which will be the focus of Part Five of this blog series -- was an early birthday present from John. (My birthday isn't until November. John's is in December. Just sayin'.)

Now, how do you repay something like that?

I mean, in strictly monetary terms, you can't repay it. Well, I can't, anyway. (And besides, friends don't put dollar amounts on favors they do for each other.)

While I was going crazy on August 9th and 10th getting signatures from almost twenty comic creators, John was being much more selective. There are only a handful of creators in the various entertainment fields whom he follows faithfully. One of those creators is a writer named Chris Claremont.

Those of you who follow comics don't need to be told who Chris Claremont is. And for my readers who aren't familiar with the comics world? Well, let's see if I can sum up the man's influence in only one (long) paragraph:

Even if you don't follow, and never really have followed, the world of comic books, I'm betting you've heard of the X-Men. The original team was created in the early 1960s, and was never as popular as other Marvel Comics characters, such as Spider-Man, Thor, the Fantastic Four, Captain America, the Hulk, etc. They created an “all-new, all-different” X-Men team in the mid-1970s, and almost from the start, Chris Claremont took over writing their stories, and developing their characters, and introducing sub-plots... Roughly 45 years after he took over the reins, they've gotten much more popular. They're one of the biggest drawing points Marvel Comics has. Claremont hasn't been the primary X-Men scripter for many years, but, not to slight any other writers or artists, his influence helped make the team what it is today in the public eye.

And Claremont was going to be at TerrifiCon 2019, so I decided that John's birthday present this year from me was going to involve Chris Claremont somehow. Easier said than done. When John sees something he wants, he generally buys it right then and there. And he was at TerrifiCon, too. He naturally planned to meet Chris Claremont, get a couple of items signed, and probably buy one or two items from Claremont himself...

So I had to get creative.

I've been selling comic books and other collectibles for most of the last 45 years, usually as a secondary source of income. And from the early to the mid-1990s, I was selling new comics and related merchandise. During that time, I received a lot of promotional material, mostly what are called "POP" (point of purchase) posters. I still have a lot of this junk – I mean, quality merchandise – in my boxes at the flea market where I peddle my papers, so to speak.

In 1995, Claremont had left Marvel Comics and was working for DC Comics on a comic title he'd co-created called Sovereign Seven. DC had sent a 3-D promotional advertising display to comic dealers to introduce the book. It consisted of a small holographic poster and a crazy little contraption that unfolded to make a 3-D version of that same little poster.

And I had one. I still had one. And I knew that John didn't have one, nor would he be likely to come across one since it was distributed to dealers only and was never offered commercially.

(I got this photo from eBay. Mine wasn't shrink-wrapped.) 

John and I attended some panels and did some other things together that weekend, but some things separately. So it was easy for me to make sure that John's meeting with Claremont and my meeting with Claremont took place at different times.

For myself, I had Chris autograph a trade paperback collecting the 1980 X-Men stories comprising what comic fans have called “The Dark Phoenix Saga” for almost forty years. This was a thrilling storyline that had me eagerly awaiting each monthly installment in the tale.

Then it was time to have the Sovereign Seven material signed. The 3-D piece was in perfect condition. It had never been opened into its 3-D state. I wanted to have Chris Claremont sign the little poster for John.

But before I asked for his signature, I spent a couple of minutes telling him about my friend John. First I explained how John was a huge fan who had already bought some things from Claremont the day before. I also told Chris about a few things John had done for me in the past. Finally I talked about my “early birthday present,” and all it entailed. I asked Chris if he could personalize the Sovereign Seven piece for John. Really personalize it.

Here's what he wrote:

"To John --"

“Happy Birthday to a True Friend.”

 "Chris Claremont"

John was attending TerrifiCon for all three days, Friday through Sunday. I was only going to be there for the first two. Before I left Saturday evening, I handed John the signed Sovereign Seven material, saying “There is no way in Hell I am going to wait until December to give you this.”

Well, it's only fair. He gave me my birthday present early.

I've been a fan of Paul Gulacy's art since – yeah, yeah, you guessed it – the 1970s. His earliest work was somewhat derivative of comics legend Jim Steranko, something that Gulacy never tried to hide. In fact, an early story from Marvel Comics' Master of Kung Fu actually has a character, Demmy Marston, whose look was based on Steranko.

The quality of Gulacy's work improved issue by issue. And so did his talent for drawing likenesses. In one of his earliest Master of Kung Fu stories, he "borrowed" from television and drew a character based on Kung Fu's Kwai Chang Caine (played by David Carradine).

Eventually, Shang-Chi, star of the MoKF feature, looked uncannily like Bruce Lee (something Lee's widow may or may not have called Stan Lee about, to protest). 

Yes, as I said, Gulacy's artwork got better...

And better...

And better still (note the Marlon Brando lookalike)!

I was lucky. When I arrived at Gulacy's table, there was only one person in the line before me, so when it was my turn, we got to talk for quite a while. The one thing I clearly recall from our conversation was when I mentioned that during his Master of Kung Fu days, it used to bother me that the interiors of the issues contained his fantastic artwork, but the cover art was usually by someone else. Sometimes it was a very well-drawn cover, sometimes not, but when it wasn't drawn by him, it irked me. He admitted that the reason was that he was usually so late turning in the issue itself, they didn't have time to have him draw the cover as well!

And that wraps it up for today, fellow babies.... except to tell you that the fifth-and-final chapter will prominently feature the legendary artist mentioned briefly above, Jim Steranko!

I'll be posting Part Five sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening!

And again, if you read this, please comment? Especially if you came here from Facebook. Thanks so much!

And thanks for your time.

Color Blind ~~ A "Comical Wednesday" Post

Look, ma! No color!

For many years now, all aspects of a color comic book's creation have been handled before said comic leaves the publisher and makes its way to the printer. But such was not always the case.

Back in the early 1960s, when the Marvel Universe was just getting its start – as was my ability to read comics or anything else – the coloring was done at the printer, and done separately as opposed to someone sitting there painting colors all over the original comic book art. Sometimes this caused problems, both minor and major.

Now, I've already showcased a few coloring SNAFUs (plus several other goofs) from comics' Golden Age here, but today I'm going to focus on the early 1960s Marvel Comics I mentioned above.

Admittedly, I didn't read the stories which originally appeared in Fantastic Four #4 or #6 – the first two Silver Age appearances of Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner – until they were reprinted a bit later, so I can't say with any certainty whether his swimming trunks were green or red inside the book. But as I've mentioned in several older posts, my very first look at a Marvel comic was 1963's Fantastic Four Annual #1, in which the FF battled Namor.

Notice, if you will, that Subby's trunks are, once again, colored bright red on the cover. Not so inside. Inside they were green. In fact, every interior drawing of the Sub-Mariner which I saw as a kid had him wearing green trunks, but someone at the printer sure seemed to like putting him in red trunks on the covers.

Of much greater import was this next example. Every issue of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos featured Sgt. Nick Fury and a handful of American soldiers that made up his squad. These soldiers had a variety of nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. “Dum Dum” Dugan was descended from Boston Irish. Dino Manelli was Italian, presumably the son of Italian immigrants. “Rebel” Ralston was a Southerner (from Kentucky, IIRC). Izzy Cohen, from Brooklyn, was Jewish.

One of these soldiers was Gabriel Jones, the squad's bugler.

The problem was that Gabe was what polite society then (1963) called a Negro. Stan Lee had to constantly remind the printers to color Gabe the drab grey color that comics then used for African-Americans. (It could have been worse. For example, comics in those days colored Asians a pale yellow.)

It wasn't until a year or two later that they started coloring African-Americans a more palatable brown.

I'm throwing in my next example just for the hell of it.

The Marvel readers' first glimpse of a villain known as the Grim Reaper was on the cover of 1968's The Avengers #52. And if the coloring of his costume is an “error,” it's only one of judgment! Green, blue, red, purple...! Doesn't look too “grim” to me. I guess they just didn't think that calling him the Gaudy Reaper would be as dramatic.

Later appearances of the Grim Reaper gave him much more suitably-colored attire. But hey, don'tcha just love the way artist George Perez simply ignored the fact that the villain had a prosthetic hand in the shot where ol' Grimmy is donning his mask?

Another title whose covers were plagued with sloppy coloring decisions was The X-Men. My first exposure to the group was issue number five.

The colorist got the X-Men's uniforms right – the all-red Angel doesn't count because he was in a cage of sorts and they colored him for dramatic effect – but Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil was all screwed up.

You see, Mastermind (the guy in green) was supposed to be dressed in light brown. IIRC, the Toad usually wore a mix of orange and grey, but here he's in yellow! Quicksilver, wearing blue here, was supposed to have been attired in dark green. (Although he did get a light blue uniform years later.) And the young woman who is decked out in green? Well! That's none other than the Scarlet Witch. Yes, the Scarlet Witch. Now, what color do y'all think she should have been wearing?!?

Thankfully, they got Wanda's costume colors right on the cover of the next issue, The X-Men #6, but guess what?

The colorist put our old pal, the Sub-Mariner, in those razzer-frazzer RED trunks again!

Thanks for your time.

Peter Wyngarde, 1927-2018, R.I.P. ~~ A "Comical Wednesday" Post

Ordinarily, when I post about someone who's recently died, it's because that person did one or more things that made him or her notable to me. To me, I stress. If I'm not personally familiar with a person's body of work, his or her passing goes without comment from The Silver Fox. (And by the way, fellow babies, I am well aware that it's been a relatively long time since I've done one of my tribute posts, but it does not mean that nobody's passed on who meant anything to me. I've just been too busy doing other stuff.)

Having said all of that, I must admit that I wasn't really aware of Peter Wyngarde, who died January 15th at the age of ninety, as an actor. However, just looking at the man's extensive body of work, I've definitely seen him as General Klytus in 1980's Flash Gordon -- although his face was covered by a metal mask -- and looking at some of the TV shows he appeared in over the years, I'm certain I've seen him in half a dozen dimly-remembered roles, if not more.

Wyngarde is best known for playing the character of Jason King in two TV shows, Department S and its spinoff, called (What else?) Jason King.

But none of the above explains why I'm writing about him.

As it happens, Peter Wyngarde was the visual basis for a character created by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne, that of "Jason Wyngarde," who first appeared in the pages of Uncanny X-Men in the early 1980s. (Where they got the name is fairly obvious.)

Well, technically that's when the Jason Wyngarde persona debuted, although his "real" self, a villain called Mastermind, first appeared as far back as 1964.

Okay! No more comic-related text! I'm just going to share the following brief sequence, where the immensely powerful Jean Grey (a/k/a Marvel Girl and Dark Phoenix) has discovered Mastermind's deception, and... Well, see for yourself!

And before I sign off here, I want to mention that Mr. Wyngarde (Peter, not Jason) also helped to inspire the creation of a character whose three films I've enjoyed, Austin Powers! (Of course, Austin owes a lot to several pop-culture heroes from the '60s, and not just Jason King.) So there's one more reason for my tribute to Peter Wyngarde.

Thanks for your time.

"Great Minds Think Alike," Part Two ~~ A "Comical Wednesday" Post

This is the second chapter in an informal series of "Comical Wednesday" posts which began, believe it or not, with a first part posted in December of 2014! Good things these so-called "parts" are all stand-alone articles, innit?

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Okay, fellow babies, it's mind-reading time!

I'm closing my eyes (no, not really) and thinking of a comic book team of superheroes. This group consists of a group of “misfits,” mistrusted by most of the so-called “normal” people – like us – that they are sworn to protect. The characters debuted in 1963 (in “real world time” as opposed to “comic book time”) but are still around today. Their leader is a rather serious gentleman who is confined to a wheelchair.

Can you name the team?

“That's easy,” some of you may be saying, “and I don't even read comic books! It's Marvel Comics' X-Men!”

Good guess. But incorrect.

I was thinking of DC Comics' Doom Patrol. Now, if your knowledge of comic books is spotty at best, you may very well be saying “And who the hell are the Doom Patrol?”

The original Doom Patrol first appeared in DC/National Comics' My Greatest Adventure #80, cover-dated June, 1963. The book's title was changed to The Doom Patrol with #86.

The original members of the group, shown above, left to right, were "The Chief" (Niles Caulder, the man in the wheelchair), Negative Man (Larry Trainor), Elasti-Girl (Rita Farr), and Robotman (Cliff Steele).

Now for the X-Men. They first appeared in The X-Men #1, from Marvel Comics, cover-dated September, 1963.

Their original line-up, shown below, left to right, consisted of Iceman (Bobby Drake), Beast (Henry "Hank" McCoy), Angel (Warren Worthington III), Professor X (Charles Xavier, also in a wheelchair), Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), and Cyclops (Scott Summers). Iceman actually looked more like a snowman in the earliest issues, but changed his look to an icier one in issue #8.

"Splash" page of X-Men #5 -- the first one I ever read -- showing Iceman sporting his original design.

From X-Men #11, after Iceman had adopted his new look. Note Marvel Girl, saying
"Magneto gone! At last! At long last!" (Yeah, right.) This panel appeared in 1965,
back in those innocent times when readers actually believed a character had died
(or that we'd otherwise seen the last of him or her) when the writer told us we had!

Aw, hell, since I'm having so much fun with this Iceman thing, let me show you two more panels from Bobby Drake's early days!

 From X-Men #1. Nice that a carrot and two buttons -- not to mention a

bowling ball -- just happened to be lying around in their training area!

From X-Men #8.

Okay, back to business!

So, there you have it. The Doom Patrol's debut was cover-dated June, 1963, and the X-Men premiered in September of the same year. In other words, the creators of the X-Men (Stan Lee and Jack Kirby) ripped off the Doom Patrol, right?

Well...

It's not that simple.

Back then, it usually took about six months to go from idea, to script & art, and then to actual printing and release. So a gap of only three months between the publication of one title and another pretty much tells us that the two similar concepts were being developed simultaneously.

There were other coincidences, too. For one example, DC's Doom Patrol had a group of enemies called "The Brotherhood of Evil." Over at Marvel, most of the X-Men's early issues featured battles with "The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants," led by Magneto.

How about another example? The two titles had similar slogans!

Want more? Both teams fell out of favor with readers as the 1960s gave way to the 1970s. The Doom Patrol was cancelled (and its members apparently killed off) in 1968, and The-X-Men became an all-reprint title in 1970, and even suspended publication entirely for eight months in 1975.

And both groups were revamped and revived in the mid-to-late 1970s.

The new Doom Patrol showed up in Showcase #94, in 1977. Showcase was a DC tryout title.

The New Doom Patrol lasted three issues, and didn't show up again for years!

The X-Men had already come back by then -- two years earlier, to be exact -- in brand-new stories that had also introduced a new team.

As you and the rest of the world are probably aware, their new membership did quite a bit better, sales-wise.

And the rest is history, except...

It has been suggested that it's the Doom Patrol that is the rip-off, not of the X-Men, but of... The Fantastic Four?!? Go here if you'd like to read the (not-so-convincing) theory concerning that one!

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Now, before I sign off here, here's a message aimed only at comic book fans. I want to call your attention to two new blogs listed on my blogroll.

The first is Panelocity, which compares similar illustrations from years of comics. No matter what you think they are, whether they're tributes, swipes, coincidences, whatever... These examples are mind-blowing! (This blog -- by Shar -- features a lot of drawings by the late Rich Buckler, who made quite a career imitating drawings by Jack Kirby!)

The second blog is called Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues! What this blog does is show the covers of non-existent comic books featuring "the greatest team-ups that never happened... but should have!" You'll see team-ups of -- or battles between -- characters (and not all from comic books) like Han Solo and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s Napoleon Solo, Galactus versus Godzilla, Wonder Woman and Captain America, Green Lantern and Hellboy, Doctor Who and Judge Dredd, The Vision versus the Terminator, and so much more. Blog author Ross Pearsall posts one of these beauties every single day! (Super-Team Family, by the way, was a real DC title published in the 1970s.)

So check 'em out, willya?

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Okay, now I'll let you go!

Thanks for your time.