Batman #535, "The Ogre and the Ape" has replaced #539--see above post--as my favorite Batman story. With #535 we get an extended single-story tale of government-funded experiments on humans and animals and its ramifications. Conspiracies and governmental--make that institutional corruption--is a longrunning thread in all of writer Doug Moench's work, but it reaches its peak here. Kelley Jones and John Beatty's art is sublime in a story that is disturbing, sad, and ultimately moving. It's not an issue I can read over and over because I'd hate to blunt the story's impact through over familiarity.
Writer Michael Fleisher didn't create the character, but like Doug Moench over at MASTER OF KUNG FU, he *perfected* a promising concept. Fleisher's writing is vivid in its portrayal of violence, with an EC Comics flair for the ghastly. Ask Harlan Ellison:
"Writer Harlan Ellison in a 1979 interview described Fleisher and his comics work as "crazy", "certifiable", "twisted", "derange-o", "bugfuck", and "lunatic". He also erroneously claimed that a Publishers Weekly review called Fleisher's novel Chasing Hairy "the product of a sick mind", and that Fleisher's Spectre series had been discontinued by DC Comics because the company "realized they had turned loose a lunatic on the world."[6] While some observers considered the diatribe humorous hyperbole,[7] Fleisher, saying his "business reputation has been destroyed" and believing he was falsely portrayed as insane, filed a $2 million libel suit against Ellison, publisher Gary Groth and the magazine in which the interview appeared, The Comics Journal.[8][9] The case came to court in 1986, and resulted in a verdict for the defendants."
Whatever the case, Fleisher's run on JONAH HEX is another vastly underappreciated contribution to those "funny books", and stories that made more than a small dent in my pre-adolescent head.
This tantalizing, intriguing and all-together terrific tome is well worth the fifty-plus bucks (which’ll we figger'll repay itself many memorable years over). Subtle-as-an-Hulk-bomb hint for next Christmas, no? (It also includes the early 60s revival our youthful favorite D.C. author – Gardner Fox – collaborated on with masterful Murph.
[ “I did 32 years of political cartoons, one every day for six days a week. I wrote and drew every word, every line. That body of work is the one I’m proudest of … While my time on Batman was important and exciting and notable considering the characters that came out of it, it was really just the start of my life.” ]
[ “As I grew up and fell into this stuff, I realized that everything I liked about Batman ending up being the stuff that Jerry Robinson created. When I started doing Batman, the stuff that came back in – Two-Face, who they hadn’t used in years, and the Joker and Alfred – all was from the stuff that Jerry Robinson did and when you go to see the films, a lot of that is there, too.” – Neal Adams. ]
[ “We had no idea, of course, that we’d still be talking about him (The Joker) all these years later. When I think of the money from that movie – a billion dollars – I get a chill … We should have copyrighted what we had done … We were young and no one could have seen all of this …
[ “I did 32 years of political cartoons, one every day for six days a week. I wrote and drew every word, every line. That body of work is the one I’m proudest of … While my time on Batman was important and exciting and notable considering the characters that came out of it, it was really just the start of my life.” ]
[ “As I grew up and fell into this stuff, I realized that everything I liked about Batman ending up being the stuff that Jerry Robinson created. When I started doing Batman, the stuff that came back in – Two-Face, who they hadn’t used in years, and the Joker and Alfred – all was from the stuff that Jerry Robinson did and when you go to see the films, a lot of that is there, too.” – Neal Adams. ]
[ “We had no idea, of course, that we’d still be talking about him (The Joker) all these years later. When I think of the money from that movie – a billion dollars – I get a chill … We should have copyrighted what we had done … We were young and no one could have seen all of this …
… It was a new industry
and we were pioneering a new mythology.
We had no past so we had very few rules.
We also didn’t expect any of it to last.” ]
R.I.P. Jerry Robinson. As far as I'm concerned, you created the Joker.
I just learned that DC Comics artist John Severin died back on February 12; age 90. I loved his work on those DC Battle Books and later on Cracked magazine.
I just learned that DC Comics artist John Severin died back on February 12; age 90. I loved his work on those DC Battle Books and later on Cracked magazine.
John also frequently inked Marie Severin's art and was involved with MArvel's Kull The Conqueror. A fine artist and this is sad news for me as I loved the DC War comics. His contributions, though not as well known as those by Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, and Sam Glanzman were certainly loved by this comics geek.
Joe Kubert is, hands down, my all-time favorite artist--if I ever claimed otherwise in these topics, it was merely a "crush." I realize I say "favorite" a lot, but I am a man of extremes. I've been an ardent Joe Kubert admirer since 1981.
Just picked up the DC Archives Enemy Ace Vol. 2, so I'm newly revived in all things Joe Kubert (and Bob Kanigher, of course).
This rare-from-this-time-frame, non-war Joe Kubert cover gave me the creeps when I saw it at the 7-11 back in 1980. It would have been interesting to see Kubert as Batman's regular interior artist, but I guess RAGMAN was as close as we ever got to seeing Kubert's work in a Batman-style setting.
Can you please fix your picture postings by eliminating the // before the i?
I see them fine on Google Chrome. I now see they're not visible on IE. Okay, I'll fix it.
Better?
Thanks.
Kubert did tons of non-war covers for DC as did Neal Adams. Some of my favorite Enemy stories have Adams inking Kubert. Then of course there is Kubert's work on Viking Prince, Hawkman, and Tarzan. He is one of my alltime favorite artists. His sons are no slouches either. The first comic convention I attended in Detroit, Joe was one of the guests, along with Mike Nassar.
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and we were pioneering a new mythology.
