Metamorpho Lost 100 Pager

Before we get to this weeks Lost 100 Pager, I have a public service announcement. Next weekend I will be at HeroesCon promoting NorthStars. Feel free to come by and say Hi! I will be in booth 423.

With that out of the way, here is today's Lost 100 Pager featuring the Malleable Metamorpho with artwork by the Randy Valiente (who gave us the amazing Aquaman 100 Pager)

 Here is Randy's Original in it's full glory:

I added a background to break up the colors by using an old page of the Saturn Knight comic Pierre and I worked on many years ago. If you haven't read that comic, check it out on our downoads page.

If you want to see more of Randy's art, check out his website and deviant art page at:
www.randyvaliente.carbonmade.com  and www.randyvaliente.deviantart.com

Zatanna Lost 100 Pager

It's been a while since I've presented a new entry in my Lost 100 Page Super Spectaculars, but at the request of some of the guys in the Back Issue Facebook group, I decided to commission my favorite Lost 100 Pager artist, Reno Maniquis to come up with art for a Zatanna 100 Pager! (Click to see the full sized version.)

This time, Reno went the extra mile and came up with dialogue for the cover, so the clever play on the word Fate is his idea. Here is his original artwork. 

We actually ended up with two versions of this cover because Zatanna wore several different outfits during the Bronze Age. Here is a second version in a different outfit.

We both said we disliked the black jump suit/pony tail combo. While it's probably more true to the Bronze Age, it was just a horrible design.  Here's how it looked on the cover of Justice League in the issue it was introduced.

 As you can see, it was better off the way it was.

- Jim

World Of Krypton Lost 100 Pager

This weekend in the US, we are celebrating Father's Day, a holiday where we honor our patriarchs by giving them Home Depot gift cards, Burn Notice DVD sets and Glenn Beck books. ;)

In honor of this grand tradition, I have devised a special Father's Day themed Lost 100 Pager featuring artwork by the ever amazing Jan "Reno" Maniquis:

While I came up with the initial concept of a gladiatorial battle between Jor-El and Thomas Wayne, Reno really exceeded my expectations! The addition of the cheering Khunds in the background was his idea and an magnificent addition. I really like how he used a subdued color scheme for the Khunds which allowed the Dominator to stand out appropriately. Check out the original version (sans captions and logos) here (click to enlarge):

For those of you who may not recognize it, Thomas Wayne is wearing his Masquerade Ball Bat costume from Detective Comics 235. [ full synopsis from ComicVine.com ]

I originally thought that was the only appearance of that costume, but while googling for references for this cover, I found it showed up other places.

Here it was in Untold Legends of the Batman 1 drawn by John Byrne.

And more recently it showed up in the animated Brave and the Bold cartoon:

While the original existence of this proto-Bat suit was erased by 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths, I wouldn't put it past someone to revisit this idea.  (As recent Batman scribe Scott Snyder reintroduced the Bronze Age concept of Batman having a long lost brother.)

As to World of Krypton, that's a post for another day.

Have a great weekend!

- Jim

The Demon vs The Phantom Stranger

Continuing my Halloween themed Lost 100 Pagers, I present a cover featuring two of my favorite Bronze Age arcane adventurers:  Jack Kirby's Demon and the mysterious Phantom Stranger.

 

The art for this cover was designed and created by FBU Goto Artist Reno Maniquis, who came up with the interesting notion of Etrigan trapping the Phantom Stranger in a pentagram (which strikes me as something that might actually work given that the Stranger is often alluded to as being a fallen angel of some sort.)

Here is the original artwork without my 100 Pager embellishments:

As I was working on this cover, I thought about how many times DC has presented the Demon in a regular title. As a refresher, here's what I recalled:

First there was his initial run by creator Jack Kirby (click to see this page in full size)

Sadly, Kirby's run didn't last nearly long enough. After Kirby left DC to go back to Marvel, the character would languish only appearing in a few Brave and the Bolds (which is where I discovered him.)

His next solo series - which I was eagerly waiting for upon first hearing about in the mid 80's was with rising star Matt Wagner, creator of Mage, an independent series I had enjoyed.

 

I had high hopes for this series, but was greatly disappointed by it at the time. To be honest, I don't remember much about it (I have a vague memory of the Etrigan and Jason Blood being separated, which is always a mistake) but other than that, no details stand out. I should check it out again to see if it was really as bad as I my younger self thought.

From there, the character would make a few cameos in some 80's comics with his most notable being in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run. It would be awhile (1990) before he got another run in a full blown series - this time written by Alan Grant and pencilled by Val Semeiks.

I tried a few issues from this run, but it never really struck a chord with me. It may have been a bit too jokey for my tastes (perhaps emulating the jovial tone of Giffen's Justice League?) On the other hand, I've seen it convincingly argued that this version of the Demon is this most definitive (outside of the Kirby run) and my tastes in comics and art have changed quite a bit in the last 20 years, so it's possible I would enjoy the series more now. I will probably round up the first 12 issues and give it another go.

Next up is another near miss I'm afraid (based on the short length of the run) when John Byrne took a shot at the character.

This run wasn't bad (as most Byrne stuff tends to be pretty solid) but the title didn't really ignite with modern readers, most of which were only familiar with Byrne as that crazy guy who is always getting his rather incendiary message board post reported on Bleeding Cool.

The last entry in the list presented a non-rhyming Etrigan who was mostly Demon In Name Only. Paul Cornell's Demon Knights.

The premise of this series really had me excited but the overly large cast of characters (none of which really seemed to actually IN character) grew wearisome. The series felt a bit like it was a story Cornell had dreamed up with other characters and he was shoe horning elements of the DC universe into it to fulfill his monthly obligations.

Which brings us to now? With so many incarnations of the Demon having come before (and only the 90's version lasting very long) one has to wonder what will the next one be like? And how long will it last?

Only time will tell.

Happy Halloween!

- Jim

Aquaman (and Namor) vs the Creature of the Black Lagoon

Here's one of two Lost 100 Pagers I'm presenting this month in honor of Halloween. This one features the undersea battle we would a like to see but probably never will: Aquaman vs The Creature of the Black Lagoon!



The artwork for this cover comes to us from the talented Randy Valiente who was recommended to me by Reno.

Here is the actual art without the cover embellishments:


If you want to see more of Randy's art, check out his website and deviant art page at:
www.randyvaliente.carbonmade.com  and www.randyvaliente.deviantart.com

Bonus: While looking for reference materials for this cover artwork, I stumbled across what looks like someones mock ups for a Sub-Mariner vs Creature of the Black Lagoon movie. Does anyone know the origin of these images:




I also found something I remembered seeing before - some panels from a actual Sub-Mariner comic story (Sub-Mariner #35 published in 1954) in which he fought a CotBL looking opponent.


On the DC side, the closest approximation or analogue to the CotBL didn't appear in Aquaman (as far as I know) but rather in the Legion of Super-heroes issue 202...

Where we were introduced to the Dave Cockrum designed Devil Fish (albeit, this creature lacks a lot of the distinctive elements of the Universal sea beast. I suspect that was partly intentional.)

If anyone knows of a better DC cameo by the Creature please let me know.

- Jim

Man-Bat Lost 100 Pager

Continuing my series of Lost 100 Pager Super Spectaculars, I present this splendid entry featuring DC's winged warrior of the night: Man-Bat!

 

The main artwork for this cover was created by Adam Moore, whose artwork I have used before for the fantastic Green Lantern and Adam Strange covers. Adam is also known as Laemeur on deviantArt.com. You can see more of his artwork on his website: http://laemeur.com/

As you might suspect, I've always been a big fan of Man-Bat as he's one of the few DC Monster heroes (Marvel seemed to be more open to monstrous heroes: Man-wolf, Werewolf by Night, Morbius, Man-Thing, Deathlok, ect...)

In recent years, Man-Bat lost some of his uniqueness IMO as Grant Morrison introduced the idea of ninja man-bats in Batman 656 back in 2006 during the Batman RIP story arc.

More recently, this dilution of the Man-Bat concept was undone with Kirk Langstrom developing an antidote for the Man-Bat serum such that he is now the only such creature in the DC universe (At least until Geoff Johns gets around to creating an entire multi-colored Man-Bat family...)

Since the popularity of the Batman books seems to be one of the few things keeping the DC books afloat now, you have to wonder why there isn't a Man-Bat book somewhere in the DC 52. I can't imagine it would sell worse than Hawkman or BatWing.

 This idea of a DC 52 solo Man-Bat title has even inspired a bit of a following on Deviant Art.

Artwork by: http://biram-ba.deviantart.com/

It's probably just a matter of wait and see. With DC cancelling New 52 books faster than Marvel can create comics with the word Avengers in the title, I would say it's a safe bet we will probably see a new Man-Bat comic eventually.

Here's a question: What title do you think DC should publish in their next wave of New 52 replacements?

- Jim

Freedom Fighters Lost 100 Pager

Continuing my series of 100 Page Super Spectaculars that never, I present this appropriately post-July 4th entry.



This amazing cover illustration was created by the versatile Seth Frail. You can check out more of Seth's artwork at http://sethfrail.daportfolio.com/

I've made no secret of my fondness for the classic Freedom Fighters and on numerous occasions have lamented DC's attempts to reboot them in the last decade. Currently, DC seems to be committed to putting out various mini-series with the characters in an attempt to (re?)enforce trademarks on the characters...



I have to wonder about this. Why does DC care so much? One might argue that the Freedom Fighters have some intellectual property value that DC wants to lock down but based on Ed Love's well written article in Two Morrow's Quality Companion, DC has already been able to successfully defend their sole use of the characters over the years. (Ed describes an incident wherein DC Editor at the time Dick Giordano sent Bill Black, publisher of Fem Force a cease and desist letter.)

However, according to Black, the reason he changed the name of his Phantom Lady to Nightveil was a bit different:

DC claimed they owned the name Phantom Lady and, in 1983, Dick Giordano (then DC editor) called me and asked me to cease and desist the use of the name. Big company pressuring a little company… I was just starting up, so I rolled over on this. I later discovered that DC had not and COULD NOT trademark the name Phantom Lady. But by then I had re-created the character as Nightveil. All this was a good thing because Nightveil has become such a great character far exceeding Phantom Lady in any incarnation. At AC we have a “retro” history as Femforce started during World War II. I created the Blue Bulleteer as the masked persona of Laura Wright before she becomes the sorceress, Nightveil. So from 1943 into the 1960s, Laura is Blue Bulleteer and runs around in a costume that is based on the Matt Baker, Fox Features version of Phantom Lady. The fans love it!

And while I would be relunctant to disagree with Mr. Black, if you look closely at the covers of this new Phantom Lady comic book, you will plainly see a TM symbol beside both Phantom Lady and Doll Man. Here is a close up:



And while DC owning the trademark to these characters makes sense (they did buy them after all.) There is another development in the Trademarking of Public Domain characters. Dynamite Entertainment has trademark the Green Lama, Black Terror, The Owl, The Arrow and Pyroman as of 2008.

And pursuant to that end, last week Dynamite published the first issue of a new series featuring their version of The Owl - I guess because during that spate of creating logos for their versions of characters during Project Super Powers, there was no cover  using their Owl logo, which would make defending the trademark a bit difficult. It would be interesting to see someone try go to court in defense of a trademark without ever publishing a single issue of the property in question. ;)




Anyone read this? What did you think?

- Jim

Swamp Thing Lost 100 Page Super Spectacular

Today I've got a new cover from my collection of Lost 100 Pagers. This one is another spectacular contribution from Reno, who blessed us with the wonderful Paul Kirk, Manhunter 100 Pager last month. This one features DC's two classic swamp monsters caught in a life and death struggle: Swamp Thing and Solomon Grundy! I've also included some of my other favorite DC Hulks - Blockbuster, The Shaggy Man and The Invulnerable Enemy!

As with the last entry Reno gave us, I'm also including the original artwork so you can see it in all of its glory here below. (Click to see full size.)

Strangely, with their shared environs, you would think that Grundy and Swampy would have battled quite a few times over the years (decades) but the only instance that I can find didn't even occur in Swamp Thing's book, but was instead in DC Presents with Superman.

My memories of this particular story are a bit vague but I remember it being interesting with the Alec Holland Swamp Thing running experiments on Solomon Grundy's biochemistry to determine what kept him alive, only to discover he wasn't really alive - an answer which really only leads to more questions.

I've always had a soft spot for Solomon Grundy as he appeared in one of the first comics I ever bought. Over the years, there have been many different writers takes on the character (as one might imagine for a popular villain from the Golden Age) The writer who did the best job resolving the disparity between all these different takes was James Robinson in the pages of Starman, wherein he showed us that Grundy was sort of a roulette wheel of personality variations and each time he died, he came back with a different personality.

Recently, James Robinson created another incarnation of Grundy for the New 52 Earth 2 comic. This one has him as a sort of gothy version of Swamp Thing  who talks like a sci-fi channel demon and refers to himself as the Man Of Grey.

This is really Grundy in name only, as outside of the decaying white skin, there's not much else that is recognizable about the character. And while a lot of old school comic fans have written off the character as dead upon seeing this latest version, we all know you can't kill Grundy that easy. He'll be back in old form before you know it.

- Jim

The Lost Green Lantern 100 Page Spectacular

Today I continue my series of Lost 100 Page Super Spectaculars with this entry featuring a Green Lantern themed issue:

The Green Lantern vs Wildfire illustration comes from the very talented Adam Moore who is known as Laemeur on deviantArt.com. You can see more of his artwork on his website:  http://laemeur.com/

Adam actually sent me two versions of the illustration above. The second one was one where he had used some photoshop filters to give the artwork a cool retro effect. You can see it below. (Click to enlarge for more detail)

 Not sure if you guys are really digging these Lost 100 Pagers or not (they don't seem to elicit many comments) but I'm digging creating them. With this one, I took the liberty to mock up the Jimmy Olsen image to create neat little Green Lantern themed Olsen story.

In looking up covers to use for this 100 Pager, I was struck by the fact that Green Lantern never got his own 100 Page Super Spectacular. About as close as he got was the 52 pager. below.

 

 As far as I can tell, Green Lantern seems to have been in a bit on the backburner during this time period. It was before Mike Grell started his Green Lantern/Green Arrow series and some time after Jordan's Silver Age heyday.

Outside of the recent Geoff John's era of Green Lantern, he's never been a huge pull on a title. Wonder Woman and The Flash actually have a longer unbroken run than GL. (And I would suspect more name recognition among the general populace due to television shows based off the characters.) This raises the question: Why did Warner Bros decide to spend 200 million dollars making a Green Lantern movie? Why GL and not Wonder Woman or The Flash?

The lack of wider name brand recognition might have been a huge factor in the dismal Green Lantern movie opening weekend.

- Jim

Paul Kirk Manhunter 100 Page Super Spectacular

Continuing my series of Lost 100 Pager Super Spectaculars from the 70's, I present this edition featuring the Archie Goodwin, Walt Simonson version of Paul Kirk, Manhunter.

The main artwork was created by the incredibly talented Jan "Reno" Maniquis, a name some regular visitors may recognize as Reno is a longstanding commenter on the FBU. In order to get the illustration to fit in my 100 Pager format, I had to crop it in such a way that some of the cool details Reno provided are missing, so below, I present the uncropped version for everyone to enjoy. (Click to enlarge)

 You can check out more of Reno's art at his website: http://capsulezone.wordpress.com/

As we were working on this art, Reno picked the Irv Novick version of Talia's costume to use for this illustration - a costume I only vaguely remembered. I tend to think of Talia as always dressed as she was on the cover of Detective 444 (another 100 Pager). I think Reno's choice was the better selection as purple costume has a more Eastern flair.

As to why I chose Paul Kirk, Manhunter for a 100 pager - I must admit to wanting to read more of his adventures. I've talked about my love for that series before, but it's far better that he remain dead. I don't think the current editorial climate at DC is quite the right place for a comic like the old Archie Goodwin, Walt Simonson Manhunter.

On the flipside, I will say that Dynamite's current The Shadow series has done a good job of capturing some of the old Bronze Age Manhunter feel. While the artwork is not as exciting as Simonson's, the exotic locales and intrigue often remind of what I enjoyed so much in the old Manhunter stories.


Feel free to post a suggestion for another Lost 100 Pager in the comments section!

- Jim

Adam Strange 100 Page Spectacular

Today I continue my series of Lost 100 Page Super Spectaculars with this entry featuring a Mystery In Space themed issue:

The Adam Strange illustration comes from the very talented Adam Moore who is known as Laemeur on deviantArt.com. You can see more of his artwork on his website:
http://laemeur.com/

While I've never had the pleasure of working with Adam on a Flashback Universe project, he and I were both contributors to Trey Causey's Weird Adventures (a highly original RPG setting guide.) Adam provided several fantastic illustrations for the guide and I was the layout/typesetter for the the project.

I'm still open to suggestions for Lost 100 Pagers, so if there is a classic DC character you think deserved their own 100 Page Spectacular, but didn't get one, let me know!

- Jim

Kamandi 100 Page Super Spectacular

About 10 years ago, I became obsessed with collecting back issues of the old DC 100 Page Super Spectaculars. (For the uninitiated, check out http://metropolisplus.com/dc100page/ to see what I'm talking about.) And while I was able to collect a good many of them, I eventually gave up. The thicker bindings makes finding ones in good condition difficult and pricey.

However, my fascination with the format has never waned, and today I'm introducing a new series on the FBU - Lost 100 Pagers! The idea is to present versions of 100 Page Spectaculars that never existed (but could have) featuring artwork from talented artists from the internet. With all that said, I present our introductory offering to this series:

The Kamandi 100 Page Super Spectacular

The main panel artwork here comes from Nick Damon. Nick is a writer/artist who has worked in the film industry, the toy industry and had the immense pleasure of working with Disney’s Imagineering on two projects for their theme parks. He has just released his new novel, Shadow of Oz available here: 

If you like Nick's Kamandi's artwork, check out his other work at his website and his Deviant Art page.

http://artnomad.deviantart.com/
www.ndamon.com

He's got some incredible samples that I'm sure will bring a smile to your face is it did me.

I'll leave you with this question:
Are there any Lost 100 Pagers you would like to see in particular?

- Jim