Wonder Woman Wednesday

Wonder Woman is spending this Picture Perfect Wednesday with friends and frienemies.

By Jose Luis Garcia Lopez

By George Perez

By John Byrne

By Ben Dunn

Picture Perfect Wednesday: George Perez

Legendary comics artist George Perez recently announced that he is retiring, due to failing eyesight and other health issues. He's been at the drawing board for more than forty years. I'll be devoting a number of Picture Perfect Wednesdays to Perez this year, celebrating the decades of beauty and exciting story-telling he brought to the pages and covers of American comic books.

We're going to start with a look at the history of and relationship between Batman and Robin (and Alfred the faithful manservant) as portrayed by Perez in the late 1980s. (Click on the pictures to see larger versions and fully enjoy the many details in the artwork.)

And, just because... here's a drawing Perez did of the classic Barbara Gordon Batgirl.

Picture Perfect Wednesday: Jon Malin

Recently, artist Jon Malin made comments and sent Tweets that got members of the self-appointed fascistic thought police squad who like calling themselves liberals up in arms. Almost immediately, they started threatening his ability to make a living, as is their favorite tactic--destroy those they don't like so they can be an example for anyone else who might DARE to express an unapproved thought.

There's an article about the situation, with some quoted Tweets here (which contains links to the Podast interviews that seem to have been what initially made him a target of the fascist-minded, would-be censors.

I had never heard of Jon Malin until I came across this latest headhunt by retrogrades pretending to be liberals, and I'm not likely to buy the titles he is currently working on. However, anyone who's living is being threatened by rampaging assholes is deserving of support, so here's a gallery of Malin's artwork. You can see more of it here. (My favorite personal favorite piece of the selection below is the picture of the mid-1990s X-Men.)

Halloween is coming...

... have you given any thought to who you're going to dress up as?

Remembering when these characters were in comic books worth reading....

Ghost Rider racing Batgirl, by Bud Budiansky

Ghost Rider, by Dave Simon

The Batman Family, by Alan Davis

Dr. Doom & Catwoman: Caught in the Act,
by John Byrne

Batgirl & Spider-Woman, by John Byrne

The Batman Family, by John Byrne

Tony DeZuniga dead at 71

I have just heard that another of my favorite artists has died.

Tony DeZuniga, whose artwork graced the pages of just about any comic book genre you care to mention--passed away today in a hospital in his home country of the Philippines. He was 71. The cause of death has yet to be announced, but he had a stroke this past Tuesday and was already suffering from pneumonia.

I am particularly fond of the work he did on DC's and Marvel's horror titles; DC's "V", "Arak", and "Jonah Hex"; and Marvel's "Fool Killer" mini-series (even if he was unceremoniously and rudely dumped from the title before its completion) and "Conan" black-and-white magazine material. John Buscema reportedly did not like the way his and DeZuniga's styles interacted, but I thought they made a great combo. I also thought he was one of the best inkers for Carmine Infantino... as much as I loved Infantino when he was inked by less "heavy-handed" artists, DeZuniga had a knack for making Infantino more accessible to those who might not otherwise appreciate his unique style. (Their collaborations in the pages of "Spider-Woman" and "V" are ones I was particularly fond of.)

Here are some samples of DeZuniga's artwork. Click here to see other posts featuring some of his art, as well as reviews of graphic novels featuring his work.

Coming in October....

Starting on October 1 and continuing until October 31, it's the Countdown to Halloween with Vampirella. And not even Batman can stop it!

A Batman that I can't love

DC Showcase Presents: Batman, Volume One (DC Comics, 2007)
Writers: Ed Herron, Gardner Fox, John Broome, and Bill Finger
Artists: Carmine Infantino, Bob Kane, Murphy Anderson, and Various
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

Batman and the characters of the Fantastic Four are my favorite superheroes. But the FF left me behind some time in the early 1990s--the issue with the image of the Wizard snatching Franklin from a sleeping Ben Grimm is the last FF story I acknowledge--and Batman moved beyond me around the time "Batman Year Two" saw print.

With the FF, I LOVE everything from the first issue (where they were Kirby's recasting of DC's Challengers of the Unknown with superpowers) through the above-mentioned issue, which was #302 or something like that. I like the FF as porrtrayed in the "Spider-Girl" M2 universe, but mainline Marvel is dead to me. (Okay... I could do wihtout most of the Inhumans, but Crystal and her romance with Johnny I liked.)

With Batman, I LOVE just about everything from the late 1970s through the early 1990s... "Detective Comics", "Batman", "Batman Family", "The Brave & the Bold", "Worlds Finest's Comics"... I love 'em all. The Doug Moench scripted, Don Newton/Gene Colan/Alfredo Alcala illustrated tales in "Detective" and "Batman" are the high points of my Batman experience, along with the Bob Haney-written, Jim Aparo illustrated tales from "The Brave and the Bold".

So, I figured I'd enjoy "Showcase Presents: Batman"--a massive, 500+ page book reprinting stories from "Detective Comics" #327-342 and "Batman" #164-174--because I love the FF from the same period, and I greatly enjoy the 1960s Batman TV show.

I was, however, wrong. While I detest the psychotic, grim-and-gritty Batman that came into fashion in the 1990s, I found myself equally turned off by the frivolous stories in this volume. They were virtually all forgettable, too cutesy and self-consciously camp, and downright embarrassing whenever they attempted to get "hip." Even the great artwork of Carmine Infantino can't dress up these turkeys... and the always mediocre Bob Kane only manages to drag down a few of the better tales. (Yes, he created Batman... and yes, I enjoy the early tales he produced. But there were far more talented creators working at the same time he was.)

There were a few memorable highlights--such as when the killed off Alfred to the point where his dead body is even shown on panel--and a handful of borderline film-noir crime tales and a couple of stories featuring Patricia Powell, a clever police woman and potential romantic interest for both Bruce Wayne and Batman. (The only two things I'm curious about in this book is how Alfred came back to life, and whatever happened to Powell. Maybe I'll have to pick up Volume 2 and find out.)

It's interesting to me that Batman is such a huge character, given that comics from the same period featuring Hawkman, Elongated Man, and the Flash were so vastly superior. The power of marketing and branding at work, I suppose. I can, however, easily see why Marvel Comics caught on the way they did. The quality of those early Marvel tales are heads and shoulders above those featuring the DC headliners of Superman and Batman.

Picture Perfect Special: In the dark, all cats are gray...

... especially if one of them is Catwoman!

Here's a selection of illos of Batman and his oldest and most dedicated "frenemy." (Comics Trivia: On at least one of an infinite number of alternate reality Earths, were marrued after she gave up her thieving ways and he hung up the Batsuit. Their daughter grew up to be the suerpheroine, Huntress. That Bat and Cat are portrayed in the last three drawings.)

Click here to read reviews of graphic novels starring Catwoman over at Cinema Steve.

Picture Perfect Wednesday:NananananananaBATMAN!

Yesterday, it was 45 years ago that the "Batman" TV show debuted on ABC, with Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin. Yvonne Craig later joined the heroic line-up as Batgirl. Legendary iconic television performances as recurring villains were provided by Cesar Romero (as The Joker), Frank Gorshin (as The Riddler), Burgess Meredith (as The Penguin) and Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt (as Catwoman, at various points).

The new Batgirl (secretly Commissioner Gordon's daugther, Barbara) was created by DC Comics editor Julie Schwartz and artist Carmine Infantino at the request of the show's producer, William Dozier, for its third season. Dozier envisioned Batgirl in her own spin-off series, a plan that never came to be.

The failure of the spin-off series to materialize doesn't change the fact that version of Batgirl remains the coolest version. Within the next month or so, I'll be reviewing the book reprinting her comic book adventures from the 1960s and 1970s, but in the meantime, here are some recent portrayals of her.

For more pictures from the classic Batman television show, check out this post at Cinema Steve.