Nexus v2 #6: "The Trialogue Trilogy Part I: The Ultimate Bizarre Object"

Download Nexus v2 #6





I've been meaning to upload this trilogy for a while now and I have been neglecting the superhero genre, so here goes. After publishing Nexus #6, Capital Comics went belly up and First Comics picked up the publishing rights, as you'll notice next issue. In my opinion, this three-parter is Mike Baron and Steve Rude at their finest! I must caution you so that you don't expect the world as this first part is mostly a set-up and the next two issues contain the greatness that I speak of, but this is a trilogy. The Trialogue Trilogy is must-read if you love rip-snortin' adventure stories!

In this issue, Nexus and Judah Maccabee crash their ship on the weird bowl-shaped world. On their first night there the Badger drops in on them - literally!


Credits

Script: Mike Baron
Pencils: Steve Rude
Inks: Steve Rude
Colors: Les Dorscheid
Letters: Mary Pulliam

Reprinted:

• in Nexus (Dark Horse, 1993 series) #2

Special surprise download: interview with Steve "the dude" Rude in Sketch Magazine #34:

Download Sketch Magazine #34

Arrgh! #5: The Some-THING" (Parody of "The Thing from Another World")

Things that make you go ARRGH! Here's a really nifty story from 1975, which I thought was absolutely hilarious when I read it as a kid, called "The Some-Thing." Featuring an alien monstrosity spouting lines like, "Arghhh! Meaning-what's cookin'?," how could it fail to entertain a twelve-year-old? This is an obvious parody of John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?", which has been adapted twice as a motion picture: rather loosely in 1951 as The Thing from Another World (with James Arness as the Thing for you trivia buffs) and more closely in 1982 by director John Carpenter as "The Thing," which more famously starred Kurt Russell. This parody was produced by notorious team of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito.

A leading exponent of the DC house style of the sixties (as exemplified by Mike Sekowsky, etc.), Ross Andru pencilled Wonder Woman from 1958 to 1967 and Metal Men from 1962 to 968. In the seventies he worked for Marvel on such heroes as Spider-Man. His partner at DC was Mike Esposito, who inked all of his work for that publisher.

Andru had studied at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in Manhattan, which was co-founded by Burne Hogarth. His first professional cartooning job was penciling, without credit, Hogarth's Sunday Tarzan page. He teamed up with Mike Esposito in the early fifties to turn out Mr. Universe, a nicely done adventure comic book about a world-traveling wrestler. It lasted only five issues. The two also produced an unsuccessful newspaper soap-opera strip titled Martha Hart. By the late fifties they were employed by DC. Andru and Esposito became the first artists to draw Wonder Woman after co-creator H. G. Peter was put out to pasture in 1958. In addition to Wonder Woman and Metal Men, the team also drew Sea Devils, Rip Hunter, and Suicide Squad.

Andru, without Esposito, moved over to Marvel in 1972. While his main assignment was penciling Spider-Man, he also turned out pages for Dr. Strange, The Fantastic Four, and X-Men. Comics historian Michael Vance has said of Andru that "[his] pencils were clean, bold and technically beyond criticism." Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones, in Comic Book Heroes, said "Andru generally produced forceful and dramatic work."

Andru returned to DC in the eighties. Early in the next decade, shortly before his death, he teamed again with Esposito on a Zen Intergalactic Ninja mini-series published by Archie Comics.

I know that I still have some catching up to do with my blogs, but until then I hope you get as much enjoyment from this short story as I did!


Credits

Script: Mike Esposito
Pencils: Mike Esposito
Inks: Ross Andru

Howard The Duck #1: "Howard the Barbarian"

Download Howard The Duck #1







The duck who inspired one of Hollywood's biggest turkeys, Howard entered comic books in 1973. He looked like a cigar-smoking funny animal fowl, but he was actually an extraterrestrial. After appearing in Marvel's Fear and Man-Thing, Howard won his own comic book in 1975. The world in which Howard had to function was a freely rendered version of Cleveland. He was confused and angry at being stranded on Earth and, as the cover blurb reminds readers, "trapped in a world he never made." Howard was as much an anti-hero as he was a comedy character.

Howard was talkative and cynical. Writer/creator Steve Gerber used him to comment on a wide variety of social issues. Gerber, who'd scripted such superhero titles as The Defenders, kidded the fairly rigid formats and formulas of the genre. Frank Brunner, the original artist, was succeeded by Gene Colon commencing with Howard the Duck #4. The book lasted for thirty-one issues and was canceled in 1979. Two additional issues that carried the original numbering appeared in 1986 to coincide with the movie Howard the Duck, still considered one of the all-time cinema follies.

The sarcastic bird also appeared in a nine-issue run of a black-and-white Howard magazine. Gerber and Colon turned out a cryptic and short-lived Howard newspaper strip. Howard made another minimal comeback in 2002 in a six-issue series. Gerber once more wrote the scripts, with Paul Winslade the artist. This time around, however, Howard had been reincarnated as a giant rat.

Characters: Howard the Duck; Beverly Switzler (first); Pro-Rata (first); Spider-Man; J. Jonah Jameson (cameo appearance).


Credits

Script: Steve Gerber
Pencils: Frank Brunner
Inks: Steve Leialoha
Colors: Frank Brunner

Reprinted:

• in Marvel Treasury Edition (Marvel, 1974 series) #12.
• in Essential Howard the Duck (Marvel, 2002 series) #1.
  

Note: storyline continued from Giant-Size Man-Thing #5.