COMICS READING FOR SEPTEMBER: “Godzilla!!!!!!!”

* NOW WITH STAR RATINGS (ala Wrestling Observer Newsletter PPV reports) *

HOW I RATE THE COMICS VIA THE ALAN MOORE SCALE

*****     Watchmen, Miracleman, V For Vendetta

****      From Hell, Supreme, Swamp Thing, Fashion Beast, League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (first two series)

***        Axel Pressbutton, Tom Strong

**         Promethea

*           LoEG: Century: 1969

DUD (or lower) any of his non-comics stuff

1.-24. Essential Godzilla #2 (Marvel, 2006) ***

- originally published in Godzilla #1-24 (Marvel, 1977-79)

Writer: Doug Moench/Artists: Herb Trimpe & friends

A podcast on this book is coming soon.

Toho Productions’ gave Marvel a two-year run with Godzilla and it was bizarre.

Godzilla emerges from an iceberg in Alaska and goes on a rampage. He’s evil for the first three issues, attacking Seattle and San Francisco. But that quickly grows boring, so they make him a sorta good guy (like the Hulk).

Even though he kills thousands of people (even in Marvel’s PG world, there’s no way he couldn’t have wiped out oodles of folk in those cities he destroyed.

Dr Takiguchi, his niece Tamara and annoying grandson Rob create a giant Shogun Warrior-style robot to fight Godzilla.

After that, Godzilla fights alien monsters, battles rustlers, gets shrunk and fights New York sewer rats, then is sent back in time to fight dinosaurs.

Along the way, Godzilla tangles with SHIELD, The Champions, The FF, The Avengers and Devil Dinosaur. It’s weirdly stupid, kinda boring and ends with Godzilla getting written out of Marvel continuity.

At least it means there’s no more Rob, because he’s truly annoying.

25. Vreckless Vrestlers #0 (Vreckless Comics, 2014) **3/4
Writer/artist: Lucasz Kowalczuk
It's in French! Luckily, there's not much dialogue.
26. All-Star Section Eight #4 (DC, 2015) ****

Writer: Garth Ennis/Artist: John McCrea

Garth Ennis really, really, REALLY hates Wonder Woman.

27. Starve #4 (Image, 2015) *****

Writer: Brian Wood/Artist ;Danijel Zezelj

28. We Stand On Guard #3 (Image, 2015) ****¼

Writer: Brian K. Vaughan/Artist: Steve Skroce

29. Minimum Wage: So Many Bad Decisions #5 (Image, 2015) *****

Writer/artist: Bob Fingerman

30. Jupiter’s Circle #6 (Image, 2015) ****

Writer: Mark Millar/Artists: Wilfredo Torres (interior); Frank Quitely (cover)

31. Groot #4 (Marvel, 2015) ***½

Writer: Jeff Loveness/Artists: Brian Kesinger (interiors)/Declan Shalvey & Jordie Bellaire (covers)

32. Deadly Class #16 (Image, 2015) ****

Writer: Rick Remender/Artist: Wes Craig

33.-38. JSA Liberty Files: The Whistling Skull #1-6 (DC, 2013) ***½

Writer: B. Clay Moore/Artist: Tony Harris

39. Shogun Warriors #2 (Marvel, 1978) **

Writer: Doug Moench/Artists: Herb Trimpe & Dan Green

40.-44. The Return Of Valkyrie (Eclipse, 1989) **½

- originally published in Airboy #1-5 (Eclipse, 1989)

Writers: Timothy Truman & Chuck Dixon/Artists: Timothy Truman, Tom Yeates, Stan Woch & Will Blyberg (interiors); Timothy Truman, Stan Woch & Dave Stevens (original covers); Jim Steranko (collection cover)

45. The Air Fighters Meet Sgt. Strike Special #1 (Eclipse, 1988) **

Story: Chuck Dixon/Artist: Tom Lyle

46. Target: Airboy #1 (Eclipse, 1988) *

Writer: Don Chin & Chuck Dixon/Artists: Sam Kieth, Sam De La Rosa & Russ Sever

47. Airboy And Mr Monster #1 (Eclipse, 1987) ***

Writer: Michael T. Gilbert/Artists: Michael T. Gilbert & Mark Pacella

48. Airboy Meets the Prowler (Eclipse, 1987) *

Writer: Timothy Truman & Chuck Dixon (with Michael H. Price)/Artists: John K. Snyder III & Graham Nolan

49. Heavy Metal #276 (Heavy Metal Media, 2015) **

Writers/Artists: various

I haven’t bought a copy of Heavy Metal for some years, but I had to get this ish ’cos of the Jack Kirby article featuring newly recoloured film concept artwork from the late 70s that the King did for Lord Of Light. The art in the feature is great, but the article is kinda meh. Other than that, it’s your usual HM shit: Enki Bilal, some other obscure and arty Euro-wankers plus reprints of Paul Kirchner’s The Bus (arguably the best thing in the issue). I can seriously see why the publishers have hired Grant Morrison to edit this rag in 2016 – it really needs a good shake-up to reclaim its late 70s/early 80s greatness.

50. Avatar Graphic Novel Sampler 2003 (Avatar, 2003) **

Writers/artists: various

51. Silver Surfer #14 (Marvel, 2015) ***½

Writer: Dan Slott/Artist: Michael Allred

52. Bitch Planet #5 (Image, 2015) ****

Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick /Artist: Valentine De Landro

53.-58. Saga Vol. 5 (Image, 2015) *****

Writer: Brian K. Vaughan/Artist: Fiona Staples

59. Action Comics #900 (DC, 2011) ***¾

Writers/Artists: various

60. Judge Dredd: Mega-City Two #1 (IDW, 2014) ***

Writer: Douglas Wolk/Artist: Ulises Farinas

61. Captain Canuck #2 (Comely Comix, 1975) DUD

Writers/Artists: various

Godawful Canadian-made comic strip, badly written and draw. Also, there’s a bullshit article in it claiming that movies and TV influence children’s behaviour. It’s really fucking horrible (and badly researched). Fuck this comic.

62. New MGMT #1/Mind MGMT #36 (Dark Horse, 2015) *****

Writer/Artist: Matt Kindt

Very sad to see this great series come to an end. Also, this ends my hard-copy single issue relationship with Dark Horse. Mind MGMT was the only comic I still bought from this company (the rest I get free from the company as digital copies).

63. Foodang #1 (Entity Comics, 1996) ½*

Writer: Michael Duggan/Artists: Michael Duggan & Mike Sagara

A clown as a superhero living with a family of cannibal killers? Not good.

64. The Black Hood #2 (Red Circle, 1983) **

[Black Hood first story] Writer: Gary Cohn/Artist: Pat Boyette

[Black Hood second story] Writer: John Carbonaro & Rich Margopoulos/Artist: Dan Spiegle

[The Fox] Writer/Artist: Alex Toth

Cover Artist: Alex Toth

Toth is great – the rest is typical mediocre Red Circle fare.

65. Tales Of Dread Album (G.T. Ltd, c. Early 1960s) *

Writers/Artists: various

Cheap UK reprint of low-grade sci-fi, horror and western yarns from the USA. The only artist of note that I recognised was Steve Ditko. Some of the stories appear to be abbreviated to fit to space. Not that it matters – they’re all very clichéd and lame.

66. Space War #30 (Charlton, 1978) *

Writers/Artists: various

Below-average sci-fi yarns. The only thing that’s notable is that one tale, The Anywhere Machine!, has layouts by Wally Wood, but he must have done just the minimum of pencils, because the art itself is by Tom Sutton and it’s sub-par. Other than that, this comic is completely forgettable.

67. Archer & Armstrong #0 (Valiant, 1992) **

Writers: Bob Layton & Jim Shooter/Artists: Barry Windsor-Smith & Ralph Reese

68. Australian MAD #467 (Next Media, 2011) ***

Writers/Artists: the usual gang of idiots

I popped when I read “How Does Captain America Stack Up Against Other Legendary Captains?” and saw Captain Lou Albano...and he rated better than the other Cap!

69. Supermen Of America #1 (DC, 1999) **

Writer: Stuart Immonen/Artists: various

70. Harvey Kurtzman’s New Two-Fisted Tales (Dark Horse, 1994) ***½

Writers: various/Artists: various (interiors); Harvey Kurtzman & William Stout (cover)

71.-73. Scatterbrain #1-3 (Dark Horse, 1998) ***

Writers/artists: various

74. Monster Wrestlers In My Pocket Annual 1996 (Egmont Publishing, 1996) *

Writer; Mike Butcher/Artists: Tim Perkins, Leo Brown, Simon Clegg and John Moore

Remember Monsters In My Pocket from the early 90s? Those creepy lil’ toys were kinda cool (even for a guy in his late 20s), so I should have loved Wrestlers In My Pocket when I discovered them while holidaying in the UK in 1995. They were like an English version of Kinnikuman. But somehow they were kinda lame and didn’t last long. This annual was the one attempt I found to cash in on the fad. It’s pretty bad, even by wrestling comics’ low standards.

75. In The Days Of The Mob #1 (DC/Hampshire, 1971) ***½

Writer: Jack Kirby/Artists: Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta. Plus toons by Sergio Aragones

Picked up this holy grail of failed DC comics on special at Comic Kingdom in Sydney a few months back. One of Jack’s better efforts, but the 1920s gangster yarns were a probably bit too obscure for hip 70s kids to appreciate. Pity.

76. Cracked Magazine #171 (Major Magazines, 1980) *

Writers/artists: various

77. Life With Archie #9 (Archie, 2011) *

Writers/artists: various

I only bought this mag because it had articles about Lady Gaga on it. Pretty sad, eh?

78. Anthro #6 (DC, 1969) **

Writer: Howie Post/Artists: Howie Post & Wally Wood

Nice inks by Wally, but the story is pedestrian.

79. Vanguard Illustrated #2 (PC, 1984) *

Writers/artists: various

Only worthwhile for the Dave Stevens cheesecake cover.

80. Twisted Tales #5 (PC, 1983) *½

Writer: Bruce Jones/Artists: various (interior), Richard Corben (cover)

Great stuff from Corben, as usual.