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Mars Will Send No More

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Mars Will Send No More

Tag Archives: Wally Wood

EC Comics: Sagas of the Sea, Ships, Plunder, and PIRACY!

19 Wednesday Apr 2023

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in indie, pirates

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

atlantic pirates, atlantic slave trade, bernard krigstein, book review, crime, EC Comics, EC Comics reprints, piracy, pirates, Wally Wood

Despite my long-standing affection for EC Comics, I was unaware of their pirate stories until I recently read the massive, epic, hardcover tome The Life and Legend of Wallace Wood, Volume 1. Wallace—who apparently hated the nickname “Wally” and preferred for his friends to call him “Woody”—drew two stories for EC’s seven-issue pirate series. Its full title is Sagas of the Sea, Ships, Plunder, and PIRACY!

The title is apropos because not all the stories are about the classic Atlantic Pirates. The gritty tale Nazi U-Boat, for example, features artwork by the legendary Bernard Krigstein, and The Dive depicts a modern man on an ill-advised mission to find a galleon with sunken treasure. Some stories involve the Atlantic slave trade, complete with EC’s editorial insistence on exposing the evils of racism.

By destroying others, you will destroy yourselves!

The result is a spicy mix of seafaring murder and mayhem, mutinies, miscarriages of justice, beatings, bashings, bloodshed, and brutality. On the first page of the first issue, EC’s introduction makes it crystal-clear that these aren’t cuddly, romanticized, Disney-style tales where pirates are glamorous, good-hearted heroes. These adventures are down-and-dirty explorations of dastardly deeds and the depraved depths of an ocean much darker than the sea itself: man’s inhumanity to man. PIRACY promises to present pirates as they really were.

Well, hell yeah, baby! Sign me up! That’s my kind of story!

Man’s inhumanity to man! ‘Tis a sickenin’ and frightenin’ thing!

The collected PIRACY does a damn good job of delivering on that initial promise. The hyper-dramatic prose is among the best I’ve read from EC’s writers, and what stylistic quibbles I have with it as an editor are more than made up for by combining it with consistently awesome artwork. You can get away with a bit too much “telling” in prose when it is married to pictures that do the heavy lifting of “showing”. And even though long-time fans of EC will be able to predict some of the “shock” endings of EC’s often-imitated, last-minute twists, there were many final moments I did not see coming.

Thousands of starving rats!

But as relentlessly unforgiving as these stories tend to be, do they truly show us pirates “as they really were”? The answer is: sometimes. The cliché of “walking the plank” is trotted out several times, but that trope has been discredited in scholarly works such as David Cordingly’s Under the Black Flag.

And the story featuring both Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet is a complete fabrication that absolutely butchers the historical record. Stede Bonnet, whose tale is told at length in the General History of the Pyrates, was a rare exception to a statement I made a couple of years ago: “No one rich ever became a pirate.” The main detail EC got right about Stede is that he was a fairly well-to-do guy who just thought being a pirate would be fun or something. Every other aspect of his collaboration with Blackbeard and eventual death is, in the EC version, totally wrong. The EC version of Jean Laffite is also mostly imaginary, especially regarding the end of his life, despite referencing a few historical events and places.

The decks surged with the violence of combat!

One other curious thing. Despite the gory prose, the illustrations are completely bloodless. People constantly get shot, stabbed, crushed to death, and subjected to all forms of physical horrors, but the illustrations avoid depicting any blood. It’s an odd choice, and not one I understand. Perhaps even EC needed to draw some kind of line to avoid the censorship that would eventually snuff out the company’s life anyway.

The blood-crazed plunderers leaped aboard!

These minor shortcomings in depicting the reality of the classical pirates’ lives don’t make the PIRACY series any less enthralling. The collected volume presents captivating tales of triumph and tragedy with thoughtfully reconstructed colors, and the ebook version will let you zoom in panel-by-panel for a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience.

Collector’s Guide: The print version is currently going for around $100, but you can easily get the digital collection for $14. Hardcore pirates can try collecting the hard-to-find original single issues or plunder the more-often in-stock Gemstone reprints.

The hot lust of greed for comics!

The Day the Nazis Ruled Latveria, and Other Astonishing Tales!

13 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in superhero

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Astonishing Tales, Barry Smith, Black Panther, collection, Dr. Doom, Gene Colan, Gerry Conway, Herb Trimpe, Jack Kirby, Ka-zar, Kraven, Larry Lieber, Marvel Comics, nazis, Red Skull, Roy Thomas, Stan Lee, Wally Wood

astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (1)

Of all the glorious splash pages in Astonishing Tales #1-8, this one of the Red Skull turning Latveria into Nazi Nation cracks me up the most. It’s so wrong in so many ways. Red Skull, what were you thinking? Do you have ANY idea what Dr. Doom is going to do to you when he gets home? And why does the decor look like a high-school assembly?

But let’s start at the beginning. Long before I used the controversial picture above to sell the set on eBay, Jack Kirby kicked off Astonishing Tales #1 in 1970 with a Ka-Zar story.

astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (4)
astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (5)

Ka-zar versus Kraven sounds like a manly jungle free-for-all, but the tale lacks substance. Each issue, however, provided two stories, and the second one features Dr. Doom. Roy Thomas teams up with artist Wally Wood for several issues of unique stories in the Dr. Doom archives.

astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (6)

After Stan & Jack wrap up the Kraven story, Gerry Conway and Barry Smith tell what may be the greatest Ka-zar story of all time. X-men fans may recall Garokk the Sun God from the days of Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s run. Byrne & Claremont’s tale, one of my favorites, has its roots in the pages of Astonishing Tales. Barry Smith renders the Savage Land and its inhabitants like never before or since. Conway’s tale is so awesome I could almost forgive him for killing Gwen Stacy — but I won’t.

astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (7)
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Stan’s brother Larry Lieber takes the reins from Roy Thomas to continue Doom’s adventures, which include revolution, androids, and bringing a mummy back to life. It’s a whacky mix of themes that Wally Wood renders like it’s still the golden age at EC Comics. And did I mention the Red Skull shows up while Doom is on vacation? Guess what — he turns Latveria into Nazi Nation! What an idiot.

astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (10)
astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (8)

Just when you are thinking that you might subscribe to a monthly title featuring Dr. Doom drawn by Wally Wood, the creative team begins changing. Gene Colan joins Gerry Conway for a pretty awesome Black Panther story, the goofy gimmick of drilling underground in Wakanda serving as an excuse for a fine character study of the opposing monarchs, Doom and T’Challa.

astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (12)

Colan’s pencils seem to become more flowing and abstract in his next few issues of Doom. Inker Tom Palmer certainly deserves some credit for that effect, and if you’d like to see how different inkers have interpreted Colan, Comic Tropes has a great short video that will show you.

astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (15)

Doom’s mystic battle is one of my favorite examples of Colan’s style, rendered in bold flowing areas of black ink.

astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (16)

Herb Trimpe steps in with what seems a Frazetta-inspired pose for Ka-zar.

astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (13)
astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (14)

But despite the creative high points in these little-known and underrated stories, they might have been too odd for the market at that time. Doom got the axe, and the book became Ka-zar’s title for more than a year beginning with the ninth issue.

Later, it would become a sort of proving ground for potential characters. Tony Isabella and Dick Ayers would give us “It!” for a few issues, and then Deathlok by Rich Buckler and Doug Moench. The Guardians of the Galaxy also make an appearance, but Marvel axed the whole title after issue #36, six years after it began.

I recently sold my ‘reader’s copies’ set of the first eight issues, but you can usually find Astonishing Tales (Marvel, 1970) in stock. Many well-worn copies exist, so prices on VG+ Marvels from this era remain relatively cheap. Just try finding VF/NM copies, though, and you will have yourself a collecting challenge!

astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (2)
astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (3)

Paranoid Postcards 2

27 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in postcards

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

EC Comics, Fantagraphics, Jack Davis, postcards, Wally Wood

fantagraphics ec comics postcard -002

Captain Science – The Time Door of Throm!

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in golden age, science fiction

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

brains, Captain Science, golden age, Robot Brain, Time Door of Throm, Wally Wood

Besides the Wally Wood artwork, this Captain Science story has the best dialogue. The Robot Brain announces, “Danger threatens Earth from the Plutonian depths. It comes from out of the future.” The Captain replies, “What! The Future! How can we cope with that?” Hey, Captain, we know just how you feel. We’ll check the space suits while Rip prepares the flying saucer, OK?

Like many Golden Age Comics now in the public domain, you can find Captain Science scans at the Digital Comic Museum. Or, you can collect the original issues of Captain Science.




Wally Wood: My World!

17 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in science fiction

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

dinosaur, dinosaur comics, EC Comics, EC Comics reprints, My World, Wally Wood

Wally Wood is talking my language.

Collector’s Guide: From Weird Science #22; 1953, EC Comics. Reprinted 1997 by Gemstone.



EC Comics: Confidential!

15 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in science fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Confidential, EC Comics, EC Comics reprints, Wally Wood, Weird Science

Many of the EC Comics creators appear in this little gem called “EC Confidential,” illustrated by Wally Wood. We’d like to say we did the research to see if these ‘predictions’ actually happened, or if this is entirely fabricated. But honestly, we didn’t. It’s still a rad story if you have an ounce of science-fiction fandom in your blood.

Collector’s Guide: From Weird Science #21; 1953, EC Comics. Reprinted 1997 by Gemstone.




Captain Science: The Martian Slavers!

30 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in golden age, science fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Captain Science, golden age, The Martian Slavers, Wally Wood

We discovered Captain Science in a Caliber Press reprint called Buried Treasure. They created a fine black and white re-print of “Captain Science and the Insidious Dr. Khartoum!” Love the Wally Wood artwork!

Like many Golden Age Comics now in the public domain, you can find Captain Science scans at the Digital Comic Museum. Or, you can collect the original issues of Captain Science.




All Hail the First Issue of Kull the Conqueror!

29 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, superhero

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

first issue, Kull, Kull the Conqueror, Kull the Destroyer, origin, Ross Andru, Roy Thomas, Wally Wood

The first issue of Kull from 1971 packs so much action that we’d almost rather you just skip this exposition and get right into it. Roy Thomas gives the reader a novel’s worth of story in less than 25 pages. Hard to believe that fans got all that for 15 cents in 1971, when Marvel usually gives us 1/6 of a story for $3.99 now!

If you’re thinking Kull was just another Conan rip off, skip ahead to the last page in our gallery and get hip. Kull came first!

We love everything about this issue: Kull’s explanation that only the weak live in fear of words. Kull’s fatal solution for a girl sentenced to be burned alive. Kull’s entire mercenary career rendered in a splash page by Ross Andru and Wally Wood.

But most of all, Kull has one major cool factor that Conan lacked: He has magical powers from the Tiger Goddess. Yes! It sends us into a geek frenzy when Kull goes tiger-power! Dig page nine where Kull explains the moral superiority of the tiger, then gets apotheosized with the moon and a ghostly tiger form. Whoa! As much as we love the monsters, mayhem, and manning-out of this series, the Tiger Goddess really rocks our world.

Collector’s Guide: From Kull the Conqueror #1; Marvel, 1971. (Later, Kull the Destroyer.) As they’ve done with Conan, Dark Horse reprinted the Kull series in high quality collections: The Chronicles of Kull TPB.

Captain Science and the Insidious Dr. Khartoum!

21 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in golden age, science fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

brains, Caliber, Captain Science, golden age, Insidious Dr. Khartoum, Robot Brain, time travel, Wally Wood

We discovered Captain Science in a Caliber Press reprint called Buried Treasure. They created a sharp black-and-white reprint of “Captain Science and the Insidious Dr. Khartoum!” Love the Wally Wood artwork!

Like many Golden Age Comics now in the public domain, you can find Captain Science scans at the Digital Comic Museum. Or, you can collect the original issues of Captain Science.




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