Cousin Dick Archives: Secret Wars II and Amazing Heroes letter

Back in the days when I was young and carefree and buzzed on beer, I made fun of Marvel under the nom de plume, Cousin Dick.  Cousin was a redneck trucker who loved everything by Al Milgrom, especially the infamous maxi-series, U.S.1, about a trucker with a cybernetic skull.  Cousin lived in Butte County with his chief aid, Joe-Bob.  Cousin loved everything from Marvel Comics and hated anything published by the Dumb Communists (DC Comics).  As you can tell from that, Cousin was an ultra conservative who hated liberals so much, he’d drive through Berkeley in his truck just to run a few off the road.  Cousin loved Marvel and Al Milgrom so much he founded the U.U.U. (US1 Utilitarian Union) an exclusive club devoted to his fanboy beliefs.  So exclusive was this club that it only had two members, Cousin and Joe Bob.  Their secret headquarters was the Garage of Solitude in Cousin’s ramshackle home.  Cousin was never married because his #1 sweetheart was his “rig”, the awesome trailer truck known as Betsy.  Cousin professed the ideals of the U.U.U. through many letters that were published in the pages of Marvel Comics, First Comics The Badger, and this one from Amazing Heroes #86 (Jan 1986 but around the end of 85).

Before you read the letter, we need to set the scene for the state of Marvel Comics in late 1985.  The first Secret Wars maxi-series from 1984 to 1985 was a massive success.  Marvel needed a sequel to this mega hit very quickly.  Jim Shooter tapped Al Milgrom to draw Secret Wars II which began in the summer of 1985.  While I love a lot of comics in the 1980s Jim Shooter era, Secret Wars II wasn’t up there in the list of classic comics.  The first series was fun, but the second one was a rambling mess that just seemed like a vehicle to keep the party going.  Topping that off, Secret Wars II featured a personification of the cosmic creature known as the Beyonder.  In the first series he was very mysterious, perhaps on a scale with Galactus.  In the sequel he looked like David Hasselhoff in a white jump suit with ultra slick jerry curls.  Kind of like a white version of Rick James.  Cousin couldn’t resist writing a letter about this Marvel masterpiece.  For some reason he sent it to the magazine Amazing Heroes, but even more baffling, the magazine actually published Cousin’s rambling manifesto!



Crisis refers to Crisis on Infinite Earths, which was being published in 1985.  Cousin didn’t like too many DC Comics, but the ones he did like were published in the 60s and being thrown away by this event.  Super Powers was a line of DC Comics action figures made by Kenner, some of them based on Jack Kirby’s New Gods characters, which competed against the Secret Wars Marvel toy line.  Mac Davis was a country singer that Cousin admired, with a #1 hit in the 70s, Baby, Don’t Get Hooked On Me.



Secret Wars II had a tie-in with almost every mainstream Marvel comic being published in 1985.  Of course it could not be in Marvel Tales (a reprint title), Conan (the world of barbarians), or licensed titles like GI Joe.  Star Comics was Marvel’s kids line. Cousin didn't see anything barriers between these characters--to him the entire Marvel line was one big cosmic corral!

IDEAR: some people with southern accents pronounce the word “idea” like “idear”.  My family is from the south so I know this is not an exaggeration.

Assistant Editors month: a Marvel stunt where the assistant editors took over the books for one month in the 1980s.



Kitty and Wolverine: a mini-series that Al Milgrom drew, the weirdest mutant team up ever.  If there was any one DC Comics superhero that Cousin loved, it was the golden age version of Vigilante, Greg Saunders, the country singer who fought crime with a lasso.  He also liked Pow-Wow Smith, Tomahawk, and Super-Chief.



Al Milgrom was a good sport about all this hazing.  One day I received a package in the mail from him with giant artwork he had done for the U.S.1 comic book series.  Despite all the trouble I gave him I thought he was a good artist, inker, and his Marvel Fanfare anthology series had some of the best Marvel Comics stories and artwork! 

There was some fallout over this letter, believe it or not…stay tuned for the sequel.  Nuff Said.

George Perez: Teen Titans Poster, Amazing Heroes, Newsletter covers

There have been many great Teen Titans illustrations by George Perez, but not all of them appeared on the monthly comic.  For the second issue of Amazing Heroes in 1981, Perez provided this cover featuring the Titans.  This was published somewhere around issues #9-12 of the New Teen Titans.  The new characters (Cyborg, Raven, Starfire) take the foreground while the original team members discuss things in the background.  Talking about the time Starfire walked around Central Park without her shirt on?

Note the headline on the upper right: New Comics Company Signs Kirby, Grell!  That would be the announcement of Pacific Comics, which published Captain Victory, Starslayer, the Rocketeer, and many more great series.

A few years later, Perez contributed another Titans cover for the 50th issue of Amazing Heroes.  This issue would have been published around the time that The Judas Contract arc was wrapping up, with Jericho being featured front and center. 

The other interesting thing here is that George’s style has matured in his work on Teen Titans.  His character faces are more detailed and expressive than in his early work.  His storytelling grew as well in the interior pages of the Titans.

Of course, if you were a real Titans fanatic like me, you owned this poster that DC Comics made in the early 1980s.  I had it on the wall of my room, to the bewilderment of my parents, who probably would have rather seen the Farah Fawcett poster instead.  But you can see here all the bits of Titan mythology from the first 35 issues or so: Trigon, Brother Blood, Deathstroke, Blackfire, the alien races that would form the backdrop of the Omega Men, and Terra, sitting on top of Titans Tower.

I threw away this poster in a fit of poster cleanup (along with the Legion poster by Keith Giffen, the Revenge of the Sith poster, etc).  Sigh.  Does anyone still have it intact after all these years?

If you were a Titans fan during this era, you were probably enamored with Koriand'r, the bronzed babe known as Starfire, who learned English in her first appearance by kissing Dick Grayson.  From that moment they were fated to fall in love, which lasted for many years in the Titans series.  Of course, it didn’t last, and in the current era of DC Comics, this relationship is all but forgotten.  But for true Titans fans this romance lingers, as you can see from this cover to the George Perez newsletter in 2001. 

Wow, in looking back over these covers, I get all misty eyed over the Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans.  Geoff Johns and Mike McKone came close to this magic in their relaunch, but no one has yet surpassed the New Teen Titans saga from the 1980s.  Nuff Said!

Brian Bolland Wonder Woman cover from Amazing Heroes 197

Following up yesterday’s Flash covers by Bolland with this classic portrait of Wonder Woman, which was originally featured on Amazing Heroes #197 from 1991. 



I was thinking of Wonder Woman because of Rich Johnston’s story on Bleeding Cool about David Kelley’s pilot script for the TV pilot.  This show will either by an Ally Beal sized hit or a great disaster, we will have to see.  Any TV show would have to change Wonder Woman’s story somewhat—the comic series itself has never been consistent in giving her a private life and supporting cast of characters.  The biggest thing I find troubling in Kelley’s script is this bullet point from Johnston’s article:

Long ago, government man Steve Trevor crashed onto Wonder Woman’s island and brought her back to New York, but now they’ve split up. She still loves him, though, and it’s obvious that their relationship is going to be a focus.

Very troubling.  Wonder Woman should be about independence and self-reliance, not pining away after Steve Trevor, who hasn’t been featured at all in the comics for over a decade.  Nuff Said!

Brian Bolland Leads the British Invasion in 1984!

DC Comics brought in a number of great creators from the United Kingdom, starting in 1984, and if you had read any imported comics like 2000 A.D. or Warrior magazine, you were eagerly anticipating their work on mainstream DC heroes.  If it was not obvious what was happening, this cover by Brian Bolland on Amazing Heroes #52 made it very clear.  Judge Dredd, the character who had cracked the American market with superb artwork by Bolland and others, had opened the door for other creators from the UK.

Bolland was almost finished with Camelot 3000 by the time that Amazing Heroes cover was published.  Eleven stellar issues had been published—though we would have to wait about a year for the final issue (#12) to finally appear in 1985.

Dave Gibbons became the regular artist on Green Lantern in 1984, joining writer Len Wein for a series of stories that would see John Stewart take over as Earth’s Green Lantern for a while.

Alan Moore’s first issue of Swamp Thing was cover dated January 1984, meaning that it probably appeared in stores around Oct-Nov 1983.  I remember picking up this issue, without having read any of Moore’s previous work, but willing to give him a chance.  I thought it was a very good story and showed a lot of promise.  My jaw would drop to the ground when I read the next issue (#21) which contained The Anatomy Lesson.  That one prompted me to buy anything and everything written by Moore, including the Warrior magazines with the Marvelman & V for Vendetta stories.

Alan Davis joined a bit later, in 1985, when his stint began on Batman & The Outsiders.  I enjoyed his work on this title, although when I re-read these issues now, his style was a bit rough and his storytelling was yet as “epic” as it would become in later years.

Later in 1988, we got a second wave of creators from the UK.  Jamie Delano started on Hellblazer #1, along with John Ridgway.  Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s Black Orchid mini-series was also published in 1988.  It was a revolutionary period for comics fans!  Nuff Said.

George Perez: Post-Crisis Wonder Woman cover from Amazing Heroes

Concluding our look at the Post Crisis on Infinite Earths covers from Amazing Heroes, the last hero featured was Wonder Woman.  The big excitement for most fans was that Wonder Woman was getting one of the hottest artists in comics, George Perez!



Perez relaunched Wonder Woman for a brand new DC Earth. This cover for Amazing Heroes 106 that Perez drew displays all the classic elements of the character, the tiara, bracelets, and lasso.  But Perez also contributed a lot to the Amazon mythology of Wonder Woman.  Her battle armor was a great addition and used by other people (Alex Ross) in later years.



The cover to Wonder Woman V2 #1 was the best out of all the DC Comics reboots.  Perez populated this cover with all the epic moments from Diana's origin: the Amazons, Hercules, Ares, and her own birth out of clay.  This is probably my favorite run on the character.  Nuff Said!

Amazing Heroes: Post-Crisis Batman Year-One Cover by David Mazzucchelli

The DC Heroes were rebooted in the order of their original birth: Superman was the first one (rebooted by John Byrne), Batman was the second, and Wonder Woman was the third.  While Batman didn’t really get a reboot like the other 2 heroes, he did get a fresh new beginning with Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman Year: One.  Amazing Heroes #102 whetted our appetite for this series with this simple but effective cover by Mazzucchelli.

A DC Comics ad for the mini-series (within Batman’s regular title) got us stoked even more.  How could we not be?  This creative team did a stellar job on Daredevil, and Miller’s Dark Knight series was still fresh in our collective memories.  The 4-part story that appeared in Batman #404-407 was of course, just superb in every way.

But of all the DC Post-Crisis reboots, Batman’s was the most flawed.  Who could follow a team like Miller and Mazzucchelli?  The main title suffered with issue #408, titled Batman: The New Adventures, which featured Batman pretty much operating as if the Crisis hadn’t happened.  Jason Todd was introduced that issue as well.  Not any fault of the creators involved, but it just wasn’t the right direction for Batman.  Readers wanted more of the Frank Miller Batman.  I found myself wishing that they just used Year One as a starting point and go on from there, as DC was already doing with Superman and Wonder Woman.  Nuff Said!

Amazing Heroes: Post-Crisis Superman cover by John Byrne

When the 1985 series Crisis on Infinite Earths ended, the DC Universe was rebooted.  New versions of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman appeared.



Amazing Heroes 96 from 1986 presented the new Superman in all his glory, drawn by Marvel’s long time superstar, John Byrne.  I don’t recall if this cover came out around the same time as Byrne’s Man of Steel limited series…I suspect that it did.



To go along with Superman’s reboot, the other heroes in the Justice League pantheon were affected as well.  We had another mini-series, Legends, to see how these heroes came together for the first time in the new DC Universe.  Amazing Heroes presented this ad for the series in 1986 as well.  If I recall correctly, the new Justice League and Suicide Squad series were launched after this one concluded.  Nuff Said!

Amazing Heroes: Crisis on Infinite Earths covers by George Perez

DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths struck terror in the hearts of comics fans everywhere in the 1985.  Amazing Heroes magazine was there to provide behind the scenes articles, with some terrific covers by George Perez.



Amazing Heroes #66 from March 1985 provided a look at Harbinger and her mentor, The Monitor.  Framed by five parallel worlds, it was an intriguing look at the two characters who knew the most of the forthcoming Crisis.  The Monitor had been floating around making tiny appearances in various titles even before the Crisis mini-series started.




Would you believe that the article in AH #66 was written by Mark Waid?  Waid was the perfect person to interview the creative team, given his encyclopedic knowledge of the DCU.  A decade later, Waid would help create his own apocryphal tale (along with Alex Ross), Kingdom Come.




On the flip side, March 1986, there was a special wrap-up issue featuring this gem of a cover by Perez.  Mark Waid (a Special Guest Editor for this issue) provided a lot of articles here: a DC Comics obitiuary of all the heroes who died, Who’s Who in the New DC Universe, etc.  Roy Thomas also got interviewed by Andy Mangels—the Crisis essentially gutted everything related to Earth 2, All Star Squadron, and Infinity, Inc.  The shocking news that All Star Squadron would end with issue #60 was heart-breaking.


Amazing Heroes #91 was chock full of Crisis goodies.  You can tell that Andy Mangels and Mark Waid must have worked very hard compiling all this information.  Mangels also wrote an article titled Monitoring the Monitor, a checklist of all the hidden easter eggs scattered across various comics.  His first appearance was nearly three years before the mini-series, in New Teen Titans #21 from 1982.  Nuff Said!

Alan Davis: D.R. and Quinch vs Marvelman and Captain Britain!

What would happen if D.R. Quinch took on those other Alan Moore/Alan Davis creations, Marvelman and Captain Britain?

The result wouldn’t be pretty.  Those alien nerds would definitely win, as you can see from this amusing 1985 Amazing Heroes cover by Alan Davis.

While the Marvelman and Captain Britain stories are well known, I suspect many fans haven’t read the D.R. and Quinch stories by Moore/Davis during 1983-85.  The stories are very funny, weird, and slightly juvenile, in a good way.  Nuff Said!

Amazing Heroes 29 cover by Howard Chaykin featuring American Flagg

Back in 1983, we all knew that Howard Chaykin was a great talent.  But at that time he hadn't had the opportunity to write and draw his own long running series. 



That all changed when First Comics published American Flagg in 1983.  The preview article by Peter Sanderson featured some insight into Chaykin's journey in creating the series:

...comics need more humor than they have.  I think one of the problems with comics today is that they're incredibly humorless.
...FOr the most part, comic book characters today are creeps.  They're really creepy characters.  They're whiners.  They're losers.

Wouldn't the same quotes be applicable today?  I think for some comics, yes.  Other comics, like Deadpool have a lot of humor.  Even Green Lantern manages to get some comedy in the action with Larfleeze.  Certain other comics go too far, such as the issue in Amazing Spider-Man where Billy Connors gets eaten by his father, The Lizard.

Back to American Flagg.  I was thinking before I re-read this quote from Chaykin, what do I remember from American Flagg?  I remember the humor and the sexiness of the characters most of all.  Raul the talking cat, the corrupt politics, Jaws, and tons of garter belts.  I have those issues in a longbox, now I have to dig them out.  Nuff Said!

Sword of the Atom by Gil Kane

One of the series that Gil Kane drew for DC Comics in the early 1980s was Sword of the Atom.  This is one of those gems that I didn't quite like when it came out.  But now I love it--the setting really provided a fertile ground for Kane's illustrations.



Amazing Heroes previewed the mini-series in 1983 with this terrific Kane cover.  Kane always did a great job with sword & sorcery.  The story by Jan Strnad put Ray Palmer's marriage to Jean Loring in turmoil and sent the hero into a microverse populated by barbarians.



The first mini-series sent die-hard silver age Atom fans into a tizzy.  I remember reading this and thinking, but yeah, where's the JLA?  Of course, that was the whole point, to reinvent the Atom and send him off into another world.



Reading this stuff all over again, it was clear that Gil Kane loved this story and did some very inspired work.  After the first mini-series finished, there were 3 more specials that were published in 1984/85/86. This splash page was from the 1984 special, where Ray Palmer reflects on his feelings between the Jean and barbarian babe Laethwen.  If only the Atom could know of Jean's future actions in Identity Crisis...he would have stayed in that microverse forever. Nuff Said!

Jack Kirby's Birthday: Amazing Heroes 100 Tribute

Today is Jack Kirby's birthday today and we Giant-Sized Geeks celebrate this the way others do any religious holiday.  Kirby was a God among comics creators!  That fact entitles you to sit back and read a few Kirby comics today.





There have been a lot of publications about Jack Kirby that honor his contributions to the comic industry.  One of my favorites was Amazing Heroes #100 (from 1986).  It featured a great cover by Jack Kirby, inked by Steve (The Dude) Rude.

This issue of Amazing Heroes was jam-packed with content.  It had an article by Mark Evanier and a series of written tributes to the King by industry professionals, such as Frank Miller, Jerry Ordway, Steve Rude, Stan Lee, etc.  A few of the artists contributed some drawings.




Probably one of the most touching tributes was William Messner-Loebs contribution.  Messner-Loebs was the writer-artist who did Journey: The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire, and later wrote many other comics like Flash, Impulse, and Comico's Jonny Quest.  In this cartoon, he expresses his love for Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos:  Now, no matter how placid or bland my immediate surroundings, I can close my eyes and call up the glorious anarchy of the Howlers!  I feel the same way about various comic-book characters.  Messner-Loebs fell into a bad financial situation in the early 2000s, but according to the Wikipedia article, he is doing better now.  I hope so.




Kevin O'Neill, the artist most of you will know from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, drew this fantastic gun on steroids, powered by Kirby, pumping out idea bullets and spewing genius.  I swear I saw Marshal Law carrying this weapon, I'll have to re-read those issues to look for it.





Scott Shaw!  delivered this cartoon giving a mighty big hand to Jack.  Scott Shaw had a website called Shaw Cartoons that you can visit.  Both O'Neill and Shaw are recognizing Kirby's skill at taking any object and blowing it up, making it larger than life.  What was extra nice was that Scott also gave a shout out to Kirby's wife, Roz.




Dark Horse Comics lined up their stable of artists to provide a little jam tribute to the King.  The most notable artists here are Paul Chadwick, who drew his creation, Concrete, on the left.  In the middle, I see Ron Randall's Trekker character.  I wish I could name all of the rest.

I was inspired to explore Amazing Heroes #100 after visiting The Kirby Museum.  Check it out, I think you will find lots of Kirby magic there.  Nuff Said!

Link: Fantastic Four Omnibus Volume 2 HC (reprints FF #31-60 in a giant-sized hardcover)
Link: Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 1

Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld: Ernie Colon and New Takes by Chris Stevens, Bill Walko

DC Comics has a magical gem of a property that hasn't been touched in years: Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld.  The original 12 issue maxi-series that DC published in 1983 had a great premise: 13 year-old Amy Winston, who has lived all of her life in suburbia, discovers that she is really a princess from another dimension called Gemworld.  And by crossing over into that world, Amy is transformed into a fully mature adult with the powers to battle the evil Dark Opal.





Most of you probably have no idea about this series. Chris Stevens (chris2d from deviantART), produced this wonderful illustration of Amethyst without having any history with the character either.  He did a superb job nonetheless.  Chris says that this piece was done with "prismacolor/copics with white paint and color pencil on vellum bristol board".





Here's an illustration by Amethyst co-creator and original artist, Ernie Colon.  This cover appeared on Amazing Heroes 20 in 1983.





Another cover by Color for issue #2, shows Amethyst using her powers against Dark Opal's assassin, Carnelian.

The first 12-issue maxi-series delivered an engaging tale for an audience that is buying/reading lots of books today.  Amethyst had a female twist on the Shazam/Captain Marvel idea, with lots of intriguing possibilities for Amy to explore her adult self.  Writers Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn conceived a new universe in Gemworld, which wasn't (as far as I recall) heavily tied to the DC Universe.  It was fertile ground for a new mythology.

When the Amethyst series continued after the maxi, writers tried linking Gemworld in more tightly with DC continuity and the Legion of Super-Heroes magical villain Mordru--a big mistake in my opinion.




Last month, Project Rooftop featured this nifty redesign of Amethyst by Bill Walko.  Check out the link below for Bill's comments on the re-design.  Nuff Said!

Link: Chris Stevens on deviantART

Link: All-Ages All-Stars: Bill Walko's Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld

Link: Aimee Olexan ComicArtFan Gallery page (lots of Amethyst original art & commissions)

Justice Society and Infinity Inc Amazing Heroes Covers

As you can tell by my previous Metal Men post, I've been going through a set of old Amazing Heroes magazines from the 1980s.  This was one of our main sources of comics news, and they had some terrific covers.

Amazing Heroes #3 featured this Justice Society of America cover featuring both old and new generation.  Joe Staton, who drew the JSA in the revival of All-Star Comics, did this cover.  The classic Golden Age characters are in the foreground, but take note of the ones featured in the back.  The Earth-Two versions of Superman, Bruce Wayne, Power Girl, Robin, and Star Spangled Kid.

A couple of years later, the new generation--Infinity Inc--came along and booted the JSA out of the spotlight.  This cover by Mike Machlan and Jerry Ordway introduced us to Nuklon, Brain Wave Jr, Fury, Northwind, Obsidian, Silver Scarab, and Jade.  Along with familiar characters: Power Girl, Huntress, and Star Spangled Kid.  The interior content featured a nice interview with Roy Thomas and loads of information on the Earth-Two mythology.  Nuff said.

Terry Austin's Metal Men Cover

I'm a big Metal Men fan.  I've written about them extensively here, I've got a PVC set of the entire team, and I'm currently buying the Doom Patrol comic just to read the excellent MM backup series by Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire.



In going through a bunch of Amazing Heroes back issues, I came across this Metal Men cover by Terry Austin.  This appeared in AH #10, 1982.  Nuff said!