Burning Comics Slideshows 247 AUCTIONS GA/SA/BA HOT ROD LOVE/ROMANCE WAR HORROR

MONDAY MONSTER BLOG 041309 Apr 13 2009 NEW Burning Comics Slideshows Ebay Auction SHARPSHOOTER 7 _SCANS

</font>I KILLED ADOLPH HITLER, NM, JASON

Product Details

* Paperback: 48 pages
* Publisher: Fantagraphics; First Edition edition (October 22, 2007)
* Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.1 x 0.3 inches

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Between the opening note of perverse sexuality and the touching tribute to the permanence of true love at the end, murder, time travel and alternate futures fill in the second act of this astonishing graphic novel. Such a tale could only be penned by Jason, the Norwegian cartoonist who mixes outré fantasy with deadpan romanticism. As in all his books, this one is populated exclusively by a cast of lanky anthropomorphic animals. The setting is a world where hit man is just another job; the hero has a dissatisfied girlfriend and a boring job knocking off people who are merely annoying—a too loud neighbor, an overbearing boss. But as usual in Jason's work, the story soon veers off in an unexpected direction when the protagonist is hired to go back in time to kill Adolf Hitler via a time machine that takes 50 years to fully charge. He only has one chance, but messes up, allowing Hitler to come to the present day. The story—perhaps inspired by the French time travel film La Jetée—takes on even more unusual twists from there, before reaching a surprising and completely satisfying denouement that solves both the hero's relationship problems and World War II. Jason continues to be one of the best cartoonists working anywhere. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Jason's work is poetry. Beautiful and frightening. Redemptive and hopeless. He is the Kafka and Keats of the comic world. -- Sherman Alexie

One of the medium's finest storytellers. -- Publishers Weekly


Product Description
A contract killer goes back in time to kill Hitler...and fails spectacularly.

For his latest graphic novel (the third in color, the ninth to be published by Fantagraphics) Jason posits a strange, violent world in which contract killers can be hired to rub out pests, be they dysfunctional relatives, abusive co-workers, loud neighbors, or just annoyances in general—and as you might imagine, their services are in heavy demand.

One such killer is given the unique job of traveling back in time to kill Adolf Hitler in 1939...but things go wrong, Hitler overpowers the would-be assassin and sends himself to the present, leaving the killer stranded in the past.

The killer eventually finds his way back into the present by simply waiting the decades out as he ages, and teams up with his now much-younger girlfriend to track down the missing fascist dictator...at which point the book veers further into Jason territory, as the cartoonist's minimalist, wickedly dry sense of humor slows down the story to a crawl: for long patches absolutely nothing happens, but nobody can make nothing happening as riotously entertaining as Jason does...and finally, when the reader isn't paying attention, he brings it together with a shocking, perfectly logical and yet completely unexpected climax which also solves a mystery from the very beginning of the book the reader had forgotten about.

As always, I Killed Adolf Hitler is rendered in Jason's crisp deadpan neo-clear-line style, once again augmented by lovely, understated coloring.

About the Author
Jason hails from Oslo, Norway and now spends his time in Montpellier, France.

http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%201/INDEPENDENTCOMICS2025.jpg

POWERS COLORING BOOK
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%201/INDEPENDENTCOMICS2062.jpg

BATTLE BABES COLORING BOOK
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%201/INDEPENDENTCOMICS2061.jpg

THE DITKO COLLECTION 1966-1973, Vol. 1
* Hardcover: 112 pages
* Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; 1st edition (1985)

This is a collection of the "fanzine" work Mr. Ditko did after Spider-Man, and during the Blue Beetle, Creeper, and Hawk and Dove. The artwork is gorgeous, as you may expect, but the real joy is seeing a master of the comic book form use that form to address philosophical issues. Whether you agree with the Ayn Rand-ish viewpoint or not, the work is a turning point in the career of one of the best artists/storytellers that comics ever saw.

Steve Ditko has done for any rand's objectivism what Vic Lockman has done for Christianity, making even the deeper ideas more ascessible to younger audiences. If only Ditko had known that there *is* such a person as the Christ, whose (earthly) life can be shown to have been the embodiment of rationality. If only he knew that when Aristotle stated "a = a" he was only restating God's (YHWH's) "I AM THAT I AM". Of course, this is the problem with Rand's ojectivism. There is an emerging philosophy, however, that is working to correct this false identification of reality.

http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%203/INDY3024.jpg

THE ODD COMIC WORLD OF RICHARD CORBEN
Paperback: 80 pages
Publisher: Warren Adult Fantasy (1977)
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%203/INDY3023.jpg

SWORD AND FANTASY, RICHARD CORBEN, BERNIE WRIGHTSON
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%204/oddbalweirdocomicbookmagazines017.jpg

FRANK CHO SKETCHES AND SCRIBBLES (BOOK 2) NM AUTOGRAPHED SIGNATURE
Number 2189 of a limited edition of 3000 signed by Frank Cho.
Paperback: 80 pages
Publisher: Monkey Boy Press; 1st edition (2005)
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%203/INDY3043.jpg

THE DAVE NESTLER SKETCHBOOK vol. 1, NM, BAD GIRLS DRAWN NICELY

Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: SQP (July 2004)
Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.2 inches

Dave Nestler has made a career of illustrating impossibly beautiful women, creating some of the most breathtaking paintings you've ever had dancing through your fondest naughty thoughts. Although it may seem like magic, there's a staggering amount of study and technique involved in the creation of such works. You think staring at pretty girls all day long is easy? Fun, sure, but easy? Nestler lets you roam through pages and pages of delightful detailed finished drawings of females in all manner of positions and attitudes, giving you valuable insight into his craft (and letting you enjoy the view!).
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%203/INDY3045.jpg

THE DAVE NESTLER SKETCHBOOK vol. 2, NM, BAD GIRLS RIDE AGAIN

Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: SQP Inc.; 1st edition (June 15, 2005)
Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.2 x 0.2 inches

Dave Nestler is primarily known as a gallery-level painter who specializes in sexy girls. His ability to create realistic portraits of fantasy women fetch nose-bleed prices, and his work is in constant demand. When his first sketchbook was assembled, we knew it would interest those who like to go behind-the-scenes to see what goes into a painting, but were delighted to see it become one of our best selling books of 2004. Seems people really like Dave's eye for the ladies, even in sketch form, so Mr. Nestler dutifully began collecting a new series of drawings for a second volume. Featuring a new painting that continues the ever-popular "Naughty School Girl" motif, this book has more of what made Volume One so popular - girls, girls, and sure -more girls, as only Dave Nestler can create!
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%203/INDY3046.jpg

THE ART OF DAVE NESTLER: WICKED INTENTIONS, NM

Paperback: 48 pages
Publisher: SQP (December 15, 2002)
Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.7 x 0.2 inches

Dave Nestler knows several things: how to survive in high style, zig when others zag, and most importantly - how to draw outrageously sensual women.

When he first started in commercial illustration, Dave's innate ability to capture likenesses got him plenty of assignments in the media capital of the universe - Hollywood. Throughout the Eighties, Nestler?s handiwork appeared in some of the hottest properties for film, television, design studios and the like. But as technology (the computer) could do more and more, faster and cheaper, Dave's once-lucrative career started to hit some dry patches. It was time to come up with another plan.

Always a fan of the pin-up, and inspired by such greats as Alberto Vargas and Hajime Sorayama, by the mid 90's Dave had created a series of stunning erotic portraits that got him the attention of Playboy Magazine. It wasn't long before he would star in gallery showings, and command fine-art prices for his illustrations. For those not quite ready to mortgage the house, here for the first time is a collection of these full color masterworks for your own personal admiration.

The Art of Dave Nestler is an over-sized presentation, 48 pages in glorious full color, printed on heavyweight coated stock - every page worthy of a frame and a spotlight of its own.

http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%203/100_1436.jpg

THE ART OF NEAL ADAMS v.1, VF 1975
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%205/INDY5001.jpg

HOUSE OF HAMMER v.2, #2, VF RAQUEL WELCH, URSULA ANDRESS

One Million Years B.C. - The full film told in comics. John Bolton story art
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%205/INDY5004.jpg
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%205/INDY5005.jpg

RASCALS IN PARADISE 1,2,3, ALL VF, JIM SILKE GOOD GIRL ART

Rascals in Paradise was a comic book limited series created in 1994 by writer/artist Jim Silke and published by Dark Horse Comics. It was labeled "for mature adults only", and illustrated in a "deco sci-fi" style.

Plot

In the year 2362, a duplicate of Earth is created, ostensibly as a planet-sized vacation resort. However, due to an error or miscalculation, the machine intelligence that was supposed to create the world instead created a planet called Trash-9, a world covered by hostile jungles, wilderness and deserts, and populated by dangerous natives.

http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%205/INDY5008.jpg
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%205/INDY5009.jpg
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%205/INDY5010.jpg

SAVAGE TALES v.2, #2, VF SUYDAM COVER ART
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%206/INDY6.jpg

BLAZING COMBAT #3, VF/NM WARREN FRANK FRAZETTA, ALEX TOTH, WAR

Story art by Alex Toth, Reed Crandall, Gene Colon, Gray Morrow, John Severin, Jerry Grandenetti
http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%205/INDY5.jpg

LITTLE ANNIE FANNY

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Dark Horse; 1st edition (November, 2000)
Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.7 inches

Dark Horse Comics and Playboy Enterprises are proud to present for the first time ever the more than 400 pages of the late, great Harvey Kurtzman's Little Annie Fanny, collected in two deluxe volumes. Kurtzman, creator of Mad magazine and godfather of underground comix, teamed with longtime E.C. Comics collaborator Will Elder (and sometimes Frank Frazetta, Russ Heath, and Jack Davis!) to create a Playboy icon second only to the bunny and a risqué comics icon second to none! Each volume showcases over 200 pages of stunningly rendered stories from the sexy strip's 25-year run. Trend setting in its use of color, irreverent in its satirical look at the changing face of America, and a masterpiece of technique, this definitive collection of one of world's most controversial comic strips is long overdue. This first volume takes us through the swinging Sixties with the Beatles, Civil Rights, and the beginning of the Sexual Revolution. Also included, a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the strip's creative process, featuring never-before-seen art and preliminary drawings!

From Publishers Weekly
Little Annie Fanny, the buxom blonde who appeared for 26 years in the pages of Playboy magazine, returns in the first of a two-volume reprint. Created by Mad Magazine cofounder Harvey Kurtzman and legendary cartoonist Will Elder, Fanny's comic exploits (in various states of undress and nearly always topless) are set during the swinging '60s. These panels, published from 1962 to 1970, allow few cultural events of the period to escape Kurtzman and Elder's madcap social satire. Psychedelic drugs, the sexual revolution, the Peace Corps, the civil rights movement and the space race all feature as backdrops for Annie's misadventures and almost all of the gags involve Annie shedding her clothes while the men around her turn into fawning idiots. Among her many adventures, the witless actress sprints in the 1968 Olympics, plays football for the Green Bay Packers and gets naked with the Fab Four. The book features inspired caricatures of Marcello Mastroianni, Barry Goldwater, J. Edgar Hoover, Frank Sinatra and other figures of the time. The drawings are striking for their color and detail (other artists assisting Elder include Frank Frazetta, Al Jaffee and Jack Davis), and the backgrounds are filled with hilarious antics in the classic Elder style. Sketches, drawings-in-process, a history of Little Annie Fanny, as well as annotations on each comic segment are also included.

Review
...Some of the farthest-out, most beautifully executed episodes of the zaniest, lushest, most unique cartoon feature ever conceived. -- Hugh Hefner

http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%206/INDY6008.jpg

TOTH: ONE FOR THE ROAD
Paperback: 171 pages
Publisher: Auad Publishing; 1st Edition (2000)
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 11 inches

In years past the great illustrator/cartoonist, Alex Toth, has drawn some of the cleverest and funniest pages for such classics as Pete Millar's 'Drag CarTOONS', 'Big Daddy Roth' and other books that are now held as prize possessions by hot rod fans everywhere. Here -- for the first time -- is the most comprehensive and extensive collection of the legendary Toth's renditions of the good ol' days of hot rod'n.

Introduction by Pete Millar

I don't know exactly when I first came in contact with Alex…or how it all came about. I do know that as a young, struggling publisher/cartoonist, it was the best thing that ever happened to my publications (DRAG cartoons and ED "Big Daddy" ROTH) and to ME personally…as I had, as most of you, been BIG fans of Alex Toth and to have his art grace the pages of those two publications was beyond my wildest dreams.

When I first started my publication, the only member of my "staff" was Dennis Ellefson, my right hand man. But I did have quite a few freelance contributors, such as Jim Willoughby, Willy Ito, Jim Mueller, Jim Williams, Woody Kimbel, and Foster Moore (Napoleon).

By 1964 I decided to expand my publications and was looking for fresh talent. I was given the names of Rick Griffin, Mel Keffer, Hy Mankin, Russ Manning, Alex Toth, Warren Tuffs, and Gilbert Shelton…all high caliber cartoonists in their own right. Never dreaming they'd be the least bit interested in stepping down from the quality publications they've drawn for previously, but I gave it a shot. And they each responded enthusiastically.

My normal page rate at that time was $50.00 per page. But I couldn't offer those "heavyweights" that kind of money so I "robbed Peter to pay Paul" and offered them $75.00 per page and that included lettering. But much to my surprise, I discovered that in the comic book business, there are separate individuals who are story writers, pencilers, inkers, and letterers. For someone like me who did it ALL, it came as a big surprise. But Alex was something special…not only did he grasp the world of Drag Racing and write his own stories, he delivered them COMPLETE and all for only $75 bucks a page! But that was, and is, the cartoonist Alex is. He researches his subject matter and draws with authenticity, but of course you fans of Alex already know that.

So when Manuel asked me to write an introduction to this publication, I felt quite honored to, once again, be associated with someone like Alex Toth.

http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg348/SHARPSHOOTER_7_SCANS/INDY%206/INDY6009.jpg


-----------------------------------------------

Shipping

In the continental U. S.,

I can ship up to 4 magazines for $4.00 media mail,

5-8 magazines, shipping is $5.50 media mail,

9-12 magazines, shipping is $7.00 media mail,

13-16 magazines, shipping is $8.00 media mail,

17-20 magazines, shipping is $9.00 media mail,

Over 20 magazines? Relax. No worries.

I’ll have to get back to you on that with an exact quote.

Grading is (and always will be) subjective, so I recommend you
view the magazine's picture and grade it yourself before you bid.
I'm confident you'll find my grading both fair and accurate.

Terms and Conditions

Please email me with any questions you may have.
Buyer is responsible for all shipping and handling costs.
Cash, money orders, cashiers checks or personal checks? OK!
Payment must be received within 7 days after end of auction
or item may be re-listed and negative feedback may be left,
(unless special arrangements are made with seller via email).
If there is a problem with your item after delivery, please contact
me within 3 days after receiving it to resolve the problem.
Please do this before leaving negative or neutral feedback.
I am more than willing to work with you to make things right
if you are unhappy with your purchase. (You won't be.)

</td></tr></tbody></table>

how communication arts comics magazines computer designs types fonts graphics grafix graphics arts graphic arts CAD lowbrow lot romances sexy pinups pin-ups headlights GGA BGA bad girl art good girl art sleaze sleazy cartoons playboys penthouses hustlers pornography pornographic vintage risque mens mans nudity classics detectives killers murders murderers mysteries mystery crimes strippers burlesque nudes Spiderman Spider man Batman Daredevil Superman Wonder Woman X-Men Hulk Thor horrors wars loves indy indie weirdos oddballs womans womens army navy air force marines male female spy spies soldiers pilots snipers bombers 1940's 1950's 1960's 1970's forties fifties sixties seventies

</td></tr></tbody></table>
</td></tr><tr><td valign="top" align="center"></td></tr></table>

-----------------------------------------------

Origins

A great die-off of superheroes began with the end of World War II. The loss of military contracts to provide disposable reading matter to servicemen overseas ate into sales figures; the aging of a readership in a day when one generally considered teenagers too old for reading comics moved domestic patrons out of the market; and, of course, not all heroes had what it takes to create an enduring readership. If the superhero ailed in those days, comics creators themselves kept moving to attempt to present material that would engage readers and, therefore, move off the news stands. Sometimes existing genres rose into the vacancies created by expiring superhero material; sometimes publishers crowded out failing heroes to make way for other, theoretically more commercial material. In this era, we saw as a defining event the eviction of Green Lantern from his own title to make space for a wonder dog strip. After the end of the war, popular interest somewhat shifted from martial concerns (say, costumed heroes) to domestic ones (say, radio serials and movies dealing with romance). Radio, television, and theater consumed increasing chunks of recreation time in the decade immediately following the end of the War, and two innovative talents from the thirties and forties - Joe Simon and Jack Kirby - decided to test the waters of romance in comic book form in 1947. For its moment, the form would flower, even spawning sub-variants such as cowboy romance material and Black romance comics. And the flagship romance comic, Young Romance, would endure through over 200 issues and over 20 years, spanning more than one publisher in the decades of its existence.

Conventions

False confessions became an early conceit of the romance comics back in the day when the entire genre belonged to its creators, Simon and Kirby. Given the fictional device of first-person narration combined with the relentless maleness of the two creators, one can see as inevitable that a certain amount of fraud (of the kind absolved by willing suspension of belief) would originate with comics with female protagonists. Magazines with titles like True This and Real That led the way for this approach. Moralism also played a central role, as it would in a number of comics forms that predated the Code that arose to address the immorality of the form. Characters met bad ends in proportion to the bad deeds they perpetrated; blackmailers and scoundrels could expect disgrace, jail, or even death so reliably that one would assume moral laws drove the physics of comics. One may also note that, since the romance comics barely endured into the seventies, that the morality they depicted resounded with pre-sexual revolution themes. Hence a norm of hetero-monogamy prevailed. This provided the third key element: The monogamistic happy ending that stood as the Mecca all characters seemed to seek in the romance comics. In an age where Everyman seemed to view marriage as central to long-term happiness - certainly an arguable position - all tales sought, and either achieved or failed to achieve, this goal. With some combination of the three principle conventions of the form, romance comics furthermore explored tales which typically fell into categories such as Cinderella fantasies, near escapes, tragic endings, fantastic redemptions, and just deserts.

Cinderella Fantasies

A harsh commercial of an earlier decade featured a young girl, playing with some dolls, and babbling on about how a prince would someday take her as his wife and solve, once and for all, her material needs. This particular gem of advertising ended with the claim that the young heroine could expect to appear on the welfare rolls with a head full of such fantasies. While one might well invite the authors of such shock-and-naysaying material to lighten up or at least leave the pessimism at home a few days out of the year, the Cinderella Fantasy does still offer a sometimes-destructive lure to females in a variety of cultures. The fantasy tends to do its damage by training young people to expect a Prince Charming - a kind of deus ex machina but with money and big pectorals - to make everything right. While one focuses one's strategies on waiting for unlikely happenings such as the timely appearance of a Prince, one does not invest in a future made better through one's own efforts; and this applies across lines of sex, gender, or whatever folks call it these days. Preparing for the worst does more good than idling away time hoping for the best without human effort to back it up. The romance comic originated in a day where western culture offered many fewer opportunities for self-reliance for females, and quietly expired in a period that suggested new possibilities. Perhaps the perceived "corniness" of Cinderella-fantasy material helped bring the romance comics down; and perhaps such fantasy became less and less relevant. The publishers of the pure-prose bodice-ripper don't seem to think so, however.

Near Escapes

The near escape story enjoyed a flexible range of components, depending on the thing from which our protagonists - typically female - needed to escape. Their own pasts, simple bad luck, or the schemes of wicked rivals for a partner's affections (or of wicked contenders for their own) provided the raw material for the near escape story. Temptation frequently played a central role in stories of this sort. Partially because this helped real people to relate to fictional stories, and partially because too much strength of character can make players dishwater dull, our stalwart heroines risked falling into the gap between what they wanted, what they could have, and what they should have, a differential frequently thrown into contrast by desires for material security or simple devotion from a tenuous partner in love. However, the moral determinism of many comics - the poetic justice that could, if necessary, overturn natural law - ultimately righted wrongs brought about by the evil intent of characters in the romance comics. So, if one looks at contemporaneous material, one can see a common pattern of karmic retribution. The Comics Code Authority did not invent this morality; it just codified it as an editorial standard with the power of preemptive censorship for material that failed to comply.

Tragic Endings

On one level, romance comics dared take a more adult approach than many other forms of comics, including the earlier and later superhero comics. Free from the burdens created by combining a shared universe/continuity model with an ongoing monthly publishing schedule, the romance comic could, if the story required, kill off major players (who, we must admit, probably never appeared before and almost certainly would never appear again anyway). This gave a freedom lacking from comics forms that use editorial models that claim to allow for or even require change yet must not dispose of the intellectual properties that move the books in the first place. A widow or ex-lover could relate the details of the event which forever separated her from her beau. The five-and-ten pager, after all, allowed creators to reach for effect rather than requiring them to build on a canon of stories. If the tone writers and artists sought required the Loving Husband to die saving the world from the Hun so that his bereaved could get maudlin and reflect on an idealized version of a short yet intense marriage, they could slaughter with impunity.

Fantastic Redemptions

Although wickedness tended to bring characters to well-deserved bad ends, plenty of stories allowed once-wayward characters a chance to redeem themselves from a past not always fully of their own creation. Variants of the Reform School Girl Romance and the Poor Girl Transcends Her Humble Origins made for a consistent fodder of the romance comics. In general, though, these stories deal with either reformed characters - meaning protagonists with a seedy past but a fairly upright present or those who, in the present, do little worse than attempt to conceal a long-past seediness lest it wreck their futures. And they also conveyed a moralistic, and frequently unrealistic, message about the concrete and external benefits due to those who reform on an abstract and internal level. With this kind of story, the wish-fulfillment element of the romance comics shows more strongly than in many of the other versions.

Just Deserts

Wicked women and scandalous rakes both appeared, as a kind of ferment, in many tales of the old romance comics. Without the Serpent in Eden, after all, the story amounts to little more than two people picking fruit off trees all day and trying to invent new ways to combat the ever-mounting boredom. Someone has to make trouble or nothing might ever happen. [Misbehaving beaux and belles, as staples of the form.] As well, the Just Deserts model of romance comics story served its wish fulfillment aspect rather well. People whom others have wronged, after all, may wish to see some of the suffering bad people inflict return to them rather than fall exclusively on the shoulders of the innocent and the exploited. Typical romance-comics offenses include mate-stealing; mate-killing, to replace an older model with a newer one; concealment of an ongoing lurid or criminal double life; and a repertoire of methods for ruining the lives of married couples for the sake of attempting to have more than one deserves. The moralism of the form makes itself well-felt here. Ignore the nihilism of twentieth-century classical prose pieces like Kafka's "The Metamorphosis;" the rogue and the vampire (in the old sense of the term, used to label a woman as greedy and parasitic) either found themselves alone, or in jail, or even dead.

The Fate of the Form

A multi-tiered attack ultimately caused the romance comics, after a quarter of a century, to disappear from the news racks. No one of these forces killed off the form - indeed, it could resurface someday - but the combination of factors working against this genre ultimately smothered it under its cumulative weight. A changing morality made their moral emphasis appear quaint and dated (by modern standards, the emphasis on hetero-monogamy might appear positively malign); the reward of home and hearth began to seem irrelevant or even a form of bondage; across all genres, comics had suffered in the mid and late fifties from factors including growing disinterest and a censorship of prior restraint; the post-Stan Lee comics would preempt somewhat the romance theme by allowing superheroes solid romantic connections; and, finally, the superhero comic would come to dominate the aesthetic ecosystem of the form to the point of crowding out other material, regardless of genre.

The Talent

Names that one normally doesn't associate with the romance comic, since they attach to other, previous or subsequent, achievements, belong in the canon of romance comic talent, including its inventors, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Observers of the medium suggest that a number of canonical figures of fifties and sixties comics (or that got their start there) did so in the early romance comics, acquiring a different set of skills than required by the superhero stories that once propelled the medium. Names like Matt Baker, Frank Frazetta, Everett R. Kinstler, Jay Scott Pike, John Romita Senior, Leonard Starr, Alex Toth, and Wally Wood belong in this set (according to Jim Korkis in Teen Angst). Some would go on to distinguish themselves in other genres, including, but not limited to, the ubiquitous superhero form. We can add other names to this. Marie Severin, for instance, described one Marvel job she received doctoring old romance comic pages from the sixties to make the clothes more appropriate for 1970, installing details like flared trouser cuffs and pointy collars (a task of considerable tedium). A particular set of talents developed in the romance form, including skills not always acquirable in today's superhero-dominated comics market. In a romance comic, the credibility of characters and settings assumes an importance generally foreign to more fantastic genres: Anatomy that never occurs in nature, clothing that would violate the dress code of a circus, and facial expressions that fall into two categories (snarl and non-snarl) would all ruin the plausibility of a romance comic. So artists learned to bring out the nuances of emoting faces, the detail of conventional clothing, and human bodies that suggested the beautiful but not the impossible. Using Romita as an example - if an exceptional one - we can note that his assumption of the artistic role on Amazing Spider-Man saw an increasingly expressive set of characters and a definitely more beautiful female (and, for that matter, male) cast. Romita may not have worked in the wildly imaginative manner typical of Ditko on pieces like Dr. Strange stories, but he certainly brought a great deal to the books he worked on, regardless of the subject matter, and the best things he brought seemed relevant to his romance comics background. Owing to the small footprint that romance comics seems to have left on fandom - the superhero form dominates fandom in a way that leaves some of the once-diverse comics medium to the attention of scholarly historians of the subject - locating a canonical list of the artists and writers who made their careers on this material represents a problem of the very availability of the information.





Guide ID: 10000000003436687Guide created: 04/24/07 (updated 06/15/07)

Buy > http://stores.ebay.com/TRANS-GLOBAL-COMICS-AND-MAGAZINES_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

CLICK TO MANIFY. AGAIN TO ENGORGE.

Buy > http://stores.ebay.com/TRANS-GLOBAL-COMICS-AND-MAGAZINES_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

http://winghouse.ning.com/main/search/search?q=books

http://winghouse.ning.com/main/search/search?q=books