Exploring the Comic World

Exploring the Comic World!

     I lived in Grandville, Mi. which is the westside of Michigan at an apartment complex named Wimbeldon (they had a tennis court). I lived there between the grades of 3rd through 7th. During this time is when I got my first comic and casually collected G.I. Joe, not because they were comics but because it was G.I. Joe! and I faithfully watched the cartoon and collected the figures throughout my youth. 

On the northeast corner of 44th and Wilson was a D&W supermarket or Food Library if you're Skwisgaar Skwigelf. This was the place I had collected my G.I. Joe comics, but then we moved. We moved further east on 44th st. into the school district of Kelloggsville (Yes, I thought it had something to do with cereal too!) in Wyoming. We lived in an apartment complex called Wyoming Green (pretty original) and again on the northeast corner of 44th st. and this time Clyde Park Ave. there was a convenience store named Dairymart. I would venture over there time to time and buy drinks, candy and whatnot. I would often stop to look at the comic book rack and see if anything looked good. One particular time I saw this comic cover, it looked dynamic, eye-catching an all around good looking cover. I browsed through it and what was inside was awesome!


  Mr. Fantastic and the rest of the Fantastic Four are captured by the egomaniac Dr. Doom (Which ranks as my 2nd favorite villain of all time). Dr. Doom challenges Mr. Fantastic to a battle through time, giving a device that allows them to shift into different moments of time. This may seem cliche or contrived by now but the plot of the story is not what makes this story awesome IT'S THE ART! As each character is traveling through time to get the jump on their opponent the artist Walter Simonson draws the characters with a kind-of ripple effect showing you where they start (and almost like a flip book) their progression to where they finish in their time travel!
The second cover is just as impressive showing Johnny Storm aka. Human Torch flying around the page. This comic concludes the fight between Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) and Victor Von Doom (Dr. Doom). I won't ruin the end but the heroic quartet get pulled in to a new a new adventure, at this point I got disinterested (I wanted to see more of Dr. Doom). I think watching movies and reading books develop a plot a little more and this seemed too short for me.


Dr. Doom made an impression on me and I wanted to see where they were taking this character. This must have been about 89' or 90' and I know Marvel had been around for ages, but I was hoping this was going somewhere awesome and I hadn't missed the best of what Marvel had to offer of this character. Dr. Doom was enigmatic and had a design that appeared to be that of a modern Knight and that was cool! He was kind-of like Marvel's own Darth Vader in his stature and if he appeared like Darth Vader maybe his personality was like Darth Vader's! 

Some time later once I had an established interest in comics I purchased Secret Wars and I learned how awesome Dr. Doom really was and the cover of the comic featuring his battle against the Beyonder is one of my favorites! 

For those of you who may have an interest in reading comics with only Dr. Doom the comic named Doom 2099 may interest you, it didn't prove to be one of my favorites but it was interesting.
Dr. Doom still remains one of my favorite comic villains.
These comics didn't fully capture my interest, but I think they helped to keep me looking at the comic rack. The next blog will tell the story of the comic that did get my interest so stay tuned true believers!

Excelsior!
Coolcat
5/18/13

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How We Perceive Film, TV, Comics, Video Games, Etc.

How We Perceive Film, TV, Comics, Video Games, Etc. Everyone has developed different expectations when it comes to comic book based movies. Some are interested in a 'True-to-the-comic' depiction of the characters or in some cases the plot (if it is derived from a particular arc). Others like to alter the characters or plot to make it fit into a general familiarity of the human condition more or less stripping them of the nuances found in the comics over the years, but sometimes necessary to condense the character down in order for it to fit into a film lasting only a couple of hours. Some care more about the film and how it is presented and how it fits into the classic understanding of film. Finally, there is another group more interested in taking the content and turning it into a film that challenges the boundaries and the average understanding of films, sometimes this doesn't sit well with general audiences until it develops a regular audience, examples; Tim Burton,...
Read more

Chicago Comic Con

Image
Chicago Comic Con So, I tried to make a post on Friday before I left for Chicago Comic Con, but the internet went down. It's probably better because I was only going to later post what happened later. Everything started out alright until we got to Chicago. THE TRAFFIC WAS TERRIBLE! We left early in the hopes of get to the center early and we sat in traffic for an hour and maybe moved 5 miles at best! Moral of the Story: Leave Early! Know your route and if you can if there is any construction. Now that we are past that. once We go there we saw the usually suspects of Awesome Cos-players!  We made our way around the convention center when I noticed some images by Frank Frazetta that were printed to about 24 X 36in poster sized pictures. After speaking to one of the guys for a bit he mentioned that Robert Rodriguez a friend and fan of Frank Frazetta photographed the paintings in order to help raise the funds for a gallery dedicated to Frank Frazetta that would display his worl...
Read more

The Wolverine

Image
The Wolverine It's a difficult task to condense over thirty years of a characters history and experiences down to a two hour film. Some of the best moments of the character gets glazed over, connections between character and reader also lost in translation. Arguably Wolverines best moments are in the comics and not in the films, but an attempt has been made to connect the audience to the character that is Wolverine. A character that is renown for his savagery in battle and his haphazard disregard for rules, authority, or the chain of command. He's the best at what he does and he does it the best when left alone. The comics deal with his issues and like most comics circulate around the same character defects over and over. For a reader like me that wants to see his characters develop, get past there defects and develop to their potential it becomes difficult to see this recycling in comics, but it happens. The movies are some what forced to it differently. If a character d...
Read more