Showing posts with label DC75. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DC75. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

The Top 10 Ragman Covers



Despite never having amounted to much in the greater scheme of things, I'll always have a soft spot for the Tatterdemalion of Justice. Created by the Sgt. Rock team of Bob Kanigher and Joe Kubert to star in his own eponymous 1976 series, you didn't get much more blue collar than Rory Regan. A 'Nam vet troubled by his past, Rory inherited a thrift store when his father was killed by mob enforcers. Whether delusional or truly empowered by the souls of his departed loved ones, Regan donned a suit of fabric scraps to become the vigilante Ragman. At least, that's how I was introduced to him in a favorite issue among the earliest comics I ever bought, The Brave and the Bold #196. Later on, he went from a skid row Batman to the Jewish Ghost Rider, which worked out well for him, since he is a cornerstone of Chanukah celebrations in holiday-themed comics. In honor of his finally receiving his own character-themed blog, Ragman - DC's Tatterdemalion of Justice!, I now present his finest covers...


10) Ragman #2 (November, 1991)

Truth to tell, I struggled to get to ten on this countdown, and there were several other covers that could have filled this slot. Ragman covers suffer from a sense of sameness. Most are by either Joe Kubert, who never comfortably illustrated super-heroics, or Pat Broderick, whose faces were often too overwrought with comical expression. Both did a lot of unintentionally goofy supernatural themed pieces, which always struck be as an ill-considered affectation to hang on a very street level concept. I picked this piece because it portrays the primary alteration of the character Post-Crisis, Ragman's suit eating the souls of the evil to fuel its vague power. It's also nicely rendered, even if the woman does look more overcome by the offensive odor of the rags than other undesirable aspects of her fate.


9) Ragman: Cry of the Dead #5 (December, 1993)


You may laugh at that windsock hood and those stretched out tights, but don't tell me you don't know exactly who the character is based on a silhouette. I also appreciate how insanely busy the crowd is to contrast against that central negative space.


8) Ragman #3 (January, 1977)


A terrorized black kid in bell-bottoms chased by '50s mobsters spouting concise exposition while the hero lurks just far enough off-center to suggest panel progression and nudge the fourth wall? Such a '70s DC cover!


7) Ragman: Cry of the Dead #6 (January, 1994)


Contemporary Dickensian street kids piling on Ragman is much more in the spirit the hero as originally conceived than any of the supernatural hokum and team book antics we've seen since the '90s.


6) Ragman: Suit of Souls #1 (October, 2010)


This is more of a cool pin-up than a cover. Yes, it does demonstrate the queer costume inhabited by dark spirits, but they're pretty demonic, and where's the environment? To my mind, the whole point of Ragman is that he's a skid row hero, not a supernatural Batman, not that you can tell from the bleached void behind him. The suit is too shiny and form fitting, like a franchise star.


5) The Brave and the Bold #196 (March, 1983)


Beyond being a sentimental favorite of mine, how fantastic and unusual is this piece? Inside the book, Jim Aparo was able to get the creepiness and melodrama of Ragman across, but was too clean and graceful in his depiction. That's not a problem on the outside art, a grimly impressionistic work of wrought iron frames and fires blazing without explicit source. You know there's balconies and gunplay, but only by filling in the blanks of obscured objects in a part of town too dark even for the Dark Knight toget by on his own.


4) Ragman #5 (July, 1977)


A prominent color hold on the busy logo, the big "Junkyard of Death," the burning bills-- bleeding hearts aside, that's some darned fine slumsploitaton.


3) Ragman #2 (November, 1976)


A much better cover than on the debut issue, both in terms of marketability and in conveying who the character is. Still kind of mainstream for such a niche character, but how can you not dig that textured surprint or the copy "Scourge of the Ghetto Lords?"


2) Ragman #4 (March, 1977)


Ragman was a super-hero created by a guy who didn't believe in such a thing. As with Sgt. Rock, Joe Kubert presents a disaffected, unposed man of action struggling through a bad situation. I love how the patchwork of green fabric elongated to an inhuman degree contrasts against the bleeding red background. Using the perspective of triggermen frames the image well. If only it wasn't so lackadaisical.


1) Ragman #1 (October, 1991)


While a bit generic in posturing for a nighttime avenger, this is overall the best Ragman cover. Pat Broderick really went to town with the town on this mini-series, making for a damned dirty looking tenement to squat on. The raggedy logo is in full effect, and the uncommon brick of text explains the Post-Crisis take on the character in a nutshell. The result feels like it could double as a movie poster. Had Joe Kubert ever fully knocked a Ragman cover out of the park, he'd have been a shoo-in for the top spot. As it stands this is as iconic as is available.

Posted by Diabolu Frank at 12:00 PM 5 comments
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Top 10 Doom Patrol Covers

It would have been easy to do a top 25 Doom Patrol cover countdown. Hell, 50. Something like 75% of the covers to Doom Patrol volume 2 aren't just among the best of the 1990s, but could be validly held up as museum quality works of art. Someone could devote an entire blog just to critiquing individual covers in depth. Beyond the avant guard Vertigo material, the DP has inspired some truly remarkable covers for the super-hero genre, and have rarely bothered with outright bad pieces. Trying to sort through it all seems a harrowing proposition, and given my limited exposure to the material between the covers, I don't feel qualified for that level of analysis. For the sake of my sanity and to make a point, I decided to stick to ten of the most eye-catching and best representative images of the team itself, with commentary on why out of all possibilities, I selected these options.

Dishonorable Mentions

Doom Patrol #3 (October, 2004)


Despite his professed love for the team, John Byrne projected lighthearted Silver Age sweetness and Bronze Age hokey melodrama at a team that seemed to be bitter, queer and creepy from its earliest days. This cover represents a complete rejection of anything Vertigo-tinged and the embrace of the appearance of the most blandly off-brand of super-teams. This looks like one of those covers Byrne did for small press operations during the black and white boom, cannily incorporating a lack of interior color into the crumby costume design. I especially dislike Nudge's "edgy" fishnet stockings, Negative Man's gnarly skeleton form and the big dumb grin on Rita's face. At least characters like Grunt and Vortex were comparably awful to prior team additions. Byrne did offer a couple of fun cover spins over his run though, #8 and #13.

Doom Patrol #8 (May, 1988)


What kind of person looks at a team or art of this caliber and says, "mmm, gimme some of that?" Friggin' hideous, and Erik Larsen drew several more like it.


Honorary Mentions

Secret Origins Annual #1 (1987)


I feel bad for slagging on Byrne earlier, as he's a fine artist who in his prime offered several lovely team covers, like 1986's Official Doom Patrol Index #1 and #2. Have you ever seen such well kept graveyards or specters so clearly prepared for hand holding and a few rounds of "Kumbaya?" This is of course exactly the problem, since a "Doom Patrol" should never seem so well adjusted and clean cut.


My Greatest Adventure #80 (June, 1963)


Not their greatest cover, but certainly their first!


Doom Patrol #1 (December, 2001)

Reflecting the new team in Robotman's dome and his dire assessment of the group from jump was novel. The final cover of this volume did a Maguire riff, duplicating the basic image with Robotman confirming the title's predicted doom. The run also did a nice job of recalling the Vertigo years on #3, plus a soft jab at revisionism with #13.


10) The New Teen Titans #13 (November, 1981)


George Perez is one of the most gorgeous, shiniest artists in comic book history. Therefore, he is one of the worst possible fits for the Doom Patrol. Check his slick cover for 1982's DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #19 and tell me that isn't Anyteam, U.S.A. Perez is swell at soap opera, but the DP are a troubled lot with a disconcerting quality that Perez is too pleasant to convey. However, this was a key issue in returning the DP to readers' minds, and Robotman's dangling body warding off snoopy kids is a previously unseen variation on the DP grim tableau.


9) Doom Patrol #89 (August, 1964)


The debut of the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, the kind of bizarre menace that defined the DP and set the standard for the demented threats to come.


8) Doom Patrol #5 (February, 1988)


Steve Lightle is a favorite cover artist of mine, and the first five issues of this series featured rare interior art by the man. However, the book was clearly intended to treat the team like an X-Men knock-off when DC was already knee deep in the same. Lightle was a perfect choice for the book at a time when he was forced to draw hideously gaudy New Mutants rejects, and even his wraparound cover for the debut issue made a silk purse out of a generic battle scene. I feel the graveyard is where the DP's heart really lies.


7) Doom Patrol #86 (March, 1964)


The first issued comic book bearing the Doom Patrol title, and the first appearance of Monsieur Mallah and the Brain. Does any cover better represent '50s B-movie mad science than a French guerrilla gorilla and a brain in a jar? Only if you threw in a gigantic insect of some kind, and maybe a flesh-eating animated inanimate object. Simon Bisley did a cool ape, as well.


6) Doom Patrol #120 (August, 1968)


This one loses points for being a tad forced and sappy, but your teammates/family turning their backs on you after you've literally fallen to pieces is messed up. That one enlarged eye and Cliff's anguished cries earn points back.


5) My Greatest Adventure #82 (September, 1963)


There are lots of covers with Robotman in some state of disrepair, but the implied ultimate sacrifice and the degree to which he's melted put this image over the top. That one crimson eye staring at the reader and a skull so deeply caved in that Cliff's brain must be boiling in its pan are deliciously gut-wrenching.


4) Doom Patrol #13 (October, 2010)


Matthew Clark produced a couple dozen attractive covers for volume 1, 2, 3, 4 5(?), but this was the only one to sneak into the top ten. #1 and #7 are relatively conventional but still slightly askew team shots, but #18 is Byrnesque in its commercialization. On the other hand, this fractured image of Rita Farr's face foreshadows the revelations within, and prove that she's psychologically and physiologically damaged enough to reside with the freaks out of more than just pity, but instead true kinship.


3) Challengers of the Unknown #48 (March, 1966)


There are whole host of covers in which the DP interacts with other super-heroes/teams, such as the wedding of Rita and Steve Dayton in #104 or battling the JLA at various points. That's typical group activity in comics. Becoming a "grim burial squad" for the Challengers, complete with a setting son and a robot seemingly on the verge of (non-emo Red Tornado) tears, is so DP. Also, the Challengers are about the only DC team with a comparable mortality/casualty rate, making it extra apropos.


2) Showcase #94 (September, 1977)


This works on multiple levels. It's a new Doom Patrol debuting in a different anthology title. The original DP was as much a product of the '60s visually as these guys were in the '70s. There's Robotman carrying his own rusted husk to the mass grave of the original team. While on the surface more conventional, the new DP was doomed to even greater failure and far more permanent deaths than the first team. Finally, this cover set the standard for DP launches opening on a dour, pessimistic note. There is no trumpeting the arrival of a glorious new incarnation, but instead a second wave stepping over the corpses of the first with similarly dim odds of survival.


1) Doom Patrol #121 (October, 1968)


This is how you end a series. Whenever someone points to Jean Grey as the first major death in comics, they need to be reminded that an entire super-team was snuffed out twelve years earlier, with Rita Farr staying dead about seven times longer than Phoenix, and the readers themselves were to blame.

Their Top Covers of the 1980s
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 12:00 AM 2 comments
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Sunday, August 21, 2011

The Top 20 Blackhawk Covers (and lots more!)

This year marks Blackhawk's 70th anniversary, which I was sure would receive the same fanfare as the Martian Manhunter's 50th, which was to say none whatsoever. Color me surprised that DC will be launching an all new series, albeit one that seems to bear little similarity to the original, with a last minute change in writer, and three different artists for each of the first three issues.

Blackhawk was Quality Comics' flagship title, and the only one to not only continue publication after the company's demise, but to do so without missing an issue. While Chop-Chop immediately looked more like an actual human being with the shift to DC, there was little else different from a scan of the covers. I suspect that's the problem, because Blackhawk has fought a losing battle with relevancy since the 1950s. When the changes did come, they were breakneck in just about every sense of the word.

I've looked over nearly 500 covers for this countdown, and where it might normally be an intimidating proposition to boil that down to a top twenty, not so much here. There's a lot of samey-samey, to the point where I suspect Blackhawk was an unsung pioneer of swiping. I'll elaborate as we progress, but first...

Top 5 Dishonorable Discharges

Military Comics #4 (November, 1941)

Many of the early Blackhawk covers were poorly designed, whether it be static boxes for multiple features, cheesy side advertisements, overcrowding, excess negative space, or just plain bad work. The above image would emphasize the latter, as men buried to their necks in ant mounds or otherwise heinously tortured should not come across as comical. This looks more like a leatherboy fetish magazine involving radio controlled toy planes on kamikaze runs into caves.

Military Comics #15 (January, 1943)

It might have gotten confusing if a group with the Blackhawk Squadron's fashion sense had regularly fought the gestapo, but that never proved to be an issue. You see, all throughout World War II, they specialized in combat with yellow-skinned nips, so it was easy to tell them buck-toothed, swell-headed Japs were the enemy. Revisionist history usually pits heroes like Captain America and Wonder Woman exclusively against ze Germans, but it's hard to get away from Blackhawk as being one of the finest propagators of grotesquely racist Asian caricatures in mainstream comics.

Military Comics #30 (July, 1944)

Don't go thinking the Blackhawks were all about blasting slant-eyes! Why, they had one of the finest chinks alive acting as their cook/mascot throughout the war! Sure he only stood about three feet tall, had a grin bigger than his legs, had hair like a pinhead, ears that had to be factored into wind drag during flights, and perpetually carried a meat cleaver around, but he was so colorful! Sad to say, but the 'hawks' Chinese ally was probably the most prominent and positive Asian hero on period comic covers. He sure stood out in that sea of dark leather, and even if he didn't, he was often isolated/spotlighted amongst the group. Chop-Chop was certainly more memorable than most of the Squadron.

Blackhawk #230 (March, 1967)

In 1964, the Blackhawk Squadron traded their matching leather outfits for matching green tights and red pirate shirts. Three years later, they sunk even lower. After three issues of build-up, the Blackhawks became the single worst super-hero team in history, "The Junk Heap Heroes." "M'sieu Machine" runs around in a beret with a toolbelt slung like a bandoleer. Olaf Friedriksen, the team strongman, dresses up like a dildo as "The Leaper." Chop-Chop's chop-sokey affords him metal kung-fu grip hands. Chuck wears a costume covered in earlobes without it in any way meaning to relate to Vietnam atrocities. Blackhawk uses "dig" in its informal sense. The horror! The horror!

The New Blackhawk #244 (February, 1976)

No lesser a light than Joe Kubert referenced the much imitated cover to Military Comics #13 while reintroducing the Blackhawk Squadron to a new generation. Like many of the "DC Explosion" era books, it was of its time in the worst way possible. I'm not sure if flared collars and necklines plunging to the navel in an all-male, all-leather, largely mustachioed fighting squadron makes them seem more gay, or less. Given their exuberant cluelessness and the aesthetic battery these threads inflicted even in the 1970s, they have perhaps never been more plainly straight. Then again, if Joe Kubert can't make you look hard as a coffin nail, it's raining men, hallelujah.

Honorable Mention
Military Comics #1 (August, 1941)

Like many debut cover appearances, they didn't yet know what they had, so it's just kind of there to be reprinted excessively.

20) Military Comics #27 (March, 1944)

Nazis will never go out of style, because regardless of all that genocide and general jackassery, no military has ever dressed sharper. The Blackhawk Squadron saw kids preferring Cobra action figures to G.I. Joes decades ahead of schedule, and sidestepped that pitfall by dressing like quasi-Nazis themselves. They also popularized the "running at the readers" group shot, of which this is one of many, with the added twist of it being seen through a sniper's scope.

19) Blackhawk #16 (Autumn, 1947)

There are only so many group shots a bunch of tough guys can strike, and the huddle is one I don't see much in comics. It's cute, like maybe something the Beatles would have done. I don't think they could have pulled off the jodhpurs, though, and I suspect they would have made Chop-Chop East Indian.

18) Blackhawk (Blood & Iron) Book Three (May, 1988)

If you're going to "homage," Leyendecker is a good way to go.

17) Blackhawk #251 (October, 1982)

After decades of painfully stupid new directions, the Blackhawks were back in WWII where they belonged, drawn on a powerful (if familiar) cover by the popular Dave Cockrum. Unfortunately, that also meant Chop-Chop was back to being the chubby short guy in coolie wear.

16) Blackhawk #13 (April, 1990)

I rather like the ornate design, but it feels a bit empty in the background. Also, I'm all for inclusion, but who the hell are all these new guys of color?

15) Modern Comics #92 (December, 1949)

So cool, so cold, in a cockpit where he belongs.

14) Blackhawk #1 (March, 1989)

A romantically optimistic image of the type we could all use more of these days.

13) Blackhawk #206 (May, 1964)

One look at those pants should tell you this was a very bad decade to be a Blackhawk. Forcing one of your men at gunpoint to dig his own grave after over twenty years of valiant service is a special kind of messed-up worthy of note. Perhaps most importantly, there's a chance Chuck will bury that god-forsaken shirt before he's done. Amen to that!

12) Blackhawk #69 (October, 1953)

Without the Axis, the Blackhawks tried to make do with some godless commies, but they mostly subsisted on vaguely foreign threats and mildly supernatural menaces. Also, there were a lot of giant machines destroying cities. The War Wheel was the favorite that appeared again and again, but this bad boy did a nice job of evoking Mars Attacks levels of mayhem a decade early. The book desperately needed more nihilistic horror, and less Human Starfish.

11) Modern Comics #68 (December, 1947)

You'll find the '50s and '60s very poorly represented on this list. I'm afraid I found those covers very busy, but also very boring, and not a little foolish. Too many giants and tentacle creatures and other assorted BEMs. Meanwhile, this cover makes it clear how much better the basics work. A handsome if intimidating/slightly creepy aviator holding the kind of weapon that could blow his own plane out of the sky.

10) Blackhawk #260 (July, 1983)

One of a number of mighty fine Chaykin covers-- just Blackhawk flying his plane. I find that Kraut to Jap kill ratio suspect, though.

9) Blackhawk #19 (June, 1948)

The war may be over, but Blackhawk is still locked and loaded, with that monochromatic background alluding to violence to come.

8) Blackhawk #263 [Uncolored Original Art Shown] (October, 1983)

The Blackhawks fought a whole lot of cheesy monsters-of-the-month from the 1950s-1970s, very much recalling the bad old Schiff years on Batman. Count your lucky stars none of those Killer Shark covers made this list, but it wouldn't feel right if the War Wheel didn't turn up at least once. This instance involved the art of Gil Kane and a rather provocative femme fatale. A shame I don't have a colored version available, but the sky's yellow, the wheel's red, and the figures in blue.

7) Blackhawk #8 (November, 1989)

I like that there's a sunny, old school background for an image that vaguely recalls lynching, as the Blackhawks drift lifelessly in their parachutes.

6) Blackhawk #262 (September, 1983)

Chaykin clearly worked on Blackhawk a few years too late. I think he grew out of this level of enthusiasm for drawing escapist fare.

5) Military Comics #28 (April, 1944)

Any one of these guys would have proudly piloted the Enola Gay. They're just so pleased to have this opportunity to kill Japanese people.

4) Military Comics #18 (April, 1943)

The entire squadron looks great, but the vibe is a bit morose for no apparent reason, and then there's the random mongol.

3) Military Comics #21 (August, 1943)

Most of the premise is right here. Scary fascist-looking dude and airplanes. Sometimes simple is best.

2) Blackhawk #257 (April, 1983)

Chaykin sure sells the sex here. A towering stone swastika aflame with a smirking Blackhawk on top, a gun in each hand. Grumman XF5F Skyrockets in flight against a background of stars and bars. F-yeah!

1) Military Comics #13 (November, 1942)

You know all those comic covers where a hero takes point as his team charges behind him? Like Giant-Size X-Men #1? They all came from this.

Top Character Covers Countdown
Posted by Diabolu Frank at 12:00 AM 0 comments
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