Here's a cover featuring a couple of characters that I need to get to know better. Grimjack always looked cool to me, and I enjoy the writing and art team of John Ostrander and Tim Truman, but I never got a chance to check out any of the comics, what's his best adventure?. I've read very little of Shade, I think only when he was a member of Suicide Squad. Is this new version the same character that Ditko created in the 70's?
A big thank you to Bob Sanders for supporting the blog and suggesting this team-up!
13 comments:
Just re-read Shade: The Changing Man #2 last week. I loved the world that was created for that series. He was unfortunately one if those that even my comic-book reading friends didn't know.
I had totally forgotten about Grim Jack. I did read some of his books, but it's been so long ago I don't remember much. Yet this series was among several great ones at First Comics: American Flagg, Badger, Jon Sable, and Dreadstar, which made it's way from Epic. Man, I miss those days of comics.
Technically, Shade was the same character. But stylistically and thematically, worlds apart. I loved the Shade reboot ... completely compelling in a way I would only find in a few other DC runs (Starman, Ostrander's Spectre, Y: The Last Man to name a few).
I actually subscribed to Grimjack back in the day through the complete run --- the only comic I ever subscribed to. The very best stuff is early on, when Truman was still drawing it --- first 19 issues or so --- but the Demon Knight graphic novel, which came much later, was also great, at least in my memory.
I believe their are Grimjack omnibuses out that would be a good place to start. The two prequels Ostrander (Killer Instinct, The Manx Cat) are pretty good too, though you may want to read the original series first.
Grimjack is one of my favorite characters and I have been waiting for him to appear here.
I preferred the original Ditko version (from what I stubbornly prefer to call the Late Silver Age). All this sudden role-and-gender reversal strikes me as latter-day overcompensation in the name of political correctness!
With regard to Grimjack? I like the concept of a city with interdimensional portals unpredictably located throughout its vicinity. It's kind of like an expansion on the plot device used in the "Farthest Star" novel by ERB (of "John Carter of Mars" fame)! Although, I have to confess, the initial reason I ever read the Grimjack comic was due to the cameo appearance of the TMNT's in the particular issue I first bought.
Never got into Shade but I loved First Comics and read all of American Flagg! (1st series), Badger, Dreadstar, Grimjack and Grimjack's Munden's Bar, Jon Sable (1st series), Nexus, Sable with scattered 2nd series and some like Dynamo Joe I'd pick up. It was during my late college years with me occasionally working in comic shop so able to read some for free. Then I graduated and had lots of discretionary money to spend there. IMO Nexus was there best series.
Munden's Bar might be a good place for an assemble cover since it had a lot of patrons in it resembling characters in different companies.
With the upcoming sequel to Disney's Malificient coming in October, maybe Malificient could share a cover with The Witches of Woodstock (American Dragon: Jake Long), who have a fashion color-scheme very similar to Disney's Sleeping Beauty's trio of good fairies.
Ditko's Shade series was a favorite of mine, which is surprising because I'm generally not fond of hero-as-fugitive storylines (with the exceptions of David Jansen and the Green Hornet). I have a hopeless dream of one day seeing it as a movie or TV series.
I've avoided the later versions of Shade because I want to keep my memories of the original unsullied. From what I've read about it, I don't think I'd like it anyway.
Grimjack wasn't a favorite of mine, but I liked the concept of Cynosure, the city built at an interdimensional nexus. It first appeared in the series Warp, so Grimjack was more or less a spinoff of that. The one story I remember well was one in which Grimjack was hired to protect the inhabitants of a sunny and cheerful cartoon-like dimension where everything was able to talk, including cute animals, furniture, and the money that he was paid with.
Brandon Routh to Return to Superman Role for CW's 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' Crossover
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/brandon-routh-to-return-to-superman-role-for-cw-s-crisis-on-infinite-earths-crossover/ar-AAEzP2F?ocid=AMZN
New news as we see it.
https://deadline.com/2019/07/russo-brothers-agbo-studios-developing-grimjack-comics-adapting-japanese-anime-battle-of-the-planets-comic-con-1202649229/
Will you, by any chance, be having a cover with Wildstorm's Apollo featured on it, tomorrow?
;-)
I know it's hard to believe but I gave a try to Y and Shade because of your comment and , yes, I found them really compelling. Going through Starman at the moment. Could you mention some other DC runs (or comics in general) that you find compelling. Thank you and greetings from Peru.
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