Category: Comic Books

IRONy at the movies

Iron Man 2 is out, and while watching it in IMAX yesterday I couldn’t help but thinking it’s ironic that we’ve gone from this…

…to this, because by the time I was in high school, reading comic books was decidedly not cool. It’s amazing to me that the Marvel Comics I loved as a kid in the 60’s have become the basis for widely popular and hugely successful major movies.
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The second Iron Man movie has been getting mixed reviews. My capsule comment is there’s an incredibly stupid drunk party fight in the middle, but other than that it’s absolutely terrific, if you can stand the usual mayhem of excessive explosions at the end. Here is the Boston Globe’s take on Iron Man 2. I agree with everything they say, but I don’t take as many points off as they do for the movie’s failings.


P.S. There’s a kicker after the end credits that has me a bit worried about the upcoming introduction of Thor, and how well the character will translate to the semi-reality of the big screen.

Iron Man 2’s in the can

The Iron Man 2 blitz is on, and Dr. Pepper has a fun commercial tie-in. Hey, there’s shameless Stan Lee, making one of his cameos. Note: the first appearance of Iron Man (Tales of Suspense #39, 1963) was scripted by Stan’s brother, Larry Lieber.

P.S. Disney has this ultra-cute 4 GB Iron Man USB flash drive (I discourage use of the terms “jump” or “thumb” drive).

Pretty faces for Marvel Comics

I missed the Valentine’s Day deadline for this post, but here it is anyway.

I became a comic book fan when Batman appeared on TV in January, ’66. After reading only DC titles for a few months, I started reading Marvel Comics. My first two favorite Marvel artists were John Romita Sr. and Gene Colan. Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko’s drawings were, well, scary, when I was ten. It was Joe Sinnott’s clean and friendly style of inking that made Kirby approachable for me.

As Kirby progressed creatively and artistically, paradoxically he seemed to lose his ability to draw attractive people. Women in particular. Were they noble? Yes. But pretty? Not so much. Ditko’s characters looked so outright strange that he almost seemed to be conveying an innate misanthropy.

I don’t know if Stan Lee was inspired by Roy Lichtenstein’s swiping of romance comic book panels, but he brought in Romita and Colan, who had been drawing love comics for DC. I think Romita and Colan deserve a lot of credit for the way they broadened the appeal of Marvel Comics, starting in the mid-60’s. They learned how to draw the dynamic action scenes that Stan wanted, while making it possible for him to better develop the soap opera elements of the stories. Never underestimate the power of a pretty face! Later, when John Buscema came back on board, I think the writing was on the wall for Kirby. After Stan assigned Buscema to illustrate the premiere issue of ‘The Silver Surfer’ in 1968, Jack’s departure from Marvel was inevitable.

Courtesy of D.F. Rogers, here is an excellent example of John Romita’s work at DC. It’s from ‘Young Romance’ No. 134, Feb-March, 1965. Go to the Gallery and read, “A Ticket to ROMANCE!” And be sure to read the love letters page.