Good Friday Movie review

WWE Then Now Forever Vol 1 TPB

WWE Then,Now,Forever Vol 1 Comic Book

Written and drawn by various

Published by Boom Studios

I have this odd relationship with WWE,which was WWWF when I first saw them.While they are the first wrestling fed I remember seeing,I have vague memories of seeing George The Animal Steele vs some jobber from around 78,except for two short periods in my 40+ years of watching wrestling,WWE is rarely the fed that I love the most.

But with WWE being the biggest wrestling fed in the English speaking parts of the world,and in a few areas where English is a second or third language,that means they get the most variety of  merch. 

Which means there is been quite a few different attempts at doing WWE comic books. The first I know of were from what became Valiant comics. These came out in the early 90s and not only contain art by the legend Steve Ditko but also contain early work from Dave Lapham,Joe Quesada and a few other names. For years no one wanted these comics and you could get them cheap. Now they are sought after and becoming harder to find. Most of the issues hadd stories like Virgil trailing Ted Dibiase all around his mansion. And attacking Ted,to keep Ted in fighting shape between matches. One of my favorites has Big Boss Man keeping a close eye on the Undertaker. He is thinking Taker is really killing people. IIRC this story was drawn by Spider-Man creator Steve Ditko.

Then in the late 90s Chaos Comics put out a few comics based on various WWE wrestlers. I know Stone Cold,Mankind,Undertaker,The Rock and Chyna got comics. These comics right now are in the place the Valiant produced WWE comics were 20 years ago,in that they are fairly easy to find. Fairly cheap when you do find them. Not that long ago I got a lot of close to 30 of these Chaos era comics and love how most of them had photo cover variants. Sold most of these at indie wrestling shows,where I will film matches and set up a table to sell various old wrestling merch I have found.

Now the most recent WWE comics. Put out by Boom Studios,a company that I only know cause of the various licensed comics they have put out. No clue if they still have the WWE deal,but they put out at least one monthly WWE title. Plus piles of mini series and one shots. While they rarely had writers or artists I had heard of,what I have read from this run has been pretty damn good. Usually having unique art plus stories  that really connect with you if you are a life long wrestling fan. Not so long ago I found for a decent price an ex-library copy of WWE Then,Now,Forever Vol 1 TPB. I got this TPB for way way under cover price. 

The day the TPB got to my house it was a nice day. It felt like spring outside,a pleasant wind and low humidty with a full bright sun shining. Ever since I learned to read I have always enjoyed sitting outside when it is nice and reading. I grabbed the TPB and headed down to the pier. Over the next 45 minutes I sat on the pier with some fairly quiet music playing and read vol 1 of WWE Then,Now,Forever from Boom Studios.

The TPB collects a pile of all fairly short stories,there is a pile of 1 or 2 page stories in here. Each deals with the past of WWE. Sometimes a story will focus on a wrestler that is still wrestling,like say a Kevin Owens. But then you have stories where the main focus is a legend from the past like say Macho Man or Dusty Rhodes.

Table of contents lists like 18 stories,but I saw they count all the one page stories as just one entry. Which means there is more like 32 stories in this trade.

A story about Tugboat is the first one to stand out to me. Done in  a style that reminds me of the old Fleisher Brothers cartoons,for you younger folks think of Cuphead,it is a short cute story about Tugboat and Earthquake.

All the one page stories are good. The best is the comic adaptation of an infamous American Dream Dusty Rhodes promo. Even though I was never much of a fan of Dusty's in ring work,this promo is one I have always enjoyed.

This 10 page story about the Razor Ramon,RIP Sir,vs HBK ladder match is the best of the long stories in the tpb. The writer and artist manage to tell the story of the match and include some things that just add to the fun. Like the cut aways to Bret Hart in the back watching the match.

Growing up where I did,about 15 minutes west of Mobile Alabama of course I am a fan of William Moody aka Percy Pringle aka Paul Bearer. This is the last page of a dark story about the Mankind and Undertaker boiler room match. Look at that scratchy art. With some thick dark lines the artist manages to capture the kind of horrid appearance of Paul during that time period.

Not all the stories in this TPB are based on actual matches. One of the other longer stories stars the New Day. Who build a time machine to travel to time getting rid of things that are BOOTY. If you know of the New Day you know that this story will get wacky and still be fun. For me the best part is the above pictured part. They travel back to caveman days and get to see a stone age Ric Flair vs what I am sure is a hybrid of Brock Lesner and a T-rex.

Growing up I would watch WWE,which was WWF by the time I am talking about,but my favorite was Mid South(later known as UWF). Jake the Snake Roberts was one of the ones I had to see each week in Mid South. Once he went to WWF he was the guy I kept hoping would dethrone Hogan. Yes I was one of the few kids in the 80s Rock N Wrestling era to not like Hogan. I love the art on this Jake story. It is realistic but has a tiny bit of cartoony touch to it.

Now one sad thing about modern comics is the dreaded variant covers have come back. During the mid 90s comic boom then bust,a bust so bad it almost killed the US comic market,you had variant covers. There would be one cover that was on say 90% of the copies of let's say Heroman issue 4. Then on 8% of the covers of thaat comic would be a variant cover,usually drawn by a big name artist.And on that final 2% of the covers would be the ULTRA RARE variant cover. These could be another cover drawn by a big name artists or sometimes they would be the same as the 90% cover but with the color of the background changed. Boom Studios does lots of variant covers. The art of Sting up above is a variant cover to one of the issues that is in this TPB. Thankfully most companies are smart and include the variant covers in the TPB.

As I flipped past the page that had the above cover on it I knew I had seen it before. I looked to the side and yep I was right. That is a variant cover done by Jim Rugg. Jim Rugg is a pretty good indie comic artist/writer. It's become an inside joke between myself and Bat32 of Sleaze Fiend Magazine that Bat will buy any comic if it has  Jim Rugg Variant cover. Plus I couldn't pass up on a cover with George The Animal Steele,Macho Man,Ricky Steamboat.

Now the final 2 pages of the TPB. On the left is a nice sepia tone variant cover. With piles of superstars and legends. On the right is a I'm guessing airbrushed variant cover with The Boss Sasha Banks as the focus.

Combined the affordable price,good stories and unique and beautiful art and I have already started looking to see how many more TPBs there are in the Boom Studios WWE Then,Now,Forever run. If you are a wrestling fan or know someone that is.Plus are a comic fan this is worth tracking down.

Top Science Fiction TV shows

 5.The tribe

This is more than likely the one show on my list that most of the people reading this have never heard of.The Tribe was a 5 season long made in New Zealand show from the early 2000s. Depending on what country and what year you watched the show,each season either had 52 episodes that run about 22 minutes. Or it has 26 episodes that run close to 45 minutes each. When I saw it for the first time it was the 52 episode seasons.

The basic premise is pretty simple. A virus gets out of some top secret lab. Anyone over the age of 16 or 17,been a bit since I watched the first season so I am not sure of the age,catches this fast spreading super contagious virus. The virus causes anyone that catches it to rapidly age. Usually at the rate of 5 to 10 years per day. There appears to be no cure or vaccine against the virus. 

So all the teens end up forming up in "tribes". Each tribe has a name and kind of theme. Like there is a tribe that is an evil circus. The tribe the show follows is the Mall Rats.In the first episode the teen girl who becomes the lead of the seasons for 4 of the 5 seasons,this is Amber,ends up running with her best friend Dal and 3 young kids they have found into the near by mall. And Jack,a nerdy tech guy,has started living in the mall. Using the security gates they realize they will have some kind of safety  living in the mall. Plus you got the added bonus of all the stuff in the mall is yours to use.

I have always described the show to people as "Imagine if Degrassi the Next generation was set in a Mad Max world." Like Degrassi this show isn't afraid to touch on subjects that most shows made for and starring teens wouldn't touch. Stuff like teen pregnancy,abortion and all kinds of stuff. 

With this show I actually first saw it when one Labor Day weekend Encore WAM did a marathon of the first two seasons,before premireing season 3 early Sunday morning. I had gotten home from hanging out with some friends at like 1am Sunday morning. Laid down and couldn't sleep. Flipped to Encore WAM(which was Encore's kids channel) and caught the last 4 episodes of season 2 before catching the first few episodes of season 3. From then until I moved in 2007 I watched this show over and over on Encore WAM. 

The show has gotten all 5 seasons released on DVD in the UK and many other countries. These DVDs are region coded so you will need a region free dvd player to play them. Season 1 got a DVD release,as two sets,in the US from Shout Factory. I think this release was a big bomb. I never saw the DVDs on any store shelves. And there was no other seasons released. Guessing by the time in 2010 or so when this region 1 set of season 1 got released the fans in the States had either imported the UK season sets. Bought one of the many bootleg sets floating around,most of which were either straight up rips of that UK set or made from the airings on Encore WAM. Or had did like I did in 2006ish and downloaded each season off a torrent tracker.

Now sure I really do love this show. And think it is one of the best sci fi shows it has some flaws.One is the last episode of the final season ends on a cliffhanger. Over the past 12 years at least 2 books have come out that are seasons 6 and 7. And they resolve this cliffhanger. Another flaw is usually the actors/actresses playing the main roles are normally fairly close to the age of their characters on the show. So most of the young kids are not good at acting. And finally with each season being 52 episodes,most countries got it as 52 episodes a season,that means watching the full run will take you a lot of time.

The company that made and owns the Tribe has a youtube channel where they have uploaded almost all the episodes. And if you are in the USA and have a roku/firestick/etc PlutoTV has every episode in their on demand section. Pretty sure the Roku Channel and Tubi also have every season. All three of these streaming apps are free. 

4.Lexx

Look another non-US Sci Fi show on my list. There is four seasons of this German/Canadian made show. Season 1 is made up of 4 movies,which in the US aired on Showtime and TMC. You have a janitor for the big evil empire that controls most of the known universe. Stanley Tweedle is his name. And he ends up with the key to the most powerful warship in the universe imprinted in his hand. He escapes the evil empire on this ship,The Lexx,along with Kai,Zev/Xev and the head of a robot that is programmed to love the first person it sees when it is rebooted.

It was getting close to midnight one night in the  late 90s. I couldn't sleep so was flipping through the channels. Saw what is the second film in season 1 of Lexx and was like shocked and impressed with the show. The budget is low. But they manage to do a lot with this low budget. The writing is comedic and at times appears to be taking well deserved shots at Star Wars and Star Trek. And to me it felt a bit like a variant of Red Dwarf.

After that first season of the 4 films the next 3 seasons aired on Sci Fi Channel in the States. With episodes being an hour with ads and around 12 or 15 episodes a season. I had just gotten Sci Fi Channel a week before season 2 started. And from then until the final  episode of the series I watched Lexx each week. I even recorded each episode and kept the tapes thinking I would never see legit home video releases.

The main cast is a major reason why I enjoy this show. Stanley is a shubbly janitor that is a total coward. But because he has the key to the Lexx in his hand he is considered one of the most powerful people alive,even if Stanley at times seems to be about as smart as a plastic plant someone keeps on their desk at work. 

Kai is a Brunen Jee. Which is this shows version of Jedi Knights. They got a all kinds of mind powers. Kai is dead,and the last of the Brunen Jees,and is only able to still function cause of his small remaining amount of some liquid that powers him. Which means for the first few seasons Kai is kept in cryo-stasis until he is needed. IIRC season 3 they find a renewable source for the liquid that powers Kai. 

Xev/Zev is a former very fat lady. She was gonna be changed into a sex slave for someone in the Evil Empire. They had put her into this machine that would change her body and also put her mind under the control of the bad guys. A cluser lizard,lmagine if you took the graboids from Tremors and added a rollie pollie bug.,gets into the machine so Xev/Zev becomes this really attractive blonde who has a scream that can paralize people and has the aggressive of the cluster lizard. In the first season they had this blonde actress in the role. I can't remember if in  this season her name was Zev or Xev. There was a year or longer break between when season 1 stopped and season 2 started filming. So this actress had another job. And Xenia Seeberg replaced her. And the spelling of the character;s name changed.

The robot head is the last main member of the cast. At various times the head is in love with Stanley then Xev then Kai.  While appearing to be a one note character ,and they kinda are,the head gets some of the best lines in the entire series. And many times had me laughing hard.

If you want to see this I have noticed that seasons 2,3 and 4 are on various free streaming services. I haven't seen any service with season 1. All 4 seasons have had at least 2 releases in region 1. The first releases are long OOP and get a bit pricey. There is a Echo Bridge release of each season that even now hasn't went up too much. Do some searching and you can usually find each season for 5 to 10 bucks.

Besides the main cast another reason this show is one of my favorite Sci Fi shows is it is one of the few sciene fiction shows to come out in the late 90s/early 2000s era that got the chance to have a proper ending. That last episode of the show is not only well done,and gives Kai a nice closure to his story arc,it also wrapped up all the plot threads while leaving the show open to doing another season or a future series.

3.Red Dwarf-Now this is the only series on my list that I haven't seen the entire run. Mostly cause over the past 20 years Red Dwarf will out of no where get a new season.

Anyways,I had seen the VHS collectin 2 or 3 episodes of Red Dwarf advertised in various genre mags. And new it was a UK show that was a sci fi/comedy blending. No way was I gonna drop 20 bucks,plus 3 more for shipping,and risking getting a shitty show. So it wasn't until 1998 that I started watching Red Dwarf.

At the time one of my best friends was a dude we all called Hippie Mike. He was the biggest sci fi/fantasy/comic book/D&D nerd I have ever met. And one Saturday night when him and I were hanging out,building MTG decks,he put on the UK block on PBS. And after Keeping Up Appearances was a season 3 episode of Red Dwarf. Boom I became a huge fan. Every Saturday from then until 2002ish,when PBS stopped airing the show,I had the vcr set to record the show. 

The premise of the show is fairly simple. Way far in the future the human race is all but gone. The only known human in all the galaxies is Dave Lister. I low level Space jockey. And he is stuck on this huge mining ship,the Red Dwarf,with only a hologram recreation of Lister's frenemy Arnold Rimmer. And can't forget the thousands of years in the future cat/human like creature,born from a cat that Lister smuggled on board,known as Cat.

Yea I know it sounds stupid. But the show managed to do a great blending of comedy and science fiction. Yea the first season is cheap looking and paced oddly. But after that until about season 7 the budget went up and the pacing was spot on.

The PBS I used to watch the show on one Saturday night ,as part of Pledge Week,did a Red Dwarf night. Started at 7pm and went to midnight. They aired what I think are 3 of the best episodes of the show.

1.The Red Dwarf gains the ability to travel through time. They go back and prevent JFK from getting assassinated. Which turns out is a bad thing. The world goes to total shit. So Lister and the boys go grab JFK,as he is being sent to jail,take him back in time. And JFK becomes to shooter on the grassy knoll. 

2. Another member of the crew I haven't mentioned yet is Kryton. Appearing in season 2 IIRC,he is a android that the crew ffinds and he becomes the ships house keeper,cook,mother basicly. Imagine a less paranoid version of Marvin from HGTG. He has to go into  the holodeck and fight off a virus invading the ship. In the holodeck Kryton becomes a drunk sheriff in a old west town. The virus of course is the outlaws that invade the town. The rest of the crew become the western heroes,with Cat having a great dance/entrance move. So this comedy/sci fi show managed to have a really entertaining Western episode. With it not feeling out of place.

3.Then there is my favorite. The crew ends up on a planet were everything is in reverse. Been a bit since I saw this one,so I might get a few things slightly wrong. But from what I remember Rimmer and Kryton end up on this world. And become a traveling comedy troup. Since the way they do things is backwards to the people of this world. When Cat and Lister show up it causes a panic. What starts off as a bar fight,going in reverse of course,becomes Rimmer and Kryton being a huge hit on the stage of the bar. 

And there is so many more episodes I love of this series. 10 years or more ago,there was a new season of Red Dwarf,Aired on the channel Dave in the UK. In this one the crew of the Red Dwarf end up in the real world. Where they learn they are a TV show. While I liked this idea I wasn't enjoying the season,then the finale episode hits. It ends up being this great homage and parody of the scene in Blade runner where Rutger Howard confronts his creator. Lister,Rimmer,Cat and Kryton confront the lead writer for all of the Red Dwarf seasons. Such a great ending that made up for the kind of just ok episodes before it.

I doubt PBS airs this anymore. Looks like the US release dvds are in and out of print. And no streaming service I checked has the series,I know years and years ago Netflix had the first 8 seasons. I've been tempted to just order the region 2 dvds,that are cheap,and rip them to watch on my home media network.

2.The Prisoner-Like the previous show I had known about The Prisoner long before I got a chance to see it. Thankfully the shitty cable offered in my area got SciFI Channel as soon as it went live. Every Sunday at 9pm Central they aired The Prisoner. I started with episode 1 and for the next few months I would be there watching it and recording the episode onto a blank VHS. I found out somehow about a few Prisoner zines and ordered them. I got obessed with the show. Tracked down the 4 issue mini series DC published. 

Set in the modern day of it's airing,late 60s IIRC,the Prisoner is about a top level clearance government agent. He retires,goes home and someone gasses his home. He passes out and when he wakes up he is in The Village. A place were various high level agents and other people of interest are sent. And you can live a good life in The Village,if you are willing to follow the rules and also tell #2 what you know. Oh yea forgot,everybody goes by a number. Our lead is #7.

Over the course of 17 episode Number 7 tries to escape/learn about/take control of The Village. And #2 tries to break #7. When a #2 fails they get replaced. Then there is the whole thing about who is #1. Number 7 asks this early on,and I would refer to number 7 by their name but in the show we are never told his name....

For a show of it's era this is way more than what you would see on TV normally. Part of that is this is  a UK show. From what I have read at least 2 of the episodes didn't air in the US when the show was originally aired. One is an episode where #2 tries to break #7 by giving him LSD. Which leads to a great episode made like a western. 

And that final episode. One that even now what 50 years later is hotly debated. I have seen that episode more than any other in the series. And still am not sure what all is happening and what the writer wanted us to think. After defeating the newest #2 our "hero" 7 meet #1,rips off the mask #1 is wearing and yea not gonna spoil that. But I will say the show ends with #7 leavin g The Village,Maybe??!?!?

1.Battlestar Galactica Remake-I was the perfect age when the original aired. I was 5 or so. After that one season aired it got put into the local syndication package. For like 5 years every Sunday at 11pm,after Benny Hill,channel 5 aired BSG reruns. So I saw every episode a pile of times. 

As I got older I got all the BSG novels and read them. Started picking up ,when I could find them,the Marvel BSG comics. I even bought the BSG stuff Rob Liefeld put out through Maximum Press.

When the BSG remake got announced I wasn't that excited. When the mini series that started the remake series aired I didn't have cable,but got a friend who did to record it for me. I watched it didn't like it and that was it.

Until 2007,IIRC season 4 was about to air. SciFi was airing all the previous seasons daily in 8 hour blocks. I gave the show a second chance and by episode 2 was hooked. 

While I still love the original. I do realize it was very much aimed at kids that wanted more Star Wars. And when it was airing that is what I was,A kid that wanted way way more Star Wars. This remake took the bare bones of the original series and created a great story about creation and humanity. A story about war and how it effects those in it. And like one of my favorite movies,Blade Runner,asked what is a human?

Now I have watched so many science fiction shows in my close to 50 years on this planet. Nothing so far comes close to BSG remake in my mind,unless you count Twin Peaks as a Science Fiction show. I don't count it but can see how some might argue it is. BSG is a show that almost every 3 years I watch it again. Each time I rewatch it I notice something new or find something else to love about it. Almost perfectly cast,using mostly actors/actresses that were unknown to US viewers. Containing ,for the time,really well done FX work. And thankfully it ended before it jumped the shark. Plus that ending. Yea I am far from being a religious person. But that ending is just the perfect way to end the voyage of a warship named Galactica.

Whisper the forgotten 80s Lady ninja comic

Whisper was one of the few titles from First comics that I didn't read it,or at least buy an issue of,when it was being published. Sure I saw it on the new release shelf/wall when I was grabbing stuff like American Flagg and Jon Sable. Part of it was by the time Whisper moved to First I was already kind of burnt out on ninja comics. And the cover price,at this time most of your color indie comics were up to $1.25. But at Marvel or DC a color comic was 55 or 65 cents IIRC. Higher price meant that that comic better be really good.

Then in the early to mid 90s comic boom,y'all know back when it felt like every capeshit comic from the big two had either a gimmick cover or some big shocking event that will change this comic FOREVER!!!,First had either died or was about to die. And two of the comic shops I went to often had dumped most of the First back issues in the cheap bins. I figured what the hel they are wanting 25 cents or maybe 50 cents an issue,I can afford to cheaply get a full run of Whisper. For a bit over 3 years I had a list of the issues I had in my wallet. 3 or 4 times a month I would go into Sincere Comics in Mobile AL. Spend an hour or so digging through the 20 longboxes that made up their "4 comics for a buck" area. It was summer of 96 and I needed 2 more issues to have the full First Comics run of Whisper. One of the issues I was missing was issue 36,which is the next to last issue. I don't remember what the other issue was. My plan was since I was off work on my birthday that  year,July 10th, I planned on just laying around my house that day. Avoiding the heat outside and reading that almost complete run of Vol 2 of Whisper. 

I didn't get to do this. Because not long before my birthday that year I lost a big chunk of my comic collection in a fire.

Over the almost 30 years since then I have managed to replace a good amount of what I lost. And when I was going through my unread comic boxes during the start of the lock downs in 2020 I noticed that I had a big stack of Whisper. I put them all to the sidee planning on seeing how many I needed to finish the run. That didn't happen. Because I got distract trying to cull my comic collection. 

Back in January this year I got in a medium priority rate box filled with "random lot of indie comics,NO DUPLICATES". In that box I found 4 issues of Whisper I knew I didn't own. I haven't found what box/tub that stack of Whisper comics are in. I said fuck it I want to read some 80s ninja comics. 

So what is Whisper? I was a comic book about a female ninja.Alexis Devin is her name. She is from Seattle. And before this comic started up volume 2 at First Comics,volume 1 had a very short run,I think 2 or 3 issues,from Capital Comics. If you don't remember Capital that might be because they didn't last long. They are best known for publishing the first volume of Nexus. And the little thing about them, until going under in the late 90s,being one of the two big comic book distributers to the Direct Market. Captial Comics is the comic arm of Captial City aka as Advance Comics

That is the first issue of volume 2.

Sure that cover isn't mind blowing,but I do like it. Dell Barras does the cover. IIRC Dell did the first year or so of this volume of Whisper. The writer,who wrote every issue of both volumes,is Steven Grant. A write I remember having a decent run on Punisher,and I think he had a good run on Wolverine. Interior pencils are credited to Dell Barras&Tim Burgard,which does make the interior art look a tiny bit different than the cover art. Inks are by Dell Barras&Rico Rival. 

Cover date is June of 1986.With a US cover price of $1.25. First Comics always were priced way higher than an similar color comic from DC or Marvel. But you knew with First you were getting that nice really white paper. And First Comics didn't really make the creators of a comic keep the art and story at a PG 13 or lower level. You would get levels of violence in a comic from First that the big two would only do in Graphic Novels or the rare title like Swamp Thing.

This issue is a decent recapping what had happened in the first volume and also making sure any new readers will know what to expect in future issues. The story feels like a way better written Cannon ninja movie. You know stuff like American Ninja. Imagine if those films had unlimited budgets and way way better scripts. 

By issue 18 of Whisper the comic was monthly. I have no idea when it went from Bi-Monthly to Monthly but that is a good sign that sales were good.

I like the Batman homage on the cover. As a kid I always enjoyed the Batman or Detective covers where you Batman on a rooftop corner. A stone gargoyle below him. And also with the rain I am getting a very heavy Frank Miller era Daredevil feel from the cover.

This issue is cover dated November 1988. And has a cover price of $1.95. So a bit over 2 years later the cost of the comic has went up 70 cents. The paper appears to be the same used on issue 1. 

Steven Grant is again the writer of the issue. And it is nice when the full run of a comic is wrote by the same author each issue. The pencils are credited to the pen name Spyder. Inks are by Alex(no last name listed) & Spyder.I will reveal who Spyder is a pen name for in a bit. 

The art by Spyder and Alex(no last name) is as good as Dell Barras art on issue 1. Spyder has more energy in his fight scens and does more with the backgrounds. Also Spyder likes the gutters of the comic page to be black.

This is another Whisper cover that would catch your eye. And it is way simpler than the cover of issue 18. But both of them do what a good cover should do. That is get you to pick up the comic and buy it. This cover is penciled and inked by Vincent Giarrano. That is a name I have never heard before. 

Cover date is May 1990. Cover price is $1.95. This time the issue is not quite 2 years after the last one I showed. And I didn;t mention this with the previous 2 issues,I like how First would use the inside front cover to give a couple of paragraphs telling you the history of Whisper aka Diane Young AKA Alexis Devin. Then has a paragraph recapping the previous issue. Cause like Jim Shooter use to tell the writers at Marvel ,every issue can be someone's first issue of that comic. So instead of using up a page or so of the story to recap(like Shooter had people at Marvel do) First didn't use up any of the story pages recapping.

                                                                       

Issue 36 is the next to last issue of volume 2 of the series. It is part 4 of the 5 part World Gone Crazy storyline. Whisper is in Burma. Look at that art it reminds me of the art you would see in many Vertigo series in the late 90s/early 2000s. That art where the people looked like real people,that slight brown tint to everything. Add in the type of paper First is still using on Whisper and reading these issues with the Vincent Guarramo art makes me keep expecting Animal Man or the Doom Patrol to make an appearance. As you can see Vincent is very good and drawing and pacing an action scene. I do think from what I have seen so far Spyder is the best artist Whisper had. But Vincent is not far from Spyder.

The cover in the bottom has Giarrano 89. But the cover date for this final issue of volume 2 is June 1990. The cover price stayed at $1.95. I am tempted to take this cover and see if the shop in town that makes t shirts will put that on a shirt for me.The full moon with Whisper crouching in front of it on a rooftop. The way Whisper's sword has cut the Title. The random pieces of paper floating down the cover. All of that adds up to a great cover. The creative team is the same as it was on the previous issue. 

Steven Grant manages to wrap up the World Gone Crazy story,and he does a good job at doing this. He figured out a way to write the ending where if there was never another issue/appearance of Whisper the fans wouldn't be pissed. The ending also leaves you really wanting more adventures of the lady ninja in dark blue.

Inplace of the normal letters page the last page Steven Grant thanking all the fans and everybody who worked on Whisper. Mr Grant names 6 pencilers that worked on Whisper. Oddly not naming Dell Barras. I do wonder why. Seeing the list of 6 artists I see that the late Norm Breyfogle had a run on Whisper. That I bet looks really good. Plus Steven Grant revels who Spyder was. Spyder is Neil Hansen. No clue who that is. I might look them up and see if I can find out why they used the pen name on issue 18.

From what I have seen there is no in print trades or hardcovers collecting vol 1 or vol 2 of Whisper. Which is odd cause most of the First Comics have gotten tpb from various companies like IDW,Dark Horse and Image. I am am guessing who ever bought First when they went under owns Whisper. But it might be a case like Grimjack,American Flagg or Nexus where the creators of the characters own them. I think that when Whisper vol 1 was published by Captial Comics Steven Grant retained ownership of Whisper.

Anyways hope y'all enjoyed this trip down memory lane. While there was surely piles of crappy ninja comics in the 80s from indie publishers,and who can blame them after how big a hit Miller's run on Daredevil and then Eastman and Laird's TMNT run was. What makes Whisper stand out in the crowded field of 80s Indie Comics about Ninjas are Steven Grant writing every issue. The nice paper and great colors on all the issues,most of the 80s Ninja comics were b/w. Then all three of the artists that handled the pencisl on these 4 issues are much better artists than whoever did crap like Ninjabots or any of those shit Solson Ninja books. So next time you are at a con or comic shop,take a few minutes to dig into the cheap bins and if you see any issues of volume 2 of Whisper grab them and give them a try.

Celebrate America's 200th Birthday with Richie Rich,Jackie Jokers and Kool Katz

I can't remember when I first discovered Richie Rich from Harvey Comics. The other day I was going through some old pictures my mother has. They are from 77 or 78. And even though back then I either couldn't read or had just started learning how to,I had a stack of 10 or so Richie Rich comics sitting by me. This got me thinking back to how for about 5 or so years myself and my cousin were obsessed with Richie Rich. Buying every issue we found. Trading other comics from our collections for more Richie Rich comics. We even had a contest to see which of us could get the most Richie comics in a year. But after Harvey stopped publishing their kids comics in the mid 80s I pretty much forgot about the poor little rich boy. And the couple of hundred Richie Rich comics I had collected either got traded/sold or got burnt up in 96 when some evil evil person decided to cover with lighter fluid and toss a lit match onto almost my entire comic collection.

Skip ahead to 2009 and my parents had asked what I wanted for my birthday. I ordered the Dark Horse published "phonebook" trades of Richie Rich and Hot Stuff the Lil Devil. And these trades reignited my passion for Richie.

Ever since that time anytime I find a Harvey comic and it is 2 bucks or less I grab them.  By doing this I have build up a decent sized collection of various Richie comics. Back during their peak in the mid to late 70s Harvey had close to 30 Richie Rich titles. Stuff like Richie Rich Gems,Richie Rich and Dollar his dog and many many others. Back then as a kid I never paid much attention to what the title was,just would grab anything with Richie or Hot Stuff.

Now last year a buddy and I had went to the sadly now closed shop Comic Commander. This was a tiny comic shop that was so good. And it was a comic shop. Not a "comic shop" that is 25 percent comics and the rest is CCGS and Funko Pops. This place was 80% comics. And the other 20% being used dvds and action figures. We walk in and right by the front counter was two long boxes packed full of kids comics. If I had know the store was close to cloing I would  have just offered the owner say 100 bucks for both longboxes. But having no idea this amazing shop was closing soon I sat on the floor and for almost 30 minutes dug through  each longbox. Grabbing any Richie Rich comics I found. The resulting big stack of kids comics got placed on top the laundry hamper in my bathroom. Cause I learned years ago that Harvey comics are perfect for when you are in the bathroom and need something to read while taking a dump.

All of the above is just the preamble,a bit of my history with a character that was my favorite comic character when I was really young. And one that I wish was known by kids today. Figured this history of me and the character would come in handy. 

Cover date is May of 1976 on issue 15 of Richie Rich and Jackie Jokers. With this coming out in the Bicentennal year the cover is a nice touch. Who is Jackie Jokers. IIRC he is Richie's cousin. Who is a comedian. And kid that appears to be 10 or so that is the best known comedian in the world. Harvey would take Richie team him up with someone and make that a series. Being a bi-monthly series this issue came out near the beginning of the third year of the title. 

To connect the inside stories to that great cover the first page of the comic story is the 3 guys on the cover explaining how they will be playign various characters in the comic. Up first is Jackie Jokers as Yankee Doodle Dandy. Jackie starts off the comic with a 5 page story about the Boston Tea party. And while the story isn't bad the standout of this first part of the comic is the page below.

I love the various comic strips Hostess would do to advertise their various snack cakes. Sure most people of a certain age will remember the Marvel and/or DC ads like this. But seems like most have forgotten Harvey got in on the game too.

Kool Katz is second up,do not really remember him. And he is playing Paul Revere. This is a one page gag strip. With Katz as Revere riding through town at night screaming "The British are here!" then entering a hospital zone and changing to holding up a sign with "The British are here" on it. Harvey would do stuff like this in their comics. Having a longer story followed by a 1 page story. Kinda of like how every Harvey comic I have owned that came out before their revival in the early 90s has the first page of the comic being an ad. It was rarely an ad for Harvey comics. This comic has an ad for GRIT. 

Jackie is back next with a four pagers. Where he meets Ben Franklin and sees the infamous kite with a key being hit by lightning. I like how Harvey is trying to not only entertain the kids but also educate them a bit.

Like how the first page of any Harvey comic was an ad page,almost every centerfold in the comic would have a big ad showing you what all Harvey Comics are coming out the next 5 weeks. Each week three standard size Harvey comics come out. These are 25 cents an issue and have on average 21 pages of comics,1 or 2 pages of letters and the rest is ads. Then every week they put out one issue of one of their 52 page comics that cost 50 cents each. 

Now remember how earlier I mentioned how Harvey put on plenty of titles starring Richie Rich? Lets look at this ad and see how many Richie comics are hitting the newstands in the next 5 weeks. The last week in January there is Richie Rich Profits and Richie Rich Ca$h,both of which are the standard 21 pages of comics for a quarter titles. Richie Rich Diamond$ is the single 52 page 50 cent comic that week.The first week of Feb has 2 more standard length Richie titles,Money World and Fortune$. The 52 page comic this week is Harvey Collector$ Comic$. This title was usually a Richie title. That would reprint 2 older Richie issues. 2nd week of Feb for standard length Richie comics we again got two,Vault$ of Mystery and the title just called Richie Rich(which I'm pretty sure is the first Richie Rich comic series). And again the 52 page comic this week is Richie related. It is Gold&$ilver. I do not remember Gold&Silver but I bet I had a few issues of it as a kid. Week 3 of Feb in the standard size again we get 2 Rich  titles. This time they are Richie Rich Gem$ and Richie Rich and Jackie Jokers(the cover they show for this one is the issues I am talking about here).  For the first time in the ad the 52 page comic released the 3rd week of Feb is a Casper title. Wrapping up the ad we are now in very end of Feb. We get two standard page count issues of Richie. Millions and the other title is Riches. Plus the 52 page comic this week is Billions. That means in 5 weeks there is 15 Richie Rich comics. Cover price to buy all those comics adds up to $4.50. And today most single comics cost $3.99 or $4.99. 

Another Kool Katz as Paul Revere one page gag strip follows. Again it is lame.

Then a 2 page Jackie strip. Followed by single page Richie strip,with Richie as General George Washington.Feels odd to be this far in the title before we see Richie. Since his name comes first in the title. I bet Harvey did that to get the kids to buy what is really a mostly Jackie Jokers series.

Finally we get a story with both Richie and Jackie. Again it is a one pager.

We get the final Kool Katz story. This time being a 2 pager. I do like how each story not only follows the one before it. But as we see in the next story,also the final story in the comic, all the stories in the comic follow each other and tell what is one longish story broke up into many parts.

This final story,titled "Freedom at Last!" has Richie and Jackie teamed up again.Jackie gets captured by the British. Thankfully General Washington(Aka Richie) replaced the British in the firing squad. On the final page of the story we see Kool Katz riding by telling Richie and Jackie "THE BRITISH ARE COMING!". Richie lets Katz know that the war is over and we end with the following panel.

So while the story of the comic is over I got one final page to show y'all. 

Harvey was smart they knew kids would want merch of the Harvey characters. So Harvey made a bunch of 45s. From what I can find each 45 had two songs,a song on each side. I never had any of these and have never seen any in person. But I bet with some skilled searching someone might be able to find the songs on Youtube. What stands out to me from the top half of this page of ads is how while the ad is really really focused on the records,they also throw in small pictures of 10 NEW HARVEY COMICS you can buy.  As you can see the ad claims the 5 hit records is a 5 buck value. And the 10 new Comics is a $2.50 value.  A total value of $7.50,but Harvey has a deal for you. You get 5 records,for a total of 10 songs,and 10 comics for $5. Plus 50 cents postage.

The bottom half of the page is a ad for all the Sad Sack comics Harvey put out. Sad Sack appears to be almost the forgotten Harvey character. I have never seen any Sad Sack stuff that isn't a comic. Richie Rich has had a few cartoons,a handful of movies. Casper has had cartoons and movies. Even Hot Stuff,another character Harvey appears to have forgotten,has some merch. For years I had a pair of Hot Stuff the Lil Devil boxer shorts I got for Valentines Day. But never seen any Sad Sack merch that wasn't a comic. And on the occasions I find stacks of Harvey comics,be it at a comic shop,junkstore or as a kid trading comics with friends,that stack is lots and lots of Richie Rich and Casper. Maybe a few Little Lotta or Lil Dot. Even some of the Hot Stuff comics. But never any Sad Sack.

Well I hope y'all enjoyed my look at this comic that is almost as old as I am.

Sorry for no posts this month.

 Besides just forgetting to post the videos off the Asshat Podcast youtube channel over here,I have been busy with various things. 

Been really busy taking care of stuff at home. Plus the wacky weather we have been having down here,were one day the high is 80 degrees then the next the high is 40,has kinda put a damper on my desire to write.

I have already started picking out the movies I want to cover in this years 31 Days of Horror. So far picked out two entries in one of my favorite horror franchise. Plus like I normally do I try to watch one new lesser known horror. Also looks like I will cover a film that is the start of a not as well known franchise.

Married With Children Comic Book Collection Showcase

Punisher Born TPB Showcase

The GIfted Season 1 DVD Showcase

Skywald's Nightmare Issue 7 reprint by Gwandanaland Comics

 

TITLE-Nightmare issue 7
SOURCE-Gwandanaland Comic TPB

Nightmare was one of the 3 b/w magazine sized horror comics that Skywald published in the early 70s. While the art and stories were not always at the level of the Warren mags,like Creepy and 1984/1994,Skywald was a good second place in the B/W Horror Comic vein. Thankfully Skywald forgot to put a proper copyright notice on their magazines. Which means they are all Public Domain. So Gwandanaland Comics,a publisher that specializes in PD comic collections,a few years ago started reprinting all the Skywald mags. What I have here is cause I didn't read the description closely. I had already ordered a few volumes of Scream,another Skywald Horror Mag,and wanted to get some issues of Nightmare. I didn't read the description on Amazon closely. So instead of ordering a TPB that reprints 4 or 5 issues of the magazine,what I got is a thin TPB that reprints issue 7 of Nightmare.

In this issue we get 8 stories and one article. The article is on Dracula in cinema. And mostly talks about Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee.

The first story is The Penitent,wrote by Ed Fedoryi and the art credited to Ferran Sostres. Never heard of either creator. The story is told to us by a man with a long white beard. He is in prison and claims to be innocent. From what he tells and shows us it appears that this Prisoner lives in a world full of fantasy elements like dragons and Lizard-men. But like the Pre-Code horror comics these stories were inspired by we get a twist ending. Sadly it is a twist that sucks.

Group Jeopardy ,Script by S.F. Starr art by Amador,is up next.A group of people with various mental issues are at a place way out in the woods. And their doctor is trying to help them with their issues. But there is a mad killer on the loose who kills using a brutal bear hug. Thankfully the twist in this story is way better than the one in the first story.

Our third tale is The Giant Death Rat. At a wharf a group of rats are trying to get on a cargo ship that is headed to the new world,AKA North America. A few weeks after the ship is out in the ocean someone in the kitchen sees one of the rats. The captain gives an order to find the rat or everyone on board will die of the Plague. They don't find the rat,but not long afterwards one of the sailors comes down with a deathly illness. By the end of this 7 page story all but a few of the sailors are either dead or dying from the plague. The ship is set on fire to prevent the plague from spreading. And we go back to the wharf. The rats tell us how they are glad they didn't go on the ship since one of the humans aboard had the plague. Decent twist ending on this one and great art.

Batting clean up,aka Fourth,is GASP! A 3 pager that feels like a story rejected by every horror publisher so far. The twist at the end is just dumb. This one has art and script by Donald Brown. And yea the art isn't good and the story sucks.

After the 4th story is the 6 pager on Dracula in Cinema. Nothing in here any horror fan didn't already know. But I'm sure back when this came out and we didn't have as easy an access to info this article might have been pretty good.

5th story is The Alter of Blood. Which has the best art of story in this issue. That gorgeous art is by Pablo Marcos and Bob Kirschen is the writer. The story sadly isn't as good as the art. A demoness in Hell is trying to take over all of Hell. This 6 pager I am betting was aimed at the teenage boy audience that wasn't old enough to buy Playboy but could buy a horror comic.

A Father's Lament is our 6th story. Script by Ed Fedory and art chores are handled by Frank Cueto. A father and his son are off hunting in the woods. They find a body of a man. This man has a large ax in the middle of his chest. In the body's pocket they find a journal. Learning that the man was hunting a werewolf.  A werewolf that killed his family.  After what appears to be years of hunting this killer werewolf the man gets the upper hand and burys a silver ax in the chest of the lupine monster. This is where we learn the werewolf is the son. Our father and son team of hunters are shocked by this story they read. And the father let's his greed get the best of him. He removes the ax from the body's chest. Planning on selling the ax since it's head is silver. The son tells him to not do this since it is cursed. But the father ignores his son. And the story ends with the hunters talking about how hard it must have been on the father to kill his son,even if he is a killer werewolf,and off in the distance we see the werewolf alive again and about to attack the 2 hunters.

Lucky number 7 is Artifacts. A Sci Fi short story I have seen done many times before. A new World War happens. Most of mankind dies. The small band of survivors leave some sacred artifacts hidden in a cave. A few hundred years later some aliens that look like Vaughn Bode Lizards land on Earth. Go into the cave and find these artifacts. One of which is a metal disc. This is opened and inside they find a reel of 35mm film. The Bode Aliens rig up a projector and we see that this film reel is a Looney Tunes short!!  Script and art on this one are handled by Dennis Fujitake. Loved the art and the story was decent,even if I have read/saw variants of it for decades.

Our final story  is scripted by Al Hewetson with TORRENTS handling the art. I do wonder who TORRENTS is. This is a Sci Fi story heavily inspired by the mythos of HP Lovecraft.  And while it has some really nice looking art the story is crap. Like the Alter of Blood story this is one where you are better off looking at the art and making up your own story to go along with it.

Now with any Gwandanaland Comic you have to remember all they do is either find scans of the comics or get the comic and do the scans themself. They do not touch up the art or alter it in anyway. With their Skywald stuff the only thing that is changed is the ad pages and some of the text pieces are removed. This reprinting a single issue of Nightmare means it has 70 pages. IIRC it was like 8 bucks on Amazon. The bit of looking I have done on Skywald stuff is any issue of their horror comic mags in decent shape will run you way more than 8 bucks. So this reprint from Gwandanaland is a great deal.

The art in almost all the stories is really good. With GASP! being the only one with what I would consider bad art. Out of the 8 stories in the issue 3 of them I found to be pretty damn good. The others went from readable to Skip the story and just enjoy the pretty art level.

If you enjoy horror comics. And have read all the Creepy and Eeries stuff give one of the Skywald collections from Gwandanaland Comics a try.