CATWOMAN #1 & #2

CATWOMAN #1 & #2
Publisher: DC Comics
Published: August/September 1993
My copy of Catwoman #1 on Ebay
My copy of Catwoman #2 on Ebay

Having just done my review of Vampirella #1, I spied a familiar name in the credits which has inspired the particular tangent for my scattershot approach to reviewing and re-evaluating my collection.

That name would belong to a fellow called Jim Balent, who just happens to be the pencil jockey for these two issues of Catwoman.

You know, having reviewed Drama, Vampirella and now Catwoman, I'm afraid I might be giving readers the wrong impression, i.e. that I only buy comic books wherein the chief protagonist is a massively-breasted woman whose costume looks like it was assembled from three postage stamps and a piece of string.

Let me assure you, nothing could be further from the truth (although I'm sure hoping I don't still have that copy of Syphons illustrated by Mark Beachum lurking around somewhere...those who have seen his work will know exactly what I mean).
Anyway, after this review, I'm going to call a halt to my 'Bad Girls' cycle for the time being, and make a point of trying to review something with no scantily clad women in it.

As promised, I am starting to review some stuff that I have from 'The Big Two' (and before you ask, no, that's not a reference to Catwoman's chesticular endowments, thank you very much!), having done indies up until now.

You know, one of the more unsettling aspects of this project is noting how much time has moved on since my fanboy heyday. As I type this, I'm looking at the back cover of Catwoman #1, upon which there is an advert for Mortal Kombat (the first one). Now, we can all chuckle at how outdated Mortal Kombat would appear to
today's gameplaying generation with their wireless controls, motion sensors, kinect etc., but that's neither here nor there. Mortal Kombat was a classic in its' day (although I much prefered Street Fighter II if I'm being honest), but what is shocking about this full page advert is the fact that there is no internet url on it whatsoever!

That makes me feel old...was 1993 really that long ago? At least we will be able to tell our grandchildren stories about how 'I was there' when the Internet rose to prominence (let's avoid the temptation to indulge in any Al 'I invented the internet!' Gore-esque claims though, yes?), but God only knows what form the internet will take by that time. It will probably make broadband look like 8 tracks or Betamax.

So, Catwoman then. DC pulled a clever ploy with this one in getting a woman to write it (Jo Duffy) so as to pre-emptively head off any accusations that Balent's artistic predilections for depicting the female form might attract.
The interior pages of these books are just as effective a time capsule as the ads on the back. Here we have a DC Universe where you've recently had the Death Of Superman (I'll admit it, I bought it, it was crap, I got rid of it) and now you have a crippled Bruce Wayne and Bane is the most feared villain in all of Gotham. Speaking of Bane, I know the 'Batman and Robin' movie was bad from whichever angle you chose to look at it, but seriously, what the f~@*?!! Boy oh boy did that suck...

It's a difficult job to do a book about a villain, which is what Catwoman nominally is, but on the other hand, of all of the Bat-villains, Catwoman is probably the one most inherently capable of being saved or redeemed. She just needs a good seeing-to from Batman is my theory, but alas they never seem to be quite able to get it together.

Thus, Duffy indulges in a bit of moral relavitism which allows Catwoman to be as deliciously naughty as she ever was, yet still take on villains more evil than herself, thus paradoxically placing her not so much upon the side of right, but sat on the fence between good and bad. Like Robin Hood, she robs from the rich and gives to the needy.

The current storyline has her working (by extension) for Bane's mob, which means she's the target for a deadly hitman with a bone to pick with Bane.

All told, it's quite good, but not so good that I picked up the third issue. Again, obviously there were other priorities in my comic book buying budget. Given that this is a DC book, I'm sure my local Forbidden Planet in Milton Keynes would have stocked it, so it wouldn't be a case of me not being able to get it, but instead simply choosing not to get it.

I'm rather odd in that I love Batman, think he has the best rogues gallery in all of comicdom (better than Spider-Man even!), yet I've never really collected the comics unless they were being written/drawn by a creator whose work I was collecting. I guess the reality was never quite as good as my theory?


In closing, I'd just like to say that my favourite Catwoman is Lee Meriwether. Miaow! They don't make 'em like they used to...



As for Catwoman issues #1 and #2, it's time to say Adieu!

My copy of Catwoman #1 on Ebay
My copy of Catwoman #2 on Ebay

VAMPIRELLA #1

VAMPIRELLA #1
Publisher: Harris Comics
Published: November 1992

My copy on Ebay

As I said in my intro piece, I've no idea how to approach my collection for this project, so I'm doing it on the fly...in my review of Drama, I touched upon the whole 'bad girls' phenomenon, which is what led me to think of Vampirella. Lo and behold, here we are!

Indeed, having just looked at this issue, I now know which book I will be reviewing next as well (It's going to be a DC Comic!). I think I'm going to proceed along a loose 'six degrees of separation' tangent for the moment being, as you will soon see.

Now, onto the issue at hand...

For me, Vampirella has a cool kitschiness that other so-called 'bad girls' can't come close to matching.
It must be the way everything is handled with such deadpan normalcy whilst the heroine is (barely) attired in a costume that looks like it was stolen from a Go-Go dancer in a Russ Meyer flick (whilst we're on the subject, how cool would the Vampirella movie have been if they'd have got Russ Meyer to do it? Alas, it seems those two metaphorical ships unfortunately passed in the night).

Oddly enough, at the time I bought this, I'm sure I was unaware that she was already an established character who'd had a long running magazine title published by Harris back in the day.
Again, it's another example of me just giving an indie a chance, even if said indie has pretensions of being a major and doing all the sort of things the majors do, both good and bad.

Another big reason I picked this up would be the Adam Hughes cover. Hughes is the cheesecake cover artist par excellence, but he's also another one of these comic book artists that fall into the 'needs a boot up his arse' category, as his output isn't what it should be. I guess perfection takes time, and that amount of time isn't generally available when you're working to a monthly schedule. Still, those with a hankering for some hot Hughes honies can sate their hunger with a copy of his Cover Run collection from DC Comics.


I can certainly remember where I bought this...Forbidden Planet in London. I've no idea why, but I have very clear memories of buying it. Just looking at the cover immediately reminds me of the free-standing
maze of white shelves in the back right hand corner of the store. It's funny how certain things do that, how certain mental associations are formed without even trying.

This new incarnation of 'Vampi', as she is often fondly refered to, is written by none other than Kurt Busiek. Before he hit it big with the likes of Marvels and Astro City, he did a whole load of stuff that passed by without causing any such commotion.
Do people track down the earlier works of so-called 'hot' writers with the same fervour that they track down the early efforts of the 'hot' artist du jour? Somehow I tend to doubt it.

This issue features the sort of standard scene-setting fare which is common with most first issues...introducing (or in this case, re-introducing) the chief protagonist and their supporting cast, outlining their origin, their powers, their weaknesses, and delineating the challenge that lies ahead and the framework within which they must tackle it.
This time out, it's the granddaddy of all vampires himself, Dracula!

Art chores are handled by Louis Small Jr. with Jim Balent inking. It reminds me of the sort of art (colours included) that you might see in a Dark Horse book or something of that sort of level.
It's perfectly good, just not the sort of stylised superhero art one might expect from a Marvel, DC or Image title.

Something that may be of note to collectors and/or potential purchasers is that there is a certificate in the centre pages containing token #1 (of six) to be redeemed for a free Vampirella poster. Needless to say, mine's intact if that matters, because I imagine the deadline for redeeming these coupons has long since passed!

I have a couple of other Vampirella comics, but not from this series...I'm wracking my brain trying to think of a reason why I didn't buy the second issue. Perhaps I just missed it, or didn't make a trip down to London in the required timeframe. Maybe it had sold out, or maybe retailers had cut down or stopped their orders on the title. I don't know...indeed, one thing I do know is that I have absolutely no idea what the second issue of this mini series even looks like, so I doubt I was that bothered about tracking it down.
In short, there were obviously other comics which I felt warranted my money, time, and attention that little bit more.
It's the same now as it was then, as I'm happy to let this one go now.

Thus, it has come time to say goodbye to another one of the flock.

Adieu, Vampirella #1, Adieu.

My copy on Ebay

DRAMA

DRAMA
Publisher: Sirius
Published: June 1994

My copy on Ebay

The name of Joseph Michael Linsner is one of those that kind of floats about the shared netherworld of comics fandom...a lot of people will have heard of him in relation to 'Cry For Dawn', just as they'll be familiar with the names of the creators behind something like 'Faust', yet the odds that they've actually seen or read the works in question are pretty long, due to the fact that they are scarcely-distributed indies that your local comic book retailer may have decided not to stock. So kudos to the retailers who do take a gamble once in a while, rather than take the safe option and stock up on whichever multiple variant cover First Issue monstrosity the big guys are pushing this month.

This particular book came out in 1994, which by my reckoning would mean that Joe Q. Retailer would have had to have gone through the latest offerings from Marvel, DC, an ever expanding Image Comics, perennial Wizard Magazine favourites Valiant, and then Dark Horse, before having any money left to look at taking a speculative punt on some indies.

I can't honestly remember, but I have a suspicion this might have been around the time of that whole 'Bad Girls' meme that had gripped comicdom...I'm thinking Lady Death, Shi, Vampirella (Come to think of it, I've got the first issue of the Harris Comics reboot of Vampirella, with the Adam Hughes cover, which was 1992, so the timing may be about right...oh, and before you ask, yes I will be selling it on here. Probably next!), so that may go some way to explaining why this one somehow managed to slip through the net and end up upon a retailer's shelf. I would have been living in Milton Keynes at the time this came out, so I suspect I purchased it at Forbidden Planet in London (the old store off of Oxford Street, for those who know London). I can't say for sure, but it just 'feels' like that's where I got it from.

Why did I get it? Well, I'm the kind of guy who likes to give out-there indies a chance, as you will no doubt come to see as this blog progresses. By 'out-there', I really mean 'out-there'...this one is comparatively mainstream next to some of the indies I have. Don't worry though, I've got plenty of mainstream stuff to get through too...Marvel, DC et al. I'm dreading the day when I have to get around to explaining how it is I own issues of Youngblood.

Also, I'd picked up the buzz on this Linsner chap, so I thought I'd try some of his work out. Whether you care for the themes he explores in his work is one thing, but you can't deny that the guy is seriously talented in artistic terms.
I think a third factor would be the fact that this is to all intents and purposes an 'adult comic (or 'Mature Readers', to use the industry's prefered jargon), and that would have still been something of a novelty to me at the time. I went through a period of buying Heavy Metal magazine, which is of a similar level of 'Maturity' in terms of content, but I've no idea whether that was before or after I bought this.

I know we didn't have the internet at home in 1994, so unlike today's feckless youth, I was not raised in a world in which all manner of hardcore pornography is a mere few mouse clicks away, but on the other hand, I wouldn't say my existence was that sheltered either...I had a couple of cherished top shelf mags hidden away.

Despite living in a country where you can crack open a tabloid newspaper to the sight of a beautiful young woman with her tits out, nudity and toplessness in comics was something of a novelty, especially in a medium which is far too often dismissed out-of-hand by the snobbishness of mainstream critics as essentially a child's one.

I would have been precisely eighteen when this came out, so I imagine I picked it up partly to revel in my newly-bestowed status of legal adulthood. In short, I bought it because I could buy it.

The comic itself is a very high quality affair from a production standpoint...very nice cardstock covers and glossy interior pages. It does the level of Linsner's artwork justice.

The story is a self-contained one-shot which is comprised of three separate stories or 'acts' (The Fall Of The Goddess, Psychobabble, Angry Christ), and is highly metaphysical in nature, indeed possibly too metaphysical. I don't do drugs, but one cannot escape the feeling that, like a video for a Tool song, to truly understand the deeper meaning behind it you would probably have to be under the influence of hallucinogens, or nicely stoned.

If I knew any sort of spiritual hippie chicks, I tend to think this would score major points with them. I have no proof to back this up with, but it's just the sort of idea I get. It has that 'Whoa....man!' factor, a bit like Donald Sutherland explaining how our entire universe could be contained in an atom which is part of another beings' fingernail in National Lampoon's Animal House.

In short, it's part painted poem, part metaphysical meditation. I like to think I'm an intelligent guy, but this one kind of flew over my head. Way over.

I'll regret letting this one go a little simply because the artwork is so beautiful, but it's not a book I love in the same way as some of those I have that have been put together by admittedly lesser talents. It doesn't 'resonate' with me emotionally in the same way other books do. Hence, it's one I've decided I can part company with.

Alas, it is now time to say goodbye.

Adieu, Drama, Adieu.

My copy on Ebay