#steve gerber

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Thundarr the Barbarian (1980)

[vertigoartgore]

1974's Man-Thing Vol.1 #8 cover by Mike Ploog and Gaspar Saladino.

[vurg]

Howard the Duck #23(1978) by Gene Colan

[bringbackwendellvaughn]

[clintfbarton]

Avengers Spotlight (1989) #33

[wanderingmind867]

Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Grant Morrison, and Neil Gaiman all killed comics as a medium. They sucked the joy from their stories. Grant Morrison has some silly characters that I love, but I don't like how he's also got cynical things like the leader of the Doom Patrol being secretly evil. I don't think that's ever what Arnold Drake wanted, and it feels like a repudiation of the original silver age text. Frank Miller ruined Daredevil by making him a brooding figure with a crazy love interest and a long list of dead bodies trailing behind him (Karen Page and Heather Glenn didn't deserve to die, and Elektra doesn't deserve her fame). Alan Moore wrote Watchmen, a book about cynicism and bitterness and misanthropy. It's meant to be realistic, but it's just a screed of bitterness and cynicism. That's not what comics are for. Comics are for hope! There's always light in the world, but no. These fucking authors wouldn't dare write about it.

Somebody save Doctor Manhattan from Watchmen. He could've been such a good character, if it wasn't for Alan Moore basically making him an emotionless man with no empathy. He deserves so much better. Save Swamp Thing too, because Alan Moore is not my Swamp Thing author. Never. It's the 70s run for the win. Somebody save Batman and Daredevil from the ruination of Frank Miller.

You know what the 80s gave us? At least for comics, it apparently created cynicism. Cynicism about everything. Nobody wanted to write about silly things being silly, because they'd rather see blood and gore and sex and drugs. I miss the silver age and the bronze age. I really miss them. I'm depressed now, but it's because comics truly haven't been really good since 1981. 1987 or 1988 is the last era in which even one comic might be good, because everything just goes to hell. 1976 or 1977 is when it begins to die, but 1987 to 1988 is when it fully dies.

We need New Sincerity. We need comics explicitly written and modelled after the 60s and 70s. Lots of words, silly but fun,never too dark and dreary. Darkest it should ever get is the level of something like Steve Gerber or Doug Moench's writing. It can be dark but also be funny and kind and heartfelt. Modern comics don't get it. They never will, it seems. I miss Stan Lee and Gardner Fox and John Broome and Steve Gerber and Otto Binder and Arnold Drake and stuff. sigh....

[brevoorthistoryofcomics]

BHOC: MARVEL PREMIERE #49

MARVEL PREMIERE was something of a mixed bag as a comic book purchase. While early on it had been dedicated to the adventures of Iron Fist, and before that Doctor Strange, it had turned over time into a SHOWCASE-style try-out series for new concepts (and occasionally a place to wrap up outstanding plotlines from a series that had come to an end, as in the case of the Man-Wolf issues.) I had begun…

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[616mattfoggymoments]

Daredevil (1964) #108 | Steve Gerber & Bob Brown