Posted by
Daniel Crandall on Monday, March 19, 2007 9:00:40 PM
I just discovered "The Last Real Man in Comics".
His name is Beau Smith and his bio's opening paragraph is a hoot:
"My name is Beau Smith. Others have
tagged me as 'The Last Real Man In Comics'. That comes from a time when there
was nothing but poodle skirt wearin', crybaby , hobbit lovin' liberals and former
dope dealin' hippies in comics . I was one of the few if not only men in comics
that liked and participated in sports, enjoyed grade B-Action movies and had
done time in jail."
Scroll down the page linked above. Imagine some comic writer or artist depicting today's Islamofascists the way the Japanese were depicted in the 1945 issue Startling Comics with "The Fighting Yank, Super-Patriot" and "Pyroman".
There is also a great piece on the death of Captain America by Graham Nolan, titled "THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE RISE OF THE SOUPER-HERO". Nolan understands the problems today's comics have:
"One of the greatest story arcs ever done in comics, IMHO, is the MANGOG saga which appeared in MIGHTY THOR 154-157.
A virtual, how-to, on pacing a great dramatic action story. I won’t go
into the story for those who haven’t read it, but there is a great
scene in which Thor, trying to find Loki runs into a bunch of hippies.
They start to bust on Thor because he’s such a “square”, and they don’t
care about his needs because they “tuned in, and dropped out”. Thor,
being the noble character he is, sympathizes with their free spirt and
innocence (ie: ignorance) and gently reprimands them for being
misguided. “’Tis not by dropping out-but by plunging into the maelstrom
of life---that thou shall find thy wisdom”! He goes on to tell them
there are battles to be won and causes to espouse, and that they can
“drop out” when death is at their door but as long as life endures they
must live to the fullest…”Else, thou be unworthy of the title---MAN!”
"Can you imagine this scene in ANY mainstream comic today?"
The answer to that would an emphatic No.