dimland radio 3-17-12 show notes

Unfinished Business

I made some thank you's to my loyal listeners and to management. Something I had forgotten to do on show 100.

My Demon Is Here!

Your host and his demon. They look so happy together!

A couple years back I announced in the Z Talk chat room that I had invited a demon to come to my house. This was no problem for me, because I have no fear of demons. Some in chat advised against my invitation. Ah, nothing to worry about.

Well, no demon ever showed up. No surprise there. But, I was going through some of my old toys I found that I already had a demon. It's the demon Etrigan who was created by Jack "The King" Kirby for DC Comics.

A closer look at my demon.

I Hate Summer

Sure, it's only March 17th, but summer-like weather is here and I'm sweating. I hate sweating when I'm just sitting around. But summer isn't all bad, I squeezed in an amusing anecdote from several summers ago. I told how I got a teenage girl tell me, "Just looking at you makes me hot!" You don't say.

Science Changes It Mind AGAIN!

What is with science? Why can't it get its story straight?

Back on my 8/21/10 show I told how paleontologists had discovered that the Triceratops and Torosaurus dinosaurs were not separate species, but that the Triceratops was the juvenile version of the Torosaurus. See the shows for the 8/21/10 show here.

Well, not so fast. A team of paleontologists have found some very good evidence that they are indeed two different dinosaurs. See that story here.

NOT Finding Bigfoot

I then spend some time critiquing an episode Finding Bigfoot. I give it a good going over but suffice to say the intrepid team do not find a bigfoot.

Watch them not find bigfoot here.

Movie Recommendation: Tombstone (1993)

(Buena Vista Pictures)

A very entertaining Western with an outstanding performance by Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday.

Music heard on the show (Whenever Possible, I Will Link To The Song)...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: 'The One Thing' by INXS & 'Smokeless Zone' by XTC
Second ad break bumpers: 'Down In The Seine' by The Style Council & 'The KKK Took My Baby Away' by The Ramones
Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

you know who is great?

I’ll tell you. Alan Davis. Who is Alan Davis? Alan Davis is one of my favorite comic book illustrators, that’s who! Back when I was still buying new comic books (I stopped years ago), I discovered Alan Davis when he was penciling Detective Comics for DC. His Batman was terrific. Davis’ style is fluid and graceful. It’s every bit as powerful as comicdom’s other greats: John Buscema, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Will Eisner, John Byrne, Jim Lee, Alex Ross and the like.

When he finished up on Detective Comics on the middle of a story run (he was replaced by the extremely overrated Todd MacFarlane, I’ll talk about him in a moment), he moved over to Marvel Comics. He went to work penciling Excalibur. And I went to work buying them.

I think Alan Davis was, unfortunately, overshadowed by the Todd MacFarlane craze. I freely admit I was impressed with MacFarlane’s work for about five minutes, but, as a nearly life-long student of comic book art, I quickly saw MacFarlane’s deficiencies as an artist. His work was dramatic and eye-catching, but his anatomy drawing was poor. His proportions were off and his women all looked wrong. His characters all looked like they were in danger of falling over (always leaning and their bodies tapering toward their feet). MacFarlane’s line work was way too busy and lacked weight and definition.

MacFarlane's art: Just how big is Spider-Man's butt?

Alan Davis’ work, on the other hand, was lush and disciplined. His line work was simple, flowing, elegant and expressive. His eye for page layout and design was outstanding. A mark of a really good comic book artist is being able to follow the story without having to read the narrative and dialogue. Davis’ pages never left you confused as to what was going on, while MacFarlane’s often did.

And the way Alan Davis drew women… AHEM.

Let's see MacFarlane draw a woman this well!

Maybe I suffer a little from the sour grapes when I look at MacFarlane’s work. I spent years trying to get into the comic book biz, but no go. Sometimes I’d get some praise, “You’re good, but you need work.” Sometimes I’d get slapped, “Have you had any drawing lessons?” This was asked of me by an editor after I had spent three years in art school. Often I would hear that my work was a little too cartoony. I’d work on improving my work and then I saw MacFarlane’s drawings. Cartoony?! Talk about cartoony! Are you looking at his stuff?!

MacFarlane's Wolverine (This cover did catch my eye at first.)

Davis' Wolverine

(To be fair, I have to say that although I don’t care much for MacFarlane’s drawing, his line of toys he later produced were fantastic!)

However, when I see great work, I marvel at the artist’s ability. I revel in it. I feel as though I’m witnessing something transcendent. It’s a beautiful thing.

MacFarlane's Hulk

Davis' Hulk (Drawings like this make me want to put down my pencil and let the pros handle it.)

And I think Alan Davis produced many beautiful things.

comic books that changed my life #5

Well, I’m doing it! I’m crossing over into DC Comics territory. I was a Marvel Comics kid who would rarely pick up a DC title back in the early days of my collecting. For some reason, Batman and Superman and all those other DC characters didn’t interest me back then. I took the motto “Make Mine Marvel” to heart in those days. As I got older and more serious about collecting, I worked my way into the DC Universe. That, as they say, is a story for another time.

This was when I mainly bought comic books with exciting covers. But, I also liked the monster stories. (The first title of this blog series was Werewolf By Night, after all.) Because I liked monsters so much, I laid down my hard-earned 20 cents and purchased this DC comic book, The Demon #13 (Oct. ’73).

The Demon was a series created, drawn, and written by the great Jack Kirby. Kirby was king. He was the major talent behind the creation of the language of comic book art. He was a pioneer. He is probably the most influential artist in comic book history and, for years, I thought he sucked.

That’s right. I couldn’t stand his stuff. In my formative years as a cartoonist, I couldn’t understand why he was the king. As I worked to improve my drawing skills, I kept looking at his work and thought it was crap. “He can’t draw!” I would think.

Kirby couldn’t draw anatomy well. Look at the hands he’d draw. How many knuckles does a human hand have? How long is a thumb compared to the fingers? Who has squared off fingertips?

I could go on, but I’m saving my Kirby dissertation for a favorite comic book artist blog series.

Suffice to say, I did eventually come to appreciate the greatness of Jack Kirby’s art.

The Demon #13 might have been the first DC Comics title I’d ever purchased. It was certainly one of the very first. As far as I can remember, I bought it to take on the family vacation. Each year, my family would head out to a lake cabin resort near Spooner, WI for a two week vacation. This issue was one in the stack of comic books that I brought along to kill time during the long drive from St. Paul. I don’t recall any of the other issues.

The Demon is one of my favorite characters and issue #13 is from his original series. This was long before the Demon started speaking in rhyme. That’s the one thing that annoyed me about the later incarnation of the Demon. I like the Hell aspect and that the Demon is kind of evil while still being a good guy. I like his alter-ego’s name, Jason Blood. So cool.

The art I’ve selected from this issue are all full page illustrations, with one exception. In fact, one is a two page spread!

The cover (see above) has an interesting use of color to help direct the eye. Your attention is drawn to the Demon and his two adversaries. The monsters are less significant, but still important. And the Demon’s declaration, “I’m unleashing every terrible thing your mind can think of! Can you take it?” makes one wonder if he talking to his adversaries or is he talking to us? Perhaps both.

The two page spread is chock full of Jack Kirby goodness. Some of his best work is this big drawing stuff. It’s big, spectacular! And Kirby was very good at making sure that the design didn’t leave the reader confused. The storyline continues to flow through the dramatic art.

There’s also that black dotted cosmic fire thing the Kirby was so fond of using. I don’t know if he invented it, but it sure seems like a signature tool of his. And countless Kirby-influenced artists (myself included) have used the same effect.

Incidentally, note the name of the villain, Baron Von Evilstein. That’s fantastic! With a name like that how could you not be evil? That name can’t help but pigeon-hole a fellow. Even if he wanted to be a philanthropist, how could he while named Evilstein?

So, the next page I’ve selected is the first page of chapter two. It introduces “the Monster”. A not so subtle take on the Frankenstein legend. Kirby’s version was created by Baron Von Evilstein.

The Monster is huge. And I love the metal bars that protrude from him. Maybe not quite the same as the flat-headed creature that Boris Karloff brought to life, but the similarities are there.

There’s a single frame that I’ve included that has its focus on the creatures hands. The hands are stretched out imploringly to a woman he sees as a friend. It brings to mind Karloff’s so expressive use of his hands in his portrayal of the Monster. No other actor who played the Monster ever came close to Karloff. Part of the reason for that, I think, is due to the way Karloff used his hands.

Speaking of hands, this brings me to the final piece I’ve included. It’s the first page of chapter three. Kirby sums up the action of the scene while deftly bringing in the Demon. That’s a pretty cool hand there. We’re in for some action!

So that’s the first DC comic of this series. There will be others. The one that convinced me to start collecting DC. The one that hooked me into Batman. The one that got me interested in Superman. And more. But you’ll have to wait.