Friday, June 25, 2010

DC Implosion

It wasn't a dumb crossover. It wasn't a stupid reboot. No, it was a massive cancellation of comic titles!
History
Explosion to Implosion
DC Comics did a marketing campaign between 1975 to 1978, during which 57 comic titles were premiered. This was known as "The DC Explosion". But, there was one unexpected foe who caused disastrous results: Old Man Winter! Due the Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 and 1978, DC had extremely poor sales. For that and other economic reasons, DC has a massive cancellation of comic titles. Known as the "DC Implosion" (making fun of "The DC Explosion"), there were 65 cancellations. Also, the company had less than eight comics. Notable cancelled titles were All-Star Comics, Army at War, Aquaman, Mister Miracle, Shade the Changing Man, Black Lightning and Batman Family (which was "merged" with Detective Comics).
Cancelled Comic Cavalcade
Much of the unprinted work (that went unsold) actually did see print in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade, which had 2 issues. The content ranged from completed to uncompleted work. The original artwork was given to the rightful owners.
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Saturday, June 19, 2010

Johnny DC

Is Johnny DC a mutant or an alien? Neither, the answer he is a poorly-drawn metafictional character. In the Silver Age, Johnny DC was DC Comic's mascot that was used to promote comics. In the late 1980's, Johnny DC was the "host" of a comic promo page called "DCI with Johnny DC", which had miscellaneous DC Comic News, usually putting some comic books and creators in the spotlight and had a "partial checklist" of DC Comic titles. In the late 1990's, he appears as the main villain in the comedic, non-cannon Serigo Aragones Destroys DC, where he is delusional and thinks that the DC heroes have changed for the worst and tries to destroy the Justice League (by turning into a huge monstrous version of himself), only to be stopped by Batman. In 2004, Johnny was revamped as being a cartoon-like, mostly-silhouetted child that appears in DC Comics for 8-13 year olds. These were mostly comics based on Warner Brothers shows (Powerpuff Girls, Scooby Doo, Looney Tunes), oddly including comics based on shows based on DC Comics comics (The Batman Strikes!, Teen Titans Go!, Justice League Unlimited and Legion of Super Heroes in the 31st Century). Supposedly, Johnny edited the letters columns for these comics.
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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Rainbow Raider

Roy G. Bivolo wanted to become an artist... too bad he was colorblind. He would make paintings that he thought was beautiful, but everyone else thought it clashed. Roy's dad tried to cure his son's colorblindness, but due his health, he created somehow created a pair of goggles that created solid color (similar to the Green Lantern's solid light). He gave these to Roy on his deathbed. He decided to get revenge on the world that didn't like his art, by going on a crime spree and art from art galleries, saying if he couldn't enjoy them (due to his colorblindness), no one will. He clashed with the Flash and Booster Gold as well. He becomes a minor JLA foe. The villainess Blacksmith killed Roy. Rainbow Raider temporarily became a member of the zombie Black Lantern Corp. The super villain team, "the Rainbow Raiders", named themselves after Roy. It should be noted an unrelated super villain of the same name appeared in House of Mystery #167, who could change his costume color and get a different power depending on the color.
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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Star Studded Comics (Fanzine)

Even though it lasted 18 issues, it had some of the super, awesome comic heroes. Larry Herndon, Buddy Saunders and Howard Keltner all were comic book fans. At some time, the three saw the other's work and realized they were all in Texas. They met, in person, at Herndon's house. Since fanzine comics were common, the three became the "Texas Trio" and create their own fanzine: Star Studded Comics. Even though it was mostly the trio's work, other comic creators joined: Roy Thomas, Grass Green, Sam Grainger and Bill Dubay. Heroes included Doctor Weird (my favorite), Xal-Kor, the Defender, Powerman (no contention to the Marvel character), the Eye and Dragonfly to a name a few. Although the comic mainly focused on the Superhero gene, some stories focused on others: the Battle of Credibility Cap (Wild West), Warrior of Llarn (Sword and Sorcery) and Wildman and Rubberoy and The Count (satire). The comic ended when Larry Herndon, Buddy Saunders and Howard Keltner decided to "move on with their lives".
References:
The Best of Star Studded Comics
http://www.billschelly.com/media/05-SSC13.jpg

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Irregular Webcomic!

This is my first post on a web comic!
Overview
Irregular Webcomic! features usually4-paneled strips (but the panel number can vary) that are photographically illustrated. These strips usually use Lego figures, but a few arches have featured other mini figures.
Themes (Story Arches)
  • Cliffhanger- Dr. Montana "Monty" Jones (usually aided by his dad or grandpa) hunts for treasures and battles Nazis (usually Monty's arch-enemy Colonel Haken), led by Hilter's brain in a jar.
  • Death- Death (according to polls taken) is the most popular theme. For every method of dying there is a grim reaper or death (hence the title), for example if someone dies from a car crash the death of that department will collect his or her soul. The Head Death promotes and demotes the deaths. Although some strips will focus on other deaths, the one mainly focused on is the Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs, who is getting promoted and demoted a lot (but always ends up where he started). His arch-enemy is the Death of Chocking on a Giant Frog (the deaths can get very specific). The deaths "guest star" in various other theme's strips.
  • Espionage- A scene-by-scene parody of the James Bond films Dr. No and From Russia With Love starring James Stud (Agent 0x0A).
  • Fantasy- Pokes fun at Dungeons and Dragons. Characters include David Morgan-Mar (the strips creator) as the game master and non-lego minifigures: Lambert (a hobbit), Alvissa ("an elf maiden bard"), Mordekai (a lovable rouge), Kyros (a fire-power wizard that keeps the Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs busy), Draak (Lambert's lizard man bodyguard) and Dwalin (a dwarf).
  • Harry Potter- Makes fun of the Harry Potter characters and book series.
  • Martians- 3 aliens from Mars try to take over the Earth. They encounter Mars Rovers, a Man in Black (who thinks they're not real) and some student named Ishmael. The trio have quit their plan to avoid actually having to run the planet.
  • Me- Gags involving the strip's creator, Morgan Mar.
  • MythBuster- Based on the show of the same name, however the two main characters often die in their experiments.
  • Nigerian Finance Minister- The Nigerian Finance Minister writing Advance-Fee Fraud e-mails. Oddly, the Minister in the strip is a male, while it was a female at the time period it was launched.
  • Pirates- Take a guess
  • Scientific Revolution- About the event of the same name. It mainly focuses on Issac Newton.
  • Shakespeare- Shows what Shakespeare would have been like if he was born in modern times.
  • Space- A sci-fi theme that usually uses non-lego figures, unless they are in the CG environment.
  • Star Wars- Points out the numerous flaws and problems with the Star Wars series.
  • Steve and Terry- Steve is a likely parody of the Crocodile Hunter,that wrestles animals (and sometimes kills them by mistake). Terry is his wife that wants him to stop risking his life. Cthulhu has appeared as an enemy of Steve.
  • Supers- The silly adventures of League of Good Guys against the Axis of Antagonists.

There have been various miscellaneous strips and bizarre crossovers. For example, Steve getting fired from Hogwarts from his job as "Professor of Care of Magical Creatures".

Recent developments
  • Infinity on 30 Credits a Day, a web comic the features fan-submitted comics that Morgan help organize, has become "a sister webcomic" to Irregular Webcomic!
  • Friends of David Morgan Mar revealed his "name" stands for the name of the strip's collaborators: David, Andrew, Vladimir, Ingrid, David, Moon-unit, Oliver, Rodney, Geoff, Apple, Norbert, Michael, Andrew, and Richard.
  • The webcomic has reached 2000 strips, which only about 17 other webcomics have been able to do.
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