Swords and Sorcery and a mouth full’a Sass! Continuing the theme of medieval fantasy adventure (after all, I’m celebrating the 40th birthday of the Dungeons & Dragons RPG), we find ourselves in the midst of a tale of Camelot. Jovial John Buscema is well known for his incredible renderings during a historic run on Conan the Barbarian. At the height of his creative apogee, Marvel’s editorial team became aware of his fondness for the Prince Valiant newspaper strip. Further investigation revealed an idea which had been buzzing around John’s mind for a while concerning the legendary wizard, Merlin, and his service to the king of Camelot, Arthur. For a while, he was given full creative control of this project, and Marvel absolutely loved the pages he was turning in. However, as the project wore on, John noted that the story began to get away from him – he wasn’t sure where the finish line was, despite his passion for the artwork. Doug Moench was called in to join the Merlin team and “Quest of the King” was born!
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Here there be dragons … but never on this scale! In 1974, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson introduced us to a fantastic realm of dragons, magic, adventure and nearly everything else the imagination could fathom. While Dungeons & Dragons wasn’t the first invention of a table-top role-playing game (RPG), it became the most successful, as well as the predominant representation of RPGs in both the gaming community and in pop culture. This popular game sparked an interest in all things fantasy-related, not the least of which was J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” books (all published prior to 1955). What these works had in common was their world setting – medieval kingdoms and vast unexplored territories, and their heroes – knights, dwarves, elves and other adventurers who left simple lives behind to seek glory, treasure and evil forces which must be defeated. In 1977, Marvel Comics dipped their toes into this realm of fantasy (separate from the fantasy stories they’d told before, such as Conan the Barbarian) by creating Weirdworld.
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HONEY, WE SHRUNK THE MONSTER! (or you’ll laugh your fedora off, unless you have a shrinking sense of humor) I like to think of myself as an experienced comic book reader, perhaps even an aficionado of this pleasant pastime. As such, I’ve read a fair share of diverse material: super-hero, espionage, thriller, horror, romance and other themes, including comedy comics. I have to admit that I’ve never found “funny” comics to be all that humorous, with the exception of Love & Capes by Thomas Zahler, and that includes both elbow-jabbing parodies and slap-stick joke-fests. For the most part, they are either decidedly un-clever and predictable or in poor taste. But then, there are the few unexpected books which are laugh-out-loud hilarious, which is even better when it’s totally unintentional. Now I am no mind reader, true believer, so for all I know the creators saw this project as a either a farce or as high art. Regardless, Godzilla King of the Monsters is a whole mess of fun (emphasis on the “mess”). Welcome to another Comics ‘n Coffee and thanks for sticking with me these past 20 weeks! In 1954, a 50-meter tall amphibious reptile burst from Tokyo Bay to […]
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