80-Pagecast Episode 4: Iron Man Three

Who's got six thumbs and has seen Iron Man 3? Jen Ulm, Rob London, and David Henion. They spend a a while talking about what was good and bad about it. But only after celebrating everyone's favorite holiday, Free Comicbook Day. And of course take the time to talk about recent issues of Superior Spiderman (again), Gold Digger 200, and Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye (again). Show notes after the jump.

80-Pagecast Episode 3: Badguy Books

The bi-weekly 80-Pagecast becomes tri-weekly for this special episode! This week Jen Ulm, Rob London, and David Henion spend some time talking about terribly great villains in Superior Spiderman, Thanos Rising, and Transformers: Robots in Disguise. Plus some of our favorite books starring villainous casts from the past. Show notes after the jump.

80-Pagecast Episode 2: We Feel Ways About Stuff

It's back!  The 80-Pagecast returns for a second scintillating episode!  This time, in the emotionally-traumatic wake of Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #15, Jen Ulm, Rob London, and David Henion discuss our feelings.  We also touch upon such vital topics as space cursing, giant metal breasts, and tracksuit Draculas.  Show notes after the jump.

Full Metal Snakeskin

Aaaaaancient scans of Cobra Commander's battle armor from the last few issues of Marvel's original G.I. Joe comic. To date, this design has never received a toyline counterpart, which is kind of striking considering how much the modern G.I. Joe toys take inspiration from the comics. I had attempted to remove the backgrounds from all three of the images, with varying degrees of success. I don't think I have the unaltered versions anymore...
 
Anyway. Using this armor and a specially-manufactured Ninja Disorienting Hallway installed in the Silent Castle, Cobra Commander was able to defeat and capture the then-heroic Storm Shadow. This led to Snake-Eyes mounting a rescue attempt for his sword brother - and surely he'd fall for CC's new tricks, too! However, Snake-Eyes (seen in the background of the third pic) was able to get through the special Ninja Disorienting Hallway by... CLOSING HIS EYES! Then he hit Cobra Commander with a flechette round, because he decided to rescue Storm Shadow in a commando-y way instead of a ninja-y way for some reason. I'm not sure why this ignited CC, but it's been a while since I've read the story. Maybe Snake-Eyes had a flamethrower, too?

Scans from G.I. Joe #150 and 151. Art by Phil Gosier and Crusher Wallace (#150) and Phil Gosier and Scott Koblish (#151).

Comic Comparison -- MTMTE #15 and Transformers #66.

Mmm. Visual metaphor.

So I finished reading a comic called Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #15. It was the climax of an ongoing set of plot threads from the book, ending in a huge battle with a super-powerful Decepticon aboard an Autobot space ship.

More Than Meets The Eye is a great book -- especially if you're a hardcore Transformers fan.

So I was a little taken aback when I was reading the Allspark and found that reactions to the issue were far more mixed than is normal for MTMTE. So I went and read the issue again. The second time I started to notice a strange feeling; I'd read this story somewhere else.

So I read it again and it twigged. It's the Furman-ness. Simon Furman was a long-time writer on Transformers in the 1980s and a very big and obvious influence on MTMTE's writer James Roberts. But it was more than just stray scenes that were similar to the old days... it was... the whole issue.

More Than Meets the Eye #15 (Under Cold Blue Stars) was beat-for-beat a copy of Marvel's Generation 1 comic #66 (All Fall Down).

Big big spoilers follow guys, so if you haven't read these two comics yet do so, then come back here with them both in your lap and join me for a little journey of comparisons.

80-Pagecast: Episode 1

We're trying something new at 80-Page Giant this week - the 80-Pagecast, a podcast featuring 80-Page Giant contributors David Henion, Rob London, and Jen Ulm.  This week, our main topic is retold origins, so enjoy as we mostly ignore that topic and discuss bad wigs, Two-Face's facial hair, and molten cobalt instead.  Have a listen and tell us what you think!  Show notes after the jump.

Fighting giant robot evil by moonlight, winning giant robot love by daylight

The Nobel/Noble Gundam (left) and the Super Nobel/Noble Gundam (right), from the Mobile Fighter G Gundam manga adaption by Kouichi Tokita. What better way to represent Sweden than with a giant robot Japanese schoolgirl?

The Super Nobel/Noble Gundam was a design exclusive to the manga adaption - you can see it in color here, which firmly cements it as a giant robot Super Sailor Moon. I tried to point out the existence of this suit in a Mecha and Anime Headquarters thread some years ago (a website home to a massive Gundam compendium, incredibly useful before wikis were a thing), but despite it being a legitimate variant, it's never been added to the MAHQ index. Kinda disappointing, as I had previously pointed out and provided scans of the Scud Gundam, Manager Gundam, and Jumping Gundam to the site.

In any event, the G Gundam manga adaption is not something I can really recommend on its own. Trying to condense 49 episodes of content into three volumes gives the work a breakneck pace, but without the context of the television series, a lot of it doesn't make sense. The "Go For It, Domon!" gag strips in the back are kinda cute, though.

There is apparently a recent re-imagining of G Gundam in manga form written by series director and all-around awesome dude Yasuhiro Imagawa, but I've heard of no plans to bring it over in English. More's the pity.

Spider-Man's Greatest Villains #110-101

For somebody who doesn't like Terry Kavanagh, I sure put a lot of his stuff on this blog.
(Spider-Man #25, written by Terry Kavanagh, art by Chris Marrinan)

We're almost halfway done!  As always, check out the master list to see the whole countdown!

OTP Oddity

In 1956, Atlas Comics (precursor to Marvel) began publishing Dan DeCarlo's short-lived humor series Sherry the Showgirl. In 1964, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko introduced the villainous Kraven the Hunter in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man. In a storyline beginning in 2012, Stan Lee, his brother Larry Lieber, and Alex Saviuk paired the two up in the Spider-Man newspaper strip.

Stan Lee has the weirdest ships you guys seriously

(Cover scans courtesy of comics.org, newspaper strip courtesy Comics Curmudgeon.)

Might of a Thousand

In 1993, Topps Comics relaunched Jack Kirby's Silver Star as a miniseries under the auspices of writer Kurt Busiek and artist James W. Fry. Though the series was canned after only one issue, Busiek has revealed that he planned to pit the hero against an army of 1,000 supervillains - many of whom he and Fry managed to conceive, reportedly reaching somewhere in the upper 800s before the ax fell. Here is a two-page spread from that first issue, showcasing just a few members (relatively speaking) of that planned awesome army of evil.

While I'm amused by the flying catwoman - who I'm pretty sure Busiek has said is actually named Kittyhawk - take a closer look at the pink blob to the left of the Lightning Lady. Yes, Silver Star just barely avoided the terrible might of a Barney the Dinosaur/Godzilla crossbreed! Oh, the horrors...

Don't fret too much over Busiek and Fry's seemingly wasted efforts, though; apparently a number of their unused ideas ended up in Astro City. Whether any of the characters here are immediate predecessors to Astro City villains, though, I couldn't say.