Saturday, June 30, 2012

I Found Frank Brunner


Frank Brunner beautifully illustrated some superb Doctor Strange stories by Steve Englehart forty years ago, but I have not seen this great artist's name in any comic book for many years now. Until today.

When I go to the comic book store each week, I don't merely grab my stash and run. I linger. I observe. I investigate. I'm always on the lookout for a new great thing that I wasn't expecting. I page through some of the new release comics that attract me but which I'm not getting to see whether maybe, just maybe, I should be getting them.

I don't regularly get any of the many Bongo Comics, but I spotted the "superheroes" on the cover of Simpsons Super Spectacular #15 and was curious about it. I saw Frank Brunner's name in the credit box of the second story and I went Hmm. I wouldn't have realized it was Brunner art if I hadn't read the credits first, but a character that looks very much like Clea is running around throughout the story in all sorts of Clea-like poses.  This is a comic book that Doctor Strange completists will want to have.

1 Comments:

At 4:53 PM, Blogger ~P~ said...

Brunner was asked to draw a story very similar to those old Doctor Strange tales, yet using Bongo's Plasmo The Mystic instead.

The woman you are referring to is named Tah-Dah, which is a double-entendre mixing the name of an old Dr. Strange villain "Tazza" with the sound that people make after performing some minor feat; "Ta-Dah!"

However, Tah-Dah's look is 100% Shazana - a Dr. Strange foe from an old issue of Strange Tales (by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko).

Another funny aspect to the story is that it ends with a Howard The Duck joke, since Brunner was also famous for drawing Marvel's famed fowl.

I hope this helps.

~P~
Sanctum Sanctorum Comix

 

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