Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Watchmen? THE Watchmen?


Watchmen again.

When I read some months ago that HBO would present a Watchmen series I (naturally?) assumed that the new series would be a retelling of the 1980s comic book classic by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, just like the 2009 Watchmen film was. Watchmen is Watchmen, right?

But not this time.

It turns out that this new Watchmen series is a sequel to the original series. But I have a problem with the naming then. After all, Watchmen is Watchmen. Couldn't the title of the new series have been New Watchmen or Watchmen II or even The Watchmen? (In my youth I was confused for years before I realized that Invisible Man and The Invisible Man were entirely different literary works. That The makes a world of difference!)

Anyway, I haven't see any episodes of the new series yet because I don't have access to HBO. I hear good things though and I will definitely catch it when there is a DVD release and I'll let you know my impression then. To be continued!


More about AFTA


AFTA was a comics fanzine with a lot of heart. And that heart was editor/publisher Bill-Dale Marcinko. Bill-Dale's wry sense of humor was infused in every page and reading his work was always a bit of an adventure.

Really though, AFTA was more than a comics fanzine. It was a pop-culture zine. Comics were well represented by reviews (like the one that I wrote and which was published in AFTA #2) and the lengthy George Perez interview that was the cover feature of AFTA #1. But also there were television reviews (Bill-Dale liked Fernwood Tonight as much as I did) and record reviews and long articles about The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

1978's AFTA #1 was 96 digest-sized pages most of which had two columns of small type, and it had a print run of 200 and a paid circulation (99 cents per copy) of 65 (and "Embarrassing, isn't it?" was Bill-Dale's self-commentary on those numbers). It was predicted in #1 that AFTA #2 would be 52 pages but in fact that issue turned out to be a double-digest totaling 208 pages! Bill-Dale put so much effort into this project of his!

I do need to mention that AFTA was an acronym for Ascension from the Ashes. Sadly, Bill-Dale Marcinko is no longer on this planet but I (and many others) think of him often, so is he really gone?

Hooray for Bill-Dale Marcinko!


Saturday, November 16, 2019

1978 AFTA Article by Brian Hayes



In the late 1970s I was devouring just about every comics fanzine I could find. In 1977 I came across the very unusual AFTA #1 as edited and produced by the very idiosyncratic Bill-Dale Marcinko. That issue's cover by George Perez featured Captain America and Iron Man, and the tagline at the bottom of that cover speaks for itself: "Reporting on Comics, Fanzines, Films, and Nay, I Say, Life... Itself"

I was impressed with and enjoyed that premier issue of AFTA and I wrote to Bill-Dale asking if I could contribute to the second issue. He wrote back and said yes. It's too long ago and I don't remember if he assigned me to review a specific comic book or it was my own choice, but I wrote about The Beatles.

AFTA #2 featured a cover by Jack Kirby and my article appeared on page 52. The photo below came out amazingly blurry so I will transcribe my review for you:

Marvel Super Special 
The Beatles

It often amazes me how much Marvel can get away with. Marvel Super Special 4, featuring "The Beatles Story,"  is a prime example of the sheer commercialistic pap they can peddle to young , unsuspecting comics readers who are stuck on "Spider-Man" and "Stan Lee Presents." Yet they can get away with it.

In the first place, the very idea of putting the life story of The Beatles in a thirty-nine page (I counted) is presumptuous beyond even Stan the Man's boundaries of presumptuousness. Or so I would have thought.

Another prime gripe-point is the flat color. I liked the color in the Conan Super Special, but then the Close Encounters issue reverted to the flat color in the Kiss issue, and here we have it again. Leave it to Marvel to keep cutting corners for as long as they can; I figure that the Beatles book (as well as Kiss and Close Encounters) were aimed at non-comics people who would buy the magazine for the subject matter and not care very much about the color. But can Marvel get away with it? You bet they can; they've got "Spider-Man" and "Stan Lee Presents," haven't they?

As for the art, hey, it was no bargain either, nor was the wall-to-wall lettering. All in all, "The Beatles Story" is a dollar and a half's worth of disappointment. Will Marvel get away with it, though?

Yeah.



Friday, November 08, 2019

A Steve Ditko Photo You Never Saw Before!


Here is a mid-1970s photograph of Steve Ditko posing with his nephews and niece. To put the time frame into perspective, this was roughly when Mr. Ditko was penciling Stalker for DC Comics and The Destructor for Atlas Comics (both of which which would be wonderfully inked by Wally Wood).

Hooray for Steve Ditko!