I’ve been numbering my entries, picking up where I left off with the I LOVE COMICS 3000 CHALLENGE as one of the participants on the Captain Blue Hen Facebook page. This started as a challenge from friendly comic shops in Ohio and Texas, originally as the 1,000 Comics Challenge, then the 2021 Comic Book Quarantine Odyssey, and then I Love Comics 3000 - - all goals met by the group of Captain Blue Hen customer participants. I’m curious to see how long it takes me to read that many comics. My journey began with the 1,000 Comics Challenge on approximately March 15, 2020.
#616 THE LUDOCRATS (Image, September 2020) This mini-series ends as only it can, ludicrously! You can pick up any issue of this series at any point and be just as amused and bewildered as those of us who faithfully started at the beginning. Surely, this is the most offbeat and humorous work so far from Kieron Gillen, with an assist on the script from Jim Rossignol. Jeff Stokely’s art has that imaginative cartoonish edge to it that suits the subject matter perfectly.
Things wrap up with the irrational trial of Ludocrat Otto Von Subertan, framed for a crime he didn’t commit. His attorney is a rotting corpse, so he has to conduct his own defense with this finger-pointing opening statement: “You might say that I’ am a criminal . . . but isn’t it criminal to say that?” There is additional content, as always, in the back pages and back cover, and this time the tiny publication data at the bottom of the inside cover gets infiltrated.
I love the back cover quote: “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former . . .” attributed to Albert Einstein (probably). Are you getting bored with standard comic book tropes? This can serve as a welcome farcical break. FIVE STARS for the full series.
#617 RED ATLANTIS #1 (Aftershock Comics, November 4 release date, final order cutoff October 12) Based on a story idea from a former intelligence officer in Russia’s Federal Security Service who has since defected to the United States, writer Stephanie Phillips scripts this supernatural political thriller that creates shivers since it seems pulled from today’s headlines.
I’ve seen a retailer preview of Issue #1, and the set-up issue is both disturbing and captivating. Four voting centers across the U.S. erupt into bloody violence with fatalities when everyone’s cell phone goes off on election day. The FBI’s prime suspect is a Russian journalism student whose apartment building had a massive transformer failure that crashed the power grid in Houston. Reminds me of movie Manchurian Candidate and Stephen King’s novel Cell. FOUR STARS.
#618 - #622 MEGATON MAN #1-5 (Kitchen Sink Comix, 1984-1985) It’s been some time since I read these comics, and I’m glad I had reason to re-visit them.
Megaton Man is a quirky, irrelevant and funny (often silly) satire on standard super-hero tropes. Megaton Man (alias Trent Phloog) is an over-muscled, short-legged and big chin superhero that is a dimwit in the brains department.
Creator Don Simpson writes, draws, colors and letters his adventures, until he needed some workload relief and grabbed an assist with colors beginning with Issue #5. His style is heavily influenced by the early illustrators of Mad Magazine, when it was still published in full-color comics format.
The first five issues feature his back-and-forth association with The Megatropolis Quartet, a parody of the Fantastic Four. They dress in the familiar early blue uniforms with a Q in place of the 4. Members include Liquid Man / Rex Rigid, The Human Meltdown / Chuck Roast, See-Through Girl / Stella Starlight, and Yarn Man / Bing Gloom. See-Through Girl can make herself completely naked with a single thought. Yarn Man is a hilarious take on The Thing, big and bulky and spouting Yancy Street like slogans (“It’s knit-one, purl-two time” before he clobbers a villain). There are also clever homages to Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic strip (Doomsberry) throughout that perfectly cop the style and format of the long-running newspaper series. FOUR STARS.
#623 - #627 MEGATON MAN #6-#10 (Kitchen Sink Comix, 1985 -1986) Megaton Man continues to make fun of super-hero fare, especially Marvel. The breaking-the-4th-wall cover to Issue #6 shows the plot outline: “Explosion. FIght Scene. Recap. Explosion. Fight Scene. Flashback. Explosion. Fight Scene. Continued.” Bad Guy (Barthlomew Gamble) is let out of jail on good behavior and enlists the forces of Krupp (a la Hydra) to try to take out Megaton Man’s identity (it’s only secret to him) as Trent Phloog while working at the Manhattan Project newspaper. They fail numerous times in hilarious fashion and consequences.
Femme fatale Rose Shark is introduced, and hires a pro wrestler to impersonate Megaton Man and trash his reputation. Before the series ends, MM will meet his dad, the golden age version of MM, and fight various human and mechanical clones of himself.
Creator Don Simpson introduces back-up feature Border Worlds in Issue #6, a science-fiction saga involving a near bankrupt space trucking firm and the master thief who stole their last working vehicle. It’s interesting but a bit slow, and displays a different art style for Simpson, one that seems inspired by Wally Wood and sci-fi stories from EC Comics. With Issue #9, it’s announced that Megaton Man will end with #10, as Simpson is more interested in pursing Border Worlds in a new title.
In the final issues MM accidentally swallows the Cosmic Cue Ball, which helps him defeat all the baddies (including Mars, God of War) before the effects wear off. The final page shows a young man discarding the Holy Bible to read Megaton Man, and then discarding that to pick up “Boredom Worlds”. Sigh. FOUR STARS.
#628 - #630 THE RETURN OF MEGATON MAN #1-#3 (Kitchen Sink Comix, 1988) Trent Phloog, no longer Megaton Man, heads to Ann Arbor, MIchigan to try and make up with pregnant Stella Stardust (The See-Through Girl), who left the Megatropolis Quartet to return to college. I incorrectly identified Uncle Farley, the Golden Age Megaton Man, as Trent’s father earlier. He’s his uncle. Farley is visited in the hospital by an angry Rex Rigid (Liquid Man) to revive him and get revenge against Trent, who stole his wife away during their brief affair in Volume 1.
Trent’s old buddy Preston (who’s a secret agent) drops by to inject him with the serum to bring him back as Megaton Man. Yarn Man shows up and is turned into a sex slave for Stella’s room-mate. Issue #2 is my favorite of the three, where Megaton Man returns to his Fortress of Solemness to get inspiration from another ancestor, Doc Megaton (a parody of Doc Savage). The janitor maintaining the facility is named Phillip Jose (tribute to science fiction writer Phillip Jose Farmer, who wrote a history of Doc Savage).
Preston and the agents of ICHHL (Ivy-Covered halls Of Higher Learning, a parody of SHIELD) capture Megaton Man and give him a new costume for the times, a look that’s a cross between Elvis and Booster Gold. Everything going on is a scheme to make money for Gamble Comics Group, headed by Bart Gamble a.k.a. Bad Guy. MM survives the fights and returns to Ann Arbor, where a baby MM has just been born. Just as funny as the first series. FOUR STARS.
#631 MEGATON MAN MEETS THE UNCATEGORIZABLE X-THEMS one-shot (Kitchen Sink Comix, 1989) I became spoiled by the vivid colors (on Baxter paper, remember?) of the other MM books. I’m a little disappointed that this is black and white. There’s a good amount of detail to digest, and the colors would have helped me gulp it all down. The Golden Age MM, helped by Rex Rigid’s recharging, joins the teen X-Thems. He needs constant doses of energy to keep up with them, which becomes a running gag.
Mars, God of War returns as their challenger and opens a tear in the cosmic fabric. Uncle Farley sacrifices himself, which means Trent has to take that final, permanent injection to become MM again and save the day.
Not as funny as the other issues, maybe because the story had many more characters and a more detailed storyline. THREE STARS.
#632 - #635 CINDER & ASHE #1 - #4 mini-series (DC, May-August 1988) Now, this is the way to tell a compelling mystery/detective/action thriller. Cinder & Ashe, a team of private detectives, are hired to find a missing farmer’s daughter and end up on a trail that leads to a former violent associate (from the Vietnam Wars) and a corrupt politician.
Great characterization by Gerry Conway, great back-story and insightful flashbacks. Cinder is a Vietnamese/American, orphaned when her American father was killed in battle and her Vietnamese mother committed suicide. She was adopted and brought to the States by former Vietnam soldier Ashe, a Cajun-born son of New Orleans.
The Louisiana settings and dialogue are authentic, although the Cajun colloquialisms get a bit numbing from frequent repetition. FOUR STARS.
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