Science Fiction Theater Presents: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
This past Thursday (December 18) was
Steven Spielberg's birthday. What better way to celebrate that dy-no-mite director's debut-day here on Diversions than to present the
Marvel Comics Super Special adaptation of Spielberg's wonderful
Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Ol' Groove can't think of a single one, so here it goes! Written by Archie Goodwin, with art by Walt Simonson and
Klaus Janson,
CE3K appeared in
Marvel Comics Super Special #3 (Spring, 1978). I've even included Archie Goodwin's text piece on how the mag came together, so you won't have to read my long-winded ramblings. Enjoy the show, Groove-ophile!
Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!
Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.
All other commentary and insanity copyright GroovyAge, Ltd.
As for the rest of ya, the purpose of this blog is to (re)introduce you to the great comics of the 1970s. If you like what you see, do what I do--go to a comics shop, bookstore, e-Bay or whatever and BUY YOUR OWN!
Wow. I had no idea this existed. I kinda like the art, but it's nowhere near the Walt Simonson style that he later adopted. Klaus Janson's work is easily recognisable, though. This is a remarkably abridged version of the story, and the likenesses aren't even close (though they rarely are in these types of adaptations). The aliens seem to be depicted as featureless, luminous beings (which they nearly were), but reading these scenes in comic form really saps them of all the power they were presented with in the film. The music and sound was such a large part of the impact of that film that without them, it's very flat.
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