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| Cover art by Rich Buckler and Frank Giacoia |
Monday, July 11, 2016
Marvel-ous Mondays: "What Is Happening?" by Wolfman, Brown, and Mooney
Greetings, Groove-ophiles! We're back with the next chapter in one of Ol' Groove's fave Daredevil story arcs as the Jester uses the media to turn the whole world against DD! This ish is a standout for moi simply because of the cool way Marv Wolfman, Bob Brown, and Jim Mooney made the first three pages look like an issue of The Daily Bugle. Izzat cool or what? From Daredevil #135 (April 1976), join DD and company as we ask..."What Is Happening?"
This was only the second issue of Daredevil I ever read(#126 was the first). The Daily Bugle pages were such a cool idea to me and the art was so different from other comics I was reading at the time.
ReplyDeleteI managed to find the second part but never read #137 until many years later after I had long since lost or traded away the other issues.
Sorry groove, but DDs art in these post-Gene Colan issues couldn't get me to part with my paper route money :(
ReplyDeleteThe DD title was pretty lucky from the late 60s to the early 70s. The writing remained consistently good from Thomas to Conway to Gerber to Wolfman. The Brown/Mooney team, while a step downward from Brown/Janson, was serviceable enough to carry the narrative. I agree that there was no way they could compete with Gene Colan and his various inkers (especially Tom Palmer). But being a Marvel zombie, I pretty much bought anything the House of Ideas put out, even when the quality dropped below a certain level.
ReplyDeleteFor fun, I used to try and draw the dynamic scenes from the comics... If you look at this DD, there really is no "money shot" in my mind. Gene Colan, on the other hand, could make every panel a money shot, so it seemed. Well, that's why he is revered. My question is "why do I look at Gene's work from the 60s and 70s and think it looks better than most comics from today?" Even the older methods of printing comic books looked better, with Gene's art, than today. Maybe I just don't like the shine of today's books... I just don't know... I'm so confused...
DeleteYou're not confused. You just recognize great art when you see it. Gene the Dean indeed.
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