Tag: George Evans

Dracula Lives (1973) #7

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I fear Dracula Lives has reached a turning point and not for the better. While this issue retains the same page count as previous issues, there’s a lot less content. Comics content. There’s still text content, including Tony Isabella finding his voice in his Taste the Blood of Dracula review, but there’s a little bit less of it. Lots more ads. No reprints, just the three original Dracula comics… including the Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano Bram Stoker adaptation. It’s a far cry from three fifties Atlas reprints, three originals.

And the art’s not great. The art’s usually pretty good, but it’s never great. Giordano’s is the best and even he’s clearly rushed, slowing down when he can but he’s never not visibly in a hurry. There are some good panels; they’ve reached the point in the novel where Jonathan Harker runs afoul of Dracula’s brides. It’s good work from Thomas and Giordano.

Though they include two pages from the previous issue’s entry at the start, which isn’t the worst idea for reminding readers, but with this specific cliffhanger, doesn’t work.

Still. At least there’s the Thomas and Giordano entry. Because otherwise, the high point’s Isabella’s review.

The first story is the most disappointing because it seems like writer Gerry Conway’s excited at the beginning. It’s Dracula in Washington D.C., getting involved in political intrigue. Or at least politics-adjacent intrigue. A bunch of people are getting killed in mysterious ways and Drac’s invested because one of them is a Dracula stooge.

Vicente Alcazar’s art is okay. Lives’s turning point includes not getting inkers, so Alcazar’s looks like high contrast pencils. Lots of work in the pencils, but still… it feels unfinished. It also can’t save from Conway not having a plot. Turns out Dracula playing Woodward and Bernstein with a disposal guest star doesn’t the Parallax View make.

The second original’s worse but not more disappointing. Dracula versus pirates only seemed so interesting to begin with. At twelve pages, it’s also the longest story in the issue, which is strange. Just what a boring story needs, two more pages.

The script’s from Mike Friedrich, who does an okay pirate story. Shoehorning Dracula in doesn’t do any good, especially not since Friedrich doesn’t write Dracula well. Or, at least, he doesn’t have a handle on Dracula Lives Dracula. If it were a pirate story about raiding Dracula’s castle (traveling across land to do it) and Dracula guest starred, it’d be fine. But Friedrich opens with a retcon involving Dracula’s dead human wife’s necklace, tying it to Lives’s Dracula origin stories. They’re usually so much better.

George Evans does the art. It’s competent, never anything more. In a good issue, this misfire would be the lacking outlier. In this issue, it’s way too close to the norm. It’s also misogynist, which just makes it more unpleasant as it goes on too long.

Throw in another chapter of the Dracula text story (written by Thompson O'Rourke, illustrations by Ernie Chan), a recap of Dracula in other media, and the issue’s done.

I hope it gets better next time. But I’m scared it won’t.

Blazing Combat (1965) #4

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Goodwin and company recover for the fourth–and tragically final–issue of Blazing Combat. The issue opens with Goodwin returning to, if not controversial, then uncomfortable topics–he and Gene Colan (Colan’s art this issue is far better than his already good art in the previous one) have a depressingly real story about American racism. It might be the most rah-rah story in the series, however (you have to read it).

Alex Toth’s story–about a flier in Korea–is superior to the previous issue’s problematic one. Here, with most scenes in daylight, Toth really looks good. There’s no murkiness, it’s cleanliness is all very visceral.

The Russ Heath might not be the most compelling story (it’s still superior to the Reed Crandall Ancient Greece story, which just bores), but the artwork’s just amazing.

Goodwin shows signs of expanding his scope, which makes the series’s failure even more unfortunate.

Blazing Combat 4 (July 1966)

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Goodwin and company recover for the fourth–and tragically final–issue of Blazing Combat. The issue opens with Goodwin returning to, if not controversial, then uncomfortable topics–he and Gene Colan (Colan’s art this issue is far better than his already good art in the previous one) have a depressingly real story about American racism. It might be the most rah-rah story in the series, however (you have to read it).

Alex Toth’s story–about a flier in Korea–is superior to the previous issue’s problematic one. Here, with most scenes in daylight, Toth really looks good. There’s no murkiness, it’s cleanliness is all very visceral.

The Russ Heath might not be the most compelling story (it’s still superior to the Reed Crandall Ancient Greece story, which just bores), but the artwork’s just amazing.

Goodwin shows signs of expanding his scope, which makes the series’s failure even more unfortunate.

CREDITS

Conflict; artist, Gene Colan. How It Began; artist, George Evans. The Edge; artist, Alex Toth. Give and Take; artist, Russ Heath. ME-262; artist, Wally Wood. The Trench; artist, John Severin. Thermopylae; artist, Reed Crandall. Night Drop; artist, Angelo Torres. Writer and editor, Archie Goodwin; letterer, Ben Oda; publisher, Warren.

Blazing Combat (1965) #1

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In seven stories–from the Revolutionary War to the burgeoning Vietnam conflict–there isn’t a single moment of humor. Goodwin doesn’t give the reader a single moment to forget he or she is reading a war comic. There’s so little humor, it’s got to be intentional. If Goodwin had just been writing loose, someone would make a joke at some point. There’s no joking here.

Goodwin’s soldiers–regardless of what war they’re fighting in–are devastatingly human. Whether it’s the vengeful GI killing a Nazi POW, a disfigured Revolutionary War soldier or an observer in Vietnam–when they were still mostly observing. Blazing Combat needs to be read to be believed. It’s amazing anything like this comic was ever published, especially in the sixties.

There’s some amazing art–George Evans is my favorite, doing a story about fliers, but John Severin’s does a nice job too.

It’s a significant work.

Blazing Combat 1 (October 1965)

bc1.jpg
In seven stories–from the Revolutionary War to the burgeoning Vietnam conflict–there isn’t a single moment of humor. Goodwin doesn’t give the reader a single moment to forget he or she is reading a war comic. There’s so little humor, it’s got to be intentional. If Goodwin had just been writing loose, someone would make a joke at some point. There’s no joking here.

Goodwin’s soldiers–regardless of what war they’re fighting in–are devastatingly human. Whether it’s the vengeful GI killing a Nazi POW, a disfigured Revolutionary War soldier or an observer in Vietnam–when they were still mostly observing. Blazing Combat needs to be read to be believed. It’s amazing anything like this comic was ever published, especially in the sixties.

There’s some amazing art–George Evans is my favorite, doing a story about fliers, but John Severin’s does a nice job too.

It’s a significant work.

CREDITS

Viet-Cong; artist, Joe Orlando. Aftermath; artist, Angelo Torres. Flying Tigers; artist, George Evans. Long View; artist, Gray Morrow. Cantigny; artist, Reed Crandall. Combat Quiz; artist, Alex Toth. Mad Anthony; pencillers, Tex Blaisdell and Jeff Jones; inker, Maurice Whitman. Enemy; artist, John Severin. Writer and editor, Archie Goodwin; letterer, Ben Oda; publisher, Warren.