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Episode 1451 Talkback - Off the Racks: Doc Savage #1, Inhumanity #1, and Justice League 3000 #1
Adam_Murdough
Posts: 506
Doc Savage #1 from Dynamite Entertainment, Inhumanity #1 from Marvel, and Justice League 3000 #1 from DC: Which of these three comics has induced fits of self-loathing in one of the Geeks? This month's Off the Racks episode holds the answer! (1:33:29)
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Comments
Mission accomplished.
The best work I've seen Howard Porter do. I remember reading an interview Porter gave back in his JLA days regarding his process. At that time he would work out the pages on letter size paper, scan them and then scale the scans to 11 x 17 to finish the pages. Not a good process. There was always some unexplained wonkieness to the pages. Bodies were turn oddly, perspective would be off. These JL3000 pages don't have any of that. Very nice.
Back in the day, that would have been enough. Unfortunately, New52 has soured me on DC and I don't need more sophomoric JL.
In fact, back when I was editing for a local indie comic book outfit here in town, we published some of Moritat's early work, and I remember his first story being drawn on typewriter paper -- so tight and clean that we just reproduced it as it was without scaling it up.
The JLA 3000 work doesn't have any of that.
Doc Savage sounds interesting so I will need to check it out. Inhumanity, I just have never cared about the Inhumans. They just don't grab me and this story doesn't either. BOOM! A bomb goes off and now we have a whole lot more inhumans on earth. Just great, now we are gonna have more villains and heroes and more...wait a minute. I think I may need to just shut my trap and go along for this ride to see what happens here. Maybe I can just watch some titles and see what develops. So just to recap that's : Justice League 3000 -buyrow, Doc Savage - buy( to try), and Inhumanity - pants, but keep a watch on it. Thanks guys for a great podcast. Keep up the good work.
Once Xerox copiers came along and guys started blowing up the layouts that way, it became an easier and more widespread practice. Because then all you needed was a simple lightbox to transfer the roughs to the board. These days, as Howard described, guys just scan in the roughs, and scale them up in Photoshop. Unless, of course, they do all their preliminary work digitally, which is quickly becoming the norm.
The reason you work small first is because it’s a lot quicker and easier to make changes at that size if something’s not working out in the storytelling. The only reason artists work at the one-and-a-half-times-up size is so that when the art is shrunk down for printing, it hides any minor imperfections. It used to be necessary given the printing technology. These days it’s not really necessary. A lot of guys now work at print size or just slightly larger, especially if they have a more open, graphic style.
Any wonkiness you saw in Howard’s JLA pages had nothing to do with him blowing up layouts. Most likely it was due to deadline crunches. And to be fair, he’d only been penciling on a monthly basis for three years at that point. He was still learning his craft.
There is zero chance of Fox ever letting go of the X-men franchise, which means the MCU can't exploit one of Marvel's richest and most profitable franchises. I think the Inhumans status quo change is an attempt to rebrand them, so in the future it can be developed into a film or series that has the same kind of tone as X-men.
By doing it in the comics first it seems less cynical than when "Black Nick Fury" and Phil Coulson were introduced into 616, plus it will give new readers something to go back to if and when a movie comes out that resemebles the movie they just watched, which would be very different from the numerous ways the Inhumans have been portrayed in the past.
Similar concern about hosts occasionally, very bluntly, acknowledging accessing certain material through alternative means.
I'm not an attorney and I know almost as much about fair use and copyright law as I do about operating a linear accelerator. I do, however, occasionally have to deal with litigators and it's almost as enjoyable an enjoyable experience as a root canal.
As for the magazine in which his adventures originally appeared, that was called - wait for it - Doc Savage Magazine!
In regards to his companions, I've seen them referred to informally as "the Fabulous Five." I'm not sure if that originated from Bantam or came about as a result of the movie (they are billed in the credits by that name), but I think it's only used in materials talking about the group and not in the stories themselves (certainly none of the ones I've read). I think they're only ever referred to as his aides or partners, and sometimes when Doc addresses them collectively he'll say "Brothers" (wonder if that's where Chris Eberle gets that from?).
He draws the tuning fork then realizes he was wrong. I see it can be one of two things.
Karnak sees the Inhumans coming from one lineage and breaking into two separate "Houses" that will be at war with each other. I don't recognize the symbols on the flags. Then Karnak realizes that he was wrong does that mean it's the coming together or two lines? Or do I have it backwards?
And look at the point he decides to touch to shatter the glass? The meeting point of the lines. Coincidence? I think not.
Music: Ah, it was okay, not great...kinda blah actually.
Inhumanity #1: BORROW: I liked it more than I thought I would, but I didn't like Karnak's action at the end. Like Murd said though, perhaps it was the toxins in the atmosphere.
Doc Savage: Didn't read it.
Justice League 3000: BUYROW: First off, this was NOT meant to replace the Legion of Super Heroes comic. It's a stand alone thing. Second, I don't have any preference of McGuire over Porter or anything like that so I didn't mind the artwork at all. And unlike Jamie, I like the grittiness of the Blade Runner-like world and the artwork reflected it. Third, I find the mysteries of who the JLA are cloned from, what's Ariel got to do with it, and who are the Five, etc. I also find myself wondering if, as opposed to what Shane said, that this series might be related to Forever Evil because the Titans were sent to the future, weren't they? Especially since you all did allude to Kid Flash and the clone Superboy.