Episode 1489 Talkback - Top 5 Comics Based on Licensed Properties
Adam_Murdough
Posts: 506
As Seen on TV! The Geeks wax nostalgic about their favorite comics licensed from other media: toys, video games, film/television, and beyond! An essential topic of conversation for all geeks (children of the '70s/'80s in particular), presented in the scintillatingly synergistic CGS style! (2:00:33)
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Comments
The Magno Micronauts were based on Steel Jeeg toys (with different heads). Jeeg was a mid 70s Go Nagai comic/cartoon. So those particular characters were almost a license of a license of a license.
As for other favorites, Transformers and G.I. Joe are givens, and I really enjoyed Marvel's Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle series (by Roy Thomas and John Buscema).
Great episode gentlemen. I look forward to listening to it again tomorrow while I work.
EDIT: Naturally, after thinking on this subject further another licensed property that I really enjoyed in recent years was, amazingly enough, Rob Liefeld's Fighting American. I really can't explain why I enjoy that series (of series) so much. Maybe it's the costume design Liefeld came up with for him, maybe it was Loeb's handling of it, maybe it was the McGuinness art... I'm not really sure. But to me, it was a lot of goofy fun.
I can't remember when I picked this series up, but I remember getting excited because the buzz surrounding the original show. I don't particularly remember if the comic was that good, but I do remember being creeped out by the TV show. I don't know if it would be in my top five, but the nostalgia factor and the fact that I've actually read most of this series.
I've heard the buzz, but now I'm really curious about ROM and Micronauts. To eBay!
Edit: perhaps I'll go diving for those. Although one listing had ROM (#2-75) at $75.00.
Loved the episode. When I saw the title of the episode I was like "oh, man, that is SO in my wheelhouse. Too bad I couldn't have joined them for it." Then it was so nice of you guys to mention that you would have liked to have had me on for it (no apology needed).
A couple items to clear up that you guys were curious about on the show. The rights to Micronauts as far as I know are back with Hasbro. I know this because Andy Schmidt helped Hasbro create a one-shot comic for NYCC called "Unit: E". This was a one shot comic that spotlighted certain properties such as Jem, M.A.S.K., and many others. The main focus of the story centered around the Micronauts (at least the characters not owned by Marvel), and Robert Atkins, one of my co-hosts for Star Joes, actually drew all of the Micronauts pages. The comic was done so that Hasbro could retain the rights to these various characters
Shane, you were right in that Sunstreaker was the brother of another Autobot, and that Autobot was Sideswipe.
The whole reason the G.I. Joe movie never went to the actual theaters is because the Transformers animated movie didn't perform well in the theaters. And the reason that Duke didn't actually die in the G.I. Joe movie (he just went into a coma, but the scenes without the words clearly shows him die) is because there was such a backlash from parents on Optimus Prime dying in the Transformers movie, along with many other characters, and it made their children very upset.
5) He-Man & the Masters of the Universe - I love the characters and I have loved the comics. This property is the only one that I know of in fact that had comics produced at one time or another by Marvel, DC, and an independent publisher. He-Man did start as a Star Comics line. It also had several (and I mean a LOT) of mini-comics that came with the action figures and vehicles. Then many years later it was done by the independent publisher, MV Creations. To me, these were the best ones ever done. Then recently DC started publishing a mini-series, and now an ongoing, which has been a lot of fun to read.
4) TMNT - I know you guys said it started as a comic, and it did, but I am twisting the rules a bit here because MY first exposure to the turtles was through the cartoons and toys before I ever knew about the comics. Yes, it is technically a licensed property that started as a comic, but I still put it on my list because of how I was exposed to them, and there is just some absolutely amazing comics in the past and in the current day from IDW. The current TMNT ongoing is some of the best comics out there right now in my opinion in both art and story.
3) Transformers - I loved the original Marvel run and loved that IDW picked it back up to run it into issue #100. It did start as a 4 part mini, and I love that the last issue when Marvel had it said "#80 in a 4 part mini-series". Later on there was another company who did Transformers comics, and that was Dream Wave. They did some absolutely great Transformers comics in my opinion, but sadly they went under (by their own bad business decisions) and they never got to finish their ongoing story to any real conclusion. Now IDW has Transformers and has been doing them for a while, and they have been doing an amazing job.
2) G.I. Joe - The original Hama run through Marvel is great, and we are working our way through it on our show. We also are reading and covering the continuation of that through IDW. Later on there was a Dark Horse mini, but that wasn't very good. Then Image/DDP had the property and did some amazing stories with them. I loved their Reloaded series that was short lived but it was a whole new grittier telling of the characters. Now IDW has the property and they started their own continuity along with continuing the Marvel run. It was really amazing for several years. The last year or so though it seems like they don't know what to do with the property, but hopefully that will change in the relaunch (not reboot) in September. My absolute favorite series they did was the Cobra series. Best Joe stories told ever in my opinion.
1) Star Wars - Should be no surprise here for anyone that knows me even just a little bit. I have lived with Star Wars being a huge part of my life for almost as long as I can remember. I have read most of the Marvel Run (and yes, Louise Simonson wrote a couple issues because I had an issue signed by her and Walt Simonson that they both worked on when they were at Super Show the one year. They were not married when they worked on that issue at the time). I have read and own (in one form or another) all of the Dark Horse Star Wars comics. I loved how the comics would tie into the books that Del Rey was producing also. I have the same fears you guys have now that Marvel has it back, but hopefully they will realize the gem that they have and use it well.
So that is my top 5, but if you want to knock my TMNT submission out on a technicality, then He-Man would move up and taking the 5th spot would be Micronauts. This was the first comic series that I tried to collect every issue of as a kid, and I devoured them as I obtained them. I currently have the full run and will be covering that run on our show in the VERY near future.
Some other alternates for me that have meaning are:
Sectaurs: Warriors of Symbion - had some of the toys and it had a very short comic series and also had mini-comics with some of the toys (man, I wish all of the mini-comics of the 80s could be collected in trades). Love the concept here. You can actually read all of the mini-comics and the series online for free at www.sectaurs.com
Visionaries - another amazing concept and again this will be a short lived comic series that I will be covering in the very near future. I so wish this could be picked up by someone.
Starriors - I actually had almost every toy in this toy line and I loved the mini-comics. I never read the 4 issue mini done, but it's on my short list of ones to obtain and read because I really did love the franchise a lot in the toys and mini-comics so much.
Ghostbusters - This is my favorite comedy of all time, and the comics have been great over the years. Sadly the IDW ongoing is coming to an end in September with #30, but that was a phenomenal series.
Battle Beasts - IDW recently did a mini-series, which was good, but it was missing the elemental angle of the toys. There were some independent comics done in the past which are more kiddie in nature, but fun.
Thundercats - I believe this was another Star Comics line at one point, but where I really fell in love with the Thundercats comics was when Wildstorm started doing them in the early 2000s. They were done with Ed McGuiness initially and the first two mini-series were just incredible in story and art.
Voltron - There was a 3 issue mini series done back in the 80s, and then once again we had Image/DDP do some mini-series and an ongoing later on, which I believe some of the issues were drawn by Mike Norton. Dynamite did a series recently, but it was horrible in both art and story. Those Image/DDP are worth seeking out though.
Battle of the Planets - I loved the cartoon and the comics that were done in the late 90s/early 2000s were just fantastic.
Now, my quick list of ones I also love - Muppets, Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, M.A.S.K., Godzilla, ROM, Aliens, Predator, The Centurions, Dino-Riders, Robotix, and last but far from least is Indiana Jones.
One property I wish had a comic series at one time or another would be the Gobots. There were some overseas comics done in magazine form, but never a U.S. proper comic, which is a shame.
Well, I can go on forever and I pretty much have. Love this topic of course. And if you guys ever really do want to do that 20+ years of Dark Horse Star Wars comics, PLEASE count me in. I would take the day off from work if I had to in order to attend and I would be happy to do all of the research and provide all of the outlines of what we would touch on in advance.
Keep up the great work, guys.
These were excellent in their own right, but the real gem of the series was always the 2nd story, which for most of the run featured the original storyline "Terror on the Planet of the Apes" about human and ape friends framed for murder and forced to go on the run in the Forbidden Zone. Even though the story got a little "out there" toward the end of the run when they were apparently scrambling to bring things to a conclusion before the magazine folded, I recently repurchased the series on eBay in order to re-read it, and it still holds up. They also had occasional stories set in "alternate realities" such as a Camelot like world, or Apes and Humans living at sea on huge sailing ships. It had some real heavyweights involved in it including Doug Moench and Gerry Conway handling the writing with Mike Esposito and Mike Ploog doing the art. Great, great stuff if you ever have the chance to read it.
Here's a shot of one of my favorite alternate reality stories where men and apes developed into dueling barbarian civilizations:
5) Flash Gordon (King Features, 1966) — This particular take on the character featured covers and some interior art by Al Williamson with some writing by Archie Goodwin. Those handful of issues with the Goodwin/Williamson team were truly outstanding, and elevate the series into my top five. The new Dynamite series has been pretty good so far too.
4) The Shadow (DC) — Their early ’70s series and their mid- to late ’80s series were all excellent. Great writing and even better artwork.
3) Walt Disney’s Uncle $crooge (Dell) — Two words: Carl Barks.
2) The Adventures of Bob Hope (DC) — A lot of you who follow the Comic a Day thread know I am a huge Bob Oksner fan, and for several years he wrote and drew first The Adventures of Bob Hope after taking over for Owen Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was a fantastic cartoonist (see the cover above) in his own right. Between the two of them, Bob Hope is a can't miss for me—nearly my number one.
1) Master of Kung-Fu (Marvel) — Even though the main character, Shang-Chi, was created and owned by Marvel, the main villain of the series and many of its supporting characters came from Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu novels. Once Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy took over the writing on the series with issue #22, the series took off and became my favorite Marvel series of the era. Mike Zeck and Gene Day kept the art at a very high level. Great stuff if you can find it.
Transformers - I wasn't a big fan of the Marvel run. Where I grew up the issues were hard to find, there just wasn't enough copies around for all the kids that wanted it. I would be lucky to get every other issue and would sometimes go 2-3 months without getting any. What made it worse was that when I was able to grab an issue, the Autobots were always on the losing side. I didn't expect them to win all of the time but it seemed like they were always against the wall and beaten. The entire IDW run however is excellent, They've been some very interesting things with it and Hasbro is now making toys based on IDW's character designs.
ROM - One of my all time favorites. I never had the toy, the covers always reached out to me and the writing is complete sci-fi, world building goodness. Steve Ditko come on board after Sal Buscema left ther series. I've been slowly building a full run for the second time, I lost my original run in a basement flood a few years back. I know Hasbro renewed the trademarks for ROM a year or so ago, just wish they would do something with him.
Conan - I used to sneak issues into the house, having to hide them from my mom. This was back in her very crazy over protective days and anything that even remotely looked like it could be linked to D & D was evil and I couldn't have it. There is just so much to love from both the Marvel and Dark Horse runs.
A-Team - Revel in my nerd crazed love for 80's action television. Only a three issues, each issue had a different penciler and I loved it. If only there were a TJ Hooker comic.
Star Wars - I still have some of the issues my dad bought for me. Although I wanted to see more rebel vs the empire stories, the Marvel run was fun. Just about everything from Dark Horse was a good read, the Brian Wood series was excellent. I'm holding out hope that Marvel does something good with the property.
I guess this was a TV show or something, probably syndicated... I'd never heard of it when the comic first came out, but the name was vaguely familiar. The book was nicely, if not memorably done, with art by George Papp for the first couple of issues before being handed over to Jack Sparling. Basically, it was a teenage Tarzan-Lite, not bad, but neither was it dragging in the fans. Denny O'Neil wrote the last few issues, one of his first assignments at DC, introducing a gripping serialized story that, alas, went unfinished when the book was cancelled. (Cover by Carmine Infantino)
Then there was this...
(cover by Irv Novick)
There's not much I can say about Captain Action that most here don't already know. The key thing about the first issue was that it was by Jim Shooter and Wally Wood -- more Wood, I think, than Shooter -- and that made it a must buy for any serious comic fan of the time. Wood quickly pulled away from the series, inking Gil Kane for an issue or two before Kane took over all of the chores for the last few issues, writing and inking as well as pencilling. Still one of my favorite series, though the storylines were left hanging in the final issue.
Also nice to hear Peter giving his input on this topic via Skype. I'll probably be adding ROM and BSG to my "want list" again :)
Some of us in the forums sort of touched on this topic a bit last year when we discussed a lot of tv and movie properties that were licensed in the comics. Great discussion.
- Buffy and Angel from Dark Horse. Those are licenses I believe.
- Tomb Raider
- any time they do a Thundercats comic
- Marvel's Stephen King books
- the new X-Files comic
I found myself nodding along on so many of the titles that were brought up, but have to say that Chris was on target throughout the episode. The fact that he consciously tries to keep ROM and Micronauts books in stock out of love for the titles and a desire to make them available to others is awesome. Really makes me wish that I lived closer. Wild Pig is absolutely the kind of store that I want to patronize (and it would really help in filling in the holes I have in my collection to boot!).
My own Top 5:
1 - tie: ROM: I had the toy. At the time, it seemed pretty cool, but as a stand alone, in hindsight, it was fairly lame. As Chris indicated, it came with three accessories - the Energy Analyzer, Neutralizer and Translator. The figure also had a permenantly mounted backpack with a pair of buttons near the shoulders. By running through a certain combination with the buttons, the figure would create certain specific sound and light effects for each of the items and the jet pack by utilizing its onboard Read-Only-Memory (hence ROM, as Peter suggested). I've now come close to a full run and am really looking forward to sitting down and reading them front to back. I loved the way it threaded its way through the Marvel Universe and loved the call backs to it by way of Turbo in New Warriors and the appearances of a non-armored ROM along with Brandy Clark at Rick Jones' wedding during the Peter David Incredible Hulk run.
1 - tie: Micronauts. Again, the toys were a huge part of my childhood. There were a bunch and they all had interchangeable parts so the variety was amazing. Again, like ROM, Micronauts did an amazing job of interacting with the Marvel Universe while, at the same time creating an amazing mythology all of its own. I have a couple of specific images from the book that I'll likely carry in my memory forever: Within the first few issues of the book we get to see Baron Karza's Body Banks firsthand and, during that scene, we see Karza launch one of his fists and throttle a dissident to death. It was a shocking scene at the time, but served as a notice that this wasn't going to be like other books that I was reading at the time. The second scene was a number of issues later when the crew of the Endeavor, and most specifically, Arcturus Rann, encounter the Time Traveller. Both scenes were incredibly vivid and, if memory serves illustrated by Michael Golden. I'm not nearly as far along in my quest for a complete run of Micronauts, but I will complete that run one day. Micronauts also represents one of my biggest comic related regrets - I attended C2E2 last year and, had I been thinking, would have grabbed a copy of Micronauts #1 while I was there and walked it over to Michael Golden to get it autographed and tell him how much his work on that book meant to me.
3 - Terminator (Now! Comics). Terminator came out as I was discovering that a local shop, just about 45 minutes from home that also carried role playing games. At that point, I was ecstatic about the games, but it didn't take long before I was looking through the comics and finding all kinds of things that I remembered fondly from earlier in my youth, but it was Terminator that grabbed me and made me start looking at new titles.
4- Aliens. Similar to Terminator, I was fascinated with the small press books of the time. On top of the crisp, clean b&w linework, Aliens got me buying Dark Horse Presents and that very quickly lead me to other things like Sin City.
5 - Dragonlance. What can I say, I was a complete nerd. I'd read the books and played the game and was so happy to see it appear on the stands. Especially loved the fact that it occasionally included a new spell or magic item.
Honorable Mention:
Shogun Warriors. Again, had the toys - the 30" Raydeen and a bunch of the small diecast ones. I'm guessing that Shogun Warriors was probably at least partially a contributor to why Transformers didn't do it for me - the transformers just didn't have anything on Combatra, Raydeen and Mazinga - battle robots so cool that they didn't need to hide. Again, like Micronauts and ROM, it dove right into the Marvel Universe and was utterly cool.
Stainless Steel Rat. Until recently, I hadn't been aware that the comics that I read were reprints from 2000 AD. All I knew was that it was Slippery Jim DeGrizz drawn by Carlos Ezquerra.
Elric of Melnibone. The first place I saw these adapted was by First Comics and it was, at the time, everything that I could have hoped for. Since then, I've discovered that he first appeared in Conan... can't believe that I missed those issues. Likewise, I managed to miss the DC versions due to my post college, early family days in the late '90s. Maybe one day.
GI Joe - I had very few issues - I'd mostly transitioned out of comics by 1983 or so, but one of my best friends little brother got them regularly and I'd read his copies as I could. While many people rave about the silent issue, for me personal favorites were #6 with the Oktober Guard and a later issue, can't recall the number, with the Mighty Quinn - as I recall the issue took place largely on an old bomber and, as the issue proceeded, the characters, were taking an axe to the interior to lighten it enough to allow them to stay in the air on fumes.
Rom-Fell in love with this comic around issue 12 and read it until the end.
Green Hornet-Love the NOW comics run.
Savage Sword of Conan-I do enjoy the Marvel and Dark Horse comics. But Savage Sword is my favorite Conan series.
Solomon Kane-The Marvel series are fun. But the Dark Horse ones are much better.
Battlestar Galactica-LOVE the Marvel series.
And my alternates.
Speed Racer-In the early 90s when MTV started rerunning Speed Racer my LCS dumped a bunch of the NOW comics issues in the cheap bins. Almost got a complete run now.
Married with Children-Sure the comics isn't as good as the show. But it is kind of fun collecting all the one shots and mini series. 3 years ago found an issue I thought had never come out.
Muppet Babies-One of the few comic books based on a cartoon that is as good as the cartoon.
I was glad to see Crystar get a mention. I read the first couple of issues and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. With all the machinations regarding usurping the throne, the book felt a little Shakespearian. I plan to look for further issues in $1 bins when I can.
As for Starriors, I wrote a blog post about the challenges of expressing emotions in these robots when they have no faces with which to emote.
I think everyone has already hit on my favorites. In fact, I was such a fan of Shogun Warriors that I just ordered the original Mazinger Z cartoons on DVD. I loved Mazinger as a child; the large, missile-shooting figure was one of my most memorable Christmas presents.
One more honorable mention from me: U.S. 1. Crazy truckin' stories. I'm not sure how much of that property is licensed, but I always thought the truck stop would be a great location to pop up here and there, complete with brawls.
For me, a well done license publishing is when they go well beyond the original, expand on what we already know and make something brand new.
My Top 5
1) Star Wars
2) Further Adventures of Indiana Jones
3) Oz
4) Terminator
5) Aliens
Alternates
1) ROM
2) Six Million Dollar Man
3) Predator
4) Doctor Who
5) Planet of the Apes
Bottom 5?
Most were pretty forgettable, but here's a candidate... no offense to fans.
It might be fun, but too negative if we all began naming our bottom 5...
Otherwise, they would have made my honorable mention list. Both Marvel’s various Oz miniseries and Eric Shanower’s earlier solo adaptations were very well done.
Just throwing it out there.
5: The Human Fly: like Peter I was pretty fascinated by this comic. For me the primary fascination I had was because of the ads in the comics which said something like "The Greatest Super-hero ever...because he's REAL!"
4. Shogun Warriors: I don't think anyone mentioned this one yet. I liked it mostly because it was Japanese-related.
3. Battlestar Galactica: thought it was a kind of Star Wars rip off initially, but kept buying it, cause I had never really seen much of the TV show.
2. Atari Force: Another Rios' selection? Yeah, I loved the artwork and the stories were surprisingly complex.
1. Star Wars: bought the comics FIRST in the supermarket packs, cuz' I'd never seen the movie! (It had come out during my last year of university and I had finals exams to study for and papers to write). I was quite impressed with the Howard Chaykin artwork, but the story seemed so stiff to me. It wasn't until I actually saw the movie on a bad VHS tape that I saw what the real big deal about the movie was.
Possible alternate?: 2001:A Space Odyssey. Is this a licensed property or just a Marvel adaptation? Probably just an adaptation, I guess. Despite the wonky stories, I loved the Kirby artwork.
I second nomination of the Master of Kung Fu series. It's awesome! I have like every other issue from Marvel Special Edition up into the 60's and HAD every issue from maybe #80 to the final issue. Just awesome sauce!
Actually, towards the end of the 1st volume, the architect of the UK books, Simon Furman, comes in and delivers quite the sendoff. Those last 12-15 issues used to be worth quite a lot on the back market.
Shane, the current TF book, More Than Meets the Eye is a delight. It is the Tranformers given the JLI Giffen/Dematteis treatment. It's the antithesis of the garbage masquerading as Transformers at your local movie theater.