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With Further Ado #325: The 2024 Annual Gift Giving Guide – Part 2

With Further Ado #325: The 2024 Annual Gift Giving Guide – Part 2

Posted on by Ed Catto

Now that Thanksgiving is in the rear view mirror, let’s get a bit more serious with this year’s With Further Ado Gift Guide. I’ve got two beauties to discuss with you this time.

Complete Wally Wood from Witzend
By Wallace Wood and J.D. Spurlock

I’m not sure if this is a labor of love or a masterpiece…or a time machine back to the early days of Underground Comix. Of course, the answer is that it is really all three.

I remember my “first” exposure to Wally Wood was on comics like Captain Action and Daredevil (via reprints in an Annual), and I knew there was something different about the figures and layouts. It grabbed me back then and still has a hold on my all these years later. This book is a quite the treat – for fans who want to flip through the stunning illustrations and for fans who want to wade in – hip deep – into comics history. Continue reading “With Further Ado #325: The 2024 Annual Gift Giving Guide – Part 2” →

With Further Ado #238: Red, White, and Nostalgic

With Further Ado #238: Red, White, and Nostalgic

Posted on by Ed Catto

When Jack Kirby returned to Marvel Comics in the mid-70s, it was a big deal. Marvel Comics told me, and my friends, it was a big deal, and our local comic shop owner, Kim Draheim, told us too.

And it’s almost pop-culture heresy to write this, but at that time – we just didn’t get Kirby.

• Black Panther, with the Golden Frog and all that, was a nutty book and nothing like the Don McGregor Panther series we had so thoroughly enjoyed.

• The Eternals was kind of fun, but it seemed so set apart from the rest of the Marvel Universe. And when one hero finally showed up, the Hulk, it was a just robot. What a rip-off!

• Devil Dinosaur and Moonboy kind of turned into a punchline in our comic shop too.

• Most disappointing was Captain America. For years were riding along with Steve Englehart, exploring big ideas about patriotism and forgotten corners of the Marvel Universe. Sal Buscema’s Sharon Carter was the very best super-hero girlfriend at that time, and we grew to love her too. And the Nomad saga, despite swapping artists at the end, was the first (and still the best) of many super-hero identity fake outs.

At first, when Kirby burst back onto the Marvel scene, especially with the Madbomb issues in Captain America, we were intrigued. It made sense that Jack Kirby should get another crack at the character he co-created (with Joe Simon) all those years ago.

But oh, so quickly, we lost interest. Why did Cap all of a sudden talk like my grandfather? Who was this new female lead, revolutionary Donna Maria Puentes, anyway? Where was Sharon? And although I’ve come to really enjoy it, Kirby’s bombastic art – at that time – just wasn’t doing it for me. My friends and I weren’t mature enough to get it. “Why couldn’t he draw more like Neal Adams?”, we wondered. Continue reading “With Further Ado #238: Red, White, and Nostalgic” →