A Sense of Doubt blog post #1290 - Captain America for Labor Day - T-shirt reprint
Normally, this is a HEY MOM reprint, but I am foregoing that feature today for a T-shirt reprint with a mention, a connection, to my mother.
I was going to save this re-post for Labor Day, but today is close enough. I am working on some original content that I want to post, so I am shifting things around. I may do a very simple Musical Monday tomorrow and then post my original content Tuesday and Wednesday, one is a trip report example for my Concordia students.
Today is dedicated to Captain America.
I like the banner photo I added up top. The image shows an unmasked Captain America looking down on a shameful and regrettable situation, much like the state of our country.
It's shameful.
Five years ago, on July Fifth, I created this post.
Two years later, minus a day, my mother passed away.
This time association is not all that significant, but it helps my perspective.
None of that really relates to Captain America.
I really like Cap, even though he would not make a top ten favorite heroes in my book. But I love the history of Captain America comics, some of which is shared here.
Some great artists featured and I cannot even list them all, but there's Kirby (of course): Jack the King Kirby, Steranko, Steve Epting, John Cassady, Alex Ross, Gene Colan, Sal Buscema, John Romita, Chris Samnee,
I added new art content at the end.
If you didn't know this about me already, I love looking at comic book art.
RESOURCE: COMIC VINE - CAPTAIN AMERICA
from - http://365-tshirts.blogspot.com/2013/07/t-shirt-106-captain-america.html
T-shirt #106 - Captain America, Jack Kirby, and KUDL costume nightAs promised, I present Captain America. If only I could find the shirt, which may be packed away at my parents' house. On today's blog, you will see pictures of me wearing the shirt in 2007 at the Kalamazoo Ultimate Disc League (KUDL) costume night.
The subject of KUDL costume night (which this season will be observed on July 15th) would be enough for an entry, especially with these wacky pictures. However, I am dressed as Captain America (at least with just the shirt), and so today's subject will be devoted to the most patriotic of heroes, though I promise to keep it relatively short as I went a bit nuts with yesterday's entry.
In terms of page length, this one is going to be long, but there's more pictures and links than text.
THE CAPTAIN AMERICA SHIRT
I think I have only worn the Captain America shirt three times: once around the house after I bought it and twice playing Ultimate, once at costume night in 2007.
 |
| Dan Lipson and me - KUDL Costume Night 2007 |
 |
| Me with Andrew "Little" Hamilton - KUDL Costume Night 2007 ... I have no idea what we're doing... |
CAPTAIN AMERICA
I can't really say that Captain America has been one of my favorite heroes or even one of my favorite Marvel heroes. As cool as he is, and though the throwing shield thing is very cool, he would not make my top five in either category. After all, as I have established on this blog already--and will continue to establish--I am quite a bit more fond of those heroes that are not the flagship characters, such as--at Marvel--Silver Surfer, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, and the Son of Satan.Though Captain America has not always been a favorite, I have not avoided him; I have read issues of Captain America avidly for most of my life.
The Marvel Comics Wikia Database: Captain America continues to be a great resource for information about comics and the history.
 |
| Captain America #100 |
I did not have any Avengers comics before Tales of Suspense #96 came out. My first comic of the Mighty Avengers was #63 from April of 1969. I bought Avengers Special #3, which retold Cap's origin and return to the then present of the Marvel universe and joining the Avengers when it came out in July of 1969.
I might own Captain America #100, the first issue of his own title after the cancellation of Tales of Suspense, but I do not have access to my comics here. (NOTE: Another reason to update the blog someday.) I know I have read the issue in reprint.
My next issue was Captain America #119, after Steranko's short run, and once again a story featuring the awesome GENE COLAN.
 |
| Art by John Cassady |
Mark Waid's run on the book followed Gruenwald, and then there was Rob Liefeld, who did what is known as Captain America Volume 2. Not much to say about that. Waid returned with Ron Garney for Volume Three in 1998, which ran fifty issues with the wrap-up by Dan Jurgens and Bob Layton in 2002. The thirty-two issue run of Volume Four began in June of 2002 with some of the most definitive work on Captain America to date by John Ney Rieber and John Cassady. Though a great creative team like that cannot produce thirty-two issues and Volume Four concludes in 2004 with a team of The Walking Dead's Robert Kirkman and Scot Eaton. This is what comics is all about. It's manufacturing. It's production month after month after month, and few can keep it up like Kirby or Gruenwald.
 |
| Art by Sreve Epting |
Volume Five began the era many praise today as the character's finest (next to classics by Kirby) with 50 issues by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting. In this arc, Brubaker introduced the Winter Soldier, Cap's old sidekick Bucky, whom Cap thought had died in their final battle against the Nazis in World War II, but who survived and had been brainwashed and stored cyrogenically, thawed for assassinations when needed. These years also featured the assassination of Captain America with Bucky taking on the role of his departed comrade. In the end, Steve Rogers was not dead and he ultimately returned to the role of Captain America. The sixth volume consisted of nineteen issues; Brubaker continued as the writer, the initial issues were drawn by Steve McNiven and later by Alan Davis, Patrick Zircher, and others.
There are tons of great stories in these volumes, but I want to focus on Jack Kirby's legacy and on the recent set of issues (Volume Seven), which is an extended love letter to Jack Kirby and his ingenious contributions to the saga of his first and greatest creation:
Captain America (though credit must be given to co-creator Joe Simon, also).
 |
| From the Bicentennial issue? I will include this in full size at the end. |
I have created a category for Jack Kirby in the blog because he is the master and a subject I plan to return to over and over again.
I have written about Jack Kirby four times already (counting today). Most notably, I provided the basics of how badly he and his estate has been cheated in T-shirt #83: The X-Men Logo to the tune of over SEVEN billion dollars and counting. I also wrote about Jack Kirby in T-shirt #53: Agent of Shield, and T-shirt #104: Silver Surfer etc.
Two of the first comics I ever owned were drawn by Jack Kirby: Tales of Suspense #96 and Fantastic Four #69 (both published in December of 1967). I became an avid Jack Kirby fan from those very earliest days. I read Jack Kirby Fantastic Four, I read Jack Kirby Thor, I read Jack Kirby Captain America, and the Uncanny X-Men, and the Avengers, etc.
When Kirby left Marvel in 1971, I started reading his DC Comics, such as OMAC (which recently had a Kirby love letter of its own), The New Gods, Mister Miracle, Kamandi, and the most awesome Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen.When Kirby returned to Marvel, I was in full comic-buying mode and spent my money faithfully on Captain America, The Black Panther (a Kirby themed shirt will be featured in the near future in this blog), 2001: A Space Odyssey, Machine Man, Devil Dinosaur, and my personal favorite--one of my all-time most favorite comic books: The Eternals.
Kirby's late 1970s Marvel period began in January 1976 with Captain America #193 - "The Madbomb, Screamer in the Brain." I have featured art from this first and other issues later in today's blog entry. The Eternals debuted in July of 1976, and Kirby's The Black Panther started in January of 1977, by which time Kirby was cranking out 60-80 pages of art per month, including covers and maintaining (as writer, artist, and editor) four ongoing, regular titles. To use "Marvel-esque" words, this kind of output is ASTOUNDING and ASTONISHING, even UNCANNY and FANTASTIC!
LINKS ABOUT JACK KIRBY
I own a nifty coffee table style book by Mark Evanier on Kirby called Kirby: King of Comics, which won the Eisner for best comic related boom in 2009.
Kirby: King of Comics Wiki
Kirby: King of Comics Amazon
TwoMorrows Publishing - You Can't Go Home Again - Kirby Collector Twentyninth Issue
Buying Kirby Collector magazine: at TwoMorrows
Jack Kirby | Ridiculously Awesome
Jack Kirby Interview | The Comics Journal
IO9: The true story of life at Marvel Comics in the glory days of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
The Jack Kirby Chronology: 1970-1979
The 7 Most Awesome Moments From Jack Kirby’s ‘Captain America’
Diversions of the Groovy Kind: Making a Splash: "Madbomb"--Jack Kirby's Return to Captain America and Marvel
Author of the blog at the next link, Scott Edelman worked at Marvel Comics in the 1970s during the time Kirby returned after his years at DC. Kirby was abused by the staffers during that time, and things got so bad that Stan Lee had to intercede. These anecdotes are explained in the "You Can't Go Home Again" article
linked above.
Years later, Edelman is taking more cheap shots at Kirby by criticizing this panel from Captain America #207.
Not that I consider Kirby some saint but is this kind of criticism really necessary? Seems to me that Edelman has an axe to grind and is pulling out some obscure and forgotten panel to make the point that Jack Kirby needed Stan Lee, even though many agree that Jack's solo work is some of the most brilliant comic book work ever created. Granted his dialogue, external, or internal as seen here, is often stilted, but Kirby was not trying for "realism," which is often what comics strive for anyway (lack of realism), especially in the late 1970s. I say, shame on you, Scott Edelman.
Read Edelman's comments here: Failing Better - Shame on you, Captain America!
CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 7
The current run of Captain America is part of the Marvel Now line issues #1 (January 2013) through issue #8 (August 2013) with one issue (#9) left in the story, which is being called "Captain America in Dimension Z." (Note dates are two months in advance as per the norm in comics.)
Written by Rick Remender
Pencils by John Romita Jr.
Inks by Klaus Janson
Colors by Dean White
SPOILER ALERT! Do not read on if you want to avoid spoilers.
This current run of Captain America comics is truly brilliant. Remender and Romita JR with Janson and Knight have synthesized what makes Kirby so great and given it all a modern look.
Like the 1970s Kirby issues, Remender chops Cap out of the current continuity, placing him in "Dimension Z," which is run by his old foe (and a Kirby creation) Arnim Zola. Cap spends TWELVE YEARS (yeah, not sure how Remender plans to deal with this plot element but he has claimed that Cap will be "forever changed" by this story line) in Dimension Z, avoiding Zola and raising Ian, a clone of Zola, who he rescued from Zola's headquarters.
Flashbacks to the childhood of Steve Rogers provide further (and new) back story for the character as present day Cap fights through the horrors of Zola's nightmare dimension with all sorts of Kirby-esque tropes, such as the costuming of Zola's daughter Jet Black, the kindly Phrox with whom Cap and Ian take refuge, and the growing Zola virus embedded in his chest (as revealed at the end of issue #3).
Issue #4 begins with a page that reads simply: "ELEVEN YEARS LATER," and at the end issue #5, after Ian has been taken by Jet Black, to be returned to Zola, Cap cuts out of his chest this growing techno-organic presence before he sets out to get his son back.
The reviews and articles do a good job explaining why Captain America Volume Seven is so great. Check them out as well as the Marvel AR videos.
REVIEWS AND ARTICLES: CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 7Review - Weekly Comic Book reviews - Captain America #5
Review - Figureheads.ov.pop - Captain America #6
Review - Comicosity - Captain America #6
Reviews of Remender's work - collected on Comic Hype
USATODAY: Remender gives a pulp SF edge to Captain America
NEWSARAMA: Captain America Won't be the same post-Zola War, Remender Says
Remender's "Captain America" Fights for Freedom & Family - Comic Book Resources
Rick Remender on ‘Captain America,’ ‘Devolution’ and the Desecration of Charles Xavier [Interview]
CAPTAIN AMERICA
I must give a nod to the recent movie Captain America: First Avenger (2011), which I thought was quite good and far superior to the two CBS live action films from 1979. (SIDE NOTE: The first Cap TV movie premiered on my birthday in 1979, which I thought was quite a treat until I watched it.)
As a fan of the Winter Soldier story in the comics, I am quite excited about the next film Captain America: the Winter Soldier (2014), especially because Robert Redford has been cast.
 |
| From the Bicentennial issue? |
 |
| Captain America #197 - pg. 10 |
 |
| Captain America # 199 pg.2 |
 |
| Captain America 193 - 02 |
 |
| Captain America 193 - 03 |
 |
| Captain America 199 - 04 |
 |
| Captain America 196 - 05 |
 |
| Captain America 208 |
 |
| Captain America 214 |
 |
| Captain America Bicentennial? |
 |
| Some of my favorite (though not all) of my Kirby Captain America covers follow. |
 |
| art by Alex Ross |
- chris tower - 1307.05 - 13:25
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NEW ART CONTENT FOR SEPTEMBER SECOND 2018
This is blurry, but it's the best I have of Sharon Carter, mind controlled by Arnim Zola, shooting Captain America, though this is not the killing of Cap story line but more recent work by Rick Remender and John Romita Jr.
I have these next three comics... some of my oldest...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1809.02 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1156 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
No comments:
Post a Comment