A Sense of Doubt blog post #3398 - CONCRETE
I left Comic Book Sunday out of the post title because today is not actually Sunday. This is a Comic Book Sunday post on a Friday because Sunday is post #3400 and that will be a blog recap after nearly nine years of daily posts.
I liked Tom Brevoort just based on his work as a comic editor before I found him on Twitter, followed his blog, and subscribed to his most excellent newsletter.
I strongly recommend Concrete.
In fact, this post puts me in mind for a re-read.
Though Tom is maybe ten years younger than me, give or take, he and I have very similar tastes. For instance, we both adore Star Blazers. We love Deathlok, as evidence by his long series of newsletter posts on the saga of the character since the 1970s. We both hold the Fantastic Four in an exalted place in our comic adoration hierarchy.
So, I was not surprised when Tom wrote lovingly about another of my very favorite creations: CONCRETE.
Paul Chadwick's Concrete was a pivotal series to show how a comic book can have a fantastic premise and yet address social issues, deep character definition, and sophisticated art work and story telling without many of the tropes of standard superhero fare: the obligatory fight scene, the exploitative cheesecake, the adolescent dialogue, the four-color printing process.
Paul Chadwick's Concrete was a pivotal series to show how a comic book can have a fantastic premise and yet address social issues, deep character definition, and sophisticated art work and story telling without many of the tropes of standard superhero fare: the obligatory fight scene, the exploitative cheesecake, the adolescent dialogue, the four-color printing process.
I strongly recommend Concrete.
In fact, this post puts me in mind for a re-read.
Thanks for tuning in.
As a reader, I was always on the lookout for a series that would bring something new to the table, especially in the genre of super heroes, and CONCRETE certainly fit that bill. And in fact, it wasn’t a super hero series at all, for all that it had some of the trappings. Rather, it was a bit more of a slice-of-life adventure series, at least at the outset. As it went on, it became more interested in ecological messaging. CONCRETE was the creation of Paul Chadwick, an aspiring cartoonist who had gotten into doing storyboard work as a more reliable source of income than doing comics. He worked with Archie Goodwin on the last batch of issues of DAZZLER in the early 1980s, and despite that powerhouse creative team, the stories were throwaway and forgettable and just a little bit stupid. But Chadwick’s opportunity to do something more meaningful came when he was approached to be a part of the start-up of a new independent publishing company, Dark Horse. They were going to be rolling out their new venture with an anthology series, DARK HORSE PRESENTS, and Chadwick made a deal with them to do a feature that would run regularly in its pages and which would rapidly be spun off into its own series. CONCRETE was about the adventures of political speechwriter Ron Lithgow, who is abducted by aliens during a camping trip and who has his brain transplanted into one of the aliens’ massive stone bodies. With the help of a friend, Lithgow escapes his captors, but he’s now trapped in a stony form that is incredibly strong and durable, but which feels a bit like being trapped inside a tank. He’s set apart from humanity by his circumstances and forced to come up with a new life for himself. The Government, wanting to keep the truth of the aliens under wraps, sets up a cover story that Concrete is the end product of a failed experiment to create cyborgs, and he’s aggressively marketed so as to make him ubiquitous to the public. But beyond that set-up, there isn’t a whole lot of super hero style adventure to be found in the book, no super-villains to be vanquished. Instead, Lithgow attempts to use his newfound condition to attempt extraordinary feats that he can thereafter write about, such as swimming the Atlantic Ocean or climbing Mount Everest. These exploits are depicted matter-of-factly, the situations based largely in real world science and not heightened for dramatic effect. In his various adventures, Ron is accompanied by two supporting characters; Dr. Maureen Vonnegut, a biologist who probes the secrets of Concrete’s alien body and with whom Ron is smitten (despite no longer possessing genitalia of any sort) and Larry Munro, a grad student who is hired on as Concrete’s administrative assistant. Like the character himself, there’s a great stillness to CONCRETE as a series. It’s reflective of the human condition, drawn in an attractive, open style and not often becoming melodramatic or overdone. As an alternative to much of the comic book fare of the era, it was a sensitive and rewarding series.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
#99: Boomerang
Chasing the Dragon
As a reader, I was always on the lookout for a series that would bring something new to the table, especially in the genre of super heroes, and CONCRETE certainly fit that bill. And in fact, it wasn’t a super hero series at all, for all that it had some of the trappings. Rather, it was a bit more of a slice-of-life adventure series, at least at the outset. As it went on, it became more interested in ecological messaging. CONCRETE was the creation of Paul Chadwick, an aspiring cartoonist who had gotten into doing storyboard work as a more reliable source of income than doing comics. He worked with Archie Goodwin on the last batch of issues of DAZZLER in the early 1980s, and despite that powerhouse creative team, the stories were throwaway and forgettable and just a little bit stupid. But Chadwick’s opportunity to do something more meaningful came when he was approached to be a part of the start-up of a new independent publishing company, Dark Horse. They were going to be rolling out their new venture with an anthology series, DARK HORSE PRESENTS, and Chadwick made a deal with them to do a feature that would run regularly in its pages and which would rapidly be spun off into its own series. CONCRETE was about the adventures of political speechwriter Ron Lithgow, who is abducted by aliens during a camping trip and who has his brain transplanted into one of the aliens’ massive stone bodies. With the help of a friend, Lithgow escapes his captors, but he’s now trapped in a stony form that is incredibly strong and durable, but which feels a bit like being trapped inside a tank. He’s set apart from humanity by his circumstances and forced to come up with a new life for himself. The Government, wanting to keep the truth of the aliens under wraps, sets up a cover story that Concrete is the end product of a failed experiment to create cyborgs, and he’s aggressively marketed so as to make him ubiquitous to the public. But beyond that set-up, there isn’t a whole lot of super hero style adventure to be found in the book, no super-villains to be vanquished. Instead, Lithgow attempts to use his newfound condition to attempt extraordinary feats that he can thereafter write about, such as swimming the Atlantic Ocean or climbing Mount Everest. These exploits are depicted matter-of-factly, the situations based largely in real world science and not heightened for dramatic effect. In his various adventures, Ron is accompanied by two supporting characters; Dr. Maureen Vonnegut, a biologist who probes the secrets of Concrete’s alien body and with whom Ron is smitten (despite no longer possessing genitalia of any sort) and Larry Munro, a grad student who is hired on as Concrete’s administrative assistant. Like the character himself, there’s a great stillness to CONCRETE as a series. It’s reflective of the human condition, drawn in an attractive, open style and not often becoming melodramatic or overdone. As an alternative to much of the comic book fare of the era, it was a sensitive and rewarding series.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2406.07 - 10:10
- Days ago = 3262 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.
- Days ago = 3262 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