Category: Comic Books

COMIC BOOK REVIEW – FANTASTIC FOUR 232: “BACK TO THE BASICS!”

On By ANDREW HOPEIn Comic Books, Opinion2 Comments

In 1981, years before the internet was a thing, I wandered into my local newsagent in Springburn, a neighbourhood in Glasgow, Scotland, looking to see if John Byrne had resumed the art on The X-Men.  Byrne was my favourite comic book artist, and had been for a few years by then, from his work on The Avengers, Marvel Two-In-One, Marvel Team- Up, and a few other titles.  The X-Men was the jewel in the crown as far as I was concerned.  I didn’t know what happened to him after his last issue the previous year, and assumed he’d be back on the title.  So it was quite a surprise to see his distinctive style on the cover of The Fantastic Four, a comic I only read occasionally, and mostly in the black and white Marvel UK reprints.

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THE WORLD’S GREATEST COMIC MAGAZINE – my thoughts on John Byrne’s run on Marvel’s first family

On By ANDREW HOPEIn Comic Books, Opinion1 Comment

FF PIN UP

In 1981, fresh off a defining run on the X-Men with writer Chris Claremont, Canadian comic book creator John Byrne turned his attention on The Fantastic Four. Once Marvel Comics’ flagship title, The Fantastic Four had become a middling comic book in the 70s, its position usurped by the X-Men due to engaging, tight plotting, well-defined characters, and a strong sense of realism in both the writing and artwork, not to mention powerful, cinematic drama. The Uncanny X-Men was the premier comic book title of the time, and John Byrne was a major component in its rise to prominence. When creative differences with Claremont and editor-in-chief Jim Shooter soured Byrne on The X-Men, he asked for, and was given, full creative rein on The Fantastic Four, beginning with issue 232, with a cover date of July 1981.

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Graphic Fiction Review: HOWARD LOVECRAFT AND THE THREE KINGDOMS – unique and mostly enjoyable take on the works of HP Lovecraft

On By ANDREW HOPEIn Comic BooksLeave a comment

arcana-howard-front

It’s always interesting comparing an adaptation to source material.  Conventional wisdom favours the original over the adapted work, but of course that isn’t always the case.  When it comes to movies from books, I can say that I prefer Kubrick’s The Shining to King’s, for example, but overall the richer experience is provided by the original.  Cinematic versions can omit or combine characters and situations, sometimes adding new ones for the sake of brevity, and with the right talent, these changes can work for the better – not not always, and not often.  A couple of weeks ago, I watched the animated children’s movie Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom, and wrote a fair, but deservedly negative, review.  I won’t recap the failings, but I did promise to seek out the original work.  The movie is an adaptation of the first of three comic book stories, each published in three issues by Canadian publishing company Arcana Studio, and created and written by Bruce Brown, with art by Renzo Podesta (The Frozen Kingdom) and Thomas Boatwright (The Undersea Kingdom, The Kingdom of Madness).

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