Tales of Syzpense #74
Journeying into mystery with Larry Lieber, an advance look at Moonshine Bigfoot (#1 is out April 23), and a Resident Alien-inspired UFO-themed spinner rack. Plus a free 8-page Groom Lake comic!
While in New York recently, I had dinner with Marvel Comics legend Larry Lieber. Last year, Larry wrote this great piece for the deluxe Origins of Marvel Comics books that I put together with Marvel and Simon & Schuster. In it, he discussed the early days of working with his brother Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby on the introduction of Thor in Journey Into Mystery 83.
Larry, one of the last surviving members of the Marvel Bullpen at its launch, also worked alongside both guys on the first appearances of Ant Man and Iron Man, too.
I love hearing stories about those days, the early years of just unplanned and often chaotic inventiveness that went into creating characters and stories that still resonate as modern pop-culture mythology so many decades later.
One of the fun stories Larry relayed about helping create Iron Man was, he mentioned how he named Iron Man’s alter-ago, “Anthony Stark.” He said he went off the description of the character: a rich, white industrialist, and felt that “Anthony” was perfectly fitting. So it’s always annoyed him a bit that everyone calls the character “Tony.” In Larry’s mind, no one would dare refer to him as anything but “Anthony.”
Anyway, it was a great night and a good meal at an Irish pub on the Upper East Side. We were accompanied by journalist and occasional comic writer Frank Lovece and Frank’s author/historian wife, Maitland McDonagh.
Oh, and at the age of 93, after everything he’s done in comics and beyond, Larry also just became a first-time novelist. He gave me a signed copy of his new novel, Chirps, which was officially released to the world last week. Here’s a shot of Larry and I with his new book while under a spotlight that was so bright, I assumed we were about to get tractor-beamed into a spaceship.
Larry also agreed to join me as a guest at the Super Jersey Comic Expo the weekend of April 26, which is especially exciting since Larry doesn’t do shows. So if you want to get yourself a signed copy of Chirps or whatever else, here’s hoping you can join us there.
Otherwise, I only had a few scraps of free time while in the city, so I missed most people I was hoping to see. But I did manage to snag a reasonable single ticket to catch a showing of the latest Broadway iteration of Glengarry Glen Ross (with Bob Odenkirk, Kieran Cullen, Bill Burr, and Michael McKean as its top-line stars) and it was a great show.
And I stopped by Midtown Comics’ shop in the Financial District and picked up some good new comics. I also signed their remaining copies of my Giant-Syze Dreamweaver, too.
I returned home to find advance copies of Syzygy/Image’s new title, Moonshine Bigfoot, waiting for me, and it all came out so nice. It’s a beautiful package from cover to cover, with plenty of extras and some great covers from the series’ art team of Steve Ellis, Zach Howard, and Nelson Daniel.
The comic’s release date shifted back to April 23 but whenever you see it, I think you’re going to be blown away by the art and colors, and the story is wild and fun and gets moreso of both as it goes along over its four issues.
Resident Spinner Rack Aliens
I’d had something else in mind this week but after a couple recent flights where I dug deep into SyFy’s Resident Alien. I didn’t check out the show when it started, and I hadn’t read the comic, so I’m working on fixing both now. The series has quickly become one of those that I dig into every chance I get, primarily because Alan Tudyk’s performance is so amazing. But the whole cast is great, and the show strikes such a great balance between funny and heartfelt, dramatic and otherworldly. It’s an utter blast, and I’m happy to see that there’s a fourth season on its way.
The show has also moved closer at times to the feel of classic X-Files episodes, which got me thinking about the X-Files comics I once helped bring into the world, as well as, you know, my general ongoing fixation with aliens and all its wild lore and conspiracy theories. Which I’ve touched on in various comics of mine, most notably in Groom Lake (with Ben Templesmith), The Colonized (with Drew Moss), and Mars Attacks: First Born with Sam Kieth. And also… more to come.
All of this led me to ponder some of the most notable, or at least my favorite, comic covers with aliens on ‘em. Which is way too broad a thing to really work as a specific theme so I tried to reign it in a bit, with covers that feature UFOs looming in the sky or about to drag unsuspecting humans aboard their craft. Even then, there are too many to reasonably include here but maybe it’s one worth revisiting in different ways from time to time.
Finally, speaking of Groom Lake, I’ve been planning a follow-up/reinvention with artist Nelson Daniel and we put out a new 8-page story last year that will be part of that graphic novel (Groom Lake: Grey Skies Above). It’s been a whole since I’ve shared more than covers in this space so here’s a PDF of those pages if you want to see more great art and colors from the always-great Nelson. (I’ve a bit more to show off from Nelson very soon, too, probably as soon as next time, I’m just coordinating the announcement timing. In fact, there should be a couple new things to show off then, before I head of to the Super Jersey con at the end of next week.
