Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 08:29:59 -0400 From: [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu] (Metroplex) Subject: FtP 541 Administirvia: I've got a bit of catching up to do, as I missed the last few mailings. CBG hasn't been arriving in my mailbox on it's regular Friday like I've been used to and as a result I don't know whether or not to mail out FtP. Also, this past week was my "hell week" with several papers and midterms comming to a head. I managed to survive it, however, and my brain is brimming with all kinds of telecommunications information! Anyway, hopefully we'll be back on schedule with a regular Monday mailing starting next week. In the mean time, check out Travis Searls' web page, located at http://www2.csn.net/~searls. He's recently begun posting FtP there and I suggest you look and see what other goodies are available. ==== FIT TO PRINT by catherine yronwode for the week of October 9, 1995 THIS IS FIT TO PRINT NUMBER 541: I have definitely found a new comic book to love. It is _Big Bang Comics_, published by the company of the same name (who also published the old fanzine-favourite Dr. Weird Master of the Macabre and Knight Watchman.). It's the brainchild of Gary Carlson and Chris Ecker, who has produced much of his contributions to it under the pseudonym Tom King. Why "Tom King"? Well, Ecker is a fan of the Golden Age, and pseudonyms were all the rage back then. (Remember E. Lectron? Willis Rensie? W. Morgan Thomas? Sure you do!) In addition, when he began work on _Big Bang_, Ecker worked elsewhere in the industry, and discretion seemed the better part of valour. The first issue of _Big Bang_ came out in Spring 1994, but it looked as if it had shipped direct from 1944. A full colour ticket to comics-nostalgia-land, it starred The Knight Watch-man, The Badge, The Beacon, and Venus, with script and art by Ecker (as King), Gary Carlson, Mark Lewis, Jeff Meyer, Bud Hanzel, Edward DeGeorge, and Randy Zimmerman. (Come to think of it, for all i know, some of those names may be pseudonyms too.) As his name indicates, The Knight Watch-man is reminiscent of well, if you don't know, there's no reason for you to be reading the _CBG_, so let's just let it go at that. The era being evoked is that of Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson, and Dick Sprang-but the joke is-this isn't a joke. It's not a parody, it's not a hoax, it's not a poke in the ribs. It's a real, honest, genuine Golden Age comic book story. If i were to say that Tom King's Knight Watchman puts Alan Moore's 1963 in the dustbin of history, i figure a few folks would squawk. After all, Alan Moore is a veritable comics god. And didn't i rave about 1963 and tell everyone to run right out and buy it? Yes i did. But that was before i saw _Big Bang Comics_. So here it is, people: Tom King's Knight Watchman puts Alan Moore's 1963 in the dustbin of history. Nobody-and i mean nobody but Tom King-is writing caption boxes like "The factory erupts in a blaze of chemicals and fire as the protector of Midway City passes" anymore. And the art! Oh, it's choice! This is no mannered imitation of the Golden Age; this is the Golden Age. Almost as amazing as The Knight Watch-man is The Badge, ascribed on the splash page to "Jack Simmons and Joe Kingler" and drawn in a very decent evocation of well, like i said before, if you don't know, then you probably picked this paper up at your dentist's office. But that's not all: in issue #2 we meet Ultiman, The Blitz, and The Human Sub, as Ecker and Carlson are joined by artists Jon Schuler, Don Simpson, Stan Timmons, Gerald De Claire, Mike Obre, and Dan O'Conner. The visual look drifts toward the Quality and Fiction House shop styles of World War Two, and the stories follow in the same mold. Big Bang #3 is "The Criss-Cross Crisis," and as the title implies, the Silver Age comes crashing in, along with Dr. Weird. The Round Table of America-Ultiman, Beacon, Atomic Sub, Blitz, and The Knight Watchman-meet The Knights of Justice-Blitz, Venus, Ultiman, Thunder Girl, and Beacon-and the Big Bang Universe will never be the same! Or something like that. This time Ecker and Carlson are joined by some credible Carmine-oids in the persons of Steve Adams and Jim Brozman. Issue #4 is unreadable, but that seems to be the actual intention. Hyper-modelled colours, a plethora of tiny caption boxes, and pointless pin-up shots of snarling, enraged, psycho-pathic women make this grim going indeed. Thank good fortune for _Big Bang_ #0, then, the latest issue, and a reversion to the deep, deep past, printed half in colour and half in b&w, like the Centaur titles of the late 1930s. Tom King is back in full force with The Knight Watchman; Thunder Girl is aptly illustrated by Bill Fugate, and Dr. Weird gets a great treatment by Ed DeGeorge, Chris Woods, and S. Van Briesen. There's a Shelly Moldoff back cover (the real Shelly Moldoff, not a clone!) and a full-page feature on the evolution of The Badge, showing Kingler and Simmons' first sketches, "Mighty Joe's" updated Silver Age Badge, and the Badge of the '90s by Ben Torres. If your store doesn't carry _Big Bang_, tell the staff you won't go home until they place an order and then sit down on the floor. ==== Fit to Print appears in print each week in Comics Buyers Guide and is available via e-mail. Tell your friends! To subscribe to Fit to Print via e-mail send a request with the words "Subscribe FtP" in the subject header and your address in the body of the message to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] You will be added to the list and receive the next available issue. Back issues are available. FTP to cerebus.acusd.edu and look in the Comics/About Comics/Comics News/Fit to Print directory. FtP is also available on the World Wide Web at http://www.scar.utoronto.ca/~91mithra AND http://www2.csn.net/~searls. Responses are welcome and should be directed to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] Fit to Print is Copyright Cathrine Yronwode. All rights reserved.