Rich Buckler

Isis #6. September 1977.

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“The Ominous Ooze”

Cover Artists: Rich Buckler & Vince Colletta

Writer: Jack C Harris; Penciler: Mike Vosburg

Inker: Vince Colletta; Letterer: Ben Oda

Editor: Dennis O’Neil; Executive Editor: Joe Orlando

From DC Wikia:

A unit of the Egyptian Army is on the march. From the air, the Mighty Isis magically stops their tanks and lands before their commander. She tells him that she will not allow them to take human lives. Suddenly, a purple, malodorous Ooze moves over the desert sands. Isis uses the sand to lift her into the sky as she tries to think of a way to destroy the Ooze. She watches in horror as the Ooze digests a camel. Then, the Ooze disappears, leaving a puzzled Isis to ponder that, since this defies the laws of science, what would Andrea Thomas do in a situation like this.

Back in the United States, Rick begins his search for Andrea and drives to the home of Andrea’s mother in Missouri. The target of Rick’s search is flying over the trail of destruction left by the Ooze, which ends in an abandoned oil field. She lands and confronts Mister Emal, the creator of the Ooze. He orders his henchmen to release it, but the Ooze machine runs out of its plutonium fuel. They pull out their guns to kill Isis, but the local military General, Abdel, orders them not to. Isis warns that she will keep a close watch on them, then flies away.

Rick arrives in Fairfax, Missouri and meets Viola Thomas, Andrea’s mother. He tells her that Andrea is missing and asks where she might be. At the same time, Dr. David Munch, who works for General Abdel, drives to a top secret government research lab to sneak out the fuel for a large scale version of the Ooze machine. Isis locates Abdel and Emal and hitches a ride on their airplane to the USA. In overhearing their plans for their Ooze Machine, she learns that their destination is Fairfax, Missouri, where Andrea’s mother lives. Isis leaves the plane and flies to Fairfax.

After landing, Isis changes back into Andrea to explain to her mother that she wants to remain as Isis forever. She spots Rick there and waits for him to go away. In a nearby clearing, Abdel, Emal and Munch start up the full-size Ooze Machine. As it begins to digest the trees and grass in the clearing, the Ooze engulfs the machine and flows out of control. Rick is about to leave when Andrea’s mother spots the approaching Ooze.

Andrea becomes The Mighty Isis and takes to the air. She tries to destroy the Ooze by removing the ground moisture and by using solar heat, but to no avail. The Ooze now catches up with its creators. Isis tries to rescue them but arrives too late. Now it goes after Rick and Mrs. Thomas. As Isis rescues them, she realizes that the Ooze feeds on organic matter. Remove it and the Ooze should die. As Isis separates the ground, the Ooze digests the remaining matter on it and dies. After Isis replaces the ground, Rick asks her why she just happens to be in Missouri. When she replies that she is where she is needed, Rick demands that she explain the connection between her and Andrea. Andrea’s mother asks Isis if she knows where her daughter is. She replies, “I cannot tell you the location of your child”. As she takes to the air, Rick begins to wonder if Isis has kidnapped Andrea.

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The letter column still has positive letters and Cary Burkett hints at a visit in the book by Captain Marvel! They also promise they will pin down Isis’ powers and origin, as promised in the final panel blurb – next issue, the Origin of Isis!

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Mike Vosburg’s art is a mixed bag here – honestly as much as I love his work he is an acquired taste. But look at this beautiful full-page spread …Isis 6 page

Other pages, however, appear rushed and sketchy.

So Andrea is not gone for good, but the comic certainly goes into a direction far from the television series, which by now is in its final months of summer reruns. Perhaps the sales reflected this and the editors allowed Mr. Harris to do what he wished with the characters – add romance, make Isis a little more arrogant, etc. I wish they would have had more time to develop these ideas.

But the end is coming…

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About the author: Michael Curry is the author of the Brave & Bold: From Silent Knight to Dark Knight, The Day John F Kennedy Met the Beatles and the award-winning Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and How Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped.  Check his website for more releases! Thanks for reading!

Kobra #5, December 1976

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“The Eye of the Serpent”

Cover Artists: Rich Buckler & Frank McLaughlin

Writer: Martin Pasko

Penciler: Rich Buckler, Inker: Frank McLaughlin

Colorist: Carl Gafford, Letterer: Ben Oda

Story Editor: Paul Levitz, Managing Editor: Joe Orlando

I contributed this description to DC Wikia:

Kobra lands his ark in San Francisco. His surveillance overhears Jason Burr and Randu Singh back in New York discussing Melissa’s disappearance.

We then meet Jonny Double, a private eye from DC’s past who questions his current assignment – helping a secretary accused of murdering her lover/boss. His suspicions are aroused when police records confirm the murder, but there is no evidence of the existence of the boss … that and Double spots his client leaving a motel with her supposed victim.  Before he can trail them in his borrowed cab, he is flagged down by a fare. The customer leaves his valise; Double deduces it contains explosives – this WAS a set-up! Double escapes the destruction of his taxi. He finds remains of the case containing the bomb – marked with a strange cobra symbol…

Double returns to the office building at which he dropped off his murderous fare and is attacked by three hoods. Dispatching them, Double takes an elevator to a computer control room, where he gathers as much information as he can about the murder of Ricardo Perez and something called Operation: Chrysopylae … Through his contacts, Double learns of Perez, Horst Buchner and … Jason Burr. He calls Jason …

Double complains about the heavy traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge due to construction while on his way to testify to a trial. One of the construction workers has a cobra symbol on his hand-held radio.

Double hopes to meet Mack, his CIA contact, at a Chinatown theater, but finds Mack murdered. The killer fires on Double Meanwhile, Jason Burr cannot find a flight to Frisco. The booking agent helps find a flight on a smaller airline. She reaches for her walkie-talkie … which has a cobra symbol on it.

The gunman who killed Mack runs for it and Jonny Double gives chase. He also takes out two more Kobra hitmen before escaping onto a cable car. Kobra confronts Double directly and disengages the cable car, causing it to plummet downhill.

After several hours of delay, Jason finally boards his flight to San Francisco. The pilot’s hand-held radio is marked with a cobra-symbol.

Jonny Double jumps from the cable car just before it crashes, knocking him unconscious on the street; his limp form rises slowly in Kobra’s anti-gravity beam.

The engines of Jason Burr’s plane catch fire; it plummets into the Oregon wilderness.

Double awakes to find himself strapped to the Golden Gate Bridge. Kobra reveals his plan – he will destroy San Francisco with an earthquake! To use his words: “… an earthquake created by one of my devices … which is implanted in the beam to which you are tied. The mechanism is constructed of a material that disintegrates when it vibrates. The earthquake’s shock-waves will destroy the machine and no evidence of its ever having existed will survive! The device extends down through the support beams – into the bay – forming a needle which penetrates the earth’s crust! The needle will cause the San Andreas fault to shift! … The action of sunlight on the solar panel triggers the mechanism. At dawn – approximately 20 minutes from now – the bridge will be the first casualty. And you, Mr. Double, will be …. the second!”

Mwah-Ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!

To be continued!

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The letter page mentions a new approach and welcomes Rich Buckler as the new penciller. The magazine was saved by an “avalanche” of positive mail!

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Jonny Double previously appeared in Showcase #78, Challengers of the Unknown #74 and Wonder Woman #199-203.

Note the cover date – December? Three months since issue #4. Was it scheduled for cancellation but given a reprieve with a new direction and new art team? The opening splash says “The story originally scheduled for this magazine will not appear.” Hyperbole? Did the story exist and crumbled to dust in someone’s file cabinet telling us of the “Panic on Pennsylvania Avenue” (as hyped on the final panel of issue #4)?

Regardless, the quality of this comic’s plot increased 1000%. DC hyped this issue and the next – these last three issues (and the “conclusion” in DC Special Series #1) were some of the best pulp-inspired comics ever published. Seriously. I love them, I f’ing love them!

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About the author: Michael Curry is the author of the Brave & Bold: From Silent Knight to Dark Knight, The Day John F Kennedy Met the Beatles and the award-winning Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and How Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped.  Check his website for more releases! Thanks for reading!

Hercules Unbound #7, November 1976

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“To Slay a Legend”

Cover: Rich Buckler, Wally Wood & Tatjana Wood, Editor: Joe Orlando

Writer: David Michelinie; Pencilers: Walt Simonson & Wally Wood

Letterer: Milt Snapinn; Colorist: Jerry Serpe

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At the shores of Loch Ness, Hercules and friends are greeted by three beautiful women who invite them for a dinner and a peaceful repast. Naturally, Hercules is suspicious, but relents when the others see nothing wrong here.

Surprise! The parties are drugged into unconsciousness! When they awake, they are bound and Kevin is staked at the shores of the loch. The villain is revealed: Casper Zedd – given magical powers by a Cthulhu-esque insectoid who appeared at Loch Ness days after WWIII began.

Zedd was ordered to capture Kevin and imbue the new and weakened god-thing with Kevin’s more-than-mortal power!

Hercules recognizes the god-thingie as Oceanus the Titan! Hercules … unbinds and attacks Zedd, knocking him out and stopping Oceanus’ recharge.

Per Hercules, only Zeus’ lightning can destroy Oceanus. Our heroes decide to use the nearby hydroelectric dam to generate a large enough charge to destroy Oceanus – who felt the destructive power of WWIII and came to investigate the end of the world, but became too weak in transit.

Oceanus attacks the heroes at the dam, and is joined in battle once again with Hercules. Hercules wields the electrical bolts of “lightning” and knocks Oceanus back to his nether realm.

Zedd’s scepter explodes when Oceanus disappears and his followers leave him. He is now as he was before the war – alone.

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The letter column “Myth Mail” thanks legendary writer David Micheline and legendary artist Walt Simonson for this “fill-in” issue. Gerry Conway, we are told, is gone forever, and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez will be back next issue.

Simonson’s art is also hidden by Wood’s dominating pencils and/or inks, but it still makes for a dazzling combination!

And thank you, David, oh thank you for NOT having Nessie pop up anywhere in the story. Oceanus the Titan was enough of a Loch Ness Monster for all of us!

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About the author: Michael Curry is the author of the Brave & Bold: From Silent Knight to Dark Knight, The Day John F Kennedy Met the Beatles and the award-winning Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption and How Facebook, Aquaman and Theodore Roosevelt Helped.  Check his website for more releases! Thanks for reading!

Rich Buckler – RIP to a comic book great!

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… and on Gardner Fox’s 106th birthday, I also honor a Golden & Silver Age great!

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I was very sad to hear of the death of comic book artist Rich Buckler today.  Here is his Wikipedia entry (note his death had yet to make the page):

Rich Buckler (born February 6, 1949) is an American comic book artist and penciller, best known for his work on Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four in the mid-1970s and for creating the character Deathlok in Astonishing Tales #25. Buckler has drawn virtually every major character at Marvel and DC, often as a cover artist.

As a teenager in Detroit, Buckler attended the initial iterations of the Detroit Triple Fan Fair, eventually running the convention along with originator Robert Brosch in 1969–1970.

Buckler’s first comics work was as a teenager with the four-page historical story “Freedom Fighters: Washington Attacks Trenton” in the King Features comic book Flash Gordon #10 (cover-dated Nov. 1967). At DC Comics, he drew the “Rose and the Thorn” backup stories in Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #117-121 (Dec. 1971 – April 1972).

Buckler drew the first three issues of writer Don McGregor’s Black Panther series in Jungle Action vol. 2, #6-8 (Sept. 1973 – Jan. 1974), a run that Comics Bulletin in 2010 ranked third on its list of the “Top 10 1970s Marvels”. He fulfilled a decade-long dream in 1974 when assigned to draw Marvel’s flagship series, Fantastic Four, on which he stayed for two years.  During this period, Buckler created the cyborg antihero Deathlok, which starred in an ongoing feature debuting in Astonishing Tales #25 (Aug. 1974). Also during this period, Buckler hired the young George Pérez as his studio assistant.

Buckler collaborated with writer Gerry Conway on a “Superman vs. Shazam!” story published in All-New Collectors’ Edition #C-58 (April 1978). He drew the newspaper comic strip The Incredible Hulk for approximately six months in 1979. A Justice League story by Conway and Buckler originally intended for All-New Collectors’ Edition saw print in Justice League of America #210-212 (Jan.-Mach 1983). Buckler and Roy Thomas then created the World War II superhero team the All-Star Squadron in a special insert in Justice League of America #193 (Aug. 1981) which led to the team’s own title the following month.

Buckler worked for Archie Comics in 1983 and 1984, when that publisher briefly revived its Red Circle Comics superhero line, and he recruited Cary Burkett to write the Mighty Crusaders title. In 1985, Buckler returned to Marvel and briefly drew The Spectacular Spider-Man with writer Peter David, where they produced the storyline “The Death of Jean DeWolff”. He also served as editor for a short-lived line of comics by Solson Publications, where in 1987 he created Reagan’s Raiders.

He is the author of two books: How to Become a Comic Book Artist and How to Draw Superheroes. In 2015, he became an Inkwell Awards Ambassador.

 

I remember his covers of the comic books I collected during the Bronze Age, but as I searched for his comic book covers on the internet I was stunned at how prolific he was; at least with the comics I collected. He was everywhere! He, Jim Aparo and Ernie Chua seemingly accounted for 75% of DC covers in the 1970s! I may only slightly be exaggerating! Here are some examples of the man’s work. I still have all these issues …

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Today also marks the 106th birthday of Gardner Fox, prolific comic book author whose writing helped create the Golden Age and whose creations still exist in one form or another. He was the creator or “… co-creator of DC Comics heroes the Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate and the original Sandman, and was the writer who first teamed those and other heroes as the Justice Society of America. Fox introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics in the 1961 story “Flash of Two Worlds!” …” (from Wikipedia).

 

Two comic book great are being remembered today. Thank you both for your wonderful bodies of work. You and your talent are both missed very much!