Otto BinderResenhas

pleasingly goofy and enjoyable. like reading comfort food. a few really silly ones here, my fav being Jimmy Olson wishing for superman to "mate" his parents

Crítica | Legião dos Super-Heróis: Origem e Primeiras Aventuras (1958 – 1962)
http://www.planocritico.com/critica-legiao-dos-super-herois-origem-e-primeiras-a...

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Action Comics Vol.1 #267
http://www.planocritico.com/critica-legiao-dos-super-herois-origem-e-primeiras-a...

A Família Marvel Une Forças: https://www.planocritico.com/critica-shazam-origens-tenentes-mary-e-tio-marvel-h...

I enjoyed the read, but generically, it was pretty bad. Incredible leaps of faith for the plots, and the "can do *everything*" spirit that needed to be restrained before really good storytelling could take place.

Not bad, but nothing I'm interested in continuing.

This superman collection features five short stories - The Complete Story of Superman's Life, Superman's Mermaid Sweetheart, Superman's Greatest Secret, The Legion of Super-Villains, and When Superman Lost His Memory.

The best is Superman's Mermaid Sweetheart. I've always enjoyed the rare story about Lori Lemaris, and this one really delves as much as this child-like collection can. Apparently the man in red and blue was willing to leave the Earth's surface and live underwater with Lori, but the end resulted in a strange twist that doesn't make complete sense. Hey, whatever works for simple stories, right? Overall interesting in the beginning, surprising in the middle, and a weird deflation with the wrap-up.

The Legion of Super-Villains centers on Lex Luthor and another devious escape to flee the prison he's contained in. Far fetched results make funny effects at the end.

Superman's Greatest Secret is also amusing where Lois is trying to prove once and for all Superman is actually Clark Kent. Always one leap ahead, it's a semi-amusing ride to see her plans foiled.

When Superman lost his memory is the weakest - then again, I hate amnesia plots in general and on principle. There are some funny moments that make it worth a read, though, especially on the construction site. The ending is a cut-off, cop-out that doesn't explain how he'd get out of the situation with Perry.

The Complete Story of Superman's Life - yet another tale of the superhero's origins, but this one was a bit weaker. This version had one red son, not three, and they played on the powers being evident from birth. Superbaby, Superboy, Superman. Both parents die in this version, and the ending is a nice goodbye to the town as they gather to wish him well.

Overall the stories are written in a juvenile touch, nothing that impressive compared to other stories I've read and am more used to. Superman fans will enjoy childlike cheesiness, but it's not a must-have for fans by any means.

Greetings, ‘boils and ghouls.’

Tales From the Crypt reveals the Gothic imagination laid bare of most of its affectations and placed, after a twenty-year stint in cinema, back on the printed page. And yet, the images made archetype in films like The Wolf-Man, Doctor X, or The Mummy have come along with it, in a fusion that (at the time) was entirely original. Alas, it was not to last for long—but the story of the horror-comics’ demise at the hands of the censors has been told many times by writers far better acquainted with the details than I, and I will leave further observations to them.

Tales From the Crypt is what happens when the most basic conventions of the Gothic—terror, horror, and revulsion; self-parody; and irony—converge with settings, situations, and characters that are often entirely modern (though there is more than a fair helping of Transylvanian castles, withered old crones, and dark-and-stormy-nights to be found within these pages). Alongside The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear, Tales From the Crypt established a special kind of twist-ending yarn and introduced the notion of the pun-loving, quippy horror host that was to become so pervasive in television and film (HBO’s Tales From the Crypt, of course, chief among these derivations). Fantagraphics Books has revisited these ‘putrid pages of pallid purulence’ by presenting ‘T’ain’t the Meat…It’s the Humanity!’ and Other Stories, a single-artist retrospective highlighting the remarkable artwork of Jack Davis, a legendary figure in the history of comic art. As this review is more concerned with the literary aspects of this work, I will limit my comments on Davis’ art to this: it is both subtle and coarse, campy and unrelentingly gruesome—meaning, then, that it is as much the father of the Tales From the Crypt brand as the stories themselves (whose authorship, it should be mentioned, is never entirely clear; it seems that most credit is to be split between publisher William Gaines and editor Al Feldstein, who provide concept and script, respectively).

'T’ain’t the Meat…It’s the Humanity!' and Other Stories contains twenty-four classic ‘dismal dramas,’ each taken exclusively from the pages of Tales From the Crypt. ‘Drawn and Quartered’ owes much to The Picture of Dorian Gray (Gaines was a fan of using classic literature as ‘springboards’ for his own scenarios), but is a great deal more grotesque—and, arguably, uses the device of the ‘picture’ to a fuller effect. ‘Well-Cooked Hams’ is an old-fashioned Grand Guignol tale that takes as its subject (of all things) the Grand Guignol; it is charmingly lurid. ‘Forever Ambergris’ showcases Tales From the Crypt’s unique ability to take its most basic formula (Man A murders Man B; Man A gets comeuppance through otherworldly involvement of Man B) and reinterpret it through remarkably diverse mechanics: here involving everything from bubonic plague to whale vomit. ‘Telescope’ and ‘Tight Grip’ are both grisly shockers that rely on one final, startlingly original image to make their impact. ‘Dead Right’ takes irony to a new level in a tale so bizarre that to summarize it would rob it. ‘Concerto for Violin and Werewolf’ revisits classic Gothic motifs and settings, with a downbeat ending unusual for a title that, while always delightfully macabre, generally presents what can easily be deemed morality tales. Other standouts include the ingenious and surreal ‘Four-Way Split,’ the deliciously grim ‘Grounds…for Horror,’ and a classic gross-out appropriately titled ‘Gas-tly Prospects.’

Much of the modern Gothic owes a great debt to the ‘fetid fables’ presented in Tales From the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, et al. In much the same way as the Victorian Gothic thrived in the pages of the penny-dreadfuls, the Gothicism of the mid-20th Century thrived in the pages of E.C. Comics; in the wake of the Weird Tale and Universal Horror, a hybrid developed that has never been entirely discarded—not merely as a template for future artists, but as a cultural touchstone that lives on in remarkably disparate work: much like the material that presaged (if you will) Tales From the Crypt itself: Lovecraft, Dracula, Poe, and Bierce. The immediate influence of Tales From the Crypt can be seen in the fiction of such modern giants as Clive Barker and the unavoidable Stephen King, the films of George Romero and Tobe Hooper (amongst many, many others), and the popular television series that shares its name. Impossible to reduce to the confines of genre-literature or pulp trash, Tales From the Crypt remains one of the most striking and accessible of all the works that bridge the gap between Gothic literature and actual Horror fiction. A fascinating and thoroughly effervescent meeting of the highbrow and the lowbrow, the intellectual and the repulsive, the humorous and the haunting, Tales From the Crypt (and the publisher that gave birth to it) is as relevant a title today as it was sixty ‘fears’ ago.

'T’ain’t the Meat…It’s the Humanity!' and Other Stories comes very highly recommended.

"Showcase Presents: Superman (Volume 1)" is a chronologically-ordered collection of Superman stories from the late 1950's. There's no editorial explanation or prologue to explain why this particular period of Superman's history was collected into a series of graphic novels, nor is there any explanation as to how any of the comics fit into the larger Superman canon, or how the stories affected the development of the character of Superman. The collection itself doesn't tell a larger, single story, either. I'll take the reason for the anthology at face value - an introduction to Superman, as depicted in the late fifties. I don't think it is the best way to introduce people to the character of Superman, which I will elaborate upon.

In "Showcase Presents: Superman", the titular hero, Superman, deals with a variety of problems that all superheroes must face - keeping their secret identity a secret (because Clark Kent looks nothing like Superman; he's wearing glasses), dealing with an assortment of disasters that beset the world, all of which only a superhero can fix, and dealing with the idiotic and gullible villians and foes that try to tangle with Superman. If the world isn't on the verge of self-destruction, we get to see what might life might be like if the canon of Superman is changed in some fashion, either in the context of someone's dream, or in a storyline that is forgotten by the time the next adventure rolls around. It's all in a day's work for the Man of Steel.

As to the problems with this collection... it might be more adequate to ask what is actually done well. Or even competently. Many, if not most of the stories here are rather silly, and badly written, and the few stories that have an interesting idea are poorly delivered. There's nothing as sophisticated as character development.

From the opposite perspective, there's no suspense generated in seeing Superman best his problems, because there is no question that Superman will not manage to save the day. Indeed, Superman rarely experiences much that taxes his abilities at all. And, since there are only really a few different story-types, the book itself becomes quite repetitive quite quickly. Oh, and each story has a myriad of plot inconsistencies that must be accepted to make the story work.

While a short reading of this collection gives the impression of a a light and entertaining amusement, five hundred pages worth of the stuff is far, far too much - the same stories are repeated without doing anything interesting or innovative. And, even then, the stories stories are told rather badly, too. A book only for serious fans of Superman.½

I remember enjoying the concept of "imaginary" stories in DC comics as a kid (like, just what were the regular stories?). The first one, with Captain Marvel and a (for the 1940's) graphic look at what the effects of a nuclear war might be, is a league apart from the rest, which mostly deal with outlandish 'what-if's" in the lives of Superman and friends. Many of them deal with marriage; at the time, DC was too timid about altering the lives of their icons to touch the subject in a "real" way. Ths, we have Superman marrying Lois Lane, Lana Lang, and Lori Lemaris (all in the same three-part story), Jimmy Olsen marrying Supergirl, and Lana Lang nearly marrying Lex Luthor. Plot illogicalities abound here, even more than normal for the times. Still, the stories were a hoot then, and a nice bit of nostalgia now.½

A collection of Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane stories, mostly from the 1950's, mostly written by Otto Binder and pencilled by Curt Swan. I have a certain affectionate nostalgia for these stories, ridiculous as many of the plots are. They remind me of a simpler and more innocent time, when the many plot inanities and characterizations, and mediocre artwork, didn't bother me. But the deficiencies are there, with 1950's sensibilities and stereotypes in abundance. Included here is the first solo Lois Lane story, from 1944, and what I believe is the first appearance of an adult Lana Lang. I'm not sure if this predates her appearance in the Superboy comics.½

This was a Christman gift from my son Ben, and I am actually quite touched by it. It shows a certain attentiveness to what I like to read, and it is quite likely that he checked my library to make sure I didn't already have it. That said, this is a collection of "Superman" comic book reprints from 1959 to 1963. This was probably the worst period of Superman's long history. The stories were outlandishly contrived, the writers had a rigidly defined concept of Superman's capabilities, but often had not a clue to using them in a believable way. The art was frequently stiff and boring, with different artists subscribing to a rigid concept also of Superman's appearance. And Superman has never been more of an old fogeyish type than portrayed here. It's as if Superman were channelling Ward Cleaver. However, I read these comics during a formative stage in my life, and they still have a strong tug on my psyche. I'm glad as heck that comics have grown up so much, but these older stories had a certain charm and naivity that I quite enjoy.½

This comic features my all-time favorite cover. A gorilla (who is really an alien in disguise, working on a plot to take over Earth) has gone to a public library to do research. He threatens a librarian at gunpoint while thinking to himself, "When I read these three novels, I'll be able to conquer the world!" Very weird.

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