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Well damn this one arrived yesterday but still waiting for 2378! Hate when that happens.

Cool read, I'll have to check out some Power Pack now! I've been enjoying Claremont X-Men, I'm in the 170s, and Power Pack #27 is coming up in a crossover there. And Louise Simonson sounds cool on podcasts, seems like the 80s was a real high point for Marvel.

Ah... you ain't going to like my next post!

This post makes me want to go buy Power Pack. But I know I own Power Pack in a longbox already. Oh I wonder how much effort it would be to find them. And which I have. Not a complete run I don't think. But enough to stop me spaffing ££ on eBay today that's for sure. The TBPs would have to be complete for me to go that route. No Epics, Marvel? Come on!

Oh digging is half the fun surely... or is that just me? Yeah shame there isn't an option beyond the Omnibus really these days. They didn't even get an Essential Collection.

What's your thoughts on Runaways? I thought the first arc of that was excellent although I gave up soon after that.

I've not read Runaways - always meant to as a fan of Brain K Vaughan and this one always looked good and was talked about very positively when I got back into comics. Just never got to it - as I keep saying too damned many comics to read.

As I move away from superhero stuff these days have to be honest not sure I'm likely to get to it now, but you never know.

[#87 Part 4]

#87 Part 4

Where to find it

The usual places have 3 'Classic' collections that collect the first 26 issues and a number of relevent cross overs. The first is really cheap at the moment if you fancy sampling things.

Two omnibusi (I never know the plural!) collect the whole of the original run and more if that's your thing. You'll only need the first of these for the vast majority of the comics I'm discussing here covering the first 36 issues of the series.

That means these are all available digitally, again from all the normal places at a good price.

Once again the aftermarket is also your friend for this one. They've not set many hearts racing the way they have mine, so can be found pretty easily and cheaply. I picked mine up a good few years ago now for a quid each and the prices haven't changed much at all since then. Hunt them down, it's well worth it.

Hey if you like there's a new series coming out as I type called Power Pack: Into the Storm. It sees Louise Simonson and June Brigman return to their original run and as I'm no doubt discussing elsewhere on the forum is great fun and they haven't lost the simple craft they had in the original series. Maybe not the place to start but worth mentioning.

Learn more

Obligatory Wikipedia page

Near Mint Condition sees Omar discuss the first omnibus which provides a decent overview.

Aznfunk has an interview with June Brigman - which I'll get around to watching I hope before this goes out! I don't know much about Brigman so I'm glad I found this.

Lukas Kendall someone I'm not familiar with has a short, but neat little write up.

As you might be able to tell I'm scrapping around a little for this one. There's a Facebook group (fan run I assume) that talks about the team generally and while not focused on the issues I'm looking at of course deals with these prime Power Pack stories. It's a good way to a round up of what else is out there.

What is all this?

Conscious that this is becoming a long thread and if you're wondering what the heck you've just read and can't be arsed (quite sensibly) to search back to find out I'll link to my opening posts that try to explain all this.

What this all came from

And of course a nerd won't do a list like this without setting 'Rules' / guidelines

Some thoughts on what will not be on the list.

[#87 Part 3]

#87 Part 3


Copyright - Marvel Comics

Jon Bogdanove took over about half way through Simonson's run and while not as good as Brigman does a pretty damned fine job as well. I don't think he'll reach the peak of his powers until he's on Superman a few years after this, but he's well on his way. So artistically the series really is great.

The balance between situating Power Pack between the street level of the Marvel Universe and their own play field, the conflict between the Snarks and Kymellians  gives the series a really good quality too. The space stuff has an almost sci-fi fairytale tone to it. It sets the quartet up for fantasy adventures that fulfils the brief of a kids adventure. Gives the series its own corner of the MCU to have free, fanciful reign in.

Then when it returns them to more familiar territory it becomes grounded again. The use of Spider-man, Wolverine, Cloak and Dagger give a fresh perspective on those characters through the eyes of children who want to be peers, but know they are not there yet. The selection of those characters really works as well. Spider-man reminds us of his early days and the problems he faced as a superhero. Wolverine of course has that nice juxtaposition of being grim and hard yet wanting to protect the innocent and preserve their innocence since he lost his. Cloak and Dagger provides a view of how dangerous the streets are to children and kids and the nightmare 'realities' of street level crime, even in Marvel Comics. Then when you throw in Thor and Beta Ray Bill to hammer home the wonder of the world they live in, it's fantastic. The Marvel Universe and its rich pool of characters is used to perfection here.

While all this is going on the kids have to deal with being kids. They have all the 'minor' problems that kids do. I say minor but to kids they seem so big. Issues at school, Alex getting teased for starting to have an interest in girls. It all feels very grounded and almost small scale, yet that works so well. Add to that they struggle with not letting their parents learn of their powers, they feel bad about it but are afraid to do so. They have petty and jealousy about who has the best and most useful powers and feel doubt over how to get the best out of their own 'gift'. Put simply this all reads like early Spider-man if Peter Park had been aged 5-12 when he got his powers. The fact that it takes these 60s ideas and moves them to the 80s, prime superhero time for me goes a long way to explaining why this hit home so perfectly for me, even though I came to them as an adult, having only read bits in those reprints I mentioned in the 80s.

It's Louise Simonson writing that really brings all this home. She just gets the kids. I believe she has at least one child and I've no idea how old they were when she wrote Power Pack, but the children are written as children. They feel real and honest. She has observed the way children of different ages act and interact and that makes this series an absolute delight to read. Just as with the art, the writing identifies the kids as individuals, defined in part by their age, but also as people, not just generic little superheroes as so many writers in the genre seem to do. They bicker and doubt, argue but love each other, irritate the hell out of each other, yet will do anything for each other. In short they act like real siblings.

In doing this the series presents a real, but curious, ambition. It's brave in the desire to be so different, to stand out from the superhero crowd. The craft and passion behind it make it stand out as something pretty special.


Copyright - Marvel Comics

By telling the tale of superheroes of a younger age it opens your eyes to the wonders of a superhero universe. It reminds even the most jaded reader of how incredible and challenging having these 'gifts' would be. It situates their superhero challenges in a world of fears and troubles of kids who feel genuine and in doing that reminds the reader of what an amazing yet scary time this was in a way that feels so honest it's hard not to be pulled along with the glee and tension they feel.

You know what, I was a little nervous about re-reading these for fear that they wouldn't hold up for me any more. Having written this up I simply can't wait for them to get to the top of my read list!

[#87 Part 2]

#87 Part 2


Copyright - Marvel Comics

On returning to earth after this first adventure the children split their time between dealing with further interstellar shenanigans between the Snarks and the Kymellians and dropping into the 'regular' world of their corner of the Marvel Universe. They have frequent guest appearances and cameos from a small and well selected pool of other Marvel characters which I'll return to.

Now as I said all of the above made me wince a little as I typed it. There I was saying how great Power Pack is, how it stood out from the superhero crowd. I then proceed to recap a story that sounds like it could have come from Stan and Jack in the 60s, or any 70s or 80s Marvel comic. And to be entirely frank on one level this series is just that. I make no bones about this being standard superhero fare at its core... well indeed on all levels.

However, the underlying thing that raises it above the normal is a level of craft that is frankly really good. Even in that summary you get a hint that this is well constructed. The plot of how and why the Power kids (convenient naming aside) get their powers and get drawn into their adventures makes sense, well in context. It all hangs together. This is very well plotted. In a large part I think this comes from the fact that Louise Simonson cared about this series and wanted to make a real success of it.

Jim Shooter, then Editor in Chief during a wildly creative period for Marvel, wanted his editors to also do some freelance assignments. I think he believed (I assume) getting these editors to walk the walk and not just talk the talk would get them under the skin of the creative process and make them better at their jobs. If you see the creative leaps made by Marvel during this controversial time, it seems to have worked. Louise Simonson however didn't want to take a playing gig from a jobbing freelancer. So rather than just jump on one of the existing titles to complete her freelance work she decided to work up her own new concept. She got it signed off by Shooter and away she went.
This is her creation, she clearly took more time and effort with the ideas and concepts and that shines through in the quality of not just the plotting, but the scripting, in fact the whole creative effort.


Copyright - Marvel Comics

The other great thing that Louise Simonson brings to the party is selecting June Brigman as artist. Brigman was just starting out in the industry but Simonson saw her talent for drawing children and she really does that so well. The kids are all immediately recognisable as the age they are meant to be from visuals alone under Brigman, something so many artists don't seem able to do having a generic way of drawing 'children' in a single 'smaller person' way irrespective of their ages.

Brigman brings so much more to the series however. She designs the living crap out of this series. The designs are amazing. From the customs the children wear, to the spacecraft that they fly around in, to the aliens that chase them. Everything is designed to perfection. I am so keen on the Snarks, the nasty lizard aliens. They are a masterful piece of design. They look different enough to feel alien, yet recognizable enough that you get what they are about and can read their emotions. They are scary enough to create tension and drama, yet can easily fall into comedic fun when that tension gets too much for the intended audience. Oh and they look so damned cool. Brigman has a design aesthetic that just works for me. It felt so fresh and new when I first saw these reprinted in some Marvel UK reprint or other and have stood the test of time. They feel timeless to my aging eyes.

Once she's designed the characters and the world she draws the hell out of things. It's a great piece of craft. Even when drawing familiar characters within the Marvel Universe she gives them a fresh lick of paint and realises them in a way that feels comfortable and right, but adds just a little something new, or at the very least uses what's there already really well.

[#87 Part 1]

#87 Part 1



Number 87 - Power Pack by Louise Simonson

Keywords: Superheroes, mainstream, kids comics, craft, needs a re-read

Creators:
Writer - Lousie Simonson
Art - Various mainly June Brigman and Jon Bogdanove with Bob Wiacek doing a lot of the inks
Colours - Glynis Oliver and others

Publisher: Marvel Comics

No. issues: 40
Date of Publication: 1984 - 1988

Last read: 2013

As I re-evaluate what comics I enjoy the most I've been stripping my collection of all sorts of stuff I don't think I'll get around to re-reading. Most of the stuff that's going onto the 'for sale' pile (well its many boxes by this point!) is my superhero stuff. Only the best are spared the chop and one that is staying in my collection, at least until I get to a rapidly approaching re-read is


Copyright - Marvel Comics

Specifically I'm talking about the start of Power Pack's time at Marvel, they are still around today as I'll get to later in this post. The first 40 issues of their ongoing title, in which they debuted, was written by Louise Simonson with art in the main by the brilliant June Brigman, up to issue 17 and followed by the almost as good Jon Bogdanove with issue 22.

In some ways it's very surprising that Power Pack stands out so much amongst so many decent superhero comics of the time as it tells the tale of four sibling children. Indeed it seems aimed at an audience who will relate to these leads and seems to be written for a younger audience than even Marvel's main fare in the mid 80s when it came out. In doing that it manages however to be a really all ages title. It might be written with a young audience in mind but reads really well to an adult. This is largely due to the way the series makes the kids of the title actually behave like real children of their defined ages. From Katie who is 4 years old to Alex who at 12 is the oldest sibling. For completion Jack whose 8 and Julie at 10 make up the team.

It's written from their perspective, reads like these are real kids having to deal with wonderful powers and the terrible dangers they bring. Terrible dangers both in terms of the aliens and villains they have to fight against and terrible in terms of the struggles of young children and the fears they have. Perversely in handling things from this perspective and with such quiet honesty it reads to me as far more mature than most mainstream comics of the time.


Copyright - Marvel Comics

The story tells of the four Power siblings as detailed above. Yes they really are called Power, but that's a minor irritation which exposes the nature of these comics.  Actually the whole of what I'm about to recount by way of recap makes clear these are mainstream kids superhero tales, you'll just have to trust me their naive charm makes all this really work.

The children live with their parents on a beachfront house outside New York. Their father just happens to be a brilliant scientist who develops some amazing science based antimatter type advance in technology. I don't know it was superhero science type stuff. His work draws the attention of two alien races. The first are the good horsey type aliens called Kymellians who send one of their leaders 'Whitey' to warn him of the dangers of developing his work further. The second are warrior lizard types called Snarks (a name ripe for at least one pun.) and not nice. They are intent on kidnapping Doc Powers to extract his discovery from him to use for their own nefarious means. In doing so they mortally wound Whitey and indeed capture the kids parents.

Whitey crash lands his sentient spaceship 'Friday' on the beach near the Power's home and in his last dying act bestows on each of the children a fraction of his 'powers' and his smart ship. So each of the children suitably superpowered and have the means have to journey into space to rescue their parents, hopefully without mum and dad realising it's them doing it and that they are now superheroes.

For the record, when I said "Wagner rules" I meant like "Wagner is awesome", I'm American so our slang is sometimes different in contexts etc. 

I mean he totally is!

I've loved Thought Bubble in both the Armouries and those couple of years across the City centre. Not been since its been in Harrogate so very interest to see how well that works.

As for Lawless well I have the pss offically stamped BUT that was done just as we were booking a couple of summer breaks so just need to see how I feel in the morning and how financially tender I am.

Meeting folks here, so Barrington Boots that is defo a factor, is the main draw for Lawless. Let's see how a nights sleep does for it all...

All thing said, though, for a strip without an official central authority, Dredd does hang together well. And it mostly lacks the revolving door element that can make eg Marvel quite tedious. Much of that is down to the continual influx of new ideas and the single parters/shorts – which KN excels at.

Yeah The set up is so robust and flexible that even with different folks creating it remains solid. Again I think this is an element that Niemand plays into so well. Pushing smaller quieter corner that innovate and create but at the same time do so as to never really interfere with what anyone else might plan to do.

Not sure if Wagner really wants to rule.

It will always be Wagner's prerpogative not to drive the main story and do what he likes. I do wonder how that might work if the so called 'showrunner' idea was put in place. Not that there's any real evidence that this is needed.

Good work (or maybe not!) folks. That's all good stuff. I've been to Thought Bubble, but not since it moved to Harrogate and have never been to Lawless. Which was part of the temptation BUT as goGilesGo says I do like me comics across the board so Thought Bubble is generally more up my street and closer. But you all make Lawless sound great fun, in a small 'n cozy sort of way.

I was ready to book this weekend but might give it a bit of settlin' time. Mind there are still rooms at the Double Tree so probably wise not to leave it too long.

Thanks for the food for thought folks.

So whose defo going to this? Just started to get off my ass to organised going and it all rather slammin' up in price! With train ticket, room and entry I need some encouragement to shell out. I can do Thought Bubble for 1/2 the price and was juggling which to go for.

The cool thing about Lawless I'm thinking is meeting folks from the board, so whose defo going (I'm defo not sure yet!)

Thanks for the 'Likes' super nice!

I do think the fact he's focus on world building, or at least Mega City One extension planning application is a big part of why he's so making such an impact. Instead of focusing down and digging deep into a niche he's doing what Mega City One and Dredd do so well and exploding the world into all sorts of brilliant places driven by compelling characters.

I defo get the Al Ewing love as I said in the write up though it never came together for me, it never felt like a single thing. It was a set of good Dredd not pulled together. I do hope he comes back as I think its there and he could get... well Niemand good!

[Dredd]

Well while the Megazine may not be on top form I actually think this is pretty decent.

The Dredd doesn't do a great deal for me but is fine with great art.

Armitage isn't normally my thing but this was pretty good with great art and I'm happy to see more.

DeMarco is good but needs a re-read - art - well see above.

I know the reprint hasn't landed for some but while I've not read it here as I have it all I like Hookjaw and Mark Russell might not be at his best on Dredd - which is weird given it would seem a perfect for him its not bad.

The text pieces are fine but not as good as normal for me.

Harrower Squad took a scene shift that just lost me - again re-read required I think. Art as above.

The highlight though is Devlin Waugh without a shadow of a doubt. It was just brilliant. Art is as good as all the rest of the stuff, possibly, probably the best. The story though was amazing. Something seemingly so benign and mini just had tension and a sense of impending doom just cutting all the way through it... somehow... I've no idea now but it was there and just set up... whatevers to come superbly. Loved it.

So while some needs a re-read nothing was bad and one story was absolute top draw.

Just need me Prog now. Everytime my sub is about to renew always seen to have a problem and that appears to be the case again - sigh - Still this is the Meg thread and that all good.

Oh no so the podcast was leaked before release as well as Taylor's album I'm betting. Only reason I can think of meaning it wouldn't get the same downloads on release.

Curse you hackers!

...what that you say... only so many overweight, balding middle-aged nerds out there... and we what... we're the core audience for the podcast... get outta here...