Comic book legend Tony Isabella about comic & the superhero film genre

Comic book legend Tony Isabella about comic & the superhero film genre

by rick olivares

It has been close to two decades now and the superhero genre that has become Hollywood blockbuster fare shows no signs of slowing down.

Some of the more popular films and web shows of recent times have been the Captain America trilogy starring Chris Evans in the titular role and the Netlfix series Daredevil, Luke Cage and the upcoming Iron Fist.

We spoke to American writer and comic book industry legend Tony Isabella who worked on all three characters including creating DC Comics’ popular Black Lightning character back in the 1970s. And we also discussed the comic book industry that has undergone massive change. The printed comic book, which used to routinely sell in the hundreds of thousands (there are a few that still do) have found competition in the form of trade paperbacks and web comics or downloads.

Although the 64-year old Isabella is done with his writing monthly books, he remains a respected voice in the industry as he still writes in his blog, Tony Isabella’s Bloggy Thing.

Here’s the transcript of the interview all the way from Ohio.

Rick: Hi, Tony. How are you?

Tony: Am all good.

Rick: Many of the books that you worked on, Power Man, Hero for Hire, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, and Captain America have gone on to become wildly popular especially with their television, web, and film versions making the characters household names. How do you feel about that considering some of them, like Misty Knight, are your own creations? What are your thoughts about the Luke Cage Netflix series, the upcoming Iron Fist, and the popular and well-received Captain America films?

Tony: I’m delighted to see these great characters reaching a new audience. I like all the Marvel Studios movies and TV shows, but the Luke Cage series has been my favorite of the latter. Marvel and Netflix were kind enough to invite Misty Knight co-creator Arvell Jones and I to the Harlem premiere of the Cage series. I was just plain blown away by Simone Missick’s portrayal of Misty Knight. I told her recently that her Misty has become my favorite version of the character and that includes the one I wrote.

Netflix’s Iron Fist series looks like it’s going to have one foot in the mystical side of the Marvel Universe. I’m intrigued to see how that will work on the smaller screen, having been showcased so magnificently in the Doctor Strange movies.

The Captain America movies? Captain America: The Winter Soldier is in the running for my favorite Marvel movie, but I’ve enjoyed all three of them. Cap is such a great character. I’m so glad that he’s being portrayed as a hero who inspired other heroes and who always tries to do the right thing, even when doing the right thing comes with a heavy cost.

Rick: At that time, you were heavily writing, you did a lot of African-American books and characters. Was that by design? In essence, they were and are groundbreaking. Can you share any anecdotes about these characters and how they came about?

Tony: I was into diversity before I knew that’s what it was. My first black friends were comics fans. I thought it was manifestly unfair that they weren’t better represented in the comic books we all loved. So, when given the opportunity to write black heroes at Marvel, I jumped at the chance.

Luke Cage came out before I started work at Marvel. I wrote/pitched an article about him to the editors at The Cleveland Plain Dealer. I worked there as a copy assistant. They turned it down because, a few months prior, they had run a full-page article I wrote on the Green Lantern/Green Arrow story wherein Green Arrow’s sidekick was hooked on drugs. They felt that was enough comic-book coverage for a couple years.

I was feeling my way with the black heroes at Marvel. I didn’t like that Luke Cage was an ex-convict and that Sam Wilson (The Falcon) was revealed to be a criminal. Had I written them longer, I would have cleared Luke and had him become a part-time college student. I did what I could for the Falcon. When I turned Bill Foster into Black Goliath - I wanted to call him Giant-Man, but, apparently, Hank Pym’s last series under that name had bombed. - I figured it was a step in the right direction. He was a scientist with his own small company.

Misty Knight was created because Arvell Jones and I wanted to get a strong black woman into the Iron Fist series...and because giving Danny Rand a partner would allow me to stop with those dumb second-person captions I hated writing. Now he would have someone to talk to, someone who would call him on his naivety as needed.

It really came together with Black Lightning. Creating Jeff Pierce all my lonesome meant I could give readers a black hero who would be a positive role model from the get-go. I still think my work on my second Black Lightning series is the best writing I ever did in comics.

Rick: The Champions was one of my favorite books when it came out. I loved that line-up! It was recently relaunched with younger characters like Ms. Marvel, Nova, etc. Have you read it? What are your thoughts on this younger roster?

Tony: I haven’t read it yet, but am looking forward to it. Some of the team members are among my favorites. Ms. Marvel is probably my favorite current Marvel hero. I love the diversity of the team.

While my country may have elected a racist, misogynist, xenophobe president with a vice president who is a woman-hating homophobe, I think the tide of history remains with the progressives. Our young readers are accepting of all kinds of people and reflecting that in our comic books is the right thing to do.

Rick: What comics are your favorites at the moment and why?

Tony: It could take all day answering that one. From Marvel, my favorite title is probably Ms. Marvel right now. From DC, I like a bunch of the “Rebirth” titles, even though I don’t understand what “Rebirth” is. At Dark Horse: Usagi Yojimbo, Lady Killer, Resident Alien. At Image: Chew, Postal, and Nailbiter. I read and enjoy a great many collections of classic and not-so-classic comics. I read many American and European graphic novels. I like the Disney comic books being published by IDW and featuring Disney comics from Italy and other countries. I like the Phantom comics from Australia. I also read a lot of manga, which my favorite series currently being the wild and wonderful Assassination Classroom. I like variety in the comics I read and each of the above are unique.

Rick: Although the films have brought wider acclaim and popularity to comic book characters, sales have declined. What are your thoughts with more people downloading and buying trade paperbacks as opposed to single comics?

Tony: Technology will out and there’s no escaping that. Looking at how much stuff I have accumulated over my life, I now download prose books onto my Kindle on a regular basis. Which I take with me on trips and such. It’s a convenient way to get/read books without adding to my accumulation.

My experiences with downloading comics haven’t been as successful, but that’s more because my Kindle isn’t ideal for that. Sooner or later, I’ll get a device that will serve my needs better and I’ll try again.

I love the feel of real books and comics. I love holding them in my hands as I read them. I’ll never stop buying real books and comics. But I will reduce my buying of them and enjoy some of them via my electronic devices. Especially when the creators get paid for these works. You have to think about tomorrow because it’s going to come whether you like it or not.

The post for the upcoming Ghost in the Shell film starring Scarlett Johansson

When people were screaming murder and anger when it was announced that Scarlett Johansson was playing the lead role in the film version of Ghost in the Shell, I was thinking, "this is the reverse of your effing diversity."

Take that!

Love the art on the CD soundtracks of Daredevil & Jessica Jones!

Alfredo Alcala Star Wars art book out next year

Alfredo Alcala Star Wars art book out next year

by rick olivares

With the Star Wars film “Rogue One” on deck, it would be good to know for local Star Wars fans that one of our very own earned his place in this beloved science fiction franchise.

The late legendary Filipino comic book illustrator Alfredo Alcala who famously drew Voltar (that story about a Viking hero whose look somewhat defined the design for Conan the Barbarian and later inspired Frank Frazetta’s “The Death Dealer”) aside from many other comics from Marvel and DC also once drew “Star Wars”.

Alcala, who hailed from Talisay, Negros Occidental, moved to the United States in 1976, to draw for American publishers. In the early 1980s, he penciled the story, “Han Solo at Stars’ End that was written by the late writer Archie Goodwin and was syndicated in newspapers all over the world.

The tale is set before the events of “Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope” where Han Solo and Chewbacca travel to the corporate sector to free some inmates who are incarcerated in a prison known as, “Star’s End.” After the Wookie is captured, Solo, with the aid of the droid known as “Blue Max,” embark on a rescue mission.  

The series has since been collected in trade paperback form and is titled as “Classic Star Wars: Han Solo at Stars’ End” (there are three volumes). There are the volumes from Marvel Comics and Dark Horse Publishing.

One of Alcala’s sons, the aptly named Christian Voltar who now resides in San Francisco, California, related that years after his father’s untimely passing in 2000 has undergone a revival in popularity.

Alcala was conferred the “Star Wars Legacy Award” in 2005 and his book, “Secret teachings of a Comic Book Master: The Art of Alfredo Alcala”, originally published in 1994 was recently re-printed by Dover Books for a modern audience. Added the younger Alcala, a new coffee table book of Alcala’s Star Wars work will be released in April of 2017.

Although the younger Alcala runs several businesses, his passion for comics still runs deep. “I have a Filipino comics project with some animation studios based in Manila,” said Christian Voltar. “I am planning to visit Manila next year to meet with the business partners, writers, and artists.”

Doctor Strange is magical entertainment: A film review

Doctor Strange is magical entertainment: A film review

by rick olivares

I somewhat felt some trepidation going to the theater to watch Doctor Strange considering this is the first Marvel film without their former creative committee that included Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, Marvel Comics publisher Dan Buckley, Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada, writer Brian Michael Bendis, and Marvel executive Alan Fine.

After Marvel’s own “civil war”, Feige is now at the helm of the film division without input from anyone else. And the new dawn is evident in the opening where we see a new Marvel Studios film intro that has none of the trademark comic book panels that created an elegant pastiche of four colored delight. Instead, we see the characters and actors from all the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

However, agonize no longer. Doctor Strange combines the best of “The Matrix”, “Inception”, and one of those favorite television shows of mine as a kid, “Kung Fu” that starred David Carradine but this one comes with a healthy dose of the mystic. The result is a trippy, psychedelic, funny origin film about a most unlikely hero. Yep. Another home run for Marvel Studios.

The titular character of Doctor Stephen Strange, played with sumptuous panache by Benedict Cumberbatch, is a brilliant yet egotistical surgeon who survives a horrific car accident that effectively ends his career in medicine. Yet, you can’t keep a good doctor down. When Western medicine fails him, Strange heads east to Nepal where finds enlightenment as a sorcerer supreme under the tutelage of the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) and Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Strange joins them just in time to fend off the menace of a former apprentice in Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) who seeks to bring Earth under the influence of Dormammu and his Dark Dimension so all may benefit from the “gift” of everlasting life.

More to the surprise is how director Scott Derrickson who directed one of the most frightening films in “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” and other horror-fests put this whole thing together that fits seamlessly in the MCU. He took the mind-bending reality of “The Matrix” and then “Inception” further into these collapsing blocks that you wonder if all these buildings will come together to form Constructicon (yes, I know the Constructicons form Devastator).

He imbued the film with the MCU’s trademark humor, smart use of pop songs, and nods to its comic book origins that will make old-time fanboys like me praising the Vishanti.

The humor blindsides you the way Strange’s Lamborghini Huracan hit some rocks during a sharp turn. From the operating room scene where Strange taps his foot to Earth, Wind & Fire’s classic “Shining Star” that segues into Chuck Mangione’s “Feels So Good” to the wifi password “Shamballa” that given by Mordo to Strange is a delightful nod to that awesome graphic novel published in 1986 “Doctor Strange: Into Shamballa” that was written by J.M. DeMatteis and painted work by Dan Green that reminds me of P. Craig Russell’s work.

I love the way the Cloak of Levitation is given “life”. Like the wands in Harry Potter, the cloak as do other mystic avatars in the film choose their master. The cloak’s preventive instincts lend a humorous touch and is the surprise star of the show (outside the cast). Move over, Groot. You’ve got company.

Another cool Easter Egg/cameo is the use of Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive” in the film. That is a wonderful nod to the long relationship between Doctor Strange and those art rockers. The English band’s 1968 album, “A Saucerful of Secrets” makes use of artwork from Doctor Strange’s comics (as drawn by the now retired comic book artist Marie Severin).

The following year, Pink Floyd recorded a song “Cymbaline” for their album “More”. The songs makes a direct reference to Doctor Strange:

“The lines converging where you stand,

They must have moved the picture plain.

The leaves are heavy round your feet.

You hear the thunder of the train.

Suddenly it strikes you

That they're moving into range.

And Doctor Strange is always changing size.”

And just this past September, Cumberbatch joined Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour on stage at the Royal Albert Hall to perform the band’s fave “Comfortably Numb”.

The film borrows a few scenes from that great Doctor Strange story, 2013’s “The Oath” (written by Brian K. Vaughn and drawn by the talented Marcos Martin. The astral form of Strange in the operating room is reprised. Except instead of Night Nurse (who is now Luke Cage’s love interest), it’s the film’s version of Christine Palmer (played the pretty Rachel McAdams and is this film’s Pepper Potts) who gets spooked!

The surgeon who operates on Strange’s mangled hands is none other than Nicodemus West (played by Michael Stuhlbarg). In “The Oath”, West is not only a rival surgeon but also a sorcerer who will battle Strange eventually.

There’s a portion where Kaecilius is after Strange in the New York Sanctum Santorum when the latter reaches out for a battle axe on the wall. However, the Cloak of Levitation prevents him from grabbing it and instead seems to point to this harness that will imprison the dark wizard. The axe is a prominent weapon in the current comic book series of Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo. Was this a reference to the split between the aforementioned creative committee?

One of the film’s strengths is the strong cast.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange is like a distant relative of Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark minus the bizarre sense of humor. There’s a regal bearing to Cumberbatch’s Strange.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is one of the best in playing tormented characters (alongside James Earl Jones and Idris Elba) with a level-headedness that belies the sinister streak and capacity for violence. He first caught my attention “the Operative” in Josh Whedon’s “Serenity”. His character of Dr. Vincent Kapoor in “The Martian” was no less powerful. As Karl Mordo, who will go on to be dangerous adversary of Doctor Strange, he cuts another sympathetic villain in the making like Helmut Zemo in Captain America: Civil War or even Alfred Molina’s excellent portrayal of Otto Octavius in Spider-Man 2.

I have to admit that I disapproved of a Celtic Ancient One (as mentioned in the film). I have to say that Tilda Swinton was fine. However, there’s a frailty to her especially when she realizes that Strange and Mordo have understood the source of her power. So I still disapprove. East is East and West is West. Maybe Ken Watanabe would have been a better fit. But that’s done. Swinton though isn’t so bad.

Benedict Wong as Strange’s eventual valet, Wong, has the makings of a good sidekick with toughness and a pinch of humor. The Beyonce “cameo” was awesome. And the revelation that the Eye of Agamotto is an Infinity Stone by Wong… that teases of what is to come including the Infinity War that supposedly wraps up all three phases of the MCU!

I can’t wait!

I read the Stan Lee and Steve Ditko comics but never fully got into the character as a solo character until Roger Stern began writing the second series in 1983 (with art by Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin). I read “The Defenders” when writer Steve Gerber and penciller Sal Buscema were working on the title but wasn’t really a fan of the Master of the Mystic Arts until more recent times when Brian K Vaughn and Marcos Martin worked on a story titled “The Oath” that was published in 2013. Then I subsequently picked up the new series written by Aaron and Bachalo.

Doctor Strange is pretty good. What stops this film from making the jump into the realm of greatness is a certain lack of exposition in some scenes. It would have been nice to see a few more scenes of Strange in Kamar-Taj learning the ways of the Ancient One from studying the mystic arts to the more martial version. It would have also been nice to see a little back story to Mads Mikkelsen’s Kaecilius. Even just a bit.

But that’s my one other quibble aside from the Ancient One being Celtic.

I love the film because I really couldn’t predict where it was going. It’s got strong characters with loads of potential.

As Strange quipped in the film, “I don’t believe in fairy tales about chakras or energy or the power of belief”. Yet Scott Derrickson pulled it off.

In the year of the strange… after Stranger Things, Doctor Strange is movie making magic.