Deadpool's Big Green Mama

Deadpool has a formidable power set. But, arguably his greatest power is Awareness. He knows he's a character in a comicbook (or movie), and that grants him knowledge and power as well as great snark. But someone else at Marvel paved the way for him. Right from the cover of her first issue (of her second run)...

And,no - it's not just a cover bit.
Let's look at She-Hulk's comments as she's wrapping up her first adventure (vs. the Circus Of Crime, following in her cousin's massive footsteps)...

(Yeah, we did)

The cover of the second issue continued to reference Bruce's old adventures, not only comics-aware but also comics-in-hand...

...unfortunately for Jennifer, it wasn't just the cover...

She not only knew she was in a comic book, but also was quite aware of the conventions of the form and of Marvel publishing history...

Knowing that she's in a comic also means knowing that entertaining the audience is primary. She'll even pause the story during a slow point to help keep the readers amused...

Okay. That might leave you a bit confused to the extreme definition of 'talking head panels' but there's a good reason. They've gone all Spock's Brain on her...

DeFalco was Head Honcho at the time, so you'd think his word would carry more weight, huh? Don't worry - they did make good sense of it all by the end.

Oh - "LOOK! The Blonde Phantom is here tonight!"

As you may remember from yesterday's post, Louise Grant's primary concern, even in her heroic identity of Blonde Phantom, was usually getting together with her boss, Mark Mason. Did she succeed and finally become Mrs. Mason?

Oh, yes...

Note that Louise mentions that she was the one who contacted Jennifer. That's because she was tired of existing in comics limbo. She managed to escape by becoming a supporting character in another book.

Yes, Louise is aware, too. And more experienced than Jennifer. After Jen starts to become infatuated with the D.A., Louise lets her in on some important information. Then she shows her how to use her awareness of their reality...

It being a comic, of course their lunch gets interrupted - by Stilt Man (a part of the book's declared policy of using only lame villains, y'know). She-Hulk ditches most of her expensive outfit to keep it from being ruined, and after the fight...

No, of course it wasn't Victor Von Doom when The Doctor arrived(nor was it The Doctor, for that matter) ...

Instead of Doctor Doom, Jen got Doctor Bong - an old Howard The Duck villain. She-Hulk is drawn (really, i didn't do that) into a television reality where she and the others are trapped at the channel changing control of Bong...

The bad Doctor has always been deranged, and Saturday morning cartoons have really set him off this time. Fortunately, Jen eventually realizes that they aren't really on tv...

(I did mention that he was a Howard The Duck villain, right?)

The appearance of an old Howard The Duck villain also teases the future here. Before too long, Steve Gerber would wind up writing the book - including the next (un)appearance of Dr. Doom ... Victor's 5th cousin, Dr. Bob Doom, D.D.S. And he's got an evil implant plot to rival his cousin. Yeah, it's the next worse thing to sibling rivalry. Vic gets all the acclaim.

So, by her 5th issue she was mastering the manipulation of her reality as a comic character.

55 issues later...

And so it went...


Before we go -
Some may be wondering yet about the title from a couple days ago teasing today's post. It comes from a bit later in the run...

...there. All makes sense now, right?

page art by John Byrne & Bob Wiacek, Brian Hitch & Jim Sanders III from Sensational She-Hulk #s 1-5 & 19 (1989, 1990)

Grizzly Bear Escape From Savage Island Stalked By Sex-Starved Voodoo Girls!

One thing that my Comics Archeology expeditions can frequently generate is odd looks. When i start pulling out old fanzines, APAs and garage press publications, hand printed and stapled together, the looks start. Especially when the title is something like Man's Guts.

Friends, acquaintances, and strangers alike respond in the same way - "Dude! WTF?" (Yes, i spent a lot of time frequenting conventions and shops in California) "Why are you even looking at that crap? And, seriously - that title? What kind of pervo are you?"

Well, skipping past trying to categorize or classify, i'll merely acknowledge without labels and move on to the primary question. My answer is typically along the lines of "I've never seen it before, don't know what it is. It's got drawings and it's cheap."

Seriously, that's more than reason enough. Sure, plenty of it turns out to be crap - that's to be expected as per Sturgeon's Revelation. But then you mine those little gems that so vastly tip the balance and make it very worthwhile. By this point, you've probably figured that this is one of those occasions. Let's look at the table of contents and see what we've got here:

Kamikaze Nudes of the Secret Pacific Empire?  
Lesbian Mudwrestlers Behind Bars?  
Bayou Kingdom of Undead Cuties?!?
Okay, maybe the titles are a bit misleading for the intent of the zine, hm? Let's listen to what the Editor has to say for the introduction to this new publication:

 I included the North Carolina address as a point of reference, in case you were inclined to debate how heartfelt the editorial might or might not be.

As for overall quality, in these pre-computer days of xerox or mimeograph printing, options were quite limited for an amateur press. Mimeographs allows no photographs, and any images were typically hand drawn - backwards. So it's no surprise that the book's text is strictly two column type-written pages...

 So - what the frell are we doing here?

I don't know if you clicked for the bigger view of that cover above, but let's take a closer look now...

That's Bruce By God Timm's signature hiding there.
I've been a big fan of his work since a few years before this, when he and Neal Hansen (Spyder) were working together on Whisper. But you're far more likely to be familiar with him from his style setting design work on the Batman cartoons...

...sorry. I meant the Batman Animated shows...

...and the follow-up Superman animated series...

NOTE: This image contains nudity and has

been moved to our back room for adult content.
Please follow this link to The Other Voice Of ODD! archive

of the original post to view the artwork.

Oops. Pardon us, Lois.
Obviously, there's a Blue Monday feature on Timm down the road a piece, as likely implied on our previous peeks at his Naughty And Nice side. But today, we not only get a Bruce Timm cover, we also get a full page illustration for each story!

Kamikaze Nudes of the Secret Pacific Empire

Lesbian Mudwrestlers Behind Bars

NOTE: This image contains nudity and has

been moved to our back room for adult content.
Please follow this link to The Other Voice Of ODD! archive

of the original post to view the artwork.

Bayou Kingdom of Undead Cuties

Menace of the Mail Order Brides

Change from Your Dollar

And that, fellowbabies, is why i dig through those unknown piles so eagerly while others are trying to find what they already know is there.

all art by Bruce Timm, pages from Man's Guts #1 (1989)

Little Can Be Big

Let's skip across the pond for today's

Vittorio Giardino's erotic pastiche of Windsor McKay's classic Little Nemo In Slumberland is simple fun, though elegantly layered. The collected edition opens with several 2-pagers playing with the concept...

NOTE: The images from this post contain nudity, and thus have been moved to our back room for adult content. The text remains that you may make a fair guess as to whether or not you wish to look at the pics.
Please follow this link to The Other Voice Of ODD! archive of the original post to view the artwork.

After a double length, 4 page strip, he breaks out with a multi-part 32 page tale that make the book an enjoyable read. Here's a few of the title panels from her dream trip:


If you're going to go looking, here's the covers of the English, French and German editions (in alphabetical order - sorry, mes amis) just for comparative fun:


Bonus for all you folks who were already well familiar with Little Ego. Here are the bonus sketch pages from the French edition:

(And that's why we're a few hours late today - digging out the French edition for the bonus pages)

Little Ego by Vittorio Giardino (1989)

Why I Like Mo Lei Tau #01

Some folks, once they know what Mo Lei Tau is, wonder why i enjoy the genre.
Mo Lei Tau is a Hong Kong movie genre, loosely translating as No-Brain-Comedy. Though that's a misnomer of sorts, it's actually more applicable to watching the films in any language other than Cantonese - including Mandarin. The level of pun & word play involved goes pretty damn deep, and just plain cannot be translated.
And yet - they're still fun as hell, even knowing you're only getting a fraction of what's happening at times.

Exhibit #1> Fatty Cheng as a Taoist stepping on a stuffed Garfield as an iconic feline power source while ringing a bell to repel an evil undead spirit:

Of course, he's kind of screwed when the daughter of the host of the evil spirit wants her toy back...

Where else are you going to find this kind of Odd fun?

Kent Cheng Jak-Si appearing in Zhou Gui Da Shit (aka Ninja Vampire Busters) (1989)