Yesterday I took some time off from working on the blog to watch some of the videos I posted ( yes, most often than not I only get to watch the videos after I post them ) and I thought that the tv show Manimal would be better suited in a post about Grant Morrison´s comic ANIMAL MAN .
The thing is that when Brian Bolland´s birthday came around last month I thought about doing an Animal Man themed post but I didn´t have enough material. Because I already did one in 2020 and I put all my best into that.
Anyway, if I have learned one thing in life it is that sometimes when you can´t do what you want to do you have to change your point of view and start thinkint outside of the box. So while I didn´t have enough material for a Brian Bolland exclusive ANIMAL MAN post he only did the covers. Don´t get me wrong, his covers ARE spectacular and I bet in many cases the incentive to buy the issue. What is the main purpose of a cover - even if most comicbook publishers seem to have forgotten this lately. But that´s the topic of a different post. Coming back to ANIMAL MAN, so after I decided to look for more interior pages I found a truck load of original art ( enough for a few posts ) which made me realize two things. Firstably, Chaz Truog ( what a name ) is the unsung MVP of the series. As I said in previous posts his art is not what brought me to the series and I will always wonder how the book would have been with - let´s say a different artist because I don´t want to say better artist. Okay, there are obviously some artist´s whose craftmanship is above the level of other artists and then there are what you would call " artist´s artists "who are on such a high level that they can make others rethink their entire way of approaching comicbook art with just one short story. So while I don´t want to deny that at the end of the day it all come down to personal preferences. I mean, without a doubt Jack Kirby was one of the best comicbook artits ever but when I started out reading comics I didn´t like his art. So yes, I would have preferred to have one of my favorite artists on ANIMAL MAN but I have to give Chaz Truog props because even if he just shows up and does the work he does all the heavy lifting. The second thing I realized is that I have to get me some ANIMAL MAN as soon as possible because I don´t remember any of this. Now I do know the broad strokes of the stories but with the thousands - probably more like millions - of issues I read during my 40 plus years of comicbook reading I can´t recall every tiny tidbit. And this stuff is dope. Since the upcoming omnibus is piced very high ( as are all the new ones ) I will probably have to get the Deluxe Editions but those are easier to read and not as hefty as an omnibus. Anyway, that´s enough of an introduction as I have to heed the call of the wild. Enjoy !
groooooooowlll