Since I am not making much progress on my other posts - besides adding or replacing a few videos that have been deleted here and there - and am waiting to see if blogger approves the censored version of my first post on 36C - 23 - 36 page three girl Corinne Russell I have decided to start the month of October with the DAZZLER post I promised my readers back in August when I was writing the posts for Mike Deodato's ELEKTRA and 38K ( !!! ) - 25 - 42 fitness instructor / influencer Lindi Nunziato .
Now in regards to the Corinne Russell post getting slapped with a NSFW label I have gotten some comments why I just don't avoid content that could be seen as NSFW. Well, the problem with that is that blogger never tells you which part of the post is exactly NSFW or in which way. So it could be anything from pornographic stuff to something as simple and nondescript as spam. Because so far I have had only one post classified as spam and while I managed to get the SFW okay from blogger for it after I made some changes I am still not sure what exactly was the problem with it. Because I read the guidelines in regards to what could be seen as spam and it is basically everything or nothing in my posts.
Now there is also the option to not include anything that might be seen as NSFW from a mile away but I tried that and writing such a neutered post doesn't bring joy and entertainment to anybody. Not myself and certainly not my faithful followers. So I posted the version of the post before I made the latest changes - since that was when it got flagged as NSFW - and I will keep adding paragraph after paragraph for the next few days until I find out which is the offending part so that I can rewrite it into a SFW version or - in the worst case scenario - cut it out entirely.
In any case this will probably take me a few days and since - as I said - I am not making any progress on my other posts I will be working on this post. Man, so far I have only made a few censored versions of previous posts but none of them because the original post got labelled as NSFW.
After this boring behind the scenes stuff let's do a quick recap for the genesis of this post ( since it has been quite some time and I want to do a quick refresher for my regular readers but also give new visitors an introduction ) it all started with the two spotlights I mentioned above.
Because as my faithful followers know I like to do extensive research before starting my posts - which has become more of a necessity now that I don't have access to my old picture archive - and while I was thinking about which Marvel Comics post to do next it came to a draw between Elektra and Dazzler. And the only reason why I chose to go with Elektra instead of Dazzler was that my template for Elektra is Lindi and my template for Dazzler is Paige British. And I had not finished compiling the pictures with Paige while I had already catalogued Lindi's pictures.
So it was only the luck of the draw that Elektra and Lindi Nunziato got chosen first and I got to use some nifty BillSienkiewicz artwork in any way since he worked on both series. Now you might ask " But why of all things DAZZLER ? "and the reason is simple : since I am at the whim of the internet gods and depend now more than ever on the material I find ( mostly while doing the research for other posts ) there was just so much material that not making a post would have been a big waste.
Plus as frequent visitors of the blog know I have a soft spot for all the underrated and underappreciated comicbook series out there, the more obscure the better. Also DAZZLER was slated to be the next big thing ( even though they came in a few years late to cash in on the disco craze but Stan Lee was a few times late to the party with his comics ) so it is also one of those failed comicbook premises. I am not sure if the series has garnered a bigger fan following in the last years but at least it seems a viable enough intellectual property that Marvel Comics has reprinted the entire series ( plus a few appearances in other books and mini series ) in four MARVEL MASTERWORK volumes. Which made finding coloured pages to go with the original art that much easier, let me tell you that.
What makes DAZZLER such an interesting failure is that it started out really strong with Dazzler's first appearance in UNCANNY X - MEN 130 which was part of ChrisClaremont and JohnByrne's ground - breaking DARK PHOENIX SAGA . And the art in the first three issues was done by none other than JohnRomitaJr. with inks by Alfredo Alcala in issues one and two and Danny Bulanadi and Armando Gil in issue three. Also she went up against Asgard's Busenwunder the Enchantress Amora in the first two issues and none other than f - word - ing Doctor Doom in issue three.
There also were plans to make a DAZZLER movie starring 36C - 23 - 36 silver screen sex goddess Bo " Perfect 10 "Derek as Alison Blaire that would have been by her then husband John Derek because she was at their height of her career due to the success of such erotic masterpieces like BOLERO or the hit comedy 10 plus all her nude pictorials in famous men's magazines like PLAYBOY or LUI. Well after the TARZAN movie directed by John Derek tanked completely ( strangely the film started Miles O'Keeffe's career ) all plans of a DAZZLER movie were cancelled.
Which is a shame because no matter how the quality of the film would have been seeing ultimate men milking machine Bo Derek in a skin tight silver body suit alone would have been worth the price of admission.
Now after Dazzler's big splash with her first appearance she was slated to headline a double - sized MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL but after the plans for the movie went south that material was reworked into the first two issues of her regular series. And even that didn't have a negative impact on the title because for some reason someone at Marvel Comics decided it was a good idea to try DAZZLER at the relatively new " direct market "meaning that the series would be only available at comicbook and not at newsstands. The first issue of DAZZLER came out and sold over 400,000 copies while the top selling comicbooks of the time sold around 250,000.
And while it would never again be such a big seller in the direct market ( as longtime comicbook collectors know the demand for first issues has always been much higher than for those issues following it ) it sustained enough of its momentum to last over 40 issues which is not too shabby.
Now one reason why it was not the big success it might have been - aside from the fact that it came out AFTER the disco craze had died down - was that after issue three Frank Springer took over the art duties. And while Frank Springer worked on many Silver Age Marvel Comics and THE SAVAGE SHE - HULK he was not up to the level of JohnRomitaJr. . As an aside note it's funny that he also co - created the first adult - oriented feature on US newsstands, THE ADVENTURES OF PHOEBE ZEIT - GEIST.
Although I have to say that after going through the issues for this post I have to say that I really appreciate Frank Springer's art especially once VinceColetta comes in as the regular inker. I know there are a lot of people who don't like him and think he ruined Jack Kirby's electrifying work on THEMIGHTYTHOR but I think that it is only a question of finding the right book for the right inker and for me personally he was a good fit for THOR . I also like the original art pages I have found for DAZZLER that he inked and while I may never have the disposable income to buy all four volumes of the MARVEL MASTERWORKS I would like to see an ARTIST'S EDITION of that. Although I am not sure how many of those will come out now that IDW seems to have more and more financial trouble.
Plus after doing the research I really got a hankering to read the series.
Another reason why DAZZLER never reached the big audience it could have is that the higher ups at Marvel Comics never could decide if they wanted to take the title in the superheroine direction or more into the slice of life / troubles of a woman in a men's world trying to build a music career realm. Which I think would make it perfect tv series and I am surprised that out of all of Marvel Comics big intellectual properties DAZZLER hasn't been turned into a tv show yet. Although after the fiasko of the SHE - HULK, ATTORNEY AT LAW show that might be for the better.
Well, I think that is enough of an introduction for those who never heard of DAZZLER and as for the original art pages in this post besides of the obligatory JohnRomitaJr. / Alfredo Alcala pages I have included a lot with Vince Coletta's inks from her fights with Rogue ( who back in those days duked it out with any female Marvel Comic character at the drop of a hat ) and a weird subplot where Dazzler's sister got super powers.
staying alive