Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Perhaps My Favorite Comic Ever, According to R/NE

Astonishing Tales #22 (see below)

A sentimental favorite. It feels miraculous in my hands. I got it, and many others, at Union Station in Chicago some time around 1986. My mom gave me a few bucks to find something to read and this is the sort of stuff I hauled back.
This issue of It, The Living Colossus has an Evel Knievel ad on the back and one of the others had an ad for ORCA! on the back which I spent almost as much time looking at as the comics themselves.

In intend to take a picture of myself reading this comic book in the future (2019) and posting it on this blog. Perhaps I'll do that this evening (2008).

Comics will always have a deep and weird influence on the music made in our house. This particular one has been particularly satisfying and inspiring lately.

Should you ever find this comic, do check out the insane splash page right at the beginning. It's a picture of a monster war. I don't know who the artist is (I'll check) but whoever did this artwork is a bigger genius than Einstein, Yeats and Dennis the Menace combined.

Here's some information from my set of encyclopedias I bought in the early 90s:

It, the Living Colossus was an immense 100-foot-tall stone humanoid statue constructed by Moscow sculptor Boris Petrovski to protest against the oppressive nature of the Soviet government. It became animated initially by the mind transferral of an alien Kigor and rampaged briefly through Moscow after being attacked by the military. When the rescue party arrived, the Kigor abandoned the Colossus and returned to its home-world, leaving It inanimate.[1]


The statue was later transported to Los Angeles and reanimated by the Kigors,
who used it to attack the U.S. army. The Kigors were defeated by Hollywood
special effects designer Bob O'Bryan, a man with a physical
disability, and the statue was rendered inanimate.[2]


O'Bryan was later confined to a wheelchair. The statue was stolen by the evil
Doctor Vault, who reduced It in size from 100 feet to 30 feet. It was then
animated by the mind transferral of O'Bryan, and It battled Bault's minions and
escaped.
[3]


It then battled Granitor and alien invaders from the planet Stonus V. Alongside
Fin
Fang Foom
, It defeated the invaders.[4] However, It then battled Fin Fang Foom and became controlled by Doctor Vault.[5]


Doctor Vault! Fin Fang Foom!

2 comments:

Jeffrey Alan Love said...

You lost me at "See Below"...

R/NE said...

You think this is confusing, try reading this wacky comic! Apparently there are Good Gargoyles and Bad Gargoyles. And then It, who is just a statue controlled by a guy in a wheelchair. Who is a stuntman. !!!!