I don't revisit comics from my childhood as often as I once did, but on the occasions that I do my eyes are typically drawn to images like the one above. It seems to me there was once a time in which 'cosmic peril' was the big fad in the comics world. DC's 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths and Marvel's 1991 response to 'Crisis,' The Infinity Gauntlet, are prime examples of sagas ripe with images such as these. Images depicting unknowable drama amidst the stars, planets drawn way too close together, bizarre lighting effects, and some strange sense of horror vacui more commonly attributed to outsider artists like Adolph Wolfli or Louis Wain, which is funny because what are the cosmos but near emptiness?
The Infinity Gauntlet saga was collected and republished in full color last July (unlike so many great of the late great Jack Kirby series; who wants to read The Forever People in black and white?!?!), and I'm happy to say that copies have finally shown up at Green Apple. Atop that Brendan McCarthy's heavily Ditko inspired Spider-Man: Fever will be arriving shortly. These are both a couple of books that are guaranteed to keep your eyes busier than any new monotonous autobio comic (notable exception: Drinking at the Movies) or rehashed zombie story (notable exception: The Walking Dead). So drop by and check them out, and while you're at it have a look at a few other things as well. Here are some suggestions (or):
A SHORT LIST OF GRAPHIC EXCELLENCE
-Weathercraft
-Sergio Aragones: Five Decades of His Finest Work
-Prison Pit Volume II
-Set to Sea
-The Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen
-Fire & Water
-Strange Tales