oz@rlgvax.UUCP (THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ) (02/25/85)
There is one advantage to picking up a series late, and this is when you go to buy all the back issues of the comic, you can easily sit down and read them in one sitting. I had read rave reviews about THE MASKED MAN, but never seemed to pick up ECLIPSE MONTHLY to read the stories. I did pick up MM #1 and found it to be quite good. This caused me to pay more dollars then I should have to buy issues 1 - 10 of EM. Sitting down and reading the stories in one setting allows you to see how the writer wanted you to see the character progress. I found myself enjoying the Spider-Man (in my day it was ALWAYS hyphenated) parody (there is one page full of just sound effects as he swoops down on the criminals (whoosh), falls on the pavement (plop), is grabbed by one of the criminals (yank) and has his chin bounced on the pavement many times (whack, whack, whack). VERY funny stuff. This is also a human side to this that I find appealing. Barney is a real person who "loves" the Masked Man in the nice non-sexual sense of the word. All in all an excellent comic. Can anyone help me find the first appearance of the Masked man, and how many more Monthly's I have to but to get me up to all the current stories? Any help would be appreciated. "Wait, a brilliant idea!" "Yes?!!!" "That's what we need, a brilliant idea." OZ seismo!rlgvax!oz
drforsey@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Forsey) (02/28/85)
<ahem> I really like THE MASKED MAN too. I also did the "buy all the back issues of ECLIPSE MONTHLY at one shot" thing, so I ap- preciate what you're saying. I'm not yet sure whether I'd call MM "excellent" yet or not, due to a few niggling complaints. To me, it seems obvious that Boyer wants his art to be tighter than it is, i.e. he's trying but hasn't got it yet. Thus, while the art is sometimes *so loose* that you have to be very open- minded, I don't feel that Boyer is asking us to accept this looseness as his conscious style, as does Bill S-word. Therefore, we have to wait and watch Boyer develop, but his art at the moment is apprenticey (although nice. Who else would remember to make crying eyes pink instead of white?). Which brings us to another thing: Barney cries too much. *Everyone* cries too much. In *public*. This is contemporary America Boyer is talking about, after all, and taboos against men crying in public still exist to the degree that most men won't break them. Used sparingly, it is a great humanizing technique; too much and it becomes a gimmick. In Barney's tape-recorded confession episode, though, it was *essential*. All I'm asking for is a little restraint, a little taste.... Taste. Which brings us to: Boyer's treatment of the entire concept of homosexuality is juvenile. Its intent is to amuse, and I can accept that once or twice, but it *keeps cropping up*, even where it is not necessary. I'm *not* saying that Boyer should be crusading for gay lib (I'm sure McGregor will do that if he hasn't already). But this promulgation of old stereotypes is not funny. The fact that Barney can't tell MM he loves him without sexual orientations coming into question definitely says something about our society, but it's a sad indictment. Boyer never seems to even imply overtones of the sadness of this blind intolerance; he just hauls out the raised eyebrows whenever he wants to get a laugh. I wish he'd stop it: it reminds me too much of grade school kids sniggering over their own four-letter words. If he'd at least confront the issue head-on *once*, have Barney chew someone out or beat them up or something.... (And in reply to any who might ask: no, I'm not, but a few of my friends are... and they're real human beings, strangely enough.) I also find it hard to believe that Boyer had never read THE SPIRIT before starting MM, but whatever. The Spirit tribute episode was indeed wonderful, though. Yeah, dammit, maybe MASKED MAN really is excellent, after all! I believe that MM appeared in the last two issues of the old b&w ECLIPSE MAGAZINE. Try and find 'em, though.... (Hark! What's that? Do I hear Eclipse offering to reprint them??) RESTON: My God, we're hit! We're going down! LARNER: Yep. The Gray Mouser
boyajian@akov68.DEC (03/20/85)
> From: rlgvax!oz 25-Feb-1985 21:38:24 * > I had read rave reviews about THE MASKED MAN, but > never seemed to pick up ECLIPSE MONTHLY to read the stories. I did pick up > MM #1 and found it to be quite good. This caused me to pay more dollars then > I should have to buy issues 1 - 10 of EM. > ... > All in all an excellent comic. Can anyone help me find the first appearance > of the Masked man, and how many more Monthly's I have to but to get me up to > all the current stories? Any help would be appreciated. If you have all 10 issues of ECLIPSE MONTHLY, then you don't need much more. Prior to ECLIPSE MONTHLY #1, The Masked Man appeared only in two issues of the black-and-white ECLIPSE MAGAZINE --- issues #7 & 8. BTW, if you look, you'll notice that each story has, at the beginning, a file card with the Masked Man Case # on it ("MM001", etc.). So, you just have to keep track of the file #'s to make sure you're not missing any stories. MM001 - ECLIPSE MAGAZINE #7 MM002 - ECLIPSE MAGAZINE #8 MM003 - ECLIPSE MONTHLY #1 . . . MM012 - ECLIPSE MONTHLY #10 MM013 - THE MASKED MAN #1 MM014 -| MM015 -|- THE MASKED MAN #2 MM016 -| --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA