{"id":453,"date":"2009-03-14T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-14T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/2009\/03\/the-best-of-1968-or-scorpio-rising\/"},"modified":"2009-03-14T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-14T19:30:00","slug":"best-of-1968-or-year-of-scorpion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/?p=453","title":{"rendered":"The Best of 1968, or, Scorpio Rising"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since just about all the best of 2008 lists have been presented now I thought I’d rip off<\/strike> follow in Dan’s footsteps<\/a>, and share the “outstanding graphic stories” of forty years ago, as presented in Graphic Story Magazine<\/span> 11:<\/p>\n

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313135675805128354\"<\/a>“Who is Scorpio?”
Written, told and drawn by Jim Steranko<\/a>
Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.<\/span> 1, June 1968<\/p>\n

“Mind Blast”
Written, told and drawn by George Metzger<\/a>
Graphic Story Magazine<\/span> 9, 1968<\/p>\n

“Whatever Happened to Scorpio?”
Written and told by Jim Steranko
Drawn by Jim Steranko, with John Tartaglione<\/a>
Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.<\/span> 5, October 1968<\/p>\n

Honorable Mentions:<\/p>\n

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313136032194814610\"<\/a>Equal Time for Pogo<\/span>
Written, told and drawn by Walt Kelly<\/a>
Simon & Schuster, 1968<\/p>\n

“The Pipsqueak Papers”
Written, told and drawn by Wallace Wood<\/a>
Witzend<\/span> 5, 1968<\/p>\n

“Dark Moon Rose, Hell Hound Kill”
Written and told by Jim Steranko
Drawn by Jim Steranko, with Dan Adkins<\/a>
Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.<\/span> 3, August 1968<\/p>\n

“Today Earth Died”
Written and told by Jim Steranko
Drawn by Jim Steranko, with Joe Sinnott<\/a>
Strange Tales<\/span> 168, May 1968<\/p>\n

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313137356551729346\"<\/a>“The Junkwaffel Invasion of Kruppenny Island”
Written, told and drawn by Vaughn Bode<\/a>
Witzend<\/span> 5, 1968<\/p>\n

“The Adventures of Fritz”
Written, told and drawn by Robert Crumb<\/a>
Cavalier<\/span>, February through October, 1968<\/p>\n

Another big year for Steranko, obviously. It’s kind of fun to see the undergrounds start to sneak their way onto the list…<\/p>\n

Graphic Story<\/span> 11 is a terrific issue otherwise, too, by the way, with a great Will Gould<\/a> interview, and even a fan letter from the infamous Dr. Wertham<\/a> himself, congratulating the fanzine on its recent interview with Alex Toth<\/a>, and attempting to claim the artist as a fellow spirit: <\/p>\n

The point that interests me most, of course, is what he says about the artist not showing the realistic details of horror in a story, but having it take place offstage, as it were, as far as the picture is concerned. I agree with him entirely on that … because I have found out through long clinical studies that it may have adverse effects on the immature mind. For that I have been blamed often, and I’m glad to read the technical opinion of Alex Toth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This didn’t prevent the editors from publishing a lengthy, vehement denunciation of Wertham on the preceding pages, of course.<\/p>\n

Which is awesome, and one reason I like reading old magazines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since just about all the best of 2008 lists have been presented now I thought I’d rip off follow in Dan’s footsteps, and share the “outstanding graphic stories” of forty years ago, as presented in Graphic Story Magazine 11: “Who is Scorpio?”Written, told and drawn by Jim SterankoNick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. 1, June 1968 “Mind Blast”Written, told and drawn by George MetzgerGraphic Story Magazine 9, 1968 “Whatever Happened to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[40,462,520,665,889,1068,1321,1345,1357,1359,1375],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-toth","tag-wertham","tag-graphic-story-magazine","tag-steranko","tag-metzger","tag-r-crumb","tag-top-tens","tag-bode","tag-w-wood","tag-kelly","tag-will-gould"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}