FW Presents: Showcase Gene Colan: THE SPECTRE

On this episode of FW Presents, Ryan Daly continues his recurring feature SHOWCASE GENE COLAN celebrating the work of the legendary comic book artist. For this fourth installment, Ryan resurrects his old Night Force collaborator Paul Hix from Waiting for Doom Podcast to review the post-Crisis reboot of THE SPECTRE, written by Doug Moench and illustrated by Gene Colan.

Throughout his life, Gene Colan brought his truly unique art style to the pages of Batman, The Tomb of Dracula, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, The Avengers, Howard the Duck, Doctor Strange, The Spectre, and so many others. What issues will Ryan chronicle on this podcast? You'll have to tune in to find out!

Let us know what you think! Leave a comment or send an email to: RDalyPodcast@gmail.com.

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Intro: Gene Colan interview from "The Men Without Fear"; "The Vampire Hunters" by Wojciech Kilar.

Additional music: "The Spectre Theme" by Neil Daly, Ryan Daly, and Paul Hix; "I'm Your Boogie Man" by K.C. & The Sunshine Band.

Thanks for listening!

3 responses to “FW Presents: Showcase Gene Colan: THE SPECTRE

  1. Great discussion guys. This does indeed seem like the pilot episode of a Spectre TV series. I’d watch it!

    Spectre was a “direct only” title, so since my trips to the nearest comic shop were few and far between (and two towns away), I never got into it. I do remember some controversy over a later issue (#9, to be exact) drawn by Gray Morrow, that showed a nude Madame Xanadu writhing in ecstasy as her and the Spectre apparently had phantasmagorical sex. I read about the kerfuffle over this in concurrent issues of Comic Buyer’s Guide, and was REALLY hoping to find it. Hey, I was like 13 or something, so sue me. I finally got to see the page in question in a Back Issue article a few years back. Pretty racy for DC Comics of any period!

    Chris

  2. This Spectre series was out of sync. It came out during the brief window I had access to my first proper comic shop, but it was a DC when I wasn’t really collecting them, a “premium priced” book at an extra quarter when I was very poor, and a Golden Age character when I had no interest in them. Spectre was referenced in Millennium when I was collecting it, but by then I was buying off the newsstand in another state. I’ve read a couple or three issues of the run, but they seemed to be particularly bad examples of what the book had to offer. I was into Gene Colan in the ’70s and Doug Moench in the ’80s, but by the time I could have bought their combined work on this title, I’d lost interest in them as creators. Also, I never cottoned to the idea of playing the Corrigan/Spectre duality as a Banner/Hulk thing.

    All that having been said, Moench was at peak weirdness in this period, and as with Steves Englehart and Gerber, Colan is a good “grounding” co-conspirator in weirdness. Gray Morrow is about the most perfect successor to Colan on a book, and my affection for his work is undiminished. When I toss through issues of this run, they seem cool and provocative and off-kilter in an appealing way that was lacking in the more dour Night Force.

    I could see my really enjoying this title… in 1994. Maybe ’99. Tougher sell by the 21st century, and I just don’t think it’ll ever be in sync with me. What it offers I could get better elsewhere while supporting living creators instead of a corporation. It’s pointless to me to even try it at this stage of my life.

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