FW PRESENTS – FIND YOUR JOY – THE INCREDIBLE HULK #261
Rob finds his joy by visiting Easter Island, and The Incredible Hulk, The Absorbing Man, and Ryan Daly are there waiting for him!
Check out images from this comic by clicking here!
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This episode brought to you by InStockTrades. This week’s selections:
- THE INCREDIBLE HULK: HEART OF THE ATOM: https://www.instocktrades.com/TP/Marvel/HULK-HEART-OF-ATOM-TP/APR120731
- SAL BUSCEMA: COMICS’ FAST AND FURIOUS ARTIST: https://www.instocktrades.com/TP/TwoMorrows/SAL-BUSCEMA-COMICS-FAST-FURIOUS-ARTIST-SC/SEP090987
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I completely forgot to mention this during our conversation, but I highly recommend the current IMMORTAL HULK series written by Al Ewing and drawn by Joe Bennett and others. A very enjoyable book that brings the Hulk back to the horror/suspense genre.
What a great issue to highlight. I well remember reading this one, and how pleased I was back then that I actually had read the excellent Avengers story (from issue #s 282-283) referenced in it.
Not much to add to your comments or the well-deserved praise for both Messrs. Mantlo and Buscema. For me, Mantlo’s tenure on Hulk is probably the best run with that character, just as I consider Sal the definitive Hulk artist.
As you both noted, it’s too bad that the early part of Mantlo’s run is not collected anywhere (that I know of). A little over the last half, from issue #s 269 through 313, is collected in three tpbs, though: Pardoned, Regression and Crossroads. Personally, I think it’s criminal that the whole Mantlo run wasn’t simply collected in a set of Epic volumes (actually, I’d love it if everything from #200 – my first ever Hulk issue – to the end of Mantlo’s run would get collected like that, as I also liked the pre-Mantlo issues written by the late great Len Wein and then the equally great Roger Stern, but with Sal doing pretty much all of the art).
I am not a Hulk fan, but I will listen to any cogent analysis and appreciation of him! Keep sharing your joy, fellas!
Great show fellas. This “Find Your Joy” thing is really catching on!
Even more than his punches, I always think of Sal Buscema’s mouths. Everyone always has their mouth agap like a drawbridge, either in anger or in alarm. Lots of time with spittle. I don’t mind it, it’s just the first thing that comes to mind when I think of him.
Chris
As a huge ROM fan, you are not going to have a hard time getting me to raise a glass to a comic book written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Sal Buscema. Sal’s version of the Hulk, especially as depicted in “The Defenders,” is one of the most iconic versions of the character for me. As for this issue, I bought it off the newsroom rack, and loved it. I also love this “Find Your Joy” motto, series, and network. Fan the Flame, Ride the Wave, and Find Your Joy@
I haven’t talked about it in years, but for years, I was a *HUGE* Incredible Hulk fan. I bought piles of back issues, and action figures, and statues, and framed posters and toys and just about every piece of merch I could find. I even got a roll of Hulk toilet paper from an ex-girlfriend that was fragile enough that I was afraid to read the story on it.
When the movies started coming out in the early ‘aughts, it just became too much to keep up with, and I found my fandom drift to different places. I don’t think I’ve read his title since for nearly a decade, but the Sal Buscema years was a real favorite of mine.
I *adore* Sal’s Hulk. I don’t think anyone has ever gotten the character right in quite the same way. He knew how to make the character look bestial and simple without looking goofy. He also drew the Hulk’s physique in a way that made him look powerful and thick without just looking like a bodybuilder. He had a tree trunk torso and he looked like an elephant or a rhino. And his eyes! No one has ever managed to capture that level of insane, mindless rage in a character’s eyes.
I have such a giant soft spot for these issues and I was thrilled to hear you talk about it!
You’re just reminding me how I’ve had reading Mantlo’s run on Incredible Hulk on my comics bucket list since forever now, especially the interdimensional trip that ended with Mantlo and Byrne switching books.
These are the types of shows I like to hear, and I hope the “Find your Joy” series continues. Most of the podcasts I’ve come across cover the “big events.” I like to hear discussions of regular, “everyday” comics that led to my love of the medium.
I bought this one new off the spinner rack. I was collecting the Hulk regularly at that point. I already considered Absorbing Man a Hulk foe, since the Hulk View Master reels featured pictures from Incredible Hulk 125, where the two first met. I also had the Marvel Super Heroes reprint of that issue.
Sal Buscema is, indeed, an underrated artist. He drew the first issue of the Hulk I ever got and was the regular artist for most of the time I was collecting the title.
If I had one bit of disagreement, it was when you referred to Roger Stern as a writer, like Mantlo, who was a solid writer who didn’t get a lot of fanfare. Stern’s Amazing Spider-Man run was lauded by our little group of junior high nerds at the time. It has been reprinted quite frequently and Marvel must have known there is an audience for it since they released a Roger Stern Spider-Man omnibus. I consider his run on Spider-Man to be the second best in the history of the character, right after the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko run. Also, Stern’s run on Captain America has been reprinted several times, and I consider it a high-point in Cap’s history. I know a lot of fans love Stern’s Avengers run as well.
Rob, I share your love of the Hulk, so how about covering one of the Hulk treasuries on Treasury Cast?
Finally, good call on your Instocktrades recommendations. That Hulk collection includes Hulk 140, one of my two favorite issues of the Hulk.
Sal Buscema punch and purple pants. The best of Marvel!
I believe in Marvel’s history, the maker of purple pants is the Levi Strauss of that universe. Or should be.
This Find Your Joy series has become my joy-found. Thanks, gents!
Stand by for more Sal Buscema this very Tuesday.
Sal’s Hulk is my Hulk. I love the work of artists like Jack Kirby, Dale Keown, Gary Frank, Ed McGuinness and Ron Garney but when I close my eyes and pictures the comic book version of the Hulk it’s Sal. It’s why I bought the oversized hardcover thing IDW did a few years ago.
This is a fun story and makes me realize how much I love Bill Mantlo’s run on the Hulk and why I’m so glad that the back half of that run has been collected into trades. The whole Pardoned/Regression/Banished storyline was amazing and I keep meaning to cover that in some form.
Great show, fellows. If you ever want to talk more Hulk I will be there.