Thursday, July 28, 2011

Captain America: The Best Superhero Movie In A Long Time



An event I waited 20 years for happened last weekend and I was not disappointed. The release of Joe Johnston's Captain America: The First Avenger was something my college buddies and I discussed way back in 1991 after Johnston's adaptation of The Rocketeer came out. We loved the period detail and the faithfulness he brought to that character. We thought he could do the same with Cap, one of our favorite Marvel characters. I love period movies in general and I think they work very well with superhero movies. I loved everything about TFA. I loved the movie serial feel to it. I loved the spot on characteristics of Cap and The Red Skull. I loved the costumes, you get the idea. I knew I'd really dig this movie when I saw the first concept art over a year ago.



I fortunately got to see it with two of my college buddies who were waiting for this as long as I was and they loved it too. If you love period superhero movies and one of Marvel Comics' oldest and, in my opinion, best heroes, then you can't go wrong with Captain America: The First Avenger, now playing at a theater near you!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Golden Age Captain America Gems



I'm getting really psyched to see the new Cap movie that opens this Friday. To get even more inspired, I headed over to the Grand Comics Database and perused these Golden Age covers featuring Cap saving Bucky from all sorts of mayhem caused by those dastardly Nazis and Japanese! Featuring art by co-creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby plus Golden Age Timely greats Alex Schomburg, Syd Shores, and Al Avison, these covers definitely did their job in getting me more excited for Friday!







Friday, July 1, 2011

More Bronze Age Cap



I just can't resist. Here are four more 1970's Captain America covers by John Romita, Frank Robbins, Ernie Chan, and Ron Wilson. I always loved Romita's Cap, especially his pin-up of Cap and the Falcon done for the 1975 Marvel calendar, which is shown above. I just can't get enough of the Star Spangled Avenger. I hope the new movie doesn't diminish my love of these books. I doubt it will.







Cap In The 70's

Here are some of my favorite Captain America covers from the Bronze Age. This period was known for the return of Cap's co-creator Jack "King" Kirby but it also featured great art by artists such as Gene Colan and Sal Buscema among others. It was a pretty good decade for the Star Spangled Avenger. These four covers feature the aforementioned Kirby and Colan. Cap never looked so good in my opinion.







Captain America In The 80's

I first got heavily into Marvel Comics in the early 1980's when I was in junior high school. Before that I was strictly a DC man. One of the first Marvel books I got into was the Mike Zeck run of Captain America. I liked Zeck's distinctive style on Cap. He made him look regal and imposing. The stories were fun too. Here are some of my favorite issues from the period, roughly from 1981-83.









Captain America Collectors' Preview 1995



With the new Captain America movie coming out later this month, I've been pretty obsessed with the Star Spangled Avenger. I've been digging out some stuff to post and I found this neat one shot from 1995 with a really cool John Byrne cover inked by Cap's co-creator Joe Simon. The back cover is great too.



There are a lot of neat things in this book. Probably the coolest things are these three Joe Simon paintings presumable done for this book. They're just gorgeous.







There are other cool things in the book like this Jack Kirby designed alternate uniform. They weren't sure what it was to be used for but it's a typically great Kirby design.



And last but certainly not least, we have the awesome Fred Hembeck with The Top Ten Perks Of Being Captain America.



I really enjoyed flipping through this book again. It might be hard to find but maybe it might show up in a dollar box at your local convention. It's definitely worth getting if you're fan of America's Super Soldier.

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