#space ghost comics

[crascet]

Recent Comics I've Read- Pt. 5 (Other Companies)

Alright, I'm sort of crunched since I want to finish this before the end of the year, but now I get to talk about comics not released by Marvel, DC, or Skybound. Other than those three, I read some stuff from IDW and mostly Dynamite. They are based on IPs that these companies have bought the comic rights to and aren't entirely original works, so I'm not sure if I can classify them as independent works, but I'm open to reading some indie comics that are entirely original. With that said, let's talk about them.

IDW- Godzilla 70th Anniversary (Stokoe/Didio/Lore/Frank/Su/Gorham/Gilly/Conrad/Alterici/ Jones/Píriz/Guzowski/Kangas/Schall): To celebrate the Big Gs' 70th anniversary, IDW released an anthology featuring some of their writers and artists that have either worked with the Godzilla property or are new. There are a total of 9 stories in here so I can't talk about all of them due to time, but I will give some highlights. There're a couple of tie-ins to stories that IDW have made with Godzilla with "Half Century War" and "Gangsters and Monsters" with the former being my favorite as it looks at a cleaning crew cleaning up the damage that Godzilla caused during a fight with Hedorah. As for the original stories, they're all alright. Most of them just have Godzilla fighting another monster be it from Toho like Biollantae or Mechagodzilla, or an original monster like a giant mosquito in "Contagion" or a giant snail with lasers leading an army of monster snails in "The Big One." Other than the first story done by Stokoe, I really enjoyed the story by Matt Frank. As an introduction to his work, his art is beautiful and how he drew Godzilla in it is horrifying yet awesome at the same time and seeing the destruction in Japan goes great with the monotone coloring to show such a grizzly look to it all. The one done by Gilly and Kangas is really unique in that it's the first time a Godzilla story is set in a Western which I haven't seen before and it's such an interesting idea to work with if IDW continues with the premise. "In Summation" feels like another version of "Half Century War" to me and it's alright. I do like how all the original stories have a different interpretation with Goji in the stories, be it with a metaphor for natural disasters, wars, or greed, or by integrating it with a sense of imagination, like in the story with Sau. For a 70th anniversary, this anthology did a good job. I would like to read "Half Century War" as I heard good stuff about it in reviews and I have heard that IDW is doing another Godzilla comic universe next year, but I'm unsure if I want to be reading that universe alongside the three other comic universes that I'm reading through from the beginning already.

IDW/Boom! Studios- Godzilla vs Mighty Morphing Power Rangers II #1-5 (Bunn/Rivas): Now I have never read Boom! Studios' MMPR series or the first GvMMPR mini-series, but oh my god this mini is SO damn fun! A story about Repulsa teaming up with Astronema in leading the Psycho Rangers, now infused with the powers of Goji's enemies as they go across the multiverse, defeating any PR squad they come across as they plan to take over the multiverse. So now it's up to the Rangers, Godzilla, and Jet Jaguar to stop them and save the multiverse. This story is insane and awesome in every way with the art assisting with the cartoony feel of it all. I don't want to spoil it since I want people to go in blind. I mean c'mon, it has JET JAGUAR, the best Goji ally ever! So, what are you waiting for? Go read it! The trade for it is probably out by now! GO! GO! GO!

Dynamite- Space Ghost #1-7 (Pepose/Lau): Now my main exposure to Space Ghost other than knowing it was a failed hero cartoon series made by Hanna-Barbera during the 60s was with more widely known comedy series, "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast." The comic here starts as a retelling of Space Ghost gaining Jan, Jace, and Blip as his partners and as such we begin with their perspective on SG and knowing little on SG's origin. After an issue or two, they begin to trust him, and they work together stopping criminals across space and save people as well. The series itself is based on the original cartoon, with what I would imagine to be the episodes that were made back then, while having a silver-age feel to the stories themselves. It's a really good series honestly and just seeing these more dangerous versions of SG's villains are interesting to see, especially with Zorak and Moltar. I also just want Pepose to write an issue where it's just based on Coast to Coast, maybe make it an April Fool's issue and I would just love this series tenfold.

IDW- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (Aaron/Jones): I haven't read the original IDW run where it was like 150 issues I believe, and I just came in thinking there would be a recap, but no. The first issue is really interesting as a concept with Raph being in a prison in California, being a sort of sleeper agent on behalf of the Warden to see if any criminals are escaping or planning to. The fight with the Foot ninjas is good, but I don't know why, but I couldn't get into the series. It's not bad, but after reading this issue, I wasn't interested in picking up the rest released after, especially since it would focus on a specific turtle and where they are now. Maybe it's because I haven't read the original run and I thought if I picked that run up, I would appreciate IDW's TMNT comics more. I'm a fan of TMNT with my introduction with the 2003 animated series, the first TMNT live action movie being one of my favorite comic films ever, the 2012 animated series being my favorite TMNT cartoon series, and I picked up the first volume trade of Eastman and Laird's original run. I do hope to get into the IDW series in the future, but probably not now.

Dynamite- The Terminator #1-3 (Shalvey/Crivelli/Craker/O'Sullivan/Sparrow): As someone who loves the first two Terminator films and one of many who wanted Judgement Day to just be the finale and not continue the franchise afterwards, I went into this series simply because of the writer and the premise. The series itself would be a sort of anthological series, with the stories just lasting an issue or two of Skynet sending a terminator through historical events, which seem to be during wars from the late 60s to the 80s, taking out the parent or parents of certain soldiers of the human resistance force after Judgement Day that aren't John Connor. There's already been two stories finished: the first issue shows how unstoppable the terminators are in completing their mission as one goes to kill a couple, which takes decades to complete, even after Judgement Day. It also just shows how terrifying they are in being seemingly unstoppable they can be. The second and third issues covers a terminator sent to the end of the Vietnam War to track down and kill an American soldier as he tries to leave the country his wife and child, he got during his service there. This story was pretty good, with the second issue having the terminator taking out an army, even stopping a tank. There's also a backup story during the issues which were written by Sal from Comic Pop, which is really interesting, but the parts released are just a few pages and I don't get much from them. Good series here with a good premise, and I probably check out some other Terminator comics from Dark Horse, especially "Aliens vs Predator vs The Terminator" given how crazy it sounds.

Dynamite- Thundercats #1-10 (Shalvey/Moss/Mooney/Mulvey): I have little knowledge of Thundercats with some of it coming from a boxset owned by one of my uncles and the 2011 animated series that was cancelled after its first season. With that said, I really enjoyed this series from the writing and Moss' art. I think some of these issues are based on actual episodes, but I'm also sure there's some original stuff here too with some original characters like Apex and Slithe's son. I like how Liono faces these challenges now as he's not just aged up but is the leader of the Thundercats after they're home planet, Thundara, was destroyed and now start a new life on Third Earth, having this massive responsibility piled on him with how he was just a kid before the Thundarians fled. I also love how they add more to Third Earth and reveal that it's a prison planet for Mu'Tants that fought the Thundarians on Thundara, unless that was a thing in the animated series. Apparently, Dynamite is also releasing a Silverhawks comic series that seem to be connected to Thundercats, which is interesting as the 2011 series was also going to be connected with Silverhawks as well and perhaps Dynamite would release a Tiger Sharks series too and connect it to these series, just like how the 2011 series was going to do before it got cancelled. A really great series from Shalvey that made me buy not just The Terminator, but the Mystique mini-series from Marvel too.

And that completes all the comics I've read this year! There is still some more I've gotten, like Avengers Assemble from Marvel and JSA from DC, but I do plan on releasing Honest Thoughts posts on them next year. I'm just glad to finish this series I started back in August. Man, anxiety sucks.

[curtvilescomic]

Space Ghost by Matt Wagner

[gameraboy2]

Title production cel from Space Ghost (1966) "The Sorcerer"

[gears2gnomes]

The final hours.

[necrotic-nephilim]

@profandomhopper i was going to reblog the original post this comment was left on but i felt it divorced itself from the original topic so much, you get your own post for giving me delightful permission to ramble about this. buckle in people this is long.

so, DC is a big fandom that expanses a lot of different types of content, and like anything, is subject to crossovers. the obvious ones like Marvel are for the reason of being a similar and equally popular superhero world, so it's easy to transpose the worlds onto each other and overlap the characters. both of these worlds deal with multiverses and endless, endless heroes. it makes sense and there's no real stretch to think Batman and Spider-Man could co-exist. i mean, there have been canon crossover comics. and even some more random crossovers like White Collar have pretty easy to trace origins, being an actor in WC was a popular Dick fancast back in the day so there was some bleeding over that led to a well-loved niche crossover space.

but Danny Phantom and Miraculous Ladybug are where it gets interesting. because at a surface, MLB sort of makes sense. it's a superhero world, you're following a teen girl superhero and sure the mechanics are pretty contained, but the crossover should make sense. but when you compare it to the crossover numbers of other superhero media like say My Hero Academia, Ladybug takes the *crown* with such a bizarre popularity. and of course, DP feels like it makes even less sense. sure, you *could* lump it into at the very least, superhero-adjacent media, but it's not a true hero world like MLB or DC is.

but, the thing to always understand about DC, *especially* the Batfamily (which is where the crossover content propagates the most) is this: a *very* good chunk of fans don't interact with the comics. i would venture to say even most Batfamily fans don't read the comics and actively talk about it. we've all read a very fandom big Batfam fanfic where the author's note mentions the writer has never touched a comic in their life. typically, these fans are either cobbling together their understanding from fandom content, or by frankensteining unrelated DC adaptations to understand each character. you take Bruce from Batman: TAS, you take Dick from the animated Young Justice, you take Jason from Batman: Under The Red Hood animated movie, you take Damian from the DCAMU Batman vs Robin, and you read some fandom metas to fill in the rest and well, you've got some sort of an understanding of these characters. read enough incorrect quotes, some genfic, a couple of character metas, and boom, you understand the Batfamily fandom enough to start creating your own content. and of course now. now you have Wayne Family Adventures so it's even *easier*. a pretty easy to pick up webtoon that's filling in all the gaps for you. but i've been in this fandom long enough to remember before we had WFA and even then, this was still a common, if not the most popular way, to ween yourself into the DC fandom space. you cherry-picked the canon you liked and then plunged into the depths of fanon.

i'm not here to make in depth commentary on if i think this is a good or bad thing. trust me i have that commentary in my head, but that would need it's own post. i'm very split on it and my feelings are complicated. my feelings on WFA are even *more* complicated. because oftentimes, the attitude expressed by these fans who are frankensteining this version of the Batfamily/DC world they have in their head is they don't *want* to read the comics. the comics don't contain the content they're after. and to an extent, i understand that. if you're looking for light-hearted vibes of the Batfamily all getting along and having the occasional hurt/comfort moments but in the end, they hug and make up, you're right. largely, you won't find that in canon. of course there are so many comics to recommend for Batfamily interactions, but you have to get specific. you'll find them interacting in small groups, Tim and Dick bonding here, Duke and Cass bonding there, but largely, the comics don't care to balance the ridiculously large cast they've given themselves. but fandom does. it's easy to toss them all in a blender and ignore the parts you don't like. the default argument to ignoring the comics or writing something OOC is always "well the comics are OOC and inconsistent too" which, while a flawed argument that massively misunderstand how comics work as a medium, isn't an entirely incorrect one. you could serve on a silver platter to these fans, an easy and accessible way to get into comics and they wouldn't be interested. it's not what they're here for. fandom is always character-driven above all else. it's driven by character relationships and dynamics. if someone wants to consume content where Tim idolized and stalked Jason as 'his Robin' and now is trying to help him rehabilitate and they're super complicated but have this long epic forgiveness arc, why *would* they read the comics? because they're sure as shit not going to find that dynamic in the comics. it's laughably OOC and not canon at all, but that doesn't matter. what matters is the sandbox. most Batfamily fans care *far* more about the sandbox canon gives them than the actual canon itself. feel how you feel about that, this really isn't being negative toward that attitude, but it is a common attitude.

so, you have Batfamily fans playing in the sandbox and building their own narrative. common fandom headcanons are so common, you could practically write a guide on how the fanon Batfamily works with how consistent people are about it. or you could just read WFA, which is practically the new manifesto of it. even now, with this sudden spike in people talking about canon accuracy and "actually this happening in the comics", they don't actually care about the comics, just what they can cherry-pick for fodder. (even if they rob it of so much context they're just as OOC as they were before. see specifically: the recent phenomena with Tim Drake going from the woobified weakest member of the Batfam who everyone needs to save constantly and he's the smart boy but he's also the one with a sad tragic neglectful past who gets overlooked being the way Batfamily fandom played with Tim for years. but recently, people seem to be pushing this idea of a ridiculously badass Tim, Tim who *totally* has a kill count because of his actions in RR (2009) if you take them completely out of context, Tim who bested Ra's and is even more badass than Jason and he's the 17 yr old CEO of Wayne Industries being cool and flawless it becoming the new fandom zeitgeist. neither of these versions of Tim are canon, and the second fundamentally misunderstands his arc in RR (2009) but the shift has undeniably happened and it's been fascinating to watch. the same thing happened with people suddenly deciding Jason isn't the "angry violent Robin", he was a sunshine sweet boy who was perfect as Robin. neither of these are true, but the second feels more transgressive and new to fandom from cherry-picked panels.) the point is largely, Batfamily fans would rather build their own canon than play with the actual canon.

and then, you have Danny Phantom. i'm not into DP and have no interest to get into it, but what i know about it via fandom osmosis is this: DP fans sort of also don't give a fuck about canon. once again, the canon of DP is a sandbox, not a rulebook. the concepts and the characters are the draw, not the plot itself. i've seen DP posts explaining characters who are essentially OCs, but have become so dominant in the fandom via fandom osmosis. there are concepts and ideas about how Danny's powers work and potential concepts with his ghost nature that either aren't in canon or only happened once in canon and fans decided to expand on that and doesn't care about it's own in-universe logic. i've seen a lot of DP fans also express they haven't seen the show and they don't have plans to see the show. because the show is just some children's cartoon with some inconsistencies and a simple plot, as you'd expect from CN. the show isn't the point. no one cares about it's plot, they care about it's characters. they care about pushing the concept of half ghost boy to a logical extreme and seeing what you can get out of that. can you make it weird and fucked up. how much can you highlight on his trauma and body horror. what identity crisis can you give him and how can you build his interactions with other characters in his world around that and also make those characters fun and unique on their own. sure, the skeleton of canon is there, but the meat lies all in the fanon.

Miraculous Ladybug also exists in this similar vein. the characters, the concepts, those hold intrigue. and not even mentioning the fact the original concept for this show was supposed to be aimed to an older audience, so you can see the bones of something a bit more mature and nuanced under this typical, villain of the week magical girl transformation show. the show itself is a bit shallow and that's not a *bad* thing, it's just the medium it exists within being aimed towards children. but the concepts of a teen girl who's basically a sort of chosen one, a boy who doesn't know his father is the big bad of the show, and their weird identity porn love... square thing. those dynamics are *so* complicated and such a fun sandbox to play in with character-driven fandom.

so, at the core, you have three fandoms that care more about the culturally accepted fanon than the canon, with a good chunk of people often not even consuming the original canon content. and well, DC is an *easy* world to transpose just about anything onto. a boy who's half ghost and fighting supernatural threats? that makes sense, DC has ghost heroes like Deadman already. a girl who has this magical item that gives her animal themed superpowers? i mean that's practically the same thing as Vixen's Totem so that one makes sense too. they fit in pretty easy, no needing to change the world to accommodate them. and of course, if you're a fan of *one* fandom where you don't care for the canon content and only like the fandom sandbox, chances are, you'll get drawn in pretty easily to another fandom with similar mechanics. if you can teach yourself the DP fandom rules/concepts, you can teach yourself the Batfamily fandom rules/concepts. and well, since there's so much crossover in fandom members, why not write the fanfiction? crossover fics will always exist, but with such a shared member base, you have a really big boom.

it's why the characters you see DP interact with in DC are *always* characters who are far more driven by fanon than canon. Danny and John Constantine is a *massive* concept. for people who don't read Hellblazer comics. my poor partner, @divine-dominion has lamented to me pretty often about finding DP content in the Hellblazer tag that is essentially turning Constantine into an OC. because whatever version of Constantine is being written about isn't one bit comics accurate, and really, isn't trying to be. and the same thing happens with Shazam. you watch Young Justice and understand him well enough, you get drawn in by the character concept that you just run with it. people put their favorite blorbos in the same place because hey, wouldn't ghost boy be pretty cool in a city like *Gotham*. how would Batman even react to him. and then, the shipping. because ages for the Batfamily can be easily hand-waved and moved around based on where you plop Danny into the timeline, you have your pick of the litter with him, and same with Ladybug. of course there are the most popular ships but largely, the world is your oyster.

i don't think this is the worst thing in the world for either fandom. it's not hard to filter out the crossover tags and scroll past content i don't like. and sure, i see the appeal of making your blorbos from two different places meet. i've got my drafts *full* of DC/MHA crossover ideas because well, i like them both and think that would be cool. i think my only gripe with it is when DP or MLB crossover content seeps it's way into the wrong tags. using the above example, if you're writing about Danny and Constantine but there's zero content of the actual Hellblazer comics, i don't think you need the Hellblazer tag, just the Constantine character tag. tbh i wish this extended onto Ao3 and people utilized fandom tags better. if you're writing Batfamily fanfiction that is very clearly and obviously WFA driven in characterization and concepts, i would far prefer those fics be tagged with the WFA fandom tag rather than the Batman (comics) fandom tag. because well, you're not writing about the Batman comics. and there's nothing wrong with that, but it helps if you don't confuse yourself for content striving to interact with canon more. (this especially extends to Young Justice, by the way. if you're writing for the Young Justice tv show please, please stop using the Young Justice (comics) fandom tag. i'm at my wit's end- /lh)

the whole thing is fascinating. i've got zero interest in entering DP or MLB as fandoms because that's not my speed, but witnessing it as an outsider is my favorite pastime. i see a *lot* of posts going around the DC x DP space that are helping explain to people who's who, what's what, and understanding the canon/fanon of both of these properties so others can better enter the space. which is not something you'd need in a fandom driven only by it's canon content, but it is sweet watching others try to help newbies enter the space. it's a very inviting fandom space, i think, whether you lament it's existence or not. they're just sitting in their corner with their blorbos, and i gotta respect that. the posts explaining the Batfamily to DP fans are always fun for me to read, even if i disagree with some of the characterizations in them because it helps shine a light on what the fans of this crossover regard as "important" enough about each fandom to be worth including those sorts of primers. very fascinating stuff.

[current-comix]

[omnybus]

ADC - Jax's Tank

Originally posted on my Patreon.

Original dialogue from "The Brak Show". Jax makes a decent Zorak I think.

[evilhorse]

Space Ghost (Volume 4) #5

[sheepb1t]

Unfortunately I am Incredibly predictable when it comes to which characters I gravitate towards

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Scooby-Doo Meets Space Ghost!

Art by Alex Toth

[seeksstaronmewni]

Almost 4 years after the Freakazoid! crossover "Hugbees", Teen Titans GO! pulled ANOTHER surprise crossover... this time with Loonatics Unleashed!

...sort of

Episode "UNLEASHED"

STORYBOARD: BRANKO KLJAJIC, CHRIS MARTIN

LEAD CHARACTER DESIGN: MARINA GARDNER, JUNPEI TAKAYAMA

CHARACTER DESIGN: RILEY PHILLIPS

CHARACTER CLEAN UP: SARA ANDERSON, PABLO BERMUDEZ

Tweet version here.

This made for quite a Saturday morning lineup on Cartoon Network yesterday and I could not sleep on it... I pity those who did

I mean; this is legit Andy Merrill right here

...or maybe you were just eating breakfast/brunch while this stuff was on CN

Tweet of additional comment here.

[sad-catbrick]

Newest comic… done!!

[goddessofbees]

@acediaooc ur comment may have inspired this, Amazing idea 10/10

[dailydccomics]

“think of something scary, Hal” and its just Bruce lmao

[greetingsfromghostplanet]

I'm one again asking people to check out and or catch up on my Toonami & Space Ghost crossover fanfiction because it updates 4 pages daily and and tomorrows pages will have a doozy of a plot twist

[current-comix]