and more pics below!
Last night’s MKE Comicbook meetup was a real peach, or I should say, a real “plum”?! 🙂 What started as a lark of a suggestion was taken literally and last night our theme of discussion was comicbooks and the color purple – to be interpreted as each person saw fit. What resulted was a neat examination of how often this color >does< show up in costumes/comics/bad coloring/great coloring/dark comics/hilarious comics!
Don’s purple favorites included the oft-mentioned Hawkeye (whose classic costume is purple, and a specific issue that really seemed to lean heavily on this color), the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy (where the planet-eating Galactus (and his purple costume) are interpreted as a swarm of galaxy-spanning robots) and “This One Summer” (a nicely drawn “coming of age” graphic novel colored in a variety of blue/purple tones).
Luke showcased “Sentinel“, a 2003 McKeever/Udon series from Marvel – a fun story about a boy and his giant, purple, killer-robot-turned-friend. What made Sentinel especially neat is that it was set in Antigo, WI! Luke also showed off his recently acquired “2001: A Space Odyssey” series from 1977, which featured the purple-costumed X-51 – the Machine Man.
Skrauss brought a few late-70s/early-80s beauties. His 1976 issue of “Challengers of the Unknown” featured the Challengers’ purple uniforms, and guest appearances by Henry Kissinger and Gerald Ford, and the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle! A 1980 Superboy had Supes traveling to a “duplicate world” where his house is PURPLE, there was a strange, purple burrowing machine called the Ground-Guzzler, and Supes battled a giant purple ant! Justice League of America 189, (1981), featured the villainy of Starro the Conqueror – the giant, intergalactic, mind-controlling, planet-defeating, purple starfish!
Shawn brought a cool variety of books. The current Black Science, written by Remender, and featuring parallel-universe traveling had a scene featuring giant tortoises with Aztec temples on their backs, trudging through a purple-hued lightning storm! He also brought All-Star Western Vol 5, which featured an appearance by the garishly-green Swamp-Thing and wish-granting, purple-tinted Black-Mercy Flower. His volume of Black Panther: Four the Hard Way had in its pages the previously-mentioned Galactus, but this planet-eater was actually zombified Marvel superheroes! His final book to include was Chew Vol. 1, wherein the detective hero’s favorite food happens to be beets!
I brought a few books, too. I focused on the art of the books – Planetary #17 with a purple cover, told a great tale featuring a sort-of Tarzan character and exploring of deep, dark jungles and secret civilizations. I brought Uncanny X-Force for its heavy, deep-toned palette, which often held various tones of purple/pink/red/blue and excellent artwork from Jerome Opena. My last inclusion was a volume of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip’s modern noir – “Criminal: Lawless“, featuring a heavy-on-the-purple cover.
After our sharing of books, Don treated us to another great trivia contest with topics like “The Color Purple”, “Hawkeye”, “Parasite”, and “Galactus”!
