His Word!

Big Apple Comix #1 and only was the brainchild of Flo Steinberg, the longtime staffer at Marvel Comics in its heyday. It's a ground-level comic book sporting a dynamic Wally Wood cover, with work by a number of folks including Herb Trimpe, Mike Ploog, Neal Adams, Marie Severin, Alan Weiss, and others. Wood contributed greatly not least of which was his revisiting the EC classic story "My World" from Weird Science #22 (see yesterday's post) and offered up this raunchier updated sardonic variation dubbed merely "My Word".

It's a far different world envisioned here, the implacable optimism of mankind's eventual conquest of the universe replaced by the humbled desire to get through day-to-day modern life.  "My World" looked outward towards possibilities while "My Word" looks inward at limitations.

In addition to the cover and the three page reflection Wally Wood also inked a piece in the little comic anthology. "Lots Yox" was drawn by Herb Trimpe and featured some particularly crafted biplanes taking on a rather familiar  target. There's a second page to this story which reveals that all is not as it seems. It's a good reason to scout up a copy of Big Apple #1 if you can.

"My Word" has been reprinted a few times. Most recently I picked it up in The Erotic Art of Wally Wood.

Note: This post originally appeared at Rip Jagger's Other Dojo. I will be transferring some of those posts over here as the month goes on. 

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100 Days Of The King - Day 54

Arguably the wackiest story that Stan "The Man" Lee and Jack "King" Kirby ever worked on together was the totally bizarre and utterly fascinating yarn which postulated an alternate universe in which the Fantastic Four was comprised of four different individuals, specifically members of the Marvel Bullpen itself. In a spectacle of fourth wall breakage Stan and Jack tell us about what might have happened if they along with Sol Brodsky and Flo Steinberg that become the Fab 4.

Issue number eleven of What If begins as almost all of them do with the enigmatic Watcher giving us the lowdown on the story we are about to read. Typically he describes the Marvel Universe status quo then suggests the alternative details which will trigger the narrative. In this instance cosmic rays invade the confines of the Marvel editorial offices and Stan, Jack, Flo and Sol get hit and mutate accordingly.

Here's what it looked like when Jack Kirby transmuted into his particular Thing form, or more properly from it. It's neat to see the old Kirby details on the Fab 4 again as Kirby was quite specific in his mid 70's return not to do more FF stories. He did some great covers and this issue along with this gem of a story and that makes it all the more precious. For more pages of this epic check out his link.

And it seems that all  had been forgiven (if not forgotten) since Jack presented to the world his "loving" spin on Stan's public persona in the form of Funky Flashman some years before in the pages of Mister Miracle.

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