from Daily Bugle #1 (Marvel, December 1996), script by Paul Grist, pencils by Karl Kerschl, inks by Greg Adams, letters by Jim Novak
Speaking of pretty good, often-overlooked J. Jonah Jameson stories, the 1996 miniseries The Daily Bugle is a lovely short series focusing on the journalists of that fine metropolitan newspaper, with nary an appearance by our friendly neighborhood web-slinger. It's about as real as Marvel Comics get, including that issue of Punisher: War Journal where Frank had to wait in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles for a whole issue.
cover of Daily Bugle #1 (Marvel, December 1996), pencils by Karl Kerschl, inks by Greg Adams
Like your local newspaper somewhere back in the twentieth century, the whole series is in glorious black and white, which gives it a cool-real noir look. And the script's by Paul Grist — I like his comics artwork a lot, especially Doctor Who and St. Swithin's Day, as well as being the writer and artist on the absolutely wonderful Jack Staff. Artwork here is by Karl Kerschl and Greg Adams:
As far as I know, The Daily Bugle #1-3 have never been collected into a trade, and I'm not sure if they're currently on Marvel Unlimited. But this little stuffed comics guy gives the miniseries two hooves up, and they're well worth hunting down in the back issue boxes of your local comic book shop. Tell 'em J. Jonah Jameson sent you, and also demand photographs of Spider-Man!
I got this mini when it came out. Loved the idea of the B&W artwork but Kerschl got waaayyyy better down the line. While Grist's Jack Staff is really good, fun stuff — especially, I'm sure, for British comics readers or Anglophiles who are British-comics readers — in my humble opinion Kane is his masterpiece, a B&W tour de force of elegantly simple, bold sequential art right up there with the best of Eisner, Toth, and Krigstein.
ReplyDeletePS: You went interdimensional-crossover with a typo in that last paragraph.
ReplyDeleteYes I did! "Planet" corrected to "Bugle" now, thanks!
ReplyDeleteMan, Ben Urich needs a copy editor. Never mind the spurious "is" in this sentence, or the missing/misplaced "from" near the end (which totally inverts the meaning of the clause). The real crime is that the first half contains THREE "to"s, which feels excessive:
ReplyDelete"This Bill is intends to give new powers to the police to kerb illegal activities such as pornography, and to keep people profiting from their involvement in these criminal acts."
If only Ben had gone straight to a more competent writer, they could've supplied a quick punch-up like,
"This Bill intends to give the police new powers to kerb illegal activities such as pornography, and to keep people from profiting off their involvement in these criminal acts."