Martian Manhunter: American Secrets

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HOMINA HOMINA HOMINA.

Darwyn Cooke made a passing mention of this as one of his reference points for the Martian Manhunter stuff in New Frontier. I finally scored all three issues (and might be able to G'mail), and I'm only halfway through the second issue, but it's super good.
Written by Gerard Jones and just amazing drawn by Eduardo Barreto (very likely his best ever work), it's got everything you'd ever want in a Martian Manhunter story. GIANT LIZARDS, beatniks, Wm. Gaines stand-in, quiz shows, rock&roll, Vegas, Suburbia, NOIR SCI FI HOPPITY HOPPITY SO GOOD I DON'T WANT TO FINISH READING IT.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 19:09 (twenty years ago)

(er, please fix thread title to AmericaN Secrets) thx

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 19:10 (twenty years ago)

When did this come out?

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 19:15 (twenty years ago)

1992!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/4409/200/4409_2_1.jpg http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/4409/200/4409_2_2.jpg http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/4409/200/4409_2_3.jpg

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

Please tell me that the dames on those covers are actually Martian Manhunter.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

Ssssshhhhh...that's the secret!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

http://wilbraham.com/shop/zg032.jpg

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 20:04 (twenty years ago)

O HUK PLZ TO GMAIL ME

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

omg want

― tom west (thomp), Tuesday, 6 September 2005 23:08 (twenty years ago)

I remember reading this when it came out! I enjoyed the first two issues much more than the final one, only because it had a great atmosphere going before the villain's plot was revealed, all sinister secrets and menacing mystery and stuff. Agreed, Barreto's art is REALLY good in this series.

― Chris F. (servoret), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 02:59 (twenty years ago)

Ack. Files may be too large for Gmail. It's a prestige format mini, and the first issue is sitting at around 28,000 kb, and Gmail's limit is 10 MB, which is 10,000 kb. This deserves to be seen, though!
We must find a way.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:35 (twenty years ago)

ysi to Huk.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:41 (twenty years ago)

I'm such a fruggin' Luddite.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:44 (twenty years ago)

Also, with ysi I can totally leech this stuff.

HAHAHA!

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

Okay, found it. That looks simple enough for me to operate.

xpost

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

Huk, if you YSI it, and I D/L it, I can host it, if need be.

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:48 (twenty years ago)

Or you guys could just get it from the same place I did (Zatanna's CULT on the FM dial).

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:53 (twenty years ago)

I don't remember Gerard Jones too fondly (except "Mosaic", which was a fabulous and stupid comic) -- is this better than his other stuff?

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 13:58 (twenty years ago)

Like Chris F. said, it's all about atmosphere, and I think, for the most part, Jones just gets out of the way and lets his ideas go hogwild.
Didn't Jones burn out or something after he was writing every single comic DC published and Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight was a roman a clef about that?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

IIRC, GJ was responsible for comic's first grad student supervillain, Deconstructo! (I think he writes "Meaning is Dead" or something on the walls of the JLE embassy. Then Metamorpho beats him to a crisp.)

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:32 (twenty years ago)

YES.
Jones's post-Giffen JLE is pretty good stuff, full of pretty neat-o ideas like Deconstructo, and some weird addressing of gender roles (JLE descends into a CAVE and the men are turned into beasts, leaving Wonder Woman and Power Girl to save the day without fisticuffs!).
It, of course, suffers from following the Giffen run (though Jones had long been on JLE with Giffen, no?) and having characters nobody cares about wearing terrible costumes.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 15:38 (twenty years ago)

YSI'd to Monsieur Blount.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 20:54 (twenty years ago)

yeah Jones filled in the word balloons on JLI and JLQ whenever DeMatteis didn't (ie most of the time)

― kit brash (kit brash), Thursday, 8 September 2005 02:25 (twenty years ago)

huk you totally rule. that totally capped what was already a pretty awesome day - i had a really good sandwich at lunch, i saw 40 yr old virgin which totally ruled - insanely funny, a joke at aquaman's expense in it (possibly two), it also had this insanely hot chick in it who plays a 16 yr old and afterwards i was like 'o man, i hope i'm not perving on some 16 yr old' and i wasn't - i was only perving on a 19 yr old! a 19 yr old who apparently loves the modern lovers (me too!) and thinks lolita is 'fanfuckingtastic' (me too!). and then after work i got in my car and the radio starts to play the futureheads cover of 'hounds of love' which i love and what're the odds the college radio station's gonna be playing something i love and then it ends and some meh comes on so i flip to the classic rock station and a joe cocker song i love starts and what're the odds some joe cocker song i love is gonna be on the radio at that second and then i get home a crack open a dr. brown's cream soda and put a tombstone pepperoni thin crust pizza in the oven and check my email and i got an email from this girl i've been planting the seed with asking me to get a drink with her tomorrow and an email from huk ysiing me something for my j'onzz jones so woohoo rock n roll motherfuckers. here's the ysi link for everybodys - http://s8.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0T26HUOVJOMSD22ZIDZ4FV59ET

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 8 September 2005 05:19 (twenty years ago)

Haha! Thanks Huk n' Blount, I checked out the first couple pages this morning, this looks great.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 8 September 2005 12:35 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, thanks. This was the impetus I needed to finally install and learn to used CDisplay, which means I'll probably be hooked on fileshared comics now, too.

Which is important, because I don't want to accidentally start being productive.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Thursday, 8 September 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

I'll get parts 2 & 3 up in about 7 hours.

I suppose we should start a YSI request and announcement thread?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Thursday, 8 September 2005 14:01 (twenty years ago)

It's the first cbr I've looked at in awhile and it's great -- hardly any scrolling necessary!

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 8 September 2005 14:03 (twenty years ago)

So what is the program that one needs to read these? (i've never done the whole computer/comics thing...)

― dave k, Thursday, 8 September 2005 14:23 (twenty years ago)

CDisplay, download (free) here:
http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/CDisplay

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Thursday, 8 September 2005 14:24 (twenty years ago)

I finished that first one, sooo good.

MORE, PLS.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 9 September 2005 21:31 (twenty years ago)

Second one is up on the YSI thread.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Saturday, 10 September 2005 21:32 (twenty years ago)

#3 (I still haven't finished reading #2!) will be posted in the YSI thread momentarily.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Sunday, 11 September 2005 20:49 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

Finally finished the series. Loved the ending, now I want to see Darwyn Cooke pick up MM and do a post-AS mini about MM: Beatnik. Definitely parts in #3 that sag as plot semi-resolves and things get explained. Still, I think this is a beautiful comic that has been unjustly forgotten.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 30 September 2005 18:02 (twenty years ago)

uh... any chance you might ysi that stuff again?

...did you just say MM: BEATNIK??

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 30 September 2005 18:24 (twenty years ago)

I'll ysi it directly to you when I get home, later this afternoon. Do you need all three?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 30 September 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

yeah! thanks! when you posted them the first time my download got screwy for some reason!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 30 September 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

Expect within 2, 2.5 hours.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 30 September 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

Er, shit. Forgot. Not at home. Will YSI to you this weekend sometime. Promise. Sorry.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Saturday, 1 October 2005 17:12 (twenty years ago)

HUUUUU-UHHHHKK!!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 2 October 2005 18:00 (twenty years ago)

FUCK! Fucking hell on wheels weekend. Fuck fuck. I PROMISE I'LL GMAIL YOU YOUR FREE COMIC BY MIDNIGHT MOUNTAIN TIME TODAY.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 3 October 2005 13:51 (twenty years ago)

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