#tom kaczynski

10,000 Years from Mome Vol. 8

“Are You Still Talking About This?”

Cartoon Dialectics Vol. 2, No. 3 (July 2022)

Tom Kaczynski

by Donny Cates, Tradd Moore, Dave Stewart

I’ve read a lot of Silver Surfer comics. He is one of my favorite Marvel characters. I always try to see what’s up with the character, especially when there’s a new series. Generally speaking the Surfer is not very well handled. 

Even the original creators didn’t really know what to do with him. After Surfer’s amazing first appearance and story (Fantastic Four #48-50) he was always kind of mis-used. The first Silver Surfer series by Stan Lee & John Buscema is pretty dull. The Surfer, trapped on earth by Galactus, travels around and mopes. His dialogue (actually mostly monologue) is painful to read. Kirby takes the series over for one issue, but it’s not enough to push him in a new direction. The series was cancelled after Kirby’s issue. Stan Lee hobbled the character by ‘reserving’ him for himself. No one could really do anything interesting with the character without Stan Lee’s say so. The first real interesting development of the character didn’t happen until 1987. Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers teamed up on a new Silver Surfer series. This is the golden age for the character. Englehart freed the Surfer from being Earth bound and unleashed him as a character. In the first 12 issues of that series, Surfer and Mantis struggle against the Elders of the Universe as they plot to kill Galactus. It’s is a high water mark for the character. The series lasted for over 100 issues, went through a number of writers (with a memorable run by Jim Starlin) and artists, and eventually petered out. Since then we haven’t seen much new with the Surfer. Occasional guest appearances, a limited series here and there. Most recently the series by Dan Slott & Mike Allred seemed to want to revisit the triumphs of Englehart and Rogers by giving surfer a human companion (like Mantis in the Englehart run… or like Dr. Who’s companions!) and took the character into more camp territory… with uneven results.

I don’t really know where Silver Surfer Black is going yet. I like the art. I only recently discovered Tradd Moore’s work in The New World (Image, with Ales Kot). I really enjoyed the first couple of issues. I like the way he draws.

There’s a barely restrained surrealist/trippy component to his drawings. The Silver Surfer series seems designed bring that element out in force. There are a lot of psychedelic flourishes, unusual angles, expressionistic renderings, complex layouts, etc. Moore seems to be really having fun here. There’s a surreal fluidity to everything. Everything is flows, undulates, and bubbles like… a lava lamp. There’s not much to the story… at least so far…

This series seems to be following on some big events involving the Guardians of the Galaxy & Thanos. I didn’t read the series so I don’t really know what’s going on. It doesn’t seem to matter. The opening sequence is designed to get rid of all the other characters, and to get Surfer to be on his own. Surfer & others are trapped in a black hole. Surfer uses his power to save everyone, but because he uses too much power to accomplish this, he gets sucked back into the singularity. He floats in darkness for what seems to be eons, until he stumbles onto some dark planet. The inhabitants are three guardians protecting a tower.

The design of the guardians let’s Tradd Moore get really expressive. The costumes are baroque, flamboyant, excessive; reminiscent of the most excessive aristocratic costumes of European Renaissance. All this reminds me of Druillet. His Lone Slone series is dense with medieval designs blown up into massive spaceships and complex armor. Tradd Moore seems to be treading similar territory, but there’s a clarity of line and form that brings to mind animation and Manga.

Surfer is determined to get past the guardians… and he does, only to be confronted with ‘Knull’ (null… oh right we’re in a black hole… the ultimate nullifier) another massive character, with massive flowing armor, and a super-massive sword covered in red goo. Who knows where this is going? I’m on board for now.

No Surfer series would be complete without a recap of Surfers origin. We have to be reminded of his cold-blooded service to Galactus, his complicity in the killing of trillions of lives… and witness his constant guilt and hand wringing.

One more note: the introductory paragraph that describes the Surfer on the credit page (and this is something that all Marvel comics have now, a film-like credits page) says that he is ‘coated with galactic glaze’. I’ve never heard his silver skin referred to in that way before. Is this official cannon? It made me hungry for glazed donuts.

Tom K

“Retromania”

Cartoon Dialectics #3 (Fall 2020)

Tom Kaczynski

“Intense Home Sickness”

Cartoon Dialectics #3 (Fall 2020)

Tom Kaczynski

“I Didn’t Even Notice”

Cartoon Dialectics #2 (October 2020)

Tom Kaczynski

“Many Times!”

Cartoon Dialectics #2 (October 2020)

Tom Kaczynski