Thursday, July 19, 2012

The Master Of Time!


The DC Showcase volume for Rip Hunter, Time Master is one I've been very eager to see. I've read only a tiny few Rip Hunter stories, but they always seemed like good solid pulpish adventure written by the criminally neglected Jack Miller.

But when I finally got my mitts on a copy and got to leafing through the pages, I was blown away by the extreme high quality of the artwork. Ruben Moreira kicks off the series in Showcase and is followed by Mike Sekowsky and Joe Kubert. Then in the regular series the Ross Andru and Mike Esposito team take several issues before giving way to Nick Cardy for one and Alex Toth for two. Then a new name appears, at least a name I've never encountered to my memory. William "Bill" Ely takes the reins and I must say this veteran artist is rock solid through the balance of the stories in this collection.

Given the range of artists, this is one of the strongest Showcase volumes I've seen. The Alex Toth pages are utterly gorgeous and look outstanding in black and white. And I can't really say I see a weak page in the whole five hundred plus page package. That's simply amazing and speaks to the extremely good talent DC employed once upon a time.

I've not read a single page yet, but just looking at them, I have to highly recommend this classy reprint package. Below are the issues included in the volume. Ironically titled, this package is a trip back in time, to a period when DC Comics was at the top of its game.




















And here the rest of the Rip Hunter covers. These issues are not yet collected, but hopefully they will be sooner than later. Note how in these issues Rip and his gang have adopted ginchy green uniforms, making them visually more like the Challengers of the Unknown and The Blackhawks.















Rip Off

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