The Dark Dominion title published by Defiant Comics in the 90s (and now in the bargin bin) only lasted 11 issues.

1 to 10 were comic published.

But issue 0 was a card set that formed a comic if you got all the cards.

It follows the adventures of Michael Alexander and his battles in the Quantum Field with monsters. These monsters feed upon people’s fears and negative emotions.

The setting is New York and the fact that there is a lot of negative activity in this city. It’s true is it not?

They had a rotation of artists though, but issues 1-3 and 5 with the Joe James art was fantastic! A shame this guy doesn’t do more art work. He is really talented.

Also the painted coloring really stands out and delivers a nice feel to the book.

We also get to see J.G. Jones art, way before he became Marvel famous.

Very good stuff from him.

Just when the series starts to roll though it ends with issue 10.

The good news though it’s not many issues to collect. So it you see it, give it a try.

Especially issues 1 to 3. It’s a continued storyline.

By now, you have probably heard the news. But President Barack Obama will be in Amazing Spider-Man #583 and meet Spider-Man.

I think, while Marvel editor in chief Quasada said it’s non-partisan.

This post is not about Obama, as much as it is about the idea of using superheroes, much less icon characters, to portray a dicey subject like political sides.

Dealing with a subject like politics in the real world is divisive enough. Do we really need to add superheroes to that mix?

One of Stan Lee’s staff in the 1960’s when they were creating, what we now call “the Marvel Age of comics” was Stan Goldberg.

Among Stan Goldberg’s jobs at Marvel was to be the head of the coloring department.

And it makes me wonder, when the likes of Kirby, Ditko and the other talented artists were creating their famous characters, did they color them in how they should look?

Or was the “how should this characters costume be colored” left up to Stan Lee and / or Stan Goldberg in particular?

And if Goldberg did in fact DECIDE the color of certain characters and costumes. Should he not be given a creative credit?

Sure a character might have a great visual and no color. But the person who decides the color of that characters costume, has in fact created something to the artistic mix.

One clear example is Goldberg’s contribution to the Hulk. The Hulk is famously Green BECAUSE of Goldberg.

I recall the Stan Lee story of how the Hulk was originally Gray. But the coloring back then of gray was inconsistent. Lee asked, what was a color the printer could handle.

The answer was Green. And just like that Stan Lee basically said to roll with it. And Green it was.

I think a colorist, is in fact a co-creator of a character. Especially if the artist / character designer, did not assign colors for their creation.

Who knows how visually different Marvel characters would look, if not for Stan Goldberg’s colors.

I think he was gifted in this field, because I look at DC Comics and the colors they used on the Kirby New Gods for example, and most of the color costume choices in my opinion are very ugly.

Read more about Stan Goldberg in the link below.

Published by Defiant Comics (and now in comic fodder bins)

Charlemagne standing for Charles the Great.

If you see the first issue in a bin, PICK THIS UP! It is one of the best origins and first issues I’ve read in a long time. It is that good!

I thought a book like this from the name, or look would not hold my interest. I could not be more wrong.

Meet Charles Smith, just a kid from middle America on a quest to find his brother in Vietnam back in the ’70’s.

What emerges by issues end is a Noble Hero.

What strikes me even more then the solid writing. By one D.G. Chichester, whose Marvel work didn’t surprise me, but here he shined.

Was the art by Adam Pollina, his art was fantastic back then. I did not know he could be this good.

Which is a shame cause I was used to seeing his art, that he drew later in X-force and I did not like it. His X-force style was all 90’s muscles, and weird proportions.

So ironic that his earlier work was so much better. None of the crazy proportions. Just telling a straight story. Maybe it was the Jim Shooter factor of getting his creative crew to just tell the story, and not rely on being overly fancy that worked in good favor here.

Charlemagne lasted only 5 issues. 1 to 5 with a 0 issue in Hero Illustrated magazine number 9.

If you see an issue, give it a try. Especially the first issue.

I noticed in a recent convention I bought some cheap bin Image books, and I only discovered checking up later that I had the book already in my collection. That there was a different variant cover used.

Basically with variants, after the book is old, when you search bins, you can get confused and buy the same copies of books you already had! That really sucks when you think about it. And the cause of the confusion is simple, a variant cover is used. But what makes it worse is that it’s now common for books to have four or five covers an issue.