Buyer's Remorse: Dazzler

Bill Sienkiewicz's Cover for
The New Mutants (vol.1) Issue #18

I was a young comic collector when Marvel first published The New Mutants, and I quickly grew to admire Bill Sienkiewicz's run on the series.

"Claremont gave the series a darker tone, which was heightened with the arrival of artist Bill Sienkiewicz.

"Sienkiewicz's avant garde art style and painted covers broke though the conventional comic book boundaries of the day and helped The New Mutants stand out on the shelf" (source).

Bill Sienkiewicz's Art on Page #1
of Issue #18

I particularly loved Sienkiewicz's art on The Demon Bear issues featuring Danielle Moonstar (upon which, apparently, the upcoming New Mutants movie is based).

There is good art, and then there is astounding art, and Sienkiewicz' art on The New Mutants was the latter.

In my youthful naivete, however, I initially assumed that the art on the cover of a comic was by the same artist as the art on the inside of the magazine.

Bill Sienkiewicz's Cover for
Dazzler: The Movie (1982)

Under this assumption, I purchased the Marvel Graphic Novel Dazzler: The Movie.

Page #1 from Dazzler: The Movie

Imagine my dismay going from intense, dark, & brooding Sienkiewicz on the outside to the Barbie doll depiction of Alison Blaire by Frank Springer on the inside.

I made this assumption far too many times in my youth. Here's a Beauty & the Beast example (starring Dazzler and the Beast from the X-Men):

(Sienkiewicz Outside/Don Perlin Inside)

Bill Sienkiewicz's Cover for
Beauty & the Beast (1985) #1

Interior Art from Issue #1 of
Beauty & the Beast (1985)

I finally did learn to flip open every mag I hoped to purchase, but back in the days of mail order subscriptions, one didn't have the option to peruse the interiors as one has online now. And, there just weren't that many comic book shops around to visit in person.

Still, there's a part of me that wishes the exteriors and interiors on each issue would match, if not by the same artist, at least in the same artistic style. I always feel a little conned when I love the cover of a book by a different artist (whom I may not like).

This Blog's Purport... Part 2

My brother, Dan, and I collected Neal Adams' Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow comics in the '70s. 

I focused on The New Teen Titans, X-Men, and The New Mutants during my high school years in the '80s... 

and I renewed my collecting in the mid-2000s with the major cross-over events for the Big Two (Marvel's House of M/Civil War and DC's 52/Countdown). 

And in between, there were HUGE gaps in my knowledge of comics (even the comics that I loved). 

Travels, Trolls, & Tropes janhaffley.blogspot.com

As I was helping my mother start her own blog last year, I set this one up to practice on and become familiar with the interface, in part so I could be of more service to her.

But, as I debated and discerned a focus for this blog, an audacious plan began to take root.

I would fill in all the blank spaces in my personal comic history by reading -- and then writing reviews/commentaries -- on the electronic issues forming my current collection (from DC, Marvel, and Independent publishers like Image and Dark Horse) -- ALL in chronological order.

I know. Crazy, right?! That's, like, thousands of comics now.

Who the hell would want to read that?

But in my crazy-making adventure-planning, I decided I would need an accurate and complete reading order to see what pursuing this plan would actually entail.

Twelve. Months. Later,

to be continued...