THB: Comics From Mars #2

THB

by Paul Pope

31 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2010

About the author

PAUL POPE is an American cartoonist living and working in New York City. Pope has made a name for himself internationally as an artist and designer. He has been working primarily in comics since the early '90s, but has also done a number of projects with Italian fashion label Diesel Industries and, in the US, with DKNY. His media clients include LucasArts, Paramount Pictures, Cartoon Network, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Conde-Naste, Kodansha (Japan), Sapporo (Japan), Marc Ecko, Dargaud Editions (France), EMI Canada, Warner Brothers, and The British Film Institute. His iconic Batman: Year 100, a science fiction take on the classic Batman origin tale, has won numerous awards, seen print in many languages, and appears frequently on many Top 10 Batman story lists. In 2010, Pope was recognized as a Master Artist by the American Council Of The Arts, and is currently sitting on the ACA advisory board. His 2010, short science fiction comic strip Strange Adventures (DC Comics)--an homage to the Flash Gordon serials of the '30s-- won the coveted National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Award for Best Comic Book of the year. He has won 5 Eisners to date.

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains a few short stories loosely related to THB. I think the conceit is that these are comics within the THB universe. I noticed a couple of references/influence of Jack Kirby.

This concludes my investigations of Paul Pope's THB. I've always wanted to read it but felt intimidated by how odd the publications are - there's so many from different years. You have issues 1-5, then later issue 6 is published as 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d. Cool in concept but a tad confusing. Then he did a reprint of issue 1 confusingly called V1.2. In case anyone cares, here's all the comics I read from this series:

1994 - THB 1.v.2
1994 - THB 2
1995 - THB 3
1995 - THB 4
1995 - THB 5
1996 - Giant THB Parade
1997 - P-City Parade
1998 - THB Circus
1999 - THB M3 Mars Mightiest Mek
2000 - THB 06A
2000 - THB 06B
2000 - THB 06C
2000 - THB 06D
2003 - THB Giant THB 1.v.2
2010 - THB Comics From Mars #1-2


1977
A young boy gets fascinated by Ziggy Stardust but is told that its just a character portrayed by David Bowie - real name - David Jones.

Watson Robot Industries
Basically like Who Framed Roger Rabbit a director is trying to get a cartoon cat and mouse to fight for their movie scene.

The Brief Career of the On-Call Stellar Repairman
Featuring a character that looks like a down-on-his-luck Kirby's The Watcher. He goes to try and repair a star.

Unnamed
Beautiful drawings of a woman, a grasshopper, and I think Paul Pope himself. Not sure what the story is but it's silent and provocative.

The Masked Karimbah
a masked vigilante gets in a bunch of wild fights