Having dispensed with the previous plotline, one page later, Bart's grousing about having to pack and Johnny's acting like a know-it-all jerk (we'll see much more of this before Johnny gets humbled). They fly from New York to Arizona and are met at the airport by Sam Silvercloud who quickly sets up the next plotline (and one familiar to the Red Power movement of the 70s: there's a land dispute between the white men exploiting Copperhead Canyon and the local natives who believe it is a sacred place. Sam threatens Johnny with a gun before ditching him roadside. Despite this onerous welcome, Johnny wakes up the next morning proclaiming he had a decent night's sleep (not sure how he managed it, given all that's going on). Rodeo Lee Marvin-wannabee Casey tells Johnny he ain't thrilled about the cycle show either and warns him of a fella named Snake Dance who's been causing trouble. Rodeo-side, Johnny sees Sam Silvercloud and, hothead that he is, starts a fight with him (after inexplicably calling him Clyde ~ couldn't find any cause for this in sideshow lingo, so I can only guess it's a gaffe). The fight is busted up by Snake Dance, who is all decked out in cheesy Indian garb (oh gah!). Snake Dance lays on the "Leave or die!" threat and vanishes. That night, Ghost Rider heads out to the canyon and confronts Snake Dance, whose minions are dispatched quickly. Snake Dance then begins a serpent summoning. When Ghost Rider just as easily dispatches the serpents, Snake Dance turns himself into a hideous creature from which Ghost Rider decides to flee. He goes sailing over the edge of the canyon on his bike, but of course Sam Silvercloud has jimmied with it and so it explodes mid-flight. WHROOM! Goofiness: It is worthy of note that this is the first of many bikes Johnny will lose over the course of his adventures (not counting the one he blew up killing Mona Simpson). Conveniently, however, he always manages to find another one. Early in the series this is dealt with as a legitimate ongoing problem, but later on, he just always manages to work something out without any plausible explanations. Next: Can even a Ghost Rider die? THE COSTUMES: For the first half of this comic, Johnny and Roxanne are wearing the same clothes as from Marvel Spotlight no. 7. Once they go to Arizona, we only see Roxanne briefly in a groovy orange top and her red pants. Johnny, meanwhile, sports a red button-up with pockets and blue jeans.
Nothing terribly exciting, but given that I haven't posted anything new here for some time, at least it gets us back into the swing of things! For such a jam-packed issue (there's a lot of story crammed into this one), it's surprising there aren't more costume changes. writer: Gary Friedrich artist: Mike Ploog inker: Frank Monte letterer: Herb Cooper editor: Roy Thomas on stands: December 1972 The long holiday weekend, a change of jobs, and a cranky scanner have caused me to fall behind on this blog, but I haven't given it up! When last we left off, Curly (Really Crash Simpson in disguise) had hypnotized Roxanne. Marvel Spotlight no. 7 opens with him dumping her unconscious body into an empty drum of ACE cleaning compound and trundling her out to a taxi in order to haul her across town to his satanic lair. Meanwhile, after a page of recap, Johnny (in full Ghost Rider flames) is on the prowl and attracts the attention of the police (uh, maybe he shouldn't be driving so fast ~ you think?). The dorky cops, dubbed Harvey and Barn, pursue him recklessly and Ghost Rider makes all manner of fancy jumps in order to escape them (in second person address, of course: "hurtling toward your fateful rendezvous like a streaking eagle with its wings shot off" ~ honestly, Friedrich, come on). While Johnny recuperates in a graveyard (Ghost Rider gets tired!), Curly sets the stage to sacrifice Roxanne to the devil (like any good father would do, right?). Come dawn, Johnny races home to make coffee and relax before his next show. But then Bart Slade arrives (the road manager) to announce Roxanne's disappearance. Tempers flare (and a couple of thought bubbles conveniently establish Bart as a rival for Roxanne's affections: cue soap music). After the show, Bart also tells Johnny that Curly was there and Johnny somehow makes the connection that Curly must be involved. So Johnny waits for nightfall, pops into his Ghost Rider flames, and goes hunting. Of course the gang gives Curly's location up where a black mass is underway (complete with Roxanne all rigged out for Satan's delight ~ dressed in what all the sacrificial girls were wearing in 1973. A few silly occult incantations later and Curly pulls out the Devil's Dagger! This is all looking very dire for our perky heroine, but of course before she can be impaled, Ghost Rider arrives. This pisses off Satan who decides it will be a contest between Ghost Rider and Curly "in his real form" and enhanced with mystical weaponry. To the death, of course. So Curly changes into a disturbingly panty-clad Crash Simpson, takes up a sword, and we're left with them facing off with a very excitable "to be continued!" across the bottom of the page. THE COSTUMES: There are just a couple of new pieces for this issue (and a lot of red and orange!). Johnny wears a red bathrobe (page 10) while he drinks his morning coffee and yaps with Bart (we never see below his waist, so I have no idea what the length of the robe is or whether he's got any jammies on under it). Then later (page 11), during the show, Johnny sports a lovely set of orange leathers with a big red star (it's similar in design to the one previously worn by Roxanne. Star-chested sneetches anyone?)
And finally there's Roxanne's sacrificial get-up (page 15): a sort of spangled halter top and a long red loin cloth with some baubles hanging off it it. The design changes subtly from frame to frame, so I just tried to put as much detail as I could. She also has a little headband thing that she wears with this, but I omitted it. Mostly because it would be very tiny. This is the first issue in which Roxanne's hair is suddenly and inexplicably blonde, by the way. I'm a day late, but at last we are at the end of Marvel Spotlight no. 5! These final costume pieces are the brown pair of pants that Johnny wears both while practicing his motorcycle stunts (page 10) and when he sells his soul to the devil to pay for sparing Crash Simpson's life (page 14). He sometimes wears these pants with boots and in the soul-selling scene he's got no shoes at all, so again, I made a concession halfway between.
The outfit for Roxanne is the last one she wears in this issue: when she busts in to save Johnny's soul from being collected by Satan (page 20). So that's it for Marvel Spotlight no. 5, though I'll probably have one more post to share some favorite panels from that issue. As mentioned before, I'll be out of town this weekend, so we'll start fresh next week with Marvel Spotlight no. 6! And I'll try to come up with something like a regular posting schedule so that you will know when to expect updates. I believe there's about 24 individual costume pieces for Marvel Spotlight no. 5, so we're almost done. One more post after this one, so I anticipate next week we'll finally be able to move on to Marvel Spotlight no. 6 (and thereafter things will move a lot quicker, as promised).
Today's pieces are a little bit out of order, but include Roxanne and Johnny's "arrival in New York" clothes from page 15: we don't see what Johnny's wearing on the bottom of his über-fashionable wool-collared coat (on which I believe I drew the pockets incorrectly ~ darn. They should be angled and without flaps. Apparently my powers of observation are better the fifth time looking at something). But anyway, it's nearly right. Roxanne's weird mesh-like vest thing seems a strange piece of clothing, but that's what she's got on. She wears this vest and green striped top with her yellow pants and no boots. Once again, I didn't feel the need to redraw an article of clothing already represented with only a variation on the footwear. If anyone's desperate to have a pair of yellow pants for Roxanne in which she is not wearing boots (as shown on page 16), I will bow to your whims and draw them. The other set of clothes shown here are Johnny's dress clothes from the Madison Square Garden show (shown in full on page 17). Again I screwed up and didn't draw the collar on his blue button-up properly. I'm going to have to be much more careful in the future! Argh! Johnny is still wearing these white pants later when Satan comes to collect his soul. But without the boots. Same deal as with Roxanne, above. Some small pieces I did not include here are the white gloves and helmet Johnny puts on to complete the stunt that just killed Crash Simpson. Whew! I'm pretty astonished at all the changes in this one and have so far learned a lot just by having to draw all of it. It's certainly given me plenty of time to study the original comic in ways I never did before (for good or ill!) I'll be back on Thursday with the final post for Marvel Spotlight no. 5! Johnny's wardrobe in Marvel Spotlight no. 5 reflects that he basically works on motorcycles all day long, so it's not like he's going to be wearing Armani. In fact, I can pretty much assure you Johnny Blaze never wears a suit, ever. Not even in the 1999 second volume when power suits and ponytails are all the rage for the villains.
So yeah: a whole lotta T-shirts going on. On page 10 alone, he changes white shirts three times between five panels. There is a pair of brown pants that goes with these shirts, but I will post them in the next update. On page 12, Johnny's wearing jeans and a grungy cut-off (it's purple in the comic, but probably meant to be grey). The funniest thing about this shirt is that I struggled through three mediums before I realized I have a Sharpie marker that should be labeled "comic book lavender". Believe it or not, there's still much more to come from just this one opening comic book! As mentioned before, the costume changes taper off in a big way about 1/3 through the series, but we'll enjoy them while we have 'em! Because Marvel Spotlight no. 5 is an origin issue, it is chock full of flashbacks and rapid scene changes and, to aid in creating the impression of passing time, a lot of costume changes. I think it's no exaggeration to say that the characters wear more different articles of clothing in this single issue than in any of the issues to follow. In the week to come, we should be able to get through all of the changes (I will be posting new pieces most days to move this along). And in case you are wondering, they are already drawn and colored, I just haven't scanned them all. One further note: many of the issues of Ghost Rider (and its crossovers, which will also be presented) have no costume changes at all, so once we get into the thick of it, this is going to move along a lot faster than you might expect. I will try, however, to make sure that there is something new (costume-wise) at least once a week. THE COSTUMES (part 2): Most superheroes don't wander around in their costumes, but Johnny Blaze never has a secret alter-ego and his leathers are basically his riding outfit, so he winds up with few "civilian" clothes (particularly as the series progresses). In Marvel Spotlight, however, there is still some attempt to separate his "possessed" persona from his mortal stunt-rider persona, so Ploog decks him out in a range of typical 70s outfits ~ especially in the flashbacks. Today we have here the ubiquitous trench coat that almost every comic book character wears at least once in this era. Johnny puts it on after recovering from his first transformation (page 6). In the book it's kind of a shapeless mess, so I created details based on a later issue when he wears it again. I'm pretty proud that I got the color spot-on, however. These trenches were always a weird orange in comic books. The other outfit I cheated on a little. This is the "Johnny kills his stepmother" outfit (page 8), which he is wearing when his bike explodes, taking Mona Simpson with it. The green pants on this outfit were actually a much more egregious color, but I had to temper them a little (forgive me!). Anyway, this outfit goes with Roxanne's outfit from yesterday. conceived and written: Gary Freidrich drawn by: Mike Ploog lettered by: Jon Costanza edited by: Stan Lee aid and abetment: Roy Thomas on stands: August, 1972 reprinted in 1992 as: The Original Ghost Rider no. 1 with cover art by Mark Texiera. Marvel Spotlight was a proving ground for new ideas. A number of characters introduced in this series went on to have their own books, though probably an equal number of them failed dismally to capture the market. The character of the Ghost Rider appears to have had a strong following initially and the appeal seems obvious in an era where motorcycles were especially cool, Evel Knieval was on top of his game, and interest in the occult was fashionable. The story is presented (somewhat bizarrely) in a second person narrative ~ in which the "you" is protagonist Johnny Blaze. This is pretty much a straight-forward origin story that sets up Johnny's background, his hot and cold relationship with the rather fickle Roxanne "Rocky" Simpson, and the deal with Satan (during a hilariously staged occult scene) that costs him his soul and causes him to be cursed with the powers of the Ghost Rider. The bulk of the issue concerns the typical superhero back story (dead parents, oh tragedy, etc.) while, in a relatively unspectacular framework, Ghost Rider tootles around the city feeling lost and disoriented following his initial transformation. He's ostensibly trying to hide, but it's kind of hard to do when speeding through the city with your head on fire. Naturally he gets into an entanglement with some thugs so that he can show off his powers, but there's something very goofy about the bubbled interior thoughts of the character puzzling through his confusion while he "plays at" being a hell spawn charged with the punishment of the guilty. Especially since Johnny's vernacular is pretty slangy (he's a carny, after all, right?). Anyway, perhaps it's all pretty typical for New York City, all things considered. Though Roxanne's love keeps Satan from collecting Johnny's soul (try not to roll your eyes), he's doomed to be a fiery skull-headed biker by night (this lycanthropic-like transformation will change as the character develops). The issue ends with the threatening tag: "The Beginning", warning all readers that they are likewise doomed to be subjected to more of this pyro-cycle soap opera. Joy! THE COSTUMES (part 1): Some general notes about the way I have reproduced the clothing (click the image to download the full-sized, scaled picture):
This "costume" remains fairly standard throughout the series, though Johnny will wreck it several times. A few details change over the years (the shape of his belt, the trim on the edges), but for the most part, the way Mike Ploog designed him would be the way he remained. Roxanne's first outfit is from a flashback on page 8. In some cases parts of clothing are never visible to the reader (shoes, most often), so I have done my best to fill in. We never see below Roxanne's knees in this scene, but later she is also wearing a pair of white pants with no boots, so I made that concession. |