THURSDAY NIGHT THINKING!

Time once more for TNT! Tonight's entry features Junior, one of the Young Heroes in Love, as he ponders his way out of a predicament he's found himself in. I know, I know, he's not actually thinking thoughts via thought balloons...but I looked through all 18 issues of that much-missed series, and did not find a single example of any character indulging in an inner monologue! Not one! Perhaps that's why it got the axe, who knows. Anyways, this is from the 15th issue of YHiL, written by Dan Raspler and illustrated by Dev Madan and Keith Champagne (or "Cham-paggan", as Zapp Brannigan would say).


Comics reviews will be finished soon, pinky swear.

Wait a...WHAT?!?

Will somebody help me pick up the pieces of my brain from where my head just exploded?

Ganked from this Gaspar Saladino appreciation. Just shows to go ya that no matter how many comics things you may think you've seen, there will always be something that you haven't.

I guess this qualifies for THURSDAY NIGHT THINKING, doesn't it?

THURSDAY NIGHT THINKING!

That wild and crazy comics blog meme! Tonight's cogitation is from none other than the late, unlamented by most Jared Stevens, AKA FATE, also guest starring the Phantom Stranger in his oddball semi-Vertigo Amish farmer hat period. Anyway, after skimming through darn near the entire run, I noticed that inner monologues were as close to thinking as Jared ever came; the writers never bothered with traditional word balloon-type thoughts. It provided a sort of narration, but it was also (as I said) an inner monologue, so I believe that constitutes "thinking", so here it is.

This may also be as close to a Fate overview as you'll get from me; after rereading the lot of them, I just didn't find that much to write about. It started out really awful, in that early-Image way, then kinda found its bearings about 14 issues in when Len Kaminski took over as writer and artists Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning began to channel their inner John McCrea. It still had its moments, especially if you imagine Stevens speaking and thinking in Bruce Campbell's voice (just try it with the page above!)...but overall it was a somewhat-better-than-the-norm collection of mystical superhero cliches, and I suppose it was just as well that it got canned. I still liked the character, though, and I hated to see him get killed.

Diamondrock's thinking it over!

It's Thursday night once more, and that means
THURSDAY NIGHT THINKING!

Tonight, we have a Very Special TNT. Our inner monologue this time comes courtesy of one Artimus Finn- one of seven brothers known collectively as the Seven Deadly Finns, who ran afoul of the Shadow, in that notoriously sublime, or perhaps sublimely notorious 1980's version by Andrew Helfer and Kyle Baker.

To describe exactly what's going on in these two pages would take some doing, but let's just say that in the climactic showdown with the Master of Men, he is in dire straits indeed- having been placed in the bottom of an elevator shaft in the Empire State Building by the rogue terrorist Colonel Mustafa, who doublecrossed Mr. Finn when the latter hired the former to run an army of nutjob psychopaths against their adversary. In desperation, the surviving Finn tries to climb up twenty feet out of the shaft, to get out between the elevator and the floor...and his thoughts as he does so are our Thursday Night Thoughts for this evening.

Also in this scene, Shadow agent Twitchkowicz, an expert chemist who uses his abilities to, shall we say, create performance-enhancing drugs for his wrestler wife Gwendolyn, is escorting one of Mustafa's psycho group out, one Doctor Flax, a creepy old pusbag who is obsessed with creating killer germs. This comes into play in a big way in the climactic events of this, the final issue in the story arc.

If you've heard about this excellent series but haven't been able to find it, and realize that it will never be collected just because, well, it won't, well, here's a small sample. Script by Helfer, Art by Baker, from The Shadow #13 (August 1988).

Time to pause and reflect as we once more take the weekly opportunity to ponder...THURSDAY NIGHT THINKING!

In this scan, which someone apparently failed to do so in a fashion that would eliminate the moire pattern, we have the original ECLIPSO, pre-pointy chin and evil grin, gloating about how well he can hide his black diamond. Ooh-ooh...black diamond! Dun dun dun dun dun dun-dun dun dun dun dun dun. One for you KISS fans out there. Anyways, this is from (I believe) House of Secrets #61, by Bob Haney and Lee Elias.

THURSDAY NIGHT THINKING!

Yeah, I know, this is one of the most-posted comics panels in the history of comics bloggery...but it fits the theme of the meme!

From Justice League of America #44, written by Gardner Fox, and illustrated by Mike Sekowsky with Frank Giacoia.

Bet you thought I was going to forget THURSDAY NIGHT THINKING, didn't ya!

From Sword of Sorcery #1, here's a whole lot of internal dialogue-type stuff, courtesy of the Gray Mouser and Fafhrd the Barbarian. Script by Dennis O'Neil, adapted from Fritz Lieber, and art by Howard Victor Chaykin and God only knows who else on inks.

My contribution to Thursday Night Thinking tonight features the unfortunate "Sir" Ernie Baxter, the Connecticut Ice Cream Man in King Arthur's Court from House of Secrets #123. Art by the late great Alex Toth, and Sir Ernie was based on Julius Schwartz. Methinks Sir Baxter should have thought twice, because it didn't go well for him after he "thought" up his dastardly scheme to kill Arthur and his knights. If you haven't read this story, it's right here for you to do so.

OK, new Blogosphere-wide feature, a la Friday Night Fights: Thursday Night Thinking. So, here we have Tadwallader Jutefruice, alias Super-Hip, thinking some not-so-nice thoughts about Badger Goldliver.