The Spectre Appreciation Thread

[The Beast Of Yucca Flats]

Re: the poo-poohing of the infinitely powerful/'Wrath Of God' notion- sorry, but the The Spectre (as a solo feature; no JLA/JSA showings), is a horror concept through and through. And 'Wrath Of God, etc.' as a take just plain makes for inherently better, more compelling horror. But 'superhero ghost' as a premise? Not so much. In practice, it seems like it'd ultimately slip into something akin to 'less fun Scooby Doo.'

I recall a chat with Steve Bissette a long time ago where he said he felt you really need a feeling of helplessness somewhere to do horror violence properly (as opposed to the inherent power-fantasy of superhero-related violence). And some poor wretch who gets all up in the shit of the literal Wrath Of God seems like a scenario that would fit the bill...

[The Beast Of Yucca Flats]

During his run on Swamp Thing, Alan Moore made great use of the Spectre.


Attachment 29307

The bit with the opening eye is certainly a favorite.

[The Darknight Detective]

I acknowledge that I created this thread as an appreciation thread but can it also be an all-encompassing thread about the Spectre (i.e appreciation & discussion)? I haven't seen any heated arguments between anyone from either camp that prefers one version over another (I certainly have never regressed to insults or ad hominems when debating which version I prefer).

There were a few posts that I had to delete that you might have not seen. As for discussions, I was talking about "this version of the Spectre stinks" discussions. Please find another thread for those.

[MRP]

One of my favorite things about the 90s Spectre series was the wide array of cover art we got. I would love to see a volume collecting the covers done for that series...here are a few samples...







As for which version of the Spectre-I never had any interest in Hal Jordan or Crispus Allen as the host of the Spectre, for me the Spectre's story was as much if not more about Jim Corrigan than the ghostly guardian himself. There have been a few different takes on Corrigan as the Spectre, but without Corrigan the character loses most, if not all of it's appeal to me.

And I may be one of the few who liked the 80s Spectre series by Doug Moench (with Gene Colan on art early on) which also featured a fine selection of covers by the likes of Kaluta, Garcia-Lopez, Mignola and others. It picks up with what happened with Corrigan and Spectre after the events of Crisis and the Moore Swamp Thing stories, and features MAdame Xanadu quite prominently.

-M

[victorxd1999]

Damn right, there were some great covers in that run

[Outside_85]

the SIegel version of the Spectre was crude and crazy, but it was entertaining. You have to entertain people with this.

And horror movies have been able to do that since the beginning of cinema.

[MRP]

Even the '87 series had some great covers....

Kaluta...



Garcia-Lopez...



Mignola...



-M

[MRP]

More Mignola....



Charles Vess...



and Art Adams with "a spot and find who is in the crowd" cover for the Annual....



(Thing, Spock, Dr. Who and others are hiding in there if you look...

-M

[Outside_85]

Can hardly let the eye-candy cavalcade roll us past without some Alex Ross:






Even if it it was from the story where the measure of the Spectre's humanity was measured by the amount of underpants he wore.

+Btw, that Deadman/Spectre cover gives me a serious Batman and Robin (Grayson) vibe.

[MRP]

Even the last 3 issues of the 1967 Spectre series featured great covers by Nick Cardy....







There is something compelling and versatile about the character that brings out the best in so many visual artists.

-M

[lorddominicus85]

Re: the poo-poohing of the infinitely powerful/'Wrath Of God' notion- sorry, but the The Spectre (as a solo feature; no JLA/JSA showings), is a horror concept through and through. And 'Wrath Of God, etc.' as a take just plain makes for inherently better, more compelling horror. But 'superhero ghost' as a premise? Not so much. In practice, it seems like it'd ultimately slip into something akin to 'less fun Scooby Doo.'

I recall a chat with Steve Bissette a long time ago where he said he felt you really need a feeling of helplessness somewhere to do horror violence properly (as opposed to the inherent power-fantasy of superhero-related violence). And some poor wretch who gets all up in the shit of the literal Wrath Of God seems like a scenario that would fit the bill...

Moore's use of Spectre was what turned me onto the character and made me read Kingdom Come and I still plan to pick up the Ostrander run everyone keeps talking about. Honestly I love the idea of Corrigan being wrapped up in this supernatural world of good and evil, gods and devils that he really doesn't understand or know anything about. I think Gotham at Midnight did exactly that where Corrigan more or less pretended to be in control but wound up knowing absolutely nothing about the power wrapped up in him. Stupid question, is the Ostrander run collected in trade or available on Comixology? Also, don't know how many people on here play or have heard of heroclix but i have a giant Spectre heroclix that is on my mantle in my living room that I love, he was my first big purchase when I started playing the game.

[MajorHoy]

Re: the poo-poohing of the infinitely powerful/'Wrath Of God' notion- sorry, but the The Spectre (as a solo feature; no JLA/JSA showings), is a horror concept through and through. And 'Wrath Of God, etc.' as a take just plain makes for inherently better, more compelling horror. But 'superhero ghost' as a premise? Not so much. In practice, it seems like it'd ultimately slip into something akin to 'less fun Scooby Doo.'

And speaking of Scooby-Doo, . . .

[victorxd1999]

Moore's use of Spectre was what turned me onto the character and made me read Kingdom Come and I still plan to pick up the Ostrander run everyone keeps talking about. Honestly I love the idea of Corrigan being wrapped up in this supernatural world of good and evil, gods and devils that he really doesn't understand or know anything about. I think Gotham at Midnight did exactly that where Corrigan more or less pretended to be in control but wound up knowing absolutely nothing about the power wrapped up in him. Stupid question, is the Ostrander run collected in trade or available on Comixology? Also, don't know how many people on here play or have heard of heroclix but i have a giant Spectre heroclix that is on my mantle in my living room that I love, he was my first big purchase when I started playing the game.

The first 22 issues are collected in trade and then Dc most probably cancelled the line (aaaaaaargh). Every issue is on Comixology except the last two issues, but I bet those will appear soon. It's an AMAZING run, read it as soon as you can

[lorddominicus85]

The first 22 issues are collected in trade and then Dc most probably cancelled the line (aaaaaaargh). Every issue is on Comixology except the last two issues, but I bet those will appear soon. It's an AMAZING run, read it as soon as you can

Thank you, I'm gonna jump on comixology right now and add it to my list.

[scary harpy]

And speaking of Scooby-Doo, . . .

This was a great issue. Funny!