#david kraft

[marvelousmrm]

Defenders #64 (Kraft/Buscema, Oct 1978). Valkyrie gets confused and figures it’s time to get to the bottom of her identity crisis…

[evilhorse]

I claim this village as my capital

(Captain America #221)

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Archive Edition #1 by David Anthony Kraft, Bret Blevins, Vince Colletta and Colortek. Cover by Blevins and Colletta. Variant cover by Frany. Out in July.

"The classic 1983 single issue adaptation of The Dark Crystal from writer David Anthony Kraft (The Savage She-Hulk) and artists Bret Blevins & Vince Colletta is lovingly restored and represented as part of BOOM! Studios' Archive Edition line! A thousand years ago. The planet Thra, two new races appeared when a Shard was shattered from the Crystal of Truth: the cruel Skeksis, who use continued corruption of the Crystal to extend their lives, and the gentle urRu, more commonly known as Mystics, who make their home in the Valley of Stones to await their destiny. A young orphaned Gelfling named Jen must flee from capture, being Thra's only hope… but enemies aren't all he'll find in the wild."

[mjjmayor]

Hulk and Valkyrie go grocery shopping // Defenders (1972) #89, Nov 1980

[nerds-yearbook]

In She-Hulk 2, cover date of March, 1980, Jill Stevens, Dennis "Buck" Bukowski, Sheriff Morris Walters, Danny "Zapper" Ridge, Nick Trask, She-Droid, Dr Jonathan Ridge, and Mrs Ridge were introduced. They were created David Kraft and Mike Vosburg. ("Deathrace!!", Savage She-Hulk 2#, Marvel Comic Event)

[ewzzy]

[ironmandirectorofsword]

Captain America 273 (1982) by David Kraft & Mike Zeck

Cover: Mike Zeck

[intrapanelreturns]

THE DEFENDERS #48 1977, Marvel Comics David Kraft writing and colors, Keith Giffen and Dan Green art, Annette Kawecki letters

[apaneladay]

David Kraft (writer), Ed Hannigan (artist) The Defenders Vol. 1 #89 (1980) Published by Marvel Comics

[cantsayidont]

There are some things in DC's voluminous back catalog that they ought to properly reprint because they're good — gems of past eras. However, there are also some things they ought to properly reprint because they're delightfully stupid, like the Superman/Batman team-ups from WORLD'S FINEST COMICS. DC has actually reprinted all the stories from the '50s, through about 1961, but a lot of the '60s material has only been reprinted in the B&W SHOWCASE PRESENTS books, which is a shame.

The WORLD'S FINEST team-ups went through several distinct phases. Superman, Batman, and Robin had shared the covers of WORLD'S FINEST COMICS since 1941, but it wasn't until 1954 that shrinking page counts obliged them to actually share the lead feature. The '50s stories are pretty good of their time, with some lovely Dick Sprang art, and the presence of Superman meant the drift into science fiction was less jarring than in the contemporary Batman books. In 1964, editorial control of WORLD'S FINEST passed to Mort Weisinger and it became a Weisinger-era Superman book that happened to have Batman and Robin in it. Starting in 1967, though, things started to get stranger and stranger as Weisinger's stable of sci-fi veterans like Edmond Hamilton and Otto Binder gave way to Bob Kanigher, Cary Bates, and Bob Haney, who turned out some exceedingly weird material. Stories like the two-parter about Superman having died and willed his super-organs to various people (#189–190) aren't quite as ghoulish as the covers suggest, but their inexplicable weirdness is emblematic of the period.

For a little while in the early '70s, DC evicted Batman from the series, making WORLD'S FINEST a general-issue Superman team-up book. (DC reprinted those issues in trade paperback in 2020.) This apparently wasn't a big commercial success, but rather than immediately returning to the expected Superman/Batman format, WORLD'S FINEST began to feature the Super-Sons, the teenage sons of Superman and Batman in a hazily defined parallel reality — written by Bob Haney, whose stories consistently evoke the sensation of mild concussion. The "real" Superman and Batman also returned, although they had to alternate with their hypothetical future sons, appearing roughly every other issue through 1976. From 1976 to 1982, WORLD'S FINEST once again became an oversize anthology book, with a Superman/Batman main feature backed by a variety of other characters like Green Arrow and Hawkman. The stories in that period are not quite as ludicrous as the late '60s (although if you see Bob Haney's name in the credits, you know you're in for a wild ride), but even the soberer installments are consistently very silly, full of nonsense like Kryptonian lycanthropy and the return of some especially ridiculous older villains like the Gorilla Boss of Gotham City and Doctor Double-X.

It wasn't until issue #285 that Superman and Batman again had the book all to themselves. The late period dials back the zaniness and has mostly uninspired plots, but writers Doug Moench and David Anthony Kraft compensate with some eyebrow-raising and apparently deliberate "Superbat" ship-bait; my personal favorite is Kraft's "No Rest for Heroes!" (a short story in the back of WORLD'S FINEST #302), where Superman and Batman go to a dive bar in the middle of nowhere to talk about their relationship and Batman ends up throwing a knife at someone.

Very little of this stuff is actually good by any normal standard — although the 1964–1967 period is no more or less weird than any other Weisinger Silver Age Superman stories — and the artwork is only occasionally better than passable. However, it's so stupid and so ridiculous that it's consistently fun, in a way DC doesn't really do anymore, at least not on purpose. Assembling all the Superman/Batman stories (leaving the Super-Sons to their own TPB), omitting the various backup strips, and giving it decent color reproduction would make for a nice package, and the presence of Superman and Batman would make it more commercially viable than some of DC's more artistically worthy back catalog material. Low-hanging fruit, if you ask me.

[marvelousmrm]

Defenders #89 (Kraft & Hannigan/Perlin, Nov 1980). Patsy relocates the non-team to the suburbs of New Jersey, where Hulk and Valkyrie take a thrilling journey to the supermarket.

[evilhorse]

And something inside me has begun to curdle, too.

(Captain America #221)

[onlylonelylatino]

The Beatles by George Pérez

[mjjmayor]

Supervillain Thermo interrupts a satanic mass // Marvel Team-Up (1972) #109, Sep 1981

[the-gershomite]

The Savage She-Hulk March #7 -August 1980

writer: David Anthony Kraft

art: by Mike Vosburg

inker: Chic Stone

letters: Jim Novak

colors: Ben Sean

[ewzzy]

From the Spectacular Spider-Man Marvel Masterworks: "Writer David Anthony Kraft, Penciller Bob Lubbers, and Inker Mike Zeck created this short 1978 Spider-Man comic, "The Amazing Spider-Man versus The Ringer!," as a giveaway item included with PEZ candy."

"Kraft also did rough pencil layouts for the story Pitting Spidey against The Ringer, a villain from this run on The Defenders who would next appear in The Spectacular Spider-Man #58."

Good point Ringer! Let's get some PEZ!