Over on IMWAN, my friend Marcus Kelligrew put up some comparisons between the art styles of various embellishers, working over the pencils of comics great Gene Colan. Fans of this column may know him from Howard the Duck, and arguably his career pinnacle was his work on Tomb of Dracula, but Gene drew for both Marvel and DC. His earliest work I've seen was on Iron Man; he also had a fondly - remembered run on Daredevil for several years at the same time, the mid-to-late '60s. These pages were inked by the creator of the Submariner, Bill Everett. I've never read these issues of Amazing Adventures but the art on Black Widow alone suggests it was lovely and graceful and gritty at once. I particularly like her face. Love Bites...and so does MIRACALLA!!! Coming from Integr8d Soul Comics, copyright 2011.

"From the time of his hatching, he was...different. A potentially brilliant scholar who dreaded the structured environment of school, he educated himself in the streets, taking whatever work was available, formulating his philosophy of self from what he learned of the world about him. And then the Cosmic Axis shifted...and that world changed . Suddenly, he was stranded in a universe he could not fathom. Without warning, he became a strange fowl in an even stranger land." The spirit of underground comics arrived in the mainstream in a big way when HOWARD THE DUCK #1 hit the stands in 1976. The movie? I've never seen it. Don't recommend it. Had nothing to do with Steve Gerber, who said "Howard is my conscience." By spirit, I'm talking about social satire, mature themes, visual hilarity and smart writing, usually plotted by the seat of the pants. This adventure starts off with his roommate and best human friend Beverly Switzer cheerfully finding ...