I've been reading a lot of old comics drawn by my friend Michael Netzer recently back when he was Mike Nasser. This week I arrived at his CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN from 1977. Written by Gerry Conway during his burst of DC creativity, this is actually a good revival with guest stars (such as SWAMP THING) and continuity tie-ins. Pretty much forgotten, but good nonetheless. Mike's art here is, I believe, my favorite from this period. Good storytelling, innovative layouts and lithe, smooth figurework. The inking by Joe Rubenstein (if I recall correctly, one of the artist's favorite collaborators) is slick and just beautiful.
(I saw Joe do a presentation on inking at San Diego in the late eighties when I was actually waiting to see the NEXT panel. Joe's talk turned out to be the most informative and entertaining of the whole weekend!) Anyway, as enjoyable as this issue was, the highlight of the issue was this bio page on the new artist. I knew he'd gone through a lot since then but this will give you an idea what he'd already gone through up to that point. Seriously, though..."Funky?" I mean..."Funky!!??" As in the song "FUNKY NASSAU?" I think we just found the REAL reason he went with "Netzer."
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