Saturday, June 17, 2006
Comic Art
This week on our comic sojourn through the periodic table of elements we will consider the element silver. If you are interested in the element, give this a listen. But somehow I doubt you are really interested in the chemistry.Our first comic page here is from the what-will-be-ubiquitous Metal Men. Given that the heores take their identities from the element they are made of, it's kind of hard not to run into them a lot.
In this episode, the Metal Men's creator - Dr. Magnus - is trying to construct a "second team" of robots. The first team is Gold-Iron-Lead-Mercury-Tin-Platinum, and on this page we see second team member Silver. Gold seems to have silver all wrapped up, but you never know in the pages that follow.
OK, this is a bit of a cheat - "Silver Streak Comics" was an anthology book, printing numerous small stories by various characters, many of them one shots. It had absolutely nothing to do with the element silver other than having it in the name, hey - it's cool art though if you are into old school.
But when it comes to silver - you cannot beat the Silver Surfer. I have told his story many times here before, made by Galactus in exchange for saving Norrin Radd's homeworld of Zenn-La, the Silver Surfer scanned space for his master searching planets that he could consume, only to encounter the Fantastic Four on Earth and turn against Galactus.Interestingly, no one knows (save Galactus himself) what the shell that surrounded Norrin Radd and tranformed him is actually made of, only that it appear silver. If there is a downside to the Surfer in comics it's that silver doesn't print well so he usually ends up as you see him here - white. But in my office I have statue of ther Surfer, plated in chrome, that shines better than a new car bumper. Now that's the Silver Surfer.
Related Tags: comics, comic books, elements, periodic table, Metal Men, Silver Surfer
