So, the other day
Dale asked me what's the deal with the Heckler, since I've
gone on and on about him mentioned him before
here and
there. The short answer would be (too late) a Keith Giffen comic from 1992 which he's said he wrote "as if Bugs Bunny were a super-hero." (Don't ask where he said that...I thought the write-up at
CBR's Comics You Should Own mentioned it, but maybe not.)
It's a weird, fun, funny series; which is also pretty densely packed since Giffen generally sticks to the nine-panel grid he'd been using for quite some time, like in
Legion of Super-Heroes. His collaborators from
Legion, Tom and Mary Bierbaum, join him here as well. And I just love the idea of some guy in the DCU's weirdest town, just up and deciding he needs to put on a costume to fight crime and protect the citizens; despite having no powers, no training, and no readily apparent skills except maybe an extraordinary ability to mouth off.
I was going to say I like the idea of the Heckler more than the actual execution, but after re-reading those issues, I like them quite a bit as well. Sadly, he hasn't made a lot of appearances since his book...almost twenty years ago, good lord. I hear he makes a cameo in Patton Oswalt's
JLA: Welcome to the Working Week, but I've never seen it. Still, if
Go Native Toys ever gets around to a six-inch Blanx figure, I'm definitely painting one into the Heckler. Those
HA's are going to be murder...
Scans from
Heckler #4, "Let Them Make Up Their Own Stupid Title!" Plot and pencils by Keith Giffen, inks by Bob Lewis, script by Tom and Mary Bierbaum. (Fan club from issue #3, inks by Malcolm Jones III.)
The whole Heckler thing could work again...in theory anyway. Giffen or someone used to writing Deadpool could perhaps pull it off. In fact, now that I just typed that, it seems Heckler might've influenced Deadpool just a litle bit; after all Deadpool sounds like the Heckler only more violent and with actual powers.
ReplyDeleteNice one.
I see Heckler as total inspiration for many Deadpool writers since. Heck is my favorite work from the Gif, and one of my favorite characters ever. Ironically, I can't stand Deadpool though.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's my understanding, that part of the reason the series ended was the death of Malcolm Jones III. He and Giff were in the zone, and I don't think anybody wanted to continue with a different bassist, so to speak.
Great blog!