Friday, September 22, 2006

Cloak and Dagger



Cloak and Dagger premiered 20 or so years ago in an issue of Spectacular Spider-Man. I thought that the pairing of a teenage blond girl and a teenage black guy was a bit ahead of it's time. The two were runaways who gained powers of light and darkness, after being injected with some strange drug. They were a hit with me, and they kept popping up in the pages of Spider-Man. After sharing space in a comic book with Doctor Strange they got their own book and the act got stale.

Cloak would be a little overbearing trying to protect Dagger. He needed her light to survive and Dagger provided it.. The book had no real supporting characters until the writer introduced a unique storyline. After fighting some villain named Ecstacy Dagger was blinded! Dealing with her lack of sight in a realistic way, like learning how to walk the street, was great reading. She learned how to fight and protect herself. She made friends other than Cloak and the art by Mike Vosberg improved with every issue.

The storyline lasted maybe a year and I remember those issues fondly.

7 comments:

Allen Gladfelter said...

I was a fan of Cloak and Dagger, I especially like the art of Rick Leonardi. I'd say he's one of my early faves.

Say, is June Bridgman still drawing comics? I've always admired her work, especially how well she drew children.

Don Hudson said...

Allen, I haven't seen anything by Bridgman lately. She could have gone into children's books or something.

Allen Gladfelter said...

I did some internet lookin, and it appears that Bridgman is drawing Brenda Starr! How about that? I once met Dale Messick at a convention and she was such a sweet lady. She passed away not too long ago. She had apparently passed the reigns of Brenda Starr over to other creators 10 or 15 years ago, and it's gone through a few hands until now the art chores rest on the back of Bridgman. So there you have it, that's what she's doing.

Steve Buccellato said...

That book ruled! I agree that Rick Leonardi is one great artist. I enjoyed coloring his work on Spider-Man 2099.

That first image is Brett Blevins' work, right? Damn, he's awesome. Do you know who inked that, DH?

Don Hudson said...

Rick leonardi worked on the first and second mini-series the duo had before the 'Strange Tales' book and his stuff was great! Brett Blevins worked on most of the art on the shared book with Doctor Starnge and he inked himself on this page.

Marie Javins said...

Brigman, guys! Please! She also teaches at the Kubert School.

Steve Buccellato said...

Hey Allen--If you get your hands on some Brenda Starr, you ought to post them on your blog. I wanna see!