Raging Brandys

After a much needed rest - consuming planets does take it out of a guy, you know - Bahlactus has returned to the blogoverse and is ready to layeth the smacketh down!

This time, however, there is a twist.

Feeling a bit Scorsese after 12 weeks of knockout punches, the urban space god has decreed that Friday Night Fights now be waged in glorious black and white! The Fortress Keeper, who’s been known to enjoy a monochromatic movie masterpiece or two in his time (Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein, anyone?), wholeheartedly approves.

Black & white films - and comics, of course - capture a certain grit their four-colored counterparts could never quite match.

So, in the spirit of Scorsese’s Raging Bull and Gil Kane’s His Name Is Savage!, we turn to one of the great, down ‘n’ dirty comic strips of all time for FNF’s first round … Frank Cho’s Liberty Meadows!

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OK, well … Liberty Meadows isn’t quite as down and dirty as we claimed.

Cho - who may be better known these days as the “good girl” artist who gave Ultron boobs - once earned a living writing and drawing a syndicated funny animal strip that combined classic romance tropes (nerdy veterinarian Frank Mellish carried a torch for beautiful animal psychiatrist Brandy Carter) with broad, slapstick style humor and pop-culture parodies featuring the many critters that populated the comic.

Although alternately hilarious and touching, we must remember Liberty Meadows was created by the guy who gave Ultron boobs. So, one notable sequence in the strip - and later, comic book after Cho tired of battling newspaper and syndicate editors - was Brandy’s no-holds-barred cat-fight with her sinister doppelganger from another dimension, Evil Brandy!

Let the battle begin!

You know, considering that the above sequence was penned by the guy who gave Ultron boobs (No, the Keeper will never get over that strange, strange sight), the above sequence was actually quite restrained. In fact, we …

Ummm … never mind.

At any rate, Cho still produces sporadic issues of Liberty Meadows when he isn’t adding parts of the female anatomy to murderous cyborgs. The Marvel work may be more lucrative, but the world of Brandy and Frank is where the artist truly shines.

Back to you, O Great Bahlactus!