Cranky Prof Entertainment

The Iron Giant

2011-11-17T21:05:00.000-08:00

Mark Engblom recommended this movie a couple years back but I never got around to watching it. Then the other day I found out a friend of mine had the DVD and I borrowed it.

If you've never seen the movie, I highly recommend it. A young boy named Hogarth befriends an alien robot who has crash landed on Earth. The robot has no memory, and so the boy teaches him English and at one point gives him a comic book to read:

This becomes a key plot point in the movie, as the giant begins to model himself after Superman. At any rate, the cover looks real enough that I decided to poke around. Since the story is set in 1957, I figured it had to be from sometime around then. Sure enough, it's Action #188, from January 1954:

Aside from a few liberties taken with the coloring, it's a reasonably accurate reproduction, even including the mention of Tommy Tomorrow at the top.

Incidentally, this is the second movie I've seen recently that included comics as a major theme; Catch Me If You Can with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks prominently featured a number of issues of the Flash.

Mad Man

2011-11-14T21:03:00.000-08:00

Between the ages of about 9 and 13, virtually every kid in the country went MAD, and I was certainly no exception. Unlike the comics, I didn't hang onto my collection, but fortunately the folks at EC put out a massive CD set about 10 years ago, with something like 500 issues of the seminal American humor magazine. Here are some of the bits I remember reading back then.

For some reason, the song parodies always worked with me:

I remembered that one virtually word for word except that in the first stanza I recalled it being "then you know you've got..."

The Spy Vs. Spy series was always hilarious, and I suppose most of us remember that the morse code under the splash reads "By Prohias". But how many remember that there was a short-lived third spy, the grey woman?

I suspect she was eliminated because she always won, upsetting the general balance between the black and white spies. Of course, after awhile, even the dullest reader must have figured out that whoever won the splash battle clearly lost the panel bout, and the guy who seems to be winning in the first three panels always dies in the last one.BTW, there was a pretty entertaining computer game for the Commodore 64 back in the 1980s featuring Spy Vs. Spy.

Everybody remembers the terrific movie and TV parodies, often illustrated by the incomparable Mort Drucker:

There were lots of funny bits involving photographs. For some unknown reason, this one just popped out at me:

For the life of me, I can't imagine why I remember that.

The covers were mostly forgettable; even though I bought lots of issues in the 1964-1967 timeframe, this is the only one I specifically remember:

And it's not because I got the joke; it's because I saw it at a friend's house and somebody had poked holes in poor Alfred's eyes.

Of course, MAD did lots of stuff we didn't understand; a lot of the political humor went right over my head. But that was okay; we were used to not getting the joke all the time, and MAD prepared us for National Lampoon in the 1970s, where, for the most part, we did.

MAD had so much more; those terrific little gags in the margins that I'd need a magnifying glass to see nowadays. Or Dave Berg's endless "The Lighter Side of..." series. Or MAD's maddest artist, Don Martin. Or those amusing fold-ins on the inside back cover.

I'm sure that most of you know that MAD actually started as a regular-sized comic book. One thing that I was not aware of until recently was just how many imitators there were. Everybody remembers Cracked, but there were easily a dozen others.

Trivia Quiz #45: Answers

2011-11-10T17:02:00.000-08:00

1. In what year did Ray Palmer graduate from college?In the Atom #10, we learned that Ray was a 1954 grad of Ivy University. That would have made him about 32 in 1964, or a geezer of 79 today.

2. What do Lois Lane's lips taste like?Clark Kent discovered at a Christmas party in Action #306 that her lips tasted like peaches:

3. What holiday do people on Thanagar celebrate on the same day Americans celebrate the Fourth of July?Folks on Thanagar celebrate Impossible Day, on which they are supposed to do three impossible things. BTW, for a really cool treat, check out Pappy's Golden Age Blogazine post on this story; he has the original Gardner Fox manuscript for the tale, complete with Julius Schwartz's editorial changes, plus scans of the actual story so you can see how it went from script to finished product.

4. What was Jay Garrick's address?When Barry Allen discovered that he'd vibrated onto an Earth-like planet where Central City was known as Keystone City, he looked up Jay Garrick in the phone book:

And discovered that he lived at 5252 78th Street.

5. What was Perry White's favorite TV program?Perry White loved to relax at home and check out Allan Funt and Candid Camera:

These were intended to be really tough, but Jim got four out of the five correct. I stumped a couple folks who usually do quite well. Nobody got the question about Lois' flavor of lipstick.

Trivia Quiz #45: DC Grab-Bag Toughies

2011-11-08T04:40:00.000-08:00

1. In what year did Ray Palmer graduate from college?

2. What do Lois Lane's lips taste like?

3. What holiday do people on Thanagar celebrate on the same day Americans celebrate the Fourth of July?

4. What was Jay Garrick's address?

5. What was Perry White's favorite TV program?

Fatal Attraction

2011-11-06T05:31:00.000-08:00

It's kind of a minor thing, but did you ever notice that a lot of Stan Lee's male characters tended to fall for bad women? Let's see, we can start off with Hawkeye:

He starts out wanting to be a hero, and before you know it he's betraying his country:

Foggy Nelson met an old high school crush:

But it turns out she was just playing him for a sucker:

Balder the Brave was under no delusions about Karnilla, Queen of the Norns:

And yet he still falls prey to her charms:

Jasper Sitwell was apparently fooled by Whitney Frost, secretly the head of the Maggia:

Or was he?

But when it came down to the nitty gritty:

Observations:

1. Note that it is never the leading male character who falls for the bad girl. Stan senses that this is bad characterization for his heroes, even though it never really hurt Batman in the case of Catwoman, for example.

2. It tends to be the main supporting actor. Hawkeye doesn't fit that pattern, but Foggy and Balder certainly qualify and by that point Happy Hogan had largely disappeared from Iron Man, so Jasper Sitwell was the number two.

3. Most of the evil women "reformed", although you can make an argument that some of them never really were quite as bad as they appeared. It turned out that the Black Widow's parents were being held hostage in the Soviet Union and eventually she rebelled against her communist masters and became a heroine. Debbie Harris did reform and began dating Foggy again, eventually becoming his wife. I am unsure about Karnilla; at one point she did help Asgard due to her fondness for Balder, and Balder eventually admitted his love for her. Whitney Frost's tale is more complex; in that original Iron Man saga we learned that she was genuinely conflicted in her role as the head of the Maggia, having taken it over from her father, Count Nefaria.

4. Stan used these relationships to open up new plotlines or to add new dimension to his characters. Hawkeye was allowed to become a temporary villain while leaving open the possibility that he would reform and become a hero, as in fact he did with the Avengers. Debbie was paired off with Foggy to clear the decks (twice) for Matt and Karen Page to become an item, although in neither case did it last for the latter couple. Balder and Sitwell had both been pretty much portrayed as Boy Scouts (quite literally in Jasper's case); this was a way of humanizing them.

5. Aside from Batman, I can't think of a comparable situation in the Silver Age DC, and even his relationship with Catwoman was more of a Golden Age and late Bronze Age affair.

6. Marvel only reversed the roles once; you can make an argument for Sue Storm and the Sub-Mariner setting the template for what came later. DC did have Wonder Woman and Supergirl fall for a few rats at the end of the Silver Age, although in both cases that was more due to short-term plot demands than long-term characterization.

Update: Johnny Bacardi points out that Archie Goodwin actually did the scripting for the Iron Man series by the time of the Sitwell/Frost affair.

Update II: Debbie Harris was apparently introduced during the one issue that Wally Wood scripted of Daredevil, per Fraser Sherman.

Silly Panel Saturday

2011-11-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

If Perry White ever tried this stunt today, he'd be facing a sexual harassment lawsuit:

Tracers: The Ape Cover Limit

2011-11-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

I have read in several different places that Julius Schwartz had a file in his desk which proved that DC comics featuring apes on the cover sold better in general than comics without simians. I believe that Schwartz even mentioned this in his autobiography, Man of Two Worlds. It has also been claimed that to avoid overexposure, the number of ape covers was strictly limited by DC management to one per month.

This latter claim has never made a lot of sense to me. If your objective as an editor or a publisher is to sell as many comic books as you can (and I suspect that is, or ought to be the goal), then why would you refrain from doing something that has been proven to work in the past? And DC generally published 30 comics a month, would two gorilla covers really saturate the market?

So I decided to take a look at the matter. I started with 1960 and used the DC Indexes Time Machine to look at all the covers for a given month quickly. Note that the default option is for comics on sale in a given month, not cover dates. It seemed reasonable to use that option, since the concern was not to have to many ape covers on the newsstands at once.

First observation: If DC was worried about saturating the market with similar covers, it sure doesn't show. In 1960, as many others have noted, DC had an almost endless variety of covers featuring aliens, monsters and dinosaurs. It was not until looking at comics on sale in April that I located an ape cover:

Okay, so it's a gorilla; I suspect that Schwartz meant ape as a very generic term. The next month featured one of DC's most famous apes:

After an absence of apes in June, July included an alien ape:

DC then resisted the siren call of the apes until December:

Strange Adventures thus becomes the first series to hit two apes in one year.

And then came 1961. I am astounded to report that I can find no comics that went on sale from DC in that year which included apes, gorillas, or monkeys on the cover. There appears to be only one sensible conclusion; at this point, Schwartz had not yet developed his evidence about simians on the cover boosting the sales.

In January 1962, Grodd made his first cover appearance:

This is further evidence that Schwartz had not yet discovered the link between sales and gorillas, as Grodd had appeared four times already inside the comics.

The following month saw the debut of Bizarro Titano:

After three months's hiatus, a simian was prominently featured on the cover of Batman Annual #3:

And once again, there was a gap all the way to March 1963. You might think it would be hard for Tomahawk, a revolutionary-era hero to encounter an ape. You would be wrong:

In June of that year, we got one of the classic ape covers:

Let me tell you, if an gorilla is sliding into third base, it's a pretty brave fielder standing there waiting for the throw.

Grodd popped up on the first Flash Annual in August:

And the Great White Ape appeared in October's Star Spangled War #111 that same month, the first time we've seen two in the same calendar period.

But that's it for 1963. Monsieur Mallah appeared on the cover of Doom Patrol #86 in January 1964:

Tomahawk's giant ape returned in May:

But then there was another gap until November when Jerry Lewis #86 featured a King-Kong type cover. In December there were two ape covers: Hawkman #6 and Fox and Crow #90.

By this point I was getting pretty skeptical. Out of 60 months and about 1800 comics, only 16 covers had featured an ape or a gorilla. And 1965 was not much different, with only two ape covers.

Ah, but then came 1966, and suddenly the African invasion. In January, came Strange Adventures #186:

In February there were two covers:

And Monsieur Mallah appeared on the cover of Brave & Bold #65.

After a couple months gap, an ape popped up on Sea Devils #30 in May, and Bob Hope #100 in June. Nothing for July, but August saw Hawkman #16, September had King Colosso yet again in Tomahawk (this time shooting a bow and arrow no less), October had Jimmy Olsen marrying a female gorilla, and November's Showcase #66 had Bwana Beast duking it out with an ape. All told, there were nine different covers with the simian theme in 1966.

And if you think about it, it makes sense that the editors at DC were pulling out all the stops that year. Although the company as a whole did well with Batmania, the gains were very uneven. Batman sales skyrocketed, but the Superman-related titles all dipped as did many other books.

In 1967, there were seven more ape-featured covers, with only two coming in one month: September had Jerry Lewis 103 and Plastic Man #7.

Overall impressions:

1. The number of ape covers do not seem excessive. However, there certainly was a jump in 1966-67; those two years saw as many of those covers as had been seen in the six years previous.

2. There is little evidence for a hard and fast rule against two ape covers in one month. There were three months where apes did appear on two covers. I suspect that the real edict was not to overdo it.

In 1968, the number of simian covers did drop, at least until this series launched:

The Luckiest Character Ever?

2011-11-01T00:52:00.000-07:00

My vote goes to the Black Canary. She got a very late start, debuting as a guest star in the Johnny Thunder feature in Flash #86. Johnny Thunder had a long history in the DC universe at that point, having appeared in such historic comics as NY Worlds Fair Comics #2, Flash Comics #1, and All-Star #3, in which he became a charter member of the Justice Society of America. And yet just six issues after her debut as a guest star, she not only bumped Johnny Thunder from Flash Comics, but she was granted a cover appearance:

With the exception of some small insets, it was the only time a feature other than Flash or Hawkman was highlighted on the cover of that magazine.

But even before her own series debuted, she appeared with the Justice Society of America in All-Star #38, and with the next issue she began appearing on the cover:

By #40, she had replaced Johnny Thunder in the JSA; he never again appeared in the Golden Age. She appeared on every cover until #45.

At that point, she found herself without a feature as Flash Comics had been canceled by DC. By rights she should have disappeared like Starman and Dr Fate and many others had. Except... she got lucky. You see, she was not the only JSA member without a feature; longtime members the Flash and the Hawkman had their series canceled at that time as well, and Green Lantern was on his last legs. All-American had been converted to a western comic title the year before, and GL's own book mostly featured Streak the Wonder Dog on the cover for the last few issues. So she continued appearing in every issue of All-Star and occasionally popped up on the cover as well, until the JSA made its last appearance in #57.

Fast forward 12 years. In Flash #137, the JSA made its first appearance since that last issue of All-Star. Although the bulk of the story concerned Jay Garrick and Barry Allen teaming up against Vandal Savage, at the very end the two Flashes freed the old JSA members who'd been captured by that villain:

Ironically, as you can see, the Black Canary did not appear there. Instead Johnny Thunder returns. Note as well that Wonder Woman is in that scene; that's the Earth-2 (JSA) Wondy. She has a suggestion:

And sure enough, only a month or two later, JLA #21 appeared on the newsstands, inaugurating the annual "Crisis" teamups between the JLA and the JSA. But guess who did not make an appearance?

The GA Wonder Woman vanished and in her place was:

The Black Canary. There would appear to be two possible, non-exclusive reasons for her appearance rather than the GA Diana Prince:

1. DC was still unwilling to acknowledge the notion of the GA and SA Wonder Woman being separate people, as it raised uncomfortable questions about whether the GA Superman and Batman were not the same characters we were reading in the 1960s. I note that the GA Superman and Batman did not appear for several years in these teamups (although oddly enough the GA Robin was prominently featured in the 1967 crossover).

2. There was little to differentiate the GA Wonder Woman and the Silver Age version (at the time). The GA and SA Green Lanterns had markedly different costumes, as did the two Flashes. The SA Hawkman hadn't entered the JLA as yet, so his similarity with the GA version didn't matter.

At any rate, Black Canary got lucky and was tapped for that very important team-up. And the next one:

She missed the next one, but there was a big consolation prize, as she was featured in Brave and Bold #61 in a Starman teamup:

In which, by the way, we learned that she had married her longtime sweetheart, detective Larry Lance, who had appeared with her back in the Golden Age Flash stories.

The Starman/Black Canary pairing got a second outing the following issue (with a guest appearance by Wildcat). Those two issues are superbly entertaining, with terrific art by Murphy Anderson, but for whatever reason they did not result in a solo book for either character, and so it might appear that her luck had run out.Still, she got back into the JSA/JLA teamups with JLA #46-47, but then she got a bad break; in JLA #55 not only did the Earth-2 Robin appear, but so did that world's Wonder Woman. A big reason why the Black Canary had been featured in all those team-ups save one so far was that she was the only other female member of the JSA.

And then she got lucky again, and this time it was really a big break. In Wonder Woman #178 Diana Prince lost her super-powers and became an Emma Peel clone. A few months later, in JLA #69 WW left the Justice League to pursue her non-super career.This left the JLA as an all-male bastion, and in 1969, that was becoming an increasingly untenable situation. So a few issues later, when it comes time for the annual JLA/JSA teamup, a couple of things happen:

1. Larry Lance dies, heroically.

2. Black Canary decides to switch to our world:

We'd love to see you bare, but we can understand why you can't bear to go on living on Earth-2.And so she becomes a JLA member effective with the next issue, JLA #75. But there is one little problem. Black Canary never had any super-powers on Earth-2; like Batman she was just a good fighter. So she got lucky again; it turns out that the trip over to Earth-1 gave her some sort of sonic scream that was quite effective (if hard to control):

And you can even argue that's not the end of her lucky streak. In the Crisis on Infinite Earths series, one of the very notable casualties was the Barry Allen Flash, who had been responsible for opening up the whole Earth-1, Earth 2, Earth X+1 can of worms. And yet the Black Canary survived, and even thrived beyond that. Of course, she did have to put up with the insufferable Green Arrow for awhile as a boyfriend....

But all that is beyond the scope of this blog. Black Canary, you must be Irish!

Silver Age Trivia Video

2011-10-29T21:06:00.000-07:00

Mark Waid versus some fans from a 2005 convention:

What strikes me is how many of these have been answered here.

Bob Hope's landlady?

Villain who escaped from Doiby Dickle's taxi?

Lois Lane's parents?

If in Battle I Fail? (Quizmaster misstates the title as If in Battle I Fall).

Little old gooey monster me wants Wonder Girl mine to be? Can't find it now, but I know I highlighted this cover a long time ago.

There are six parts of the video quiz in total, you can see the rest of the show by clicking here.

Incidentally, at least one of the answers in one of the parts was completely wrong; when asked who the Green Lanterns were freeing in JLA #21, the quizmaster (Craig Shutt, thanks to commenter Jonathan L. Miller) said no, it was not the two Flashes, it was the two Atoms:

And the question about the villain the JSA helped the two Flashes to defeat which lead to the reforming of the Society is mistaken; in fact the two Flashes only freed the JSA members at the very end, when Vandal Savage had already been effectively beaten.

Still and all, a terrific bit of entertainment, and as I have made errors in my own quizzes, I'm in no position to criticize.

The Curious Case of the Time Trapper

2011-10-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

Faithful readers of the Legion of Superheroes must have been confused at this sequence, which appeared in Adventure #317:

Why confused? Well, it turns out that this was the first mention of the Time Trapper in a Legion story. At the very end of that story (which mostly did not concern TT) came a semi-explanation:

In the next issue, we got our first glimpse of the villain:

Note in particular his physical appearance there. Over the next year or so, we'd see more futile efforts by the Legion to break through:

The Time Trapper turned out to be working behind the scenes in that story, trying to find out the secret of the Legion's super weapon, the concentrator:

But it turns out that he does not have the real secret of the concentrator and flees into the future again. Amazingly, the Time Trapper story would not be resolved until Adventure #338, almost two years after he was first mentioned:

In that story, the Time Trapper has recruited an evil female, Glorith of Baalour, to help him doom the Legion. We get a strong indication of the plot here:

However, when she tries the trick on several members of the Legion, they do not regress in age past babyhood:

Frustrated in his plot to turn the Legion into blobs of protoplasm, he joins Glorith, after first letting Superboy and Brainiac 5 through the Iron Curtain of Time. He leaves them trapped in the future and sets about training the baby Legionnaires to rob for him:

Then he brings them to a planet where elements in the atmosphere will resume their devolution. But this causes problems, too:

But one of the babies has spotted the Time Trapper's ring, which is responsible for keeping Superboy and Brainiac 5 in the future. He switches it off, allowing them to join the group. The Trapper makes a proposal:

Brainiac 5 agrees, but there is a trick:

End of story? Well, yes and no. Yes, in the sense that it quite literally is the end of the Time Trapper in the Silver Age; he did not appear again outside of a hallucination sequence in Adventure 363.Which, if you think about it, is very odd. Here's this villain whose confrontation with the Legion had been built up over the course of two years, and yet they dispose of him in a single 16-page story? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. So I began digging for clues and speculating a bit.The first clue is that initial mention of the Time Trapper in Adventure #317. It appears obvious that there was supposed to be a Time Trapper story which appeared before that, but which was bumped for some reason. And if we look at the cover to Adventure #317, we get a pretty good second clue:

Speculation: Perhaps the Time Trapper story which appeared in Adventure #338 was intended to appear just before #317, but editor Mort Weisinger belatedly realized that this would give him two consecutive stories featuring Legionnaires turning into babies? This fits, especially when you consider that Adventure #338 was written by Jerry Siegel, while #317 was written by Edmund Hamilton. Weisinger could have instructed Hamilton (or artist John Forte) to include a couple panels mentioning the Time Trapper.

There are certainly still some problems with this speculation. For example, the story does not end with the Time Trapper in the future, creating the Iron Curtain of Time. But this objection is easily overcome; Weisinger simply had the ending of the story rewritten because now it took place after the events in #317, instead of before. Note as well that the story in Adventure #338 did not explain what secret the Time Trapper was supposedly concealing from the Legion in the future.

So my best guess is that the Time Trapper story that was supposed to be published before Adventure #317 was in fact the story that ended up being published in Adventure #338, with some changes.Incidentally, the Time Trapper himself may have been based on the Time Master, a similar character that appeared in Wonder Woman #101:

Around the Horn

2011-10-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

Check out Blogged and Boarded, a blog that is going through the complete Marvel 1960s catalog in order of publication. Entertaining and informative.

Steve Does Comics has done a couple of recent polls on the greatest enemies of Spiderman and the Fantastic Four. The first place finishers are not surprising, but there is a good argument to be made for one of the runners-up in Spidey; "himself".

Jacque Nodell covers some fashion mistakes in romance comics so bad, it looks like they're Halloween costumes.

Mark Ginocchio reminisces on the desire, nay the lust, he felt for ASM #32. As I mentioned in the commentsover there, a friend of mine traded me all his Spiderman back issues except for ASM #33, and so, irrationally, I decided that wasn't such a special issue. I subsequently recovered my senses.

Was Batman in his late 40s in the 1960s? Over at Nothing but Batman I cover Bob Haney's (and Neal Adams') Brave and Bold #84, which features Bruce Wayne parachuting into occupied France just before D-Day.

What's that the Challengers are Drinking?

2011-10-22T04:10:00.000-07:00

From Challengers of the Unknown #58 (Oct-Nov 1967). I'm surprised that the Comics Code Authority let that one slip through.

Early Easter Egg

2011-10-20T06:16:00.000-07:00

Just noticed this one in Sgt Fury #32 (July 1966):

Doc Daneeka was a character in Joseph Heller's famous novel, Catch-22. In a memorable bit in that book, Doc Daneeka "dies" when the plane he is supposedly in crashes into a mountain. Actually, Doc had simply signed his name in the log book for that flight to satisfy some regulation, but not gotten on the plane. Regardless, the military (and many of the characters in the book) treat him as if he no longer existed.

Sgt Fury #31

2011-10-18T15:41:00.000-07:00

Of all the series that Marvel published during the 1960s, Sgt Fury is probably the one that I have read the least. Well, except maybe for Patsy and Hedy. So when I found a small batch of issues on Ebay in reader grade, I snapped them up. This story starts out with the Howlers prepping for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Izzy earns a demerit for being too casual about his task:

The main plotline picks up when Captain Sawyer (aka Happy Sam) appears, just in time to head off to London for an important meeting. While there, the brass tells him the key date:

While there, Sawyer notes an aide who appears to be just a bit too interested:

There is something in the nature of fiction that tells us that these types of concerns are never "just your imagination". Although the aide does not hear the target dates for the invasion, he does find out that Sawyer has been informed. He quickly departs and radios the information to der Fatherland:

Now, in reality, the date of the invasion was not as important as the location. The Germans knew as well as the Allied generals that D-Day had several practical requirements: calm seas, high tides, and a full moon for illumination. The latter two virtually guaranteed the invasion would come on June 5 or June 6, or the invasion would have had to have been put off for a full month. As it happened, the weather was bad on the night of June 4, forcing the postponement of the mission to June 6, when the Allied meteorologist (correctly) projected better weather.On the other hand, the locations of the assaults were a closely-guarded secret and would have been worth quite a bit to the Germans. One of the logical spots was the Pas de Calais, the closest spot between England and France. As it happened, the Allies chose the Normandy beaches instead, but it was vital to keep this confidential so the Germans would be forced to defend both areas.The Germans kidnap Happy Sam (presumably named, like Happy Hogan, for his morose demeanor), but not without quite a fight:

The Germans attempt to torture the information out of Sawyer, but he refuses to divulge anything more than name, rank and serial number. So they try to trick the Allies into believing he has spilled the beans:

As you can see, the Howlers have picked up a British commando (apparently nicknamed Pinky, ouch), who talks straight out of central casting, with a lot of "cheerio" and "blighter" and "pip-pip, old bean" along with the obligatory brolly. No surprise, the Germans also toss around terms like "verdammt," "dummkopf" and "schweinhund". To be fair, Hollywood wasn't much more subtle in their stereotypes in WWII movies in the 1960s either.Anyway, the Howlers take the message to the brass, who apparently believe as Fury does, that Happy Sam would never tell. The general gives the commandos a chance to rescue their C.O., but warns them that the bombers will be shortly behind, as the information Sawyer has is too crucial to risk. Meanwhile:

But Fury and his men land virtually on top of Gestapo HQ and shortly:

The rest of the story virtually writes itself; they free Captain Sawyer, get away in a tank just before the bombers obliterate the Gestapo building, and are shortly headed for the English Channel.I enjoyed the plot, and I especially like the characterization for Happy Sam, who refuses to give up the date of the invasion. The tale was an early Roy Thomas outing, illustrated by Dick Ayers and J.Tartaglione.

cranky prof

2011-10-18T07:20:00.001-07:00

hello dear all my fiend, welcome

Why I Love American Comics Group

2011-10-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me recently while I was reading My Romantic Adventures #115 (Nov-Dec 1960). I've talked a lot about ACG in the past. They were a relatively minor but regular publisher of comics in the Silver and Golden Ages; all told they put out about 1150 comics over the course of about 22 years, or roughly 50 comics a year, four comics a month. Most of their comics were written by their editor, Richard Hughes, under a variety of pseudonyms.Why do I love ACG? It's so simple that I can't believe I never put my finger on it before now. It's because Hughes was a master at creating interesting characters. And when you consider that most of ACG's stories were one-shots, that becomes even more remarkable.Here's the splash page that brought it all home to me:

Now that is a unique character: a female weightlifter who dreams of settling down in smalltown America. That makes for an interesting premise, but Hughes doesn't stop there. He creates a story that fits that character. Our Miss Hercules, Marcia Simms, gets enough money from the sideshow act to buy herself a farm in Carvertown. And it's not long before she attracts the attention of a handsome neighbor:

But as you can probably guess, he is not the right man for her particular character. She's not weak and helpless. Soon after, she introduces herself to another neighbor:

She finds out that Blake had gone to prison for a hit-and-run accident that he claims he didn't commit; in fact, he blames her beau, Otis, for framing him. And to get even, he steals a kiss:

She tells Otis what happens, and while he seems to shrug it off, later that night she hears the sound of raised voices at Blake's farm. Otis and a couple of his buddies intend to beat up Blake. And at last we see why Hughes made her a weightlifter:

Working together, they prove that Otis had indeed framed Blake for the hit-and-run accident, and fall in love.

In that story, Hughes has his protagonist use her singular characterization at the end. But in other stories, it is not uncommon to have the character have to overcome a major trait. Another romance story from ACG concerned a gal who's something of a klutz:

In that story, a key moment arrives when the man she loves is trapped on a girder and she must overcome her awkwardness:That, my friends, is superb characterization.

Hughes particularly liked to present us with downtrodden characters who suddenly succeed against all odds. Americans love the story of an underdog who makes it big. The paragon of this character is obviously Herbie, the "big nothing" to his father who turned out to be one of the most powerful men on Earth. But there are many other examples in the ACG canon. For example:

The shy, unassuming guy invents a potion that turns him into a strongman:

He becomes famous, and suddenly attractive to women:

But eventually Sally realizes that she liked the old Melvin better, and Melvin remembers that he did it all to impress her:

Want to read about interesting characters? Check out the ACG line.

The Secret Origin of the Atom (Ray Palmer)

2011-10-10T23:53:00.000-07:00

This came up in a chatroom yesterday, and since I haven't talked about it before, I thought it was the perfect topic for a post. Of all the DC Silver Age reboots, only the Atom was significantly different than his Golden Age counterpart. Barry Allen and Jay Garrick had essentially the same power of blinding speed. Hal Jordan and Alan Scott were interchangeable; they had green rings of incredible power but smite either of them with a club of yellow wood and they'd be helpless. There was no real difference between the two Hawkmen or the dueling Aquamen.

But Ray Palmer's Atom was nothing like the Al Pratt version. The Golden Age Atom had no real super-powers; he was just a very strong short guy who never got shorter or bigger. The Silver Age version, of course, had the ability to shrink himself down to a very tiny size and then become much larger again; he could also control his weight so that one moment he was as light as a feather, and the next had the full force of 180 pounds behind him.So it is worth wondering why Julius Schwartz and Gardner Fox decided to give Ray Palmer significantly different abilities from Al Pratt.

For starters, I suspect that Palmer was intended to be a much more important character than his Golden Age counterpart. The GA Atom was never a cover feature; while he did appear on the covers of All-Star with his fellow Justice Society members, he never headlined All-American Comics, where his solo adventures appeared. The Silver Age Atom would have to hold down his own title.

But I suspect that other tiny heroes in the movies and on TV also influenced the decision. In 1957 (about four years before Ray Palmer's first appearance in Showcase #34), Richard Matheson's story, the Incredible Shrinking Man was brought to the silver screen. It's a terrific and suspenseful story of a man who suddenly finds himself becoming shorter and shorter with time. In the end, he discovers how threatening life is for a miniature man, as he's attacked in succession by the family cat and a spider in the basement. Here are some key moments in the film:

But there was also a 1959 TV series, obviously inspired by the Incredible Shrinking Man, that appears a more direct inspiration for the Ray Palmer Atom. World of Giants is the story of a six-inch high FBI agent:
Although the Atom could change his size to virtually anything under his normal height, the most common size that Ray Palmer assumed was six inches high, exactly the same height as Mel Hunter. For example:

And:

So it seems pretty apparent that the Silver Age Atom was inspired by this long-forgotten TV series. A hat tip to my comicchat buddy Jon for mentioning the TV show, which I confess I'd never seen before last night.

Trivia Quiz #44: Answers

2011-10-08T05:27:00.000-07:00

There were clues in each quote as to the speaker.

1. "I've found it! The legendary city of Caramanga!"

Adam Strange was an archaeologist.

2. "Well, here goes experiment #145!"

Ray Palmer, aka the Atom, was having problems with his experiments in shrinking things; every time he did it the object would explode.

3. "Lead never hurt a wooden leg!"

Captain Storm had a wooden leg.

4. "It is the first time I have found it necessary to give the signal!"

Reed Richards, aka Mr Fantastic, used a signal to summon the rest of the Fantastic Four:

5. "Huh? What? Go 'way! I wanna sleep! Lemme be!"

The Sub-Mariner (Silver Age version) was a bum living in a shelter when the Human Torch discovered him.

Scipio got 1 and 3 correct. Jim got 1, 2 and 3. Joplin John correctly identified the source of the quote for #4. Lou Mougin ran the table, getting all five speakers. Boosterrific got #5. Ed picked up #3. Mr Miller got 1, 3, 4 and 5, while Michael Rebain correctly answered #1 and #3.

Boosterrific makes a good point about the continuity between the Golden Age Sub-Mariner and the Silver Age version:

But that's not really the first published words of the character, is it? I mean, Johnny Storm was reading a comic book about the Sub-Mariner on the preceding page where it is implied that the Sub-Mariner character is the same as existed in the Golden Age. So wouldn't his "first words" be in 1939's MOTION PICTURES FUNNIES? (Granted, this is a blog about the Silver Age, and those are inarguably Namor's first Silver Age words, but still, you did say "the first words of the character." I'm not intentionally trolling, honest.)

Mort Weisinger would respond with some pun. I'll just acknowledge the "boo-boo".

Trivia Quiz #44: Famous First Words

2011-10-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

Pretty obvious format here: I give you the first words of the character, you have to name him or her. Note: I am excluding cover and splash page statements here:

1. "I've found it! The legendary city of Caramanga!"

2. "Well, here goes experiment #145!"

3. "Lead never hurt a wooden leg!"

4. "It is the first time I have found it necessary to give the signal!"

5. "Huh? What? Go 'way! I wanna sleep! Lemme be!"

(Update: Corrected the quote on #5 per commenter Boosterrific)

Modern Silver: Alan Moore's 1963 Part I

2011-10-03T03:05:00.000-07:00

In 1993, Alan Moore collaborated with several artists at Image Comics on a project that alternately was an homage to and a spoof of the Marvel Comics of the 1960s. The intent was to contrast how comics were back in the Silver Age with the comics scene of the 1990s. The series as it stands is pretty terrific, although in the end it was done in by the 1990s lunacy, as a planned 80-Page Giant which would have had the 1963 characters confronting their then-current counterparts was never completed. Owing to ownership hassles involving the separate characters featured in the series, it has never been reprinted and probably never will be.But enough of that modern crap, I will try to treat this comic as a genuine 1960s artifact.

Mystery Incorporated is obviously intended as a Fantastic Four tribute, and it largely succeeds. The opening features a man breaking into their headquarters, opposed by three of the members:

No particular surprise, the fourth member is the intruder himself, just testing their defense systems. I love the opening, because, as with similar sequences in the early issues of the Fantastic Four, it serves as a painless introduction to the various powers of the individual members. We can quickly identify their FF counterparts: Crystal Man is clearly intended as a Mr Fantastic knockoff, Kid Dynamo is the Human Torch, Neon Queen is the Invisible Girl and the oddly named Planet (whose face resembles more the Moon) is the Thing.

For the most part the members of Mystery, Inc. behave the way their counterparts in the FF did, although there are a few differences. For instance, Kid Dynamo is the younger brother of Planet, and is apparently competing with Crystal Man for Neon Queen's affections. We get a quick origin (they gained their powers on a space flight when they encountered alien technology on an asteroid), followed by a scene where they read their fan mail. As in the real FF, there's a letter questioning why they need a girl with such useless powers on the team.

Then we get the real story. Neon Queen encounters a real intruder:

But although he seemed a trifle ill just before she attacked him, he gets healthier, and continues to walk backwards, then suddenly vanishes in a flash of light. The whole team investigates:

Of course, that's a little nod to the endless gadgetry in the FF HQ, most specifically the Negative Zone. Kid Dynamo flies off toward the computer room to see if the intruder did any damage there, while the rest of the team continues to inspect the area, looking for bombs and other devices that might have been left behind. Planet wonders if the intruder could have been Apocalypse:

A clear reference to Stan's ubiquitous and alliterative footnotes. Suddenly the defenses of the MI's headquarters act up against them and we get another look at their powers in action. Meanwhile, Kid Dynamo discovers that the intruder is still in the computer area. They duke it out for a bit, but the mystery man eventually captures him in a box:

Meanwhile Crystal Man has doped out what really happened. The intruder was a visitor from the future:

So instead of coming from the computer room, he had gone to to the computer room, as of course Kid Dynamo has already discovered. They race off to rescue him, but he and the intruder are both gone, so the issue ends with the other three dashing headlong into the Maybe Machine.

Comments: Moore captures the essence of the Silver Age FF in this story nearly perfectly, and Rick Veitch's pencils and Dave Gibbon's inks have the look and feel of mid-1960s Kirby goodness. The comic even includes a Bullpen Bulletins knockoff with this hilarious spoof of Stan's name-dropping:

There are two pages of letters, discussing (imaginary) previous issues, and even some faux-1960s ads:

Overall I give the story high marks; if it were an actual Silver Age comic it would surely rate in the top 100 comics of that era. Well worth the read if you can find it.

She's Josie #9

2011-09-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

Archie Comics had initially started out in the 1940s as MLJ, and their early features were superhero characters like the Shield (the first patriotic superhero) and the Hangman. Archie himself didn't come along until Pep Comics #22, and wasn't featured on a cover until #36. But he rapidly eclipsed the other characters in MLJ's line, which proved fortunate as the superheros began dying out shortly after the war for almost all the publishers. Archie even got the rare tribute of having a radio series, which popularized the character even more.

In the late 1940s and 1950s, the Archie brand exploded. Archie's buddy Jughead got his own magazine, as did his girlfriends Betty and Veronica. The character proved so popular that they even started publishing Little Archie, the adventures of our hero as a tyke.

But at the same time, the publisher wanted to diversify. In 1959, Jack Kirby was between his short-term gig at DC Comics (where he created Challengers of the Unknown) and his famed period at Marvel. Archie Comics commissioned Joe Simon and him to create a new superhero, initially known as The Fly (later redubbed Flyman). For the next several years Archie Comics labored to create a superhero universe with The Jaguar, a resurrected Shield, Steel Sterling and other superheroes, collectively known as the Mighty Crusaders.

Ironically, nothing worked except a female version of Archie named Josie. Josie had pretty much the standard backup cast for a teen comic. There's Josie's ditzy blonde friend Melody, her (initially beatnik) boyfriend Albert, wealthy Alexander, and brainy (but plain-looking) Pepper. The comic does not appear to have been a big success at first; I don't remember ever seeing these in the spinner rack in my hometown. But it got lucky. In 1968-1969, a Saturday Morning show featuring Archie in the inevitable rock band was picked up by CBS. It was a huge success, and the group who recorded under the name The Archies came up with a smash hit in the song Sugar, Sugar. Josie quickly became a rock star too, her comic was renamed Josie and the Pussycats, and their Saturday morning cartoon debuted in 1970.

All that was far in the future at the time this issue came out. As you can probably guess, this issue featured Josie and her pals going to the New York World's Fair of 1964-65. Comics often did tie-ins to major events like this, although I confess this is one of the only ones that I can remember for that World's Fair. Which is remarkable, because Marvel's characters were all set in the New York metropolitan area at that time.The story starts out with Josie announcing that she and her pals are going to enter a contest:

And so the goal becomes to amass a horde of Crispy Crunchy boxtops. Josie gets two from her house. Albert contributes three, but only after getting sick from eating all those boxes of the cereal. Melody uses her charm:

And Alexander just buys up a warehouse of Crispy Crunchies. They're certain to win, right?

Fortunately for the story, Alexander decides to simply foot the bill for the trip to New York:

I believe the only structure still remaining at the site is that globe known as the Unisphere:

But Alex loses his wallet while riding the monorail. A kid in a cowboy hat picks it up, and the next several pages are consumed with the teens chasing him around the fair.

That's pretty interesting, because as you may recall, Alan Shepard did hit a few golf balls on the moon:
Melody eventually turns up with the kid in tow; he's apparently been following her. Unfortunately, he gave the wallet to his mom, and now he's lost. They suggest putting him on the TV at the fair, but:

Nice mom! So now they go chasing after the mother, but it turns out that she gave it to a policeman. Fortunately she immediately spots the officer in question, and he actually has the wallet. Unfortunately, they are all so worn out from chasing around the fair that they decide to go home. But it turns out that their escapades with the Crispy Crunchies caused a flurry of publicity for the company, and so:

Comments: Entertaining fluff. Incidentally, there was a guest cameo:

Matt Murdock's Other Great Idea

2011-09-23T21:43:00.000-07:00

I've talked in the past about his silly notion of convincing Foggy and Karen that his hitherto-unseen brother Mike was actually Daredevil. That was ludicrous enough (although reasonably entertaining), but things got really bizarre when he came up with an even wilder idea of how to protect his secret identity:

See, he fakes a pilot's license and hires a plane, and then blows it up:

Resulting in this headline:

So now DD's problems are over.

Well, except for one thing; Matt Murdock's cane which doubles as Daredevil's billy club, is at the office. So he heads over there, but:

Despite his understanding, he follows her home and steals the cane. No, I am not kidding:

Okay, so at least he feels guilty about it, eh?

Now remember, Matt's not just a lawyer; he's supposed to be one of the best in the business. And what is it lawyers are supposed to be good at? Figuring out all the ramifications of a possible decision, right? I mean, that's why we hire them to look over our contracts, and why our contracts get more and more detailed over time.

But Matt hasn't thought this idea through. It's not half-baked--it isn't even defrosted! For example, there are the little things, like, oh, a place to sleep. And bigger things, like putting the girl whom he supposedly loves through the agony of believing that he's dead. And even the idea that he should not have blown up an airplane that didn't belong to him.

Inflation Since the Silver Age

2011-09-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

Longtime reader Mike F sent this analysis along and I thought it was interesting enough to post. I will append my own thoughts at the end.

At the start of the Silver Age, DC comic books were 10 cents and had 24-25 pages of story, plus filler (gag strips, letter pages, etc.). Then in 1962 the price went up to 12 cents.

Today, a typical DC comic is 2.99 with only 20 pages of story (and maybe 1-2 pages of filler).

The analysis at the end of this e-mail is an attempt to do an apples-to-apples cost comparison (using a CPI calculator.) The CPI calculator is probably not 100% accurate but it is probably in the ballpark enough for this purpose.

What it shows is that we are paying more than 4-5 times as much for comics as we were in the Silver Age.

I believe there are several factors that may explain this.

1) Writers and artists are paid more, including residuals
2) Paper used is slick, not pulp.
3) Printing quality is higher
4) Sales figures are 1/5 to 1/10 the size meaning production costs are spread across fewer sales
5) Most comics are sold through comics shops which need a higher sales price to stay in business (see lower sales figures)

Now to make things worse, most comics in the Silver Age had 1-3 stories per issue with considerably more text (dialogue and captions).

All in all, todays comics are vastly more expensive than they were in the Silver Age.

And of course, there is no comparison with the Golden Age when comics were ten cents and had around 60 pages of story and art.

$ Value
1956 2010
$0.10 $0.80

1962 2010
$0.12 $0.87

We will multiply each number by 20/25 (80%) to account for the drop in story pages.

$ Value
1956 2010
$0.08 $0.64

1962 2010
$0.096 $0.69

DC Price Today Vs. CPI

Un-Normalized Percentage Difference
1956 ($2.99/.80) x 100 = 373.75%
1962 ($2.99/.87) x 100 = 343.68%

Normalized for page count difference
1956 ($2.99/.64) x 100 = 467.19%
1962 ($2.99/.69) x 100 = 433.33%

What do you think?

Thoughts by Pat: Not sure I get all the math here, but this analysis does comport with an observation I came up with independently. Back in 1968, when I first started collecting comics, I earned money for at least part of the year by mowing lawns. I could make about $2.00 per hour whacking the grass, and with comics running 12 cents apiece, that means that I could translate my efforts into about 16.5 comics per hour. I'm not sure what the going rate is for yard work these days, but in order to afford 16.5 comics kids today would have to be earning around $50.00 per hour, and I suspect strongly that they'd be more likely to get $10-$12, which would mean an effective price increase of 300-400% or more.

Another thought: Do you remember how DC used to fiddle with the comic sizes every time they pushed through a price increase after 1969's jump to 15 cents? For example, look at Batman #214, the first issue with the new pricetag. Batman #234 saw a jump to a quarter, but DC confused the issue by increasing the total page count to 52. You can slice and dice that a lot of ways, but at least the price increase was accompanied by a value increase. The new size and price lasted until #243 (1972), when the comics returned to the old size and the price "dropped" by a nickel. Of course, the net effect was actually a nickel increase, hidden by the brief 52-page period. The price jumped all the way to 50 cents with Batman #253 (1974), but they also bumped the page count to 100 (with most of the new pages coming from reprints). Then the old size returned in Batman #263 (1975), but not the old price, which was now a full quarter. Along the way, real page counts dropped as well; Batman #214 had a 23-page story, while Batman #263 only featured 18 pages of story and art. So from 1969-1975, the cover price increased by 67%, but the price per page more than doubled. And this was fairly well-concealed by the brief period of bigger issues.

Wagon Train #13

2011-09-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

Comics have long looked to movies, TV and (in the 1940s and 1950s) to radio for inspiration for new series. Back in the 1950s, DC had many titles that were ported over from TV, including Jackie Gleason and the Honeymooners, Sgt Bilko, Big Town, Mr District Attorney, A Date with Judy, as well as two long-running series featuring the movie stars Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis.

Dell Comics, in particular, went in for licensed features from other media. The appeal is obvious; TV shows and movies have existing fan bases who may be influenced to buy the comics based on their familiarity with the characters and storylines. Of course, one of the ironies today is that the licenses often go the other way, with old-time comic characters making the transition to the big and small screens.

Wagon Train was a hugely successful TV show which ran from 1957-1965. The show featured the adventures of a group of covered wagons crossing the prairies from Missouri to California, shortly after the Civil War. The stories mostly revolved around newcomers to the Wagon Train, and/or the local citizens whom they encountered along the way. This is a common theme in TV, with shows such as Route 66 and Star Trek having many similarities (in fact, Gene Roddenberry reportedly pitched TV executives that Star Trek would be Wagon Train in space). Wagon Train had two main characters; the wagon master Christopher Hale (played by John McIntire) and the scout Flint McCullough (played by Robert Horton).

Note the 15-cent price tag. Dell tried to lead the comics to break the 10-cent barrier on several occasions, starting as early as 1958, but were always frustrated by the reluctance of the other publishers to go along. Finally in late 1961 Marvel and DC raised their prices to 12 cents, while Dell tried to make the higher price stick into 1962 (this comic bears an indicia date of April-June of that year).

The story starts in typical fashion:

It turns out that a renegade Indian and his tribe have been attacking lone wagons along this route, and McCullough strongly advises that they join up with his group. They agree reluctantly, but their stand-offish behavior soon causes problems. In addition, it appears that the man is abusing the "hired man":

When another group mentions that the young man, Jack, had been pistol whipped for talking with another youngster, the wagon master insists that he get medical help for the lad. While they are way from the husband and wife, he tries to draw Jack out on what happened, but is unsuccessful.

Word reaches the wagon train that marshals are looking for a young man and an accomplice who robbed a Wells Fargo stagecoach of $50,000 and killed three people. The description fits Jack. Later, while passing through some mountainous country, the new wagon disappears. They have decided to strike out on their own. Fortunately, the scout comes along just as the renegade Indians attack, and saves them. When the battle is over, the older man shows little gratitude:

Eventually we learn the real secret. Jack's brother and Reed had been responsible for the Wells Fargo robbery, but the brother had gotten away. Reed was holding Jack hostage to force the brother to give him his half of the swag. As the story ends, Reed and Jack's brother have been captured and Jack will be staying behind to testify against them at the trial.

Comments: An interesting and unusually sophisticated tale; I can't help wondering if it's an adaptation of an actual episode of Wagon Train.

The backup tale is of a former circus acrobat and his son. It turns out that the father had lost his grip on his wife and she fell to her death. While the Wagon Train is stopped for a dust storm, the boy wanders off to recapture his pet calf. He is attacked by a mountain lion, and escapes onto an old wooden bridge:

The boy falls onto a rock ledge, where he is stuck. Can the father overcome his fear of heights and save his son from the fate that befell his wife?

Comments: An excellent, well-constructed story. The concept of a character having to overcome his personal phobia in order to save a family member is pretty common in TV and movies.

Overall, this was an excellent comic. Incidentally, the last page includes a circulation statement:

Not too shabby; 314,000 copies per issue was a little more than what the Flash was selling in 1961. As it happens, however, this was the final issue under the Dell imprint; a year and a half later Wagon Train (the comic) appeared as a Gold Key title, but by then the TV show had passed its prime and the comic only lasted four issues.

Our Army At War #175

2011-09-11T01:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a cover that gives only a hint as to the innards. As I have discussed in the past, Sgt. Rock scorned thoughts of romance as interfering with the business of killing Germans. This is not atypical in heroes for adolescent boys; Sherlock Holmes and Doc Savage, for instance, were notably uncomfortable in the presence of the fairer sex.

Well, in this story we learn that Rock had indeed been a red-blooded American boy before his induction into the armed forces:

They made plans to marry after his service was over. But, no particular surprise, after insiring him through several battles, Mary sent him a "Dear Rock" letter:

So he goes off to ponder the cruelties of fate when:

They take him off in a German jeep, where Rock rebels, giving us the cover image. He kayos two of the Germans but the third one shoots him in the back as he flees. Fortunately he makes it to a cabin, and passes out. When he comes to:

You've gotta love that last panel. Around this time, the comics used to advertise these posters of sad-eyed kittens:

The resemblance is unmistakable. Well, as you can probably guess, Rock finds it impossible to shake little Mignon. And she turns out to be quite brave:

So Rock goes charging towards the nearest Germans, not to seek revenge, but to get help for the youngster. Of course, they don't see it his way, so he's got to fight his way through to the medical supplies:

After getting back to the allied lines, he turns her over to a medic. But she has one last request:

Yes, you can say that it seems a little creepy, but Rock's no molester. It's just a sweet little story about how Rock found something to fight for once Mary left him. When I was a much younger man, there were a couple of younger sisters of girlfriends who quite obviously had crushes on me. And I always tried to treat them as special, not out of some nefarious intent but because I could remember what it was like to be a kid and have a crush on an adult.

The backup story is an interesting tale about a young American who had tried on several occasions to swim the English Channel, but each time he was forced to abandon his quest due to the elements. A year later he is a volunteer fighter in the RAF, when he is shot down on a return flight from France. So the story is about him fighting his way back across the channel:

When he makes it back to England, he gains the confidence that the invasion of Normandy will succeed.

Overall, I loved this comic.

Don't Be A Wimp!

2011-09-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

Comics advertisers knew that most comics buyers were young boys and adolescents, and they tailored their ads accordingly. This particular ad would be appealing to kids who really didn't want to put in the effort to actually build their bodies. Just think: No exercise at all!

Probably the most famous ad of this type was the Charles Atlas pitch:

If I recall correctly, there was a later, extended version of the ad that had Mac remarking ruefully that he noticed how his girlfriend had referred to the bully as "that man", while scornfully calling him "little boy".

Of course, in the all-too real world of childhood and adolescence, bullies were a regular problem, and so this fantasy presentation of getting even was quite powerful and, I suspect, effective.

Sports heroes were often used to push these body-building courses:

Although often the personal testimonial of a normal guy who had been turned into a hunk was favored:

Before and after pictures were often featured. I believe this one is probably my favorite:

They made sure to specify that you would be a hit with the gals if you followed the regimen:

Not to mention successful in "all sports":

Incidentally, the George Jowett books that were marketed using the last few ads are all available online here.

The Other Showcase

2011-08-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

Back when I was a young teen collecting comics, I remember picking up this issue at a garage sale and boggling:

Under "Still 10 cents" it says "No. 1115". I was flabbergasted. I knew that Ricky Nelson had starred with the rest of his family in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet for a very long time (in fact, that show is still the second longest-running sitcom in US history, behind only the Simpsons), and that he'd had some success as a rock star, but the idea that his comic had over five times as many issues as Superman (back then) was simply impossible to conceive.

And, of course, it wasn't true.

DC did not originate the concept of a tryout magazine, where new features could be tested to see if they sold. They borrowed the idea from Dell Comics, which had a series simply entitled Four Color Comics. Dell published approximately 1350 issues under that name, which I believe is still the all-time record for a single series in the United States, even though the last Four Color issue was published in 1962. Since the first issue appeared in 1942, it is obvious that they put out about 60 comics a year under this line, or five per month. And four of those issues, not 1100+, featured young Mr Nelson.

The Four Color line included the debuts of many long-running series for Dell and its later successors, including Donald Duck, (#9), Felix the Cat (#15), Roy Rogers (#38), Little Lulu (#74), Pogo (#105), Woody Woodpecker (#169). Of course those features had appeared elsewhere, but these were the tryouts that got them their own comic titles. Four Color also featured the first appearance anywhere of Uncle Scrooge (#178).

The Four Color series did create one problem which caused endless anxiety for collectors in the days before the Overstreet Guide. Dell would run, say, four tryout issues for Spin and Marty (a serial about two boys on a dude ranch that ran on TV in the Mickey Mouse Club), spaced out over a number of months, and if the sales justified it, they would start issuing the feature in its own magazine, starting with #5. Which meant that collectors might search forever for the elusive #s 1-4, not realizing that they bore issue #s 714, 767, 808 and 826 on the covers.

As if that wasn't complicated enough, Four Color was actually two series; there were 25 issues in Volume One, and 1300+ in V2. To add to the confusion, while the last issue of V2 was #1354, there were numerous missing issues in the last 100 or so; for example, there is no #1351, #1352 or #1353.

The most valuable issues in the Four Color line are generally the early Donald Duck appearances by Carl Barks, but there are plenty of cheap issues from the 1940s-1960s offering fine quality entertainment.

Repetitive Plots in Sgt Rock

2011-08-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

I love reading the DC war titles of the Silver Age; for the most part they have excellent art and entertaining stories. But there is one major problem with reading a bunch of them consecutively, and that is that the main features recycle plotlines consistently.

I've talked in the past about Gunner and Sarge, and how many of the stories featured the same action with Gunner acting as the decoy and the Sarge figuring out where the enemy was located by their fire at his counterpart. The Johnny Cloud stories always had some incident from his youth as a Navajo relating to his problems as an air ace in WWII. In the Haunted Tank series, the ghost of Jeb Stuart would give cryptic advice to his namesake, which inevitably proved prescient.

The Sergeant Rock series was no exception to this trend. The standard plot outline involved Rock being concerned about something that Easy Company is doing wrong that could lead to disaster. For example:

That bit about Easy Company being like a chain came up often. Sarge was as fanatical about eliminating the weakest link as Anne Robinson:

There would then follow several rapid-fire combat sequences proving Rock was right:

Or sometimes the combat-happy Joes would appear to be right for awhile:

Thus increasing the pressure on Rock to prove them wrong. In the end there was always a resolution, although I admit that Kanigher (who wrote these stories) was willing to be more creative in his denouements:

So I recommend these DC war series, but also caution that you should probably read them as they were published; with a month or two in between each issue.

False Dawns

2011-08-19T04:06:00.000-07:00

There is a light that precedes the actual dawn by about an hour; it is called the false dawn.

temporary light on the eastern horizon that precedes the rising sun by about an hour; also called zodiacal light

Most comics historians date the dawn of the Silver Age to the Sept-Oct 1956 and the appearance of Showcase #4, with the first Barry Allen Flash. Others will argue for November 1955 and Detective #225, featuring the introduction of Barry's JLA partner, the Martian Manhunter. As you know, I just use 1955 in general because of the appearance of the Comics Code Authority Seal on the covers, starting in around March of that year.

But if we were to date it from the resurgence of the superhero genre, which is certainly one of the hallmarks of the Silver Age, it's amazing how complicated things get, because there were a lot of efforts at relaunching old superheros and inaugurating new ones in the 1954-55 era. And despite Showcase #4 supposedly coming like a bolt from the blue, it took three more years before Flash graduated to his own magazine, and before DC attempted to bring back another updated Golden Age hero (Green Lantern).

For example, Sterling published four issues of a superhero named Captain Flash starting in November 1954. But before that, Headline Publications put out seven issues of Fighting American, a Simon & Kirby collaboration, with the first issue bearing an April-May 1954 cover date. Here's the cover to #2:

And earlier still, in December 1953 Marvel (then known as Atlas) tried bringing back the Human Torch, Sub-Mariner and Captain America, with five issues of Young Men:

In February 1955, Charlton attempted to bring back the Blue Beetle, although in this case it was simply a reprint title:

Nick Fury, Agent of Shield #1

2011-08-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

The secret agent boom in the 1960s was huge, propelled largely by the James Bond movies. TV responded with shows like Secret Agent, the Avengers, I Spy and the Man from UNCLE. The theme song to the first became a big hit for Johnny Rivers:

The comics were not far behind. Marvel came up with Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. Fury was Marvel's World War II Sergeant, upgraded to Lt. Colonel and updated to the 1960s, and improbably placed in charge of SHIELD despite his fairly low officer's rank. And although he was the head of the organization, he also acted as its main field man.

The series was initially scripted by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby as a co-feature with Dr. Strange in Strange Tales. Effective with #151, Jim Steranko was assigned to do the pencils, initially based on Jack Kirby's layouts. He quickly graduated to doing his own design, and eventually wrote the scripts as well. I believe that he was the first artist on a major Marvel series to handle both chores officially, although of course Kirby often provided suggested dialogue for Lee.

Steranko brought something new to the effort. He was clearly inspired by the psychedelic and op/pop art of the times. These comics stood out on the spinner rack. The artwork is breathtaking in places:

The story is complex, and was certainly confusing to me as a 13-year old back in 1968. Nick Fury is testing a weapons protection system in the desert near Las Vegas. He is about to be hit by a very strong bomb (yep, he's also SHIELD's chief guinea pig), when he realizes that the system has been turned off. He activates a rocket sled which takes him out of range just as the missile explodes.

When he gets to the SHIELD building in Las Vegas, he learns that Scorpio, an unidentified villain who apparently holds a grudge against Fury of long standing, has gassed the occupants and turned off the defense system.

A subplot involves a failed comedian named Flip Mason, who has just gambled away his last cash and already owes plenty to the mob. Just as he's about to attempt a holdup, he apparently gets lucky. A mobster confuses him for Mitch Hackett (another crook) and hands him a briefcase, telling the comic that it contains $200,000. When the real Hackett shows up, he and the mobster engage in a gun duel, just as Scorpio is escaping in a helicopter after battling Fury. As Hackett lies dying, he squeezes off one last round, which hits Scorpio's copter, resulting in the crash and explosion.

And Flip Mason? Does he now get back to his wife and infant son with the cash that will put them on easy street? Nope, for it turns out that the mobster was already planning on double-crossing Hackett, and had put a bomb in the briefcase instead of the money. As Mason dials San Francisco to tell his wife that they're rich, it explodes, leading to that last panel shown above.

Comments: A terrific tale, innovatively illustrated by Steranko. About the only negative I can find with the artwork is that the standard panels which serve to move the story forward seem ordinary and dull by comparison. The story reads like an extended Spirit tale by Eisner. I do suspect it was beyond the understanding of even adolescents; as I said above I was quite confused. Part of the problem is that Mason and Hackett both bear a strong resemblance to longtime SHIELD character Jasper Sitwell:

Although Sitwell had moved over to become a sidekick in the Iron Man series by then, anybody who read the back issues of Strange Tales (as I had) would probably assume that somehow he was involved here, and be waiting for the explanation which never came.

NFAS lasted 15 issues before being canceled in late 1969. I suspect that Marvel overestimated the market for such a sophisticated comic; although older readers did buy comics back then, as a percentage of their age cohort they were tiny compared to the boys and adolescents who made up the bulk of comic buyers. In addition, the comic ran into the brief but sharp 1969 recession and the end of the secret agent fad.

This comic foreshadows much of the 1970s as Marvel and DC pursued the boomer market, often at the expense of the youngsters who came behind them.

Green Lantern #24

2011-08-06T11:57:00.000-07:00

Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. when I was assembling my collection, I picked up most of my early-mid 1960s DC from a friend of mine named Jon, and his neighbor, Eric. They had long runs of the comics they were interested in, but every now and then there was an issue or two missing. I don't have a clue as to why; perhaps they had just forgotten to go to the newsstand that month, or perhaps they had been broke, or perhaps they had just used the money for a new baseball mitt or something else.

This was one of the issues I never found, and since I wasn't fanatical about completing my Green Lantern run like I was about Batman, it was only a few years ago that I finally found a low-grade copy cheap enough to justify the purchase. IIRC, the first story was reprinted in the 1970s, but I don't think that cover story was until the relatively recent advent of the Archive and Showcase Editions.

The first story is The Shark that Hunted Human Prey. An accident in an atomic station on the coast led to a sudden emission of radiation that hit a passing shark:

Now of course, as far as the science goes, that's absurd. Evolution is a slow, torturous process with many missteps along the way. Still, it's in keeping with the science of comic books, in which Ben Grimm can turn into a pile of orange rocks (and occasionally turn back again).

The Shark discovers he has extraordinary powers, but he retains his essential nature:

After dropping the heavyweight champ without raising a fist, the Shark uses his awesome mental powers to locate a foe worthy of his abilities:

The Shark contacts Hal mentally and issues a challenge. Hal quickly changes into his fighting duds and recharges his ring in the locker room, but:

And for much of the battle that ensues, the Shark maintains his desire to induce fear in Green Lantern. He demonstrates that GL's ring has no power over him as he can block it with his mind. Indeed, his mental powers seem unlimited:

GL realizes that the air in the room is not colored yellow, so he stuns the Shark with a bolt of compressed air. But the Shark recovers and ups the stakes:

His intent was to make Hal afraid, but instead the threat just redoubles GL's resolve to win. He condenses the water vapor in the room and creates a block of ice with which to kayo the villain. Then he uses his power ring to devolve the Shark back into his normal state:

Comments: I found the concept of a shark evolved into a human somewhat ludicrous, and that costume is inane. However, that should not be allowed to obscure the fact that the character development was excellent and the story itself, with the threats to those Hal holds near and dear, is compelling.

The second story is the cover one, and it is pretty simple and straight-forward. While traveling through space, Hal encounters the planet, which suddenly forms a continent that looks like him. It shoots a rocket at him and one grazes him, forcing him to the ground. He encounters visions of Pieface, and several of his enemies. Finally the planet itself finds a way to contact him directly:

It was an intelligent planet who had searched the stars for more intelligence, and GL was the first it had ever encountered. It just wanted to make a friend, but couldn't find a way to express that at first. GL helps it by removing a volcanic core that was causing earthquakes, and they part as buddies.

Comments: Cute story, and the concept of a living planet would be "borrowed" a few years later by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the Mighty Thor series.

Wonder Woman 155

2011-08-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

Even by the standards of the Silver Age Wonder Woman, that's a mind-boggling cover.

Back in the 1960s, young boys were off in the woods, playing army, possibly the dumbest game ever invented. Girls tended to want to play house, which certainly seemed dumb, but they were actually practicing the roles they were expected to grow into. The hope was that they would find a good man and settle down, just like Mommy had. Of course, there was also the fear that they would fall for the wrong man, or that only the wrong types would want to date them.

These hopes and fears were expressed and marketed to in many ways. For example remember the girls' board game, Mystery Date?

Note the reaction from the girl when she opens the door to discover the "dud" waiting to take her out. One of the amusing things about this ad is that by the 1970s, when these girls were dating for real, most of them were likely to date someone even more shabbily attired than him.

The covers of Lois Lane are filled with images of her falling for the wrong man:

The Wonder Woman story starts out similar to Wonder Woman #125, which I reviewed a few years ago. She's having problems with the men in her life being too aggressive:

She has similar encounters with Bird-Man and Manno, the Merman, during the latter of which we learn an interesting fact about Wonder Woman's physiology:

There's also this amusing bit:

King Kong's escaped again? What a pain!
She also gets some unwanted attention from an octopus. You have to see it to believe it:

So after all that excessive affection, she is intrigued when she meets a monster prince who rejects her friendship:

But when he destroys his castle during a battle with the Amazons who've come to befriend him:

We learn that's the real way to Wonder Woman's heart:

And she decides to marry him. There's an interesting statement on prejudice here:

Wow.

And so we get the scene on the cover. But at the last moment the groom gets cold feet:

There follows a zany sequence where a flying sphinx attacks her, and the monster helps save her and turns into a handsome dreamboat. But as they are falling off a cliff, he gets angry again and changes back into his monster self and rejects her, leading to this denouement:

Comments: Obviously the story is an insane remake of Beauty and the Beast. But it is redeemed a bit by the positive characterization of Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman 156--Return of the Golden Age

2011-07-29T15:53:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I've been meaning to do is look back through the comics to see when the concept of comics being "collectibles" first started; this must be a fairly early example, with an August 1965 cover date. Marvel Collectors' Item Classics started the same month, so obviously by then the news was getting out about the value of the older issues.

This issue also demonstrates the growing influence of fandom. In 1961 and 1964, Wonder Woman was selected by the Alley Awards as the "Worst Comic Book Currently Published."
While that is a bit unfair, I suspect what the fans were getting at was more like "The worst comic that used to be good."

In response, Robert Kanigher decided to give the fans what they wanted; a Golden Age-type story with Golden Age-type artwork. Does it work? Mostly it does. Oh, it's zany, but the GA Wonder Woman was quite wacky. The story starts out with Steve Trevor telling Diana Prince that he always knew his Wonder Woman was worth a million, and now he has the proof:

How'd you like to be able to buy early Golden Age issues for $100 per copy?

Intrigued, Wonder Woman visits the Dream Merchant (a fictional comic book shop). She starts reading an old comic and suddenly finds herself pulled into the story:

Incidentally, although the Brain Pirates were featured in a Golden Age Wonder Woman story in Sensation Comics #82, there is only a superficial similarity between that tale and this one.

The Brain Pirate tries to steal Wonder Woman's brain, but she throws off his control. However, he succeeds with Steve Trevor:

There follows a zany battle with the pirates over Steve's "brain"; at one point they load it into a cannon and threaten to fire it far out to sea. She prevents them from doing that, but she's stymied when they control Steve and order him to shoot her if she does not submit:

Just then the Holliday girls and Etta Candy happen to be rowing by, and the pirates threaten to ram them. Wonder Woman prevents this:

Err, but isn't she supposed to be only as strong as a normal woman when her bracelets are welded together? She returns to the pirate ship and is there when the Holliday girls attempt to rescue her by swimming to the ship. But the Brain Pirates capture the girls' brains, and the ship takes off for outer space.

After landing on the Brain Pirates' world, they torment Wonder Woman by making all the passengers walk the plank, into a shark-infested sea. Wondy fights off the sharks, and saves Steve and the Holliday girls:

She gets them safely to land, but the Brain Pirates still control them and force Steve and the girls to capture Wonder Woman. The BPs parade their slaves into their city. They attempt to kill Wonder Woman but she manages to avoid their spears and swords. Then comes the dartboard scene shown on the cover. She manages to get a dart to pierce the chains holding her bracelets together, and now she's free. The leader of the Brain Pirates makes a deal:

Except, as you can probably guess, the brains of Etta, Steve and the Holliday Girls are inside that box. Fortunately Wonder Woman realizes this, grabs the box and her friends, calls for her plane, and gets everybody safely back to Earth. And in the end Wonder Woman pops back out of the comic and into the store where she ponders:

The next two issues were done in Silver Age style and featured the memorable Egg Fu. Wonder Woman #159 featured a retelling of the origin of the Amazon princess, and Golden Age-style art, and Kanigher continued the experiment until #165, when the Silver Age artwork returned. Kanigher noted in the letters column of #166:

The Other Other Captain Marvel

2011-07-26T05:58:00.000-07:00

See, there was the Golden Age Captain Marvel, aka Billy Batson, aka the Big Red Cheese. And Marvel came out with its own version of Captain Marvel, the man of the Kree who could change places with Rick Jones. And then there was this fella:

Captain Marvel is a robot who was created on another planet. His mission is to help others avoid the wars that destroyed his homeworld:

So you might say that he was a strange being who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men....

His origin is told in flashback like that, because his memory is faulty. In a robot? He has to recharge his powers every day by passing his hand over that M-shaped medallion on his chest. It turns out that he has a young friend:

We learn that he's a writer for an important press service, and that his next assignment is to cover a revolution in the Caribbean. His flight crashes en route in a jungle. Captain Marvel investigates the area and discovers:

Inside the computer are some giant heads, who initially seem like villains, but then it turns out that they just need Captain Marvel's help getting enough power so they can return to their normal dimension.

Comments: A padded, silly story, although I enjoyed the cartoonish artwork and the insane gimmick of him separating his body into multiple pieces. Like many superheroes, Captain Marvel picked up abilities as needed by the plot:

The second story is pretty much more of the same. Aliens (from Venus) who seem like villains but are really kind of ambivalent:

And how can Captain Marvel prove to them that humans deserve to live? Why by defeating the Venutians' nemesis, the Gronks. And the Gronks are the "Bonus Feature" shown on the cover, Plastic Man. But not that Plastic Man:

Captain Marvel defeats him by using another yet-unrevealed power:

So the Venutians decide that the humans are indeed worthy of living, and head back to their own planet. Plastic Man escapes, setting up a return match with that villain in the next issue. But is he really a villain, or yet another ambivalent antagonist?

Comments: I get the sense that the publisher was intentionally pushing the envelope on copyright/trademark here to find out what they could get away with. Captain Marvel was a former Fawcett character, who had been retired after he was ruled a violation of DC's copyrighted Superman. But DC had not perfected their rights to the character by purchasing the name, so it was apparently out there in the public domain. On the other hand, Plastic Man had definitely been purchased by DC, and so by the next issue he was renamed:

Note that the envelope is again being pushed by that issue with Atom-Jaw clearly a swipe of the longtime Lev Gleason character Iron-Jaw (also a mid-70s Atlas-Seaboard protagonist), and Dr. Fate a GA DC hero.

BTW, I found out about the Silver Age Captain Marvel at one of my regular blogs from the sidebar, but I can't remember where; somebody wrote about him within the last two months or so and intrigued me enough to track down this issue. I'd be happy to link that blog, but I really can't remember where I heard about him. Anybody? Bueller? Update: Jim pointed me to Gorilla Daze, where Allan wrote about the other other Captain Marvel a few months ago. Update II: Booksteve also covered the faux Captain Marvel just last week.

Fifty Years Ago This Month

2011-07-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

The multiverse begins as Flash #123 goes on sale.

This story was implied by the very first Barry Allen Flash story in Showcase #4, which opened with Barry enjoying a Golden Age Flash comic during his lunch break:

That's an interesting decision by the writer (Bob Kanigher), I suppose chosen to explain why Barry quickly decides to become the Flash himself when the lightning bolt hits a page later. But it does raise some uncomfortable questions. If the superhero comics are assumed to take place in the real world, then in what world did the Jay Garrick stories take place, since Barry clearly considers the Golden Age Flash to be a fictional character.

As the Flash of Two Worlds story starts, Iris is trying to put on a show for her pet charity, a group of orphans. Unfortunately, the magician she arranged to provide the entertainment has not shown up, and it looks like the kids will be disappointed. Barry suggests that he call the police station, as he just saw the Flash over there, and perhaps the Scarlet Speedster will agree to dazzle the youngsters.

He plays a game of tennis with himself, and then tries the Indian fakir trick of climbing a rope, only to disappear suddenly:

The Flash finds himself suddenly in a field outside the city. But not Central City, as he quickly discovers. Although some of the landmarks look the same, the signs in the metropolis indicates this is Keystone City. But isn't that where... on a hunch, Barry looks into a phone book and sure enough:

So he visits the Garrick residence, where we learn that Jay has aged since his Golden Age adventures and that he has married his former girlfriend, Joan Williams. Barry explains that he knows all about Jay's adventures as a superhero, and gives his theory:

Barry has further thoughts on how Jay Garrick ended up as a fictional character on his own world:

That's interesting because Fox himself was writing this particular tale, in place of usual Flash scripter, John Broome. Note that this maintains the implication that Barry Allen's stories were taking place in "our" world, since Gardner Fox was a real person. This would be maintained as the official story for years, although it was eventually discarded in a 1970s Flash tale, when we learned that our Earth was Earth-Prime, while Barry was from Earth-1 and Jay Garrick from Earth-2.

This concept of multiple Earths became very popular in the DC universe for years, as it gave writers and editors additional "outs". If a current story contradicted another one from years ago, well that old story took place on an alternate Earth. It also gave them an opportunity to play "What if" games without quite admitting that these were "imaginary stories".

Of course, it also caused uncomfortable questions as well. For starters, since Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman had appeared in or were mentioned in several Justice Society stories, did that mean that the Golden Age appearances of those stars had also not taken place on Earth 1? DC was not yet ready to confront the implications of those questions, and would continue to dodge them until near the end of the decade.

As it happens, Jay Garrick has been debating coming out of retirement due to a series of strange robberies. We learn that three Golden Age villains, the Thinker, the Fiddler and the Shade are responsible. They have recently escaped jail and are hoping to defeat their old nemesis.

The individual Flashes split up and combat the Thinker and the Shade, but are defeated. They combine forces to face the Fiddler, but his fiddle controls them:

But they manage to plug up their ears with small jewels, and make quick work of the trio.

Afterwards, Barry returns to his own world and has an idea:

This story led to many more, including the annual JLA/JSA teamups, nearly annual Barry Allen/Jay Garrick pairings, as well as stories featuring the GA Green Lantern and Hal Jordan. It is, as I mentioned in an early post on this blog, one of the five most important DC comics of the Silver Age.

Update: Aaron reminds me of an interesting tidbit about that Flash issue that Barry Allen is reading at the opening of Showcase #4. If you look closely at the cover, especially this panel from an earlier page:

You will see that he appears to be reading Flash #13. The amusing thing is that's not what Flash #13's cover looks like:

You see, Flash Comics back in the Golden Age was an anthology title, like Action or Detective in the Silver Age, and Flash alternated covers with Hawkman, with the latter appearing on the odd-numbered issues all the way up to #87. In fact, that cover could not have appeared as on the covers featuring the Flash, the little inset picture was of Hawkman, and vice-versa.

Jim notes that there were two GA and Silver Age Atom teamups as well, but no pairings of the 1940s Hawkman with his 1960s counterpart. I suspect the problem there was that the two characters were simply too similar to make for an interesting combination.

Dennis the Menace Goes to Washington

2011-07-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

Fawcett was a major comics publisher in the Golden Age, with Captain Marvel Adventures actually outselling Superman in the 1940s. But after losing the lawsuit to DC over whether the Big Red Cheese was a rip of the Man of Steel, Fawcett went out of the business for several years, before returning with only one character for the entirety of the Silver Age: Dennis the Menace.

Dennis was the creation of Hank Ketcham, and was originally published on the comics pages, as single-panel gags. In 1959, about the time that Fawcett started publishing the comic books, Dennis became the title feature of a TV show starring Jay North. The TV show lasted four seasons in its original series and virtually forever in reruns.

These Dennis Giants were generally organized around a theme, including trips to Mexico, California, Hollywood, Hawaii, and in this one, our nation's capital. They were also frequently republished; this particular giant appeared in 1963, 1964 and 1966. The stories are generally amusing if predictable tales of Dennis alternately exasperating his parents with his mischief, and amusing them with his childlike mistakes.

This giant starts with a quick travelogue of DC; the Mitchells visit the Washington Monument and see the Supreme Court, Lincoln Memorial and White House. While at the Mint, they have an interesting tour guide:

A black woman; pretty outstanding diversity by 1963 standards.

When they visit the White House, Dennis meets someone his own age:

That's obviously Caroline Kennedy; her line appears to be intended as a reference to this novelty song of the time:

Update: I had remembered that the girl who sang that song went with me to Traphagen Elementary School in Waldwick New Jersey, but wondered if that was just one of those crazy things you think you remember, but actually confused with something else. As it turns out, my memory was right (PDF file, see page 8, "Spotlight On"):

There was also a Jo Ann Morse who graduated high school with me in Allendale (one town away from Waldwick) in 1973; I suspect that she's the same one. Pixie gal who definitely loved to sing.

Dennis confronts her with the fact that her father didn't appear on any money, and therefore he couldn't possibly be the president. She checks:

The "Let me say this about that," line was a verbal tick of Kennedy's that was picked up by the impressionists of the time, particularly Vaughn Meader, much as Richard Nixon impersonators would use, "Let me make one thing perfectly clear."

The tour of Washington is occasionally interrupted by Dennis taking a nap and dreaming about himself involved in historical events, like Captain John Smith and Pocahontas:

Another wince-worthy moment is when Dennis comes up with a terrific product for the colonists to send back to England:

The family also visits the FBI, where Dennis meets J. Edgar, and the Pentagon, where he gets confused for a Russian spy:

All in all, it's an entertaining issue with just enough facts to be considered educational by adults, and enough fun so as not to be boring to kids.

Wow

2011-07-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

I'm not one of those folks to talk about racist covers on comics when it comes to World War II and the Japanese. It's easy to forget in these days when the wars we are involved in are not against a country and its people but against smaller groups (Al Qaeda, the Baathists, the Taliban), but in World War II we really were fighting Japan and Germany.

But I have to admit, it's covers like this one that makes me understand why Alan Moore had a character in Tom Strong refer to the Black Terror as a borderline psychopath. Killer artwork (literally) by Alex Schomburg.

Classics Illustrated

2011-07-14T00:19:00.000-07:00

When I decided at age 13 to start collecting comic books, the reaction from my family was, to say the least, not positive and supporting. My parents definitely shared the view that comics were throwaway trash entertainment for kids. And to be honest, that was not entirely an unfair characterization of the medium, although things were already changing on that front as both DC and Marvel started chasing the adolescents like me.

It's funny because I think of the comic collectors of my era that I've met over the years, and they're all pretty bright, but certainly the image of the time was a dummy who moved his lips as he read, slowly. I had always been a voracious reader; by third grade I was reading five-six books a week. True, it was mostly the Hardy Boys or the Bobbsey Twins, but it most definitely was not picture books for me. By sixth grade I was reading the "We Were There" series, novels of American history as (supposedly) told by the kids who lived at the time.

So comics definitely seemed like a regression to my parents. But I was an obstinate youngster and they gradually accepted my decision. Of course, it helped that I did not solely read comics; by that point I was also a sci-fi fan. I also picked up some "educational" comics, like the Classics Illustrated line, although they were mostly on the wane by then, and it was pretty obvious despite the new covers that the artwork was dated. But it did interest me in some of the stories, and so at 15 I borrowed a copy of The Three Musketeers from a friend.

Who committed suicide by jumping in front of a train a week later. Sorry to spring that on you, but it's a major part of the story. Needless to say, I was emotionally wrecked for the next month or so. But one of the ways I got through it was to dedicate myself. I set a goal for myself to read the classics--not the comics, but the original books on which they were based. I did use the list on the back cover as a starting guide:

How did I do? Pretty well I'd say. Now mind you, finding some of those books (other than the first 20 or so, which virtually any good library would have) was quite a chore. I read all but Adventures of Marco Polo and Michael Strogoff in the first 30. I read Moby Dick unabridged, and let me tell you that really required dedication. And although I'm a big Robert Louis Stevenson fan, I've never been able to finish The Black Arrow. Overall I've probably read about 90 or so of the 167 in the original series (not all of which are listed on that particular back cover.

But most of the books, once you got into them, were terrific. The Count of Monte Cristo, Les Miserables and Crime and Punishment are books that everybody should read once.

The comics themselves varied in quality, both in the written adaptations and in the artwork. Here's the highly stylized splash to Arabian Nights (better known as 1001 Nights):

When the comic was redone in the 1960s, that beautiful style disappeared:

I'll always remember the moment when the inspector confronted Raskolnikov, in Crime and Punishment. During the story, he's seemingly befriended the young student, and they are discussing the murder that is the focus of the story here:

Of course, collecting the Classics Illustrated has presented many headaches as the comics were often reissued with new covers, and later with new interiors. At one point collectors used the HRN (highest reorder number) on the back cover to differentiate between various versions, but even that is not foolproof.

First Kiss #2

2011-07-12T04:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't talked much about Charlton Comics here. Aside from Steve Ditko's terrific work, it's safe to say that they are considered the ugly stepsister of Silver Age comics, with (mostly) mediocre art and stories. Their comics even seemed to be printed on cheaper paper than the other publishers. And yet they did publish a boatload of comics in the Silver Age; at least 2500 that I've been able to catalog, and I'm positive that I'm missing some.

Like most publishers in the Silver Age, Charlton eschewed the superhero comics except during Batmania. They published a LOT of romance comics, even more than
DC. Their active romance titles in the Silver Age included Career Girl Romances (37 issues), Cynthia Doyle, Nurse In Love, Dr Tom Brett Young Intern, First Kiss (40 issues), High School Confidential Diary and Confidential Diary (17), Hollywood Romances (10), I Love You (82), Just Married (74), Love Diary (69), My Secret Life (29), Nurse Betsy Crane (16), Romantic Secrets (44), Romantic Story (83), Secret Romance (10), Secrets of Love and Marriage (25), Secrets of Young Brides (40), Sweetheart Diary (34), Sweethearts (92), Teen Confessions (65), and Teen-Age Love (70 issues). When flipping through the comics racks back then, I often thought of Charlton as the equivalent of Harlequin in the comics.

The opening story in this issue is pretty good despite the dull-as-dishwater title, Love Him, Love What He Does. Alice is a bit ashamed of her prizefighter boyfriend George. She wants him to take up a more genteel profession, like her friends' husbands:

So she gives him an ultimatum: Either he gives up boxing or she dumps him. However, he's on the verge of a title bout and isn't about to abandon the sport he loves. Alice, who's been moping about, decides to attend the big fight, initially hoping that he will lose and come to his senses:

And win he does, making Alice realize that she's as proud of him as she would be of a lawyer or doctor:

The story could have been more dramatic if there had been a confrontation before the fight between the two lovers, with Alice initially admitting that she hoped George would lose, and then him recovering to win the bout when he realizes that she's rooting for him. Still, it's a solid effort. The subtext (accept your man for who he is, not for who you wish he were) is a frequent theme during romances of this era, although that would change as editors began to demand that leading men be wealthy and/or powerful. Of course, you could argue that a championship fighter was exactly that; back in the 1950s they were probably the most well-paid figures in sports.

The second story is not as satisfying; you can probably guess the ending from this panel alone:

The dreaded mustache tells us that he's not the right man for her. She goes out shopping, gets stuck in a ditch and meets an arrogant man who tells her to stop spinning her wheels. No real surprises here; the arrogant man is her true love.

The third story does present some interesting points. Doris Wiles had married a wealthy playboy, who died and left her and her infant son penniless. She works her way up from waitressing to running her own restaurant. A wealthy former friend of her husband, improbably named Carlos McLean, starts to woo her. But wait, he has the dreaded mustache! Is he a villain?

Nope, and he seals the deal when her son swallows something that puts him in peril:

I'm going to guess that the specialist went by the name of Dr Heimlich. ;)

There's an interesting PSA:

I don't remember DC publishing any overtly religious PSAs during the Silver Age, although they certainly published ones that promoted religious tolerance.

Solid Gold Heart closes out the book. Donna is a succesful model who wants to make the jump to acting. Her downstairs neighbor is Larry, a self-employed biochemist. Donna is promoting her career and making the gossip columns by going out with various wealthy playboys, but she wishes Larry were more successful. One days she promises to attend a sales pitch to an investor, but then her manager calls with a rich date who will certainly get her name in the paper. Torn, she attends the date even though it is at the same corner as Larry is waiting. But it all works out in the end, as:

It's an entertaining story, largely selling the same message about accepting your man for who he is as the opening tale. And as in the opener, the woman doesn't really have to suffer, as it is clear her man will become wealthy.

There's a "movie date" filler bit of advice here:

One oddity; the comic does not seem to contain many ads aimed at women; in fact the inside front cover contains a Joe Weider body-building ad.

Greatest Ad Ever?

2011-07-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

This one's slightly outside my bailiwick, as it was published in 1954 on the inside front cover of Wings #123, the penultimate issue of that long-running Fiction House title. But it's just so delightfully goofy that I couldn't resist. For starters, let's consider that galloping fellow up top:

He certainly seems happy, but he also appears to be dashing full-tilt to make a train. I suppose the idea is that he's going on a vacation with his well-deserved prize winnings, but why didn't he get to the station on time?

And check out the gal down below:

She looks like she's ready to do anything for that fistful of tens. But all she has to do is solve some exceedingly simple rebuses:

Now, I'm guessing most of you know that Indiana is the Hoosier State, so you wouldn't even need to work out the puzzle. But it's easy to do that as well; SINK + DIAL + ONEA - SOLE - K = INDIANA. It's a breeze!

HAM + CHAIN + ET - HAT - CH = MAINE, which is indeed the Pine Tree State.

That fistful of tens is as good as yours, young lady!

One clear difference between those days and now; note the complete absence of disclaimers and fine print. Back in my younger days I would have been all over this kind of contest, certain that I was going to win the big bucks. Now I look at it with a skeptical eye and assume that either the actual puzzles are much harder than shown or that there would be so many correct entries (and purchases from the National Book Club) that the winners would end up being drawn from a hat.

Trivia Quiz #43: Answers

2011-07-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

1. If you wanted to travel from Asgard to Earth, in what direction do you need to go?

The answer was shown in Journey into Mystery Annual #1:

You would have to go south from Asgard to reach Earth.

2. What non-mutant villain had his powers from childhood?
Giant Man and Avengers opponent, Whirlwind (aka the Human Top):

The Taskmaster, suggested by Forine is a valid answer, but I should have specified that we are talking Silver Age only here.

3. Excluding Uncle Ben, who were the first two non-villains to die in Amazing Spiderman?

The first two non-villains to die in Amazing Spiderman were Bennett Brant (brother of Betty Brant) in ASM #11 and Frederick Foswell who bought the farm in ASM #52.

4. Who was the Invincible Man?

The Invincible Man was secretly the Super-Skrull, as revealed in Fantastic Four #32.4

5. What villain was responsible for the death of Mike Murdock?

Something of a trick question, for Mike Murdock never really lived and thus could not die. Still, to Karen Page and Foggy Nelson, it would appear that the Executioner was responsible, and only Matt Murdock would know that he himself was responsible for his brother's "demise".

Phil gets #4 and #5 and half-credit for #3. Forine correctly answered #1 (which I thought nobody would get) and gets half-credit for #3.

Trivia Quiz #43: Marvel

2011-07-05T03:33:00.000-07:00

1. If you wanted to travel from Asgard to Earth, in what direction do you need to go?

2. What non-mutant villain had his powers from childhood?

3. Excluding Uncle Ben, who were the first two non-villains to die in Amazing Spiderman?

4. Who was the Invincible Man?

5. What villain was responsible for the death of Mike Murdock?

Smallville's Crooked Contractors

2011-07-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

Did you ever notice that Smallville had the shoddiest construction projects imaginable?

From diving boards:

To dams:

To walls:

To the bleachers at Smallville High:

It often seemed like Smallville contractors intentionally built their projects as cheaply as possible, perhaps in the knowledge that Superboy would bail them out of any structural failures. Indeed, one wonders if his move to Metropolis resulted in dozens of deaths due to building collapses.

And don't even get me started about the enclosures at the Smallville Zoo:

Incidentally, that second panel comes from one of those stories where the Kents adopt a second boy with super powers.

Only a Few Clicks Away

2011-06-29T06:40:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, there were times when I found myself thinking about some odd topic or other and would stop and say to myself, "Now where did that come from?" And I'd work the logical chain backwards. Okay, I was thinking about W, and that led to X, which led to Y and then to Z.

Surfing the internet can be like that at times. I surfed over to Comics Should Be Good, which is having a poll on next month's features. One of the features was "When We First Met" and so I read about the first time Lois suspected Clark was Superman. A very cool post, I think you'll agree.

In the comments, someone pointed to a comic strip take on the Superman/Lois relationship. Cool and funny stuff.

And at the bottom of that post, was a link to this pitch for a Lois Lane, Girl Reporter series of young adult novels. Nice art, interesting idea.

Elsewhere, Commander Benson has a very challenging trivia quiz for Silver Age Marvel zombies. How challenging? Well, I couldn't get any of them off the top of my head, although I did know where to look for a couple of the answers. BTW, don't scroll down to the comments on that post, as most of the answers are there. When you give up, here's Commander Benson's answer sheet.

With the release of the Green Lantern movie, Jacque Nodell posts a picture of herself with her grandpa, GL co-creator Martin Nodell.

Gene Colan, RIP

2011-06-27T14:12:00.000-07:00

Another Silver Age legend falls by the wayside. Colan was best known for his long, terrific runs on Daredevil, Iron Man and Batman. I'm reposting here some of my favorite panels from various issues:

From the brief Black Widow series in Amazing Adventures. As you can see, he could draw some exceptionally beautiful women.

From My Greatest Adventure #74. Note the almost photographic quality of her face.

Note the action, and again the photographic realism of the man's face. It looks easy.

Colan created the Falcon, the first actual African-American superhero (the Black Panther doesn't count, as he was not American). Here he is in an early appearance:

His run on Iron Man was legendary:

As was his long tenure on Daredevil:

Darwin of the Guardians

2011-06-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

I confess I had not read this story in decades and it didn't make much of an impression on me back as a teen. But re-reading it last night, I have to confess I was flabbergasted.

The story starts with the Golden Age Green Lantern protecting Gotham City from a falling meteor. As it happens, the meteor hits a tree, which is about to fall on Doiby Dickles' taxi, Goitrude. GL is shocked when his protective beam deflects the tree, as his power ring has never worked on wood. He has an idea:

But when he reaches Hal Jordan, it turns out that his beam still doesn't work on wood. Hal suggests that he get the ring to tell him what really happened. It turns out the meteor wasn't a meteor, but a disembodied mind inside a packet of pure energy that was ten billion years old. The ring contacted the mind and learned it was from the planet Oa. The Oans were immortal and used their time to learn things:

But there was one forbidden subject:

And right there I came to a screeching halt. The pursuit of knowledge about the Oans had led to the invention of evil? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and the "reasoning" behind it is the classic fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this). Krona insisted on continuing his pursuit of the origin of the Oans, and so they:

Since one of their fellows had unleashed evil on the universe, they started the Green Lantern Corps to battle the malignant forces.

When the GA Green Lantern's power beam contacted the mind of Krona, he used it to free himself and followed Alan Scott into our universe. The Oans, alerted to the danger, warn the two GLs that they cannot locate Krona by normal means, but to expect an outbreak of evil nearby. Sure enough:

After handling the various crises, the Oans summon the two GLs to their home planet, where the cover scene takes place. Hal does not accept his demotion gracefully:

And yet, a moment later he seems surprised that Alan's not laying down for him:

Via a flashback, we learn that Alan's body has secretly been taken over by Krona, and that the Guardians are being controlled by the GA Green Lantern's ring. But (and this is a key point) Hal doesn't know this yet. So his revolt against the Guardians and his battle with Alan are not excused by this knowledge.

Krona erects a yellow shield to protect himself and then kayos Hal, after which:

We can see that Krona is rather reckless with other people's lives but not his own.

But Alan's disembodied mind contacts Hal, wakes him up, and the two combine their willpower to defeat Krona, with the aid of some trickery; Hal uses the GA power ring rather than his own so that yellow won't work against it. Krona is sent back on his endless journey, but this time the Guardians make sure his orbit will never intersect any planet or star.

Comments: The story can be taken as an allegory to the book of Genesis, with Oa before Krona as the Garden of Eden, and Krona as Adam releasing evil by eating from the Tree of Knowledge. According to the letters column in GL #43, that was the way writer John Broome intended it:

But you can also read it as anti-science, and anti-Darwinian. That the Oans turn out to be correct in their ancient superstition against studying the origin of their species is hardly surprising. It's a basic principle in fiction that the Cassandras of doom are always proven right (as was the original Cassandra, who warned the Trojans against bringing the wooden horse into their walls). But I have a hard time believing that the Oans were justified in their original banishment of Krona. Given what happens in this story you can argue that the subsequent exile was merited, but you can also argue that ten billion years as a disembodied mind might be the cause of his callous disregard.

Amazing Spiderman #3

2011-06-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

Anybody who read only the Steve Ditko issues of Amazing Spiderman would know exactly who was Spidey's arch-enemy, and it wasn't the Green Goblin. It was Dr Octopus, who was the first villain to appear in a two-part story (ASM #11-12,) the first to appear in a three-parter (#31-33), and who also headlined the first Spiderman Annual.

His initial appearance here also features the debut of the Spider-Signal:

It's a neat reversal of the Bat-Signal, indicating that trouble is here for the crooks who see it. I don't recall it getting much use in the Romita era, other than on the cover to ASM #72.

We get our first glimpse of the good doctor here:

The apparatus he uses is vaguely similar to a "Waldo":

Incidentally, the name "Waldo" for that device, which allows scientists to handle dangerous chemicals and elements from behind a protective barrier, comes from a Robert Heinlein short story.

But Doc Ock gets a little careless and:

With the result that the arms are grafted to his body and he's just a mite touched in the head. He takes over the hospital where he's been recovering. Peter gets involved when JJJ demands that he obtain some pictures. As with Clark Kent's job at the Daily Planet, Parker's employment at the Bugle guarantees he'll know where he's most needed.

As Spidey climbs up the outside wall of the hospital, he muses that it's all too easy; he almost wants a villain worthy of his talents. In fiction as in real life, that's just begging for trouble and sure enough, Spiderman discovers that Doctor Octopus is a handful and more:

Spidey is thrown unceremoniously out a window. Doc Ock returns to the atomic research center where he worked, and makes it into his own fortress. Meanwhile, Peter mopes about, having never been defeated before. Fortunately the Human Torch comes by his high school to give a demonstration and a pep talk:

Once inside the atomic research center, Spiderman puts his science background to work:

He creates an acid that fuses Doc Ock arms together. But he's still hard pressed until:

Comments: Solid, entertaining story with the usual terrific Ditko art. I particularly liked the bit with Peter sulking about after being beaten; that's a common teenaged reaction.

The Superboy Legal Case

2011-06-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

Covered adeptly by Bill Jourdain. The post contains lots of information that I was not aware of previously, including the fact that DC Comics had formally passed on the Superboy concept, and then published the first stories (starting in More Fun #101) while Siegel was in the army and without his consent.

The Sinestro Story

2011-06-17T10:52:00.000-07:00

With the release of the Green Lantern movie, I thought I would talk about GL's main enemy, Sinestro. Sinestro first appeared in GL #7 as the renegage Green Lantern. This was during the brief period when GL was not aware that he worked for the Guardians, and so they summoned his "energy duplicate" to fill him in on Sinestro's origin. He was originally another member of the Green Lantern corps, until the power infected him:

The Guardians stripped him of his ring and power and banished him to the evil anti-matter universe of Qward (which Green Lantern had battled previously in GL#2-4).

Sinestro comes up with a plan that basically involves him saying evil a lot:

But as it happens GL misses his appointment in Valdale, and thus, unlike the 100,000 citizens of that fair metropolis, is not teleported to Qward. At the end of this back story, the Guardians decide to allow him to know that he works for them.

Hal makes it to Qward, but Sinestro plays his trump card; unless GL surrenders, he will kill the Valdale residents. GL agrees and is imprisoned in a yellow globe. Sinestro has an eeeeevil plan:

But GL manages to fool him by pushing the clock ahead a few minutes. He escapes from Qward, leaving Sinestro imprisoned in a green bubble. But when Sinestro returns in GL #9, we learn that he must have been a Boy Scout, for he believes in the motto, Be Prepared:

This time around he comes up with a scheme to siphon off the power from Green Lantern's ring to enhance his own. Once he succeeds in doing so, he imprisons GL inside a cage and goes off to a meeting of the other GLs where he again steals their power. He then zips to Oa to attack the Guardians, but Hal has gotten free by now and hits on a Silver Age cliched way to defeat him:

The Guardians put Sinestro in a capsule and launch him on an 18,000-year orbit of the universe.

In GL #11, Sinestro returns. It seems the Guardians forgot to check his heel, where he stored a backup power ring. He returns to Qward, where he uses a mind-control device to cause Green Lantern to screw up several times on the job. Then, at a trial held by the other Green Lanterns, Hal pleads guilty and requests to be sent to Qward (again by the force of Sinestro's mind control). Fortunately the other Green Lanterns were only agreeing to find out who was behind the plot, and after a brief subplot where Hal uses some high school chemistry to escape from a death trap, they use Sinestro's mind control machine on him:

But in GL #15, Sinestro escapes. Once again, thinking a step ahead of the Green Lanterns, he had set the mind control device so it would not work on him. He's back on Qward, competing in the annual "Most Evil Citizen Contest", with a sidekick that should be familiar to Golden Age fans:

Yep, that's Doiby Dickles (although Sinestro calls him Magot in this story and the next). Sinestro has a plan to win the contest; he'll trap GL on a world where everything's yellow, and that's not all:

It's all terrifically eeeeevil, but Sinestro makes one mistake; he decides to televise GL's death, and the beam he uses to do it turns out to be purple, giving Hal his one chance at escape. He fixes the mind control machine so it will work on Sinestro, and locks the villain away.

Except that Sinestro again had planned ahead for this eventuality. We learn in Green Lantern #18 that he placed a hypnotic suggestion in GL's mind, instructing him to turn the mind control device off at a point in the future. Sinestro's again in the contest for "Most Evil" and after getting Hal to Qward without his power ring, he reveals his diabolical plan:

Well, it turns out that GL had anticipated all this (two can think ahead!) and only faked not having his power ring. He uses Sinestro's own plot against him:

Having made five appearances in less than a year and a half, Sinestro now went into hibernation for over four years. In his next appearance he came back as a car (Doiby Dickles taxi, Gertrude). This of course is a nod to the insane 1960s TV show, My Mother the Car:

This time his plot is to steal the giant power lantern on Oa, but Green Lantern foils the plot with the assistance of the Golden Age GL and Doiby Dickles.
Sinestro returned one final time in the Silver Age, in GL #74, in which he teams up with Star Sapphire.

Overall, the qualities that I would associate with Sinestro and hope will appear in the movie, are his preparedness, and his desire for revenge against GL and the Guardians.

The Least Heroic Hero

2011-06-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, I talked about Tin, the Metal Man who was arguably the bravest character in the Silver Age, because he always showed great valor despite obviously lacking an iota of self-confidence.

At the opposite end of the spectrum was Volstagg the Voluminous, a Marvel hero who first appeared in the Tales of Asgard backup feature in Journey into Mystery #119:

It is somewhat remarkable that Volstagg is shown fighting in his initial appearance, as he generally avoided combat whenever possible:

All the while blustering about what a mighty warrior he was.

The Tales of Asgard feature, which had started as a way for Stan to work in some background on the Norse gods, rapidly evolved into the adventures of the Warriors Three: Volstagg, Hogun the Grim and Fandral the Dashing (with Thor often joining in):

Hogun looks a bit like Attila the Hun, and Fandral was inspired by Errol Flynn's version of Robin Hood (and would later inspire Green Arrow's extreme makeover).

Volstagg himself was based on the character of Falstaff, who appeared in three Shakespeare plays, most notably the two parts of Henry IV. In the first part, Falstaff is the drinking and debauching companion of Prince Hal (the future Henry V). Like Volstagg, he's portly and given much to braggadocio, and is the frequent subject of the jests of his companions. Thor himself can be seen as similar to Hal; the son of the King who sorely tests his father's patience yet shows great heroism. Falstaff is repudiated by Hal in the final scene of the second part of Henry IV, as a sign that the young prince has renounced his former dissolute lifestyle and is ready to assume his duties as king. As far as I know, Thor never similarly abandoned Volstagg.

One aspect of Volstagg's characterization must be commented on, and that is his steed. While Hogun and Fandral had sterling and mighty chargers, Volstagg was given a mount that would not seem capable of supporting his girth:

This further emphasizes the comical nature of the character.

Plastic Man #1

2011-06-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

Plastic Man had a long and storied history in the Golden Age of comics with over 100 appearances in Police Comics, most of which had him as the cover feature and 64 issues of his own magazine. He outlasted all of the GA superheroes with the exception of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

Part of this was due to the artistic genius of his creator, Jack Cole. Cole was a master cartoonist and he made full use of his talents to make his pliable character as amusing as possible. When Plas laughed, Cole contorted his features so that he resembled a braying donkey. A recurring theme had him changing himself into an inanimate object, such as a couch or a rug or a lamp in the crooks' hideout, only to reveal himself at the critical moment.

Plastic Man's adventures were published by Quality Comics, which sold out to DC in late 1956. DC continued several Quality titles, including Blackhawk, GI Combat and Heart Throbs, but Plastic Man did not make the jump. If this seems puzzling, remember that superheroes were at their all-time low in publication around this time; Showcase #4 had been issued a few months earlier, but several publishers had tried and failed with superhero revivals of Captain America, the Human Torch, the Blue Beetle and a new hero called Captain Flash.

And so Plastic Man slumbered for a full decade. Meanwhile, several other characters were introduced who ahem, borrowed his stretching abilities, including Reed Richards aka Mr Fantastic, the Elongated Man, and Elastic Lad. In House of Mystery #160 (July 1966), Robby Reed used his Dial H for Hero skills to transform himself into Plastic Man.

Shortly before that, however, Jules Feiffer published his landmark book, The Great Comic Book Heroes. This was one of the very first books to take comic books seriously, and reprinted many classic Golden Age stories, including the origin of Plastic Man from Police Comics #1.

DC evidently felt confident enough in Plastic Man to launch him directly into his own title, something of a rarity for the company in the Silver Age. I would attribute this to a confluence of several factors, including the runaway success of the campy Batman TV series, the increasing influence of Golden Age fans who remembered Plas from their youth and the success of Feiffer's book.

Unfortunately, those are also probably the reasons the series failed. First, the Batman fad imploded like all fads do, and superheroes who were anything less than super-serious were no longer cool. And the new Plastic Man was not faithful to the Golden Age character, doubtless turning off the older fans.

For starters, Cole was not available, having committed suicide in 1958. This first issue was illustrated by Gil Kane, and while I admire Kane's amazing body of work on features like Green Lantern, the Atom and Spiderman, the plain fact is that he was not cut out for cartoonish characters like Plastic Man. You definitely had the feeling that he was trying hard here:

But I suspect that's one of the secrets of great cartooning; it has to look effortless, with very simple lines.

For some reason, Plastic Man's old sidekick, Woozy Winks was not brought back for this series. Instead, Plas picked up an earnest young man with a crewcut named Gordon K. Trueblood:

The chemistry wasn't there between them. In the Golden Age, the goofy sidekick was a staple of superhero comics, from the Flash's Winky, Blinky and Noddy to Green Lantern's Doiby Dickles and Wonder Woman's Etta Candy. Indeed, Alfred, Bruce Wayne's butler was initially played for laughs. But for the most part they were not reincarnated in the Silver Age. Gordie mostly comes off as Bud Abbott to Plastic Man's Costello; a straight man or foil.

The villain is Dr Dome, shown wearing the chromium headgear on the cover. He's a standard mad scientist with the inevitable curvaceous daughter (wearing the Emma Peel jumpsuit). Plas has also picked up a girlfriend, Micheline DeLute 3rd; as you can probably guess, she's wealthier than Richie Rich. A significant subplot of this issue concerns her family's dislike for her goofy and playful boyfriend:

That bit with the cops calls to mind that the Golden Age Plastic Man was originally a crook named Eel O'Brian, but after being left for dead by his gang (and gaining his powers), he turned into a crimebuster.

Dr Dome sends the second greatest villain, Professor X (no, not that Professor X) to attack Plastic Man, but our hero manages to defeat him. At one point the curvaceous daughter (named Lynx) seduces him and slips a mickey in his lemonade, then dumps him into the ocean, but he gets away from that death trap as well.

The series meandered on for ten issues, with Win Mortimer taking over the art duties starting with #2, and Jack Sparling sitting in for the final three installments.

Although the series was mostly forgettable, it did have the salutary effect of introducing Silver Age readers to Plastic Man. In the early to mid-1970s DC reprinted quite a few of Cole's Golden Age classics.

Update: Marc Burkhardt makes a terrific point about the GA Plastic Man in the comments:

Plas was essentially the straight man in an insane world (kind of like Pogo); a key ingredient that doesn't work in shared universes all that well.

Yes, I think that nails it. In Cole's world, everybody was about 90 degrees off kilter. Plastic Man, while he had a sense of humor, was relatively sane. The Silver Age Plas became a prankster in a world that was stuffy and serious which can be amusing but is not terribly original.

Marvel's Son of God

2011-06-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

Of course, this is a paraphrase of one of the sayings attributed to Jesus on the cross. It is interesting to look at some of the similarities of the Odin/Thor relationship with that of Jesus and God the Father.

If you look at the God of the Old Testament, he's very much like Odin: regal, imperious and somewhat haughty and capricious. Jesus is like Thor in some ways: came to Earth to help the humans, long-haired, etc. Of course, Thor relishes battle while Jesus was the Prince of Peace. And Odin does not judge mortals, but rather his fellow gods.

Of course, DC has also occasionally hinted that Superman is similar to Jesus, most explicitly in the trailer for Superman Returns.

Silly Panel Saturday

2011-06-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

Realistically, I could pick almost any panel from the first seven pages of this story from Adventure #304, which is jaw-droppingly zany. Consider this:

Yes, I could fix your car but that would make the mechanic suspicious. Instead I'll let you drive it off a bridge:

Or this scene where he peeks into his parents' dreams:

Wacky stuff.

Trivia Quiz #42: Answers

2011-06-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

1. Who caused the crack in the Liberty Bell?

Superboy himself caused the crack in the Liberty Bell:

It's part of one of the nuttiest Superboy stories ever, from Adventure #296. Superboy goes back in time and helps Paul Revere, John Hancock and Ben Franklin complete their most famous actions.

2. I was a teenage hoodlum on Krypton before reforming and becoming a member of the Counter Intelligence Corps in the 30th Century. Who am I?
Dev-Em, who came to Earth in a modified bomb shelter and bedeviled Superboy before going to the future and turning over a new leaf.

3. What civic function did Pa Kent perform?

Pa Kent was a member of the parole board at the state reformatory.

4. Who saved Superboy from certain death at the hands of the Kryptonite Kid?
In an oddball twist, Master Mxyzptlk saved Superboy on that occasion, explaining that he did so because he didn't want to lose his favorite opponent.

5. To stop girls from mooning over him, who did Superboy claim was his ideal girlfriend?
In Adventure #291 (and in Adventure #183), Superboy confessed to having a crush on Cleopatra:

Of course, it is never explained how this doesn't qualify as lying, something that we are assured Superboy would never do.

Michael Rebain was the first to get #2. Anonymous got that question right and was the first to answer #3. And don't try to stump Commander Benson, as he got all five questions right, including being the first to answer #s 1, 4 and 5. Great job! Update: Kate also got #2 right.

Trivia Quiz #42: Superboy

2011-06-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

1. Who caused the crack in the Liberty Bell?

2. I was a teenage hoodlum on Krypton before reforming and becoming a member of the Counter Intelligence Corps in the 30th Century. Who am I?

3. What civic function did Pa Kent perform?

4. Who saved Superboy from certain death at the hands of the Kryptonite Kid?

5. To stop girls from mooning over him, who did Superboy claim was his ideal girlfriend?

Among The Clouds

2011-05-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

It is not uncommon for popular entertainment to combine two different genres. The theory is that if you can captivate fans of both genres, you double the potential audience. As I noted recently, most comics, regardless of their main focus, frequently had romantic subplots. Much of the DC universe in the early 1960s consisted of a combination of superhero and science fiction; think of Batman facing all those aliens and monsters, for example.

DC also combined their war books with other genres. In Star Spangled War stories, the regular cover feature was a mixture of soldiers battling dinosaurs:

Kid are fascinated by war, kids are fascinated by dinosaurs, so let's give them war stories with dinosaurs. Is there anything else kids are fascinated by? Oh, yeah, Indians (aka Native Americans). So let's give them a series about a Navaho pilot in World War II.

Johnny Cloud was the result, and it's a pretty interesting series. The stories had a very basic template. A problem in the present (WWII era) reminds Johnny of an event in his past as a young brave. Johnny uses that prior experience to solve the proble.

Sound familiar? Well, if you watched the first few seasons of Lost, you saw that template used over and over again.

Problem in the present:

Memory of the past:

Leads to solution of problem in the present:

Many of the stories noted Johnny's metaphysical connection to a particular cloud formation:

Johnny Cloud lasted until the end of All-American Men of War with issue #117 (Sept-Oct 1966), then made a couple of guest appearances in other DC war mags. He was a charter member of the Losers, a group made up of discontinued features.

Silly Panel Saturday

2011-05-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

See, Superboy is looking through his time telescope at Superman, who's looking through his time telescope at Superboy, who's looking through his time telescope at Superman, who's looking....

The whole thing results in Superman being sucked into the past and Superboy being sucked into the future.

Some Forgotten Beast Prototypes

2011-05-26T17:29:00.000-07:00

As I've been reading much of the early Superboy stories in Adventure and now Superboy, I've been surprised to see that many of the things we thought were newly introduced in the Silver Age actually were reworkings of Golden Age storylines and characters.

For example, consider Titano, the giant ape with Kryptonite vision:

It turns out that in Adventure #219 (December 1955), well before Titano's 1959 debut came Chandu, the gorilla:

What about the Thought Beast from Krypton?

Turns out he was swiped from Superboy #22, (Oct-Nov 1952):

I haven't yet been able to locate a third example, although I'm certainly looking for the metal-eating beast.

Diamond Jim

2011-05-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of the Superboy pilot which I posted last week is the scene where Superboy creates diamonds out of coal. It is my recollection that one of the 1950s Superman episodes on TV was the first place this happened. According to this list, the episode in question is #40, Jungle Devil:

The reporters are on a jungle expedition that involves a valuable diamond used as an idol's eye. Superman creates a diamond by compressing coal.

The episode appears to have originally aired sometime in 1953.

Reading through the Superboy stories in Adventure, I noticed that beginning around late 1956, the Lad of Steel made a whole bunch of diamonds. For example, in Adventure #231, he makes them as consolation gifts for other boys who were turned down for a job in favor of him:

In Adventure #244, Ma and Pa Kent experience disaster as both their house and store burn down while they are away on vacation. To make matters worse, Pa had forgotten to mail off the insurance check before leaving, so they are paupers. Superboy tries to help them out here:

But the diamond turns out to be a problem, as the jeweler in Smallville doesn't believe it could be real and the one in Metropolis assumes they stole it.

In Adventure #257, Superboy goes into the past to help Hercules and Samson, who have been stealing jewels from the local tyrant and distributing them to the impoverished citizens, but there's something he can't do:

And in Superboy #88, in the story that follows the pilot for the TV show closely, Superboy creates replacement diamonds for those stolen so that a movie premiere can go off as planned:

Cecil Adams, who writes the Straight Dope column that appears in many arts and entertainment newspapers around the country, tackled Superman's diamond-creating abilities a couple years back in a discussion with his assistant, Una:

I gave it a shot anyway. I pointed out that HPHT required an elaborate press of intricate geometry to concentrate the compressive forces. It wasn't as if Superman could just grab a lump of graphite and squeeze it like a tomato.

He's Superman, said Una. According to Wikipedia, he can withstand the impact of a nuclear explosion. You're saying diamonds are going to stymie him because he hasn't got the right belt-press jig?

Me: I'm saying if "he's Superman" is the answer to all questions, why are we having this discussion? He can do anything he wants by magic. We're trying to establish what somebody with unlimited strength could do in real life.

Una: Nobody has unlimited strength in real life.

Me: I know that. That's the point. We have to set some reasonable bounds on the question. Let's say you've got enough strength to manage 130,000 atmospheres. Is that alone enough to create a diamond? I say no. Never mind the special press, you still need a temperature of 3,100 degrees.

Una: Heat vision.

The ability to create diamonds was featured in the otherwise forgettable Superman III back in 1983:

Skimming over the trees, Superman sees a coalmine, and lands there with Gus. Walking over to a pile of coal, he grabs one piece and uses his super strength to make a large diamond in his bare hand.

I can't remember coming across another example of the diamond-making bit in an Adventure issue prior to #231. My guess is that it happened in that Superman episode I recall, and the writers/Weisinger picked it up from there. I will look for examples of Superman creating diamonds in the comics as well and will update this post as needed. Any help from my readers and other bloggers is, of course appreciated.

Update: We have a new candidate for earliest appearance: Superboy #26 (June-July 1953):

Update II:The diamond trick apparently goes back into the 1940s; in Superman #60, Supes pretends to be secretly Perry White in order to flush out a gangster, and a man asks him for financial aid:

Face Off

2011-05-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

As I have noted in the past, one of DC's major trends of the late 1950s and early 1960s was to add continuing characters to the magazines that did not already feature them. The war books picked up Sgt Rock, Jeb Stuart, Gunner and Sarge, etc., while Mystery in Space added Adam Strange, Tales of the Unexpected featured Space Ranger, and House of Secrets highlighted Mark Merlin.

Strange Adventures, edited by Julius Schwartz, tried something different. Instead of adding one feature which appeared every issue, Schwartz rotated several recurring features: Star Hawkins, the Atomic Knights and the Space Museum appeared regularly over the course of several years. In addition, particularly successful one-shot characters were often brought back. The Faceless Creature was probably the most notable as he appeared on the covers of three* issues over the course of as many years. Those of you who are fans of the Brave and the Bold show on Cartoon Network may recognize him as the Hunter who served as Starro's herald in a two-part episode of that series.

As the first story (Strange Adventures #124, January 1961) begins, two Highway Patrolmen in South Dakota, Jim Boone and Bob Colby, are investigating the disappearance of the heads from Mount Rushmore. The heads disappear along with some other famous giant faces around the world, but then are returned. An alien spacecraft lands and:

After preventing them from firing their weapons as shown on the cover, the alien introduces himself as Klee-Pan from the planet Klaramar, which is a sub-atomic world revolving within a single atom of the Planet Jupiter. He explains that he is looking for a giant head which will unlock a vault where a bomb was hidden by a villain named Chen Yull (sometimes referred to as Chan Yull and also as Chun Yull). If the head is not located, the bomb will destroy the entire solar system in one second.

Well, one second on Klaramar, which is quite a bit longer on Earth:

The mathematician in me couldn't resist calculating that out. If one Klaramar day equals 1,000,000 Earth years, then one Klaramar second equals about 11-1/2 Earth years.

Klee-Pan has tried all the famous giant faces on Earth, but none of them work. Fortunately, Jim realizes the secret:

So he suggests the Woman in the Moon. Of course, most of us have heard of it as the Man in the Moon, but apparently the Chinese and South Dakotans have the gender reversed.

While the trio head to the Moon, Klee-Pan explains how his people became faceless:

That sequence would appear in each subsequent Faceless Creature story. They take the Woman in the Moon to Saturn, but Chen Yull has planned for this and destroys the face with ray guns. But Jim has another bright idea:

And by repairing the face, they are able to open the lock, defuse the bomb, and save the solar system. Klee-Pan offers them a reward, but all they want is for the face on the Moon to be restored.

The Faceless Creature returned in Strange Adventures #142 (July 1962). Chan Yull has learned that his prior plot to destroy the Solar System failed, partially because of the efforts of the two South Dakota Highway Patrolmen. So he creates a new bomb and uses them as the triggers:

But when they arrive the bomb does not explode. It turns out that Jim and Bob were given the power of telepathy by Klee-Pan, and so they had ordered each other not to explode the bomb. Klee-Pan sends them back to Earth with weapons that subdue Chen Yull and send him back to Klaramar.

Jim and Bob find themselves compelled to construct an odd, scientific device. When they turn it on:

Chen Yull heads to the UN Building, where he has a strange demand:

But when they do as he asks:

That seems a very strange quirk indeed. How useful an adaptation is it for a people to only be willing to destroy their own planet? Chen Yull reveals his fiendish plan:

Jim and Bob use the weapons they defeated Chen Yull with in the previous story on each other, shrinking themselves down while sending themselves to Klaramar. Once they are able to communicate with Klee Pan, he defeats Chen Yull and restores the two planets (and the Highway Patrolmen) to their normal sizes.
One other oddity about the series; according to the GCD, the pencils on the three stories were done by three different artists: Mike Sekowsky, Carmine Infantino and Gil Kane. I was able to identify the latter two, but the first one really doesn't look much like Sekowsky at all to me except for a few panels. Then again, I noticed how heavy the inks were on that story (by Murphy Anderson), so maybe it's just a case of the pencils being overwhelmed.

*Technically two different faceless creatures appeared on the three covers; Klee-Pan on the first issue and Chan Yull on the other two.

Linkage

2011-05-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

Jacque Nodell's boyfriend checks in with a post on collecting romance comics as a teen.

1997 was a great year. I was 18 years old then, and now look back on it quite romantically. I was a traveler exploring new lands and acquiring new treasures. From Detroit to Chicago to Indianapolis, I took back with me to Lafayette, Indiana hundreds of romance books. All of which were gifted to Jacque around 2008. And though she has acquired many more hundreds over the past few years, you might say that these books were the foundation on which Sequential Crush was built.

I confess that in my collecting years, I don't think I ever bought a romance book. But it is one of the oddities of romance that it's the one storyline twist that appears in every other genre. It's no surprise to find a romantic interlude in a superhero comic, or a sci-fi mag or even Sgt. Rock. So even though I didn't buy romance comics per se, I did buy plenty of comics with romantic elements.

Superman Fan has reached the end.

Over the years, I’ve had a great time digging through old comics to come up with things to say about Superman and his world, and even more fun interacting with visitors who’ve shared their own opinions, expertise and ideas. The hard truth, however, is that I’ve just about exhausted my collection of comics to review and clippings to share, though obviously I’ve only just scratched the surface of Superman’s long career.

I've often regretted that I made the subject matter for this blog so incredibly vast, but one thing's for certain; I'm not going to run out of material anytime soon!

Commander Benson takes a long look at the second set of teamups between Green Lantern and the Flash. What I am struck with in reading those stories is how much Hal and Barry (and Iris and Carol) became friends over the course of those adventures.

Over at Chasing Amazing, Mark covers a horrifying new trend: turning old comics into trading cards.

Yes, that’s somebody taking an issue of Amazing Spider-Man #2 (please note, one of the missing issues in my quest) and cutting out a panel of the Vulture (his first appearance in a comic) to be featured on an Upper Deck trading card. In mint condition, that comic could net someone thousands of dollars. The comic featured in the video, by my humblest guestimate, is probably in Fair, maybe, MAYBE Poor condition (though I feel the cover is too complete to be considered a Poor), which would only net the reseller a few hundred dollars. According to Beckett.com, these comic book cards, dubbed Upper Deck Marvels, are already bringing bids as high as $80.

I'm not a terribly religious person, but that strikes me as downright sinful.

Brian at Comics Should Be Good covers the five goofiest moments in the first five Human Torch stories in Strange Tales. I enjoy the heck out of these five goofiest moments, because a) they're really goofy and b) Brian does them with a real love for subject matter while accepting that they were intended as throwaway entertainment for kids. Plus he absolutely nails the single silliest bit, which was the effort to make the Torch have a secret identity in those stories, even as the Fantastic Four issues made it obvious that he didn't.

The Superboy TV Show Swipe

2011-05-17T21:38:00.000-07:00

While looking through the early 1960s letters columns in Adventure Comics to see if anyone had written in to complain about the Superboy swipes (see previous post), I came across this missive:

I had never heard about an early 1960s Superboy pilot, so I did some searching and found it on YouTube:

As you can see, after an origin sequence, the story starts out with a young man who's embarrassed because his dad's occupation is a lowly doorman at the local movie theater. I particularly love the speech his dad (the terrific and forgotten actor, Ross Elliott) gives starting around 5:10 about how if he gets his son through college and into his chosen profession, he'll consider himself as successful as anyone his son knows.

But that's not why I decided to do this post. I realized as soon as I saw the opening sequence in the school that the basic plot was swiped from a comic that I had read recently. Since I've been working my way through the Adventure issues featuring Superboy, I assumed it was there. But it turned out to be another swipe from Superboy #49. Here's a scene from that comic:

As you can see, the focus in the comic is on Captain Joe's phenomenal memory, while in the TV pilot, he's working on becoming an artist. But in both cases he identifies the crooks. The robberies are slightly different, with the criminals stealing diamonds from the movie theater in the TV version, while in the comic they stick up a bank nearby.

Both stories end with the young boy satisfied that while a doorman's occupation may be mundane, his father is not. And both include a job offer for the dad that he turns down:

The other thing that is interesting in the pilot is the relationship between Clark and Lana. In the comics it was occasionally hinted that they were more than just friends, but more commonly Lana was just an annoying secret identity pest. In the TV show, it certainly appears that they are dating; note the way they're holding hands after class when they catch up to Jimmy at around 2:48 into the first part.

Here are the other two parts of the episode:

Update: Commenter Tmdess remembered the story being published yet again, and it didn't take me long to find it (with an assist from Commander Benson), in Superboy #88 (March 1961). As you can see, this story is even closer to the Superboy pilot, with the diamonds being stolen from the movie theater while Superboy is dealing with a crook shooting madly from a hideout. It even has the bit where Superboy makes replacement diamonds out of coal.

One thing I can't tell is whether this story is swiped from the TV pilot or vice-versa. Either way, it's pretty obvious that what we have here is a double-swipe from the Superboy #49 story. Here's a list of the other proposed episodes (which were written but never filmed). As you can see, there were other swipes from the comics planned. For example, Superboy's New Parents, which I discussed recently, would be another double swipe, and The One-Man Team was also published in Superboy #88:

A Graphic Analysis of the Adventure Comics Superboy Swipes

2011-05-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

While making my way through reading all of the Superboy features in Adventure Comics, I've been quite startled at the number of swipes. But some things only become obvious when you look at things in a graphic fashion, and here's a look at what I've uncovered so far:

This may not be a complete look at the swipes, but I am confident I have identified most of them.

There are two obvious patterns in the data:

1. The swipes all fit into the course of 27 issues; in that run, there were 9 swipes. Thus, about 33% of the Superboy stories from Adventure #276-302 were swiped from earlier tales. These issues were published from September 1960 to November 1962. Note that this applies to the story in Superman #145 as well, which bore a cover date of May, 1961.

2. The stories they were swiped from came from the course of 24 issues of Adventure; #176-199, or May 1952-April 1954. The story in Superboy #49, which was swiped in Adventure #276 falls out of this range, appearing in June 1956.

Of course, the question becomes why did Weisinger swipe so many stories during 1960-1962? I suspect the reason can be seen on this cover:

Do you see the clue? It's this:

The comics companies were all under pressure to raise their prices in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Dell Comics tried to lead the way to a 15-cent cover price in 1958, but eventually had to go back to 10 cents when the competitors didn't budge. But in December 1961, DC raised the cover price of all its magazines to 12 cents and their competitors followed suit.

I strongly suspect that Weisinger was trying to cut costs wherever he could to maintain profitability. It would make sense that he could pay his writers somewhat less for recycled stories; as I have documented, many of the stories were almost word for word swipes from the earlier tales.

Why did he stop the swipes? I suspect there are several reasons:

1. The price increase reduced the pressure to cut costs. Two cents may not sound like a lot of money, and in all probability DC split the increase with their retailers so that they only netted a penny. But in 1962, Adventure Comics was selling 415,000 copies an issue; that works out to an additional $4,150 in revenue to DC. It's true that circulation did drop with the price increase, from 460,000 in 1961, but if we assume again that DC was only getting half the old 10-cent cover price from their retailers, the net increase is still $1,900.

2. The increasing influence of fandom may have caused Weisinger to cut back on the swipes. Although I was unable to locate a letter in the Adventure letter columns complaining about the recycled stories, I doubt that it went completely unnoticed by the older fans.

And it's not as if Weisinger entirely discontinued the practice; he just became a little more transparent about it. In Adventure #317 this announcement appeared:

The Hall of Fame classics were published until Adventure #345, after which the Legion stories were expanded to book-length.

Incidentally, I first became aware of the Superboy swipes sometime in the 1960s or early 1970s when DC reprinted the story in Adventure #191 and its swipe in Adventure #290. I can see that the latter tale was reprinted in Superboy #147, but the GCD does not show when the former tale was republished. Anybody know what issue that was?

Update: Discovered that Adventure #279 was a swipe from #187; I have updated the graphic and a few other places in the original post.

Silly Panel Saturday

2011-05-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

A bunch of Smallville residents come up with a way to mimic one of Superboy's powers. We'll assume that the giant bellows came from a Gotham City advertising sign.

Some More Continuity Examples from DC

2011-05-12T01:25:00.000-07:00

DC could be maddening about this; for example, I can show you at least a half dozen stories about how Clark Kent/Superman met Perry White, each of which contradicts the other five. But at the same time, there were stories that legitimately referred to prior issues.

For example, in Adventure #209, Smallville celebrates Superboy Week, with parades and speeches and tributes to Superboy, including this one:

So I looked up "The Giant Who Stalked Smallville" and sure enough a story by that name featuring similar action to that shown above had appeared three years earlier, in Superboy #21:

In Adventure #211, Superboy has an interesting dream about his future life as Superman. In the dream (where he has become a museum curator), he meets an inquisitive reporter for the Daily Planet named Lois Lane. The writer highlights how amazing it is that his dream correctly predicts this part of the future:

At the end of the story, Clark realizes that there is a good explanation as to how his dream predicted Lois' career as a reporter:

And as it happens, there was an earlier story where Lois and Clark had met (although the circumstances are slightly different than indicated):

I talked about some other continuity examples in the Golden Age of Batman last year.

Martian Manhunter's Powers

2011-05-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

It was noted in a recent post at Comics Should Be Good that the Martian Manhunter's powers were quite extraordinary and that they kept growing as needed by the plots. So here's a look at what J'onn J'onnz could do.

We learn about his first power in the very first panel featuring him:

He can change his appearance at will:

His mind over matter ability comes in handy:

Two powers are hinted at here, but not stated:

He can make his body insubstantial, and turn invisible. Of course, you can argue that the invisibility power is simply a use of his ability to change his appearance. Making his body insubstantial is a power that has many applications in the stories. For example, he often uses it to walk through walls or to let bullets pass through him.

This power is a bit problematic:

Note that he is not just seeing into the future, as the text states. He's seeing into a future that no longer exists. Indeed, in the story, Jones has to intervene to make that future come true.

Here's one that I'm going to call foul on:

Martian molecular hypnosis? That's really just mind over matter, as Jones admits in a later panel.

There are numerous other examples of the writers using ridiculously convoluted language to describe his powers, when really they are just applications of some of the abilities already discussed. For example:

Retracing thought processes is just an application of mind-reading.

Of course, you can make similar arguments about a lot of the powers, so it can get a little arbitrary. For example:

Is he flying? Or just using an application of his mind over matter ability? I'll go with flying here, but obviously that's a judgment call.

Here's a pretty straight-forward power:

The first of his awesome eye-powers makes its appearance:

Figuring out what to call some of the powers can be tricky. I guess we should call this one "near-invulnerability":

And this probably qualifies as microscopic vision:

We learn a little bit more about the source of J'onn's powers here:

Here's a power that didn't get used often:

But if he can teleport himself anywhere in the world, couldn't he also teleport himself back to Mars?

Another judgment call:

He can change his size, and in this case, I don't think from the context that it's just changing his appearance.

This one's really complicated:

Nullifying the Earth's gravity sounds like flying, doesn't it? Still, walking on the water implies something a little different, and it's such a cool and unique power that I can't resist including it in the list.

That's it for the first ten stories (Detective 225-234). I will return to this post and add more powers over time.

Here's the list so far: Mind-reading, changing his appearance at will, mind over matter, making his body insubstantial, invisibility, the ability to see possible futures, flying, super-sensitive hearing, X-ray vision, near-invulnerability, microscopic vision, teleportation, changing his size and walking on water.

Silly Panel Saturday

2011-05-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

You gotta love a gang that's so superstitious they have to remind themselves what not to do. And yes, the Martian Manhunter uses their fears against them.

Inspired by this post at Comics Should Be Good.

Thank You For Not Smoking

2011-05-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

You can't help thinking that the Martian Manhunter would have a much easier time of it in today's virtually smoke-free society than back in the puff-a-holic 1950s:

Super Swipe #9: Space Circus

2011-05-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

Up till now, all the swipes I have covered involve stories updated for either Superboy or Superman. But here's one where a Superboy tale was converted into a problem for his adult counterpart:

In both stories, a circus advertising itself as being from another world sets up on the outskirts of town (Smallville and Metropolis, respectively). Both circuses require coins instead of bills:

The updated version does have one of my favorite goofy Silver Age panels:

In each case, Kal El prevents a disaster from occurring, resulting in a surprising offer:

But the circus owner won't take no for an answer, and sics some of his monsters against the Lad/Man of Steel. At first he is able to defeat them, but:

Neither beast can beat Supes, but he cannot beat them either. It looks like a stalemate, but the circus owner threatens to loose the monster on the nearby town. So Superboy/Superman agree to join the circus reluctantly, but warn that they will leave if they can figure out away to defeat their nemesis. Which they shortly do:

Incidentally, these stories fit Weisinger's seven year pattern nearly precisely with Adventure #198 coming out in March of 1954, while Superman #145 carried a cover date of May 1961.

A Taste of Moronica

2011-05-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

This one's a little out of my normal bailiwick, being published in 1952, but I just read this story and found it hilarious. ACG briefly came out with a comic called Dizzy Dames (subtitled Screwballs in Skirts). Nowadays, of course, it would be decried as sexist, but was it back then? Remember, this was the era where comedy duos relied on one dimwit and one straight-man. Were Burns and Allen sexist, or I Love Lucy? And of course it was not uncommon for the shoe to be placed on the other foot; the Honeymooners is a classic example of a sensible wife exasperated with her buffoonish hubby.

Anyway, I loved this story and had to share it with you. Any idea who the artist is? His work is deceptively simple but very expressive.

Fatman, the Human Flying Saucer #1

2011-04-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

Of all the weird titles launched at the end of the Silver Age, this has to be one of the strangest. Milson Publishing (aka Lightning Comics) appeared in 1967, published three issues of this comic and two issues of Super Green Beret, then vanished into the mists. The book did have some sterling credentials behind it, as the creative team was Otto Binder and CC Beck, the men responsible for Captain Marvel in the Golden Age.

Fatman is something of a composite of Captain Marvel, and the other overweight hero of the 1960s, Herbie. Does this ring some bells?

But we quickly learn that Van Crawford has powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Via a flashback, we learn that he was bird-watching one day, when he spotted a flying saucer about to crash. He demonstrates that some of his powers were innate to his avoirdupois form:

As the saucer lands on the tree he knocked down, it changes into an alien. It turns out that it was just testing him to see if he was a suitable candidate for super powers. Sure enough, he passed, and the alien gives him a potion that allows him to turn into a flying saucer at will. He later learns that he can change back just by speaking his own name, much like Captain Marvel could change back to Billy Batson by saying "Shazam!"

In the first issue, he battles some crooks who use jets for their getaways. This makes the "change into a flying saucer" routine useful. Like many superheroes, he gains powers as needed by the script:

And when he encounters a sea monster:

In the third story in the comic, Fatman picks up an ally in the war against crime: a beanpole teen named Lucius Pindle who wants to be stronger. He tries exercise, but he can't even lift a barbell. He tries mixing up a formula in his chemistry set, but it just leaves him with a bad aftertaste. Finally he tries a spell from a book of magic and presto:

At first, he has great fun with his powers as Tin Man, but when a lightning bolt hits him he runs amok. So Fatman assumes he's a villain, and they have a classic Marvel-style battle until Tin Man speaks his own name, causing him to change back into Lucius Pindle again. (Shades of Captain Marvel!)

In the final story, Tin Man battles the sea monster in what appears to be just a friendly match, refereed by Fatman. And for a moment, the monster agrees to join their team, but then:

And that's basically the end of the comic, except for a promise that the next issue will bring some major villains:

Comments: Amusing and lighthearted intro to the series. Why didn't it succeed? I suspect there are several reasons. First, the title is off-putting. The publisher probably thought that noting that the book was produced by the creators of Captain Marvel would overcome this, and it may have gotten some of the older fans interested enough to buy it. But for kids like me, Captain Marvel generally drew a shrug. He had last been published in 1954, and none of his adventures had been reprinted. Most of us only knew him from a line in the Beatles' song, Bungalow Bill. Second, the price point of 25 cents was a little steep for a new character. And third, I suspect they just missed the market by putting this out ihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifn early 1967, when all the other publishers had jumped on the superhero bandwagon by 1965.

Update: Booksteve comes by in the comments and notes that the Bungalow Bill song wasn't released until 1968, so I probably would not have heard of Captain Marvel by the time this comic came out. He adds:

I remember I knew who CAPTAIN MARVEL was but I don't know how. I remember very distinctly though that I had heard of him and the "Shazam" thing but...how? I know I'd never seen any of the comics.

Perhaps I can answer that. There was one very well-known TV character who used the word "Shazam!" a lot back in the 1960s.

Oh, I'm a Lumberjack and I'm Okay...

2011-04-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

For some reason, the writers, artists and editors of Superman found this image of the Man of Steel cutting down trees compelling:

There are quite a few more examples and I will add them as I find them. Here's an early one from Adventure #184:

The earliest one I've found so far is this one from Adventure #110, although it's somewhat different from the others in that Superman hurls a spinning circular saw at the trees:

Either way, it's apparent that Kal-El would not find himself welcome at a meeting of the Earth Liberation Front.

Update: Bryon in the comments points us to this dueling lumberjacks panel from Superman #199:

Update II: Another example from Superboy #106, pointed out in the comments by Dave:

Super-Swipe #8: The New Parents

2011-04-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

Here's another one that's pretty easy to spot:

In both stories, a trouble-maker has advised juvenile court that Superboy is without parents. In both cases, Superboy tells the judge that he does have parents but he cannot reveal them without jeopardizing their safety. The judge is all set to send the Lad of Steel to a state home for boys, but fortunately for the town, there is a way out:

In both cases, the adopting couple intend to use Superboy to get rich, although not in the same way. In Adventure #176, Mr Smirt wants his new son to advertise a sale at his store (which competes with Pa Kent's). In Adventure #281, the Hurds intend to turn their residence into Superboy Land:

Superboy gets his newly adoptive parents to regret choosing him in similar ways:

And:

And in both stories, the judge comes to a sensible decision when Superboy points out that there is no proof he's a minor:

I find it interesting that in the reprise, it's a committee of local citizens who claim Superboy is an adult. Perhaps this is because of Weisinger's insistence that Superboy never tells a lie?

A Letter from Yoe

2011-04-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

I happened to be browsing through Adventures into the Unknown #174 (the last issue of that terrific title) today and found a letter from Craig Yoe:

I tend to agree with Craig; the earlier issues of Adventures Into the Unknown were a little too reliant on the supposed shock value of vampires and werewolves. It's interesting to see that (editor and chief writer) Richard Hughes admits to publishing a few stinkers.