What's that the Challengers are Drinking?

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

More about →

By Request: Challengers of the Unknown #5

A longtime commenter sent me an email requesting a review of this issue, so I thought I'd tackle it. For starters, the pencils are by Jack Kirby, with inks by Wally Wood, so we're talking two legends of the medium here. Although I am not a huge fan of Kirby's artwork personally, I do think he was the absolute master of page construction. His pages demand that you read them, drawing you through the story like nobody before or since.

I do not classify the Challengers as superheroes, but as an adventure team, much like Sea Devils or Rip Hunter, Time Master. But this issue shows that the line between the two can be rather blurry indeed. As the story begins, a South American train is attacked by a super-powered being. When the guards try to intervene:

Throwing balls of fire would be the hallmark of a character that Kirby would assist in resurrecting a couple years later: the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four.

The Challengers hear about this from June Robbins, who is down in South America on an archaeological dig. It turns out that Vreedl, another member of that party, had stolen a "Star-Stone" from the dig:

So the Challenge in this issue is to prevent Vreedl from getting all four stones (he's already collected one, which accounts for his flame power. But when they pursue him in the jungle, they run into problems. Vreedl starts a fire:

He also starts a stampede, but Red saves them by using an old circus trick. Still Vreedl gets the next gem, and then it's off to India to save a rajah from losing his special diamond. Vreedl's new power from the second gem is that of flight:

But his flying ability is only temporary, and when the Challs close in, he's not above using the superstition of the natives to get away:

The crowd quickly subdues the Challengers and imprisons them. It looks as though they will be unable to get word to the rajah that they are there in time to prevent Vreedl from obtaining the last gem. But, in an amazing coincidence:

She diverts the guards' attention and the Challengers are able to escape. They chase Vreedl to the final gem:

But he escapes with the pearl needed and so (after a battle with some sharks) they chase him onto the land, where he demonstrates his new powers (as shown on the cover). But Ace points out a flaw:

So Vreedl destroys the star stone, and unfortunately for him:

Is Ace making an observation about villains in general, or about comic-book villains?

Comments: Solid, entertaining story with lots of exotic locales and perilous situations. I wouldn't put it down as a classic, but it clearly deserves note as an above-average yarn with way, way above-average art. I like that June plays a fairly prominent role in the story, even if it does seem just a little too convenient for plot purposes.

The GCD does not have a guess for the writer. One thing I noted was the use of the word "fellers". It's not the correct spelling (fellows) or the usual vernacular (fellas). I know I've seen that in other comics but a specific citation is escaping me right now.

More about →

Guest Post: More Jack Schiff "Recycling"

Here's an solid post from commenter Jim building on some themes we have discussed here in the past:

In an interesting post (December 16, 2009), Pat pointed out how several Silver Age Superman stories appear to have been deliberately "synchronized" with Batman stories published around the same time, and he invited readers to send in other examples. His post inspired me to look more closely at something I'd noticed a few years ago, but hadn't bothered to investigate further. Here's what I found.

Submitted for your consideration: the cover of Blackhawk #151, dated August 1960 and edited by Jack Schiff.

Here we see Lady Blackhawk, with super-powers, "flying through the air -- and smashing [a] boulder" (as Blackhawk rather superfluously points out to the reader).

Now let's move ahead a few months and look at the cover of another comic edited by Jack Schiff -- Tales of the Unexpected #56 (December 1960).


I don't need to belabor the similarities between the two covers.

Now what might have given Schiff the idea of running two covers featuring female supporting characters -- pretty blondes in short skirts -- demonstrating super-powers to the consternation of their male counterparts?

For an answer, let's go back a year or so and take a look at the iconic cover of Action #252 (May 1959) -- the issue that introduced Supergirl:


It was obviously important for Silver Age editors to come up with eye-catching covers. There were a lot of comic books being published, and they were competing for the limited pocket change of their (mostly) juvenile readers. I'm sure Julius Schwartz wasn't the only editor who assumed that if a particular issue sold well, it was on account of the cover.

I'm guessing that Action #252 sold well -- at least well enough to justify keeping Supergirl as a regular "second feature." And I'm speculating that its strong sales inspired Schiff to put super-powered blondes on the covers of two of his titles at the earliest opportunity.

At this point, I began wondering about another book edited by Schiff -- Challengers of the Unknown. June Robbins was an "honorary Challenger" who regularly joined Ace, Rocky, Red, and Prof on their adventures. I didn't recall any story in which June gained super-powers, but I thumbed through my longbox and came up with this issue -- dated August/September 1960:


June's a brunette, but as a "lady giant" she has superhuman strength -- and she's using it to save her male partners from danger. (And we have another one of those charmingly redundant word-balloons that were such a common feature of Silver Age covers.)

As Pat said: "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, and the third time it's a trend." I believe I spotted a trend -- and an example of the working of a comic editor's mind during the Silver Age.

Comments from Pat: This ties in with several of my past posts. I talked about Jack Schiff's habit of recycling covers and story elements between Blackhawk and Batman on two separate occasions. And I also talked about the sudden influx of women into the comic book superhero world of the late 1950s here.

Great job, Jim!

More about →

Showcase #6: Challengers of the Unknown

Jack Kirby had created a few memorable series for DC in the Golden Age, including the Boy Commandos and the Newsboy Legion, before moving back over to Timely/Atlas. For awhile in the later 1950s he worked again for DC, creating the Challengers of the Unknown, who quickly graduated to their own long-running series.

As the story begins, four men are winging their way towards a radio program. Rocky Davis is an Olympic wrestling champion, Prof Haley is a master skin (scuba) diver, Red Ryan is a circus daredevil, and Ace Morgan is a war hero and fearless jet pilot. However, their plane runs into some rough weather, and:

Despite Ace's efforts, the plane crashes. Miraculously the four men emerge from the wreckage uninjured. Red notices that even his watch is still working, and Ace comments that the men are "living on borrowed time". This phrase becomes the signature of the Challengers series. Figuring that they should be dead anyway, the four men decide to band together and take risks that nobody else would. And in short order, they become famous for their daring.

They fly to northern Canada, where they are greated by a mysterious man named Morelian. He's obviously quite wealthy, having had a castle disassembled brick by brick in Europe and brought to North America and reassembled. Morelian reveals that he's a descendant of the original Merlin, and that he too dabbles in black magic. He explains their task:

It is obvious that danger awaits within the box, or else Morelian would open it himself. The Challengers confer:

They decide to open the box on a deserted island, to minimize the risk to humanity, and settle on a small isle near the Bikini Islands. An aside: Did you know that the name of the bikini swimsuit was based on a pun? From Wikipedia:

Bikini Island is well-known for being the subject of nuclear bomb tests, and because the bikini swimsuit was named after the island in 1946. The two-piece swimsuit was introduced within days of the first nuclear test on the atoll, and the name of the island was in the news. Introduced just weeks after the one-piece "Atome" was widely advertised as the "smallest bathing suit in the world", it was said that the bikini "split the atome".

Rocky gets first crack at the box. The Challengers' safety precautions are not exactly impressive:

Inside the first chamber, Rocky discovers a giant egg. Translating from Ancient Greek, Prof reveals that an inscription says something about a dragon seed. Ace speculates that this may have something to do with the Greek legend of Cadmus, who supposedly planted dragon's teeth in the ground and grew a crop of fighting men. The men decide to let Prof continue attempting to translate the innscription, while they break for the night. But while they are sleeping, the egg begins to crack open.
They discover the egg has opened and a giant has emerged, which grabs Red:

Ace and Prof fly off in pursuit of the giant, leaving Rocky behind to safeguard the box. But Rocky finds the temptation to open another chamber irresistible. As Prof machine-guns the giant, it lets Red go in frustration. He's picked up in a lifeboat of a ship that had been abandoned when the giant came upon it. The men on the lifeboat row Red to the island where the box is located. Red discovers Rocky frozen on the ground. As he explores the island, he discovers:

Red tricks it into following him:

He slips out the side, then seals the sun inside, trapping it.

Meanwhile, Prof figures out how to defeat the giant:

Despite the great dangers they have barely defeated, the Challengers are determined to open the final two chambers of the box. The third chamber contains a "whirling weaver" which quickly spins a cocoon around Ace, then takes off for the mainland. When the Challengers follow, they discover the weaver has already hit Australia:

Note that atypically for DC in this era, a real city is named. Prof notes that there's a dial on the container that held the weaver, and deduces that it's actually a control device. With the weaver under their power, the Challengers head back to the island, where they discover Morelian has already arrived:

But when he flies away, his plane suddenly veers out of control and crashes into the box, killing Morelian and destroying the box. The Challengers realize that the box itself granted immortality, not the ring.

Comments: An interesting and entertaining story. Kirby's art still looks like his Golden Age work, and not like the Silver Age style he made famous. It's notable that the story is broken into five "chapters". This was unusual for comics in the Silver Age; about the only other comic series that had that same format was the early Fantastic Four (which Kirby also drew and plotted).

Oddities: At one point, Rocky is referred to as "Rod" by Prof. And it seems unusual that there is no real villain per se in the story; although Morelian is clearly something of a strange duck, there's none of the usual "Bwahahaha, you fools, you have given me the key to eternal life! Now I shall kill you!"

More about →