Batman and the Aliens: 1958

In 1958, the New York Yankees avenged their 1957 World Series loss to the Milwaukee Braves by winning Game 7 at County Stadium. The NFL Championship went to the Baltimore Colts in a 23-17 overtime thriller over the New York Giants, in the game that is generally credited with popularizing professional football, which up till that game was considered second fiddle to college gridiron. The top song that year was Danny and the Juniors' At the Hop, while the #1 TV show was Gunsmoke.

In 1958, Jack Schiff was not the credited editor in the Batman magazines; he did not assume that title until March of 1959. However, according to many sources, Schiff was the de facto editor of the Batman from well before his name appeared in the indicia.

In Batman #113, Batman becomes the Superman of Planet X (Zur-En-Arrh):

Status: True aliens (two races). One race is human-sized and multi-colored for two Klaatus, while the other is human sized and Caucasian (five Klaatus for the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh).

In Batman #116, Batman encounters the winged Bat-people while in another dimension:


Status: True aliens, slightly smaller than humans and winged; five Klaatus. The second race of aliens is human-sized and Caucasian in color; only one Klaatu. Although the story takes place in another dimension, it's also on another planet.

In Batman #117, a crook gets assistance from an alien:



Status: True alien, human-sized and green. One Klaatu.

In Detective #251, Batman himself turns out to be an alien:



Status: Fake alien (both Batman and the other guy). This was a plot by gangsters to discredit Batman with the public by making them believe he was from another planet.

In Detective #256, Batman and Robin are imprisoned on another planet:



Status: True aliens, two different races. One race is human-sized and green: one klaatu. The other race is human-sized and Caucasian.

In Detective #256, Batman encounters two aliens (one a lawman and the other a crook) from the future.


Status: True aliens, human-sized and pale blue in color. Four Klaatus for aliens from the future.

In Detective #260, Batman competes in the Olympic Games of Space:

Status: True aliens (several species), all human-sized with several different colors. Three Klaatus for the Olympics mention.

Comments: 1958 was another big year for the aliens.

Batman #113: True aliens (two races); one is human-sized and multi-colored while the other is human-sized and Caucasian.
Batman #116: True aliens (two races); one is smaller than human-sized and winged, while the other is human-sized and Caucasian.
Batman #117: True aliens, human-sized and green.
Detective #251: Fake aliens.
Detective #256: True aliens, human-sized and pale blue in color.
Detective #260: True aliens (several races); all are human-sized and there are several different colors.

Totals: Five stories with aliens, one story with fake aliens.

1959:

Detective #263: True alien, green and human-sized
Detective #270: True alien, green and giant-sized
Batman #124: Not a true alien, robot
Batman #125: True aliens, caucasian and human-sized
Batman #128: True aliens (two separate species), orange and human-sized and purple-red and human sized.

Totals: Four stories involving true aliens, one story with an alien robot

1960:

Batman #130: Fake aliens
Batman #132: Fake aliens
Batman #136: True aliens, yellow and human-sized
Detective #277: True alien, orange and human-sized
Detective #279: Not a true alien, rather alien robot and alien beast
Detective #282: True aliens (two races): one orange and one green, both human-sized
Detective #283: True alien, white and human-sized

Overall for the year: Four stories with true aliens, one with an alien robot and an alien beast, and two stories with fake aliens.

1961:

Batman #137: True alien, white and human-sized and true aliens, yellow and human-sized (two separate stories).
Batman #140: Superman appearance; not counted in the tabulation, and true aliens, green and human-sized.
Batman #142: True alien, orange and human-sized.
Batman #143: Not a true alien, an alien beast.
Batman #144: True aliens, yellow and human-sized.
Detective #287: True aliens, one white and the other yellow, both slightly smaller than humans.
Detective #291: Not a true alien, an alien beast.
Detective #292: Superman cameo, not counted in the tabulation.
Detective #293: True aliens, pink and oversized.
Detective #295: True aliens, yellow and human-sized.

So in total we have 8 stories with true aliens (counting both stories in Batman #137), two stories with alien beasts and two Superman stories.

1962:

Detective #299: True aliens, several, green or white, human-sized.
Detective #303: Fake aliens.
Batman #148: True aliens, green and human-sized
Detective #305: True alien, orange and human-sized
Batman #152: Fake alien.

Three real aliens, two fake aliens.

1963-1964:

Batman #153: True aliens, green.
Batman #153: True aliens, multi-colored.
Batman #156: Fake alien (dream sequence)
Detective #320: No alien visible but implied.
Batman #160: Fake Alien

Two real aliens, two fake, one not seen.

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Classic Marvel Sagas: Captain America #114-119

This series takes place from June-November 1969. Following the Death of Captain America saga which I wrote about two years ago, Stan launched into a terrific series featuring the Red Skull. In #114, Sharon is still convinced that Cap is dead, so she embarks on a suicide mission against AIM. But he arrives at the crucial moment to turn the tide:



Rick Jones doing his best Bucky imitation there. But after the hugs and kisses with Sharon, Cap finds himself living in a $10 a week flophouse. And as if things couldn't possibly get any worse:



The next issue builds to a climax here:



We also learn that the Skull located the Cosmic Cube with the help of the Exiles, a team of Nazis that he had nurtured. But in a classic Marvel villain moment, rather than sharing his triumph he sends them away to a desert island.

In the next issue, Cap (now appearing like the Red Skull), tries desperately to make it back to the Avengers Mansion, in the hopes he can convince them he's really Captain America. Some terrific moments in this ish:



A side note: Starting with Captain America #112, the pencils on the next five issues were done by: Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, Johnny Romita, John Buscema and Gene Colan. I'm all for consistency, but if you can't put the same guy on every issue, that's not a bad rotation. ;)

At the end of this story, the villainous Captain America decides why not send the Red Skull (with Cap's mind) to the island of the Exiles. He battles them, and is aided by a red falcon, which belongs to a young African-American:



The Falcon becomes a co-hero with Captain America effective with #117. They manage to defeat the Exiles:


In the accompanying subplot, Modok and the scientists at AIM are working on neutralizing the Cosmic Cube on the theory that if they can't have it, nobody should.

In the finale, Cap and the Falcon are transported to the Red Skull's castle in Germany. The Skull thinks he's got things under control but:



But Modok and AIM have succeeded in destroying the Cube (apparently) and the Skull can only quickly teleport out of there with the remaining power.

Comments: Superb series of issues here, with great artwork, terrific storytelling and the launch of the first real African-American superhero. No mediocre issues in this run; all are quite good, and the overall effect is very pleasing.

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Trivia Quiz #31: Grab Bag

1. True or False: All major comic publishers submitted their comics to the CCA for its approval and seal during most of the Silver Age.

2. Name three DC features of the Silver Age (aside from annuals) to debut in their own books with a #1 issue instead of having a tryout.

3. What was the first DC title of the Silver Age to have a letters column?

4. What was the original title of the Captain America letters page?

5. What DC title called its letters page "Destination Infinity"?

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A Request I Can't Ignore

A reader writes in the comments that he's searching for a particular story that he remembers from his youth:

What I do remember is that the cyborgs were depicted as green and faceless - looking remarkably like the Mad Thinker's android of Fantastic Four 71 (vol. 1 - old comic). That's the clearest memory of the comic - showing the faceless green cyborgs being mass produced. That's something I'm reasonably definite about.

Sound familiar to anybody? He's got more details at the blog.

I should mention here that I too am looking for a couple of issues from my youth. One is a Fox & Crow story in which the Crow slips a letter under Fauntleroy's door. Because the Crow's hand (sic) was muddy, the Fox believes he has gotten a "Black Hand" letter. The second is a Baby Huey story, in which Papa is looking for a 16-letter word meaning "Ringing in the ears". The answer, which Baby Huey quickly provides, is tintinnabulation. Both are 1960s stories; my guess on the Baby Huey would be about 1963-64, while the Fox & Crow story is probably closer to 1967.

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The Great Price Increase of 1961

For most of their history, comic books had been priced at a dime. Oh, there were Nickel Comics, and the annuals were generally priced at a quarter, but these were definitely exceptions to the rule. Not that there hadn't been inflation anyway; that dime bought you a 68-page mag in 1940, a 60-pager in 1944, a 52-pager in 1950, and a 36-page issue by the time the Silver Age started.

Dell Comics made the first move effective with their February 1961 issues:



Although Dell persisted with the 15 cent price for over a year, it's not hard to see that they had troubles, especially as the rest of the industry held out until the end of 1961. First, they began advertising contests on their covers, and eventually, in mid-1962 they dropped their prices to the new standard of 12 cents.

As far as I can see, the other publishers mostly went to 12 cents around the December 1961 issues, but you could see that a change was coming. In the March 1961 issues, DC began putting a box around the price, noting "Still 10c". That was dropped in favor of just "10c" with the August issues, and then in December we finally saw the new price-tag of four-color entertainment:



Archie, Marvel, and other publishers pretty much changed their prices at the same time. Not surprisingly, this resulted in a significant dip in sales. Of the 36 titles reporting sales in both 1961 and 1962, only seven reported increased sales in 1961, and three of those I'm a little suspicious of; the ACG titles Adventures into the Unknown and Forbidden Worlds apparently reported identical sales in both years while their Unknown Worlds book showed a 500-copies-per-issue increase.

What comics did the best? It looks like Archie comics were the most successful at retaining readers, with the flagship title only losing a couple hundred copies per issue and backup titles like Betty and Veronica, Jughead and Archie's Pals & Gals actually picking up a bit in sales. On the DC side, only Justice League of America increased sales, from 335,000 per issue to 340,000.

On average, all titles lost about 8.7% in sales, but the decline was far from uniform. The Superman line's losses ran from about 5% (Lois Lane) to 12.5% (World's Finest). Batman's books other than WF declined from 15.5% (Batman) to 18.5% (Detective). The Silver Age DC heroes fared better with Flash dipping 11.5% and Green Lantern losing 5.9% (from a smaller base).

What really got hammered? Three DC titles dipped by over 20%; Mystery in Space, House of Mystery and My Greatest Adventure. The only DC war title I can find sales for those years, Star Spangled War Stories, dipped by about 4.9%.

Some of these numbers make sense if you think about them. Wonder Woman didn't decline all that badly; down 6.5% in this market was practically up, so the two female-oriented books that we have stats for, Wonder Woman and Lois Lane, both did better than average. Girls that bought those comics didn't find their budget as pinched as might their brothers because they only had two heroines to choose from. It's not surprising that the war stories didn't do as badly as some of the others; they were probably purchased by older readers on average. Sugar and Spike, the only comic on the list designed for very young readers, suffered a pretty steep drop of 18%. Ditto with the monster-oriented issues like House of Mystery and My Greatest Adventure; the kiddies who read them were more price conscious.

What about Marvel Comics? Well, Fantastic Four didn't report sales for 1961 and 1962, but we can see that their two monster titles got crushed. Tales to Astonish slipped by 25% while Tales of Suspense declined by over 31%. So there is certainly ample evidence that Stan Lee's incredible Marvel Silver Age was half inspiration, and half desperation. In 1963 both those titles featured superhero stories and gained back all the readers they had lost in 1962.

Note: Most titles would gain sales over the next few years, although frustratingly, the main publisher (DC) did not report sales for 1963 and 1964, making it hard to gauge the recovery apart from other effects.

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Blogroll Roundup

Mark Engblom has decided to call it quits for now over at Comic Coverage. I'm disappointed that so many great comics blogs have bit the dust in 2009: Dial B for Blog, the Fortress Keeper and now Comic Coverage. I'm biased, but in all honesty Mark's blog was better than Silver Age Comics.

Jacque Nodell reviews a Silver Age romance comic from Marvel: Patsy Walker #122. I love this observation:

Some may not consider Patsy Walker a romance comic, but it seems to have all the necessary requirements -- fashion, romance, and tears!

The third item being perhaps the most crucial ingredient.

Scipio is one of the best writers among comics bloggers, and this old post on the difference between Marvel and DC from 2005 is a prime example of his writing and thinking:

DC's message? You are responsible for protecting and improving yourself and society, so toughen up for that responsiblity.

Marvel's message? You better be tough, because you're going to have to suffer many things in this world that you're not responsible for and can't improve.

Both messages are completely true, of course, which is why each company does speak effectively to so many people. But, in my eyes, DC's message is designed to inspire and Marvel's message is designed to console.

Again with the Comics reviews a Mr Muscles issue from 1956.

Then it turns out that the wicked Zoo Keeper was just jealous of Mr. Muscles! He was all skinny, and Mr.Muscles was all strong, and it just made him want to turn tigers loose on one guy and try to shoot another guy!

Hey, it could happen to anybody.

Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogazine covers the War Wheel, one of the wackier inventions of the Blackhawk villains. Anybody remember the Flying Tank?

Joe Bloke has a terrific vampire story from Creepy #14 by Archie Goodwin and Neal Adams. ExCellent twist ending!

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Batman and the Aliens: 1959

We continue our look at Batman and the aliens. In 1959, the World Series was played for the first time ever west of the Mississippi, with the LA Dodgers taking the crown. That same year, the Baltimore Colts won their second consecutive NFL title behind Johnny Unitas. The #1 tune that year was Mack the Knife by Bobby Darrin, and the top-rated TV show was Gunsmoke.

In Detective #263, Batman learns of an alien who crash-landed near a Mayan village some 100 months earlier:



The alien gave the tribe a few terrific alien tools including an anti-gravity sled, but crooks have stolen it from the tribe. Batman pledges to bring the alien tools back to the Mayans, but I should note that the ending of the story leaves that up in the air.

Status: True alien, appeared in the past and later left Earth. Green and human-sized. The concept of aliens leaving technology behind that is abused by local crooks is a very standard plot, so I'll give it only one Klaatu out of five.

Detective #270 features the Creature from Planet X:



Status: True alien, green and giant-sized. Two Klaatus awarded for this one; it's nice to see an alien who's enormous, but it's also the usual "convinced by crooks that acting crooked is normal on Earth," plot.

In Batman #124, the Seeds from Space appear, but once again the "alien" in the story is a robot:



Status: Not an alien, an alien robot.

In Batman #125, Batman becomes the King of the Planet Plaxius:



Status: Extraordinarily tricky. The planet is in another dimension, and the aliens do not appear alien; rather they just dress differently. Still, they do use space ships and so I'll call them true aliens, human-sized and caucasian in color. Four Klaatus for this unusual alien race.

In Batman #128; the dynamic duo get caught up in a dragnet for an interplanetary crook:

Status: True aliens; two different varieties; one orange-skinned and the other purple-red in color, with both human sized. Two Klaatus.

As you can see, the aliens were nowhere near as common in 1959 as they would become later:

Detective #263: True alien, green and human-sized
Detective #270: True alien, green and giant-sized
Batman #124: Not a true alien, robot
Batman #125: True aliens, caucasian and human-sized
Batman #128: True aliens (two separate species), orange and human-sized and purple-red and human sized.

Totals: Four stories involving true aliens, one story with an alien robot

1960:

Batman #130: Fake aliens
Batman #132: Fake aliens
Batman #136: True aliens, yellow and human-sized
Detective #277: True alien, orange and human-sized
Detective #279: Not a true alien, rather alien robot and alien beast
Detective #282: True aliens (two races): one orange and one green, both human-sized
Detective #283: True alien, white and human-sized

Overall for the year: Four stories with true aliens, one with an alien robot and an alien beast, and two stories with fake aliens.

1961:

Batman #137: True alien, white and human-sized and true aliens, yellow and human-sized (two separate stories).
Batman #140: Superman appearance; not counted in the tabulation, and true aliens, green and human-sized.
Batman #142: True alien, orange and human-sized.
Batman #143: Not a true alien, an alien beast.
Batman #144: True aliens, yellow and human-sized.
Detective #287: True aliens, one white and the other yellow, both slightly smaller than humans.
Detective #291: Not a true alien, an alien beast.
Detective #292: Superman cameo, not counted in the tabulation.
Detective #293: True aliens, pink and oversized.
Detective #295: True aliens, yellow and human-sized.

So in total we have 8 stories with true aliens (counting both stories in Batman #137), two stories with alien beasts and two Superman stories.

1962:

Detective #299: True aliens, several, green or white, human-sized.
Detective #303: Fake aliens.
Batman #148: True aliens, green and human-sized
Detective #305: True alien, orange and human-sized
Batman #152: Fake alien.

Three real aliens, two fake aliens.

1963-1964:

Batman #153: True aliens, green.
Batman #153: True aliens, multi-colored.
Batman #156: Fake alien (dream sequence)
Detective #320: No alien visible but implied.
Batman #160: Fake Alien

Two real aliens, two fake, one not seen.

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