Link-Fest

The Beat Down has a tribute to one of the most unique villains of the Silver Age, the Composite Superman.

A nice (and timely) Captain America tribute to the first responders of 9-11 over at Bob Mitchell in the 21st Century.

Who is Galexo? Well, he's the guy who replaced Batman in the Batman comic strip back in the 1970s. And if that's as much a surprise to you as it is to me, surf over to Booksteve's and check him out.

Cartoon Snap has a longish post on the artwork of Jimmy Thompson on the Golden Age Robotman stories. Robotman was a terrific feature during the Thompson run and the post includes the complete Robotman story from Star Spangled #26.

While we're on the topic of complete stories, The Comics Bin has part 7 of the famous "Monster Society of Evil" story from Captain Marvel Adventures, which for many, many years was the longest continuing superhero story. This installment features the Nazis and Herr Hitler himself.

Still no more updates at Comic Coverage, but Mark has organized his three years of posts by topic, so you can surf through all the Monkey Business posts, for example. If you're like me, kicking yourself because you didn't go through all of Dial B for Blog before it disappeared, don't miss this opportunity!

H at the Comic Treadmill indexes the giant props of four more issues of Batman (134-137) and uncovers 10 more examples of the giant prop era.

Comics of Rhodey has a interesting post on the signature stylizations of five comics artists. It's a neat topic, and certainly nobody would disagree with his Gil Kane pick.

Tom O of Random Longbox was not finished with Superman #215 (I linked the first part last week as part of my post on Superman #175). He covers the backup story, a reprint of Superman's First Exploit. I agree with him, this is one of the best Superman stories off all time. In fact, it was, I believe, the very first story DC ever reprinted, as it was the leadoff tale in Superman Annual #1.

Sequential Crush continues her series on Marc, DC's advice for the lovelorn columnist you love to hate.

Whew! That's a lotta links! Who says this isn't the golden age of comics blogdom?

More about →

Trivia Quiz #32: New Look Batman

1. Who failed in his first effort to join the Mystery Analysts of Gotham City?

2. Who was the first person to graduate at the top of Gotham City Police Academy in all four categories of training: Academic, Physical, Firearms and Overall?

3. Who did not first re-appear in the Silver Age after a long absence during the New Look period: the Riddler, the Penguin, the Scarecrow or the Catwoman?

4. According to the Riddler, why do inmates refer to the state penitentiary as "Fiddler's Hotel"?

5. It is not uncommon for crooks to "die" at the end of a story, but what Batman villain was declared dead three times in the same story?

More about →

Single Issue Review: Justice League of America #15

As the story begins, the US is testing a "Star Wars" weapon:



Yet another example of Gardner Fox being ahead of the curve on technology. The satellite base containing the cannon in the sky is filled with reporters and military personnel including Diana (Wonder Woman) Prince and Clark (Superman) Kent. Suddenly the satellite comes under attack and the pair have to save other people. Superman observes that some strange force is yanking the atomic cannon away from its base, but he and Wonder Woman are too busy to follow it.

Barry (the Flash) Allen observes the cannon being aimed at the tallest building in Central City (the Wilmoth Skyscraper), and hurriedly changes into his fighting togs. Using his super-speed to gather up the tenants of the building he empties it before the cannon can fire:



After the cannon is fired once, Superman and Wonder Woman arrive. Although nobody seems to be operating the big gun, it fires again, and Wonder Woman diverts the missile into space with her lasso. Since they can't stop whoever's firing, they destroy the cannon itself. To solve the mystery, an emergency meeting of the Justice League is called. They learn that similar incidents are happening elsewhere:



The JLA split up into teams. Green Arrow, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter journey to Japan, where they discover a giant stone idol watching the heavens. The idol smiles when it sees an atomic missile headed for Tokyo. At first, J'onn J'onzz plans to use his super-breath to blow it out into space, but the idol reacts quickly:



Fortunately, Green Arrow is able to use his parachute arrow to get the missile to land harmlessly in Tokyo Bay. Aquaman prevents another attack on the city by an underwater stone idol. However the three of them are captured by the idols and apparently about to be killed, when suddenly the stone giants disappear.

Meanwhile, Superman, the Atom and Wonder Woman have traveled to Brasilia, where they also discover the giant idols. The weapon the giants intend to use on this city is acid rain (once again, Fox is ahead of the general public):



The Atom manages to get into the rain-maker and destroy it, but again at the end of the segment the three heroes are captured by the stone giants, who suddenly disappear.

The final JLA team consists of Green Lantern, Flash and Batman, and they head to Central City, where they find a pair of stone idols trying to destroy the local skyscrapers with an earthquake machine. Green Lantern holds up the building with hands projected from his power ring, while Batman and the Flash go after the idols:



Pretty bad perspective there; obviously Batman is supposed to be far behind the Flash, accounting for their difference in size. The giants capture both of them, but at the same time, GL destroys the earthquake machine. Once again, the idols grab all three heroes, but quickly disappear. However, they take Green Lantern's ring with them for study.

We learn that the giants are actually scientists on another Earth, one that is one minute ahead of ours. Due to an atomic explosion on Earth and a cobalt explosion on their world, the time differential between the two worlds is decreasing, and when they reach synchronicity at three separate cites (Brasilia, Tokyo and Central City):



Green Lantern has ordered his power ring to bring him, Batman and the Flash to the stone giant's world after reading their minds for five minutes:



But it turns out that the giants have sabotaged their cities so that in the event of an alien invasion, they will be destroyed. Fortunately GL realizes this in time and decides to simply fix both worlds so that they are again one minute apart (nice to have a power ring that handles this sort of complex stuff with just a thought). And in the end, the JLA realizes that the stone giants were just like them, only different:



Nice sentiments by Wonder Woman, and the call for tolerance is pretty early; this issue is cover-dated November 1962. If anybody has any idea what Snapper Carr was saying, let me know!

More about →

#258. TV Tornado 88

Are you interested in YOGA?

A very good news for yoga fans:

Dr. Krisha Raman has started a YOGA blog: mediyoga-krishna.blogspot.com.

He is a renowned medicine & yoga professional (see his profile HERE), and author of several articles & two bestsellers:

1. A Matter of Health - Integration of Yoga and Western medicine for Prevention and Cure;

2. Yoga & Medical Science : FAQ.

One can ask directly questions through his blog.

His official site: www.krishnaraman.com

P.S. Dr. Raman is the regular & most active visitor since early stage of this blog, now we are VERY VERY GOOD friends.

And now Last softcover TV Tornado #88.


TV Tornado 88 City Magazines (UK)


All credits to unknown Scanner & original Uploader only.

More about →

Magnus, Robot Fighter #22

One of the longest running dramatic comics of the Silver Age that was not published by DC or Marvel, Magnus, Robot Fighter debuted in February 1963, and lasted until issue #28, November 1969. After a two-year hiatus, Gold Key started it up again and it lasted another 17 issues before finally biting the dust in January 1977. It has been revived a few times since then, most notably by Acclaim, which published 65 issues in the 1990s.

As you can see, although this is issue #22 in the Gold Key series, it is also a reprint of the very first issue. The comic was drawn for most of its initial 28-issue run by Russ Manning, who also did a long stint on Tarzan for Gold Key and also did the Tarzan daily strip for the newspapers.

Magnus was kind of a future Tarzan himself; he had been raised apart from the human society of 4000 AD by a robot (named 1A) and trained to battle the evil robots who had arisen when mankind became too dependent on them. Magnus has two main powers: incredible strength, and the ability to intercept the robots' radio signals.

In the first story, Magnus observes a robot tearing up a book that two kids were reading, about Adolf Hitler, after they observe that the robots are becoming Hitler-like. The kids are enraged that the robot did this, and:



Some polrobs (police robots) try to arrest the kids, but Magnus intervenes:



Magnus learns that the robot behind the evil robots is the polrob chief, who orders both humans and robots to capture Magnus, or he will kill all the humans in the sector. Meanwhile, Leeja, the daughter of a Senator, decides that she too is tired of obeying robot orders:



They join forces and enter the Central Rob (police station) under the supposed control of a robot that Magnus has rewired to accept his instructions. They encounter the evil chief polrob:



Now that's pretty interesting. Neo-nazis today use the term "88" as a code for "Heil Hitler", as "H" is the 8th letter in the alphabet. Given the earlier mention of Hitler in the story, it's hard to believe that this is a coincidence. H8 reveals that he lost his inhibition against harming humans due to a radiation incident years ago.

Magnus learns that one of H8's secret weapons is a computer bank of human minds, to which H8 intends to add Magnus and Leeja. As Magnus battles H8, the human minds assist him, and when H8 has been destroyed, he frees them. However, he learns that H8 is not the only evil robot and that others have been made evil by individual humans for their own purposes.

Comments: Solid introduction to the series, with terrific art and interesting characters. Leeja is drawn, well, rather enticingly for a female character in 1963:



Then again, Gold Key was not hamstrung by the Comics Code Authority. I will have to dig up some other Magnus Robot Fighter issues and see if the quality continues at this level.

More about →

Ponytail #1

As I often mention, superheroes were only one small segment of the comics back in the Silver Age. DC, the company that started the Silver Age as the only comics company doing superheroes, dedicated only about a quarter of its output in the 1950s to the men in capes and tights, and while that increased to about half in the 1960s, that still means that the bulk of their product was non-superhero.

Dell Comics specialized in licensed products, like the Disney characters which they produced comics for for several decades. Ponytail was a comic strip that Lee Holley had started in 1960 and which had proven very popular. Ponytail Johnson is a typical, pretty but slightly ditzy teenage girl whose life revolves around high school and her boyfriend, Donald Dawson. The artwork may look somewhat familiar to those of you familiar with Dennis the Menace:



Holley had been an assistant for Hank Ketcham from 1959-1962, and he clearly learned Ketcham's loose, expressive style. In the opening story, Ponytail is thrilled when Donald compares her teeth to pearls. But shortly after she encounters a few of the girls who now have braces, and realizes that they're a new status symbol:



So she's gotta have them, perfect teeth or not. But now she's concerned about her date with Donald; will he like her with braces?



Well, as you can probably guess, Donald's gotten braces too, and when he finds out that Ponytail's metal-mouthed, he decides this indicates they're really made for each other.

In the second story, she's upset that all the girls are clamoring for Donald's attention after he sank the winning bucket in a basketball game. Her girlfriend suggests a new hairstyle, but as that would change the name of the comic book, they decide on a new perfume instead.

Because her mother's perfume bottles are all almost empty, Ponytail and her friend decide to mix them all together. At first this seems successful, as a bunch of boys start following them. But unknown to the girls, they are actually following a car that has a sign offering free baseball tickets. Then Donald starts following them, but by this time the gals are convinced that the perfume they've created is bound to make them millions. But:



In the third story, Ponytail is embarrassed by her parents casual attitude and clowning around when they have Donald over for a barbecue. Of course, Donald enjoyed himself thoroughly and when he gets home he gripes about how different it is with his parents:



So Donald's parents decide to invite the Johnsons over for a barbecue to see how casual is done. Of course, Donald is urging his parents to loosen up, while at the same time Ponytail is insisting on formal wear and no jokes. This results in some comic moments:



So the Johnsons find a pretext to scramble back home and change into less formal wear, but in the meantime, the Dawsons have dressed up. But things loosen up a bit:



And before you know it, both Ponytail and Donald have gained a new appreciation for their parents.

In the third story, Marcia Morgan (clearly a villainess) has coaxed Donald into a date after school. But she's annoyed to see that Ponytail and Donald are passing notes in school so she decides to get Ponytail in trouble. She gives her a bubble wand and fluid and Ponytail accidentally fills the air with bubbles, resulting in her being sent to the principal's office. The principal is in a hurry as the new superintendent of schools is arriving shortly, and when he hears what Ponytail did he gets the hiccups. Casting about for something to drink, he grabs the bubble fluid and chugs it down with predictable side effects. He tries to hide, but:



And when bubbles start coming out of his mouth, people assume the principal's gone mad. But Ponytail explains the bubble fluid and the superintendent is fascinated, thinking this would be a great toy for his grandchildren. When her teacher realizes this, she retracts her complaint and makes it sound like Ponytail was educating the rest of the class:



But Marcia, jealous of the attention, insists that she was the one to bring the bubble fluid to class. The principal, hearing this, assigns Marcia to detention while Ponytail goes out for pizza with Donald.

The fourth story is a short gag about Ponytail trying to attract the attention of the captain of the baseball team. She tries out a formal dress, but he ignores her. Then she sports a swimsuit, but no sale. It's time for drastic measures:



In the finale, Donald has made the mistake of scheduling a drive in the country with Marcia the same afternoon that he promised to take Ponytail to a movie. The only solution is to let the weather decide. If it's nice, Marcia gets the ride, while if it's rainy, Ponytail gets to see the new Gregory Peck movie. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Ponytail resolves to wash the car, since nothing is guaranteed to start a rainstorm like a clean car. As her father's car isn't home, she washes Donald's car, and since the engine's dirty as well, she washes that. Sure enough the rains come and she heads to Donald's for their date. But:



The inside back cover has what appear to be four of the single-panel comics from the newspaper strip. Here's my favorite:



Comments: I didn't think too much of the two opening stories, which seemed overly long for a single gag, but the later stories in the book were terrific and funny. As it happens, I'm not the only person blogging recently about Ponytail; Sherm Cohen wrote three posts about her, focusing on the sixth issue in the last few days.

More about →

Single Issue Review: Superman #175

As you can see, this is one of the famed "Imaginary" stories from the Weisinger era. Lord only knows why Lex thinks that Lois will be fooled by him wearing Clark's clothes.

The story begins in the Superboy era, with Ma Kent coming down with a cold just as the family was planning a vacation to the Caribbean. This seems a disappointment to them, but we know that during that vacation, Ma and Pa Kent would contract the illness that killed them, so secretly this is very fortunate.

Lex at this point has lost his hair, so he still despises Superboy and has a plot to discover his secret identity. He causes strange attacks on various friends of the Lad of Steel and tracks Superboy's movements. Meanwhile Pete Ross (who doesn't know Superboy's secret identity in this story) tries to save Lana from the attack, but when it's over, she only has praise for Superboy:



So now we have a pretty good idea who the villain of the story will be. Luthor's pretty sure by now that Clark Kent's Superboy, the Lad of Steel decides he must run away from home to protect his parents. Superboy announces to Lana and Pete that he's going to dedicate his time to locating Clark, and he leaves Smallville.

Lex is still suspicious, so he decides to ingratiate himself with the Kents. He takes Clark's job in the general store. Using his scientific genius, he automates things:



After dinner, the Kents decide they like Lex so much, they're going to adopt him. Lex accepts as it will make it easier to discover if Clark really is Superboy, although he does feel a little twinge of guilt. Later, when he sneaks down the stairs to search for Superboy's secret tunnel exit from the house, the Kents tell him to feel free to raid the refrigerator for a snack, and suddenly:



Superboy uses his distance vision to see that Ma Kent is still heartbroken that he left. He returns for a quick visit, but:



Since there is now no risk to his secret identity, Clark and Superboy return home. Incidentally, that scene on the cover? It turns out to be imaginary too, as it's a daydream that Lex has about how he's going to help his brother out in the future. But Pete Ross is not happy to see them, and vows revenge on Superboy for keeping Lana from returning his love.

An aside: The letters column includes this missive and response:



The anecdote about Grost is true; he pops up frequently in discussions of extremely brilliant youngsters, and Time Magazine profiled him in 1964, with the comic books prominently featured:

Michael Grost was pretty downcast. His parents had promised him ten Superman comic books if he got an A in school. Instead, he got only a B+ and five comics. But Mike's parents were delighted, for the course was Contemporary History of Europe and Asia, and the school Michigan State University. Mike is ten. As a special-status student at M.S.U. last year, the Lansing prodigy scored an A-average while amassing 38 credits in math, humanities, history and science.

Grost retained his love of comics; his web page on the classic comics of the 1950s and 1960s is here. See the end of this post for Grost's take on this story.

In the second part of the story, Lex gets an appointment as a research scientist in Metropolis, while Clark has been accepted as a reporter with the Daily Planet. Rather than break up the family, Ma and Pa Kent retire and move to Metropolis as well. The Kents play matchmaker, but Ma wants Clark to marry Lana, while Pa sees that his son prefers Lois Lane. Meanwhile Pete Ross has moved to Metropolis as well, and is still bitter that Lana prefers Superboy to him.

A crime wave starts in the city, which uses fantastic Kryptonian machines that could only have come from Superman's Fortress of Solitude. While battling the machines, Superman is affected by Green Kryptonite, and falls on Lois, nearly killing her in the process. This convinces him who he really loves:



Lana (the girl shown entering the room) realizes that she's lost, and resolves to keep Clark's secret. She marries Pete Ross on the rebound. But when she discovers the plans to the Kryptonian machines that carried out the attacks in Metropolis, she realizes her husband's a crook:



Pete plans a trap for Superman. He kidnaps Lois and uses her signal watch to summon Superman to his lair:



Lana, whom Pete has locked in their penthouse, manages to escape and get to the Kents. Lex has been working on a machine that will give him super-powers, but it's faulty. In the battle that ensues, Lex saves Superman and Pete is killed. But the victory does come with a price:



Comments: I've always enjoyed the imaginary stories, and this is no exception. The redemption of Lex seems a little incredible, and it's likely that Pete would have dropped his vendetta against Superman when he got what he wanted, Lana's hand in marriage. But aside from the weak motivations, the story works quite well, and Curt Swan's art, as always, is visually appealing.

Michael Grost's take:

Clark Kent's Brother; The Defeat of Superman; The Luthor-Superman (1965). Writer: Edmond Hamilton. Young Lex Luthor is adopted by the Kents, and becomes Superman's brother, in this book length tale. Hamilton manages to reweave the entire story of Superman's life, in this imaginary tale depicting an alternate unfolding of Superman's story. This tale is like "Superman's Other Life", in that it creates a whole alternative history for Superman, showing what his life might have been like if it had taken a very different course. It differs from many Imaginary tales in the Superman family, in that it does not present a possible future for the characters, but rather an alternative past and present. "Superman's Other Life" showed an alternative life for Superman on Krypton; here we see a reworking of Superman's life on Earth, concentrating on the non-superpowered humans he encountered in Smallville and Metropolis. This emphasis makes this one of the least sf oriented tales in Superman, just as "Superman's Other Life" was one of the most. However, both tales share a high level of imagination, looking at alternative lives for their hero. Some of the developments here involve Hamilton's personal theme of characters taking on roles and locations associated with others: for example, Lex Luthor becomes a member of the Kent family. This story is one of Hamilton's most imaginative and intricate embodiments of his role-assumption structure.

Update: See also this post at Random Longbox on another imaginary story featuring yet another hospital bedside proposal.

More about →