#290. Goldie Comics:#01 Buz Sawer in Who Dunit

Many of us get acquainted with Buz Swayer through Indrajal comics. Did you read this one?

Another rare presentation by Ajnaabi. Enjoy!

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Superboy #123

As I have mentioned in the past, if DC had two top stars prior to the arrival of the Batman TV series in 1966, they were Superman and Superboy. Superboy held down two series in that era; his self-titled magazine and Adventure Comics, much as Superman and Batman had their own series and Action Comics and Detective Comics respectively.

But really there was no comparison between Superboy and Batman. Superboy regularly outsold Batman by about 150,000-200,000 copies per issue, as did Adventure over Detective. Of course, the way things developed Batman became a huge star, and Superboy (at least, Kal El) mostly faded away in the comics, possibly because DC's ownership of the character is tenuous at best.

This particular issue was (briefly) the oldest comic in my collection. As I have mentioned I first really started collecting comics in 1968, although I had a few issues left over from the start of Batmania in 1966.

The opening story is An Untold Tale of Superboy, called There Is No Superboy. The tale takes place in that brief period of time after Superboy's existence was known to the people of Smallville, but not the world at large. He travels to the nearby (but old western) town of Gulchdale, where the local sheriff needs some assistance. As it turns out, some outlaws from other states have taken up residence there, but the sheriff is frustrated in his attempts to run them in because:

The humor in the piece comes because the local residents have never heard of Superboy, so they do as crooks would in the Golden Age with Superman:

As it turns out, Superboy is cooperating with the sheriff to get a total of 25 prisoners in jail, because the governor of the state has promised a new jail if he can get that number. And although the crooks had not broken the law against attempted murder (because Superboy was invulnerable), they had violated many other ordinances:


Comments: Entertaining tale playing on the unknown Superboy, which arguably makes it a very early story in the Superman chronicles. Of course, Superboy is played as a teenager, which conflicts with many Silver and Golden Age Superboy tales where he was show as an early adolescent at the oldest.

The second story features Ronnie Vayle, in When Krypto Was Sold. We learn that Vayle's money doesn't buy him friendship:

But it buys just about everything else, from his imported cloth jacket to his 25-jewel watch. So Clark and Krypto decide to teach him a lesson. Clark shows off his amazing pet:

Which Ronnie, needing the best in everything, offers to pay $100 for. Krypto starts giving him lessons:

Which cures him of his habit of driving too fast. And when he brags about how brave his dog is, Krypto pulls him in front of some chained elephants:

Krypto uses a sound amplifier to let Ronnie know what other people think of him: spoiled and conceited. And he resolves to change his ways:

And, thanks to the sound amplifier, he hears some crooks breaking into Smallville High to steal the school athletic fund. He tries to stop them but they knock him out, and Superboy and Krypto foil the robbery, but let Ronnie take the credit:

And in the end he gives "Spot" back to Clark, showing that he has indeed learned his lesson.

Comments: A nice little morality play; there were quite a few stories about rich brats being brought down a peg in the Superboy canon. I particularly liked that Krypto got to be the agent of change in this story.

The final story in the issue is the cover feature, and it's definitely a wild tale. It starts back in Egypt, with the weakling son of the local magician, and his gal pal, Neferti, daughter of the Pharaoh. Ahton, the mage, consults the goddess of magic, who reveals a secret in her magic shield:

She tells him how to mix up a potion that will give him the powers of Superboy, and before you know it, Ahton's son is flying around in a Superboy costume (with the S remade as a snake). And Neferti starts acting like Lana Lang:

She consults with a rival magician as to how to get Ahton's son to fall in love with her. He gives her a magical scarab, which will doom the lad:

They both die. Ahton inscribes a warning to the Superboy of the future on their tomb, but is unable to complete his message.

Fast forward to the present day, where Clark and Lana are working on an archaeological dig for Professor Lang. They uncover the tomb shown on the cover:

Superboy finds himself subconsciously endangering Lana, and every time he saves her he gets a pain in his heart.

Lana translates the hieroglyphics and realizes she's in danger. Meanwhile, Superboy consults the shield and finds out the real truth:

Comments: Entertaining, but wacky as heck. The death of Seth and Neferti comes as something of a surprise, especially as there is no indication in the text that the rival magician paid for his part in their passing. Of course, Neferti was probably named after Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, who (by some theories) was the mother of King Tut. The art on all the first two stories was done by longtime Superboy artist George Papp, with Curt Swan on the finale. The writers were (respectively) E. Nelson Bridwell, Edmond Hamilton and Leo Dorfman.

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Trivia Quiz #38: Questions

This one was done Jeopardy-style with me giving the answers and the respondents supposed to come up with the questions.

1. The Hulk, Captain America and Captain Marvel.

What three characters had Rick Jones as a sidekick in the 1960s?

2. Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman.

The trick to this one is remembering that there was only one Captain Marvel during the Silver Age, and he was the "man of the Kree", not the Big Red Cheese. The question is, "What two superheroes of the Silver Age wore bracelets?

3. Superman, Thor and the Vision.

What three heroes could survive in outer space without a helmet or spacesuit?

4. Quicksilver, Johnny Quick and Dr Fate (among others).

What three heroes could fly? This was a significant difference between Quicksilver and the Flash, as Pietro discovered that by kicking his feet back and forth rapidly, he was capable of flight.

5. 25 trillion miles.

What is the distance from Earth to Rann?


Michael Sensei got #1 right. Lito S also answered #1. Jim Houston got #1, #2 and #5. Michael Rebain also picked up #5, as did Jim. Aaron Bias got #1 right. Blaze answered #1 and #5.

I'm tempted to congratulate myself for stumping you folks on #3 and #4, but looking back I think those two answers were a little too vague.

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Saturday Linkage

Bill Jourdain has another entertaining podcast up, this one discussing the Plot Against Christmas, a Golden Age Captain Marvel tale. If you've never listened to any of Bill's podcasts, I actually envy you, because you have hours and hours of listening pleasure ahead of you.

Bill also puts out a call for support for the Vintage DC Comics Calendar. I reviewed that calendar a few months ago, and loved it. There's one hanging in my breakfast nook right now.



Review the calendar over there to help out the folks at Asgaard Press.

Another new blog for the blogroll! Black 'N' White and Red All Over is posting complete stories, this time mostly from the terrific Warren Magazines like Creepy and Eerie. Check out this Christmas tale from 1973.

Sherm Cohen has been posting some terrific old ads from comic books, showing all the wondrous things that products advertised in comics could do. Columbia Bikes could outrun Roman soldiers and lions! And if you have US Bike Tires on the bicycle, you could capture a dangerous lunatic.

Karl at the House of Cobwebs has a very weird British "romance" comic to discuss. I thoroughly enjoyed his dissection of Mirabelle. Here's a panel to whet your interest:

"Continuity" in the Golden Age? Yep, as I show over at Nothing But Batman, a lot of the flashback sequences in old Batman stories really were showing scenes from earlier stories.

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Trivia Quiz #38: Grab Bag

This one's Jeopardy! Style; I'll give the answers and you must come up with the question:

1. The Hulk, Captain America and Captain Marvel.

2. Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman.

3. Superman, Thor and the Vision.

4. Quicksilver, Johnny Quick and Dr Fate (among others).

5. 25 trillion miles.

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#289: Tarzan Apornas Son - #37 Hell's Huntman - The Rally Thieves (Vidyarthi Mithram)

It contains two stories:



1.Hell's Huntman
2.The Rally Thieves

Download link:

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Rapidshare


All credits and thanks go to Aznaabi only.

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Captain Flash #3

Most casual comics fans know that almost all superhero comics began to die out in the late 1940s. Then the movie skips forward to 1956, when Julius Schwartz, Bob Kanigher, John Broome and Carmine Infantino collaborated on Showcase #4, bringing back a Golden Age hero with a new name, and a new uniform.

But in fact, there were several attempts to launch (or relaunch) superheroes in the mid-1950s. Marvel (then known as Atlas) had three tryout issues of Young Men Comics featuring the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner and Captain America in 1953-1954. Charlton dusted off the Blue Beetle in 1950 and 1955. And Sterling Comics, a short-lived publisher, attempted a new hero called Captain Flash in 1954-1955.

Captain Flash was actually Professor Keith Spencer. When he clapped his hands together, he would set off a small atomic explosion in his body, giving him super-speed, strength and invulnerability.

As others have noted, the series has a Silver Age feel about it, perhaps because it was drawn by Mike Sekowsky, who went on to illustrate the Justice League of America among other features. Captain Flash had the inevitable youthful sidekick, named Ricky, who does not appear to have superpowers himself, and who (of course) is not his own son.

The opening story concerns "Muscles" a strong-man type who appears to have superpowers of his own:

Captain Flash interferes with the robbery of a train, but is kayoed by Muscles (apparently his powers weaken over time and he needed an "atomic charge". Worried that the public will lose confidence in him, Captain Flash offers to box Muscles for a $1,000,000 purse. Here's the action:

Comments: A pretty dull story, and the climactic fight sequence (shown in its entirety above) is too quick and lacks drama.

The second story is the cover one. Professor Spencer goes to Africa to find out why the uranium being sent back to Atom City is substandard. While there, Ricky is poisoned when he drinks something intended for the local chieftain. There's only one cure and it's located beyond the ice mountains (in tropical Africa?). Using the sonic force of his hand clap, he destroys the ice mountains. Unfortunately a couple of dinosaurs were located behind it. We learn that Captain Flash's moral code is a little more flexible than Superman's:

He gets the cure and defeats the bad guy who was trying to poison the local chieftain, who was also responsible for the lower grade uranium.

Next up is the real highlight of the issue: Tomboy!

Terry, a local girl is disappointed that Bill Jackson doesn't seem interested in her any longer. Tomboy has supplanted her in his heart as we see here:

To add a little "ick" factor, Tomboy is actually Bill's sister (although he doesn't know that). Terry, observing how taken Bill is with Tomboy, decides to dress up as her the next day when the police (including their father, who's a lieutenant) are planning to honor the crimebuster. Of course, how she knows the real Tomboy won't show up is never explained, but as it happens Janie Jackson is dragged along by her father to the ceremony, and can't get away to change into her secret identity, so it works out for the best. But after the award is given out, a limo comes to take Tomboy away, but it's filled with gangsters looking to get revenge on her:

Fortunately Janie's managed to get away in the confusion and takes after the crooks on her motorcycle. She shows she's pretty good with her fists here:

She makes short work of the mob, and frees Terry. Now Terry and Bill both have something in common: Their admiration for Tomboy.

Comments: Although it's way too short a story, I certainly enjoyed the concept of a teenaged girl fighting crime. The only earlier example I can think of offhand is Merry, the Girl of a Thousand Gimmicks.

The final story is another Captain Flash tale. It's a convoluted plot involving an attempt to steal an atomic submarine that involves men in shark suits. Somebody forgot to tell Sekowsky that people can't speak underwater:


Comments: Dull and predictable. Overall I can see why Captain Flash did not become a big hit; the stories lack any real suspense. I did enjoy the Tomboy tale, however, mostly because of the novelty of the feature and the interesting art by Edvard Moritz (according to the GCD).

Because this issue is out of copyright, it can be downloaded from the Golden Age Comics UK site. I should mention too that the spark for this post came from a poll over at the Silver Age Gold blog about whether Captain Flash was the first Silver Age hero. Amusingly, the options were Yes, No, and Who's Captain Flash, which garnered all the votes.

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