Quick Thinking, Boy Blunder!

Heheh, I was looking for more Batman and aliens stuff when I stumbled across this rather amusing mistake in Detective #271. In the story, Batman discovers he's got a new ally in the war against crime:

The Crimson Knight is chosen along with Batman and Robin to guard the Liberty Train, a rolling museum displaying priceless historical documents:

But it turns out that the Crimson Knight's crimefighting was a guise to get him an opportunity to loot the Liberty Train.

When the dynamic duo burst in on the Crimson Knight, note that he has several of those priceless documents in his hand. And what does Robin do?

Which causes this:

Yes, nice going, Robin! True, it's a bit of a shame that the Declaration of Independence and a couple other priceless documents got a little wet there, but hey, at least you busted that phony Crimson Knight.

Incidentally, this story also features Batman's electronic crime file:

The electronic crime file was the subject of a recent post over at I Believe in Bat-Mite. I talked about that same story a long time ago in my post on Batman 1956.

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Golden Age In the Silver Age: Showcase #55

The DC Silver Age was marked by the emergence of new characters based on old characters, but with significant changes. Jay Garrick was no longer the Flash, Green Lantern's power ring didn't work against yellow instead of wood, Hawkman was a lawman from the stars, and the Atom could actually change his size.

This must have been somewhat frustrating for fans of the Golden Age. True, there started the Silver/Golden Age crossovers between the two Flashes and the two GLs, and the Justice League/Justice Society annual stories provided some real Golden Age action. But Julius Schwartz had to this point avoided bringing back the GA characters in a separate book, solely dedicated to them.

This issue changed all that. Schwartz enlisted the talents of Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson for this issue, featuring the return of one of the more famous Golden Age villains, Solomon Grundy.

In the story we learn that Solomon Grundy had more or less spontaneously arisen from decaying vegetation in a swamp, that he'd led a criminal gang on a rampage across the country, but that the Golden Age Green Lantern (Alan Scott) had sent him away in a green bubble to outer space. Now he has returned. Can Hourman and Doctor Fate stop him on his mission of revenge against GL?

Doctor Fate's crystal ball alerts him to the presence of Grundy on Earth. Hourman (Rex Tyler) also finds out:



Why do I get the feeling that Rex's chemical company became a Superfund cleanup site in the 1980s?

Tyler swallows his Miraclo pill and becomes super-powered for one hour. Thus begins one of the annoying parts of the story; every time there's a panel featuring Hourman, we also have to have a clock telling us the current time. Not the information that's useful (like how many minutes are left on Hourman's hour of power), but the present time.

Obviously part of bringing back Solomon Grundy was to appeal to Hulk fans. But I confess, the "Hulk smash!" bit was a little tame compared to this:



As you can see, Dr Fate arrives as well, and the three of them battle it out for a bit. But Grundy wins and so he goes into Gotham City in search of Green Lantern. GL shows up and Solly kayos him with a bunch of wood. And when Doctor Fate and Hourman arrive, they turn against each other:



But unlike a Marvel slugfest of the period, where we'd see the skills of one hero against the talents of another, this is just a brief diversion. It turns out that they knock each other out, and they realize that there's some odd interference between Hourman's Miraclo pills and Dr Fate's magic.

Meanwhile, Grundy has encountered his old gang, giving him the chance to explain how he got free of the alien world where Green Lantern had left him. A comet happened by and swept his green cage into space with him in it. By holding the sides, he was able to guide the bubble to Earth, where it smashed.

Grundy helps out his old gang by smashing a few stores open so they can rob them, then continues back to the radioactive swamp with GL. The radiation works a change on Alan Scott:



But Dr Fate is able to change him back and in the end, he and Green Lantern team up to seal Solomon Grundy in a part-power ring, part-magic bubble that they place in orbit around the Earth.

Comments: This story has all the elements of a classic: great artist, talented writer, teamup of heroes and a classic villain. And yet it falls flat. Anderson appears to be mimicking the Golden Age style (especially on the inks), but the effect is to make it look old-fashioned. The story is dull as dishwater, and the conflict between Dr Fate's magic and the Miraclo pills appears to be padding to make the story last a little longer.

Update: For a different take on Showcase #55, check out M. Hamilton's post at the Comics Bin.

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Tracers: Batman and Superman in the JLA

Julius Schwartz tells a famous anecdote in Man of Two Worlds, his autobiography, about how in the early days of the Justice League of America, Mort Weisinger and Jack Schiff refused him permission to use Superman and Batman in their stories, and especially on the covers. They were reportedly worried about overexposure of their characters. As Schwartz tells it, he was getting congratulated by Jack Liebowitz on the success of the JLA when Liebowitz, DC's publisher, asked him why he didn't use Superman or Batman in his stories. When Schwartz explained, Liebowitz exploded with anger that Weisinger and Schiff didn't own the characters, DC did, and that he now had permission to incorporate them into the JLA stories, which Julie did with alacrity.

The first part of the story certainly fits; although Batman and Superman had cameos at the end of the JLA intro story in Brave & Bold #28, they were not featured on the cover, and indeed did not appear on a JLA cover until #10:



Okay, so here we go; JLA #10, Mr Liebowitz gives him the nod, and Schwartz responds with a cover featuring Batman and Superman, end of story, beginning of Dark Knight and Son of Krypton in JLA, right?

Uh, no. Superman and Batman next appeared on the cover of JLA #19, and there, they were used as bookends for the rest of the League:



After that, Batman and Superman popped up on #21, but neither of them appeared on the cover of #20, #22, #23, or #24. At that point the series did change quite substantially, featuring Batman and Superman very prominently on almost every cover.

So it would appear that Schwartz got his permission from Liebowitz around the time that JLA #25 was being planned; prior to that Batman and Superman had appeared on only three covers; after that, they were generally featured prominently on virtually every cover, and of course around the same time (as JLA #27 was published) Schwartz took over the editorship of Batman and Detective Comics.

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#250. Two living legends: Govind Brahmania & Aabid Surbi

Today is the 63rd Independence Day of Hindustan (India) & 250th post of this blog.

Do you know what ‘Hindustan’ means?
No??? Ok. let me tell you.

H-> Humble
I-> Ideal
N-> Neighbor
D-> Dynamic
U-> Ultimate
S-> Super
T-> Talented
A-> Able
N-> Nation

Instead of comics, this time sharing some rare things with all.

Two living legends related with Indrajal Comics:

• Govind Brahmania: The man is who not only created logo of Indrajal, several Indrajal covers which are considered the best, but was the first illustrator of Bahadur. I never find his photo at net before, hoping many fans would be happier to see this legendary person.






• Aabid Surbi , the creator of Bahadur:

He is not only an national award winner painter, writer, but likes meditation & helping. Read this article. Heartily wish & support Aabid ji in his restarting planning of Bahadur. Hoping all hurdles he’ll come over and we’ll be able to get physical reprinted old Bahadur and new stories.

For photos and autograph, special thanks to Alok (in pictures he is with both legends) & his team who are making a documentary firm at Indian comics (expected time length 240 minutes). Alok has not only collected autograph of Aabid ji for me & Ramanan, but with happiness allowed to publish photos first time at net through this blog, has not posted at his own blog. So, especially added watermark to respect their hard work and friendly attitude.

For more details, wait Alok’s documentary film. I'll inform release date.

Who wishes to read a new all pages version of the first Bahadur Comics (1 December, 1976) in Hindi, visit Here.

P.S. This link contains all these photos, autograph and comic in Hindi.

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#249. TV Tornado 22

A unique book & comics which contains lot of famous comics' heroes like Phantom, Flash Gordon, Batman, superman, Tarzan in one issue.


TV Tornado 22 City Magazines (UK)



All credits to unknown Scanner & original Uploader only.

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#248. TV Tornado 20

A unique book & comics which contains lot of famous comics' heroes like Phantom, Flash Gordon, Batman, superman, Tarzan in one issue.


TV Tornado 20 City Magazines (UK)



All credits to unknown Scanner & original Uploader only.

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#247. TV Tornado 12

A unique book & comics which contains lot of famous comics' heroes like Phantom, Flash Gordon, Batman, superman, Tarzan in one issue.


TV Tornado 12 City Magazines (UK)



All credits to unknown Scanner & original Uploader only.

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