Gorilla Daze

During the events of the aforementioned Superman #307, Clark is accosted by a flame-haired young lady called Terri. Now, I’ve not seen her before so I don’t know if she was a regular character at this point in the Superman comics. I find it amusing, though, that the self-confessed “TV star groupie” finds that hunk of a man Clark “yummy!” much to the consternation of Lois.

Seriously, there’s much for the gutter-brained to read into this little exchange. Ooh, Gerry, surely you’re teasing us…

©2008 DC Comics

Superman #307, January 1977

Yep, in this Neal Adams drawn cover young Linda Danvers has only gone and dropped the bottled city of Kandor! Gone, smashed into a gazillion pieces!

This was a rather wild issue, one of the last before DC revealed the brand new DC bullet logo the following month. Written by Gerry Conway and pencilled by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, it mostly concerns the Man of Steel going up against a brand new super-villain called the Protector. The Protector… er… protects, naturally enough. No surprises there. No, the surprise comes when you learn that the Protector’s raison d’etre is to protect pollution!

Yep, got an oil spill you don’t want cleaned up? The Protector is your man.

Well, I said it was wild.

It gets even wilder later on when Superman declares war on polluters everywhere because he doesn’t want Earth to end up like Krypton. He then goes on an one-man crusade to rid the world of supertankers.

Then, things get wilder still: Supergirl reveals that Superman’s crusade is all for nought as he doesn’t actually come from Krypton after all! No, he, and Supergirl, are actually mutants!!? Well, y’know, Marvel was hitting it big with mutants at the time in the revived all-new X-Men, so why not have the world’s first super-hero also turn out to be homo superior? To bring home her point most forcefully, Supergirl proceeds to smash Kandor, revealing it to be nothing more than a plastic model.

The tale is “to be continued”, so I’m guessing things might not be all they seem…

Inks here are by Frank Springer and I can’t say he’s a good fit for Garcia-Lopez. Put him over Frank Robbins and it’s a match made in heaven. Over Garcia-Lopez? Not so much.

©2008 DC Comics

A dazzling example of the DC alphabet. Gosh, it’s just like watching an episode of Sesame Street, isn’t it? While I have a full set of Creeper, I’m not familiar with Anthro. Written and drawn by a certain Howie Post, it’s one of those things on my list of things to buy. I picked up a few issues of Bomba at the recent Bristol convention and it turned out to be a remarkably fun comic. Drawn by Jack Sparling it’s a joy to behold, and features the adventures of a sort of teenage Tarzan-type character. The stories are typically bonkers, but Sparling uses some innovative layouts to keep things moving swiftly along.

©2008 DC Comics

Many moons ago (HERE in fact) I took a look at the first issue of Brother Power, The Geek, and one of these days I really must get around to reviewing the second and final issue of this… ahem… magnificent folly. Joe Simon’s finest hour it was not.

Anyway, here’s the house ad for that initial outing of comicdom’s very first perambulating — not to mention freedom-fighting liberal — shop dummy. Totally bonkers!

©2008 DC Comics

DC solicited a rather nifty new trade paperback in the latest Diamond Previews catalogue. DC Comics Goes Ape collects a bunch of tales featuring those beasts of a simian persuasion. Includes: Superboy #76, Flash #127 (more here), Detective Comics #339 and #482, Hawkman #16, Wonder Woman #170 (more here), Strange Adventures #201, Super Friends #30, and Flash (Vol 2) #151.

A great, reasonably-priced opportunity to own all these, ahem, classic tales, or have them all in the same place for easy reference. Generally pretty silly, DC’s gorilla stories are always good fun — and really once you’ve seen Wonder Woman transformed into a gorilla by a love-sick alien ape, you’ll be hooked for life!

Cover art by the ever wondrous Art Adams.

©2008 DC Comics

DC breaks bold new ground, and anticipates the Manga revolution some twenty years early in this Japanese-themed advert from 1968. My fluency in written — and, let’s be honest, spoken — Japanese is sorely lacking, so I have no idea if the provided translation is actually correct.

©2008 DC Comics

Tales of the Unexpected #92, January 1965

Just came across this cover yesterday and it made me laugh. “Captive of the Giant Raindrops!” I realise DC was desperate to find new threats for its horror and mystery titles, but raindrops?! What kind of wacked out imagination..? etc. Note too that the drops themselves appear to be hollow: those captured don’t look like they’re drowning — or maybe they are, and it’s just really badly drawn. Whatever, Gene Kelly sure as heck wouldn’t go singing in this rain!

You can see from the strap line that there also seems to have been a regular slot featuring something called “The Green Glob” — now that’s gotta be worth investigating further!

©2008 DC Comics

Hey — truly were the late 60s the golden age of the DC house ad. A gem of a full page ad here (for Strange Adventures #213, if you’re interested) advertising the somewhat unique Deadman. Unique cos, you know, he’s, like, dead, man….

Created by Arnold Drake and the soon to be retired Carmine Infantino, Deadman was Boston Brand, a circus performer shot dead by a man with a hook for a hand. Not allowing his having sloughed off this mortal coil to slow him down, Brand becomes Deadman with the power to take control of living bodies in order to track down his killer. A decidedly odd character, and one difficult to imagine being created prior to 1967. Neal Adams arrived on pencil chores very quickly — and it’s mostly his art and storytelling for which the series is most fondly remembered.

Art by Neal Adams.

©2008 DC Comics

From 1968, DC telling us readers that we are in control of their output. Apparently we were asking for loads of reprints… Hmmm.

That DC Special (it’s #1, for the curious) was quite fun, actually. A kind of tribute to Carmine Infantino, who had just ‘retired’ from penciling in order to take up his role as Editorial Director — a position that would eventually evolve into Publisher a couple of years later. Anyway, while Infantino provided layouts for most of DC’s covers from this time until the mid-70s, it was rare to see an actual penciled piece by him: the DC Special cover is one of the few.

Note too it also has an appearance from Detective Chimp, a real favourite of Infantino’s.

©2008 DC Comics

Here you go, Rob!, just for you: a forthcoming collection of Kirby’s Demon #1-16. Not one of my favourite kirby series, but the King did some sterling work on it — and, of course, Etrigan remains a major force in the DC universe to this day.

A bright yellow demon in a red costume and pixie boots who spouts poetry; who could ask for more, eh?