Viking Prince!

February 8th, 2010

Fabulous full-page ad for Joe Kubert’s Viking Prince in The Brave and the Bold #23. That was the first issue to feature just a single character, the previous ones being anthologies of various characters in the heroic mold such as Robin Hood and the Silent Knight. DC repeated the trick the following issue, and then reinvented the title as a try-out book for new super-heroes in the Showcase tradition. First came the Suicide Squad, and then Julie Schwartz’s major revival of the Golden Age Justice Society as the Justice League of America in #28.

I notice that DC is soliciting a brand new 300-page hardcover collection of Kubert’s Viking Prince stories in the current Previews catalogue. Happily, it includes the bizarre story that saw a team-up between the Viking Prince and… Sgt Rock!! I kid you not.

That’s definitely one for my order this month!

©2010 DC Comics

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Your Kind of Love..!

February 6th, 2010

Falling in Love #101, August 1968

As always with the Romance genre, it’s not as exciting as it sounds. Still, there are compensations: the Irv Novick cover highest among them. It’s a lovely job, beautifully designed, with the extreme close-up and contrasting sizes of the figures emphasizing emotional distance and heightening the drama. For once, the interiors aren’t far behind with a couple of great art jobs from John Rosenberger, and another from Mike Sekowsky.

©2010 DC Comics

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Watch for it!

February 2nd, 2010

Bizarrely, between 196 and 1963, DC published eight (count ‘em!) Superman Annuals. Obviously some new definition of the word “annual” of which we were previously unaware. They were all giant-sized, square-bound tomes packed with reprint-y goodness, often based around a particular theme. This ad (from Lois Lane #22, 1961) is for the second of these “annuals”, which featured stories of the Man of Steel’s “greatest foes”. Fairly accurate billing for Brainiac and Bizarro perhaps — however, we still await the return of the “The Thing from 40,000 AD”…

©2010 DC Comics

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Plop! #9

January 31st, 2010

Plop! #9, Jan-Feb 1975

This issue of the macabre humour comic finds our horror hosts awaiting the arrival of the kids on Halloween. Fearing the worst kind of trick, the trio offer up some stories as treats. Naturally enough, this doesn’t go down too well!

Cain recounts the cautionary tale of “The Temple of Ikka-Ka-Ka!” (written by Steve Skeates, with art by Sergio Aragones), while Eve tells of “The Killer Kind” (Jack Oleck and David Manak), wherein a scientist goes way too far in his attempts to super-evolve insects. With the kids getting restless, Abel tries “A Nose to Remember!” (Skeates, with Lee Mars) about a princess with the eponymous facial feature and a nightmarish curse.

Unimpressed, the three children wreak terrible revenge on the horror hosts. And Eve wishes she could leave the comic altogether.

Elsewhere we have the usual gag pages and fun under another Basil Wolverton cover.

©2010 DC Comics

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Hot Wheels #1

January 27th, 2010

Hot Wheels #1, March-April 1970

Based upon the cartoon series of the same name, which was in itself based upon a range of toy cars from Mattel, Hot Wheels revved up on the newsstands at the dawn of the Seventies. With scripts by Joe Gill, and art by Alex Toth and Dick Giordano, it’s certainly a lovely-looking book. The main problem is that’s it difficult for any artist to make car chases look really exciting. The static nature of the comics page works against it.

Obviously the buying public were none too impressed: Hot Wheels bit the dust after just six — albeit glorious — issues.

Cover art by Alex Toth and Dick Giordano.

©2010 DC Comics/Mattel

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DC’s Mystery Line

January 24th, 2010

An ad from an early issue of DC’s The Witching Hour trumpeting its line of mystery comics. Not that any of the titles mentioned here were particularly new — and indeed it doesn’t even mention Witching Hour — but using the word ‘new’ in an ad is always a good start, and Joe Orlando was trying to change the books’ direction. Including Challengers of the Unknown is a little off-kilter, as the book was very much on its last legs by then, and was more super-hero-lite rather than a real mystery book.

This was the sort of thing that filled up each issue of Plop! years later.

©2010 DC Comics

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The Swinger..?

January 23rd, 2010

Young Romance #170, February-March 1971

Dick Giordano was responsible for the lovely cover adorning this issue of Young Romance. He was also the editor for just this one issue, and seems to have been attempting to bring the romance genre a little more up to date. In addition, this was one of DC’s earliest giant-sized issues before the entire line made the jump later in the year. As such, it contains not one but two (count ‘em!) tales of The Swinger. Sadly, it’s not as exciting as it sounds…

The Swinger, as is helpfully pointed out on the cover, is one Lily Martin.

In the first tale, “Love is a Swinger”, Michelle becomes afraid that she’s rushing into marriage with Dick. Unfortunately, she then witnesses the profound effect that folk singer Lily Martin has on Dick. He’s suddenly a new man, who likes dancing! “I’ve a terrible feeling she’s opened that door for Dick!” frets Michelle. She decides to return Dick’s ring. Dick, however, has other ideas. He’s gotten over his infatuation with Lily, who was merely “using [him] to try to forget some terrible secret locked in her heart!”

Michelle finally gets her hands on Dick, as Lily drives away strumming her guitar. “Love is a swinging door,” she sings, “that opens into an empty room…”

The final story in the issue, “Rise, Love, Rise”, sees Lily help out a young singer hit with terrible stage fright in front of a festival crowd. We learn that Lily’s “terrible secret” was that her boyfriend died in a car accident directly after she’d told him she was leaving. She falls for the young singer, but is haunted by her past, fearful that history will eventually repeat itself, and so, as the newly confident boy takes to the stage, she fades away.

Further adventures were promised, but Lily Martin, “the tormented girl who never stops swinging between heaven and heartbreak, between ecstasy and agony,” never swung again.

©2010 DC Comics

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Comics for Every Mood

January 19th, 2010

An ad that does what it says on the tin. Proof positive, were any needed, that DC during the late 60s did, indeed, produce comics for every mood. Kiddie antics from the pen and imagination of Sheldon Mayer in Sugar & Spike; standard fare super-heroics with Superboy; bold war adventure with an edge in the Enemy Ace feature in Star-Spangled War Stories by Kubert and Kangher; and a tip-toe through 50’s sci-fi in From Beyond the Unknown.

Truly an embarrassment of riches!

I was pleased to see that DC are expanding their line of classic reprints to include some of the finest non-super-hero stuff ever: John Broome and Murphy Anderson’s Atomics Knights, and Joe Kubert’s Viking Prince.

©2010 DC Comics

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Plop! #8

January 17th, 2010

Plop! #8, November-December 1974

The 8th riotous issue of Plop! opens with out three heroes less than fondly recalling the time-travel shenanigans of #6. Their pal, the mad professor Savin, insists that he has fixed his time machine, so once again Cain, Abel and the Old Witch travel to the far future to discover how far their fame will spread. Unfortunately, this time they end up in the court of King Arthur!

To amuse the King, the trio tell the tales that make up the main body of the issue. Cain recounts the sorry story of a magician attempting to take a relaxing “Vacation!” (David Michelinie and Ramona Fradon), while Abel has in mind “A Likely Story”  (Steve Skeates and Sergio Aragones) that involves a great detective and his hunt for his most nefarious nemesis. The action involves a device that allows the user to step inside paintings. Finally, Eve, tells of a store with the unlikely slogan, “We’re Always Working for Your Wowweee!” (Skeates and Dave Manak) This sees a hapless employee’s various lunatic schemes to ellicit said “Wowweee!” from the store’s clients.

Needless to say, King Arthur is none too impressed, and orders Merlin to get rid of the pests.

The issue is rounded out with the usual gags.

The artistic highlight here is undoubtedly Ramona Fradon on “Vacation”, who provides her trademark fluid visuals and impeccable storytelling. Basil Wolverton’s cover has to be one of the oddest sights ever. That thing is intended to be his belly button, with its built in observatory lens, rather than some bizare genital construct…

©2010 DC Comics

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Kirby’s 70s FF

January 15th, 2010

As much as I love the format, I don’t think it’s difficult to see that not much effort went into putting the tabloid comics together. This is especially true of Marvel’s regular series, Marvel Treasury Edition, which mostly consists of poorly chosen reprints thrown together between cardboard covers and printed at the larger size. Only very rarely did either Marvel or DC try brand new material, and even more rarely did they attempt to fully utilise the artistic possibilities of the larger canvas presented.

We did get newly-drawn covers though, and sometimes new art for contents pages or pin-ups. The above is the back cover for Marvel Treasury Edition #11, drawn by Jack Kirby.

Kirby, of course, had co-created the Fantastic Four back in 1961. He returned to Marvel in 1975 following a disappointing stint at DC. While he was willing to take up the reins of Captain America during Bicentennial year, and later produced a Black Panther run (and a Silver Surfer graphic novel — but more on that later), he otherwise refused all offers to work on other characters that he’d co-created during the 1960s (Steve Ditko would make much the same decision when he returned to Marvel later). He did, however, consent to producing a large number of covers during this period, many of which did feature old favourites.

©2010 Marvel Characters

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