A SuperStuff Summer Special - Stingray, TV21 and a free gift

 Lazing in the sun with only Mrs B., tolerant son and an iPhone for company, options for coming up with SuperStuff blog entries are a bit limited.

Back in 1965 I would also have had a copy of the TV21 Summer special for company. 

Copyright whoever holds it

That particular issue has long since disappeared, but the free Stingray “WASP” badge has survived down the years, stuck to the side of a mahogany money-box made by my Dad in the 1930s.

When I first got the free sticker, I attached it to the front of a steam-engine driver’s cap that my Dad gave me, and then subsequently I adorned the money-box with it.

Should I ease the sticker from the money-box and put it up for sale on eBay? 

Batman trading card stories #3: Yikes! Spikes! (And not Sugar and Spike)

© Heritage Auctions and DC comics - original painting of "Black Bat" Batman Card #17

Being Batman Day 2021, let’s turn our attention to one of the nastiest of death traps. Spikes!

Well, ol’ Bats does seem to be in a bit of a predicament in this one, doesn’t he? Even if the machinery must be incredibly complex to close in around him from four sides AND the top! Take a look closely at his eyes and you’ll see he’s a bit concerned! Only very infrequently do we see Bats’ eyes in the mask.

The image above is of the actual painting of Black Bat trading card #17 “Spikes of Death”. You’ll notice that the actual card as printed (see below) has removed the dots for Batman’s eyes before publication.

© DC Comics, Topps Cards

So what inspired this image? Well, as we’ve established in previous blogs, layout penciller Bob Powell and artist Norm Saunders had been provided with no “bible” for the upcoming Adam West TV show, nor view of advance episodes, so we have to look back to the pulps, to the 1943 Batman serial, and to a 1950’s Batman story published in Worlds Finest to determine where the inspiration for the painting came from.

The idea of a hero trapped between slowly closing walls has been a trope for many years in books and films. To then “up the ante” by adding spikes to the walls brings an extra level of sadism to what is definitively a torture chamber death trap.

Of course, the original idea came from the infamous medieval torture device, the Iron Maiden - a sarcophagus lined with metal spikes designed to first torture the unhappy victim before causing painful death.

The lurid pulps in the 1930s were not slow to get in on the act, with Dime Detective pulp from July 1933 being one of the earliest American crime magazines to display the Iron Maiden in action on its front cover.

A few years later Thrilling Mystery - the Fiend of Sleepy Hollow Vol II #1 Feb 1936 adapted the Iron Maiden concept for a particularly grisly cover painted by Ralph Desoto of a girl about to be impaled on a movable spiked wall.

But it wasn’t until 1943 that the first instance of Batman trapped between spikes attached to a moving wall occurred in the first Batman movie serial staring Lewis Wilson, a film serial responsible for many innovations which found their way into the canon of the Batman comics.

© Columbia Pictures 1943. Batman Serial

EC comics took up the spike theme in their Vault of Horror Vol 1 #13 (June 1950?) story Island of Death, where dogs fall into a pit lined with spikes.

If was a further three years later that the comic-book Batman finally encountered the spiked wall-menace on the printed page in Worlds Finest #62 (Jan-Feb 1953) "Sir Batman and The Black Knight" - where we find Batman &Robin trapped between walls of spikes.

In this story, Batman and Robin take on the guise of Medieval Knights to pursue the Black Rogue at Unqua Castle, north of Gotham City, a chateau in medieval style once owned by a rich millionaire and now abandoned.

In a surreal story by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang, our heroes (kitted our in armour), scale the castle, but find themselves in the spiky room. Only their quick wits, climbing abilities and a handy roof beam enable them to survive.

In April 1954,  Sprang/Finger concocted “The Testing of Batman” in Batman #83 , as Batman & Robin undergo rigorous endurance tests, of which one is running on a conveyor belt away from huge spikes! 

Once the Comics Code Authority cracked down on comics’ depiction of cruel and unusual situations in Feb 1955, that was the end of spiky threats in DC’s 4-colour magazines.

The British Avengers TV series of 1965 delved into medieval torture themes with an Iron Maiden serving as a secret entrance in the episode Castle De’ath, and walls with spikes shortly returned in the 1966 Batman TV episode “The Purrfect Crime” , which obviously owes a debt in staging to the original 1943 Batman TV serial. In this case, Batman finds the spikes are made of soft rubber, and the room is a decoy trap for Batman (the real trap subsequently being a man-eating tiger).

© DC Comics and Greenway Productions

Five years later, the Iron Maiden made its return to DC comics in Mr Miracle #4 (Sept/Oct 1971) as the death trap on a ghoulish front cover. The scene is repeated in the story within. (Mr Miracle escapes by the use of an acid spray to disintegrate the back of the sarcophagus).

© DC Comics

More recently the threat of a pit with spikes was to be found in the opening scenes of the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Indiana Jones subsequently finds himself trapped in a room with spikes protruding from a descending ceiling in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).

I’m sure there are other instances out there, but from the perspective of the Batman trading card, I think it is safe to say that Bob Powell and Norman Saunders were inspired by the 1943 Batman serial and the pre-CCA code World’s Finest #62.

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[Random Observation #1: the eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed the similarity between the endings of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and Batman “The Perfect Crime” in that in each case the female villain falls into a crevasse in the ground, and is holding on with one hand while straining to reach out either to the Holy Grail or the treasure. In both cases, the women fall to their supposed demise because their greed outweighs their survival instinct, despite the best efforts and exhortations of our heroes.]

Random Observation #2: the chivalric characters adopted by Batman and Robin in the 1953 World’s Finest tale probably contributed to the inspiration for Knight & Squire by Grant Morrison.

Swipe! Sketch-a-graph and the New Gods

Original Sketch-a-Graph

Going through boxes in the basement the other day I came across my old Sketch-a-Graph - a coathanger-sized device that enabled one with modest artistic skills to reproduce a drawing by the use of a felt-tipped pen (or biro or pencil) and a drawing pin (thumb tack). Said reproduction would either be larger or smaller depending upon the placement of the pen and the tracing stylus. 

I’m pretty sure that everyone in my class of 12-year olds at school were required to have one for Geography homework. Very handy for tracing the Isle of Wight or South America without breaching Ordinance Survey copyright no doubt. But also very handy for converting favourite comic panels into larger posters, or simply making swipes that could be used in fanzines (like our original SuperStuff issues).

Not many of my original swipes survive. I did a couple from Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 which I inked in black India ink which ended up in an issue of Alan Austin’s Comics Unlimited sometime around 1975, and earlier in April 1974 I swiped four panels from Jack Kirby’s “New Gods #6”, one of which is included below. (The others are back at home and unaccessible from my sun-bed). My knowledge of copyright at age 15 was a bit hazy, so the “Thanks to Jack Kirby” tag line should more accurately have read “Swiped from Jack Kirby”.

Orion © DC. 

In those days when photocopying was expensive and photo-copy paper was shiny I either relied on the Sketch-a-Graph or on projecting photographed slide transparencies of my comic covers onto the reverse side of large piece of unused wallpaper to create custom poster artwork for my bedroom.

My pal Geoff Cousins had (and still has) a far better aptitude than me for original artwork and graphic design, but I felt pretty pleased with my efforts back in the Bronze Age. 

Today I went back and took a look at the source comic - New Gods #6 “The Glory Boat” - and the entire comic really is an awesome example of Kirby at the peak of his abilities. Such power in the imagery. This was the early days of Mike Royer inking Kirby, when his brush work seemed closer to that of Vince Colletta than it subsequently became.

But what a cover! What a splash page! And Kirby was great at drawing ugly faces contorted in horror.

© DC Comics. One of the comic panels I swiped

© DC Comics. New Gods #6

Original Kirby panel. © DC. One of the other images I swiped.

I believe I only ever did swipes of Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, The Shadow and Orion which probably reflects my tastes in artists - Adams, Kaluta and Kirby - as much as anything.

What did you do, SuperStuff readers? Still have that Sketch-a-Graph?

Star Trek TMP Remastered in 4K - High Hopes

 

 Copyright Marvel and Paramount Pictures

As a long time Star Trek fan, the Bronze Age was a great time to be alive. In that period between the original series / animated series, and the debut of Star Trek The Motion Picture in 1979, the thought of Star Trek on the big screen was a fantastic dream. I would take photos from TV, even use my Dad’s 8mm cine camera, as a way of capturing the magic of the original show. This would have been prior to the appearance of the Philips 1500 video recorder around 1976. My pals Nigel and Geoff were avid members of Ross Carter’s local Star Trek Information Group (STIG), eager for information on what was happening at Paramount.

Like many, we were so disillusioned by Star Trek The Motion Picture when it debuted in London. The film was so slow and unlike the TV series we loved. The story of rushed production is well known. But the journey of the Enterprise within V’Ger has grandeur and massive scale, as does Spock’s attempt to mind meld with the machine (despite the film makers aborting the Memory Wall sequence). 

With the release this week of a brief clip of the Enterprise inside V’Ger I harbour high hopes (no doubt which will be dashed) that the current remastering and re-creation of the Director’s Cut for 4K will build upon that improved cut of the film, and perhaps even improve upon those sequences inside V’Ger.

But for me the litmus test of improvement (slight for many) will be that they digitally correct the colour of the shoulder flashes of Spock and McCoy in the tag scene of the film. The scene starts with Spock wearing a red flash and McCoy with a blue flash, and the scene ends with Spock with the blue flash and McCoy with the red one. Unless there is  sequence inserted which shows them swapping jackets while Kirk emotes his pretty pompous speech, the film will still be ruined for me. ( :-) )

Copyright Paramount Pictures. Note colour of shoulder flashes

Copyright Paramount Pictures. Note colour of shoulder flashes now.

I took a quick look at the recent facsimile edition of the Marvel adaptation of the film, which brings different colours of shoulder flashes into play. No attention to continuity at all! Plus the drawing of Kirk looks more like Chris Pine than Shatner.

The Marvel comic is interesting as it includes a rendition of the original Memory Wall sequence, but I was not impressed by the quality of the artwork in rendering the cast.

Thoughts folks?

The worst Spider-Man poster ever?

 

As Mrs B and I are taking a short seaside break, SuperStuff postings may be a bit impacted, sitting here on the sun lounger. However, I came across this black and white photo I took back in 1973/74 of a Spider-Man poster that presumably was a free gift from a Marvel weekly or FOOM? At the time I must have thought it was pretty cool, but now I think it must be the worst Spider-Man poster ever produced.

Apologies for the dim image , but I’m sure it may ring a few bells? Any thoughts on where it came from? Anyone still have it on the back of their bedroom door?

***** UPDATE Sept 14th *****

Thanks to Kid for more background on the poster, to be found over at his blog at https://kidr77.blogspot.com/2020/01/poster-puzzle-finally-solved.html 

How did you list your comics? by Ian Baker

Spiderman © Marvel. Book © Ian E Baker

One of the few artifacts that I have kept from my teenage days are my notebooks listing all of the comics that I collected back in the 1970s. Every time I bought a comic I would assiduously document the purchase, deriving a great sense of satisfaction as I dutifully noted down the title of the lead story in each book. Documenting what I had purchased was all part of the collector instinct. As a twelve year-old I would enjoy just looking at the titles listed in the notebooks, and dreaming of the days when the gaps would be filled. 

Revisiting them now, these collection checklists contain a wealth of information that trigger memories of key comic book acquisitions. It also provides some insight into when my teenage interest in American comics waned.

Four small notebooks cover a period predominantly from my age 12 to 16 , a span of years that seemed to go on forever at the time.

I believe that my purchase of the first notebook co-incided with my Dad building a shelving unit for me to stack my comics in separate piles in an alcove in my bedroom (they had previously been in one wobbly pile at the back of the wardrobe), and the structure and physical organization of my comic collection probably prompted me to create a ledger.

As the first book filled up, I bought a second, and then a third, to document my collection as the number of titles I collected grew, and I started to squeeze each comic into a plastic bag from a roll of bags bought from Long's in Albert Rd, Southsea. (An early attempt at comics preservation which would result in "rolled spine" at best and toxic damage from unstable plastic at worst).

Hulk and Thor © Marvel. Where did those transfers come from?

Things that jump out at me, looking at them today:

1. The notebooks were from Woolworths and very robust - “Winfield Memorandum 381” - small ledger books with nice binding and stitched pages. (Incidentally - did you know that the brand "Winfield" was the middle name of Frank Winfield Woolworth)
2. I put Marvel stickers on the covers to add some flair. (Where did these stickers come from ? Mighty World of Marvel? Spider-Man Comics Weekly?)
3. On book #2 I illuminated some of the interior pages and a back cover with rub-on Transfers/water tattoos of key Marvel characters (Where did the transfers come from?)   
4. I used the latest Dymo tape technology to add titles the book covers. (Remember the Dymo? I think I still have mine.)
5. Batman #246 and Detective #428 are missing in checklist book #1 - this reflects a brief period of a dock strike (or a warehouse fire??) when DCs did not get imported into the UK for one month. Luckily I got the missing issues as import copies sometime after April 26 1973.
6. Amazing Spider-Man stopping at #120! Just before the death of Gwen Stacy! But I list the two issues that my Gran brought back from the US for me 6 months later.
7. I added tabs to the pages for ease of access (I believe these tabs were from my Dad’s work, I think).
8. A few pages of my Dad’s handwriting listing MWOM 1-19, and SMCW 1-59 for me, around Mar 30th 1974. Both of my parents were very tolerant, even supportive, of my comics collecting. They probably thought it kept me out of teenage mischief, plus they liked my two comic collecting friends Nigel Brown and Geoff Cousins very much.

Spider-Man © Marvel. Example of my Dad writing up some titles for me 37 years ago.

Checklist book #1 was probably started sometime after a holiday visit to Ventnor on the Isle of Wight in April 1972 during which I picked up twenty or thirty back issues of Batman and Detective at Mr Keen’s antiquarian bookshop in Ventnor’s Pier Street. That goldmine of comics at 2p each really kick-started my comic collection.

Reading checklist #1, at that time my collection was limited to the following titles, and pretty Batman-centric:

• Batman  (it all started with  Neal Adam’s Batman #234 “Half an Evil”)
• Brave & Bold (because Jim Aparo’s art was next best to Adams’)
• Daredevil (because he was Marvel’s “Batman”)
• Detective (‘cos Batman was in it)
• Justice League of America (‘cos of Batman, despite Dick Dillin art)
• Marvel Super Heroes (I liked the early 60s reprints)
• Marvel Tales (early 60s reprints)
• Phantom Stranger (because I was so impressed by Jim Aparo’s art from Brave & Bold #98 and the great Neal Adams cover of PS #17)
• Amazing Spider-Man (apart from Daredevil the only other Marvel hero I liked)
• Teen Titans (‘cos of Robin)
• Wanted (DC reprints)
• World’s Finest (‘cos of Batman)

I then added Marvel's Iron Man soon afterwards , and by the end of August 1972 I had expanded my collection still farther to include: 

• Amazing Adventures (because of Adams artwork on the first War of the Worlds)
• Avengers (the Adams-drawn Skull-Kree war storyline)
• Green Lantern-Green Arrow (because of Adams and I liked the new Green Arrow)
• X-Men (Adams' run)

At this point I was pretty disciplined and focused in my collecting.  This was more a byproduct of limited pocket money rather than any other reason, I suspect.

I pretty soon started running out of space to list new comics in book #1 in February 1973, so it was a trip back to Woolworth's for a second book. 

As I started checklist book #2 on April 26 1973, the impact of being able to buy mail-order back issues from Alan Austin’s Fantasy Unlimited had enabled me to start collecting old DC Batman annuals and Batman 80-page giants, and old X-Men issues. My weekly Saturday afternoon comic hunts with Nigel Brown surfaced new titles Secret Origins and Swamp Thing.

The impact of the success of the UK Marvel weeklies was now being felt, with spotty distribution of many US Marvel titles, and outright bans of importation of some titles (Spider-Man, Avengers, Iron Man all suffered this fate to some degree, and my collecting of those titles came to an abrupt stop).

With the reduction in Marvel titles in the newsagents, my collection expanded to encompass more DC titles, plus Marvel’s Conan (which despite some distribution gaps was still around). And by the end of February 1975, I had developed robust runs of 

• Conan
• House of Mystery
• The Shadow (DC and Archie)
• The Demon 
• The Creeper (back issues)

As I started checklist book #3 in March 1975, I had expanded the collection yet again to include:

• Adventure Comics (loved the Spectre stories drawn by Jim Aparo)
• Black Magic (Jack Kirby reprints)
• Batman family
• The Brute (Atlas)
• Captain America (Jack Kirby’s return)
• Destructor (Atlas)
• House of Secrets
• Joker 
• OMAC
• Our Fighting Forces (Great Kirby comic)
• Planet of Vampires(Atlas)
• Secret Society of Super Villains

By the time I started my 4th and final checklist book in February 1976, I was simply noting the issue numbers, and not bothering to record the titles. I think this was symptomatic of a waning enthusiasm for comics now that Neal Adams had left the scene, which co-incided with my increased interest in the opposite sex and 1940s pulp heroes!

Edition #4 of the checklist simply lists wanted issues of :

• First Issue Special
• Mister Miracle (back issues)
• Secrets of Haunted House
• Doc Savage (Marvel colour and B&W)
• Invaders
• Marvel Double Feature
• Tales of Suspense
• Deadly Hands of Kung Fu
• DC Showcase

I know of a few other titles that I collected but never documented:

• Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, 
• Dracula Lives! 
• Plop! 

And that was it. I kept collecting sporadically until I sold everything in the early 1980s, before a resurgent interest around 1987 with the arrival of Alan Moore and Frank Miller to revitalize the comic scene.

Looking back, my comic heroes of those years largely were bereft of super powers, and used a mix of science, detective and athletic capabilities to right wrongs. I was drawn to light horror anthologies and increasingly stories based on pulp heroes from a previous generation. And I would buy any series that featured art by Neal Adams.

I’ve always had a bit of a passion for building checklists and ordering data. Later on, in 1979, when my interest in collecting had moved on to pulps, I spent a year of my university degree working at IBM. My enthusiasm for getting into computer programming was driven by a desire to list all of my Doc Savage pulps on a computer and then be able print out the lists in various sequences.

So I have comics to thank for my career in computers and ultimately my desire to live in America where non-distributed titles were an unknown phenomena!

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If anyone can confirm where the Spider-Man sticker, or the Thor and Hulk transfers came from, please chip-in in the comments below.

[Thanks to Duncan McAlpine’s https://www.comicpriceguide.co.uk for confirming my memories of  non-distributed issues of Marvel's in the early to mid 1970s]