tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35691478142772138532024-03-19T05:47:34.078-05:00Super Stuff in the Bronze AgeIt was 50 Years Ago today....musings on comic collecting and Super Stuff in Portsmouth & Southsea in the fun 1970s.
Brought to you by the SuperStuff team!baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.comBlogger99125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-92095406496250344602024-03-16T10:12:00.004-05:002024-03-16T11:34:54.533-05:00Overlooked Gems - The Human Target - Action #425<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">One series I completely missed out on in 197? was the Human Target, a strip which started out as a back-up in Action Comics #423 and has run under the radar of most fans for the past fifty years, as the character has only intermittently appeared in comics and on TV.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I was not a collector of Superman or Action Comics in the 1970s, and so a particular gem of a story in <i>Action #425</i> drawn by Neal Adams completely passed me by when it turned up on UK spinner racks at the end of June 1973. I had never read the story about the Human Target until last Sunday when I found a copy in a back-issue box for $6.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnbFwTHCO4PWHFcx4mJOy3nzo4_dSnvR4c36PsFF6XRUNdxKFhEzITPFBWjdm8AMBqTAFy9jWeLxbjKG-kTPTT8ysIjfzqMsERTu5w8NYpFx8YBC7Jjqxxqkp5S99EJx0t5vjAj9-OYbNzz3tDf6EFaWUgqdWi_d8YwE03UTXibL9lstW90eTYfxNSKHo/s735/Snip20240316_1.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="502" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnbFwTHCO4PWHFcx4mJOy3nzo4_dSnvR4c36PsFF6XRUNdxKFhEzITPFBWjdm8AMBqTAFy9jWeLxbjKG-kTPTT8ysIjfzqMsERTu5w8NYpFx8YBC7Jjqxxqkp5S99EJx0t5vjAj9-OYbNzz3tDf6EFaWUgqdWi_d8YwE03UTXibL9lstW90eTYfxNSKHo/w438-h640/Snip20240316_1.png" width="438" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© DC. Action #425</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">Created by Len Wein and Carmine Infantino, the Human Target is man called Christopher Chance who places himself in harms’ way, impersonating his client to draw out and neutralize a suspected threat against the client. (There was an earlier Human Target, not to be confused with an earlier incarnation.)</span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_a2jIgn-qAq2eMUN9-fkuyuPA0NsfC5Y5x1dFxB9iwEM7WfjdZ3jNTbHZTChkRSqOC_hRFReFimc3WnWLw6CON7qpI8sC0UX8HQpCGd2CGyTxhobS5-mtI4owOSZ_TXaRKvTvXuoRMqqJNbXYhfESV_pNbKiNLzCWOejbz5R6d1xFsz7Cg000_yAKtYM/s863/Snip20240316_2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="863" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_a2jIgn-qAq2eMUN9-fkuyuPA0NsfC5Y5x1dFxB9iwEM7WfjdZ3jNTbHZTChkRSqOC_hRFReFimc3WnWLw6CON7qpI8sC0UX8HQpCGd2CGyTxhobS5-mtI4owOSZ_TXaRKvTvXuoRMqqJNbXYhfESV_pNbKiNLzCWOejbz5R6d1xFsz7Cg000_yAKtYM/w400-h259/Snip20240316_2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© DC.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The story in Action #425 is actually a Part One of …”The Short-Walk-To-Disaster Contract”… , packed into 6 pages. I do wonder why Adams took up the challenge of drawing the story, interleaved between his partial completion of Amazing Adventures #18 and the legendary Batman #251 (The Joker’s Five Way Revenge), but the story is a visual Masterclass in getting the full narrative into as few panels as possible. Take a look at page 2 where Adams manages to compress three pages worth of story into one page by having images and dialogue flow as the reader's eye tracks the action.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhObYvrjkYX3PUrodIIv3F-86Xz_PGb1wMq-rgRr8EgR347dhkiGtOVOKw_rEj_4twZZOr2-UMjiNWSIkSTyuTETtgPxOR1NZam264LsRP9lPCb1MAF0nH2ReFYfs3ykQfJRja8L00baDlqJJDpGoVxn8tQqvSOvRKf7G_ffjQAbovpsPY7PJj9XLWGA7k/s724/Snip20240316_3.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="482" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhObYvrjkYX3PUrodIIv3F-86Xz_PGb1wMq-rgRr8EgR347dhkiGtOVOKw_rEj_4twZZOr2-UMjiNWSIkSTyuTETtgPxOR1NZam264LsRP9lPCb1MAF0nH2ReFYfs3ykQfJRja8L00baDlqJJDpGoVxn8tQqvSOvRKf7G_ffjQAbovpsPY7PJj9XLWGA7k/w426-h640/Snip20240316_3.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© DC.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Reader response in the lettercol of #429 was very positive.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> Debbie Hetherington of Wallaceburg, Ontario was typical in her fullsome praise.</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8nCAQw1xSNYDzUwNe0DUJ3X4KYEGlFMWDGPg0VDEwcB1fhSWQH5FN_OcEBFlpyTOt6_XQhKJowzYYFijR90RdsjBVmhJMPQ_PZapeDks-GsSxZR5_W9ZR_VLZQmMvq-6Wh8L3o3K4YQILGy3GWSP0YEN6EvfUyq9anUMjEqoXwq6u7eFNwgWBfq6aHd8/s500/Snip20240316_4.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="436" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8nCAQw1xSNYDzUwNe0DUJ3X4KYEGlFMWDGPg0VDEwcB1fhSWQH5FN_OcEBFlpyTOt6_XQhKJowzYYFijR90RdsjBVmhJMPQ_PZapeDks-GsSxZR5_W9ZR_VLZQmMvq-6Wh8L3o3K4YQILGy3GWSP0YEN6EvfUyq9anUMjEqoXwq6u7eFNwgWBfq6aHd8/w349-h400/Snip20240316_4.png" width="349" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Unfortunately, the readers' enthusiasm for awaiting Adams to draw the concluding<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>part of the story was not rewarded. Dick Giordano pencilled and inked the conclusion to the story solo in Action #426. No explanation was given for Adams’ absence in the lettercol of #430.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">This was the only time Adams drew The Human Target. F</span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">or Adams fans this is an issue worth seeking out.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">For Human Target fans, I also very highly recommend the recent 12-part Human Target series by Tom King and Greg Smallwood, which contains stellar art on a stellar story published under the DC Black Label imprint.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTIdYLo4AmchYHHcxc6dETAoCLUfPJehxbU_UasWO_jas6esY6mPw8LaB3fg7BWLU-ulAXTwFntTRrmMWdaH2Fnp6WUZihM0EigI8gEj0ZG-KqEEVuegtfgrJr50j9azLMC7-hFv6jLmLG8859JuHWn_Qh4YRiGgzH8rSDxYunR7AnraKdjMRzy3x8Ack/s984/HMNTGT_Cv1_00111_DIGITAL_6179b33da390b6.46478692.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="984" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTIdYLo4AmchYHHcxc6dETAoCLUfPJehxbU_UasWO_jas6esY6mPw8LaB3fg7BWLU-ulAXTwFntTRrmMWdaH2Fnp6WUZihM0EigI8gEj0ZG-KqEEVuegtfgrJr50j9azLMC7-hFv6jLmLG8859JuHWn_Qh4YRiGgzH8rSDxYunR7AnraKdjMRzy3x8Ack/w416-h640/HMNTGT_Cv1_00111_DIGITAL_6179b33da390b6.46478692.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© DC Black Label</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Human Target has all the attributes for a great episodic TV series. There have been a couple of attempts in the past. The most recent incarnation was back in 2010-2011. I’ve picked up a copy of Season One blu-ray of the Fox TV series from 2011, which is pretty good. Season Two can be found on Dailymotion, but you’ll need to download it and flip the image L-R to see it in a decent format.</span><p></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-78538130027564508212024-02-18T16:32:00.001-06:002024-03-16T10:13:11.621-05:00Wither the traditional comic mart?<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One of the bonuses of living in the US Midwest is that you’re never far from a comic mart. (Mrs B does not agree with this sentiment). Thanks to the chaps at the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“epguides” site, a schedule is published of all upcoming marts in Illinois and surrounding states, so with a full tank of petrol it is possible to find a mart open on any given Sunday.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The thing about these mid-America marts is that they are patronized by local dealers and customers from rural areas ; the prices are reasonable and dealers are willing to negotiate on price.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So today being a particularly bright, sunny and warm day - clear blue skies - I headed off to Rockford, Illinois for a gander at what was on show. The mart was held at the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) hall - (the equivalent of the British Legion) - and when I arrived there were probably 50 customers and 12 dealers.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFySEIyyIITC8xC1UYNSPIbk3QKTlzQIwec7Fi8ymNtcvxUWGbw08H41QQl9fZsl14Fbz7fg5y2D_CuWHySx7nvYHDyKOAd9yADp2_tiykNVP0v1SESDvTEBGRhby82hmlu9P8-2I96tK7q6TatwkGbeXKzJ4XnNOnV5HgR7_18yEr3UmxJt4ducnB7po/s4032/IMG_4189.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFySEIyyIITC8xC1UYNSPIbk3QKTlzQIwec7Fi8ymNtcvxUWGbw08H41QQl9fZsl14Fbz7fg5y2D_CuWHySx7nvYHDyKOAd9yADp2_tiykNVP0v1SESDvTEBGRhby82hmlu9P8-2I96tK7q6TatwkGbeXKzJ4XnNOnV5HgR7_18yEr3UmxJt4ducnB7po/w400-h300/IMG_4189.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Punters at today's mart</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I took a quick snap as I entered, and it struck me (not for the first time) that most dealers and customers were getting on in years. Including me. Casting my mind back to the Seventies, and attending the Lyndhurst Hall mart in Kentish Town, London, I think that everyone then was still of a similar age - just that we were all youngsters. The last time I went to a Sunday Lyndhurst Hall mart was January 6th 1976 ; the only person of my current age then was my Dad, who had come up to London with me for the day.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I don’t believe that the Comic Mart as an event has changed one whit in fifty years. Just comics in card board boxes on trestle tables, and mainly blokes with lists searching for elusive Silver Age and early Bronze-Age comics. As the years go by, will this type of mart survive, or wither on the vine? I believe it is already part of a bygone age.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the end , I picked up only one comic; a nice copy of Brave & Bold #67 caught my eye - the first team-up of Batman and Flash - for $18. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This issue was the first American comic I ever had.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> You can read about it <a href="https://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2022/08/first-comics-brave-bold-67.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It crossed my mind “This is where I came in; perhaps a good point to stop.”</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">© Ian Baker</span></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-47273542546303588162024-02-07T19:49:00.002-06:002024-02-07T19:49:49.864-06:00A look back at Weird Heroes<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHWEYU4CT0NQVQ_2d9uWskxZQd85iU_gxE-7ltrInCqIAovFTkAEPktRF5-P0ZQBm2RL4Xts7I0vm0h61OrAkQ7CtidrhC5GCSPRX6AljFVrKozJDfZQhyphenhyphenRqHPHFEBZXv1F0JzeIVhh6F6k7-Ozo44I_6R_KDX189JqcXxqvwEdFKEDxLyrnW6jaVZoRE/s4032/IMG_4168.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHWEYU4CT0NQVQ_2d9uWskxZQd85iU_gxE-7ltrInCqIAovFTkAEPktRF5-P0ZQBm2RL4Xts7I0vm0h61OrAkQ7CtidrhC5GCSPRX6AljFVrKozJDfZQhyphenhyphenRqHPHFEBZXv1F0JzeIVhh6F6k7-Ozo44I_6R_KDX189JqcXxqvwEdFKEDxLyrnW6jaVZoRE/w480-h640/IMG_4168.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weird Heroes #1-#4</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">Since the demise of the adventure pulps in 1949, there have been infrequent attempts to resurrect the genre of outlandish tales for succeeding generations. While a few short-story based pulps survived (Astounding stories , Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchock Presents) (?) continued regardless, it was the success of the Doc Savage reprints by Bantam starting in 1964 that first rekindled interest in adventure pulp heroes, and reprints of the written adventures of The Shadow, The Avenger, Tarzan, G-8 and others swiftly followed.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As the 1970s dawned, there was also an interest to rekindle the higher quality end of the pulp market, either through reprints or through attempts to develop a new kind of pulp which took advantage of a climate of looser mores, the acceptance of SF as a mainstream genre in popular culture, and the availability of a new generation of comic book artists for spot illustrations. The new generation of writers had been pulp readers in their adolescence, and so were drawn to the challenge of reinventing the genre.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The period of this “new pulp” renaissance lasted for just over a decade, starting with Byron Preiss’s Weird Heroes in 1975, and probably ending with the demise of New Black Mask quarterly in 1988.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Weird Heroes was an experiment, in the words of editor Byron Preiss, to create a New American Pulp. Back in 1976 I managed to procure two copies from DTwAGE. Recently I have managed to collect the other issues. There are 8 issues in total, featuring a mix of short stories and full-length novels. The authors embrace a wide spectrum of talent, from old hands like Philip Jose Farmer to young turks like Harlan Ellison.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I bought my original issues at a time when I was avidly following the work of Harlan Ellison, had a new interest in the old pulps, had a burgeoning interest in movies and SF and Crime TV shows, and so Byron Preiss’ book, with illoes by hot comic artists, hit all the right buttons. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz_Ybncbe6VoR7fkzan9-imFVZXd6TQkblIEpIeX00aQZsYt2MV1pOWWlXNvxhkSBTBUF1rYHTlYE-ZnnKLN5wsG_0QtvMt3XtyfwiCG_Dd8QV0hX3rYhsNP1YIwKAMP1-JdfhHAd1NAkLZX0TsQvHz6SDYcsZ9r3YG1izfQPwjMZIyV2OTrWkmX_Fg5g/s4032/IMG_4169.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz_Ybncbe6VoR7fkzan9-imFVZXd6TQkblIEpIeX00aQZsYt2MV1pOWWlXNvxhkSBTBUF1rYHTlYE-ZnnKLN5wsG_0QtvMt3XtyfwiCG_Dd8QV0hX3rYhsNP1YIwKAMP1-JdfhHAd1NAkLZX0TsQvHz6SDYcsZ9r3YG1izfQPwjMZIyV2OTrWkmX_Fg5g/w480-h640/IMG_4169.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weird Heroes #5-#8</td></tr></tbody></table></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">The pages below highlight Neal Adams’ artwork contribution the New York Review of Bird, a story featuring a thinly-disguised Harlan Ellison in his alter-ego of Cordwainer Bird, meeting an aged version of the Shadow.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIbbJS0mquokX7Tp9G8koL9tnzMrcYao54LfCQ4E9OR73UH3FakSpLjmhwIIX6I_JqoDlcFZeBZCUx1-SMKGRlQgDRrkj6wcu0dpKPxCBflZLFVsOAsrkg_R7rto2GaQ2ThV7kbjUbzp3eWW6JKkRmkd37r6v9IifZll5EK7g0PPMsZ7C7LK-pZMvDUHc/s4032/IMG_4170.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIbbJS0mquokX7Tp9G8koL9tnzMrcYao54LfCQ4E9OR73UH3FakSpLjmhwIIX6I_JqoDlcFZeBZCUx1-SMKGRlQgDRrkj6wcu0dpKPxCBflZLFVsOAsrkg_R7rto2GaQ2ThV7kbjUbzp3eWW6JKkRmkd37r6v9IifZll5EK7g0PPMsZ7C7LK-pZMvDUHc/w480-h640/IMG_4170.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCLMXmoGftDXD7tGc-bHMv6yGWgF4VCnU_SKGZdVJo1MuBrYrQZagRigx8lckvss9cNjz1mFi1Sw8eXWl8rKSsarVCEwNzM-Fx_XaS-h9QoYH_w8TLWff7ymSqMND5Rk2iwr0ejFY1cD_x2BLYLvVVNpykShbMLn7JlptUT8pSa2_JVybKGbKtY8swxyE/s4032/IMG_4171.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCLMXmoGftDXD7tGc-bHMv6yGWgF4VCnU_SKGZdVJo1MuBrYrQZagRigx8lckvss9cNjz1mFi1Sw8eXWl8rKSsarVCEwNzM-Fx_XaS-h9QoYH_w8TLWff7ymSqMND5Rk2iwr0ejFY1cD_x2BLYLvVVNpykShbMLn7JlptUT8pSa2_JVybKGbKtY8swxyE/w480-h640/IMG_4171.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1PEd0f17YE2poxZGXOXz2mJ_8Hqe-mrRxPCRAET37GMXZ25LbcjvBku8q2amxDH5mZmvSHnb-z4mYcUjl2BGS763P3fXD9bz2J4Uc0EWlw_eiaRLhW-OEKtYilP6YNEIVCUetRqVQD-MhoHTwpecGOhwlLW0XOJDwjhmE-AvxJQ1Kp8HUDGmvamDG3c4/s4032/IMG_4173.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1PEd0f17YE2poxZGXOXz2mJ_8Hqe-mrRxPCRAET37GMXZ25LbcjvBku8q2amxDH5mZmvSHnb-z4mYcUjl2BGS763P3fXD9bz2J4Uc0EWlw_eiaRLhW-OEKtYilP6YNEIVCUetRqVQD-MhoHTwpecGOhwlLW0XOJDwjhmE-AvxJQ1Kp8HUDGmvamDG3c4/w480-h640/IMG_4173.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The experiment lasted only 8 books, but they are worth tracking down to read something that really tried to stretch the envelope of graphic storytelling in the mid 1970s.</span><p></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-71797132341718859332024-01-19T13:44:00.000-06:002024-01-19T13:44:19.236-06:00Alternative covers - JLA #81 - A pivotal issue at the end of the Silver Age<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha5C74i64iMwLV4DxY5Xwb9rGdEzDopo-ukoBl1vI829hrVK-CL2YQUre6M65kFIOV9E5zf0quyQfpyCkXD5ouJiUn55v7fSgYgdGs8IOQQGCJzMZ42nP7dsYkgg2b0CM72b7W0lrufE2DqjspP5bIXpe9pJBLqO1g8bxAGAzld-biA3COKiYldudZUxE/s3000/JLA%2081%20rejected%20cover%20by%20Gil%20Kane.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2003" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha5C74i64iMwLV4DxY5Xwb9rGdEzDopo-ukoBl1vI829hrVK-CL2YQUre6M65kFIOV9E5zf0quyQfpyCkXD5ouJiUn55v7fSgYgdGs8IOQQGCJzMZ42nP7dsYkgg2b0CM72b7W0lrufE2DqjspP5bIXpe9pJBLqO1g8bxAGAzld-biA3COKiYldudZUxE/w428-h640/JLA%2081%20rejected%20cover%20by%20Gil%20Kane.jpeg" width="428" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">A while back we highlighted a rejected Batman cover by Irv Novick that was re-drawn by Neal Adams. You can read the blog <a href="https://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2022/06/favourite-comics-irv-novick-in.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This week a rejected Gil Kane cover for <i>Justice League of America</i> #81 (June 1970) is up for auction on Heritage Auctions, a cover subsequently re-drawn by Neal Adams after editor Julie Schwartz rejected the original. At first glance they are very similar, but Adams’ rendition (in my biased view) is undeniably superior. Small differences add up to a huge difference ; there is now movement in the image as Flash and Batman are visibly struggling ; Superman’s frustration and sadness through the change of an open palm to a clenched fist; Atom on his knees and not on his back makes him more heroic.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The Hawkman figure is more clearly delineated.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And the biggest change - Batman’s cowl is now rendered in the new long-eared Adams style, rather than the old short-eared cowl of previous years. This brought consistency to the other DC covers featuring Batman on the cover that month (<i>Batman #222, Detective Comics #400 and Brave and Bold #90</i>).</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif2D8bMdWvObSJB32BKnACkgRb06FDLgCsDMeroOKQwS_bXC5aFuA5o4JAFMj4lN2OyMEPl90rksdH0EPd3sAy0GDYZXWn6i74WI-BJmErfHs6P9xQaAw-12x6iTyYjGZ6E_QEWTN5Jle_7UdPpYrAlw9y8HtmgdRvD94p8OdhOqDd35FxsFkaZPW_Hvg/s1500/JLA%2081%20cover%20by%20Neal%20Adams.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1005" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif2D8bMdWvObSJB32BKnACkgRb06FDLgCsDMeroOKQwS_bXC5aFuA5o4JAFMj4lN2OyMEPl90rksdH0EPd3sAy0GDYZXWn6i74WI-BJmErfHs6P9xQaAw-12x6iTyYjGZ6E_QEWTN5Jle_7UdPpYrAlw9y8HtmgdRvD94p8OdhOqDd35FxsFkaZPW_Hvg/w428-h640/JLA%2081%20cover%20by%20Neal%20Adams.jpg" width="428" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Published cover to JLA #81</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">I took the opportunity of a quick re-read of <i>JLA</i> #81 (“Plague of the Galactic Jest-Master”,</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">written by Denny O’Neil), and realized that it was quite a pivotal issue in the transition from DC’s Silver Age to Bronze Age. </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> The JLA come up against the Jest-Master, an alien with the ability to turn his enemies into fools.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of course, the scene on the cover is nowhere to be found within the comic. Quite a bait-and-switch to disappoint the buyer with a Dick Dillin and Joe Giella interior. The story does briefly feature Jean Loring (former wife of The Atom) under a madness spell at the start, as the story ties up threads from both O'Neil's previous issue of <i>JLA </i>(#80) and his final issue of the abruptly cancelled <i>The Atom and Hawkman</i> #45 “Queen Jean - Why Must We Die?” from nine months earlier (Oct/Nov 1969).</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The issue also ties into the highly regarded O’Neil/Adams run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow, providing a full page featuring the Guardians on OA, highlighting Hal Jordan, Ollie Queen and one of the Guardians camping in the wilderness in their quest to find America. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUb8mF21Da8f2ABMDf3q1PYtKHSWivFX6JpKviIGUSHDAFMbzj_aJqmQAZ8X2pd8cLTQjzW1Cj7uT_kfd6Gf8XcwIBvIL2FBn-f4wGcH-YncNJqfRplwb0b-poDkwhstLoz8_YkGxSOuzf0ndwrPRl0jyEnbYYQXgAuPAWCJgwNCp6aerj_geIHn22-II/s724/Snip20240119_15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="491" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUb8mF21Da8f2ABMDf3q1PYtKHSWivFX6JpKviIGUSHDAFMbzj_aJqmQAZ8X2pd8cLTQjzW1Cj7uT_kfd6Gf8XcwIBvIL2FBn-f4wGcH-YncNJqfRplwb0b-poDkwhstLoz8_YkGxSOuzf0ndwrPRl0jyEnbYYQXgAuPAWCJgwNCp6aerj_geIHn22-II/w434-h640/Snip20240119_15.png" width="434" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Linking to the Green Lantern #77</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is a shame that Neal Adams was not given the chance to draw page 8 in a cameo appearance, in much the same way that he was given the opportunity to draw the Deadman scenes in JLA #94, or Green Arrow's flashback appearance in World’s Finest #210.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Unless you're a big Justice League fan I wouldn't suggest you go out of your way to pick up a copy of JLA #81, but as a curiosity-item pulling together the story threads of JLA, The Atom & Hawkman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow it's worth a read.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This was a month of high productivity for Adams ; in addition to drawing all (interiors and cover) of Green Lantern/Green Arrow #77, he drew the covers to House of Secrets #86, Superboy #166, Witching Hour #9 that same month.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>What a great set of covers. Take a look below and enjoy the master at work.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6MuOcZgHrkxfoE470nbIP0frvwjShvw03Xs0UqOoD-mAG4yC2z6X3avDasVlFb-DVfiW-Lt345vp1duvzl-BXcTqxcvF3fApkzmzaeCqdRnxQauK7gbPxCwGXBiJuTFQRtqqBFINSIrprH6anSyk8ar3-PR3z4AHkp65CYnDFMvcOqOAj_kVmtJRdEo8/s604/Snip20240119_16.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="406" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6MuOcZgHrkxfoE470nbIP0frvwjShvw03Xs0UqOoD-mAG4yC2z6X3avDasVlFb-DVfiW-Lt345vp1duvzl-BXcTqxcvF3fApkzmzaeCqdRnxQauK7gbPxCwGXBiJuTFQRtqqBFINSIrprH6anSyk8ar3-PR3z4AHkp65CYnDFMvcOqOAj_kVmtJRdEo8/w430-h640/Snip20240119_16.png" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Batman #222</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi915ZB2Y5ScXCzgb6zX2J7OW_PH5fLhdXyAW6k7U8jFE3N0biBnR3yy_pycbH3OAjl-6DBgO1rxzQ_BDWOb-PaSclfZua7Zl_4SZLJHy3ZB31k-6muCZtgj0iaQENauwhM4HiiuZa814bo_dWB6PslkRCDrMp_G_xfnxaIhMB2ZtOsWiYUMq6-a2jggwg/s743/Snip20240119_17.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="743" data-original-width="509" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi915ZB2Y5ScXCzgb6zX2J7OW_PH5fLhdXyAW6k7U8jFE3N0biBnR3yy_pycbH3OAjl-6DBgO1rxzQ_BDWOb-PaSclfZua7Zl_4SZLJHy3ZB31k-6muCZtgj0iaQENauwhM4HiiuZa814bo_dWB6PslkRCDrMp_G_xfnxaIhMB2ZtOsWiYUMq6-a2jggwg/w438-h640/Snip20240119_17.png" width="438" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Brave & Bold #90</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzuZ46TRCwb3gPr07piNfynCM1zcfakZJa1iNW3nMcohifw0aY7I3IsH60t3DS7CxKskv1k8X-Crmf5sspktDYl-kSYypK2-zPBdK8Q5ihyphenhyphenLEmFLalZP0oMUvQMrTuCJSCatHYWrdlcS_rpXt355PHBhfCn6g-4r8roU64RqkDf-7JvvQPOeXFy-kILM8/s742/Snip20240119_18.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="742" data-original-width="501" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzuZ46TRCwb3gPr07piNfynCM1zcfakZJa1iNW3nMcohifw0aY7I3IsH60t3DS7CxKskv1k8X-Crmf5sspktDYl-kSYypK2-zPBdK8Q5ihyphenhyphenLEmFLalZP0oMUvQMrTuCJSCatHYWrdlcS_rpXt355PHBhfCn6g-4r8roU64RqkDf-7JvvQPOeXFy-kILM8/w432-h640/Snip20240119_18.png" width="432" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Detective Comics #400</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXWpwtaEE4ImglbyjyQCopbfWpBkUcYlso-3dbnMDwjd3VIi8C2evBCWNCxiHIwst4BL-5x7myBjVDnFSWi04sBpykNpeHHsKCTInsq3SFQd8vtg2CfoQT2x3pEEustIn-MY5eiKIXejcdF_ORHbS9RPOWu75TY3F3fpou6_JElGPOtHKspsiMXBwb0o/s730/Snip20240119_19.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="488" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXWpwtaEE4ImglbyjyQCopbfWpBkUcYlso-3dbnMDwjd3VIi8C2evBCWNCxiHIwst4BL-5x7myBjVDnFSWi04sBpykNpeHHsKCTInsq3SFQd8vtg2CfoQT2x3pEEustIn-MY5eiKIXejcdF_ORHbS9RPOWu75TY3F3fpou6_JElGPOtHKspsiMXBwb0o/w428-h640/Snip20240119_19.png" width="428" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Green Lantern/Green Arrow #77</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMxqWVUUdzApJsWPhdL3PPoGNo5aKWlcckCKmXL-48OFyNAGwgYW3TZbOr35CXMZk_c_XiUoSl2jfhncRFDRKu5_wP36mwhAtQptzLkj_HfJlTieKucWCgXSFd4iZ-RcmPVcTTlFl0w0Eyvjm_PNbnD_c1KK_2zxZEbuMffXPa3O8wVRrym03P7xpmQF8/s1524/RCO001_1466540281.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1524" data-original-width="1022" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMxqWVUUdzApJsWPhdL3PPoGNo5aKWlcckCKmXL-48OFyNAGwgYW3TZbOr35CXMZk_c_XiUoSl2jfhncRFDRKu5_wP36mwhAtQptzLkj_HfJlTieKucWCgXSFd4iZ-RcmPVcTTlFl0w0Eyvjm_PNbnD_c1KK_2zxZEbuMffXPa3O8wVRrym03P7xpmQF8/w430-h640/RCO001_1466540281.jpg" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. House of Secrets 86</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7gtv4Pxwo32lfWuer0dL1Y292iBr83Sjkeu_xObr41Ri3m9rshwcdDhqwx_CS8Am58GI5EGzwJ7jRqpzZFundRcW4kKM6tRrexzbdSSBcaqfAEhzvm9dqeuiLMjZanA1t4L_x0O9MhynZKviMzLb3oXYVWrE3aErPcgJWiyatRDGEFHx6gAn-gvYBU_E/s2017/RCO001_1469643811.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2017" data-original-width="1337" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7gtv4Pxwo32lfWuer0dL1Y292iBr83Sjkeu_xObr41Ri3m9rshwcdDhqwx_CS8Am58GI5EGzwJ7jRqpzZFundRcW4kKM6tRrexzbdSSBcaqfAEhzvm9dqeuiLMjZanA1t4L_x0O9MhynZKviMzLb3oXYVWrE3aErPcgJWiyatRDGEFHx6gAn-gvYBU_E/w424-h640/RCO001_1469643811.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Superboy #166</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW7LU4PzPkcN2mDrSoaZcaKW3n3bNTi3BwHjX3gOkykf_2q-pGznwabbyimvTtTSs0WSj3o-9pE7HbOEzQMZAYy7TtNIrS18u6zEWStIuvQoiY6-_eLKUg_QESbe695ZoobxIHuy_PbLgK4_5IeBR6Dj3EVjWf238eisRfXRGIQPRGjmYrhmXoMgymfbQ/s1521/RCO001_1584308502.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1521" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW7LU4PzPkcN2mDrSoaZcaKW3n3bNTi3BwHjX3gOkykf_2q-pGznwabbyimvTtTSs0WSj3o-9pE7HbOEzQMZAYy7TtNIrS18u6zEWStIuvQoiY6-_eLKUg_QESbe695ZoobxIHuy_PbLgK4_5IeBR6Dj3EVjWf238eisRfXRGIQPRGjmYrhmXoMgymfbQ/w430-h640/RCO001_1584308502.jpg" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Witching Hour #9</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-6031474817146359242024-01-14T13:58:00.000-06:002024-01-14T13:58:31.349-06:00The promise of Steranko's Comixscene in 1972<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6W4s7zQGo5c0x16h3vYFRFm7-vKhaWVxh1tYO7UUTedOin1KAjDdwXHAZcBunuP9xiKvNUxmyScShByVkKPrtbEvmAvC-4fsRU_IohlDlnUHcQIYOCQoCfmPqqoQaMEj8zCGWU9mEqYkk8sr8VvlljlijzzQpGU9yUbJlTY4nn_UEfibpUQ7kR4EQWIY/s4030/IMG_4101.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4030" data-original-width="2700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6W4s7zQGo5c0x16h3vYFRFm7-vKhaWVxh1tYO7UUTedOin1KAjDdwXHAZcBunuP9xiKvNUxmyScShByVkKPrtbEvmAvC-4fsRU_IohlDlnUHcQIYOCQoCfmPqqoQaMEj8zCGWU9mEqYkk8sr8VvlljlijzzQpGU9yUbJlTY4nn_UEfibpUQ7kR4EQWIY/w428-h640/IMG_4101.jpeg" width="428" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Supergraphics and Steranko</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">Back in 1972, I had no concept of comics fandom, and was unaware of the British fanzines focused on American comics that were available through the classified ads of Exchange & Mart. I was even less aware of US fanzines, and really had no way of finding out about their existence as an adolescent schoolboy on Portsea Island.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So it’s quite an enjoyable experience to read comics news zines from that period for the first time, fifty or so years after publication. They encapsulate the hopes, dreams, excitement and aspirations we all had for the world of comics, where every tidbit of information about upcoming events was greeted with wonder.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This week I obtained a copy of issue #1 of Steranko’s “Comixscene” from November 1972, Jim Steranko's attempt to create a regular comics-focused newspaper that had high production values and had access to comics professsionals for news of upcoming events, as well as being a platform to promote Steranko’s own Supergraphics publications. I subsequently bought later issues a few years after, once I had visited Dark They Were & Golden Eyed in London, but back in 1972 Comixscene was an unknown quantity to me.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Reading the issue now immediately takes me back to 1972.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first issue focuses on Doc Savage and other pulp heroes soon to make an appearance in comics at both Marvel and DC. The highlights of this issue (for me) is the publication of Steranko's full-page rendition of The Shadow that he did as a pitch for DC, as well as a two page spread of Doc Savage and his crew as rendered by Steranko and fellow artists. I especially like the Gene Colon version, although the machine gun is out of place.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb4OVeuoM8Kgz7AMD_ms4Uiwg6o52qaJ_A15F1ETxxJe_6NtDuHtp-3C83V8knRv-reC7uiASDpP5MtF3YBf4snMKXe8KKI2v8411qJT72jfbUtZK7LMmdL6_Lso1qpCVAUrXd4zT3lGIYkyfZHtN41eQVMb_kxrw038kF8YURIedGRsiarl_c2jDt9Zc/s3802/IMG_4102.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3802" data-original-width="2673" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb4OVeuoM8Kgz7AMD_ms4Uiwg6o52qaJ_A15F1ETxxJe_6NtDuHtp-3C83V8knRv-reC7uiASDpP5MtF3YBf4snMKXe8KKI2v8411qJT72jfbUtZK7LMmdL6_Lso1qpCVAUrXd4zT3lGIYkyfZHtN41eQVMb_kxrw038kF8YURIedGRsiarl_c2jDt9Zc/w450-h640/IMG_4102.jpeg" width="450" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Steranko. This would make a great poster</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyTEh2ph9NKULsX_cbgnpYEhEnnJCxXuaCZIj51VKLCWCVcEDiYp1TxLbpIsSAC2oiAnndhAnRRxs6v-DbJBPQB-EzzGw9T96AIXf8MYmWGW9xDFXtwAYAbKJeblo4F45YZhJwYdfNu3cA2fRjR2xYfato5-GGEK361POY5wY_3Q0U_kvQV0bz-accNno/s3254/IMG_4104.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3254" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyTEh2ph9NKULsX_cbgnpYEhEnnJCxXuaCZIj51VKLCWCVcEDiYp1TxLbpIsSAC2oiAnndhAnRRxs6v-DbJBPQB-EzzGw9T96AIXf8MYmWGW9xDFXtwAYAbKJeblo4F45YZhJwYdfNu3cA2fRjR2xYfato5-GGEK361POY5wY_3Q0U_kvQV0bz-accNno/w371-h400/IMG_4104.jpeg" width="371" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Supergraphics and Steranko</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBxVT_V4pvnE98IGbZtDSwoqO5ZXXOj109Osf6wLthPchEa9DnSsJgwkEi0Y-pczYwJfEfluuOClnlD5RnIMtDe-ONSMtjxsPm1PiV1z7rFYstAVmUmI_fr0JoBgFDIx7-tYN2K9bQaebGMESZ_cd3ynm-v_F-WOVuWTLbFR0blmzM57WqFsFbz9Bi4S8/s4032/IMG_4105.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBxVT_V4pvnE98IGbZtDSwoqO5ZXXOj109Osf6wLthPchEa9DnSsJgwkEi0Y-pczYwJfEfluuOClnlD5RnIMtDe-ONSMtjxsPm1PiV1z7rFYstAVmUmI_fr0JoBgFDIx7-tYN2K9bQaebGMESZ_cd3ynm-v_F-WOVuWTLbFR0blmzM57WqFsFbz9Bi4S8/w480-h640/IMG_4105.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Supergraphics and Gene Colan</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The cover of this first issue was subsequently used as the cover of the second issue of the Marvel colour comic. I prefer the version published on Comixscene.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEz25jblrZfBp2qXNQlNQrsMmle0v6_DF0HwCW_T_bWVlHPSCJxj-1WfH4p9okOv4wIcMYiP4ie53uOVjF9cd66mbDdhscZN4eFCOCfgdvkS9Ic323xCV84BQrIPweaHs1SYcnP0K4AulukK7kVRIZZSqsPBnEGde6yYqGyO1yWVfRxham4UNDx46rvaU/s594/Doc_Savage_Vol_1_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="400" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEz25jblrZfBp2qXNQlNQrsMmle0v6_DF0HwCW_T_bWVlHPSCJxj-1WfH4p9okOv4wIcMYiP4ie53uOVjF9cd66mbDdhscZN4eFCOCfgdvkS9Ic323xCV84BQrIPweaHs1SYcnP0K4AulukK7kVRIZZSqsPBnEGde6yYqGyO1yWVfRxham4UNDx46rvaU/w430-h640/Doc_Savage_Vol_1_2.jpg" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel and Conde Nast. Compare this with the Comixscene #1 cover</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Did any of our regular readers collect Comixscene, or have recommendations for old fanzines to look out for?</span></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-69664234263942655602024-01-05T14:45:00.001-06:002024-01-05T14:45:17.474-06:00What if......Spirit World #2<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ever wonder what Jack Kirby’s<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Spirit World issue #2 would have looked like had DC not cancelled it after one issue?</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Well, wonder no further.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQm0aSAKfgh1FRfXVUoW4vih3yVSeLgGASqOfXyPM5XORPhrcLLlmWbwGOV0CuTgA3dFxkQYfUDckBkRX34PASkdz6YcxL5Z_HRSvIbzvi9c5TP2ENZTqUgoplLbexLN19VTJSEF3bZ-NKo9Qjc5dnm9VK7d8MERJC4X9j0swx9foWsQmNuh2HdGs8TI0/s721/Spirit%20World%202%20facsimile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="535" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQm0aSAKfgh1FRfXVUoW4vih3yVSeLgGASqOfXyPM5XORPhrcLLlmWbwGOV0CuTgA3dFxkQYfUDckBkRX34PASkdz6YcxL5Z_HRSvIbzvi9c5TP2ENZTqUgoplLbexLN19VTJSEF3bZ-NKo9Qjc5dnm9VK7d8MERJC4X9j0swx9foWsQmNuh2HdGs8TI0/w474-h640/Spirit%20World%202%20facsimile.jpg" width="474" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spirit World #2 facsimile - elements © DC - with apologies to Jack Kirby</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I was reading through my old copy of Jack Kirby’s <i>Spirit World #1</i> a few days back and wondered what issue #2 would have looked like had DC not cancelled the Black & White magazine after the first issue. For those of you who can remember 1971, Spirit World was to be the first of a series of experimental comics from Jack Kirby that took a more mature approach to story-telling and gave Kirby the space to experiment with new types of artwork. DC adopted a fictitious distributor persona “Hampshire Distributors” to distance the new magazine from DC’s usual fare.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The original Spirit World magazine was very poorly distributed within the US (Kirby associate Mark Evanier relates that he could not find it in his native California environs at the time), yet there seemed to be no issue in finding a copy in UK spinner racks, priced at the princely sum of 12-and-a half pence (UK) by importers Thorpe & Porter.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here are a few pages of the original Spirit World #1, which contains a few “Strange but True”-type stories hosted by Dr. E. Leopold Maas (who to my mind looks like a variation on Stan Lee/Funky Flashman). The front cover (redrawn before publication by Neal Adams) looks rather like the cover of a sleazy tabloid in the National Enquirer vein.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMOFmkPYQ3GY8XvFweva1jIt0fp9Xzgf43tN6m7r3Y5FosmHt0_CXFivqvHdcg1kKvvlxen0K5IP5ZYCXuBl4MvYIPq7ArvQ61cvSusitlwGWO71hhyphenhyphenuRcr2n3fAjFAvyQWAPYFRH7e0G-0JFILPugEa9Q3GYLPaShCXwmWBZLUN7xxUJigU2xjKYBvZk/s3252/Spirit%20World%20Cover%20001.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3252" data-original-width="2411" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMOFmkPYQ3GY8XvFweva1jIt0fp9Xzgf43tN6m7r3Y5FosmHt0_CXFivqvHdcg1kKvvlxen0K5IP5ZYCXuBl4MvYIPq7ArvQ61cvSusitlwGWO71hhyphenhyphenuRcr2n3fAjFAvyQWAPYFRH7e0G-0JFILPugEa9Q3GYLPaShCXwmWBZLUN7xxUJigU2xjKYBvZk/w474-h640/Spirit%20World%20Cover%20001.jpg" width="474" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Spirit World #1 Cover by Neal Adams. Note T&P price!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg6jWMVo0VAOkpOFlEYiw_hg36x1wK6T99xjNEILf-e6d6aNkjjU5lD1cFcG60OaJR2rg3V_yLen1O0wyd-mIOhKFpl2SHXkuBN7Ij5Q_anxB8BYa8I0451rioep3JIrgZtyINNRwJngI2TZqGoCxphXoNgf85jiCebyi88F9VZXSjX6r4SZ1DrsCCVG8/s3252/Spirit%20World%20Interior002.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3252" data-original-width="2411" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg6jWMVo0VAOkpOFlEYiw_hg36x1wK6T99xjNEILf-e6d6aNkjjU5lD1cFcG60OaJR2rg3V_yLen1O0wyd-mIOhKFpl2SHXkuBN7Ij5Q_anxB8BYa8I0451rioep3JIrgZtyINNRwJngI2TZqGoCxphXoNgf85jiCebyi88F9VZXSjX6r4SZ1DrsCCVG8/w474-h640/Spirit%20World%20Interior002.jpg" width="474" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. The hyperbolic intro to Spirit World #1 by our host E. Leopold Maas</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Anyway, I thought I’d grab a copy of the 2012 hardback reprint of Spirit World #1 ($39.95), which is said to contain the stories scheduled for the cancelled issue #2.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Imagine my shock that Amazon has copies priced at $79 and up, and eb*y has copies for sale at well over $100 each!</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> [ F</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">or a more complete assessment of the Spirit World reprint hardback, head over to read Kid’s blog at <i><a href="https://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/05/spirit-world-of-jack-kirby.html" target="_blank">Crivens! Comics and Stuff!</a></i>.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Kid - looks like you made a wise investment decision back in 2012! ]</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So, with no ready access to the reprint book, I set out to find the missing stories, when they were subsequently printed in some of DC’s mystery titles in the early 1970s. Guess what? I had them all along, bought for a song on one of my LCS’s half-price back-issue days and filed away and quietly forgotten.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The issues containing the missing content are (in order of publication):</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Forbidden Tales of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Dark Mansion #6 </i>“The Psychic Blood-Hound”</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span> </span>with additional content: </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">A text page with collage border originally intended as the contents page for Spirit World #2</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">A two page text story of re-incarnation called 'The Strange Story of Devi'. No author is given.</span></li></ul><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Weird Mystery #1 </i></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Horoscope Phenomenon or Witch Queen of Ancient Sumeria?"</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span> with additional content:</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">A two page text story of communicating with the dead called 'Special Delivery', written by Kirby's assistants Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman</span></li></ul><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Weird Mystery #</i></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>2</i> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Toxl the World Killer!" </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span> </span>with additional content:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">A two page article on UFOs "They're Still Up There" illustrated with four Kirby collages.</span></li></ul><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Weird Mystery #</i></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>3</i> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The Burners!"</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span> </span>with additional content:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">A one-page Kirby UFO collage inserted into the story</span></li></ul><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The stories as printed in these four comics each appear to have had some artwork adjustments in addition to adding colour to images which would have probably been printed in monochrome if published as originally intended.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Let's take a closer look at these four issues.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><h3 style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Dark Mansion #6</span></h3><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrFpf26Fyrzra2L5hUBaULpKmfvh2lNf1eYq05UnyTSOkvhtS1m4c1urT3F3npM2fJ8ODOnkHbBjrbgiYFf2ZgYJdBZjOFWOXx46MTF0EmaDbGsEIwgIt0ZVtBmnxoi7OxUmHH97vhyiBtCfAWHem-BhpB01NipgGn7U5T-jeITev5nOuJfdClm0ld9jQ/s3018/Dark%20Mansion%20Cover006.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3018" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrFpf26Fyrzra2L5hUBaULpKmfvh2lNf1eYq05UnyTSOkvhtS1m4c1urT3F3npM2fJ8ODOnkHbBjrbgiYFf2ZgYJdBZjOFWOXx46MTF0EmaDbGsEIwgIt0ZVtBmnxoi7OxUmHH97vhyiBtCfAWHem-BhpB01NipgGn7U5T-jeITev5nOuJfdClm0ld9jQ/w424-h640/Dark%20Mansion%20Cover006.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. My copy of Dark Mansion #6, complete with torn cover</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLP_faZwsDvQOZveWGWEEKtkSf4iesybXwrQAhmYB1zd6PBKzA-1t6xhzUBA3t1aLjm9VyxV5GQDxmRhqUIucwcfeFXWdydH336XzDXjrsajT8Lne8jnoOuin7TdqjDDq-vpLQionAZJY_yrlyjXBoPb37Q5VqTsceNH98dHntlgROTtoo_8XPMp91_kc/s3018/Dark%20Mansion%20Pag%201006.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3018" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLP_faZwsDvQOZveWGWEEKtkSf4iesybXwrQAhmYB1zd6PBKzA-1t6xhzUBA3t1aLjm9VyxV5GQDxmRhqUIucwcfeFXWdydH336XzDXjrsajT8Lne8jnoOuin7TdqjDDq-vpLQionAZJY_yrlyjXBoPb37Q5VqTsceNH98dHntlgROTtoo_8XPMp91_kc/w424-h640/Dark%20Mansion%20Pag%201006.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Page 1 of the story. Intro page omitted and text paste-ups not in Mike Royer's distinctive hand</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMGWgAnNaQhyphenhyphentJRn1MkJkmcTBKKmtTVq-13ULSzr0mFl6l6bHFmNIrtBF1XZZd2EwSveGs0QnujWrxMCYMCvvLeH1ACvTB0DiCDJheM16nFzFGSPQyTgva22I7VSiBj4AkBTmJs5h0ih2bHubrBJR6rAgxIQva0BJvyPd_1NqChPLoy4P539mMRegdmD0/s3018/Dark%20Mansion%20Pag%2012006.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3018" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMGWgAnNaQhyphenhyphentJRn1MkJkmcTBKKmtTVq-13ULSzr0mFl6l6bHFmNIrtBF1XZZd2EwSveGs0QnujWrxMCYMCvvLeH1ACvTB0DiCDJheM16nFzFGSPQyTgva22I7VSiBj4AkBTmJs5h0ih2bHubrBJR6rAgxIQva0BJvyPd_1NqChPLoy4P539mMRegdmD0/w424-h640/Dark%20Mansion%20Pag%2012006.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Collage page originally intended to frame the contents page of Spirit World #2</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdF9su2vD4FSYLlYm-APHJ6WnTbAvEQebWajkSsIH7_XIFHhzo_LJCkEOEIMEc2SXYqzKxPrn01UU4C5zJSLEEc9vxXa4gP0jrBUSctKTBTs1uzkorYMg-SY30Rk-YrT5Edr3bI9JDiGniMnUsbzItrfL5EOtnm1woJZvBtmX0dmde-GlwjFtT_sIhYo0/s3018/Dark%20Mansion%20Pag%2033006.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3018" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdF9su2vD4FSYLlYm-APHJ6WnTbAvEQebWajkSsIH7_XIFHhzo_LJCkEOEIMEc2SXYqzKxPrn01UU4C5zJSLEEc9vxXa4gP0jrBUSctKTBTs1uzkorYMg-SY30Rk-YrT5Edr3bI9JDiGniMnUsbzItrfL5EOtnm1woJZvBtmX0dmde-GlwjFtT_sIhYo0/w424-h640/Dark%20Mansion%20Pag%2033006.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Page 1 of a text story about re-incarnation</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">“The Psychic Blood-Hound” in </span><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Forbidden Tales of</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Dark Mansion #6</i> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">has probably omitted a introductory page featuring the host E. Leopold Maas, and there are obvious textual paste-ups on the splash page in a hand very unlike that of Kirby inker and letterer Mike Royer.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">But host Maas does appear inexplicably appear on the final page of the story.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A sample comparison of the final page of the story reveals these differences:</span></p><ol class="ol1"><li class="li1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The artwork has not been extended vertically to fill the 4-color comic book page - rather a text banner “MIND BENDING TALES” fills the white space at the top of the page</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thin border lines have been drawn around each panel, limiting Kirby’s deliberate use of negative space.</span></li><li class="li1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The final speech of Mass breaking the fourth wall, and talking to the reader has a line replaced. What was “THE SPIRIT WORLD !!!?” reads “A WORLD BEYOND !!!?”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></li><li class="li1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Page numbering inserted on color version.</span></li></ol><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguZ_KVnUR0OryTX_HUH2eBfZaIEFsJZilxsuxm8t0BFu3AJrET0R5g8RTuXifE3HZC2WGsnSE2QS8Wui6z9roFNQpWJ7kCQn8nkd79T964c3-5-OCvMLhIloZeaegSOrWxfgmIVg8FWd_W2PLAhMNG0GcJvhEw6_6-6Xp4p12rtnbI81dAcPBJ3MW_QAQ/s800/Spirit%20World%202%20-%20original%20art.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="594" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguZ_KVnUR0OryTX_HUH2eBfZaIEFsJZilxsuxm8t0BFu3AJrET0R5g8RTuXifE3HZC2WGsnSE2QS8Wui6z9roFNQpWJ7kCQn8nkd79T964c3-5-OCvMLhIloZeaegSOrWxfgmIVg8FWd_W2PLAhMNG0GcJvhEw6_6-6Xp4p12rtnbI81dAcPBJ3MW_QAQ/w477-h640/Spirit%20World%202%20-%20original%20art.jpg" width="477" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© DC. Original Artwork</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv9SqqwKv3OzUfZ39gxuEoDrgNoQG9Ymciimcho9tts1kXNosTNATFWbCys14QbUsMAt6diUm5ZGrLjzjhJD74Z8llRtlmvI2Sk61phurhfLBCqyGpHrSgknREZyO2q_O4CGDj7tpdrjNKfns7BqeFnFhyphenhyphenKt6ykHu5C7IkAGjg3rw0ousIa3PPf2C2zXk/s3018/Dark%20Mansion%20Pag%206006.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3018" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv9SqqwKv3OzUfZ39gxuEoDrgNoQG9Ymciimcho9tts1kXNosTNATFWbCys14QbUsMAt6diUm5ZGrLjzjhJD74Z8llRtlmvI2Sk61phurhfLBCqyGpHrSgknREZyO2q_O4CGDj7tpdrjNKfns7BqeFnFhyphenhyphenKt6ykHu5C7IkAGjg3rw0ousIa3PPf2C2zXk/w424-h640/Dark%20Mansion%20Pag%206006.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Artwork as appeared in Dark Mansion #6</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><h3 style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Weird Mystery #1</span></h3><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In <i>Weird Mystery #1</i>, Maas is replaced by a new host - Destiny - cooked up by Marv Wolfman (working as assistant editor to newly-appointed editor E Nelson Bridwell).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">A review of the splash page quickly identifies the original Kirby and Royer content on the right hand side, with the new picture of Destiny by Berni Wrightson. The text at the top is obviously not by Royer. Plus the credits have been omitted.</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">This is a great story, which features some great Kirby artwork which manages to combine his best action/gangster work with science-fiction concepts.</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Plus a two page text story by Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZYUO_GryMM20YwMQxg7Pt9bb3YhBPJHVInc52eG-jJobwheuACv6ITQQqADMAwkUqOWCMHbvLSG4_wXO3ZrjC98bbcVgOzBIsoCZiIhWPcFz09oHL0-q_beNekvmlZ7Fd8GMJnLn-cPdxSarxuvIfoKm-MaUr_VxF44In6bWbsC5l3QXxiaDpHIMS72s/s741/Snip20240105_10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="741" data-original-width="512" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZYUO_GryMM20YwMQxg7Pt9bb3YhBPJHVInc52eG-jJobwheuACv6ITQQqADMAwkUqOWCMHbvLSG4_wXO3ZrjC98bbcVgOzBIsoCZiIhWPcFz09oHL0-q_beNekvmlZ7Fd8GMJnLn-cPdxSarxuvIfoKm-MaUr_VxF44In6bWbsC5l3QXxiaDpHIMS72s/w442-h640/Snip20240105_10.png" width="442" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN8Fr49lhgawpfWHjV4xnyw_RB4HAAV1mzFGzNOnVzMHiSEMIwrmAWyTxLxTZ1WWggrtGbqx5Nxaglo1u_BOT42mAoHFHOexypQxbZ3zoyd6c8rfN0a8bkKxlow7hcmL1TM4iuF-lj2EzCtfgkQHk6iA4mJPBfg14TtzHCCsI_k6YQhpTt8In7TPpsc9I/s617/Snip20240105_6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="617" data-original-width="466" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN8Fr49lhgawpfWHjV4xnyw_RB4HAAV1mzFGzNOnVzMHiSEMIwrmAWyTxLxTZ1WWggrtGbqx5Nxaglo1u_BOT42mAoHFHOexypQxbZ3zoyd6c8rfN0a8bkKxlow7hcmL1TM4iuF-lj2EzCtfgkQHk6iA4mJPBfg14TtzHCCsI_k6YQhpTt8In7TPpsc9I/w484-h640/Snip20240105_6.png" width="484" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6oTssyf2jLgmNAuGuPTpeWtj0Yq8IW_OloEkBhqkpMZ5YeHA2gn51FwhWOZhNiJvCvuWAvNljF77g_guSHIqp_cxE6h00Jg2gPpb_yB2k0vBFO4KD2IGubG-_T6iJoXSqhS_0EtiofCApz3OSLyYFNXAOQgCl5KNOrSUSr5T90AfXtotL8SSK9HxTUJg/s695/Snip20240105_5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="695" data-original-width="465" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6oTssyf2jLgmNAuGuPTpeWtj0Yq8IW_OloEkBhqkpMZ5YeHA2gn51FwhWOZhNiJvCvuWAvNljF77g_guSHIqp_cxE6h00Jg2gPpb_yB2k0vBFO4KD2IGubG-_T6iJoXSqhS_0EtiofCApz3OSLyYFNXAOQgCl5KNOrSUSr5T90AfXtotL8SSK9HxTUJg/w428-h640/Snip20240105_5.png" width="428" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitkLmuJeC_EPaVBNmpDvhjDyFwNbXqTe4FcwcA5grpxS2DqyKtWyZCAUmEzNt604Fi14hicG9i-UAL5up1DqtpPTgUU6cTdrHUJSFC4BTJw3I7vjfnAlsse5KsFJGepdUSEGeVHS5OskWgg3CoSr5MJExE9_v9G9XWVYdlxXV4hQXMFz7OTE-UVWOGQa4/s704/Snip20240105_7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="704" data-original-width="474" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitkLmuJeC_EPaVBNmpDvhjDyFwNbXqTe4FcwcA5grpxS2DqyKtWyZCAUmEzNt604Fi14hicG9i-UAL5up1DqtpPTgUU6cTdrHUJSFC4BTJw3I7vjfnAlsse5KsFJGepdUSEGeVHS5OskWgg3CoSr5MJExE9_v9G9XWVYdlxXV4hQXMFz7OTE-UVWOGQa4/w430-h640/Snip20240105_7.png" width="430" /></a></div><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMsF433zeLZHlXcEZ6cjtY0b7S58cjtmHyuTkZTCBmZzPwobK6UT1xfNSGzlqojLMXGjLxiEKFuIdMA-4_QyocD4Qs1hBZHqVFHXDAshyphenhyphenLEL-HNIpWCkak0gcdsHzOqwjGV5ysuVJjIsqzAtamdqEOSh_QGjzxY4fe4BPtcpYVedfykXGSeE6XVur0o4/s703/Snip20240105_8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="703" data-original-width="474" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMsF433zeLZHlXcEZ6cjtY0b7S58cjtmHyuTkZTCBmZzPwobK6UT1xfNSGzlqojLMXGjLxiEKFuIdMA-4_QyocD4Qs1hBZHqVFHXDAshyphenhyphenLEL-HNIpWCkak0gcdsHzOqwjGV5ysuVJjIsqzAtamdqEOSh_QGjzxY4fe4BPtcpYVedfykXGSeE6XVur0o4/w432-h640/Snip20240105_8.png" width="432" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC First page of text story</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><h3 style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Weird Mystery #2</span></h3><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By issue #2 of <i>Weird Mystery</i>, the host Destiny has been ditched from introducing the story, which bears very little evidence of being altered for publication, other than coloured, and a brief superfluous insert of host Destiny in the final panel. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The story </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Toxl the World Killer!" </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">is closest in tone to Kirby’s New Gods saga of an ancient(or future) civilization, and is a cracking good read.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Also included is a two-page text article "They're Still Up There" about UFOs, which includes four Kirby collages. Obviously destined for Spirit World #2.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwH3ID2UTQZzf66sdUfPeXworkSU_alwGxr_WpSedN1MGvp1o0jMSoOGApBLKPBL52WApoTkd6XRIM3g6oZWhoASFOFrZtiXyCCzMVzqZ5sqbKUTtFpA3Of92rpumsacmGngx8qUjRP-YFF7gmj7flIKRZO9apjeBPPFC1hSNvjTH8ZNNnN6wz9_rUIY/s3032/Weird%20Mystery%20Tales%20cover%20002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3032" data-original-width="2039" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwH3ID2UTQZzf66sdUfPeXworkSU_alwGxr_WpSedN1MGvp1o0jMSoOGApBLKPBL52WApoTkd6XRIM3g6oZWhoASFOFrZtiXyCCzMVzqZ5sqbKUTtFpA3Of92rpumsacmGngx8qUjRP-YFF7gmj7flIKRZO9apjeBPPFC1hSNvjTH8ZNNnN6wz9_rUIY/w430-h640/Weird%20Mystery%20Tales%20cover%20002.jpg" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. The cover refers to the non-Kirby backup story</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKSRiFxdZA4DU_djHmD0w1HzO9Ipd0E424jB11fbBJU9ycVOO-2QyD6JuN23f1zvTWDYE-zK_5AgpS6Y69GkrS613sBVz_N2YQ7s8NTwSCeW1M4zENChneHh_y8bpyEyW2-HtmlD5v2Otv9w7S8h1jac5vLxXrJGS4u5b5urJArBlbRLzAmNuIPnkOmfg/s690/Snip20240105_9.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="477" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKSRiFxdZA4DU_djHmD0w1HzO9Ipd0E424jB11fbBJU9ycVOO-2QyD6JuN23f1zvTWDYE-zK_5AgpS6Y69GkrS613sBVz_N2YQ7s8NTwSCeW1M4zENChneHh_y8bpyEyW2-HtmlD5v2Otv9w7S8h1jac5vLxXrJGS4u5b5urJArBlbRLzAmNuIPnkOmfg/w442-h640/Snip20240105_9.png" width="442" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. </td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPW_SSHGxeHvGHJfVMeRb2Br9bfpuaN3ncecAz-26fISQbTHvO29nTAvp5MeOTRPZudsMvHw8eC80HQ26GbAuKxSs_3dcwQBjqBGl1L-KMrRJpvffWtez82QgDePeuDU_h9K24o5I0GbaWlkWSy_v6dUD5z_GVGTvw2KADIb_UVkDm4Sd9d6CnlUMZ2U0/s689/Snip20240105_11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="689" data-original-width="459" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPW_SSHGxeHvGHJfVMeRb2Br9bfpuaN3ncecAz-26fISQbTHvO29nTAvp5MeOTRPZudsMvHw8eC80HQ26GbAuKxSs_3dcwQBjqBGl1L-KMrRJpvffWtez82QgDePeuDU_h9K24o5I0GbaWlkWSy_v6dUD5z_GVGTvw2KADIb_UVkDm4Sd9d6CnlUMZ2U0/w426-h640/Snip20240105_11.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© DC. Final panel of story with superfluous appearance of Destiny</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiREy2exk1J5G-xZk4mE1l9LYGunRXo7fhhCmRxTtHMU7QWsn2codzuFbSzCH91Yo55btimFuR3PlHkIN9sw67MNmcMMrJ0_Rw1B9oyPtUdY9d0zI5G4oX4x9KA7Q5vrn1ClENL615ZIw6bFHb7lM4wEJNJjWfZeGTKzOLRqn-2lmUPWaDjcJ_8T8Yzn2M/s1033/Spirit%20World%202%20-%20text%20story%20-%20Weird%20Tales%202.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="722" data-original-width="1033" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiREy2exk1J5G-xZk4mE1l9LYGunRXo7fhhCmRxTtHMU7QWsn2codzuFbSzCH91Yo55btimFuR3PlHkIN9sw67MNmcMMrJ0_Rw1B9oyPtUdY9d0zI5G4oX4x9KA7Q5vrn1ClENL615ZIw6bFHb7lM4wEJNJjWfZeGTKzOLRqn-2lmUPWaDjcJ_8T8Yzn2M/w400-h280/Spirit%20World%202%20-%20text%20story%20-%20Weird%20Tales%202.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Text article on UFOs intended for Spirit World #2</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h3 style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Weird Mystery #3</span></h3><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In <i>Weird Mystery</i> issue #3 “The Burners”, spontaneous combustion is the topic. By this time Destiny has been dropped completely as the story host, and the story appears unchanged from Kirby's original artwork, except for borders being added to the comic panels. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The story contains a one-page Kirby collage which I suspect was inserted into the story to increase the page count. The text does not look to be in the distinctive lettering style of Mike Royer. It looks more like Artie Simek (although unlikely) or Jack himself. The initial letter "T" is not Royer's style.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQpR1yZgrv4sC26N0azJu_a710ZMSX1chGoHFtD8aUsy1Mem79iMG5aWCYrCELyAbYYJdGwfg0BNRE-wZFX5jMPAQM3NbMdYKJcZsUQ3FmA8bVhnIZUs6JF9LBDZyoxQHWhOrbXKY_Vzm9pd-lAOVu4Rqv0rJg2R7lisos7nkzahusMagiO83EB7tLX2Y/s3032/Weird%20Mystery%20Tales%20cover%20003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3032" data-original-width="2039" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQpR1yZgrv4sC26N0azJu_a710ZMSX1chGoHFtD8aUsy1Mem79iMG5aWCYrCELyAbYYJdGwfg0BNRE-wZFX5jMPAQM3NbMdYKJcZsUQ3FmA8bVhnIZUs6JF9LBDZyoxQHWhOrbXKY_Vzm9pd-lAOVu4Rqv0rJg2R7lisos7nkzahusMagiO83EB7tLX2Y/w430-h640/Weird%20Mystery%20Tales%20cover%20003.jpg" width="430" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7-rwwCTwsKyDWmN0tMdf3hWN5AV9Tau4AtprstywbHZKXKKsY1E1XkxWeKaRRKBssyHAtJ07XDnTGOFeZU_fuJ-58BosqWCfs1EI-KrN7KS7mXsO8yu2-jjtEDiEY7iPdfTnCpT7KBMDvBLsX-FN7_VH0AcBOvl9cKhyphenhyphen_d4hO3RIOvQ21_oRMNmyc4RU/s624/Snip20240105_12.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="624" data-original-width="462" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7-rwwCTwsKyDWmN0tMdf3hWN5AV9Tau4AtprstywbHZKXKKsY1E1XkxWeKaRRKBssyHAtJ07XDnTGOFeZU_fuJ-58BosqWCfs1EI-KrN7KS7mXsO8yu2-jjtEDiEY7iPdfTnCpT7KBMDvBLsX-FN7_VH0AcBOvl9cKhyphenhyphen_d4hO3RIOvQ21_oRMNmyc4RU/w474-h640/Snip20240105_12.png" width="474" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. A gruesome splash page from Weird Mystery #3 - love it!!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh-lr03j-RpOqiulnQAmHnVyNTi7-YWpSn1XqUmJyYw_iEvbyAtCbTATD6TS6Q3VSBjhjX3LoScYIC9XDb_W8LFhyaYHRIBvpIVBvmrsCQoWASB5XpzgaUZ7vrLowRHFQbWFO5U-BO7ycMwaP5zbrLPcovcWnfOm0O5JZAUvozazsP3fZXa1MgCN23Y9k/s708/Snip20240105_13.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="708" data-original-width="474" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh-lr03j-RpOqiulnQAmHnVyNTi7-YWpSn1XqUmJyYw_iEvbyAtCbTATD6TS6Q3VSBjhjX3LoScYIC9XDb_W8LFhyaYHRIBvpIVBvmrsCQoWASB5XpzgaUZ7vrLowRHFQbWFO5U-BO7ycMwaP5zbrLPcovcWnfOm0O5JZAUvozazsP3fZXa1MgCN23Y9k/w428-h640/Snip20240105_13.png" width="428" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© DC. Kirby collage inserted part way through the story. </td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><h3 style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Unused Content</span></h3><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A final piece of collage artwork intended for the inside back cover of Spirit World #2 was not published in these issues, but it shown below, courtesy of Heritage Auctions.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_nnV5S6INUNf56Bqu2IPL4X_JIA3SGndWccvIDmSCFlXqu-YkKOLudsIvl3roK3DR38NyQEXkXx5Li_uGPpGYMQMIpxUlQY-8bdcDwq_KHZLBGPa9zPH0CdMrccEy4AKyKez6lb7Ct1WqQRK-JDAXOJfHBsyR_W0B3rMjSshvJVRqaU0P7rwtoXbHpr0/s3000/Spirit%20World%202%20inside%20back%20cover.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2153" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_nnV5S6INUNf56Bqu2IPL4X_JIA3SGndWccvIDmSCFlXqu-YkKOLudsIvl3roK3DR38NyQEXkXx5Li_uGPpGYMQMIpxUlQY-8bdcDwq_KHZLBGPa9zPH0CdMrccEy4AKyKez6lb7Ct1WqQRK-JDAXOJfHBsyR_W0B3rMjSshvJVRqaU0P7rwtoXbHpr0/w460-h640/Spirit%20World%202%20inside%20back%20cover.jpeg" width="460" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Unused interior of back cover for Spirit World #2</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><h3 style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Was that all?</span></h3><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The reasoning of the publication of the stories reflects the editorial upheaval at the time of DC reducing the price and size of comic books in the middle of 1971 from 52-page 25 cents to 36-page 20 cents.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So what's the story behind burning off these Kirby treasures in a new Weird Mystery book, rather than holding the material back for a later collection?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the time of publication of <i>Dark Mansion #6</i>, that comic was in the process of being transformed from a "gothic romance" book to a "supernatural mystery" book. Dorothy Woolfolk is credited as the editor on issue #6, which with issue #7 would be transferred to Joe Orlando, for whom light supernatural books were his forte, and was in process of obtaining editorship of all of DC’s light-horror magazines. In the lettercol of #9, Orlando was quite forthright in explaining why the Spirit World stories had been raided for issue #6.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwceiIJyUQwe1fet20xrXmMpgC_4UNmpcOFRcpgm_ZP_veoKLUmReeOzjLAp2vgVmsuGjdVKbzLBJM1bl2gOWwjk7LwWUiSw-SHoZtS9b3baaT3kq699d7cp_rokkeYmcQ3-tYjsXM7raUdn2k3WhGrDBzD5uas5HV796Lf1-ZnJmSVb80L8K17_RLxmw/s1075/IMG_4053.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1075" data-original-width="977" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwceiIJyUQwe1fet20xrXmMpgC_4UNmpcOFRcpgm_ZP_veoKLUmReeOzjLAp2vgVmsuGjdVKbzLBJM1bl2gOWwjk7LwWUiSw-SHoZtS9b3baaT3kq699d7cp_rokkeYmcQ3-tYjsXM7raUdn2k3WhGrDBzD5uas5HV796Lf1-ZnJmSVb80L8K17_RLxmw/w364-h400/IMG_4053.jpeg" width="364" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joe Orlando explains the background to the inclusion of the Kirby story.</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Over at <i>Weird Mystery Tales</i>, E Nelson Bridwell was the editor on issue #1, assisted by Marc Wolfman. ENB continued as editor for the two following issues containing Kirby reprints, before turning over the editorial reins to Joe Orlando with issue #4.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The lettercols of issues #3,#4 and #5 were all praiseworthy of the Kirby stories, and all letter writers had divined that the content had been originally written for Spirit World #2.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So if the remaining stories appeared here, had Kirby written any other material before <i>Spirit World #1</i> in this supernatural vein? Certainly he had pencilled Monster books in the 1950s and worked on <i>Black Magic</i> horror comics before that, but where did this 1970s run start? Did Jack already have the idea for Spirit World before coming to DC?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The answer can be found in Marvel’s <i>Chamber of Darkness</i>, a late sixties supernatural anthology comic from Marvel. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">It does appear to me that the material in Spirit World is an extension of the ideas that Jack dabbled with in the Marvel book the previous year. I wonder if Jack already had the concept of Spirit World in mind when he produced two stories for Stan Lee?</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first story - <b>written and drawn</b> by Jack was in <i>Chamber of Darkness</i> #4 “The Monster”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(1970-01-20) . The splash page heralds </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">“A very special voyage into the Worlds of Weird”, a</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">bout a man afflicted by facial dysplasia (like The Elehpant Man) who appreciates fine music and is killed by the mob. I believe this was a story written by Kirby straight from the heart. There is no Leopold Mass to host the story, but there is an unseen</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">narrator who ends the story with “BUT WHAT OF MAN’s ANCIENT FEARS—HAVE THEY GONE AS WELL?”</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> It is o</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">nly a 6 page story, but the first writing credit at Marvel since “This is a plot?” in FF Annual #5 from 8/1967, and only the 3rd time he was credited as writer in all of the sixties at Marvel (the first time being Strange Tales #148 - Nick Fury “Death Before Dishonor” (Stan on vacation - Kirby layouts and script ; Don Heck pencils AND inks) hitting the stands in June 1966.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_iKgP6568z7TItwrsRPP8mQXe6SmYC9Do_tQcOae7qymXN23oqqIjTfzZ71kV6EJvCB1xUZvnNB2IMWuXX_OCgUDYl10QgdHFf6gPQ1qxsCAt0NlC66qadNq1-jwu4W32XfXqDsn5MTh9_ywOlSqtFISn0hbEhH917tELYrjnnet05WDSbW84pZU-0Kc/s549/Snip20240105_14.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="403" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_iKgP6568z7TItwrsRPP8mQXe6SmYC9Do_tQcOae7qymXN23oqqIjTfzZ71kV6EJvCB1xUZvnNB2IMWuXX_OCgUDYl10QgdHFf6gPQ1qxsCAt0NlC66qadNq1-jwu4W32XfXqDsn5MTh9_ywOlSqtFISn0hbEhH917tELYrjnnet05WDSbW84pZU-0Kc/w470-h640/Snip20240105_14.png" width="470" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC Splash page for The Monster</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the June 1970 (1970-03-24) edition of <i>Chamber of Darkness #5</i> (Jack Kirby <b>wrote and drew</b> the tale with inks by John Verpoorten) a pilot flying a U-2 plane crashes over Red China - eludes capture - and finds his way to a monastery when a mysterious stranger meets him to take him to the hereafter, as they both walk as ghosts through walls. I blogged about this story in an earlier post <a href="http://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2023/03/play-it-again-stan.html"><span class="s2" style="color: #dca10d;">http://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2023/03/play-it-again-stan.html</span></a></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This story was the last Kirby supernatural story before Spirit World #1. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwsNCtDWizcb6k_KW3dA0QI49gWg_5GKKqVdUgqfRUyMyoJoi5mcFtMJSz178t552j2QPgQux7PpTNvxALg580gx10ba_6RLzSNNDUPDuexS5vKLJvaDIq9u4w3V7BBB8RO3zBnZ_Vz4gHe_XMes_t96zLKO97cc_U-E688Iv51wgXEPlmBNCaaQ3hV_0/s1398/RCO002_1584033295.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1398" data-original-width="950" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwsNCtDWizcb6k_KW3dA0QI49gWg_5GKKqVdUgqfRUyMyoJoi5mcFtMJSz178t552j2QPgQux7PpTNvxALg580gx10ba_6RLzSNNDUPDuexS5vKLJvaDIq9u4w3V7BBB8RO3zBnZ_Vz4gHe_XMes_t96zLKO97cc_U-E688Iv51wgXEPlmBNCaaQ3hV_0/w434-h640/RCO002_1584033295.jpg" width="434" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjZEk6WkZktLM2EkwIgdZux4UpuV9RMK_t0Sa-fEpeyaTojtC4LwyVJemEl3V1-jmerZeWofT7PXV31nvCaOqhpDz4VPsqnfganG20TAL_JYhNf3616p48ECnb6Hd_kWF_pJVQMjNRZ0h5WbKCGBh5NYFfcd31-ffD_qzDABU5rrO2jpOPKklhTWypJK8/s1398/RCO007_1584033295.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1398" data-original-width="950" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjZEk6WkZktLM2EkwIgdZux4UpuV9RMK_t0Sa-fEpeyaTojtC4LwyVJemEl3V1-jmerZeWofT7PXV31nvCaOqhpDz4VPsqnfganG20TAL_JYhNf3616p48ECnb6Hd_kWF_pJVQMjNRZ0h5WbKCGBh5NYFfcd31-ffD_qzDABU5rrO2jpOPKklhTWypJK8/w434-h640/RCO007_1584033295.jpg" width="434" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Final page of "And Fear Shall Follow!"</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Kirby's stories as they appeared in <i>Weird Mystery</i> were to be the last </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">supernatural genre material that Kirby produced in his lifetime. If you're a completist (like me), I urge you to track down these four issues plus the two previous <i>Chamber of Darkness</i> issues and savour Kirby's last trek to the Spirit World.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And if you have the time and inclination (and photoshop) you can probably create your own facsimile copy of Spirit World #2!</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Incidentally there is a interesting video by the Jack Kirby Museum about Spirit World at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohXli_YPo8Q"><span class="s2" style="color: #dca10d;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohXli_YPo8Q</span></a></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">© Ian Baker</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-25403728114344005152023-11-26T16:21:00.000-06:002023-11-26T16:21:04.200-06:00Comics Unlimited #54 - coming in 2024!<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">by Nigel Brown</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFKPlEWHqNPvq5eiuooCb7MISptCkGBxeqi-pkbdZcK5v8RDpCCwneV3aUvFBEGHnFjD75WrgBM9CEoRSGm9BaxlLcGCl_xsNMKcVK7PlqDO_W2xeegJK-dhOb-47AZBoup0bqw8H79GH3O2_WsC5EaSSPxE4NmpPB-ljFvFRNlQzfHYa3p_eOFQn27pM/s447/Snip20231119_16.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="338" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFKPlEWHqNPvq5eiuooCb7MISptCkGBxeqi-pkbdZcK5v8RDpCCwneV3aUvFBEGHnFjD75WrgBM9CEoRSGm9BaxlLcGCl_xsNMKcVK7PlqDO_W2xeegJK-dhOb-47AZBoup0bqw8H79GH3O2_WsC5EaSSPxE4NmpPB-ljFvFRNlQzfHYa3p_eOFQn27pM/w303-h400/Snip20231119_16.png" width="303" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div>Now that Alan Austin’s posthumous book about comics and his story collection about bookselling have been published, the preparation of </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Comics Unlimited</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> No.54 is underway, again with the permission of Alan’s literary estate. As with his books, this is a non-profit project in Alan’s memory.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Comics Unlimited</i> No.54 will be the final issue of that fanzine, which will include a celebration of Alan’s immense contribution to UK fandom in the 1970s and early 1980s.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It will give an opportunity for any previous contributors to <i>Fantasy Unlimited</i> and/or <i>Comics Unlimited</i> to be back in the fanzine one last time, with personal memories and anecdotes about Alan, and letters to ‘Mail Unlimited’.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">For contributor guidelines, please send an inquiry to Nigel Brown at:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">nigelbrown47@aol.com</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Any contributions need to be received by 31st January 2024</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">----------------------------------------------------------------------</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Comics-Unlimited-Comic-Collector-Dealer/dp/B096TL8F9D" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="201" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk-g-m6CKlR4bSjyzCm1OJfyHPdPjwJl5pz3GWLydZDEs3fOg56OAcOL5XfNXa7k0F6UM4MVI_WCqHGLUBlwbfVtuo5Ty8xXHSVqnsOXcYilhOqwHTkb13I6e-YM5-d2NNua4Gby0RKqEK31RmyhsrKWyKA_W4tCPzjfsAzNMe9NNjA2DVTwDADvMWeHI/w86-h137/SS%20-%20CU%20book.png" width="86" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Comics Unlimited: My Life as a Comic Collector and Dealer</b></span><br /><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Alan Austin's memoir of life as a Comic Collector and Dealer is still available on Amazon, now with an index. Clicking the book cover link will take you to the book at the UK Amazon site, although it can be easily found on other country Amazon sites.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Bernie-Burrows-Bookseller/dp/B096TJLP2P" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="200" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsRIr4_pgyjjrX1YrLktt9SMD2cdXz8qMg6l3rTK3PyjmiMJu1KHYi5CdvXkobZeAZYXrcoNzd2i11QI2ThW0oaLzJtmUxIjJ9FIMdjifB8WtdYAHMeolrxnX6101b-wm3eoZ3NdIVMXnhNUzGuQD4ucVcOMo0Im-YuT71oz4-0jiga1WVeaePcKN5dak/w89-h142/SS%20CU%20Bernie.png" width="89" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>The Adventures of Bernie Burrows, Bookseller</b><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Alan's book of short stories about bookseller Bernie Burrows is a very entertaining read, and is inspired by his years as a bookseller of crime fiction. Again, clicking the cover icon will take you to the UK Amazon site, although it can be found on any country Amazon site.</span></div>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-53599534594184714122023-11-22T17:35:00.000-06:002023-11-22T17:35:40.385-06:00Overlooked Gems : Sugar and Spice #99<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAr9fBbEUGmI8kJDfxT9Ao5lNJOFUOZB5Czwen3XqpH7zxTupphjBojziQ8O12LFVubSktNJSR9kwWgc7baCZM1Qupd3FwmQ8sbzgqkoKqVCA4gNTar51a2lsb_wGPsSdl_atioGg4jGe9a9JnbwJWnFFswwozfRm8N5zXRBkVhYbqFDyh6d16rnAXmzE/s3008/Sugar%20and%20Spike%20%23099.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3008" data-original-width="1938" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAr9fBbEUGmI8kJDfxT9Ao5lNJOFUOZB5Czwen3XqpH7zxTupphjBojziQ8O12LFVubSktNJSR9kwWgc7baCZM1Qupd3FwmQ8sbzgqkoKqVCA4gNTar51a2lsb_wGPsSdl_atioGg4jGe9a9JnbwJWnFFswwozfRm8N5zXRBkVhYbqFDyh6d16rnAXmzE/w412-h640/Sugar%20and%20Spike%20%23099.jpg" width="412" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC 1992. Sugar and Spike #99</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This past Sunday afternoon I purchased a real gem of comic history in immaculate condition for 50 cents (it was 50% off weekend at my LCS, Graham Cracker Comics) instead of the usual $1. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">The original price of the comic was $1 US/60p UK thirty-one years ago, so I picked up a bargain.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The comic in question was <i>Sugar and Spike</i> #99, printed under <i>DC’s Silver Age Classics</i> reprint banner, hitting the stands on Feb 18th 1992.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sugar and Spike comics are very difficult to pick up in decent condition due to the fact that “kid’s comics” were generally read and re-read and passed around until they fell apart and few have survived as reading copies, let along collectible editions.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A cursory inspection of eB*y shows that good quality back issues up until issue #98 published in 1971 are very rare, and a look specifically at eB*y’s UK storefront shows very few Sugar and Spikes that may have made it to the UK in the sixties and early seventies. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I saw only one comic for sale with a T&P stamp for 5p. The Comic Book Price Guide for Great Britain states that Sugar & Spike was imported into the UK from issue #25 Nov 1959, but copies to be found in the UK are either "scarce, very scarce, or rare". <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I cannot remember ever seeing a copy on the spinner racks of my youth in England.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But somehow <i>Sugar and Spike</i> #99 gets priced as if it is a reprint issue (about £2 GBP), whereas it is in fact <b><u>a genuine first edition of all new content</u></b>. </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sugar and Spike had suspended publication back in 1971 due to the failing eyesight of creator Shelly Mayer. In the early 1990's, following Mayer's successful cataract surgery, there was a plan</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> to re-launch the Sugar and Spike title, picking up the numbering after #98 (Cover Date Oct/Nov 1971), but due to the untimely death of creator Shelly Mayer, the only issue ( targeted for #99 ) was published as one of the ten issues selected as a DC Silver Age Classic to commemorate the end of comic printing at the World Color Press in Sparta, Illinois after a period of 37 years, with the move to new printing presses.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It was the only comic in that ten-issue series with new content, and thus was the <b>LAST ALL-NEW DC comic printed at Sparta</b>!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Why isn’t this comic in huge demand???? It is a landmark publication.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Go out and buy this issue! <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Seriously, the four pages of editorial matter and reminiscences by Don & Maggie Thompson, Anthony Tollin, Denny O’Neil, Dick Giordano, Paul Kupperberg and Bill Gaines of Mad magazine at the back of the comic detailing Shelly Mayer’s immense contribution to comics history (he recommended Superman as the strip to debut in Action #1) is worth the price of admission alone.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I wish you all a peaceful Thanksgiving, wherever you may be.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-25754775958428754592023-11-18T14:38:00.003-06:002023-11-18T20:24:50.147-06:00Will the real Jason Bard stand up?<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>And……..WE’RE BACK!!</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Apologies for the delay between blogs but sometimes life and other pursuits get in the way.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And sometimes it’s just writer’s block.</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdwd_VrOipIooIgz_euqGuVJ7-fMslPmZztZrZ01F-YGCWHdHj5SbAY_bKkaL5lzBUBR6w2ylUiW_Mp_O36TV2guqhWvkNlqAxo5erdlalv0T4F4SiY7LHmoMgpnxGKmOSwPhDcbbf9HGRRflthBRRmTBiiNx_2MMgVMTTwJtRZqPILGHVnoQgosiRO4M/s427/SS%20Evolution%20of%20Jason%20Bard.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="271" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdwd_VrOipIooIgz_euqGuVJ7-fMslPmZztZrZ01F-YGCWHdHj5SbAY_bKkaL5lzBUBR6w2ylUiW_Mp_O36TV2guqhWvkNlqAxo5erdlalv0T4F4SiY7LHmoMgpnxGKmOSwPhDcbbf9HGRRflthBRRmTBiiNx_2MMgVMTTwJtRZqPILGHVnoQgosiRO4M/w406-h640/SS%20Evolution%20of%20Jason%20Bard.png" width="406" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. The evolution of Jason Bard from establishment square to hip cool dude</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’ve had an interest in private detective literature for many years, and have often wondered why comics do not seem to have created a lasting Private Eye protagonist. Reading Raymond Chandler’s famous lines defining the Private Eye, it is hard to see how the classical definition could translate effectively to the comics page,</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> perhaps because the main characteristics of the protagonists are to be beaten up and lead an interior life.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“He will take no man’s money dishonestly and no man’s insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“The story is this man’s adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in.”</p></blockquote><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There have been many attempts over the years - from Slam Bradley in the Golden Age, through Steranko’s Chandler to Nathaniel Dusk more recently. In the early 70s DC brought us Jason Bard, one of two unique creations from Frank Robbins for DC (the other creation being Man-Bat, developed in collaboration with Neal Adams).</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The first Jason Bard story was published at a time when Batman fans were catching the scent that something “big” was going to happen, which in a few months time was to be revealed as Dick Grayson heading to college and Bruce Wayne moving to an apartment in Gotham.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Robbins had been writing stories over on the Batman title for a year, and the lead Batman story in Detective for a similar period.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As far as the fans were concerned, most had no clue that the Frank Robbins who was writing Batman and Detective was the same artist and creator of a famous newspaper strip. Jason Bard bears very little resemblance to Robbins’ signature hero Johnny Hazard.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The choice of the name Bard (i.e. The Bard) is presumably a play on the name of other famous Private Eyes (Marlowe, Spenser) whose surnames held literary allusions.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Robbins was a great film buff, with 600 to 700 movies on tape (according to his widow Fran Rowe Robbins in an interview in <i>Comic Book Creator #1</i>). Film Noir was one of his favourite genres and so it is no surprise that he chose a private detective as his first creation at DC comics, debuting in the Batgirl backup story Detective Comics #392 (Oct 1969).</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim4lUKX4l7cYPaVChwYjblMobhOUSvS3kIXKrMJI86SBtIL1eXI2wOtLehJk8XxVCJlPFCbIy8c1jpPxwRGN5H61-iPj1Q0mSvs9UEC52M4bDFRHygXlB8vPdDQ2M9wx0DKq2PQPtT9JiJ5RVu2BFUxt4m0tCjf4CuXys0yRQWMnpV8tajxAp1u4j49wk/s707/Snip20231118_8.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="707" data-original-width="477" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim4lUKX4l7cYPaVChwYjblMobhOUSvS3kIXKrMJI86SBtIL1eXI2wOtLehJk8XxVCJlPFCbIy8c1jpPxwRGN5H61-iPj1Q0mSvs9UEC52M4bDFRHygXlB8vPdDQ2M9wx0DKq2PQPtT9JiJ5RVu2BFUxt4m0tCjf4CuXys0yRQWMnpV8tajxAp1u4j49wk/w432-h640/Snip20231118_8.png" width="432" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© DC. Cover of 'Tec #392 with no promotion of Batgirl/Jason Bard</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The lead-in to Detective #392 (Oct 1969) was a gangland based Batman story, which set the tone for the unheralded introduction of Jason Bard in “A Clue…..Seven Feet Tall”, in part one of an 8-page Batgirl back-up a story written by Robbins, drawn by Gil Kane and inked by Murphy Anderson - quite a power team for an unheralded intro.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDdFBYCHk-XFxd3oI7-OTHoXeZjcycq_WtVsMZbBm-Qc_JBjWEEU0uPpkpiZONlHP8uhi7lb4PvkfyNsGYRm1BktdClNkDeKDRpsp8EQKpMKqjgy8pRw_yvBMXLPKh7JkAg4vmnDxUs-RsbSCQQU8F-zBEa_SZGPyP_M_-njU2kY9lB-_etQ6QgR5diNc/s664/Snip20231118_9.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="466" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDdFBYCHk-XFxd3oI7-OTHoXeZjcycq_WtVsMZbBm-Qc_JBjWEEU0uPpkpiZONlHP8uhi7lb4PvkfyNsGYRm1BktdClNkDeKDRpsp8EQKpMKqjgy8pRw_yvBMXLPKh7JkAg4vmnDxUs-RsbSCQQU8F-zBEa_SZGPyP_M_-njU2kY9lB-_etQ6QgR5diNc/w450-h640/Snip20231118_9.png" width="450" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>Kane’s artwork is top-notch, with Barbara Gordon looking a lot like Mary Jane from Kane’s Spider-Man days.</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bard is introduced as a disabled ex Vietnam vet with a knee injury (he needs a cane to get around), ex Marine Recruiter, now studying criminology . Babs observes that fictional disabled investigators can be very successful - "Max Carrados , Nero Wolfe, Ironside…"<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8B9BCnHzyjlZJiqVh7hajuv0xCaIcZyJZoBDJlsm22SyTmQzXexv0nKWlNmPS7ysjZ9EZD81tWNgt3JWmu26iHUnX54ose5hHkCXG3Fe7d1nPG4E09TuVFtoLuNl9D2KrYqpC6Te0dk4beTshI8ct1trU1_urQB4mRp5oPUqR5eQbSQcjKi7WECTcVjk/s464/SS%20Detective%20392%20Babs%20and%20Jason%20Bard.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="147" data-original-width="464" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8B9BCnHzyjlZJiqVh7hajuv0xCaIcZyJZoBDJlsm22SyTmQzXexv0nKWlNmPS7ysjZ9EZD81tWNgt3JWmu26iHUnX54ose5hHkCXG3Fe7d1nPG4E09TuVFtoLuNl9D2KrYqpC6Te0dk4beTshI8ct1trU1_urQB4mRp5oPUqR5eQbSQcjKi7WECTcVjk/w400-h126/SS%20Detective%20392%20Babs%20and%20Jason%20Bard.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Establishment Square JB tries a hip line on our Babs Gordon</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Later in the story Batgirl saves Jason’s hide because his trick knee gives way. Only 8 pages and ends on a sort-of cliffhanger. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The second part of the story (Detective 393) was again 8 pages. Jason Bard goofs again - his trick knee again causes him to fall, and Batgirl again saves the day.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So Bard is introduced as a non-threatening foil for Batgirl. A bit of a square who affects of hip lingo, taken to wearing formal brown or green suits, with potential for an Ellery-Queen like “Did you spot the clue?” breaking of the fourth wall.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Reader response to Bard’s debut in the lettercol of Detective #396 was muted. Gary Skinner of Columbus, Ohio liked Batgirl being a secondary character and applauded Robbins’ writing. Bernard Williams gave a vote of confidence for Jason Bard returning, but all in all, Bard’s debut was not a big splash.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next Batgirl back-up in the same issue (Detective #396) was again graced by great artwork from Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This time Jason asks Barbara Gordon out on a date, but this time Babs gives Jason the brush-off. Perhaps she doesn’t like his brown suit. She’s focused on the trail of the Orchid Killer in a 9-page part-one.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In issue #397 Bard intervenes again to save Batgirl, only to mess things up when his trick-knee fails. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bard later confesses he followed Barbara out of jealousy that she might be seeing someone else. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Already the trick-knee gimmick has outworn it’s welcome, and it is clear that the character of Bard needs major retooling. </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The lettercol in Detective #401 virtually ignored the Batgirl/Bard story from four months earlier.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>All focus was on the teaming of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams on the Batman lead story in #397. Steve Beery of Alma, Michigan noted that Bard always appears as a bumbler.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It was seven months later when Bard returned in the Batgirl backup in Dec #404 (Oct 1970) “Midnight Doom-Boy”.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This time art is by Gill Kane and Frank Giocoia. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Giacoia does nothing for Gil Kane’s artwork - Kane would have hated it. In the later lettercol Steve Beery wrote “Frank Giacoia’s inks seem to reduce Gil Kane’s active, fluid pencils to choppy rubble.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In this story, Batgirl is now breaking the forth wall as well, talking to the audience. This would become a recurring motif in the Bard stories. Babs inexplicably now seems to have taken a shine to Jason Bard, as she finds Bard is framed for Murder. Jason Bard’s makeover has him now as a cool dude working undercover (presumably as a gay male hustler), wearing a cowboy jacket like Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy. I don't recall Philip Marlowe resorting to this. We find Babs in tears half the time, worrying about our now-cool undercover P.I.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ2AV4IbMJSZ58x5EbFKg9Aj9g0h3vQutNLm_m3_b3QILYRJYcV8aWBoJJaXHz4a-S8p6Gfgr87uSKVjMzRQsNrROIzu4FFJRPJ-E2pLEmUeCBZSwuKvKRpimPuaBohGM4cc0iC4QogjlY2H8UfjucEQUTPzMoRzaOsrD7qwWl4lfhz5qlexniffr6Jm4/s420/Snip20231118_10.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="420" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ2AV4IbMJSZ58x5EbFKg9Aj9g0h3vQutNLm_m3_b3QILYRJYcV8aWBoJJaXHz4a-S8p6Gfgr87uSKVjMzRQsNrROIzu4FFJRPJ-E2pLEmUeCBZSwuKvKRpimPuaBohGM4cc0iC4QogjlY2H8UfjucEQUTPzMoRzaOsrD7qwWl4lfhz5qlexniffr6Jm4/w400-h345/Snip20231118_10.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. What's with "A Strangely Changed Jason..."?</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next second part of the tale appears in issue #405, “The Living Statue”. Needless to say, Batgirl saves the day and secures the proof to get Bard sprung from jail in the final two panels, which seem to bear </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">little resemblance to Gil Kane's usual artwork, as though they were hurriedly redrawn to close out the case.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is over a year until Bard appears again in the pages of Detective, taking us to July 1972, having skipped completely over the "25 cent/48 page" DC era.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb6r_MwZipOYtZvzcD6x1qNsvA4IWXHNfixvcsPFsrrm5WPhJHzvU6ql5mKJgMuK_iEH6nOyHLgtIma-QoWQRbSJAyo9SwmB89n_zeUkC63gBxm5HVUM9GjoEAq-YUNNPuSssV9sjvqXokVKOl2sLMcCmvmSc0pqJJgFPUdSWSA3V1tUNhCwHmsAwnim4/s573/Snip20231118_11.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="573" data-original-width="385" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb6r_MwZipOYtZvzcD6x1qNsvA4IWXHNfixvcsPFsrrm5WPhJHzvU6ql5mKJgMuK_iEH6nOyHLgtIma-QoWQRbSJAyo9SwmB89n_zeUkC63gBxm5HVUM9GjoEAq-YUNNPuSssV9sjvqXokVKOl2sLMcCmvmSc0pqJJgFPUdSWSA3V1tUNhCwHmsAwnim4/w430-h640/Snip20231118_11.png" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Jason Bard gets his own series in Detective #425</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In Detective #425, Bard gets his own backup series "</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Master Crime-File of Jason Bard.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">", with Batgirl relegated to being a supporting character.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> This is the first of six cases which redefine the character - the “Open and Shut Case’</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjRvaXyRZ3oWBVK5pS-ukfzw2YcEOImcGfnmRdLG8OQDxzo-H46LGTdJ7r_Ve4fPHit2EKM_TqVrSR9TTsdgy03rIGsiJ5PVwVJD8qlByZb2wWyre7iNYt6AFW0TbeX3jOtblMuGk3OsXQkrcCQmtcTbPCYvsWVWUm8ormZAboRcwcATfH-XYn9JfuydQ/s500/Snip20231118_12.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="500" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjRvaXyRZ3oWBVK5pS-ukfzw2YcEOImcGfnmRdLG8OQDxzo-H46LGTdJ7r_Ve4fPHit2EKM_TqVrSR9TTsdgy03rIGsiJ5PVwVJD8qlByZb2wWyre7iNYt6AFW0TbeX3jOtblMuGk3OsXQkrcCQmtcTbPCYvsWVWUm8ormZAboRcwcATfH-XYn9JfuydQ/w400-h243/Snip20231118_12.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Detective 425. Our Jason has been hitting the gym</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In this first story our Jason has obviously been working out as he jumps out of the sofabed in his P.I. office. He now dons a trendy shirt, but still matched with a tie, and pipe. But now sporting a longer 70s haircut replete with long sideburns. "Fan favourite" (ahem) Don Heck is on the art chores.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bard gets involved in a case of a woman asking Bard to deal with her brother who has gone mad. In time-honoured fashion, we find that a f</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">emme fatale was the true villain, and the story ends with a “did you spot the clue” moment for the audience.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Case-file #2 in Detective #427 was titled “I Wake Up Dying”. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It starts <i>in medias res</i> with Bard fighting his way from drowning in the back of a sealed truck as the vehicle sinks into the water, and recalling how he got there. The story moves at a cracking pace towards its resolution. Don Heck gives the artwork his best shot. Again there is a clue for the readership to spot, and (spoiler) the wife was the murderer.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Detective #429 letter col had praise from Mike W Barr opining that "The Open and Shut Case" was the best <b><i>short </i></b>detective story since Elongated Man. All writers asked for Heck to be teamed with a good inker.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This issue had “Case of the Loaded Case’ (#3) . Joe Giella was teamed on inks, which was an improvement on Heck’s scratchy style.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Again there was a clue for the reader to find</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyCvwis5dRgftwafRUK9Iw-AYp-IC3o-Yufrlwz44uDADk5MGS0xpOsGnuun08ur1pX5C2k1ysIJS0gmpsyXeykRvAhWepcgjrKpAASpD-0mKgVr8SKHMq0dN5Gs3SY_QcrbDKQEviJ1Y5gWkC8_qUFcN9dG-oDn13chFf73h-EfJdCClWnWpOvZofPY/s716/Snip20231118_13.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="473" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyCvwis5dRgftwafRUK9Iw-AYp-IC3o-Yufrlwz44uDADk5MGS0xpOsGnuun08ur1pX5C2k1ysIJS0gmpsyXeykRvAhWepcgjrKpAASpD-0mKgVr8SKHMq0dN5Gs3SY_QcrbDKQEviJ1Y5gWkC8_qUFcN9dG-oDn13chFf73h-EfJdCClWnWpOvZofPY/w422-h640/Snip20231118_13.png" width="422" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Detective #433. Would you know Murphy Anderson inked this?</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Detective #431 featured the story "Crime on My Hands" , this time teaming<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Don Heck and Murphy Anderson. The same team worked on "Case of the Forged Face" in Detective #433. </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> Even </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Anderson’s famous style was no match for Heck's scratchy pencils and awkward poses.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu4DCgrwzNDXG-Vjt5VZpY9KRZbmUKwdHvZU6fAdDdFbOIVcI-_RmpCsCDBqXhiZPAeotXdaquBlT_vcRd6nRnvKsAV-aLr0txD0DXfj789JP18ASxhry-MateR-ODhOCIsKdvgLQDBxLNh-ARBSRCM77StEP_HFZxt6Nfh388TkJEakO2ZfkNQjquP1A/s694/Snip20231118_14.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="694" data-original-width="472" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu4DCgrwzNDXG-Vjt5VZpY9KRZbmUKwdHvZU6fAdDdFbOIVcI-_RmpCsCDBqXhiZPAeotXdaquBlT_vcRd6nRnvKsAV-aLr0txD0DXfj789JP18ASxhry-MateR-ODhOCIsKdvgLQDBxLNh-ARBSRCM77StEP_HFZxt6Nfh388TkJEakO2ZfkNQjquP1A/w436-h640/Snip20231118_14.png" width="436" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC . Frank Robbins story plus art. Great Stuff. Detective #435</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And so finally we come to Detective #435 “Case of the Dead-On Target”, written AND drawn by Frank Robbins himself. We now see what Robbins was hoping to achieve all along. Bard is finally a cool dude - wearing a light blazer.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Great artwork from Robbins - for the first time a really FUN Jason Bard story, not a little inspired by Johnny Hazard. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Only seven pages long, it concerns the murder of a skydiver witnessed by Bard. Without being too obvious, the murderer aheres to Private Detective literary conventions.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTLQdHeDEmdU18iAsCiYu4mYmrS6PrKl263JDYUlKro2iy7N_TE_GU5mbRC6sozz6LO5UGptc5OYxi5XQ97fRTPwjuhPxC1BoNgyf7iaVSWZrXIQrVMmj1GbGExx_nB_T-uN7qNEpKpqdM6gIgslkJoczNXirpbaa-MTRCet6UACXyXFCJ-2ztG5ubgXQ/s697/Snip20231118_15.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="697" data-original-width="468" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTLQdHeDEmdU18iAsCiYu4mYmrS6PrKl263JDYUlKro2iy7N_TE_GU5mbRC6sozz6LO5UGptc5OYxi5XQ97fRTPwjuhPxC1BoNgyf7iaVSWZrXIQrVMmj1GbGExx_nB_T-uN7qNEpKpqdM6gIgslkJoczNXirpbaa-MTRCet6UACXyXFCJ-2ztG5ubgXQ/w430-h640/Snip20231118_15.png" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC Love the black humour and innovative angles on this page</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span>But it was to be the last story with with Bard headlining his own strip, and the penultimate with Robbins’ involvement. </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Archie Goodwin took over Detective with #437, with the comic dropping to bi-monthly ; the lettercol was devoted to Goodwin talking about plans and the need to revamp the comic’s direction, and carried no comments on Robbins' superlative Jason Bard story.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>With issue #438, the comic went to 100-pages and again the lettercol was devoted to discussing why.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>So #439 was the first issue to discuss previous Detective stories in the lettercol, which focused on #437, the first in the new look.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Robbins did bring Bard back one more time as a supporting character in Batman #252 in October, and that was that. Soon</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> Robbins was to move over to Marvel, leaving his Jason Bard creation (along with his Neal Adams co-creation Man-Bat) behind in the hands of lesser talents.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">After Robbins’ departure, DC never really knew what to do with Jason Bard, other than using him as a supporting character in various Batman stories by other writers, with the last appearance being in Batman and The Outsiders #16 in 1984, thirty-nine years ago.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Re-reading Detective #435, I would have loved to have seen more Jason Bard stories written & drawn by the great Frank Robbins. DC missed a trick.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">© Ian Baker</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-673588728097214402023-07-08T12:38:00.000-05:002023-07-08T12:38:12.026-05:00All in Colo(u)r For A Dime<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEpDGjHpCDyi9UvSluklz41rv39ky9GU5zV1EfljPLZzxDWK2dy8nk5ELangLCvugKdS710kaSVpQC_wAstHAUGwHYbc8HAKH2a3PCeO4Z9pPDHrHsVI6_EnPOy5usQZdAOrVa4IRNeNJtye1K9QVlsTCxGa1TLSNoLd-QIguw9CEgtcfuhtjmQiZfDOY/s3135/IMG_3342.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3135" data-original-width="1853" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEpDGjHpCDyi9UvSluklz41rv39ky9GU5zV1EfljPLZzxDWK2dy8nk5ELangLCvugKdS710kaSVpQC_wAstHAUGwHYbc8HAKH2a3PCeO4Z9pPDHrHsVI6_EnPOy5usQZdAOrVa4IRNeNJtye1K9QVlsTCxGa1TLSNoLd-QIguw9CEgtcfuhtjmQiZfDOY/w378-h640/IMG_3342.jpeg" width="378" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© ACE. My original paperback copy.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0DXnmIuEY9Rs0H6fn4DDQW87R6FXsgTWiQZBGZ2dlGrMvEejfX-NO-QV27JRN-sHqI8feJra3a1Uvl66l8zhdM0hTJcj5dZ1bufQ32NnQ-QtXMWdFkoELvXS5oEIjt56xg7BByom2UTFK7PbQQzSxmo8F9RFFeJNJuZOmmd-wnzv8r8oNAgBOjABnX4A/s351/I%20Baker%20blog%20Standard.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="351" height="43" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0DXnmIuEY9Rs0H6fn4DDQW87R6FXsgTWiQZBGZ2dlGrMvEejfX-NO-QV27JRN-sHqI8feJra3a1Uvl66l8zhdM0hTJcj5dZ1bufQ32NnQ-QtXMWdFkoELvXS5oEIjt56xg7BByom2UTFK7PbQQzSxmo8F9RFFeJNJuZOmmd-wnzv8r8oNAgBOjABnX4A/w43-h43/I%20Baker%20blog%20Standard.png" width="43" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Back when I started seriously collecting American comics as a twelve-year-old around 1971, I quickly became aware that there was thirty-plus years of comics history that I’d missed at that point. Whereas I’d picked various Batman comics back around the time of the Batman TV series, and knew then that I liked the 80-page Giant reprint comics much better than the then currently-new items, it did not really dawn on my seven-year-old brain in 1966 that the stories in those Giants that I really liked (especially Batman drawn by Dick Sprang) came from a previous era.</span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So when DC began putting reprints into the back pages of 25-cent comics in the period Aug 1971-Jul 1972, my awareness of the depth of comic history became more acute, and I was eager to pick up any book that shed light on that mysterious “Golden” age, particularly if it reprinted comic covers.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first historical work I purchased was the Ace paperback version of <i>All in Color For A Dime</i>, by Dick Lupoff & Don Thompson. Although the original publication of the hard-back was in 1970, I reckon that I obtained my paperback copy in 1974 from <i>Dark They Were & Golden Eyed</i> in Berwick St, Soho. I certainly enjoyed looking at the colour cover reproductions in the book, but somehow the dense, small print and tightly-bound margins dissuaded me from settling down to read it cover to cover. So the book sat on my bookshelf at my mother’s house well into the late 80s, then moved to a shelf in in our family home in Southampton in the 90s, before being packed away in a crate for the past 23 years.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This week I decided to sit down to read the book - still pristine - but was unwilling to risk cracking the spine. So I looked for a hardback copy of the original publication on eB*y, and was lucky enough to get a decent copy for $25, and have settled down to read the robustly bound hardback.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsMZPWLQWrHTBBpNs-KXYSx5iamoHc20MKT--RSs-nGgM1i7-6s-swkMDRvgY9Yd3Sv-Q-ODfA4z2Y05pyXltuVkF_R4D7TfGlgCuVOQdOb_KucRQcPqnjo9DljWilzZZoviH5yxhpE8Pogj4BbovAbkqOEZOjt8cbUvpflNilUrpVps5MXW8l_1PUQYE/s3732/IMG_3343.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3732" data-original-width="2636" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsMZPWLQWrHTBBpNs-KXYSx5iamoHc20MKT--RSs-nGgM1i7-6s-swkMDRvgY9Yd3Sv-Q-ODfA4z2Y05pyXltuVkF_R4D7TfGlgCuVOQdOb_KucRQcPqnjo9DljWilzZZoviH5yxhpE8Pogj4BbovAbkqOEZOjt8cbUvpflNilUrpVps5MXW8l_1PUQYE/w452-h640/IMG_3343.jpeg" width="452" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Arlington House. The hardback cover from 1970</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">What a brilliant book! Written at a time before people wrote in terms of the “Bronze Age”, it is essentially a set of eleven essays written by serious comic fans back in the late sixties, covering the genesis of the US comics industry and the various elements of its evolution. Plus some great cover repros! Of the essay writers, it is fun to read Roy Thomas as a fan who became a full-time comics professional, although final essay-writer Harlan Ellison also had some claim to subsequent popular success.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bqIxxVeXcVT5BgjbelCq-kNwjqwFqULAuQs2_Td9U5F8gbQATay3FFQBb2quTuPqO20g55RlnpUfpH57nJATGlmLfjT9GIQyEuoGmxrS7-UfvdWlTEcMwQ2tVP0LDCO7cMkTwQZPYz3kaOayjNWjnvx910CslIagPQ-fTYZ5jtwXo_OOorfgGboJWBg/s4032/IMG_3344.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2862" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bqIxxVeXcVT5BgjbelCq-kNwjqwFqULAuQs2_Td9U5F8gbQATay3FFQBb2quTuPqO20g55RlnpUfpH57nJATGlmLfjT9GIQyEuoGmxrS7-UfvdWlTEcMwQ2tVP0LDCO7cMkTwQZPYz3kaOayjNWjnvx910CslIagPQ-fTYZ5jtwXo_OOorfgGboJWBg/w454-h640/IMG_3344.jpeg" width="454" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Contents on back cover.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">The fascination of the book for me, published in 1970,</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">is that it was written by people who had been collecting comics since the late 30s and early 40s, and had quite a different perspective on the target audience for comics. For example, the introduction by Lupoff & Thompson is quite firm in stating that comics are for children, but also read by adults, whereas newspaper strips were designed for adults, that would also be read by children. It is worth getting the book for their observations alone.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I also highly recommend the chapter called “The Spawn of M.C. Gaines” written by Ted White, which explores the origins of the American comic book from first reprinting newspaper strips to the creation of new material. Many you will be familiar with elements of the history, but I am yet to read a more concise and entertaining account. White writes at a time when Siegel & Shuster were still peripherally involved in the comics business, and is quite objective about the lack of professionalism in their early work, as his is about Bob Kane’s on Batman.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Anyway, if you have an interest (and do not already have the book), I urge you to track down a copy of the hardback version. You won’t be disappointed.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX0Ryeuxil7kH5JVQIAYzDCQS2PgclmyWQZlCRMqzs_LsB2yFck30btFxCKhUMWtdgLzs0gVBUKW-mUfzVHerolG-9VOqIrr6kMPq6rkYY3is4GQBt3lZgAUXTHQN9mmKqwOPNOkCqoixZR-wkx76u0CwRmKUjcBLR1K_I8Pn8USgIbAWDrBbJyUpkJrE/s4032/IMG_3345.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX0Ryeuxil7kH5JVQIAYzDCQS2PgclmyWQZlCRMqzs_LsB2yFck30btFxCKhUMWtdgLzs0gVBUKW-mUfzVHerolG-9VOqIrr6kMPq6rkYY3is4GQBt3lZgAUXTHQN9mmKqwOPNOkCqoixZR-wkx76u0CwRmKUjcBLR1K_I8Pn8USgIbAWDrBbJyUpkJrE/w480-h640/IMG_3345.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7gJlOtZXC626zGhxIujjsjQ51PaJi7AJZmwa7OudYvYsqO0vr4clp5sJxSJVYu26vmQgDjVcRRsTh3XwFnhEVjttSDxwMXsEe3Bu5ti3ynYJWOWkad8J_9lry1jJAn3Q7uaqisJCuyHQSuvxlbwYesObYNR_h5dI61EMT8EDCc_Uq1dApVV95bbNQkHo/s4032/IMG_3346.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7gJlOtZXC626zGhxIujjsjQ51PaJi7AJZmwa7OudYvYsqO0vr4clp5sJxSJVYu26vmQgDjVcRRsTh3XwFnhEVjttSDxwMXsEe3Bu5ti3ynYJWOWkad8J_9lry1jJAn3Q7uaqisJCuyHQSuvxlbwYesObYNR_h5dI61EMT8EDCc_Uq1dApVV95bbNQkHo/w480-h640/IMG_3346.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">© Ian Baker</span></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-50243002000650971412023-06-19T15:57:00.000-05:002023-06-19T15:57:38.588-05:00Batman 1966 UK “Black Bat” Trading Card display box<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZgZUwEf2Y2mIw1IRaTZaHbxDujqAJjG8U9k-g47AYzPmsUW8EtZEmIiFKn26awhEW46q79sMf17tPqTbgkurdhbs3wFbQDu7m5ZwGrsEoqp4C1U9RxhWJgEqsUzcEdm3hl1hK1K48dZaPIDjQ_lqtcrmTxaxsKoAzxSDWsQSxzfUwFCIdFC03r9zhpys/s1435/IMG_3011%20(1).jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1435" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZgZUwEf2Y2mIw1IRaTZaHbxDujqAJjG8U9k-g47AYzPmsUW8EtZEmIiFKn26awhEW46q79sMf17tPqTbgkurdhbs3wFbQDu7m5ZwGrsEoqp4C1U9RxhWJgEqsUzcEdm3hl1hK1K48dZaPIDjQ_lqtcrmTxaxsKoAzxSDWsQSxzfUwFCIdFC03r9zhpys/w400-h314/IMG_3011%20(1).jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; text-align: left;">Only a brief SuperStuff post this time around, but one which might give you a chance to re-live those days of seeing Batman trading cards for sale in your local tobacconist/newsagent.</span></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Back in 1966 I bought my first pack of Batman trading cards - the “Black Bat” set - from a sweet shop (candy store) called The Cabin in Highland Rd, Southsea. The first card in the set was “The Riddler”, and I was hooked. I would go back to that sweetshop on a weekly basis along with my Dad, who used to stop by to buy 4oz of Needlers fruit pastilles, a particular favourite of his.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Each visit I experienced the thrill of seeing the cardboard box in which unopened wax packets of Batman cards lay.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Eventually, I asked the man who ran the shop if I could have the display box when all of the cards had been sold, and he kindly put it by for me.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I then used that box to store all of my Batman cards, as I collected the series of cards, and the four subsequent sets that quickly followed.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I kept that box until 1983, when I sold it (along with a number of other unique collectibles) to the Timeslip shop in Fawcett Rd, as I was amassing funds for a deposit on my first flat.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’ve seen that box up for sale on eBay for £400 recently - and I’m convinced that it was my actual display box up for sale as it had a slight tear in the lid - and regretted selling it for £1 in 1983.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">However, all of that regret is now swept aside as I’ve printed my own version of the box which looks just as good as the original, thanks to information in an article by Jeff & Bob Marks provided is issue #86 of Non-Sports card fanzine “The Wrapper” from October 1986.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglfLRCkWDyr-lf2mv7az4qwozQ6Grkhy9-YxsQ37fhpWGoArJSMhWcyJsAHhy09zftond0cUHYAPhxpk_E4WqWEYSmMIFPoeDZwgOEvD7niDfRP5BVYh7RoQZA_hhiY_P9Ru1niNLZ-pgmPrjIURNzCTsWqd_a-b1yY1pYuLt3v9Dad29TN5YZWJAAKaY/s3915/IMG_3180.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3915" data-original-width="2993" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglfLRCkWDyr-lf2mv7az4qwozQ6Grkhy9-YxsQ37fhpWGoArJSMhWcyJsAHhy09zftond0cUHYAPhxpk_E4WqWEYSmMIFPoeDZwgOEvD7niDfRP5BVYh7RoQZA_hhiY_P9Ru1niNLZ-pgmPrjIURNzCTsWqd_a-b1yY1pYuLt3v9Dad29TN5YZWJAAKaY/w306-h400/IMG_3180.jpeg" width="306" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Les Davis, editor of "The Wrapper"</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By using the image featured in <i>The Wrapper</i>, I was able to locate original colour images of the elements on the box, and create my own box! It now has pride of place on the shelf next to my desk.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’ve included the image below should you wish to print your own box on photo card.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The dimensions of the box when completed measure 3 3/8” x 7 1/8” x 2”, so you’ll have to figure out how to print at the correct scale. (Remember this display box was designed to accommodate the UK A&BC versions of the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>cards, slightly smaller than the Topps versions.)</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3_B9iJGeEa-t0VO3gu_kW9H5RjyYQBHN0D-dYLee_5KFRyTM53_W3fpqt9RrhhYdOAYL8NMHzk5C7fG5InO2txtYUD8gOqG3VFp9C73kypW421fW27D7Et4MgyEnRrOyKztJO0LFFbF65wpq9oasRBNJBfN_gJfJQEyY_NAA7345gyyZM6LmZ9eC50OU/s4032/IMG_3007.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3_B9iJGeEa-t0VO3gu_kW9H5RjyYQBHN0D-dYLee_5KFRyTM53_W3fpqt9RrhhYdOAYL8NMHzk5C7fG5InO2txtYUD8gOqG3VFp9C73kypW421fW27D7Et4MgyEnRrOyKztJO0LFFbF65wpq9oasRBNJBfN_gJfJQEyY_NAA7345gyyZM6LmZ9eC50OU/w300-h400/IMG_3007.jpeg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Les Davis. The Wrapper #86</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI-sUCUJSfNVyxdMnfrJ2bx62zn6jNZf2W1_8KfhtUyC53y_D3fJ4oDOy0Yxf2C6oxafqyuFv5CpKD7OocKvwGj2eD0bnWgKsm5NTNt6Y76_PUG1EsOZRBAPOBlaRDtx8qp3-egzCspc_NPo_mJQx09ESL_wMnHR2TTtq55XcB1EwFgzL4o24ZsKgm_j0/s3281/Batman%20Black%20box%20A&BC%20colour.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2332" data-original-width="3281" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI-sUCUJSfNVyxdMnfrJ2bx62zn6jNZf2W1_8KfhtUyC53y_D3fJ4oDOy0Yxf2C6oxafqyuFv5CpKD7OocKvwGj2eD0bnWgKsm5NTNt6Y76_PUG1EsOZRBAPOBlaRDtx8qp3-egzCspc_NPo_mJQx09ESL_wMnHR2TTtq55XcB1EwFgzL4o24ZsKgm_j0/s320/Batman%20Black%20box%20A&BC%20colour.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enbiggen</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">If I have the time and enthusiasm , I may have a go a printing a version with a base and a folding lid, but for now, this satisfies me.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If you have more than a passing interest in Non-Sports trading cards, The Wrapper is still being published. Take a look at The Wrapper <a href="http://www.thewrappermagazine.com" target="_blank">website</a>.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-22299367809452918082023-06-02T11:12:00.002-05:002023-06-02T11:12:22.110-05:00Non-Distributed Wonders: Marvel’s Supernatural Thrillers<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizatRihj8LgeulOPoZLfJajcgj7E6ZSIh7cCKZe_QntQQKxInlHdbIAzqp0SiVc-GdxEoA_i2wQBCJyr-280Ou_bkbpx_xIgDRu5JyAz0FxRm-EBD9SqUUmKmVBpiRYVyij_I9dFHxybH4s1XsaeaxJeZdtA7vks3ytCpqhqfDH1LyXMzZfzUpXqgr/s3003/Supernatural%20Thrillers%20001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3003" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizatRihj8LgeulOPoZLfJajcgj7E6ZSIh7cCKZe_QntQQKxInlHdbIAzqp0SiVc-GdxEoA_i2wQBCJyr-280Ou_bkbpx_xIgDRu5JyAz0FxRm-EBD9SqUUmKmVBpiRYVyij_I9dFHxybH4s1XsaeaxJeZdtA7vks3ytCpqhqfDH1LyXMzZfzUpXqgr/w426-h640/Supernatural%20Thrillers%20001.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Marvel. Cover by Steranko.</td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZynqtvY9RRSnyvSqRYkOB7vZZQ6agQ6ved1nuhBbHMxR04e4a3xZRELQ0LIsfCwYanRrAc6O3CoLduTjGC8P5xcMcechenHZl0uT1XQTQHDFYsgUIHEoQW2ac1_OkG0267CAuk-y6BSFkcq7YU5rO9nE8rIH-1rs1_ImkI8JMdE7GDhMqF7Ug4g1p/s351/I%20Baker%20blog%20Standard.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="351" height="42" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZynqtvY9RRSnyvSqRYkOB7vZZQ6agQ6ved1nuhBbHMxR04e4a3xZRELQ0LIsfCwYanRrAc6O3CoLduTjGC8P5xcMcechenHZl0uT1XQTQHDFYsgUIHEoQW2ac1_OkG0267CAuk-y6BSFkcq7YU5rO9nE8rIH-1rs1_ImkI8JMdE7GDhMqF7Ug4g1p/w42-h42/I%20Baker%20blog%20Standard.png" width="42" /></a>Over the past few months I’ve been taking notice of the failed experiments that Marvel and DC conducted in the early seventies; books that exploded onto the newsstand, flared and then failed.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The current DC Black Label comic <i>Danger Street</i>, written by Tom King, is an interesting example of picking up discarded DC Bronze Age <i>First Issue Special</i> characters and weaving them into something fresh and new. And I’ve developed something of a fascination for tracking down short-lived Bronze Age books that passed me by back in the swinging seventies.</span></div><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A couple of months back I wrote a <a href="http://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2022/11/welcome-to-worlds-unknown.html" target="_blank">blog entry</a> detailing the development and demise of Marvel title <i>Worlds Unknown</i> a series of eight colour comic books which preceded the Marvel Black & White magazine <i>Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, </i>set up by Roy Thomas to adapt classic Science Fiction novels in comic format.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">These colour books escaped our attention in the UK as they were “Non-distributed” - not selected for distribution to UK newsagents by World Distributors. “ND” books quickly acquired a cachet all their own; their unattainable nature by normal means gave them a halo of exceptionalism, whatever the actual quality might be. Brief snippets of information as mentioned in Comic Media News or “Fox on the Run” or “The Worlds of Emlock” within the pages of Comics Unlimited only served to whet the appetite to an even greater degree.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of course, ND comics cost 25p from comic dealers, whereas new comics on the stands were still only 9p each. But somehow I just accepted the extortionate pricing on the basis of the axiom that “the quality remained long after the price was forgotten”.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Worlds Unknown </i>was not the only anthology book exploiting classic literature to endure the fate of “Non-distribution”. Equally interesting was the four-colour comic<i> Supernatural Thrillers </i>which we’ll take a closer look at today.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Like<i> Worlds Unknown, </i>comic <i>Supernatural Thrillers</i> similarly was to morph into a Curtis-distributed<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Marvel Black & White magazine - in this case <i>Masters of Terror</i>, a magazine that was to run for two issues in the Summer of 1975, and be briefly revived as as issue of <i>Marvel Preview</i> in the Autumn of 1978.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I turned sixteen in the summer of 1975, was getting into Horror and SF novels, and would have been the ideal target audience for this book, had it been distributed in the UK. So now<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>forty-plus years later I’ve spent the last few months tracking down actual copies of these books for my own collection (no resorting to digital copies here!).</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The concept behind <i>Supernatural Thrillers</i> was to render classic Science Fiction and/or Horror stories into comics format, with the intent of appealing to a wider audience. Unlike <i>Unknown Worlds</i>, the initiative was from Stan the Man himself, who then handed it over to Roy Thomas to run with. Roy later recounted in <i>Alter Ego #70</i> :</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><b>JA: </b>You did that Worlds Unknown color comic—<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><b>THOMAS: </b>Yeah, that was a favorite. But it didn’t sell.</i></span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><b>JA: </b>—and I forget the name of the other one, that had that great Steranko cover with The Invisible Man.</i></span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><b>THOMAS: </b>That was Supernatural Thrillers. Stan had the idea for that one, then turned it over to me, and I decided we should adapt some fantasy/horror classics, like Theodore Sturgeon’s “It” and “Killdozer.” H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man was Stan’s idea. I remember some of those worked out quite well, like Howard’s “Valley of the Worm.”</i></span></p></blockquote></blockquote><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Despite the revisions in the Comics Code in 1971 which lifted the restrictions on Horror comics, the words “Horror” and “Terror” could not be used on a 4-color comic cover.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">General Standards – Part B</span></i></b></p></blockquote></blockquote><ul class="ul1" style="list-style-type: circle; text-align: left;"><ul><ul><li class="li1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">No comics magazine shall use the word horror or terror in its title. The words may be used judiciously in the body of the magazine. [Footnote: The word horror or terror in a story title in the body of the magazine has been ruled to be an injudicious use, and therefore is not permitted.]</span></i></li></ul></ul></ul><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As shown at the top of this blog entry, the first issue cover dated Dec 1972 arrived with all stops pulled out. It sported a colourful cover by Steranko showing a muck-encrusted Swamp Monster being shot by what appears to be a big game hunter, with a tabloid style banner and sales pitch in overdrive.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The cover promised an exciting pursuit story, but in fact featured a very thoughtful and melancholy adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon’s novella “IT!”, as written by Roy Thomas himself and drawn sensitively by Marie Severin, inked by Frank Giacoia.. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5CDa_z6Xf2q3bFMctCFcwT9j6mYCHYbNTxVALNJN2xi5IUyrc0rtXcHXXbxU1vfjBcmpcEshICq4Up1b8RQyANiDTYiD1lkyn-3pGJIqYzJmsOJHzneM5NWDwo2M-3Rvblo2G3YgCDGA_VWveD15zfwK_pqyNgzUpOglMyBBQbbaNNDWpc2tvB7ku/s3037/Supernatural%20Thrillers%20002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3037" data-original-width="2043" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5CDa_z6Xf2q3bFMctCFcwT9j6mYCHYbNTxVALNJN2xi5IUyrc0rtXcHXXbxU1vfjBcmpcEshICq4Up1b8RQyANiDTYiD1lkyn-3pGJIqYzJmsOJHzneM5NWDwo2M-3Rvblo2G3YgCDGA_VWveD15zfwK_pqyNgzUpOglMyBBQbbaNNDWpc2tvB7ku/w430-h640/Supernatural%20Thrillers%20002.jpg" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Cover by Steranko</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Before the sales figures were in, issue #2 hit the stands, which featured an adaptation of H. G. Wells’ “The Invisible Man” by Ron Goulart, with Val Mayerik and Dan Adkins on artistic duties. The cover was again drawn by Steranko. Reading this book now for the first time, my familiarity with Wells’ story took away any real impact of what is a well-drawn and coherent adaptation, giving some allowance for the “Gor Blimey, Guv” British stereotypes present in the book.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx8-rKYdKRQdCo0pxRha_gQMeEdV3t7orG0GF9K-wCODkZ_zJJ82YcN8bwq9nC2Jac7vOSG8ydp9Cqo0YTlCkzasnIgF5nDQgQVDIFpBwFeL76HDTu8Qnbbh87TQFeaJIIqfW-Rv4iu1KTYrM-ByuCqoLQnsp9jEYeoTwu3HjDnQcV5RsG-NljMgro/s3037/Supernatural%20Thrillers%20003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3037" data-original-width="2043" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx8-rKYdKRQdCo0pxRha_gQMeEdV3t7orG0GF9K-wCODkZ_zJJ82YcN8bwq9nC2Jac7vOSG8ydp9Cqo0YTlCkzasnIgF5nDQgQVDIFpBwFeL76HDTu8Qnbbh87TQFeaJIIqfW-Rv4iu1KTYrM-ByuCqoLQnsp9jEYeoTwu3HjDnQcV5RsG-NljMgro/w430-h640/Supernatural%20Thrillers%20003.jpg" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Marvel. Cover by Gil Kane.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Issue #3 was the first signal of a change in direction, from adapting “classic” novels to adapting pulps - an adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s “The Valley of the Worm” scripted by Roy Thomas, and drawn by Gil Kane and Ernie Chan. Thomas commented in Alter Ego #70:</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><b>THOMAS:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b> I always thought in terms of bringing pulp-like writing into comics—even Doc Savage, which I was never wild about as writing—and there were a lot of clumsy things about Burroughs, even Howard. It was all pulp-type writing, but I felt that bringing in those characters and those concepts would elevate comics a little. It wasn’t that I didn’t like what Stan Lee, Gardner Fox, and other people had done, myself included... or that everything Howard did was better than most of what, say, Stan Lee did. It’s just that I felt that having a non- comics approach would broaden the appeal of comics and enrich it in some vague way. This is the same motivation that later made me want to bring in science-fiction and to do horror adaptations and not just new stories.</i></span></p></blockquote></blockquote><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The adaptation was a detailed and thorough Sword & Sorcery adaptation of the REH story. Great artwork and an engrossing story.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">"The Valley of the Worm" was to be very warmly received by readers, getting more positive mail than the first two issues combined.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The story was later reprinted in issue #1 of B&W <i>Kull and the Barbarians</i> in the May 1975 issue, a new comic that Roy kicked off, which ran for 3 issues. Issue #1 was a book of reprint material of various Robert E Howard stories previously printed in various colour comics [Read Roy’s comments from zip comic ]</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The letter col in issue #3 was full of praise for issue #1, with a letter from future comics pro David Michelinie himself. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The editorial commentary from Roy intimated that Marvel had put itself in a bit of a strait-jacket with mandating a supernatural element in each story, as the line between SF and Supernatural was thin. Marvel would shortly be premiering a sister mag called <i>Worlds Unknown</i> for purely SF, so it started to signal that <i>Supernatural Thrillers</i> was still finding it’s feet since the first three issues had adapted first a modern SF novella, then a classic horror story, and then a Sword & Sorcery pulp.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">All three issues were strong individually, but there was no consistency of identity across the books, which is especially important in an anthology title. <i>Supernatural Thrillers</i> did not even have an identifiable logo, so each issue appeared to be a one-off.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMW_jUrRUH3cTygnvUAT2W4H3YzmTl60cVXL4df_lOvg5ZI9DaDHcWKeEAr-cxlhQxCu62blQSvyW5RJk7dnTvjbcP49HNx-upu9WSJ_9z5sOcsSJr0PcKKaVYIRnhP_rtVUr3Cy07Y72RIqH8VaZUIF8udBBvXAF-l_zN2_HMhxz7bV1qoBWzXqxP/s3037/Supernatural%20Thrillers%20004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3037" data-original-width="2043" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMW_jUrRUH3cTygnvUAT2W4H3YzmTl60cVXL4df_lOvg5ZI9DaDHcWKeEAr-cxlhQxCu62blQSvyW5RJk7dnTvjbcP49HNx-upu9WSJ_9z5sOcsSJr0PcKKaVYIRnhP_rtVUr3Cy07Y72RIqH8VaZUIF8udBBvXAF-l_zN2_HMhxz7bV1qoBWzXqxP/w430-h640/Supernatural%20Thrillers%20004.jpg" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Marvel. Cover by John Romita Sr.</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Supernatural Thrillers</i> #4 returned to classic out-of-copyright source material with an adaptation of R.L. Stevenson’s “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. The rendering of Mr Hyde on the cover could have been easily re-coloured to be The Hulk, which of course, may have been John Romita's nod to the original source idea for the Hulk.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikxfnIszE4xCVybEuAfMKr1JY0X5AUXUuml3AzHFcI0p11X_dx3T-aA6fBuKtqZLt4he-AM3tm3s0k4rjEpZrHWElVmUommRDSM0953v7Lbg1gWPFn7kvSgSLUOwknUZ0LRXjYwO33DRAIZc8IqZsbxmZiVAIuvLzJPHhyqm243BuxKla_owZa1IE4/s594/Supernatural%20Thrillers%20005.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="413" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikxfnIszE4xCVybEuAfMKr1JY0X5AUXUuml3AzHFcI0p11X_dx3T-aA6fBuKtqZLt4he-AM3tm3s0k4rjEpZrHWElVmUommRDSM0953v7Lbg1gWPFn7kvSgSLUOwknUZ0LRXjYwO33DRAIZc8IqZsbxmZiVAIuvLzJPHhyqm243BuxKla_owZa1IE4/w444-h640/Supernatural%20Thrillers%20005.png" width="444" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But with issue #5, the format departed from existing classic material, becoming an adventure comic - featuring a brand-new story of The Living Mummy, written by Steve Gerber, drawn by Rich Buckler and Frank Chiarmonte.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> There seems to be deliberate echoes emulating </span>Neal Adams in places - see page 11, and page 12 for example - and the villain is drawn in an eerily similar mannger to those Adams drew in the Batman/House of Mystery team-up from Brave and Bold #93 “Red Water, Crimson Death”.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJDvesUfgfrDcdoa5Wej3Mc4cfLjnkDn9yxWC0yPZHPFhJ2kxe6VhY0NVyJWtKumyThJXMGavpZKfI9C84SBkmTnSouwZPADng8zx_9JlWYALuVLGvCC_ExFroIbiYyBfRo5R8-cuzSKxltWItiPv8KDkF6EBTVUwK9elpR4T3tms1-lHnFdted-ih/s274/Looks%20like%20Neal%20Adams%20art.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="195" data-original-width="274" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJDvesUfgfrDcdoa5Wej3Mc4cfLjnkDn9yxWC0yPZHPFhJ2kxe6VhY0NVyJWtKumyThJXMGavpZKfI9C84SBkmTnSouwZPADng8zx_9JlWYALuVLGvCC_ExFroIbiYyBfRo5R8-cuzSKxltWItiPv8KDkF6EBTVUwK9elpR4T3tms1-lHnFdted-ih/s1600/Looks%20like%20Neal%20Adams%20art.png" width="274" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Issue #11. Rich Buckler channeling Neal Adams?</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuaQB6delNdi8HZ4KhZeH_24VUEElJFhYzEkKeQBFKR-S4ovn18DtRJTkrjxQBOI_vpw1uLJYVPhfkpeuvLqIrvDg97g-DRbx7cbv7asbRIEJ-Yc7do4ztqhxAo1kfSAErWfKSjhkDZrUoffi7kG0bmGIrnT8jxOP2g6QFJCBsO8XUeZpTJf3olwCn/s165/Looks%20like%20Neal%20Adams%20villain.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="165" data-original-width="115" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuaQB6delNdi8HZ4KhZeH_24VUEElJFhYzEkKeQBFKR-S4ovn18DtRJTkrjxQBOI_vpw1uLJYVPhfkpeuvLqIrvDg97g-DRbx7cbv7asbRIEJ-Yc7do4ztqhxAo1kfSAErWfKSjhkDZrUoffi7kG0bmGIrnT8jxOP2g6QFJCBsO8XUeZpTJf3olwCn/w223-h320/Looks%20like%20Neal%20Adams%20villain.png" width="223" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The villain in The Living Mummy. © Marvel</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1cJZWS-AZl2x6CP-7iEZsxYYucBlihe-m_N5wGw3VjnqnT-R5oR7cz6MV3p7T6PDlz1V9yZoIN6qFzyzJ-HODIxuyD8vvjWZY6IORSFzy9RN2HbcXwg823GN7gZbZ59R26Da7yG7d5UiM6GDoBrxkPGIcEqBuzyJZuIcDwUxPjKuA-myVzHESINUn/s526/Brave%20&%20Bold%20villain.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="526" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1cJZWS-AZl2x6CP-7iEZsxYYucBlihe-m_N5wGw3VjnqnT-R5oR7cz6MV3p7T6PDlz1V9yZoIN6qFzyzJ-HODIxuyD8vvjWZY6IORSFzy9RN2HbcXwg823GN7gZbZ59R26Da7yG7d5UiM6GDoBrxkPGIcEqBuzyJZuIcDwUxPjKuA-myVzHESINUn/s320/Brave%20&%20Bold%20villain.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. The villain from B&B #93, by Neal Adams</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">The editorial comment in the lettercol in issue #5 makes no mention of the abrupt change of pace with the introduction of the new</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">The Living Mummy.</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> But it does include a plug for the new Marvel B&Ws - </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Dracula Lives!, Tales of the Zombie!, Vampire Tales!, Monsters Unleashed!</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> and the new prose Horror book </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">The Haunt of Horror</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> (no exclamation make after this title)..</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnmMX3cJ8IqYKWjwJmRCxlJ7k3rnPV92TOO_fmnFXvNysizM0QuOtsRFsGVED1zyzin84bg6P14lko-ALsrBKcJfAV7xMqH5cUv7_g_rmqBJ-IC72v9Eyk2kJkaSsR1P5LsWLbJYBaypikmzsjAAdhud8BmHbtqTG4-W8Db43Vxairg_okWD68SQlJ/s3037/Supernatural%20Thrillers%20006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3037" data-original-width="2043" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnmMX3cJ8IqYKWjwJmRCxlJ7k3rnPV92TOO_fmnFXvNysizM0QuOtsRFsGVED1zyzin84bg6P14lko-ALsrBKcJfAV7xMqH5cUv7_g_rmqBJ-IC72v9Eyk2kJkaSsR1P5LsWLbJYBaypikmzsjAAdhud8BmHbtqTG4-W8Db43Vxairg_okWD68SQlJ/w430-h640/Supernatural%20Thrillers%20006.jpg" width="430" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Issue #6 then returns to an established literary property <i>The Legend of Sleepy Hollow</i> as the basis for a brand-new feature “The Headless Horseman Rides Again”, written by Gary Friedrich and drawn by George Tuska. </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> There was no</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> lettercol in this issue, and I found the artwork uninspired, but I was never a particular George Tuska fan.</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">With issue #7 - with a very nice art job by Val Mayerik - the decision had been made to stick with The Living Mummy, and jettison the idea of a supernatural anthology four-colour comic. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> Stan Lee had come to the conclusion that the B&W magazine format offered more scope outside the confines of the Comics Code Authority, as well as enabled to cater to a more adult audience.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">With issue #10<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Roy Thomas handed the editorial reins to Len Wein. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">The comic continued as “The Living Mummy” until its demise with the Oct 1975 issue. However, three months earlier, in July 1975, in parallel with the new <i>Kull and the Barbarians</i> B&W magazine mentioned above,</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Marvel decided to issue a new B&W </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Masters of Terror </i><span style="font-family: verdana;">B&W magazine harvesting early material from </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Supernatural Thrillers.</i></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As the Marvel Black & White magazine reprints were not under the aegis of the CCA, the word “Terror” could be used in the title without fear of repercussions. </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhW3h9RWEtI06iN3hwwX1ppCKFCjWsNGDizxSZxiMwEJeFs887-_3QomBVPwNVMLE4_1b01mXcswWGV5kI3m8eS5PkfuI3y5OTPfD6sr_YnzNRbnIlmK3z8g3CuANexVjGUZhDhoztoP8KZNEVJRVFuj1v7wvmahVmp2kHOBckg_HI9OfqYyrCkVPL/s3247/Masters%20of%20Terror%20001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3247" data-original-width="2421" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhW3h9RWEtI06iN3hwwX1ppCKFCjWsNGDizxSZxiMwEJeFs887-_3QomBVPwNVMLE4_1b01mXcswWGV5kI3m8eS5PkfuI3y5OTPfD6sr_YnzNRbnIlmK3z8g3CuANexVjGUZhDhoztoP8KZNEVJRVFuj1v7wvmahVmp2kHOBckg_HI9OfqYyrCkVPL/w478-h640/Masters%20of%20Terror%20001.jpg" width="478" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK8YiXNwgjSh03ptobUk8MMRQ5i4C6K14SB3hMIU1tu4Exo3WGPnmzZoNKFH_HDyMvCgDkjxKd0uCRez5QPLvtlmH-axVAQO4eVAt5xufDCceRzXKMNBbSuDmy6m971NU3s3ze9kyYMxAbklE0-W1nZY4MC2WUOwdQ0exg7Rv3KEamqvUrfELlwvZ5/s3247/Masters%20of%20Terror%20002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3247" data-original-width="2421" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK8YiXNwgjSh03ptobUk8MMRQ5i4C6K14SB3hMIU1tu4Exo3WGPnmzZoNKFH_HDyMvCgDkjxKd0uCRez5QPLvtlmH-axVAQO4eVAt5xufDCceRzXKMNBbSuDmy6m971NU3s3ze9kyYMxAbklE0-W1nZY4MC2WUOwdQ0exg7Rv3KEamqvUrfELlwvZ5/w478-h640/Masters%20of%20Terror%20002.jpg" width="478" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">The covers for issues #1 and #2 adapted the original <i>Supernatural Thrillers</i> covers, but were painted versions of the original Steranko artwork, this time by Gray Morrow and Dad Adkins respectively. These are very nice issues, and I think presenting the material in the B&W format brought a more adult sensibility to the content.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTexHdOAXSLL10hO4hQloT-svcsVeeXRnyUwl775P9BojscsbY0owxJ6WB2BYylePgOPRf18pOgBajPwD6Kl6DFlaxGYRso00qqbaSx_p6mWPCpYyEcbHj-x3_4XfGt328NjCte13mauwnk0dMc8uOr_O9JT6WKaLO3lEdbRXYTSlVM5e8hoMPfY7Q/s3247/Marvel%20Preview%20016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3247" data-original-width="2421" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTexHdOAXSLL10hO4hQloT-svcsVeeXRnyUwl775P9BojscsbY0owxJ6WB2BYylePgOPRf18pOgBajPwD6Kl6DFlaxGYRso00qqbaSx_p6mWPCpYyEcbHj-x3_4XfGt328NjCte13mauwnk0dMc8uOr_O9JT6WKaLO3lEdbRXYTSlVM5e8hoMPfY7Q/w478-h640/Marvel%20Preview%20016.jpg" width="478" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The final “Masters of Terror” was a one-off issue of </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Marvel Preview</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">. The new book shared nothing with its predecessor other than the title, and was an attempt to bring a hybrid Private Detective/Horror title to the market, as explained by editor Rick Marschall. </span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I really like this magazine, not least for the superb Gene Colan artwork across three separate stories, plus it has a very interesting article by Ron Goulart on "The Rise of the Private Eye" in popular fiction. I would have sought out more if it had been a success, but obviously it did not elicit sufficient reader interest.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ot2XuilPIr4yyLZaM7p3Ht8zbICAQ7oruW6e5Z77tZOla4-ZOYBgyN_1Z7ArS_6pvT0GM3kny_uPkoaFvoDLeVjNAkGKwXQ-pCupv4AFVIyD-m1BsBhCb5mJls7KDFC26mMlW-dJ-RFZuSa2yk6ln2d2wvjtdf37oiY0G62eHsTH3hMRQMu9Ry2O/s3104/Marvel%20Preview%20Colan016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3104" data-original-width="2086" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ot2XuilPIr4yyLZaM7p3Ht8zbICAQ7oruW6e5Z77tZOla4-ZOYBgyN_1Z7ArS_6pvT0GM3kny_uPkoaFvoDLeVjNAkGKwXQ-pCupv4AFVIyD-m1BsBhCb5mJls7KDFC26mMlW-dJ-RFZuSa2yk6ln2d2wvjtdf37oiY0G62eHsTH3hMRQMu9Ry2O/w430-h640/Marvel%20Preview%20Colan016.jpg" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Gene Colan's artwork in Marvel Preview #16</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In conclusion, <i>Supernatural Thrillers</i> was an experiment that failed. largely due to having insufficient clarity on what it wanted to be. By all accounts, Roy Thomas was far more interested in a hard-SF book, as shown in <i>Unknown Worlds</i>. But these books are not without merit, and worth picking up to experience Marvel trying to push the boundaries of the comic book in the early 1970s.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Living Mummy is one of the lesser/known Marvel characters, appearing only once more in a team-up with The Thing in <i>Marvel Two-In-One #95</i> in 1983.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Perhaps the character will re-appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point. It would be an ideal candidate for a Marvel TV one-off, similar to last Halloween’s "Werewolf by Night" film.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Did any of our regular readers collect <i>Supernatural Thrillers</i>? Thoughts?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-18711890711401514852023-05-02T14:46:00.000-05:002023-05-02T14:46:20.214-05:00Batman ’66 Trading Cards oddities #4 :Who was the mystery artist?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhePw7lv1yj0q55tknP4gBk93TecxGxoYN6AqrUcIH3fC-BH3Zy7SiZHZy4C1YrSvvXgxhJ3s0F23p-dxeVnx-EvBZD8d82xYcgm1A-_chPh9seJDmLHCTzfUB9Oq6sv2PlZ2e2CmfKyQQq8AlvCdi9_-wd7ikke3dHK34uR2MJ1jQND2DA7S7suk6R/s342/SS%20Nightly%20Patrol.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="244" data-original-width="342" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhePw7lv1yj0q55tknP4gBk93TecxGxoYN6AqrUcIH3fC-BH3Zy7SiZHZy4C1YrSvvXgxhJ3s0F23p-dxeVnx-EvBZD8d82xYcgm1A-_chPh9seJDmLHCTzfUB9Oq6sv2PlZ2e2CmfKyQQq8AlvCdi9_-wd7ikke3dHK34uR2MJ1jQND2DA7S7suk6R/w400-h285/SS%20Nightly%20Patrol.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Batman "Black Bat" Card #14 - Nightly Patrol<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The received wisdom of the artist behind the three sets of painted Batman trading cards issued by Topps in the US (and A&BC in the UK) in 1966 was pulp artist Norman Saunders, working to outlines sketched by famed comic artist Bob Powell. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’ve touched on this subject a few times previously (<a href="http://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2020/12/how-pulps-influenced-batman-66.html" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2021/08/batman-66-trading-card-oddities-1-out.html" target="_blank">here</a>, etc) , if you’re inclined to read previous posts. But there are a few cards in the first set of 55 cards (the “Black Bat” set) which are obviously not the oils of Norm Saunders. These cards are:</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nightly Patrol - Card #14<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(see above)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Monstrous Illusion - Card #48<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Decoy - Card #49</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Beastly Encounter - Card #50</span></li></ul><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkdWHL3U1a3oEOjz-yYzoeDlry6mT5ff9Uq-wjUm_b22ORCoJA_TM0v34avBHMsGHNbnmEowhRvKCDIieH_ee16RYH9ZAS6cLZHAB3Nd1ZiQ1a9hakxW7QokSAxUzZCCwiC2s5j8DBc-Fbhdz-7F0hSC_MEiNGztdLtbq-uqoi5qdHHDa-alLvKSj/s444/48.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="444" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkdWHL3U1a3oEOjz-yYzoeDlry6mT5ff9Uq-wjUm_b22ORCoJA_TM0v34avBHMsGHNbnmEowhRvKCDIieH_ee16RYH9ZAS6cLZHAB3Nd1ZiQ1a9hakxW7QokSAxUzZCCwiC2s5j8DBc-Fbhdz-7F0hSC_MEiNGztdLtbq-uqoi5qdHHDa-alLvKSj/w400-h286/48.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb5HzXEB6iYoQ-BO3Pifawe3NKSZP5SYvVZ4lgQgxZdfcv99W6iDGCoUEbkJLdpBZCMA0IIg9XC4uMXe9KrjRDC6DqTdPzjYniJPhcwGwty0BUZ-JHpfryUVE1DoeT2yjWdBpp202QXuqSiBN0tIygN7JeAIBNW1ftjs5qxnFb6NsP-i-DYEim2TTg/s444/49.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="444" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb5HzXEB6iYoQ-BO3Pifawe3NKSZP5SYvVZ4lgQgxZdfcv99W6iDGCoUEbkJLdpBZCMA0IIg9XC4uMXe9KrjRDC6DqTdPzjYniJPhcwGwty0BUZ-JHpfryUVE1DoeT2yjWdBpp202QXuqSiBN0tIygN7JeAIBNW1ftjs5qxnFb6NsP-i-DYEim2TTg/w400-h284/49.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-C_uzXDVSqdE-NALyq-a9bRlAZuqG134XPXn5ZqHbIjcAScQ0XIRXL67wRxjOj0tRLvOAZzZmCOlpz_3eADnyfClwyGQxuKxr3JAzHDd6rriHPlzJdLIa53x7eg2hj0UwTiI1lOkbJ4jtwqmoH6TKvyk0Bg7QzLmnJ9W-mUGOp2ikxFbnnhK5ULsv/s444/50.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="444" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-C_uzXDVSqdE-NALyq-a9bRlAZuqG134XPXn5ZqHbIjcAScQ0XIRXL67wRxjOj0tRLvOAZzZmCOlpz_3eADnyfClwyGQxuKxr3JAzHDd6rriHPlzJdLIa53x7eg2hj0UwTiI1lOkbJ4jtwqmoH6TKvyk0Bg7QzLmnJ9W-mUGOp2ikxFbnnhK5ULsv/w400-h278/50.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Two of these cards (#48 and #49) fall within the 22 most common cards of the “Black Bat” set, being printed 50% more times than other cards.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Unlike the remainder of the painted set of cards, these four cards are more obviously cartoons which have been inked and colored, rather than gouache or oil paintings.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So who was the mystery artist?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.normansaunders.com/ToppsList.html" target="_blank">According to Norman Saunders’ son</a>, David Saunders, all cards were painted by Norman Saunders, Maurice Blumenfeld, Bob Powell, and <b>a fourth unknown artist</b>.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Saunders would do the majority of the paintings, as well as providing the final rendering on top of work by other artists, with the intent of bringing a consistency of style.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’m coming to the conclusion that in fact there were <b>two</b> unknown artists in addition to Saunders, Blumenfeld and Powell.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Saunders and Blumenfeld had collaborated previously on the gory <i>Civil War News</i> set of cards. <a href="https://www.bobheffner.com/cwn/a_interview.shtml" target="_blank">According to an interview with Len Brown</a>, Creative Director at Topps in 1998, Blumenfeld had a reputation for being very slow.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As the Batman TV series was so phenomenally popular, there became an urgency to get the cards into kids’ hands as soon as possible, necessitating a fourth artist, as mentioned by David Saunders.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That fourth artist can now be revealed to be Ed Valigurski (<b>1926-2009) who </b>painted some of the painted<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>World War II<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b><i>Battle!</i></b> cards produced by Topps in the 1960s (see <a href="https://www.pulpartists.com/Valigursky.html"><span class="s1" style="color: #dca10d;">https://www.pulpartists.com/Valigursky.html</span></a> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Like Blumenfeld, Valigurski had no background in the comic business, pursuing a career in commercial art.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Looking through the set of cards, Valigurski’s contributions stand out particularly in cards </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>#4 Midnight Conference</i></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> and </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>#51 Flaming Welcome</i></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> see below. The rendition of Batman is less detailed, and Batman’s costume has a sheen to it not present in Saunders’ artwork. Batman’s stomach musculature is rendered differently, as well.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0af3A_9sMVugpGhCWe8jCiD9oT3qAOSbGlkOMnTD9seTvWLvHpjYhZT827GiKTmwmWBYA0KjzijMaXh0Z36gRn76eQxMgA5UmFuRVOt4Q8SEpIUaD0Hku7xw0y_5lvCtnn_8-yEts7ToLRri9nsAgp_ihq_OyNjtYQtMKnTY143WZ2YcmJFJSCfKE/s444/4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="322" data-original-width="444" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0af3A_9sMVugpGhCWe8jCiD9oT3qAOSbGlkOMnTD9seTvWLvHpjYhZT827GiKTmwmWBYA0KjzijMaXh0Z36gRn76eQxMgA5UmFuRVOt4Q8SEpIUaD0Hku7xw0y_5lvCtnn_8-yEts7ToLRri9nsAgp_ihq_OyNjtYQtMKnTY143WZ2YcmJFJSCfKE/w400-h290/4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. #4 Painting by Ed Valigurski and Norman Saunders</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoP1C4FfIKZk759F2Yb-0jmHkLMh7q66Glu8-XPoFk-a8KSVR4VVifZREva-xJisUaNwYIp9WAuOMN757FSWcQpEPAQzFeVMFn5BxkBBQIwzn6amq2eKhM5CaX_JaclgOlbXWYLpKoOw1f6eevGAcw7FVNAmh-jHIMq6fsp8_rwBdSdLP780b77VTV/s444/51.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="444" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoP1C4FfIKZk759F2Yb-0jmHkLMh7q66Glu8-XPoFk-a8KSVR4VVifZREva-xJisUaNwYIp9WAuOMN757FSWcQpEPAQzFeVMFn5BxkBBQIwzn6amq2eKhM5CaX_JaclgOlbXWYLpKoOw1f6eevGAcw7FVNAmh-jHIMq6fsp8_rwBdSdLP780b77VTV/w400-h286/51.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. #51 Painting by Ed Valigurski and Norman Saunders</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Blumenfeld and Saunders had a similar style, and I’ve found it difficult to differentiate Saunders’ sole work from Blemeneld paintings finished by Saunders. A look at an unused painting for Civil War News by Blumenfeld shows a strong similarity to Saunders.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5HVspBtpuKXfC_hMH-l5WQMPTAlLxTxhbJavAmEVn6d4LBFoZdTJs1_DVTG7ToQh-5iQYJN_GRjF1yVbJKlcT2a00MEmgsABpkuQ5BOYG9_9JrfijaP8GlAFcYxyBgc5-jrMfXOVdP2xGzvM8QB9y5GXwTOQkKfw7zkvVdxHJfKAFZ-ZEy19Qi55Q/s800/SS%20-%20Maurice%20Blumenfeld%20art%20for%20Civil%20War%20News%20-%20unpublished.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5HVspBtpuKXfC_hMH-l5WQMPTAlLxTxhbJavAmEVn6d4LBFoZdTJs1_DVTG7ToQh-5iQYJN_GRjF1yVbJKlcT2a00MEmgsABpkuQ5BOYG9_9JrfijaP8GlAFcYxyBgc5-jrMfXOVdP2xGzvM8QB9y5GXwTOQkKfw7zkvVdxHJfKAFZ-ZEy19Qi55Q/w480-h640/SS%20-%20Maurice%20Blumenfeld%20art%20for%20Civil%20War%20News%20-%20unpublished.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Example of Maurice Blumenfeld's work on Civil War News</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So who was the second mystery artist, a cartoonist - the fifth contributor - who was responsible for cards #14, #48, #49 and #50?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In addition to Art Spiegelman, Topps’ main staff cartoonist for more than 20 years, creative directors of Product Development, Woody Gelman and Len Brown, gave freelance assignments to leading comic book illustrators, such as Jack Davis, Wally Wood and Bob Powell. Spiegelman, Gelman and Brown also hired freelance artists from the underground comix movement, including Robert Crumb, amongst others.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But in 1966, Topps had another famed cartoonist freelancing with them - <b>Al Plastino</b>. As Plastino told Bryan Stroud in an interview for a TwoMorrows publication <b><a href="https://www.nerdteam30.com/creator-conversations-retro/an-interview-with-al-plastino-a-less-boring-take-on-golden-age-superman" target="_blank">Al Plastino: Last Superman Standing</a></b> “I always had something else on the side. If you don’t have something; and in my business, the comic business, they’ll step all over you.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Al Plastino had drawn the “<i>Superman In The Jungle</i>” card set for Topps in 1966, where Saunders done the color separations and inks, according to <a href="https://www.kandorarchives.com/p/superman-in-jungle.html" target="_blank">The Kandor Archives</a> (That set was never commercially available in the US, having only been test marketed, but <b>was</b> made available by A&BC in the UK in 1967).</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In his discussion with Bryan Stroud, Plastino believed that this small painted Superman work at Topps had damaged his eyesight. “I was doing Topps bubble gum cards……[the paintings] were 3” x 4” and you’d have 60 on a page.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">However, a comparison of the mystery Batman cards with Plastino’s work on <b><i>Superman in the Jungle </i></b>is inconclusive. The artwork (to my mind) is not by the same man.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZOk66TkjVOIykrQScjmuz6CE5pShwy9W6D0iqGGh0JIFgFtZMgH7XA6BYD2v8WbviHBNhuGmgm4CdwOne3DdNDQM7wAvrRRVb-Aj91a656XZbJEWnTn6xP9iT31XmZGESXxFo6TBGMeO-83kcBdm_lO4bJrYHAV6Mk2W9W2g244o5uIZXVAzRPqhr/s438/Superman%20In%20The%20Jungle.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="438" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZOk66TkjVOIykrQScjmuz6CE5pShwy9W6D0iqGGh0JIFgFtZMgH7XA6BYD2v8WbviHBNhuGmgm4CdwOne3DdNDQM7wAvrRRVb-Aj91a656XZbJEWnTn6xP9iT31XmZGESXxFo6TBGMeO-83kcBdm_lO4bJrYHAV6Mk2W9W2g244o5uIZXVAzRPqhr/w400-h270/Superman%20In%20The%20Jungle.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC and Topps. Card #15 from Superman In The Jungle</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Following the negative experience on the Superman cards, Plastino got his friend and longtime Tarzan newspaper strip artist </span><b style="font-family: verdana;"><i>John Celardo</i></b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> a job at Topps illustrating the upcoming </span><b style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Land of the Giants</i></b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> card set, providing cartoon backs on cards with a photographic front. [Again, this card set was only test-marketed in the US, but made fully available in the UK from A&BC].</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Although Plastino was regarded as a good mimic (<a href="https://13thdimension.com/batman-71-the-love-child-of-al-plastino-neal-adams/" target="_blank">see 13th Dimensions blog</a> of Plastino’s work on the Batman newspaper strip) , I believe that John Celardo is the mystery artist on cards #14, #48, #49 and #50, with Norman Saunders doing colour separations and perhaps inks.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Celardo had drawn Dollman in the 1940s for the publishers Quality. In the early 1950s, Celardo moved from comics to draw (and eventually write) the <i>Tarzan</i> newspaper strip from 1954 until 1967 when he was replaced by Russ Manning.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiSm46eojs7XtVfcgHYQZAXYXyTI7Bdq6jepUWSk-2_1FeF2OzR6N99a6AphD_9b3wYtLfCz7N28tmyyAs2YZfDVP5dAwh_CPqkF7ddGKctUDhEMVa16Nb74SkELDUpGENqe_KFzBd2MlDgsst6WMf9ENpwIIVnIzoYkB-zQeD2CWJd5C0iv3uC19J/s242/SS%20-%20a%20panel%20from%20John%20Celardo's%20work%20on%20Tarzan%20in%201954.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="173" data-original-width="242" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiSm46eojs7XtVfcgHYQZAXYXyTI7Bdq6jepUWSk-2_1FeF2OzR6N99a6AphD_9b3wYtLfCz7N28tmyyAs2YZfDVP5dAwh_CPqkF7ddGKctUDhEMVa16Nb74SkELDUpGENqe_KFzBd2MlDgsst6WMf9ENpwIIVnIzoYkB-zQeD2CWJd5C0iv3uC19J/w400-h286/SS%20-%20a%20panel%20from%20John%20Celardo's%20work%20on%20Tarzan%20in%201954.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Celardo's work on Tarzan in 1954</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Celardo returned to comics (and to DC) in 1969 as a penciller on Romance and Horror/Mystery titles, moving mostly to inking.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’m inclined to say that Celardo drew the Batman cards in question in the period before joining DC, and it was this work, plus Plastino’s recommendation, that secured the follow-on work on Land of the Giants.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Celardo’s angular style of drawing jawlines (see the comparison between this panel from his Tarzan strip and the Batman card #14 Nightly Patrol) makes him a more likely candidate than Plastino, or even the great Wally Wood himself, who rendered this image of Batman for Topps Comic Book Foldees Card #17 the same year of 1966.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGI7rz9TBsaBfLY82SZHCxGhVtR_FV0cJ4pT_DQ9ox1hKOq3AfeU1oIRx9sBORGld011mCN0Sy3WfBfymefaafiSoNRLat9rcId8TkyFjI8DfJ8F1b4kwiATKId41T28UYV6jYR7UAsE0RrpZK73AQ4xnhiwpjNtasc_4dzUpu8-EL55IrMPhOuxq3/s600/SS%20Batman%20by%20Wally%20Wood.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="392" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGI7rz9TBsaBfLY82SZHCxGhVtR_FV0cJ4pT_DQ9ox1hKOq3AfeU1oIRx9sBORGld011mCN0Sy3WfBfymefaafiSoNRLat9rcId8TkyFjI8DfJ8F1b4kwiATKId41T28UYV6jYR7UAsE0RrpZK73AQ4xnhiwpjNtasc_4dzUpu8-EL55IrMPhOuxq3/w418-h640/SS%20Batman%20by%20Wally%20Wood.jpeg" width="418" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Batman by Wally Wood, 1966</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I could be way off base here, so please put me right in the comments section below if you know otherwise.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dZq0-2l72l_g1zdfeytWMOKbS38M7G3WPVtJAubsy75kWeVjnsyGKAQHcROmkpW2JskKVRCTxqw3-sth486HnE0lUY50lWDN4b4AhPFdr_mMkuXnPr54L3zImr3TZsYwgM4Z3fcG7AL9n95_Pk7BVAebyuGuSHcgkoWwurDhJ2JfYx8gPjpgbVEN/s400/johncelardo04.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dZq0-2l72l_g1zdfeytWMOKbS38M7G3WPVtJAubsy75kWeVjnsyGKAQHcROmkpW2JskKVRCTxqw3-sth486HnE0lUY50lWDN4b4AhPFdr_mMkuXnPr54L3zImr3TZsYwgM4Z3fcG7AL9n95_Pk7BVAebyuGuSHcgkoWwurDhJ2JfYx8gPjpgbVEN/w400-h300/johncelardo04.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Celardo</td></tr></tbody></table><br />© Ian Baker<p></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-80970618762011210372023-04-24T11:23:00.003-05:002023-04-24T11:26:25.814-05:00Steranko in the Windy City<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimGPdETLGY_2NOuppjREXgg4uepy1ow_NnCZn2zaEhBLSEZ13FOkJmMmOhmE3u7VU-mmR6at90iQOUvtcX0RR1gUjNLf4MzK90UziZBrEsNQZOgfnMO72GvJ1UljVAISsisLNdEbgrNxko2Z4ludNct0Ws7zTzRDmohcOZ-M_ugyiSsQt2Q9dDNqsA/s351/I%20Baker%20blog%20Standard.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq2T3qqquFpWNkpTfUsTMqMDjke00YUKapt7_fDGcx_oneH5cQcjFd1_BDTYQPPqu3CktfjWHQ3a4YEwg5BnaFgn4UmiaugkgRHv2lGX2zEsu0BNYfr-qiqIEkt2FVKVGioLsEoQbVyHYWIyX9LRDLUMrFp30OXGxsxaQh8F0kYtcOiR5wA89KJdBG/s3900/IMG_3004.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3900" data-original-width="2773" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq2T3qqquFpWNkpTfUsTMqMDjke00YUKapt7_fDGcx_oneH5cQcjFd1_BDTYQPPqu3CktfjWHQ3a4YEwg5BnaFgn4UmiaugkgRHv2lGX2zEsu0BNYfr-qiqIEkt2FVKVGioLsEoQbVyHYWIyX9LRDLUMrFp30OXGxsxaQh8F0kYtcOiR5wA89KJdBG/w456-h640/IMG_3004.jpeg" width="456" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Black Dog Books.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Back in the early carbon-copy days of SuperStuff (and I’m talking 1974 here), we could’ve only dreamed of sitting down and having a conversation with one of our idols. So this past Friday morning I started the day with no idea that by early afternoon I would’ve had a 30-minute conversation with famed<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>illustrator, comic historian, publisher and advertising/creative designer Jim Steranko, still vigorous, engaged and excited by the potential of the medium.</span><br /><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It happened this way. It had been a year since my last report of the annual Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention (</span><a href="http://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2022/05/windy-city-pulp-and-paper-convention.html" style="font-family: verdana;" target="_blank">see here for the 2022 report</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">), so I decided to swing over to Yorktown Westin hotel in Lombard on Day One of the 2023 event to see what had changed in the year since the first post-COVID con had taken place. I was pleased to see that it was already vibrant and humming at 11am in the morning.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Windy City Pulp & Paper con is a fascinating event, anchored around a main dealers room, with pulp-related films, auctions and panels taking place in smaller ball-rooms around the building. This is no scruffy comic mart set in the back-room of a downstate bowling alley. Attendance was high for a Friday morning, and a cursory look at prices indicated that the lower prices from last year, where many dealers were looking to shift pre-COVID inventory, were a thing of the past.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Upon arriving my welcome back contained a copy of Windy City Pulp Stories #22, an annual book published especially for the con by <a href="https://blackdogbooks.net" target="_blank">Black Dog books of Normal, Illinois</a>. In addition to reprinting some rare pulp stories ,it lead with a very interesting historical essay by Will Murray on the uncredited authors of G-8, plus also some fascinating excepts from the writers' trade journals of 1933, providing great insights in market conditions at that time. The idea of this book, providing content and context to stimulate further interest in the hobby seems a very sound one to me, and could be transferred to the comic-con world as well.</span></p><div><br /></div><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Being a pulp convention, the pickings for comics enthusiasts was generally limited to pulp-related comics, but also included many interesting novelties such as the colour Sunday Funnies sections from 1940s newspapers.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmvDcWesBRr68XkikV-GL7BFWCTNh0P4KAxDD_tiIJaPq4KeOP3cbj3v-UNiz1DuVe5cshzeWb__OFCubT6qY-7oeZHXiS0BlDtm9k6UtWc1Ks7M5YF7BQwqnxKd7HSqY2qSYHB-LD2khNMmB8xW7NY-I_Ovcu5Z4xthwozMf179OTUeCTjeb-X55N/s4032/Sunday%20Funnies%20Superman.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmvDcWesBRr68XkikV-GL7BFWCTNh0P4KAxDD_tiIJaPq4KeOP3cbj3v-UNiz1DuVe5cshzeWb__OFCubT6qY-7oeZHXiS0BlDtm9k6UtWc1Ks7M5YF7BQwqnxKd7HSqY2qSYHB-LD2khNMmB8xW7NY-I_Ovcu5Z4xthwozMf179OTUeCTjeb-X55N/w480-h640/Sunday%20Funnies%20Superman.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A box of Superman and Tarzan Sunday Funnies from the 1940s</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My own route into the pulp world had been via the Doc Savage, Shadow and Avenger paperback reprints in the early 1970s, and then by the subsequent DC and Marvel comic adaptations of those characters. My knowledge of pulp history was subsequently informed by the research and writings of Will Murray and Ron Goulart. So I’m pretty much a pulp novice who doesn’t know too much about G-8 and His Battle Aces, or The Spider, or any of the more obscure characters that surfaced in the 1930s, parallel to the growth of the nascent Science Fiction pulp world. But if I had a barrel of cash this con would be the place to fill in the gaps in my knowledge - table after table of classic pulps - both adventure and SF - and 1950s/1960s paperbacks with their saucy, enticing covers by the artists who had made their bones in the pulp world.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My first stop was at Chuck Welch’s table. Chuck is the editor of the pre-eminent Doc Savage fanzine “The Bronze Gazette”, which had carried a version of my blog entry on the links between Serpico and Doc Savage from a while back. It was a pleasure to meet him. I encourage anyone with an interest in Doc Savage to take a look at the <a href="https://www.bronzegazette.com" target="_blank">website</a> .</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Following my first turn around the dealers table, I headed over to Will Murray’s table, shared with Anthony Tollin, to pick up a copy of Mr Murray’s expanded, revised and retitled edition of his 1980 work “The Duende History of the Shadow”, now christened “Dark Avenger - The Strange Saga of the Shadow”.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I can’t wait to find the time to read the book. Mr Murray also shared that he will be publishing a further volume, collecting a multitude of Shadow articles written over the years, which I will no doubt seek out.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWHgqrQOzyR_waCTO2wSTMqMI0DjyOQNMba285UQIdsmUC5mGer9aTAqVF7eMMn9LNaD6eW2UOP1WiP2dU1AF9_DURUmK73xl798RjM1kk49Jcp1l8pVkeoQ-qDp9yTCVgtrgFN-20TgfCoFdhhaL3ifk7hq3ZM3A-yy_Qyh1wlloTONYMGfndaS-X/s3771/Dark%20Avenger.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3771" data-original-width="2434" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWHgqrQOzyR_waCTO2wSTMqMI0DjyOQNMba285UQIdsmUC5mGer9aTAqVF7eMMn9LNaD6eW2UOP1WiP2dU1AF9_DURUmK73xl798RjM1kk49Jcp1l8pVkeoQ-qDp9yTCVgtrgFN-20TgfCoFdhhaL3ifk7hq3ZM3A-yy_Qyh1wlloTONYMGfndaS-X/w414-h640/Dark%20Avenger.jpeg" width="414" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© 2022. Will Murray</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Finally I came to a table which was devoted to rare pulp items for sale. What had caught my eye was a copy of #1 of the UK Batman mini-pulps published under the World Adventure Library banner by World Distributors in 1967 - priced at $300! I had paid a pre-decimal <b>one shilling</b> for it in 1967, as recounted in this <a href="http://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2021/06/batman-beyond-ocean-at-end-of-lane-by.html" target="_blank">2021 blog entry</a> .</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Raising my eyes from the table, I encountered the outstretched hand of Jim Steranko himself on the opposite side, safari-suited and coiffed hair, introducing himself with the question “Can you think of any other comic book artist who has also held a fine art exhibition in one of the most prestigious galleries in the US?”. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I hazarded a guess that perhaps Frank Robbins had exhibited his paintings once he had retired to Mexico, but I don’t think that was the answer that Mr Steranko was looking for.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6n90ZlIs4ISdVBnB9khvcBZxpwcPV8dyaCZ_KEsas3bEwz64cyZG6BNyPT3TdXtUha5rQK0nHBMmo4C-aNiKXGGcLb1LgIDeihb6sm3Ip6dJ5ik09Ag72USlHHAe0TDI-HpfT00PNIzSNSWL3m92CVKWJMLGCGlBAKjoCgBgdz6fX_k0bz9RkWsRn/s3717/Steranko%20American%20Hero.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3717" data-original-width="2845" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6n90ZlIs4ISdVBnB9khvcBZxpwcPV8dyaCZ_KEsas3bEwz64cyZG6BNyPT3TdXtUha5rQK0nHBMmo4C-aNiKXGGcLb1LgIDeihb6sm3Ip6dJ5ik09Ag72USlHHAe0TDI-HpfT00PNIzSNSWL3m92CVKWJMLGCGlBAKjoCgBgdz6fX_k0bz9RkWsRn/w490-h640/Steranko%20American%20Hero.jpeg" width="490" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artwork © Steranko</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Referring to his artbook “<i>Steranko and The American Hero</i>”, published as a companion piece to his exhibition by the Butler Institute of American Art, we then had a pretty wide-ranging conversation about his approach to art. He opined that artists were either intuitive or analytical. He put Kirby in the intuitive category - someone who drew from his imagination without initial regard to composition - whereas Steranko saw himself on the analytical side, thinking through the placement of elements in a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>picture, very much influenced by his advertising discipline.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>One example of Kirby’s approach was a sketch of Captain America where Kirby started by drawing Cap’s belt buckle, and then expanding the image out from the centre.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We discussed Steranko’s work on <i>Chandler</i>, as well as his cover design for the Philip Marlowe graphic novel collection.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We also discussed his Shadow paperback covers commissioned for Jove/Pyramid back in the 1970s, and the degree of freedom that he had on overall design. There were no unpublished covers in that series - he always worked on commission. All fascinating stuff.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mr Steranko is still working today, most currently on conceptual art for Francis Ford Coppola’s upcoming film <i>Megalopolis</i> (currently in production), continuing a strand of conceptual artwork creation which encompassed Raiders of the Lost Ark, Blade Runner and Coppola’s Dracula.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My final question was about his famous work “Steranko’s History of Comics’, which was published as two volumes of an anticipated six-volume series. Steranko told me that in fact<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>he had envisioned a four-volume set. He said that he had completed much of the content for Volume 3, but whether it would ever be published was an open question.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I would have liked a photo of Mr Steranko, but he declined as it had been a policy of “no photos” that he’d had to adopt. I made do with his personalized signature in my copy of Steranko and The American Hero”. It was a great pleasure to meet the gentleman ; he is truly a force of nature and remains an outstanding talent.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And now one of the last men standing from the Bronze Age.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Text © Ian Baker.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>All images used are copyright their respective owners and are included here under the context of Fair Use for the purposes of illustration</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-45844825706824067132023-03-23T15:57:00.000-05:002023-03-23T15:57:23.951-05:00Play it Again, Stan<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-Xmk1m9zGkWwxSBlZ56wwzt5BtTRl4yB1wOJKPloIRGXNy6fk-uqqmqMyAZoXPI8WFCwIaY4zbUTnUatRc2PG1wsNPDTWhnS1YQhwZK9bjrkCM5AboYe1rGryf-LgMJ-FHH363fBXQsShZGJw3bEBZ-ZGfbSDQEkK5mlyqgGwSLEWz3-UEeg1JXZ/s3728/IMG_2902.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3728" data-original-width="2605" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-Xmk1m9zGkWwxSBlZ56wwzt5BtTRl4yB1wOJKPloIRGXNy6fk-uqqmqMyAZoXPI8WFCwIaY4zbUTnUatRc2PG1wsNPDTWhnS1YQhwZK9bjrkCM5AboYe1rGryf-LgMJ-FHH363fBXQsShZGJw3bEBZ-ZGfbSDQEkK5mlyqgGwSLEWz3-UEeg1JXZ/w448-h640/IMG_2902.jpeg" width="448" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel.</td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I think it's pretty unusual for a comic to publish the same tale, but drawn by different artists. But when it does happen, it does bring into focus how much impact the choice of artist has on the tale. Most recently, Kid over at kidr77.blogspot highlighted a tale of premature burial that appeared both in a Marvel and DC comic, one drawn by Jack Kirby and another by Wayne Howard. <a href="https://kidr77.blogspot.com/2023/03/action-mystery-ive-got-em-covered.html" target="_blank">Head on over</a> and take a look..it’s worth your time.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In that particular case eighteen years had elapsed between the publishing of the two tales.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the case of the classic Superman run of “Kryptonite Nevermore”, the story of Kryptonite turning to lead in the early 1970s was returned to twice , each time adding a new perspective. Denny O’Neil wrote the first tale, drawn by Swanderson ; then it was featured in a 1992 <i>Superman Special</i> drawn by Walt Simonson, and finally revisited in the <i>Adventures of Superman</i> in 2001. So thirty years spanning those tellings. Again, <a href="https://kidr77.blogspot.com/2022/01/kryptonite-comes-cropper-demand-classic.html" target="_blank">Kid has the details</a>.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But in the case of 1970 Marvel horror anthology title <i>Chamber of Darkness</i>, a mere <b><i>6 months</i></b> had elapsed before the same story received both a new writer and new artist treatment.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Each rendition of the tale was only six pages long:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>An airforce pilot crashes , bails out, but eventually realizes that he died and a man who walks through walls turns up to take him into the beyond.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the June 1970 edition of <i>Chamber of Darkness #5</i> (Jack Kirby wrote and drew the tale with inks by John Verpoorten) a pilot flying a U-2 plane crashes over Red China - eludes capture - and finds his way to a monastery when a mysterious stranger meets him to take him to the hereafter, as they both walk as ghosts through walls.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Six months later in <i>Chamber of Darkness #8</i>, Bill Everett (Script and Inks) and Dan Adkins (pencils) have the pilot flying over Cold War Russia, only to bail out, and find his way to Moscow, only to meet a stranger who meets him, tells him he already died, accompanying him through a wall to the great beyond.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBZc59dqt5m6iuEs6VE9tFyXuBlWiusF6-NCT93uF4xTrRB6J13bM5Ef5R1VTCtnNVSjn9uNCoi7A7IRLUxkUfUsrCc0Z8ivYcOuvat9DOqI3l90Xc7S6lKdui-4SesyE7YUGP47awSfbyP_wm9cKv0qDeti4wTxl5o8OYDYrbbk2gAocWwK-rtirG/s3590/IMG_2903.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3590" data-original-width="2621" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBZc59dqt5m6iuEs6VE9tFyXuBlWiusF6-NCT93uF4xTrRB6J13bM5Ef5R1VTCtnNVSjn9uNCoi7A7IRLUxkUfUsrCc0Z8ivYcOuvat9DOqI3l90Xc7S6lKdui-4SesyE7YUGP47awSfbyP_wm9cKv0qDeti4wTxl5o8OYDYrbbk2gAocWwK-rtirG/w468-h640/IMG_2903.jpeg" width="468" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Splash page to the Kirby Story</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I much prefer the Kirby rendition - a great splash page, beginning the tale in the aftermath of the crash, an exciting chase scene, and spooky ending. And it merits the Kirby cover. Verpoorten’s inks are very pleasing.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The artwork in the Adkins/Everett rendition is superb, and the inked artwork that sold on Heritage Auctions a while back is stunning, but somehow the lack of tension and horror leaves a rather pedestrian feel to the whole thing.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisRih_bfzL3Gjj21LIb3xXpKROdH1ZkhChNSHmsRO-erxp_ND1cRxkLoa6E07RxBsD2j6xVY-EyYs64qvazj-OPafkweGOzogeGdjYKkLkiNhSA9JAdDkh3-ot0Ggc73hoXYWVVvzUyg57VZKEFZ5akjUi-k6-t1zI22g-t_2PRBRZl3-0NsaMADw_/s600/lf-4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="408" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisRih_bfzL3Gjj21LIb3xXpKROdH1ZkhChNSHmsRO-erxp_ND1cRxkLoa6E07RxBsD2j6xVY-EyYs64qvazj-OPafkweGOzogeGdjYKkLkiNhSA9JAdDkh3-ot0Ggc73hoXYWVVvzUyg57VZKEFZ5akjUi-k6-t1zI22g-t_2PRBRZl3-0NsaMADw_/w436-h640/lf-4.jpeg" width="436" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFzqfCGLbvJtIPSbhwEQVEz-Rerfm0TgJmi1r--QtljWJ3MkuOk1E1XTZLjyiB1M4XT79neZG2QZJ_auF2MA8VcM2xr_lmC-aRLKXy6eE-TUDIgwqO8D4Wu0CvV9gFAjg6aUoT3052EDXK0_wgE9ItS7IOeeZgnF5OKJCDGzQcVqoz89PV7gNIGhU8/s600/SS%20Believe%20it%20...%20or%20Not.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="410" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFzqfCGLbvJtIPSbhwEQVEz-Rerfm0TgJmi1r--QtljWJ3MkuOk1E1XTZLjyiB1M4XT79neZG2QZJ_auF2MA8VcM2xr_lmC-aRLKXy6eE-TUDIgwqO8D4Wu0CvV9gFAjg6aUoT3052EDXK0_wgE9ItS7IOeeZgnF5OKJCDGzQcVqoz89PV7gNIGhU8/w438-h640/SS%20Believe%20it%20...%20or%20Not.jpeg" width="438" /></a></div><br /><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A comparison of the final panels from the two comics is shown below.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9ykCA6bye42yco36vpqRNjtfabeeMuXH8IZxMka9IYiXG0B2Z2J1dNgc5xBoXbKfq7QIpXRu02dOLU0E6uyv7ycfjjDqDIzJqFrFJU9hrWCAN59wU7KAcBSCtwm3_qnFUjeIuCniDBgVs2aFrmai_xjIK7b3VurezIWKR3to2NF1-7fOVyltM8zsn/s3907/IMG_2904.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1961" data-original-width="3907" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9ykCA6bye42yco36vpqRNjtfabeeMuXH8IZxMka9IYiXG0B2Z2J1dNgc5xBoXbKfq7QIpXRu02dOLU0E6uyv7ycfjjDqDIzJqFrFJU9hrWCAN59wU7KAcBSCtwm3_qnFUjeIuCniDBgVs2aFrmai_xjIK7b3VurezIWKR3to2NF1-7fOVyltM8zsn/w400-h201/IMG_2904.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Jack Kirby's final panels of the tale</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOE8LJkt6ch5-2ZGkr0zu1LtmkAE9gpDlGpWHPjHLaKwQC78sMnb38nzTSf6yPeV0SdmL4xZjZk_07UTZXuv5md0MIe8EutpkR6TPwZ9cLIgWoNJu5DbpMxLX9-ZNuqZ6jg3z9Y52kVveOmQWVsPyTzDwY0Awah44ST8AnSJncsSktws89ed6LHUq7/s3237/IMG_2909.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2578" data-original-width="3237" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOE8LJkt6ch5-2ZGkr0zu1LtmkAE9gpDlGpWHPjHLaKwQC78sMnb38nzTSf6yPeV0SdmL4xZjZk_07UTZXuv5md0MIe8EutpkR6TPwZ9cLIgWoNJu5DbpMxLX9-ZNuqZ6jg3z9Y52kVveOmQWVsPyTzDwY0Awah44ST8AnSJncsSktws89ed6LHUq7/w400-h319/IMG_2909.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Dan Adkins and Bill Everett wrap up the story</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">There is no editorial comment as to why the story was re-done, but I suspect that </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Chamber of Darkness #8</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> needed 6 pages of story to be sandwiched between Ditko and Don Heck reprints and this was an easy way out. At least the heading on the Everett/Adkins story highlights that it is an alternative version.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If you’re thinking of picking up an issue, #5 is the one to go for.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It also features a new tale by Denny O’Neil and Paul Reinman - <b>“The Beast From The Bog!”</b> - which is worth picking up for the title alone!</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The cover for issue #8 is a Berni Wrighton rendition.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7vTCDFj9CDI9ZlIYyWCWK8nyBZjXDfWzZrSx0CYZ1eoG8eNfo8dsFpn89AtWy-XK3WCIOkAhRVFAz3-ZdQpi0W2gkDVpm8TJK2xBXgWh5v-VlxvPyvExKaM0gqOBHQ3pbI5hLUv3v6UjJcnexBS9AJam-uaJzId5Jc8M2fInzZh4z_RnmYOQPkyu/s3833/IMG_2906.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3833" data-original-width="2666" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7vTCDFj9CDI9ZlIYyWCWK8nyBZjXDfWzZrSx0CYZ1eoG8eNfo8dsFpn89AtWy-XK3WCIOkAhRVFAz3-ZdQpi0W2gkDVpm8TJK2xBXgWh5v-VlxvPyvExKaM0gqOBHQ3pbI5hLUv3v6UjJcnexBS9AJam-uaJzId5Jc8M2fInzZh4z_RnmYOQPkyu/w279-h400/IMG_2906.jpeg" width="279" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">© Ian Baker</span><p></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-41645146095513379862023-03-19T18:40:00.001-05:002023-03-19T18:40:54.188-05:00The demise UK Comic Fandom began in 1979 <p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1TmGxY7nc-6qX-kE7hWTQ86p8FLLysm6WAnY8bEObRzArDc4MfNAHE0lLC-1XG7VapCmy32Q8M8mdMhFcFsQa0CuafxTkKnP_fsAQYAX52rl2qHQOcU7w_dEsinLjJovTOLt3M41RfAYk-FhLnJI55kGk695ilr_92aw1DhB5kJmxIxE_HlSZyKCK/s425/Snip20230317_5.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="291" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1TmGxY7nc-6qX-kE7hWTQ86p8FLLysm6WAnY8bEObRzArDc4MfNAHE0lLC-1XG7VapCmy32Q8M8mdMhFcFsQa0CuafxTkKnP_fsAQYAX52rl2qHQOcU7w_dEsinLjJovTOLt3M41RfAYk-FhLnJI55kGk695ilr_92aw1DhB5kJmxIxE_HlSZyKCK/w438-h640/Snip20230317_5.png" width="438" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© WB animation. With apologies to Warner Brothers.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">by Ian Baker<br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The spark for the first era of UK comic fandom was kindled in October 1959 and was snuffed out twenty years later in 1979.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Without American comics importer Thorpe & Porter, UK comic fandom would never had existed. Of course, comic collecting in the UK continued past 1979, but the advent of the Direct Market signaled the death knell for the new UK comic reader, the impressionable 12-year old who could go into a newsagent and pick something off the spinner rack for no more than 10p.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Some UK price variants were still available after the demise of T&P, but these were then only available in W H Smith or through the very few Direct Market comic shops - a reduction in retail availability from 88 corner newsagents to 3 WH Smiths in Portsmouth alone. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The days of mass, cheap American comic book availability had passed, and with it the chance of a casual buyer being attracted by a comic seen hanging on a peg, or stuffed into the lower rungs of a spinner rack. The spinner racks disappeared, along with the salacious men's magazines at the top and comics at the bottom.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thorpe & Porter defined the era ; In January 1979 there were 23 titles published by DC ; most of those titles disappeared from newsstands in the UK, and with it the feeder system for new readers.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The last T&P stamped comic was the Superboy & The Legion of superheroes #240, June 1978 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- a 60 cent comic priced at 25p. (As documented by “Get Marwood & I” on the excellent <a href="https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/471133-the-distribution-of-us-published-comics-in-the-uk-1959~1982/page/8/#comments" target="_blank">UK Price Variant thread</a> on the CGC boards). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #dca10d; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="s1" style="color: black;"> </span></span></p><p class="p3" style="color: #dca10d; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKIkq8GuBIg8_MECMPffO62V5lvQ66NFWb3p81Vqdwnz_UP3SdR7aUNb6IwxreQTzcwsNyWq9eymGQIFHxYQzMU3T_A3jZ_eNQuwjaF2oANQ8cMcQZTjWgkoJmuHP4DcH0S1FTJbITIkZlmF15a-XQy78v_2dB4tQBNx31Coey0TD2KNOmVsTNLWUU/s1200/514189770_1978.0525pTPSBATLOSH240.thumb.jpg.320782cbde1acde7ffdc9eed594b622b.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="810" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKIkq8GuBIg8_MECMPffO62V5lvQ66NFWb3p81Vqdwnz_UP3SdR7aUNb6IwxreQTzcwsNyWq9eymGQIFHxYQzMU3T_A3jZ_eNQuwjaF2oANQ8cMcQZTjWgkoJmuHP4DcH0S1FTJbITIkZlmF15a-XQy78v_2dB4tQBNx31Coey0TD2KNOmVsTNLWUU/w432-h640/514189770_1978.0525pTPSBATLOSH240.thumb.jpg.320782cbde1acde7ffdc9eed594b622b.jpg" width="432" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© DC. The Last T&P-stamped import? Swiped from CGC thread.</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p class="p3" style="color: #dca10d; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The received wisdom in the comics industry at that time was that the average new comic reader of eleven years "aged out" at eighteen, with a complete readership turnover every seven years. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> their height, T&P were importing one million comics per month, distributed to thousands of corner newsagents up and down the country.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of the 88 newsagents alone in Portsmouth in the mid 70s, if we assume that each newsagent got 60 new comics each month - that would be 60x88 = around 5,000 new comics in Portsmouth each month for a population of 200,000, of which say 2.5% were adolescent lads aged 10-14 (sorry girls). It follows that there were 5,000 lads of comic reading age in Pompey as a market for 5,000 DC comics. If you extrapolate that to the total country population in 1975 (56.2m), then we have 1.4m lads as a possible market for a million comics imported every month.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As a twelve-year-old going on thirteen in 1972, I knew nothing of comic fandom, unaware of the work of Frank Dobson on Fantasy Trader, or the infrequent early UK comic marts since the late 1960s. My pals and I were islands with no fandom other than ourselves and a very few collectors at school. How big was that local community? Not big - or if it was big - we never knew because comic fans kept their heads down, keen to avoid the jeers of their classmates and the despair of their parents.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Things changed when I ordered Fantasy Unlimited from an ad in <i>Exchange & Mart</i> because it had a sales list, and discovered a whole community of fans, most of whom I was only ever to know as names on a page, yet somehow we regarded as members of an extended circle of friends.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So where were these fans - who were they - and what drove the growth of fandom in that decade of the 1970s?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><h3 style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Fantasy Unlimited</span></b></h3><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">For the purposes of the definition of being a member of UK fandom I believe that one had to contribute to a mainline fanzine at least once.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I do believe that <i>Fantasy Unlimited </i>(later <i>Comics Unlimited</i>) was the one fanzine that most accurately reflected fan participation in the comic collecting hobby in the decade of the 1970s. Not withstanding the many other zines out there in this period, I believe that FU/CU is a reasonable barometer of the growth of UK comic fandom in that decade which ended with the termination of Thorpe & Porter.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’ve spent an inordinate amount to time reading and re-reading every issue to note down the names, locations (where known) and role of fans involved in the creation of the ‘zine’s content - whether it on production duties, article writing, letters published, requests in the “We Want Information” section, reviewers, etc.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I started first with Alan Austin’s first effort “Ad Adzine” #1 (April 1970), right through the title transitions to “Aftermath” and then to Fantasy Unlimited and later Comics Unlimited up until the final issue #53 (Feb 1983).</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Over that 53 issue period, there were 483 unique contributors, of whom a core of twenty-two individuals were active participants over a period of five years or more. (Many of those names will be familiar to readers of this blog as still being active in UK fandom)</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">For those of you with a statistical bent, the Normal Distribution bell-curve below plots the average number of months of active participation in fandom, as characterized by writing to/writing for/being reviewed in Fantasy Unlimited. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The average duration of involvement was 13 months, with 68% of participants (one Standard Deviation) being involved for up to 3 years; 95% of fans had ceased involvement after 5 years; 99% had stopped at the 6-and-a-half year point, and the remainder stayed around. This maps very closely to the comic industry's own beliefs in regular reader turnover every seven years.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click the image to enbiggen.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP3BEKnDFKJ1jYRxHMBVqUuhREPqpAp-Ew6MEPwXogFdjkOTz8o3BPHbYy1zSDO8B0uYxq6AXGVEkWSH7FqHOIoq9R5qRE9fTf_EmWBOcZbQfZibumnqzP4ZBwUJsqBfHVQUDVHv4KMy89rdbnuSgjLchf03PBH3sohiuL94uaB8DkSjjMR8Hs2XDJ/s1166/Snip20230319_7.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="725" data-original-width="1166" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP3BEKnDFKJ1jYRxHMBVqUuhREPqpAp-Ew6MEPwXogFdjkOTz8o3BPHbYy1zSDO8B0uYxq6AXGVEkWSH7FqHOIoq9R5qRE9fTf_EmWBOcZbQfZibumnqzP4ZBwUJsqBfHVQUDVHv4KMy89rdbnuSgjLchf03PBH3sohiuL94uaB8DkSjjMR8Hs2XDJ/w400-h249/Snip20230319_7.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Ian Baker. Analysis of duration of fan involvement in FU/CU 1970-1979</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If we examine the inflow of new fans making their very first contribution - getting their name in lights - it becomes clear that 1975 was a banner year for participation and fandom growth. We'll examine possible reasons for this further on.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu7-BC70JypKkmFt8Rlo8UfT60ZiYDJer8iUdFHeW8VLaBl3rjWLge5YU9bg9-DPaODhpQ3Rgs1-4ogzlMImmoRDeVbsI3RKRCc_sRFtg0-kktM8sK_PmjP1kQidNVSKmRrIQH9t7Lqg3cIBo3JveF5VpV7YB9-MVFbWcdD45DfVuwscguLYpBfkMm/s661/Snip20230319_8.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="661" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu7-BC70JypKkmFt8Rlo8UfT60ZiYDJer8iUdFHeW8VLaBl3rjWLge5YU9bg9-DPaODhpQ3Rgs1-4ogzlMImmoRDeVbsI3RKRCc_sRFtg0-kktM8sK_PmjP1kQidNVSKmRrIQH9t7Lqg3cIBo3JveF5VpV7YB9-MVFbWcdD45DfVuwscguLYpBfkMm/w400-h255/Snip20230319_8.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">If we plot the numbers of new participants cumulatively, the flattening of the curve of new fan involvement clearly co-incides with the cease of T&P distribution.</span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw9KknxZaAlYgue55GmWiIhbZO25Ut9qUA_KYsjae7eVD1Ce_DmrgMRAZQiXv63dBRo07A0SNnmraiJY2dbHnP7X2reId79_Pc51U6PcCLgaZsCQV1VzxK8gJfghwGTH9wVCA-7Ia2mkmmisA9dhMjEA5Tnzm8Tokx9y7hM8GjpexmUFcqpenKYHuY/s602/Snip20230317_6.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="602" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw9KknxZaAlYgue55GmWiIhbZO25Ut9qUA_KYsjae7eVD1Ce_DmrgMRAZQiXv63dBRo07A0SNnmraiJY2dbHnP7X2reId79_Pc51U6PcCLgaZsCQV1VzxK8gJfghwGTH9wVCA-7Ia2mkmmisA9dhMjEA5Tnzm8Tokx9y7hM8GjpexmUFcqpenKYHuY/w400-h271/Snip20230317_6.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Ian Baker for analysis. Click to enbiggen.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">What is instructive is to see the growth curve of new contributors, with 1975 being the year when interest and active participation exploded, with 135 new fandom names added within the pages, but following the end of 1979, only 11 new names appeared over the following four years. Evidence that the demise of T&P’s business stopped the flow of new fans.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the early 1970s, Alan Austin doubted if there were more than 200-300 serious American comic-book collectors in the UK. He had been printing 30 copies of his fanzine early in 1971, which had risen to 250 copies per issue by the end of 1972. This rose to 600 per month by the end of 1975, and by 1977 he was selling <b>two thousand</b> copies of Comics Unlimited per month of which almost a quarter of the readership had actively contributed to the ‘zine in some form or another.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">UK Comic Fandom was a community with a strong London base from the start. But by the end of the decade, there were strong communities which had developed in other major counties. A look at the chart for England below highlights where those clusters of fan were based.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Interestingly, there were some counties which never attracted a fan contribution in any form.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By the end of 1979, London & Middlesex was represented by 71 fans (plus a further 40 whose addresses were not published, but were most likely London-based), with a further 42 in the Home Counties. A further<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>30 were based in Yorkshire across the Ridings, with a further 22 in Lancashire, 10 in Cheshire and 10 in Nottinghamshire.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The remainder were spread across the remaining counties. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">My own county, Hampshire, fielded 10 active contributors, lead by the irrepressible Allan J Palmer in Basingstoke with thirty contributions over a seven-year period , and with a creditable 10 entries from SuperStuff's own Nigel Brown. (Modesty prevents me from listing my own contributions). </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’m inclined to believe that the fanbase was in direct proportion to the number of newsagents and a reflection of Thorpe & Porter’s distribution reach.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here's the chart showing the active fanbase in England as recorded in Fantasy Unlimited as of 1979.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2qaYlvUKmyMKNSEGiCL3bQ6rT9RM02giSg6Xz0HPCA8XQTNZBwx7PIw7GlsgbNz8WItpL13Vw8B24kZOUxy_5iPt_Uu46UlcRdQci7r4dHmtVp30cKjI3Xn1f9UErR3RhDmGdFq87Q1kCaPZd3F_japPGvxfL3OjZq-dl3uCYr3djFoVh3wYv55Mu/s588/Snip20230319_9.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="588" height="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2qaYlvUKmyMKNSEGiCL3bQ6rT9RM02giSg6Xz0HPCA8XQTNZBwx7PIw7GlsgbNz8WItpL13Vw8B24kZOUxy_5iPt_Uu46UlcRdQci7r4dHmtVp30cKjI3Xn1f9UErR3RhDmGdFq87Q1kCaPZd3F_japPGvxfL3OjZq-dl3uCYr3djFoVh3wYv55Mu/w640-h550/Snip20230319_9.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map © Microsoft. Analysis of data by Ian Baker</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The picture for Scotland is better represented in a table (see below), where there developed a steady core of fans in Lanarkshire, mostly centered around Glasgow.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEic56CooZU3BpCu7No-ck3PRlq43IUAtUV3eMMxmT3tdn2BDh2AdDDc15hYMtti-N82nrp3hqHBmKLbxxQNQ4NTmP7HBbZLssB62WLOVe1lg_lKWYgoemz_7jYCLKz1hGvkLj6b2Miu1bz8-IuD9dxX7CGWWOezx6uaoK_UkOSNrcJ6_s99GFFEHGoi" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="211" data-original-width="162" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEic56CooZU3BpCu7No-ck3PRlq43IUAtUV3eMMxmT3tdn2BDh2AdDDc15hYMtti-N82nrp3hqHBmKLbxxQNQ4NTmP7HBbZLssB62WLOVe1lg_lKWYgoemz_7jYCLKz1hGvkLj6b2Miu1bz8-IuD9dxX7CGWWOezx6uaoK_UkOSNrcJ6_s99GFFEHGoi" width="184" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In Wales, 12 fans made a contribution over the years, of which 9 were in Glamorgan.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In Northern Ireland, 11 fans made their presence known, fairly well distributed, with the largest group of 4 based in Co Antrim.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have no knowledge if these clusters of fans in certain counties made contact with each other. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I am interested in what drove the explosive growth of UK comic fandom in 1975. Is it just an outlier, or were there other factors at play? Or perhaps more interestingly, what caused the decline from 1976 onwards? The UK inflation rate in 1975 peaked at 24.24%, and declined only to 16.54% the following year. Comic prices had gone from 5p to 10p over this period, and the availability of colour Marvel comics had declined to avoid competition with the UK Marvel weeklies. Perhaps it was just a case that pocket money could not buy nearly so many comics, and supply issues were preventing new readers coming on board.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There’s a lot more analysis yet to be done on the data - for example, the types of questions raised in Alan Austin’s “We Want Information” column . What is clear is that in the early days questions focused on the Golden Age - that mythical time before 1959. As the years rolled by, questions were much more related to concerns of T&P distribution breaks and Non-Distributed issues of Marvel Comics. Fans were becoming educated consumers.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I don’t claim this to be an exhaustive analysis ; certainly a good read of other fanzines of the time will yield more names, but I do think the pages of FU/CU reflects the growth of UK comic fandom in its second decade.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Reading through the roll-call of names mentioned in the pages of FU/CU the names of various individuals who made the transition to the professional comics world jump out - John Bolton, Kev O'Neill, Grant Morrison, Dez Skinn, etc - along with others less well known. Other people found careers as musicians, lawyers, writers, designers, with quite a few names still to be found at London Marts today, both as dealers and punters.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If Mr J.C. Hill of Watford, Hertfordshire should be reading this, did you ever write your envisioned History of UK Comics Fandom?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><h3 style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">UK Comic Fandom today</span></h3><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So how big is UK comic fandom today - if we accept that it was perhaps a couple of thousand with a core of almost 500 active participants back in the late 70s?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Is UK comics fandom just a bunch of men in their sixties and seventies trying to rekindle those days of the 1970s when anything seemed possible? Does comics fandom for the latest comics even exist? Where does an intelligent discussion of new comics today take place? Certainly not on the Social Networks I frequent.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As of a few months ago, these Facebook groups targeted at a UK audience recorded the following membership:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">936 members of London Loves Comics</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">288 in Fanscene<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">4,200 in Marvel UK comics</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Comic Book Group UK.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>1,600</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Comics Buy and Sell UK.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>4,000</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Comic Books for Sale UK.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>19,000 members</span></li></ul><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Perhaps there <u>is</u> a substantial following today, but once you weed out the Silver Age and Bronze Age fans, and the professional sellers, the Cosplay fans, the MCU an DCEU movie fanbase, does that core set of fans of the printed page exist?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Comments welcome.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">© Ian Baker, 2023</span></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-57345588856124287802023-03-01T15:42:00.000-06:002023-03-01T15:42:18.722-06:00"Say It Ain't So, Irv!!" - Even the Best can swipe<p> <span style="font-family: verdana;">by Ian Baker</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT0OBaQ9CnlppO0RFmoqGt-DSVGH0jgUi7gn06IxgeF5dYMlaFxrGU8qovbXjrYQU1W3p9Xgox_YOjFWzf_Zmnx6E_laiS962RaacB4aHHQQtNGmju63debndViqiZpI-mip-9YvE2vXpPpGxgP-Ovab9oeFWXU0TqOTcFAjmbeIOQzj6EivP5rhdM/s728/Batman%20226%20Page%201.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="728" data-original-width="484" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT0OBaQ9CnlppO0RFmoqGt-DSVGH0jgUi7gn06IxgeF5dYMlaFxrGU8qovbXjrYQU1W3p9Xgox_YOjFWzf_Zmnx6E_laiS962RaacB4aHHQQtNGmju63debndViqiZpI-mip-9YvE2vXpPpGxgP-Ovab9oeFWXU0TqOTcFAjmbeIOQzj6EivP5rhdM/w426-h640/Batman%20226%20Page%201.png" width="426" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">©DC. Page 1 of Batman #226</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I became quite a fan of Irv Novick as he adopted his artwork style to emulate Neal Adams' rendition of Batman in the early 1970s, but I was stopped in my tracks recently when I realized that his splash page to Batman #226 "The Man With Ten Eyes" (Cover date Nov 1970) blatantly swiped from not one but <b>two</b> previous Adams renditions.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Take a look at the splash page above, and then compare first to the cover of Brave & Bold #79 (Cover dated Sept 1968) </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYRu-qfnqJ3XzGgOAlCWYDTutokeg1yNv1ALLy7C0uOA8vqvz4SA0avVCzIvAxEosADKvriC8wiQB-I3Y0HGWVU28QCmFKetmWPHamR9cGT-PaYZHxSeGlC4IN_LQbTRQxqeDoYsCs4ws1tI8B5_lvU6tFYMPonqJDBtXPYRRtQ54hmKYHvypfbb--/s611/Brave%20&%20Bold%2079%20Cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="410" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYRu-qfnqJ3XzGgOAlCWYDTutokeg1yNv1ALLy7C0uOA8vqvz4SA0avVCzIvAxEosADKvriC8wiQB-I3Y0HGWVU28QCmFKetmWPHamR9cGT-PaYZHxSeGlC4IN_LQbTRQxqeDoYsCs4ws1tI8B5_lvU6tFYMPonqJDBtXPYRRtQ54hmKYHvypfbb--/w430-h640/Brave%20&%20Bold%2079%20Cover.png" width="430" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">©DC. Brave & Bold #79</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">....and then this panel from page 4 of Detective #397 (Cover dated March 1970).</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHpA9O2fN0msSRRt2HlFEj-VD6kXOo3Juqsnu7CfNGTv7C-zq9BfP4ckWZx3TogmKgJFtnkCRX8Y3cZuTuUe1oZyZ-xQpp8P8_1XXuH-sHDdEr3GqTRFs_lNZ7v79pGla3fUVCGoASJzU9dHWEgL_57t3mHy7wo4JDL_VH7ep_SsYWpkDCTQZC_XZa/s728/Detective%20397%20Page%204.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="728" data-original-width="351" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHpA9O2fN0msSRRt2HlFEj-VD6kXOo3Juqsnu7CfNGTv7C-zq9BfP4ckWZx3TogmKgJFtnkCRX8Y3cZuTuUe1oZyZ-xQpp8P8_1XXuH-sHDdEr3GqTRFs_lNZ7v79pGla3fUVCGoASJzU9dHWEgL_57t3mHy7wo4JDL_VH7ep_SsYWpkDCTQZC_XZa/w308-h640/Detective%20397%20Page%204.png" width="308" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">©DC. Panel from page 4, Detective Comics #397</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Well, they say if you're going to copy, copy from the best. I decided to take a closer look at Irv's work on Batman in the period when he amended his style, to see if they yielded further swipes. I started to take a closer look.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Neal Adams' work on Brave & Bold #79-#86 had been nothing less than revolutionary in re-defining the Dark Knight. Over on the Batman comic, Frank Robbins and Irv Novick had been rendering a less campy Batman than previously presented during the rage of the Batman TV series. However, the fans, on seeing Adams' work, wanted that same level of depiction in the flagship Batman comic.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Irvick's first exploration of Adams' style was in introducing variety to panel design, as shown in Batman #209, where Irv adopts for the first time the angled panel layout so favoured by Adams in his first run on Brave & Bold (#79-#86).</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFec8E6MQB3AXpHu9y6M9kr_79W3QpDoei7oD8GBsSzIGisOuWeMNBh7AokVEMFDO6oJwdwV_6Lay8xm8eJI7XwAikDFZzcx8N31zMJB-5YKOdxbqR4SlncFXpBWasMt2rHv3TgTOMY71blga1P_13WMenJ1y_-9JHwgJSmHLU791FQ3psVLrbKVit/s722/Snip20230301_14.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="722" data-original-width="481" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFec8E6MQB3AXpHu9y6M9kr_79W3QpDoei7oD8GBsSzIGisOuWeMNBh7AokVEMFDO6oJwdwV_6Lay8xm8eJI7XwAikDFZzcx8N31zMJB-5YKOdxbqR4SlncFXpBWasMt2rHv3TgTOMY71blga1P_13WMenJ1y_-9JHwgJSmHLU791FQ3psVLrbKVit/w426-h640/Snip20230301_14.png" width="426" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">©DC. Batman #209. Novick introduces angled panel design.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Through the next six comics, Novick experiments with more realistic facial expressions, going back to Adams as a reference. Here's a version of that grimace again in Batman #211...</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwKm_bgQhM74wxACdwaE2_76DclGeLLlEypzDGkt7_Cu7YhVaEaYwZ83z7zdf9JThkCRpgP5CU6SQ_pBzY9wYGvE6kkWEn3rvZwRoy01_z5H5xQ7ncJQ_IUVw733Aky9GDKAGY8Qb372uJMfbZUnU3R-CqrPD6yUUD1cN00ux89O5Ro9LWBqQxnX7n/s324/Snip20230301_15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="176" data-original-width="324" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwKm_bgQhM74wxACdwaE2_76DclGeLLlEypzDGkt7_Cu7YhVaEaYwZ83z7zdf9JThkCRpgP5CU6SQ_pBzY9wYGvE6kkWEn3rvZwRoy01_z5H5xQ7ncJQ_IUVw733Aky9GDKAGY8Qb372uJMfbZUnU3R-CqrPD6yUUD1cN00ux89O5Ro9LWBqQxnX7n/w400-h217/Snip20230301_15.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">©DC. Batman #211.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Batman #215 really marked a turning point in Novick's depiction of Batman, marked by the smallest of changes. He starts to adopt changing Batman's cowl design to include a little indentation on the cheekbone at the top of Batman's mask opening, the same way that Adams drew it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here's an example from the final page of Batman #215, showing Adams' influence:</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgecRm1twd0UIavLdnR4utxtpKmzqEBDnkICLiYNsSrsPC-JbTj6-JuhCg8SDXlpXvUzWB-kbkF3qSmHKFjxZXVOilHA0wkW73E4wRiBWlxHYVh9QujxcSjqq2nGpBBNf4lXsyKoVOTxi2Al6n1ImiEWPQQA0WDAqte6XiVEu1YqFfsNzd6klc2Li4q/s474/Snip20230301_16.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="474" height="391" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgecRm1twd0UIavLdnR4utxtpKmzqEBDnkICLiYNsSrsPC-JbTj6-JuhCg8SDXlpXvUzWB-kbkF3qSmHKFjxZXVOilHA0wkW73E4wRiBWlxHYVh9QujxcSjqq2nGpBBNf4lXsyKoVOTxi2Al6n1ImiEWPQQA0WDAqte6XiVEu1YqFfsNzd6klc2Li4q/w400-h391/Snip20230301_16.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">©DC Batman #215. The nick on the cheekbone of the cowl. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">By Batman #216 (Cover dated November 1969), the style changes had been established, and Novick once again swipes Batman's grimace from the cover of Brave & Bold #79.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu1EB9DrdgBdArbTMHJYweNzXzgeJWhau79fiNEwJ4OqUvGaPhewTXVbH7tj588B_si7cLoWly8G2ukTIH67sDZoSIvWJLdN8GiL5vuLxy1bXELtTzFYGhtQXejeZLiUdaD46CArpY4itId96p_sE9OdJVH22x78TiaTLTwwd4Z4fkMKc2FQo5mmEt/s592/Snip20230301_13.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="592" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu1EB9DrdgBdArbTMHJYweNzXzgeJWhau79fiNEwJ4OqUvGaPhewTXVbH7tj588B_si7cLoWly8G2ukTIH67sDZoSIvWJLdN8GiL5vuLxy1bXELtTzFYGhtQXejeZLiUdaD46CArpY4itId96p_sE9OdJVH22x78TiaTLTwwd4Z4fkMKc2FQo5mmEt/w400-h318/Snip20230301_13.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">©DC. Page 2 of Batman #216.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I'm sure a bit of research will uncover other examples of Novick going back to Adams' work for "inspiration". I'll leave you with this panel from Batman #216....clearly Adams-inspired.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPInvxZpj_r_Llnuv7Fx82uC5g-lRAuBEP0gQNZv_h3varFRn6xZMPKDJy5j7tj0NCIZcfFbL05Wz2Ud9tnCTsYzjoky0K-q4Rj0aJ3ppvppuOBw8aZN563iTNvBHtaCGnTfVnd1ltysES9p99sEtm2U2nViqgwV_zcTHCbobwAjgJa-dq9t8vEKqY/s415/Snip20230301_18.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="415" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPInvxZpj_r_Llnuv7Fx82uC5g-lRAuBEP0gQNZv_h3varFRn6xZMPKDJy5j7tj0NCIZcfFbL05Wz2Ud9tnCTsYzjoky0K-q4Rj0aJ3ppvppuOBw8aZN563iTNvBHtaCGnTfVnd1ltysES9p99sEtm2U2nViqgwV_zcTHCbobwAjgJa-dq9t8vEKqY/w400-h250/Snip20230301_18.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">©DC. Batman #216 Page 18. An Adams-inspired pose</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p><br /></p></div></div>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-17161418295933095362023-02-18T16:06:00.000-06:002023-02-18T16:06:46.333-06:00Favourite Comic : Detective #421 : Frank Robbins<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9xoZ9dVGCDyXyds0l8eukvfr4NkltR_mlU8d3KW3Ld3CLsiZkYgsaFfnYmOfUspU5PAqx-qfnGSeF476IIUHA5BqJWOC4YYvjsE_Fw6gA-kGFt7eg2484sq_KT21rm53vOBtnPTGd5-emNP4TZIa3-QFnAU3JYKYT0N-7Q2KHgo4ZQzKKii_hUKB2/s620/Detective%20421%20Page%201.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="456" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9xoZ9dVGCDyXyds0l8eukvfr4NkltR_mlU8d3KW3Ld3CLsiZkYgsaFfnYmOfUspU5PAqx-qfnGSeF476IIUHA5BqJWOC4YYvjsE_Fw6gA-kGFt7eg2484sq_KT21rm53vOBtnPTGd5-emNP4TZIa3-QFnAU3JYKYT0N-7Q2KHgo4ZQzKKii_hUKB2/w470-h640/Detective%20421%20Page%201.png" width="470" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Okay. So I’m mellowed out on my third G’n’T, heading to the City of Angels.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The theme of OHMSS is on the headphones. And I’m in mind for Detective #421 - my favourite comic. The only one I’ve ever bought slabbed, and the only comic from which I’ve bought a piece of original artwork. I’ve even got the Eaglemoss die-cast of the Batcopter featured in the tale.</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So what makes this March 1972 gem so great?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In “BLIND JUSTICE…BLIND FEAR!” Batman must find a way of keeping a convict who has served his time alive during a prison break so that he can divulge information about corrupt politicians, despite a black militant con who wants to bargain for freedom and a hired killer out to get the man Batman wants to protect.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The genesis of this story was probably the Attica prison riot when 1200 inmates took over a prison for five days in September 1971, resulting in the loss of 43 lives. Robbins may also have been inspired by the 1969 book “Accomplices to the Crime” about the 1967 Arkansas Prison scandal. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I doubt that Frank Robbins had seen <b><i>Two Way Stretch (1960)</i></b> (one of the great prison break movies), but a number of classic prison movies existed by 1972.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> The films </span><b><i>Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)</i></b> ( “The Best prison movie ever made” - Quentin Tarantino), <b><i>The Big House (1930)</i></b> ,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b><i>Brute Force (1947) </i></b>and most recently <i><b>RIOT (1969)</b></i> (a colour-blind break-out partnership between Jim Brown and Gene Hackman) were probably uppermost in Frank’s mind when he wrote “Blind Justice - Blind Fear!’</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A lot has been written about Frank Robbins’ artwork on Batman and The Shadow, but his writing ability has been mostly overlooked, despite his long tenure on Batman and Detective Comics from 1968 to 1974.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Comics are melodrama. Batman is melodrama. No pedestrian openings with Batman on patrol for Robbins; Robbins’ stories start bang in the middle of the action, with scenes of desperation and our hero on a mission with few choices. And that is something that writer/artist Frank Robbins well understood, starting with his daily work on adventure newspaper strip <b><i>Johnny Hazard</i></b> since its inception in 1944, which started with a prison-camp breakout (see <a href="https://www.hilobrow.com/2019/06/30/10-best-adventures-of-1944/" target="_blank">here</a> for more info).</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Frank Robbins was influenced by popular culture. 1971 was the year of the TV movie; the Mystery Movie. And the year of some of the greatest neo-noir crime movies ever put to celluloid.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Detective #421 is a great story containing a prison break-in AND break-out ; it had topicality and social relevance, with some of some of Robbins' best, most dynamic Batman artwork. Sadly it was not coloured by Neal Adams, as Adams had done in Man-Bat story featured in Detective #416 (<a href="http://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2022/05/man-bat-madness-neal-adams-as-colourist.html" target="_blank">see last year's blog entry for more detail</a>), and the cover (again by Adams) is a little lacklustre.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Detective #421 is not strictly a Batman story; it could have been a Shadow story, or a Doc Savage story, or a Mission Impossible story, or a Dirty Harry story. It is a story designed for a TV or B-movie sensibility, one expertly directly by a Don Siegel or a Sam Fuller. The story is sooooo tight… it crackles. This story is better than any Batman movie.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It combines social commentary, racial tensions and distrust, and torn-from-the-headlines excitement in a package that never stops. It starts <b><i>in media res</i></b>; Batman is high up on the walls of a prison, attempting t<b>o break in</b>. The stakes could not be higher “If I don’t ….[break-in] Justice Dies in Gotham!!” ; society is a powder-key of corruption, and unless Batman can achieve his aim as time clicks down, a that powder-keg will explode. And I love the way it ends. Suddenly - with a sombre exchange between Batman and Gordon. The story is soooo lean. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Robbins manages to fit in a reference to the corruption which drove the railroaded trial of the Chicago Seven. Batman naively mentions that the "Seven" and the "Eleven" got a fair trial, and subsequently ruefully admits that this wasn't the case</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggkzWbNQLy1MQN_Qpb_ZzhyUM7W8DYavUBqaS3wxGPKpaGmhKt8PaX0RosQ4VEc28brxdlsRoalNg0K9CYFsfOwND4qshgy6AKma7tCHcBNb2uZhpZouUTHjaSgxJBxlwuOp-AL9bRIR-me1BaUsM6-vLK5KP7-VJJZjuAhkDh4k1tHl5S-tQ-3Obe/s472/Snip20230218_8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="233" data-original-width="472" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggkzWbNQLy1MQN_Qpb_ZzhyUM7W8DYavUBqaS3wxGPKpaGmhKt8PaX0RosQ4VEc28brxdlsRoalNg0K9CYFsfOwND4qshgy6AKma7tCHcBNb2uZhpZouUTHjaSgxJBxlwuOp-AL9bRIR-me1BaUsM6-vLK5KP7-VJJZjuAhkDh4k1tHl5S-tQ-3Obe/w400-h198/Snip20230218_8.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Love the low angle on the car and Batcopter</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Most shocking of all, Robbins even manages to slide racial epithets, most notably the "N-Word" into the prison dialogue. This was not the first time that the N-Word was used in a DC comic (that dubious honour goes to GL/GA #85 "Snowbirds Don't Fly" a couple of month's earlier as part of a casual discussion between two hoods - one black and one asian) but this was the first time the word had been used in an <b>antagonistic exchange</b> between a white man and black man in a DC comic issued under the aegis of the Comics Code Authority.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7S78InF0ZfFGLWBrSOTdRwZuYa4AOynCgZ4Z9lEjTo0eN14yjDWtkxBtkXhKtQqEOyNyXPUv--O-_JIVrALnCTn-LRQWeQ-Ute4zXG2cb-D3xB8Q0wT4n8WQLYbtp2OHCG49fD204zVNYAkd_LMNUZEB5oRTIoMsoKR6SczvVFqnoOsvtunxsWDtR/s696/Snip20230218_7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="696" data-original-width="466" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7S78InF0ZfFGLWBrSOTdRwZuYa4AOynCgZ4Z9lEjTo0eN14yjDWtkxBtkXhKtQqEOyNyXPUv--O-_JIVrALnCTn-LRQWeQ-Ute4zXG2cb-D3xB8Q0wT4n8WQLYbtp2OHCG49fD204zVNYAkd_LMNUZEB5oRTIoMsoKR6SczvVFqnoOsvtunxsWDtR/w428-h640/Snip20230218_7.png" width="428" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Reading the Comics Code Authority rules as revised in 1971, the use of the racial epithets broke the General Standard rules on both dialogue and racial respect.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">General standards—Part C</span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">All elements or techniques not specifically mentioned herein, but which are contrary to the spirit and intent of the code, and are considered violations of good taste or decency, shall be prohibited. </span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Dialogue</span></i></p></blockquote><ul class="ul1" style="text-align: left;"><ul><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols which have acquired undesirable meanings- <b>judged and interpreted in contemporary standards</b>- are forbidden.</span></i></li></ul></ul><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Religion</span></i></p></blockquote><ul class="ul1" style="text-align: left;"><ul><li class="li1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group is never permissible</span></i></li></ul></ul><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yet reading the letters commenting on this issue in Detective #425, there was no mention of the N-Word at all. The letters were full of praise, apart from one dissent from a Lori Mead who hated the artwork. Editor Julie Schwartz responded that letter writers are now 75-25 in favour of Robbins’ artwork.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Clem Robins of Sheffield, Mass said it was "the finest story the magazine has ever featured".</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDMo-AwCIvu8DF3rpg0Y-8KxModb4xNiOXEdxjT5OqZ4yf02mHRKIbSEflU7XI0pwmYjdPWR-h9dVhMsYjKtOWd4zwTm9kXflkMqWtC5-x1oTvF7VaTTRCooGeEGBZUyf55-eL_daA5f-miVvj_pdKxJ0C8RywHwQC_yt5pTE6swZx6QLCIFY5Aiy_/s1316/IMG_0853.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1316" data-original-width="900" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDMo-AwCIvu8DF3rpg0Y-8KxModb4xNiOXEdxjT5OqZ4yf02mHRKIbSEflU7XI0pwmYjdPWR-h9dVhMsYjKtOWd4zwTm9kXflkMqWtC5-x1oTvF7VaTTRCooGeEGBZUyf55-eL_daA5f-miVvj_pdKxJ0C8RywHwQC_yt5pTE6swZx6QLCIFY5Aiy_/w438-h640/IMG_0853.jpeg" width="438" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Neal Adams cover for 'Tec #421. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Interestingly, much of the original artwork for Detective #421 has found its way into the hands of private collectors, unlike the pages of the other published Robbins' artwork of Batman in contemporary issues of Detective in the 1971-72 period. I won't tell you which page I own (but it's not the Adams cover, recently auctioned for in excess of $100k! ).</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi345jtWwrdeB-p0tNzynZby46PGTwlBnn0aHOlFWEoqL29WlnKcNf0gv6GUuYQUHt4vp2wAbv-ufFrMZd50ROmM07yMxcpW73tU1vtzjPhUJCG1vEPRxSYwIQOOEw3dMLuStAW1q0v1WIYjWdBbC5Hz6CHeWWBQOM9r_GeDzU_Y2WPlF26SNO5S_lH/s675/Snip20230210_5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="514" data-original-width="675" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi345jtWwrdeB-p0tNzynZby46PGTwlBnn0aHOlFWEoqL29WlnKcNf0gv6GUuYQUHt4vp2wAbv-ufFrMZd50ROmM07yMxcpW73tU1vtzjPhUJCG1vEPRxSYwIQOOEw3dMLuStAW1q0v1WIYjWdBbC5Hz6CHeWWBQOM9r_GeDzU_Y2WPlF26SNO5S_lH/w400-h305/Snip20230210_5.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Classic Eaglemoss Batcopter from Detective #421</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-23324557368393477852023-01-13T20:59:00.003-06:002023-01-14T08:54:13.939-06:00The Source and Other Things Redux<p><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></i></p><p><i></i></p><i><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsTk7EkikN2EICsl_HkyT4PXCNHcxcIiTge6vq6KNoLClVRPxeULEWiZzjYkGXp8Ij0hNMt3joPc2XVFuI2XiSOdW8WIvFtTZyinYNB-5Z7WEvqdVBqP5A9X0TDPJplg5ksd6vks5ah5a0ptgWg0QL1kWt_cHp1zuTUlRHL2hyvWoJp6bxI0sJagmg/s1194/Thor%20and%20Highfather%202%20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1194" data-original-width="876" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsTk7EkikN2EICsl_HkyT4PXCNHcxcIiTge6vq6KNoLClVRPxeULEWiZzjYkGXp8Ij0hNMt3joPc2XVFuI2XiSOdW8WIvFtTZyinYNB-5Z7WEvqdVBqP5A9X0TDPJplg5ksd6vks5ah5a0ptgWg0QL1kWt_cHp1zuTUlRHL2hyvWoJp6bxI0sJagmg/w470-h640/Thor%20and%20Highfather%202%20.jpg" width="470" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC and Marvel. The New Gods and the Old Gods</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></i><p><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">[Jack Kirby's Fourth World remains a vital part of the DC Extended Universe in film and comics.</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nigel Brown re-examines The Source and Other Things.... ]</span></i></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">by Nigel Brown</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Warning: Contains Kirby’s Fourth World spoilers!)</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Apart from our micro-circulation SuperStuff, my first fanzine contribution was an overview of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World saga, titled <i>The Source and Other Things</i> for Marc Baines’s <i>Eon #2</i> (May-July 1975), a version of which had appeared in <i>SuperStuff #1</i> (May-June 1974).</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But beyond that overview, further delving into that mythos reveals a fundamental difference between Kirby’s ‘New Gods’ of his Fourth World and those ‘old gods’ of his work at Marvel in the 1960s.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When we consider the gods of the Marvel Universe, first thoughts turn to the Norse gods of the Thor comics. They were introduced very early on, in </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Journey Into Mystery #85</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> (Oct.1962), </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">the third Thor story</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Hercules, Zeus, Pluto and others in the Greek god pantheon appeared by the mid-1960s.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Both the Norse gods and the Olympians in the Marvel stories did as the gods of the Vikings and the Greeks did: they lived, they loved, they fought each other.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As well as these gods, there are two major Kirby characters in the Marvel universe that are nominally powerful aliens, but display enough ‘godlike’ characteristics to be termed as such: The Watcher and Galactus.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">What marks them both out, as characters, is that they are static.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Watcher is the very definition of the word. He does, or course, interfere to save the Earth, most notably from Galactus himself in Fantastic Four #50 (May, 1966), but his essential characteristic is just to watch others.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Galactus feeds on energy from planets containing life. That’s it. His sole motivation is his personal survival.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Therefore the Watcher and Galactus are both characters with primarily no other discernible purpose except that one watches, the other feeds. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">(This isn’t a complaint, by the way. Lee and Kirby produced some of the most exciting and memorable stories with the Watcher and Galactus, as they both played the role of seemingly inexorable forces against which others had to contend with in the Marvel universe.)</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So all of these Marvel ‘gods’ have a common characteristic: a lack of purpose beyond the physical world in which they live.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Then Kirby moved to DC in 1970. This has been well documented, and one of the triggers for the move was his disillusionment with Marvel when he wanted to break new ground on his long-standing Thor comic. He wished to use the Norse legend of Ragnarok to transform the old Norse gods into new characters. Marvel said ‘no’, so he took the concept to DC as his ‘New Gods’.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As an aside, Kirby couldn’t explicitly tie them with Marvel’s Norse gods. He had to hint at their previous incarnation with a few clues – Thor’s abandoned helmet, for instance, in the back-up feature ‘The Young Gods of Supertown’ in <i>Forever People #5</i> (Oct/Nov. 1971):</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdWj-wgCrxOes_uOWv59YsCbisxGELibYvtu0c3LxZaYSpnhj9dnIX0gR0AllW_Gmz65OiKh2gBAdm1TPmIfW5l5B_DkYNOZyJoa8ErRVRMyKM9oOOpVfxWgmlQ00mxUmhqs-WzV-F_BBqLIMGBIqQ9oW_d8VLYwxltti3nlcyfxrGgIqbwsvTuPLY/s2825/Thor's%20abandoned%20helmet%20from%20Forever%20People%20%23%205%20Oct-Nov%201971.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2825" data-original-width="2280" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdWj-wgCrxOes_uOWv59YsCbisxGELibYvtu0c3LxZaYSpnhj9dnIX0gR0AllW_Gmz65OiKh2gBAdm1TPmIfW5l5B_DkYNOZyJoa8ErRVRMyKM9oOOpVfxWgmlQ00mxUmhqs-WzV-F_BBqLIMGBIqQ9oW_d8VLYwxltti3nlcyfxrGgIqbwsvTuPLY/w323-h400/Thor's%20abandoned%20helmet%20from%20Forever%20People%20%23%205%20Oct-Nov%201971.jpg" width="323" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Thor's abandoned helmet from Forever People #5 Oct-Nov 1971</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But from the first issue of the New Gods we can see that Kirby meant that things were to be different. We’re introduced to ‘The Source’, a mystery that Highfather says “lived as the old gods died” - New Gods #1 (Mar. 1971).</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The interaction between the New Gods and ‘The Source’ is integral to the Fourth World saga’s narrative. They listen to it, they revere it. Orion says: “… It is eternal!” - New Gods #1 (Mar. 1971).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwfblO_SIzoMCPUH2t1L8dm-R9OLKyOsIZeHuLsKivbIRqbTPmOJJQyLow-CfxaWDA4L86Zb-q3z3Fy6x-Yv5z2EiUhAegg5w1FTcnKodDnJ-jNaCrQdcOWmxynl9GD6xksotv3rmTxe8PvIzLyQ5J7Ys0TvdqFmpexdRw-9ABFCpKtgCKHoCzrZVM/s666/Snip20230113_5.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="434" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwfblO_SIzoMCPUH2t1L8dm-R9OLKyOsIZeHuLsKivbIRqbTPmOJJQyLow-CfxaWDA4L86Zb-q3z3Fy6x-Yv5z2EiUhAegg5w1FTcnKodDnJ-jNaCrQdcOWmxynl9GD6xksotv3rmTxe8PvIzLyQ5J7Ys0TvdqFmpexdRw-9ABFCpKtgCKHoCzrZVM/w418-h640/Snip20230113_5.png" width="418" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC New Gods #1</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">They don’t understand ‘The Source’, but know that it offers them the possibility of growth, of becoming something beyond themselves. In <i>Mister Miracle #9</i> (Aug. 1972), Himon says to Scott Free and Barda: </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“… there is still the riddle of what powers this Motherbox! The Source! It lives! It burns! When we reach out and touch it --- the core of us is magnified! And we tower as tall as Darkseid!”</i></span></p></blockquote><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">He doesn’t mean as evil as Darkseid, but contact with ‘The Source’ enables them to stand up to the power of Darkseid by attaining their own potential… and beyond.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs6BzRvhihQQ4ZHzyYy7CT7jIB3zoNxSSPdUrUgOHh9YtXgOeE7-aH1hKqaI4Vh_FbI6HB67nq2xwviWcBRgww_Rx3RdBkcLeoQv7tUlZVnJLZuorh3sIJCsTGDTJYj-McHXiaix1zvR-c6AFwUf7ROu4E7sLpc_1aQZZn4FSkh7J7DBaEsIY5sJES/s663/Snip20230113_6.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="663" data-original-width="449" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs6BzRvhihQQ4ZHzyYy7CT7jIB3zoNxSSPdUrUgOHh9YtXgOeE7-aH1hKqaI4Vh_FbI6HB67nq2xwviWcBRgww_Rx3RdBkcLeoQv7tUlZVnJLZuorh3sIJCsTGDTJYj-McHXiaix1zvR-c6AFwUf7ROu4E7sLpc_1aQZZn4FSkh7J7DBaEsIY5sJES/w434-h640/Snip20230113_6.png" width="434" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC . Mr. Miracle #9</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">They also see their afterlife in ‘The Source’. Orion, on the death of the New Genesis warrior, Seagrin, says: </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“… Motherbox… can do nothing more but perform her last service for Seagrin! She takes him to --- The Source!”</i> - New Gods #4 (Sept. 1971).</span></p></blockquote><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But they do not submit to its orders. On New Genesis, the concept of freewill is respected. This is made clear at the beginning of the saga when Orion says: </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“The Source gives us irrevocable counsel!” </i></span></p></blockquote><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">and Highfather replies: </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“But it does not decide! The right of choice is ours! That is the life equation!” </i>- New Gods #1 (Mar.1971).</span></p></blockquote><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Kirby appears to posit ‘The Source’ as a solution to the threat of another Ragnarok consuming the New Gods, as the salvation from a continual state of war, to peace. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We see this in <i>New Gods #7</i> (Mar. 1972), when Highfather, in desperation at the destruction brought about by the war between New Genesis and Apokolips, a seeming rerun of Ragnarok that destroyed the old gods, cries out:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“If I am Izaya the Inheritor --- what is my inheritance!?”</i></span></p></blockquote><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A flaming hand writes on a wall: ‘The Source’.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>‘Soon after, Izaya returns to his command! He dresses in the clothes of peace—and he carries a new staff!!’</i></span></p></blockquote><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A pact is then formed between Highfather and Darkseid,and an era of cold peace begins that halts the wholesale destruction of the hot war.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The personification of the relationship between the New Gods and ‘The Source’ is the character Metron.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In speaking to Darkseid and the assembled leaders of Apokolips, Metron declares: </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><br /></i></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“I have no link with the old gods – or new! I am something –different! Something that was unforeseen!! On New Genesis – or here!” </i>- New Gods #7 (Mar. 1972).</span></p></blockquote><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This could be bluster on his part, but Kirby’s earnest style seems to discount this possibility.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJxYQO4on_bjnzvzyEXQTvpgqWpRDaBroGGACyLSCUfR7m2_1Q8gOrUHEUrULJqXhb-BrJ9gI7lCX-zagihu7pCE2iGTCf7OtNjsxj-H-5fkM5PSLpDyVm5dvFsrsNs06GZdU0p7vHVT6spOoDukqW2SryjUXdJhTaMu_K_CoTdlTz7XbTbqCAgQNG/s736/Snip20230113_7.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="736" data-original-width="498" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJxYQO4on_bjnzvzyEXQTvpgqWpRDaBroGGACyLSCUfR7m2_1Q8gOrUHEUrULJqXhb-BrJ9gI7lCX-zagihu7pCE2iGTCf7OtNjsxj-H-5fkM5PSLpDyVm5dvFsrsNs06GZdU0p7vHVT6spOoDukqW2SryjUXdJhTaMu_K_CoTdlTz7XbTbqCAgQNG/w434-h640/Snip20230113_7.png" width="434" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. New Gods #7</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Metron’s motivation is made clear the first time we meet him, when he says: </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“What wouldn’t I give to possess knowledge of the ‘Source’!” </i>- New Gods #1 (Mar. 1971). </span></p></blockquote><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the first few pages of <i>New Gods #5</i> (Nov. 1971), we see him contemplating giants in the Promethean galaxy, <i>“Intellects that equal my own!”</i>, who tried and failed to engulf the final barrier to the Source by enlarging their atomic structure, now taking <i>‘a billion Earth years to feel one heartbeat!’</i> and <i>‘larger than a star cluster!’</i>, <i>“… and beyond all the knowledge and sweeping concept at our command, the mystery of The Source lies – serene – omnipotent – all-wise! But it does make contact with us – in New Genesis!”</i> Metron then transports himself to ‘the point of contact with The Source!! Highfather’s staff!!’</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">He’s frustrated that such a mystery appears so far off, yet is also so near at hand, and he cannot fathom it.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But Metron is more than a cold, calculating scientist. He sees the possibility of the numinous in others, even if they are below him on the evolutionary scale. <i>New Gods #4</i> (Sept. 1971) begins with him talking to the young scholar Esak, as they fly above the landscape of a primitive planet, and observe savages fighting below:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i> “One day when their bellies are full, they will look up and see us! Then they will think and dream!”</i></span></p></blockquote><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Kirby ends his Fourth World saga not with another Ragnarok, but with an open-ended fate for the New Gods that stresses their appreciation of the mysteries of the unknown. In the DC Graphic Novel #4 ‘The Hunger Dogs’ (Mar. 1985), after the destruction of the planet New Genesis, with Supertown adrift in space, Highfather states: </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“… ahead may lie an endless voyage of wonders! If the cosmos is alive with such overwhelming mysteries as ‘The Source’, it is versatile enough to bombard us with sights and questions of monumental value.”</i></span></p></blockquote><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Highfather’s speech is a bit clunky, it must be admitted, but we get the point.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So Kirby endowed his New Gods with a sense of the spiritual, a striving to transcend themselves that his god-like creations at Marvel lacked.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It’s a shame that Kirby was too far ahead of his time for the comics industry. If he had produced his Fourth World today, I’m certain that he would have been given the space and allowed the depth to portray the fullness of his vision. I suppose we must be grateful that he got as far as he did.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And as I ended my article back in 1975: ‘No matter how many short-lived series Kirby brought out, he will always remain one of the ‘Greats’ in the comic book world.’</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">© Nigel Brown</span></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-24288364441755277112023-01-06T19:14:00.000-06:002023-01-06T19:14:34.278-06:00My 1975 Chronology of the Planet of the Apes, Revisited<p><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> [With the new <b>Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes</b> prequel reboot on the horizon, this week SuperStuff Co-Editor Nigel Brown takes us back to the 1970s to revisit the original series of "Apes" films and re-evaluate the logic of the original timeline. - </span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">baggsey (Ian Baker)]</span></i></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUcCgrCn4DXfTrlx6SW54KeCd968iBTGcHDfrWnl2SmKOdo_tSgyZ9jRfFMJDstPZwV6Af335PvjT36xz3mP7jg2MggnXALOdVr2FiejYiCAkJONteSiEeE-3xpyP2KLflTSnRGMGC1KDvFNWNSYrtZfJEsGdHZn6pklSkOlgfld91sGGgUXIfjSt2/s2716/SS%20CU-036%20-%20Apes%20Cover%20colored.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2716" data-original-width="2418" height="596" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUcCgrCn4DXfTrlx6SW54KeCd968iBTGcHDfrWnl2SmKOdo_tSgyZ9jRfFMJDstPZwV6Af335PvjT36xz3mP7jg2MggnXALOdVr2FiejYiCAkJONteSiEeE-3xpyP2KLflTSnRGMGC1KDvFNWNSYrtZfJEsGdHZn6pklSkOlgfld91sGGgUXIfjSt2/w531-h596/SS%20CU-036%20-%20Apes%20Cover%20colored.jpg" width="531" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Characters © Disney. Art by Jean-Daniel Breque, 1975. Comics Unlimited #36, May 1976</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">by Nigel Brown</span></h3><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?”</span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> attrib. various</span></i></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">[Warning: ‘Apes’ spoilers ahead!]</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It’s been forty-eight years, so I felt it was time to take another look at one of our key interests of the 1970s: The Planet of the Apes.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I missed the first two <i>Apes</i> films on their initial release, so number three, <i>Escape from the Planet of the Apes</i>, in 1971, was all the more intriguing for its backstory. It tantalized with its split-second sepia clips from the first film. They featured when Zira was drugged and recounting the truth about her life as a vivisectionist of humans in the far future.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Eventually I saw the other films. I recall that one of our friends didn’t get into <i>Beneath the Planet of the Apes</i> as it was classified an AA and unfortunately he didn’t pass for being fourteen years old. I’d like to say that group solidarity won out, but it didn’t. Selfish youngsters that we were, we left our hapless friend standing outside as the rest of us went in to watch the film. (Just to set the record straight, we’ve all since been forgiven and remain friends over fifty years later…)</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By the time I finally saw <i>Planet of the Apes</i> I was familiar with the story from the UK-printed A&BC versions of the Topps cards, of which I had a set. Nevertheless I sat through that film twice in a row. (You could do that in those days, simply by remaining seated throughout the whole film programme until it rolled around again.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVmVtR1pXSUcZ-g3KNxkRPbvhfUYn6LunoxZeHRWVg9SpDkvTLFmkFkvp1kUdI1mUKL-hvt_t6Qp1bIh06Lmj6ngkJVHTZ1vrcjt6AfCXJYs-EAKzniuopjn0s1C1zsoYVea1LVJIjuPEk-VU2TRxMkTymubxRZEuZ8TXJ_pXmE6eyFg_R6Vt2fiZj/s940/Topps%20card%231.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="940" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVmVtR1pXSUcZ-g3KNxkRPbvhfUYn6LunoxZeHRWVg9SpDkvTLFmkFkvp1kUdI1mUKL-hvt_t6Qp1bIh06Lmj6ngkJVHTZ1vrcjt6AfCXJYs-EAKzniuopjn0s1C1zsoYVea1LVJIjuPEk-VU2TRxMkTymubxRZEuZ8TXJ_pXmE6eyFg_R6Vt2fiZj/w400-h276/Topps%20card%231.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© 20th Century Studios. Topps/A&BC Card #1</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggJxlL28eZ4QrNj0Pv9L94VKppOBzbAjeGYyS2lOpD_qvOH9y9m8JLhOUUss2ei5RqvLq1s6PruURm1btsCOXc_Ib1voSVad0yb1PlRm-PPtr3PMD_OidJU5SUYJwl4PS6uMkV-RAoG9o5hL13ZpZOL4uZzPXGdRJaKqm-4bnwF1UDhdtNOzbSI4uI/s940/Topps%20card%20%231%20reverse%20side.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="940" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggJxlL28eZ4QrNj0Pv9L94VKppOBzbAjeGYyS2lOpD_qvOH9y9m8JLhOUUss2ei5RqvLq1s6PruURm1btsCOXc_Ib1voSVad0yb1PlRm-PPtr3PMD_OidJU5SUYJwl4PS6uMkV-RAoG9o5hL13ZpZOL4uZzPXGdRJaKqm-4bnwF1UDhdtNOzbSI4uI/w400-h274/Topps%20card%20%231%20reverse%20side.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© 20th Century Studios. Topps/A&BC Card #1 reverse</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Compared to today, although we were almost contemporary with the first screenings of those films, there was little information about them at the time. With no internet, we relied on whatever sources we could find. I’ve mentioned the Topps/A&BC cards: a set of just forty-four with colour photos from the film in chronological order, and a small paragraph on the back of each card to summarize the scene it depicted. From those I had learned that Charlton Heston’s astronaut character was named George Taylor and his spacecraft was named ‘Air Force One’. (I thought that was a pretty nifty </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">name, and was somewhat confused years later when I heard the President of the United States flew in an aircraft called ‘Air Force One’. Was he an </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Apes</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> fan? Who would have guessed?)</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSmLR444W4AbBpyUGt-ZoMqQFpdNwWaHFlBb67wZvAhiYr7Z_ybX1uIA02Ta6_6DCdNzTcv3Y33PBg9LJkZOTXW9Iu04mXoF-wo6TIuohc4Z3I87V1L4k60_W0Epw6jo_pqAtio0lOm_kRpqVW9gElsIsq8OeMzI9KxCgwbc5cR-h4rD9ODFLg78Ug/s944/Topps%20card%20%233.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="944" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSmLR444W4AbBpyUGt-ZoMqQFpdNwWaHFlBb67wZvAhiYr7Z_ybX1uIA02Ta6_6DCdNzTcv3Y33PBg9LJkZOTXW9Iu04mXoF-wo6TIuohc4Z3I87V1L4k60_W0Epw6jo_pqAtio0lOm_kRpqVW9gElsIsq8OeMzI9KxCgwbc5cR-h4rD9ODFLg78Ug/w400-h270/Topps%20card%20%233.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© 20th Century Studios. Topps/A&BC Card #3</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdvEzfxq4hdIXS0Hnv2VdqcmMm0bXfsoR65-NQQGvFoDfE1T2hVmV7Gy6RsFUXiCErdXNPo6mtqN1GhB7mJoEiB_LLc_muXQLRiOpPnPtMqUJAOdNm8EKovrFwEseNlZgWlF-84kIglw0QP617SdGP6CFz8kW7hwMwqqHqYTbGQUKgf6ugqllV8P0S/s947/Topps%20card%20%233%20reverse%20side.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="641" data-original-width="947" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdvEzfxq4hdIXS0Hnv2VdqcmMm0bXfsoR65-NQQGvFoDfE1T2hVmV7Gy6RsFUXiCErdXNPo6mtqN1GhB7mJoEiB_LLc_muXQLRiOpPnPtMqUJAOdNm8EKovrFwEseNlZgWlF-84kIglw0QP617SdGP6CFz8kW7hwMwqqHqYTbGQUKgf6ugqllV8P0S/w400-h271/Topps%20card%20%233%20reverse%20side.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© 20th Century Studios. Topps/A&BC Card #3 reverse</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">When Marvel brought out their ‘Planet of the Apes’ weekly comic in 1974, excitement was spoiled by advertisements in their other B&W magazines for their USA ‘Planet of the Apes’ B&W magazine, which looked superior. Eventually we found copies of this American version in Dark They Were & Golden Eyed in London. </span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgHwT_U649yNuoR2fHzXOxe243x4Y-t0RvJQIRnzbXovcLAojYzfAomVUZOdjaPVdFVHl2bAA3akHrEZ6RzyZkdhnyHsWD125JAxXzZ2i1epGhAaMlwmO9xTNbnwRiVHwaLLj1Vi4qJgPSbq27TsZnD4mZDP273ekQbyxWDQLAy9vmcQnOyghrPcD/s300/1974-10-26%20uk%20pota%20no.%201%20t_potauk001.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="220" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgHwT_U649yNuoR2fHzXOxe243x4Y-t0RvJQIRnzbXovcLAojYzfAomVUZOdjaPVdFVHl2bAA3akHrEZ6RzyZkdhnyHsWD125JAxXzZ2i1epGhAaMlwmO9xTNbnwRiVHwaLLj1Vi4qJgPSbq27TsZnD4mZDP273ekQbyxWDQLAy9vmcQnOyghrPcD/w469-h640/1974-10-26%20uk%20pota%20no.%201%20t_potauk001.jpeg" width="469" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel UK. Planet of the Apes weekly #1</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kfkoz5N257keFMyNLToWcAE1OCQgMHDQGwkvrGBw2xWRzy-JxzhsLBvSXoA_5Nw6eKi8Xwe7g0Oqla3QsLl-XbsfNy7wyGmSlCts84Q5wZtmG5QVDcZz6EMFmmiOx3CCoRT_bI9iSExYhWyg1iD82LDzeUiABi_RTzA3cGJTn7rcnOkzJUEgS-VG/s346/FDDF83F4-BDF3-4F13-B6FB-2C420C356D66.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="256" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kfkoz5N257keFMyNLToWcAE1OCQgMHDQGwkvrGBw2xWRzy-JxzhsLBvSXoA_5Nw6eKi8Xwe7g0Oqla3QsLl-XbsfNy7wyGmSlCts84Q5wZtmG5QVDcZz6EMFmmiOx3CCoRT_bI9iSExYhWyg1iD82LDzeUiABi_RTzA3cGJTn7rcnOkzJUEgS-VG/w474-h640/FDDF83F4-BDF3-4F13-B6FB-2C420C356D66.jpeg" width="474" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. US Planet of the Apes B&W magazine #1</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Together with the articles about the films that these magazines carried, and the novelizations that then appeared, we began to fill our boots with background information about the <i>Apes</i>.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The short-lived <i>Planet of the Apes</i> TV series was shown in the UK (I recall on Sunday nights on ITV – a major event of the week in the days before video-recorders). As it featured Roddy McDowall as the chimpanzee Galen, it had a stamp of authenticity that assured us it was part of <i>Apes</i> canon.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZQ5SInHjyD_Joc5PwB_msPUYMT_UW7lAwX6glo2yzCWhDMoupjoqCmoXVafqDfLK3-jA2Lq7zNk8pTwWkRYmhWjtaBoHpnDOQ2-xqSdKtcXmGE0_z07aNR5-Flon9vh82OnwVtB5JgqdG2eD6QDf6Rn7Ek3cio8aRMEreC0TnXz5GShLFO2_fOPn-/s1539/1974-08-p29%201974-12-15%20apes%20the%20interrogation.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="964" data-original-width="1539" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZQ5SInHjyD_Joc5PwB_msPUYMT_UW7lAwX6glo2yzCWhDMoupjoqCmoXVafqDfLK3-jA2Lq7zNk8pTwWkRYmhWjtaBoHpnDOQ2-xqSdKtcXmGE0_z07aNR5-Flon9vh82OnwVtB5JgqdG2eD6QDf6Rn7Ek3cio8aRMEreC0TnXz5GShLFO2_fOPn-/w400-h250/1974-08-p29%201974-12-15%20apes%20the%20interrogation.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© 20th Century Studios. Screen photo taken 15th December 1974 by I Baker</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’d first seen the concept of a fictional chronology in Appendix B of Tolkien’s <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>, then had come across others, such as the timeline of Larry Niven’s ‘Known Space’ stories, and also Robert Heinlein’s ‘Future History’. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">I therefore read Jim Whitmore’s ‘Outlines of Tomorrow: A Chronology of the Planet of the Apes’ with interest. It was published in the American edition of Marvel’s ‘Planet of the Apes’ B&W # 11 (August 1975), within which Whitmore credited much to Mike Wilber, of Paulsboro, New Jersey, for the </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Apes</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> chronology Wilber had sent in to Marvel.</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But I was disappointed as I didn’t agree with Whitmore’s conclusion. He had ended his chronology with Taylor’s spacecraft returning to the beginning of the timeline, so that the <i>Apes</i> saga was a closed ‘time loop’.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This meant that the efforts of Caesar, the ape leader, were doomed to failure. He’d worked hard to change the future described by his parents, Cornelius and Zira. His new society, where humans and apes were not mutually antagonistic, was intended to save the Earth from destruction.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PttiIIMmTlqgck11X6f64f6DyupZnhfLS5l9pJV4DZl56teCSrx-bzEkYzH6J9n5hBysEFR-RBcB81Qqx3IITLtAJ63kjkPDLCk8p2Y8avWhpEK5GVRBDgkL23OoqDV1ZUgiWwqpUkR6GIW1hrZC06JyfumdzC8Irc2aMPWVks8-Rwrn30aEbrO7/s940/Topps%20card%20%2341.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="940" data-original-width="644" height="604" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PttiIIMmTlqgck11X6f64f6DyupZnhfLS5l9pJV4DZl56teCSrx-bzEkYzH6J9n5hBysEFR-RBcB81Qqx3IITLtAJ63kjkPDLCk8p2Y8avWhpEK5GVRBDgkL23OoqDV1ZUgiWwqpUkR6GIW1hrZC06JyfumdzC8Irc2aMPWVks8-Rwrn30aEbrO7/w413-h604/Topps%20card%20%2341.jpg" width="413" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© 20th Century Studios. Topps/A&BC Card #41. Cornelius & Zira</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie9qahuqgsrHy4f-iWG45K3lrEepKViEQcPu93aesYi42PQ73QAqTFwSZIxOXglzZDQO8PJIOi49td3vLXXsNCU-u-uLuiE6OtmEm7fVq0IGLb9V3PWER2TnOfGvpRySF75Jbvmk2-SnAG_kfapL1lpBJSQ5PimIGPx6_3cIGF1tEUFku1yndK2iBx/s942/Topps%20card%20%2341%20reverse%20side.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="942" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie9qahuqgsrHy4f-iWG45K3lrEepKViEQcPu93aesYi42PQ73QAqTFwSZIxOXglzZDQO8PJIOi49td3vLXXsNCU-u-uLuiE6OtmEm7fVq0IGLb9V3PWER2TnOfGvpRySF75Jbvmk2-SnAG_kfapL1lpBJSQ5PimIGPx6_3cIGF1tEUFku1yndK2iBx/w400-h274/Topps%20card%20%2341%20reverse%20side.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© 20th Century Studios. Topps/A&BC Card #41.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">Perhaps it was the optimism of a teenager, but I preferred to think that Caesar would succeed. This belief was encouraged as, at the end of the film, with their enemies defeated, Caesar says to the human MacDonald: “Tell me something, MacDonald. Can we make the future what we wish?”, and MacDonald replies: “I’ve heard that it’s possible, Caesar.”</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Also, the scene at the end of <i>Battle for the Planet of the Apes</i>, set in 2670, appeared to promise this. The children of apes and men sit before a benevolent orangutan they call the Lawgiver, beneath a statue of Caesar. Sure, a young chimpanzee tugs on a girl’s braid, who then pushes him over; sure, this last scene shows a tear in the statue’s eye, but I was prepared to overlook this as a warning of a dread possibility, rather than an inevitability.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As I wrote back in 1976:</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">*</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first film,<i> Planet of the Apes</i>, begins two thousand years in the future, then the series goes back in time to 1973. Taken at face value, the chronology appears to be curved into a loop, not linear. When one tries to put the chronology on a linear scale, the many contradictions are exposed.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The greatest contradiction is the two different accounts of how the apes rebelled against their human masters. When Cornelius and Zira are asked about this in <i>Escape from the Planet of the Apes,</i> they say that after two centuries of being pets, the apes became slaves, and three centuries after that, they rebelled. But in the events of the rebellion in <i>Conquest of the Planet of the Apes,</i> the apes have done all this in a mere nine years!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Another contradiction connected with this is that at the end of <i>Battle for the Planet of the Apes</i>, the Lawgiver says that there is world peace in 2670. But in the first film, Dr Zaius states that by that time, humans were definitely inferior to the apes.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So what is the truth?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The best explanation I can come up with is that they are BOTH true. What has happened in the last three films is different to the historical events mentioned in the first film. It follows that something must have changed that past, something that happened between films two and three. This something is Taylor’s spacecraft. It had gone back in time between these films, back from 3955 to 1973. The events it caused in the past altered the consequent timeline. This altered timeline is shown in the last three films.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now; where does the TV series fit in? The answer to this is simple. In the first episode, “Escape From Tomorrow”, Burke and Virdon discover a book with the date 2503. In the altered timeline (as can be seen from the chronology below), no skyscrapers such as the one shown in the book could exist. This means that the TV series must take place in the unchanged timeline.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkBq3pD3-nJnIy4-E0aIlASukELScpAtlEZ9EKpb4iNt2XvIa3WJc_0DCKzXem5dq9Py0EnQ-QDnK9WR2w8up-RTUqmkhRwcp0XZUv1uXi9Cl-LMXlnk4wGqPC1aIYO8mrm-QOjHyIS1wsOgpaaSxOd-bY3llAd4mTsU35e3lfjeXgTzSWeknuWyu4/s2302/IMG_00111.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2302" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkBq3pD3-nJnIy4-E0aIlASukELScpAtlEZ9EKpb4iNt2XvIa3WJc_0DCKzXem5dq9Py0EnQ-QDnK9WR2w8up-RTUqmkhRwcp0XZUv1uXi9Cl-LMXlnk4wGqPC1aIYO8mrm-QOjHyIS1wsOgpaaSxOd-bY3llAd4mTsU35e3lfjeXgTzSWeknuWyu4/w400-h268/IMG_00111.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© 20th Century Studios. "Escape From Tomorrow"</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">*</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Whitmore himself had posited this later termed ‘linear-chronology’ as an alternative chronology at the end of his article. Although he’d chosen to go with the ‘time loop’ chronology, he did appear open-minded as to which was the ‘correct’ version.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That summer of 1975, as well as my involvement with SuperStuff, I decided to strike out on my own with a fanzine I named ‘Fantastic Voyages’ (still with the micro-circulation of three!). Issue 1 was a slim affair, but I filled most of issue 2 with my own ‘linear’ version of the <i>Planet of the Apes</i> chronology, something I’d have been happier to see in the Marvel B&W magazine. I began it with:</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>As all fans who have seen the “Ape” films, TV Series etc. are all aware, the chronology is confusing. And so to shine the light of knowledge through the murky mists of ignorance and confusion, here is the Chronology of The Planet of the Apes</i>. – Fantastic Voyages #2, Autumn 1975.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2hdCG_ujFaCibyxQm-cccJrufc6FF8JCEaMO66o_uUCzgPa8q0BrqN2JJ2JZKFBZszGgdzQUBKPBRp_D2WPrPVX4TQIrZjElIDvROvsapPHX0NMna52TWrOgYeynOk6bLqIyQ34BoQRqhcq-qwKimCuxIEAcrVS0gVHGuBUafezfpJB4RCPMmVpJo/s548/Snip20230106_1.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="439" height="359" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2hdCG_ujFaCibyxQm-cccJrufc6FF8JCEaMO66o_uUCzgPa8q0BrqN2JJ2JZKFBZszGgdzQUBKPBRp_D2WPrPVX4TQIrZjElIDvROvsapPHX0NMna52TWrOgYeynOk6bLqIyQ34BoQRqhcq-qwKimCuxIEAcrVS0gVHGuBUafezfpJB4RCPMmVpJo/w287-h359/Snip20230106_1.png" width="287" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Nigel Brown and Marvel. The little-seen Fantastic Voyages #2</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The following year, after producing my ‘Superman Special’ with SuperStuff (#7, May 1976), I sent a copy to Alan Austin (editor/publisher of fanzine Comics Unlimited). He wrote back: <i>‘Do you think there would be any material in back issues of SuperStuff I could use? CU is using up articles quite a rate being monthly, and good articles are becoming harder to find.’</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I tidied up my <i>Apes</i> chronology, and it appeared as the cover article in <i>Comics Unlimited # 36</i>, May 1976.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Subsequent letter columns in CU followed up with readers’ responses asking how I fitted in the new cartoon series, <i>Return to the Planet of the Apes </i>(1975), and a number of other points that I did my best to answer.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the end, Alan Austin commented (CU # 38 August 1976): <i>‘I like the way a TV company produces a series, doesn’t pay too much attention to details, so that there are plenty of inconsistencies, and along comes a devoted fan like Nigel to cover up all those mistakes. Maybe you ought to approach the scriptwriters with your explanations and work out some kind of fee?’</i></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Forty-eight years later, I was browsing the internet when I was astonished to find my <i>Apes</i> chronology unforgotten and referenced on <a href="https://planetoftheapes.fandom.com/wiki/Circular_vs_Linear_Timelines">planetoftheapes.fandom.com</a> (search for ‘Circular vs Linear Timelines’) as a ‘linear chronology’, and available to read on <a href="https://pota.goatley.com/magazines/comics-unlimited-apes-timeline.pdf" target="_blank">pota.goatley.com</a> under ‘Movies & TV Series’, and then ‘Magazine articles’.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In nearly five decades, <i>Apes</i> fandom had grown, with a number of websites now devoted to the subject. The two websites referenced above both contain an enormous amount of material.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Reading the excellent article ‘Circular vs Linear Timelines’ has changed my view of the chronology. Back in 1975, taking into account the information we then had access to, it was reasonable to infer different possibilities in the <i>Apes</i> timeline, given the ambiguity found in the films and the TV series.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But the article ‘Circular vs Linear Timelines’ quotes Paul Dehn, the writer of the sequels to <i>Planet of the Apes</i>, and establishes that his intention was to write the films within a ‘time circle’ chronology.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I would always respect the writer’s intention as canon (no matter how many discrepancies may creep into the work due to mistakes or sloppy production), and so I have rewritten my chronology to fit this view.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But not quite…</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have tied the end of <i>Beneath the Planet of the Apes</i> to the beginning of <i>Escape from the Planet of the Apes</i>, creating the loop.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Where I have still differed, however, is that I have retained the original (linear) timeline just once, before the loop begins.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It’s what I call the ‘Linear-Loop’ model, or the ‘have your cake and eat it’ timeline!</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When Taylor’s spacecraft races away from Earth, approaching light speed and time dilation, it hasn’t yet affected the Earth’s history so the <b>unaltered timeline</b> proceeds up until the end of <i>Beneath the Planet of the Apes</i>. Once the craft has gone back in time, it changes subsequent events so that the <b>altered timeline</b> now loops back into itself.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This updated <i>Apes</i> chronology satisfies three criteria:</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">1. It contains the time loop, which was the original intention of Paul Dehn.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">2. It still allows for two different versions of the future, incorporating the conflicting accounts, yet still converging on the same events as portrayed in <i>Planet of the Apes</i>.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">3. These two separate futures, both leading to ‘civilized’ apes and ‘bestial’ humans imply that there’s an inevitability to this outcome, which accommodates the theme of Pierre Boule’s original novel <i>La Planète des Singes</i>. In this novel, the ‘planet of the apes’ is a once-human dominated planet in the Betelgeuse star system, but when Ulysse Mérou (the novel’s ‘Taylor’) returns to Earth he discovers that apes have taken over there, too.</span></li></ul><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The ‘apes’, in truth, are the ‘other’ that we can relate to, and well imagine in our place. But for me, the appeal has never been about the story of the apes, but the fate of the humans. It’s a well-worn science fiction trope – the future evolution of the human species – but it remains fascinating, none-the-less. It’s been around since the very beginning of the genre, with the Eloi and Morlocks of H.G.Wells’s <i>The Time Machine</i>, published in 1895, just thirty-six years after Darwin’s<i> On the Origin of Species</i> appeared in 1859. Since then, many notable works describing the devolution of humankind have seen print, including Olaf Stapledon’s <i>Last and First Men</i> (1930) and especially Stephen Baxter’s <i>Evolution</i> (2002).</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Note: The apes saga has been set in another, almost parallel, universe. All the astronauts have worn the emblem A.N.S.A. instead of N.A.S.A.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So, to revisit the Chronology of The Planet of the Apes:</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">1972</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A spacecraft crewed by Taylor, Dodge, Landon, and Stewart, is launched. Contact with Earth is lost as it approaches the speed of light.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Six months after this first launch, a second spacecraft is sent into space, with Brent as a crewmember. This spacecraft also loses contact with Earth.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">And now the unaltered history of Earth, the linear timeline:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">1972 to 1980</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Living standards increase due to technological advances. The fate of the two spacecraft lost in 1972 is never known.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">After 1973</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A third spacecraft is launched, crewed by Burke, Virdon and Jones, on a less ambitious mission to the close-by star Alpha Centauri.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Taylor’s spacecraft is devoid of insignia, Burke’s has US flags on the front fins, and Brent’s has only the ‘UNITED STATES’ painted down the front.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">1980</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The third spacecraft reaches the nearby star Alpha Centauri on August 19<sup>th</sup> 1980, but disaster strikes. Astronaut Pete Burke hits the emergency homing button just before he passes out. Although the engines of their craft are damaged beyond repair, their momentum still carries them towards Earth, but at a significantly slower speed. The unconscious astronauts are automatically placed in suspended animation for the long trip home.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">1980 to an undisclosed date early in 3rd millennium:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Human civilization has continued to advance technologically, and machines are being used for many purposes as leisure time increases. Many space explorations take place, although some never return to Earth.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Undisclosed date early in 3rd millennium</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A plague strikes that kills all the cats and dogs. Luckily, it does not affect other species, including all primates. Due to their higher intelligence, apes become the most popular pets. They are trained easily, and can perform tricks for their human masters. In time, most homes have a chimpanzee, orangutan or gorilla as a pet, although at first they are quartered in cages.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Two centuries later:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The apes are being used in service to the humans. Their intelligence is being increased through selected breeding and artificial stimulation.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Three centuries later to 3073:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The humans are being served both by their machines and their ape slaves. They no longer have to struggle in their lives. Their civilization weakens and they begin to lose interest in space travel.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">After the apes’ status has moved from service to slavery, they understand their situation as slaves and unify against it. At first they refuse to serve their masters with grunts, until an ape, Aldo, learns to articulate and says: “No.” He leads an ape rebellion. The degenerated humans are defeated by the apes.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the chaos that follows, nuclear warheads are exploded. Advanced civilization is lost and the world is devastated by radioactive fallout, blast craters and consequent geological upheaval.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The ape and human populations move away from the radiation-soaked cities, and the surviving humans sink into a slave mentality under the more vigorous apes, tolerated but despised by their new masters.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The apes become divided into social classes by species. The pompous, authoritative orangutans become the governing class. The strongest apes, the gorillas, become the soldiers and policemen of the ape states. The chimpanzees’ greater intelligence leads them to become mainly scientists, although their work is hampered by the reactionary orangutans.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Radioactive desolation persists in too many areas for increased commerce between isolated groups.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One group, situated in the California area, consists of a ‘Central City’ surrounded by farmlands and villages. Each village is governed by a ‘Prefect’, who is always a chimpanzee.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Technology, apart from the military capacity to manufacture guns, is now discredited. The apes have experienced the ruination that human technology has caused. They begin to think that Man is capable of nothing but destruction. From that position, it’s now a small step to believe that Man is inherently evil.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Finally, a respected orangutan documents ape beliefs in what later becomes known as the ‘Sacred Scrolls’. The prime reason to write the scrolls is to codify ape law, but this orangutan, who in later centuries is named the ‘Lawgiver’, feels that his fellow apes must be warned against Man’s evils, as some of the apes are beginning to take humans into their houses as pets.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Not all the humans have left the irradiated cities. Amongst the ruins of New York, a group of humans have set up an underground civilization. The long-term radiation mutates them: their outer skin layers shed and they develop telepathic powers. They find an intact nuclear missile, and worship the nuclear force within it as their creator.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">3073:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A spacecraft lands in Southern California. The human crew are all killed by the apes. Zaius, the orangutan leader of the Council in that area, begins to fear the threat of returning human astronauts from outer space. (This is related in the first episode of the TV series.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">3085 June 14th:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Zaius’s fears are realized as Jones, Alan Virdon and Peter Burke crash-land in his region after more than a millennium in space. Jones does not survive, as seen in “THE PLANET OF THE APES” TV SERIES.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The human astronauts find a five-hundred year-old book containing a photograph, dated 2503, that shows a future-developed New York. This confirms they’re back on Earth.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(It also confirms that they’re situated within the first – linear – timeline. By 2503, within the loop timeline, New York had suffered a nuclear attack hundreds of years before that date.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A dog is seen in the first TV episode, but this can be accounted for. That dog is seen in the <span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;">unaltered</span> timeline, and what we know of the plague is only Cornelius’s knowledge of it, many centuries after it happened. It is perfectly feasible that not all the dogs died; some still lived in Southern California to at least 3085. It is plausible that Cornelius would have little knowledge of a few surviving dogs nearly a thousand years later and living on the other side of a continent strewn with impassable radioactive deserts.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">3085 to 3954:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Over the next 800 years, the humans continue to degenerate as a species. The speech centres in their brains atrophy and they move into the forests. They have regressed to a state that resembles hominid life before the discovery of fire.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Knowledge that humans once had a major civilization is either lost or concealed by the conservative orangutans.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">3954 November 25th:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Taylor’s spacecraft returns to Earth, as shown in “PLANET OF THE APES”.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There is one date specified in the first film that must be disregarded completely in the chronology. When Taylor’s spacecraft crashes in the lake, the chronometer aboard reads 3978. But in the second film, Brent says the date is 3955. Again, in the third film, Dr Hasslein says that analysis of Taylor’s returned spacecraft confirms it came from the year 3955 (not the 3978 date Taylor read). This is explained if the chronometer aboard Taylor’s spacecraft had been broken in the crash, and had thus shown the wrong date. When Dr Milo repaired the salvaged spacecraft, the chronometer had then displayed the correct date: 3955.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(A geographical aside –<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In <i>Planet of the Apes</i>, Cornelius shows us a map of the terrain near New York. When you compare it to a present-day map, Ape City could be said to be situated in New Jersey somewhere along the Raritan River. The lake into where Taylor’s spacecraft first crashed must be opposite New York, but farther inland. At the end of this first film, Taylor comes across the Statue of Liberty, and it is on the seashore. This means that somewhere along the timeline the Hudson River must have dried up.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This theory is confirmed in <i>Beneath the Planet of the Apes</i>. Brent and Nova ride from what was New Jersey to Manhattan without coming across any water. They enter Queensborough Plaza subway station on East 51st Street/5th Avenue. They then pass the remains of the New York Public Library, the Stock Exchange and Radio City to end up near Lexington Avenue beside St. Patrick’s Cathedral.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">3955:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As told in “BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES”, the second spacecraft – following Taylor’s trajectory and ending up close to New York – crashes in the Forbidden Zone, near Ape City.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Soon after, the ape army marches to war in the Forbidden Zone, Milo sends Cornelius and Zira a message telling them that Taylor’s salvaged craft is ready for flight.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The ‘doomsday bomb’, the ‘Alpha-Omega Nuclear Device’, is detonated and sets fire to the Earth’s atmosphere, scorching the planet to a cinder.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Taylor’s craft, with its chimpanzee crew, is hurled back into the past.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Taylor’s spacecraft has been thrown back to 1973, and so has altered the past by its very presence of <i>being</i> there.</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">What follows now is the <i>altered</i> history of Earth. At this point, the time-loop begins.</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here are the significant altered events of this new timeline –<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">1973:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Taylor’s spacecraft reappears near Earth and splashes down on the coast of California at the beginning of “ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES”.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The son of Cornelius and Zira is first named ‘Milo’, but this is changed to ‘Caesar’ by Armando to hide the child from the authorities.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">1974 to 1981:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The fear of human subjugation by apes, driven by knowledge of the future, leads to more totalitarian government.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In view of the return of Taylor’s spacecraft, the third spacecraft mission to the close-by star Alpha Centauri may have been cancelled or postponed. If it does take place, then the Virdon and Burke of this time-loop timeline will arrive at a very different Earth in 3085, when nuclear war has happened much earlier and the humans of that altered time would have already degenerated towards a more bestial nature than the humans of the linear timeline seen in the TV series.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">1982:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A plague strikes that kills all the cats and dogs. As this plague has struck centuries earlier than in the linear timeline, the root cause of this difference must be the arrival of Taylor’s spacecraft in 1973. Perhaps genetic investigation of enhanced ape intelligence causes a deadly virus to escape from a lab?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">1982 to 1991:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Apes become the most popular pets, but within about six years, they have become slaves. Once again, the fear of human subjugation by apes, driven by knowledge of the future, has accelerated processes that took hundreds of years in the linear timeline.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">1991</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Armando and Caesar visit Los Angeles at the start of “CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES”.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(In <i>Battle for the Planet of the Apes</i> the city is said to be south of a rural area where Caesar’s later settlement is established. The large city best suited to those specifications is Los Angeles, as it is south of a relatively rural area, the San Joaquin Valley.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Caesar defeats the human forces in the city. Only this son of chimpanzees from 3955 is intelligent enough to lead a successful ape rebellion as early as 1991. In the linear history it took the apes three centuries to rebel from slavery.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">1992:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Caesar founds a new settlement in the San Joaquin Valley, where they survive the nuclear war caused by the ape rebellions.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This significantly earlier nuclear war means that many centuries of human technical development in the linear timeline do not take place.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Human survivors of the nuclear war have not had time to evolve into telepathic mutants at this point.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2004:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">“BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES” takes place.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Caesar appears to have established equality between apes and humans.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2004 to 2670:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The idea of peaceful co-existence between apes and humans has spread around the globe. Both apes and humans realise that they must live in peace to prevent the detonation of the Alpha-Omega bomb in 3955.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2670 to 3954:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">After hundreds of years, despite previous hope of peace between apes and humans, consensus breaks down and fears about the destruction of the Earth in the future are dismissed. Many apes and humans, hungry for power on each side of their divide, are now emphatic that this is a lie concocted by their enemies to keep them in check and prevent apes (or humans, if argued from their point-of-view) from fighting for their rights. As these attitudes gain currency amongst each species, even talk of a ‘doomsday bomb’ is banned as propaganda from the opposing side, then expressly denied, as religious heresy.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Eventually the warnings of Caesar are either forgotten, or kept secret from the populations of apes and humans.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As in the linear timeline, the human species degenerates back to pre-fire-wielding hominids.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">3954 November 25th:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">“PLANET OF THE APES”.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">3955:</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">“BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES”.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The ‘doomsday bomb’ detonates and Taylor’s spacecraft, with its chimpanzee crew, is hurled back to 1973.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">The time-loop is complete, and reruns ad infinitum…</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">© Nigel Brown</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA22_w4sYSWGEhi1Qfv0Ba_GFxQn9M7DCcQYt1z4bSVw6vovt68slWkEj7bnNSWq5oxDJXixWQuEcKUE9Kfo2vBVJln0xaOAxwDNDjZE-JmacOMIqTikdMblGgT0AUZ5-2M_AVCtUJVJtjKpM4XYITXff-w4Qk7NMS1eGhfEKcNp8wmWk-fgN4NjL3/s2679/1976-05-01%20CU-%20GJC%20Unpub%20POTA%20artwork%20%20-036.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2679" data-original-width="2098" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA22_w4sYSWGEhi1Qfv0Ba_GFxQn9M7DCcQYt1z4bSVw6vovt68slWkEj7bnNSWq5oxDJXixWQuEcKUE9Kfo2vBVJln0xaOAxwDNDjZE-JmacOMIqTikdMblGgT0AUZ5-2M_AVCtUJVJtjKpM4XYITXff-w4Qk7NMS1eGhfEKcNp8wmWk-fgN4NjL3/w314-h400/1976-05-01%20CU-%20GJC%20Unpub%20POTA%20artwork%20%20-036.jpg" width="314" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Geoff Cousins. Unpublished POTA artwork from May 1976</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGu4lIsvxKIulTpLay32Mpn_khavYg_IsByo9E4oslyij-V8-z2cYwB3QUAY9KoCx6_MVm8GpnsD5vdigHUGwlYDxR2ibUSF0Uet6xR0wEk7JWKqFUfRDoEXlODpO1Wr8IJKD0mMnsLJW0w9-v0CkIocsHrWYwx-_ZfdtDBgJ9stvqXXm7UiltZSW5/s1844/1976-05-01%20CU-%20GJC%20Unpub%20POTA%20artwork%202%20%20-036.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1844" data-original-width="1665" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGu4lIsvxKIulTpLay32Mpn_khavYg_IsByo9E4oslyij-V8-z2cYwB3QUAY9KoCx6_MVm8GpnsD5vdigHUGwlYDxR2ibUSF0Uet6xR0wEk7JWKqFUfRDoEXlODpO1Wr8IJKD0mMnsLJW0w9-v0CkIocsHrWYwx-_ZfdtDBgJ9stvqXXm7UiltZSW5/s320/1976-05-01%20CU-%20GJC%20Unpub%20POTA%20artwork%202%20%20-036.jpg" width="289" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Geoff Cousins. Unpublished POTA artwork from May 1976</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-62364806316590697702023-01-03T14:17:00.001-06:002023-01-03T14:17:25.832-06:00Jack Kirby on Daredevil<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4OlfmS5X-zo4iicBycbS_DRG_onB6ng8TGsXXXEJYiHL85oJcCZgSWd9It09iqMu_ikoMXP7Bz1I6unfnDW_iCcPytXwnKOKxe_ck5ihDZUvxl1U7ichXRFX5csmtUlF1sL-BW_U5uWUNPP_FakkM7tjfgQaCyn_vNE86jJqhBgFASzzkPY1fP3iO/s634/Jack%20Kirby%20and%20Friends%20w%20DD.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="599" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4OlfmS5X-zo4iicBycbS_DRG_onB6ng8TGsXXXEJYiHL85oJcCZgSWd9It09iqMu_ikoMXP7Bz1I6unfnDW_iCcPytXwnKOKxe_ck5ihDZUvxl1U7ichXRFX5csmtUlF1sL-BW_U5uWUNPP_FakkM7tjfgQaCyn_vNE86jJqhBgFASzzkPY1fP3iO/w378-h400/Jack%20Kirby%20and%20Friends%20w%20DD.png" width="378" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>by Ian Baker </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgplGCIJJDZKdke_qZBMHR8wOVb1psnjgPZsguc1QLmODrqGV8XiskjI_uFMDoXGtuXHTVsxH8jGqHimwaypBn9nEl1v06d54iq2oxISg9kMBIu7JWXuF_vawrNSlPDq0ZrA-uEwR35WCcXDbYxZP4ZRWoCfV6BBPQayyyHwTqICdxsC4ZleNVJhVef/s351/I%20Baker%20blog%20Standard.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="351" height="36" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgplGCIJJDZKdke_qZBMHR8wOVb1psnjgPZsguc1QLmODrqGV8XiskjI_uFMDoXGtuXHTVsxH8jGqHimwaypBn9nEl1v06d54iq2oxISg9kMBIu7JWXuF_vawrNSlPDq0ZrA-uEwR35WCcXDbYxZP4ZRWoCfV6BBPQayyyHwTqICdxsC4ZleNVJhVef/w37-h36/I%20Baker%20blog%20Standard.png" width="37" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have always liked Daredevil - most probably as he was “Red Batman”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>( a term coined by Mark Waid in his fun run of Daredevil back in 2013), and so as a Daredevil fan I bought my first ever <i>Fantastic Four</i> comic (back issue #73) this week for the princely sum of <b>five bucks (four quid at current exchange rates)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b> because Daredevil was featured on the front cover.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>What a bargain!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I was intrigued to see how Jack Kirby had rendered Daredevil on the inside pages of a comic. I’d been vaguely aware that he’d done layouts of Daredevil for John Romita in the early days, and had drawn a cover or two as well in the mid sixties. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The received wisdom is that </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Daredevil</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> had its origins as a standard Stan Lee-style Marvel superhero comic back in 1964. Jack Kirby</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> provided character design assistance. After the first few issues, Wally Wood</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> designed his stylized double-D chest insignia and streamlined his getup in devilish red, and Kirby had no further influence on the character.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">So I thought I’d track the various Daredevil appearances as rendered by King Kirby, and try to determine what influence Jack had on the design and presentation of Ol' Hornhead in the relatively short period of his involvement with the character.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">In fact, Kirby's influence can be seen in five distinct phases over the period 1964-1968.</span></div><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><h4 style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wave 1: April 1964-October 1964 - Design and early Covers</span></h4><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://tombrevoort.com/2020/12/05/lee-kirby-ditko-everett-brodsky-the-long-road-to-daredevil-1/" target="_blank">According to Tom Brevoort</a>, the impetus for the creation of Daredevil came from Martin Goodman, who told Stan</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> Lee that he’d made some investigations and that the trademark and copyright to the old Lev Gleason DAREDEVIL had been allowed to lapse. Goodman gave Stan instructions to create a Spider-Man knock-off to capitalize on the Web-Slinger's success. </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Lee turned to Jack Kirby to at least design the new character. Kirby’s design sheet was ultimately reworked into the bulk of the final cover image, albeit with many alterations made to it. And so Kirby's initial involvement with DD was limited to cover renditions of Daredevil in the first five issues, the interior artwork being done initially by Bill Everett, and then put in the hands of Joe Orlando and Vince Colletta, before being passed to the team of Wally Wood & Bob Powell.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Kirby's initial Daredevil design very much reflected a circus trapeze artist, bright and colourful in red and yellow. The billy-club holster was in the initial design.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqXEOYj-LrtjmZARGKt-GACQ60ms9SSmvOU2IBu2S5nc5gDdqu6MhyTVrOv9ziq__DJJaup9zRBfQkhSzz_NTjo5cxXVz5h7oaBefL8-g8dw6cz_8NFXYvBAkH_H8ZWydVeBaVy07pYxPsxHWBOuw5mJ_NhJYlXUnRbal8kaKCHa8P4AWxe36BgyLD/s639/SS%20DD%201.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="406" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqXEOYj-LrtjmZARGKt-GACQ60ms9SSmvOU2IBu2S5nc5gDdqu6MhyTVrOv9ziq__DJJaup9zRBfQkhSzz_NTjo5cxXVz5h7oaBefL8-g8dw6cz_8NFXYvBAkH_H8ZWydVeBaVy07pYxPsxHWBOuw5mJ_NhJYlXUnRbal8kaKCHa8P4AWxe36BgyLD/w406-h640/SS%20DD%201.png" width="406" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Marvel. Daredevil #1. April 1964 . Credit Kirby and Bill Everett</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">The cover to Daredevil #1 was very much a mash-up of various design elements, with Kirby's rendition of Daredevil seemingly pasted on to a crowd scene, inked by Bill Everett. The pose is classic Kirby, DD's arm outstretched to the reader. This image has subsequently remained the design touchstone for the character despite the costume changes over the subsequent years.</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb5b2EgiKiqZY7cqxKnNoIDkWE8AgVKLN-x_QMCV_rWKQRMRcFyfRdQMW0qsnS64GwFaYTjBafDdo55hmddQAMZxtxA4cEmq28i_e_mEnyf8yxC6t0Ay8fGhOa7Ah0mT5MzpEtL3BdinieNrI8T2yKkhesTkysXGA_lg2kbPoc3rhJcHcP2HC4O4vq/s638/SS%20DD%202.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="451" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb5b2EgiKiqZY7cqxKnNoIDkWE8AgVKLN-x_QMCV_rWKQRMRcFyfRdQMW0qsnS64GwFaYTjBafDdo55hmddQAMZxtxA4cEmq28i_e_mEnyf8yxC6t0Ay8fGhOa7Ah0mT5MzpEtL3BdinieNrI8T2yKkhesTkysXGA_lg2kbPoc3rhJcHcP2HC4O4vq/w452-h640/SS%20DD%202.png" width="452" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Marvel. Daredevil #2. June 1964. Credit Kirby & Colletta</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1MRcl7_z7A8ea1TcLiz9QvNM80JF3o412J0L6f2cqV1HmfHz6Y6boIE-ctUoT8azSKiWWUCJwCYMvA8ICMiLQ3tLzmsd15GX3DkdJd5urGWQGERxNowsE6mw3SzmsVBamYrj6eXNGzI3Bp9mEdvmVwSeYpeHiefKkHKuagBSuuPBy2xU0FIFGPg65/s634/SS%20DD%203.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="449" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1MRcl7_z7A8ea1TcLiz9QvNM80JF3o412J0L6f2cqV1HmfHz6Y6boIE-ctUoT8azSKiWWUCJwCYMvA8ICMiLQ3tLzmsd15GX3DkdJd5urGWQGERxNowsE6mw3SzmsVBamYrj6eXNGzI3Bp9mEdvmVwSeYpeHiefKkHKuagBSuuPBy2xU0FIFGPg65/w454-h640/SS%20DD%203.png" width="454" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Marvel. Daredevil #3. August 1964. Credit Kirby & Colletta</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">The covers for Daredevil #2 and #3 , credited to Kirby and Vince Colletta, have far less power. In #2 the rendition of Daredevil is awkward, and the drawing of Electro is very static ; I wonder if Kirby was really involved at all. Similarly, the drawing of DD running in from left-field on the cover of #3 bears none of Kirby's hallmarks ; no foreshortening</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> of perspective, no threat from the villains, who seem very static.</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnd64_xeP4iE76ffq5GN_jR_zOBx0LmHX1HWFQuHkVinzx7dnLUT1dOTITbbGpkQFtHXf3F-WtdwcdYp0u2kFePb-lV1bOIzuzIOuwnARuv682GX6dF7fyDPI3z_HemLiYsvWNX9kCPEBjbxr0lkm0KidM0DRc5FKZtXya11iqKrOm0BkIFkkSU24I/s640/SS%20DD%204.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="453" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnd64_xeP4iE76ffq5GN_jR_zOBx0LmHX1HWFQuHkVinzx7dnLUT1dOTITbbGpkQFtHXf3F-WtdwcdYp0u2kFePb-lV1bOIzuzIOuwnARuv682GX6dF7fyDPI3z_HemLiYsvWNX9kCPEBjbxr0lkm0KidM0DRc5FKZtXya11iqKrOm0BkIFkkSU24I/w454-h640/SS%20DD%204.png" width="454" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Marvel. Daredevil #4. October 1964. Credit Kirby & Colletta.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">The cover of Daredevil #4 is a return to form of sorts, with DD in a classic design pose (perhaps lifted from initial</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> design sketches) with a woman on his arm, which seems to have been added subsequently. The Purple Man stands in the far background, again posing no real threat.</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My overriding impression of these first four covers is of work that has been developed by committee, with very little design influence from Kirby other than the costume of the main character.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By issue #7, the creative reins had been handed over to Wally Wood, who </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">redefined DD with new all-red costume, and a smaller, more lithe, less bulky build. </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><h4 style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wave 2: May 1965-Sep 1965 - Crossover appearances, emulating Wally Wood</span></h4><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">With Wally Wood now taking over DD with the April 1965 issue, there was to be a concerted push to get DD appearing in the pages of other Marvel comic books, to raise awareness of the hero and drive sales. The editorial decision was made to ensure that DD looked as much like the Wally Wood version as possible in all appearances to ensure consistency. Renditions of DD were to reflect the Wood design ethos, which were more about athleticism than muscular power.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We all know that Murphy Anderson redrew Superman’s face in Kirby’s run on Jimmy Olsen over at DC, but Wally Wood (and later Romita) redrew DD’s face on top of Kirby.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And so Kirby, inked by Colletta, next rendered Daredevil in <i>Journey Into Mystery #116 - May 1965 . </i>Daredevil only appears in 2 panels!! The first instance is of a tiny stick figure balancing on a wire, and the second panel looks very much like Wally Wood's version. This second panel does not seem to look like a Kirby pencil, or even Colletta inks. My bet is that Bob Powell both pencilled and inked DD in these panels.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtPDabnXGJfWc0sX_ujsu-TeLdGPDDQdTZIUnedcempn8Sic-R0rpEN4NRSGb3DI06LbLh7MENZXjkJQRXdp3U-e0pRZmg-GeXjeQvddOOMd5AENXypzQ-HAgkkz7algiUOIPU5fRz55n4n9_PmqOXavUSXFRgWpQxuHuPSvaNdwU-lu7LRXVO-qGm/s400/Snip20230102_63.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="400" height="373" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtPDabnXGJfWc0sX_ujsu-TeLdGPDDQdTZIUnedcempn8Sic-R0rpEN4NRSGb3DI06LbLh7MENZXjkJQRXdp3U-e0pRZmg-GeXjeQvddOOMd5AENXypzQ-HAgkkz7algiUOIPU5fRz55n4n9_PmqOXavUSXFRgWpQxuHuPSvaNdwU-lu7LRXVO-qGm/w400-h373/Snip20230102_63.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Marvel. DD in Journey Into Mystery #116</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKd-wH8zvX5qekikLCDPPgExJCX8P9GaORenHfpFmDztzYK8rUjEb9MmUm51ENW5YADW7pOgHz_Hm8lIplmzPXP5ITYRC4udNv7hXCZk-c8F9RTGKINmTlzNNhbIMqQ6rRs5gouwH6pCL4VIAdIux7faysC84ha4cX1xVpR-HYK-OW1cMT56YBzwEq/s402/Snip20230102_64.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="402" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKd-wH8zvX5qekikLCDPPgExJCX8P9GaORenHfpFmDztzYK8rUjEb9MmUm51ENW5YADW7pOgHz_Hm8lIplmzPXP5ITYRC4udNv7hXCZk-c8F9RTGKINmTlzNNhbIMqQ6rRs5gouwH6pCL4VIAdIux7faysC84ha4cX1xVpR-HYK-OW1cMT56YBzwEq/w400-h374/Snip20230102_64.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Marvel. DD (rendered by Bob Powell?) in Journey Into Mystery #116</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">DD's next appearance was in <i>Fantastic Four #39</i> - cover dated the following month, June 1965. This was the first part of a two-part story (continued in Fantastic Four #40) which finds our hero teamed with the Fantastic Four against Dr Doom. Kirby pencilled both issues, #39 inked by </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Frank Giacoia (as Frank Ray), and #40 inked by Vince Colletta.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> It is pretty obvious that </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wally Wood was brought in to re-draw or re--ink DD to ensure consistency, but in doing so the figure is often awkwardly rendered to fit into the existing Kirby artwork.</span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On the front cover of #39, DD is rendered differently to the Fantastic Four. Is he using his billy club as a walking stick? This cover looks to be a paste-up job. Looking at the action panels, I wonder if Kirby did more than the faintest pencil outlines for DD, as they have obviously been rendered by someone else.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMhDsXFxG8j8XvlK4MmcBXJEi3NZ6vga6jsfs3GeClfqZW5ZJ1LWcrr9oliYRqAgI771CDC9dxGZNdWrwZFMzwNTSWCpbrMTZbGMy-nsbv3NHXiybSunFQbedjiwCnJrSxpv5Zwmg1oaJRmveyG0PmN6pECjKHnfQL-3etxS7UXY0vCrTFwQeXrugV/s567/Snip20230102_65.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="383" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMhDsXFxG8j8XvlK4MmcBXJEi3NZ6vga6jsfs3GeClfqZW5ZJ1LWcrr9oliYRqAgI771CDC9dxGZNdWrwZFMzwNTSWCpbrMTZbGMy-nsbv3NHXiybSunFQbedjiwCnJrSxpv5Zwmg1oaJRmveyG0PmN6pECjKHnfQL-3etxS7UXY0vCrTFwQeXrugV/w432-h640/Snip20230102_65.png" width="432" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The panel examples below from FF #39 and FF #40 give a good idea of the rendering of DD. In the panel from FF #39 the DD figure has none of the Kirby clothes-folds found in the FF costumes, or the famous Kirby renditions of cheekbones.</span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxwB8ydAmYHfzF5tcoOgYd_Cq5HqSrvKlvIRzdDEIWDUBcB158hYc5e2n93JeDrjIgS4UrAAm72BhSDqG4h3Zy0JbC_kRzTPzUtcv0B4EocskLXYmmoFYQuVQBe8FGQGBj8gHAZAHWTf73y09ONqUXfy3Y5Wn0fdMnBZwYhtrsLw_PWGde2p2JO0dE/s935/Snip20230103_66.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="935" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxwB8ydAmYHfzF5tcoOgYd_Cq5HqSrvKlvIRzdDEIWDUBcB158hYc5e2n93JeDrjIgS4UrAAm72BhSDqG4h3Zy0JbC_kRzTPzUtcv0B4EocskLXYmmoFYQuVQBe8FGQGBj8gHAZAHWTf73y09ONqUXfy3Y5Wn0fdMnBZwYhtrsLw_PWGde2p2JO0dE/w400-h189/Snip20230103_66.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Marvel. FF #39. DD has no trademark Kirby clothes creases or cheekbones</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">This page from <i>Fantastic Four #40</i> shows DD in a Kirby pose in panel #1, although re-inked. The picture on the bottom left with DD firing his rifle is simply very awkward. The gloves have crease lines, but not the costume, indicating that Kirby perhaps drew the original figure. (And why the heck does DD need a SIGHT on the rifle???).</span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqCNGizRxy9egyEHL1CR02j_ZMp-xKi-dEIRAn2jCSFhLWVVdnDwnUz0dKNOjLCZe6zg-uff2BMVfIdTqGnrpCUVOKXokSdoVtxHGIREhy7EUqz_fUQ3mBq64ZnmJVW88gI1vXBZWTJWi4eK-LivZ-xmNVup40DfrowJV6CG8cKDekn3hJB1YoRqxy/s644/Snip20230103_67.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="438" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqCNGizRxy9egyEHL1CR02j_ZMp-xKi-dEIRAn2jCSFhLWVVdnDwnUz0dKNOjLCZe6zg-uff2BMVfIdTqGnrpCUVOKXokSdoVtxHGIREhy7EUqz_fUQ3mBq64ZnmJVW88gI1vXBZWTJWi4eK-LivZ-xmNVup40DfrowJV6CG8cKDekn3hJB1YoRqxy/w436-h640/Snip20230103_67.png" width="436" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Marvel FF #40. Why does DD need a rifle sight?</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">If we take a look at Daredevil rendered in his own comic Daredevil #8 , which was published between FF #39 and FF #40, we see that the DD is the FF comic is virtually identical to one both penciled and inked by Wally Wood.</span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRX31ZvRrmWD3PwqBviMkx1aaaMR44Q3g6cGRfl22SberNgwgAlOe6P41sXMLvcbDNp6rbWpsSiRsiYfSdNTpkBqafMBxDTsh2y8d-H1LYkn2QmNJ72--SPh7sJVSo5VZCQgNx6p7f9Thdj_HR2L3X_Q1oMVFbuV8ECuPUfovzrkPzE6U4_ZerNuUo/s744/Snip20230103_68.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="505" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRX31ZvRrmWD3PwqBviMkx1aaaMR44Q3g6cGRfl22SberNgwgAlOe6P41sXMLvcbDNp6rbWpsSiRsiYfSdNTpkBqafMBxDTsh2y8d-H1LYkn2QmNJ72--SPh7sJVSo5VZCQgNx6p7f9Thdj_HR2L3X_Q1oMVFbuV8ECuPUfovzrkPzE6U4_ZerNuUo/w434-h640/Snip20230103_68.png" width="434" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Marvel. Daredevil #8 penciled and inked by Wally Wood.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Daredevil's next crossover appearance was the following month, in the famous <i>Fantastic Four Annual #3</i>, published July 1965. This story - "Bedlam in the Baxter Building" - features the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, and features pretty much every Marvel character and Stan & Jack for good measure.</span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Daredevil appears on page 11, both as Matt Murdoch and DD, and the rendering of DD appears very much as Kirby pencils inked by Vince Colletta. The clothes creases are in evidence on DD's costume, as are Kirby poses. Matt Murdoch's cheekbones are in evidence, and Foggy Nelson look nothing like the Foggy Nelson as drawn by Wally Wood.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0nNUqULiVOzoKsj9KGlww-9eIKQ554KnlJC8ff6WHTghPxGi81eyqcucoyqA_8a7kbV4Wdzs2YnCCkv9Y-byeNGfno8ZLR1Z8UTzpiAXQNMj0Vc2EdlTMcdihBlei5IRnh5PTTuveHx7e7BzzmirHCKU67YJAHv2tgndhzC3TB66CtGFL3vR5xDfQ/s626/Snip20230103_69.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="626" height="369" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0nNUqULiVOzoKsj9KGlww-9eIKQ554KnlJC8ff6WHTghPxGi81eyqcucoyqA_8a7kbV4Wdzs2YnCCkv9Y-byeNGfno8ZLR1Z8UTzpiAXQNMj0Vc2EdlTMcdihBlei5IRnh5PTTuveHx7e7BzzmirHCKU67YJAHv2tgndhzC3TB66CtGFL3vR5xDfQ/w400-h369/Snip20230103_69.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Fantastic Four Annual #3. Kirby & Colletta</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZsAmzUDjeX4ElBUxJj216R4g0MFFFm8sgmXc1ta1HEEMO_6JdqfKxE5lDZc3nYU2pc2mFJvOKoTvjajK1g4iXZgSCWGOTM0-5b-ItbEdZ2r3w6a5RsQtFR3tT44hYXXgEGfaSOf1CTIci8I1eXGVAi4GdxpxucDtYtTu2ptQ3xlaNpUwFnh1pdbD8/s419/Snip20230103_70.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="284" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZsAmzUDjeX4ElBUxJj216R4g0MFFFm8sgmXc1ta1HEEMO_6JdqfKxE5lDZc3nYU2pc2mFJvOKoTvjajK1g4iXZgSCWGOTM0-5b-ItbEdZ2r3w6a5RsQtFR3tT44hYXXgEGfaSOf1CTIci8I1eXGVAi4GdxpxucDtYtTu2ptQ3xlaNpUwFnh1pdbD8/w434-h640/Snip20230103_70.png" width="434" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Foggy Nelson by Wally Wood - nothing like Kirby's version</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The final cross-over appearance by DD is a single panel of Matt Murdoch in a trial setting in </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>X-Men #13</i></span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">-</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sep 1965. This issue of X-Men was drawn by Werner Roth (billed as Jay Gavin) based on Kirby layouts. I can see no evidence of Wally Wood in the rendition of Matt Murdoch, so probably all the work of Werner Roth.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidjWm4bidJaYWZYHUbgHIPRREGrCtFOGi_b3I50M6gv-K_OWi1Hb_N28EyEirdM4LSdRcl02wIttkD4H1MqF_h3iT_YSOc-kbh5cOX6MIYEEaxbnAqCEm-K_5lYdMXhSdN8B6ZnV-3hfDIe1NTYZAsxJBdiE63kT2TQObJsBWzObgdosI57JYqMteg/s475/Snip20230103_71.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="437" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidjWm4bidJaYWZYHUbgHIPRREGrCtFOGi_b3I50M6gv-K_OWi1Hb_N28EyEirdM4LSdRcl02wIttkD4H1MqF_h3iT_YSOc-kbh5cOX6MIYEEaxbnAqCEm-K_5lYdMXhSdN8B6ZnV-3hfDIe1NTYZAsxJBdiE63kT2TQObJsBWzObgdosI57JYqMteg/w368-h400/Snip20230103_71.png" width="368" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Werner Roth artwork on Kirby layout.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><h4 style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wave 3: Jan 1966-Mar 1966 - Layouts<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></h4><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next involvement of Kirby with Daredevil were <i>Daredevil</i> issues #12 and #13, the first to be drawn by John Romita following the sudden departure of Wally Wood and Bob Powell from Marvel.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The story behind this was described by Miked Garland on "Jack Kirby Museum.org".</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">"Daredevil was, up until that time, in the creative hands of Wally Wood, who made the character more dynamic, visually stunning, and marketable than he ever was previously. Wood was, however, slated to begin work on the new “Sub- Mariner” series debuting in Astonish #70, which is probably why the character last appeared in Daredevil (#7). The Daredevil book was being handled by Wood associate Bob Powell, who was preserving the Wood “look.” In the interim, however, Wood had a huge disagreement with Lee and refused to do any more stories ......... By the cover date of Dec. ’65, Wood was gone, and Powell with him. Stan was initially going to bring in Dick Ayers to take over the book, but really didn’t want to take Dick away from his other drawing assignments; as Dick was preparing some pages for the Daredevil book (of which he still has a few), enter John Romita. Romita had just returned to Marvel, having known Stan from the “Timely” days; previous to his return he was grinding out romance work for DC. Stan immediately gave John the Daredevil assignment, but unlike Ayers, John was not used to working Marvel method, so… enter Jack Kirby. Jack laid-out issues #12-13, and by #14 Romita was well on his way, staying on the title until issue #19 when he leaves in order to take over the artistic seat in Spider-Man."</span></i></p></blockquote><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The two part story in <i>Daredevil </i>#12 and #13 introduced Ka-Zar into the DD universe. This was the first time that Kirby got to illustrate - or at least map out - a complete Daredevil story. Kirby's layouts could range from fully-penciled panels to simply descriptive text. Certainly Kirby's layouts always followed the dominant 4, 5 or 6 panel page designs that he employed in the 1960s.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Page 4 from issue #12 (below) shows a strong Kirby design influence and layout in Romita's artwork. Some of this multiple action-oriented panel design would be adopted by Gene Colan when he took subsequently over the strip from Romita.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1l2dlFdxVHkyF-7NzA9zTmheBDxMYTiZm_S03QTTEnssSmMykprg-IR_StE_gvi1isu8EF8we9EJLn06lnAdDu1iEpmRdPOKbMh75siq2KAsIBLirLgq0R3Dh48EmpA4Hw76fam5gJDErPfO8YyWF7I9h0yI7JPa4S_ugjZjV3eLGksMlE9hdN9Il/s730/Snip20230103_72.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="497" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1l2dlFdxVHkyF-7NzA9zTmheBDxMYTiZm_S03QTTEnssSmMykprg-IR_StE_gvi1isu8EF8we9EJLn06lnAdDu1iEpmRdPOKbMh75siq2KAsIBLirLgq0R3Dh48EmpA4Hw76fam5gJDErPfO8YyWF7I9h0yI7JPa4S_ugjZjV3eLGksMlE9hdN9Il/w436-h640/Snip20230103_72.png" width="436" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Daredevil #12. Romita art on Kirby layouts</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">With the second part of the story in <i>Daredevil #13</i>, the front cover was given over to a Kirby-drawn Daredevil overlaid on a Romita background. This Kirby-drawn Daredevil was to become an iconic rendition of the character.</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmqu28t_DqC-UB3vMQLmVQtsAwB3CENHPhu58SjLNYgCxVCwITeeWBU2LfC_D5PwiFyH0VU1BCI9ZsI6nGGAu7gZkhm1cspS29vdke_sgu2fZZveaUQBmu38Jzf_QzDedvV-_0YoJJ0xqDts43abqvjFIH_SeO6S-UxtaetAeufeuuOI9vl23wx32h/s734/Snip20230103_73.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="734" data-original-width="495" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmqu28t_DqC-UB3vMQLmVQtsAwB3CENHPhu58SjLNYgCxVCwITeeWBU2LfC_D5PwiFyH0VU1BCI9ZsI6nGGAu7gZkhm1cspS29vdke_sgu2fZZveaUQBmu38Jzf_QzDedvV-_0YoJJ0xqDts43abqvjFIH_SeO6S-UxtaetAeufeuuOI9vl23wx32h/w432-h640/Snip20230103_73.png" width="432" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Daredevil #13. Kirby DD overlaid on Romita background.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Kirby's panel design influence continues to be seen in the interior of <i>Daredevil #13</i>, although the panel content is more recognizable as later Romita. One example of Kirby design influence is the "looking through the legs" shot, which he used many times through his drawing career.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQJmrxIrLuOG61zemozybyPmUivQeWYgfz9SEVMdnvWfNN_aMqtOLNw2-RXY2_grbwgqnunPflYxaNWT27tlGKI-mPSBDpM6qpRi2gA1GDtwrECTXlS5XnV-DXQIgHQTvtojbbBlF6cd5M6JnlHBEHSZINRjLf-y79OAmChsKehJEMwo9AQT2lVTcg/s528/Snip20230103_74.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="528" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQJmrxIrLuOG61zemozybyPmUivQeWYgfz9SEVMdnvWfNN_aMqtOLNw2-RXY2_grbwgqnunPflYxaNWT27tlGKI-mPSBDpM6qpRi2gA1GDtwrECTXlS5XnV-DXQIgHQTvtojbbBlF6cd5M6JnlHBEHSZINRjLf-y79OAmChsKehJEMwo9AQT2lVTcg/w400-h376/Snip20230103_74.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Daredevil #13 original artwork by Romita on Kirby layout.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV3RuFmMhFS9DjD0kNA4sCHQAaBjbRM165NQkdZ7dO6AU5SMBZ0Tia2ainGp7yEwW81sLlb0Qz1UCSbtNaI60ZNi1G4H7Nzh86mznFfElBI-jLaghTgN_L_-Bac79vOR1zuUd_Mubb4AO9x-sZbI5bkflY8pWgTSiQJHnNKIgXuylkVrN3DHluIo5w/s600/Fantastic%20Four%20-%20legs%20stance%20SS.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="396" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV3RuFmMhFS9DjD0kNA4sCHQAaBjbRM165NQkdZ7dO6AU5SMBZ0Tia2ainGp7yEwW81sLlb0Qz1UCSbtNaI60ZNi1G4H7Nzh86mznFfElBI-jLaghTgN_L_-Bac79vOR1zuUd_Mubb4AO9x-sZbI5bkflY8pWgTSiQJHnNKIgXuylkVrN3DHluIo5w/w422-h640/Fantastic%20Four%20-%20legs%20stance%20SS.png" width="422" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Typical Kirby "legs apart" stance from Fanastic Four #14</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Although Kirby is only credited on layouts for DD #12 and #13, the first issue that Romita received sole artistic credits still shows Kirby layout influence on page 2 in a standard 6-panel page, before Romita adopting different</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> sized panels and combinations in the remainder of the comic.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Following the layouts in <i>Daredevil #12-#13</i> (and perhaps #14), there then began a two-year gap where there was no overt Kirby influence on Daredevil</span></div><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><h4 style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wave 4: April 1968 - Emulating Gene Colan</span></h4><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">John Romita’s last issue of <i>Daredevil</i> was #19<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Aug 1966 issue) with Gene Conan taking over with #20 (Oct 1966). It must be said that by issue #19 Romita had made his mark on the comic, and Gene Colan's picking up of the reins had a strong sense of continuity while injecting a strong dose of adrenaline into the artwork, expanding into a far more innovative use of panel design.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Once Gene Colan had introduced energy and dynamism, Kirby’s rendition was more in keeping with the current version. And so Kirby's next (and final) take on the character on interior pages in <i>Fantastic Four #73</i> (April 1968) had much in common with the Colon version while retaining the Kirby style. This FF issue was a continuation of the story from <i>Daredevil #38</i>, and so some attention was presumably paid to some level of artistic continuity. The artwork in FF #73 was Kirby inked by Joe Sinnott. There seems to be no intent to modify the figure, although I suspect that DD's face may have been retouched in places by John Romita (who was Stan Lee's go-to guy for re-touching in those years).</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In this example of original artwork from page 14 of Fantastic Four #73 DD's face in the middle panel has been clearly "fixed" subsequent to Sinnott's inks:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBeFE0ijGM8aWG0RM6XTbYHYpQcxMm7Nrzq0MPIrPfFQNXrA58EKXHit6ZAxnPdSE7FMG7yeFtZ6eNfWRUvrvUetJkF9HTefk4B1dX4oA8TwzcSGNo-0k9OTy7fx8VxcFDBdIHx5Ko_3LBD8vjXSXmmiCmE0Pg7KIAu_cJNlNqosNGTXMp4lhJGj9y/s510/Snip20230103_75.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="510" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBeFE0ijGM8aWG0RM6XTbYHYpQcxMm7Nrzq0MPIrPfFQNXrA58EKXHit6ZAxnPdSE7FMG7yeFtZ6eNfWRUvrvUetJkF9HTefk4B1dX4oA8TwzcSGNo-0k9OTy7fx8VxcFDBdIHx5Ko_3LBD8vjXSXmmiCmE0Pg7KIAu_cJNlNqosNGTXMp4lhJGj9y/w400-h376/Snip20230103_75.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. FF #73. Note white-out correction on DD's face in middle panel (as well as fix on billy-club holster)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Page 2 shows DD's face in a typically Kirby rendition, whereas DD facial close-up on page 4 is clearly the work of another artist.</span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkrF_KBI4hqpsKHKGYhRmDkR6lbZPY-T8i9XPg8cmVGmdcIeFqIe42MX7HLX_oa9rcKX7pQ79iYBdKxDY-UYEo78ABtQI9Kn_XvwK8CvWkgGt07bQKT9FReZSU80ZsjYELQl0zrDIXvweBNhbHswAMLHgWyIcrNpf0_gedd-xVKvY2mI5CKlPmlZmJ/s1820/FF%2073%20Daredevil%20Page%20002.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1798" data-original-width="1820" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkrF_KBI4hqpsKHKGYhRmDkR6lbZPY-T8i9XPg8cmVGmdcIeFqIe42MX7HLX_oa9rcKX7pQ79iYBdKxDY-UYEo78ABtQI9Kn_XvwK8CvWkgGt07bQKT9FReZSU80ZsjYELQl0zrDIXvweBNhbHswAMLHgWyIcrNpf0_gedd-xVKvY2mI5CKlPmlZmJ/w400-h395/FF%2073%20Daredevil%20Page%20002.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel FF #73 page 2 - Daredevil unretouched</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9wLeEoDmij2Ai3pzMkp9FQ4AcbRki3K2bJu6xkuenfisbBCJRr1SjFBxa7DQt2nCfFKl15i96z1MVCGvPDeEPID0tg1hKW7mrUR1oGZYuEO6cI6wqsXbhKZDti3soRr7dMJp54UKPNcZ8cLLULKOkpIrwUsJ6sGJn5XJVKSgIKbf00RVod4SK6dlf/s1867/FF%2073%20Daredevil%20Page%20004.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1867" data-original-width="1820" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9wLeEoDmij2Ai3pzMkp9FQ4AcbRki3K2bJu6xkuenfisbBCJRr1SjFBxa7DQt2nCfFKl15i96z1MVCGvPDeEPID0tg1hKW7mrUR1oGZYuEO6cI6wqsXbhKZDti3soRr7dMJp54UKPNcZ8cLLULKOkpIrwUsJ6sGJn5XJVKSgIKbf00RVod4SK6dlf/w390-h400/FF%2073%20Daredevil%20Page%20004.jpg" width="390" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. FF #73 page 4. Daredevil and Spider-Man heads redrawn in 2nd panel</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And that was pretty much Kirby's final brush with Daredevil, save for one final cover:</span><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><h4 style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wave 5: <span class="Apple-converted-space"> August 1968 - </span>Kirby Un-retouched - maybe.</span></h4><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Kirby's final rendition of Daredevil was the cover of <i>Daredevil #43</i> - August 1968 , in which he fights Captain America. Interior artwork was by Gene Colan. This is a classic Kirby cover, foreshortened perspective and full of power.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The cover was penciled by Kirby, inked by Joe Sinnott. Comparing the published cover to the original artwork, there appears to have been no corrections made to the original art by other hands. So at least Kirby's final rendition of Daredevil was as close to his vision as possible, given that Sinnott was Kirby's favourite inker.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZbM52moSb46utq_q7qLkELl5r9ToCuMITuL9somI9VBSsWc55ve2O7tS0419eq1iX0kK9ih72Woqa41n5rB55jOMqrCuGF8c5ZZmdTeqqEyGKlM727cPo78-uCcZioND1PhAb1Fh6JtaSUhSvPg_2LJrjHUAvZJUUdC86xFFxJs-IsUZm0aXaGi0C/s666/Snip20230103_76.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="444" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZbM52moSb46utq_q7qLkELl5r9ToCuMITuL9somI9VBSsWc55ve2O7tS0419eq1iX0kK9ih72Woqa41n5rB55jOMqrCuGF8c5ZZmdTeqqEyGKlM727cPo78-uCcZioND1PhAb1Fh6JtaSUhSvPg_2LJrjHUAvZJUUdC86xFFxJs-IsUZm0aXaGi0C/w426-h640/Snip20230103_76.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Daredevil #43</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH88ibCsyS5l3weBLFKKDE58T6El7O6sZrzCeGN-lFWsEd5m2FXhuSufRq5MJI9LF5jBBTW90ObTQblRTfKwatTHTLE9e1WKVvoOVxLjC7pwTh6GS6BtD2DmRBtBPG__GS6r2Fb3vWYD1Clp0o7u3LzMpBHBEWtRmr-tDDwfr7b7OShObAL1Ix44D6/s625/SS%20Daredevil%2043%20Cover%20art%20by%20Kirby.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="409" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH88ibCsyS5l3weBLFKKDE58T6El7O6sZrzCeGN-lFWsEd5m2FXhuSufRq5MJI9LF5jBBTW90ObTQblRTfKwatTHTLE9e1WKVvoOVxLjC7pwTh6GS6BtD2DmRBtBPG__GS6r2Fb3vWYD1Clp0o7u3LzMpBHBEWtRmr-tDDwfr7b7OShObAL1Ix44D6/w418-h640/SS%20Daredevil%2043%20Cover%20art%20by%20Kirby.jpg" width="418" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Marvel. Original Artwork for Daredevil #43. No visible Daredevil corrections</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In conclusion, I believe that the relative lack of Kirby work on Daredevil was an opportunity missed, given that he co-created the original costume, and that he produced a very small quantity of un-retouched dynamic imagery. It would have been a treat to see at least one solo Kirby issue of Daredevil, but it was not to be.</span></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-17822556075885368702022-12-30T08:07:00.000-06:002022-12-30T08:07:43.132-06:00Searching for comics in Portsmouth, 1970s style - Part Five<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> By Ian Baker and Nigel Brown</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibk1mz_6Ewy6fKNNf_O-PbLPMRFkVJ3VgNbtZQ-MvAzkodawYAkIprZpv8OiC6JCtPPTv4NsMKX4uA7JiLdmtHYhMhVCtSw25GXEsryZaNRQEorfOCzuIr8QdyqwWhUigTwCbM7BWJhAHSOoM5BNIdEjfAPDEXWHIY-u460czf6IhjDf9DZ2wrCAZi/s690/Snip20221229_50.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="690" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibk1mz_6Ewy6fKNNf_O-PbLPMRFkVJ3VgNbtZQ-MvAzkodawYAkIprZpv8OiC6JCtPPTv4NsMKX4uA7JiLdmtHYhMhVCtSw25GXEsryZaNRQEorfOCzuIr8QdyqwWhUigTwCbM7BWJhAHSOoM5BNIdEjfAPDEXWHIY-u460czf6IhjDf9DZ2wrCAZi/w400-h278/Snip20221229_50.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Google Maps. The final sections of the route</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcAIlL6RZilfhBw5zp6KB1InHLm-B3DvNxrEfxYmB-9kPHIZAdx6vbVZcDUlrviHUVeKha6oE-6J18yY_QAIqbav0_lDss2lOilOZUOi7615rFay1hYxYsRPazs9vBVOUo9th5zW004aDAFopBh9UVsZ4q_XuflnL930CG0QRlfAzEwrGSu-ZU5k1f/s351/I%20Baker%20blog%20Standard.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="351" height="32" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcAIlL6RZilfhBw5zp6KB1InHLm-B3DvNxrEfxYmB-9kPHIZAdx6vbVZcDUlrviHUVeKha6oE-6J18yY_QAIqbav0_lDss2lOilOZUOi7615rFay1hYxYsRPazs9vBVOUo9th5zW004aDAFopBh9UVsZ4q_XuflnL930CG0QRlfAzEwrGSu-ZU5k1f/w33-h32/I%20Baker%20blog%20Standard.png" width="33" /></a></div>Do you remember when collecting comics was all about the content, not the condition of the book? Just getting a new story was satisfaction enough, and second-hand shops were the place in the early seventies to find those gems from the days of early Marvels and Silver Age DCs. I was reminded of that experience earlier this week when I visited my local Half-Price books and saw decent copies of FF #73, FF #87 and FF #32 for sale at a combined total of $14! You </span><b style="font-family: verdana;">can</b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> go home again!</span></div><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The last four stops on this epic 5-part series recalling cycle-rides around Portsmouth in the early 1970s are all second-hand shops that figured large in our travels. They were further north on Portsea Island from Southsea, but that was nothing to teenage lads with Carlton Corsa racing bikes and school haversacks ready to carry the goods.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We take up our journey traveling north from Arundel Street (<a href="http://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2022/11/searching-for-comics-in-portsmouth.html" target="_blank">see previous episode</a>) towards Buckland......</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Stop #25 - </b><span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;">Second-hand Shop just inside Church Rd, off St.John’s Road</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Even St.John’s Road in that part of Portsmouth hasn’t survived the residential redevelopment since the 1970s. I think it was somewhere around where Glidden Close is today, just south of St.John’s Cathedral Catholic Primary School.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_LEmtb1B5Bhutx7S2YQhyAQBTzXn5lY0fQ4kf2RkdsBKIetY8nTCbrpF3Ujv7_StPjo4BX41JSsvpYITSmdOQjjz3WBxFQcAbN1_bwBrVrM5Q2XjtSfbahneub01jvgziYopiKbJXAH_Nlr365ell1L1CRyrlplg8l1evoOxiEA9U7Scgil1eWvO/s2048/Church%20Road%20shops%20location.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="946" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_LEmtb1B5Bhutx7S2YQhyAQBTzXn5lY0fQ4kf2RkdsBKIetY8nTCbrpF3Ujv7_StPjo4BX41JSsvpYITSmdOQjjz3WBxFQcAbN1_bwBrVrM5Q2XjtSfbahneub01jvgziYopiKbJXAH_Nlr365ell1L1CRyrlplg8l1evoOxiEA9U7Scgil1eWvO/w296-h640/Church%20Road%20shops%20location.jpg" width="296" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Google. Area highlighted is where shop was located.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-NESevKy8S6aCMOfwuEfsF9nNwYNBtz2gcMHV1GmhT4FWruH0h2F82oVB_FfrZzJKk88seHZfEdw2zqxlT9MPpM7xTCbzZjeGseBjGpk9pN5_7fXQg9eTPpdtkmM2ctqu5F7g8meReYG_-qPZ8c4tRU8YKHSIrYMpt55sq0Xc7DHYaEi4VUI0D752/s2392/SS%20Green%20Lantern%20Green%20Arrow%2076.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2392" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-NESevKy8S6aCMOfwuEfsF9nNwYNBtz2gcMHV1GmhT4FWruH0h2F82oVB_FfrZzJKk88seHZfEdw2zqxlT9MPpM7xTCbzZjeGseBjGpk9pN5_7fXQg9eTPpdtkmM2ctqu5F7g8meReYG_-qPZ8c4tRU8YKHSIrYMpt55sq0Xc7DHYaEi4VUI0D752/w410-h640/SS%20Green%20Lantern%20Green%20Arrow%2076.jpeg" width="410" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© DC. The actual GL/GA #76</td></tr></tbody></table></span><p></p><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEOUPR6nRHtMUia0dGmsHpurJ681mWy1l6efsRjesQ6gUiE3hAP210CQ8Iwrps3l1lYA8FjQcCe5sTcaWEMnknrH35zHdg4aZ-vIOrsmoPzdSA0OHnqm1DvAn-MjBhYiKJKyL-7-465Ah_6Z4Q1j9_eChy0SwrcpDlRPgqCT-vcYFKULspacp7Ub_C/s642/Snip20221229_55.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="642" data-original-width="423" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEOUPR6nRHtMUia0dGmsHpurJ681mWy1l6efsRjesQ6gUiE3hAP210CQ8Iwrps3l1lYA8FjQcCe5sTcaWEMnknrH35zHdg4aZ-vIOrsmoPzdSA0OHnqm1DvAn-MjBhYiKJKyL-7-465Ah_6Z4Q1j9_eChy0SwrcpDlRPgqCT-vcYFKULspacp7Ub_C/w422-h640/Snip20221229_55.png" width="422" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Forever People #1</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“It was a dreadful dump, mentioned in that article ‘Memories Are Made Of This’ by Dave Jackson in Comics Unlimited # 33. Demolished since then. That whole area’s been redeveloped a long time now, but in those days there were rows of terraced houses, and a small parade of shops. That was where I got a Forever People # 1, and a GL/GA #76 for 1p each. A few years later I showed the GL/GA to my friend Neil when he came round one day to see my comic collection. I offered it to him for £5. He really wanted it, but his mum wouldn’t pay out!” – Nigel<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Stop #26 - </b><span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;">Second-hand Shop at the end of Lake Road, part of a small row, close to the corner opposite Constad Jewellers, near to St.Mary’s</span> <span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;">Church in Fratton</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The route of Lake Road was re-aligned in the late 1970s, but in our comic collecting days it joined Kingston Road at the Tramway Arms. The second-hand shop was on the south side of the road, across Kingston Rd from Hampshire Street.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></b></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwjaFVDuJ1LlBzKdDOuXtkMC_md0sQ9GfBjdDH9BmqzENvUQJ_DW1bI9yoJSLWrbtRJeB0_mGTDjwo2QotUbftfN1Kb0C1sMAUJ-adQgKa9i7ycWuvX4yZTod3qttzE8Helk2_GdXk-YO6ZMGarrTP7f5y4EWT-srq8VHA0sJn1o7-sRcT9ZAMe_ik/s641/Snip20221229_51.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="641" data-original-width="440" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwjaFVDuJ1LlBzKdDOuXtkMC_md0sQ9GfBjdDH9BmqzENvUQJ_DW1bI9yoJSLWrbtRJeB0_mGTDjwo2QotUbftfN1Kb0C1sMAUJ-adQgKa9i7ycWuvX4yZTod3qttzE8Helk2_GdXk-YO6ZMGarrTP7f5y4EWT-srq8VHA0sJn1o7-sRcT9ZAMe_ik/w440-h640/Snip20221229_51.png" width="440" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Flash #113 - a opportunity passed up</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">“I remember they had junk furniture sticking out into the street. The place never looked very promising but once – significantly – they had a small collection of very early 1960s Flash comics for sale that I hadn’t seen elsewhere (and not again until at the London comic marts). Issues like Flash # 113.” – Nigel</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></i></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Stop #27 - </b><span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;">Gibbs – New Road, Fratton/Copnor boundary, between Burleigh Road and Langford Road</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-v7TyF6myclgsGBcQOqyLFJAJ-WGhaLB1zlLxqrPJ8J2rl5YeQAjWoAU7nGPzzzy818qphfp15ooCxhE7uwTUQER9xE4fZq8Z-CTiGrPc-lsSIlMEOcCCe0p3lFPmNH_G8w7gNmpmERSSVe7kMOVrtUIfJobyM7I9DWI4kI2MhxGV_y6745Y8n4JG/s1030/SS%20Row%20where%20Gibbs%20used%20to%20be.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="1030" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-v7TyF6myclgsGBcQOqyLFJAJ-WGhaLB1zlLxqrPJ8J2rl5YeQAjWoAU7nGPzzzy818qphfp15ooCxhE7uwTUQER9xE4fZq8Z-CTiGrPc-lsSIlMEOcCCe0p3lFPmNH_G8w7gNmpmERSSVe7kMOVrtUIfJobyM7I9DWI4kI2MhxGV_y6745Y8n4JG/w400-h204/SS%20Row%20where%20Gibbs%20used%20to%20be.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Google. Row of shops where Gibbs used to be</td></tr></tbody></table><span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“Another second-hand shop Geoff introduced us to. My memory is that it was run by a Mrs. Gibbs (“Ma Gibbs” as she was known locally in Copnor) who had books and magazines and comics in piles around the shop, frequently with one or more of her many cats sitting on the papers. The place smelled of cat, or cat food.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>The shop had a yellow front with one of those dog mannequins outside with a slot for donations for animal welfare. It has been said that once her bills were paid, Mrs Gibbs gave all the remainder to the RSPCA.</i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>It did turn out to be a good place to get old Bantam Doc Savage paperbacks. I picked up copies of both Doc Savage paperbacks #14 and #22 there in April 1976.” – Ian</i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i> </i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“This was an old favourite, and often reliable, run by an older lady, a slightly less caustic version of Ena Sharples, I always thought. The shop had a striking yellow frontage.” – Nigel<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i> </i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Stop #28 - </b><span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;">Second-hand Shop on corner of Knox Rd and Stamshaw Road, close to Angerstein Road</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy1LSi2Ua-w_uNsjK9S5YQd49H6rvYNyrIeds42UgE3xD6zPbMwpP-WtI1nNIasdCKXJrjmxz6_qT91Eznuk1-wZTPgFoaHiCcuuII3CU0FYAeJO6h5r5tsVsPdcuNZLgOLbxuvI1co8fCuI9yGQ7a72O0hJO9yv_8fAjLdGPmNwwIM1k4L2xQ2fNM/s568/Snip20221229_52.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="568" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy1LSi2Ua-w_uNsjK9S5YQd49H6rvYNyrIeds42UgE3xD6zPbMwpP-WtI1nNIasdCKXJrjmxz6_qT91Eznuk1-wZTPgFoaHiCcuuII3CU0FYAeJO6h5r5tsVsPdcuNZLgOLbxuvI1co8fCuI9yGQ7a72O0hJO9yv_8fAjLdGPmNwwIM1k4L2xQ2fNM/w400-h320/Snip20221229_52.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Google. Location of 2nd hand shop corner of Knox Rd and Stamshaw Rd. Another residential conversion</td></tr></tbody></table><span class="s1" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><br /><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYGNYr8TxW744SNCoW6WlsWa-c269pn8bUyyUsYqZu3wT8SfRl2_Gq3QXhTzvgXR-kUMd5PDMOz5eLNfVM63Lg7Ri6ZBMw16SYWtIRDxpyxU22OrVe1HP0wyKl1C-LqXi2JxMDSZZFI4j8DXMQYaZwWGYq0vPJyc5GKPH_fRUHtw8rd99KoaBJexRt/s591/Snip20221229_53.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="398" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYGNYr8TxW744SNCoW6WlsWa-c269pn8bUyyUsYqZu3wT8SfRl2_Gq3QXhTzvgXR-kUMd5PDMOz5eLNfVM63Lg7Ri6ZBMw16SYWtIRDxpyxU22OrVe1HP0wyKl1C-LqXi2JxMDSZZFI4j8DXMQYaZwWGYq0vPJyc5GKPH_fRUHtw8rd99KoaBJexRt/w430-h640/Snip20221229_53.png" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Ian picked up a very scruffy version of Batman #213 - I think it was coverless.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZjiVj7Zqd2xuAGzZXQ1N6Lz_xArKA6Ch2mnx5gaZLxNmrhQz_KEYF6tubvzkAmQrlZGMhRL-76tIoWL3YOsleITP3KX0VmpiJ8o-XUjsRi7qo6xRp-qA9FGvTObFUwdliCok8ca4cxTt2uk20-F_YQDZe7kZHpMQm_FV8PHp7O34BBCgjLXRRe-q5/s631/Snip20221229_54.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="631" data-original-width="415" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZjiVj7Zqd2xuAGzZXQ1N6Lz_xArKA6Ch2mnx5gaZLxNmrhQz_KEYF6tubvzkAmQrlZGMhRL-76tIoWL3YOsleITP3KX0VmpiJ8o-XUjsRi7qo6xRp-qA9FGvTObFUwdliCok8ca4cxTt2uk20-F_YQDZe7kZHpMQm_FV8PHp7O34BBCgjLXRRe-q5/w420-h640/Snip20221229_54.png" width="420" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Marvel. Another gem picked up at Knox Rd - Ian's earliest Conan (at that time).</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“We have Geoff (Cousins) to thank for identifying this shop. They had a pile of very early 60s comics, rough condition. Plus Doc Savage paperbacks. I remember getting an early Conan here (Conan #5). Also a very tatty copy of Batman Giant #213. My overriding memory is that the place had a stale odour.” – Ian<br /><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“This shop was a bit of a cycle ride, up in North End. Perhaps it was the first time I went there, but I remember there were a particularly nice pile of American comics for sale. After that, I always anticipated a good haul of comics and most visits didn’t disappoint. The comics pile was along the side of the shop, close to the window. I recall the owner was a little dumpy lady, with short black hair.</i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“Once I passed on a Teen Titans comic because there was no number on the cover. It was Teen Titans #1.” – Nigel</i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>“I remember going to a shop on the corner of Knox Rd & Stamshaw Rd, buying D C & Marvel comics, return when read take back & swop with a penny to get another. Being a geek. Great .” Wayne Johnson from FB “Memories of Bygone Portsmouth”</i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Our knowledge of the North-East area of Portsmouth was mostly due to the familiarity our pal Geoff Cousins had of the area, having grown up in Copnor. And so our final stop - <b>Stop #29</b> , if Geoff was accompanying us on our travels, was a corner newsagent in Tangier Rd, close to Geoff's Nan's house where a glass of orange squash might be waiting.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">*****************************************</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nigel Brown writes:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">About ten years after those halcyon days, my research for our fanzine <i>SuperStuff No.11 (Aug.1984)</i> took me back around the streets of Portsmouth and Southsea. I reported:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <i>‘Of the second-hand shops we haunted, on a recent trip I was only able to find two that possibly had some comics for sale. In one, a shop, in Angerstein Road where they always had sixty to seventy comics in a pile in the corner, I was told, “I can’t get them for love nor money.” In the other, Gibb’s in New Road, I was shown a mangy pile of Charltons and a few badly damaged Marvels (last months, I think!). Oh yes, and a copy of Detective Comics No.426 (1972) that wasn’t even in good enough condition to buy at 6 pence. These were the only two second-hand shops, of the ones we used to visit that I could find at all! Some, like the old Book Exchange have been knocked down to make way for a rubbish tip, and some, like a smelly old place in Arundel street that was always good for 1960 to 1964 DCs have been boarded up and lie derelict.’<br /><br /></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> By now, in 2022, charity shops have replaced those private enterprises in the ecosystem of the high street. In some cases, a second-hand shop’s position in a residential area has encouraged a re-conversion back into a residential dwelling (eg. The Book Exchange in Devonshire Avenue).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> I think, too, that the move of American comics from the easily available newsstands into specialist direct-sale shops has cut off the supply of old comics to charity/second-hand shops. That, together with the now-common perception amongst the public that old comics are ‘worth money’, leading to preferred sales through eBay, or to comic dealers, means that even the charity shops are unlikely to stock old comics.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">********************************************</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik1_0-Jh6kjuGf9d85fC5g9iW3GFn6ZiaCrVFav-hJkZe1DGMesm4MRWfj4it8eRZtkLvAlnVD4-84JpbF-NVUkXBbE53fxrtXk_uh6Ms8_AVaWpWYJ5caftqliwBV3aArY3LC4H5o8mux-guZqbyoevVFcymnadcMfQafCZeO2Q3aZEb1ilFB1X4D/s351/I%20Baker%20blog%20Standard.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="351" height="28" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik1_0-Jh6kjuGf9d85fC5g9iW3GFn6ZiaCrVFav-hJkZe1DGMesm4MRWfj4it8eRZtkLvAlnVD4-84JpbF-NVUkXBbE53fxrtXk_uh6Ms8_AVaWpWYJ5caftqliwBV3aArY3LC4H5o8mux-guZqbyoevVFcymnadcMfQafCZeO2Q3aZEb1ilFB1X4D/w28-h28/I%20Baker%20blog%20Standard.png" width="28" /></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">Well, that about wraps up our memories of newsagents and second-hand shops in Portsmouth in the early to mid 1970s. </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Interestingly, </span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: verdana;">in all of our travels on the Comic Hunt I do not recall ever crossing paths with other collectors, which in retrospect seems strange on an island city of a quarter of a million people. Certainly there was enough comic content available to satisfy the demands of scores of teenage schoolboys. The letters pages of fanzine <i>Fantasy Unlimited </i>(later <i>Comics Unlimited</i>) revealed the names Dave Jackson and Bernard Smith as avid Portsmouth-based fans in those mid-70s days, who frequented the very same haunts, but we have yet to meet them. Hopefully some of them will see this blog entry and raise their heads above the parapet in the comments section below.</span></span></span></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of course, collecting comics in Portsmouth didn’t end then! Look out for the next in this series:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">‘Beyond the Bronze Age (early 1980s to the present day)’</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-14282390289629351992022-12-22T13:02:00.000-06:002023-01-07T11:58:20.509-06:00Happy Festive Period!<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxkJ3xwe3gUCUBG1v85P2BzDKOWA1kjPO58kTz5FpymYHQGvWie5L471vjOhHUQRJBmN6dwHXZpMn72rsj6i6Hvk83Zl8taEKkSmHPP6G49GZo1ieozS9EMVXi-GD21-WV0Z-J_J4e3UHohV-XIg3XN2pSWRQy5ikzN86CsreahBGJWTJvn7EWTNL1/s636/SS%20Happy%20Holidays!%20Micheal%20Cho%20artwork.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="457" data-original-width="636" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxkJ3xwe3gUCUBG1v85P2BzDKOWA1kjPO58kTz5FpymYHQGvWie5L471vjOhHUQRJBmN6dwHXZpMn72rsj6i6Hvk83Zl8taEKkSmHPP6G49GZo1ieozS9EMVXi-GD21-WV0Z-J_J4e3UHohV-XIg3XN2pSWRQy5ikzN86CsreahBGJWTJvn7EWTNL1/w400-h288/SS%20Happy%20Holidays!%20Micheal%20Cho%20artwork.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC and Marvel. Artwork by Michael Cho</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thanks to everyone who dropped by and commented this past year from the SuperStuff blog team! </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">With a good following wind we should be able to close out the year with one more post, the final stage of reminisces of cycling around Portsmouth comic shops in the 1970s, so watch out for that one.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A single Christmas quiz re the image at the top of this blog post (drawn by Michael Cho)....<b>what is incorrect about it?</b> Answers in the comments section please.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">And now.....off to start shoveling the snow....</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnlBae7z_OREl7GjLGzmBLFy7Pxfyz8W4gJ2TnPmrNUqV5VeWKxf5aWci6bddq1iMpZaO4MDP0tv6iT-IqDWlcntzwjd455Zf4EeGq2racehl92TnMStRi3xqu1Uf3xf7jiJNCTgWWv4wO4sabiLotoYfLNZ3K9yLIUzm5GfEhR-aydhRbHorCl4Mx/s1536/IMG_1504.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1380" data-original-width="1536" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnlBae7z_OREl7GjLGzmBLFy7Pxfyz8W4gJ2TnPmrNUqV5VeWKxf5aWci6bddq1iMpZaO4MDP0tv6iT-IqDWlcntzwjd455Zf4EeGq2racehl92TnMStRi3xqu1Uf3xf7jiJNCTgWWv4wO4sabiLotoYfLNZ3K9yLIUzm5GfEhR-aydhRbHorCl4Mx/w400-h360/IMG_1504.jpeg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p><br /></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-62011960030034684712022-12-14T07:36:00.000-06:002022-12-14T07:36:30.470-06:00The Book That Never Was - DC Universe Illustrated by Neal Adams - Vol 2<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> by Ian Baker</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI1bqxkPtOuPmDwLw4zyIOw-46MceDAGImIyeXunknbT59jyQRIYaS6IE9obF2oFzPO-sZo6Nth_Y0XHb85zgTdkL-riUfLxwaKRKierSG4CWY-W_Sj4jj3yH7QEqSSVE7Ye4tv9gdPQVyGI8_p91KErP6iJtekGwKV_1j2f7d-59MmVtddq_c2wie/s450/DC%20Universe%20Illustrated%20by%20Neal%20Adams%20Vol%202.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="293" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI1bqxkPtOuPmDwLw4zyIOw-46MceDAGImIyeXunknbT59jyQRIYaS6IE9obF2oFzPO-sZo6Nth_Y0XHb85zgTdkL-riUfLxwaKRKierSG4CWY-W_Sj4jj3yH7QEqSSVE7Ye4tv9gdPQVyGI8_p91KErP6iJtekGwKV_1j2f7d-59MmVtddq_c2wie/w416-h640/DC%20Universe%20Illustrated%20by%20Neal%20Adams%20Vol%202.jpg" width="416" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">©DC. Advance image of cover for Volume Two.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUeEhgHhEiatgGbC75LkXQ6RcKXvz0NYvS4hyjGLMEYBSZEWSvCJOnsZWBLkIKGBInEmZDES8yYcIx8QaEX0SaR7sFwxE16BheRtl9QlGoPCDb6RMhkLIaaRPFCOZQuhIjqXK71u7DP--6iNmS5oZRg_6yVc8iCC6TVZjl6qs0Jgq4lpCGGBFAEzt7/s351/I%20Baker%20blog%20Standard.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="351" height="43" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUeEhgHhEiatgGbC75LkXQ6RcKXvz0NYvS4hyjGLMEYBSZEWSvCJOnsZWBLkIKGBInEmZDES8yYcIx8QaEX0SaR7sFwxE16BheRtl9QlGoPCDb6RMhkLIaaRPFCOZQuhIjqXK71u7DP--6iNmS5oZRg_6yVc8iCC6TVZjl6qs0Jgq4lpCGGBFAEzt7/w44-h43/I%20Baker%20blog%20Standard.png" width="44" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Back on January 13th, 2009, DC published what was to be the first of a series of three trade hardbacks (and paperbacks) of collected comic stories drawn by Neal Adams, bringing together his DC work beyond the realm of Batman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Deadman, which had already been reprinted as collections on multiple occasions </span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The previous hardcover collections of Adams' work on Batman had been very successful, and so the decision was taken to curate three more volumes that would bring to light Adams' lesser known work on War, Horror, Western and Humour comics at National, dating from Adams first work for the company in 1967. Adams would re-colour the selected stories, as he had done (somewhat controversially) on the Batman volumes since their first publication in October 2003.</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first volume of <i>DC Universe Illustrated by Neal Adams</i> contained a mixture of war stories from <i>Our Army At War</i> and <i>Star-Spangled War Stories</i>, along with a few Super-Hero tales in the form of Teen Titans, Superman and Elongated Man. [Note: the list of stories on MikesAmazingWorld.com is incorrect]. The package was topped off with some sketches and public service ads to pad out the Superhero material in the book. No covers were reproduced, though, which I found to be a disappointment. The new cover drawn by Adams in 2009 focused solely on the Superhero content of the book, and is not one of my favourites. It went through at least one rejected iteration before the final cover of the first printing was agreed.The imagery is somewhat humourous, at odds with the war story content within. A subsequent printing of the book replaced the cover with an image of the Justice League, harvested from a Dollar comic - DC Summer Special 1977.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl9lUvLuOagt9h_kRLzfKJw5CjYdBCUjsEK09mrqI9QpL-oAJ4r6uLxP95ahBHj4xlXgVs70VeQ2CE1hyy4epIQECZmMmi6Qbrm0MvyusluAldTcHcbZG6DSJDSfk6hx6wLGMX_9j0PlB3hr20hBln7jyOpm7LcmpLmChB3fNMRp1USMU3-ratoFx5/s1500/Unused%20cover%20DC%20Illustrated%20by%20Neal%20Adams.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1059" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl9lUvLuOagt9h_kRLzfKJw5CjYdBCUjsEK09mrqI9QpL-oAJ4r6uLxP95ahBHj4xlXgVs70VeQ2CE1hyy4epIQECZmMmi6Qbrm0MvyusluAldTcHcbZG6DSJDSfk6hx6wLGMX_9j0PlB3hr20hBln7jyOpm7LcmpLmChB3fNMRp1USMU3-ratoFx5/w452-h640/Unused%20cover%20DC%20Illustrated%20by%20Neal%20Adams.jpg" width="452" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Unused Cover for Volume One. From Albert Moy website</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNE2G0iptWuwelrLHiI64A6zS0K5uU1ViTCSq00YWC8L0Ef2fxO0qYFrYAD3TCznxGIviLVdWnttdENfptdzO-r4tKQnVq5vSNG5nyw95CcK7F1NSALekM23cgbTqbmrQI5fzSMSs4Xr1YPDfpvYApqycHonLiV-2jPwetAwWDjJjbckyHRaPfAJE0/s1600/RCO001_1554086451.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1041" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNE2G0iptWuwelrLHiI64A6zS0K5uU1ViTCSq00YWC8L0Ef2fxO0qYFrYAD3TCznxGIviLVdWnttdENfptdzO-r4tKQnVq5vSNG5nyw95CcK7F1NSALekM23cgbTqbmrQI5fzSMSs4Xr1YPDfpvYApqycHonLiV-2jPwetAwWDjJjbckyHRaPfAJE0/w416-h640/RCO001_1554086451.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC Final cover for Volume One</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD4KZhh_0bZUnxT15Qu2kjhpa_5gu7kb7gUzj8DyZQHeBmhhCFJE25er1rE0jm_yNgvRS6iTzFxciQG4NE63fanAVQlMB3IRLUZh-SM8bZq40svzQIqwjtsBxGs1IFiAPLpPjgYu2MCkI_tORu-d7CIRkpf9W1gNhgo2UPbzI65ye0KkY0Pmi9LutJ/s2088/DC%20Universe%20Illustrated%20by%20Neal%20Adams%20Vol%201.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2088" data-original-width="1384" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD4KZhh_0bZUnxT15Qu2kjhpa_5gu7kb7gUzj8DyZQHeBmhhCFJE25er1rE0jm_yNgvRS6iTzFxciQG4NE63fanAVQlMB3IRLUZh-SM8bZq40svzQIqwjtsBxGs1IFiAPLpPjgYu2MCkI_tORu-d7CIRkpf9W1gNhgo2UPbzI65ye0KkY0Pmi9LutJ/w424-h640/DC%20Universe%20Illustrated%20by%20Neal%20Adams%20Vol%201.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Second Print Cover of Volume One. Taken from DC Summer Special 1977</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">In discussion with Neal Adams at the </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">New York Comic Con</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> nine months later in October 2009 (see Superstuff blog </span><a href="http://superstuff73.blogspot.com/2022/04/meeting-neal-adams.html" style="font-family: verdana;" target="_blank">Meeting Neal Adams</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">), he mentioned to me that work was underway on the project to "collect together all the old crap" including early covers. He expressed dissatisfaction with the technical proficiency of some of his early work (although it all looks brilliant to me), and in his introduction to volume one he mentions "the quirky and terrible job" he did on the Elongated Man story in Detective #369. These books were an opportunity to rectify past illustrative mistakes (in his eyes), plus re-ink stories if needed.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first volume of <i>DC Universe Illustrated by Neal Adams</i> sold respectably, but it was decided to put Volume Two on hold for a while. The second volume would focus on Adams' work on Supernatural hero material ; the proposed cover as shown in solicitations (see top of blog) highlights the Spectre, Phantom Stranger and El Diablo (a supernatural anti-hero with a Western slant). Work got underway, and an announcement was made in the trade press that the hardcover version of Volume Two would contain 192 pages, to be published on November 6th, 2012. An ISBN number was secured for the publication - 9781401225186 (ISBN10: 1401225187).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Somewhere along the line, the decision was made not to publish the book after all; perhaps sales projections were low, or perhaps Adams had not progressed sufficiently on re-colouring the stories. Which is a shame, as the proposed stories contained some of his very best work.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The proposed contents and running order of the book have not been made public, but a bit of analysis and educated guesswork leads me to suggest the following items. Certainly the proposed cover confirms stories about The Spectre, Phantom Stranger and El Diablo (from <i>Weird Western Tales</i>), composed of a collage of interior images from <i>Spectre #5, Phantom Stranger #4</i> and <i>Weird Western Tales #13</i>.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here is my suggested contents list:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Assume 9 pages for introductions and forewords, mirroring the layout of Volume One - (Volume One story reprints start on page 10 (so 9 before)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Spectre</i> #2 - "DIE SPECTRE--AGAIN!" (Story: Gardner Fox) 23pgs plus cover</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Spectre</i> #3 - "Hang 'Em Up Wildcat - You're Finished!" (Story & Art: Neal Adams) 24 pgs plus cover</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Spectre</i> #4 - "Stop That Kid..Before He Wrecks The World!" (Story & Art: Neal Adams) 23 page plus cover</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Spectre</i> #5 - "The Spectre Means Death?" (Story & Art: Neal Adams) 22 pages plus cover</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Phantom Stranger</i> #4 - "The Dead Don't Sleep Forever" (Writer: Bob Kanigher, Pencils: Neal Adams, Inks: Bill Draut) 23 pages plus cover</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Weird Western Tales</i> #12 - "A Time To Die" (Writer: Cary Bates, Pencils: Neal Adams, Inks: Berni Wrightson) 4 pages </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Weird Western Tales</i> #13 - "Night of the Living Dead" (Writer: Cary Bates, Art: Neal Adams) 11 pages</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Weird Western Tales</i> #15 - "Never Kill A Demon" (Writer: Cary Bates, Art: Neal Adams) 12 pages plus cover </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Biographies of writers and inkers (3 pages)</span></li></ul><div><br /></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The material above would cover 160 pages (or 154 pages if Adams' covers were not included). That leaves 38 pages to fill in Volume Two. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If we assume that the theme of the future bumper final Volume Three would be "Humour and Horror", to include the Bob Hope & Jerry Lewis comics (186 pages) plus 90 pages worth from the titles House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Witching Hour, Secrets of Sinister House, that leaves these oddities for inclusion in Volume Two:</span><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Superman</i> #249 'The Origin of Terra-Man' 7 pages</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Weird War Tales</i> #8 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' 7 pages (Adams inks on Crusty Bunkers' penciler Steve Harper) - unlikely inclusion - </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Action Comics</i> #425 'Human Target:The Short-Walk-to-Disaster Contract' 6 pages</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Hot Wheels</i> #6 'The Humbug Run' - 14 pages</span></li></ul></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">These add up to 34 additional pages (excluding Adams' cover to <i>Weird War Tales</i> #8). </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Alternatively, these four stories could be held over for Volume Three and replaced with the covers that Adams did for The Spectre and Phantom Stranger, all of which were absolute crackers.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Spectre issues</span></h3><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Spectre stories as drawn (and mostly written) by Adams are uniformly excellent. [ For an in-depth commentary on those issues, I refer you to Part One of Nigel Brown's article "The Spectre 1966-1975" as published long ago in SuperStuff #6 (Mar 21st 1976).]</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvvsjdj1oWNhnqFinED9lqTflus9qjDynnnFCCCcFLYpMa4qVYO3TqIhkdU1o9-GTO6YxUk15ZHv_wK4vZYdOu5F9tyhZSPnVGURkV9gYDTH5cETqE7tbxmC-ZELFECt7HoL5Kz5umWuEXGlbtIIMV-tDaI0nRri2grm9pr1iDdgcz4PKpmdxlaM5Q/s699/Snip20221205_6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="470" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvvsjdj1oWNhnqFinED9lqTflus9qjDynnnFCCCcFLYpMa4qVYO3TqIhkdU1o9-GTO6YxUk15ZHv_wK4vZYdOu5F9tyhZSPnVGURkV9gYDTH5cETqE7tbxmC-ZELFECt7HoL5Kz5umWuEXGlbtIIMV-tDaI0nRri2grm9pr1iDdgcz4PKpmdxlaM5Q/w430-h640/Snip20221205_6.png" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Spectre #2 cover (courtesy of HotComics.net).</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Issue #2 (above) contains a story by Gardner Fox with art by Adams. Great artwork, but uninteresting story. Adams really hit his stride with #3 (below), writing and drawing, bringing back Wildcat as the main protagonist, and really pushing the envelope of inventiveness on the artwork, incorporating collages, perhaps inspired by Jack Kirby.</span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi--wEjJmb2UfQuu-5RZy8OVrAt8Go24JN1eALB8do2wMLNOPxSYc1GXQWL2upl4c8hihB6xzPGnhCBBzM71qiJfbEBbplllGtky2QPMRztueW8x87KADwlAuF8LpZPvr3g4XZb1vwTajFqyB_QGlapS-GHI1746SZa7GapMGGcQoaMoZ_UgGoGtlER/s638/Snip20221205_7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="439" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi--wEjJmb2UfQuu-5RZy8OVrAt8Go24JN1eALB8do2wMLNOPxSYc1GXQWL2upl4c8hihB6xzPGnhCBBzM71qiJfbEBbplllGtky2QPMRztueW8x87KADwlAuF8LpZPvr3g4XZb1vwTajFqyB_QGlapS-GHI1746SZa7GapMGGcQoaMoZ_UgGoGtlER/w440-h640/Snip20221205_7.png" width="440" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC Spectre #3.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lwsFKXCvgtkq0EeydvUn5SZZ-CiJeayHNCuWyUOUYbobVE0JdoHUddqNcmqzKj3LmYK6BccymJCWvKL9MQrZIjD72mVoFFM8eN8TBNdSt48FGBo3-8o_R1_h7SUsx_rfY1XpcrRmVHuxy2iuT-XRXr8DZUkgcGG-uTPi_D6s2BwtUPAb7GzNlQDJ/s635/Snip20221205_8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="428" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lwsFKXCvgtkq0EeydvUn5SZZ-CiJeayHNCuWyUOUYbobVE0JdoHUddqNcmqzKj3LmYK6BccymJCWvKL9MQrZIjD72mVoFFM8eN8TBNdSt48FGBo3-8o_R1_h7SUsx_rfY1XpcrRmVHuxy2iuT-XRXr8DZUkgcGG-uTPi_D6s2BwtUPAb7GzNlQDJ/w432-h640/Snip20221205_8.png" width="432" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Interesting use of collage by Adams</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Issue Spectre #4 hits the high point of the run with "Stop That Kid...Before He Wrecks The World!", again story <b>and</b> art by Adams.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg23W8WLV088IZLwMu0g66F_fznExIig3b2ah1SgdImdiPVmV9LZzgTSrABAWjgPohMUD1qyyYLfnnrqCMEFs9aULS-4dOSMlgtXUlvWsSaethu9tI32tpMOJjf6Ln1V5AOioFk7O1rmiplUbAgh1wcYE3N2yq9mSzSekL2GEDNO089dV-oWg-zWJQr/s611/Snip20221205_9.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="407" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg23W8WLV088IZLwMu0g66F_fznExIig3b2ah1SgdImdiPVmV9LZzgTSrABAWjgPohMUD1qyyYLfnnrqCMEFs9aULS-4dOSMlgtXUlvWsSaethu9tI32tpMOJjf6Ln1V5AOioFk7O1rmiplUbAgh1wcYE3N2yq9mSzSekL2GEDNO089dV-oWg-zWJQr/w426-h640/Snip20221205_9.png" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Spectre #4</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiEcdawO4v5KIDThKw6BGV7L48iQNziOzAOY9fGTEyw-ZVdAxcNpcRod5dyJkPTBNx5TbUpJeFbFmWSrgljn1jY_9aHXFmgwqLM5zri7X4qbQwPjl2RIfi0MThI0SLnS-n3sWfPVNF-Sc-XwtBaz6U0QeSIXA8MuOrJhSgT8Z0VYYrfrESXrikq4BJ/s539/Snip20221205_10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="373" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiEcdawO4v5KIDThKw6BGV7L48iQNziOzAOY9fGTEyw-ZVdAxcNpcRod5dyJkPTBNx5TbUpJeFbFmWSrgljn1jY_9aHXFmgwqLM5zri7X4qbQwPjl2RIfi0MThI0SLnS-n3sWfPVNF-Sc-XwtBaz6U0QeSIXA8MuOrJhSgT8Z0VYYrfrESXrikq4BJ/w442-h640/Snip20221205_10.png" width="442" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Sample page from Spectre #4. Such detail and care and dynamism.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">With issue #5, Adams' last Spectre book, he intrigues us with a prologue that has later echoes of Batman's time in snow-clad Nanda Parbat, as well as treats us to what may have been Adams first double-page spread in a DC comic!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhzXsowfgCK2rnr-WRtNJ8MNC_bIIyxWdK0fxXH84sH4KQk9hYOh8lT9nJe8FDWaDmXZNA751nN5tB0oawEx-G32HtgcWcO8K_KeOFC_zwu6N3MDP5m_bVnmexVBHkb6SobUSfQ6TrWowl-6oefNPIobHaQ6Nsp5BXHhNIz3hzHkaGcQTGajfwaIpo/s733/Snip20221205_11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="511" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhzXsowfgCK2rnr-WRtNJ8MNC_bIIyxWdK0fxXH84sH4KQk9hYOh8lT9nJe8FDWaDmXZNA751nN5tB0oawEx-G32HtgcWcO8K_KeOFC_zwu6N3MDP5m_bVnmexVBHkb6SobUSfQ6TrWowl-6oefNPIobHaQ6Nsp5BXHhNIz3hzHkaGcQTGajfwaIpo/w446-h640/Snip20221205_11.png" width="446" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Spectre #5 - the template for the aborted TPB Volume Two</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLiy8k0WgXalTXCaFBrGkBiLnX6-kdbIMhOBz9TtvKP7uh30JsUGFE0fycnWt7eYwi6RPPQDljbF0ig1PBIfhPnUvPx6ETdOxzj4-qtVCl_VY_71oDre-DG7pXWRrnB_N36uIlZIWTElpIOZTSuouKOCz2x714SjDrh52olMVhp06Sz9bg_DYanIGR/s608/Snip20221205_12.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="453" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLiy8k0WgXalTXCaFBrGkBiLnX6-kdbIMhOBz9TtvKP7uh30JsUGFE0fycnWt7eYwi6RPPQDljbF0ig1PBIfhPnUvPx6ETdOxzj4-qtVCl_VY_71oDre-DG7pXWRrnB_N36uIlZIWTElpIOZTSuouKOCz2x714SjDrh52olMVhp06Sz9bg_DYanIGR/w476-h640/Snip20221205_12.png" width="476" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC Spectre #5 - the intriguing prologue</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjVv9H_V3u2KrCWBk2zP1L-ocWVeR3KEwgxFfR4ZZENQ5y42RVVIoLZ2yEeskkKltYoSc8QyCweD2v47_RIIfwkWevsz3O84hTBA_UQiKkGF2eEtSCyKMLYSdwoyStYvcYKWfQ-w-GIqxfi1HtwS-nevWy5XrUqKlCVlm9zdUKbdepC3PwCyvikAKX/s955/Snip20221205_13.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="955" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjVv9H_V3u2KrCWBk2zP1L-ocWVeR3KEwgxFfR4ZZENQ5y42RVVIoLZ2yEeskkKltYoSc8QyCweD2v47_RIIfwkWevsz3O84hTBA_UQiKkGF2eEtSCyKMLYSdwoyStYvcYKWfQ-w-GIqxfi1HtwS-nevWy5XrUqKlCVlm9zdUKbdepC3PwCyvikAKX/w400-h268/Snip20221205_13.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Double page-spread in an off-kilter angle city street style that Adams would return to a number of times in subsequent comics</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Phantom Stranger</span></h3><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiytSACydc5tM9lFIu3uUlmOI-aeUlpRmQ4loWz4EzYlwmj1vhxGoCAfQjM_jEsp6-_LYYwYwPB1E07DwizQNGOGIFKHJuumcc2K3vXMf0CxzjALX0PHoLUMryQVxHcqFDGGvyjT3g6Nd5Cy5HF2_aG1wuSca3PxYrt13N_Gugt1M82BLLzJZv2hGWA/s610/Snip20221205_14.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="411" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiytSACydc5tM9lFIu3uUlmOI-aeUlpRmQ4loWz4EzYlwmj1vhxGoCAfQjM_jEsp6-_LYYwYwPB1E07DwizQNGOGIFKHJuumcc2K3vXMf0CxzjALX0PHoLUMryQVxHcqFDGGvyjT3g6Nd5Cy5HF2_aG1wuSca3PxYrt13N_Gugt1M82BLLzJZv2hGWA/w432-h640/Snip20221205_14.png" width="432" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Phantom Stranger #4</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwujczJ7anc4Y7N73ivegxGHFp8fcHze9Rsv8g9H45UHfdr51XMmXuy1jqoxtsOsNS6B_mmqf3eW3TYf_R8Qm3gd2_-TQ5IICUchS1Wka8k3tBup6NBpHp2lacbjgiRipl__07KdKBI2gXCUtstTLscZkUVb-LarSxnSQnZs57s97PJMOFOuvm5IO_/s546/Snip20221205_15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="374" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwujczJ7anc4Y7N73ivegxGHFp8fcHze9Rsv8g9H45UHfdr51XMmXuy1jqoxtsOsNS6B_mmqf3eW3TYf_R8Qm3gd2_-TQ5IICUchS1Wka8k3tBup6NBpHp2lacbjgiRipl__07KdKBI2gXCUtstTLscZkUVb-LarSxnSQnZs57s97PJMOFOuvm5IO_/w438-h640/Snip20221205_15.png" width="438" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Love the detail of the city skyline plus the up-angle and sky colouring of the bottom panel.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">The </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Phantom Stranger #4</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> story is the sole time that Adams tackled the character in an interior story (despite drawing the covers for </span><u style="font-family: verdana;">every</u><span style="font-family: verdana;"> issue from #3 to #19) , in a story featuring both the Stranger and Dr Thirteen. I loved it. The Stranger is much more of a protagonist than an observer. Adams set the artistic bar for the book so high following the workmanlike work of Bill Draut, that it was only when Jim Aparo took the artistic reins on the interiors with issue #7 that the book regained its stride.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">El Diablo - Weird Western Tales</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The three El Diablo stories contain some of Adams best work of the 70s...the detail is amazing and rivals the best of Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman in this period. Was this only time that Adams and Berni Wrightson collaborated?</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyXOKW_4nSVXz58BiGH5hkk2RCtX3c_1EF1_moZ17EcKfpctZJPZdij7DB43Uy3grWXIDEb1b6of9PTTPTVna-tn06dlBZzTJxDv73M853uslzCfjZXX9-nleYl--9g_xwlPsqzHdibkq34xhsJ1WeityJ7uNHhCvlkh8o8Ph6WLCRpzjEJedte7gW/s667/Snip20221205_16.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="440" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyXOKW_4nSVXz58BiGH5hkk2RCtX3c_1EF1_moZ17EcKfpctZJPZdij7DB43Uy3grWXIDEb1b6of9PTTPTVna-tn06dlBZzTJxDv73M853uslzCfjZXX9-nleYl--9g_xwlPsqzHdibkq34xhsJ1WeityJ7uNHhCvlkh8o8Ph6WLCRpzjEJedte7gW/w422-h640/Snip20221205_16.png" width="422" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC, Weird Western Tales #12. Adams & Wrightson</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXS9uFhvG-5EaKnSTWQ0R_rrdF73BCmAdUCgvr7t9M5jm8no0FV1Tv3SqwTOwhAvgWA3udMo3CZz-0WdAbT-Oer24YulDaq_wQFAlnq4GvNamxMBFnuH5_Hi3IXVNyhawPBS4qP8WI9VESWB2eoAzeUF2jsDH1yr7vYUZJWEgvG2wx3gVxK7TV4O1F/s685/Snip20221205_17.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="464" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXS9uFhvG-5EaKnSTWQ0R_rrdF73BCmAdUCgvr7t9M5jm8no0FV1Tv3SqwTOwhAvgWA3udMo3CZz-0WdAbT-Oer24YulDaq_wQFAlnq4GvNamxMBFnuH5_Hi3IXVNyhawPBS4qP8WI9VESWB2eoAzeUF2jsDH1yr7vYUZJWEgvG2wx3gVxK7TV4O1F/w434-h640/Snip20221205_17.png" width="434" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Weird Western Tales #13. Pencils, Inking and Colours by Adams.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL28rAeB6eZfIpqMfC3tv19M-GO3ZrllWq6Dcn9fOO6192oYfS4P3H76mGe4SRtI7tbqyUhQWPgI3icIu6-wfrV5aLJa1XGzGhGQqFaIxv0kuG0-Hp_U6N3JLt8aLEk644mwkp2AXymVDe9IBSAr1nkaeh_ahIB6dFPphJ3ALqnu7Kxo3mlKlS0svA/s737/Snip20221205_18.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="534" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL28rAeB6eZfIpqMfC3tv19M-GO3ZrllWq6Dcn9fOO6192oYfS4P3H76mGe4SRtI7tbqyUhQWPgI3icIu6-wfrV5aLJa1XGzGhGQqFaIxv0kuG0-Hp_U6N3JLt8aLEk644mwkp2AXymVDe9IBSAr1nkaeh_ahIB6dFPphJ3ALqnu7Kxo3mlKlS0svA/w464-h640/Snip20221205_18.png" width="464" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©DC. Weird Western Tales #15. The only El Diablo cover by Adams.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">If by some chance Volume Two <b><u>was</u></b> published, or someone had an advance copy, I'd love to know the final content.</span></div>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3569147814277213853.post-56581457171965934262022-12-10T15:12:00.002-06:002022-12-11T13:32:55.872-06:00Look-In jumps on the Kung Fu bandwagon<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoDi50K-8YfmFpfSzrx9sZxU8yNHzXBMT7XsZVFUf-hRdZ30XbLKCVftMYKAQ-nsf9pgNVTE7uY95XvqvfYFEjFVyJxh3t9x5eIDbe8hkPqC3PSvGpv9vOqYYTdFQhSbB4vwEeS8qo8gg4OfRobDIYhPkDTOdrN7-HBPx8vyjrbzB2UcuMTAheulvZ/s707/Look-In%20Kung%20Fu%2030%20Mar%201974.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="707" data-original-width="524" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoDi50K-8YfmFpfSzrx9sZxU8yNHzXBMT7XsZVFUf-hRdZ30XbLKCVftMYKAQ-nsf9pgNVTE7uY95XvqvfYFEjFVyJxh3t9x5eIDbe8hkPqC3PSvGpv9vOqYYTdFQhSbB4vwEeS8qo8gg4OfRobDIYhPkDTOdrN7-HBPx8vyjrbzB2UcuMTAheulvZ/w474-h640/Look-In%20Kung%20Fu%2030%20Mar%201974.png" width="474" /></a></div><p><br /></p>by Ian Baker<p></p></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the immortal words of Jamaica-born Northern Soul songster Carl Douglas “Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting”. But that was back in 1974. Three years earlier<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in 1971 no-one had heard of Kung Fu outside of martial arts aficionados.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Karate, yes. Judo, yes. Jiu-Jitsu, maybe. Kung Fu, no.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By 1972, Bruce Lee had broken through the Asian leading-man movie star barrier with the UK “X” rated films <i>The Big Boss</i> and <i>Fist of Fury</i>, but it wasn’t until a very wet Friday</span><span style="font-size: 20px;">¹</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> on Sept 21 1973 that Kung Fu went family-mainstream in the UK, with Kwai Chang Caine scarring his forearms with dragon motifs and falling into some snow on a weekly basis. </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’d already become somewhat familiar with martial arts on TV through Bruce Lee’s appearances on UK ITV in the drama series <i>Longstreet</i> since Jan 1973, but somehow I missed seeing that first pilot <i>Kung Fu</i> shown on ITV. But following Nigel Brown’s rave review in school the following morning (we went to school on Saturday mornings in those days), I made sure that I did not miss watching the first regular episode '<i>King of the Mountain'</i> that evening.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We SuperStuff brethren (Nigel Brown , Geoff Cousins and myself) were soon caught up in the cultural zeitgeist, collecting trading cards (colloquially “Kungies”), TV tie-in paperbacks, and generally getting anything Kung-Fu related that we could lay our hands on.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtiISEVwzsakVg6ui38YGoqQR-wRLjmhoEt8xycysHSf3p6Do8J3jA_C4yLoCP8A4sRbtXr_a8ivgommIQdqqQh8Q1DmfJj7sDN_7UUAqmW9fe1FbekePsiwEVIdD8HHMG-ud2yvb0H6hvsRGzjnIIWewyohS69Ih3cIOEMFRczyQCFceY3vy6IwzL/s339/Snip20221207_32.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="199" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtiISEVwzsakVg6ui38YGoqQR-wRLjmhoEt8xycysHSf3p6Do8J3jA_C4yLoCP8A4sRbtXr_a8ivgommIQdqqQh8Q1DmfJj7sDN_7UUAqmW9fe1FbekePsiwEVIdD8HHMG-ud2yvb0H6hvsRGzjnIIWewyohS69Ih3cIOEMFRczyQCFceY3vy6IwzL/w376-h640/Snip20221207_32.png" width="376" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Warner Paperback Library. Book #1 of 4. TV Tie-In</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpsKS3C48QbD1pMJ4ydHiZBVV_sWRnOsnzwvAlxROT6E7isctekhxTbcIOqFQZ-jPqATcA91fHY0D_nouPbSRouEMolkMHXAJ64LeLc_hOgpqSohzDZIdQZGAALsHOnzeaQVEgluzDcaU6bmq2Hhx1LU_EaDaS5wFL4coJs88D8ru9BQJ-TYNUIRlE/s412/Snip20221207_33.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="297" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpsKS3C48QbD1pMJ4ydHiZBVV_sWRnOsnzwvAlxROT6E7isctekhxTbcIOqFQZ-jPqATcA91fHY0D_nouPbSRouEMolkMHXAJ64LeLc_hOgpqSohzDZIdQZGAALsHOnzeaQVEgluzDcaU6bmq2Hhx1LU_EaDaS5wFL4coJs88D8ru9BQJ-TYNUIRlE/w289-h400/Snip20221207_33.png" width="289" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© WB Television. Topps trading card</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It all peaked so quickly. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By 1975, things were slowing down with the cancellation of the <i>Kung Fu</i> TV series, and by the end of the decade, Kung Fu was a fad of the past, assigned to the dustbin of popular culture and recent memory along with David Soul, Kojak and the Bay City Rollers. Despite various TV movies that tried to revive the original show, and a syndicated sequel series that ran on a satellite channel for four years in the 90s, it never regained the popular cachet it briefly enjoyed.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="s1">Perhaps it was due to Roy Thomas’ reluctance to produce a Kung-Fu magazine at all that made Marvel pass on the rights for a TV show-related comic strip. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Roy details in the editorial of <i>Planet of the Apes</i> B&W magazine </span>#1 how he almost let the rights to the Apes stories slip beyond Marvel<span class="s1">’</span>s grasp. He had little interest in licensing film and TV material.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In fact, it was not until <i>Star Wars</i> that Marvel took <span class="s1">licensed</span> characters seriously, although Gold Key had done it (not with any great success) for years producing short-run comics which presumably had to adhere to the TV shows story line, resulting in really limited episodic storytelling.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="s1">Nonetheless,</span> it was in that 1973-1974 period that Marvel jumped on the Kung Fu bandwagon, with the ingenious idea of a new Kung Fu hero with a backstory linked to an existing property that had already been around for 50 years, that had already entered the popular vernacular, yet had never risen about its pulp origins or B-movie status - oriental villain Dr Fu Manchu and his stalwart British nemesis, Police Commissioner of Burma, Denis Nayland Smith. Thomas’ decision for Marvel to create its own Kung-Fu hero Shang-Chi, linked to established literary properties, would give the lead character a longevity that would be<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>denied to its TV counterpart. (The origins of Shang-Chi have been recounted elsewhere - even in our own SuperStuff #1 fanzine from 1974 - but for a good look at Marvel's approach, head over to <a href="https://ripjaggerdojo.blogspot.com/2022/11/savage-posts-of-kung-fu.html" target="_blank">Rip Jagger's Dojo blog</a>. )</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And so it was UK weekly teen magazine <b>Look-In</b> (published by ITV themselves) that secured the rights for a comic strip based on the TV series.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>They made the decision very late in the day (six months after the show premiered on British TV) with Martin Asbury tapped to illustrate two pages per week.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Look-In’</i>s purpose in life was to promote interest in TV series being shown on ITV, and the timing of the appearance of the strip was presumably to shore up the teen viewership at a point when audiences had started to plateau.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcggVNdA-n-1vy2p9uxVLR1L0273MlJcImF6qpjh6urLsX6cQyW067R8tTsozXm8BSnMMWOn0AmpnwAsGqQDWzvtGDbXC8KtWdkmeCmblmpsxSXo7riUxmV3urd5cULpOjyB-JA06greVLu_hS52dNmDnMSeUdBp7-0tq4D2jRKjit6WrmrLz_U9sb/s1276/Look-in%20Kung%20Fu%20Strip%20Mar%201974.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="866" data-original-width="1276" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcggVNdA-n-1vy2p9uxVLR1L0273MlJcImF6qpjh6urLsX6cQyW067R8tTsozXm8BSnMMWOn0AmpnwAsGqQDWzvtGDbXC8KtWdkmeCmblmpsxSXo7riUxmV3urd5cULpOjyB-JA06greVLu_hS52dNmDnMSeUdBp7-0tq4D2jRKjit6WrmrLz_U9sb/w400-h271/Look-in%20Kung%20Fu%20Strip%20Mar%201974.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Look-In and WB. Martin Asbury draws the first strip, issue #9 Vol 1975</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first strip appeared in the 30th March 1974 edition of Look-In, and continued for sixty-nine weeks, making 138 pages in total. The great Mike Noble replaced Asbury for one story line commencing 22nd Feb 1975.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizj45QzHBsSkfyXws81x-pTDFAiH4LEjCftkBP8F7cisGk4DBalqFXIdamZeMJ4_LQj8fCOuXEhAhp9MLtXGU0nya_2ldt2zk7LrzOrIwIG0x92-B9PSLLiZbqDQzYiMJftjTeA82Mijywk9CeTWbsRrODtzb0UVhXCSJbRKFzQbN4GxFJ8-B5iW6N/s620/Look-In%2022nd%20Feb%201975%20Mike%20Noble%20p%20%600.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="449" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizj45QzHBsSkfyXws81x-pTDFAiH4LEjCftkBP8F7cisGk4DBalqFXIdamZeMJ4_LQj8fCOuXEhAhp9MLtXGU0nya_2ldt2zk7LrzOrIwIG0x92-B9PSLLiZbqDQzYiMJftjTeA82Mijywk9CeTWbsRrODtzb0UVhXCSJbRKFzQbN4GxFJ8-B5iW6N/w464-h640/Look-In%2022nd%20Feb%201975%20Mike%20Noble%20p%20%600.png" width="464" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Look-In and WB. A sample of Mike Noble's work 22nd Feb 1975</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By an interesting co-incidence Marvel’s Shang-Chi made his appearance on the UK scene in Avengers Weekly #1 in the March 30th 1974 edition, </span><u style="font-family: verdana;">exactly the same day as Kwai Chang Caine’s premiere in Look-In</u><span style="font-family: verdana;">. Both of these comics were relatively late to the party, as ITV was already showing season two of the TV series at this point.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The TV series came to an end with Caine finding his half-brother Danny in the third season finale, which aired in the UK on June 15th 1975. <i>Look-In</i> ceased publication of the Kung-Fu strip rather abruptly that same week with issue <span class="s1">#25 of the 1975 volume</span>. Take a look at the final panels below and you may conclude that there was probably another part of the story yet to be published, or perhaps transition to the next Kung Fu story arc. </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The following week the Six Million-Dollar Man strip debuted.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-hWbmqBMzQbjmV37i_MiqiaSsrs8UOBLZVz1AdG2kTGc3hQo3YTPhWYeRF0BPjS12X0vEbIkA0wRdEn3XurbICV_D5Kl1tSbHfEsWTsbOohL2bDu_4VVn34HwwfqXKkByRdPImMbvMMx33NQ01d_ji7jC152bQWc8WF83T6Smx9kzn54YiWqtyvSe/s1302/Snip20221208_34.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="708" data-original-width="1302" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-hWbmqBMzQbjmV37i_MiqiaSsrs8UOBLZVz1AdG2kTGc3hQo3YTPhWYeRF0BPjS12X0vEbIkA0wRdEn3XurbICV_D5Kl1tSbHfEsWTsbOohL2bDu_4VVn34HwwfqXKkByRdPImMbvMMx33NQ01d_ji7jC152bQWc8WF83T6Smx9kzn54YiWqtyvSe/w400-h217/Snip20221208_34.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">©Look-In & WB. Final panels in strip end abruptly</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There were still a handful of third season TV episodes remaining unshown in the UK, which were burned off late at night, out of sequence, in October 1975, with a final solitary episode in Jan 1976. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’m not aware if the Look-In Kung-Fu stories have been collected in any publication since.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a data-jsarwt="1" data-usg="AOvVaw0SymMTXpIChfQtE2aSriLT" data-ved="2ahUKEwib6K_X1uj7AhVdMTQIHbCcCrsQFnoECAoQAQ" href="https://unicode-table.com/en/00B9/" style="color: #681da8; font-family: arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: auto;"></a></p><h3 class="LC20lb MBeuO DKV0Md" style="display: inline-block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 5px 0px 0px;">¹ </h3><span style="font-family: verdana;">Manston, Kent recorded 6.67 inches of rain in 24hrs from 7pm 20th to 7pm 21st.</span><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p>baggseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01126205345158158957noreply@blogger.com8