Category: DC Horror

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I… Vampire!


By J.M. DeMatteis, Bruce Jones, Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn, Mike W. Barr, Tom Sutton, Ernie Colon, Adrian Gonzales, Paris Cullins, Dan Day, Jim Aparo, Joe Kubert, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Tatjana Wood, Adrienne Roy & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3371-6 (TPB), 978-1-4012-5507-7 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Scary times ahead so let’s ease in to the season of mists mellow fruitfulness and spine sucking terror! with a guaranteed classic grimoire of reasonably family oriented ghoulish gore and wonder…

When superheroes entered their second decline at the end of the 1960s, four of the six surviving newsstand comic book companies (Archie, Charlton, DC, Gold Key, Harvey & Marvel) increasingly turned to horror and suspense anthologies to bolster their flagging sales. Even wholesome Archie briefly produced Red Circle Sorcery/Chillers comics, diverting a portion of their teen-comedy core gently into superb tales of witchcraft, mystery and imagination.

DC’s first generation of mystery titles blossomed at the end of the Golden Heroic Age when most comic book publishers of the era started switching to Crime, Romance, Western, Sci Fi and Horror genre anthologies to recapture an aging readership which was drifting away to other mass-market entertainments like TV and movies. Intriguingly, 1950’s TV also adopted en masse the anthological mystery tale model as seen in a wealth of repertory company anthology shows like The Veil, One Step Beyond, Tales of Tomorrow, and later, better remembered classics like The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone.

After a few tenuous attempts with supernatural-themed heroic leads in established titles (Johnny Peril in Comic Cavalcade, All-Star Comics and Sensation Comics; Dr. Terry Thirteen, The Ghostbreaker in Star-Spangled Comics) by 1951 National Comics had bowed to the inevitable and launched a comparatively straight-laced anthology sans recurring lead stars… which nevertheless became one of their longest-running and most influential titles. It all began on October 3rd with the launch of The House of Mystery (cautiously cover-dated December 1951/January 1952).

When a hysterical censorship muck rake led to witch-hunting hearings attacking comic books and newspaper strips (just type Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, April-June 1954 into your search engine at any time), the industry panicked and hurriedly adopted a castrating straitjacket of stringent self-regulatory rules and admonitions. Despite mystery/suspense titles produced under the aegis of the Comics Code Authority being sanitised, anodyne affairs in terms of Shock & Gore, the readership’s appetite for mystery and suspense stayed high, and in 1956 National introduced sister titles Tales of the Unexpected & House of Secrets.

Supernatural thrills and spooky monsters were dialled back into marvellously illustrated, genteel, rationalistic fantasy-adventure vehicles which nonetheless dominated the market until the end of the 1950s when the super-hero returned in force – having begun a renaissance in 1956 after Julius Schwartz reintroduced The Flash in Showcase #4. Revivals of Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom and new costumed cavorters generated a gaudy global bubble of masked myrmidons which even forced these dedicated anthology suspense titles to transform into super-character split-books with J’onn J’onzz, Manhunter from Mars and Dial H for Hero in House of Mystery and paranormal investigator Mark Merlin (latterly Prince Ra-Man) sharing space with anti-hero Eclipso in HoS. When caped crusader craziness peaked and popped, Secrets was one of the first casualties, folding with the September/October 1966 issue. House of Mystery carried on with its eccentric costumed cohort until #173, and Tales of the Unexpected endured until #104.

However, nothing combats censorship better than plunging profits, and as the Sixties ended the superhero boom busted again. With once-popular titles promptly perishing and many of the industry’s most prestigious series circling the drain, this real-world Crisis led to surviving publishers agreeing to loosen their self-imposed restraints against horror (and crime) comics. Nobody much cared about gangster titles at the time, but as this liberalisation coincided with another bump in global public interest in all aspects of the Great Unknown, the resurrection of spooky story comics was a foregone conclusion and obvious no-brainer…

Thus, with absolutely no fanfare at all, House of Mystery and Unexpected switched back to tales of magic, mystery and imagination whilst already cancelled House of Secrets rose again with #81, (cover-dated August/September 1969), retooled to feed a seemingly insatiable appetite for terror and suspense…

Before long, an expansive battalion of supernatural thriller titles dominated DC’s – and competitors’ – publishing schedules again. This time, however, although the initial impetus died out by 1978, horror comics had secured a dedicated audience, soldiering on despite declines in sales into the turbulent 1980s. During that period, the venerable periodical experimented with varying formats and became a springboard for many creative careers, but never returned to established, recurring characters until the reign of publishing whiz kid Karen Berger who officially assumed control with HoM #292. Some issues earlier, a new longform miniseries (we used to call them “serials”) had debuted, detailing the exploits of a reluctant monster seeking to atone for past sins…

The full groundbreaking, tragic, idiosyncratic saga was gathered into a chilling chronicle recounting the afterlives of the bloodsucker and his human allies and re-presents here pertinent material from House of Mystery #290-291, 293, 295, 297, 299, 302, 304-319, plus a guest-shot in The Brave and the Bold #195, cumulatively spanning cover-dates March 1980 to August 1983. It opens without fanfare or preamble in ‘I… Vampire’ by co-creators J.M. DeMatteis & Tom Sutton.

In 10 tightly-packed yet smoothly inviting pages we meet English noble Sir Andrew Bennett, who died at the hands of a nosferatu during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Beloved by his fiancée Mary Seward, Bennett succumbed to her desperate pleas to be similarly infected, so that their love might last forever. Only afterwards did he realise that the transformation generally creates soulless monsters, even though, somehow, he has retained his conscience and personality…

Over four centuries, “Bloody Mary” becomes a prestigious leader of massed vampires in an insidious, influential covert global cult dubbed the Blood Red Moon. They sow chaos and destruction whilst working towards the ultimate goal of vampires ruling a world of human cattle. Heartbroken and guilt ridden, Bennett has opposed her schemes for all that time, aided by human allies such as his most recent “daywalkers”: aged Russian warrior Dimitri Mishkin and go-getting “Eighties Woman” Deborah Dancer…

Blessed with all the traditional gifts of the undead (shapeshifting, supernatural vigour, hypnosis, etc) and similarly afflicted by their weaknesses (sunlight, crucifixes, Holy Water, stakes, et al) Bennett staves off his insatiable hunger for blood by sheer willpower and the determination that he will not die until he has ended Mary’s depredations…

The introductory episode covers all that even as Mary’s minions lose another running battle with Bennett’s team but escape to instigate their latest plan…

The adventure concludes in ‘Night of the Living Undead’ as team Bennett expose and end a proposed alliance between the cult and New York’s biggest drug dealer, after which ‘The Burning’ sees the hunters scotch a scheme to infiltrate the White House once Mary affiliates with a race-hate spouting demagogue whose influential links include the KKK and US President. The closure of that case tears open old wounds, as Mishkin subsequently clashes with one of Mary’s lieutenants, only to discover a dreaded family connection in ‘Mother Love/Mother Hate’, leading to a look into how Bennett recruited him as a boy just as the 19th century became the 20th…

DeMatteis moved on after the dark heroes foil Mary’s attempt to destroy an ashram and its spiritual guru in ‘Zen Flesh! Zen Bones!’ after which Bruce Jones moves in, offering a more fanciful approach in ‘The Sun Also Burns’. Here Bennett and his human friends are ambushed and left to die in a mine. As time passes, the valiant vampire – deprived of bottled blood – must battle his irresistible thirst before abandoning them. Resolved never to endanger them again, he sets out on a solo quest for vengeance…

In HoM #302 ‘Blood Ties’ sees that lonely walkabout take him to Eudora, Kansas where odd events culminate in Bennett accidentally causing the deaths of an entire family of innocents before stumbling across a predatory circus abducting innocents for profit, and sponsored by Mary. His war against the ‘Carnival of Souls’ lasts until #304 where – with Ernie Colon substituting for Sutton – Bennett learns ‘The Night Has Eyes’ and proves that he has no pity for child stealers…

Jones then offers a lengthy saga in ‘Blood and Sand’ as the still-solo Bennett tracks Mary’s agents to Egypt in the wake of a global anti-cancer vaccine rollout that has the unexpected side-effect of making human blood toxic to the undead. Meanwhile, and for all this time, Mishkin & Dancer have been hunting for their leader, and are finally closing in…

Made unwilling allies by fate, Andrew and Mary invade a lost tomb, where the cult queen steals the time-travelling Rings of Anubis from a mystic mummy before setting off into the past to undo the creation of the vaccine. In hot pursuit, thanks to a second ring, Bennett arrives in Whitechapel, London at the height of history’s most infamous serial killer spree.

Crafted by Jones and the returned Sutton, ‘A Rip in Time’ sees all Mary’s efforts thwarted, and the ancestor of mysterious vaccine creator Dr. Barr escape unharmed, even as the vampires are hurled back into the time stream. Bennett washes ashore in Maine in November 1964, just in time to save a little girl from drowning. ‘Lovers Living, Lovers Dead’ reveals that in the present Deborah Dancer has developed a psychic link and can “see” vampires’ past actions as they happen. She is suitably horrified to observe Mary attack the child and aghast to realise that the child is herself…

After heroic intervention from Bennett saves the child, the time chase pauses as the undead knight battles a crew of revenant Nazi submariners in ‘Mirrors That Look Back’ before his pursuit resumes, depositing him and his quarry in Elizabethan England mere days before their first deaths. A bewildering succession of time-tossed doubles and mistaken identity switches culminates in a deadly ‘Witch Hunt’ with religiously enflamed peasants running riot before the chronal paradoxes dump them both back in the 20th century where new writers Dan Mishkin (no relation) & Gary Cohn concoct a ‘Manhattan Interlude’ (#310, November 1982) foe penciller Adrian Gonzales and ever-faithful Tom Sutton to render. Here Bennett encounters another vampire who has retained both soul and innocence and regretfully helps her meet her final end on her own terms…

Paris Cullins joins Mishkin & Cohn, Gonzales & Sutton for a dark peek at Deborah Dancer’s teen years in ‘By the Time We Got to Woodstock…’, revealing how she “first” stumbled into the Blood Red Moon’s schemes of conquest after losing all her friends to hippy bloodsuckers at the legendary festival, only surviving thanks to an old Russian and an eerie, red-eyed Englishman…

HoM #312 reunites the trio in time to tackle ‘The Thing in the Tunnel’ (Mishkin, Cohn, Gonzales & Sutton), a predatory beast escaped from the familiar-sounding Barr Research Laboratories and leading to a deadly clash with an enigmatic, extraordinarily long-lived (hint, hint) biologist in ‘Side Effects’, before ‘I.. Edward Trane, I… Vampire’ in #314 (illustrated solely by Sutton) sees a tragic reunion for Bennett with one of his own Victorian acolytes who fell in battle, but never fully died…

Mishkin, Cohn, Cullins & Sutton then detail an untitled exploit wherein the vampire hunters are targeted by sanctimonious religious zealots hunting the unholy. Sadly, their leader’s top aide is not only undead herself, but also Dimitri’s mother, and the Presidency is once more the glittering prize being sought…

Although the plot is foiled, the cost is high, compelling Bennett to turn eastwards, and ‘Back in the U.S.S.R.’ he uncovers a KGB program to weaponize vampirism and extend the joys of eternity to the aging Politburo. The result is open warfare between Mary’s cult and a Soviet secret army, ultimately proving in ‘Blood is Thicker…’ that not all military spending is pointless, and not every hero gets to ride off into the sunset…

Despite a long run, changing times and tastes were indicating that the title and, indeed, entire genre were not a viable contemporary comics option. With the series building to climax, #318 offered another untitled yarn (with Dan Day pencilling) wherein a freshly bereaved Andrew Bennett employs stolen Soviet technology to force a final confrontation with Mary and the Blood Red Moon, resulting in his final demise and birth of a new kind of hero in climactic last episode ‘Dreams of Death’ by Mishkin, Cohn & Sutton in House of Mystery #319 (August 1983).

Aggravatingly, that big finish isn’t the end here, as there follows a solid but painfully out-of-continuity tale taken from The Brave and the Bold #195 (February 1983). For ‘Night of Blood’ (Mike W. Barr & Jim Aparo) Bennett’s perpetual hunt for Mary brings him to Gotham City after a gangster’s daughter becomes the latest victim of a vampire. Batman is firmly convinced the attacks are fake – and he’s right – until an actual magic-accursed blood drinker shows up. At least this time the standard misunderstanding doesn’t result in pointless battle before reason prevails and the mismatched heroes unite to catch the real culprits…

Graced with staggeringly compelling covers by Joe Kubert, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Aparo, Tatjana Wood & Adrienne Roy, this is a genuine slice of engaging, unorthodox and vastly entertaining horror action that predates – and probably influenced – later hits like Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel. A hugely enjoyable edgy romp, well-scripted, imaginative and gorgeously illustrated I… Vampire is a timeless tome for all lovers of dark delight and one no arcane aficionada can afford to be without.
© 1981, 1982, 1983, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Finest: Fourth World – When the Old Gods Die


By Jack Kirby, with Vince Colletta, Curt Swan, Werner Roth, Murphy Anderson, Neal Adams, Frank Giacoia, Dick Giordano Heck, Dennis O’Neil, Bob Kanigher, John Costanza, Ben Oda, Mark Evanier, Steve Sherman, Marv Wolfman & various (DC Comics)

ISBN: ?978-1-79950-831-1 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Jack Kirby was born today in 1917. This is part one of his absolute greatest work and I’ll happily fight you if you disagree…

When Jack Kirby returned to the home of Superman in 1970, he brought with him one of the most powerful concepts in comic book history. The epic grandeur of his Fourth World saga grafted a whole new mythology over the existing DC universe and blew the developing minds of a generation of readers.

It began in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen where he revived his Golden Age kid-team The Newsboy Legion, introducing large-scale cloning in the form of The Project and hinting that the city’s gangsters had extraterrestrial connections, Kirby moved on to new titles The Forever People, New Gods & Mister Miracle; an interlinked triptych of projected finite length titles that together would form a mosaic of staggering potency and grandeur. The groundbreaking titles introduced rival races of gods, dark and light, risen from the ashes of a previous Armageddon to battle forever… and then their eternal conflict spread to Earth…

Kirby’s concepts, as always, fired and inspired his contemporaries and successors. The gods of Apokolips and New Genesis became a crucial keystone of unfolding DC continuity and integral foundation of that entire fictional universe thereafter, surviving numerous revisions and retcons which periodically bedevil long-lived comics fans. Many major talents dabbled with the concept over the years and a host of titles have come and gone starring Kirby’s creations.

This trade paperback collection reshapes the chronology slightly, rejecting strict release date order for a more syncretic narrative, but does include sidebar material never included in previous collected editions. Here you will see the pertinent contents of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133-139 & #141-143; The Forever People #1-4; Mister Miracle #1-4; The New Gods #1-3, plus relevant (but non-Kirby) material from Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #111, 114 & 115 and Superman #233, all collectively spanning cover-dates January – November 1971.

After his previous acrimonious departure from National/DC, Kirby had found fresh fields and an equally hungry new partner in Stan Lee at the remnants of ailing Atlas Comics (AKA once-mighty Timely Comics). There he launched and spearheaded a revolution in comics storytelling, but after just over a decade of a continual innovation and wonderment, Jack felt increasingly stifled. His efforts had transformed the dying outfit into industry-leader Marvel, but success had left him trapped in a profitable rut. Thus, he moved back to DC to generate another tidal wave of sheer imagination and pure invention. The result was experimental adult magazines Spirit World & In the Days of the Mob followed by a stunning reworking of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. By the time he had finished, all DC continuity was changed. The latter was a prelude to his landmark Fourth World saga comprising interlinked contemporaneous titles: the very definition of something game-changing and far too far ahead of its time…

Incidentally, on many levels Jimmy Olsen was an ideal match for the King and not an incongruous display of breast-beating or do-or-die audition. Olsen was an idealistic, heroic young man in the thick of the incredible at all times, and Kirby had a long history with such boy heroes. He and Joe Simon had invented the comic book “kid gang” subgenre and for the next two years Kirby revived it with his new take on The Newsboy Legion, albeit interlaced with a future-embracing backstory and aspirational wonder, rather than the poverty, privation and ongoing war of survival embodied by the Forties iteration.

As previously stated, in this tome we don’t start in Metropolis’ Suicide Slum, but long away and far ago as the scene is set by a history lesson from the distant past…

Cover-dated February/March 1971, New Gods #1 opened with an ‘Epilogue’ and closed on a ‘Prologue’ as Kirby & contractually assigned inker Vince Colletta declared ‘Orion Fights for Earth!’ Despite a promise of complete autonomy, the King had surrendered much to get his dream rolling. Crushing deadlines and ridiculous expected monthly page counts were one thing, but his choice of inkers was vetoed, and he had to compromise and accept insulting art edits drawn by regular Superman artists perennially pasted onto Superman’s trademarked face to present something DC demanded. Nevertheless, the work was everything and he persevered…

Here we learned that (relatively) soon after creation began, gods were born, lived and died – primarily by warring with each other. When the Old Gods perished in a cosmos-shaking conflagration their perfect primal world was sundered. When the chaos cooled, fragments had congealed into two new but lesser planets: the dark vicious globe of Apokolips and gleaming pristine orb New Genesis. Over millennia, a fresh generation of superior beings of might and majesty populated the spinning spheres, but sadly, a tragic trait New Gods shared with their progenitors was a capacity for destruction and taste for conflict. Denizens of both worlds always and inevitably found new ways to end each other’s immortal lives.

The tale proper begins on joyous, spiritual New Genesis years after the latest all-out war with Apokolips ceased. Mighty Orion arrives in paradisical Supertown where divine patriarch Highfather communes with cosmic mystery The Source. The ineffable metaphysical conduit despatches the turbulent, ever-anxious wolf in their fold to the antithetical diabolical hell-world, only to find despot Darkseid gone and – against all treaties – captive humans from Earth being “examined” for signs of the tyrant’s dream. For both races the basic tool is Mother Box: sentient circuitry connected to The Source and lifelong cyber-symbiotic companion, able to communicate, advise and manipulate the physical world.

The lord of Apokolips wants to do away with all that and personally control everything. Furthermore he’s decided this means possessing an irresistible, intangible ultimate weapon. The Anti-Life Equation is a cheat code for totalitarianism: the instant negation of choice and free will, and anyone using it would command all that lives. Darkseid’s obsessive search for it had led him to Earth and now he had kidnapped a cross-section of humans to test his extraction methodology. That he is gone and his realm is governed by Mass Control Units means the Evil One has found his key to success…

After batting his way onto the dire world against Parademons, Darkseid’s Dog Cavalry and assorted terror weapons, Orion frees the mortals as New Genesis God of Knowledge Metron delivers advice and a message. Thus, after outwitting and outfighting vile brute Kalibak the Cruel, the peaceful God of War uses a matter-transmitting Boom Tube to return them all to Earth. Darkseid and his elite warrior caste are waiting for him. They have already infiltrated Earth through its criminal class and begun testing humanity in search of the unique mind holding the Equation. Apparently, a sufficient amount of instilled terror should shake it loose…

The Forever People #1’s ‘In Search of a Dream!’ sees Kirby wonders unfold following a spectacular and contemporarily astute UFO sighting wherein friends of Jimmy Olsen witnessed the arrival of a quartet of weird wild kids on the strangest bike on – or off – Earth. Because they took pictures, Clark Kent’s life changed forever….

He had just completed a bruising interview that made him question his role and purpose on Earth when Jimmy’s snapshots of those weird kids offer Superman a glimpse of a place where he can be one guy among equals. Curiosity and a painful need to find the newcomers drive the Man of Steel to find them, and brings him into first known contact with the absolute embodiment of intellectual and philosophical totalitarianism. Darkseid had been infiltrating our world, quietly seeking a unique mind concealing a metaphysical ultimate weapon. The Anti-Life Equation was instant, irresistible negation of free will and with it the right despot would command all that lives. Darkseid’s obsessive search had led him to Earth and now he had kidnapped a psychic youngster from a world called New Genesis. Her name was Beautiful Dreamer…

All this Superman learned later, after being ambushed by alien-armed racketeers Intergang and saved by her friends Big Bear, Vykin the Black, Serifan & Mark Moonrider. They were all from that promised land Superman had glimpsed and had abandoned Eden to “get involved”, helping their friend and Earth. They called themselves Forever People…

Apparently benevolent, curious kids open to new experiences and welcoming the myriad choices the future holds, they were also trained to handle trouble. When Darkseid’s forces counterattacked and took out Superman they revealed one final trick, combining into an unbeatable enigmatic gestalt being called Infinity Man…

When Darkseid ceded the day, he left a booby trap only Superman could tackle and in return the kids let him travel to Supertown on their fabled paradise planet New Genesis. However, they stressed that any decent, right-thinking person’s place was here, fighting evil by facing Darkseid. For the briefest moment, need overwhelmed duty before, inevitably, the Man of Tomorrow turned back and took up the new never-ending battle…

After Forever People #1, crossovers with DC mainstays were largely sidelined in favour of a tense and relatively isolated new normal. Those kids were Kirby’s way of depicting how conflict affected peripheral players and dragged them in and down, whilst the most important component was seeing seasoned soldiers do their work. New Gods would focus on the war itself. With that all going on, next came something utterly unexpected: a non-hero reflecting a changing world, and seeking to ride the turbulent era’s zeitgeist by looking out for himself and breaking loose of expectations and societal shackles…

Cover-dated February/March 1971, the premiere issue of Mister Miracle – Super Escape Artist sprang the last piece of the puzzle on readers, opening with a sedate set of mysteries counterpointed by emotional tension and explosive action. The star – based on Jack & Roz Kirby’s friend (comics genius, magician/escapologist) Jim Steranko – was a fugitive runaway avoiding (perhaps dodging?) his responsibilities and searching for deeper truths. No matter how wild things got, that set-up was pure reportage…

Inked by Colletta ‘Murder Missile Trap!’ introduces aging entertainer Thaddeus Brown, an old war horse trying to get back in the saddle, practicing his old escapology act to win an unwise wager with Metropolis’ Intergang boss Steel Hand. A terrifying test run is interrupted by a young stranger who observes with shock Brown’s apparent suicide and the panic of equally aged assistant Oberon even as he rushes in to help them. That act of getting involved leads to orphan Scott Free inheriting the identity and stage persona of Mister Miracle after Steel Hand cheats and has Thaddeus shot and killed. Angry, intrigued and ready to settle down at last (or for a while at least), the wanderer (who has an astounding carpet bag of high-tech tricks) wins justice for his predecessor by beating a spectacular rocket trap before opting to try something strange but substantial for a change. However, the coils of his past are already preparing to ensnare him…

That premiere issue (and this collection) also offered a text feature by Marvin Wolfman wherein readers could enjoy ‘A Visit With Jack Kirby’ before New Gods #2 confirms that there are no civilians in war in ‘O’ Deadly Darkseid!’ After fighting off a savage ambush on arrival and confronting Darkseid himself, Orion drafts the shaken, rescued human hostages as his point men and intel unit. Private eye Dave Lincoln, secretary Claudia Shane, student Harvey Lockman and aging insurance salesman Victor Lanza are scared but resolved to help their world however possible, even as the dread tyrant reviews his forces scattered all over Earth applying a range of schemes to make humanity scream and shatter and give up that equation.

As New Genesis’ comrades volunteer for the fight on this isolated island Earth, the call to arms comes in Lincoln’s backyard as God of Depravity DeSaad triggers his gigantic Fear Machine to feed off the paralysing horror it generates. However, thanks to sentient miracle computer Mother Box, his innate personal power and the star-shattering Astro-Force he commands, Orion easily wins the initial skirmish…

This scene & agenda setting saga is complemented with Mark Evanier & Steve Sherman’s prose filler ‘To and From The Source’ prior to FP #2 finding our young explorers exuberantly enjoying their dalliance with a primitive culture. The reunited quintet joyously interact with toiling humanity, and find shelter in a mostly deserted slum with disabled kid Donnie and his aging Uncle Willie. The visiting star kids’ hunger to learn is sadly curtailed when Darkseid steps up his hunt for the equation. The monster’s reasoning says abject terror could shake loose the formula from whoever is afflicted with it, and to that end he orders bug-behemoth Mantis to declare shattering ‘Super War!’ on humanity.

Arguably marginally less powerful than the Master of Apokolips, Mantis can only be countered by Infinity Man, and the Forever People happily ask living computer Mother Box to perform the ritual that will call him and subtract them from existence, sparking a cataclysmic clash. The drama is again augmented by an Evanier & Sherman essay, specifically ‘Buzzing in the Boom Tube’ as is Mister Miracle #2 with ‘Miracle Talk’.

The comics magic preceding it considers the prosaic life of a showman, as amidst a beguiling setting Scott & Oberon plan a theatrical comeback, Sadly, the old stagehand/retainer learns just how different the new kid really is and his suspicions of a wider, wilder side are confirmed as the orphanage Scott fled comes looking for him. Vicious Apokolyptian virago Granny Goodness unleashes the techno-terrors of matter-warping monster Overlord, trapping the targets in the insidious, infernal ‘X-Pit!’ and provoking a battle for their lives and sanity…

Kirby’s arrival coincided with a major overhaul of DC’s biggest gun, and is represented here by the last three pages of Superman #233. The Mn of Tomorrow had been a mega-media star since his launch, with internationally syndicated comics, books, newspaper strips, movie and animated serials plus hugely successful radio and TV shows (live action and animated) making the franchise globally recognizable. Whenever that happens, inevitably overkill and overexposure inescapably set in and the core property needs to be carefully overhauled or vanish forever. Incoming editor Julie Schwartz knew his market and was open to new ideas, and his creative changes were just appearing as 1970 ended. The new direction was also vanguard and trigger for a wealth of controversial, socially-challenging “realistic” story content unseen since the feature’s earliest days: a wave of tales ultimately described as “Relevant”…

As the sixties closed Superman was in dire need of editorial revision. That officially began with Superman #233 in a groundbreaking serial by scripter Dennis J. “Denny” O’Neil, and illustrators Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson: a deliberate very public abandonment of tired old supervillains, fanciful Kryptonian scenarios and otherworldly paraphernalia instantly poked the readership and revitalised the Man of Tomorrow, attracting new readers and began a period of engagingly human-scaled stories making Superman a “must-buy” character all over again.

Although only the portentous ending is included here, the innovations began with ‘Superman Breaks Loose’ as a government experiment to harness Kryptonite as an energy source goes explosively wrong. Closely monitoring, the Metropolis Marvel is blasted across the desert surrounding the isolated lab, but somehow survives a supposedly fatal radiation-bath. Then, reports begin filtering in from all over Earth: every piece of the deadly mineral has been transformed to harmless, common iron! As he goes about his protective, preventative patrols, the liberated hero experiences an emotional high at the prospect of all the good he can now accomplish. He isn’t even phased when the Daily Planet’s new owner Morgan Edge (a key character created by Kirby and Darkseid’s top secret agent) shakes up Clark Kent’s cosy civilian life: summarily ejecting him from the print game to remake him as a roving TV journalist. (for more see DC Finest: Superman – Kryptonite Nevermore)…

As much humour feature as adventure series, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen was a long-running but increasingly lacklustre spin-off feature spawned by the TV show that had very much reached its end. Latterly, Leo Dorfman had begun the process of ending the cascade of comedic transformations and body-shaming events, remaking Jimmy into a competent, confident action hero and serious investigative journalist. This was in tune with a rebellious new era but stalled when the worlds of DC forever altered on the pages of what was then considered one of their least appreciated and poorest-selling titles. According to fan myth & legend, none of it apparently mattered when Kirby took over. By all popular accounts, he had asked for DC’s worst performing title to prove what he could do, and used that gesture to spearhead a wave of changes whilst adapting grand schemes his old employers at Marvel were too timid to countenance on their pages…

Jack’s first in-universe foray was Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #133, cover-dated October and on sale from August 25, 1970. Suddenly readers were thrown into a bravely strange new world where, out of nowhere, extremely shady incoming Daily Planet owner Morgan Edge gifts Jimmy with a fantastic supercar – the “Whiz Wagon” – demanding that he and his previously unseen pals ‘The Newsboy Legion!’ (technically the “New Newsboy Legion” comprising the sons of Tommy, Big-Words, Gabby & Scrapper, with the addition of African-American, scuba diving addict Flipper Dipper) deliver an exclusive scoop on a bizarre counterculture movement in the wilds outside Metropolis. The mysterious subjects are all weird hippie-types and don’t trust anyone over age 25, so Edge needs to send youth combined with experience, However, the one who can’t be trusted is Edge himself. He has undisclosed connections to crime combine Intergang and a chilling stone-faced alien dubbed Darkseid…

After very publicly surviving an assassination attempt, Clark Kent goes into hiding, allowing Superman to take off after Jimmy and the boys as they probe fantastic unsuspected region dubbed the Wild Area. Here Olsen survives trial by combat to become leader of futuristic biker gang The Outsiders, before being sucked into their quest for meaning by hunting a moving mountain inhabited by techno-pacifists “The Hairies”…

Linking up with the Man of Steel as tremors rock the organically grown refuge city of Habitat, Jimmy and the Newsboys chase the ultimate test of existence alongside other motor nomads, unaware that pal Superman already knows the secret they’re seeking. What Jimmy isn’t aware of is that Edge has boobytrapped the Whiz Wagon to satisfy his vile master’s desire to destroy what might be the next step in human evolution and a threat to his own schemes…

The total reboot closed with the King introducing himself to a prospective new audience text titbit ‘Jack Kirby – CONTINED’ but although Kirby & Colletta put their hearts and souls into the job, and despite Publisher Carmine Infantino’s promise of strict non-intervention, meddling with the concept began early, as regular Superman art staff redrew Superman and Jimmy’s faces. We’ll never know what they tried to do to the overall story arc…

Without pause for breath, exposition or recap SPJO #134 saw Jimmy and his petrol-head wild bunch catch up to monstrous mechanised white whale ‘The Mountain of Judgement!’ after astoundingly taking out Superman with weapons casually discarded by inveterate tinkerers the Hairies. Thankfully, Edge’s bomb is easily defused by the techno-hippies who all share an incredible secret; one the Action Ace is fully aware of. In short order, Jim and the lads are briefed on “The Project”: the US government’s cracking of the human genome and extensive duplication/experimentation on life forms. This had already resulted in cloning the dead, mass-producing soldiers & staff to order and even modifying or reconfiguring chromosomal structures to create “D.N.A.liens”. These included the genetically pacifist techno-wizard Hairies. Moreover, the whole Project is run for the government by none other than slum-kids made good the original Newsboy Legion!

Although commonplace now, the notion of cloning was practically unknown in 1970 and Kirby took the idea and ran with it: blending eternal questions about Life itself with Spy Fi tropes, gangsterism and Bond movie settings, all packed with freaks and monsters and underpinned by a constant threat posed by a mysterious mastermind and his own experimental devils. The inspired auteur was also pulling out all the stops visually and his experimental concepts were backed up by equally innovative art and photo collages. The issue ends with Kirby’s rumination on technology in ‘The Whiz Wagons are Coming!’

Followed by similar thoughts in ‘THE HAIRIES – Super-Race or Man’s Second Chance’, SPJO #135 introduces Simyan & Mokkari, whose raid on the Project’s genetic storehouse provides raw material to constantly reproduce wilder and wilder versions of our heroes in their own hidden ‘Evil Factory!’ Being utterly without restraint or ethical scruple, their goal of destroying the Project for Darkseid is well-advanced, and – as previously stated – Jimmy’s genes are a particularly promising medium for random transformations…

Their control of what they make is less impressive though, and a superstrong, giant Jimmy infused with artificial Kryptonite is teleported without plan into the Project simply to save Simyan & Mokkari from dying at the oversized hands of their own experiment. Although it almost kills Superman and his juvenile pals, the day is saved by the Senior Newsboys’ passion project – a new regrown and modified iteration of their murdered WWII superhero patron Jim Harper – The (Golden) Guardian – in concluding, action-packed background-filling expository chapter ‘The Saga of the D.N.A.liens!’ (cover-dated March 1971). Chronologically this led into the launch of Kirby’s official Fourth World titles Forever People, New Gods and Mister Miracle #1.

Scene set, Jimmy’s further exploits were generally Fourth World adjacent: a forge and funnel for concepts linking Superman to the ongoing narrative of Gods and Armageddons whilst exploring Mankind’s dangerous tendencies and corruptible natures. In Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #137, the Newsboys and Jimmy learn more about their own (utterly non-consensual) contributions to the Project. Without their knowledge Scrapper has been mass-produced as foot-soldiers and guards in different sizes – from six feet to six inches – and innumerable Gabbys man switchboards and communications consoles! As they reel in shock, the Evil Factory strike again. As Jimmy meets The Project’s emergent telepath and resident D.N.A.lien Dubbilex, elsewhere Darkseid demands results forcing Simyan & Mokkari to rashly unleash another Olsen variant on the hidden science citadel. Gifted with astounding strength and uncanny energy powers ‘The Four-Armed Terror!’ has been bred to feed on nuclear radiation and just one of them carves a wave of destruction that extends into the Wild Area on its path to the Project’s atomic power plant. Superman and the boys are easily disposed of and discarded, with the crisis escalating even further after the Apokolyptian biologists lose control of the other quadra-killers and beam the entire rampaging herd into the subterranean Project’s tunnels, forcing Superman to pull out all the stops to get free and save everything in cataclysmic closing chapter ‘The Big Boom!’

Cover-dated June/July 1971, New Gods #3 explored metaphysics and the unknowable. Dwelling in spaces far beyond the rational and mundane, New Gods are subject to forces beyond mortal understanding. One of them is the embodiment of cessation who personally calls for each of them as they perish. ‘Death is the Black Racer!’ opens with glorious, jovial innocent God of Illumination Lightray barely escaping his moment with the great shadow – thanks to coldly methodical Metron, but the close escape finds the cosmic force diverted and deposited on Earth. Throughout the overlapping clashes and conflicts there is undeniable indications that even gods are being moved and shaped by greater forces that have larger plans in motion. Thus the macabre soul collector inexplicably nests within the immobile form of paralysed Vietnam veteran Willie Walker, and – apparently inadvertently – derails a plot by Apokolips-backed mob Intergang to destroy all communications in Metropolis to create chaos and panic…

Elsewhere, having explored isolation versus community, introduced outside negation of free will and the concept of terror as addictive sustenance (Darkseid’s vile deputy DeSaad feasts on fear, pain and torture), Forever People #3 tackles head-on the saga’s core concepts. ‘Life vs. Anti-Life!’ probes conformity, personal freedoms, informed choices, organised bigotry and the tyranny of psychological and physical fascism as the wonder kids are tracked down by Justifiers: human zealots who willingly surrendered individual autonomy to what appears to be a televangelist telling them what they want to hear. Defeat doubt by surrendering to Anti-Life. It is Good to kill those who are better or weaker than you. I’m sure we’ve all dabbled with those notions…

Equipped with terrifying Apokolips weapons, Justifiers burn libraries, attack minorities and even drive the kids out of their tatty slum home and onto the attack, infiltrating Apokolyptian infiltrator/demagogue Glorious Godfrey’s appalling recruitment rally. Shockingly, when Infinity Man faces Darkseid, the devil defeats our mysterious angel and the traumatised kids are captured…

Still seeking his separate way Mister Miracle #3 opens a bravura double-issue imbroglio as Scott Free agrees to an honourable duel with dishonourable disembodied robot-wearing intelligence Doctor Bedlam. Darkseid’s war code is strict and binding and finds the escape artist challenged to make his way out of a packed 50-storey skyscraper. The problems comes because the edifice is sealed tight and every person inside it is a raving homicidal maniac thanks to mental murderer Bedlam’s administering of ‘The Paranoid Pill!’…

As stated before, Kirby’s Fourth World impacted other titles, particularly the Fourth Estate of Superman’s supporting cast. Here, crafted by Bob Kanigher, Werner Roth & Colletta, ‘The Dark Side of the Justice League!’ from Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #111 (July 1971) sees the feisty newsmaker targeted by a miniature, corrupted JLA grown by the Evil Factory. Turned into a unsuspecting bio-weapon to kill The Man of Steel, the plot fails as The Project had anticipated such a problem and provided Lane with what every girl needs: her own cloned well-armed protection force…

Forever People #4 then horrifically subverts the American Dream as theme park Happyland is revealed as ‘The Kingdom of the Damned’: a sprawling factory built to mass-produce terror by exploiting whimsy and fantasy. Here DeSaad torments countless human victims while others innocently see nothing but toys and robots dancing and playing for their pleasure. To this set-up the captive waifs of New Genesis are added as DeSaad feeds, but they have all underestimated the power of Mother Box who seeks aid and finds it in the form of zen wrestler ‘Sonny Sumo’…

At this juncture DC comic books expanded to 52 pages and as well as reprints, Kirby’s Korner ran short background vignettes. The lost history of the previous war of pantheons was filled in as here when ‘The Young Gods of Supertown Introducing Lonar’ finds a wandering historian picking through cosmic rubble on New Genesis and uncovering a living, breathing remnant of that cataclysmic conflict

This cliffhanger moment is somewhat offset by a trio of Forever People pinups: ‘The Super-Kids of the Century!’, ‘Beautiful Dreamer vs Darkseid!’ and ‘The Infinity Man…

Despite those promises of non-interference, DC editors and promotional staff perpetually sought to “goose up” Kirby’s flagship title. Always a team player, the King acquiesced to a guest-appearance by currently-hot comedian Don Rickles and oddly (in the manner of Marmite) it either worked uproariously or appalled readers. I thought it was a genuinely hilarious hoot. Further undercutting the narrative, the saga was bifurcated by a reprint 80-Page Giant of pre-Kirby Olsen escapades in SPJO #140 (not included here).

Nevertheless #139 & 141 (July’s ‘The Guardian Fights Again!!!’ and September’s ‘Will the Real Don Rickles Panic?’) comprise a compelling tale of Edge’s unfolding evil, Intergang’s growing influence and the creeping menace of Darkseid, as the tyrant allows his tech to be used to send Clark Kent into hyperspace destined for Apokolips whilst Jimmy and the Golden Guardian are poisoned by slow-acting incendiary Pyro-Granulate: a slow death that will turn them into human torches unless they find an antidote.

Slowing them down is equally doomed Galaxy Broadcasting staffer Goody Rickles whom Edge wants gone because he looks like the star Edge wants to sign up – and is really, really annoying…

The conclusion is compounded by text feature ‘The Newsboy Legion Returns’ by Evanier & Sherman and a Kirby self-portrait… before the last Mister Miracle inclusion (#4). As Oberon frets back at the Brown mansion, he is visited by another old friend of Scott’s. However, master warrior Big Barda is not out to assassinate the runaway. She seems more interested in his wellbeing and fate and teleports to the trap site in time to watch Mister Miracle deftly avoid ‘The Closing Jaws of Death!’ and humiliate another Apokolips monster. Barda is another abstention from the Apokolips method and a rowdy runaway like no other who will change Scott Free’s life forever in the next volume…

Extracted from Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #114, two brief pages by Kanigher, Roth & Colletta’s ‘The Foe of 100 Faces’ act as a set-up to ‘My Death… by Lois Lane!’ (SGFLL #115) wherein Morgan Edge attempts to kill his nosy top reporter as she closes in on his darkest secret and takes Superman with her. His biggest mistake, however, is attempting to suborn supernal force The Black Racer to do his dirty work…

With Kent, Lane and Superman reasonably safe, Kirby next addressed the rise in horror and supernatural tales via a 2-parter (reeler?) beginning in #142 with ‘The Man from Transilvane!’ Here, seemingly mystic vampire Count Dragorin and his wolfman assistant Lupek target and “turn” Edge’s PA Laura Conway in their desperate hunt for long-missing mad scientist Dabney Donovan. He was a planetologist who apparently built worlds in his secret laboratory and shaped entire civilisations by screening movies across their skies. Like all sensible scientists, Donovan planned to end his research project on a certain day and set up programmed measures involving his ‘Genocide Spray!’ (SPLO #143 ) with no consideration of the beings he had made and discarded… but Jimmy and Superman certainly did…

Elsewhere, the Newsboy Legion had their own case, one that again led to Intergang but also the thug who murdered the original Jim Harper/Guardian…

From SPJO #142, Kirby added short background-enhancing vignettes and here 2-pager ‘Strange Stories of the D.N.A. Project!! “Hairie” Secrets Revealed!!!’ offered a glimpse of the techno-hippies and their Mountain of Judgment, whilst the next issue added drama to fact-finding with ‘Strange Stories of the D.N.A. Project!! The Alien Thing!!!’ detailing the terrifying results of creating the first non-human clone…

To Be Continued…

DC Finest: Fourth World – When the Old Gods Die collects foundational chapters of Kirby’s legendary saga; a bold new cosmic playground for so many to forever build upon. Almost overnight and in one broad flourish, Kirby had created one of the most powerful concepts in comic book history. The Fourth World inserted a whole new mythology into the existing DC Universe and blew the developing minds of a generation of readers and especially those who would become the next generation of creators. Who knows what could have happened if the publishers had had a little more courage, patience and vision?
© 1970, 1971, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1917 Jack Kirby was born. Also on that date in 1917 pioneering Italian artist Aurelio Galleppini (Tex Willer, Occhio Cupo) arrived, sharing birthdays with Dell Barras (Savage Sword of Conan, Dark Angel, Deaths Head II, Web of Spider-Man) in 1957; colourist Pamela Rambo in 1968 and French ace Joann Sfar (Dungeon, The Rabbi’s Cat, Klezmer, Little Vampire) in 1971.

The great Frederick Burr (Happy Hooligan, And Her Name Was Maud, Alphonse and Gaston) died today in 1937, as did Belgian superstar Willy Vandersteen (Spike and Suzy, Bessy, De Rode Ridder) in 1990 and Dutch Master Bert Bus (Olaf Noord, Theban, de eerste wereldreiziger, Cliff Rendall, Stef Ardoba, Malorix, Russ Bender, Archie the Robot) in 2017.

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The Sandman by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby


By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, with Mike Royer & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2299-4 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In the early days of US comic books the fledgling industry was awash with chancers, double-dealers, slick operators and outright crooks. Many creative types fell foul of this publishing free-for-all but a rare few took to the cut and thrust and managed not only to survive but to prosper.

Just as the Golden Age of comics was beginning, two young men with big hopes met up and began a decades-long association that was always intensely creative, immensely productive and spectacularly in tune with popular tastes. They were Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, and gathered here are the joyous exploits of one of their greatest early comics collaborations…

Publisher Martin Goodman made Simon the editor of Timely comics S&K, created a host of iconic characters including Red Raven, Marvel Boy, The Vision, kid gang Young Allies and million-selling mega-hit Captain America. When Goodman failed to make good on his financial obligations, Simon & Kirby jumped ship to industry leader National/DC, who welcomed them with open arms and a big chequebook.

Initially an uncomfortable fit and bursting with ideas the cautious company were not comfortable with, they were handed two strips languishing in the doldrums to tide them over until they found their creative feet. Left to their own devices, they consolidated their Kid Gang genre innovation with The Newsboy Legion and their super-heroic mentor The Guardian, and a unique international army – The Boy Commandos – who shared a spotlight with Batman and Robin in Detective Comics (and whose own solo title became frequently the company’s third best seller during the war years).

Those moribund strips they were first unleashed upon featured big game hunter called Paul Kirk, Manhunter, who they overnight retooled as a darkly manic, vengeful superhero. The other was one of comic books’ first masked mystery-men: The Sandman.

This superb collection reprints all the S&K tales, including covers for issues they didn’t craft; lost art pages, original art reproductions as well as informative text articles from Kirby historian John Morrow and writer Mark Evanier. It even includes Simon & Kirby’s 1974 reunion reinvention of Sandman which in turn spawned one of Kirby’s last series for DC.

Created by Gardner Fox and first illustrated by Bert Christman, The Sandman premiered in either Adventure Comics #40 July 1939 (two months after Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27) or two weeks earlier in New York World’s Fair Comics 1939 – depending on whether some rather spotty distribution records can be believed.

Face utterly obscured by a gasmask, caped and business-suited millionaire adventurer Wesley Dodds wielded a sleeping-gas gun to battle a string of crooks and spies, accompanied by his paramour Dian Belmont, before gradually losing the readers’ interest and slipping from cover-spot to last feature in Adventure Comics, just as the cloaked pulp-hero avengers he emulated slipped from popularity in favour of more flamboyant fictional fare. Possessing a certain indefinable style, eerie charm but definitely no pizzazz, the feature was on the verge of being dropped when he abruptly switched to a skintight yellow and purple costume, complete with billowing cape. He also gained a teenaged sidekick in Sandy the Golden Boy (AC #69, December 1941, by Mort Weisinger & Paul Norris), presumably to move closer to the overwhelmingly successful Batman model.

It didn’t help much.

So, when Simon & Kirby came aboard with #72, the little banner above the logo on the Jack Burnley Starman cover gave no hint of the pulse-pounding change that had occurred. ‘Riddle of the Slave Market’ saw a sleek, dynamic pair of gleaming golden lions explode across 11 pages of graphic fury as the Sandman – sans daft cape – crushed a white collar criminal with a nasty line in illicit indentured servitude. Moreover, the hero had overnight acquired a unique gimmick: Sandman’s crusades against crime were presaged by the targeted perpetrator suffering nightmares of imminent retribution…

The semi-supernatural element and fascination with the world of dreams (revisited by S&K a decade later in their experimental suspense series The Strange World of Your Dreams) added conceptual punch to equal the kinetic fury of their art, and #73 (with S&K’s Manhunter now hogging the cover) Sandman strip ‘Bells of Madness!’ ramped up tension in another spectacular action epic wherein the Dream Warriors expose a cunning murder plot.

With AC #74 Sandman & Sandy took back the cover spot (only their third since #51), holding it until the feature ended. Only once did Sandman not appear on the cover – #99: another S&K Manhunter classic. From #103, the magazine underwent a complete overhaul with new feature Superboy headlining and with established regulars Green Arrow, Aquaman, Shining Knight and Johnny Quick parachuted in from other magazines.

The story for #74 was an eerie instant classic: ‘The Man Who Knew All the Answers’ was a smalltown professor who artificially increased his intellect – but not his ethics. When his perfectly planned crimes bring him into conflict with the heroes, it proves that his brain enhancer did nothing for common sense either. Then ‘The Villain From Valhalla!’ (AC #75 June 1942) pits the galvanic champions against a hammer-wielding Norse god and climaxing in a cataclysmic Battle Royale, followed by an equally astounding clash with sinister floral foe Nightshade. ‘The Adventure of the Magic Forest’ stemmed from World’s Finest Comics #6 (Summer 1942), one of two S&K exploits in that legendary anthology.

Sandman was a founding member of the Justice Society of America, appearing in many issues of All-Star Comics. A number of pertinent chapters therein were also generated by Joe & Jack, but are sadly not included in this otherwise comprehensive compendium: completists will need to track down the superb All-Star Archives volumes 4 & 5 or some of the new DC Finest Justice Society compilations for those dynamic classics.

Adventure #76 again heavily emphasised foreboding oneiric elements in ‘Mr. Noah Raids the Town!’ as a soothsaying mastermind unleashes preposterously intelligent animals to steal and kill, before #77’s ‘Dreams of Doom!’ finds an innocent man plagued by nightmares and compelled to solicit the aid of the Master of Dreams… and only just in time!

A sinister Swami is exposed in ‘The Miracle Maker!’ before their final World’s Finest guest-gig (#7, Fall 1942) dips heavily into exotic fantasy for ‘A Modern Arabian Nightmare!’ Adventure #79 then bangs the patriotic drum in eerie temporal-trap mystery ‘Footprints in the Sands of Time!’ It’s back to thrill-a-minute manic crime mayhem for #80’s ‘The Man Who Couldn’t Sleep!’ before ‘A Drama in Dreams’ presents a baffling conundrum for Sandy to solve alone, after which the creators indulge in some seasonal shocks in madcap Yule yarn ‘Santa Fronts for the Mob.’

AC #83 brought blockbusting boxing romance as the heroes aid ‘The Lady and the Champ!’ while including a gloriously over-the-top Boy Commandos ad featuring Hitler, Mussolini & Tojo as only Jack & Joe could defame them. Next comes gloriously Grand Guignol saga ‘Crime Carnival’ and delightfully wry romp ‘The Unholy Dreams of Gentleman Jack’, before S&K return to the favoured theme of childhood poverty in ‘The Boy Who Was Too Big for his Breeches.’

The war was progressing and soon both Joe & Jack would be full-time servicemen, so perhaps the increasingly humanistic tales of their latter run were only to be expected. The shift in emphasis certainly didn’t affect the quality of such gems as ‘I Hated the Sandman!’ in #87 wherein narcoleptic Silas Pettigrew learns a salutary lesson, or heartwarming, exuberant childhood fantasy ‘The Cruise of the Crescent’, whereas #89’s kidnap drama ‘Prisoner of his Dreams’ and the boisterous ‘Sleepy Time Crimes!’ proved that whatever else happened, action and excitement would always remain series watchwords.

In the months prior to their induction, Simon & Kirby went into overdrive, building a vast reserve of inventory stories for their strip commitments, but even so relentless publishing deadlines soon ate them up. Adventure Comics #91 featured the last S&K yarn for a year and a half, long after Kirby had shipped out to fight in Europe and Simon had begun his tour of duty with the US Coast Guard. ‘Courage a La Carte’ has precious little – if indeed any -Kirby art in it, but is nonetheless a sterling saga of malice unmasked and justice triumphant, after which only the covers of Adventure #92-97 kept the artist’s light burning in the heart of fans.

The star creators returned for issue #100 (October/November 1945) with tempestuous crime caper ‘Sweets for Swag!’, the cover of #101 and again inside #102 with swansong drama ‘The Dream of Peter Green!’, with Sandman & Sandy exposing shoddy dealings in the city contracting department before ensuring ghetto kids had decent playgrounds to grow fit and healthy in.

National Comics was no longer a welcoming place for the reunited duo. By 1947 S&K had formed their own studio, beginning a long, productive relationship with Harvey Comics (Stuntman, Boy’s Ranch, Captain 3-D, Lancelot Strong: The Shield, The Fly, The Three Rocketeers and others) whilst creating a stunning variety of genre features for Crestwood/ Pines (all supplied by their Essankay/Mainline studio shop). These included Justice Traps the Guilty, Black Magic, Fighting American, Bullseye, Foxhole and landmark innovation Young Romance amongst many more (see the superb Best of Simon and Kirby for a salient selection of these classic creations).

As comics went through bad times the pair eventually went their separate ways, but were reunited for one last hurrah in 1974 whilst both working once more for DC. The result was a re-imagined Sandman: this time a fully fantastic scientific master of the metaphysical, policing the nightmares of humanity from a citadel deep in “The Dream-Stream”.

‘The Sandman’ (scripted by Joe, drawn/edited by Jack & inked by Mike Royer) is pure escapist delight, describing how young Jed Paulsen taps into the oneiric horrors of villainous cybrid General Electric as he attempts to conquer “the World of Our Dreams”. When all hope is exhausted, Jed is rescued and befriended by the omniscient Lord of Sleep and his ghastly assistants Brute & Glob…

This rambunctious romp is a great place to end our volume but since six further adventures of this Weaver of Dreams were completed (albeit with no Simon and varying degrees of Kirby) perhaps one day they too will make the jump to graphic novel immortality…

After decades of neglect the glorious wealth of Kirby material available these days is a true testament to his influence and legacy, so this magnificent collection of his collaborations with fellow pioneer Joe Simon is a gigantic box of delights perfectly illustrating the depth, scope and sheer thundering joy of the early days of comics: something no amount of corporate shoddy behaviour can ever diminish. Maybe it’s time to systematically rerelease it and all the rest of these dream ticket items?
© 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1974, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1905 Nancy cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller was born, sharing natal honours with Alfredo Alcala (Voltar, Kong the Untamed, The Rampaging Hulk, Savage Sword of Conan, Swamp Thing) in 1925; Malaysian cartoonist Rejabhad (Periwira Mat Gila) in 1939; inker Terry Austin, (Detective Comics, X-Men, Superman Adventures, Popeye) in 1952 and Canadian illustrator Chris Bachalo (Uncanny X-Men, Generation X, Death, Shade the Changing Man, Doctor Strange) in 1965.

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Showcase Presents the Unknown Soldier volume 2


By David Michelinie, Bob Haney, Robert Kanigher, Gerry Conway, Gerry Talaoc, Dick Ayers, Joe Kubert, Romeo Tanghal & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4081-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Whereas the Britain comics scene has never relinquished its fascination with war stories, in America after the demise of EC Comics in the mid-1950’s and prior to the game-changing Blazing Combat, the only certain place to find controversial, challenging and entertaining American combat comics was DC.

In fact, even whilst Archie Goodwin’s stunning but tragically mis-marketed quartet of classics were waking up a small section of the current generation, the home of Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman was a veritable cornucopia of gritty, intriguing and beautifully illustrated battle tales exploring combat on a variety of fronts and from many differing points of view. Whilst the Vietnam War escalated, 1960s America increasingly endured a Home Front death-struggle pitting deeply-ingrained Establishment societal attitudes against a youth-oriented generation with radical new sensibilities. In response, DC’s (or rather National Periodical Publishing, as it then was) military-themed comic books became even more bold and innovative.

That stellar and challenging creative period came to an end as all strip trends do, but a few of the more impressive and popular features (Sgt. Rock, Haunted Tank, The Losers) survived well into the second superhero revival. One of the most engaging wartime wonders was a compelling espionage thriller starring a faceless, nameless hero perpetually in the right place at the right time, ready, willing and so very able to turn the tide one battle at a time. He was also the one most fitted to survive into DC’s post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity and has returned countless times since…

This second moody monochrome paperback compendium (still criminally unavailable in digital formats, as are far too many non-superhero, horror or sci fi tales) collects the lead feature from issues #189-204 of the truly venerable Star-Spangled War Stories anthology title (cover-dated July 1975 to March 1977) and thereafter #205-226 (May 1977 – April 1979) of the abruptly re-titled Unknown Soldier from when the “Immortal G.I.” finally took over the book in name as well as fact.

One of the very best concepts ever devised for war stories, The Unknown Soldier was actually a spin-off, having debuted as a walk-on in a Sgt. Rock episode by Robert Kanigher & Joe Kubert in Our Army at War #168 (June 1966, by). By 1970, the top flight illustrator had become group editor of DC’s war titles and was looking for a new cover/lead character to follow the critically acclaimed Enemy Ace who had been summarily bounced to the back of the book after issue #150. This new series would feature a faceless superspy and master-of-disguise whose forebears had proudly fought and died in every American conflict since the birth of the nation…

As previously stated, the strip became one of DC’s most popular and long-lived. With #205 in 1977, Star-Spangled became Unknown Soldier and the comic only folded in 1982 (issue #268) when sales of traditional comic books were in harsh decline. Since then the character has resurfaced a number of times (12 issue miniseries in 1988-9, a 4-part Vertigo tale in 1997 followed by a rebooted ongoing series in 2008, and again in 2011 as part of the company’s “New 52” mega reboot): each iteration moving further and further way from the originating concept. There have been more since, and there will be further bulletins as events warrant…

One intriguing factor of the initial tales is that there was very little internal chronology: for most of the run individual adventures take place anytime and anywhere between the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the surrenders of Germany and Japan. This picaresque approach adds a powerful sense of both timelessness and infallible, unflinching continuity. The Unknown Soldier has always and will always be where he is needed most.

As seen in the previous Showcase volume, his full origin was revealed in Star-Spangled War Stories #154’s ‘I’ll Never Die!’: recounting how two inseparable brothers enlisted in the days before the US was attacked by Japan. They were posted together to the Philippines just as the Japanese began their seemingly unstoppable Pacific Campaign. Overwhelmed by a tidal wave of enemy soldiers one night, the brothers held their jungle posts to the last. When relief came, only one had survived, his face a tattered mess of raw flesh and bone…

As US forces retreated from the islands the shattered survivor was evacuated to a state-side hospital. Refusing medals, honours or retirement, the recuperating warrior dedicated his remaining years to his lost brother Harry and determinedly retrained as a one man-army intelligence unit. His unsalvageable face swathed in bandages, the nameless fighter learned the arts of makeup, disguise and mimicry and perfected a broad arsenal of fighting skills before offering himself to the State Department as an expendable resource who could go anywhere and would do anything…

After a long run of spectacular stories by numerous stellar creators, shifting fashions eventually provoked a shift in emphasis. Relative neophytes David Michelinie & Gerry Talaoc came aboard with Star-Spangled War Stories #183, resulting in an evocative change of direction. The horror boom in comics was at its peak in 1974 and incoming editor Joe Orlando capitalised on that fascination with a few startling modifications. The most controversial was to reveal the Soldier’s grotesque, scar-ravaged face – presumably to draw in monster-hungry fear fans.

In this volume that military macabre mood resumes with Michelinie & Talaoc on fine form and well dug-in as the Man Without a Face is despatched to discover the secrets of the ‘The Cadaver Gap Massacres’ (SSWS #189). What he finds as Nazi officer “Major Wollheim” is a deathcamp where prisoners are guinea pigs for making and testing experimental atrocity weapons… and monsters. Before long he falls foul of a repentant, guilt-riddled scientist whose loyalties ultimately are only to money. The ghastly discoveries of ‘Project: Omega’ lead to a cataclysmic clash with uncontrollable beast-men and the salvation of the only true innocent in the capacious modern hellscape…

Issue #191 delivered ‘Decision at Volstadt’ as the rapidly retreating superspy encounters rabid resistance fighters, merciless “Hitler Youth” zealots and fanatical Lt. Strada, who had already lost far too much to the Immortal G.I. Captured by his Italian nemesis, but unrepentant and resolute, The Soldier takes the ‘Vendetta’ to its inescapable conclusion and the private war ends the only way it could have in SSWS #192. Gerry Conway scripted ‘Save the Children!’ in #193, detailing how a mission to blow up a train carrying generals directing the war on the Eastern Front gets sidetracked and goes horribly wrong after the phantom fighter finds his targets’ families have come along for the ride, before Michelinie returns to investigate ‘The Survival Syndrome’. Here, penetration of a high-tech Nazi communications complex hidden in a French village shows the wary warrior the true cost of a having a quisling in the family…

Star-Spangled War Stories #195 debuted ‘The Deathmasters’ as the Unknown Soldier infiltrates a Nazi assassination school and find himself assigned to murder one of the Allies’ greatest assets in war-torn Odessa in #196’s ‘Target Red’. Conning everyone into believing he’s succeeded, the Soldier then returns to Germany to scotch a scheme to replace key Allied personnel with Nazi doppelgangers. All it costs to quash that project is the life of an innocent girl and a little bit more of his soul…

The war in North Africa is almost over in #197, but the master of disguise is nevertheless dispatched to destroy German anti-tank airplane prototypes in ‘The Henschel Gambit’. Typically though, he is intercepted by Arab raiders led by a US Senator’s maverick daughter and is again forced to choose between his mission and innocent lives. Thereafter, thanks to Nazi counterintelligence manoeuvrings, the Immortal G.I. is tricked into killing the Allies’ top strategist in ‘Traitor!’

Court martialled and sentenced to death, he escapes and retraces his steps, seeking a witness to his innocence in #199’s ‘The Crime of Sgt. Schepke’. En route, he encounters a Maquis (French & Belgian resistance fighters) legend – and one of DC’s earliest women to carry their own solo feature. Mlle Marie is less than welcoming and soon events spiral completely beyond his control. The Faceless Man has no choice but to sacrifice her entire resistance unit to destroy a new superweapon in the concluding chapter ‘Deathride’, and although Marie honours her promise and clears his name, she also swears to kill him for expending her comrades like pawns…

The scene switches to New York City for SSWS #201 as the Soldier engages in ‘The Back-Alley War’: infiltrating a gang of German-American anti-war isolationists in search of saboteurs and spies, and he’s in Italy for #202, where an outbreak of typhus is holding up the war. His task is to find a downed US plane carrying an experimental counter serum, but his infiltration of a Nazi hospital seems to indicate that neither side has found ‘The Cure’…

Issue #203 sees the master-spy reduced to teaching arrogant, unstable English aristocrat-with-royal-connections Richard Ebbington all the tricks of his deadly craft, only to be subsequently – and far too late – ordered by the top brass to stop his unstable pupil from fulfilling his first murder mission. Somebody up top forgot to tell somebody in the middle that Ebbington’s target is a German general planning to assassinate Hitler, so the Unknown Soldier is forced to stop his protégé’s ‘Curtain Call’…

After 36 years of gloriously variegated publication, Star-Spangled War Stories ended with #204 as prior scripter Bob Haney and veteran war artist Dick Ayers joined Talaoc for ‘The Unknown Soldier Must Die!’, wherein old ally Chat Noir (an African-American sergeant who rejected institutionalised racism and deserted the US Army to join the French Resistance) is captured by the Nazis and brainwashed into becoming their secret weapon against the Immortal G.I. Cover-dated May 1977 the first Unknown Soldier (#205) places history’s lynchpin at the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944. Whilst expanding on his origins ‘Legends Never Die!’ also proves once more that the right man in the right place at the right time can change the course of destiny. ‘Glory Gambit!’ then begins an extended campaign as Adolf Hitler himself unleashes the Wehrmacht’s answer to the Unknown Soldier. His Black Knight is Count Klaus von Stauffen: the chess-obsessed SS officer who captured and brainwashed Chat Noir. The fascist fanatic is now making his way into the heart of England with but one mission…

The hunt for the merciless master of disguise and doom continues throughout London in #207’s ‘Kill the King!’, before the scene again shifts, dumping the Soldier in North Africa in 1942 to rehabilitate a trio of deserters in ‘Coward, Take my Hand!’ US #209 takes us to the Pacific in 1945 and a personal duel with a Japanese prison camp torturer whose attempts to break the scarred superspy result in defeat, death and ‘Tattered Glory!’ on a blood-drenched rock called Iwo Jima…

In US #210 the Man of Many Faces invades a Nazi fortress by impersonating a specialist interrogator. He has been ordered to rescue or kill America’s most important agent in ‘Sparrows Can’t Sing!’, after which issue #211 reprints a classic Haney & Kubert tale from Star-Spangled War Stories #159 wherein George S. Patton became the thinly-veiled basis for ‘Man of War’, with the Combat Chameleon dispatched to investigate a charismatic general who had pushed his own troops to the brink of mutiny…

An experimental surgical operation traps the G.I. behind the wrong face on the wrong side of the German lines in #212, where he encounters Hitler’s fanatical schoolboy “Werewolf” killer-elite and becomes in turn ‘The Traitor in Wolf’s Clothing!’ The shocking theme was further explored in #213 as The Soldier must extract from the Fatherland the son of a scientist vital to the war effort. Sadly, ‘The Ten-Year-Old Secret Weapon!’ has fully embraced every facet of life in the Hitler Youth and fights his would-be rescuer every step of the way…

Kanigher wrote and Romeo Tanghal inked the Ayers illustrated ‘Deadly Reunion!’ of #214 as, in the guise of an elderly Jew, The Soldier allows himself to be taken to a deathcamp in order to liberate high profile captive Mlle. Marie. She isn’t at all grateful…

Haney, Ayers & Talaoc reunite in #215 as the faceless fury replaces a sailor in the merchant marine to expose a traitor selling out convoy freighters to U-boats haunting ‘The Savage Sea!’, after which ‘Taps at Arlington!’ (art by Ayers & Tanghal) sees Chat Noir confront American racism whilst the Soldier exposes a spy painting a bullseye on the backs of troops in Italy…

In #217 the Faceless Man becomes Hermann Goering’s chief supplier of stolen paintings in ‘Dictators Never Sleep!’ The plan was to give the infamous art lover a Rembrandt primed to explode when Hitler stood in front of it; and it would have worked if Klaus von Stauffen hadn’t been present. With Black Knight hot on his heels, the frustrated phantom warrior is harried across Europe in ‘The Unknown Soldier Must Die!’, only stopping briefly to destroy a V2 base and have another shot at Der Fuehrer before experiencing ‘Slaughter in Hell!’ (inked by Tanghal) as von Stauffen turns the tables by impersonating his archfoe in a bid to murder Winston Churchill and General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

He would have succeeded if not for the Immortal G.I.’s strategic cunning…

US #220 by Haney, Ayers &Talaoc sees the Soldier organise a band of renegades and maverick warriors from many Nazi-controlled countries into a daring-but-doomed foreign legion dubbed ‘The Rubber Band Heroes’, after which ‘Sunset for a Samurai!’ finds him on a suicide mission to the heart of Japan to save an undercover agent crucial to the American forces. Unknown Soldier #222 promised ‘No Exit from Stalag 19!’ when the unsung hero was ordered to extract a military boffin from the heart of Fortress Europa in a wryly trenchant riff on The Bridge on the River Kwai, whilst in #223, ‘Mission: Incredible!’ (Ayers & Tanghal) details the convoluted course of a plan to destroy a Heavy Water plant in the snow-capped mountains of Norway.

The Soldier and Chat Noir reunited in #224 to investigate a dead zone where Allied bombers vanish without trace, only to find barbaric military madness running wild in ‘Welcome to Valhalla!’, after which the Immortal G.I. must arrest a charismatic general for treason in ‘Four Stars to Armageddon!’ (Ayers & Talaoc) before uncovering the astounding truth behind his supposed betrayals. The military madness lurches to a bloody halt with #226 as Chat Noir and his faceless comrade do what entire flotillas of Navy vessels could not. Using guile and subterfuge they board the Nazi’s unbeatable dreadnaught and ‘Sink the Kronhorst!’…

Dark, powerful, moving and overwhelmingly ingenious, The Unknown Soldier is a magnificent addition to the ranks of extraordinary-but-mortal warriors in an industry far too heavy with implausibly incredible heroes. These tales will appeal to not just comics readers but all fans of adventure fiction.

Perfect for revival in the DC Finest format, I think…
© 1975-1979, 2014 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

Today in 1922, Golden Age artist Joey Cavallo (Crack Comics) was born, sharing the date with cartoonist Al Scaduto (They’ll Do It Every Time, Little Iodine) in 1928; editor K.C. Carlson in 1956, writer/artists Phil Jimenez (Wonder Woman, Teen Titans, Astonishing X-Men, Infinite Crisis, The Invisibles) in 1971 and Brad Walker (Guardians of the Galaxy, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Manhunter, Birds of Prey, Nightwing) in 1977.

Al Capp & Raeburn van Buren’s Abbie an’ Slats debuted today in 1937 as did Brooke McEldowney’s domestic epic 9 Chickweed Lane strip in 1993. The date also saw the loss of two staggering talents: Argentinian illustrator Jorge Zaffino (Nippur de Lagash, Winter World, Terror Inc., The Punisher, Shadowline saga) in 2002 and Sam Glanzman (Kona, The Haunted Tank, USS Stevens, Hercules, The Lonely War of Willy Schultz, A Sailor’s Story, Red Range) in 2017.

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DC Finest: Deadman – How Many Times Can a Guy Die?


By Arnold Drake, Neal Adams, Jack Miller, Bob Haney, Robert Kanigher, Dennis O’Neil, Mike Friedrich, Jack Kirby, Paul Levitz, Cary Bates, Carmine Infantino, Dick Dillin, George Tuska, Jim Aparo, Mike Grell, Fred Carillo, Kurt Schaffenberger, George Roussos, Joe Giella, Mike Royer, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-771-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As the 1960s ended, a massive superhero boom became a slow, inescapable bust, with (formerly) major draws no longer able to find enough readers to keep them alive. The appetite for superheroes was diminishing in favour of more traditional genres, and rational editorial response was to reshape costumed characters to fit evolving contemporary tastes.

Publishers swiftly changed gears and even staid, cautious DC reacted rapidly to make masked adventurers fit the new reality. Newly revised and revived costumed features included roving mystic troubleshooter Phantom Stranger and golden age titan The Spectre, whilst resurgent traditional genres spawned atrocity-faced WWII spy Unknown Soldier and cowboy bounty hunter Jonah Hex, spectral western avenger El Diablo and game changing monster hero Swamp Thing, all spearheading a torrent of new formats, anthologies and concepts.

Crucially, supernatural themes and horror-tinged plots were shoehorned into those superhero titles that weathered the trend-storm. Arguably, the moment of surrender and change had already arrived in 1967 with the creation of Boston Brand in the autumn of “The Summer of Love”, as venerable sci fi anthology Strange Adventures was abruptly reconditioned as the haunted home of an angry ghost…

Without fanfare or warning, Deadman debuted in #205 with this collection re-presenting that origin event and thereafter, pertinent contents from #206-216 and crossovers and guest shots from Aquaman #50-52; The Brave and the Bold #79, 86, 104, 133, Justice League of America #94; The Phantom Stranger #33, 39-41; World’s Finest Comics #223 & 227, Challengers of the Unknown #74; Forever People #9-10 and Superman Family #183, all cumulatively spanning cover-dates October 1967 to May/June 1977.

Crafted by Arnold Drake, Carmine Infantino & George Roussos, SA #205’s ‘Who Has Been Lying in My Grave?’ opens at the funeral of high wire acrobat Boston Brand: a rough, tough, jaded performer who had seen everything and masked his decent human heart behind an obnoxious exterior and cynical demeanour. As “Deadman”, Brand had been the star attraction of Hills Circus and lover of its reluctant owner Lorna Carling. He also acted as a secret guardian for the misfits it employed and sheltered. That makeshift “family” includes simple-minded strongman Tiny and Asian mystic Vashnu, but also had some bad eggs too, like alcoholic animal trainer Heldrich and chiselling carnival Barker Leary. The aerialist kept them in line… with his fists, whenever necessary…

One fateful night, Brand almost missed his cue because of Leary and Heldrich’ antics, but also because he had to stop local cop Ramsey harassing Vashnu. It would have better if Brand had been late, because as soon as he started his act – 40 feet up and without a net – someone put a rifle slug into his heart. Despite being dead before he hit the ground, Brand was scared and furious. Nobody could see or hear him screaming, although Vashnu kept babbling on that he was the chosen of Rama Kushna – “the spirit of the universe”. The hokum all came horribly true when that entity astonishingly made contact, telling Boston that he would walk among men until he found his killer.

The gig came with some advantages. He was invisible, untouchable, immune to the laws of physics and able to take possession of the living and drive them like a meat car. His only clue was witnesses in the audience who claimed that a man with a hook had shot him…

Outraged, still disbelieving and seemingly stuck forever in the ghastly make-up and outfit of his performing persona, Deadman’s first posthumous act is to possess Tiny and check out key suspects. Soon the dormant Hercules finds that the cop Ramsey and Heydrich are involved in a criminal conspiracy, but they definitely are not Brand’s murderers. Eventually, the ghost learns a shocking fact: his desperation is not worth the life of anyone else and he must not let his anger put his “vessels” in harm’s way…

Scripted by Drake and inked by Roussos, second episode ‘An Eye for An Eye!’ was Neal Adams’ illustrative debut. He was born on June 15th 1941 at Governors Island, New York City. The family were career military and Neal grew up on bases across the world. In the late 1950s, he studied at the High School of Industrial Art in Manhattan, and graduated in 1959.

As the turbulent Sixties began, he was a budding illustrator working in advertising, ghosting newspaper strips and seeking to break into comics. Whilst pursuing a career in “real” and “commercial” art, Adams did pages for Joe Simon at Archie Comics (The Fly and that red-headed kid, too) before becoming one of the youngest artists to co-create/illustrate a major licensed newspaper strip (Ben Casey, based on a popular TV medical drama). The neophyte’s attempts to break in at DC were not so successful…

Comic book fascination never faded, and as the decade progressed, Adams drifted back to National/DC, creating covers as inker or penciller. His chance came via anthological war comics and he eventually found himself at the vanguard of a revolution in pictorial storytelling. He made such a mark that decades later, DC celebrated his contributions by reprinting every piece of work Adams ever did for them in commemorative collections. Sadly, we’re still awaiting a definitive book of his horror comics and covers, and will probably never see his sterling efforts on licensed titles like Hot Wheels, The Adventures of Bob Hope and The Adventures of Jerry Lewis. That’s a real shame: they all display his wry facility for gag staging and personal drama…

Most importantly, Adams was a tireless campaigner for creators’ rights, whose efforts finally secured some long-ignored liberties and rewards for the formerly invisible stars of comic books.

Back with Deadman, however, the tale is a strong one and indicates a sea change in narrative style as Deadman expedites his hunt for justice. The stories henceforth focus on those who are temporarily occupied by Brand: a string of episodic encounters mirroring the protagonist of contemporary hit TV show The Fugitive (and by extension, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables), with an unfairly accused victim searching for personal justice across America, to the benefit of many people in crisis.

Here, that’s young Jeff  Carling, who’s fallen in with a dangerous biker gang and is set up to pay for their crimes. He’s also Lorna’s brother, which is how Deadman gets involved in the mess, after learning the cash-strapped kid had taken out a life insurance policy on circus star Deadman just before the Hook struck…

Having saved the kid from a perfect frame, Brand resumes his search and, as Jack Miller took over scripting in #207, is forced to ask ‘What Makes a Corpse Cry? The hunt leads him to revisit the night he saved bar girl Liz Martin from a drunken assault by her boss Rocky Manzel, but when the spook checks in, he finds Liz and boyfriend Paul being terrorised by Rocky, who coldly implies he caused the death of her last protector…

Even after using his ghost gifts to disqualify Manzel, Deadman is compelled to help the young lovers, and exposes the club owner’s criminal secret, but once again almost causes the death of his human host.

Miller & Adams were providing a very different reading experience with mature tales delivered via innovative, staggeringly powerful art, but they struggled with deadlines, and ‘How Many Ways Can a Guy Die?’ was delivered in 4 parts across Strange Adventures #208 and 209. The revelatory tale introduces Brand’s trapeze artist rival Eagle, who had tried to kill him years before, and now seeks to replace him in the big top and Lorna’s bed… whether she wants him or not. When Deadman again borrows Tiny to dissuade the thug, Eagle threatens the gentle strongman with the “same thing Brand got” and the ghost is convinced his quest is almost over.

However, the truth is far crueller, and when Deadman uncovers his rival’s actual scheme, the cost to Tiny and alternate vessel Pete is far too high…

His hunt stalled again, Brand finally thinks to check the official police investigation in #210’s ‘Hide and Seek’ (cover-dated March 1968). To his disgust, he finds the case is cold, with assigned detective Michael Riley dishonourably discharged from the force due to the testimony of a man with a hook. Sensing a breakthrough, Deadman possesses Riley and, visiting the other “witness” to the former cop’s reported use of excessive force, uncovers a devious plot. Sadly, despite clearing Riley’s name, Brand misses The Hook who flees to Mexico but not before coldly disposing of the only man who could describe him…

Hot on the trail, Deadman arrives in El Campo in #211, and endures a shocking surprise in ‘How Close to Me My Killer?’ as Miller’s last story introduces wayward twin brother Cleveland Brand. Flashbacks show the lost sibling had plenty of motive to murder his showbiz brother, but as the tale unfolds, Boston learns he has an unsuspected niece and his people-trafficking but repentant brother needs haunted help to save smuggled “wetback” labourers from a Texan businessman looking to whitewash his criminal endeavours…

Adams took over scripting with #212 and ‘The Fatal Call of Vengeance’ sees another change of direction, adding more conventional fantasy elements to the mix as Cleveland and his daughter Lita head north to the Hills Circus. Wearing his brother’s costume, Cleve revives the Deadman act and, in Mexico, a man with a hook sees a headline and rushes back to the USA. Faster than any jet, Boston is already there and watches helplessly as his brother makes himself a target of the unknown killer. The phantom is also completely spooked by new lion tamer Kleigman who is rude, unfriendly and missing his right hand…

With everyone at odds, both Boston’s returned killer and the circus family set traps with disastrous results, but in the end the Hook escapes again and it’s Tiny who’s left bleeding out from a gunshot…

‘The Call from Beyond!’ then tests Deadman’s abilities to the limit as he enters Tiny’s consciousness to expedite his recovery and break an assumed-fatal coma. Following that miracle, the restless revenant repays his debt by saving the reputation and life of Tiny’s surgeon Dr. Shasti after the medical savant is duped by murderous con artist/medium Madam Pegeen…

The afterlife of a reluctant and selfish spectral stalwart then continues in The Brave & Bold #79 (August/September 1968): heralding Adams’ assumption of interior art duties on that title and launching a groundbreaking run rewriting the rulebook for strip illustration. Penned by Bob Haney, ‘The Track of the Hook’ paired the Gotham Guardian with the justice-obsessed ghost as a false trail led Boston to Gotham. After clearing up the confusions and dethroning millionaire crime-lord Carleton “Kubla” Kaine, Deadman returned to finding own killer. However his earthy human tragedy elevated Batman’s costume theatrics into deeper, more mature realms of drama and action. It was probably mainstream superhero fandom’s first glimpse of the ghost. During this period, Adams was writing and illustrating Brand’s solo stories in Strange Adventures and although his consultation of the World’s Greatest Detective bore little useful progress, it had provided the lonely ghost with a first genuine point of human contact…

Back in Strange Adventures # 214 (cover-dated September/October 1968), Robert Kanigher scripted To Haunt a Killer’ as Brand is seduced by loneliness into sharing the romantic experiences of Phil and his girlfriend Ruth. That salacious intrusion sours once Brand discovers his new meat suit is a hitman and his overreaction almost costs innocent Ruth everything…

When Adams returns to full control in #215, the narrative arc takes a huge leap forward as ‘A New Lease on Death’ accidentally drops his killer right in his lap. Witnessing a murder, Deadman trails the shooter all the way to Hong Kong where he finds an ancient, super-advanced League of Assassins and discovers the truly trivial reason for his own extinction…

Furiously questioning ‘Can Vengeance Be So Hollow?’, Brand meets for the first time killer mystic The Sensei – a master murderer who has dealt with ghosts before – and helplessly, frustratingly, experiences the end of the Hook. When the sinister sage executes Boston’s death-long quarry, Rama Kushna asks if a balance has been struck and capitalises on Brand’s furious negative response. Brand demands true justice for everyone and inadvertently elects himself the agent of its enactment in ‘But I Still Exist’…

The drama abruptly concluded in Strange Adventures #216 (January/February 1969), as the grim ghost seeks to disrupt the Sensei’s next scheme: the violent erasure of a Tibetan spiritual paradise. Nanda Parbat is a sanctuary for the wicked where the ancient villain’s murderous recruits and other fallen folk live in inexplicable peace, harmony and safety. Such a benevolent Shangri La is bad for the business of murder, but Deadman’s efforts to save the city from invasion initially falter when he flies in and suddenly becomes a living, breathing person again.

… And that’s where the story ended as his Strange Adventures run ended without warning. The next issue began reprints of Adam Strange and The Atomic Knights as the title reverted to its space opera roots. Although his own series had stalled, Deadman stuck around as a perennial walk-on (float-on?) star in many titles, beginning with a return engagement with Batman as the year ended. The Brave & the Bold #86 (October/November 1969) found Brand back in Gotham City, where a string of civilian strangers inexplicably targeted the Caped Crimebuster. The “World’s Greatest Detective” deduced that they were possessed by his former ally and that ‘You Can’t Hide from a Deadman!’

Scripted by Haney, the captivating epic of death, redemption and resurrection pulled together all the floating strands from Deadman’s anticlimactic last issue in a classic clash that became a cornerstone of Bat-mythology forever after. Here, Adams’ concepts and art revealed how Nanda Parbat was under attack by the Sensei’s forces, and how Brand had been briefly brainwashed to attack the Gotham Guardian, in advance of a last-ditch defence of the holy city by the Dark Knight and Deadman’s possessed twin brother Cleveland.

Deadman rematerialised mere months later in a triptych of back-up tales interwoven into a larger but no-less-revolutionary Aquaman storyline (for the full story see Aquaman: Deadly Waters Deluxe edition wherein the Sea King is despatched to a Microverse by aliens working with super villain Ocean Master: a plot accidentally uncovered by Brand, when guilt drags him from a life of solid recuperation back to the intangible quest for cosmic justice…

Here, from Aquaman #50-52 (March/April to July/August 1970), ‘Deadman Rides Again!’ in supplemental tales written and illustrated by Adams: a complex braided crossover as the Sea King endures bizarre threats and incomprehensible rituals in a subatomic realm, whilst Brand acts invisibly and intangibly to save the hero and prevent an alien invasion.

‘The World Cannot Wait for a Deadman’ sees the spirit flitting between dimensions with shapeshifting enigma Tatsinda, before parallel plots converge and complete when ‘Never Underestimate a Deadman’ exhibits the extraterrestrials beaten by the ghost and his pal…

Deadman’s haunting wandering dramas lead to another non-team-up in Challengers of the Unknown #74 (June/July 1970): a far eerier affair tailored to the rise in supernatural terror tales. ‘To Call a Deadman’ is written by Dennis O’Neil, with George Tuska limning scenes featuring the still-breathing “Death-Cheaters”, whilst Adams illustrated those portions focussed on Brand as he imperceptibly aids them in thwarting an ethereal psychic kidnapper seeking to steal a little girl’s soul. The chilling thriller also guest-stars hardboiled private eye Jonny Double and every one of them is needed to defeat the ghastly menace behind the astral abduction.

The same separate artist trick worked supremely well in his next manifestation as Justice League of America #94’s ‘Where Strikes Demonfang?’ by Mike Friedrich, Dick Dillin, Adams & Joe Giella, as the ghostly guardian helps Batman, Aquaman & Green Arrow foil a murder mission by The Sensei’s previously infallible archer Merlyn and the League of Assassins.

The period was one of constant desperate experimentation. Jack Kirby’s Fourth World was a huge risk and massive gamble for an industry and company that was a watchword for conservatism and it was probably incredibly tough for editors and publishers to stop themselves interfering… and they often didn’t.

With sales low, spooky stories proliferating everywhere and popular wisdom saying character crossovers boosted sales, Kirby eventually caved to pressure and agreed to guest another creator’s star in his stand-apart unfolding epic. Thus Forever People #9 hosted homeless horror hero Deadman who was made marginally manifest by a seance and a New Genesis Cosmic Cartridge. The vengeance hunter then accepted an artificial body to pursue the man who killed him (already dead remember?) in an intriguing, action-packed but ultimately ridiculous aside that began by introducing a ‘Monster in the Morgue!’ It rampaged through town before tech bandits ‘The Scavengers’ sought to steal Brand’s new “mobile home”, and drew the wrath of ghost and teen godlings. The yarn actually ended with a plug for Kirby’s forthcoming series The Demon and we don’t talk about the divergent yarn at all around here…

A far more coherent crossover came in Brave and the Bold #104 as Haney & Jim Aparo detailed a poignant story of love from beyond the grave in the enigmatically entitled ‘Second Chance for a Deadman?’ wherein the ghost helps Batman take down murderous mobster Lilly Lang, wrongly assuming he can redeem her only to learn that even a corpse can be crushed by heartbreak…

In World’s Finest Comics #223, while hunting a serial killer, Superman & Batman recruit Brand to help. Shocks abound when evidence points to the culprit being the brain-damaged, secretly institutionalised, unsuspected older brother of Bruce Wayne but when the total truth emerges in ‘Wipe the Blood off My Name’ (Haney, Dillin & Vince Colletta), the lonely, isolated ghost goes off the rails and decides to keep possession of Thomas Wayne Jr.

Batman has other ideas though…

Ignoring these events, Deadman then clashes with The Phantom Stranger (#33, November 1974 by Drake & Mike Grell) during the Man with No Name’s war against spiritual mad scientist Dr Zorn. In ‘Deadman’s Bluff!’, the ghost’s protracted, apparently obsessively pointless hunt for his own murderer is exploited by the villain and, as ever, the chase ends in frustration and fury, even though Zorn fails to spark war between the ethereal avengers, and instead causes an antagonistic partnership to be established for the future…

After months of manhunting, Batman’s search for Thomas Wayne culminates in ‘Death Flaunts its Golden Grin’ (World’s Finest Comics #227, February 1975 by Haney, Dillin & Tex Blaisdell), as the caped crusaders find the fugitives whilst tracking global smugglers. The moment of triumph is brief and ends in tragedy for all concerned, after which the guy in the hat gets reacquainted with the spectre in skin-tights for Phantom Stranger #39’s ‘Death Calls Twice for a Deadman’: a last-ditch effort to revive dwindling sales as horror stories faced their own decline. Guest-starring The Sensei, it signalled a belated return to the company’s over-arching continuity, but was too little, too late. Deadman also co-starred in PS #40’s ‘In the Kingdom of the Blind’ and #41’s concluding chapter (February-March 1976 and both by Levitz & Carillo) ‘A Time for Endings’ as modern mage Dr Nathan Seine sought to bring Elder Gods to Earth using blind psychic Cassandra Craft as a medium. With that tale’s finish the series ended and the Stranger all-but-vanished until the winter of 1978 and a giant-sized Deadman team-up tale from DC Super-Stars #18 that is regrettably omitted here…

Instead Deadman – and Haney & Aparo – remanifested in B&B #133 to deliver ‘Another Kind of Justice!’ to rum-runner Turk Bannion when his heir and murderer turn to a more modern form of smuggling and Dark Knight and Wandering Wraith object…

The uncanny explorations end on a lighter note as Cary Bates, Kurt Schaffenberger & Colletta explore uncanny excursions on ‘The Day Lois Lane Walked All Over Superman!’ (Superman Family #183, May June 1977) with Brand invisibly aiding all concerned when a deadly. monomaniacal psychic begins messing with mind-control and body-borrowing…

With stunning covers by Infantino, Sekowsky, Roussos, Adams, Nick Cardy, Aparo, Tatjana Wood, Kirby & Royer, this graphic grimoire perfectly captures the tone of an era in transition through a delirious run of comics masterpieces no ardent art lover or fanatical fear aficionado can do without.
© 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Born today in 1927, both Hugo (Sergeant Kirk, Ernie Pike, Corto Maltese) Pratt and Ross (Metal Men, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, The Punisher) Andru made major contributions to comics, as did animation historian, author, critic, and founding editor of Funnyworld Michael Barrier who arrived in 1940.

Today in 1941 Neal Adams (Batman, Superman, Deadman, X-Men, Avengers, Inhumans, Ms. Mystic) was born, followed four years later by iconoclastic author Don Macgregor (Sabre, Black Panther, Killraven, Morbius, Detectives Inc., Ragamuffins, Nathaniel Dusk, James Bond, Zorro); in 1955 by artist Brent Anderson (Ka-Zar the Savage, X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills, Astro City) and in 1976 Dustin Nguyen (Ascender, Descender, The Authority, Batman: Streets of Gotham, Batman: Lil Gotham).

In 1958 today Cliff Sterrett’s Polly and her Pals appeared for the last time, and in 1999 Scottish cartoonist and playwright John Glashan (Genius, Lilliput, The Spectator, Punch, Private Eye, The New Yorker) died this day.

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DC Finest: Superman – Time and Time Again


By Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, James D. Hudnall, Dave Hoover, Curt Swan, Bob McLeod, Kerry Gammill, Tom Grummett, Ed Hannigan, John Byrne, Brett Breeding, Dennis Janke, Art Thibert, Scott Hanna, José Marzan, Willie Blyberg & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-810-6 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In 1986, after almost 50 years, Superman was re-imagined after Crisis on Infinite Earths. Although controversial at the start, John Byrne’s reboot of the world’s first superhero was rapidly acknowledged as a solid hit and the collaborative teams who complemented and followed him maintained the high quality, ensuring continued success. Over following years a vast, interlocking saga unfolded across a spread of titles which has only sporadically – and far too infrequently – been collected into graphic compilations.

As part of the refit, many of his more miraculous abilities were discarded. Just like his earliest days, Superman was a far from omnipotent hero, more in touch with humanity because he wasn’t so very far above it. One thing that was abandoned was his casual ability to travel through time, and that was spectacularly addressed in a sequence of tales inside the greater unfolding story contained in this collection re-presenting the “Never-Ending Battle”. This time-twisting selection collectively transpires via cover-dates November 1990 through June 1991, gathering key intra-title storylines plus a couple of choice stand-alone solo stories from Action Comics #659-666, Adventures of Superman #472-479 and Superman #49-56, and a crossover component from Starman (volume 1 #28).

No sooner had the Byrne restart stripped away most of the accreted mythology and iconography that had grown around the Strange Visitor from Another World over five glorious decades, than successive teams employed a great deal of time and ingenuity putting much of it back, albeit in terms more accessible and agreeable to a cynical, well-informed audience far more sophisticated than their grandparents ever were.

One such was a notional tip of the hat to so many memorably madcap tales revolving around both an irritating 5th Dimensional Imp and the bizarrely mutagenic mineral from Krypton which peppered and perplexed the Silver Age Superman’s life. However, the story arc here also advanced two overarching plot threads that grew from the soap opera styled stories: the imminent demise of Lex Luthor due to self-inflicted Green K poisoning and a blossoming romance between Clark Kent and dynamic fellow journalist and friendly rival Lois Lane.

The compartmented saga opened in Superman volume 2, #49 with ‘Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite: Part One’ by Jerry Ordway & Dennis Janke, wherein Luthor, following the death of his only “ blood heir” (Perry White Jr.), ponders mortality in a cemetery until a talking red rock bops him on the back of his big, bald head. The incensed billionaire quickly stifles his outrage as the scarlet stone resolves into cruelly devious trickster-sprite Mr. Mxyzptlk. Despite being currently preoccupied with another realm, the malign mischief-maker sees a chance to manufacture more mayhem in Metropolis with the “Red Kryptonite” he has magicked up, and promises Lex it will make Man of Steel and mortal multi-billionaire “physical equals”…

Lex activates the rock expecting to gain the powers of a god – and just possibly a new lease on his rapidly expiring life – and is furious to realise he is still just human. However, across town Superman, having defeated bionic bandit Barrage, is transporting the supervillain to metahuman penitentiary Stryker’s Island when his powers vanish and he plunges into vilely polluted Hobs Bay.

Luthor cries foul and is again visited by Mxyzptlk who pettishly teleports the drowning Action Ace to Lex’s penthouse office where the evil industrialist can see what the spell has actually wrought. After a brutal and strictly human-scaled tussle, a badly beaten, powerless Superman is ejected from Luthor’s HQ and staggers back to Kent’s home where he finds Lois waiting. The normally resolute reporter is badly shaken: Lois’ mother is dying from an apparently fatal illness and Luthor is somehow responsible…

In Adventures of Superman #472, Dan Jurgens & Art Thibert’s ‘Clark Kent… Man of Steel!’ picks up the pace with our simply human hero about to be slaughtered by lethal lummox Mammoth. Kal-El is undergoing tests into the cause of his malady conducted by scientific advisor/confidante Emil Hamilton, but when news of the giant thief’s robbery spree reaches him Superman dashes off to assist, equipped only with a hastily configured force field belt. It’s not nearly enough. In the end wits, raw nerve and a simple bluff save the day, but with no solution in sight the Metropolis Marvel must admit he needs superhuman assistance if he is to survive, but at least on the domestic front his new fragility brings him closer to Lois…

With Roger Stern, Dave Hoover & Scott Hanna in creative mode, the scene switches to Arizona where a recent acquaintance gets a phone call before ‘Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite: Part Two/A: The End of a Legend?’ (Starman vol. 1 #28) sees Stellar Sentinel Will Payton flying to Metropolis for a top secret rendezvous. A sun in human form, Payton had re-energised the Kryptonian’s cells with solar power once before when Superman’s powers were drained, but this time the sun-bath has no effect and almost fries desperate Kal-El during the process. With crime spiking, Starman sticks around to keep the peace, using his shapeshifting powers to perfectly mimic the Man of Steel. He fools Luthor who, confronted by the somehow resurgent “Superman”, furiously throws the useless Red K at him…

With the mineral in Hamilton’s hands, stringent testing proves it is only red rock with no radioactive properties and Superman must think outside the box if he is to protect his city.

… And on Stryker’s Island, another old enemy is laying lethal plans to finally end the Man of Tomorrow…

Tension mounts in ‘Breakout!’ (Action Comics #659, Stern, Bob McLeod & Brett Breeding) as Superman resorts to high-tech battle armour when murderous science-maniac Thaddeus Killgrave frees the inmates and seizes control of Stryker’s, luring Starman-as-Superman into a deadly trap the neophyte hero cannot escape from. Meanwhile, in the highest corridors of financial power, Mxyzptlk personally briefs bewildered Luthor on what’s going on…

Brave but not stupid, Superman calls in back-up for his raid on the penitentiary. Whilst cloned champion Golden Guardian and street vigilante Crimebuster handle rank-&-file felons, the armoured Action Ace heads straight for Killgrave and a blistering confrontation which is only prelude to climactic concluding chapter ‘The Human Factor’.

Superman vol. 2, #50 was a giant special by Ordway & Janke with celebratory anniversary contributions from Byrne, Curt Swan, Kerry Gammill, Breeding & Jurgens, and opens with Clark unceremoniously ejected from Lexcorp Tower, only to stumble upon the billionaire’s personal physician Dr. Gretchen Kelly acting oddly…

Heading home, the powerless hero is saved from a mutant rat by Guardian and, after seeing Crimebuster thrashing street thugs, comes to a painful conclusion. Maybe Superman isn’t necessary any more. Maybe now he can have his own life and even ask Lois to marry him…

First though, there’s a unfinished business and a simple phone call to Luthor gets that ball rolling. Offering to trade the Red K for a story, Clark inadvertently causes Lex to break the terms of his pact with Mxyzptlk, thereby negating the whole power-sapping deal.

Ticked off, petulant and impatient to get back to mischief-making in another universe, the imp makes a personal appearance in monstrous form, but loads the battle in the fully restored Action Ace’s favour just to get out of his self-imposed arcane contract quickly… but not without an astounding amount of collateral damage to Metropolis…

With the crisis over, however, Superman has made a life changing decision. Following the red-tinged resumption of his super status, the Action Ace is joined by a brace of green guest stars in ‘Rings of Fire’ (Jurgens & Thibert in AoS #473). Even as Clark & Lois announce their engagement, Superman is fretting. Unable to tell his intended of his secret life, he is quickly distracted and drawn away when unconventional Green Lantern Guy Gardner hits town looking for missing mentor Hal Jordan. Earth’s “real GL” has been captured by a monolithic alien who has stolen his emerald energies to power a long-delayed return to the distant stars. Of course, implementing that departure will eradicate half of Wyoming…

Thwarting the scheme, freeing a mesmerised Army General and defeating the alien’s thralls Psi-phon & Dreadnaught, Superman and the GLs then craft a far less destructive solution for all parties involved…

In Action Comics #660, Stern, McLeod & Breeding detail the ‘Certain Death’ that ushers in the end of an era. For years Luthor has masqueraded as a billionaire philanthropist whilst dominating Metropolis, the world and the criminal Underworld. Few knew the unsavoury truth and the cunning villain kept Superman literally at arms-length by wearing a ring made from Green Kryptonite.

Previous and subsequent stories revealed Green K radiation had gradually poisoned Luthor, initially causing the loss of his hand and eventually fatally irradiating his entire body. Now as his power and vitality wane, Luthor – knowing that his pitiful condition must inevitably become public knowledge – puts a final desperate plan into operation. During a high profile publicity stunt attempting to set a new air-speed record, the manipulative mogul apparently commits suicide in a spectacular manner: an act of defiance which only marks the beginning of a stupendous 7-year long extended plotline to be seen and resolved elsewhere…

Here a measured preamble to the titular time-bending saga begins innocuously with Ordway & Dennis Janke’s introduction of ‘Mister Z!’ in Superman #51. When an apparent immortal arrives in town and dramatically adds the hero’s mind to his library of historical souls the magical marauder severely underestimates the champion’s strength of will. After dying in combat, he swears to return… Jurgens & Art Thibert then use Adventures of Superman #474 to reveal a life-changing moment in the life of highschooler Clark; an instant of irresponsibility once ended the life of a friend and saddled the hero-in-waiting with decades of crushing guilt. Now everything changes when he comes ‘Face to Face With Yesterday’…

Laughs and thrills in equal measure follow the arrival of Plastic Man & Woozy Winks in Action #661, as Stern, McLeod & Breeding reveal how those valiant but nauseating nitwits enlist Jimmy Olsen, punch-drunk recent lottery millionaire Bibbo Bibbowski and even Superman to save the city from techno mobsters Intergang by ‘Stretching a Point!’

In Superman #52, Ordway, Kerry Gammill & Janke address mounting environmental concerns by reintroducing violent eco-maverick Toby Manning who assures us ‘The Name, Pardners, is Terra-Man…’ before ruthlessly and murderously exposing the true cause of mass toxic contamination and targeting the businesses attempting to whitewash it all…

Courtesy of Jurgens & Thibert, a big guest star bust up fills AoS #475 with ‘Sleaze Factor’ after Intergang’s “Ugly” Bruno Mannheim hires Dr Killgrave and toymaker Winslow Schott to restore and improve debauched theme park Happyland. Only after Superman investigates the increasing number of disappearing visitors does the truth of Apokolyptian terror haunting the park emerge…

Over many years, Lois and Clark had grown beyond rivalry and distanced professionalism into true workplace romance, but always the hero kept his other identity from her. That all changed in Action Comics #662 (cover-dated February 1991 and by Stern & McLeod) as after the Man of Tomorrow narrowly defeated mystic predator Silver Banshee he decided that there would no more ‘Secrets in the Night’ ‘between him and his beloved…

With Lois still reeling from shock and sustained extended deception, Ordway & Janke used Superman #53 to question ‘Truth, Justice and the American Way’ as the Caped Kryptonian agrees to escort war criminal General Marlo of Qurac to his judicial come-uppance and consequently ferret out the US military traitors who supported him but now need him silenced…

Finally after months of preparation the main event opened with the modern hero lost to Earth just as Lois needed him most. Formerly he had been able to navigate the chronal corridors with ease, but this new Man of Tomorrow was trapped in a cataclysmic and volatile temporal warp, bounced around from era to era with his abilities constantly diminishing and utterly unable to regain his home and loved ones. The eponymous, epoch-rending epic launched in Adventures of Superman #476 as Jurgens & Breeding’s ‘The Linear Man’ saw a rogue (self-appointed) protector of the Time Stream seek to forcibly return temporal refugee-turned superhero Booster Gold to the 25th century he originated from. When Superman intervenes, the battle sparks a tremendous explosion, causing Kal-El to careen through time whenever he’s caught in another explosion. Initially that’s forward into a disaster-triggered team-up with the teenaged Legion of Super-Heroes…

Each “landing” leaves him in a significant period of Earth’s history, and when a fuel storage centre detonates Superman is blasted backwards arriving in Stern & McLeod’s ‘Lost in the ‘40s Tonight’ (Action #663). Temporarily blinded but stuck in a past he read deeply about, Superman seeks out WWII icons the Justice Society of America, precipitating a meeting with that era’s first mystery men before almighty wraith The Spectre transports him not home but to ‘The Warsaw Ghetto!’ Here he becomes a temporary saviour in a soon to be mythic battle saga by Ordway & Janke in Superman #54. Perversely ending that issue is an unconnected Newsboy Legion short by Karl Kesel wherein the cloned kids, Guardian and Dubbilex seek to save top secret Project Cadmus from the ‘Attack of the D.N.Alien’ and imminent nuclear doom…

Elsewhere in time, only gigantic explosions can launch Superman back into the time stream, and one such occurs in ‘Death Rekindled’ (AoS #477, Jurgens & Breeding) when a trip to the future introduces him to another, later iteration of the Legion needing help to destroy a monstrous Sun Eater. The cataclysmic detonation of that deadly duel deposits him ‘Many Long Years Ago’ (Action #664, Stern & McLeod) to end up a Jurassic castaway until a clash with similarly-marooned time thief Chronos propels him via smallish jumps into the Pleistocene and a chronologically adrift encounter with primordial alien race the H’v’ler’ni (AKA the Host). That tussle tosses him forward to ‘Camelot’ as the Dark Ages begin, battling valiantly but in vain beside eventual All-Star Squadron paladin and Seventh Soldier of Victory Sir Justin The Shining Knight (all-Ordway in Superman #55). That issue contains more Newsboy Legion antics from Kesel as ‘Blaze of Glory!’ sees the lads and “Kirby Kritter” Angry Charlie frustrate the plans of rogue geneticist Dabney Donovan and defer atomic armageddon…

In AoS #478, Jurgens & Breeding deposit Superman with another, later Legion of Super-Heroes to confront deranged, savagely murderous Daxamite Dev-Em (another escapee from the 20th century) in brutal blockbusting finale ‘Moon Rocked’ which resets the time-shenanigans and leads to Clark’s ultimate resolution and reunion with Lois in Action #665’s ‘Wake the Dead!’ by Stern, Tom Grummett & José Marzan, wherein that crucial catching up and calming down is ruined by voodoo villain Baron Sunday unleashing dead felons on the city…

A third and final Kesel Newsboy short ends Superman #56 with a poignant peek at ‘Charlie & Company’ at home, before which James Hudnall, Ed Hannigan & Willie Blyberg had begun one last continued saga. In ‘Red Glass Part One: Breaking Up’ the Action Ace encountered an eerie crystal on the Moon before returning to an Earth endangered by his increasing berserker rages. The catalogue of atrocities mounted in Adventures of Superman #479’s ‘Red Glass Part Two: Falling Apart’ before answers and restoration of the status quo concluded the crises (for now) in Action #666’s visually stunning but conceptually weak wrap-up ‘Red Glass Part Three: Picking Up the Pieces’…

With covers by Ordway, Jurgens, Thibert, Hoover, Gammill, Breeding, Janke, Grummett, Andy Kubert & Glenn Whitmore, this strictly print-only package comprises a hugely enjoyable saga that is highly readable and cheerfully accessible for both returning and first time fans. Thrilling, funny, action-packed and exquisitely entertaining: what more could dedicated Fights ‘n’ Tights followers want?
© 1990, 1991, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Born today in 1911, Golden Age letterer and colourist Pat Gordon made her husband Dick look even better on the page as Lora Sprang. She shared her natal day with For Better of For Worse cartoonist Lynn Johnston who arrived in 1947.

UK mega weekly Buster began its 40-year run today in 1960, closing in 2000 at which moment today Bringing Up Father ended the run begun by George McManus in 1913.

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Superman: The Man of Steel volume 3


By John Byrne, Jerry Ordway, Ron Frenz, Dan Jurgens, Jim Starlin, Arthur Adams, , Curt Swan, Karl Kesel, John Beatty, Brett Breeding, Dick Giordano, Steve Montano, Roy Richardson, Leonard Starr, Keith Williams & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0966-6 (HB), 978-1-7795-1378-6 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In 1985 when DC Comics rationalised, reconstructed and reinvigorated their continuity with Crisis on Infinite Earths they used the event to simultaneously regenerate key properties. The biggest gun they had was Superman and it’s hard to argue that change was not before time. The big guy was in a bit of a slump, but he’d weathered those before. So how could a root & branch retooling be anything but a pathetic marketing ploy that would alienate “real” fans for a few fly-by-night Johnny-come-latelies who would jump ship as soon as the next fad surfaced? The new Superman was going to suck…

They couldn’t have been more wrong.

It began with all Superman titles being “cancelled” (actually suspended) for three months, and yes, for the first time in decades, that did make real-world media sit-up and take notice of the character everybody thought they knew. However, there was method in this seeming corporate madness. The missing mainstays were replaced by a 6-part miniseries running from October to December 1986. Entitled Man of Steel, it was written and drawn by Marvel’s mainstream superstar John Byrne; fresh off a spectacular, groundbreaking run on Fantastic Four and inked by venerated veteran Dick Giordano. The bold manoeuvre was a huge and instant success. So much so that when first collected-as-a-stand-alone compilation album in 1991, it became one of comics’ premiere “break-out” hits in the new format that would eventually become the industry standard for reaching mass readerships. Nowadays few people buy the periodical pamphlets but almost everybody has read a Graphic Novel…

From that overwhelming relaunch the Action Ace seamlessly returned to his suspended comic book homes, enjoying the addition of a third monthly title that premiered that same month. Superman, Adventures of Superman, and Action Comics (which became a fan-pleasing team-up title guest-starring other favourites of the DC Universe, in the manner of the cancelled DC Comics Presents) were instant best-sellers. The back-to-basics approach lured many readers to – and, crucially back to – the Superman franchise, and the sheer quality of the stories and art convinced them to stay. Such cracking, clear-cut superhero exploits are a high point in the Man of Tomorrow’s near- nine decade career, and these collections are certainly the easiest way to enjoy one of the most impressive reinventions of a comic book icon.

So successful was the new look that by the early 1990’s Superman was carrying four monthly titles as well as numerous Specials, Annuals, guest shots and regular appearances in titles like Justice League – quite a turnaround from the earlier heydays of the Man of Steel when editors were frantic about never overexposing their meal-ticket. In Superman’s 85th year of more-or-less consecutive and continuous publication, a new sequence of collections brought Byrne & Co.’s tales to a new generation of fans, and at long last we’re getting around to plugging the third one…

This monumental compilation traces the Never-Ending Battle in unfolding, overlapping story order, not chronological release dates, spanning cover-dates October 1987 to May 1988, re-presenting Superman #12-15; Action #594-597; Adventures of Superman #436-438 and each title’s first Annual. Also included are crossover issue Booster Gold #23 and one-shot Superman: The Earth Stealers with relevant informative bio-pages from Who’s Who Update ‘87 #5 and Who’s Who Update ‘88 #2. Covers throughout are by Arthur Adams, Giordano, Ron Frenz, Brett Breeding, Dan Jurgens, Jim Starlin, Byrne and Jerry Ordway.

The magic kicks off with ‘Skeeter’, originally published in Action Comics Annual #1. A vampire shocker written by Byrne and illustrated by Art Adams & Dick Giordano, it plays out in the swamplands of Fayerville, South Carolina, with guest star Batman hunting a deceptively deadly bloodsucker before being forced to call in the biggest Big Gun he knows.

The brutal ending serves to underscore the big differences between the Post-Crisis Dark Knight and Man of Steel…

Next is a poignant updating of a Silver Age classic. ‘Tears for Titano’ (Byrne, Frenz & Breeding) first saw print in Superman Annual #1 cover-dated August 1987 and puts a modern spin on the sorry saga of a giant ape that menaced Metropolis. It all starts when Lois Lane objects to the treatment of a lab chimp by her old nemesis Dr. Thomas Moyers. The heartless, ambitious energy research scientist’s callous disregard for procedure, or even simple humanity, results in the anthropoid mutating into a colossal out-of-control rampaging menace only Superman can stop… even if he doesn’t want to…

The Adventures of Superman Annual #1 spawned ‘The Union’ by Jim Starlin, Jurgens & Steve Montano, wherein Superman is asked by President Ronald Reagan and über-Fed Sarge Steel to ferret out what happened to the people formerly living in the instant ghost-town of Trudeau, South Dakota. This edgy, chilling by-the-numbers sci-fi shocker showed audiences that the new Man of Steel wasn’t the guaranteed winner he used to be, and set the scene for a momentous future confrontation with the monstrous alien life-consumer Hfuhruhurr the Word-bringer., as well as showing the limits of a pledge to never take life…

In the monthly periodicals ‘All that Glisters’ (Byrne & Keith Williams) comes from November 1987’s Action Comics #594: a big battle team-up with fugitive from the future Booster Gold sneakily and accidentally orchestrated by Lex Luthor employing his robot duplicates. The acrimonious clash carried over and concluded in Booster Gold #23, with ‘Blind Obsession’ (art/story by Jurgens, inked by Roy Richardson) seeing the bad guy billionaire (is there any other kind?) thwarted and frustrated again…

Next up is the magical retelling of another classic Wayne Boring Superman tale. ‘Lost Love’ (Superman #12, by Byrne & Karl Kesel) recounts the tragic tale of college boy Clark Kent’s brief affair with mysterious Lori Lemaris, a unique girl he twice loved and lost. Then, Action Comics #595 brings us back to the present with a bump in the night. Courtesy of Byrne & Williams ‘The Ghost of Superman’ introduces eerie, life-stealing Silver Banshee in a mystery team-up with a sneaky superstar who saves Metropolis from terror and dread and whose Big Identity Reveal I’m not going to spoil for you…

Next come the Kryptonian corners of DC’s third inter-company mega-crossover event. After Crisis on Infinite Earths and Legends there was Millennium, which saw writer Steve Englehart expand on an iconic tale from his Justice League of America run (#140-141) as well as his tenure on the Green Lantern Corps title. But first, a little background…

Billions of years ago robotic peacekeepers known as Manhunters rebelled against their creators. The Guardians of the Universe were immortal and desired a rational, orderly, emotionless cosmos – a view not shared by their own women. The Zamarons abandoned the Guardians on planet Oa at the inception of their grand scheme but, after billions of years, the two factions had reconciled and left our Reality together. Now they had returned with a plan to midwife a new race of immortals on Earth, but the Manhunters – who had since infiltrated all aspects of every society throughout the universe – were determined to thwart the plan, whether by seduction, connivance or just plain brute force. Earth’s heroes were summoned by the reunited immortals and subsequently gathered to see the project to completion but were continually confronted by Manhunters in their own private lives… and their own comics.

DC Comics third braided mega-series was a bold effort intended to touch all corners of their universe, introduce new characters, tie-in titles and do so on a weekly, not monthly, schedule. In addition to the 8 weekly issues of the miniseries itself, Millennium spread across 21 titles for two months – another 37 issues – for a grand total of 44 comic books, with the Superman-related crossover craziness opening here with ‘Toys in the Attic!’ (Superman #13, by Byrne & Kesel) .

In Metropolis, elderly British craftsman Winslow Percival Schott opens a campaign of murder and wanton destruction targeting Lex Luthor, the ruddy Yank who ruined his little company and forced him to become the murderous Toyman. No sooner has the Man of Tomorrow intervened in that fracas than he’s drawn back to sleepy hometown Smallville in ‘Junk’ (Adventures of Superman #436, script by Byrne, art by Ordway & John Beatty) to discover trusted confidant Lana Lang has for years been an agent of the Manhunters.

In truth the insidious mechanoids have been watching the Last Son of Krypton since before that world died, but had botched capturing the space infant when he first arrived on Earth. As a back-up plan, Manhunters replaced local medical practitioner Doc Whitney and he subsequently turned every child born since into a mind-controlled sleeper agent. With Clark a key factor in the Millennium, Whitney rallies his forces to capture Superman, but utterly underestimates the power and resourcefulness of the Man of Steel. Although victorious, Superman’s triumph is tainted by tragedy. In defeat, all Whitney’s unwitting agents – two generations of Smallville’s young folk – keel over dead…

Then, in Action Comics #596, ‘Hell is Where the Heart Is…’ (Byrne & Williams) as Ghostly Guardian The Spectre is drawn to the catastrophe and facilitates Superman’s odyssey to the Spiritual Realms to rescue all the recently and unjustly departed deceased…

Byrne & Kesel’s Superman #14 offered a bombastic team-up with Green Lantern Hal Jordan wherein Emerald Gladiator and Action Ace chase colossal super-Manhunter Highmaster through uncanny dimensions as that mechanical maniac seeks to attack the sequestered, enervated Guardians and Zamarons in ‘Last Stand!’, after which events take a far more moody turn in Adventures of Superman #437. A twinned tale by Byrne, Ordway & Beatty, ‘Point of View’ simultaneously reveals how Luthor attempts to seduce one of the Millennium candidates to his evil side even as Lois Lane helplessly watches the brutally crippling struggle of merely mortal vigilante Jose “Gangbuster” Delgado against Lex’s hyper-augmented cyborg warrior Combattor…

The repercussions of that clash are examined in ‘Visitor’ (Action Comics #597) wherein Byrne, Leonard Starr & Williams impishly referenced Silver Age catfights between Lois Lane and Lana Lang, whilst the story itself establishes the false premise that Superman was raised as Clark’s adopted brother to throw off Lois’ growing suspicions…

With the Millennium complete, Superman #15 returned to regular wonderment as Superman is asked to find Metropolis Police Captain Maggie Sawyer’s missing daughter Jamie, just as the city is hit with a rash of flying bandit children. ‘Wings’ (Byrne & Kesel) debuts repulsive monster Skyhook: a horrific bat-winged Fagin who beguiles and mutates runaways whilst concealing even greater ghastly secrets…

The Fights ‘n’ Tights fun intensifies with Adventures of Superman #438 (March 1988, by Byrne, Ordway & Beatty) and another modern-day re-imagination of a past icon. ‘…The Amazing Brainiac’ sees a trip to the circus disastrously coincide with drunken mentalist Milton Fine developing uncanny psionic abilities and going wild. Despite his mental assaults being particularly effective against the Man of Steel, Superman eventually overcomes the furiously frantic performer, but is the defeated man simply deranged by his own latent abilities, or are his ravings of being possessed by an alien named Vril Dox of Colu somehow impossibly true?

This collection concludes with one-shot “Prestige Format” special Superman: The Earth Stealers by writer Byrne, inker Ordway and colourist Bill Wray who augment a post-Crisis return to the Action Ace for lifelong Super-Artist Curt Swan. Here the whole world is confiscated by a plundering alien seeking to sell it for scrap and resources, but the fiend and his brutal gladiator/legbreaker Gunge have not reckoned on this latest easy score being home to the last of the fabled and feared Kryptonians…

The bonus bit at the back consists of a ‘Cover gallery’ of previous MoS collections by Ordway, Byrne & Kesel, with excerpts from Who’s Who Update ‘87 #-5 and Who’s Who Update ‘88 #2, featuring illustrated fact-snacks concerning Booster Gold ( by Jurgens & Mike DeCarlo); Titano (Frenz & Byrne); Lori Lemaris (Byrne); Silver Banshee (Mike Mignola & P. Craig Russell) before a big bold pin-up of the Man of Steel finalises the fun for now.

Against all contemporary expectation the refitted Man of Tomorrow was a huge critical and commercial success. As one of the penitent curmudgeons who was proved wrong at the time, I can earnestly urge you not to make the same mistake. These are magically gripping and memorable comic gems to be enjoyed over and over again. So the sooner you get these books the sooner you can start the thrill ride reinvention of the ultimate comic book icon.
© 1987, 1988, 1989, 2021 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1844 Spanish painter/illustrator/cartoonist Josep Lluis Pellicer was born, followed by Disney comics maestro Tony Strobl in 1915, and comics editor, publisher and historian catherine “Cat” yronwoode in 1947. The post-war Fifties greeted cartoonist Tom Armstrong (Marvin) in 1950; artist/publisher Neil D. Vokes (Robotech, Fright Night, Eagle) in 1954 and Elizabeth Smith (Action Comics, Lex Luthor) in 1958.

Deaths this date include legendary British licensed properties artist British artist/illustrator George William Wakefield (Laurel & Hardy, Ben Turpin, Jackie Coogan, George Formby, The Funniosities of Fatty Arbuckle, The Screen Screams of Ford Sterling, Jolly Rover, Freddie Flip and Uncle Bunkle, Abbott & Costello) in 1942; US cartoonist/writer Dick Calkins (Uncle Bob’s Story Book, Buck Rogers, Skyroads) in 1962; children’s book illustrator/cartoonist Syd Hoff (Danny the Dinosaur, I Can Read…, Tuffy, Laugh It Off) in 2004 and legendary Belgian all star Eddy Paape (Valhardi, Buck Danny, Mark Dacier, Luc Orient, Surcouf, Johnny Congo) in 2012.

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DC Finest: The Flash – The Fastest Man Dead


By Robert Kanigher, Mike Friedrich, Steve Skeates, Dennis O’Neill, Bob Haney, Len Wein, Cary Bates, Gil Kane, Irv Novick, Don Heck, Dick Dillin, Bob Brown, Murphy Anderson, Dick Giordano, Joe Giella, Nick Cardy, Frank McLaughlin, Tex Blaisdell, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Jack Adler, Tatjana Wood, John Costanza & various (DC Comics)

ISBN: 978-1-77952-836-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Here’s another compelling DC Finest edition: chronologically curated paperback archives (generally around 600 pages) highlighting past glories. Whilst primarily concentrating on the superhero pantheon, there are genre selections including horror, sci fi, western and war books, but sadly none yet available digitally. However, we live in hope…

The Silver Age of US comics is formally and forever tied to Showcase #4 and the rebirth of The Flash. That epochal issue was released in the late summer of 1956 and from it stems all today’s print, animation, games, collector cards, cosplay and TV/movie wonderment. No matter which way you look at it, the renaissance began with The Flash, but it’s an unjust yet true fact that being first is not enough: it also helps to be best and people have to notice. MLJ’s The Shield beat Captain America to the news-stands by over a year yet the former is all but forgotten today. I mention that here as it pertains to this collection, which sees the advent of original Shield co-creator Irv Novick (Bob Phantom; Hangman; Steel Sterling; Silent Knight; Robin Hood, all DC war books, Captain Storm; Sea Devils; Batman, The Joker; Lois Lane; Tomahawk and more) as the Scarlet Speedster’s regular illustrator; a run (oh. Ha-Ha.) spanning Flash #200-270 and close to a full 10-year stretch with him only absent for #205, 213-214 & 264…

For the early trendsetting sagas and situations you should catch DC Finest: The Flash – The Human Thunderbolt and take as read that here the (second) Flash is Barry Allen, a police forensic scientist simultaneously struck by lightning and bathed in exploding chemicals from his lab. Supercharged by the accident, Barry (a lifelong fan of comic books) took his superhero identity from his favourite childhood reading – and eventually his acknowledged alternately Earth predecessor. Once upon a time there was a “fictional” scientist named Jay Garrick who was exposed to the mutagenic fumes of Hard Water and promptly became the “fastest man alive”…

Wearing a sleek, streamlined, tricked-out bodysuit (courtesy of  Carmine Infantino – a major talent approaching his artistic and creative peak), Barry was point man for the spectacular revival of a genre and an entire industry. He also became a renowned intergalactic champion, wholesome family man and paternalistic elder statesman of the superhero set after marrying his longtime fiancée Iris West…

With Infantino safely elevated to DC’s current publisher, this splendidly tempting full colour paperback of Seventies hits displays the glorious work of the last replacement illustrators before the Flash landed in Novick’s hands, just as changing tastes rejected the previously paramount, rationalistic science fiction worlds touched by the Vizier of Velocity. Now high speed action involved issues of social relevance and themes of supernatural horror and makes for some weird moments as this copious compendium covers The Flash #197-229 (May 1970 – October 1974) plus guest shots in World’s Finest Comics #198-199 (November & December 1970) and The Brave and the Bold #99 (December 1971/January 1972).

Gil Kane & Vince Colletta capture all the fun and thrills of Mike Friedrich’s ‘Four-Star Super-Hero’ in the opening yarn of Flash #197 as a sharp cop spots a private communication tic only shared with his lab partner Barry Allen. Attempts to save a secret identity and convince Charlie Conwell otherwise are further hampered by blizzard conditions in Central City, canny crooks with jetpacks and skis, a flu epidemic and Barry’s dedication to Amateur Dramatics, which see him take time out to play every part in the local presentation of Hamlet. All’s well that ends well and after that show goes on, it’s back to cosmic basics with Robert Kanigher’s ‘To the Nth Degree’ showing the Crimson Comet catapulted across the universe to save fire-beings on an exploding planet, courtesy of another wild invention of his father-in-law Professor Ira West…

Kanigher, Kane & Colletta open #198 where ‘No Sad Songs for a Scarlet Speedster!’ has three orphan kids aid a gun-shot and temporarily brain-damaged Flash regain his lost mojo before neophyte superhero Zatanna guests in ‘Call it …Magic’ (by Friedrich, Don Heck & Colletta) and requires swift rescue after being abducted across arcane dimensions by macabre body-snatcher Xarkon…

Kanigher, Kane & Colletta’s ‘Flash? Death Calling!’ in #199 focuses on the ordeals of scientist Dr Hollister who dons the scarlet skin-tights to punish himself after apparently accidentally killing the hero. However that guilt also saves the day and resurrect the speedster – just in time for Flash to meet superspy Colonel K (of US-IN-T Agency) and stop a Chinese energy missile smashing into ‘The Explosive Heart of America!’ (Kanigher, Kane & Colletta)

Novick and inker Murphy Anderson join Kanigher for anniversary celebration ‘Count 200 – and Die!’ as the Monarch of Motion succumbs to mind manipulation and is manoeuvred by sinister siren Dr. Lu into  assassinating the US President. Thankfully our hero (Flash of course, not PotUS!) is faster than his own fired gunshot and is back in all-American action for #201, enduring Kanigher, Novick & Anderson’s ‘Million-Dollar Dream!’ and applying tough love to wheelchair bound sports star Pablo Hernandez. The treatment restores the player but that’s only fair as the hero was responsible for initially crippling the kid…

Many issues offered second stories at this time, and the policy of guest shots for other Flash-family favourites was solidly in place. Here Kanigher, Novick & Anderson take us to Earth Two and swift encore for an old villain as Jay Garrick produces – eventually – the ‘Finale for a Fiddler!’

Although costumed hero capers were waning in general appeal, Flash was still hugely popular. Thus when World’s Finest Comics began a run of Superman team-ups with #198, the Red Runner was the clear first choice and allowed editors to return to a thorny topic which had bedevilled fans for years.

The comic book experience is littered with eternal, unanswerable questions. The most common and most passionately asked always begin “who would win if” or “who’s strongest/smartest/fastest…” Here, crafted by Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella, ‘Race to Save the Universe!’ and concluding instalment ‘Race to Save Time’ (WFC #198-199) upped the stakes on two previous competitions as our high-speed heroes are conscripted by the Guardians of the Universe to circumnavigate the entire cosmos at their greatest velocities to reverse the rampage of the mysterious Anachronids: faster-than-light creatures whose pell-mell course throughout galaxies is actually unwinding time itself and unravelling the fabric of creation. Little does anybody suspect that Superman’s oldest enemies were behind the entire appalling scheme, but the battle was swiftly won and reality saved in the end…

It was a far more grounded but no less chilling situation in Flash #202 where Kanigher, Novick & Anderson despatch reporter Iris Allen to Hollywood where she is kidnapped by murderous cultist creeps ‘The Satan Circle’ and her frantic husband confronts the unknown and the worst aspects of human nature to save her. Kid Flash then endures his own eldritch overload as ‘The Accusation!’ (by Steve Skeates, Dillin & Anderson) finds college-age comet Wally West tormented by visons of impending death that come appallingly true…

With Kanigher, Novick & Anderson at the helm #203 augured a huge change in the cosy domestic set-up as ‘The Flash’s Wife is a Two-Timer!’ reveals that Iris is actually a foundling sent through time to escape atomic armageddon and only the adopted child of scatterbrained super-genius Ira West. When the process reverses itself and she is dragged back to the future – Central City 2970 AD – The Flash follows and is caught up in a war that has been all but won by oppressive East-bloc tyrant Sirik the Supreme. Of course his intervention is enough to reset the scales before he returns baffled bride Iris Russell (née West)-Allen to her immigrant time period.

Once there though, repercussions of the revelation continue as a recovered 30th century keepsake turns her into an uncontrollable, secret-exposing blabbermouth in #204’s ‘The Great Secret Identity Exposé!’ with the Justice League understandably irate that Flash talks in his sleep and his wife knows all their civilian identities…

Back up tale ‘The Mind-Trap’ (Skeates, Dillin & Anderson) then sees Kid Flash chasing a body-stealing Egyptian pharaoh’s ghost to end the issue on a lighter note…

The Flash #205 was another hugely popular reprint collection of the era, sporting a cover by Dick Giordano (and included here) before it was back to spooky business in #206 for Kanigher, Novick & Anderson’s ‘24 Hours of Immortality!’ as haughty alien superbeings resurrect a recently killed surgeon and young mother to attend to unfinished business, but for the most mean-spirited motives – until Flash intervenes with a lesson all could benefit from.

With the supernatural now fully unleashed at DC, Flash #207 led with Friedrich, Novick & Anderson’s ‘The Evil Sound of Music!’, as former mystic hero Sargon the Sorcerer exploits his own family and rock ‘n’ roll-loving kids to restore his lost powers, before confronting the Scarlet Speedster, his own inner demons and rapacious external devils on the path back to the light. Grounding that journey to hell, Kid Flash then faces ‘The Phantom of the Cafeteria!’ ending the depredations of a superfast, hyper-hungry alien in a quick but satisfying yarn from Skeates, Dillin & Giordano.

In #208, Kanigher, Novick & Anderson exposed ‘A Kind of Miracle in Central City’ as wayward kids exploited by drug pushers are saved by prayer, the timely intervention of nuns and invisible superspeed before Flash #209 debuted new regular writer Cary Bates. He would run with the Vizier of Velocity for the rest of the series, only missing #213-214, 217, 293, 306 and 313 between 1970 through 1985.

Fresh from the starting blocks, Bates, Novick & Giordano took the speedster into higher, weirder realms ‘Beyond the Speed of Life!’ where Flash and reality shielding Sentinel stopped existence from being devoured. Meanwhile, on mundane Earth old Rogues Trickster, Captain Boomerang and Gorilla Grodd squabbled over bragging rights for who had finally killed the hero. At the back, Kid Flash saved a student troubled by gangsters in ‘Coincidence Can Kill!’ courtesy of Skeates, Dillin, Giordano.

A visit to 2971 came with #210 as Bates, Novick & Giordano expanded the Earth East-Earth West “warm” war in ‘An Earth Divided!’ with Flash seeking to save man-made President Abraham Lincoln (II) from belligerent occidental tyrant Bekor. Science fiction surrendered to spooky tales next as Flash teamed up with Batman in Brave and the Bold #99. Here Bob Haney, Bob Brown, & Nick Cardy revealed how an attempt to resurrect Bruce Wayne’s parents opened the door to the Dark Knight’s possession by an unquiet spirit. ‘The Man Who Murdered the Past!’ almost ensured an invasion of angry ghosts until superspeed and smart thinking saved the day…

Comics were always about popular trends, and in Flash #211 Bates, Novick & Giordano contrived alien invaders who used the fad of rolling derby to fuel the destruction of Earth via constantly ‘Flashing Wheels!’ However, Kid Flash was on far more stable ground as he exposed corrupt officials covering up toxic dumping in ‘Is This Poison Legal?’ by Skeates, Dillin & Giordano. Equally bold and topical the next issue saw ‘The Flash in Cartoon Land!’ with Novick & Giordano depicting how manic 64th century magician Abra Kadabra trapped the hero and a little lad Barry Allen was babysitting in a graphic madhouse where scientific rules did not apply.

The next two issues – #213 & 214 – were reprint specials represented here with the original covers by Neal Adams & Cardy before #215 saw Bates, Novick, Frank McLoughlin & Giordano detail the ‘Death of an Immortal!’ The eons are catching up with undying villain Vandal Savage who attempts to trick Barry Allen and Jay Garrick into remedying the crisis for him. However their mission is intercepted by chronal cop Tempus and the end is not what Savage anticipated…

For Bates at least, Flash was all about his signature Rogues Gallery and in #216 the writer revealed the shocking truth about multiple personality villain Al Desmond/Dr. Alchemy/Mr. Element. Seemingly cured and reformed, Desmond was afflicted by ‘The Curse of the Dragon’s Eye!’ (Novick, Frank McLoughlin & Giordano), astrally connected to an unstable star in the constellation Draco and vacillating between manic and passive, and Good and Evil as it built to cataclysmic detonation. Now that time had come and Flash had to save his friend and hopefully prevent him destroying Earth when his patron star died. Its counterbalanced by Skeates & Dillin’s Kid Flash fable ‘2D?’ as Kid Flash goes after extradimensional slavers abducting workers who stare at certain paintings for too long…

Hard times for superheroes saw Green Lantern take up residence in the anterior pages of The Flash from #217 and shorter tales began with a fill-in from Len Wein for Novick & McLoughlin. ‘The Flash Times Five is Fatal!’ saw the hero attacked by a rogue AI built by Ira West. It preferred sabotage, reality warping and murder to rescinding its categoric statement that no one as fast as the Scarlet Speedster could possibly exist…

Bates and the Pied Piper returned in #218 as a cunning sonic ambush was foiled by speed vibrations generating ‘The Flash of 1,000 Faces!’ whilst in #219 (with Joe Giella inking) ‘The Million Dollar Deathtrap’ saw the hero targeted by wagering rivals Mirror Master and The Top and only triumphing after applying the proven principle of “divide and conquer”…

Flash literally and grotesquely joined protégé Kid Flash in #220 as The Turtle (Barry’s very first super-foe) returned to alter Earth’s internal vibrations and cure ‘The Slowest Man on Earth’ of his unique condition no matter the cost to everyone else. Thankfully two heads proved better than one in this instance and the shaking shakedown was averted.

Co-scripter John Warner joined Bates, Novick & McLoughlin for #221’s ‘Time-Schedule For Disaster!’ as techno-bandit Cipher attempts – and ultimately fails – to harvest Flash’s speed vibrations to power his weapons before #222’s ‘The Heart That Attacked the World!’ (Novick, McLoughlin & Giordano) offers a full-length team up with Green Lantern as Weather Wizard and Sinestro join forces to end their enemies. Sadly, born betrayer Sinestro secretly linked the Speedster’s racing heartbeat to the continued existence of Earth…

In #223, Bates, Novick & Giordano ‘Make Way for the Speed-Demons!’ as another old enemy rigs races between Flash and three mechanical racers of land sea and air, with the expressed intention of humiliating the speedster whilst hiding his true intentions, before #224 introduces ‘The Fastest Man Dead!’ after Barry’s friend and mentor Charlie Conwell is murdered. That doesn’t stop the veteran helping Flash close the last case on his docket and save his pal Barry one last time…

Another Scarlet-Emerald team-up sees Flash again battle Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash before discovering  ‘Green Lantern, Master Criminal of the 25th Century!’ (#225, Bates, Novick & Giordano) is the villain’s unwilling slave. Of course, it all plays out successfully in time, after which Captain Cold and Heatwave embroil Barry Allen in their psycho-drama rivalry, thereby inadvertently subjecting Flash to ‘The Hot-Cold War in Central City!’ (inked by Giordano & McLoughlin). Immediately afterwards (with McLoughlin inking) #227 reveals ‘Flash – This is Your Death!’ as Captain Boomerang ( and his dad!) rerun past fast & furious clashes whilst seeking to end the hero’s career and existence forever, before Tex Blaisdell inks #228’s ‘The Day I saved the Life of the Flash!’ Here Bates injects himself into the story as a comic book writer from Earth-Prime accidentally slips across dimensional divides; arriving on Earth-One in time to aid the “fictional” speedster he scripts in a deadly duel with the Trickster…

This compendium closes with the pertinent original material from 100-Page Spectacular Flash #229 which led with a Golden Age Flash team up as ‘The Rag Doll Runs Wild!’ Here Bates, Novick, Giordano & McLoughlin detail how a seeming resurgent rampage by a 1940s thieving contortionist is merely a mask for a far more sinister scheme perpetrated by a hidden vengeful mastermind. Closing proceedings are two teaser treats from that giant compendium: specifically a ‘Flash Puzzle’ by Bob Rozakis, Infantino & Anderson and an unattributed ‘Flash Trivia Quiz and Answers’…

With covers by Kane, Infantino, Anderson, Neal Adams, Colletta Giordano, Jack Adler, Cardy and Tatjana Wood, this splendid selection is a must-read item for anybody in love with the world of words-in-pictures and fast-paced fantasy fables. Ready. Steady, Go get it!
© 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1906 was the birth date of cartoonist Dale Messick (Brenda Starr, Reporter) followed ten years later by comic book/ad exec Irv Novick, and author Peter O’Donnell (Modesty Blaise, James Bond, Romeo Jones) in 1920. In 1954 Jamie Delano (Captain Britain, Doctor Who, Hellblazer, Animal Man) joined the party as did Matt Kindt (Poppy and the Lost Lagoon, Dept. H, MIND MGMT, BRZRKR) in 1973.

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Hell on Earth – A DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel


By Robert Bloch, adapted by Keith Giffen & Robert Loren Fleming with Greg Theakston, Bill Wray, Gaspar Saladino & various (DC Comics)
ISBN 978-0-93028-905-8 (Album TPB)

During the 1980s DC, on a creative roll like many publishers large and small, attempted to free comics narrative from previous constraints of size and format as well as content. To this end, legendary editor Julie Schwartz called upon his old contacts from his youthful days as a Literary Agent to inveigle major names from the book world to have their early Sci-Fi and fantasy classics adapted into a line of Science Fiction Graphic Novels.

One of the most radical interpretations came courtesy of celebrated comedy wise-guys Keith Giffen & Robert Loren Fleming, with inks and colours from Greg Theakston & Bill Wray, not to mention phenomenal lettering and calligraphic effects from Gaspar Saladino.

Revered horror fantasist Robert Bloch developed out of the Lovecraftian tradition of the early pulps to become a household name for books such as Psycho and I Am Legend, which replaced unspeakable elder gods with just-as-nasty yet smaller-scaled devils like Jack the Ripper or that strange guy in the next apartment. In 1943 he scripted a blackly ironic tale of three ordinary people, researcher Professor Phillips Keith, his assistant Lily Ross and the reporter/pulp horror writer they hire to document their great experiment.

The tense interplay of this claustrophobic chiller is effectively captured by illustrator Giffen in his multi-panelled homage/distillation of José Muñoz’s stark art style as the experiment proceeds and the parapsychologists proceed to bring the Devil to Earth and trap him in a glass cage. Of course, as the lives of the trio spiral down into a miasma of darkness, guilt and regret, we have to ask: “Is he really trapped?”

Although a wordy, moody text, the interpreters have crafted a visual analogue that is just as tense and stifling as the original (which, if Satan is on your side, you might find in even rarer compilation Hell on Earth: the Lost Bloch volume two), so if you like daring art and classic spookiness you should track down this album. And while you’re at it why not grab the prose piece as well and see how it works sans graphic narrative?
© 1942 Weird Tales. Text and illustrations © 1985 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1927 George Storm’s venerable adventure strip Bobby Thatcher began, as did our entire hobby in a way, since in 1970 Minicon (precursor to Comic Con International) opened in San Diego’s U.S. Grant Hotel.

In 1929 Zagor cocreator Gallieno Ferri was born, just like Al Williamson in 1931, Mark Waid in 1962 and Jeff Lemire in 1976. In 1959 we lost jobbing artist Edwin Balmer of Speed Spaulding fame.

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U.S.S. Stevens – The Collected Stories


By Sam Glanzman (Dover Comics & Graphic Novels)
ISBN: 978-0-486-80158-2 (HB/Digital edition)kuno

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced for dramatic and comedic effect.

To the shame and detriment of the entire comics industry, for most of his career Sam Glanzman was one of the least-renowned creators in American comic books. Despite having one of the longest careers, most unique illustration styles and the respect of his creative peers, he just never got the public acclaim his work deserved. Thankfully that all changed in recent years and he lived long enough to enjoy the belated spotlight and bask in some well-deserved adulation.

Glanzman drew and wrote comics since the Golden Age, most commonly in classic genres ranging from war to mystery to fantasy, where his work was – as always – raw, powerful, subtly engaging and irresistibly compelling. On titles such as Kona, Monarch of Monster Island, Voyage to the Deep, Combat, Jungle Tales of Tarzan, Hercules, The Haunted Tank, The Green Berets, The Private War of Willie Schultz, and especially 1980s graphic novels A Sailor’s Story and Wind, Dreams and Dragons – which you should buy in a single volume from Dover – Glanzman produced magnificent action-adventure tales which fired the imagination and stirred the blood. His stuff always sold and at least won him a legion of fans amongst fellow artists, if not from the small, insular and over-vocal fan-press.

In later years, Glanzman worked with Tim Truman’s 4Winds outfit on high-profile projects like The Lone Ranger, Jonah Hex and barbarian fantasy Attu. Moreover, as the sublime work gathered here attests, he was also one of the earliest pioneers of graphic autobiography; translating personal WWII experiences as a sailor in the Pacific into one of the very best things to come out of DC’s 1970s war comics line.

U.S.S. Stevens, DD479 was a peripatetic filler-feature bobbing about between Our Army at War, Our Fighting Forces, G.I. Combat, Star Spangled War Stories and the other anthological battle books; quietly backing-up the cover-hogging, star-attraction glory-boys. It provided wry, witty, shocking, informative and immensely human vignettes of shipboard life, starring the fictionalised crew of the destroyer Glanzman had served on. It was, in most ways, a love story and tribute to the vessel which had been their only home and refuge under fire. In 4- or 5-page episodes, the auteur recaptured and shared a kind of comradeship we peace-timers can only imagine and, despite the pulse-pounding drama of the lead features, us fans all knew these little snippets were what really happened when the Boys went “over there”. Just like now…

A maritime epic to rank with Melville or Forester – and with stunning pictures too – every episode of this astounding unsung masterpiece is housed in one stunning hardback compilation (also available digitally for limp-wristed old coots like me) and if you love the medium of comics, or history, or just a damn fine tale well-told, you must have it.

That’s really all you need to know, but if you’re one of the regular crowd needful of more of my bombastic blather, a much fuller description follows.

As I’ve already stated, Glanzman belatedly enjoyed some well-earned attention, and this tome opens by sharing Presidential Letters from Barack Obama and George Herbert Walker Bush for his service and achievements. Then follows a Foreword from Ivan Brandon and a copious and informative Introduction by Jon B. Cooke detailing ‘A Sailor’s History: The Life and Art of Sam J. Glanzman’. Next comes a brace of prototypical treats; the initial comic book appearance of U.S.S. Stevens from Dell Comics’ Combat #16 (cover-dated April-June 1965) and the valiant vessel’s first cover spot from Combat #24, April 1967.

The first official U.S.S. Stevens, DD479 appeared after Glanzman approached Joe Kubert, who had recently become Group Editor for DC’s war titles. He commissioned ‘Frightened Boys… or Fighting Men’ (appearing in Our Army at War #218, April 1970), depicting a moment in 1942 as boredom and tension were replaced by frantic action when a suicide plane targeted the ship…

A semi-regular cast was introduced slowly throughout 1970; fictionalised incarnations of old shipmates including skipper Commander T. A. Rakov, who ominously pondered his Task Force’s dispersal, moments before a pot-luck attack known as ‘The Browning Shot’ (Our Fighting Forces #125, May/June) proved his fears justified…

Glanzman’s pocket-sized tales always delivered a mountain of information, mood and impact and ‘The Idiot!’ (OAaW#220, June) is one of his most effective, detailing in 4 mesmerising pages not only the variety of suicidal flying bombs the Allies faced, but also how appalled American sailors reacted to them. Sudden death was everywhere. ‘1-2-3’ (OFF #126, July/August) details how quick action and intuitive thinking saves the ship from a hidden gun emplacement whilst ‘Black Smoke’ (Our Army at War #222, from the same month) shows how a know-it-all engineer causes the sinking of the Stevens’ sister-ship by not believing an old salt’s frequent, frantic warnings. All aboard ship were regularly shaken by the variety of Japanese aircraft and skill of the pilots. ‘Dragonfly’ (OFF #127, September/October) shows exactly why, whilst an insightful glimpse of the enemy’s psychological other-ness is tragically, graphically depicted in the tale of ‘The Kunkō Warrior’ (OAaW #223, September).

A weird encounter with a wooden WWI vessel forces a ‘Double Rescue!’ (Star Spangled War Stories #153, October/November) before OFF #128’s (November/December) ‘How Many Fathoms?’ again counts the human cost of bravery with devastating, understated impact. ‘Buckethead’ (OAaW #225, November) then relates one swabbie’s unique reaction to constant bombardment before ‘Missing: 320 Men!’ (G.I. Combat #145, December 1970-January 1971) debuted Glanzman-avatar Jerry Boyle, who whiled away helpless moments during a shattering battle by sketching cartoons of his astonished shipmates.

‘Death of a Ship!’ (OAaW #227, January 1971) deals with classic war fodder as submarine and ship hunt each other in a deadly duel. A military maritime mystery was solved by Commander Rakov in ‘Cause and Cure!’ Our Army at War #230, March) whilst next issue (April 1971) posed a different conundrum as the ship lost all power and was stuck ‘In the Frying Pan!’…

The vignettes were always less about warfare than its effect – immediate or cumulative – on ordinary guys. ‘Buck Taylor, You Can’t Fool Me!’ (OAaW #232) catalogues his increasingly aberrant behaviour but posits some less likely reasons, after which old school hero Bos’n Egloff saves the day during the worst typhoon of the war in ‘Cabbages and Kings’ (OFF #131, July/August) whilst ‘Kamikaze’ (OAa #235 August) boldly and provocatively tells a poignant life-story from the point of view of the pilot inside a flying bomb.

An informative peek at the crew of a torpedo launch station in ‘Hip Shot’ (G.I. Combat #150 October/November) segues seamlessly into the dangers of shore leave ‘In Tsingtao’ (OFF #134, November/December) whilst ‘XDD479’ (OAaW #238 November) reveals a lost landmark of military history. The real DD479 was one of three destroyers test-trialling ship-mounted spotter planes. This little gem explains why that experiment was dropped…

Buck bounces back in ‘Red Ribbon’ (G.I.C #151 December 1971-January 1972), sharing a personal coping mechanism for making shipboard chores less “exhilarating”, whilst ‘Vela Lavella’ (OAaW #240, January 1972) captures the claustrophobic horror of nighttime naval engagement before ‘Dreams’ (G.I.C #152 February/March) peeps inside various heads to see what the ship’s company would rather be doing. ‘Batmen’ (OAaW #241, February) uses a lecture on radar to recount one of the most astounding exploits of the war…

Every episode was packed with fascinating fact and detail, culled from the artist’s letters home and service-time sketchbooks, but those invaluable memento belligeri also served double duty as the basis for a secondary feature. The debut ‘Sam Glanzman’s War Diary’ appeared in Our Army at War #242 (March 1972): a compendium of pictorial snapshots sharing quieter moments, such as the first passage through the Panama Canal, sleeping arrangements or K.P. duties peeling spuds, and precedes an hilarious record of the freshmen sailors’ endurance of an ancient naval hazing tradition inflicted upon every “pollywog” crossing the equator for the first time in ‘Imperivm Neptivm Regis’ (OFF #136 (March/April 1972).

A second ‘Sam Glanzman’s War Diary’ (OAaW #244, April) reveals the mixed joys of ‘Liberty in the Philippines’ after which a suitably foreboding ‘Prelude’ (Weird War Tales #4 (March/April 1972) captures the passive-panicked tension of daily routine whilst a potentially morale-shattering close shave is shared during an all-too-infrequent ‘Mail Call!’ (G.I. Combat #155, April/May)…

A thoughtful man of keen empathy and insight, Glanzman often offered readers a look at the real victims. ‘What Do They Know About War?’ (OAaW #244, April) sees peasant islanders trying to eke out a living, only to discover far too many similarities between Occupiers and Liberators, whilst the next issue focussed on sailors’ jangling nerves and stomachs. ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the War!’ (#245, May) reveals what happened when DD479 was mistakenly declared destroyed and, thanks to an administrative iron curtain, found it impossible to refuel or take on food stores. Cartoonist Jerry Boyle resurfaced in a ‘Comic Strip’ (OFF #138, July/August) after which Glanzman produced one of the most powerful social statements in an era of tumultuous change.

Our Army at War #247 (July 1972) featured a tale based on decorated Pearl Harbor hero Doner Miller who saved lives, killed the enemy and won medals, but was not allowed to progress beyond the rank of shipboard domestic because of his skin. ‘Color Me Brave!’ was an excoriating attack on the U.S. Navy’s segregation policies and is as breathtaking and rousing now as it was then.

‘Ride the Baka’ (OAaW #248 August) revisits constant near-miss moments sparked by suicide pilots after which Glanzman shares broken sleep in ‘A Nightmare from the Beginning’ (OFF #139, September/October) whilst ‘Another Kunkō Warrior’ (OFF #140, November/December) sees marines taking an island and encountering warfare beyond their comprehension…

1973 began with a death-dipped nursery rhyme detailing ‘This is the Ship that War Built!’ (G.I.C #157 December 1972-January 1973) before ‘Buck Taylor’ (OFF #141 January/February) delivers an impromptu lecture on maritime military history. Glanzman struck an impassioned note for war-brides and lonely ships passing in the night with ‘The Islands Were Meant for Love!’ (Star Spangled War Stories #167 February). Terror turns to wonder when sailors encounter the ‘Portuguese Man of War’ (OAaW #256 August), a shore leave mugging is thwarted thanks to ‘Tailor-Mades’ (OFF #143 June/July) and letters home are necessarily self-censored in ‘The Sea is Calm… The Sky is Bright…’ (OAaW #257 June), but shipboard relationships remain complex and bewildering, as proved in ‘Who to Believe!’ (SSWS #171, July).

The strife of constant struggle comes to the fore in ‘The Kiyi’ (OAaW #258 July) and is seen from both sides when souvenir hunters try to take ‘The Thousand-Stitch-Belt’ (SSWS #172 August), but, as always, it’s noncombatants who truly pay the price, just like the native fishermen in ‘Accident…’ (OAaW #259, August). Even the quietest, happiest moments can turn instantly fatal as good-natured pilferers swiping fruit at a refuelling station discover in ‘King of the Hill’ (SSWS #174, October). An unlikely tale of a kamikaze who survives his final flight but not his final fate, ‘Today is Tomorrow’ (OAaW #261, October) precedes a strident, wordless plea for understanding in ‘Where…?’ (OAaW #262 November 1973) before our sombre mood is briefly lifted with a tale of selfishness and sacrifice in ‘Rocco’s Roost’ from OAaW #265, February 1974.

The following issue provided both a gentle ‘Sam Glanzman’s War Diary’ covering down-time in “The Islands” and a brutal tale of mentorship and torches passed seen in ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’, after which a truly disturbing tale of what we now call gender identity and post-traumatic stress disorder is recounted in the tragedy of ‘Toro’ ( April/May Our Fighting Forces #148)…

‘Moonglow’ from OAaW #267 (April 1974) reveals how quickly placid contemplation can turn to blazing conflagration, whilst – after a chilling, evocative ‘Sam Glanzman’s War Diary’ (OAaW #269 June) – ‘Lucky… Save Me!’ (OAaW #275, December 1974) shows how memories of unconditional love can offset the cruellest of injuries. ‘Heads I Win, Tails You Lose!’ (OAaW #281, June 1975) explores how both friend and foe alike can be addicted to risk, after which the next issue’s ‘I Am Old Glory…’ sardonically transposes a thoughtful veneration with the actualities of combat before ‘A Glance into Glanzman’ by Allan Asherman (Our Army at War #284, September 1975) takes a look at the author’s creative process.

Then it’s back to those sketchbooks and another peep ‘Between the Pages’ (OAaW #293, June 1976) before ‘Not Granted!’ (OAaW #298, November 1976) discloses every seaman’s most fervent wish…

Stories were coming at greater intervals at this time and it was clear that – editorially at least – the company was moving on to fresher and more fantastical fields. Glanzman, however, had saved his best till last as a stomach-churning visual essay displayed the force of tension sustained over months in ‘…And Fear Crippled Andy Payne’ (Sgt. Rock #304, May 1977) before an elegy to bravery and stupidity asked ‘Why?’ in Sgt. Rock #308 (September 1977).

And that was it for nearly a decade. Glanzman – a consummate professional – moved on to other ventures. He was, however, constantly asked about U.S.S. Stevens and eventually returned to his spiritual stomping grounds in expanded tales of DD479: both in his graphic novel memoirs and comic strips. The latter appeared in anthological monochrome Marvel magazine Savage Tales (#6-8, spanning August-December 1986) under the umbrella title ‘Of War and Peace – Tales by Mas’.

First up was ‘The Trinity’ blending present with past to detail a shocking incident of a good man’s breaking point, whilst a lighter tone informed ‘In a Gentlemanly Way’, as Glanzman recalled different means by which officers and swabbies showed pride for their ships. ‘Rescued by Luck’ than concentrated on a saga of island survival for sailors whose ship had sunk. Next comes a hauntingly powerful black-&-white tale of then and now entitled ‘Even Dead Birds Have Wings’ (created for the Dover Edition of A Sailor’s Story from 2015), after which a chronologically adrift yarn (from Sgt. Rock Special #1, October 1992) evokes potently elegiac feelings, describing an uncanny act of gallantry under fire and the ultimate fate of old heroes in ‘Home of the Brave’…

Some years ago, by popular – and editorial – demand, Glanzman returned to the U.S.S. Stevens for an old friend’s swan song series; providing new tales for each issue of DC’s anthological 6-issue miniseries Joe Kubert Presents (December 2012 – May 2013). More scattershot reminiscences than structured stories, ‘I REMEMBER: Dreams’ and ‘I REMEMBER: Squish Squash’ recapitulate unforgettable moments seen through eyes at the sunset end of life; recalling giant storms and lost friends, imagining how distant families endured war and absence and, as always, balancing funny memories with tragic, like that time when the stiff-necked new commander…

‘Snapshots’ continues the reverie, blending a veteran’s war stories with cherished times as a kid on the farm whilst ‘The Figurehead’ delves deeper into the character of Buck Taylor and his esoteric quest for seaborne nirvana…

Closing that last hurrah were ‘Back and Forth 1941-1944’ and ‘Back and Forth 1941-1945’: an encapsulating catalogue of war service as experienced by the creator, mixing facts, figures, memories and reactions to form a quiet tribute to all who served and all who never returned…

With the stories mostly told, ‘Afterword’ by Allan Asherman details those heady days when he worked in DC Editorial, and Glanzman would unfailingly light up the offices by delivering his latest strips, after which this monolithic milestone offers a vast and stunningly detailed appendix of ‘Story Annotations’ by Jon B. Cooke.

This is a magnificent collection of comic stories based on real life and what is more fitting than to end it with ‘U.S.S. Stevens DD479’ (coloured by Frank M. Cuonzo & lettered by Thomas Mauer): one final, lyrical farewell from Glanzman to his comrades and the ship which still holds his heart after all these years?

This is an extraordinary work. In unobtrusive little snippets, Glanzman challenged myths, prejudices and stereotypes – of morality, manhood, race, sexuality and gender – decades before anybody else in comics even thought to try. He also brought an aura of authenticity to war stories which has never been equalled: eschewing melodrama, faux heroism, trumped-up angst and eye-catching glory-hounding to instead depict how brothers-in-arms really felt and acted and suffered and died.

Shockingly funny, painfully realistic and visually captivating, U.S.S. Stevens is phenomenal and magnificent: a masterpiece by one of the very best of “The Greatest Generation”. I waited over 40 years for this and I couldn’t be happier that ten years later this is one comics classic that is still available to all: a sublimely insightful, affecting and rewarding graphic memoir every home, school and library should have and one every reader will return to over and over.
Artwork and text © 2015 Sam Glanzman. All other material © 2015 its respective creators.

Today in 1920. US Dennis the Menace originator Hank Ketcham was born as was Funky Winkerbean cartoonist Tom Batiuk in 1947, and comics horror god Stephen R. Bissette in 1955. In 1973 we mourned Blondie creator Chic Young.