Category: DC Superhero

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DC Finest: Justice League of America – Starro the Conqueror


By Gardner F. Fox, Mike Sekowsy, Carmine Infantino, Bernard Sachs, Murphy Anderson, Joe Giella & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-773-4 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

After the actual invention of the comic book superhero – by which we mean the launch of Superman in 1938 – the most significant event in the industry’s progress was to combine individual sales-points into a group. Thus what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was irrefutably proven: a number of popular characters could multiply readership by combining forces. Plus, of course, a whole bunch of superheroes is far cooler than just one – or even one and a sidekick…

Thus the Justice Society of America is rightly revered as a true landmark in the development of comic books and – when Julius Schwartz began reviving and revitalising the nigh-defunct superhero genre in 1956 – the next key moment would come a few years with the inevitable teaming of reconfigured mystery men. The League launched in The Brave and the Bold #28 (cover-dated March 1960 but actually on sale from December 29th 1959) and cemented the growth and validity of the revived subgenre, triggering an explosion of new characters at every company producing comic books; even spreading to the rest of the world as the 1960s progressed.

Spanning March 1960 to May 1963, this full-colour paperback collection of timeless classics re-presents The Brave and the Bold #28-30, issues #1-19 of the epochal first series of Justice League of America and a crucial early cross-branding event from Mystery in Space #75, with scripter Gardner Fox and illustrators Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs – with the support of Joe Giella, Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson – seemingly able to do no wrong. That moment that changed everything for us baby-boomers came in The Brave and the Bold #28, a classical adventure title that had recently become a try-out magazine like Showcase. Just in time for Christmas 1959 ads began running…

“Just Imagine! The mightiest heroes of our time… have banded together as the Justice League of America to stamp out the forces of evil wherever and whenever they appear!…”

When it came that first tale was written by the indefatigable Gardner Fox and illustrated by quirky, understated virtuoso Mike Sekowsky, and inked by Bernard Sachs, Joe Giella & Murphy Anderson. ‘Starro the Conqueror!’ saw Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, J’onn J’onzz – Manhunter from Mars and recent debutante Green Lantern defeat a marauding alien starfish whilst Superman and Batman stood by as a reserve. In those naive days, editors feared their top characters could be “over-exposed” and consequently lose popularity. The team also picked up an average American kid as a mascot. “Typical teenager” Snapper Carr would prove a focus of fan controversy for decades to come, and the yarn was/is supplanted by fact page ‘The “Starfish” Family!’ crafted by clever persons currently unknown…

Confident of his material and the superhero genre’s fresh appeal, Schwartz had two more thrillers ready for the following issues. B&B #29 saw the team defeat a marauder from the future who apparently had history on his side in ‘The Challenge of the Weapons Master!’ (inks by Sachs and Giella) whilst #30 saw the debut of the team’s first mad-scientist archvillain in the form of Professor Ivo who employed and his super android Amazo in ‘The Case of the Stolen Super Powers’ (Fox, Sekowsky & Sachs) to  end the try-out run. Three months later a new bi-monthly title debuted…

Perhaps somewhat sedate by histrionic modern standards, the JLA was revolutionary in a comics marketplace where less than 10% of all sales featured costumed adventurers. Not only consumer imagination was struck by hero teams either. Stan Lee was apparently given a copy of Justice League by his boss Martin Goodman and told to do something similar for the tottering comics company he ran… and look what came of that…

Justice League of America #1 offered a voyage to ‘The World of No Return’, in the insalubrious company of trans-dimensional tour-guide and tawdry tyrant Despero who bedevilled the World’s Greatest Heroes until, once again, plucky Snapper Carr became the key to defeating the villain and saving the day. As previously mentioned, although Superman and Batman were included in the membership their participation was strictly limited as editorial diktat at the start to avoid possible reader ennui and saturation from over-exposure. That ended from this point forward as they joined the regulars in all their games.

The second issue’s ‘Secret of the Sinister Sorcerers!’ presented an astounding conundrum as the villains of Magic-Land sneakily transposed the location of their dimension with Earth’s, causing the Laws of Science to be replaced with the Lore of Mysticism. The true mettle of the costumed heroes (with Superman & Batman fully participating in the proceedings) was shown when they had to use ingenuity rather than their powers to defeat fearsome foes and set two worlds to rights.

JLA #3 introduced despicable despot and slimy sentient trafficker Kanjar Ro who attempted to turn the team into his personal army in ‘The Slave Ship of Space!’, before the next episode was the first of many to feature a new member joining the team. Green Arrow saved the day in science-fiction thriller ‘Doom of the Star Diamond’, but was almost kicked out in #5 as the insidious evil genius Doctor Destiny inadvertently framed him ‘When Gravity Went Wild!’

The glory days of full-on “costumed crazies” was still in the future and most tales of this period involved extraterrestrial or fringe technology-triggered emergencies such as the mad scientist who encountered them next. ‘The Wheel of Misfortune!’ saw the debut of pernicious and persistent master of wild science Professor Amos Fortune, who weaponised luck to challenge the masked marvels, whilst #7 was another alien invasion plot (Agellaxians this time) who used an amusement park as a live-weapons lab, using humans to beta test their tech and eerily transform the swiftly-investigating heroes infiltrating ‘The Cosmic Fun-House!’

Organised crime then collided with cruel happenstance in January 1962’s JLA #8. ‘For Sale… the Justice League!’ offered a smart gangster caper wherein cheap hood Pete Rickets finds a prototype teaching tool and misuses it as mind-control weapon to enslave the superhero team before simple Snapper once again saves the day.

As often remarked, back then origins and character background were not as important as delivering solid entertaining stories and it was not until Justice League of America #9 (cover-dated February 1962 and on sale from December 21st 1961) that the group shared its motivating first case with enthralled readers via the narrative engine of curious Snapper Carr. Nigh-mythic now and oft-recounted. ‘The Origin of the Justice League’ recounts the circumstances of the team’s birth in an alien invasion saga as mighty space warriors seeking to use Earth as a gladiatorial arena in which to decide the future ruler of their distant world Appellax…

It’s followed by the series’ first continued story. ‘The Fantastic Fingers of Felix Faust!’ finds the World’s Greatest Superheroes already battling a marauder from the future – the Lord of Time – when they’re spellbound by a vile sorcerer. Faust has awoken three antediluvian demons (Abnegazar, Rath and Ghast) and sold them the world in exchange for 100 years of unlimited power. Although the heroes eventually outwit and defeat Faust they have no idea that the demons are loose…

Although chronologically and sequentially adrift, next up is  Mystery in Space #75 (May 1962), wherein the worlds-beating team guest-star in a full-length thriller in Adam Strange’s ongoing, off-world epic adventures. Strange is an Earth archaeologist who regularly teleports to a planet circling Alpha Centauri where his wits and ingenuity saved the citizens of Rann from all manner of interplanetary threats and menaces. In ‘The Planet that came to a Standstill!’, Kanjar Ro attempts to conquer Strange’s adopted home, and our gallant hero must enlist the aid of the JLA before once again saving the day himself. This classic team-up was written by Fox, and illustrated by Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson.

Then, back in JLA #11 (also cover-dated May 1962) concluding chronological conundrum ‘One Hour to Doomsday!’ sees the JLA pursue and capture initial target The Lord of Time, before becoming trapped a century from their home-era by the awakened, re-empowered demons. This level of plot complexity hadn’t been seen in comics since the closure of EC Comics, and never before in a superhero tale. It was a profound acknowledgement by the creators that the readership was no longer simply little kids – if indeed it ever had been…

Perennial archvillain Doctor Light debuted in #12, attempting a pre-emptive strike on the team by transporting them to carefully selected sidereal worlds where their abilities would be useless, but ‘The Last Case of the Justice League’ proved to be anything but, and in the next issue the heroes saved our entire reality by solving ‘The Riddle of the Robot Justice League’: sinister simulacra created to stop the champions from halting the theft of our life-energy by agents of another cosmic realm. Then ‘The Menace of the “Atom” Bomb!’ in #14 proved to be  a neat way of introducing latest inductee The Atom whilst showing a fresh side to an old villain masquerading as new nemesis Mister Memory…

‘Challenge of the Untouchable Aliens’ in JLA #15 added some fresh texture to the formulaic plot of extra-dimensional invaders out for our destruction before ‘The Cavern of Deadly Spheres’ delivered a deceptive change-of-pace tale with a narrative technique that just couldn’t be used on today’s oh-so-sophisticated audience, but still has the power to grip a reader. Ever challenging and always universal continuity building, more links between heroes were formed in #17’s ‘Triumph of the Tornado Tyrant!’ Here a sentient cyclone that had once battled indomitable Adam Strange (in Mystery in Space #61) set up housekeeping on an desolate world and ponder the very nature of Good and Evil and even roleplay out its deliberations. It soon realised that it needed the help of the Justice League to reach a survivable conclusion…

Teaser Alert: As well being a cracking yarn, this story is pivotal in the development of the android hero Red Tornado…

JLA #18 found the heroes forcibly summoned to a subatomic universe by three planetary champions whose continued existence now threatened to destroy the very world they were designed to protect. ‘Journey to the Micro-World’ found the JLA compelled to defeat opponents who were literally unbeatable and discovering yet again that Batman’s brains were a super power no force could thwart…

One final perplexing puzzle was posed in ‘The Super-Exiles of Earth’ after unstoppable duplicates of the heroes go on a crime-spree, forcing global governments to banish the League into space. Breaking rules and laws whilst battling undercover in their civilian identities, the team prove too much for the mystery mastermind behind the plot and return to public acclaim in a stellar wrap-up to another fabulous feast of four-colour fun.

With iconic covers by Sekowsky, Infantino and Anderson, these tales are a perfect example of all that was best and purest about US comics’ Silver Age: combining optimism and ingenuity with bonhomie and adventure. This slice of better times also has the benefit of cherishing wonderment whilst actually being historically valid for any fan of our medium. Best of all the stories here are still captivating and enthralling transports of delight.

These classical compendia are a dedicated fan’s delight: an absolute gift for modern fans who desperately need to catch up without going bankrupt. They are also perfect to give to youngsters as an introduction into a fabulous world of adventure and magic…
© 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1883 trailblazing strip creator Frank King (Gasoline Alley) was born, as was trendsetting illustrator Mac Raboy (Captain Marvel Junior, Green Lama, Flash Gordon) in 1914; German comics legend Rolf Kauka (Dagobert, Fix und Foxi) in 1917 and Gerard Way (Umbrella Academy, Doom Patrol, some music and TV and movies ‘n’ stuff) in 1977.

In 1978, DC’s The World’s Greatest Superheroes newspaper strip premiered.

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Green Lantern: The Silver Age volume 1


By John Broome, Gardner Fox, Gil Kane, Mike Sekowsky, Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6348-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today marks the centenary of Eli Katz, who, as Gil Kane, worked from the Golden Age until his death (on January 31st 2000) to make comics the art form it is today. Diligent, resolute and always challenging himself, Kane was a trendsetting pioneer in style, in form and in comics philosophy. He was also a visual architect of the superhero revival in the Silver Age and a key component in the evolution of the Graphic Novel.

Gil Kane worked as an artist, and an ever-more effective and influential one, drawing – and writing – for many companies since his 1940s debut: on superheroes, action, war, mystery, romance, movie adaptations and, perhaps most importantly, Westerns and Science Fiction tales. In the late 1950s Kane was one of editor Julius Schwartz’s go-to artists for regenerating the superhero. Yet by 1968, at the top of his (admittedly much denigrated) profession, this relentlessly revolutionary and creative man felt so confined by juvenile strictures of the industry that he struck out on new ventures, jettisoning editorial and format bounds of comic books for new visions and media.

His Name Is Savage was an adult-oriented monochrome magazine about a cold and ruthless super-spy in the James Bond/Man Called Flint mould, co-written by friend & collaborator Archie Goodwin. It was very much a precursor in tone, treatment and subject matter to many of today’s adventure titles. The other venture, Blackmark (also with Goodwin), not only ushered in an era of comic book Sword & Sorcery, but became one of the first Graphic Novels. Technically, as the series was commissioned by publisher Ballantine as eight volumes, it was also America’s first comic Limited Series. Volume 1 launched in January 1971, with volume 2 just completed when the publisher killed the project. Albeit a generation Kane’s junior, long term seasoned collaborator Roy Thomas reprinted those tales in Marvel’s Savage Sword of Conan and Marvel Preview, with artwork rejigged to accommodate a different page format.

In comic books Kane’s milieux included Boy Commandos, Young Allies & Newsboy Legion, Johnny Thunder, Jimmy Wakely, Hopalong Cassidy, Rex the Wonder Dog, The Atom, Plastic Man, Robin, Batgirl, Batman, Superman, Flash, Hawk and Dove, Captain Action, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, U.N.D.E.R.S.E.A. Agent, plus hundreds of genre yarns – romance, war, sci fi, western and horror – before landing at Marvel Comics to reinvent Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Ka-Zar and Captain Marvel, co-creating Adam Warlock, Morbius, Iron Fist. He adapted John Carter, Warlord of Mars and other adventure fantasy properties and reinvigorated dozens of horror-hero and superhero stalwarts, all while filling in on seemingly every character and cover going…

Restless and craving what the medium could still achieve, he created newspaper strip Star Hawks (in 1977 with Ron Goulart) and numerous special projects like Jason Drum for Le Journal de Tintin and The Ring of the Nibelung. Also working as Gil Stack, Scott Edward, Stack Til, Stacktil, Pen Star and Phil Martell, Kane was a foundation stone of comics and remains a vivid, vital inspiration to future generations of creators and readers.

With all that in mind let’s revisit a character he co-created and who will be forever associated with Kane: the Silver Age Emerald Gladiator…

After their hugely successful revival and reworking of The Flash, DC (or National Comics as they were) were keen to build on the resurgent superhero trend. Showcase #22 hit the stands at the same time as the fourth issue of the new Flash comic book – #108 – and once again the guiding lights were Editor Julie Schwartz & writer John Broome. Assigned as illustrator was action ace Gil Kane, generally inked by Joe Giella.

This fabulous paperback compilation gathers Showcase #22-24 (September/October 1959 to January/February 1960) and Green Lantern #1-9 (July/August 1960-November 1961) and reveals how a Space Age reconfiguration of the Golden-Age superhero with a magic ring replaced mysticism with super-science.

Hal Jordan was a young test pilot in California when an alien policeman crashed his spaceship on Earth. Mortally wounded, Abin Sur commanded his ring – a device which could materialise thoughts – to seek out a replacement officer, honest and without fear. Scanning the planet it selected Jordan and brought him to the crash-site. The dying alien bequeathed his ring, the lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his profession to the astonished Earthman.

In six pages ‘S.O.S Green Lantern’ established characters, scenario and narrative thrust of a series that would increasingly become the spine of DC continuity, leaving room for another two adventures in that premiere issue. ‘Secret of the Flaming Spear!’ and ‘Menace of the Runaway Missile!’ were both contemporary thrillers set against the backdrop of the aviation industry at a time when the Cold War was at its height. Unlike Flash’s debut, the publishers were now confident of their ground. The next two issues of Showcase carried the new hero into even greater and more fantastic exploits. ‘Summons from Space’ sent Green Lantern to another world: saving an emerging race from a deadly threat at the behest of the as-yet-unnamed leaders of the Green Lantern Corps, whilst ‘The Invisible Destroyer’ pitted the neophyte Emerald Gladiator against earthbound eerie menace – a psychic marauder that lived on atomic radiation.

Showcase #24 (January/February 1960) featured another spy-ring in ‘The Secret of the Black Museum!’ but Jordan’s complex social life took centre-stage in ‘The Creature That Couldn’t Die!’ when the threat of an unstoppable monster paled before the insufferable stress of being his own rival. Hal’s boss Carol Ferris, controversially left in charge of her father’s aviation company (an utterly radical concept in 1960 when most women were still considered fainting-fodder fluff), won’t date an employee, but is deliriously happy for him to set her up with glamorous, mysterious GL…

Six months later Green Lantern #1 was released. All previous tales had been dynamically drawn by Kane & Giella, in a visually arresting and exciting manner, but the lead tale here, ‘Planet of Doomed Men’ was inked by the astoundingly multi-talented Murphy Anderson, and his fine line-work elevated the tale (more emergent humans in need of rescue from another monster) to the status of a minor classic. Giella returned for the second tale, ‘Menace of the Giant Puppet!’, in which GL fought his first – albeit rather lame – supervillain, the Puppet Master.

The next issue originated a concept that would be pivotal to the future of DC continuity. ‘The Secret of the Golden Thunderbolts!’ featured an Antimatter Universe and the diabolical Weaponers of Qward: a twisted race who worshipped Evil, and whose criminals (i.e. people who wouldn’t lie, cheat, steal or kill) wanted asylum on Earth. Also inked by Anderson, this is an early highpoint of tragic melodrama from an era where emotionalism was actively downplayed in comics. The second story ‘Riddle of the Frozen Ghost Town! is a crime thriller highlighting the developing relationship between the hero and his Inuit (then “Eskimo”) mechanic Tom “Pieface”Kalmaku.

The Qwardians returned in the all-Giella-inked #3, leading with ‘The Amazing Theft of the Power Lamp!’ before Jordan’s love life again spun out of control in ‘The Leap Year Menace!’, whilst GL #4 saw the hero trapped in the antimatter universe in ‘The Diabolical Missile from Qward!’ (Anderson inks) nicely balanced by light-&-frothy mistaken-identity caper ‘Secret of Green Lantern’s Mask!’ This last was apparently crafted by a veritable round-robin raft of pencillers including Kane, Giella, Carmine Infantino, Mike Sekowsky and Ross Andru…

Issue #5 was a full-length thriller introducing Hector Hammond, GL’s second official recurring super-foe in ‘The Power Ring that Vanished!’: a saga of romantic intrigue, mistaken identity and evolution gone wild. This was followed by another pure science fiction puzzler ‘The World of Living Phantoms!’ (Kane & Giella), debuting avian Green Lantern Tomar Re and opening up the entire universe to avid readers.

Having shown us other GLs, Broome immediately excelled himself in the next episode. ‘The Day 100,000 People Vanished!’ brought the Guardians of the Universe into the open to warn of their greatest error: renegade Green Lantern Sinestro who, in league with Qwardians, had become a threat to the entire universe. This taut, tense shocker introduced one of the most charismatic and intriguing villains in the DCU, and the issue still had room for a dryly amusing, whimsical drama introducing Tom Kalmaku’s fiancée Terga in ‘Wings of Destiny’.

In the early 1960s DC production wizard Jack Adler devised a process to add enhancing tone to cover illustrations. The finished result was eye-catching and mind-blowing, but sadly, examples such as the cover of #8 here really don’t work with the glossy pages and digitised colour-tints of modern reproduction. Never mind, though, since contents ‘The Challenge from 5700 AD!’ comprise a fantasy tour de force as the Emerald Gladiator is shanghaied through time to save the future from an invasion of mutant lizards…

Sinestro returned in the next issue – the last in this astounding cosmic collection – with his own super-weapon in ‘The Battle of the Power Rings!’ (with Anderson again substituting for Giella) but the real gold is ‘Green Lantern’s Brother Act’, with the revelation of Hal’s two brothers and a snoopy girl reporter convinced young Jim Jordan is secretly the ring-slinging superhero. This wry poke at DC’s house plot-device shows just how sophisticated Schwartz & Broome believed their audiences to be.

In those long ago days costumed villains were always third choice in a writer’s armoury: clever bad-guys and aliens always seemed more believable to creators back then. If you were doing something naughty would you want to call attention to yourself? Nowadays the visual impact of buff men in tights dictates the type of foe more than the crimes committed, which is why these glorious adventures of simpler yet somehow better days are such an unalloyed delight. These Fights ‘n’ Tights romps are in themselves a great read for most ages, but when also considered as the building blocks of all DC continuity they become vital fare for any fan keen to make sense of the modern superhero experience.

Judged solely on their own merit, these are snappy and awe-inspiring; beautifully illustrated by a rapidly evolving graphic narrative superstar in ascendance: captivatingly clever thrillers that amuse, amaze and enthral both new readers and old devotees. This collection is a must-read item for anybody in love with our art-form and especially for anyone just now encountering the hero for the first time through his TV incarnation.
© 1959, 1960, 1961, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1882 Spanish creator Salvador Bartolozzi (weekly Pinocchio) was born, with The New Yorker cartoonist Chon Day arriving in 1907, Levi Katz in 1926 and crusading Filipino cartoonist Pol Medina Jr. (Pugad Baboy) in 1960. In 1980 Dash Shaw (Bottomless Belly Button, New School, The Unclothed Man In the 35th Century A.D., Courier) joined that august grouping.

In 1936 Frank Leonard’s Mickey Finn strip debuted, and ran until 10th September 1977.

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DC Finest: The Demon – Birth of the Demon


By Jack Kirby with Mike Royer, Bob Haney, Bob Rozakis, Len Wein, Gerry Conway, Jim Aparo, John Calnan, Mike Golden, Steve Ditko, José Delbo, Bob McLeod, Dick Giordano, Dave Hunt & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1799507437 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Jack “King” Kirby shaped the very nature of comics narrative. A compulsive storyteller, Jack was an astute, spiritual man who had lived through poverty, gangsterism, the Depression and World War II. He had seen Post-War optimism, Cold War paranoia, political cynicism and the birth and death of peace-seeking counter-cultures. He was open-minded and utterly wedded to the making of comics stories on every imaginable subject. He began at the top of his game, galvanising the comic book scene from its earliest days with long-term creative partner Joe Simon: creating Blue Bolt, drawing Captain Marvel and adding lustre to Timely comics with creations such as Red Raven, Hurricane, Captain America and The Young Allies.

In 1942 Simon & Kirby moved to National/DC and hit even more stellar highs with The Boy Commandos, Newsboy Legion, Manhunter and The Sandman before the call of duty saw them inducted into the American military.

On returning from World War II, they reunited, forming a studio working primarily for the Crestwood/Prize publishing outfit. Here they invented the entire genre of Romance comics. Amongst that dynamic duo’s other concoctions for Prize was a noir-ish, psychologically underpinned supernatural anthology Black Magic and its short-lived but fascinating companion title Strange World of Your Dreams. All their titles eschewed traditional gory, heavy-handed morality plays and simplistic cautionary tales for deeper, stranger fare. Until the EC comics line hit their peak, S&K’s were far and away the best and most mature titles on the market.

Kirby understood the fundamentals of pleasing his audience and always strived diligently to combat the appalling state of prejudice about the comics medium – especially from industry insiders and professionals who despised the “kiddies world” they felt trapped in. When the 1950s anti-comics comics witch hunt devastated the industry, Simon & Kirby parted ways. Jack went back to DC briefly and created newspaper strip Sky Masters of the Space Force before partnering with Stan Lee at what remained of Timely Comics to create the monolith of stars we know as Marvel. After more than a decade there he felt increasingly stifled and side-lined and in 1970 accepted an offer of complete creative freedom at DC. The jump resulted in a root and branch redefinition of superheroes in his quartet of interlinked Fourth World series.

When those controversial, grandiose, groundbreaking titles were cancelled, Kirby looked for other concepts to stimulate his vast creativity and still appeal to an increasingly fickle and divided market. General interest in the Supernatural was peaking, with books and movies exploring the unknown in gripping and stylish new ways, and the Comics Code Authority had already released its censorious choke-hold on mystery and horror titles, thereby saving the entire industry from implosion when the superhero boom of the 1960s fizzled away.

At DC’s suggestion, Kirby had already briefly returned to his supernatural experimentation in a superb but poorly received and largely undistributed monochrome magazine. Spirit World launched in the summer of 1971, but as before, editorial cowardice and back-sliding scuppered the project before it could get going. You can see what might have been in a collected edition re-presenting the sole published issue and material from a second, unreleased sequel in Jack Kirby’s Spirit World…

With most of his ideas misunderstood, ignored or side-lined by the company, Kirby opted for more traditional fare. Never truly defeated though, he cannily blended his belief in the marketability of the mystic unknown with flamboyant super-heroics to create another unique and lasting mainstay for the DC universe: one whom lesser talents would make a pivotal figure of the company’s continuity.

This compilation collects The Demon #1-16 (1972-1973), classic team-ups from The Brave and the Bold #109 & 137 and key appearances from Batman Family #17, Detective Comics #482-485 and Wonder Woman volume 1 #280-282, cumulatively spanning cover dates August/September 1972 through August 1981, providing a comprehensive introduction to one of Kirby’s most broadly reinterpreted and reimagined characters.

Inked by Mike Royer, The Demon #1 introduces a howling, leaping monstrosity (modelled after a 1939 sequence from Hal Foster’s Arthurian epic Prince Valiant) in ‘Unleash the One Who Waits’. This shocking force of un-nature battles beside its master Merlin as Camelot dies in flames, a cataclysmic casualty of the rapacious greed of sorceress Morgaine Le Fey. Out of that apocalyptic destruction, a man arises and wanders off into the mists of history…

In our contemporary world (or at least the last quarter of the 20th century) demonologist and paranormal investigator Jason Blood has a near-death experience with an aged collector of illicit arcana. This culminates in a hideous nightmare about a demonic being and the last stand of Camelot. He has no idea that Le Fey is still alive and has sinister plans for him…

And in distant Moldavia, strange things are stirring in crumbling Castle Branek, wherein lies hidden the lost Tomb of Merlin…

Blood is wealthy, reclusive and partially amnesiac, but one night he agrees to host a small dinner party, entertaining acquaintances Harry Mathews, psychic UN diplomat Randu Singh and his wife Gomali plus their flighty young friend Glenda Mark.

The soiree does not go well. Firstly, there is the painful small talk, and the sorcerous surveillance of Le Fey, but the real problems start when an animated stone giant arrives to “invite” Blood to visit Castle Branek. This shattering voyage leads to Merlin’s last resting place but just as Blood thinks he may find some answers to his enigmatic past, Le Fey pounces. Suddenly he starts to change, transforming into the horrific beast of his dreams…

Issue #2 – ‘My Tomb in Castle Branek!’ – opens with wary villagers observing a terrific battle between a yellow monster and Le Fey’s forces, but when the Demon is defeated and Blood arrested, only the telepathic influence of Randu back in America can help him. Le Fey is old, dying, and needs Merlin’s grimoire, the Eternity Book, to extend her life.

Thus, she manipulates Blood – who has existed for centuries, completely unaware that Merlin’s hellish attack dog the Demon Etrigan is chained inside him – to regain his memories and awaken the slumbering master mage. It looks like the last mistake she will ever make…

Kirby’s tried-&-trusted approach was always to pepper high concepts throughout blazing, breakneck action, and #3 was one of the most imaginative yet. ‘Reincarnators’ finds Blood back in the USA, aware at last of his tormented history, and with a small but devoted circle of friends. Adapting to a less lonely life, he soon encounters a cult able to physically regress people to a prior life… and use those time-lost beings to commit murder. The Demon #4-5 comprise one single exploit, wherein a simple witch and her macabre patron capture the reawakened, semi-divine Merlin. ‘The Creature from Beyond’ and ‘Merlin’s Word’s …Demon’s Wrath!’ introduce cute little monkey Kamara the Fear-Monster (later used with devastating effect by Alan Moore in Saga of the Swamp Thing #26-27) and features another startling “Kirby-Kritter”: Somnambula, the Dream-Beast…

It seems odd in these blasé, anything goes modern times but The Demon was a deeply controversial book in its day – cited as providing the first post-Comics Code depiction of Hell, and one where problems were regularly solved with sudden, extreme violence. ‘The Howler!’ in issue #6 is a truly spooky yarn with Blood hunting a primal entity of rage and brutal terror that transforms victims into murderous lycanthropic killers, whilst #7 debuts a spiteful, malevolent young fugitive from a mystical otherplace.

‘A Witchboy!!’’ introduces Klarion and his cat-familiar Teekl – utterly evil little sociopaths in a time where all comic book politicians were honest, cops only shot to wound and “bad” kids were only misunderstood: thus, another Kirby first…

An extended epic, ‘Phantom of the Sewers’ skilfully combines movie and late-night TV horror motifs in the dark and tragic tale of actor Farley Fairfax, cursed by the witch he once spurned. Unfortunately, Glenda is the spitting image of the departed Galatea, and when, decades later, the demented thespian kidnaps her (in ‘Whatever Happened to Farley Fairfax?!!’) to raise the curse, it could only end in a flurry of destruction, death, consumed souls and ‘The Thing That Screams’…

In case you were wondering: the first musical adaption of The Phantom of the Opera (by Ken Hill) was in 1976, and the one you’re thinking of launched in 1986. The King was always ahead of the curve and subtly influential…

This 3-part thriller is followed by another moody, multi-part masterpiece (The Demon #11-13). ‘Baron von Evilstein’, ‘Rebirth of Evil!’ and ‘The Night of the Demon!’ comprise a powerful parable about worth and appearance, featuring the ultimate mad scientist and the tragic, misunderstood monster he so casually builds. It’s a truth that bears repeating: ugly doesn’t equal bad…

An opportunity to widen the horror-hero’s appeal came next in The Brave and the Bold #109: as Bob Haney & Jim Aparo unship superb supernatural thriller ‘Gotham Bay, Be My Grave!’ wherein the Caped Crusader and Kirby’s Kritter Etrigan the Demon fractiously unite to battle an unquiet spirit determined to avenge his own execution after nearly a century…

Despite the King’s best efforts The Demon was not a monster hit – unlike his science-fiction disaster drama Kamandi – and by #14 it’s clear the book was in its last days. Not because the sheer pace of imagination, excitement and passion diminished – far from it – but because the well-considered, mood-drenched stories were suddenly replaced by rocket-fast, eldritch romps populated with returning villains. First back was Klarion in ‘Return of the Witchboy!’ who creates a deadly doppelganger to replace Jason Blood and kill his friends in ‘The One Who Vanished!!’ (#14-15) before the series succumbed to irresistible economic forces with #16 (cover dated January 1974) in a climactic if hasty showdown with ‘Immortal Enemy’ Morgaine Le Fey…

Etrigan and cohort resurfaced in 1977 and B&B #137 (October) as Haney, John Calnan & Bob McLeod subjected Batman, Jason Blood’s friends and The Demon to war with resurrected Chinese wizard Shahn-Zi at ‘The Hour of the Serpent!’ before in a guest shot led to short revival. In Batman Family #17 (cover-dated April/May 1978), the Man-Bat serial saw Bob Rozakis & Mike Golden celebrate a happy event as the Chiropteran Crusader awaited the natal event of his firstborn child only to learn ‘There’s a Demon Born Every Minute!’ with devil babies infesting the maternity ward the hero welcomes the arrival of Etrigan (eventually) before teaming up to again thwart the diabolical schemes of malign Morgaine Le Fey.

Implicit invite accepted, Gotham resident The Demon took up residence in anthological blockbuster Detective Comics beginning with #482 (February/March 1979). Here Len Wein, Golden & Dick Giordano opened a tense quest for ‘The Eternity Book’ of Merlin. As Steve Ditko added his unique vision to the optics, the chase caught Etrigan clashing with mad mystic academic Baron Tyme in DC #483’s ‘Return to Castle Branek!’ before hurtling to a chaotic, cataclysmic conclusion in #484’s ‘Tyme Has No Secrets!’ and furious finish in #485’s ‘The Fatal Finale!’

The riotous revelries conclude with an often overlooked team-up. For Wonder Woman #280 (volume 1, June 1981), Gerry Conway, José Delbo & Dave Hunt detail how Air Force officers Diana Prince and Steve Trevor investigate the prestigious Delphi Foundation after demon Baal-Satyr abducts their friend Etta Candy. They uncover senatorial corruption and insidious infiltration by witchboy Klarion and use arcane connections to link up with Randu Singh, Blood and his infernal alter ego prior to a rescue raid on ‘The Castle Outside Time!’ (WW #281), enduring more hellish treatment prior to #282’s triumphant, resurgent ‘Return and Redemption’…

With covers by Kirby, Royer, Tatjana Wood, Aparo, Rich Buckler, Ross Andru & Dick Giordano, this is a sublime slice of Right Place, Wrong Time entertainment: a wondrously economical collection every comics fan of today should have and cannot help but enjoy.
© 1972, 1973, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today comic strip master Sy Barry arrived in 1928, whilst Graham Nolan didn’t turn up until 1962 and much-missed Italian artist Massimiliano Frezzato (I custodi del Maser, Margot) in 1967.

We lost Barney Baxter cartoonist Frank Miller in 1949, and the amazing Arnold (Deadman, Doom Patrol, Guardians of the Galaxy) Drake in 2007 but could enjoy Treasure Chest comics from 1946 and Hank Ketchum’s (US) Dennis the Menace from 1951.

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Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham


By Mike Mignola, Richard Pace, Troy Nixey, Dennis Janke & Dave Stewart (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-5806-1 (TPB/Digital edition)
This book includes Discriminatory Content produced for dramatic effect.

The origins of the Dark Knight are so well-known now that it’s simple to twist and tweak them to suit almost any tale. It doesn’t hurt that the character has a universal recognition factor that holds up in almost any imaginary scenario…

Released in 2015, available in trade paperback and digital formats and collecting a 3-issue Elseworlds miniseries (from November 2000 – January 2001), The Doom That Came to Gotham was written by horror mood-meister Mike Mignola (Hellboy; duh!) and Richard Pace (Negative Burn; Ashes; Starman; Terror Inc.; Imaginary Fiends), limned by Troy Nixey (Harley Quinn; Trout; Only the End of the World Again; The Matrix Comics), inker Dennis Janke & colourist Dave Stewart.

In case you came in late: During the 1990s, DC regrouped to rebrand its frequent dalliances with alternate reality scenarios under the copious and broad umbrella of a separate imprint. The Elseworlds banner and credo declared heroes would be taken out of their usual settings and put into strange places and times – some that have existed, or might have existed, and others that can’t, couldn’t or shouldn’t exist…

No doubts here, however, as the tale deftly takes us back to Roaring Twenties America, dishing out a daring dose of pulp fiction plumb centre of the ghastly spine-chilling mythos of Clark Ashton Smith, H.P. Lovecraft and their darkly-dementing contemporaries…

It’s 1928 and orphaned Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham City two decades after his parents were murdered by a maniac. He’s been roving the world, and recently uncovered the fate of long-lost Professor Cobblepot’s fabled Antarctic expedition. That jaunt resulted in a clash with a naked madman who talked to penguins and a large slab of ice with a creature inside it: a thing that never evolved on this world…

By the time he and his close associates Alfred, Dick, Jason and the rest have docked in his bleakly daunting home town, they have all had more than enough of the vile dreams the thing in the hold has generated…

There are more surprises when he reaches his long-shuttered mansion: a dead man who somehow speaks and a mysterious stranger named Jason Blood who claims he’s been sent to deliver a dire warning. Turning into an actual demon, the visitor warns that to save Gotham, Bruce must cut out its heart. Although shocked, Bruce is ready to act, and dons the bizarre outfit that makes him look like a human bat…

…And thus begins a skilful, macabre pastiche of classic noir horror traditions, as the desperate, driven mystery man haunts the alleys and byways of the city, testing corrupt cops, self-serving officials and outright villains – all with names most comics fans will recognise – uncovering a long-suppressed, centuries-old secret, even as literal Things From Beyond Human Comprehension and the borders of time and space congregate.

Can even a heroic Bat Man triumph against such odds and if so, at what cost…

Taking its title from H.P. Lovecraft’s 1920 novella The Doom That Came to Sarnath and inspired by August Derleth’s 1945 novel The Lurker at the Threshold (written from Lovecraft’s unfinished plot notes), the eldritch epic is complemented by a full cover gallery by Mignola and a hefty sketches & design section featuring pencilled pages by Pace (originally slated to illustrate the tale) and layouts by Nixey.

Bold, compelling, potently stylish and chilling in all the right places, The Doom That Came to Gotham is a supernatural romp to delight and impress: once read and never forgotten. Yes there’s an animated movie released in 2023, but truly that’s just gilding. This dark lily is what you must have…
2000, 2001, 2015 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1920 Belgian wonder Eddy Paape (Emmanuel, Valhardi, Luc Orient, Johnny Congo) was born, with Gray Morrow (Man-Thing, Tarzan, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon) arriving in 1934 and Alan Weiss (Warlock, Batman: the Blue, the Grey and the Bat, Steelgrip Starkey) in 1948. In 1949 Godfather of British Comics Pat Mills was born and in 1967 mangaka marvel Ai Yazaw, (Nana, I’m No Angel, Neighborhood Story, Paradise Kiss) arrived. Two years later Cully Hamner (Down, Green Lantern: Mosaic, Blue Beetle, Red) came along, but it was 1978 before Australian horror star Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night) turned up.

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Dc Finest: Batman – The Case of the Chemical Syndicate


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Gardner F. Fox, Whitney Ellsworth, Sheldon Moldoff, Jerry Robinson, George Roussos & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-670-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Although already much reprinted, archived and curated, here’s another sound and stunning collection of the Gotham Guardian’s earliest exploits in original chronological order, forgoing glossy, high-definition paper and reproduction techniques in favour of a newsprint-adjacent feel and the same flat, bright-yet-muted colour palette which graced the originals. There’s no fuss, fiddle or Foreword, and the book steams straight into the meat of the matter with the accumulated first two years of material featuring the masked mystery-man, as well as all those stunning covers (by Kane, Robinson, Roussos, Fred Gurdineer, Creig Flessel, Jack Burnley, Fred Ray and The Strauss Engraving Company). These span Detective Comics #27-51; Batman #1-5; the Dynamic Duo’s endeavours in New York World’s Fair Comics 1940 and World’s Best Comics #1, cumulatively encompassing every groundbreaking escapade from May 1939 to May 1941.

As Evri Fule Kno, Detective Comics #27 featured the Darknight Detective’s debut in the ‘Case of the Chemical Syndicate!’ by Bob Kane and as yet still anonymous close collaborator/co-originator Bill Finger. A spartan, understated yarn introduced dilettante playboy criminologist Bruce Wayne, drawn into a straightforward crime-caper as a cabal of industrialists were successively murdered. The killings stop when an eerie figure dubbed “The Bat-Man” intrudes on Police Commissioner Gordon’s stalled investigation to ruthlessly expose and deal with the hidden killer.

The following issue saw our fugitive vigilante return to crush ‘Frenchy Blake’s Jewel Gang’ before encountering his very first psychopathic killer/returning villain in Detective #29. Gardner Fox scripted these next few adventures beginning with ‘The Batman Meets Doctor Death’, in a deadly duel of wits with deranged, greedy general practitioner Karl Hellfern and his assorted instruments of murder: the most destructive and diabolical of which was sinister “Asiatic” manservant Jabah…

This is my cue to again remind all interested parties that these stories were created in far less tolerant times with numerous narrative shortcuts and institutionalised social certainties expressed in all media that most today will find offensive. If that’s a deal-breaker, please pass on this book… and most literature, pop songs and films created before the 1960s…

Confident of their new villain’s potential, Kane, Fox and inker Sheldon Mayer encored the mad medic for the next instalment and ‘The Return of Doctor Death’, before Fox & Finger co-scripted a 2-part shocker debuting the very first bat-plane, Bruce’s girlfriend Julie Madison and undead horror The Monk in expansive, globe-girdling spooky saga ‘Batman Versus the Vampire (part one)’. It all concluded in part two with an epic chase across Eastern Europe and spectacular climax in a monster-filled castle in #32.

DC #33 featured Fox & Kane’s ‘The Batman Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom’: a blockbusting disaster thriller which just casually slips in the secret origin of the grim avenger, as mere prelude to intoxicating air-pirate action, before Euro-trash dastard Duc D’Orterre finds his uncanny SCIENCE! and unsavoury appetites no match for the mighty Batman in ‘Peril in Paris’. Bill Finger returned as lead scripter in #35, pitting the Cowled Crusader against crazed cultists murdering everyone who had seen their sacred jewel in ‘The Case of the Ruby Idol’ … although the many deaths were actually caused by a far more prosaic villain. Inked by new kid Jerry Robinson, grotesque crime genius ‘Professor Hugo Strange’ debuted with his murderous manmade fog and lightning machine in #36, after which all-pervasive enemy agents lodged in ‘The Screaming House’ prove no match for a vengeful Masked Manhunter in #37.

Detective Comics #38 (April 1940) changed the landscape of comic books forever with the introduction of ‘Robin, The Boy Wonder’ as child trapeze artist Dick Grayson – whose parents are murdered before his eyes – thereafter joins Batman in a lifelong quest after bringing to justice mobster mad dog Boss Zucco…

With the Flying Graysons’ killers captured, all-out action continued in #39 with Finger, Kane & Robinson’s ‘The Horde of the Green Dragon’ – “oriental” Tong killers in Chinatown – Batman #1 (Spring 1940) opened proceedings with a recycled origin culled from portions of Detective #33 & 34. ‘The Legend of the Batman – Who He Is and How He Came to Be!’ by Fox, Kane & Moldoff delivers in two perfect pages what is still the best ever origin of the character. ‘The Joker’ (Finger, Kane & Robinson – who also produced all the remaining tales in this astonishing premiere issue) then launches the greatest villain in DC’s pantheon via a macabre tale of extortion and wilful wanton murder.

‘Professor Hugo Strange and the Monsters’ follows as an old adversary returns, unleashing laboratory-grown hyperthyroid horrors to rampage through the terrified city, before ‘The Cat’ – who later added the suffix “Woman” to her name to avoid any possible doubt or confusion – plies her felonious trade of jewel theft aboard the wrong cruise-liner, thereby falling foul for the first time of the dashing Dynamic Duo. Then comics end with the ‘The Joker Returns’ as the sinister clown breaks jail to resume his terrifying campaign of murder for fun and profit before “dying” in mortal combat with the Gotham Guardians. pulse pounding premier package fun folds with Whitney Elsworth’s text piece ‘Meet the Artist’ and a superb Kane pin-up (originally the back cover of that premier issue) of the Dynamic Duo.

Tense suspense and eerie evil is also on show in DC #40 as ‘The Murders of Clayface’ sees the Dynamic Duo solving a string of murders on a film set which almost sees Julie Madison the latest victim of a monstrous movie maniac…

Batman & Robin solve the baffling mystery of a kidnapped pupil in Detective #41’s ‘The Masked Menace of the Boys’ School’ before enjoying a busman’s holiday in ‘Batman and Robin Visit the 1940 New York World’s Fair’ as seen in the second New York World’s Fair Comics. Here Finger, Kane & Roussos follow the vacationing troubleshooters as they track down a maniac mastermind with a metal-dissolving ray, before Detective Comics #42 again finds our heroes ending another murderous maniac’s rampage in ‘The Case of the Prophetic Pictures!’

The heroes’ second solo outing produced another quartet of comics classics in Batman #2 (Summer 1940). It begins with ‘Joker Meets Cat-Woman’ (Finger, Kane, Robinson & new find George Roussos) wherein svelte thief, homicidal jester and a crime syndicate all tussle for the same treasure, with our Caped Crusaders caught in the middle. ‘Wolf, the Crime Master’ then offers a fascinating take on the classic tragedy of Jekyll & Hyde prior to an insidious and ingenious mystery in ‘The Case of the Clubfoot Murderers’. Ultimately Batman & Robin confront uncanny savages and ruthless showbiz promoters in poignant monster yarn ‘The Case of the Missing Link’.

By now an unparalleled hit, Batman stories never rested on their laurels. The creators always sought to expand their parameters, as Detective #43 saw our heroes clash with a corrupt mayor in #43’s ‘The Case of the City of Terror!’ before rather jumping the shark with #44’s nightmarish fantasy of giants and goblins ‘The Land Behind the Light!’, in advance of returning to bizarre baroque basics in #45’s horrific Joker jape ‘The Case of the Laughing Death!’ wherein the Harlequin of Hate undertakes a campaign of macabre murder against everyone who has ever defied or offended him…

Batman #3 (Fall 1940) has Finger, Kane, Robinson & Roussos rise to even greater heights, beginning with ‘The Strange Case of the Diabolical Puppet Master’: an eerie episode of uncanny mesmerism and infamous espionage…

A grisly scheme unfolds next as innocent citizens are mysteriously transformed into specimens of horror, and artworks destroyed by the spiteful commands of ‘The Ugliest Man in the World’ before ‘The Crime School for Boys!’ registers Robin, allowing infiltration of a gang who have a cruel and cunning recruitment plan for dead-end kids, whilst ‘The Batman vs. the Cat-Woman’ lastly reveals the larcenous lady in well over her head when she steals for – and from – the wrong people…

The issue also offered a worthy Special Feature from Ellsworth & Burnley as ‘The Batman Says’ presents an illustrated prose Law & Order pep-talk…

Plunging right into perilous procedures, Detective #46 (Kane, Robinson & Roussos) features the return of Batman’s most formidable fringe scientific adversary as our heroes must counteract the awesome effects of ‘Professor Strange’s Fear Dust’, after which #47 delivers drama on a more human scale by proving ‘Money Can’t Buy Happiness’. This action-packed homily of parental expectation and the folly of greed leads into Detective Comics #48, finding the lads defending America’s bullion reserves in ‘The Secret Cavern’, and is followed by Batman #4 (Winter 1941) which opens with a spiffy catch-all visual resume.

Then its all-out razzle-dazzle as the Gotham Guardians visit and vanquish ‘The Joker’s Crime Circus’, prior to pulling the plug on the piratical plundering of ‘Blackbeard’s Crew and the Yacht Society!’. Immediately after, ‘Public Enemy No.1’ tells a gangster fable in the manner of Jimmy Cagney’s Angels With Dirty Faces, before ‘Victory For the Dynamic Duo!’ involves the pair in the treacherous world of sports gambling.

Detective Comics #49 (March 1941), finds them confronting another old foe when ‘Clayface Walks Again!’ with the deranged actor resuming his passion for murder by re-attempting to kill Bruce Wayne’s old girlfriend Julie before World’s Best Comics #1 (Spring 1941 and destined to become World’s Finest Comics with its second issue) offers an eerie murder mystery concerning ‘The Witch and the Manuscript of Doom!’.

DC #50 pits Batman & Robin against acrobatic burglars in ‘The Case of the Three Devils’, whilst sordid human scaled wickedness informs #51’s ‘The Case of the Mystery Carnival!’: a mood-soaked crimebusting set-piece featuring fairly run-of-the mill thugs, but serving as a perfect palate-cleansers for big bold Batman #5 (Spring 1941). Once again, The Joker plays lead villain in ‘The Riddle of the Missing Card!’, before the heroes prove their versatility by solving a quixotic crime in Fairy Land via ‘Book of Enchantment’.

‘The Case of the Honest Crook!’ follows: one of the key stories of Batman’s early canon. When a mugger steals only $6 from a victim, leaving much more behind, his trail leads to a vicious gang who almost beat Robin to death. The vengeance-crazed Dark Knight goes on a rampage of terrible violence that still resonates in the character to this day. The last story from Batman #5 – ‘Crime does Not Pay’ – once again deals with kids going bad and their potential for redemption, and surely that’s what heroic mythmaking is all about?

Kane, Robinson and their compatriots created a visual iconography which carried Batman well beyond his allotted lifespan until later creators could re-invigorate the concept. They added a new dimension to children’s reading… and their work is still captivatingly accessible. Moreover, these early stories laced with Fingers’ mood-soaked macabre madness set the standard for comic superheroes. Whatever you like now, you owe it to these stories. Superman gave us the idea, but inspired and inspirational writers like Finger & Fox refined and defined the meta-structure of the costumed crime-fighter. Where the Man of Steel was as much Social Force and juvenile wish-fulfilment as hero, Batman and Robin did what we ordinary mortals wanted to do most: teach bad people the lessons they richly deserved…

These are tales of elemental power and joyful exuberance, brimming with deep mood and addictive action. Comic book heroics simply don’t come any better.
© 1939, 1940, 1941, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1914 All American editor Ted Udall was born, but we had to wait until 1953 for Richard Bruning, 1956 for animator, director and funnybook renaissance man Bob Camp and 1958 for astounding letterer and sublime illustrator Kevin Nowlan as well as Archie Comics writer/editor Paul Castiglia in 1966.

In the meantime, UK weekly mainstay The Topper began its 37-year run today in 1953, thereby launching Davey Law’s Beryl the Peril unto an unsuspecting world.

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DC Finest: The Doom Patrol – The Death of the Doom Patrol


By Arnold Drake, Bob Haney, Paul Kupperberg, Gerry Conway & Scott Edelman, Bruno Premiani, Bob Brown, Joe Staton, Arvell Jones, Frank Chiaramonte, Bruce Patterson, Romeo Tanghal, Carmine Infantino, Jack Sparling, Joe Orlando, Jim Aparo, Rich Buckler, Vince Colletta, Ross Andru, Dick Giordano & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-669-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In 1963 traditionally cautious comic book publishers at last realised superheroes were back in a big way and began reviving and/or creating a host of costumed characters to battle with and against outrageous menaces and dastardly villains. Thus, the powers-that-be at National Comics decided venerable adventure-mystery anthology title My Greatest Adventure would dip its toe in the waters with a radical take on the fad. Still, infamous for cautious publishing, they introduced a startling squad of champions with thematic roots firmly planted in those B-movie monster films of the era that had informed the parent comic.

No traditional team of masked adventurers, this cast comprised a robot, a mummy and an occasional 50-foot woman, joining forces with and guided by a vivid, brusque, domineering, crippled mad scientist. They would fight injustice in a whole new way…

Covering May 1966 to May 1965, this stunning compilation collects the remainder of the earliest exploits of the “Fabulous Freaks”, gathered from Doom Patrol #104-121. For good measure this comprehensive collection also contains the editorial material from reprint revival Doom Patrol #122-124 (February to July 1973); the enticing reboot that eventually returned the team to action from Showcase #94-96 (August 1977-January 1978), and the first official outing in a team-up trilogy from Superman Family #191-193 (October 1978 – January/February 1979).

The dramas were particularly enhanced by the drawing skills of Italian cartoonist and classicist artist Bruno Premiani, whose highly detailed, subtly humanistic illustration made even the strangest situation dauntingly authentic and grittily believable. He was also the ideal hand to squeeze every nuance of comedy and pathos from the captivatingly involved, grimly light-hearted scripts by Arnold Drake who always proffered a tantalising believably world for the outcast heroes to strive in. Premier tale ‘The Doom Patrol’ was co-scripted by Drake & Bob Haney, detailing how a mysterious wheelchair-bound scientist summoned three outcasts to his home through the promise of changing their miserable lives forever.

Competitive car racer Cliff Steele had legally died in a horrific pile up, but his undamaged brain was transplanted into a fantastic mechanical body. Test pilot Larry Trainor should have died. He had been trapped in an experimental stratospheric plane and become permanently radioactive, with the dubious benefit of gaining a semi-sentient energy avatar which could escape his body to perform incredible stunts for up to a minute at a time. To pass safely amongst men Trainor had to constantly wrap himself in special radiation-proof bandages.

Former movie star Rita Farr was exposed to mysterious swamp gases which gave her the terrifying, unpredictable – initially uncontrolled – ability to shrink or grow to incredible sizes.

The outcasts were brought together by brilliant, enigmatic Renaissance Man The Chief, who sought to mould solitary misfits into a force for good. He quickly proved his point when a bomber attempted to blow up the docks. The surly savant directed the trio in defusing it and no sooner had the misfits realised their true worth than they were on their first mission…

Now, years later with the team world-renowned, Doom Patrol #103 opens with the first of two tales: a tragedy ensuing after Professor Randolph Ormsby seeks the team’s aid for a space shot. When the doddery savant mutates into flaming monster ‘The Meteor Man’ it takes the entire patrol plus Beast Boy and Mento to save the day.

For those who haven’t seen the first volume yet: super-rich genius Steve Dayton (think ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like that Tesla guy) created a psycho-kinetic helmet and superhero persona Mento solely to woo and wed Rita, whilst outrageous, obnoxious Gar Logan was a tourist toddler in Africa, who contracted a rare disease. Although his scientist parents’ experimental cure beat the contagion before they died, it left him the colour of cabbage and able to change shape at will. A protracted storyline had commenced in #100 wherein the secretive, chameleonic kid revealed how he was now an abused orphan being swindled out of his inheritance by unscrupulous guardian Nicholas Galtry. The greedy, conniving accountant had even leased his emerald-hued charge to rogue scientists…

Rita especially had empathised with Gar’s plight and resolved to free him from Galtry whatever the cost…

DP #103 also continued unpacking the Mechanical Man’s early days following Caulder’s implantation of Cliff’s brain into an artificial body. In ‘No Home for a Robot’, the shock had seemingly driven the patient crazy as Steele went on a city-wide rampage, hunted and hounded by the police, but here, the ferrous fugitive finds brief respite with his brother Randy, before realising that trouble would trail him anywhere…

In an era devoid of promotional material or media platforms, Doom Patrol #104 astounded everyone as Rita abruptly stopped refusing loathsome billionaire/self-promoting supergenius smart guy Steve Dayton (think Musk with shinier hats) to become ‘The Bride of the Doom Patrol!’ However, her star-stuffed wedding day is almost ruined when alien arch-foe Garguax and The Brotherhood of Evil crash the party to murder the groom. So unhappy are Cliff and Larry with Rita’s “betrayal” that they almost let them…

Even whilst indulging her new bride status in #105, Rita can’t abandon the team and joins them in tackling old elemental enemy Mr. 103 during a ‘Honeymoon of Terror!’ before back-up yarn ‘The Robot-Maker Must Die’ concludes Cliff Steele’s origin as the renegade attempts to kill the mystery surgeon who had imprisoned him in a metal hell… finally giving Caulder a chance to fix a long-term malfunction in Steele’s systems…

‘Blood Brothers!’ in #106 introduces domestic disharmony as Rita steadfastly refuses to be a good trophy wife: resuming the hunt for Mr. 103 with the rest of the DP. Her separate lives continue to intersect, however, when Galtry hires that elemental assassin to wipe Gar and his freakish allies off the books…

The back-up section shifts focus onto ‘The Private World of Negative Man’, recapitulating Larry Trainor’s doomed flight and the radioactive close encounter that turned him into a walking mummy. However, even after being allowed to walk amongst men again, the gregarious pilot finds himself utterly isolated and alone…

Doom Patrol #107 opens epic story-arc ‘The War over Beast Boy’ as Rita & Steve (think Elon but funny and human) start begin proceedings to get Gar and his money away from Galtry, and the embezzler responds by opening a criminal campaign to beggar Dayton, inadvertently aligning himself with the Patrol’s greatest foes. Already distracted by the depredations of marauding mechanoid Ultimax, the hard-pressed heroes swiftly fall to the awesome automaton and Rita is exiled to a barbaric sub-atomic universe…

The secret history of Negative Man continues and concludes on a cliffhanger with ‘The Race Against Dr. Death’. When fellow self-imposed outcast Dr. Drew tries to draw the pilot into a scheme to destroy the human species which had cruelly excluded them both, the ebony energy being demonstrates its incredible power to save the world from fiery doom. In #108, ‘Kid Disaster!’ sees Mento diminished and despatched to rescue Rita whilst Galtry’s allies reveal their true nature before ambushing and killing the entire team…

…Almost.

Despite only Caulder and Beast Boy remaining, our exceedingly odd couple nevertheless pull off a major medical miracle: reviving the heroes in time to endure the incredible attack of alien colossus ‘Mandred the Executioner!’ before Larry’s ‘Flight into Fear’ at the comic’s rear proves Drew hasn’t finished with the itinerant Negative Man yet…

DP #110 wonderfully and wittily wraps up the Beast Boy saga as Galtry, Mandred and the Brotherhood marshal one last futile attack before a ‘Trial by Terror!’ finally finds Logan legally adopted by newlyweds Mrs. & Mr. Dayton. Sadly, it’s just a prelude to expansive extraterrestrial invasion in #111, heralding the arrival of ‘Zarox-13, Emperor of the Cosmos!’

The awesome overlord and his vanguard Garguax make short work of the Fabulous Freaks and – with all Earth imperilled – an unbelievable alliance forms, but not before ‘Neg Man’s Last Road!’ ends Trainor’s tale as the alienated aviator again battles Dr. Death, before joining a band of fellow outcasts in a bold new team venture…

Unbelievably, in #112, the uneasy alliance of DP with The Brain, Monsieur Mallah & Madame Rouge as ‘Brothers in Blood!’ results in no betrayals and the last-minute defeat of the invincible aliens. Moreover, although no rivalries were reconciled, a hint of romance does develop between two of the sworn foes, whilst at the back, untold tales of Beast Boy begin as ‘Waif of the Wilderness’ introduces millionaire doctors Mark & Marie Logan, whose passion for charity took them to deepest Africa and into the sights of “witchman” Mobu who saw his powerbase crumbling as SCIENCE! fixed his subjects’ problems…

When toddler Gar contracts dread disease Sakutia, the Logan’s radical treatment saves their child and grants him metamorphic abilities, but as they subsequently lose their lives in a river accident, the baby boy cannot understand their plight and blithely watches them die. Orphaned and lonely, he inadvertently saves the life of a local chief with his animal antics and is adopted… making of Mobu an implacable, impatient enemy…

DP #113 pits the team against a malevolent one-man mechanoid army in ‘Who Dares to Challenge the Arsenal?’ but the true drama manifests in a subplot showing Caulder seeking to seduce schizophrenic Madame Rouge away from the allure of wickedness and malign influence of the Brotherhood of Evil. The issue includes another Beast Boy short as ‘The Diamonds of Destiny!’ finds thieves kidnapping the amazing boy, just as concerned executor Nicholas Galtry takes ship for Africa to find the heir to his deceased employer’s millions…

Issue #114 opens with the Doom Patrol aiding Soviet asylum seeker Anton Koravyk and subsequently embroiled in a time-twisting fight against incredible caveman ‘Kor – the Conqueror!’ before Beast Boy briefing ‘The Kid Who Was King of Crooks!’ finds the toddler turned into a thief in Johannesburg… until his Fagin-ish abductors have a fatal falling out…

The next issue debuts ‘The Mutant Master!’: pitting the heroes against a trio of hideous, incomprehensibly powerful atomic atrocities resolved to eradicate the world which had so cruelly treated them. Things might have fared better had not the Chief neglected his comrades in his obsessive – and at last successful – pursuit of Madame Rouge…

Also included is ‘General Beast Boy – of the Ape Brigade!’, wherein a Nazi war criminal is accidentally foiled by lost wanderer Gar. The madman’s loss is Galtry’s gain, however, as the crooked money-man’s search ends with him “rescuing” Logan and taking him back to safe, secure America…

The mutant maelstrom concludes in #116 as ‘Two to Get Ready… and Three to Die!’ sees Caulder saving Earth from obliteration and reaping his unexpected reward in a passionate fling with “cured-but-still-fragile” Rouge. The wheelchair wonder seizes centre stage in #117 as his neglect drives his team away, leaving Caulder vulnerable to attack from a mystery man with a big grudge in ‘The Black Vulture!’ Happily, a reunited squad deals with grotesque madman ‘Videx, Monarch of Light!’ even as The Brain challenges Caulder to return his stolen chattel Rouge. Nobody thought to ask her what she wanted, though, and that’s a fatal oversight for all concerned…

Tastes were changing in the turbulent late 1960s and the series was in trouble. Superheroes were about to plunge into mass decline, and the creators addressed the problem head-on in #119: embracing psychedelic counter culture in a clever tale of supernal power, brainwashing and behaviour modification leaving the DP cowering ‘In the Shadow of the Great Guru!’…

An issue later they faced a furious Luddite’s ‘Rage of the Wrecker!’ when a crazed scientist declares war on technology… including the assorted bodies keeping Cliff alive and active. The then-unthinkable occurred next and the series spectacularly, abruptly ended with what we all believed at the time to be ‘The Death of the Doom Patrol!’…

Faced with cancellation, Editor Murray Boltinoff and creators Drake & Premiani wrapped up all the long-running plot threads as spurned Madame Rouge went well off the deep end and declared war on both The Brain’s boys and Caulder’s “children”…

Pitilessly blowing up the Brotherhood, she then attacks the city until the Doom Patrol remove themselves to an isolated island fortress. Even there they are not safe and her forces ambush them. Captured and facing death, Rouge offers mercy if they abandon their principles and allow her to destroy a village of 14 complete strangers in their stead…

At a time when comics came and went with no fanfare and cancelled titles seldom provided any closure, the sacrifice and death of the Doom Patrol was a shocking event for us readers. We wouldn’t see anything like it again for decades – and never again with such style and impact. With the edge of time and experience on my side, it’s obvious just how incredibly mature Drake & Premiani’s take on superheroes was, and these superbly engaging, frenetically fun and breathtakingly beautiful stories rightfully rank amongst the very best Fights ‘n’ Tights tales ever told. Even the mercilessly exploitative many returns of the team since can’t diminish that incredible impact, and no fan of the genre or comic dramas in general should consider their superhero education complete until they’ve seen these classics.

However comics means business and eventually attention drifted back to the “World’s Strangest Heroes”. In 1973 as part of a strand of reprint titles, The Doom Patrol title resurfaced for three issues. From them a trio of editorial features – ‘Meet… The Doom Patrol’, ‘The Men Behind… the Doom Patrol’ and ‘The Doom Patrol’s Professional Fans’ – act as round-up and prelude for the final section of this fabulous compendium.

Itself an early cancellation in the superhero downturn, venerable try-out title Showcase was revived with #94 (cover-dated August/September 1977) and offered a new Doom Patrol courtesy of Paul Kupperberg & Joe Staton. It began with ‘The Doom Patrol Lives Forever!’ as Cliffe Steele’s shell is rescued and retooled by Metal Men inventor Will Magnus. Eventually independent again the traumatized survivor visits the only home he knows and discovers a new gang living/hiding in their old HQ.

Energy-caster Joshua “Tempest” Clay is a Vietnam deserter and Valentina “Negative Woman” Vostok absconded from the Soviet air force after she was possessed by a radioactive energy being very much like the one Larry Trainor was afflicted with. They are led by an Indian woman named Arani, whose temperature-shifting powers prompted her code name Celsius. Cliff is outraged and suspicious, but all becomes a bit clearer when arch enemy General Immortus attacks…

Inked by Francisco Chiaramonte, ‘The Origin of Celsius!’ reveals how the icy flamethrower is in fact Niles Caulder’s secret wife, and possesses those secrets of unending life the geriatric general craves above all else. The battle to stop him and save her creates a bond between the team that carries them straight into even deadlier dangers as Vostok is targeted by US federal agent Matt Cable (last seen palling around with the Swamp Thing) and far-less-tractable KGB operative The Cossack, seeking her recovery for the state. With Bruce Patterson inking, ‘Defection!’ sees the quartet begin a life as fugitive heroes in the grand tradition…

Mere months later Superman Family #191 through 193 saw them join Supergirl, confronting ‘A Matter of Gravity’ (by Gerry Conway with Sott Edelman, Arvell Jones & Romeo Tanghal) as rival villains – and distant cousins with a historic grudge – Gravitron Man and Gravity Lord tear up the world in search of validation and vengeance: cruelly proving ‘What Goes Up… Can’t Come Down’ before ‘The Gravity War’ is forcefully and forcible ended by the united champions…

Although as kids we all happily suspended disbelief and bought into the fanciful antics of the myriad masked heroes available, somehow the exploits of Doom Patrol – and their strangely synchronistic Marvel counterparts The X-Men (freaks and outcasts, wheelchair geniuses, both debuting in the summer of 1963) – always seemed just a bit more authentic than the usual cape-&-costume crowd. With the edge of time and experience on my side it’s obvious just how incredibly mature and hardcore Drake, Haney & Premiani’s take on superheroes actually was. These superbly engaging, frantically fun and breathtakingly beautiful tales should be rightfully ranked amongst the finest Fights ‘n’ Tights tales ever told.

With covers by Bob Brown, Premiani, Carmine Infantino, Jack Sparling, Joe Orlando, Jim Aparo, Rich Buckler Vince Colletta, Ross Andru & Dick Giordano this is a grande superhero sampler any fan of comics or the TV series will adore. Hopefully we’ll see it in digital format soon…
© 1966, 1967, 1968, 1973, 1977, 1978, 1979, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1929 the astoundingly smart Jules Feiffer was born. Go see Explainers to see why that’s a cause for celebration before wishing super spidery avenging defending art star Sal Buscema Many Happy Returns since his natal arrival in 1936. If there are gods of any sort anywhere PLEASE DON’T JINX THAT!

In 1948 Frank Godwin’s Rusty Riley strip launched, as did UK weekly Boy’s World in 1963.

If you’re a travelling fan say hooray that Richard Alf was born today in 1952. Even if you haven’t visited his comics stores, you’ve probably enjoyed the San Diego Comic Con he co-founded…

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DC Finest: Superman – The Invisible Luthor


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Jack Burnley, Paul Lauretta, Wayne Boring, Jack Burnley, Paul Cassidy, Ed Dobrotka, Leo Nowak, Fred Ray, John Sikela, Dennis Neville, Don Komisarow, lettered by Frank Shuster, Betty Burnley Bentley, the Superman Studio & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77950-332-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

Nearly 90 years ago, Superman rebooted planetary mythology and kickstarted the entire genre of modern fantasy heroes. Outlandish, flamboyant, indomitable, infallible and unconquerable, he also saved a foundering industry by birthing an entirely new genre of storytelling: the Super Hero. Since April 18th 1938 (the generally agreed day copies of Action Comics #1 first went on sale) he has grown into a mighty presence in all aspects of art, culture and commerce, even as his natal comic book universe organically grew and expanded. Within three years of that debut, the intoxicating blend of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment that had hallmarked the early exploits of the Man of Tomorrow had grown: encompassing crime-busting, reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy and even whimsical comedy. However, once the war in Europe and the East captured America’s communal consciousness, combat themes and patriotic imagery dominated most comic book covers, if not interiors.

In comic book terms alone Superman was soon a true master of the world, utterly changing the shape of the fledgling industry as easily as he could a mighty river. There was a popular newspaper strip, a thrice-weekly radio serial, games, toys, foreign and overseas syndication and as the decade turned, the Fleischer studio’s astounding animated cartoons.

Moreover, the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release as the energy and enthusiasm of originators Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster went on to inform and infect the burgeoning studio which grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.

These tales have been reprinted many times, but this latest compilation might arguably be the best yet, offering the original stories in reading – if not strictly chronological publishing – order and spanning cover-dates July 1940 to September 1941. It features landmark sagas from Action Comics #26-40 and Superman #6-11, plus pivotal appearances in New York’s World Fair No. 2, World’s Best Comics #1 and World’s Finest Comics #2 & 3 (all with eye-catching groundbreaking covers by Jack Burnley). Although most early tales were untitled, here, for everyone’s convenience, they have been given descriptive appellations by the editors, and I should also advise that as far as we know it’s written entirely by Seigel, with the majority of covers by Fred Ray (unless I say otherwise!).

This incredible panorama of torrid tales opens with gangsters attempting to plunder jewels from exhibits at the biggest show on earth. Taken from premium package New York World’s Fair #2, ‘Superman at the 1940 World’s Fair’ is credited to Siegel & Schuster, but actually illustrated by Burnley who also provided the first ever pairing of the Man of Tomorrow with Dynamic Duo Batman and Robin on the cover to drag readers in…

Siegel & Shuster had created a true phenomenon and were struggling to cope with it. As well as monthly and bimonthly comics a new quarterly publication, initially World’s Best and ultimately World’s Finest Comics – springing from the success of the publisher’s New York World’s Fair comic-book tie-ins – would soon debut with their indefatigable hero featuring prominently in it. Superman’s daily newspaper strip began on 16th January 1939 (Yes! Today but back then!), with a separate Sunday strip following from November 5th: garnering millions of new devotees. The need for new material and creators was constant and oppressive, so expansion was the watchword at the Superman and Shuster studios.

On the primary pages though, Action Comics#26 (July 1940) introduced ‘Professor Cobalt’s Clinic’ (limned by Pauls Lauretta & Cassidy with Siegel inking and Frank Shuster lettering) wherein Clark Kent & Lois Lane expose a murderous sham Health Facility with a little Kryptonian help, whilst the following month dealt a similar blow to corrupt orphanage the ‘Brentwood Home for Wayward Youth’. September’s issue found Superman at the circus, solving the mystery of ‘The Strongarm Assaults’, a fast-paced thriller beautifully illustrated by the astonishingly talented and versatile Burnley. Whilst thrilling to all that, kids of the time could also have picked up the sixth issue of Superman (cover-dated September/October 1940). Produced by Siegel and the Superman Studio, with Shuster increasingly overseeing and only drawing key figures and faces, this contained four more lengthy adventures. Behind its Shuster & Cassidy cover, ‘Lois Lane, Murderer’, and ‘Racketeer Terror in Gateston’ by Cassidy had the Man of Action saving his plucky co-worker from a dastardly frame up and rescuing a small town from a mob invasion. An infomercial for the Supermen of America club and the secrets of attaining ‘Super Strength’ as shared by Burnley, Shuster & Cassidy follows. These lead to more adventure and action from Lauretta & Cassidy as ‘Terror Stalks San Caluma’ and ‘The Construction Scam’ sees the Man of Tomorrow foil a blackmailer who’s discovered his secret identity before spectacularly fixing a corrupt company’s shoddy, death-trap buildings.

Action Comics #29 (October 1940) again features Burnley art in a gripping tale of murder for profit. Human drama in ‘The Life Insurance Con’ was followed by deadly super-science as the mastermind Zolar created ‘The Midsummer Snowstorm’, allowing Burnley a rare opportunity to display his fantastic imagination as well as his representational acumen and dexterity. Then Superman #7 (November/December1940) marked a creative sea-change as occasional cover artist Wayne Boring became Schuster’s regular inker, whilst seeing the Man of Steel embroiled in local politics when he confronts ‘Metropolis’ Most Savage Racketeers’; quells manmade disasters in ‘The Exploding Citizens’; stamps out City Hall corruption in ‘Superman’s Clean-Up Campaign’ (illustrated fully by Boring) and puts villainous high society bandits ‘The Black Gang’ where they belong… behind iron bars.

For Action # 31 Burnley draws another high-tech crime caper as crooks put an entire city to sleep and only Clark Kent isn’t ‘In the Grip of Morpheus’ after which ‘The Gambling Rackets of Metropolis’ (AC #32) finds Lois almost institutionalised until the Big Guy steps up to crush an illicit High Society operation that has wormed its nefarious way into the loftiest echelons of Government, a typical Siegel social drama magnificently illustrated.

Cover-dated January/February 1941, Superman #8 was another spectacular and wildly varied compendium containing four big adventures ranging from fantastic fantasy in ‘The Giants of Professor Zee’ (Cassidy & Boring); topical suspense in spotlighting ‘The Fifth Column’ (Boring & Komisarow) and common criminality in ‘The Carnival Crooks’ (Cassidy) before concluding with cover-featured ‘Parrone and the Drug Gang’ (Boring), wherein the Metropolis Marvel duels doped-up thugs and corrupt lawyers controlling them.

Action Comics #33 & 34 are both Burnley extravaganzas wherein Superman goes north to discover ‘Something Amiss at the Lumber Camp’, before heading to coal country to save ‘The Beautiful Young Heiress’; both superbly enticing character-plays with plenty of scope for super-stunts to thrill the gasping fans.

Superman #9 (March/April 1941) was another four-star thriller with all art credited to Cassidy. ‘The Phony Pacifists’ is an espionage thriller capitalising on increasing US tensions over “the European War” whilst ‘Joe Gatson, Racketeer’ recounts the sorry end of a hot-shot blackmailer and kidnapper. ‘Mystery in Swasey Swamp’ combines eerie rural events with ruthless spies whilst the self-explanatory ‘Jackson’s Murder Ring’ pits the Caped Kryptonian against an ingenious gang of commercial assassins. The issue also improves health and well-being with another Shuster & Cassidy ‘Supermen of America’ update and exercise feature ‘Super-Strength’ by Shuster.

The success of the annual World’s Fair premium comic books had convinced editors that an over-sized anthology of their characters, with Superman and Batman prominently featured, would be a worthwhile proposition even at the exorbitant price of 15¢ (most 64-page titles retailed for 10¢ and would do so until the 1960s). At 96 pages, World’s Best Comics #1 debuted with a Spring 1941 cover-date and Fred Ray frontage, before transforming into the soon-to-be-venerable World’s Finest Comics from issue #2 onwards. From that landmark one-&-only edition comes gripping disaster thriller ‘Superman vs. the Rainmaker’, illustrated by Boring & Komisarow, after which Action Comics #35 headlines a human-interest tale with startling repercussions in Boring & Leo Nowak’s ‘The Guybart Gold Mine’, before even Superman is mightily stretched to cope with the awesome threat of ‘The Enemy Invasion’ rendered by Boring & Shuster: a canny, foreboding taste of things to come if – or rather, when – America entered World War II.

Superman #10 (May/June 1941) opens with eponymous mystery ‘The Invisible Luthor’ (Nowak), follows with ‘The Talent Agency Fraud’ (Cassidy, Nowak, Siegel & the Studio), steps on the gas in ‘The Spy Ring of Righab Bey’ and closes with ‘The Dukalia Spy Ring’ (both by Boring, Siegel & the Studio): topical and exotic themes of suspense as America was still at this time still officially neutral in the “European War”. Conversely, Action Comics #37 (June 1941) returned to tales of graft, crime and social injustice in ‘Commissioner Kent’ (Cassidy) as the Man of Steel’s timid alter-ego is forced to run for the job of Metropolis’ top cop, before World’s Finest Comics #2 (Summer 1941) unleashes Cassidy & Nowak’s ‘The Unknown X’ – a fast-paced mystery of sinister murder-masterminds, before AC #38 (and Nowak & Ed Dobrotka) provide a spectacular battle bout against a sinister hypnotist committing crimes through ‘Radio Control’…

Other than a Cassidy pinup, Superman #11 (July/August 1941) was an all Nowak affair, beginning with ‘Zimba’s Gold Badge Terrorists’ wherein thinly disguised Nazis “Blitzkrieg” America, after which “giant animals” go on a rampage in ‘The Corinthville Caper’. Seeking a cure for ‘The Yellow Plague’ then takes Superman to the ends of the Earth whilst ‘The Plot of Count Bergac’ brings him back home to crush High Society gangsters. All by Nowak but accompanied by a Cassidy pinup.

Horrific mad science creates ‘The Radioactive Man’ in Action #39 (Nowak & Shuster Studios), whilst #40 featured ‘The Billionaire’s Daughter’ (by John Sikela) wherein the mighty Man of Tomorrow needs all his wits to set straight a spoiled debutante before we closing with ‘The Case of the Death Express’: a tense thriller about train-wreckers illustrated by Nowak from the Fall issue of World’s Finest (#3).

Stories of corruption and social injustice were gradually moving aside for more spectacular fare, and with war in the news and clearly on the horizon, the tone and content of Superman’s adventures changed too: the scale and scope of the stunts became more important than the motive. The raw passion and sly wit still shone through in Siegel’s stories but as the world grew more dangerous the Man of Tomorrow simply had to become stronger and more flamboyant to deal with it all, with Shuster and his team consequently stretching and expanding the iconography for all imitators and successors to follow.

These Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at an absurdly affordable price. My admiration for the stripped-down purity and power of these stories is boundless. Nothing has ever come near them for joyous, child-like perfection. You really should make them part of your life. In fact, how can you possibly resist them?
© 1940, 1941, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1939 Jean Van Hamme (XIII, Thorgal, Largo Winch) was born, which you now know was the same moment – allowing for time zone differentials – that the Superman newspaper strip launched. It ended in 1966 but Van Hamme’s still going…

In 1960 UK comic Judy debuted, and ten years later so did Garth Ennis.

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Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby


By Jack Kirby, Mike Royer, Vince Colletta, Don Heck, D. Bruce Berry, Greg Theakston, Mike Thibodeaux, Dick Giordano, Mike Machlan, Bill Wray, Steve Rude & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7717-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today in 1971 American comic books again changed forever with the third component of a graphic masterpiece. On December 1st 1970 newsstands saw Superman meet counterculture head-on courtesy of Jack Kirby in a title like no other ever before. It was only one strand of a bold experiment that quite honestly failed, but still undid and remade everything. That was Forever People #1 and it was followed on December 22nd with New Gods #1. Then on January 14th 1971 comic books delivered a NEW new world that just kept on changing…

When Jack Kirby returned to the home of Superman in 1970 he was working on one of the most powerful concepts in comic book history. The expansive grandeur of his Fourth World saga grafted a complete new mythology onto and over the existing DC universe and blew the developing minds of a generation of readers. If only there had been a few more of them…

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, where Kirby revived his 1940s kid-team The Newsboy Legion, introduced large-scale cloning in the form of The Project and hinted that the city’s gangsters had extraterrestrial connections. He then moved on to a main course beginning with The Forever People, intersecting where appropriate with New Gods and Mister Miracle to form an interlinked triptych of finite-length titles that together presented an epic mosaic. Those three groundbreaking titles collectively introduced rival races of gods, dark and light, risen from the ashes of a previous Armageddon to battle forever… and then their conflict spreads to Earth…

Kirby’s concepts, as always, fired and inspired contemporaries and successors. Gods of Apokolips & New Genesis became a crucial keystone of DC continuity and integral foundation of that entire fictional universe, surviving the numerous revisions and retcons which periodically bedevil long-lived comics fans. Many major talents dabbled with the concept over decades and a host of titles have come and gone starring Kirby’s creations. That’s happening now even as I type this…

As previously stated, the herald of all this innovation had been Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, which Kirby had used to lay groundwork since taking it over with #133. There readers first met Darkseid, The Evil Project, Intergang and so much more, but it was also used as an emotional setup for a fascinating notion that had seldom if ever previously troubled the mighty, generally satisfied and well situated Man of Tomorrow…

After The 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, and the next (and 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 who reflected a changing world and sought to capture the turbulent era’s zeitgeist by also looking out for himself and breaking loose of expectations and societal shackles…

Cover-dated February/March 1971 and on sale 55 years ago today, the premiere issue of Mister Miracle – Super Escape Artist sprang the last piece of the puzzle on readers by opening with a sedate set of mysteries balanced with emotional tension and explosive action. The star – notoriously based on Jack & Roz Kirby’s friend (comics genius, magician and escapologist) Jim Steranko – was a fugitive and 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 Vince Colletta with Kirby doing most of the rest, ‘Murder Missile Trap!’ introduces aging entertainer Thaddeus Brown, an old war horse trying to get back in the saddle, and 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 before rushing 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 and decides to try something strange but substantial, for a change.

However, the coils of his past prepare to ensnare him…

The prosaic life of a showman was a beguiling setting as Scott and Oberon planned a comeback and the beloved old stagehand learned just how different the new kid really was. His suspicions of a wider, wilder side were confirmed as the orphanage Scott fled came looking for him and vicious Apokolyptian virago Granny Goodness unleashed the techno-terrors of matter-warping monster Overlord before trapping the targets in the insidious, infernal ‘X-Pit!’

Because comics fans were always abstruse, Mister Miracle regularly outsold its companion titles, but Kirby felt no compunction to explain his expanding pantheon and universe – or indeed space to do so. Here, though, please allow me to lay out some groundwork…

Soon after creation began, gods were born, thrived and perished – primarily by warring with each other. When the Old Gods died in a cosmos-shaking conflagration their perfect primal world was split into two. Eventually cooling fragments congealed into two new yet lesser worlds: the dark vicious globe of Apokolips and gleaming noble orb New Genesis. Over millennia, generations of superior beings of might and majesty populated the spinning spheres. Sadly, a tragic trait New Gods shared with their progenitors was the capacity for destruction and taste for conflict. Denizens of both planets always and inevitably found fresh ways to end each other’s immortal lives.

The tale proper began on joyous, spiritual New Genesis years after the latest all-out war with Apokolips ended. Mighty Orion arrived in paradisical Supertown where deific patriarch Highfather communes with cosmic mystery The Source. The metaphysical conduit despatched the turbulent wolf in their fold to its antithetical hell-world, only to find despot Darkseid gone. Against all treaties, captive humans from Earth had been abducted and probed for signs of the tyrant’s dream.

The lord of Apokolips wanted to do away with free will and rule personally over all that lived, employing an irresistible, intangible ultimate weapon. The “Anti-Life Equation” is a cheat code for totalitarianism: instant negation of choice, and command of all thought. Darkseid’s obsessive search for it led him to Earth where finding it would guarantee total triumph and dispense with his need for Parademons, Dog Cavalry, assorted terror weapons, and his elite inner circle of monstrous minions. Powerful and technologically advanced, for both races the basic tool is Mother Box: sentient circuitry connected to The Source and a lifelong cyber-symbiotic companion, able to communicate, advise and manipulate the physical world…

Mister Miracle #3 opens a bravura double-issue imbroglio as Scott 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 Oberon frets back at the Brown mansion, he is visited by an old friend of Scott’s, but 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 avoid ‘The Closing Jaws of Death!’  Barda is another abstention from the Apokolips method and a rowdy runaway like no other…

With Mike Royer taking over inking, Kirby’s twin loves – history and movies – are happily exercised and expressed in the next yarn as a manic military martinet (based on James Mason’s Rupert of Hentzau in The Prisoner of Zenda) attempts to humiliate and destroy the rebel in MM #5. Another stiff-necked clash of Codes of Honour, it sees elite Apokolips soldiers rendition and reclaim Barda, making her freedom contingent on Scott surviving the Wile E. Coyote-like inventions of ‘Doctor Vundabar and his Murder Machine!’ Of course he does just that, and the issue continues with the first episode in an occasional backstory featurette. Inked by Colletta, ‘Young Scott Free!!’ shares boyhood exploits of Granny’s appalling orphanage/war college where cadet Free just doesn’t fit in. He complains, he has ideas and, when no one’s looking, has extra lessons from New Genesis in the form of emotionless even-handed God of Scientific Curiosity Metron…

Humour and a heaping pile of unleashed agita underpin the wry tale of a sharp-talking conman seeking to profit off a creative star’s efforts when obnoxious, dissolute ‘Funky Flashman!’ (MM #6) seeks to monetise Scott’s act, only to run full on into “debt-collectors” from Apokolips. Happily settled in with Scott, Barda is targeted by old squadmates Stompa, Lashina, Bernadeth and Mad Harriet who have come to take her home to the Female Furies battalion she used to lead. They don’t like Flashman either and really resent missing her and taking him thanks to some sneaky sleight-of-hand…

Another brief Royer-inked ‘Young Scott Free!!’ episode finds the daily drugged & programmed dissident becoming more brazen and noticeable in his rebellions, prior to #7 opening an ‘Apokolips Trap!!’ Done with constant ambushes Scott resolves to return to the hell planet and win his right to permanent life-long liberty from Granny’s reprisals, but it all goes awry when battle-hungry Barda comes along, forcing the duo to fight the length of the evil kingdom against “Lowlies”, soldiers, war-machines and even Darkseid’s chief assassin Kanto before this duel of honour can even begin…

‘Young Scott Free!!’ adds nuance with the tale of that time the boot camp pariah somehow trashed deadly Parademons in a training exercise, after which the main event concludes in MM#8 as Scott surrenders to his nemeses and becomes a showpiece execution event against an unbeatable psychic horror during ‘The Battle of the Id!’ Unwilling to let her lover languish or die, Big Barda organises a Female Fury foray that rocks the joint, but as always, she needn’t have bothered…

In New Gods #7 Kirby revealed the origins of the current war and how Darkseid’s son Orion was traded for Highfather’s infant to become tokens of intent and hostage princes to assure a ceasefire. Now Mister Miracle #9 concludes the history lesson with the tragic how and why young man Scott Free breaks the truce, escapes the chains of expectation and chooses his own path after meeting outlaw philosopher ‘Himon!’ Cover-dated July 1972, the tale uses the last exploit ‘Young Scott Free!’ to show how, with rising-star soldier/covert rebel Lieutenant Barda, Scott challenged and dodged the system, no matter the cost…

Kirby’s intention for his Fourth World trilogy was three 12-chapter finite series working in tandem, but fate and sale demanded otherwise. Forever People and New Gods both ceased abruptly and without those intended conclusions, but something else happened for the Super Escape Artist…

The entire notion was a huge risk and massive gamble for an industry and company that was a watchword for conservatism. It was probably incredibly tough for editors and publishers to stop themselves interfering, and they often didn’t. With numbers low, and spooky stories proliferating everywhere, Kirby was pressured to drop the weird stuff and concentrate on old standards. Despite promises of support and complete autonomy, the King had already surrendered much to get his dream rolling. Crushing deadlines and ridiculous expected monthly page counts were one thing, but management had no understanding of what he was planning and promotion was non-existent. Thus, inevitably these series failed to find sufficient sales to keep on until that planned and promised conclusion. Nobody in comics argued with numbers so Forever People and New Gods #11 were the last, cancelled before Kirby could complete his grand experiment.

… Except Mister Miracle carried on. Its sales warranted continuation so with a sharp change of emphasis anticipated and accommodated by Kirby and Co, #10 saw Scott, Barda and AWOL ringleader Stompa, Lashina, Bernadeth & Mad Harriet move to Earth in a tense pause and apparent détente. With time on their hands the squad became an entertainment troupe as ‘The Mister Miracle to Be!’ finally explored showbiz and touring. Sadly, they regularly encountered outlandish human-scaled foes, such as high-tech racketeers the World Protective League and their deranged boss The Head, who mistook the wild wonders for international agents sent to derail a bio-weapon blackmail plot…

With Thaddeus’ son Ted and Oberon filling out the roster, #11 promised ‘The Greatest Show Off Earth!’ and delivered once Doctor Bedlam momentarily trapped Scott aboard an exploding spaceship before the extended run carried on with the death-cheaters challenged by an ancient artefact that stacked the odds during a deadly wager. The truth behind ‘Mystevac!’ was cruel, shocking and transient…

Next the hardworking stiffs were hijacked by a deranged fascist sect and dumped in ‘The Dictator’s Dungeon!’ (obviously not for long!) after which the growing horror trend saw them stumble over Satanists with an even more sinister secret in #14’s ‘The Quick and the Dead!’

The tone of those troubled turbulent times was then acknowledged by the introduction of a smart, capable black kid. ‘The Secret Gun!’ found Mister Miracle and friends fostering a witness to murder and eventually hiring him as the next big thing in escapology as seen in follow-up yarn ‘Shilo Norman, Super Trouble!’ as the team clash with invasive “insecto-sapiens” created by Professor Egg – a shrinking savant set on conquest and consumption. Then crime-busting returns with Scott, Barda and Shilo mistaken for hitmen when they inadvertently book in at ‘Murder Lodge!’ and are extravagantly earmarked for execution…

Eventually the encore came to a conclusion as – cover dated March 1974 – Mister Miracle #18 saw all the New God players become ‘Wild, Wild Wedding Guests!’ as Scott and Barda tied the one knot they couldn’t defy before moving in with his dad on New Genesis.

That followed one last all-out assault by Darkseid’s minions which went some way to finally looping readers back to the overarching spectacle as lovers from warring worlds decided to wed in the face of impending doom.

With that the saga was paused but time and changing tastes soon brought sequels and, at long last, Kirby’s return to craft a proper ending… of sorts. We’ll get to those in the fullness of time-space…

Mister Miracle remained a uniquely reusable concept for decades with Scott, Barda and the crew regularly getting guest gigs and new shots at the limelight in Fourth World revivals, DC titles ranging from Action Comics to Brave and the Bold to Justice League, and in solo comeback series.

This cosmic compendium offers bonus ‘Mother Box Files’ material comprising pertinent Kirby characters as revisited by himself, and select inkers from assorted DC Who’s Who fact files. Here a tremendous group treatment of The Female Furies, inked by Greg Theakston, backs up a clutch of solo entries for ‘Mister Miracle’ (Giordano), ‘Big Barda’ and ‘Granny Goodness’ (Theakston), ‘Doctor Bedlam’ (Mike Machlan), ‘Funky Flashman’ (Bill Wray) & ‘Virman Vundabar’ embellished by Steve Rude. Closing the wonderment are more delights in ‘The Art of Jack Kirby’, including an unused cover for MM #7 plus a selection of stunning pencilled pages from the original run.

That metaphor for freedom and a hero who chooses to stop running, to turn and to fight is a fundamental aspect of fiction, and one that will always deliver the goods. You know what to do so what’s holding you back?
© 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 2017 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1863 Richard F. Outcault was born as were Golden Age artists Vince Alascia in 1914 and John Tartaglione in 1921. Filipino artist Rudy Nebres joined the crowd in 1937.

Fictionally, Elzie Segar’s Thimble Theatre debuted Castor Oyl today in 1920 and British standby Comet launched in our smoggy foggy newsagents today in 1950.

On a sad note, the deeply underappreciated Pat Boyette (Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Peacemaker, Blackhawk) passed on today in 2000.

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The Jack Kirby Omnibus Volume One: Green Arrow and others


By Jack Kirby with Joe Simon, France E. Herron, Dave Wood, Bill Finger, Robert Bernstein, Frank Giacoia, George Roussos, Roz Kirby & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3107-1 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Happy New Year! Let’s look at something old and valued!

Green Arrow is one of DC’s Golden All-Stars. He’s been a fixture of the company – in many instances for no discernible reason – more or less continually since his 1941 debut in More Fun Comics #73, cover dated November but on sale from September 19th 1941. Happy 85th and Many Happy Returns, Emerald Archer!

In those distant heady days, origins weren’t as important as image and storytelling, so creators Mort Weisinger & George Papp never bothered. The first inkling of formative motivations came in More Fun Comics # 89 (March 1943) wherein Joe Samachson & Cliff Young detailed ‘The Birth of the Battling Bowman!’ With the secret revealed, it was promptly ignored for years, leaving later workmen France Herron, Jack Kirby and his wife Roz to fill in the blanks again…

Jack Kirby was – and remains – the most important single influence in the history of US comics. There are millions of words written – such as those here by former Kirby assistant-made-good Mark Evanier in a revelatory. myth-busting Introduction to this gloriously enthralling hardback compilation – about what the King has done and meant, and you should read those too, if you are at all interested in our medium.

Tragically this particular tome is not available digitally, but that will just make it an even more impressive and rewarding once you get a copy. It might even prompt the publisher to reprint and repackage these mini masterpieces…

For those of us who grew up with his work, Kirby’s are the images which furnish and clutter our interior mindsets. Close your eyes and think “robot” and the first thing that pops up is a Kirby kreation. Every fantastic, futuristic city in our heads is crammed with his chunky yet towering spires. Because of Jack, we all know what the bodies beneath those stony-head statues on Easter Island look like, and we are all viscerally aware that you can never trust great big aliens parading around in their underpants…

When comic books began, in a remarkably short time Kirby and creative partner Joe Simon became the wonder-kid dream-team of the nascent industry. After generating a year’s worth of the influential monthly Blue Bolt, and dashing off Captain Marvel Adventures (#1) for Fawcett, Martin Goodman nailed them down. He appointed Simon editor at Timely, where “S&K” created a host of iconic stars like Red Raven, the first Marvel Boy, Hurricane, The Vision, The Young Allies, immortal villain The Red Skull and of course million-selling mega-hit Captain America (and Bucky AKA Winter Soldier).

When Goodman failed to make good on his financial obligations, Simon & Kirby quit and were snapped up by National DC, who welcomed them with open arms and a fat chequebook. Bursting with ideas the staid company were never really comfortable with, the pair were initially an uneasy fit, and were given two moribund strips to play with until they found their creative feet: Sandman and Manhunter. They turned both around virtually overnight and, once established and left to their own devices, switched to the “Kid Gang” genre they pioneered at Timely. Joe & Jack created wartime sales sensation The Boy Commandos and Homefront iteration the Newsboy Legion before being called up to serve in the war they had been fighting on comic book pages since 1940. When they returned it was to a very different funnybook business, and soon they left National to create their own little empire.

Simon & Kirby heralded and ushered in the first American age of mature comics – not just by inventing the Romance genre, but with all manner of challenging modern material about real people in extraordinary situations. They saw it all disappear again in less than eight years. Their small stable of magazines – generated for an association of interlinked companies known as Prize/Crestwood/Pines/Essenkay/Mainline Comics – blossomed and as quickly wilted when the industry abruptly contracted throughout the 1950s. After years of working for others, Simon & Kirby had finally established their own publishing house, producing comics for a far more sophisticated audience, only to find themselves in a sales downturn and awash in public hysteria generated by an anti-comicbook pogrom.

Hysterical censorship-fever spearheaded by US Senator Estes Kefauver and opportunistic pop psychologist Dr. Frederic Wertham led to witch-hunting Senate hearings. Caving in, publishers adopted a castrating straitjacket of draconian self-regulation. Horror titles produced under the aegis and emblem of the Comics Code Authority were sanitised and anodyne affairs in terms of Shock & Gore, even though the market’s appetite for suspense and the uncanny was still extremely high. Non superhero Crime comics vanished and mature themes challenging society’s status quo were suppressed…

Simon quit the business for advertising, but Kirby soldiered on, taking his skills and ideas to a number of safer, if less daring, companies. As the panic subsided, Kirby returned briefly to DC where he worked on mystery tales and Green Arrow (a long-lived back-up in Adventure Comics & World’s Finest Comics) whilst concentrating on his long-dreamed-of newspaper strip feature Sky Masters of the Space Force. During that period, Kirby also re-packaged a superteam concept kicking around in his head since he and Joe had closed their innovative, ill-timed ventures. At the end of 1956, Showcase #6 (a try-out title that launched many DC mainstays) premiered Challengers of the Unknown. After 3 more test issues “the Challs” won their own title, with Kirby in command for the first 8. Then a legal dispute with Editor Jack Schiff kicked off and the King was gone…

During that brief 3-year period (cover-dates 1957-1959), Kirby also crafted a plethora of short comics yarns which this fabulous tome re-presents in originally-published order. The roster comprises superhero, mystery and science fiction shorts from Tales of the Unexpected #12, 13, 15-18, 21- 24; House of Mystery #61, 63, 65, 66, 70, 72, 76, 84, 85; House of Secrets #3, 4, 8, 12; My Greatest Adventure #15- 18, 20, 21, 28; Adventure Comics #250-256 and World’s Finest Comics # 96-99: a long-lost gem from All-Star Western #99 plus 3 quirky vignettes by Simon & Kirby from 1946-1947 for Real Fact Comics #1, 2 & 6.

Records from those days when no creator was allowed a by-line are sparse and scanty, so many of these carry no writer’s credit (and besides, Kirby was notorious for rewriting scripts he was unhappy drawing) but Group Editor Schiff’s regular stable of authors included Dave Wood, Bill Finger, Ed Herron, Joe Samachson, George Kashdan, Jack Miller & Otto Binder, so feel free to play the “whodunit” game…

National DC Comics was relatively slow in joining the post-war mystery comics boom, but as 1951 closed they at last launched a gore-free, comparatively straight-laced anthology which nevertheless became one of their longest-running and most influential titles: The House of Mystery (cover-dated December 1951/January 1952). Its success inevitably led to a raft of similar, creature-filled fantasy anthologies including Sensation Mystery, Tales of the Unexpected, My Greatest Adventure and House of Secrets. With the Comics Code in full effect, plot options for mystery and suspense stories were savagely curtailed: limited to ambiguous, anodyne magical artefacts, wholesomely educational mythological themes, science-based miracles and criminal chicanery.

Although marvellously illustrated, stories were rationalistic, fantasy-adventure vehicles and they dominated until the early 1960s when superheroes (reinvigorated after Julius Schwartz reintroduced The Flash in Showcase #4, October 1956) usurped them…

In this compilation, following that aforementioned Introduction – describing Kirby’s 3 tours of duty with DC in very different decades – the vintage wonderment commences with another example of the ingenious versatility of Jack & Joe.

Originating in the wholesome and self-explanatory Real Fact Comics, ‘The Rocket-Lanes of Tomorrow’ (#1, March/April 1946) and ‘A World of Thinking Robots’ from #2 (May/June 1946) are forward-looking, retro-fabulous graphic prognostications of the “World That’s Coming”. A longer piece in #6 (July/August 1947) then details the history and achievements of ‘Backseat Driver’ and road-safety campaigner Mildred McKay. These were amongst the very last strips the duo produced for National before moving to Crestwood/Pines, so we skip ahead a decade and more for Jack’s return in House of Secrets #3 (March/April 1957) where ‘The Three Prophecies’ eerily depicts a spiritualist conman being fleeced by an even more skilful grifter… until Fate takes a hand…

Mythological mysticism informs ‘The Thing in the Box’ (House of Mystery #61, April 1957) wherein a salvage diver is obsessed with a deadly casket his captain is all too eager to dump into the ocean. From the same month, Tales of the Unexpected #12 focuses on ‘The All-Seeing Eye’ as a journalist responsible for many impossible scoops realises the potential dangers of the ancient artefact he employs far outweigh its benefits…

In House of Secrets #4 (May/June 1957) the ‘Master of the Unknown’ seems destined to take the big cash prize on a TV quiz show until the producer deduces his uncanny secret, after which ‘I Found the City under the City’ (My Greatest Adventure #15, from the same month) details how fishermen recover the last testament of a lost oceanographer and read of how he intended to foil an impending invasion by aquatic aliens…

From May 1957, France E. Herron & Kirby investigated ‘The Face Behind the Mask’ (Tales of the Unexpected #13): a gripping crime-caper involving gullible men, a vibrant femme fatale and a quest for eternal youth. There was no fakery to ‘Riddle of the Red Roc’ (House of Mystery #63, June) as a venal explorer hatches and trains the invulnerable bird of legend, creating an unstoppable thief before succumbing to his own greed. My Greatest Adventure #16 (July/August) features a truly fearsome threat as an explorer is sucked into a deadly association, creating death and destruction to learn ‘I Died a Thousand Times’…

That month, Unexpected #15 offered ‘Three Wishes to Doom’: a crafty thriller proving that even with a genie’s lamp, crime does not pay, after which weird science transforms a rash scientist into ‘The Human Dragon’ (HoM #65 August, with George Roussos inking his old pal Jack), although his time to repent is brief as a criminal mastermind capitalises on his misfortune…

There’s an understandable frisson of foreshadowing to ‘The Magic Hammer’ (TotU #16 August) as it relates how a prospector finds a magical mallet capable of creating storms and goes into the rainmaking business… until the original owner turns up…

A smart gimmick underscores a tantalising tale of plagiarism and possible telepathy in ‘The Thief of Thoughts’ (HoM #66 September) whilst straight Sci Fi tropes inform the tale of a hotel detective and a most unusual guest in ‘Who is Mr. Ashtar?’ (TotU #17, September) before MGA #17 (September/October 1957) reveals how aliens intent on invasion brainwash a millionaire scientist to eradicate humanity in ‘I Doomed the World’. Happily one glaring error was made…

In Tales of the Unexpected #18 (October), Kirby shows how an astute astronomer saves us all by outwitting an energy being with big appetites in ‘The Man Who Collected Planets’, after which MGA #18 (November/December 1957) ushers in the comic book Atomic Age with ‘I Tracked the Nuclear Creature’, detailing how a hunter sets out to destroy a macabre mineral monster created by uncontrolled fission…

A new year dawned with Roussos inking ‘The Creatures from Nowhere!’ (HoM #70, January 1958) as escaped alien beasts rampage through a quiet town, and HoS #8 (January/February) finds greed, betrayal, murder and supernatural suspense are the watchwords when a killer tries to silence ‘The Cats Who Knew Too Much!’ Tales of the Unexpected #21 (also January) sees a smart investor proving too much for apparent extraterrestrial ‘The Mysterious Mr. Vince’, whilst a month later Unexpected #22 sees an ‘Invasion of the Volcano Men’ start in fiery fury and panicked confrontations before resolving into an alliance against uncontrolled forces of nature.

Kirby never officially worked for National’s prodigious Westerns division, but apparently his old friend and neighbour Frank Giacoia did, and occasionally needed Jack’s legendary pencilling speed to meet deadlines. ‘The Ambush at Smoke Canyon!’ features long-running cavalry hero Foley of the Fighting 5th single-handedly stalking Pawnee renegades in a somewhat standard sagebrush saga scripted by Herron and inked by Giacoia from All-Star Western #99 (February/March 1958).

Meanwhile in House of Mystery #72 (March) a shameless B-Movie Producer seemingly becomes ‘The Man Who Betrayed Earth’ whilst in MGA #20 (March/April), interplanetary bonds of friendship are forged when space pirates kidnap assorted sentients and a canny Earthling saves the day in ‘I Was Big-Game on Neptune’…

Inadvertent cosmic catastrophe is narrowly averted in TotU #23 (March) when one man realises how to make contact with ‘The Giants from Outer Space’, after which issue #24 (April) slips into wild whimsy as ‘The Two-Dimensional Man!’ strives desperately to correct his incredible condition before being literally blown away…

When an early space-shot brings back all-consuming horror in MGA #21 (May/June 1958), a brace of boffins realise ‘We Were Doomed by the Metal-Eating Monster’ before ‘The Artificial Twin’ (HoM #76, July) combines mad doctor super-science with deception and fraud, whilst House of Secrets #12 (September) reveals a frantic man struggling to close ‘The Hole in the Sky’ before invading aliens use it to conquer humanity…

Also scattered throughout this extraordinary compendium of the bizarre is a stunning and bombastic Baker’s Dozen of Kirby’s fantastic covers from the period, but for most modern fans the real meat is the short, sharp salvo of superhero shockers that follow…

On his debut, Green Arrow proved quite successful. With boy partner Speedy, he was one of precious few masked stalwarts to survive beyond the Golden Age. A blatant blend of Batman and Robin Hood seemed to have very little going for itself, but the Emerald Archer always managed to keep himself in vogue. He carried on adventuring in the back of other heroes’ comic books, joined the Justice League of America just as their star was rising and later became – courtesy of Denny O’Neil & Neal Adams – the spokes-hero of the anti-establishment generation, during the 1960-70’s “Relevancy Comics” trend.

Later, under Mike Grell’s stewardship and thanks to epic miniseries Green Arrow: the Longbow Hunters, he at last became a headliner: re-imagined as an urban predator dealing with corporate thugs and serial killers rather than costumed goof-balls. This version, more than any other, informs and underpins the TV incarnation seen in Arrow.

After his long career and numerous venue changes, by the time of Schwartz’s resurrection of the Superhero genre the Battling Bowman was a solid second feature in Adventure and World’s Finest Comics where, as part of a wave of retcons, reworkings and spruce-ups DC administered to their remaining costumed old soldiers, a fresh start began in the summer of 1958. Part of that revival happily coincided with Kirby’s return to National Comics.

As revealed in Evanier’s Introduction, after working on anthological stories for Schiff, the King was asked to revise the idling archer and responded by beefing up science fictional aspects. When supervising editor – and creator – Weisinger objected, changes were toned down and Kirby saw the writing on the wall. He lost interest and began quietly looking elsewhere for work…

What resulted was a tantalisingly short run of 11 astounding action-packed, fantasy-filled swashbucklers, the first of which was scripted by Bill Finger as ‘The Green Arrows of the World’ (Adventure Comics #251, July 1958) sees costumed archers from many nations attending a conference in Star City. They are blithely unaware a fugitive criminal with murder in his heart is hiding within their masked midst…

August’s #251 takes a welcome turn to astounding science fiction as Kirby scripted and resolved ‘The Case of the Super-Arrows’ wherein the Amazing Archers take possession of high-tech trick shafts sent from 3000 AD. World’s Finest Comics #96 (writer unknown) then reveals ‘Five Clues to Danger’ – a classic kidnap mystery made even more impressive by Kirby’s lean, raw illustration and wife Roz’s sharp inking. A practically unheard-of continued case spanned Adventure #252 & 253 as Dave Wood, Jack & Roz posed ‘The Mystery of the Giant Arrows’ before GA & Speedy briefly became ‘Prisoners of Dimension Zero’ – a spectacular riot of giant aliens and incredible exotic other worlds, followed in WFC #97 (October 1958) with a grand old-school crime-caper in Herron’s ‘The Mystery of the Mechanical Octopus’. Kirby was having fun and going from strength to strength. Adventure #254 featured ‘The Green Arrow’s Last Stand’ (by Wood): a particularly fine example with the Bold Bowmen crashing into a hidden valley where Sioux warriors thrive unchanged since the time of Custer. The next issue saw the heroes battling a battalion of Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender their island bunker in ‘The War That Never Ended!’ (also by Wood). December’s WFC #98 nearly ended the heroes’ careers in Herron’s ‘The Unmasked Archers’, when a private practical joke caused the pair to inadvertently expose themselves to public scrutiny and deadly danger…

As previous stated, in the heady early days origins weren’t as important as just plain getting on with it. The definitive version was left to later workmen Herron, Jack & Roz (in Kirby’s penultimate tale), filling in the blanks with ‘The Green Arrow’s First Case’ as the superhero revival hit its stride. It appeared in Adventure Comics #256 – cover-dated January 1959 – and this time the story stuck, becoming, with numerous tweaking over successive years, the basis of the modern Amazing Archer of page and screen. Here we learned how wealthy wastrel Oliver Queen was cast away on a deserted island and learned to use a handmade bow and survive. When scurvy mutineers fetched up on his desolate shores, Queen used his newfound skills to defeat them and returned to civilisation with a new career and purpose…

Kirby’s spectacular swansong came in WFC #99 (January 1959) in ‘Crimes under Glass’. Written by Robert Bernstein, it sees GA & Speedy confronting crafty criminals with a canny clutch of optical armaments, before the Archer steadfastly slid back into the sedate, gimmick-heavy rut of pre-Kirby times…

The King had moved on to other enterprises – Archie Comics with Joe Simon and a little outfit which would soon be calling itself Marvel Comics – but his rapid rate of creation had left completed tales in DC’s inventory pile which slowly emerged for months thereafter and neatly wrap up this comprehensive compendium of the uncanny. From My Greatest Adventure #28 (February 1959) ‘We Battled the Microscopic Menace!’ pits brave boffins against a ravening devourer their meddling with unknown forces had unleashed, whilst a month later HoM #84 depicted a terrifying struggle against ‘The Negative Man’ as an embattled researcher fought his own unleashed energy doppelganger.

It all ends in an unforgettable spectacular as House of Mystery #85 (April 1959) awakens ‘The Stone Sentinels of Giant Island’ to rampage across a lost Pacific island and threaten the brave crew of a scientific survey vessel… until one wise man deduces their incredible secret…

Jack was and is unique and uncompromising: his words and pictures are an unparalleled, hearts-and-minds grabbing delight no comics lover could resist. If you’re not a fan or simply not prepared to see for yourself what all the fuss has been about then no words of mine will change your mind.

That doesn’t alter the fact that Kirby’s work from 1937 to his death in 1994 shaped the American comics scene and the entire comics planet: affecting billions of readers and thousands of creators in every arena of artistic endeavour for generations. He still wins new fans and apostles every day, from the young and naive to the most cerebral of intellectuals. His work is instantly accessible, irresistibly visceral, deceptively deep and simultaneously mythic and human. This collection from his transformative middle period exults in sheer escapist wonderment, and no one should miss the graphic exploits of these perfect adventures in that ideal setting of not-so-long-ago in a simpler, better time and place than ours.
© 1946, 1947, 1957, 1958, 1959, 2011 DC Comics. All Rights

Today in 1912 British cartoonist and strip master Tony Weare was born. Where the tarnation is that Matt Marriot compilation? Ten years later in Trenton, New Jersey Sherrill David Robinson followed. You know Jerry for co creating the Joker and his Batman stuff, but try tracking down his Still Life panels…

In 1980, Gary Larson’s The Far Side debuted, only to stop original material on the same day 15 years later. How weird is that? Of course you could ascertain all that by seeing observing There’s a HAIR in My Dirt! – A Worm’s Story please link to November 2nd 2021.

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Showcase Presents Robin The Boy Wonder


By E. Nelson Bridwell, Ed Hamilton, John Broome, Leo Dorfman, Gardner F. Fox, Cary Bates, Mike Friedrich, Frank Robbins, Denny O’Neil, Bob Haney, Elliot Maggin, Bob Rozakis, Ross Andru, Curt Swan, Sheldon Moldoff, Pete Costanza, Chic Stone, Gil Kane, Irv Novick, Murphy Anderson, Dick Dillin, Rich Buckler, Bob Brown, Mike Grell, A. Martinez Al Milgrom & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1676-4 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As previously mentioned, there are a lot of comics anniversaries occurring in this otherwise dreadful year. The ultimate and original sidekick is probably the most significant of DC’s representatives, and indeed there have been a few intriguing collections released to celebrate the occasion. This one, however, is probably the best but remains criminally out of print, if not utterly unavailable…

Robin the Boy Wonder debuted in Detective Comics #38 (cover dated April 1940 and on sale from March 6th). Co-created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson, he was a juvenile circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mob boss. The story of how Batman took the orphaned Dick Grayson under his scalloped wing and trained him to fight crime has been told, retold and revised many times over the decades and still regularly undergoes tweaking to this day.

Grayson fought beside Batman until 1970 when, as an indicator of those turbulent times, he flew the nest, becoming a Teen Wonder college student. His creation as a junior hero for younger readers to identify with has inspired an incomprehensible number of costumed sidekicks and kid crusaders, and Grayson continued in similar innovative vein for the older, more worldly-wise readership of America’s increasingly rebellious youth culture.

The first Robin even had his own solo series in Star Spangled Comics from 1947 to 1952, a solo spot in the back of Detective Comics from the end of the 1960s – a position he alternated and shared with Batgirl – and a starring feature in anthology comic Batman Family. During the 1980s he led the New Teen Titans, initially in his original costumed identity but eventually in the reinvented guise of Nightwing, all while re-establishing a (somewhat turbulent) working relationship with his masked mentor.

This broad ranging easy on the eye monochrome compilation covers the period from Julie Schwartz’s captivating reinvigoration of the Dynamic Duo in 1964 until 1975 with Robin-related stories and material from Batman #184, 192, 202, 213, 227, 229-231, 234-236, 239-242, 244-246, 248-250, 252, 254 and portions of 217; Detective Comics #342, 386, 390-391, 394-395, 398-403, 445, 447, 450-251; World’s Finest Comics #141, 147, 195, 200; Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #91, 111, 130 and Justice League of America #91-92.

The wonderment begins with the lead story from Batman #213 (July-August 1969) – a 30th Anniversary reprint Giant – which featured an all-new retelling of ‘The Origin of Robin’ courtesy of E. Nelson Bridwell, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, perfectly reinterpreting that epochal event for the Vietnam generation. After that, the tales proceed in (more or less) chronological order, covering episodes where Robin took centre-stage.

First up is ‘The Olsen-Robin Team versus… the Superman-Batman Team!’ (from World’s Finest #141, May 1964, by Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan & George Klein). In a stirring blend of science fiction thriller and crime caper, the underappreciated sidekicks fake their own deaths to undertake a secret mission even their adult partners must remain unaware of – for the very best of reasons of course. A sequel from WF #147 (February 1965) delivers an engaging drama of youth-in-revolt as ‘The New Terrific Team!’ quit their assistant roles to strike out on their disgruntled own. Naturally there’s a perfectly reasonable – if incredible – reason here, too…

Detective Comics #342 (August 1965) featured ‘The Midnight Raid of the Robin Gang!’ by John Broome, Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella, wherein the Boy Wonder joins a youthful gang of costumed criminals, after which Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #91 (March 1966) delivers ‘The Dragon Delinquent!’ (Leo Dorfman & Pete Costanza) as Robin and the cub reporter, unknown to each other, both infiltrate the same biker gang with potentially fatal consequences.

‘The Boy Wonder’s Boo-Boo Patrol!’ – originally a back-up in Batman #184 (September 1966, Gardner Fox, Chic Stone & Sid Greene), shows the daring lad’s star-potential in a clever tale of thespian skulduggery and classic conundrum solving, before ‘Dick Grayson’s Secret Guardian!’ (Batman #192, June 1967, Fox, Moldoff & Giella) depicts his physical prowess in one of comic books’ first instances of the exo-skeletal augmentation gimmick.

‘Jimmy Olsen, Boy Wonder!’ (SPJO #111, June 1968, by Cary Bates & Costanza) finds the reporter trying to prove his covert skills by convincing the Gotham Guardian that he was actually Robin, whilst that same month in Batman #203 the genuine article tackles the ‘Menace of the Motorcycle Marauders!’ (Mike Friedrich, Stone & Giella) consequently learning a salutary lesson in the price of responsibility…

Cover-dated April 1969, Detective Comics #386 featured the Boy Wonder’s first solo back-up in what was to become his semi-regular spot for years. ‘The Teen-Age Gap!’ (as described by Friedrich, Andru & Esposito) depicts a High School Barn Dance which only narrowly escapes becoming a riot thanks to his diligent intervention, after which Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson assume the art-chores with #390’s ‘Countdown to Chaos!’ (August 1969), bringing the series stunningly alive. Friedrich concocted a canny tale of corruption and kidnapping leading to a paralysing city ‘Strike!’ for the Caped kid to spectacularly expose and foil in the following issue.

Batman #217 (December 1969) was a landmark in the character’s long history as Dick leaves home to attend Hudson University. Only the pertinent portion from ‘One Bullet Too Many!’ by Frank Robbins, Irv Novick & Dick Giordano is included here, closely followed by ‘Strike… Whilst the Campus is Hot’ (Detective #394 from the same month, by Robbins, Kane & Anderson) as the callow freshman stumbles into a campus riot organised by criminals and radical activists, forcing the now Teen Wonder to ‘Drop Out… or Drop Dead!‘ to stop the seditious scheme…

Detective #398-399 (April & May 1970) ran a 2-part spy-thriller with Vince Colletta replacing Anderson as inker. ‘Moon-Struck’ has lunar rock samples borrowed from NASA apparently causing a plague among Hudson’s students until Robin exposes a Soviet scheme to sabotage the Space Program in ‘Panic by Moonglow’. The 400th anniversary issue (June 1970) finally teamed the Teen Wonder with his alternating back-up star in ‘A Burial For Batgirl!’ (Denny O’Neil, Kane & Colletta): a college-based murder mystery which again heavily references the political and social unrest then plaguing US campuses, but which still finds space to be smart and action-packed as well as topical, before chilling conclusion ‘Midnight is the Dying Hour!’ wraps up the saga.

Never afraid to repeat a good idea, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #130 (July 1970) sees Bob Haney & Murphy Anderson detail the exploits of ‘Olsen the Teen Wonder!’ as the boy reporter again apes Batman’s buddy – this time to infiltrate an underworld newspaper – whilst World’s Finest #195 (August 1970) finds Jimmy & Robin targeted for murder by the Mafia in ‘Dig Now, Die Later!’ by Haney, Andru & Esposito. Simultaneously in DC #402 ‘My Place in the Sun’ (Friedrich, Kane & Colletta), embroils Grayson and fellow Teen Titan Roy Speedy Harper in a crisis of social conscience, before our scarce-bearded hero wraps up his Detective run with corking crime-busting caper ‘Break-Out’ in the September issue.

Robin’s romps transferred to the back of Batman, beginning with #227 (December 1970) and ‘Help Me – I Think I’m Dead!’ (Friedrich, Novick & Esposito) as ecological awareness and penny-pinching Big Business catastrophically collide on the campus, beginning an extended epic seeing the Teen Thunderbolt explore communes, alternative cultures and the burgeoning spiritual New Age fads of the day. Inked by Frank Giacoia ‘Temperature Boiling… and Rising!’ (#229, February 1971) continues the politically-charged drama, albeit uncomfortably interrupted by a trenchant fantasy team-up with Superman sparked when the Man of Steel attempts to halt a violent campus clash between students and National Guard.

Crafted by Friedrich, Dick Dillin & Giella, ‘Prisoners of the Immortal World!’ (WFC #200, February 1971), has brothers on opposite sides of the teen scene abducted with Robin & Superman to a distant planet where undying vampiric aliens wage eternal war on each other. A return to more pedestrian perils in Batman #230 (March 1971) sees ‘Danger Comes A-Looking!’ for our young hero in the form of a gang of right-wing, anti-protester jocks and a deluded friend who prefers bombs to brotherhood, courtesy of Friedrich, Novick & Dick Giordano. ‘Wiped Out!’ (#231, May 1971) then offers an eye-popping end to the jock gang whilst #234 sees a clever road-trip tale in ‘Vengeance for a Cop!’, when a campus guard is gunned down forcing Robin to track the only suspect to a commune. ‘The Outcast Society’ has its own unique system of justice, but eventually the shooter is apprehended in the cataclysmic ‘Rain Fire!’ (#235 & 236 respectively).

The Collective experience blooms into psychedelic and psionic strangeness in #239 as ‘Soul-Pit’ (illustrated by new penciller Rich Buckler) finds Grayson’s would-be girlfriend, “Jesus-freaks” and runaway kids all sucked into a telepathic duel between a father and son, played out in the ‘Theatre of the Mind!’ before exposing the ‘Secret of the Psychic Siren!’ and culminating in a lethal clash with a clandestine cult in ‘Death-Point!’ (Batman#242, June 1972). After that eerie epic we slip back a year to peruse the Teen Wonder’s participation in one of the hallowed JLA/JSA summer team-ups, beginning in Justice League of America #91 (August 1971) and ‘Earth… the Monster-Maker!’, as Supermen, Flashes, Green Lanterns, Atoms and a brace of Hawkmen from two separate Realities simultaneously and ineffectually battle an alien boy and his symbiotically-linked dog (sort of) on almost identical planets a universe apart. There’s still time to painfully patronise the Robins of both until ‘Solomon Grundy… the One and Only!’ gives everyone a brutal but ultimately life-saving lesson on acceptance, togetherness, youthful optimism and lateral thinking…

Elliot Maggin, Novick & Giordano then set ‘The Teen-Age Trap!’ (Batman#244, September 1972), with Grayson mentoring troubled kids – and finding plenty of troublemakers his own age – whilst ‘Who Stole the Gift from Nowhere!’ is a delightful old-fashioned change-of-pace mystery yarn. However, ‘How Many Ways Can a Robin Die?’ by Robbins, Novick, Dillin & Giordano (Batman #246, December 1972) is actually a Dark Knight story with Teen Wonder helpless hostage throughout, whereas #248 opens another run of solo stories with ‘The Immortals of Usen Castle’ (Maggin, Novick & Frank McLaughlin) wherein another deprived-kids day trip turns into an episode of Scooby-Doo, Where are You? The ‘Case of the Kidnapped Crusader!’ (pencilled by Bob Brown) then puts the Student Centurion on the trail of an abducted consumer advocate and ‘Return of the Flying Grayson!’ (Maggin, Novick & McLaughlin from #250) painfully reminds the hero of his Circus past after tracking down pop-art thieves.

Batman #252 (October 1973) sees Maggin, Dillin & Giordano’s light-hearted pairing of Robin with a Danny Kaye pastiche for charming romp ‘The King from Canarsie!’, before ‘The Phenomenal Memory of Luke Graham!’ (#254 January/February 1974 and inked by Anderson) causes nothing but trouble for the hero, his college professors and a gang of robbers…

It was a year before the Teen Wonder’s solo sallies resumed with ‘The Touchdown Trap’ in Detective Comics #445 as new scripter Bob Rozakis and artist Mike Grell catapulted our hero into a 50-year-old college football feud that refused to die, whilst ‘The Puzzle of the Pyramids’ (#447 and illustrated by A. Martinez & Mazzaroli) offers another clever crime conundrum. This eccentrically eclectic monochrome compendium concludes with an action-packed, chase-heavy human drama by Al Milgrom & Terry Austin as ‘The Parking Lot Bandit!’ & ‘The Parking Lot Bandit Strikes Again!’ (DC #450-451, August & September 1975), giving the titanic teen one last chance to strike a bit of terror into the hearts of evil-doers…

These stories span a turbulent and chaotic period for comic books: perfectly encapsulating and describing the vicissitudes of the superhero genre’s premier juvenile lead: complex yet uncomplicated adventures drenched in charm and wit, moody tales of rebellion and self-discovery, and rollercoaster, all-fun romps. Action is always paramount, and angst-free satisfaction is pretty much guaranteed. These cracking yarns are something no fan of old-fashioned Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction should miss.
© 1964-1975, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1922, Belgian auteur Marc Sleen was born. We still haven’t seen English versions of his Nero yet, but have slavishly and repeatedly begged you all to tune in to the oeuvre of Ronald Searle, who left us all far less today in 2011.