Category: The Joker

Posted on

Batman: Scarecrow Tales


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson & George Roussos, Gardner F. Fox, Dennis O’Neil, Elliot S! Maggin, Gerry Conway, Mike W Barr, Peter Milligan, Devin Grayson, Sheldon Moldoff, Joe Giella, Ernie Chan & Dick Giordano, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell, Don Newton & Dan Adkins, Alan Davis & Paul Neary, Duncan Fegredo & Bjarne Hansen, Roger Robinson & John Floyd, with Paul Gulacy, Carmine Infantino, George Pratt, Mike Mignola, Arthur Adams, Dermot Power, Mark Stutzman, Jim Balent & Bill Sienkiewicz & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0443-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As is only sensible, when filmmakers unleash a comic book villain of any vintage, savvy publishers collate, curate and commercialise. Thus in 2007 when The Scarecrow was named a villain du jour on Batman Begins DC dashed out a fine volume of reprints featuring a few key and generally accessible comic book appearances. Although having a much shallower well to draw from, there are some wonderful tales on offer (and the occasional dog, it must be admitted) with various pin-up pages and a cover gallery closeted here in this out of print and begging for resurrection tome…

The obvious kick-off is the first appearance by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson & George Roussos. Alternatively entitled ‘The Riddle of the Human Scarecrow’ or simply ‘The Scarecrow’ from World’s Finest #3 (1941), it spookily introduced rather odd, painfully poor and book-obsessed college psychology professor Dr. Jonathan Crane (no relation to any comedy shrink). His ill-considered classroom antics forced him out of the teaching profession and started him pursuing his nefarious dreams by making his wealthy victims afraid… at least until Batman & Robin stepped in and stepped up…

Crane only appeared once more in the Golden Age and here is reintroduced in the Silver one, after patiently serving his time in jail, in ‘Fright of the Scarecrow’ (Batman #189, cover-dated February 1967) wherein scripter Gardner Fox – despite being rather handcuffed by the overwhelming popularity of the comedic TV show – introduced the Master of Terror’s abiding modern Modus Operandi of chemically or artificially inducing anxiety, fear and screaming heebie-jeebies. This has ever since stayed the way as Crane followed the twisting path of a deranged mad scientist rather the greedy crime bandit style which consisted mostly of shooting at you until you wet yourself and coughed up the valuables…

The spooky sage’s resumed rampage through Gotham was ultimately quashed here by the daredevil Dynamic Duo as fabulously finessed by illustrators Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella.

Then from a far less frightening but more carefully inclusive era come a brace of arguably lesser and decidedly off-kilter efforts. From Batman #262 (April 1975), Denny O’Neil, Ernie Chan & Dick Giordano ‘The Scarecrow’s Trail of Fear!’ finds the hero victim of a fear inducer machine whilst racing to uncover hidden loot squirreled away by a crook literally scared to his death. Then comes a frankly bizarre duel with Gotham’s other contender for Most Scary Villain (not counting Batman!). In The Joker #8 (August 1976). Gotham’s self-acclaimed Master of Terror instigates ‘The Scarecrow’s Fearsome Face-Off!’ by stealing from his rival and reaping the revolting results in a weird war tale crafted by Elliot S! Maggin, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell…

For Detective #503 (June 1981) Gerry Conway wrote ‘The 6 Days of the Scarecrow’, beautifully illustrated by sorely missed Don Newton, and inked by Dan Adkins, wherein The Deacon of Dread turns Batman into a being who can literally scare those around him to death. However, Crane foolishly discounts the fact that his foe has allies such as Robin & Batgirl willing to do anything to save him… not that the Gotham Gangbuster needs them to…

Then, in a revitalised new world stemming out of Crisis on Infinite Earths, a fresher Dynamic Duo (with young, callow Jason Todd as the second Robin), Mike W. Barr, Alan Davis & Paul Neary pursue lighter, more liberating tales but still convincingly convey the tragedy of ‘Fear For Sale’ in Detective #571 (February 1987), after Scarecrow charges desperate sports stars to remove their caution and ability to fear consequences and triggers a storm of callous carnage…

Next is ‘Mistress of Fear’ by Peter Milligan & Duncan Fegredo from one-shot New Year’s Evil: Scarecrow #1 (February, 1998): a truly exceptional low key, high-octane psychological thriller wherein Crane kidnaps law student Becky Albright. She had previously testified against him and still isn’t afraid, even after he begins the torturous process of converting her into his sidekick and accomplice…

Devin Grayson, Roger Robinson & John Floyd then display ‘Fear of Success’ (Gotham Knights #23, January 2002) to round out these scary stories with a swipe at corporate greed, as Dr. Crane is paroled from Arkham Asylum to lecture Gotham’s Movers & Shakers thanks to the sponsorship of business paragon Mulitigon. Thankfully, Bruce Wayne (and his new bodyguard Sasha Bordeaux) are invited as Scarecrow again unleashes his Fear Toxins just to see what happens. Although Batman quickly ends the threat, he is not quick enough to avoid a potentially deadly dose of the hallucinogenic horrors…

Also on show are a moody cover gallery and bonus material including pages from Who’s Who – The Definitive Directory of The DC Universe #20 (1986) & Who’s Who in the DC Universe #21 (1990) by Art Adams and George Pratt respectively; Mike Mignola’s Saga of the Dark Knight trading card (#51); Batman: Masterpieces (1998) by Dermot Power and an original pin-up by Mark Stutzman.

Some of these scurrilous scare-sagas made it into the 2015 compilation Batman: Arkham – Scarecrow but that book has enough different and darkly desirable material to warrant its own review… possibly even before the month is out…

As a trawl through the changing nature of the industry, Batman: Scarecrow Tales is quite illuminating although one glaring omission is the utter shunning of the numerous exploits featuring the creepy character that appeared in assorted issues of the TV cartoon based Batman Adventures comic book. Now those were thrilling…

Absolutely worth re-issuing with a few of the newer tales (especially those sublime all-ages versions Batman Animated franchise), perhaps DC could award the other, OTHER Dr Crane his own 85-year Celebration album, like all those other A-lister Bat-villains. Now that’s a scarily comforting thought…
© 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Batman’s Mystery Casebook


By Sholly Fisch, Christopher A. Uminga & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0586-6 (TPB), 978-1-7795-0878-2 (Digital edition)

In recent years DC opened up its shared superhero universe: generating Original Graphic Novels featuring its many stars in stand-alone adventures for the demographic so sadly misnamed Young Adult. To date, results have been rather hit or miss, but when they’re good, they are very good indeed…

One sublime example of the process at its best is this cheery practical class in crimefighting which picks the brains and capitalises on the experience of Gotham’s gaggle of gangbusters and delivers life-defining details in the form of a comics activity book for all ages…

Author Sholly Fisch is no stranger to comics, having splendidly scripted Scooby Doo in various print incarnations and almost every DC superhero in All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold and other animation-based spin-offs, Superman, Star Wars and so much more. When not doing that, he’s a developmental psychologist consulting for companies making digital games and toys, with clients including Sesame Street, Cyberchase, The Magic School Bus Rides Again and The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That. If you love fun superheroics and vintage comics trivia, you should seek out his work.

Cartoonist/designer/visualiser Christopher A. Uminga has worked for numerous media giants including DC Comics/Warner Bros., Lucasfilm, Foot Locker, Disney’s WonderGround Gallery and more, and is assisted in making this complex and arresting tome work by colourist Silvana Brys and lettering entity Andword Design (Morgan Martinez, Justin Birch & Deron Bennett)…

A quick word to the wise: Although for years DC’s mainstream continuity has depicted the Dark Knight as a driven, tormented borderline(?!) sociopath doing good for what seems to be all the wrong reasons, Batman has always been a heroic archetype who works for all ages and on vastly differing levels of intensity. This version is far more Caped Crimecrusher than Bat out of Hell, and reaffirms his reputation as “the World’s Greatest Detective” in a series of “fair play mystery” vignettes with the reader invited to pay close attention and participate at every moment of each case. Kids can enjoy alone or with the grandparents who watched the 1966 Batman TV phenomenon unfold and parents who watched the 1990s movies and stunning Batman: The Animated Adventures series they spawned…

It begins in ‘Prologue: Whodunit?’ as Batman, Robin & Batgirl examine a crime scene and talk the readers through the clues left behind that lead to their deft deduction of the culprit…

With every reader fully briefed ‘Chapter 1: The Case of the Perilous Puzzles’ sees The Riddler running riot, obsessively dropping his verbal hints for us to solve, but don’t get so caught up that you miss the cunning visual clues scattered around, since the Dynamic Duo might be too busy escaping death traps to spot them…

Each adventure is augmented by a quick lesson in historical criminology, deduction and data gathering (just like the old Dick Tracy Crime Stoppers feature) beginning with a foundation in forensic science courtesy of ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Crime Scene Investigation’ with Clayface inadvertently assisting enquiries…

Of course Two-Face stars in piratically-positioned second chapter ‘The Case of the Dual Identity’ and the hunt offers many chances to study modus operandi before the boom is lowered, after which ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Fingerprints’ reveals the secrets of the ancient and hallowed system.

World-weary cop Harvey Bullock and Catwoman are involved in third chapter ‘The Case of the Art Attack’ but Batgirl – and the reader! – can’t be rushed to hasty conclusions if they think things through, before ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Tracks’ offers a quick refresher on Locard’s Exchange Principle (weren’t you paying attention last chapter?) as we learn to watch where we – and everybody else – steps…

Bruce Wayne & Alfred Pennyworth show off their sleuthing skills in civilian style for ‘The Case of the History Mystery’, taking us back to WWI and an encounter with Enemy Ace Hans von Hammer, augmented by some modern milestones in ‘Batcave Crime Lab: DNA’.

We’re back in supervillain territory for chapter 5 as ‘The Case of the Cold Cash’ seems to prove chilly Mister Freeze is the bad guy… until our heroes take a closer look; all complemented by the Terrific Trio taking stock of fraud in ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Fakes and Phonies’.

Batgirl and Robin have their wits truly tested in ‘The Case of the Digital Ghost’ before ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Eyewitness Testimony’ wonderfully tests every reader’s memory and visual acuity – with helpful hints from Commissioner Gordon – as we rush to the conclusion in Chapter 7 as The Joker & Harley Quinn threaten appalling consequences for all in ‘The Case of the Perilous Parade’: a thrilling manhunt that literally demands your full attention…

‘Epilogue’ then provides a summation wrap-up from Batman, plus a so-cool poster to declare “Case Closed!” on this vivid and vibrant anticrime primer… for now!

The caseload is done-in-one (hopefully only until we get a sequel and series puh-leeeze!) but this thrilling tome also offers a tantalising peek at Sara Farizan & Nicoletta Baldari’s Gotham-set tale of bullying and being the new kid My Buddy Killer Croc that’s also worth some of your time and attention.

Smart, compelling, brilliantly entertaining, astoundingly infectious and deliciously addictive, Batman’s Mystery Casebook is a superbly challenging activity and adventure romp packed with charm and wit to captivate fans and nervous neophytes alike: one introducing a new wondrous world with a rousing reminder that all is never as it seems…
© 2022 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Batman: Terror of the High Skies


By Joe R. Lansdale, Edward Hannigan & Dick Giordano (Little, Brown & Co.)
ISBN: 978-0-316-17765-8 (TPB)

September 19th is the 12th Annual Batman Day and this year it coincides with the 32nd International Talk Like A Pirate Day. That’s gonna be some strange dinner party conversation, right there, me Hearties! Moreover, World Police expect to deploy specially trained penguins to keep rival marchers Ap-Aarrrrrt!

Prior to the days of all-out Superhero cinema, we parochial comics fans tended to regard and measure our greatest assets in purely graphic narrative terms, but truthfully characters such as Superman, Spider-Man and especially Batman have long-since grown beyond their origins and are now fully modern mythological creatures who inhabit a mass of medias and even age ranges. A precious case in point is this superbly rowdy, rollicking. rousing and rather rare “Boy’s Own adventure” released in November 1992 as part of the perennial and hopefully never-ending drive to get kids reading.

Terror of the High Skies was written by the brilliant and joyously prolific Texan Joe R. Lansdale, whose credits range from novels to screenplays (Bubba Ho-Tep, Hap and Leonard) and cartoons (Superman: The Animated Series, DC Showcase: Jonah Hex) to comic books (Jonah Hex: Two Gun, Molo & Shadows West, Red Range, Pigeons From Hell, The Steam Man, Batman) in genres as broad as horror, comedy, westerns, crime-thrillers, fantasy science fiction and all points in between. He is as adept at challenging adult audiences as he is beguiling – far harder to impress – young readerships… and he knows kung fu too!

The illustrated prose tale begins as young Toby Tyler slowly adjusts to life in Gotham City after growing up in Mud Creek, East Texas. One night, as his parents play host to old friend – and Police Commissioner – Jim Gordon, Toby hears a cat in distress and climbs out of his bedroom window onto the roof of his building. Once there, he finds a flying galleon heaving-to and infamous criminal The Joker capering about all gussied-up in the guise of a movie pirate.

Toby’s a big fan of films and keeps up to date on the news, so when the Mountebank of Mirth makes the kid walk the plank off the roof he overhears some clues that will eventually lead to the Clown Prince’s defeat. It’s also where and when he first meets the daring Dark Knight, as Batman swoops out of the darkness to save him before racing off to confront Joker and his gang of plundering sky-pirates…

Already deeply involved in solving taunting card-clues to the raucous rogue’s future crimes, Batman comes close to ending the case right there, but the wily Harlequin of Hate hastily hightails it to embarks on a campaign of pirate-themed plundering, unaware that plucky Toby has deduced where and when he will strike next.

With the focus very much on the valiant boy – just as young Jim Hawkins is the narrative voice of Robert Louis Stevenson’s genre-founding Treasure Island – readers are treated to a splendid adventure as Toby is allowed to join Batman’s search for the Joker in a fantastic chase encompassing a visit to the Batcave; meeting and rescuing his favourite horror-film actor; stowing away aboard the cloud-soaring marauder; facing a (mechanical) sea monster and eventually foiling a spectacular scheme to unleash a wave of madness on unsuspecting Gotham City.

Boldly boisterous, fast-paced and engaging; delivered very much in the manner of Batman the Animated Series (for which Lansdale also wrote a number of episodes), this delightful text escapade is enhanced by eight breathtaking full-page action-illustrations by Batman veterans Ed Hannigan & Dick Giordano and would make a perfect primer for younger fans to begin their – hopefully – life-long love affair with reading… once some forward-thinking editorial bigwig has it re-released and commissions a new one too…
© 1992 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. Published under license from DC Comics.

Posted on

DC Finest: Justice League of America – Crisis on Earth X


By Len Wein, Cary Bates, Elliot S! Maggin, Denny O’Neil, Gerry Conway, Martin Pasko, Bob Rozakis, Mark Hanerfeld, Dick Dillin, Dick Giordano, Frank McLaughlin, Nick Cardy, Mike Grell, Ernie Chan, José Luis García-López, Tatjana Wood, Glynis Oliver, Neal Adams, & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-883-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Keystone of the contemporary DC Universe, the Justice League of America is the reason we still have a comics industry today. The day the first JLA story was published marks the moment when superheroes truly made comic books their own particular preserve. Even though the popularity of masked champions has waxed and waned repeatedly since 1960, and other genres have re-won their places on published pages, in the minds of America and the world, Comics Means Superheroes and the League signalled that men – and even a few women and less definable options – in capes and masks were back for good…

When editorial legend Julius Schwartz began reviving and revitalising the nigh-defunct superhero genre in 1956, his Rubicon move came a few years later with the uniting of his reconfigured mystery men into a team. Cover-dated March 1960, the JLA debuted in The Brave and the Bold #28, cementing the growth and validity of the revived subgenre, and consequently triggering an explosion of new characters at every company publishing funnybooks before spreading to the rest of the world as the decade progressed.

Spanning cover-dates December 1972 to July 1976, this classic-crammed, full-colour paperback compendium re-presents issues #103-132 of the epochal first series, as a new wave of scripters provided steadfast illustrator Dick Dillin with increasingly challenging concepts he had no trouble bringing to vivid vibrant life. While we’re showing our gratitude, lets also salute stalwart letterer Ben Oda (and occasionally Milt Snappin) for herculean but unsung efforts to make the uncanny and obscure clear to us all, colourists Glynis Oliver, Tatjana Wood and anonymous colleagues as well as cover specialists Nick Cardy, Dick Giordano, Mike Grell, Ernie Chan, José Luis García-López and the others…

Richard Allen “Dick” Dillin (17th December 1928 – 1st March 1980) started in the 1940s at Quality Comics, limning Blackhawk, Plastic Man and their war anthologies. Utterly reliable and prodigiously prolific, the draughtsman moved to DC when the company bought out Quality. He spent over a decade drawing their Blackhawk and when Mike Sekowsky left, he would draw every JLA issue for the next twelve years, as well as countless outings of DC’s top characters and even a wealth of horror stories when DC started scaring kids for money again…

These yarns begin after a major JLA/JSA team up returned the Golden Age Seven Soldiers of Victory to the expanding continuity. Appetites unsatisfied, the revival and expansion continued by adding more as yet unaffiliated mystery men to the team. Returned to their own planet the Justice League teamed up with and then inducted one of the few heroes who hadn’t accompanied them to Earth-2 in ‘A Stranger Walks Among Us!’ (#103 by Len Wein, Dillin & Giordano) as cross-genre horror hero The Phantom Stranger foils a plot to slaughter six Leaguers during the annual Halloween carnival in Rutland, Vermont, after which Green Lantern’s arch-enemy Hector Hammond orchestrates an attack on his oldest foe by setting an unstoppable monster loose on the team in ‘The Shaggy Man Will Get You if You Don’t Watch Out!’ The “More-the-Merrier” recruitment drive continued in #105 as Elongated Man signs up to save the day against marauding, malignant putty-men in ‘Specter in the Shadows!’, albeit anonymously aided by a miraculously resurrected robotic Red Tornado who joins the party in #106, unaware that he has been reprogrammed into becoming a ‘Wolf in the Fold! Justice League of America #107’s ‘Crisis on Earth-X’ ( Wein, Dillin & Giordano) was the first chapter of another landmark crossover with their Earth-2 counterparts and antecedents in the JSA.

Following the revival of a forgotten superteam during their previous get-together, this time the annual get-together reintroduced another band of Golden Age warriors (from corporate acquisition Quality Comics) newly redesignated The Freedom Fighters. It began when a recreational trip across the dimensional divide is accidentally sabotaged by android stowaway Red Tornado, depositing Batman, Green Arrow & Elongated Man from Earth-1 and Superman, Sandman & Doctor Fate of Earth-2 into another alternate universe – one where the Nazis had won World War II. Trapped and outnumbered, the seven displaced heroes were rescued by the last liberty-loving champions of a world dominated by fascist super-science and a secret dictator. Joining forces with embattled champions Uncle Sam, The Ray, Doll Man, Phantom Lady, Black Condor & The Human Bomb, the newcomers ended the Nazi threat forever in sinister sequel ‘Thirteen Against the Earth!’…

With everybody returned to their home planes #109 brought back a cultish guest star as ‘The Doom of the Divided Man!’ revived the dormant career of 1960’s hero/villain Eclipso, who attempted another cunning plan to conquer Earth. However, the real focus of this tale was the unexpected resignation of Hawkman following his recall to home planet Thanagar. Wein, Dillin & Giordano then got to deliver a delightful but potent seasonal present in #110 as Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, Black Canary & Red Tornado had to adapt to abrasive substitute Green Lantern John Stewart. A controversial “angry black man” conceived at a time when non-Caucasian heroes could be counted on the fingers of one hand he turned up mid-mission, just as the League gathered to hunt down ‘The Man Who Murdered Santa Claus!’

Murderous psychopath The Key had set up the heroes for ambush and destruction, with the callous assassination of an actor hired to cheer orphaned kids, but his horrific deeper scheme was only foiled thanks to the supernatural intervention of another almost forgotten League member…

For that issue, Bob Rozakis designed a ‘JLA Puzzle’ which follows accompanied by the answer page before JLA #111 introduced a seminal villain who became, decades later, a pivotal player in The Final Crisis. Here however, enigmatic Libra merely uses his incredible abilities to revive the dormant Injustice Gang of the World. Although his stated goal is to imbue Chronos, Mirror Master, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Shadow Thief & Tattooed Man with energies stolen from Aquaman, Superman, Batman, Flash, Elongated Man and fully recovered GL Hal Jordan, the ‘Balance of Power!’ he truly seeks actually entails keeping all the purloined might for his own incomprehensible use…

Those stolen super-powers feature in #112’s follow-up ‘War with the One-Man Justice League!’ as the entire team gather to help restore their diminished comrades. The high risk solution is to resurrect power-stealing android Amazo to collect the stolen energies and abilities… but nobody considers what the mechanoid might do after it absorbs Batman’s vast intellect and suspicious mind…

Justice League of America #113 (September/October 1974) proved how desperate were the times for the spandex set as the epic annual collaboration with the JSA was restricted to a single issue. Nevertheless, ‘The Creature in the Velvet Cage!’ proved to be one of the very best team-up tales ever, as a JLA visiting party to Earth-2 (Batman, Superman, GL Jordan & Elongated Man) share the shame and horror of The Sandman when his greatest, most shameful secret was catastrophically revealed.

Years ago the Master of Dreams had accidentally transformed sidekick Sandy, the Golden Boy into a ravening silicoid monster and been compelled to sedate and imprison his best friend. Now after three decades the beast is awake and free, seemingly intent on destroying the world. At least that’s what Hourman and the Golden Age Flash & Wonder Woman believe when they join their old comrade on his tragic manhunt…

Wein, with the plotting assistance of Mark Hanerfeld, ended his run as scripter with a smart and decidedly effective little thriller in #114:‘The Return of Anakronus!’ During a League-sponsored telethon, an enigmatic time-bending villain takes disgraced JLA team mascot Snapper Carr and his family hostage. Although definitely dangerous, the crazed felon’s ranting doesn’t make much sense: after all, why would a man who claims to have repeatedly defeated the JLA stoop to demanding a mere cash ransom?

The tone turned cosmic in #115 as Denny O’Neil provided a fill-in yarn bringing back retired hero J’onn J’onzz, Manhunter from Mars who implores his former allies to save the dying remnants of his people from ‘The Last Angry God!’ who has imprisoned them on a far-distant world. Cary Bates then contributed ‘The Kid Who Won Hawkman’s Wings!’ in #116, as sightings of Hawkman in Midway City lead Elongated Man, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Flash & Batman into a deadly duel against Matter Master. Closer inspection reveals the Pinioned Paladin to be a baffled kid Charley Parker, who has no idea why he suddenly changed into a Golden Eagle, whilst the actual mastermind behind the plot is a shock to all concerned. The tale is followed by another Rozakis ‘JLA Puzzle’ and a picture posing ‘JLA Super-Villain Quiz’…

After just over a year’s absence the true Winged Wonder returned in #117. ‘I Have No Wings and I Must Fly!’ was scripted by Elliot S! Maggin, with Giordano’s protégé Frank McLaughlin assuming regular inking chores over Dillin’s sleek and effective pencils. It saw alien cop Katar Hol resurface to warn Earth of a deadly extraterrestrial menace dubbed The Equalizer. This ineffable terror was driven to achieve pure balance in the universe, and to achieve this he somehow homogenised entire civilisations, making life forms exactly identical to each other. His Equalizer plague weapon was overwhelmingly contagious and – after reducing the population of Thanagar to imbecilic, four-foot tall clones of each other, (including Hol’s beloved wife Shayera) – the unfathomable voyager turned his single eye upon Earth…

With his homeworld quarantined and after defeating the appalling threat as part of the JLA, Hawkman had no other refuge than our planet and promptly joined Aquaman, Black Canary, Flash, Red Tornado & Superman in resisting the ‘Takeover of the Earth-Masters!’ (#118 by Maggin, Dillin & McLaughlin). This revealed a misguided attempt by trans-dimensional beings who sought to save our world from super beings by despatching eerie hyper-evolving Adaptoid organisms. With even the Man of Steel unable to face the ghastly invaders, Hawkman devises a risky strategy involving his Equalization-infected wife, which happily turns out in Humanity’s favour in #119’s concluding clash ‘Winner Takes the Earth!’

Another old friend reappeared in #120 as ‘The Parallel Perils of Adam Strange!’ (written by Bates) sees the Earth-born champion of Planet Rann forced to re-fight his greatest battles after despotic Kanjar Ro murders his beloved Alanna.

Even though Ro has cruelly stacked the deck, Strange and his newly arrived Earth allies triumph before pulling a rabbit out of the hat to restore the Rannian heroine in time for her own magical wedding in blistering conclusion ‘The Hero Who Jinxed the Justice League!’

In #122 Marty Pasko delved into the team’s private lives and revealed why the JLA shared their civilian secrets with each other in ‘The Great Identity Crisis!’ when old foe Dr. Light used photonic super-science and the too-good-to-be-true mineral Amnesium (guess what it causes?) to mess with the heroes’ minds and lure them into what should be inescapable death-traps…

Another year gone, it was time for the annual JLA/JSA yarn and Bates, Maggin, Dillin & McLaughlin stepped far off the reservation with ‘Where on Earth Am I?’ & ‘Avenging Ghosts of the Justice Society!’ from issues #123 & 124. Back in Flash #179 (‘The Flash – Fact of Fiction?, May 1968) Bates & Gardner Fox first took the multiple Earths concept to its illogical conclusion by trapping the Monarch of Motion in “our” Reality (Earth-Prime!) where the Sultan of Speed was just a comic book character. Now and here Bates and co-scripter Maggin return to the conceit as a story conference in editor Julie Schwartz’s office leads to the oafish goons playing with Flash’s hastily-constructed and long abandoned Cosmic Treadmill, before catapulting one of them between dimensions.

Transformed and empowered by the trip, Bates becomes the most dangerous villain alive, leading Earth-2 criminals The Wizard, Shade, Sportsmaster, Huntress, Icicle & The Gambler in a lethal assault on JSA heroes Robin, Hourman, Wildcat, Wonder Woman, Johnny Thunder and Dr. Mid-Nite. Maggin has followed his friend but ends up on Earth-1.

Undaunted, he recruits Batman, Black Canary, Aquaman, Hawkman, Green Arrow & Flash to save three imperilled universes but it eventually requires the Divine Might of the supernal Spectre to truly set everything and everybody back to their assigned places and times…

Gerry Conway began his long association with the Justice League in #125, in a smart 2-parter concerning dumping of toxic energy from an outer dimension onto Earth. ‘The Men Who Sold Destruction!’ craftily employ schizophrenic villain Two-Face as their wily broker to expend these deadly forces, but the super-minds of Dronndar completely underestimate double-dealing Harvey Dent‘s capacity for betrayal. Almost as bad is the opportunistic action of the Weaponers of Qward, and thus the JLA are easily – but only initially – fooled by the Machiavellian multi-visaged maniac in #126’s Byzantine conclusion ‘The Evil Connection!’

JLA #127 confirmed that ‘The Command is “Chaos!”’ after The Anarchist discovers a way to tap Green Lantern’s power battery and desperate Hal Jordan begs his fellow champions to stop him recharging his ring at any cost, after which Pasko popped back to author a sharp, smart reintroduction for the Earth-1 Amazing Amazon in #128’s ‘Death-Visions of the Justice League!’

For a period “our” Wonder Woman had lost her powers and fought crime as a martial artist, but once her supernatural gifts returned she underwent a self-imposed set of trials before rejoining the team. Sadly her readmission coincided with the team disbanding following a cataclysmic, psychologically punishing assault by alien fear-eater Nekron, and even she seemed unable to galvanise the Leaguers before ‘The Earth Dies Screaming!’in #129.

The next issue explored the revelatory early days of the team’s orbiting satellite HQ as ‘Skyjack at 22,300 Miles!’ (scripted by Pasko) disclosed how an intergalactic interloper attempted to turn the space base into a spawning ground, putting the nonplussed heroes through a gamut of ghastly trials before order and equilibrium were unconventionally restored.

This mammoth tome ends with a clever mystery double-bill from Conway, Dillin & McLaughlin. In #131’s ‘The Beasts Who Thought Like Men!’ a new credit card currency for America somehow enhances the minds of animals and insects, simultaneously decreasing human brainpower to such a low point that bugs can enslave deadly villains like Sonar & Queen Bee. The tale takes a stranger turn in #132 as Superman vanishes and Supergirl steps in to help against animals organised enough to conquer the country. Even then there was still one more tangled twist in the tale of ‘The Beasts Who Fought Like Men!…’

To Be Continued…

The Justice League of America was always the keystone of US comics and these tales are still among the most thought-provoking, controversial and purely entertaining episodes in their six and half decade history. These classical compendia are a dedicated fan’s delight: an absolute gift for modern readers 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.

Come see for yourself…

© 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1946 cartoonist/scripter/letterer Rick Parker (Beavis and Butt-Head, Deadboy, Tales from the Crypt) was born, with mangaka Yumiko Ōshima (Gū-gū datte Neko de aru, Wata no Kuni Hoshi) arriving one year later and Brazilian Underground Commix exponent Arnaldo Angeli Filho AKA “Angeli” coming on scene in1956 and writer G. Willow Wilson (Air, Invisible Kingdom, Ms. Marvel, Poison Ivy) born in 1982.

Swedish cartoonist turned diplomat Jan Romare (Pyton) died today in 2017, and the day also marks Scott McCloud’s first 24-hour comic in 1990 and DC’s controversial relaunch The New 52 in 2011.

 

Posted on

Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls


By Paul D. Storrie, Jennifer Graves & J. Bone, with Brad Rader, Rick Burchett, Patricia Mulvihill, Phil Felix & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-9971-2 (TPB) 978-1-4012-9972-9 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Harley Quinn wasn’t supposed to be a star – or even an actual comic book character. As soon became apparent, however, the manic minx always had her own astoundingly askew and off-kilter ideas on the matter… and any other topic you could name: ethics, friendship, ordnance, coffee…

Created by Paul Dini & Bruce Timm, Batman: The Animated Series aired in the US from September 5th 1992 to September 15th 1995. Ostensibly for kids, the breakthrough TV cartoon revolutionised everybody’s image of the Dark Knight and immediately began feeding back into the print iterations, leading to some of the absolute best comics tales in the hero’s many decades of existence.

Employing a timeless visual style dubbed “Dark Deco”, the show mixed elements from all eras and aspects of the character and, without diluting power, tone or mood of the premise, reshaped the grim avenger and his extended team into a wholly accessible, thematically memorable form that the youngest of readers could eagerly enjoy, whilst adding shades of exuberance, sophistication and sheer panache that only most devout and obsessive Batmaniac could possibly object to…

Harley was initially the Clown Prince of Crime’s slavishly adoring, abuse-enduring assistant in Joker’s Favor (airing on September 11th 1992) wherein she instantly captured the hearts and minds of millions of viewers. From there on she began popping up in the licensed comic book and – always stealing the show – soon graduated to mainstream DC continuity.

Along the circuitous way, Harley – AKA Dr. Harleen Quinzel – developed an outrageous support network of sorts including living bioweapon Poison Ivy and settled into a bizarre love/hate relationship with some of Gotham’s other female felons.

After a period bopping around the DCU she was re-imagined as part of the company’s vast post-Flashpoint, major makeover and appeared as part of a new iteration of The Suicide Squad. Now with numerous motion picture, TV animation and live action small screen presence all in play, let’s look back at one particularly fruitful and significant phase, At heart, Harley’s always been a cartoon glamour-puss, with big, bold, primal emotions and only the merest acknowledgement of how reality works…

Amongst the plethora of comic books generated by the original cartoon show was this smartly sassy romp featuring those aforementioned crime cuties as well some mismatched if not openly antithetical law enforcers. Crafted by Paul D. Storrie, Jennifer Graves & J. Bone, 5-issue miniseries Gotham Girls was released between October 2002 and February 2003: opening with ‘Cat’s Paw’ as super-thief Selena Kyle undertakes a commission to steal something very nasty from agricultural conglomerate Zehn Chemicals.

The Feline Felon’s still determined to open a lion sanctuary with her fee and doesn’t appreciate when the supposedly simple caper is interrupted by juvenile do-gooder Batgirl. However, as they trade kicks, punches and quips, overworked, under-appreciated and overlooked GCPD detective Renee Montoya is taking a closer look at the supposed victims and sees something dirty in the company…

Then, as Bat & Cat ferociously but inconclusively throw down all over town, the masterminds paying for the heist make their move, and it becomes clear that there’s a lot going on that needs to be properly unearthed…

‘Ivy League’ exposes murderous eco-terrorist Pamela Lillian Isley as bankrolling the caper, claiming justifiable and benevolent motives to reclaim her own property from unscrupulous, world-endangering corporate creeps. However, because her bestest pal Harley is as erratic and excitable as ever, a potential Bat/Cat/Plantgirl/Dingbat alliance is thwarted by mutual mistrust and excessive, utterly unnecessary violence. Montoya, meanwhile, is diligently following clues, interviewing greedy biologists and uncovering something at rival agri-company Kayle Corporation…

The fast-moving melee ends in leafy Robinson Park, with Batgirl holding the stolen chemical soup, until ‘Harlequinade’ sees manic, attention-starved Quinn pull a martial masterstroke, delivering the bio-booty to her disturbingly abusive gal-pal and a heavy defeat to Catwoman & Batgirl. Naturally, that’s just when solid police practice explosively brings Montoya to their secret lair for penultimate power struggle ‘I Carry a Badge!’…

Brilliant deduction and a standard-issue firearm aren’t much use against supervillains and giant carnivorous vines though, so it’s a good thing Batgirl & Catwoman have both independently tracked Harley & Ivy. With action amped to maximum, good girls and bad girls clash yet again, and sides are finally drawn for a climactic conclusion, with frustrated cop and masked vigilante hero united at last and resolved to end the chaos in ‘Bat Attitude’.

Of course, that means not just Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are going to jail…

A superbly riotous rollercoaster ride for kids of all ages, each chapter also deftly explores the interior life, history and motivations of successive stars; offering canny character building and definition most mature-reading tales would be proud to deliver.

Coloured by Patricia Mulvihill, lettered by Phil Felix and with additional layouts by Rick Burchett and Brad Rader, this classy, classically cops ‘n’ robbers riot plays very much like a 1940s movie chapter-play – albeit with outrageous gags, biting dialogue and a blend of black humour and bombastic action. A frantic, frenetic hoot, this is an absolute delight, well worth the price of admission and an irresistible treasure to be enjoyed over and over again.
© 2002, 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1927, Charlton Comics editor and Popeye illustrator George Wildman was born, as  was letterer Cory Petit in 1976; both all-star creators Lee Bermejo (Batman: Noel, Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, Rorschach) and Leinil Francis Yu (Superman: Birthright, X-Men, Wolverine) in 1977 and Graphic Novelist Nate Powell (March, The Silence of Our Friends, Swallow Me Whole) in 1978.

In 1933 today Milt Caniff’s Dickie Dare strip launched, and Neal Adam’s Ben Casey folded, albeit in 1966. Ten years later Mickey Finn ended, having run continuously since Frank Leonard began it in 1936.

In 2000 we lost Lars Jansson, brother of Tove and continuer of the magnificent Moomin strip (1954 to 1975 in The Evening News and sundry other newspapers). In 2003 controversial Italian comics maestro Guido Crepax (Valentina, Emanuelle, Anita, The Man from Harlem) died, followed three years later by countryman Mario Faustinelli (Asso di Picche, The Adventures of Topo Gigio, Kolosso).

Posted on

Harley Quinn’s Greatest Hits


By Scott Beatty, Kelly Puckett, Jeph Loeb, Paul Dini, Adam Glass, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Rob Williams, Bruce Timm, Mike Parobeck, Jim Lee, David Lopez, Federico Dallocchio, Jock, John Timms, Sean “Cheeks” Galloway, Scott Williams, Sandra Hope, Richard Friend & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7008-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Harley Quinn wasn’t supposed to be a star – or even an actual comic book character. As would soon become apparent however, the manic minx had her own off-kilter ideas on the matter. Created by Paul Dini & Bruce Timm, Batman: The Animated Series aired in the US from September 5th 1992 to September 15th 1995. Ostensibly for kids, the breakthrough TV cartoon revolutionised everybody’s image of the Dark Knight and immediately began feeding back into the print iterations, leading to some of the absolute best comics tales in the hero’s many decades of existence.

Employing a timeless visual style dubbed “Dark Deco”, the show mixed elements from all eras and aspects of the character and, without diluting power, tone or mood of the premise, reshaped the grim avenger and his extended team into a wholly accessible, thematically memorable form that the youngest of readers could eagerly enjoy, whilst adding shades of exuberance, sophistication and sheer panache that only most devout and obsessive Batmaniac could possibly object to…

Harley was first seen as the Clown Prince of Crime’s slavishly adoring, abuse-enduring assistant in Joker’s Favor (airing on September 11th 1992) wherein she instantly captured the hearts and minds of millions of viewers. From there on she began popping up in the licensed comic book and – always stealing the show – soon graduated to mainstream DC continuity.

After a period bopping around the DCU she was re-imagined as part of the company’s vast post-Flashpoint, major makeover and appeared as part of a new iteration of The Suicide Squad. Now, with numerous motion picture, TV animation and live action small screen presence in play, it’s absolutely time to take a look at her eccentric career path…

Collecting material from Countdown to Final Crisis #10; Batman Adventures #12; Batman #613; Gotham City Sirens #7; Suicide Squad #1; Batman vol 2#13, Harley Quinn vol. 2 #21, 2015 and Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad April Fools Special #1, the madcap mayhem commences with a 2-page potted biography of the mad miss in comics form.

Crafted by Scott Beatty & Bruce Timm, ‘The Origin of Harley Quinn’ (Countdown #10, February 2008) economically reveals how troubled psychologist Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel arrived at Arkham Asylum to analyse The Joker only to lose all distance and perspective. Fully falling under his malign spell during interviews, she became his adoring, pliable and utterly despised slave…

A classic and classy semi-solo yarn comes from Batman Adventures #12, (September 1993) where Kelly Puckett, Mike Parobeck & Rick Burchett revealed how Barbara Gordon became a masked adventurer. Student Babs makes a superhero costume for a party in ‘Batgirl: Day One!’ before stumbling into a larcenous ‘Ladies Night’ when that High Society bash is crashed by rapacious gal pals Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy. With no professional help on hand, Miss Gordon must act as ‘If the Suit Fits!’ and tackle the bad girls herself , only to see Catwoman show up for the frantic finale ‘Out of the Frying Pan!’…

A far darker if less comprehensible interpretation graced Batman #613, (May 2003 by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee & Scott Williams) as an incessant parade of villains du jour in Bat mega-event Hush sees The Joker and Harley invade ‘The Opera’ attended by Bruce Wayne and hidden master villain Tommy Elliot. It’s visually resplendent and shockingly violent, but story content is virtually zero since the entire farrago is just an extracted episode from a far larger and more complex epic. Go read that instead or as well…

Far more satisfactory, ‘Holiday Story’ is by Dini, David Lopez & Alvaro Lopez (Gotham City Sirens #7, February 2010). Here, new housemates Harley, Ivy & Catwoman split up to celebrate Christmas in their own uniquely different ways. This tale is a candid peek into the home-life and history which turned dead-end kid Harleen into an overachieving doctor, athlete and, latterly, lunatic supervillain by introducing the inveterate slimeball who fathered her…

Hitting modern times hard, ‘Kicked in the Teeth’ comes from Suicide Squad #1 (vol. 4, November 2011), wherein Adam Glass, Federico Dallocchio, Ransom Getty & Scott Hanna put Harley, Deadshot, Black Spider, King Shark, El Diablo, Voltaic and Savant through hell and torture as mere preparation for their first mission for top spook Amanda Waller whilst ‘Tease’ (Batman vol. 2, #13, December 2012 by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV & Jock) sees Harley reunited with her maniac main man, only to once again suffer from the pernicious, vindictive whimsy and twisted love of the Joker…

‘Tug A’ War’ (Harley Quinn vol. 2, #21, December 2015 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, John Timms) finds Harley Quinn a bounty hunter battling former squad-mate Deadshot and setting Hollywood ablaze as she seeks top cash-cow Sparrow Adaro. Things quickly go south when she discovers her target is no crook, simply the wayward spouse of a Showbiz bigwig who only wants his little lady back. Their twisted relationship touches Harley’s heart and she resolves to help, but the former psychologist never expected so many collateral corpses to accrue as she “fixed” the not-so-happy family…

This rough & ready compilation concludes with collaborative effort ‘Evil Anonymous’ from Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad April Fools Special #1, 2016. Courtesy of Rob Williams, Jim Lee, Sean “Cheeks” Galloway, Scott Williams, Sandra Hope & Richard Friend this is a light-hearted, self-referential journey of discovery wherein Harley – prompted by another brush with The Joker – attempts to “cure” a number of her fellow criminal killer loons, beginning with bestial winged predator Man-Bat…

Soon, she’s reverted to a childlike state to tackle Killer Moth, Enchantress, Rat Catcher, Toyman and Poison Ivy, although things get a little out of hand when she gets Scarecrow on her couch and goes crazy serious when the Justice League step in. Nobody involved is aware of the insidious mastermind actually pulling the strings to get Harley Quinn back to where she really belongs… and is most needed…

Fast, furiously funny, often unnecessarily dark and making precious little narrative sense, Harley Quinn’s Greatest Hits is nonetheless a potent primer of Fights ‘n’ Tights furore that will give newcomers a taste of what the motley minx can do and should whet appetites for a deeper exploration of her anarchic exploits.
© 1993, 2003, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1920 Golden Age artist Al Avison (Captain America, The Whizzer, Joe Palooka, The Green Hornet, Little Dot) was born, followed by Al Wenzel (Adventure Comics, Superboy) in 1924, an Oh My Goddess creator Kosuke Fujishima in 1964. One year later the amazing Mike Parobeck (JSA, Batman Adventures) arrived, sharing the day with editor/cartoonist Jordan B. Gorfinkel (Batman: No Man’s Land, Everything’s Relative), with artists Juan Vlasco (Spider-Boy, Cable) coming in 1968 and Evan “Doc” Shaner (Strange Adventures, Flash, Aquaman) born in 1985.

In 1958 today Anthony Hern & John McLusky’s James Bond strip debuted in the UK’s Daily Express, whilst in 1978, The Walt Disney Company won its copyright infringement lawsuit against underground comix outfit the Air Pirates. In 1997 Jerry Scott & Jim Bergman’s strip Zits launched, and in 2002, the last episode of Modesty Blaise was published.

Today in 1977, legendary pioneering strip cartoonist Roy Crane (Wash Tubbs, Captain Easy, Buz Sawyer) died.

Posted on

DC Finest: The Joker – The Last Ha-Ha


By Dennis O’Neil, Elliot S! Maggin, Bob Haney, Martin Pasko, David V. Reed, Steve Englehart, Len Wein, Paul Levitz, Dick Dillin, Neal Adams, Irv Novick, Jim Aparo, Ernie Chan, José Luis García-López, John Calnan, Marshall Rogers, Walter Simonson, Don Newton, Joe Staton, Joe Giella, Dick Giordano, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell, Frank McLaughlin, Bob Wiacek, Terry Austin, Steve Mitchell & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79951-025-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

HEY! WHO LET THAT CLOWN IN? IS THERE A PARTY SOMEWHERE?

An old adage says that you can judge someone by the calibre of their enemies, and that’s never been more ably demonstrated than with Batman. For most of his near century of existence, but most especially ever since the 1970s, the position of paramount antagonist has been indisputably filled by Clown Prince of Crime The Joker! He first hit newsstands in Batman #1 (cover-dated Spring and officially on sale from April 25th 1940). That’s 86 exploding candles and poisoned cakes and he’s still totally, lethally crazy after all these years…

Spanning cover-dates December 1969 to September 1981, this compilation collects stories from Justice League of America #77; Batman # 251, 260, 286, 291-294 & 321; Detective Comics #475-476 & 504; eccentric team-ups from The Brave and the Bold #111, 118, 129-130 & 141: The Joker volume 1 #1-10 and Earth-Two appearances from Wonder Woman volume 1 #280-283, a comprehensive but by no means complete carry on of one of the most conflicted and confusing characters in comics.

In the late 1960s superheroes experienced a rapid decline in popularity – presumably reaction to global media’s crass and crushing overexposure. When that bubble burst, Batman’s comic franchise sought to escape the zany, “camp” image by methodically re-branding the hero and returning to the original 1930s concept of a grim, driven Dark Avenger. Although hugely popular, TV’s sappy buffoon/thieving villain version of The Joker was almost fatal to the character on the printed page. However, a deftly calculated return to his Golden Age, eerie cheery killer persona began almost immediately. Thus this collection which kicks off with the Mountebank of Mirth manically upping his game and expanding his pool of enemies…

In Justice League of America #77 (cover-dated December 1969), the smugly complacent confidence and cheery worldview of the World’s Greatest Superheroes is shattered after enigmatic political populist Joe Dough suborns and compromises their beloved teen mascot in ‘Snapper Carr… Super-Traitor!’ This revelatory rite of passage comes from Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella: a coming-of-age yarn that saw the team lose public support and even their secret HQ, as the comfy, cosy superhero game changes forever… and no guesses for who Joe Dough really is!

The dark transformation of the Crime Clown was fully accomplished in Batman #251 (September 1973 by O’Neil & Neal Adams). ‘The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge!’ reinstated the psychotic, diabolically unpredictable Killer Clown who scared the short pants off readers of the 1940s. A true milestone utterly redefining the hero’s nemesis for the modern age, the frantic moody yarn sees the Mirthful Maniac stalking his old gang, seeking to eradicate them all, with a hard-pressed Gotham Guardian desperately playing catch-up. As crooks die in all manner of byzantine and bizarre ways, Batman realises his archfoe has gone irrevocably off the deep end. Terrifying and beautiful, for many fans this is the definitive Batman/Joker story.

Cover-dated February/March 1974, The Brave and the Bold #111 boasted “the strangest team-up in history” as writer Bob Haney & artist on fire Jim Aparo had the Gotham Guardian join forces with the Harlequin of Hate for a brilliantly twisty tale of cross-&-double-cross in ‘Death has the Last Laugh!’ Complex and compelling, this murder-spree yarn possibly led to the Crime Clown’s own short-run series a year later.

Meanwhile, from Batman #260 (January/February 1975 by O’Neil, Irv Novick & Dick Giordano), ‘This One’ll Kill You Batman!’ finds the grim, po-faced Darknight Detective racing to save his own life after being poisoned by Joker Toxin that acts like irresistibly lethal laughing gas, after which B&B #118 (April) sees Wildcat and Batman forced to brutally battle each other in ‘May the Best Man Die!’ after being sucked into Joker’s scheme to poison boxers (and anyone else in range) with a deadly, blood-borne virus…

Within 18 months of the breakthrough revision in Batman #251, The Joker won his own series. Titles starring villains were exceedingly rare back then and provided quite a few problems for writers and editors still labouring under the edicts of the Comics Code Authority. The outré experiment ended after 9 issues – spanning May 1975 to October 1976, (plus one formerly unpublished digital issue in 2019) – and had utilised some of the most talented creators in DC’s employ. It remained a peculiar historical oddity for decades. Now, in these less doctrinaire times those strange tales of the Smirking Slaughterman have an appreciative audience…

The murderous merriment commences with ‘The Joker’s Double Jeopardy!’ Here fellow Arkham Asylum inmate Two-Face arrogantly escapes, pinking the Felonious Funnyman’s pride and compelling the giggling ghoul to similarly break out to prove he’s the greater criminal maniac. Their extended duel of wits and body-counts only lands them both back inside. That “revolving door” security at Arkham eventually leads to the firing of much-harassed guards Marvin Fargo & Benny Khiss in #2’s ‘The Sad Saga of Willie the Weeper!’ However, as the again-at-liberty Lethal Loon attempts to boost the confidence of a lachrymose minor-league larcenist for his own purposes, those defrocked jailers determine to restore their honour and fortunes and astoundingly, they succeed.

Written by O’Neil with art by Ernie Chan (nee Chua) & José Luis García-López, ‘The Last Ha Ha’ in #3 details a burglary and kidnapping of superstar cartoonist Sandy Saturn by a green-haired, cackling crazy. Witness accounts lead the cops to the ludicrous conclusion that The Creeper is the culprit. Cue lots and lots of eerie chortling, mistaken identity shenanigans and murderously manic explosive action…

The ethical dilemma of a star who’s arguably the world’s worst villain is further explored in ‘A Gold Star for the Joker!’ (Elliot S! Maggin, García-López & Vince Colletta) wherein our Perfidious Pagliacci inexplicably develops a crush on Black Canary’s alter-ego Dinah Lance and resolves to possess her or kill her. Typically, even though she’s perfectly capable of saving herself, Dinah’s beau Green Arrow (see what I did there?) is also the possessive aggressive kind of consort…

‘The Joker Goes Wilde!’ (Martin Pasko, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell) finds the Clown Prince in bombastic competition with similarly playing-card themed super-bandits The Royal Flush Gang. Everyone wants to secure a lost masterpiece, but even as he’s winning that weird war, the Mountebank of Menace is already after a hidden prize.

More force of nature than mortal miscreant, the Pallid Punchinello meets his match after assaulting actor Clive Sigerson in #6. Famed for stage portrayals of a certain literary detective, Sigerson sustains a nasty blow to the bonce which befuddles his wits and soon ‘Sherlock Stalks the Joker!’ (O’Neil, Novick & Blaisdell), foiling a flood of crazy schemes and apprehending the maniac before his concussion is cured…

We learn surprising facts about the Clown Prince of Carnage when he steals the calm, logical intellect of Earth’s most brilliant evil scientist. Naturally, psychic transference in ‘Luthor… You’re Driving Me Sane!’ (Maggin, Novick & Frank McLaughlin) is two-way and, whilst the newly cognizant Clown becomes ineffably intelligent, Lex Luthor is reduced to a risk-taking maniac unphased by potential consequences and determined to have fun no matter who dies. The Joker’s eighth outing covered a clash with Gotham’s self-acclaimed Master of Terror as ‘The Scarecrow’s Fearsome Face-Off!’ (Maggin, Novick & Blaisdell) saw the top contenders for scariest guy in town (not counting Batman!) steal each other’s thunder whilst vying for that macabre top spot, before the villainous vignettes conclude with a claws-out clash as ‘The Cat and the Clown!’ (Maggin, Novick & Blaisdell) sees an aged comedian and his million-dollar kitty targeted by rival rogues Catwoman and Joker. Unhappily for the crooks they had both underestimated the grizzled guile of their octogenarian victim…

In Fall of 2019 the unpublished tenth issue was released digitally and appeared in monolithic, print-only, rather inaccessibly expensive The Joker: The Bronze Age Omnibus (Collected). There – and here – Pasko & Novick’s tale ‘99 and 99/100% Dead!’ involves a deal with the Devil (AKA “Lou Cipher”) and scheme to murder Earth’s greatest heroes – The JLA – that doesn’t quite come about and ends on a cliffhanger…

Here, however, we resume with a rare two-parter from The Brave and the Bold #129 & 130: a jam-packed action-romp with ‘Claws of the Emperor Eagle’ pitting Batman, Green Arrow and The Atom against Joker, Two-Face and hordes of bandits in a manic race to possess a statue that had doomed every great conqueror in history. The epic, globe-trotting saga concluded with an ironic bang in ‘Death at Rainbow’s End’…

In Batman #286,‘The Joker’s Playground of Peril!’ (April 1977 by O’Neil, Novick & Bob Wiacek) sees The Clown escape Arkham Asylum prompting panic in the lawyer who failed get him off and the fence who cheated the loon when selling his ill-gotten gains. The fugitives make it easy for the manic by hiding in the same Amusement park but the Dynamoc Duo are clued in and waiting…

Next is an extended saga from Batman #291-294 (cover dates September through December 1977) written by author David V. Reed and illustrated by John Calnan & Tex Blaisdell. Over four deviously clever issues ‘Where Were You the Night Batman Was Killed?’ sees hordes of costumed foes the Caped Crimebuster has crushed assemble to verify the stories of various felons claiming to have done the deed. This thematic partial inspiration for Neil Gaiman’s “Last Batman Story” kicks off with ‘The Testimony of the Catwoman’ followed by ‘The testimony of…’ The Riddler, Lex Luthor and The Joker before satisfactorily concluding with a twist in a spectacular grand manner.

The only real contenders for the plaudits of being the best Joker yarn ever follows: a two-part saga from Detective Comics #475-476 (February & April 1978) concluding a breathtaking, signature run of retro tales by Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin. The absolute zenith in a short but stellar sequence resurrecting old foes naturally peaked with the Dark Knight’s nemesis at his most chaotic, and began with ‘The Laughing Fish!’ and culminating in ‘The Sign of the Joker!’, comprising one of the most reprinted Bat-tales ever concocted. It was even adapted as an episode of the award-winning Batman: The Animated Adventures TV show in the 1990s. In fact, you’ve probably already read it. But if you haven’t… what a treat awaits you!

As seafood sporting the Joker’s horrific smile began turning up in sea-catches all over the Eastern Seaboard, the Clown Prince attempts to trademark them. When patent officials foolishly tell him it can’t be done, they start dying – publicly, impossibly and incredibly painfully…

The story concluded in a spectacular apocalyptic clash which shaped, informed and redefined the Batman mythos for decades to come…

The best was saved for last, with continuity altering sub-plots concerning Bruce Wayne’s current inamorata Silver St. Cloud, crooked politico “Boss” Rupert Thorne and the Gotham City Council who had outlawed the hero, and even the recurring ghost of Hugo Strange culminating in THE classic confrontation with The Joker.

B&B #141 (May/June 1978) offers another Batman team-up with Black Canary as ‘Pay – or Die!’ (by Haney & Aparo) finds Dinah Lance looking at a modelling career but pausing to help Batman and Alfred quash the Joker’s bizarrely byzantine extortion/loan sharking/crooked mortician scheme in ‘Pay – Or Die!’

The gleeful terror continues with ‘Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker…!’ by Len Wein, Walt Simonson & Giordano (from Batman #321 March 1980), wherein the Malevolent Mummer planned to celebrate his anniversary in grand style: kidnapping a bunch of old chums like Robin, Jim Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth, Catwoman and others to be the exploding candles on his giant birthday cake…

The Joker has the rare distinction of being perhaps the most iconic villain in comics and can claim that title in whatever era you choose to concentrate on; Noir-ish Golden Age, sanitised Silver Age or malignant modern and Post-Modern milieus. This book captures just a fraction of all those superb stories and with the benefit of another two and a half decades of material since the release of this compendium, just think of what a couple of equally well-considered sequels might offer…

Cover-dated July 1981, Detective #504 – by Gerry Conway, Don Newton & Dan Adkins – details ‘The Joker’s Rumpus Room Revenge!’ Closing the Batman related portion of the book, here the Murderous Mummer again slips out of Arkham and murders an old puppet-maker to lure the Dark Knight into a killzone packed with killer toys and robots…

During the late Seventies and early Eighties Helena Wayne was the daughter of the deceased Earth-2 Batman and Catwoman Selina Kyle. As The Huntress, the immensely popular character sprang from a then-current Justice Society of America series in All Star Comics into her own relatively long-running back-up feature initially in Batman family and then in Wonder Woman (#271 September 1980 through #321, November 1984). She died in but notionally survived the Crisis on Infinite Earths by being retooled as mob-orphan Helena Bertinelli to become a post-Crisis Dark Knight adjunct.

From Wonder Woman #280 – 283 (vol. 1, June to September 1981) and crafted by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton & Steve Michell ‘Lion at Bay’ sees Huntress crush her mother’s old nemesis Lionmane, but not before his mass jailbreak allows a declining but still demented and deadly Harlequin of Hate to escape Gull’s island prison. Refusing to believe Batman is dead, elderly Joker proceeds to poison old foes like Commissioner O’Hara to draw out his enemy. Stalked by Huntress in ‘Always Leave ‘em Laughing’ before recruiting another old Crazy Clown combatant to help trick and trap the madman, the end comes in ‘First Laugh…’ and final encore ‘…Last Laugh!’

With covers by Murphy Anderson, Adams, Tatjana Wood, Nick Cardy, Aparo, Giordano, Ross Andru, Chan, García-López, Drew Moore, Rogers & Austin, Simonson, Jim Starlin, Rich Buckler, and George Pérez, this quirky oddment offers slick plotting and startling visuals as madcap misdemeanours are soundly upstaged and shoved aside by lunatic larks, malign malice and a more mounting degree of murderous mayhem than most classical fans might be comfortable with, but always sustained and supported by strong storytelling and stunning art to delight fans of traditional Fights ‘n’ Tights sagas.
© 1969, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1913 author and groundbreaking comics scripter John Broome (aka John Osgood & Edgar Ray Meritt) was born, followed in 1928 by Filipino art maestro Nestor Rendondo (Darna, Rima the Jungle Girl, The Bible, Swamp Thing); Belgian cartoonist Joseph Loeckx/“Jo-El Azara” (Taka Takata, Clifton) in1937, and our own astounding John Ridgway (Commando Picture Library, Famous Five, Young Marvelman, Judge Dredd, Bozz Chronicles, Hellblazer) in 1940.

This date in 1953 welcomed US cartoonist/book illustrator Doug Cushman (Aunt Eater, Holiday Mice!); Canadian Underground artist Patrick Henley AKA Henriette Valium in 1959; Mad magazine illustrator Tom Richmond in 1966; Scott Kolins in 1968 and Ale Garza in 1977.

We lost today editor Lou Stathis in 1997, and Henry Sunday page artist Don Trachte in 2005 but the day did give us Richard F. Outcaul’s Buster Brown which launched in 1902, Ivy the Terrible’s debut in The Beano, courtesy of Roy Nixon in 1985 and the very first Free Comic Book Day today in 2002.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

Justice League of America – The Last Survivors of Earth!


By Denny O’Neil, Mike Friedrich, Robert Kanigher, Dick Dillin, Neal Adams, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson, Curt Swan, Dick Giordano & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-8920-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Action, Imagination and Social Conscience: a True Xmas Tradition… 9/10

After the actual invention of the comic book superhero – for which read the Action Comics debut of Superman in 1938 – the most significant event in the industry’s progress was the combination of individual sales-points into a group. Thus, what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was proven: a number of popular characters could multiply readership by combining forces. Plus, of course, a mob of superheroes is just so much cooler than one… or one-and-a-half if there’s a sidekick involved…

And so, the debut of the Justice Society of America is rightly revered as a true landmark in the development of comic books, and when Julius Schwartz revived the superhero genre in the late 1950s, the turning point came with an inevitable union of his reconfigured mystery men. That moment came with #28 of The Brave and the Bold, a classical adventure title that had recently transformed into a try-out magazine like Showcase. Just before Christmas 1959 the 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!…

The rest is history: the JLA captivated the youth of a nation, reinvigorated an industry and even inspired a small family concern into creating the Fantastic Four, thereby transforming the art-form itself. Following a spectacular rise, TV spin-offs brought international awareness which led to catastrophic overexposure: by 1968 the new superhero boom looked to be dying just as its predecessor had at the end of the 1940s.

Sales were down generally in the comics industry and costs were beginning to spiral, and more importantly “free” entertainment, in the form of television, was by now ensconced in even the poorest household. If you were a kid in the sixties, think on just how many brilliant cartoon shows were created in that decade, when artists like Alex Toth and Doug Wildey were working in West Coast animation studios. Moreover, comic book heroes were now appearing on the small screen. Superman, Aquaman, Batman, upstart Marvel’s heroes and even the Justice League of America were there every Saturday in your own living room…

It was also a time of great political and social upheaval. Change was everywhere and unrest even reached the corridors of DC. When a number of creators agitated for increased work benefits the request was not looked upon kindly. Many left the company for other outfits. Some quit the business altogether… and some were pushed out…

This fabulous compendium volume reflects the turmoil of those times as the original writer and penciller who had created every single adventure of the World’s Greatest Superheroes since their inception gave way to a new wave of scripters and a fresh if not young artist.

Richard Allen “Dick” Dillin (17th December 1928 – 1st March 1980) had started in the 1940s at Quality Comics on Blackhawk, Plastic Man and their war anthologies. An utterly reliable prolific draughtsman, he moved to DC when the company bought out Quality and spent over a decade drawing their Blackhawk. When Sekowsky left, he would draw every JLA issue for the next twelve years, as well as many other adventures of DC’s top characters – and even a wealth of horror stories when the company started scaring kids for money again…

Collecting issues #77-95 (cover-dates December 1969 to December 1971) and generously re-presenting the stirring covers of #85 & 93: giant all-reprint editions, this tome captures a culture in transition and visible change in the way DC stories were told, over a period when the market changed forever, and comics stopped being casual disposable mass-entertainment.

By the end of the period covered in this volume the publishers had undertaken the conceptual and commercial transition from a mass-market medium which slavishly followed trends and fashions to become a niche industry producing only what its dedicated fans wanted…

Without preamble the drama commences with the heroes’ confidence and worldview shattered after enigmatic political populist Joe Dough suborns and compromises their beloved teen mascot in ‘Snapper Carr… Super-Traitor!’ as crafted by Denny O’Neil, Dillin & Joe Giella, a coming-of-age yarn that changed the comfy, cosy superhero game forever.

Greater social awareness parading through comics at this time manifested in the next epic 2-parter, which also revives another Golden Age Great (presumably to cash in on the mini-boom in screen Westerns). The Vigilante – a cowboy-themed superhero who battled bandits and badmen in a passel of DC titles from 1941-1954 – here alerts the team to ‘The Coming of the Doomsters!’ just in time to foil alien invaders who use pollution as their secret weapon. The vile plot concludes in ‘Come Slowly Death, Come Slyly!’ as the heroes stop the toxic baddies whilst subtly introducing young readers to potential ecological disasters in the making. This gave us plenty of time to offset greenhouse gases and end our dependence on fossil fuels and has given us the healthy planet we enjoy today…

Another landmark of this still-impressive tale was the introduction of the JLA Satellite, as the team moved from a hole in a mountain to a high-tech orbiting fortress. As they are moving in, ‘Night of the Soul-Stealer!’ sees Thanagarian Lorch Nor collecting heroic spirits in a magic box, but it is only prelude to an even greater threat as JLA #81 reveals his good intentions when the ‘Plague of the Galactic Jest-Master’ threatens to inflict a greater mind-crushing horror upon our entire universe…

Next is another grand collaboration between JLA and the Justice Society of America as ruthless property speculators (is there any other kind?) from outer space seek to raze two separate Earths in ‘Peril of the Paired Planets’. Only the ultimate sacrifice of a true hero averts trans-dimensional disaster in climactic conclusion ‘Where Valor Fails… Will Magic Triumph?’

Justice League of America #84 (November 1970) hosted ‘The Devil in Paradise!’: a guest-script from veteran Robert Kanigher wherein a well-meaning but demented scientist builds his own Eden to escape Earth’s increasing savagery, before going off the deep end and attempting to cleanse the world and start civilisation afresh.

With superheroes on the outs the team was severely truncated too. JLA #86 confronted issues of overpopulation and impending global starvation as Mike Friedrich began a run of excellent eco-thrillers with ‘Earth’s Final Hour!’. Here crooked business entrepreneur (can I say “any other kind” again?) Theo Zappa tries to trade away Earth’s plankton (base of our entire food-chain) to a race of aliens with only Superman, Batman, Flash, Aquaman, Atom & Hawkman on hand to thwart him, whilst #87’s ‘Batman… King of the World!’ brings in occasional guest-star Zatanna and semi-retired Green Lantern Hal Jordan to tackle a deadly alien robot raider. This was a devious and barely veiled attack on Big Business and the Vietnam war, most renowned these days for introducing a group of alien superheroes mischievously based on Marvel’s Mighty Avengers.

The human spirit and enduring humanity are highlighted as ancient refugees from the lost city of Mu return to find us in charge of the planet they had abandoned millennia ago. ‘The Last Survivors of Earth!’ proves that even when superheroes are outmatched by scientifically-instigated global catastrophes, the simple patience, charity and self-confidence of ordinary folks can move mountains and save worlds…

‘The Most Dangerous Dreams of All!’ is one of the oddest tales in the JLA canon, with a thinly disguised Harlan Ellison psychically inserting himself into the consciousness of Superman and Batman to woo Black Canary with near-fatal repercussions, in a rather self-indulgent but intriguing examination of the creative process. Back on – and under – solid ground again for #90, ‘Plague of the Pale People!’ sees Aquaman’s submerged kingdom of Atlantis conquered by a primitive subsea tribe (the Saremites from Flash #109) using nerve gas negligently dumped in the ocean by the US military. In a mordant and powerful parable about lost faith and taking responsibility, the JLA must deal with problems much tougher than whomping monsters, repelling invaders and locking up bad guys…

JLA #91 (August 1971) heralds a hero-heavy first chapter in the annual JLA/JSA team-up with ‘Earth… the Monster-Maker!’ as the Supermen, Flashes, Green Lanterns, Hawkmen, Atoms & Robins of two Realities simultaneously and ineffectually battle an alien boy and his symbiotically-linked dog on two planets a universe apart. The result is meaningless carnage and imminent death until ‘Solomon Grundy… the One and Only!’ gives all concerned a life-saving lesson on togetherness and lateral thinking…

Following the cover of reprint giant #93, Neal Adams steps in to provide additional pencils for tense mystery ‘Where Strikes Demonfang?’ as ghostly guardian Deadman helps Batman, Aquaman & Green Arrow foil a murder mission by previously infallible archer Merlyn and the League of Assassins.

The issue and this tome end on a cliffhanger as Flash, Green Lantern & Hawkman are lost in a teleporter accident, leaving Batman, Black Canary, Green Arrow & Atom to fight ‘The Private War of Johnny Dune!’ wherein a disaffected African American freshly returned from Vietnam discovers the power and temptation of superpowers. Tragically, even the ability to control minds isn’t enough to change an unjust society 200 years in the making…

Augmented by stunning covers from Murphy Anderson, Curt Swan, Dick Giordano & Adams, these thoroughly wonderful thrillers mark an end and a beginning in comic book storytelling as whimsical adventure was replaced by inclusivity, social awareness and tacit acknowledgement that a smack in the mouth can’t solve all problems.

The audience was changing and the industry was forced to change with them. But underneath it all the drive to entertain remained strong and effective. Charm’s loss is drama’s gain and today’s readers might be surprised to discover just how much punch these tales had – and still have.

And for that you must get this book…
© 1969, 1970, 1971, 2019 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1929, Dick Dillin was born. You can appreciate his lifetime of comics creation drawing everyone from Aquaman to Zatanna in everything from Blackhawk to World’s Finest Comics… and you should. Or you could just scroll up.

In Britain, Strongman’s Daughter Pansy Potter debuted in 1938, courtesy of Hugh McNeill and The Beano. Red Ryder co-creator Stephen Slesinger died today in 1953 and in 2006 ultra prolific comics phenomenon Joe Gill passed away. He co-created Captain Atom and most reprinted Charlton comics you’ve heard of. Why not track down Strange Suspense: The Steve Ditko Archives vol 1 for a taste?

Posted on

Batman: The Dark Knight Archives volume 8


By Bob Kane, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Joe Samachson, Alvin Schwartz, Dick Sprang, Jerry Robinson, Ray Burnley & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3744-8 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s an absolute crime that the comics stories of Richard W. Sprang have never been gathered in a properly curated edition. On the 110th anniversary of his birth in Fremont, Ohio, I’m flogging another dead comics horse by re-reviewing one of my favourite collections, but even that is a venue he shared with others. Surely his astounding, compelling contributions particularly to DC key icons Batman & Superman have earned him a dedicated Sprang Legends or Tales of omnibus or compendium?

Dick Sprang (July 28th 1915 – May 10th 2000) began earning money from art and narrative early on, working as a designer and illustrator in Ohio whilst still in high school: editing and contributing art to magazines and pulps from the early 1930s onwards. On graduation in 1934 he joined the bullpen of Toledo, Ohio publishing chain Scripps-Howard delivering deadline-busting ads, editorial cartoons and illustrations. Working with the company engravers Sprang mastered every aspect of print technology before moving to New York City in 1936 to illustrate pulps – everything from westerns to detective to general adventure yarns.

Regular clints included Popular Detective, Popular Western, Phantom Detective, G-Men, Detective Novels Magazine, Crack Detective & Black Hood Detective/Hooded Detective, for which he also wrote stories. In 1937, Sprang began ghosting/assisting on newspaper strips including Secret Agent X-9 and The Lone Ranger, which led to his scripting episodes of the latter’s radio show.

As pulps declined and comic books proliferated, he capitalised on the trend, forming a studio shop with Ed Kressy (Fact Finders, The Lone Ranger, Power Nelson) & Norman Fallon (Speed Comics, Shock Gibson, World’s Finest Comics). In 1941 they were hired by DC supremo Whitney Ellsworth who anticipated with dread Bob Kane being drafted. The trio began crafting inventory material to offset that inevitable day, which gradually slipped out over the course of the conflict. His first newsstand appearance was on part of the cover for Batman #18 (August/September 1943) whilst his first full outing was the next issue. For Batman #19, he pencilled all four stories and the cover, but only inked the first three (!) leaving Fallon to embellish the fourth yarn. By 1946, and although utterly uncredited, Sprang was the leading artist on Batman comic book material, which marrying and moving to Sedona, Arizona barely impacted. In fact, he taught commercial photographer/new bride Lora Ann Neusiis to letter and colour his pages and, as “Pat Gordon”, she took off some of the load until their divorce in 1951. Gordon carried on working for DC until around 1961…

In 1955, despite still being unknown to fans, Sprang took on the Superman/Batman team-up feature in World Finest Comics and soldiered on with it, newspaper strips, countless covers and more. His astounding artistry enhanced DC titles for 20 years, including Real Fact Comics #1–3, 18, Strange Adventures #1, Superman, Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane & Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, and he fully recreated Batman’s look for the forward-facing 1950s, with a new Batplane, Batmobile and other paraphernalia. Sprang’s Joker was definitive and he also co-created the Riddler and the character who became Supergirl.

That all ended on his retirement in 1963. When he wasn’t beguiling sedentary adventure fans, Sprang had become a noted explorer and historian of Arizona, Utah and Colorado, and happily commenced a career that brought him the fame comics hadn’t. His many celebrated discoveries and contributions are on show at Northern Arizona Universities Cline Library Special Collections in Flagstaff and the Utah Historical Society in Salt Lake City.

Under recommendation here in my What the £*^&$!? section is a tome chockfull of Sprang in full bloom, but which still only has him as just one of the guys. Nevertheless what is there is totally unmissable and on the 110th anniversary of his birth there’s something to look for as the material is rarely reprinted and utterly eternally beguiling…

Batman: The Dark Knight Archives volume 8

Launching a year after Superman, “The Bat-Man” (and latterly Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented DC/National Comics as the market frontrunner and conceptual leader of the burgeoning comic book industry. Having established the fantastic parameters of metahumans with their Man of Tomorrow, the strictly mortal physical perfection and dashing derring-do of DC’s Dynamic Duo then became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were measured.

This luxuriously lavish hardback Archive Edition covers another bevy of Batman adventures (#32-37 from his solo title, spanning December 1945/January 1946 to October/November 1946), with the Gotham Gangbusters resolutely returned to battle post-war perils and peacetime perfidies of danger, doom and criminality…

These Golden Age greats comprise many of the greatest tales in Batman’s decades-long canon, as lead writers Bill Finger & Don Cameron, supplemented by Joe Samachson, Alvin Schwartz and other – sadly unrecorded – scripters, pushed the boundaries of the medium. On the visual side, graphic genius Dick Sprang superseded and surpassed freshly-returned originator Bob Kane – who had been drawing Batman’s daily newspaper exploits until its cancellation – making the feature utterly his own in all but name whilst keeping the Dauntless Double-act at the forefront of a legion of superhero stars, just as veteran contributor Jerry Robinson was reaching the peak of his illustrative powers and preparing to move on to other artistic endeavours. The sheer creativity exhibited here proved the creators responsible for producing the bi-monthly adventures of the Dark Knight were hitting their own artistic peak: one few other superhero titles might match. Within scant years they would be one of the only games in town for Fights ‘n’ Tights fans…

Following a fascinatingly fact-filled and incisive Foreword from the inestimable Roy Thomas, the all-out action begins with Batman #32 and another malevolently marvellous exploit of The Joker whose ‘Racket-Rax Racket!’ (by Cameron & Sprang) finds its felonious inspiration in college-student hazing and initiation stunts, after which Finger scripted ‘Dick Grayson, Boy Wonder!’ for your man Sprang, reprising the jaunty junior partner’s origins to reveal how the lad earned the right to risk his life every night beside the mighty Batman in a blisteringly tense first case…

Light-hearted supplemental feature ‘The Adventures of Alfred’ provides thrills and laughs in equal measure as the dutiful retainer reluctantly baby-sits a posh pooch and ends up ‘In the Soup’ after stumbling upon a gang of high society food smugglers (Samachson & Robinson), before Cameron & Sprang spectacularly combine a smidgen of sci fi flair and a dash of historical conceit to the regular adventure mix when Professor Carter Nichols uses his hypnosis-powered time-travel trick to send Bruce & Dick to the court of Louis XIII to work with D’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers in ‘All for One, One for All!’

Issue #33 was 1945’s Christmas issue – complete with seasonal cover by Sprang – but is otherwise an all-Win Mortimer art-fest; beginning with Finger’s ‘Crime on the Wing’, wherein the Penguin pops up with a renewed campaign of crime employing trick umbrellas, just to prove to modern mobsters that he’s still a force to be reckoned with, after which anonymously-scripted thriller ‘The Looters!’ has the Dynamic Duo hunting a heartless pack of human hyenas led by the Jackal: raiding cities struck by disasters natural and not…

As if that wasn’t vile enough, the shameless exploiter also tries to steal or sabotage the invention of a dedicated seismologist who thought he’d found a way to predict earthquakes. Thankfully, the Batman & Robin are on site to rock the Jackal’s world…

The issue ended with a similarly uncredited Holiday treat as ‘The Search for Santa Claus’ sees three broken old men redeemed by the season of goodwill. After selflessly standing in for Saint Nick, an innocent man who’d spent 25 years in jail, an over-the-hill actor and a millionaire framed and certified insane by unscrupulous heirs all find peace, contentment and justice after encountering our industriously bombastic caped & masked elves…

Three quarters of issue #34 was crafted by Finger & Sprang, beginning with ‘The Marathon of Menace!’ as an old man who dedicated his life to speed records organises a cross-country race across the US with enough prize cash to interest crooks – and the ever-vigilant Gotham Gangbusters, after which an insufferable chatterbox deafeningly returns in ‘Ally Babble and the Four Tea Leaves!’; in which the chaos-causing manic maunderer consults a fortune teller and accidentally confounds a string of dastardly desperadoes…

Robinson limned an anonymous yet timely tale as ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Tired Tracks’ finds the veteran valet stumbling upon opportunistic thieves before the issue ends with Finger & Sprang detailing ‘The Master Vs. the Pupil!’ Here Batman tests his partner’s progress by becoming the quarry in a devious manhunt, but Robin’s early confidence and success take a nasty nosedive after an embarrassing gaffe which proves the danger of too much success…

Finger, Bob Kane & Ray Burnley crafted the lion’s share of Batman #35, beginning with the landmark ‘Nine Lives has the Catwoman!’ wherein the slinky thief finally emerged as the Dark Knight’s premier female foil. Escaping prison and going on a wild crime spree, the feline felon convinces the world – and possibly the Caped Crusaders – that she cannot die, after which the equally auspicious and influential ‘Dinosaur Island!’ catches the heroes performing a sociology experiment in a robotic theme park, only to find the cavemen and giant beasts co-opted by a murderous enemy looking to become king of the criminal underworld by orchestrating their deaths…

An unknown creator scripted the whimsical exploits of ‘Dick Grayson, Author!’ (Kane & Burnley art) as the young daredevil deems comic book stories too unrealistic and is offered the opportunity to write some funnybook dramas which would benefit from actual crime-fighting experience. Of course, all that typing and plotting are harder than they look…

Kane & Burnley also illustrated all the Batman tales in #36, beginning with Alvin Schwartz’s ‘The Penguin’s Nest!’ wherein the podgy Bird of Ill-Omen starts imperilling his new, successful – and legitimate – restaurant venture by committing minor misdemeanours just to get arrested. Unsure of what he’s up to, the Masked Manhunters spend an inordinate amount of time and energy keeping him out of jug… until they finally glean his devious, million-dollar scheme…

When Hollywood’s top stuntman suffers a head injury on set and begins acting out assorted past roles in the real world, the panicked studios call in Batman as ‘Stand-In for Danger!’ (Cameron, Kane & Burnley), whilst Robinson’s ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Elusive London Eddie!’ sees the mild-mannered manservant ferreting out a British scallywag gone to ground in Gotham, after which the issue ends on a spectacular high with another terrific time-travel trip. Courtesy of Finger, Kane & Burnley ‘Sir Batman at King Arthur’s Court!’  sees our compulsive chrononauts crisscrossing fabled Camelot and battling rogue wizards to verify the existence of enigmatic Round Table legend Sir Hardi Le Noir…

This stunning and sturdy compilation concludes with the all-Robinson, all anonymously scripted #37, beginning with ‘Calling Dr. Batman!’ wherein the wounded crimebuster is admitted to hospital and uncovers dark doings and radium robbery. As if that wasn’t enough, a very sharp nurse seems to have suspicions regarding the similarity of the masked celebrity’s wounds to those of a certain millionaire playboy she recently tended to…

Batman & Robin are back in Tinseltown to solve a dire dilemma as ‘Hollywood Hoax!’ sees them hunt thieves and blackmailers who have swiped the master print of the latest certified celluloid smash before the dauntless derring-do ends with a magnificent clash of eternal adversaries when ‘The Joker Follows Suit!’ Fed up with failing in all his felonious forays, the Clown Prince of Crime decides imitation is the sincerest form of theft and begins swiping the Dark Knight’s gimmicks, methods and gadgets; using them to profitably come to the aid of bandits in distress…

Accompanied as always by a full creator ‘Biographies’ section, this superb collection of comic book classics is a magnificent rollercoaster ride back to an era of high drama and breathtaking excitement: a timeless, evergreen delight no addict of graphic action can ignore.

And it’s got lots of Dick Sprang in it!
© 1945, 1946, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.