Nostalgia – Page 43 – Now Read This!

August 7, 2015

Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics

By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, restored & edited by Michael GagnÃ© (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-502-0

Simon & Kirby presaged and ushered in the first American age of mature comics – not just with the Romance genre, but with all manner of challenging modern material of real people in extraordinary situations – before seeing it all disappear again in less than eight years. Their small stable of magazines produced for the loose association of companies known as Prize/Crestwood/Pines blossomed and wilted as the industry contracted throughout the 1950s.

As the popularity of flamboyant escapist superheroes waned after World War II, newer yet more familiar genres such as Crime and Horror came to the fore in American comics, as audiences increasingly rejected upbeat fantasy for grittier, more sober older themes in mass entertainment.

Some, like Westerns and Funny Animal comics, hardly changed at all, but gangster and detective tales were utterly radicalised by the temperament of the post-war world.

Stark, uncompromising, cynically ironic novels and socially aware, mature-themed B-movies that would become categorised as Film Noir offered the new civilian society a bleakly antiheroic worldview that often hit too close to home and set fearful, repressive, middle-class parent groups and political ideologues howling for blood.

Naturally the new forms and sensibilities seeped into comics, transforming good-natured, two-fisted gumshoe and Thud-&-Blunder cop strips of yore into darkly intriguing, even frightening tales of seductive dames, big pay-offs and glamorous thugs.

Sensing imminent Armageddon, the moral junkyard dogs bayed even louder as they saw their precious children’s minds under seditious attackâ€¦

Concurrent to the demise of masked mystery-men, industry giants Joe Simon & Jack Kirby – who were already capitalising on a True Crime boom – legendarily invented the comicbook Romance genre with mature, beguiling, explosively contemporary social dramas equally focussed on the changing cultural scene and adult-themed relationships. They also, with very little shading, discussed topics of a sexual natureâ€¦

Beginning with the semi-comedic prototype My Date for Hillman in early 1947, S&K plunged in full force with Young Romance #1 in September of that year for Crestwood Publications: a minor outfit which had been creating interesting but not innovative comics since 1940 as Prize Comics.

Following Simon’s plan to make a new marketplace from the grievously uncatered-for older girls of America, they struck gold with stories addressing serious issues and hazards of relationshipsâ€¦

Not since the invention of Superman had a single comicbook generated such a frantic rush of imitation and flagrant cashing-in. Young Romance #1 was a monumental hit and the team acted accordingly: swiftly expanding they releasing spin-offs Young Love (February 1949), Young Brides and In Love under a unique profits-sharing deal that quickly paid huge dividends to the publishers, creators and a growing studio of specialists.

All through that turbulent period comicbooks suffered impossibly biased oversight and hostile scrutiny from hidebound and panicked old guard institutions such as church groups, media outlets and ambitious politicians.

A number of tales and titles garnered especial notoriety from those social doomsmiths and when the industry buckled and introduced a ferocious Comics Code, it castrated the creative form just when it most needed boldness and imagination. Comics endured more than a decade and a half of savagely doctrinaire self-imposed censorship until changing society and plummeting profits forced the art form to adapt, evolve or die.

Those tales from a simpler time, exposing a society in meltdown and suffering cultural PTSD, are mild by modern standards of behaviour but the quality of art and writing make those pivotal years a creative highpoint long overdue for a thorough reassessment.

In 1947 fictionalising True Crime Cases was tremendously popular at the time, and of the assorted outfits that generated such material nobody did it better than S&K. That technique of first-person confession also naturally lent itself to the just-as-hard-hitting personal sagas of a succession of archetypal women and girls who populated their new comicbook smash.

Although their output as interchangeable writers/pencillers/inkers (aided by Joe’s brother-in-law Jack Oleck in the story department) was prodigious and astounding, other hands frequently pitched in, so although these tales are all credited to S&K, art-aficionados shouldn’t be surprised to detect traces of Bill Draut, Mort Meskin, Al Eadeh, George Roussos or other stalwarts lurking in the backgroundsâ€¦

Michelle Nolan’s ‘Introduction’ deftly analyses the scope and impact trajectory of the innovation and its impact on the industry before the new era opens with ‘Boy Crazy’ from Young Romance #2 (1947) wherein a flighty teenager with no sense of morality steals her aunt’s man with appalling consequences after which ‘Her Tragic Love’ – from the same issue – delivers a thunderbolt of melodrama as a lovers’ triangle encompassing a wrongly convicted man on death row presented one woman with no solution but the final oneâ€¦

Scripted by Oleck ‘Fraulein Sweetheartâ€¦’ (YR #4, 1948) reveals dark days but no happy endings for two German girls eking out existence in the American-occupied sector of post-war Marburg whilst ‘Shame’ from issue #5 dealt with a high flying young lady too proud to acknowledge her own scrub-woman mother whenever her flashy boyfriend was around.

Next is ‘The Town and Toni Benson’ from Young Romance #11 and contemporarily designated volume 2, #5, 1949, which offered a sequel to ‘I Was a Pick-Up’ from the premiere issue (which is confusingly included in the sequel to this volume Young Romance 2: the Early Simon & Kirby).

Here S&K cleverly built on that original tale creating a soap opera environment which could so easily have spawned a series as the now-newlywed couple struggle to make ends meet under a wave of hostile public scrutinyâ€¦

On a roll the creative geniuses began mixing genres and Western Love #2, 1948 offered ‘Kathy and the Merchant of Sunset Canton!’ as a city slicker found his modern mercenary management style made him no friends in cowboy country until one proud girl took the chance on getting to know him whilst ‘Sailor’s Girl!’ (Young Romance #13/Vol. 3, #1 1949) explores the troubles of an heiress who marries a dauntless sea rover who works for daddy, confident that she can tame his wild free spiritâ€¦

We head out yonder once more to meet ‘The Perfect Cowboy!’(Real West Romances # 4 1949) – at least on set – and the simple sagebrush lass whose head he briefly turned before social inequality and petty envy inform the brutally heavy-handed ‘I Want Your Man’ Young Romance #21/Vol. 3, #9 1950 wherein a young woman of meagre means realises almost too late the cost of her vendetta against a pretty little rich girlâ€¦

‘Nancy Hale’s Problem Clinic’ (Young Romance #23/Vol. 3, #11, 1950) offers a brief dose of sob-sister advice as â€œtreatment for the troubled heartâ€ before the magnificent melodramas resume with ‘Old Fashioned Girl’ (YR #34/Vol. 4, #10 1951) as a forceful young woman raised by her grandmother slowly has her convictions about propriety challenged by intriguing men and her own barely subsumed passions, whereas ‘Mr. Know-It-All Falls in Love’ (Young Love #37/Vol. 7, #10 1952) takes a rare opportunity to use a male narrator’s voice when a buttoned-down control freak decides that with his career in order it’s time to marry. But who’s the best prospect?

Another of those pesky triangles then results in one marriage, one forlorn heartbreak, war, vengeance and a most perfect ‘Wedding Present!’ (Young Love #50/Vol. 5, #8 1953) before this cleverly conceived chronicle takes a conceptual diversion after one last tale from the same issue, detailing the all-business affair of ‘Norma, Queen of the Hot Dogs’ and her (at first) strictly platonic partnerâ€¦

In 1955 the Comics Code Authority began its draconian anodyneing of the industry’s more mature efforts and the Romance titles especially took a big conceptual hit. The edgy stories became less daring and almost every ending was a happy one – for the guy or the parents at least.

Following a superbly extensive ‘Cover Gallery’ featuring a dozen of the most evocative images from those wild and free early years ‘The Post-Code Era’ re-presents the specific conditions affecting romantic relations from the censorious document, followed by a selection of the yarns S&K and their team were thereafter reduced to producing.

Even the art seems less enthusiastic for the wholesome unchallenging episodes which begin with ‘Old Enough to Marry!’ (Young Romance #80/Vol. 8, #8, 1955) as a young man confronts his grizzled cop dad who has no intention of letting his son make a mess of his life, after which a maimed farmer tries to sabotage the budding romance between his once-faithful girlfriend and the brilliant good-looking doctor who cured him in ‘Lovesick’ from the same issue.

The next four tales all originated in Young Romance #85/Vol. 10, #1 1956, beginning with ‘Lizzie’s Back in Town’ as a strong, competent girl returns home to let daddy pick her husband for her (no, really!); two guys fight and the winner gets the girl in ‘Lady’s Choice’ whilst another, less frenzied duel results in a ‘Resort Romeo’ wedding the girl of everybody’s dreams even as ‘My Cousin from Milwaukee’ exposes a gold-digger and reserves her handsome relative for herselfâ€¦

The bowdlerised tales mercifully conclude with ‘The Love I Lost!’ (Young Romance #90/Vol. 12, #3, 1959) wherein another hospital case realises just in time that the man she wants is not the man she deservesâ€¦

This emotional rollercoaster is supplemented with a number of well-illustrated bonus features including ‘Why I Made this Book’, ‘Simon and Kirby’s Romance Comics: A Historical Overview’, a splendid selection of S&K’s pioneering ‘Photo Covers’ (18 in all) and a fascinating explanation of the process of artwork-rehabilitation in ‘About the Restoration’ before everything wraps up with the now-traditional ‘Biographies’ section.

Simon & Kirby took much of their tone if not actual content from movie melodramas of the period (such as Mr. Skeffington, All About Eve or Mildred Pierce and Noir romances like Blonde Ice or Hollow Triumph) and, unlike what we might consider suitable for romantic fiction today, their stories crackled with tension, embraced violent action and were infested with unsavoury characters and vicious backstabbing, gossiping hypocrites.

Happily those are the tales which fill most of this book, making for an extremely engaging, strikingly powerful and thoroughly addictive collection of great stories by brilliant masters of the comics arts and one no lover of the medium should missâ€¦
Young Romance: the Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics Â© 2012 Fantagraphics Books Inc. Introduction Â© 2012 Michelle Nolan Schelly. All rights reserved.

July 23, 2015July 22, 2015

Blake and Mortimer: S.O.S. Meteors

By Edgar P. Jacobs, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-97-7

Master storyteller Edgar P. Jacobs pitted his distinguished duo of Scientific Adventurers Professor Philip Mortimer and Captain Francis Blake against a wide variety of perils and menaces in stunning action thrillers which merged science fiction scope, detective mysteries and supernatural thrillers in the same timeless Ligne claire style which had done so much to make intrepid boy reporter Tintin a global sensation.

The strip debuted in the first issue of Le Journal de Tintin (dated 26^th September 1946): an international anthology comic with editions in Belgium, France and Holland. The magazine was edited by HergÃ©, with his eponymous star ably supplemented by a host of new heroes and features for the post-war worldâ€¦

S.O.S. MÃ©tÃ©ores was originally serialised from January 8^th 1958 to 22^nd April 1959 and subsequently collected in a single album as the eighth drama-drenched epic escapade six months after the conclusion, just in time for the Christmas rush. In 2009 it was translated into English as Cinebook’s sixth Blake and Mortimer release, and – subtitled ‘Mortimer in Paris’ – begins here with the incomparable boffin in the City of Lights, answering a Gallic colleague’s pleas for assistance.

Meteorologist Professor Labrousse, like all his unfortunate ilk, is unhappily shouldering the brunt of public ire over freak weather events which are bringing France to its knees and when Mortimer arrives, he experiences for himself the chaos such tumultuous storms are inflicting upon the traffic-heavy metropolis. Thankfully, the embattled weatherman has despatched a taxi to collect the weary Englishman and bring him to the relative calm of suburban Jouy.

Both driver and passenger are unaware of a flashy American car suspiciously dogging them, and as conditions steadily worsen the ride becomes truly hazardous, leading to an inevitable crash. Separated from the driver and blindly wandering in the storm, Mortimer plunges into a lake and barely manages to scrabble to safety.

Finding his way back to the road, the exhausted scientist thumbs a lift to Labrousse’s house and is gratefully welcomed. Of the taxi driver, however, there is no traceâ€¦

The old colleagues discuss the catastrophic weather and uncanny events long into the night but the next morning their further deliberations are curtailed when the police arrive, eager to interview the Englishman about a certain cab driver’s disappearanceâ€¦

Deeply troubled, the learned men later attempt to retrace Mortimer’s steps and discover the terrain is completely different from Englishman’s memories but encounter a thug and his immense dog going over the same sodden ground. The intruders are clearly following the orders of a boss who keeps well hidden, and a violent altercation is barely avoided with a simple whistle from the unseen voyeurâ€¦

Eventually the studied experience of the local postman enables the baffled British boffin to solve the geographical mystery and the recovered trail leads him to a nearby estate with huge walls patrolled by the same terrifying hound he met earlier. Well-versed in surveillance procedure, Mortimer prepares to probe further but is distracted when a sudden snowstorm begins. Determinedly he returns later, well-prepared and using the blizzard as cover to investigate the estate. It proves to be a tremendous mistakeâ€¦

Next morning in Paris, Divisional Commissioner Pradier of French Intelligence welcomes a counterpart from Great Britain, looking into a new espionage network at work in France. Captain Francis Blake’s keen insight quickly scores a hit and opens up new leads that seem connected to the uncanny weather conditions tormenting the nation, but when he meets hastily-summoned Labrousse Blake learns that old comrade Mortimer has vanished after announcing that the aberrant meteorology is man-madeâ€¦

Travelling to Jouy with the horrified weatherman, Blake makes a shocking impression on Labrousse’s usually-affable neighbour and suddenly the strange atmospheric conditions start being compounded with odd little accidents and frustrations that can only be seen in total as concerted enemy actionâ€¦

The saga kicks into high gear when Blake recognises some old – and previously presumed dead – enemies and is chased through unrelenting arctic conditions back to Paris in a deadly, hair-raising game of cat-&-mouse which culminates when he confronts his greatest foe once againâ€¦

With the help of Pradier’s forces Blake soon has the villains on the run, spectacularly fleeing over the rooftops of Paris, but the big fish of course escapes and the heroes must face the fact that they might never know what has become of Mortimerâ€¦

In Jouy, however, the irascible researcher has made good use of his time incarcerated with the diabolical Professor Milosh Georgevich who has used the vast resources of an aggressor nation to weaponise weather in advance of an audacious scheme to invade France for the third time in a centuryâ€¦

Forced to act alone he escapes his jailers and picks up an unexpected ally as he tries to sabotage the colossal climate engines, utterly unaware that his greatest friend has picked up new clues and is closing in on the plottersâ€¦

Moody and comparatively low-key until the final act when the tension builds to explosive heights and a Bond-Movie finish, S.O.S. Meteors is a splendid mystery romp packed with astounding action, scads of sinister suspense and a blockbuster climax to delight spy-buffs and devotees of Distinguished Duo alike.

Addictive and absorbing in the truest tradition of pulp sci-fi and Boy’s Own Adventures, Blake and Mortimer are the very epitome of dogged heroic determination and the natural successors to such heroic icons as Professor Challenger, Bulldog Drummond and Richard Hannay, always delivering grand, old-fashioned Blood-&-Thunder thrills, chills and spills in timeless fashion and with a mesmerising visual punch.

Any kid able to suspend modern mores and cultural disbelief (call it alternate earth history or bakelite-punk if you want) will enjoy the experience of their livesâ€¦

This Cinebook edition also includes excerpts from two other B&M albums plus a short biographical feature and publication chart of Jacobs’ and his successors’ efforts.
Original edition Â© Editions Blake & Mortimer/Studio Jacobs (Dargaud-Lombard S. A.) 1989 by E.P. Jacobs. All rights reserved. English translation Â© 2009 Cinebook Ltd.

July 1, 2015June 30, 2015

Blackjack: Second Bite of the Cobra

By Alex Simmons & Joe Bennett (Dover Comics & Graphic Novels)
ISBN: 978-0-486-79852-3

Here in the west nearly 150 years of popular publishing – and its spin-off art forms film, radio, television and especially comics – has produced a legion of legendary if human-scaled action adventurers. These larger than life characters have been called Pulp Heroes and their playground is all of human history and every tomorrowâ€¦

Whether you prefer Ivanhoe and Prince Valiant, Allan Quatermain, Sir Percy Blakeney, Richard Hannay, El Borak, Bulldog Drummond, Doc Savage, Mack Bolan, James Bond, Jason Bourne or even Indiana Jones, a succession of steely-eyed, immensely powerful men – and even the occasional woman – have prowled the world, righting wrongs and inspiring generations. Although some few had friends, colleagues or assistants of colour, I can’t think of a single protagonist who was blackâ€¦

That all began to change in 1957 when Chester Himes began writing his tales of brutal, uncompromising cops Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones in the Harlem Detective novels, but then again he was writing them from exile in France.

America’s history of Jim Crow laws and institutionalised racism throughout the media had driven him away and long-stifled the dreams of generations of African-Americans looking for a hero of their own.

That all began to change in the radical 1960s when flunky stereotypes and dumb bad-guy representations began to give way to portrayals of fully-feeling human beings, intelligent moral champions and powerful, vital independent heroes – thanks to the efforts of the same media empires which had for so long censored any such image.

Sadly one look at today’s News tells us America still has some way to go. And of course for most of that time Britain has been no betterâ€¦

That’s a rather longwinded and pompous way of introducing the latest in Dover’s superb line of lost and rescued graphic gems: a fresh edition of a compelling modern classic of the Good Old Bad Old Days, now resurrected in a softcover collection to astound and enthral all lovers of epic bravado and red-handed justice adventure, packed with the usual extras and bonus material.

Preceded with a Foreword from Joe Illidge and the author’s exhilarating Introduction ‘The Past: A Good Time for a Dark Hero’ before closing with an effusive Afterword by agent David Colley, a world of dangerous extremes perfectly realised by Brazilian born illustrator Joe Bennett (X-Men, 52, Supreme).

Alex Simmons is an award-winning African-American author, playwright, comicbook scripter and educator who has produced innumerable strips, games, shows and art-events all over the world. He’s worked for Marvel, DC, Disney, Archie and others and is a passionate advocate for and champion of equality and racial issues.

In 1996 he finally fulfilled a childhood dream by creating a black character as an equal to and worthy of the fictional meta-kingdom of all his childhood heroes as cited above. Following a cruelly recognisable usual pattern, however, the saga of Arron Day AKA Blackjack proved to be a monster hit everywhere but Americaâ€¦

Following the first two miniseries from Dark Angel Productions, Blackjack adapted to tough times in the comic biz by moving online as both prose and comics forms and through a serial in â€œBlaxploitationâ€ magazine Bad Azz Mofo. In 2001 there was even an audio adventure – Blackjack: Retribution – recorded in front of a live audience at the Museum of TV and Radio in New York City.

Now with the first epic extravaganza compiled into one scotching saga, action fans have a chance for another bite of the cherry (sorry, couldn’t resist)â€¦

During the Great War, Matthew â€œMad Dogâ€ Day found fame and a little prosperity as a soldier-of-fortune fighting all over the world; attaining the respect and acclaim no North Carolina negro could have by staying in Americaâ€¦

One particularly savage commission from a thankless Egyptian government sent him into the Sahara and pitted him and his fellow mercenaries against diabolical, nigh-messianic rebel Farouk Tea a la Af’a, know to insurgents everywhere as The Cobra.

After a climactic battle between eternal, implacable foes the Arab raider paid him the ultimate mark of disrespect by not bothering to kill him and his remaining comrades before vanishing back into the trackless wastesâ€¦

Back in Cairo days later the foreign survivors were publicly castigated by an ungrateful populace and Mad Dog’s young son Arron learned a harsh lesson. He knew who was truly to blame however and swore one day he would meet the Cobraâ€¦

Years passed and in 1923 the boy and his sister learned another salutary lesson when their parents were murdered by unknown assassins in Spain.

By 1935 Arron has surpassed his father and become a globetrotting man of wealth and means by way of his own martial talents. Possessing a keen sense of justice and never one to shy away from conflict or confrontation, he has used that money to challenge the American Way by buying a palatial home on Manhattan’s West Side, flying in the face of hostility and outright bigotry, even from the city police â€¦

However, setting up home and aggravating the powers-that-be suddenly loses its appeal when a cable from Cairo arrives. His old uncle Silas – a white man who was Mad Dog’s trusted lieutenant – has learned that the Cobra is back and up to his old murderous tricksâ€¦

And so begins a spectacular, ferociously gripping duel in the desert as Blackjack hunts for the man who shamed his father – and might well have had him killed – encountering and outwitting corrupt rulers, suspect capitalists hungry for the region’s as yet untapped riches, and gangs of thugs.

Ferreting out the demon from his past accompanied by a trusted band of comrades and lethal new recruit Maryam, Blackjack blazes his way across the war-torn region to meet his promised nemesis and settle forever the family business so long delayedâ€¦

As spectacular as Lawrence of Arabia, as fast-paced as The Mummy and as satisfyingly suspenseful as Hidalgo, this is pure pulp experience no lover of the genre can afford to miss.
Story text Â© 1995 Alex Simmons. Illustrations Â© 1995, 1996 Joe Bennett. Cover art Â© 2015 Scott Hanna. All other material Â© 2015 its respective owners. All rights reserved.

Blackjack: Second Bite of the Cobra will be in stores from July 15th 2015 and is available for pre-order now. Check out www.doverpublications.com, your internet retailer or comic shop

June 15, 2015June 14, 2015

Batman: Annuals volume 2 – DC Comics Classics Library

By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Edmond Hamilton, Jerry Coleman, David Wood, France Herron, Sheldon Moldoff, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Dick Sprang, Curt Swan & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2791-3

There’s a lot of truly splendid 1940s and 1950s comics material around these days in a lot of impressive formats. DC’s Classics Comics Library hardbacks are a remarkably accessible, collectible range of products and one of the best is this wonderful aggregation of four of the most influential and beloved comicbooks of the Silver Age of American comicbooks.

Batman Annual #1 was released in June 1961, a year after the phenomenally successful Superman Annual #1. The big, bold anthology format was hugely popular with readers. The Man of Steel’s second Annual was rushed out before Christmas and the third came out a mere year after the first. That same month the first Secret Origins compilation and the aforementioned Batman Blockbuster all arrived in shops and on newsstands.

It’s probably hard to appreciate now but those huge books – 80 pages instead of 32 and practically no advertising – were a magical resource with a colossal impact for kids who loved comics. I don’t mean the ubiquitous scruffs, oiks and scallywags of school days who read casually then chucked them away (most kids were comics consumers in the days before computer games) but rather those quiet, secretive few of us who treasured and kept them, constantly re-reading, discussing, pondering, even making our own.

Only posh kids with wicked parents read no comics at all: those prissy, starchy types who were beaten up by the scruffs, oiks and scallywags even more than us bookworms. But I digressâ€¦

For budding collectors the Annuals were a gateway to a fabulous lost past. Just Imagine!: adventures your heroes had from before you were even bornâ€¦

Those fantastic innovative aggregations in the early 1960s changed comics publishing. Soon Marvel, Charlton and Archie were also releasing giant books of old stories, then came new ones, crossovers, continued storiesâ€¦

Annuals proved two things to publishers: that there was a dedicated, long-term appetite for more material – and that punters were willing to pay a little bit more for itâ€¦

This hardback compendium gathers Batman Annuals #4-7 from (1963-1966) in their mythic entirety: 33 terrific complete stories, stunning pin-ups and those magnificently iconic compartmentalized covers. Also included are original publication details and credits (the only bad thing about those big books of magic was never knowing â€œWhoâ€ and â€œWhereâ€â€¦), creator biographies and another reminiscing Introduction from Michael Uslan, putting the entire nostalgic experience into perspective

Way back then the editors sagely packaged Annuals as themed collections, the first here being ‘The Secret Adventures of Batman and Robin’ (released November 8^th 1962) which started the ball rolling with ‘The First Batman’ (by Bill Finger & Sheldon Moldoff and originally seen in Detective Comics #235, September 1956): a key story of this period which introduced a strong psychological component to Batman’s origins, disclosing how when Bruce Wayne was still a toddler his father had clashed with gangsters whilst clad in a fancy dress bat costumeâ€¦

‘Am I Really Batman?’ (Finger, Moldoff & Charles Paris, Batman #112, December 1957) saw bona fide mad scientist Professor Milo poison the hero with a rare plant, forcing Robin and Alfred to put the Masked Manhunter through a baffling psychological ordeal to counteract the toxinâ€¦

Today fans are pretty used to a vast battalion of bat-themed champions haunting Gotham City and its troubled environs, but for the longest time it was just Bruce, Dick Grayson and occasionally their borrowed dog Ace keeping crime on the run. However in Detective Comics #233 (July 1956, three months before the debut of the Flash officially ushered in the Silver Age) the editorial powers-that-be introduced bold heiress Kathy Kane, who incessantly suited-up in chiropteran red and yellow for the next eight years.

‘Origin of the Batwoman’ by Edmond Hamilton, Moldoff & Paris premiered with the former circus acrobat bursting into Batman’s life, challenging him to discover her secret identity at the risk of exposing his ownâ€¦

The Boy Wonder began very publicly working solo after ‘The Vanished Batman’ (Hamilton, Moldoff & Paris or Stan Kaye, from Batman #101, August 1956) saw the Gotham Gangbuster declared dead and presumed gone by the underworld whilst ‘The Phantom of the Bat-Cave’ (Hamilton, Moldoff & Paris, Batman #99, April 1956) offered a genuine mystery as persons unknown began somehow stealing and replacing items from the heroes’ sacrosanct trophy roomâ€¦

‘Batman’s College Days’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris, Batman #96, December 1955) found Bruce Wayne on a sea cruise with three fellow alumni, one of whom planned murder and had deduced his alter ego, after which ‘The Marriage of Batman and Batwoman’ (Finger, Moldoff & Ray Burnley, Batman #122, March 1959) depicted Robin’s nightmares should such a nuptial event occur whereas ‘The Second Boy Wonder’ (France Herron, Moldoff & Burnley, Batman #105, February 1957) was all too real as a stranger apparently infiltrated the Batcave by impersonating the kid crimebusterâ€¦

The Annual ended with ‘The Man who Ended Batman’s Career’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris from Detective Comics #247, September 1957) which presented a significantly different-looking Professor Milo using psychological warfare and scientific mind-control to attack the Dark Knight by inducing a fear of batsâ€¦

The next Annual, released in summer 1963, highlighted ‘The Strange Lives of Batman and Robin’ and opened with ‘The Power that Doomed Batman’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris, Detective Comics #268 June 1959) as exposure to a comet gifted the Dark Knight with super-strength. Sadly the effect was also cumulatively fatal and forced the heroes into a desperate hunt for a missing man who possessed a cureâ€¦

The same creative team dredged up ‘The Merman Batman’ (Batman #118, September 1958) wherein an lightning strike transformed the Caped crimebuster into a water-breather, aroused ‘Rip Van Batman’ (Batman #119, October 1958) who fell into a plant-induced coma to seemingly awake in the future and corralled ‘The Zebra Batman’ (Detective Comics #275, January 1960) when the hero was turned into an uncontrollable human magnetâ€¦

‘The Grown-Up Boy Wonder’ (Finger, Moldoff & Stan Kaye, Batman #107, April 1957) detailed what happens when space gas turned the likely lad into a strapping young man – but only in body, not mind – after which World’s Finest Comics #109, from May 1960, revealed Robin and Superman‘s tense race to save the Gotham Guardian from an ancient curse in ‘The Bewitched Batman’ by Jerry Coleman, Curt Swan & Moldoff.

‘The Phantom Batman’ (Hamilton, Dick Sprang & Paris, Batman #110, September 1957 showed how an electrical mishap reversed the polarity of the Caped Crusader’s atoms, relegating him to helpless intangibility, and the uncanny yarns end with ‘The Giant Batman’ (from Detective Comics #243 May 1957, by the same team and originally entitled â€œBatman the Giant!â€).

Here the hero was exposed to a well-meaning scientist’s â€œMaximizerâ€ ray and grew too large to catch the thieves who stole it and the antidoteâ€¦

Six months later saw publication of Batman Annual #6 (Winter 1963-1964) featuring ‘Batman and Robin’s Most Thrilling Mystery Cases’ which kicked off with ‘Murder at Mystery Castle’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris, Detective Comics #246 August 1957) as visitors – Batman and Robin included – to a reconstructed medieval fortress witnessed a devilish remote control killing and had to deduce who set the fiendish trapâ€¦

‘The Gotham City Safari’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris Batman #111, October 1957) saw the Dynamic Duo hunting a hidden killer through a fabulous theme-park of exotic locales whilst ‘The Mystery of the Sky Museum’ (Hamilton, Moldoff & Paris, Batman #94, September 1955) found them at an aviation museum on the trail of sinister smugglers.

‘The Mystery of the Four Batmen’ (Hamilton, Sprang & Paris Batman #88, December 1954) was a seagoing enigma with the Partners in Peril seeking a mysterious smuggler with a tenuous connection to bats in one form or another, after which a movie monster made trouble on location, compelling the crimebusting champions to tackle ‘The Creature from the Green Lagoon’ (David Wood, Moldoff & Paris Detective Comics #252 February 1958)â€¦

A stunning chase to expose a killer searching for a lost golden hoard involved solving ‘The Map of Mystery’ (Hamilton, Sprang & Paris, Batman #91, April 1955), whilst a disgruntled family member seemingly threatened to kill every member of ‘The Danger Club’ (Hamilton, Lew Sayre Schwartz & Paris, Batman #76, April/May 1953).

The astounding sleuthing ceases after uncovering ‘Doom in Dinosaur Hall’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris, Detective Comics #255 May 1958) where the curator’s murder at the Gotham’s Mechanical Museum of Natural History led to a fantastic chase and a surprise culpritâ€¦

Summer 1964 produced Batman Annual #7 and ‘Thrilling Adventures of the Whole Batman Family’ beginning with the introduction of the Gotham Guardian’s most controversial â€œpartnerâ€ – a pestiferous, prank-playing extra-dimensional elf – in ‘Batman Meets Bat-Mite’ by Finger, Moldoff & Paris from Detective Comics #267 May 1959) after which the eponymous masked dog Ace narrates ‘The Secret Life of Bat-Hound’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris, Batman #125, August 1959) and his part in capturing the nefarious Midas Gangâ€¦

Finger, Moldoff & Paris enlarged the fictitious family in Batman #139 (April 1961), ‘Introducing Bat-Girl’ as Kathy Kane’s niece Betty began dressing up and acting out as her unwanted assistant, eventually proving adults and boys wrong by taking down the deadly King Cobra and his crew, after which Hamilton wrote the only adventure of ‘The Dynamic Trio’ (Detective Comics #245 July 1957), with a very old friend donning cape and cowl as Mysteryman to help combat a smuggling ring facilitating the escape of Gotham’s fugitives.

Courtesy of Finger, Moldoff & Paris, faithful manservant Alfred personally revealed an early failure and its shocking resolution in ‘The Secret of Batman’s Butler’ (Batman #110, September 1957) before ‘The New Team of Superman and Robin’ (Finger, Swan & Moldoff, World’s Finest Comics # 75, March/April 1955) revealed how a disabled Batman could only fret and fume as his erstwhile assistant seemingly dumped him for a better manâ€¦

When Bat-Mite elected himself ‘Batwoman’s Publicity Agent’ (Finger & Moldoff, Batman #133, August 1960) the result was naturally chaos and unbridled craziness but not as much as the â€œImaginary Storyâ€ devised by Alfred debuting ‘The Second Batman and Robin Team’ (Finger, Moldoff & Paris, Batman #131, April 1960) which would inevitably emerge after Bruce and Kathy wed and Dick assumed the mantle of the batâ€¦

Moldoff’s unforgettable back page pin-up ‘Greetings from the Batman Family’ then wraps this final glimpse at simpler, weirder times.

Strange, addictive and still potently engrossing, these weird wonder tales typify a lost time of gentler danger, more wholesome evil and irresistible fun. They’re also impossibly compelling, incredibly illustrated and undeniably influential. A perfect treat for young and old alike.
Â© 1962, 1963, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

June 8, 2015June 5, 2015

The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer: Atlantis Mystery

By Edgar P. Jacobs, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-107-5

Master storyteller Edgar P. Jacobs pitted his distinguished duo of Scientific Adventurers Professor Philip Mortimer and Captain Francis Blake against a wide variety of perils and menaces in stunning action thrillers which merged science fiction, detective mysteries and supernatural thrillers in the same timeless Ligne claire style which had done so much to make intrepid boy reporter Tintin a global sensation.

The strip debuted in Le Journal de Tintin #1 (26^th September 1946): an international anthology comic with editions in Belgium, France and Holland. The magazine was edited by HergÃ©, with his eponymous star ably supplemented by a host of new heroes and features for the modern ageâ€¦

L’enigme de l’Atlantide was the fourth electrifying exploit of the peerless pair, originally serialised from March 30^th 1955 to May 30^th 1956, and subsequently collected in a single chronicle as the seventh drama-drenched adventure album the following year.

The stunning secret history saga became the 12^th translated Cinebook release, and opens here with vacationing Intelligence operative Blake arriving in the Azores on idyllic island Sao Miguel where Mortimer is engaged in exploring deep caves in his ceaseless search for new knowledge.

From the moment he lands the British Agent is under constant scrutiny by mysterious gangsters and no sooner does he join his old comrade than petty acts of vandalism and outright sabotage begin to occurâ€¦

Unbeknownst to the pair, whilst they are distracted, a mysterious intruder searches the Professor’s palatial lodgings only to be blasted by an even more fantastic figure with a ray-gun.

The delayed detectives only arrive in time to observe an astounding escape before the bellicose boffin explains how he has apparently discovered a new mineral of incredible potential in the vast cave system far below the surface of the island. He suggests it might be the wonder metal Plato describes as â€œOrichalcumâ€; the most prized element of the fabled Atlanteansâ€¦

Undeterred by the break-in, the bold Brits lay plans to further evaluate Mortimer’s mammoth cavern and before long a small but dedicated team are scrambling through perilous crevices to terrifying depths in search of more of the mystery.

The â€œmad Englishâ€ are no longer the main topic of conversation on the island however: everybody else is glued to newspaper reports of flying saucer sightingsâ€¦

Glad of their return to obscurity and utterly unaware that one of their team has been replaced by a deadly old enemy, the valiant subterranean explorers struggle on against formidable and oppressive odds underground, but when the Professor’s Geiger Counter begins to react wildly and they recover a huge chunk of the mystery mineral, the saboteur makes his move.

As a sudden storm threatens to wash the entire expedition away, the infiltrator incepts warnings from the surface, swipes the samples and, cutting the rope ladders, abandons Blake and Mortimer to their deathsâ€¦

His big mistake is pausing to gloat: a well-aimed rock hurled by the Secret Serviceman seemingly seals the scoundrel’s fate tooâ€¦

Unable to go back, the plucky duo then decide to chance everything on following a subterranean river under the island in the vanishingly small hope of finding an exit. Instead, after an astounding under-earth odyssey, what they discover is mercilessly marauding pterodactyls and a fantastically advanced civilisation of super-scientistsâ€¦

Soon the pair are recuperating in the vast bastion of Poseidopolis – thriving last outpost of legendary Atlantis – befriended by young noble Prince Icarus. He happily shares the epic true history of Ancient Earth and his still space-faring nation with them, secure in the knowledge that they will never leave the subterranean metropolis for as long as they liveâ€¦

Unfortunately, with their customary impeccable timing, the British bravos have arrived just as the city’s most trusted civil servant Magon is about to usurp the hereditary rulers’ millennia of unchallenged power. All too soon they become embroiled in a shattering civil war at the earth’s core.

Not only is the entire kingdom of noble Lord Basileus at stake, but the schemer and his allies also have designs upon the Atlanteans’ outer space dominions and the hapless, ignorant surface nations in betweenâ€¦

Packed with astounding action, double-doses of dastardly duplicity and captivatingly depicting the cataclysmic end of a fabulous secret civilisation, this is one of the Distinguished Duo’s most glorious exploits and one no lover of lost world yarns should miss.

Addictive and fantastic in the truest tradition of pulp sci-fi and Boy’s Own Adventures, Blake and Mortimer are the very epitome of dogged heroic determination; the natural successors to such heroic icons as Professor Challenger, Bulldog Drummond and Richard Hannay, always delivering grand, old-fashioned Blood-&-Thunder thrills and spills in timeless fashion and with mesmerising visual punch.

Any kid able to suspend modern mores and cultural disbelief (call it alternate earth history or bakelite-punk if you want) will experience the adventure of their livesâ€¦ This Cinebook edition also includes excerpts from two forthcoming albums plus a short biographical feature and chronological publication chart of Jacobs’ and his successors’ efforts.

June 2, 2015June 1, 2015

Robin Archives volume 2

By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Win Mortimer, Jim Mooney & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2625-1

Created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson, Robin the Boy Wonder debuted in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940), which introduced a juvenile circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mob boss.

The story of how Batman took the orphaned Dick Grayson under his scalloped wing and trained him to fight crime has been told, retold and revised many times over the decades and still regularly undergoes tweaking to this day.

In the original comics continuity Grayson fought beside his mentor until 1970 when, as an indicator of those turbulent times, he flew the nest, becoming a Teen Wonder, college student and eventually leader of a team of fellow sidekicks and young justice seekers – the Teen Titans.

He graduated to his own solo spot in the back of Detective Comics from the end of the 1960s, alternating with Batgirl, and held a similar spot throughout the 1970s in Batman. The college-based wonder won a starring feature in the anthology comic Batman Family and a run of Giant Detective Comics Dollar Comics before becoming a star all over again in the 1980s as leader of the New Teen Titans, first in his original costumed identity and eventually in the reinvented guise of Nightwing. He even re-established a turbulent working relationship with his dark, driven and dangerous former senior partner.

Robin’s creation as a junior hero for younger readers to identify with inspired an incomprehensible number of costumed kid crusaders and Grayson continues in similar innovative vein for the older, more worldly-wise readership of America’s increasingly rebellious contemporary youth cultureâ€¦ but his star potential was first realised much earlier in his eternally young careerâ€¦

From 1947 to 1952, (issues #65-130) Robin, the Boy Wonder had a solo series – and cover spot – in Star Spangled Comics at a time when the Golden Age superhero boom was fading, its gaudy bravos gradually being replaced by more traditional heroes in genres such as crime, westerns and boys’ adventure stories.

The exploits herein contained blended in-continuity action capers with more youth-oriented fare, frequently reducing adults Batman, Alfred and Commissioner Gordon to minor roles or rendering them entirely absent, allowing the kid crusader to display not just his physical accomplishments but also his brains, ingenuity and guts.

This second sturdy deluxe hardback Archive Edition re-presents more tales from Star Spangled #86-105 (covering November 1948 to June 1950) recapturing the dash, verve and universal appeal of one of fantasy literature’s greatest youth icons – albeit with a greater role for Batman – and opens with a fascinating Foreword by Bill Schelly who adds a layer of historical perspective and canny insight to the capers to come.

Every beautiful cover is included – although most of the later ones feature colonial-era frontier sensation Tomahawk – and are lovingly rendered by Jim Mooney, Win Mortimer, Charles Paris, Bob Kane and Fred Ray.

Although unverified, writers Bill Finger, Don Cameron, David Vern Reed and Jack Schiff are considered by most comics historians to be the authors of the stories in this volume and I’m going to happily concur here with that assessment until informed otherwise. Easier to ascertain is Mooney as penciller of almost all and inker of the majority, with other pencil and penmen credited as relevantâ€¦

The action-packed relatively carefree high jinks commence with Star Spangled Comics #86 and ‘The Barton Brothers!’ (inked by Win Mortimer, who remained until #90) as the Boy Wonder took up the lone vengeance trail to hunt down a trio of killers whose crime spree culminated in gunning down the mighty Batman, after which racketeer Benny Broot discovered he was related to the aristocracy and patterned all his subsequent vicious predations on medieval themes as ‘The Sinister Baron!’â€¦

Robin went AWOL in defiance of his mentor to clear the father of a schoolmate in ‘The Man Batman Refused to Help!’ but his good intentions in clearing the obviously framed felon almost upset a cunning plan to catch the real culprit, after which SSC #89 saw ingenious hoods get hold of ‘The Batman’s Utility Belt!’ and start selling customised knock-offs until the Dynamic Duo crushed the racket.

The murder of a geologist sent the partners in peril out west in #90 to solve ‘The Mystery of Rancho Fear!’, going undercover as itinerant cowboys to deal with a gang of extremely contemporary claim-jumpers whilst, with Mooney now handling all the art-chores, issue #91 found the Boy Wonder instigating a perplexing puzzle to stump his senior partner in ‘A Birthday for Batman!’

It would have all been the perfect gift if not for the genuine gangsters who stumbled upon the anniversary anticsâ€¦

The crimebusting kid played only a minor role in #92’s ‘Movie Hero No. 1’ wherein Batman surreptitiously replaced and eventually redeemed an action film actor who was a secret coward, but resumed star status in ‘The Riddle of the Sphinx!’ when a mute, masked mastermind seemingly murdered the Dark Knight and supplanted Gotham’s criminal top dog Red Mask.

Entertainment motifs abounded in those days and Star Spangled Comics #94 heralded ‘The End of Batman’ when the Dynamic Duo stumbled on a film company crating movie masterpieces tailored to the unique tastes and needs of America’s underworld after which greed and terror gripped the streets when a crook employed an ancient artefact to apparently transform objects – and even the Boy Wonder – to coldly glittering gold in #95’s ‘The Man with the Midas Touch!’

An indication of changing times and tastes came with the September 1949 Star Spangled as Fred Ray’s Tomahawk took over the cover-spot from #96 onwards whilst inside, Robin’s solo tale ‘The Boy Who Could Invent Miracles!’ was pencilled by Sheldon Moldoff with Mooney inking.

The story saw the kid crusader working alone whilst Batman recovered from gunshot wounds, encountering a well-meaning bright spark whose brilliantly conceived conceptions revolutionised the world – but almost exposed the masked avenger’s secret identityâ€¦

First seen in Star Spangled Comics #70, The Clock was an anonymous criminal time-and-motion expert who became the closest thing to an Archenemy Robin had. ‘The Man Who Stole Time!’ returned yet again in #97 (with Mooney back on full art), determined to publicly humiliate and crush his juvenile nemesis through a series of suitably-themed crimesâ€¦ but with the same degree of success as alwaysâ€¦

In #98 a classmate of Dick Grayson’s briefly became ‘Robin’s Rival!’ after devising a method of travelling on phone lines as Wireboy. Sadly his ingenuity was far in excess of his fighting ability or common sense and he was wisely convinced to retire, after which gambling gangster Sam Ferris broke jail and turned his obsession with turning circles into a campaign of ‘Crime on Wheels!’ until Robin set him straight againâ€¦

SSC #100 offered a powerfully moving tale as the Boy Wonder gave shelter to ‘The Killer-Dog of Gotham City!’ and proved that valiant Duke could shake off his criminal master’s training to become a boon to society.

In #101 High School elections were being elaborately suborned by ‘The Campaign Crooks!’ with a bizarre scheme to make an illicit buck from students, whilst in #102 ‘The Boy with Criminal Ears!’ developed super-hearing: making his life hell and ultimately bringing him to the attention of sadistic thugs with an eye to the main chanceâ€¦

Star Spangled Comics #103 saw the introduction of ‘Roberta the Girl Wonder!’ as class polymath Mary Wills decided to follow her heart and try to catch the ideal boyfriend by becoming his crime-fighting rival, whilst #104’s ‘Born to Skate’ revealed how classmate Tommy Wells‘ freewheeling passion led Robin to a gang using a roller-skate factory to mask crimes as varied as smuggling, kidnapping and murderâ€¦

The wholesome all-ages action ends with a rewarding tale blending model-making and malfeasance as a guilt-wracked Robin comes to the aid of a police pilot who had been crippled – and worse – whilst assisting on a case.

As part of his rehabilitation the Junior Manhunter devises high-tech models for Bill Cooper‘s aviation club but when ‘The Disappearing Batplanes!’ are purloined by cunning air pirates the scene is set for a terrifying aerial showdownâ€¦

Beautifully illustrated, wittily scripted and captivatingly addictive, these rousingly traditional superhero escapades are a perfect antidote to teen-angst and the strident, overblown, self-absorbed whining of contemporary comicbook kids.

Fast-paced, infinitely inventive and ferociously fun, here are superb yarns no young-at-heart Fights ‘n’ Tights fan will want to missâ€¦
Â© 1948, 1949, 1950, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

May 7, 2015May 7, 2015

Superman: the World’s Finest Comics Archives volume 2

By Jerry Siegel, Don Cameron, Alvin Schwartz, Joe Samachson, Sam Citron, Ed Dobrotka, Ira Yarbrough, John Sikela, George Roussos, Stan Kaye & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2470-7

The debut of Superman rapidly propelled National Comics to the forefront of their fledgling industry and in 1939 the company was licensed to produce a commemorative extra-length comicbook celebrating the opening of the New York World’s Fair. With the Man of Tomorrow prominently featured on the appropriately titled New York World’s Fair Comics, the premium also featured such four-colour stars as Zatara, Butch the Pup, Gingersnap and The Sandman.

The experiment generated another such titanic tome a year later, and since the prodigious card-covered 96 page anthologies were a tolerable hit, the editors were inclined to further test the waters through another oversized anthology starring only their own pantheon of characters with market-leaders Superman and Batman prominently featured.

The format was retained for a wholly company-owned, quarterly high-end package, retailing for the then hefty price of 15Â¢. Launching as World’s Best Comics #1 (Spring 1941), the book transformed into the somehow-deemed-classier World’s Finest Comics from #2, beginning a stellar 45 year run which only ended as part of the massive clear-out and decluttering exercise that was Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Until a cost-cutting exercise in 1954 reduced the page count, the first 70 issues of World’s Finest only saw Superman, Batman and Robin united on the covers. From #71 (cover-dated July) onwards, however, the three began a long-lived partnership that lasted more or less until the title was cancelled.

This deliciously deluxe hardback Archive edition collects the Action Ace’s solo exploits from World’s Finest Comics #16-32 (Winter 1945 to January/February 1948) in gleaming, seductive full-colour and also includes an incisive Foreword by fan, historian, and comics creator Jim Amash as well as the now-traditional creator biographies.

With stunning, eye-catching covers from Jack Burnley, Dick Sprang and Win Mortimer, this fabulously exuberant compendium opens with the regrettably anonymous ‘Music for the Masses!’ illustrated by Sam Citron & George Roussos wherein Clark Kent and Lois Lane help a starry-eyed hick songwriter escape the machinations of arch conman J. Wilbur Wolfingham to find stardom and true love, and World’s Finest Comics #17 provided thrills and spills in Don Cameron, Citron & Roussos’ ‘The Great Godini!’, wherein a reformed convict struggles to escape his notorious past whilst attempting to forge a career as a stage magician and escapologistâ€¦

‘The Junior Reporters!’, by Alvin Schwartz & Ed Dobrotka, sees a young newsboy prove his grit and integrity in a journalism competition, scoring his first major scoop by exposing the crooked schemes of his older brother’s gang, after which WFC #19 details Cameron & Ira Yarbrough’s ‘The Battle of the Zodiac!’ as Lois’ investigation of a shady swami leads to a spectacular, phantasmagorical clash between the Man of Steel and animatedly aggressive astrological embodiments.

After swiping advanced electronic and atomic components, creepy Winslow Schott becomes ‘The Toyman: Super-Scientist!’ (Cameron, Dobrotka & Stan Kaye), bedevilling the Metropolis Marvel with lethally devious devices, whilst from #21, ‘The Plane of Tomorrow!’ (Joe Samachson, Yarbrough & Roussos) finds Superman feeling uncharacteristically jealous when Lois seemingly switches her fickle attentions to a dashing jet designer targeted by a dodgy industrialistâ€¦

When Lois and Clark are despatched north to cover radium mining they uncover a strange mystery. Aging prospector John Borealis seems to be just a crazy old man handing out gold to his struggling fellows but he harbours a dangerous secret which draws out an army of bandits in ‘The Siege of Aurora Roost!’ (Schwartz, Yarbrough & Kaye in #22)â€¦

When a handful of silent screen stars attempt a comeback they begin dotting the city with vast imitations of the Seven Wonders of the World. As the poorly built edifices begin to crumble, Superman steps in to save the day as ‘The Colossus of Metropolis!’ (Cameron, Yarbrough & Kaye from World’s Finest Comics #23), after which those artists delineate the again-anonymously-scripted ‘Impossible But True!’ wherein the presenter of a new TV show tells more and more blatant lies on camera.

What nobody knows is that poor Olga Olmstead is being fed false info by ruthless kidnappers and the Man of Tomorrow is biding his time until he can strikeâ€¦

‘Mad Weather in Metropolis!’ from WFC #25 (Cameron, Yarbrough & Kaye) follows similar themes when Lois is appointed Daily Planet meteorologist and resentfully fabricates impossible forecasts which Superman makes come true. What she doesn’t know is that the Caped Crimebuster is using her potty prognostications to help out an ailing sporting goods store and catch a gang of racketeersâ€¦

Co-creator Jerry Siegel returned after war service in 1946 and ‘The Confessions of Superman!’ (art by John Sikela & Kaye) saw him on top form as the promise of a huge charity donation convinces the Man of Might to pen his (somewhat expurgated) autobiography and then have to prove to his publisher that he did indeed perform the feats he describedâ€¦

World’s Finest #27’s featured ‘The Man who Out-Supered Superman!’ (Siegel, Sikela & Kaye again ) wherein downtrodden love sick schnook Nelson Swayne devised numerous sharp ways of outdoing the Man of Steel to win back his flighty, star-struck girlfriendâ€¦

Paramount mad scientist Lex Luthor returned with a â€œlife-rayâ€ to plunder and pillage Metropolis, galvanising a giant statue into becoming ‘Superman’s Super-Self!’ (Cameron, Yarbrough & Kaye) whilst ‘The Books that Couldn’t be Bound!’ (Schwartz, Sikela & Kaye in #29) found Clark and Lois following a harried bookbinder as he strove to fulfil three all-but-impossible commissions. Naturally the Caped Kryptonian also turned up to assist as a unique apprenticeâ€¦

‘Sheriff Clark Kent’ (Cameron, Win Mortimer & Dobrotka) took the Man of Steel to the Wild West but it was his meek alter ego and feisty little lad Roaring Pete who caught the cunning crook ramrodding the fearsome Rockdust Banditsâ€¦

Sheer whimsy guided ‘Superman’s Super-Rival!’ (Schwartz, Yarbrough & Kaye) as punchy boxer Dan the Dunce swipes an experimental sedative which turns him into a mighty muscled mauler able to mangle the Man of Steel and seduce away his girl Loisâ€¦ The last tale in this volume – from World’s Finest Comics #32, Fall 1944 – is ‘The Seventh Wonder of the World!’ by Siegel, Yarbrough & Kaye, astoundingly detailing how Superman briefly visits ancient Egypt just in time to smash an army of proto-Nazis, liberate Pharaoh’s slaves and complete the Pyramid of Cheops. All in a day’s work, reallyâ€¦

These blockbusting yarns provide a perfect snapshot of the Caped Kryptonian’s amazing development from unstoppable, outlaw social activist to trusted and omnipotent paragon of American virtues in timeless tales which have never lost their edge or their power to enthral and beguile.

This is raw comicbook wonderment at its most primal and perfect.
Â© 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

May 3, 2015May 2, 2015

Challengers of the Unknown by Jack Kirby

By Jack Kirby, Dave Wood, France â€œEdâ€ Herron, Roz Kirby Wally Wood, Marvin Stein, George Klein & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3474-4

The Challengers of the Unknown were a bridging concept between the fashionably all-American human trouble-shooters who monopolised comicbooks for most of the 1950s and the costumed mystery men who would soon return to take over the industry.

As superheroes were being revived in 1956 here was a super-team – the first of the Silver Age – with no powers, the most basic and utilitarian of costumes and the most dubious of motives – Suicide by Mystery.

Yet they were a huge hit and struck a chord that lasted for more than a decade before they finally diedâ€¦ only to rise again and yet again. The idea of them was stirring enough, but their initial execution made their success all but inevitable.

Jack Kirby was – and still is – the most important single influence in the history of American comics. There are quite rightly millions of words written (such as Paul Kupperberg’s enthusiastic Introduction and John Morrow’s pithy Afterword in this superb hardback compilation) about what the man has done and meant, and you should read those if you are at all interested in our medium.

I’m going to add a few words to that superabundance in this review of one of his best and most influential projects which, like so many others, he perfectly constructed before moving on, leaving highly competent but never quite as inspired talents to build upon.

When the comic industry suffered a witch-hunt-caused collapse in the mid-50’s, Kirby returned briefly to DC Comics where he worked on mystery tales and Green Arrow (then simply a back-up strip in Adventure Comics) whilst creating the newspaper strip Sky Masters of the Space Force.

He also re-packaged for Showcase (a try-out title that launched the careers of many DC mainstays) an original super-team concept that had been kicking around in his head since he and long-time collaborator Joe Simon had closed their innovative but unfortunately ill-timed Prize/Essankay/Mainline Comics ventures.

After years of working for others Simon & Kirby had finally established their own publishing company, producing comics with a much more sophisticated audience in mind, only to find themselves in a sales downturn and awash in public hysteria generated by an anti-comicbook pogrom spearheaded by US Senator Estes Kefauver and pop psychologist Dr. Frederic Wertham.

Simon quit the business for advertising, but Kirby soldiered on, taking his skills and ideas to a number of safer, if less experimental, companies.

The Challengers were four ordinary mortals; explorers and adventurers who walked away unscathed from a terrible plane crash. Already obviously what we now call â€œadrenaline junkiesâ€, pilot Ace Morgan, diver Prof Haley, acrobat/mountaineer Red Ryan and wrestler Rocky Davis summarily decided that since they were all living on borrowed time, they would dedicate what remained of their lives to testing themselves and fate. They would risk their lives for Knowledge and, naturally, Justice.

The series launched with ‘The Secrets of the Sorcerer’s Box!’ in Showcase #6 (cover-dated January/February 1957 – so it was on spinner-racks and news-stands in time for Christmas 1956).

Kirby and scripter Dave Wood, plus inkers Marvin Stein and Jack’s wife Roz, crafted a creepily spectacular epic wherein the freshly introduced doom-chasers were hired by the duplicitous magician Morelian to open an ancient container holding otherworldly secrets and powers.

This initial story roars along with all the tension and wonder of the B-movie thrillers it emulates and Jack’s awesome drawing resonates with power and dynamism, which grew even greater for the sequel, a science fiction drama instigated after an alliance of leftover Nazi technologies and contemporary American criminality unleashes a terrible robotic monster.

‘Ultivac is Loose!’ (Showcase #7, March/April 1957) introduced a necessary standard appendage of the times and the B-movie genre in the form of brave, capable, brilliant and beautiful-when-she-took-her-labcoat-off boffin Dr. June Robbins, who became the fifth Challenger at a time when most comics females had returned to a subsidiary status in that so-conservative era.

The uncanny exploits then paused for a sales audit and the team didn’t reappear until Showcase #11 (November/December 1957) as The Flash and Lois Lane got their respective shots at the big time. When the Challengers returned it was in alien invasion epic ‘The Day the Earth Blew Up’.

Uniquely engaging comics realist Bruno Premiani (a former associate and employee from Kirby’s Prize Comics days) came aboard to ink a taut doomsday chiller that keeps readers on the edge of their seats even today, and by the time of their last Showcase issue (#12, January /February 1958) the Questing Quartet were preparing to move into their own title.

‘The Menace of the Ancient Vials’ was defused by the usual blend of daredevil heroics and inspired ingenuity (with the wonderful inking of George Klein adding subtle clarity to the tale of an international criminal who steals an ancient weapons cache that threatens the entire world if misused), but the biggest buzz would come two months later with the first issue of their own magazine.

Challengers of the Unknown #1 (May 1958) was written and drawn by Kirby, with Stein on inks and presented two complete stories plus an iconic introductory page that would become almost a signature logo for the team. ‘The Man Who Tampered with Infinity’ pitted the heroes against a renegade scientist whose cavalier dabbling loosed dreadful monsters from the beyond onto our defenceless planet, before the team were actually abducted by aliens in ‘The Human Pets’ and had to win their freedom and a rapid rocket-ship (sphere actually) ride homeâ€¦

The same creators were responsible for both stories in the second issue. ‘The Traitorous Challenger’ is a monster mystery, with June returning to sabotage a mission in the Australian Outback for the very best reasons , after which ‘The Monster Maker’ finds the team seemingly helpless against super-criminal Roc who can conjure and animate solid objects out of his thoughts.

Issue #3 features ‘Secret of the Sorcerer’s Mirror’ with Roz Kirby and Marvin Stein again inking The King’s mesmerising pencils, as the fantastic foursome pursue a band of criminals whose magic looking-glass can locate deadly ancient weapons, but undoubtedly the most intriguing tale for fans and historians of the medium is ‘The Menace of the Invincible Challenger’ wherein team strongman Rocky Davis is rocketed into space only to crash back to Earth with strange, uncanny powers.

For years the obvious similarities of this group – and especially this adventure – to the origin of Marvel’s Fantastic Four (FF #1 was released in November 1961) have fuelled speculation. In all honesty I simply don’t care. They’re both similar but different and equally enjoyable so read both. In fact, read them all.

With #4 the series became artistically immaculate as the sheer brilliance of Wally Wood’s inking elevated the illustration to unparalleled heights. The scintillant sheen and limpid depth of Woody’s brushwork fostered an abiding authenticity in even the most outrageous of Kirby’s designs and the result is – even now – simply breathtaking.

‘The Wizard of Time’ is a full length masterpiece of the art form as a series of bizarre robberies lead the team to a scientist with a time-machine. By visiting oracles of the past rogue researcher Darius Tiko found a path to the far future. When he got there he intended robbing it blind, but the Challengers found a way to follow and foil himâ€¦

‘The Riddle of the Star-Stone’ (#5) is a full-length contemporary thriller, wherein an archaeologist’s assistant uncovers an alien tablet which bestows various super-powers when different gems are inserted into it. The exotic locales and non-stop action are intoxicating, but Kirby’s solid characterisation and ingenious writing are what make this such a compelling read.

Scripter Dave Wood returned for #6’s first story. ‘Captives of the Space Circus’ has the boys kidnapped from Earth to perform in a interplanetary show, but the evil ringmaster is promptly outfoxed and the team returns for France â€œEdâ€ Herron’s mystic saga ‘The Sorceress of Forbidden Valley’, wherein June becomes an amnesiac puppet in a power struggle between a fugitive gangster and a ruthless feudal potentate.

Issue #7 is another daring double-feature both scripted by Herron. First up is relatively straightforward alien-safari tale ‘The Beasts From Planet 9’, followed by a much more intriguing yarn on the ‘Isle of No Return’ as the team face a scientific bandit whose shrinking ray has left them all mouse-sized.

Issue #8 (July 1959) offered a magnificent finale to a superb run as Kirby & Wally Wood went out in stunning style with a brace of gripping thrillers – both of which introduced menaces who would return to bedevil the team in future tales.

‘The Man Who Stole the Future’ by Dave Wood, Kirby and the unrelated Wally Wood, introduces Drabny – an evil mastermind who steals mystic artefacts and conquers a small nation before the team dethrones him. This is a tale of spectacular battles and uncharacteristic, if welcome, comedy, but the real gem here is space opera tour-de-force ‘Prisoners of the Robot Planet’, (probably) written by Kirby & Herron. Petitioned by a desperate alien, the Challs travel to his distant world to liberate the population from bondage to their own robotic servants, who have risen in revolt under the command of the fearsome autonomous automaton, Kraâ€¦

These are classic adventures, told in a classical manner. Kirby developed a brilliantly feasible concept with which to work and heroically archetypical characters. He then tapped into an astounding blend of genres to display their talents and courage in unforgettable exploits that informed and affected every team comic that followed – and certainly influenced his successive landmark triumphs with Stan Lee.

But then Jack was goneâ€¦

The Challengers would follow the Kirby model until cancellation in 1970, but due to a dispute with Editor Jack Schiff the writer/artist resigned at the height of his powers. The Kirby magic was impossible to match, but as with all The King’s creations, every element was in place for the successors to run with. Challengers of the Unknown #9 (September 1959) saw an increase in the fantasy elements favoured by Schiff, and perhaps an easing of the subtle tension that marked previous issues (Comics Historians take note: the Challs were bitching, bickering and snarling at each other years before Marvel’s Cosmic Quartet ever boarded that fateful rocket-ship).

But that’s meat for another different bookâ€¦

Challengers of the Unknown is sheer escapist wonderment, and no fan of the medium should miss the graphic exploits of these perfect adventurers in that ideal setting of not-so-long-ago in a simpler, better galaxy than ours.

April 14, 2015April 13, 2015

Batman: the Dark Knight Archives volume 6

By Bob Kane, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Jack Schiff, Alvin Schwartz, Joe Greene, Mort Weisinger, Dick Sprang, Jack Burnley, Jerry Robinson & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2547-6

Debuting a year after Superman, â€œThe Bat-Manâ€ (and latterly Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented DC/National Comics as the market frontrunner and conceptual leader of the burgeoning comicbook industry.

Having established the parameters of the metahuman in their Man of Tomorrow, the physical mortal perfection and dashing derring-do of the strictly human Dynamic Duo rapidly became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were judged.

This sixth lavish hardback Archive Edition volume covers Batman #21-25 and again features exploits from the height of World War II – specifically February/March 1944 to October/November 1944.

These Golden Age greats are some of the finest tales in Batman’s decades-long canon, as lead writers Bill Finger and Don Cameron, supplemented by Joe Samachson, Jack Schiff, Alvin Schwartz, Joe Greene and Mort Weisinger, pushed the boundaries of the adventure medium whilst graphic genius Dick Sprang slowly superseded and surpassed Bob Kane and Jack Burnley, making the feature uniquely his own and keeping the Peerless Pair at the forefront of a vast army of superhero successes.

The sheer creativity exhibited in these adventures proved that the ever-expanding band of creators responsible for producing the bi-monthly adventures of the Dark Knight were hitting an artistic peak which only stellar stable-mate Superman and Fawcett’s Captain Marvel were able to equal or even approach.

Moreover with WWII finally turning in the Good Guys’ favour, the escapades became upbeat and more wide-rangingâ€¦

Following a Foreword from former bat-scribe Alvin Schwartz, the Home Front began to offer a brighter – but still crime-ridden – perspective with Batman #21, an all-Sprang art extravaganza which opened with the slick Schiff-scripted tale ‘The Streamlined Rustlers’ which saw the Caped Crusaders way out West solving a devilish mystery and crushing a gang of beef-stealing black-market black hats.

Cameron then described the antics of murderous big city mobster Chopper Gant who conned a military historian into planning his capers, briefly bamboozling Batman and Robin with his warlike ‘Blitzkrieg Bandits!’ whilst Schwartz penned the delightfully convoluted romp ‘His Lordship’s Double’ which sees newly dapper, slim-line manservant Alfred asked to impersonate a purportedly crowd-shy aristocratic inventorâ€¦ only to become the victim in a nasty scheme to secure the true toff’s latest inventionâ€¦

It all culminates with ‘The Three Eccentrics’ (written by Joe Greene), which details the wily Penguin‘s schemes to empty the coffers of a trio of Gotham’s wealthiest misfits. The fiendish foray founders because he fails to take into account the time-sensitivity of his information and the dogged grit and ingenuity of the Gotham Gangbustersâ€¦

Batman #22 leads with ‘The Duped Domestics!’ by Schwartz, Bob Kane & Jerry Robinson wherein a select number of Gotham’s butlers are targeted by a sultry seductress looking for easy inroads to swanky houses. Despite being an old enemy of Batman’s, â€œBelindaâ€ more than meets her match when Alfred becomes her next patsyâ€¦

When the little rich boy secretly takes a menial job, his generous guardian is rightly baffled but after ‘Dick Grayson, Telegraph Boy!’ (Finger, Burney & Robinson) exposes a criminal enterprise centred around Gotham Observatory, the method of his madness soon becomes clear.

Next a new solo series debuted as Mort Weisinger & Robinson launched ‘The Adventures of Alfred’ with ‘Conversational Clue!’ wherein Batman’s batman misapprehends an overheard word at the library and stumbles into a safecracking gang.

The issue concludes with ‘The Cavalier Rides Again!’ (Finger, Burnley & Charles Paris) as the Dashing Desperado mystifyingly begins bagging cheap imitations rather than authentic booty in his ongoing campaign to best the Batmanâ€¦

The Joker led in issue #23 with Finger, Sprang & Gene McDonald’s eccentric thriller ‘The Upside Down Crimes!’ wherein the Harlequin of Hate turns the town topsy-turvy in his latest series of looting larcenies after which smitten Dick’s bold endeavours save classmate and ‘Damsel in Distress!’ (Cameron & Sprang) Marjory Davenport and her dad from gangster kidnappers.

Unfortunately for him, she soon has her head turned by flamboyant Robin and the Boy Wonder becomes his own rivalâ€¦

Anonymously scripted but again rendered by Jerry Robinson, ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Borrowed Butler!’ found the domestic detective loaned out by Bruce Wayne to a snooty neighbour and accidentally uncovering an insider’s scheme to burgle the place.

Wrapping up this outing is another fact-packed â€œPolice Division Storyâ€ with Batman and Robin joining the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to stop a vicious ring of fur bandits who have decided to forego robbing big city stores. Instead, the ‘Pelt Plunderers!’ (Joe Samachson & Sprang) head due north to steal directly from the trappersâ€¦

Batman #24 added a smidgen of science fiction flair and a dash of sheer whimsy to the regular mix as ‘It Happened in Rome’ (Samachson & Sprang) introduces Professor Carter Nichols who devises a method of time-travel which depends on deep hypnosis.

His first subjects are old friend Bruce Wayne and his ward who both wing back centuries for a sightseeing trip and end up saving a charioteer from race-fixers as Batmanus and Robinâ€¦

Bruce also plays a pivotal role in ‘Convict Cargo!’ (Cameron & Sprang), pretending to be an embezzler in order to expose a ring of thugs offering perfect getaways to Gotham’s white-collar criminals. Happily when the villain vacations turn out to be one-way trips, Batman and Robin are on hand to mop up the pirates responsible.

Cameron & Robinson then describe how ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Police Line-Up!’ leads the bewildered butler into trailing the wrong crook but still nabbing a mob of bad eggs before portly purveyors of peril Tweedledum and Tweedledee connive their way into the position of ‘The Mayors of Yonville!’

Their flagrant abuse of civic power dumps the Dynamic Duo into jail but still isn’t enough to keep their goldmine scam from coming to light once the heroes bust outâ€¦

This superb hardback compendium concludes with Batman #25 as opening shot ‘Knights of Knavery’ (Cameron, Burnley& Robinson) sees arch rivals Penguin and Joker join forces to steal the world’s biggest emerald and outwit all opposition, before falling foul of their own mistrust and arrogance once the Dark Knight puts his own thinking cap on.

‘The Sheik of Gotham City!’ (Schwartz, Burnley & Robinson) then sees an Arabian refugee working as a cab driver in Gotham restored to rule his usurped desert kingdom after our heroes foil an assassination attempt, whilst ‘The Adventures of Alfred: The Mesmerised Manhunter!’ (Cameron & Robinson) sees the off-duty domestic the plaything of a stage magician whilst simultaneously foiling a box office heist.

The action and suspense wrap up in spectacular style as Finger, Burnley& Robinson detail a saga of sabotage and redemption when the Dynamic Duo join the rough-and-ready electrical engineers known as ‘The Kilowatt Cowboys!’

As if the job of bringing the nation’s newest hydroelectric dam on line is not dangerous enough and a plague of thefts by murderous copper thieves isn’t cutting into productivity, most of Batman’s time is spent stopping rival wire men Jack and Alec from killing each otherâ€¦

Accompanied by a stunning and iconic Sprang cover gallery and full creator ‘Biographies’, this sublime selection of classic comicbook action is a magnificent ride on the Wayback Machine to a time of high drama, low cunning and breathtaking excitement
Â© 1944, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

April 7, 2015

Superman Archives volume 8

By Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Alvin Schwartz, Whitney Ellsworth, Ed Dobrotka, Sam Citron, Ira Yarbrough, George Roussos, Jack Burnley, Wayne Boring & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2885-9

Today’s American comicbook industry – if it still existed at all – would have been utterly unrecognisable to us without Superman. His unprecedented invention and adoption by a desperate and joy-starved generation quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form.

Spawning an impossible army of imitators and variations, within three years of his 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment which hallmarked the early Man of Steel had grown to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, socially reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East embroiled America, patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and explosive derring-do.

In comicbook terms at least Superman was master of the world, having already utterly changed the shape of the fledgling industry. There was the phenomenally popular newspaper strip, a thrice-weekly radio serial, games, toys, as much global syndication as the war would allow and the perennially re-run Fleischer studio’s astounding animated cartoons.

Despite all the years that have passed since then, I – and so many others – still believe that superhero comics were never more apt or effective than when they were whole-heartedly combating the agents of Fascism (and yes by heck, even the dirty, doggone, Reds-Under-the-Beds Commies, who took their place in the 1960s too!) with mysterious masked marvel men in compulsive, improbable short, sharp exploits,

The most evocative and breathtaking moments of the genre always seem to occur as those gaudy gladiators soundly thrashed – and please forgive the offensive contemporary colloquialism – â€œNips, Nazis and Redsâ€. However, even in those dark days long-ago, the young and enthusiastic creators were wise enough to augment their tales of espionage and invasion with a range of gentler, more whimsical four-colour fare. By the time of the sagas in this superb seventh Superman full-colour hardcover Archive edition – re-presenting #30-35 (September/October 1944 to July/August 1944) of the Man of Tomorrow’s solo title – the apprehension of the early war years had been replaced with eager anticipation as tyranny’s infernal forces were being rolled back on every Front.

Superman was the premier, vibrant, vital role model whose startling abilities and take-charge, can-do attitude had won the hearts of the public at home and the troops across the war-torn world.

Now, although the shooting was all but over, stirring, morale-boosting covers and stories were being phased out in favour of gentler and even purely comedic themes.

Following a funny and informative Foreword: â€œLook! Up in the Sky! It’s a Birdâ€¦ it’s a Planeâ€¦it’s – An Imp?’ by cartoonist Evan Dorkin discussing the advent of super-foes, social change and a certain fifth dimensional jester, the action-laced whimsy begins with ‘Superman Alias Superman!’ by Don Cameron, Ira Yarbrough & Stan Kaye wherein lovelorn Clark Kent takes romantic advice from office-boy Jimmy Olsen and impersonates his own alter ego to impress Lois.

The doomed imposture is further complicated because his scathing, scoop-obsessed colleague is fully fixated on catching high society bandit Silver Foxx and has no time for Clark’s insecurities and idiociesâ€¦

The go-getting journalist was always too busy for romance back then, as can be seen in ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Arch-Swindler’ by Cameron, Ed Dobrotka & George Roussos. In those turbulent times the interpretation of the â€œplucky news-henâ€ was far less demeaning than the post-war sneaky minx who was so popular in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Lois might have been ambitious and life-threateningly precipitate, but it was always to advance her own career, help underdogs and put bad guys away, not trap a man into marriage.

Her Superman-free exploits began in #28: a succession of 4-page vignettes offering breathless, fast-paced, screwball comedy-thrillers. In this example, spurred on by Clark’s teasing, she tracks down, is captured by and spectacularly turns the tables on murderous conman Jack Doverâ€¦

Back with the star feature, Bill Finger, Yarbrough & Roussos revealed how an ancient prophecy turns the Action Ace into ‘The King’s Substitute’ as centuries ago the ruler of tiny nation Poltavia learns that a Superman will one day deliver his country from bondage, restore a true heir and offer the people a wonderful thing called democracyâ€¦

Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster & Yarbrough then herald the start of a new kind of adventure as ‘The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk’ debuts. An utterly intoxicating daffy romp introduced the 5th dimensional imp who would henceforward periodically test the Man of Steel’s ingenuity and patience in a still-hilarious perfect example of the lighter side of super-heroics.

Mxyztplk (later anglicised to Mxyzptlk, presumably to make it easier to spell?) became a cornerstone of the Superman mythos: an insufferable pixie against whom all Superman’s strength and power were useless. From then on brains were going to be as important as brawn as frustration became the Man of Steel’s first real weaknessâ€¦

Superman #31 opens with crime-thriller ‘Tune Up Time for Crime’ (Finger, Sam Citron Roussos) as crooks with a deadly new sonic weapon turn out to have the scientific backing of the Metropolis’ Marvel’s oldest enemy, after which arch-whimsy reappears in ‘A Dog’s Tale’ (Finger, Citron & Roussos) when scruffy mutt Flip proudly tells his canine pals how he helped Superman crack a dognapping racketâ€¦

Cameron & Dobrotka then reveal how a gang of jewel thieves prove no match for dumb luck and journalistic moxie in ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Aces Doonan Gang’ before Finger, Citron & Roussos close out the issue with a trip to the museum as ‘The Treasure House of History!’ finds Superman saving a noble institution from mismanagement, skulduggery and even closure whilst discovering a lost Mayan cityâ€¦

In #32 ‘Superman’s Search for Clark Kent!’ (Alvin Schwartz, Dobrotka & Roussos) finds the Action Ace an invincible amnesiac after volunteering for a scientific trial and forced to track down his own other identity whilst ‘Crime on Skis!!’ (Finger, Dobrotka & Roussos) sees the restored hero debunk a malign mythical bird as no more than a cover for more pedestrian killers plaguing a ski resort.

‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: Monkey Business’ (Whitney Ellsworth, Dobrotka & Roussos) is another splendidly frothy concoction describing how a ventriloquist at the zoo puts the jaunty journo on the trail of a pack of pickpockets, after which the terrible Toyman resurfaces to plague Metropolis, plundering wealthy antique collectors in search of a treasure hidden since the French Revolution in ‘Toys of Treachery!’ (Cameron, Dobrotka & Roussos).

Superman #33 opened with the hero following foolish Lois into ‘Dimensions of Danger!’ (Cameron, Yarbrough & Roussos) after she road-tested a Mxyztplk spell and ended up stuck in his home realm of Zrfff. Once there the Caped Kryptonian had the opportunity to do a little mischief-making of his ownâ€¦

With art by Yarbrough & Roussos ‘The Country Doctor!’ is the kind of socially aware redemptive tale Bill Finger was a master of and saw Clark Kent stuck in homey little Middletown watching aging Dr. David Brown make a difference – but little money – ministering to the poor souls around him.

The physician’s only regret was a son who preferred big city glamour cases and big city fees, but then something quite tragic happenedâ€¦

Ellsworth & Dobrotka’s ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Purloined Piggy Bank’ found her being pranked by (male) cops before turning the tables on them and crushing a crime conspiracy. The issue ends with classic mystery yarn ‘The Compass Points to Murder!’ (Finger, Yarbrough & Roussos) finding the Action Ace darting to the four corners of the globe in search of a killer who believed he’d successfully silenced a shipping fleet magnate but had left one telling clue behindâ€¦

In #25 Mort Weisinger & Fred Ray’s ‘I Sustain the Wings!’ played a crucial part in America’s attempt to address a shortfall in vital services recruitment – a genuine problem at this time in our real world – and created an instant comics classic.

Artistically Superman #34 is an all Citron/Roussos affair, whose opening shot attempted to repeat the magic formula with Cameron scripted ‘The United States Navy!’ with Clark despatched to follow three college football heroes whilst they progress – in different maritime specialisations – through the war in the Pacific. Â

Then ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Foiled Frame-Up’ (Ellsworth) sees her upset political scoundrels and expose a smear campaign after which Cameron instigates a prototype â€œImaginary Taleâ€ with ‘The Canyon that Went Berserk!’ wherein a fortune teller prompts Clark into daydreaming the prospecting adventure of a lifetimeâ€¦

‘When the World got Tired!’ (Finger) then ramped up the tension when a sinister epidemic of global indolence and sloth turns out to be the work of Lex Luthor and his new alien alliesâ€¦

The gaggle of Golden Age goodies conclude with the contents of Superman #35 (mostly illustrated by Yarbrough & Roussos), starting with the Cameron scripted ‘Fame for Sale!’, wherein shady cove and scurvy scoundrel J. Wilbur Wolfingham rears his conniving head once more. The magnificent pastiche of W. C. Fields as a ruthless Mr. Micawber returned like a bad penny over and again to bedevil honest folk and greedy saps and here he acted as an early kind of spin doctor/publicist for a millionaire miser, social climbing parvenu and even the Mayor of Metropolis, promising their names would be on everybody’s lips.

Of course he neglected to mention how he would accomplish the feats and drew the unwelcome attention of an always alert Action Aceâ€¦

A gang wanting to profiteer from a new medicine came to a painful end in ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Drug Swindle’ (Cameron & Dobrotka) whilst Yarbrough & Roussos resumed their illustrative endeavours for Finger’s ‘Like Father, Like Son!’ wherein Superman cleared the name and reputation of a local politician whose enemies sought to tar him with the same scandalous brush as his supposedly criminal child, and the

‘The Genie of the Lamp!’ (scripted by Schwartz) then sees the Action Ace teach a wealthy young antique collector the difference between precious objects and people in need by masquerading as a wish-fulfilling spriteâ€¦

With stunning covers by Jack Burnley, Wayne Boring, Roussos & Kaye, plus a full ‘Biographies’ section this is another stunning selection of the stories which kept the groundbreaking Man of Steel at the forefront of comics for nearly 80 years.

As fresh and thrilling now as they ever were, these endlessly re-readable epics are perfectly situated in these gloriously luxurious Archive Editions; a worthy, long-lasting vehicle for the greatest and most influential comics stories the art form has ever produced.

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