Category: Nostalgia

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Superman


By Otto Binder, Jerry Coleman, Bill Finger, Edmond Hamilton, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye (Four Square/New English Library)
ISBN: 1757

I’ve often bored anyone who would listen about the mini-publishing revolution during the “Camp” superhero-crazed 1960s, which first saw previously denigrated four-colour comic stories migrate from cheap, flimsy pamphlet to the stiffened covers and relative respectability of paperback bookshelves.

I can’t express the sheer nostalgic elation these mostly forgotten fancies still afford (to me at least) so, just because I want to, here’s one that probably qualifies as one of my absolute top three, just in time to cash in on the new Superman film.

Silver Age readers – we just thought of ourselves as “kids” – buying Superman, Action Comics, Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane, World’s Finest Comics and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (not forgetting Superboy, Adventure Comics and Justice League of America) would delight every time some fascinating snippet of information leaked out. We spent our days filling in the impossible blanks about incredible alien worlds (America as much as Krypton) through the enthralling, thrilling yarns in those halcyon treasures. But somehow when the tales appeared in proper books it made the dream realms a little more substantial; and perhaps even real…

The Man of Steel has proven to be all things to all fans over his 75-year existence and, with the character currently undergoing yet another radical overhaul, these fabulous gems of charm and joy and wholesome wit are more welcome than ever: not just as a reminder of grand times past but also as an all-ages primer for wonders still to come…

At the time this British edition of the New American Library edition was published, the Action Ace was enjoying a youthful swell of revived interest. Thanks to the TV Batman-led boom in superheroes generally and a highly efficient global licensing push, Superman was starring in a new television cartoon show, enjoying a rampant merchandising wave and had even secured his own Broadway musical: all working to keep the Last Son of Krypton a vibrant icon of modern, Space-Age America.

Although we might think of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s iconic invention as the epitome of comicbook chic, the plain truth is that within months of his landmark 1938 launch in Action Comics #1, Superman had already grown into a multimedia star. Far more people have enjoyed the Man of Steel than have ever read his illustrated exploits and yes, that does include the globally syndicated newspaper strips which have existed since 1939.

By the time his 25th anniversary rolled around he had been a regular on radio, appeared in an eponymous novel by George Lowther and stunned audiences in a series of astounding animated cartoons.

In 1948 and 1950 he starred in a brace of live-action movie serials (Superman and Atom Man vs. Superman) before graduating to a full-length feature in 1951’s Superman and the Mole Men which led in turn to a groundbreaking and long-running television series.

He was a perennial success for toy and puzzle manufacturers and, after six seasons of The Adventures of Superman, an almost seamless succession of TV cartoons began with The New Adventures of Superman in 1966.

In his future were more TV shows (Superboy, Lois & Clark and Smallville), a franchise of stellar movies and, once they’d been invented, computer and video game incarnations. Even super-dog Krypto got in on the small-screen act…

This terrific little black and white paperback pocket book – part of National Periodical Publications’ on-going efforts to reach wider reading audiences – surfaced in 1967 during the “Camp” superhero craze, re-presenting five reformatted Superman stories culled from the archives illustrated by signature illustrator Wayne Boring and all inked by regular collaborator Stan Kaye.

At this time many American comics publishers used the “Batman Bounce” to get out of their ghetto and onto “proper” bookshelves, however understandably DC concentrated most of their efforts on comics compilations and prose novels starring the Dynamic Duo…

The wholesome intrigue and breathtaking fantasy commence here with ‘The Invulnerable Enemy’ written by Otto Binder, and originally seen in Action Comics #226 (March 1957) wherein archaeologists uncovered the statue of a giant gladiator. Further excavation revealed the colossus to be a petrified alien crashed to Earth in ages past. When the Man of Steel brought the unmoving artefact to Metropolis an incredible accident caused by Lex Luthor brought the giant back to life.

The revived relic went on a rampage of destruction with powers even Superman could not cope with until, forced to use wits instead of muscles, the harried hero solved his dilemma and returned the marooned monolith to his proper place…

During the 1950s, even as his comicbook back-story was expanded and elaborated, the Metropolis Marvel had settled into a remarkably ordered existence. Nothing could really hurt him, nothing ever changed, and sheer excitement seemed in short supply. With the TV show concentrating on action, DC’s Comics Code-hamstrung scripters increasingly concentrated on supplying wonder, intrigue, imagination, a few laughs and, whenever possible, drama and pathos…

‘Superman’s 3 Mistakes!’ (by Edmond Hamilton from Superman #105, May 1956) provided both personal revelation and tense suspense when ClarkKent received an anonymous letter which declared that the writer knew his secret. Forced to review his past for cases which might expose evidence of his alter ego, Kent carefully excised all errors but could not learn the identity of his potential blackmailer until a second post-dated letter surfaced…

Superman #127 (February 1959) saw the debut of a hugely popular returning menace in ‘Titano the Super-Ape!’ The chimpanzee had mutated into a gigantic ape with Kryptonite vision after being shot into space, and upon his return caused massive destruction with only Lois Lane able to sooth savage ravages.

Again the Man of Might had to resort to brains not brawn to solve the crisis in a true classic of the period, courtesy of Binder, Boring & Kaye’s sublime treatment which combined action and sentiment to superb effect in a memorable homage to King Kong.

‘The Menace of Cosmic Man’ was a sharp mystery with political overtones written by Bill Finger (Action Comics #258, November 1959) wherein an impoverished European dictatorship improbably announced it had its own all-powerful costumed champion; drawing Lois and Clark into a potentially deadly covert investigation, after which this riot of reformatted revels concludes with ‘The Menace of Red-Green Kryptonite!’ (Jerry Coleman, Action #275, April 1961).

Guest-starring Supergirl, this uncanny conundrum featured a bizarre battle between Superman and alien marauder Brainiac, whose latest weapon combined two isotopes of the deadly radioactive remnants of Krypton to produce a truly weird transformation and inexplicable behavioural changes in the embattled Man of Tomorrow…

Superman has proven to be all things to all fans over his decades of existence and, with the character currently undergoing another overhaul, these peerless parables of power and glory are more welcome than ever: not just as memorial to what has been but also as a benchmark for future tales to aspire to…

This book is probably impossible to find today – even though entirely worth the effort – but whatever format or collection you happen upon, such forgotten stories of the immortal Superman are part of our cultural comics heritage and should never be lost.

You owe it to yourself to know them…
© 1956, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1966 National Periodical Publications. All rights reserved.

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Golden Age Starman Archives volume 1


By Jack Burnley, Gardner Fox, Alfred Bester, Ray Burnley & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-622-4

After the staggering success of Superman and Batman, National Comics/DC rapidly launched many other mystery-men in their efforts to capitalise on the phenomenon of superheroes, and from our decades-distant perspective it’s only fair to say that by 1941 the editors had only the vaguest inkling of what they were doing.

Since newest creations Sandman, The Spectre and Hourman were each imbued with equal investments of innovation, creativity and exposure, the editorial powers-that-be were rather disappointed that their later additions never took off to the same explosive degree.

Publishing partner but separate editorial entity All American Comics had since generated many barnstorming successes like The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Hop Harrigan and would soon actually produce the only rival to Superman and Batman status when Wonder Woman debuted late in the year. Of course AA clearly filtered all ideas through the brilliantly “in-tune” creative and editorial prodigy Sheldon Mayer…

Thus when Starman launched in the April 1941 issue of Adventure Comics (relegating Sandman to a back-up role in the already venerable heroic anthology), National/DC trusted in craft and quality rather than some indefinable “pizzazz” and the editors were especially convinced that the forcefully realistic, conventionally dramatic illustration of Hardin “Jack” Burnley would propel their newest concept to the same giddy heights of popularity as the Action Ace and Gotham Guardian.

And indeed the strip, always magnificently drawn and indisputably one of the most beautiful of the period, was further blessed with mature and compelling scripts by Gardner Fox and Alfred Bester. Compulsive and brilliant: by today’s standards these are some one of the very best comics that era ever produced.

However – according to the artist in his Foreword to this first stunning deluxe hardback collection – that was possibly the problem. The subtle, moody, slower-paced stories just didn’t have the sheer exuberance and kinetic energy of the most popular series, which happily eschewed craft and discipline for spectacle and all-out action.

Happily these days, with an appreciably older and more discerning audience, Starman‘s less-than-stellar career in his own time can be fully seen for the superb example of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction it truly is…

This epic collection reprints the earliest astounding exploits of the Astral Avenger from Adventure Comics #61-76 (spanning April 1941 to July 1942) and includes some of the most iconic covers of the Golden Age: by Burnley and, latterly, wonder-kids Joe Simon & Jack Kirby.

Burnley came up with the Starman concept but, as was often the case, a professional writer was assigned to flesh out and co-create the stories. In this case said scribe was the multi-talented Gardner Fox who wrote most of them, whilst the illustrator also liberally called on the talents of his brother Dupree “Ray” Burnley as art assistant and sister Betty as letterer to finish the episodes in sublimely cinematic style.

In those simpler times origins were far less important than today, and the moonlit magic begins with ‘The Amazing Starman’ from #61 wherein America suddenly suffered a wave of deadly electrical events and FBI chief Woodley Allen summoned his latest volunteer operative. Bored socialite Ted Knight promptly abandoned his scathing date Doris Lee and assumed his mystery man persona, flying off to stop the deranged scientist behind all the death and destruction.

Almost as an aside we learned that secret genius Knight had previously discovered a way to collect and redirect the energy of Starlight through an awesome tool he called his “gravity rod” and resolved to do good with his discoveries…

Soon the intrepid adventurer had tracked the diabolical Dr. Doog to his mountain fortress and spectacularly decimated the subversive Secret Brotherhood of the Electron…

In #62 the Sidereal Sentinel met another deadly deranged genius who had devised a shrinking ray. It even briefly diminished Starman before the sky warrior extinguished ‘The Menace of the Lethal Light’, whilst ‘The Adventure of the Earthquake Terror’ in #63 revealed how the nation was attacked by foreign agent Captain Vurm who enslaved a lost South American tribe to administer his grotesque ground-shock engines. He too fell before the unstoppable cosmic power of harnessed starlight.

America was still neutral at this time, but the writing was on the wall and increasingly villains had monocles and German accents…

Adventure Comics #64 pitted the Astral Avenger against a sinister mesmerist who could turn men into robot slaves in ‘The Mystery of the Men with Staring Eyes’, after which – behind a stunning proto-patriotic cover – Starman solved ‘The Mystery of the Undersea Terror’ wherein the ship-sinking League of the Octopus proved to be another deadly outlet for the greedy genius of The Light…

In #66 ‘The Case of the Camera Curse’ layered a dose of supernatural horror into the high-tech mix when Starman tackled a crazed photographer who used a voodoo lens to enslave and destroy his subjects, whilst in #67 ‘The Menace of the Invisible Raiders’ introduced the Astral Avenger’s greatest foe.

The Mist had devised a way to make men and machines imperceptible and would have conquered America with his unseen air force had not the Starry Knight stopped him… Alfred Bester provided a searing patriotic script for #68 as ‘The Blaze of Doom’ found Starman quenching a forest fire and uncovering a lumberjack gang intent on holding America’s Defence effort to ransom, after which Fox returned for ‘The Adventure of the Singapore Stranglers’ in #69 which pitted heavenly hero against sinister cult. In actuality the killers were sadistic saboteurs of a certain aggressive Asiatic Empire. American involvement in WWII was mere months away.

The martial tone continued in ‘The Adventure of the Ring of Hijackers’ as Starman battled Baron X whose deadly minions were wrecking American trains shipping supplies and munitions to embattled Great Britain’s convoy vessels, but there was a welcome change of pace in #71 when ‘The Invaders from the Future’ struck. These brigands from Tomorrow were bad enough, but when Starman discovered which of his old enemies had recruited them, all bets were off…

In #72 an Arabian curse seemed the reason returned explorers kept dying of fright, but the ‘Case of the Magic Bloodstone’ proved to have a far more prosaic but no less sinister cause…

With Adventure Comics #73 Starman lost his regular cover-spot as dynamic duo Simon & Kirby took over ailing strips Paul Kirk, Manhunter and Sandman. However ‘The Case of the Murders in Outer Space’ proved the series was not lacking in imagination or dynamic quality, as the Astral Avenger matched wits with a brilliant mastermind murdering heirs to a Californian fortune by an unfathomable method and disposing of the bodies in an utterly unique manner…

Sinister science again reigned in #74 as ‘The Case of the Monstrous Animal-Men’ found the Starlight Centurion battling ghastly tragic pawns of a maniac who turned men into beasts, whilst in #75 ‘The Case of the Luckless Liars’ revealed how Ted Knight’s initiation into a millionaires’ fibbing society led to Starman becoming a hypnotised terror tool of deadly killer The Veil…

This initial foray into darkness ends with a rollicking action riot in ‘The Case of the Sinister Sun’ wherein cheap thugs the Moroni Gang upgraded their act with deadly gadgets and patterned themselves after the solar system in a blazing crime blitz – until Starman eclipsed them all…

Enthralling, engaging and fantastically inviting, these Golden Age adventures are a true high-point of the era – even if readers of the time didn’t realise it – and offer astonishing thrills and chills for today’s sophisticated readership. Starman’s exploits are some of the best but most neglected thrillers of those halcyon days, but modern tastes will find these yarns are far more in tune with contemporary mores, making this book a truly terrific treat for fans of mad science, mystery, murder and stylish intrigue…
© 1941, 1942, 2000 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman Chronicles volumes 1 and 2

New revised reviews

By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0764-9 & 978-1-4012-1215-5

It’s incontrovertible: the American comicbook industry – if it existed at all – would have been an utterly unrecognisable thing without Superman. His unprecedented invention and adoption by a desperate and joy-starved generation gave birth to an entire genre if not an actual art form.

Superman spawned an inconceivable army of imitators and variations, and 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 finally involved America, patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and vigorous dashing derring-do.

Now with moviegoers again anticipating a new cinematic interpretation of the ultimate immigrant tale here’s my chance to once more highlight perhaps the most authentic of the many delightful versions of his oft-reprinted early tales.

Re-presenting the epochal run of raw, unpolished but viscerally vibrant stories by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster which set the funnybook world on fire, here – in as near-as-dammit the texture, smell and colour of the original newsprint – are the crude, rough, uncontrollable wish-fulfilling, cathartically exuberant exploits of a righteous and superior man dealing out summary justice equally to social malcontents, exploitative capitalists, thugs and ne’er-do-wells that initially captured the imagination of a generation.

The first of these oft-covered recollections of the primal Man of Steel – printed in chronological order – features the groundbreaking yarns from Action Comics #1 through #13 (June 1938 – June 1939) and his pivotal appearance from New York’s World Fair No. 1 (also June 1939) before comicbook history is made with the landmark first issue of his own solo title.

Most of the early tales were untitled, but for everyone’s convenience have been given descriptive appellations by the editors. Thus after describing the foundling’s escape from exploding Planet Krypton and explaining his astonishing powers in nine panels, with absolutely no preamble the wonderment begins with ‘Superman: Champion of the Oppressed!’ as the costumed crusader -masquerading by day as reporter Clark Kent – began averting numerous tragedies.

As well as saving an innocent woman from the Electric Chair and roughing up a wife beater, the tireless crusader worked over racketeer Butch Matson – consequently saving feisty colleague Lois Lane from abduction and worse – and outed a lobbyist for the armaments industry who was bribing Senators on behalf of greedy munitions interests fomenting war in Europe…

The next breathtaking instalment in Action #2 (July 1938) saw the mercurial mystery-man travelling to the war-zone to spectacularly dampen down the hostilities already in progress in ‘Revolution in San Monte Pt 2’ before ‘The Blakely Mine Disaster’ found the Man of Steel responding to a coal-mine cave-in to expose corrupt corporate practises before cleaning up gamblers who ruthless fixed games and players in #4’s ‘Superman Plays Football’.

The Action Ace’s untapped physical potential was highlighted in the next issue as ‘Superman and the Dam’ pitted the human dynamo against the power of a devastating natural disaster, after which in #6 canny chiseller Nick Williams attempted to monetise the hero – without asking first. ‘Superman’s Phony Manager’ even attempted to replace the real thing with a cheap knock-off but quickly learned a very painful lesson in ethics…

Although Superman featured on the first cover the staid and cautious editors were initially dubious about the alien strongman’s popular appeal and preferred more traditional genre scenes for the following issues (all by Leo E. O’Mealia and all included here).

Superman’s (and Joe Shuster’s) second cover appeared on Action Comics #7 (December 1938) and prompted a big jump in sales as a riotous romp inside revealed why ‘Superman Joins the Circus’ as the caped crusader crushed racketeers taking over the Big Top. Fred Guardineer then produced general genre covers for #8 and 9 whilst the interiors saw ‘Superman in the Slums’ working to save young delinquents from a future life of crime and depravity and latterly featured the city cops’ disastrous decision to stop the costumed vigilante’s unsanctioned interference in ‘Wanted: Superman’.

That manhunt ended in an uncomfortable stalemate…

Action #7 had been one of the highest-selling issues ever, so #10 again sported a stunning Shuster shot whilst Siegel’s smart story of ‘Superman Goes to Prison’ struck another telling blow against institutionalised injustice with the Man of Tomorrow infiltrating and exposing the brutal horrors of the State Chain Gangs.

Action Comics #11 featured a maritime cover by Guardineer as inside heartless conmen were driving investors to penury and suicide before the caped crimebuster interceded in ‘Superman and the “Black Gold” Swindle’.

Guardineer’s cover of magician hero Zatara on Action #12 incorporated another landmark as the Man of Steel was given a cameo badge declaring he was inside each and every issue, even as inside ‘Superman Declares War on Reckless Drivers’ provided a hard-hitting tale of casual joy-riders, cost-cutting automobile manufacturers, corrupt lawmakers and dodgy car salesmen who all felt the wrath of the hero after a friend of Clark Kent was killed in a hit-&-run incident.

By now the editors had realised that the debut of Superman had propelled National Comics to the forefront of the fledgling industry, and in 1939 the company was licensed to produce a commemorative comicbook celebrating the opening of the New York World’s Fair, with the Man of Tomorrow topping the bill on the appropriately titled New York World’s Fair Comics among such early DC four-colour stars as Zatara, Butch the Pup, Gingersnap and The Sandman.

Following an inspirational cover by Sheldon Mayer, ‘Superman at the World’s Fair’, by Siegel & Shuster, described how Clark and Lois were dispatched to cover the gala event giving the mystery man an opportunity to contribute his own exhibit and bag a bunch of brutal bandits to boot…

Back in Action Comics #13 (June 1939 and another Shuster cover) the road-rage theme of the previous issue continued as ‘Superman vs. the Cab Protective League’ pitted the tireless foe of felons against a murderous gang trying to take over the city’s taxi companies. The tale also introduced – in almost invisibly low key – The Man of Steel’s first great nemesis – The Ultra-Humanite…

This initial compilation concludes with a truncated version of Superman #1. This was because the first solo-starring comicbook in history actually reprinted the earliest tales from Action, supplemented with new and recovered material – and that alone is featured here.

Behind the iconic Shuster cover the first episode was at last printed in full, describing the alien foundling’s escape from exploding Planet Krypton, his childhood with unnamed Earthling foster parents and journey to the big city. Also included in those six pages (cut from Action Comics #1 and restored for Superman #1) was the Man of Steel’s routing of a lynch mob and capture of the real killer which preceded his spectacular saving of the accused murderess that started the legend…

Rounding off the unseen treasures is the solo page ‘Scientific Explanation of Superman’s Amazing Strength!’, a 2-page prose adventure of the Caped Crime-crusher, a biographical feature on Siegel & Shuster and a glorious Shuster pin-up from Superman #1’s back cover.

 

Superman Chronicles volume Two resumes the power-packed procession featuring the high- (leaping-but-not-yet) flying hero in tales from Action Comics #14-20 (July 1939-January 1940) and issues #2-3 of his 64 page solo spectaculars; cover-dated Fall and Winter 1939 respectively.

Sporting a Guardineer Zatara cover, Action #14 saw the return of the premier money-mad scientist in ‘Superman Meets the Ultra-Humanite’ wherein the mercenary malcontent switch from incessant graft, corruption and murder to an obsessive campaign to destroy the Man of Tomorrow.

Whilst Shuster concentrated on the interior epic ‘Superman on the High Seas’ – wherein the heroic hurricane tackled sub-sea pirates and dry land gangsters – Guardineer illustrated an aquatic Superman cover for #15, as well as the Foreign Legion cover on Action #16 wherein ‘Superman and the Numbers Racket’ saw the hero save an embezzler from suicide and disrupt another wicked gambling cabal.

By #16 sales figures confirmed that whenever the big guy appeared up-front issues sold out and, inevitably, Superman assumed that pole position for decades to come from #19 onwards.

Superman’s rise was meteoric and inexorable. He was the indisputable star of Action, plus his own dedicated title; a daily newspaper strip had begun on 16th January 1939, with a separate Sunday strip following from November 5th of that year, which was garnering millions of new fans. A thrice-weekly radio serial was in the offing and would launch on February 12th 1940. With games, toys, a newspaper strip and a growing international media presence, Superman was swiftly becoming everybody’s hero…

The second issue of the Man of Tomorrow’s own title opened with ‘The Comeback of Larry Trent’ – a stirring human drama wherein the Action Ace cleared the name of the broken heavyweight boxer, coincidentally cleaning the scum out of the fight game, and followed by ‘Superman Champions Universal Peace!’ wherein the hero crushed a gang who had stolen the world’s deadliest poison gas weapon, once more going up against unscrupulous munitions manufacturers.

‘Superman and the Skyscrapers’ found Kent investigating suspicious deaths in the construction industry, leading his alter ego into confrontation with mindless thugs and their fat-cat corporate boss, after which a Superman text tale ended the issue.

Action Comics #17 featured ‘The Return of the Ultra-Humanite’ in a viciously homicidal caper involving extortion and the wanton sinking of US ships and featured a classic Shuster Super-cover as the Man of Steel was awarded all the odd-numbered issues for his attention-grabbing playground.

That didn’t last long: after Guardineer’s last adventure cover – an aerial dog fight – on #18 and which masked into ‘Superman’s Super-Campaign’ as both Kent and Superman determined to crush a merciless blackmailer, Superman just appeared on the front every month from #19, which found the city temporarily in the grip of a deadly epidemic created by the Ultra-Humanite in ‘Superman and the Purple Plague’.

Only the first and last strips from Superman #3 are in this volume, as the other two were reprints of Action #5 and 6.

‘Superman and the Runaway’ however offered a gripping, shockingly uncompromising expose of corrupt orphanages, after which Lois went out on a date with hapless Clark simply because she needed to get closer to a gang of murderous smugglers. Happily his hidden alter ego was on hand to rescue her in the bombastic gang-busting ‘Superman and the Jewel Smugglers’…

This incredible panorama of torrid tales ends with ‘Superman and the Screen Siren’ from Action #20 (January 1940) as beautiful actress Delores Winters was revealed not as another sinister super-scientific megalomaniac but the latest tragic victim and organic hideaway of the Ultra-Humanite who had perfected his greatest horror… brain transplant surgery!

Although the gaudy burlesque of monsters and super-villains still lay years ahead of our hero, these primitive captivating tales of corruption, disaster and social injustice are just as engrossing and speak powerfully of the tenor of the times. The perilous parade of rip-roaring action, hoods, masterminds, plagues, disasters, lost kids and distressed damsels are all dealt with in a direct and captivating manner by our relentlessly entertaining champion in summarily swift and decisive fashion.

No continued stories here!

As fresh and thrilling now as they ever were, these endlessly re-readable epics are perfectly housed in these glorious paperback collections where the savage intensity and sly wit still shine through in Siegel’s stories – which literally defined what being a Super Hero means – whilst Shuster created the basic iconography for all others to follow.

Such Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at an absurdly affordable price and in a durable, comfortingly approachable format. What dedicated comics fan could possibly resist them?

As well as cheap price and no-nonsense design and presentation, and notwithstanding the historical significance of the material presented within, the most important bonus for any one who hasn’t read some or all of these tales before is that they are all astonishingly well-told and engrossing mini-epics that cannot fail to grip the reader.

In a world where Angels With Dirty Faces, Bringing Up Baby and The Front Page are as familiar to our shared cultural consciousness as the latest episode of Dr Who or Downton Abbey, the dress, manner and idiom in these near-seventy-five-year-old stories can’t jar or confuse. They are simply timeless, enthralling, and great.

Once read you’ll understand why today’s creators keep returning to this material every time they need to revamp the big guy. They are simply timeless, enthralling, and great.

© 1938, 1939, 1940, 2006, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Golden Age Flash Archives Volume II


By Gardner F. Fox, E.E. Hibbard, Hal Sharp & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0784-7

The innovative array of companies that became DC published a number of iconic “Firsts” in the early years of the industry. Associated outfit All-American Publications (who were bought out and acquired by National in 1946) were responsible for the first comicbook super-speedster as well as the iconic Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and many others who became mainstays of DC’s pantheon of stars.

Devised, created and written by Gardner Fox and first drawn by Harry Lampert, Jay Garrick debuted as the very first Monarch of Motion in Flash Comics #1 and quickly – how else? – became a veritable sensation.

“The Fastest Man Alive” wowed readers in anthologies Flash Comics, Comics Cavalcade, All Star Comics and others – as well as his own solo vehicle All-Flash Quarterly – for just over a decade before changing tastes benched him and most other Mystery Man heroes in the early1950s.

His invention as a strictly single-power superhero created a new trend in the burgeoning action-adventure funnybook marketplace, and his particular riff was specifically replicated many times at various companies where myriad Fast Furies sprang up.

After over half a decade of mostly interchangeable cops, cowboys and cosmic invaders, the concept of human rockets and superheroes in general was spectacularly revived in 1956 by Julie Schwartz in Showcase #4 when police scientist Barry Allen became the second hero to run with the concept. It’s been non-stop ever since …

This charmingly seductive deluxe Archive edition collects the Fastest Yarns Alive from Flash Comics #18-24, covering June-December 1941, as well as the first two issues of the irrepressible Garrick’s whimsically eccentric full-length exploits from All-Flash Quarterly (Summer and Fall of that same fateful year), all written by the apparently inexhaustible Gardner Fox.

After another informative Introduction from comicbook everyman Jim Amash, the rollercoaster of fun and thrills gathers steam with ‘The Restaurant Protective Association’ (illustrated by Hal Sharp), with Jay and girlfriend/confidante Joan Williams stumbling upon a pack of extortionists and exposing a treacherous viper preying on Joan’s best gal-pal, after which ‘The Fall Guy’ in #19 revealed how a gang of agile fraudsters were faking motor accidents to fleece insurance companies.

Both cases gave Garrick ample opportunity to display the hilarious and humiliating bag of super-speed tricks and punishing pranks which astounded playful kids of the day and still delight decades later.

Flash Comics #20 led with ‘The Adventure of the Auctioned Utility Company’ wherein Joan accidentally bought a regional power outfit and Jay used all his energies to reconcile a feuding family whilst teaching a miserly embezzler an unforgettable lesson…

Sharp had been doing such splendid artistic service on the monthly tales because regular illustrator E. E. Hibbard had presumably been devoting all his creative energies to the contents of the forthcoming 64-page All-Flash Quarterly #1.

The epic premiere issue opened with a tantalising frontispiece ‘The JSA Bid Farewell to the Flash’, celebrating the fact that The Fastest Man Alive was the third character to win his own solo comic – after Superman and Batman – and would therefore be “too busy for Justice Society get-togethers”…

‘The Origin of the Flash’ was then retold by Fox & Hibbard revealing again how some years previously college student Garrick had passed out in the lab at Midwestern University, only to awaken hyper-charged and the fastest creature on Earth thanks to the “hard water fumes” he had inhaled whilst unconscious.

After weeks recovering in hospital, the formerly-frail apprentice chemist realised the exposure had given him super-speed and endurance, so he promptly sought to impress his sort-of girlfriend Joan Williams by becoming an unstoppable football player. Eventually the kids graduated and Garrick moved to New York where, appalled by rampant criminality, he decided to use his gifts to fight it.

The Flash operated mostly in secret, as much hindered as helped by wilful, headstrong Joan who began her own lifetime obsession of pesky do-gooding here…

‘The Men Who Turned to Stone’ plunged us back to the present as one of Garrick’s colleagues at Chemical Research Incorporated discovered an instant petrification process and was abducted by criminals who saw a chance to make lots of illegal money…

Hibbard also illustrated the uncredited fun-fact featurette ‘The Flash Presents his Hall of Speed Records’ before ‘Meet the Author and Artist of the Flash’ offered an intimate introduction to the creative team, after which ‘The Adventure of the Monocle and his Garden of Gems’ saw the debut of a rare returning villain with an unwise addiction to other people’s jewels, but enough brains to counter The Flash’s speed – if not Jay’s courage and ingenuity.

When Flash prevented the murder of a cowboy performer in New York ‘The Rodeo Mystery’ soon took Jay and Joan to Oklahoma and a crooked ploy to steal a newly discovered oil well before the issue closed with Flash smashing a gambler trying to take over the sport of Ice Hockey in ‘Menace of the Racket King’.

In Flash Comics #21 gambling was still a problem as ‘The Lottery’ (illustrated by Sharp) saw the Speedster expose a cunning criminal scheme to bilk theatre patrons and carnival-goers whilst in #22 ‘The Hatchet Cult’ took an uncustomarily dark walk on the wild side as the Flash became involved in a Chinatown Tong war and exposed the incredible secret of modern Mongol mastermind Mighty Kong…

Hibbard & Sharp collaborated on issue #23’s ‘A Millionaire’s Revenge’ wherein wealthy plutocrat Leffingwell Funk decided to avenge an imagined slight by a poor but happy man. His method was unique: it began with engineering unsuspecting shoe store owner Jim Sewell‘s inheritance of half a million dollars and would have ended with leg-breaking thugs, disgrace and prison had not Jim counted Jay Garrick amongst his circle of friends…

The Fall 1941 All-Flash Quarterly (#2 and again an all Fox/Hibbard production) kicked off with a spectacular all-action ‘Title Page’ and informative recap in ‘A Short History of the Flash’ before the creators ambitiously undertook a massive four-chapter saga of vengeance and justice.

In an era where story was paramount this oddly time-skewed tale might jar slightly with modern continuity-freaks, spanning as it does nearly a lifetime in the telling, but trust me just go with it…

‘The Threat: Part One – The Adventure of Roy Revenge!’ opens as brilliant young criminal Joe Connor is sentenced to ten years in jail and swears vengeance on DA Jim Kelley. The convict means it too, spending every waking moment inside improving himself educationally, becoming a trustee to foster the illusion of rehabilitation.

On his release Connor befriends Kelley, who is pursuing a political career, and orchestrates the abduction of the lawyer’s newborn son…

Years later a bold young thug dubbed Roy Revenge begins a campaign of terror against Mayor Jim Kelley which even the Flash is hard-pressed to stop. When the bandit is at last apprehended Kelley pushes hard to have the boy jailed, unaware of his biological connection to the savage youth.

In the intervening years Connor had truly reformed – until his angelic wife died leaving him to care for their little girl Ann and “adopted” son Roy. Without his wife’s influence Connor again turned to crime and raised the stolen boy to hate his real father…

‘The Flash Presents his Hall of Speed Records’ and ‘How to Develop Your Speed by the Flash’ break up the melodrama before the saga continues in ‘The Threat: Part Two – Adventure of the Blood-Red Ray’ as Connor rises in the Underworld and plans to take over the country. Ann has grown up a decent and upstanding – if oblivious – citizen whose only weakness is her constant concealment of her brother Roy, who has been hiding from the law for years…

Even when the elder master criminal’s plan to destroy the Kelleys with a heat-ray is scotched by the Flash the canny crook convinces the Speedster that he is merely a henchman and escapes the full force of justice…

‘The Threat: Part Three – The Wrecker Racket’ sees a new gang plaguing the city, led by a monstrous disfigured albino. Nobody realises this is Connor who escaped custody by a method which physically ruined his body and only increased his hatred of Kelley.

Locating Roy, who has since found peace in rural isolation, the malign menace again draws the young man into his maniacal schemes. When the boy nearly kills his “sister” Ann in pursuance of Connor’s ambitions only the Flash can save the day, leading to a swathe of revelation and a shocking conclusion in ‘The Threat: Part Four – The End of the Threat’…

After that monumental generational saga this splendid selection closes with a full-on alien extravaganza from Flash Comics #24 as Garrick investigates a series of abductions and foils a madman’s plot to forcibly colonise the Red Planet. Unfortunately when inventor Jennings and his gangster backer reached their destination with Jay a helpless prisoner, nobody expected the arid world to be already occupied by belligerent insectoids. ‘The Flash and the Spider-Man of Mars’ by Hibbard & Sharp ends the book on a gloriously madcap, spectacular fantasy high note…

Amazing, exciting and quirkily captivating – even if not to every modern fan’s taste – the sheer exuberance, light-hearted tone and constant narrative invention in the tales of a brilliant nerd who became a social crusader and justice-dispensing human meteor are addictively appealing, and with covers by Sharp, Sheldon Moldoff & Hibbard, this book is another utter delight for lovers of early Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy.

Of course, with such straightforward thrills on show any reader with an open mind could find his opinion changed in a flash.
© 1941, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Golden Age Green Lantern Archives Volume I


By Bill Finger, Martin Nodell, E.E. Hibbard, Irwin Hasen & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-507-4

Thanks to comics genius and editorial wunderkind Sheldon Mayer, the innovative fledgling company All-American Comics (who co-published in association with and would eventually be absorbed by DC) published the first comicbook super-speedster in Flash Comics and followed up a few months later with another evergreen and immortal all-star.

The Green Lantern debuted in issue #16 of the company’s flagship title just as superheroes began to dominate the market, supplanting newspaper strip reprints and stock genre characters in the still primarily-anthologised comicbooks. He would be swiftly joined in All-American Comics by The Atom, Red Tornado, Sargon the Sorcerer and Doctor Mid-Nite until eventually only gag strips such Mutt and Jeff and exceptional tough-guy military strips Hop Harrigan and Red, White and Blue remained to represent mere mortal heroes.

At least until tastes changed again after the war and costumed crusaders faded away, to be replaced by cowboys, cops and private eyes…

Devised by up-and-coming cartoonist Martin Nodell (and fleshed out by Bill Finger in the same generally unsung way he had contributed to the success of Batman), Green Lantern soon became AA’s second smash sensation.

The arcane avenger gained his own solo-starring title little more than a year after his premiere and appeared in other anthologies such as Comics Cavalcade, All Star Comics and others for just over a decade before, like most first-generation superheroes, he faded away in the early1950s, having first suffered the humiliating fate of being edged out of his own strip and comicbook by his pet Streak the Wonder Dog…

However that’s the stuff of future reviews. This spectacular quirkily beguiling deluxe Archive edition opens with a rousing reminiscence from Nodell in a Foreword which discusses the origins of the character before the parade of raw, graphic enchantment (collecting the Sentinel of Justice’s appearances from All-American Comics #16-30 – covering July 1940 to September 1941 and Green Lantern #1 from Fall 1941) starts with the incredible history of The Green Flame of Life…

Ambitious young engineer Alan Scott only survived the sabotage and destruction of a passenger-packed train due to the intervention of a battered old railway lantern. Bathed in its eerie emerald light he was regaled by a mysterious green voice with the legend of how a meteor fell in ancient China and spoke to the people: predicting Death, Life and Power.

The star-stone’s viridian glow brought doom to the savant who reshaped it into a lamp, sanity to a madman centuries later and now promised incredible might to bring justice to the innocent…

Instructing Scott to fashion a ring from its metal and draw a charge of power from the lantern every 24 hours, the ancient artefact urged the engineer to use his formidable willpower to end all evil: a mission Scott eagerly took up by promptly crushing the corrupt industrialist Dekker who had callously caused wholesale death just to secure a lucrative rail contract.

The ring made Scott immune to all minerals and metals, enabled him to fly and pass through walls but as he battled Dekker’s thugs the grim avenger painfully discovered that living – perhaps organic – materials such as wood or rubber could penetrate his jade defences and cause him mortal harm…

The saboteurs punished, Scott determined to carry on the fight and devised a “bizarre costume” to disguise his identity and strike fear and awe into wrongdoers…

Most of the stories at this time were untitled, and All-American Comics #17 (August 1940) found Scott in Metropolis (long before it became the fictional home of Superman) where his new employer was squeezed out of a building contract by a crooked City Commissioner in bed with racketeers. With lives at risk from shoddy construction the Green Lantern moved to stop the gangsters but nearly lost his life to overconfidence before finally triumphing, after which #18 found Scott visiting the 1940 New York World’s Fair.

This yarn (which I suspect was devised for DC’s legendary comicbook premium 1940 New York World’s Fair Comics, but shelved at the last moment) introduced feisty romantic interest Irene Miller as she attempted to shoot a gangster who had framed her brother. Naturally gallant he-man Scott had to get involved, promptly discovering untouchable gang-boss Murdock even owned his own Judge, by the simple expedient of holding the magistrate’s daughter captive…

However once Alan applied his keen wits and ruthless mystic might to the problem Murdock’s power – and life – were soon forfeit, after which in All-American Comics #19 Scott saved a man from an attempted hit-and-run and found himself ferreting out a deadly ring of insurance scammers collecting big payouts by inflicting “accidents” upon unsuspecting citizens.

Issue #20 began with a quick recap of Green Lantern’s origin before instituting a major change in the young engineer’s life. Following the gunning down of a roving radio announcer and assassination of the reporter’s wife, the hero investigated APEX Broadcasting System in Capitol City and again met Irene Miller.

She worked at the company and with her help Alan uncovered a scheme whereby broadcasts were used to transmit coded instructions to merciless smugglers. Once GL mopped up the cunning gang and their inside man, engineer Alan Scott took a job at the company and began a hapless romantic pursuit of the capable, valiant Irene.

Thanks to scripter Finger, Green Lantern was initially a grim vengeful and spookily mysterious figure of vengeance weeding out criminals and gangsters but, just as with early Batman sagas, there was always a strong undercurrent of social issues, ballsy sentimentality and human drama.

All-American #21 found the hero exposing a cruel con wherein a crooked lawyer pressed young criminal Cub Brenner into posing as the long-lost son of a wealthy couple to steal their fortune. Of course, the kid had a change of heart and everything ended happily, but not before stupendous skulduggery and atrocious violence ensued.

In #22 when prize-fighter Kid McKay refused to throw a bout, mobsters kidnapped his wife and even temporarily overcame the fighting-mad Emerald Guardian. However, when one of the brutal thugs put on the magic ring he swiftly suffered a ghastly doom which allowed GL to emerge victorious…

Slick veteran Everett E. Hibbard provided the art for #23, and his famed light touch framed GL’s development into a less fearsome and more public hero. As Irene continued to rebuff Alan’s advances – in vain hopes of landing his magnificent mystery man alter ego – the engineer accompanied her to interview movie star Delia Day and stumbled into a cruel blackmail racket.

Despite their best efforts the net result was heartbreak, tragedy and many deaths. Issue #24 then saw the Man of Light go undercover to expose philanthropist tycoon R.J. Karns, who maintained his vast fortune by selling unemployed Americans into slavery on a tropical Devil’s Island, whilst #25 found Irene uncovering sabotage at a steel mill. With the unsuspected help of GL she then exposed purported enemy mastermind The Leader as no more than an unscrupulous American insider trader trying to force the price down for a simple Capitalist coup…

Celebrated strip cartoonist Irwin Hasen began his long association with Green Lantern in #26 when the hero came to the rescue of swindled citizens whose lending agreements with a loan shark were being imperceptibly altered by a forger to keep them paying in perpetuity, after which the artist illustrated the debut appearance of overnight sensation Doiby Dickles in All-American #27 (June 1941).

The rotund, middle-aged Brooklyn-born cab driver was simply intended as light foil and occasional sidekick for the grim, poker-faced Emerald Avenger but grew to be one of the most popular and beloved comedy stooges of the era; soon sharing covers and even by-lines with the star.

In this initial dramatic outing he bravely defended fare Irene (sorry: irresistible – bad, but irresistible) from assailants as she carried plans for a new radio receiver device. For his noble efforts Doiby was sought out and thanked by Green Lantern and, after the verdant crusader investigated, he discovered enemy agents at the root of the problem. When Irene was again targeted the Emerald Avenger was seemingly killed…

This time, to save Miss Miller, Doiby disguised himself as “de Lantrin” and confronted the killers alone before the real deal turned up to end things. As a reward the Brooklyn bravo was offered an unofficial partnership…

In #28 the convenient death of millionaire Cyrus Brand and a suspicious bequest to a wastrel nephew led Irene, Doiby and Alan to a sinister gangster dubbed The Spider who manufactured deaths by natural causes, after which #29 found GL and the corpulent cabbie hunting mobster Mitch Hogan, who forced pharmacies to buy his counterfeit drugs and products; utilising strong-arm tactics to ensure even the courts carried out his wishes – at least until the Lantern and his wrench-wielding buddy gave him a dose of his own medicine…

The last All-American yarn here is from issue #30 (cover-dated September 1941) and again featured Irene sticking her nose into other peoples’ business. This time she exposed a brace of crooked bail bondsmen exploiting former criminals trying to go straight, and was again kidnapped.

This raw and vital high-energy compilation ends with the stirring contents of Green Lantern #1 from Fall 1941, scripted by Finger and exclusively illustrated by Nodell, who had by this time dropped his potentially face-saving pseudonym Mart “Dellon”.

The magic began with a 2-page origin recap in ‘Green Lantern – His Personal History’ after which ‘The Masquerading Mare!’ saw GL and Doiby smash the schemes of racketeer Scar Jorgis who went to quite extraordinary lengths to obtain a racehorse inherited by Irene, after which an article by Dr. William Moulton Marston (an eminent psychologist familiar to us today as the creator of Wonder Woman) discussed the topic of ‘Will Power’.

The comic thrills resumed when a city official was accused of mishandling funds allocated to buy pneumonia serum in ‘Disease!!’ Although Green Lantern and Doiby spearheaded a campaign to raise more money to prevent an epidemic, events took a dark turn when the untouchable, unimpeachable Boss Filch experienced personal tragedy and exposed his grafting silent partners high in the city’s governing hierarchy…

Blistering spectacle was the result of ‘Arson in the Slums’, when Alan and Irene became entangled in a crusading publisher’s strident campaign to renovate a ghetto. Of course, the philanthropic Barton and his real estate pal Murker had only altruistic reasons for their drive to re-house the city’s poorest citizens…

Doiby was absent from that high octane thriller but did guest-star with the Emerald Ace in the prose tale ‘Hop Harrigan in “Trailers of Treachery”’ – by an unknown scripter and probably illustrated by Sheldon Mayer – a ripping yarn starring AA’s aviation hero (and star of his own radio show) after which ‘Green Lantern’ and Doiby travelled South of the Border to scenic Landavo to investigate tampering with APEX’s short-wave station and end up in a civil war.

They soon discovered that the entire affair had been fomented by foreign agents intent on destroying democracy on the continent…

With the threat of involvement in the “European War” a constant subject of American headlines, this sort of spy story was gradually superseding general gangster yarns, and as Green Lantern displayed his full bombastic might against tanks, fighter planes and invading armies,nobody realised that within mere months America and the entire comicbook industry were to metamorphose beyond all recognition.

Soon mystery men would become patriotic morale boosters parading and sermonising ad infinitum in every corner of the industry’s output as the real world brutally intruded on the hearts and minds of the nation…

Including a breathtaking selection of stunning and powerfully evocative covers by Sheldon Moldoff, Hasen and Howard Purcell, this magnificent book is a sheer delight for lovers of the early Fights ‘n’ Tights genre: gripping, imaginative and exuberantly exciting – even if certainly not to every modern fan’s taste.

Of course, with such straightforward thrills on show any reader with an open mind might quickly see the light…
© 1940, 1941, 1999 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Wonder Woman Archives volume 5

WW arc 5 bk
By Charles Moulton (William Moulton Marston & Harry G. Peter) with Joye Murchison (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1270-4

The Princess of Paradise Island debuted as a special feature in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941), conceived by polygraph pioneer William Moulton Marston and illustrated by Harry G. Peter, in a calculated attempt to offer girls a positive and forceful role model and, on Editor M.C. Gaines’ part, sell funnybooks.

She then catapulted into her own series, and held the cover-spot of new anthology title Sensation Comics a month later. An instant hit, the Amazing Amazon won her own eponymous supplemental title a few months later, cover-dated Summer 1942.

Once upon a time on a hidden island of immortal super-women, American aviator Steve Trevor of US Army Intelligence crashed to Earth. Near death, he was nursed back to health by young, impressionable Princess Diana.

Fearful of her besotted child’s growing obsession with the creature from a long-forgotten and madly violent world, Diana’s mother Queen Hippolyte revealed the hidden history of the Amazons: how they were seduced and betrayed by men but rescued by the goddess Aphrodite on condition that they forever isolated themselves from the mortal world and devoted their eternal lives to becoming ideal, perfect creatures.

However with the planet in crisis, goddesses Athena and Aphrodite now instructed Hippolyte to send an Amazon back with the American to fight for global freedom and liberty, and Diana clandestinely overcame all other candidates to become their emissary Wonder Woman.

On arriving in America she bought the identity and credentials of lovelorn Army nurse Diana Prince, elegantly allowing the Amazon to be close to Steve whilst enabling the heartsick medic to join her own fiancé in South America. Diana gained a position with Army Intelligence as secretary to General Darnell, ensuring she would always be able to watch over her beloved. She little suspected that, although the painfully shallow Steve only had eyes for the dazzling Amazon superwoman, the General had fallen for the mousy but supremely competent Lieutenant Prince…

Using the nom de plume Charles Moulton, Marston (with some help in later years from assistant Joye Murchison) scripted the Amazing Amazon’s fabulous adventures until his death in 1947, whereupon Robert Kanigher took over the writer’s role. Venerable veteran illustrator and co-creator H.G. Peter performed the same feat, limning practically every titanic tale until his own death in 1958.

This fifth lavishly deluxe full-colour hardback edition collects the increasingly fanciful and intoxicating adventures from Wonder Woman #10-12 and Sensation Comics #33-40, spanning cover-dates September 1944-April 1945 and following the unique champion of freedom from her primarily war-footing to the scary days of a world notionally at peace…

After an appreciative Foreword from industry insider, historian and comics all-star Jim Amash detailing the cultural contribution of the creators and their billion-dollar baby, the action opens with ‘The Disappearance of Tama’ from Sensation Comics #33, wherein the Amazon’s college friend Etta Candy overhears a plot to kidnap and murder a movie starlet and embroils herself and Diana in a delightfully bewildering farrago of deadly doubles and impish impostors, after which Wonder Woman #10 (Fall 1944) offered a novel-length epic of alien invasion.

In ‘Spies From Saturn’, a rare vacation with Etta and her sorority sister Holliday Girls leads to trouble with outrageous neighbour Mephisto Saturno who turns out to be the leader of a spy ring from the Ringed Planet. However even after imprisoning his extraterrestrial espionage squad the danger is not ended, as the aliens insidious “lassitude gas” turns America into a helpless sleeping nation and forces the Amazon to take ‘The Sky Road’ to the invaders’ home world to find a cure and rescue her beloved Steve…

The cataclysmic clash concludes in ‘Wonder Woman’s Boots’ as the victorious Earthlings return home, unaware that Mephisto is still free and has a plan to avenge his defeat…

Social injustice informed ‘Edgar’s New World’ in Sensation Comics #34, when the Amazing Amazon tackled the case of a “problem child” near-blind and living in squalor whilst his mother languished in jail. Soon however the big-hearted heroine uncovered political chicanery and grotesque graft behind the murder charge sending innocent Esta Poore to the death chamber…

In Sensation #35 ‘Girls Under the Sea’ found Wonder Woman again battling to save lost Atlantis from tyranny and misrule after beneficent ruler Octavia was ousted by a committee of seditious anarchists, whilst #36 pitted the Power Princess against deranged actor Bedwin Footh, a jealous loon who envied the Amazon’s headline grabbing, and organised her old foes Blakfu the Mole Man, Duke of Deception, Queen Clea, Dr. Psycho, The Cheetah and Giganta into an army against her. However all was not as it seemed in the ‘Battle Against Revenge’…

Wonder Woman #11 (Winter 1944) offered big thrills and rare (for the times) plot continuity as ‘The Slaves of the Evil Eye’ saw Steve and Diana battling an uncanny mesmerist intent on stealing America’s defence plans against Saturn.

The spy trail led to bizarre performer Hypnota the Great and his decidedly off-kilter assistant Serva, but there were layers of deceit behind ‘The Unseen Menace’, and a hidden mastermind intent on re-igniting the recently-ended war with Saturn in the climactic final chapter ‘The Slave Smugglers’.

This spectacular psycho-drama of multiple personalities and gender disassociation was another masterpiece directly informed by Marston’s psychiatric background and provided another weirdly eccentric tale unique to the genre…

With the war in Europe all but over, comicbook content was changing and constantly experimenting. Sensation Comics #37 (January 1945) depicted ‘The Invasion of Paradise Island’ wherein troubled orphans Kitty and Terry stow away aboard Wonder Woman’s invisible plane even as Diana and Steve were busting the orphanage’s crooked, grafting owner. When the kids were discovered back on Paradise Island they found themselves at the tender mercies of a horde of rambunctious Amazon toddlers (don’t ask – it’s comics, ok?) just as a U-Boat of escaping Nazis arrived looking for a safe harbour and refuge to conquer…

For years Wonder Woman had been celebrating Christmas with exceptional Seasonal offerings and #38 was no exception. ‘Racketeers Kidnap Miss Santa Claus’ revealed how young sceptic Pete Allen sought the Amazon’s help to save his mother from an abusive relationship and learned the true spirit of giving after the Amazon stopped a brutal bullion grab…

Etta and the Holliday Girls then resurfaced in #39 as an expedition to find a lost Roman colony left them ‘In the Clutches of Nero’ and urgently requiring the assistance of their Amazon associate to quash the ambitions of the latest madman to bear the name, whilst Sensation Comics #40 introduced urbane, untrustworthy freelance spy Countess Draska Nishki, eager to earn cold hard cash spying for General Darnell. Sadly her loyalties couldn’t stay bought and Steve and Diana had good reason to call her ‘Draska the Deadly’…

This glorious tome of treasures concludes with Wonder Woman #12 and another epic fantasy.

When alien Queen Desira declared WWII over, she also brought warning that warmongers were already preparing for the next conflict. In ‘The Winged Maidens of Venus’ this news inadvertently led to Diana Prince’s capture by spy Nerva and her bosses – a cabal of Capitalists who always profited from destruction – until Steve and Etta came to her rescue…

When the profiteers were transported to Venus for reconditioning, they escaped and fomented chaos and rebellion in ‘The Ordeal of Fire’ almost resulting in ‘The Conquest of Venus’ and carnage on Earth until Wonder Woman and Steve stepped in to save the day…

This last tale is credited to Marston’s assistant Joye Murchison who shared the author’s workload as first polio and then lung cancer increasingly hampered him until his death in 1947.

Seen through modern eyes, there’s a lot that might be disturbing in these old comics classics, such as plentiful examples of apparent bondage, or racial stereotypes from bull-headed Germans to caricatured African-Americans, but there’s also a vast amount of truly groundbreaking comics innovation too. The skilfully concocted dramas and incredibly imaginative story-elements are drawn from hugely disparate and often wondrously sophisticated sources, but the creators never forgot that they were in the business of entertaining as well as edifying the young.

Always stuffed with huge amounts of action, suspense, contemporary reflection and loads of laughs, as well as the scandalous message that girls are as good as boys and can even be better if they want, Wonder Woman influenced the entire nascent superhero genre as much as Superman or Batman and we’re all the richer for it.

This exemplary book of delights is a triumph of exotic, baroque, beguiling and uniquely exciting adventure: Golden Age exploits of the World’s Most Marvellous Warrior Maiden which are timeless, pivotal classics in the development of our medium and still offer astounding amounts of fun and thrills for anyone interested in a grand old time.
© 1944, 1945, 2007 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents Martian Manhunter volume 2


By Jack Miller & Joe Certa & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1368-8

As the 1950’s opened, comicbook superheroes were in a steep decline, giving way to a steady stream of genre-based he-men and “Ordinary Joes” in extraordinary circumstances.

By the time the “Red-baiting”, witch-hunting Senate hearings and media investigations into causes of juvenile delinquency had finished, the industry was further depleted by the excision of any kind of reference to mature themes or content. The self-imposed Comics Code Authority took all the hard edges out of the industry, banning horror and crime comics whilst leaving their ghostly, sanitised anodyne shades to inhabit the remaining adventure, western, war and fantasy titles that remained.

American comics could have the bowdlerised concept of evil and felonious conduct but not the simplest kind of repercussion: a world where mad scientists plotted to conquer humanity without killing anybody, and cowboys shot guns out of opponents’ hands and severed gun-belts with a well-aimed bullet, without ever drawing blood…

Moreover no civil or government official or public servant could be depicted as anything other than a saint…

With corruption, venality and menace removed from the equation, comics were forced to supply suspense and tension to their works via mystery and imagination – but only as long as it all had a rational, non-supernatural explanation…

Arguably the first superhero of the Silver Age, beating by a year the new Flash (who launched in Showcase #4 cover-dated October 1956), the series depicting the clandestine adventures of stranded alien J’onn J’onzz was initially entitled John Jones, Manhunter from Mars; an eccentric, often formulaic but never disappointing B-feature strip which debuted at the height of American Flying Saucer fever in Detective Comics #225.

Hardly evolving at all – except for finally going public as a superhero in Detective Comics #273 (November 1959) – the police-based strip ran there until #326, (1955 to 1964) before shifting over to The House of Mystery and a whole new modus vivendi, beginning with #143 where he continued until #173, finally fading away during the Great Superhero Cull of 1968-70.

In volume 1 ‘The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel’ described how a reclusive genius built a robot-brain which could access Time, Space and the Fourth Dimension, accidentally plucking an alien scientist from his home on Mars. After a brief conversation with his unfortunate guest, Erdel succumbed to a heart attack whilst attempting to return the incredible J’onn J’onzz to his point of origin.

Marooned on Earth the Martian discovered that his new home was riddled with the ancient and primitive cancer of Crime and, being decent and right-thinking, determined to use his natural abilities (which included telepathy, psychokinesis, shape-shifting, invisibility, intangibility, super-strength, speed, flight, vision, super-breath, invulnerability and many others) to eradicate the evil, working clandestinely disguised as a human policeman. His only concern was the commonplace chemical reaction of fire which sapped Martians of all their mighty powers…

With his name Americanised to John Jones he enlisted as a Police Detective in Middletown and worked tirelessly to improve his new home; fighting evil secretly using his inherent powers and advanced knowledge with no human even aware of his existence.

This second and final Silver Age selection reprints in moody monochrome Detective Comics #305-226 (July 1962-April 1964) and the Manhunter’s entire House of Mystery career (#143-173, from July 1964-March-April 1968), almost all of which were written by Jack Miller and illustrated by the indefatigable Joe Certa.

One of the longest tenures and partnerships in DC comics’ history (although creator records are sadly incomplete), Miller and perhaps Bob Haney produced a wealth of scripts for veteran illustrator Certa, who had previously worked for the Funnies Incorporated comics “Shop” and all over the industry.

His other credits included work on Captain Marvel Junior and assorted genre titles for Magazine Enterprises (Dan’l Boone, Durango Kid), Lev Gleason’s crime comics, Harvey romance titles and others, whilst at DC he drew nautical sleuth Captain Compass and many anthology tales for such titles as Gang Busters and House of Mystery. Certa also drew the newspaper strip Straight Arrow and ghosted the long-lived boxing legend Joe Palooka. In the 1970s he moved to Gold Key, working on TV adaptations, mystery tales and all-ages horror stories.

This traditional all-ages delight opens with ‘J’onn J’onzz vs. Futureman’ from Detective Comics #305 wherein a cop from the 30th century followed a Martian lawbreaker back to 1962 and mistook J’onzz for his fugitive quarry. When malign B’enn B’urnzz then aligned himself with ruthless earth criminals, the stage was set for a spectacular super-power showdown…

In #306 criminals using fantastic robot animals were given an unexpected boost when a blazing meteor sapped the Manhunter’s life force and almost spelled ‘The Last Days of J’onn J’onzz’, whilst a bewildering display of disguises and quick-changes was necessary to save John Jones’ police partner Diane Meade when the detective – ‘Alias Scarface Scanlon’– went undercover to expose a criminal safe-house in #307.

Detective Comics #308 revealed how a visit to a feudal European county found the Alien Adventurer embroiled in a coup and battling ancient magic on ‘The Day John Jones Vanished!‘ after which he foiled an alien invasion whilst wearing the form of a reclusive human as ‘The Man Who Saved Earth’ in #309 and overcame a cunning crook with a shrinking ray in #310’s ‘The Miniature Manhunter’

Vacationing Diane was on JadeIsland when it became the beachhead for ‘The Invaders from the Space Warp’ in #311, but to defeat the uncanny extra-dimensional thieves, J’onzz also needed the aid of friendly alien R’ell and his uncanny talking pet. When the war was over, however, the bizarre Zook was trapped on our world forever…

A new era began in #312 as the cute E.T. became ‘J’onn J’onzz’ Pesky Partner’. Zook could change shape, generate extremes of heat and cold and had the mind of a five-year old, but posed a frequent threat to the hero’s secret identity by slavishly trailing him as he hunted crooks…

The kid learned quickly though and by #313, wherein ‘The Wizard who Conquered J’onn J’onzz’ almost killed the Martian with a stolen magic wand, Zook had adapted to a life of seclusion on Earth as the hero’s secret weapon. He proved his worth in #314 when a shape-shifting Saturnian stole the detective’s identity in ‘J’onn J’onzz vs. John Jones’ and the extra-dimensional ET helped defeat a villain as powerful as Manhunter himself, and again in #315 when his uncanny senses penetrated the various identities of a crooked stage performer who was also ‘The Man of 1000 Disguises’…

Another bizarre meteor transferred all the hero’s abilities to ‘The Bandits with Super-Powers’ in Detective #316, but Zook and an equally Martian-powered Diane proved up to the task of thwarting them, after which J’onzz, Diane and Zook had their hands full dealing with ‘The Challenge of the Alien Robots’ found by ambitious, greedy human  bandit Jasper Dowd in #317

When the terrific tyke took a blow to the head he briefly became ‘J’onn J’onzz’ Enemy – Zook’ but was restored by another bash on the bonce, after which the vacationing police detective strolled through a time warp and into a war of succession in mediaeval Auvergne, restoring rightful ruler Prince Charles to his stolen throne as ‘J’onn J’onzz – Wizard of 1463’.

Back in the 20th century, #320 saw the detective Jones and Zook solve ‘The Case of the Golden Eagle’ and restore a lost treasure to France, whilst #321 found the Martian and his pal battling the fantastic shape-shifting threat of ‘The Cosmic Creature’, after which an old Batman villain moved from Gotham to Middletown intent on becoming ‘The Man who Destroyed J’onn J’onzz’ in #322.

Professor Arnold Hugo had enlarged his intellect – and cranium – to become a cerebral super-villain whose devices enabled him to steal the hero’s powers. However the wily mastermind had not realised that the ludicrous-seeming pet Zook was privy to his fallen friend’s weaknesses too…

In Detective #323 the Manhunter flew solo on ‘The Hobby Missions’ wherein a charity auction for his services was suborned by a vicious criminal seeking lost artefacts which bestowed awesome power, whilst in #324 the hero tackled a bizarre rampaging monster and was trapped in a hideous bestial form, becoming ‘The Beast who was J’onn J’onzz’ until Zook intervened, after which a crook’s time-ray banished the hero to Ancient Greece where he helped ‘The Hero of 500 B.C.’ battle incredible beasts until Zook could rescue him…

Big changes were in the air at DC and by the end of 1963 Julius Schwartz, who had revived much of DC’s line – and the entire industry – with his modernization of the superhero, was then asked to work his magic with the creatively stalled and nigh-moribund Caped Crusader.

Bringing his usual team of top-notch creators with him, Schwartz stripped down the core-concept, downplaying all the aliens, outlandish villains and daft transformation tales, bringing a cool modern take to the capture of criminals and even overseeing a streamlining rationalisation of the art style itself. The most apparent change to us kids was a yellow circle around the Bat-symbol but, far more importantly, the stories also changed. A subtle aura of genuine menace had re-entered the comfortable and absurdly abstract world of GothamCity.

The “New Look” Batman debuted in Detective Comics #327 and changed the shape of the industry but as part of the makeover the increasingly fantastic Martian Manhunter was no longer welcome.

In a rare move for the genre at the time, departing Bat-Editor Jack Schiff, who was taking J’onzz with him to his new post, decided to shake up everything and end the era in style so Detective Comics #326 (April 1964) marked ‘The Death of John Jones, Detective’ as the veteran cop was dispatched to investigate the theft of The Idol-Head of Diabolu and discovered that the outré relic was in fact a terrifying portal to uncountable extra-dimensional horrors.

When it transformed the thief who took it into a deadly menace, it also unleashed a dreadful beast which apparently killed the valiant cop before Manhunter ended the twin threats. However the unleashed Idol-Head was lost and promised to unleash a new menace at every first full moon, so the Manhunter gave up his human identity forever, leaving Middletown and swearing to track down the mystic menace whatever the cost…

Thus the oldest Silver Age superhero moved over to House of Mystery (from #143, June 1964, and finally getting his to feature on covers) where, in keeping with the title and context of his new home, he became a wandering monster-hunter.

But don’t panic, chums, Zook came with him…

J’onnz’ adventures began as the Idol disgorged ‘The Giant-Maker’, a beast which transformed men – and poor Zook – into rampaging colossi and freed the wicked wizard Malador from millennia of bondage until the Manhunter stopped the dual dangers, whilst one full moon later in HoM #144 the peripatetic head opened a voracious space warp which sucked people into ‘The Weird World of Gilgana’ until J’onnz plunged in to seal the breach.

Issue #145 revealed the ‘Secret of the Purple People’ when the Idol allowed the metamorphic Venomee to ravage Egypt until Zook and the Martian stopped them, whilst #146 saw the wanderers find and lose the Diabolu head to fantastic cat-beast Aroo but still save Earth from the life-sucking, monstrous Chulko in ‘The Doom Shadow’…

In #147 the Idol vomited forth living, malevolent musical instruments who mesmerised humans as ‘The Orchestra of Doom!’, whilst #148 unleashed ‘The Beings in the Color Rings’ which warped physical reality in ghastly ways.

An unwary beachcomber became ‘The Man-Thing that Unearthed Secrets’ in #149, changing into a succession of incredible creatures and compulsively retrieving lost mystic artefacts, whilst in #150 an artist’s brushes were ensorcelled and permitted the creation of ‘The Supernatural Masterpieces!’ with calamitous results…

‘The Doom from Two Worlds’ split J’onzz and Zook as the Manhunter battled horrors in a trans-dimensional nightmare world whilst his pal was left to defend Earth from a rapacious fire-demon, following which HoM #152 ‘Iwangis – Creature King’ saw a bestial stone giant lead an army of monsters against humanity…

There was a brief busman’s holiday in #153 when Professor Hugo again reared his outlandish, oversized head to awaken and enslave ‘The Giants Who Slept 1,000,000 Years’ for an orgy of destruction and profit, whilst in #154 convict Orry Kane used a stolen magic looking-glass to create ‘The Mirror Martian Manhunter’ – a distorted, devilish doppelganger which needed the Manhunter to exercise his wits as well as his powers to exorcise…

The Idol-Head of Diabolu returned in #155 unleashing ‘The Giant Genie of Gensu’ to grant the wishes of evil men, but comicbook fashions were changing again and the Manhunter was about to be relegated to a B-Feature once more…

The entire world was going crazy for costumed crusaders in the mid-Sixties, and every comicbook publisher was keenly seeking new ways to repackage an extremely exciting yet intrinsically limited concept. Perhaps its ultimate expression came with the creation of teen-aged everyman Robby Reed who battled crime and disaster in his little town with the aid of a fantastic wonder-tool in Dial H for Hero…

Taking the lead from House of Mystery #156 (January 1966), the birth of this new and outlandish hero pushed J’onzz into the back-up spot for ‘Look What Happened to J’onn J’onzz!’, a position he maintained until #173 (March-April 1968) when the comicbook disappeared for a few months to re-emerge as DC’s first – of many – modern anthological supernatural mystery titles.

In that truncated tale a sinister snake-beast almost absorbed and consumed the valiant Martian (irony, or what?), whilst in #157 Professor Hugo returned to mesmerise and humiliate his alien nemesis in ‘Manhunter, World’s Greatest Clown!’

House of Mystery #158 ended the long-running and now tired saga by revealing ‘The Origin of the Diabolu Idol-Head’ by plunging Manhunter back in time to Ancient Babylonia where the Martian finally learned how to destroy it, after which J’onzz marked the occasion by returning to his roots and foiling an invasion by ‘The Devil Men of Pluto’ in #159.

Apparently a helpless victim of trends, ‘Manhunter’s New Secret Identity’ debuted in HoM #160 (July 1966) as the hero tapped into the global super-spy fad by taking over the identity of an international playboy and suspected criminal to penetrate the inner echelons of sinister secret society Vulture. Soon he was popping up all over Europe, hot on the trail of mysterious leader Faceless, AKA “Mr. V”, forced to undertake increasingly suspect tasks and missions which threatened to compromise his ethics and integrity if not end his life…

He was almost immediately rumbled in #161 when ‘The Unmasking of Marco Xavier!’ found him battling Vulture’s top operative Abba Sulkar and only a tragic accident saved his stolen face.

A devious courier mission for Xavier in #162 allowed Manhunter to raid ‘The Lair of Mr. V!’ but Faceless proved to be a truly capable foe who easily eluded him, whilst in #163 an alliance between Vulture and a fugitive Mercurian resulted in the Martian becoming ‘The Doomed Captive!’ until the hero’s brains triumphed over the bad guys’ brawn and science…

In #164 the undercover agent was placed in an impossible position when Faceless ordered a hit on J’onn J’onzz and expected his playboy pal to carry it out. ‘Marco vs. Manhunter!’ offered a bewildering display of the hero’s disguise dexterity, whilst the next devilish ploy of Professor Hugo provided an unwelcome break as the rogue genius used nuclear blackmail and atomic science to transform the hero into ‘The Deadly Martian’…

When the infiltration campaign had begun Zook had been abandoned in America, but he popped up again in #166 after Marco Xavier was dispatched to the States to secure the secret of turning men into monsters in ‘Vulture’s Crime Goliaths!’

On arrival back in Europe, Faceless tasked his playboy pawn with ingratiating himself with the enemy. ‘Marco Xavier, Manhunter’s Ally!’ proved to be a complex and ultimately unrewarding mission after which Zook called J’onzz back to the USA to tackle the alien predations of ‘Thantos – the 3-in-1 Man!’ in #168, before ‘The Manhunter Monster!’ saw the hero infiltrate Mr. V’s secret lab and become stuck in the shape of the gang’s latest horrific bio-weapon…

Events in the real world were starting to affect comicbooks, and after #170’s ‘The Martian Double-Cross!’ saw “Xavier” wrongly deduce the Manhunter’s weakness and only narrowly survive his failure, House of Mystery underwent a radical remodelling to display a slightly darker tone. The writing was clearly on the wall for exuberant, angst-free adventurers…

With #171 Zook was back for good and in ‘The Martian Marauders’ the odd couple battled an expeditionary force of invaders from the Manhunter’s home-world, whilst #172 found the hero mind-swapped and prisoner in the body of a Vulture assassin as the killer wore his alien frame in ‘Manhunter’s Stolen Identity!’

In those distant days series ended abruptly, without fanfare and often in the middle of something – and such was the fate of Robby Reed – but for J’onn J’onzz at least HoM#173 (March/April 1968) managed – admittedly in an abbreviated manner – to wrap up the undercover agent’s mission in the climactic and explosive ‘So You’re Faceless!’

And that was that. The series was gone, the market was again abandoning Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction, and on the horizon a host of war, western, barbarian and horror comics were beginning to emerge…

Exciting, fun, engaging and silly in equal amounts (heck, even I couldn’t resist a jibe or too and I genuinely revere these daft, nostalgia-soaked gems) J’onzz has been subsequently re-imagined a number of time since these innocent odysseys first ran, but never with the clear-cut, unsophisticated, welcoming charm displayed here.

Although certainly dated and definitely formulaic, these complex yet uncomplicated adventures are drenched in charm and still sparkle with innocent wit and wonder. Perhaps not to everyone’s taste nowadays, these exploits of the Manhunter from Mars are nevertheless an all-ages buffet of fun, thrills and action no fan should miss.
© 1962-1968, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Golden Age Flash Archives Volume I


By Gardner F. Fox, Harry Lampert, E.E. Hibbard, Hal Sharp & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0784-7

The innovative fledgling company that became DC published the first comicbook super-speedster and over the decades has constantly added more to its pantheon of stars. Devised, created and written by Gardner Fox and first realised by Harry Lampert, Jay Garrick debuted as the very first Monarch of Motion in Flash Comics #1 and quickly – of course – became a veritable sensation.

“The Fastest Man Alive” wowed readers of anthologies like Flash Comics, Comics Cavalcade, All Star Comics and other titles – as well as solo vehicle All-Flash Quarterly – for just over a decade before changing tastes benched him and most other first-generation costumed heroes in the early1950s.

His invention as a strictly single-power superhero created a new trend in the burgeoning action-adventure funnybook marketplace, and his particular riff was specifically replicated many times at various companies where myriad Fast Furies sprang up such as Johnny Quick , Hurricane, Silver Streak, the Whizzer, Quicksilver and Snurtle McTurtle, the Terrific Whatzit amongst so many others…

After half a decade of mostly interchangeable cops, cowboys and cosmic invaders, the concept of human speedsters and the superhero genre in general was spectacularly revived in 1956 by Julie Schwartz in Showcase #4 when police scientist Barry Allen became the second hero to run with the concept. We’ve not looked back since – and if we did it would all be a great big blur…

This oddly beguiling deluxe Archive edition collects the first year and a half – January 1940 to May 1941 – of the irrepressible Garrick’s whimsically eccentric exploits in seventeen (regrettably untitled) adventures from the anthology Flash Comics, revealing

an appealing rawness, light-hearted whimsy and scads of narrative experimentation in the tales of brilliant nerd but physical sad-sack who became a social crusader and justice-dispensing human meteor.

Following a fulsome Foreword from contemporary Flash scribe Mark Waid, the fast fictions begin with his very first appearance as ‘The Fastest Man Alive’ which speedily delivered in a mere 15 pages an origin, introduced a returning cast and a carried out a classic confrontation with a sinister gang of gangsters.

It all started some years previously when college student Garrick passed out in the lab at MidwesternUniversity, only to awaken hyper-charged and the fastest creature on Earth thanks to the “hard water fumes” he had inhaled whilst unconscious.

After weeks recovering in hospital, the formerly-frail apprentice chemist realised the exposure had given him super-speed and endurance, so he promptly sought to impress his sort-of girlfriend Joan Williams by becoming an unstoppable football player…

Time passed, the kids graduated and Garrick moved to New York where, appalled by the rampant crime, he decided to do something about it. The Flash operated mostly in secret until one day, whilst idly playing tennis with himself, Jay met Joan again, just as mobsters tried to kill her in a drive-by shooting.

Catching the bullets, Jay gets reacquainted with his former paramour and discovers that she is a target of criminal combine the Faultless Four, master criminals set on obtaining her father’s invention the Atomic Bombarder. In the blink of an eye Flash has crushed the sinister schemes of the gang and their diabolical leader Sieur Satan, saving Joan’s life whilst revelling in the sheer liberating fun and freedom of being gloriously unstoppable…

In his second appearance The Flash stumbled upon a showgirl’s murder and discovered that yankee mobster Boss Goll and British aristocrat Lord Donelin planned to take over the entire entertainment industry with their ruthless strong-arm tactics. The speedster was as much hindered as helped by wilful, headstrong Joan who began her own lifetime-obsession of pesky do-gooding here…

Everett E. Hibbard began his decade long association with the Flash in issue #3 when, in a rare display of continuity, Major Williams’ Atomic Bombarder became the target of foreign spies and the elderly boffin was framed for treason, once more prompting Garrick to come to his future father-in-law’s aid, after which Jay and Joan combined to smash an off-shore gambling ring which had graduated to kidnapping and blackmail in #4.

During these early adventures, the Flash seldom donned his red, blue and yellow outfit, usually operating invisibly or undercover and playing super-speed pranks with merciless, puckish glee, but that began to change in #5, when the speedster saved an elderly artist from hit-men to foil mad collector Vandal who used murder to increase the market value of his purchases.

Flash Comics #6 found Jay and Joan foiling a scheme to dope athletes trying to qualify for the Olympics at old Alma Mater Midwestern, before #7 revealed how a stopover in Duluth led to the foiling of gambler Black Mike who was fixing motorcar races with a metal melting ray. For #8, the Vizier of Velocity tracked down seemingly corrupt contractors building shoddy, dangerous buildings only to find the graft and skulduggery went much further up the financial food chain…

In issue #9, gangsters got hold of a scientist’s invention and the Flash found himself battling a brigade of giant Gila Monsters, after which #10 depicted the speedy downfall of a cabal of politicians in the pocket of gangster Killer Kelly and stealing from the schools they administered, whilst in #11, Garrick met his first serious opponent in kidnap racketeer The Chief, whose brilliance enabled him to devise stroboscopic glasses which could track and target the invisibly fast crime-crusher…

With the threat of involvement in the “European War” a constant subject of American headlines, Flash Comics #12 (December 1940) had the heroic human hurricane intervene to save tiny Ruritanian nation Kurtavia from ruthless invasion. His spectacular lightning war saw Garrick sinking submarines, repelling land armies and crushing airborne blitzkriegs for a fairytale happy ending here, but within a year the process would become a patriotic morale booster repeated ad infinitum in every American comicbook as the real world brutally intruded on the industry and nation…

Back in the USA for #13, Garrick went to aid old friend Jim Carter in cowboy country where the young inheritor of a silver mine was gunned down by murdering owlhoots, before Jay heading back east to crush a criminal combine sabotaging city subway construction in #14 and saving a circus from robbery, sabotage and poor attendances in #15.

Throughout all these yarns Jay had paid scant attention to preserving any kind of secret identity – a fact that would soon change – but as Hal Sharp took over the illustration with #16 (Hibbard presumably devoting his energies to the contents of the forthcoming 64-page All-Flash Quarterly #1 – to be seen in the succeeding Archive collection), Joan was kidnapped by Mexican mobsters aware of her connection to The Flash.

Rushing to her rescue Garrick was forced to battle a small army, but not only saved his girlfriend but even managed to reform bandit chief José Salvez.

This first high-energy compilation ends with another light-hearted sporting escapade as the speedster intervenes in a gambling plot, saving a moribund baseball team from sabotage even as Jay Garrick – officially “almost as fast as the Flash” – becomes the Redskins’ star player to save them from lousy performances…

With covers by Sheldon Moldoff, Dennis Neville, George Storm, Jon L. Blummer, Hibbard and Sharp, this book is a sheer delight for lovers of the early Fights ‘n’ Tights genre: amazing, exciting and funny, although certainly not to every modern fan’s taste. Of course, with such straightforward thrills on show any reader with an open mind could find his opinion changed in a flash.
© 1940, 1941, 1999 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman Chronicles volumes 1 & 2

New, Revised Review

By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Gardner Fox, Sheldon Moldoff, Jerry Robinson, George Roussos & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0445-7 & 978-1-4012-0790-8

For anyone who’s read more than a few of these posts, my tastes should be fairly apparent, but in case you’re in any doubt, here’s a flat-out confession: I’m that shabby, crazy old geezer muttering at the bus stop about how things were better before, and all new things are crap and not the same and…

You get the picture. Now, ignore all that. It’s true but not relevant.

Batman Chronicles is one of many formats re-presenting the earliest Batman stories. The series does so in original, chronological order, foregoing glossy and expensive high-definition paper and reproduction techniques in favour of newsprint-like paper, 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 Volume 1 re-presenting the stunning covers and all Dark Knight material from Detective Comics #27 through #38, (which introduced Robin, The Boy Wonder), and then the landmark Batman #1 covering May 1939-April 1940.

Detective Comics #27 introduced “The Bat-Man” and playboy/dilettante criminologist in ‘The Case of the Chemical Syndicate’ by Bob Kane & collaborator Bill Finger, wherein a cabal of sinister industrialists were successively murdered until an eerie human bat intruded on Police Commissioner Gordon‘s stalled investigation and ruthlessly dealt with the hidden killer.

Issue #28 saw the fugitive vigilante return to crush ‘Frenchy Blake’s Jewel Gang’ before encountering his very first psychopathic killer. ‘The Batman Meets Doctor Death’ was a deadly duel of wits with deranged, greedy General Practitioner Karl Hellfern and his assorted instruments of murder…

Confident of their new character’s potential, Kane & Finger revived the mad medic for the very next instalment and ‘The Return of Doctor Death’, before Gardner Fox scripted a 2-part shocker which introduced the first bat-plane, Bruce’s girlfriend Julie Madison and undead horror The Monk for an expansive spooky saga ‘Batman Versus The Vampire‘. The gripping yarn then concluded in an epic chase across Eastern Europe and a spectacular climax in a monster-filled castle in issue #32.

Detective Comics #33 featured ‘The Batman Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom’: a blockbusting disaster thriller which just casually slipped in the secret origin of the Gotham Guardian, as prelude to the air-pirate action, after which Euro-trash dastard Duc D’Orterre found his uncanny science and unsavoury appetites no match for the mighty Batman in ‘Peril in Paris’.

Scripter Bill Finger returned in issue #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 caused by a far more prosaic villainy, after which grotesque criminal genius ‘Professor Hugo Strange’ (inked by new kid Jerry Robinson) debuted with his murderous man-made fog and lightning machine in #36, and all-pervasive ‘The Spies’ ultimately proved no match for the vengeful masked Manhunter in #37.

Detective Comics #38 (April 1940) changed the landscape of comicbooks forever with the introduction of ‘Robin, The Boy Wonder’: child trapeze artist Dick Grayson whose parents were murdered before his eyes and who joined Batman in a lifelong quest for justice, by bringing to justice mobster Boss Zucco…

After the Flying Grayson‘s killers were captured, Batman #1 (Spring 1940) opened proceedings with a recycled origin culled from portions of Detective Comics #33 and 34. ‘The Legend of the Batman – Who He Is and How He Came to Be!’ by Fox, Kane & Moldoff offered in two perfect pages what is still the best ever origin of the character, after which ‘The Joker’ (Finger, Kane & Robinson – who produced all the remaining tales in this astonishing premiere issue) introduced the greatest villain in DC’s entire rogues’ gallery via a stunning tale of extortion and wilful wanton murder.

‘Professor Hugo Strange and the Monsters’ followed as the old adversary returned with laboratory-grown hyperthyroid horrors to rampage through the terrified city, and ‘The Cat’ – who later added the suffix ‘Woman’ to her name to avoid any possible doubt or confusion – plied her felonious trade of jewel theft aboard the wrong cruise-liner and fell foul for the first time of the dashing Dynamic Duo.

The initial issue and the first Chronicles edition ended with the ‘The Joker Returns’ as the sinister clown broke jail and resumed his terrifying campaign of murder for fun and profit before “dying” in mortal combat with the Gotham Guardian.

 

Volume 2 featured more masterpieces from the dawn of comic-book time, re-presenting Detective Comics #39 through to #45, a story from New York World’s Fair Comics 1940, and Batman #2-3, covering May to November 1940 in original publishing order. Following a superb pin-up of the Dynamic Duo by Kane, the tense suspense and all-out action opens with The Horde of the Green Dragon” – oriental Tong killers in Chinatown – from Detective #39 by Finger, Kane & Robinson, before ‘Beware of Clayface!’ found the Dynamic Duo solving a string of murders on a film set which almost saw Julie Madison become the latest victim of a monstrous movie maniac…

Batman and Robin solved the baffling mystery of a kidnapped boy in Detective #41’s ‘A Master Murderer’ before enjoying their second solo outing in four comics classics from Batman #2 (Summer 1940).

It all began with ‘Joker Meets Cat-Woman‘ (by Finger, Kane, Robinson & extremely impressive new find George Roussos) wherein svelte thief, homicidal jester and a crime syndicate all tussled for the same treasure with the Caped Crusaders caught in the middle.

‘Wolf, the Crime Master’ was a fascinating take on the classic Jekyll and Hyde tragedy after which an insidious  and ingenious murder-mystery ensued in ‘The Case of the Clubfoot Murderers’ before Batman and Robin faced uncanny savages and ruthless showbiz promoters in a poignant monster story ‘The Case of the Missing Link’.

‘Batman and Robin Visit the New York World’s Fair’ from New York World’s Fair Comics which vintage wonderment – by Finger, Kane & Roussos – then followed the vacationing Dynamic Duo as they tracked down a maniac mastermind with a metal-dissolving ray, after which Detective Comics #42 again found the heroes ending another murder maniac’s rampage in ‘The Case of the Prophetic Pictures!’ before clashing with a corrupt mayor in #43’s ‘The Case of the City of Terror!’

An unparallelled hit, the stories perforce expanded their parameters in #44 with the dreamy fantasy of giants and goblins ‘The Land Behind the Light!’, after which Batman #3 (Fall 1940) saw 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…

Next up was a grisly scheme wherein innocent citizens were 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!!’ saw Robin infiltrate a gang who had a cruel and cunning recruitment plan for dead-end kids…

‘The Batman vs. The Cat-Woman’ found the larcenous burglar in well over her head when she stole for – and from – the wrong people, and the issue also included a magical Special Feature as ‘The Batman Says’ presented an illustrated prose Law & Order pep-talk crafted by Whitney Ellsworth and Robinson.

This second terrific tome then concludes with a magnificent and horrific Joker jape from Detective Comics #45 with ‘The Case of the Laughing Death’ wherein the Harlequin of Hate devised a campaign of macabre murder against everyone who had defied or offended him…

Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson and their compatriots created an iconography which carried the Batman feature well beyond its allotted life-span until later creators could re-invigorate it. They added a new dimension to children’s reading… and their work is still captivatingly accessible.

Moreover, these early stories set the standard for comic superheroes. Whatever you like now, you owe it to these stories. Superman gave us the idea, but writers like Finger and Fox refined and defined the meta-structure of the costumed crime-fighter. Where the Man of Steel was as much Social Force and wish fulfilment as hero, Batman and Robin did what we ordinary mortals wanted to do. They taught bad people the lesson they 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.

The history of the American comicbook industry in almost every major aspect stems from the raw, vital and still powerfully compelling tales of twin icons published by DC/National Comics: Superman and Batman. It’s only fair and fitting that both those characters are still going strong and that their earliest adventures can be relived in chronological order in a variety of formats from relatively economical newsprint paperbacks to stunning, deluxe hardcover commemorative Archive editions.

One final thing: I’m still that guy in paragraph one, right? I’ve read these stories many, many times, in every format imaginable, and I’d like to thank whoever decided that they should also be available in as close a facsimile to the originals as we can get these days.

More than anything else, this serves to perfectly recapture the mood and impact of that revolutionary masked avenger and, of course, delights my heavily concealed inner child no end.
© 1939, 1940, 2005 DC Comics and © 1940, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Golden Age Hawkman Archives volume I


By Gardner F. Fox, Dennis Neville, Sheldon Moldoff & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0418-1

Although perhaps one of DC’s most long-lived and certainly their most visually iconic character, the various iterations of Hawkman have always struggled to find enough of an audience to sustain a solo title. From his beginnings as one of the assorted B-features in Flash Comics (the others being Cliff Cornwall, The King, The Whip and Johnny Thunder, all adding lustre to the soaraway success of the eponymous speedster at the helm of the comicbook), Winged Wonder Carter Hall has struggled through assorted engaging, exciting but always short-lived reconfigurations.

Over decades from ancient hero to re-imagined alien space-cop and post-Crisis on Infinite Earths freedom fighter (both named Katar Hol – see Showcase presents Hawkman volumes 1-2 and Hawkworld respectively) or the seemingly desperate but highly readable bundling together of all previous iterations into the reincarnating immortal berserker-warrior of today, the Pinioned Paladin has performed exemplary service without ever really making it to the big time.

Where’s a big-time movie producer/fan when you need one?

Created by Gardner Fox and Dennis Neville, Hawkman premiered in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940) and stayed there, growing in quality and prestige until the title died, with the most celebrated artists to have drawn the Winged Wonder being Sheldon Moldoff and Joe Kubert, whilst a young Robert Kanigher was justly proud of his later run as writer.

Together with his partner Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman, the gladiatorial mystery-man countered fantastic arcane threats and battled modern crime and tyranny with weapons of the past for over a decade before vanishing with the bulk of costumed heroes as the 1950s began.

His last appearance was in All Star Comics #57 (1951) as leader of the Justice Society of America, but the husband-and-wife hellions were revived and re-imagined nine years later as Katar Hol and Shayera Thal of planet Thanagar by Julie Schwartz’s crack creative team Gardner Fox and Joe Kubert – a space-age interpretation which even survived 1985’s winnowing Crisis on Infinite Earths. Their long career, numerous revamps and perpetual retcons ended during the 1994 Zero Hour crisis, but they’ve reincarnated and returned a couple of times since then too…

However, despite being amongst DC’s most popular and picturesque strips over the years, Hawkman (and Hawkwoman) always struggled to find sufficient audience to sustain their numerous solo titles.

This spectacular deluxe hardcover re-presentation of the formative years (collecting appearances from Flash Comics #1-22, January 1940 – October 1941) begins with a fond reminiscence by artist Moldoff in the ‘Foreword’ before the magic begins as it should with ‘The Origin of Hawkman’ by Fox & Neville.

In his first epochal episode Carter Hall is a playboy scientific tinkerer and part-time archaeologist with a penchant for collecting old, rare weapons, whose dormant memory is unlocked by an ancient crystal dagger purchased for his collection. Through dreams the dilettante realises that once he had been Prince Khufu of ancient Egypt, murdered with his lover Shiera by Anubis’ High Priest Hath-Set.

Moreover, with his newly returned memories Hall knows that the eternal struggle is primed to play out once more…

As if pre-destined, he bumps into the equally reincarnated and remembering Shiera Sanders just a terrifying electrical menace turns New York’s Subway into a killing field and they realised the deadly Doctor Hastor is their ancient nemesis reborn. Fashioning an outlandish uniform and anti-gravity harness of mystic Egyptian “Ninth Metal”, Hall hunts the deranged electrical scientist to his lair in time to save the mesmerised Shiera from a second death by sacrifice and mercilessly ends the cycle – at least for now…

In Flash #2, ‘The Globe Conquerors’ concentrated on fantastic science as Hall and Shiera tackled a modern Alexander the Great who built a gravity-altering machine in his ruthless quest to conquer the world, whilst ‘The Secret of Dick Blendon’ in #3 saw “The Hawk-Man” expose a wicked scheme by insidious slavers turning brilliant men into zombies for profit to gather riches and find the secret of eternal life.

Sheldon Moldoff debuted as artist in Flash Comics #4 (April 1940), illustrating a splendidly barbarous thriller wherein the Winged Warrior clashed with ‘The Thought Terror’, a sinister mesmerist enslaving the city’s wealthy citizens, whilst ‘The Kidnapping of Ione Craig’ in #5 pitted the crime-fighting phenomenon against Asiatic cultists led by legendary assassin Hassan Ibn Saddah, determined to stop a pretty missionary and secret agent from investigating distant Araby.

Moldoff has received overly unfair criticism over the years for his frequent, copious but stylishly artistic swipes from newspaper strips by master craftsmen Alex Raymond and Hal Foster in his work of this period, but one look at the stunning results here as the feature took a quantum leap in visual quality should silence those quibblers for good…

Maintaining the use of exotic locales, the story extended in issue #6 as Hall and Ione struggled to cross burning Saharan sands to the African coast before defeating Arab slavers and their deadly ‘Sheba, Queen of the Desert’…

Issue #7 further explored the mystical and supernatural underpinnings of the strip which easily lent themselves to spooky tales of quasi-horror and barbaric intensity. “The Eerie Unknown” and deluded dabblers in darkness were much-used elements in Hawkman sagas, as seen in ‘Czar, the Unkillable Man’ wherein the Avian Avenger, back in America and reunited with Shiera, clashed with a merciless golem animated by a crazed sculptor determined to get rich at any cost.

Flash Comics #8 featured another deranged technologist as ‘The Sunspot Wizard’ Professor Kitzoff altered the pattern and frequency of the solar blemishes and created riot, madness and chaos on Earth until the Winged Wonder intervened, whilst in ‘The Creatures from the Canyon’ Hawkman foiled aquatic invaders living in the deeps 5,000 feet below Manhattan Island who decided to expand their ancient empire upwards…

Bidding for an old firearm at an auction in #10, Hall was inexorably drawn into a murder-mystery and the hunt for a lost Colorado goldmine in ‘Adventures of the Spanish Blunderers’, before ‘Trouble in Suburbia’ manifested after a hit-and-run accident drew plucky Shiera into a corrupt and convoluted property-scam. Boyfriend Carter Hall was quite prepared to stand back and let her deal with the villains – even if Hawkman did exert a little surreptitious brawn to close the case…

Another murderous scam involved an old society chum as ‘The Heart Patient’ revealed how a pretty gold-digger and rogue doctor serially poisoned healthy young men and fleeced them for a cure, whilst in #13 ‘Satana, the Tiger Girl’ preyed on admirers for far more sinister reasons, pitting Hawkman and Shiera against scientifically hybridised killer-cats, after which ‘The Awesome Alligator’ saw an elder god return to Earth to inspire and equip a madman in a plot to conquer America with ancient secrets and futuristic super-weapons. None of those incredible threats could withstand cold fury and a well-wielded mace, however…

At this time the Pinioned Paladin usually dispatched foes of humanity with icy aplomb and single-minded ruthlessness, and such supernatural thrillers as #15’s ‘The Hand’ gave Fox & Moldoff ample scope to display the reincarnated warrior’s savage efficiency when he tracked down a sentient severed fist which stole and slaughtered at its inventive master’s command, whilst ‘The Graydon Expedition’ in #16 reinforced the hero’s crusading credentials when Shiera went missing in Mongolia, and the Winged Wonder undertook a one-man invasion of a fabulous lost kingdom to save her.

In Flash Comics #17, ‘Murder at the Opera’ put the bold birdman on the trail of an arcane Golden Mummy Sect with a perilously prosaic origin and agenda, whilst #18 found him investigating skulduggery in the Yukon when Shiera rushed north to offer aid to starving miners during ‘The Gold Rush of ’41’.

Evidently capable of triumphing in any environment or milieu, Hawkman next thwarted deranged physicist Pratt Palmer in #19, when that arrogant savant attempted to become the overlord of crime using his deadly ‘Cold Light’. ‘The Mad Bomber’ in #20 then found the Avian Ace allied with a racketeer to stop mad scientist Sathan destroying their city with remote-controlled aerial torpedoes, after which Hawkman was forced to end the tragically lethal rampage of an alien foundling raised by a callous rival for Shiera’s affections in ‘Menace from Space’…

This first high-flying archive compilation concludes with October 1941’s Flash Comics #22 and ‘The Adventure of the Killer Gang’ as headstrong Shiera witnesses a bloody hijacking and determines to make the bandits pay. Although she again helped Hawkman deal with the murderous vermin as a civilian here, big changes were in store for the feisty, capable heroine.

Already in All Star Comics #5 (July 1941) she had first worn wings and a costume of her own, and in Flash Comics #24 (December 1941) she would at last become an equal partner in peril and fully-fledged heroine: Hawkgirl… but sadly that’s a tale for another volume…

Exotic, engaging and fantastically inviting, these Golden Age adventures are a true high-point of the era and still offer astonishing thrills and chills. When all’s said and done it’s all about the heady rush of nostalgia: trying to recapture that magical full-sensorium burst of smell and feel and imagination-overload that finds kids at a perfect moment and provokes something visual and conceptual that almost literally blows the mind…

We re-read stories hoping to rekindle that instantly addictive buzz and constantly seek out new comics desperately hoping to recapture that pure, halcyon burst, and these lost mini-epics are phenomenally imbued with everything fans need to make that breathtaking moment happen…
© 1940, 1941, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.