{"id":35523,"date":"2026-05-18T08:01:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T08:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=35523"},"modified":"2026-05-15T17:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:53:07","slug":"amazing-mysteries-the-bill-everett-archives-volume-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/05\/18\/amazing-mysteries-the-bill-everett-archives-volume-1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazing Mysteries: The Bill Everett Archives volume 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Bill Everett<\/strong> and others, edited and complied by Blake Bell<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-60699-488-7 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks solely to modern technology and diligent research by dedicated fans, there is a sublime superabundance of collections featuring the works of too-long ignored founding fathers and lost masters of American comic books these days. A magnificent case in point is these curated chronicles (available in both print and digital formats) revisiting and yet barely touching upon the incredible gifts and achievements of one of the greatest draughtsmen and yarn-spinners our industry has ever seen.<\/p>\n

You could save some time and trouble by simply buying them now rather than waste your valuable off-hours reading my preposterous blather and piffle, but since I\u2019m keen to carp on anyway feel free to accompany me as I delineate just why these tomes need to join the books on your \u201cFavourites\u201d shelf.<\/p>\n

The star under scrutiny here was a direct descendent and namesake of iconoclastic poet and artist William Blake. Bill was quite possibly the most technically accomplished artist in the US comic book industry and his tragic life and awe-inspiring body of work reveal how a man of privilege and astonishing pedigree was wracked by illness, addictive personality traits (especially alcoholism) and sheer bad luck, but nevertheless shaped an art-form. Bill Everett left twin legacies: an incredible body of superlative stories and art, and, more importantly, he redeemed many broken lives by becoming a dedicated mentor for Alcoholics Anonymous in his later years.<\/p>\n

William Blake Everett was born in 1917 into a wealthy and prestigious New England family. Bright and precocious, he contracted tuberculosis at age twelve and was dispatched to arid Arizona to recuperate. This chain of events began a life-long affair with the cowboy lifestyle: a hard-drinking, chain-smoking, tall-tale-telling breed locked in a hard-to-win war against slow self-destruction.<\/p>\n

All this and more is far better imparted in a scholarly, fact-filled, picture-packed Introduction<\/em> by Blake Bell in Amazing Mysteries:<\/strong> The Bill Everett Archives<\/strong> volume 1. This covers the development of the medium in \u2018The Golden Age of Comics\u2019<\/em>; the history of \u2018Bill Everett the Man\u2019<\/em> and how they came together in \u2018Centaur + Funnies Inc. = Marvel Comics #1\u2019<\/em>. The essay also includes an astounding treasure trove of found images and original art, including samples from 1940s Sub-Mariner<\/strong>, 1960s Daredevil<\/strong> and 1970s Black Widow<\/strong> stories, amongst many others.<\/p>\n

Accompanied by the covers (that\u2019s the case for most of the titles that follow: Everett was fast and slick and knew just how to catch a punter\u2019s eye) for Amazing Mystery Funnies<\/strong> vol. 1 #1, 2, 3a, 3b and vol. 2 #2 (August 1938 – February 1939, from Centaur) are a quartet of rousing but muddled interstellar exploits starring sci fi troubleshooter Skyrocket Steele<\/em>. These are followed by a brace of anarchic outer space shenanigans starring futuristic wild boy Dirk the Demon<\/em> culled from Amazing Mystery Funnies (<\/strong>vol. 1 #3a and vol. 2 #3; November 1938 & March 1939 respectively).
\n\"\"
\nThe undisputed star and big draw at Centaur was always Amazing-Man<\/strong> who was a Tibetan mystic-trained orphan, adventurer and do-gooder named John Aman<\/em>. After many years of dangerous, painful study that young man was despatched back to civilisation to do good… for a relative given value of \u201cgood\u201d…<\/p>\n

Aman stole the show in monthly Amazing Mystery Comics<\/strong> (#5-8, spanning September -December 1939) as seen in the four breakneck thrillers re-presented here and opening with \u2018Origin of Amazing-Man\u2019<\/em> followed by an untitled sequel episode with the champion saving a lady rancher from sadistic criminals; \u2018Amazing-Man Loose\u2019<\/em> (after being framed for various crimes) and a concluding instalment wherein the nomadic hero abandons his quest to capture his evil arch rival \u2018The Great Question\u2019<\/em> and instead heads for recently invaded France to combat the scourge of Nazism…<\/p>\n

As previously stated, Everett was passionately wedded to western themes and for Novelty Press\u2019 Target Comics<\/strong> he devised an Arizona-set, rootin\u2019 tootin\u2019 cowboy crusader called Bull\u2019s-Eye Bill<\/em>. Taken from issues #1 & 2 (February & March 1940), \u2018On the trail of Travis Trent\u2019<\/em> and \u2018The Escape of Travis Trent\u2019<\/em> has our wholesome yet hard-bitten cowpoke battling the meanest, most determined owlhoot in the territory. Accompanying the strips is an Everett-illustrated prose piece attributed to \u201cGray Brown\u201d entitled \u2018Bullseye Bill Gets his Moniker\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Thanks to his breakthrough Sub-Mariner <\/strong>sagas, Everett became inextricably linked to water-based action adventures and immensely popular, edgy heroes. That\u2019s why Eastern Comics hired him to create human waterspout Bob Blake, Hydroman<\/em> for their bimonthly anthology Reg\u2019lar Fellers Heroic Comics<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Here – spanning issues #1-5 and August 1940 to March 1941- are five spectacular, eerily offbeat exploits, encompassing \u2018The Origin of Hydroman\u2019<\/em> and covering his patriotic mission to make America safe from subversion by \u201coriental invaders\u201d, German saboteurs and assorted ne\u2019er-do-wells, after which a Polar Paladin rears his frozen head. Sub-Zero Man<\/em> debuted in Blue Bullet Comics<\/strong> vol. 1 #2 cover-dated July 1940. He was a Venusian scientist stranded on Earth who, through myriad bizarre circumstances, became a chilly champion of justice. Everett is only credited with the episode \u2018The Power of Professor X\u2019<\/em> (vol. 1 #5, October 1940) but also included here are the cover of vol. 1 #4 and spot illustrations for the prose stories \u2018Sub-Zero\u2019s Adventures on Earth\u2019 <\/em>and \u2018Frozen Ice\u2019<\/em> (from Blue Bullet Comics<\/strong> vol. 1 #2 and vol. 2 #3).
\n\"\"
\nThe Conqueror<\/em> was another quickly forsaken Everett creation: a Red, White & Blue patriotic costumed champion debuting in August 1941\u2019s Victory Comics<\/strong> #1. Daniel Lyons<\/em> almost died in a plane crash but was saved by cosmic ray bombardment which granted him astounding mental and physical powers in \u2018The Coming of the Conqueror\u2019<\/em>. He promptly moved to Europe to \u201crid the world of Adolf Hitler!\u201d with Everett\u2019s only other contribution being the cover of issue #2 (September 1941). Accompanied by a page of original artwork from Reg\u2019lar Fellers Heroic Comics<\/strong> #12 (May 1941), The Music Master<\/em> then details how dying violinist John Wallace<\/em> was saved by mystic musical means and becomes a sonic-powered superman righting injustices and crushing evil…<\/p>\n

Rounding out this initial cavalcade of forgotten wonders are a selection of covers, illustrations and yarns which can only be described as Miscellaneous (1938-1942)<\/em><\/strong>. These comprise the cover to the 1938 Uncle Joe\u2019s Funnies<\/strong> #1; procedural crime thriller \u2018The C-20 Mystery\u2019<\/em> (from Amazing Mystery Funnies <\/strong>vol. 2 #7, June 1939) and \u2018The Story of the Red Cross\u2019<\/em> from True Comics<\/strong> #2 (June 1938). The cover for 1941\u2019s Dickie Dare<\/strong> #1 is followed by a range of potent images from text tales beginning with three pages for \u2018Sheep\u2019s Clothing\u2019<\/em> (Funny Pages<\/strong> vol. 2 #11, November 1940); a potent pic for \u2018Birth of a Robot Part 2\u2019<\/em> (Target Comics <\/strong>vol. 1 #6, July 1940); two pages from \u2018Death in a Box\u2019<\/em> courtesy of Reg\u2019lar Fellers Heroic Comics<\/strong> #5 (March 1941) and two from \u2018Pirate\u2019s Oil\u2019 <\/em>in RFHC<\/strong> #13 (July 1942), before the unpublished, unfinished 1940 covers for Challenge Comics<\/strong> #1 and Whirlwind Comics<\/strong> #1 bring the potent nostalgia to a close.
\n\u00a9 2011 Fantagraphics Books. Introduction \u00a9 2011 Blake Bell. All art \u00a9 its respective owners and holders. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bill Everett and others, edited and complied by Blake Bell (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN: 978-1-60699-488-7 (HB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Thanks solely to modern technology and diligent research by dedicated fans, there is a sublime superabundance of collections featuring the works of too-long ignored founding fathers and lost … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Amazing Mysteries: The Bill Everett Archives volume 1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,78,119,75,102,122,66,108,225,127,148,107,385,93,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-comic-strip-classics","category-comicsacademic","category-crime-comics","category-fantasy","category-historical","category-horror-stories","category-miscellaneous-superhero","category-mystery","category-nostalgia","category-romance","category-science-fiction","category-sea-stories","category-war-stories","category-westerns"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-9eX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35528,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35523\/revisions\/35528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}