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Post by Dr. Hank Pym on Sept 8, 2008 20:31:29 GMT -5
Thank you VERY much for reviewing that Strange Tales issue! I've been so tempted to snag that at my local comic shoppie, but didn't know if it was good or not. Now I'll certainly pick it up! As far as I know, Magneto was always going out of his way to insult Pietro and Wanda, especially when we started hitting the eighth issue or so, and Pietro and Wanda would begin to lash out at him, sometimes thinking to themselves that maybe being a villain was not their cup of tea! If I remember correctly, in X-Men #11 is where they finally betray Magneto for good, allowing The Stranger to capture him. X-Men #11 came out at the same time as Avengers #16, so there you go! Not surprised that Stan dropped so many hints like that, as he wasn't very good at subtly telling us something! And I have many requests, but I'll make it easy for you: a Tales to Astonish with Hank and Jan! Maybe #49, involving the greatest enemy ever: THE LIVING ERASER!! You're doing great work, scottharris, keep it up!
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Post by scottharris on Sept 9, 2008 22:19:57 GMT -5
And I have many requests, but I'll make it easy for you: a Tales to Astonish with Hank and Jan! Maybe #49, involving the greatest enemy ever: THE LIVING ERASER!! Unfortunately, I don't actually have any issues of TTA. When I was a kid, among the legendary quarter box purchases I made from this one store (the others being Flash #137 and the Atlas Amazing Adventures #6) was a TTA #69, the last issue with Hank and Jan. I kept this issue for, like, 20 years, but I just got rid of it a few months ago, which I now regret. I should have just kept it. Barring other requests, for the time being I am going to just pull issues out of my collection that I haven't read in so long that I can't remember the story. Some of these I didn't even remember existed, much less that I owned them, like the next issue I am about to review.
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Post by Dr. Hank Pym on Sept 9, 2008 22:45:08 GMT -5
OK, thank you anyway! I have other requests, but if you want to do your own thing, go ahead! I'd like to see a review of an early Avengers, like issue 2 or 8!
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Post by scottharris on Sept 9, 2008 22:52:12 GMT -5
Big 100th Issue! Okay, so, you all know by now how much I hate dirty reprints, so this issue might be a bit of a surprise for me to review. Indeed, it was a surprise for me to find that I owned it. However, upon closer inspection, I realized that this is part of my Hawkeye collection. I don't know why, exactly, but for some reason this issue of Marvel Tales features as a backup story an all-new story starring Hawkeye and the Two-Gun Kid during their sojourn in the West between Avengers #143 and #173. Hawkeye appeared in a couple other unlikely places during this period (i.e. Ghost Rider #27 and Champions #11) but this one really seems weird. So, without further ado, let's crack it open and see what's inside. First up is a reprint of Amazing Spider-man #123, which picks up right where #122 ended up, namely with the Green Goblin dead and whatnot. Conway on script, Kane and Romita on art duties. Interesting that they're reprinting this in 1978, just a few years after the story first appeared. I'm not going to spend too much time reviewing this filthy reprint (though, this being a reprint title, I guess it's not so bad) but here's the basics: Norman Osborn is dead, and JJJ is out to prove that Spider-man killed him. So, while Spidey is at Gwen Stacy's funeral, JJJ hires Luke Cage to capture him. This must have been pretty early in Cage's career. So, Cage goes off and attacks Spidey, who really isn't in the modd, and they fight a bunch. Eventually Spidey decides this is dumb, so he webs Cage up and they chat and Cage decides to give JJJ back his money and turn down the gig. Unfortunately, they don't actually show what it is that Spidey said to convince Cage to give up. Did he explain about Gwen and GreenGoblin or something? I'm kind of curious. But, whatever. The issue isn't bad, as there is some decent Peter-in-mourning stuff, and the fight between Cage and Spidey actually makes some sense, but still. Heroes fighting, whatEVER. THE END!!! Next up is, of course, the Hawkeye story, which is inauspiciously titled "Killers of a Purple Rage!" It's written by the legendary Scott Edelman with art from the master himself, Mike Nasser. With, uh, Terry Austin inks. So, Hawkeye and Two-Gun are wandering along one day, riding some horses, minding their own business, when suddenly the ground gives way and they fall through the Earth. This happens with a caption stating that this takes place before Avengers #161. Hmm. That's the first part of the classic Ultron story. I don't recall Hawkeye being in that issue, though maybe there was some phone call or something I am forgetting. Just not sure why this blurb is necessary. Anyway, we now cut to the Purple Man, who is ruminating about his backstory when suddenly, well, let's let him tell it: "A hoof? Coming through the ceiling?" Yep. In all the gin joints in all the cities in the world, Hawkeye and Two-Gun just happened to accidentally crash though the ceiling of Purple Man's underground lair. That has to rank up there with one of the all-time lamest plot contrivances. It's nearly Marvel Team-Up level in the scope of the coincidence. Despite falling what appears to be at least thirty feet, neither the men nor their horses are at all hurt, but before they can get their bearings, Purple Man appears and commands them to kill each other. Hawkeye manages to outdraw Two-Gun and fire not one, but two arrows before the Kid can shoot his pistols. That's a fast bow. One of these arrows knocks the guns out of Two-Gun's hands, so I guess... they are managing to partially resist the command? Because I would think some sort of Hulk-stopping concussive arrow could have blown Matt's head clean off. Lacking his guns, Two-Gun jumps on Hawkeye and socks him in the jaw and they start fighting hand to hand. However, Two-Gun has a plan: he whistles for his horse, Nancy. Nancy leaps forward and kicks Purple Man really hard, since his commands don't work on horses and he can't get her to stop. Seizing the moment, Hawkeye and Two-Gun grab their weapons and attack Purple Man, with one of Hawkeye's arrows emitting a shrieking noise that disorients him, preventing him from using his powers. Purple Man whips out a giant lasr gun, but Two-Gun blasts that, and a moment later Hawkeye collapses the whole room on Purple Man. Must have thought he was a Skrull that needed killing or something. The collapse also opens a pathway to the surface, so they hop on their horses and ride away. THE END!!!! The rest of the issue is a series of diagrams, obviously by Ditko, showing all of Spider-man's powers. My guess is that these must have appeared in an early annual. There's also a pin-up by Gil Kane. THE END AGAIN!!! Wow, that Hawkeye story was crappy, huh? The art wasn't half bad, which I am going to credit Austin for, but that plot... sheesh. Seriously, that gets an authentic Marvel "Sheesh". My Grade: The main story gets a B, even though it's a dirty reprint, but only because this title is a reprint title. The Hawkeye story gets an A+ for the sheer weirdness of it existing at all and then being printed in between all this Spider-man stuff for no reason, but a D for the actual story.
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Post by scottharris on Sept 11, 2008 1:48:01 GMT -5
Tonight's epic: Patsy Walker #97 First, I have to say that this is one of my favorite design eras for Atlas/Marvel. I absolutely love the circle with the big price point in it, and I also really love the extra-thick borders on the word balloons. This is also after they dropped the little ribbon across the upper left corner, which I didn't like at all, and in this case replaced it with a little "Patsy Walker" head and title, which is reminiscent of later designs by Marvel to get the info on that corner box for newsstand display purposes. A really nice design. This cover also features a pre-Hellcat Patsy Walker looking like a complete psycho. Seriously, she looks like a deranged killer robot on this cover, which, like everything inside the book, was drawn by Al Hartley, who worked on the book for over a decade before moving over to Archie. You may notice something else about this cover. Take a look. No? Okay, well, you can see that this is dated October, and combined with the design you might puzzle out that this comic has a cover date of October, 1961. That essentially makes this the last Atlas comic published before the debut of Fantastic Four the following month. I thought it would be interesting to check out the state of Marvel on the verge of this great event. Frankly, though... that idea was more interesting than this review is going to be. I'm not sure I've ever read a comic as fast as this one. Even New Avengers #1 might have taken me more time. That's not because the comic stints on panels or pages; each story, of which there are many, features Stan Lee dialogue. Yet, the open, airy style of Hartley lends the comic a real visual emptiness that allows you to really burn through it. And it's not like there's a ton of subtext you need to figure out either. So, let's get to it, then. First up is a six page story where Patsy sees a wedding and ends up imagining what life would be like if she got married to her beau Buzz (who later became the supervillain Mad Dog). This fantasy begins well, but soon she is imagining Buzz blowing her off to hang out with the guys while she's left home doing chores and making him meals that he doesn't appreciate. She snaps out of her daydream just in time for a date with the real Buzz, but she's so irritated at her own imaginary version that she dumps him. Geez, women, right? THE END!! Next up is a one page story where Patsy takes so long getting ready for a day out in the beautiful sun, that by the time she's ready it's begun raining. Oh, noes! THE END!! Aaaaand, a two-pager where Patsy and her friend Nan try to even the hem of her Patsy's pants and end up botching it so many times that by the time they finish, Patsy is stuck with a pair of shorts. THE END!!!!!! Now we get an interjection in the form of a text story, which is unattributed. This story, which is continued to a second page later in the issue, is about a girl who is desperate for a date to the prom, only there aren't any guys available. She ends up getting roped into a date with a short, fat college guy who has a goofy name. Despite this, however, when they get to the prom she discovers that he's really funny and a great dancer and she has a great time. Moral of the story: teenage girls should date older fat men. THE END! And, we have another two page story where Hedy and Nan go swimming but Patsy stays on the beach. The girls frolic int he waves, making fun of Patsy for staying behind, only when they get to shore they discover she was making out with a hunky dude the whole time. Joke's on you, sister! THE END!! Next is a four page story where Hedy's dad is going to be the "Man of the Year" for Newslife magazine. Everyone assumes she's going to get a fat head, but they decide to humor her and be nice about it. So when the magazine arrives, they all say nice things, but she thinks they are being sarcastic. This is because the cover actually names "The American Businessman" as man of the year, with a huge group photo of the stock exchange rather than Hedy's father as an individual. THE END! Lastly is a four page tale where Patsy and Hedy go into a clothing store and try on a bunch of bathing suits. They both want the same one, except there's only one in stock. So Nan ends up breaking the stalemate by buying it herself. THE END!!! Throughout the issue there are also other one page features, like a pin-up of Patsy and Buzz, a black and white "coloring page" and a couple pages of cut out fashion dolls. Throughout all the stories the outfits are credited to various readers who supposedly sent in the designs. Interestingly, in the Stan Lee issue of Write Now, one of the guys who worked on these magazines said that a production assistant did take the names from people who sent in designs, but basically just slapped them randomly throughout the issue rather than matching them up with any actual outfits. Sounds like Hartley just drew whatever and they gave credit to the fans instead. The are no in house ads in this issue whatsoever, nor any lettercolumn; there's no sign at all of the revolution about to occur. As far as historical value, then, this issue is interesting because of what it doesn't have. The tone of this is very much in keeping with all the romance and teen comics of the 40's and 50's. The advent of Marvel just one month later would drastically change things even for Patsy Walker, and I don't mean her much later Hellcat appearances. Just two issues after this, in #99, Stan wrote a story where Soviet Premier Krushchev visits Patsy's town to get information about the American teen; he comes away feeling that the Soviets can never defeat America. By #115, Buzz has joined the Air Force, and in a three part storyline the following year he is shot down and returns home confined to a wheelchair. Man, don't those sound way more interesting than this issue was? All a direct result of Stan's superhero success and newfound willingness to push the boundaries of his comic stories. Not coincidentally, when I was looking into buying some Patsy Walker issues, I found that the older comics from the 1950's were actually easier to get and cheaper to buy than the post-FF 60's issues. My grade: An A for historical interest; a C for the actual stories, which do have some flashes of Stan humor but otherwise are brief, juvenile reads.
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Post by Dr. Hank Pym on Sept 11, 2008 18:22:08 GMT -5
More excellent reviews, scott! It interests me that there wasn't even any hint or indication that the Fantastic Four were even going to debut. I'm guessing that Stan didn't think that bringing back a superhero mag would interest anyone! Loved the recaps for what sounds like awful stories in the Patsy Walker book!
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Post by scottharris on Sept 16, 2008 1:23:48 GMT -5
This is it, true believer! The one you've been waiting for! Night Nurse #1 Yes, it's the legendary Night Nurse. Also known as Linda Carter, Night Nurse has been getting some attention recently due to some appearances in Civil War as an assistant/lover to Dr. Strange. Or something. What's interesting, and something I didn't know until very recently, is that Night Nurse #1 is not the first appearance of Linda Carter. In fact, she predates the Fantastic Four, as she had her own series that began earlier in 1961 and ran for nine issues. Titled "Linda Carter, Student Nurse", it was, as we'll see, a direct precursor to this title. Pretty cool. Also cool is this cover, a beautiful 20 cent frame job. The colors are nice, the logo actually works for me, and the frame is utilized very well here -- there's a metric ton of text, but thanks to the frame, it's nicely away from the main image. One interesting thing is the corner circle, with Night Nurse's face. Firstly, her little face is crying little tears, which is... funny. Secondly, though, it's obvious that the face was not drawn by the same guy who did the rest of the cover or the interior art; that art is much sketchier compared to the clean, bold lines of the corner face. I'm guessing that corner face is from Romita? The cover appears to have been drawn by the same artist who did the inside work, Winslow Mortimer, which seems like a really fake name; it's, like, the uppity city mouse that comes to visit Tom & Jerry on the farm. The writing is from Jean Thomas, Roy Thomas's wife, and Roy Thomas is the editor. The date is November, 1972. And... here we go. The splash page, like the cover, is symbolic mostly. Lina Carter, student nurse, is in tears at having to make a decision between her vocation and her man. This triggers a flashback that takes up the rest of the issue. Seems that three years ago, when she entered nursing school, Linda Carter (daughter of a family of doctor people) was randomly assigned two roommates -- the African-America Georgia and a redhead named Christine Palmer. Turns out the three of them really don't get along at all. But, they have other things to worry about besides bickering. Namely, a bunch of nursing stuff they have to learn. They go through endless classes and on the job training in the hospital, working themselves to the bone, only to go home and argue themselves to sleep. One day, though, they are alerted to a large emergency, with an influx of patients. They all rush to the hospital and spend hours helping patients, one of whom has a little boy that reminds Linda of her brother. Overcome by homesickness, Linda breaks down. Georgia and Christine find her and start yelling at her, but when she explains what's going on they reveal that they, too, are homesick. Suddenly they become best friends! Hurray!!! Well, that certainly helps them all out, as they can now support each other, so things start to go better at the hospital and in their work. Linda finds herself working closely with a wealthy, handsome patient who falls for her. When he is let out of the joint, he calls her up and they begin dating. Yes, it's true love, and he ends up proposing, but with one catch: she has to quit this nursing nonsense so she can focus on being his wife. She says she has to think about it, but her friends are facing issues of their own on their time off. Christina is approached by her estranged Dad, who tries to make things up to her by promising her anything she wants if she'll just drop nursing and come on home. Georgia, who lives in the city, finally gets to go home to visit, where she breaks up a fight and then helps her poor neighbors who are too poor to get medical care. Yes, things are tough all over. It's a long, hot summer, and there are power shortages that especially affect Georgia's poor neighborhood; often, their power is completely shut off by the power company, leaving only the hospital to run on generators. The angry folks of the hood are getting tired of this, and they think the big fancy hospital is getting special treatment while they swelter. Well, yeah, they are getting special treatment, you morons -- it's a frikkin HOSPITAL. Man, poor people, right? Anyway, all the girls are back at the hospital when Georgia's brother Ben and a friend show up. They claim that they are working as janitors in the hospital, and she lets them go, but they actually have a bomb. Ben's plan is to force the power company to restore power to the entire neighborhood. He doesn't realize that the hospital has actually lost power as well due to a citywide blackout and that it's just their own generator giving them energy, so his ploy is going to be useless anyway. Too late, though -- his friend shoots a guard a kills him. Just then, Georgia and the girls burst in and tell Ben that this is stupid because the whole city is without power, and it's just going to kill a bunch of sick people. Ben's friend, it turns out, doesn't care, because he's been paid by somebody to blow up the hospital, which Ben didn't know about. He shoots Ben and turns to attach the bomb when Night Nurse suddenly trips him! She grabs the bomb out of midair and then realizes, well, that doesn't help anything because he still has a gun pointed right at her. She delays him long enough for the cops to show up; Night Nurse had alerted them before she went to the basement. They blast the guy and rush in, saving the day. Ben is wheeled off to surgery. And now, the flashback ends, and Linda has made her choice -- she and her friends have learned the importance of nursing and have decided to stay on and graduate from nursing school to become honest-to-god nurses. The boyfriend dejectedly leaves and the issue ends with Night Nurse ready to face a new day of nursing challenges. THE END!!!! You know, this story was actually pretty good. To be honest, it was more nuanced than a lot of comics form this time period, and fit in action, romance and social commentary all in one tidy package. It may be that the title was too inclusive, though. A look at some of the publication details is interesting. There is a Bullpen Bulletin in this issue, along with a pull page in-house ad for The Cat #1. This is interesting because I also recently got a Marvel romance comic from this same time period, and it contains no Bullpen Bulletins, no in-house ads, not even a lettercolumn. There's really nothing to identify it as being part of the Marvel line other than the MCG stripe on the cover. In contrast, Night Nurse seems to be straddling the line; the ad for The Cat suggests that this is still aimed at women mostly, but is still part of the regular Marvel line and not a romance title. Honestly, I'm not sure Stan and Roy knew what to do with this title. Also of note is the supporting character of Christina Palmer. According to stuff I've read online, the last issue of Night Nurse, #4, is a Christina solo story, which is interesting; perhaps "Night Nurse" wasn't intended to refer to an individual but to the position. Christina later appeared in a Nightcrawler mini-series, where she and Kurt became lovers before she left New York to get away from all the superhero craziness. Well, sure, why not. One thing I've run into online is people saying that they aren't sure if this Linda Carter is the same as Linda Carter, Student Nurse, because she has blonde hair instead of brown. This is, in my opinion, totally asinine. The opening words of this series say this, bold in the original: "On the threshold of a new career -- on the dawn of a new day -- Linda Carter, Student Nurse, must make the most difficult decision of her life -- !" It's blatantly obvious that this is intended by Roy to be the original Linda Carter, Student Nurse. So suck it, internet! My grade: A+. I'll be looking for the other issues of this series. This was unexpectedly good, considering that for the last 35 years this title has been an industry punchline. I can only surmise that the reason for this is because of the marketing; if this had been put out as a romance title rather than marketed to the superhero reading audience, it would have been just another romance title instead of a joke.
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Post by scottharris on Sept 17, 2008 16:10:24 GMT -5
Oh, I had a very nice day at the comic store today. Remember I mentioned the Khrushchev appearance in Patsy Walker #99? Well, turns out that my store had a copy of this, and much to my surprise, Khrushchev isn't the only prominent guest star in the issue. That's right, this comic has a cover appearance and crossover with none other than Linda Carter, Student Nurse, aka Night Nurse! You can believe I snatched this comic right up. But that's not all. Oh, no. Remember this gem? Yup. They had this one too. I haven't had a chance yet to read these two classics, but I am pretty psyched. Superheroes, shmuperheroes.
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Post by sharkar on Sept 17, 2008 21:15:45 GMT -5
...you can see that this is dated October, and combined with the design you might puzzle out that this comic has a cover date of October, 1961. That essentially makes this the last Atlas comic published before the debut of Fantastic Four the following month. I thought it would be interesting to check out the state of Marvel on the verge of this great event. It interests me that there wasn't even any hint or indication that the Fantastic Four were even going to debut. samcci--aka the "Silver Age Marvel Comics Cover Index"--is one of the best resources around and provides a superlative visual timeline of Marvel's growth. If I may be permitted to quote myself: One of my favorite resources is the Silver Age Marvel Comics Cover Index, and I'm always amazed when I realize what was actually being published during the early 60s. Check out the "Months" tab, and start from July 1961. Pretty interesting to go through the months and see Marvel's development. www.samcci.comics.org/The Months tab is on the left side of samcci's home page. First up is a six page story where Patsy sees a wedding... ...bringing to mind the more famous wedding Patsy (and Hedy) tried to crash later on, in Fantastic Four Annual #3.
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Post by scottharris on Sept 17, 2008 23:04:58 GMT -5
That's a very cool website. I wish they had all the covers, but it's cool to see a visual representation of each month's production. May of 1963 is particularly interesting to me. It's the first month that really looks like a Marvel Comics month, for a couple reasons; firstly, it's the first month where the publication schedules are synched up and all the hero titles (and Sgt. Fury #1) are coming out on the same month; and secondly, it introduces the corner box along with the Marvel Comics name. It's curious that a couple of the comics don't seem to quite match up with the month listed on the cover; for instance, though the other titles for May all have the new corner box, Kid Colt Outlaw and Two-Gun Kid are still using the old design. On the other hand, the previous month, April, shows Journey Into Mystery with the corner box a month before the rest of the titles. I wonder if these issues were put together are different times and simply released in that order -- i.e. the westerns were completed early and sat longer, so they still had the old style, while the JiM might have been running late so by the time it went to press it had the new style. I dunno, just trying to figure out that discrepancy. Another cool website that lets you see all the production in one handy chart (minus all the cool pictures) is this one: www.marvelmasterworks.com/timeline_marvel_silver.htmlIt's focused on superhero stuff, so it lists each title beginning with the issue that they started featuring heroes. I also had a chance to read those comics I got today. The Khushchev story was only a couple pages long, but it was pretty funny. All the teenagers keep thinking that Khrushchev is the new butcher in town ("He looks more like the butcher's assistant") or that they are on Candid Camera ("The fat one must have the camera in his hat"), which is some nice anti-commie Stan stuff. The story with Linda Carter is typical of th other stories and is basically just a plug for her book (which according to samcci was canceled in order to make room on the publishing schedule for Amazing Spider-man). The Young Love is great. It's written by Robert Kahniger, who was also, of course, the editor of all the DC war comics at that time, and who appears to be doing a crossover here, as the main character is a Vietnam vet just back from the war who is having trouble fitting back in to society. He falls in love with a stranger while he's on vacation. While swimming, they both get caught in some weeds at the bottom of the lake, but miraculously get free. He sees this as a sign that the were meant to be together, but she reveals that she is a nun, and that she came to the vacation spot to decide if she should take her final vows. They were saved from drowning because of the power of her prayers, so she leaves him to take her vows. Luckily, he finds comfort in the arms of the hotel attendant who has been trying to ask him out the whole time. THE END!
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Post by Dr. Hank Pym on Sept 18, 2008 12:14:10 GMT -5
Wonderful links, everyone! Exalts for sharkar and scottharris, for the interesting links and information! I'll be surfing that Silver Age Covers website when I have some relaxation time... and will use the other site for excellent reference! I'm also particularly fascinated with the movement from the old era/early silver age era to, as what Marvel called it, "The Marvel Age of Comics". I'd guess that around the debut of Spidey in his own solo mag would be the proper place to pinpoint the debut, or even May 1963, as scottharris has stated. I find it odd that JiM had the top left corner picture earlier than all the others, though! Young Love sounds too funny, and completely ridiculous! Hard to believe DC was still writing such groaners of romance stories well into the 20 cent era! Never knew that Linda Carter's first book was canceled to make room for DaddySpidey! Makes me wonder what else was canceled or changed around during that era. I'm pretty sure that the debut of Spidey, Wasp and Sgt. Fury (amongst others) were actually all close to each other, save for a few months! What a fascinating time it must've been in at that point, if you were a comic book fan!
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Post by sharkar on Sept 18, 2008 23:25:26 GMT -5
...On the other hand, the previous month, April, shows Journey Into Mystery with the corner box a month before the rest of the titles. I wonder if these issues were put together are different times and simply released in that order -- i.e. the westerns were completed early and sat longer, so they still had the old style, while the JiM might have been running late so by the time it went to press it had the new style. I dunno, just trying to figure out that discrepancy. I find it odd that JiM had the top left corner picture earlier than all the others, though! Not so odd, really. As I have mentioned in various threads here, back in the 1960s the monthly Marvel books were not all in synch in terms of cover dates. The majority of monthly books were cover dated 3 months ahead of actual release month...but there were some exceptions, notably Thor, Avengers, X-Men and Daredevil, which were usually cover dated only 2 months ahead of the actual release month. (I'm referring to when these books went on monthly schedules, of course.) But samcci's webmaster takes a different approach when it comes to displaying the comics...as he states on the Months home page (I bolded some of the pertinent text): "Of course, we all know (don't we?) that an issue with a January cover date was actually on the stands about three months earlier (well, in the USA, anyway!), and that not all issues with the same cover date came out at exactly the same time. But heck, can you imagine how confusing it would be if I had April cover-dated issues mixed with May cover-dated issues? If it says Aug on the cover, you'll find it under Aug. Simple!"So to take Scott's specific example of Journey Into Mystery(which was later retitled Thor): samcci is grouping all April cover dates together regardless of release date, so the samcci website page for April 1963 includes the April 1963 cover dated JIM #91, along with the April cover dated Fantastic Four #13. It looks like this (below) and gives the impression (if you have not read the disclaimer) that JIM #91 was released at the same time as FF #13. However, in reality it was the March 1963 JIM #90 that was released and on sale at the same time as the April 1963 FF #13...the actual release month for both issues was January 1963. So more accurately, the display should look like this: And FF #14 (cover date May 1963) and JIM #91 (cover date April 1963) would have been on sale at the same time, in February 1963. ]
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Post by scottharris on Sept 18, 2008 23:31:42 GMT -5
Thanks for the clarification. I thought it might be something like that, but I hadn't read the disclaimer, so I was a little puzzled.
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Post by sharkar on Sept 18, 2008 23:36:37 GMT -5
Wonderful links, everyone! Exalts for sharkar and scottharris, for the interesting links and information! I'll be surfing that Silver Age Covers website when I have some relaxation time... and will use the other site for excellent reference! It's a real pleasure to be able to exchange information like this with like-minded folks. BTW, the samcci site has a link to...a Bullpen Bulletins site! It's toward the bottom of the home page. Another cool website that lets you see all the production in one handy chart (minus all the cool pictures) is this one: www.marvelmasterworks.com/timeline_marvel_silver.htmlIt's focused on superhero stuff, so it lists each title beginning with the issue that they started featuring heroes. Yes, I really like that site, too--lots of great info there. It also includes some letter pages! For example, here's a link to the site's entry on Avengers #10 and that issue's letter pages. www.marvelmasterworks.com/avengers/avg010.html
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Post by Dr. Hank Pym on Sept 18, 2008 23:42:22 GMT -5
Well, I'll be! Thanks for the clarification, sharkar (And Samcci, wherever you are! ) And it's wonderful that someone has scanned all of the Bullpen Bulletins like that! I must confess, whenever I get old books, I STILL read those things! I love them, they're great reads, and are a great reference when it comes to figuring out how Marvel was doing business at certain points in time. Plus, you have to love Stan's Soapbox (I cannot wait for the book to come out!)
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Post by scottharris on Sept 22, 2008 2:05:41 GMT -5
You know, I wasn't sure anything could top Young Love #104, but I just read Young Love #126, and man, that thing is an all-time classic. It's got four stories in it, and each one is more bizarre than the last. First, check out the cover: Yes, it's just like internet dating, except... it's a C. B. Radio! Bust out your copies of Convoy and Smokey and the Bandit, because in Young Love #126, the trucker craze lives on forever. B. J. and the Bear would be proud. The story is about a couple that meets on the CB, but they've never actually met in real life. When they do finally meet, it doesn't go well at first, but then they realize they are meant for each other. By the way, she's a waitress at a truck stop, taking trucking lessons at night, and her name is Mavis. This story alone would make the issue a classic, but the next one is called "I won't kiss that evil way!" and is apparently about a chick who won't make out with guys because it's just morally wrong. I'm not making this up. But it's the third story that really took this issue to a whole new epic level. A girl has fallen in love with a race car driver. Her mother forbids it, though, because she doesn't want her daughter to go through the anguish of watching him get killed in an accident. See, when the daughter was just a little girl, her father, a jet test pilot, was killed when his prototype jet exploded in mid-air. Well, the daughter ignores her mother and rushes off to see her boyfriend race. She gets confused, though, and accidentally wanders onto the track right in the middle of warmups, and her boyfriend is coming right at her at two hundred miles an hour! Luckily, he swerves, and crashes the car into a post; he's okay, but the debris clobbers his pit guy, an old, confused man. The mother rushes up, having chased her daughter to the track, just in time for the old pit crew guy to regain his senses and reveal that... he's the father! Yes, turns out he ejected form the plane, but smacked his head and has had amnesia for the past fifteen years. The car wreck, though, whacked him again, restoring his memory! With the family reunited, the mother gives her permission for the daughter to start seeing the driver after all. THE END!!!!! And there's also a fourth story, which is about a girl who's boyfriend keeps neglecting her because he spends all his time with his best friend. See, the best friend is a Viet Nam vet who is so traumatized by the war that he has screaming fits every night and only her boyfriend can talk him down. Well, she finally goes to confront the vet to tell him to sod off, because she needs love even if it means he has to go crazy, only it turns out the guy is actually fine; it's all a ruse to disguise that her boyfriend is having an affair with her best friend. The girl and the vet intrude on the affair right in the middle of dinner and overturn giant plates of spaghetti on the sneaky couple, then take pictures of them and run off laughing -- the perfect start to an all-new romance! Holy cow, this is a perfect comic book. Wouldn't you know it, this was also the last issue of Young Love. They probably figured they would never be able to top #126 in a million years, so why even bother trying.
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Post by Dr. Hank Pym on Sept 22, 2008 17:04:01 GMT -5
Oh my! Those stories sound so thrilling that I'm tempted to leap out of my chair!! In all seriousness... yowza. There is NO way that the writers were taking those stories seriously. I'm guessing that they decided to go the bizarre route, since they knew that no one was reading the mag, anyway! Great recaps, scott.
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Post by scottharris on Sept 28, 2008 14:45:14 GMT -5
Well, I went to a show today and came back, as usual, with a bunch of stuff not on my checklist. I think I bought more comics that weren't on my list than ones that were.
Sgt. Fury was particularly hard to find, so I only managed to pick up three of the issues I was missing, so that was a letdown. However, I did get 19 issues of Thor/JiM so that put a big dent in my list. I also picked up a couple other comics I've been looking for like Hulk #135 with the Kang appearance and Strange Tales #155, which is the last issue of Strange Tales I need. I've managed to put together the whole run of SHIELD issues from #135-168, and only spent more than $6 on about four issues, so I'm looking forward to reading those.
As far as issues I wasn't expecting to buy, the highlight of the day was probably getting a low grade copy of Tales to Astonish #44 for $20. I'm pretty happy about that. I also got Adventure Comics #258, which has a Green Arrow cover story (Superboy travels through time to visit and inspire a young Oliver Queen... typical Silver Age DC). And I found a pile of sweet comics in a 50 cent bin, including about 20 issues of G. I. Combat, almost all of which are 80 page giants, so I guess I have some reading material to last awhile.
Murphy Anderson was in attendance, so I had him sign my copies of Brave & Bold #61 and 62; these Starman/Black Canary teamups were the first appearances of both characters other than JLA/JSA crossovers since the Golden Age, and also include the first Silver Age appearance of Wildcat. Plus they were key issues for the Robinson Starman series of a decade ago. It was kind of weird seeing a huge line of people in front of Anderson's table -- but not for Anderson. They were waiting for Ethan van Scriber, who was sitting farther down the row. I guess that's the nature of fandom.
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Post by dlw66 on Sept 28, 2008 15:36:00 GMT -5
It was kind of weird seeing a huge line of people in front of Anderson's table -- but not for Anderson. They were waiting for Ethan van Scriber, who was sitting farther down the row. I guess that's the nature of fandom. I count it a privilege to have met Murphy Anderson many years ago at the Chicago Comicon (before Wizard entered the picture and priced my sons and I from attending anymore). What a true gentleman -- very humble, almost quiet. It was a thrill...
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Post by Dr. Hank Pym on Sept 29, 2008 0:46:11 GMT -5
That's quite a good bargain for TTA 44! It seems like all of the ones before that one are $40 or more in low grade shape!
Like scottharris, I've also been on the hunt for issues of Strange Tales. Just recently I bought issue 128 on eBay for around $7 or so! I also got issue 158 for $6, as well as Avengers #20 in low grade shape for $6. It's one that I haven't read in awhile, so I'm glad I picked it up!
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Post by scottharris on Dec 22, 2008 20:26:24 GMT -5
Ask and ye shall receive: And no, the comic is not actually that large. It's nice to have an extra big scan of Journey Into Mystery #89, thugh, because in my opinion this is the number one all time most iconic Thor cover in history. Absolutely gorgeous. As you can imagine, I'm pretty excited to have picked this issue up last week. The copy I got is what i would call a VG (maybe VG/VF) with nice presentation value. Meaning, even though it's lower grade, the defects aren't obvious or glaring, so it's still a really nice comic to look at. I don't always care, but this cover is so great, in this case I wanted a nice looking copy. Better yet, I didn't pay anything for it. Yes, it was priced at $110.50 by my comic store, but I found a bunch of junk in my garage that I traded to the store for credit. Along with this I picked up JiM #118 and #119, the complete one volume Bone and a mystery comic to be named later. And I still have more credit left, so, thank you, garage. Okay, that having been said, let's look at the issue itself. This is real deal early Marvel; it still has the 12 cent price point in a circle and there's no Marvel logo in existence yet. This is the 7th issue of Thor which, as we discussed earlier, places it before ASM #1. The cover date is February of 1963, so it's roughly 15 months after FF #1. The credits give the plot to Stan and the pencils to Jack, but the scipting is one L. D. Lieber, with inks from Dick Ayers. That's Larry Lieber, of course, Stan's brother. One thing that makes this comic so interesting is the fact that, when Thor first started out, he was just the main feature in what was still an anthology book. Later on, they came up with Tales of Asgard for the backup, but before that, the rest of JiM was still science fiction short stories, just like it had been before the superhero age of Marvel began. because of this, when you get reprints of this issue in stuff like Essentials, it only reprints the Thor content and ignores the other stuff, so I was particularly happy to get a chance to read this in it's original format, because you really get a much better sense of Marvel's evolution. More on this later. Anyway, let's get to the tale. It starts out with Thor flying back to his office after his latest adventure, whatever that was; there's no footnote tying this to the last issue. anyway, Thor gets concerned that people will see him going into Don Blake's place, so he comes up with a quick distraction: he grabs a mannequin from a storefront, whips up a quick Thor costume using, I dunno, his amazing sewing powers, and then heaves the Thor dummy completely out of Manhattan and into the ocean. This fools onlookers into thinking Thor is flying overhead, and while they are distracted, Thor turns back into Don Blake. It's not quite as good as the "fake vomit" trick from the Captain America movie, but it's pretty good. After a quick recap of Thor's origin for people new to the series, we get a bit of early marvel character stuff; Don Blake is thinking how much of a sap he is and that Jane could never love him, while Jane is thinking... that Don Blake is a sap. Well, sort of; she's just irritated that he won't hit on her, so instead she goes into a daydream of how awesome it would be to work for Thor instead (and, of course, be his girlfriend). This involves her ironing his cape and giving him a haircut so he won't be so hot during the summer. Meanwhile, famous mobster Thug Thatcher busts free from the feds and escapes into the country after a shootout. He's in a bad way, so his gang rushes back into the city to find a sawbones. You guessed it, they end up picking Don Blake. After tying up Jane, they drag him off into the countryside, where Thug's doting moll begs Don for help. Don gets to work saving Thug, due to the Hippocratic Oath, but is in a real fix when the goons take his magic cane away. This really presents a problem because, after he finishes the operation, Thug orders them to kill Blake. Uh-oh! Luckily, Blake is in possession of a giant deus ex machina. Or, in this case, a deus ex thought balloon: Blake sends a prayer to Odin for help, who zaps the goons with lightning. Nice one. Why does he even need his hammer if he can just ask Odin to zap everyone? Anyway, during the minor confusion, Blake grabs his stick and becomes Thor. Then he.... uh... well, he uses his super breath to blow a tablecloth so hard that it wraps all the goons up in a giant bundle that they can't break free from. As if this wasn't enough, Jimmy's signal watch then goes off and... oh, wait. Got confused. Anyway, Thor cuts off escape by knocking down a whole row of trees with his hammer, blocking in the cars. Except, it's too late; Thug and his moll have already escaped. Naturally, they rush right to Blake's office, where, after all, they already have a tied up hostage waiting. Sure enough, when Thor flies in, Thug forces him to relinquish his hammer or else the girl gets it, see? But Thug failed to consider Thor's super ventriloquism! Personally, I don't blame him, since Thor doesn't actually have that power. Yet, somehow, he uses it anyway, throwing his voice out into the hallway to convince Thug that the cops are there. Thor takes this opportunity to create a whirlwind with his hammer that whips him and Jane right out the window to safety. Nice job, Thor. Thug and his moll (who is named Ruby) flee on foot to a construction site. At this point, Thug ditches Ruby, jumps onto an elevator, and proceeds to fire a hail of bullets back down at the doting Ruby. Jeez, dude, way to be a total prick for no reason. Luckily, Thor saves her, then fires a lightning bolt at Thug, which blasts the girders Thug is standing on. This seems to be a miscalculation, though, because it superheats a bucket of rivets, which Thug then threatens to dump on the crowd below. Whoops! Not sure why the bucket isn't also superheated, but whatever. Thor pretends to give up, but that's because he can see that the girder has been comrpomised, and sure enough, it collapses. Thor catches Thug in midair and delivers him to the police. After quickly mind-wiping Jane to make her forget the whole thing -- why, I have no idea -- Thor flies around bemoaning his fate. THE END!!!! Okay, a few comments before I get to the next story. For my money (or, in this case, not my money), Essential Thor volume 1, which collects JiM #83-112, is maybe the single seminal Marvel volume to read if you're interested in seeing the evolution of the company. This story is a perfect example of how the early stories, despite the minor Marvel trappings like character dialogue and stuff, were still very similar to typical superhero or DC stuff. This story and the dumb crap that Thor does could just have easily been another bad issue of Action Comics. The only real difference is that Stan and Larry's dialogue and such is more fun. Over the course of this one volume, though, you can see Thor develop, issue by issue, from this generic Superman knockoff into the unique fantasy superhero we all know. The addition of Tales of Asgard is, in my opinion, the key moment, but it's just fascinating to see Stan and company feel there way along. I think that even hardcore fans sometimes think that Stan and Jack just created the Marvel Universe full blown, that it sprang into existence as a fully formed, amazingly new thing, but the truth is that they started with a spark and then experimented until they perfected it. These early Thors are prefect examples of this. Even though they are kind of stupid. Okay, next up is a one page text story with perhaps the most original title in the history of science fiction, "From Outer Space ". Seems that the UN built a space staion and suddenly, an alien spaceship appeared. A commission was sent up to meet the aliens, who turned out to be humanoids with weirdly shaped lips. They explained that they were going to conquer Earth and enslave everyone if humanity couldn't give a good reaosn why they should be spared. Luckily, the head of the commission had a secret weapon: he used his wonderful human lips to whistle, something that the aliens couldn't do and were shocked at. Yes, turns out that, due to the shape of their mouths, the aliens never developed music at all. Soon, dumbfounded by our amazing composers, they agreed to spare Earth in exchange for a steady supply of music. This craptastic non-story doesn't have any writer credited, for obvious reasons. THE END! Next up is a short story with plot from Stan, script from Larry and art from Sol Brodsky. It's called "Barker's Body Shop!". Seems that Barker (not Bob Barker, unfortunately) is a shady mechanic who uses shoddy materials and bilks people at every opportunity. Seems it's his lucky day when he gets two strokes of luck: the richest guy in town drops his car off, and a mysterious drifter stops by looking for work. The drifter turns out to be a brilliant mechanic, so Barker has him fix up the rich guy's car. When he's done, though, Barker refuses to pay him. So, the guy jumps in the car and flies off into space; turns out he was an alien looking for a car to modify for spaceflight. Now the joke's on Barker, who is going to get put out of business by the rich guy. Moral: don't screw aliens. THE END!! Lastly, we have a story called "When the Switch is Pulled..." By Stan and Steve Ditko. A guy makes a time machine, but his colleague is skeptical. So they jump in it and activate it. When it finishes doing it's thing, they step out only to find themselves in the exact same place. Devastated, the scientist smashes his machine. The joke's on him, though, because it turns out that the machine works -- it just did a complete circuit of all history and ended up back in the same place when it was finished. Whoops! This story is mostly interesting for the Ditko art, which shows some hints of his later techiniques; he uses a lot of colored circles here in a way that suggests Dr. Strange or, more embarrassingly, Speedball. But it's kind of interesting. THE END! So, that's it. I think it's safe to say that if your average modern reader were given this comic, with the awesome Thor cover, and read those stories, they would have a giant WTF look on their face. For good reason. Fascinating as a slice of Marvel history; interesting for fans of Marvel's scifi and horror anthologies; flat out weird for Thor fans. My grades: A+++ for the legendary cover; B+ for historical relevance; C- for the lame story right out of Action Comics. A+ for the epically dumb Earth Whistle Defense System text story and a C for the other backup stories.
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Post by scottharris on Dec 24, 2008 0:45:26 GMT -5
One thing I forgot to mention in my recap of JiM #89 is that Thug Thatcher and his moll Ruby reappeared over 20 years later during the Simonson run. I happened to reread the entire Simonson run right after reading Essential Thor volume 1, and it's very obvious that Simonson had also read all the early Thor stories just before he took over as writer. He brings back a lot of villains form those (mostly lame) early stories, such as Fafnir, and does so in a way that reinvigorates forgotten continuity in the context of fantastic new stories. A perfect example of how a writer should do research.
In this case, Thug Thatcher and Ruby show up as part of the Zaniac story in Thor 371-372. Zaniac, who had previously appeared in a wicked lame issue a few years earlier, was a deranged serial killer who targets women. He also has a mystical side; when killed, the corpse explodes into a bunch of diseased rats, who then swarm around until they bite someone and infect them with the Zaniac disease, causing them to become the new Zaniac.
Thug, upon getting out of jail, decides to get his revenge on Thor by busting Zaniac loose to kill Jane Foster (obviously being in jail, he doesn't know his info on Jane is a decade out of date). He hides out at Ruby's house; she's now a married mother who doesn't necessarily want anything to do with this crap. Zaniac, confronted with a woman, goes nuts and murders her. Thug's partner then shoots Zaniac, causing the vermin to swarm over Thug, turning him into the new Zaniac.
At t his point, a guy from the future called Justice Peace -- who was a blatant homage to Judge Dredd -- arrived, tracking Zaniac, and he and Thor end up taking him down. And that was that.
Ruby's kids became an ongoing subplot in Thor for a few years. First they lived in Asgard for awhile with Volstagg as a stepfather, but eventually Thor brought them back to Earth and found them a mortal family.
Simonson is the best.
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Post by Dr. Hank Pym on Dec 26, 2008 13:36:36 GMT -5
Another awesome review, scottharris!
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Post by scottharris on Dec 27, 2008 21:17:18 GMT -5
It's Avenger vs. Avenger! I've had a hard time finding this comic, so I was very surprised to come across it today at my local store, and for a very reasonable price. I wouldn't exactly call this a key issue, but as far as the mostly key-less Iron Man series goes, this one is pretty hard to find. I've never read it before, so we'll go on this journey of discovery... together. First, of course, the cover. As you can see, this is later 20 cent era; the full frame is gone, but there is still a vestige up at the top where the logo is. The cover date is February of 1973. I don't really recognize the artist; while some of the inking on Thor looks a bit like Kane, who was doing a lot of Marvel covers at the time, nothing else really does. I'm sure one of you is better at this than I am, though, and can tell by looking. My guess is George Tuska? Anyway, it's a decent cover, but I don't think the word and thought balloons add anything to it. I don't mind text on my covers, but for awhile there in the early 70's, they were going crazy with text, even if none was warranted. A good cover, I guess, but maybe could have a little more epic. Aaaaand, here we go. Story credited to Mike Friedrich, with art from Geroge Tuska. A HA! Score one for me. Inked by Mike Esposito, Artie Simek on lettering and George Roussos colorist. It isn't often that the letterist and colorist are the most decorated people on the book, but that may be the case here. The story turns out to be continued form the previous issue; I'm going to guess that the last issue had Thor suddenly swoop in out of nowhere on the last page; just a hunch. As Thor and Iron Man face off, an onlooking shouts "Iron Man's gone nuts -- attacking everything in sight -- and Thor's vowed to stop him!" Well, buddy, I didn't ask you, but thanks for the exposition. That pretty much fills us in, but Friedrich follows this up with a brief recap of last issue: turns out Iron Man is possessed by the spirit of an evil skrull, who... Forget it, I'm not reading the rest. More skrull crap. The pages of this comic smell like Bendis. I give up. Wait, I see a picture of Dr. Spectrum, so I guess we'll keep going. This skrull spirit, see, was trapped inside Spectrum's power prism. When Spectrum attacked Iron Man -- I guess this was the evil Spectrum from the Squadron Sinister -- the skrull managed to break free from his imprisonment and take over Iron Man's body. Just as he was about to kill Spectrum, though, Thor swooped in and stopped him. Ah, as I thought, the infamous "last page swoop". So, recap done, the evil Iron Man tries to trick Thor by pretending he's still really Iron Man, but I guess this is the worst skrull ever, because Thor figures it out, oh, instantly. PLus, this skrull is just a giant moron in general, because he says in his recap that he attracted Thor by smashing everything in sight to show off his new form. And he is shocked that Thor has showed up because he didn't expect "to be challenged so soon" and this has disrupted his plans to dominate Earth, because even he knows that Iron Man is no match for Thor. Man, that sounds really stupid. You didn't expect to be challenged so soon? This throws a wrench in your plans to conquer the Earth? Except, like, Earth is covered with superheroes who specifically hang around waiting to stop challenge would-be conquerors. What did this guy expect would happen? Anyway, he decides to just use his power prism to turn invisible and run away -- finally, a halfway smart idea -- except Thor makes it rain so he can see the outline of the guy, then clobbers him. Whap! Just like that, fight over. And... ...time for a long flashback. We see that Happy Hogan has just revealed to his wife, Pepper Potts-Happy (er... or something), that Stark is Iron Man, and she's like, "oh, get over yourself, you jealous liar". This, of course, kind of ticks Happy off. Just then, he hears a news flash that Iron Man is fighting Spectrum, so he decides to prove to his wife that she's being a jerkazoid. He does this by opening Stark's briefcase and putting on the Iron Man armor himself. Then he flies off while Pepper shouts at him to stop showing off cause he's just going to do something dumb. Way to stand by your man, lady. Good one. Okay, flashback over. While Thor is trying to revive Iron Man, the cops bring Spectrum over, and he's like "smooth move, exlax" and mentally seizes control of the prism again, busting himself free and flying off. Just then, another Iron Man flies in from nowhere... ...and Thor begins kicking Spectrum's rear. The second Iron Man shows up, though, and says that this is his fight and Thor should back off. Man, I dunno about you, but I hate that sort of macho crap. "Back off, Thor. This is between me and Dr. Spectrum. Even if all of the Eastern Seaboard gets destroyed in the process, and I lose a hand, I want to prove to him that I am his superior." Dude, how about letting Thor help? Public safety ever enter your mind. After all, you know, it's THOR. He could end this fight in about nine seconds if you would let him. But, no. Thor is like "sure thing, Tony, I'll just hang out over here while you two wreck all of Chicago". So, they start fighting. Spectrum tries a couple of Z-grade Green Lantern tricks that don't work, then goes the old diversion route by creating a robot that he sends careening into a park of civilians. Frankly, it would be justice if a bunch of them got hurt, because then Iron Man could be brought up on charges of Unlawful Machismo for his decision to keep Thor on the sidelines. Instead, though, Iron Man wrecks the robot in one hit (a big splash page). We also get this bit of inspired (or is that insipid?) Friedrich prose: "His gaze is steel -- and some say his veins are as well... But you can well appreciate the word on the street! 'Don't mess with this man-machine!'" Wow, really, Mike? That's the best you can give us? Finally, Dr. Spectrum actually comes up with a good idea. Since Iron Man is just smashing everything he makes, he creates a big device that is intended to be smashed. When Iron Man breaks it, he's engulfed in flames. Mind you, this does nothing, but it was a good idea anyway. Finally realizing he's getting his butt kicked, Spectrum whips up an airplane to fly away in, which is a bit odd since he's already flying without it. Iron Man quickly wrecks this as well -- someone call Damage, Inc. already -- and once Spectrum has safely crashed to the Earth, Iron Man stomps on the prism and destroys it. He then unmasks Spectrum, who turns out to be... an African economist named Dr. Obatu. Hmm. I wasn't expecting that. Anywya, Iron Man rushes over to the other Iron Man, who is being tended to by Don Blake, meaning that at least one of these Avengers was doing something useful. It looks grim for... some guy named Eddie March. Yep, that Happy Hogan thing was just a red herring. Now we find out that Pepper's speech actually convinced Happy to take the suit off, but unbeknownst to everyone, Eddie March (another friend of Stark's) was running around with an Iron Man suit when he also heard about the fight with Spectrum and decided to jump in himself. So, apparently just about everyone in America had an Iron Man suit back in 1973. Personally, this whole switcheroo with Iron Man turning out to be Happy turning out to be some random dude seems pretty cheap to me. In a thought balloon we see that Iron Man had fled to repair his armor during the fight with Spectrum and he called Jarvis and had him send Thor over to help. Which is weird, since he didn't, in fact, allow Thor to help any once they were both there. The issue ends with Blake telling Iron Man that March might live but they need to get him to the hospital right away; we then see a closeup of the smashed power prism and some crap about Spectrum maybe reappearing at some future date. THE END!! Now, my question is, if this skrull guy was trapped in the prism, what happened to him when the prism was smashed? That aside, this issue was kind of lame, just like almost all of the first hundred issues of Iron Man. Thor did basically nothing; his "fight" with the fake Iron Man was particularly lopsided. The letter column has some nice letters about how earlier issues of Iron Man were also lame. ONe of them asks how Whiplash appeared in #62 when his last appearance, in ToS #99, showed him trapped in a sinking ship with no way out. They came up with this inspired explanation: "And as for how Whiplash escaped -- well, it's simple really. y'see, he just... uh, that is... and after that, he removed... not to mention... and besides which, he also... "Oh, skip it!" Yeah. Let's just skip it. Can't beat that logic. Two of the three letters also complain about the cover of #62 because the scene on it doesn't actually take place in the issue. I guess some things never change. For what it's worth, here's the cover in question: According to one complaint, "Pepper was nowhere threatened with harm in the tale itself", which does, in fact, make this a fairly misleading cover. If this cover didn't have the word balloons specifically saying she was going to die, I would have an easier time regarding this as a symbolic cover. Another instance of cover text gone haywire. My grade: C for being about as average a comic as possible; F- for promising a cool Thor/Iron Man story and delivering something that did not feature Thor, Iron Man or, in fact, anything cool other than Dr. Spectrum's name and costume.
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Post by scottharris on Mar 13, 2009 3:43:47 GMT -5
Run for cover! Here come the RIVER RATS! Two-Gun Kid #79 When I go on trips out of state I like to hit the local comics stores to see what I find. On my latest trip, the store I went to happened to be going out of business and everything was at a severe discount. I ended up getting six 12 cent Marvels for a dollar each, as well as MTiO #9 with Thor and FF #139. Among those early gems was this issue of Two-Gun Kid, cover date January, 1966. It's got the little 12 cent font instead of the later, larger font they used when they moved the number up into the corner box. This book was written by Stan's brother Larry Lieber with art by Dick Ayers and Carl Hubbell. And... here we go. Hey, a symbolic splash page. That's always nice. This has Two-Gun in a boxing ring with Joe Goliath, which I think is Hank Pym's new costumed identity. Two-Gun seems to imply that Joe has been cheating to win his bouts. Oh noes!!! Ah, here's some top shelf writing from Larry Lieber right on the second page. Matt enters the town of "Goosebend" -- it's in quotations in the book -- to meet his friend Waco Smith. Waco greets Matt with this line of dialog: Waco: Old as I am, I can still handle the sassy likes of whippersnappers like you! Sassy? Well, anyway, Matt is pretty much doing the ol' super hero secret identity thing, only in the old west. In case you didn't know the entire point of the Marvel-era Two-Gun Kid. So when a bunch of river pirates show up and harass the town, he slips into his Two-Gun costume and defeats them all without anyone actually getting shot, which is kind of amazing considering everyone has guns and is shooting them. He then rushes back to get into his civvies before Waco finds him out; then they have a heart to heart where we learn that Matt cannot marry the love of hislife because he is too committed to his crime-fighting secret identity. Oh, dude. Really, just get married. After all, if it goes bad, Mephisto will just retcon it. Anyways, a wagon randomly falls on a guy and the village blacksmith picks it up and saves him. The pirates, in jail, see it and come up with a brilliant plan. After they are released, they talk the blacksmith into becoming a boxer and then, while he is fighting dudes, they'll rob the crowd. Or something like that. You listening, Hood? Here's another great plan for you to try. So. The new pirate gang goes around, and the plan actually works, because the townfolk are so distracted they don't mind their homes and stuff. Feeling pretty buff, the gang heads to Tombstone, where Matt and his sidekick, Boom-Boom (not the 80's chick who blows up Beyonders, some other guy) live. They decide to challenge Two-Gun to a fight, but Boom-Boom steps in instead. Boom-Boom, you see, is an ex-pro boxer, so he and Goliath go a couple rounds. Boom-Boom is sure he's going to win, but then the gang dopes his water between rounds and he passes out. Well, this is too much for Two-Gun to take, so he jumps in and starts wailing on Goliath, to no effect whatsoever. Then he comes up with a brilliant plan: the patented Captain Kirk two-handed punch. Sure enough, it knocks Goliath out. Don't feel bad, Goliath, that even works on aliens, so you didn't stand a chance. Matt them takes off in pursuit of the gang, which has robbed the bank during the fight. What follows is an amazing display of gunmanship -- he shoots one guy's saddle right off his horse, then shoots the pistol out of another bloke's hand. Finally he uses his lasso to corral the rest of the bums and drags them back into town. Back in town, Goliath decides he should just go back to being a blacksmith, and Two-Gun has won the day yet again. Hurray! THE END!!! Next up is a reprint, from Two-Gun Kid #62, which is just... 17 issues ago. Okay, seems a little weird, but whatever. Story by Stan Lee, art by Al Hartley. Title: Johnny the Poet. This is about an outlaw who rhymes as he robs people. It's just as annoying as you might expect. The sheriff come sup with an amazing plan -- he sets a trap that consists of him training a pair of horses to kamikaze the guy while pulling a wagon. The poet is so surprised that the sherriff gets the drop on him. THE END!!! Final verdict: Well, this issue was kind of boring compared to the super-hero stuff of the day. Not sure if it was Stan that was missing or what. The letters were all very short and looked to be coming from a younger fan base, so maybe they were keeping things a little more vanilla for that crowd. It was interesting to see the classic super-hero formula done in a western setting, but otherwise, nothing too exciting. A solid C.
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Post by sharkar on Mar 15, 2009 19:11:02 GMT -5
Two-Gun Kid #79 This book was written by Stan's brother Larry Lieber with art by Dick Ayers and Carl Hubbell. And... here we go... ...This has Two-Gun in a boxing ring with Joe Goliath, which I think is Hank Pym's new costumed identity. Excellent review as always, Scott. Do you have this issue of Two-Gun Kid, #77? Check out the cover: So...there was a Panther before T'Challa (who debuted about 6 months later in FF #52), and as we saw in Scott's piece on TGK #79, a Goliath prior to Giant-Man Hank Pym taking the name months later in Avengers #28. Forget Stan and Jack and Ditko--apparently the real architect behind the Marvel Age was -- Larry Lieber!
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Post by Dr. Hank Pym on Mar 22, 2009 20:30:15 GMT -5
Poor Larry is the butt of quite a few jokes, isn't he? Excellent review as always, Scott. I actually have that issue where he battles Goliath... from a 1974 reprint! Hard to believe they were reprinting stories from only a decade before or so.
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Post by sharkar on Mar 24, 2009 19:17:57 GMT -5
Poor Larry is the butt of quite a few jokes, isn't he? Well, Martin Goodman thought enough of Larry to put him in charge (co-charge, anyway) of Goodman's 1970s answer to Marvel, the infamous Atlas-Seaboard... But considering that A-S was something of a debacle (though positive things did emerge from it), maybe it's better left unmentioned! And yes, I am just being facetious again. Seriously, I have a lot of admiration for Larry. In addition to his penciling, there was a time when LL was Stan's chief scripter (bedides Stan himself), which meant LL provided captions, dialogue and story/character details. Lee, Kirby and Ditko get all the ink but Marvel never would have developed the way it did without Larry, Don Heck, Dick Ayers, Chic Stone and other unsung talent during the formative years (roughly 1961-1965), before the arrivals of Romita, Thomas, Buscema, Colan, et al. Excellent review as always, Scott. I actually have that issue where he battles Goliath... from a 1974 reprint! Hard to believe they were reprinting stories from only a decade before or so. A decade? That's nothing. In the fall of 1967 I was reading the latest issue of Fantastic Four, #69 and Marvel Collectors' Items Classics #12, which reprinted FF #17 from 1963...plus it included reprints of Hulk (1963), Dr. Strange and Iron Man (both 1964). Similarly, Marvel Tales was reprinting Spider-Man stories from 1964. Stan and Marvel really wanted to familiarize readers with the new Marvel Universe--and it worked, at least for this reader: MCIC quickly became one of my indispensable "history books."
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Post by scottharris on Jul 22, 2009 4:58:22 GMT -5
Make Way for the FAT FURY! Herbie the Fat Fury #5 I'm not sure this needs any introduction, as the title kind of speaks for itself. I've been reading a lot of comic blogs recently and for whatever reason, people have been talking about how good Herbie the Fat Fury was for the time period. Back issues at my store run around $10 each, not bad when you consider how unlikely it is that they would even have any back issues, but I didn't feel like dropping that kind of dough on a random comic I've never read. However, lucky for all of us, they had one copy of #5 that was missing part of the cover, so it only cost me 60 cents. So, everyone, I suggest you get your splints now, cause here we go. Cover date is Oct-Nov 1964 and the first story is called Sahib Herbie! with credits of Shane O'Shea as writer and Ogden Whitney as artist. This first one's a doozy. Our lead is a fat grade school kid named Herbie Popnecker. One day, his teacher gives him an assignment to write an essay about "MY BIGGEST ADVENTURE". However, he decides he'd rather spend his time sitting around doing nothing. This doesn't last long though, because his signal watch goes off. The message is from a man named U Thant, the Secretary General of the United Nations. Herbie decides to get there quickly by lassoing a passing eagle and letting it drag him to New York. Once there, he hops a subway train (where's there's a strange couple panels showing... I'm not sure what. Some exchange where a lady punches a guy because he's being "Fresh!" and then we see Herbie shrugging. I guess he just copped a feel or something?). Finally he arrives at the U. N. As he's going up to meet the secretary, a couple guys shove him out a window, trying to eliminate him, but he just walks on air right around and back in through another window like nothing's happened. All the time he's just sucking on a lollipop, completely bored and uninterested in anything that's happening -- eagles, signal watches, murder attempts -- he just doesn't really give a crap about anything. U Thant quickly explains the situation. The Asian nation of Hanki-Panki is being threatened by a mercenary named Lastoza, who is wooing the princess Moitle in an attempt to secure Hanki-Panki for Red China. Herbie checks his schedule and decides he can help, so he straps himself to a rocket at Cape Kennedy and flies over to China, then freefalls right into the awning above where Chairman Mao is giving a speech. Herbie quickly breaks up the speech by dumping some worms into Mao's mouth. Next up, Herbie decides he needs to blend in, so he fashions himself a "chinaman" outfit, which consists of a caricature hat, robe and wooden sandals. This part is actually somewhat funny rather than offensive, because as Herbie is "sneaking" in with this costume, he's surrounded by Chinese people -- all of whom are dressed in suits, t-shits, jeans and otherwise totally normal, modern clothes, and they're all staring at Herbie like he's a total freak. He quickly swaps the hat for a lampshade and pretends to be a lamp. This allows him to sit in on a meeting and... You know, this plot is kind of pointless to explain. It's just going from setup to setup for one bad joke after another. The part that is somewhat entertaining is that Herbie is completely unaffected by anything that happens, whether it's snake charming or whatever; he just calmly proceeds along. Plus, even though he's interested only in sucking on his lollipop, everyone treats him as though he's Superman for no apparent reason (well, there are some reasons, as he does seem pretty close to omniscient). Anyway, Herbie ends up saving the world, having the princess swoon over him and defeating communism in the course of about 5 pages. But he doesn't have any essay ready at the end of the story because "I'm too fat to have any adventures". Even though a lot of the actual gags in the story were really lame, it somehow ended up being kind of subversive in a way, as it sort of subtly undercut stereotypes both in the "Chinaman" scene and with his little speech at the end, because the reader knows that even though he's super fat, he just had the biggest adventure in the whole world. THE END!!! Next up is a short feature that doesn't star Herbie, called "No-Date Nellie" Basically, this homely girl named Nellie has no date for the dance so she goes over to her neighbor's house and asks if he would want to go out with a "certain girl" if she paid for everything. He agrees and adds that he needs a new outfit. So she bankrupts herself buying him a tux and tickets to the ball, but when he comes to meet her he already has a hot date on his arm. Turns out he had a different "certain girl" in mind, and since she didn't specify, he decided to go to the dance on her dime. Basically, he's a grade a jerk who should be punched in the junk. THE END!!! Oh, good lord. The backup story is a Beatlemania story. Now, why on Earth would they do a Beatles story during Beatlemania and not feature it on the cover? What's the point? So, we begin with Herbie's dad lamenting the fact that Herbie doesn't like to do anything except sit around doing nothing. So he grabs Herbie and drags him down to the movie theater to watch a new Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin movie. I'm not sure that really qualifies as activity per se, and if it's the original Ocean's Eleven then it's a form of psychological child abuse, but whatever. We see more of Herbie's total disinterest in everything, as the rest of the crowd roars with laughter and he just stairs with droopy eyelids and a blank expression. He's so over, you know, everything in life. Suddenly, something happens that almost peaks his interest -- the guy next to him suddenly starts emitting a shrieking noise from his ears. He then floats through the air and flies out the door. Turns out this is happening all over town, but only to people eating popcorn while they watch the movies. Whatever the reason, it's crushing the film industry, so Herbie jumps on the case. He notices that one guy seems actually happy when this happens, so he tails the dude to a New York theatre where "The Beetles" are playing live. Trying to blend in, he quickly bags Ringo Starr and takes his place on stage, with a mop on his head as a costume. Yeah, clever joke that. Anyway, he knocks over the drum kit, showing that there is apparently one thing he can't do, and everyone stares at him. So, he quickly ad-libs a really stupid song about his lollipop and the girls in the crowd go crazy, rushing the stage to get a piece of him. Sensing the next big thing, an agent swoops in and the next thing you know, Herbie is on a jet to Hollywood. His stage name? Eibreh Rekcenpop. Apparently his agent is Zatanna. HOwever, waiting for him at the airport is another group of insane groupies, so he gives them a slip by flying straight up into the air. Right into the claws of a giant bird! NOOOOOOoooo actually, this fight takes one panel. Since the women had torn all his clothes off except his underwear and undershit, he clocks the bird and wears the bird's... uh, entire headless body... around as an outfit. With his new bird's eye view, he sees the suspect in the popcorn case, who even now is tainting bags of popcorn with his ear squeal potion. Herbie swoops in and follows the man into a building, where the guy is meeting with... Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Of course, they've heard all about new singing sensation Eibreh Rekcenpop, so they decide to drop the hammer. Sinatra breaks a giant vase over his head and then Martin clobbers him with a painting, but to no effect. On the contrary, it's Herbie who gains the upper hand by hypnotizing them both with his lollipop. He then demands the truth. Turns out the suspect was jealous of the Rat Pack so he was sabotaging their films with bad popcorn. Before he can learn more, a horde of groupies descends on... Herbie, of course, ignoring Sinatra and Martin. Thinking quick, Herbie saves them all by flying up in the air again, leading to this comment from the still-hypnotized Sinatra: "You know, Dino -- I'm asleep and dreaming the most awful dream! Some fat little jerk has us up in the air" Herbie finally decides that enough is enough, so he flies down to where the suspect is conveniently standing, dumps a bunch of popcorn potion on him and the bad guy's ear shrieks float him right into a nearby prison. Turning to leave, Herbie's mop wig gets caught on a nail and comes off, rendering him totally uninteresting to all the groupies, who now run in and go right for the Rat Pack. Turns out it was the Beatles haircut all along and nothing else. THE END!!! Okay, that's it. Well, I thought this was entertaining enough if somewhat... weird. The "plots" were little more than gags strung together, none of which were particularly funny. The character himself, though, was pretty funny in a way. I think he might have worked better for me if this character was put into more coherent plots, but on the other hand, one of the big draws was the way there were constant culture references like Mao, the Beatles and Sinatra, and that might have ot be lost if the story made sense; plus, I'm guessing that stuff was also of interest to readers at the time, but for totally different reasons. Overall, I can't say it lived up to my expectations, but it was definately different and I can see a spark of subversiveness that maybe grew into something more in later issues, as the series did last for 23 issues. My score: B
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