Showing posts with label 1960s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1960s. Show all posts

Saturday, December 9, 2023

Space Hero Saturdays SANTA CLAUS FUNNIES "Christmas Eve Space Trip"

Is Kris Kringle a Space Hero?

Read this never-reprinted story from Dell's Four Color Comics: Santa Claus Funnies #1274 (1962), and judge for yourself!
Illustrated by Mel Crawford and scripted by an unknown writer, this "was it a dream or not?" tale was typical of the material in the annual Santa Claus Funnies anthology the editors at Dell inserted into the Four Color Comics schedule from 1944 to this final issue in 1962.

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Thursday, November 30, 2023

Holiday Reading Room YOUNG DOCTORS "Dr Tom Brent: Christmas Comes in August!"

You have no idea how few medical-themed Yuletide comic stories there are...

...until you try to find one...and end up with a tale that's the victim of terrible printing!
This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Young Doctors #6 (1963) unfortunately shows off the terrible printing Charlton Comics was famous for!
The publisher didn't utilize the printing companies literally every other comics publisher used.
Instead, to save money, they printed on old, second-hand printing presses.
But those presses had been constructed to handle cardboard and plastic packaging, not the much-thinner newsprint paper used for comics!
As a result, their comics had an amazing amount of smearing and off-register color, as you can see from the first page.
It's a shame, because the art by penciler Joe Sinnott and inker Vince Colletta deserves a better presentation!
BTW, Young Doctors was an anthology title featuring tales of all the MDs who had their own Charlton books at the time, including, of course, Dr Tom Brent, Young Intern!
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Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Reading Room UNLIKELY TALES "Time Machine"

When two Steves...a long-established pro and eager young up-and-comer...collaborate...
...you get this time-travel tale, set only 14 years from now, with a novel twist!
It's amazing what the comics creators of 1967 thought 70 years later would look like!
Considering that we Baby Boomers thought by 2000 we'd have bases on the Moon and flying cars, it's not unreasonable...
Written by up-and-comer Steve Skeates and illustrated by Spider-Man and Dr Strange co-creator Steve Ditko, this never-reprinted story from the Unlikely Tales anthology collection in Charlton Premiere #4 (1968) offers a surprise twist on the usual "time-traveler from the future may change history" concept.
Trivia:
Skeates wrote all the stories in this issue, a rarity for someone just starting out in the industry.
All the stories were both penciled and inked by their respective artists, also a rarity in a business where, in order to meet deadlines, creators usually either penciled or inked, but not both.
The artists in this issue included Ditko, as well as Pat Boyette, Jim Aparo, and Charlton mainstay Rocke Mastroserio.
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Monday, October 30, 2023

Macabre Monday Madness THE SPECTRE & THE FLASH "Phantom Flash, Cosmic Traitor" Part 3

We Have Already Seen...

Cover art penciled by Flash artist Carmine Infantino and inked by Spectre artist Murphy Anderson
...while visiting Earth-Two, The Flash is possessed by the ghost of World War I fighter pilot Luther Jarvis, who feels his comrades who survived the war allowed him to die due to their cowardice!
Using the Scarlet Speedster as a cats-paw to give him an davantage in a dogfight, the ghostly pilot pits the mind-controlled Flash Against The Spectre!

Next Week: Back to Our Usual Monday Madness!

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(which reprints all The Spectre's Silver and Bronze Age Appearances...in color, which the black-and-white Showcase volume doesn't do!)
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Monday, October 23, 2023

Macabre Monday Madness THE SPECTRE & THE FLASH "Phantom Flash, Cosmic Traitor" Part 2

When Last We Left Our Mismatched Protagonists...

...while visiting Earth-Two, The Flash is possessed by the ghost of World War I fighter pilot Luther Jarvis, who feels his comrades who survived the war allowed him to die due to their cowardice!
Using the Scarlet Speedster as a cats-paw to give him an advantage in a dogfight against one of his former comrades, the ghostly pilot doesn't realize his actions have attracted the attention of The Spectre...
To Be Concluded...Next Monday!
Writer Bob Haney never really got the hang of the whole Earth-One/Earth-Two concept.
While Luther Jarvis' plan involved trapping "The Flash"...he grabbed the wrong one!
When his henchmen captured Earth-One's Barry Allen instead of their own Flash, (Earth-Two's Jay Garrick) nobody even commented "Hey, is this the right guy?"
And in numerous other Brave & Bold tales mixing Earth-One (usually Batman) and Earth-Two characters (The Spectre, Wildcat) or characters like Plastic Man (who wasn't shown to be a resident of either Earth at that point), either the whole matter is ignored or badly-handled (as it was here)!
BTW, note the ad at the bottom of the page for Blackhawk, who was shown to be a Earth-One resident when the Justice League of America (including The Flash) appeared in his title as shown HERE!
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(which reprints all The Spectre's Silver and Bronze Age Appearances...in color, which the black-and-white Showcase volume doesn't do!)

Monday, October 16, 2023

Macabre Monday Madness THE SPECTRE & THE FLASH "Phantom Flash, Cosmic Traitor" Part 1

Before the book became a full-time "Batman &" team-up title...

...The Brave and the Bold featured some of the weirdest team-ups Silver Age DC ever saw!
Case in point...
Actually, you'll see it NEXT MONDAY!
Written by Bob Haney, penciled by Carmine Infantino, and inked by Chuck Cuderia, this tale in DC's The Brave and the Bold #72 (1967) served a a bridge between The Spectre's successful three-issue tryout run in Showcase, and the premiere of his own title a couple of months later!
Notes:
It's atypical for The Flash, who was a science-oriented character, to be involved in a supernatural-themed tale.
Also, why isn't he visiting his buddy, Jay Garrick (the Golden Age Flash), instead of The Spectre, who at this point in time, The Scarlet Speedster had only seen during the annual JLA/JSA "Crisis on..." summer team-up ("Crisis Between Earth-One and Earth-Two!"/"Bridge Between Earths!") and never even spoken with?
(They were in the middle of a pitched battle with the Anti-Matter Man!)

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Wrath of the Spectre
Omnibus

(which reprints all The Spectre's Silver and Bronze Age Appearances...in color, which the black-and-white Showcase volume doesn't do!)