Six Million Dollar Man

[The Wayner]

The other day, I was geeking out with some buddies concerning Steve Austin. I mean, let's face it. Who wasn't alive in the 70s and didn't mimic the sound effect/running motion, peek through the back of the Steve Austin action figure's head, quote Oscar's opening narration, or shout: "That Bigfoot episode kicked azz!"

All of which, naturally, led me to hunting down the short run of the Charlton comic.

I don't believe I've ever read these books, but my interest is pretty piqued. According to the UPS tracking system, they should be in my hands, today (*knock on wood*). But, until they are, or they finally release "The Bionic Boy" pilot on dvd (HA!), I'm interested in thoughts on this tv/comic series.

Now, where did I put Maskatron?

[roach04]

I bet if you conducted a poll, that sound-effect would be in the "Top 5 All-Time TV Sounds". Of course, when you were pretending to be Col. Austin, you had to make the sound AND run in slow-mo. And the intro...I work in IT and I still use that "We can rebuild this system...make it bigger...stronger..."

I've never read the comics though - anybody did? Were they as cool as the show?

[dr_cyclops]

Wasn't there a "Charlton" Comic series and B&W magazines? Let me check the overpriced street guide. Yup, Bobby Overpriced says two series' color comic (9 issues) and B&W magazine (7 issues). I don't remember anything about these books, although I'm sure I've read issues of both back-in-the-day.
When you get them, make sure they are not signed by "Arthur", it could seriously decrease their value. ;)

[MWGallaher]

I've got an issue of Charlton's comic version of the spin-off, The Bionic Woman, that I most certainly didn't buy off the stands. It looked like they assigned the job to the hackiest of their romance comics artists, and would have seemed painfully subpar when it was released originally.

[Rob Allen]

The b&w magazine was done by Continuity Studios (Neal Adams, Dick Giordano & company) until the last issue, IIRC. They also did most of the art for Charlton's Emergency! b&w magazine. Charlton had a third TV-adaptation magazine at the same time, Space:1999, but that was done by Gray Morrow.

All in all, Charlton's b&w magazines are full of surprisingly high-quality art.

[Greg Hatcher]

The b&w magazine was done by Continuity Studios (Neal Adams, Dick Giordano & company) until the last issue, IIRC.

I have the first two and the art is indeed gorgeous. #1, I found used a few months ago for cheap and snapped it up; I bought #2 off the stands when I was a kid. Your mileage may vary, and of course you have to like the show itself, but I really enjoyed the B/W magazines -- surprisingly so, to be honest, because even then I knew Charlton was the 'sucky' comics company.

I'm still a big Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman geek, to be painfully honest about it. That show really was a big goddam deal for me when I was young and, like I always did when something caught my interest, I went looking for the books... in this case, it was the original Cyborg series of novels by Martin Caidin, and the licensed tie-in books by Michael Jahn, and the Charlton comics.... all of which I still own and reread embarrassingly often. Probably my favorite thing we have gotten off eBay is the bootleg DVD sets of the first and second seasons of the Six Million Dollar Man, and a special set of all the "fembots" crossover episodes of Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman (with John Houseman.)

The color comics were pretty bad and even I really have no interest in those... but I'd love to get the rest of the Continuity books. Those really do hold up, they are among the best licensed books I've ever seen.

[DLFerguson]

Is there any truth to the rumors I've heard that there's a remake in the works called "The Six Billion Dollar Man"?

[dr_cyclops]

The b&w magazine was done by Continuity Studios (Neal Adams, Dick Giordano & company) until the last issue, IIRC. They also did most of the art for Charlton's Emergency! b&w magazine. Charlton had a third TV-adaptation magazine at the same time, Space:1999, but that was done by Gray Morrow.

All in all, Charlton's b&w magazines are full of surprisingly high-quality art.
Rob, Are you telling me "Bobby Overpriced" lied? Thanks for pointing that out. I don't even need to look in the guide, I know you are right. I remember the name "Continuity Studios". For some reason I can't remember, I always thought this was Charlton's magazine line. Is that weird? 'Cause I like being weird. :D

[Greg Hatcher]

I don't even need to look in the guide, I know you are right. I remember the name "Continuity Studios". For some reason I can't remember, I always thought this was Charlton's magazine line. Is that weird? 'Cause I like being weird. :D

Not so weird. Charlton essentially jobbed it out to Continuity, I think. It was definitely a Continuity production, but published under Charlton's imprint.

[Red Oak Kid]

The b&w magazine was done by Continuity Studios (Neal Adams, Dick Giordano & company) until the last issue, IIRC. They also did most of the art for Charlton's Emergency! b&w magazine. Charlton had a third TV-adaptation magazine at the same time, Space:1999, but that was done by Gray Morrow.


My memory is that while all three magazines you mention began with art by Continuity and Morrow, their art abruptly ended around the 3rd or 4th issue and subsequent issues had all Jack Sparling art.

I think the Space 1999 mag had the longest run.

I looked up the Bionic Woman color comic and the last two issues had Sparling art.

Man, that guy could draw real...........fast.

[The Wayner]

Is there any truth to the rumors I've heard that there's a remake in the works called "The Six Billion Dollar Man"?

I haven't heard that one, but suppose it could be true. The last thing I heard on a remake was doing it as a comedy with Jim Carrey. *shivers*

[The Wayner]

Probably my favorite thing we have gotten off eBay is the bootleg DVD sets of the first and second seasons of the Six Million Dollar Man

Aw man, I'd love to have those! And though I'm not much for the Bionic Woman, those fembot episodes would rawk!

Wonder if they're ever going to release an official set for the show? First, it was 2004... then 2005.. and yep, now 2006. Will we see it? Ain't holdin' my breath.

[Greg Hatcher]

Aw man, I'd love to have those! And though I'm not much for the Bionic Woman, those fembot episodes would rawk!

Wonder if they're ever going to release an official set for the show? First, it was 2004... then 2005.. and yep, now 2006. Will we see it? Ain't holdin' my breath.

If you have a region-free DVD player there are some very nice British collections available through Amazon UK.

We don't have one, so we went the back-alley route. I feel guilty about it but they ARE nice sets, the fellow did a really good job on them. Animated menus, chapters, everything.

Just to sort of get it back on topic I should mention I pulled out the books and looked at them again. It's an interesting game of guess-the-artist for the comics aficionado since the whole thing is credited simply to "Continuity." I can spot Dick Giordano and Terry Austin, and of course Adams did the covers for the two I have, but beyond that my eye's just not good enough to pick out who did what. According to the GCD here is the list of folks working at Continuity at the time:

Neal Adams, Steve Austin, Terry Austin, Joe Barney, Joe Brozowski, Rick Bryant, Karin Daugherty, Dick Giordano, Klaus Janson, Bruce Patterson, Carl Potts, Mark Rice, Josef Rubinstein.

You gotta love that two of the guys working on the book were named Austin. One named Steve.

[howyadoin]

I'm still a big Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman geek, to be painfully honest about it. That show really was a big goddam deal for me when I was young and, like I always did when something caught my interest, I went looking for the books... in this case, it was the original Cyborg series of novels by Martin Caidin, and the licensed tie-in books by Michael Jahn, and the Charlton comics.... all of which I still own and reread embarrassingly often. Probably my favorite thing we have gotten off eBay is the bootleg DVD sets of the first and second seasons of the Six Million Dollar Man, and a special set of all the "fembots" crossover episodes of Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman (with John Houseman.) Do you have a recording of the song Steve sang when Jamie "died" (assuming such a thing even exists, of course)?

And I never knew there was more than one Cyborg novel. More stuff for the to-buy list, I guess...

[The Wayner]

Do you have a recording of the song Steve sang when Jamie "died" (assuming such a thing even exists, of course)?

I don't know if Greg owns a copy, but I do. It was available on a soundtrack album released while the show was on the air. Can't get enough of that Lee Majors croonin', I tells ya!

[Greg Hatcher]

Do you have a recording of the song Steve sang when Jamie "died" (assuming such a thing even exists, of course)?

And I never knew there was more than one Cyborg novel. More stuff for the to-buy list, I guess...

Well, I have the VHS cassette of the Bionic Woman two-parter, and it's on there.

There were four Cyborg novels in all by Martin Caidin: Cyborg, Operation: Nuke, High Crystal, and Cyborg IV. The first three predate the show, and came out as hardcovers... extremely rare as you can see here (http://betweenthecovers.com/display.php?id=40367&back=%2Fbsearch.php%3Fac%3D2%26kw%3Dsf%26ob%3D3%26 rpp%3D30%26pg%3D1) but you can see them in libraries. Then they were re-issued in paperback (http://www.pandora.ca/pictures13/812789.jpg) to tie in with the show, and those are a little easier to track down. The last one was, I believe, only released in paperback as part of the series of novelizations coming out from Warner Books and is damnably hard to find; you can see it on this gallery page (http://www.tonystrading.co.uk/galleries/tvscifibooks/sixmilliondollarman.htm) of all the books. The Warner U.S. releases are the ones I have, and you'll see that High Crystal was released in paperback as part of that series too; after Operation Nuke came out the show was a hit and the Universal novelization machine kicked into gear, and Caidin's other Cyborg books got folded into that series. The others are just adaptations of episodes, though the ones by Mike Jahn are great fun and have been expanded, and sometimes re-plotted, to the point where they read like originals, and Steve speaks and acts much more like he did in Caidin's portrayal.

[howyadoin]

There were four Cyborg novels in all by Martin Caidin: Cyborg, Operation: Nuke, High Crystal, and Cyborg IV. The first three predate the show, and came out as hardcovers... extremely rare as you can see here (http://betweenthecovers.com/display.php?id=40367&back=%2Fbsearch.php%3Fac%3D2%26kw%3Dsf%26ob%3D3%26 rpp%3D30%26pg%3D1) but you can see them in libraries. Then they were re-issued in paperback (http://www.pandora.ca/pictures13/812789.jpg) to tie in with the show, and those are a little easier to track down. The last one was, I believe, only released in paperback as part of the series of novelizations coming out from Warner Books and is damnably hard to find; you can see it on this gallery page (http://www.tonystrading.co.uk/galleries/tvscifibooks/sixmilliondollarman.htm) of all the books.I love the way they always show the skin ripped off his arm on the Cyborg covers.

And the first couple pre-dated Deathlok, didn't they?

[Gordon Smith]

And the first couple pre-dated Deathlok, didn't they?

I think so. Cyborg first came out in 1972. I read and reread that book as a teenager. I still own three copies of the thing, plus at least one copy of the sequels. A fasinating book in many respects. Ithink it holds up very well despite the passage of time.

[scratchie]

And the first couple pre-dated Deathlok, didn't they?The Six Million Dollar Man premiered in January of 1974. The pilot was actually broadcast in March of 1973:

http://epguides.com/SixMillionDollarMan/

Deathlok premiered in the August, 1974 issue of Astonishing Tales: http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=27633

So it's a pretty safe bet that Deathlok was inspired by the TV show which (obviously) came after the first Cyborg book.

[howyadoin]

So it's a pretty safe bet that Deathlok was inspired by the TV show which (obviously) came after the first Cyborg book.I dunno, I was thinking the comic was more likely inspired by the first Cyborg novel, given that they're both a lot more grim than the TV series.

Just speculation on my part, obviously.

[scratchie]

I dunno, I was thinking the comic was more likely inspired by the first Cyborg novel, given that they're both a lot more grim than the TV series.

Just speculation on my part, obviously.Well, we'll probably never know for sure unless someone asks Rich Buckler, but my impression is that very few people would ever have heard of a cyborg -- let alone the novel Cyborg -- if it weren't for the TV show. I don't believe the novel was particularly well-known before the TV show came out.

Obviously Buckler added his own elements (the grim post-nuclear-war landscape, etc) but given the timing, the TV show seems like the most likely inspiration.

[dan bailey]

Well, we'll probably never know for sure unless someone asks Rich Buckler, but my impression is that very few people would ever have heard of a cyborg -- let alone the novel Cyborg -- if it weren't for the TV show. I don't believe the novel was particularly well-known before the TV show came out.


oh, i dunno ... he wasn't exactly a brand name like stephen king a couple of decades later, but i believe martin caidin was a fairly prominent name on the paperback racks, thanks mainly to the 1969 movie marooned, based on his 1964 novel of the same name.

[Greg Hatcher]

I'm inclined to agree with Dan. Remember, we're talking the era of fans-turned-pro, back in the early-to-mid 70's, and especially at Marvel it seemed like the guys were on fire to somehow incorporate their other mass-media fan obsessions into the comics. Chances are the mid-70's Marvel Bullpen was at least as conversant with the odd little back alleys of pop culture back then, as we are here today. I'm seeing this a LOT in the back issues of Marvel's black-and-white line, especailly in the articles and reviews. I'd bet on the novel more than the show as an influence, partly because it's something that would catch the attention of guys like Doug Moench or Dave Kraft or whoever it was that was dialoguing the book; but mostly because of the word "cyborg" itself. That only ever really got used once, in passing, in the Six Million Dollar Man pilot, and I doubt anyone would use that as a jumping-off point for Deathlok. For almost the entire run of the show, Steve was referred to as "bionic," or a "bionic man." (Which is completely mis-using the word, as Caidin himself was at pains to define it properly in his book. The fact that Steve's mechanical parts looked like and served the same function as his human equivalents is what makes them 'bionic.' The enhanced abilities are the result of cybernetic improvements. Hence, he is a cybernetic organism with bionic limbs.)

All this is by way of saying that my educated guess is that Buckler probably wanted to call Deathlok a half-man-half-robot, or something like that, and the word "cyborg" was brought to the party by whoever was scripting it -- I think Doug Moench -- who very likely knew the word from Caidin or some other SF reading. That's my wild guess... I actually have no idea.

On a very tangentially-related note, Martin Caidin took another run at the idea with his novel Manfac, (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671654098/002-5782591-2888814?v=glance&n=283155) which also incorporates a sort of Iron Man/Tony Stark riff.

[howyadoin]

Thinking back, I'm pretty sure I read the book before encountering the $6,000,000 Man or Deathlok. That's probably what planted the idea in my head, years ago.



P.S. Greg, have you ever thought about writing a book on all this pulp trivia you've got locked up in your head?

[Greg Hatcher]

P.S. Greg, have you ever thought about writing a book on all this pulp trivia you've got locked up in your head?

Well, first of all, on this board I'm hardly the only one. But really I don't think there's any sort of book there. Lots of column fodder though, and since Cronin lassoed me into contributing to his weblog (http://goodcomics.blogspot.com) (he phrased it much more politely than this, but the gist was that he felt they were running light on geezer expertise) I try to do something or other on there every Friday.

And since you bring it up I think maybe this week I'm going to look at licensed properties, the stuff that you can't collect in an Essential or a Showcase because of rights issues. There were a lot of cool ones. Hell, just Continuity had a whole thing going with Power Records for a while. And there were lots of other good ones.

[howyadoin]

Well, first of all, on this board I'm hardly the only one. But really I don't think there's any sort of book there. Lots of column fodder though, and since Cronin lassoed me into contributing to his weblog (http://goodcomics.blogspot.com) (he phrased it much more politely than this, but the gist was that he felt they were running light on geezer expertise) I try to do something or other on there every Friday.You've probably got a point there. I've been talking about writing a book on booze for years, and after a couple months of blogging, I found I'd used up most of the material I had.

And since you bring it up I think maybe this week I'm going to look at licensed properties, the stuff that you can't collect in an Essential or a Showcase because of rights issues. There were a lot of cool ones. Hell, just Continuity had a whole thing going with Power Records for a while. And there were lots of other good ones.Have you talked about the Shang-Chi stuff with Fu Manchu?

[Gordon Smith]

oh, i dunno ... he wasn't exactly a brand name like stephen king a couple of decades later, but i believe martin caidin was a fairly prominent name on the paperback racks, thanks mainly to the 1969 movie marooned, based on his 1964 novel of the same name.

Well, even before Marooned came out, Caidin was known for his work reporting on NASA and for his books on aviation and military history.

[dan bailey]

Well, even before Marooned came out, Caidin was known for his work reporting on NASA and for his books on aviation and military history.

very much so -- i simply don't have a feel for how well known he was in the early '70s for anything beyond marooned & cyborg, which as a young sf fan were what i knew him by.

[Greg Hatcher]

Have you talked about the Shang-Chi stuff with Fu Manchu?

Right here. (http://goodcomics.blogspot.com/2006/02/friday-in-wold-newton-meteor-crater.html)

[howyadoin]

Right here. (http://goodcomics.blogspot.com/2006/02/friday-in-wold-newton-meteor-crater.html)Thanks. Duly commented upon.

[scratchie]

oh, i dunno ... he wasn't exactly a brand name like stephen king a couple of decades later, but i believe martin caidin was a fairly prominent name on the paperback racks, thanks mainly to the 1969 movie marooned, based on his 1964 novel of the same name.Well, it could be, but I note that the novel doesn't even appear to be in print today, so it doesn't seem like it was ever a barn-burner like Jaws or The Andromeda Strain. I certainly have no recollection of it until after the TV show came out but I was pretty young at the time.

Does anybody know if, for example, New York Times best-seller lists from the 70s are archived on the net anywhere? I do think it's stretching it to call Caiden well known based on his aviation and military books, as someone suggested (as an aside, did he write a subsequent novel about underwater exploration, or am I thinking of someone else?).

Again, though, absent a recollection from Someone Who Was There, we're just chasing our tails here. In terms of the actual terms used ("cyborg" vs. "bionic") or whether the comic more closely resembles the novel than the TV show, it's entirely possible that Buckler may have (like many of us) seen the TV show first and then gone back and discovered the novel (for the record, the first issue is credited as "conceived by" Buckler and scripted by Moench).

Finally, I'd be willing to bet that the success of the TV show had a lot to do with the actual production of the comic (as opposed to its hypothetical sources of inspiration). The timing seems a little too convenient for it to be otherwise.

[B Smith]

I'm pretty certain a one-off villain in Captain America #120-something was The Cyborg..that would have been around 1970, so Stan Lee must have picked it up from somewhere before then.

There was also a Bionic Woman strip in one of the British weekly anthology comics back in the 70s at the time of the TV show - it was one of John Bolton's first comic strip gigs. I recall reading an interview where he complained that the studio always provided reference photographs that were basically publicity shots, which frustrated him no end as they always showed Lindsey Wagner smiling and cheerful, when he needed shots of her looking puzzled, angry, worried, frightened etc....

[Mike Kuypers]

The word cyborg was in use at least as far back as 1966: Cyborg 2087 (http://imdb.com/title/tt0060272/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9Y3lib3 JnfGZ0PTF8bXg9MjB8bG09NTAwfGNvPTF8aHRtbD0xfG5tPTE_ ;fc=11;ft=24;fm=1)

[Sir Tim Drake]

Shotaro Ishinomori's manga Cyborg 009 (http://www.tokyopop.com/dbpage.php?propertycode=CYB&categorycode=BMG) premiered in 1963. I think it has the same title in Japanese as in English, though I'm not positive.

[Mike Cross]

howyadoin, the song Lee sings is called Sweet Jaime, and i'm sure there is a version online somewhere..i'm think maxsommers' webpage still has the link to the file.

probably the most iconic comic image of Steve Austin was the Joe Staton one of him bending the steel girder..hopefully, i plan to get a commission from some artist of a scene similar..

[howyadoin]

howyadoin, the song Lee sings is called Sweet Jaime, and i'm sure there is a version online somewhere..i'm think maxsommers' webpage still has the link to the file.Hah! That's the one.

Might have to track it down and see if it's as bad as I remember...