Forty Years ago this Month

[prince hal]

Huh. I didn't even know there was a comic called The Super Adventures of prince hal.

Live & learn.

The full title was Perilous Tales Presents The Super Adventures of prince hal, as it was a revival of a Golden Age title. The famous (but tragically low print-run) third issue featured the last appearance of Brother Power, the Geek, -- you've heard of him, right? -- in a back-up story. He is seen on Page 5, panel 4 in Rory Regan's father's shop in a pile of torn clothing.

On another, less serious note, I also loved that Conan #10, a comic I can remeber reading as if it were yesterday.

[Scott Harris]

The issues form this month in my collection:

Avengers #92
Captain America #142
Our Fighting Forces #133
Sgt. Fury #92
Superman's Girl Friend Lois Land #113
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #141 (GENIUS!!!!!!11!11!)
Thor #192

[Slam_Bradley]

About four years to the month from when I started buying my own comics.

Have read and own in reprint

Amazing Spider-Man 101
Amazing Spider-Man Annual 8
Avengers 92
The Dr. Doom part of Astonishing Tales.
Captain America 142
Conan 10
DC 100 Page Super Spectangular.
Phantom Stranger 15

The Daffy Duck book looks familiar. It's very possible that my sister had gotten it and I read it.

[Rob Allen]

In The Days Of The Mob and Spirit World are the kinds of projects that Kirby left Marvel to do. He didn't want to draw Superman or the Flash etc.; he didn't really want to keep drawing 32-page color comics at all. He wanted new formats, new genres, new characters.

Unfortunately nobody at DC understood these books. They were given the most godawful covers imaginable - the people who were attracted by that kind of cover were probably confused by the contents, and anybody who would have loved the contents was turned off by the covers. Distributors and retailers didn't know what to make of them either. I don't remember seeing them on the stands although I had resumed buying comics a few months earlier. I'd love to find either or both at at affordable price.

[benday-dot]

I think I vaguely remember seeing one or both on the 'stands at the time. I acquired a decent copy (with middle-of-the-issue poster included, as is often note the case, I gather) of Spirit World for cheap off eBay a few years ago but have had no such luck with desultory searches for Mob. I believe a 3rd one was slated to come out called "Famous Divorces" or some such, & maybe even a 4th one with some sort of black-focused theme, but of course those never materialized.

Pity. I would've liked these loads better than what I saw then & see now as his post-'69 superhero silliness. The aborting of the B&W projects might have been the first instance of DC's crushing the King's spirit, as it were.

(Even though I obviously don't have any use for the Fourth World stuff, etc., I like to think I have no less respect for Kirby as a creative force, paradoxical as that no doubt seems. So what if he couldn't, IMHO, write for crap? Ted Williams probably couldn't have pitched for crap, either, but he was still one of the greatest baseball players ever. The difference, as I've alluded to in so many words before, is that Red Sox management almost certainly would never have been brainless enough to let the Splendid Splinter take a regular turn on the mound if he'd been misguided enough to decide he wanted to. Would that DC leadership had had the guts to tell the King he needed a strong editor.)

Ah, we'll never see eye to eye on this Dan. One man's genius is indeed a another man abject stupidity. I'll still be giving you a wave from my side of the line, regardless of whichever that is.

The other magazines in question are Soul Love (a black romance comic, no doubt the first of its kind) and True Divorce Cases (equally unlikely).

So, since we are on the subject of Kirby mags, for July 1971 I'll pick



I have and have read copies of both Spirit World and Days of the Mob. They are not perfect. The art is; however, near to the spectacular is some instances, especially on Mob. Kirby excels on the gangster genre no less than the cosmic or superhero.

I think you are right on that Kirby had a real vision for this B&W experiment. Infantino was a brilliant creative force in comics as well, but I really think he dropped the ball here. Cold feet I guess, or maybe just not the visionary that Kirby was during a lifetime in comics.

[LEADER DESSLOK]

Although the GCD is a great reference site, it doesn’t allow comic covers to be copied onto other sites. We can’t see your cover to PORKY PIG (and BUGS BUNNY) #45.
Use the following site for covers: www.comic-covers.com

Thanks for the "heads-up"--they don't seem to have any Porky Pig comics in their database yet, but thanks still, it will be helpful in the future!

[LEADER DESSLOK]

Ah, we'll never see eye to eye on this Dan. One man's genius is indeed a another man abject stupidity. I'll still be giving you a wave from my side of the line, regardless of whichever that is.

The other magazines in question are Soul Love (a black romance comic, no doubt the first of its kind) and True Divorce Cases (equally unlikely).

So, since we are on the subject of Kirby mags, for July 1971 I'll pick



I have and have read copies of both Spirit World and Days of the Mob. They are not perfect. The art is; however, near to the spectacular is some instances, especially on Mob. Kirby excels on the gangster genre no less than the cosmic or superhero.

I think you are right on that Kirby had a real vision for this B&W experiment. Infantino was a brilliant creative force in comics as well, but I really think he dropped the ball here. Cold feet I guess, or maybe just not the visionary that Kirby was during a lifetime in comics.

I've seen excerpts from IN THE DAYS OF THE MOB in various issues of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR and it looks great! Some of Jack's dialogue is strictly from out of a Cagney movie and I love it! Ooo, you lucky stiff!

TJKC also reprinted an entire story from TRUE DIVORCE CASES and that one looks intriguing too--it reminded me of the old SIMON & KIRBY romance comics...

[dan bailey]

Ah, we'll never see eye to eye on this Dan.

So you think The Kid could have excelled from the mound? Interesting. Obviously, we'll never know. Babe Ruth started out as a brilliant pitcher, though, & if memory serves Stan Musial began his diamond career as a hurler as well, so it's safe to say that it's not beyond the realm of possibility.

[zilch]

July, 1971...

Adventure 410
Astonishing Tales 8
Avengers 92?
Cap 142
FF 115
Hulk 144
Justice League 92
MGC 33
Our Fighting Forces 133 (my brother's contribution to our Christmas comic subscriptions, but still good stuff)
Mister Miracle 4?
Spirit World #1 (actually didn't buy this, but read it at a Central Hardware store which had a magazine rack for some reason)
Superman 242
Thor 192
Thor Annual 4?
World's Finest Comics 205
X-Men 72
... and my favorite comic of all time....
100 Page Super-Spectacular #6 (i'll relate a story that goes with that comic sometime)

[prince hal]

Ted pitched in a game in 1940... 2 innings, 1 run (earned) and 1 K.

Not Ruthian, but far beyond Cansecoan.

[edhopper]

To chime in on Kirby. Kirby could write just fine. Half the books he gave to Stan were completed pages of stories Stan had the most cursory input on. He was not a good scripter. Yes the dialog was clumsy and characterization weak. But a good storyteller and great creator. He did learn at Marvel that the "Written By" with another name meant he wouldn't get credit for the creation.
I think he was just tired of collaborations.
There is more to writing than just dialog balloons.

[T GUy]

About four years to the month from when I started buying my own comics.

Have read and own in reprint

Amazing Spider-Man 101
Amazing Spider-Man Annual 8
Avengers 92
The Dr. Doom part of Astonishing Tales.
Captain America 142
Conan 10
DC 100 Page Super Spectangular.
Phantom Stranger 15

Which ish of the 100-pager do you have? Or do you own both?

[MWGallaher]

July, 1971 was one month before I began my nearly four decades of buying comics off the stand on a regular basis (which I might just be commemorating with an upcoming project). So although I didn't buy any comic books that month, out of what was available on the stands, I did, a few months later, buy the legendary DC 100 Page Super-Spectacular #6 (I was very appreciative of those newsstands that were less than diligent about clearing their spinner racks when new shipments came in!).

In the collection I've accumlated later via back issues or luck, I have:
Astonishing Tales #8 (one of the first sets of back issues I bought was the run of Dr. Doom solo stories in this series).
Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #1
Ghosts #1 and Phantom Stranger #15 (part of my nearly comprehensive Jim Aparo collection)
In The Days of the Mob #1 and Spirit World #1 (found a great deal somewhere)
JLA #92 (which I found on the ground somewhere a year or so later)
Marvel Feature #1 (for my complete Defenders set)
Mister Miracle #4 and Jimmy Olsen #141 (for my complete 4th World set)
Lois Lane #113 (picked up cheap somewhere)
Wonder Woman #196 (If only I'd dreamed they were going to reprint the entire "Diana Prince" run, I would have waited)
World's Finest #205 (I love the team-up comics of the Bronze Age!)

I've got a couple of others in reprint form:
Love Stories Super-Spec #5
Teen Titans #35

My favorite of these is probably Phantom Stranger #15. I used to have a beautiful page of Aparo art from this one. Great Neal Adams cover, great "socially relevant" story, packed with reprint bonuses in that great 48 page "bigger and better" format!

[edhopper]

July, 1971 was one month before I began my nearly four decades of buying comics off the stand on a regular basis (which I might just be commemorating with an upcoming project). So although I didn't buy any comic books that month, out of what was available on the stands, I did, a few months later, buy the legendary DC 100 Page Super-Spectacular #6 (I was very appreciative of those newsstands that were less than diligent about clearing their spinner racks when new shipments came in!).

My favorite of these is probably Phantom Stranger #15. I used to have a beautiful page of Aparo art from this one. Great Neal Adams cover, great "socially relevant" story, packed with reprint bonuses in that great 48 page "bigger and better" format!

Wow me too. Was it the bigger 25 cent comics that brought you in? I was buying Conan since #1, but reading it left me wanting more of the medium. So I jumped in that month too. And then the pursuit of back issues.

[MWGallaher]

As hinted in my earlier post, I'm commemorating the fortieth anniversary of my entry into comics collecting with a new project: http://offthespinnerrack.blogspot.com
With this blog, I'm going to be looking back, in roughly consecutive order, at the comic books that I bought at the dawn of my comics fandom. These won't, for the most part, be reviews, but rather reflections, as I recreate the early steps as I made those decisions on how to spend my precious quarters. Today, I have an inaugural post, and there will be a couple of precursor discussions before I begin retelling that journey toward a collection of thousands of comics. You all, of course, are invited to join me and to comment.