What Classic Comic Have You Read Lately? Pt. 2

[dan bailey]

I guess that fits with the development of Marvel's characters as "brands", though. We don't see much character development in the Trix rabbit or the Kool-Aid pitcher either!

Sooooomebody's forgetting the short-lived Dark Trix Rabbit Returns & Kool-Aid Man Max series, I see.

[Judomaster]

I just finished reading Jigsaw #1

http://www.comics.org/issue/20344/cover/4/

Despite some rather sloppy editing (our hero, Gary Jason refers to himself as Gary Johnson at one point in the tale), the character is actually rather interesting.

This is an origin issue, and we begin things at the point where astronaut Jason is about to be altered so as to become the strong and stretchy Jigsaw. His space craft is accidentally scooped up by a group of peaceful alien scientists. Though injured, the aliens are able to repair the human with their technology. This operation changes Jason into a man of "a thousand pieces."

Jason is returned to earth, uses his new powers to capture dangerous circus beasts after a train derailment, but is shunned by his girl for his odd appearance and uncanny abilities.

Without time to wallow in self-pity, Jigsaw, as he now calls himself, is summoned to space by the benevolent aliens, who are hoping that he can aid them with their enemy, an enemy slowly making it's way into our solar system, bent on complete domination. Jigsaw helps and succeeds, becoming a hero of two peoples, though a hero alienated from the one he loves most.

There is also an amusing tale called Super Luck, featuring America's "Secret Comic Agent. This is a clever little tale of a nerdy comic book geek who is often summoned by comic book heroes for whom he seems to act as a good luck charm. The two-pager ends with a request from readers to write to the mag with their opinions on the character. Were this '66, I'd likely write in to ask for more.

The last story, a five pager is a creepy little tale by from by Reed Crandall about a sleezy salesman trying to con people into buying land on Venus by dressing up as a man from Venus. When real Venusians show up to to question the legality of the sale, the shocked salesman flees the scene, only to find that these Venusians are not the only inhabitants of that planet that are a part of his life. A minor classic!

[serpico71]

B4 I give my review on this comic, the greatest thing I read came in the letters column, where four unnamed Germans wrote in asking why Kanigher never wrote about the AMericans running from the Germans, signed "Four Germans who chased Americans" - Kanigher in his no bullshit responses, wrote if they remembered that America one the war, and would have answered their question had they been brave enough to give their real names and address...

Anyway...

http://www.comicvine.com/our-army-at-war-/37-5039/

I finally received this after years of looking. Interestingly, as an early Rock, his appearance has been solidified by Kubert, and as a continuous theme throughout the 40 years of this title, he plays Mother hen to the new recruit, Manny, who does not see himself worthy of a soldier.

Fearing that Easy is only as strong as their weakest link, Rock sticks with Manny through various sniper attacks and booby traps, failing to help Manny as his cowardice and low self esteem grows with each attack.

This is another incredible OAAW story that is exemplar of the Kanigher/Kubert period. More dialogue from Rock than usual, his anecdotes after each wave are funny, yet in character.

CONCLUSION SPOILER:

As Rock and Manny get separated from the rest of Easy throughout the comic, they are attcked by a German ambush. Rock throws himself in front of Manny, getting winged, and making his right arm useless. Manny seeing that Rock would sacrifice himself for him, realizes that he does have worth or why would Rock have done that. Realizing he is a soldier, he then gains his courage and takes out the Germans, saving Rock and Easy.

From 1960, a classic tale of the realities of war, and the inner courage that exists in all men, being told brilliantly within the restrictive reigns of the comics code.

I'm proud to have written this on July 4th, a total coincidence.

[Chicago Expat]

I've been reading Sabre (Eclipse imprint)...



-A futuristic revolutionary. Fun stuff with trippy art.


And I've been delving, for the first time, into the Shadow character. I remember reading an issue that Helfer & Baker did back in the eighties and really liking it but that was around when I quit reading comics, and having seen it in a bargain bin, I was inspired to give it a run.



-I had no idea how genuinely creepy the Shadow character was. I've also been looking at the Shadow from Chaykin, Sienkevicz, and Kaluta.

And reading some old King Conans...



It's been very rewarding re-reading many of the comics I read 25 years ago.

[dan bailey]

And I've been delving, for the first time, into the Shadow character. I remember reading an issue that Helfer & Baker did back in the eighties and really liking it but that was around when I quit reading comics, and having seen it in a bargain bin, I was inspired to give it a run.

Never even heard of that series till I saw someone here extolling its virtues a few weeks ago, & now I've got ... let's see ... 16/19ths of the series (still looking for acceptably dirt-cheap copies of 3 of the final issues) plus both annuals.

Y'know, if I'd never discovered this place, I wonder how much smaller my collection would be. *sigh*

[Cei-U!]

I'm rereading the Wolfman/Perez Titans and loving it, despite my usual dislike for Marv's overwrought and overwritten dialogue. Gotta say, though, I'd have been happy if they'd ended the series with Wonder Girl's wedding in Tales of the Teen Titans #50. What came after wasn't bad (from a writing/art standpoint) but inevitably depresses me, partly because I think the characters' lives took some unnecessarily ugly twists, partly because you can see the DCU slowly spiraling into the colossal clusterfuck that was Crisis On Infinite Earths.

Cei-U!
I summon the best DC title of the pre-Crisis '80s!

[Aaron Kashtan]

I'm rereading the Wolfman/Perez Titans and loving it, despite my usual dislike for Marv's overwrought and overwritten dialogue. Gotta say, though, I'd have been happy if they'd ended the series with Wonder Girl's wedding in Tales of the Teen Titans #50. What came after wasn't bad (from a writing/art standpoint) but inevitably depresses me, partly because I think the characters' lives took some unnecessarily ugly twists, partly because you can see the DCU slowly spiraling into the colossal clusterfuck that was Crisis On Infinite Earths.

Cei-U!
I summon the best DC title of the pre-Crisis '80s!

I agree. As far as I'm concerned, everything that's been done with the Titans subsequent to ToTTT #50 has been a disappointment.

[Shawn Hopkins]

Now that the federal gov't has forced strikeing Canada Post workers back to the job, I'm pleased to have finally received a recent MHC order.

I read and thoroughly enjoyed the Boyette Blackhawk revival. Great story and great art. A new favorite.

I also received and read Super Ritchie #1. This is the first comic book I have ever seen with a full page ad on the first interior page. Odd. Was this common for Harvey?

This reminded me I'd noticed some ads on the first page of a couple recent purchases, so I took a look. Sure enough Joe Palooka #20 has ads on the first 2 pages of the book. I checked some of my other Palookas, and it looks like they did this at least on #19-33 (at least on the issues I have in that range). #35 goes back to no ad at the begining, so it looks like they may have done this approximately April '48 to June '49, although that period doesn't include your Super Richie.

Harvey wasn't the only company to do this - I also recently got Atomic Comics #1, and it has an ad on the first page. That just seems a horrible way to start a new series, or any book for that matter. You open the cover and get hit with an ad right away - even if some of those old ads are kind of amusing.

I noticed this on some 70s Harveys I got recently. Seems weird, but I guess they figured those endless Richie Rich gold puns were enough to hook the kids, so who needs a splash page?

[shaxper]

I'm rereading the Wolfman/Perez Titans and loving it, despite my usual dislike for Marv's overwrought and overwritten dialogue. Gotta say, though, I'd have been happy if they'd ended the series with Wonder Girl's wedding in Tales of the Teen Titans #50. What came after wasn't bad (from a writing/art standpoint) but inevitably depresses me, partly because I think the characters' lives took some unnecessarily ugly twists, partly because you can see the DCU slowly spiraling into the colossal clusterfuck that was Crisis On Infinite Earths.

Cei-U!
I summon the best DC title of the pre-Crisis '80s!

TotTT#50 has always been my cut-off, as well. I wonder if Wolfman's attention to the upcoming Crisis is partly to blame for the series' decline. I know Perez's departure was certainly a factor as well.

[Chicago Expat]

Never even heard of that series till I saw someone here extolling its virtues a few weeks ago, & now I've got ... let's see ... 16/19ths of the series (still looking for acceptably dirt-cheap copies of 3 of the final issues) plus both annuals.

Y'know, if I'd never discovered this place, I wonder how much smaller my collection would be. *sigh*

I've known about the title since a kid, but other than the one issue I read (and really enjoyed) as a teen, I'd never explored it at all. Not sure how that happened, but it did. But, yeah, I also am now accumulating them at a rapid pace.

I'm rereading the Wolfman/Perez Titans and loving it, despite my usual dislike for Marv's overwrought and overwritten dialogue. Gotta say, though, I'd have been happy if they'd ended the series with Wonder Girl's wedding in Tales of the Teen Titans #50.

Hah! I forgot to mention this in my earlier post. I picked up a bunch of Teen Titans beaters just recently, all kind of falling on or around the Judas Contract story arc. I remember as a kid enjoying both the story and the art. Twenty years later, my enthusiasm for them aren't quite as strong, but it was pleasant in a nostalgic way to read through them again. I am unsurprised to learn from those that know better above that this represented a high point for the title; Teen Titans was something I was only vaguely interested in before the issues running approx. #38-50.

[Paulie]

I was able to get a huge run of New Teen Titans out of the fifty cent bin earlier this year so these are fresh in my memory.

I break it down like this... the run does indeed reach a peak around the Judas Contract, though for my money NTT 38, Who is Donna Troy?, is the best issue of the series.

When the title becomes Tales of the New Teen Titans you get a nice character arc the Trial of the Terminator drawn by Rich Buckler but...

We were spoiled by the Perez art for all the time and Wolfman made up for the dynamics with by-the-numbers melodrama thereafter... The deluxe format book has that Trigon story but when I read it I was thinking Trigon is not as cool as the Terminator.

Then you get a brief arc with Jose Luis Garica Lopez before Ed Barretto takes over.

I wonder what DC must have thought back then when they had finally given Perez a deluxe printing format, Giffen as well, to have him bail out for another project.

I will say that there was a fun story in the early 90s (Titans Hunt?) when Wildebeast destroyed the team. I remember there being some nice work from a young Tom Grummett with a kind of old-fashioned "I must find my missing teammates" plot.

[pmpknface]

I don't own the book, but since Heritage is selling a copy of this issue they put a link to the original pages in last week's emailer. So I read the story, "I Joined A Teen-Age Sex Club!"

If you have a login to Heritage you can read it for free. Here's the info and the link:

http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleN...news-tem063011

Bob Powell - First Love #13 Complete 5-page Story "I Joined A Teen-Age Sex Club" Original Art (Harvey, 1951). School kids at Flyndale High School, in the Fifties, sure had different after-school activities than most of us -- "sex club?" -- all most of our high schools had were band, Key Club, and the chess clubs! In many ways, the themes of this pre-code romance yarn are similar to those found in the 1998 Tobey Maguire feature film, "Pleasantville." Bob Powell was the ideal artist to illustrate this torrid tale, with his unparalleled aptitude for delineating hot "good girl" art, sleek automobiles, and leering, sex-starved high school males! The image area of the pages measure 12" x 18", and the art is in Excellent condition. Leave it to an undercover teen reporter to expose the club, and then, of course, he winds up with the girl at the end!

If you want to see the cover, here's that link. I guess it sold for $286:

http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleN...news-tem063011

[inferno]

Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4 (1975) -- The 21pp lead story in this issue is written by Chris Claremont and Len Wein with art by John Buscema, C. Stone (?) and Joe Sinnott. This story is kind of special because it could be said to be Claremont's first X-Men story, featuring as it does Professor X and the debut of the mutant (?) Jamie Madrox aka Multiple Man.

The story is pretty simple. It starts with Thing and Alicia boarding the subway/train after a ballgame. The train stops and Thing goes to investigate and it turns out Madrox is standing in the middle of the tracks like an idiot. Thing attacks Madrox and is repelled by a mysterious force. He does it again and Jamie starts multiplying. About six Jamies are working over Thing pretty good and then knock him out, which seemed strange because I thought Thing was stronger than that. Thing wakes up at HQ and the FF (with Medusa still filling in for Sue) decide to have another go at it; so they find Madrox and start fighting. Madrox is handling them pretty well... but then the fight is interrupted when Professor X rides a tractor beam down from his helicopter into the middle of the fight. It turns out that Prof knew Jamie's parents and helped them design the special suit that keeps him from multiplying whenever he stubs his toe. But Jamie was raised in isolation and his parents died six years ago (he's 21 here, btw) and the suit is now on the fritz after so long without a tune up. Which also explains the electric forcefield he has now. So Prof X uses his brain to knock out all the Jamies and tells the FF he has everything under control from here, thanks anyway. The end.

THUMBS UP.

[dan bailey]

Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4 (1975) -- The 21pp lead story in this issue is written by Chris Claremont and Len Wein with art by John Buscema, C. Stone (?) and Joe Sinnott.

You're wondering who that is? Chic Stone (who wound up living & dying one county over from where I am now, albeit before I moved here), I'm sure.

[dan bailey]

"I Joined A Teen-Age Sex Club!"

Now d/b/a the Classic Comics Forum, of course.