Science Marches On!

Check out this bit from Magnus, Robot Fighter #3. Gold Key included little bits of education on the inside covers of their magazines, and this is from the Atom Part I. The context is that scientists of ancient Greece were seeking the Elixir of Life, which would give immortality, and the Philosopher's Stone, which would make who ever found it rich:

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#265: Dell: 425 - The Return Of Zorro; 497 - The Sword of Zorro; 574 - The Hand of Zorro; 617 - The Quest of Zorro; 732 - The Challenge of Zorro

Dell Comics (1949-1956) - These were original stories by Johnston McCulley (the creator of Zorro) from Ajnaabi's e- collection. All thanks to unknown scanner(s) and him.

The Return Of Zorro - Dell #425 

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The Sword Of Zorro - Dell #497 

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The Hand Of Zorro - Dell #574

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The Quest Of Zorro - Dell #617

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The Challenge Of Zorro - Dell #732

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Cool Comics Calendars!

I won a trivia quiz over at Golden Age Comics, and as a result, I received two delightful comics calenders that would look great on your office or living room wall. The calendars are published by Asgard Press, where their motto is "Old School is Now in Session". As you can see at that site, they publish an astonishing array of calendars, including just about every college football team, Mad Magazine, and Pulp Sci-Fi.

The two comic calendars are DC Comics and Marvel Comics, with the DC edition spanning from the Golden to the Silver Age, while the Marvel Comics calendar is mostly drawn from the 1960s. Here's the cover of the DC calendar:



As you can see, the colors are bright and sharp, and the black background really makes them pop out at you. The DC Edition contains the following covers:

Superman #9
All-Star Comics #3
Superboy #147
Batman #48
Captain Marvel Adventures #19
Detective #122
Superman #120
Green Lantern (Silver Age) #40
Action Comics #10
Wonder Woman #156
More Fun Comics #101
Superman #14
All-Flash Quarterly #1
Adventure #48
Detective #31 (also on the cover)
World's Fair 1940
Adventure #113

Note that's more than 12 months; this is a 16-month calendar (Sept 2009-Dec 2010), so there's no reason to hold off buying until Christmas.

The Marvel calendar has the following covers:

Amazing Spiderman #1 (Also on the cover)
Amazing Spiderman #33
Fantastic Four #28
Avengers #87
Amazing Spiderman #68
Tales of Suspense #49
Journey into Mystery #89
Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1
The Incredible Hulk #2
Strange Tales #135
Daredevil #10
Silver Surfer #4
Captain America #100
X-Men #35
Fantastic Four #50
Avengers #57
Iron Man #1

The calendars also come with a brief history of each company, with Bill Jourdain himself doing the DC, while the Marvel calendar is introduced by Dr Arnold T. Blumberg. They also contribute a capsule discussion of each cover on the monthly pages.

The colors are beautiful and extremely realistic. The World's Fair Comics cover has some discoloring (looks like dirt on the cover), which I actually appreciate; this is almost a 70-year-old comic. It shows that Asgard Press did not do a lot of photoshop work to make the covers look better than they are; rather they found very nice specimens of each cover and reproduced them exactly.

Update: Peter Shin, the publisher, stops by in the comments section and says that while they did do some restoration to the covers, they tried to maintain the balance between fixing problems and presenting something that wasn't there in the original. I do have to say, they did a wonderful job!

About the only criticism I have is the inclusion of the Captain Marvel Adventures cover as a DC mag; of course that is only true retroactively, after DC acquired the character around 1970. But that quibble aside, these are beautiful calendars that would make a handsome addition to your wall. The individual covers can also be detached from the calendar and framed. If you are interested in buying, Bill Jourdain mentioned a promo code in this podcast that will give you a break on the price. Highly recommended!

Update: Bill has further details (and that promo code) here.

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The Mavis Trent Chronicles Volume 1

Hawkman was unique in the Silver Age among all heroes, as he arrived on Earth already married. From a writer's point of view, single characters are more interesting as they're free to form new romantic relationships, or continue old ones, while married characters have to be faithful to their existing partner.

Enter Mavis Trent. In Brave & Bold #34, Hawkman and Hawkgirl meet up with Commissioner Emmett and reveal their real identities as policemen from Thanagar, come to Earth, initially to capture a shape-shifting crook named Byth, but eventually to study our police methods. In fact, not only did they confide in Commissioner Emmett, but he was instrumental in giving them their secret identities while on this planet:



But when Hawkman (as Carter Hall) meets one of his employees, he picks up a clue:



It's such a rare bird that it doesn't exist on Earth, which is why Carter is interested, although it's pretty obvious that Mavis is interested in something else, and a publicity man suggests that Carter and Mavis go on an expedition together to track down the oddity. But Shayera scotches those plans:



But even after learning that Carter is married, Mavis is not deterred:



The subplot in that issue ends somewhat oddly, with Carter and Mavis exploring Hawk Valley (with Shayera as a chaperone) in an unsuccessful attempt to find the rare bird (which was the criminal that Hawkman and Hawkgirl had originally come to Earth after).

In the second tryout issue (Brave & the Bold #35), Carter is surprised when Mavis hugs him for sending her flowers (because he didn't). Shayera is not amused:



Mavis' photos of rare animals shows a chance of breaking into the big time in the second story in B&B #35:



So she's a catalyst for the stories, at the same time as she appears to be something of an antagonist to Carter and Shiera (as they are renamed by Commissioner Emmett. I should mention that although Joe Kubert makes Mavis look quite attractive, there is no hint that her desire for Carter is returned in the stories, and while Shiera clearly gets a little frosty at times, it's always directed at Mavis and not her husband. And at the end of the story, she's no longer quite so enamored of Carter, as the new man in town:



She continues her role as catalyst in B&B #36:



Later, it turns out that the guy she was suddenly snuggling up to in that sequence was after her ring, which leads to this bizarre bit:



Comments: The idea of a femme fatale in DC is pretty far ahead of the times, although I suspect kids were used to seeing this type of subplot on TV comedies (in which the husband/wife always remained faithful). Lois Lane and Lana Lang's rivalry is different, for the simple reason that Superman isn't married to either of them. In later issues (as we'll discuss in future volumes of the Mavis Trent Chronicles), DC did rectify this problem by having Commissioner Emmett tell Mavis that Hawkman and Hawkgirl were not married. But that is a tale for another day.

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Comics Trivia #34: Answers

What do they have in common?

1. The Silver Age Green Lantern and the Golden Age Flash?

Both battled Star Sapphire.

2. The JSA and the Frightful Four?

Both included a member named the Sandman.

3. The Doom Patrol and the X-Men? (not that they were led by men in wheelchairs)

Both fought the Brotherhood of Evil (actually the X-Men faced the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants).

4. Sea Devils and the Fantastic Four?

Both had the same core team: Smart man, strong man, woman, teenager.

5. Whitey Ford and Frank Sinatra? (Yeah, it's off-topic, but it's one of my favorite trivia bits.

Both were called "Chairman of the Board."

Jim was on the mark with #4, then later added #2 and #3. Lito S. was the first to get #1, and also got #2. Ed O'Toole definitely got #4 and gave some good alternative answers to #3, but I really wanted the Brotherhood bit. Mark popped in with the correct answer to #5, so once again I fail to stump the gallery. Great job all!

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#264: Breaking Free: The Adventures Of TinTin

"The Adventures of Tintin: Breaking Free" is an anarchist parody of the popular Tintin series of comics. An exercise in detournement, the book was written under the pseudonym J. Daniels and published by Attack International in April of 1988 and then republished in 1999.
The story features a number of characters based on those from the original series by Hergé, notably Tintin himself and Captain Haddock (referred to only as 'the Captain'), but not the original themes or plot. The story tracks Tintin's development from a disaffected, shoplifting youth to a revolutionary leader.

Download Comics

All credits to unknown person who scanned this comics.



P.S. You can download all available Tintin comics HERE.

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Around the Comics 'Sphere

Bill Jourdain has two terrific podcasts up on his site. In the first, he gives the history of Crimebuster, a golden age boy hero. I confess, I did not know much about CB, but when Bill described his origin story I was blown away. And thanks to the miracle of copyrights actually expiring, you can read the origin story online by downloading the CBR file from the Golden Age Comics site. It's arguably a better origin than that of Batman, which I still rate as the gold standard. Bill also has a podcast up of his adventures at the Baltimore ComicCon, including some interesting moments with Don Rosa, the creator of the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. As you all know, I'm a Silver Age fan, but I heartily agree with Bill that the L&T of SMcD is among the greatest comics series ever published.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Superman Fan's blog? Almost better than surfing over there every day is surfing over there every week and seeing all those new awesome posts. But surf over there every day and get a jump on me! I love this post on the bipolar Superman, and this one on Jimmy Olsen, movie director and this one on the Ghost of Jor-El. Great blogging!

If you haven't been checking out Jacque's posts on Marc on the Man's Side, you have missed quite some entertainment. Apparently DC hired/created this hilariously sexist advice columnist around 1971, whose general admonition to women can be summed up this way: "Be glad a man's taking you out to dinner, and don't gripe that it's McDonalds." Very entertaining!

How to Get a Job, circa 1969, and Will Eisner.

Discussion of the Comics Code Authority at Speed Force.

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