Put A Lid On It

One of the more interesting aspects of the Silver Age of Comics was the increasing use of fashionable headgear, oddly enough just as the men's hat business was collapsing. I don't know if some haberdashers, driven to despair by their shrinking market, went into designing chapeaus for supervillains or what, but it is undeniable that especially in Marvel Comics, toppers became very elegant during the 1960s.

In Spiderman comics, Mysterio went in for the opaque fishbowl look:



The Green Goblin preferred a stocking cap:



The Whirlwind (fka the Human Top) went in for the knight's helmet:



Magneto's was more football-looking:



Daredevil baddie the Gladiator went for a stylish, yet simple look:



While his occasional partner in crime the Masked Marauder had a weird combination of miner's helmet, goggles and a veil:



One of the wildest hats resulted in a famous nickname: Ol' Hockey-Stick Head:



At least Galactus confined himself to one style; Odin was the Imelda Marcos of hood ornaments:









Update: Commenter Ralph C noted one particular face covering that never came off: Baron Zemo from the early Avengers:

More about →

Single Issue Review: Sad Sack #154

Sad Sack was a long-running comic character. Originally a cartoon strip put together during World War II by George Baker for an army weekly, the series was popular enough to get its own comic book starting in 1949. It lasted through to the 1990s.

The Sack (as he was referred to) was an unlikely candidate for stardom. He was a lowly private in the army who had zero success at anything he did. Almost every story ended with Sad Sack getting the short end of the stick.

And yet kids of all ages loved the comic. During the 1950s and 1960s the series kept expanding, adding titles like Sad Sack and the Sarge (155 issues), Sad Sack's Funny Friends (75 issues), Sad Sack Laugh Special (93 issues), Sad Sack Army Life Parade (61 issues). There was even a Little Sad Sack (19 issues). Indeed, it is obvious that Sad Sack was Harvey's biggest hit before Richie Rich.

Why the appeal? Well, for starters, army life was a rich source of comic material, as other cartoonists like Bill Mauldin and Mort Walker had already discovered. Sad Sack had a rich supporting cast, including the Sarge, General Rockjaw, Sadie Sack and Muttsy. And third, reading Sad Sack didn't require much reading.

Here's the opening gag:



Although it says "The End" in the final panel, the story actually continues. Sad Sack has trouble controlling his jet pack when he gets out to fix the flying saucer and flies straight into the hands of alien robots, who clone him many times over. Meanwhile, thinking that the Sack is dead, the Captain wishes:



Well, before you know it, the base is overrun with Sad Sacks working for the aliens. And unlike the original, some of them are quite intelligent and start rising through the ranks. And not just in the army:



Meanwhile, the Sarge has discovered the alien robots and is trying to figure out which is the real Sad Sack:



Clever little gag there. When the Sarge and Sack get back to Earth, they discover that the fake Sacks can't take a punch to the stomach, so the men go around punching every Sad Sack they see, much to the annoyance and pain of the real one.

The story continues with one of the alien robots coming to Earth and having Sad Sack show him around. The story turns into a series of gags on how crowded and polluted everything is, including this scene at a nightclub:



And in the end, the aliens decide not to invade Earth because it's so undesirable.

In the final story, after digging a ditch, Sad Sack is sent to the dry cleaners to pick up Colonel Bagby's suit. There's a tiny tear in the coat, so the tailor has Sad Sack wear it while he sews. But an air raid alert causes him to run outside, where everybody's asking him for orders. Sack says, "Aw, shoot!" and the soldiers treat this as an order. The colonel becomes a hero for brilliantly anticipating the surprise attack, and of course, the Sack goes back to digging ditches.

Comments: The Sad Sack stories are light and pleasant reading. The artwork is simplistic, but consistent.

More about →

Spring Cleaning at JLA HQ

This bit of domestic bliss comes to us from Justice League of America #66 (November 1968).

More about →

#099.Indrajal Comics 49

All following Indrajal Comics have 32 pages.



216-1974-Mandrake-Jadugar Ki Pariksha ( English versions "216-1974-Test of a Magician" & reprinted english version "V24N50- 1987-The Stalking Executioner" are available on-line.)

226-1975-Mandrake-Bhayankar Jalchar (English version available online.)



V23N17-1986-Phantom-The Third Phantom's Bride Part I

V23N18-1986-Phantom-The Third Phantom's Bride Part II



V23N29-1986-Mandrake-The Killer Breed Part I

V23N30-1986-Mandrake-The Killer Breed Part II

Password for all files: bookscomics.blogspot.com

These are Ajay's scans. All thanks & credits go to him.

More about →

Single Issue Review: Showcase #34

This issue featured the debut of the Silver Age Atom. Although the Golden Age Atom had no real super powers and was merely a strong but short man, Julius Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox had greater aspirations for the Silver Age version.

We start out by meeting Ray Palmer, grad student and researcher in nuclear physics at Ivy University. He is engaged in experiments to make things smaller, but every time he tries he finds that the miniatures eventually explode, making the process impractical.

In a flashback we learn that Ray had discovered a meteor of white dwarf star material, which he had polished into a crystal that could shrink objects. But can he fix the process so the objects don't explode?

We meet his girlfriend, Jean Loring, a defense attorney who's determined to make a success of herself before settling down. While on a hike in a local cavern, he, Jean and a bunch of kids are trapped by a cave-in. Ray uses the crystal to shrink himself, then expands a small hole using his normal strength, which has not gone away with his size. He returns to normal size without exploding, which he later deduces is due to some special property in his own body.

In the second story, a bank teller is surprised when a tiny man (the guy in green shown on the cover) appears and steals the money from her desk.



So now we see the rationale from a story-telling standpoint behind having Ray's girlfriend be a defense attorney; it guarantees that Ray will hear about a fair number of innocent people wrongly accused of crime. And of course the Atom has plenty of incentive to clear those folks, since that will help make Jean a success and result in her accepting Ray's proposal of marriage. It's a very smart bit of characterization.

We learn that Ray has fashioned a suit for himself which is invisible at full size but is his familiar red and blue outfit when he shrinks. He discovers the green mite trying to rob his laboratory of Europium. When the Atom defeats him, the little man explains telepathically that he's from another planet and requires the Europium to teleport back to his home. A criminal has gained control of him and is forcing him to commit the robberies.

The controller, named Carl Ballard, calls the tiny man (Kulan Dar) back to him, but the Atom has gained a mental image of the crook and is able to use the police mug book to identify him. We see the Atom use one of his very cool and unique powers of using a telephone to transport himself to Ballard's residence:



The Atom mops up Ballard and helps the tiny man get his Europium. In return, Kulan Dar agrees to testify for the defense, and helps Jean win her very first case.

Comments: An excellent start for the series, scripted by Gardner Fox with pencils by Gil Kane and inks by Murphy Anderson. The appearance of another midget is a bit too convenient, but otherwise the two stories are fine with the Atom being developed on the fly nicely.

More about →

Around the Comics 'Sphere

Here's an interesting website dedicated to Dick Tracy Memorabilia. I was not much of a fan of Tracy in the comics pages in the 1960s, but I remember reading a bunch of the strips from the 1930s in a book at one point and being absolutely captivated with Flattop. Entertaining blog!

The Fortress Keeper posts a complete tentacle story from Airboy. Airboy is one of my favorite Golden Age characters. He started as a teenage flier fighting the Japs and Nazis, and survived the end of the war by going to more science-fiction like plots. FK also links to another blogger who has posted the two famous rat stories from Airboy. These stories were highlighted by Steranko in one of the volumes of the History of the Comic Books, and I'd wanted to read them for years. Thanks FK and Mr Door Tree!

Bill Jourdain has a more serious post on the topic of censorship of racially insensitive characterizations in reprints of comics from the 1940s. I'm a big believer in reprinting the material exactly as it originally appeared; if it's perceived to be racist, include a disclaimer. I wrote about the Comics Code censorship of a Two-Face reprint in the 1960s.

Robby Reed, author of Dial B for Blog, in my opinion the finest comics blog ever imagined, publishes his final post, including (at the end) a photo of Robby (real name Kirk Kimball). Kirk did it all, from witty and talented photoshops to terrific reporting. If you haven't checked out Dial B, there are 500 issues sitting in his archive.

More about →

#098.Superman covers (Hindi), Spider-Man INDIA & Indrajal Comics 48

Update: Although it's a comics blog, but this incident touched me. Flight 1549 - Honor to PILOT Chesley B. Sullenberger - A real contemporary hero who saved 155 &...... lives - A REAL SUPERMAN.

Flight 1549 Crash Video - Actual Video Of The Crash!





***************************************************************
Superman is a fictional character, a comic book superhero widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective Comics, Inc. in 1938, the character first appeared in Action Comics #1 (June 30, 1938) and subsequently appeared in various radio serials, television programs, films, newspaper strips, and video games.

~ From wikipedia

Many nice Superman comics were reprinted in Hindi. These covers are contributed by Anurag Dixit. If you are interested to read, I can start posting these too.

STAR COMICS:







DOLTAN COMICS:

Spider-Man INDIA

from BBC News (Thursday, 24 June, 2004, 15:51 GMT 16:51 UK)

"Superhero Spider-Man has had a make-over for a new series of comic books launching in India.

The character will no longer be known as Peter Parker - but will become the young Pavitr Prabhakar.

When the first Spider-Man movie opened in India, it took 67m rupees (£940,000) in its first four days of release - and made more in its first weekend than any Hollywood movie yet released in India. "

Read more details at Wikipedia & Internationalhero

P.S. I was not aware of existance of this series (only 4 were published). Enjoyed to see Spider-man in Dhoti. :)))

Spider-Man India 01 November 2004 (9.8 MB)

Spider-Man India 02 December 2004 (9.94 MB)



Spider-Man India 03 January 2005 (10.09 MB)

Spider-Man India 04 February 2005 (10.91 MB)

These are from my friend Bharat's collection. An Anonymous friend is converted into e-comics. These are available for online reading at official site.



436-1982-Phantom-Pret ka nayay 1

437-1982-Phantom-Pret ka nayay 2



438-1982-Phantom-Pret ka nayay 3

All 3 parts of Hindi Indrajal is conrtibuted by Anurag. Password: bookscomics.blogspot.com



V24N46-1987-Phantom-The Planned Accident Part I (Complete)

V24N47-1987-Phantom-The Planned Accident Part II (Complete)

These two were partially available online . These are scanned by Ajay Misra.

All thanks & credits goes to Anurag, Bharat, Anonymous friend & Ajay.

More about →