Daily Scans
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Daily Scans" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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08:05 pm
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
Giant-Man cracks me up
I seriously doubt if Stan Lee put all that much that into the dialogue back then, as he was batting out scripts as fast as he could type and he was working with whatever wild unexpected plot twists Jack Kirby handed in ("Black Bolt? I told Jack that this issue was going to guest-star the Silver Surfer! Oh, well..."). But it's interesting how Henry Pym was consistently shown as someone in over his head when dealing with other super-heroes. He was so outmatched in sheer strength or fighting ability that it wasn't even funny. Yet, right from the start even as Ant-Man, he took it for granted that his seat at the pantheon of godlike beings was secure.(In a way, he reminds of the original Atom. Al Pratt was just a short, tough-guy brawler but he sat down opposite the likes of the Spectre or Dr Fate with complete confidence he was their peer.)
Take this panel from THE AVENGERS# 2, where the Space Phantom has got the Avengers fighting each other. Giant-Man runs up and seperates a brawling Iron Man and Hulk. Now, in the real world, someone who could disregard the cube-square law and function at a twelve-foot height, would be incredibly awesome. He could pick NBA players up and throw them to one side while dropping the basketball into the hoop from above. Yet, in the world of super-heroes, Giant-Man is messing with two guys who could each tear him apart without trouble. (In fact, later in the same issue, the Hulk mentions that he's "stronger than a dozen Giant-Men.)
Tags: creator: jack kirby, creator: stan lee, era: silver age
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05:53 pm
[jlroberson]
[Link] |
Doom Patrol 99: The First Appearance of Gar Logan
Current Location: Seattle
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: John Cale, "Helen of Troy"
Tags: char: beast boy/changeling/gar logan, era: silver age, group: doom patrol, in-joke: bees. my god., publisher: dc comics
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10:22 pm
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
So, what really happened when Dr Doom stole the Silver Surfer's power?
The original story was one of the highpoints of the Silver Age, FANTASTIC FOUR# 57. It provided most of the plot for the second Fantastic Four movie, as well. But it was not until NOT BRAND ECCH# 1 in 1967 that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby let us in on the real events behind the legends.
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Worth checking at the higher size for the surfing cross medallion, the book BUTTERFLIES I HAVE LOVED and more.
Tags: char: dr. doom/victor von doom, char: silver surfer/norrin radd, creator: jack kirby, creator: stan lee, era: silver age
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11:30 pm
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
Jack Kirby's favorite sci-fi flick?
This first page is from THE FANTASTIC FOUR# 7, October 1962, the second from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY# 101, February 1964. Let's see... the elements include a flying saucer from outer space landing, a strange occupant emerging, TWO giant robots appearing and one of them slowly opening its glowing eyes to shoot a disintegrative beam. Holy smoke. Did Jack Kirby really like THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL or what? (I didn't excavate another book, but in the first issue of THE X-MEN in 1963, Cyclops first displays his power by slowly raising his visor to reveal two glowing spots which suddenly shoot out an overwhelming force. I've always figured much of the inspiration for Cyclops came from Gort.
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And if this has brought back memories of the movie with Klaatu and Gort, here are some thoughts on THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL.
Tags: char: thor, creator: jack kirby, creator: stan lee, era: silver age, group: fantastic four
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10:01 pm
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
More classic covers, with a spin
A week or so back, I posted the cover to the issue of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD which introduced the Justice League (you know, where they're messing around with a giant starfish). Alongside it for comparison was a cover to Roy Thomas' fanzine ALTER-EGO which showed a version which featured Timely characters in the same predicament. There was also the cover to FANTASTIC FOUR# 1, next to an ALTER EGOed version with the Justice League in the same situation.Well, there were more. So here for your entertainment is the cover of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA# 1. Not the most action-packed of scenes, eh? This is the original Despero before he contracted acromegaly and/or toxic level steroid abuse. Next to it from the March 2002 issue of ALTER EGO is Murphy Anderson's interpretation of the same scene with the Marvel characters. It's odd to see Kirby characters so passive, especially the Hulk sitting like a kid in Sunday School.
 
There weren't really many super-heroes to throw into the Avengers membership. The X-Men debuted the same month and really wouldn't have been considered. Daredevil was months from his debut and Captain America at this point was taking an ice nap. But Spider-Man and Dr Strange... Well, Strange was off on his own bizarre missions in black magic and conceptual menaces and Spider-Man's gig was being a loner (later, he would team up with every single character that Marvel owned or leased over the years, though). There was also the fact that Kirby and Ditko had trouble with each other characters. They never looked right when drawn by the other artist, and Kirby in particular just didn't seem to "get" Dr Strange. So it was for the best the two Ditko heroes were left out. Cap would be chipped out of his icecube soon enough, anyway.
Tags: creator: murphy anderson, era: silver age
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01:59 am
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
Iron Maiden (not the metal group nor the torture device)
Wally Wood's Iron Maiden was a freelance criminal who worked for various eeevyil masterminds and pulled a few schemes with her own gang in the Tower Comics' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS starting back in 1965. We never learned anything about her past, she was just there in her armor, cloak and gun. "Rusty" had the typically bantering attraction/distrust relationship going on with Dynamo that so often happens between uptight super-heroes and attractive villains. Iron Maiden had a wry awareness about how unworkable an affair between them would be, but she found the big lug very sexy and enjoyed teasing him and trying to bring him over beyond the law. On his side, Dynamo was a bit more confused about his feelings; the fact that Iron Maiden had him framed for treason and put in other sticky spots was something he understandably held against her. Yet they also sometimes covered to let the other escape at the end of an adventure. It was a typical crazy mixed-up quasi-romance. (Comic fans will likely find Batman and Catwoman coming to mind as the classic example.)
I like the way Rusty is frequently shown with a cigarette. By the late 1960s, smoking was becoming rarer in comics except for a few tough-guy heroes at Marvel. It adds to her bad-girl image. She did go to jail a few times (her gang broke her out in one case). The original run of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS ended with her still up to her felonious tricks; since then, copyright ownership was disputed and a number of publishers did their own riffs on the series, but that's outside my area.
Tags: creator: wally wood, era: silver age
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10:07 pm
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
Alanna of Rann
The Adam Strange strip ran in MYSTERY IN SPACE beginning in 1958. It was a riff on Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series in a way. Earthman Adam Strange found a way to get to the planet Rann of the star Alpha Centauri, although he could only stay there a short time each trip. This being a Silver Age comic, naturally he found some wildly implausible alien invasion or other menace to fight each time. But that was not the real reason he counted the minutes until the next Zeta-Beam would appear to take him to his heart's desire.
Tags: char: adam strange, char: alanna, creator: carmine infantino, creator: gardner fox, creator: murphy anderson, era: silver age
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12:04 am
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
Some of those people on the Rainbow Bridge look awful familiar
From the tenth of issue of NOT BRAND ECCH, Jack Kirby decides to throw in some celebrities from 1968. I imagine that, in a lot less than four decades, current hot numbers like Megan Fox or Will Smith will have become the answer to trivia questions. ("Who were the MEN IN BLACK?" "Oh, heck, I know that... Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, right?")
(I believe the gorilla with the lollipop is not anyone in particular, just any of a number of lollipop gorillas you used to see on TV...)
Tags: creator: jack kirby, era: silver age, publisher: marvel comics
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10:47 pm
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
Just how strong IS Green Arrow anyway?
Just a few panels from JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA# 5, with the usual Gardner Fox appproach of giving kids exciting, colorful epics that regard the laws of physics as mere suggestions.
Okay then. Green Arrow climbs out of his jet in mid-air (leaving it on auto-pilot, I suppose). Standing on the wing and not getting blown off by the 600 mph winds, he whips three fishing-hook arrows out of his quiver and fires them in close succession. Not only does he manage to snap his teammates who are falling from another plane (and look how far away they are in that first panel), he then grabs the fishing lines and lowers all three of them to the ground. He's reeling down roughly six hundred pounds of dead weight from a jet to the ground. Damn. If he can do things like that, he doesn't need a bow and arrows to fight crime.I loved Fox's stories for their imagination and outlandishness, but honestly, the guy went overboard as soon as he put paper in his typewriter...
char: green arrow, era: silver age, creator: gardner fox
Tags: char: aquaman/orin/arthur curry, char: green arrow/oliver queen, char: green lantern/hal jordan, era: silver age, publisher: dc comics, title: justice league of america
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10:02 pm
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
Teenage outlaw cowboys in love
Lee and Kirby's RAWHIDE KID featured a lot of human interest plots. This was a trademark of TV Westerns of that era. In addition to all the shootouts and fistfights and galloping horses, much of the plotting involved the Kid getting involved with regular folks and their problems. (Of course, he usually solved their problems with more shootouts and fistfights and galloping horses but hey, this was a Silver Age comic book.) This is from RAWHIDE KID# 19, December 1960, well before those four got in the rocket ship or that student got bit by a spider.
It's important to remember that the Rawhide Kid WAS a kid. He had just turned eighteen when his foster father was killed and he set out to roam the West. Being that age, with the chip on his shoulder of being noticeably short (5'3" or so) AND redhaired, his attempts to settle down incognito never came to much. And, once in a while, being human he felt the twinges of romance, whether he wanted them or not. The fact that he was on the run, with a price on his head (I forget if he was framed or what, but the general population thought he was a murderous criminal), which meant he had to move on whenver his identity was revealed. Being a short redhead teenager made him easy to identify, eh?
Tags: char: rawhide kid/johnny bart, creator: jack kirby, creator: stan lee, era: silver age, publisher: marvel comics, title: rawhide kid
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11:55 pm
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
The shocking truth about Lee and Kirby
Exactly what went on in the conferences where Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created so many of the Marvel Comics of the 1960s? Historians have fruitlessly wondered, but now we have the truth as presented by one of the creators. This document first appeared in FANTASTIC FOUR SPECIAL# 5 from 1967, which not only gave you a 30-page story about the Fantastic Four (guest-starring the Inhumans AND the Black Panther), but a 12-page back-up story starring the Silver Surfer, plus a dozen pin-up pages. You got your quarter's worth.
Tags: creator: jack kirby, creator: stan lee, era: silver age
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03:55 pm
[queenanthai]
[Link] |
The Glory Of Silver Age Filler Part 1
While the crack of the Silver Age stories is legendary, one of my favorite things about reading 30- to 40-year-old comics is the ads, the PSAs and the letter columns. It's like a little time warp, and you can actually get a hint of the culture and attitudes of those days.
( Here're three to start you off. )
Anyone else willing to share? I have more where this came from, of course.
Tags: era: silver age, medium: advertisement, medium: letter columns, publisher: dc comics, title: action comics
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08:57 pm
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
Who put the magnets in Captain America's shield (bee bop a lu bop)
 Cap was revived from comic book limbo in THE AVENGERS# 4, March 1964. Two issues later, the story opened with a surprising scene where he is making his shield fly around and change direction. It seems Iron Man decided to beef up the shield by putting "sub-miniature transistors" in it that Cap could operate through magnets attached to his glove. (Stan Lee had an interesting idea of what transistors were, that is he thought they were magic.) I'd guess that it was Jack Kirby who dreamed this up, he absolutely loved adding gadgets that were never seen again; the man's imagination was always in high gear.
Tags: char: captain america/steve rogers, creator: jack kirby, creator: stan lee, era: silver age, publisher: marvel comics, title: avengers
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09:05 pm
[xdoop]
![[User Picture]](https://www.insanejournal.com/userpic/7353873/376622) [Link] |
"I'll Never Let You Go!"
Tags: era: silver age, genre: romance, publisher: prize comics, status: public domain, title: young romance
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04:30 pm
[xdoop]
![[User Picture]](https://www.insanejournal.com/userpic/7353870/376622) [Link] |
"Sick of Men!"
Tags: era: silver age, genre: romance, publisher: prize comics, status: public domain, title: young romance
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04:42 pm
[xdoop]
![[User Picture]](https://www.insanejournal.com/userpic/7353880/376622) [Link] |
What to do when your man cheats on you.
Tags: era: silver age, genre: romance, publisher: prize comics, status: public domain, title: young romance
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10:35 pm
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
Rock Bottom Comics: DOC SAVAGE, 1966
Whew, this is just poor. In 1966, a Doc Savage movie was planned. This was the phase where the Batman TV series and the James Bond movies were at their peak of popularity. Chuck Connors was chosen to play the Man of Bronze, and he would have been a surprisingly apt choice. Check out the way he looks in the opening of BRANDED and you can see him doing a good job as Doc. THE THOUSAND-HEADED MAN might have started a new franchise. But the movie deal fell through because of a dispute over the rights, and all we have to show for it is a one-shot comic from Gold Key. Unfortunately (although it's a bit of a completist's collectible) the comic just isn't any good. ("Hey mister! I want my lunch money back, this funnybook stinks!")
Tags: char: doc savage/clark savage jr, creator: jack sparling, era: silver age
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09:23 pm
[sandoz_iscariot]
[Link] |
Uncanny X-Men: The Sentinels...LIVE!
Here's a classic Silver Age X-Men storyline by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams. In which the Sentinels return, Alex and Lorna meet for the first time, crazy '60s jewelry is worn, and Scott out-robots a robot.
( PREPARE YOURSELF, MUTANT! )
Tags: char: beast/hank mccoy, char: cyclops/scott summers, char: havok/alex summers, char: iceman/bobby drake, char: marvel girl/phoenix/jean grey, char: polaris/lorna dane, creator: neal adams, creator: roy thomas, era: silver age, publisher: marvel comics, title: uncanny x-men
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11:05 pm
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
Katar and Shayera know ALL your dirty little secrets
Some bits from 1961 and 1962 issues of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD. Script by Gardner Fox, art by Joe Kubert.
One of the most off-beat but underused aspects of the Silver Age Hawkman strip was that Katar and Shayera Hol had prepped for their arrival by using a device called an Absorbascon to transmit all memories and knowledge from the brains of Earth people. (There has to be a limit to the depth and type of information fed into the Hols' brains, I think. Probably they started with intake of language, geography, history, that sort of thing and cut off before they started getting into what size shoes Trotsky wore or how to make haggis. But you never know. The text says "everything" and perhaps the information was stored in compressed form in their brains, sort of like cerebral MP3s.)It was a slightly eerie touch that made our Hawks seem "other," not just everyday humans in costumes. They would sometimes sit in the dark and concentrate to try to bring out just the bit of knowledge they needed. One limitation was that (as I recall) they only did this Absorbascon process once. So if a Mad Scientist invented a reverse evolution ray while the Hols were here, they wouldn't have any information on it. Whether they would know about Green Lantern's weakness or Alfred's collection of antique keys is debatable. On the other hand, they would be great to have around when trying to do the SUNDAY TIMES crossword.
This last page doesn't relate to the Absorbascon, but I wanted to show off some Joe Kubert art. He often drew Hawkman and Hawkgirl at night, making them seem more mysterious and even ominous. Kubert also drew regular human bodies, something of a lost art. Shayera is not Jenna Jameson, Katar is not Lou Ferrigno. They're normal people in good athletic shape and that's enough.
Tags: char: hawkgirl/shayera hol, char: hawkman/katar hol, creator: gardner fox, creator: joe kubert, era: silver age, publisher: dc comics, title: the brave and the bold
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12:04 am
[dr_hermes]
[Link] |
Catching up with Thanagar
A couple of panels from the Hawkman story in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD# 42, June-July 1962. Art by Joe Kubert, story by Gardner Fox. It's a tradition in science-fiction to use advanced alien civilizations to show how our own progress might go. Let's see how Fox did.
 
Wellll, we're still not flying around our towns wearing anti-gravity belts and big artificial hawkwings. No "central cooking" delivering meals by pneumatic tubes, either. The closest to that might be if you're residing in a hotel and order room service, but dumbwaiters have almost vanished entirely and instead an employee brings you your order. The "identi-cards" are on target, though. I don't think debit cards existed all in 1962. By the late 1970s, there were such things but not in common usage. (Thanks for the exposition, Katar. Do you explain everything like that everywhere you go? "As you know, after we digest food, we have to eliminate it from our intestines. This is what I intend to do now. Excuse me for five to six minutes.")
Of course, Earthwomen are not interested in fashion and would not want to go shopping for clothes after being away six months. I don't know where Fox got such an idea, except maybe to show how odd Thanagarian culture is. It sure looks to me like Shayera is shopping online; although she might just be watching a show, the caption uses the word shopping in quote marks, so it's ambiguous. Then we see the Hols lounging about and watching the news which was recorded for them. We actually are ahead of this ourselves, what with YouTube and NPR archives. I do like the way Shayera is nibbling on a grape (or whatever) and that they seem to be watching a Mad Scientist.Then there's the Weather Control. This was a popular prediction in old school sci-fi. Nope, we haven't got that yet. The best we're doing is producing global climate change and that wasn't exactly a project we undertook consciously.
Tags: char: hawkman/katar hol, creator: gardner fox, creator: joe kubert, era: silver age, publisher: dc comics
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