Swiped and Then Swiped Again

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Ba, 8 tháng 7, 2014

Mort Weisinger's enthusiasm for swiping story ideas from earlier issues of Superboy does not seem as high as it was for Adventure Comics, but here's a pretty impressive example of a double swipe.  For starters, here is the cover to Superboy #52 (October 1956):


And Superboy #85 (December 1960):

As you can see, in both cases, Superboy is startled to discover another super-powered boy on an alien planet. He changes into civilian clothes and confronts the lad:


The other boy comes from a startling place:

Clark realizes how the other boy got his powers:

So it looks like Superboy is finally going to have a super-powered buddy.  But as they start off together, something happens:

Superboy eventually realizes that it's his presence that is causing the other superlad to lose his powers, and thus he must leave, resulting in a sad ending:

Weisinger recycled that ending in Superboy #87 (March 1961), in a Krypto story.  Krypto rescues a beautiful female dog:


You've gotta love that he calls her Toots. She doesn't have super-powers, but it turns out that Krypto knows where she can get some:

And so she drinks from the pool and becomes super. Unfortunately:

Krypto soon realizes that he is no longer super when near Kolli, and so we get the same ending as in the two Superboy tales:
More about

Number 1601: The stolen saucer

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Hai, 7 tháng 7, 2014

Tomorrow is July 8, the 67th anniversary of the famous headline from The Roswell (New Mexico) Record, claiming a flying saucer had been found on a local ranch. You may have heard the stories about it.


A few times in the past I have posted flying saucer stories in honor of that day, and this year we have a story of alien abduction, spaceflight to another planet to rescue the abductees, and a stolen flying saucer. Thankfully, flying the the saucer is “simplicity itself,” or our intrepid rescuers might still be stuck on Planet Hyston trying to figure out how to get home.

Story from Atom-Age Combat #5 (1953). Art by Ben Brown and David Gantz.










More about

675 - Some Flash Gordon Sunday strips

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Chủ Nhật, 6 tháng 7, 2014

Courtesy, Emile, we have some Flash Gordon Sunday strips. S176 was the last Sunday strip drawn by Dan Barry (the brother of Sy Barry, who drew the Phantom). S177 was a reprint of an earlier Dan Barry comic strip. S178 thru S188 was drawn by a group of Latin American artists.

Starting with S189, King Features got a new artist Jim Keefe to do the artwork for the Flash Gordon Sunday strips. While remaining faithful to the creation of Alex Raymond, Jim did bring his own touch to the strips.

Here are the original links from Emile:

S189 - Demon From the Dark Dimension - 1996-01-21 to 1996-04-21 - 16 Weeks.zip

S190 - Nightfall on Mongo - 1996-04-28 to 1996-08-25 - 18 Weeks.zip

S191 - The Way it Began - 1996-09-01 to 1996-09-29 - 5 Weeks.zip

S192 - The Return of Ming - 1996-10-06 to 1996-12-22 - 12 Weeks.zip

S193 - Duroks Revenge - 1996-12-29 to 1997-05-11 - 20 Weeks.zip


Enjoy the stories and shower your gratitude on Emile.

More about

Number 1600: Spirit of ’76, the patriotic hero

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Sáu, 4 tháng 7, 2014

Today in America we celebrate the Fourth of July, Independence Day. With the Fourth comes the old red, white and blue in abundance. Back in the early forties when war was raging in Europe and imminent for America, the patriotic heroes were popping up like dandelions on my lawn. Among them was Cadet Blakeley, the Spirit of '76. He was introduced in Pocket Comics in 1941, and then re-introduced in Harvey Comics’ Green Hornet #7 in 1942. The second version is basically the first, with some editing and some new artwork and rearranging in spots to make it 8 pages. (Wartime paper rationing, you know.)

Grand Comics Database says Edd Ashe did the Pocket Comics version, with Harry Fisk and Arthur Caseneuve doing some new artwork for the second.

I hope everyone has a fine holiday and three-day weekend. For me, tonight I stand guard in my yard with garden hose in hand, ready to douse any illegal fireworks, roman candles and rockets shot into my bushes and trees by celebrating and inebriated neighbors.









 ***********

Here’s a later Spirit of ’76 drawn by the great Bob Powell. Just click on the thumbnail.


More about

Mort Weisinger's Idea of Funny

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Năm, 3 tháng 7, 2014

What the? From Superboy #72 (April 1959):

Why would he put that postscript in there?  He had to know that there were plenty of Superboy readers who were still at the age where they believed in Santa.  It's hard to come up with a reason other than the obvious; that Weisinger was a first class jerk.

More about

Number 1599: “I’m a lumberjack, and I’m not okay...”

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Tư, 2 tháng 7, 2014

There should be a lesson in this crime story from Boy Comics #32 (1947) but I'm darned if I know exactly what it is. Regarding the two college dropouts who ride the rails to a logging camp looking for a meal and end up with jobs, it could be there is danger there, and not just because being a lumberjack is a really dangerous job. It also has to do with not messing with the boss's wife, especially a blonde who dresses in nylons and high heels in a logging camp and longs to see the sights of New York. Or it could be the lesson that some people — like the boss's wife — will stab someone in the back. Literally. Finally, it could be that an executed prisoner should be checked for signs of life before putting him in a coffin.

Crimebuster, the titular hero of the tale, pops up here and there throughout most of it. He doesn’t show up until page 7.

This is a tale of a wrongful conviction, and there is probably a lesson there, also. Police should always take a closer look, and not just the word of the hot blonde and a guy about to run off with her. It is nicely illustrated by Norman Maurer.
















More about

A Wink from Clark

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Ba, 1 tháng 7, 2014

Reading through the Silver Age Superboy, I noticed how many stories ended with this:




The winks tend to happen at the end of secret identity stories; I'm sure there are plenty of examples in Superman as well.

This is somewhat akin to the "Ending with Iris" bit in the Flash, and the "Bah!" responses from the Joker; a way of letting us know the story is over.

Update: Kirk House points out in the comments that the practice of ending the story with a wink from Clark may have originated with the Superman cartoons of the early 1940s from the Fleischer studios.  Here's the first one in that series, which does indeed end that way:

More about