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Post by Farrar on Jun 18, 2020 13:03:03 GMT -5
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 82 ...Despite my love of his artwork, I was never a huge fan of the Murphy Anderson heads, most of which always struck me as way off-model. Black Canary’s hair looks like it needs to be shampooed; GL’s mask is way too wide; Batman looks like he’s waiting to be called onto the set of a Hostess Twinkies ad; and that weird little cleft in GA’s beard always bugged me... Thank you. I too always disliked those faces, especially GL's and Black Canary's. Her hair/wig is just too short; she was known for her voluminous flowing locks, not a chin-length 'do. I know it was probably drawn or cropped to be shorter because of space limitations, but the result is it just doesn't look like her! Well, Anderson will redeem himself (in my eyes, at least) with some great heads on a different comic book cover next month. Stay tuned! And looking over the June DCs, juxtaposing the 'Tec #402 and Superman #229 covers makes me laugh; the latter almost seems like it's parodying the former  . Good example of the different editorial approaches still in force then at DC. Damn I love Curt Swan (and whomever came up with the #229 cover premise--Infantino and/or the Supes writer, etc.).  |
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Post by Prince Hal on Jun 18, 2020 14:10:25 GMT -5
Agreed, Farrar! Somehow Neal Adams made Black Canary's head fit into a similar space without making her look ridiculous starting with JLA 98:  |
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Post by Farrar on Jun 19, 2020 12:34:39 GMT -5
^^^^ You're so right, Prince Hal -- they look like themselves in the Adams array! |
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Post by Farrar on Jun 23, 2020 21:08:09 GMT -5
June 1970
My DCs Adventure #396: I must have had this issue, because I remember reading in the letter column (in response to a letter from Rich Morrissey) that Mike Sekowsky was going to take over Supergirl with the next issue! I loved Sekowsky's Wonder Woman (this was the mod Diana Prince version, but I wasn't having too much luck finding recent WWs on the stands--it was very hit or miss for me). Anyway, I have no recollection of the two Supergirl stories in this comic at all, re-reading them as an adult doesn't ring a bell. Very forgettable bland series, so I was really looking forward to seeing if Sekowsky could inject some excitement into this comic. Now, Brave and the Bold #91--wow. Prince Hal has already explained just what made this story was so great, so I'll just add that it's one of my favorite issues from my childhood. I was so glad to see Black Canary getting more and more airtime at DC. I could never manage to pick up the JLA comic, though I'd managed to read a few here and there thanks to my friends; and I had last month's GL/GA, which featured BC...but in this particular B & B story she really came into her own. There was a real emotional core to this story; she wanted to recreate what she'd had with her late Earth-2 Larry with Earth-1's Larry Lance, only he turned out to be far more sleazy than the other Larry. But he looked good, thanks to Nick Cardy, so her infatuation was perfectly understandable (and frankly Cardy's Larry looked a hell of lot more attractive than that Fandral-wannabe Green Arrow, lol). Batman was jealous (and his attraction to her would resurface later on in a couple of JLA issues). I remember thinking these were adult emotions and that this was such a grown-up story. And of course Cardy made it look like a movie, or as Hal put it, film noir. Great comic.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,872
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Post by shaxper on Jun 24, 2020 9:11:41 GMT -5
I still can't wrap my head around the idea that 1970 was 50 years ago. Granted, I was born in '79, but the Seventies always seemed not so far back. June 1970Batman #224 Detective Comics #402 Eerie #29 Life with Archie #100 (always surprised they didn't draw any attention to it being the hundredth issue)  Silver Surfer #18 Vampirella #7 World's Finest Comics #195 |
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 1, 2020 10:55:05 GMT -5
JULY 1970 (Part One)You know you're getting on in years when you see how quickly 50 years goes by, shaxper ! Tell me about it. I can recall much of that summer of '70 better than I can recall last week! That said, some memories of the comics I bought between my day and night/ weekend jobs... AQUAMAN 53Another outstanding Cardy cover in a title that was always enjoyable and even thought-provoking reading during the two-years that Dick Giordano, Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo had been at the helm. Aquaman was a fringe title: a bi-monthly, first of all, featuring a hero who, even with TV exposure, had never quite been able to break through to the level of success of DC’s Triple-A players like the Flash or Green Lantern. The covers certainly hadn’t been the problem. Nick Cardy’s work just kept getting better and better. No style was more suited to the underwater setting than Cardy’s, whose lush, flowing designs were perfect for suggesting the otherworldliness of the ocean depths. BATMAN 225
Eye-catching cover, not just for the art and the unique perspective by Adams and Giordano, but for the prominence given to the second story. As if DC fans were craving drag strip stories. Hey, drag strips were Charlton’s thing!    DETECTIVE 403
Another excellent cover by Neal and Dick. Insides are the work of Brown and Giacoia, except for the splash page. I wasn’t sophisticated enough to pick it up, but an eagle-eyed reader whose letter showed up a couple of issues later pointed out that the splash was drawn by Infantino. A double-tease, cover and splash page by all-stars.   GREEN LANTERN 79Another in a long line of hero-friends having a knock-down, drag-out fight. > YAWN< As much as I loved the intent of O’Neil’s stories, the issue-of-the-month approach (this time it was Native Americans) was getting old fast. JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 83
Nice cover by Murphy Anderson, but it's almost an afterthought thanks to the galleries of floating heads. The JSA heads look way better, IMHO.  
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 1, 2020 11:00:36 GMT -5
JULY 1970 (Part Two) SHOWCASE 93 (MANHUNTER 2070)This was the final issue of a comic that had been a constant of the DC line for 14 years. I always thought that this was quite an accomplishment, since the purpose of the book was to “showcase” possible new series and characters, meaning that sales figures for this must have been an even bigger crapshoot than they’d be for most other comics. From its debut in 1956 through #40 in 1962, Showcase was on fire: it was the launching pad for eleven features that were upgraded to their own titles and another two (Adam Strange and Space Ranger) that were given cover feature status. All of those tryouts involved multiple appearances; DC wasn’t particularly quick to pull the trigger on a new title back then. That changed after a run of issues that just didn’t catch readers’ attention in the same way. To be fair, the offerings were not up to the previous quality. Tommy Tomorrow got five issues; GI Joe and I Spy were reprint collections; Dr. No reprinted a British comic; and Cave Carson was the final wheezing attempt to create a four-person adventure team. The sole standout was the novel length “Sergeants Aren’t Born” starring Sgt. Rock, who’d already had Our Army at War as his home for four years. Then the Golden Age team-ups arrived in 1965, quickly followed by Enemy Ace, the Spectre and the Inferior Five, sandwiched around a one-shot reappearance of the Teen Titans. A nice run. The Spectre, I5 and the TT (who also were popping up in Brave and the Bold, all “graduated” to their own titles. By 1968, DC had abandoned the multiple-issue tryouts for what amounted to a series of one-issue previews of characters that had already been slated for a series, as DC was trying anything to play catch-up with Marvel. Thus we were treated to the Creeper, Anthro, Hawk and the Dove, Bat Lash, and Angel and the Ape in succession. Jonny Double and the Dolphin went nowhere. An issue of Phantom Stranger reprints paved the way for his title and old Dobie Gillis stories were updated as Windy and Willy. In its final 12 issues, Showcase returned to the three-issue tryouts and gave us Nightmaster, Firehair, Jason’s Quest and Manhunter 2070. (I’ve never even seen an issue of Jason’s Quest, so I can’t comment on how good or bad it was, but the other three, especially Kubert’s Firehair, were all enjoyable. While Showcase’s numbers had been steadily plummeting for several years prior, I recently read in a Mark Evanier piece that despite its low sales, Showcase wasn’t originally scheduled to end with #93. Showcase 94 was to have featured Jack Kirby’s Orion of the New Gods. As Evanier explains it: “The original idea was that the three [Fourth World] books would be called Orion, The Forever People and Mister Miracle, and then the overview title would be ‘The New Gods.’ Somehow, before its release, the Orion book had its title beefed-up and was being called Orion of the New Gods. At that point, the series was going to debut in DC's tryout comic, Showcase. Jack objected to this. He felt that readers would not commit to an ‘epic’ that was being offered to them on a trial basis… so DC cancelled Showcase and a book called New Gods appeared on the schedule in its place.“ Seven years later, DC revived Showcase, and there a few highlights (notably the Kubert covers on the Hawkman issues), but it became another victim of the DC Implosion in 1978.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 1, 2020 11:08:30 GMT -5
JULY 1970 (Part Three)STRANGE ADVENTURES 226 Always bought those great DC reprint titles, which usually featured attractive covers. This one seems to show the late Robert Kennedy as the American president. (If only…) Kubert also was clearly showing Mao, Golda Meier, King Faisal, and De Gaulle. The others are more like national symbols than actual leaders.  SUPER DC GIANT S-14 (TOP GUNS OF THE WEST) Here’s an example of what I just wrote above…  SUPER DC GIANT S-15 (WESTERN COMICS) And here’s the best of the bunch!  SUPER DC GIANT S-16 (THE BEST OF THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD) Final course of the feast for the reprint lovers! The cover was a hot mess, but who cares?.  TEEN TITANS 29A habit buy at this point. The Cardy covers helped. 
TOMAHAWK 130 The final bow for the Revolutionary-Era Tomahawk and his Rangers. It’s a bit of an odd cover, with the main figure’s back to us and the title character less than prominent. And the scene depicted really wasn’t the focus of the story, which turned out to be a tentative step toward a bit of late 18th-century women’s lib! . But give Adams this: when he drew various Rangers on the cover, he did a nice job of trying to make clear who each was. (That’s Big Anvil next to Tomahawk and Wildcat in the yellow vest.) Despite the typical inaccuracies about the Native Americans they’re fighting, Kanigher and Frank Thorne turn in a nice tale about the Rangers highlighted by a flashback to a dinner and a barn dance with local settlers. The battle scenes read more lie a Sgt. Rock story than they should, but the layouts and artwork (including a full-page depiction of the Rangers “surfing” down a cascade of water as they burst through a dam) by the often overlooked Thorne save the day. Ironically, Tomahawk himself never appears in the back-up story, beautifully illustrated by Thorne, which reveals the story of how Frenchie was assigned to the Rangers. It also features a cameo of Richard Nixon as a Continental soldier!  AVENGERS 80A “by accident” purchase. Hadn’t been buying Avengers since about #63, when Hawkeye became the new Goliath. Didn’t like what had happened to my favorite archer, and stopped buying. But the Adams-esque Buscema-Palmer cover and interior art and this new Native American hero got my attention. I didn’t buy Avengers again until the Kree-Skrull War. 
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 1, 2020 11:17:34 GMT -5
July 1970 (Part the Last)
CONAN 1  This was one I’d been waiting for! For the first time, an overlap between Conan and comics. I had been a Conan fan since I had first discovered him a couple of years earlier, and essentially had no idea that anyone else knew what the hell I was talking about when I mentioned his name. Plugs for the book appeared in the Bullpen Bulletins pages and ads popped up in many Marvel titles leading up to his debut in those pre-Internet, pre-LCS, pre-Pony Express days. I was primed, and didn’t know quite what to expect, especially because Conan’s artist was going to be Barry Smith, he of the imitation Kirby issues of Daredevil and X-Men I’d seen a few months back.  I was not hopeful, but just seeing Conan in a comic book was more than I could have hoped for, and that made me less worried about how the book would look. My fears were clamed quickly; this Smith kid had improved. No more big ugly bodies. The young Conan was lean and muscular, and the layouts dynamic, exactly unlike the big bulky lugs clomping around on those awkwardly designed pages I’d seen from him. As much as I loved seeing my favorite S and S character in pulpy print, I was unprepared for how quickly Smith’s art would transmogrify into pre-Raphaelite-inspired beauty. (Has any artist pulled off such a dramatic transformation in style so quickly and expertly?) Despite several schedule-related bumps in the road as Conan (the comic) got into its teens, reading it became the highlight of every month for the next couple of years. And that’s the kind of reading experience every comic fan treasures.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 1, 2020 12:13:55 GMT -5
You were there right at the beginning, Prince Hal? How I envy you!!! I agree about the quick progression of Smith's skills... and that is something I have seen a few times in the life of young artists: many of them seem to have this brief period, in which they go from talented amateur to creative demi-gods in just a few months. There must be some Faustian deal behind it all!!! |
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 1, 2020 12:54:50 GMT -5
You were there right at the beginning, Prince Hal ? How I envy you!!! I agree about the quick progression of Smith's skills... and that is something I have seen a few times in the life of young artists: many of them seem to have this brief period, in which they go from talented amateur to creative demi-gods in just a few months. There must be some Faustian deal behind it all!!! Oh, yes. It was such a different feeling to see what I had always regarded as what we'd probably refer to today as a niche genre appear in a comic. Sword and sorcery was not well known, though certainly there was some overlap between comics and S and S fans. But comics were a pretty restricted neighborhood back then and the powers that were didn't look to niche genres to expand their lines. As you have recounted, Marvel did not have to spend too much to acquire the rights to Conan. Nowadays, it must be relatively expensive to do so. It was wonderful to see a Conan comic on the stands, and especially one that was forever improving. Smith became legendary overnight. |
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Post by kirby101 on Jul 1, 2020 13:10:34 GMT -5
Conan #1 is my origin story. Before that I read comics here and there throughout the Silver Age. My older brother had a good friend who was really into comics and I started to read more of theirs. But I saw Conan #1 and bought it for myself. I was hooked. I loved that book and every issue that followed. About a year latter, I started buying more of the Marvel books off the stands, and by the time Marvel switched to the Giant 25 cent size I was buying almost every Marvel book and some DCs as well. I had become an avid, some would say rabid, comic reader and collector.  |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 2, 2020 11:42:21 GMT -5
Nothing I immediately recognize. My earliest comics would be Gold Keys; usually Super Goof, Uncle Scrooge or Space Family Robinson. Maybe some Bugs Bunny or Road Runner. I don't immediately recognize anything; but, the Uncle Scrooge and related material tends to blend together, as far as covers.
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Post by brutalis on Jul 6, 2020 7:59:15 GMT -5
July 1970 and my back issue collecting continues in the 1980's as my start collecting in the 70's new off the rack is just a bit ahead.
Sadly no Captain Marvel at this time.
But Avengers 80
Fantastic Four 103 and annual 8
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Post by Farrar on Jul 7, 2020 13:46:39 GMT -5
July 1970 My Marvels, fresh from the stands!  Fantastic Four #103: Ugh. This was the great Romita, whom I'd read so much about in the Bullpen Bulletins, where he was known as the Spider-Man artist nonpareil? Okay, maybe he could do Spidey but the FF? Fughedaboudit. After Kirby-Sinnott, this art looked so simplistic. The less said about Romita's FF pencils the better. Fantastic Four Annual/Special #8: This reprinted the story from FF Annual #1, a long epic by Stan and Kirby-Ayers art. Now this was more like it! I absolutely preferred the old FF reprints, and my back issues, to the current book with its slipshod/slapdash approach and direction. It was interesting to me that the FF Annual, which was usually on sale in August, was all of a sudden on sale in mid-July! It kind of worried me; I was into schedules back then, I knew exactly when "my" comics were on sale; and the fact that this comic came out earlier was a bit worrisome to me. I was worried that schedule rejugglings would cause me to not obtain my usual mags. Also, I remember I had this comic with me during a brief vacation at a friend's summer house, a stunningly beautiful old family house; and despite the bucolic and idyllic surroundings--so different from my usual summer, hot city habitat--this particular comic occupied a lot of my time and imagination. The older FF stories, older comics in general, really captivated me. X-Men Special #1: I remember I had this one because it contained the X-Men vs. Avengers battle from X-Men #9 (which I didn't have), along with the story from X-Men #11, which I did have as a back issue. Back then X-Men #11 was my oldest X-Men comic; it was the story of the dissolution of Magneto's original Brotherhood, with Wanda and Pietro leaving but not before they dramatically announce that they "may return someday!" Well, they didn't waste any time as they showed up in that month's Avengers comic (#16)...another back issue I had. As I have noted many times, for me the real thrill was buying back issues. For the most part, by this time the new comics I was buying off the stands weren't all that appealing to me, they weren't doing it for me any longer.
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. Good example of the different editorial approaches still in force then at DC. 
