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Post by Cei-U! on Jan 21, 2018 8:39:36 GMT -5
The original artist on "Liberty Belle" was C. A. "Chuck" Winter, who drew multiple super-hero series ("The Lynx," "The Eagle," "The Black Lion") for Fox before moving to DC (where he also drew "Spy," the old Siegel & Shuster Detective Comics strip). The writer on Belle was Don Cameron, who also created Batman villains Tweedledum and Tweedledee, The Cavalier, and The Crime Doctor (as well as Superman baddie The Toyman) around this time.
Cei-U! I summon the lowdown!
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 21, 2018 10:01:13 GMT -5
I read the first of my random Kull, The Destroyer (I'd better be specific since there were 2 different Kull titles in the 70's) back issue yesterday, Kull #19. I liked it. Both art and writing were good, especially the writing, though Kull was more Conan-like than I expected. Anyway, in the letter column they mention that, due to a combination of a paper shortage (their publisher asked them to drop some titles) and relatively low sales, Kull was going to be at least temporarily cancelled with #15 being the last issue. Now that I look on comicbookbdb, I see that there was a 2 ywar gap between #15 and #16, so there you go. I never knew that before. I remember being quite excited when the Kull series came back, as Kull was always my favourite REH character. It really felt like a brand new series with the hiatus and the different creative team - Doug Moench and Alfredo Alcala, I think? There were various artists but Moench was there for awhile, I believe. And yes, the new series was more Conan-like with Kull wandering around and having adventures, while the earlier series, especially during the Severins' run, was the more traditional King of Valusia Kull, fighting conspiracies against the throne, and supporting characters Brule and Tu. I prefer the traditional Kull but I can understand how the writer of a continuing series might find the King of Valusia scenario a little restrictive and want to take him away from it for a while. Actually, Moench didn't last that long. I've just read #20 & 21, and Don Glut (rhymes with Groot, I never knew that before) takes over the writing with #21. Ernie Chan on pencils, though I do't know how long that lasts.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 21, 2018 11:24:44 GMT -5
The original artist on "Liberty Belle" was C. A. "Chuck" Winter, who drew multiple super-hero series ("The Lynx," "The Eagle," "The Black Lion") for Fox before moving to DC (where he also drew "Spy," the old Siegel & Shuster Detective Comics strip). The writer on Belle was Don Cameron, who also created Batman villains Tweedledum and Tweedledee, The Cavalier, and The Crime Doctor (as well as Superman baddie The Toyman) around this time. Cei-U! I summon the lowdown! I came across Don Cameron's name as the creator of Liberty Belle when doing a little research and I thought the name was familiar. I especially like the Cavalier! The Cavalier is one of three (at least!) Batman villains who was a member of Bruce Wayne's gentlemen's club, and they would be palling around at the club during the day and unbeknownst to each other, they were also fighting at night! If I was writing Batman, I'd bring back the gentlemen's club and have Bruce Wayne and all three of the members who were Batman villains (Cavalier, Catman and the werewolf) belonging to the club at the same time.
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Post by Cei-U! on Jan 21, 2018 11:31:16 GMT -5
Cameron was also an artist. He drew M.C. Gaines' Picture Stories from the Bible series, first for All-American, later for EC. Cei-U! I summon the versatility!
EDIT: The above is incorrect. The artist named Don Cameron was not the same individual as the writer Don Cameron.
The Cei-U! of 2023
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Post by Batflunkie on Jan 21, 2018 11:42:15 GMT -5
Still wading through my HTD Omnibus, just got finished with issue 8. One thing that I'm realizing while re-reading all these issues after so long is how much of the sub-text I was unable to grasp at 16 and now can fully appreciate at 28 While I do still think that issue 16 my all-around favorite of Gerber's run, 8 is definitely a laugh riot as far as political satire goes
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 21, 2018 15:04:36 GMT -5
I read the first of my random Kull, The Destroyer (I'd better be specific since there were 2 different Kull titles in the 70's) back issue yesterday, Kull #19. I liked it. Both art and writing were good, especially the writing, though Kull was more Conan-like than I expected. Anyway, in the letter column they mention that, due to a combination of a paper shortage (their publisher asked them to drop some titles) and relatively low sales, Kull was going to be at least temporarily cancelled with #15 being the last issue. Now that I look on comicbookbdb, I see that there was a 2 ywar gap between #15 and #16, so there you go. I never knew that before. I remember being quite excited when the Kull series came back, as Kull was always my favourite REH character. It really felt like a brand new series with the hiatus and the different creative team - Doug Moench and Alfredo Alcala, I think? There were various artists but Moench was there for awhile, I believe. And yes, the new series was more Conan-like with Kull wandering around and having adventures, while the earlier series, especially during the Severins' run, was the more traditional King of Valusia Kull, fighting conspiracies against the throne, and supporting characters Brule and Tu. I prefer the traditional Kull but I can understand how the writer of a continuing series might find the King of Valusia scenario a little restrictive and want to take him away from it for a while. Oh, and yeah, you're right that a king fighting conspiracies probably wouldn't make for a successful comic.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 22, 2018 13:38:40 GMT -5
I've read a lot of Golden Age comics in the last few days - Wonder Woman, Space Smith, Sky Girl, Robotman, Newsboy Legion, Liberty Belle (and I only have one more Atomic Knights adventure left) - but I'm kind of busy for a few days and I don't have a lot of time to write much about them now. But I did want to say a few words about The Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy. I'm reading Liberty Belle's stories in Star Spangled Comics, and I decided to read all the features in SSC to see what they were like. And they were all good! But I especially liked the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy! I know about the Star Spangled Kid and Stripesy, from All-Star Squadron and the JLA/JSA/Seven Soldiers of Victory cross-over in the 1970s. But I don't think I've ever seen one of their Golden Age appearances. The Star-Spangled Kid is Sylvester Pemberton, a wealthy kid who puts on a costume and fights crime with the aid of his chauffer Dugan, who puts on a striped sweater and is known as Stripesy. So that nobody suspects that he's the Star-Spangled Kid, he pretends to be a bookworm who doesn't like to exercise and he wears glasses so that no one would ever suspect that he's the much beloved action hero The Star Spangled Kid. So the adult is the sidekick! And it's kind of like Batman, except that he's helped by a chauffer instead of a mere butler. Also Bruce Wayne doesn't have to worry about a very protective father. Sylvester is nose deep in statistics and papers, trying to figure out what's going on with a series of very well coordinated crimes across the country. How do the gangs contact each other with the necessary precise information to make these crimes possible? What happens to the stolen goods? Who is behind it? Mr. Pemberton is very worried about his bookish son getting mushy muscles from so much book larnin', so he sends Sylvester (with Dugan to look after him) to a victory farm in the country! It's 1943, so the war is on, and victory farms have been set up to make sure there's enough food for the war effort. Most of the kids doing the labor are rural kids and some of them are kind of mean. Sylvester maintains his snobby, aristocratic, bookish ways, and many of the other kids hate him for it. (This causes a bit of a problem later when Stripesy signals for help but Sylvester can't respond right away because he's being hazed by the rest of the kids (it's the middle of the night) with a blanket party. (If you don't what a blanket party is, it's not a good thing.)) Well, it turns out the bad guys that Sylvester was investigating are operating from a shack near the victory farm! They're sending out all the precise info for the crimes by writing instructions on eggs in invisible ink! And the stolen merchandise is being shipped hidden in cans labeled peas or corn! And the mastermind behind it is The Needle, the Kid's arch-enemy! I've heard of the Needle, but I'm not sure where. During the adventure, he says, "I've had you in my clutches so many times, I'm not going to mess it up this time!" or something like that and they take the Kid and Stripesy to the side of the shack and riddle them with lead! OMG! It's kind of brutal! (They are saved because the Kid had been in the shack for a while and he passed the time by filling all the guns with blanks. And luckily nobody noticed that there was no blood and there were no bullet holes in their clothes. Maybe it was dark.) I looked it up and the Needle fought our heroes six or seven times in the Golden Age. I love finding out that some of the less well known heroes had arch-villains! Like, Zatara had the Tigress and Wildcat had the Huntress and the Golden Wasp. Did Johnny Quick have a major villain? Robotman? I'm under the impression that neither Aquaman or the Green Arrow had a major villain until the Silver Age. Anyway, I really liked this Star Spangled Kid story. I was just going to read the Liberty Belle stories, but Star Spangled Comics has a lot of fun series! I'm sure I'll find myself reading the Newsboy Legion and Robotman pretty regularly when I'm going through each issue of Star Spangled Comics and reading Liberty Belle and the Star Spangled Kid. And I'll probably read TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite from time to time.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2018 13:48:15 GMT -5
Hoosier X ... During the time when I was teenager and onto 30 years or younger ... Star Spangled Kid and Stripesy are fun stories to read and always brings me joy reading them. I read that book and it's one of my favorites. I loved reading old comic books featuring them!
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 22, 2018 18:04:12 GMT -5
I read the last Atomic Knights story this afternoon. Strange Adventures #160. Such a great series! But now I'm sad!
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 23, 2018 15:54:52 GMT -5
I read Strange Tales #110 & 111. I read them because they're the first two appearances of Doctor Strange, but he's actually the backup story to the star of the comic, the Human Torch. Th Human Torch stories were so-so (Stan seems to be trying to make Johnny into a legit solo star, personally I've never cared for the Human Torch, though) and the Dotor Strange stories were good, though I surprised that they haven't had his origin yet.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jan 23, 2018 16:54:45 GMT -5
The Torch had been a successful solo star in the Golden Age - not Johnny Storm, the original android Torch - so it's likely that Martin Goodman wanted to repeat that past success. He wasn't known for originality.
Ditko came up with Dr. Strange on his own and brought the complete first story to Stan. If Stan hadn't bought it, the story might have ended up at Charlton. After a few issues and some positive reader feedback, they came up with an origin. Some people think the origin is the first story that Stan was heavily involved in.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 23, 2018 17:17:14 GMT -5
I read Strange Tales #110 & 111. I read them because they're the first two appearances of Doctor Strange, but he's actually the backup story to the star of the comic, the Human Torch. Th Human Torch stories were so-so (Stan seems to be trying to make Johnny into a legit solo star, personally I've never cared for the Human Torch, though) and the Dotor Strange stories were good, though I surprised that they haven't had his origin yet. So-so is being incredibly generous. Those stories stink on ice. The Human Torch was by far the worst of the early Marvel super-hero features.
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Post by berkley on Jan 24, 2018 1:22:16 GMT -5
I remember being quite excited when the Kull series came back, as Kull was always my favourite REH character. It really felt like a brand new series with the hiatus and the different creative team - Doug Moench and Alfredo Alcala, I think? There were various artists but Moench was there for awhile, I believe. And yes, the new series was more Conan-like with Kull wandering around and having adventures, while the earlier series, especially during the Severins' run, was the more traditional King of Valusia Kull, fighting conspiracies against the throne, and supporting characters Brule and Tu. I prefer the traditional Kull but I can understand how the writer of a continuing series might find the King of Valusia scenario a little restrictive and want to take him away from it for a while. Oh, and yeah, you're right that a king fighting conspiracies probably wouldn't make for a successful comic. Oh I didn't mind that at all, myself, but I can see how writers and readers alike might prefer the more wide-open possibilities of a wandering warrior like Conan. And besides, I think there are a lot of other things you can do with a lead character who's a reigning king besides just conspiracies and rebellions. If there's ever another Kull series I'd like to see some of those possibilities explored.
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 24, 2018 8:54:35 GMT -5
Oh, and yeah, you're right that a king fighting conspiracies probably wouldn't make for a successful comic. Oh I didn't mind that at all, myself, but I can see how writers and readers alike might prefer the more wide-open possibilities of a wandering warrior like Conan. And besides, I think there are a lot of other things you can do with a lead character who's a reigning king besides just conspiracies and rebellions. If there's ever another Kull series I'd like to see some of those possibilities explored. Does any comic company even own the rights to Kull now?
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 24, 2018 8:59:51 GMT -5
I read Strange Tales #110 & 111. I read them because they're the first two appearances of Doctor Strange, but he's actually the backup story to the star of the comic, the Human Torch. Th Human Torch stories were so-so (Stan seems to be trying to make Johnny into a legit solo star, personally I've never cared for the Human Torch, though) and the Dotor Strange stories were good, though I surprised that they haven't had his origin yet. So-so is being incredibly generous. Those stories stink on ice. The Human Torch was by far the worst of the early Marvel super-hero features. Yeah, you're right, I was being generous. It was tough to get through those to get to the Doctor Strange stories. Does the character just suck or was Stan bringing his C game to those stories? Actually, I'm inclined to think some of the former and a lot of the latter.
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