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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 16, 2024 17:32:41 GMT -5
I have a feeling the bids will greatly exceed this current $2400...
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 16, 2024 16:53:09 GMT -5
Hating to be that guy, especially to someone as knowledgeable as you, MWGallaher , I know, because I vividly remember buying it, that the first issue of the first DC character of the Silver Age to be introduced in his own title, rather than be given an earlier appearance or try-out in Showcase, The Brave and the Bold, or any other other magazine was printed with a No. 1 designation. That would be Capt. Storm, on sale in March of 1964. (Probably the right thing to do for such a Distinguished Character.)  Feel free to be that guy! I suspected I might have overlooked someone! |
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 16, 2024 12:03:18 GMT -5
I wonder why they went with the old numbering for the Flash but not Green Lantern? That's a good question! DC was evidently still worried that a "No. 1" on the cover was a potential detriment, not a selling point, considering that the first issue of Green Lantern didn't have an issue number on the front cover. Which got me curious... Green Lantern #1, July 1960, unnumbered Dobie Gillis #1, May 1960, unnumbered Pat Boone #1, October 1959, unnumbered Lois Lane #1, April 1958, unnumbered Pvt. Doberman #1, July 1958, unnumbered Sgt. Bilko #1, Jun 1957, unnumbered Showcase #1, Mar-Apr 1956, unnumbered Three Mousketeers #1, Mar-Apr 1956, unnumbered Falling in Love #1, Sept-Oct 1955, unnumbered Unexpected #1, Feb-Mar 1955, unnnumbered Even as far back as Phantom Stranger #1, Aug-Sep 1952, unnumbered! I haven't done an exhaustive search, but so far it appears that starting at least in the 50's, DC didn't number any first issues on the cover until Metamorpho #1 in July/August 1965! Curiously, they had no compunction against labeling an issue as "No. 2", even though that doesn't imply much more of an established sales record than "No. 1", so perhaps there was a legal requirement they had to comply with, something they could "get away with" once. Or, it occurs to me, maybe they were concerned that news stands wouldn't know which one to remove from the racks if neither of the first two issues had numbers? |
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 15, 2024 5:32:02 GMT -5
SPACE ADVENTURES #43, Charlton, December 1961 Art by Vince Alascia  As a new retiree from NASA, I felt obligated to participate in this round with this early comic book tribute to America's first man in space, NASA's Alan Shepard. As the cover nicely illustrates, Shepard's flight followed a ballistic trajectory: it was launched into the heavens to reach into space and then slowed to allow gravity to pull him and his Mercury capsule right back to its splash-down (in fact, this cover is taken directly from the splash page of the interior non-fiction story, "A-Okay"!). |
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 14, 2024 9:31:25 GMT -5
We could really stretch this thread out by selecting one specific publisher, with monthly representatives of its comics-publishing lifespan, then going back to the start for a different publisher. It might be good to establish some ground rules on a per-publisher basis; for example, it might be fun to see EC's color comics evolution, but stopping once MAD became their only ongoing publication.
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 14, 2024 9:03:41 GMT -5
This article sheds some light on Jack's return to Marvel -- linkI'd quibble with one of the points here: the authors assert that Kirby's "Return of the Gods" was rechristened "The Eternals" to avoid violating the "Chariots of the Gods", and that DC coincidentally started up "Return of the New Gods" but returned to "The New Gods" to similarly avoid trademark violation.  But no matter what the indicia established as the formal name of its publication, DC continued putting "Return of the New Gods" on its covers, which would have served just as much a trademark violation, if that were the real concern. The common wisdom as I always understood it was that DC rushed out "Return of the New Gods" to force Marvel to retitle "Return of the Gods" (as it had already been promoted prior to publication). While it might be vindictive, that strikes me as a legitimate strategy to protect what were, legally anyway, DC's intellectual properties, since a Marvel "Return of the Gods" by Jack Kirby probably would have been interpreted by some fans as some kind of continuation/sequel to Kirby's New Gods. And hey, Kirby later did exactly that by making Captain Victory into a stealth sequel to his Fourth World series.  As it turned out, "Eternals" was probably the better title, but the paperback-evoking "Return of the Gods" logo has a certain nostalgic appeal. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 13, 2024 20:20:59 GMT -5
Sounds plausible to me. In fact, maybe all three of the immediately post-Christman stories were revised scripts intended for the Crimson Avenger. There's an inordinate amount of panels devoted to motoring (with The Crimson's chauffeur sidekick and fancy Black Beauty-esque car, those tended to be prominent in his stories), and the similarity in their primary gimmicks would make swapping the lead characters easy. Maybe they decided that two Green Hornet clones were too much, and settled on the Sandman as the stronger concept, halting The Crimson's run in favor of Batman. The Sandman feature stabilizes with a real supporting cast after that; perhaps that's when the Crimson Avenger scripts were used up and Fox got serious about establishing Sandman properly? The JSA was still a year away, so I wouldn't think that would have factored into dialing down on the "wanted by the police" angle, but once they did dial that down, Crimson Avenger might have seemed feasible to reinstate. That makes sense. It's in the fourth post-Christman story that Fox introduces Dian Belmont and her DA father, characters who remain with the series until the purple-and-gold era starts. Cei-U! I summon the affirmation!
And to clarify the point I think I failed to make, taking away the Sandman's criminal reputation was necessary for him to be acceptable as a founding JSA member, leaving the Crimson free to take back up the mantle of National's straight-up Green Hornet clone, at least for a few months, before he and Wing became Batman and Robin clones (as did, of course, Sandman and Sandy). |
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 13, 2024 16:38:55 GMT -5
The presence of Toki makes me wonder if this was a repurposed Crimson Avenger script. This story hit the stands during the period CA was absent from Detective (#28-36), so there could've been a leftover manuscript from the Jim Chambers run that Fox was asked to rework into a Sandman episode. That might explain some of the story's incoherence. Cei-U! I summon the working theory! Sounds plausible to me. In fact, maybe all three of the immediately post-Christman stories were revised scripts intended for the Crimson Avenger. There's an inordinate amount of panels devoted to motoring (with The Crimson's chauffeur sidekick and fancy Black Beauty-esque car, those tended to be prominent in his stories), and the similarity in their primary gimmicks would make swapping the lead characters easy. Maybe they decided that two Green Hornet clones were too much, and settled on the Sandman as the stronger concept, halting The Crimson's run in favor of Batman. The Sandman feature stabilizes with a real supporting cast after that; perhaps that's when the Crimson Avenger scripts were used up and Fox got serious about establishing Sandman properly? The JSA was still a year away, so I wouldn't think that would have factored into dialing down on the "wanted by the police" angle, but once they did dial that down, Crimson Avenger might have seemed feasible to reinstate. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 7, 2024 21:58:01 GMT -5
If Amash is saying that he finished this before he enlisted, and if the reports of him reporting to Pensacola in June 1938 are correct, then all of his stories were finished a year before the first ones saw print. That would put his entire comics production pre-Action Comics #1. ...in which case, it may have been held in inventory until the sales on Action prompted Sullivan & Co. to cast about for a mystery man to headline Adventure. Cei-U! I summon the hypothesis!
Suppose then that Bert Christman had already finished those first five Sandman stories prior to giving up his comics career for naval aviation in June 1938. Given that DC's first costumed mystery man to see print, The Crimson Avenger, debuted in Detective Comics #20, on sale in September 1938, there would be a strong possibility that The Sandman was National's real first mystery man, from the perspective of being the first one for whom completed stories were prepared. (Yes, The Crimson may also have been held in inventory just as we are supposing The Sandman was, but it may also be the case that Jim Chambers only started on that material sometime after June 1938, which would still give it time to see print in September.) Like The Sandman, The Crimson Avenger incapacitated his foes with sleeping gas fired from a gun. Both, obviously, "borrowed" this from radio's popular Green Hornet, but The Crimson was a much more explicit imitation: newspaper publisher with an Asian sidekick/chauffeur and with a color in his hero name (but at least "Crimson Avenger" wasn't quite as blatant as "Blue Beetle" or "Red Bee"!). In this supposition, we might imagine that Sullivan liked Christman's Sandman idea, but held back on it and instead directed Chambers to produce something even closer to the Hornet, then dug The Sandman out of inventory when mystery men started taking off. It's all supposition, but it's intriguing to think that The Sandman might have preceded and directly inspired the character that has been commonly recognized as the first of the DC mystery men. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 7, 2024 15:29:58 GMT -5
It's possible that he could have worked on some material, while training and carrying out his military duties. It's also possible that he had done some work earlier that was published later. The Aviation Cadet Act was established in 1938, which allowed for commissioning upon completion of training, to build up aviation forces. The training time for flight school was reduced from 12 months to 6 months. If Christman had some lead time, before entering the program, he might have knocked out some stories ahead of time, like Simon & Kirby, when they got their draft notices. He might have worked on them in his down time, after flight school, but that seems less likely, given his duties, which would have included other areas, including watchstanding for his squadron. He was eventually assigned to the USS Ranger. He has a total of 11 stories published by DC/All-American, between 1938 and 1940, based on cover dates. The stories are about 6 pages. Not exactly a ton of work to produce; they could have easily been stockpiled; or, just as easily, been cranked out over a day or two.
Either scenario is plausible. From Jim Amash's persepctive (care of his foreword to The Sandman Archives Vol.1):
"The last Christman-drawn story appears in Adventure Comics #43 and was an obvious rush job. There are fewer panels per page, and the inking has a hurried look to it. Christmas was on his way out the door as he pursued his dream of becoming an aviator, eventually joining The Flying Tigers."
I noticed the expansive panels used in his last two stories but what with these being tales of the sky I wasn't certain whether this was an artistic choice or economical one. If Amash is saying that he finished this before he enlisted, and if the reports of him reporting to Pensacola in June 1938 are correct, then all of his stories were finished a year before the first ones saw print. That would put his entire comics production pre-Action Comics #1. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 6, 2024 11:35:34 GMT -5
I've been commenting that it should be obvious by even these early days what sort of roles The Sandman was born to play, but I'm not so sure that's true. What exactly does Christman have to draw upon in terms of comic book mystery men at this point in time? A smattering of Bat-Man stories? Some Crimson Avenger escapades? Other than Superman, who amongst this developing handful of superheroes is there to glean an idea from of what a superhero story should be? I respect Christman for offering something different in a medium which will soon become flooded with clichés and overly used tropes but I just don't think it works. I wish we had a better handle on the timeline of production on this feature. It appears that Christman began his training at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, in June 1938--one month after Superman first appeared on the newsstands. Did he draw this (and "Three Aces") while he was in training as an aviation cadet? It's hard to imagine a new enlistee in what I would guess was a pretty intensive program still moonlighting as a comic book artist! It's hard to imagine that National would have employed an artist they knew was producing his pages under those circumstances. But it's also hard to imagine that Christman's stories were already a year old before they saw print (which means they would have been prepared before Superman was unleashed on the world!). I can't make any reliable deductions from this timeline. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 4, 2024 8:32:33 GMT -5
Seems to me the Avengers proves my point. 6 issues with 4 different writers, and mediocre stories. And Shooter wants to blame the artists? Sounds more like lipstick on a pig. Meanwhile the better work mentioned above shows the problem wasn't Colan. It seems to me the most crucial missing bits of (recent) comics history are the actual typed-out plots "Marvel Method" artists were working from; not just the more controversial Stan Lee plots, few if any reliable examples of which exist (and which may not have ever been committed to paper in the first place), but also what Marvel artists like Colan worked from in the 70's and 80's, from writers like Mantlo and Budiansky. We devoted readers have been left (or lead) to imagine and presume that these plots spelled out the general order of events, the key plot points, the special moments that had to happen, and those things may or may not have actually been provided. In the Colan final page I showed earlier, there's a lot of exposition in the final panels, and it may have been that the plot indeed placed those events as revelations which would close the story, but that Colan saw them as being so uninteresting visually that he chose not to devote as many pages to them as the plotter envisioned. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 4, 2024 7:22:44 GMT -5
foxley
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 4, 2024 7:06:33 GMT -5
In my case, back issues were a rare purchase throughout my collecting days, so that helps me to spot what I bought back then, and yes, I kept almost everything until beginning to purge a few years ago.
If I bought a series regularly, I can be completely confident if a run was within that window and alternatively, if I bought a series only on rare occasions (like Daredevil), the few I bought stand out. Some I don't remember until I see the cover (like Vampire Tales), some I remember being very excited about (Planet of the Apes, Human Torch). Very occasionally, I'll have to wrack my brain to be sure (Giant-Size Dracula) and even more rarely, I am too unsure to list it. For my first year of collecting, everything was so new and wonderful that it all stands out, and I did a whole thread starting in August 2021 detailing my first year's worth of purchases.
Sometimes, and this is highly inconsistent, I can remember exactly where I got an issue. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to those distinct memories: sometimes it's a very special, long sought purchase, like Planet of the Apes #1, other times, it's a random book like Western Team-Up #1 (7-11 at Millington and Frayser Blvd), Giant-Size Creatures #1 (Super 7 at Overton Crossing and James Rd), Marvel Feature #4 (at Northgate Shopping Center Walgreens).
I do have a very good memory, though, and comics were a huge part of my life, and I reread them often enough to cement what I got in my brain.
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Post by MWGallaher on Jun 3, 2024 16:44:24 GMT -5
Here's my best Roy Thomas-ization: one of Teeter's unidentified pilot cohorts later tangled with The Sandman, and Wesley then found it conveniently intimidating to claim credit for the fate of the late Mr. Sneed, although the avenging aviators were in fact The Three Aces. Word circulated in gangdom and this incident became part of the myth of the mysterious Sandman.
It does appear that Christman wanted to set stories in his preferred environments--swimming and flying--even if they weren't all that appropriate to the character. Perhaps getting his Three Aces in print was the outlet he needed for his aviation stories, permitting The Sandman to get back into a more fitting milieu.
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