They Might Be Giants! (1965) ~~ A "Comical Wednesday" Post!

Another snowstorm, one that dropped about two feet of that white crap on my area, but I managed to post this on Wednesday nonetheless!

So here we go again, fellow babies! This edition's focus is on the giant-sized comic books (or annuals) which hit the stands in 1965.

Well, mainly...

You may very well be wondering, whuzzup with the Giant Superman Annual #2, pictured above? That book came out all the way back in 1960!

Well, y'see, I estimate that it was in 1965 that I first saw that annual, which belonged to either my friend Jeff or my friend Kevin. Only his copy looked more like this:

That's right, no front cover! But plenty of great stories in it, nonetheless! It reprinted the first appearances of villains like Brainiac, Metallo, Bizarro, and -- I swear -- Titano, the Super Ape! And no, in case you're wondering, Titano did not wear a freakin' mask like Ace, the Bat-Hound did!

And there's another ultra-cool, giant-sized book that I missed, this one back in 1961... and why I'm even mentioning it will be apparent very, very soon, I promise.

Since 1961, DC has come out with a lot of Secret Origins annuals, series, one-shots, etc., but the first one I ever saw devoted to that theme was yet another issue of the 80 Page Giant series!

80 Page Giant #8 was the first of a terrific four-issue run.

That issue contained mostly cool stories, as I recall, except for (maybe) the Flash story, "The Origin of Flash's Masked Identity!" Back in the 1940s, y'see, the original (Golden Age) Flash, Jay Garrick, never wore a mask... and yet, no one ever realized that Jay and the Flash were the same guy! (Hey, it worked for Superman, right?) Well, in this particular story, the new (Silver Age) Flash, Barry Allen, daydreamed about how his life would be if he tried the maskless route. He ended up deciding it was a stupid idea. What a surprise.

So, now we're back to the real 1965. Or something.

I was still at the stage where I thought The Flash was one of the coolest superheroes ever, and 80 Page Giant #9 reprinted plenty of early appearances by members of Flash's Rogues Gallery, plus "Flash of Two Worlds" from The Flash #123, the landmark issue which established that the modern-day DC heroes (and villains) lived on an Earth called Earth-One, while DC characters from the Golden Age had existed on a different Earth, called Earth-Two (actually an entire universe)!

Actually, the so-called Earth-Two heroes came first, so their universe probably deserved to be called Earth-One instead. It gets complicated... and I'm barely scratching the surface, believe me!

DC and Marvel, which produced all of the giants and annuals that I'm gushing about in this series -- except for one, in my next installment -- seemed to enjoy re-publishing first appearances of certain characters, hero or villain origins, and the like. Both companies really knew what their audience wanted.

(Well, they knew I wanted, anyway. I can't speak for the rest of the country's comic book readers.)

Two examples of "re-publishing first appearances of certain characters, hero or villain origins, and the like" would be the reprinted debut of The Kryptonite Kid, as well as the story which told how a teenage Lex Luthor met Superboy and became his friend at first, only to end up as his greatest enemy.

And speaking of Lex Luthor, the next issue of 80 Page Giant featured several stories of the adult Lex Luthor against Superman... and in one case, Superboy.

How did that happen? Via time travel!

In a fairly well-told, effective story called "The Impossible Mission," Superboy decides to go back in time to prevent the assassination of none other than Abraham Lincoln. Purely by coincidence, Lex Luthor, who is an adult in "our" time (1960, when this story first appeared), is in Washington, D.C. on that very same day! Apparently, he'd traveled to 1865 just to hide from Superman. No, really.

Luthor spots Superboy, and assumes that Superman had sent his own younger self to capture him (Luthor). Lex luckily has some Red Kryptonite with him. "Red K" is a variation of plain ol' Green Kryptonite, which can kill Superman or Superboy. However, Red Kryptonite doesn't kill Superman/Superboy. Instead, it causes strange effects, transformations, etc. that last (in most stories) for forty-eight hours, but that period sometimes varied, depending on the writer of the individual stories!

In this instance, the "Red K" completely immobilizes Superboy, while Luthor stands there gloating. Suddenly, a commotion from nearby begins as news hits the streets that Lincoln has been shot. A tear runs down Superboy's face because he knows that he's failed in his mission. Luthor, hearing the uproar and seeing Superboy's reaction, realizes the real reason Superboy was in 1865. With an "I'm evil, but not that evil!" kind of attitude, the horrified Lex exits the room (and, presumably, leaves 1865 by whatever method he'd used to get there in the first place).

Whew! And all that just to teach Superboy that it was impossible to change what's already happened.

Now, on the Marvel Comics side of things...

The Mighty Thor had been introduced back in 1962, in a title called Journey into Mystery. The comic was later renamed The Mighty Thor, but as of 1965 J.I.M. still bore its original title. That's why the first annual featuring Thor was actually Journey into Mystery Annual #1.

This annual introduced Marvel's version of Hercules in an all-new story. And if that wasn't enough, it reprinted the first appearances of the Lava-Man (whom I'd first seen in The Avengers #5), the Radioactive Man (whom I'd first seen in The Avengers #6 as a member of The Masters of Evil), and last but not least, Thor's perennial nemesis, his scheming half-brother Loki!

It seems like every year brought us little Marvelites yet another superb annual or two or three, and 1965 was no exception. The third Fantastic Four Annual featured the wedding of Reed Richards ("Mister Fantastic") and Sue Storm, a/k/a "The Invisible Girl." And almost every Marvel hero appeared, and more villains than you could count tried to disrupt the proceedings. At this point, who needed reprints, you may well ask, but F.F. Annual #3 had those, as well!

For today's final selection: In 1965 "Mighty Marvel" gave us a brand new, slightly-more-than-double-sized comic. This was Marvel Collectors' Item Classics, which became an ongoing title. Its first issue contained extremely early stories of the F.F., Spider-Man, Ant-Man, and the "Tales of Asgard" feature which served as a back-up to Thor in Journey into Mystery.

Yep, I was pretty spoiled when it came to relatively recent stories from DC and Marvel being reprinted, but I had no real hopes of ever seeing anything from the supposed "Golden Age." It looked like those would be forever out of my reach.

Well... As it turned out, I didn't know everything!

Next week: 1966, another banner year! (Uhhh, no pun intended, Hulk fans!)

Thanks for your time.

They Might Be Giants! (1964) ~~ A "Comical Wednesday" Post!

Welcome to my Comical-Wednesday-on-a-Thursday post! Lots of reasons this one's a day late, mainly a snowstorm that made the libraries close early Wednesday and open late Thursday... but it's only a freakin' blog, so no crime's being committed by my falling behind.

Anyway...

I don't know about you, fellow babies, but I'm really enjoying this series!

My previous Comical Wednesday post, "They Might Be Giants," dealt with the year 1963. The last comic book scan shown was the cover of Giant Superman Annual #8, which was released at the very end of that year. 

And by the way, fellow babies, I'd like to point out that I am not attempting to list all of the annuals or giant-sized comics that I read back in my younger days! I'm only talking about the ones that made the greatest impressions on my li'l self back in the period from 1963-1968 or so.

One annual I recall enjoying immensely was the one-and-only Giant Superboy Annual, from back in the good old days when Superboy stories told "the adventures of Superman when he was a boy," as opposed to whatever the hell DC Comics is doing with the character nowadays.

It's kind of strange for me to note that, although I was (and still am) a fan of Batman, there aren't many issues of Giant Batman Annual or any other Batman "giants" that made a huge impression on me. As I explained last time, I was only starting to realize back then that all these stories that were being thrown at me were reprints, and not all current tales.

One annual that did catch my fancy was Giant Batman Annual #7, which reprinted the very first appearances of the original Batgirl, and a character I absolutely loved as a child, a pixieish little guy who called himself Bat-Mite. There were other assorted nutty stories in this annual, too.

You see, by the time I started reading the Batman titles (Batman, Detective Comics, and World's Finest) in the early 1960s, Batman's world had come a long, long way from the moody, down-to-earth detective stories of the late 1930s and early 1940s, and had gotten rather silly. In addition to Batman and Robin, the stories featured Batwoman, Batgirl, Bat-Mite, and (I swear) Ace, the Bat-Hound! (Ace, you see, was a German Shepherd who wore a mask to protect his secret identity!) Batman's adventures also included time-travel stories, stories where aliens appeared on Earth, or conversely, stories where Batman and Robin visited other planets...! This was the craziness that was the status quo when I was learning to read, but most of this nonsense was scuttled by the so-called "New Look" in 1964, and rightfully so.

The back cover of Giant Batman Annual #7 featured the so-called "Batman Family."

Interestingly enough, this "portrait" of the 1950s-1960s Batman Family resurfaced in the ultra-moody and realistic Batman: The Killing Joke in 1988.

Shortly after Giant Batman Annual #7 came a big surprise. After being advertised as the Giant Superman Annual #9 (shown at the top of this post), the comic actually hit the stands as 80 Page Giant #1, which only "featured"  Superman. (You can even tell that the 80 Page Giant logo was pasted over the previous form of DC's "Giant [Whatever]" logo!)

This began a brand new monthly series called 80 Page Giant, which, over time, featured Superman, Jimmy Olsen ("Superman's Pal"), Lois Lane ("Superman's Girl Friend") The Flash, Superboy, Batman, and many other stars. The first fifteen issues kept their own independent numbering. After that, the numbers were "shared" with individual issue numbers of various titles! (For instance, 80 Page Giant #G-16 was also Justice League of America #39, 80 Page Giant #G-17 was also Batman #176, etc.!)

In my "$1.56" post, I told how I was given a stack of Marvel Comics during early 1964, a collection which turned me on to a lot of titles I'd neither seen nor heard of before. That summer, Marvel released the second issue of Fantastic Four Annual. The entire issue featured stories concerning Doctor Doom, who was Darth Vader before Darth Vader was Darth Vader!

FF Annual #2 contained an all-new, expanded origin for Dr. Doom, a reprint of his first appearance from FF #5, and a terrific story called "The Final Victory of Dr. Doom!" Another of my all-time favorite annuals!

The summer of 1964 also saw the very first Amazing Spider-Man Annual! In this issue, Spidey fought "The Sinister Six," half a dozen of his deadliest foes, teamed up against him. Each battle Spider-Man fought with these nemeses included a spectacular single-panel shot drawn by the inimitable Steve Ditko. I've reproduced all six of these mind-blowing full-pagers below!

As a bonus feature, writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko supplied this three-page bit of craziness.

And yet another of -- Yeah, you guessed it! -- my all-time favorite annuals was the first Marvel Tales Annual! This one featured an incredible array of Marvel "firsts."

• The first appearance and origin of the Amazing Spider-Man!
• The first appearance and origin of the Incredible Hulk!
• The first appearance of the original Ant-Man in costume, plus a brief reprint of when he first became Giant-Man!
• The first appearance of the Mighty Thor!
• Pages from the very first story of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos!
• The first appearance and origin of Iron Man, plus a short sequence from the issue where he replaced his bulky gold iron suit with a more streamlined red and gold outfit!

And if all that wasn't enough -- although it would have been for me -- Marvel Tales Annual #1 also contained two pages of photos featuring the biggest names in the Marvel stable!

Of course, DC was still churning out their 80 Page Giant series. Issue #4, dated October, 1964, featured more early stories of The Flash.

To Be Continued, natch!

In our next installment, we take a look at the "giants" of... 1965! (But you probably saw that one coming, huh?)

And thanks for your time!

They Might Be Giants! (1963) ~~ A "Comical Wednesday" Post!

Well, fellow babies, this week's "Comical Wednesday" post is not a segment of my recent, ongoing "Letters, I Get Letters" series. That'll be back sooner or later, though, so don't worry.

Today's post is the first of a (relatively) light-on-text, heavy-on-illustrations series that looks at the many comic book annuals (a/k/a "giants" or "specials") that came out at such a rapid clip during my formative comic-book-reading years. Kind of a roller coaster ride through the mind of a boy aged (roughly) six to ten years old.

Today we deal with the sensory overload I experienced during the year 1963.

The first comic book character I formed an affection for was Batman, and I'm pretty sure that the first "giant" I was ever made aware of was the Giant Batman Annual #5, from the summer of 1963, pictured in the DC Comics house ad shown above. I've included the ad rather than an image of the book itself because I never actually got to own or even read the damned book until several years later.

At that very young age -- six-and-a-half or so -- I knew (and could read) the word "giant," of course, but didn't realize that the word "giant" in the title of Giant Batman Annual referred to the increased page count of a so-called "annual" comic book. (Hence the twenty-five cent price tag in an era when most comics were twelve cents apiece.) I mean, look closely at that cover shown above! It calls itself Giant Batman and then shows a Batman who's giant-sized! I was six, fer cryin' out loud. What a way to confuse a kid that age!

(Another thing I didn't realize until much later was that the somewhat misnamed Batman and Superman "annuals" came out twice per year, every six months or so!)

Comics in my early childhood didn't often contain issue-to-issue stories that changed very much about their characters' status quo, so at first I didn't realize that the stories in these annuals were reprinted tales from a few years earlier.

My first Giant Superman Annual was #7. My favorite story in the issue was probably the one that told of a teenaged Clark (Superboy) Kent's meeting with a teenaged Bruce (Batman) Wayne. But the whole book was exciting to me, and it's here that I learned that the character of Superman had been around, like, forever. Twenty-five years! An eternity!

And right around the time that The Flash #138 (my initial exposure to that character) came out, the first and only issue of the Giant Flash Annual hit the stands. I basically OD'd on the character of Barry (Flash) Allen in the summer of '63! I absolutely loved the character. (For more of this relatively one-sided "love affair," go here!)

This is one of my all-time favorite annuals. Not only did it provide a plethora of early Silver Age Flash classics, it also reprinted a Golden Age Flash story! So there was another Flash (a/k/a Jay Garrick), one from the far-off 1940s? Boy, I was learning a lot that summer!

And this? This was a special feature showing how... Well, see for yourself!

I can't recall if my sister Kathy bought this second Giant Lois Lane Annual, or if I did. I mean, Lois may have been Superman's girlfriend, but she was still... well... a girl! I know, I know, she was a woman, but at six years old, I was hardly able to recognize and verbalize such minute non-sexist distinctions. But I found the stories contained therein to be quite enjoyable. And it was a kick for me to see Lois Lane briefly dress up like Batwoman in the issue!

I do recall that it was indeed my sister who bought the very first Marvel comic I ever read, Fantastic Four Annual #1 (as told here, and here!). Something about the packaging, the scripting, the artwork, and so forth was just... different... somehow. But this was my intro to the Marvel Universe, which was still a spindly colt, as it were. It was also my first glimpse of Spider-Man.

And folks, all this and we're still in 1963!!! And keep in mind that these are only the annuals we're talking about. Rest assured, I was reading a lot of stuff besides these giant-sized comics. As soon as I could read -- somewhere around the age of four, by my estimation -- I read just about everything I could get my grubby li'l hands on (and not only comics, no matter what I've implied here and elsewhere).

Right around the time of my seventh birthday (late 1963), Giant Superman Annual #8 appeared. As you can see by the illustration, this issue contained some incredible stories, like a tale that told of Superboy's first meeting with an other-dimensional sprite named Mxyzptlk (pronounced "Mix-yez-pitel-ick," although during my earliest years, I pronounced it "Mixy-zup-tulk" in my mind), a story about how Ma Kent made Superbaby's (and later Superboy's) costume out of the blankets left in the rocket that brought him from Krypton to Earth, the background on how Lois Lane first started wondering if Clark Kent could be Superman, and others!

Wow, what a way to end the year!

To Be Continued...

And thanks for your time!

Shazam! ~~ A "Comical Wednesday" Post

Sorry if yours is one of the many blogs I visit regularly but have not visited much, if at all, for the past few days. Just not feeling well lately. Among other things, I have an occasional flare-up of gout (Yes, gout! It doesn't only exist in old movies!), and it's been bothering me for several days. And by the way, gout has often been described as a "rich man's disease," but folks, I've got it, so that's not a very appropriate name for it.

Anyway...

Today's "Comical Wednesday" post is actually aimed more at those of you who don't follow comics. The comic book cover at the top of this post is Whiz Comics #22, from 1941. The most prominent character in that title was the original Captain Marvel, who was a boy named Billy Batson that received magic powers and an adult persona by saying the word "Shazam!" Shazam, by the way, was the name of the ancient wizard that bestowed these powers upon young Billy.

Now, why did I say "the original Captain Marvel?"

Captain Marvel debuted at the very beginning of 1940. He was one of a handful of superheroes that DC Comics attempted to sue out of existence. They (DC) claimed that the Captain was ripping off their own hero, Superman, who premiered in 1938. "The original Captain Marvel" even outsold Superman for a time.

The court battle dragged on for many years, and at one point Fawcett Comics (who published Captain Marvel's multiple titles and spin-offs) was prevailing, and at other times DC seemed to have the legal edge... Finally, due as much to falling comic book sales as to anything else, Fawcett stopped publishing comics altogether and promised DC they would never bring the Captain back.

That was in 1953.

By 1968, a company once known (in the 1940s) as Timely Comics had been calling itself Marvel Comics for about eight years. They decided that it was only natural that they revive the "Captain Marvel" name. They did so, and trademarked the character.

Less than two years later, they changed Captain Marvel's costume. 

In 1972, DC Comics, of all people -- well, not really "people" -- announced that they were bringing back the original Captain Marvel. They'd made an arrangement with Fawcett and were licensing the rights to good ol' Cap, y'see. (They eventually bought the character outright.)

The problem was, DC was able to write new stories about Captain Marvel, reprint old stories about Captain Marvel, and even call him Captain Marvel, but because Marvel Comics now owned the trademark to Captain Marvel, they couldn't call him Captain Marvel on the cover of his own book!

So they named the comic book after his magic word, "Shazam," instead.

Notice, if you will, the cover of Shazam! #2, below. Underneath the title is the phrase "the original Captain Marvel." I've heard two versions of why those words are there. The first version is that DC paid Marvel some undisclosed sum to use that phrase on their covers, but eventually decided it wasn't worth the money and stopped doing it. The other version is that DC did it without permission, until Marvel told them to cut the shit cease and desist. Regardless of why they stopped doing it, issue #14 was the last one to feature "the original Captain Marvel" on the cover. After that, the words were replaced by "The World's Mightiest Mortal."

In 1974, the original Captain Marvel made his way to television. Once again, they couldn't call the program Captain Marvel, so it became Shazam!

That damned word "Shazam" became more and more associated with the character of Captain Marvel, so much so that non-comic readers (mainly) thought that the character's actual name was Shazam. But DC was stuck with the word because Marvel Comics has had several different characters calling themselves Captain Marvel over the years -- the latest one is shown below -- so they'll obviously never abandon the trademark! (And frankly, who can blame them?)

DC has launched several series featuring "the original Captain Marvel" over the years. However, the character has never been anywhere near as popular as he was in the Golden Age, so relatively recently, DC threw up their non-existent hands and re-named the S.O.B. Shazam.

Now, this is the "Shazam" logo!

It's the confusion I mentioned earlier that caused non-comic readers to see this logo...

...which is actually the logo of another DC superhero, the Flash...

...and point to the Flash's logo on t-shirts, or wherever, saying "Shazam!"

In fact, speaking of confusion, about twenty to twenty-five years ago, I used to wear the t-shirt pictured below, featuring characters from a comic called Bone, written & drawn by Jeff Smith...

And non-comic readers would point at it and say "Casper!"

Meaning this idiot!

You non-comic types are so cute.

Thanks for your time.