Action #305: That darn Ol' Stockroom Mirror!

OCTOBER, 1963:  This is the last page of this mini-vignette that ruminates on Superman's need for a Secret Identity.

After Jimmy Olsen, meaning no harm, lets it slip to his Fan Club that Superman's civilian identity is one of his acquaintances, a criminal eavesdropper passes the info to a crook, who replaces a convenient Daily Planet stockroom mirror with a special lead-lined one-way glass.

Sure enough, in the scene also captured by this issue's cover, they witness Clark Kent in the act of transforming from Superman.

Then, the jerks pull the ol' switcheroo and swap out an honorary key-to-the-city with a duplicate made of Gold Kryptonite.

It's a sign of the 1963 era:  The astronaut is being honored for CIRCLING THE EARTH FOR A WEEK.  In years to come, that would be thin beer.  After all, don't those guys in the "International Space station" do the same?  The difference is, THEY AREN'T PLANNING TO GO FARTHER ANY MORE.

So, Superman is rudely informed that his powers have been stolen.  And his poor well-intentioned pal Jimmy is to blame.  What a bummer!

Compare Kal-El's final words on this page with later practice in most comics, regarding a Secret Identity.  "No one in the world could keep a secret like that!"   A statement more honored in the breach, eh?

See you Monday with the continuation of this story.

 

Action #305: Loose Lips May Sink Kryptonians

OCTOBER, 1963:  In our next vision of what Superman's life might have been like with his Secret Identity in jeopardy, we start over with Clark Kent arriving in Metropolis for the first time, still with an intact super alter-ego.  Think of it as an updated take on 1938, Action #1, and the first Superman story.   Only with a narrower focus.  And no Senator Barrows.  And no bouncing a bad guy's car off a cliff.  And no  .... NEVER MIND, JUST READ.

Yep, I agree that it is kind of attention-grabbing to see a photo of Superman hoisting a Green K rock.  (You might have a similar shocking effect with a photo of the President saluting a copy of the Constitution.)

Soon Clark is in the swing of the reporter's life, having made some swell work friends like Jimmy Olsen and that Lane girl.  But, with any sort of personal connection comes ... risks ...

You know, this first panel makes you wonder.  Hasn't Superman ever heard of LOCKING THE DOOR?

And the remainder of this page's events, while entertaining, remain similarly jarring -- though they make for a GREAT comic-book story.

It's not so out-of-bounds that a random janitor-type might overhear Jimmy being human and bragging about his Super-buddy.  That's his second job.  Of course, this implies that Steve Barnes, the master con man, must have pretty deep pockets.  The implication is that Barnes probably has spies in Lois's brunch group, Clark's favorite cafe, and Perry's country club ...

No, it just makes you wonder why the Super-brain of Clark (Superman) Kent doesn't wonder why there's a new window IN AN INTERIOR WALL.  Oh -- it's not a window -- Barnes swapped out a "normal mirror."  Now we wonder, what newspaper stockroom features a four-by-four-foot mirror.

The page's last panel is a condensation of our cover scene.  Unlike some other DC tales, this story does not simply shrink down the original cover art -- it's the same scene but re-drawn.

OK, thanks to Jimmy Olsen's desire to associate himself with greatness, we have the stage set for a dreadful outcome.  Now that these schmoes know that Superman is Clark Kent, what will happen next?

Come back Friday to find out!

 

Action #305: It's Lonely at the Top

In this Imaginary Tale-within-a-Real-Tale from October 1963, Superman has decided to forego a Secret Identity.  In the previous pages of this conjectural timeline, he lost his parents to a vengeful crook.  Having moved to Metropolis in the present day, he's constantly pestered by us mortal-types who want a selfie with the Great One.

It turns out that random door-knocks in the night aren't the ONLY downside of being Superman and having your address in the phone book.  Certain enemies might come calling ...

Sure enough, hometown nemesis Lex Luthor sets up on a roof across the street and does a little skeet-shooting with Kryptonite. (Sounds like a punk band, huh?)

Next thing you know, the President is gently asking Supes to please take his crime-magnet self out of Metropolis.  When our good ol' Prez tells you to hit the road,  that's serious stuff, campers.

Here, in this final page of today's excerpt, we get a glimpse of the same mental funk that Alan Moore tapped into for Adrian Veidt in Watchmen.  Our Superman is isolated, watching the world at a remove (sorta like Doc Manhattan too!)

Having had very lonely times in my life (haven't you?), I know what it's like to play hours of solitaire, desperate for a friend or congenial face.  You do indeed feel like the loneliest man in the world.

Taking the Watchmen allegory a bit farther, what makes Superman different from the social outcasts depicted in the Moore/Gibbons tale?  Probably his childhood, raised and socialized by a loving family.  He feels a part of the world, not a giant bestriding a planet of ants.

That empathy and humility, my friends, are at the core of compassionate heroes.  That's truly what we want when we cry "Save me!"

Think deeply on our need for rescue, and I'll see you Wednesday with the next few pages from our story.

 

Action #305: Continuing Our "What If?" Tale

In our meditations from October 1963 on the necessity of a Secret Identity for the Man of Steel, our flashback has shown us that the proud Kents have encouraged Kal-El to reveal to the world that he's been masquerading as Clark Kent these dozen years or so, on Earth.

Now that his Identity is known to the world, he doesn't have to hide any more ...

Superboy attends school (what a silly idea, with HIS Super-brain!) and easily gets a pass to perform rescues.  Isn't it a nice touch to orient Superboy in the "old days" by having him rescue a derigible?

But with his personal secret out, his parents the Kents are in mortal danger from a lug who wants revenge ...

I don't know about you, but these brief panels depicting Superboy's confusion and loss certainly resonated with my pre-teen self.  What would happen if MY PARENTS were suddenly taken from me?  Especially if in some ways IT WAS MY FAULT -- I was the one who put them into danger?

The last panel on the page, showing Superboy mourning the loss of his parents' lives at their graves, is a sombre one for me.

 Well, by the time of this "current-day" Super-tale, the Kents have indeed passed "in the real world," too.  Superman has no family to defend.  What if he moved to Metropolis as an adult, with no secret identity?  The next couple of pages lay out one chain of events ...

Lots of publicity ... the inane kind that gets in his way.  Superman is constantly under public scrutiny by his adoring public.  People knock on his door day and night.  Rescuing parakeets, for gosh' sakes!  That's no way for a BNS (Big Name Superhero) to live!

On the other hand, don't you imagine that the property values in the neighborhood of the Superman Arms probably took off like a bird or a plane?

On Monday we'll continue this page-by-page comic-book survey, and follow this alternate-time thought experiment.

See you then!
 

Action #305: As We Begin Our First Story

"Why Superman Needs a Secret Identity!", from Action Comics #305 (October 1963), was written by Leo Dorfman.  Pencils by Curt Swan, inks by George Klein.

This story is full of sobering twists, but begins with a bellylaugh.  Perry White's got the measles, and he's confined to a hospital for a few days!  Clark and Jimmy are on their way to get some work instructions, when they take a wrong turn on the way to Perry's room in the Isolation Ward and interrupt a weird kind of robbery.

Benny the Blaster is famous for strong-arm robberies by way of a little bottle of what he announces is nitroglycerin.  As we children of the 1960s knew, all you had to do was look cross-eyed at nitro, and it would go off!  (Kind of like your big sister.)

Benny wants the valuable radium in the hospital's safe (used for radiation therapy).  He starts his countdown, and Clark has one minute to either abandon his Secret Identity and dash in as Superman to rescue the others, or .... be vewwy, vewwy snee-ee-eaky, as Elmer Fudd might say.

The last panel of the page is a great one, as it visually illustrates the great "split" between the mild-mannered reporter and the mighty Superman. 

Let's use a branching form of Alternate History to explore what might happen if, through various scenarios, Clark Kent is known to be the Guy from Krypton.

In the first page of our opening salvo, Superboy thwarts a bank robbery inventively, inspiring Martha and Jonathan Kent to proudly tell the world that their son is Superboy.

Aren't these brief snippets of human interaction great?  Lana teasing "fraidy-cat" Clark, the Kents telling their son how proud they are of him, and so on.


Stay tuned for Friday's continuation of this great story.  Would everything have come up roses if a Strange Twist of Fate (TM) had revealed Clark Kent as Superboy in Smallville?

See you then!
 

Page-by-Page Through Action #305

This wonderful comic book is cover-dated October, 1963.  As we pass through its pages we'll be having an everyday experience.  Comic books had an average paid circulation of over 240,000 issues, and kids were learning through the world around them about right and wrong, good guys and bad guys.

What greater good guy could there be, than Superman?

 Another great, evocative piece of cover art by the great Curt Swan.  You can tell that the three guys in the foreground are crooks.  Number One is using a decadent SOLID GOLD ZIPPO to light up.  Guy Number Two is waving around a valise full of greenbacks.  And Number Three is waving around Gold Kryptonite, one of those harmful isotopes from Superman's home planet.  This stuff can remove a Kryptonian's powers permanently, leaving them subject to revenge attacks from the scores of evildoers they've jailed.

Just now, while bloviating, I noticed an anomaly on this cover.  WHERE IS THE PRICE?  There should be "12¢" somewhere across the top of the page.

The text for this page sets out to examine what is a received truth for DC's superheroes.  Everybody knows why a Secret Identity is needed!  It's too, umm -- I mean, to make sure that, well, ummm ....

I guess we'll read the story and see!

This public service announcement covers some topics of outdoor life that should be common sense, but often forgotten, such as the fisherman in the middle row, who took off without any way to find the path back to his campsite.  You laugh at semi-literal babes-in-the-woods behavior like this.  You tell yourself YOU would have more common sense than this ... until you go outside in the morning to your car ... only it's been stoel out of your driveway, because you LIKE A MORON left it runnig with the key in it, to warm up.

Our splash page heralds the arrival of another great story by Leo Dorfman, visualized by penciler Curt Swan and (possibly) inker George Klein.

The terraces of frightened onlookers were appropriated for my portmanteau art for October 2015's Blog-o-Ween.

Lex Luthor, while hating Superman, is also an astute student of pop culture, given that he quotes Jackie Gleason's signature line, "How Sweet It Is!" which Gleason first introduced earlier this same year in the film Papa's Delicate Condition.

Join us Wednesday for a few pages that begin this story, as we travel page-by-page through a wonderful bit of American life from the bright side of the 1960s.
 

MA-82 - Joy and Noise, Disc 5

Here's another collection of songs that inspire me to laugh, pray, and be thankful.  Many from the 1990s, a few from earlier.  You'd be happier if you looked up the performers and invested in more of their work!

01. Here We Go - Grits (3:20)

02. You're Not Alone - Marie Miller (3:21)

03. Press On - Building 429 (2:49)

04. Endure - Plumb (3:50)

05. No Restricted Signs (Up in Heaven) - Golden Gate Quartet (2:59)

06. Solid Rock - Daniel's Window (3:38)

07. Good Morning - Mandisa (featuring TobyMac) (3:25)

08. You Carry Me - Moriah Peters (3:03)

09. 12 Round Knockout - KJ-52 (3:58)

10. The Kirby Man - Layton Howerton (4:22)

11. Because You Loved Me - Say-So (5:06)

12. Alive - P O D (3:24)

13. Beautiful Day - Jamie Grace (3:12)

14. Keep on Rhymin' - Emcee One (3:50)

15. Princes and Frogs (Underdog Mix) - Superchick (3:05)

16. Unveiled Faces - Sarah Masen (4:19)

17. Speak to the Hand - Lakita (3:48)

18. What If I Stumble? - dc Talk (5:05)

19. The Way That You Are - Miranda (4:03)

20. Here Comes the Sun - Mayfair Laundry (2:48)

21. Skip to the End - Mukala (3:44)

https://www.filefactory.com/file/5ae7d6ne1702/MA-82.rar

 

See you Monday for a new page-by-page through a wonderful DC title from the 1960s.

 

I've got a New PARD -- First Hand

Thanks to my work for Jacobs/Brown Press, I'm now the owner of a laptop to use in editing.

His name is PARD, for Pretty Awesome 'Ritin' Device.  As I (typically) wondered how to scar PARD forever with an imprint of my own personality, I decided to personalize the desktop background image as a deck of 52 cards. 

The image on each card would be of something I like, from childhood to today.

Here is Hand 1.

Surely you can name them all!

See you Thursday.

MA-50 - 45s & Favorites, Disc 7 -- More Pop Music Miscellany

More proof in the wonderful cornucopia that USE TO BE pop music, before rhythms replaced melody and thought, not focus groups, produced lyrics.

Not that dreck wasn't marketed in the days of AM radio -- Sturgeon's Law is a reality of the universe -- but "way back then," even dreck was conceived and produced through a system that allowed more human fingers on every step of the process.  The human touch sometimes ennobles the basest products of work-for-hire:  Sistine Chapel, anyone?

1 -       Birthday      The Beatles / Beatles Remixers Group   (4:17)

2 -      A Song for You      Leon Russell   (4:04)

3 -      Mother Freedom      Bread   (2:33)

4 -      Wake Up Sunshine     Chicago       (2:34)

5 -      Up on Cripple Creek (live)     The Band   (4:39)

6 -       Superstar    Bette Midler (5:09)

7 - Goodbye to Love Carpenters (3:50)

8 - Smoke on the Water    Deep Purple (3:44)

9 - Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters   Elton John (4:57)

10 - How Do You Do Mouth & MacNeal (3:12)

11 - Deteriorata National Lampoon (4:25)

12 - I Love Every Little Thing About You Stevie Wonder (3:53)

13 - The Circle Game (live) Joni Mitchell (6:24)

14 - Pinball Wizard Elton John (5:12)

15 - Dog & Butterfly Heart (5:05)

16 - We Belong Together Rickie Lee Jones    (4:58)

17 - A Life of Illusion   Joe Walsh (3:28)

18 - Come Together The Beatles / Beatles Remixers Group (4:02)

The first and last tracks are wonderful alternate mashup/rearrangements of Beatles standards, making them (in the words of Dickens) "Recalled to Life."

Track 11 was conceived by the National Lampoon guys in response to the cheesy success of "The Desiderata" as a an example of the shallow public seeking non-condemnatory "deep thoughts."  Lyrics to both are given here.

You are a fluke of the universe.

See you Monday, fellow fluke!