Welcome to the Fortress of Markitude! #3

NOTE:  all of these pictures were taken a few years ago when the place was less cluttered.  All text is in the present tense anyway.

 

As promised, here is a closer look at that Superman Record Player, copyright 1978.

Here’s a view of the top.  The top right-hand corner is the same pose & art used for the Action 340 pin-up.  The bottom right is Neal Adams’ art used for the cover of Superman 233, with “Superman Breaks Loose!” “Kryptonite Nevermore!” and other exclamation-pointed statements.

 

The bottom left corner has a redrawn image of the cover art from Action 1.

 

I’m pretty sure that the central image of Superman bursting to us through a wall is also Neal Adams art, but I can’t tell you its original appearance.

 

 

The main image inside the top is wonderful Swanderson (Curt Swan inked by Murphy Anderson) art originally from 1973’s Amazing World of Superman (Metropolis Edition).  The smaller image is the same art I see on my Superman night light. (Someone else’s is shown below).

 

 

The actual record player works (as of 7/01/2013).  The white knob at top right of the base is the on/off-volume dial.  The white tab-looking thing sticking out at the seven-o-clock position from the turntable is the speed selector with three settings: 45rpm, “N” for neutral, and 33rpm.  As was standard from the 1950s to the 1980s with record players of this type, there is a larger pup-up cylinder in the center, so you can play 45rpm records.  The holes between the turntable and the tone arm are speaker holes.

 

 

When you close the record player, this is the edge where the handle is.  As you can see, we have part of the Superman curriculum vitae.  The art running across the bottom, from Amazing World of Superman (Metropolis Edition) is another gem from the Swanderson team.

 

 

 

In the above image you can see the handle to the left, so you know which side this is.  Another panel from Amazing World of Superman (Metropolis Edition).

 

 

Now you know that this was made in the USA by the Dejay Corp.  I’m pretty sure this was a play on “deejay,” as in Disc Jockey.

 

Here we have the rest of that dynamic phrase.  Note that, unlike the Kirk Alyn serial, THIS Superman only needs one hand (one pinkie?) to stop a train.  And comic-book magic keeps the train from plowing forward another fifteen feet with a Superman-Pinkie-Finger hole in its front.  Art from Amazing World of Superman (Metropolis Edition).

 

 

 

 

Here’s what the bottom of the record player looks like.

 

 

The first panel is Wayne Boring’s.  I don’t know if this version of Supes’s origin is from a comic or magazine … it IS NOT from the 1973  Amazing World of Superman (Metropolis Edition).

 

However, it was also used in 1978 for a Pepsi place mat, a series of which also included Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Batman, and this guy.  I think these place mats were originally from Pizza Hut (which is owned by PepsiCo).  They are laminated.

 

You can see part of the Captain Marvel place mat at the bottom (I have two copies, so I’ve got each side showing).  It’s called “Shazam!” because at the time Marvel Comics wouldn’t let DC use the name of their own character because Marvel was using it for their own different character of the same name.  Of course  that’s why the 1970s DC series was also called not by his name but by what he shouted to change.

 

Anyway,  that’s the 1978 record player.  Another time we’ll see front-and-back scans of the place mats.