I Like the Old Ways (*sigh*)

Here's another Kenner action figure card, for "Ultra Shield Superman."

He's got a special armored suit. However, there's no notice given as to what the suit is made of.


And the entire head area is visible. Since Green Kryptonite rays contain visible light, then I would think that at least SOME of the Green K radiation could get through that glass.


And, since Kryptonite is not "super-tough" but actually described as brittle in the "original documents" (Silver Age, that is), Supes DOESN'T NEED" a "powerful blasting rocket" -- except maybe to sell action figures?


Anyway, here's a glimpse of an original Ultra Shield Superman -- the lead suit devised by Mister Super-Scientist to battle Luthor in Action #249 after Luthor drinks a Green-K cocktail to become ... "The Kryptonite Man!"
Thank you children, and good-night.

I'm So Confused!

Here we have "Ultra Heat Vision Superman."

Wait a minute, I thought it was Ultra Boy who had Ultra Vision.

What's that exo-skeleton got to do with heat vision, ultra or otherwise?

Somebody help the boy!

Supes in the Hood!

They call him "Street Guardian Superman," but it's just an excuse by the girls who work at DC to see a Kryptonian in leather!

Of course, the card would look better if the art didn't look like look like Superman were settling onto a toilet.

A Spirit That Befits a Man of Steel!

Here's one of John Henry Irons's manifestations as an action figure. While I suppose the action figure and the "collector card" were inspired by the same concept are, there's no way that a little plastic face could capture the kick-butt attitude shown in the card, eh?

Another Kenner Card

Here we have "Solar Suit Superman," who likes to wear red plastic plumbing trees on his space helmet.

Maybe he wore this in space because if he looked this way around Earth he'd scare little children.

Kenner Action Figure Cards 1

From 1995 we have cards from Kenner's series of action figures. These came out soon after Superman's death and return. As you can see from this card, he's got those nasty black circles under his eyes and the long (regeneration matrix-length) hair.

Note that Superman flies through force of will. Also that you can read more about him in DC Comics. Ya think?

A Super Dictionary. I Am Talking About a Book with Definitions

This is the Super Dictionary from the 1970s. It uses silly art of DC characters for didactic definitions that always use the meaning in a sentence.

Like, Braniac says, "Good morning Superman! In this time of day after sunrise and before noon I am going to murder Lois Lane and rape Krypto with a probe! It will be a good morning for me but not a good morning for you!"

(This definition of morning is not used in the Super Dictionary.)

BTW, I have a copy of this for sale on Amazon, along with a bunch of other fan and nonfan items. End of commercial!
The art may be by Alex Toth, or one of the Kuberts. Where else but on this book's back cover can you get such a fine view of so many superheroes' derrieres?
See you soon! Please don't forget to write.

The Last Wonder Bread Card

Saving the loveliest for last, here is the final card of the ones I collected (I think) from Wonder Bread.

It's the cover of The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #1.

Maybe this is cynicism caused by adulthood, but it kind of amazes me that the DC powers (Jenette Khan maybe?) approved that phrase as a title. I mean, come on! Calling the series The Daring New Adventures is like saying, all of her PAST life was not daring, or new, or adventurous.

Also makes a promise nigh on impossible to keep!

Another Wonder Bread Card

This card, reproducing George Perez's art, is of course Perez's own rendition of Joe Shuster's

cover for Superman #1 back in 1939.

The New Year from U.N.C.L.E.

Well, I'm only four discs into the complete U.N.C.L.E. series set.

Besides the show episodes, the set also came with two "bonus discs" in little cardboard sleeves. I immediately tossed those sleeves back into the nifty briefcase box the series comes in, and made my own full sized DVD insert as a wrapper for a 2-disc case.

To quote the Cabana Lady from MAD TV , "You Like? I Like!"

It's a Wonder!

Of course, in the 70+ plus years since Action #1, there have been many more promo cards than just the Superman Vitamins we saw last week.

Dated 1978, I'm pretty sure that these were packaged with Wonder Bread. I could be wrong, of course. I DID buy the product they came with myself, and I think it was Wonder.

Builds strong bodies twelve ways!

Racing for Fun!

The Flash 302, October 1981, also featured this centerfold spread of Jay Garrick, Wally West, and Barry Allen, three “generations” of Flashes, at the end of a footrace.

The first image is the actual centerfold. The second image is after I made the thing a little less wide, I think this one looks a lot better. What do you think?

This widening of shapes – mostly bodies and faces – was a continual feature of Carmine Infantino’s art for The Flash in this period. It’s like he drew his penciled art on Silly Putty and somebody stretched them out sideways ten or twenty percent!

I’d Buy a Cup Cake from This Man!

From The Flash 302, October 1981, comes this one-page ad for Hostess Cup Cakes.

You get a big delight in every bite!

You also get some fun Curt Swan art! I think that the Crime Director, in the last panel, looks like Kurtwood Smith, more recently known as the father in the 70s Show.

By the way, has anybody ever heard of this “villain,” the Crime Director?

Super Mousepad!

Well, we got us this hyar mousepad with Superman and Clark Kent mishmashed together on it.

Actually, it's a lenticular image which shows Supes from one angle and Clark disrobing into his super outfit from the other angle.

I guess it's been used too much. It's useless nowadays as a mousepad, because it's so smooth the the little mouse ball just slides around!

I think it's pretty neat that my scanner caught the main Super-image but also a "ghost" image of Clark changing too.

The Last of Lovecraft's Heads

These are the last of John Holmes's covers for Ballantine's 1973 Lovecraft paperbacks. Ooh, pretty scary, kiddies!

PS Santa Joyce was very sweet and for Christmas gave me the 41-disc complete Man from U.N.C.L.E. series. So, even at two or three episodes a night, it would be more than a month to watch'em all! What exquisite torture!

Different Styles for Lovecraft Covers

These three have a different look than the "weird head" covers.

The one for The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is more realistic.

The ones for Charles Dexter Ward and the book of Lovercraft "revivions," The Horror in the Museum, have a strange pixilated-watercolor appearance.

What the First Ballantine Printings Looked Like

These two covers, by Gervasio Gallardo, are what Ballantine's original covers were like. These were the 1971 printings of stories and poems.

On Fungi from Yuggoth, the octopuslike thing with a green Hallowe'en masklike face ain't scary. He doesn't look much like a fun guy either (fungi = fun guy, get it? yuk-yuk).
I bet the bug-eyed wingless flying guys were supposed to be Night-Gaunts. But we all know that Lovecraft's Night-Gaunts had leatery, batlike wings, the way he described them.
Of course, I guess one could argue that they didn't use those wings while flying ...

Where Did They Get Such Weird Images?

Here are a couple of more covers from Ballantine's 1970s paperbacks of H.P. Lovecraft's tales.

These are actually Volumes 1 and 2 of Tales from the Cthulhu Mythos, tales wherein other writers took up the burden of the HPL worldview.

The cover artist is listed as John Holmes.

Surely not THAT John Holmes (the dirty movie guy)!

Later printings features art by Russ Titelman, but these by Holmes are the creepiest by far, to me anyway.

Remembering Eitch-Pe-Ell

OK. You're 16 years old and just got your driver's license. You're a book nerd who already read four grades above your "supposed-to-be" reading level, until they ran out of grades above you. You've always liked monsters and Twilight-Zoney stuff.

You go into the bookstore and see paperbacks with covers like these.

Wow! You've found a modern-day (you think) Edgar Allan Poe!

Pretty psychedelic, huh?

These are from the Lancer Books paperback editions of Lovecraft stories.

You can tell the Colours volume reflects the story "The Whisperer in Darkness" inside, and I think it's a pretty sure bet that the Dunwich Horror cover is supposed to reflect Wilbur Whately or his brother.

The next few postings will feature covers from the Ballantine Lovecraft paperbacks.

The Last of the Superman Vitamins Cards

Dang it, I never got ALL 12 of the "set" of promo cards featuring DC headliners that were included in Superman Vitamins.

These are the last two I have. Of the two cards missing, surely Mama Luthor's boy Lex was one of them!

Note that Selina Kyle has reformed and workes as a security consultant. Only in the wild and wacky world of comic books would someone hire a known multiple-offender felon to watch over your interests!

No hard felines! (arr arr arr)