TV Guide on TV Superheroes

Inspired by the debut of The Flash on CBS, TV Guide ran an article on TV superheroes in its December 22, 1990 issue.  Probably also inspired by some money from CBS?

Let's Flash!

Over the next few days I'll be pulling out some TV Guide clippings on that late lamented CBS TV show, the Flash.

La La Land Records still has copies of their 2-CD soundtrack release from the TV show.  This is great stuff, folks!      www.lalalandrecords.com/Flash.html

Now, I can understand quibbling about the lack of Iris West after the first episode, the addition of Earl the dog, and so on.  But this was a fun TV show, with an actual attempt to put this silly idea into a world at least similar to our world.

When his superspeed kicks in, suddenly, Barry runs to Catalina, burns off half his clothes through friction, and has to wipe out a pizza buffet to restock his starved cells.  This scene may have introduced this energy-consumption idea to the comics.  Does anybody know for sure?

Starting Friday evening, we'll share a few days loking back on The Flash.

Finally Number One at SOMETHING

See you in a few days . . .

James Whale's Dracula's Daughter, last part

The actual script printed here, as I’ve said, actually includes Bela Lugosi’s Dracula character for a good fourth of the movie. It explains how Drac became a vampire, and the origin of the gal who plays the title role of Dracula’s Daughter.




It is also very plain in this script from 1933 that the author (probably screenwriter and Laemmle friend R.C. Sherriff) was sixty years ahead of his time. See if these plot elements don’t remind you of Coppola’s Bram Stoker's Dracula. It appears that James V Hart, credited writer of the 1992 film’s screenplay, *might* have been inspired by some things in THIS script. Here are some similarities:



-- Dracula was Vlad Dracula, who led his armies to success against the Turks

-- He was a cruel despot who enjoyed torturing his subjects

-- He was converted to a vampire for his evil

-- When van Helsing leads his party of vampire hunters back to Castle Dracula in pursuit, they must encamp in the snow.

-- van Helsing protects them by making a circle in the snow and crumbling communion wafers into the circle, saying, “I have a dispensation.”

Quite a few similarities, eh?


The film treatment uses many plot points from the original novel that were not used in the 1931 film – chasing back to Transylvania after the vampire; using the vampire’s victim as a clairvoyant aid to track the monster; and so on.



But the finished script takes another tack, first by introducing Dracula in the 1400s and his conversion to vampirism, and then by showing the sexual enthrallment that his “daughter” casts over her (male) victims.


If you are fascinated by monsters and what might-have-been, you must read this book!

As another bit of fun, take a good hard look at this unused publicity piece for Dracula’s Daughter. Then look at the original depiction of Magenta from Rocky Horror. Coincidence? I think not!



See you later, Gator!

James Whale’s Dracula’s Daughter (part two)

Thanks to the magic of “Memorama” (a term I just invented!), we can learn about the Dracula’s Daughter that never was.




In the original script, the title gal was a peasant girl, one of a bunch of young lovelies kidnapped by Dracula for the pleasure of a party of noblemen in Castle Dracula. Jane Wyatt, young and fresh-looking, would have been a great fit for this role.



She becomes Dracula’s Daughter when the King Vampire makes her into one of the Undead after desecrating her husband’s corpse in front of her.



Both she and Dracula would remain in the castle until she is released through the blundering of a couple of English would-be tough guys who are showing off for their girlfriends by exploring broken-down Castle Dracula. After this point Dracula (to be played by Lugosi) would exit the film’s storyline.



Now, after becoming Undead, DD is exotically beautiful, her country-girl charms having taken on a new, dangerous seductiveness. She enslaves one of her unwitting liberators and uses him to enter England, where she established herself as the rich and mysterious Countess Szelenski.



Professor van Helsing, and Dr Seward, reprising their roles from the first film, become involved in the quest to rescue the film’s “hero” from the clutches of Dracula’s Daughter.

Read this “The Main Idea” for original author John Balderstone’s take on the – umm, more sensational, shall we say? – other aspects possible by using a FEMALE vampire.




The three-page early treatment of the idea, like the actual eventual film, picks up precisely at the end of the 1931 film. Besides van Helsing and Seward, John and Mina Harker from the first film also appear, giving aid and advice to their friends, one of whom is enthralled to the vampire.



More on this creepy non-extant classic next time!

James Whale’s Dracula’s Daughter (part one)

This is another in Philip Riley’s series of “lost” scripts – fully completed treatments of movies about the classic Universal monsters that were, for whatever reason, unfilmed.




The story behind this unmade movie is that, after the success of Frankenstein, Whale was under contract to Junior Laemmle for more pictures, and Laemmle wanted Whale to direct sequels to both Dracula (the original was directed sopoforically by Todd Browning) and Frankenstein.



Whale produced a quirky masterpiece with Bride of Frankenstein, but didn’t want to take on the project that had been labeled Dracula’s Daughter. Whale, however, wanted very much to take on a different project, the musical Showboat.



Laemmle, head of production at Universal, was just as vehement that Whale make a follow-up film to the surprise smash of 1931, that strange Valentine to Universal’s bottom line, Dracula.

According to the introductory matter in this book, Whale got around having to make the monster movie by, without Laemmle’s knowledge, sending a way over-the-top script treatment to the Breen Office, the screen censors who had approval over public morality (and corporate profits) via the Motion Picture Production Code. Supposedly this 1933 script had beaucoup gore, torture, and perverted sex in it – to which the censors immediately reacted with horrified rejection.



This reaction from the folks who had to green-light any widely released film was a temporary death-knell (ha ha) for Dracula’s Daughter, leaving Whale free to continue preparations for his beloved Showboat.



It wasn’t until 1936 that a film called Dracula’s Daughter was released, with a script and plot so very different from the early treatments.



For example, the title role, played by Gloria Holden in the final film, was originally to be played by Jane Wyatt. Dracula himself plays a central role in the first 30% or so of the film. This would certainly have revitalized Lugosi’s already fading carrer!



More on this fascinating “might-have-been” next time.


 

The End of Superman 180

The last few pages of Superman 180 have ads and other filler.  On this page, it's kind of interesting that there is really no difference in visual design, or other divider to separate the Trix ad (the top 3/4 of the page) from the bottom, editorially-generated strip.

Of course, the strip "Little Pete" is itself halfway towards being an ad for AMT models.  But "Little Pete" was an actual filler strip seen from time to time.

This the inside back cover is one of the infamous "Make Money, Get Prizes" genre.  These greeting cards might be considered the "creme de la crap" of such, because they would be actually imprinted with the buyers' names.  Just think -- in 1963, if such things were ordered, the system would require an involved chain of events that would involve writing down the name; sending in the name; a printer actually being able to READ the name written by a ten-year-old; setting up the name in a linotype machine; and so on.

Nowadays that ten-year-old kid could run off a card template on his home computer and probably would imbed a dirty picture in the background of the greeting card.

The back cover, in glorious dying color, presents the two newest Aurora monster models, The Witch, and Bride of Frankenstein.  I had both of these models, and they were sweet (no sexism intended)!

What remains of "The Witch" are the snake (seen in the background of the color illo above) and the ol' gal herself, sans feet (they just glued into the solid flat surface that was the underside of her dress).

With "The Bride," all I still have is the lady-in-waiting.  For some reason, her head (of one molded piece with her neck) can be slipped right out of her shoulders.

These fragments I have shored against my ruin, as T S Eliot said in "The Waste Land."  Actually, the ladies DO come out at Halloween time when we get all the spooky stuff down from the attic.  About every three years or so we actually decorate inside with these and other trashy, scary things.

As you can tell by the posted price of $1.49, these were part of the second wave of Aurora monsters.  The first series were 98 cent list price.  In 1963 Oklahoma, that meant that a solid dollar would buy one of them, for the total state and local taxes was only two cents on the dollar.  Sweet!

Later on in the week we will start a look at Philip Riley's book James Whale's Dracula's Daughter.

How Orella's Mightiness Backfired

As we near the end of our page-by-page trip through Superman 180, we wrap up the tale of "The Girl Who Was Mightier Than Superman."

Turns out, not only did the ladies from Matrion trick Superman into coming to their island refuge; one of them, Orella, almost cheated Superman into marriage by stealing some of his super-powers.

But Supes figured things out and rewired the power-siphoning device to overload Orella.  She messed up the marriage rituals and now everything is being revealed.

In this last page of the story, we get contrition from the cheaters and a real downer of an ending when Superman glances skyward with his Super-vision and discovers that the women's home planet is a planet of the dead now.

Take a smart-alecky look at the top leftmost quadrant of the first panel on this page.  Orella is ejecting a Super-Sneeze.  Is it just me?  Without the sound-effect "achooo!" I think the picture looks a lot more like Super-Projectile-Vomit.

Note the bit of 1960s slang when, in the penultimate panel, Superman thinks about having barely escaped "doing the bridegroom bit."

At the bottom of the page we have a reversible ad for Tottsie Roll Pops.  When you turn the page upside down, you have to wonder why the kid's head has been cut off and balanced on top of a cereal bowl?

One the next page we have a house ad and a truncated Metropilis Mailbag.

This particular letters page is a fine example ot the give-and-take between readers and DC staff.  (Probable) Mailbag writer E Nelson Bridwell actually apologizes for a livestock goof in the first letter.  Note the reference to the SPCA, because according to the story referenced, "The Revenge of the Super-Pets" from Superman 176, the actions in the story actually INSPIRED the foundation of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Otgher letters project a timeline of future Super-Book anniversaries, try to catch errors in previous stories, and highlight Superman's pervasion of popular culture by noting a contemporary Jeopardy! TV reference.

The in-house ad that take up the bottom of the page highlights an accidental trilogy of silly (or at least light-hearted) comic issues.

While Kurt Schaffenberger's Lois Lane art is really impeccable, there's something about his depiction of Superman (rearing back on his heels, hand to forehead) that reassures us that both Lois and Lana will be wide-awake and catfighting over Superman by story's end.

On the right side, we have another of the famous/infamous tales of when Superboy was Super-Tot, this time in the prizefighting ring.

And in the middle, we have the jaw-dropping fun of the Krypton Crawl, from Jimmy Olsen's time-travel-tale, "The Red-Headed Beatle of 1,000 BC!"  Yeah, yeah, yeah!

See you again soon for the wrap-up of this classic ish!

This Is What Happens to Cheaters, Orella!

Ever since being lured to the island of Florena by a bunch of sneaky women, Superman has been manipulated at every turn.  Now he has been told the ladies' real plan:  He is to father a new generation of girls who will be hardy enough to return to their home planet, Matrion, where all the women are strong, and the men are subservient.

Orella bested the Man of Steel in three ceremonial contests, and now has begun the Matrionettes' (is that right?) marriage ritual.  First up, she was to build a honeymoon cottage.  But somehow when she started to drive the nails into the wood, she hit them so hard that they shot out the other side of the beams like bullets.  And that's where we are at the top of the above page.  The nails, like red-hot bullets, puncture a bunch of cocoanuts and give everybody a cocoanut-milk shower!

Ummm, it's not supposed to work out that way.  Orella didn't SEEM to have been THAT strong, although she DID best Superman in those feats of strength . . .

Next, while Orella prepares the wedding feast, Superman goes off into the jungle and returns with some natural cosmetics.  He offers some of the face powder to Orella, and she powder-puffs her already-lovely face.

Vanity, thy name is Orella!  The stuff acts like sneezing powder, as (through a thought balloon) we read that Superman intended.  But she gives off a SUPER-sneeze that flattens the dinner table!  Man, this is getting to be an awkward wedding.

Next up, we have the last feat, where Orella must remove a magnetic sword from its stone scabbard, to prove that she is worthy to lead the women back to the home planet, Matrion.

Or, as Maxwell Smart would say, "Ah yes.  The old sword-in-the-stone trick."  Or, perhaps, "That's the SECOND biggest sword I've seen this week."

Well, Orella's bad luck holds true.  She yanks the hilt so hard that the sword dissolves.  And Superman was expecting it . . .   Hmmm.

So, having messed up the three rituals, surely Orella can perform the last, cutting off a bit of her hair to give to her groom as a symbol of love.

Note that Orella wants to shed her bracelet, but Superman asks her to keep it on.  Hurry up things, people, he says.  He's anxious for the wedding to start!  (Boy, is he mean!)  Soon we will find out why . . .

Sure enough, when they try to cut Orella's hair, the scissors shatter, just as when somebody tries to give Superman a trim.

And now comes the revelation.  Earlier in the story we saw how Orella, scheming minx that she is, cheated on the matrimonial sweepstakes so that SHE would be the Matrion to become Superman's bride.

Now we find out that she cheated again.  When she gave those three ceremonial gifts to Superman on his arrival, they were booby-trapped with superpower-stealing technology . . . powers absorbed by Orella through that bracelet.

Rember our cover image of Orella giving Superman the old heave-ho?  Well, you'll remember that in the story his aerial ride ended against a palm tree, where Orella's gifts fell from his cape pouch.  Now, in flashback, we see that at the time Superman took a closer look at them, and discovered Orella's trickery.

So, using his heat vision, he rewired the gizmo to make it a little TOO effective.  Orella's borrowed super-strength became super-DUPER-strength, and she couldn't control it.

Now, Orella did this all in secret.  Sophroni, the older woman who is the last survivor of the original colony of Matrionettes, didn't know anything about this.  Even though offworlders, they share our sense of decency and fair play.

So, Orella has been revealed to all as a cheat and a liar.  A darned pretty one, though!  What will be Superman and Sophroni's next move?  Will there be a wedding with the space girl?

Tune in after the weekend to find out!

Let the Marriage Contest Begin!

On these two pages we see Superman get into a bit of a pickle.  He must marry the lovely offworlder Orella if she can best him in a few tests of strength.  The reason is that these beautiful gals are of an Amazon-like race of space warriors.  Regrettably, they are the weakest of their race.  They hope that introducing a little fresh blood into the gene pool, they can raise up a new generation of stronger women and be worthy of joining their race again on their home planet of Matrion.

The last of the original generation of spacefarers, Sophroni, will act as referee for the three contests of strength.  And, as depicted on the story's splash panel, Supes is immediately dragged across the "line in the sand" in the tug-o-war.

Now what?  If not for the giveaway of the story title and splash/cover pictures, we would never have expected something like this.  Man, if these are the WEAKLINGS of their race, what are the strong gals like?!?!?

Now we see more embarrassment for the Man of Steel, but also, when those items fall out of his cape pouch, there's a "Hmmmm" moment.  The wheels start to turn in the ol' Kryptonian noggin, and the more contemplative of us begin to remember that, besides his super physical powers, this guy is also a Kryptonian scientist and the offspring of two Kryptonian scientists . . .

Well, the three tests are over, and Supes is now bound to marry Orella.  So, in the first of the wedding rituals, she is to build their first home.  What's this?!?!?  She's TOO strong now?

And what's with that smug smirk on Superman's face?

We'll have to wait until next time for more information . . .

We Interrupt Superman 180 with This Important Discovery!

While cleaning out all the accumulated crap of 35 years of cassette tapes and dubbing a small percentage to mp3, I came across  the tapes used in my Adventures of Superman TV CD -- the one that had about an hour's worth of music from the 1950s series that was not on the commercial Varese Sarabande CD.

The name of the company was Vintage Soundtrak, and I couldn't find anything about them on the web.  These are scans of the typed notes they included in their catalog (I made my own cassette inserts).

Does anybody know any more?

As I said when posting this at Spock's Record Blog, this is all the info I have.

Back to our story from Superman 180 in a day or two!

More Words from our Sponsors

Don't you love those 80-Page Giants?  The comic advertised was 80-Page Giant #15, the last Giant that was issued with that term as the publication name.  There were lots more of them, but they were issued and numbered as issues of the individual comic book whose stories they featured.  For instance, the next eighty-pager to be released featuring Superman-Batman stories was part of the World's Finest title.

One of the great things about this series was how we sixties kids could read these new stories.  And they WERE new to us, because they weren't accessible, really, anywhere else, unless your uncle or dad happened to have a stack of musty old comics in the attic somewhere.

The bottom third of the page is for Tootsie Rolls.  There used to be a jingle from the TV commercials that would also apply to this ad.  "Long time, long time!  Chewy chewy Tootsie Rolls last a long time! Last a long time, mmm-mmmm!"

The second page of today's post is a full-page subscription ad.  Actually it was a pretty good deal -- ten issues for $1, when the cover price would be $1.20 -- plus, they would be mailed to your door!

Being a flighty eight-year-old, I just skipped over those ads.  However, in my later quest to "fill in" my collection of comics, I have come across many copies that appear to have been folden in half, top-to-bottom.  My guess is that that's how the comics were mailed, folded in half vertically.

Look at that price -- a dollar for a year's worth -- and consider how nowadays DC is praised for "holding the line at $2.99" AN ISSUE!

Back to our story next time!

Space Girls Are Tricky

Now, along with Superman, we find out the mystery behind the lovely ladies of Florena -- who they are, and how they came to be!

We get a clearer look inside that lead-lined cavern and see a spaceship!  Also, Orella explains the "super" gals who had lured Superman here.  Plus, they just happen to have whipped up a Kryptonite force-shield to make him stay put!

As Orella says, Superman must best her in combat to escape; otherwise, he's goin' to the chapel, and ... you get the idea.

And now the origin story.  Orella and her crew hailed from the planet Matrion.  In a style similar to the legendary Amazons, they were an all-female society who bred by choosing mates from the men they'd defeated in battle.

As an aside, take a look at that top, page-wide panel!  Didn't our Curt (the artist) do a great job of visually explaining the caption?  On the right you've got a crashed space ship, then the defeated men -- some brave, some hanging their heads in shame -- then the women of Matrion.  Get a gander of the pair of warrior women giggling and pointing as they make their choices!

The reason Orella and the ladies of Florena are here on Earth? Well, they're the puny ones.  Some of the Matrionettes (is that the word?) grew weaker physically, but much smarter.  Since they couldn't cut the battle mustard, they were booted offplanet.

So here they are on Earth, trying to toughen up their stock.  By mating with Superman!

Why the heck is Superman protesting?  Why doesn't he just demand a "group marriage"?

Oh, I forgot.  This is a kid's comic. 

See you next time!

Who Knew How Attractive a Wimple could Be?

So, Superman lets the girl (who had seemed to be at BOTH ends of his cross-continental super-speed flight) just walk away.  However, his super-vision (or MICRO-vision, as Smallville would have it) confirms that her clothing is treated so that it COULD theoretically resist the friction of super-speed motion.

But he's due at the U.N. to talk about how scientifically invalid global warming is, so he has to rush away.

But, at the U.N., he sees yet another remarkable woman, who is stabbed without harm.

What is it with these gals?  Is there a whole race of super-powered women running around he didn't know about?  Either this is going to turn into a Shaggy Girl (a la Shaggy Dog) story . . . Or Superman's dating pool just got a LOT larger.

Wait, what?  The gal is NOT wearing the armored vest that she said had protected her against the assassin's knife?

Look!  the gal dropped a scrap pf paper with the name of her tiny island country, Florena, and now Superman recognizes that each of the mysterious women had been wearing brooches with the same palm-tree insignia.    He decides to investigate . . .

And now we see that Supes has fallen for an intricately-planned scheme, all set up to get him to come to the island of the women of Florena.  Bum-bum-BUMMM!

And, we see it's a scheme to get Superman hitched with one of them.  A gal named Orella, whom we recognize from the cover art and this story's splash page, cheats in the selection process and thereby wins the right to make Superman hers.

But . . . did anybody tell Superman about this South Seas Sadie Hawkins Day?

Evidently not.  The gals had been using some sort of advanced super-scope to track him, but have hidden it in a lead-lined cavern.  Evidently they have high technology, but when Superman arrives, they show no evidence of it.  They give him gifts, like a primitive tribe honoring a strange visitor.

We'll see if Superman is ensnared by their plot, next time!

By the way, does Curt Swan know how to draw gorgeous women, or what?!?




 

Welcome Back to the Land of the Living

Hi there.  It's great to be alive.

It's even greater to go five minutes without expectorating what appears to be mulched manila envelopes.

To continue, the second story of Superman 180 is our cover feature, "The Girl Who Was Mightier Than Superman," written by Leo Dorfman (according to the DC wiki).  Our favorite artist Curt Swan, assisted by trusty inker George Klein, puts pictures to the story.

First off, read the text box in the splash panel.  Why, it's the famous "Faster than ..." speech!  Now compare that with the actual image shown.  A "mere slip of a girl" is dragging a reluctant Man of Steel across the line in a good ol' tug-of-war.  Of course, when I was in grade school (the last time I played tug o' war) we used a piece of rope, not what appears to be ten-inch-linked anchor chain!

Now, unless (as I can) you can slip into a 1960s mindset, it may seem odd to you that on what appears to be a South Seas isle, we only see Caucasian women.  Good-hearted soul that I am, I can view this as unintentional and not offensive, because I know that God makes beautiful people in ALL colors.  So let's not be taken aback by this mindest, but go on with the story.

Superman, on patrol, sees a lady being mugged in a Metropolis park.  Before he can rescue her, she give the guy a heave-ho into a parkbench, dooming him forever to be mocked by his fellow louts as the guy who got beat up by a woman.

She doesn't even want to press charges!  She's named Stella Strand, and she says learned her judo moves in the Marines. Va-Va-Voom for the Marines, I say!

Next day, a different girl impresses Superman by seemingly being at BOTH ENDS of a cross-continental TV broadcast.  Both "versions" of her scoff at the idea that he could outrace his own TV image.  She's not the same girl from the park the night before, just another beautiful but intriguing gal.

Note that the "TV race" involves Superman outspeeding a TV signal on a CROSS-CONTINENTAL CABLE.  I bet that this was probably a delay of a few seconds.  I am kind of surprised that writer Dorfman didn't use the more modern idea of a TV satellite, which had its beginnings 1963-1967 (after being depressingly predicted by Arthur C Clarke in "I Remember Babylon" around 1960).

Anyway, this is the setup for our story, as Superman becomes aware of some smart and lovely women who appear to have some supra-normal abilities.

See you again soon!

The End of the Story

Here is the last page of “Clark Kent’s Great Superman Hunt” from Superman 180, along with the next page in the comic.



That little bit about teasing the reader to guess whether Clark or Superman was the TV imposter is a great little lagniappe, a little extra for the reader, or as they used to call it on the Borscht Belt, a bit of “chicken fat” to improve the flavor.



The bottom half of the page is an exemplary model of “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” In 1965, a very low-tech approach was used (crossing your eyes) to demonstrate how you got one treat into another one (a Tootsie Roll into a Tootsie Pop). Nowadays, they use computer graphics to put a pretzel into an M&M. Same idea, eh?

The next page features Rocky and Bullwinkle touting Cheerios. Every one of these ads featuring Moose and Squirrel had the same formula, with Rocky as the straight man and Bullwinkle blundering into SOMETHING and, in the last panel, saying, “…but they should watch where they’re going!”



Don’t you wish Congress could learn that trick?





In our next post we will begin the thrilling tale of “The Girl That Was Mightier than Superman!”

It's Starting to Come Together Now -- um, What??

Superman?  The mobster known as "The Wheel"?

It can't be . . . but that's what "Clark Kent's Great Superman Hunt" has revealed. 

Or has it?  Oh, now we get it!  This was all a desparate ruse by Superman (and by Clark Kent nudge-nudge-wink-wink-say-no-more) to get Herb Farr's gang to THINK the Man of Tomorrow was Farr, so they would show him the way to safely release Lois from her booby-trapped hiding-place.

Man!  But Farr has escaped, and just as Superman is going to key the remote-control detonator so he can rescue Lois, the REAL Farr shows up, and smashes the control!

Now Lois is doomed.  She can't be released by the crook's method, and, we've all been told, she's in a location that will explode if Superman tries to break her out.

Look at Farr's evil face as the cops drag him away.  He's the epitome of Snark, ain't he?  But he's given Superman one clue, direct from the reporter in the 1951 film The Thing:  Keep Watching the Skies!

Sure enough, Lois is in a robot plane.  But how can the big guy get her out?

Well, if it worked in Superman Returns, why can't it work now?  Super-Breath, to the rescue!

Whew!  Now Lois is saved, barely, and all Superman has to do is explain his ruse to the world. 

Since the heavy media coverage of this plan was pitched by Clark to Perry White as a circulation booster, I wonder how many, if any, new subscribers are going to cancel because Clark and Superman LIED TO THEM?!?!?

Anyway, we'll wrap up this story and see what's next in Superman 180 next time!

Separate Blog for Music and Stuff

Starting today, you can visit a separate Blog for various uploads.  We will start with the items previously listed here, and go on from there.  I hope to post one-a-day of the "older" links, and we will go from there. 


The new Blog is named after my first pet, my wonderful friend Spock, 1978-1991.

http://spocksrecordround-up.blogspot.com/

Back to Our Story

Here are the next three pages from "Clark Kent's Great Superman Hunt," the first story of Superman 180.

Here we see that, at least, the stated goal for Clark's wild crusade has come to pass -- The Daily Planet's circulation is skyrocketing!  Meanwhile, our reader stand-in, Jimmy Olsen, is worrying about "that skunk," Clark Kent, ruining Superman's life by exposing the Secret Identity.

I like the depiction of Clark's mental image of Lois in captivity.  She's holding out her arms, pleading for her hero to rescue her.  And he's doing the best he can!  If only she KNEW how hard he's trying.

Meanwhile, building on the staged autograph collection of the days before, Clark has isolated the letters F and H as the probable initials of that Secret Identity.  (We, the readers, can't help but wonder what the heck is going on.  We know, of course, that Superman's initials are CK.)

Therefore, Clark has announced that since Superman has super-teeth, maybe he doesn't need a dentist.  So Clark, using super-speed, cross-references dentists' records and the phone book to narrow down "FH" guys who haven't seen a dentist recently.  Clever, huh?  Of course, the super-speed stuff gets done off-camera...

Well, Clark announces that four guys fit the criteria he has manufactured.  Trailing a camera crew, he goes to each man's address, building the suspense.

(When I read the couple of panels about Fang Hogan, I first wonder about the marketability of the trade name "The Human Beaver."  Human TERMITE, maybe.  Secondly, I wonder that, even in comic-book land, somebody could make a living by biting into telephone poles.)

With three "suspects" eliminated, we now turn to "FH" Number Four.  Herb Farr, come on down!

Now things begin to come together for us.  Herb Farr, the guy fingered by Clark Kent's investigation, is also "The Wheel," the guy who kidnaped Lois Lane and has held her under a death watch while telling Clark Kent to expose the Man of Steel's identity.

(In Creative Writing in college, our professor Val Thiessen summed up this turnaround plot twist by naming it "the biter, bit.")

So when Farr, "The Wheel," shows up at his mob hideout, his cronies are wise to things -- they think!  But consider the absurdity of the situation.  They think their boss, a big-time mobster, is Superman.

SO THEY PULL A GUN ON HIM.

Is it just me, or does this seem a bit silly?  Especially when his skin bends a pinprick, and his hair breaks a pair of scissors.

What is up?  Obviously either Superman has had a third identity all along, or he is pretending to be Herb Farr.  But why?

Come back next time to learn more!

The Man from O.R.G.A.N.

In 1965, virtuoso keyboardist Dick Hyman ventured into the spy business with his LP, The Man from O.R.G.A.N.

Here is my version of that album.

If you like it, leave a comment and say so!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IW55JV8W

Note that this version of the "UNCLE" theme copies the first season's use of 5/4 time.  Enjoy!