Overstreet Celebrates Superman at 50 - 1

Is Overstreet's Comic Book Price Guide still "the ultimate authority on comic book values"?  In 1988 they celebrated Superman's 50th Anniversary with a cover by some guy who was not not a famous Superman illustrator; photos of some items from collector Danny Fuchs' collection; and an interview with creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Here are the front & rear covers and the DC's house ad celebrating the Golden Anniversary..

I would gladly pay a dollar to find out the origin of the overworked phrase (parrotted in DC's ad) referring to the such-and-such "who," or "that," STARTED IT ALL!

See you Monday!

The End of Eerie 13

Here are the rear inside and rear outside covers of Eerie #13.

A blurb on the front cover told us to "Read why the number 13 scares you!"  Well, this idea was never specifically addressed by a story in this issue, but as a representative issue of scary magazine horror from the late 1960s, this mag presented me with a little frisson.

Those finger bones marching one-by-one back to their owner in "Wentworth's Day."  The discolored eye in "Tell-Tale Heart."  The beautiful cat-girl's glow-in-the-cave eyes.  The close-up of ogre loveliness.  And on and on.

Makes me wish my allowance had been bigger back then!

See you on Thursday with some Super-pix and the beginning of a book excerpt that includes an interview with our best friends from Cleveland, Jerry and Joe.

Heroes

"The Success Story" - Part the Last

So, what did Famous Comics Creator Baldo Smudge do about his indignant collaborators?  and -- heh, heh -- what did they do about HIM!?!  Read on, kiddies . . .

Now, was Martha entirely blameless?  I think not.

The only way this little ditty could have been improved would be if, Tingler-like, the last panel had been in COLOR.

Now, over in Dial B for Blog, it's amazing how many comics readers who knew a little about Bob Kane (or had learned about his studio's practices) -- said that this tale could have been ripped from the headlines of Kane's life (up to the last page or two, of course).

However, the writer Archie Goodwin said that Kane was NOT the intended person referred to.  It was just a story.

See you next week!

"The Success Story" - first part

Here is the last tale from 1968's Eerie #13. 

A few years ago, when Robby Reed over at Dial B for Blog was talking about the studio set up by Bob Kane for Batman, I got in on the action.  You see, Robby quoted a LOT of folks who said that about all Bob Kane had to do as the creator of Batman, after finally "making it," was to come in and write the "Bob Kane" box on the splash panel.  robby listed various writers, inkers, and pencillers.  What else was there for Kane to do?

This discussion reminded me of a story I had read long ago, in an issue of Eerie magazine.

The first half of the story:

Hmmm..  what's going to happen next?

See you Friday!

Captain Company, We Love You!

Here are the next pages in our page-by-page from 1968's Eerie #13.

Like so many of us, I wish I could go back in time with some grown-up earnings to those 1960s prices and BUY, BUY, BUY all those fun things.

I wouldn't necessarily want a Venus Flytrap (unless it said "Feeeeed Meeee"), but those masks?  I always wondered if the masks could ever look as cool as the photos used in trying to sell them.

And "who wants a live monkey"?  My big brother would say that he already had one -- ME.

   

Come Back September First!

Hey, I know it's short notice, but I have decided that the 114-degree temperatures have fried my brain.

I'm going to give the Super Blog a month's rest, and contiue our trek in September.  We'll finish up Eerie #13, share the some Super-books, and otherwise make the perceptive reader feel old and, I hope, a bit nostalgic.

See you then!

PS Spock's Record Round-Up is still up and running through the month.

Thanks for being a friend.

News from Marc Nobleman, author of "Boys of Steel"

On his blog, Marc is going to be posting interviews with dozens of voice actors for various Superhero TV cartoon shows of the 1970s and later.

You can start right here:   http://noblemania.blogspot.com/2011/07/super-70s-and-80s-original-interviews.html

If you like Marc's stuff, let him know, and tell him I sent ya!

Half-Spawn of the Cat People?

Well, that was a twist, wasn't it?  See you Monday!

Because "Curse of the Cat People" Was Taken

Instead, we have "Spawn of the Cat People."

 See if you can guess what the ending might be, by reading the first few pages.
 

We'll have the story's end at the end of the week.

That Voodoo That You Do So ... Well?

If only she hadn't had a double-edged machete . . .

What,-- What?  How can he be convinced if he's dead?  (Just kidding)

On the other hand, how could she be calling his name if the lips of the shrunken head are sewn shut?  Now I'l wonder about that all weekend!

See you after that!

Do You Believe in "Voodoo"?

Here is the first half of the next tale from Eerie #13

Or, "Ralph and Alice Kramden in Hell."

What do you think?  Should Frank heed Sylvia's siren call?  Does he have a choice?

Tune in next time!

"Temporary Discoloration" My Eye!

Here is the rest of Eerie #13's adaptation of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart":

Things I love about this Poe adaptation:
  It's in Black & White
  How dapper the narrator looks as a Gentleman's Gentleman
  The "gasp-choke-Good Lord!" in the last panel of page 25
  The whole eye thing. 

  More after the wekend!  Gasp-choke!

Why Will You Say I Am Mad?

This is the next story in Eerie 13, an adaptation of Poe's grand tale of obsession (wait--did he write ANY OTHER KIND!?!?!), "The Tell-Tale Heart."

It's told from the POV of the old man's servant, and I think it really is creepy this way.

Sure, the old guy's discolored eye is an addition to the tale, but it works out, in the end, as you'll find out end of the week!

The Rest of "Ogre's Castle"

Some might read this little cautionary tale and say, "Just like a woman."  But that's just mean.  I mean, how can you say that about the sorceress?  I mean, it's not as if she loves the knight for his looks --  any more that is.

In a few days, our next Grue-Tale!

Ogre's Castle beginning

Here is the beginning of the next story from Eerie #13.  Boy, those magical critters are some plug-ugly palookas, huh?

Dig Those Bony Fingers!

Here is the rest of "Wentworth's Day," the first tale from Eerie 13.

That's right, kiddies!  It was neck-and-neck between the late Nahum Wentworth and Amos Stark, but Stark found out that his own shotgun had provided the blast from the past!

I particularly like the Marching Finger Bones of the last panel.

See you in a couple of days with the beginning of "Ogre's Castle," the next tale in this maggoty mag!

Part 1 of "Wentworth's Day!"

Here we have the contents page & first half of "Wentworth's Day," which I read when I was nine or so, and was my first known exposure to anything having to do with that Great Old One, HP Lovecraft.

Wait!  I take that back!  BEFORE I read this story, I had read Ray Bradbury's story "Pillar of Fire," in which a reanimated corpse goes into the library of a sanitized future society and askes for a book on Lovecraft.  "Is that a sex book?" inquires the librarian.  When I first read Bradbury's story, I had NO IDEA that this exchange was a dirty pun, a joke on Bradbury's part.

Anyway, here are the first pages of Eerie13.  This story, "Wentwoprth's Day," is kind of like an unholy spawn of a Lovecraftian "strange book in an old house" tale and a standard EC corpse-revenge story.

Unlike some of my childhood crushes, these Eerie stories retain their cheesy charm.  I guess that means I grew up cheesy too.

We leave you know with salesman Hadley beginning to learn more than he wishes about the accident that happened to Nahum Wentworth.

The rest of this shaggy bog story on Monday!