Three-Part Thursday Serves Up Another Classic!

One of the great wonders of the Silver Age of DC comics was the “imaginary” tale. Done right, these little “what ifs” could make you smile, laugh, muse and dream, or even experience heartfelt sorrow, joy, pride, or anger.

Such a wonderful story was featured in Superman 175, cover-dated February, 1965. Written by SF great Edmond Hamilton and accompanied by supremely appropriate Curt Swan art, this tale, while pretending to be a “what if?” children’s story, also featured a masterful handling of the more “grown-up” emotions of jealousy, the loyalties of friendship, and – the BIG one for me, the redemptive power of selfless love.

Wow, and all that in a kiddie comic book!

Thanks to Robby Reed for uncovering a variant version of our cover! (Check out his blog, Dial B for Blog, through the permanent link to the right edge of this entry). Of the two covers shown above, the scene on the left is the actual printed cover.

As our story opens, a pesky cold prevents Jonathan and Martha Kent from departing on the vacation that, in “real” continuity, would have led to their deaths (as told in Superman 161). Meanwhile, Superboy detects that Lex Luthor has nearly triangulated the Kent home through a system of surveillance cameras. And through a series of brief vignettes, we learn that the Pete Ross of THIS tale does NOT know Clark Kent’s secret, but IS becoming very jealous of Lana Lang’s starstruck adulation of the Boy of Steel. She won’t even consider dating Pete, as long as Superboy is around.

So when Clark Kent “runs away” and Superboy vows to find him no matter what, Pete avers, “If he never comes back, it’ll be fine with me!”

Of course, the absence of Clark and Superboy from Smallville is the only way Kal-El could come up with to keep Lex from tracking him to the Kent home. But how convenient that both are gone at the same time, Lex figures. So, he offers to work at the Kent store, soon coming up with a counterfeit detector ray and a mechanized inventory system. He ingratiates himself further into the Kent family, until they offer to adopt him. “It’s so easy to fool these kind-hearted people,” Lex thinks to himself, “I feel almost ashamed…but I must carry out my plan!”

Then come the four panels shown here. The Kents’ acceptance and love for him work their wonders, and … Lex Luthor repents! When a lonely Superboy swoops in through the window to visit, Lex sees him too, and swears to keep the secret in the family.

Part One ends with Lex and Clark Kent as fast friends, Lana Lang once again swooning over the Boy of Steel, and Pete Ross nursing resentment into hate: “I’ll hate him for life…and when I’m grown up, I’ll make him wish he’d never taken Lana away from me! Wait and see!”

As you can see by its splash page, Part II is titled “The Defeat of Superman!” Word.

As time passes, the four Kents move from Smallville to Metropolis. Clark gets a job at the Daily Planet and meets a sultry blackheaded gal named Lois Lane. Lex has been offered a post at the Metropolis Scientific Foundation.

At a housewarming party for the Kents, Jonathan Kent tries to match up Lois with Clark; two old friends from Smallville, Lana Lang and Pete Ross, also drop by. As Lex shows off his home lab, Pete attaches a tiny sensor to one of the apparati that is so dangerous, Lex says, that Superman will take it to his Fortress for safekeeping.

A few weeks later, the world is stunned by weird robberies by non-Earthly technology. Swooping in to investigate, Superman is felled by Green Kryptonite studded into one of them, and falls from the sky onto…Lois Lane!

Upon his recovery, Superman finds his Fortress has been looted of various inventions now used in those eerie crimes, including some of brother Lex’s devices. When the Action Ace finds to his relief that Lois will recover from her injuries, he proposes. He’s overheard by Lana, who’d come to visit Lois in the hospital.

Realizing that Superman will never be hers, Lana consents to Pete Ross’s proposal, only to soon discover evidence that Pete is “a big-shot crook, not a business man! And by fixing a tiny radio-impulse transmitter to the invention that Lex Kent was giving to Superman, I discovered the location of his Fortress!”

Part II ends with Lana Lang Ross’s realization that “I still love Superman…and I’ve married his most terrible enemy!”

Man, look at the splash page for part III, “The Luthor-Superman.” That is just creepy! Superman is dead, apparently. And some bald guy – Lex Luthor, in a Superman outfit! -- is about to make a home run on somebody’s noggin with a big ol’ steel girder. I think it’s too late to duck, eh?

Well, let’s wrap this up. Pete Ross kidnaps Lois Kent (any one of Superman’s friends would have done as well) to lure Superman to an underground hideout, where he doses him with huge amounts of Green K. Meanwhile, Lana Ross manages to break out her locked apartment and dash to the Kents’ home, revealing that she too knows Clark’s secret. In a desperate gamble, Lex uses an imperfect invention to give himself temporary superpowers. He tracks Pete, and breaks into the cavern. Talk about just desserts! Pete sure gets his, as shown below.

“The Luthor-Superman” flies out to safety with Lois and Superman, detecting a faint heartbeat as his brother begins to recover from Kryptonite poisoning. The Man of Tomorrow awakens just in time to thank his brother for his life, as Lex body begins to dissolve. After all, the frail body of an Earthman can not long contain the power of a Superman.

Our great Three-Part Imaginary Novel ends with Clark (Superman) Kent in a memorial garden, ruminating before his brother's monument. “Fate is strange! When we were boys, I feared Lex might grow up into a lawless criminal…but instead, he grew up to be the finest person of us all!”

Wow. Pete, in his selfish resentment, came to hate Superboy/Superman. Lana, in her youthful hero-worship, was blind to Pete’s overtures, thus fanning his jealousy. Lex, by worming his way into the Kent family, laid himself wide open to the power of acceptance and unconditional love. By being themselves, Jonathan and Martha Kent saved the world from an evil genius’s influence through simply giving love and family membership to a lonely, obsessed misfit named Lex.

And, redeemed by love and surrounded by pride and acceptance, Lex made a choice to lay down his own life to save his brother’s.

Sure, it’s “just a comics story,” but it also rings true in these echos of real-life sentiments, conflicts, sorrows, and triumphs. Real folks too have the feelings shown by the characters in this tale. I don’t know about you, but I’ve responded ignobly to another’s greater talents; I too have felt the wonders of love dawning into the black sorrows of my dirty heart; I also have experienced the humility of knowing that another, better person has died to save me.

Kinda makes you think, huh?

Tomorrow … how to pronounce Mxyzptlk’s name backwards!

Weirdo Wednesday Presents...The Helmet of Hate!

Great Curt Swan art highlights this week’s Weirdo Wednesday offering. “The Helmet of Hate” features a diabolical conspiracy between Jimmy and Superman to convince a couple of members of Brainiac’s “gang” that the Man of Steel has turned to the Dark Side.

These guys ARE green, but don’t boast their boss’s Christmas-lights-on-the-noggin.

THAT honor is reserved for our cover boy, Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen. This is issue 68, cover-dated April, 1963.

Yes, Jimmy puts on the Helmet of Hate and takes up the Red Kryptonite pistol for a Planet photoshoot. They were SUPPOSED to be props, but look what’s happened now!

Superman is now evil, boasting red skin and devil horns!

Shades of Mephistopheles, as Superman bribes Perry White to endorse racketeer Tom Remson for Mayor, and then offers to make Remson and gang “kingpins of crime,” in exchange for a little thing called their souls.

All this convinces Brainiac’s buddies that the Man of Steel’s halo is sufficiently rusty. They drop their flying saucer’s force-field and offer Superman the chance to shrink Metropolis like Kandor was. After all, Superman promises “I promise not to battle you!”

Then, in one of the great absurdist panels of comics, Superman’s horns burst open to reveal members of Kandor’s Superman Emergency Squad. THEY didn’t make no stinkin’ promise, and they proceed to take the spaceship apart, carting the two baddies back to Kandor and allowing Superman and Jimmy to drop their ruse.

It was all “Plan J” – all prearranged.

And now this bonus, where in readers may find out the correct way to pronounce “Mxyzptlk” – read the letter at the top of the right-hand column.

STAY TUNED for…Three-Part Thursday, wherein you will also coincidentally learn how to pronounce Mixy’s name BACKWARDS!

I Think I'd Like to Live There!

As I inventory the books in the Fortress of Markitude (up to 500 and have just finished one wall's worth), I come across some treasures I have forgotten about.

One such is the American Space Digest, a nifty pamphlet distributed as a freebie by the Schick Razor Company in 1963. It's full of bios of space personalities, articles like "Television by Telstar -- It's Here!", and the great "vision of the future" shown below -- a town not unlike a certain comic-book city we all know and love.

Yes, "Cities Will See Big Changes," all right! This vision of America's Future, as visualized in 1963, shows a little bit of the cultural milieau of the times, and an optimism about the days that lie ahead, that I sorely miss. That's why Curt Swan drew Kandor the way he did, I think.

We all recognize the futuristic skyline shown here. It's what the future was supposed to look like! And it might have, if not for the 1963 coup, which ushered in four decades (so far) of power wielded by aome of the most untrustworthy of the powerful. And the resulting (justified) mistrust of the few, accompanied by the (less justified) mistrust of ALL authority.

(end of editorial comment)

Stay tuned (barring another Internet Interruption like yesterday's) for another instalment of Weirdo Wednesday tomorrow, and after that *gasp!* a second Three-Part Thursday!

Something Simple for Today!

Today we’ll take a look at two placemats for Junior. Imperfectly melded together, ’tis true, but that’s the best we can do with 20th-century graphics technology.

The placemat from 1977 features another Neal Adams Superman grinning a big ol’ smile. So much for dirty-gritty Adams art. Not with MY Superman you don’t.

But ... If Superman is flying towards us, then who's in that rocket headed for Earth?
And ... Is Superman smiling at us because he thinks it's funny to cover the North Pole with Hershey's Choclate Syrup? Oh my.


The one from 1992, fifteen years later, features art by – we’re guessing here – Dan Jurgens. (Please correct me if I err).


Do not worry, never fear … Three-Part Thursday will soon be here! (Next week that is.)Sayonara!

Welcome to Weirdo Wednesday!

In honor of the forthcoming Hallow-Day at the end of the month, on Wednesdays we’ll be looking at some sinister goings-on in the DC neighborhood.

Our first Weirdo Wednesday concerns Action 324, cover-dated May, 1965. Drool over that great Curt Swan art. Put your finger over those devil-horns on Supergirl and just concentrate on her expression. Man, that’s just EVIL !!

Next we have the splash page for this tale. Being the back-up feature (even though it’s the cover story), the art is by Jim “Swoony” Mooney (I call him that because all his art makes the men look all girly).

The story is all about how Supergirl saves a fellow in the Middle East, only to find out he is a *gulp* demon! He passes his evil on to her, whereupon she grows horns, as you can see.

Next is Mooney’s version of the same scene featured on our cover. Compare Curt Swan’s devilish lines with Mooney’s anemic version of Supergirl. Cover up the horns on Mooney’s Devil Supergirl, and she looks like she’s being tickled or something. No meanness there!
As we sign off on this first Weirdo Wednesday, here’s a version of the cover with the speech balloons blanked out, so you can fill in your OWN ideas. Also here’s a silly little example to start you off.

More from Arlen!

Here are more images from Arlen Schumer, a great Pop Celebrationeer (that's a word I just invented).

Enjoy!

And stay tuned tomorrow evening for "Weirdo Wednesday!"

Once again, the website for Arlen's Studio is

www.dynamicduostudio.com

Look at These Cool Images!

Monday and Tuesday we're going to look at the work of a Super guy, Arlen Schumer. My connection with him is, I won one of his books -- Visions from the Twilight Zone -- and I was thrilled to discover that he had produced the color section in the Swanderful bio, Curt Swan: A Life in Comics .

So when Arlen sent me some pix, I just had to share them with you! In the first panel Arlen explains his childhood, and adult, attraction to comic art.

The next panel covers our topic, "The Art History of Superman."

Then we have a spread featuring Joe Shuster and his studio, and another covering the Fliescher Studios cartoons.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

PS Arlen's studio's website is

http://www.dynamicduostudio.com/

PPS stay tuned for "Weirdo Wednesday" ... in just TWO days!

Letters, They Got Letters!

One of the most dearly-missed (by ME, anyway) features of comics gone by, is the Letters Column. In it, readers would brag, ask questions, offer up explanations for goofs spotted by themselves or another reader, and so on.

Here’s the Metropolis Mailbag contained in the Superman comic featured yesterday in Three-Part Thursday – Superman 158.

You should read all the letters, and the sometimes-wisecracking editorial responses. Gosh, weren’t those great times?

If you’ll notice the last letter at the bottom of the left-hand column, and its reply at the top of the right side, check out the name of the sender. Yes, this reader with the convoluted, continuity-saving suggestion, E. Nelson Bridwell, is the same guy who came to work for DC via Mad magazine.

In the early 1970s, he became the kind of continuity guru towards which many of us aspire, and became the Brain Trust for DC and its reprint series, most of which were edited by Bridwell.

He also wrote some Superman comics stories, most of which were concerned with Super-history, or in someway contributed background to the Super Mythology.

ENB was born in Sapulpa, but when this letter was printed, he was in his teens, and writing from my own burg, Oklahoma City.

Here are a few web listings with a little more information about one of my many heroes, E. Nelson Bridwell of OKC!


http://www.starland.com/sus/2006/sus060112.htm


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Nelson_Bridwell

Number 1 in a Great New Series!

Yes, friends, beginning today, it’s …
THREE-PART THURSDAY!

Today we look at a “Great Three-Part Novel,” written by SF great Edmond Hamilton and penciled by Curt Swan. On the cover, it’s called “The Invasion of the Super-People,” but on the inside splash page, it’s given the more descriptive moniker, “Superman in Kandor!” This is Superman 158, cover-dated January, 1963.

Our story begins with incredible multiple robberies of scientific labs around the world. Crimes committed by men with … super powers! Superman interrupts a group of super-thieves, only to be beaten to a standstill by multiple attackers who … speak Kryptonese! Accompanied by his pal, newshound Jimmy Olsen, the Man of Steel makes the obvious deduction and heads to his Fortress of Solitude. They find its door torn off from … the inside!

In the space of a few pages, Jimmy and Superman shrink themselves with Brainiac’s ray, parachute into Kandor, and meet Nor Kann, a longtime friend of Superman’s father, Jor-El, on Krypton. When Superman attempts to reason with the Kandorians they turn on him, pulling down his statue (like Stalin’s or Hussein’s) and hunting Supes and Jimmy with telepathic hounds.

Why is Superman suddenly the most hated man in Kandor, the last city of Krypton, his homeworld? Find out in Part II!

The second chapter of this three-part novel introduces “The Dynamic Duo of Kandor!” Yes, this tale introduces the names Nightwing and Flamebird to the DC universe.

By something similar to self-hypnosis, Jimmy and Superman divert the telepathic hounds and manhunting party of Kandorians, and discover from Nor Kann why the Man of Tomorrow is so vilified. Turns out a Kandorian scientist named Than Ol has not only supposedly discovered a way to enlarge Kandor, he’s used this method to enable those super-powered raiders to steal supplies from Earthly scientists.

Several Kandorians have started a rumor that Superman knew of this process all along, but has been deliberately NOT restoring the Kandorians, for fear they might compete with him or overrun Earth. Not only does Superman not trust them, he fears his Kryptonian cousins, public opinion says.

While Superman worries about the safety of Than Ol’s process, Nor Kann leads him and Jimmy underground, where the aged scientist uses his resources to set up his friends with uniforms and flight-belts. Soon Kal-El of Krypton is garbed as Nightwing, and the fiery redheaded Olsen takes flight as … Flamebird! They overpower one of Than Ol’s men and Superman discovers a horrible secret about the enlargement process.

To learn more, he goes undercover to Than Ol’s lab, disguised as Van-Zee, a member of the Superman Emergency Squad of Kandor. But Kal-El is recognized and knocked unconscious, thus ending Part II.

Jimmy and Nor Kann plan a clever ruse, leading a squadron of the Superman Emergency Squad to Than Ol’s lab, demanding “the evil Superman.” When the Man of Steel is produced for trial, he is “kidnaped” by Van Zee (disguised as Nightwing) and Jimmy (Flamebird) Olsen. Jimmy and Superman quickly escape the bottle into the Fortress, and from there they flee their Kandorian pursuers by escaping into the Phantom Zone.

Thus is the cover scene enacted: Jimmy and Superman float helplessly, silently, in the Phantom Zone, mocked by Krypton’s immaterial criminals, while renegade Kandorians enlarge themselves and take the bottle city to an open area on Earth, there to restore it to its original size.

Meanwhile – whew! – a timer on the Phantom Zone projector kicks in and Superman and Jimmy rematerialize. The Action Ace shows Mr. Action just why Than Ol’s process is so dangerous, by enlarging a tiny model of the Eiffel Tower, outside the Fortress.

Superman explains that the process produces enlargement by spreading apart the atoms of any given body. But, after three hours, anything so enlarged disintegrates completely, its atoms losing cohesion. The enlarged Eiffel Tower becomes a mere eyeful of dust!

Soon Superman tracks down the now-enlarged once-capital city of Kandor, and tries once again to convince the ringleaders of their danger. Still stinging with jealousy toward the Man of Steel, they hunt him down with Green Kryptonite missile launchers, and are prepared to propel him into a Green-K pit when, just in time, “the dream suddenly turns into a nightmare … for the people of Kandor!”

Yes, the three hours have begun to run out, and Superman just has time to re-shrink the city to safety. Yes, they’ve been “saved by Superman, after we distrusted him, pursued him, tried to kill him!”

The final two panels of the story show Jimmy and Superman watching via telescreen as the grateful Kandorians unveil a new statue to replace the old one – this time featuring Nightwing and Flamebird!

And the story closes with the Man of Tomorrow repeating his vow to someday find a way to restore Kandor to its original size.

Great art, great additions to the Superman Mythos, great story, great use of the strange world of Kandor. Yes, an auspicious beginning for Three-Part Thursday!

I am so grateful that I was growing up and reading comics in this Silver Age of Superman!

Write and tell me what you think! Suggest other Great Three-Part Novels of Superman’s past!

Tomorrow, as a denoument, we'll look at another fascinating Super-Feature to be found in this issue!

Let's Establish Some Creds Here

These photos were taken last year for a front-page story in the Oklahoma City Oklahoman that ran on the day Superman Returns opened.

Of course they took more photos than they printed. Here are some.

One caveat -- I really am skinnier now!

STAY TUNED for tomorrow's thrilling instalment, the introduction of ...

Three-Part Thursday!

Just Wait for Another Day!

Yes, Super-Friends, inspired by the indubitable Robby Reed's Dial B for Blog , your peerless reader will present a new feature to the ol' Super Blog.

Once in a while we'll take a look at ...

but that would be telling!

Just be here Thursday evening to check it out!

One hint ... there's a clue in my photo, to the right, in my profile!

Until then, enjoy this great Curt Swan cartoon, taken from Curt Swan: A Life in Comics .

Feeling Be-Trayed!

Here we have a Superman II folding metal tray. The legs are about 10 inches long. If you sat on the floor with your legs outstretched you might be able to set its legs across your legs, but maybe not.

Of course if you're eight years old, it will fit just fine!

They Say It's My Birthday

And we had a good time

I'm glad it's my birthday

happy birthday to me

More news on "The Success Story"

Well, friends, Good ol' Robby Reed (see the permanant Dial B for Blog link on the right)heard from good ol' Mark Evanier, about our little "Bob Kane parallel," Eerie #13's "The Success Story."

Since the previous post won't "maximize" page one of the story, let's try again!

Robby informs us that "Success Story" WAS written about a specific comics "creator," bot NOT about Bob "Batman" Kane.

Here's what Robby told me:

Here's what Mark Evanier said:

"First of all, not that it matters a lot but I believe this story was reprinted in EERIE from CREEPY #1. Secondly and more important: It's not about Bob Kane. The story by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson was inspired by a cartoonist named Don Sherwood who had hired them (separately) to ghost a newspaper strip called DAN FLAGG. At various times, other friends of theirs -- including Angelo Torres, George Evans, George Woodbridge, Al McWilliams and others -- had worked on the strip and it was a recurring joke (almost) for them to discover they were working "with" each other. Goodwin based his script on that situation. Williamson, however, did not draw Sherwood. Al made the lead character of Baldo Smudge (which was the pen name for a few earlier stories where Williamson collaborated with Torres) look like himself. The writer was based on Goodwin. The inker was based on Torres. I'm not sure about the penciller but I think I heard it was Al McWilliams. There were actually other strips where a similar trick was employed of hiring ghosts like that and there are a few parallels to the situation with Bob Kane. But that's not who Archie was writing about."

So that's where it stands, kiddos! The next time we chat, I'll be a year older! I leave it up to you to guess HOW MANY years that makes!

Won't You Stick with Me?

My my, such a foo-fa-rah about my little contribution to the Bob Kane story!

Let's chill out a little bit and check out some niffty stickers, one set from 1991, and some spiffy foil ones from 1994.

See you in the funny papes, and don't forget to write!

Eerie Takes You Behind the Scenes of the Comics Industry’s Number One Fraud!

In the sockamagee blogazine Dial B for Blog (see the running link in the right-hand sidebar), a recent instalment shows how Bob “Batman” Kane was a free borrower of “stuff” originated by other creators – writers, artists, what-have-you.

This reminded me of a story I read way, way back in Eerie #13, cover-dated February 1968. Eerie magazine and its sister mag, Creepy, were magazine-sized bi-monthly publications from Warren Publishing Company.

The artists included such greats as Joe Orlando, Al Williamson, Reed Crandall, Angelo Torres, Gray Morrow, and Alex Toth.

Writers included Archie Goodwin, Don Glut, and Otto Binder.

Anyways, Mr. Random-Access-Memory (that’s ME!) remembered this little tale, entitled “Success Story,” wherein a sly “creator” gets a li’l ol’ come-uppance.

This story is written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by Joe Al Williamson. It was originally published in the February 1968 issue of Eerie magazine, and was copyrighted 1967 by Warren Publishing Company.

By the way, the title of today’s post is Eerie’s own title-page blurb of “The Success Story.” I leave it up to you to decide if -- in some way -- comics veterans Goodwin and Orlando were laying in an oblique reference to the dashing Bob Kane.

Tom Grummett's Art Could Start a Clock!

This clock dates, I think, from around the time of DC Comics' "Zero Hour" -- around 1994 or so. It was a-hangin' on the wall of OKC's Atomic Comics. Tracy (I don't know his last name) was kind enough to sell it to me during one of their big Warehouse Sales, even though it was "in use" at the time.

The colors are a little brighter in person.

Actually, this must be a POST-Zero Hour image, or Kyle Rayner wouldn't be Green Lantern! You may now say "Duh!" loudly to me.

Didn't Lay a Glove on Me!

That's because I have them hanging up on display!

As you can see, they're copyright 1984. They look kind of like a Dick Giordano Superman to me.

Ciao, and don't forget to write!