Untold Tales of Superboy #1

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Chủ Nhật, 31 tháng 1, 2010


As Mort Weisinger took over the reins of the Superman family of magazines, he and his writers set about developing the Superman legend as it would come to be known during the Silver Age of comics. In the stories devoted to Kal-El as an adult, this took the form of the Superman family, with Kandor, Brainiac, the Fortress of Solitude, etc. In the Superboy stories, the focus was more on tales like this one, where we learned how the Lad of Steel learned to overcome some of the limitations and problems that arose from his powers.

As I have mentioned in the past, a lot of this was probably reader-driven. For instance, in this issue, this letter appeared:

In the story, Superboy remembers the first time he ever did his super-feats in public:

But the next day, as he walked to school with Lana Lang, a problem arose:

And:

So Lana is naturally suspicious of Clark from that moment on, and inevitably, he finds himself in situations where he has to use his X-ray vision to do something while in his civilian identity. He can't let the glasses melt, and if he takes them off, she'll be suspicious as to why. So:

And, improbably:

Now that's wacky! At any rate, Clark eventually realizes the only solution:

Now the only thing left is to quell Lana's suspicions about the earlier incident.

Silly story, undeniably, and yet it does help to establish a reasonably important point in the Silver Age Superboy and Superman. There were several other "Untold Tales" and I will discuss them in future posts.
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Number 676



Hangman hung up


"Gallows Ghoul," expertly illustrated by Bob ("Fuje") Fujitani for the Fall 1943 issue of Hangman Comics #8, is a morbid murder tale partially rewritten, probably because it was too morbid. The clumsy re-lettering in certain captions and speech balloons looks like a last minute attempt to mitigate the horrors of a man killing his wife and then throwing his young son out the window of a tall building. I'm reading between the lines, but changing the murdered woman to a "half-sister" of killer Ed Jennings, and the boy into the half-sister's son doesn't make sense. Just do what I did and substitute the word "wife" for "half-sister." I don't think killing one's half-sister is any more acceptable than one's wife, but it appears that somebody had second thoughts about this story and made the changes before this issue went to press.

The stereotype of mental illness is pretty sickening, also, but it isn't untypical of the era in which it was published.

Hard to believe that MLJ Comics, which published some of the more lurid and sensational comic books of its era, did an about-face and went with the much less objectionable Archie characters. I'm sure a character like Hangman, and stories like "Gallows Ghoul," put the company under scrutiny by censorious types. MLJ made the right choice, since Archie has sustained them to this day.











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20 Flash Gordon Comics - Dell#2; Four Colour Comics #10, #84, #173, #190, #204, #247, #424, #512; Nemo Classic Comics Library #4, Street Comics #2; Harvey + & some more

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Bảy, 30 tháng 1, 2010

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Young Tarzan, Single Series #20-Tarzan, Tarzan Sunday Strips: Russ Manning, Gil Kane, Gray Morrow & Eric Battle

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em

This post is for those who missed these. These are from my e-collection. All credits go to unknown original contributors.


by Russ Manning:
Tarzan (02-17-1974) to (03-06-1974) 

02 The Romans 03-10-1974 to 11-03-1974(i)

03 The Glowing Mists 11-10-1974 to xx-xx-1975(i)

04 The Rebel Army xx-xx-1977 to xx-xx-1977(i)

05 The Jewel of Pellucidar-xx-xx-1978 to 01-21-1979(i) 

06 The International Athletic Competition-01-28-1979 to 06-24-1979

by Gil Kane:
03-09-1980 to 07-13-1980 Tarzan-The Sankura Princess Survivors (Gil Kane)


07-01-1979 to 09-09-1979 Tarzan-The Runaway (Gil Kane) 

07-20-1980 to 11-02-1980 Tarzan-Zugor the Ape (Gil Kane) 

09-16-1979 to 12-02-1979 Tarzan-The Man Eater (Gil Kane)

11-09-1980 to 02-01-1981 Tarzan-The Super Race (Gil Kane)

12-09-1979 to 03-02-1980 Tarzan-Refuge From the Rich and Famous (Gil Kane) (alternate scans)

12-09-1979 to 03-02-1980 Tarzan-Refuge From the Rich and Famous (Gil Kane)


 by Gray Morrow:
59 Tarzan's Trip to New York 11-23-1997 to 03-08-1998(i)

60 D'arnot's Fiance 03-15-1998 to 07-05-1998

61 Movie Brats 07-12-1998 to 10-11-1998(i) 

62 The Night People 10-18-1998 to 01-31-1999

63 Jane's Quest 02-07-1999 to 05-23-1999


64 Tarzan and the New Atlantis 05-30-1999 to 09-12-1999

65 The Face in the Sun 09-19-1999 to 01-02-2000 

66 The Roof of the World 01-09-2000 to 04-23-2000

67 Flight From Pellucidar 04-30-2000 to 08-13-2000

68 Two Tribes Race 08-20-2000 to 11-26-2000 

69 The Tree of Life 12-03-2000 to 03-18-2001

70 The Face of Death 03-25-2001 to 07-08-2001

71 To Capture A King 07-15-2001 to 08-19-2001

by Eric Battle:
01 Last Man Standing 8-26-01 to 12-30-01

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Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Sáu, 29 tháng 1, 2010


Number 675


Jack's back


I read an article about Jack Kirby a few years ago. There was a part that especially impressed me: in the mid-'50s when comics were in the doldrums, and Jack was picking up jobs where he could, his wife, Roz, would sometimes help him with inking. According to the article Roz outlined the figures in pen, and Jack would go back and spot the blacks and do textures. There are places in these stories from 1957 and '58 that fit the description from that article.

The first story, "Master of the Unknown," from House of Secrets #4, 1957 was about a cultural phenomenon of the time. In those days we gathered around the TV and watched nighttime quiz shows, just like people today follow reality shows like Survivor. The quiz shows turned out to be fixed and the scandal damaged that industry for years, but I remember them well when they were popular.

The next three stories, from Tales Of the Unexpected #13, 18, and 23, from 1957 and '58, are more routine, if any Jack Kirby story could ever be said to be routine. Kirby could take any story, any genre, any subject, and make up for story deficiencies with his dynamic artwork. At the time I was a real fan of Kirby's Challengers Of the Unknown, and instantly recognized his style, buying any comics with his artwork.


























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