Number 564


Plastic Man Products


I believe that Jack Cole hit his stride with Plastic Man. No matter what else he did in his career, and he did some truly amazing things both in and out of comic books, when I think of Jack Cole I really think of his work on Plas. DC Special #15, November-December 1971, was the last issue of a great reprint title, and it went out on a very high note by reprinting several Jack Cole classics, including the oft-seen Plastic Man origin from Police Comics #1.

Since Cole was proprietary with Plas, he threw so much into it he couldn't keep up and other artists had to be brought in. They did a good job, considering who they had to follow, but Cole's work was on such a high level I just don't think anyone ever captured the zaniness of the character like him. In this story, "Plastic Man Products," reprinted from Plastic Man #17 in 1949, every panel is alive with inspired frenetic action and comic exaggeration. I think that it wasn't until a few years later, with Mad comics, that anyone ever again reached this level of comedic genius in comic books.

Check out the blog, Cole's Comics, for more of Jack Cole's work.

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Number 530


Kirby monsters


Jack Kirby worked for a time at DC in the late '50s before moving full-time to Marvel so he could completely reconfigure the comic book industry. He drew some terrific stories during his time at DC. For some reason he incurred their displeasure and his stay was short.

Jack came up with some wild-looking creatures in "The Creatures from Nowhere," originally published in House of Mystery #70, January, 1958. "The Stone Sentinels of Giant Island," from House of Mystery #85, April 1959, is a setting he had visited before. Even though this particular story doesn't take place on Easter Island, he chose its stone enigmas as a subject more than once.

The two stories are scanned from DC Special #11 from 1971.

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Number 495


Moon Monster


Bernard Baily, who began his comics career almost before there were comic books, drew this moody-looking monster tale for House of Mystery #97, April 1959. I scanned it from DC Special #11, a DC Giant Comic from 1971.

Baily co-created The Spectre, Hourman, had his own comic book art shop, did some of the most gruesome and horrific horror comics covers of the early '50s, and during the Silver Age did a lot of work in DC's mystery comics. That's not to mention his syndicated comic strip work. The guy was busy!

Baily, who was born in 1916, died at age 79 in 1996.

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