Saturday, June 27, 2009

The Flash #214



One of the coolest things about 1970's DC are the 100 Page Super Spectaculars. While they originally came out before I started collecting comics, I've managed to pick up most of them through the years. One of my favorite 100 pagers is this issue of The Flash from April, 1972. Like a lot of the 100 pagers at the time, this issue is all reprints but when you're a kid that hasn't been exposed to the Infantino Flash, that's OK. The cover by DC house cover artist Nick Cardy is a beaut, as usual, and they picked some nice stories to reprint. There were two Silver Age Flash stories, a Golden Age Flash story, a Kid Flash tale, a Golden Age Johnny Quick story, a Quicksilver tale (not to be confused with Marvel's speedster), and a Metal Men story. All for 50 cents! Unfortunately they're worth a lot more than that now. I know what I'll be doing on this hot summer day. I think I'll spend it with the Scarlet Speedster.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Detective Comics #391



After reading the new Batcave Companion book, I decided to dig up some of my old late 60's-early 70's Batman and Detectives and reread them. The first one I found was this issue of Detective from September, 1969. I really dig the cool Neal Adams cover. I wish the photos in my albums looked like Adams art! The interior art, unfortunately, was by Bob Brown and Joe Giella. Brown was a decent artist but he was no Adams. Frank Robbins wrote the story, which was OK but not up to the Denny O'Neill stuff that would come about a year later. One of my favorite parts of this issue is the way cool Palisades Park ad that DC had in most of their books at the time.



I always wanted to go there but never got to the East Coast. These coupons are just another thing that was cool about Silver Age DC.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Batcave Companion



I just picked up the excellent new Twomorrows book chronicling the Silver and Bronze Age Batman. The Batcave Companion features a beautiful Neal Adams cover and essays and interviews with many of the creators that made the Caped Crusader great during that era.



It's always great to read interviews with legends like Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Denny O'Neil, and Joe Giella. I can never get enough reading about this era of comics. If you have any interest at all in this era of the Gotham Guardian, then I highly recommend this book.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Jim Aparo's Charlton Days

As a lot of you know, Jim Aparo got his start in comics by working for the Charlton comics company doing many different kinds of strips. While I don't have a lot of examples of his work there, I do have a small representation. I really like this cover to Ghostly Tales From The Haunted House #75 from September, 1969.



You can kind of see his style develop on this cover. It looks a little more like his DC work of the time. One of the strips Jim was best known for at Charlton was the outer space western Wander, written by Denny O'Neil under his pen name Sergius O'Shaugnessy. I think Jim did a great job on this strip. Here's the splash page from the Wander story from Cheyenne Kid #71 from March, 1969.



I'm really fascinated by Aparo's early days in the field. These books are kind of hard to find. I rarely see them at conventions. I guess I'll have to try Ebay. They're a nice view of the early career of my all time favorite artist.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Herb Trimpe Signed Print



I was lucky enough to get to meet the great Herb Trimpe a couple of years ago at a comic convention. While he was one of my least favorite members of the 1960's Marvel bullpen, I've grown to really like his work on The Hulk back then. It was unique and brought a great deal of passion to the book. He was a great guy and I bought this nice print from him which he drew a quick Hulk sketch on the top for me. It was a nice con moment.

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