Showing posts with label Arnold Drake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arnold Drake. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Summer Blogathon BLACKHAWK "D-Day for the Blackhawks" Part 3: Showdown at Omaha Beach

...in the present (1964), Blackhawk and his team respond to a message from a French Resistance fighter who aided them on their first mission, right before D-Day, twenty years earlier!
After they re-unite, the assembled veterans relive the adventure that brought them together...


As we said, this origin rewrites history since Blackhawk and crew were shown operating in late 1940-early 1941 in their original Quality Comics incarnation...and the DC version was carried over, lock, stock, and Grumman XF5F Skyrockets from Quality to DC without a break in publication schedule or format!
Unofficially, this never-reprinted tale from DC's Blackhawk #198 (1964) was considered the origin of the Earth-One Blackhawks, with the Quality stories considered the Earth-Two team's tales!
This helped explain the Justice League's presence during the infamous "New Blackhawk Era" when the middle-aged aviators became super-heroes!
(You've got to see it to believe it!)
This was reinforced by DC using the back of the book to tell new WWII stories in "Combat Diary", which sometimes contradicted Quality stories they were based on!
But even this "update" wasn't exactly adhered to!
When the "New Blackhawk Era" mercifully-ended and the group went back to their WWII roots, the first issue of their revamp presented another new origin for the characters!
And, when the Justice League and Justice Society did their annual summer "Crisis on..." multi-part story in 1973, they ended up on Earth-X, where most of the Quality characters (including the Blackhawks and Plastic Man) had been killed by the Nazis, who had won World War II!
After yet another reboot making the Blackhawks high-tech mercenaries, there was one final revamp putting them back in the 1940s in the hopes a rumored Steven Spielberg film would be made.
(The HTF paperback novel listed below is a by-product of that incarnation.)
Don't even ask about the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths history of the Blackhawks!
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The only novel based on the comic book!
(and it tells a radically-different version of their origin!)

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Summer Blogathon BLACKHAWK "D-Day for the Blackhawks" Part 2: Jigsaw Goliath

...they were heading out on their first mission as a unit, just before D-Day, June 6, 1944!
To Be Concluded...
TOMORROW!
Writer Arnold Drake, penciler Dick Dillin and inker Chuck Cuidera update the vague origin Blackhawk was given (in his first appearance in Quality's Military Comics #1 (1941) and a somewhat more detailed tale from Blackhawk #50 (1952) in this never-reprinted story from DC's Blackhawk #198 (1964)...though this tale contradicts the fact that Blackhawk and his team were operating from 1940 onward, long before D-Day!
What's the explanation?
Find out tomorrow!
Note: This is part of our annual Summer RetroBlog Blogathon, this year covering how various comics characters participated in D-Day!
You can see the Normandy invasion activities of Sgt Rock HERE and Sgt Fury HERE!
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Monday, August 5, 2019

Summer Blogathon BLACKHAWK "D-Day for the Blackhawks" Part 1: Origin of the Blackhawks

We've covered the Blackhawks' unfortunate dabbling in 1960s superhero antics...
..but even before that, DC was tinkering with the team, changing them from wartime aviators to a team of scientific adventurers handling all sort of weird threats!
(You'll note as the tale begins, the team are in their red and green "adventurer" uniforms instead of their WWII leather outfits!
Also note that, in the final panel of the page directly below, Blackhawk and Stan are speaking each other's dialogue!)
To Be Continued...
TOMORROW!
Writer Arnold Drake, penciler Dick Dillin and inker Chuck Cuidera update the vague origin Blackhawk was given (in his first appearance in Quality's Military Comics #1 (1941) and a somewhat more detailed tale from Blackhawk #50 (1952) in this never-reprinted story from DC's Blackhawk #198 (1964).
Note: This is part of our annual Summer RetroBlog Blogathon, this year covering how various comics characters participated in D-Day!
You can see the Normandy invasion activities of Sgt Rock HERE and Sgt Fury HERE!
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starring Kirk (Superman) Alyn

Friday, September 1, 2017

PLASTIC MAN "Plastic Man's Fantastic Old Man" Conclusion

...err..wait!
This cover scene does not appear in this story!
In fact, there's no simian of any sort in the story! 
Apparently, then-publisher (and cover penciler) Carmine Infantino's fetish for apes got the best of him!
Well, at least the captions are accurate!
This tale concerns the Silver Age Plastic Man's dad...the Golden Age Plastic Man!
Now in retirement, the older super-hero is about to lose his only source of income, his Plastic Acres retirement home to the notorious criminal King of Spades!
The two heroes and their sidekicks pose as a shiek and his entourage in order to catch the greedy King of Spades robbing them...
Oh, look!
Another ape (on the Jerry Lewis cover)!
Wow, they were everywhere in those days!
Though writer Arnold Drake would remain for the rest of the title's run, this was artist Win Mortimer's swan song as he went on to extended stays on both Legion of Super Heroes (in Adventure Comics and Action Comics) and Supergirl (in Adventure Comics, when Legion transferred over to Action Comics)!
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Featuring classic tales from each of his eras (Golden Age/Silver Age/Bronze Age)

Thursday, August 31, 2017

PLASTIC MAN "Plastic Man's Fantastic Old Man" Part 2

...it turns out the Silver Age Plastic Man is the son of the Golden Age Plastic Man, who now runs a retirement home!
BTW, I mentioned we did an editorial change to the art for this never-reprinted story by writer Arnold Drake and artist Win Mortimer.
Nobody posted what it was, so I'll tell you.
I photoshopped the Golden Age Plastic Man's legs back to their "bare flesh tone" color!
The published story had both the Silver Age and Golden Age PMs with the red leggings that defined the Silver Age version, which made it difficult to tell them apart in panels where they appeared together!
So for the sake of historical accuracy, I modified the pages.
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Featuring classic tales from each of his eras (Golden Age/Silver Age/Bronze Age)

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

PLASTIC MAN "Plastic Man's Fantastic Old Man" Part 1

...but this never-reprinted tale is the real deal, we pinky-swear it!
When DC bought the Quality Comics line in the mid-1950s, they kept four titles going...Blackhawk, G.I. Combat, Heart Throbs, and Robin Hood Tales.
The rest of the titles (and characters) were held in abeyance, and apparently forgotten about.
(I'm not sure if editor Julie Schwartz even remembered DC had the rights to Plastic Man when the Elongated Man was created in The Flash, then given his own strip in Detective Comics!)
When Plas was revived in 1966, many fans were disappointed that he wasn't Jack Cole's Golden Age version with sidekick Woozy Winks.
This tale by writer Arnold Drake and artist Win Mortimer from DC's Plastic Man #7 (1967) was meant as a tie-in to that version.
You'll note the older Plas has the angular, almost lupine look of the original version.
In addition, I've taken the liberty of making an editorial alteration throughout the tale to keep the Golden Age version "on model".
If you haven't already figured out what it is, you'll discover what it is...TOMORROW!
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Featuring classic tales from each of his eras (Golden Age/Silver Age/Bronze Age)