Showing posts with label Ross Andru. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ross Andru. Show all posts

Monday, July 20, 2020

CoronaVirus Comics SUPERMAN "Leper from Krypton!" Part 1

...HERE IT IS!
Now to see exactly how our beloved Man of Steel is contaminated...
Wow!
That stuff is powerful!
Remember, this is not a dream, not a hoax, not an imaginary story!
It's actually part of pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity!
Not surprisingly, it figures Lex Luthor would be behind it...
To see what happens in DC's Action Comics #363 (1968) as an incurable disease wracks the Caped Kryptonian...
Just be here...
Dare You Miss It???
Please Support Hero Histories
Visit Amazon and Order...
(including Superman #156, which is the far more famous version of this tale!)

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

CoronaVirus Comics SUPERMAN "Head of Hate" Conclusion

...yeah, it's a giant Superman head on this kool Neal Adams-illustrated cover, and yeah, it is hypnotizing Clark Kent (aka Superman)!
Unlike the readers of the never-reprinted DC's Action Comics #362 (1968) you won't have to wait a month!
Just be here...
Next Monday!
Note the baddie mentioned "special weapons"!
Guess what they are...and who provides them!
Dare You Miss It???
Please Support Hero Histories
Visit Amazon and Order...
(including Superman #156)

Monday, July 13, 2020

CoronaVirus Comics SUPERMAN "Head of Hate" Part 1

This story isn't exactly about disease, but it does lead into a multi-part tale about it...
...and since it's a Silver Age DC story, it just had to have an ape somewhere...
OK, an ape and a giant Superman head that can hypnotize even Superman himself!
We're definitely in the 1960s, people!
Remember, besides an extremely-campy Batman (influenced by the Adam West TV series), we had things at DC like the middle-aged Blackhawk squad (World War II aviators) as a super-spy/super hero team...
...so it's safe to say anything was possible during the Silver Age!
Written by Leo Dorfman, penciled by Ross Andru, and Mike Esposito,  this never-reprinted story from DC's Action Comics #362 (1968) was the first chapter in a multi-part sequel (sort of) to a classic Superman tale...
...which itself, was a reworking of a never-reprinted Golden Age Superman story!
Curiously, this new story, despite using the same disease and basic plotline, makes no reference to DC's Superman #156 (1962), despite being in-continuity!
Note the quote above; "Not a Hoax! Not a Dream!" (Surprised they left out "Not an Imaginary Story!")
And, for the record, Superman does survive his "Last Days"...
Mort Weisenger, who was the editor of both Silver Age versions of the tale, had a belief that the audience for comics changed every six years as older readers ostensibly "outgrew" comics and younger readers (who had access only to limited reprints) wouldn't be aware of the previous versions!
As you can see, it's a different scenario today...
Dare You Miss It???
Please Support Hero Histories
Visit Amazon and Order...
(including Superman #156)

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

CoronaVirus Comics GIANT-SIZED DOC SAVAGE "Master of the Red Death!" Part 1

Adventurer Doc Savage and his five associates, having survived an assassination attempt by a gunman in Mayan ceremonial garb at their NYC headquarters, are proceeding to the Central American country of Hidalgo to investigate the suspicious death by unknown disease of Savage's explorer father.
As they come in for a landing at the airport...
Are Monk's buddies dead?
Did Ham's suit get wrinkled?
And, where's the Man of Bronze when you really need him?
Tune in Tomorrow for both the Astounding Answers and This Titanic Tale's Cataclysmic Conclusion
at our "brother" RetroBlog...
Medical Comics!
Please Support Hero Histories
Visit Amazon and Order...

Monday, May 25, 2020

CoronaVirus Comics GIANT-SIZED DOC SAVAGE "The Man of Bronze" Part 1

Who's the superhero whose origin is tied in to deadly disease?
And, ironically, he's one of the few superheroes who's also a practicing MD!
Doc and his buddies go in pursuit of the would-be assassin...
Tomorrow!
at our "brother" RetroBlog, Atomic Kommie Comics!
In the early 1970s, bolstered by the success of Conan the Barbarian, both DC and Marvel attempted to launch other pulp characters who had successful paperback reprint series as comic book titles.
Hoping that the audiences for them would carry over as Conan's had, Marvel acquired the rights to Doc Savage, while DC snagged both The Shadow and The Avenger.
The Doc title lasted only eight issues from 1972-73, but the license remained in Marvel's hands when the George Pal movie came along and Marvel invoked their right to do a comic based on the movie.
Compare with page 7 above.
Since the flick was an adaptation of the premiere novel "The Man of Bronze", which Marvel had already used as the basis for the first two issues of their previous comic, it was decided to repackage that material as a double-sized one-shot to tie-in with the movie's release.
The art was modified to match the appearance of Doc in the movie, substituting an open-collared shirt for his Marvel-created blue vest and a buzz-cut for the James Bama/Bantam paperback "skullcap" (see left).
(I always wondered why Marvel didn't go with the torn-shirt look of the Bantam paperback covers on the comics.
Maybe they didn't want people confusing Doc with their resident torn-shirt aficionado, Nick Fury.
Thankfully, Marvel returned to the torn shirt "look" on the 1975-77 b/w magazine covers by Ken Barr.)
The original two-issue comic adaptation had updated the 1933 novel to the then-present 1970s.
The Giant-Size Doc Savage "re-mastering" modified the technology back to 1930s levels, except the adaptation's replacing of the Mayan assassin's elephant gun with a laser rifle, which remained!
They also re-did Monk's hair from the incorrect black-with-blue-highlights to the red color it had in the pulp stories (and the remainder of the Marvel run).
Please Support Hero Histories
Visit Amazon and Order...