Showing posts with label pulp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pulp. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Reading Room: DOC SAVAGE "Other People, Other TImes!"

A mystery at a Manhattan building brings Doc Savage and Spider-Man to the same locale in their respective time periods (1934 and 1974).
Web-Head meets Desinna, a lovely blue lady from another dimension who warns him the demolition of the building will unleash danger, which it does!
Spidey manages to temporarily contain the threat and demands an explanation as to how something that happened during the building's construction 40 years earlier relates to the present...

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Reading Room: DOC SAVAGE (& SPIDER-MAN) "Tomorrow is Too Late!"

When Last We Left Our Heroes (in two different eras)...
Good question, Web-Head!
After you met this half-naked blue lady at the site of an old building being demolished, she showed you images from the day, in 1934, when the building was dedicated by none other than New York's Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia!
Also on hand was the legendary Doc Savage, along with several of his aides.
The amazing adventurers foiled an assassination attempt against the Mayor after being warned via an anonymous letter that "something" would happen at that location.
However, they were a few hours early, and the danger they were warned about still hadn't been revealed...
No, Spidey's not naked in panel 4! They just left out the cyan "blue" color* on his costume!
Tomorrow, we flash back forty years to see what happened when Doc met Desinna...
You may note that this story, along with the Doc/Thing team-up in Marvel Two-in-One that we presented here and here have not been reprinted either by Marvel (in their various Spider-Man or Thing reprints) or DC (in their Doc Savage reprint trade paperback)
It's part of the problem combining licensed characters (which comics publishers don't own, just lease) with the publisher's own characters.
DC has a similar situation with two Bronze Age Batman stories guest-starring The Shadow.
Unless you dig them up in a back-issue bin, you'll only find them here and here!

Marvel's Godzilla comic used SHIELD personnel and other Marvel characters as supporting characters and guests.
Even so, Marvel had to re-negotiate with Toho to do a Godzilla Essentals.
Similarly, the plethora of toy-tie ins that featured Marvel characters and presented plot elements continued in mainstream Marvel titles (Rom, Micronauts, Shogun Warriors) will never be reprinted!
And, while the events that occurred can be referenced, the licensed characters themselves can't be directly-named!

From the 1990s onward, publishers have built-in reprint rights for licensed tie-ins that combine characters, so there have been trade paperbacks of Superman/Aliens, Batman/Judge Dredd, etc.), but for almost all of the earlier tie-in team-ups, you have to find the original issues.
*The "blue" in Spidey's costume is actually a combination of cyan (light blue) and magenta (pink-red) ink.
Often the magenta is left out, resulting in the blue being a bright "Superman" blue, but it really should be a medium-dark blue.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Reading Room: DOC SAVAGE "Yesterday Connection & Secret Out of Time"

Surprised, True Believer?
Yes, that's your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man up there, not the Man of Bronze!
But don't worry, Doc Savage will be along soon enough...
So what ominous event did the warning portend?
And how does it affect Spider-Man in the 1970s?
Be with us next time for...

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Reading Room: THE SHADOW "Princess of Death"

...we promised you  a look at the purple and green-garbed Silver Age version...
You'll note a number of changes since The (Silver Age) Shadow's last appearance...
He's now a brunette, not blonde.
He's no longer using hypnotic powers to cloud mens' minds, preferring stealth.
He's wearing a green and purple skintight costume!
The art style has changed, and not for the better.
(Paul Reinman, who was also illustrating Archie's other superhero titles, has replaced John Rosenberger.)
However, the writer was still Robert Bernstein. In fact, either this tale, or its' companion from this never-reprinted issue was his last comic book work.
We'll be re-presenting the other, longer tale from Archie's The Shadow #3 in the near future.
I can hear the screams of anguish already!
for goodies featuring other Silver Age heroes, besides The Shadow!
And check out the Shadow goodies from Amazon below...

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Reading Room: DOC SAVAGE "Black Sun Lives" Conclusion

In 1936, Doc Savage and his aides were visited by Lucinda Lightner who asked their help in stopping dangerous experiments by her husband, Dr Raymond Lightner.
In 1976, The Thing and Human Torch were visited by Janice Lightner, who requested their help in stopping her brother, Thomas Lightner, from recreating the expriments of their late father (Raymond Lightner)!
Both groups agree.
As each team approaches their targets (The same lab in both time periods), both father and son activate their experimental devices in their respective time periods and...
It ain't often you see Ben Grimm acting like a fanboy, but since Doc was one of his childhood idols, it makes perfect sense that a guy who can lift a Mack truck and hangs out with demi-gods like Thor or Hercules can be reduced to drooling hero worship by a non-superpowered (though incredibly-intelligent and physically-perfect) normal human.
(Hey, The Batman acts the same way with The Shadow, and the Caped Crusader parties with Superman!)

Note: there's lots of currently-available Doc Savage material (pulps, comics, movies, and even radio shows), all well-worth picking up (most of them are in my personal collection), but we're be showing only the stuff not included in those volumes!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Reading Room: DOC SAVAGE "Black Sun Lives" Part 1

A never-reprinted Doc Savage adventure...
...from Marvel 2-in-1 #21, (1976).
Due to licensing restrictions, this story wasn't included in Essential Marvel 2-in-1 Volume 1, despite the fact that BlackSun (later Nth Man and Mysterium) introduced in this tale has since become an ongoing character in the Marvel Universe.
...when the smoke clears, we'll see what happens Tomorrow!
Same Blog Time!
Same Blog Feed!

Note: there's lots of currently-available Doc Savage material (pulps, comics, movies, and even radio shows), all well-worth picking up (most of them are in my personal collection), but we're be showing only the stuff not included in those volumes!