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

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Valentines Day Special NOT BRAND ECHH "Best Side Story"

What if the Silver Age Doctor Strange and Wonder Woman fell in love?
We'd probably have ended up with a serious version of this titanic tale!
Written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Tom Sutton, this titanic tale was included in Marvel's Not Brand Echh! #6 (1968)...

...a romance-oriented issue that also included a look at how a Human Scorch (Human Torch)/Gristle (Crystal) marriage would work out, and Spidey-Man (do I haveta tell you?) marrying the unlikeliest character of all!
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Wednesday, October 31, 2018

The Coming of...the Purple Claw!

PURPLE CLAW!
The name that strikes terror into the hearts of evildoers...at least to the minds of an impressionable 9-14 year old audience!
Technically, it's the name of the metal glove that imparts mystic powers to it's wearer, but some refer to the user himself (or herself) by the name, much the way they do Green Lantern...
The user in this 1950s series, which mixed horror with heroics, was Dr. Johnathan Weir, a former US Army doctor who acquired it when he crashed his plane in Africa.
The Claw's origin and history, which Dr. Weir tried to trace, is somewhat cloudy, since it was all word-of-mouth. (The damn thing didn't come with a user's manual.)
What is known is that it's an ancient mystic artifact of Great Power When Used For Good. (Those who attempt to use it for Evil usually come to a Bad End!)
The bearer becomes a Defender of Humanity Against Occult Evil...whether they want the job or not!
The Claw's exact abilities and limitations are unknown, and Weir had to experiment to see what would and wouldn't work, always stumbling upon the right way to use it before being killed/dismembered/disintegrated by a foe. (Talk about "on the job training"!)

The series ran for only three issues, but Weir continued to fight evil as a reprint in Tales of Horror, until the Great Comics WitchHunt of the 1950s killed almost all horror/occult-themed comics titles.

As you might have guessed, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ found it to be a perfect fit for our Horror Comics of the 1950s™ collection, even giving The Claw it's own section!

We think any of the collectibles we offer with The Purple Claw on them would make a kool Halloween-themed (or birthday) gift for the horror/occult pop culture kitch aficionado in your life!
But, remember...Use Them For Good...not Evil! ;-)