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...

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY "Television Spies"

It may be 1948, but tv was already a national obsession...
 ...and Phantom Lady is about to go in front of the cameras!
Oddly enough, both Don and the criminals have color tvs, when they weren't available commercially until five years later!
And Ringo's cane-camera is a color transmitter, when even portable b/w tv cameras were the size of suitcases!
The superb art for this tale from All Top Comics #10 is, of course, by Matt Baker.
This plot, probably by Ruth Roche, was reused, but totally-redrawn for the Comics Code-approved Phantom Lady #3 in 1955!
We'll be re-presenting that when we get to it in the chronology.
Next week...
The issue Fredric Wertham singled-out in Seduction of the Innocent!
Phantom Lady #17!
Both Phantom Lady tales complete and uncut!

Check out the
"Naughty" 
Phantom Lady
Collectibles Shop
featuring goodies emblazoned with cover art that Fredric Wertham railed against in Seduction of the Innocent.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Reading Room: IMPOSSIBLE MAN "Inhuman Menace"

Sadly, we present the final tale of Hugh Mann aka The Impossible Man...
...as he adapts to life on a world where everyone except him has super-powers!
And on that note, the recorded adventures of the original Impossible Man came to a conclusion.
Not that it was easy to find his funky fables!
All of Impossible Man's adventures were in the backs of different comics, none of which featured or even mentioned him on their covers!
This third and final tale is from Meteor Comics #1 (and only!) and it actually appeared several months before his second story, which we ran here, was published!
As we said earlier, some attribute the art to George Marcoux, who created SuperSnipe, the Kid with the Most Comic Books in America! and some say Charles "C.A." Voight, who did humor strips like Captain Milksop and Sir Prize.
And these related goodies from Amazon.com...

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY "Monster in the Pool"

Sexy women and werewolves...
...long before Twilight or True Blood, the Phantom Lady put her scantly-clad body between lycanthropes and an innocent human race!
The art for this tale from Phantom Lady #16 is by the inimitable Matt Baker, and the story is probably by Ruth Roche.
Supernatural elements would crop up in several more Phantom Lady stories.
featuring goodies emblazoned with cover art that Fredric Wertham railed against in Seduction of the Innocent.