Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Reading Room: THE SHADOW "Night of the Avenger" Conclusion

Art by Mike Kaluta
Somebody is assembling enough arms and men to form a small army.
Who?
A team of assassins lead by Smitty, one of The Avenger's aides, attempts to kill The Shadow.
Why?
Margo Lane, aide and confidante to The Shadow attempts to kill The Avenger.
Why?
Clues lead both The Shadow (and his aides) and The Avenger (and his aides) to a lonely stretch of New Jersey beachfront where a massive weapons cache is discovered.
When the two groups meet, each believes the arms depot belongs to the other, and...
In the 1970s, both Marvel and DC revived pulp characters whose paperback reprints were selling very well.
Marvel licensed Doc Savage, and DC grabbed both The Shadow and The Avenger.
Due to the fact Marvel had trademarked The Avengers,  DC's Avenger book was titled Justice, Inc. (the name of The Avenger's organization.)*
The Shadow lasted 12 issues, Justice, Inc. only 4.
While some of the 1970s Shadow run have been reprinted in book form, this issue has not.
*Similarly, when a comic based on the British TV spy series The Avengers was done in the late 1960s, it was called John Steed & Mrs. Peel!

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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Reading Room PHANTOM LADY "Stinging Whip"

At long last, from the issue Dr Wertham vilified in Seduction of the Innocent...
...that fine filly, Phantom Lady, spends a day at the races in this tale from Phantom Lady #17!
Though the GCD lists Jack Kamen as the artist, I suspect he did pencils only, as there's a lot of Matt Baker influence in this art, especially the rendering.
Here's Adam Hughes' take on the cover for this issue, Phantom Lady #17
from the HTF trade paperback Phantom Lady: Crime Never Pays!

featuring goodies emblazoned with cover art that Fredric Wertham railed against in Seduction of the Innocent.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Reading Room: JET DREAM "Spider and the Spy"

...in another short, but sweet comic adventure!
It's amazing how much story writer Dick Wood and artists Mike Sekowsky & Frank Giacoia can cram into only four pages!
Gold Key ran very few ads in their books, so they had to provide editorial content to fill out the 32 pages of material.
Issues 1-6 of Man from U.N.C.L.E. had 32-page stories (Yes, 32 pages of story, not 18-22 story pages with 10-14 pages of ads!)
From #7's into of Jet Dream to the end of the book's run, the lead U.N.C.L.E. story ran 27-28 pages with Jet Dream running 4 pages and, if needed, a one page spy-themed text or filler page.
And all these stories were self-contained.
No ongoing plotlines!
No cliffhangers!
You could jump in at any point and follow the stories perfectly!

Friday, August 5, 2011

Reading Room PHANTOM LADY "Soda Mint Killer"

At long last, from the issue Dr Wertham vilified in Seduction of the Innocent...
...The Phantom Lady deals out just desserts in this never-reprinted tale of luncheonette larceny!
Yeah, she killed them, but they deserved it!
The splendidly-sordid, but deliciously-cheesecakey art is, of course, by legendary good-girl illustrator Matt Baker!
The quirky story is probably by Ruth Roche.
And, oddly, it's NEVER been reprinted!
Here's the cover to this issue...
...but, oddly enough, it has nothing to do with either Phantom Lady story,  but it's probably the single most famous example of comic book "good girl" art in history.
And, yes, it's by Matt Baker!
Dr Fredric Wertham described it in Seduction of the Innocent as "sexual stimulation by combining 'headlights' with the sadist's dream of tying up a woman."
And...?
featuring goodies emblazoned with cover art that Fredric Wertham railed against in Seduction of the Innocent.