Hero Histories

Friday, August 3, 2018

Monster Society of Evil: Prologue

Beginning on Monday, we'll present the complete Monster Society of Evil serial from Fawcett's Captain Marvel Adventures!

It's not the first time Fawcett tried a multi-part storyline.
Whiz Comics #15 through 18 (1941) presented a plotline running between the Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher strips in the book featuring a brainwashed Spy Smasher trying to stop the war effort and Captain Marvel trying to thwart him...

...which presaged this generation's Superman vs Batman battles of Brawn vs Brain (and high-tech)!
The re-presentation will switch between this blog and fellow RetroBlog Not Safe for Work Comics, depending on if there's racist content in the given chapter.
(Most chapters don't have racist elements!)

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Monster Society of Evil

OOP Oversized Hardcover Reprint from 1989

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Reading Room MAN-BAT "Beware the Eyes of Baron Tyme" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Anti-Hero...

...Francine (She-Bat) Langstrom, wife of Kirk (Man-Bat) Langstrom is being mind-controlled by the evil mage Baron Tyme and used to murder his enemies in Gotham City!

This has, of course, attracted the attention of...The Batman...

In best super-villain fashion, Baron Tyme survived and returned to fight Jack Kirby's The Demon in a story arc pencilled and inked by Ditko!
Ditko keeps The Batman's face shadowed most of the time, showing only the eye-slits, giving him a really-kool look I'm sorry other artists haven't followed-up on!

For unknown reasons, the next (and last) issue of the series featured a totally-different creative team (except for cover artist Jim Aparo)!
Ditko kept very busy, doing projects like Stalker and one-off tales for the DC mystery and sci-fi anthologies as well as work for other companies like Atlas/Seaboard and Charlton.
He returned to Marvel in 1977, with the explicit mandate he not illustrate anything involving his co-creations Spider-Man or Doctor Strange!
But anything else was fair game, and he worked on everything from Machine Man and The Avengers to Chuck Norris: Karate Kommando!

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Steve Ditko Omnibus

Volume 2

(which reprints this tale as well as Baron Tyme's return story-arc vs The Demon, also illustrated by Ditko)

Friday, July 13, 2018

Reading Room MAN-BAT "Beware the Eyes of Baron Tyme" Part 1

Steve Ditko studied under Jerry (Joker) Robinson at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School...

...(now known as the School of Visual Arts), and here's the only time Steve illustrated an iconic character Jerry rendered numerous times!

...where Guess Who? is waiting...as you'll see tomorrow!

Ditko did a spectacular job on this tale, and was apparently very enthusiastic about doing the series.

His promo (and probably tryout) piece...

...is absolutely beautiful!

Al Milgrom, who is a longtime fan of Ditko's also threw himself into his work, turning in some of his best non-Jim Starlin inking!

(Milgrom was Starlin's preferred inker during the 1970s whenever Jim didn't ink his own work.

Their co-created covers are signed "Gemini".)

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Batman: Arkham

Man-Bat

(which reprints this tale)

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Reading Room COMIC CRUSADER STORYBOOK "Mr A: Deaths vs Love-Song"

To celebrate the late, great Steve Ditko, we present a tale without captions or word balloons...

...demonstrating his amazing storytelling capability by proving the adage "You can enjoy and understand a great graphic tale without any words at all!"

One unique aspect of this Mr A tale from Martin L Greim's Comic Crusader StoryBook (1977) is that, usually, the panels are packed with word balloons and captions explaining the concept of Objectivism that drives Mr A to battle evil without compromise!

In many cases, the text overwhelmed the graphic narrative, dominating the pages!

But for this one time, Ditko just let the action rip...and hoo-boy does it ever!

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