Monday, December 9, 2024

Holiday Heroes DCU HOLIDAY BASH "I Left My Heart at the Justice Society Canteen!"

Even a World at War Needs a Holiday...
...as this tale, which mirrors how celebrities helped boost morale during the war, shows!
This never-reprinted Yuletide story by writer Howard Chaykin and artist Rich Burchett from DCU Holiday Bash II (1998) is based on the real-life Stage Door Canteen located in the heart of New York City's entertainment district, Times Square, during World War II!
Open to servicemen from any Allied country, it featured actors/actresses, singers, dancers, radio show performers, and the occasional sports star performing and mingling with solders, sailors, Marines, and airmen who never dreamed they ever come face-to-face with celebrities they'd only heard on radio or seen in newspapers, magazines, and on movie screens!
On any given night, guys in uniform might hang out with the Marx Brothers and Orson Welles, while they could dance with Lauren Bacall or Deena Durbin, while the Andrews Sisters sang on stage!
You can read more about it HERE!

Monday, December 2, 2024

Holiday Heroes MARVEL HOLIDAY SPECIAL "Mighty Thor in 'Twas a Mid-Winter's Night' "

We're Taking a Break from Russkie-Smashing Until After the New Year...
...because our hearts are filled with the Joy of the Season, yea, verily!
Written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Sal Buscema, this never-reprinted tale from Marvel Holiday Special (1991) celebrates not Christmas, per se, but the Winter Solstice celebrations popular throughout Europe that the Christian holiday is based on!
From 1991 through 2011, Marvel usually-produced an annual-sized anthology Marvel Holiday Special with all-new tales of Christmas, Hanukkah, and other mid-Winter celebrations!
DC did a couple of similar holiday series featuring all-new stories from the 1980s to the present.
Many of them haven't been reprinted since initial publication, like this one with the God of Thunder and his All-Father, Odin!
We're going to be re-presenting long-unseen stories from those series every Monday through New Year, after which we'll return to superheroes, spies, and other good guys beating up Russkies, ChiComs, NoKos, and other Communist miscreants!

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Thanksgiving Turkey SKATE MAN Conclusion

"Criminals are a superstious, cowardly lot...
....so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts!"
Well, that didn't quite work out...
To avenge the death of his girlfriend by a biker gang, VietNam vet Billy Moon becomes a roller-skating vigilante...
And that's how the story ends, not even a epilogue setting up future issues!
We hope you enjoyed our Thanksgiving Turkey!

Monday, November 25, 2024

Thanksgiving Turkey SKATE MAN Part 1

The phrase "martial arts" encompasses a great many forms and techniques of combat...
...even (believe it or not) this hybrid form in a 40 year-old never-reprinted one-shot comic that we proudly present as our Thanksgiving Turkey!
To Be Concluded
TOMORROW!

Written and illustrated by Neal Adams (with some inking by his Continuity Associates studio), this was intended as a tie-in to a feature film...which was never made.
When the notoriously-slow Adams couldn't meet the deadline for the contracted second issue of Ms. Mystic at Pacific Comics, he offered this project as a stopgap.
Trivia:
The comic sold 70,000 copies, more than almost anything on the stands today!
Kitchen Sink's 1991 World's Worst Comics Awards parody comic named Skateman the "Worst Comic Book of the Past 25 Years"!
Ms. Mystic #2 finally came out a year later, right before Pacific Comics folded!.

Monday, November 18, 2024

Russkie-Smashers PLASTIC MAN "Dazzla, Daughter of Darkness!"

Behind this cover by penciler Charles Nicholas and inker Chuck Cuidera...

...lurks a pretty kool tale of Commie menace written and illustrated by Plaz's creator, Jack Cole!
This story appeared in Quality's Plastic Man #53 (1955).
But it's actually a reprint, since the tale first appeared in Quality's Plastic Man #30 (1951).
There's no re-working/re-editing required by the Comics Code as was done to some other Plaz tales such as the one shown HERE!
So why did we run the reprint?
Because the tale wasn't cover-featured during initial publication, but was the second time around!
There is method to our madness!

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