Redartz: It occurred to me recently that most of our comics discussions have focused on Marvel. With some reason, actually- I was always a Marvel Zuvembie first and foremost, so I write what I know. That said, there has been a great deal of DC in my collecting and reading as well. Going waaaaaaaay back to the beginnings, Superman was my first superhero title. Which I enjoyed, but the first DC book that really drew my interest was Adventure Comics. And it remained a favorite even into my college years.
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| Adventure 369, an early favorite |
What was it about "Adventure" that grabbed me? At first it was Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes. At the time, about 1967, Jim Shooter was writing it and Curt Swan was drawing it. Swan's art was familiar, as I'd seen it on the Man of Steel. And Shooter was learning the ropes of scripting, developing talents I'd come to appreciate years later in the Avengers. Which of course I didn't know at the time, it just seemed that the stories with these super powered teens were more...convincing, more real, more dramatic. Compared, that is, to what was offered in "Superman" and "Action Comics". Superboy was familiar, but it took awhile to get used to so many other characters. Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Braniac 5; they even had cool names. Perhaps it was the combination of these factors that made "Adventure" an early read for me. And I'll always be grateful to 'Adventure" for introducing me to the Legion, a group which would become one of my top picks, under Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen.
A few years later, upon returning to comics in a serious way, "Adventure" again piqued the interest. Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo's Spectre tales were solid reading, and obviously the art was fine. I also got a kick out of "Black Orchid" (created by Sheldon Mayer, when he wasn't giving voice and life to
Sugar and Spike). Not being a fan of Aquaman, his takeover of hte book didn't excite me. Still later Superboy took over as the lead feature, which kind of had a Silver Age feel despite being published deep in the Bronze.
But my favorite incarnation of "Adventure Comics" appeared in the later 70's, when Superboy moved into his own book: "New Adventures of Superboy". Meanwhile, the original "Adventure" became a Dollar comic; no ads and a great lineup of features. Deadman, the JLA, Wonder Woman, Flash; a pretty good deal for your dollar. Personally, I most relished Deadman by Len Wein and Jim Aparo, and the Justice Society by Paul Levitz and Joe Staton ( one highlight of that feature was the impressive death of Earth 2 Batman). . Sadly the book soon shrank back to 'normal' size, but it still featured a nifty cast: the new Starman , by Paul Levitz and Steve Ditko (!), and the wonderful Plastic Man by Martin Pasko and Joe Staton. Great book, one of the best of the era and often overlooked.
Eventually I dropped "Adventure Comics" when it converted to an all-reprint digest format. But the title (and it's distinctive, original curvy logo) always stayed close to my heart. Next up: a selection of Bronze Age Adventure Comics covers, showing the range of headliners it carried. Any fellow 'Adventurers' out there?
16 comments:
I always liked the Legion stories in Adventure; some cool stories and great art. I didn't really read much beyond that. I seem to recall reading some Deadman and Shazam stuff later, but Deadman was too sophisticated for me as a kid, and I guess Shazam wasn't sophisticated enough, so I stopped reading Adventure.
Adventure was a really good series from start to finish - lots of top-notch stuff published in it over the years/decades. But I have to say, Red, that we have the same sweet-spot: the dollar comic phase. I so loved that format with all of those great features, and yes, the Deadman stories were a highlight. I was also upset when the format changed, but the dual Plastic Man/Starman features blunted my disappointment.
Ole Charlie takes the long view here, lol.
While Detective, Action, and Sensation comics gave us the Big 3 of Bats, Supes, and WW, it was Adventure that gave us everything else, especially from the 60s - 80s.
I recall my head exploding when reading Steranko's History of Comics and he described DC's "other guys" like Sandman, Starman, Hourman... and finding those characters more intriguing than the Big 3.
Those covers you show above of Aparo's Spectre bring back great memories of my head exploding suddenly seeing them on the spinner with that gorgeous Aparo art. I had to have every one of them as they came out and still have a bunch in the long box!
Finally, who can forget Shooter's Legion of the 60s? So dramatically different in their style as compared to Marvel yet equally compelling, perhaps more so? Truly one of my earliest memories of comics was Adventure 353 seeing Validus on the cover! What a shocker to a 6-year-old kid!!!
Wow, wow, wow--- this has had the rare effect of making me want to go out and pick up issues of a book that has never registered on my radar at all-! (I believe I have one issue of adventure featuring The Spectre--- possibly w/ a Black Orchid back-up?)
DC's mainstream output (Batman, Superman, etc) during most of the Bronze Age just seemed relentlessly lame (compared to Marvel) whenever I took a quick look, so I did very little further investigating until that era had largely passed. Kamandi, some chunks of Brave and the Bold, Joe Staton's fine DOOM PATROL mini in Showcase-- but no regular titles beyond that. Until I revisited DC's later Bronze Age/Early Modern ?) output via a "bequest" of two leaf-bags full of comics from a departing fellow grad student in 1987, I had no idea of the shake-ups the JLA had undergone, or The Flash, or what the heck CRISIS was all about, or the Omega Men, etc, etc-- I had forgotten that DC was more than it's two main standard-bearers.
Man, I wonder if there's a prayer of picking some of these issues up at fire-sale prices? I'm gonna keep my eyes open.
(And FWIW-- as the post-CRISIS years commenced, I was regularly buying the Justice League Titles; all of the Green Lanterns; Hex; Swamp Thing; Doom Patrol; Watchmen; and probably a couple of others that are slipping my mind. As well as the bajillion Marvel titles I was committed to. It was an era of too much spending on comic books, I daresay!)
HB
Mike W- so did Deadman find more favor in your eyes later on? I find more interest in DC books now than I ever did in youth. Perhaps it's the novelty of something new.
Edo- yes, the multiple features in Adventure were a big plus. That was a nice touch for DC, back when they expanded their page count and added a backup series to most books. Marvel's attempts with Amazing Adventures and Astonishing Tales were pretty short lived in comparison.
Charlie- fully agree with you on those great Legion stories. The Fatal Five were cool enough to be a Marvel team. Hmmmm. Iron Fist vs. Mano? Scarlet Witch vs. Emerald Empress? Hulk vs. Validus?
HB- the good news is that most of the later Bronze age Adventures are pretty reasonable. You could probably find them in dollar boxes. But then again, we seem to be currently in a red hot collectibles market. Will "Skull the Slayer" be the next breakout item?
Oh, and good call on the post crisis DC output. Especially loved the 'Bwa Ha Ha' JLA. Brilliant fun...
Red, re: Skull the Slayer. You jest, but someone at Marvel saw fit to publish a tpb collecting the entire series a few years ago (and prices for used copies on secondary markets stubbornly refuse to go down). In that regard - and given that Marvel has also, e.g., collected and reprinted the Man-Wolf and Tigra stories from the 1970s - I keep hoping that DC will release collected editions of some of its more obscure 1970s output, like Ragman and Starfire.
But. . . but. . . SKULL THE SLAYER wasn't even GOOD-- what the heck-?
(I was there! I was buying that daggone thing off the spinner rack at Buy-Lo's for the few short months of its existence-!) The art was okay. . . but the unfocused story and hodge-podge of of-the-moment paranormal/topical themes was a near-parody train wreck---! It actually got me to start looking at Marvel's output more critically than I had in the past. . .
Quick question: Does CRISIS mark the end of the Bronze Age for DC, as a rule of thumb? It seems kinda late, but it also makes a terrific line of demarcation, y'know? (Which reminds me that I also had acquired the last several issues of Barry's FLASH and then jumped right in with Wally's title when it was re-booted, and stayed with it for many years-- although it wasn't always a top-tier book---)
HB
ADVENTURE 431, with the first Fleisher / Aparo Spectre, hit the spinner rack just as I was starting to buy comics regularly. I was mostly concentrating on Marvel but of course the melting gunman on the cover grabbed my attention and after a quick flip thru the pages, I was convinced I needed to own it. The back-up story was “Is A Snerl Human?”, a weird little sci-fi thing by Sheldon Mayer and Alex Toth. It was my first look at Toth’s art and I HATED it. Boy, was I dumb! I actually bought a page from it about 15 years ago, and it’s one of the best things in my collection. Parts of it were inked with a effing SHARPIE. Good Lord.
There were lots of cool back-up strips in ADVENTURE around then. I remember being very impressed by Mike Grell’s debut, an Aquaman story in #435. And though I didn’t much like them back in the day, the Captain Fear strips by Bob Kanigher and Alex Nino are pretty neat.
I love the Black Orchid stories, mostly for the Good Girl Art by DeZuniga and Redondo. And speaking of GGA, Supergirl never looked more gorgeous than in issues 410 to 424, art by Bob Oskner with and without Art Saaf, Win Mortimer, Jose Delbo and Tony DeZuniga. There are some more great back-ups in that run too — the famous two-part Black Canary story by Toth , and two Zatanna stories by Gray Morrow.
b.t.
Redartz: Yeah, I've been more into DC lately too for whatever reason. When I started my blog I decided to concentrate on classic DC because I was more familiar with Marvel, so I figured there was more opportunity to read stories I hadn't already seen a dozen times. As for Deadman, I keep meaning to give him another shot, but still haven't gotten to it yet. one of these days!
When I was about 6 or 7, we were visiting some of my mom’s friends, and their son had a copy of one of those big fat MARVEL TALES reprint comics. Inside were Spidey, Thor, Human Torch and Ant Man, each in his own seperate, complete story, all in one 68 page whopper. My little head just about exploded. It was almost inconceivable, like too much of a good thing. Lordy, it was breathtaking.
But eleven years later, I only ever bought one or two of those ADVENTURE Dollar Comics at my LCS back in the day. Actually, I think it was just one. It was the same basic idea as that MARVEL TALES comic, but theoretically, it was even better : FIVE features in one ginormous mag, and that’s five ALL NEW features, not reprints! And the covers look AMAZING — each one enticingly promises a cornucopia of four-color goodness. But....it didn’t grab me. Maybe it was my Marvel Chauvinism, or maybe it was my Art Snobbishness. Most likely a combination of the two.
Aside from Deadman drawn by Aparo or Garcia-Lopez , and the occasional Don Newton art on Aquaman or New Gods, the rest of it was pretty weak tea. I wasn’t much into Flash anyway, and Don Heck /Joe Giella art wasn’t likely to change my mind. Jack Abel drawing Wonder Woman? Pass. And sorry to say, Joe Staton’s JSA art looked really rushed and sloppy to me.
Couple years ago, my LCS had a bunch in their Dollar Bin (appropriately enough) and on a whim I got ‘em all. The Deadman strips all look great. Newton’s New Gods pencils were murdered by poor inks, but his Aquaman stories looked slick and dynamic with Adkins inking. Staton’s JSA stuff is a bit more appealing to me now, but it still looks like it was cranked out at top speed. The Wonder Woman and Flash stories still look “meh” to me.
Overall, I think WORLD’S FINEST was a better Dollar Comic, though that one also very hit-or-miss. Swear to God, I think Vince Colletta inked 60 % of it. The highlight is a long run of Don Newton Marvel Family stories.
b.t.
Oh, and to be fair — that MARVEL TALES that blew my little mind was probably not all that great either, in hindsight. The Ditko Spider-man stories aside, those Thor stories are pretty bland, and Ant Man and Human Torch both had mostly bad art (lots of Larry Lieber and Dick Ayers).
What the hell. I was six or seven.
b.t.
b.t., et. al.
I am thinking that as we age it is harder to look back in hindsight... the nostalgia affect vs. what is / was good / bad comic stories is tuff.
By in large the world would describe the early Giant Man and Human Torch stories in the mid-60s as "so so" at best. Yet when I read them now, I enjoy them on their own and don't compare them to other Marvel comics.
I just could never get into World's Finest. I was never really a Supes fan and he tended to be the leading figure IIRC.
I do recall those $1 issues of Adventure but I just never go into them... not sure why given how crazy I used to go over the $.25 100-page GIants from DC in the earlier 1970s.
B.t.- yes, there were some pretty decent back ups. You mentioned Gray Morrow- he did some nice work on Vigilante backups too. You know, those secondary strips were common in DC but not used at Marvel. Wonder why.
And I'd grant you that the art on some of those later Adventure features was...less than stellar. But there was enough good stuff to make the purchase worthwhile!
Charlie- intriguing thought you have about hindsight. Like you I've been reading some things I'd missed originally, and taking them simply as a story- they often hold up ok. For instance, some of the old "horror" tales- not really classics, but still an entertaining diversion. And of the art is sharp, all the better...
Red, I've got nothing to say on this subject so I'll just mention that I was listening to a fascinating discussion on the radio yesterday about the late-Devonian extinction event from around 370 million years ago. I must admit that this particular extinction event was news to me but apparently it took place over millions of years and around 70% of all life died out. Anyway, this 45-minute discussion covered such topics as armoured fish, the first plants and soil on land and even a possible supernova explosion which destroyed Earth's ozone layer.
Great Post Red!!
Yes, Black Orchid. Followed her into The Phantom Stranger book, had to get those Adventure stories as it was a little before my time. Like b.t. said the DeZuniga/Redondo art was fantastic. Love the premise keeping her secret identity a mystery (even to her) and the way the stories would try to trick you. Don't know how long that would have been sustainable but I was in for a longer run.
I've heard a later iteration literally made her a plant, no thanks!
During my original collecting days Deadman was an outlier for me. Maybe an appearance here and there in B&B or with Superman that was it. Recently though I've bought Deadman collections and minus the Challengers of the Unknown stuff the Aparo, Garcia-Lopez runs are enjoyable. Neal Adams is next.
Colin- it's always good to hear paleontological references! Fascinating. I didn't know about the Devonian event either; more familiar with the end Permian event (which also was catastrophic).
So many amazing extinct forms of life. The armored fish were quite imposing.
Killraven- glad you liked the topic! And really, they made Black Orchid a plant? Oy.
Oh, and Nestor Redondo is magnificent...
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