COMIC BOOKS
The Great Comic Book Heroes: The Origins and Early Adventures of the Classic Super-Heroes of the Comic Books, in Glorious Color, by Jules Feiffer (Bonanza Books, 1965).
The single greatest tome about the Golden Age of Comics ever published. Fight me! Seriously, cartoonist/author/playwright Jules Feiffer’s coffee-table book not only reprinted key Golden Age stories at a time when such reprints, even in the comics themselves, were few and far between, but it contained Feiffer’s lyrical introduction, his love note, his ode to the Golden Age comics of his childhood and his early experiences in that world as a fledgling artist and assistant to Will Eisner on The Spirit.
Batman vs. 3 Villains of Doom, by Winston Lyon (Signet, 1967).
With the success of the Batman TV series that had debuted in 1966, a pair of novelizations made it to print while the show was still hot. The first was Batman Vs. The Three Villains of Doom by William Woolfolk under the pen name Winston Lyon.
By this point in his career, Woolfolk had left his career as a comic book writer for DC behind for novels, films and TV, but he knew the comic book Batman, and was obviously given access to at least some TV scripts, resulting in a pleasant blend of the two worlds. The plot pits Joker, Penguin and Catwoman against one another in a super-villain Olympics to get Batman, and seesaws between the grim and the humorous.
Batman vs. the Fearsome Foursome, by Winston Lyon (Signet, 1966).
An all-out camp cover treatment announced the tone of the novelization of the 1966 Batman theatrical movie, highlighting one of the most absurd moments in a film full of absurd moments (“Some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb!”) and declaring it was “Now a Batacular Movie!!”
Captain America and the Great Gold Steal, by Ted White (Bantam, 1968).
One-time science fiction and comic book fan Ted White had made the leap to professional and by the time he wrote The Great Gold Steal, he was already a Hugo-nominated author and respected science-fiction editor.
The story revolves around Cap’s efforts to prevent a great gold steal and White keeps things moving along at a crisp pace, but what stands out is his retelling and expanding on Steve Roger’s background and the details of his origin from the few brief panels we usually saw in the comics. Actually, what really stood out was the fact that just because something was based on a comic book, it didn’t have to be treated like it was for 8-year-olds.
The MAD Reader; MAD Strikes Back; Inside MAD; Utterly MAD; The Brothers MAD; The Bedside MAD, etc., etc., so on and so forth (Ballantine Books, 1954 – 1993).
Starting in 1954, Ballantine published a series of 93 black-and-white paperbacks of material from MAD.
Batman/Batman vs. the Joker /Batman vs. the Penguin (Signet Books, 1966).
Yes, we had the 80-Page Giants reprinting a ton of tales from the previous decade of DC’s top-tier heroes, but we didn’t have any opportunities to see those stories in black and white.
Thanks again to the triumph of the first season of Batman, Signet’s publishing agreement with DC gave us not only the two Batman novels, but a trio of paperback reprints as well, the panels cut up and rearranged for the smaller paperback book page and printed, as noted, in black and white.
High Camp Super-Heroes (Belmont Books, 1966).
There’s something desperate about this black-and-white collection of stories from Archie Comics’ Mighty Heroes that jumped into the superhero/Batman/camp craze. “DiG (lettered to look like “DC”) their crazy costumes. Marvel at their stupor deeds”; there’s even a mention of Superman, associating themselves with the big boy!
Captain Nice, by William Johnston (Tempo, 1967).
Based on an NBC one-season sitcom created by Buck Henry, starring William Daniels, Ann Prentice and Alice Ghostley that debuted almost exactly one year after ABC’s Batman. (Mister Terrific, CBS’ entry in the half-hour superhero sitcom sweepstakes premiered the same night as Captain Nice; neither made it to a second season).
Carter Nash was a nebbish chemist who developed a concoction that gave him superpowers and had an overbearing mother. That seemed to be all uber-prolific novelization writer William Johnston had to work with before he churned this one out, but it was a superhero (sort of) in prose (sort of).
The Green Hornet in The Infernal Light, by Ed Friend (Dell, 1966).
William Dozier had done it with Batman, so ABC had him take a run at another classic costumed crime fighter, the Green Hornet. Created in 1936 for the radio, Green Hornet and his sidekick Kato found their way to comic books and movie serials in the 1940s, as well as in a quartet of Whitman’s Big Little Books, credited to creator Fran Striker. They hit the airwaves in September 1966 (played by Van Williams and Bruce Lee) nine months after Batman’s triumphant debut. Ed Friend (pseudonym of pulp writer Richard Edward Wormser) concocted some vague story that had the heroes in hot but largely pointless pursuit of a bad guy and a world-conquering lightbulb.
The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker, by Otto Binder (Bantam 1967).
Despite being written by veteran comic-book writer and science-fiction author Otto Binder, the story pitting them against Kang the Conqueror wannabe Karzz the Conqueror, a 70th century time traveler seeking retribution for creation of lateral Earth-destroying weapons never really seemed to gain traction and catch on.
The opening chapters revealing, tediously and one-by-one, the origins of the Avengers team members to a TV audience, are a clumsy, plodding indication of what’s to come in this slim volume. Still, the stunning Robert McGinnis cover made this a memorable addition to anyone’s bookshelf.
Superman (Signet, 1966).
Almost like an afterthought, Signet accompanied the half dozen Batman paperback titles released in 1966 with a single book starring Superman, “The best of the original Superman… including the story of how Superman began.” Like the Batman books, the book reprints several stories, in this case from 1956 to 1961, in black and white and rearranged to fit the paperback page. The cover was a Curt Swan Superman, but the reprints were all by Wayne Boring, including “Titano the Super-Ape!” and “The Invulnerable Enemy,” pitting the Man of Steel against a “petrified spaceman,” a very creepy Frankenstein-like foe.
Marvel Comics Collector’s Albums (Lancer Books, 1966–1967).
Marvel followed DC’s lead into the paperback book reprint market in 1966 with six black-and-white volumes. Like DC, they opted for the cut-and-paste rearrangement of the art to fit the smaller page, but the results here were even less satisfying.
In addition to often making us turn the book on its side to read panels, they also edited out some splash pages.
The Fantastic Four in The House of Horrors, by William Johnston, art by Herb Trimpe and John Verpoorten (Whitman Big Little Book, 1968).
One of some 1,000 Big Little Book titles published since 1932, these approximately 3.5” x 4.5” books could contain up to 432-pages of story and art (text on the left-hand page, captioned illustration on the right), and starred everything from movie stars (or their onscreen characters) to comic-strip and comic-book features (this and Spider-Man Zaps Mr. Zodiac were the only Marvel titles in the lot).
Ubiquitous pen-for-hire William Johnston wrote the story of the FF taking on Dr. Weird and his eponymous House of Horrors and seemed to have done his homework on Marvel’s flagship heroes. Newcomer Herb Trimpe penciled the full-page illustrations, very much in the style of Jack Kirby, and those were supplemented by actual panels by Kirby himself, lifted from the comics.
Blue Beetle no. 5
© DC Comics
When Steve Ditko left Marvel after co-creating Spiderman and Doctor Strange, he went to Charlton Comics to resurrect slack superheroes Captain Atom and The Blue Beetle.
Poorly paid but freed creatively, Ditko did some of the best work of his long career here, bringing to life many fascinating characters in intriguing situations (just as he did for Marvel) but sales were low and distribution spotty for these Charlton books.
Blue Beetle number 5 may be the finest comic book Charlton ever published in its thirty-some year history, an era that contains very few quality books scattered among a sea of mediocrity, all plagued by lousy production values and stone age printing.
Blue Beetle number 5 was published during a spurt of quality comics that came in the two years when Dick Giordano was editor at Charlton and this was Steve Ditko at his peak. Look for the odd abstract statues and paintings in the panel backgrounds, they are works of art in themselves.
This release also includes the bizarre, Ditkosophical backup feature, The Question. The last issue of a fantastic run of comics.
Showcase no. 75
© DC Comics june 1968
Shortly after, Steve Ditko took his act to DC for two fine creations, The Creeper and The Hawk And The Dove. He only completed three issues of The Hawk and the Dove before falling ill; the title was continued by Gil Kane until its cancellation with number 7.
Sadly, Ditko stopped producing much work of any real interest in mainstream comics for a while after this point, though he occasionally works in the industry to this day. This comic book is unadulterated Steve Ditko, a great script with a hint of Ditko's infamous ultra-conservative moralizing.
Steve Ditko concentrated on the alternative press in the seventies and continued to create a few new characters and concepts for mainstream comics (Shade, the Changing Man for DC was a stand-out) well into the eighties.
Star Spangled War Stories no. 141
© DC Comics nov. 1968
Written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Joe Kubert (Sgt. Rock) at the top of their game, Enemy Ace's 12 issue run was largely ignored, even by many old school comic book fans.
Kubert's raw style set the standard for war comics for decades, and this saga of a World War One German fighter ace with a conscience is drawn with an eye for detail and historical accuracy.
The Spectre no. 1
© DC Comics dec 1967
State of the times DC scripting by veteran Gardner Fox made fantastic by Murphy Anderson's detailed and deliberate artwork. Anderson's art is in a class of its own, he is undoubtedly one of the finest illustrators in the history of comics and one damn fine inker. This comic book had a short ten issue run, Anderson only drew this one issue by himself.
This short run includes great stories written and drawn by Neal Adams, a strange Grandenetti/Anderson collaboration and one of Berni Wrightson's first published works when the book switched to a generic mystery format for the last two issues.
Showcase 85
© DC Comics Sept 1969
Written and drawn by Joe Kubert, this work was obviously more personal to the artist, it's his 1960's mainstream masterpiece.
The saga of Firehair, a settler's child raised by Native Americans who is spurned by whites as he grows older, lasted only three issues in Showcase and a few short stories in the back of a comic book called Son of Tomahawk.
All of the Firehair stories are superior examples of the best comic book tales the industry could offer, then or now.
Captain Action no. 4
© DC Comics may. 1968
Based on the Ideal brand toy of the same name, this book only ran five issues, but what a run.
Artist Gil Kane passed away recently, and this run of comics contains some of his most effective mainstream work. He wrote and drew issues 3-5, with superb inking by Wally Wood. (Jim Shooter wrote the first two issues while Wally Wood penciled and inked the first issue).
Two of DC's best short run series were based on toys - Hot Wheels and Captain Action. Both had great art and story teams but neither books were successful for some reason.
Lois Lane no. 71
© DC Comics jan 1968
Kurt Shaffenberger was one of the slickest artists in DC's bullpen and the 'Lois Lane' comics of the sixties were a lot of fun to read mostly because of his unique renderings of the DC stable of characters.
It's sheer silliness as each issue Lois Lane tries to rope Superman into marriage by making him jealous or by taking some potion that turns her into a monster or super-herione.
These comic books are ice cream for the brain, much of the reason they are so much fun has to do with Shaffenberger's pristine style and the light-hearted, nonsensical stories.
Superman Annual no. 1
© DC Comics Summer 1961
Maybe the most famous and parodied comic book cover ever. The cover has a crisp, modern design that must have looked very handsome on the newsstands of the day. The stories include those old saws like the giant ape with the Kryptonite vision and the story of Lex Luthor losing his hair and the origin of the chunky Superman of the fifties.
Our Army at War no. 196
© DC Comics aug 1968
DC's war books all had great covers by Joe Kubert, every one telling a multi-layered story, mostly with the Nazi's hiding just beyond the American soldier's view.
This issue has one of those familiar, formulaic stories written by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Joe Kubert that made this comic book series so popular in its heyday. Almost every Sgt. Rock story had a theme it seems, and Kanigher would repeat and repeat the theme throughout the story. This issue deals with war through the ages, and introduces The Unknown Soldier.
There are some real gems hidden in 'Our Army at War's long run, with stories in the back of the books by the best illustrators working in comics, people like Wally Wood, Reed Crandall, Russ Heath and Alex Toth.
Showcase no 56
© DC Comics june 1965
Another great 'Showcase' comic, and there were a lot of them. If you have a collection of 'Showcase' and 'Brave and the Bold' comics, you have some of the best examples of DC comic books in the sixties.
Murphy Anderson and Gardner Fox revive two of the golden age's most popular comic characters here with excellent results. While the characters didn't catch on a second time, the art and story rank with the best.
Bat Lash no. 4 © DC Comics may 1969
Bat Lash held on for seven whole issues after his Showcase tryout.
Brilliantly written by Sergio Aragones (of Mad magazine fame) with Denny O'Neil and drawn broadly by Nick Cardy (in his best, most expressive period).
This is a genuinely funny comic book, Aragones' characters ring true and Cardy does a superb job of bringing these characters and the wild western setting to life.
BEST CHARACTERS THAT EMBODY THE 60’S
Galactus
First appearance: Fantastic Four #48, Marvel Comics, March 1966
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
The end of the world is an old school concept, and one that used to primarily involve theology. All that changed in the 20th century, when mankind conceived of exciting new scientific ways to wipe out all life on Earth. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 brought the USA and the USSR to the brink of a doomsday war that only resolved itself thanks to the threat of mutually assured destruction -- a doctrine of war that cast a shadow over the world for a generation.
Existential anxiety is a big concept to squeeze into a superhero comic, so Stan Lee and Jack Kirby dressed it up in a big purple hat and called it Galactus. The space giant that threatened to devour the world in "In This Be Doomsday" was only chased away thanks to the Fantastic Four's acquisition of the most devastating weapon in the universe; the Ultimate Nullifier. The threat of mutually assured destruction once again saved/ruined the day.
The Mad Mod
First appearance: Teen Titans #7, DC Comics, February 1967
Created by Bob Haney and Nick Cardy
The Beatles, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones; in the mid-1960s these dangerous youths brought their insidious British take on rock 'n' roll to the U.S. so they could poison the minds of wholesome American teens. The British Invasion.
Around the same time the Teen Titans debuted at DC; "a crazy teen scene" who represented '60s youth culture. It's no surprise that one of the first foes they fought was the Mad Mod, a Carnaby Street fashion designer who smuggled drugs in the clothing of a British rock star and used words like "ruddy" and "mate" and "duckie" and "yoicks." Thankfully he was defeated, and the youth of America was saved from the invading Brits.
DC also gave the world two other notably wicked mod characters: The Mod Gorilla Boss in Strange Adventures, and the Mad Mod Witch in The Unexpected. Because, mods: threat or menace?
Barbarella
First appearance: Barbarella comic strip, V-Magazine, spring 1962
Created by Jean-Claude Forest
Sexual liberation was a major theme in the 1960s, brought about on the one hand by changing attitudes to women's roles and sexuality, and on the other hand by the introduction of the contraceptive pill, which gave women the same sexual freedom as men for the first time in history. As much as the phenomenon was welcomed by women, it was also encouraged by men who saw how they might benefit from the new arrangement. And that's where Barbarella comes in.
The 1968 movie Barbarella starring Jane Fonda is regarded as a camp celebration of women's sexual liberation -- most notably for the scene in which Barbarella and Dildano take "the pill," which allows them to experience hair-curling sexual ecstasy just by touching hands. (Dildano, of course, wears a glove.)
The comic that preceded the movie is also a celebration of sexual liberation -- but from a man's perspective. Jean-Claude Forest's story is a weird jumble of adventures that sees "Earth girl" Barbarella get into steamy clinches with men and women alike, not to mention an angel and a robot. It's a sex romp that undoubtedly embodies the changing attitudes to women's sexuality -- but of course it was still all about the male gaze.
Negative Man
First appearance: My Greatest Adventure #80, DC Comics, June 1963
Created by Arnold Drake, with Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani
The nuclear age conjured up all sorts of new and interesting anxieties about radiation - and there hasn't been a human anxiety yet that someone couldn't make a superhero out of. Radiation was a common trope in the origin stories of several' 60s superheroes -- especially Marvel heroes like Spider-Man, Hulk, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men.
Like late '50s hero Hal Jordan (the Silver Age Green Lantern), Larry Trainor was a military test pilot imbued with strange powers. Jordan became a handsome space cop; Trainor became a bandaged freak, with powers of astral projection that directly associate him with New Age ideas about parapsychology.
The Red Ghost
First appearance: Fantastic Four #13, Marvel Comics, April 1963
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Comics had no shortage of Red Scare villains throughout and even beyond the Cold War, from the Radioactive Man to Omega Red. Among the best and most revealing is Ivan Kragoff, the Red Ghost.
Kragoff is another enemy of the Fantastic Four, and in classic Stan Lee mode he and his Super-Apes offered a dark reflection of the heroes. A cruel and power-hungry man, Kragoff deliberately exposed himself and his captive apes to cosmic rays while racing to claim the moon for Russia, giving himself "ghost" powers, and his apes shapeshifting, super-strength and energy manipulation powers.
The story not only positioned Red Ghost and his Super-Apes as sinister and inhuman emissaries of Communism, it also served as a sort of narrative referendum on the Cold War itself. No less an authority than the Watcher (in his first appearance) stepped in to demand that the FF and the Space-Apes fight it out. The winner would get to claim space on behalf of the US or the USSR. rule on whether the US or the USSR. And that's how America won the Cold War, kids.
Brother Power the Geek
First appearance: Brother Power the Geek #1, DC Comics, October 1968
Created by Joe Simon, with Al Bare
San Francisco, 1967. The Summer of Love brought tens of thousands of people together to celebrate free love, social progress, and the profligate consumption of psychedelic drugs. It was the highpoint of the hippie movement, which, as movements go, was sort of slow sway from side-to-side.
It took a little over a year for the Summer of Love to find its own comic superhero, and somehow it showed up at DC. Brother Power the Geek was a mannequin infused with hippie blood and motor oil and brought to life by a bolt of lightning. Brother Power the Geek was a flower power philosopher who rejected "the lazy ways of the hippies" to become a sort of wandering agitator for peace, love, and hard work. Despite his utilitarian approach to peacemaking, he lasted only two issues, reportedly because Superman editor Mort Weisinger lobbied against the book.
The second issue of Brother Power the Geek saw him shot into space by Ronald Reagan. On reflection, that is probably exactly how a DC comic about hippies was always going to end.
The Prowler
First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #78, Marvel Comics, November 1969
Created by Stan Lee and John Buscema
The Civil Rights Movement was one of the great forces for social change in the 1950s and '60s, and it manifested in comics in some unusual ways. It was present in the central conceit of the X-Men; in the creation of the first black superhero, the Black Panther (who only coincidentally shared a name with a Black Power organization); and there in the creation of the first African-American superhero, the Falcon, whose existence artist Gene Colan said was inspired by news headlines about civil rights protests.
At the tail end of the '60s, and two months after the Falcon debuted in Captain America #117, Marvel's second African-American superhero made his first appearance. The Prowler, aka Hobie Brown, was perhaps the rawest example of the civil rights struggle to appear in the comics of the day.
Hobie Brown wasn't a mutant, or an African prince, or a Harlem social worker trying to organize a revolution on a tropical island run by Nazis. (That was Falcon's original story; he was later ambiguously and awkwardly retconned to be a former gangster.) Hobie Brown was a brilliant young inventor from a poor background who turned to crime out of desperation. His sinister mask and codename turned him into a cartoon of white fear about black urban youth, but he really represents the inequalities and injustices that helped spark the Civil Rights Movement. Hobie Brown shows us how hard it is for a young black man to succeed in a society slanted against him, whatever his gifts. To this day, Hobie Brown has not been given his due.
Doctor Strange
First appearance: Strange Tales #110, Marvel Comics, July 1963
Created by Steve Ditko, with Stan Lee
Strange Tales had already been running for over a decade before it introduced the world to the hero who shares its name. LSD had been around in the United States for about as long, chiefly as a therapeutic aid. Perhaps it's just good fortune that the good doctor came around just in time for the wondrous heyday of the acid trip.
Doctor Strange doesn't come from drug culture, exactly. He comes from the 1960s fascination with mysticism, especially Eastern mysticism, which provides the throughline of the spiritualists of the early 20th century to the New Age movement of the late 20th century. Stephen Strange was a man who went east to find his purpose, and learned to move past his ego with the help of a wise old mentor -- slightly anticipating the journey of fellow '60s mustache legend George Harrison.
But Doctor Strange became part of drug culture, regardless of the authors' intentions. His ability to leave his body to explore the psychedelic Astral Plane had obvious resonance for the counterculture. As Tom Wolfe wrote of author and LSD enthusiast Ken Kesey, he would spend hours "absorbed in the plunging purple Steve Ditko shadows of Doctor Strange." Doctor Strange was part of the scene.
Modesty Blaise
First appearance: Modesty Blaise newspaper strip, Evening Standard, May 1963
Created by Peter O'Donnell, with Jim Holdaway
The Cold War turned the world into a chess board for two grandmasters, and spy fiction entered a new golden age, led by Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. Bond became a comic strip hero in the late 1950s, and one of the artists responsible for the adaptations was Peter O'Donnell. In 1963, O'Donnell was invited to create his own comic strip super-spy for London's Evening Standard newspaper, and Modesty Blaise was born.
Modesty Blaise exists at the intersection of establishment geo-politics and swinging youth culture. A wealthy globe-trotting Continental criminal mastermind who tired of crime and turned to espionage to combat her boredom, Modesty embodied European glamor and the fantasy of jet-set affluence. Modesty's world was the world of Federico Fellini movies and Diana Vreeland's Vogue. As Jim Steranko also proved with his work on Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, few things could ever be more '60s than a stylish spy.
Metamorpho
First appearance: The Brave and the Bold #57, DC Comics, January 1965
Created by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon
Marvel was the upstart punk kid of 1960s superhero comics, and it had many of the great counter-cultural creators and creations, but this was the Silver Age; there was enough weird to go around. Over at DC, Bob Haney stood out as one of the masters of peculiar ideas. Whether it was Satan, weird science, or super-teens, Bob Haney loved his crazy.
By Haney's own admission, his greatest creation was Metamorpho the Element Man. He was a shapeshifting elemental hero whose powers -- from the radioactive orb of the Egyptian sun god Ra -- turned him into a sub-human freak. Metamorpho was a perfect cocktail of '60s ideas: the Atomic Age search for scientific advancement combined with the counter-cultural search for spiritual meaning filtered through the persona of the outcast in a time of social upheaval.
The '60s was a decade of political empowerment for women, for black people, for young people. With change comes uncertainty; what will I be, and what will the world be, when we are both re-made? Metamorpho was a hero born of both that power and that fear of change.
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