Sinister Tales # 62: I'm too Class-y for Al Williamson!

A few months ago I was given a heads-up on this issue by one of the junkyard’s international operatives (“Who knows what comics lurk…?”) and I’m glad I heeded his advice.

The Steve Ditko cover feature is one attraction of course. This is from Ditko’s second stint on the character and it’s a great little black and white companion to the Australian Captain Atom issue which covers the bulk of Ditko’s first stint as discussed previously.

But the other attraction is the number of Marvel Atlas era reprints as detailed below.

I mentioned some minor qualms I have with the Alan Class reprints in my previous post on Sinister Tales #20, but conceded on balance they provide good value as cheap sources of Ditko and Kirby reprints – indeed, of any of the Atlas-era material.

But I’ll make an exception when it comes to Al Williamson’s art. At least based on the evidence of this copy. The reduced scale doesn’t do it any justice to begin with, but one is prepared for that.

The major problem is the generally coarse reproduction. For most of the stories it’s an acceptable compromise. After all, this stuff was intended for pulp paper. Bleaching into the paper grain, fading with time and exposure to light contributes to the authentic vintage feel.

But Williamson's art really demands the upmarket book treatment. It needs to sit slickly on heavier smoother stock, to reflect light with just the right degree of gloss. But when faced with fadeouts and ink dropouts... well, one can hardly be said to be reading so much as ‘spotting’ a Williamson facsimile.

The contents:

Captain Atom: Captain Atom vs The Ghost
David A. Kaler/Steve Ditko/Rocke Mastroserio
(Captain Atom #82, September 1966)

The Iron Giant!
Paul Reinman
(Journey Into Mystery #69, June 1961)

Lost in the Labyrinth
George Roussos
(Mystery Tales #44, August 1956)

The Stranger's Suitcase!
Bill Walton
(Marvel Tales #154, January 1957)

Menace From The Stars!
Al Williamson
(Mystery Tales #44, August 1956)

Something in the Sea!
Paul Reinman
(Marvel Tales #154, January 1957)

The Hidden Man!
Dave Berg
(Marvel Tales #154, January 1957)

Dynamo: S.P.I.D.E.R. Strikes at Sea!
Dan Adkins/Wally Wood
(Dynamo #2, October 1966)

Smash-Up!
Syd Shores
(Journey Into Unknown Worlds #57, May 1957)

I Dare You To Move!
Ross Andru/Mike Esposito
(Journey Into Unknown Worlds #58, June 1957)

When Vernon Vanished
Ed Winiarski
(Journey Into Unknown Worlds #57, May 1957)

Fetish Crisis! Tracking Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups

I’ve been enjoying reading the Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups Vol. 2 over the last week or so. These are familiar stories to longtime DC readers of course, but I’m reading many of these for the first time.

Well, sort of... Much of it is familiar even if I don’t recall reading it before. Many of the storylines have been referred to in other comics, and many key images or panels have also been reprinted as excerpts in books and magazines and the internet which I’ve seen over a period of time.

The first volume is a different matter as it’s mostly material which is quite familiar to me. Truth is some of it I’ve only read for the first time in the last 5 years or so, but regardless, it’s an altogether different reading experience. Seeing the stories laid out in chronological order is particularly welcome. And it’s really a case of part reading, part browsing, part ‘refresher’, and all utterly and luxuriously indulgent – frankly, it’s a fanboy fetish!

One thing that occurred to me as I was browsing through them is that most of these stories also happen to be featured on the K.G. Murray covers.

There’s something appealing to me in seeing well-known images in a new setting or context. For example, the two Dr. Fate and Hourman Showcase covers by Murphy Anderson are quite famous and beloved by fans, and there’s something which appeals to me in seeing the Tip Top banner above those images, the pre-decimal pricing, the Superman Presents mascot. Even with the Showcases in my hands a mental overlay of the Tip Top banner imposes itself without conscious effort.

Oops! Another fetish!

Anyway, thought it might be a bit of fun to list the K.G. Murray reprints of the contents of Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups Vol. 1 TPB:

Flash and Golden Age Flash: Flash of Two Worlds!
The Flash #123, September 1961
The Hundred Comic #65, March 1962
Giant Flash Album #3, January 1966

Flash and Golden Age Flash: Double Danger on Earth!
The Flash #129, June 1962
The Hundred Comic #75, January 1963
Giant Flash Album #6, January 1969

Flash and Golden Age Flash: Vengeance of the Immortal Villain!
The Flash #137, June 1963
The Hundred Comic #86, November 1963
World's Finest Comic Monthly #92, December 1972

Flash and Golden Age Flash: Invader from the Dark Dimension!
The Flash #151, March 1964
World's Finest Comic Monthly #5, September 1965

Dr. Fate and Hourman: Soloman Grundy Goes on a Rampage!
Showcase #55, March 1965
Tip Top Comic Monthly #2, June 1965
Super Adventure Comic #71, November 1975

Dr. Fate and Hourman: Perils of the Psycho-Pirate!
Showcase #56, May 1965
Tip Top Comic Monthly #5, September 1965

Green Lantern and Golden Age Green Lantern: Secret Origin of the Guardians!
Green Lantern #40, October 1965
Wonder Comic Monthly #97, May 1973

Starman and Black Canary: Mastermind of Menaces!
The Brave and the Bold #61, September-October 1965
All Favourites Comic #52, January 1966

Super Adventure #72, January 1976

Hourman: The Hour Hourman Died!
The Spectre #7, November December 1968
Tip Top Comic Monthly #52, August 1969
World's Finest Comic Monthly #79, November 1971

I have not listed all the US reprints but of course some of the Australian reprints are sourced from US reprints. The relative dates are a guide as to whether they are sourced from original or subsequent printings.

Secret Origin of the Guardians! is the anomalous one in this regard. I am unaware of a 1960’s Australian reprint. Green Lantern was one of the DC titles not regularly published in the K.G. Murray reprints in the 1960’s. There were reprints of Green Lantern appearances in Showcase reprinted in All Favourites Comic, but the material from the Green Lantern title would not be reprinted in any substantial form until the 1970’s series Green Lantern Album and The Original Green Lantern – but this is a story for a future blog.

I was talking to a recent acquaintance on the weekend who has all of the original issues. I mentioned in passing that I could see him devouring the TPB – I just assumed the regular rationalisations: reading copy, spare, always wanted one… He told me he didn’t bother to buy it as he already has the all the issues. Quite sensible of course. Admirable restraint. But I’m betting this might just prompt him to sneak a few stray K.G. Murray’s into his collection if he comes across them. Especially if no one’s watching. Or, maybe moreso if there’s a risk in being caught out.

It’s the fetish factor.

Update: Secret Origin of the Guardians! was indeed reprinted, in Wonder Comic Monthly #97.

True Confessions of a Chauvinist Romance Reader

True Confession: I don’t know much about romance comics.

Like many comics readers I know the broad history of the genre – kickstarted by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon in the late 1940’s, peaked in sales by the mid-1950s, outsold superhero comics for a while, aimed at a female readership, declined in popularity until exhausted by the early 1980’s.

But for all that I confess I don’t really have a handle on the genre. My impression is of a conservative genre: “Cautionary morality tales told from the perspective of a female protagonist…illustrated the perils of female independence and celebrated the virtues of domesticity”, as Bradford W. Wright puts it in Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001, p. 128.

But even that assessment begs many questions, such as Were they always aimed at a female readership? And if so, was it young girls as well as adults? How did they change over the decades? Were the 1970’s issues as substantially different from the 1950s issues as the psychedelic-inspired covers suggest they may have been? Were there pre-Code romance books to match the zest and outrageousness of the horror comics?

And, is it possible to read them now without the word “kitsch” forming in the mind’s eye?

I read them occasionally when I was young, and I’ve only read a few recently, but I must admit that based on the samples I’ve read I’m left with the impression they are dated curios largely of interest to cultural historians, or of nostalgic value. But I stress that’s based on a sample of what is probably just DC and Charlton material, and will be pleased to revise my opinion with further reading.

I guess I also have a chauvinistic approach to vintage romance comics – I’m more interested in seeing the rarely reprinted work of artists I like who worked in the genre rather than expecting to read them for general enjoyment. That’s not so odd for me. I feel the same way about westerns and war comics.

Having said that, they can nevertheless be appealing comics for their covers, even from a pop art perspective. Sometimes they’re just nice comics “to have and to hold” (sic).

Magic Moment Romances #3 is one such comic. Based on the identified contents and the date on one of the advertisements, it was published late 1957. K.G. Murray also published two digest-sized romance comics series, Twin Hearts and Heart to Heart Romance Library which began circa 1957-58. Magic Moment Romances was a long-running title, well into the late 1970’s/early 1980’s.

The contents of this issue appear to be wholly DC material – at least the ones I’ve identified via the GCD. I assume some of this material is by Arthur Peddy and Bernard Sachs, artists recognized for their romance comics in DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes. This volume also informs me that the DC romance titles had a female editor, Zena Brody, whose stable also included Ruth Brandt, Phyllis Reed and Dororthy Woolfolk.

Is it possible the K.G. Murray romance comics were also handled by a different editorial team to the regular comics? The advertisements in this issue range from Flair magazine to Your Complete Wedding Guide magazine to pearls and slippons – not what one would find in a Superman comic! Maybe they were handled by a general magazine editor? More questions than answers…

To the contents:

Heartbreak Junction!
(Girls' Love Stories #45, January-February 1957)

Portrait of Love!
(Girls' Love Stories #45, January-February 1957)

Wondering Heart!
(Original unidentified, 8 pages)

Oddities in Romance
(Original unidentified, 1 page)

Stand-In for Love
(Original unidentified, 7 pages)

Beyond Love
(Falling In Love #12, August 1957)

Lost in Loneliness
(Original unidentified, 7 pages)

Lonely Lovesong
(Original unidentified, 8 pages)

Hello, Heartbreak!
(Secret Hearts #40, June-July 1957)

The Girl With the Lonely Heart!
(Original unidentified, 8 pages)

Linda and Larry
(Original unidentified, 1 page)

Love is Only a Dream
(Girls' Romances #46, September 1957)

I'll Care For You!
(Falling In Love #11, May-June 1957)

Two Loves Have I!
(Girls' Love Stories #48, August 1957)

Clash of Hearts!
(Girls' Love Stories #45, January-February 1957)

Detritus by any other name...

Just a few bits and pieces to add today… tidying up dribs and drabs from previous posts… misc. junkyard detritus... loitering flotsam, lost jewels, misremembered promises, scruffy little wishlists...

First up:
I have another early Curt Swan piece to add to the list of early reprints:

The Bravest Man Alive!
House of Mystery #18, September 1953
Wonder Comic Monthly #119, March 1975

Next, a bit more from my offline conversations:

Michael Feldman informs me that he has spoken to Jack Adams (General Manager of Independent News 1939-52) on the phone, and he says that Carroll Rheinstrom was Advertising Director of MacFadden Publications International and was made President at one point.

Thanks Michael!

And, on the topic of behind-the-scenes personnel… I recently scored a copy of K.G. Murray’s Man Junior, cover date April 1963, and found the following information on the back page:

Publisher: Ken G. Murray
Executive Editor: Fred C. Folkard
General Manager and Editor-in Chief: Fred T. Smith
Cartoon Editor: Albert A. Murray
Production Manager: John Hoy
Promotion Manager: John Minnett
Circulation Manager: Doug Spicer
General Advertising Manager: Laurie S. Cottier, Sydney
John P. Blake, Melbourne
Arthur L. Searcy, Adelaide
John N. Penglis, Brisbane

Are these the names we’ve been seeking to answer our comics queries?

Trawling further and farther afield:

An additional title to the Gredown Horror comics List:

Claws of Horror

And a few more issue numbers:

Maze of Monsters 1-2
Planet Doom 1-2

And finally, an update from my UK correspondent, who has confirmed that the Mammoth Annual advertisement did appear in the UK in the November 1957 issues – Superman #92, Super Adventure Comic #90, Superboy #106 (date TBC) and Batman #90 (all UK issue numbers). He adds that these comics were printed in Australia by Sungravure, but with a UK distributor, and that apart from the 6d cover price and the renumbering of Superman, they appear identical in both countries. Therefore, it appears all the ads are for Australian companies, and one could have ordered, for example, a 'Phantom ring' or a variety of magic tricks all by post from Australia. He adds this is all gleaned from personal experience, that is, from looking at the comics he personally purchased in the UK in 1957. Which also means that the advertisement is not in itself proof that the Mammoth Annual was distributed in the UK, as it could just be advertising the issue sold in Australia.

That's all folks!

Marshall Rogers

Like many comics fans – and especially longtime readers of Batman comics – I’m thinking of Marshall Rogers today.

There were a few notable Batman artists in the 1970’s – Wrightson, Simonson, Cardy and Kaluta are some of the prominent ones to come to mind - but I expect many will agree with me that three stood apart from the pack: Adams, Aparo and Rogers.

I should qualify that – Rogers and Austin.

Rogers was involved in quite a few Batman stories over the years, including a Secret Origins instalment, a recent mini series, and a few other one-shots and bits and pieces. But his reputation as one of the best Batman artists rests on his superb run in Detective Comics in the mid-1970’s with Steve Englehart and Terry Austin.

It’s one of those runs which, like favourite albums, I feel compelled to revisit in all its various reissued formats. When I rediscovered comics some 20 years ago this sequence of issues was one of the first to compel me to pay inflated back-issue prices for the ‘real thing’. Then of course I 'had' to chase down the Baxter reprints with the gorgeous new Rogers covers. Since then there’s been many reprints such as the Strange Apparitions trade paperback and the various chapters included in the Greatest Stories Ever Told series of books, and probably others. Is this the most oft-reprinted series of Batman comics? Must come close.

When I think of this run it’s as if a dormant file of images and sequences is activated for my immediate recall: Batman’s billowing cape and long ears; the banter between Batman and Robin as they walk past the giant penny, the dinosaur and the Joker playing card in the batcave and engage in a good-natured wrestle; the close-up of Silver St. Cloud as she recognises Bruce Wayne under the mask; the splash page with Hugo Strange removing the Batman mask, then the Bruce Wayne mask; or the one with Rupert Thorne behind the desk tossing the photo of Batman with an X across it; the architecture in every other panel; Bruce Wayne ranting at his parent’s portrait; Batman entering Silver St. Cloud’s bedroom (I can still picture the wallpaper!); their break-up; the Joker’s entrance and the trail of HAHAHA snaking around him; Batman waiting, looking out the window.

If you're familiar with these stories I'm betting your experience is similar.

And of course I recall many of these images in their black and white incarnations courtesy of the K.G. Murray reprints.

The core Rogers work from the Detective Comics run is reprinted in Batman Album #’s 43-45, which also include the Englehart-scripted Simonson stories, the Wein-scripted Rogers stories, and the framing sequence for the Adams reprint. Also worth noting is Batman Album #46 which reprints the O’Neil scripted “Ticket to Tragedy”. There are other Rogers reprints scattered about in the Australian reprints, but these 3 or 4 issues cover the best of the Englehart, Rogers and Austin team on Batman.

Color Giant # 2

I have discussed K.G. Murray’s format experimentation in 1956 a few times - the 100-page black and white anthologies, the special 148 page Annuals, the colour pamphlets.

There were also two special colour comics issued by K.G. Murray in this period – Color Giant #’s 1 and 2. These were 100-page comics priced midway between the 100-page periodicals and the 148-page Annuals.

I’d seen these now and again in my travels but didn’t manage to pick one up until a few months ago. They intrigued me as much for their covers and novelty value as they did for their elusiveness - they always seemed to be snapped up for megabucks so I figured there must be something special about them that only collectors who’d seen them up close were privy to. So of course when I saw this one at a reasonable price I jumped at the chance.

There’s something about these covers I find utterly charming and quaint. This one appears at first glance like any other Hart Amos cover of this period, but it is in fact by another Australian artist, Peter Chapman (thanks to Kevin Patrick for the id).

Onto the contents:


Color Giant #2, circa 1957

Vigilante: Two Dead Men!
Gardner Fox/Dan Barry
(Action Comics #144, May 1950)

Superboy The Adventures of Superman When He Was a Boy: The Crazy Costumes!
William Woolfolk/Curt Swan
(Superboy #33, June 1954)

The Secret of Hill 141
Bill Ely
(House of Mystery #44, November 1955)

Blabber Mouse: Up in Smoke!
(Original unidentified, 4 pages)

Roy Raymond TV Detective: Hercules Lives Again
Ruben Moreira
(Detective Comics #223, September 1955)

Aquaman: The Boy Who Refused to Swim
Ramona Fradon
(Adventure Comics #221, February 1956)

John Jones Manhunter from Mars: The World's Greatest Magician
Joe Certa
(Detective Comics #235, September 1956)

Congo Bill with Janu The Jungle Boy: Jungle King For A Day
(Original unidentified, 6 pages)

Wonder Woman: Three Secret Wishes!
Robert Kanigher/Harry G. Peter
(Wonder Woman #81, April 1956)

Captain Compass: The Ocean Pest!
Otto Binder/Joe Certa
(Detective Comics #222, August 1955)

Secret of the Scientific Doodads!
Joe Samachson/Carmine Infantino
(Mystery In Space #31, April-May 1956)

The Adventures of Rex The Wonder Dog: Four-Footed Circus Daredevil!
Bob Haney/Gil Kane/Bernard Sachs
(The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog #28, July-August 1956)

The House Where Dreams Came True
(Original unidentified, 6 pages)

The Green Arrow: The Scarlet Bowmen
Ramona Fradon/Charles Paris
(Adventure Comics #226, July 1956)

And a couple of black and white 1-page fillers on the inner front and rear covers - Spy Catcher - Joe Palma and Casey the Cop.

This issue was printed by The Argus and Australasian Ltd. in Melbourne (the Argus of course being The Age newspaper) as were the colour pamphlets in this period (the regular K.G. Murray comics were printed in Sydney).

Every era has its fashionable colour tones and palettes. One of the pleasures of looking through old comics – especially from the 1940’s and 1950s - is being reacquainted with tones not commonly seen any more. For example, even though I don’t read Captain Marvel/Marvel Family comics, I do enjoy browsing through a friend’s copies now and then precisely for this reason – the yellows and greys and reds in those comics are so deep and rich they remind me of the light contrasts encountered on overcast days.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of K.G. Murray’s colours. I have always found the colour reproduction in the pamphlets to be too crude and garish, an eyesore. And so it is with this volume. I would go so far as to say it falls in the unintentionally “so bad it’s good” category. It’s like looking at a colour 3-D comic without the glasses! OK, I’m exaggerating, but you get the idea – it’s just that it looks so cheap and nasty I wish it had been reserved for some suitably schlocky SF or horror comics. As it is, it’s just regrettable.

Fortunately the colour on K.G. Murray’s covers was substantially better – even the colour pamphlets which were printed on non-gloss paper appear to have fared better than the interior pages, but that may be due to the different scale too ie: a single large image.

The contents are also a bit odd insofar as they appear to be basically contemporary material with an additional one or two earlier pieces. Also they avoid reprints of Superman and Batman and feature instead a range of third-tier characters with an occasional top-up of Superboy or Wonder Woman. Most of these features could have been reprinted in either Century or The Hundred, but as they are they mostly resemble a collection of unused backup features which might have originally been slated for the colour pamphlets.

I guess to sum up I’d say these Color Giants are curious and interesting items which have their own little place in the history of K.G. Murray’s DC reprints, and as such earn their niche in collections of Australian Silver Age reprints.

But I cannot say why these issues in particular are fetching hefty prices in collector’s circles, apart from the obvious potent ingredients: nostalgia and scarcity.

Maze of Monsters: In Through The Out Door

I’ve said a number of times that one never knows what will turn up in a K.G. Murray reprint. But just try and guess the contents of a Gredown horror comic!

Sure, if the title refers to werewolves or vampires you’ve narrowed the sub-genre somewhat. And if the title alludes to a US comic, for example, This Comic is Haunted, you have some basis for raising your expectations of pre-Code horror contents.

But other than that, the main clue is in the story titles which are often included in text boxes on the covers. Of course this is no good if the title is too generic for identification, but in the case of this issue I had a pretty good idea there’d be some Steve Ditko content – how many stories titled “Mr. Ober’s Nightmare” can there be?

And sure enough this issue is something of a Ditko bonanza, featuring no less than 4 Ditko stories, which alone makes it worth the $3 it cost me.

But it’s also one of those Gredown’s with the sort of 'filler' which makes me wish there was another outlet for the material. I haven’t identified the source of the opening story but it’s the sort of reptile/dinosaur junk I’d expect to find in Epic Illustrated.

And similarly I could do without the Walt Simonson story here (which is a sequel to the previous story). Not that there is no merit in Simonson’s art – it has enough Manhunter-esque riffs in it to make it formally interesting at least – but it’s just not what I look for in a Gredown horror comic.

Add the Mike Zeck story, the Charlton-esque “Hoppy” and the closer which would also not be out of place in Epic or similar magazines, and that’s a whole lot of filler surrounding the core Ditko material. In fact the mix is so jarring it looks like something Charlton might have contrived at short notice to enter the adult comic magazine market in the mid-1970’s.

I’m not partial to the Spanish comics reprinted in the Gredowns, but at least I’m accustomed to their presence, and I concede that were it not for them much of the rest of the booty would likely have languished unreprinted, at least in Australia. That is, it may be the pre-Code and Ditko material which attracts me most, but the cover illustrations are mostly representative of the Adult-oriented illustration-centric Spanish material. I guess the market was squarely the Heavy Metal / Epic Illustrated / Creepy / Eerie reader!

Which means, of course, that the filler was on the other foot (just to mangle a perfectly good metaphor).

Or, put another way, I’m banging my head trying to get in through the out door, wondering why the invited guests are being greeted at the front door, and why this back door keeps repeating like a film loop!

Hmmm – a cross between Bunuel and Led Zeppelin - - yep, sounds like a recipe for a Gredown horror comic after all!

I should just file this issue along with other K.G. Murray reprints of Ditko's 1970's Charlton work like (ahem) Scary Tales, The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves...


Maze of Monsters #2, cover price $0.50, 1977

The Monster Trilogy: Part One Monster X

Nostrand

(Original unidentified, 8 pages)

Capital Punishment
Gabriel Levy/Walt Simonson

Mr. Ober's Nightmare
Nick Cuti/Steve Ditko
(Scary Tales #8, November 1976)

A Grizzly End
Nick Cuti/Mike Zeck
(Scary Tales #8, November 1976)

The Shaman
Steve Ditko
(Haunted #30, November 1976)

Halloween Scene
Steve Ditko
Scary Tales #7, September 1976

Stinger
Steve Ditko
(The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #60, December 1976)

Hoppy Ending
(Ghostly Haunts #52, October 1976)

Giant

(Original unidentified, 7 pages)

Musing on Gil Kane

I’ve been thinking about Gil Kane over the last couple of evenings, reading some of his Green Lantern and Atom stories in the second Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Up’s TPB.

I say “thinking” rather than “reading” because that’s what happens with Kane’s comics. I'm usually pausing to consider some aspect of it – an arrangement, a figure, an expression.

Kane is a superhero comics artist to be studied and appreciated. I don’t know if he has a lot of fans, but I reckon he has his share of students.

I’m referring to his Silver Age DC work, in particular the superhero material as I’ve read it in the K.G. Murray reprints and other DC reprints, which means mainly his Atom and Green Lantern. He produced a large body of work over a long period, and superhero comics were only a part of it, but it’s the Kane I’m mainly familiar with, along with an occasional horror/mystery or western story.

One of Kane’s substantial contributions to the superhero comic was his flying figure. He contributed to our visual vocabulary, our understanding and imagination of how a superhero flies. His figures floated and glided in the air. Their backs arched. Their limbs had articulated joints. He drew bodies as they might operate in space with weight, balance, momentum. You sensed there was a point of propulsion before the shot in the frame.

Maybe it’s because his superhero bodies were athletic, rather than musclebound bulks like, say, Wayne Boring’s Superman. Boring’s Superman didn’t fly in space, he strolled upright, one foot in front of the other. He charged head-first through windows because he only knew one way. That was his goofy charm. Kane’s bodies look as if they were modelled on dancers. Did any other artist produce as graceful a superhero body in the Silver Age? Maybe Infantino and Anderson.

He was also an excellent arranger or designer of space. The so-bad-it’s-good school of superhero comics isn’t concerned with matters of depth of field, and doesn’t need to be. That’s a different aesthetic. For Kane, foreground and background weren’t enough - he needed a background, a middle ground and a foreground. The background might be sketched in, the middle ground square in the frame, and the foreground figure leaving or entering the frame. Action is barely encompassed within a Kane frame – it is often exceeding the border. This is evident in many of his covers and also his panels.

For all these qualities, he does not excite me as a fan. I’m not sure why not. Maybe it’s because he tends to draw eyes which look like they’re stunned. Maybe it’s because he’s an acquired taste. Maybe his art needs colour to be fully realised – a drawback of black and white reprints in considering certain artists who aren’t disposed towards spotting blacks.

His later DC work in the 1980’s is thoroughly refined and transformed. It’s recognizable Kane, but without any concession to smoothness or slickness or sheen. As unlikely as it sounds, there are even less blacks in this later work. I find it dizzying and distracting with an unexpected clutter and distortion, yet it is quite fascinating to see the progress of his line from the 1960’s.

There are artists who love their own work, and there are artists who are never satisfied. Kane was an articulate and considered thinker of comics, and I think of him as a restless artist who did the best he could in a genre he was probably not really interested in. I remember he described himself as a problem-solver, not an artist, possibly in his Comics Journal interview many years ago. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he was pleased to be described as an artist who made his readers think rather than just be fans.

PS Cover image above from GCD

Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds Planet Series 1 No. 12

I promised a few days ago to detail the other Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds issue I have, and I looked forward to identifying a few more gems from bygone years. But I have to concede this is not a particularly exciting issue.

On the plus side it does include a Jim Aparo cover story, and Pat Boyette is usually good value. There’s even some Rocke Mastroserio to top things off, and a few more Space Adventures reprints to add to the tally.

But to tell the truth, this issue has too much art by the likes of Bill Molno and Charles Nicholas and Vincent Alascia to get really excited about it. It’s like reheated low-fat vegetable lasagne. It’s not the worst comics you’ll find, but it is just about the last resort.

So, in this case, anything without a hit on the GCD, I’m not really motivated to chase up any further.

I recommend just enjoying the cover for a few moments, spare a thought for how Aparo blossomed as an adventure comics artist in the following few years (and don’t resist the urge to pick up that special issue of Brave and the Bold by Haney and Aparo for a quick browse – you know you want to!), update your Planet Series index if you’re so inclined, and tune in again for more interesting Australian reprint comics later.

Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds, Planet Series 1 No. 12, cover price $0.75

The Imitation People
Jim Aparo
(Space Adventures #4, November 1968)

The Roman Gods on Mount Olympus
Charles Nicholas
(Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #46, May 1965)

The Miniatures
Rocke Mastroserio
(Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #46, May 1965)

The Fugitives
(Original unidentified, 9 pages)

The Exterminators
(Space Adventures #5, January 1969)

Surrender Earth!
Joe Gill/Pat Boyette
(Space Adventures #4, November 1968)

The Captive
(Space Adventures #5, January 1969)

The Ambassador From Earth
Rocke Mastroserio
(Space Adventures #48, November 1962)

lsland Earth
(Original unidentified, 6 pages)

When The Air Froze
(Original unidentified, 6 pages)

The Space Dreamer
Charles Nicholas/Vincent Alascia
(Original unidentified, 8 pages)

Watchdogs of the Deep
Bill Molno
(Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #46, May 1965)

Strange Galaxy
Rocke Mastroserio
(Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #47, July 1965)

Specimen Earth
Charles Nicholas/Vincent Alascia
(Space Adventures #3, September 1968)

Fantastic Adventure #2: Dell rebound comics

I picked up this Australian comic on the weekend more out of curiosity than anything else.

It’s a ‘new’ cover with rebound coverless US Dell comics from 1965 and 1966. The rear cover carries a full-page advertisement (111 Stamps for 10c).

Apart from this advertisement and the 20c cover price, there is nothing else to even identify this edition as an Australian publication. Indeed there is no information regarding publisher or distributor on the comic at all – the inner front and back covers are completely blank! I think the only other time I’ve seen such blank pages is on Yaffa reprints, or on the card covers of squarebound Federal comics!

I’m familiar of course with the rebound K.G. Murray comics which I’ve referred to often on this blog. I’m also generally familiar with the UK series of coverless rebound US comics titled Double Double (I have a Detective Comics copy somewhere in the junkyard which I might pull out at some point, and an Action Comics copy was mentioned to me in recent correspondence).

It’s possible this edition (and other similar ones eg. Amazing Adventure, Daring Adventure to name just two) was collated by the distributor for resale and distributed via the original point of sale, hence the lack of publisher details – that is, it was not strictly speaking legal.

Then I wonder where the cover illustrations come from – original Dell comics?

More questions and guesswork than answers today. There’s a broader publishing/distribution story to be told here. Maybe someone else can fill in the blanks.

Oh, and for the record, the rebound Dell comics are:

Kona #18, June 1966

Tomb of Ligeia, April-June 1965
Two on a Guillotine, April-June 1965