Captain America by Jack Kirby: Part 2- Second Phase Assault

I know I always say this, but I am really behind with this blog at the moment. As much as I enjoy writing about comics, I enjoy reading them a lot more. To be fair, I read way more comics than I blog about because I only like to write about books that are of particular interest to me. But since Christmas I have a lot of good stuff sitting on my book shelf, all killer, no filler.

And this one is a Killer.

But first, a little background. Feel free to skip the next paragraph if you’re already familiar.

So, Marvel reintroduce Captain America into their Universe in Avengers #4 (I should re-read Kirby’s Avengers books when I have time, just for the sake of Cap completism) and of course, one of the original creators of the character, Jack Kirby, is drawing the book. The character is a success, people want to see more of him so they give him half of a split-book with Iron Man starting in Tales of Suspense #59. So far as I understand, the reason for Marvel producing a lot of split books is that, for reasons that I won’t go into, National/DC, Marvels main competitor, were the distributors of Marvels books and they limited the amount of Marvel books that they would put on the news stands, so if Marvel wanted to market more characters in solo stories they had to share books with other characters, hence the Cap/Iron Man split in Tales of Suspense (just to be clear, a split book has half the page count devoted to solo, unconnected stories of the characters, rather than a team up book which would feature the characters together in one story.). This continued from issue 59 to 99, when the comic was renamed Captain America with issue 100, and featured cover to cover Cap. Kirby’s run as artist continued unbroken from Tales of Suspense #59 until Captain America #109 and he returned for one issue, #112 and that is the entirety of Kirby’s involvement in Cap’s Silver Age solo adventures. (The Annuals from this period did have Kirby stories but they were reprints from the main title, nothing new.)

Background done. Read on, one and all.

The comics I’ll be talking about in this post are all collected in the Captain America Omnibus (2011) ISBN 9780785150787. The full compliment is Tales of Suspense 59-99 and Captain America 100-113, which includes a couple of issues not by Kirby.

The copy I have features the variant cover by Ron Garney, which looks like this:

What I wanted, but couldn’t find anywhere, was the one with the original cover of Captain America 100, by Jack Kirby, which looks like this:

I actually like Ron Garney, I have some of his Cap stories, but why would you want to see Ron Garney re-imaging a Jack Kirby cover, when you could just see the Jack Kirby cover?

It really annoyed me. Probably more than it should have, but still, Garney vs. Kirby is a no-contest for me, especially when this collection is, in essence a Jack Kirby Omnibus. Dang you Marvel.

The first thing that struck me when I was reading, bearing in mind that I read Golden Age Cap right before this, was the panel layout. As I mentioned in the last post, the Golden Age Cap layouts are very fluid and unusual in places, but these Silver Age panels are much more rigid and structured, often with a strict six panels per page format. This is purely guess work, but Kirby was producing a lot of pages per month in this period so I imagine this was one way to streamline the process, along with some relatively sparse backgrounds which also serve to speed up the pencilling but with the benefit of focusing the readers attention on the subjects, particularly for the high energy action sequences which Kirby excels at. Another possible reason for the rigid panel layout could have been the page count for the Tales of Suspense stories. Because Cap shared the book with Iron Man, the stories needed to be condensed into roughly ten pages, so the opportunity for flamboyance was perhaps limited by this. I have to say that I don’t think the stories suffered because of this, the one thing that this type of layout provides is an obvious progression from panel to panel, there is little room for ambiguity in regard to the flow of the story.

Scanned from original comic, not this volume.

One of the highlights of this run is the reintroduction of one of my favourite villains back into the Marvel Universe. Tales of Suspense #66 brings the Red Skull back into prominence as a major antagonist for Cap. This guy is just a perfect foil for Cap, he exudes evil. There’s no sympathetic element here at all, we are given an origin, but the truth is that Red Skull isn’t truly a character, Red Skull represents an idea, the most base elements of humanity distilled into an ugly avatar of hate. He doesn’t need a name, he doesn’t even need to operate in a manner that makes sense, all he needs to do is corrupt, subjugate and control and that is what we see. A totally self obsessed and arrogant embodiment of Baddyhood. Steranko says in the afterword that when he took on the book, he wanted to move away from Red Skull as he felt that the character and his ideals were dated. As much as I enjoy Steranko’s work, in this instance I have to disagree absolutely. The Red Skull and his Nazi origins are a perfect shorthand for establishing his threat to everything that Cap holds dear, he’s iconic, he’s an archetype in the Jungian sense and he’s here, in this book. Look out.

A perfect Red Skull quote:

Gruning: Was that not why we lost world war two, because we underestimated the skill and the courage of free men.

Red Skull: No! It was because the Fuehrer did not listen to me!

There is a run of stories early in this volume which are retconned tales of Cap and Bucky in WW2. As they disappeared after a few issues I can only assume that they weren’t particularly favoured by the readers at the time. Personally, I loved them, but I can understand why they may not have been too popular at the time. Readers were buying these books to see solo Cap stories and this was the only place to find them, so they possibly felt a little cheated to find that he was not interacting with the Marvel Universe in the way that pretty much every other book did at the time. As a modern reader, knowing that there are plenty of Cap stories to come that have a contemporary setting, I found these issues an interesting early experiment in retroactive continuity and satisfying stories to boot. The narrative of these stories explores the relationship between Cap and Bucky with the occasional knowing wink in regard to the audience being aware of the fate of Bucky, but, when all is said and done, these are primarily action driven tales, which is exactly what they should be.

What I wasn’t expecting to find in this volume were the original letter pages as printed in the issues. I thought this was a great addition, I’ve always enjoyed reading letter pages of older books, it’s a telling insight into how the books were received by the fans on their initial publication, which isn’t always the same outcome as when they are looked back on years later. I won’t spoil it for you but I was surprised at the number of letter writers in this volume that went on to have notable careers in the comic book industry.

In regard to the presentation of this volume, it’s nothing new in terms of Marvel. A satisfyingly heavy and solid volume, beautifully bound with a high quality printing. It is all done to a high standard (hence the price tag) but, on a purely personal level, I would rather have seen a non-glossy paper stock with a more muted colour palette. (Benday dots anyone?) But having seen some of the feedback on the DC volumes that have done exactly that, it’s obvious that Marvel are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. There’s no accounting for taste.

Mad Thinker Reads................
The Most Base Elements of Humanity Distilled Into an Ugly Avatar of Hate and Other Pretentious Musings.




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Dell Classic Monsters Re-Imagined: Dracula, Fankenstein & Werewolf

I have no idea how this bizarre concept came about, but somewhere in the Dell offices, the decision was made to update the classic Movie Monsters of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Werewolf as Super-Heroes. The printing history is a bit convoluted, particularly for the Dracula comic, but it’s well documented on other sites, so if you’re interested you should be able to figure out what was printed when and which issues have strange numberings.

First up is DRACULA (Dell, 1966)

Written by Don Seagall, Pencils by Bill Fraccio

This post covers the issues 2-4, issue 1 was an adaptation of a movie and isn’t related to the later issues.

Al Dracula is a modern day descendant of the Dracula family, who’s name has been defamed by the fictional Dracula legends. Al discovers a serum that can cure brain diseases, ironically it uses bat blood. A freak accident causes him to take an altered version of the serum only to discover that it has side effects, he now has bat radar and he can physically transform into a bat. So, using standard comic book logic, he gets himself a costume, goes to America, and hides out in a cave whilst fighting crime.

He also gets one of the most annoying side-kicks ever in Fleeta, aka B. B. Beebe, and meets some pretty wacky villains. There’s nothing here that breaks new ground, but it’s a fun and quirky read that leaves us with a new direction at the end of the last issue, but of course, it was never followed up.

You will find issues numbered 6, 7 and 8 (no issue 5 was ever printed, perhaps a reprint of the original number 1 was planned, but it didn't materialise) but they are just reprints of the issues mentioned above.

Next is FRANKENSTEIN (Dell, 1966)

Written by Don Seagall, Pencils by Tony Tallarico

Again, this post covers the issues 2-4, issue 1 was an adaptation of a movie and isn’t related to the later issues.

Of the three titles, this is the one that has the most recognisable character. In fact, the Frankenstein of the title is the original monster, with a few minor tweaks. After years of sleep, the monster, known from now on as Frank, wakes in an abandoned and crumbling castle and through a series of events, legally inherits the legacy of his creator’s wealth. Wearing a very convincing rubber mask when in his civilian identity, he quickly becomes known as the new socialite and desirable man-about-town, Frank N. Stein. But he soon becomes an invaluable aid to justice as a police sanctioned crime fighter in his role as Frankenstein.

Along the way, he picks up a particular female admirer who, from page to page, becomes convinced that she has penetrated his secret identity, only to be dissuaded again by the evidence of her eyes. Much like the Lois Lane and Clark Kent dynamic before he revealed his double life to her.

But, best of all, he has a fight with Mr. Freek’s pet Gorilla. Amazing.

Wacky villains and weird costumes abound. Why haven’t you read this yet?

Lastly, WEREWOLF (Dell, 1966)

Written by Don Seagall, Pencils by Bill Fraccio

This post covers all issues of Werewolf, numbered 1-3.

This one has absolutely no connection to any other Werewolf or Wolf-Man character. This is a straight up super spy story, with no supernatural element present.

USAF Major Wiley Wolf crashes his aircraft in the Arctic Circle and is presumed dead by the military. Suffering amnesia, he manages to win the trust of a wolf pack by rescuing one of them and continues to live and hunt as one of them for some time. The result of this is an incredibly heightened sense of the world about him and a dramatic increase in his own strength and stamina, gained from necessity of living wild. Over time his memories return and he makes his way back to civilisation accompanied by the wolf whom he saved, now named Thor.

On his return, Wolf finds himself legally deceased and is quickly recruited by a CIA like group for undercover espionage work. He agrees, on the condition that Thor can accompany him whenever possible. Wolf is trained in all areas of espionage, including how to use the muscles in his face to alter his appearance. He’s given a host of gadgets including a chip which allows him to communicate with Thor and a super-suit, which is bullet proof and a self contained breathing apparatus. Given the codename Werewolf, Major Wiley Wolf and Thor are sent out to battle the Red Menace wherever it raises it’s wonky-eyed and crooked-toothed head.

This one is a fun read, and I say that as someone that doesn’t normally read spy stories. There’s a lot of story in these three issues, the pacing is off in places, but the brisk pace makes up for that. It felt pretty fresh to me, but maybe that’s because spy comics aren’t something that I read very often.

There you go. Nine pretty weird and reasonably obscure comics from the Silver-Age. They are what they are, I’ve never read anything else like them.

Mad Thinker Reads………..

Whatever.

Judge Colt

Mini Post

Judge Colt is one of the best Western comics I’ve ever read. If only there had been more than these four issues from Gold Key.

Colt is a Civil War veteran turned circuit Judge, wandering the West, sometimes acting as law enforcement, judge and executioner. An exceptionally thoughtful and philosophical character, his very final judgements are, he feels, necessary to tame the influence of the Badmen and generally protect the growing society of the West.

Throughout the four issues we are slowly exposed to the character’s back story and motivations and this guy really does have a compelling “origin” and one that actually makes sense of the man that he is.

This is a story filled with love, treachery, death and tears, and it’s all the more interesting that some of those tears are shed by the Judge himself.

I bought these comics cold, so to speak. Having no idea of the content, but they were cheap and looked interesting. I’m very pleased with myself (smug, really) because these are unknown gems that I can’t recommend highly enough.

Mad Thinker Reads…….

Comics Where the Badmen Aren’t the Only One’s Wearing Black Hats.

Captain Venture & the Land Beneath the Sea

Mini Post

Captain Venture and the Land Beneath the Sea 1 & 2, published by Gold Key in 1968.

The first issue reprints back-up strips from Space Family Robinson with slight alterations, the second issue is an original story.

Captain Rex Venture and Scotty McKay are shipwrecked on an uncharted planet and the two issues are their adventures in the Land Beneath the Sea. Fantastic animals and cultures are encountered and the lives of beautiful princesses are saved.

Rip-Roaring comic book adventure in the style of some of the better TV Sci-Fi of the era. Dan Spiegle’s art pushes the overall quality of the book up a notch or two, but it’s certainly helped by the brilliant Gaylord DuBois with his script for the second issue.

One of the most memorable aspects of Gold Key comics for me is the wonderfully painted covers that they were given. Unfortunately, I can’t provide a cover credit for the first issue, but issue 2 was painted by George Wilson.

Mad Thinker Reads…….

Pulped Up Comics.

Captain Johner & The Aliens

Mini Post

This review is for Captain Johner and The Aliens, published by Valiant in May 1995.

Originally appearing as a back-up strip in Dell Comics Magnus Robot Fighter, these short strips, around 4 pages, were produced by Russ Manning and tell the story of Man’s first encounter with intelligent alien life.

After the Human and Alien ship meet by chance in space, the crews agree to swap some of their members, so Captain Johner heads home with some of the Aliens on his vessel.

What follows is a parable of tolerance toward different races and cultures. The two reprint issues from Valiant offer fourteen of these strips, the complete run of the strip was 28 issues but the last half of the run is yet to be reprinted.

These reprints by Valiant are nicely packaged, but a common bug-bear with me is the addition of modern colouring techniques. Simply put, I don’t get it, I think it looks terrible.

I’d still recommend this reprint as a great example of Manning’s clean and simple style, that focuses on storytelling rather than showmanship.

Mad Thinker Reads………..

Half of a Great Run.

Thor by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

Collected in and reviewed from Essential Thor Volumes 1-4

RE: Journey Into Mystery 83-125 & Thor 126-179, (Cover dates Aug ’62-Aug ’70.) Plus annuals from this period.

It’s taken a fair old time, but I’ve just finished the Kirby & Lee run on Thor, starting in Journey Into Mystery 83 and culminating in Thor 179, with the odd issue in this run by other creators.

Left: Colletta inks from Thor 133 - Right: Everett inks from Thor 171

As enjoyable as it was (and I do find pretty much all of the Silver Age Marvel to be worth a read) it takes a while for the strip to really find it’s feet. Thor has always been a difficult character to integrate wholly into the Marvel Universe. In general terms, although there are exceptions, the Marvel Universe is centred on science and technology, trying to include characters that are magic based has never been smooth sailing, Dr. Strange springs to mind, but at least with Thor, his is an overt physical prowess, which perhaps helped the character span the gulf from fantasy to super-heroics in a way that wasn’t available to Dr. Strange. And, as I said earlier, it takes a while to really find it’s niche, which I’ll get to later.

Like all of Kirby’s early Marvel work, it takes several issues for his style to evolve into his more mature renderings. His early Silver-Age work is fabulous, but as his workload increased, so did his level of detail decrease. This isn’t a bad thing in my opinion, for what was lost in refined pencil work was made up for with the patented Kirby Dynamism. Characters took on a heavier build, with blunter edges, design took the place of detail and so was born the much imitated Kirby idiosyncrasy that we all know and many love. In terms of design, he really gets to go to town on the wild Asgardian costumes, of particular note is Odin’s massive headgear, I’m sure ‘twould snap the neck of any mortal, should they think themselves befitted to don the OdinHat.



The Odin Hat



But then, I think Kirby had a bit of a hat fetish. (See Galactus)



Again 'tis a differing Odin Hat


OK, back to the serious stuff. For several issues it feels like nobody really knows where to take Thor, he takes on some pretty low level super-villains, that frankly, feel beneath his awesome powers. I can imagine Stan & Jack discussing this, so they must have said:

Stan: You think this isn’t as epic as it should be?

Jack: Damn right, whatcha gonna do about it?

Stan: Well, how about having Goldilocks fight Gangsters.

Jack: WHAAAAAT!!!

I’m pretty sure that that’s exactly what happened. But seriously, Thor versus Gangsters. So they tried that and, thankfully, decided that it wasn’t working either.

Don’t worry though. It didn’t take long to get Thor back on track. He’s soon battling Frost Giants and Trolls back in Asgard. But the best was yet to come.

When you have a character with the power of a God, there’s only so long you can confine him to Earth, particularly when he exists in a universe where the infinite space is so densely populated. So, at last, Thor goes Cosmic. Which is, ironically, exactly where he started when he battled the Stone Men of Saturn way back in Journey Into Mystery 83.

For my money, this is what Thor should be doing. Transported to deep space to battle the Colonizers, facing off against a Living Planet and standing against Galactus in the dark Bioverse. By this point in the strip everything has reached perfection.



Colleta inks for Thor 149 cover



At this point, it’s probably worth mentioning Vince Colletta. For those of you who don’t know the name, Colletta is not a particularly favoured inker, especially when it comes to his inking of Jack Kirby. No more of that here though. Should you wish to read more, a quick search of Google should have you well informed. When Colletta first starts to ink Kirby’s Thor he uses a very light touch, it lacks detail and fails to capture the immediacy which Kirby can create in every panel. But, for all the negative comments that Colletta generates, when his style matures and evolves along with Kirby’s the results are fantastic. Heavier inks, with bolder, bigger black areas used to make the figures and set pieces stand out. This technique is ideally suited to Kirby. As ever though, as great as his inking is for Thor, you can’t help but wonder how much of Kirby’s background was left uninked and therefore never seen by the likes of you and I.

However, as much as I enjoyed Colletta’s inking, the real standout issues for me were 170-175, inked incredibly well by Bill Everett. I don’t recall seeing Everett inking Kirby before and the results are amazing. Since reading those issues Everett is up there with Joe Sinnott and Mike Royer as one of the few, perfect inkers for Kirby’s pencils.



Thor 174, Bill Everett inks



Reading these comics as a single run reminded me just how many mainstay Marvel villains were created in the pages of Thor. If you can measure a man by his enemies Thor must be second only to the Fantastic Four. Radioactive Man, Mr. Hyde, Crusher Creel, Ego the Living Planet and High Evolutionary are a few that come to mind (ignoring the aforementioned Gangsters that is).

So when push comes to shove, there are several reasons that Thor didn’t make it to the all time top spot as my favourite Silver Age Marvel comic, but wild horses couldn’t stop me recommending it as a must read for anyone interested in either the creators, era or genre.

Mad Thinker Reads………………

Norse Gods Smashing Living Planets in the Face with a Hammer that has a Name.

Doom Patrol by Drake & Premiani

Showcase Presents: Doom Patrol
Arnold Drake: Writer
Bruno Premiani: Artist

Vol. 1 – ISBN: 1401221823
Collects My Greatest Adventure/Doom Patrol #80-101
1963–1966
520 pages

Vol. 2 – ISBN: 1401227708

Collects Doom Patrol #102-121

1966–1968

512 pages

Blame Grant Morrison. Morrison is the reason that in all my years of comic reading, only recently have I read the original DP stories by Drake & Premiani. After reading Morrison’s re-imagining of the DP from the late 80’s I wasn’t overly interested in catching up on the original version of the DP. That’s not to say that Morrison’s run wasn’t very good, but personally, I’ve always found Morrison’s writing to be in the incredibly wide range of the “average” comic. So, nothing to blog about frankly.

What changed? Well, by pure chance, I read a brief article regarding the life of Bruno Premiani (I forget where, maybe an old issue of Alter-Ego, but I’m not sure.) It isn’t within the scope of this article to enlighten you, dear reader, concerning Mr. Premiani’s fascinating life, but I would encourage you read what you can about him. He has surely lead one of the most interesting lives in comics, and he seems to be fearless in the face of fascist bullies.

The article mentioned Premiani’s work on Doom Patrol, which was practically every issue of the original run, some 40 comics, with the main writer for the run being Arnold Drake. So I took the plunge and bought both volumes of Showcase Presents: Doom Patrol, and there’s no hesitation when I tell you that it was a regret free purchase.

The Showcase Presents: Doom Patrol collect every issue of the original DP run from the 1960’s. One small quibble is that the single crossover issue with Challengers of the Unknown isn’t included. For the sake of a mere 23 pages in a volume that already contains over 500, it seems churlish not to include it as a little bonus. It’s relatively common to find similar issues collected in the Marvel Essential line (the inclusion of a single issue of Dr. Strange in Essential Tomb of Dracula vol. 2 springs to mind.) so why not expect the same from DC.

The two volumes represent an absolute top line Silver-Age adventure, sci-fi and super-hero book. It’s as good as anything else that was being published in the mid to late sixties and does deserve to be read by a wider audience. So the question is, why isn’t it?

For my money, the answer is November 1961. The penultimate month of 1961 saw the release of Fantastic Four #1. A mere 18 months later Doom Patrol debuted, if you were a kid with a limited financial resource and these two books were an option, which would you go for? Both books had an aloof leader with little attachment to the mundane world, two bickering hot-heads one with great strength, the other with a flying, crackling alter-ego, and they both had a motherly, level headed female to keep the peace and remind them to eat meals between adventures.

But only one of them had Stan and Jack. Who’d get your money?

Doom Patrol is not an FF derivative. There are many original ideas employed by Arnold Drake, not least the inclusion of an outside love interest for Sue, I mean Rita, named Namor, I mean Mento. Oh well, I’ll give up with this paragraph.

Seriously, Doom Patrol is excellent, but unfortunately it wasn’t quite as fresh as it needed to be in the formative days of the Silver-Age. It was up against stiff competition. But in retrospect, it’s my favourite DC title from this period and it does attempt stories that you’ll not find elsewhere. Drake is an accomplished writer that offers us self contained issues but with over arching plot threads and character development, particularly with Rita Farr (Elasti-Girl) and Gar Logan (Beast Boy). Premiani is an excellent artist with a great deal of skill and ability at rendering figures, in dynamic but believable poses, also, he can draw a great gorilla, which is important when Monsieur Mallah appears in several story arcs.

Monsieur Mallah

As is true of any story, the heroes can only be as interesting as the villains they face, and that is where Doom Patrol really excels. With bad guys such as the Brain, Monsieur Mallah, General Immortus, Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man and the tragic Madame Rouge, the only other comic that has as colourful a rouges gallery is Batman. Batman however, built up his rogues gallery over several decades and hundreds of issues, Doom Patrol does it in considerably less than a decade and in forty issues. There’s a lot going on in these comics.

DP 89, Cover by Bob Brown

As I mentioned earlier, I read these comics in the two Showcase Presents black and white volumes, that’s the equivalent of 40 comics for less than £20. If you chose to, you could buy the hardback colour reprints in Archive Edition for considerably more money, but in terms of reading pleasure the Showcase Presents are certainly a bargain, I guarantee that any reader that enjoys Silver-Age heroics won’t be disappointed.

Mad Thinker Reads………..

More comics by Arnold Drake & Bruno Premiani.

The Creeper by Steve Ditko

The Creeper by Steve Ditko

Creators

Steve Ditko, Denny O’Neil and Various

Reprints

Showcase # 73

Beware the Creeper # 1-6

1^st Issue Special # 7

World’s Finest  # 249-255

Cancelled Comic Cavalcade # 2

DC Comics

Hardcover, 288 pages

ISBN- 9781401225919

Is this Blog turning into the Steve Ditko Show?

You’d be forgiven for asking that question. I do seem to have mentioned him more than any other creator over the short history of this enterprise. But don’t worry, I’ll be getting back to Jack Kirby again soon and maybe even Kurt Busiek or another Batman Chronicles review. Promise.

Now I’m not a gambling man, but were I obliged to place a bet on whether DC would release a Ditko collection featuring either The Creeper or Shade: The Changing Man, my money would have been firmly on Shade. Mostly because of the reasonably long running and re-imagined Vertigo series, that raised Shade’s profile. So I was a tad surprised when a collection of The Creeper was produced, with, as far as I’m aware, still no news on a Shade collection. But on reading the intro to the Creeper book, I think I know why. It turns out that there was a Creeper limited series a couple of years back written by Steve Niles (of 30 Days of Night fame), which I was entirely ignorant of. I do read modern comics, but I don’t tend to keep up with solicitations of new series, I just read whatever’s in my pull list and look for reprints of older work as a rule. No doubt that the Niles written series provided a huge boost to a character that would be largely unknown to a modern readership, raising the Creeper’s profile and paving the way, at least to some degree, for this reprint of Ditko illustrated strips.

Well, however this collection came about, I’m a happy chap.

What we’re given in this collection is a complete run of all stories featuring the Creeper that were pencilled by Steve Ditko. There are various other creators involved in either writing or inking, but with the exception of a few pages from one issue, every panel in this book was drawn by Ditko, with some of the stories written by him too.



Page from Beware the Creeper # 2. Note that the sound effects for the fight
panels are actually images from the billboard behind the subjects.

 It’s worth noting that this doesn’t provide a complete reprint of Creeper stories. There were various issues printed between the ones collected here that Ditko had no involvement with. You won’t find those comics here. If you’re interested in a complete chronological reprint for this character, you may wish to hold on for the Showcase Presents volume dedicated to the Creeper. It was announced, and should have seen print by now, but it hasn’t been published yet. As to why, well, your guess is as good as mine. Could it be because the hardcover didn’t sell as well as hoped, so DC doesn’t think there’s a market for the Showcase Presents? I don’t know.

So, as noted above, this is not a complete archive for the Creeper. But Ditko’s work on this character was done in chunks between the late sixties to the late seventies and it’s a credit to Ditko’s timeless and consistent approach, because it doesn’t feel bitty when read. Each Ditko chunk is a complete arc, covering from a six issue run down to a single eight page strip, with no loose ends left for completion by another penciller. So we aren’t left hanging due to Ditko not finishing any intermittent arcs, thankfully.

At the head of this post you see a list of the comics reprinted in this volume. They’re listed in the order that they were printed, therefore that’s the order that they’re re-printed in this volume. With that in mind, I’m sure it’s no surprise that Showcase # 73 features the first appearance and origin of Jack Ryder and his alter ego The Creeper. For anyone not familiar with the genesis of the character I don’t intend to give anything away, but really, how bizarre. Bizarre characters, bizarre names (Angel Deviln), bizarre body-modification (gizmo insertion to the abdomen), and of course, one of the most bizarre costumes ever created for the comic book page. It turns out that that weird mane thing across the Creepers shoulders is exactly what it looks like, a sheepskin rug, no joke, Ditko actually tells us so in the narrative. Don’t misunderstand me, this is visually, one of the most compelling reads ever, but it is odd and for this character it works, particularly when Ryder creates a screwball persona for the Creeper, to keep his enemies off-balance, and sells himself as some kind of super-natural being that refers to the gangsters as “Mortals”. It is a lot of fun, and I think that is the key to the Creeper, fun.

It’s one of, if not the most playful series that Ditko has been involved with since Spider-Man. It’s refreshing to read a Ditko main character crack wise and joke, granted it’s not all written by Ditko, but even the stories that are, show a lighter lead man in Jack Ryder than you could ever expect to see in Vic Sage (The Question) or even Ted Kord (Blue Beetle II). As an aside, in regard to any relationship between The Question and The Creeper, at the time that the Creeper was created, the Question was still very much owned by Charlton and would be for several years to come, there is however, a noticable similarity between the professions, uncompromising nature and certain elements of the origin stories of Creeper and Question. The significance of this, if any, is open to question. The overall quirkiness of the Creeper does seem to suggest that DC were looking for their own version of Spider-Man, and while there was a great writer assigned to the Creeper from his early appearances (Denny O’Neil) there was never quite enough substance to push him into the top tier with Spidey. The Creeper is a lot of fun, great to look at and an interesting protagonist for self contained stories and arcs such as this collection, but history shows us that there is not enough of the soap-opera in this character for a long term monthly title. But that’s fine, not every character needs to grind along ad-infinitum, sometimes you get more when you only see a guy once in a while.

By far the highlight of this collection is the six issue run of the Creepers own title “Beware the Creeper”. Every aspect peaks for these few issues. Ditko’s strong and self-assured pencils reach out to the reader, not necessarily in level of detail or showiness, but with pure storytelling ability and clarity. I was particularly amused by a page from Beware the Creeper # 2 (see image above), where sound effects for a fight scene are provided by a billboard in the background. Didn't I tell you that Ditko was playful for this one. Denny O’Neil’s writing on these few issues is the strongest of anyone’s in this collection, O’Neil takes Ditko’s loose ideas and processes them into a personality that you can believe in, not necessarily one you could understand and certainly not one that it's possible to identify with, but then as I said earlier, I don’t think that’s the point of the Creeper. The Creeper is a hypnotic flashing light show, that may or may not have artistic merit. But you can’t help enjoying it.

One area that detracts from the later stories (those after Beware the Creeper # 6), is the lack of a strong villain. Throughout the Ditko/O’Neil run on Beware, there is the presence of Proteus, a chameleon like character that is used to good paranoid effect. Ditko makes good use of his ability to portray fear and paranoia, with his recurring imagery of a figure surrounded by faces being particularly appropriate for this (see cover below). This strong villain adds to the readability of the issues, which makes it all the more noticeable when reading further into the book, that the villains are rather tame and boring, and when there is a character with a longer term potential, they seem all too easily defeated.



Cover from Beware the Creeper # 2. Recurring Ditko motif of subject surrounded by
heads. Note the mis-coloured boots, left as is for this collection.



What DC have provided with this volume is a well packaged hardcover collecting all of the Ditko drawn appearances of the Creeper, and as far as I’m concerned (no surprise here) the world is a better place for it, the original Creeper appearances are certainly out of my price range, so I’m grateful for this volume. By far the strongest parts of this book are the stories written by Denny O’Neil, but the good far outweighs the not so good and Ditko’s illustration is remarkable, concise and clear throughout.

I’d also like to mention that despite my previous post regarding black & white reprints of Ditko’s work sometimes being preferable, I don’t think that this is the case with the Creeper. As I said earlier, a large part of the Creepers appeal is the absolutely over-the-top visual nature of this particular character. There is a B&W reprint of an unpublished Ditko strip in this volume and the truth is that the creeper just isn’t as satisfying without the emerald hair, scarlet mane and jaundiced complexion. Make of that what you will.

Mad Thinker Reads……

Ditko. Always Steve Ditko.

M.T.

Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Written by Jim Steranko & Stan Lee

Art by Jim Steranko

248 Pages, Paperback

Collects Nick Fury strips from Strange Tales # 150-168

ISBN 9780785107477

What you get with this collection is the complete Steranko run of the Nick Fury feature from Strange Tales. At the time Strange Tales was being published as a split book with Nick Fury and Doctor Strange with alternating cover art of Fury and Strange.

What you don’t get are any of the later Nick Fury comics by Steranko that were published in Fury’s solo book, which was titled (potential confusion warning) Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Those comics have been collected in a volume called “Who Is Scorpio”. I’m tempted to go off on a rant saying that the two volumes could have been titled Nick Fury by Steranko Vol. 1: Who Is The Supreme Hydra/Yellow Claw and Nick Fury by Steranko Vol. 2: Who Is Scorpio/Your Daddy. But I won’t….for now. Confused?

So most people that are going to buy this book are probably going to do so because of the Steranko connection, or so you’d imagine. Nick Fury hasn’t left the mark that other Silver Age characters have and later re-boots haven’t popularised him as much as Marvel would have hoped. Having said that, Fury hasn’t drifted into obscurity like some other characters and he still has a role in the Marvel Universe. In fact, Fury’s more recent resurgence in the Ultimate Universe seems to have spilled over into the mainstream Universe. That this book was released ten years ago speaks more for Steranko’s popularity than Fury’s.



Strange Tales # 167

 I’m the first to admit that I’m not very familiar with Steranko. Aside from reprints of the three Captain America issues that he produced this volume is all that I own. Of course, it’s not as much of a surprise when you consider the small amount of comics that he’s produced over the years. According to the after word Steranko has many and varied other artistic outputs to keep him occupied.

This volume gets of to a slow start in terms of Sterankoism. The first half of the page count is written by Stan Lee (mostly) with pencils by Steranko over Jack Kirby layouts. Everything seems pretty much run-of-the-mill B-List adventure comic. I’m sure like me, you’ve read worse, but there’s nothing in act one to talk about. Steranko, probably on the insistence of his new employer, uses a style that is Kirby-esque. Adequate sequential art, with little to herald him as the cutting edge creator that he grew in to.

Strange Tales # 168

Act two introduces a new storyline, with script and art duties falling to Steranko. Here we go then? Well, not quite. The story concerns the return of the Yellow Claw as a major threat to world peace and as the pages roll by, crazy Sci-Fi elements are added which show that Steranko is allowing his imagination to run free. Anyone unfamiliar with Steranko’s later work (like me) will be thinking “Ahh…So this is what it’s all about.” I experienced a kind of false enlightenment at the start of act two, purely because the style changes as soon as he’s left to his own devices and I’m thinking “Jim, you’re making this your own.”. It’s good, better than act one and the layout and composition are distinctive, if not the artistic rendering itself.

And then it’s over.

The final plot twist is revealed and the world continues to turn. I’m not awestruck or overwhelmed, but I am satisfied. Steranko’s Nick Fury is……..Enjoyable.

But wait. Hold on. One minute. What’s this. Twelve more pages.

The dozen or so pages I’m referring to are sometimes known as Strange Tales # 168 and they are a different animal altogether to any previous pages by James “Greatest Hair On Any Man” Steranko.

Within this post (not including the cover image at the top) two of the three images I’ve posted are from # 168, the other is from # 167. The differences are profound. Prior to # 168 Steranko takes inspiration from the American tradition in general, Jack Kirby in particular, but for the final issue we suddenly see a very different style, one that borrows from the European (Italian) style.

I found the plot of the last issue to be forgettable, but the art shows a quantum leap in Steranko’s technique. Clearly he didn’t develop this from one issue to the next, so I wonder why he hadn’t shown it to his audience in earlier instalments.



Strange Tales # 168

 The layout and composition of the panels is much less rigid, it seems that the artist is applying a sense of design rather than just a narrative to the pages he’s producing. For readers more familiar with modern creators I found a similarity between this and J. H. Williams III’s work on Promethea, a sense of the page rather than just the panel, the whole being greater than the sum of it’s parts. It’s expertly meshed though, the narrative is enhanced, rather than detracted from by the composition.

What we’re a left with is a readable Silver Age adventure comic, with the last few pages acting as a teaser for what comes next. It’s actually quite frustrating, but it’s a great starter, heavy with promise, if this is your first exposure to the work of Jim Steranko.

But what does come next? Well, Ill be trying to get a copy of Who Is Scorpio, I’ll let you know how that works out for me.

Mad Thinker

Jack & Stan Do It Again For The First Time

Where is the future that was promised to us when we were kids?

Do any of you own flying cars, or even hoverboards?

How many of you have seen a gorilla fight a robot?

The closest thing to the future that I was expecting are those shoes that have tiny wheels on the soles. But I’m in my thirties, I can’t wear those. And frankly they’d be a poor substitute for the rocket powered roller skates that Santa didn’t buy for me.

Why do I have these expectations? I’ve suckled from the teat of many works of fiction over the years, some were forgettable, but some have had a long standing effect. In retrospect it’s not difficult to see why some have stayed with me: Believability.

Not a word that can often be attached to the outlandish stories that were produced in the Silver Age of Comics, but bear with me. What’s believable about a group of friends stealing a spaceship only to gain super-human powers in orbit? What about when they meet an entire race of inhuman allies that have secretly lived in the Himalayas for a jillion years? Not to mention Atlantean/Human Halflings, WW2 androids or the Living Fuhrer.

What about when this group are given distinct personal qualities that often clash, but are able to continue working together, as a team, because of the close relationships built on love, respect and shared responsibilities?

OK, now we’re getting somewhere.

I know It’s been said elsewhere, but really, there was nothing in comics like Fantastic Four before that incredible series began and it’s still one of the greatest runs of comics ever. Over 100 issues of perfection.

Fantastic Four 1-102 (Nov. 1961-Sep. 1970) and Annuals 1-6, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and (mostly) Joe Sinnott had everything comics need and a lot more. Yes, there’s plenty of action, some of the best that you’re ever likely to read. Time travel, giant robot gorillas, dastardly inter-galactic plots and more. All of it expertly scripted, plotted and rendered in the Merry Marvel Way, but what really sets it apart is the humanity of the characters.

For every encounter with Dragon Man there’s an everyday occurrence which results in drama. Reed and Sue’s courtship, with the added interference of Namor is handled beautifully, one of the many themes that still impacts on the present day comics. The wedding issue, perfectly balanced with a super-human threat, the mundane and the absurd amalgamated into intense drama.

After the wedding and Sue’s announcement of her pregnancy we see Reed obsessing over Sue’s safety, taking her out of the team for the sake of their unborn child, ultimately showing Reed’s and the teams desperate struggle in the Negative Zone due to the possibility of a birth defect.

Compellingly human reactions regardless of the science-fiction cause.

We see the team move house, suffer financial instability, jape and joke at each others expense and even go their separate ways under the stress of it all, only to realise that their bonds as a family unit are stronger than the petty niggles that they see in the others. Real life, I’ve been through this and I’m sure you have too.

This is as much soap-opera as super-heroics.

One of my favourite moments, which is really just an off-hand comment by Reed, is when Ben is expressing his inability to understand even the most basic scientific principle, Reed remarks “You’re not fooling anyone Ben, remember I went to college with you and I know you’ve got a Degree.”

Compare Fantastic Four to other team books at the time. You'll see Super-Buddies working together flawlessly, slapping each other on the back and complementing their team-mates brilliance after defeating villain of the month. Those other books were often well structured, with solid art, but had essentially stagnated. They were offering nothing new and their sales had been stable but small. Of particular note in this area, albeit a few years earlier, is Challengers of the Unknown. A pleasurable read and Kirby's prototype Fantastic Four, but lacking the sharp and well paced dialogue of Stan Lee, it just doesn't quite hit the mark, as evidenced by it's patchy publication history.

Stan and Jack's precision character building is a staple of modern comics, often attempted but rarely achieved with the same level of success. But with so many other things, what was once the exception has now become the rule. It would be easy to see these comics as dated, because they are. They are undoubtedly a product of their time, but that is what makes them timeless, it was the sixties, every concept was given room to breathe, it was a time when innovation and experimentation was encouraged and when the first issue was published Stan and Jack had nothing to lose, the company was practically dead. Things turned around though.

The Heroic Age returns to modern Marvel, taking inspiration from the groundbreaking stories written nearly half a century ago by Stan, Jack, Steve and friends. The house style created by a select few, still having an impact on one of, if not the most influential publisher of comics today.

And The Fantastic Four is the book that started it all. Get the collected editions if you don’t already have them, and if you do own them, read them again. You’ll see the past, the present and I’m hopeful that they usher in a very bright future.

Mad Thinker Reads....The Fantastic Four by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby.

MT