DC - The War Years Books

I'm a big fan of DC Comics characters as well as Golden Age comics.  I thought buying all three of these DC "War Years" books would make me happy.  Well, they sort of did and sort of didn't.  Actually, the store I saw these in only had the Batman and Wonder Woman books.  As much as I wanted the Superman book the most (Superman is my all-time favorite comic book hero), maybe I should just spring for the DC Archive Editions of his books instead of tracking down a copy of the Superman "War Years" book.  Let me tell you why. 

The books feature new commentary by Roy Thomas, one of my favorite comic book writers.  Roy gives a brief account of what was going on in the world at the time the original comics were published, which was 1938 to 1945.  He then gives the reader a brief comment on the stories you are about to read.  So far, so good.  But then we see the pages of the stories, and sometimes even the covers, and this is where the books fail.  All four sides of several covers and pages are cropped off for no apparent reason.  This means words, artists' signatures and art alike are sliced off.  This makes it hard to read the captions and dialogue on certain pages. 

If you have the Batman book, for example, turn to page 267.  Read panel five.  What the dialogue says, in my copy at least, is "By the time the firemen get her Batman's goos will be cooked --- to a crisp!"  I'm fairly certain that the dialogue should read "By the time the firemen get here Batman's goose will be cooked --- to a crisp!"  If you have the book "Batman Archives Volume 1" you can see a better looking version of the cover for "Detective Comics" #38, the debut of Robin, the Boy Wonder.  Having said this, "Batman - The War Years 1939 - 1945" does improve upon the Archive book in one case: the first Batman story from "Detective Comics" #27 is the original version with a bloody knife intact.  It is also colored and lettered differently. 

"Wonder Woman - The War Years 1941 - 1945" has the same problems with art and words cut off.  There's even proof of this in the book itself!  Page 124 shows the cropped cover to "Wonder Woman" #2, while the opposite page shows a black and white photo of "the men behind Wonder Woman" holding up a large piece of paper with the full, uncropped cover!  If you know of the lawsuit in which DC Comics was insinuating that the Fawcett Comics character Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman, there is a Wonder Woman story in this book which will interest you.  The story reprinted from "Sensation Comics" #5 (May 1942) has a plot swipe on the second story page that is taken directly from "Whiz Comics" #6 (July 1940), featuring the Fawcett character Spy Smasher!  Who, exactly, is ripping off who? 

All said and done, many fans will feel these are cheaper ways to read these stories than the more expensive (and smaller) DC Archive Editions.  These are just my personal opinions after reading these two books.  I haven't seen any comments from fans mentioning most of these things, so I just wanted to get a word in about them.

All images in this article are copyrighted by DC Comics and are being used for review purposes only.  Thank you for reading this.        

Magic Comics

When I was a teenager collecting comics as a serious hobby, I also liked to draw on my notebook paper.  I actually wanted to write a comic book for either DC Comics or Marvel Comics.  If I couldn't do that, then I wanted to write and draw my own amateur comic.  So I drew comics on paper and would talk my mom into letting me get free copies of them at her work place.  Which was bad of me!  I tried to sell them to classmates at school, but most people wouldn't buy them.  Eventually my mom's boss found out and I had to stop copying my comics or start paying for the copies.  He once asked me to draw a promotional comic for his store and I did, but he never used it for an ad in the local newspaper like he told me he would.  So my career as a comic writer and artist never took off.  It was one of those things I just gave up doing.   

The character above is Firegirl, a character I first drew in 1985.  This is a retraced version of a 1985 drawing that appeared in a comic that I called "Strange Adventures" Special Edition #1 (February 1986), published by my company which I named Magic Comics.  I now realize that DC had a comic series with the name "Strange Adventures".  I was a 14-year-old kid who was just learning about these cool comics I was collecting and didn't know any better. 

Firegirl's real name is Alison Risley; Alison because I liked the name, and Risley was taken from the names of some relatives of mine.  Alison was splashed with chemicals while watching her scientist father conduct an experiment and then a fire started in his lab.  Both of them made it out alive, but Alison gained fire-creating and controlling powers.  She could also fly.  Firegirl was the leader of a group of super-powered kids named The Kid Elite.  The other members were Fade-Away Girl (who "faded away", as I had her say, rather than turn invisible); The All-American Kid (who could fly and shoot laser beams from his eyes with the help of a protective visor - I unknowingly ripped off MLJ's The Comet!); Starlight (the youngest member, who could absorb light and then release it in any form, exactly like Marvel's The Dazzler); Blackout (the only black kid in the group, who used mental powers to cloud, or "blackout", people's minds); and The Incredible Shrinking Kid (who, obviously, could shrink). 

Another thing I created was an experimental strip named "Space Ace Kelly".  Most of my comics were black and white with a color cover (which I hand colored with colored pencils).  "Space Ace Kelly" was meant to be a color strip in an otherwise black and white comic.  It didn't last long before I stopped creating comics.  Here is all I drew for "Space Ace Kelly". 

Eventually I reprinted some of my favorite comics in a new comic named "Magic Comics" with retraced over art and improved lettering.  This time I paid for the copies, but I was even less successful this time around.  I was now an adult and I felt silly doing this.  Years later I took a course to learn how to write for children and teens.  I passed the course, and then I tried to get some of my prose stories published in children's magazines.  Publishers weren't interested.   I wrote eight prose stories for Firegirl and The Kid Elite, but I haven't shown them to many people.  I even wrote out a four part prose story that completed my concept for the "Space Ace Kelly" comic strip.  I made a few minor changes, but it was still the same story.

Thank you reading this. 

Shock Gibson, The Human Dynamo

Many Golden Age comics feature artwork and stories which seem silly when compared with recent comics.  (Of course, you could say this about any form of entertainment.)  In some cases this is true, but many of the ideas and art in these stories are groundbreaking and, of course, today's comics would not exist without them.  Which brings me to today's groundbreaking, if silly, character.

Shock Gibson made his debut in Speed Comics #1, published by Brockwood Publications.  The creator is credited as Maurice Scott, although Comic Book Plus has information that says this is an alias.  The splash page for the first Shock Gibson story is a full page, and this is the first of its kind.  Shock Gibson is actually Charles Gibson, who gains powers by having chemicals splashed on him.  Many comic book and science fiction TV characters later, most notably The Flash (Barry Allen version), published by DC Comics, would gain powers in the same manner.  Heck, when I was a teen I drew comics on notebook paper and created a character named Firegirl who gained powers in the same way! 

When reading this, be careful not to fall into the gaping plot hole in the middle of the story.  Here is "Speed Comics" #1 (October 1939) starring Shock Gibson, The Human Dynamo!

For the first six issues of "Speed Comics" Shock Gibson wears a shark fin helmet (as seen in the above story).  By issue #12 his costume changes.  This is probably due to the fact that Harvey Comics bought Brookwood and proceeded to change most of their comic book characters.  Shock suddenly is wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, sometimes with stripes on the sleeves.  Later stories give his name as Robert Gibson, and sometimes his hair changes color.  Although there may be those who think later stories had better art, the Shock Gibson stories just got sillier.  I read through a few of these and came across one that is okay.  The scans are about average quality, so I hope everyone can read them.  Here is the Shock Gibson story from "Speed Comics" #26 (April 1943). 

The Shock Gibson saga ended in "Green Hornet Fights Crime" #38 (March 1948), but characters with similar origins and superpowers live on!  I hope everyone reading this enjoyed it.  Thanks once more to all the generous scanners and uploaders.      

The Clock Strikes!

The Clock was created by artist George Brenner in 1936.  He was the very first masked crime fighter to appear in American comic books.  His mask was made of silk and was basically a curtain that had eye holes.  The Clock's first two appearances were published in two comics dated with the same month, November 1936, published by Comics Magazine Company, Inc.  The Clock spent a total of eight years in various anthology comics, but never had his own comic.  All of his stories ranged from two to seven pages. 

If you look for one of the first appearances of The Clock on The Digital Comic Museum you will find this poor quality scan of "Funny Picture Stories" Vol. 1 #1.  However, the reprint in "Keen Detective Funnies" Vol. 1 #8 (July 1938) is in better quality.  It's not perfect, but considering the age of the comic, and the rarity of something like this, I'm glad to see it at all.  I found a much better scan of the cover on Heritage Auctions. 

The next story was published about three-and-a-half years after the one above.  In this story from "Feature Comics" #31 (April 1940) The Clock is very reckless, and almost kills himself!  And if you are asking where the rope and motorcycle came from, you are  reading the wrong comic! 

The Clock worked alone for a long time, but in 1940 he gained a partner named Pug.  I haven't read all of the stories with Pug, but he disappeared by the end of 1941.  Shortly after he gained a second partner, a teenage girl named Butch.  This story is from "Crack Comics" #21 (February 1942).  I suppose some people may feel a bit awkward when reading this story due to Butch's age. 

The above story was the last one in which The Clock wore his trademarked silk mask.  In his next appearance he wore a standard mask similar to The Spirit's mask.  (The Spirit was another masked crime fighter, created by Will Eisner, wearing regular clothes and a simple mask.)  However, the silk mask version of The Clock's face continued to be used for the covers of "Crack Comics". 

Once again, thank you to all the scanners and uploaders at DCM and Comic Book Plus, without whom blogs like mine would not be possible.  And thank you very much for reading this!