Monday, November 7, 2011

Adventure Comics


One of my very favorite comic books, ADVENTURE COMICS, is the subject of my brand new blog, the goal of which is to take a look at each of the 500 plus issues of this venerable comic book. In 1966, the year I discovered comics, THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES was the featured series in the title. My first issue was the September one, probably on sale in July. I quickly picked up the previous two issues, featuring the scriptwriting debut of teenage writer Jim Shooter, from a friend. It was a big year for the LSH, staring with the above issue that killed off one of Triplicate Girl's three selves, leaving her as Duo Damsel. 










This was the issue where Star Boy accidentally killed someone and was forced to leave the group. Not yet a member, Dream Girl guest-starred.




Below is the first Jim Shooter issue. Wanting to make the books more like Marvel, the young man quickly showed his elders how to make good comics. In this first issue alone, he introduced four brand new characters while apparently planning all along to not only have one be a traitor but one die not that long afterwards. 





The two issues below were my favorites of '66. A two parter where a ton of stuff was going on, not the least of which was Superboy and Supergirl having to leave, "Sir Prize" and "Miss Terious" replacing them, the return of Bouncing Boy's powers and Lightning Lad's arm as well as a major role for Color Kid, a character created by a fan.





Sunday, November 6, 2011

00 Division # 15

 A very Connery-esque painting on that first poster there of star Roger Browne, about whom all I could discover was the he was the one-time President of E.L.D.A. (English Language Dubbers Association).

Friday, November 4, 2011

Iron Man and Captain America

 In 1966, Marvel Comics' two biggest future film stars were sharing a title called TALES OF SUSPENSE. They had gradually pushed out the actual tales of suspense and replaced them with some of the best superhero tales of the sixties.

By this point, both series were being scripted by Stan Lee. IRON MAN was being drawn by Gene Colan, fresh from DC romance comics. Cap was generally done by his co-creator, Jack Kirby.

It was an eventful year for both as you can see. The two features alternated covers. Eventually, in 1968, Marvel split the two into separate titles with latecomer Cap being the one to retain the book's numbering.







 This above was my own first issue of TALES OF SUSPENSE and my intro to both Iron Man and Captain America. It came free in a CAPTAIN AMERICA board game, too, which I ended up getting twice so I had several copies of this issue!



Thursday, November 3, 2011

Thunderbirds Are Go!



 THUNDERBIRDS didn't even air in my neck of the woods back in the day but in the UK it became an institution. I had been a huge fan of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's imported puppet sci-fi such as STINGRAY, SUPERCAR and FIREBALL XL-5 so I'm sure I would have been a huge fan of THUNDERBIRDS, too! In December of '66, the Andersons released the first of two THUNDERBIRDS feature films, THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO! Decades later, of course, the franchise would get a live-action bug budget screen treatment as well!





Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Bob Holiday is Superman!

Actor Bob Holiday took on the role of the Man of Steel in the 1966 Broadway version. Here are some shots of Bob and a link to his website where he has video of his appearance on I'VE GOT A SECRET that same year.











Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Please Don't Eat the Daisies

Popular enough to run three years, PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES was a family sitcom based on the Doris Day vehicle of 1960 (itself based on a book, play, etc.) Patricia Crowley starred and was a favorite of mine ever after when I saw her in anything.