posted October 23, 2002 03:07 PM               

I was surprised to see young Clark Kent strutting around without glasses, for one thing, and making seemingly little effort to conceal his dual identity. Also - no Ma and Pa Kent in sight, at least in this story, or much of a supporting cast at all.

It was apparently a long journey to Weisinger's Smallville.

Here's the link, if you'd like to take a peek:
http://dcindexes.com/

Just click the "featured comic" on the main page and it'll take you there.

posted October 23, 2002 08:00 PM               

Since DC is still issuing "lost" annuals from the 60's, wouldn't it be cool if they published lost annuals of the 40's? (I know there weren't annuals then, but what if?)

An All-American Annual could feature a couple of GA Green Lantern stories, plus an Atom and Dr. Mid-Nite back-up or two.
The GL stories could serve as a sampler for the archives and the Atom and Dr. M. could test the waters for new series.

A Detective Annual could feature Batman, plus Boy Commandoes, Slam Bradley, and maybe a Robin solo from Star-Spangled. An Action Annual would have Superman along with Zatara, Congo Bill, and Vigilante. I plotz just thinking about it.

Since art restoration is the big cost, these titles would potentially be heavy on material already available in the archives. On the other hand, we'd see some material that might not be archived for years, if ever.

posted October 24, 2002 09:25 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Steven Utley:
By way of nudging this thread back from the brink of oblivion, I note that 2003 will kick off with a replica of an 80-page SUPERBOY & THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ANNUAL published during the late 1960s.

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Here are the contents of said replica (Superboy # 147):

"The Origin of the Legion" re-telling of origin by E. Nelson Bridwell & Pete Costanza

“The Boy With Ultra-Powers” (from SUPERBOY #98)

“The Legion of Super-Traitors” (from ADVENTURE COMICS #293)

“Supergirl’s Three Super-Girl Friends” (from ACTION COMICS #293)

“The Secret of the Seventh Super-Hero” (from ADVENTURE COMICS #290)

“The Legion of Super-Villains” (from SUPERMAN #147)

"The Lore of the Legion" (1 page text feature)

Basically, you get a sampler of Legion Archives volume 1.

posted October 27, 2002 11:56 AM            

First, someone (almost certainly Harry Donenfeld, National's big kahuna) evidently was dissatisfied with MORE FUN COMICS' sales and wanted something new -- a new feature, a new format -- to attract readers. In consequence of that dissatisfaction, someone (probably Mort Weisinger) brainstormed and precipitated what we nowadays call High Concept. At National in the mid-1940s, what could have been Higher Concept than, "The Adventures of SUPERMAN When He Was A Boy"? What would have been more likely to attract readers than a slice off the Cash Cow of Steel? The impetus of this High Concept impelled someone (again, almost certainly Donenfeld) to the response, "Have it ready to go to the printer by Monday!" But then someone -- again, possibly Donenfeld again, or perhaps his lawyers, perhaps on account of ominous rumblings having been discerned emanating from those malcontents who had only created The Cash Cow of Steel (The Man of Steel [Superman]) (Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster) -- waxed faint of heart and decided that the new feature (Superboy) should be introduced without fanfare into the middle pages of MORE FUN, which was six issues shy of transforming itself into a book of comical comics (a la those hot new cover-featured sensations, Dover and Clover) and packing off its own line-up of adventure heroes (The Green Arrow, Aquaman, Johnny Quick, The Shining Knight) to, well, ADVENTURE COMICS, whose own line of adventure heroes (Sandman, Starman) was about to be sent packing anyway. (As someone, probably not William Shakespeare, wrote, "You're sacked; get packed.") So why use Superboy to attract readers to Dover and Clover in MORE FUN when he (Superboy) was about to go to ADVENTURE (taking with him The Green Arrow, Aquaman, Johnny Quick, The Shining Knight, and presumably readers who were attracted to him and/or them) and leave MORE FUN to readers who had been attracted by Superboy (and/or et al) Dover and Clover if readers had no way of knowing that the book's (MORE FUN) hot new non-cover-featured feature was Superboy, and why leave MORE FUN to them (Dover and Clover) once having gone to the trouble (which of course no one had done until almost the end of Superboy's run in MORE FUN) of using Superboy to attract readers to them (same two as before) in MORE FUN if those readers were then supposed to follow Superboy and Co. (same four as before) over to ADVENTURE, whose sales, evidently so much worse than MORE FUN's, theoretically would have improved had Superboy been used therein (which he was not) to attract readers?

I was going to express this as an equation, but my grasp of mathematics is tenuous, I didn't get any further than High Concept and A Rush Job,

c+h

posted October 27, 2002 09:13 PM               

When this thread bumped up, I started back a couple pages to refresh myself on what was being discussed. I saw the entries about your back surgury, and it occurred to me that I hadn't heard recently how you're doing. The information may be lurking on other threads, but i haven't seen it.

posted October 28, 2002 01:04 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by James Friel:
Just to pick a meaningless nit: Shining Knight was already in Adventure. Why he, rather than Sandman, Starman, or Hourman was chosen for survival is a mystery.

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James is right. And wasn't it just like Mort Weisinger to dump every feature from ADVENTURE COMICS except the worst to make room for The Green Arrow, Aquaman, and Johnny Quick -- Weisinger creations, all.

posted October 28, 2002 06:02 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Steven Utley:
I can whup any man on this message board.

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I doubt that, you gorilla-loving weasel! I'm sure I could still lift a long box of comics anytime I wanted, so be afraid!

posted October 28, 2002 06:03 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Steven Utley:
I can whup any man on this message board.

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I doubt that, you gorilla-loving weasel! I'm sure I could still lift a long box of comics anytime I wanted, so be afraid!

posted October 28, 2002 09:47 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Old Dude:
I'll never understand how I can accidently double post the same response, but another time if I want to post again too soon with something I forgot, I get blitzed by "flood control"!

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posted October 28, 2002 09:49 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by vze2:
There must be something wrong with your computer, because it never happens to me.

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posted October 28, 2002 10:03 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Old Dude:
I'll never understand how I can accidently double post the same response, but another time if I want to post again too soon with something I forgot, I get blitzed by "flood control"!

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Seriously, you might be double-clicking instead of single-clicking. I've noticed that a lot of old people have trouble double-clicking. Then, they overcompensate by double-clicking really fast ALL THE TIME. I've seen several old people do this even after I tell them not to double-click. Once you are on the web, you shouldn't have to double-click.

Here's why this might be the problem. Sometimes this board is slow. I have a very fast connection, but I waited about a minute for each of my previous messages to be sent. If you double-click fast enough during one of these slow times, the second message might be sent before the DC server realizes that you've sent the first. I'm fairly certain that flood control kicks in when the message is received, not when it is sent. So when the board is responding quickly, DC gets the first message quickly and stops you from sending the second.

Of course, I could be completely wrong.

posted November 05, 2002 09:36 AM               

This issue features Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane. All three 8 page stories have wonderful Wayne Boring/Stan Kaye art, and are written by Otto Binder. (Credits by Mike.)

The stories, in order, are: "The Jilting of Superman," "The Sightless Lois Lane," and the cover-featured story, "The Forbidden Box from Krypton."

As far as I can recall, none of these stories has been reprinted - they were certainly new to me.

Thanks Mike, for a great site, and for letting us read a bit of your vast collection.

posted November 06, 2002 11:02 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Osgood Peabody:
It's interesting that even back in '57 we see signs of the painfully convoluted Weisingeresque plotting - like Superman going through those machinations in the Sightless LL story - including building a fake statue, creating a trapdoor for the real statue, and oh yeah, renting a horse - all to create a momentary hallucination for Lois so she'd doubt the veracity of her eyesight!

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Yeah. Superman was always carving gigantic objects — elephants, automobiles, huge barbells, etc. — out of balsa wood and painting them to absolute realism in order to scam somebody that they had super-strength.

posted November 07, 2002 06:20 AM            

When, during the mid-1960s, Jim Shooter started writing for Weisinger, Superman, finally got to wade into antagonists who could give almost as good as they got: The Parasite, Eterno, the Fantastic Fo-- I mean, the four Element Enemies. After years and years and years (well, it felt like an eternity to me at the time) of foiling Lois Lane's profound obsession with (A) learning Superman's secret identity and (B) becoming Mrs. Superman, of playing the foil to Mr. Myyzxq@&#&*% (I always have to go look up Mxyztplk (okay: Mxyzptlk; you say potato, I say potato), the Man of Steel's relief was almost palpable.