Boy, It's Vintage! The Many Faces - and New Possibilities - Of SUPERMAN

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It's odd to say, but before comics artist Curt Swan came aboard Superman in 1957, a page filled with drawings of Superman at his most expressive wouldn't have even been considered. Although he had a penchant for drawing action, Superman's former penciller, Wayne Boring, in many ways lived up to his own name; assisted by the far-seeing vision of editor Mort Weisinger, the man who assigned him to the book,  Swan defined the look and feel of Superman  for the duration of the Silver Age -- and beyond it.  Indeed, from 1957 and for the next 30 years, Superman was Swan's character. The squared jaw was gone; so, too, Superman's single-plane flying style.  All of this was replaced by Swan's realistic, strong, expressive human faces and scenes of flying that were at once both fluid and graceful.  Swan didn't retire from Superman until 1986, and it was his characterizations of The Man of Steel - of Superman's humanity- that Christopher Reeve emulated for the classic role which he, too, lent his signature.  Superman's Many Faces from The DC Vault [via].

Boy, It's Vintage! GOTHAM CITY, MID-SIXTIES

Yvonne Craig aka Batgirl 

Catches Up to TV's Dynamic Duo (1966) [via]

Boy, It's Vintage! Wonder Bread BOY WONDER...Among Others

The seventies were the last decade to have just one 'Boy Wonder', the original Robin, Dick Grayson.  Dick was definitely a busy little beaver in those days; no wonder that DC Comics saw fit to introduce successors and replacements for him, beginning in 1983 when Jason Todd assumed his duties as Batman's brightly-clad sidekick. But who knows? Maybe Dick should never have agreed to that Wonder Bread gig back in 1974. In all fairness, no teenage boy we've ever known would turn down a sweet opportunity like that, either.  And when role-models like Superman or upstanding Gotham businessmen like The Penguin (ahem) agree to bare it all on trading card, you can't really blame the kid.

Then again, maybe Robin didn't have much of a choice. Wonder Bread's the best selling bread in America, and probably was in 1974, too.  Dick must have gotten some major exposure, but so would have DC Comics and their parent company - Warner Bros - that just happens to share the same initials as the bread bakery in question. Coincidence? Perhaps. Unless you  know that Wonder Bread's owned by Hostess, whose relationship with the comics industry back in the day was tighter than a pair of the Boy Wonder's briefs. We'll let you draw your own conclusion.

Robin [via]

The Penguin & Superman [via]

Boy, It's Vintage! FLASH GORDON...Or 'Why We Wanted Hotpants For Christmas'

Today, Camp remains King,  but Starling Film's Flash Gordon bombed when it debuted back in December 1980, a sci-fi treat that couldn't compete with the expectations set the summer  before when The Empire Strikes Back.  A big helping hand (voice?) from Freddie Mercury and the progressive love for 'Retro' (not to mention the evolving sophistication of movie audiences and an aging Generation X) have transformed Flash Gordon into a cult fave and a yet-enduring testament to Alex Raymond's comic strip creation.

If sticking around for the new wave of classic sci-fi revamps is good enough for Buck Rogers and Dan Dare, then don't count Flash out, either. Sony Pictures and director Breck Eisner (Michael Eisner's kid) have epic plans for the space jockey, promising 3-D but no Queen when the character returns to the silver screen.  Whether we'll see Flash in tight leather -- which  would be soft-core porn in 3-D, not such a bad thing at the box office -- is debatable, but definitely not out of the question.  

Though Eisner's made it quite clear his Flash won't be another Clash of the Titans  disaster, his flick is still searching for its script and its tentative 2012 release will likely be rescheduled.  That would put Flash Gordon in a place more dangerous and far more competitive than Mongo -- Earth, early 21st century, where it's not camp but  costumed superhero cinema that reigns supreme.  If Flash gets clad in ass-less chaps, few people will probably even notice.

Linda Blair Was An Angel Compared to the CELLOPHANE BREAD GIRL

 [via]

If Van Camps 'Boy Beelzebub' got you freaked a few days ago, here's his evil twin sister, Cellophane Jane The Cellophane Bread Girl of 1954.  The poor mother's probably regretting her night in a Bangkok back-room under a lad named Lucifer every time she makes lunch for this Satanic Shirley Temple.  And while we're supposed to believe that's jelly she's spreading,  it sure looks a lot like pork and beans to us! Well, that, or judging by the gleam in Jane's eyes, someone's entrails. Mm-mm...sandwich... 

Pop Psychology Perfected in Purple

Quite possibly the Best. Picture. Ever. Strawberry Shortcake, astride My Little Pony, holds high her mighty sword after victory in a great war against the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  With the corpse of Leonardo at her feet, this is the warped day-dream we've always suspected put The Dabbler's sister in therapy. There's probably a deeper meaning, but we're laughing our asses off too much to care.  [via]

Star Wars: Imperial Tower of Death...Now For Your Own Backyard!

[via]

This, however, was clearly a mistake. 

Longing For Luke And Leia

Source: Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel on Friday, July 21, 1978 [via]

The more years that pass and the older we get, A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away begins to make more and more sense.  Star Wars and 1977 slip farther back into history every day, but that infamous sentence carries more weight, more emotion and memory, it seems, with each minute that goes by.  We kinda think George Lucas knew that it would, too. That his intention all along was not just to make Star Wars popular back in the day, but to make it even bigger - more Force-ful - as a story best remembered, and longed for, as much in its own science fictional world as it is in our real one. At least, that's what we suspect...you?

The Early Days of DC ENTERTAINMENT

SPOCK'S BUICK

Leonard Nimoy on the back lot

Going Solo: Vintage EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

[via]

LEE MAJORS For Future Art Majors

Very Fitting: ICON Dresses ICON

Gee WHIZ! The Uncanny Coincidences of CAPTAIN NAZI

We're in a Germanic state of mind (then again, aren't we always?) thanks to the World War I Flying Ace, so quite naturally Captain Marvel's fascist foe Captain Nazi immediately stands to our attention. Granted, he's never been a household name, but we figure Nazi , a German 'super soldier,' was pretty big back in his day.  Nazi's first appearance in Master Comics #21 (Fawcett sure nailed it with that apropos title) coincided with Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the crippling of America's Pacific Fleet. Coincidence? Absolutely. Absolutely ironic, that is.

Pearl Harbor certainly gave the United States the BIG FIGHT they may have been looking for, and the very vintage ad we have above literally promised that Captain Nazi will deliver the same to our hero Shazam.  The battle that began in the pages of Master would be continued later that month in Whiz Comics #25 -- an epic conflict between superhero and super villain, and a sequel deserving an in-house advertisement on that point alone. 

Sequels have successfully driven sales, interest, and been at the heart of  many a marketing machine for as long as stories have been around. But the masterful imaginations that created the Master Comics ad did so for other secret and super-heroic reasons. Whiz Comics #25 wouldn't just introduce the story sequel to Master #21; the issue would introduce Captain Marvel / Shazam's myriad fans to his "sequel," too.

It's Whiz Comics history now: in the issue, Nazi attacks two innocent bystanders who happened to be fishing in a boat near the scene of the battle. One of them, an old man named Jacob Freeman, is killed, but his teenage grandson, Freddy Freeman, is saved by Captain Marvel, who, to save the boy's life, bequeaths him some of his magic. In a lightning flash, Fawcett  had given their superman his own sidekick in the guise of Captain Marvel, Jr, who in true sequel-form fittingly derived his power from Captain Marvel himself, not the wizard Shazam that empowered the rest of the forthcoming Marvel Family. 

For dabblers less familiar with the then-Fawcett pantheon, we'll note that while he's made hale and hearty by uttering his own magic words, Freddy Freeman himself was permanently crippled when Nazi attacked him in his fishing boat. Nazi was obviously the  actual German threat personified in comic book color, and by extension Marvel, our hero, reflected us, the USA.  Though completely unintentional, considering time frame of comics creation, the events and characters of Whiz Comics #25 continued to eerily and metaphorically echo the real-world war that coincided with its time of publication.

Captain Nazi, in hindsight, was quite the significant villain. He was created by William Woolfolk and Mac Raboy, who in turn drew their inspiration from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's uber-popular Captain America, who came to America's defense for the first time just ten months earlier. 

Boy, It's Vintage! First Time For CLARK KENT

Clark Kent, Meet Superman

Illustrator Joe Shuster, Superman's co-creator, introduced Clark Kent to the World with this simple drawing, from 1934-1935.

Boy, It's Vintage! V FOR VENDETTA Comic Book Series Ad

The first two-thirds of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta was originally published across the pond as a series of black and white strips that appeared in Britain's Quality Comics' anthology series, Warrior. V was among the most popular of Warrior's inclusions, but Quality canceled the series after its 26th issue, leaving a host of publishers clamoring to complete the dystopian tale of a near-future London. 

Our vintage comics advertisement above appeared inside many DC Comics titles during the first part of 1988. DC had emerged Victorious where V was concerned, and in 1988, began publishing V for Vendetta as a ten-issue limited series.  Printed below the DC 'bullet' as the company's Vertigo line didn't yet exist, the 'new' V reprinted the Warrior  stories in color, then continued the series to completion.  Moore's unpublished third of new material  first appeared in Issue #7.

For a better look at DC Comics' V for Vendetta, click our link or visit [here].

Boy, It's Vintage! Super Hero Sleepwear

Even Superheroes Need to Sleep

JC Penny Department Store catalog, page 39 (1976)

Boy, It's Vintage! Twenty Years Ago, The X-MEN

X-MEN Action Figures Advertisement

Toy Biz, 1991

Boy, It's Vintage! Black & White TREKKIN' Trio

 Dialoging The Final Frontier

Leonard Nimoy, De Forrest Kelly, and Bill Shatner tape Star Trek 

Photo courtesy:[The LA Times]

AQUAMAN's BRIGHTEST DAY: Truth In Advertising Is The Reason

Aquaman (Vol 2)

In-House Advertisement
DC Comics, 1986

Achieving less than desirable results as team leader of the Detroit-era Justice League of America,  DC Comics tossed Aquaman over the side of the JLA's sinking ship and canceled the series two months later.  He resurfaced a year later, his return to the surface world  of monthly comics heralded by in-house advertisements such as the one above.  Not only was the King of Atlantis coming back (for four brave issues), but he'd had a change of clothes while he was away. The often-maligned orange-gold-green garb was gone, temporarily replaced by a try-out camouflaged costume that never caught on. 

 

In the second issue of the series, writer Neal Pozner's Aquaman asks, perhaps theoretically, "Where am I, that you don't know of my strength?" It almost sounds as if the character was addressing DC's editorial itself.  Like Batman, whose comic book image suffered as a result of the 1966 television series' camp factor, Aquaman swam with a stigma of uselessness since his animated adventures alongside the Super Friends. But where the Dark Knight overcame, Aquaman sank.

You'd expect that Aquaman aka Orin/Arthur Curry would be a strong swimmer, and the character did survive through four more volumes as well as a successful JLA revival (thanks to Grant Morrison) in 1997.  But the underwater hero perished before the 40th issue of his most recent series, so that a new 'Aquaman' could be introduced.  Fans remain divided on whether it was he or the mid-80's camo that enjoyed the longer shelf-life.  

It's 2010, and the waters have been calm at DC for four years. Across town, Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner, Aquaman's comic book predecessor as well as his Marvel Comics'  counterpart, has been front-and-center at the DC rival  for several years in a row. Where Namor's always had his niche (especially as a nemesis of the Fantastic Four), the character's been elevated to be one Marvel's leading men and top-tier mutants.  While his own series haven't fared much better than Aquaman's, Namor's found super-strength as a reoccurring character across multiple Marvel titles. 

 

Sub-Mariner Vs Aquaman [via]

It's 2010, and after a very cold four years, DC Comics has resurrected Aquaman through the events and rationale of Geoff Johns' Blackest Night. DC's Dweller of the Depths' light shines again (for our comicsblog's Easter promo as well as) at the forefront of Brightest Day.

 

Non-zombie Aquaman cops a feel on former widow and Red Lantern, Mera 

Blackest Night #8 (April 2010)

Beyond Brightest Day, DC hasn't made any announcements for their new Aquaman, but we're expecting to see Volume 7  before the year's out. Among the undead, the 'Black Lantern Aquaman' kicked more ass that he ever did while alive. But it's his wife Mera that emerged from Blackest Night as the better Champion of Atlantis.  She's been at his side for six volumes; come the seventh, we think it's he who should stand beside her instead.

We've got a few more thoughts to share on that matter, too. For now, we'll just say that Geoff Johns may be receiving all the credit for the Aquaman revival, but it's the company's marketing department that really deserves the accolades. DC Comics has proven that they are indeed the place Where Legends Live.  Sure, Where Legends Never Stay Dead... For Long may ring truer, but isn't it really a longer way of saying what's already been said? The grave has never been considered permanent for superheroes, and with smart advertising like that, it clearly never should have been for Aquaman.

Such truth in advertising, however, comes with commitment.  Blackest Night was a lot of work for too many people, just to make good on promises made way back in 1986. At least, that's our opinion.  So we're pleased to see that DC's taken a more ambiguous road plugging Brightest Day. The heroes appeared to be back at the end of Blackest Night #8, and DC's new promo assures us they really are alive; it wasn't a mirage or a nefarious trick. Even better, the heroes are back for a reason.  Also good to know, though Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi, Brightest Day's co-writers, have never been accused of flights of fancy.

The elephant on the comic book coffee table is, of course, whether or not that 'Reason' is one will end up mattering, to us or even to DC's characters.  Sink or swim, whatever happens to Aquaman and his super friends, it will be exactly what DC said we'd get. Nothing less, and nothing more.