Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Another month is here to grab us in its claws and drag us backwards, backwards, ever backwards to the 1970s.
Barry Smith departs the strip - and does it with panache, as our intrepid pair of rogues climb up a tower, try to steal a magic tiara and end up having to fight a giant snake.
In other words, it's just a normal night, by their standards.
I don't know what happens in this issue but I'm assuming it's the one in which Captain America gets super-strength.
Also, judging by that cover, it seems to be the one where he takes up rampant arrogance as his new hobby.
Now it's trouble for Daredevil and the Black Widow because a street performer turns into the Dark Messiah, breaks a gang of kids out of prison, takes them to the local park and erects a force field around them.
Rather more pressingly, am I the only one who gets the Dark Messiah and Angar the Screamer mixed up with each other?
Then again, am I wrong to do that? Now, I'm starting to worry that they're the same character.
Hooray! The Hulk takes a trip to Canada!
And then finds himself having to tackle the Mimic who's unknowingly draining his life force.
He also has to contend with the somewhat lesser threat of the Beast in the only issue of our hero's US mag that I ever owned.
We're in the land of the Inhumans - and Omega's up to no good!
Having said that, isn't he trying to liberate the Alpha Primitives from slavery?
That doesn't sound that bad a thing to do.
Either way, it's another cover which features Jim Steranko channeling his inner Rich Buckler.
I detect the handiwork of Jim Starlin on that cover.
I also detect that I know nothing of this comic's contents, other than that it features the terror of Fangor.
Not to mention Rasputin.
Blinky blonky blimey, guv'nor. That blooming yank thunder god's shown his boat race in good old Blighty and found himself up against a bally druid wot never ages.
That'd be Ken Barlow then.
And he didn't even have time to finish his jellied eels and stand round the old pub joanna for a sing-song.
I like to feel that perfectly captures the speech patterns of all Britishers who appear in this tale.
This is the one where Hawkeye proves his smarts by quitting the Avengers and helping a super-villain become all but unbeatable.
That villain is Imus Champion who's a big lad with plenty of money and will be played by Brian Blessed if they ever put him in a movie.
The Distruptor's still showing he doesn't get democracy, as New York's mayoral campaign rumbles on.
I suspect this may be the issue in which Richard Raleigh dies - following the shock revelation that he's the villain of the piece.
But what of the Distinguished Competition?
What were its characters up to in the books that also bore a March cover date?
To be honest, as I peruse the Spinner Rack of Nostalgia, not too much from the month catches my eye but the following four are, perhaps, of interest to the connoisseur.
Following the departure of Supergirl, Adventure Comics has no permanent star. And, so, it gives us not one but three tales.
The first is called The Adventurers' Club and is a story I know little of.
That's followed by Snow-White Death! starring the Vigilante.
And we finish off with a Captain Fear episode titled God of Vengeance.
Admittedly, it's not that brand new, as all three tales in it are reprinted from the 1940s and 1950s.
I'm aware the Kinks recorded a track called Johnny Thunder in the 1960s. I don't know if this character was the inspiration for it.
And it does so in style, giving us the beginnings of Superman, Batman and the Flash!
Rather disappointingly, though, the origins of Superman and Batman are only granted a couple of pages each, with the vast bulk of the book devoted to the Flash and Hawkman.
And I'm not even convinced the Hawkman story features his origin.
And yet another new comic appears, to separate us from our twenty cents.
Lesser magazines give us sword and sorcery but this one gives us a sword of sorcery as Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser escape from the pages of Wonder Woman and set about obtaining a magical mask for the wizards Sheelba and Ningauble.
I've no idea who those two are but I'm sure it's fab.
The rest of the world may not be quite so convinced, as this title will run for just five issues before cancellation.
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19 comments:
Ah, March 1973. Boy how time does pass; only 9 months until 13 year old Redartz returns to Marvel after several years away! But to deal with the here and now back then (if you follow), a couple thoughts...
That Conan issue is a gem; Barry was at the top of his game. Great cover too.
Spidey was still battling a rerun from the 1968 Spectacular magazine, although with some adjustments and updates. I always thought that character they added, the Disrupter- seemed a bit undramatic. Kind of like naming a character "The Inconveniencer", or "The Annoying Pesterer". Of course Conway and Romita would make up for that less than a year hence, with the Punisher...
Did like those "Adventure" anthology issues. The book seemed a good home for that approach, as they would try again towards the end of the decade.
Steve, I never get Angar the Screamer confused with the Dark Messiah. I do however, sometimes get the Dark Messiah’s origin story mixed up with the Man-Bull’s.
DAREDEVIL 97 was something of a milestone for me. I acquired it, plus CONAN THE BARBARIAN 25 and HERO FOR HIRE 8, while accompanying my Mom to the Liquor Store. Mom rarely gave in when I asked if I could get a comic, but that day happened to be my birthday and she said I could have THREE. Wa-hoo! Getting those three books on the same day (and then reading each of them over and over) had a big impact on my burgeoning love of comics. I wasn’t quite ready to commit to buying comics with my own money — not yet — but I was definitely getting there.
I’d owned several previous issues of DD and considered it a safe bet — the other two were more of a gamble. I was vaguely aware of who Conan was and the Luke Cage comic looked interesting, and both were VERY different from the usual spandex-clad super-dudes I was used to. Each of those issues blew me away. CONAN 25 is still one of my favorite individual issues, and was an excellent ‘gateway’ to the world of REH / S&S. I wonder sometimes if CONAN 24 had been on the spinner rack that day, if I would have dug it as much as 25….
HULK 161 was a part of another game-changing event, my acquisition of the stack of Comics That The Neighbor Kid Didn’t Want Any More. But that was still a few months in the future.
b.t.
On the one hand, yes Steve, Conan #24 is business as usual for the genre - DC's Sword of Sorcery #1 starts off with a fight in a tavern too! - only... away from the thieving and the giant snake, theres other stuff going on that makes 'Song of the Red Sonja' distinctive.
Most obviously theres Barry Smith's artwork, and he really went for it this issue - inks and colour too - arriving at a fresh, original style. Which became very influential in fantasy artwork, so its easy to forget it was actually a fairly counter-intuitive approach to what was mainly an action/adventure genre.
And then theres the single page sequences looking in on Kharam-Akkad, and Malissandra; and an actual female character, Sonja, with agency and even a bit of a personality. She has the most - the only? - memorable line of anyone in a Marvel sword and sorcery comic, when she punches Conan.
Conan: "Crom girl, I've killed men for less than that!"
Sonja: "What, for not letting you kiss them?"
That doesn't read like Roy Thomas, which does tend to back up Smith's claim that he contributed a fair bit of dialogue to the stories. As does Sonja became a more boring one-dimensional character after he left the series.
-sean
You're right about the Hawkman story in Secret Oranges #1, Steve.
Theres an editorial explaining the selection logic: the Superman and Batman ones are short because they were the first of their multiple origins, from Action Comics #1 and Detective #33 respectively - comic book storytelling was more compressed in those days! - and, as of March '73, hadn't been reprinted before.
Apparently the Hawkman story is the first appearance of the Ghost. Hey, don't shoot the messenger - I'm not claiming thats a good reason for inclusion, but its the one thats given.
Johnny Thunder #1 is actually pretty good. Fairly standard old fashioned western stories by Kanigher, but the USP is the Alex Toth artwork. The first story looks great, which is pretty impressive considering its from the 40s. Compared to other reprints from the era - like the early Kubert Hawkman in Secret Origins - Toth was well ahead of his contemporaries.
Unfortunately, his second Johnny Thunder story - from the 50s - was inked by some plonker trying to make the artwork look as boring as the kind everyone else at DC was doing at the time. You can still see the Toth sensibility, but its not as striking under the bland polish.
-sean
In your comment about Thor #209, you forgot to mention that the Inspector - and in England, they're always inspectors - wore a derby hat, smoked a cigar and had a black moustache.
I hadn't noticed it myself, but Colletta's inks were just too much to bear and that was the last issue of Thor I bought for a long, long, time.
SECRET ORIGINS #1
If we use an objective metric, such as "Number of times read, cover to cover" this is Charlie's favorite all-time comic. (Granted it was in the "reading room" for several decades, beat up, cover barely hanging on.)
The BATMAN and SUPERMAN stories are sheer genius. So much packed into a few pages. I recall taking an Advance Writing Class around 40 years ago and the teacher talking about the genius of "saying more with less" and "economy of words." These two stories are the epitome of that concept!
And the HAWKMAN story vs. THE GHOST is a solid 1940s GA story. I chuckle when, given the technology of the time, THE GHOST was using a reel-to-reel film projector to project ghost images. Invariably I ask myself, "how long is that extension chord" to mount it up so high in a steeple, LOL?
And speaking of technology, having a ring and pressing a spring, so that your FLASH costume is able to expand out of / shrink into the ring is sheer genius!
Honestly, to a younger kid with wide open eyes, the JSA / JLA characters really rocked. I was endlessly fascinated by their costumes, much more so than Marvel's.
In the big divorce a few years ago, when Charlie had to down size rapidly, he held on to that beat up issue of SECRET ORIGINS... just couldn't let go.
Are we to assume looking at the at ADVENTURE cover that half the shooter's body is inside the man-hole and half outside???
That is some seriously weird physics!
AVENGERS - Charlie picked it up, in large part, to draw the cover! Nice pose by Hawkman that an 11-year old could get their pencil to recreate!
Still have that 50-year-old drawing sitting in a box somewhere, lol.
"half the shooter's body is inside the man-hole and half outside???"
I think they were using the poster art for John Boorman's "Deliverance" for reference.
That cover is credited to Dick Giordano, who did tend to use, er... reference quite a bit when penciling.
b.t., Interesting question about Conan #s24 and 25.
As it happens, my first Conan comic was #26 - which made a real impression - and I'm not sure whether I'd have been quite as into #24 at that age either. A couple of years later was probably my right time for the later Barry, when I got the Treasury with 'Red Nails'.
You can definitly make the argument that Buscema's Conan is 'better' generally, as a version of the Howard character. Although as Howard doesn't do much for me, personally I'm not that bothered.
My fave Conan comic is the second Treasury anyway, where I finally read 'Song of the Red Sonja' for the first time - bigly, with no comics code correction - together with the Buscema/Alcala 'Black Colossus'. And a bit of Gil.
-sean
STEVE - you seem to like those DC non-superhero covers. Love it! Hope to see a posting of Trigger Twins #1 in April!
STEVE - Might I offer up SAD SACK #231 as an odd job cover for your perusal? George Baker cover!
STEVE - I am shocked you have not considered posting covers of "David Cassidy" by Charlton Comics! Errr... Not really, lol.
This was a great month for comics, methinks.
Yeah, I hadda revisit Thor 209, Steve, and I can understand why somebody from the U.K. might take umbrage at the dialogue, ah, "guv'nor". Saints preserve us! It would embarrass Guy Ritchie.
Still, I like that issue. It was your basic Gerry Conway ambiguous weirdness, but I like a little mystery, something left to the imagination. It's not clear who the Demon Druid actually is. It's vaguely suggested he might be a member of an alien race who inspired the Druids, but that wouldn't explain why he states that Odin is dead and then later invokes Woden.
Very strange...and the reader is left to come up with theories of his own on what this guy's deal is.
Well, I ain't got one....a theory that is. M.P. is a cat who can accept unexplained weirdness for what it is.
Life has forced this attitude upon me.
Several great comics here, particularly the Hulk. And those D.C. covers, wow. I mean, yeah, I know that Secret Origins is basically reprints, but that great Nick Cardy (I think?) cover...that would look cool in a frame.
M.P.
MP, I have a sudden urge to discover whether the Demon Druid was ever seen again. I'm sort of hoping he was.
The Secret Origins cover is indeed by Nick Cardy.
Unknown (Charlie?), I have until now been totally unaware of the existence of Sad Sack.
I like to bet that David Cassidy comic was the most frightening thing Charlton ever published.
Sean and Bt, my first exposure to Conan was Zukala's Daughter and I still love that tale, to this day.
B, that inspector is my favourite thing in that Thor story. He seems so reasonable. I like to feel he was the British equivalent of George Stacy. Then again, I might have to check to make sure I'm not mixing him up with the reasonable inspector in that tale where Spider-Man visits London.
Then again, I might have to check that they're not meant to be the same character.
Red, I do always tend to lump The Disruptor in with The Masked Marauder.
Conan # 24, 'The Song of Red Sonja', was my first Conan, too (albeit in UK Avengers annual 1978!)
I liked Captain America's enhanced strength. Cap jumped for a distant flag-pole swing-around, and commented that this was unattainable, before his enhanced strength(combined with his pre-existing agility, of course.) Thus, with his strength, Cap now exceeded Daredevil & the Black Panther. To me, this commented on Spidey's prowess, more than Cap's (as Cap lost his strength, later). After all, Spidey had the strength to leap further, combined with Cap/DD/the Panther's agility.
M.P. - Demon Druid resembles Nitro, from Captain Marvel (did Steve make this point in a previous post? I forget.)
Steve - Do you also lump the Disruptor with the Cowled Commander (the Masked Marauder's twin in alliteration)?
Phillip
Of course Ultimus - the being formerly known as the Demon Druid - returned, Steve. Don't they all?
Being blue, it was inevitable he'd eventually be revealed as Kree. A Kree Eternal no less (who comes up with this stuff?)
www.marvunapp.con/Appendix8/ultimuskree.htm
Of course the big problem with that Thor story is the whole notion that the ancient Brits "used his launching pad as a heathen temple" thousands of years ago, when everyone knows Stonehenge was stolen from the Irish around the sixth century.
Poor research from Gerry Conway there, detracting from the otherwise authentic British setting, cor blimey strike a light squire.
-sean
*Apologies, Steve, I was in a bit of a rush earlier. Heres the corrected link: -
www.marvunapp.com/Appendix8/ultimuskree.htm
-sean
Steve:
It’s funny how we ‘imprint’ on certain things. I like ‘Zukala’s Daughter’ a lot, but my favorite Barry Smith Conan story is ‘Twilight of the Grim Grey God’, which happens to be the first Smith Conan I ever saw (reprinted in GIANT SIZE CONAN 1). To this day, I’m convinced that that particular story is touched by some kind of extraordinary magic, that Barry’s storytelling and faces and figures in it are a cut above his usual. I admire other early Smith Conan stories (like ‘Zukala’s Daughter’ and ‘Devil Wings Over Shadizar’ and ‘Garden of Fear’) but think ‘Grey God’ is just BETTER. Realistically, I realize it’s probably just an echo of my original reaction to seeing it for the first time nearly 50 years ago. But it’s hard to shake.
b.t.
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