Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
It is time for me to spin my Steve-Does-Destiny Wheel of Fortune marked "August 1976" and see what random DC comics appear on it when I do so.
Maybe it's just me but I'm convinced that every other issue of Weird War Tales featured a story called The Warrior.
The Secret Society of Super-Villains hits its second issue and, from that Dick Giordano cover, it seems that Captain Comet hits the Green Lantern!
I may or may not detect an Ernie Chan cover tribute to Neal Adams' frontage for Detective Comics #413. The similarity is vague enough to be pure coincidence or to be seen as merely subtle, depending on how you look at it.
I could never resist an issue of House of Mystery and in this, no doubt, irresistible offering, we encounter tales with such nightmare-inducing titles as Kronos -- Zagros -- Eborak!, Justice for All Includes Children 6 and Your Epitaph Is Only a Birthday Card.
As for the book's juicy innards, that selfsame Captain returns to Earth where he mistakes Hal Jordan for a villain and launches into a punch-up with him.
Clearly impressed by such smarts, Gorilla Grodd and Hi-Jack invite him to join the Society.
And it's a society that's about to become a little more transparent, as this is the month in which we also discover the identity of the gang's mysterious funder!
Regardless, we've reached the series' penultimate issue, in which the Joker commits a robbery while dressed as the Scarecrow.
Needless to say, the real Scarecrow isn't having that sort of thing and decides to hunt down the clown prince of crime, in search of vengeance.
According to the GCD, Qwardian youths turn Arthur Sommar into Skragg the super sniper.
I've no idea what any of that means but I can only conclude that it's bad news for the Freedom Fighters - and for everyone else.
The site also informs me that this issue's inks are credited to Juan Canale who seems to be Vince Colletta but no one seems to know why he's so pseudonymously credited.
It would appear it's not just the Green Lantern who has to worry about a team of super-villains. So does the Flash when a bunch of them learn the Top has died.
However, before he went, he forced them to go in search of six pieces of a bomb that will destroy Central City if they don't stop it.
And there's more because, in our second adventure, the Ravagers of Olys devolve Green Lantern into an ape.
The unmitigated bounders.
Charlie has no idea what the heck he was doing in May 1976. I don’t even recognize any of the covers, much less I think I may have read one of them.
ReplyDeleteSo I went to Mike’s amazing world, and whatever the heck was going on in May 1976 in my life, it was not comic books! The only comic book that I had/read was the invaders. No other marvels, no DC no Charlton no Archie no nothing!
As always, Steve, I very much enjoyed your write up!
Mr. and Mrs. Charlie we’re watching the EPL highlights yesterday for Saturday’s games. We noticed that Hull city smashed Manchester United. Being the curious sort, Mrs. Charlie googled to see the geographic location of Hull city and promptly stated, it is in Yorkshire!
ReplyDeleteAnd because she actually pays attention to my music about Steve does Comics, she asked if this would mean that Steve being from Yorkshire would possibly start cheering for Hull city now?
I said I have no clue, but I would certainly ask
Steve, I am asking. Would you consider cheering for Hull city as your EPL go-to team this year?
Nope, didn’t have any of these DC’s back in the Long Ago. Don’t think I ever got any of ‘em as back issues in the decades since, neither. That Luis Dominguez HOUSE OF MYSTERY cover is pretty nice but nope, don’t think I ever acquired a copy.
ReplyDeleteChecking out Mike’s to see if there were any other “August 76” DC’s that I had but missed last time we had a Lucky Bag. I’m pretty sure I had that month’s SWAMP THING , that’s the one where he becomes human again (he’s like “half and half” on the cover). Still think that was a really dumb idea. Let’s see…I might have had HERCULES UNBOUND 6, STARFIRE 1 and SUPERMAN 302 (that cover looks pretty familiar and hmmm, art by Garcia-Lopez and Bob Oskner, yep, that’s ringing some bells). Ooh, check out that nifty Kubert cover on KOBRA 4 with the really cool and unusual coloring. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that before. Neat!
I’m still going with METAL MEN 47 and RAGMAN 1 as my favorite DC’s from that month.
And sean, if any of these turn out to be actually “September ‘76” comics — we’ll, sorry, I can’t help that.
b.t.
Oops. I effed-up — Swamp Thing turned back into Alec Holland (and was “half and half” on the cover) in the PREVIOUS issue, no. 23. #24, with a misleading (and quite ugly) cover by Ernie Chan, was in fact the very last issue before cancellation. And yes, sean, it was a bi-monthly at that point, which means it was actually a “September 1976” comic. Even more embarrassing, so were STARFIRE and KOBRA and METAL MEN and RAGMAN, despite Mike’s Amazing World displaying them on their “August 1976” page for some arcane reason.
ReplyDeleteThere! I feel better now, having admitted to my lazy posting protocols. I’d say it won’t ever happen again, but …. it probably will :)
b.t.
Charlie, I'm perfectly happy to support Hull City when they're playing one of the "Big 6" but, supporting them in general won't be a thing.
ReplyDeleteJoe - Hull's county was Humberside, a few decades ago, before rejoining Yorkshire!
ReplyDeletePhillip
Well there you go!!! That clearly explains Steve’s conditional support for the TIGERS!
DeleteFor a brief instance, I was going to suggest everybody at SDC support the tigers given our collective hobby that brings us here! But then I realized that it’s only the villains who really get named after the animals lol!
Hull City are also the only club in the top four English divisions with no loops in their name to colour in. Another reason for Charlie to adopt them.
ReplyDeleteToo funny! I mean I love the reflection being a kid!
DeleteAlso, two members of popular late 70s beat combo Throbbing Gristle were from Hull.
ReplyDelete-sean
Sounds like a regular Sheffield: soccer teams, famous rock musicians! I think Hull do one better though because Hull Tiger fans make that clawing motion with their hands like a tiger! Unfortunately, having endured two kitty cats to humor my daughter Rachel for 20 years, that motion reminds me of a cat digging in the litter box. Symbolic?
Deleteb.t., I'm not sure even DC quite understood their cover dating system either.
ReplyDeleteThat 'DC Comics Salutes the Bicentennial' strap line at the top of some of the covers here was on the August dated bi-monthlies, but the July monthlies. So if you look up July '76 at Mike's, it's on pretty much all the DCs. Which would seem to make sense given that the Declaration of Independence had a July cover date... The mystery deepens!
Btw, if anyone's curious about the number in the black box on the upper right hand corner of the covers here, it was a special offer. If you cut all 25 of those 'Bicentennial' logos off the covers and sent them into DC you got a special Superman belt buckle!
I wonder if anyone actually did that? Like, who could afford 25 DC comics in a month (or two)...?
-sean
Well, now you’ve opened up a whole new can of worms, because all those ‘Cover Date July 76’ comics were actually on sale in APRIL, so shouldn’t they have been putting all those “Salute the Bicentennial” banners on comics that were actually on sale when people in the real world were all hyped up at the peak of the Bicentennial Mood, in “Cover Date OCTOBER 1976” ?
DeleteOw, my brain hurts…
b.t.
Also, i had no idea about that Numbered Bicentennial Banner/ Superman bełt buckle promotion. I don’t remember seeing ads for it in the comics or on their letters pages, and you never see banner-less DC comics for sale on the secondary market. Whereas i bet we’ve all probably acquired a Marvel back issue or two with their Value Stamp cut out. No wonder DC was getting their asses kicked by Marvel — they couldn’t even do a HEY KIDS, DESTROY YOUR COMICS campaign properly!
ReplyDeleteb.t.
Many a Marvel comic book lost its near mint valuation b/c that Marvel
ReplyDeletestamp had been cut out!
Just like many 1960s DC comics got trashed because of kids cutting out a coupon to Palisades Amusement Park.
It’s kind of funny how by this time those pages full of tiny adverts like 1/2”’high advertising back issues, coins, stamps, xray glasses, and sea monkeys had given away to full page ads. And some of those full pagers were still to grow muscle and be a manly man.JP
At least when a bit of a comic's front cover has been cut out it's obvious straight away.
ReplyDeleteb.t., That's right of course that the actual Bicentennial would have been celebrated a good few months after July cover dated comics went on sale. So we can still expect more about it to come in Steve's various 50 Year Ago features.
You know, I'm not up on current Marvels and DCs, so I'm curious - have they been doing stories about the Semiquincentennial this year, and marking the America 250 thing in the same kind of way? Anyone know...?
-sean
Sean i have been 3-4 times
DeleteIn the past 45 days. Nothing I can recall. And I do look at all the covers at least superficially.
I think the country has moved on from the simpler times of 1976 and celebrating america.
Plus kids don’t buy comics any more. A 2026 cover might not be sufficiently adult?
Hmmm. A couple of these are familiar. I've got that Joker comic.
ReplyDeleteCharlie, I gotta ask. How do you not know what you were doing in May 1976?
You were in school, I assume. I was.
You're not that much older than me. What were you up to?
What are you, a hundred year-old vampire?
M.P.
I was a bit of a DC fan at this time as where I lived you could get lots of their comics in newsagents however , I don't recall seeing any of these comics. I do remember what I was doing in 1966 though as it was a stand out year. I sat my O levels , got a part time job and at this time the whole UK was going through a heatwave and drought.
ReplyDeletePaul, I liked DCs too back in the day, and even looking up all their comics from this month didn't see any I remembered. There wasn't that much reason to pick them up at this point really.
DeleteWith the newstand market in decline, the second half of the 70s was not a good time for the comic biz, and things were especially bad at DC between late '75 (the departure of Jack Kirby) and the Implosion of mid '78.
I mean, when Steve included DC in his 50 Year Ago posts - starting around when he was covering early 1971 - quite frequently they were doing better comics than Marvel (obviously Marvel zuvembies will disagree with that, but comics like, say, Kirby's Fourth World titles, Kamandi and OMAC, the Wein/Wrightson Swamp Thing, Neal Adams' Batman, and Rima the Jungle Girl - Nestor Redondo artwork, with Alex Nino back ups! - speak for themselves).
Basically he separated DC out into their own feature just as they hit a low point and were having difficulties.
-sean
Er, just to be clear, that's not intended as a criticism of the blog, Steve.
DeleteThis feature is still interesting anyway. Kinda like watching a slow motion car crash...
-sean
1976 not 1966. I don't think anything interesting happened in 66 😉
ReplyDelete1966 was a very good year for port, as we found out at a few posh dinners in the early 80s.
DeleteRon Manager on 1966:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QExk5T02AH0
Phillip
1976 was one of my favorite years. The music, everything. It was a great summer.
ReplyDeleteI was maybe seven.
I was worried about Bigfoot but he didn't get me.
M.P.
Regarding music, Mungo Jerry's 'In the Summertime' is a song I associate with '76's long hot summer, despite it predating 76. As regards the rest, at this distance, distinguishing 75 & 76 is hard. The Six Million Dollar Man, Kung Fu, SPACE: 1999. Toy Knights, Dinky Toys, dinosaurs, Cyborg & Muton, aviation, etc, spring to mind. No comics on the radar...yet!
ReplyDeletePhillip
Phillip, Space: 1999 is in cinemas in 4k next month, with one off showings of a pair of episodes across the country on the 13th (to mark 'Breakaway Day' apparently). Trailer and details here, if you're interested-
Deletehttps://gerryanderson.com/pages/space-1999-double-bill
-sean
Paul, I think I'm the only SDC regular who was born in 1966 so it was an interesting year for me : )
ReplyDeletePhillip, Captain Britain No.1 went on sale on October 6th 1976.
ReplyDeleteLate again to the party!
ReplyDeleteColin- 1966 was a good year to have been born! Lots going on in pop culture (not that I remember much, being only 6). Beatles had "Revolver", Batman and the Monkees were on tv (Batman was one of the few tv shows our parents would let us watch at the time; they generally controlled the viewing with such notables as "Lawrence Welk" and "The Jackie Gleason Show").
But turning to 1976, that too was a fine year. Marvel's new annuals returned, there was a Bicentennial, and young Redartz had his first date. And Phillip, "Space:1999" was another 1976 highlight. Never missed it...
Sean - Thanks for the link. I've been watching SPACE:1999, recently, on Rewind TV. Series 1 & 2's first episodes weren't the greatest episodes, but you can see their relevance, as an introduction, to new viewers.
ReplyDeleteRedartz - Yes, I loved SPACE:1999, as a kid. The show's quite clever, on many levels. As a little kid, Star Trek was hard to follow. I liked the fights, monsters, etc. The dialogue, however, is too long, and drawn-out, for little kids, and the banter/relationships, in the KIrk/Spock/McCoy troika, went over my head. SPACE:1999, however, is like a leaner Star Trek, which all the fat cut off the carcass, and much better (fantastic, in fact, for the time) special effects. The opening credits are a prime example, being ideal for young kids, in that you're thrown straight into the action/what the show's about. As a (post)middle-aged guy, I like both shows, in different ways. However, for a little kid, with a short attention span, SPACE:1999 won every time!
Colin - Unfortunately, I didn't cotton on to CB, until the following late autumn!
Phillip
Oh - I forgot SPACE:1999's fantastic apocalyptic opening music, for series 1 - and fantastic action-packed music, for series 2! The composer should get full credit!
ReplyDeletePhillip
Phillip, my father died on September 2nd 1999 - only 11 days before the September 13th date at the start of each episode.
ReplyDeleteColin - That thing of tv shows you know your father would have liked watching, coming on, is something I've noticed. My father was always interested in Ireland ( his side of the family coming from there, originally); plus, he like Peter Bowles, on 'To The Manor Born'. Thus, when I watch 'The Irish R.M.', it seems a pity my father isn't around to watch it, too. I'm sure he'd have loved it. Are there any shows your father would have liked?
ReplyDeletePhillip