Superman and Batman and Robin

From time to time DC Comics reprinted a story ouside of reprint collections. One example is World's Finest 229 (April 1975) where "The Origin of the Superman-Batman Team" is reprinted. The story was originally published in World's Finest 94 (May-June 1958). The story was also reprinted in Secret Origins 1 (1961) and World's Finest 179 (October-November 1968).

The first two reprints are identical with the original story. But the one in World's Finest 229 is changed. The editor, Murray Boltinoff, appears to be attempting to hide the fact that it is a reprint. The first page "Batman" logo is updated and throughout the story the yellow oval is added to the bat symbol on Batman's uniform. But the changed introduction states a "World's Finest Classic" - so why go to all the effort of updating?

The other odd change is each page in the reprint has been lengthened by 1 cm from the top to the bottom of the panels by extending the artwork on two panels. A lot of work just to have the story fit the modern comic.

The original page below is from World's Finest Archives Volume 2 (DC Comics: 2001).

Original

Reprinted World's Finest 229



Blackhawk Part II

Blackhawk was among my favourite comics in the 60s. I expect the artwork had a lot to do with it. It wasn't only that Dick Dillin's pencils and Chuck Cuidera's inks fit the character perfectly. The other aspect that appealed was Dillin penciled every Blackhawk story from 1951 to 1968 with Cuidera inking all but a handful. So the characters always looked like themselves - like real people do.

That is an amazing record - even for an era where artists and writers stayed with characters a good deal longer than today. The 2008 Showcase collection of Blackhawk issues 108 - 127 show just how amazing. The collection covers a twenty month period in the eighteen year run. In those twenty months Dillin pencilled 505 pages of stories and covers. Extrapolating over the 18 years that's between 4,500 and 5,000 pages of Blackhawk artwork.

Blackhawk was published by Comic Favorites, Inc. (usually referred to as Quality Comics) until issue 107 at which time DC secured the rights to the character and continued the comic. Here are a couple of examples of Dillin's work from late in the Quality run - Blackhawk 99 (April 1956).