Today is the 50th anniversary of John Kennedy's "going to the moon" speech.
In Batman Part VI I discussed the first of the "Batman in Outer Space" stories and its two reprints. Here is another one from Batman 137 dated February 1961. This is a classic of the "Batman in Outer Space' stories of the time. It has never been reprinted and won't be until the Batman Archives volumes arrive at issue 137 in 30 years.
Batman 137 would have been on the stands late in 1960, a month or so before Kennedy's inauguration. In the world of Batman 137 the Apollo program wouldn't have needed to exist since all the aliens came to earth - no need to bother with getting to the moon.
Batman Family was published by DC Comics from 1975 to 1978, a total of 20 issues. The first 10 issues had reprints.
Issue 3 (Jan-Feb 1976) is memorable for reprinting the first "Batman in Outer Space" story - "Batman in the Year 3000!" from Batman 26 (Dec/44-Jan/45).
"Batman in Outer Space" is the title of an essay by Mike Barr in Batman Unauthorized (Dallas: BenBella Books, 2008). The essay makes the point that the Batman SF stories in the 40s, 50s and early 60s were "some of the best character-oriented and character-driven stories of the time period." This first SF story is indeed one of the best.
If you missed the first reprint you would have waited 35 years until the second - in Batman: The Dark Knight Archives Volume 7 (DC Comics, 2010). The two reprints are identical except the Batman Family version substitutes "The Batman of the Future" for the original B&R logo on page 1 seen below from the Archives reprint.
For a little more than a year from late 1973 to early 1975 DC Comics published 100 page comics as part of the regular series of a number of comics. The first story was usually an original with the rest of the comic filled with an eclectic mix of reprints. In this era before reprint collections many of the characters were seen for the first time by readers of my generation.
Here are a couple of examples from Tarzan. The first story in each issue is an original by the great Joe Kubert. The Tarzan reprints are daily and Sunday strips created by the also great Russ Manning.
Some of the reprinted stories are 40 and more pages. Dialog has often been changed and panels dropped but the reprints are still beautiful. Fun 1950 characters such as Rex the Wonder Dog and Detective Chimp round out the issues.
Tarzan 233 (Oct-Nov 1974) has "The Land that Time Forgot!" from the Sunday strip for Dec 1971 to April 1972. "Thunder Lizard!" in Tarzan 234 (Dec/74-Jan/75) is a reformatted and coloured collection of the Jan-April 1969 daily strip.
In part I I discussed the first reprint of the late 50s/early 60s non super-hero team from DC Comics, Rip Hunter...Time Master. The team includes Rip, Jeff, Bonnie and her teenage brother Corky. The first story in Showcase 20 did not have an origin for the group. Rip is the time machine inventor with the other three acting as male friend, girl friend (maybe) and kid friend.
The second reprint is in World's Finest 227 (Feb-Mar 1975) of "The Secret of Mount Olympus" from Rip Hunter...Time Master 11 (Nov-Dec 1962). Why this issue when earlier issues were better? Don't know. This is the fourth issue illustrated by Bill Ely who continued to the end of the series. It shows why so few were reprinted as the comic now has pedestrian stories and art.
The issues that I'd love to see reprinted are 6 and 7 because the artist is Alex Toth. Here's an example of original art and a link to a superb new series on Toth.
Rip Hunter...Time Master was one of the five non-superhero teams that DC created from 1957 to 1960. The team was introduced in Showcase 20 (May-Jun 1959). Further stories appeared in Showcase 21, 25, 26 and 29 issues of its own title. There have been no collected editions of Rip Hunter and very few reprints.
That's a shame because the early stories were drawn by some of the best artists of the fifties and beyond. Rueben Moreira, Mike Sekowsky and Joe Kubert handled the four Showcase issues. But the only one that has been reprinted is the first - "Prisoners of 100 Million B.C.!" in World's Finest 225 (Sep-Oct 1975).
The Challengers of the Unknown were the first of five non-superhero teams that DC Comics created between January 1957 and September 1960. All premiered in either Showcase or The Brave and the Bold.
Challengers of the Unknown - Showcase 6 January-February 1957
Rip Hunter, Time Master - Showcase 20 May-June 1959
Suicide Squad - The Brave and the Bold 25 August-September 1959
Sea Devils - Showcase 27 July-August 1960
Cave Carson Adventures Inside Earth - The Brave and the Bold 31 August-September 1960.
Three teams were successful enough to have their own books - COTU, Rip Hunter and Sea Devils. COTU lasted longest and has been reprinted in DC Archives (first 12 books) and DC Showcase Presents (first 41 books). But reprints before these collections were few and far between.
Two examples are stories from COTU 12 (Feb-Mar 1960) and 14 (Jun-Jul 1960), reprinted in The Brave and the Bold 115 (Oct-Nov 1974) and The Brave and the Bold 113 (Jun-Jul 1974) respectively. The earliest reprint of COTU is Secret Origins Giant 1 (1960) which reprinted the origin from Showcase 6. But only the first of four chapters. The cover below is from COTU Archives Volume 1 (DC Comics, 2003).
