DC Comics Reprints from the 1960s, 70s and 80s: July 2013

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Superman Part VIII

DC Comics have just published a new comic - Batman'66. With the possible exception of Sugar and Spike nothing could be further from the current DC universe.

Back in 1966 the US book publisher New American Library jumped on the Batman TV wagon and issued three paperback collections of Batman stories. And, for good measure, one Superman collection. All the collections are in B&W.

The Superman book had five stories, all drawn by Wayne Boring.

Signet D2966 (Canadian edition) - June 1966

Signet D2966 back

The stories have very different reprint histories. The second has never been reprinted except in the Signet paperback. The third is one of the most reprinted Superman stories.

The Invulnerable Enemy	Action Comics 226	March 1957
Superman's 3 Mistakes!	Superman 105	May 1956
Titano the Super-Ape!	Superman 127	February 1959
The Menace of Cosmic Man!	Action Comics 258	November 1959
The Menace of Red-Green Kryptonite!	Action Comics 275	April 1961

Friday, July 26, 2013

Lois Lane Part I

Lois Lane Annual 1 and 2 were among the earliest reprint books from DC Comics, published in the summer of 1962 and summer 1963 respectively. Nineteen stories were reprinted from four different comics - Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane, Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen, Superman and Adventure Comics. Seven have recently been reprinted in the Archive Editions.

Here are the four in Lois Lane Annual 1

Lois Lane's Super-Dream (a)

Superman's Future Wife! (b)

The Man Who Was Clark Kent's Double (c)

Lieutenant Lois Lane, U.S. Army! (c)

And from Lois Lane Annual 2

The Man Who Married Lois Lane! (d)

Lois Lane in Hollywood (c)

Lois Lane's Kiss of Death! (c)

(a) Superman: The Man of Tomorrow Archives Volume 1
(b) Superman: The Man of Tomorrow Archives Volume 2
(c) Lois Lane, Superman Girl's Friend Archives Volume 1
(d) Superman: The Man of Tomorrow Archives Volume 3

The editor, Mort Weisinger, was in the habit of editing reprints. Three of the four stories in Annual 1 listed above were edited. The first two changed Superman's x-ray vision to heat vision. When the stories were first published Superman didn't have heat vision. The fourth story was edited for space with four panels deleted.

Lois Lane Annual 1 - Summer 1962

Superman: The Man of Tomorrow Archives Volume 1 - 2004

The first story above, "Lois Lane's Super-Dream", is a very funny dream story where Lois has powers and through a blood transfusion gives Clark Kent super powers. But Clark is his cowardly self and is unable to handle them. The scene where x-ray vision is switched to heat vision in the reprint has him trying to rescue people from a sinking boat in a ludicrously complicated way. Aside from the obvious the scene is funny because in many "real" Superman stories he also used a complex method to do good.

from Archives edition

Lois LAne Annual 1

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Wonder Woman Part I

The first volume of Wonder Woman: The Amazon Princess Archives was recently published. Issues 98 to 110 of the Wonder Woman comic are reprinted, a total of 23 stories. All were recently reprinted in B&W in Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman 1 (2007). But eleven of the stories had already been reprinted in the 1960s and 70s in various comics.

The earliest is "Secret Origin of Wonder Woman" from Wonder Woman 105 (April 1959), reprinted in Secret Origins (1961). This 80 page giant was also published as a stand alone replica edition in 1998 and as part of a hardcover collection in 2012.

The story was only two years old when used in the Secret Origins collection. The origin was first seen in Wonder Woman 1 (1942) but DC was not reprinting stories from that era in the early 1960s. The tag line "A Wonder Girl Story" has been removed from the reprint.