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

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

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.

Wonder Woman: The Amazon Princess Archives Vol. 1 - 2013

WonderWoman: The Amazon Princess Archives Vol. 1 back

Wonder Woman: The Amazon Princess Archives Vol. 1 page 196

Secret Origins - 1961

Secret Origins back

DC Universe Secret Origins - 2012

DC Universe Secret Origins back

Challengers of the Unknown Part IV

This the last of three posts about the six issues of the Challengers of the Unknown comic book that reprinted the early COTU stories by Jack Kirby. Here are the fifth and sixth.

Issue 79 has two stories - "The Monster Maker" from COTU 2 (June-July 1958) and "The Human Pets" from COTU 1 (April-May 1958). The editor once again has recoloured the original purple outfits to match the later COTU costumes. The new cover by Joe Kubert is a scene from "The Monster Maker".

Issue 80 has "The Day the Earth Blew Up" from Showcase 11 (November-December 1957. The new cover is by Nick Cardy.

Nine of the 18 Kirby stories were reprinted in the six issues.

COTU 79 - March-April 1973

COTU 80 - June-July 1973

COTU Archives Volume 1 - 2003

COTU Archives Volume 2 - 2004

Challengers of the Unknown Part III

Part II of this series of posts introduced the six issues of the Challengers of the Unknown comic book that reprinted the early COTU stories by Jack Kirby. Here are the third and fourth.

Issue 77 reprints "Menace of the Ancient Vials" from Showcase 12 (January-February 1958). The reprint is faithful to the original.

Issue 78 has two stories - "The Isle of No Return" from COTU 7 (April-May 1959) and "The Sorceress of Forbidden Valley" from COTU 6 (February-March 1959). The editor decided that the original purple outfits might confuse the kids so they were recoloured to match the later COTU costumes.

COTU 77 - December 1970/January 1971

COTU 78 - February 1973

COTU Archives Volume 2 - 2004

Challengers of the Unknown Part II

The first Challengers of the Unknown stories by Jack Kirby have been reprinted a number of times in the last decade in collected editions. The earliest reprints of these stories is six issues of the original comic - numbers 75 through 80.

75 August-September 1970
76 October-November 1970
77 December 1970-January 1971
78 February 1973
79 March-April 1973
80 June-July 1973

Here we'll look at the first two. 

Issue 75 reprints the second COTU story from Showcase 7 (March-April 1957). The COTU logo has been changed to the modern one and the last panel's reference to Showcase has been changed. The cover has not been reproduced. Rather the splash page is framed by art from George Tuska, who has also drawn a one page introduction.

Issue 76 reprints "The Traitorous Challenger" from Challengers of the Unknown 2 (June-July 1958). and "Secret of the Sorcerer's Mirror" from Challengers of the Unknown 3 (August-September 1958). The COTU logo has again been changed to the modern version and there is a new cover from Joe Kubert.

COTU 75 - August-September 1975

COTU 76 October-November 1979

COTU Archives Volume 1 - 2003

Batman Part VII

A new volume of my favourite DC Archives series is out - Batman Archives Volume 8. The comics collected here are the Batman and Robin stories from Detective Comics 150 - 175 (January 1950 - April 1951) - right in the middle of the first (and best) 25 years of Batman and Robin.

Eleven of the stories are seen for the first time since they were published. The five stories that have been reprinted are:

*The Batmobile of 1950! issue 156
The Thousand and One Trophies of Batman! issue 158
Untold Tales of the Bat-Signal! issue 164
The Strange Costumes of Batman! issue 165
*The Man Behind the Red Hood! issue 168

The two with an * were published in Batman in the Fifties (New York: DC Comics, 2002). The Man Behind the Red Hood is the origin on the Joker and is one of the most reprinted Batman stories, the first time in Batman 213 (July-August 1969).

Batman Archives Volume 8

Batman Archives Volume 8 back

Batman in the Fifties 

Batman in the Fifties back

Batman 213