Sunday, August 20, 2017

The Bronze Age Sandman!


When Joe Simon and Jack Kirby ended up working at DC Comics at the same time, it seemed ludicrously obvious that these famed talents should pair up again for some comics. They'd made their bones in the Golden Age at DC and Marvel and other publishers and in many ways had redefined the industry. Now they were poised for a grand swan song and together the put their minds to updating a hero they'd visited before -- The Sandman. Actually it seems despite the great desire of  editor Joe Orlando for the duo to work together there was some resistance by Kirby who mostly didn't work with other writers at this time, but eventually after Jerry Grandenetti's version was rejected, Kirby was pressed into giving the Sandman a go.


The Sandman they created was much different than the swashbuckling Wesley Dodds, this one operated from a mysterioud Dream Dimension, assisted by two grosteques named Brute and Glob, and effectively policed the dreams of folks who became ensnared in the potential dangers that dreams offered.


A little boy named Jed is our hero really, an orphan living with his Grandfather in an isolated lighthouse on Dolphin Island. The boy is caught up in the weird schemes of a former Japanese soldier whose brain had been transformed into a machine and who used hideous dolls to execute his will. The Sandman slides into to save the day of course.



Joe Simon steps away from the feature for all time. Kirby's involvement is limited to covers only on the next two issues after the sales on the debut convinced DC it was worthy to return.


Kirby took up the helm again, this time working with Michael Fleischer to concoct more tales about Sandman and the boy Jed.


There is a fairy tale quality to these yarns, a feel that these light-hearted comics were for younger readers. Jed loses his Grandfather and has to move away from Dolphin Island. He ends up as a Cinderalla-like character living with his Aunt and Uncle and their two odious children. He is disrespected and put upon, but his character remains undimmed.


Even when the Sandman and Jed are drawn into battle with a super-villain named Dr.Spider, they win the day despite some woeful odds. The series is cancelled with its sixth issue, apparently failing to find a large enough audience (though by modern standards I'm sure it would be a monster hit).


A seventh issue was already produced and later appeared in the Best of DC digest comic. The story about Sandman and Jed rescuing Santa Claus is pretty good, but it was better reading it at full size at long last in The Jack Kirby Omnibus Volume 2. All the modern Sandman stories are there save for the two with which neither Simon nor Kirby had any hand.


This one's a really grab bag for Kirby fans.

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2 comments:

  1. It seemed like a throwback to comics Kirby was no longer interested in doing, with Tommy Troy entering The World of Your Dreams comic. Beautiful art, but, compared to the cosmic panoramas that abounded in Kirby's other books, oddly quaint. I bet this made it more attractive to Infantino and his brass, who seemed to give the book an extra push. By this time, the Sandman was not so much beneath Kirby as behind him.

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    1. Reading it this time it seemed more like a comic for little kids, not the fanboys who might've been drawn in by the Simon and Kirby names. I enjoyed it, but it's light-hearted to the extreme. Compared to the rough and tumble of the Golden Age stuff I've been reading this summer it's quite a break.

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