Here is a delightful four-page story found here from Charlton's Go-Go #6. The story was written by Gary Friedrich (with unofficial help by Roy Thomas according to reports) and drawn by Richard "Grass" Green with Judomaster's creator Frank McLaughlin on inks. Here see the BLA (Bestest League of America) as they confront the "Marvelous Super-Heroes" who are exceedingly familiar. As this comic hails from 1967, this is the first clash of the two teams (in parody form admittedly) to see publication in a professional comic book, though admittedly a company that published neither team in its true incarnations.
The Bestest League of America was the brainchild of "Rascally" Roy Thomas when he was a mere fan knocking out issues of the famed fanzine Alter-Ego.
Roy did several adventures for the parody team. Likewise in the pages of Comicollector, a fanzine produced by Ron Foss (who one day edit a few issues of Alter-Ego) appeared "Da Frantic Four" a lampoon of "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine" by Richard "Grass" Green. These teams met in Alter-Ego #6 with both Roy and Grass handling the art chores.
All the earliest fanzine Bestest League adventures can be found in the two volumes of The Best of Alter-Ego from Hamster Press and Twomorrows Publications. The meeting of the lampooned League and the fractured FF led eventually to the story seen above.
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Oh dear, doesn't that logo look woefully inadequate? And that typeset lettering - ouch! That apart, it actually looks like a fun read. (And I will read it, once I rub the crusts from my eyes.)
ReplyDelete"A. Machine" is one of more distinctive letterers of the Silver Age. I especially liked the way it looked on Ditko books.
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