The Six Million Dollar Charlton Cover Gallery!

The Six Million Dollar Man was a hot property. So how does it come to pass that Charlton and not Marvel nor DC gets the license to produce comics based on the series. Who knows? Maybe it was a simple question of no one else asked. Comics were in a somewhat tough shape at the time. Charlton created a character which was synthesis of the TV Steve Austin and other elements from the original novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin. 

 They also produced two different versions at the same time, one a regular sized color comic and a black and white magazine version. Neal Adams and his boys at Continuity Associates handled the artwork on the B&W books in the beginning with Adams supplying two pretty great covers for the first two issues. The writers for the series were the sturdy Joe Gill, Nick Cuti and Mike Pellowski. Later in the series, Jack Sparling took the reins and even editor George Wildman contributed. 

Charlton's color comic version began featuring the alluring artwork of Joe Staton, but soon the Continuity Associates had a hand with Neal Adams producing one cover. Joe Staton handled the first four issues before being replaced by Demetrio Gomez. Eventually the Pat Boyette and Fred Himes duo took over the work. Jack Sparling added a cover here and there. Joe Gill and Nick Cuti were the writers for the series. 

The Bionic Woman was a second color series and Jack Sparling handled the artwork on all six issues of the series. Jack Sparling was the artist for the entire series. Joe Gill is credited with the first issue and likely wrote the rest as well. 

Charlton's efforts for the Six Million Dollar Man licenses are fairly typical of what the company had mostly done over its long history, produce comics of immediate interest for niche audiences. These were gems in their day and are even more valuable in the modern day. To my knowledge the material has never been reprinted domestically. 

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The Bionic Woman Season 4!

As I mentioned in my review of The Six Million Dollar Man Season Six, I have a checkered history with Dynamite Comics. Often, I like the concept much better than the actual published comics themselves. The Bionic Woman Season Four is a touch better because it focuses on one storyline which consumes all four issues, and we get a proper ending. The story itself had touches of The Prisoner and Westworld, with a dash of Silent Running. 

Jaime Sommers gets caught up in the scheme of a United States military officer who has become disaffected with the world and seeks to create a perfect community using mind control. Steve Austin makes an appearance, but truth told his role is minimal. It's a quick breezy read, with clear storytelling. Like so many Dynamite projects I feel it lacks the individuality of presentation needed to make it stand out, to make better than just okay. 

Below are the Sean Chen covers for the four-issue run. 

That wraps up my bionic coverage, save for one more post. See you then next time. 

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The Bionic Woman - Seasons 1-3!

I can tell you one thing -- I hate the theme music to The Bionic Woman. It's willowy and soft and noxious in the extreme. But it does point to how the producers want this bionic TV show to come across, and that is friendly and kind, while still stopping villainy. They succeed in that, but I just wish the music was better. Watching this show through 21st Century eyes, the sexism is stunning. Jaime Sommers is smooched and fondled by just about every guy who turns up on the show. Some are cast as family members, but still and all, let the girl breathe. Lindsey Wagner is the lead and she's excellent.

Season One (1976)

There is clearly an attempt to develop a somewhat different tone in The Bionic Woman. Jaime Sommers has had an incredibly stressful origin story. She was severely, suffered surgeries that replaces her arm, her legs, and one of her ears and then used those bionic enhancements to help Steve Austin, the man she'd been engaged to. The difference was she'd lost her memory, and the return of those memories ignited pain, enough that she died. The she was brought back to life and her memories were almost all gone. For the series she has been rehabilitated and knows the truth of her life. She now chooses to live in her old hometown and teach. She is a classic TV teacher who only ever teaches one set of kids and then only when the plot requires it. She is free to help a man who is running from a killer and later an old mentor who seems to want to overthrow the government itself. The also doesn't want anyone to forget its ties to the successful The Six Million Dollar Man and cameos by Lee Majors as Steve Austin are common and Oscar Goldman played by Richard Anderson is a regular.

Season Two (1976-1977)

If there is a clear distinction between The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, it is that leading emphasis in the latter is Jaime's idealism. She's a person looking to do good, whether in the classroom or in the field fighting baddies. The crossover with other show is a big deal in the beginning of the second season. She has the freedom to cry and not lose her hero credibility, in fact it only enhances it. Her tears are not weakness but a sign of empathy. She and Steve have a close friendship if not romance. The season has the ballyhooed crossovers with its older sibling when Bigfoot shows up and the duo must stop a scheme to kill Oscar Goldman. Jaime goes undercover as a wrestler, a card dealer, a cop, and as a country singer to stop various thugs and spies, and as a nun to capture some diamond smugglers who dabble in heroin. She pretends to be a teacher to help protect a young prince. There's a terrific episode when she pretends to be one among a very eccentric band of family members who are battling for the family inheritance. Vincent Price is top notch in this one. 

Then she must overcome a small army of what I've dubbed the "Parka People" because they have to wear heavy coats because they've been taken over by an alien force which needs warmth. It's a bit of Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets The Andromeda Strain. (They actually use some footage from the latter I think.) One weird one was titled "Biofeedback" and dealt with a guy who could use that technique to imitate many of the old tricks of the fakirs of days gone by. The end of the world when a pleasant scientist builds a doomsday device. The exchanges between Jaime and the computer named Alex-7000 are clearly meant to evoke Hal-2000. There's a story in which a Jaime must help a young violent girl deal with her horrifying history. A light tale about art forgery and a downright comedic effort about a hard-luck thief who chooses the wrong house to burgle. We get a bit of Oscar history when we learn his brother disappeared during the Pearl Harbor attack under mysterious circumstances. And Jeff Corey shows up as a mentor to Jaime in a story about Native American demons and radiation. Lindsey Wagner must be taking a hand in her wardrobe as well, since some of her frocks are decidedly unusual and there's an awful tendency to wear hats which were regrettably in vogue at the time. But she's not done yet. 

Season Three (1977-1978)

The show moves from ABC to NBC in its third and final season. Sadly, it seems to lose some of the sweetness which characterized the previous shows and gets a more generic TV adventure feel. It's notable that Ken Johnson, the creator of the series was absent from many of these new shows. We meet a bionic dog named Maximillion in a two-parter to kick off the third and final season. One gets the sense this was intended as a possible spin-off with the dog hooking up with a Forest Ranger. Then our heroine has to face down the Fembots again, this time in Las Vegas in a wild fracas. While both Oscar and Rudy maintain strong presences on the show, Steve Austin has been largely pushed into the faceless background. Truth told, his place has been taken by Max the dog, who gets another full episode later in the season. Probably the fact the two shows were now on different networks made things difficult to say the least. 

Jamie ends up getting missions which take her to the rodeo to protect an eccentric scientist, the depths of Africa to stop a dictator, and... One weirdness is the guest-starring of Evel Knievel in an episode in which comes across as neither comedy nor drama, just odd, as the daredevil is conscripted to help Jaime cross over into East Germany the typically obscure but essential reasons.  Then's there's a lift of a plot from the first season when Callahan is tricked by her boyfriend into giving up secrets. Jaime goes into some bogus country to rescue some kid who is portrayed poorly by a young actor in only his second TV role. Much better is Franklyn Ajaye as a computer Robin Hood, committing internet crime before the term was invented. Things get dark when Jaime is poisoned, and world peace is on the line. Full blown science fiction breaks out when we get alien returning in a nod toward those Chariots of the Gods books, Jaime must protect an alien girl, and a "UFO" turns up in an episode as well. The show all but forgets Jaime's life as a teacher and that actually plays into what became the final episode, written with the knowledge the show was ending. It's a remarkable effort with some real conflicts that frankly I wish we'd seen more of during the run. 

The Bionic Woman was a better show than I remembered. It was a nifty lens into the 70's, my heyday when we still used phone booths and computers still filled rooms. We lived as we ever have under the abstract fear of nuclear destruction, but detente had allowed those fears to abate. The late 70's was a time of economic hardship for many given the price of oil among other things, but it was also a time of hope. Jimmy Carter was President, and he was a decent man trying his best to do a decent job in extremely hard times. After Watergate, the country was seeing some changes which made politics less hostile and government more trustworthy. Women actually were planning to see life the other side of the Equal Rights Amendment which was nearing success after decades of a creeping crawl. (Sadly, it didn't happen.) In many ways Jamie Sommers was a hero for the time. 

Tomorrow, we check out Season Four. 

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The Prisoner For Our Times!

The Prisoner -Original Art Edition is a fascinating volume. Let me be frank. I don't own this elegant but exceedingly expensive volume featuring the raw unfinished work done by Jack Kirby, Mikey Royer, Gil Kane and Steve Englehart for two different attempts to launch a comic book adaptation of The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan. But you can get an expansive and detailed all of it at AE Index. Check out the link for some eye-popping glimpses of comics in different states of undress. This was originally priced at $79.99, but is not available at that price anymore. I found prices ranging from one hundred to two hundred bucks if you can find it. I can't really argue that it's worth the asking price, but it's sure worth a look see at the AE Index location. 

Jack Kirby was a stalwart supporter of our national freedom. He fought in WWII, putting his life on the line to stop a dictator's desire to control the world. Giving The Prisoner another watch in these times of trial when our very freedoms are under direct assault from some of the institutions entrusted to maintain them, might prove to be enlightening. Happy Birthday Jack!  

Secret Agent or as it's known in Britain Danger Man is the McGoohan spy show that predates The Prisoner and first presents the super-spy "John Drake" who is almost certainly the same disaffected spy who become the titular "Prisoner". The connection between the two series is thematic for certain but not official, almost certainly due to the complications of ownership rights and suchlike.

 

Despite being an immense fan of the Johnny Rivers theme song, I've never actually seen an episode of Secret Agent, and I found them excellent entertainment. (Note: The theme to the second season was an offbeat tune which a friend of mine said sounded like the theme of The Munsters performed by The Chipmunks. I can't really disagree.) The first series offers us our first glimpse of Drake, and he's a dashing and extremely capable espionage agent who is able to work in all theaters of operation and like most of his counterparts knows more than it's likely anyone person can know. And of course he laden with all sorts of nifty gadgets, my favorites are the frequently seen camera lighter and the shaver recorder. This conceit is forgiven of course for the sake of drama and he follow as he skips across the globe in a host of guises rescuing capture diplomats, stalking enemy agents and liberating stolen secrets. 

These early episodes are exciting little narrative pellets that race along dispensing just enough information to keep you aware of what's happening and why and then dashing off in a split second. The action is more violence and lasts typically only a few seconds. There are few of the extended fight sequences in the familiar manner of the Republic Serials. Here the movements are quick, brutal and few get up when tossed down some stairs or smacked with a ready piece of furniture. (Though truth told the fights do get more tradional and more tedious as the serious wears on.) Drake eschews guns for the most part, even sometimes when a gun would be the prudent option. He prefers not to kill. 

Likewise, he is a man of a strict moral code, and we don't see McGoohan's hero making much time with the beauties who populate the stories. He's either got little interest or no time and a promiscuous hero seemed not the image McGoohan wanted to convey. The complexity of the character of John Drake was able to be developed a bit more when the show shifted to an hour with the later seasons. But I dreaded that the plotting would suffer and at first it did with odd additional beats added to shows to broaden them to length, stuff that really wasn't key to the main focus of the episode and at times felt almost like a new show. But this improved vastly as the shows went on. 

There's no doubt in my imagination that by the end of the series the super-spy John Drake is a man who has at the very least become overtly jaded by his long service and at the most has developed disdain for his superiors who seem to sacrifice the nobility of humanity to fulfill the needs of any given situation. Drake himself is forced to make hard choices and he chooses to fulfill his duties, but one can see he's a man who is about to change that circumstance. 

I must confess to being a relative latecomer to The Prisoner. For whatever reason I never saw it when it ran originally, nor did I catch subsequently on television. But that doesn't mean I didn't read about it, a groundbreaking television show that has launched decades of debate and discussion about its deeper meanings. I finally took the plunge several years ago and picked up the Fortieth Anniversary edition of the show (it seems to have an anniversary edition every five years or so) and watched the episodes and found them interesting and curious, but I must confess they did not live up to my expectations. But that might well have been because of my overdeveloped expectations and not the fault of the show. 

Subsequent research and another good close look have convinced me that there's less to The Prisoner than meets the reputation. That is not to say there isn't plenty to chew on and it is not to suggest its standing as a thought-provoking entertainment isn't earned. I just don't find it to be as dense an experience as some argue, and furthermore I find the haphazard nature of the making of the some of the episodes either gifts or curses the show with an ad hoc feeling. One way to think about it which works for me is that it's like a concept LP album, with different tunes by the same band, but each song with different influences, writers, and featured artists. There's even what you might regard as a cover song, the episode in which McGoohan is "replaced" by another actor thanks to a brain-switching device. 

Patrick McGoohan's powerful personality made the show possible, but hearing interviews and reading about the show convinces me that his dour insular manner also shortchanged some of the possibilities of the show. Pun intended, "it takes a village" to make a television show and any auteur is not helped by holding too much of the vision inside for too long. It's clear to me that writer George Markstein deserves much more credit for The Prisoner than he's given. All that said, there's little question that The Prisoner raises some provocative questions which a society dependent on a plethora of techniques to calm their masses might find troubling. "Number Six" is an absolute individualist who demands that he be left alone to think and feel as he chooses. That his thoughts and actions are sometimes contrary to the efficiency of the Village. The ending of The Prisoner is beyond bizarre and consequently will always be open to individual interpretation, and I'm sure that enigmatic nature is why the show persists in the imagination. 

Be seeing you. 

The Bionic Woman tomorrow. 

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The Six Million Dollar Man Season 6!

Dynamite Comics and I have an imperfect relationship. They insist on acquiring and publishing comics I find interesting, and I sometimes buy them. The one constant is that I am almost invariably unsatisfied. So is the case with The Six Million Dollar Man Season Six. I will give the creative team props for being true to the TV show in regard to casting and referencing various aspects of venerable shows. But like so many Dynamite projects, I found the artwork just this side of satisfying. The layouts and storytelling worked for the most part, but the finishes and the depth of field in the images seemed spare. And a pet peeve of mine is how artists render men's hats. It seems almost no modern artist can do it particularly well and that's certainly case here. 

In the story Steve Austin is called upon to face several threats such as a robot with is his face operated by OSI itself, a Russian robot more in the style of ED-209 from the Robocop movies, and aliens which have infected and transformed the bodies of scientists studying a Venus probe. Steve also gets to punch a shark. He is helped by Jaime Sommers, the Bionic Woman and he needs it when his bionic arm is damaged. I had an uneasy feeling as I read the series that the creators were putting too many story elements into the mix to be resolved by story's end. I was right as three different threats are identified for future installments. Those never happened, so we end up something of a cliffhanger and chance to see how it came out. Frankly I'm fine with that. 

The slim collection also has a script for the first issue and alternate covers. Here are the covers for the series produced by Alex Ross. 

Now it's time for The Bionic Woman. Be seeing you. 

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