Here's another treat for the holiday weekend. This one from the mighty Ditko himself.
When George Wildman took over editing Charlton Comics there was a blush of creative at the little Connecticut publisher. Not that under the previous administration there hadn't been new titles, there had been, but there was a sense of something new under the Wildman brand, which was marked by the arrival of the Charlton Bullseye logo. One of the new titles was E-Man by Nick Cuti and Joe Staton which often sported new ideas in the back up feature. One such feature was Joe Gill's and Steve Ditko's offbeat superheroine Liberty Belle.
Her one and only appearance in the Bronze Age was in E-Man #5. The story is full of cliches and ends on a weird note, but still and all there's something compelling about this morsel. Perhaps it's just that, the sense of something left undone, a glimpse of something larger which when seen in full will merely be like most everything else. That's what I suspect.
Liberty Belle's singular appearance was a most memorable one indeed as evidenced by her joining Charlton Bronze Age powerhouses like E-Man, Nova and Yang on this nifty promotional piece by the great Joe Staton.
The Fightin' 5 return tomorrow.
Rip Off
I remember being disappointed when I read Liberty Belle back in the day as I was hoping for a more "serious" strip. Saying that E-Man himself was such a strong character that most strips would suffer in comparison. However, on a recent reading of Liberty Belle it does have it's charm.
ReplyDeleteNostalgia and comparison to modern material makes the classics gleam more brightly.
DeleteWhen I saw this title in my blog list i thought first of the forties character. I've read 5 or 6 of those and all were adequate but completely forgettable filler stories. This one story was probably more fun than the whole run of "Libby Lawrence."
ReplyDeleteRoy Thomas made her into a dandy character in All-Star Squadron. I'm sure I've read at least a few GA stories with her but as yous ay they were forgettable.
DeleteThe back-up slot in the following issue was John Byrne's Rog-2000, which I believe was his second professional appearance in print. The E-Man spin-off Mike Mauser turned up in in the back of Vengeance Squad, the only reason for buying that particular title.
ReplyDeleteHuge fan of Rog-2000. I'm a bigger fan of Vengeance Squad apparently than you, though I must confess the Mauser stories were highlights.
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