War And Peacemaker!

In many ways Peacemaker has become the most successful of the Action-Heroes DC picked up from Charlton. Blue Beetle rivals him having produced more than a few comics and one movie, but Peacemaker has taken part in one movie and has produced two seasons of a TV series. The focus, or at least part of it, this month will be on Christopher Smith, The Peacemaker. Originally created by Joe Gill and artist Pat Boyette, the original hero is near and dear to my heart. The version DC has developed has its devotees, but it's a substantially altered hero. I want to do some comparison of the two versions later in the month. 

 

The Peacemaker debuted in the pages of The Fightin' 5. This series by Joe Gill and artists Bill Montes and Ernie Bache was featured five rugged heroes in the Blackhawk vein who battled the Red Menace as well as other more exotic threats to world security. 

Also look for more THUNDER Agents action this month as Steve Ditko continues to contribute to the Tower brand. There's not going to be too much Ditko this month, but the great artist will make a special appearance later this week. 

So, this month, we explore those who fight wars, but who hope for peace. 

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The AC Blue Beetle!

When at long last Charlton Comics gave up the ghost and closed its factory, the assets went far and wide. As we all know, DC Comics scooped up the Action-Heroes (Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Judomaster, Peacemaker and for a time Thunderbolt) as a favor to former Charlton editor Dick Giordano. But at that same time Bill Black of AC Comics had also acquired some of Charlton's backlog and a promise to publish. He was eventually given a year to follow through on what he had picked up, and the result was Americomics #3 which featured two stories starring various versions of Blue Beetle. In the first story which was originally intended for the Charlton Bullseye we get a match-up between Ted Kord and Dan Garrett, one different from what DC would produce some years later. We also get a second story starring the Golden Age Blue Beetle. Pat Broderick's cover for the issue is one of my favorite pieces by him. 

 Also slated was a proposed teaming of the Action-Heroes, now dubbed the "Sentinels of Justice". We get Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Question and Nightshade in action. One issue was produced and that was all. Black had hoped for more but his creative team could only conjure one issue before the year time limit was up. We would catch glimpses of the heroes together in DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths and of course most famously the heroes would populate The Watchmen in altered forms. Eventually we'd get The L.A.W. mini-series drawn by Dick Giordano, but that would be decades later. I'll have more on that later this year. 

More Charlton action tomorrow. 

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New Blue Beetle #6 - The Specter!

When the Blue Beetle series was abruptly cancelled, Steve Ditko already had a full issue ready. Titled "A Specter Is Haunting Hub City!" this story pits our azure hero against a strange chap who uses a stolen gizmo to make himself mostly invisible. It's a weird visual as the cover above attests. Below is the complete story which did finally see publication in 1974. More on that after the story itself. 

And that's a wrap on Steve Ditko's final Blue Beetle yarn. Note that Professor Rodor from The Question series is featured in this tale. 

This story first saw publication in the Charlton Portfolio which was in actuality issues nine and ten of Contemporary Pictorial Literature, a fanzine published by the CPL Gang headed by Roger Stern. The cover for this publication was done by Don Newton who produced a delightful wraparound image featuring not only Blue Beetle, but other Charlton heroes as well such as Captain Atom, Peacemaker, Judomaster, Thunderbolt, as well as E-Man and Yang. Horror hosts get a look as well. It's a beauty and I picked up a copy somewhere long ago and added a second copy to my collection from Roger Stern himself at a convention many years later. Stern had a box full of these in prime condition. 

The story was published again for a wider audience in The Action Heroes Archives - Volume 2 from DC. For some reason they did not include the story in their more recent DC Finest Blue Beetle volume. 

This vintage ad shows us the cover in color and also reveals how close we came to getting it in real time way back in 1968. But it was not to be. 

A little more Blue Beetle tomorrow as we wrap up this look. 

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The DC Blue Beetle!

I picked up the recent Showcase Presents Blue Beetle volume from DC. I never got this title when it first ran in the mid 80's but I have in more recent years collected up the issues, though truth told I have never gotten around to reading them all through. With this purchase hopefully the hand nature of the phonebook reprint will encourage me to give them a proper read.

Of all the Action Heroes who DC picked up, Blue Beetle was the one least changed from his Charlton persona. What we have are the further adventures of Ted Kord as they pretty much left off nearly two decades earlier. Steve Ditko's The Question is a frequent guest-star and the other Charlton Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett gets lots of page time as well.

Here are the issues in this volume.

What put over the top on this reprint was the inclusion of the second issue of Secret Origins with some stellar Gil Kane artwork. This was a very neat series and this is one of the best issues, reprising the convoluted history of the character. Even though it preceded the series it's the last issue in the reprint.

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