Captain Flash Day!

Mike Sekowsky was one of the most influential artists of his era. During the Silver Age boom at DC he was a key artist on many titles and genres, most especially his long run on Justice League of America. Later he became one of Carmine Infantino's artist-editors taking on Wonder Woman giving the Amazon one of her most famous runs when she lost her powers for a time. But Sekowsky worked for many publishers over the decades and created more than a few heroes in that time including today's focus -- Captain Flash. 

I like all other comic book fans know that the Silver Age of comics began when Julie Schwartz got veteran writer Gardner Fox and longtime artist Carmine Infantino together and they brought forth a new dazzling rendition of the vintage Golden Age character called The Flash. Barry Allen, the new Flash was sleek and modern and a hero for the new time. That's what we all know. But we are wrong.

The presumption of the Flash theory is that superheroes disappeared from the comic book stands, replaced by other genres such as war, romance and horror. The masked marvels of the early days of comics were represented by stalwarts Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. With few exceptions that was it for the underwear set. But how do we account for Captain Flash.

Created by Mike Sekowsky and possibly the editor at Serling Comics, one Martin Smith, we get a brand-new superhero in 1954, two years ahead of the DC revival we all know about. Captain Flash is a transitional hero, evocative of the olden days but also drawn with a somewhat modern flair. He could create little atomic explosions by clapping his hands together, a somewhat unwieldy power admittedly. He had a boy sidekick in the Golden Age tradition, something that would be eschewed in the Silver Age for the most part. Tomboy was the companion feature in the book, a young teen who fought crime but who didn't seem particularly tormented.  Captain Flash was at once a throwback and look forward. He was a superhero at a time when supposedly there were no superheroes. What he didn't spark was a new wave of superheroes. That would have to wait until a particular lightning bolt struck in a particular police lab a few years later.

The PS Arts book features all four of the Captain Flash comics and since that makes it a bit thin adds two issues of The Tormented, a handsome pair of comics from Sterling.

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Danger Street Signs - The Warlord!

In anticipation of a review of Danger Street by Tom King, Jorge Fornes and assorted cover artists I am representing my thirteen reviews of DC's 1970's Showcase-style comic 1st Issue Special. The books by King and company make use of ALL of the sundry heroes and heroines who appeared in these pages. So, let's continue. 

DC had taken notice of Marvel's success with Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian and wanted a pice of that barbarous pie. To that end they cooked up a bevy of rough and tumble fantasy heroes and launched them all at once onto the comic stands. The one that succeeds will be a nifty twist on the Edgar Rice Burrough's creation Pellucidar. 

Among these new titles were a revival of Joe Kubert's Tor, a new hero called Stalker by Steve Ditko and Wally Wood, a new an different version of  Beowulf, a caveboy named Kong, a classic "Conanesque" barbarian named Claw and even Justice Inc., a comic version of the Street and Smith pulp hero The Avenger. Also tucked away in this mob was Warlord created by up and coming comic art star Mike Grell. Warlord was originally part of a project Grell called Savage Empire, but was retooled a bit for the seventh issue of 1st Issue Special. 

Warlord tells the tale of Travis Morgan, a brave and resourceful United States jet pilot who is shot down in 1969 on a spy mission over the former Soviet Union. He is able to get his injured craft over the Arctic and crash lands but finds that he's actually entered a weird interior territory named Skataris tucked away inside the Earth's crust. It's a land of perpetual day where time loses meaning. Morgan quickly finds himself allied with a lovely warrior named Tara. The two end having to escape from a heinous wizard called Deimos and that's where this saga stops. That is until it continues in the pages of the debut issue of Warlord's own comic which goes on to run for an impressive one hundred and thirty-three issues. 

Warlord is only one of two ideas from 1st Issue Special which actually succeeds in launching a series -- the other we will get to in due course. Next time we have another wonderfully crafted story of heroics and sorcery, but this one is in modern times. 

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Duke Douglas!

Comic Media was a short-lived publisher from the early 50's, and they put out some handsome material in their brief existence. Their go-to artist appears to have been the painfully underrated Don Heck who of course went on a decade later to be a mainstay at Marvel during its early days. Boardman Books gathered up the Duke Douglas stories in a slim volume first published in 2015. It is this book which I read for the reviews below. 

(Not in this collection.)

Danger was one of the company's flagship titles and begins its run in 1953 with a wide range of manly men engaged in a variety of sweaty activities as evidenced by this debut cover by Heck. These are, as the banner announces, stories about "Men Without Fear". Don Heck returns for the next couple of issues with some covers that promise some wild and intriguing adventures indeed.

But then with the sixth issue a new regular feature was introduced, drawn by Heck. Not named on the cover this is Duke Douglas, a dapper secret agent who appears by the many montages he is featured in on this cover and others to be engaged in all sorts of clandestine adventure. But in fact, Douglas does not appear inside the comic but only on the cover. It must've been quite odd for a reader attracted by the Heck artwork to find nothing inside to correspond. 

Duke Douglas debuts inside the seventh issue of Danger in a story entitled "Khyber Incident" in which he attempts to forestall the "Reds" from stirring up trouble in the mountains of Asia. The lead story is drawn by Don Heck. A second story titled "Escape to Death" sees our hero try to rescue a diplomat who might have been betrayed by the one he loves most.  This story was drawn by Pete Morisi. No writer is indicated for either tale in this issue. 

Ken Fitch is credited as the writer of "Crash in the Alps" drawn by Don Heck for the eighth issue of Danger. (This is the only time any writer is identified on a Duke Douglas story.) In this one Duke is trying to retrieve plates which would result in counterfeit money which could well cripple the fragile European economy. "Kill! Kill! Kill!" is drawn by Pete Morisi, We see Duke kill and kill again to rescue a damsel in distress from the very heart of the Kremlin. Did Duke kill Stalin? The story suggests he might have. 

With the ninth issue Duke's name finally rates a cover and the action here goes more for mood rather than action. "Ransom in Oil" was drawn by Don Heck and has Duke battling Red spies to gain contracts with rich Arab leaders. That Duke rescues a sheik's daughter only helps his case. "Racket Man" is a text piece in which an unnamed protagonist presumed to be Duke is loaned out to the FBI to help capture a man who has made off with a million bucks and fled to Brazil. "Intrigue" drawn by Heck has Douglas go into a long-term deep cover to uncover a Red plot, but he must toy with the emotions of a young woman to help his mission, much to the chagrin of her boyfriend who is drafted to fight in Korea. "Dedication" is a one-page text story in which Duke uncovers a grisly murder scheme. 

"Trouble in Morocco" has Duke join the Foreign Legion to discover why things are not going as planned. The death toll is high in this story drawn by Don Heck. "Trial by Fire" is drawn by Bill Discount and sees Duke seeking the secret of a man who seemingly died in a deadly car crash. Frankly the hero in this one doesn't resemble Duke all that much, but each artist seems to have his own take on our spy hero. "Oil" is a Duke one-page text tale in which he solves the murder of a Pentagon official and uncovers a Red spy. 

"Accomplice in Murder" in the final Comic Media issue of Danger puts Duke in a ticklish position where he must cover up a murder in order to uncover a deeper plot. The story is the final Duke Douglas comic story and is drawn by Don Heck. "Choker" is a one-page text tale in which Duke spots a hidden clue revealing that murder has been done. 

Duke holds down Danger until 1954 when it completes its Comic Media run, the company having given up the ghost. You can almost imagine him firing his gun into the fourth wall at the creditors. Charlton Comics was in a position to swoop in and gathers up much of Comic Media's material and titles, though Duke Douglas and Don Heck alike are gone from the covers when they relaunched the title in 1955. The series runs a mere three issues before a dramatic transformation takes place.

If you would like to savor some of those vintage Danger adventures, then check out this link. 

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The Big-Screen Spirit!

When The Spirit was released to the cinemas a nearly two decades ago now, I was hopeful that some of Will Eisner's greatest creation would be translated to the big screen at long last.  I'm not naive enough to imagine that the translation would be seamless or that I'd be completely happy, but I held out hope that given a solid comic book man like Frank Miller was in charge, that the essence of the character would remain.

I hoped in vain.

The Spirit we meet on the screen (Gabriel Macht) is a mopey self-absorbed hipster who bounces around town in his overly stylish tennis shoes like a noir Spider-Man. He's got some fetish for "his city" and waxes on endlessly about how he and the city are connected. (A bit too much of the Batman-brew for me.) That would be okay, save that this connection is largely ignored after an overly long set up.

As bad though as The Spirit is, the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson) is a disaster. The mysterious largely unseen villain of the comics is transformed into a loquacious maniac who kills for sheer delight. Both he and the Spirit it seems have been transformed into supermen of a sort and battle each other out of some grand ennui which more than anything else seems to inform this culture. The city and its occupants seem bored, and the audience cannot be far behind.

The women though are beautiful -- Eva Mendes as Sand Saref, Sarah Paulson as Dr. Ellen Dolan, Paz Vega as Plaster of Paris, Jamie King as Lorelei Rox, and Scarlet Johansson as Silken Floss. The filmmaking is at least stylish and visually arresting in places, but overall, The Spirit as imagined by Frank Miller rambles too far from the source material and finds itself lost. It's a rather dull story actually with some clever set pieces which after it's all said and done don't add up to a good movie. The Spirit deserved better. 

It's a shame really. Will never saw it. That's probably a blessing.

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The Small-Screen Spirit!

Sam Jones was quite something. He burst into my consciousness with his outlandish but irrepressible take on Alex Raymond's classic hero Flash Gordon in the early 80's movie which attempted to revive the franchise and earned many an admirer in doing so. It has a vintage charm nowadays for me, and I've always thought Max Von Sydow the ideal Ming, but Jones always looked a little bit in over his thespian head in that one. Well with The Spirit, a presumably failed ABC 1987 pilot he does a little better in my estimation. There are some pretty big problems with this one, but for the most part they ain't at the feet of Sam Jones.

Being a TV production, it seems the problem might have been budget. The highlights of this show are the settings in Wildwood Cemetery and a few of the noirish settings which felt spot on for The Spirit as established by Eisner oily pen. But also on hand were many bright daylight scenes in the heart of suburbia which totally compromised the effect. And let's talk about the Spirit's suit, it's supposed to be black isn't it. I always assumed the blue was the classic blue-for-black conundrum which early comics faced. Having Sam Jones show up in the bright afternoon to Central City in a bright blue suit we know will become the Spirit's togs really created a breakdown in tone. On the plus side is Ellen Dolan (Nana Visitor) who is lovely and sexy and P'Gell (Laura Robinson) who is arguably even more so. I also liked the top thug in this one, a guy dubbed "Bruno". Ebony renamed "Eubie"(Bumper Robinson) shows up as a frisky kid who helps the Spirit survive his origin and then mostly disappears. Commissioner Dolan is well portrayed by Gary Walberg, a veteran TV actor as well. 

I wanted to really like this one, didn't expect to do so, but ended more pleased than I expected -- if all that makes any sense.

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Danger Street Signs - The Creeper!

In anticipation of a review of Danger Street by Tom King, Jorge Fornes and assorted cover artists I am representing my thirteen reviews of DC's 1970's Showcase-style comic 1st Issue Special. The books by King and company make use of ALL of the sundry heroes and heroines who appeared in these pages. So, let's continue. 

Arguably the finest title for a comic book ever was Beware The Creeper invented by Steve Ditko for DC Comics way back in 1968. It's wildly evocative and makes for instant drama. The Creeper was in some ways a typical Ditko invention, a costumed crimefighter who in his day job was a relentless seeker of the truth who didn't turn away because of the malign influences of special interests. Visually The Creeper is unlike just about any hero, donning a costume made from bits and pieces in a costume box. He's a bright yellow and green and red vigilante who strikes as often by night as by day, a cackling fiend for justice. (Note: Look closely at this cover designed by Carmine Infantino and rendered by Steve Ditko at the street scene below the falling Creeper and you can just make out a little dog taking a wee on a hydrant. Those zany comic book creators!)

Beware The Creeper debuted in Showcase, making The Creeper the only character to appear in both DC's Silver Age vintage try-out comic and its Bronze Age counterpart 1st Issue Special. The story is scripted by Michael Fleisher but the artwork is by Steve Ditko himself, though Mike Royer handles the inks.  

A bit of a treat in this attempt to restart The Creeper as a single character is the use of the villain Firefly, a vintage baddie from a 1952 issue of Detective Comics. He's goofy and yet still formidable, an ideal villain for a weirdo hero like The Creeper. Alas this didn't result in a new series for Jack Ryder's clownish alter ego. He'd have to wait several years before getting a back-up in World's Finest Comics when it shifted into its Dollar Comic mode. 

Next up we encounter the most successful character to launch out of the pages of 1st Issue Special and to do that we have to travel into the depths of the Earth itself. 

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Danger Street Signs - Dingbats Of Danger Street!

In anticipation of a review of Danger Street by Tom King, Jorge Fornes and assorted cover artists I am representing my thirteen reviews of DC's 1970's Showcase-style comic 1st Issue Special. The books by King and company make use of ALL of the sundry heroes and heroines who appeared in these pages. So, let's continue. 

As his disappointing contract with DC Comics ran its course, Jack Kirby was obliged to knock out fifteen pages a week or thereabouts. With the "Fourth World" cancelled, it meant a lot of random projects got the green light. Among those was Dingbats of Danger Street which ran in the sixth issue of 1st Issue Special. It's the third and final entry by Kirby in the series and in many ways his weirdest. The titular "Dingbats" are four young men ("Good Looks", "Krunch", "Non-Fat" and "Bananas") who live as a small gang of sorts on Danger Street, a part of an unnamed city which seems especially loaded with wild characters and zany criminals. They are not affiliated in any way but a cop named Lieutenant Mullins crosses their path and attempts to help them out from time to time. In the debut story two villains named "Jumping Jack" and "The Gasser" are running amok after stealing some tiny film canister. The film itself doesn't matter, only that the Dingbats come into possession of it and the villains are more than willing to kill to get it back. 

This story was produced when DC suggested that Kirby partner with is old colleague Joe Simon to fashion a new kid gang for the modern world of the 70's as they had done with great success in the 40's and 50's with Newsboy Legion, Boy Commandos, and Boys Ranch. But the two men didn't really want to work together anymore and so each created his own version of a modern kid gang. Simon knocked out three issues of The Green Team with artist Jerry Grandenetti and Kirby did three issues of Dingbats. Eventually Simon's work was published in a manner of speaking Cancelled Comic Cavalcade, but the two remaining Kirby Dingbat stories were not because frankly the artwork was apparently stolen and today is believed to exist in private collections in Europe. 

But the folks at Twomorrows Publishing had access to Kirby's copies and from those finally at long last published the two long-lost Dingbats of Danger Street tales just a few years ago in 2019. Those two tales focus on the background of two of the Dingbats. We learn that "Good Looks" lost his parents when they were murdered before his eyes by the villain "Snake-Meat". The second  Dingbats tale shows how he gets a measure of justice at long last. The third and final Dingbats tale concerns "Krunch", the strong man of the team and we learn that he is related to a devious man named "Birdly Mudd" who wants to imprison the youngster so that Mudd can have full access to rich estate. Krunch is able to escape his Dickensian trap and return to his friends on Danger Street. More stories featuring "Non-Fat" and "Bananas" were conceived but best evidence is they were not produced.

But we are lucky to have these Kirby classics. The Dingbats of Danger Street isn't the best comic Kirby ever produced by a longshot, but the three stories are fun and full of vim, vigor and excitement. Next time it's another superhero revival and the artist is none other than Steve Ditko. 

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