Ditko's Get Smart!

Get Smart was a spoof which had much fun at the expense of the super-spy fad of the 1960's which had been kicked off by the James Bond movies and television shows such as The Man from UNCLE and The Avengers. Agent 86 was Maxwell Smart, a clumsy secret agent portrayed by Don Adams. The show was a product of the minds of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. As was their wont, Dell Comics attempted to adapt the successful series to comics. And during that brief run, two issues of the comic book were drawn by Steve Ditko. 
 

At the time Ditko was working with Sal Trapani who was arranging work for himself, Ditko and Dick  Giordano at various outlets, Dell being first and foremost among the publishers seeking talent. The trio had produced Nukla for Dell and now here was Ditko trying his hand at comedy as can be seen by the interior cover one-pager above. Get Smart was a very brief stop in Ditko's journey after he left behind his great Marvel work. I'm not aware that this material has ever been reprinted. I'd love to get hold of it at a reasonable price. 

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Atomic Reactions - Nukla!

Nukla was one of Dell's unsuccessful attempts to tap the supehero trend of the 60's. Perhaps more than any other publisher, the folks at Dell seemed to lack all sympathy with the superhero concept, and so they mostly farmed out the few attempts they had to others, notably folks who often worked for Charlton. Nukla is the work of Sal Trapani, who along with his esteemed brother-in-law Dick Giordano and Steve Ditko fashioned the four issues of Nukla. Veteran writer Joe Gill was tapped to supply the scripts, a situation which is somewhat ironic since he along with Ditko had fashioned Captain Atom, the hero who Nukla is clearly based on.

To give Nukla a 60's cachet, he is C.I.A. agent Matt Gibbs, a U2 spy plane pilot,  fitting him directly into the political fabric of the age. He caught in a nuclear explosion and as usually happens in comics survives and in fact is transformed. Always preferring to wear his stylized pilot's uniform he gives off a vaguely military feel in the four issues of his comic which have him battle spies and maniacs across the globe. 

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Rocket Riders And Bulleteers!

Getting all that power between your legs has lots of implications, many of which I will not be exploring. But the cowboy bronco buster is an iconic American image and to attempt to translate that image into the modern world, we find a great number of cartoon characters astride rockets and missiles and all manner of ballistic entities. It's a symbol of man's attempt to control technology and consequently his world, but at the same time shows just how precarious man's control of these great energies really is.

Whether it's Kirk Alyn as Superman atop a missile with a smile on his face in a sky-high frolic in the serial Superman,

Or Slim Pickens as Major "King" Kong riding a nuclear bomb in a nihilistic joyride to oblivion in Dr.Strangelove, the image of a man atop such a device tickles the deep imagination of us all.

Even The Three Stooges evoke a sense of adventure when they ride a rocket in Have Rocket, Will Travel. 

Here are some comic book covers which play around with this imagery in some entertaining and sometimes thought-provoking ways.

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