Dojo Classics - The Newsboy Legion Volume One!

Reading Simon and Kirby's Newsboy Legion stories from the pages of 1942's Star Spangled Comics is a refreshing break from the more modern comics reading. No cosmic spectacle, no flourishes of the ultra rich as they use their leisure time to battle crime, but merely low octane fables from the grimy streets of Suicide Slum. Will Eisner gets proper credit and praise for the noir atmosphere of Central City which was filled with denizens of many kinds, but I want to give a shout out here to Simon and Kirby as they give us a rich tapestry of street level life lived by some of the poorest. Kids who dispense justice on the edge of their bony knuckles and adults who seem to be either mired in or overlooking the poverty which defines the territory of these adventures.

The Newsboy Legion seems clearly inspired by the Dead End Kids from many many movies from the 30's and 40's and beyond. The four Newsboys are Gabby - the short dark haired youngster who has a stunning similarity to Richard Nixon, the good looking Tommy - who is sometimes referred to as the leader of the team though I don't seem to get that sense in any of the stories, Big Words - the tallest and oldest member who to my eye is probably at least in part based on Joe Simon himself, and Scrapper - who seems clearly to a combative version of the diminutive Jack Kirby. I got the sense that Big Words and Scrapper were who the Simon and Kirby team were and perhaps the handsome Tommy is what they ideally aspired to be in this imperfect wprld we live in. The four orphans of Suicide Slum get into legal trouble and need the help of beat cop Jim Harper to become their guardian, though his responsibility to the boys seems a little meager on a day to day basis. It's in his secret role as "The Guardian" a rockem' sockem' mystery man who ignites the boy's imaginations as they seem convinced Harper is the hero but aren't ever able to prove it.

The Newsboys have a pretty good reputation in the streets of Suicide Slum and often stand up for the adults who suffer there, distant from the politicians and swells who sometimes rumble down those same streets. Most of the time there are small time gangsters (straight out of the world of Damon Runyon) who sweep up the boys in some scheme and it's up to the Guardian to help them out. The Newsboys are brave and loyal and it's this final trait which helps explain the popularity of the series I think. The gang is true blue to one another and their absolute devotion to one another (sometimes strained by circumstances) seems always to win out. It's a comaraderie that most if not all the boys who read the series would have loved to have been part of.

Joe Simon says in the introduction to the first volume of the Newsboy Legion stories that they grew from an abundance of Boy Commandos material. In anticipation of the duo joining the war effort there was a push to create stories in advance and according to Simon, so much material that it was determined that it was prudent to create another gang of boys for some of it, and so was born the Newsboy Legion. Obviously there was a formula for these kid gang comics, one which Simon and Kirby first implemented with Young Allies at Timely before they contracted with DC. Later they'd apply the formula to Boys' Ranch and Boy Explorers and even aspects of it seep into later individual works like Challengers of the Unknown, Fantastic Four, as well as later material such as The Dingbats and The Green Team. 

It's worth noting that the last few issues in this volume feature art by Gil Kane and not Kirby, though Kane is attempting to evoke the free wheeling style the strip has begun with. Likewise as the series continued the artist Arturo Cazeneuve takes the helm with assists on cover art by Fred Ray, Curt Swan, and others. There is a second volume of these stories coming out later this summer and I do plan to get hold of it to check out what becomes of the original Newsboys, despite the tiny amount of Simon and Kirby content.

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First Issue Special - The Green Team!

The Green Team by Joe Simon and artist Jerry Grandenetti is a offbeat offering in the second issue of 1st Issue Special. In this issue we meet the four young fellows who are members of this elite outfit, which is comprised exclusively of millionaires with a yen for adventure. 

The story is told in a somewhat fragmented form as we first meet Commodore Murphy a young shipping magnate who is the leader, J.P. Houston an oil tycoon who adopts a cowboy affect, Cecil Sunbeam a hot Hollywood movie director and Abdul Smith, a black shoeshine boy who is able to convert a banking error in his favor in a brand new fortune. These four adopt a uniform and stuff their pockets with cool cash and set out to have fun in the world. Their mission in this issue is to see that "The Great American Pleasure Machine" is built despite the rumblings of a corrupt labor leader named David D. Merritt. The complex whisks one away and they utterly transfixed with entertainment for days and days and days. Other forms of entertainment, including comic book heroes, feel threatened. (Sounds like the internet to me.) 

It's difficult to know what Simon is saying in this story which has a finale that appears to contradict the set-up, but this is the only published issue. As always Grandenetti's artwork is stunning and fluid and dynamic. 

The tyros of course remind any veteran comic book fan of Richie Rich, another youth who grew up rich and who filled his eternal days with adventures. These are four teenage millionaires who wear trippy jumpsuits filled with cash and fly the globe looking for thrills which will apparently momentarily dissolve the ennui which dominates their existences. These jet-setting one-percenters are every boy's dream and their superpower is cold hard cash. 

In the face of the many hard-scrabble kid gangs Joe Simon concocted with his once-upon-a-time partner Jack Kirby, these millionaire mopes are hard to love. Lacking the brashness which attaches to upstarts like the Newsboy Legion's Gabby or the Boy Commandos' Brooklyn, this team is a gaggle of over-soaked haves who evoke no sympathy and precious little empathy. (In fact it was from some pressure from DC that both Simon and Kirby created new boy teams, Simon with this Green Team and Kirby with his Dingbats of Danger Street which will show up later in the 1st Issue Special run. More on this when I cover that team next week.) 

Two more issues of The Green Team were "published" only in the technical sense in Cancelled Comic Cavalacade #1. DC revived The Green Team some years back during the "New 52" era and though in fairness I've never read an issue, they appear even less likeable than their Bronze Age inspirations. It's not fair of course to hate the Green Teamers for their money, that would be just plain jealousy. But it's hard to root for these overdogs, and that's just the way it is. I have a general rule to never feel sorry for millionaires. They of course have many if not most of the problems the vast majority of mankind faces, but then they have at least a million dollars to help them cope with it, so there.

After two brand new projects from two of the comic book world's most celebrated creators the next issue of 1st Issue Special will revive a fan-favorite superhero -- Metamorpho the Element Man. More on that later. 

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Dojo Classics - The First Teen President!

Prez The First Teen President collection from DC is pretty much a must get for yours truly. When Jack Kirby joined the ranks of DC in the 70's, his partner of many years Joe Simon had already been doing work for them, mostly teamed with the distinctive and evocative Jerry Grandenetti.

Simon had produced the weirdo Brother Power The Geek series which ran a whole two issues in the late 60's and in 1973 he teamed up with Grandenetti to give us the adventures of the first teenage President of these United States--Prez Rickard.

In one of those outlandish and now quite laughable attempts by the veteran comics talent of the time to tap the vein of teenagers and twenty-somethings, an increasingly important demographic in the comics market (the children were largely abandoned to Harvey and Archie), we get this sometimes painful effort. Grandenetti's artwork is the draw for me, I love his energetic artwork which crackles across a page in sometimes unexpected ways. But in this series Joe Simon's story accomplishes more than it should, thanks in large part to the unusual power of the core concept. The potency of youth culture was dominating the world pop culture world of the 70's as attention slipped from the fading war effort overseas to economic woes at home.

I have all four of the Prez issues which hit the stands. I've often kept them close to my Kamandi collection by Kirby. Weirdly I think they both are attempts to offer up a caustic eye to both youth culture and the larger one which often seems so absurd when its foibles and flaws are exposed. Both Kamandi and Prez strike that vein, though of course Kamandi did it much more successfully. (On another note, I just realized that on most of the covers Prez's sidekick Eagle Free shouts out the threatening situation for the reader's benefit.)

I do not have the unpublished fifth issue which did get some meager distribution in the second volume of Cancelled Comic Cavalcade.

The second issue was one of just two which gathered together material from many abruptly cancelled series to iron out some legal niceties.

I also do not have Prez's single crossover appearance in the Bronze Age in the pages of Supergirl. This tale written by Cary Bates should be a real hoot. Here is a glimpse.

And since I've never ever bought and/or read a single issue of the Neil Gaiman's Sandman, it goes without saying I've never seen any of Prez's appearances in the Vertigo universe.

And that includes his one-shot comic by Ed Brubaker and Eric Shanower. Shanower discusses this comic here. I'm looking forward to getting into this volume, it should be enlightening to say the least.

Also included are several pages from Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Strikes Back.

And there is this from Grant Morrison's Multiversity Handbook. It seems in some corners, Prez occupies an exceedingly groovy Earth.

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First Issue Special - Atlas!

At the end of his run at DC back in the 70's, Jack Kirby was attempting to fulfill the terms of his contract and get out from under what had become a rather disappointing time in his career. He'd come to DC with such promise and vigor and had his dreams of a multiple formats and sweeping epics killed by short-sighted editorial controls. So it's very surprising that something as vigorous as Atlas really came from his hand at this time. Atlas appeared exactly one time, in this debut issue of First Issue Special and then was heard from no more...for a very long time. 

Frankly I've always wondered if John Mileus and the folks who made Conan the Barbarian movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger had seen this comic as Atlas and his epic world always put me in mind of that classic flick, which came several years later. You have a young man with enormous powers who sees his family and entire tribe killed or stolen in front of his young eyes by a villain with a dominant snake motif. The boy grows up to be a dynamo in and out of the gladiatorial arena and eventually confronts the villain who destroyed his family and his home. That's all the story we have from Kirby, but it sure sounds familiar doesn't it.

James Robinson got hold of the Atlas idea many years later and made the mighty figure an opponent for Superman of all people. I have to confess being tempted by these comics at the time, but my dread of modern comics in general forestalled me, and I'm glad now that I waited to pick up the trade collection of that four-issue storyline.  I have to say it's a lackluster outing. Atlas is stolen from his own mystical land and transported to the modern DCU to become a magical force against the Man of Steel. Who does this and why is obscure in this four-issue run that focuses on the battle between Atlas and Kal-El and as it turns out Krypto the Superdog too. It must've been murder to wait for these issues to dribble out as this is what amounts one long battle sequence stretched over four installments, which in real comics time was nearly a quarter of a year. I read the whole thing in about fifteen minutes total. This is why I've given up on modern comics many years ago. 

But it was nice to at least see Kirby's Atlas up and kicking, even if they've taken the somber giant and transformed him into a somewhat befuddled and bitter monster of a man. I'd only recommend these issues to Kirby purists, who like me want every gram of the King's work they can afford. Otherwise it's a curiosity you likely can let go of.

 Above is a wonderful bit of Kirby art featuring Atlas. Below is the house ad made from it.

And here is the TJKC cover from it.

But while Atlas fell into minor oblivion, 1st Issue Special lingered on a bit longer in 1975 and 1976. 

More coming on the second issue featuring The Green Team soon. 

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Showcasing The Fourth World!

It's that time of year, the time when I once again enjoy traveling into the magnificent "Fourth World" created by Jack "King" Kirby for DC Comics way back fifty years ago when Kirby broke from Mighty Marvel and sought greener pastures where he might garner the credit and remuneration for his work that he rightly felt he deserved. Kirby's foray began in the humble pages of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen but soon required new titles to contain the epic. At first the New Gods was to be yet one more entry in the long and properly celebrated list of DC creations that had first flowered in the pages of Showcase. But then it was decided that Showcase had done its work and so New Gods actually took its place on the schedule with a sparkling new number one issue. 

DC after many decades of neglect has collected the "Fourth World" titles many many times in more recent years. In paperback they have in the last several seasons put the titles out individually as opposed to presenting them as one sprawling saga. I hope to read and reflect on each of the fourth "Fourth World" titles as the month of August rolls on. Look for my reflections on Saturdays. 

I will also be consulting as I read through the King's masterpiece the new tome from Twomorrows -- Old Gods and New - A Companion to Jack Kirby's Fourth World by John Morrow who might just worship the New Gods a bit more than I do actually. Great material all assembled in one place. I'll also be checking out the Twomorrows volume Kirby & Lee: 'Stuff Said! which documents in a detailed timeline the many and varied quotes from these two great men of comics about their legendary history together and apart. 

During the week I plan to take a very close look at the individual comics that first appeared under the title of 1st Issue Special. This mid-70's title took the place of Showcase for a brief time, but during that tiny tenure offered up some tasty morsels for the Bronze Age comic book fan. These stories have recently been gathered and reprinted by DC. Several of these efforts were the handiwork of Jack Kirby or Joe Simon. Simon too had shown up at DC and while his efforts met with somewhat less success in the marketplace are still a great deal of fun since he worked closely with one of my favorite talents -- Jerry Grandenetti. Also in the 1st Issue Special run there are comics by Walt Simonson, Ramona Fradon, Bob Haney, John Rosenberger, Mike Grell, Robert Kanigher, Steve Skeates, Al Milgrom, Mike Vosburg and many others. 

Showcase returned to the stands in the later 70's for a short time and later gave its name to DC's delightful black and white reprints of some of their niftiest stories. Among those series collected in the Showcase Presents line was Showcase itself, or at least the first twenty-one key issues. I want to take a look at these important comic books. 

"The Sunday Funnies" will feature an old friend as Hal Foster's Prince Valiant returns to the Dojo. The gallant knight of Camelot and his family have grown, and during the 1960's important shifts in the storytelling begin to take hold. Also since Hal Foster was one of Jack Kirby's greatest influences it's only proper to include him this month. 

Finally on my television screen I'm currently enjoying the Total TeleVision productions cartoons. This outfit, brought together originally for General Mills advertisements was closely associated with the Jay Ward team which brought out Bullwinkle and Rocky. The TTV team gave us Underdog, King Leonardo and his Short Subjects, The Hunter, Tooter Turtle, Klondike Kat and one of my all time favorites Tennessee Tuxedo and his Friends. It's going to be a fun month. 

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