Retro Comics are Awesome

[Dominic]

They killed modern Lois?

All they need now is a time-shift of some kind to get rid of "Truth", and all DC needs to do is make a decision about how much pre-"Flashpoint" Superman history to keep, and they can extirpate a little of New 52.

[andersonh1]

They killed modern Lois?

She dies in the same way that New 52 Superman did at the end of Superwoman #1. Now whether that will stick is another story... this is comics, after all. But yeah, for the moment she's dead. Solicitations have already shown the other Lois Lane moving back in at the Daily Planet, so if that happens the older versions of Superman and Lois will be even more integrated into the current universe.

[andersonh1]

In flipping through the Batman omnibus I just bought, I have to say that some of the art restoration is very poor. Thick lines, loss of detail, letters that aren't always distinctly seperated... it's not very clean artwork. I'm fairly sure there's been no new work done since this art was first restored (and I use that term loosely) for the early Archives, back in the early 90s. It's a shame, because it's a definite distraction. But I doubt DC is going to spend the time and money to re-do artwork that's already digitized and ready to go, with the exception of Detective Comics #27, which they cleaned up for the special release last year. While it's good to have these stories available to read, I wish they'd gone back and put a little more work into them.

I think in the pre-digital days, DC would actually take pages from an original comic and physically bleach out all the color, leaving only the linework. That linework would have to be retouched by hand.

[andersonh1]

Since "The Night of the Monster Men" is currently running through the Batman and the Nightwing books, I thought I'd go back and check out the original story, which DC is clearly homaging with the current crossover.

Batman #1, 1940
"The Giants of Hugo Strange"

This is the second appearance of Hugo Strange, and the story opens with him breaking out of prison, where Batman had put him last time. He and his thugs kidnap a number of men from the insane asylum, and soon monstrous giants who look to be about 12 feet tall begin appearing in Gotham City. It doesn't take much to figure out that Strange has transformed the kidnapped inmates, and Batman is on the case. The police can't stop the giants, who seem to be bulletproof, but Batman follows them to their hideout using the Batplane. He's captured almost immediately, and not only does Hugo Strange gloat about his plan and strip Batman of his utility belt, he injects Batman with the same formula used to transform the men into giants, telling him it takes about eighteen hours for it to really take effect. A giant then knocks Batman out and he's locked up.

He wakes up 17 hours later, escapes, gets two of the giants to fight and kill each other and manages to find an antidote before his time runs out. When Strange tries to stop him, he punches him out a window and over the cliff into the ocean. That's pretty ruthless, Batman. But Batman is not done. He takes the Batplane and follows the moving truck heading for Gotham that has Strange's thugs driving it with giants in the back. "I hate to take a human life," Batman says, "but this time it's necessary" before machine gunning the van and forcing it off the road, killing the men inside. One giant escapes, and Batman catches him around the neck with a rope and lifts him into the air, strangling him. "Poor guy, he's probably better off." Batman muses.

The final giant is finished off in a scene homaging King Kong, as the giant climbs the Empire State Building to try and get to the Batplane, but a well aimed bit of machine gun fire by Batman causes the giant to fall to his death.

So... if you've ever wanted to see Batman go on a killing spree, this is the story for you. At least he feels bad about it, so that makes it okay (to quote HISHE). Robin is absent from the story, despite being introduced the month before in Detective Comics and despite appearing in the other stories in this issue of Batman. It's easy to see where the modern story borrows from this story the idea of Hugo Strange experimenting with humans to produce monstrous creations, though he's literally producing monsters rather than giants this time around. His goal in the old story was simply to keep the police busy while his thugs robbed banks, though it's yet to be seen what he's up to now.

[andersonh1]

The omnibus reprints of old material keep coming. I'm glad to see it.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/11/03/ ... big-books/

Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus Vol. 4 Hardcover – May 30, 2017 $75

Green Lantern: The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 1 Hardcover – March 7, 2017 $100

With Green Lantern, it looks like this volume combines the previously published volumes 1 and 2, which covered issues 1-45 already. But there were complaints about the thin paper in volume 1, and the too-thick paper in volume 2 (which I agree with, since I own both), so I guess now that the bugs have been worked out they want to present the material in a better light. I'll probably skip this one and wait for volume 2, which should cover the rest of the Silver Age. I think it's amazing that the entire Silver Age GL could fit in two volumes, but the same is true of Justice League of America.

[andersonh1]

I keep meaning to post reviews of some of the DC Archives I've read, or more recently the omnibus collections. I posted some capsule reviews of the Golden Age Starman archives elsewhere, so I thought I'd post them here. For any of you who remember the 90s Starman series fondly, this is where it all began back in the 1940s, though obviously the original Starman with Ted Knight was a product of its time, and was a far different series than the 90s Robinson-written series.

Starman volume 2 where the writers really start to break up the formula and take the character in different directions. Early stories almost always follow the same pattern:
- Crime/disaster happens
- FBI chief Woodley Allen is pressured to solve it, and so he calls in Starman
- the call always happens while Ted Knight/Starman is out with his fiancee Doris Lee, so Ted fakes being sick. "I'm a sick man, Doris!" She's typically disgusted with him.
- Ted flies off to meet Allen in a disused shack where Allen fills Starman in, and Starman heads out to solve the crime.

Ted Knight out-Kents Clark Kent. I kept wondering why Doris would stay with him, much less agree to marry him, and the writers do give some reasons later on. In one story she says she feels sorry for him, and in another she mentions that he's normally a lot of fun when he's not having one of his fainting spells. Maybe we only see the two of them together in the worst circumstances, and the rest of the time they're pretty happy together. Who knows?

Adventure Comics #77 - Finders Keepers - the Mist escapes from jail thanks to his inviso solution, and goes on a crime spree where victims pick up what they think are lost valuables, only to be mentally dominated by the Mist and forced to steal for him. His hideout is in an old lighthouse on the coast, and Starman cracks some ribs and nearly loses his life while busting up the Mist's gang and capturing the villain. It's a shame to see the Mist go from a villain motivated by a grudge against the US Government to just another common thief, but otherwise it's a good story that sees Starman struggle a bit, and it's elevated by a super-villain rather than just thugs for Starman to fight.

Adventure Comics #78 - The Little Man Who Wasn't There - an invisible thief steals from three individuals in a very public manner. Starman is baffled, because "invisibility is impossible"... despite the fact he just fought the Mist last issue! I checked, and we've switched authors between stories, from Gardner Fox to Alfred Bester, so that would explain the continuity gaffe. Starman gains a (thankfully temporary) kid sidekick, Mike Muggins, who gets in the way and gets the two of them captured, but turns out to be useful in the end. And there was no "little man who wasn't there", it was the three people stealing their own valuables and pretending to be robbed.

Adventure Comics #79 - The Tune of Terrific Toby - I love this fun little story, where a much-maligned meek little man named Toby decides to fake a bomb scare so he can look like a hero, and get some respect. And it works... everywhere he goes, people cheer him. But his conscience starts to bother him since he knows he's a fake, and so he enlists Starman's help to become a genuine hero. In the end, he helps Starman bust up the "soup gang" and earns his hero status.

Adventure Comics #80 - The Time Machine Crime - Another story opens in media res as Starman has been captured by some crooks and his gravity rod taken. The crooks take him to an old abandoned mine to kill him. Of course the mine is not only NOT abandoned, a reclusive inventor who has built a working time machine lives there. What are the odds? The crooks decide to take the time machine, but do they sell it and make millions? Nope... they look for some smart guy from the past to help them pull off better crimes. And who do they pick? William Shakespeare of course! "Bill" is tricked into giving them a few ideas, but in the end Starman is able to recharge his gravity rod by jumping in a well (don't ask) and putting an end to the crime spree. These thugs never have much imagination, do they? This is Jack Burnley's final story drawing Starman, sadly, and I think the final page of the story isn't him. He's among the best of the Golden Age DC artists, no doubt about it.

Moving on through Starman Archives vol. 2, after Jack Burnley leaves we get Mort Meskin for a couple of issues. His loose, animated style is a distinct contrast with Jack Burnley, but it's not bad art by any means. After he leaves, Emil Gershwin takes over the strip for a number of issues, and he's sort of in a middle ground between Burnley and Meskin. The stories move away from the high adventure of the earlier book and into stories with "star" themed plots. Ted Knight is outright acknowledged as an amateur astronomer for the first time, and the plots revolve around astronomy, or astrology, or even "wishing upon a star". Woodley Allen and Doris Lee's presence begins to be minimized, though they don't disappear entirely, and the stories take on more of a "human interest" angle as well, which I think makes them a little more engaging, or at least engaging in a different way. Ted's "sick spells" are toned down, and I think in fact it only happens once in these three stories, though Doris mentions them. With Ted's interest in astronomy and a story about his interest in a school of which he is an alumni, the writing starts to turn him into a more rounded character outside of his Starman persona, and it's a welcome change.

Adventure Comics #81 - Starman's Lucky Star - A young man impresses an astronomer with his knowledge about the stars, and earns a chance at a formal education and a prize telescope. The boy turns out to be blind. Present in the audience is Ted Knight, aka Starman, who is himself an astronomer, and he goes to see the boy in his Starman guise. Meanwhile some crooks get their horoscope read, and decide that it's a good day for a kidnapping, so they attempt to kidnap the blind boy's rich friend, only to take him instead. When Starman goes to rescue him, the boy is shot, only to find that the gunshot happened to hit a nerve that cured his blindness. Seems like a million to one chance, but the poor kid deserved a break, so I can live with the unlikely but happy ending.

Adventure Comics #82 - Hitch a Wagon to the Stars - A young boy named Jim Hart is canoeing when it tips and he's afraid he's going to drown. He's rescued by a girl who tells him that "the stars control our fates", leading to a lifelong belief in astrology for Jim. He won't do anything unless his horoscope says he can, disappointing friends and family alike. The belief almosts costs him his future marriage as his fiancee walks out on him when he won't marry her until the stars allow. Ted Knight decides to convince him that he's mistaken, and when he fails, he decides to try as Starman. Jim has been working on a machine to detect submarines at sea, and in the course of the story, Nazis arrive to steal it and kidnap him as the inventor. In freeing him, Starman helps him see that he doesn't need to be bound by his horoscope, and he moves on with his life.

Adventure Comics #83 - Wish Upon a Star - Ted Knight and Doris Lee are visiting Ted's old boy's prep school, when he hears three boys talking about their problems. Telling them to "wish upon a star" that night, he arrives as Starman and promises to do what he can to help each of them out. One boy's brother was framed for a crime, one boy's father needs an operation, and the third boy's father is a surgeon that has lost his nerve. Over the course of the adventure, involving a very vain criminal, Starman is able to help all three wishes come true. Doris chides Ted for looking so pleased, because "Starman helped them, not you!"

More Starman! These short stories are a breeze to read through. My daughter always makes me do my (bad) Brooklyn gangster voice when reading the bad guys to her. We get more star-related themes that have become the norm, including a story based around an observatory and another Zodiac crime.

One of these stories refers to Starman as "the Dark Knight" in the opening narration. Batman's lawyers will be calling soon.

Adventure Comics #84 - The Doom From the Skies - At a Mount Palomar observatory stand-in, some astronomers are exulting over the massive telescope, when a green beam "from the stars" kills them all. News spreads, and people are terrified about the death from the sky and won't go near the place. All except Starman, of course. Ted Knight, in his New York apartment, goes to retrieve his gravity rod from the wall safe and finds that it's missing. He shrugs it off, thinking he misplaced it, and uses his backup rod to head to the west coast. He's struck by the beam from the observatory and crashes to the ground, where he's found and taken in by a local farmer, suffering from temporary amnesia. Of course it's all a plan by some crooks to set up the observatory as a base which people are too frightened to approach. Starman regains his memory and flies to confront the crooks, only to learn that his missing gravity rod had been stolen by a burglar, who realized what he had stumbled across and used it to pull off this whole scheme. (Reminds me of the George Reeves Superman episode where the burglar finds his Superman costume in the hidden closet). The story ends with the gang busted up and Ted having a new burglar proof safe installed.

Adventure Comics #85 - The Constellation of Crime - A gang of crooks follows the lead of an astrologer boss and uses the signs of the Zodiac to pull off crimes. Reminds me of the Batman episode where the Joker does the same thing. In any case, Starman is on to the crooks fairly early in the story, and we get the old classic "Ted pretends to be sick when summoned by Woodley Allen" routine that we haven't seen in awhile. After an encounter in the villain's lair and a confrontation between Starman, a lion and some scorpions (in which Starman does not use his gravity rod, oddly) Starman uses his fists to bust up the Zodiac gang.

I'm starting to appreciate Emil Gershwin's artwork on these Starman storylines. Jack Burnley was a great artist, but Gershwin deserves more credit for his well drawn faces and compositions. He's really doing a nice job with these stories, and while he's not as dynamic as Burnley, he's a good illustrator who keeps up the quality.

Adventure Comics #86 - The Moonman's Muggs! - Daredevil Dennis Towns attempts to break a land and water speed record, wiping out both times and barely surviving. Undeterred, he announces that he'll now try for spaceflight, and he's going to fly to the moon. He takes off and vanishes into the sky, only for a voice to sound through the atmosphere announcing that Towns has earned death, and that the Moonman will have his revenge. Ted Knight is dubious, and decides to investigate. He follows the radio waves using the gravity rod, but they cut out before he can trace the source. He's then caught up in a series of building collapses which are apparently the Moonman's revenge. Of course, as always, it's crooks with a gimmick. They're using an old tunnel system that dates back to the Revolutionary War to collapse buildings to cover robberies, and the Moonman is none other than Dennis Towns, who lost a ton of money gambling on his speed record attempts, after which he turned to crime to try and make it back.

Adventure Comics #87 - Crime Paints a Picture - An art school opens in Gotham, but as they evaluate potential students, they turn away talented artists and end up accepting bearded would-be painter Axel Elgren, who is terrible at art. Ted Knight and Doris Lee go to an art exhibition and wonder at just how bad the paintings by Elgren are, only for Ted to spot gangster Dan McGraw among the artists. Suspicious, he investigates as Starman, and in the end he learns that it's all a scam to transport stolen jewels inside the canvas and frame of the paintings. The crooks wanted a bad artist so only their fence would buy the paintings.

[andersonh1]

With these three stories, we're playing musical artists again. It's good to see that Ted has a life beyond just going places with Doris and pretending to be sick.

Adventure Comics #88 - The Enigma of the Vanishing House - Ted Knight is out fishing, and having no luck. He reads in the newspaper about another boat vanishing, and wishes he could capture the Nazi sub that's doing it. He heads out as Starman and becomes involved with an FBI plot to do the very same thing, as well as being captured by the Nazis, who use an empty house on a hill to conceal a hidden refueling pipeline out to sea.

Adventure Comics #89 - The Plundering Planets! - I had not realized it, but this is the third returning villain for Starman after the Light and the Mist. The Sun was the leader of the Moroni gang from Adventure Comics #76, the final story from Starman vol. 1. The Sun escapes from prison, and re-forms his old gang with the Moon and Saturn. They set out to steal a large emerald from John Wilcox, a millionare friend of Ted Knight and Doris Lee. Wilcox has two children who he lets run wild, thinking it's good child psychology that will teach them initiative. Ted thinks they need a good spanking. The boys end up captured by the crooks, before helping Starman capture them.

Adventure Comics #90 - Land Beneath the Fog! - A throwback story to an early type of Starman tale, once again we find Ted Knight alone and engaged in some sporting activity. This time he's mountain climbing, and he finds a message from Barbara Mercer, who is being held prisoner in "the land beneath the mist", apparently in one of the remote mountain valleys. Starman goes there and finds a medieval society ruled by Sir Bors, who is about to burn Barbara at the stake. Starman steps up as her champion and wins the fight, setting her free. In a nice touch, the two of them decide that even though they're free and clear they can't leave yet in case some other poor soul stumbles across the hidden valley. So Starman uses the gravity rod to convince the inhabitants that everyone from America can do magic.

Moving into the final issues of Starman's original run, the art is still pretty good, and the stories, while fairly standard crime busting fare, have enough human interest elements to make me care about the resolution. Man, there are a ton of jewel thieves in Starman's world though.

Adventure Comics #91 - The Rising Star of Johnny Teach - And we're back to another individual who thinks he's a failure because of the horoscope on the day he was born. Or rather, that's what his father believed, and he instilled that belief in Johnny, who goes on to barely scrape by in school and has trouble holding any job down, including dishwashing. A chance encounter with some fleeing crooks and Starman convinces Ted to take an interest in him. Starman convinces Johnny to infiltrate the gang that's been robbing jewelry stores lately, impressed by his quick thinking, and Johnny helps Starman break them up, restoring his confidence in himself. The idea is simliar to the one from issue 82, but the actual plot and resolution are different enough that while it starts out feeling like it will be repetitive, it ends up being a much different story.

Adventure Comics #92 - The Three Comets - Ted Knight takes in a circus, and while he's enjoying the acrobats, someone shouts out that they've been robbed. Ted changes to Starman and then helps calm the crowd. Convinced that it's an inside job, he helps the police search the circus for the stolen jewels, but no luck. After some detective work and a foiled robbery, Ted learns that he was right about the acrobats being the thieves, and he is able to recover the jewels as well.

Adventure Comics #93 - Gifts from the Stars - There's another nice glimpse into Ted Knight's social life beyond Doris as he accompanies his friend Dr. Faraday in a request for funding for his astronomy. He's turned down by Hubert Marsden, a rich man with a supposedly uncrackable safe. Faraday is angry at being turned down because "his astronomy is worthless", so to prove a point, he decides to use all his knowledge to crack the safe, and he succeeds... only to be accosted by a gang of crooks who had tried and failed to burgle that very safe the night before. Starman foils the robbery, and Faraday confesses what he had done. He isn't jailed, and he is given the grant he asked for, but Starman hopes he won't turn to crime again, even as a joke.

Ted Knight has lots of friends, most of them related to his astronomy hobby. I know this was the 40s, and characters were underwritten, but these glimpses into Ted's life beyond Doris and Starman are the type of thing that needed more development. The friends are largely utilitarian, serving as plot devices more than anything, but they still help make Ted Knight into a more human and more sympathetic character than the guy who plays sick and ditches his fiancee so he can go play superhero. Speaking of Doris, she's in none of the three stories I just read. I went and checked at GCD, and her final listing as a character in a story is for Adventure Comics #89, while poor Woodley Allen is last listed in #85.

As for all of the creative and industrious crooks in these stories, one wonders how well they'd do if they put that energy and imagination into making an honest living. But then who would Starman fight? I guess it's just as well that they're dishonest.

Adventure Comics #94 - Stars Fell on Allie Bammer - Ted is out observing a metor shower with his friend Allie Bammer, while some crooks try to figure out how to get over the wall and into the estate to rob it. They hit on the idea of disgusing themselves as meteors and flinging themselves over the wall. Yeah. Starman takes very little time to figure out the scheme and even less time to put at end to it.

Adventure Comics #95 - The Professor Plays Safe - Ted's colleague, the near-sighted Professor Barnes, is on the way to an astronomy convention, but he's forgotten his glasses and can't see very well. He ends up at the wrong convention, where he is mistaken for another man named Barnes, who has invented an uncrackable safe. He's accidentally trapped inside, and while he's in there, some crooks steal the safe to try and figure out how it works and how to get in. Ted goes looking for his missing friend, figures there could be trouble, and switches to Starman. He is able to track the crooks down and beat them in a fight. The gravity rod melts through the steel, freeing Barnes and saving him from suffocation. This is a fun little story, and the absence of star-related gimmicks helps.

Adventure Comics #96 - Prediction for Plunder - Another "Starman frees a friend from his belief in horoscopes" story. This is the third variation on this theme, and it's just about played out by this point. Ted Knight goes down to the hidden publishing office of the daily horoscope that has depressed his friend and convinces them to send him a happier prediction. Meanwhile some crooks plan to rob the publisher, unaware that he's the author of the very horoscope they're using to guide their crimes. Starman fights and drives them off, but the crooks decide that their horoscope tells them to be persistent, so they go back. They're suprised that Starman hasn't left yet and are easily captured.

I'm getting near the end of this Archive, and of the Golden Age adventures of Starman, and while the quality has remained fairly good, the strip has "become small", to borrow Ethan Van Sciver's terminology. Starman started out with events on a grand scale, with nationwide electrical problems or earthquakes, and Ted Knight was living in high society and mixing it up with the FBI chief as Starman. By this point however, it's almost all petty crime or small-scale human interest stories. Starman's fictional career is much like the real life comic... it starts out with a bang and slowly dwindles away to a rather small scale series of events. Dont' get me wrong, I'm still enjoying these more than I expected to. But it's definitely not the high stakes adventure strip it was in the beginning.

I think Joe Samachson and Emil Gerhwin handle the writing and art respectively from here until the end of the series. Gershwin is still a good, solid illustrator, but he doesn't seem to put the time or effort into the art that he did in the beginning. Still, the art for this series remains more illustrated than cartoony, and is miles ahead of a lot of contemporary superhero art in other books.

Adventure Comics #97 - Stolen Glory - Young Jimmy Wells graduates from college with dreams of becoming an astronomer, but he has no prospects and no money. He approaches fellow graduate Wesley Vanderloot for a loan, but Vanderloot has a business proposition for Jimmy. He'll fund him, but any discoveries are to be credited to Vanderloot. Wells does all the work, Vanderloot gets the rewards. Wells agrees, and the arrangement goes on for many years, until Vanderloot worries that Wells will spill the beans at some point and destroy his reputation. He decides he needs to kill Wells. Ted Knight enters the picture when Vanderloot gives a lecture at an astronomy convention, but can't answer some simple questions when he goes off script. Ted investigates, and Starman has to make an appearance when Vanderloot's hired thugs try to kill Jimmy Wells and Ted Knight. Good story.

Adventure Comics #98 - Twin Stars of Crime - One gang of crooks is committing a series of crimes, while planting evidence to make it look like another gang across town is guilty. It takes Starman awhile to work all of this out, but an astronomy lesson from a colleague gives him the idea that leads to solving the case. He ultimately captures the crooks by using the gravity rod to collapse the roof beneath their feet.

Adventure Comics #99 - My Fortune for a Star - I kept hearing the radio ads for Rocky Moselle and "Star Registry" while reading this story, in which astronomer Jonathan Warner, who needs cash, discovers a new star, and offers to sell the rights to the name to the highest bidder. Ted Knight thinks this is a bad thing, and the stars should be free of the commercial interests that are so prevalent elsewhere, and as Starman he tries to reason with Warner. Meanwhile a publicist for a struggling actress decides that the thing she needs to boost her image is to have a star named after her. When Warner says he already has a high bidder in the form of wealth Mr. Helgisdorf, the publicist turns to the Purple Mob gang to try and force the issue, leading Starman to put an end to the gang's activities.

And with these last three stories, I've reached the end of Starman volume 2. Emil Gershwin doesn't even seem to be putting in more than a minimal effort on the art any more, and the small page count has definitely hurt the stories. There's no supporting cast, and Ted Knight seems to be little more than an amateur astronomer these days. However, I do appreciate the attempt to maintain a theme throughout the series, that of star-related storylines. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but regardless, it gives the series a consistent tone that is appropriate to the character. Even with generic crimes, there's a bit of uniqueness to the story since they're tailored to Starman and to Ted Knight as an astronomer.

Adventure Comics #100 - Life and Death of a Star! - This was one of the first Starman stories I ever read. I found it over on a blog named "Four Color Shadows". The premise really does stretch credulity, even for the Golden Age. A friend of Ted Knight has discovered a new star, but when Starman goes up to investigate, it's a light bulb on a balloon, which a criminal gang is using to transmit messages to fellow crooks in the local prison by means of blinking it on and off. Starman gets in a brawl with them, but loses and is tied up on the roof to be shot as soon as they're done with breaking their friends out of prison. Shouldn't have left him alive boys.... he overpowers the guard, regains his gravity rod, and is able to wrap up the case. Ted's friend is later disappointed that the new star he discovered has vanished.

Adventure Comics #101 - The Sun Spot Scoundrel! - Professor Riggler publishes a theory that sun spots are responsible for crime as they wax and wane, and may even knock out Starman's gravity rod. Turns out it's all a plot by the professor's assistant to cover up his crimes and provide himself with an alibi. But he confesses within earshot of the professor, and his crime spree is over.

Adventure Comics #102 - The Meteor Mob - 7 pages doesn't leave much room for complex plotting, so maybe the end of the series is a mercy in some ways. A mob uses man-made meteors to smash into buildings they want to rob, and as an astronomer, Ted knows that most meteors burn up in the atmosphere, so something's not right. He's able to bust up the gang with little trouble.


And from the Black Canary Archive, we have a few Silver Age Starman/Black Canary team-ups that James Robinson would use for a few of his plots.

The Brave and the Bold #61 - Mastermind of Menaces - 19 years later, Ted is still into astronomy and working to improve what he here calls his "cosmic" rod. No sign of Doris Lee. He and Black Canary, now married to detective Larry Lance and still running her florist shop, mix it up with the Mist, who hypnotizes people into bringing him their valuables by means of the flowers from Dinah's shop. The story reminded me of "Finders Keepers" from Adventure Comics 77, since the Mist used hypnotism and invisible thugs there as well. I think Gardner Fox wrote both stories, so he certainly keeps all the characters consistent, even with the passage of time. Murphy Anderson must have had access to the first Starman issue of Adventure, because several of the panels introducing Starman are exact copies of panels from that story. It's a fun story, and it must have been nice for readers who remembered the characters to see them again after all that time. The plot benefits greatly from having a full length issue and multiple lead characters to build the story around.

The Brave and the Bold #62 - The Big Super-hero Hunt! - Golden Age villains the Sportsmaster and the Huntress are now married and still up to their old tricks. It's handled with a light Silver Age touch, but I like the idea of two super-villains falling for each other. Black Canary ends up taking on Sportsmaster after he robs a gathering that her husband's detective agency is supposed to be providing security for, while Ted Knight hears a call for help and discovers Wildcat has been subdued by the Huntress, who wants to add him to her collection. The art by Murphy Anderson is still very strong, and while the story is pretty much a runaround, the mix of three superheroes and two villains is a good one. Poor Wildcat is very much the "damsel" in distress, apart from slugging it out with a kangaroo and a polar bear. I'm not kidding.

[andersonh1]

Another Golden Age character who got a series in the 90s was the Sandman. Not the Neil Gaiman version, but the original. The Sandman is Wesley Dodds, one of DC's oldest characters, who was first published about the same time that Batman made his appearance. The character had no superpowers, and no superhero costume for that matter. He was a lot like the Crimson Avenger or the Green Hornet: a rich man who fought crime at night with weapons of his own making. In the Sandman's case, it was a gas gun, and he would put the villains to sleep with sleeping gas of his own invention, and he would sprinkle sand as his "calling card". DC has not reprinted all of the 1940s Sandman, but there's one Archive volume, and one Jack Kirby volume from later on when the Sandman had been turned into a Batman clone, complete with superhero costume and kid sidekick, so a good portion of his stories are available. I prefer the older gas mask and business suit Sandman, when he's sneaking around in the shadows to the later version.

The Golden Age Sandman Archives vol. 1

New York World's Fair Comics #1
Sandman at the World's Fair

Wesley Dodds, officer of and heir to the Dodds-Bessing Steel Corporation's vast holdings, has invented a new "ray gun". He is displaying the model at the World's Fair against his better judgment, while at the same time delivering the plans to the government. Dodds and Evarts, president of the Dodds-Bessing Corp, meet Agent George Henry and go over the plans. Wes has an uneasy feeling, so he surreptitiously hides a key part of the drawings. The power goes out, and the plans are stolen in the confusion, minus the key component drawing that Wes had hidden. Henry vows to track down the plans, but Wesley Dodds also gets involved as the Sandman. He investigates and is able to determine that the man he met was an enemy agent, while the real George Henry had been captured and imprisoned. It turns out that Evarts had sold the plans to the fake Henry because he needed the money. Sandman knocks everyone out with his gas gun, and leaves them to the real Agent Henry to clean up.

- Sandman wears an orange suit in this story rather than a green one, though when he's investigating the boat on which the enemy agents are hiding, he strips down to a swimsuit and his gas mask, as well as a harness for his gun. Sandman is almost unique among superheroes in that he wears actual normal clothing, with the exception of his cape and gas mask.
- WW2 propoganda creeps into the series well before the US got involved, as Wesley refers to US government offices as "hallowed halls".
- His very first story, and Wes Dodds is established as very technologically savvy, and he's inventing new weapons, something that would come back to bite him much later on.
- I really like the sequence before Wes goes to mix up his sleeping gas (which has a nice aroma, according to some thugs who get hit by it later). There are four or five silent panels of Wes in his home, acting pensive and thoughtful, and leaving a tiny doll version of "Mr. Dodds" on his bed as he heads out to work.
- There's no origin story here, and no motivation is given for why Dodds is a vigilante. He's a rich inventor and businessman who has, for whatever reason, chosen to spend his nights fighting crime.

Adventure Comics #40
The Tarantula Strikes
July 1939

Actress Vivian Dale is kidnapped by the Tarantula, and a ransom of $500,000 is demanded for her safe return. The Sandman investigates and finds that she's being held in her own home, an old house with hidden rooms and passageways. He tricks the Tarantula into shooting at his hat and cloak which were left on a chair, and hits him with the gas gun, leaving him for the police to find.

Adventure Comics #41
On the Waterfront
August 1939

A ship off the docks is the base for Wing, a captain dealing in illegal narcotics. A man comes aboard for a fix and is denied because he doesn't have enough money. When he threatens to go to the police, Wing and his thugs kill the man and dump him overboard. This is witnessed by Janice Blue, a local reporter. When Wing tries to kill her, the Sandman gets involved. He spends the remainder of the story trying to keep her alive while figuring out a way to turn the tables on the drug dealers, which he finally does. The crooks are left for the police, and Janice is delighted with the story she has for her newspaper.

Adventure Comics #42
The Three Sandmen
September 1939

Wesley contacts two old Navy friends, Happy O'Shea and Clyde Dunlap, because some other friends have died under mysterious circumstances. Wesley suspects that Teeter Sneed, another former acquaintance from their Navy days, is behind the deaths. Sneed had been discharged for crimes, and had sworn revenge. The three men all put on gas masks and cover up any identifying marks on their airplanes, calling themselves "the three Sandmen". They secretly trail their friend Steve Weber, and when his cargo plane is attacked, the three Sandmen take on the attackers in a series of aerial dogfights and shoot down the planes. A few of the attackers survive and are captured, while Sneed dies when his plane crashes.

- The series is still nailing down just what genre it belongs to. Out of four stories, there's a espionage story, a kidnapping/ransom/enemy vigilate story, a crime story featuring drugs and murder, and now a aerial combat/murder story.
- This is early in the superhero genre so the conventions haven't been established yet, but the whole "secret identity" idea is turned on its head here, as all three men put on gas masks and call themselves "the three Sandmen", and Weber knows full well who the three pilots who saved him must have been
- Wesley Dodds was in the service six years ago, in the early 1930s, so he's ex-military. That explains where some of his hand to hand fighting skills come from.

[andersonh1]

Adventure Comics #43
Island Uprising
October 1939

Wes is vacationing, having flown his plane out over the ocean and landed on an island. No sooner has he done so than a woman runs from the jungle toward his plane, only to be shot with an arrow by some natives. Wes kills them both, then treats the wound before putting on his Sandman mask and deciding to investigate.

The story then introduces a whole group of characters on the other side of the island, concerned about the missing girl, named Australia. Several of the men head out into the jungle to find her, only to be captured by more of the natives. The natives are being duped by Red Hatch, the real villain of the story, who wants to kill everyone on the island. After urging the natives to attack the rest of the characters, who have barricaded themselves in a storehouse, the attack is broken up by the Sandman, who sprays everyone with his sleeping gas from his plane. The chief kills Red Hatch for lying to them, and Sandman warns them he'll be back if they don't stop the killing.

- This is an odd story. Not only does it start in media res, but the Sandman only appears at the beginning and the end, and feels very much like a guest star in his own series. And it has nothing to do with crime at all, which is the character's usual genre. The story almost feels like one of those "in-series pilots" you see on TV, where guest characters take over a show for an episode in the hope that they can be spun-off into their own series.
- On the other hand, the reminder that Wesley Dodds is a pilot is a nice touch.
- As in several of these stories so far, sometimes it's the gas mask and gas gun alone that make up the Sandman costume.

Adventure Comics #44
The Sandman Meets the Face
November 1939

Wes is at home one night when he hears someone breaking into his upper-floor window where the man demands money. As chance would have it, Wes knows him. It's Billy Winnslow, an old acquaintance, and the two men have a long conversation about Billy's life. He's fallen into bad company, working for "The Face", a crime boss. A policeman arrives having received a call about a break in, but though Wesley Dodds insists that it's a mistake, Billy recognizes the policeman as the Face in disguise. The Face shoots both men, and while Billy is killed, Wesley survives the attack. It takes him weeks to recover, but once he does, he goes on the trail of the Face as the Sandman. He finds the Face and a henchman engaged in planning to steal Billy's land holdings. Sandman is able to knock out the henchman, but the Face escapes by means of a railway handcar. Sandman gets ahead of him and knocks him off a railway bridge to his death.

- The page count increases, and the writer changes. Suddenly Wes is no longer an executive, but another wealthy playboy in the mold of Bruce Wayne.
- The art style noticeably changes as Bert Christman has left, and Creig Flessel takes over.
- Wesley Dodds lived in Hilltown as a boy, where he knew Billy
- The Sandman is now wearing a green suit rather than an orange one.
- I guess murdering the crook is easier than capturing him, eh Sandman? Or maybe it was meant to be payback for the Face attempting to kill him earlier in the story. Either way, it's an example of early DC writers having not a lot of problem with their characters killing, something that would definitely change.
- This is the first time Wes is shot during a case. It won't be the last.

Adventure Comics #45
The Golden Gusher
December 1939

The Sandman is hiding at a nightclub, prepared to stop the rumored kidnapping of singer Gloria Gordon. The Sandman hides in her dressing room to await any attempt, but overhears that the whole thing is a plot to rip off the insurance company with faked kidnappings. He kidnaps her himself to force the whole plot out into the open, and cooperates with the police (who are normally trying to arrest him) to bring her and her husband to justice.

[andersonh1]

More Golden Age Sandman. Other than needing some variety in the type of crime he fights, this remains an above-average Golden Age series in terms of art and character interaction. I do think it's bizarre that at some point the character completely changes from a man in a suit and a gas mask, putting criminals to sleep, to a guy in yellow and purple tights with a kid sidekick who criminals fear from their dreams. The whole look and concept completely changes.

Adventure Comics #46
The Sandman Meets with Murder
January 1940

Wes Dodds and his friend Dudley "Dud" Jones get together to talk over old times, and decide to pay a call on another old friend, Charley Hall, who has since been married. The two go to their apartment. No one answers, but Wes spots some blood on the floor and returns as the Sandman to investigate. It's all tied into murder and a counterfeiting scheme, and Dud turns out to be "The Coin", the mastermind behind the whole deal. He had used Wes to try and establish an alibi, but in a philosophical mood, Wes thinks that fate had other ideas with the blood that ran under the door.

- another old friend of Wes Dodds has turned to crime. In a sense, Wes is an outlaw himself. It makes you wonder about the environment these men grew up in!
- The Sandman really should know better than to turn on the apartment lights rather than use his flashlight. It was pretty obvious it would come back to bite him.

Adventure Comics #47
Lady in Evening Clothes
February 1940

The Sandman goes to the DA and delivers a bullet from a murder scene that the police had been unable to find. Returning home to get some sleep, he locks his gas mask in the wall safe. Waking up after hearing a noise, he discovers someone has broken in. Surprisingly, it's "the Lady in Evening Clothes", Dian Ware, professional safecracker, who knows Wes Dodds is the Sandman. She's being forced to work for Bill Trent, and had hoped the Sandman could help her get out of her obligation to him. The Sandman and Dian manage to get evidence not only on Bill Trent, which they turn over to D.A. Belmont, but also proof that Dian is his daughter.

- Wes is back to being a "steel magnate" here, though how that balances with him being a wealthy playboy is hard to say. Maybe he's gone from being a working executive to being a board member or something. It's not really the type of question that Golden Age stories dwell on, but I enjoy working out the small details that define a character.
- Dian is a great addition to the cast, and I love that we're able to avoid the whole "my girlfriend must not know my secret identity" storytelling convention. Like the Flash, the Sandman's girlfriend is in on the whole deal from the start, and it adds to the storytelling possibilities.
- Wes gets shot again, and spends a week recovering.


Adventure Comics #48
Death to the D.A.
March 1940

Dian is convinced that her father is in danger, so she gets Wes involved. There are multiple suspects, and in the end all of them are involved in the various attempts on the D.A.'s life in one way or another, but thanks to Dian and the Sandman, Belmont survives them all.

- Once again, the Sandman's gas mask doubles as a diving mask, letting him breathe underwater when he rescues Belmont from the first attempt on his life.
- I'm still a bit amazed that Wes unmasks in front of the D.A., and that Belmont has no problems with his newly discovered adult daughter being involved with a masked vigilanted. And he even offers Wes a job as a detective!
- Wes and Dian flirt shamelessly. It's fun to read.

Adventure Comics #49
Common Cold - Uncommon Crime
April 1940

Wesley Dodds is on the street giving money to a beggar when he witnesses a man fall dead, apparently struck by a car. The man was not hit though, and Wesley notes the "cripple" running off. Suspecting foul play, Wes trails him and learns where he lives. Later reading the paper, he notes that the man who died was an assistant to Dr. Lovejoy, and he was not the first. Deciding this is more than a coincindence, the Sandman investigates what turns out to be a murder plot so the crooks can get to Dr. Lovejoy and get his cure for the common cold that he's invented. The two assistants were murdered with black widow venom.

- We finally get a motivation for Wesley Dodds. He has "turned to fighting crime and criminals for the thrill of adventure and a desire to aid those too weak to aid themselves". He's also a "young athlete" as well.
- The plot kicks off with the coincidence of Wes just happening to be in the right place at the right time to witness Dr. Lovejoy's assistant murdered. Out of all the people in the city, the killer is unlucky enough to kill the man in front of the Sandman! What are the odds?

New York World's Fair Comics #2
The Sandman Goes to the World's Fair
1940

Slugger Slade decides to get back at D.A. Belmont for putting him in jail by kidnapping his daughter Dian. Dian is at the World's Fair with her Aunt Agatha when she is captured, and when the crooks call the D.A., he turns to Wesley. Wes investigates and talks to Aunt Agatha, who had the presence of mind to snap pictures of the crooks who kidnapped Dian. Wes recognizes Slugger and knows just where to go to rescue Dian. All is well, and he and Dian enjoy the sights at the World's Fair.

- Wes flies to the World's Fair, so someone remembered that he's a pilot. I always expect continuity to be fast and loose in Golden Age comics, so I appreciate it when it isn't.
- The gas gun fails Sandman when he needs it, so he's forced to use his fists more than usual until he can unjam the trigger.
- Aunt Agatha is a feisty old lady. She snaps pictures of the crooks and she gets on the parachute drop 52 times in one day. Wes is impressed.

Adventure Comics #50
Tuffy and Limpy's Revenge Plot
May 1940

The Sandman is driving along a country road when he sees what appears to be a hit and run incident. He chases the fleeing driver and sprays him with sleeping gas to make him pull over! Both the driver and the hit and run victim are dead, apparently shot, and the Sandman calls the police. He then finds Dian waiting in his home, where she tells him that a couple of hoods her father sent to prison are out and looking for revenge, and they had actually killed the two men Wesley found, staging it to look like a hit and run accident. The Sandman rescues the D.A. and manages to keep the police from learning who he really is.

- The Sandman is shot again! This time it's in the shoulder, and he spends the rest of the story tracking and fighting the crooks with a bullet lodged in his shoulder. The fact that he's shot so often seems surprisingly realistic for someone who goes up against men with guns like the Sandman does. His abillity to recover isn't as believable, but these are super hero comics.
- His relationship with the police is a little unclear. On the one hand, they'd still like to arrest him and know who he is. On the other hand, when he calls in the accident, it's the mention that he's the Sandman that makes them wake up and pay attention. So is he still considered a criminal, or is he not?
- D.A. Belmont seems not to know who he is, but he just saw his face a few issue back!
- I love the little details in this story, such as the panel where the Sandman mentions leaving the accident so the police don't find him. He's sitting outside a gas station in that panel, which is a nice touch. His "powerful car" can go 150, and the police motorcycle can't catch him. And his car is registered in Dian's name so the police can't trace it to Wesley Dodds, something Dian finds quite amusing.

Adventure Comics #51
The Van Leew Emeralds
June 1940

The story picks up with the Sandman already active in tracking down the stolen Van Leew Emeralds, and recovering a pawn ticket from the pocket of a suspect. He's on a deadline for a date with Dian, so he goes home, removes his costume so that he's plan old Wesley Dodds again, and goes to the D.A.'s house to pick her up, and then rather than going to dinner as planned, the two of them investigate the case. After some misdirection and a trip out to dinner after all in order to fix their alibi, Dian and the Sandman finish the case on a yacht in the bay with the crooks captured and the emeralds returned to their rightful owners.

- I think this is the Sandman story that was reprinted in The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told.
- Dian is a well-drawn, attractive woman, especially in her formal evening wear for her date with Wesley. Craig Flessel made this fictional character look good, I have to say. And the rest of the characters are well drawn and often posed dynamically as well, with some nicely composed panels. Anyone who thinks Golden Age comics always have poor or cartoony artwork has clearly never read the Sandman.
- Another jewel robbery makes for a less than compelling plot, but it's the character interaction between Wes and Dian, and the plot twists that make this one a solid story.
- The Sandman does more sneaking around and investigating than fighting, which is as it should be.

Adventure Comics #52
Wanted! Dead or Alive
July 1940

Dian is playing the piano for Wes when they hear a noise upstairs and go to investigate. A burglar has stolen a pair of her gloves, but inadvertantly left behind an amber apple, giving the Sandman a clue. It's all a scheme to commit a gold robbery and frame Dian, but the Sandman is able to retrieve the one glove, and then the other from the evidence locker at the police station, then capture Claudia Norgan, the head of the gang.

- As a former safecracker, Dian is a natural fit as someone to frame for a robbery. The story never comes out and makes this point, but it does fit the character's history.

Adventure Comics #53
The Loan Sharks
August 1940

A man is beaten half to death for not repaying a loan, and the Sandman gets involved in the case because he hears him calling for help. Sandman goes directly to the loan shark's office, beats up his thug and tells him in no uncertain terms to get out of town. Seeing in the paper that a man has been killed by the loan shark's thugs, Sandman goes to the murdered man's home, captures the man who killed him (who was confronting the widow in her own home) and drops him off at the police, listening in as they interrogate him. Sandman attempts to take down the gang by himself, only to get captured by the gang. He tries it a second time, and by using a bit more stealth and his gas gun, is able to subdue them and leave them for the police.

- One of the things I like about this character is how vulnerable he is. When he uses stealth and puts people to sleep, he does fairly well. When he tries to take on five or six thugs in a slugging match, he gets hit on the head and loses the fight. I think this character works best when he's using stealth rather than being a brawler.
- On the other hand, the story puts Wesley's aggressiveness down to being more angry than usual over the treatment of "the little guy" by the loan sharks, so he seems to have let his emotions get the better of him on this adventure.

Adventure Comics #54
Case of the Kidnapped Heiress
September 1940

Wesley and Dian are at a coming out party of Dian's friend Nana, who must marry within a year to get her inheritance. She's kidnapped, but Wes and Dian give chase in Wes's "high powered car". They force the other car off the road after the Sandman leaps on the running board, and while Sandman fights the kidnapper, two other thugs spot Dian and Nana together and take the opportunity to kidnap both and demand a ransom. Wes goes to the DA and obtains help in the form of police officer Jim Holt, who knew Nana and is glad to help rescue her. The two of them go to wait for the ransom call so they can find the girls and rescue them. In the end, some months later, Jim and Nana settle down and get married, and all ends well with Wes teasing Dian about crying at the wedding.

- I think this is, what, the third story where Dian is kidnapped and used against D.A. Belmont? I think the writer is overusing that particular plot device.
- The auto chases in these stories make me think of the car chase scenes we might see in a James Bond film, with high speeds and dangerous stunts. They'd translate pretty well to a live action format, and would probably be better suited to that than the static comic book. Other than Batman, not too many of these Golden Age heroes incorporate car chases into their stories, so it does make this character stand out a bit more.
- I like the unusual team-up between the Sandman and Jim Holt. It's good to see him play off a different character.