Go Check Out

A new blog focusing on the Charlton and the Mighty MLJ Heroes. I have touched briefly on the Charlton heroes the Question and the Blue Beetle, but I have not covered the MLJ heroes like the Fly, the Web and the Jaguar, all of whom were active in the Silver Age. There are very interesting posts over there highlighting some similarities between the two sets of characters. I laughed out loud when I saw how the Web convinced IronFist that there was no fun in being an "ultra-villain" anymore. Now that's unique!

Happy New Year 2010!

"I feel that you are justified in looking into the future with true assurance, because you have a mode of living in which we find the joy of life and the joy of work harmoniously combined. Added to this is the spirit of ambition which pervades your very being, and seems to make the day's work like a happy child at play." - Albert Einstein
"No, life has not disappointed me. On the contrary, I find it truer, more desirable and mysterious every year ever since the day when the great liberator came to me: the idea that life could be an experiment of the seeker for knowledge and not a duty, not a calamity, not trickery." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Today I just wish to say, Thanks & Happy New Year!

After few hours, 2009 is going to end. I was thinking about 2009 tonight.

Mix feelings: A year of up & down, joy & sorrow.

I wanted to see this year ended, may be  since very first week of  2009. There were lot of  expected & unexpected problems in personal life & blogging. Love & support of  family and friends had helped to come over.

Tonight I felt, I'd miss this year always. Because, I understood the real value of happiness this year only. Get acquainted with many  GOOD persons.

Now less richer, but more friends & more happier.

Today no comic in this blog. A little break. We worked hard, all of us- I mean visitors also. I was horrified myself checking numbers of posts (2009) in my all 3 open blogs only.

So friends,

 

Hey, you are still here. Please enjoy with family & friends.

If you couldn't satisfy without comic, then visit after some hours my Indrajal Blog.

Once again

Number 658


The prince in the pool


Something I like a lot about John Stanley's stories is the fantasy element. His Little Lulu stories really soar when his imagination is let go. Unlike Tubby, who had an hallucinatory childhood, seeing ghosts and hobnobbing with little men from Mars, Lulu had her feet on the ground and didn't usually go off into flights of fancy until she had Alvin as an audience.

"The Prince In the Pool" originally appeared in Marge's Little Lulu #11, from 1949, but I scanned it from the 1959 Dell squareback, Little Lulu and Alvin Storytelling Time #1.

In "Prince" Lulu becomes a Dickensian character, the poor little girl, so poor she is turned away from the poorhouse; she is cold-heartedly told to live in a doghouse. But the dogs turn her away, too. Now that is poor!








Happy New Year, everybody. I'll be back January 1 with a special #1 issue.

#290. Goldie Comics:#01 Buz Sawer in Who Dunit

Many of us get acquainted with Buz Swayer through Indrajal comics. Did you read this one?

Another rare presentation by Ajnaabi. Enjoy!

Mediafire Link

Superboy #123

As I have mentioned in the past, if DC had two top stars prior to the arrival of the Batman TV series in 1966, they were Superman and Superboy. Superboy held down two series in that era; his self-titled magazine and Adventure Comics, much as Superman and Batman had their own series and Action Comics and Detective Comics respectively.

But really there was no comparison between Superboy and Batman. Superboy regularly outsold Batman by about 150,000-200,000 copies per issue, as did Adventure over Detective. Of course, the way things developed Batman became a huge star, and Superboy (at least, Kal El) mostly faded away in the comics, possibly because DC's ownership of the character is tenuous at best.

This particular issue was (briefly) the oldest comic in my collection. As I have mentioned I first really started collecting comics in 1968, although I had a few issues left over from the start of Batmania in 1966.

The opening story is An Untold Tale of Superboy, called There Is No Superboy. The tale takes place in that brief period of time after Superboy's existence was known to the people of Smallville, but not the world at large. He travels to the nearby (but old western) town of Gulchdale, where the local sheriff needs some assistance. As it turns out, some outlaws from other states have taken up residence there, but the sheriff is frustrated in his attempts to run them in because:

The humor in the piece comes because the local residents have never heard of Superboy, so they do as crooks would in the Golden Age with Superman:

As it turns out, Superboy is cooperating with the sheriff to get a total of 25 prisoners in jail, because the governor of the state has promised a new jail if he can get that number. And although the crooks had not broken the law against attempted murder (because Superboy was invulnerable), they had violated many other ordinances:


Comments: Entertaining tale playing on the unknown Superboy, which arguably makes it a very early story in the Superman chronicles. Of course, Superboy is played as a teenager, which conflicts with many Silver and Golden Age Superboy tales where he was show as an early adolescent at the oldest.

The second story features Ronnie Vayle, in When Krypto Was Sold. We learn that Vayle's money doesn't buy him friendship:

But it buys just about everything else, from his imported cloth jacket to his 25-jewel watch. So Clark and Krypto decide to teach him a lesson. Clark shows off his amazing pet:

Which Ronnie, needing the best in everything, offers to pay $100 for. Krypto starts giving him lessons:

Which cures him of his habit of driving too fast. And when he brags about how brave his dog is, Krypto pulls him in front of some chained elephants:

Krypto uses a sound amplifier to let Ronnie know what other people think of him: spoiled and conceited. And he resolves to change his ways:

And, thanks to the sound amplifier, he hears some crooks breaking into Smallville High to steal the school athletic fund. He tries to stop them but they knock him out, and Superboy and Krypto foil the robbery, but let Ronnie take the credit:

And in the end he gives "Spot" back to Clark, showing that he has indeed learned his lesson.

Comments: A nice little morality play; there were quite a few stories about rich brats being brought down a peg in the Superboy canon. I particularly liked that Krypto got to be the agent of change in this story.

The final story in the issue is the cover feature, and it's definitely a wild tale. It starts back in Egypt, with the weakling son of the local magician, and his gal pal, Neferti, daughter of the Pharaoh. Ahton, the mage, consults the goddess of magic, who reveals a secret in her magic shield:

She tells him how to mix up a potion that will give him the powers of Superboy, and before you know it, Ahton's son is flying around in a Superboy costume (with the S remade as a snake). And Neferti starts acting like Lana Lang:

She consults with a rival magician as to how to get Ahton's son to fall in love with her. He gives her a magical scarab, which will doom the lad:

They both die. Ahton inscribes a warning to the Superboy of the future on their tomb, but is unable to complete his message.

Fast forward to the present day, where Clark and Lana are working on an archaeological dig for Professor Lang. They uncover the tomb shown on the cover:

Superboy finds himself subconsciously endangering Lana, and every time he saves her he gets a pain in his heart.

Lana translates the hieroglyphics and realizes she's in danger. Meanwhile, Superboy consults the shield and finds out the real truth:

Comments: Entertaining, but wacky as heck. The death of Seth and Neferti comes as something of a surprise, especially as there is no indication in the text that the rival magician paid for his part in their passing. Of course, Neferti was probably named after Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, who (by some theories) was the mother of King Tut. The art on all the first two stories was done by longtime Superboy artist George Papp, with Curt Swan on the finale. The writers were (respectively) E. Nelson Bridwell, Edmond Hamilton and Leo Dorfman.

Number 657


Pappy's advice


Yesterday we had a Blackhawk story set in the Amazon. Here's another Amazon story along with some advice. You may thank me someday. When in the jungle looking for someone if you come across a man with a pet ape, and the man introduces himself as Dr. Death, do not tarry, do not linger. Turn around and walk, no, run away from him.

The dumb people in "The Shrunken Heads of Dr. Death" would have benefited from that advice.

From Quality Comics' Web of Evil #12, 1954.

Trivia Quiz #38: Questions

This one was done Jeopardy-style with me giving the answers and the respondents supposed to come up with the questions.

1. The Hulk, Captain America and Captain Marvel.

What three characters had Rick Jones as a sidekick in the 1960s?

2. Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman.

The trick to this one is remembering that there was only one Captain Marvel during the Silver Age, and he was the "man of the Kree", not the Big Red Cheese. The question is, "What two superheroes of the Silver Age wore bracelets?

3. Superman, Thor and the Vision.

What three heroes could survive in outer space without a helmet or spacesuit?

4. Quicksilver, Johnny Quick and Dr Fate (among others).

What three heroes could fly? This was a significant difference between Quicksilver and the Flash, as Pietro discovered that by kicking his feet back and forth rapidly, he was capable of flight.

5. 25 trillion miles.

What is the distance from Earth to Rann?


Michael Sensei got #1 right. Lito S also answered #1. Jim Houston got #1, #2 and #5. Michael Rebain also picked up #5, as did Jim. Aaron Bias got #1 right. Blaze answered #1 and #5.

I'm tempted to congratulate myself for stumping you folks on #3 and #4, but looking back I think those two answers were a little too vague.

Number 656


Amazon killers!


Hope you all had a nice Christmas. I don't know about you but it's nice to get it over with. Now that I have all my presents I can stop being nice to people.

No, really. I lie. I like to be nice. I like to show you stories you might not otherwise see. My presents to you.

This last Sunday of 2009 we have a Blackhawk story from 1952, "The Root of Evil." The cover of this issue, #51, has the blurb, "Wild-Eyed Killers of the Amazon!" The art is said by the Grand Comics Database to be by Bill Ward, but the inking doesn't look to be his. It's heavy, nearly blobbing out the beautiful girl, but lucky for us, not quite.