Gorilla Daze

Action Comics #500, October 1979

Just been re-reading this celebratory tome from 1979. Beneath the fine Ross Andru/Dick Giordano cover is a 64-page story written by Marty Pasko and drawn by Curt Swan (of course!). The plot sees the opening of a new Superman Pavilion at the Metropolis World’s Fair. Naturally enough the Man of Steel is in attendance to act as guide for the very first tour. As the public is led through the various rooms, we see events from Superman’s life as his memories are triggered by the displays.

A specially-created device allows Superman to probe deeply into his subconscious and recount his days on Krypton. As the planet explodes, Superman cries out in pain at his terrible loss. Later, there’s a wonderful moment when he recalls his adventures with Krypto and explains that, until the mutt’s arrival, no one human could understand the “little things” about being super: “The feeling of the wind on your face… or the sound bullets make when they bounce off living flesh.”

As the plot unfolds, it’s eventually revealed that the whole Superman Pavilion thing is a setup by Lex Luthor to tap into Superman’s brain and use the memories therein to create a perfect clone. Thus prepared, the clone is sent to replace the Man of Steel while the real hero is kept powerless under the light of a red sun. This state of affairs doesn’t last long however, and soon Superman has managed to free himself and switch off the red sun lamp. Luthor, rather brilliantly, is dispatched with a mere flick of a super finger, and Superman flies off to defeat the clone.

All in all a wonderful celebration of a milestone event: the first American comic to reach the magic number 500. While Swan’s art is not the strongest, and hampered by Frank Chiaramonte’s lazy inks, it does the job, and there are some great moments, such as the aforementioned “super-flick”. Marty Pasko, however, does sterling work, using his theme-based scripting techniques to get inside the head of the Man of Steel, asking the question, how would it feel to be super, knowing you were all alone in a world of inferiors?

This was a comic I longed to read when I was a kid. Giant-sized issues of anything were not distributed in the UK in the late-70s, so all I had to go by were the numerous ads in other DC books. As such, it was one of the first comics I sought out as a back issue once I finally had access to comics shops in the early-80s. And I wasn’t disappointed. Action #500 is a great read.

Cover ©2008 DC Comics

Say what you like about the lat-’60s, but it was truly the golden age of the overly wordy ad!

Come to think of it “The secret of Batman’s spectacular equipment” is a phrase ripe with innuendo, eh readers..?

©2008 DC Comics

Another wonderful ad from 1968 — was that the golden age for house ads I wonder? The art comes from the ever-reliable pencil of Neal Adams. DC Special was an all-reprint title that ran themed issues; sometimes a particular artist was featured, more often it was a particular subject. It also acted as a kind of try-out title on occasion, with both Wanted and Strange Sports Stories debuting there.

Robby Reed tells me that the ad was the creation of letterer extraordinaire Gaspar Saladino.

©2008 DC Comics

A, er… dynamite ad from 1968. Not sure that fare such as Date With Debbi or Sugar and Spike really come under the ‘dynamite’ heading, but each to their own I guess.

©2008 DC Comics

Superboy #183, March 1972

This fairly bizarre comic is an early attempt an ‘Elseworlds’-type scenario. The tale, by writer Leo Dorfman and artists Bob Brown and Murphy Anderson, asks the question what would have happened if the rocketship from Krypton had landed not in Metropolis, but the jungle.

The answer, apparently, is that Superman would’ve grown up to be a flying Tarzan in a blue vest and red trunks! Hey — it could happen.

Having found the crashed rocketship, a group of gorillas claim baby Kal-El as their own. Called “the hairless one” by his hirsute brethren, Kal is none too pleased with his lot and one day uses his heat vision to fashion the Kryptonian blankets from the rocket into a snazzy new outfit. He christens himself “Karkan the Conqueror”.

As he starts flying around the jungle doing super-deeds, the gorillas come to realise that “the hairless one” is not like them. Later some trappers arrive and begin rounding up young animals, including baby gorillas. Due a misunderstanding Karkan helps the trappers, earning him the ire of the gorillas — including his surrogate mum. Oops.

The trappers stumble across the rocketship and quickly realise that Karkan is not of this world. They decide a flying alien raised by gorillas might just be a better draw than a baby giraffe, so decide to trap him instead. And they succeed using a Kryptonite rock they handily find. A female trapper, Toni, falls for Karkan’s manly charms and teaches him rudimentary English: “Me Karkan, you Toni” etc…

When Toni is attacked by a jealous fellow trapper, Karkan loses his cool and smashes up the trappers’ boat. All the baby animals are freed, but the gorillas reject Karkan. Left alone with Toni, Karkan flies off to find his destiny. Oh, and he discovers sex — so all’s well that ends well.

The cover is by the incomparable Nick Cardy.

©2008 DC Comics

Fabulous full page ad for the all-Supergirl reprint issue of Action Comics (#373), which was cover-dated April 1969. The cover itself was by regular super-artist Curt Swan, with inks from relative newcomer Neal Adams.

©2008 DC Comics

During the events of the aforementioned Superman #307, Clark is accosted by a flame-haired young lady called Terri. Now, I’ve not seen her before so I don’t know if she was a regular character at this point in the Superman comics. I find it amusing, though, that the self-confessed “TV star groupie” finds that hunk of a man Clark “yummy!” much to the consternation of Lois.

Seriously, there’s much for the gutter-brained to read into this little exchange. Ooh, Gerry, surely you’re teasing us…

©2008 DC Comics

Superman #307, January 1977

Yep, in this Neal Adams drawn cover young Linda Danvers has only gone and dropped the bottled city of Kandor! Gone, smashed into a gazillion pieces!

This was a rather wild issue, one of the last before DC revealed the brand new DC bullet logo the following month. Written by Gerry Conway and pencilled by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, it mostly concerns the Man of Steel going up against a brand new super-villain called the Protector. The Protector… er… protects, naturally enough. No surprises there. No, the surprise comes when you learn that the Protector’s raison d’etre is to protect pollution!

Yep, got an oil spill you don’t want cleaned up? The Protector is your man.

Well, I said it was wild.

It gets even wilder later on when Superman declares war on polluters everywhere because he doesn’t want Earth to end up like Krypton. He then goes on an one-man crusade to rid the world of supertankers.

Then, things get wilder still: Supergirl reveals that Superman’s crusade is all for nought as he doesn’t actually come from Krypton after all! No, he, and Supergirl, are actually mutants!!? Well, y’know, Marvel was hitting it big with mutants at the time in the revived all-new X-Men, so why not have the world’s first super-hero also turn out to be homo superior? To bring home her point most forcefully, Supergirl proceeds to smash Kandor, revealing it to be nothing more than a plastic model.

The tale is “to be continued”, so I’m guessing things might not be all they seem…

Inks here are by Frank Springer and I can’t say he’s a good fit for Garcia-Lopez. Put him over Frank Robbins and it’s a match made in heaven. Over Garcia-Lopez? Not so much.

©2008 DC Comics

A dazzling example of the DC alphabet. Gosh, it’s just like watching an episode of Sesame Street, isn’t it? While I have a full set of Creeper, I’m not familiar with Anthro. Written and drawn by a certain Howie Post, it’s one of those things on my list of things to buy. I picked up a few issues of Bomba at the recent Bristol convention and it turned out to be a remarkably fun comic. Drawn by Jack Sparling it’s a joy to behold, and features the adventures of a sort of teenage Tarzan-type character. The stories are typically bonkers, but Sparling uses some innovative layouts to keep things moving swiftly along.

©2008 DC Comics

Many moons ago (HERE in fact) I took a look at the first issue of Brother Power, The Geek, and one of these days I really must get around to reviewing the second and final issue of this… ahem… magnificent folly. Joe Simon’s finest hour it was not.

Anyway, here’s the house ad for that initial outing of comicdom’s very first perambulating — not to mention freedom-fighting liberal — shop dummy. Totally bonkers!

©2008 DC Comics