CLASSIC ADVENTURE COMICS VOLUME FIVE, VOLUME SIX
Collecting Combat #1-10 (Dell, Oct-Nov 61 to Oct-Dec 63)
It's rare I find post-Code/non-Silver Age superhero material I really enjoy, but Combat is that unicorn. Published by Dell from Oct-Nov 61 to Oct-Dec 73, Combat was 40 consecutive issues recounting World War II battles — many of which the Allies didn't win. The stories (from an unknown writer) seem accurate from what little I know, although I suspect some skewing to make the Allies more sympathetic. (U.S. forces are referred to as "us" and "we.")
But the kicker is that Sam Glanzman does the art.
Glanzman is probably already familiar to readers of this board for his justly lionized "U.S.S. Stevens" strip for DC Comics. He brings his eye for accuracy and clear-eyed depiction of the horror of war for all of the Combat stories I've read so far. Those would be issues #1-10, recounting the sinking of the Bismarck, Pearl Harbor, the fall of Bataan, the P.T. 109 story, the North African campaign, the Raid on Regensburg, the battle of the Sunda Straight, the New Guinea campaign, the bombing of Monte Cassino and the Battle of Midway. It is some of Glanzman's best work.
Where the main story doesn't fill the book, it's fleshed out by short stories about other wars. Which is fine.
I don't know what PS Artbooks plans to do here. They could continue to publish Combat in the "Classic Adventure" series, but that would mean Combat would fill Classic Adventure through Volume 11, which seems extreme. But if they spin it off to its own title, would it start with Volume One or Volume Three? Or maybe they intend to stop here, with Combat #10, and collect other adventure stories for a while. Regardless of how they do it, though, I really hope they republish the entire run of Combat. I know I'll buy them.
PRE-CODE CLASSICS: TOR
Collecting One Million Years Ago #1 (St. John, Sep 53), Tor #3-5 (St. John, May-Oct 54), Naza #1 (Dell, Nov 63-Jan 64)
The cover to this book says it reprints Tor #1 and Tor #3-5, but my description above is more accurate. There was no Tor #1 (or #2). Tor first appeared in One Million Years Ago #1 (St. John, 1954), which became 3-D Comics for its second issue, and then Tor proper for issues #3-5. This book skips the 3-D Comics stories, but they're available in DC's 2001 Tor reprint series.
Anyway, Tor is banished from his tribe on false charges (Holy Kid Colt!) and wanders a landscape of 1 million years ago where humans and dinosaurs exist together. Tor has an inquisitive mind, unlike his fellow Stone Age people, so he not only gets himself into trouble by investigating weird stuff, but gets himself out of trouble by being clever. This concept was recycled in Turok and Anthro (minus the dinosaurs), and probably other places.
The stories aren't very interesting, but wow, that Kubert artwork is eye-popping. I have all these stories in the DC reprint series, but it was fun reading them again just for the art.
One sour note is that Joe Kubert and the writer, Norman Maurer, occasionally insert themselves into the book as framing sequences of a sort. I wish they hadn't, because their commentary is laughable where it isn't squirmingly self-congratulatory.
For example, they open the first issue with an explanation for how the solar system was formed. It's wildly wrong by today's theories -- Joe thinks the Earth was belched out of the sun -- and was probably just as wrong in 1954. Then, in a comic book that posits a caveman living with dinosaurs a million years ago, when dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, Maurer says, "Our job was to search for facts! Our work is the product of a great deal of research!" Um, no.
Later there's a groveling apology to people who think the Bible is a history book. They's received letters, Norman says, that said "we had totally ignored the belief that an almighty being actually created all past, present and future." Joe says, "If we've given this impression, it was not intentional!" Norman follows up with "We are neither trying to prove nor disprove these beliefs! Your Bible standard of present-day civilization is not contested or refuted in any way." There's more, but I will stop. Another addresses Cold War worries, by making the point that man is so awesome and dedicated to eradicating evil that a nuclear war could never happen, and this is somehow proved by Tor. Yet another addresses the rising hysteria over comics in 1954, where the duo tells us "straight from the shoulder" that Tor comics are "good, clean comics!"
They really should have kept their yaps shut. But I guess it didn't hurt them. Kubert, we know, went on to a long, successful comics career. Maurer, however, left the field and married Joan Howard -- Moe Howard's daughter. He then co-managed (with Moe) the Three Stooges until their careers ended. Maurer went on to write Stooges comics, as well as write for Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
Joe and Norman also appear in a house ad offering to teach people how to draw comics. Kids in 1954 could get their first lesson from the "Scholart Institute" for a buck. It looks like today's Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art was an idea long gestating in Joe's mind.
Each issue of Tor had a backup titled "Danny Dreams." Also by Maurer and Kubert, this featured a kid who would fall asleep and dream adventures as a caveboy, only to wake up and find vague evidence that it really happened. To quote Danny, "Gee whillikers!" But I'd rather just have more Tor.
The book is rounded out by Naza #1, which is the first issue of a 9-issue series at Dell in the early 1960s. Since this is not "Volume One," I have no idea if PS has any plans to reprint the rest of the series. That won't bother me, because ...
It's drawn by Jack Sparling. Regular readers of these reviews know that I don't care for Sparling's work. I honestly don't know how anybody -- including the Dell edtiors -- can look at this stuff and think it's good enough to publish. But here it is.
Naza, unlike Tor, lives in a normal caveman world without dinosaurs but with the animals you'd expect (woolly mammoths and the like). Above I note that Tor has mediocre stories and great art, but Naza reverses that. Naza has to go through great trials to rescue his fellow tribesmen, who have been kidnapped to become slaves by another, more advanced tribe, and is accompanied only by a wild dog that he tames. (It is presented as the beginning of man's long alliance with canines.) It's really a pretty good story.
The GCD doesn't know who wrote Naza #1, but later issues are credited to the prolific Paul S. Newman, so if I had to guess, I'd guess Newman wrote this one, too. GCD also doesn't know who drew some of the subsequent issues, but some are credited to Sparling (with inks by Frank Springer). Sparling probably drew all of them, but until PS reprints Naza #2-9 I won't know for sure.
Just the same, I'd rather have had 3-D Comics #2 instead of Naza #1, so as to have a comprehensive Tor book. I don't know what these people are thinking.
RANGERS OF FREEDOM VOLUME ONE
Collecting Rangers of Freedom #1-3 (Fiction House, Oct 41-Feb 42)
The three Rangers are the finest examples of American youth in brawns and brain, according to the first story's open, given bullet-proof suits (with short pants and caps, making them look like Boy Scouts and rendering them a lot less bullet-proof). The government united them to fight ... uh, the U.S. isn't in the war yet, so it's fifth columnists and such. There's not much characterization, but I think Biff Barkley is supposed to be the strong one, Percy Cabot is supposed to be the smart one, and Tex Russell the comedy relief (with his corpone accent and metaphors). They're all pretty interchangeable, though. And "Miss America 1941" is the damsel in distress in the first issue, gets a name (Gloria Travers) in the second issue and becomes Ranger Girl between issues, debuting in the third issue. They fight the Super-Brain, who has a giant head, genius intellect and undefined mental powers. It's pretty mediocre, but charming if you're charmed by daffy, jingoistic fistfights.
Not that it matters, because the strip will end with #5 and the book itself will end with #7. But hey, they didn't know that here!
As the lead isn't as strong as it should be, the backups are stronger than they have a right to be. The ones that appeared in all three issues:
- Royal Watch: Jock, Mac, Harry and Terry are four youths who wear British Army uniforms and have "roof patrol duty," whatever that is, in London during the Blitz. They have a tough boss, Sgt. Harkness, who dresses them down for getting into trouble like catching spies. It's a wartime kid gang, but by being British, have every right to be involved in the fight. They have a Captain Carruthers, who in contradistinction to Sgt. Harkness, is fatherly and supportive.
- Defense Patrol: An American street gang -- consisting of Pedro, Tony, Socker, Nick, Spike, Tom, Fatso and Izzy -- are recruited by Captain Thomason of the FBI to defend the home front. (Although, again, we're not in the war yet.) While Thomason and his superiors should all be arrested for child endangerment, the kids are charming enough in a Lee/Kirby sort of way (although not as well done). Is Pedro the first heroic Latino kid outside of Zorro? I was surprised to see him, so maybe. And Izzy is a Jewish name, which is surprisingly progressive for 1940. Becomes "Defense Kids" with the second issue.
- Rocky Hall Jungle Stalker: Young hunter Rocky Hall finds jungle boy Gay-Ree (Gary Murray) in Africa. They team up and defeat fascists. A different kind of jungle strip.
- Jeep Milarkey: A humor strip that may have appealed to kids in the '40s. Didn't appeal to me.
- Don Stuart of the Far East Rangers: Don Stuart is the son of an "unofficial advisor to the Chinese government." Youthful enthusiasm gets him involved with Japanese spies and such in China. A strip with more than a whiff of "Terry and the Pirates."
Appearing in the first issue only:
- Anzac Hawks: Tommy Armitage, his siter Betty Armitage, and his friend Roy Blake, do the same sort of thing as Don Stuart, only in Australia. I wouldn't have minded seeing more of this.
- Sea Squad: Five adventurous friends, all expert sailors, seek treasure in the South Seas. I've ready plenty of this sort of thing, and better.
Appearing in issues #2-3:
- Private Elmer Pippin and the Colonel’s Daughter: Elmer is a sort of Gomer Pyle, whose clumsy antics usually end up catching the spy/saboteur/fifth columnist. The Colonel hates him, but the Colonel's daughter thinks he's a hero. Played for comedy, and a lot funnier than Jeep Milarkey.
- The Double-Slango Kids: American kids with a dopey, easily understood "double-slango," which is easy to understand but nevertheless fools the usual fifth columnists, spies and saboteurs that they inevitably run into. Dumb.
CLASSIC HORROR COMICS VOLUME ONE
Terrifying Tales #11 (Star, Jan 53), The Tormented #1-2 (Sterling, Jul-Sep 54), Climax! #1-2 (Stanley Morse, Jul-Sep 55)
It's worth noting that Terrifying Tales isn't terrifying at all -- in fact, it's a reprint of Jo-Jo Comics #10. Jo-Jo was a Tarzan clone, so this really falls under the heading of "Jungle Comics" -- or maybe "Rip-Off Comics" since it's a reprint of a reprint.
The Tormented, on the other hand, is actually pretty well done. "Caterpillar House" in issue #1 is pretty icky, and "Honeymoon Horror" in issue #2 has a great twist ending (which I guessed from a joke with a similar punchline, but still). The Tormented was a two-issue series, so we've got it all. Mike Sekowsky does a lot of these stories, including "Honeymoon Horror."
Climax! is another two-issue series, which was published in 1955 but has more death than most post-Code stories do. Maybe some of them were inventory? They manage to get the Code seal, whatever they are. The only artist I recognize is Sal Trapani, and he's in a sea of similar artists. But the covers are good.
CLASSIC HORROR COMICS VOLUME TWO
Haunted Thrills #3 (Farrell, Oct 52), Haunted Thrills #7 (Farrell, Mar 53), Terrifying Tales #12 (Star, Apr 53), Weird Chills #1 (Key, Jul 53), Weird Chills #3 (Key, Nov 54)
Haunted Thrills ran for 18 issues, so I don't know why PS grabbed these two issues alone to reprint. They're by the Iger Studio, so we don't have any big names. Some of them are so bad they're good, but some are just bad.
Terrifying Tales #12 reprints stories from Jo-Jo Comics #19, a jungle book, so they don't really fit in here. Maybe they're terrifying because of the occasional witch doctor?
Weird Chills ran for three issues, so I don't know why PS skipped issue #2. If they had included it (instead of, say, Terrifying Tales) we would have the entire run. GCD doesn't seem to know much about issue #2, so maybe none survived. Disappointing, whatever the reason.
The two issues included here are of the so-bad-they're-good variety, with all kinds of all-the-wall shenanigans occurring, and usually ending with everybody dead. Sometimes the whole universe is dead! Good times.
CLASSIC HORROR COMICS VOLUME THREE
Do I have this book? Probably! But not in this stack.
CLASSIC HORROR COMICS VOLUME FOUR
Collecting Fantastic Fears #9 and #3 (Farrell, Sep-Nov 53), Haunted Thrills #10-11 (Farrell, Jul-Nov 53) and Beware #15 (Merit, 1955)
Fantastic Fears began with issues #8-9, continuing the numbering from Captain Jet, then began standard numbering with the third issue. This collection mysteriously, skips the first issue (Fantastic Fears #8), and begins with issues #2-3 (technically #9 and #3). Fantastic Fears continued through a second issue #9 (before becoming Fantastic Comics with #10), and I don't know if PS has any plans to publish those, or if they already have.
As noted above, Haunted Thrills ran for 18 issues, and this book only reprints #10 and #11. I don't know why those two were selected, and don't know offhand how many other issues I might have (except for issues #3 and #7, above). Maybe PS plans to repint the series piecemeal like this. I really do need to make a comprehensive list of what PS has and has not reprinted, as it seems increasingly random. It may not be, but that's how it looks without that comprehensive list.
Also included is Beware #15 from Merit. That was the one and only issue, continuing from Trojan's 14-issue Beware series, which picked up the name (and briefly the numbering) from Youthful's Beware, which ran for issues #10-12, picking up the numbering from Chilling Tales. I've mentioned before how this musical chairs resulted in a number of different issues of Beware existing from different publishers but with identical numbering, but I think PS has reprinted most of them already in other series.
I don't have much to say about any of these stories, which are from the bottom rung of pre-Code horror. Drawn by mostly Iger Studio journeymen I don't recognize (except for one John Forte story, recognizable by the stiff figures) and written by people without a sense of narrative. Yes, bad guys generally get an ironic comeuppance in the end, but often after many innocent people die, often gruesomely. They're just an excuse to paint the bad guy really bad, and therefore just collateral damage. Well, I don't expect pre-Code books to be uplifting. But I do want to give a crap about what I'm reading, which I don't here.
CLASSIC SCI-FI COMICS VOLUME SIX
Collecting Strange Planets #1 (I.W. Publishing, 1958), Strange Planets #15 (I.W Publishing, 1964), Strange Planets #18 (I.W. Publishing, 1964), Atom Age Combat #2-3 (1959)
OK, this one makes me mad.
As I've mentioned before, I.W. Publishing (aka Super Comics) was an all-reprint line. The thing is, I.W. Publishing didn't have any back issues to reprint, so they just stole other people's comics.
Case in point, the three issues of Strange Planets collected here. Strange Planets ran eight issues, with the bizarre numbering #1, #9-12, #15-16 and #18. All eight issues were stolen from other publishers. Here in this volume of Classic Sci-Fi Comics, we have Strange Planets #1 swiping its entirety from EC's Incredible Science Fiction #30, Strange Planets #15 swiping from Marvel's Unknown Worlds #6, and Strange Planets #18 swiping from St. John's Approved Comics #6.
Not only have I read most of these stories elsewhere, but PS is perpetuating and codifying I.W.'s illegal practices. Plus, I don't want I.W. theft in my collection; I want the original issues. Hence my anger.
The book is rounded out by Fago's two issues of Atom Age Combat. They're numbered #2-3, because St. John published Atom-Age Combat #1 the year before.
I'm not really sure what's going on here. St. John published Atom-Age Combat #1-5 in 1952-53, but the 1958-59 books do not appear to be reprints. The later books are all drawn by Dick Ayers -- very recognizable, and also noted in GCD -- whereas the 1952-53 comics were drawn by journeymen and had different story titles. So I guess Atom-Age Combat issues #1-3, with or without hyphen, contain new material. And we're simply not given issue #1, which I'd have preferred to have had, rather than any of the I.W. material.
But missing issue #1 doesn't break my heart, because I don't consider Ayers a great war comics artist. You want great war comics art, you find some Joe Kubert or Russ Heath or Jack Kirby or Jack Davis or John Severin. If I can't have those guys, I'll accept Ayers, but reading a lot of his work at once exposes the many stock poses and shortcuts.
And the uncredited writing is terrible. All these stories could easily have been World War II stories, only the script inserts "atomic" in front of words like "torpedoes," "tanks" and "hand grenades." (It reminds me of Gold Key's Space Family Robinson, where the writer attempted to make the dialogue future-y by putting the word "space" in front of ordinary words like "clock," "dinner" and "bed," as in "I see by the space clock it's time for space dinner, and then it's off to space bed for you kids!" "Aw, Mom! Can't we stay up to watch space TV?" "No, you have space school in the morning!") The writer seems oblivious to the idea that an "atomic hand grenade" would not only kill the person who threw it, and everybody for miles around, but would also poison the contested territory for possibly thousands of years. Instead, the "atomic hand grenade" acts precisely like the regular "pineapple" of WWII.
And, of course, the Americans always win.
Not only is "atomic combat" preposterous and jingoistic, but the subtext is that nuclear war will be just like any other war. That is a very dangerous idea to plant in the heads of the kids of 1959. Or of the grown-ups of 2024, for that matter.
CLASSIC SCI-FI COMICS VOLUME FOUR
Collecting Lost Planets #1-2 (Standard, Oct-Dec 52), Zip-Jet #1-2 (St. John, Feb-May 53) and Space Mysteries #1 (I.W. Publishing, 1958)
There's not much new in this book.
Lost Planets #5-6 are reprinted here, with a lot of familiar names: Ross Andru, Mike Esposito, Nick Cardy, Alex Toth, Otto Binder. The stories aren't great, but are probably on a par with DC's late 1950s sci-fi comics, which employed some of these same men. The problem is that I already have these stories, in PS Artbooks' Pre-Code Classics: Fantastic Worlds/Lost Planets. Grrr.
Incidentally, GCD doesn't indicate that the Lost Planets numbering was picked up from anywhere. Apparently it just began with issue #5, and ended with #6.
Zip-Jet ran for two issues in 1953, reprinting earlier Zip-Jet stories from Scoop, Dynamic, Punch and other Chesler/Dynamic titles. Zip-Jet and his girlfriend Pat (no code name, apparently) were basically Bulletman and Bulletgirl, only with jet-packs. Ruben Moreira drew most of these, and his flight scenes look very much like the ones Charles Sultan drew for Fawcett's Bulletman, where Sultan was largely aping Mac Raboy. There are a couple of jobs by Al Plastino, who went on to do a lot of work for Mort Weisinger's Super-books at DC. If you like Bulletman, you'll like Zip-Jet, the "Supersonic Enemy of Evil."
Space Mysteries #1 is another I.W./Super title, swiping its comics stories from Marvel's Journey into Unknown Worlds #4 and its text piece from Marvel's Suspense #2. There was a second issue of Space Mysteries, mysteriously numbered #9, fortunately not included here, whose reprints were lifted from Planet Comics #73.
CLASSIC SCI-FI COMICS VOLUME FIVE
Collecting Fantastic #8-9 (Youthful, Feb-April 52), Fantastic Worlds #5-7 (Standard, Sep 52-Jan 53)
There were only two issues of Fantastic, continuing the numbering of Captain Science, and continuing into Youthful's Beware with issue #10. I didn't recognize any of the few names GCD provided. Issue #8 may have some Captain Science inventory, given a couple of rocketship & raygun sci-fi stories (where, as usual, the heroes are some kind of space cops who always win). Some forgettable horror stories flesh out the book.
Issue #9, however, is what I consider to truly be "classic," albeit pre-code horror instead of sci-fi. Nearly everybody dies in these stories. Sometimes it's innocent people at the beginning, and a bad guy getting ironic comeuppance at the end. But sometimes there are no good people, just a lot of bad people dying, with some dying sooner and some dying later (usually at the post-grave hands of the other bad people). One story involves ambulatory shrunken heads, so you know how it's going to end, but it's grisly fun getting there. These stories are just so unapologetically amoral that I rather enjoy their refreshing refusal to provide any sort of excuse for themselves.
Of course, sometimes this sort of thing annoys me. Maybe it depends on my mood.
PS Artbooks pulls a fast one again with Fantastic Worlds #5-7 -- which they had already been reprinted in Pre-Code Classics: Fantastic Worlds/Lost Planets. Once again there are familiar names like Alex Toth, Murphy Anderson, etc., and the stories are very much like ones these worthies would produce for DC's sci-fi books later in the decade. But I have already read them, with Classic Sci-Fi Volume Four and Volume Five rendering Pre-Code Classics: Fantastic Worlds/Lost Planets utterly redundant. Grrr, grrr, grrr.
For the record, GCD doesn't list any predecessor for Fantastic Worlds. It appears to have leaped out of Zeus' brow with issue #5.
FIGHT COMICS VOLUME TWO
Collecting Fight Comics #4-6 (Fiction House, April-Jun 40)
These are terrible comics. The art is childishly amateurish, and the stories are mainly about boxing -- a sport I abhor. But my feelings aside, they're just dumb. For example, it never seems to occur to the gangsters threatening the boxer to take a dive that he might punch them. Which he always does.
CLASSIC ADVENTURE COMICS VOLUME SEVEN
Collecting Dynamite Comics #1-5 (Comic Media, May 53-Sep 54)
These are stories about tough guys, see? They talk in short, staccato sentences. They use their mitts, see, and also their gats. They like the dames. But dames are trouble, and they usually end up as stiffs. Too bad, because some have great gams. It's a hard world, see?
OK, enough of that. The first two issues are mainly a Pete Morisi (Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt) showcase, with a little Don Heck and Sol Brodsky thrown in. GCD doesn't know who wrote these stories, but maybe Morisi himself (as he did in Thunderbolt). Dynamite #3 introduces Johnny Dynamite, a P.I. of the Mickey Spillane school, and he takes over the book for three issues. Somebody named Ken Fitch starts showing up in the credits as the writer here and there (Morisi continues on art), and who knows, maybe he was the writer of all these Morisi stories all along. Or maybe he IS Morisi. The stories in all five issues read pretty much the same, with or without Johnny.
I initially read a bunch of (maybe all of) the Johnny Dynamite stories in a Dark Horse collection a while back, and didn't like it. Maybe I was just in a mood, because this time I turned off my brain and gave myself over to the crime noir tropes and had fun. I hope PS reprints the other four issues in this series, which are headlined by Johnny (but backed up by other strips).
It's possible I found these enjoyable as a break from sub-par pre-Code horror comics and awful post-Code sci-fi titles. Context matters!
Spoiler: Johnny loses an eye in issue #4. It's weird to change a character's look/status quo the second issue into his run, when sales numbers aren't even in yet. And you'd think losing a "headlight" (Johnny's phrase, not mine) would affect his marksmanship. It doesn't, and I guess they thought the eye-patch looked cool.
SPACE ADVENTURES VOLUME SEVEN
Collecting Space Adventures #32-36 (Charlton, Jan-Oct 60)
Amazingly, this reprint series has continued long enough from its 1952 beginnings to get us to Steve Ditko's Captain Atom (1960). Yes, I've already read most of these superhero stories, but it's cool to see them in their original context. And I've never read the back-up stories before.
I should note that in the first Captain Atom story, his outfit is mainly sky blue, not yellow. I assume that's accurate to the original story, which was probably color-corrected in later reprints, including in Charlton's own Strange Suspense Stories five years later. The covers are wild -- not good, but they reflect a very strange sensibility. They're comprised of two-three vignettes -- panels lifted from the interior stories -- on a single-color background. There's almost as much background as panels, because the panels aren't very big. It's a strange approach, which was dropped in favor of traditional covers (featuring Captain Atom, of course) in Strange Suspense Stories.
STRANGE JOURNEY VOLUME ONE
Collecting Strange Journey #1-4 (Farrell, Sep 57-Jun 58), Strange #6 (May 58)
More post-Code blandness by the Iger Studio. I didn't recognize any artists, and neither does GCD. The most interesting thing about this book is that it's Volume One, and Farrell's Strange Journey only ran four issues. What on Earth are they planning for Volume Two?
Strange was another Iger Studio book for Farrell, which ran for six issues. Mysteriously, PS is only reprinting the sixth issue. Maybe the other five are what's going to be in Strange Journey Volume Two?
The most interesting thing in this book is that it reprints a Tugboat Tillie story from Seven Seas Comics, one I just happened to read a few weeks ago. The interesting part is that in the original, pre-Code story, Tillie's hot daughter Melody is in a two-piece swimsuit. In this post-Code reprint, she's in a one-piece. Belly buttons weren't outlawed by the Code, were they? Maybe they were.
Replies
I don't know how this will influence their publishing plans but Combat only had 26 "new" isues (#1-26). Issues #27-40 reprinted (#1-14). They could fill in with Air War Stories #1-8 and World War Stories (WW1) #1-3, all with Glanzman art.
That's good to know, Dave -- thanks!
So there's only 16 left to go. That's only three books, which is pretty doable.