Someplace in the mid 1960s, about '67 if I recall, there was a line of Harvey superhero books put out that only briefly appeared on the spinner racks.
It seems to me that the first title was something like "Spyman" and he had a robotic hand.
An agent of Liberty had to stop of falling crane and sacrificed his hand into the gears to stop/save the victim. (Maybe this was the second or third issue.)
As a reward, or in order to improve/upgrade his hand, he was given a hand with detatchable fingers.
Much like the Mandarin in Iron Man, each finger had a separate power or function and could be randomly activated when necessary.
The entire operation was secret and hidden inside or below the Statue of Liberty, as the artist/creator was....wait for it.... Jim Steranko,( later of Marvel Comics' "Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD" fame.) The concept of a spy organization under or in Lady Liberty was something he'd use in that strip as well.
As I recall, the chief villian in a later issue was dressed in flowing green robes,with a giant head in the shape of a single eyeball. The appearance was a cross between the X-men's Vanisher and Spidey's Mysterio. (SPOILER ALERT!!!!)
Within an issue or two, this eye-ball villian was unmasked and revealed to be, the hero's blonde girlfriend, as I recall. She died. (See, I warned you it was a SPOILER ALERT!)
The title only lasted 3 issues before being cancelled. And while the first issue begged for letters from the reader, the series didn't last long enough to garner any, I think. But in one of the last issues, the creators wrote letters from the characters to the fans...a novel turn-about.
But whatever the efforts, it didn't work out.
There might have been a companion book about "Jigsaw", a man or character that could stretch like Mr. Fantastic, but his arms and legs could secure men, animals or other uses. I think one of his covers had him rounding up escaping lions and tigers from a circus train.
Does anyone recall these series? Who was the publisher, and do I recall them correctly?
Replies
The publisher of Spyman and Jigsaw was Harvey. Articles on both can be found at Toonopedia. Jigsaw's limbs stretched. The character who could decouple parts of his body was the M.F. Enterprises Captain Marvel, who appeared in comics from that company in l966/67. A character called Mr. Jigsaw with limb-separation ability appeared in Charlton's Scary Tales #38 in 1983 and has appeared in comics from other publishers by the same creators subsequently.
"It seems to me that the first title was something like 'Spyman' and he had a robotic hand.
"An agent had to stop of falling crane and sacrificed his hand into the gears to stop/save the victim.
"As a reward, or in order to improve/upgrade his hand, he was given a hand with detatchable fingers."
Well, you've got the basic premise of Spyman down, Kirk, if a little off in a couple of the details.
Spyman was one of the titles put out by Harvey Comics in the mid-'60's, when it, like almost every other comics publisher, jumped into super-hero mode in the wake of Batmania. Spyman was probably the best of the lot.
The protagonist was Johnny Chance, top agent for the U.S. intelligence agency called LIBERTY. As you noted, LIBERTY's headquarters was situated inside Liberty Island, beneath the Statue of Liberty.
In the first issue of Spyman, Chance has to tackle a band of terrorists who steal a nuclear bomb, then arm it in an attempt to destroy a major U.S. city. Chance is forced to disarm the bomb manually, which costs him his left hand. Here is the sequence showing this:
LIBERTY surgeons and scientists operate on Chance, providing him with an "electro-robot hand". As you pointed out, each finger and the thumb of the mechanical hand possessed a different feature. Also, for versatility, the fingers were detachable; Chance carried a set of spare robot fingers with additional capabilities in his belt. It was his version of the mid-'60's Batman's omni-equipped utility belt.
Here's a schematic of the electro-robot hand, with its standard equipage of digits:
I can't speak for the other Harvey titles in which Jim Steranko was involved, but with regard to Spyman, the reason why his artwork didn't look anything like his style at Marvel was because Steranko drew only the splash page of the first issue. The rest of the artwork for the three issues of Spyman that saw print was handled by George Tuska, with inks provided by Dick Ayers and Reed Crandall and Bill Draut.
As far as the writing chores went, Steranko created the concept of Spyman and plotted the first story. It's unclear who actually wrote the Spyman stories, although some believe it was editor Joe Simon.
Hope this helps.
Does anyone recall these series?
That was rhetorical, right? <g> Here's my article on Harvey's line of super-heroes from CBG #1680 last year:
http://www.cbgxtra.com/columnists/craig-shutt-ask-mr-silver-age/har...
Actually, the one page of Spyman that Steranko drew looks very Steranko-ish, as you can see in the image in my column.
-- MSA
Er, yes, rhetorical...sure, that's the ticket. (Note to self: Get memory checked....)
Always a nice job, Mr. S.A. What would we do without you?!
Frankly, I’m surprised that Harlan Ellison didn’t sue for copywrite infringement over his story, “Demon with a Glass Hand” as he did with Terminator! Certainly, elements of Spyman have the same basis.
That diagram of the hand certainly does look like Steranko's work. And now that you mention Johnny Craig, I can see the style that I knew so well from the first several Iron Man issues after his "big premiere #1 issue" with Gene Colan was over.
Does anyone have any additional artwork from the second issue, that Steranko wrote and drew?
Was I right that this was pre-SHIELD? Or simultaneously with his Marvel work?
Note to self: Get memory checked....
Since you're already online to access the Mr. Age Forum, all you really have to do is go to Google... you'll never have to remember anything again!
What's that, I need goggles to find stuff?
Dave Blanchard said:
All the 60s Harvey superhero titles only ran two or three issues, so you might not have had much opportunity to read them, Robin. Harvey also published a Fighting American giant with reprints and unpublished stories in the period.
I managed to get one of the Harvey Spirits in the early 70's. Sadly, I've never seen Spyman or the Fighting American reprints. Interesting to see Steranko's early art.
I doubt that either Spyman nor Jigsaw were ever reprinted, considering their extremely low acceptance rate and lack of longevity. You did see the link to the hand chart,drawing by steranko, right? And the GCD (www.comic.org) has all three of the Spyman covers for you to see. I had forgotten them until I saw them.
I found it amusing that within one isse of giving him the hand, Steranko immediately changes the line-up (powers/abilities/apps) that the normal fingers would have. Talk about your immediate rewrite or retcon...
Also, the chart on the front cover doesn't change, issue to issue, even though the accessories do.
The last time I saw such a revision in the status quo for a book was either in FF #4 or Avengers #4 or Alpha Flight #12! and I have to think that most of these were plotted from day one. I doubt that Spyman was plotted that way.
The funny thing is, I never saw Doctor Solar nor Magnus on the spinner racks in the 60s, but I DID see them in 25 cent pre-bagged discount comics in the 5+Dime store! So, though I saw them, I dismissed them as "Those" comics. Destined for poor kids or packaged along with silly animal comics. Not superhero books. I also scored my three Man From U.N.C.L.E. Gold Key books from that packaging, along with a Star Trek comic, if I recall.
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