Report what comic books you have read today--and tell us a little something about it while you're here!
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Report what comic books you have read today--and tell us a little something about it while you're here!
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FLASH GORDON:
Now that I have caught up to the present with Fantagraphics' Prince Valiant series (v29), I have decided to fill the "Sunday" slot with IDW's reprint of Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon/Jungle Jim.
Finished volume one. Jungle Jim starts out as little more than a "Tarzan" wannabe but eventually evolves into a sort of early (pre-war) Terry & the Pirates; the next time I read through Flash Gordon I intend to skip Jungle Jim. Kolu is one of three characters from the "Golden Age of Comic Strips" (the other two being Alley Oop's Foozy and Terry and the Pirates' Connie) whose dialogue I have to rewrite in my head or skip entirely lest I offend my delicate 21st century sensibilities. for both features I quickly re-learned not to read the recaps. Flash Gordon starts to get really good after he wins his kingdom and Alex Raymond starts using more innovative panel layouts (circa October 20, 1935, say).
PEANUTS EVERY SUNDAY v4 (1966-1970): The WWI flying ace made his first appearance in November of 1965, just prior to the start of this volume. Then he was featured prominently from 1966-1969, but made only a single (Sunday) appearance in all of 1970. Peppermint Patty, OTOH, made a single Sunday appearance in 1967, one in 1968 and one in 1969, but she made six in 1970 (most of them in 4Q). Birds had a lengthy and slow evolution in Peanuts, but the one I consider to be Woodstock's first appearance (unnamed) is June 29, 1969. The one in which he is given his name, a daily, is not included in this volume.
I have seen both March 4, 1966 and April 4, 1967 given as the first appearances of the unnamed Woodstock, but I am not certain how one determines that, given the similarity of many birds in the Browniverse* to each other. The earlier argument assumes that Woodstock is one of the bird twins born in 1966. It seems reasonable, but I don't know if Schultz ever weighed in on the matter. I must put this serious matter to my friend D.S. (he did the cover for Live Nude Aliens and we're collaborating on the cryptids book). Schultz is one of the reasons he's an artist today.
Your own head-canon, of course, remains secure.
*Easier to say than "Peanutsiverse," and (of course) Schultz never really liked the name.
I have seen both March 4, 1966 and April 4, 1967 given as the first appearances of the unnamed Woodstock...
But did you look at the Sunday strip from June 29, 1969?
I am not certain how one determines that, given the similarity of many birds in the Browniverse to each other.
Before I get to that, I looked at both March 4, 1966 and April 4, 1967 and reject them both on the basis that those birds neither look nor act like Woostock. While I had the relevant volumes of The Complete Peanuts at hand, I decided to consult the comprehensive index, which lists each appearance of every character. The 1965-1966 volume does not list Woodtock at all, and the 1967-1968 volume refers the reader to "bird hippie" (July 12-13 & November 1, 1967), but I think we can all agree that the bird hippie is not Woodstock.
I don't know if Schulz ever weighed in on the matter.
I doubt it. But there are two reasons I choose June 29, 1969 as the first (Sunday) appearance of Woodstock. First, Schulz had not done a bird-themed Sunday for over a year (not since February 18, 1968); and second, June 29, 1969 is clearly written and drawn as an "introductory" strip. According to the index of The Complete Peanuts (1969-1970), Woostock's fist appearance is June 17, 1969, and I absolutely agree with that. His look and his quirky personality are both on display. Here is the "Woodstock" timeline as I see it...
I rest my case.
The famous Woodstock music festival was from August 15-18, 1969. Chances are that Schulz named the bird after it.
That seems to be an accepted fact. Schultz was no hippie but he had a lot of sympathy and respect for young people.
POGO: THROUGH THE WILD BLUE WONDER (The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips - Volume 1): I made a stab at reading Pogo a time or two in the past, but this time I'm serious about it. I'm looking forward to his political commentary, but there's not much of that in volume one... some but not much. He makes his first foray into somewhat pointed political satire for the first time in March of 1950, with a thinly-veiled story about nuclear proliferation and the Cold War. In June of that year he took aim at the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC). William Randolph Hearst and Robert McCormick, two of the nation's most outspoken newspaper publishers of the day, are represented by the characters Hagshaw and Cully, respectively. He also looks at the kinds of comics being targeted by Fredric Wertham and others. Kelly is not yet being too pointed in his satire and political commentary as and editor with a different view could drop the strip which would lead to a loss of income, but he would later throw such caution to the winds.
SUPERMAN IN WORLD'S FINEST ARCHIVES v1 - "Superman from the Beginning" (Part 10):
I neglected to mention last time that Action Comics Archives v4 was perhaps my favorite individual volume so far. By that time, October 1942 through January 1944, the "Superman" concept had really gelled and, despite the fact some of the stories took a turn from the serious to the silly, there were more winners than clunkers. But because of Action Comics and World's Finest's relative frequency (monthly vs. quarterly), the WF archive covers five years of development (1939 through 1944) and is even more eclectic. I had forgotten just how much Lois Lane hated Clark Kent in the earliest of the early years. By Action Comics #68 (the last story reprinted in AC v4), the couple dated frequently and marriage was even discussed (well, Clark discussed it). But in "Superman at the World's Fair" from New York World's Fair Comics, Lois's voice drips with contempt and she can barely contain her loathing and disgust for him.
Villains: The Rainmaker, the Unknown X, Metalo,insect Master, the Skeptic, the Lynx, and a whole passel of random, one-off gansters.
It continues to strike me how lame Superman's (dare-I-call-it-a) "rogues gallery" remains in the early years. The "Unknown X" is the leader of an obvious group of Nazi stand-ins who all wear "X" armbands that resemble a swastika. (Is it just me or does anyone else see a modern day parallel between this story and another "X" who gives the Nazi salute?)
Still on display are Superman's "plastic features," and in one story he is able to perform a delicate surgical procedure.
It is often remarked how little of a "Boy Scout" Superman is in these early adventures in comparison to the character he would become, but one scene in particular exemplifies that. In order to extract information from a criminal, Superman dangles him above the propeller of a plane in flight. After he gets the info he's looking for, he sets the thug on top of the plane and just leaves him there! "Hey! What about me?" You can't leave me here!" "That's your problem!"
Also, in issue #6 he fights Metalo (not the one you're thinking of), a "robot" who turns out to be an inventor in a suit of flying armor. In two panels only, the armor has exaust ports, which "explains" how he flies (he also wears a cape), but his strength is explained by a strength serum. (Too bad he didn't invent transistors to "power" his arnor, the way Tony Stark later would.) Superman essentially "kills" him by punching him into a pool of molten lava, although readers know he survived.
Jimmy Olsen makes his most significant appearance yet (five consecutive panels in which he is named, is recognizable, and contributes to the plot) in #6. He has not had this much exposure in any of the issues of Action Comics or Superman I have read yet. He has yet to be featured in a story or to play a major role.
I seem to enjoy the Superman stories in Action Comics and World's Finest more than those in Superman itself. Perhaps that is because Action and World's Finest have only one Superman story per issue and it more-or-less has to be good, whereas Superman can rely on quantity over quality.
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