The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2384: DC Comics Presents #89, January 1986

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Publisher: DC Comics

Writer: Bob Rozakis & Todd Klein

Penciller: Alex Saviuk

Cover Artist: Denys Cowan

Oh, hey there. Happy December?

I've recently developed a bit of a sweet tooth for late Bronze Age Superman stuff. It's really good and thoughtful, and really trying to be what comics become in about the mid 90s or so. But it's also revelling in the weirdness that was Silver Age DC. As an advent calendar this year, my partner took 25 comics and put wrapping paper in front of the covers in the bag and taped them up to our bedroom closet door. It's awesome, and most of it is this Bronze Age Superman stuff I'm into. Though, really, it's more Bronze Age Superman and Supergirl. I've been grooving on the Superman Family book as well as DCCP. Oh, and Lois Lane in Family. The stuff written by Tamsyn O'Flynn is fucking excellent.

Gonna try to be a bit more mindful of this blog. I'm also considering moving it over to Wordpress, as that's what I use for work and I'm getting pretty good at it. We'll see.

Onward!

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2086: DC Comics Presents #96, August 1986

       For information on stopping the spread of COVID-19, and on what to do if you are quarantined, have a look at the World Health Organization site.

 With the exception of some runs by particular writers and artists, I'm not really a fan of the mainstream Superman titles. Action et al. are great comics, but to me we get the real exploration of the character in the B-list comics. I absolutely love DC Comics Presents - it pairs the Man of Steel with characters that he wouldn't often be - like Blue Devil in today's comic, a character with whom I have only the passing-est of familiarity. The story itself is a bit mediocre, but as I say it's the range of artists and writers that tend to bring me to this series. This is the second last issue of the series, which ends with a wonderful Steve Gerber tale next issue. Today's is more of an older hero mentors younger hero kind of thing.

I like this era of Superman. He's not as petty as he gets in some of the Silver Age stuff I've been reading, and seems genuinely interested in fostering a community of superheroes.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1697 - 1701: Catching Up

Y'all, moving takes a lot of time and energy. You'd think I'd know that by this time in my life.

The DC Comics Presents here will show up twice. It has a free preview of Atari Force, which I read in conjunction with all of my video game-based comics the last week or so.

And Tom Scioli's work is just fucking nuts. Read it.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 843: DC Comics Presents #78, February 1985

(A busy day today, so I'll get to blogging this tomorrow. But the coolest thing is that it's literally a direct prologue to Crisis on Infinite Earths. The last page basically starts off the Crisis series.)

So, as I say up there, this is quite literally the opening pages of Crisis. The story itself is a bit mediocre, though if we consider it in terms of what starts in the final pages, it's actually a bit of a tribute to characters that writer Marv Wolfman probably knows for sure are not going to survive the reboot of the DCU. The trouble is that I don't think the story takes advantage of the premise it sets up nearly enough. Basically we have three wizards, one in the past, one in the present, and one in the future (and the future one is a magic-using planet called Yggardis) to gain control of the universe (can anyone tell me what that would even look like - how do you control something infinite?). The time travel angle is not exploited to its utmost, and the fact that these three magicians are manipulating reality but not causing any paradoxes for one another is really interesting. It says something about the nature of time as a whole, as a 4th dimensional solid that exists all at once, but that can't be perceived in that way by humans.

This said, Mr. Wolfman was probably preoccupied by the twists and turns of the Crisis series he was navigating, and perhaps could not pay closer attention to the cool spacetime playground he established in this story.

The end of the issue, however, is a half-page dialogue between the Monitor and Lyla (soon to be Harbinger), a conversation that leads directing into the opening pages of Crisis and the destruction of Earth-3. I wonder if these little bits and pieces were reprinted in the Crisis collections that have come out. Probably not, though this one seems to be to be quite important.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 842: DC Comics Presents #77, January 1985

The Forgotten Heroes return, having held a press conference to announce their presence as a superhero team to the world. Sadly it seems the name they choose becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, as this adventure, spanning this comic and the next, is the team's last appearance. There's a brief Crisis cameo by a few members, and then that's it.

It seems to me that the reason this kind of team fails ultimately, and why the characters themselves are not particularly memorable, is because they're very limited. Rick Flag is a typical Army special forces character. Cave Carson explores...well...caves (though I haven't read his current series, which sounds very weird). Dane Dorrance, the Sea Devil is even more water-bound than Aquaman, and lacks the powers. Congo Bill is kind of geographically limited. And Immortal Man can be killed. Remember Mr. I from the Great Lakes Avengers? This is an attempt at a serious take on him. Or Mr. I is a parodic take on Immortal Man. Anyway, the only two characters that have enough breadth of conception to carry a story are Dolphin and Animal Man. I'm pretty sure Dolphin becomes part of Aquaman's supporting cast, and we all know what happens with Animal Man. This breadth of conception is key for a superhero. Yes, Spider-Man has a limited set of powers based on his origin, but it doesn't limit the kinds of adventures he can get into. With a team like the Sea Devils, though, the audience is going to expect a particular kind of adventure, and then tire of it very quickly, I would think.

Once a character has this potential, it's simply a matter of exhausting all of the easy stories (i.e., stories to do with animals, or animal-based characters for Animal Man), and then take the character out of their comfort zone and start doing interesting things with them. The Animal Man series vacillates on this front, but for the most part steers away from telling easy stories.

Today's comic is good, and an interesting preceding piece for Morrison's final story in Animal Man, wherein he reunites Animal Man with some actually forgotten heroes in the realm of Limbo. This comic also features one of the many times Superman is transformed by a villain, this time becoming a fire-breathing dragon that is ultimately defeated by everyone's favourite orange-clad character with animal powers.

We'll finish up this story tomorrow, and then see where things go. To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 366: DC Comics Presents: Mystery In Space, September 2004

To kick off my second year on the project, we're going to spend the week looking at some lesser-known Grant Morrison works. Though I've mentioned him frequently on this blog, and I'm not shy about proclaiming him one of our greatest living writers, I've only actually read one of his comics thus far for the 40 Years Project. Time to correct that. So welcome to the second year of the 40Years of Comics Project. Let's read some weird stuff.

This series of DC Comics Presents specials was produced after legendary DC editor Julius Schwartz passed away. Each of the titles in the series features a character somehow related to Schwartz, and served as a tribute to his legacy and influence on the industry. The first story, by Maggin and Williams, is a fairly straightforward adventure featuring Adam Strange, Ralph Dibney, and the dear, departed Sue Dibny dealing with corrupt governments on both Earth and Rann. Williams' artwork is, as always, completely fantastic, and as a whole, the story is remarkably "Silver Age." Morrison's story, illustrated by Jerry Ordway, is, unsurprisingly, a little stranger. There seem to be 3 different stories going on. In one, Adam Strange has been kidnapped and is being used to track a Zeta beam that will transport a military team to Rann on an invasion mission. In another, we're seeing an adventure Adam is having on Rann, but this adventure is interspersed with Lichtensteinian panels the caption boxes for which are telling a story of the creation of the character of Adam Strange by Julius Schwartz, so it's difficult to say what's real and what's not. Which, of course, is par for the course with Morrison. He's the PKD of the comics world in many ways.

This isn't my favourite Morrison story. It almost feels like it was written specifically as a "Grant Morrison Story," complete with metatexts and confusing, intertwining storylines. The strangeness feels forced. That said, as I've repeatedly claimed over the years, even a sub par Morrison story is light years ahead of most other comics, so it was still pretty brilliant. The short pieces I've selected for this week are culled from all across his career, with this one, from 2004, actually being the latest. It will be interesting to see how far his short comics story writing has come since the 2000 A.D. days of the 80s.

Year 2, Day 1. Onward!

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 354: DC Comics Presents #12, August 1979

Read it. Will blog it on the morrow!

I think the last time I read a DC Comics Presents, I waxed lyrical about the wonderfully silly Silver Age shenanigans that happen in this Superman team-up title. In fact, it may have been his team-up with Santa Claus that was the last one I read.

This one's not quite as good. Mr. Miracle, for some reason, decides he needs to be more popular than Superman, so he decides to become a hero in Metropolis.

That's the entire plot. And I like Mr. Miracle as much as the next person, but he's a total dick in this comic.

Sigh. I guess they can't all be winners.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 304: DC Comics Presents #67, March 1984

The sun was rising. Tara had been up for hours, and had convinced me with a cup of coffee that I should probably get up too. Sage was still asleep. We puttered, and then sliced some Zopf, warmed up our tea and coffee, and settled onto the couch to read comics, this one for me, Castle Waiting for Tara. Some old crooner carols were playing softly in the background, the day was turning from dusky grey to brilliant white and blue. The lights in the tree twinkled, the cats slumped down next to us after their Christmas breakfast.

And Superman and Santa Claus saved Christmas from the Toyman, with the help of a young lad named Timmy Dickens.

So far, pretty great. Happy Christmas from me to you. May whichever of our Winter celebrations you hold dear be full of warmth and joy.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 296: DC Comics Presents #46, June 1982

When I sat down to read this comic this morning, I was not expecting it to be quite so stellar. The story itself is slightly trite, with Superman being sent from country to country to stop 8 evil magicians from raising an ancient enemy of Dr. Mist. Along the way, the Man of Steel has to team up with heroes from each of those countries. One of the difficulties I've always had with the DCU is that international heroes, inevitably, are somehow stereotyped to their particular land of origin. In this comic, for example, Greece has The Olympian. Denmark has The Little Mermaid. And while this could have been a really terrible, utterly mediocre story, E. Nelson Bridwell manages to pop so much mythic resonance into these characters that it was like I was reading basically everything I've been teaching my class this term.

The Seraph, Israel's superhero, wields both the Staff of Moses and the Ring of Solomon. The Olympian's cowl and cape are fashioned from the Golden Fleece retrieved by Jason and the Argonauts. Jack O'Lantern has a companion who is a tiny member of the fairy race. Their nemeses are similarly inflected, with the Mermaid's enemy a troll, obviously culled from Danish myth. The Green Fury's opposite number is El Dorado, who commands a pair of ghostly jaguars. In Bridwell's hands, what could have been the clash of the stereotypes instead becomes a lesson in how our myths travel down the years and into our popular culture. The question it really begs, and one that I've spent far too long pondering, is where does this put Superman? He's obviously not emblematic of the myths and legends of Native Americans, so his mythic status is not quite the same as those of the Global Guardians. What he is then, I would (briefly) argue, is a consolidation of exile/immigrant myth. He takes notions wrapped up around displacement, about adopting a homeland, and puts a bright blue suit on them. This is not to say that there's not some deeply problematic things going on if we consider him a representative of American myth, but he's definitely got the qualifications to stand with the rest of these heroes.

So, rather than simply stereotypes, the Global Guardians turn out to be distillations of the myths of their respective countries.That's pretty cool.

Comics Across Canada

A Sequential Narrative of a Trip Across Canada

This week, before leaving, we spend time at a cottage with Tara’s family.  For three weeks before that, we live with mine.  If you really want to appreciate a five-day car ride across the country with the person you love, live with your parents for a while first.  I love our families, but I think there's a reason we leave home eventually, and that it’s best sometimes to love them from afar.  And after this move, that’s all I’ll have.

1. Amazing Adventures #31 – “The Day the Monuments Shattered” from “Bearly Used Books” in Parry Sound, Ontario.

            I had a good feeling about Parry Sound, that I’d be able to start my collecting here. There must be a used book shop in Parry Sound, and used book shops have weird old comics. You can never knock the weird old comics you’ll find at used book shops. Killraven is the leader of a small pack of rebels on a future, war-torn Earth where the Martians from Wells’ War of the Worlds decided to come back in force. Yep. It’s a sequel to Wells.

            And it’s really great.

            There were more comics here, but I just got the one. I just want one, to keep me in the place where I got it. To always remember the trip, because I knew it was going to be amazing. And guess what?

            It worked.

2. DC Comics Presents #87 – “Year of the Comet” & “The Origin of Superboy-Prime!” from “The Rad Zone” in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

            In Nipigon, the lady at the thrift store directs us down to the end of the street to talk to Tom Herbert, who apparently has a huge comic collection.  We drive to Tom’s store, and there he is, just as described, sitting in the front window of “Herbert’s Confectionary.”  Inside the lights are all off, and Tom sits in the sunshine in the front window, watching television.  He is old, white hair spilling from beneath his baseball cap that matches the beard that covers his chest.  We explain our purpose, that I am seeking comics, and he stares at us blankly.  It turns out that he does indeed have a huge collection of about 13000 books, but that they are not something that he sells.  He is giving them to his grand-daughter, he tells us.  Tom then proceeds to try to convince me that I should really be collecting and selling “Hot Wheels” cars.  We listen for a while, then politely excuse ourselves, and get back on the road.

            “The Rad Zone” is a comic-record-movie-skateboard-head shop-looking kind of place. It’s very rare that I’ll pass up a Superman-based comic if the price is right. And it is. Last time I was in Sault Ste. Marie, the same thing happened. Not sure what to make of that.

3. DC Comics Presents Annual #1 – “The Last Secret Identity!” & The Marvel Tarot from “Comix Plus” in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

            In Thunder Bay, I finally find a real comic store.  “Comix Plus” is a bit dingy, has uneven wooden floors, walls lined with old action figures, and is in the midst of a 50% off back issues sale.  The sale is the only reason that the store is still open when we arrive an hour and a half after usual closing time.  To show deference to the serendipitous occurrence, I buy 2 comics.  The first is a DC Comics Presents annual, featuring the first appearance of the pre-Crisis Superwoman.  I’m sensing a trend.  The second, to thank the confluence of events that brought us to “Comix Plus,” is called The Marvel Tarot, and is a made-up grimoire detailing magical correspondences in the Marvel universe.

            I keep forgetting that we’re not going back, that I won’t be telling my friends about this adventure on our usual Tuesday night gathering.  I suppose that’s why I’m writing this.

            I wonder why so many Supermen go bad?  Marvel’s Sentry, DC’s Superboy-Prime, the Plutonian from Irredeemable, and Eric Larsen’s recent Supreme.  What makes the paragon of good so useful for evil?

4. Archie #635 – “Occupy Riverdale” from “Walmart” in Kenora, Ontario.

            Kenora’s dearth of comic or used book shops is redeemed, bizarrely, by Walmart, whose selection is not great, but is at least comics.  To Tara’s surprise, I pick Archie over some of the Batman titles, as the issue deals with the effects of the Occupy movement on Riverdale. Recently, Archie comics are starting to impress me. They were some of my earliest comics. Am I finding my way back to them?

            I find no comics in Manitoba.  In desperation, at a gas station in the middle of the prairies, I plunk a loonie into one of those vending machines that they have in men’s washrooms, and come away with a tiny little book entitled Exotic Sexual Artistry, an instruction manual of sorts in disappointingly tame sexual positions from around the world.  But it has sequential words and pictures, so it counts.

5. G0DLAND #36 – “Gotterdammerangnahabharata” & National Comics: Eternity #1 from “Comic Readers” in Regina, Saskatchewan.

            In Regina, we visit the park that surrounds the parliament buildings. It’s warm, very warm. We will learn later that Saskatchewan was in the middle of one of its hottest summers in years. And we drove across it in a car without air conditioning. But we saw lakes made of salt, which we’d never seen before. The second-last issue of G0DLAND. Something coming to an end. We’re over halfway, and something is coming to an end. But you know what they say about endings....

            As for National Comics...you know, I have no memory of it whatsoever.

6. Life With Archie Magazine #22 – “Just Like Starting Over part 4: Suddenly! & “Saturday!” from “Petro Canada” in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

Had I bought a comic at every gas station, this would be a much longer story, but the first time I ever see a Life With Archie magazine is here. I’d bought and read the Archie wedding issues. They were cute and very true to the spirit of the characters. These were strange and fascinating, and like the comic from the Walmart in Kenora, found in an unexpected place.

7. Y: The Last Man #53 – “” from “ComicReaders” in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

Last one for the road. When we arrive in Medicine Hat, I realize that it’s my last chance to buy a comic on our trip before our trip ends, so I google comic stores. We find one and head out. Another comic in its closing phases. Or past them, closed, actually. I just lost track of it when it was being published, and I’ve never been able to get my hands on the final issues. The collector makes ended things continue, somehow. We’re hungry and decide to hit the pub across the road for food. As we walk up, it is the first time we see the “No Minors Allowed” sign, and it sinks in that we are indeed in a strange, new world.