Ambush Bug "Don't Ask" (DC Comics/Mayfair Games, 1986)

More lunatic Ambush Bug madness.....

Download Link (PDF file)

The Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #22 (DC Comics, 1982)

Here we are for yet another Christmas Countdown, and to start things off this year, I present to you The Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #22 , which features a favorite of mine, "The Seal Men's War on Santa Claus!"...

In the final Fleischer-Kirby-created adventure (intended for The Sandman vol. 1 #7 but published in The Best of DC #22) he even assists the legendary Santa Claus against a menacing band of Seal Men who are angry about being sent the wrong gifts during the previous Christmas

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Ambush Bug (DC Comics,1984)

I'm a long-time fan of the works of Keith Giffen, and his AMBUSH BUG stuff (along with collaborator Robert Loren Fleming) is absolutely hilarious.....

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Vigilante- 1947 Columbia Pictures Cliffhanger Serial Ad Campaign Mat

I'm a HUGE fan of Greg Saunders, the Golden Age Vigilante...have been since I was a kid and read All-Star Squadron #29, which was Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway's re-telling of the origin of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. Love, love, love the character. Probably my favorite DC character of all time.

I'm also a HUGE fan of the now-bygone cinematic format of the cliffhanger serial. One of the things that has always made me sad is that the 1947 Columbia Pictures serial based on the character has never been made available in any form of home video format, be it VHS or DVD. Gray market bootleg copies of the serial have existed since the 1980s on VHS, and recently I discovered someone had made digital video file transfers from one of these VHSs, so those are floating around out there in bittorrent land, for those interested and devoted enough to find them....

Well, on a whim, I stop by a local home having a yardsale, and discover a cardboard box containing old lobbycards and advertising campaign "mats" (studio marketting used to send out press packets to newspapers around the country containing these, which were basically ad copy to be used by local theatres to promote releases)....and this is what I found for one measley dollar....

It must be for a re-release of the serial, because it's copyright dated 1957....but, still...for a Vigilante fan like myself...it felt like fate had led me to that box.


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The Flash (1990 TV Series) TV Guide Promotional Material

This is a little something I cooked up after discovering a box of junk I'd been lugging around since high school, in which I saved various TV Guide promo images and write-ups from other publications about the CBS live-action show. Please forgive the sloppy scans, but basically I was dealing with 20 year old clipping from TV Guide that were mounted into a makeshift scrapbook....

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HKC's Longbox: Manhunter (Mark Shaw)

I've decided to start presenting a feature here at the blog focusing on short-lived titles that I collected and had a great love for during my youth that are either now forgotten....or nobody really gives a crap about these days. I've decided to title it "HKC's Longbox"....because this is the kinda crap I've been carrying around for a little over 30 years in longboxes.

Around 1987 or so, I was a follower of writer John Ostander's work at DC Comics, having been a fan for a year or so of his run of Suicide Squad. I thought this particular incarnation of the concept was pretty brilliant thinking on his part, and even though I really didn't enjoy (in hindsight) some of the things that came out of DC's most-recent "event" book, Millenium, I was eagerly awaiting this new take on the Manhunter property that he was going to be involved with because I found it too to be a pretty innovative idea, comic book-wise.

The concept was simple: Mark Shaw was a costumed bounty hunter....who specialized in bounties involving super-powered criminals. Here's a hero who actually sought to profit on taking down bad guys. One of the typical cliched conventions of superheroes I always found kinda weird was the idea that once you received super-powers, a magic ring, were rocketted from a doomed planet, struck by lightning, got hit by a gamma bomb......whatever....you always suddenly grew a set of morals and a a code of ethics.


Download First Issue Special #5- the first appearence of Mark Shaw, Manhunter

The Mark Shaw Manhunter incarnation was a concept that had been created by Jack Kirby, used once in the 1970s, and discarded. Other writers picked up on it in the years that followed but kept changing Shaw's costumed alter egos (at one point, he was a pirate themed character called The Privateer and a cosmic powered bad guy calling himself the Star Tsar), but nothing seemed to stick. Thankfully, after the Millenium cross-over, where it was revealed the secret society/cult that saw first encountered and gave him the mantle of Manhunter was actually in league with the evil android Green Lantern villians, Shaw turned back into a good guy, and after the Manhunters were destroyed (at least for a short time), became the only person in the DCU to carry that mantle.

Download Manhunter #1-24 (1987-89)
#1-#8

#9-#16

#17-#24

Dick Giordano (July 20, 1932 – March 27, 2010) Tribute

I figured the best way to pay tribute to Dick would be to share a favorite of mine of his work....



Jonni Thunder is a female private detective who first appeared in a four issue miniseries from 1985 named Jonni Thunder AKA Thunderbolt, written by Roy Thomas. A small gold statue gave her the power to turn into a human thunderbolt, while leaving her body behind. In later issues of Infinity, Inc., the thunderbolt was revealed to be a hostile alien energy-being, who was defeated by being reimprisoned in the statue, leaving Jonni without powers. Jonni existed on Earth-Two before Crisis and was briefly scene on the merged Earth resulting from Crisis, attending a detectives convention.



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The Adventures of Captain Marvel (Republic Pictures, 1941)

In the past, I've written about my long-time love for the genre of the cliff-hanger serial, and this example of the format I've always consider to the be the best of it.

From Wikipedia:

Adventures of Captain Marvel is a 1941 twelve-chapter film serial directed by John English and William Witney for Republic Pictures, adapted from the popular Captain Marvel comic book character then appearing in Fawcett Comics publications such as Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. It starred Tom Tyler (who also played The Phantom) in the title role of Captain Marvel and Frank Coghlan Jr. as his alter ego, Billy Batson.

This serial was the twenty-first of the sixty-six serials produced by Republic and their first comic book adaptation (not counting comic strips such as Dick Tracy). Spy Smasher, also based on a Fawcett character, would follow in 1942.

This serial was the first film adaptation of a comic book superhero. That claim would have gone to the previous serial, Mysterious Doctor Satan, which was intended to have been a Superman serial until National Comics (now DC Comics) pulled out of negotiations. National Comics unsuccessfully attempted to sue Republic for producing a Captain Marvel serial.

The serial featured an adaptation of the Fawcett Comics superhero, placed within an original story in which he fights a criminal mastermind, called The Scorpion, who is determined to gain total control of a magical gold scorpion figurine. It is actually a disguised optical weapon of incredible power (including, but not limited to, melting rock via a projected death ray).

Billy Batson is an assistant radio operator with the Malcolm archaeological expedition to "the Valley of the Tombs" in Siam. The expedition is attacked by natives but Tal Chotali parleys with Rahman Bar. A sacred legend states no desecration will occur until the volcano, Scorpio, is active again. At the tombs, Billy refuses to enter the inner tomb as it would desecrate the religious beliefs of others. Instead he goes to pack pottery in another tunnel. In the inner tomb, Tal Chotali, Prof Malcolm, Prof Luthor Bentley, Dwight Fisher, and Dr Stephen Lang, find the Golden Scorpion. A ray from the Scorpion collapses the entrance to the tombs and opens a hidden passage between Billy and the ancient wizard Shazam. Shazam grants him the ability to

change into Captain Marvel in order to prevent the Golden Scorpion from falling into the wrong hands. It is his "duty to see that the curse of the Scorpion is not visited on innocent people."

The lenses from the Golden Scorpion are divided among the five scientists. Scorpio then erupts which triggers a native attack. However, the masked mystery villain the Scorpion is orchestrating it, stealing one of the lenses during the hostilities. The exped

ition is rescued by cavalry from Fort Mooltan. Captain Marvel then flies to a group of natives with a machine gun, knocks them out by throwing one at the other, and takes over the gun. Marvel then throws aside the gun and attacks with his bare fists. Marvel learns he is invulnerable as bullets bounce off his chest.

The expedition then returns to the United States, where the Scorpion attempts to acquire all of the lenses and the Scorpion device for his own power. Several expedition members are killed in his quest despite Captain Marvel's continual efforts to thwart the villain. Billy Batson soon decides that the man behind the Scorpion's mask is one of the team.

Eventually a second expedition sets out because it has been learned that Long ha

d actually hidden his lens in the tomb. The Scorpion witnesses Billy's change during this and captures him - tying him up and gagging him. The Scorpion interrogates Billy for the secret. When Billy agrees to tell him, The Scorpion removes the gag and Billy says "Shazam", which transforms him into Captain Marvel.

The Scorpion is then revealed to be Bentley. He is killed by the disillusioned native chief, Rahman Bar, who uses the Scorpion in death ray mode. Shazam himself is heard to say the magic word and Captain Marvel is transformed back into Billy Batson.

The exposure of the movie serial no doubt aided sales of the Captain Marvel magazines, and it is well-documented that for several years the character outsold Superman.

The original Captain Marvel comics, as a rule, did not absorb many elements of this serial, but there were some effects nonetheless. The characters of Betty Wallace and Whitey Murphy both appeared in the Fawcett comics for a while in the 1940s, and Whitey Murphy made at least one cameo appearance in the 1970s DC Comics incarnation of Captain Marvel.

A serialized two year story arc featuring Mr. Mind and the original Monster Society of Evil in Captain Marvel Adventures #22-#46 showed the influence and inspiration of the Adventures of Captain Marvel serial.^[12] This two-year story arc was the first of its kind, and is regarded by comic book fans and historians as one of the milestones of the Golden Age of Comics.^[13] In 1989, cartoonist Mike Higgs compiled this entire story arc into a hardcover limited edition collection. This book includes a photo of Tom Tyler as Captain Marvel, underscoring the linkage to this serial.^[14]

Captain Marvel was the first super-powered and costumed comic strip hero to be filmed, and the first character exclusively created for comic books (as opposed to newspaper strips, such as Flash Gordon and Dick Tracy) to be filmed as well. Therefore, it fell upon The Adventures of Captain Marvel to prove that comic book heroes could be bankable movie properties. The release of the serial led to a long line of comic book super-hero serials, films, and television shows, which continues to this day.

Home video copies of this serial became commercially available in the 1990s, bringing it to a wider audience. The Scorpion weapon would reappear in the 1990s Power of Shazam comic book.

In 1994, comic book writer/artist Jerry Ordway introduced modern audiences to Captain Marvel with a long-form painted graphic novel, The Power of Shazam!, and an ongoing comic book series spin-off which ran from 1995 to 1999. Ordway used the Republic serial as his initial inspiration in his handling of the Captain Marvel characters, and the influence is evident in both the graphic novel and the series ^[15]: Captain Marvel's costume design was restored to the button-flap tunic version seen in early issues od Whiz Comics and this serial, and the Scorpion weapon from the film serial appears in several of the issues.

Screenwriter and B-movie producer Don Glut, a fan of the serial, would later go on to become a writer for the live-action Shazam! TV program, a popular 1970's adaptation of Captain Marvel. At least one episode of Shazam! featured outdoor shots of the famous Bronson Cave, which had been used for a memorable sequence in Adventures of Captain Marvel.

Chapters:

1. "Curse of the Scorpion" (30 min.)
2. "The Guillotine" (16 min.)
3. "Time Bomb" (17 min.)
4. "Death Takes the Wheel" (16 min.)
5. "The Scorpion Strikes" (16 min.)
6. "Lens of Death" (16 min.)
7. Human Targets (17 min.)
8. Boomerang (17 min.)
9. "Dead Man's Trap" (16 min.)
10. "Doom Ship" (16 min.)
11. "Valley of Death" (16 min.)
12. "Captain Marvel's Secret" (16 min.)

Find the download links at Internet Archive

The Adventures of Superman OTR- The first 75 episodes

Thanks to the folks over at Internet Archive, here's the first 75 episodes of the classic Adventures of Superman Old Time Radio Show....enjoy!

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Kenner Super Powers Collection Mini-Comics (DC Comics)

When I was a kid, I was infatuated with this line of toys...I mean, it was the first time in my young existence that I could actually own toys based upon my great love: comic books.

Here's Wikipedia with a little info:


The Super Powers Collection was a line of action figures based on DC Comics superheroes and supervillains that was created by Kenner Toys in the 1980s.

In 1984, DC Comics awarded the license of their characters to Kenner Toys, hot on the heels of Mattel's "action feature" heavy He-Man toy line. Winning the license away from Mego Corporation and Mattel with their emphasis on action and art, Kenner devised hidden mechanisms within the figures that would trigger an action when the figures legs or arms were squeezed. This emphasis on each figure's "super power" led to the naming of the line - The Super Powers Collection. Each figure in the first two series were also packaged with a mini-comic featuring that character's adventures.

Comic creator Jack Kirby received some of the only royalties of his long career for redesigning his characters for Kenner. Artist George Pérez also received royalties for his design of Cyborg and redesign of Lex Luthor and Brainiac. Most all other designs (and much of the packaging artwork) is based on José Luis García-López's classic DC Style Guides (other artwork used appears to be the work of Dick Giordano).

In all, three series of figures and accessories were released (in 1984, 1985, and 1986), but after three years of production the line collapsed. Coincidentally, Kenner's Star Wars line stopped shipping to stores the same year the Super Powers line ended.

Once the line was in full force a merchandising frenzy took place, with DC Comics and Kenner slapping a Super Powers logo on whatever they possibly could. DC Comics produced three comic book mini-series featuring characters from the toyline, one during each year of the toyline's existence. These comics were separate from the continuity of the regular comics featuring the characters. Hanna Barbera also produced two animated series (a refreshing of the venerable Super Friends concept), called Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians. Warner Home Video used the opportunity to issue episodes of Superman, Batman, Superboy, and Aquaman produced by Filmation in 1966 on video cassette in 1985 under the Super Powers label, reissuing them again in 1996. Other tie-in products were produced, including lunchboxes and posters. Only the toy line carried the "Collection" tag; all other merchandise would have a solo "Super Powers" logo.

Highly prized today, Kenner's distribution practices of including up to 18 of one character in a case of 24 led to a glut of the core characters throughout the life of the line, and a rapid demise. Due to this practice, certain figures such as Cyborg, Golden Pharaoh, and Plastic Man remain rare to this day while the Flash and Superman are easily found. Another reason the Super Powers Collection is so highly sought after is the inclusion of both popular and little-known characters throughout the line. While the First Series featured well-known characters, the Second Series concentrated on figures from Kirby's New Gods Saga, and the Third Series mixed both DC Comics acquisitions from other companies and figures created solely for the line.

Unreleased figures

After 10 years of chronicling the history of the Super Powers Collection, in 2003 toy historian Jason Geyer's ToyOtter website revealed the never seen designs for the unmade Series Four, Five, and Six, along with vehicles, playsets and a deluxe "Power Plus" figure line. The most famous of these is the Man-Bat figure, of which an actual prototype was created.

Prior to Super Powers, one manufacturer (in this case, the Mego Corporation) licensed both DC and Marvel characters for action figures. When the Secret Wars toyline, by Mattel, came onto the retail toy scene, it was setup as direct competition for the Kenner line. These figures, similar in scale to the Super Powers Collection, introduced a competing marketing strategy between manufacturers of Marvel and DC action figures, continuing to separate the comic book publishers' character licenses. That trend continues to this day.

The Super Powers line, in many ways, inspired the 1989 Toy Biz DC Super Heroes toyline in design. This line, merging with the Batman toyline would borrow design elements from many of the Kenner figures, most notably Superman, Robin, and Penguin who were near identical copies of the Kenner figures.

Mattel's DC Universe Classics line also draws inspiration from the Super Powers figures. Several figures that were redesigned for the Super Powers line (Mantis, Parademon, and Steppenwolf) were produced for DC Universe Classics in both comic-accurate and Super Powers-accurate versions. A Cyclotron figure is also being released, even though the character only appeared as part of the Super Powers line.

Based on definitive style guide artwork, with moderate articulation and hidden action features, the Kenner Super Powers Collection eventually released 34 figures, eight vehicles, and one playset. In addition, Latin and South American toymakers introduced three characters not available in the US. In Argentina, toy company Pacipa (and later Play Ful) produced El Acertijo (Riddler), which was a Green Lantern figure in different paint. It was released in Argentina under the Super Amigos (Super Friends) brand. Brazilian toy company Gulliver produced El Capitan Rayo (Captain Lightning, but sometimes anglicized simply 'Captain Ray'), and his unique nemesis 'Hombre de las Nieves' (Yeti/The Abominable Snowman). Though most Gulliver Super Powers characters were branded 'Super Powers' (the characters that Kenner also made), the unique Rayo and Yeti were released under the 'Super Heroes' brand to distinguish them. They were available in Colombia.

Super Powers Mini-Comics Pack 1

Super Powers Mini-Comics Pack 2

For a great resource of info on the classic toy line, be sure to check out:

The Super Powers Archive

Dick Durock R.I.P. (January 18, 1937 – September 17, 2009)

Sadly, I just discovered (about three weeks too late) that veteran stuntman Dick Durock passed away. I came across the information while trying to figure out a way to work a DC property onto the current Mighty Marvel Monsterbash I have going one here and over at our sister blog, Attack of the B-Movie Muzak...I was thinking about doing something along the lines of posting about the odd coincidences surrounding the Marvel character Man-Thing and Swamp Thing...


Here's some info on Dick, courtesy of Wikipedia:


Richard "Dick" Durock (January 18, 1937 – September 17, 2009) was an American stuntman and actor who has appeared in over eighty films and over seven hundred television episodes.

He was known for playing Swamp Thing in both the feature films Swamp Thing and The Return of Swamp Thing and the subsequent television show.
Durock also played a Hulk-like creature on the television series The Incredible Hulk, two part episode titled "The First", where it was revealed that David Banner was not the first man to become a creature; another scientist accidentally created one "about thirty years ago" while similarly seeking a way to use radiation to increase strength. Durock also appeared in the Clint Eastwood films The Enforcer (1976) and Any Which Way You Can (1980) as well as Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975). Durock was born in South Bend, Indiana to Sadie (Medich) and David Durock. He resided in Southern California and appeared at fan conventions. Durock died from pancreatic cancer at his home in Oak Park, California on September 17, 2009. He was a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.

Above: Dick Durock - Imperious Leader from the "classic" Battlestar Galactica

Swamp Thing Green Peace PSA (1989)


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Recently, the website Dread Central conducted an audio interview with Dick (around the time the first Swamp Thing TV series season box set hit DVD...you can find that interview here.

The Demon #7 (March 1973, DC Comics)- the Weird Story of Klarion the Witchboy

A few things spurred on this post, and it all sorta fell together like some odd string of coincidences within a few minutes...

1.) This weekend, the talk of fandom was the 40th annual San Diego ComicCon
2.) I'm a HUGE Jack Kirby fan, especially of the character being presented here: Etrigan the Demon.
3.) I'm a fan of the country and western music (not so much the contemporary stuff, but the music that tends to fall into the current category of "classic country"...basically anything recorded circa late 1940s to the late 1980s...


Out of boredom, I pulled out an old issue of the publication THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR I had laying around...issue #44, from 2005, to be exact. Thumbing through it, I came across an article entitled, "Witchboy, All Grown Up" by John Morrow which was an interview he conducted with Barry Alfonso, the guy who served as the visual inspiration for the character Klarion the Witch-Boy, a villain from Etrigan's rogues gallery...

Pictured Above: Klarion as he appeared the recent Grant Morrison-helmed Seven Soldiers mini-series, the Witch-Boy from an episode of Justice League Unlimited (if I remember correctly) and a circa 1970s pic of Alfonso (center) with Carmine Infantino and Jack Kirby...

It seems, according to this interview, that Alfonso was good friends in 1968 with comic book dealer Shel Dorf, and that Barry led to the eventual meeting of Dorf and another California comics deaer (and mutual friend) Richard Alf. As Alfonso recalls:

"I recall putting Richard and Shel in contact with one another, and that led to the first meeting of what became the founding group of the San Diego Comic Con (Others attending were, I believe, Bob Sourk, Dan Stewart, and Mike Towry)."

What did the Witch-Boy do when he grew up? Well, he's credited as the co-writer of the Pam Tillis (the daughter of stuttering Mel Tellis, a man best known by film fans for performing "I'm Just a Coca Cola Cowboy" in the Clint Eastwood film, EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE) 1995 country hit, "In Between Dances" and he's a Grammy winner, for his liner notes to a collection of Peter, Paul, and Mary tunes...



It's a small world, after all...especially when playing "Six Degrees of Jack Kirby"....

Download Links:

THE DEMON #7 CBR file

Bonus: Witchboy Extras! The aforementioned interview from The Jack Kirby Collector #44, and an mp3 copy of "In Between Dances" by Pam Tillis

EXTRAS

Pulp Heroes: Justice, Inc. (DC Comics)

I've held a long-time fascination with the pulp and radio heroes of the 1930s and '40s, for which I have my paternal grandmother and aunt to blame for. Now, hindsight is probably heavily embellished, so forgive any discrepancies that might follow, but as a small child with both parents working...I spent several afternoons with the two above-mentioned women pre-kindergarten in a household that still held to the values that the television was a device that shouldn't be turned on until 6 p.m. at the least. Hell, the first color set my grandmother ever owned was purchased by my father after my grandfather's death....in 1991.

So, to keep me occupied as a wee lad, my grandmother, who was a HUGE fan of radio drama during it's hey-dey, would literally (and remember what I said earlier about hindsight) verbally relate episodes of her favorite shows to me, verbatim. It wasn't until I was probably around the age of 6 or 7 that I came to the realization that The Shadow, The Green Hornet, Fibber McGee (and Molly), Amos n' Andy, and a whole slew of fictional characters were just that: fictional. I just thought they were folks that grandma knew....

So, when I came to discover that there were comic books produced about these heroes, it's a no-brainer I would take an interest. One of the first I came to discover during those early years of collecting in the early 1980s was what would become quite possibly one of my favorite DC Comics series of all time, Denny O'Neil and Mike Kaluta's excellent interpretation of The Shadow.

At some point later, while in high school, I would disocver Walter Gibson's other work, The Avenger, via ancient Bantam paperback reprints from the early 1970s and the short-lived DC Comics series Justice, Inc.....

I lucked into an entire run of the 1970s DC title around that time. I actually like the latter half of the book in which Jack Kirby was handed the reigns on the character...


Around this time, in the early 1990s, DC revisited the character (for much the same reasons they did took any interest the first time: they were experiencing some success with a new book based upon the more popular Lamont Cranston, The Shadow) in a two issue prestige format mini-series illustrated by one of my favorite artists, Kyle Baker. This take learns more towards the Avenger being involved in shadowy covert operations during the Cold War, but is still an interesting read...


Download Links (Hosted by Rapidshare and Mediafire)

Justice Inc #1-#4 (first series) RAR file

Justice Inc #1-#2 (second series) RAR file

Blitzkrieg (DC Comics, 1976)

There was some odd things that DC was experimenting with during their mid-1970s "Explosion!"...and this title was one of 'em. I can remember seeing ads for this book in mid-1970s back issues I'd run across when I was a kid and wonder what the deal was....

From Wikipedia:

Blitzkrieg was a short-lived 1970s war-themed comic book published by DC Comics.

The focus of the series was an anthology of World War II stories featuring soldiers of Nazi Germany as well as the civilians resisting or victimized by the regime.

Unlike the more famous stories of the German World War I flying ace, Hans von Hammer, a.k.a. The Enemy Ace, the stories in this series kept an unambiguously negative tone against the World World II German military. The series was also notable for its strong (for the time) depictions of violence and gruesome images.

My interest in Tarintino's upcoming film, Ingloriuos Basterds, is what spurred on my revisitation of this series...



This flick looks like it's gonna be The Dirty Dozen on PCP....which translates to "awesome" in my book..

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Blitzkrieg #1-#5 ZIP file

Silver & Beyond: Captain Action

I am sadly just slightly too young to have enjoyed the good Captain during his hey-day of the mid-to-late 1960s, but was familiar with the toy from the numerous ads that ran inside Silver Age comics I would have the luck to happen across in my youth...





A little bit of history, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Captain Action was an action figure, from 1966, equipped with a wardrobe of costumes allowing him to become Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, The Lone Ranger (and Tonto), Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and the Green Hornet. Captain Action was the Ideal Toy Company's answer to Hasbro's GI Joe — although the protagonist dolls of both toy lines were created and designed by the same toy- and idea-man, Stan Weston.

The figure itself had a rather sad and worried expression, a strange shaped head (so the masks of the various heroes would better stay in place over it) and a more detailed musculature than G.I. Joe's. The original Ideal base for the line was Captain Action in his blue and black uniform, with lightning sword and ray gun included in the box. Separate Superman, Batman, Lone Ranger, The Phantom, Flash Gordon, Captain America, Sgt Fury, Steve Canyon and Aquaman costumes (with accessories) were available; the next wave (1967) added Spider-Man, Buck Rogers, the Green Hornet, and Tonto, with a Blue Lone Ranger variation (matching the still popular Clayton Moore series) and collectible flicker rings in each box.

In 1967, Captain Action proved popular enough to expand the line, adding a partner, Action Boy, and an enemy, Dr. Evil, a blue skinned alien with large bug eyes and an exposed brain, wearing a modified Nehru suit and sandals. Also, a vehicle called the "Silver Streak," a two foot long amphibian car with missile launchers, was added, large enough for both the Captain and sidekick. Several sets meant to be used by Captain Action in his Captain Action identity was designed for the character as well: a four foot working parachute, a jet mortar, a jet pack, weapons arsenal, and several other secret weapons to add to the Action Cave, which the special box for the Streak could convert into. Both the Captain and Dr. Evil received "secret lairs," which doubled as carrying cases for the figures, but which are now quite rare. All this was an attempt by Ideal to build the "Action" line and focus on Captain Action as a hero in his own right, rather than just a base figure for other heroes.

National Periodical (DC Comics) licensed the character from Ideal and published five issues of Captain Action in 1968, illustrated at first by Wally Wood, then by Gil Kane. The scripts were by Jim Shooter and Gil Kane. The comic book story line had little to do with the toy concept, as some of the heroes licenced for use as costumes for the Captain Action doll were not owned and published by DC (Spider-Man and Captain America for example, were Marvel Comics characters), therefore the ability to change into different characters was entirely dropped. Instead, Captain Action came to possess magical coins, each of which provided him with a spectacular power from a Greek, Roman, or Norse mythological god (in a similar way to the original Captain Marvel). Captain Action was given a real name of his own, Clive Arno, and was identified as a widowed archaeologist and museum curator, and was described as having located "the coins of power" in a buried city. Action Boy's comic-book alter-ego was Carl Arno, son of Clive. Dr. Evil was given a back-story too, having been Captain Action's father-in-law, then going mad in a mishap.

I actually really dig the DC series alot, simply for the great Wally Wood artwork the earlier issues contain. Plus, the later issues are from a period at which Gil Kane was at the height of his DC career in my opinion.

Anyways, also from Wikipedia:

After 30 years off the market, Captain Action was revived in 1998, by retro toy company Playing Mantis. Captain Action as the Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon (with a new figure, Ming the Merciless), Green Hornet, and new to the line Kato returned along with Dr Evil. The line met with lackluster sales, and a retooling had the costumes issued separately, along with a revived Action Boy (now called Kid Action, due to Hasbro owning the rights to the name Action Man) and the addition of retro long box packaging. It made little difference in the general sales and the line was discontinued. The second coming of Captain Action ended in 2000.



I actually ran across and purchased one of the Kay-Bee exclusive Playing Mantis Green Hornet sets at a Toy Liquidators location that used to be in the area for around 10 bucks a few years back (Man, I really miss that store), and then about a year or so later lucked into one of the Kato outfits at a local Odd Lots for around 3 bucks (pictured above)...I'd love to get the Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless sets, which would be f***ing awesome.

In recent times, publisher Moonstone Graphics has acquired the Captain Action license from the current owners, CA Enterprises (whose website: http://www.captainactionnow.com/, is actually kinda fun) and have begun producing new Captain Action comic book material.

I love the above Paul Gulacy (one of my favorite artists as a kid on Marvel's Master of Kung Fu) cover for the preview issue of the new book, Captain Action #0. The new series avoids any of the licensed "disguises" Cap used to use, instead replacing them with generic versions of folks like Superman and such, and it's tone seem to be a darker one, involving the now adult Action Boy taking up the mantle, but so far it's been a fairly interesting read.



Download Link (Hosted by Rapidshare & Mediafire)
Captain Action (DC Comics 1967) #1-#5 RAR file

Captain Action #0 (Moonstone) CBR file

Capt. Marvel Adventures #79 (Fawcett, Dec. 1947)

I love Captain Marvel and the whole SHAZAM! mythos...every cheesey bit of the Golden Age stuff. One of my favorite comics from the 1990s (and one of the books that kept me in the hobby after the dark times of secondary market speculation that nearly sank the business) was Jerry Ordway's brilliant attempts at bringing all this old canon back into the post-CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS DCU, The Power of Shazam!, and most of the time finding ways to do it that seemed acceptable and credible.

And...my absolute favorite piece of the mythos? Why....Mr. Tawky Tawny, naturally.





Above is the cover of the esteemed gentle-tiger's first appearance, an issue I felt the need to share after reading Tawny's recent battle with the resurrected New God Kalibak in the pages of DC's current big event, Final Crisis #6.

Download Link (Hosted by Rapidshare)
Capt. Marvel Adventures #79 CBR file

First Issue Special #1 (April 1975, DC Comics)

I'm currently enjoying the James Robinson run on SUPERMAN, and was pleasantly surprised to see one of my favorite obscure Jack Kirby creations, ATLAS, featured within the storyline....


Above: The Alex Ross painted covers of Superman #678 & #679

For years, due to a simple misunderstanding over the title of the book, I searched and searched for "Atlas #1", after seeing several in-house advertisements for the book in old DC back issues. For a while I believed that Atlas' title was to have been one of the casualties of the infamous "DC Implosion" of the mid-1970s, a book that had been hyped, yet never produced, because I simply could not find the first issue.

Then, after years of searching the "A" section (for "Atlas") of several comic book shops back issue long-boxes, by ran across 1st Issue Special #1 in an "F" box....y'know...."F" for "first". The truly sad thing was that I was aware of the title "1st Issue Special" due to the first appearance of Travis Morgan, The Warlord having been in one of the later issues and the debut of one of my personal favorite characters from the 1980s, the Mark Shaw incarnation of Manhunter, had been in the fifth issue.

I dumbfoundedly assumed that the "1st Issue Special" section of the cover was a blurb, and not the title logo itself.

Sigh....

Anyways...Atlas has had a few sporadic cameoes in the DCU since this debut book, once as a background character in Waid and Ross' Kingdom Come #2, and this animated bad guy from the Teen Titans Cartoon Network show (from the second season episode, "Only Human"), whose name and character design seems to be influenced by the Kirby creation, though I don't think it was ever acknowledged...








From Wikipedia:

Atlas is a fictional character published by DC Comics. He first debuted in 1st Issue Special #1, (April 1975), and was created by Jack Kirby.

The character of Atlas' first and only appearance prior to Superman #677 was in 1st Issue Special #1. James Robinson brought Atlas back in Superman #678. According to Robinson, Atlas is going to save humanity. "The way I like to look at him is like in the Marvel Universe, Namor is a hero but he really skates the fine line between being a hero and a villain, but he stays on the side of the hero. Atlas, skates that line between hero and villain but he ultimately always falls on the villain side." He continued to say that Atlas will become a major player in the Superman mythos moving forward and there will be some real twists to the character.


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First Issue Special #1 CBR file