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

Evel Knievel Ideal Toys Give-Away (Marvel Comcs, 1974)

If you're a child of the 1970s, much like myself, then you probably have a great love for that particular decade's version of Jackass...Evel Knievel...

Oh, how I covetted and desired the Ideal toys, begging my parents until they broke down and bought me all of them....

Well, here for you reading pleasure is the give-away comic that was packaged with the toys....I sure do miss rip-chord cycles....

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Seduction of the Innocent

From Wikipedia:

Seduction of the Innocent is a book by American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a negative form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. The book was a minor bestseller that created alarm in parents and galvanized them to campaign for censorship. At the same time, a U.S. Congressional inquiry was launched into the comic book industry. Subsequent to the publication of Seduction of the Innocent, the Comics Code Authority was voluntarily established by publishers to self-censor their titles.

Seduction of the Innocent cited overt or covert depictions of violence, sex, drug use, and other adult fare within "crime comics" — a term Wertham used to describe not only the popular gangster/murder-oriented titles of the time, but superhero and horror comics as well. The book asserted, largely based on undocumented anecdotes, that reading this material encouraged similar behavior in children.

Comics, especially the crime/horror titles pioneered by EC, were not lacking in gruesome images; Wertham reproduced these extensively, pointing out what he saw as recurring morbid themes such as "injury to the eye". Many of his other conjectures, particularly about hidden sexual themes (e.g. images of female nudity concealed in drawings of muscles and tree bark, or Batman and Robin as gay partners), met with derision within the comics industry. (Wertham's claim that Wonder Woman had a bondage subtext was somewhat better documented, as her creator William Moulton Marston had admitted as much; however, Wertham also claimed Wonder Woman's strength and independence made her a lesbian. However, she is traditionally portrayed as a heterosexual and a virgin). Wertham also claimed that Superman was un-American and was a fascist.

Wertham critiqued the commercial environment of comic book publishing and retailing, objecting to air rifles and knives advertised alongside violent stories. Wertham sympathized with retailers who didn't want to sell horror comics, yet were compelled to by their distributors' table d'hôte product line policies.

The fame of Seduction of the Innocent added to Wertham's previous celebrity as an expert witness and made him an obvious choice to appear before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency led by anti-crime crusader Estes Kefauver. In extensive testimony before the committee, Wertham restated arguments from his book and pointed to comics as a major cause of juvenile crime. The committee's questioning of their next witness, EC publisher William Gaines, focused on violent scenes of the type Wertham had decried. Though the committee's final report did not blame comics for crime, it recommended that the comics industry tone down its content voluntarily. Possibly taking this as a veiled threat of potential censorship, publishers developed the Comics Code Authority to censor their own content. The new code not only banned violent images, but entire words and concepts (e.g. "terror" and "zombies"), and dictated that criminals must always be punished. This destroyed most EC-style titles, leaving a sanitized subset of superhero comics as the chief remaining genre. Wertham nevertheless considered the Comics Code inadequate to protect youth.

Seduction of the Innocent was illustrated with comic-book panels offered as evidence, each accompanied by a line of Wertham's sardonic commentary. The first printing contained a bibliography listing the comic book publishers cited, but fears of lawsuits compelled the publisher to tear the bibliography page from any copies available, so copies with an intact bibliography are rare. Early complete editions of Seduction of the Innocent often sell for high figures among book and comic book collectors.

Among comic-book collectors any comic book with a story or panel referred to in Seduction of the Innocent is known as a "Seduction issue", and is usually more valued than other issues in the same run of a title. Seduction of the Innocent is one of the few non-illustrative works to be listed in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide as a collectible in its own right.

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B-Movie Madness: Gorgo (Charlton, 1961-64)

I love this book....not only is it an adaptation of the 1961 British attempt at ripping off Godzilla (I'm a HUGE fan of the Toho Titan), but it features a ton of great art by Steve Ditko.

Download Link (Issues #1-12)

Download Link (Issues #13-23)

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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Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja (Marvel, 1989-90)

I read, collected and enjoyed this title immensely during my high school days. It's a surreal little slice of bat-shit insane science fiction with some great art by Ron Wagner. Thanks to Zen Tiger for the scans...

From Wikipedia:

Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja is a comic book about an American ninja set in an unspecified near future where World War III has started. It was written by Larry Hama between 1989 and 1990, based largely on his success writing the G.I.Joe: A Real American Hero comic, which he wrote concurrently with The Nth Man (and also features a modern ninja as one of the main characters). Nth Man and Alfie O'Meagan first appeared in Marvel Comics Presents #25 (August 1989).

The series starts in medias res with American soldiers parachuting into war-torn Moscow in an attempt to rescue the Nth Man. Using TV news commentary as a plot exposition device, it is revealed that the war was caused by Alfie using his psychic abilities to neutralise all nuclear weapons on the planet and upsetting the balance of power.

As the story progresses, we learn that Alfie has grown up in an orphanage alongside John Doe (the "Nth Man" of the title). Doe was adopted by an elderly Japanese man who worked for the CIA's "Black Ops" division. Doe was raised as a ninja, taught to kill without regret.

While in the orphanage, O'Meagan had visions of possible futures (the "could-be's") and over time, his powers grew so that he was able to control matter and produce other effects that were against the physical laws of the universe.

The story has numerous twists and turns, as Alfie gains vast power while losing his sanity. When the Soviet Union launches biological weapons, Alfie's attempt to turn them harmless backfires. Using a narrative jump of one year (which was forced upon writer Larry Hama in order to wrap up the story, due to the cancellation of the series), we see that the biological weapons were turned into a mutagenic virus, and millions are transformed into psychotic, cannibalistic "moots".

The storyline is complex, following numerous characters through war zones, plague-ridden post-Apocalyptic landscapes, inside a video game, alien worlds, and various points in time and space. The conclusion of the story makes use of a paradox and Doe and O'Meagan are shown to be responsible for their own origins.

Issues #1-#9

Issues #10- #13

Issues #14- #16

Demon Hunter #1 (Atlas/Seaboard, 1975)

As a fan of so-called "dead universes" (i.e., publishers and/or publishing imprints that employed a shared universe concept in their storytelling that are now defunct), over the years I've become a big fan of the Atlas/Seaboard stuff of the 1970s, purely for the cheese factor. Though, admittedly, there were two or three diamonds amongst the rough....and one of 'em was Demon Hunter...

From The Atlas Archives:

Created and plotted by Marvel veteran Rich Buckler, written by David Anthony Kraft (best known for his run on the Defenders), Demon Hunter was one of the most original titles published by Atlas-Seaboard (the character would later resurface as in two different incarnations.)

"What does a Demon Hunter do ?" read the opening page, "Everything he can to prevent Xenogenesis... the rebirth of a demon race here on earth ! His name ? Gideon Cross. He is a telepath."

Empowered by a cult seeking to bring about Xenogenesis, Gideon Cross was empowered with a shadow cloak and new abilities to serve their bidding. He turned against them, however, and became a one-man force against their evil.

Unlike Dr.Strange or Dr. Fate, Demon Hunter was fighting a specific war against a specific evil.

After it's lone Atlas issue, Demon-Hunter was resurrected over at Marvel Comics as Devil-Slayer. Devil Slayer was Eric Simon Payne. He renounced the demon cult that granted him incredible powers and now stood against them. Their goal, Xenogenesis, the rebirth of a demon race on earth.

In 1980, the Rich Buckler published magazine, Galaxia, featured the character Bloodwing. Again, this character is nearly identical to Demon-Hunter. Bloodwing was also known as Gideon Cross.

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