Since we're up to page 100 on this topic thread, I thought it might be fun to look at some 100 issues. That is, covers to books that made it to issue #100. (You remember those days? Back before publishers decided to reboot books back to #1 before they could reach #50?)
First up is the Man Of Steel himself:
Superman hit #100 in 1955. The cover actually gives us a five-in-one, in that the main cover represents not only the cover to the very first issue, but the 'quarter' issues as well: #'s 25, 50, 75. Pretty cool deal if, as a kid, you hadn't seen those earlier comics.
This cover, naturally, has many artists involved with it: Wayne Boring, Al Plastino, Ray Burnley, Stan Kaye, Win Mortimer, and, of course, Joe Shuster.
Captain America, who had been sharing Tales Of Suspense with Iron Man for a few years, actually breaks out into his own series with #100 -- a rare example of a book beginning with it's hundredth issue. (Well... not too rare; a couple of other Marvel books were doing the same thing that month.) And it comes with an iconic cover by Jack Kirby and Syd Shores.
Firestorm, on the other hand, ended his original run -- his second run, actually, given that his first series died ignominiously during the Great DC Implosion -- with his 100th issue, after a long run initiated by his creator, Gerry Conway, and ending after a recreation by John Ostrander that saw the Nuclear Man reimagined as a Fire Elemental. At the end of this issue, Firestorm, now just the single personality of Professor Martin Stein, takes off for the stars, temporarily signaling the end of both the series and (we were to think) the character.
When the Avengers hit 100, they celebrated by Assembling! And they assembled everybody! That is, everybody who had ever been an Avenger at that time, from the Hulk on down to the renegade villain, the Swordsman. (Wonder Man was noticeably absent, but he had an excuse back then: he was dead.) On top of that, the story was pencilled by Barry Windsor-Smith, on hiatus from his initial run on Conan.
DC brought its venerable try-out book, Showcase, back from the dead in the late 70's to experiment with a few new features, such as a revived Doom Patrol (the first attempt at bringing the DP back from the dead) and Power Girl. This new life made it possible to reach its own 100th issue, in which writers Paul Kupperberg and Paul Levitz and artist Joe Staton produced a story that squeezed in everybody who had ever appeared in Showcase, from Jonny Double to Cave Carson, from Lois Lane to Space Ranger. Sadly, the book only continued for a few more issues before falling victim to the DC Implosion.
And Cerebus The Aardvark was the first independent to hit 100 issues -- which, in his case, was exactly one third of a planned 300 issue run. The cover, like Superman #100, gives us slices of the 'quarter' issues, beginning with #1, but all of these were drawn by one man: Dave Sim. (With some assistance from Gerhard.)
In 2007, DC launched the first ongoing Spirit comic to feature new stories, and to my mind they got the best man for the job in Darwyn Cooke. Darwyn’s stories felt very true to Eisner’s work, and his art style fit the tone perfectly. Unfortunately, his planned two-year run ended up being only one year long. Also, DC decided the best way to launch the series was with a Batman/Spirit one-shot special. Darwyn didn’t like the idea, so he declined to write it—though he did agree to draw it—which is why they brought in Jeff Loeb for that issue.
Issue #5 was Darwyn’s favorite. He felt with this issue that he came closest to a story that Eisner himself might have done.
Yeah, Cooke's work on the Spirit was the best since Eisner. I loved the series while he was doing it, and quickly lost interest after he left, in spite of some good work by the likes of Mark Evanier, Sergio Aragones and Mike Ploog. I really didn't like the Batman team-up, though, which is unusual for me since I generally enjoy Batman team-ups.
The Spirit post-Cooke was a little disappointing frankly. After one issue featuring three short stories by different creative teams, the usually brilliant team of Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragónes took on the writing chores. But while Darwyn was able to mix the right balance of noir, whimsy, and political/cultural satire, Mark and Sergio’s stories just felt a little off for the most part. They weren’t bad by any means, but they didn’t feel quite like The Spirit should. In fact, it felt like a completely different series, which is why I’ve separated this part of the run from Darwyn’s. The rotating cast of artists probably didn’t help the situation. But they did get some great covers during this point:
Pencils and inks by Jordi Bernet.
Pencils and inks by Bruce Timm.
Pencils and inks by Paul Smith.
With issue #26 Michael Uslan and F.J. DeSanto wrote a three-issue arc with art by Justiano. Uslan was the producer for Frank Miller’s film adaptation of The Spirit, but to his credit, Uslan’s story felt closer to the source material than to the movie.
Pencils and inks by Brian Bolland.
The Dean Motter/Paul Rivoche (both of Mister X fame) stand-alone story in issue #29 was actually quite good and renewed my hope for the series, especially with Mike Ploog waiting in the wings.
Pencils and inks by Paul Rivoche.
After a pretty good story written and drawn by Mike Oeming, the series wrapped up with a two-parter by written and penciled by Mike Ploog, who had been an assistant to Eisner in the late ’60s. If Mike had been able to stay on as writer (at least) and artist, I think the series may have been able to recover. His story was excellent and a very close second to Darwyn Cooke’s take.
Pencils and inks by Nick Cardy, who worked in Eisner’s studio during the early days of The Spirit, drawing Lady Luck as part of the eight-page newspaper section.
The Flash had the unusual luck of just missing out on that 100th issue.
Except for the corner circle, Jay Garrick doesn't even appear on the cover! It's given entirely over to Hawkman! (Drawn by a very young Joe Kubert.) Of course, the secret is that Flash Comics wasn't a solo Flash book, but an anthology title that spotlighted both Flash and Hawkman, who took turns appearing on the cover. Flash's own book, All-Flash, couldn't reach that high mark, but died after 32 issues.
Barry Allen didn't have much luck either. His run began with #104, continuing the numbering from where Flash Comics left off in the '40's. So, technically, his 100th issues was #203...
And no one noticed. (The story depicted on the cover, incidentally, was the one that first revealed that Iris West Allen was born in the 30th Century.) Cover by Neal Adams.
On the other hand, Barry did have a nifty #200...
...with a nifty cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson, and a clever little tale that sprinkled the number 200 all throughout. (It was the '52' of its time.)
It took Wally West to actually break the tape at a genuine 100...
...with a sadly nondescript hologram cover, with a figure outline. (Drawn by the otherwise fine Mike Wieringo and Jose Marzan Jr.)
On the other hand, Wally also managed to do 1,000,000...
...and that ain't bad at all. (cover by Steve Lightle.)
I'm skipping DC’s First Wave version of The Spirit, because when you get down to it, that wasn’t really The Spirit, merely a guy in a suit and mask that kind of looked like The Spirit. I noticed that tomorrow is Fredric Wertham’s birthday, so instead I’m going to celebrate the less repugnant of the two. After all, despite his falsified evidence and his incorrect analysis in Seduction of the Innocent, Wertham was at least trying to do the right thing. He also railed against racism and particularly segregation, and helped the case of Brown v. Board of Education immensely. And in his later years he did come to admire comics fandom to some degree, as evidenced by his 1974 book The World of Fanzines: A Special Form of Communication.
Most of the illustrations used in SotI were individual panels, but there were a few covers, most famously the cover of Phantom Lady #17 by Matt Baker (and possibly Jack Kamen).
Got this at the con dirt cheap.Just couldn't pass up this cover.
I tried to get an interview with Mr. T many years ago (2002 maybe?) for The Jack Kirby Collector. Kirby did design work on the Mr. T cartoon, so I was going to ask him about the show and about the comics. I guess it wasn’t current enough though, because his agent never even bothered to respond to the request.
Sidenote: Mr. T and I share the same birthday, though he’s quite a bit older than me.
While this cover was not used in Seduction of the Innocent, the famous “injury-to-eye motif” panel that was used came from the Jack “Plastic Man” Cole written and illustrated story “Murder, Morphine, and Me,” which appeared in this issue. The cover of True Crime Comics #2, with pencils and inks by Jack Cole:
The gun and holster were modified (pencils and inks) by Dick Giordano. Alan actually drew Batman holding a Mauser—per Mike Barr’s script request—not only on the cover but throughout the entire issue, which Giordano also redrew accordingly. Why the change? Because in one panel of “Year One” Batman is shown holding a pistol like the one in the published cover. Alan had pointed this out to the editors before drawing anything but had been told to proceed anyway. It was only after he had turned in the pencils that editorial decided to go with the “Year One” pistol instead of the Mauser. Alan had already been on the wrong end of editorial communication problems, and this was the final straw for him, which is why he left the title in the middle of this story arc.
(I'm not the one who Disliked the post by the way.)
The gun and holster were modified (pencils and inks) by Dick Giordano. Alan actually drew Batman holding a Mauser—per Mike Barr’s script request—not only on the cover but throughout the entire issue, which Giordano also redrew accordingly. Why the change? Because in one panel of “Year One” Batman is shown holding a pistol like the one in the published cover. Alan had pointed this out to the editors before drawing anything but had been told to proceed anyway. It was only after he had turned in the pencils that editorial decided to go with the “Year One” pistol instead of the Mauser. Alan had already been on the wrong end of editorial communication problems, and this was the final straw for him, which is why he left the title in the middle of this story arc.
(I'm not the one who Disliked the post by the way.)
The gun and holster were modified (pencils and inks) by Dick Giordano. Alan actually drew Batman holding a Mauser—per Mike Barr’s script request—not only on the cover but throughout the entire issue, which Giordano also redrew accordingly. Why the change? Because in one panel of “Year One” Batman is shown holding a pistol like the one in the published cover. Alan had pointed this out to the editors before drawing anything but had been told to proceed anyway. It was only after he had turned in the pencils that editorial decided to go with the “Year One” pistol instead of the Mauser. Alan had already been on the wrong end of editorial communication problems, and this was the final straw for him, which is why he left the title in the middle of this story arc.
(I'm not the one who Disliked the post by the way.)
Ah! I'd always wondered why Davis left so abruptly. Thanks for that insight.
Shown on the same page as the previously posted Phantom Lady cover was a panel from Blue Beetle #54 (Mar. 1948). Both were used as examples of “headlights” imagery. Unfortunately, I can’t identify the artist with certainty, but the girl’s face looks like a Jack Kamen face, and he did do a lot of work on Blue Beetle during that period.
I find it interesting that the mirror image is wearing a bra, but the actual girl isn’t. Oversight or intentional?
Shown on the same page as the previously posted Phantom Lady cover was a panel from Blue Beetle #54 (Mar. 1948). Both were used as examples of “headlights” imagery. Unfortunately, I can’t identify the artist with certainty, but the girl’s face looks like a Jack Kamen face, and he did do a lot of work on Blue Beetle during that period.
I find it interesting that the mirror image is wearing a bra, but the actual girl isn’t. Oversight or intentional?
I find it interesting that the title character isn't even shown on the cover, except for a tiny insert! Thrown over for a pretty... er, face! And why does she look so alarmed? Her reflection is looking away from the thug sneaking up on her!
Shown on the same page as the previously posted Phantom Lady cover was a panel from Blue Beetle #54 (Mar. 1948). Both were used as examples of “headlights” imagery. Unfortunately, I can’t identify the artist with certainty, but the girl’s face looks like a Jack Kamen face, and he did do a lot of work on Blue Beetle during that period.
I find it interesting that the mirror image is wearing a bra, but the actual girl isn’t. Oversight or intentional?
I find it interesting that the title character isn't even shown on the cover, except for a tiny insert! Thrown over for a pretty... er, face! And why does she look so alarmed? Her reflection is looking away from the thug sneaking up on her!
Well, starting with issue #47 of the Fox series, the Blue Beetle covers began to be dominated by pretty women. Blue Beetle was shoved into the background, and from issues #53-57 was merely an inset headshot. But, then, from issue #52–57, the book was really a “true crime” comic, where there were no actual Blue Beetle stories—no super-heroics at all, in fact. The Beetle was only a host introducing the stories in those issues.
Then there was a gap in publishing for nearly two years. When the title was brought back, Blue Beetle was once again the star attraction. It should also be noted that this superhero revival was ahead of the curve, as it was released when even DC was producing very little superhero material. Then Fox had to declare bankruptcy in 1950 and the character fell back into disuse until 1955 when Charlton picked him up.
(I'm not the one who Disliked the post by the way.)
I was.
I find the cover stiff and ... odd-looking.
Something about the face just bugs me, plus the really clean lines of the belt and holster don't match the rest of the costume.
Yeah, it’s probably my least favorite cover of Alan’s, but it was still early in his career. And that’s Giordano doing a last-minute job with the holster, which had more little details in the original Davis/Neary version. The belt doesn’t stand out nearly as much in black-&-white, but it is rather glaring with the coloring. And it’s really the coloring that’s the problem. The gray of Batman’s suit is much too dark compared to the brightness of the belt—much darker, in fact, than the interior coloring of Batman’s suit, and what Alan and Neary were used to seeing on the covers. A darker yellow or darker yellow shading, or a lighter gray—or some combination of those—would make all the difference.
Comments
Chas Truog
Bob Wiacek
Plus it has a short chapter of Dijin by Steve Ditko.
First up is the Man Of Steel himself:
Superman hit #100 in 1955. The cover actually gives us a five-in-one, in that the main cover represents not only the cover to the very first issue, but the 'quarter' issues as well: #'s 25, 50, 75. Pretty cool deal if, as a kid, you hadn't seen those earlier comics.
This cover, naturally, has many artists involved with it: Wayne Boring, Al Plastino, Ray Burnley, Stan Kaye, Win Mortimer, and, of course, Joe Shuster.
Captain America, who had been sharing Tales Of Suspense with Iron Man for a few years, actually breaks out into his own series with #100 -- a rare example of a book beginning with it's hundredth issue. (Well... not too rare; a couple of other Marvel books were doing the same thing that month.) And it comes with an iconic cover by Jack Kirby and Syd Shores.
Firestorm, on the other hand, ended his original run -- his second run, actually, given that his first series died ignominiously during the Great DC Implosion -- with his 100th issue, after a long run initiated by his creator, Gerry Conway, and ending after a recreation by John Ostrander that saw the Nuclear Man reimagined as a Fire Elemental. At the end of this issue, Firestorm, now just the single personality of Professor Martin Stein, takes off for the stars, temporarily signaling the end of both the series and (we were to think) the character.
When the Avengers hit 100, they celebrated by Assembling! And they assembled everybody! That is, everybody who had ever been an Avenger at that time, from the Hulk on down to the renegade villain, the Swordsman. (Wonder Man was noticeably absent, but he had an excuse back then: he was dead.) On top of that, the story was pencilled by Barry Windsor-Smith, on hiatus from his initial run on Conan.
DC brought its venerable try-out book, Showcase, back from the dead in the late 70's to experiment with a few new features, such as a revived Doom Patrol (the first attempt at bringing the DP back from the dead) and Power Girl. This new life made it possible to reach its own 100th issue, in which writers Paul Kupperberg and Paul Levitz and artist Joe Staton produced a story that squeezed in everybody who had ever appeared in Showcase, from Jonny Double to Cave Carson, from Lois Lane to Space Ranger. Sadly, the book only continued for a few more issues before falling victim to the DC Implosion.
And Cerebus The Aardvark was the first independent to hit 100 issues -- which, in his case, was exactly one third of a planned 300 issue run. The cover, like Superman #100, gives us slices of the 'quarter' issues, beginning with #1, but all of these were drawn by one man: Dave Sim. (With some assistance from Gerhard.)
Issue #5 was Darwyn’s favorite. He felt with this issue that he came closest to a story that Eisner himself might have done.
Issue #12, Darwyn’s final issue, sans cover type:
Pencils and inks by Jordi Bernet.
Pencils and inks by Bruce Timm.
Pencils and inks by Paul Smith.
With issue #26 Michael Uslan and F.J. DeSanto wrote a three-issue arc with art by Justiano. Uslan was the producer for Frank Miller’s film adaptation of The Spirit, but to his credit, Uslan’s story felt closer to the source material than to the movie.
Pencils and inks by Brian Bolland.
The Dean Motter/Paul Rivoche (both of Mister X fame) stand-alone story in issue #29 was actually quite good and renewed my hope for the series, especially with Mike Ploog waiting in the wings.
Pencils and inks by Paul Rivoche.
After a pretty good story written and drawn by Mike Oeming, the series wrapped up with a two-parter by written and penciled by Mike Ploog, who had been an assistant to Eisner in the late ’60s. If Mike had been able to stay on as writer (at least) and artist, I think the series may have been able to recover. His story was excellent and a very close second to Darwyn Cooke’s take.
Pencils and inks by Nick Cardy, who worked in Eisner’s studio during the early days of The Spirit, drawing Lady Luck as part of the eight-page newspaper section.
The Flash had the unusual luck of just missing out on that 100th issue.
Except for the corner circle, Jay Garrick doesn't even appear on the cover! It's given entirely over to Hawkman! (Drawn by a very young Joe Kubert.) Of course, the secret is that Flash Comics wasn't a solo Flash book, but an anthology title that spotlighted both Flash and Hawkman, who took turns appearing on the cover. Flash's own book, All-Flash, couldn't reach that high mark, but died after 32 issues.
Barry Allen didn't have much luck either. His run began with #104, continuing the numbering from where Flash Comics left off in the '40's. So, technically, his 100th issues was #203...
And no one noticed. (The story depicted on the cover, incidentally, was the one that first revealed that Iris West Allen was born in the 30th Century.) Cover by Neal Adams.
On the other hand, Barry did have a nifty #200...
...with a nifty cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson, and a clever little tale that sprinkled the number 200 all throughout. (It was the '52' of its time.)
It took Wally West to actually break the tape at a genuine 100...
...with a sadly nondescript hologram cover, with a figure outline. (Drawn by the otherwise fine Mike Wieringo and Jose Marzan Jr.)
On the other hand, Wally also managed to do 1,000,000...
...and that ain't bad at all. (cover by Steve Lightle.)
Is that Troy McClure?
Most of the illustrations used in SotI were individual panels, but there were a few covers, most famously the cover of Phantom Lady #17 by Matt Baker (and possibly Jack Kamen).
Got this at the con dirt cheap.Just couldn't pass up this cover.
Sidenote: Mr. T and I share the same birthday, though he’s quite a bit older than me.
(I'm not the one who Disliked the post by the way.)
I find it interesting that the mirror image is wearing a bra, but the actual girl isn’t. Oversight or intentional?
Then there was a gap in publishing for nearly two years. When the title was brought back, Blue Beetle was once again the star attraction. It should also be noted that this superhero revival was ahead of the curve, as it was released when even DC was producing very little superhero material. Then Fox had to declare bankruptcy in 1950 and the character fell back into disuse until 1955 when Charlton picked him up.
I find the cover stiff and ... odd-looking.
Something about the face just bugs me, plus the really clean lines of the belt and holster don't match the rest of the costume.