SUPERMAN SPACE AGE BOOK 3 DC COMICS
Holy Cow! Dark, depressing, and not at all what I had expected from Mark Russell and the Allreds! With more guest appearances than you can shake a stick at (including some great JSA cameos!) The Justice League has grown in strength and number. But Superman’s visions are still becoming more frequent. So much so that after the death of Pa Kent, he takes a hiatus to complete his master plan. And amazingly he need the help of multiple Brainiacs. Who lives? Who dies? Who lives again? The final fight is upon us but will it end in success, failure, or both. This one is brutal! I give it a 9 out of 10 Grahams.
WHIZ COMICS #2 DC COMICS (FAWCETT COMICS)
Just the numbering on this issue will lead you down a confusing rabbit hole. As Issue #1 was technically an pair of Ashcan comics that had a title of Flash Comics and Thrill Comics for solicitation purposes and Captain Marvel was called Captain Thunder (who would later make a guest appearance in 1974’s issue of Superman #276). When the issue finally went to print, the final title became Whiz Comics and it was numbered at issue 2? So what we have here is the first appearance of Captain Marvel with an issue number of 2. But what we also have is a wonderfully clever anthology comics covering most genres of the 1940’s. Ibis the Invincible! Golden Arrow! Spy Smasher! Scoop Smith! Dan Dare! Lance O’Casey! And all in their infancy! All just waiting for the youth of the times to plop down their $6.99 (I mean dime!). No reboots, no lost rights to the character name on the cover, no legal headaches, not even a movie (although one would appear a year later staring cowboy star Tom Tyler.) Another reminder of what comic readers today are missing. And it took a new movie release to make this facsimile edition. Sigh! 10 out of 10 Grahams.
VAMPIRESS CARMILLA #14 WARRANT MAGAZINE
More good ole fashion fun and terror from the likes of Nicola Cuti, Don Glut, Artie Godwin, Nik Poliwko, and Santos Zaballos plus many more. Even after 14 issues, the thrills, chills, and surprise endings are still enjoyable to read. Vampires, werewolves, women obsessed with shoes(?), zombie lovers, etc. All in classic black and white magazine form! And it was a real nice tribute to Warrant Magazine writer Lou Mougin who passed away just before the new year on the letters page. 8 out of 10 Grahams.
BLUE BOOK #1 DARK HORSE COMICS
Going for the odd and forgotten story of Betty and Barney Hill and I am loving it. Based on a true story (I remember it from when I was a kid!) this early tale of alien abduction had the United States dropping their collective jaws. Now whatever possessed James Tynion IV and Michael Avon Oeming to bring this tale to life, I cannot say but I will admit that it did bring back a certain nostalgia for me. Like most of the population in the 1970’s, I couldn’t get enough of the weird and unusual. Issues of Fate Magzine littered my floor while I watched episodes of In Search of … with Leonard Nimoy on the TV. Books featuring searches for the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot cluttered my shelves. So I was quite familiar with this story. It was a bit of a mind blow to see it as an illustrated story in 2023. I give it an 8 out of 10 Grahams.
