0043: Cast Your Rice Upon The Waters

I can't remember if the first John Waters movie I saw was "Pink Flamingos" or "Polyester", but I'm pretty sure I've seen all of them, from "The Diane Linkletter Story" to "A Dirty Shame". Nowadays he's mostly writing books and hosting film festivals, but his name has been registering on my radar for years. Turning back the clock ten years, he started 2007 by appearing as a funeral director in an episode of "My Name Is Earl" in January. In February, for Valentine's Day, New Line Records released a compilation of love songs called "A Date With John Waters", a sequel to the popular "A John Waters Christmas"(2004). Both were various artists albums for which Waters wrote liner notes to songs he selected around a holiday theme.

So what to do for March when you're not Irish? Why, star in a new basic cable TV series, of course! Waters had been telling interviewers for years that he loved attending murder trials and only stopped when people started recognizing him and he became concerned about being a distraction in a serious legal proceeding. That's not to say that he lost interest in true crime stories. And the more bizarre the circumstances, the better. So, a series on CourtTV seemed a natural match. After shooting a pilot in 2006, he went to narrate 13 episodes of "'Til Death Do Us Part" in the character of "The Groom Reaper", who was sort of a cross between Rod Serling in "The Twilight Zone" and any of the EC horror hosts.

Each episode would open with the Groom Reaper at a wedding or its reception, speaking directly to the audience. Unlike Serling, however, it was always clear that he was physically there, interacting with the events, even though the other attendants never noticed that he was speaking to an invisible third party.

The bulk of each half hour episode would then consist of actors playing out a dramatized version of an actual, real-life murder case in which one spouse killed the other and was eventually caught. (They had to have been caught, because otherwise we would never have had the story.) Waters didn't write, direct or produce any of the episodes, he only performed in them, which was a departure for him. Most of his performing credits have been cameos, often in his own movies as a gag, or else voice work. After sprinkling some of those voice overs onto choice parts of the story, the episodes would end with the Groom Reaper emerging at the killer's apprehension, arrest or trial for one last wry observation before telling the viewers, "I've got another wedding to go to. I hope it's not yours."

I remember the airings to be oddly spotty, even by basic cable standards. They seemed to skip every third week  and, while many basic cable channels (like TBS or Comedy Central) will run the new episodes of original shows several times during the week (including time slots they expect to be low performing, like midnight to dawn), "'Til Death Do Us Part" had its one airing in primetime. After three months it was gone, with only half of its episodes aired. It also ran in Canada, under the name "Love You To Death", possibly to avoid confusion with the American sitcom also being produced that year, "'Til Death" (with Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher).

By the end of the year, CourtTV had been converted into TruTV, which announced that one of its guiding principles would be that they would use only genuine footage. Even though TDDUP was based on true stories it was technically scripted and shot, complete with (out of necessity) fabricated dialogue just like "Dragnet" or "Naked City" (well, maybe not just like them...). A year later, in mod-2008, it was made available as a 3-DVD set from Navarre (UPC# 787364-818198). Soon after, TruTV's claims about keeping things real proved to be disingenuous as the crime and law enforcement orientation of CourtTV was replaced with skeevy "real footage" programs about repo men, dangerous occupations in remote areas and out of work D-list 'celebrities' (Tonya Harding, Danny Bonaduce, Todd Bridges...) cracking jokes about security camera footage. After five years of failing to knock AMC (or anyone else) out of the Emmys, it switched format to comedy, including scripted shows like "Adam Ruins Everything". However much the network rubs me the wrong way, I can't get too mad at "Adam...", "Talk Show: The Game Show" or some others that have emerged since then. Those shows are at least funny, unlike the network's most aired show recently, "Impractical Jokers". It's scheduled to run 37 half-hour episodes tomorrow alone. That's not a special occasion, it's a typical day. And I would like to point out that seven of the remaining eleven half-hours  are infomercials, which frankly would be preferable to "Impractical Jokers", which is so appallingly cringe-inducing that I can confidently say that I've seen funnier things with Sarah McLachlan singing in the background.

About the promo comic itself, it's a coverless 16 page freebie that I picked up at my regular direct market comics specialty store. Scans of the first three pages are above and page 14 is on the left here. It adapts the first episode from the premiere on March 19, 2007, which aired along with the third episode. The few episodes that aired jumped around the production schedule, which is less harmful in an anthology series like this than it would be in a show with fixed characters. It cuts off half way through that episode, where the commercial break would be. In some episodes viewers were encouraged to text in which spouse they believed would murder the other in the second half. That seemed like a kind of dated approach in 2007, just as multi-platform viewing was becoming the norm.

The comic is also a DC production, whose editors were also working on "Connor Hawke: Dragon's Blood" at the time. Later in the year they would edit promo comics for Batman and Cal Ripken, Jr. (given out at Camden yards) and another for JLA and Con Edison. James Peaty was doing random fill-in issues for various DC titles then. Later he would write "Good Looking Corpse", the next to last story arc in "Supergirl" in 2011 before it was cancelled for New52. Adam Dekraker also hopped around, not only at DC but other publishers. He might be best known for working on the "Smallville" comic and did the "Forerunner" feature in Countdown to Adventure after this. Inker Dan Davis, letterer Pat Brosseau and colorist Guy Major are all DC perennials 

0042: Insider Outlier

Most comics publishers who release more than two titles every month have some outlet for advertising that they return to regularly. Today, websites are ubiquitous even though 'in-house' ads (advertisements for a publisher's titles that appear in their other titles) are still around after 80 years. In the mid-60's both Marvel and DC decided to consolidate as much news about their current and imminent releases as could fit onto a single page which they would run in all their comics that month. Marvel's Bullpen Bulletins and DC's Direct Currents took on lives of their own, outliving changes in editors and even publishers. Since most larger publishers also did commissioned promotional pamphlets as a sideline, it was only a matter of time before they realized that they could present pitches to distributors and retailers in the form of comic book or magazine sized pamphlets. Eventually these would be printed in quantities that made them available to readers. Most were free, of course (Eclipse Extra, Comico Checklist, DC's Coming Attractions, etc.), but Marvel had the bright idea of selling its ads to its fans in the form of "Marvel Age". Initially half the length of a comic for less than half the price of their newsstand comics, it expanded to full length for the same reduced price after widespread criticism and ridicule, adding previews and interviews to make it more of a biased fanzine than an ad. That was all before Dark Horse Comics even existed.

Dark Horse began publishing in 1986 and right out of the gate [the first of many horse racing puns, so brace yourself] they began using plays on their name. The very first comic they published, DARK HORSE PRESENTS #1 opens with the editorial "And We're Off!" and ends with the letters' page "Winner's Circle" (starting with contributor bios for obvious reasons). With the second issue the editorial became "The Starting Gate" and as the company's roster grew, more pages were given over to in-house ads until #12 (11/87) devoted a page to blurbs for the most current issue of each of their titles. In #13, "Starting Gate" was gone and #14 contained a four page preview section. Increasingly, news became integrated into the letters' page(s). Then, DHP ran its first "Tip Sheet" page in #19 (07/88), a mostly text account of news about the company and upcoming releases. Over the years it's taken on several horse racing related titles; it currently uses "Horsepower" and I think the previous one was "Finish Line". But a year after introducing "Tip Sheet"  Dark Horse began publishing the magazine sized (8.5" X 11.0") pamphlet "Dark Horse Insider". After 28 issues, the pamphlet was discontinued and replaced with Volume 2, a full-length comic book format filled with blurbs for each comic published that month. These frequently wind up in comic book bargain bins but the pamphlets are much thinner than magazines and harder to sell, even as clearance items. Which is a shame, since each one is a cheap little nostalgia jolt for comics junkies of a certain vintage. I found this stray one, #19(02/91), among magazines from other publishers. At only eight pages, I went ahead and scanned the whole thing. Check it out.

0041: The Brave and The Old

Everyone who knows me knows that I'm into comics. I'm aware that this makes me hard to shop for; almost paradoxically, although there are millions of things I would like it would be difficult even for a fellow collector to know the full scope of what I do or don't already have. Besides that, it's the hunt that's half the fun. However, it makes it super easy to pick out cards. Just skip anything that specifies age and even cards designed for kids work as both a light-hearted joke and "thinking of you" acknowledgement.

This Hallmark card licenses images in the style of the animated TV series "Batman: The Brave And The Bold" (which originally aired 2008-2011). Although there is no explicit copyright date, the mark "APR10" leads me to believe that it came out in the spring of 2010.

Measuring 5.5" X 8.0", the accompanying envelope is marked "Extra Postage Required", but I'm certain it's not for the size. My guess is that it's for the weight.

That card is printed on the same durable bond stock as many other cards, but the interior has some minor 3-D 'pop-up' effect and a prerecorded sound chip (which now no longer works).

As you can see in the upper right hand corner, the activator is hidden under the words "Press Here". Less obvious from this picture, but easily noticed when holding it, is that the sound-making device and speakers are hidden under Batman's torso.

The sound chip plays the theme to the TV series, credited to Andy Sturmer on the back of the card. Frankly, of all the audio clips a little kid could drive his parents crazy with by repeatedly pressing that button, this is definitely one of the better ones. I wish now that I had pulled this card out a few times over the years for a cheap little pick-me-up before the battery died. Instead I tucked it out of the way and kept it clean, then forgot about it until I stumbled across it last week.

For however many years Hallmark had permission to use this iteration of Batman, they made full use of it, covering every commercial aspect of a child's birthday party. They used different poses of him and different backgrounds for invitations, plastic cups, tablecloths, etc. And they've used many more iterations of Batman for their Christmas ornaments.

0040: Clef Quest

In 1984 I was attending college in the midwest. A friend who knew I was into comics invited me to go with him on the weekend to an all-Elfquest convention a couple of hours away. I had attended huge science fiction/fantasy multi-media conventions in the northeast, but had never been to one devoted to a single comic. The main reason for holding it was that the creators, Wendy and Richard Pini, were nearing the end of the original series and a group of fans were sponsoring a pair of wolves in their name at a nearby reserve (I think; this was 30+ years ago and the specifics are kind of fuzzy). Since they were heading out (probably from Poughkeepsie, NY) to visit the wolves, they agreed to appear at an all EQ mini-con.

It was a relatively simple set-up. It took place in a portion of a hotel with a room for a Q&A session and costume contest and a separate room for dealers. It was the first time I had seen entire families cosplaying. There was more of a community vibe than at larger cons. I picked up current printings of some issues I hadn't read and probably some general interest fanzine stuff, but most of the tables in the dealer's room were stocked with more merchandise than comics (after all, it was a whole convention devoted to a series that lasted 20 issues at that point). There were metal figurines, stuffed wolves, buttons, etc. Something I wish I had known about to look for was a cassette of Elfquest related songs that was released sometime that year. I don't know for certain if it had come out before or after the convention, but if it had been released, I'm betting it would have been there.

The cassette was on the label Off-Centaur Publications, which was formed in 1980 to publish the lyrics (and presumably sheet music) of original songs written by sf/fantasy fans about their favorite mêmes, characters and tropes. They released fewer than twenty books but about a hundred cassettes. "A Wolfrider's Reflections" was a multi-artist collection released in August 1984 as OCP-32. A book of the lyrics was released in 1987 with the same catalog number.

The compact disc (the subject of today's post) was released on 1992. It follows the original program exactly. The first eleven tracks were side 1 of the cassette and the second eleven were side 2. Musically, it's pretty much solid. Lyrically, it's pretty much what you'd expect. As much as I collect both music and comics, there is a whole subculture of fandom revolving around music about comics that I never really followed closely. It was probably at its peak from 1975-1995. What I can remember about those times is that Sword & Sorcery was as ubiquitous in the mid-70's as oversized guns were in the mid-90's. Barbarian heroes were everywhere. That's the only possible explanation I can imagine for why so many of the fan recordings emerging over the next decade sounded as though they were written for a Renaissance Faire, regardless of what kind of comics/books/movies, etc. the songs were about. Fortunately, that makes a great match for "Elfquest".

When the owners of Off Centaur split in 1988 there were legal disputes that left many of their recordings in limbo. The disputes were settled in 1992, and this album made its CD debut as soon as possible thereafter. It was fortuitous timing. At that time, Elquest had been around for 14 years, with Wendy Pini drawing the entire series and co-scripting with husband Richard. The original 20 self-published B&W magazine-size issues had been reprinted in color as paperbacks by Donning and in comic size by Epic. Then the series continued as B&W comics, first in "Siege at Blue Mountain" for Apple Press and later "Kings of the Broken Wheel" for the Pinis' own WaRP Graphics. All three series were then reprinted in color by WaRP as trades following the Donning format. All that preceded an expansion program by WaRP to publish several concurrent Elfquest comic book series-- in color-- to be written and drawn by a small army of contributors, some of whom (like Barry Blair) had been long-time fans of the series. It started with two titles, "The Hidden Years" and "New Blood" in spring 1992 but by the time the plug was pulled in spring 1996 the little publisher that produced fewer than 40 Elfquest comics in 14 years had produced over 140 Elfquest comics in four years. The entire line was cancelled and replaced with a monthly anthology.

Between 1992 and 1996, the color trades reprinting the pre-1992 material were reissued in hardcover. For even a more casual fan like myself, who read the series as a combination of comics and paperbacks, the CD offered a much better way to enhance the experience of rereading the old series than the added heft of a hardcover. After all, it was recorded in 1984 and each of the songs is about, or in the voice of, the original characters, often referencing specific scenes or dialogue from the first series. For me, the highlights were tracks 1 and 12, the lead tracks of each side of the cassette format, "Children Of The Fall" and "A Wolfrider's Reflections". Also worth a listen were "Nightcrawler" and "Strange Blood". For what is essentially an upscale 30-year old fan recording, the production values are remarkably good. It should also be noted that Mercedes Lackey is a prolific fantasy writer in her own right but these recordings were made before her first full-length book was published. Julia Ecklar went on to write a jillion Star Trek novels as half of L.A. Graf. Leslie Fish, as far as I know, is still alive and performing songs as of this writing. The album can be heard on YouTube here with montages of still art and photos of cosplayers. If you want to own it in a more portable audio form, it's downloadable from several services.

0039: Lancer Corporeal Part 4

The last of the six Lancer Books mass market paperbacks that licensed Marvel stories was 1967's "Here Comes... Daredevil". The physical specs are identical to "The Fantastic Four Returns", profiled in the previous post. It has 160 pages for 50¢, and reprints stories in black and white by breaking up panels and rearranging them sideways on the pages, occasionally omitting some.

The cover was made using a detail from the splash page of DAREDEVIL #15 (04/66). The Spider-man figure in the upper right corner is from the last panel of the second story in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #2 (05/63).

The panel used on the first page (below) was taken from DD#15, p.12 panel 5, but the image on the second page has me stumped. I've checked every page of the first four volumes of the Marvel Masterworks for Daredevil (which actually go into 1968). I've checked his guest appearances in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, FANTASTIC FOUR and a few others. It doesn't match the T-shirt/sweatshirt design I remember from that period. Even Google Image search failed. Maybe it will come to me in a dream. Or, with luck, the comments section.
[L3] has typeset credits, which differs from the title pages of the other volumes. The indicia on [L4] is in the same manner, though.

The first reprinted story is a two-parter from DAREDEVIL #16 (05/66)- 17(06/66), so [L5-6] combines the title from #17 with #16's p.3 panels 4-5.

Page L1

[L7-8] reprints #16, p.4 panels 1-4
[L9-31] reprints #16, pp.5-12 and p.13 panels 1-2
[L32-33] reprints #16, p.14 and has a LaSalle Extension University mail order insert between them in the copy I've found. Classy. If that didn't hurt their distribution to college-operated campus bookstores...
[L34] reprints #16, p.15 panels 1-2
[L35-37] reprints #16, p.16 and p.18 panel 5
[L38-42] reprints #17, pp.5-6
[L43-44] reprints #17, p.7 panels 2-5
[L45-46] reprints #17, p.8 panels 3-5
[L47-60] reprints #17, pp.10-14
[L61-62] reprints #17, p.15 panels 1-2,4-5
[L63-73] reprints #17, pp.16-19
[L74] reprints #17, p.20 panels 5-6

The second reprinted story is the origin portion of the first issue, with the original costume used only in the last panel.
[L75] reprints only the title from #1(04/64)
[L76-77] reprints #1, p.5 panels 3-6
[L78-79] reprints #1, p.6 panels 3-6
[L80-81] reprints #1, p.7, panels 1-2,5-6
[L82-83] reprints #1, p.8, panels 1-2,6-7
[L84-89] reprints #1, pp.9-10
[L90-91] reprints #1, p.11 panels 1-2,6-7
[L92-93] reprints #1, p.12 panels 1-2, 5-7
[L94-98] reprints #1, p.13 and p.14 panels 1-5

Here's the elusive image from page 2

The third reprinted story comes from DAREDEVIL #20 (09/66)- 21(10/66)

[L99-105] reprints #20, pp.1-4
[L106-109] reprints #20, pp.6-7
[L110] reprints #20, p.9 panel 1
[L111-114] reprints #20, p.10-11
[L115-116] reprints #20, p.13 plus the caption from p.12
[L117] reprints #20, p.14 panels 3-5
[L118-122] reprints #20, pp.15-17
[L123] reprints #20, p.18 panel 2[cropped]
[L124-127] reprints #20, pp.19-20
[L128-133] reprints #21, pp.2-4
[L134-136] reprints #21, p.6 and p.7 panel
[L137-139] reprints #21, p.8 and p.9 panel 2
[L140-143] reprints #21, pp.10-11
[L144-158] reprints #21, pp. 13-20
[L159] This is the same ad for Marvel titles that appears in all the paperbacks in this series
[L160] This is a plug for the first four volumes identical to the one in "The Fantastic Four Return"

Some may wonder why I would bother to note what panels are missing from the reprints. The simple answer is that sometimes what is missing is as significant as what is seen. For instance, tens of millions of Americans saw the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan show on each of three nights (two live, one pre-recorded) in February 1964. Not everyone watching was a screaming teen-age girl. Accomplished folk musician and session guitarist Jim McGuinn saw their sound as a way to reinvigorate and sustain the much larger audiences that folk had recently attracted through Peter, Paul and Mary and televised performances the previous August during the March On Washington.

In the liner notes to the 2CD set "The Preflyte Sessions" Sundazed SC11116 (Canada, 2001), I found the following:
...in 1964, folk and rock were separate words and exclusive worlds, divided by a fence of suspicion instead of a hyphen. [Chris] Hillman recalls Troubadour hootenannies...where McGuinn jarred his peers by singing the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" with an acoustic twelve-string guitar. "I was thinking, 'What is this guy doing?'" says Hillman, a mandolin prodigy from the San Diego area, then exclusively playing bluegrass. "But he was so committed to it that you just couldn't help but be drawn in."

It was at the Troubadour that McGuinn met two other folk musicians, Gene Clark and David Crosby, pursing the same goal from different directions. Crosby had already recorded demos with producer Jim Dickson, who was keen on recording whatever they eventually came up with. The trio recorded under the working name "The Jet Set" while making demos with Dickson who would get them a one-single deal with Elektra Records, a folk and classical label nervously considering their first rock record. The single was released under the pseudonym The Beefeaters (a condition of the deal, and clearly a reference to British Invasion bands riding the Beatles' coattails). The mixes were submitted in mid-1964 and it would eventually be released in October.

Tens of millions saw the Sullivan broadcasts but what they didn't see is that between the arrival in New York on the 7th and the live transmission on the 9th, Brian C. Hall of the Rickenbacker guitar company had arranged to meet with the Beatles and offer them their pick of a selection of the company's guitars. Because George Harrison had been sick that day, John Lennon suggested they bring him back the electric 12-string. According to Damian Fanelli of the magazine "Guitar World", it was the second 12-string Rickenbacker ever made. Generally, 12-strings are made by matching each of the six strings that would be on a conventional guitar with one an octave higher. However, in most they are strung so that when the guitar is strummed the higher string will be struck first. On Harrison's, the lower string is struck first. After a frantic two weeks in the U.S. they returned to recording almost as soon as they got back to England.The new guitar was used to record the B-side of "Can't Buy Me Love" and the bulk of the songs that would appear in the movie and album "A Hard Day's Night", which they began filming in March.

David Crosby reading AVENGERS #22 (11/65)

After the Jet Set/Beefeaters submitted their single, the film "A Hard Day's Night" was finally released in the U.S., a month after the U.K premiere. By most accounts, McGuinn and Crosby sat through the film several times taking notes. Two major points steered the course of their project. First, the Beatles made frequent use of vocal harmonies, which Crosby had a knack for arranging. Second, according to McGuinn, "we made a laundry list of the instruments we needed, copying all of the instruments the Beatles had." That included the same model electric 12-string. Adding two members (Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke) and switching out a vowel in an animal name, shortly after the Beefeaters single failed The Byrds signed to Columbia. Like the Beatles, they also saw their first charting single go to #1. But don't feel too bad about Elektra. After missing out on the revamped Byrds, they took a whole new attitude towards rock music and, in less than five years, signed The Doors, The Stooges and The MC5.

In the previous post, Marvel had further consolidated its identity by publishing its last short 'suspense' story in what had been anthologies but had since become super-hero comics. The only titles left that hadn't been renovated (aside from trade dress matters) were the 'teen humor' comics. Beginning in the first week of April, that changed as well. PATSY WALKER #115 (06/64) and MODELING WITH MILLIE #31 (06/64) converted from multiple short stories and pin-ups to 18 page lead stories with five single-page features in each issue. The next week MILLIE THE MODEL #121 (07/64) would do the same and in mid-May PATSY AND HEDY #95 (08/64) would become the last Marvel title to abandon the multi-story anthology format. The switch took half the time the westerns took. Once genuinely humor comics, these titles had been drifting more towards more of a soap opera feel for a while. With the cancellation of KATHY (to make way for DAREDEVIL in February), there really weren't any actual humor comics left at Marvel.

At the end of the first week in April, the Beatles made Billboard chart history by occupying all of the top five spots, the only act to do so as of this writing. They also had five other song held over and added two more, "You Can't Do That" (the B-side of "Can't Buy Me Love" featuring the new Rickenbacker, at 65) and "Thank You Girl" (the B-side of "Do You Want To Know A Secret", at 79).

In the second week, the Green Goblin makes his first appearance in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #14 (07/64) where the Hulk guest stars. The X-Men guest star in FANTASTIC FOUR #28 (07/64), where the letters' page mentions plans for a MARVEL ANNUAL that summer. Capitol releases "The Beatles' Second Album", the title a deliberate Orwellian attempt to rewrite Vee Jay and its two versions of "Introducing..." out of history. Like "Meet...", the new album is a patchwork of the second UK LP and various singles, demonstrating the widening gap between the demand for more recordings and the paucity of songs not already in print. The charts had apparently reached their saturation point. Of the first seven U.S. singles only two B-sides ("I'll Get You" and "The Saints") failed to place, but the others bolstered by two Canadian A-sides made for a total of 14 concurrent charting songs. The two new entries were both from Vee Jay subsidiary Tollie: B-side "There's A Place" at 74 and imminent A-side "Love Me Do" at 81 (replacing "My Bonnie"). I say "imminent" because it appears on the charts for Apr. 11th with an official release date of Apr. 27th. I am guessing that later pressings of the Canadian Capitol version became available before the Tollie copies were manufactured. On the charts for Apr. 18th, only MGM's A-side "Why" enters, at 86, ending a three month streak of weekly entries.

Just before the Tollie "Love Me Do" is released, DC comics publishes the 80-page GIANT SUPERBOY ANNUAL #1 (Summer/1964) on Apr. 23rd. In many respects it is much like the 20 DC Annuals which preceded it. However, it is actually the start of a different kind of streak.

And for anybody who thinks that they can help find a source for that Daredevil image, here it is isolated, if that makes it any easier for you:

0038: Lancer Corporeal Part 3

As I was organizing the scans for today's post I realized that I never credited the image for the cover scan of the Hulk paperback profiled yesterday. The art came from TALES TO ASTONISH #67 (05/65) with new background art. And for the record, the missing Thor volume (72-125) contained the Thor stories from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #'s 97 (10/63), #104 (05/64) and #114 (03/65)-115 (04/65) plus the first Tales of Asgard back-up from #97. I would have to assume that panels from other issues were spliced into those based on what I've seen of the other books in the series.

The third and final pair of Lancer Books mass market paperbacks have only minor distinctions from the first four books. They are still B&W, still made by reprinting disjointed panels from several comics, mostly displayed sideways. They're also still 50¢, but are now only 160 pages, down from 176. The phrase "Mighty Marvel..." was added to "...Collector's Album" on the cover and spine, but otherwise they're all very similar.

The art on the cover here (left) is a detail from FANTASTIC FOUR #41 (08/65), p.1 and the art on the first interior page (below) is a detail from FF#37 (04/65), p.7 panel 3. As in the first paperback, [L2] here uses the art from the T-shirt introduced in 1965 (in an ad in #41, to be exact) facing the title page and credits on [L3]. The indicia is on [L4].

The first reprinted story is the second story from FFAnnual #2 ([9]/64), "The Final Victory of Dr. Doom!"
[L5] reprints p.5, a portion of panel 1
[L6] reprints p.7 panel 7
[L7-9] reprints p.8
[L10] reprints p.9 panel 5 and p.10 panel 1
[L11] reprints p.10, a portion of panel 4
[L12-22] reprints pp.11 through 14, panel 4
[L23-25] reprints p.15 panels 4-5,7 and p.16 panels 1-2.7-8
[L26-28] reprints p.17
[L29] reprints p.18 panels 5-7
[L30-50] reprints pp.19-25

The second story is entirely from FF#33 (12/64)
[L51-52] reprints p.1
[L53-84] reprints pp.2-7 and 9-13
[L85-87] reprints p.14 panels 1-5 and p.15 panel 6
[L88-102] reprints pp. 16-20

The third reprinted story comes from FF#35(02/65).
[L103-104] reprints p.1
[L105-108] reprints p.2 panels 1-2 and p.3 panels 2-6
[L109-114] reprints pp.4-5
[L115-116] reprints p.6 panels 1,4-5
[L117-157] reprints pp.7-20

[L158] reprints a pin-up of the Sub-Mariner from FF#33 (12/64)

[L159] uses the same ad that appeared on [L175] of the first four books

[L160] is the page on the left.

Between the Fantastic Four paperback in 1966 and this one, MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS continued to reprint FF stories chronologically and nearly consecutively, but with a bi-monthly schedule the gap between a given story's original publication and its eventual reprint was widening every year. That might be discouraging for someone coming in late, but there were a few good things about it: readers would be less concerned about missing upcoming issues if they had a reason to believe that it would be available again less than two years later. It keeps them buying the current issues. Also, between 1962 and 1965, Marvel's sales really mushroomed; as long as their committed reprint titles kept reprinting stories in order, then with every issue they would be presenting stories with larger and larger original audiences. The target audience for the reprints would gradually, incrementally change from people who missed out the first time around due to spotty distribution to people who simply started reading later.

Of course, the reprint titles didn't reproduce the letters. Initially, of the super-hero titles only FANTASTIC FOUR ran a letters' page, even stating explicitly in an early issue that FF outsold all their other titles by such a margin that they assumed that anyone buying any of their super-hero comics must have bought FF first anyway. (From #9: "...you [fans] seem to feel that the FF mag is sort of the headquarters, or clearing house for the others.") In 1963, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN got a letter's page and in the first week of March, AVENGERS #5(05/64) and X-MEN #5(05/64) got their first letters' pages. They'd be followed by SGT. FURY in May. Of course, the idea of measuring the popularity of an entertainment franchise by audience participation sounds a little silly when placed against the yardstick of the Beatles' first U.S. tour and TV appearances in early 1964, which is what I've been injecting into these posts. If this is your first experience with an electronic device and you've never seen the footage then trust me, teenage girls in their audience had NO problem 'participating' at their shows. And it translated to sales. That same week that AVENGERS ans X-MEN got letters, Thor's name became larger on the cover of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #104(05/64) than the series' title, and the Beatles had their second B-side to join its A-side on the Billboard charts. "From Me To You", which didn't chart when it was released as an A-side in 1963 (although a cover did), entered at 86 as the B-side to "Please Please Me". In fact, this was only mid-way through a period of 14 consecutive weeks in which some Beatles-related single was introduced.

In the second week of March, TALES OF SUSPENSE #54 (06/64) ran its last suspense story, "Skrang Strikes Tonight!", which makes it the last such generic anthology story Marvel produces until they bring back the format with TOWER OF SHADOWS and CHAMBER OF DARKNESS in 1969, since JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY ran its last one the week before. The Wasp and Watcher back-up features had not been terribly different up to that point. In fact, at first they had been made by having each character narrate an old suspense story script, but TALES TO ASTONISH #56 (06/64) in the first week of March was the last time that method was used for the Wasp; she would star in short stories in the next three issues in stead of narrating them. The Watcher had already made the same change in TS#53. Newly drawn versions of the narration style would be used for the Watcher back-ups in SILVER SURFER beginning in 1968.

This meant that all the comics that still had science fiction/fantasy titles were now super-hero series with a lead of 13-18 pages and a back-up of 5-9 pages. Thus, STRANGE TALES #121 (06/64) began the perhaps overdue practice of giving Dr. Strange a portion of the cover. He had only been mentioned in blurbs since #117 and only ever appeared before on #118. It was just in time for him to guest star in FF#27 that week.

While all that was on the stands, any kid picking them up over the next few weeks probably heard the following pouring out of the transistor radios of teenagers congregating in front of the drugstore:
Mar. 14th-- "Twist and Shout" enters the charts at 55
Mar. 16th-- Capitol releases their second Beatles single, "Can't Buy Me Love" b/w "You Can't Do That"
Mar. 21st-- "She Loves You" finally replaces "I Want To Hold Your Hand" at #1
Mar. 21st-- The Carefrees enter the chart at 73 with "We Love You Beatles"
Mar. 21st-- Copies of the Beatles' cover of "Roll Over Beethoven" imported from Canada enter the U.S. chart at 79
Mar. 21st-- The Four Preps enter the chart (for the last time after eight years of placing singes) at 87 with "A Letter To The Beatles"
Mar. 23rd-- Vee Jay Records releases "Do You Want To Know A Secret" b/w "Thank You Girl"
Mar. 23rd-- Vee Jay also releases a four-song EP with "Misery", "A Taste Of Honey", "Ask Me Why" and "Anna"
Mar. 27th-- MGM Records releases "Why" b/w "Cry For A Shadows", another Sheridan recording.
Mar. 28th-- "Can't Buy Me Love" enters the charts at 27
Mar. 28th-- Copies of "All My Loving" imported from Canada enter the U.S. chart at 71
Mar, 28th-- "Do You Want To Know A Secret" enters the chart at 78
Mar. 28th-- The first Beatles related songs to drop from the charts in 1964 are "My Bonnie" (a Sheridan recording) and tribute songs from Donna Lynn and The Swans; despite this there are still ten Beatles recordings and two other tributes simultaneously in the chart this week, largely owing to the number of labels making records available but obviously also the public demand for them.

There's one paperback left and the Beatles continue to occupy America long after they've left.

0037: Lancer Corporeal Part 2

The second pair of Lancer Books mass market paperbacks appeared in the fall of 1966. They kept the format of the first two, 176 pages of black and white reprints for 50¢. The panels were broken up with one to four per page and mostly horizontal.

I have this one, "The Incredible Hulk".
While the Fantastic Four would get a proper cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera and Spider-man would be produced by Grantray-Lawrence, both in 1967 for ABC-TV, the Hulk was one of several heroes arriving on TV in severely limited animation (also by Grantray-Lawrence, but with a fraction of the budget) in 1966 for syndication. Under the umbrella title "The Marvel Superheroes", it was actually five half hour shows with each episode broken into three 7 to 8 minute segments. Since each chapter had a title card, once the episodes completed their initial run the chapters could be mixed and matched in future broadcasts. Say, two Hulk chapters with a Captain America chapter between them, or one Thor, one Hulk and one Iron Man with the stories continued the next day. It sounds interesting, but the animation was done by literally making Xerox copies of published comic book art and... actually, it would be easier to demonstrate it. You know how people signify "OK" by forming a ring with their thumb and index finger? Using one eye, look through that ring at the cover on the left. Then, pick up whatever device you're using to view this blog and slightly jiggle it back and forth, saying, "Raargh, raargh!" Got it? Well, that's EXACTLY what it was like to watch the 1966 Hulk cartoon. Don't believe me? They show up on YouTube all the time. I was also able to find an example of a live host dressed in a Captain America costume introducing the show on WNAC-TV in Boston, thanks to a tip on Wikipedia.

Here's the first page, using a panel from INCREDIBLE HULK #6 (03/63), p.1.
I think the lettering is original, maybe by Joe Rosen or Artie Simek.

The second page [L2] also lifts from IH#6, p.3 panels 7-8. The third page [L3] is a title page with credits for Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby; the fourth page [L4] is indicia. The stories begin with [L5] which takes art from TALES TO ASTONISH #60 (10/64), p.1 and adds new lettering.

[L6-31] reprint the first story from IH #3 (09/62), "Banished To Outer Space" p.1 through p.9 panels 1-6 and p.11 panels 5-7. It was previously reprinted without editing in MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #3 (06/66). In the original comic the next three pages were a recap of Hulk's origin which would eventually be reprinted several times but is omitted here.
[L32-59] reprint the third story from IH #3, "The Ringmaster" pp15-24, except for the last panel. That story had been previously reprinted in MARVEL TALES ANNUAL #2 ([9]/65).
These are followed by an intermezzo on [L60-62] created using excerpts from IH#6, p.11 panels 5,7-8 and p.12 panels 1-6 plus new lettering.

The remainder of the stories are the first four chapters of the Hulk's feature in TALES TO ASTONISH.

[L63-90] reprint TA#60 (10/64),  pp1-10 except for the last panel, and with new lettering on [L63] and [L90].
[L91-117] reprint TA#61 (11/64), pp1-9 and p.10 panels 1, 3 and 2.
[L118] new lettering only
[L119-145] reprint TA#62 (12/64), pp1-9 and p.10 panels 1-2,5.
[L146-173] reprint TA#63 (01/65), pp1-9 and p.10 panels 1-4,6 plus new lettering.
[L174] Pin-up from TA#62 (12/64)

[L175] The same ad that appeared on this page in the previous two volumes (a scan appears in the previous post).

[L176] The final page (see the scan on the left) not only plugs the other volumes but offers them by mail if they can't be found "at your local newsstand". Bookstores aren't mentioned. It should be pointed out that Lancer and Marvel both felt that it would be best to emphasize distributing the paperbacks to college campuses and that many small suburban and community colleges were serviced by bookstores run by the colleges themselves and/or by student cooperatives. That doesn't necessarily mean that they would be strictly adhering to an academic guideline when ordering stock, but it raises the possibility.

The idea that mass produced popular culture could also simultaneously be or not be art, or that the thing that would determine whether or not something was legitimate art had nothing to do with how expensive or accessible it is, were both extremely controversial propositions in the early 60's, which is why the emergence of concepts about 'pop art' from critical circles and out into conversations in the general public was considered a 'movement' at all. That's where it was moving. That conversation was going to be engaged in most frequently and passionately on college campuses in the latter half of the decade. And the students engaged in that conversation had been in high school when the Beatles hit the U.S. The week ending February 1st, 1964 gave them their first #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. On the following Monday, MGM records shipped out an album that combined four songs that the Beatles recorded as Tony Sheridan's backing band with two other Sheridan recordings and six recordings by a group called the Titans, but packaged as though it were a Beatles album. Funny story? They were in such a rush to rip off the public that they didn't realize that they already had four other Sheridan recordings that actually had the Beatles playing on them.

As the MGM LP hit the shops, The Enchantress and Executioner were making their first appearance in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #103 (04/64). Also out that week was DAREDEVIL #1(04/64). It would be the last time in a long, long while that Marvel debuted a character in their own title. Since the restructuring in 1957 this had only happened 7 times: Kathy, Linda Carter, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Sgt. Fury, X-Men and Daredevil. All but Kathy were within a three year period. The next three new titles would be the reprint titles I've been posting about. The western Ghost Rider (1967) was transparently a character done for Magazine Enterprises (since defunct) in the 1950's by the same artist but given a different secret identity for legal reasons. Peter the Pest stories were actually recycled Melvin the Monster stories. The Li'l Kids comics reprinted Li'l Willie, Awful Oscar, etc. from the 1950's. Conan wasn't an original Marvel character. As far as I can tell, the winner is... Archie knock-off HARVEY #1(10/70)? Looks like it. And the next candidate is Luke Cage in HERO FOR HIRE #1 (06//72), a full eight years after Daredevil.

Of course, plenty of new characters were introduced and new titles launched in that time, just not simultaneously. In fact, of all the characters granted their own features during that time it wasn't until Captain Marvel was introduced in MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #12 (12/67) that a character was even introduced in their own feature. And yet, this was not a creatively or commercially sluggish time for Marvel; they were thriving. By the end of the decade they would be on the verge of overtaking DC in sales. The idea of giving new features and new titles to characters who were introduced in existing features starring other characters was just contributing to their strengthening sense of continuity. This was being done at a time when there were no trade paperbacks in the sense we know them today. If you wanted to know where the character you've just started reading came from, you'd have to keep an eye on the reprint titles until they got around to reprinting it.

By the end of the week, the Beatles arrived in the U.S. (Feb.7) to rehearse for the Ed Sullivan Show. On Sunday the 9th they recorded an afternoon performance to be broadcast on the 23rd, but played live for the broadcast that night. They toured playing live shows all during the week and met up with Sullivan in Miami to do another live broadcast on the 16th. During that week Marvel released the conclusions of two-parters in FANTASTIC FOUR #26 (05/64) and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #12 (05/64) (which ran a fan letter from Dave Cockrum). More notably, in TALES OF SUSPENSE #53 (05/64) the watcher was given an origin an on the cover, Iron Man's name was printed larger than the actual name of the comic. This was a trend that was going to be repeated.

While the Beatles toured, the B-side of their only U.S. Capitol single entered the charts at 68 while the A-side was #1. During the next moth they would both be in the top 20 for three weeks. By the end of the week, MGM's "My Bonnie" single entered at #67.
Feb. 20th-- Vee Jay Records invents a subsidiary called Tollie, which releases the single "Twist and Shout" b/w "There's A Place"
Feb. 22th-- Donna Lynn enters the singles chart at 97 with "My Boyfriend Got A Beatle Haircut"
Feb 26th-- Vee Jay Records releases an album called "Jolly What! The Beatles And Frank Ifield On Stage", which compiled the four songs from two singles the label released in 1963 with eight songs by an unrelated artist. Despite the title, none of these recordings are live.
Feb. 29th-- The Swans enter the singles chart at 99 with "The Boy With The Beatle Hair". And really, it's already desperate enough to release a single predicated on the success of another band to the extent of putting their name in the title. Did they really have to go the extra mile and name their own band after one of the five different labels hawking the other band's records?