Saturday, July 3, 2010

Red, White, and Groovy Weekend! Diggin' Ditko: Liberty Belle

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Happy holiday weekend to all my U.S. of A. buds, and happy plain-ol' weekend to the rest of ya! Ol' Groove's going with a patriotic theme for the next three days--hope ya dig what I call my RED, WHITE, AND GROOVY WEEKEND!

Let's kick things off with a weird little number incredibly illustrated by Steve Ditko. I dunno if Liberty Belle was created by Sturdy Steve, author/editor Joe Gill, or both--whoever it was must'a been getting in the Bicentennial mood (must've been all those Bicentennial Minutes CBS-TV was layin' on us at the time). Though the name isn't original (DC laid claim to it way back in the Golden Age and, under the writing/editing of Roy Thomas made her an integral part of DC's history in the 80s All-Star Squadron), the costume sure is (and it's a darn sight cooler than Wonder Woman's new Jim Lee-designed outfit)! Thanks to Charlton's wacko coloring, Ditko's Liberty Belle looked more pink, white, and blue than red, white, and blue--which is doubly weird since model agency entrepreneur Caroline Dean spent the whole story fighting Communists! Gill's story was a mish-mash of 60s-style "red smashing" and 70s style feminism and martial arts, which, coupled with Ditko's 60s-style fashions gives the whole thing a kind of ...I dunno...timeless look. I have no idea exactly what Steve and Joe had in mind when they created this esoteric-yet-entertaining feature for the back of E-Man #5 (August 1974), but Ol' Groove would have loved to have seen more. From the Files of the Forgotten, here comes Liberty Belle in her one-and-only appearance as she battles to defend "Freedom's Star"!

3 comments:

  1. Hey Groovster!
    I'll pass this onto Roy & see what he saids. I'll see if he has anything to add.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That new Kirby banner up top is freaking awesome to see and the Liberty Belle story was a nice holiday diversion too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Liberty Belle (the Charlton version) is red, white and cool! Wish we could've seen more of this groovy character from Ditko, Gill & company.

    ReplyDelete

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


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