Monday, November 4, 2013
Random Reads: "The Call of the Cosmos" by Burkett and Staton
Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Let's kick off the week with a little-seen Green Lantern short from Adventure Comics #459 (June 1978). Green Lantern was to have been a regular feature of the Dollar Comics version of Adventure, with Cary Burkett writing and Joe Staton on the art. The sci-fi slanted series was short-lived as Adventure soon became home to several Paul Levitz written/edited strips that had bitten the dust during the DC Implosion--namely Aquaman and the Justice Society. It all worked out for uber-GL fan Staton, though as he would soon become the artist on GL's own mag for a good portion of the late 70s/early 80s.
The Groovy Age GL was quite a far cry from today's womanizing GL, huh?
Hmm, I know most people see either Gil Kane or Neal Adams as the definitive GL artist, but I'm quite partial to Joe Staton - maybe because I first started reading GL right around 1978/79, when these stories appeared in Adventure, and then Staton became the penciler in the regular series.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, more goodness from Adventure's all-too-brief phase as a dollar comic. By the way, just a small correction: this story first appeared in Adventure #459, not 259.
Don'tcha just love typos? Thanx for the head's up on it, Edo. Fixing it right away!
ReplyDeleteI remember reading this story. Burkett posited Hal as DC's answer to James T. Kirk, about 5 years before DC picked up a license to do Star Trek comics. Cute.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, though, how Staton would've fared drawing a certain cutie from the planet Exor..........
What a sweet little story. I love Joe Staton's artwork. He exaggerates the form just enough to give the figures force and dynamism, but maintains the basic human structure. That and he's a damn fine visual storyteller. Thank you for sharing this.
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