Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Bring On the Back-ups: "A Quiet Day in Atlantis" by Levitz and Grell
Dig it, Groove-ophiles! Ol' Groove's got an action-packed Aquaman back-up for ya from Adventure Comics #437 (October 1974), drawn by a young Mike Grell and written by a very young Paul Levitz! This is Levitz's second published short, and his first pro super-hero script! Levitz would go on to writing Aquaman's mag, a long and celebrated run authoring Legion of Super-Heroes, and later he'd become a top editor and finally publisher of DC! Pretty good for a fellow fan, huh, baby?
The Grand Comics Database had this to say about this story in the indexer notes : Paul Levitz, in an interview with Rik Offenberger published at ComicsBulletin on August 20, 2003, talks about this story; his first solo super-hero writer assignment: "My first stories were actually in Weird Mystery and Ghost Castle; I only "graduated" to Aquaman in Adventure thanks to Bill Finger. Bill had come in on a Friday to deliver, and was supposed to have two scripts, but only had one done. The check he wanted to pick up was for both, and although Joe [Orlando] wasn't in, I wasn't going to hold back a paycheck for Batman's co-creator... even though Bill was legendary for delivering late and having excuses. But Bill never delivered that story because he died, and by the rules of the time, I was responsible for making up the pages. I asked Joe to let me do something more fun than a mystery story since I had to do it free, and he let me have the Aquaman assignment, and I got to work with Mike Grell. What fun!"
ReplyDeleteGracias for the additional info, Anthony! That's a great look into how fans made headway into the comicbook industry! Paul's way was very admirable!
ReplyDeleteHey Dude, I am really curious about the 7 Soldiers of Victory story prmototed at the end! I have always been interested in them after JLA-JSA crossovers (JLA 100 - 102) that brought them out of hibernation to fight some iron fist that was getting ready to squeeze Earth 1 (2?). Any chance of running it? Thanks for the great work you do.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThey've already been run here, amigo! Part 1
ReplyDeleteand
Part 2. Enjoy, Pilgrim!
As Irv Forbush would say, "Excelsior!" Thanks! I will read them now.
ReplyDeleteI did go back and re-read the JLA 100 -102 team up. I guess I would say the covers were more exciting than the interior story. Too bad b/c I could easily see this story line being a memorable 15 - 20 issue run instead of 3.
Hey Charlie, if you're a big fan of the Seven Soldiers, I would recommend Grant Morrison's wonderful, crazy miniseries of the same name. Granted, it's a different team, but it sheds some light on the original gang, and their history. If you like your comics fun, crazy, scary, and completely nuts, like I do, check it out. M.P.
ReplyDeleteThanks bud! When did this come out? (Actually I got a copy of Leading Comics, with 7S on the cover, from like 1943 in VG condition for like 35$ last year. Too cool to actually hold one of those things in your hands, you know what I mean? I just can't really groove on the hard-back archive versoins, though that would be the only way I would ever be able to afford all the stories. I even prefer the DC reprints of Golden Age stuff to the archives... at least it's a comicbook!
ReplyDelete