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| Our Army At War #286 |
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| Tarzan #243 |
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| Tarzan Family #60 |
Friday, August 28, 2015
Making a Splash: DC Comics 40 Years Ago This Month
Way back in August 1974, Young Groove turned 12 years old. He also had some extra money to spend, and it looks like he spent a lot of it on some choice DC mags. My faves this time around were JLA, Batman, First Issue Special (Mike Grell's Warlord), Adventure, Justice Inc., Jonah Hex, Unknown Soldier, Omac, and Weird Mystery Tales (Kaluta!). Which were yours?
As a DC kid, I always enjoy this feature! I was 12 years old when these books showed up on the newsstand so this was a big part of my "golden age" of comics. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThese splashes show one of weaknesses DC (and Marvel) was experiencing at the time: over-reliance on minimally competent artists from the Philippines. Set apart from the supremely talented Tony DeZuniga and Alfredo Alcala (and to a lesser extent Nestor Redondo, Ernie Chua/Chan and Alex Nino) the majority of these artists were bland and indistinguishable from one another. Whereas DC's mystery books had been showcases of talent such Neal Adams, Berni Wrightson, Wally Wood, Alan Weiss and Gil Kane, we now had the likes of Gerry Talaoc, E. R. Cruz, Ruben Yandoc and Fred Carillo littering the pages. Fortunately with the advent of the 80s there was lessening of reliance on these artists and the ascendence of such great pencillers as Frank Miller, John Byrne and Michael Golden.
ReplyDelete"The Daily Death of Terry Tremaine" was my first Batman comic. I still have a soft spot for that book...
ReplyDeleteSome nice foreshadowing with the Jean Loring splash!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday! I am EXACTLY one month older than you are. And you have no idea how much pleasure your site brings to me.
ReplyDeleteHey, Talaoc was second to none out of those artists in my book anyway. And boy, Chua/Chan and Yandoc were super busy, weren't they?
ReplyDelete