If You Blinked You Missed: Charlton Comics' Prankster

Created and written by Denny O'Neil (under the pseudonym of "Sergius O'Shaughnessy"--I guess Denny didn't want Stan Lee to know he was moonlighting) and illustrated by the magnificent Jim Aparo, the Prankster appeared only one time--as a back-up feature in the final issue of Charlton's Peter Cannon...Thunderbolt (#60, August/September 1967). The concept of a sci-fi superhero who's pledged to battle a "Big Brother"-like government that's pretty much outlawed all that makes us human (laughter, love, art, music...like the intro says) is pretty heady stuff--especially for the dawn of the Groovy Age, when Batman's camping it up on TV, Marvel's Galactus is the most challenging concept in comics so far, and Charlton is known as...well, as the comics you buy after you've bought everything else.

Man, dig that early Aparo art!

That O'Neil fella proved he had a lot to offer, didn't he, Groove-ophiles? It wouldn't be long before he'd drop his Marvel writing (on strips like Dr. Strange, Patsy and Heidi, and Millie the Model), stop moonlighting for Charlton, and head to DC Comics where he'd become part of a mini-revolution that would help push comics into more intellectual, important, and mainstream arenas. He would help return Batman back to his more serious "creature of the night" roots. He would help create "relevant" (or "socially conscious") comics in his legendary run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow (both usually in tandem with the equally legendary Neal Adams), winning loads of awards along the way. Denny would go on to become a highly successful comicbook editor, television writer, and a novelist, to boot. You'll be hearing a lot more about the talented Mister O'Neil both here and on my upcoming 80s blog, BLINDED ME WITH COMICS, Groove-ophiles! Peace!

When Trumpets Were Mellow: A Groovy Guest Post by Barry Pearl

Don't throw the past away

You might need it some rainy day

Dreams can come true again

When everything old is new again

Dancin' at church, Long Island jazzy parties

Waiter bring us some more Baccardi

We'll order now what they ordered then

Cause everything old is new again!

Every generation thinks that theirs was the most inventive, the newest, but so much of what we admire is built on the past. This is not about quality, but so much of what we came to see as new in the Groovy era was a redo. Let me tell you a secret, shhh, come closer.

The secret of putting out so many comics, or TV show each month is to take an established idea and re-working it so it look new. For example, Jack Kirby created an entire race of super-hero people and gave us Thor and Asgard. He did it again with the X-Men, The Inhumans, the New Gods and the Eternals. No one can endlessly come up with five or ten great ideas a month. Where did he get this ideas? I don’t know, but see Kirby’s first work for Marvel: Mercury!! One of the Gods!

Go to the comic store today and 75% of what DC has out for sale are based on characters they originally created from 1938-1942. Marvel’s percentage is the same, except the years are1960-1965.

The Flash, Green Lantern, Captain Marvel, Hawkman, The Atom, Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, and the Spectre and all reintroductions of famous old heroes. So were Captain America, Sub-mariner and the Human Torch. But overall, DC was more overt than Marvel, releasing separate versions of their heroes, who would, in a crisis, meet the first versions.

Marvel started a “horror” era in the 1970s, with comics like Tomb of Dracula, Dracula Lives, and Werewolf By Night. Original? Not really, here we see scans using the same titles!! Frankenstein comes from Crestwood, where Jack Kirby was an editor at the time.

Daredevil, many of you know, was also the name of a non-Marvel character in the 1940s. But Marvel had also used the phrase “Man Without Fear” before, as we see here. Also note that Daredevil’s costume looks a lot like the Flash’s! Marvel also used other names like the Hulk and Sandman before the more famous versions came along. With the name Thorr they also used the Stone men who would appear in Thor’s first story in Journey into Mystery #83.

Bullseye is a villain used in the Daredevil comics and movies. But Marv Wolfman told me that the idea came from a Kirby Character, a sharpshooter from 1955! And Marv did not know that an assassin by the same name was used in Nick Fury #15.

The Vision was just one character Marvel resurrected from the 1940s. See in these two pictures how close the poses look. John Buscema must have looked at Jack Kirby’s work! Ka-Zar is another character from the 1940s. He first appeared in a pulp magazine, then in Marvel Comics #1. Marvel brought back 1940s heroes and remade them into villains. Here we see Jack Frost from Iron Man and Red Raven from the X-Men, but they had made their first appearances 25 year previously…but as heroes. Also, some villains like the Ringmaster and the Yellow Claw were just brought back.

We'll order now what they ordered then

'Cause everything old is new again!