Showing posts with label famous firsts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label famous firsts. Show all posts
Monday, January 1, 2018
Famous Firsts: "The Sandman vs. General Electric" by Simon and Kirby
Happy New Year, Groove-ophiles! 2018?! Where does the time go? Well, at least we still have our own time machines here in Groove City--comicbooks, baby! Let's kick off the new year with one of the wildest comics of the Groovy Age: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Sandman #1! DC kicked off 1974 with the re-teaming of one of the most famous and prolific writer/artist teams of all time: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Both men had been working at DC on separate projects, then someone finally realized that they had one of the Dream Teams of the Golden Age under their Decidedly Creative roof and put 'em back together for, it seemed, a one-shot. Due to a major winter storm on the East Coast, a lot of comics didn't make it to the stores for a few weeks, which helped that wild and wacky first ish of Sandman sell enough copies to make DC wanna bring it back--exactly one year later. When Sandman returned to the spinner racks in January 1975, neither Simon nor Kirby returned with it, instead Spectre writer Michael Fleischer and penciler Ernie Chan (then "Chua") took over the creative chores, joined by inker Royer. While Chan did his best to ape Kirby, he only completed two issues before Kirby himself returned to team with Fleischer and Royer to complete the series (inked by Wally Wood in the last ish, number 6, September 1975). An unpublished Sandman story stayed "in the editor's drawer" for a few years (You can read all about it right here). Okay, that's your history lesson--now here come da comics!
Friday, January 1, 2016
Famous Firsts: "All Star Super Squad" by Conway, Estrada, and Wood
Happy New Year, Groove-ophiles! 2015 is history and 2016 is here! Kinda exciting, huh? More excitement for ya, baby: the first issue of DC's All-Star Comics revival from October 1975! Remember the excitement this ad generated?
The legendary Justice Society of America, the original super-team, had only existed in annual team-ups with the Justice League during the Silver Age and early Groovy Age, though fans clamored for more, more, more (true, Andrea)! Well, in 1975, Gerry Conway teamed with Ric Estrada and Wally Wood to bring that fabled super-team out of retirement. Sorta. As you'll see, Conway's revival was to have centered on three "younger" heroes: Robin (in his Neal Adams designed threads from JLA #92), Star-Spangled Kid, and a brand new heroine, Power Girl, the All Star Super Squad, but that didn't last long. Why? 'Cause fans wanted the JSA, baby! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's dig the very first issue of the ASC revival, ish #58, and take a look at the energy and excitement that went into bringing back some of DC's finest! Here we'll see the seeds planted that would inform how DC would handle the JSA to this very day! The ties to the Golden Age, the (grudging) passing of the torch to younger heroes (legacy heroes), and best of all, the series would eventually lead to Paul Levitz taking the helm and setting the pace for how writers would handle the JSA for decades to come. Whoops, strayed away from ish #58 again! Let's get on with it, shall we?
The legendary Justice Society of America, the original super-team, had only existed in annual team-ups with the Justice League during the Silver Age and early Groovy Age, though fans clamored for more, more, more (true, Andrea)! Well, in 1975, Gerry Conway teamed with Ric Estrada and Wally Wood to bring that fabled super-team out of retirement. Sorta. As you'll see, Conway's revival was to have centered on three "younger" heroes: Robin (in his Neal Adams designed threads from JLA #92), Star-Spangled Kid, and a brand new heroine, Power Girl, the All Star Super Squad, but that didn't last long. Why? 'Cause fans wanted the JSA, baby! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's dig the very first issue of the ASC revival, ish #58, and take a look at the energy and excitement that went into bringing back some of DC's finest! Here we'll see the seeds planted that would inform how DC would handle the JSA to this very day! The ties to the Golden Age, the (grudging) passing of the torch to younger heroes (legacy heroes), and best of all, the series would eventually lead to Paul Levitz taking the helm and setting the pace for how writers would handle the JSA for decades to come. Whoops, strayed away from ish #58 again! Let's get on with it, shall we?
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| Cover art by Mike Grell |
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Famous Firsts: "The Joker's Double Jeopardy!" by O'Neil, Novkick, and Giordano
Happy New Year, Groove-ophiles! 2015 is here, and here's wishing you and yours the greatest year ever! We're kicking off the new year with a brand-new header, created by John Gandour, designer of The Drawings of Jim Steranko website! Thanks a ka-zillion, John! Far-out, ain't it, Groove-ophiles?
1975 was a pretty big year for first issues. Everything from Justice, Inc. and Beowulf to the Invaders and the All-New, All-Different X-Men came alive in '75! Today we're gonna rap about a Famous First that was a looooooong time in coming--the first issue of DC's The Joker!
When the Clown Prince of Crime made his debut in the first issue of Batman way back in 1940, everyone knew that he was something special! So special that they "un-killed" him and brought him back asap. Of all the super-villains in comicdom, with the possible exception of Lex Luthor, The Joker is the comicbook villain who has become best known to the world at large. From Cesar Romero's turn on the Batman TV show (which Ol' Groove is digging daily--thanks, Santa!) to Jack Nicholson in the 1989 flick to Mark Hamill's spot-on cartoon characterization to the late Heath Ledger's evil Jerry Lewis in The Dark Knight, everyone knows the Joker. Back in 1975, comics didn't dominate the pop culture as they seem to do now, but there was still a strong interest in Jerry Robinson's villainous brain-child (thanks in no small part to Batman #251's "Joker's Five-Way Revenge"--perhaps the greatest single Joker story ever!)--and so in February, 1975, the Grinning Gangster finally got his own mag by the semi-regular Batman creative team of Denny O'Neil, Irv Novick, and Dick Giordano. Check out..."The Joker's Double Jeopardy!" (Guest-starring my personal fave Bat-villain, Two-Face!)
The Joker's mag lasted a total of nine issues, with other creators like Elliot S! Maggin, Ernie Chan, and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez adding to the ka-razee mix. So his mag didn't last as long as the lesser-known Marvel super-villain Doctor Doom's Super-Villain Team-Up (which made it's Giant-Size debut a couple months earlier), he's been treated much better by Hollywood. At least that's something, innit?
1975 was a pretty big year for first issues. Everything from Justice, Inc. and Beowulf to the Invaders and the All-New, All-Different X-Men came alive in '75! Today we're gonna rap about a Famous First that was a looooooong time in coming--the first issue of DC's The Joker!
When the Clown Prince of Crime made his debut in the first issue of Batman way back in 1940, everyone knew that he was something special! So special that they "un-killed" him and brought him back asap. Of all the super-villains in comicdom, with the possible exception of Lex Luthor, The Joker is the comicbook villain who has become best known to the world at large. From Cesar Romero's turn on the Batman TV show (which Ol' Groove is digging daily--thanks, Santa!) to Jack Nicholson in the 1989 flick to Mark Hamill's spot-on cartoon characterization to the late Heath Ledger's evil Jerry Lewis in The Dark Knight, everyone knows the Joker. Back in 1975, comics didn't dominate the pop culture as they seem to do now, but there was still a strong interest in Jerry Robinson's villainous brain-child (thanks in no small part to Batman #251's "Joker's Five-Way Revenge"--perhaps the greatest single Joker story ever!)--and so in February, 1975, the Grinning Gangster finally got his own mag by the semi-regular Batman creative team of Denny O'Neil, Irv Novick, and Dick Giordano. Check out..."The Joker's Double Jeopardy!" (Guest-starring my personal fave Bat-villain, Two-Face!)
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| Cover art by Dick Giordano |
The Joker's mag lasted a total of nine issues, with other creators like Elliot S! Maggin, Ernie Chan, and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez adding to the ka-razee mix. So his mag didn't last as long as the lesser-known Marvel super-villain Doctor Doom's Super-Villain Team-Up (which made it's Giant-Size debut a couple months earlier), he's been treated much better by Hollywood. At least that's something, innit?
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