Groovy Age Gold: Hourman vs. Dr. Togg by Fitch and Baily

Young Groove loved the zany, imaginative, stylized art of Bernard Baily, so any time I came across a Golden Age reprint of a Baily Spectre or Hourman story, I grabbed that mag! Today's Hourman classic (written, according to sources, by Hourman co-creator Ken Fitch) was nestled comfortably inside DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #18 (April 1973)--a mag I would have bought no matter what with its very cool Golden Age Superman story, Golden Age Atom, Captain Triumph, Silver Age Atom, and Superman Red/Superman Blue, baby! Anywho, Fitch and Baily took what could have been a pretty pedestrian superhero and turned it into one of the wildest, wonkiest, most far-out strips ever! For example, dig this page-turner in which our Man of the Hour tackles the nightmarish creatures of Dr. Togg!

Oh, yeah, this masterpiece of comicbook ca-razeeness originally appeared in Adventure Comics #57 (Dec 1940).  

Bring On the Back-ups: "The Hour Hourman Died!"

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Here's a doozy of a back-up tale starring founding JSA (that's Justice Society of America to you, pal!) member Hourman. While DC had great success revamping Golden Age/Earth-2 heroes and concepts for the newer, more with-it Silver Age/Earth-1, they had less success when resurrecting the Earth-2 heroes themselves. Team-ups like Black Canary/Starman and Dr. Fate/Hourman (in Brave and the Bold) didn't lead to a big JSA or Earth-2 revival during the Silver Age, but the return of The Spectre (in Showcase) was met with a bit more success, running 10 issues. What's that got to do with Hourman? Well, for some reason, there was a little bit of space left from the lead tale in Spectre #7 (September 1968), so editor Julie Schwartz wisely decided to fill the extra space with this groovy little Hourman short by the titanic creative team of writer Gardner Fox and artists Dick Dillin and Sid Greene. Dig it, baby!

For you completists out there, "The Hour Hourman Died!" was reprinted in Justice League of America #91 (May 1971).