The FIRST-EVER MARVEL COMIC...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

In 1990, MARVEL released a hardback reprint of MARVEL COMICS #1.  Truth to tell, it wasn't up to much, due to the fact that restoration of old comicbook pages from published comics was very much still in its infancy.  (Technology has come on in leaps and bounds since then.)  If you compare the second SUB-MARINER page below with the first, you'll notice that a lot of the detail was lost in whatever process was used to 'bleach' out the colour, and the finished result was less than satisfactory.  (Particularly obvious in panel 2.)

Scan of photo of printed page from actual issue of Marvel Comics #1

Scan of page from 1990 reprint volume

Scan from 2009 70th Anniversary edition

Marvel had another go in 2009 with a 70th Anniversary edition, this time in comicbook format.  The reproduction was of a far superior quality (as you can see from the page directly above), and the modern colouring techniques gave it a whole new dimension.  Sadly, it didn't include the two text pages reproduced in the 1990 volume, but I've posted them here for your perusal.

Now examine the HUMAN TORCH and KA-ZAR pages below.  Frankly, I'd be more than a little surprised if anyone actually preferred the 1990 reprints to the 2009 versions, which have their predecessors beat all hollow, in my famously humble opinion.  Still, I'd be interested to read the views of anyone who's less than impressed by them, so do feel free to comment.

Finally, the cover to the 2009 comicbook - a 'painted-over' version of the original 1939 illustration, I believe.  Looks great to my eyes.  However, for those not satisfied, the issue was also released with an alternate, modern take on the cover.

So how do I top that?  Well, how about this STAN LEE autographed page from the 1990 hardback edition?  That sure  is a hard act to follow, don't you think?  And it's mine!  (The whole book, not just the page.)

 

SUPERMAN'S DAD - PART TWO Of JOHNNY FUTURE...

Copyright REBELLION

It's really a rather obvious connection to make when you think about it.  The clue is in the names - JOHNNY FUTURE and The MAN Of TOMORROW!  So - what's the 'missing link' between the two awesome appellations?  SUPERMAN!  Here's how it happened in the fevered depths of my imagination.

JOR-EL, concerned about the impending demise of his home-world KRYPTON, has been observing our Earth through a space-time warp for many months.  It seems like the best choice of planets to which he can send his infant son - if and when he perfects the hyper-drive of the spaceship he's working on.  He's already built a prototype, but needs to test it before he can risk using it as a space ark for little KAL-EL.

So, donning a replica suit of 20th century Earth-style clothes, he rockets to our planet with the intention of confirming that it would be a suitable environment for his young son.  He crash-lands in the African jungle, but although uninjured, a small radiation leak from the ship's hyper-drive power unit transforms him into a hulking brute of incredible strength and limited intellect, who comes to be known as The MISSING LINK.  Exposed once more to leaking radiation from a nuclear power plant, he returns to normal, but with no recollection of who he is.

If you've been following the Johnny Future strips I've been featuring here from time to time (or read them in FANTASTIC back in the '60s), then you already know the rest.  However, what you didn't know (until now) is that, after his 'career' as a superhero on Earth for many months, Jor-El's memory returns and he makes his way back to the jungle to repair his ship and return to Krypton mere seconds after he left.  (Due to that ol' space-time warp, remember?)  The rest, as they say, is history.

However, there's more.  Writer JERRY SIEGEL originally envisioned Superman being rocketed to Earth, not from Krypton, but from a doomed Earth far in the future.  Similarly, in my version of events, Earth is Krypton (having evolved over thousands of years and - due to an ever-expanding universe - now occupying a different place in the heavens than it used to).  The globe has been renamed and our once bright yellow sun has succumbed to the second law of thermodynamics (entropy) and is now a fiery red, affecting the gravitational pull of the planet.

So - Earth's first 'superman' is actually Superman's father.  Johnny Future sired The Man of Tomorrow!

Anyway, that's how it happened in my little world.  Bear it in mind as you read the latest instalment of this fondly-recalled strip illustrated by the astounding LUIS BERMEJO - it may make you view the character just a little bit differently.