CRIVENS! COMICS & STUFF!: 11/22/19

Friday, 22 November 2019

CRIVENS - WHERE THE ACTION IS...

Here's my other LOOT CRATE facsimile edition - ACTION COMICS #1. It's almost the same as the US POSTAL SERVICE's facsimile from back around 1997, except that the interiors are on newsprint paper as opposed to the glossy stuff used on the USPS issue. Unfortunately, the 10 cents price box is missing, having been removed for earlier facsimile reprints, but I wish that DC had restored it. Curiously, the price was left on The BRAVE And The BOLD #28 edition, even though it was removed from previous reprints. (Spare proofs must've been retained with the price intact.)

I've seen the same thing happen before; on the three volume NEAL ADAMS BATMAN collection, most covers still had the price, except for a few where it had been deleted for single issue reprints. You might think I'm nit-picking seeing as how this reprint isn't exactly the same size as the original 1938 comic (which was wider, like all comics of the time), so what does it matter if the price is missing? I just think it helps recapture the era in which it was first printed. That's why I wish MARVEL would leave the COMICS CODE stamp on their facsimiles (which they've removed from recent ones), as it helps retain the spirit of the period.

Anyway, although I've got several reprints of this same issue, it's nice to have yet another to add to the collection. You'll find this (and the previous one I showed earlier) on eBay, should you be interested in acquiring them. And should you want to see some other reprints of this iconic comic, click here.

PUT MY LOOT IN A CRATE...

Just arrived at Castel Crivens - LOOT CRATE's 2017 facsimile edition of The BRAVE And The BOLD #28, The JUSTICE LEAGUE Of AMERICA's first appearance. Looking at the cover, it's easy to believe that it could be the original, but though the story pages inside are as clear as a bell ('cos DC have reprinted the tale a number of times from top-quality sources), the ad pages, etc., which have never been reprinted before, are scanned from an actual published edition of the 1959 comic.

Looks great though, eh? And the good thing about it is that the interiors are printed on newsprint paper, not that shiny stuff that MARVEL use. Coming up next - Loot Crate's facsimile edition of the one that started it all. Don't miss it!

IT'S BY SIMON & KIRBY, SO IT MUST BE SPECIAL - BOY COMMANDOS... (Updated)

When I bought DC's BOY COMMANDOS #1 (my original copy that is, not the replacement I now own) back in the early '70s, I suppose I just assumed it was a one-off (a 'one-shot' as they're called today), because I never saw any further issues. It was only a couple of years or so ago that I learned there'd been a second ish, and it's only in the last week that I got around to buying it from eBay. That's it above, finally acquired a whopping 46 years after it first came out. I can now bathe in the satisfaction of owning a complete set, even if it consists of only two copies. (That's the first ish below, just to keep its 'sibling' company. Incidentally, the hands holding the guns aren't by either SIMON or KIRBY, but are a '70s addition to this cover.)

A caption at the end of the second story says that it's the last issue, which leads me to an interesting speculation. On sale around this time was MISTER MIRACLE #17, the second-last Kirby issue. Did DC know that Jack was considering returning to MARVEL when his contract ended, and decide there was no further point in promoting any minor comic mag by him? This was 1973 and Jack's last issue of KAMANDI went on sale around January 1976, but it would have been turned in a few months before that. Truth be told, none of Jack's DC mags had really set the world on fire, with Kamandi being his longest-running title, but the honeymoon period of JK and DC had been over for a good while.

Remember the DC house ads in advance of the release of Jack's first DC mag? 'The Great One Is Coming!' Well, the 'great one' came, stayed for a bit, then left, but hardly made much of a mark at the time. His comics certainly didn't have the impact on sales that DC had anticipated. It fell to others at a later date to more fully incorporate Jack's characters into the DC Universe and exploit them to (arguably) greater effect. Or am I reading far too much into it? It's likely that issue 2 of Boy Commandos had been prepared before the sales figures for 1 had come in, and when they did, DC saw that the demand wasn't great enough to continue the title, so a new end caption box was inserted at the last minute announcing the fact. Maybe it's as simple as that?

What do you think, Crivs?

GO ON, PICK A COMIC - ANY COMIC...

As you'll all no doubt know by now, REBELLION are bringing out a dozen new Specials in 2020, including COR!!-BUSTER, and SMASH! issues, among other famous names from the past. Which leads me to a question that I've maybe asked before and which you probably answered at the time, but I can no longer remember (bet you can't either).

Before I ask the question though, the Smash! Special won't have any of the original contents of '60s Smash!, but new strips featuring characters from other comics, such as The SPIDER, The STEEL CLAW, MYTEK The MIGHTY, and The MISSING LINK. Personally, I'd have also liked to see The LEGEND TESTERS, The RUBBERMAN, and TRI-MAN included in the mix - after all, they did appear in Smash! during its lifetime.

Anyway, here's my question to all you cavortin' Crivs. If you could revive one comic title from your childhood and have any strips from any of the comics you read back then, which title would it be and what strips would it have? Go on, I know you're dying to answer this one!