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Cop a gander at the above mag, not long arrived at Castel Crivens. A few years ago I saw an ad for it in a 1968 DC comic I acquired, which makes it extremely possible I saw the ad back when it first appeared. If I did, however, I'd forgotten by the time, many years later, I saw a b&w image of the cover somewhere and for some reason was left with the impression it was an in-house magazine similar to Marvel's F.O.O.M. (Perhaps the art was reused for just such a publication - if anyone knows, please enlighten me.)
As you can see, however, it's an actual newsstand comic devoted to Carmine Infantino and containing a number of diverse strips by the great man. This comic can command a fairly high price on the collectors' market, but I lucked out and managed to acquire a great condition copy for under a tenner on eBay, so I'm a very happy chappie. (Or a tenner dead, if you include p&p.)
No longer need I wonder about the contents of this DC Special, now I can see and read them for myself. And you can catch a glimpse of the stories too, as I share some pages (and an ad) from this great mag I've finally managed to get my grubby mitts on. Hooray! (Don't worry - I washed my grubby mitts first.)
Did you have this Special back in the day, fellow Crivs? If so (and even if not), share your thoughts on this collectors' item classic in the comments section.
13 comments:
I never had this issue but I do remember it being advertised. I did buy the DC Special: Joe Kubert issue (number 5) around this time though. I liked Infantino's art in the 1960s ( one of the very best) but his 1970s onwards art changed so much and I really didnt like it.
I think when he inked his own stuff it could be a little rough, McS, but a good inker would've sorted that out. Having said that, I'm not sure whether he always inked his own pencils, or sometimes had an inker finish them. It was the same for Gil Kane's Green Lantern; when inked by another, it was good, but his self-inked Superman tales from the early '80s didn't ring my bell.
Kid, is the postman ever curious about the never-ending stream of deliveries to your house?
Only about the women-shaped ones, CJ. And besides, he's grateful for the workout - he's got arms like Arnold Schwarzenneger.
Thanks for posting this. I definitely remember this from those vintage DC ads but I've never had a copy. It's nifty to get to see a little of what's inside.
Rip Off
It's an interesting collection, RJ. The Batman and Flash tales aside, the strips are perhaps not the most obvious choices for inclusion.
Agreed about the oddity of the choices, particularly the inclusion of a sample from "Strange Sports Stories," a concept that had already crashed and burned a couple of years before that. Supposedly it was one of Schwartz's pet projects. I can certainly think of better Infantino stories than the ones chosen for Batman, Flash and Adam Strange, though back in the day I think that Flash story about the ghost had won some fan-award. I think Infantino was quoted as saying Detective Chimp was his favorite DC concept. But if you want to see what I think one was one of Ihfantino's more interesting tales, here's my humble link to a review of the first "Captain Comet" tales, which as I note read just like anything produced by the Broome-Infantino team in the sixties.
https://arche-arc.blogspot.com/2019/11/mythcomics-origin-of-captain-comics.html
I understand the Batman tale's inclusion, as it was the first 'new look' Batman and therefore significant, but the Strange Sports Stories strip wasn't that great - though I suppose they were trying to avoid the obvious choices. Quite liked the Flash story, but the ending was signposted quite a bit in advance. Still, a nice little comic to have in my collection. I'll check out that link shortly.
Bought it back when... Still got my copy. But it has been a long time since I cracked the cover. Was this the first comic to actually focus on the talent of a particular artist?
It obviously wasn't the first mag to be illustrated throughout by one artist, Glas, but as far as I know, it was the first to (as you say) 'focus' on one artist's talent as a selling point and be the reason for publishing.
Ah now one of those images really brings back memories -The Zeroids!
I have two brothers and there were three Zeroids, which must have made things easy for our parents that Christmas, whichever year it was. Cen't recall that detail, but in any case we had one of them each, mine was the one in the front of the top panel in the ad here.
And as far as I know we all managed to loose them over the years! Had the storage bay accessory and all.
Must admit that I've not really tried too hard to track one down on line, partly because I'd forgotten I even owned one until quite recently. (Funny how some things can just fade from memory until you see a image or something seemingly quite unrelated will remind you.)Also, these would probably be quite rare and or expensive.
I am trying to cut back on collecting anyway - everything is just becoming too damned over-priced!, and when you live in Australia as I do shipping is insane.
Anyway, good to see all of that infantino art, one of my favorite DC artists.
I never had any Zeroids when I was a kid, PC, but was fascinated by the TV ads and wouldn't have minded owning one. If memory serves, a classmate named Billy Montgomery brought one into primary school one day to show the teacher, and it sat out in front of the classroom for a spell so that we could all look at it. I believe the Zeroids popped up again under another name a few years later, but can't recall what it was. I haven't completely given up on the idea of owning one (or all three) some day.
In seeming contradiction to that, I seriously need to cut back on my collecting, simply because I just don't have the space anymore. Also, even if I'm lucky enough to have another 30 odd years ahead of me, most of them will likely be spent in thrall to impoverished mental and physical health, with me being unable to remember where things are kept or stored. And at my age, 30 years is bound to go by faster than a fart from The Flash - the last 30 certainly did.
Oops! That should have been 'Arnold Schwarzenegger' in one of my above responses, not 'Schwarzenneger'.
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