Batman #216

Batman #216 (On Sale: September 4, 1969) has a cover by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano.
"Angel -- or Devil?" is by Frank Robbins, Irv Novick and Dick Giordano. Really good art in this one and another winner from Frank Robbins. His work throughout the DC line a this time gave them a scripting boost that they needed to move past some of the excesses of the past.

The Old Avon Players are in town and Alfred is wondering when he will hear from his brother Wilfred, a veteran thespian and a long standing member of the troupe. Meanwhile batman has has a run in with some thugs threatening bodily hard to a beautiful young woman outside of the theater where the Avon troupe is staged. the woman takes off, but Batman tracks the thugs to the theater where he loses them in the throng of costumed players. On the way back the the Batcave he finds the young woman hitch-hiking to Wayne Manor. She is Alfred's niece, Daphne.

Batman takes her to Alfred then makes a hasty change into his civilian duds. Dick, who has been nursing a nasty cold, jumps up at the sight and sound of a pretty girl and shows Daphne around Wayne Manor and its collection of Shakespeare artifacts, including one of Bruce's prize possessions, the original manuscript of Romeo and Juliet. That night as everyone sleeps Daphne removes an candle from the candelabra and the next morning she has left early, but Alfred notices the shortened candle and some wax droppings on the floor.

At the theater Daphne gives one of the thugs a wax impression of a key. That night, Daphne takes Alfred, Bruce and Dick to the theater for the troupe's final performance of Romeo and Juliet, but during intermission Daphne sneaks off. Alfred suspects something is up and follows her to Wayne Manor where he catches her trying to steal the Shakespeare manuscript. She and Alfred tussle and the gun goes off and Alfred sinks to the floor. Meanwhile Bruce notices that Alfred has not gone back stage like he said he was and also finds out that Daphne left during intermission.

Back at Wayne Manor, Daphne faints seeing Alfred's prone form and Alfred sits us and picks up the gun, which is a prop using blanks. As they had fought over the gun Daphne had said something about not wanting to have to choose between Alfred's life or that of her father.

Bruce heads back to Wayne Manor and Alfred returns to his "death spit" as Daphne wakes up. Thinking Alfred is dead she grabs the manuscript and exits. Moments later Bruce finds the manuscript is missing and changes into his Batman duds.

Back at the theater we find that the "thugs" have been holding Daphne's father hostage in order to get Daphne to steal the manuscript. Daphne learns that the gun she "used" on Alfred was a prop and her father pushes her onto the stage before anyone can stop him. He thinks he has saved her, since no harm could come to her while on stage, but he finds out that the prop knife that Juliet is to kill herself with is not a prop.

Alfred shows up and attempts to break thinks up but is interrupted by Batman. eventually it is Dick who saves Daphne and after the bad guys have been taken away Alfred forgives Daphne for "killing" him and the whole thing seems so much like a Shakespearian play. Reprinted in Best of DC #9.

The two-page back-up is "You be the Detective" from Gangbuster's #51 and is only notable for the Ed Robbins artwork and the trick of printing the solution to the crime in the last set of panels which are printed upside down.

Edited by Julius Schwartz

Unexpected #115

Unexpected #115 (On Sale: August 7, 1969) has a cover by Neal Adams.

We begin with "Diary of a Madman" by Carl Wessler and Ed Robbins. Some sources indicate that this was the last story Ed Robbins drew for DC, others say he drew some war stories in 1970 and 1971, but I haven't tracked those down yet. Robbins' last comic book work appears to be for Western in Grimm's Ghost Stories in 1975-76. Born in 1919 Ed Robbins died in 1982.

He was one of those guys who worked everywhere, but rarely made a name for himself. He worked at the Beck and Costanza Studio between 1942 and 1953, the Iger Studio in 53-54 and the Simon and Kirby Studio in 1955.

For Archie he drew Roy, the Super Boy, the Scarlet Avenger, The Shield, Steel Sterling and Zamboni, the Miracle Man. At Centaur he drew Craig Carter and the Masked Marvel. At Charlton he crime and war stories. At DC he drew Gang Busters in the 50s and horror, romance and war stories in the 1960s. At Dell he drew horror stories in the early 60s and at Feature Comics he drew romance stories during the late 50s. At Fawcett he drew romance comics for years along with Captain Marvel, the Marvel Family and Mary Marvel. In the 40s and 50s he work for Atlas/Marvel on the Black Avenger, the Human Torch, the Thunderer and assorted horror and war stories. He did one story for Warren in 1970.

If Ed Robbins ever made a name for himself though, it was during his two-years stint on the Mike Hammer newspaper strip in the 1950s, where his hard-boiled gutsy graphic style was years ahead of the British strips of the 60s, such as Jim Holdaway on Modesty Blaise and Yaroslav Horak on James Bond (I used to follow both of these strips in the wonderful Menomonee Falls Gazette in the 1970s).

Next we have "Abracadabra -- You're Dead" by Dave Wood, Curt Swan and Jack Abel. We end with "The Day Nobody Died" by Dave Wood, Werner Roth and Frank Giacoia. This story was reprinted in Unexpected #161.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Unexpected #114

Unexpected #114 (On Sale: June 5, 1969) has an unimpressive cover by Neal Adams.

We begin with Johnny Peril in "My Self -- My Enemy" by George Kashdan, Ed Robbins and Vinnie Colletta. That is followed by our cover-story, "The Well of Second Chances" by Dave Wood and Artie Saaf.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

G.I. Combat #136

G.I. Combat #136 (On Sale: April 8, 1969) has a nice Haunted Tank cover by Joe Kubert.

We begin with the Haunted Tank in "Kill Now – Pay Later" by Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. This story was reprinted in Showcase Presents: Haunted Tank Vol. 2 TPB.

Next is "No-Name Hill" by Robert Kanigher and Ed Robbins. This is the last of the three war stories Robbins would do for DC during his short return to the company. We end with "The 13th Bullet" by Howard Liss and Fred Ray.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

Superboy #157

Superboy #157 (On Sale: April 3, 1969) has acover by Neal Adams. Looks like an Infantino layout.

In "Get Lost, Superboy -- Who Needs You?", by Frank Robbins, Bob Brown and Wally Wood, some bananas taken from a red-sun world and irradiated under Earth's yellow sun, are used by Superboy, to heal an sick albino gorilla. Superboy believes the bananas will impart enough super-power to the ape to ensure his survival. Smallville jock, Bash Bashford, accidentally ingests some of the bananas, and gains super-strength. Bash's already enlarged ego is stroked even more when Smallville dubs him “Superbash” and begin calling him instead of Superboy when trouble arises.

However, when a giant meteor nears Earth, Bash admits that he is in over his head, and allows Superboy to deflect the meteor's path. Superboy helps save Bash's face by telling the everyone that Bash had been his “secret deputy” the whole time.

Although I love any work by Wally Wood, I do think his inks were pretty much wasted on Bob Brown's pencils. His return to DC Comics had started six months earlier with his wonderful pencils and inks on Captain Action #1. Since then he had been relegated to inking things like Captain Action, Angel and the Ape, Superboy and an issue of Teen Titans. For the next few years at DC, all of his penciling would be done in the hardly-seen romance books. Right before he lost his sight in one eye, Wood did full art for a couple issue of All-Star Comics featuring the Justice Society of America.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Our Army at War #207

Our Army at War #207 (On Sale: April 1, 1969) has a Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert.

We begin with Sgt. Rock in "A Sparrow's Prayer" by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert. The back-ups are "Top of the World" drawn by Sid Greene and "SOS Send Our Food" by Mike Friedrich and Ed Robbins. This is the second of Ed Robbins' 1969 DC stories.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

G.I. Combat #135

G.I. Combat #135 (On Sale: February 13, 1969) has a Haunted Tank cover by Joe Kubert.

We begin with the Haunted Tank in "Death is the Joker" by Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. This was reprinted in Showcase Presents: Haunted Tank Vol. 2 TPB. Back-up stories are "Kill the Green Beret" drawn by Ed Robbins and "The Hound and the Hare" drawn by George Evans.

Ed Robbins was a DC artist in the early 1950s working exclusively on the Gang Busters book. This was Robbins' first story for DC in 13 years. He would do five stories in all during 1969 before once again disappearing.

Edited by Joe Kubert.