Our Army at War #218

Our Army at War #218 (On Sale: February 3, 1970) has a cover by Joe Kubert.

This issue begins with our Sgt. Rock cover-story, "Medic" by Robert Kanigher and Russ Heath.

Next we have a reprint from Our Fighting Forces #5, "The Tortoise and the Hare Went to War" by John Reed, Sam Burlockoff, and Joe Giella.

Sam Burlockoff started out at DC in 1943 as an inker working on such strips as King, The Justice Society of America, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. Around the same time he was working for MLJ on The Shield, The Web and Dusty. He later moved on to Quality where he inked Blackhawk, Captain Triumph and Plastic Man. He returned to DC in the 1950s to work on a number of mainly war stories, this time doing pencils or full art. His last DC story was this one from 1955.

After that final stint at DC he worked for Atlas and Eastman Color and on a number of newspaper strips, such as Flash Gordon, Apartment 3-G and The Saint. He worked on comics for overseas syndication and also drew illustrations for encyclopedias and coloring books. He retired in 1989.

The final story in this issue is "Frightened Boys... or Fighting Men?" written and drawn by Sam Glansman. This is the first of Glanzman's U.S.S. Stevens stories that he would write and draw for DC war comics for the next eight years. These stories were based on Glanzman's own experiences in World War II on the destroyer U.S.S. Stevens.

Sam Glansman broke into comics in 1939 working at Funnies, Inc. a "packager" that supplied comics to publishers. There, for Centaur Publications, he wrote text stories with some art for Amazing-Man Comics. Later for Harvey Comics, he created Fly-Man, writing and drawing the feature for at least two issues. He also contributed to Harvey's All-New Short Story Comics, Champ Comics (doing the Human Meteor) and Green Hornet Comics. His comics career was cut short by World War II, where he did indeed serve in the Navy on the U.S.S. Stevens. When it was over Glansman chose to not return to comics, as the pay was not to his liking and he took to working in cabinet shops, lumber mills and boat yards. In the 1950s he would work at Republic Aviation installing machine guns on military jets.

Glansman toyed with some comic work in 1950, but not until 1958 that he would return to the field in earnest, working at Charlton Comics. There he drew war stories in Attack, Battlefield Action, Fightin' Air Force, Fightin' Marines, Submarine Attack, U.S. Air Force Comics and War at Sea through 1961, when he switched to Dell Comics. At Dell he drew Combat and Kona, as well as movie adaptations such as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and the very similar book, Voyage to the Deep.

Beginning in 1964, Glansman worked regularly for both Dell and Charlton doing a ton of war books. At Charlton he was also drawing Tarzan and creating, with Joe Gill, Sarge Steel and Hercules, Adventures of the Man-God. With writer Willy Fran,z Glansman also created The Lonely War of Willy Schultz, about a U.S. Army captain conflicted by the war and his German heritage.

Once he made the shift to DC, Glansman never looked back. Besides his years on U.S.S. Stevens, Glansman drew the Haunted Tank feature in G.I. Combat from 1972 through 1986. In '86 he also started drawing Mercenaries in G.I. Combat and in 1988 he drew a few issues of Sgt. Rock. Beginning in 1993 Sam Glansman became the inker for a number of Jonah Hex mini-series drawn by Timothy Truman, his last being Jonah Hex Shadows West in 1999. His last work for DC was in the 9-ll book, DC published in 2002.

Sam Glansman did a handful of war stories for Marvel in the late 1980s and in the 1990s worked for Topps Comics inking Turok Dinosaur Hunter and Zorro. In 2003 Glansman began doing web-comics.

Edited by Joe Kubert.

House of Secrets #85

House of Secrets #85 (On Sale: February 3, 1970) has a cover by Neal Adams.
Able is visited by brother Cain in this issue's wrapper story, which features some rather good Bill Draut artwork. The wrapper leads into our first real story, "People Who Live in Glass Houses..." by Len Wein and Don Heck. Some kids sneak into an abandoned house of mirrors only to find a mirror which casts no reflection. The kids hide when they hear someone coming. That someone turns out to be Mordecai Gaunt and he steps into the mirror and disappears.

The boys come out from hiding and are pulled into the mirror by Mordecai where they learn that through the power of a stone, the Rock of Ages, which Mordecai killed a Tibetan wizard to possess, Mordecai was able to enter the world of the mirror and gain immortality. His image in the mirror grows old, while he remains young. One of the boys snatch the stone away from Mordecia and he chases the kids out of the mirror. Once in the real world, the kid throws the stone at the mirror, shattering it and the fixed image of Mordecai it now reflects.

Now this is Heck's first work at DC in four years and his first on a horror story. Heck had been working at Marvel for a few years now, drawing just about everything. Most notably he is one of the co-creators of Iron Man. Heck also introduced us to Hawkeye and the Black Widow during his run on Iron Man in Tales of Suspense.

 At DC he would mainly do female characters, becoming the main Batgirl artist starting in 1971, but also pulling stints on Wonder Woman, The Rose and the Thorn, Zatana and Supergirl. Heck would also pull a long run on The Flash and Justice League of America. Heck died of lung cancer in 1995. Heck was one of those guys who was not very appreciated by fans, but who turned out competent work year after year. Tony Isabella said of Heck, "If there were a Marvel Universe version of Mount Rushmore, he would be up there with Stan [Lee], Jack [Kirby], Steve [Ditko], and Dick [Ayers]."

 I was personally not much of a Heck fan till I found X-Men #64. Smack dab in the middle of a Neal Adams' run on the book Don Heck has to do a fill-in issue. Sure, Tom Palmer did a lot to make the work look Adams-like, but Don Heck did a heck of a job (pun fully intended) in pinch-hitting for Adams. Not everyone can do that.

The next story is the classic "Reggie Rabbit, Heathcliffe Hog, Archibald Aardvark, J. Benson Babboon and Bertram, the Dancing Frog" by Len Wein and Ralph Reese. This is only two pages, but we get some great funny animal artwork and some great Wally Wood-inspired science-fiction work.

This is Ralph Reese's first work for DC where he would draw almost a dozen stories, all for the mystery/horror books. Ralph Reese began his career at the age of 16 as Wally Wood's assistant. His first solo comic work was for the short-lived but much loved Web of Horror black and white magazine. He also did a number of strips for National Lampoon, including The One Year Affair. He worked at Neal Adams' Continuity Associates between 1972 and 1977 and did a lot of work inking penciler Larry Hama.

In the 1980s Reese worked on the Blade Runner adaptation and an number of the Bantam Books "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. In the 1990s he pulled a stint on the Flash Gordon newspaper strip and did considerable work for Valiant Comics on Magnus Robot Fighter. Reese's last work for DC was in 2009 on The House of Mystery.

The real gem of this issue though is "Second Choice" by Gerry Conway, Gil Kane and Neal Adams. It combines beautiful artwork with a really great story. Abel reads this story from the biographical section of the library in the House of Secrets. It is the tale of Henry Landsbury, born in 989, the son of a scholar, but who for years has lived in a village under the thumb of a dark sorcerer, a masked monster in possession of the Star Ruby, which gives him ultimate power over the people of the land. We meet young Henry the day he tries to stand up to the sorcerer in the streets, only to feel the harsh sting of an enchanted lash. Henry's mother rushes to his side and warns Henry to be less like his father, who died fourteen years ago when he too was fed up living under the sorcerer's rule and tried to do something about it.

As fate would have it that evening Henry overhears a conversation in the local tavern of a white wizard named Glarn who resides at Stonehenge. Henry decides that night to travel to Stonehenge and plead the case of his village to the wizard Glarn. When he gets there Glarn it appears has been waiting for Henry to arrive and asks Henry for a token from his home village that Glarn may use as a focal point for an incantation. He gives Glarn a talisman given to him by his father before he foolishly ventured to the wizard's castle.

With that Glarn opens a gate between Stonehenge and Henry's village and calls forth the black wizard into battle, saying that now that he has a clue to his true nature he will prevail. And battle they do, though finally, in the end, Glarn prevails, the dark wizard is destroyed and Henry returns to his village to live out the rest of his life in peace.

But, Abel finds the ending of the tale unsatisfying, that Henry was more a spectator than a participant in the single most adventurous happening in his life. Abel wonders what would have happened if Henry had not heard of Glarn and had instead yielded to his "second choice," and followed his father's path, sword in hand.

As Henry nears the wizard's castle he is set upon by a flying beast and though shear will alone slays the creature. He is then transported by a dissolution spell to the black wizard's castle, where the wizard taunts him and opens up a pit of hell in front of him. Standing tall with sword in hand, Henry begs the wizard to fight him, but the wizard's spell does away with Henry's sword, leaving him without weapon. Still Henry marches forward saying he will take him on barehanded for killing his father. The wizard laughs at Henry and pulls off his hood just as Henry lands a massive blow to his face, knocking the wizard off balance and back into the hell pit, his face that of Henry's own father.

And now Henry realizes that his father must have defeated the wizard all those years ago. And then he sees the Star Ruby, "The supreme power--the supreme glory...A tempting, near over-powering prize--To be supreme, to own the world...must have been too temping for a man such as my father, a glory seeker... a man like my father... a man like me!"

This story was reprinted in Deadman #2 and Deadman #3. The entire issue was reprinted in Showcase Presents: The House of Secrets Vol. 1 TPB.

Edited by Dick Giordano.

Challengers of the Unknown #73

Challengers of the Unknown #73 (On Sale: February 3, 1970) has a cover by Nick Cardy.

This issue begins with our Challengers of the Unknown cover-story, "The Curse of the Killer Time Forgot" by Denny O'Neil and George Tuska. This is Tuska's first action strip for DC. The back-up is "A Flash of Memory" by Murray Boltinoff, Dick Dillin and Vince Colletta.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Detective Comics #397

Detective Comics #397 (On Sale: January 29, 1970) has a beautiful Batman cover by Neal Adams.

There is a real difference between the Batman in "Paint a Picture of Peril" by Denny O'Neil, Neal Adams and Dick Giordano, and the Batman DC has been publishing for decades. I think Denny O'Neil understood where to take the character better than any writer at DC and of course, Neal Adams really "got" who Batman was.

The opening sequence of this story could be used as a crib sheet for writers and artists for years to come on how to portray "the Batman." Sure, he has his "toys," his batarang and in this story a pretty cool undersea sled, but for the most part, his major tools of the trade are that he is a fairly good fighter and he scares the hell out of people.

Great stuff by both Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams. As you can see the story opens with Batman attempting to foil a nighttime robbery of an art exhibit. By the way, there was nothing special going on during Batman's eerie stand against the robbers; he simply tried to dodge the spears by moving his body under his cape. Yeah, tried to dodge; he almost pulled it off, but got hit in the nerve of his right arm, making it all but useless and him unable to follow the underwater robbers. Up top he finds that they took a painting called "The Startled Mermaid," the least valuable item in the exhibit.

Changing back to Bruce Wayne he heads to his mid-town penthouse where he finds his cleaning lady has left the TV on. There is a special documentary on the life of wealthy Orson Payne, a Charles Foster Kane type, who bears a striking resemblance to Orson Welles. He was engaged to opera star Caterina Valance 25 years earlier when she mysteriously vanished and Payne became a recluse in his huge castle home. This is playing in the background while Bruce tends to his wounds and does yoga to "restore circulation."

As he finishes up, his cleaning woman, Cathy, comes back for her forgotten handbag and turns off the TV calling it a "vile thing." As she leaves Bruce remembers that while under water he noticed that the algae was glowing and surmises that the glow came from a submarine with low-yield nuclear engines. So come midnight we find Batman at a deserted pier launching a new underwater bat-sled and following the lingering radiation trail. The trail leads to a small nuclear sub at one of the island estates. Batman recognizes the place, it is Orson Payne's.

Sneaking past Payne's personal guards, Batman finds the man talking to an empty room of statues and paintings. Batman confronts Payne and points out the stolen painting. Payne says that he must have every likeness of Caterina, the woman who spurned him and when owners will not sell, he still acquires the piece. Since he cannot have Caterina, he now consoles himself with images of her.

Batman chases the crazed Payne through his estate, where he is lured into a trap, falling through a trap door into a small cell. Payne pulls a lever that slowly lowers a two-ton deathfall into the cell. Using a batarang on a rope Batman pulls down a chandelier, wedging it between the top of the cell and the lowering deathfall. As he comes for Payne, Payne's grip on sanity finally snaps and he sees his beloved Caterina floating in the air outside his balcony. He reaches for her, stumbling through the crumbling railing and over the edge of the balcony. Swinging out an a bat-rope Batman catches Payne who thinks he is in the arms of his beloved.

The following morning a healing Bruce is watching the coverage of the story on the news when his cleaning woman Cathy comes in and turnes off the TV saying, "You shouldn't be watching such trash." Bruce realizes it is not the TV she hates, but rather Orson Payne, and asks her if she was ever an opera singer. She says that, yes, she was, but she gave it all up to gain her freedom. Bruce says her secret is safe with him, that he sympathizes with people who want to keep secrets. Reprinted in Limited Collectors' Edition C-44 and Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams Vol. 2 HC.

The back-up story is "The Hollow Man," the conclusion of last issue's Batgirl story, by Frank Robbins, Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson. Remember, Batgirl is trying to catch the Orchid Killer, who has been preying on redheads, and is using Barbara Gordon as bait, joining the same computer-dating service as the victims. Mousy Max Tournov brought her an orchid and she tossed him over her shoulder. He crushed the orchid and ran off and she gave chase as Batgirl, only to lose him and be pulled into a dark alley by someone who says, "A red-headed Batgirl will do for now!" So much for the recap!

She tosses this guy and is surprised that he is not Max, but instead is a rather handsome guy. Startled she lets the mystery man get the best of her, knocking her out cold. When she wakes up she is being comforted by Max Tournov, who she thanks before leaving.

Two nights later as Barbara she is back in the computer-dating scene, saddled with a really homely guy named John Milman who meets her at the door with an orchid. When the uneventful date is over, Barbara says she hopes they can see each other again and when Milman presses her on it, he becomes angry. John says he knows she doesn't mean it, that he is ugly and repulsive, "Liars! All of you! You're all fragile blossoms--too precious to touch! Well--I dare to touch! And crush you all!" As Barbara gets ready to attack back, John is accosted by Jason Bard, who with his "darned trick knee" fouls everything up and lets John escape. Jason says he saw them coming out a movie and followed them out of jealousy.

Ditching Jason, Batgirl crashes John Milman's apartment, only to find him packing for a quick exit from town. Only, he isn't John Milman, he is the handsome mugger from the alley and in his possession Batgirl finds rubber masks of John Milman and Max Tournov. When he comes to the man explains that women have always fawned over him for being so handsome, but that he felt his beauty was a barrier to finding the inner beauty of women. So he used a mask to hide his own beauty and dated homely women in order to release their inner beauty. But he found them all hollow and so he needed to crush them. Batgirl says that the hollowness was not within the women but within him, that he is "the hollow man--finding ugliness in everything!"

Edited by Julius Schwartz.

Adventure Comics #391

Adventure Comics #391 (On Sale: January 29, 1970) has a Supergirl cover by Murphy Anderson.

This issue begins with our cover-story, Supergirl in "Linda Danvers, Super-Star" by Robert Kanigher and Kurt Schaffenberger. The back-up is Supergirl in "The Super-Exchange Student" by Cary Bates, Winslow Mortimer and Jack Abel.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.

Action Comics #386

Action Comics #386 (On Sale: January 29, 1970) has a Superman cover by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson.

This issue begins with our cover-story, Superman in "The Home for Old Super-Heroes" by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and George Roussos. The back-up is Legion of Super-Heroes in "Zap Goes the Legion" by E. Nelson Bridwell, Winslow Mortimer and Jack Abel. This story was reprinted in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 9 HC.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.

World's Finest Comics #192

World's Finest Comics #192 (On Sale: January 27, 1970) has a Superman/Batman cover by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson.

This issue begins with our cover-story, Superman/Batman in "The Prison of No Escape" by Bob Haney, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. The back-up is Robin in "Danger in the Hall of Trophies" reprinted from Star Spangled Comics #126 and drawn by Jim Mooney.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.

Showcase #89

Showcase #89 (On Sale: January 27, 1970) has a nice Jason's Quest cover by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano.

Jason's Quest continues this issue with "The Deadly Chase" written and penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by, well, I'm not sure. The GCD says this is Jack Abel, but I don't really see it. Abel has a certain smoothness to his inking, particularly around the eyes, noses and hands of characters, that I just don't see in this inking. He is also credited with inking the next issue, and I sort of see some Abel-like inking in that book. If anyone can point me to particular panels that display Abel's technique I would feel much better about this attribution.

As we left Jason last issue, he had just saved his sister's life, not knowing it was her and is now ahead of her on the road to Paris thinking she must be just ahead of him. Meanwhile, Tuborg sends two more assassins after Jason and his sister. Jason on the other hand sees a blond woman on the side of the road with a flat tire and thinks it is his sister, but when he hears her deep southern accent he knows he is mistaken.

She is "Billie Jo Brock of the Lo'siana Brocks" and is immediately smitten with Jason, but her advances are interrupted by gunshots from the two assassins, who also mistake Billie Jo for Jason's sister. They blow the "petrol tank" of Billie Jo's car and she and Jason high-tail it on his bike, the killers in hot pursuit and Billie Jo firing back at them with her own gun. As they are being chased, Jason sees the car of the woman he saved last issue and seeing her without her wig realizes that she is his sister. He lures the gunmen away from her and loses them in some woods.

There his bike runs out of gas and he and Billie Jo take off on foot finding a large empty house in the woods in which to hide. Later the gunmen find the house as well and while Billie Jo passes the time away in a lip-lock with Jason, he feels a gun against the back of his head. But it is not the gunmen, but rather the owner of the house, who had shut it down but remembered something she left and found the broken window where Jason and Billie Jo had entered and now found them. But it seems she is a widow, from Lo'siana as well and actually loosely related to Billie Jo. She provides them some gas for the bike and some cover fire from the assassins while they make their escape.

They gas up Jason's bike and Billie Jo shoots the tires on the assassin's car. They figure out what the four shots must mean and steal a car from the woman's garage and the chase continues. Jason loses them under a bridge and later in a bike race. Later Jason and Billie Jo barely escape from going off the end of an unfinished bridge, but the assassins are not so lucky. They crash off the bridge and die in a horrible explosion. Jason and Billie Jo make it to Paris where Jason tells Billie Jo the entirety of his story and says he must find his sister before Tuborg's men do. Billie Jo says she understands, "Find her, quick-- then come back 'cause Billie Jo has chosen you for herself!'

We then have one of those great Sekowshy full-page previes of the next issue inked by Dick Giordano.

Edited by Mike Sekowsky.

Justice League of America #79

Justice League of America #79 (On Sale: January 27, 1970) has a nice cover by Neal Adams.

This issue has the book-length by "Come Slowly Death, Come Slyly" by Denny O'Neil, Dick Dillin and Joe Giella. Continuing from last issue, we have Superman and Green Lantern on the desolate planet Monsan seeking a clue to the identity of the Doomsters, while Green Arrow is being forcibly removed from the office of the Star City City manager and Batman, Atom, Black Canary and the Vigilante are being slowly lowered into a vat of something pretty vile. As luck would have it though the two guards escorting Green Arrow are not cops and don't particularly like the City Manager, so they let Green Arrow go.

Racing back to the Doomsters' plant he gets there just in time to jam the machinery lowering his pals into the vat of icky stuff. He revives his teammates just in time to take on a cadre of Doomsters who, when overwhelmed by the JLA, lock themselves into the inner workings of the plant. That ends up being a disguised rocket that the Doomsters use to blast away from the JLA.

Meanwhile on Monsan, Superman and Green Lantern find a survivor who with his dying breath tells the tale of one of their leaders, Chokh, who when the industrial might of the planet so fouled the air came up with a way of altering Monsan physiology so that they could breathe polluted air and thrive of poisoned water. But the alteration not only modified their bodies, it warped their minds, turning them into Doomsters, who want nothing more than to spread the pollution of Monsan to other worlds.

back on earth, Batman radios Hawkman in the JLA satellite and tells him he must stop the alien spaceship above Star City. Using his Thangarian space cruiser, Hawkman is going to use a gravity beam on the flying building when it explodes exposing the sleek battleship hidden inside. The Doomsters jam Hawkman's controls forcing him to abandon his ship which they then blast in half. Realizing the the Earth people are more threatening than they thought the Doomsters drop pollution canisters all around the globe and then send out a warning message to the people of Earth that they have one hour to make peace with themselves, before they are inundated with "total pollution."

The JLA assemble in their satellite just as the returning Superman and Green lantern recover the wounded Hawkman. Once he is safely in the JLA satellite Superman and green Lantern begin a full attack on the Doomsters' spaceship, defeating the aliens. However, Chokh escapes and penetrates the JLA satellite where he captures Black Canary. Batman and Green Arrow try to stall him by telling Black Canary how much they appreciate her and Green Arrow even says that he may be in love with her.

Chokh is finally defeated by the Atom and later Arrow tells Canary that he meant what he said, but she says she is not ready for a new relationship just yet, but is happy that they saved the Earth. Arrow looks at the soot and ash spewing from some plants in the background and says, "Did we? I wonder..." Reprinted in Justice League of America Archives Vol. 9 HC and Showcase Presents: Justice League of America Vol. 4 TPB.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.

Date With Debbi #8

Date With Debbi #8 (On Sale: January 27, 1970) has a cover by Henry Scarpelli.

This issue Debbi in "A Froggy Day in Buddsville" by Barbara Friedlander and Henry Scarpelli. Debbi saves a frog from several disasters, causing herself some problems at school but getting noticed by a nature-loving boy, which causes all the girls to bring frogs to school.

Next is Debbi in "Everybody Likes Somebody" also by Barbara Friedlander and Henry Scarpelli.  Debbi and Mona have a plan to get Sally and Harold together, but instead injure Harold and cause Sally's mother to punch out Sally's father.

That brings us to Debbi in "Calling Doctor Debbi," a text article with illustrations of the zodiac signs.

We end with Flowers in "The Valentine Date." Flowers judges a valentine contest and chooses Ken Logan for the king, despite the protests of her friends that he is too straight

Edited by Dick Giordano.

Running Behind Again

I'm running behind schedule again. I am being swamped with projects at work that are sapping my strength, leaving me exhausted. On top of that I have 15 books to read this month, and my detailed recaps always take an hour or so to produce. If there is something special about the book, like John Broome's last story or Al Williamson's, John Severin's and Jerry DeFuccio's first DC stories in this blog, then the items take even longer to write.

Well, things could be even worse. I could still own all my Mort Weisinger books and have to reread them as well. That would have put me at rereading 21 of the 28 books DC published this month.

Well, enough complaining from me. To be honest this month has been a goldmine of good stuff so far, from the above mentioned milestones, to Deadman's return, and there are still a few gems to go. Poor me, I have to read great comics.

Hot Wheels #1

Hot Wheels #1 (On Sale: January 22, 1970) is based on the Saturday-morning TV show based on the die-cast toy cars from Mattel and features a cover by Alex Toth and Dick Giordano. I loved that Giordano put the kids' faces in a line-up down the left side of the cover like the Justice League of America was doing a this time.

"Wipe-Out at Le Mans" is by Joe Gill, Alex Toth and Dick Giordano. With so much work at Hana-Barbera in recent years, Toth was the perfect guy to draw Hot Wheels and man did he shine on this series, a forgotten gem from DC. We begin in 1959 at Le Mans where driver Mike Wheeler is spinning out of control and about to center-punch another disabled car. He instead throws his car into the wall in an horrific explosion .

Mike's young son Jackie rushes to his burning car and is pulled way. Mike is extracted from the wreckage and taken to the hospital where after agonizing hours of surgery they find that he will live, but his leg is so badly damaged that he will never race again. Weeks later a hobbled Mike Wheeler tells his son that he always planned on opening a garage when he retired, it's just happening sooner than he expected. Wow. six beautiful pages from Toth and Giordano of textbook-perfect efficient and evocative story-telling.

So on to California and Wheeler Motors and Jack growing into a teenager at Metro High and hanging out with Janet Martin and being harassed by rich punk Dexter Carter, the plague of Metro City. Dexter and his gang make it so bad on the street of Metro City that a special town hall meeting is called to revoking all drivers licenses held by those under the age of 21 (which would have been highly illegal in California I would think).



The pencils to a rejected Alex Toth cover
for Hot Wheels #1.

Anyway Mike talks Jack into going to the meeting and defending the teenagers, which he does by pointing out that most teenagers are responsible drivers. like he and his friends, who have formed a club called Hot Wheels to sponsor closed-course races so kids can have there fun, but responsibly.

The club goes on a PR offensive but Dexter and his goons are not to pleased. While out testing a new car at the track, Hot Wheeler Mickey Barnes is run off the track and crashes due to Dexter and his friends. Dexter challenges Jack to a grudge race and Jack accepts, only Mike will only let him use parts from junkers for a grudge race. They build a car as best they can. On race day they find that Dexter has bought two new v-12 Ferrari's to race against Jack and that he and one of his goons will both be racing against Jack.

Same rejected cover inked by Dick Giordano.

Once the race begins Dexter and his goon tray to double-team jack, boxing him in and roughing up his car, but Jack avoids the worst of it. However dexter inadvertently gets caught in the oil slick laid down by his goon and is about to center-punch a pole when Jack floors it and knocks Dexter out of harms way, but knocks himself right into the pole destroying his car. Dexter wins the race but Mike liked what he saw his son do, both in building a competitive car and in saving Dexter's neck and promises that next time he will have his father's full support in building a car.

Next issue promises to be a rematch. Not a bad start for the book. For copyright reasons, this fine series has never been reprinted.

Edited by Dick Giordano.

Flash #195

Flash #195 (On Sale: January 22, 1970) has a cover by Neal Adams.

This issue begins with "Fugitive from Blind Justice" by Robert Kanigher, Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson. I think I have said enough times in this blog how much I loved this art team. It's one that you never hear mentioned, but one that clicked on so many levels. This story has an interesting beginning, the Flash is at the Jerry Lewis Telethon and is signing autographs at super-speed for three of the most prolific letter-writers of the time: Irene Vartanoff, Peter Sanderson and soon to be famous writer Mark Evanier. This was a neat touch with which to open the story.

On the way home from the telethon, Flash meets a couple in Central Park and the woman wants a picture taken with the Flash. He complies, but the flash of the camera is blindingly bright and Flash is set upon by a gang of killers out to get him. He tries to fight them, but keeps stumbling over things (why he didn't just vibrate in place until he could see again is beyond me), and if finally saved by a dog who shows up and attacks the gunmen, then scampers off, though not before Flash sees the dog in his returning eyesight.

The next day the headlines in the paper are of millionaire Philip Bentley being killed by his dog Lightning. Barry recognizes the dog as the one who saved his life and doesn't believe that he could have turned killer. At the animal detention center, Bentley's brother is relating the story of how he saw the dog attack his brother. Flash says how he doesn't believe it and arranges for a 24-hour stay of Lightning's execution. However, he searched in vain for any of the killers or the couple who set him up. The next morning the Flash dog-naps Lighting before he can be executed and uses Lightning's nose to try and locate the gang, to no avail, but they do rescue a blind man who had fallen into the water.

Flash leaves Lightning with the blind man and heads to the Bentley estate to see if he can pick up any clues there. There in the greenhouse Flash encounters Bentley's brother and mobster Vic Torrence in an argument. Flash also recognizes Vic's voice as being one of the gang that tried to kill him. Flash gets disoriented by the fumes of a noxious plant and is once again saved by Lightning.

Later at the reading of Bentley's will his entire estate is given to Lightning to be administered by someone of Lightning's choosing. He chooses Barry Allen who sets up an annuity to provide for Lightning and gives the rest of the estate to the Jerry Lewis Telethon.

The back-up story is "I Open My Mouth... But I Can't Scream" by Harlan Ellison fan Mike Friedrich, Gil Kane and Vince Colletta. The less said about the abysmal inks on this one, the better. This is a strange little tale of Barry Allen on a roller coaster and him being paralyzed with fear. Barry relates how his first date in high school had been to a carnival and the girl had talked him into riding the coaster and how frightened of it he was and still was years later when he and wife Iris chaperoned the police athletic league champs to a carnival and the kids wanted to ride the coaster. Once on the coaster Barry sees that the track is damaged but is frozen with fear, but after a gut-wrenching scream he Flashes down the track and repairs it before any tragedy can occur. Barry believes it was the scream that "set him free" from his fear and now can't wait to go back for another ride.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.

Batman #220

Batman #220 (On Sale: January 22, 1970) has a cover by Neal Adams. Three things about this cover: 1) I don't normally like the multi-panel covers, but this one completely works for me, 2) some attribute the inks on this cover to Dick Giordano, but I just don't see it, particularly in the Batman figure in panel one, and 3) this is the debut of a radically new Batman logo, this after reverting back to pretty much the original logo less than a year ago. Now I liked this new logo, but it would not last very long; within a year they would slip Robin's name into the logo and a year after that they will move to a new logo that is more a throw-back to the logo they are currently replacing.

This issue has the book-length "This Murder Has Been... Pre-Recorded" by Frank Robbins, Irv Novick and Dick Giordano. It opens up with pretty much a rehash of the cover and then shows us how we got there. Bruce is visited by Marla Manning, the woman whose articles on "Victims Anonymous" was the inspiration for Bruce's own Victims Inc. Program. She relates how she has received anonymous threats ever since she hinted in an article that the death of young file clerk in the city contract bids department might be linked to bidder for a certain city contract. Bruce's VIP had provided some financial aid to the victims sister and when he checks his files on the woman, Sandra Sloan, they are missing and in there place is a note to "Lay off...or else!" Bruce says he will call on Batman's help and sends Manning on her way.

Manning floated the name of Nova Demolition Co. and Bruce checks into them and the other companies who bid on the suspected contract. That night Batman visits Sandra Sloan and is given the brush-off at the door. Suspecting foul play Batman crashes in and interrupts an unknown gunman who gets away. Sloan knows who it was, but refuses to tell. Batman heads to Nova Demolition where he breaks in to look at their records. There he fights with owner Zack Nova, ex-military demolition expert. Nova threatens to call the police on Batman if he doesn't leave and tells him to "lay off."

Batman then visits Manning and convinces her to say in her next article that she has evidence of who killed Sloan. When the article hits the paper, Manning gets a call from Nova, saying he knows she is lying about having proof but offers to give her what she needs for $5,000, the money to be left in a phone booth.

In preparation for the meeting Batman goes to the airport for something and then meets Manning near the phone booth where he takes her place for the rendezvous. As soon as the booth door closes a tape plays of Zach Nova confessing to the murder and then the booth blows up. Manning comes out of hiding and is confronted by Zach Nova plans on killing her just in case she heard his confession. Just then his confession starts replaying and Nova freaks out a bit. Batman comes out of hiding and takes Nova out explaining that he used a black box recorder from a plane to capture the confession and put an inflated Batman costume into the booth while he then ran for cover, expecting that a demolition expert was planning an explosion.

Afterward we learn from Sloan's sister that Nova had saved Sloan's life in Viet Nam and used that to get secret information from Sloan so that he could win contracts. When Sloan could bear it no longer and threatened to expose Nova he murdered Sloan.

Once again, I am disappointed by the Robbins' story, yet I recall loving this stuff 40 years ago.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.

Teen Titans #26

Teen Titans #26 (On Sale: January 20, 1970) has another great cover by Nick Cardy. I know that as a young man, I spent many a hour staring at Wonder Girls' butt on this one.

"A Penny for a Black Star" is by Robert Kanigher and Nick Cardy and continues from the dramatic events of last issue, where the Titans responsible for the death of Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Arthur Swenson, gave up their costumes, vowed to not use their powers and joined Mr. Jupiter's top-secret project.

Continuing really from the cover, they enter into Mr. Jupiter's training facility, a kind of Titans version of the X-Men Danger Room, a gauntlet of lasers, fire and wind. When they come out on the other side, Mr. Jupiter gives them each a penny and tells them the next part of their training will be in Hell's Corner, the toughest neighborhood in the city, where they are to find jobs, a place to live and one other thing, something they will have to figure out on their own. Lilith says that the answer to the last enigmatic task will be found in Hell's Corner, but she knows know more than that.

Donna wonders what they can do with a penny each and Lilith says that perhaps they can "find... a black star," but once again, more than that she does not know. In Hell's Corner they find a young black girl selling lemonade for a penny and buy some, one to see the girl attacked by Storm and his gang, the Hell's Hawks. Don (Hawk) wants to jump in and pound the gang, but he is held back by Dove and the reminder of what happened the last time they went off one someone. Seeing that they won't fight back, the gang go after the girls, groping at Lilith and Donna. Suddenly the gang is attacked by Mal Duncan, the little girl's older brother and once the gang starts beating up on him the Titans do come to the rescue, without using their super-powers.

The gang runs off and the Titans thank Mal, who tells them that they don't belong there and should leave. But they don't heed his advice and continue on through the neighborhood. Donna and Lilith get jobs at a clothing store and the guys get work and room and board at the neighborhood boys club. where they help the kids with baseball, boxing and painting. That night they learn of a monthly boxing match where the youth of the neighborhood let off steam. A week or so later at the match, Mal is pitted against Storm and knocks him out in the ring. Later when the Titans go to congratulate him they find him being beaten by the gang. The Titans put a quick end to that. Afterward the celebrate and reluctantly Mal goes along, where mainly through the efforts of Lilith, he becomes part of the gang, the Titans realizing that recruiting Mal must be the unknown task they needed to perform.

They bring Mal to Mr. Jupiter where Mal learns that his new friends are actually the Teen Titans. Mal goes through the same danger room gauntlet as the rest of the team and over the next few weeks (months?) they all train (for some reason) for spaceflight. Eventually they are taken to a secret launch site where automated rockets are being prepped for a one-way unmanned trip to Venus. That night Mal sneaks out of the facility, though he meets Lilith on the way, and when the spaceship launches the next morning they find out Mal is on board. With Jupiter's help the Titans vow to take another ship to the moon to rendezvous with Mal and save him.

This was not the best of follow-ups to last issue's story, but I don't really expect much from Robert Kanigher. I'm not sure where Dick Giordano thought he could take the unpowered Titans, but he needed someone like Mike Sekowsky to pull this off and Kanigher just didn't qualify. This was reprinted in Showcase Presents: Teen Titans Vol. 2 TPB.

Edited by Dick Giordano.

Strange Adventures #223

Strange Adventures #223 (On Sale: January 20, 1970) has an Atomic Knights cover by Murphy Anderson.

We begin with Adam Strange in "The Beast with the Sizzling Blue Eyes" from Mystery In Space #62 by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino and Bernard Sachs. While waiting for Adam Strange to return to Rann, Alanna is apparently caught in a time-warp, taking her back to a prehistoric jungle. She quickly realizes that she is not in the past, but in a forcefield bubble. Adam arrives inside the bubble and saves Alanna from a dinosaur, but suddenly the bubble disappears, taking the jungle and beasts with it.

Later another bubble appears in the ocean, this time containing a sea-beast. Adam and Alanna are able to penetrate the forcefield, but the bubble once again disappears. Unknown to Adam and Alanna, the bubbles are being made by device created by scientist, Zhoran Tew, to study to past. However, Zhoran’s lab assistant, Mortan, has imprisoned the scientist and is using the device for evil.

Mortan demands that the Ranagarans surrender to him or he will unleash the beasts within a forcefield created around the city. Adam traces the transmission and tracks Mortan to his hide-out. Then he destroys the control device, preventing Mortan from unleashing his monsters. After freeing Zhoran, Adam is drawn back to Earth by the Zeta Beam.

Next is "The Genius Epidemic" from Strange Adventures #21 and created by Gardner Fox, Irwin Hasen and Joe Giella. This is a cute story about a bunch of hillbilly boys, the Herbert Brothers. who came into town one day to join the army. Though they looked like something out of Lil' Abner, they soon prove themselves to have amazing genius minds. In looking for the cause of their brilliance the army finds out that a meteorite crashed near their house on the night they were born. The army puts the bothers to work on one project after another which annoys them so much they make a space ship and leave Earth to get some peace.

We end with our cover-story, the Atomic Knights in "War in Washington" from Strange Adventures #135 and the product of John Broome and Murphy Anderson. Wayne and Hollis Hobard are captured by the Atlantides. Gardner and Bryndon mount a rescue mission with the help of Dalas, a reformed Atlantide prisoner. Dalas leads them to Washington where the Khagan and the Atlantides have established a base of operations.

Gardner and Bryndon stop a plot by the Atlantides to let in ultraviolet radiation over Durvale. Dalas located the Hobards and frees them. The remaining Atlantides escape with the Khagan vowing to conquer Earth.

Edited by Julius Schwartz.

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #117

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #117 (On Sale: January 20, 1970) has a cover by Bob Oksner featuring Jerry and the new Wonder Woman.

This issue has the book-length "Jerry Meets the New Wonder Woman" by Alan Riefe and Bob Oksner. When Jerry accidentally hurts Wonder Woman's knee near a theater, he, his nephew Renfrew and Wonder Woman are transported to Paradise Island. The Amazons explain that Zodor has kidnapped Hippolyta and demands the sacred pearl as ramson. SinceWonder Woman's knee is broken, it falls on Jerry to rescue the queen. You have to appreciate the way DC weas pushing the new Wonder Woman, here and in The Brave and the Bold a month or so ago.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #127

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #127 (On Sale: January 15, 1970) has a cover by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson.

This issue begins with our cover-story "The Secret Slumlord of Metropolis" by Leo Dorfman, Curt Swan and George Roussos.

The back-up is "When Olsen Changed History" by Leo Dorfman and Pete Costanza.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.

Phantom Stranger #6

Phantom Stranger #6 (On Sale: January 15, 1970) has another winning cover by Neal Adams. The Stranger appears as a background face for the first time.

This issue contains the book-length "No. 13 Thirteenth Street" written and penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by, well, everyone says Vinny Colletta, but that ain't the whole truth., For certain Colletta's unmistakable inks grace (disgrace?) pages 7-12, but the rest of the book, the majority of the book is inked by someone much better. Who I'm not certain, though some of it looks like editor Joe Orlando.

This is yet another story with the four teenagers (really, that is a stretch here) from the previous few issues, who when their car breaks down find two elderly women being haunted in a house on 13th Street. They enter and people and things are flying about. They make a quick call to Dr. Thirteen, just as the Phantom Stranger arrives. The Stranger says the problem is a poltergeist; when Dr. Thirteen arrives he says the whole thing is a fraud perpetrated by the Phantom Stranger. Thirteen says this is just like the case of the haunting of the Deggs house, which he exposed as a hoax.

We cut to Chapter 2, entitled "The Case of the Diabolical Deggs House" which is inked by Vinny Colletta. The Deggs' house is being terrorized by flying objects, moving chairs, ghostly apparitions, etc. Dr. Thirteen is called and finds the culprit is Creepy Conway, a spurned beau of the teenage daughter. He, along with the help of the younger son and his chemistry set, faked all of the strange doings.

The story over, better inking returns for a page as Dr. Thirteen is attacked by a flying vase and the Phantom Stranger tells him he is being foolish to discount the supernatural. He then tells his own story, "The Haunting of Drood Wood -- or -- Give Me Back My Head!" This chapter has a harsher inking style, and if I had to guess at the inker (and I do), I would say Frank Giacoia inked the next five pages. There are actually a couple of really nice, simple but effective panels in this section of the story.

A wife drives her sleeping husband down a lonely read at night. He awakens to find out they are driving through Drood Wood and freaks out, telling her to turn around or he is a dead man due to a family curse. His wife thinks he is being silly, but suddenly they are confronted by a headless horseman of old. This scene is of course depicted so beautifully on the cover. The horseman asks the man, David, if he has found his head yet. David says that his family has searched for centuries and cannot find the man's head.

We then learn how David's ancestor, the Baron of Cheltenham, had found the man in a passionate embrace with his daughter and after trumping up some charges of theft, had the man's head cut off and buried separately. The headless man only wants to be with his beloved, but cannot go to her in death without his head. The Phantom Stranger arrives and shows the man that his head was actually made into the likeness on his tombstone (I almost said "headstone!"). His body once again whole the horseman rides off to finally be with his beloved.

Back in the present and back to Joe Orlando's inking, the Stranger says the story proves that evil exists and then asks Tara to show herself. Tara reveals herself along with a creature thing, but says she is not the cause of the strange goings-on, that it is the work of one of the elderly women, Abigail. Abigail says that she found an old book their father had and used one of the spells in it to conjure up a thing to punish her sister for always eating the pistachio ice cream and leaving her only the chocolate.

When the Phantom Stranger tries to get the book, Tala orders the thing to keep it from him, but the Stranger gets to the book first and throws it into the fireplace. Tala and the thing then disappear. Dr. Thirteen says that the whole thing was a performance by the Stranger, as usual. Abigail's sister invites the teenagers to spend the night and offers them dinner, complete with pistachio ice cream for dessert, but sends Abigail to bed without dinner for causing all the fuss.

However, after dinner all that is left in the house is chocolate ice cream. Upstairs we find Abigail with a home copier and a copy of the book wondering what else she can do to her sister. This story was reprinted in Showcase Presents: The Phantom Stranger Vol. 1 TPB.

Edited by Joe Orlando.

Green Lantern #75

Green Lantern #75 (On Sale: January 15, 1970) has a cover by Gil Kane, the last of these we will see for a while.

This issue features "The Golden Obelisk of Qward" by John Broome, Gil Kane and Joe Giella and this is the last pure Green Lantern story we will have for a few years as big changes, and I think we all know what those are, are coming next issue.

After a sales meeting Hal Jordan was supposed to have a date with Olivia Reynolds (last seen in Flash #191) but when she doesn't show Hal switches to Green Lantern and finds her in the hospital with some mysterious illness. Hal tries to cure her using his ring, but it is unable to get through to her but does pick up some strange molecular distortion leading towards her. Against his better judgment Hal takes Olivia's doctor with him as he searches back along the line of distortion as it leads to a dimensional aperture that leads to the anti-matter universe of Qward.

The doctor is tow, Green Lantern traverses the barrier to Qward where they are met by a patrol of the Weaponers of Qward. Hal makes quick work of them, but a second patrol gets the better of him. Only the quick action of a member of the resistance movement saves Hal and the doc. Hal surmises that the Weaponers are zeroing in on them each time he uses his ring, so they hoof it instead and eventually find some wandering troubadours who they overcome and from whom they steal their clothes and instruments as disguises.

Quick bursts of ring power keep them on the right track, which ends up being the city of Qwardeen, where everyone seems to be heading for the great town square where the Chief Weaponer, Kimon has promised to open the fabled obelisk of Rengan the Abominable and reveal the secret he left for a worthy follower to find. Many have tried to open the obelisk over the years, but all have failed, but Kimon has a captive who will assist in opening the monument: Olivia Reynolds!

Hal then realizes that Olivia's illness must have been the pre-teleportation effect as the Qwardians zeroed in on Olivia. Using the force of Olivia's mind Kimon crushes the obelisk, only to find it empty. A recording by Rengan explains that the real treasure were the advances in scientific discovery which stemmed from the efforts to open the obelisk. Hal, doc and Olivia return to our positive-matter universe and Olivia recovers. Hal also sees that she remembers nothing of what happened as she must never know of her own great mental powers.

As Hal recharges his ring he realizes that the power of Olivia's mind is so great it could be used to destroy him. Reprinted in Showcase Presents: Green Lantern Vol. 4 TPB.

The letter page has letters from two of my favorite writers back when they were just fans: Mark Verheiden and Alan Brennert.

This issue, for all intents and purposes, marks the end of one of the most honored careers in comics as, except for a most likely inventory Doctor Mid-Nite story in 1972 and an obvious inventory Flash story in 1976, this is the last DC comic written by John Broome, a guy whose career at DC started in 1946 writing the Golden Age Flash, Sargon the Sorcerer and Green Lantern.

I am kind of overwhelmed here in trying to put John's career into a few paragraphs. John Broome started as a science-fiction writer represented by Julius Schwartz, but he soon found his way to comics. He started at Fawcett where he wrote everything from Lance O'Casey to Captain Marvel, but it was at DC that John Broome bloomed.

Besides the afore-mentioned strips, John wrote Hawkman, The Justice Society of America, Ghost Patrol, the Vigilante, Foley of the Fighting Fifth, Jimmy Wakely, Big Town, Captain Comet, Superboy, Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog, The Phantom Stranger, The Flash (from Showcase #4 onward), Detective Chimp, Hopalong Cassidy, Adventures of Charlie Chan, Green Lantern (from his origin in Showcase #22 on), Kid Flash, Star Hawkins, the Atomic Knights, Batman, The Elongated Man, and dozens of science-fiction stories for Mystery In Space and Strange Adventures. He wrote more than 800 stories for DC in all. and he did it while traveling the world.

John left DC about the same time they were kicking all the old-school writers out, but John actually left on his own accord, having tired of the business. He eventually moved to Tokyo where he taught English. He returned to the states in 1998 to attend the San Diego Comic-Con, and you can find a portion of a panel from that con honoring John on Mark Evanier's site. It was one I sorely missed. John Broome died less than a year later, in March 1999,

Edited by Julius Schwartz.