posted April 12, 2002 06:14 PM    

As far as I know that was the only Grell cover on Action, and I don't recall that he did any on Superman. But Grell did lots of other covers. For instance he did the "first issue" of All-Star Comics (even though he wasn't the artist on the team). He did two Green Lantern covers for DC Special (think it was DC Special and not DC Super-stars) which reprinted early sixties GL books--and I suspect the attention that those two collections received prompted DC to restart the Green Lantern book (with Grell as artist). And he did some Detective and Batman covers.

At least that's what I remember.

posted April 14, 2002 02:37 AM    

After the heat vision beams have been successfully reflected harmlessly into the sky, Superman believes he has figured out a way to beat The Shark. This involves going right into the waterspout with the finned fiend. He enters the water stream and immediately the two enemies begin to wrestle for supremacy. The Shark seems quite pleased at this turn of events. He says to the Man of Steel: "You're helpless now that you've entered my domain!"

Superman notes that, inside the water cocoon, his enemy's strength is ten times what it was in the open air. Superman also finds himself susceptible to The Shark's fear-inducing power, and he becomes afraid to the point of paralysis.

The people of Metropolis look upward, watching, as the struggle inside the water stream sees the two foes weave all around the skies of the city. The fight goes on for some time -- it appears that Superman is trying to get out of the water stream, but each time he tries to break free, it looks as though The Shark pulls him back in.

The outcome of the battle, however, is just the opposite of what the onlookers had expected. Superman exits the water stream with a firm grip on an unconscious Shark.

Later, at S.T.A.R. labs, Captain Strong, a S.T.A.R. scientist, and Lois are discussing recent events with Superman. The Captain, the scientist, and Lois note that the people of Metropolis all have sunburns, and Superman supplies them with an explanation. Superman had noticed the sunburns and had scanned the upper atmosphere. He discovered that the ozone layer above the city was being eaten away. Having also noticed that The Shark's aura was blue, like ozone, Superman put two and two together and deduced that The Shark was breathing ozone, which he was drawing down from the upper atmosphere. So, when the onlookers were supposing that The Shark was keeping Superman trapped within the water, it was actually the other way around. Superman was preventing The Shark from breathing.

"And now, Shark -- you've got two choices! Either suffocate in that water-filled helmet -- or revert back to primitive tiger shark form and return this boy [Jayson] to normal!"

The Shark chooses the primitive shark form over death, and the boy becomes normal again. Superman returns the tiger shark to the sea, several thousand miles out.

Superman then speeds back to Metropolis to repair the damage done to the ozone layer. (Oh, Superman... if only!)

posted May 06, 2002 04:57 PM    

To begin with, I've always been dumbfounded by the division of the Weisinger era into what I call the "uptime" and the "downtime."

The uptime was from 1958 to 1966, while the downtime was from 1966 thru 1970.

What do I mean? Well it seems clear that from 1958 onward Weisinger initiated changes in the Superman family of titles that resulted in some important steps forward in the mythology. This is an ongoing process. Ideas are introduced, developed, tweaked, and become springboards for new stories and new ideas.

An example being Lexor. Lexor is introduced in one story--that's step one--Lexor is developed as a concept in relation to Luthor--that's step two--and Lex goes through changes as a result of his association with Lexor (ie. he gets married)--step three!

And so it goes. That is, up until about 1966. Short of the future Superman, there's nothing much new to the Superman mythology in 1966. The legend stalls, Weisinger rests on his laurels. And worse yet, there are reprints--reprints everywhere in the Weisinger line.

The first Superman I bought (emphasis on bought--there were issues I'd read second hand, but none that I'd actually bought) was issue no. 196, May 1967. The cover of that issue shows one Superman holding a sledge hammer battling with another Superman holding a girder, and the cover copy reads

quote:

---

Can you guess which is the real Superman--and which is..."The THING from 40,000 A.D."

---

At the time I didn't know that there was another comic (Superman no. 87, Feb., 1954) that had on its cover a Superman holding a sledge hammer battling with another Superman holding a girder, and the cover copy...

quote:

---

Can you tell which is the real Superman--and which is..."The THING from 40,000 A.D."

---

But I felt when I read the story, hm, this feels old. And there were a lot of Superman stories around that time (or Supergirl, Superboy, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen stories) that felt the same way. Some even declared themselves openly as Hall of Fame Classics. Oh sure, there were Giants, too. I soon understood the difference between a giant and a regular book. But why did the regular Super books have old stories? I chalked this up, at the time, to the fact that Superman was old. He was around before I was born, when my brother watched him on TV. One time I remembered we went down to Seattle for the World's Fair and there was old Superman on the TV. So maybe they didn't make new Superman stuff much anymore, I thought.

In fact the most exciting stories seemed to be furthest away from Superman. Superman and Action were full of fossilized remains. World's Finest had Batman! Lois and Jimmy could give me some fun, but Superman didn't appear a lot in their comics. My favourite books were Supeboy[i] featuring stories about the young and exciting boy's life of Superman, and [i]Adventure featuring stories about the far flung future of exciting boys and girls in their Legion clubhouse (an upside down rocket ship)!

posted May 06, 2002 05:20 PM    

Now I can hear some of you saying, "but by the end of 1967, things did change! Artists and writers left, new artists came on board, and a new direction began!"

Yes, things changed (and I gave up on Superman for awhile), but how did they change? Were there new developments in the mythology built upon those that had come before?

Not really, I say. My favourites--Superboy and the Legion--did have changes (Superboy's parents were made young, while the Legion continued to have great Shooter-scribed tales before they were pushed aside by Supergirl who traded her back-seat position in Action for the driver's seat in Adventure). But the main man, Superman, just seemed to have a lot of meaningless and melodramatice stories that never grew into anything.

I suspect that Weisinger picked up a copy of Spider-Man one time and said "So that's what the kids like" and proceeded to change Superman based upon that brief glimpse of the Marvelous Competition. The art was sort of like Marvel (well some of the artists had worked at Marvel) and the stories had a certain soap opera quality and issues did continue from one to the next. But where the Marvel soap opera superhero comics continued from one issue to the next issue to the next issue to the next issue with seemingly no end. The Weisinger storylines only lasted for about three issues on the outside.

While I love self-contained stories, you just can't do soap opera that way. If Superman has a romance with some harpy, the harpy can't end up being exposed for the truly devious harp she is after three issues. She has to linger about for a few years. She has to get a terminal disease, causing Superman to marry her, while pining after the women he really loves. Etc.

So it seems to me that all Weisinger did for the last six or so years of his term on Superman was to spin his wheels.

And the mythology was left to rust.

The result of this downtime was that the uptime developments became more and more viewed as a static element of the Superman history.

Kandor, the Phantom Zone, Bizarros--all of these were the clutter that occupied the Superman attic. And they were never fully addressed or resolved.

So that when Schwartz came along, either these historic remnants were ignored, or they were tossed aside.

Kryptonite was made a very rare thing, while the Superman robots were retired. Bizarros and Lexor were ignored.

Which made the uptime Weisinger era seem even more antiquated and impossible to access.

Finally, in the late seventies and early eighties (perhaps thanks to the Superman movie), efforts were made to address bits of the old Weisinger era. Bizarro No. 1 returned. We had more stories of Kandor before it was finally enlarged. Lexor reappeared only to be blown to bits.

The problem was that it was too little too late. (He says with the benefit of twenty-twenty hindsight.)

posted May 06, 2002 05:49 PM    

Another element of this is the matter of universes.

In the uptime of the Weisinger Superman, there was a whole universe occupied by these myths.

Meanwhile over in the Schwartz editorial realm there was another universe (more accurately a multiverse, but let's call all of that a universe, for now). Eventually this universe would become the one DC universe. Everything, even a lot of stuff that was never edited by Julius Schwartz, became part of this one big Schwartz universe.

So when Schwartz came onto Superman, Julie was already carrying one big universe on his shoulders. He had no need of another one. So the Superman stories were set in that universe.

Emblematic of this shift in universes is "The Greatest Green Lantern of Them All!" from Superman no. 257 (1972), by Elliot S! Maggin, Dick Dillin, and Dick Giordano. Here Krypton is situated in the greater scheme of things by the Guardians of the (Schwartz) Universe.

So what's wrong with that? Nothing. I love the 70s Superman, and I love the Schwartz universe. Within the bounds of those stories, there's nothing wrong and a lot that's right! BUT it's not the Superman universe.

In the Superman universe everything related to Superman in some way. In the Schwartz universe Superman is just an occupant. And as an occupant he's a johnny-come-lately. Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Batman have already staked out huge amounts of real estate in the Schwartz universe by the time Kal-El comes along.

And who needs Mxyzptlk when you got The Joker and Abra-Kadabra! Or Lori Lemaris when you've got the Aquaman family! Or Brainiac when you've got Amazo!

So not only do we have the downtime, and the ignoring of the myths, we've also got a whole other universe--so by the time any of the old uptime stories are revisited in the late seventies/early eighties, it's become almost impossible to get that momentum going.

And here's my thing. Something I started asking myself just recently. Why do we consider the uptime as a static part of the Superman history when it was actually active? And if it was active back them, what if there had never been a downtime? What if things had kept going at the pace they were going in the uptime?

If Weisinger hadn't rested on his laurels with the reprints--if Lexor had been destroyed back in 1966, if Kandor had been enlarged in 1968--if Shooter and Bates had continued the legacy of Hamilton, Binder, and Siegel--if Brainiac had been transformed in 1969, if the Fortress of Solitude had moved under the Atlantic Ocean in 1970...

Anyway, I have no more wind left right now.

posted May 07, 2002 08:56 PM       

Since Denny O'Neil wasn't available yet, he would have brought in Gardner Fox, or John Broome to script - Swanderson to illustrate, naturally. I'd have loved to have seen what Fox could have done with the character!

posted May 07, 2002 09:07 PM    

It would be curious if Fox or Broome had come onto Superman in the mid sixties. I almost can't even picture it.

posted May 08, 2002 02:24 PM       

While he was best known for his work on Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace, Wonder Woman, Metal Men, et al, I wanted to acknowledge on this thread his fine work on Lois Lane in the early '70s. He was the only one who had the nerve to borrow Kirby's characters and concepts during the King's initial 4th World run. It was a lot of fun seeing Darkseid, Desaad, the Black Racer, the Evil Factory turning up in Lois Lane of all places, sometimes just a couple of months after their introduction by Kirby!

RIP, Mr. Kanigher.

posted May 08, 2002 07:19 PM    

quote:

---

Originally posted by India Ink:
These days it seems like there are too many great talents that have passed, and not enough talents here on earth to fill the void.

---

True.

There's a lot I wanna talk about, but I haven't the time or even energy at the moment. Just too @#$% busy with "real life". I read the things you guys post with great interest, usually late at night while I'm slowly nodding off into my keyboard.

I have a Lois Lane story I want to bring up -- which you sort of reminded me of, Osgood. I still have to finish something over on the 60s thread too.

But yes -- Rest In Peace, R.K.

posted May 09, 2002 03:20 AM    

The story is "Who Killed Lucy Lane?" Story by Cary Bates (from a plot by Irene Vartanoff); art by Werner Roth & Vince Colletta -- although the face of Superman throughout the story looks (to me) like it's a product of Swanderson or maybe Murphy solo.

It's a comic I've had since I was very very young, and I've always been captivated by the story. Lois is searching for her sister, only to learn the sister had become caught up in espionage work and had possibly been murdered.

It sort of stands out in my collection as being pretty hard-edged for a Lois-Superman story.

I have no other comics that are connected to or refer to this plot or storyline. I have only this one tale.

posted May 09, 2002 06:25 AM       

I've been buying up a bunch of the DC Digests on eBay, and finally came across "Lex Luthor--Super Scalp Hunter!" (the origin of Luthor's power-suit). These things are truly gems and can usually be had fairly cheaply, for those of you interested.

Thanks to India Ink for posting the new URL to Superman Through The Ages.

Thanks to Aldous for his great reviews.

Thanks to Garythebari for starting this great thread!

------------------
VISIT MY SUPERMAN PAGE: http://www.angelfire.com/mo3/gernot0/PAGES/Superman.html Thanks! ;)

********************

"General? Would you care to step outside?"

********************

Robin: "Holy Oleo!"

Catwoman: "I didn't know you could yodel."

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"When Polly's in trouble, I am not slow! It's hip, hip, hip, and awaaaaay I go!"

********************

posted May 09, 2002 09:05 AM       

quote:

---

Originally posted by Aldous:
Comic book cover from early 70s. ('72?) Lois is manacled to a big target (concentric circles and a bullseye). A bunch of men are in the foreground with their hands raised. In their hands are very large (and very sharp) darts. Lois is gagged, wide-eyed, with Superman flying off in the background, having been deceived that Lois is not in the vicinity!

The story is "Who Killed Lucy Lane?" Story by Cary Bates (from a plot by Irene Vartanoff); art by Werner Roth & Vince Colletta -- although the face of Superman throughout the story looks (to me) like it's a product of Swanderson or maybe Murphy solo.

It's a comic I've had since I was very very young, and I've always been captivated by the story. Lois is searching for her sister, only to learn the sister had become caught up in espionage work and had possibly been murdered.

It sort of stands out in my collection as being pretty hard-edged for a Lois-Superman story.

I have no other comics that are connected to or refer to this plot or storyline. I have only this one tale.

Can any of you old timers shed any light on this interesting story?

---

Aldous - Scott Shaw recently reviewed this very comic a few months ago on his Oddball Comics site:http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/oddball/index.cgi?date=2001-08-20

As far as the Lucy Lane storyline, I vaguely recall this lasting a year or two, where she was assumed dead. She turns back up in a Jimmy Olsen story under an assumed identity, I believe. When I have time later, I can look up which issues are involved.

posted May 09, 2002 01:43 PM       

The next several Lois Lane issues (121-127) centered on Lois and Superman battling the 100. Since Lucy was thought to be involved with the 100 at the time of her death, this gave some impetus to this crusade. Lois even quits the Daily Planet and does free-lance work during this period, presumably to allow her more time to track down the 100.

These issues were written by Bates, and edited by Bridwell (121), and then Dorothy Woolfolk (122-127), who DC brought in to edit both Lois Lane and Wonder Woman in 1972.

However, Woolfolk's tenure was brief, and she was replaced as of issue 128 (Dec. 1972) by none other than the late Mr. Kanigher. Apparently he did not care much for Woolfolk's work, and abruptly changed the direction of the stories away from the 100 crusade.

This left Lucy Lane in limbo. However, a few months later, Leo Dorfman and Kurt Schaffenberger reintroduced her in Jimmy Olsen 158 (Jun. 1973) as on old woman named Lena Lawrence. In issue 160, she finally reveals her true identity to Jimmy, and tells him that she had some type of rare jungle fever that prematurely aged her!

Then, finally, in issue 161, she regains her youth (but retains her white hair for some reason) by accidently breathing in fumes from a genetic experiment. (I swear I'm not making this up!)

posted May 09, 2002 03:58 PM    

quote:

---

Originally posted by GernotCarl:
Belated Birthday wishes to this thread!

I've been buying up a bunch of the DC Digests on eBay, and finally came across "Lex Luthor--Super Scalp Hunter!" (the origin of Luthor's power-suit). These things are truly gems and can usually be had fairly cheaply, for those of you interested.

---

"Super Scalp-Hunter," I think, was the first story I read which explained how Superman's cape is actually attached!

quote:

---

Thanks to Aldous for his great reviews.

---

Aw, gee... **blush** Thanks, Carl.

posted May 09, 2002 04:35 PM    

quote:

---

Posted by Osgood:
Aldous - Scott Shaw recently reviewed this very comic a few months ago on his Oddball Comics site:http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/oddball/index.cgi?date=2001-08-20

---

Thank you so much for that link. Really cool. It was interesting to see the proper American cover. I have the story in its entirety, but the comic is an Australian edition, with the usual DC dates and emblems removed. The blurb that is usually just outside and below the splash panel on page one is also missing, and that's why I wasn't sure of the exact date of the story.

Also interesting was finding out Bob Oksner drew the cover (I had never made that identification), which Scott in the review calls "crotch-centric" . Yes, I could have mentioned the erotic, even sadomasochistic, picture; a rather sexy Lois, wearing hotpants and thigh-high stockings, spread-eagled.

quote:

---

This left Lucy Lane in limbo. However, a few months later, Leo Dorfman and Kurt Schaffenberger reintroduced her in Jimmy Olsen 158 (Jun. 1973) as on old woman named Lena Lawrence. In issue 160, she finally reveals her true identity to Jimmy, and tells him that she had some type of rare jungle fever that prematurely aged her!

Then, finally, in issue 161, she regains her youth (but retains her white hair for some reason) by accidently breathing in fumes from a genetic experiment.

---

How annoying (and puzzling) to go from such a hard-edged, intriguing storyline (Lucy as a murdered spy) to one of those incredibly silly stories.

There is a time and a place for the silly stories, but I am amazed that the editors allowed subsequent writers to practically undo and mock other creators' work.

One more thing...

Who Killed Lucy Lane contains an element I always really liked in Superman stories -- Superman in disguise. No, not as Clark, which, after all, is still himself; but as someone else entirely. Undercover, if you will.

On page 15 of the Lucy Lane story, the henchman "Ramon" is revealed as Superman in disguise, "undercover".

posted May 10, 2002 07:14 PM    

I remember being miffed that Lucy was seemingly killed off. And I was even more miffed by the lame way of bringing her back from her seeming death. But I actually like the white hair. And the Kurt Schaffenberger art tempted me to become a regular Jimmy Olsen reader. I loved the Dorfman scripts and the Bates scripts that followed thereafter.

Since I still wasn't a regular reader of Lois' or Supergirl's books, if I hadn't become a faithful follower of this purportedly silly Jimmy Olsen, I would not have followed him as his book morphed into The Superman Family. Thus if hadn't been for Schaffenberger, Dorfman, and Lucy's white hair I wouldn't have my complete run of the Family (although technically since it takes its numbering from JO I guess you could argue I still don't have a complete run).