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Superman in The Sixties - DC Comics Message Boards
Author Topic:   Superman in The Sixties
garythebari
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posted May 07, 2002 10:38 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for garythebari   Click Here to Email garythebari
Just for the joy of seeing all these "era" posts all together, if only for a few seconds, <bump>. (What an obsessive-compulsive.)

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Aldous
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posted May 25, 2002 05:27 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Aldous
Red Sun

Superman's enemies watch from their space craft, high above. They guess Superman is trying to reach the fortress, but, certain he will not make it due to the "dangers of this dead world," they return to their own time to report their success.

The Man of Steel spots some strange creatures and asks the Perry White android what they are. The creatures are "balloon beasts," and inflate so as to float away when threatened. Perry explains that there are many mutated animals due to past atomic fallout.

After hours of walking, Superman and Perry arrive at what was once Smallville. Suddenly, while Superman is reminiscing, Perry yells a warning. "Superman, beware! A color-cat is charging!" The creature, looking like a cross between a tiger and a rainbow, flies at the Man of Steel. Playing matador, Superman diverts the beast, and he and Perry seek refuge in a store.

The store is stocked with food and water tablets, and the duo fill their pockets.

Moving northward on the long journey, they encounter other weird mutations, like a whale which has adapted to life on land, and a giant eagle that can shoot lightning bolts from its eyes.

They rest for the night by a fire, with Superman feeling tired and discouraged.

By the light of the fire, Superman notices footprints in the dust, but there is nothing to be seen. Perry explains, "I've heard of strange beasts of prey called The Unseeables, that evolved to invisibility." Superman tosses ash from the fire and, with ash covering them, The Unseeables become visible. The Man of Steel, deducing they are evolved sea creatures, frightens them off using fire.

The next day, Superman and Perry walk on. They pass through a sort of valley of weird pink crystals, and Superman gets the feeling the crystals are alive and watching.

They apparently come to the end of the "land," and all that is before them is the dry, cracked bed of what was once the ocean. The Perry android tells Superman the expanse cannot be crossed, and Superman orders Perry to return to Metropolis.

Superman, complete with beard stubble, steels himself to cross the "ocean".

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Aldous
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posted May 25, 2002 11:55 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Aldous
Red Sun....

In a discarded mirror fragment, Superman notices his hair and nails have grown longer (as with his beard). Aldous note: the point is made here that under a yellow sun, Superman's hair, nails, etc. do not grow. Day after agonising day Superman marches on, his once-mighty strength waning. He comes across Atlantis, once the undersea home of Lori Lemaris and her people. The deserted and derelict nature of what was once a kingdom depresses Superman even further. Great winds wail ominously, and Superman falls, all but exhausted. "I'll never reach the Fortress --"

He notices two Balloon Beasts who inflate when frightened, and, as they inflate, Superman latches onto one, and is borne aloft on the winds. For hours, the wind carries the Balloon Beast and the Man of Steel northward. The Beast is beginning to tire, starting to deflate, but Superman notes they have almost reached the mountains where the Fortress is.

Superman finally stands at the foot of the cliff face that contains the great locked door, with the giant key visible in the distance. Using strands unravelled from his cape, he climbs the cliff face and goes through the keyhole. The booby-traps in the keyhole have become deactivated over the centuries. Superman inspects the deserted Fortress and finds the Bottle City of Kandor is gone. "Choke! This means my only hope is gone!"

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Continental Op
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posted June 02, 2002 04:57 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Continental Op
Just thought I'd bump this thread while Aldous is waiting for the chance to finish his review... and to add a couple of things I also contributed on the "Superman in the 70s" thread.

Since anyone reading and enjoying this thread probably thinks Curt Swan art when they think Superman, I wanted to let you see a link I found paying tribute to the great one:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tatooine/niven/142/talentpo/tp14.html

And also give notice of an upcoming harcover book tribute to Swan that looks very promising:

CURT SWAN: A Life in Comics
-Foreword by Mort Walker.
The elegant comic book art of Curt Swan defined the look of Superman for over 30 years. His amazing skills of storytelling,
draftsmanship and design brought a realism and sense of wonder to The Man of Steel's adventures, making them the best-selling comic books of their day.
Filled with iconic and previously unseen pop art, this fascinating biography traces the artist's career from the beginning on features like GANGBUSTERS to his rise as the top Superman artist. Engaging one-on-one interviews with Swan family members as well as comics legend associates like Joe Kubert, Julius Schwartz, Carmine Infantino, Alan Moore, Murphy Anderson, Dan Jurgens and dozens more paint a portrait of the man as elegant as the artist's own work.
Includes never-before-published Superman art and sketches.
Vanguard. [Expected: July].
HC, 9x11, 196 pages, PC.
$34.95


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Aldous
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posted June 02, 2002 05:38 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Aldous
Thank you, C-Op, for posting that article. It's very interesting.

quote:
From the article:
The action within the comics often fared little better. Even in his most active scenes, Swan's Superman did not blaze through the sky as he would in the hands of later artists John Byrne, Dan Jurgens, Jon Bogdonove, Jackson Guice, or Alex Ross. The lessons Jack Kirby had taught by his reinvention of comics vitality in the sixties never seemed to permeate Swan's style, partially because Swan may have remained aloof from the industry, and partially because Swan's dedication to realism precluded much of the experimentation and distortion that made comics leap from the page.

I strongly disagree with this. Just a week or so ago I posted a "thrilling moment" from Superman in the 70s, drawn by Swanderson, and even in the couple of pages of the jet-interception sequence from that issue gave such a feeling of speed and power on the part of Superman. True, the greatest Swan scenes didn't have the "distortion" or cartoon-like exaggerations of today's Super-balloon-art, but to imply Swan's art lacked "vitality" is just plain wrong. I've talked about comics on the 70s thread wherein the Swan art still thrills me as it did when I was a kid. It's easy to forget/overlook how innovative Swan was. His Superman became so super-familiar that I think a lot of people mistake the familiar for the ordinary.

Swan's Superman appeared to be a man of more-or-less normal physical proportions, who happened to be bursting with super-power. This was just one successful aspect of Swan's rendition when at the height of his own powers.

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Aldous
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posted June 04, 2002 07:48 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Aldous
Red Sun...

Superman resigns himself to the fact that he will eventually die in the Fortress, as the "last man on Earth". He takes a walk amongst the souvenirs of his career, his mementoes, statues and trophies. As he passes by the "Batman and Robin Room," he fondly remembers his good friends of "long ago". Then he notices something seemingly out-of-place, a display of a tiny house and rocketship taken from the Bottle City of Kandor before the city was enlarged. Superman immediately latches onto the idea that the miniature rocketship can take him back to his own time.

He searches elsewhere for something he knows must be there and comes up with a lead-wrapped specimen of Red Kryptonite from a drawer. Superman had once observed the effect of this particular chunk of Kryptonite on Krypto, and he's sure it will have the same effect on him.

Before setting his plan in motion, the Man of Steel shaves and cuts his hair and nails in preparation for returning to life under a yellow sun.

Using a shrinking ray from the Fortress, Superman shrinks himself to tiny size so he can enter the miniature Kandorian rocketship. "These Kandorian rockets were powered by atomic energy, capable of unlimited speed! And I'll need such speed!" Superman flies the tiny rocketship out through the Fortress keyhole and reaches a speed great enough to crack the time barrier. By "steering" the ship "counter-clockwise," he hurtles back into the past to his proper time of 1963.

He successfully completes the journey, and, although he now has all his super-powers again, he is still of a tiny size. "Now to wait until the temporary effect of the Red Kryptonite wears off and I'm my super-self again!"

Later, when the "Red Kryptonite effect" has worn off and Superman is normal-sized again, he sits looking out over the city and ponders this latest adventure.

And, having endured enough scientific, geographic, and continuity plot-holes to sink a ship, we have come to....The End.

(India, I know I said weeks ago I'd give you a synopsis of this comic. It only remains for me to thank you for your patience! )

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Continental Op
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posted June 05, 2002 03:26 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Continental Op
And thanks to you,Aldous. It was worth the wait!

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India Ink
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posted June 07, 2002 05:56 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
Thanks for all the hard work, Aldous.

Superman through the Ages (Man O Man, those pages take a looooonng time to load), credits this to Edmond Hamilton and Curt Swan. But Swan it obviously aint.

I've managed to find this story reprinted in The Best of DC, vol. 1, no. 1 (Sept./Oct., 1979), featuring Superman, the first Blue Ribbon Digest. There, credit is given to Al Plastino, as clearly he is the artist--but no writer is listed. I must admit, however the art does look Curt Swan-y at times!

This Blue Ribbon Digest is a great little item, filled with neat stuff from the 50s, 60s, and 70s--and with a painted cover by Andru, Giordano, and Orlando (I think Joe Orlando must've been the one who did the actual painting chores).

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India Ink
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posted June 07, 2002 11:24 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
Owing to some unrelated debate over on the archives board, my brain is fried. Can't put sentences together. I have some thoughts about the Red Sun story, but can't yet form them into coherent prose.

Meanwhile, I'd like to throw this open to anyone else. As I was asking some weeks ago why this story figures as so significant to so many, I'll ask again Why? I have my own suspicion, but would like to hear from others.

Osgood Peabody--are you out there?

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Aldous
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posted June 08, 2002 12:53 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Aldous
quote:
Originally posted by India Ink:
Owing to some unrelated debate over on the archives board, my brain is fried.

Really...? I'll have to nip over to the other board later to have a look. Are you starting arguments again?

quote:
Meanwhile, I'd like to throw this open to anyone else. As I was asking some weeks ago why this story figures as so significant to so many, I'll ask again Why?

I don't know. The story doesn't impress me. At best it's a curiosity.

It may be significant because early on in the story Superman is a man alone, bereft of allies, powers, and even villains. In a sense, particularly as he is often feeling the weight of despair, he is struggling not with an outside agency, but with his own limitations. He is fighting a spiritual and mental battle.

Reading back through my own synopsis, he also seems to make a series of "pit stops" at the significant places of his previous life: Metropolis-Smallville-Lori's Atlantis-Fortress. Hardly a direct route to the Arctic, I'm sure.

I know Edmond Hamilton was talented, but this story is not good SF. It has enough holes to drive a truck through, including the big holes worn clear through the soles of Superman's super-boots.

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Aldous
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posted June 08, 2002 05:32 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Aldous
I had no idea one of my favourite Luthor stories, "The Luthor Nobody Knows," by Elliot S! Maggin, Curt Swan & Bob Oksner (1975), was a remake of an original tale, "How Luthor Met Superboy," by Jerry Siegel and Al Plastino (1960). You can even see where Curt's art was directly inspired by Al Plastino's drawings (the protoplasm comes to mind).

I don't own the 1960 comic book, but I read it on the Superman Through The Ages website.

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India Ink
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posted June 08, 2002 06:09 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
I don't try to start arguments, yet somehow people interpret what I say as an argument and then feel compelled to ARGUE loudly against me--when I'd rather just have a calm discussion. Oh well.

I know that the original Luthor/Superboy was reprinted at some point because I sure didn't read it in the original--and I'm pretty sure I read it.

I have this feeling that it might've been reprinted in a tabloid sized Limited Collector's Edition--like "Secret Origins of Super-Villains."

"...Red Sun" doesn't feel like Edmond Hamilton to me, either. More like Jerry Siegel. Even set within the context of all the Superman science fiction of the time this story doesn't quite fit. Although I think that's actually its strength in a round-about way.

Both Hamilton and Siegel had been writing the LSH for a while by the time of this story--Superboy routinely jumps into the 30th century as if it were a backyard playground. And we never see him being terribly morose about the long distant past--we don't see him going on a tour of old Superboy sites.

Of course, in this story Superman is marooned. But he was marooned a lot in many stories, either in the distant past or on far-off planets, and never quite seemed to act in this sad fashion.

And he's One Million years into the future (need I mention that he would become marooned One Million years into the future some years later in another Action story--this one by Cary Bates--as the "Immortal Superman"?), which seems very very distant--too distant for so much of his legend to be preserved on Earth I think. It's hyperbole in the extreme.

But there's this bizarre dream-like atmosphere to the story, making it seem quite surreal. That's the level on which I enjoyed it.

I think the most significant line in the entire thing is at the very end when Superman is just sittin' on the dock of the bay wasting time and wondering...

"Will Earth really be like that a million years from now? Or was that only one of many possible futures?"

I mean, here's a guy who has spent most of the story living this existence, and yet at the end he doubts its authenticity? It's a kind of wierd juxtaposition. For Superman, how much reality is really real? How does he ever know where he really is, since he may just be in a possible world and not the true authentic world. In this light, the entire run of Legion Adventures could just be possible experiences and not what Earth will really be like.

With this story and the "Immortal Superman" I'm tempted to think that maybe Superman really has stepped through a doorway between one existence and another. One could even carry the argument so far as to argue that Superman begins his adventure in one possible reality and ends up in another by the end.

I'm sure that these kind of surreal future adventures had a great influence on Grant Morrison in his "One Million" stories (which aren't actually One Million years in the future--more like 83,200 years).

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Osgood Peabody
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posted June 08, 2002 06:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Osgood Peabody   Click Here to Email Osgood Peabody
quote:
Originally posted by India Ink:
As I was asking some weeks ago why this story figures as so significant to so many, I'll ask again Why? I have my own suspicion, but would like to hear from others.

Osgood Peabody--are you out there?


While Action 300 was a bit before my time, I think I can surmise the appeal it has. Mort Weisinger summed it up in this quote I found in The Comic Book Heroes: "The type of story I became fondest of was the ones where Superman lost his powers and had to survive on his natural wits...You could identify with him then, an outstanding character deserving of your admiration, a real hero because of the clever things that he did when deprived of his super-powers."

I find it interesting that many of the stories that we've raved about on this thread and its 70s companion all have this common theme. The Return to Krypton, the Kandor stories, the Lexor stories, the Sandman Saga, even the "Who Took the Super out of Superman" multi-parter - all contain a Superman stripped of his powers. I think it makes his eventual triumph more noble, more satisfying, and hence more memorable.

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hsalf
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posted June 08, 2002 09:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for hsalf   Click Here to Email hsalf
quote:
Originally posted by India Ink:

And he's One Million years into the future (need I mention that he would become marooned One Million years into the future some years later in another Action story--this one by Cary Bates--as the "Immortal Superman"?), which seems very very distant--too distant for so much of his legend to be preserved on Earth I think. It's hyperbole in the extreme.

With this story and the "Immortal Superman" I'm tempted to think that maybe Superman really has stepped through a doorway between one existence and another. One could even carry the argument so far as to argue that Superman begins his adventure in one possible reality and ends up in another by the end.


That was part of a three parter in Action comics, meaning three issues.

In that story, I'll dig it out if anyone wants, Superman can only go into the future, the Time Trapper has shut off the past to him. It was one of my favorite story-arcs of mine from my teen years and one of the first ones I bought when I started to recreate the collection I lost to the ages.

It is a sad story but full of the headaches that time-travel stories have. In a way, this story may be one of the worst.

Bill

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India Ink
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posted June 08, 2002 11:45 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
Osgood,
Thanks for the considered response. It's true we seem to love these stories.

Bill,
I'm always plesantly surprised to find yet another person who loved the "Immortal Superman" three-parter.

This has to be one of my big favourites. And I went on about it at great length, almost a year ago, over on the "Superman in the 70s" thread, on page 4...
http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/files/Forum30/HTML/004040-4.html

Then about half a year later, Kev-El went on about this story, too, in February, over on page 10 of the same thread...
http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/files/Forum30/HTML/004040-10.html

And since I'm putting up links, I transcribed the entire 1974 interview (by Guy H. Lillian, in Amazing World of DC Comics) with Bates and Maggin, over on page 2 of the "Backdoor to the 70s" thread...
http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/files/Forum89/HTML/001224-2.html

...in which the "Immortal Superman" is mentioned in passing.

Also from that interview, it's interesting to note that Bates created the cover idea for the Luthor/Brainiac story that was published in Superman 167 (although the actual story was by Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan, and George Klein). This is another story I definitely hold in high regard--and I went on about it also somewhere on the "Superman in the 70s" thread.

It's interesting to me how many stories by Cary Bates had an impact on me as a kid, when I had no way of knowing about Cary Bates (although I do remember him being mentioned in the lettercolumns). I believe his first actual story was a Superman-Batman imaginary tale in World's Finest. Possibly the first WF story I ever read. And still quite memorable.

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India Ink
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posted June 10, 2002 02:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
quote:
Originally posted by India Ink:
...

I've managed to find this story reprinted in The Best of DC, vol. 1, no. 1 (Sept./Oct., 1979), featuring Superman, the first Blue Ribbon Digest. There, credit is given to Al Plastino, as clearly he is the artist--but no writer is listed. I must admit, however the art does look Curt Swan-y at times!

This Blue Ribbon Digest is a great little item, filled with neat stuff from the 50s, 60s, and 70s--and with a painted cover by Andru, Giordano, and Orlando (I think Joe Orlando must've been the one who did the actual painting chores).



This digest has quite a few 70s tales--including a Murphy Anderson gag from PLOP!--Lois falls out the window, Clark flies out to save her, and then when he catches her Lois says she always knew he was Superman, next panel Morgan Edge comes in looking for Lois and Clark says, "Lois? She fell out the window..."

There's another 60s story in here, an imaginary story--"The Death of Superman."

And there's a story, illustrated by Wayne Boring, that looks like it might be from the 50s--"The Adventures of Mental-Man!"

A comic strip character, Mental-Man is the creation of Al Fallon, Daily Planet staff artist. Everybody in Metropolis can't wait for the next Mental-Man adventure. Even underworld gansters read the comics, and apparently they employ their own staff artists--who knew? One underworld artist is "Inky," who makes an intriguing discovery.

Just like Al Fallon, Inky has his own drawing table. Sitting at his board he instructs his fellow criminals in certain principles of art--"Look--I'm making an exact tracing of a car from a photo...And here, beside the photographic copy, is an ordinary free-hand drawing of the same car! Notice the difference? You can tell that one is taken from a photo!"

One of the gangsters doesn't see the point and pipes up that "A drawin' is a drawin'," but Inky then shows him the Mental-Man drawings which look like the photographic drawing. So Mental-Man must really exist!

Actually it's a hoax being played by Superman, but they don't know that and they get Mental-Man to help them out on a job. As Mental-Man goes with the gang in their car, one of the crooks observes about Mental-Man, "Gee, boss...He's spooky! Never says a word!"

"Stupid! That's because he's got a mind! Now why don't you clam up?"

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India Ink
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posted June 14, 2002 12:55 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
Above, I mentioned the 1974 interview with Bates & Maggin and how Cary Bates sent in cover ideas to Weisinger--the first of which was used for Superman 167. I talked a bit about that story over on Superman in the 70s (page 7)

quote:
Originally posted by India Ink:
[b]Seeing the World through Super-Spectacles


... mostly the Super-Specs are part of the runs of regular titles. As with the next issue, DC-7, which was also Superman 245 (Dec.'71-Jan.'72). In addition to Superman himself, there were stories of Kid Eternity, The Atom (Ray Palmer), Super-Chief, Air-Wave, and Hawkman (silver age version).

Leading off the collection is another epic by Swan and Klein (and no doubt by Edmond Hamilton, though he wasn't credited in this Super-Spec), running at 27 pages, from Superman 167 (February, 1964)...

...This one confirms the greatness of the Hamilton/Swan/Klein team (not that there was any doubt). Several elements that were stirring in other stories come together here. We get a slight nod to their work over on the Legion, mention of Lexor (the planet where Lex is a hero), and more Kandor content. The mythology is firmly in place and Hamilton can now move around in it, using bits of it as he pleases...
[/B]


And then on page 8 of the same thread I referred to the actual original comic

quote:
Originally posted by India Ink:

Today I was looking at my copy of Superman 167 (Feb. '64)--that's the issue where "The Team of Luthor and Brainiac !" first appeared, the 27 page epic that was reprinted in Superman 245 (Super-Spec DC-7).

This story is notable for a lot of firsts, and for advancing the mythology further. The first story to reveal Brainiac as an android or his 12th level intelligence. The first story to introduce Ardora--okay she's called Tharla in this story, but she's Ardora in all subsequent Lexor stories, and she'll marry Luthor and have his son. Not to mention revelations about the people who created Brainiac (and the history of Brainiac 5) or further Kandorian trivia.

But on page 8 in the original comic there's an editorial note that instructs us to check the "Metropolis Mailbag" page, where there's this "Special Announcement!"

"Thousands of DC readers have avidly followed the spectacular duels between SUPERMAN and his greatest foe, the nefarious scientist, BRAINIAC." [Lex must have been mad enough to spit when he read that...=>] "Their exciting clashes have taken place deep below the ocean and in distant galaxies. But whether the battleground has been Atlantis or Arcturus, each time BRAINIAC has proved himself an opponent worthy of the Man of Steel's mettle!

"And now let us go behind the scenes and unveil a remarkable conincidence. The fictional character, 'Brainiac,' was created for us by Otto Binder, a famous science fiction writer who is currently the editor of 'Space World,' a magazine for rocket experts. (Otto also created 'Bizarro' and wrote the great Superman novel, 'Krypton Lives On.')

"Shortly after the first 'Brainiac' story appeared in ACTION COMICS, in 1956, we learned that a REAL 'Brainiac' existed...in the form of an ingenious 'Brainiac Computer Kit' invented in 1955 by Edmund C. Berkeley. Mr. Berkeley is a distinguished scientist and a world authority on automation, computers, and robots.

"In deference to his 'Brainiac,' which pre-dates ours, with this issue of SUPERMAN we are changing the characterization of our 'Brainiac' so that the master-villain will henceforth possess a 'computer personality.' We are confident that our readers will approve of this transformation; it should make 'Brainiac' a mightier adversary for the Man of Steel.

"Readers will be interest to learn that they can build their own 'Brainiac' by purchasing one of Mr. Berkeley's computer kits and assembling the parts. Thousands of youngsters, as well as adults, have bought these kits and, by following the simple directions, have been able to construct home-made computers which can solve interesting problems of all kinds. 'Braniac' kits cost less than $20.00 and make an ideal educational hobby. For more information, write for free literature to: Berkeley Enterprises, Inc., 815 Washington Street, Newtonville 60, Mass."


It's interesting that all this stuff came together in one story which was presumably sparked by Cary's cover idea.

My thinking is that there was already a lot of ideas just floating around in Weisinger's office. Hamilton had things he wanted to develop from previous stories, Weisinger had this whole tie-in with the Berkley "Brainiac." So all this stuff was built around that one scene from the Bates cover idea.


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India Ink
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posted June 14, 2002 02:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
It's my understanding that a lot of stories published by National Periodical Publications in the sixties were generated from cover ideas.

In the case of Weisinger's titles, it seems like many covers posed a puzzle. A puzzle for the reader in that we look at this cover and wonder to ourselves how this could possibly happen. Perhaps more importantly, a puzzle for the writer, who has to try and build a story around the cover idea. The scene from the cover usually is right at the middle of the story, so the writer is building toward that scene and then trying to get out of that scene back to a state of normalcy.

Maybe Mort thought that these puzzle/cover ideas challenged his writers and got them to use their brains. Who knows? I sure don't!

Again over on the 70s topic, but more recently (page 16), I was talking about the Super-Spectacular Superman 172, which had, among other things, a reprint of "Beauty and the Super-Beast!"

Aldous wanted to know more about this story, so I thought I'd mention it here.

This story--from Superman 165 (Nov. '63)--seems like a good candidate for a cover-idea-first story. It certainly is a puzzle story. At the front of the story scenes play out one way, leading to the scene on the cover (more or less) which shows Circe stepping out of a glass-covered ornate casket, holding up her wand and transforming Superman into a lion-headed man (with lion paws). I gather that this was illustrated by Swan and Klein--Swan uses his technique of double imaging Superman to show action in time.

Circe is saying: You were a fool to think only Kryptonite can affect you, Superman! With my mighty magic, I now turn you into a beast! And the spell will remain until you agree to marry Circe!

The splash page shows Superman being forced by Circe to juggle balls upside down.

In part I of the story, Lana comes to interview Lois who is preparing for a solo space-shot--which will make Miss Lane "the first U.S. girl to orbit Earth." There's lots of catty dialogue here. Lois does admit that the only reason NASA selected her was because they could be sure that Superman would fly to her rescue if anything untoward happened. Lana accuses Lois of just seeking public adulation and Superman's attentions. For her part Miss Lang is off to Crete (long-time readers will remember that her father is a respected archaeologist, and Lana is a capable archaeologist in her own right). In Crete, Lana is going to look for the glass coffin of Circe. Lois jeers her, doubting that any such coffin could really exist.

So Lana goes off to Crete and Lois goes into orbit.

Sure enough a meteor threatens to crash into Lois Lane's space capsule and Superman goes flying UP to knock it away, but as he does so a strange blue beam strikes him, and his reknowned strength does not smash the meteor to bits. Instead the meteor falls toward Washington, D.C. But flying DOWN Superman manages to smash the meteor into dust.

Lane splashes down in her capsule and is brought to shore with congratulations, which she answers by saying, "Oh, skip it! With Superman guarding me every inch of the way, my Aunt Matilda could've made the trip!"

Meanwhile, in Crete, Lana has unearthed a glass covered coffin containing a Beauty who looks just like Circe (just like the Circe that has appeared in other Superman stories). The Beauty steps out of the coffin like she was getting out of bed after a long night's sleep. She's a rather sharp-tongued woman. When she hears Superman's name she goes off on a tirade--for Circe really did meet Superman in a previous story and at that time he spurned her offer of marriage. Now the Beauty proclaims that she'll have her revenge by making a fool of the Man of Steel.

Lana's amazing discovery is headline news, but Jimmy Olsen thinks it must be a hoax. Perry White tells Superman he must see this Circe, when she comes to an interview at the Metropolis Museum, to determine if she's the real deal. And Superman does just that.

Sure enough, the Beauty does seem to prove she's the real Circe, first by reading minds and then by turning Superman into a Lion-man (lionhead, lion paws). End of Part I.

Part II ("Circe's Super-Slave"). But believing a lion is too noble, she turns his head into that of a mouse (this time his hands are normal). Superman begs her to let him go out and perform his job as hero of Metropolis. She relents, and his head goes back to normal, then she decides to embarass him by commanding him to climb a crane and fly DOWN into the Earth. Which he does although he manages to kick out a large section of bedrock excavating the foundation for a new City Hall.

The Beauty who calls herself Circe commands Superman to juggle balls while floating upside DOWN. He does this, but by throwing the well-aimed balls he manages to stop criminals using a large armoured tank who would have tried to rob the Peerless Gem Company.

The Beauty then says that he's too clever for her and flies off and fades away.

And at that precise instant, inside a flying saucer off in space, members of the Superman Revenge Squad are watching and cursing their bad luck. It's been 24 hours and their counter-energy has shown no signs of affecting Superman, he still has his powers. Even Circe didn't manage to best him with her magic! And so they take off, glumly, to face the wrath of their superiors.

With his telescopic vision, Superman sees them leave and has a good laugh, and then meets with the unmasked Beauty who is not Circe but Saturn Woman with her pet Proty II. He recalls how things really happened (the answer to the puzzle that this story has posed)--

Superman realized that when the blue ray beam hit him it had deprived him of his powers, but only when it struck him in a right side up position. Once positioned down he had all his powers. He sent Krypto off to the future to get Saturn Woman, and coming to the 20th Century she tuned in on Superman's thoughts, staging the elaborate hoax, posing as Circe. It was Proty II wrapped around Superman's face that transformed into a lion's head and a mouse's (but what about the paws? I wonder).

Superman had figured out that his body has a North and a South pole, just as all energy has two poles. And apparently his upside down body's polar energy repelled the energy of the Revenge Squad's beam. Which is why Circe's commands had Superman in an upside down position--a fact that Perry and Jimmy both notice at the end of the story.

And the final panel has the lowly Revenge Squaders meeting with their superiors and being told... "You're not good enough to be in the Superman Revenge Squad! As of now, we're demoting you to the Krypto Revenge Squad...he'll probably outwit you, too!"

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India Ink
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posted June 14, 2002 06:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
I was pressed for time in my last two posts, and I have scant seconds to post much right now. But I did want to mention that the second story in that issue was "The Sweetheart Superman Forgot!" by Jerry Siegel and Al Plastino (12 pages). It's reprinted in Superman in the Sixties. This is the story that introduced Sally Selwyn--and if I had lots more time I'd say lots more about it since I think it's one of those big important stories that people tend to remember, even though it probably wasn't intended to be anything special.

And if I didn't make it clear, the cover story, "Beauty and the Super-Beast" (14 pages), was done by Swan and Klein, but I don't know who the writer was for a certainty.

Anyway I'll return to this when I have more minutes to spare.

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India Ink
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posted June 15, 2002 01:51 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
Since I have the first three volumes of the Legion archives, I went looking for "Beauty and the Super-Beast" in those, but couldn't find it. Which is strange given that those archives seem to have printed almost every Legion appearance from the early days.

One will note that it's Saturn Woman who comes to Superman's aid--not Saturn Girl. That is to say a grown up Imra, member of the Adult Legion of Super-Heroes (Superman had one adventure with this group prior to this story).

This just adds to the pile of confusion surrounding Superman's hoax. Surely he could have found an easier way to fool the Revenge Squaders.

I also note that the Revenge Squad often appear in the sixties stories simply to motivate the plot. They're not usually the stars of the conflict. But I like the Squad and it would be interesting if the current writers tried to create a similar nemesis for the modern Superman.

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Aldous
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posted June 16, 2002 02:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Aldous
When I was about 10 years old, I knew a boy at my school who was the only other kid (seemingly) who collected American comic books. I did a swap with him, giving him a book of mine that had a story in which Superman meets the "Adult Legion". Now, this was 24 years ago, so my recollections are not the best. I think the story was Swan-Klein. The story made a point of revealing which adult Legionnaires had married each other, eg. Saturn Woman-Lightning Man (or something like that).

I've always regretted letting this comic go. To make matters worse, I can't even remember what comic book I received in return!

Your recollections on the other thread, India, of coming to a decision not to sell your comics, reminded me of this.

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India Ink
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posted June 16, 2002 01:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
I think the first time I read about the Legion was in a 1966 issue of Adventure.

The reason I read it was because it had Superman on the cover. This is how it worked--I read Batman comics because of the Batman TV show, I picked up an issue of Action because it had Batman on the cover, which turned me on to Superman and I read this Adventure comic because it had Superman in it.

Turned out this was the second part of a story that had Superman in the future with the grown-up Legion. But I went looking for more stories about the Legion. Only I found most of the stories were always about their adventures as kids--in my heart I always wanted to find more stories about the REAL Legion, the one I had first read about.

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India Ink
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posted June 17, 2002 12:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
Thinking about "Beauty and the Super-Beast" can drive one mad--surely this was Mort Weisinger's intent. Why did Superman have to go to such lengths? Of course thinking about these kinds of stories in rational terms is pointless.

I always think of that line from Woody Allen's Annie Hall. He tells the joke about the guy who goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doctor, my wife thinks she's a chicken," and the doctor says he can cure her, and the guy responds, "But we need the eggs."

The lunacy of the plots is acceptable because "we need the eggs."

This may not be abundantly clear when reading "Beauty and the Super-Beast." Does seeing Superman hover upside down while juggling really satisfy some need inside? I think it does, but I would be hard pressed to make a convincing argument.

I can much more easily make my case with "The Sweetheart Superman Forgot!" In that story, the twists and turns of plotting yield something that we can grab hold of, and say "yes, it's all worth it for this!"

Let's review.

"One day in the Daily Planet newsroom..." I love that line, or those similar to it. So many of these stories began with that innocuous setting. Clark reads off the teletype that a UFO is about to collide with the Telstar sattellite. Next panel Superman is averting the danger high above the Earth. The UFO is a "cosmic booby trap" as it contains a piece of Red Kryptonite. Superman feels the familiar effects of Red K, and falling under the influence of the strange substance he flies Earthward, changes into his Clark Kent gear, and buries his super costume.

Wandering down the road, Clark finds he has lost his memory (and his powers). Eventually he comes to a farm, and asks a young lady if he might get a drink of water, as it's a hot afternoon and he's parched. But Clark has become so weak that he faints. Soon Clark is sleeping in a bed provided by the young lady, Sally Selwyn, and her father, Digby Selwyn.

When the bespectacled stranger revives he can't remember his own name, yet gives a false one "Jim White." The Selwyns are good folk and extend the utmost charity to this stranger. And "Jim" returns their generosity one day while riding on their property, by lassoing a pitchfork that would have attracted lightning to a box of dynamite. Digby admires Jim's courage and puts him to work as a hired hand.

However Bart Benson, Digby Selwyn's foreman, has other ideas and tries to show up Jim again and again, but his attempts only make Sally fall for Jim all the more. After they win first prize at the town dance hall, Jim and Sally step outside for some fresh air and embrace each other in a passionate kiss.

"But after a breathless moment..."

Clark: "Forgive me, Sally! I'm in love with you...yes! But I don't have the right to ask a girl like you to marry me!"

Sally: "I'll never forget that kiss, Jim dearest!"

Sally tells the man of her dreams that her Dad will retire soon and then Jim can run all of Digby Selwyn's propertis for him. But Jim White is a strong-minded individual who wants to make his own way in life without hand-outs.

Jim decides to enter a rodeo contest to win enough money to start his own business. Then he can ask Sally to marry him.

At the rodeo, anyone who can ride Black Terror the longest will win $5,000! But Bart has fed loco weed to the stallion. Nobody else will dare ride the excited steed. But Jim, desperate to win the prize money, mounts the stormy horse. And is thrown violently off. And Jim White ends up in a wheel chair.

Now that he's a cripple, there's no way that Jim can see himself marrying Sally. But Sally will never give up on her love for this man.

Out in a secluded spot near a cliff by a river, Jim White wheels himself out to think about his situation. But Bart is there and taunts him. Jim tells this tormenter to get away ("Your brain is sicker than my body, get away from me!"). But on a hill high above Jim, Bart sends a boulder toward the wheel chair, which knocks Jim out of the chair and down into the river.

Finding the chair by the river, Digby and Sally assume that Jim White has committed suicide.

They don't know that Jim's unconscious body floated down the river until it was found by Aquaman, who brought him to Lori Lemaris in Atlantis.

Clark revives in a transparent air-filled chamber at the ocean's depths. Lori tells him that he was in a delirium for a week, not knowing who he was.

Clark can't remember what happened after he buried his super costume, all he knows is that he must have been suffering from the effects of Red K.

And so Clark Kent returns back to the status quo of the Daily Planet newsroom. Overhearing Lois Lane saying that Superman will never marry because his carrer comes first, Clark wonders to himself how it would be to find someone who truly loved him for himself and not his powers and celebrity.

The last panel is a montage showing both Clark and Sally as they each think to themselves.

Clark: "It would be nice if there were such a girl! No such luck!"

Sally: ">sob< --Jim--Jim! My love for you will never die!"

The End

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Osgood Peabody
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posted June 17, 2002 09:07 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Osgood Peabody   Click Here to Email Osgood Peabody
Great story! And once again, a de-powered Superman is the centerpiece - Mort really did go for this type of story.

Did you know that there was a sequel to this in Superman #169 entitled "The Man Who Stole Superman's Secret Life"?

Not nearly as good a read, but I thought I'd mention it.

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Continental Op
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posted June 17, 2002 04:26 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Continental Op
Yes, the SaLLy Selwyn (notice they managed to slip that double L into the girl's name again) story is obviously one of those stories that turned out to be much more important than the writer probably ever would have expected. I hope you'll be covering the sequel as well, India (assuming you have it).

The remarkable thing here is that Weisinger managed to turn Superman into a ROMANCE COMIC for a story and probably none of the young boys that made up most of the audience even realized that's what they were reading! If you omit the beginning and end of the story, where Superman has his powers, it reads exactly like a "girls' romance" story of the time. Maybe Weisinger added all the horses and such to make it seem more like a Western?

Yet it must have proven hugely popular with the fans, if a sequel appeared so soon. Jerry Siegel doesn't seem to have had a follow-up deliberately planned, and I'm pretty sure that at least three months or so were required for a story to go from typewriter to newsstand. So a lot of mail must have poured in to Weisinger's office. Interesting that Siegel seemed to be the one coming up with all these doomed one-story romances for his creation... I think he wrote the Lyla Lerrol, Luma Lynai AND first Lori Lemaris tales as well.

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