Friday, January 27, 2006

Some quick silver

This will be a brief post, since I am still just getting traction in my newly increased class load.

Some comics books are prized for their art and some for their stories; some are valued for the appearance of the work of a particular individual or because they represent watershed moments in the medium or in the industry.

And some comics are cherished because it is impossible not to like them:



DC Special Vol 5, No. 16, Spring 1975
Stories by Gardner Fox, Bob Kanigher, John Broome, Otto Binder
Art by Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Ross Andru, Mike Esposito, Wayne Boring

A concept so high it is positively stratospheric.

Credits that read like a Who's Who of comics.

All for four bits. What else could you ask for?



A text page, of course!




A Hostess Twinkies ad with great art!




A vocational training ad with really crappy art! (It also makes me wonder what you'd be learning to work on at CIE in 1975: consumer VCRs, CD players, and computers were still a ways off. Maybe fixing hi-fis?)

Lots of wonderful memories in this; that's why I have it, I guess. It's less a single issue of a mediocre rotation title and more a symbol of something bigger.

If you're really interested in the stories inside this comic, there's lots of coverage on the web, including this really funny piece by Calamity John Irons.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm assuming the text page was written by Nelson Bridwell? If so, it's safe to say that he wrote it almost entirely from memory and without having to consult reference books...

Anonymous said...

Ah! The DC Specials.
#1, I believe, was a tribute to Carmine Infantino, with some terrific stories. Another issue was a tribute to Kubert (Joe, the father, the legend), another was nothing but lady superheroes.

For recycled material, the DC Specials couldn't be beat.

Anonymous said...

"Would you like to see a regular magazine devoted to DC's Super-Gorillas?"

Would I! I'm writing DC a letter right now to encourage them to put it on the 2006 schedule!