Another Superman PSA

I love these things! Let's say these adventures take place on Earth PSA. These rare little one pagers--this one from 1960-- certainly seem to be occurring in a world with much more realistic issues than fifth dimensional imps and red kryptonite.

Blackhawk

I first discovered BLACKHAWK in my barber's shop as a kid. He always had a bunch of coverless BLACKHAWK comics going all the way back to the mid-fifties issues and right up to the red-jacketed sixties versions. I confess a weakness for BLACKHAWK in spite of the repetitive plots and general inanity of the later ones. For many years I collected the title in all of its forms. After a fairly dreadful seventies revival, the whole series was redeemed in the eighties in a long and amazingly good run by Mark Evanier (who would want me to remind you that tomorrow is NATIONAL GORILLA SUIT DAY) and artist Dan Spiegle only to be dragged way down into the gutter by Howard Chaykin in a nonetheless popular miniseries (that featured DC's first blowjob scene) which later spawned a less popular regular series. Along the way there was a movie serial (with Kirk Alyn), a short-lived radio version and an unusual novel by the equally unusual William Rotsler (who deserves a whole blog piece unto himself). Seen here is an early 1950's ad from when the title was still being published by Quality that alleges that BLACKHAWK was at that time the "most popular and widely read comic magazine" of them all! Is this true?

Namor/Spock

There's an early issue of Marvel's parody comic NOT BRAND ECCH in which the Sunk-Mariner takes a job as a pointy-eared alien science officer on a sci-fi TV series. Hmmm...wonder if that might have been inspired by this contemporary TALES TO ASTONISH rendering of the real Sub-Mariner by Dandy Dan Adkins looking for all the world like a certain Vulcan.

Superman Meets Cinderella

When you've been around as long as the Man of Steel, it's inevitable that you're going to meet a lot of famous people. Superman has, on various ocassions, met Batman, Spider-Man, Predator, Alien, Captain Carrot, Bugs Bunny, the Fantastic Four, Lucy Ricardo, Rex Reed, Orson Welles, Allen Funt and here, in perhaps one of his earliest celebrity crossovers, the one and only Cinderella! From a mid-forties issue of ACTION COMICS, Supes saves the day by getting Cindy to the ball to meet the Prince!

Real Fact Comics

Running for 21 issues beginning in 1946, DC's REAL FACT COMICS was an unusual mag in that it literally offered true life stories rather than long underwear heroes in its pages. Movie stars, sports stars and just ordinary people were given thecomic strip profile treatment. Issue # 5 even offered the supposedly true story (although actually wildly fictionized!) of Bob Kane and his creation of BATMAN. Essentially an anthology title, it ran into the same trouble that most anthologies encounter--maintaining an audience when you have no regular characters.

Sub-Mariner Ad

Here's yet another Timely ad, this one for the second issue of SUB-MARINER from the early 1940's. Note, though, that even here, in the midst of Namor's ad, somebody (Stan?) sneaks in a plug for MYSTIC COMICS featuring (as we noted earlier) THE MIGHTY DESTROYER, herein described as
"the most daringly different character in any comic magazine." Yeah. Different because he was a walking fashion faux pas.

Stan Lee by Mail

Here's a late sixties ad that shows just how Stan Lee had already become a personality in his own right in a way that Julie Schwartz, Mort Weisinger and even Dick Giordano never did. Supposedly offering a signed photo of Ol' Smiley, I really, really wanted to order it from this nicely lettered ad but hey, a dollar could buy you five or six comics back then so I opted to do that rather than send in.