On The Scene Presents SUPER HEROES

In the '70s, World Of Books was a small bookstore located in Williams Shopping Center in North Syracuse. I spent a lot of time there when I was, say, 12 or 13 to about 16-17 years old. I owe that place a more detailed reminiscence someday, either as a stand-alone piece or if I ever get around to writing the '70s chapters of my pop culture autobiography Singers, Superheroes, And Songs On The Radio. For today, suffice it to say that World Of Books was where I found my copy of this 1966 magazine, a one-shot called On The Scene Presents Super Heroes.

I'm tempted to say this was the first thing I ever purchased at World Of Books. Maybe? It still strikes me as odd that a 1966 magazine was kicking around in a bookstore at least seven years later; World Of Books had cover-stripped magazines for sale, but I don't remember used or back-issue mags displayed there. I wonder if Warren Publishing dumped unsold copies on the market at the time, but I'm just shootin' Batarangs at the stars with that guess.

On The Scene was originally published at the height of Batmania, the pop superhero frenzy inspired by the success of the Batman TV series. Its spotlight feature was on the then-new Batman feature film, with the rest of the magazine filled out with celebrations of old movie serials starring Superman, Flash Gordon, Captain Marvel, Captain America, and The Phantom. Batman and Robin bookended the magazine, beginning with an article on The Dynamic Duo's 1943 and 1949 serials and closing with their '66 cinematic magnum opus.

This was not my introduction to superhero movie serials. I had already discovered silent Super 8 home movie versions of Batman (1943) and The Adventures Of Captain Marvel (1941). But I think I grabbed my copy of On The Scene before reading the chapter on serials in All In Color For A Dime, an essential books about Golden Age comics (a book which, incidentally, I first spotted at World Of Books). This should also have been just a bit before I attended a Syracuse Cinephile Society screening of the entire Captain Marvel serial, and certainly before I acquired a copy of a book called To Be Continued, a history of serials which I wish I'd had the sense to exclude from the stack of pulp material I sold for rent money in the early '80s.



My copy of On The Scene also slipped away from me in similar fashion. The great 'n' powerful internet informs me that much of On The Scene consisted of reprints from Screen Thrills Illustrated, a magazine that had also covered The Marx Brothers and the serial adaptations of the pulp hero The Spider. What few copies I had of that mag are long gone, too.




Finally, On The Scene Presents Super Heroes was likely my first Warren magazine. It would not be my last. I never cared about Warren's horror mags Creepy or Eerie, and I only ever owned one or two issues of Famous Monsters Of Filmland (I was more into rival monster tabloid The Monster Times.) But I was in love with the pulchritudinous heroine of Vampirella, and later enthralled by the treasure trove of Will Eisner reprints in The Spirit. And I loved pouring through the jewels 'n' junk offered in the Captain Company ads at the back of each Warren book. I bought a few things from those ads, and I've included the '66 version in this scan of On The Scene.

On The Scene Presents Super Heroes might be an orphaned property by now, but it's presumed to be copyright the relevant rights holder. Its appearance here is intended as fair use. And it's a (rocket) blast, man, so dim the lights for superhero action as On The Scene Presents Super Heroes.

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