POP-A-LOOZA: Remembering My 100-PAGE FAKES (DC Comics SUPER SPECTACULARS That Never Were)

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a look back at my own series of imaginary 100-page 1970s DC Comics, "Remembering My 100-Page FAKES! (DC Comics Super Spectaculars That Never Were)."

As supplement to the above, I offer a few retrospectives of some stuff DC Comics actually did publish:

100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULARS (my complete history)

JOE ORLANDO'S ADVENTURE COMICS

AQUAMAN

BATMAN

BATMAN # 180

INFERIOR 5

JIMMY OLSEN

THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES

PLASTIC MAN

THE RED TORNADO

SUPERBOY # 129

As a kid, I loved DC Comics so much that I wanted more DC Comics. As an adult, I imagined that wish coming true. "Remembering My 100-PAGE FAKES!" is the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

POP-A-LOOZA: THE EVERLASTING FIRST! The Beau Brummels, Chuck Berry, The Black Canary, Blackhawk, Blondie, The Brave And The Bold

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archivers. The latest shared post is another dip into the files of The Everlasting First, with quick takes on my introductions to the Beau Brummels, Chuck Berry, the Black Canary, Blackhawk, Blondie, and The Brave And The Bold.

For a little bit of further Boppin' reading related to these individual subjects, I direct you to these other posts:

THE BEAU BRUMMELS [Sal Valentino interview]

CHUCK BERRY [a Greatest Record Ever Made! celebration of "Promised Land"]

THE BLACK CANARY [a 100-Page FAKE!]

BLACKHAWK [I have yet to write anything of substance about Blackhawk; this takes you instead to my history of DC Comics' 100-Page Super Spectaculars, which was where I first developed an appreciation of the character]

BLONDIE [my discovery of punk in the pages of Phonograph Record Magazine]

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD [my fantasy of writing a twelve-issue B&B run]

Every story starts somewhere, The beginnings of my stories with each of these epic musical acts and comic-book entities provide the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

POP-A-LOOZA: THE EVERLASTING FIRST! Kid Eternity

 

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is all about my 1970s discovery of a 1940s comic book character called Kid Eternity.

As the piece says, I first encountered Kid Eternity in the pages of an issue of DC Comics' 100-Page Super Spectaculars circa 1971; you can read my separate reminiscence of those beloved Super Specs here. My interest in Kid Eternity was part and parcel of my '70s embrace of superheroes and other fictional adventurers from preceding decades, an interest I've also detailed in essays about the original Captain Marvel, Plastic Man, Doc Savage, the Shadow, the Green Hornet, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, the Red Tornado, Flash Gordon, Tarzan, movie serials, superpulp paperbacks, The Pulps, Daredevil Battles Hitler (plus also Doll Man and some '60s material), the Spectre (as part of an appreciation of Adventure Comics in the '70s), and my fanciful notion of a Justice Society of America movie. That prevailing passion led me to concoct my series of 100-Page FAKES!, each of which can be accessed from here. 

But today, we look back on how a 100-Page Super Spectacular starring Superman, the Atom, Air Wave, Hawkman, and Super-Chief also introduced me to an old character who would become one of my favorites. The Everlasting First: Kid Eternity is the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

POP-A-LOOZA: My iPad Comics

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a look at my iPad Comics.

This piece was written in 2019. I no longer have any digital comics stored on my computer, but I still have that old iPad with its virtual funnybook stash. I continue to accumulate new comic books--real, physical copies--every week, and I struggle to find time to read them. I still enjoy them, and I read them when I can.

My digital comics were the resource for my long-running series of 100-Page FAKES!, which were attempts to slap together simulations of 100-Page Super Spectaculars that never were, modeled after the DC Comics 100-pagers I so adored as an adolescent and teen in the early '70s. You can find links to all of my posted 100-Page FAKES! right here. That series ended in April of 2020 (as announced here).

The 100-Page FAKES! had been focused on DC Comics (though I fudged that limitation a time or several). After the series ended, I followed up with a similar series called Spectacular Comics 100-Page Special, which was not beholden to any one publisher, and which also included scans from my physical comics collection. That series lasted four issues (# 1, # 2, # 3, and # 4) before I quietly cancelled it. The various FAKES! had been fun to do, but they were very time-consuming, and it increasingly felt like drudgery to assemble them. A change in Blogger's format made it difficult to even attempt to do these, but I think I would have pulled the plug on it anyway. 

But enough about the phonies. I have actual comic books to read. Some of them are stacked up in my family room, some of them are collected in book form. Some of 'em are stored on my iPad. The latter group provides the subject for the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

SPECTACULAR COMICS 100-PAGE SPECIAL # 4

Inspired by DC Comics' 1970s 100-Page Super Spectaculars, Spectacular Comics 100-Page Special is a monthly series of fabricated 100-page comic books slapped together from various sources, celebrating comics from the '30s to the '80s. It's not real. But it is Spectacular.


Man, I like how this month's issue turned out. We start with the macabre adventures of The Spectre. The Ghostly Guardian was created in the '40s by Superman's co-creator Jerry Siegel with artist Bernard Bailey, and revived in the '60s for try-outs in the pages of Showcase followed by ten issues of his own series. The Spectre's 1970s run in editor Joe Orlando's Adventure Comics seemed to be initially well-received, but was abruptly canceled in 1975 amidst growing concern regarding the strip's violent depiction of the merciless retribution The Spectre dealt to evildoers.



As noted, the sudden termination of The Spectre's Adventure Comics run meant that writer Michael Fleisher had three more Spectre scripts ready to go when the guillotine fell. When DC reprinted the run as the 1988 mini-series Wrath Of The Spectre, those unused Fleisher scripts were exhumed and given to the series' original artist Jim Aparo to complete (with Mike DeCarlo inks) for belated publication. This issue of Spectacular Comics offers two of those stories. While The Spectre's Adventure Comics appearances have been reprinted again since then, I don't think those final three stories have been reprised since Wrath Of The Spectre in '88.

This month's Spectacular also includes a two-part Wonder Woman story from 1969, drawn and (I think) written by Mike Sekowsky with luscious Dick Giordano embellishment. These stories are from the period when Wonder Woman lost her powers and became an Emma Peel sort of action heroine; the era has many detractors, but it was the first series of Wonder Woman stories I ever liked. Your mileage my vary (especially if you happen to own an invisible plane).

Straying from DC for the rest of this book, we have a 1949 Captain America and Golden Girl story (a era in Cap's history that is rarely--if ever--reprinted), a short back-up from the third and final issue of Gold Key Comics' tie-in to the short-lived 1966-67 Green Hornet TV series, and a 1959-60 back-up from Dell Comics' license of Walt Disney's Zorro.

The Spectre in "The Arson Fiend And...The Spectre!," Wrath Of The Spectre # 4 (August 1988)
The Spectre in "The Maniac And...The Spectre!," Wrath Of The Spectre # 4 (August 1988)
The Green Hornet and Kato in "Masquerade," The Green Hornet # 3 (August 1967)
Captain America and Golden Girl in "Worlds At War!," Captain America Comics # 70 (January 1949)
Wonder Woman in "Return To Paradise Island!," Wonder Woman # 183 (July-August 1969)
Wonder Woman in "The Last Battle!," Wonder Woman # 184 (September-October 1969)
Zorro in "Garcia's Package," Walt Disney's Zorro # 8 (December-February 1959-1960)

It's all copyright the respective owners, shown here only in sample pages. I share a peek at the whole book with my paid patrons. Welcome to this month's edition of Spectacular Comics 100-Page Special.

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You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download

Volume 2: CD or download

Volume 3: download

Volume 4: CD or download

Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 155 essays about 155 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).












COVER GALLERY