THE EVERLASTING FIRST: Quick Takes For T [comics edition]

Continuing a look back at my first exposure to a number of rock 'n' roll acts and superheroes (or other denizens of print or periodical publication), some of which were passing fancies, and some of which I went on to kinda like. They say you never forget your first time; that may be true, but it's the subsequent visits--the second time, the fourth time, the twentieth time, the hundredth time--that define our relationships with the things we cherish. Ultimately, the first meeting is less important than what comes after that. But every story still needs to begin with that first kiss.

THE TEEN TITANS

Robin the Boy Wonder! Wonder Girl! Kid Flash! Aqualad! I was six years old in 1966, and I I was certainly a fan of ol' Robin from his heroic appearances on my favorite TV show Batman. The others were unfamiliar to me prior to my introduction to DC Comics' junior superhero group The Teen Titans. I didn't even really know Wonder Woman or The Flash yet, and I first encountered Aquaman around the same time as my first issue of Teen Titans. That would have been Teen Titans # 6, cover-dated November-December 1966.

But I for damned sure knew Robin. Batman and Robin! I think I saw a house ad for Teen Titans # 1 before ever noticing the Titans on the spinner rack. I was absolutely fascinated by DC's house ads during this era, colorful come-ons that teased and enticed with glimpses of everything from Batman and Superman to Starman and Black Canary, Dial H For HERO, The Spectre, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, and Scooter. I don't remember whether or not I ever owned a copy of Teen Titans # 1; I think maybe I did buy it as a back issue in the '70s, but if so, it's long gone now. Either way, though, its cover captivated my young mind, and I wanted it.

In this time frame, my parents frequently allowed me to pluck a comic book of my choice from the rack at Sweetheart Corner, a grocery store in North Syracuse. That's how Teen Titans # 6 came into my possession. Robin was on the cover! Of course. 

And I loved it. This issue guest-starred Beast Boy from The Doom Patrol; my only previous exposure to The Doom Patrol was another irresistible house ad, depicting a team-up of the Doomsters and that Scarlet Speedster, The Flash. My next Teen Titans was # 11 (September-October 1967), which guest-starred The Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy (and opened with a scene revealing the Titans' bulletin board, featuring pinned letters from Earth-One's version of President Lyndon Johnson and that other Fab Four, The Beatles).

Seeing Speedy with the Titans prepared me for the team's TV debut in the fall of '67, as The Teen Titans became one of the rotating guest features on the new Saturday morning cartoon series The Superman-Aquaman Hour Of Adventure. This show aired on CBS, but the Boy Wonder was still contractually obligated to appear with his caped crusadin' mentor over on ABC, thus elevating Speedy to full Titandom, at least on Saturday mornings.

I bought Teen Titans comics when I could. Writer Bob Haney's willful abuse of the English language in pursuit of his outta-touch idea of hip teenspeak can be kinda painful to read now, but I was all in as a young'un. The art by Nick Cardy was terrific, and would become even better as the series continued. Cardy may be my all-time favorite comics artist, and I first encountered his work in Aquaman and Teen Titans. 

(Even beyond his overall skill as a draftsman and visual storyteller, Cardy drew some of the prettiest girls in comics, including Wonder Girl and early '70s Titans addition Lilith.)

DC's Teen Titans comic book lasted 43 issues, succumbing to cancellation at the end of '72. It was brought back for another ten issues in the late '70s, but the latter series was not my cuppa. In the early '80s, writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez managed a popular and critically-acclaimed revival as The New Teen Titans, and that series (which also brought back Beast Boy, renamed Changeling) made the Titans into A-listers from that point forward.

The New Teen Titans was a great book, and it was key to getting me back into comics after I graduated college. The six-year-old superhero fan from 1966 had grown up...but I resisted growing up too much.

THOR

1966 was a big year for me and my superheroes. I liked superheroes before actors Adam West and Burt Ward donned capes and masks to bop the bad guys as TV's Batman and Robin, but it was certainly Batman that knocked that interest into overdrive. My previous affection for Superman comic books grew into a full-blown obsession with all sorts of superdoers patrolling the spinner racks and magazine shelves. I discovered Marvel Comics in there somewhere, starting with Sub-Mariner and The Incredible Hulk in Tales To Astonish. 

I first encountered The Mighty Thor in the pages of The Avengers # 13, the same time and place where I first met Captain America, Iron Man, Giant-Man, and The Wasp. We were vacationing at my grandparents' house in Missouri, and my sister Denise and cousin Cheryl came back from a walk with that comic book in hand. It was an old comic book, published at the end of '64 (postdated February '65, as comics were wont to do), probably coverless. Okay by me. Any book you ain't read is a new book.  

This book was so important to me, and I read it and re-read it many, many times. I have no idea of when I next saw the mighty God of Thunder in a comic book--by the time I got another issue of The Avengers, Thor was no longer an Avenger--but even the one appearance was sufficient to instill wonder and awe in this six-year-old. And if I didn't see Thor in the funny pages, I could see him on TV; Thor joined Captain America, Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, and The Hulk as one of the rotating stars of The Marvel Super-Heroes, a series of (barely) animated short cartoons that aired weekday afternoons, beginning in September of '66. The year of the superhero!

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS

My introduction to T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was most definitely second-hand. If there were issues of Tower Comics' 25-cent giant T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents on the rack at Sweetheart, I missed 'em, and I didn't get around to seeing any of them (and their sublime Wally Wood artwork) until snagging a couple of back issues in the '70s. No, instead I saw two parodies first. The second of the two was from Marvel Comics, as seen in the humor book Not Brand Echh. I didn't come aboard the Brechh train until its fourth issue, so I missed seeing NBE # 2's cracked-mirror version of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. facing Dynamo and NoMan of The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (that would be Knock Furious, Agent of S.H.E.E.S.H. facing Dynaschmoe and Invisible Man of The Blunder Agents). But I did see it when it was reprinted in Not Brand Echh # 10--"The Worst Of Not Brand Echh"--in the summer of '68. I have all of the Not Brand Echhs in a hardcover collection now.

My first vicarious exposure to T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was in a DC Comics humor title: the bad guys in H.U.R.R.I.C.A.N.E., as seen in DC's The Inferior Five # 1 in 1967. We covered that in a previous Everlasting First. I wish there were a hardcover Inferior Five collection I could buy now.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE

The classic TV anthology series The Twilight Zone ended in 1964, so four-year-old me should have had no business watching it. Maybe it was still in reruns a little after that? Not that I would have been any braver to face the show at six or seven years old. I remember that creepy opening, and I remember the show scared the livin' chicklets outta me. Ooh! I particularly remember one episode where a mystic scarab or something caused some poor geezer to crumble into dust before my terrified eyes. Brrr! This never happened on Batman. Robin! ROBIN! Save me, Boy Wonder!

Or, y'know, you could send Wonder Girl to save me. That would be fine, too.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

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

Hey! If you buy from Amazon, consider making your purchases through links at Pop-A-Looza. A portion of your purchase there will go to support Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). Thinking Amazon? Think Pop-A-Looza.

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 165 essays about 165 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). My weekly Greatest Record Ever Made! video rants can be seen in my GREM! YouTube playlist. And I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

POP-A-LOOZA! The Inferior Five

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 my look back at a superhero comedy series published by DC Comics in the 1960s, The Inferior Five.

I take my superheroes seriously. But I've also long since grown tired of overly dark and gritty takes on heroes, and I've always had a soft spot for lighter fare and occasional comedy involving superdoers. The campy 1966 Batman TV series was the original catalyst for my interest in superheroes, and while I came to embrace a pulpier image of The Dark Knight, a simple recognition of my roots made it clear that I would always have two Batmen. When I started writing about comics as a freelancer in the '80s, articles I sold to Amazing Heroes included a Hero History of the Charlton Comics character E-Man and a history of intentionally funny superheroes; some day, I'll retype and reprise both of those pieces for this blog. My snarky but loving Amazing Heroes A-Z celebration of lesser-known DC characters has already appeared here: "Who's...WHO?!"

In the mean time, I have written here about my introduction to E-Man, DC's Silver Age revival of Plastic Man, becoming a fan of the original Captain Marvel, Marvel Comics' humor series Not Brand Echh, my stillborn attempt to write for Harvey Comics, and my thoughts on a hypothetical Batman Meets The Monkees crossover. Although not mentioned specifically in my '60s autobiography Singers, Superheroes, And Songs On The Radio: My Life In Pop Culture, and represented in that piece only by a reproduction of the cover of The Inferior Five # 1, The Inferior Five were an integral part of my childhood. 

And I may or may not still have a crush on Dumb Bunny. Either way, my reminiscence of The Inferior Five provides 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

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1)will contain 165 essays about 165 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). My weekly Greatest Record Ever Made! video rants can be seen in my GREM! YouTube playlist. And I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

E. Nelson Bridwell

I was delighted to read in Mark Evanier's News From ME that the late E. Nelson Bridwell will be recognized at this year's Comic-Con. Bridwell and writer Mike Friedrich will be 2019's worthy recipients of The Bill Finger Award For Excellence In Comic Book Writing. Here's a brief description of what that award means:

The Bill Finger Award was created in 2005 thanks to a proposal by the late comic book legend Jerry Robinson, who knew and worked with Finger. As Evanier explains, "We need to point out those wonderful bodies of work by writers who have not received their rightful reward and/or recognition...When this award began, the late Bill Finger received almost no credit for his role in the creation of Batman. He does now, but there are still plenty of writers who have not received their proper rewards and/or recognition."

Bridwell certainly deserves the honor. As a writer and staffer at DC Comics from the '60s to the '80s, E. Nelson Bridwell was a role model for fans who wanted to grow up (sort of) and have a hand in creating new adventures of the characters we loved. Bridwell had been one of us; he was a voracious reader, and he immersed himself in all manner of mythologies, including superhero comics, as a kid in the '40s. The things Bridwell learned and remembered--and he remembered everything--would serve him well when his early '70s editorial duties put him in charge of selecting reprints for DC's 100-Page Super Spectaculars.



The original Captain Marvel was Bridwell's favorite. Many years later, Bridwell would write a number of memorable Captain Marvel tales, and I hope the Marvel Family stories he created (especially those he did with artist Don Newton) will be reprinted some time soon. 



Even before his start at DC in 1965, Bridwell created one lasting contribution to pop culture: an often-imitated gag starring The Lone Ranger and Tonto, published in Mad magazine in 1958:



See, that's pop culture immortality right there.

But it's still just a footnote in Bridwell's career. Bridwell's knowledge of all manner of trivia and significa gave him an unparalleled mental resource of facts both well-known and obscure, encompassing an encyclopedic command of seemingly everything, including the Bible, Greek mythology, Roman mythology, the classics, the pulps, theater, movies, radio, and, I betcha, every comic book ever published. ENB knew stuff, a lot of stuff, and his enthusiasm for the many things he knew and loved never dimmed, never lost its exuberant, fannish luster. 

He is universally recalled as a nice guy, friendly and encouraging to other fans, eager to share his expertise and delight. I only met him once, when I was a 16-year-old wannabe comics writer at the Super DC Con in New York in 1976. But that brief meeting was sufficient to reinforce my impression of him from DC letters columns, and to agree with that universal assessment. A nice guy. Smart, likable, one of us. A comics fan made good.



As cool as all of that is, that's not what qualifies E. Nelson Bridwell for this overdue acknowledgement of his body of work as a comics writer. Bridwell's affection for these characters, his respect for the work of creators who came before him, ignited the sheer joy within his own stories. The Secret Six, a short-lived comic book he created in 1968, was the subject of my first freelance writing sale, a Secret Six retrospective I sold to Amazing Heroes magazine in 1984. His above-mentioned Captain Marvel work for the Shazam! back-up strip in 1980s issues of World's Finest Comics should rank among the World's Mightiest Mortal's all-time best. I still really need to dive into Bridwell's work on the Super Friends comic book. 




But my favorite Bridwell creation will always be The Inferior Five, a superhero parody that was proudly silly and infectious (as we discussed here). Bridwell passed in 1987, taken by cancer when he was only 55 years old. I wish he'd gotten more acclaim in his lifetime, and I wish he were still around to enjoy acclaim now...and to create more. More E. Nelson Bridwell would be nice. The Bill Finger Award is a step in the right direction. It couldn't go to a nicer guy.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

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

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus one bonus instrumental, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: https://carlcafarelli.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-greatest-record-ever-made-and-other.html

Our new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is now available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes, Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here. A digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) is also available from Futureman Records.

100-Page FAKES! presents: ADVENTURE COMICS # 440 [with THE SPECTRE and THE SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY]

100-Page FAKES! imagines mid-1970s DC 100-Page Super Spectaculars that never were...but should have been!



The Spectre's last stand. But it was a good one.

The Astral Avenger's run in Adventure Comics # 431 (January-February 1974) through 440 (July-August 1975) was marked by controversy. Writer Michael Fleisher's bloodthirsty tales of vengeance and retribution seem mainstream today, but they were more brutal than anything else bearing the Comics Code Authority's seal of approval in the mid '70s. If they'd been published by, say, Warren, they would have fit right in with that line's black and white horror magazines Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella; hell, a Vampirella-Spectre crossover woulda been awesome, especially if Spectre artist Jim Aparo had an opportunity to draw the lovely and lethal Vampi. But no, The Spectre appeared in newsstand comics published by DC, with the perception (right or wrong) that the contents should be appropriate for a general audience. Some would say that scenes of The Spectre turning criminals into wood and runnin' 'em through a buzzsaw may have violated that perception just a smidge. 




My memory of The Spectre's dismissal from Adventure Comics insists that it was more abrupt than it actually was, that we picked up Adventure # 441 and suddenly found Aquaman starring in the spot where The Spectre had stalked evildoers the previous issue. Upon further review, we see that the change was announced at the end of this issue, # 440, both on the letters page and in a blurb at the end of this issue's Seven Soldiers Of Victory chapter (starring The Crimson Avenger and Wing). DC's official position was that sales of Adventure Comics with The Spectre had been disappointing, and that an immediate change was necessary to save the title from cancellation; I suspect DC execs may have just caved to outside pressure, though the official story is plausible, too.

But the decision to kill The Spectre (again!) was indeed sudden. For cryin' out loud, this was the first and only issue to prominently feature The Spectre's logo on the cover, which hardly seems like a move to distance the book from its soon-to-be-cancelled star player. Although the two-part story that ran in Adventure # 439 and 440 felt like a closing chapter (and a satisfying one at that), Fleisher had three more Spectre scripts completed and awaiting the magic Aparo touch. Those stories would have to wait more than a decade before Aparo was given the go-ahead to finish them; they finally appeared in the fourth and final issue of the 1988 mini-series Wrath Of The Spectre!, which reprinted The Spectre's complete Adventure Comics run. 

To supplement this original issue's Spectre and Crimson Avenger stories, we've added Golden Age reprints starring Captain Triumph and Plastic Man, and Silver Age stories starring The Doom Patrol and--YES!!--The Inferior Five. 1967's The Inferior Five # 1 was my introduction to writer E. Nelson Bridwell's daffy quintet, and I've been waiting for the right time to reprise it in a 100-Page FAKE! That time is now!

The Spectre in "The Second Death Of The Spectre," Adventure Comics # 440 (July-August 1975)
Captain Triumph (untitled), Crack Comics # 53 (February-March 1948)
The Doom Patrol in "The Night Negative Man Went Berserk," My Greatest Adventure # 83 (November 1963)
Plastic Man (untitled), Plastic Man # 17 (May 1949)
The Inferior Five in "Five Characters In Search Of A Plot!," The Inferior Five # 1 (March-April 1967)
The Crimson Avenger and Wing in "Kings Make A Full House," Adventure Comics # 440 (July-August 1975)

All characters are copyright DC Comics Inc. The Captain Triumph and Plastic Man adventures are now public domain; the rest can only be shown here in representative samples pages. My subscribers get to see the whole thing. Jim Corrigan, we hardly knew ye. Farewell, Spectre; Aquaman swims in next time.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!
You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

Our new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is now available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes,Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here. A digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) is also available from Futureman Records.
























COVER GALLERY