Short Lived Comics: Man-Bat #1 & 2 - Steve Ditko, Pablo Marcos

In 1975 Batman’s anti-hero Man-Bat was given his own short-lived comic.This was a strange book as it only lasted for 2 issue and in that time it had 2 separate artistic teams, with issue 1 being written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Steve Ditko and Al Milgrom, while issue 2 was written by Martin Pasko and illustrated by Pablo Marcos and Ricardo Villamonte. This is a comic that recently came to my attention again when I was strolling in a part of my local town that I hadn’t been in for a several years. As it was a particularly hot day, I decided to purchase a bottle of water and upon spying a newsagent I entered the premises to find what looked like an old-style shop that hadn’t been updated in decades. As I walked out of the shop a vivid memory suddenly flashed into my head of when I had been in this shop as a 15-year-old and picked up the first issue of Man-Bat from the now long gone spinner rack. Not a riviting tale, but one that tickled me.

To add to the strangeness of this comic the letters page of issue 2 (below) featured an editorial stating that this was the last issue of Man-Bat. At the time, this confused me as surely there were no sales figures available to determine if the comic had been a success or not. Of course, the reality was probably more commercial and either it was a ploy to get more readers to pick up Detective Comics where Man-Bats adventures were to continue, or the DC knew the comic wasn’t going to sell and cut their losses.

My Famous Firsts: Flash - issue 208.

Back in 1971 when my 11-year-old self was deciding on what comic to buy, the subject matter of any comic had to conform to stories about super-heroes batting monsters or super-villains. So, upon seeing a comic cover featuring our hero running past a church with a nun praying in the background was on the face of it, not going to appeal to me. However, that wonderful cover (by Neal Adams) just looked so good to my childhood eyes that I just had to make The Flash #208 my first US Flash comic. The addition of the Elongated Man illo above the Flash logo, made me want this comic even more as I don't think I was aware of this character at this point and new characters at this time fascinated me.

In this issue the Flash seeks to help a young man who worked for a drug dealer. Realising that he wants "out" from the gang he decides that he will try to track down the drug dealer's hidden loot and return it , with the help of his sister, who is a nun and prays for St. Jude to assist them. The Flash assists the young man in tracking down and defeating the gang by vibrating his body at superspeed and thereby not being seen and the event being attributed as a miracle.

Like many of DC's comics from this time they also contained some great fun back-up tales. This issue was no exception and featured a zany Elongated Man tale where criminals dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland during a parade in order to steal a rare, first edition of the book. The crooks are caught out by the Elongated Man who recognizes that the crooks are wearing costumes based on the cartoon adaptation and not the original book. Like I said "zany", but a wonderfully illustrated tale by Dick Giordano - I have been an Elongated Man fan ever since reading this story.

In the 1970's we really got value for money as this issue rounded up its 52 pages of content by featuring a classic Flash /Kid FLash tale from 1964. A tale that is now 60 years old but in 1971 was only 7 years old..... I feel so old!

Bizarre characters: Skateman by Neal Adams - Was it really the worst comic book of all time?

Skateman (Pacific Comics) is generally regarded as one of the worst comic books ever published, personally I don’t agree with that ascertain and even although it certainly isn’t a good comic book I have read far worse in my time. What it is , is a comic featuring one of the most bizarrely ludicrous concepts for a comic book hero in many a year. Skateman is basically a guy whose super-power is that he knows a bit of kung-fu and is a pretty good roller-skater . The fact that its creator was Neal Adams, one of the genres most highly regarded and influential creators made it all the more ripe for ridicule amongst many fanboys of the early 1980’s . Upon opening the book you immediately sense that this may have been a rushed job by Pacific and Adams, instead of having a splash page the cover is simply reprinted with added word ballons.

To add to the theory that this comic was a rush job you need to remember that Adams was still a hot property at this time and the new Pacific comics were keen to add Neal Adams to their mounting list of creators. Adams had already delivered the first issue of his then new character Ms Mystic to Pacific however; it had been almost 2 years and issue 2 was still nowhere to be seen. Skateman it seems may have been meant for another purpose when Adams dusted it down and sent to it Pacific for publication to allow him time to get Ms Mystic back on schedule. Below are a few select pages from the offering that was Skateman a character as far as I am aware has never appeared since:

Since this is a super-hero book, the protagonist (Billy Moon) must protect his secret identity in this case by pretending not to be able to skate on a date (in a skating date!!!) in case she suspects him of being the dorkiest hero of the 1980s - was roller skating even a thing in 1983?

There were also two short back-up strips in this issue, The first of these was ”Korlack of Futureworld" by Andy Kubert and Jack Arata which provides a glimpse into a post-apocalyptic world. The second strip, “Rock Warrior” by Paul S. Power is all over the place and to be honest I had no idea what was going on in this one.

Allegedly Skateman was partially responsible for the eventual fall of Pacific Comics as they had published so many of these books based on Neal Adams name selling anything that was published. However many of these issues (1,000's) went unsold. What this comic proved to me was that Neal Adams was undoubtably one of the greatest comic book artists the genre has ever known but he was not a writer. A lesson that Neal (and other publishers) sadly never learned.

My Famous Firsts: Fantastic Four issue 150 - Ultron & the wedding of Crystal & Quicksilver

Although I had been aware of the Fantastic Four since the 1960’s when they appeared in the British weekly comics “Wham!” it wasn’t until 1974 when I picked up my first US Fantastic Four comic. And it was a pretty decent issue to be my introduction to the colour adventures of the FF with a cool villain (Ultron) that I don’t think I had heard of until then , the Inhumans, and of course the marriage of Quicksilver and Crystal. This issue was one of Marvels earliest cross over adventures with part 1 appearing in Avengers issue 127. I recently managed to pick up a new copy of this issue last week (my original issue looking more than a tad tired) and found myself getting lost in the pages of the story ( something I rarely do now is properly read a comic) and for a brief moment I was transported back to Tthe 1970's, which as readers of this blog will know is a passion of mine.

Top Tens: The (at times) controversial Frank Thorne

Frank Thorne (1930- 2021) had a comic book career that spanned over 80 years starting in 1948 when he worked for Dell comics before moving to Gold Key in the 1950’s and then onto DC in the 1960's. However, it wasn't until the mid-1970's when I first became aware of his work when he drew Marvel's Red Sonja in "Marvel Feature" (vol 2 #2-7) and then when the character moved to her own comic. At first glance it’s not hard to see why a 15-year-old boy may have been attracted to Franks art, but he was much more than just a "good girl" artist he was an excellent storyteller. Saying that once Marvels Red Sonja title was cancelled, Frank did make a successful “career" from drawing erotic fantasy type characters including Lann, Ghita of Alizarr, and Ribit some of whom bore more than a passing resemblance to Red Sonja. Regardless of the controversial nature of some of his material, his earlier (Joe Kubert inspired) DC, and 1970's Marvel work remains some of my favourites of the genre.

Ribit: This was a really fun 4 issues fantasy series beautifully drawn by Frank about a lizard that was transformed into a young woman.

Frank was one of the many top artists that worked on the ill fated 1970's Atlas/Seaboard comics group. Apart from the above 3 covers he also drew part one of a very nice adapation of Lawrence of Arabia. Thorne also drew the interior art on the first and only issue of the "Son of Dracula" comic which was one of their best comics.

Planet of the Apes (UK weekly) issue 100 - I think this was a UK original and Franks only UK cover.

Above: Amazing Heroes #123 (pro-fanzine) cover which featured some of Frank Thornes more adult orientated characters . Frank Thorne passed away on 7th of March 2021 at the age of 90, followed only a few hours later by his wife of over 60 years Marylin.

Favourite Comics: Thrilling Adventure Stories #2

During the 1970’s comic book newcomers Atlas/Seaboard stormed on to the spinner racks with no less than 23 colour comic titles and 5 black and white "adult-orientated" mags. Despite the many problems the company faced they did produce some decent books with arguably their best title being the black and white anthology magazine “Thrilling Adventure Stories” (TAS), in particular issue 2 of that title. While the first issue of TAS was a good attempt the title exploded with its second and sadly final issue with some wonderful strips by the top writers and artists of the day all wrapped up in the above wonderful Neal Adams cover. Below are a few pages from what I consider to be one of the best black and white magazines of the 1970’s and beyond.

Above: The splash page from perhaps the most famous of all the stories in this issue by the legendary "Manhunter" team of Archie Goodman and Walt Simonson (which I may shown more of later)

Above: The magazines only returning character from TAS #1 "Kromag" by Gabriel Levy with art by Jack Sparling. Although Sparling wasn't one of the top hot comic artists at this time, this was a pretty decent strip.

Above: 2 pages from the John Albano and Russ Heath tale "Tough Cop" - Heath at this time never failed to produce anything less than jaw dropping art.

Above: 2 pages from "Town Tamer" by Steve Mitchell and the wonderful John Severin. Second page image from Comic Art Collectors ( I deleted my image in error after scanning and I'm too lazy to scan it again lol ).

Above: "A job well done" by Rick Meyer and Alex Toth. This was a pretty grim and gritty tale even for the 1970's expertly drawn by Toth who added some nice touches including not using word ballons.

Above: The cover to the first issue of "Thrilling Adventure Stories" by Ernie Colon.

This issue wasn't quite the end of TAS as in 2021 a third issue (of sorts) of "Thrlling Adventure Stories" was published featuring text stories of Targitt 2021/ Man Hunter and Bog Beast by Jeff Rovin, John Albano and Richard Meyers. Cover image from Amazon.