Bizarre Characters: Arm-Fall-Off Boy

There are weird comic book characters and then there are really stupid comic book characters and Arm-Fall-Off-Boy probably falls into the latter of these two descriptions. Arm-Fall-Off-Boy’s first appearance was in Secret Origins Vol. 2 #46, in December 1989 in a story based on a fan parody, this came as a bit of a surprise to me as in my mind the character was a throwback to the late 1960’s silliness of DC comics. The characters powers are pretty much as you would expect from his name, he can detach his own limbs and use them as weapons – well I did say he is a pretty stupid character.

Above the splash page from the"Sercret Origins" tale that introduced Arm-Fall-Off Boy to an unsuspecting world. The only thing more surprising than a comic character with these powers was the fact that DC hired Superman legend Curt Swan to illustrated this tale.

Despite the silliness of the character, DC did give Floyd Belkin aka Arm-Fall-Off-Boy a second outing in the pages of “The Legion of Superheroes in the 31st Century “(splash page above at header) which featured tales based on the Warner Bros animated cartoon series of the same name.This was actually a really fun comic expertly illustrated by Shawn McManus as can be seen from the opening page above.

Despite the abusurdity of the character Arm Fall-Off Boy has even been used in movies where his name was changed to TDK (The Detachable Kid) played by Nathan Fillion, a member of the Suicide Squad. And in comics in an attempt to make him more believable, the character was reintroduced as Splitter.

Above the cover to "Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century" Despite my misgivings of the character I actually enjoyed both this comic and Secret Origins # 46.

Top Tens: Superhero weddings - Big snakes, Vampires, Zombies & Supervillain's

February is the month of love, so join me in celebrating those romances that appeared in the weird and wonderful world of superhero comic book weddings. Of course love isn't easy and even in our normal world it can sometimes go awry, but thankfuly it is rarely every as manic as can be seen in these covers, incuding the above John Buscema/John Romita classic originally from Avenger #60.

Amazing Spider-Man #131- Cocver by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia

Giant-Size Avengers #4 Cover by Gil Kane and John Romita

Tomb of Dracula #47 - by Gene Colon and Tom Palmer

Detectice Comics #407 - Cover by Neal Adams

Batman Family # 1 - Cover by Jim Aparo

Brave and the Bold #197 - Cover by Jim Aparo

Action Comics #484 - Cover by J. Garcia Lopez and Dick Giordano

Legion of Super-Heroes # 200 Cover by Nick Cardy and below, Tales of Terror # 1 (cover originally from Tales of the Zombie # 6) Cover by Earl Norem.

The Spinner Rack - 1973 - Part 4

My final selection of comics from my favourite year,for now. Most of the comics shown here I have repurchased in the last 10 or so years but in many cases I still own my original, albeit tatty issues from over 50 years !!!.

For your information it was the Elongated Man the was the new member that joined the JLA.

The Spinner Rack: 1973 - Part 3

Over the last few months I have been making yet another attempt to thin out my comic book collection, partly to free up some storage space in our wee cottage and partly to enable me to access my comics more easily from my favourite decade, the groovy 1970's. In doing this I found tucked away in an unmarked box, a selection of comics from my favourite year , 1973. Below are some of my favourite comics from that great year including the above issue of Action comics #424 (cover by Nick Cardy) to add to my previous 1973 Spinner rack (Part 1 and Part 2) posts.

Above: Flash #221 - Cover by Nick Cardy

Above: Wierd Worlds #3 - Cover by Mike Kaluta

The Shadow #2 Cover by Mike Kaluta (my first "Shadow" and a classic comic book)

Shazam #2 Cover C.C Beck - This comic (not my copy above) is on a sale in Forbidden Planet (Glasgow) for £100 which seems exceptionaly high to me. I have cleaned up almost all my covers here using my natty new "Picsart" app to make them look "pretty" but regardless of my copys wear and tear, I can see it going on ebay soon lol.

Fantastic Four # 134 - Cover by John Buscema / Joe Sinnott - My first US issue of the FF was #150 and this issue (#134) was one of the first back issues I ever bought in the late 1970's.

Captain Marvel # 26 - Cover by Jim Starlin and Frank Giacoia - a repurchase from last year.

The Defenders # 11 - Cover by Sal Buscema and Frank Bolle

Thor #211 = Cover by John Buscema - Another repurchase from a few years ago.

Dead of Night #1 - Cover John Romita - I picked this issue up on a city break in Haarlem (Netherlands) in a great little comic shop for around £2 - I never had this comic back in 1973 but I just love the issue and I'm sure that 13 year old me probably drooled over the cover if it was advertised in Marvel titles.

Conan the Barbarian #26 - cover by John Romita, John Buscema and Ernie Chua - I have already shown my (newer) US cents copy of this issue but above is my original UK pence issue (tidied up on my app).

The Phantom #55 - Cover Pat Boyette - Next up more from 1973 in part 4.

Favourite Covers: 5 Star Super-Hero Spectacular - Neal Adams

I picked up this issue of DC's "5 Star Super Hero Spectacular" a few years ago solely for the Neal Adams cover thinking this was an all reprint issue (despite clearly noting otherwise on the cover) featuring golden and silver age classics. However , this was of course an all new (in 1977) comic and was the first issue of what would be a DC umbrella title (DC Special Series) for one -shot and special issue published between 1977 and 1981. Regardless, this is one of my favourite DC and Neal Adams covers.

Above the contents page to this issue. As can be seen in the indicia the title "DC SPecial Series" only appears here. In addition none of the comics published under this title were numbered and appeared in different formats including digests, Dollar Comics, 48 page giants and treasury editions. Below are some of the splash pages for the strips in this pretty decent comic:

Above probably the best strip in this issue featuring Mike Nasser (now Mike Netzer) doing his best Neal Adams style art.

Superman v The Flash - Who is the fastest man alive? - there is a winner (of sorts)

One of my favourite comic book storylines as a kid were always those that featured two (or more) heroes being pitted against each other. And in the 1960's /1970's one of the most popular and exciting comic book tropes was the race to find the “fastest man alive”.

The above cover (Superman #199 by Infantino and Anderson from 1967) featured the first race between these two comic book titans.The result was of course a tie.

The first race must have been a commercial success as fans wouldn't have to wait too long for the return race which appeared later that year in the pages of The Flash #175 (December 1967 - cover by Infantino and Esposito), written by E. Nelson Bridwell with art by Ross Andru. The rematch was set up by Rokk and Sorban, two intergalactic gamblers and as with Superman #199, the race once again ended in a tie.

Both these comics were reprinted in the large format and excellent DC Limited Collectors Edition series “ The Greatest Race of all time" from 1976. Covers to Superman #199 and Flash 175 from the DC database.

In 1970 the third race, billed as the race "where there must be a winner," took place over two issues of World Finest - #198 (at header, cover by Curt Swan) and #199 (above cover by Neal Adams). In the story written by Denny O’Neil with art by Dick Dillin, the faster-than-light robot Anachronids appear on Earth-One and the Guardians of the Universe enlist Superman and The Flash to race in the opposite direction to counteract the time-warping effects their arrival has caused. As can be seen by the page below the Flash wins this “race“ by crawling to the finish line to turn off the machine, allowing Superman to destroy it and in turn the Anachronids.

It wouldn’t be until 1978 in the then new title “DC Comics Presents” that Superman and the Flash would meet again in a race (of sorts) in the two-part story (#1 and #2 - covers and art by the wonderful J. Garcia Lopez). This time The Flash and Superman race through time to save Earth from a rogue alien-scientist hoping to change his world's past, altering Earth's in the process. As with previous "races" there was no winner.

The last comic I bought that featured the Flash v Superman "race" storyline ( and one of my last Superman comics) was "Adventures of Superman" #463 (below) from 1990 by Dan Jurgens. This was the first race between Superman and Wally West as the Flash. In this tale Mr Mxyzptlk tricks the 2 heroes to race saying that it is the only way he will return to the 5th Dimension. In this tale Wally West wins the race making it 2 wins for the men wearing the Flash uniform.

I'm pretty sure that there have been more Flash v Superman races since 1990, but over the period that I was buying and reading comics the Flash was proven to be the fastest man alive, and for myself, thats the way it should have been.

Above: Panel from "Adventures of Superman " #463.