Bring on the Back-Ups: Elongated Man by Neal Adams and Gardner Fox

I was surprised to find out that before Neal Adams started work on such iconic DC superhero comics as the Spectre, Batman, Green Lantern and Green Arrow he deubted (along with his work on Deadman) on an Elongated Man back-up tale in Detective Comics # 369 (September 1967). Since finding this out I have been searching for a copy of this comic and as luck would have it I came across a copy while visiting family in the USA. Although the cover was badly ripped the interior pages were complete and for only around £8 I snapped it up for excellent Neal Adams art on this his one and only Elongated Man story.

Below the cover to Detective Comics #369 - image from DC Fandom

Favourite comics: Superboy #182 - the first meeting of Superboy and Batman by Bob Brown , Murphy Anderson and Leo Dorfman

Superboy was a comic that I only really interested me when it featured the Legion of Super-Heroes however, there were the odd exceptions where the urge to pick up a copy of the boy of steels comic minus the Legion was overwhelming. One such issue was Superboy #182 featuring an intriguing cover by the great Nick Cardy in a story where Superboy uses a machine, a 'time-scope' that can see into the future, a DC staple in telling "what if" type tales back in the day. The added interest in this tale was that this story tells of the first meeting between Superboy and a young Batman,or rather the Executioner!

In addition to the above main story this issue also featured an "Album of Unsung Heroes" tale and a reprint of a Super-baby tale

Silver Surfer #1 ( Facsimile) - Stan Lee and John Buscema

Ever since I picked up my first Silver Surfer comic (issue 12) as a 10 year old in 1970 I have been a massive fan of the broody Sentinel of the Spaceways. So you can imagine my excitment to find out that Marvel will be publishing facsimile editions of the first 7 issues of his original series by Stan Lee and John Buscema. Today (Wednesday) I picked up the first issue (originally published in 1968) and I have to say that I was surprised to find out that it was such a thick book of around 50 pages of silvery fun. Although I have read these Surfer tales in various UK reprints its good to see these stories in full colour and in their original format.

In addition to the main 38 page Silver Surfer tale is a very nice 13 page Gene Colan\Stan Lee Watcher story which I seem to recall reading in a Marvel UK weekly many years ago.

Favourite Cartoons - Space Angel the animated comic book - Alex Toth and Glen Michael?

One of my earliest introductions to American comic book art was in the syndicated cartoon series Space Angel that appeared on TV screens in Scotland (I think before the rest of the UK) around 1966\67. The link to comic book art was that the series was designed by the great Alex Toth, in addition to this the style of animation was mostly static (like a comic book) and featured the "syncho-vox" lip technique which superimposed human lips onto the face of the illustrated character. Toth also produced a 6 page promotional Space Angel comic strip that appeared in the U.S. childrens comic magazine Jack and Jill.

The series follows the adventures of 3 astronauts who work for the Earth Bureau of Investigation's Interplanetary Space Force on board their spacecraft the Starduster. The characters, Scott McCloud (Space Angel) the Captain is accompanied by Communications expert Crystal Mace and Gunner/Engineer Taurus as they patrol space to keep it safe. Below and above some early Toth sketches for Space Angel taken from the excellent book " The Cartoon Art of Alex Toth .

So who is Glen Michael? Well to Scottish kids of a certain age Glen was a legendary TV presenter who introduced the highly popular cartoon TV show "Cartoon Cavalcade" from 1966 until 1992. At a time when cartoons were limited on TV, Glen managed to obtain some wonderful features including the early 1960s Marvel charaters, the Justice League of America, Batfink, Harvey cartoons, Birdman, Fearless Fly, Milton the Monster, Galaxy trio and of course Space Angel. When I think of many of these cartoons I always feel Glen should get some credit for introducing them to me.

Above, an early promotional photo of Glen Michael and Rusty and Rudi. Sadly Glen passed away in 2025 at the age of 99.I fear Rusty and Rudi are also no longer with us.

Favourite Comics: Dr Strange , Master Of The Mystic Arts #1 Brunner & Englehart

Don't you just love it when you find what you thought was a long lost item from your past, well thats what happened to me last week when I was looking through a box of old British comics in my loft . There sandwiched between two 1970s issues of the Lion comic was the above first issue of "Dr Strange Master of the Mystic arts", one of my all time favourite titles. I don't think that I purchased this comic in 1974 as from memory issue 4 was the first issue of this title that I picked up so this was probably bought in the late 1970's to early 1980's when specialist comic book stores seemed to be everywhere. Regardless this issue sees the start of the excellent Silver Dagger story arc featuring a certain caterpillar and some of Brunner and Giordano's best art - enjoy.

Favourite comics: Batman Family # 19 - Michael Golden, Denny O'Neil

Batman Family was an excellent anthology comic that ran for 20 issues between 1975 and 1978 which was designed to showcase solo stories featuring characters from the Batman universe including Batgirl, Robin and Man-Bat. Initially the series ran a mix of classic reprints with a couple of new stories. However, with issue 11 that all changed and it became an 80 page mag featuring all new strips illustrated by some of comics newest artistic talents. One such artist was Michael Golden who after drawing the Man-Bat series in #15 -17 took over the art chores on the Batman series from #14 until #20, the last issue of the Batman Family. For many fans Goldens Batman has remained a high point in the characters long history, for myself his Batman was always fun and exciting.

This issue also featured a Batgirl back-up.

Although #20 was the last issue of Batman Family the title merged with Detective Comics with #481 a series it out sold but DC decided to keep due to the titles importance to the company. Golden completed one final Batman story in issue 482 before moving on.