Favourite comics: The Brave and the Bold issue 100 - The A- team (that's Adams & Aparo!)

I don’t think I was actually aware that the “Brave and the Bold” was an standalone comic title at the time I purchased this issue on my way back from school in mid-1972. The reason for this confusion was because the first time I recall seeing “The Brave and the Bold” was in an advert for issue 99 (below) in a DC comic and I can vividly remember thinking it was an issue of the regular “Batman” comic with a pretty cool story titled “The Brave and the Bold”. The cover of issue 99 (by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano) set my fanboy juices alight and I was determined to track that issue down, sadly I failed but around six month later I stumbled across issue 100 in a local R S McColl’s newsagents in my then home town.

As soon as I saw the cover to issue 100 by Nick Cardy I instantly realised my mistake and that this was an ongoing DC team up book and better still it had 4 guest stars and a Deadman back up story, comic book heaven. The main story “The Warrior in a Wheelchair” featured the first work I had seen from the legend that was Jim Aparo. In the story itself Batman is struck by a snipers bullet and only the skilled surgeon Dr. Hellstrom can save his life. However the doctor has to travel from Zurich to Gotham. As Batman is in a weakened condition and is unable to finish the job of stopping the latest shipment of cocaine into Gotham City himself he enlist the help of Robin, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Green Lantern to help him. He sends the group out to seek out his leads however these all lead to a dead end. When Batman is undergoing the surgery to remove the bullet from his chest , the lead surgeon is revealed not to be Dr. Hellstrom, but the drug lord Belknap, who has taken Hellstrom's place to try and kill Batman on the operating table. Stopped by the other heroes, Green Lantern then uses his power ring to bring the real Dr. Hellstrom to Gotham (he really could have done that at the start) . When he arrives to undertake the operation Dr Hellstrom finds the drug shipment stashed away in a cabinet in the operating room. Aparo’s art in this issue is excellent as was his entire run on the title where he drew some wonderful versions of Batman’s various team up partners including Wildcat, Mister Miracle and Black Canary.

As much as I enjoyed the above story and Aparo’s art it was the backup strip that blew me away. Deadman “Hide and Seek” (originally published in Strange Adventures issue 210) by Jack Miller and Neal Adams. By 1972 I was aware of Adams art but I hadn’t seen great deal of it so every morsel of his work was savored and his Deadman art was an artistic banquet. I still remember pouring over the first page of the story and that atmospheric scene with Deadman walking down the “lonely and empty” street (strangely casting a shadow in an “empty” street with cars and lorry’s) regardless the art was stunning and inspired me to copy several of his panels almost every day for a few months so much so that I could still probably draw a half decent swipe of a Neal Adams Deadman face.

In the story Deadman seeks to learn what has happened to the police detective assigned to his case. Michael Riley. He discovers that the detective has been falsely accused of brutally beating a thief who had already surrendered to him, and has been kicked off the force. As with most Deadman stories there is a link to the Hook (the man Boston Brand thinks killed him) which again leads nowhere - I wonder if Deadman every found his killer? . I wouldn’t see another issue of “The Brave and the Bold” until number 106, and from that issue onwards it became one of my favourite comics and one of the few types of book (team -ups) that for me DC did better than Marvel.

Favourite Toys: From the days I owned a (MATCHBOX) E-Type Jaguar

Matchbox cars of the mid 1960’s to the early 1970’s were among the most cherished of all the toys I had as a child. The cars themselves were relatively cheap to buy during this time with individual cars costing from 7d (3p) to 2/- (10p) which was on par with the cost of a British weekly comic and a chocolate bar and was within the spending power of your average child’s pocket money even if you had to save up to buy the latest car over a few weeks. I have long forgotten what the first Matchbox car was that I purchased but it would have almost certainly have been procured from the local Woolworths store where I used to live. The entire process of buying a Matchbox car at this time was a visual delight with cars stacked high in their yellow boxes with the tantalising picture of the car inside beautifully rendered on the front of each box. In most shops along with the neatly stacked row of yellow boxes was a separate glass display case that would showcase a selection of Matchbox cars out of their boxes with the vehicles doors fully opened, bonnets ajar showing the car engine detail and any other accessories clearly on show.

My favourite Matchbox cars from this time were a red E- type Jaguar (above) a white Mustang Fastback that had a small plastic lever at the side of the car from which you could position the front wheels, a red Rolls Royce Silver Shadow and a white Ford GT 40 (all pictured below) . Owning a hard to find Matchbox car like the Ford GT 40 in the 1960’s carried with it a certain gravitas and I remember a school pal offering me a stack of 12 US comics and an Action Man for my car, which I declined.

However it was in 1969 that the greatest Matchbox accessory of them all appeared, the Matchbox Motorway set which allowed you to turn all your Matchbox cars into slot cars. The Motorway operated by means of a spring that ran under the entire length of the track and silver foil stickers were provided which you applied to the bottom of any of your Matchbox cars with a plastic pin that would attach to the spring which pulled the cars around the figure of “8” track. As a motorway the cars off course went in different direction but you could also set it up like a racetrack with both lanes going in the same direction, just like with mini Scalextric. To this very day I can still vividly remember the shock and excitement at receiving a Matchbox Motorway set which was a relatively expensive purchase in 1969, as my “big” Christmas present.

Like most things from childhood my interest in Matchbox cars eventually faded from my life to be replaced by the joy, pain and expense of owning a real car. However the memories those little diecast models gave to me as a child are still as strong as ever and if I close my eyes I can still see those iconic yellow boxes neatly stacked in Woolworths and my cars whizzing around my Matchbox Motorway set on Christmas day over 50 years ago.

Best of British: Gunpowder treason and errr comics!

Bonfire, Fireworks or Guy Fawkes Night whatever you call it, it is a uniquely British event that has been celebrated in British comics for many years. Although I have never been a big fan of Guy Fawkes night ( it was too soon after Halloween and by 5 November my focus was solely on Christmas) I always enjoyed reading the bonfire editions of my favourite weekly comics. Two of my favourites comics from this time are the above fireworks special edition of WHAM! issue 73, from 6 November 1965 by Leo Baxendale. The manic depiction of kids running amuck in school with a wheelbarrow full of fireworks isn’t as farfetched as it may seem as in the 1960’s /1970’s kids did have access to purchasing fireworks and some of them did actually run around with them lite in their hands . The cover below shows a more traditional version of Guy Fawkes night by Dudley Watkins from the Beano dated 7 November 1964, both are equally brilliant.

Of course the Guy Fawkes theme was not just confined to the covers but was also portrayed in most of the strips within the comic. One of the best of these came from the genius mind of Ken Reid in his legendary “Fankie Stein” strip. This one comes from the above WHAM! comic (issue 73) and is full of the comedy violence that only Ken Reid could do. I mean showing Professor Cube being incinerated by a rockets blast before falling into a box of fireworks is more akin to what todays kids would find in the pages of a DC Batman comic.