As I noted in my first “
Bring on the Back-Ups” post one of the good things about DC comics in the early -mid 1970’s were their back-up strips. Now not all of these were classics of comic book literature as is the case here with this two part story from Adventure Comics issues 418 and 419. The script is pretty basic although it has a nice little surprise in the last panel. The real reason this is for me, one of my favourite back up tales is down to the art of Alex Toth that elevated this average tale to a different level. The above illustration of Black Canary by Toth has nothing to do with this strip but it is a cracker and it shows just how good Toth was.
Adventure Comics at this time featured Supergirl who I found quite a bland character (and let’s face it in 1972 this was considered a girl's only comic) so it was never on my “must buy list” .But as DC published 48/52 page comics at this time that all featured reprints from the golden age to the 1960s, I would pick up any comic book for these reprint strips. In the case of “Adventure” they reprinted stories from the Phantom Stranger, Legion of Super-Heroes Dr Mid-Nite, Animal Man and the Enchantress along with (then) new strips like Zatanna (dawn by Gray Morrow and Dick Giordano) and of course Black Canary who I knew from reading the Justice League.
As mentioned above this is a pretty average story where Black Canary lands a new job teaching martial arts to members of the Women's Resistance League (WRL) , a feminist group (remember this was written in the early 1970’s when the Women’s Lib movement was at its peak) . Anyway in the story BC sees that the group is being held at gunpoint by masked terrorists which she swiftly defeats only to be knocked unconscious by one of the WRL students that she was teaching. The first part of the story ends when the WRL head, Bertha, for no seeming reason tells one of the group to kill Black Canary.
In part two Bertha elects not to kill Back Canary but instead to use her as a hostage. She then has BC bound and placed inside a van they are driving to a point where they intend to intercept and free their leader who is a prisoner being escorted from one prison to another and who turns out to be (da-da the surprise ending...of sorts!) Catwoman!
As can be seen from the illo below from 1980, Toth drawing Black Canary was a match made in heaven. Now calm down fanboy it's ony a drawing!
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Toth's Canary is the essence of sexiness. Like so many artists of his era such as Romita and Pike, he could render a sexy without turning her into some mutant sex toy as was the wont in the 90's and still today in some cases. Canary here is lithe and has fantastic gams!
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more Rip. The depiction of women by some artists in the 80s and 90s especially were at times grotesque caricatures the female form, and in many cases were just poorly rendered drawings. Toth, Romita etc drew sexy women and everyday women properly. Canary looks sexy and feminine but has an attitude here.
DeleteMight be only a drawing, but I'm having it (and also the one at the top of the page) - clickety-click! What a great idea for a comic strip, McS - a fit burd in fishnets - what's not to like? More, more!
ReplyDeleteToth did a few Black Canary illos like this. I found this one and others in Comic Book Artist magazine (issue 11 the Toth special). I may show the others along with some other Toth work.
ReplyDeleteI must confess that I never collected Adventure back in the Bronze Age until the Spectre stories by Michael Fleischer/Jim Aparo started with issue #431. But your article sent me to my Long Box #3 to go through my reading copies of the 1971/72 "25-centers" to see if I had the issues you mention. Well, I found I had two reading copies of Adventure #419, and I had to find a digital copy of #418. What great comics! I feel that I'd missed out on collecting them back in the 70s, as like you, I'd seen them as "girls" comics. The Alex Toth Black Canary two-parter was excellent, but I also enjoyed the Len Wein-written lead Supergirl story in #418 which featured Dr Tzin-Tzin who had previously featured as Batman's foe in Detective and JLA, and a piece of the League of Assassin's story arc that I was unaware of. Also liked the Phantom Stranger reprint, and the first publication of the Golden Age Dr Mid-Nite story which had been inked by Sal Amendola. The issue was quite a gem. You've now got me going back through the earlier 25-cent issues to see what else I've missed. A great choice, McScotty.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many comic book gems in these books. I was always a fan of those old reprints and liked Dr Mid-Nite a lot although I hadn't notice it was inked by Sal Amendola until you mentioned it - I thought he was a youngster in the 1970s. Toth did some wonderful work at this time at DC and it's good to see his influence is evident in some of today's artist, most notably Chris Samnee.
ReplyDelete