Anyone that reads this blog will know that I have treaded this road before but the older I get the more I seem to have to rely on certain triggers to remember events from my past. Of course I don’t need a back issue of Superman to remember those big lifechanging event no, it’s those little inconsequential events that seemed so unimportant at the time but now mean so much more to me that I crave. One such trigger event happened to me last month when I was driving to the town I used to live in around the early to mid-1970’s to help a family member move some (52!) heavy slabs . As it was early I thought I would stop off and get coffee and cakes for them so on seeing a coffee shop I parked outside the shop and as I got out of my car I was hit by an overwhelming sense of Déjà vu. As it turned out I had taken the exact same trip nearly 50 years ago with my dad in 1973. On that day in June 1973, my dad had driven me to school but for some reason we had arrived early and he suggested that we go for a cup of tea at this very same coffee shop. Of course the shop had changed a lot since then as it was now a very trendy upmarket coffee shop, back in 1973 it was a pretty basic (but nice) tea-room with a newsagents attached to it. Anyway, after my dad and myself had our tea I was pottering around the newsagent where I spied the above issue of JLA (along with Weird War issue 14) which my dad bought for me.
Back to 2022, and after I had completed my slab lifting I drove home and immediately headed to the loft to look out my 49 year old copy of JLA 106 (my copy of Weird War isn't the same one my dad bought me in 1973) and to try remember that day in more detail. It's amazing what memories an inanimate object can stir up as on opening the pages below I remember that this day in June 1973 was the last day of school before we broke up for the summer holidays, someone at my school nabbed my copy of Weird War, it was also my best pal Jim’s last day at this school as he had moved to a different town, and best of all I remembered the great chat and laugh I had with my dad at that tea room and seeing his big toothed smile. I still miss that big smile of his, but at least I can see it again in my mind’s eye when look at JLA 106.
This story always seemed to me to be DC's attempt to make the Red Tornado into their version of the Vision. And while it was a pretty decent comic for its time DC's attempts here were miles behind the stories that Marvel were telling in the Avengers. Still for all that I always enjoyed the JLA comics at this time, they had a charm and excitment of their own that has always appealed to me.
In the story itself, following the exploits in JLA 105 the Red Tornado is caught up in an explosion that hurled him from Earth-2 into Earth-1 where he is voted in as a Justice League member. Now possessing facial features that he believes were melded for him by a blind hermit ( when in fact it was all a ruse by his evil creator T. O. Morrow) the Red Tornado takes on the secret identity as John Smith, and goes looking for a job where he meets an employment counsellor Kathy Sutton and they soon become romantically involved. The Scarlet Witch and the Vision this is not.
I was probably about seven years old when I walked into my local newsagents in Cambuslang (near Glasgow) with my pocket money firmly he...
Following on from my last post featuring some of my favourite Marvel comic book covers from 1973, I thought I would show some of DC's ...
Nearly a half-century on I still consider 1973 to be the year that cemented my destiny in becoming a lifetime comic book fan. It was a yea...
The Len Wein era of the Justice League just might be my all-time favorite as brief as it was. And you're right, they were trying to get a little of the character depth into Red Tornado that the Vision had achieved at Marvel. But it always felt a bit forced to me. I do prefer this original costume for the Tornado, the later one with the yellow stripes (designed by Wein I think) was not nearly as effective, though he was stuck with it for years. The Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano art here is exquisite.
ReplyDeleteSame here Rip, Wiens run on JLA particularly from issue 100 onwards are my favourites in the entire series. That Red Tornado costume with the big yellow arrow was pretty garish I assume\hope it's been changed . Dillon never put in a bad art job and the wonderful Mr Giordano enhanced any artists work.
ReplyDeleteActually, McS, to be a pedant for a moment, it wasn't Deja vu you felt as you'd had the coffee shop experience before. Deju vu is when you feel as though you've experienced something before when you actually haven't. And why am I not in your blog list yet? If you could add B, then you can add me. Get cracking or I'll take away your Breakaway.
ReplyDeleteNever mind, I'll answer this comment myself. That's extremely interesting about Deja vu, Kid - you're a font of knowledge. As for adding to the blog list, it helps if you press 'save' once you've done so. You also need to start the blog with https:// - or in some cases www.
DeleteThis has been a public service announcement by the Ignored Commenters Society.
That's a great recollection of that cup of tea with your Dad, McScotty. Thanks for sharing it. I was a collector of JLA at that time (although never really a fan of Dick Dillin's artwork, which always seemed a bit stilted to me), but avoided the war titles for some reason (it's only in recent years that I've come to appreciate Sgt Rock, for instance). That Weird War #14 that you featured looks interesting....I'll see if I can find a reading copy locally.
ReplyDeleteThanks also for doing me the honour of following my blog, which Kid so kindly pointed out. (I've taken a screen shot of it :-) ) . I will return the favour (both to you and Kid) if I ever figure out how to do it.
Also, be careful about storing comics in the loft....I found the changes of heat over the years really accelerated pages tanning in paperback books that I'd stored in the loft when we lived in Southampton.
I got into DC war comics about 15 years ago collecting John Severin comics (The Losers from Our fighting forces) a while war comics aren't my favourite genre these were really good plus they also had strips by Russ Heath, Joe Kubert, Neal Adams and other of that ilk.
ReplyDelete'Regarding the blog post list , I'm having issues adding anything to these except your one for some reason Ian. I tried to add CRIVENS and others but it wouldn't work so I will need to look into this again on blogger. My loft is actually a converted room now with a Velux window, leccy , flooring , beating etc, it's just to low (about 5foot 9) to be officially classified as a proper room so we use it as a storage room with a seat, desk, table etc. My comics, records, books are all mostly stored in shelves or boxes (although I'm summer it can get hot) so should be ok
I've also had yours and Kid's blogs in my public "follow" list for some time, but none of the blog titles show up on the blogger side-bar - just the header. I don't want to mess with the template too much, so need to continue investigating.
ReplyDelete