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.

Top Tens: José Luis García-López

José Luis Garcia-Lopez worked on various Argentine comic strips before he began work on several romance titles for Charlton Comics. In 1974 he was hired by DC and moved to New York where he began working on titles like Superman, Batman, Jonah Hex, Cinder and Ashe, Deadman, and the New Teen Titans. My own personal introduction to Lopez’s work was on the DC title "Hercules Unbound" # 2 in 1975 (cover below) Lopez also provided the inks over Wally Woods pencils on this title however, Wally's style was so dominant that it was hard to see what Lopez's work looked like. That was until he was given the job of creating both covers and pencil art on the early issues of “DC Comics Presents” (1977) where is stunning art and design work shone through. At a time (circa 1977/8 ) when I was losing interest in many US superhero comics J Garcia Lopez “drew me back in” to give them a second chance. Below are just a few of my favourite Lopez covers:

Page Turners: Dave Cockrum

Dave Cockrum always aspired to become a comic book artist and in 1968 his first published work appeared in the “ Fantastic Fanzine“ which directly resulted in him being hired by Warren in 1971 to pencil a "Vampirella" strip. His obvious talents soon caught the eye of DC where he became assistant to Murphy Anderson and in 1972 he was given the option of working on DC’s "The Legion of Super-Heroes" strip.

In 1972, the LSH strip appeared as a back-up tale in DC ‘s Superboy comic, it was here in #195 that I first came across Dave Cockrum’s art in the LSH tale "One Shot Hero" (splash page above) which I have blogged about before. Prior to Cockrum’s arrival the LSH characters looked dated and by all accounts sales in the series were dropping, so with little to lose he began updating the teen heroes' costumes to dramatically “sexy” effect (something that Mike Grell would expand on when he took over the art chores) and moved the strip toward more of a science- fiction feel. With updated costumes, new characters (Wildfire etc) and a new writer in Cary Bates , the title picked up and became one of DC’s best sellers (for a time ) and resulted in the Superboy comic being retitled “ Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes” from issue 197.

Above: From "Superboy and the LSH" 100 page special showing the then new LSH "sexy" costumes .

Above: Page from "Superboy and the LSH" #197

Above: Page from "Superboy and the LSH" #198

Above: The cover to "Superboy and the LSH" #199 one of only a handful of Cockrum pencilled LSH covers (this was of course inked by the excellent Nick Cardy)

Above: Splash page from " Superboy and the LSH" #202 - this was Dave Cockrum's last issue before he left for Marvel. This tale was was inked by Mike Grell, who would take over the title from issue 203.

In 1974, Cockrum fell out with DC when Carmine Infantino refused to return a page of art that he produced for “Superboy and the LSH” # 200 , the marriage of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel (page above). On joining the House of Ideas Cockrum co-created, with Len Wein, The new X-Men , introducing new characters including Nightcrawler , Storm, and Colossus. Taking a led from his success at the Legion, Cockrum also redesigned the X-Men costumes transforming the title from a failing comic into a media sensation and a Marvel money making machine.

Above: Page from X-Men #96 - This was my first issue of the new Uncanny X-Men - I was never a fan of the original X-Men, but I loved this version - Image from the Epic collection.

Above: Splash page and pages 2 and 3 from X-Men #107

Above: Pages 2 and 3 from X-Men #101 (and cover at heading) - images from the Epic collection.

Seemingly Cockrum did not benefit financially from the success of the X-Men and left the title after two years (returning three years later for a short time), after this he worked on several titles including Ms Marvel where he redesigned her costume (above splash from Ms Marvel #20)

Above: Splash page from Batman #412 (image taken from the internet)

Above: From "The Legion of Superheroes" #300 - Dave returned to the title that started it all for him with a nice chapter in this anniversary issue - previous Legion artist including James Sherman and Curt Swan also provide art.

After leaving Marvel Dave’s career did not go as well as most fans would have thought it should have. His creator owned title “ The Futurians” originally published by Marvel, was a critical success but a commercial failure. Although he did occasioanl work for Marvel and DC by the 1990s his style was out of favour and he found regular work with various lesser-known publishers (Acclaim, Defiant, Broadway, Claypool) who would all go out of business, leaving Dave facing financial ruin. In 2003 with his health failing, he was admitted to hospital. Fortunately, the comics industry rallied round with a benefit auction and book of artwork by his peers (The Uncanny Dave Cockrum Tribute) and Marvel (to their credit) came up with a generous retirement settlement for him in 2004. Sadly, in 2006 Dave Cockrum passed away at the age of 63 due to complications from diabetes