PopKulture

Underwater AND under ice!

Amen to that. Just a really cool cover with colors and art that just "pops."

There's a good chance number 8 was in the box when I bought this, and probably only a few dollars more. I'd like to think as a teenager I WOULDN'T have passed up 8, but who knows?

You're making our Baker fans jealous with this one, RM!

As it should be. Comics were meant to be fun, not all serious, dire and dark. The world is cr@ppy, enough: our escapism shouldn't then mirror the gritty elements of that which we seek to escape.

This might earn the record for the biggest word balloon in comics!

My first real exposure to Whiz Comics no. 2(1) was via DC's Famous First Editions treasury reprint. Through it, I was introduced to a slew of new characters, including Lance O'Casey. It was years before I could afford a bonafide Captain Marvel or Spy Smasher, as they were already out of the reach of kids who cut grass for pocket change.

THIS part we can REALLY agree on!

The cover artist WAS a pulp artist!

I think you touch on some of the salient points about how the hobby has evolved. And there is a bit of that Rip-Van-Winkle effect on many of us collectors!

The people you mention did great work, no doubt. But you run the same risk of minimizing the Miller effect as you accuse me of by ignoring everything up to Miller. It wasn't an incremental step or another chapter: it was cataclysmic. The biggest reboot in comics history probably. Sorry, but Batman was languishing before DKR. Consider this: check Overstreet under "Batman" and its related titles. You may find "Batman Family" and one or two others prior to DKR, and THEN count all the titles and mini-series and one-shots, and Killing Jokes and Shadows of the Bat and Legends of the Dark Knight, and on and on, and then tell me how I'm understating how inexorably Batman's current popularity still owes to The Dark Knight Returns! The avalanche of titles is mind-boggling and relentless, and DK gave birth to that. It is not only the spark, it's the powder keg, too. p.s. And it's with a partially heavy heart, mind you, that I advocate forcefully this view. I loved the DKR in a vacuum, more as one in DC's never-ending sea of hypotheticals, but I don't like how gritty comics became throughout the 80's and onward, and DK was a big part of that.

Very cool! I like the guy in the robe. What year is that Black Book?

That is shameful! Were they really destitute? What a pity. Kirby is the example that seems to get the most attention... Is it the work of their attorneys saying "give them nothing" because it might open the floodgates to legal actions, like an admission of sorts? Today's creative personnel indeed have it a lot better than their predecessors.

I'm trying to see the resemblance... Was Lee sporting a 'stache at the time??

I remember both covers were in Richard O'Briens "Golden Age of Comic Books" book (which featured a slew of full-size cover reproductions), so each was noteworthy enough forty years ago to be considered classic. Both are withstanding the test of time. That book was a great predictor of what books would remain classics - Action 7, Fantastic 3, both Wonderworld's, Whiz 22 (Gator?), and a bunch more, including some nice Eisner and Fine. Some have fallen out of favor like the Raboys, but that may be because they're not turning over as much? Target 7 was in there; Green Giant, some great Centaurs, but no Timely's (I don't think they got permission from Marvel). Action 52 was featured, Green Lantern 1, Wonder Woman 1, Detective 1 - some killer books! A cool pick-up for anyone's reference library that doesn't already have it.

Congrats - twenty-nine times over. What a true gem. I may be in the bare minority, but I've always preferred this over 31. Lurking over a castle is great n all, but more the Spectre's deal: kicking butt suits Batman more!

Last one for tonight: