Hepcat

As a grade school kid in the 1958-65 years I was much more heavily into monster and Sci-Fi flicks than I was into Westerns. Part of the reason may have been that the squeaky clean good guys in Westerns rubbed me the wrong way. I'd often cheer for the bad guy. It wasn't until the emergence of anti-heroes such as Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef in the spaghetti Westerns from later in the sixties that I acquired an interest in Westerns. That being said as a youngster I still wanted a nice cap gun and holster set like this one: I mean shooting off rolls of caps! Talk about cool! In fact even today I'd still like to add a good vintage cap gun and holster set to my toy collection, especially one branded with the name of one of my favourite cowboys such as the Lone Ranger, Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid or Kid Colt Outlaw. I'd sit up there on my upper porch and shoot off my cap gun at the squirrels and birds in the branches of the maple tree overhanging my house! Of course these days I'm sure that one of the neighbourhood busybodies/killjoys would call 911 for the SWAT team.... Bloody hell! Nanny state. Nothing's allowed these days. As kids though I remember we had firecrackers too! Whole packs of little sticks of TNT for a nickel or a dime! What could be better for a red-blooded kid? Nothing's better I say than the smell of firecrackers in the morning. Well maybe modelling cement later on in the day....

The Pactra paint bottles that were sold in the sixties were quite a bit nicer in shape than the more common Testors paint bottles, and of course light years nicer than the little cans in which the Humbol paint was sold. These Pactra paints were sold either individually or packaged in sets. Here's a good picture of the Crazy Cool Colors Weird-Oh Paint Set that I lifted from Ebay: Here are a few pictures of the Weird-Oh Paint Set from my own collection: The set was one of my higher priorities for a number of years because the graphics are so wild cool! Finally here are three other unused Pactra Paint Sets I have: Pactra Paint Locker Pactra Body Shop Pactra Funnycar Colors

Rick Polizzi's book also contains the following estimate of prices for boxed Hawk Frantic and Silly Surfer kits: Bopped out Steel Pluckers Havin' a Bash $85 Frantic Banana Punishing the Skins $85 Totally Fab $85 Frantic Cats $75 Woodie on a Surfari $80 Hodad Makin' the Scene with a Six-Pack $75 Beach Bunny Catchin' Rays $70 Hot Dogger and Surf Bunny Riding Tandem $65 Hot Dogger Hangin' Ten $65 Here are pics of some of these kits: And here's a shot of some of my own:

Where did the Harvey Adventure comics thread go? I've failed miserably in my searches. Is anybody better at searching this board than I am? The Search function was the one area of this board that needed improvement, but that's not what they improved....

And of course Mighty Mouse is the lead Terrytoons character. It's because I've always preferred the less commonly known characters! Shows I'm an iconoclast and a hardcore fan (or something like that).

I was a big fan as a kid of Monogram's three Fred Flypogger kits by Mouse primarily due to these cool ads that ran in DC comic books in the spring of 1965: The Classic Plastic Model Kits book by Rick Polizzi also contains the following estimate of prices for boxed Monogram Fred Flypogger kits: Speed Shift! $280 Super Fuzz! $280 Flip Out! $125 Here's a closer look at the box art from the three kits: And here are pictures of these kits from my own collection:

For Green Arrow's first Silver Age appearance I might pick Adventure Comics 250 cover dated July 1958. That issue included the first Green Arrow story for which Jack Kirby did the artwork. Green Arrow's origin would be recapped six issues later in Adventure Comics 256.

For Batman how about Detective Comics 233 cover dated July 1956 in which Batwoman was introduced? It introduced a major character who then had 57 appearances over the next ten years and it was from the same few years as the first Silver Age appearances of J'onn J'onzz, Flash, Wonder Woman, Superman and arguably perhaps even Aquaman.

Hmmmppphhhffff. Too tawdry to even count as a proper appearance.

He was last seen in the post below: http://marvelmasterworksfansite.yuku.com/reply/955655/The-DC-Comics-Time-Capsule-June-1967#reply-955655

A cover date of May 1964 would be way late for a Silver Age start for Batman though. After all, Batman had been appearing with the other members of the Justice League since Brave and the Bold 28 cover dated March 1960. DC seems to like Action Comics 241 cover dated June 1958 with "The Super-Key to Fort Superman" story because that's where the Man of Tomorrow Archive series starts. In any event, can anyone recall Aquaman crossing over with any Justice Society or Seven Soldiers of Victory superheroes prior to Justice League of America 21? If not, that would seem to imply that Aquaman was an Earth-1 character from the very start.

Interesting looking at my rankings by major studio group: WARNER BROS. 11. Sylvester 13. Foghorn Leghorn 14. Animaniacs 16. Daffy Duck 18. Mary Jane and Sniffles 24. Wile E. Coyote WALT DISNEY 1. Uncle Remus' Brer Rabbit 7. Goofy 17. Uncle Scrooge 23. Pluto TERRYTOONS 5. Deputy Dawg 8. Heckle and Jeckle 21. Little Roquefort and Percy Puss 26. Sourpuss and Gandy Goose WALTER LANTZ 12. Andy Panda 22. Space Mouse 25. Chilly Willy

But what kind of effect on the quality of the comics DC was releasing? I see that Wonder Woman was attractively drawn with her tiara under her flowing hair on the cover of issue #104 but on the inside pages her tiara is over the much curlier hair she's portrayed as having. Moreover on the inside she's drawn not that much better than she was in H.G. Peter's stylized, old-fashioned work. I've heard that editor Robert Kanigher told artists Ross Andru and Mike Esposito to tone Wonder Woman's sexiness right down and make her more the androgynous character she'd been when H.G. Peter was handling the title's artwork.

So here's a list of the first Silver Age appearances of the other Justice League of America members: J'onn J'onzz - Detective Comics 225 (November 1955) Flash - Showcase 4 (October 1956) Wonder Woman - Wonder Woman 98 (May 1958) Green Lantern - Showcase 22 (October 1959) Elongated Man - Flash 112 (May 1960) Hawkman - Brave and the Bold 34 (March 1961) Atom - Showcase 34 (October 1961) Zatanna - Hawkman 4 (November 1964) But what about Superman, Batman and Green Arrow then? From what issues should we date their Silver Age origins?

So I hear that the Wonder Woman movie implies that Zeus was the father of Wonder Woman and Queen Hippolyta her mother. I guess DC had retconned Wonder Woman's origin to make Zeus her father when the New 52 was launched back in 2011. That would not only be an entirely fitting explanation for Wonder Woman's great powers, but make them rival Superman's in some ways. The explanation would also parallel that of Wonder Girl's origin as well as serve to make Queen Hippolyta a much more interesting character.

It just dawned on me that Aquaman could be the most different DC superhero of them all! Unlike Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Arrow who were the other heroes to survive from the Golden Age to the Silver Age, I don't believe that DC ever explicitly acknowledged before 1985 that there was both an Earth-1 and an Earth-2 (or Earth-S in the case of Green Arrow) variant of Aquaman! Other Earth variants of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Arrow all appeared in the Justice League Crisis team-ups at some point. In which case how can there be a "Silver Age" origin for a character who may have been one and the same as the Aquaman who appeared in the Golden Age? Granted that Aquaman got a "new" origin in Adventure Comics 260, but a new and somewhat different origin doesn't automatically create a new and separate character. After all, how many new and more detailed origins did Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman get after their "first" Silver Age origins? (Wonder Woman's first two were in issues #98 and #105.) Yet there were only two of each of these characters (I think). Incidentally, what were Superman, Batman and green Arrow's first Silver Age issues complete with "new" origins?

Where then do you live?

All good to great covers, with the exception of Mystery in Space 55 which I thoroughly dislike. Alanna is a beautiful girl, yet she looks ugly on that cover. Moreover why is Adam Strange drawn with such a big nose? Overall I'd say that grey tone covers worked great for Sea Devils because of the underwater setting and for war covers because they capture the dreariness, but I just don't thing grey tone covers work very well for superheroes since their bright garb shouldn't be washed out. And I do hate the covers to Wonder Woman 108 and Green Lantern 8 as well. In fact, let's contrast the cover of Green Lantern 8 to that of a later issue with a similar cover concept: I hate the first cover but love the second.

What a cover concept! So cool!

Here's my second team of favourite funny animal comic characters: 14. Animaniacs 15. Pogo Possum 16. Daffy Duck 17. Uncle Scrooge 18. Mary Jane and Sniffles 19. Crusader Rabbit 20. Buzzy the Crow 21. Little Roquefort and Percy Puss 22. Space Mouse 23. Pluto 24. Wile E. Coyote 25. Chilly Willy 26. Sourpuss and Gandy Goose

Many of us here on this board agree that the ads and other ancillary features in comic mags were an integral part of the comic reading experience for kids during the Silver Age. Here therefore is an in-depth review of Brave and the Bold 40 with that in mind: My copy has a subscription crease and I'd really like to upgrade it but it's another one of those less highly prized titles that are so very difficult to find in high grade.Nonetheless, the issue features Joe Kubert art throughout and a cover with a fellow I'll call Gorgo Jr. hatching from an egg! You're telling me that Fantastic Four 1 beats that? Ffffttttttt!!!!Flipping it open reveals DC's explanation for the price increase to twelve cents. Don't remind me! Comics should cost a dime I say. The splash page showcases not Gorgo Jr. but the villain of the story: It seems that Cave Carson is exploring a newly discovered cavern overseas with the other two members of his team, big titted blond geologist Christie Madison, and muscular Bulldozer Smith. All of a sudden they're surprised by a fellow piloting a giant crystal: Returning to the surface, they fail to recognize Shierra Hall who has cleverly disguised herself with a black hairdo. I did though! They do, however, learn that a collector of old books by the name of Zenod may be responsible for reckless crystal driving. After all, anybody who collects old books must have something wrong with him, right? It seems that Zenod got a hold of a manuscript written by ancient sorcerer Kardok. Not bothering with details like getting a search warrant, they break into Zenod's house and search it. There they learn that Kardok buried three crystals, which would leave whoever found them with enormous power! Cave and colleagues decide that Zenod must be stopped. After all, you can't trust a collector of old books with crystals, now can you? So in hot pursuit of Zenod they stumble upon Gorgo Jr. A short interlude here while we examine DC's other offerings. Hmmmmm, this Space Ranger fellow seems to be a regular hero, even if he doesn't have his feet planted as firmly on present day earth as Cave Carson. And Peter Puptent here deserves his own title: Hmmmmm. And this Batman Giant would appear to offer plenty of reading for a quarter but it's all reprints of stuff available at the barber shop. I'll pass on that for now. This Let Science Serve You page tells me nothing: I'd rather read Peter Puptent. Ahhhh, but here's a great splash page with Gorgo Jr. front and center: But, but, but, Cave kills Gorgo Jr. by unleashing an underground river on the poor fellow! Bad man that Cave Carson! Here he could have been spending some quality time feeling out Christie but he instead opts to kill perhaps the sole surviving member of an endangered species.Zenod in the meantime tries to get away from his stalkers by fleeing back to the surface with the second crystal. Undeterred, Cave and company follow in the mole machine. Zenod desperately tries to shake off his stalkers by setting an oil derrick aflame and forcing them into a railroad maintenance shed where he hopes they will do a slow burn thus saving countless other endangered species. Looking over another couple of DC's offerings in the meantime, I'm more intrigued by the Challengers of the Unknown. This Blackhawk quasi military outfit never actually appealed to me. The Science Says You're Wrong feature page is actually very good: I'll pass over this Journey to the End of the Earth page and read it later. (Not a bad story of Greeks discovering the New World though!) Another splash page. Hmmmm, rock monsters, eh? So Cave and crew escape their fiery trap; they always do. And down they go to menace poor Zenod again. He unleashes the previously mentioned rock monsters on them with the third crystal: They defeat the rock monsters though. Cave even finds the time to rig up a booby trap in the mole machine and thus captures Zenod in the act of grand theft mole machine! What's this? Hmmmmm, a Superman Annual. I'll give that one a pass for the same reason that I gave the Batman Annual a pass. In fact, I'm sick of seeing all these full page ads for Annuals! I want to see what's coming in the next issue of Showcase! Toy soldiers? No. I like the ad for the Civil War set better. Where would I get $1.25 anyway? And I'm not going to get sucked in for a coin catalogue either. I've never seen a coin anything like that one in my pocket change. But now it seems unreal that we all actually had honest to goodness silver coinage in our pockets before governments made sure that no vestigial trace of intrinsic value remained in currencies.Hmmmm, nice pic though on the inside back cover! A lot of my favourites! And the back cover?Yes, those Revolutionary War soldiers look interesting alright! I just happen to be far short the $1.98 price right now. I mean in Canada that was almost 1.2 ounces of silver at the time!No interest whatsoever in that Frontier Cabin though. I was only four years old at the time the whole Davy Crockett thing hit big in the U.S. and none of that frontier hero stuff resonated with me. I was all about super heroes and outer space and monsters.

Antonino Rocca was as a result a magical name to me for decades thereafter! Yours I'm assuming must be the Scanlens issue. Were/are they the standard 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" size? How much did each pack cost when you bought them as a kid, and what did each pack contain? The Civil War News cards I bought in 1962 were printed by Topps in the States, imported into Canada in bulk by O-Pee-Chee which was located in my own hometown of London and then packaged in boxes and wrappers virtually identical to the U.S. ones printed up in London by O-Pee-Chee affiliate Somerville Industries. BUT the packs marketed in Canada contained only four cards and a four section stick of Bazooka gum produced at O-Pee-Chee's confection plant in London. Mmmmmm, so good! Like you and nearly everybody else, I pitched my Confederate money out with the wrappers as a kid. That of course is why the bills are so tough to find these days. I was lucky enough to find a complete set over thirty years ago but I've long since forgotten where and how. It was likely either in a local comic/card shop or through an ad in The Wrapper magazine. It must have been very reasonably priced or i wouldn't have forgotten making the purchase. Back in the eighties ephemera such as wrappers were not yet highly prized by collectors.

No, but beginning in 1963 I often examined the Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man titles on the comic rack but the cover art made them look second class and I always passed them up for DC comics. Like you my funds were strictly limited. By the summer of 1964 I had read some Marvels though, and I have to say that Stan Lee's storytelling really drew me into the unfolding Marvel Universe. The way one story laid the groundwork for the next with perhaps a cameo appearance by the next issue's villain and the constant X-over character appearances in each others titles, well Stan Lee made it difficult to read just one. By late 1964 my interests were shifting to Mad and Drag Cartoons magazines and building model kits though and I was already collecting any and ALL bubble gum cards with a buddy of mine. I therefore moved on to other interests entirely rather than seguing from DC to Marvel comics as did so many other comic fans. But like I say, my interest in comics never left me entirely and by 1979 I was back to re-amassing the comics I had as a kid.

July 1962 was the month when I actually bought my first superhero comics. I'd been greatly impressed to put it mildly by the copy of Justice League 8 which I'd read at summer camp. For Sale---the Justice League! Editor: Julius Schwartz Writer: Gardner Fox Art: Mike Sekowsky (pencils); Bernard Sachs (inks) After getting back home, the Justice League issue that greeted me on the comic stand at Les' Variety on the corner was #14: What a great cover! I must have been feverish with excitement as I bought it. Over the next two weeks or so I bought these additional comics: (Not mine.) 8 I may have bought a title featuring Superboy as well. Since I limited myself to perusing only the offerings at Les' and Lamont & Perkins Pharmacy right beside Les', I failed to come across any of these other really neat comics which would have been on the stands at the time: 21 1 Fantastic Four 7 would also have been on the stands at the time but I have no recollection of seeing any Marvel comics that month. It was just as well that I didn't come across any more comics to buy since within three weeks my older sister convinced my mother to pitch my small collection out before I was hopelessly corrupted. Nonetheless I must have continued to peruse the superhero comics on the stands for another few weeks because I very clearly remember being captivated by this house ad for Superman 156: Temporarily though I'd learned my lesson and resisted the urge to buy that or any other comic for the time being. Besides, the fabulous Topps Civil War News cards would hit variety store counters at about the same time as that Superman comic and they'd act to squeeze most every nickel and dime from my grubby fingers for weeks: And of course my sister's efforts to save me from being corrupted by my comics failed. I was already addicted and my life has been one of comic book degeneracy ever since.

No. Sylvester is my favourite. He's there two places above Foghorn Leghorn on my list. But over the years Foghorn Leghorn has moved up to #2 on my list of Looney Tunes characters. He has a certain style, a panache you might say.