The best reading from the Golden Age.

[skypinkblu]

]

Wow! Thanks for all the responses!

 

 

 

 

Skypinkblue – Thank you for welcoming me to the boards! I appreciate it! I see you like Wonder Woman, and I would like to know if Sensation Comics is a good read? The reason I ask, I bought a Sensation Comics #107 (I believe the first mystery issue) about seven years ago, but never read it because I bought it encapsulated in the CGC holder.

 

 

 

Thank you for all the responses! It is much appreciated!

 

Eric

 

Hi Eric,

I actually don't collect the Mystery issues...as a matter of fact, I have most of them and keep meaning to liberate them. As for Wonder Woman, I do like the stories in the regular series, where in most cases, the entire book is devoted to one story. Her creator William Moulton Marston was a psychiatrist, who also happened to have invented the lie detector test. He had some very forward theories about women for those times. Rumor was he actually lived with 2 women. He was not exactly into comics, but had been hired after criticizing DC (which I think might have been called National at the time) for the way women were portrayed. It's interesting that while Diana was portrayed as a strong female, she had a thing for Steve, who was not always the sharpest knife in the drawer;) Or at least that was how he always seemed to me;) Early Wonder Woman books are full of bondage, feats of strength...the ability of women to support each other and solve problems... it's too bad the bondage stuff was included as the stories really could have been motivating in a non male bashing way, during a pre- feminist era. I have a feeling Marston was kind of kinky;)

 

The Sensation comics that starred Wonder Woman had briefer stories until they started with the All Girl Issues, I didn't find most of the earlier ones as interesting as I did the Wonder Woman series where the longer format allowed for better story development, but in many cases, I prefer the Sensation covers.

 

Sharon

[rjpb]

 

Contact is a short feasible run with cool L.B. Cole covers and two major super-hero features for your enjoyment: The Golden Eagle and Black Venus and as a bonus, you get Tommy Tomahawk thrown in. However, if I were doing the run, I would only get 1 through 11. # 12 has neither Golden Eagle nor Black Venus story.

 

Contact #12 has one of the best covers of the GA!!

[rjpb]

How about Plastic Man from Quality? Good art, interesting theme shifts during the run, challenging during the 1950's and relatively inexpensive. Lots of nice Jack Cole artwork. Some great covers,..............

 

WIKI on Plastic man from Quality

 

 

GCD Plastic Man Gallery

 

 

Early 50s Plasticman books are interesting in that many have horror and anti-communist themes blended with the humor with excellent Cole artwork - and they are pretty cheap.

 

 

[ComicConnoisseur]

Tracy by far, these hold up today and are violent and gritty.

I read some Batman`s and they are tamed compared to these.

[ComicConnoisseur]

I would assume that most people would say either Carl Bark's ducks or Will Eisner's Spirit work.I enjoyed both...a lot.... but my heart has a special place for Uncle Scrooge and friends. The thing about Barks and Eisner is that they had a large and consistantly good body of work, whereas Archie and his gang, had just as many bad stories as good. There were other GA books, like BlackHawks for instance, that had some great stories and of course Lou Fine did some really fine work too.

The Barks stuff holds up real well and I enjoyed them more than the Spirits,I liked the Spirits but loved the Barks stuff.

[Timely]

To all: Is there continuity in the Futura strips in Planet Comics?

 

Yes! And the art is superb!

[Scrooge]

Thanks for confirming my suspicion.

 

It seems all roads lead to Planet then.

[Wayne-Tec]

GA Batman has provided me with some of the most enjoyable comic reads of my life.

 

Right now I'm in the process of re-reading many of the early Tecs and have just completed reading #27-38.

 

There's something very special about the Pre-Robin Tec stories. For Bat-fans like myself; you'll probably get a real kick out seeing the evolution of the character. Each issue was a little different from the one prior and after. To this day, even though I'd read these stories before, I get excited every time I'm about to read a Dr. Death, Monk, or Hugo Strange story.

 

The origin of Batman in Detective Comics #33 is powerful; and has perhaps withstood the test of time better than any story in the history of comics.

 

And Batman #1...don't even get me started.

 

The Joker stories were simply revolutionary. There had been a number of crooks and bad-guys who came before him, but none of them were as deep as The Joker was. There was a psychology to the character; a take on creative-writing that had evolved ever since they turned Bruce Wayne into a personality in Tec #33.

 

The story Joker/Catwoman story in Batman #2 may be even better, save for a few silly moments...highlighted by Batman's fencing duel with The Joker.

 

I've tried to get into GA Superman and really enjoy the early Siegel & Shuster tales. At the time of his creation, Superman was something far different than the camp he would later come to embrace. Heating up pies with his heat-vision, the cover to Superman #700 ...that was never what the character was meant to be.

 

In 1938, he was the "champion of the oppressed"; a hero that helped right the wrongs in the world during a time when the people were in need of a hero. Superman succeeded in that he provided people who lived during the Great Depression, with an escape from the harsh realities of life...all the while Siegel & Shuster fought to incorporate moral validity into those early stories.

 

Trust me, there's a reason beyond sheer popularity that early Superman Action's and Batman Tecs are so coveted.

[Mister O]

Thanks for the Sensation Comics background Sharon.

 

Detective33kid, I really appreciate your take on Action and Tec. I have been thinking about a Superman or Batman run before posting here but thought it would be too expensive and decades to attain. It would be a dream to get one together, so who knows it's something that is always in the back of my mind.

 

D.Tracey would be interesting to go through as well. There is so much to consider! I really appreciate all of your help in finding the books to collect. It means a lot to have an awesome community and great people to talk with on the topic of comic books!

 

[Holmes]

For me it's those very early Superman in Action stories. Back then Superman was anything but a big blue boyscout! He was more like Jimmy Cagney in a cape fighting slum lords, corrupt officials and gangsters. It was like a comic book version of a Warners brothers movie.

 

Also those EC Horror and Sci Fi comics were and ARE great reading.

 

[damonwad]

For me it's those very early Superman in Action stories. Back then Superman was anything but a big blue boyscout! He was more like Jimmy Cagney in a cape fighting slum lords, corrupt officials and gangsters. It was like a comic book version of a Warners brothers movie.

 

Also those EC Horror and Sci Fi comics were and ARE great reading.

I read the first two Action and first two Superman DC Archives in the last 6 months. I only intended to read the first Action book for the historical aspect, but enjoyed it so much I kept getting the others.

[Norrin_Radd]

Her creator William Moulton Marston was a psychiatrist, who also happened to have invented the lie detector test. He had some very forward theories about women for those times. Rumor was he actually lived with 2 women. He was not exactly into comics, but had been hired after criticizing DC (which I think might have been called National at the time) for the way women were portrayed.

Actually, Wonder Woman was co-created by All-American head M C Gaines. That's where the Charles in the pseudonym Charles Moulton came from.

 

 

Oh, and ECs rule.

[Holmes]

Those DC Archive editions are a real treasure and worth the premium price. You get great Golden Age stories in a high quality format that you can actually READ without being afraid of destroying them! And really, who among us can afford to buy the first 50 or so issues of Superman, Batman et al.?

[Wayne-Tec]

Those DC Archive editions are a real treasure and worth the premium price. You get great Golden Age stories in a high quality format that you can actually READ without being afraid of destroying them! And really, who among us can afford to buy the first 50 or so issues of Superman, Batman et al.?

 

They're fantastic.

 

The first DC Archives I ever got was the first volume of Batman in Detective Comics back in 2003 and it still looks like it was bought yesterday even though it's been read so many times.