Brave and the Bold collecting thread - 2.0! 1 1

[Silver]

This is a not great pic of my 37. Second run of Suicide Squad. I don’t see this issue around a lot, probably why I haven’t upgraded. I had a lower grade copy since I was a kid that I thought would look better with a felt tip pen taken to it, this is the copy that replaced that. The Suicide Squad were solid in art and stories, I wish there had been a series after their tryout, would have been cool to see a #1. 

[Silver]

Okay, on to #38, last 10 cent issue!

[Silver]

And 39 first “box 12” This one is from the Mound City collection. 

[comick1]

OK, first suffice to say that I'm in total awe of the books that have been posted thus far. You's folks are b@d@$$es of the first order for prioritizing B&Bs. Those early issues are some of my fav runs in my collection. Still working on completing the different components that I care most about. . .namely ANYTHING with art by Joe Kubert (extra gravy and Tabasco if it had a Heath Golden Gladiator or Silent Knight story). Kubert was the DC guy who could just crush it with facial angularity that so enduringly expressed emotions, ultra-dark inks that conjured a deep sense of mood and downright dread, and gritty figural abstraction that skirted the boundaries of what bodies can actually do under moments of extreme duress. . . well that was the kind of thing that made Kubert abso****in-lutely perfect for the grit of a Kanigher Sgt. Rock story. Kubert was synonymous with Rock and visa versa, but most people don't realize that Kubert's second most consistent Silver-Age INTERIOR gig was NOT in any of the pages of alternative Big-5 titles. I know what you're thinking. . .you'd be right in pointing to the fact that Kubert contributed to dozens of [a hundred or more?] interior stories in DC war titles leading up to Rock and extending far beyond it. But they were sporadic and peppered throughout the different titles so that you'd get a couple issues of GIC with Kubert stories and then a few issues without because Kanigher would kick those stories over to OFF, AAMOW, SSWS, and back to OAAW & GIC to spread the love. 
Nope, his second most consistent jam in any of the titles next to OAAW/Rock was Brave and the Bold which carried Kubert stories for the following characters during the SA:

• Viking Prince 23 issues--B&B 1-5, 7-24
• Hawkman 6 issues--B&B 34-36, and 42-44
• Robin Hood  1 issue--B&B 6
• Cave Carson 1 issue--B&B 40
• Sgt. Rock/Haunted Tank/Johnny Cloud/Mlle Marie 1 issue--B&B 52

A total of 35 issues out of the first 52. . .until that point, roughly 2/3 of the issues had Kubert interior stories. It's a veritable goldmine of Kubert!

I've often daydreamed about an alternative reality where Julie Schwartz had made an editorial mandate along the lines of "Let's make EVERY issue of B&B contain a Joe Kubert story even if it's just a 4-page back up story. . .so we'll save a few of those stories from Frontier Fighters, those Rip Hunter stories (from Showcase 25 and 26), Sgt. Rock origin story (Showcase 45), and the Enemy Ace stories (Showcase 57 & 58) for B&B. Those extra 5 issues + the "GI Joe" Showcases in 53 and 54 (reprints from the war titles), even the odd sci-fi story from HOM 105, 109 or HOS 29, 30, 39, MGA 39 and Sea Devils 13 and we'll be able to fit them all into those B&B #25-33 and the other non-Kubert issues up to and including #51!" That Julie Schwartz had some serious leverage. I think he coulda done it.  Yes, I know there will be purists who would be horrified by the first app of the JLA appearing in another title. . .but wouldn't it have fit better in the Showcase run anyway? Or maybe this alternative Kubert-in-every-issue B&B reality would have those JLA issues in B&B 28-30 penciled and inked by Kubert! Or, for the Sekowsky devotees, maybe we'd have a Kubert 4-pager that displaced some of the 2-pager text articles and public service announcement filler that we all skip over. 

In order to even come up with those Kubert contributions above, I had to do a Grand Comics Database search of Kubert between 1955-1965 and I can tell you that other than that stuff I just mentioned, 99.9% of Kubert's stuff would have been found filtered throughout the Big-5 war titles. 

So I digressed a bit. . .back to my original idea. B&B 1-52 was THE second most consistent place where a reader could expect to see Joe Kubert art When I went into the run of those early first 52 issues, I realized immediately that the through-line was and always will be Kubert for me in the B&B run (I never bothered with the Cave Carson, Suicide Squads, Strange Sports Stories, or expensive JLAs). So when I post stuff from here on, this'll be a chance to ogle a bit of Kubert art from an interior page just as much as it is a chance to look at a cover. . .cuz you can see the covers ANYWHERE in a few words typed into your fav. search engine. Not so with the interior story pages.
So here goes. . .

[comick1]

There're a lot of Kubert Viking Prince reprints that appeared in various titles (including but not limited to B&B 100-pagers from early 70s and DC Special Series). One of my fav VP stories is in B&B #18 where he looks less like an iteration of Tor or Tarzan and more like a Kubert vision of Flash Gordon or Prince Valiant. The art in the later part of the run is just nothing short of exquisite. Wish I could afford some of those original art pages that pop up every now and then. . .

[comick1]

Special nod to Irv Novick for the beautiful washtone cover on #18.

[comick1]

And before I pass out here, here's Kubert's singular entry to the Robin Hood canon happens in B&B #6. Russ Heath drew Golden Gladiator for the first 4 issues and then #6. But Heath still contributed to #5 with a Silent Knight story [which Irv Novick usually drew] while Novick drew the first Robin Hood story. Kubert sticks to VP.

It's issue #6 where Heath continues with one final original glorious GG story (except some reprints in the 70s and maybe a mention in some revival stuff from the 80s/90s/modern?). In #6, Novick returns to Silent Knight and Viking Prince gets tossed in this one issue. But never fear. . .Kubert jumped to the Robin Hood art chores this once before returning to Viking Prince in B&B #7 and sticking with it til it ended in #24. Heath made some really nice entries to the Robin Hood canon over the next 15 issues and there are great things coming from the other war comics stable: Novick, Kubert, and Andru/Esposito.

[comick1]

I always wondered if the cover to Robin Hood Tales #9 wasn't just the tiniest bit Kubert, but the GCD credits it to Andru and Esposito. So I scoured B&B issue #6 for a place where Andru might have "swiped" a Kubert panel, but to no avail. 
Still, that Robin Hood face and pose of the allegedly Andru/Esposito cover to #9 is decidedly Kubert-esque. 

[Silver]

Damn Mick, raw is the best isn’t it? You have some gorgeous copies, the inks just pop! I can’t wait to see more. 

For the record, I think Brave and the Bold, particularly 1-24 were consistently some of the best books published by DC from 1955-59. 

[Kromak]

My only contribution:

I had a chance to get the 22, one of my all time favorite covers, but I missed it by an irrelevant value.

One day I will get it, the super rare Australian Edition, the only foreign edition of BB and many other from this initial phase

On 1/2/2023 at 9:41 PM, Silver said:

For the record, I think Brave and the Bold, particularly 1-24 were consistently some of the best books published by DC from 1955-59. 

Based on n° 21, I totally agree.

[Silver]

Well, since Mick brought it up…

#40, a very awesome Cave Carson issue by Kubert. Cave Carson had two stints in Brave and the Bold on one in Showcase and that was it for the silver age. They were all great stories and art. 

[Silver]

And 41, the last B&B Cave Carson issue. 

[Silver]

Now…onto the second Hawkman trilogy, and what a great one it was! Loved these books as a kid when I first read them. Upgraded all of them once or twice to get to the copies I have. I really don’t know which is my favorite, I really like all three. Here is 42

[Silver]

Sometimes DC gets a bad rap as being “silly” in the silver age, that was pretty much confined to the Superman and early silver Batman titles. If you haven’t read these you should give them a try!

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Silver

[Silver]

And check out this beauty!

[Silver]

Okay, I’ll take a pause before venturing into Strange Sports Stories. While the Justice League and Hawkman issues may be the most important books in the post Viking Prince/Silent Knight issues, I really think the entire run of 25-44 are just an awesome run of books. Suicide Squad, JLA, Hawkman, and Cave Carson over the course of 20 issues, with some really great stories and art. 

[comick1]

Those Kubert Hawkmans in B&B are some of my favorite superhero comics ever. His work on those is just sumptuous. I completed them decades ago and have had thoughts of upgrading them on occasion but am pretty happy with my copies. Here are some of the copies as well as a page or two from each:

B&B 35 
I love the facial expressions on Matter Master's face. He's gotta be missing a couple marbles to be wearing that costume in the first place, but his smug glee juxtaposed against displays of introspection, reluctance, and aversion underscore MM's mercurial mood swings and simply put Kubert's brilliance on center stage. Also love the light and shadows that Kubert accomplished with his incredible inking and draftsmanship. 
 

Edited January 8, 2023 by comick1

[comick1]

B&B 36
The deep inks on the gaunt face of the Shadow Thief with those sideways glances deliver an impact that few other comics of that time period could achieve. There are pages with a LOT more Hawkman / Hawkwoman than this one, but those Shadow Thief panels are just spectacular. I had a friend who owned the original art to this page and I wish I'd tried to purchase it from him (he eventually sold it in service to a larger purchase but by the time I heard about it, this page was gone ).

[comick1]

B&B 42
Again, some of the best pages in the comic do NOT have a lot of Hawkman/Hawkwoman. I always loved that middle panel with the thieves and the way they advance to the foreground. There's a sense of foreboding that Kubert pulls off with this that renders much of the dialogue and text boxes irrelevant. The flash of light and the deep shadows again accomplished by his dramatic inks.

 

[comick1]

B&B 43
Holy frijole, I love this issue! The composition and the dynamics of the panels here are utterly mind boggling. Just check out the angularity, acrobatics, and majestry of the figures as they hurtle through the air. I WISH Kubert took up more real estate in the superhero genre because I'd have collected a LOT more of them if Superman, Batman, GL, Flash, and WW had interior stories that looked like these pages. They all had wonderful artistic contributions made by their own stable of artists, but the B&B Hawkmans are just unbelievable. Humminah humminah humminah, I'd love to own those two pages of original art side by side!

 

Edited January 8, 2023 by comick1