Can someone please explain this?

[Aman619]

If its oil wells and an oil rig related explosion/fire, I question why the artists drew those little dashed and sprinkls around supes hands. they also appear in the fire burst lines. Assuming I'm the inker, and I'm inking an oil well fire, I wouldnt use these choppy twinkly lines. Id draw oil flowing out, or flames....not radiated pixie dust.

 

but the rest of the cover sure looks like an oil fire..and isnt 1943 too early for general knowledge of the ins and outs of atomic bomb tests??

[kahml]

It is a radiation container he is covering up, and the guys are in radiation suits. The first atomic bombs were dropped from similar structures.

 

Timely

 

The only issue I have with your statement is the fact that the lab at Los Alamos was a secret project, which was still in development in 1943.

 

The first truly public notice of atomic bombs - and the desert structures that they were tested from - was in 1945, after the first two bombs were dropped.

[kahml]

If so, how does one correct the text in the guide?

 

kahml,

 

the jury's still out on what this cover is meant to show, but an attempt to answer your last question (quoted above) may be found here.

 

Cheers,

Z.

 

OK, Thanks for that link, it was quite informative.

 

Now, if most of the folks here think it is an oil well fire - and you can actually get a change to the guide - does that mean that the pricing of the book (because it is no longer historic, nor atomic, but just great artwork) get revised in line with the other books of the period?

 

Larry

 

[Aman619]

maybe. But its pretty hard for me to believe that NOONE put 2 and 2 together like we all just did to figure out that radiation and atomic bombs were still sci-fi when this cover was drawn! There must be some other reason why collectors in general felt this was an atomic radiation cover long enough for Overstreet to have commemorated it in the Guide...where it has stuck unchanged all these 33 years!

[Zonker]

Hey everybody,

I've made some progress in getting to the bottom of this.

 

First, aman619, this actually has not been highlighted in Overstreet for that long. For instance, I have a copy of the 20th edition (1990) and there is no explicit mention of #61-- it is just lumped together with the run from 61-70, without further comment. Sometime in the last 10 years or so, someone got the bright idea this cover depicted atomic radiation, no doubt because of the suits worn by the workers, suits that look to our eyes like radiation shielding. But if Mr. Nice is correct, these are old time firefighter suits. They also look a lot like the costume worn by the Quality Comics 1940s character the Human Bomb, a character with bomb-like powers chemically induced, not nuclear.

 

Next, Povertyrow, I did open up the book and-- as expected-- the interior story had nothing to do with the cover. The closest it comes is when Lois and Clark are having a meal at a restaurant, and there is a fire (but unfortunately no white-suited firemen rush in !)

 

This put me in mind of a Golden Age Superman story reprinted in Superman #243. The original story had Luthor using an "atomic bomb" on Superman, and was originally printed in Superman #38, Jan/Feb 1946. But it was written and drawn earlier, and apparently censored due to wartime restrictions. According to the editor's notes in #243, what was problematic was the "guesstimate" about the shape, size, and weight of the Luthor's atomic bomb (incidentally, it was hand-grenade size in that 1940s story! !). So, if during WWII the government was supressing any even idle speculation about the critical mass required to set off a nuclear chain reaction, then no way would they have let the cover to Action #61 go out!

 

Finally, I took a second look at the cover of #61. The thing Superman is diving towards is clearly draw as the open end of a pipe (i.e. an un-capped oil well) sticking in to the ground! It is the bright yellow reflection of the explosion that obsures the fact this thing is not a box or an ordinance, but a pipe.

 

So... having said all that, Kahml, I'm happy to add this one to the Overstreet errata list. But don't look for an immediate drop in price. The politically correct answer is that Overstreet doesn't set the prices, they just report pricing data as they receive it. And after all, this is still a cool cover, and I'd certainly pay more for it than surrounding issues of Action with Toyman covers or Prankster covers or what-not.

 

Cheers,

Z.

 

 

 

[Timely]

I completely disagree with almost everything you said Zonker. First of all the government would not have stopped this issue from being published...Why? Well first of all no where on the cover or in the book does the word "Atomic" appear. The military's upper-brass would not have known an atomic explosion cover from a fire cover either, as they had never seen an atomic one, so why censor it?

 

Atomic weapons have been in Sci-Fi for years, and I know for sure this was not the first visual depiction of what an atomic explosion would look like. The artist here did the best he could to depict a radiation explosion, and obviously fire would be involved. If it were oil there would be black liquid coming out of the cyliner. And oil does not come out of wells like pixie-like dust, whether it's on fire or not!

 

Timely

[Zonker]

Ok, there's no particular reason we have to agree.

But why then did the cover artist bother to put oil derricks in the picture?

And sure looks like the top end of a pipe to me, now that I've looked at it closely.

 

[Zonker]

So... What do y'all think this is??

 

 

 

 

[PovertyRow]

So... What do y'all think this is??

What are they trying to show here?An Oil Well Fire?Atomic Radiation of Some Sort?Something Else? (Please Describe)

Well - the higher detaail scan DOES show some sort of non-oil emissions going on - all sparkly and may well be radioactive. Perhaps the lack of real experience with radiation on the part of the general public led to the major aspects of the cover - but yeah - that close-up really looks more like radiation than oil. Not a hint of flame - just some kind of sparkly stuff.Gotta say this is interesting!

[ArAich]

Ok let me try my hand at this...

 

Here is the cover so that we have the proper context...

 

I'll start from the outside and work my way in...

 

[*]Thick, black smoke..

that's what comes from oil fires...I don't believe radiation smokes

 

[*]Large structures...

these look exactly like oil rigs and they are lumped close together like oil rigs...The structure at the Trinity testing sight may have looked similar but an artist for Action Comics #61 would not have known this...nor would the readers...

 

[*]Flames..

that is not radiation...and artists knew how to draw radiation and I offer THIS 1929 example...

 

[*]Men in suits...

they have no equipment in hand so it is just an added element by the artist to show extreme heat...

 

[*]Supes and the pixie dust..

just another example of the artist interpretation to show extreme heat and not obscure the Super Actions of the Man of Steel... and besides would the artist know what the core of an oil fire would look like...

 

I believe it comes down to artist interpretation of an oil rig calamity as that was a disaster that was more prevelant at that time in history and would make more sense to the childhood readers of that era...

 

JMO...

 

 

[Bugaboo-migration]

I'm going to have to agree with it being an oil fire as that's what seems obvious to me. I see four oil derricks (what else would normal people in 1943 have thought these were?) along with thick black smoke as a background. There is obvious flames shooting away from it. The heat from an oil well fire is extreme, which would explain the protective suits on the men. And the white area with black dots by Supermans hands just seems like an artists method to draw your eyes towards what Superman is doing. Actually drawing the black oil shooting all over the place wouldn't have been easy to depict with this particular composition and wouldn't have made for a very good cover.

[Shield]

When I look at the cover, I think Superman is "pushing" the oil fire back down into the base. The fire had already erupted, as the onsite men are wearing protective clothing. Supes is extinguishing the fire with his hands. Just my opinion.

[drbanner]

Oil fire...

[deathlok]

I see this book everywhere now because of this thread. CGC has it as one of its spotlight books of the month/week(?), and Heritage has a Good copy on auction.

 

Perhaps one of the Gemstone fellas that are on the board can research the story behind this.

[ArnoldTBlumberg]

Since so many covers from that era were inventory art or prepared with no real regard for interior contents, it's no wonder that cracking open a copy of the issue sheds no light on the scene depicted. But I gotta tell you, all the visual evidence says that's an oil well fire to me. I doubt it would even be easy to determine why and who first came up with the notation, but I say throw it into that errata list that's coming our way.

 

Arnold

[shiverbones]

oil fire, i can't really see it otherwise. Look at fire depiocted on almost any comic, artists always throw in black dots & lumps near the base of a fire just to indicate heat, fire and material. I have done it myself. I prefer the nice and clean cut examples of aomic energy like black cat mystery 50!

[PovertyRow]

I prefer the nice and clean cut examples of aomic energy like black cat mystery 50!

 

Anyone got a light?

[kahml]

And oh boy, do I love a happy ending!

 

Thanks everyone - this has been a real blast!

 

Larry

[valiantman]

For instance, I have a copy of the 20th edition (1990) and there is no explicit mention of #61-- it is just lumped together with the run from 61-70, without further comment.

I have the 26th edition (1996) and there's no special mention of #61 in there either.

Looks like it's a very recent comment.