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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2017 23:40:30 GMT -5
Well, I won Detective Comics #308! So very soon I will be gazing in wonder at the menace of ... The Flame-Master! And Batman setting himself on fire! That's a fun reading issue and I know that you'll enjoy it!
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 13, 2017 11:05:04 GMT -5
Well, I won Detective Comics #308! So very soon I will be gazing in wonder at the menace of ... The Flame-Master! And Batman setting himself on fire! That's a fun reading issue and I know that you'll enjoy it! I also got 5 issues of Kirby's 1970s OMAC series for only $8.50! Can't wait to read these!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2017 11:09:58 GMT -5
That's a fun reading issue and I know that you'll enjoy it! I also got 5 issues of Kirby's 1970s OMAC series for only $8.50! Can't wait to read these! That's an excellent price for those books ... nice going!
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 17, 2017 16:49:42 GMT -5
This came in the mail today! I haven't had a chance to read it yet. And I now have every issue of Detective Comics from #304 to #327. So much Jack Schiff! If you read too many in one sitting without a doctor's supervision, you could get brain damage! But O what a wonderful kind of damage to the brain!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2017 17:11:45 GMT -5
Hoosier X ... Looking forward seeing your review on the Flame Master!
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 21, 2017 15:40:45 GMT -5
I read Detective Comics #308 a few days ago but I haven't had a chance to write about it.
It gets a lot of points for being set in the Southwest. Batman and Robin are chasing some guy who they think is hiding out in a circus. He escapes and they chase him into an ancient pueblo. They track him to a magic Indian room that has a lot of symbols on the wall and a broken glass globe that - they quickly surmise - releases a gas that gives you the power of the elements. So they chase the Flame-Master around for 13 pages and he changes from fire to water to earth to air and finally Batman uses the other gas globe from the magic Indian room to get the same powers and defeat the Flame-Master.
Not quite a classic of the Schiff era, but I liked it anyway.
In the Martian Manhunter, John Jones has to deliver a knife (or a ring? I forgot already) to this country in Europe that's really small and has chosen not to develop technology into the 20th century, so it's a medieval kingdom with castles and knight and knights and so on. Except for the airport. Diane Meade decides to go too secretly because ... she's Diane Meade. Anyway bad guys steal the item that's being returned and J'onn is hit by lighting and for some reason can't turn back to his John Jones identity. He flies back to Middletown to the police station and says "I better see what's going on" so people won't conclude that the Manhunter and John Jones are the same person when they show up at the same place. Bananashenanigans ensue. Diane Meade is taken hostage! The Manhunter gets struck by lightning again so he has his secret identity back. The stolen item is returned. Captain Harding enjoys the Jumbo Roast Beef Sandwich combo, which comes with steak fries and cole slaw.
So, you know, the usual mid-Silver Age Detective Comics shenanigans.
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Post by batusi on Jul 25, 2017 10:57:28 GMT -5
Nice cover Hoosier X, an old Batman comic I have yet to read.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 3, 2017 12:35:28 GMT -5
I got this in the mail yesterday: Lessee. Bruce Wayne and his young ward Richard Grayson are guests on a TV talk show from the Gotham Broadcasting Company. The host is William B. Williams, who according to Wikipedia is a real guy, a DJ and television personality of the 1960s. He allegedly coined the nickname "Chairman of the Board" for Frank Sinatra. Bruce and Dick are rather surprised when the other guests turn out to be Batman and Robin! Well, surprise guests are SUPPOSED to be a surprise! Some dopey Gotham crooks are nearby, in a crummy little apartment, watching TV, and they see the show. They are out of the favor with their old gang and have been left out of the loop on the latest caper. They are trying to figure out how to redeem themselves with the Gotham criminal element. Knowing the show is live, they get some knockout gas, sneak into the studio and release the gas into the ventilating system. Then they abduct "Batman" and "Robin" while Bruce, Dick and William B. Williams (and the crew and everybody else) are all unconscious. So that just leave five or six pages for Bruce and Dick to slip out of their civvies and into their super-hero costumes and track down the crooks and save the fake Batman and Robin. (It turns out that Williams knew they were fakes. They are a couple of college kids who dress up as Batman and Robin for frat parties and other events. It was going to be revealed at the end of the show as a prank.) There are some funny little bits. The fake Batman and Robin regain consciousness and go back to the frat house. The crooks follow them to find out who they are and where the Bat-Cave might be. They go to the frat house and the crooks are like "Wha-?!?! The Bat-Cave is a frat house? And Batman and Robin are a couple of drunken, loudmouthed, roofie-using frat boys? Oh! Wait! It makes sense! No one would suspect them!" Maybe I'm just getting used to "New Look" craziness, but this one just doesn't seem that far-fetched and I liked it quite a bit. Over in the Elongated Man series, the Dibnys are at a race track and the guy behind them wins two races in a row (winning in excess of $2000) but he expresses disappointment and tears up the tickets. Well, this makes Ralph's nose start twitching so he switches into his Elongated Man guise and follows the guy into the parking lot. Sue says, "Have fun, dear. I'm going shopping! See you back at the hotel! Don't forget we're going to the opera tonight where we'll probably stumble into another overly elaborate crime scheme!" So meanwhile, Ralph stumbles into another overly elaborate crime scheme as the guy who hates being so lucky is just conning Ralph so he'll have an alibi at the time that a masked man robs a judge and steals his stamp collection. You know. The usual.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 13, 2017 16:50:24 GMT -5
After I bid on two copies of this and didn't get them: I just went ahead and ordered a copy. And I didn't get that one either! A last-minute examination by the seller showed that it was damaged in some unspecified way, so I was offered a pretty good compensation for my trouble, and I got this: And this: And from a different dealer, I got a beat-up (but not TOO beat-up) copy of this for $8: I got #350 in the mail already. It's pretty good, but I think you have to be a fan of Sheldon Moldoff's "style" (for lack of a better word) to really appreciate it. The first part of the story is told in flashback. The Monarch of Menace was a villain Batman met early in his career before Robin. And the Monarch beat the pants off Batman, thinking way ahead at every turn! And then he retired before the rematch. Of course, he comes back in this issue, giving Batman a chance to beat the only villain that had ever escaped him. (I wonder what the Red Hood would say about that.) I like old stories, before the Caped Crusader became Bat-God. (I also like the one (in Detective #370, I think) where the kid who bullied Bruce Wayne as a kid comes back to Gotham City.) And look at that great Joe Kubert story cover! (I still want a Detective #388, though. "The Joker On The Moon!")
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 15, 2017 10:44:35 GMT -5
I got Detective Comics #282 and #353 in the mail yesterday.
I haven't read #353 yet.
But #282 is one of those random stupid-looking alien stories that helps me understand why people hate the Jack Schiff years.
Oh, I'll still defend Jack Schiff because I love so many of the stories from this period. I even like some of the random stupid-looking alien stories. (Like Detective Comics #326. And my favorite story from this period - "Prisoners of Three Words!" - has a random stupid-looking alien.)
But some of them are pretty bad, and "Batman's Interplanetary Rival!" is not good. Not good at all.
I read Roy Raymond TV Detective and Martian Manhunter, but it was so late last night by that point that I don't really remember them. I do remember one quite exciting and rare occurrence from the Martian Manhunter story. Captain Harding got up from his desk and even went outside! He must have heard there were donuts on sale somewhere.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 27, 2017 19:34:16 GMT -5
I was checking eBay for good deals on some of few New Look Detective issues I need, and I came across some Schiff era issues that had some pretty low bids. So I put a slightly higher bid on a couple of them and I got Detective #291 for $11 and Detective #303 for $13.50. You just never know with these alien-themed Batman stories. I've read two or three in a row that were disappointing. But sometimes you get CLASSICS like "Prisoners of Three Worlds!" and "Captives of the Alien Circus!"
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 28, 2017 13:46:14 GMT -5
I got Detective Comics #282 and #353 in the mail yesterday. I haven't read #353 yet. But #282 is one of those random stupid-looking alien stories that helps me understand why people hate the Jack Schiff years. Oh, I'll still defend Jack Schiff because I love so many of the stories from this period. I even like some of the random stupid-looking alien stories. (Like Detective Comics #326. And my favorite story from this period - "Prisoners of Three Words!" - has a random stupid-looking alien.) But some of them are pretty bad, and "Batman's Interplanetary Rival!" is not good. Not good at all. I read Roy Raymond TV Detective and Martian Manhunter, but it was so late last night by that point that I don't really remember them. I do remember one quite exciting and rare occurrence from the Martian Manhunter story. Captain Harding got up from his desk and even went outside! He must have heard there were donuts on sale somewhere. I love "Prisoners of Three Worlds." Silver Age Specialness!
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 29, 2017 12:16:28 GMT -5
I got Detective Comics #282 and #353 in the mail yesterday. I haven't read #353 yet. But #282 is one of those random stupid-looking alien stories that helps me understand why people hate the Jack Schiff years. Oh, I'll still defend Jack Schiff because I love so many of the stories from this period. I even like some of the random stupid-looking alien stories. (Like Detective Comics #326. And my favorite story from this period - "Prisoners of Three Words!" - has a random stupid-looking alien.) But some of them are pretty bad, and "Batman's Interplanetary Rival!" is not good. Not good at all. I read Roy Raymond TV Detective and Martian Manhunter, but it was so late last night by that point that I don't really remember them. I do remember one quite exciting and rare occurrence from the Martian Manhunter story. Captain Harding got up from his desk and even went outside! He must have heard there were donuts on sale somewhere. I love "Prisoners of Three Worlds." Silver Age Specialness! "Prisoners of Three Worlds!" is great! But what about "Murder in Skyland!"? Can an old Batman story with such a title even compete with "Captives of the Alien Circus!"?
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 29, 2017 12:38:36 GMT -5
I love "Prisoners of Three Worlds." Silver Age Specialness! "Prisoners of Three Worlds!" is great! But what about "Murder in Skyland!"? Can an old Batman story with such a title even compete with "Captives of the Alien Circus!"? I would say it's a step below, but any Batman story set in an amusement park, theme park, museum or oversized dispaly of ordinary objects is worth the price of admission!
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 29, 2017 12:55:52 GMT -5
"Prisoners of Three Worlds!" is great! But what about "Murder in Skyland!"? Can an old Batman story with such a title even compete with "Captives of the Alien Circus!"? I would say it's a step below, but any Batman story set in an amusement park, theme park, museum or oversized dispaly of ordinary objects is worth the price of admission! There sure were a lot of dinosaur robots in old Batman comic books! Was there some kind of Gotham City factory that mass-produced giant brontosaurus robots and giant tyrannosaurus robots for public use? I want all these comics, by the way. NOW!
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