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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 11, 2018 16:54:02 GMT -5
I'm up to Detective Comics #473! And this Penguin story - "The Malay Penguin" - is an important issue to me personally. It was the first issue of Detective Comics that I bought brand-new off a spinner rack. (I would also buy the Joker story in #475 and #476, but buying Detective Comics didn't become a habit until much later. After #476 I didn't buy another issue until #512. That was when I started getting Detective fairly regularly up to about #580.) Even though I started buying super-hero comics in summer 1975, I mostly bought Marvels. But I did read DC comics here and there, and I learned to love a lot of DC's villains. I bought the Joker comic after I found out it existed. And I bought The Secret Society of Super-Villains from #2 on. And I would pick up random DC comics if I recognized the villain. (For a long time, my only issue of Superman was #301. I got it because Solomon Grundy was the villain.) So I sometimes bought Batman's self-titled comic if I recognized the villain from the 1960s TV show. My first issue of Batman was #279 with the Riddler. I also had #286 (with the Joker), #287 and #288 (with the Penguin) and the infamous four-part "Where Were You the Night Batman Was Killed?" storyline in #291 to #294, which came out roughly the same time as Detective #473. I remember being kind of excited about Detective #473. Because here's the Penguin! And here's this great art (from Rogers and Austin). And all these subplots involving the Joker, Hugo Strange (who?), Rupert Thorne and Silver St. Cloud. (Aside from Catwoman, Silver had always been my favorite Bruce Wayne girlfriend. That story where Kevin Smith got to write her dialogue is DEFINITELY an Imaginary Story!) And Robin showed up as a guest star! (I didn't much like Robin when I was a kid, but I didn't mind if he was a guest star now and then.) It was all very intriguing. But "The Malay Penguin" was never my favorite Penguin story, mostly because the Penguin isn't in it all that much. I much preferred the Penguin appearances in Batman #287 and #288, as well as the one in #257, which I had acquired at a used-book store for 25 cents. I hadn't read "The Malay Penguin" for many years, but about five years ago, after I picked up all the Marshall Rogers issues (#471 to #479), I read them over a few nights, and I'm thinking I might have just skimmed #473 because it didn't really make an impression or change my lukewarm evaluation from my childhood. I read #473 last night, rather more slowly and carefully, and now I can see how subtle it really is, how carefully the Penguin has planned his heist, and I also love how much trouble Batman has in figuring it out. And Robin doesn't have a clue! I think I've been very unfair to this comic all these years! And the next time I'm thinking about my Top Ten Penguin Stories, "The Malay Penguin" will be a candidate! (Though it would be hard to beat "Bargains in Banditry" or "The Parasols of Plunder!" |
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Post by batusi on Mar 11, 2018 23:33:49 GMT -5
Detective Comics 473 is in my opinion one of the most iconic covers featuring both Batman and Robin in action.
It's been awhile since I read this issue, but the art is what stands out the most for me.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 13, 2018 13:45:33 GMT -5
I read this iconic two-part story last night. I don't know how many times I've read these. Over and over again since I first bought them off a spinner rack back in the 1970s. I'm a big fan of the Joker, dating back to the Batman TV show when Cesar Romero was making the most of the role, even if he wouldn't shave off his moustache. And this has long been my favorite Joker storyline, despite a lot of competition from bunches and bunches of Golden Age Joker stories I love so much. (I'm pretty sure the rest of my Top Ten Joker stories would be from the 1940 to 1964 period. Maybe I would sneak in the story (with Lex Luthor) from Joker #7.) I'm not going to summarize it or analyze it much. I do want to type a few words about something that bugged me about this story while I was reading it last night. It strikes me that the Joker is a little out of character here. Yes, I know he's insane and unpredictable, especially after his Bronze Age return in Batman #251 where he shed his long-time "eccentric gangster" persona and became the murdering psychopath clown we learned to love so much during the Bronze Age and even for a while after that (maybe even up until he cut his freaking face off in the New 52). But in "The Laughing Fish," he has a plan that can't possibly work. And he's murdering people right and left for a plan that has no chance of working. It doesn't matter how many people he kills, he will never get a percentage from fish sandwiches and filet of sole just because the fish have his face. He's insane, yes, so the fact that his plan is insane isn't really an issue. I think it's out of character because it's a lot of damn work - developing and making the laughing fish" chemical, storing sufficient quantities of the chemical, then dumping it on the high seas - for a plan that has no chance of actually succeeding. The Joker is insane ... but he's not CRAZEE! I've been mulling over other Joker stories from the mid- to late-1970s and trying to come up with another time that he put so much effort into a plan that just couldn't work. But maybe he just did it for the laughs. After all, he is the Joker. I should point out that one of my favorite Joker moments EVER is in #475. That bit where he pushes his henchman "Blue Eyes" in front of a truck. "Blue Eyes," Southpaw" and "Tooth" were the Joker's henchmen in most of the issues of the 1970s Joker comic book, and it was nice to see them acknowledged in one of the regular Batman books. "Blue Eyes" didn't have much of a personality, so I don't think anybody misses him. But he was fortunate as a character to be immortalized as one of the players in this great little Joker moment. That was Steve Englehart's last issue. Next, Len Wein takes over and introduces a new Clayface! And then ... a reprint! And then ... Dollar Comics! |
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Post by MDG on Mar 13, 2018 14:08:23 GMT -5
^^^ These issues also resolved the Silver St. Cloud and Boss Thorne storylines--Englehart didn't leave any dangling threads for others to clean up, which is another great thing about this run.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 15, 2018 21:30:14 GMT -5
This came in the mail today and I went out on the porch and read it immediately. (I was joined by the outside cat Tabby, who loves to sit with me and purr and get petted when I read on the porch.) I feel kind of bad about making fun of this comic a few days ago. Yes, it is extravagantly silly, as I knew it would be, but it's also a lot of fun! In the Batman story, the Gotham City ferry goes through some kind of electrical, inter-dimensional gateway and floats into another dimension where the pink bubblegum people are being attacked by pillbug lizards. The people on the ferry are a disparate group of Gothamites. There's a prizefighter (Tiger) who is washed-up by recent injuries and will never fight again. There's a timid girl named Nancy who thinks no one will ever love her. There's a wealthy businessman who spends his time brooding about what a bunch of suckers people are when they help others. There's the ferry captain who is soon to retire, and he muses that nothing happens on the ferry and he wishes - just once! - that something exciting would happen. (Apparently the Gotham City ferry is the only place in Gotham where nothing happens. Because my impression of Gotham is that it's a very lively town!) There's also a crook who has evaded the law so far and just about to skip town. Unbeknownst to him, he's being followed by ... Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, who slip into their super-hero identities just as the ferry goes through the dimensional warp. Things turn out OK over the next dozen pages. The bubblegum people are able to defeat the pillbug lizards (with Batman's help) and the ferry passengers make it back to Gotham City, all deeply affected by the experience. The bad guy is caught. Tiger and Nancy bond over the experience and plan to get married. The rich guy learns that helping makes you feel good about yourself. The ferry captain has on exciting experience for his scrapbook. It's all in a day's work for Batman and Robin. The backups are also really silly but really fun! In the Aquaman story, the editor of the Maritime News is hurt when the Phantom Raider (or whatever) makes his helicopter crash. The editor will recover but it will take a few weeks, and he will lose the paper if he's out that long. Plus, it seems he was just about to discover the identity of the Phantom Raider. So, Aquaman steps in and becomes the editor, the main writer, the photographer ... and also the delivery boy! This story is delightfully hilarious with numerous panels of things like octopuses riding around on the backs of whales and distributing newspapers to people on ships. And a flying fish whizzing over the railing and dropping a newspaper on a boat. And in the Martian Manhunter story, Diane Meade gets some competition. There's another "pretty patrolwoman" in town. (And so you can tell them part, the new girl is a brunette.) The new girl is a real go-getter, just like Diane, and the two women find themselves trying to out-do each other in the recklessness department as they both seem to be eligible for a medal of bravery. Things get a bit out of hand, but fortunately the Manhunter is there to step in before anyone is killed. (And for some reason, I'm seeing Melissa Fumero (from Brooklyn Nine Nine) as Diane Meade.) |
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 15, 2018 21:44:37 GMT -5
I read the regular-sized issues of Detective comics pretty quickly. #477 is mostly a reprint from Detective #408. Then #478 and #479 features a two-part story by Len Wein, Marshall Rogers and Dick Giordano, and it's pretty cool! The third Clayface is loose in Gotham, turning people into putty and trying to cure his condition. (He got some of Matthew Hagen's blood and experimented with it to cure himself of a disfiguring bone disease.) His girlfriend is a mannequin, taking a break from a Twilight Zone episode to be Clayface's moll. (If DC wanted a really a dangerous Clayface, they should have brought back this guy instead of the amalgam Clayface that has been running around and ruining comics for me for over a decade.) And then #480 features nice Don Newton art and a story I've never much cared for. I read the first story in the first Dollar Comics issue of Detective Comics last night. A pretty good story by Denny O'Neil. Great Marshall Rogers art. And most of it takes place on a Gotham Charity Party train! It's been a while since I read any stories from Detective Comics during the Dollar Comics era, but I remember it as being a lot of fun most of the time, with some really cool standout stories. And also, Don Heck is back drawing Batgirl! And Michael Golden on the Demon, quickly followed by ... Ditko! And ... a bunch of stuff! |
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Post by Cheswick on Mar 15, 2018 23:51:48 GMT -5
The Denny O'Neil stories from the Dollar Comics Detective issues are some of my favorite Batman stories.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 19, 2018 13:12:41 GMT -5
I'm about halfway through Detective Comics #483, the third issue of the "Dollar Comics" era for Detective, and before I get involved in anything specific about these particular issues, I wanted to say a few words about the 'Dollar Comics" and find out what everybody else thinks of this era. (Thanks to Cheswick for weighing in on the Denny O'Neil stories.) I like the Dollar Comics nowadays. I've enjoyed them over the last few years as I've been gathering them for my complete Detective Comics collection. (They are kind of hard to find in low- to medium-grade. For quite a while, I had most of the issues between #445 and #480 and every issue from #496 on, but I only had three or four issues between #481 and #495. I finally bit the bullet and started paying $10 to $12 each so I could fill in the gap. It makes me wonder if affordable copies are scarce because so few people were buying it at the time.) But I didn't read them at the time. I didn't start buying many DC comics until right after the "Dollar Comics" era. I don't think I bought any regular "Dollar" issues of anything during the "Dollar Comics" era. I do remember a few Specials and Annuals that probably count. Like that Flash Special with Grodd, guest-starring Kid Flash, Goolden Age Flash and Johnny Quick. And there was a Batman Annual with art by Trevor von Eeden. I think it was Batman Annual #8. (I call it the last good Ra's al Ghul story.) A few years later, I came across Adventure Comics #461 to #466 in a bargain box. I like the JSA a lot, and the price was right, so I bought them all. (Great Joe Staton art!) And I was in the habit of pulling them out every once in a while and reading the JSA stories ... but not the other stories. I had those books for 30 years or more before I read any of the non-JSA stories. That's very rare for me. I usually read everything in every comic book I buy as soon as I get it. When I got interested in Queen Bee a couple of years ago after I bought a beat-up copy of JLA #60, I was looking at an index of her appearances online and I saw that she was in Adventure #463 and #464, I thought "Hey! I have those!" and I finally read all the stories in Adventure Comics over the next week or so. I really don't remember specifically why I didn't read the Dollar Comics when they came out. But I can guess. They were expensive. It was OK to splurge on an annual, but spending A WHOLE DOLLAR every month on a regular comic book series was too much. Another problem (for me) was that I had never been in the habit of reading that many DC comics, so any issue of a Dollar Comic was bound to have MAYBE one or two features I liked and then three or four or maybe five stories of characters I didn't know or didn't care about. (For example, these issues of Detective Comics I'm reading now have an ongoing Robin storyline where one of the subplots involves Dick Grayson's old girlfriend Lori Elton, who is now seeing someone else. That would have meant NOTHING to me in the late 1970s. (To be honest, it doesn't mean a whole lot to me now, but at least I know who she is.)) Anyway, I'm over that now, and I'm having fun with most of the series in the issues of Detective Comics I'm reading now. (Well, the first Human Target story didn't do a whole lot for me.) |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2018 16:39:36 GMT -5
Hoosier X ... Queen Bee is one of my favorite villainess and loved this JLA Story and I was happy to see Batgirl gets a supporting role in that story.  About the Dollar Comics ... those were either .30 to .50 cents a piece after a month and went down to .20 to .40 cents after 2-3 months and I usually buy them then. That's what my LCS did back then.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 19, 2018 17:01:49 GMT -5
Hoosier X ... Queen Bee is one of my favorite villainess and loved this JLA Story and I was happy to see Batgirl gets a supporting role in that story. About the Dollar Comics ... those were either .30 to .50 cents a piece after a month and went down to .20 to .40 cents after 2-3 months and I usually buy them then. That's what my LCS did back then. I think this is my favorite issue of JLA EVER! |
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Post by foxley on Mar 20, 2018 1:53:33 GMT -5
Southpaw would make a brief reappearance during Len Wein's run on Batman during the 80s. (I think. It might have been Gerry Conway. Around that period, anyway.)
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 20, 2018 12:53:42 GMT -5
I was going to take a break from buying Detective Comics after completing my collection of #301 onward and then getting a good price for #275 with the legendary Zebra Batman story. But there's an auction for a low-grade copy of #267, the first appearance of Bat-Mite! This comic can get pretty pricey, so I'm bidding a little more than I usually do for these late 1950s issues of Detective Comics. Auction ends around midnight tonight. |
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Post by chadwilliam on Mar 21, 2018 12:25:25 GMT -5
I wonder if just as many fans were put off by the anthology format of the Dollar Comics as they were the price. Would 'Man-Bat, Private Investigator' or 'Robin tries on new costumes sent in by fans' have sparked as much interest as say, five Batman tales would have? I suspect that for the same reason 'Superman' or 'Batman' sold better than 'Action Comics' or 'Detective' these Dollar Comics might as well have 'NOW WITH MORE FILLER!' emblazoned on their covers with their '40 cents worth of Batman, 60 cents worth of back-up' format as far as many fans were concerned.
There is some great stuff to be found in these - both the Man-Bat and Robin tales I cited feature artwork by Don Newton; that Bat-Mite tale in the following issue, short though it is, earned a spot in the original The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told volume; the Batman stories themselves utilized talents ranging from Marshall Rogers to Don Newton to Jim Starlin to P Craig Russell to Steve Ditko while the main title was recovering from David Vern's run - but, would a lot of kids have taken a chance on hoping that they'd enjoy The Human Target, Man-Bat, The Demon, etc as much as Batman to not just stick with the title that was 100% Batman?
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Post by MDG on Mar 21, 2018 13:15:55 GMT -5
I wonder if just as many fans were put off by the anthology format of the Dollar Comics as they were the price. Or if "Batman Family" made it seem juvenile. Superman could get away with soemthing like that, but I thought it sounded stupid. Maybe something like "Batman and other tales of Gotham City" would've clicked more. Or "Batman's Pals & Gals." |
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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 21, 2018 18:32:06 GMT -5
DC had several "Family" titles at that time - Superman Family, Batman Family, Tarzan Family, and Super-Team Family, so it must have sounded OK to some people. Batman Family had been selling well enough, but Detective had been in a slump and was slated for cancellation. Then someone told new publisher Jenette Kahn what "DC" stood for - Detective Comics Inc., the original name of the company. She decided to keep the name Detective alive by using that name on what was basically a continuation of Batman Family.
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