Big-Two super-comics that sold worse than Thor: The Mighty Avenger

You've no doubt already heard that Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee's recently all-ages Thor: The Mighty Avenger series is about to be canceled.

If you haven't heard, then you must not read much about super-comics on the Internet, as it was one of the top topics of conversations over the course of the last week or so. (Exhibit A, B, C, D, E, F and G, for starters).

Shortly after all the chatter climaxed and started to die down a bit, The Beat posted their regular, monthly features analyzing the available data regarding comic book sales from DC and Marvel in a given month.

These numbers, remember, don't reflect reality in a one-to-one relationship, but are estimates, and are associated with the number of copies of comics that retailers ordered through Diamond distributors in order to attempt to sell them to customers. That means the numbers are more valuable in determining the relative success of particular titles to one another, rather than determining how many people are buying a particular issue of any particular comic.

Given that Thor: The Mighty Avenger just got the axe, something rather unusual for an all-ages book like that, since they all do pretty terrible in the direct market (presumably selling better outside the direct market, either through subscriptions or in trade format later down the road), I thought it might be worthwhile to look at how it sold in comparison to other titles that haven't yet been canceled.

First, here's Paul O'Brien's Beat column looking at Marvel's month-to-month sales for September, the latest numbers available. O'Brien notes that September's issue of Thor: The Mighty Avenger #4 placed at #177 on the top 300 list, with 10,887 units. His only comment? "Better than usual for an all-ages book."

That is a pretty decent number for one of the Big Two's kid-friendly, continuity-lite titles, although maybe the fact that the first issue had around 20,000 units ordered was the significant factor here, since the title's sales seem to have plummeted by 50% in just a few months. Was it the rate of decline more than the actual units being ordered that doomed the book?

It's also possible that maybe Thor: The Mighty Avenger wasn’t being viewed by Marvel as an all-ages book, and, compared to a Marvel Universe title, it was selling quite abysmally?

Or maybe Marvel simply got what they needed from the book already, and it didn't really matter if they stopped producing new issues of it or not. By the fourth issue, they would have had enough for a trade, and I suspect the reason for the Thor glut now wasn’t necessarily to get four-to-ten Thor comics into the hands of readers each month so much as to guarantee a big enough stockpile of solid, modern Thor comics on hand that Marvel could package enough of ‘em in to trade to sell to people who have their interest piqued when the movie comes out (I assumed this is why Dynamite has been aggressively publishing Green Hornet comics like there’s no tomorrow…once the movie window closes and "The Sterling Effect" takes effect, there effectively is no tomorrow for Green Hornet comics. At least, not a half-dozen in a half-dozen different Green Hornet continuities anyway).

Here are the Marvel-published titles released in September that charted worse than Thor: The Mighty Avenger: Halo: Boot Camp #1, Iron Man 2: Agents of SHIELD, Hercules: Twilight of a God, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter: Circus, Hit Monkey, X-Campus, Cassanova, Gorilla-Man, Rawhide Kid, Marvelman Family’s Finest, Spider-Man (Only 5,779! That’s around half of Thor!), Super Hero Squad (5,304!) and Sky Doll: Lacrima Christi.

Other than Spider-Man and Super Hero Squad, those are all reprints, miniseries or defacto ongoings in the form of a series of miniseries. It’s difficult to see what the difference between the all-ages Thor and the all-ages Spider-Man comics might be, especially given Thor’s far, far superior sales. Does the Spidey team just work half as cheap as the Thor team or something?

And because it's so much fun and perfectly healthy to turn every discussion of mainstream superhero comics into a DC vs. Marvel thing, why don't we also look at Marc-Oliver Frisch's column on DC's month-to-month sales for September of 2010.

At DC and its Vertigo and Wildstorm imprints, these are the books that were selling worse than Thor: The Mighty Avenger in September: The X-Files/30 Days of Night, Doom Patrol, The Spirit, Hellblazer, Sweet Tooth, Azrael, Daytripper, House of Mystery, Tiny Titans, Northlanders, God of War, Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom, The Authority, Batman: The Brave and The Bold, DMZ, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, The Mighty Crusaders, Ratchet and Clank, Fringe, Wildcats, DV8, Wetworks: Mutations (Just 5,083), Greek Street. That’s mostly Vertigo and Wildstorm and the unofficial "Johnny DC" imprint books, plus many of them are limited projects.

Still, there are plenty of ongoing concerns, notably a few them that are both on the DC Comics imprint and part of the DCU line, like Doom Patrol and Azrael, both of which seem safely uncanceled through February at least.

DC is therefore more reluctant to axe low-selling titles...is that a good thing or is that a fault?

Certainly it doesn’t seem likely that either Azrael or Doom Patrol are suddenly going to catch fire and reverse their downward trends—super-comics hardly ever reverse their downward trends in sales and, when they do, it's generally something that happens for a month or two. The goal, based on years of reading these charts, is apparently to lose sales very, very slowly, or to maintain the same sales, rather than improve them.

Looked at that way, Marvel's ruthlessness in cutting a title like Thor: The Mighty Avenger seems to make better business sense, however from a creator's point of view I'd imagine DC's reluctance to pull plugs is seen as a better situation. When DC finally does cancel Doom Patrol or Azrael, for example, those involved shouldn't be the least bit surprised or resentful that the publisher never gave the book's a chance.

Well, farewell Thor: The Mighty Avenger! I'm sorry I trade-waited you, now!

League Line-Ups That Never Existed (But Should Have) #7

Okay, so here's the cover of DC Comics: The 75th Anniversary Poster Book (which I discussed at some length here):I like it.

Here's the back cover: I like that too.

Because of the nature of the book—poster-sized reproductions of DC Comics covers as a visual history of the company—all of the images within are full covers, which means there are no panels or grids in it, but the cover uses the basic comic book lay-out of pictures in grids and white gutters of space to evoke the look of a comic book. It also manages to not choose a favorite, and simply put one of the covers contained inside on the cover of the collection.

And by varying the sizes of the panels, the bulk of the cover space goes to six big, partial covers, so relatively little about the images within are necessarily "spoiled."

For our purposes here, in this extremely occasional feature in which I see a group of DC heroes gathered outside of a DC comic book—a group generally selected for their iconic status rather than for their fitness for Justice League service—and wonder aloud, "Hey, would this be a good Justice League line up?", I wanted to take a look at those six panels given prominence.

On the front cover are DC's trinity of Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman, obviously, but they needed three more for the back cover, and there choices are...interesting. No surprise that number four and five are Green Lantern and Flash, really, but Hawkman is a surprise. I would have assumed the dubious honor of DC's Sixth Most Iconic Hero would go to Aquaman (Although Captain Marvel would be a good bet too).

But no, not only does Aquaman not make the back cover of this collection, he's hardly even on the inside. There are no covers form an Aquaman comic book contained within the book, he only appears on the cover of Justice League of America #21, along with 13 other superheroes. (Selections were made based on the historical importance of the images, the books they were attached to, and the people who drew them, more than any sort of fan-favorite or recognize-ability of the characters, which is why Mr. District Attorney, Leave it To Binky, Prez, Hawk and Dove, The Creeper, Angel and The Ape and Weird Western Tales Starring Scalphunter are included, but no issue of Aquaman is).

Instead, that spot goes to Hawkman, who at least has a literal icon to highlight—that little yelling hawk profile on the red oval in the middle of his harness.

Also interesting about the selections are that, because of the way they're cropped, even relatively unflattering images look heroic and exciting (Check out the full Superman cover below), and the particular images chosen.

Whoever made these decisions could easily have found pictures of the various hero-symbols in which those symbols are front and center, the focus of the image. But preference was given to the symbols in action. That's not a picture of Wonder Woman's double-W's, but of them hanging from her tunic-thingee as she poses. The Bat-symbols not just resting on Batman's bat-shirt, but it's caught in the a circle of a flashlight as the guy wearing lurks in the shadows. Superman's S-shield is, of course, flying.

Green Lantern is the only character of these six whose chest-symbol isn't shown; rather, the ring his symbol symbolizes is highlighted, giving him an exterior, detachable hero-icon (And perhaps this speaks to the interchangeability of the Green Lantern hero identity, at least in passing—Green Lantern is the only one of these heroes whose costumed identity and power or skill-set can literally be slipped off the finger and handed to someone—anyone, really—else. Batman can hand me his costume, but I'd just be Caleb in a Batman suit, getting my ass-kicked by the first criminal I tried to apprehend. But if Green Lantern handed me his ring (and I guess if I had the necessary "will power" or whatever), BAM! I'm a superhero!).

So, let's take a closer look at the heroes that this book's cover design posits as the six most highlight-worthy DC characters:





All six have been Justice Leaguers before, obviously, so this is hardly a daring line-up, more questionable for who isn't included than who is. What would you think of this half-dozen superheroes as a Justice League? Flash, like Green Lantern, could be any of 'em really—the cover-designer went with Jay Garrick, but I imagine that has more to do with the quality of the image than the desire to use the original character instead of one of his more popular successors and their more iconic costumes (The only other Flash covers were from Flash #123, The "Flash of Two Worlds" one, and #125 and #129, as smaller reproductions on the back of the featured covers)

I think that would make a fine Justice League, personally, if a little small and homogeneous, and would read a JLA comic with them in it (Depending on the creative team, of course, because I am an old snob).

How about you?

Comic shop comics: Nov. 10

The All New Batman: The Brave and The Bold #1 (DC Comics) Okay, I see a problem right here on the cover: Shouldn’t it be All-New, rather than All New, since the words are describing Batman: The Brave and The Bold?

No complaints or even questions about what’s under the cover of the first issue, though. Writer Sholly Fisch maintains the basic two team-up format of the previous version of the comic (and the cartoon that spawned it), with an introductory scene involving Batman teaming up with one hero (here, Black Canary, to battle The Joker and his robot army) before being called away to a different adventure with a different hero.

As the cover shows, that other hero is Superman, who invites Batman into the Bottle City of Kandor—where Superman has no more powers than Batman—in order to help him solve a mysterious crime.

Fisch’s scripting is solid. This is hardly the wackiest or funniest issue of the Batman team-up comic, but it’s amusing, and plays fair as far as the mystery is concerned (in that respect, it’s superior to Identity Crisis).

The real treat here, for me at least, was seeing new artist Rick Burchett tackle this particular version of Batman.

Burchett is, of course, a great talent, and one of those artists that I can’t quite figure out why they aren’t more popular (in addition to being an artist who I’m always eager to see more work from).

His presence on this title is particularly interesting to me because I’m always fascinated by the ways different artists portray the same things, or how different artists try to attune their individual styles to something like pre-existing character designs or models.

Burchett has plenty of experience with DC comics based on previous animated Batman TV shows, for example, but like The Batman, Batman: The Brave and The Bold is quite far removed from the Bruce Timm-designed world of Batman: The Animated Series and its immediate descendants.

Burchett actually acquits himself quite nicely. His Batman here resembles something between the Animated Series version and the Brave and the Boldversion. He’s slightly elongated and rounder and smoother than the latter, but has the same square head and expressive face. Superman, meanwhile, resembles the one from his animated series, although with more personality in his expressions as well.

All in all, it’s a quite decent all-ages super-comic: Fine for kids, with enough craft and entertainment value to entertain picky adults like me as well.


Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #6 (DC) Grant Morrison ties everything together—and I do mean everything—in this final, finally-shipped last issue. Batman makes it explicit that he has, in fact, been going through what Mister Miracle went through in 2005’s Seven Soldiers: Mr. Miracle series. When time gets a little flooey, there are scenes flashing back to 2006’s 52. Why did Dr. Hurt think, say and sometimes act like he was actually the devil during “Batman R.I.P.” and the build-up to it? That’s explained here, as the connection to Final Crisis is made explicit—turns out there’s more to it than Darkseid “killing” Batman back to the stone-age.

Batman dies and comes back to life again. The universe is rebooted again. Grant Morrison’s long multi-book, multi-year plotting pays off in a very satisfying way, and we get to see his Batman interacting with Wonder Woman, Superman, Tim Drake and plenty of other heroes and villains while cosmic stuff happens all around them, evoking fond memories of Morrison’s JLA run, which was some of my favorite superhero comics of all time (and some of my fondest memories of reading comics period).

The art in this particular issue is from Lee Garbett, Pere Perez, Alejandro Sicat and Walden Wong, and while it is a bit uneven—especially compared to the previous issues in the series—no one fucks anything up, and it all works fine.


Henry & Glenn Forever (Cantankerous Titles) What does it say about the relative comedic power of this particular comic book that you don’t even really need to read it to enjoy it?

Having now read the $6, 56-page little square trade paperback, I can honestly say that nothing in it struck me as hard as the first time I heard that title, saw that cover and heard the words “romance comic starring Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig.”

Does that speak to a weakness of the material, and it’s failure to really capitalize on an inspired, hilarious idea? Or does that simply speak to the strength of that idea—a comic gag so great you don’t even need to read the comic that it emanates from to enjoy it?

I don’t know. I know when I brought it into my house the other day, a guest saw the cover and broke into a long, giggling laugh, followed by a deep breath, and a second long, giggling laugh. complete with a “He’s giving him a back rub!” as punctuation.

The comic? A series of one-panel cartoons featuring the title characters, who are a couple, with occasional appearances by their Satanist neighbors, Hall and Oates.

The work is all credited to Igloo Tornado, a four-person collective. Each artist has a very different style of drawing, and makes different jokes regarding the two characters and their relationship, but all stem from the odd-couple nature of the two characters’ physical appearances, and the dissonance between their public personas and the insecure, emotional, relationship-focused scenario here. (You know what’s funny? This is hardly an extended “Ha ha, Danzig and Rollins are gay” joke; the fact that they are in a relationship with one another and they are both men is pretty much secondary to the weirdness of the pair in any sort of romantic, domestic narrative).

I don’t know exactly who did which strips, but I know Tom Neely is responsible for the ones I liked the best:Regardless of what they’re saying or doing, I love Neely’s comic strip/cartoon character versions of the characters, which makes for a visual odd-couple gag. I love the expressive little-button eyes on his Glenn, who looks like an early Walt Disney design of Danzig (Steamboat Danzig…?), and the fact that his big, old Henry Rollins looks so much like Dick Tracy.


Knight and Squire #2 (DC) If the Knight and Squire characters are Silver Age creations, and their modern, Grant Morrison-created versions are meant to be the results of a parallel, decades’ worth of imaginary comics that never actually saw print, but which can hypothetically have existed, is it strange that the Knight and Squire still seem to be Silver Age characters, having Silver Age-style adventures?

This isn’t a criticism, mind you; I’m glad writer Paul Cornell and artist Jimmy Broxton are telling a story that tries to mirror the DCU of 2010 in a British setting, it just strikes me as odd that the Silver Age seems to have never really ended in DC’s UK, at least judging by the first two issues of this six-issue miniseries.

But perhaps that’s appropriate—England is an old-fashioned country, right?

In this issue, another strong done-in-one with a beginning, middle and end that should read just as well in isolation as it did on the heels of the previous issue, we get to see a little of the title characters outside of their costumes before they take a case.

It’s a very local color sort of case, so much so that there’s a text page at the end explaining the situation to those of us who don’t quite know the ins and outs of the Lobsterback life-style and traditions we escaped from in the late 18th century. It also involves the supernatural, which is a neat twist given the nature of the conflict, but does make for two issues in a row where England’s Batman and Robin deal with the sort of thing you might expect England’s Dr. Strange to deal with.

That said, there’s a very relaxed, leisurely tone to Cornell’s Knight and Squire scripts so far, to the extent that reading the books seems to be an experience akin to just sort of hanging out with the characters, as opposed to sitting back while they struggle to thrill or entertain their passive audience on the other side of a fourth wall.

I can’t say enough good things about Broxton’s art. It’s clean, smooth and cartoony, but not so much that the exaggerations or abstractions color the tone of the story and suggest that it’s a comedy. Rather, the visual tone is one of serious (if light-hearted) superhero adventure, with some funny bits to it. Broxton’s art reminds me quite a bit of Cameron Stewart’s, which is a good thing, because Cameron Stewart is the best.

Perhaps the most ridiculous scene in the issue involves the Knight and Squire disguising themselves:I love what the Knight’s wannabe Bat-ears do to the hat, and the fact that I can’t imagine that same scene with Batman occurring in a DCU comic.


Tiny Titans/Little Archie #2 (DC) With the second issue, it’s made even clearer still that this is basically just an extra issue of Tiny Titans each month. Same creators, same style, same format—the only real difference is a couple of the guest-stars. And given my affection for the regular, old Tiny Titans series, you’ll get no complaints out of me regarding a couple of extra issues of it every month for the next few months (Unless DC and Archie Comics want to go ahead and make this an ongoing…? I seriously don’t mind them doing that at all!).

In this particular issue, confusion over the band name “Josie and the Pussycats” gets the girls an invite to join Pet Club, and gives Art Baltazar the opportunity to design “Little” versions of the Pussycats, here wearing little mitten gloves that I can’t imagine makes playing guitar or bass very easy.

In the second half of the book, Archie and his friends return, now dressed in their superhero costumes. There’s also an Archie villain I’ve never heard of, disposed of in a rather adorable way.

But perhaps most notably, this issue contains this:Wow, it’s so much easier than it looks!

Coming Soon:

One (1) of you requested more Mothman when I return from my brief, couple-day hiatus, and I've got good news for that one (1) reader.

My next self-published comic book, following My Pet Halfling (of which many, many, many copies are still available, so, for the love of God, order a copy already, huh?), is the prosaically-titled The Mothman (Rejected titles? The Mothman Funnies, Mothman Comics, Mothman Land).

As regular readers probably noticed, at one point over this past summer I became slightly obsessed with the Mothman, and, after sketching him/it for a while, I spent about a month writing and drawing a mini-comic featuring the Mothman.

It's going to be a 28-page, black and white (and a little bit of red, for the eyes) book consisting of short gag strips based on historic Mothman sightings. It's almost completely complete—I just need to finish up a little pre-production (scanning, etc) and then get it to the printer. Details on ordering a copy will hopefully follow pretty soon. In the mean time, that's the cover above and hey, why not order a copy of My Pet Halfling while you're waiting...?

And that ends tonight's commercial message. Actual content returns tomorrow night.

EDILW is going on a brief, several-day hiatus

Quick announcement: Two of my best friends in the whole wide world are getting married in my hometown this weekend, so I won't have as much free time to spend in front of the computer as usual. Therefore, this is probably going to be my last post on EDILW for...let's see...well, maybe I'll be back up and running on Monday? Tuesday at the latest?

In the mean time, have a good weekend and, I don't know, peruse the archives or something maybe...?

Action Comics Weekly #606: The one where everyone hates on Hal Jordan

My occasional series of posts taking close looks at issues of DC's 1988 weekly anthology version of Action Comics finally reaches issue #606, which is probably the single best issue of them all.

And what's so great about this issue, beyond the awesomeness of the cover, which depicts a throng of crazed Superman-worships praying to the Man of Steel while he awkwardly reads the text framing his head?

(And let's face it, that's a very awesome cover, whether you crop it so that it looks like that one dude is worshiping Superman's crotch or not). Well, there is that.

But there's also the fact this is the issue where Green Lantern Hal Jordan reaches out to all of his friends and allies, and they each tell him that he's stupid and lame and they hate him and they wish he would just slink off and die and let a twentysomething in a Nine Inch Nails t-shirt replace him for a decade or so.

It's true! I'm hardly exaggerating at all!

When we last left Hal Jordan in the pages of Action Comics Weekly #605, he was unshaven, half-naked, and chained on a weird planet of constant lightning strikes, while back on earth Carol "Star Sapphire" had faked her own death and framed John Stewart for it, sending the other Green Lantern to jail.

Hal returned to Earth, finding Carol in a graveyard, where a little orange alien abducted her and zapped Hal unconscious for a while.

In this issue's Green Lantern story, "The List," which is drawn for the first time by Tod Smith instead of Gil Kane, Hal is flying around downtown, surveying the rubble of what used to be Carol's apartment building, until he notices a newspaper blowing around the street, its headline reading "Green Lantern Murders Socialite."

"What's this--?" Hal thinks theatrically to himself, "John00 accused of murdering Carol?!"

Hal places a call to John, recapping the events of the story so far, before reminding Hal that he's still pretty mad at him for those events: "Feels like my life's come completely apart!" Hal thinks to himself. "I need to help JOhn, but first I've got to help myself!...I've got no job...no home...no possessions!...I need to find some balance to my life. And-- --I know just the place to start."

That place, it turns out is Wayne Manor, where Hal goes to reach out to perhaps the smartest, richest guy he knows. Unfortunately, Batman was still going through is Dark Knight, be-an-asshole-to-everyone-constantly phase, and his black mood had apparently infected Alfred as well, since this is how he politely answers the door: Yeesh. Maybe Alfred just didn't recognize Hal without his little green mask and GL uniform on?

After a bit of argument from Hal, Bruce Wayne invites him in by throwing his voice or something, but Alfred continues to be rather prickish to him: Hal extends his hand to Bruce, who ignores it, and asks what he can do for Hal.

"What, can't an old friend drop in for a visit--? No, huh? All right," Hal starts, before shrugging, "Look, Bruce, ever since the Green Lantern Corps disbanded, my lifes been slowly unraveling. I guess I'm looking for an anchor...something to give me a sense of balance."

Bruce Wayne compassionately responds: Sheesh. Batman usually gives hobos directions to homeless shelters are the cards of Wayne Enterprise's HR deparment at least.

After Bruce stalks off, the scene ends with Hal screaming at his back, "Haveny you heard a thing I've said?! Bruce!"

Next, Hal tries the other member of the World's Finest, and gets shot down even more quickly, albeit more politely: (This, by the way, is apparently the starting point for Neil Gaiman's old script which eventually saw publication in 2000 as Green Lantern/Superman: Legend of the Green Flame, illustrated by a who's who of artists in jam fashion. As I recall, the script was originally spiked because it turned out that Hal no longer knew Superman's secret identity after the events of Crisis On Infinite Earths, and thus the story no longer made sense as written. Obviously, the spike hadn't yet dropped on the script of this particular issue, in which Hal knew both Superman and Batman's secret identities.)

Cut to an establishing shot of a phone booth—remember those—and then we see Hal in complete anguish, regarding a list of friends he made and then crossed off friend by friend when he realized they all hate him:That list in the second panel above is just about the saddest thing I've ever seen. (Fun fact that Hakwman, Martian Manhunter and Aquaman weren't "really" Green Lantern's friends; they just worked together, I guess).

This leaves Hal's best friend, Oliver "Green Arrow" Queen. When Hal thinks back to those days, this is what he envisions: For some reason, this panel reminded me of the scenes in Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour where Scott and Gideon remember their relationships with their exes through rose-colored glasses......only in Hal's case, he's standing idly by while Black Canary is all "omigod ur like, such a stud" to Ollie.

(Oh, and just in case Sally is reading, I'd better crop that image and blow it up a bit: You're welcome).

At this point, Green Arrow was living in Seattle with Black Canary, and he was going through his dark, urban hunter phase. Hal finds him busting some drug dealers, and joins the fray, although Arrow's not happy to have a glowing space cop intruding on his gritty realism.

After they finish mopping up the bad guys, they convene on a rooftop, where Hal tries to confide in Ollie.

Let's listen in:As you can tell from Hal's "What?!" there, he wasn't really ready for any hard truth. Green Arrow spends another five seconds telling Hal to get lost, and then he runs off to get out of this anthology series and back to his own comic book: His best friend, and the last person on his short list of friends having told him to fuck off, Hal tragically crumples up his list, and drops the piece of paper containing the first names of the secret identities of the original Justice League of America into a random Seattle alleyway: Aw, here are two words I never thought I'd type in this particular order: Poor Hal.And thus concludes "James Owsley" and Tod Smith's "The List," the best Green Lantern story in Action Comics Weekly, perhaps the greatest Green Lantern story ever told—at least until Frank Miller and Jim Lee got around to that one issue of All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder where the leads paint themselves yellow, meet Hal in a yellow room, and enjoy yellow snacks while making fun of him for 22 pages.

What will happen to the friendless, jobless, penniless, homeless superhero in the next issue? Will he become a full-time super-hobo? I'll have to read ACW #607 to let you know for sure.

In the meantime, there was some other neat stuff in this issue.

For example, Mike Baron, Dan Jurgens and Tony DeZuniga's Deadman story. When we last left Boston Brand, he had escaped a ghost-cage at CIA headquarters, but was pulled into an ancient urn by the devil himself. Now he finds himself in Hell.

After a few pages of discussion with Satan about whether or not this was really the real Hell, DM asks why Satan looks so stereotypically satanic, and so the devil turns into Spider-Man's wife and throws herself at our hero: The Devil changes shape a few more times—a couple of scary, hag-like lady harpy creatures, an old Asian dude with no shirt, Richard Nixon—and we get to see that Hell looks a bit like a red-tinted rough neighborhood in pre-Giulani NYC.

It seems like there are quite a few familiar business in Hell too:
Not surprised to see McDonald's and Burger King down there, reall, but Donut World? What's wrong with doughnuts?

Later in the story, we get another long shot, where Deadman and the devil stroll in front of what looks like a bunch of porn shops, X-rated movie theaters and strip clubs, singns reading "Deep Throat XXX," "24 Hr. Strippers," "Girls Girls Girls," Live Sex," "Sex," "Private Video," "Sultry Ladies" (sounds classy!) and, um, "Nazi Chicks." (Well, it is Hell, after all).

I wonder if all of these places are still open in Hell, or if the Internet and its 24 hour, free access to an infinity of pornography has put even the Hell-based brick-and-mortar porn shops out of business...?

Deadman stalks off, until someone calls after him. Someone who looks sorta familiar to our man Deadman:D.B. Cooper! So that's what happened to him!

He tells Deadman he's been planning to escape from Hell for a while, and since Deady hasn't been officially admitted, he should be able to climb back out of the jar, and take D.B. with him. So off they two go on a journey that will continue next issue.

And now let's break for a commercial message from this very comic book: I don't remember so many of the video games of the late '80s having titles that sound like anti-depressants. Even Lunar Pool sounds like a modern medicine, if you squish into a single word, like Lunarpool.

Let's see, what else was there in this issue? Another chapter of the boring Secret Six story I quit reading (I do look at hte pictures to admire all the facial hair in it, though), another two-pages of the Roger Stern, Curt Swan Superman story, in which Superman learns he has some worshipers, another chapter of the Wild Dog strip, in which the terrorist group he's trying to infiltrate attacks a newspaper printing press because that particular newspaper mongers filth and, of course, the Mike Grell, Rick Burchett and Pablow Marcos' Blackahwk strip.

Check out how sharp and elegant this fight sequence is: After Blackhawk punches out The Red Dragon's henchman, wounding his hand in the process, she rewards him by taking him to her room and bedding him.

Here we learn she has terrible taste in art and/or decor: Or maybe she put that dragon statuette there ironically?

And that concludes Action Comics Weekly #606, the best issue ever. So far.

Nine things I learned from DC Comics: The 75th Anniversary Poster Book

I wrote a review of DC Comics: The 75th Anniversary Poster Book, a collection of cover images from throughout the publisher's history, for Blog@Newsarama today (You can read it here). While I'm pretty sure I had previously seen at least 90% of the images themselves before, each contains a few paragraphs of commentary as well, making for a decent history of the publisher and, through it, American serial comics in general. In fact, it was, to a certain extent, downright educational.

I know I learned a few things from it (Or at least re-learned things I had probably heard before but had forgotten knowing).

In fact, I learned nine things...


1.) Wonder Woman's skirt was changed to a pair of shorts because the former was deemed too provocative. Writing about the cover of 1942's Sensation Comics #1, and the origins of Wonder Woman, Schnakenberg writes, "Note the slightly racy skirt, which was quickly replaced by star-spangled shorts, deemed less provocative by DC editors."
It's often quite difficult to get in to the mind of someone from a generation or two ago, but the billowing skirt on that cover seems to offer more coverage of Wondy's shape and skin than the shorts, which would ultimately shrink and shrink until they got to be about high-cut panty length.And then Ed Benes shrunk them even further, until there was hardly room for a star to spangle them.


2.) Wonder Woman has a white-fur lined Christmas version of her costume. Well, I imagine it's actually fake fur, given her ability to talk to animals, but either way, I don't think I've ever seen, or at least can't recall ever seeing, this neat image by the great H.G. Peter:


3.) That familiar Felix Faust's finger cover of Justice League of America had a precursor. You know the one, right? 1962's #10? It was apparently based on the cover of 1952's Sensation Comics #109 by Jim Mooney:You know Guy On The Cover of Sensation Comics, you might want to use your right hand to do something about the gun in your pinky finger's hand, or at least move your left hand away from your face before he can get a shot off...


4.) Bizarro's square-Earth version of "Bizarro World" also had a precursor. Check out the cover of 1954's Mystery in Space #22, by Murphy Anderson:


5.) That's Lousie Simonson on the cover of House of Secrets #92. You've probably already seen the Berni Wrightson cover a few dozen times. It's the first appearance of Swamp Thing, who looms out of the night behind a woman brushing her hair.According to Schnakenberg, "Comic book writer Louise Jones—later to become Louse Simonson—served as the model for Swamp's as-yet-unsuspecting wife, Linda)."

(Say, was Walt Simonson ever drawn Swamp Thing? I think I'd really like to see his style applied to a man-of-muck type some time, if not.)

On the opposite of the page containing the House cover, there's a smaller image of the cover of House of Secrets #125 by Luis Dominguez. While perhaps not as famous or influential as the Swampy cover above, it is fantastic. That's some pretty scary shit right there.


6.) Mister Miracle's cast was based on some surprising real people. This sounds like one of those things I had previously heard, but forgotten about. At least, the Steranko bit sounds familiar. Anyway, Schnakenberg writes:

[Creator Jack Kirby]based the character of Mister Miracle and his alter ego, Scott Free, on his colleague Jim Steranko, a former escape artist. The villain in this issue [Mister Miracle #2], an elderly harridan named Granny Goodness, was said to have been loosely modeled on comedienne Phyllis Diller. Chesty actress Lainie Kazan, who had recently posed nude for the October 1970 issue of Playboy, was rumored to have provided the visual inspiration for Free's buxom wife, Big Barda. The byplay between Barda and Free was based on Kirby's relationship with his real-life wife, Rosalind.

7.) DC's multiverse was apparently created in a remarkably roundabout fashion. We all knew that "The Flash of Two Worlds" story from 1961's Flash #123 was the start point for what would become DC's multiverse of parallel dimensions, many of which represented different publishing lines or particular companies' or era's of stable of characters. But according to this book, it was the creation of the cover image that lead to the creation of parallel worlds for each Flash, not vice versa:

According to Carmine Infantio, Julius Schwartz came up with the "Flash of Two Worlds' concept after Infantino presented him with the cover, which shows both Flashes speeding in from either side of the frame to save a man about to be crushed by a falling girder. "Here, figure this one out," Infantino said. "I will," replied Shwartz, who set about resolving the paradox using the conceit of parallel Earths, a familiar staple of pulp science fiction tales.

8.) Mordecai Richler didn't like The Dark Knight Returns. As I was reading the inclusion of sharp criticism of Frank Miller's genre-redefining work, I first thought that it was awfully brave of the editors to include such a harsh assessment of one of DC's books in a project that is ultimately a celebration of how wonderfully awesome DC Comics is. But then I realized that it's probably not that daring, given how history has sided with DC and Miller, and Richler's opinion now seems so contrary that it looks kind of funny. Richler's New York Times review is quoted: The stories are convoluted, difficult to follow and crammed with far too much text. The drawings offer a grotesquely muscle-bound Batman and Superman, not the lovable champions of old...If this book is meant for kids, I doubt that they will be pleased. If it is aimed at adults, they are not the sort I want to drink with.

I wonder if Richler would want to drink with many of the creators and readers involved with, say, the post-Identity Crisis DCU, or the post-Bendis and Millar Marvel line?

Or if he'd just look at a few books and then go BLAAAAAARRRRRGH!!