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Great comic books of the Sixties As a kid, I first discovered comic books in 1965 when
I saw the tag at the end of the Superman TV show that was then in re-runs.
It stated that Superman was a character that appeared in Action Comics
and Superman Magazines, so I had to have some.
After my father took me to get my (seems like) weekly
haircut, I begged him to get me a 'Superman Magazine' and he took me across
the street to a drug store and bought me a 25 cent Superman Annual. After
I read it cover to cover, I mailed a dollar off to National Comics for
a year's subscription to Superman comics, even though my parents warned
me that I wouldn't get anything, that my dollar would disappear forever
and that it would be a disillusioning experience for me. It was.
For all of 1965, I was treated to some great Superman
comic books delivered monthly by the US mails, and I had my first inkling
that my parents might be full of it.
Featured here are some examples of the best that the comic
book industry had to offer in the sixties - one thing these comic series
all have in common is that they were all short runs. For some reason,
good quality television shows and comic books rarely lasted very long
in the sixties.
The books shown here are examples of excellent comic books
that are still entertaining to read today. A study of some of the best
Marvel comic books of the sixties is coming, but someone else will have
to do that, because I preferred the simple and less serious approach to
storytelling that DC took to the angst ridden Marvel heroes of the time.
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| Blue Beetle no. 5 ©
Charlton Comics When Steve Ditko left Marvel
after creating 'Spiderman' and 'Doctor Strange', he went to lowly Charlton
Comics to resurrect slack superheroes 'Captain Atom' and 'The Blue Beetle'.
He did some of the best work of his long career here, creating fascinating
characters in intriguing situations (just as he did for Marvel) but sales
were low and distribution spotty for his Charlton books.
Blue Beetle no. 5 may be the best comic book Charlton ever published
in it's thirty-some year history, a history that contains very few quality
books scattered among a sea of mediocre comics, all plagued by poor production
and stone age printing. This book was published during the spurt of good
comics that came in the two years when Dick Giordano was editor at Charlton,
and contains the work of Steve Ditko at his peak. Look for the abstract
statues and paintings in the panel backgrounds, they are works of art
in themselves.
This release also includes the bizarre and Ditkosophical backup feature,
'The Question'. The last issue of a great run of comics. |
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Showcase no. 75 © DC Comics june 1968
Steve Ditko later took his act to DC for two fine creations,
'The Creeper' and 'The Hawk And The Dove'. He only completed three issues
of The Hawk and the Dove before falling ill, and the title was continued
by Gil Kane until its cancellation with number 7.
Sadly, Ditko stopped
producing much work of any real interest in mainstream
comics for a while after this point, though he
occasionally works in the industry to this day. This
comic book is unadulterated Steve Ditko, a great script
with a hint of Ditko's infamous conservative moralizing.
Steve Ditko concentrated on working in the alternative press in the
seventies (the preachy 'Mr. A') and continued to create a few new characters
and concepts for mainstream comics into the eighties ('Shade, the Changing
Man' for DC was a stand-out). |
| Star Spangled War Stories
no. 141 © DC Comics nov. 1968 Enemy
Ace was one of the best written and drawn series of commercial comic books
ever published. Written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Joe Kubert ('Sgt.
Rock') at the top of their game, Enemy Ace's 12 issue run has been largely
ignored, even by many old school comic book fans.
Kubert's raw style set the standard for war comics for decades, and this saga of a World War One German fighter ace with a conscience is drawn with an eye for detail and historical accuracy. The sympathetic-to-the-Nazis approach in war comics didn't last very long despite the great storytelling contained here. |
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The Spectre no.
1 © DC Comics dec 1967 State of the
times DC scripting by veteran Gardner Fox made fantastic by Murphy Anderson's
detailed and deliberate artwork. Anderson's art is in a class of its own,
and he is undoubtedly one of the finest inkers in the history of comics.
This comic book had a short ten issue run and Anderson only drew this
one issue himself.
This short run includes great stories written and drawn by Neal Adams, a strange Grandenetti/Anderson collaboration and one of Berni Wrightson's first published works when the book switched to a generic mystery format for the last two issues. |
| Showcase 85 © DC Comics Sept 1969 Written
and drawn by Joe Kubert, this work was obviously more personal to the
artist and might be his mainstream masterpiece.
The saga of 'Firehair', a settler's child raised by Native Americans who is spurned by whites as he grows older, lasted only three issues in 'Showcase' and a few short stories in the back of a comic book called 'Son of Tomahawk'. All of the 'Firehair' stories are superior examples of the best comic book stories the industry could offer, then or now. Joe Kubert does a great job of capturing the feel of the old west, the look here is southwestern and authentic and the characters are more complex than kids were used to in the comic books from DC in 1969. |
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Metamorpho no.1 © DC Comics aug 1965 Only the first four issues of this short run of comic books contain the great art of Ramona Fradon. From that point on, it was a good imitation of Fradon's fluid, gooey style, but the freshness and spontaneity that she brought to those stories, and to the preceding 'Brave and Bold' tryouts, was mostly gone. Fradon is an under appreciated female comic book artist - a rarity in a Field dominated by men at this time - and her Metamorpho comics are real gems. There was still a bouncy liveliness to the storytelling in some of the later 'Metamorpho' issues, with several drawn by Joe Orlando. The stories by Bob Haney are pure fun that race frantically from one exotic locale to another. |
| Captain Action no. 5 © DC Comics may. 1968
Based on the Ideal brand toy of the same name, this
book only ran five issues, but what a run.
Artist Gil Kane passed away recently, and this run of comics might
be his most effective mainstream work. He wrote and drew issues 3-5,
with superb inking by Wally Wood. (Jim Shooter wrote the first two issues
and Wally Wood penciled and inked the first issue).
Two of DC's best short run series were based on toys - 'Hot Wheels'
and 'Captain Action'. Both had great art and story teams, but neither
books were successful for some reason. I had to wonder at the time if
this was supposed to be the same Captain Action that was portrayed in
the toy commercials, after all he could turn into Spiderman and
Captain America, and those characters were published by Marvel. It is
to Gil Kane and editor Julie Schwartz' credit that they turned this
comic into something special. |
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Lois Lane no.
71 copy DC Comics jan 1968 Kurt Shaffenberger
was one of the slickest artist in DC's stable, and the 'Lois Lane' comics
of the sixties were a lot of fun to read mostly because of his unique
renderings of the DC stable of characters.
It's sheer silliness as each issue Lois Lane tries to rope Superman
into marriage by making him jealous, or by taking some potion that turns
her into a monster or super-herione. These comic books are ice cream
for the brain, and much of the reason they are so much fun has to do
with Shaffenberger's pristine style and the light-hearted, nonsensical
stories. |
| Superman Annual no. 1 © DC Comics Summer 1961 Maybe the most famous and parodied comic book cover ever. This is the first reprint annual for a super-hero comic book ever, and it presented many of the classic Superman stories of the fifties. The cover (by the late Curt Swan) has a crisp, modern design that must have looked very handsome on the newsstands of the day. The stories include those old saws like the giant ape with the Kryptonite vision and the story of Lex Luthor losing his hair and the origin of the chunky Superman of the fifties. |
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Our Army at War no.
196 © DC Comics aug 1968 DC's war books all had great covers by Joe Kubert, every one telling a multi-layered story, mostly with the Nazi's hiding just beyond the American soldier's view. This issue has one of those familiar, formulaic stories written by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Joe Kubert that made this comic book series so popular in it's heyday. Almost every Sgt. Rock story had a theme it seems, and Kanigher would repeat and repeat the theme throughout the story. This issue deals with war through the ages, and introduces The Unknown Soldier. There are some real gems hidden in 'Our Army at War's long run, with stories in the back of the books by the best illustrators working in comics, people like Wally Wood, Reed Crandall, Russ Heath and Alex Toth. In the mid-seventies, editor Kubert ended each Sgt. Rock story with the slogan "Make War No More", now they make Sgt. Rock no more. |
| Showcase no 56 © DC Comics june 1965 Another great 'Showcase' comic, and there were a lot of them. If you have a collection of 'Showcase' and 'Brave and the Bold' comics, you have some of the best examples of DC comic books in the sixties. Murphy Anderson and Gardner Fox revive two of the golden age's most popular comic characters here with excellent results. While the characters didn't catch on a second time, the art and story rank with the best. |
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Bat
Lash no.4 © DC Comics may 1969
Bat Lash held on for seven whole issues, after his Showcase tryout. Brilliantly written by Sergio Aragones (of Mad magazine fame) with Denny O'Neil and drawn broadly by Nick Cardy (in his best, most expressive work ever). This is a genuinely funny comic book, Aragones' characters ring true, and Cardy does a great job of bringing these characters and the wild western setting to life. |
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Al Williamson & Archie Goodwin All characters shown here are TM © Charlton & DC Comics. |
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