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Whenever I visit a comic shop, I am always sure to check out the big glass display case for exciting new arrivals and other gems each visit. During a visit about a week and a half ago, I spotted a particularly eye-catching comic book in the case. It was a rather old-looking comic called "Atlas Theatre Comics." I didn't know I wanted it until I laid eyes on it. Really. I asked the proprietor what the story was on the book and he got it out of the case so I could have a closer look. He explained that he had picked this up at a recent comic show as part of a larger collection of old stuff. He didn't have a lot of information on the book, adding that it was not listed in the Overstreet price guide. The cover of the comic was an all-black illustration on an off-white background depicting a handful of "knock-offs" of Golden Age characters, including Plastic Man's sidekick Woozy Winks, The Red Tornado, Bucky and a character that looks like either the Sandman or maybe Air Wave. Once the comic was out of its bag, I had a short look-through, noting that there were ads for local businesses on the insides of the front and back covers and on the back as well. Curiously, the cover itself was more like card stock than paper and it reached just past the pages all around the book. It was an odd sight...My first glance didn't yield any big-name characters and at the top of each page, the words "Triple Threat Comics" appeared. So, I thought it was kind of cool, but I passed on it for the moment. But a few hours after I left the shop, I decided it was too cool to pass up and I called and asked them to hold it for me so I could pick it up early the following week.
Over the course of the next few days, I did a few Internet searches using different combinations of the phrase "Atlas Theatre Comics" and I was surprised that I couldn't find one lick of information about the book I had seen. I remembered the shop owner telling me that he had basically decided on a price for the issue after talking to some "old timers" at a comics show, so I really didn't have much to go on. Last Tuesday night, I picked up the issue and took it home for a closer inspection.
The book is a great collection of obscure Golden Age material. I was especially surprised to see a tale featuring a character called The Duke of Darkness that I recognized from another Golden Age gem, Top Spot Comics #1. I got a copy of Top Spot #1 about ten years ago at a now defunct Dayton-area comic shop called The Bookie Parlor (In fact, it might have been longer than ten years ago, as I bought it back when the Bookie Parlor was located on Wayne Avenue). Anyway, the characters and plot lines of the "Atlas Theater" issue were as follows:
King O' Leary saves a wrongly convicted man from the electric chair The Duke of Darkness battles Mr. Slumber who torment's the city's elite while they sleep Beau Brummell takes on a gang who threatens the city's big department store, "Simbel's" The Menace rescues a famous actress from a kidnapper The Magficient Epod, lone survivor of Atlantis discovers a magic bottle that grants wishes (during which time, Epon's sidekick manages to get the bottle permanently affixed to his nose Whippet Wilkins gets conned into buying sweets for a bunch of girls at the local soda shop Interestingly enough, I got out my copy of Top Spot #1 after reading the Atlas Theater book and I found the Top Spot also includes stories featuring Epod and The Menace. I looked up "Triple Threat Comics" in a few places and I think that Triple Threat was probably published by the same outfit (or a closely related one) that published Top Spot and that both comics were "one shots" (single issues) that were published in 1945.
Top Spot Comics #1
A very close inspection of the Atlas Theatre book gave me a few clues as to its origin. As I noted above, the cover pretty unusual – not shoddy, but a low-budget production, for sure. On the inside near the spine, there appeared to be a kind of clear adhesive in some places and a chip of glossy paper that looked like it belonged to the cover of another comic book. All of the ads on the inside of the cover were for local businesses on "Plymouth Road," including businesses like "Blue Bird Department Store" and "Rose's Sweet Shop." But the biggest clue was a business named "Edmondson-Sweeney, Inc. Ford Dealer". A Google search yielded an ad from the 1950's featuring a business with the same name on Plymouth Road in the Detroit area. There was also a movie theater in Detroit called Atlas Theatre that operated from 1939 to 1950. Now, without actually having a copy of Triple Threat Comics #1 in front of me, I can't say for sure...But I am thinking that Atlas Theatre Comics #1 is actually Triple Threat Comics #1 with the original cover removed and a specially printed cover affixed to the book itself. It was probably part of a special promotion by Atlas Theatre and local businesses from Detroit back in the mid to late 1940's. It was probably cheaper for them to buy a bunch of comics that were already printed and attach a custom cover than to have a totally new and special comic book printed solely for their own advertising purposes.
I am pretty enamored with Golden Age material, both for its charm and its simplicity. And when stuff like this is affordable, that's an extra bonus. Best of all, in this case, this book really has a story to tell in more ways than one. All in all, this is really a cool find, combining a Golden Age gem with some regional history. It sure is another great addition to my collection!
During some down time this afternoon, I read a 1946 issue of Airboy (v3, #4) that I picked up a few months ago at the2006 Buckeye Comic Con.
The issue’s final story is an Iron Ace yarn that features a young Greek
orphan named Mike. The tale opens as Captain Britain (a.k.a. The
Iron Ace) is flying Mike from a camp in Italy back to his home on the
island of Crete. Along the way, Captain Britain learns that Mike
is the living reincarnation of Icarus, Iron Ace does battle with the
immortal Daedelus, and they all meet up with Pluto, the Prince of Hades. At
the end of the story, Mike decides to tell Captain Britain the story of
the Greek Resistance forces of Crete:
The rest of Mike’s tale remains a mystery, because the above panels are
actually the final panels of the story. I looked around for more
information regarding "Captain Alexandropolus" and I was unable to find
anything on the Internet. I also checked the booksRed Acropolis, Black Terrorand the Time-Life World War II volumePartisans and Guerillasand I came up empty. I’m not sure if Captain Alexandropolus was a
real figure or some kind of composite, but I sure would like to know
more. Further reading The Greek Civil Warmarxists.org
Well,
a while back I mentioned that I had finally procured one of my most
sought-after comics for my collection and I promised to write a bit
more on that later. It's a good thing I waited a bit, because the
original deal fell through. I had won a copy of Flash #123 on
eBay for less than $100 (a lot less than $100, actually), which was
considerably lower than any price I had seen in recent memory. At the
2006 Buckeye Comic Con, I didn't find a single copy of this book under
$250...and the copies that are in better shape usually go for much more
than that. Now the book that I won was not in the best condition
(in fact, the cover was detached) but the book was complete with no
missing pages and it would have looked fine to display on my "Wall of
Fame." I paid quickly after the auction's end and soon after came
the big day in which the issue finally arrived in the mail. But when I
opened the package, I found Flash #137 instead of Flash #123.
Aargh! I contacted the sellers who confirmed that they had
mistakenly sent my #123 to they guy that had won the #137. I was
asked to send the #137 back and assured that as soon as they received
my #123 back from the other guy, they would send it on to me.
Weeks passed. I had returned the #137 very quickly, but over
time, it became apparent that the fellow who had gotten my #123 had no
intention of returning it. After some discussion with the seller,
I received a full refund for my purchase. Flash #123 had slipped
through my fingers.
Flash #123 September, 1962
I
knew there was at least one very big regional comic convention coming
up in Detroit, so I called an acquaintance a comic store in Dayton to
ask him to keep an eye out for an affordable copy of Flash #123 at the
upcoming event. My expectations
were high and I wasn't disappointed this time around, because just 2
weeks later, I got a call from the guy who told me he had procured not
one, but two affordable copies of Flash #123. He explained that
he had another customer who wanted the book as well, and that both
copies were in comparable condition and priced the same – and just in
my price range at that!
I
made it down to the store a few days later to check out both
copies. One was bagged and the other was a CGC-graded issue
(2.0), enclosed in a sealed case of hard plastic. The bagged copy
had a small piece missing out of the right bottom corner, but it looked
pretty good otherwise, and I decided to buy that one so that I wouldn't
have to mess with the sealed case on the CGC copy. Who in the
hell wants a comic book locked in a sealed case, anyway? I like
to be able to read my issues at least once before putting them away or
displaying them.
While
I was there, he also showed me a copy of "Is This Tomorrow? America
Under Communism" which is a 1947 comic book that fed on
America's rabid anti-communist hysteria that followed WWII. An
old Dayton, Ohio-based comic series called "Treasure Chest" ran a
similar batch of stories back in the 1960's or so. This stuff was
really xenophobic, over-the-top material. The guy from the comic shop knew of my
interest in this sort of thing and explained that he picked up the book
with me in mind. Of course, I couldn't help but take that issue
off his hands along with my Flash #123.
So Flash #123 is finally a permanent addition to my collection. Time to rearrange my Wall of Fame!
Late
Sunday afternoon, we got a call from a family friend who was just up
the street from our house at a garage sale. She told me that the guy
had a lot of comics for sale and, of course, I was interested right
away. I didn't have very high expectations, though, as Sunday
garage sales are pretty rare and given that it was almost 5:00 PM, I
figured the guy's stuff must have been pretty well picked over through
the course of Saturday and Sunday. Also, people who try to sell
comics at garage sales typically have very unreasonable
expectations. They often try to sell newer or relatively common
issues at cover price or higher. There's too much general
awareness of the collectibles market these days to allow for many "Antiques Roadshow"
finds at garage sales. This has also led to a kind of odd
situation in which people assume that they possess something of
substantial value when it is, in fact, relatively common. With
comics, people go one step farther and try to present their collectible
in a way that makes it look like it is well cared for and
valuable. With comics, they usually put single issues in big
Ziploc freezer bags or plastic binder sleeves to make it look like
their comics have been effectively preserved. But I digress...
One from the new batch:
JLI #9, January 1988
Within a few minutes, I was at the garage sale checking out the guy's
collection. He had a couple of boxes of different comics with a
sign indicating they were 25 cents each. Most of the issues were
from 1986 to 1992, which was pretty decent stint in my early
comics-reading life. DC issues far outnumbered Marvel stuff, which was
another plus for me. There was some crap in the boxes too, like as a
handful of coverless issues and a couple of Stuff and FHM
magazines (the latter of which I quickly took out of the boxes and
handed to the guy saying, "I don't want these.") After a quick look
through the boxes, I started to stack them up neatly into one box and,
without knowing how many issues there were, I told the guy I would give
him $30 for them. There was a brief silence and then the guy
said, "Yeah, I'll take $30." I finished stacking everything up
into a copy paper box (and also the lid of the box, as there was a bit
more than the box would hold) and paid the guy, asking him if he could
break one of the twenties that I handed to him. I guess it was
kind of crappy for me to ask him to make change after he gave me such a
good deal. I think he was a little annoyed with my relatively low
offer, but it was cold and late in the day and I figured he just wanted
to unload them. The guy's wife wanted him to help me to the car
with my stuff, but both times she told him to help me, he just shrugged
and said, "He's got it." At least I didn't end up having to pay
him a tip for helping with the box.
I got home and sorted out the contents of the box, finding a few bonuses like an issue of Future
magazine and a few paperbacks like Beyond Infinity and The Edgar Cayce Reader, Volume
2. I got rid of the issues without covers and a few other
mangled or stained issues, leaving me with a total of 289 "keepers"
(minus a few that are doubles of issues in my collection. There were no
real "big finds" in the box, but I have a lot of good reading material,
including a lot of post-Crisis Superman issues, some early '80's
Superboy issues, a bunch of newer Flash, Legion and Justice League
stuff (love those Justice League International/Justice League Europe
comics from the '80's) and some Marvel stuff here and there.
This is the third time I have bought a bulk lot of comics for my
collection. The first time was probably about 10 years ago when a
coworker brought in a few boxes of comics that he was having trouble
unloading at comic stores and used book shops. I looked through
his collection while he went on and on about all the good memories
about buying and reading the comics when he was in the military.
After he was done talking, I offered him $30 for his entire
collection. Man, he was annoyed – but he took the money after
all. I guess that makes me some kind of jerk. Oh well. That
batch was similar to the one I bought this weekend, but a little
smaller and there were quite a bit more Marvels in that bunch.
Good bathroom reading, for sure.
Another time, I bought the full run of Marvel's "New Universe"
titles at a toy show. I think I paid about $20 for the whole
lot. I'm still not sure how many were in that batch and I have
never gotten around reading them all. Probably not my best bulk
purchase, but I hated to see them just sitting there all unappreciated.
Well, it certainly has taken me a while to get around to writing the final chapter in my rundown of my list of favorite comics. It’s high time to finish off this list, as I have recently obtained another one of my three most sought-after comics. But more on that later. On with the list... Number 1: Last Days of the Justice Society of America Special #1
(DC Comics, 1986)
Okay, I will admit that having this book at the top of my favorites
list will likely prove to be a head-scratcher for comic fans and
non-fans alike. This issue was an instant favorite for me when I
got it on my 13th birthday back in 1986 and it has remained at the top
of my favorites for close to two decades. The tale is set in the
immediate aftermath of the Crisis on Infinite Earths and the overall purpose behind the book was to firm up the legacy of Earth-2
heroes (including the JSA and Infinity Inc.) so that it was in step
with DC’s post-Crisis continuity. This 68-page issue has it all, including
prominent appearances by most of the heavy hitters in the JSA. How many
comic books would begin a story with a quote from Nietzsche?
Well, this one does! In the story, the JSAers must travel back to
the final days of World War II to wrest the Spear of Destiny from the Nazis. When the Spear is used to trigger the cataclysmic battle of Ragnarök,
the JSA must travel to another plane in search of a way to stave off
the end of the world. Upon their arrival, they find the gods and
goddesses of Norse mythology preparing for an epic battle which will
surely mean the end of Earth.
Dr. Fate melds each JSA member with a Norse god or goddess and the JSA
then engage the advancing hordes of Surtur, Loki and the Serpent of
Midgard in a fierce and brutal battle. The JSA remain joined with
the gods and goddesses in a seemingly infinite battle to hold the evil
forces at bay and the Nazi attempt to destroy the world by releasing
the forces of Götterdämmerung is thus thwarted, allowing the Red Army
to smash the remaining German resistance back on Earth. The
capture of Berlin is even noted in the tale with a comic-art rendering
of Yevgeny Khaldei’s famous photo of a Red Army soldier raising the Soviet flag over the Reichstag.
Although the war ends on earth, most of the JSA remain trapped in
limbo, engaged in an infinite “Ragnarok cycle” in which the JSAers
continue to die and rise again in an endless battle with their foes.
There
is a bit of bonus material in this issue, including
an introductory/supplemental text by writer Roy Thomas ("An Epilegomena
to 'The Last Days of the Justice Society'") and some vintage
Golden Age artwork featuring the JSA. Whew! What a comic
book!
“Last Days” was written by Roy Thomas who is, in my opinion, one of the
best writers to have ever written for DC. The issue’s artwork by
Ross and Gustovich is very good as well. I had hoped to include a
few more scans of panels from the issue, but the printing quality was
not so good and my scans don’t really do the artwork the justice it
deserves.
“Last Days” didn’t exactly stitch up all the holes in
post-Crisis/Earth-2 continuity. In fact, the JSA returned to
action just a few years later by popular demand. But the story
chronicled in “Last Days” has been revisited several times in the pages
of multiple DC series since 1986.
I have read a lot – and I do mean a lot
– of comics over the course of nearly three decades and I have enjoyed
many classics from the Golden and Silver ages in this time. I
won’t deny that I have some sentimental attachment to this particular
comic book, but in my opinion, it holds its own with many of the
“classics” of the medium. I can’t imagine that I will ever find a
story that will take the place of “Last Days of the Justice Society on
my “Wall of Fame.”
About
5 or 6 years ago, I bought a few full longboxes (and maybe a short box)
from a local comic shop owner who was going through a hard time and
looking to liquidate some of his inventory. One of the boxes that
I picked up
contained a decent chunk of the guy's "S" titles, so I ended up with
huge batches of comics like Superman, Steel, and Star Trek.
Included in the "S" box were quite a few issues of DC's Starman — the Jack Knight incarnation — from the mid to
late 1990's. I ended up with over 30 issues from this series and
although I had never read any Starman stories in the past, I had heard a
lot of good things about the title. Back when I bought these, I
was working nights and I was feeling a little burned out back
then. It was a nice escape to read 2 or 3 issues of Starman
during my dinner break. I really liked the Starman stories, but
my interest in comics was waning back then, so once I read all of what
I had on hand (or what I thought was all of them), I more or less
forgot about them for a while. Wile I was going my collection this past weekend, I found a few later
issues from the series along with an annual and a special Secret Files and Origins issue
that I had never read. Reading these "lost issues" was an absolute blast.
My favorite Starman picture, taken from
Secret Files and Origins #1
On Monday, I stopped in a local comic shop and picked up issues 0 and 1
of Starman, as these two were among the missing issues in my
collection. With all the Starman books I had read, I was still a
bit foggy on his origin and it was good to go back to the beginning and
fill in some of the blanks. Incidentally, these two issues were
among some of the best I have read of this title. As a side note,
the copy of #1 that I recently snagged looks like it's been autographed by
Starman co-creator James Robinson...and given the price I paid for it,
I am guessing it was a bit underpriced. But who am I to complain?
Having read thousands of comics, I can honestly say that I think that
the Jack Knight version Starman is really one of the better comics
series ever produced. Jack is the ultimate reluctant hero,
sporting a bunch of tattoos and a Hawaiian shirt as his own unique
superheo "uniform." The series ultimately unified the
multifaceted, multigenerational history of the "Starman" name and
legacy. Along the way, old heroes and villains were resurrected
and reinvented in stories that stretched through time and space in
grand and thrilling stories. The supporting cast featured complex and
intriguing characters such as the Golden-Age Starman (along with quite
a few other Starmen), Solomon Grundy and The Shade in a wonderfully
complex series of fantastic tales.
I have read some rumors that DC is flirting with the idea of bringing
the Jack Knight version of Starman out of retirement as part of their
ongoing weekly series, 52. I'm not reading 52 these days, but DC has
piqued my curiosity once again.
I
think the temperature was somewhere around the low nineties this past
Sunday. Typically, I wouldn’t even bother to go outside at all on
a day like that. I also wouldn’t willingly go to a OSU Buckeyes
sports bar/fan hangout under normal circumstances. But Sunday was
an exception to all this, because the 2006 Buckeye Comic Con was held
at The Buckeye Hall of Fame Café
in Columbus. So, I pretty much had no choice but to brave the
searing heat and scads of gaudy OSU memorabilia and make the trek to
Columbus...with my entire family in tow to boot. (They are just too kind to me sometimes, you know?)
Now, this was about the most focused I have ever been at a comic
con. I had my short list of “haves” and “wants” with me and
although the list is not a comprehensive roster of my entire collection
inventory, it provides a clear enough picture of what issues I am
missing from some of my favorite comic book series. I also have a
very short “wish list” of some of my more sought-after issues from my
years of collecting. I try to keep this list very short and very
realistic, because I don’t want to make a practice of spending gobs of
money on comics. My “wish list” (as of this past Sunday) included
3 key issues:
Flash #135, March 1963
1. Flash #135
“Secret of the Three Super-Weapons!” is classic Silver Age tale
featuring Flash and Kid Flash. I passed up a copy for $7.00 or
$8.00 at a local shop about 15 years ago and I have been looking for an
affordable copy ever since. The cover depicts a wonderfully goofy
scene in which Flash has accidentally changed Kid Flash’s uniform
through the use of his mental power and some kind of futuristic
weaponry. Incredibly kitschy. I still love Flash and Kid
Flash stories from “the good old days” when both characters were still
“alive.”
2. Captain Marvel Adventures #100
“The Plot Against the Universe!” is probably one of the best Golden Age
Captain Marvel tales ever. This is a lengthy tale which pits
Captain Marvel against Dr. Sivana, featuring guest appearances by the
wizard Shazam and Captain Marvel’s pal, Mr. Tawny. During the
course of the tale, Captain Marvel and Dr. Sivana discover three new
synthetic elements: Sivanium (no. 97), Shazamium (no. 98), and
Marvelium (no. 99). So much for Berkelium, Californium and
Einsteinium. This issue would definitely find a place on my comic
book “wall of fame.”
3. Flash #123
“Flash of Two Worlds” I am not sure what I can possibly say about
this comic book that hasn’t been said over and over again by fans for
decades. This is a comic book masterpiece. I love Flash
comics and this one is the story that brought together the Silver Age
and Golden Age Flashes for the first time. This is pretty much my
most sought-after comic book for many years now. High-end, good
condition copies are generally out of my reach, but I have come close
to scoring some low-grade “reader” copies in recent years. I have
a reprint of this issue, but I am too rigid to allow reprints in my
“wall of fame” collection. The day I score an original copy of
this issue, I will definitely have to reassess my top three slots of
comics on the “wall of fame.”
Within minutes of hitting the door, I found two copies of Flash
#123. One was around $250 and the other was $275. That is
really way more than I want to spend on a single issue these
days. I much prefer “reader” copies which are banged up, but
mostly complete. At the same booth, I found a great copy of Flash
#135 and although it was quite a bit more than the copy that I passed
on many years years ago, it was relatively affordable. I gave it
back to the dealer while I looked around some more, but I eventually
went back and purchased it.
My next stop was a visit to the Fearless Readers
booth. Fearless Readers is my favorite Dayton-area comic shop
these days. The store owner greeted me by telling me that he had
purchased a box of comics earlier in the day that was comprised mostly
of Golden Age material. He let me look through a couple of
stacks from the collection and I was pleasantly surprised to find quite
a few issues of Captain Marvel Adventures and Whiz Comics. I
picked out one of each title (Captain Marvel Adventures #135, Aug 1952
and Whiz Comics #147, July 1952) and he let me have them for one low,
low price. This was especially nice as these titles aren’t easy
to find for reasonable prices, especially at Dayton area stores.
Whiz Comics 147, July 1952
I found another copy of Flash #123 at a different booth, but this copy
was $200 which is still too high for me. I looked around a bit
longer and found a few more comics that excited me, including a
Charlton Captain Atom (Captain Atom #83, November 1966) and a Golden
Age Airboy (Airboy v. 3 #4, May 1946). I’m always in the market
for that kind of stuff and I was successful at getting a little shaved
off the prices of those two issues. Along the way, I picked up an
old Barbie comic book for K. and I felt that it was necessary to
qualify my purchase by telling the dealer, “Um...This isn’t for
me.” He responded by laughing and saying, “Don’t lie.”
Nothing like a little comic con humor.
By this point, I was nearing the end of my spending money, so I packed
it in. It took me a little less than an hour to spend my comic
con funds, but it was a blast (for me, anyway) and I could happily
scratch off one of the issues from my “wish list.” The remaining
two comics on the list are a bit out of my reach right now, but it
looks like eBay will be a better option when it comes to finding
affordable copies of these particular books.
Then again, there is always another comic con around the corner.
It's
kind of hard to believe, but it took me over 25 years of reading comic
books to discover this ad. A couple of months ago, I was reading
a newly acquired copy of Headline Comics #71 (May-June 1955) and on the very last page, I found an ad for Cloverine Salve entitled "Jim and Judy Defy Savage Gorilla."
What makes this ad so terribly funny is that it is full of absolute
nonsense at several different levels. I almost decided against posting
the ad on our site when I found that it is already featured in
seanbaby.com's "The Best of the Worst in Comic Book Advertising" section. But this piece really deserves some more exposure, so I've posted our full scan of the ad here.
Some of the text is awfully difficult to read, but this is not so much
an issue with our scanner as it is an indication of the poor printing
quality of comics back in the 1950's.
Have a look at the ad for yourself and you'll see just how ridiculous
it is. Lucky for the frightened zoo patrons that the parents of
Jim and Judy had the foresight to allow their kids to bring their
weapons to the zoo. I guess it was perfectly legal for underage
kids to carry concealed weapons back in the 1950's. Nowadays,
that's only legal in Texas, I think.
And how much Cloverine salve do you have to sell to get that pony,
anyway? Good luck on getting your dad to work a night job at the
foundry to pay all those vet bills and lodging expenses for your "free"
horsey. I bet the glue factories loved Cloverine salve.
For
a bunch of reasons, I somehow lost the motivation to polish off my
ongoing "favorite comics series" a while back. So now I’m picking up where I left off with this entry...
This issue was billed as "The Villain War" in the “next issue” blurb of
Crisis #8. It seemed as if it would be a pretty tall order to
bring together every surviving villain in the DC Universe for a huge
free-for-all, but this issue delivered in a big way. The cover alone is
phenomenal (here’s a larger scan), as it crams a ton of the worst
villains into one senses-shattering panel. And then, beginning
with page 1, it’s pure action. The issue starts with the
destruction of Oa and the death of all but one of the Guardians of the
Universe. A few pages later, Lex Luthor of Earth-1 murders the
Luthor of Earth-2. The issue is a blockbuster that is crammed
with the best of DC, including the Teen Titans, Sgt. Rock and many others. There are cameos from the Charlton
group, including Captain Atom and Dr. Spectro and a plethora of obscure heroes and villains from the Golden and the Silver Ages. By page 11,
Braniac crashes a meeting of the U.N. and announces that the villains
have captured three of the remaining Earths: Earths 4, X and S.
The rest of the issue features scenes from some amazing battles,
including heroes and villains from the Fawcett group as well as the
Doom Patrol, Kid Flash and the Flash of Earth-2, the JSA and Infinity Inc. And just when it looks like the
villains are on the very brink of total victory, the alliance starts to
unravel with Psimon’s betrayal of the Luthor-Braniac alliance.
For me, this is where Crisis really came together and picked up
momentum. But even by itself, it’s a terrific read!
Have a look at the ad for yourself and you'll see just how ridiculous
it is. Lucky for the frightened zoo patrons that the parents of
Jim and Judy had the foresight to allow their kids to bring their
weapons to the zoo. I guess it was perfectly legal for underage
kids to carry concealed weapons back in the 1950's. Nowadays,
that's only legal in Texas, I think.
