Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (17)--Fantastic Four

I've gone back to the Fantastic Four lately. When I was a kid in the late 1960s, they were very big and I watched the cartoon series on ABC. I even read some of the comics though at that time I was more into DC than Marvel. Marvel stories were complicated and continued from issue to issue and sometimes from title to title. DC was very simple and straightforward--which explains why kids liked DC and teenagers and adults liked Marvel.

When I first returned to the comic craze in recent years, I was only interested in the first 100 or so issues of FF because they were drawn and co-created by Jack Kirby with his bold striking images. The Silver Surfer-Galactus-Watcher saga is unparalleled in comic history for its scope and sweep, taking on almost Shakespearian proportions as these gigantic figures bestride the globe and dwarf the FF. I still love to think of the dialogue between Galactus and the Watcher as they debate the fate of Earth. When the Watcher calles Galactus "Pillager of planets," I get a chill.

Then I went beyond that into the later issues with John Romita, George Perez, etc. I've just finished Essential Fantastic Four Volume 8 which goes up until issue 183.

The fascinating thing about the FF--and I think it's what inspires loyalty to them--is they seem to exist in real time and space, and exhibit human emotions. Yes, they are in a comic-book world besides the obvious of having superpowers and not aging as quickly as the rest of us. Reed Richards and Ben Grimm are veterans of World War II which would make them in their mid-80s to early 90s if they were real people. But in a lot of other respects, their experiences parallel the rest of us. They change, get married, have children, have sex even.

For decades, Superman and Batman existed in an adolescent arrested development phase. Girls like Lois Lane and Vicki Vale were icky and the heroes hung out with younger male pals like Jimmy Olsen and Robin--surrogates for the readers. (I know it's different now, I don't keep up with the current storylines, but Superman finally did marry Lois, yet Batman remains a bachelor, having gone through several Robins.)

Reed Richards and Sue Storm actually got married and had a child. There are scenes indicating they really slept together--in the same bed--unlike Rob and Laura Petrie. In one story arc Reed's double from a parallel Earth takes his place and presumably does the nasty with Sue. The Invisible Girl is shown getting out of a king-sized bed, wearing a sheer nightie, leaving a sleeping false Reed. Her doubts about her husband apparently centered on their lovemaking. To add a touch of reality, she walks in on houseguests Thundra and The Impossible Man--a Marvel version of Mr. Mxyzplyzt (however you spell it)--watching a rerun of The Maltese Falcon on late-night TV. Their home--the Baxter Building--has an actual location in the real world, 42nd and Madison in NYC.

The current FF, they are almost at issue 600, has housed a bunch of mutant kids in the Baxter Building. Sounds kinda boring, like a kiddie X-Men. But I am now anxious to go back and read through up till the present.

Birdman and the Galaxy Trio

I've watched a few episodes of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio from the DVD I bought for $6 from a used book store in Philadelphia. I still regret not having bought that Jonny Quest DVD for only $10 in Boston. Birdman is now best known because of the parody Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law on Adult Swim on The Cartoon Network. The original series was on NBC in 1967. Birdman seemed not to have a secret identity or a normal life, yet why did he wear a mask? I remember there was another series on NBC called Super President about a chief executive who was also a super hero--now there was a secret identity. That reminds of a dream I had last night. President Obama was running in a marathon and I was saying "He shouldn't be running in a marathon, he should be running the country." What do you think that means?

I enjoyed the Galaxy Trio segements more than the Birdman ones. The trio consisted of Vapor Man, Gravity Girl, and Meteor Man. The latter was voiced by Ted Cassidy, also known as Lurch, the towering butler of The Addams Family. He was a giant who died relatively young and made a living playing monsters. He also voiced Galactus on the animated Fantastic Four and had one of the most memorable lines in cartoon history, spoken to the rebellious Silver Surfer: "You dare defy Galactus! I am power ITSELF!" I also enjoyed the line in the comic book version of the Silver Surfer saga when the Watcher called Galactus "Pillager of planets!" The story took on an almost Shakespearean grandeur. Anyway the Galaxy Trio would fly around the universe solving mysteries and fighting oppression. Gravity Girl had this cool sophisticated voice and Vapor Man had these wide shoulders and impressive pecs, yet seemed intelligent and smooth. He had the same voice as Dr. Benton Quest, so he was probably having an affair with Meteor Man while Gravity Girl was the beard. They would head towards the bohemian sections of alien planets and hang out in the gay bars.

Another trio I really liked was the Impossibles because of all the crazy villains they fought--obviously trading off the popularity of the prime time Batman series. I recall the Twister, Mother Grusome, the Dragster, Televistron, the Paper Doll Man, and many others.

Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (7)--The Phila. Connection

Two weeks ago I visited my parents in Philadelphia and spent Sunday morning at the Philly Comic-Con held at the Ramada Inn by the airport. It was quite small and took up only two ballrooms. No celebrities giving out autographs or panels, just comic-book dealers. I didn't spend as much as at the last one (see previous blog). Here's a breakdown of the haul:

Archie as Pureheart the Powerful # 3--Archie and Reggie as superheroes

Brave and the Bold #120

Demon # 6, 11 (almost completes the entire run except from #1)

Detective Comics #310, 319, 325

Flash #169 (80 page Giant)

From Beyond the Unknown #1 (completes the entire run)

Inferior Five #4

Kamandi #3 (almost complete run of Kirby issues except for #1)

Lois Lane #60

Magnus Robot Fighter #36

Mystery in Space #28, 86, 99, 101

Strange Adventures #111, 174

Strange Tales #142

Tales of Suspense #82

Super DC Giant--Challengers of the Unknown #S-25

Thor #156 (two pages of story missing, damnit!), 160, 162, 169.

Some impressions of this haul and the last one: Lois Lane and Superman are really dysfunctional. In Lois Lane #60 (see illustration above), Lois and Lana pretend to go into suspended animation to be awakened thousands of years in the future when Superman while be dead...dead...dead! Supie attempts to bring them back by flying into the future, but their bodies disintegrate. It's all a practical joke to teach the man of steel a lesson for being short-tempered with the gals for demanding so much of his time--needing to be rescued and all that. They all laugh it off. "Oh, I thought you were dead and you scared the shit out of me, but I guess I deserved it. Ha! Ha!"

In a Superboy issue I bought at the Big Apple con (#121), a teenaged Jor-El, Superboy's father, arrives in Smallville from Kyrpton thanks to a time machine. Superboy doesn't want to reveal the true nature of their relationship since he would have to tell his future dad his world will be destroyed. "I won't reveal I'm his son," says Superboy's thought balloon, "for that would lead to telling him of Krypton's doom laying ahead. He might brood. I'll just have to enjoy my father's companionship as a...er...boy pal!" (boldfacing was in the comic) Ewwww! That is wrong on some many levels. Not the least of which is the brooding.

The Strange Adventures and Mystery in Spaces are strangely beautiful, as is the very first From Beyond the Unknown which was a reprint series from the 1970s, collecting sci-fi stories of the 1950s and early 60s from the forementioned mags. In Strange Adventures #111, published in 1959, there's a story of Earth 100 years in the future. The Star Blazer returns from a 50 year mission with crew as young as when they left, proving the theory of relativity (I think). A Spacelator breaks down, causing traffic to be stalled for a hour. A sudden downpour is halted by weather control stations. The busy day ends with an exciting broadcast from the badlands of Venus where an explorer is trapped and a quick game of space polo between earth and Pluto. Of course earth wins.

In Mystery in Space #86, the usual Adam Strange story is accompanied by a tale of The Star Rovers--a trio of space adventurers consisting of writer-hunter Homer Glint, markswoman and former beauty queen Karel Sorensen, and star athlete Rick Purvis. Each of the three encounters the same space mystery and they each have a different version of the solution. It's a sort of sci-fi Rashomon. I find these simplistic futuristic tales so fascinating. There's also Star Hawkins, a 21st century private eye with a robot secretary, and Space Cabbie, a galactic hack driver.

More in future blogs, I'm getting deeper and deeper into this like the guys on Big Bang Theory. In a recent episode, Wallowitz bet Sheldon his Fantastic Four with the first appearance of Silver Surfer versus Sheldon's Flash of Two Worlds with the Silver and Golden Age Flashes. The sad part is I knew exactly what they were talking about.