SCOTT SHAW! SATURDAYS presents the SUPERMAN WEEK finale! — It’s SUPERMAN WEEK! Because there’s a fancy new movie out! Click here for the COMPLETE INDEX of columns and features! Look, up in the sky! — Dan — By SCOTT SHAW! I’ve loved Jack Kirby’s work since his Marvel “pre-hero monsters” comics. I was around 8 years old and my mother wouldn’t let me have them because they might give me nightmares. I also got a taste of Kirby from DC’s thick one-shot, Secret Origins, which included a chapter from Jack’s Challengers of the Unknown #1. But when Marvel’s Fantastic Four came along, I was not only older, Mom no longer had a say in the comics I purchased with my allowance, earned by cleaning windows and pulling weeds. By the time I was in junior high school, I was buying all the comics I could afford, along with Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, the latest hits by Jan and Dean, and the Universal and Big Daddy Roth’s plastic model kits. I was purchasing everything from Dell’s Kona, Monarch of Monster Isle, Archie’s Calculated to Drive You Bats, and Gold Key’s Uncle Scrooge to DC’s Julie Schwartz-edited titles and all of the Marvel output other than its Westerns and Millie the Model. Jack was the standout, and Steve Ditko’s work was not far behind (I already dug his stuff on Charlton’s Gorgo and Konga), but not nearly as influential for me. To afford those, I sold my drawings to my classmates, mostly featuring dinosaurs, surfers, monsters, and Big Daddy’s Rat Fink. Marvel’s Not Brand Echh and Harvey’s Fighting American reprints were wonderful surprises for me because both comics displayed Jack’s ability to create humor every bit as well as he did superheroes. Since my goal was to be a professional humorous cartoonist – and I’d already had a few local gigs – Jack’s funny stuff was even more exciting to me than his serious material. Unfortunately, he didn’t do much more of the funny stuff until he was back at DC, asking to be assigned the publisher’s worst-selling series, which happened to be Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, an Oddball series I loved as a kid. But frankly, Jimmy had run out of ideas long before 1970, when Jack refurbished the character and his surrounding world, far from Perry White and The Daily Planet. Even better, although there...
SCOTT SHAW! SATURDAYS… By SCOTT SHAW! Over the seven decades I’ve been reading “funnybooks” (as they were called in the 1950s), I’ve realized that sometimes the advertisements in certain comics are every bit as memorable, weird, or cool as the stories themselves. (Y’know, the ones you’ve never read again.) Here are some of the ones that have been stuck in my head. — Aurora Marvel Superheroes Model Kits. These late ’60s kits’ original boxes’ art were all dynamic and all by Neal Adams. Why Aurora used such a bland ad is anyone’s guess. And as for the blurb, “More of the FANTASTIC FOUR coming soon —”? No, that never happened, dammit. — The Disturbing Kool-Aid Clown. In the early 1950s, this toothless greasepaint ghoul was on the back covers of many Dell comics. Yes, this nameless joker is kinda disturbing… but his illustrated portrayal remains outstanding! — Judy and Jim Defy the Savage Gorilla! That must be a terrible zoo; not only is that cage defective, it allows humans to bring weapons into the park. Those smiling police must have been inhaling Cloverine* Salve (you barely noticed its appearance here, right?) That’s the sort of thing that happened all the time back in the 1950s. *Not to be confused with Wolverine — Combo Man May Look Like A Hero, But Inside, He’s Kinda Cheesy. This 1990s mega-mashup is eye-catching and his design is quite well done, but he’ll never beat Jack Kirby’s Super-Adaptoid. And with a heart of cheddar cheese and armor made of pretzels, shouldn’t Combo Man be holding up a huge mug of German beer? — “Live Delivery”?!? Mailing live capuchin monkeys, chihuahuas, cameras, and radios in trade for enlarging photos and promoting Dean Studios remains one of the craziest scams in comics… but what’s the story behind the teacups??? I also wonder how many kids experienced “functional freeze” after opening the boxes bearing small and vulnerable animals? (Note that this late 1950s ad does not promise “Guaranteed Live Delivery.”) — Junior Astronauts Space Ship. This might look great, but in reality, the personal rocket is only made of “brightly colored fiberboard” AKA cardboard, with a few battery-run plastic gizmos, imagination not included. “How thrilled he’ll be as he checks his antenna screen, consults his star map of space and blasts off! How important he’ll look as...
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SCOTT SHAW! SATURDAYS Meets JOKER WEEK…
